950 Hezbollah operatives, 300 Hamas members in Germany – intelligence report
BENJAMIN WEINTHALJ.Post//07/01/2015
The number of Islamists in Germany increased to 43,890 in 2014 from 43,190 in 2013, according to a report released on Tuesday by the country’s domestic intelligence agency.
Radical Islamists are “the greatest danger to Germany,” said Hans-Georg Maassen, the president of the agency, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV). “Germany is on the spectrum of goals for Islamic terrorists,” he added.
Hezbollah has 950 active operatives in the Federal Republic, and Hamas has 300. Germany has designated Hamas as a terrorist organization. The Merkel administration along with the EU banned Hezbollah’s military wing in 2013, but allows its political wing to operate.
According to the BfV report, the number of Salafists in the country increased to 7,000 in 2014 from 5,500 the previous year. The Salafists are “the most dynamic Islamic movement in Germany” and serve as a recruitment pool for jihadist groups in Syria and Iraq, the report said. The chapter on “Islamism and Islamic terrorism” states that at demonstrations against last summer’s Gaza war, there “were rather more Hamas-supporting events than peace demonstrations, and there was clearly public anti-Semitism.” The anti-Semitic slogans targeted “Jews and Israel” and resulted in attacks on Jews and pro-Israel activists. “Kill the Jews!” “Jews out!” and, “Hamas, Hamas, Jews to the gas!” were some of the slogans chanted at the 2014 protests. The BfV cited the arson at the Wuppertal synagogue in North Rhine-Westphalia state in June 2014. A local court exonerated the perpetrators, German Palestinians, of anti-Semitism. It said the men sought to bring “attention to the Gaza conflict” by tossing Molotov cocktails at the synagogue.
“Hamas was successful” in mobilizing its organization and people outside of its core support to participate in anti-Israel protests, the BfV report said. There was “public anti-Semitism at pro-Palestinian demonstrations” against Israel’s Operation Protective Edge, the agency said, adding, “It was noticeable that a large number of mostly young people with an immigrant background expressed themselves in an anti-Semitic and hate-filled way.” While the demonstrations against Israel were driven by Islamists, the BfV noted that extremist Turks, as well as left-wing and rightwing fanatics, were present. Many participants had no recognizable extremist background, the agency wrote. The number attacks by right-wing extremists soared to 990 in 2014, a 23.6 percent from 2013. The spike was animated by xenophobia and attacks on political refugee housing and asylum- seekers The BfV report noted that the far Right “says Israel and means Jews in general, and the label ‘Zionist’ serves as a synonym for ‘Jew’ for rightwing extremists.” The unifying factor for Islamists, the far Right and far Left, is a deep loathing of Jews, it said. Participants at pro-Palestinian demonstrations attempted to camouflage their Jew-hatred by purporting to be solely anti-Zionist or anti-Israel, the report noted.
Lebanese Cabinet can act with two-thirds majority: Berri
Hussein Dakroub/The Daily Star/ July 01, 2015
BEIRUT: The Cabinet can meet and make decisions as long as two thirds of its 24 members are secured, Speaker Nabih Berri said Tuesday, dispelling fears of disruption by the ministers of MP Michel Aoun’s Free Patriotic Movement and their allies. He also said that the contentious issue of military and security appointments is likely to be brought up during the Cabinet session scheduled for Thursday. Asked about the fate of the Cabinet session amid the lingering rift over security appointments, Berri was quoted as saying by visitors at his Ain al-Tineh residence: “As long as the two-third ministerial majority is secured, the session will be held and will make decisions as stipulated by the Constitution. [Decisions] that require two thirds [of the 24 ministers] to be approved will be voted on by two thirds. [Decisions] that require half [of the ministers] plus one will be voted by an absolute majority.” Berri added that decrees on Cabinet decisions did not need the signature of all the ministers. “There is a possibility for the appointments’ issue to be raised at Thursday’s session,” he said. “The session will then take its constitutional course. If some [ministers] withdraw, the session will go on as long as the constitutional quorum for convening it is secured.”
Berri said that after the opening of an extraordinary legislative session, he would call Parliament to meet to act on draft laws. “I am adamant on holding legislative sessions because the situation in the country is no longer bearable,” he said. The speaker’s remarks came a day after Prime Minister Tammam Salam called the Cabinet to meet Thursday, ending three weeks of paralysis caused by disagreements over the appointment of senior military and security officers. However, Salam’s decision did not herald an agreement on the thorny issue, as the FPM’s ministers insisted that they would not allow the Cabinet to discuss any topic before it addresses appointments of new security chiefs, including the appointment of Aoun’s son-in-law, Brig. Gen. Shamel Roukoz, the head of the Army Commando Regiment, as Army commander. The FPM’s two ministers are backed by their allies in Hezbollah, the Tashnag Party and the Marada Movement. The four groups have six ministers in the 24-member national unity government. Speaking at an iftar Tuesday night, Salam called on the rival parties to act with a sense of responsibility by putting aside divisive issues and addressing the people’s interests away from “obstruction and paralysis.”
“There are many extremely important and vital issues waiting for us,” he said. Ministerial sources said they expected the Cabinet session to be calm and short. Salam will open the session with a comprehensive review of the crisis amid the current grave conditions in the region, while stressing the need for solidarity in these difficult circumstances through which Lebanon and the region are passing, the sources said. Salam will propose from outside the agenda opening an extraordinary parliamentary session to approve draft laws concerning billions of dollars in loans to Lebanon, the sources said.
MP Ibrahim Kanaan from the FPM warned of what he termed “a legal and constitutional violation” if the issue of security and military appointments was not included on the Cabinet agenda.
“We announce our commitment to our position. The [ministers] of the Change and Reform bloc will attend the Cabinet session and the bloc will exercise its right to debate. Unless the first item is the security appointments, no other topic will be discussed,” Kanaan said after a weekly meeting of the parliamentary Change and Reform bloc chaired by Aoun. The parliamentary Future bloc praised Salam’s decision to call the Cabinet to meet and renewed its demand for the quick election of a president. The bloc implicitly blasted the FPM, blaming it for the obstruction of the Cabinet’s work. “The bloc supports Prime Minister Tammam Salam’s decision to resume the Cabinet’s work following a deliberate and planned obstruction exercised by political parties, whose position has harmed the interests of Lebanese citizens and linked them to personal goals and family interests,” the bloc said in a statement after its weekly meeting chaired by former Prime Minister Fouad Siniora. Meanwhile, the Future Movement and Hezbollah will hold a new round of talks Thursday amid fresh tension caused by the two sides trading accusations over who was to blame for leaking the videos that showed police officers torturing Islamist inmates in Roumieh Prison, officials said Tuesday.
“Thursday’s dialogue session will tackle the Cabinet crisis, the presidential election deadlock and also Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi’s accusations against Hezbollah over the torture videos,” a senior March 8 source told The Daily Star. MP Samir Jisr, one of three senior Future officials attending the dialogue sessions, said the talks would focus primarily on defusing tensions in the wake of a new war of words between the two sides sparked by the accusations over the torture videos. Asked what the expectations are for Thursday’s meeting amid a new strain in ties between the two rival parties, Jisr told The Daily Star: “We have overcome more serious problems in past dialogue sessions. So, Thursday’s session will not be an exception.”Thursday’s will be the 14th round of dialogue between senior officials from the Future Movement and Hezbollah. Last week, Rifi accused Hezbollah of leaking the torture videos. Hezbollah dismissed the accusations as “baseless” and instead blamed Rifi for leaking the videos.
