English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For March 28/2023
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news

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15 آذار/2023

Bible Quotations For today
The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify against it that its works are evil
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 07/01-13:”After this Jesus went about in Galilee. He did not wish to go about in Judea because the Jews were looking for an opportunity to kill him. Now the Jewish festival of Booths was near. So his brothers said to him, ‘Leave here and go to Judea so that your disciples also may see the works you are doing; for no one who wants to be widely known acts in secret. If you do these things, show yourself to the world.’ For not even his brothers believed in him.). Jesus said to them, ‘My time has not yet come, but your time is always here. The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify against it that its works are evil. Go to the festival yourselves. I am not going to this festival, for my time has not yet fully come. ’After saying this, he remained in Galilee. But after his brothers had gone to the festival, then he also went, not publicly but as it were in secret. The Jews were looking for him at the festival and saying, ‘Where is he?’ And there was considerable complaining about him among the crowds. While some were saying, ‘He is a good man’, others were saying, ‘No, he is deceiving the crowd.’Yet no one would speak openly about him for fear of the Jews.”

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on March 27-28/2023
Cabinet reinstates daylight saving time as of midnight Wednesday/Thursday
Grillo urges dialogue as Bukhari says Lebanese can overcome crisis
PSP hails Berri and Mikati, says Jumblat mediation resolved clock row
Macron and Bin Salman vow to 'work together' for Lebanon
French Ambassador stresses need for urgent dialogue, election of president
Barbara Leaf says that US administration has no presidential candidate: Report
Sami Gemayel met in Saifi on Monday with Saudi Ambassador
Hajj Hassan meets his Syrian counterpart
Gen. Aoun meets UNIFIL Commander, Chief of French sea forces in the Mediterranean
Judge Aoun summoned for questioning after Mikati lawsuit
Ogero employees protest, block roads over pay
MEA reschedules flights according to Daylight Saving Time
Cost of 2023 tobacco planting season increases ten times since last season: report
More layoff misery could be coming to Salesforce
Oil prices drop in Lebanon
Domestic violence in Lebanon: Tragic case of Zainab
Lebanon’s rulers set the clock ticking down to destruction/Baria Alamuddin/Arab News/March 26, 2023

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on March 27-28/2023
Police ID kids, all age 9, and adults in Nashville shooting
Audio/Six Months of Protests in Iran/FDD/Behnam Ben Taleblu and Darya Safai
Canada sanctions more Iran guard corps members, police after Toronto rally criticism
Saudi, Iranian foreign ministers plan to meet during Ramadan
Iran’s New Hijab Plan Includes Fines Up to $6,000
Iran Calls for Int’l Committee to Investigate Human Rights Violations in France
What does 'secularism' mean in the Iran protests?
US will not back off Syria mission despite deadly attacks -White House
Türkiye: Normalization of Ties with Egypt Will Reflect Positively on Libya, Palestine
Egypt, UAE, Jordan, Bahrain Discuss Producing First Arab Electric Vehicle
White House welcomes Netanyahu delay in judicial overhaul, urges compromise
Protest-hit Israel faces 'general strike' call over govt reforms
Israeli Govt in Chaos as Judicial Reform Plans Draw Mass Protests
U.S. Senior Citizen Says Her Skull Was Fractured by Israeli Settlers
Russia fails at UN to get Nord Stream blast inquiry
Ukraine war: tensions rise in Crimea as Russia prepares for a likely spring offensive
Russians angry at downing of Ukrainian drone over their homes
Ukraine has 3 options since Putin's not giving up, war experts say. Peace talks aren't among them.
Russia warns Armenia against allying with ICC after Putin arrest warrant - RIA
Humza Yousaf becomes Scotland’s first Muslim leader

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on March 27-28/2023
We rejected our fanatics. What are you doing about yours?/Nadim Koteich/The Times Of Israel/March 26/2023
The Real Meaning Of 'Pro-Palestinian'/Bassam Tawil/Gatestone Institute/March 27, 2023
The West’s Iran policy risks another Middle East war/Andrea Stricker and Anthony Ruggiero/Washington Examiner/March 27/2023
‘Combat Islamophobia Day’ Exposes UN’s Rank Hypocrisy on Mosques vs Churches/Raymond Ibrahim/March 27/2023
Rehabilitating Syria or the Assad regime?/Haitham El-Zobaidi/The Arab Weekly/March 27/2023

Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on March 27-28/2023
Cabinet reinstates daylight saving time as of midnight Wednesday/Thursday
Agence France Presse/Associated Press)/Mon, March 27, 2023
The caretaker Cabinet on Monday reversed a controversial decision on postponing the country’s observation of daylight saving time by one month, caretaker PM Najib Mikati said. In a televised address, Mikati announced that daylight saving time will now begin at the midnight of Wednesday/Thursday, explaining that the 48 hours will be needed to "address some technical issues created by the previous memo."
The decision was taken in a session solely dedicated to discussing the issue, after the postponement move resulted in mass confusion and chaos on Sunday and Monday.
“The decision to extend winter time was aimed at relieving those fasting during the month of Ramadan for one hour without harming any other Lebanese component, knowing that this decision had been taken several times in the past,” Mikati said.
He added that the decision to postpone daylight saving time had been “preceded by intensive meetings throughout months with the participation of ministers and relevant parties.”Mikati also voiced surprise that some parties "considered the decision a provocation against them and gave it a sectarian aspect," slamming the "vile sectarian responses." Crisis-hit Lebanon has been run by a caretaker government with limited powers since legislative elections in May last year. The president left office at the end of October and sectarian leaders have been squabbling over a replacement ever since. "The problem is not summer time or winter time.... The problem is the presidential vacuum," Mikati said, blaming "religious and political leaders" as well as parliamentarians for failing to come to an agreement.
“Be confident that the Sunni community has always been patriotic in the comprehensive sense of the word, and throughout history it preserved the country’s unity and institutions, working through its elites and leaders on devising patriotic, non-sectarian projects since the time of independence,” Mikati went on to say. “The Sunni community has borne the assassination of its muftis, premiers, clerics and politicians for purely patriotic reasons and it was the price of their loyalty to unified Lebanon and to their patriotic and non-sectarian rhetoric,” the premier added.
With some institutions implementing the change while others refused, many Lebanese have found themselves in the position of juggling work and school schedules in different time zones -- in a country that is just 88 kilometers at its widest point.
In some cases, the debate took on a sectarian nature, with many Christian politicians and institutions, including the small nation’s largest church, the Maronite Church, rejecting the move.
The small Mediterranean country normally sets its clocks forward an hour on the last Sunday in March, which aligns with most European countries.
However, on Thursday, the Premiership announced a decision by Mikati to push the start of daylight saving to April 21.
No reason was given for the decision, but a video of a meeting between Mikati and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri leaked to local media showed Berri asking Mikati to postpone the implementation of daylight saving time to allow Muslims to break their Ramadan fast an hour earlier.
Mikati responds that he had made a similar proposal but goes on to say that implementing the change would be difficult as it would cause problems in airline flight schedules, to which Berri interjects, “What flights?”
After the postponement of daylight saving was announced, Lebanon’s state airline, Middle East Airlines, said the departure times of all flights scheduled to leave from the Beirut airport between Sunday and April 21 would be advanced by an hour.
The country’s two cellular telephone networks messaged people asking them to change the settings of their clocks to manual instead of automatic so the time would not change at midnight, although in many cases the time advanced anyway.
While public institutions, in theory, are bound by the government’s decision, many private institutions, including TV stations, schools and businesses, announced that they would ignore the decision and move to daylight saving on Sunday as previously scheduled. Even some public agencies refused to comply. Caretaker Education Minister Abbas Halabi said in a statement Sunday evening that the decision was not legally valid because it had not been taken in a meeting of the Cabinet. If the government meets and approves the decision, he wrote, “we will be the first to implement it” but until then, “daylight saving time remains approved and applied in the educational sector.” Halabi later reversed his decision and said educational institutions were free to take the decision they see fit pending a Cabinet resolution.
Soha Yazbek, a professor at the American University of Beirut, is among many parents who have found themselves and their children now bound to different schedules.
“So now I drop my kids to school at 8 am but arrive to my work 42 km away at 7:30 am and then I leave work at 5 pm but I arrive home an hour later at 7 pm!!” Yazbek wrote on Twitter, adding for the benefit of her non-Lebanese friends, “I have not gone mad, I just live in Wonderland.”
Haruka Naito, a Japanese non-governmental organization worker living in Beirut, discovered she has to be in two places at the same time on Monday morning. “I had an 8 a.m. appointment and a 9 a.m. class, which will now happen at the same time,” she said. The 8 a.m. appointment for her residency paperwork is with a government agency following the official time, while her 9 a.m. Arabic class is with an institute that is expected to make the switch to daylight saving. One large gym had said its branches in Muslim-majority areas of the capital would abide by winter time, while those in Christian areas would adhere to daylight savings time. The schism has led to jokes about “Muslim time” and “Christian time,” while different internet search engines came up with different results early Sunday morning when queried about the current time in Lebanon.
While in many cases, the schism broke down along sectarian lines, some Muslims also objected to the change and pointed out that fasting is supposed to begin at dawn and end at sunset regardless of time zone.
Many saw the issue as a distraction from the country’s larger economic and political problems. Lebanon is in the midst of the worst financial crisis in its modern history. Three quarters of the population lives in poverty and IMF officials recently warned the country could be headed for hyperinflation if no action is taken. Lebanon has been without a president since the term of President Michel Aoun ended in late October as the parliament has failed to elect a replacement since.

Grillo urges dialogue as Bukhari says Lebanese can overcome crisis

Naharnet)/Mon, March 27, 2023
French Ambassador to Lebanon Anne Grillo on Monday held talks with caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati at the Grand Serail. “There is a dire need for dialogue, the regularity of the work of institutions, the election of a president and the formation of a new government,” Grillo said after the meeting. Saudi Ambassador to Lebanon Walid Bukhari meanwhile met with Kataeb Party chief Sami Gemayel in Saifi. “We are confident of the Lebanese people’s will and aspirations to overcome the crises, especially that Lebanon has always demonstrated its immunity toward crises and its ability to rise again,” Bukhari added. The statements of the two ambassadors come hours after French President Emmanuel Macron and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman discussed Lebanon’s crisis among other issues. During a phone call, the two leaders “expressed mutual concern over the situation in Lebanon, reiterating their determination to work together to help pull the country out of the deep crisis it is going through,” the Elysee Palace said.

PSP hails Berri and Mikati, says Jumblat mediation resolved clock row

Naharnet)/Mon, March 27, 2023
The Progressive Socialist Party on Monday lauded Speaker Nabih Berri and caretaker PM Najib Mikati for “positively responding” to a mediation by PSP chief Walid Jumblat regarding the row over daylight saving time in the country. In a statement, the PSP hailed the “responsible stance” of the two leaders, saying Jumblat’s efforts led to “ending the dispute that occurred over timing adjustment and the subsequent dangerous aggravation of the sectarian rhetoric.” “The party reiterates its call for shunning every sectarian and provocative incitement or tense responses that could further push the country to the inferno of danger, amid the current major crises that requires quick and wise solutions,” the PSP added. Mikati had earlier in the day announced Cabinet’s reversal of an unpopular decision made by his office to delay the start of daylight saving time by a month, saying Monday the Cabinet decided to implement the change in two days. Mikati’s comments came after the government’s initial decision earlier this month was widely criticized around the country with many, including the country’s largest church, saying they would not abide by the decision. Last week, the government said it would delay the start of daylight saving time by a month until the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. That led to mass confusion in a country already experiencing the worst economic and financial crisis in its modern history. In some cases, the debate took on a sectarian nature, with many Christian politicians and institutions, including the small nation’s largest church, the Maronite Church, rejecting the move.

Macron and Bin Salman vow to 'work together' for Lebanon
Naharnet/Mon, March 27, 2023
French President Emmanuel Macron and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman have discussed strengthening their countries’ cooperation in the defense and energy fields, reiterating their determination to “work together” for helping Lebanon.
During a phone call, the two leaders “expressed mutual concern over the situation in Lebanon, reiterating their determination to work together to help pull the country out of the deep crisis it is going through,” the Elysee Palace said.

French Ambassador stresses need for urgent dialogue, election of president
LBCI/Mon, March 27, 2023
In Monday's meeting at the Grand Serail, both Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati and French Ambassador to Lebanon Anne Grillo discussed Lebanon's current situation in the country. During the meeting, Anne Grillo stated that they both agreed that there is an urgent need for dialogue and regulating the work of institutions, electing a president, and forming a new government. "The deterioration of the livelihood conditions of the Lebanese people require us to be capable of responding to all their needs," France's Ambassador to Lebanon added, noting that both agreed that the situation has become dire and that an initiative must be taken based on constructive dialogue.

Barbara Leaf says that US administration has no presidential candidate: Report
LBCI/Mon, March 27, 2023
After touring several regional countries, Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, Barbara Leaf, came to Lebanon on an official visit to convey that the country is at a crossroads and it is at a very critical moment, aiming to listen to some officials and to convey Washington's special message. According to Al Liwaa newspaper, her statements came during The May Chidiac Foundation - Institute of Media, within the framework of the "Renewing Lebanon's Political and Economic Structures" project, which was organized in partnership with the Public Diplomacy Section at the US Embassy in Beirut, tackling the current situation in Lebanon. This article was initially published in, translated from the Lebanese newspaper Al Liwaa. In this seminar, Leaf stressed the need to elect a new speaker for the House of Representatives as soon as possible, noting that there is no presidential candidate for the US administration, but "there is a picture of the kind of candidate, which we believe Lebanon needs, someone who is not subject to moral criticism, someone who puts Lebanon and Lebanon's national security needs first, someone who works with energy and management on a critical set of economic issues."
Regarding the support for the leader of the "Lebanese Forces" party, Samir Geagea, to the presidency: "The American administration has no decision or choice, and in addition to that, the Lebanese people alone are the ones who decide through the elected parliament," she stressed.
She continued that she does not understand the lack of urgency that some political leaders and members of Parliaments do not seem to feel. The Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs continued that there is no disagreement, and "we talk regularly with our French colleagues and with many other countries because we all have one concern, which is the crisis that Lebanon is going through," adding that the Lebanese parliament and government can stop the collapse if reforms are implemented. Regarding the Saudi-Iranian rapprochement, she said that the US administration encourages this rapprochement due to its positive repercussions on the region, specifically on Lebanon.

Sami Gemayel met in Saifi on Monday with Saudi Ambassador
NNA/Mon, March 27, 2023
Kataeb party leader MP Sami Gemayel met in Saifi on Monday with Saudi Ambassador to Lebanon, Waleed Bukhari, and an accompanying delegation from the Saudi Embassy in Beirut. A statement by the Kataeb press office indicated that talks touched on the latest local and regional developments, especially the presidential file. It added that conferees stressed the necessity to speed up the election of a president who is capable of resolving all files and ending Lebanon's isolation from the world. Bukhari has reportedly expressed his confidence in the Lebanese people's aspirations and determination to exit the crises. "We are used to Lebanon's resilience towards crises and its ability to overcome them," he said.

Hajj Hassan meets his Syrian counterpart
NNA/Mon, March 27, 2023
Caretaker Minister of Agriculture, Abbas Hajj Hassan, met with his Syrian counterpart Mohammad Hassan Qatana, in Damascus on Monday, over the means to develop coordination and cooperation between the two ministries. In remarks to the National News Agency, Hajj Hassan said that the two sides are holding daily contacts to facilitate the movement of all agricultural products between Lebanon and Syria.

Gen. Aoun meets UNIFIL Commander, Chief of French sea forces in the Mediterranean
NNA/Mon, March 27, 2023
Lebanese Army Commander, General Joseph Aoun, met, at his Yarze office on Monday, with Commander-in-chief of French Forces in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, Vice Admiral Gilles Boidevezi, accompanied by the Defense Attaché at the French Embassy, Colonel Grigory Medina. Talks reportedly touched on the means to bolster cooperation and coordination between the Lebanese and French armies. General Aoun late received UNIFIL Commander, Major General Aroldo Lazaro, with whom he discussed the cooperation between the military and the international peacekeeping force.

Judge Aoun summoned for questioning after Mikati lawsuit
Naharnet/Mon, March 27, 2023
Attorney General Judge Imad Qabalan has summoned Mount Lebanon Prosecutor Judge Ghada Aoun to an interrogation session on Thursday, media reports said on Monday. The summoning follows a libel lawsuit filed by caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati, LBCI television reported. Aoun had on February 22 told the European Parliament that Mikati was “blatantly interfering in the judiciary,” after he called for legal measures against her. “Urgent appeal to international authorities in the European Parliament .. Mr. Mikati is interfering in a flagrant way with justice in order to stop the investigations that I am conducting in the case of banks and money laundering. For the defense of the sovereignty of law help us,” Aoun tweeted in French. She also accused Mikati of “attacking the public prosecutor's office of Mount Lebanon by asking the Minister of Interior not to execute her orders.” Mikati had called on caretaker Interior Minister Bassam al-Mawlawi to take legal measures against Aoun, accusing her of refusing to receive recusal notices and usurping power. Mawlawi later asked the Internal Security Forces and General Security not to enforce Aoun's orders.

Ogero employees protest, block roads over pay

Naharnet/Mon, March 27, 2023
Employees of state-run telecom company Ogero organized Monday a sit-in in front of Ogero's headquarters in Bir Hassan, to demand better pay. Ogero's employees had started an open-strike on Friday, after their demands were ignored. They blocked roads near their company's headquarters and said they want their salaries to be dollarized. All public sector employees, including Ogero's employees, get paid in Lebanese pounds, while grocery stores and other businesses are now pricing their goods in dollars. The Lebanese pound lost more than 15% of its value lately, tanking to more than 100,000 pounds to the dollar. A cabinet session on public sector wages scheduled on Monday was postponed, after the government said last week that it will delay the start of daylight saving time by a month until the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. It led to mass confusion, and Monday's session was replaced with another session that discussed the daylight delay move. The cabinet session that was postponed had a single item on its agenda, the wages and compensations of the public and private sectors, including Ogero's employees.During the weekend, several regions were hit with Internet outages as network problems remained unrepaired. Ogero said that the company is also running out of fuel and that the network that has stopped working in some regions across the country will completely stop working which will also affect cell phone operators, Alfa and Touch.

MEA reschedules flights according to Daylight Saving Time
LBCI/Mon, March 27, 2023
On Monday, Lebanon's national carrier, Middle East Airlines (MEA), stated that all flights departing from Beirut-Rafic Hariri International Airport are rescheduled following Daylight-Saving Time as of March 30, 2023. This decision was taken further to that issued by Lebanon's Council of Ministers to return to Daylight Saving Time after the council extended wintertime for a month, a decision which was subject to criticism and boycott by many citizens and institutions. MEA has stated that regarding the tickets issued between March 25 and 27, 2023, based on wintertime, passengers are requested to check the revised departure timing.

Cost of 2023 tobacco planting season increases ten times since last season: report
LBCI/Mon, March 27, 2023
Tobacco farmers in the south, especially in Nabatiyeh, started planting the tobacco season. According to reports, the number of workers in tobacco cultivation and the area of cultivated land will increase as a result of the price improvements made by the Regie administration, as the number of southern farmers is 17,000 families, and the area of land cultivated is 5 million and 500 thousand acres. However, based on an article published by the state-owned National News Agency (NNA), farmers face high costs of agriculture, such as fertilizers, tillage, labor wages, and water, which have multiplied ten times over the last season as a result of purchasing them in US dollars. Vice President of the General Trade Union and head of the Union of Tobacco Growers in Lebanon, Hassan Fakih told NNA that tobacco cultivation is back on the map this year after it went through two leap years, and this happened in the interest of the farmers, adding that production reached 1.5 million kg this year, after the cultivated area in the south was 5,700,000 kg. He stated that tobacco cultivation is vital as it produces an economic cycle in the south, and its return leads to the employment of new workers since agriculture is a central pillar in the economic and social cycle in the south, the Bekaa, and the north, regions hosting the most disadvantaged and the poorest. Fakih also urged a budget increase for the Agriculture Ministry and the green project, restoring land reclamation, restoring the rural and environmental development project, paving agricultural roads, and securing a decent livelihood for families living in the countryside. In turn, the head of the municipality of Yohmor, Al Shaqif Hussein Barakat, pointed out to NNA that tobacco cultivation in the town has declined from what it was in the past, as only 3 out of 50 farmers and owners are left.

More layoff misery could be coming to Salesforce
LBCI/Mon, March 27, 2023
On Friday, Bloomberg reported that more layoffs could be on the way at Salesforce, quoting chief operating officer Brian Millham, who indicated that the company could be adding to the ongoing job cutting at the CRM leader and in tech in general. If the layoffs happen, it would come on top of the 10 percent cut in January.“The structure of the organization — if we feel like it needs to change and reshape — we’re going to make those moves to drive the efficiencies,” Milham told Bloomberg. Driving efficiency is corporate speak for cutting more jobs as lower payroll should mean lower operational costs, hence more efficiency. Milham said the company is working with Bain and Company and they are waiting on the management consultants’ advice on how to proceed. The company, which announced an agreement with Elliott Management in which the activist firm has agreed to withdraw its slate of nominees to the company board of directors, has been dogged by four other activists in addition to Elliott. Cost cutting is a big part of what these firms want, and that often comes at the cost of employee job culling. While these types of layoffs are in line with management thinking these days, as we wrote over the weekend, it’s not always clear that they work in the long run, resulting in pain for the people involved, and those left behind, with no clear evidence that layoffs provide long-term financial success. Bob Stuz, a long-time CRM industry executive who had stints at Salesforce, Microsoft and SAP in his long career, said on his No BS with Bob Stutz podcast last week, it’s unbelievable that companies could have gotten to this point. “You don’t turn a profit. Your margins aren’t good. You’re gonna have to let people go. But I still come back to the point of how do you wake up one morning and realize that you have 10,000 more people than what you need or 20,000 more people than what you need or 3000 more people than what you need. How does that happen? People weren’t doing their jobs at the end of the day. You have to really question the leadership in these companies. What were they doing.” Stutz said on the podcast.
He’s not wrong. If these cuts come to pass, Salesforce would join Amazon and Meta, which last week announced a second round of layoffs as the tech layoffs continue unabated. At least 150,000 tech workers have been laid off since the beginning of the year.

Oil prices drop in Lebanon

NNA/Mon, March 27, 2023
Oil prices in Lebanon have dropped on Monday; consequently, the new prices are as follows:
95 octanes: LBP 1949000
98 octanes: LBP 1996000
Diesel: LBP 1799000
Gas: LBP 1269000

Domestic violence in Lebanon: Tragic case of Zainab
LBCI/Mon, March 27, 2023
After a horrific crime committed by a guy who murdered his wife, Zainab, Sahra al-Choueifat region has been closed off. The crime is domestic violence and the killing of yet another woman. However, Zainab's family did not file any complaint against the perpetrator. Zainab was killed by her husband, Hussein, early on Saturday morning after he fired several shots at her in front of their three children. But the tragedy did not end there, and Zainab's brother completed it by remaining silent about her murder.
Zainab's case is just one of many instances of violence against women and girls justified by weak and outdated excuses. But there is no justification for such crimes.
Women continue to be victims of a male-dominated society that enables men to use their power to inflict violence on them. Zainab's case is not unique, as dozens of women in Lebanon and elsewhere have lost their lives to such violence.
The sad reality is that while Zainab was being killed, the Lebanese were busy with petty sectarian squabbles over the daylight saving time issue. Where were the Sunnis, Shiites, Christians, and Druze when such terrible crimes were committed against women? And when will people recognize that domestic violence is a societal issue that needs to be addressed and that women should not live in fear?

بارعة علم الدين/عرب نيوز : حكام لبنان يضبطون الساعة على توقيت دماره
Lebanon’s rulers set the clock ticking down to destruction
Baria Alamuddin/Arab News/March 26, 2023

https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/116954/baria-alamuddin-lebanons-rulers-set-the-clock-ticking-down-to-destruction-%d8%a8%d8%a7%d8%b1%d8%b9%d8%a9-%d8%b9%d9%84%d9%85-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%af%d9%8a%d9%86-%d8%ad%d9%83%d8%a7%d9%85-%d9%84/
Following a stark warning from the International Monetary Fund that time was running out for Lebanon’s economy, the country’s ingenious political leadership responded with a radical solution — unilaterally changing the time.
You couldn’t make it up. The country is facing starvation, hyperinflation and civil chaos, but the ruling class are distracted with a legal amendment to delay the introduction of “daylight saving time,” a decision that experts warn will cause travel chaos, malfunctioning electronic devices, and nationwide confusion — particularly as some organizations have already signaled that they will go ahead with the time change anyway.
Prime Minister Najib Mikati and parliamentary Speaker Nabih Berri couldn’t have offered a better metaphor for the endless prevarication and incompetence of a leadership that for the past four years has been existing on borrowed time.
The head of the IMF mission in Lebanon, Ernesto Ramirez Rigo, placed the blame for the catastrophic economic outlook squarely on continued inaction by Lebanese officials, and warned that a plunge into hyperinflation would ruin the quality of life of many Lebanese for years to come.
But Lebanon’s elite still behave as if it’s business as usual — dining at the same expensive restaurants, dipping into vast hard-currency reserves stashed safely overseas, while bickering with each other over petty trivialities and leisurely going round in circles over issues of the presidency, government formation and a crisis exit strategy. Why are IMF-prescribed reforms taking for ever to implement? Because the reforms would materially compromise the wealth and impunity of this top 0.1 percent who see no problem at all with the apocalyptic status quo.
The architect of many of the catastrophes wreaked upon Lebanon, Gebran Bassil, bizarrely sought to incite a campaign of civil disobedience over the time-change issue, arguing that it was prejudicial to Christians. As if Christians, or any other Lebanese sect — in the complete absence of electricity and basic services — are in a position to know or care exactly what time it is! And as if Bassil himself hadn’t already done more than anyone alive to undermine the status of Lebanon’s Christians!
The latest IMF warning coincided with thousands of protesters, including retired soldiers, trying to break through a fence leading to Beirut’s government headquarters, and with protests erupting elsewhere across the country. Demonstrators furiously blamed the authorities’ incompetence and corruption for triggering an additional sharp decline in the value of the Lebanese pound, further exacerbating financial hardship.
These are veterans who have dedicated their entire careers to protecting Lebanon and who are among the most loyal demographics to Lebanon’s governing system. Monthly pensions for retired military personnel and public sector workers are now just over $20! “Don’t they feel guilty about the retired members of the military who have served their country all their lives, given that they are starving and not able to access medical care services?” one protester said.
Meanwhile, Hassan Nasrallah is yet again saber rattling toward Israel. After Hezbollah staged minor provocations inside northern Israel, Nasrallah dared Tel Aviv to invade: “If Israel starts a war against Lebanon for what happened, it could lead to a battle in the entire region,” he crowed. Using unusually specific language, Nasrallah threatened that the killing of even one individual could provoke a major Hezbollah response.
But Israel is already striking targets associated with Hezbollah and its allies inside Syria on a near daily basis, not to mention the killing of senior personnel from the Hezbollah-Iran axis. Everybody knows that Nasrallah has no intention of responding to this. In recent days there has been the worst outbreak of hostilities in several years between US forces and Hezbollah-aligned paramilitaries in eastern Syria, which risks triggering region-wide conflagration.
Without drastic action — and by this I mean far-reaching Arab and Western intervention — the eruption of a new Lebanese and region-straddling conflagration is simply a matter of time.
Iran-backed paramilitaries have been entrenching themselves along the Syria-Iraq border for several years now, including massive fortifications and deep underground tunnels bristling with missiles. With US President Joe Biden warning militias to “be prepared for us to act forcefully to protect our people,” there is potential for these tit-for-tat strikes to escalate in a climate in which US-Iran negotiations have long since broken down.
As Benjamin Netanyahu and his neo-fascist cronies hurl Israel into one of the worst political crises in its history — with the sole objective of keeping him out of jail — combined with Netanyahu’s own escalating rhetoric against Iran and Hezbollah, the entire region trembles on an unpredictable knife edge.
If Nasrallah does eventually get his wish and goads Israel into attacking Lebanon directly, he will already be hiding in his bunker deep underground, along with cronies and family members, while thousands of innocent Lebanese are killed and the country reduced to smouldering ruins.
It is abominable that Nasrallah’s mind is mulling over such confrontations when much of the nation is slowly starving to death in unimaginable misery. So many people are tolerating unbearable pain because they don’t have money for medical treatment, and because there aren’t any medicines in any case and the few hospitals that haven’t closed their doors scarcely function after losing most of their staff and equipment. Amid these traumas, suicide rates have soared and families routinely die at sea as they flee in unseaworthy vessels. Hospital morgues are overflowing with rotting bodies in non-functioning fridges because citizens can’t afford coffins.
Lebanon in 2023 is a semi-decomposed body gasping for its last breaths, while the rate of decline of its vital organs continues to accelerate. The entire political class appears to have resolved that it is better to hasten Lebanon’s absolute destruction, rather than to take one iota of action that might diminish their rates of accumulation of corrupt wealth. Such figures have a choice of luxury villas in Dubai, Paris or Qom to retreat to and probably have their exit plans impeccably prepared, private jets fueled up on the runway for the day when Lebanon finally disintegrates altogether.
In this climate, Nasrallah needs to watch his mouth and halt his ridiculous warmongering, because he is unleashing forces he can’t control, which will destroy his organization along with Lebanon in its entirety.
The last time Lebanon dissolved into full-blown armed conflict in the 1970s and 1980s, the resulting anarchy sucked in the entire region — Israel, Syria, the Palestinian movement, Iran and the West. The 2011 Syria conflict likewise rapidly became regionalized, even dragging in Russia, while spawning an entire alphabet of radical and terrorist factions.
Without drastic action — and by this I mean far-reaching Arab and Western intervention — the eruption of a new Lebanese and region-straddling conflagration is simply a matter of time.
The warning bells have been ringing for a long time now. Is it possible that, still, nobody is listening?
• Baria Alamuddin is an award-winning journalist and broadcaster in the Middle East and the UK. She is editor of the Media Services Syndicate and has interviewed numerous heads of state.

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on March 27-28/2023
Police ID kids, all age 9, and adults in Nashville shooting
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP)/Mon, March 27, 2023
A woman wielding two “assault-style” rifles and a pistol killed three 9-year-old students and three adults at a private Christian school in Nashville on Monday in the latest in a series of mass shootings in a country growing increasingly unnerved by bloodshed in schools.
The suspect, who was killed by police, is believed to be a former student at The Covenant School in Nashville, where the shooting took place. The victims were identified as Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs, and William Kinney, all 9 years old, and adults Cynthia Peak, 61; Katherine Koonce, 60; and Mike Hill, 61. The website of The Covenant School, a Presbyterian school founded in 2001, lists a Katherine Koonce as the head of the school. Her LinkedIn profile says she has led the school since July 2016. The attack at The Covenant School — which has about 200 students from preschool through sixth grade, as well as roughly 50 staff members — comes as communities around the nation are reeling from a spate of school violence, including the massacre at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, last year; a first grader who shot his teacher in Virginia; and a shooting last week in Denver that wounded two administrators. “I was literally moved to tears to see this and the kids as they were being ushered out of the building,” Metropolitan Nashville Police Chief John Drake said at an afternoon news conference. The suspect's identity and motive have not been released.
The Covenant School was founded as a ministry of Covenant Presbyterian Church. The affluent Green Hills neighborhood just south of downtown Nashville, where the Covenant School is located, is home to the famed Bluebird Café – a beloved spot for musicians and song writers.
President Joe Biden, speaking at an unrelated event at the White House on Monday, called the shooting a “family’s worst nightmare” and implored Congress again to pass a ban on certain semi-automatic weapons. “It’s ripping at the soul of this nation, ripping at the very soul of this nation,” Biden said. The suspect’s identity as a woman surprised experts on mass shootings. Female shooters make up only about 5% to 8% of all mass shooters, said Adam Lankford, a criminal justice professor at the University of Alabama who has closely studied the psychology and behavior of mass shooters. There have been seven mass killings at U.S. schools since 2006, according to a database maintained by The Associated Press and USA Today in partnership with Northeastern University. In all of them, the shooters were males who killed four or more people within a 24-hour time frame at K-12 school. Researchers believe there are three main explanations for why men commit more shootings than women, according to Jonathan Metzl, a professor of sociology and psychiatry at Vanderbilt University who has studied mass shootings for more than a decade. Metzl listed those explanations as: Men have more testosterone, are socialized to be engaged in violence and own more guns than women.
“From school shootings historically, very often we think that people have some historical connection or emotional connection to the school," he said, calling the Nashville shooting “an untold story.”Monday's tragedy unfolded over roughly 14 minutes. Police received the initial call about an active shooter at 10:13 a.m. Officers began clearing the first story of the school when they heard gunshots coming from the second level, police spokesperson Don Aaron said during a news briefing. Two officers from a five-member team opened fire in response, fatally shooting the suspect at 10:27 a.m., Aaron said. One officer had a hand wound from cut glass. Aaron said there were no police officers present or assigned to the school at the time of the shooting because it is a church-run school.
Other students walked to safety Monday, holding hands as they left their school surrounded by police cars, to a nearby church to be reunited with their parents. Rachel Dibble, who was at the church as families found their children, described the scene as everyone being in “complete shock.”
“People were involuntarily trembling,” said Dibble, whose children attend a different private school in Nashville. “The children … started their morning in their cute little uniforms they probably had some Froot Loops and now their whole lives changed today.”Dr. Shamendar Talwar, a social psychologist from the United Kingdom who is working on an unrelated mental health project in Nashville, raced to the church as soon as he heard news of the shooting to offer help. He said he was one of several chaplains, psychologists, life coaches and clergy inside supporting the families.
“All you can show is that the human spirit that basically that we are all here together … and hold their hand more than anything else,” he said. Jozen Reodica heard the police sirens and fire trucks blaring from outside her office building nearby. As her building was placed under lockdown, she took out her phone and recorded the chaos. “I thought I would just see this on TV,” she said. “And right now, it’s real.” Top legislative leaders announced Monday that the GOP-dominant Statehouse would meet briefly later in the evening and delay taking up any legislation.
“In a tragic morning, Nashville joined the dreaded, long list of communities to experience a school shooting,” Mayor John Cooper wrote on Twitter. Nashville has seen its share of mass violence in recent years, including a Christmas Day 2020 attack where a recreational vehicle was intentionally detonated in the heart of Music City’s historic downtown, killing the bomber, injuring three others and forcing more than 60 businesses to close. *Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Holly Meyer and Kristin Hall in Nashville; Denise Lavoie in Richmond, Virginia; John Raby in Charleston, West Virginia; and Stefanie Dazio in Los Angeles.

Audio/Six Months of Protests in Iran
FDD/Behnam Ben Taleblu and Darya Safai
https://www.fdd.org/podcasts/2023/03/24/six-months-of-protests-in-iran/
About
For more than six months now, the Iranian people have protested against the state by taking to the street, chanting “Woman! Life! Liberty!” and other anti-regime slogans. Iranians continue to show the world that they seek a government that represents their interests and values. The Iranian people are demanding freedom. To discuss, FDD Senior Fellow Behnam Ben Taleblu is joined by Darya Safai. Darya is an Iranian-Belgian author, human rights activist, and politician currently serving as a member of the Belgian Chamber of Representatives.

Canada sanctions more Iran guard corps members, police after Toronto rally criticism
The Canadian Press/March 27, 2023
Ottawa is adding more Iranian individuals and companies to its sanctions list after the government faced heavy criticism at a diaspora event this weekend. The new sanctions apply to eight people, as well as a company that creates armoured vehicles and a cybersecurity training institute. The Tehran commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a branch of Iran's military known as the IRGC, is on the list, as are officials involved in using drones and ballistic missiles in regions of Iran populated by minority groups. Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly says "it's time to end the cycle of violence and to forge a new path built on peace, security and stability" in Iran. The sanctions follow criticism of the Liberals this weekend at a large rally called the Tirgan Festival at Toronto's Scotiabank Arena, where multiple speakers called on Ottawa to list the entire IRGC as a terrorist organization. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has argued that doing so would punish Canadians who were drafted into Iran's military by force, but activist Masih Alinejad told the rally that Trudeau's reluctance means he is at fault for Canadians dying when the IRGC shot down Flight PS752 in 2020.

Saudi, Iranian foreign ministers plan to meet during Ramadan
Agence France Presse/Monday, 27 March, 2023
The Saudi and Iranian foreign ministers have vowed to meet before the end of the holy month of Ramadan to implement a landmark bilateral reconciliation deal, Riyadh said on Monday. Saudi Prince Faisal bin Farhan and his Iranian counterpart, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, held their second phone call in less than a week and discussed "a number of common issues … in light of" the surprise agreement brokered by China and announced on March 10, the officials Saudi Press Agency reported. "The two ministers also agreed to hold a bilateral meeting between them during the current month of Ramadan," which this year ends in the third week of April, SPA said. The report did not specify the exact date or location of the meeting. Saudi officials have said the meeting is the next step in restoring ties seven years after they were severed. Riyadh cut relations after Iranian protesters attacked Saudi diplomatic missions in 2016 following the Saudi execution of Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr — just one in a series of flashpoints between the two longstanding regional rivals. The deal is expected to see Shiite-majority Iran and mainly Sunni Muslim Saudi Arabia reopen their embassies and missions within two months and implement security and economic cooperation deals signed more than 20 years ago. An Iranian official said on March 19 that Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi had favorably received an invitation to visit Saudi Arabia from King Salman, though Riyadh has yet to confirm. Amir-Abdollahian told reporters the same day that the two countries had agreed to hold a meeting between their top diplomats and that three locations had been suggested, without specifying which would be used. The detente between Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest crude oil exporter, and Iran, strongly at odds with Western governments over its nuclear activities, has the potential to reshape relations across a region characterized by turbulence for decades.

Iran’s New Hijab Plan Includes Fines Up to $6,000
London – Tehran - Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 27 March, 2023
Iranian authorities are preparing a new Hijab Plan that includes fines up to $6,000 on defiant women breaching the country’s mandatory Hijab rule, revealed hardliner lawmaker and member of parliament’s cultural committee Hossein Jalali. There will be fines issued for women who break dress code regulations, ranging from 5,000 Iranian rials to 30 billion Iranian rials (between $10-$6000), said the deputy from Rafsanjan. Iran’s Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution and Supreme National Security Council had approved the plan after holding 300 meetings, said Jalali. Imposing fines as punishment for those refusing to abide by the country’s veil rules was run by the Iranian Supreme Leader’s office and the judiciary, he affirmed. Jalali, according to Iranian news websites, said the government should prepare and present a bill for enforcing the new plan within two weeks. Parliament will then adopt and enforce the law. Government bodies mentioned by Jalali and the judiciary did not comment on the matter. “The situation of the Hijab would be better than in the past,” claimed Jalali. Jalali said the new plan would be implemented through an intelligent system and not entail physical confrontation with women who do not observe the veil. According to Jalali, agencies in charge of enforcing the mandatory Hijab would monitor seven groups of places: inside the vehicles, inside public places and restaurants, government offices and departments, educational centers and universities, airports and terminals, the cyberspace, celebrities, and in the streets and public thoroughfares. Revoking driver’s licenses and passports and banning Internet use are also among the punishments for women who do not observe the mandatory Hijab rules. They will also see those individuals with websites, social media channels, or many followers and members could not use the Internet. Despite widespread protests declining nationwide, triggers and chances of resurgence are still the focus of discussion between politicians and agencies involved in decision-making in Iran. Mohsen Rafighdoost, a former Iranian Revolutionary Guards military officer and politician, blamed foreign enemies and maladministration of being key factors in protests rocking Iran for six months. “All the problems in the country have economic roots, if we can solve them, the rest of the problems will be solved more easily,” Rafighdoost told state-run “ISNA” in a recorded interview. Stressing that problems facing the livelihood of Iranians are now ailing a large segment of society, Rafighdoost argued that addressing these issues is not really on the demonstrations’ agenda. He pointed out that the majority of those arrested in the protests are from the “upper class.” Rafighdoost, however, did not indicate the number of detainees.
Crowds that staged the protests “were largely dispersed,” claimed the former military officer, adding that the movement lacked true “leaders.”Rafighdoost accused candidates who the protesters presented as leaders of being notoriously corrupt. He also talked about the parliament and government needing a “revolution,” and criticized the selling of state assets, saying that it will only offer temporary relief. According to Rafighdoost, 35 million out of about 85 million Iranians suffer from a very difficult living situation. “If left to their fate, these millions will revolt,” warned Rafighdoost. Without referring to numbers, Rafighdoost claimed: “The death toll of law enforcement forces (police) is more than the death toll of protesters.” “We want to show the world that these people do not seek reform, but rather sabotage,” he noted. Rafighdoost, however, disagreed with forcibly compelling the hijab, saying that it will lead to a negative reaction from the public.

Iran Calls for Int’l Committee to Investigate Human Rights Violations in France
Tehran - Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 27 March, 2023
The spokesman of the Iranian government Ali Bahadori Jahromi called on Monday for the formation of an international research committee for dealing with France’s human rights violations of hundreds of thousands of protesters.
“(French President) Emmanuel Macron's government is directly responsible for widespread violations of human rights and harsh dealing with protesters who simply seek their rights; France must be to account for its actions towards its citizens,” Jahromi said in a post on his Twitter account according to the German news agency. “The formation of an international fact-finding committee is necessary for dealing with violating the rights of hundreds of thousands of French protesters,” the Iranian spokesman added. In a related development, the spokesman of the Iranian foreign ministry, Nasser Kanaani, criticized female officials of Europe, Canada and Australia for keeping mum on the French police brutality against protesters, particularly women, during the pension reform rallies. “Where are Europe, Canada and Australia’s feminist ministers,” Kanaani wrote on his Twitter account on Saturday. France witnessed last week a wave of nationwide strikes following a government decision to push on with a deeply unpopular pension reform despite escalating anger across the country. Speaking last Wednesday, Macron stuck to his guns saying the new law was necessary and would come into force later this year.

What does 'secularism' mean in the Iran protests?
Roodabeh Dehghani, PhD candidate, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa/The Conversation Canada/Mon, March 27, 2023
Since the death of Mahsa (Jina) Amini in September 2022, much has been said and written about the protests in Iran. Amini died while in the custody of Iran’s morality police. She was arrested for supposedly wearing her hijab incorrectly. Her death triggered widespread protests against the morality police, the government and a host of other issues facing the country. A recurrent theme of discussion surrounding the protest movement has focused on its so-called secular nature.
Why ‘secularism’ is problematic
In December 2022 TIME magazine published a piece written by Iranian-American writer Azadeh Moaveni who characterized the uprising in Iran as educated, liberal and secular. Other commentators have pointed out that protesters have not used religious slogans. This differentiates this protest movement from previous ones. It is secular in nature and therefore, historically significant. In January 2023 I attended a symposium at the University of Toronto called Women, Life, Liberty: Iran’s democratic future in which the protests were described by some commentators as secular. For example, in one of the panels called A Charter of Rights for a Democratic and Pluralistic Iran, secularism was described as one of the common demands of the Iranian people whether they joined the street protests or not. These kinds of statements are meant to demonstrate the extent to which the political regime is rejected by Iranians. The assumption underpinning this narrative is that the government’s ideology stands in opposition to the secular views of most Iranians. One of the most important, and challenging, narratives on secularism is the belief that European secularism is a global tendency, and that secularism is incompatible with religion. In the West, secularism is closely tied to the removal of religion from public spaces, and the decline in its influence on social and behavioural practices. For example, in France, the government has created a new Forum on Islam to reshape Islam in the country. The forum is made up of Muslim figures handpicked by the government. Examples like these are not about a separation of the state from religion. Rather they are about increasing the state’s control over religion and religious institutions. However, using the term secularism, especially in this sense, does not necessarily help us understand what is happening in Iran today. These narratives are often based on conventional meaning of secularism. Consequently, they do not necessarily resonate well with the views and demands of Iranian people.
Rejecting state control of religion
The protests in Iran are about rejecting the state’s regulation of religiosity in public life, and not about rejecting religion in Iranian society. Narratives that put secularism against religiosity contrast with the images and chants that have emerged from the protests in Iran. In November 2022 one video clip from the protests showed women in chadors marching on the streets chanting “Go ahead for revolution with or without hijab.” Western conceptions of secularism cannot explain images of chador-wearing women taking part in protests against the Iranian government. But views on secularism in Iran vary considerably. Political scientist Nader Hashemi argues that the desire for secularism has emerged within the civil society among intellectuals, Iranian youth and the urban middle class who are disillusioned with the government. The protests in Iran are about rejecting the state’s regulation of religion and not about rejecting religion in Iranian society. The protests in Iran are about rejecting the state’s regulation of religion and not about rejecting religion in Iranian society. Iranian-American writer Dina Nayeri and others have argued that there is a decline of religious beliefs and practices among Iranians. In other words, that Iran is undergoing a process of secularization. On the other hand, sociologist Abdolmohammad Kazemipur suggested that the state has gone through a secularization process for pragmatic reasons. He states that in post-revolution Iran, the state itself has moved to a more secular political philosophy as a pragmatic response to political pressures. The types of people and groups that have been involved in the protests suggest that the movement transcends debates around secularism versus religion. The protests were sparked by the morality police’s treatment of Amini. But many other issues have been raised by protesters including corruption, alarming unemployment, failed international policies and oppression of minorities. Protests have also taken place in Sistan and Baluchestan, a southeastern province populated by many Sunnis. Those protests have received support from the local Sunni Imam Molavi Abdolhamid. A recent study shows considerable change in Iranians’ religiosity. Around 40 per cent of the participants still self-identified as Muslim and 78 per cent said they believed in God. The study also showed that 72 per cent of participants are against mandatory hijab laws. Religion still remains an important dimension of Iranian life. And religious segments of Iranian society have been expressing their solidarity with the protests. How can we make sense of these facts about the situation in Iran? Secularism as a label cannot fully explain the ongoing situation in Iran. Instead, the protest movement in Iran is a rejection of the state’s control over how people express their religious beliefs.

US will not back off Syria mission despite deadly attacks -White House
Jeff Mason and Phil Stewart/WASHINGTON (Reuters)/Mon, March 27, 2023
The United States will not back away from its nearly eight-year-old deployment to Syria, where it is battling the remnants of Islamic State, despite attacks on U.S. forces there last week by Iran-backed militia, the White House said on Monday. A one-way attack drone struck a U.S. base in Syria on March 23, killing an American contractor, injuring another and wounding five U.S. troops. That triggered U.S. retaliatory air strikes and exchanges of fire that a Syrian war monitoring group said killed three Syrian troops, 11 Syrian fighters in pro-government militias and five non-Syrian fighters who were aligned with the government. White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said he was not aware of any additional attacks over the past 36 hours but cautioned, "We're going to stay vigilant." Kirby also referred to President Joe Biden's remarks on Friday, in which Biden warned Iran that the United States would act forcefully to protect Americans. "There's been no change in the U.S. footprint in Syria as a result of what happened the last few days," Kirby said, adding the mission against Islamic State would continue. "We're not going to be deterred ... by these attacks from these militant groups." Syria's foreign ministry on Sunday condemned U.S. strikes, saying Washington had lied about what was targeted and pledging to "end the American occupation" of its territory. Iran's foreign ministry also condemned the strikes, accusing U.S. forces of targeting "civilian sites."U.S. forces first deployed into Syria during the Obama administration's campaign against Islamic State, partnering with a Kurdish-led group called the Syrian Democratic Forces. There are about 900 U.S. troops in Syria, most of them in the east. Prior to the latest spate of attacks, U.S. troops in Syria had been attacked by Iranian-backed groups about 78 times since the beginning of 2021, according to the U.S. military. Iran has been a major backer of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad during Syria's 12-year conflict. Iran's proxy militias, including the Lebanese group Hezbollah and pro-Tehran Iraqi groups, hold sway in swathes of eastern, southern and northern Syria and in suburbs around the capital, Damascus.

Türkiye: Normalization of Ties with Egypt Will Reflect Positively on Libya, Palestine
Ankara - Saeed Abdulrazek/Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 27 March, 2023
Türkiye stressed that the normalization of relations with Egypt would reflect positively on the situation in Libya, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, and the region in general. Spokesman for the Turkish presidency Ibrahim Kalin said in a televised interview that Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu’s recent visit to Egypt was "very important and productive."Ankara believes that improving relations with Egypt will benefit many nations, he continued. "We clearly believe that the normalization of Türkiye-Egypt relations is vital for the two countries and the region's dynamics. It is also beneficial for Libya and Palestine. Moreover, it is in the interest of the whole region in the fight against terrorism," he said. The situation in neighboring Libya is one of the most important files for Egypt in its talks with Türkiye. Cairo has repeatedly expressed its rejection of the deployment of Turkish troops in Libya and its sending of thousands of Syrian mercenaries there. Diplomatic sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that Libya is the file that will have the greatest impact on the normalization of relations. The sources believed Türkiye would take steps to ease Egyptian concerns, especially as it wants to make rapid progress in the gas file in the eastern Mediterranean and sign an agreement to demarcate the maritime borders. Ankara aims to establish a foothold in the region, where it has become isolated, despite the memorandum of understanding on maritime jurisdiction it signed with the former Government of National Accord in 2019. Upon returning from Cairo, Cavusoglu said Egypt was uncomfortable with Türkiye's presence in Libya. "Our presence there does not pose a threat to Egypt. And this presence came at the invitation of the legitimate government at that time and continued based on the desire of subsequent governments," he stated. Cavusoglu added that Ankara and Cairo agreed to continue close consultation and cooperation on Libya. Regarding the maritime agreement signed with the GNA, Cavusoglu asserted it was not against Egypt's interests, just as Egypt's deal with Greece was not against Türkiye. Regarding Egypt's position on the agreement to explore energy resources in the eastern Mediterranean, Cavusoglu remarked that it was not a problem. "Every country concludes hydrocarbon agreements with another. Egypt is currently objecting to this agreement under the pretext that the current government in Libya cannot sign agreements because its mandate has ended."

Egypt, UAE, Jordan, Bahrain Discuss Producing First Arab Electric Vehicle
Cairo - Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 27 March, 2023
Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, and Bahrain discussed the localization of the technology of producing electric cars with local components from resources available in these countries. Officials from the four countries discussed funding sources, the ambitious project management method, the timeline, and the manufacturing, hoping that the first Arab e-car would be showcased during the UN Climate Change Conference (COP28) in UAE in November. The higher committee meetings of the Integrated Industrial Partnership met in Cairo at the headquarters of the Arab Organization for Industrialization (AOI) between Mar. 19 and 21. They discussed boosting the partnership between the four countries and exploiting the capabilities and energies available to them. AOI Chairman Mokhtar Abdel Latif stressed the importance of strengthening cooperation with Arab countries and exploiting national manufacturing capabilities to deepen and increase local manufacturing rates and localize technology. He noted the importance of achieving Arab industrial integration, increasing added value, and limiting imports, thus enhancing the strategic plan for the industrial development of the Arab countries and growing export opportunities and fields.
During the talks, Abdel Latif underlined the importance of the speedy completion of executive procedures for the production of the joint Arab e-car to display it at COP28 and the completion of the production stages to cover the needs of Arab countries for these environmentally friendly cars. He described the committee as the engine of Egyptian industry and it contributes to various fields of industrial renaissance, according to Egypt’s vision for sustainable development in 2030. The AOI is interested in linking scientific research with industry and transforming research into innovative products and services that represent scientific solutions to social problems and challenges. The AOI aims to boost the partnership between Arab countries by putting all its advanced manufacturing capabilities to serve and meet the needs, said Abdel Latif. The committee also held a meeting at the headquarters of the Arab American Vehicles (AAV), which is affiliated with the AOI in Egypt, with Chairman Osama Abdel-Aleem. The talks discussed the capabilities available in the four countries in producing an Arab e-car. The committee members inspected the production lines of the AAV company, lauding the technological capabilities available in the company. The committee then toured several AOI factories and private sector companies working in the automotive industry in Egypt.

White House welcomes Netanyahu delay in judicial overhaul, urges compromise
Jeff Mason/WASHINGTON (Reuters)/Mon, March 27, 2023
The United States welcomes the decision on Monday by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to delay a decision on divisive plans for a judicial overhaul until next month, White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre said. Netanyahu on Monday delayed a decision on bitterly contested plans for a judicial overhaul until next month amid fears that the country's worst national crisis in years could fracture his coalition or escalate into violence. "We welcome this announcement as an opportunity to create additional time and space for compromise. A compromise is precisely what we have been calling for. And we continue to strongly urge Israeli leaders to find a compromise as soon as possible," Jean-Pierre said. The United States remains concerned about the situation in Israel and President Joe Biden has shared his concerns about a proposed judicial overhaul directly with Netanyahu, the White House said on Monday.
"We remain concerned by the recent developments," White House national security spokesperson John Kirby told reporters, calling for compromise. Kirby noted that Israel had been invited to a U.S.-organized Summit for Democracy later this week. Kirby said Biden has been "very forthright" with Netanyahu about his concerns. Asked if Biden was worried that Israel would devolve into civil war, Kirby said he was not. He said U.S. concerns about the judicial reform legislation were that it would "fly in the face" of the principle of having checks and balances in government. "All of that concern comes from ... a place of respect and friendship and admiration for the Israeli people, for Israel as a country and for Israel's democracy," Kirby said.

Protest-hit Israel faces 'general strike' call over govt reforms
Agence France Presse/Monday, 27 March, 2023
Israel's top trade union chief called a general strike Monday over the hard-right government's controversial judicial reforms, a day after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sacked his defense minister who had called for a stop to the overhaul. "I am calling a general strike," Histadrut chairman Arnon Bar-David said in a televised address. "From the moment this press conference ends, the State of Israel stops. "We have a mission to stop this legislative process and we will do it," he said, vowing to "continue to fight". The Israel Medical Association quickly followed suit, also announcing "a full strike in the health system" that will impact all public hospitals. Netanyahu was expected to address the nation later Monday, with speculation in Israeli media that he could pause the judicial reforms. The nationwide walkout was called hours after Israeli President Isaac Herzog pressed for an immediate halt to the judicial program, following major demonstrations in Tel Aviv overnight in response to the defense minister's dismissal. "For the sake of the unity of the people of Israel, for the sake of the necessary responsibility, I call on you to halt the legislative process immediately," Herzog said in a statement. The plan to hand more control to politicians and diminish the role of the Supreme Court has ignited months of protests and sparked concern from Israel's top allies including the United States. Netanyahu's hard-right government has argued the changes are needed to rebalance powers between lawmakers and the judiciary.
'Deep worry'
Yoav Gallant, the former defense minister and staunch ally of Netanyahu, earlier called for a halt to the reforms -- with lawmakers scheduled to vote this week on a central part of the proposals, which would change the way judges are appointed. "The growing social rift has made its way into the (army) and security agencies," said Gallant, a member of Netanyahu's right-wing Likud party. "It is a clear, immediate and tangible threat to Israel's security." Moments after Netanyahu sacked Gallant, demonstrators seized a central highway in the coastal city of Tel Aviv, blocking traffic and burning tires. Some threw metal barricades while police deployed water cannon. "Israel is not a dictatorship," protesters chanted as a large crowd waved national flags and blew airhorns. "Last night we witnessed very difficult scenes," Herzog said. "The entire nation is rapt with deep worry ...Our security, economy, society — all are under threat."After months of rallies, including a weekend demonstration that brought out an estimated 200,000 people in Tel Aviv, protesters in the city said it felt like "a sort of climax". In Jerusalem, demonstrators gathered Sunday outside the prime minister's residence, while others rallied in the northern city of Haifa and Beer Sheva in the south. The activist movement has announced a "national paralysis week", including protests outside ministers' homes and parliament.
The United States said it was "deeply concerned" and called on Israeli leaders to reach a compromise.The White House noted that President Joe Biden recently told Netanyahu that "democratic values have always been, and must remain, a hallmark of the US-Israel relationship". 'Illegal' intervention  Gallant, a former general, was named to his post in December as part of Netanyahu's coalition with extreme-right and ultra-Orthodox allies. Two other Likud lawmakers have voiced support for Gallant, raising questions over whether the government could count on a majority if it pushes ahead with a vote. Israel's consul general in New York, Asaf Zamir, tendered his resignation Sunday over Netanyahu's "dangerous decision". Opposition leader Yair Lapid said that while the prime minister had sacked Gallant, "he cannot fire reality and cannot fire the people of Israel who are standing up to the insanity of the coalition". A parliamentary committee has amended the draft law to make it more acceptable to opponents, but the opposition has ruled out backing any part of the reform package until all legislative steps are halted. Netanyahu last week vowed to "responsibly advance" the reforms and "end the rift" they have caused. In response, Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara on Friday accused Netanyahu of "illegal" public intervention on the process of adopting the judicial reforms. Netanyahu is on trial over charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust, which he denies. His broadcast gave rise to contempt of court accusations filed with the Supreme Court by the Movement for Quality Government in Israel, an anti-corruption campaign group. The group's complaint alleges Netanyahu violated a court ruling that an accused prime minister does not have the right to act in a matter that could constitute a conflict of interest.

Israeli Govt in Chaos as Judicial Reform Plans Draw Mass Protests
Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 27 March, 2023
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition plunged into chaos on Monday, after mass overnight protests over the sacking of his defense chief piled pressure on the government to halt its bitterly contested plans to overhaul the judiciary. Netanyahu had been expected to make a televised statement on Monday morning announcing the plans, which he says are needed to restore balance to the system of government and which critics see as a threat to democracy, had been suspended. Amid reports that his nationalist-religious coalition risked breaking apart, the statement was postponed while Netanyahu met heads of the parties. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of protesters returned to the streets in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, many waving the blue and white Israeli flags that have been become an emblem of the protests. Earlier, a source in his Likud party and another source closely involved in the legislation said Netanyahu would suspend the overhaul, which has ignited some of the biggest street demonstrations in Israel's history and drew an intervention by the head of state. "For the sake of the unity of the people of Israel, for the sake of responsibility, I call on you to stop the legislative process immediately," President Isaac Herzog said on Twitter. The warning by Herzog, who is supposed to stand above politics and whose function is largely ceremonial, underlined the alarm caused by the proposals, which would tighten political control over judicial appointments and allow parliament to overrule the Supreme Court. It followed a dramatic night of protests in cities across Israel, with hundreds of thousands flooding streets following Netanyahu's announcement that he had dismissed Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for opposing the plans. A day earlier, Gallant had made a televised appeal for the government to halt its flagship overhaul of the judicial system, warning that the deep split it had opened up in Israeli society was affecting the military and threatening national security. With the army reinforcing units in the occupied West Bank after a year of unrelenting violence that has killed more than 250 Palestinian gunmen and civilians and more than 40 Israelis, the removal of the defense minister fed accusations that the government was sacrificing the national interest for its own.
No confidence motion defeated
During furious scenes in the Knesset early on Monday, opposition members of parliament attacked Simcha Rothman, the committee chairman who has shepherded the bill, with cries of "Shame! Shame!" and accusations comparing the bill to militant groups that want the destruction of Israel. "This is a hostile takeover of the State of Israel. No need for Hamas, no need for Hezbollah," one lawmaker was heard saying to Rothman as the constitution committee approved a key bill to go forward for ratification. "The law is balanced and good for Israel," Rothman said. While the drama unfolded, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich presented the 2023-24 budget to parliament for a preliminary vote later in the day. An opposition no confidence motion was defeated but in a sign of the tensions within the ruling coalition, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who heads one of the hardline pro-settler parties, called for the overhaul to go ahead. "We must not stop the judiciary reform and must not surrender to anarchy," he tweeted.
General strike call
The shekel, which has seen big swings over recent weeks as the political turbulence has played out, fell 0.7% in early trading before recovering ground as expectations grew the legislation would be halted. By late morning, shares in Tel Aviv were up around 2% and the shekel had risen around 0.8%. As opposition spread, the head of the Histadrut labor union called for a general strike if the proposals were not halted. Take-offs from Ben Gurion airport were suspended, while Israel's main seaports and hospitals and medical services were set to strike. Branches of McDonalds were also closed as the protests extended across the economy. "Bring back the country's sanity. If you don't announce in a news conference today that you changed your mind, we will go on strike," Histadrut chairman, Arnon Bar-David said. The judicial overhaul, which would give the executive control over naming judges to the Supreme Court and allow the government to override court rulings on the basis of a simple parliamentary majority, has drawn mass protests for weeks. While the government says the overhaul is needed to rein in activist judges and set a proper balance between the elected government and the judiciary, opponents see it as an undermining of legal checks and balances and a threat to Israel's democracy. Netanyahu, on trial on corruption charges that he denies, has so far vowed to continue with the project. As well as drawing opposition from the business establishment, the project has caused alarm among Israel's allies. The United States said it was deeply concerned by Sunday's events and saw an urgent need for compromise, while repeating calls to safeguard democratic values.

U.S. Senior Citizen Says Her Skull Was Fractured by Israeli Settlers
Mel Frykberg/The Daily Beast/March 27, 2023
An American senior citizen allegedly suffered a potentially fatal attack in the West Bank as part of a surge in violence that has gripped the Israeli-occupied region since Benjamin Netanyahu returned to power at the head of an extreme right-wing coalition. Local residents told The Daily Beast that Israeli settlers—who are trying to take over Palestinian land—have been emboldened by the radical rhetoric and extremist policies promoted by the new government. Villagers say attacks have become a daily hazard and the Israeli police and military have done little to protect them. An American mother of two from Wisconsin was caught up in the violence this month. Cassandra Auren, 65, was hospitalized for two days and required six stitches after she suffered a fractured skull and internal bleeding. She told The Daily Beast that she was struck on the head by an Israeli settler with a long wooden stick as she was visiting the village of Tuba in the Massafer Yatta area south of Hebron. “The attack by the male settler, who had a small child with him, took me totally by surprise as there was no prior confrontation and no provocation on my part. It all happened so fast I had no time to think about whether my life was in danger,” said Auren, a residential carpenter who traveled to the region as a peace activist. In a video seen by The Daily Beast, another settler armed with a metal pole chased Auren and an Italian woman who was with her.
The doctor’s report said there was a fracture and external bleeding at the site of the trauma. The CT scan showed right subdural hematoma, 3mm in thickness. And the doctor reported decreased hearing in her left ear and said that she continues to suffer from severe headaches. “When I came around my head was painful and I was dizzy.”
Cassandra Auren
Although the incident has shaken her badly she has continued to visit the village and remains angry that this behavior often goes unreported. “I now understand the fear that Palestinians feel all the time, especially the women and children, because at night I also get afraid that the settlers might attack again,” said Auren. Israel Braces for the ‘Terrifying’ Crisis Bibi Wanted All Along. The ancient Hebron hills—with their winding roads that snake around orchards and agricultural fields—have an unmistakable rugged beauty. Generations of Palestinians living in villages and hamlets that dot the territory have earned their living from the land here for hundreds of years. But the unspoilt views can be deceptive—they are hiding a dark side. Ali Awad, from the village of Tuba in Massafer Yatta, told The Daily Beast that his family and all the other residents are being threatened with expulsion but their livelihoods would be destroyed and they have nowhere else to go. “Settlers have become emboldened in the last few months and carry out nearly daily attacks on the villages. And if we complain to the police or army when they arrive, we are arrested and told that the land no longer belongs to us and that we have to leave the land,” Awad said.
Cassandra Auren
Last Thursday, he said a Palestinian who confronted a settler on his land was bitten in the face and teargassed while the Israeli army stood by, with residents accusing the settlers of a deliberate policy of intimidation to drive them off their land. The daily settler attacks have been an ongoing problem for years but with Israel’s new extreme right-wing government their behavior has been given the green light. As the settlers expropriate more and more land, Palestinian children who used to travel to school in the nearby hamlet of At-Tuwani have been forced to take circuitous routes, accompanied by an Israeli military escort to avoid settlers from the nearby Israeli outpost of Havat Maon attacking them. “Sometimes the Israeli soldiers show up and sometimes they don’t, it depends on their mood,” said Awad, a local journalist. Tuba villagers’ journey to the nearest town in the area, Yatta, used to be just over a mile but to avoid the growing Israeli settlements, outposts and potential attacks from the settlers it is now a seven-mile trip. Approximately 2,500 Palestinians residing in Massafer Yatta, which comprises about 15 villages and hamlets spanning 7,000 hectares, are facing forced removal following an Israeli Supreme Court ruling last May that the area could continue to be used as a military firing zone. Their forced removal would be the biggest transfer of Palestinians since 1967 when Israel occupied the West Bank—an occupation that is considered illegal under international law. “Forcible transfer of protected persons in occupied territory is a war crime,” the Israeli human rights organisation B’Tselem says. Massafer Yatta falls into Area C of the West Bank which comprises 60 percent of the territory and is under full Israeli control and is mostly reserved for Israeli settlers through the destruction of Palestinian infrastructure and their forced removal.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha) reported that in 2022, 953 Palestinian structures were demolished or seized across the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, the highest number since 2016.
And it is not only Palestinian activists who are afraid as they fight for justice.
Oriel Eisner, an Israeli-American activist and director of the Center for Jewish Nonviolence, told The Daily Beast that over the last few months the situation had deteriorated, particularly in the south Hebron hills. “The settlers are going into the Palestinian hills every single day and the army and police, while they never used to do much about it, are even less effective now,” said Eisner, who has been arrested and attacked by settlers several times. “The army seems to be in lockstep with the settlers.” “What I fear now is the veneer of privilege and protection I carry and try to leverage as a Jewish-Israeli citizen with the new government doesn’t mean anything because basically the actions they are now willing to take are things that were unthinkable a few months ago,” said Eisner. His biggest fear, however, is for the Palestinians who will lose their villages and will not be able to fight their displacement.
In the interim the villagers are living with continued shooting and military exercises in the background as helicopters overhead scare their flocks Meanwhile, with most buildings earmarked for demolition, they wait for the next invasion that will drive them off their land. Twenty percent of the occupied West Bank has been set aside as military firing zones. But recent reports claim this was always part of a bigger plan of land expropriation from the indigenous population. An Israel Police spokesman told The Daily Beast that a settler had been arrested and his detention extended after he appeared in court. While Auren received far better treatment than Palestinians who try to make legal complaints, the statistics suggest the alleged attacker is unlikely to ever face justice. According to Israeli rights group Yesh Din, 93 percent of all investigations into ideologically motivated crime by settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank are closed without an indictment. “Of the 1,531 concluded investigations Yesh Din monitored since 2005, indictments were filed in just 107 cases and only 3 percent of cases led to convictions,” said Yesh Din. The Wisconsin Network for Peace & Justice reports that Senator Tammy Baldwin has been in touch with the U.S. State Department urging them to push for justice in the case. Auren says the alleged attack on her on March 7 highlights the brutal way Palestinians are treated. She hopes the U.S. might start to take the issue more seriously. “My reason for coming here was my interest in the fact that the U.S. gives Israel about $8 million dollars a day in military aid,” she said. “I feel responsible for how those dollars of mine are spent and am shocked that the world allows the abuse of Palestinians to continue, especially the U.S. given our relationship with Israel.”

Russia fails at UN to get Nord Stream blast inquiry
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters)/Mon, March 27, 2023
-Russia failed on Monday to get the U.N. Security Council to ask for an independent inquiry into explosions in September on the Nord Stream gas pipelines connecting Russia and Germany that spewed gas into the Baltic Sea. Only Russia, China and Brazil voted in favor of the Russian-drafted text, while the remaining 12 council members abstained. A resolution needs at least nine votes in favor and no vetoes by Russia, China, France, the United States or Britain to pass. Russia proposed the draft resolution last month, just days before the first anniversary of its invasion of Ukraine. "Without an objective and transparent international investigation the truth will not be uncovered as to what happened," Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia told the council before the vote. The pipeline blasts occurred in the exclusive economic zones of Sweden and Denmark. Last month Sweden, Denmark and Germany said that their own separate investigations by national authorities were still ongoing and Russia has been informed. They said in a joint letter to the Security Council that the damage was caused by "powerful explosions due to sabotage." The United States and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization have also called the incident "an act of sabotage." Most of the Security Council members who abstained on Monday said they did so because the national investigations should be allowed to conclude before considering whether any action at the United Nations was needed. Russia has complained that it has not been kept informed about the ongoing national investigations. Moscow has maintained, without providing evidence, that the West was behind the blasts. "The United States was not involved in any way. Period," said deputy U.S. ambassador to the U.N., Robert Wood, accusing Russia of trying to "discredit the work of ongoing national investigations and prejudice any conclusions they reach that do not comport to Russia's predetermined and political narrative."

Ukraine war: tensions rise in Crimea as Russia prepares for a likely spring offensive
Christopher Morris, Teaching Fellow, School of Strategy, Marketing and Innovation, University of Portsmouth/The Conversation/March 27, 2023
To paraphrase the words of the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, everything began with Crimea, and everything will end there as well. When Russia first occupied Crimea in 2014, it was a major win for Putin, who successfully called the west’s bluff by proceeding to annex the peninsula with minimal international opposition.
Now, as Ukrainian forces consider how to “de-occupy” Crimea, the Russian high command needs to think about how to prevent the recapture of the one territory that they cannot afford to lose. Ukraine watchers are reporting that Russia is digging in along the northern edge of Crimea, actively recruiting labourers to help fortify the area around the Isthmus of Perekop, the narrow strip of land connecting Crimea to the rest of Ukraine. Russia has been continuously reinforcing the area since its initial occupation back in 2014, more recently redoubling defences each time Ukrainian forces move closer. As a result, both the narrow land bridge and the adjoining coastline of the Syvash Bay are now hardened against attack. Taken together with rumours of forcible evacuation of any remaining civilians, it is fair to say Russia is gearing up for something to happen in the area.
Why Crimea matters
Zelensky has always maintained that the war in Ukraine must end with the liberation of Crimea. In his nightly address, in August 2022, he said: Russia has turned our peninsula, which has always been and will be one of the best places in Europe, into one of the most dangerous places in Europe. Russia brought large-scale repression, environmental problems, economic hopelessness and war to Crimea. Correspondingly, this has drawn harsh rhetoric from Moscow, most recently from former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev who warned that Moscow would use “absolutely any weapon” if Ukraine attempted to retake the peninsula – which many take to mean nuclear weapons.
Crimea is incredibly significant at the strategic level. It is a base for Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, and provides critical access to trade through ports such as Sevastopol. But in terms of the narrative of the conflict, Putin and his allies have woven Crimea into the Russian national myth, framing it as a vital part of the nation. Losing the region would be humiliating and costly for the regime. For years, the idea of Ukraine reclaiming Crimea has appeared more than remote. But Kyiv’s military successes at the back end of 2022 have since changed this perception, and the recapture of Kherson back in September has put Ukraine within striking distance. So far the threat of a nuclear response has appeared to be a bluff, with Russia failing to follow through, despite a series of attacks by Ukraine on Russian military installations there. And Kyiv’s narrative of needing to liberate all territory occupied by Russia since 2014 is gaining international support. A spring offensive to the south has been all but confirmed, with a stated objective of cutting off Crimea from Russian support. But the battle for Crimea itself is still a way off. Significant groundwork needs to be in place before any direct offensive can take place. Nevertheless, an operation that once seemed impossible is now being seriously considered by both sides.
The fight for Crimea
Should it come to a military operation, Crimea is not going to be an easy fight. Options such as an amphibious or airborne assault are too risky, given that Russia still has serviceable naval and air defence assets. A direct approach would see a massive Ukrainian offensive down the Isthmus of Perekop. This could result in Ukrainian forces being funnelled into the area Russia is currently reinforcing, which is far from ideal. If there is a place to stop a Ukrainian land force, this would be where it happens. The isthmus is an ideal choke point, with little room to manoeuvre. This latest round of defensive construction is turning the area into a formidable position – the narrow space is ideal for Russian massed artillery. An attacking land force would be at a major disadvantage, even if they possessed naval and air superiority, which unfortunately for Ukraine, cannot be assumed. With the isthmus effectively defended, Crimea becomes an island. This type of challenge will require different skills and equipment to address, being unlike any of the operations it has conducted so far. It is no coincidence that its name – Perekop – roughly translates to trench. The isthmus has been fortified by many great powers down the centuries and history tells us it will be hard to retake with a direct assault. By the time Ukraine launches its counter-offensive in the south, the reality on the ground should look different. Russia’s winter-spring offensives in the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts have faltered and the invasion force has taken significant losses in months of heavy fighting in Bakhmut. Russian military morale is reported to be close to breaking point with reports of friction between regular army and Wagner Group mercenaries.The first aim of any Ukrainian southern offensive would be to isolate the peninsula from resupply completely. Despite repairs to the Kerch bridge, the one road link between Crimea and Russia, it has been shown be vulnerable and closing it again would mean Russia needing to resupply by sea or air, which is unsustainable for any length of time. If the peninsula can be cut off, the Russian presence in Crimea becomes unsustainable. The fortifications reportedly being prepared in advance of a possible Ukrainian assault show that Moscow, at least, is taking this prospect seriously. But a great deal will depend on Kyiv receiving superior weaponry in sufficient quantities to launch an attack. One thing seems certain though – the outcome of the battle for Crimea will be a decisive moment in the course of this conflict.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license.

Russians angry at downing of Ukrainian drone over their homes
KIREYEVSK, Russia (Reuters)/Mon, March 27, 2023
Residents of the small Russian town of Kireyevsk expressed shock and anger on Monday that an alleged Ukrainian drone had been downed over their houses, bringing down roofs and ceilings and putting their lives in danger. "It’s absolutely outrageous to shoot it down over a residential area. There's a field just 500 metres from here. They could have shot it down over there. Why over our houses? People were wounded," said Kireyevsk resident Elena, 35, who like some others declined to give her surname. "What if the children had been at home? They would have been killed. Nobody gave it a thought. It was allowed to happen. They just don’t care. I have no other explanation." Russia's Defence Ministry said on Sunday it had electronically disabled a Ukrainian drone, which veered off course and crashed onto Kireyevsk, a town of about 25,000 inhabitants 220 km (140 miles) south of Moscow. A Reuters camera crew saw wrecked family houses with smashed tiled or corrugated iron roofs and mangled windows, although the main impact site was closed to media. Emergency services said on Sunday there was a large blast crater. The state-run news agency TASS quoted local officials on Sunday as saying three people had been hurt, none seriously. "We were used to seeing these things online, but now we've felt it ourselves. Now we know how it is," said Yuri Ovchinnikov, who was home with his wife at the moment of impact. "The whole house shook." "I graduated from an aviation academy; my specialisation was aircraft control systems, so I know how it works. Why didn't they shoot it down, I wonder? They were caught napping. And they should be honest about it." Seventy-year-old Svetlana sobbed as she contemplated a neighbour's narrow escape from the blast, and the damage to her own home: "We don’t know what to do. I walk into my house - the floors crack, the walls crack. I’m afraid to go in." Kyiv did not respond to a request for comment. It usually withholds comment on reports of attacks inside Russia.

Ukraine has 3 options since Putin's not giving up, war experts say. Peace talks aren't among them.
John Haltiwanger/ Business Insider/March 27, 2023
Putin is not giving up on the war in Ukraine despite the grim circumstances facing Russian forces. War experts say Ukraine has three choices moving forward, but immediate peace talks aren't on the table. The best option is for Ukraine to "launch successive counter-offensive operations," ISW said. After just over a year of fighting, the war in Ukraine is stalemated. Both sides have seen heavy losses, but the war has gone especially poorly for Russia as it's suffered a series of embarrassing setbacks on the battlefield and failed to accomplish its broader aims. That said, Russian President Vladimir Putin is showing no signs of giving up as his forces continue to push for gains in the eastern cities of Bakhmut and Avdiivka. A new assessment from the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) suggests Ukraine has three fairly straightforward choices in the face of such obstinance — and immediate peace talks are not among them.
"This would be an appropriate moment for Putin to conclude that Russia cannot impose its will on Ukraine by force and that he must seek a compromise settlement. He has clearly come to no such conclusion, however," ISW said.
In this context, one option for Ukraine is to stop fighting, even as Russia continues ground and air attacks, which ISW said almost no one is pushing for and would "lead to disastrous defeat." The second potential approach is for Ukrainian forces to continue fighting in a "very constrained way," with the goal of holding on to the territory they currently control. But this would "encourage Putin to continue his efforts to pursue outright military victory." The third option is for Ukraine to "launch successive counter-offensive operations with the twin aims of persuading Putin to accept a negotiated compromise or of creating military realities sufficiently favorable to Ukraine that Kyiv and its Western allies can then effectively freeze the conflict on their own regardless of Putin's decisions."Ukraine has continued to defend Bakhmut, which has seen the fiercest fighting in the war in recent months, though analysts say the city has little strategic significance. Some military experts have argued Kyiv's manpower and resources should not be further spent on Bakhmut, and instead should be reserved for a counteroffensive. ISW's assessment suggests that Ukraine needs multiple major operational victories to create the possibility for negotiations or for Putin to "accept unfavorable military realities absent a formal settlement." Some analysts have expressed concern that even if Kyiv and Moscow reached a negotiated settlement that led to a cessation in hostilities, Russia would simply use this as an opportunity to regroup and resume its push for the total subjugation of Ukraine later on. Accordingly, ISW says Ukraine will need to retake terrain that's vital to its survival both militarily and economically, and that would be key to "renewed Russian offensives." Though Kyiv has repeatedly said it would not agree to any terms that required it to cede territory to Russia, ISW said there is "likely is a line short of the full restoration of Ukrainian control over all of occupied Ukrainian territory that could be the basis for a protracted cessation of hostilities on terms acceptable to Ukraine and the West," going on to emphasize that that this line is "not close to where the current front lines stand."

Russia warns Armenia against allying with ICC after Putin arrest warrant - RIA
Andrew Osborn/LONDON (Reuters)/Mon, March 27, 2023
Russia has warned Armenia of "serious consequences" if it submits to the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court (ICC) which has issued an arrest warrant for President Vladimir Putin, the RIA news agency reported on Monday. The ICC issued the warrant this month, accusing Putin of the war crime of illegally deporting hundreds of children from Ukraine, a move condemned by the Kremlin as a meaningless and outrageously partisan decision. Armenia, a traditional Russian ally whose ties with Moscow have frayed badly since Putin gave the order to invade Ukraine in what he called a "special military operation", is moving towards becoming a state party to the Rome Statute, a move that would bring it under the jurisdiction of the ICC. RIA, a state Russian news agency, cited a source in the Russian Foreign Ministry as saying that Moscow regarded Armenia's ICC plans as "unacceptable". It said Russia had warned Yerevan of "extremely negative consequences" for bilateral relations if it went ahead with the plan, which would need to be ratified by the Armenian parliament following approval by the constitutional court. "Moscow considers official Yerevan's plans to accede to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court to be absolutely unacceptable against the background of the recent illegal and legally null and void warrants of the ICC against the Russian leadership," RIA cited the Russian Foreign Ministry source as saying. There was no immediate reaction from Armenia. The ICC warrant has the potential to complicate Putin's global travel plans if a country he wants to travel to is an official party to the Rome Statute. Countries that Putin may travel to this year include South Africa and Turkey, and the Russian leader in the past has regularly travelled across the former Soviet Union, including to Armenia where Russia has peacekeeping troops and a military base. Moscow's ties with Yerevan have deteriorated in recent months however over what Armenia says is Russia's failure to fully uphold a 2020 ceasefire treaty it helped broker between Armenia and Azerbaijan to end a war over Nagorno-Karabakh - an Armenian-populated region of Azerbaijan. Moscow has defended the actions of its peacekeepers, who have so far not intervened to end what Armenia says is a partial blockade by Azeri activists of Nagorno-Karabakh. Russia has a mutual defence pact with Armenia and has been a traditional power broker in the South Caucasus region, but is facing increasing competition for influence from the United States, the European Union and Turkey.

Humza Yousaf becomes Scotland’s first Muslim leader
AFP/March 27, 2023
EDINBURGH: Humza Yousaf, the first Muslim leader of a major UK political party, faces an uphill battle to revive Scotland’s drive for independence following the long tenure of his close ally Nicola Sturgeon.
The new and youngest Scottish National Party (SNP) leader, 37, says his own experience as an ethnic minority means he will fight to protect the rights of all minorities. The Glasgow-born Yousaf took his oath in English and Urdu when he was first elected to the Scottish Parliament in 2011, before progressing to become the first Muslim to serve in the devolved government’s cabinet. He has been hailed by his supporters as a polished communicator who can unite the party as support stagnates for the SNP’s central policy — independence for Scotland. Despite the UK government’s opposition to a new referendum, and a Supreme Court setback, Yousaf vowed in his victory speech Monday to deliver independence in this generation. And, as his wife and mother brushed away tears, he paid tribute to his paternal grandparents after they came to Scotland from Pakistan in the 1960s barely speaking English.
They would not have imagined “in their wildest dreams” that their future grandson would become the leader of their adopted homeland. “We should all take pride in the fact that today we have sent a clear message: that your color of skin or indeed your faith is not a barrier to leading the country that we all call home,” Yousaf said. He also vowed to be his own man as Scotland’s first minister. But far from running away from Sturgeon’s controversial record, he also says he will keep his experienced predecessor on “speed dial” for advice. That has fed into critics’ portrayal of Yousaf as a political lightweight who will remain in thrall to Sturgeon’s camp. At the same time, he is promising a more collegial style of leadership. “Mine would be less inner circle and more big tent,” he told LBC radio. With the independence push stymied for now, following Sturgeon’s more than eight-year tenure as first minister, Yousaf takes over facing crises in health care and education under the SNP’s own watch in Scotland. His record as Sturgeon’s minister for justice and health care was savaged on the campaign trail by his chief rival, Kate Forbes, and Yousaf must also heal a fractured party after its bruising leadership election.
Yousaf says he was toughened after facing racist abuse growing up in Glasgow, especially after the 9/11 attacks in the United States. “I’ve definitely had tough times,” he recalled, reflecting on his time in politics. “I’ve thought to myself, ‘goodness, is there more that I can take personally’ because I also come under a tremendous amount of abuse online and, unfortunately, sometimes face to face.” Yousaf’s Pakistani-born father forged a successful career in Glasgow as an accountant. The new SNP leader’s mother was born into a South Asian family in Kenya. Yousaf attended an exclusive private school in Glasgow, two years behind Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar. He studied politics at Glasgow University, and worked in a call center before becoming an aide to Sturgeon’s predecessor as SNP leader and first minister, Alex Salmond. Yousaf entered the Scottish cabinet in 2012, serving in various roles including justice, transport and most recently health. He married former SNP worker Gail Lythgoe in 2010, but they divorced seven years later. In 2021 he and his second wife Nadia El-Nakla launched a legal complaint against a nursery, accusing it of racial discrimination after it denied admission to their daughter. The complaint was upheld by education inspectors but the couple have now dropped it, and the nursery denied the accusations. He was accused of deliberately skipping a Scottish vote to legalize gay marriage in 2014, due to pressure from Muslim leaders. Yousaf insisted he had a prior engagement, and contrasts his own record to Forbes’ religiously conservative views as a member of a Scottish evangelical church. He says he will “always fight for the equal rights of others” and not legislate based on his own faith. But one person’s constitutional position will not be protected in a Yousaf-led Scotland — that of King Charles III. “I’ve been very clear, I’m a republican,” he told Scottish newspaper The National, calling for debate on whether Scotland should move to an elected head of state.

The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on March 27-28/2023
We rejected our fanatics. What are you doing about yours?
Nadim Koteich/The Times Of Israel/March 26/2023

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I find myself asking why every action Arabs take to foster peace with Israel is met with a rising tide of Israeli extremism
As Israel grapples with a complex political quagmire, those of us who champion peace find ourselves contemplating the nature of the Israel we will share our lives with. A perilous concoction of brews consisting of vehement antipathy toward Palestinians, the alarming retreat from any vestiges of peacemaking efforts between Palestinians and Israelis, and a resolute endeavor to dismantle Israel’s judicial infrastructure under the pretext of reform. These elements conspire to endanger Israel’s relationships not only with significant segments of its own society, but also with its regional allies and Washington.
As children, we would joyfully shout “abracadabra” before our homemade magic tricks, unaware that this incantation held deep roots in ancient history and the Aramaic language, used by various Semitic peoples, including the Jewish people. The possible origin of “abracadabra,” the Aramaic phrase “avra kehdabra,” which means “I will create as I speak,” represents the power of spoken words to create and transform reality. This concept endures today, as seen in the ultra-conservative rhetoric of Bibi Netanyahu’s far-right cabinet, which has shifted Israel’s image towards an increasingly fanatic state. The brazen declaration in Paris by Israel’s finance minister Bezalel Smotrich that, “there is no such thing as a Palestinian people,” all the while standing before a map depicting Israel’s borders encroaching into Jordan, had a profound impact on shaping Arab perceptions.
Moreover, Israel’s parliament elected to overturn a section of a 2005 law mandating the dismantling of four Israeli settlements in the northern West Bank, as well as barring new settlement construction within the region. These tumultuous events are further exacerbated by Bibi’s relentless efforts to dismantle Israel’s legal system under the guise of “reform,” which threaten to undermine the rule of law and potentially pave the way for a dictatorship.
Keep Watching
The present crisis unmasks the true nature of the conflict between the Arab Peace Axis countries and Israel, as it exposes a remarkable contradiction inherent in the Israeli state’s persona. While Israel embodies the height of modernity, showcasing notable achievements in technology, science, military prowess, and medical breakthroughs, it simultaneously harbors a stark contrast of regressive attitudes and religious extremism.
As an Arab advocate for peace, the recent developments prompt me to consider that those opposing peace in Israel appear more intransigent and unyielding than their Arab counterparts. Israel’s overtly religious persona, exemplified by Netanyahu’s administration, overlooks that the Peace Axis nations are actively combating zealotry and extremism within their own communities. This raises a critical question: how can these Arab nations reconcile coexisting with Israeli extremism? If Peace Axis countries are intent on isolating radicals within their societies, how can they accept the presence of extremists in the Israeli community, particularly when they hold positions of power? Invoking the notion that these are merely the results of democracy does not sufficiently address this conundrum. As democracy yields outcomes that counter its own principles, we are confronted with a challenge that has, in the past, unleashed unprecedented chaos during the first half of the 20th century.
Moreover, I find myself grappling with a perplexing question: Why is it that every theoretical expression and practical action taken by Arabs to foster peace with Israel is met with a rising tide of Israeli factions displaying greater fundamentalism, zealotry, and extremism? Under Netanyahu’s leadership, the current Israeli government’s political values, as expressed by its ministers, bear a striking resemblance to those of Hamas and Hezbollah, rather than the moderate governments found within the Arab Peace Axis. This iteration of Israel is far from the one we envision living alongside.
Courage
As I advocate for peace and coexistence, I often draw inspiration from individuals such as Yuval Harari, Daniel Kahneman, and Natalie Portman, pointing to Israel’s prowess in scientific and technological fields. The courage of many Israelis is evident not just among the elite, but also in daily protests in public squares, streets, and on social media. Their vision for their country largely aligns with what any sane person in the Middle East aspires to: social justice, prosperity, stability, and progress. Despite this, it is perplexing that Netanyahu’s Israel and its allies continue to undermine this vision, presenting to the Arab world an image of an Israeli equivalent to Hamas and Hezbollah.
Nevertheless, it appears that Bibi’s alliance is intent on reinforcing the beliefs of peace adversaries that they are justified in their stance, that peace is unattainable, and on persuading supporters of peace that their choice is unwise, prompting them to embrace the surging currents of extremism, fanaticism, and perpetual conflict. Urging us towards such conclusions is a disparagement of the human mind and our ability to envision harmonious coexistence. The government of Netanyahu proposes the perpetuation of history, insisting that we accept a future held captive by those dwelling in the shadows of long-gone millennia.
Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, once asserted that his country possessed the capacity to obliterate Israel within a mere seven and a half minutes. Paradoxically, it is the deeds of Israel’s own prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, that appear more likely to precipitate such a catastrophic denouement.
It is indeed a complex crisis, evolving into an existential threat so severe that the Israeli president cautioned about the possibility of a “civil war!” Nevertheless, this crisis also belongs to those of us who look forward to a tomorrow unshackled from the insanity of the divisions that Netanyahu has exploited to an unparalleled degree. It belongs to those who hold firm to the belief in, and the pursuit of, a future where peaceful coexistence in the Middle East is possible.
*ABOUT THE AUTHORNadim Koteich is an Emirati Lebanese media personality and a leading Arab commentator. He tweets at @nadimkoteich.
https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/we-rejected-our-fanatics-what-are-you-doing-about-yours/?fbclid=IwAR0lHM9jYbgZUss6Vz9aX3eF8ihRhucvcIAnJipHIuOliQzuP8UXx1SWY4M

The Real Meaning Of 'Pro-Palestinian'
Bassam Tawil/Gatestone Institute/March 27, 2023
Inviting Hamas and PIJ officials to participate in such events shows that the real aim of the so-called pro-Palestinian groups is not to help the Palestinians, but to incite and spread hate and libels against the only democracy in the Middle East: Israel.
[I]t sends a message to the Palestinians that the students and professors at the universities around the world support terrorism as a means to kill Jews and destroy Israel.
The participation of the terror leaders in the "Israel Apartheid Week" shows that the real intention of the anti-Israel groups on campus is not to criticize Israel, but to eliminate it.
If the "pro-Palestinian" groups really cared about the Palestinians, they would be speaking out against the repressive measures and human rights violations perpetrated by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
It is hard to see how support for a mass murderer such as Soleimani and Iran's proxy terror groups – Hamas, PIJ and Hezbollah – does anything good for the Palestinians. On the contrary, those who are empowering these terrorists are doing a massive disservice to the Palestinians, especially those who continue to suffer under the rule of Hamas and PIJ in the Gaza Strip.
Instead of building schools and hospitals for their people, Hamas and PIJ are investing millions of dollars in smuggling and manufacturing weapons and digging tunnels that would be used to infiltrate Israel and kill Jews. Instead of improving the living conditions of their people, Hamas and PIJ leaders are imposing new taxes and leading comfortable lives in Qatar, Lebanon and other countries. Instead of bringing democracy and freedom of speech to their people, the terror groups are arresting and intimidating journalists, human rights activists and political opponents.
All these violations are, needless to say, of no concern to the so-called "pro-Palestinian" students on the campuses. Have these students ever denounced Hamas for suppressing public freedoms and depriving its people of a good life? No. Will these students ever call out the Palestinian leadership for the financial corruption and persecution of political opponents and critics? No.
The "pro-Palestinian" individuals and groups might also understand that by siding with Hamas and PIJ, they are harming, not helping, the same people -- the Palestinians -- they claim to support.
The silence of the "pro-Palestinian" students towards these arrests actually causes harm to Palestinians: it allows Hamas to continue its brutality without having to worry about negative reactions from the international community.
The real "pro-Palestinian" advocates are those who want to see a good life for the Palestinians, not those who encourage them to embrace terror groups.
[T]he "pro-Palestinian" activists should, for example, wage campaigns to demand democracy and freedom of speech for the Palestinians living under the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
These activists should be defending the rights of women and gays in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. That is the way to be a real "pro-Palestinian" activist. Being "pro-Palestinian" does not necessarily mean that one has to be anti-Israel.
Instead of calling for boycotts and sanctions against Israel, the "pro-Palestinian" students should invite Israelis and Palestinians to their campuses to build, not destroy, bridges between the two peoples. If these students want Palestinians to boycott Israel, they should offer the Palestinians jobs and salaries, not more messages of hate.
An anti-Israel group called Palestinian Solidarity Forum on March 20 invited officials from the Iranian-backed Palestinian terror groups Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad to speak at an event at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. This shows that the real aim of the so-called pro-Palestinian groups is not to help the Palestinians, but to incite and spread hate and libels against Israel. Pictured: The Upper Campus of the University of Cape Town. (Image source: Adrian Frith/Wikimedia Commons)
An anti-Israel group called Palestinian Solidarity Forum (PSF) on March 20 invited officials from the Iranian-backed Palestinian terror groups Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) to speak at an event at the University of Cape Town in South Africa.
The two terror leaders, Khaled Qaddoumi of Hamas and Nasser Abu Sharif of PIJ, addressed students during the annual "Israel Apartheid Week," a one-sided propaganda event smearing Israel that takes place every year on a number of university campuses in the US and Europe.
Inviting Hamas and PIJ officials to participate in such events shows that the real aim of the so-called pro-Palestinian groups is not to help the Palestinians, but to incite and spread hate and libels against the only democracy in the Middle East: Israel.
This public display of support for terror groups does not serve the interests of the Palestinians. Instead, it sends a message to the Palestinians that the students and professors at the universities around the world support terrorism as a means to kill Jews and destroy Israel.
The participation of the terror leaders in the "Israel Apartheid Week" shows that the real intention of the anti-Israel groups on campus is not to criticize Israel, but to eliminate it.
Hamas and PIJ, which call for the destruction of Israel and reject a two-state solution, are designated as terrorist organizations by the US, Canada, the European Union, Israel, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and Britain. The two groups have carried out thousands of terror attacks against Israel, including suicide bombings, drive-by shootings, stabbings, and car-rammings. They are also responsible for the launching of thousands of missiles from the Gaza Strip into Israel over the past two decades.
It is ironic that those purporting to be "pro-Palestinian" would invite representatives of radical Islamist groups to spew hate against hatred against Israel at a time when Palestinians living under the rule of Hamas and PIJ in the Gaza Strip are suffering from oppression and repression.
For the past two decades, the two Palestinian terror groups have dragged the residents of the Gaza Strip into several rounds of fighting with Israel, mostly after launching missiles towards Israeli cities and towns. The wars have claimed the lives of thousands of Palestinians and brought havoc on the two million Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip.
More disturbing is that the students at the South Africa university did not conceal their support for Hamas and PIJ "resistance" against Israel. The term "resistance" is a euphemism for terror attacks against Israelis. The "pro-Palestinian" students even held a "vigil" on campus in support of the "martyrs that sacrificed their lives for the liberation of Palestine." The term "martyrs" refers to the terrorists of the two groups who were killed while carrying out attacks against Israel or during armed clashes with Israeli security forces.
During the "vigil," the students held flags and banners of Hamas and Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed terror group in Lebanon, as well as photos of Qassem Soleimani, the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander who was assassinated by the US in Iraq in 2020.
If the "pro-Palestinian" groups really cared about the Palestinians, they would be speaking out against the repressive measures and human rights violations perpetrated by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
On March 22, Hamas security officers beat and arrested Palestinian journalist Hani Abu Rizek. According to sources in the Gaza Strip, Abu Rizek was arrested after he reported that Palestinians were complaining about high taxes imposed by the Hamas government.
By voicing support for Hamas and ignoring the plight of Palestinians such as Abu Rizek, the students marking the so-called "Israel Apartheid Week" are actually saying that they back the terror group's crackdown on journalists.
Glorifying a mass murderer such as Soleimani is not an expression of solidarity with the Palestinians. In fact, many Palestinians have denounced the slain Iranian military commander as a murderer responsible for atrocities against many Muslims, including Iraqis, Syrians and Palestinians. When Hamas hung billboards with Soleimani's photos in the Gaza Strip, Palestinians tore them down as an act of protest against his crimes.
The "pro-Palestinian" activists on the campuses probably do not know that Palestinians in the Gaza Strip were celebrating and handing out sweets upon learning about the assassination of Soleimani. Palestinian columnist Ibrahim Hamami commented:
"Anyone who praises Qassem Soleimani is complicit in his crimes. I consider any statement in this regard as political stupidity and a betrayal of the blood of the Muslims that was shed by this criminal."
It is hard to see how support for a mass murderer such as Soleimani and Iran's proxy terror groups – Hamas, PIJ and Hezbollah – does anything good for the Palestinians. On the contrary, those who are empowering these terrorists are doing a massive disservice to the Palestinians, especially those who continue to suffer under the rule of Hamas and PIJ in the Gaza Strip.
Instead of building schools and hospitals for their people, Hamas and PIJ are investing millions of dollars in smuggling and manufacturing weapons and digging tunnels that would be used to infiltrate Israel and kill Jews. Instead of improving the living conditions of their people, Hamas and PIJ leaders are imposing new taxes and leading comfortable lives in Qatar, Lebanon and other countries. Instead of bringing democracy and freedom of speech to their people, the terror groups are arresting and intimidating journalists, human rights activists and political opponents.
All these violations are, needless to say, of no concern to the so-called "pro-Palestinian" students on the campuses. Have these students ever denounced Hamas for suppressing public freedoms and depriving its people of a good life? No. Will these students ever call out the Palestinian leadership for the financial corruption and persecution of political opponents and critics? No.
The "pro-Palestinian" individuals and groups might also understand that by siding with Hamas and PIJ, they are harming, not helping, the same people -- the Palestinians -- they claim to support.
Hamas, for example, has a long history of going after journalists who dare to expose its corruption. These include Abu Rizek, arrested by Hamas last week; Saeed Ahmad in November 2022, for exposing the alleged involvement of the terror group in smuggling Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to Europe; and a year earlier, without providing any explanation.
In addition to journalists, targeted by Hamas on a regular basis, academics are also being arrested by the terror group. Salem al-Sabah, for instance, head of the University of Palestine in the Gaza Strip, was arrested by Hamas last year -- without even an arrest warrant, leading "many" social media users to denounce the episode as a "kidnapping." His alleged crime was reportedly to have "exposed figures close to Hamas and accused them of money laundering and corruption."
The silence of the "pro-Palestinian" students towards these arrests actually causes harm to Palestinians: it allows Hamas to continue its brutality without having to worry about negative reactions from the international community.
The "pro-Palestinian" activists on campuses have again proven that all they have to offer is hatred toward Israel. The real "pro-Palestinian" advocates are those who want to see a good life for the Palestinians, not those who encourage them to embrace terror groups.
Instead of sitting at a campus and aligning themselves with Hamas and PIJ, the "pro-Palestinian" activists should, for example, wage campaigns to demand democracy and freedom of speech for the Palestinians living under the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
These activists should be defending the rights of women and gays in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. That is the way to be a real "pro-Palestinian" activist. Being "pro-Palestinian" does not necessarily mean that one has to be anti-Israel.
Instead of calling for boycotts and sanctions against Israel, the "pro-Palestinian" students should invite Israelis and Palestinians to their campuses to build, not destroy, bridges between the two peoples. If these students want Palestinians to boycott Israel, they should offer the Palestinians jobs and salaries, not more messages of hate.
*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.

The West’s Iran policy risks another Middle East war
Andrea Stricker and Anthony Ruggiero/Washington Examiner/March 27/2023
“We will not allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon,” President Joe Biden proclaimed before last fall’s United Nations General Assembly, a stance he has repeated numerous times throughout his presidency. But does he actually mean it?
Contrast those strong words with Washington’s approach at this month’s meeting of the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency. The West opted not to censure Iran, even though the IAEA warned in February that the Islamic Republic had enriched uranium to near atomic weapons-grade. Washington only chastised Tehran, calling its actions “alarming” and declaring that the clerical regime “must ensure that such an incident never occurs again.” France, the United Kingdom, and Germany (the “E3”) deemed Iran’s action “an unprecedented and extremely grave escalation.” The agency’s 35-nation board could have imposed a timetable for Iranian cooperation. It could have referred Tehran’s case to the U.N. Security Council for sanctions. Yet Biden led the free world in doing … nothing.
By failing to penalize the Iranian regime, America and its European allies will only encourage additional nuclear moves, thereby risking the West’s involvement in another war in the Middle East. They should quickly pivot to pressuring, containing, and deterring Iran’s advances lest the West soon face the regime dashing through the final steps to atomic bombs.
For more than two years, Iran has made a series of unprecedented nuclear advances while participating in fruitless negotiations with the West. Tehran’s salami-slice approach to breaking out of its nonproliferation obligations has apparently paralyzed the West as Washington, Paris, London, and Berlin cling to failed hopes of diplomacy to stave off Iran’s progress.
The Tehran regime has now amassed the capability to produce weapons-grade enriched uranium for a nuclear weapon within 12 days of a decision to do so and could make enough for an additional four weapons within a month. The Biden administration and supporters of the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran blame former President Donald Trump’s 2018 withdrawal from the accord. Yet many of Iran’s egregious nuclear actions occurred after Biden’s election and his attempts to resurrect the deal.
In 2021 and 2022, Tehran limited IAEA monitoring, hardened its nuclear capabilities underneath mountains, installed thousands of fast-operating uranium-enrichment centrifuges, enriched uranium first to 20% and then to 60%, and produced material used in nuclear weapon cores. In January, at Iran’s underground Fordow facility, the IAEA detected the regime enriching to nearly 84%, a stone’s throw from 90% or atomic weapons-grade — and only after discovering that the Islamic Republic had violated its safeguards agreement with the agency by altering centrifuge enrichment connections.
Iran likely gained valuable knowledge in making near weapons-grade uranium. But perhaps more worryingly, it has noted the international community’s unwillingness to respond to these steps.
For four years, Tehran has also stonewalled a separate IAEA investigation into its other breaches of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty involving undeclared use of nuclear material and atomic weapons work. Iran’s obstruction underscores the regime’s freedom to conduct sensitive activities unchecked by Western pressure and international monitoring.
By pursuing a pressure-free approach with the Islamic Republic, the West has significantly narrowed its options to respond should Iran move for atomic weapons while raising the risks of war.
Iran could delay or obstruct IAEA inspectors’ access to the underground Fordow enrichment site and “sneak out” of its nonproliferation obligations, producing weapons-grade uranium in plain sight.
And since the United States and Europe did little to respond to Tehran’s reduction in 2021 of IAEA monitoring at centrifuge production sites, the regime could easily stockpile a few hundred fast centrifuges at a clandestine enrichment plant and then spirit away its enriched uranium stocks to such a plant for further refinement to weapons-grade. In either case, Tehran would fashion its nuclear arsenal at another secret site, including one of many buried deep under mountains and fortified against military strikes.
Biden or a successor could be faced with little time and limited information to act in order to stop Iran from testing a nuclear device. Only two undesirable options might exist: dramatic military attacks on Iranian facilities or acquiescence to a nuclear-armed Tehran.
At the same time, Western inaction also raises the risk that Israel will strike Iran’s nuclear facilities. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned on Iran’s nuclear program: “The longer you wait, the harder [military action] becomes. We’ve waited very long.” Jerusalem might be compelled to act around the 2024 U.S. presidential election when Biden or a potential successor would face substantial domestic pressure to assist.
An Israeli attack is unlikely to be one event, but a monthslong campaign to degrade Tehran’s capabilities fraught with risks of escalation. Iran and its proxies are certain to inflict unprecedented bombardment on the Israeli public, using missiles, rockets, and drones. In the end, Washington is likely to be drawn into the conflict to stop the bloodshed.
Luckily, there is a middle way between military options and a nuclear Iran. Washington and its allies have time to change course and possibly prevent these scenarios — but only if they act soon.
The Biden administration and its partners must impose massive economic and financial pressure on Tehran and make clear that more is to come should Iran move toward nuclear breakout. Such a campaign must include sanctions on entities importing and facilitating the export of Iran’s oil and the interdiction of shipments to China, Syria, and other countries. Iran’s currency, the rial, is plummeting, and the regime is under pressure at home, meaning tightened Western sanctions stand a good chance of deterring Iran from further nuclear steps.
The West should also enact the “snapback” of U.N. Security Council sanctions that remain lifted by the U.N. resolution associated with the 2015 nuclear deal. Invoking the snapback would have the added benefits of outlawing Iran’s missile and drone assistance to Russia and providing a legal basis for other countries to stymie Tehran’s activities.
In addition, if the West demonstrates a more credible threat to use force against Iran’s nuclear program, Tehran may be deterred from breaking out altogether. The clerical regime worries about Western military forces striking its atomic assets, which means America and Israel should continue to deepen those fears by regularly demonstrating joint strike capabilities. The U.S. should also provide Jerusalem with all it requires to threaten the ability to undertake a strike and succeed.
Biden should also speak more convincingly about the possible use of force to stop an Iranian breakout. Since the administration’s strategy has been to focus attention and resources in Europe to counter Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and in the Indo-Pacific to counter China’s rise, U.S. adversaries such as Tehran have a fear deficit regarding American will to use force against weaker foes.
Biden has said he will not allow Iran to go nuclear on his watch but seems hopelessly wedded to diplomacy as Iran advances to the nuclear threshold. America and its allies must use all available tools to penalize Tehran and stop it from taking the final steps. Failure to confront Iran before Biden’s options narrow could mean America will be needlessly drawn into another war in the Middle East.
*Andrea Stricker is a research fellow and deputy director of the Nonproliferation and Biodefense Program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Anthony Ruggiero is a senior fellow and senior director of the program and served as the National Security Council’s senior director for counterproliferation and biodefense in the Trump administration. Follow Andrea and Anthony on Twitter @StrickerNonpro and @NatSecAnthony. FDD is a Washington-based, nonpartisan research institute focused on national security and foreign policy.

‘Combat Islamophobia Day’ Exposes UN’s Rank Hypocrisy on Mosques vs Churches

Raymond Ibrahim/March 27/2023
The United Nations has spoken: March 15 is now and forevermore “International Day to Combat Islamophobia.”
While there are many ways to debunk the significance of this day—as will be shown, the very word “Islamophobia” was created to suppress free speech—one need only turn to why this date was chosen to expose the UN’s rank hypocrisy.
On March 15, 2019, an armed Australian man, Brenton Tarrant, entered two mosques in New Zealand and opened fire on their Muslim worshippers; 51 were killed and 40 injured.
Therefore, March 15 was chosen to remind you of this awful incident.
So far, all well and good—except, that is, for one pesky question: if one attack on a mosque was enough for the UN to institutionalize a special day for Islam, what about the countless, often worse, Muslim attacks on non-Muslim places of worship? Why have they not elicited a similar response from the UN?
Consider some of the fatal Muslim attacks on Christian churches in recent years:
Sri Lanka(Apr. 21, 2018): Easter Sunday, Muslim terrorists bombed three churches and three hotels; 359 people were killed and more than 500 injured.
Nigeria(Apr. 20, 2014): Easter Sunday, Islamic terrorists torched a packed church; 150 were killed.
Pakistan(Mar. 27, 2016): Following Easter Sunday church services, Islamic terrorists bombed a park where Christians had congregated; more than 70 Christians—mostly women and children—were killed. “There was human flesh on the walls of our house,” recalled a witness.
Iraq(Oct. 31, 2011): Islamic terrorists stormed a church in Baghdad during worship and opened fire indiscriminately before detonating their suicide vests. Nearly 60 Christians—including women, children, and even babies—were killed (graphic pictures of aftermath here).
Nigeria(Apr. 8, 2012): Easter Sunday, explosives planted by Muslims detonated near two packed churches; more than 50 were killed and unknown numbers injured.
Nigeria(June 5, 2022): Pentecost Sunday, Muslims attack and open fire on a packed church; more than 50 killed, dozens injured.
Egypt(Apr. 9, 2017): Palm Sunday, Muslims bombed two packed churches; at least 45 were killed, more than 100 injured.
Nigeria(Dec. 25, 2011): During Christmas Day services, Muslim terrorists shot up and bombed three churches; 37 were killed and nearly 57 injured.
Egypt(Dec. 11, 2016): An Islamic suicide bombing of two churches left 29 people killed and 47 injured (graphic images of aftermath here).
Nigeria: (Apr. 20, 2012): Muslims slaughtered 20 Christians inside their church during Sunday worship.
Democratic Republic of Congo (Jan. 15, 2023): Muslims bombeda church during a Sunday baptismal ceremony. At least 14 Christians were blown to pieces—the Islamic State, which claimed the attack, said 20—and 63 were seriously wounded.
Indonesia(May 13, 2018): Muslims bombed three churches; 13 were killed and dozens injured.
Egypt(Jan. 1, 2011): Muslim terrorists bombed an Alexandrian church during New Year’s Eve mass; at least 21 Christians were killed. According to eyewitnesses, “body parts were strewn all over the street outside” and “were brought inside the church after some Muslims started stepping on them and chanting Jihadi chants,” including “Allahu Akbar!”
Philippines(Jan. 27, 2019): Muslim terrorists bombed a cathedral; at least 20 were killed, and more than 100 injured.
Indonesia(Dec. 24, 2000): During Christmas Eve services, Muslim terrorists bombed several churches; 18 were killed and over 100 injured.
Pakistan(Mar. 15, 2015): Muslim suicide bombers killed at least 14 Christians in attacks on two churches.
Germany(Dec. 19, 2016): Near the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in Berlin, a Muslim man drove a truck into a Christmas market; 13 were killed and 55 injured.
Egypt(Dec. 29, 2017): Muslim gunmen shot up a church in Cairo; nine were killed.
Egypt(Jan. 6, 2010): Following Christmas Eve mass (according to the Orthodox calendar), Muslims shot six Christians dead as they exited their church.
Russia(Feb. 18, 2018): A Muslim man carrying a knife and a double-barreled shotgun entered a church and opened fire; five people—all women—were killed, and at least five injured.
France(July 26, 2016): Muslims entered a church and slit the throat of the officiating priest, 84-year-old Fr. Jacques Hamel, and took four nuns hostage until French authorities shot the terrorists dead.
The above list is hardly comprehensive. In Nigeria alone, where one Christian is slaughtered every two hours, Muslims have destroyed or torched some 20,000 churches and Christian schools. How many undocumented souls perished in those largely unreported terror attacks?
Nor does the above list of fatal Muslim attacks on churches include any of the many that were botched, for example, an attack on an Indonesian church during Palm Sunday service (2021), where only the suicide bombers—a Muslim man and his pregnant wife—died.
At any rate, based on the above list, Muslims have massacred well over 1,000 Christians who were otherwise peacefully worshipping in their churches.
Hence the original question: If one non-Muslim attack, which claimed 51 Muslim lives, was enough for the UN to establish an “international day to combat Islamophobia,” why have many Muslim attacks on churches, which have claimed over 1,000 Christian lives—meaning some 20 Christians were killed in their churches for each Muslim killed in a mosque—not been enough for the UN to establish an “international day to combat Christianophobia”?
Or to rephrase the question, why is one, solitary incident of a Western man killing 51 Muslims in two mosques of far greater importance to the UN than many instances of Muslims killing a total of 1,000 Christians in their churches?
This question becomes more pressing when one realizes that, whereas the New Zealand mosque attack was indeed an aberration—evidenced by its singularity—Muslim attacks on churches are very common (including historically). As discussed here, seldom does a month pass in the Muslim world, and increasingly in the West, without several assaults on or harassments of churches taking place.
Moreover, it is worth noting that those who terrorize churches often share little with one another. As seen, they come from widely different nations (Nigeria, Iraq, Philippines, etc.), are of different races, speak different languages, and live under different social, political, and economic conditions. The only thing they do share—the one thing that apparently actuates them to assault churches and kill Christians—is their religion, Islam (which, unsurprisingly, teaches hostility for churches and “infidels”).
In other words, Muslim attacks on churches are ideologically driven, have long been and continue to be systemic and systematic, and are, therefore, an actual, ongoing problem that the international community needs to highlight and ameliorate.
Yet the UN would have us ignore and brush aside the aforementioned and ongoing massacres of countless Christians and church worshippers as unfortunate byproducts of misplaced “Muslim grievances”—and instead fixate on one solitary incident: a Western man killing 51 Muslims.
This, for the UN, is what truly evinces a “pattern” and is in dire need of recognition and response. And that response is to shut up all those who dare connect the dots and expose Islam’s heavily documented pattern of abuse and violence against non-Muslims—which, make no mistake, is precisely what “combatting Islamophobia” is all about.
If you doubt this, consider UN Secretary-General António Guterres’s recent “call for action” to “stamp out the poison of Islamophobia”:
We must confront bigotry [Islamophobia, i.e., free speech concerning Islam] wherever and whenever it rears its ugly head. This includes working to tackle the hate that spreads like wildfire across the Internet. That is why I have called on Governments, regulators, technology companies and the media to set up guardrails, and enforce them… And we are pushing for a code of conduct…
If this does not sound like censorship, what does?

Rehabilitating Syria or the Assad regime?
Haitham El-Zobaidi/The Arab Weekly/March 27/2023
Assad was unable to correctly interpret global changes. However, his greatest failure was his inability to grasp the changes in his own country.
Let us start from the end of the article, which is to pose the question of whether there is a solution in Syria apart from the continuation in power of the Assad regime?
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has made all kinds of political mistakes, starting with his secular regime’s reliance on a sectarian party such as Hezbollah, his warm praise of the Muslim Brotherhood Hamas and his yielding to Qatar’s incitement against Saudi Arabia, not to mention his description of his foes as “half men.”
Perhaps the worst aspect of all of this was his feeling as a young president that he had his whole life ahead of him to solve Syria’s problems. This was especially obvious in his talk about investing in information technology when he headed the Syrian Informatics Association during the rule of his father, the late President Hafez al-Assad. We eventually discovered that Syria of the year 2000, when he assumed power and the Syria of 2011 when a revolution broke out against him, had remained mired in stagnation while the world moved on politically, economically and demographically. Assad did not heed the major transformations which were changing the face of the region, especially the US invasion of Iraq and the overthrow of Saddam’s regime, nor the consequences of the assassination of Rafik Hariri in Lebanon and his move to bring back Turkey to the region under the pretext of rapprochement with the regime of Prime Minister, then President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
If one looks at the problems of Syria today, one finds that they are an extension of the misplaced political investments by the Assad regime. The Islamists, who have traditionally constituted the most acute threat to its rule, are the result of a reconciliation sponsored by Qatar between the Assad regime, the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas. Alternatively it could be because of a naive approach to the danger posed by Salafists who infiltrated Syria to join the war in Iraq, before bringing this war back to Syria under such banners as those of ISIS, al-Qaeda and Al-Nusra. Celebrating Erdogan was part of the equation of accepting the presence of Islamists in power, directly, as in the case of Hamas’s takeover of Gaza, or indirectly, as in the case of Hezbollah. For some reason, Assad believed that he could use all Islamists to his advantage, at times to prevent the Americans from re-directing their tanks from Baghdad to Damascus and at others to fashion a national narrative of confrontation with Zionism and Israel under the banner of the Palestinian cause and resistance.
Assad was unable to correctly interpret global changes. However, his greatest failure was his inability to grasp the changes in his own country. There was his open-ended project for change without any real change. There were the closed horizons faced by Syrian young people. Then there was the desert encroachment in the eastern and northern parts of the country, which resulted in the internal exodus of large numbers of Syrians who found themselves with few immediate or long term options. Then the big explosion occurred, which Assad tried to pre-empt by saying that the situation in Syria was different from that of Tunisia, for example. We did discover at the end of the day that Syria is indeed different from Tunisia and that it sits on an explosive barrel with no possible comparison with other countries of the region.
Qatar and Saudi Arabia have invested heavily in the Syrian crisis, each for its own reasons. There was Qatar, with its well-known opportunism and its belief that the era of the Brotherhood had finally come and that the Turkish role would guarantee Doha’s control of Syria after Assad. There was also Saudi Arabia’s dual motive for revenge: one because of Assad’s real or supposed role in the assassination of Rafik Hariri, who constituted the most important Saudi asset in Lebanon and who was killed during the Syrian military rule of that country. The second reason for Saudi vindictiveness was Syria’s diatribes against the Saudi government. Damascus used all kinds of disparaging terms to describe Saudi Arabia. It did so for no reason except to please the Qataris and the Iranians.
Qatari and Saudi hostility to the Assad regime continues to this day, or to be more precise, their hostility to what is left of the Assad regime, as a state, of its territorial control and of its role in the region. Today, Assad appears to be in a stronger position, perhaps because he found someone to back him in his war, or because his enemies today are much weaker than they were when the Syrian civil war erupted. Qatar is quieter today and Saudi Arabia cares more about Saudi Arabia itself than, for example, about Lebanon and the pettiness of its leaders, while Turkey’s economic and political conflicts at home and abroad, have overwhelmed Ankara’s attempts to impose its influence on the region.
Even before the earthquake, there were those who seriously considered the rehabilitation of Syria as a country, even if this meant the rehabilitation of the regime. Does the sultanate of Oman have any illusions about the nature of Assad’s rule? Does a country such as the UAE, which values social peace between rulers and theirs citizens, accept Assad’s behaviour in dealing with his own people? The answer will undoubtedly be No. But these are responsible countries that know that what is at stake today is Syria, not the Assad regime. Whoever has any doubts that this is the most realistic viewpoint, should take a look at what happened in Iraq and Yemen, when the collapse of the two regimes in Baghdad and Sana’a brought tremendous woes to both countries and the region. What was happening in Raqqa and other places which witnessed the crimes of ISIS, is sufficient to explain why many Syrians chose to stand by the Assad regime while they are aware of all its shortcomings, staying away from the shadow of ISIS or al-Nusra. There was no love lost for the regime, but Syrians asked themselves as they were making up their minds: which do we hate more, the regime or ISIS?
When Qatar worked to drag the Gulf Cooperation Council and the Arab League in a showdown against Syria (and Yemen), almost everyone yielded and went so far as to accept what the Qatari foreign minister at the time, Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim, was trying to dictate on the GCC and the League. The situation today looks different. The Arab world has learned different lessons about the dangers of isolating important countries such as Syria and Yemen, and before them Iraq. The unanimous agreement to put pressure on the Assad regime or Ali Abdullah Saleh, led to disasters in the two countries and in the region as a whole. Qatar maintains close relations with Iran, while Iran threatens Saudi Arabia from the south in Yemen and has reached the Mediterranean through a land corridor that passes through Iraq and Syria. This has produced a gratuitous Arab consensus in favour of empowering Iran in the region, and not necessarily a position aimed at deterring Assad or Ali Abdullah Saleh’s regime. In recent days, Assad was in Abu Dhabi and a few days before that in Muscat. These two visits and other possible trips ahead, are a responsible way for rehabilitating Syria, not for celebrating its regime. Stubbornness and hatred have no place in trying to ensure the survival of Syria, even if this means dealing with Bashar al-Assad and his regime. Returning to our starting point, which will be the closing question: should a responsible approach to dealing with the situation in Syria necessarily deny the regime the possibility of staying in power?
*Dr Haitham El-Zobaidi is the executive editor of Al Arab Publishing Group.