LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN

December 06/16

Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani

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http://www.eliasbejjaninews.com/newsbulletin16/english.december06.16.htm

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Bible Quotations For Today
Among those born of women no one has arisen greater than John the Baptist; yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 11/11-15/:"Truly I tell you, among those born of women no one has arisen greater than John the Baptist; yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force. For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John came; and if you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah who is to come. Let anyone with ears listen!"

It is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as descendants
Letter to the Romans 09/06-13/:"It is not as though the word of God had failed. For not all Israelites truly belong to Israel, and not all of Abraham’s children are his true descendants; but ‘It is through Isaac that descendants shall be named after you.’ This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as descendants. For this is what the promise said, ‘About this time I will return and Sarah shall have a son.’ Nor is that all; something similar happened to Rebecca when she had conceived children by one husband, our ancestor Isaac. Even before they had been born or had done anything good or bad (so that God’s purpose of election might continue, not by works but by his call) she was told, ‘The elder shall serve the younger.’As it is written, ‘I have loved Jacob, but I have hated Esau."’Amen."

Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on December 05-06/16
Cyprus Maronite Minority Sees Chance to Save Ancient Language/Naharnet/Agence France Presse/December 05/16/
Precious opportunity/The Daily Star/December 06/16
Saraya Al-Tawheed: A Pro-Assad Druze Militia in Lebanon and Syria/Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi/Syria Comment/December 05/16
Did Hezbollah really censor Fairouz/Hussain Abdul-Hussain/Now Lebanon/December 05/16
Meet the Lebanese businessman building Israel's new warships/Smadar Perry, Tamar Shabak/Ynetnews/December 05/16
Iran Detains Dozens Of Christian Converts As Rights Group Urge World To Intervene/
BosNewsLife, December 05/16
Iran IRGC commanding Aleppo killings from “Fort Behuth” southeast of the city/ NCRI Statements/December 05/16
Iran to Trump: Death to America Will Live On/ Majid Rafizadeh/Gatestone Institute/December 05/16
10 Things We Should Learn From the Ohio State Attack/Shireen Qudosi/Family Security Matters/December 05/16
In Silencing Of Loudspeakers, Israel Is No Different/Robert Ilatov/Jewish Member of the Israeli Knesset /Newsweek/December 05/16
The New Israeli Prayers Law is Unjust, & We Are Obliged To Reject It/Ahmad Tibi, Deputy Speaker of Israeli Knesset/Newsweek/November 30/16
The Real Illegal Settlements/Bassam Tawil/Gatestone Institute/December 05/16
Changing loyalties in Aleppo are clouding the forecast/Maria Dubovikova/Al Arabiya/December 05/16
Aleppo and the United Nations’ inaction/Mshari Al Thaydi/Al Arabiya/December 05/16

Titles For Latest Lebanese Related News published on December 05-06/16
Canada, Lebanon eye direct flights: Bassil
Lebanon: Patriarch Rai Calls on Political Blocs to Facilitate Government Formation
Armed Attack at Lebanese Army Position North Kills One Soldier
Aoun Meets Canadian Foreign Minister
China's Syria Envoy Meets Hariri, Vows Continued Humanitarian Aid
Report: Berri Urges Aoun to 'Extend Hand' to Franjieh
Two Palestinian Security Force Members Injured in Ain el-Hilweh Attack
AMAL Says 'Shiite Duo' Not Seeking to Confront FPM-LF Alliance
Zahra Fears 'Internal Tutelage' Could Block Taef Implementation
Kataeb Urges 'Burying' 1960 Electoral Law, Slams 'Absurd Conflict' over Govt.
Sami Gemayel Says Some Don't Want 'Annoying' Kataeb in Govt.
Land Transportation Union confirms ongoing strike
Rahi, Canadian Foreign Minister tackle current developments
Hariri discusses with Chinese envoy situation in Syria
Cyprus Maronite Minority Sees Chance to Save Ancient Language
Precious opportunity
Saraya Al-Tawheed: A Pro-Assad Druze Militia in Lebanon and Syria
Did Hezbollah really censor Fairouz?
Meet the Lebanese businessman building Israel's new warships

Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin For Miscellaneous Reports And News published on December 05-06/16
Iran Detains Dozens Of Christian Converts As Rights Group Urge World To Intervene
Iran IRGC commanding Aleppo killings from “Fort Behuth” southeast of the city
Iran: 12 Fashion Models Were Totally Sentenced to 379 months of Imprisonment
Russia, China Veto U.N. Resolution Demanding Aleppo Truce as Regime Forces Advance on Ground
Syria Rebels Rule out Withdrawal from Aleppo
Russian Field Hospital Hit in Syria's Aleppo, Nurse Killed
In Aleppo, Dreaming of Home but Finding Only Rubble
Second Russian Airplane Crashes in Failed Carrier Landing near Syria
Two Senior Iraqi Officers Killed in Clashes with IS
French PM Valls Joins Presidential Race
IS Loses Libya Bastion in Major Blow to Jihadists
With Fall of Sirte, IS Down but Not Out in Libya
Jordan Military Plane Crash Kills Pilot
Saudi King on Regional Tour ahead of GCC Summit
Israel Resumes Parcel Post into Gaza
Kerry Accuses Israeli Right of Sabotaging Peace Process

Links From Jihad Watch Site for on December 05-06/16
Muslim sits next to Eric Trump on plane, discovers that establishment media has been lying
Muslim cleric: Time for Iran to “reciprocate” the US’s “hostility”
Tunisia: Hundreds of jihadi cells found in tourist hotspot after Islamic State massacre
EU official’s daughter murdered by Muslim migrant worked in refugee homes
Uganda: Muslims beat former Muslim sheikh unconscious, destroy his crops for converting to Christianity
Robert Spencer in FrontPage: Keith Ellison: Perfect for the DNC
Mother of OSU jihad attacker says her son was killed “for no reason”
“Bloody Friday”: Islamic State vows jihad massacres on Trump’s Inauguration Day
One year after San Bernardino jihad massacre, city aims to prevent anti-Muslim hate crimes
UK bans three bishops from Iraq and Syria from entering the country
Jimmy Carter, Lord Caradon, the Palestine Mandate, and U.N. Resolution 242 (Part I)
Jimmy Carter, Lord Caradon, the Palestine Mandate, and Resolution 242 (Part II)

Links From Christian Today Site for on December 05-06/16
British Government Bans Iraqi, Syrian Archbishops From UK Visit
Italy In Turmoil After It Rejects Renzi Reforms
British Baptists Issue Call For Unity Over Same-Sex Marriage
US Church Sprayed With Bible Verse About The Killing Of 185,000 Assyrian Christians
Does Integration Mean Government Control Of Religion?
Patience Is A Virtue: Here's Why It's Good To Wait For Something Important...
'My Knees Were Shaking': Archaeologist Tells Of Awe At Discovery In Christ's Tomb
The Light Of Goodness And Innocence': The Words Of Pope Francis To Young Girl Dying Of Cancer
Are The Days Of A Bible In Every Hotel Room Coming To An End?
Midnight Mass, Church, And Lunch With The Elderly: Christmas Day For Theresa May

Latest Lebanese Related News published on December 05-06/16
Canada, Lebanon eye direct flights: Bassil
The Daily Star/December 05/16/BEIRUT: Canada's foreign minister emphasized Monday his country's unwavering support for Lebanon, as his Lebanese counterpart announced that the two countries were seeking to launch direct flights. Canadian Foreign Minister Stephane Dion said during a joint news conference with caretaker Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil that “Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was keen to support Lebanon.”
“Lebanon is a priority and we will do everything in our capability to help the country to cope with the large influx of refugees.”He noted that his country already has several projects to assist Lebanon, including its support to the Lebanese Armed Forces, women and reforms to improve prison conditions. Dion also called for the swift formation of a new Cabinet.Bassil urged Canada to increase its support to Lebanon, reiterating his call for the return of Syrian refugees to safe zones in their war-torn country.“We believe that the safe return of Syrians is the only solution for this crisis and we look forward to Canada’s help in this regard.”He also called for direct aid to the Lebanese government to help it cope with the crisis, adding that Lebanon’s economy had deteriorated due to the refugee influx. “We need a radical solution to the problem.”The caretaker FM described ties between Lebanon and Canada as “excellent,” calling for stronger trade relations. He disclosed that a Canadian delegation began preparing a study on opening a direct air link between the two countries. Lebanon’s economy and infrastructure has been heavily impacted by the onset of the Syrian conflict and resulting influx of refugees. There are currently 1.1 million Syrian refugees registered with the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR in the country. However, the Lebanese government estimates the figure to be around 1.5 million. Dion headed earlier in the day to Baabda Palace to congratulate President Michel Aoun on his recent election as Lebanon's 13th head of state.
During their meeting, Aoun and Dion discussed the refugee crisis and means to aid Lebanon.
The Lebanese president emphasized the need to find a political solution to the crisis in Syria, which would have a positive impact on the refugee crisis. The two also touched on improving bilateral ties. Dion, who is on a four-day visit to Lebanon, later headed to caretaker Prime Minister Tammam Salam's residence in Beirut's Moseitbeh area, where the two officials discussed recent developments in Lebanon and the region. The FM also met with Speaker Nabih Berri. He arrived in Beirut Friday to meet with top officials, tour Army posts on the Syrian border, and visit refugees in tented settlements who receive assistance from Canada. He also met with Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri over the weekend. Dion told The Daily Star Sunday that his country was seeking to build strong ties with the new Lebanese administration, despite Hezbollah’s involvement.
“We are back in Lebanon,” he said, addressing the shift in policy under Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The Canadian FM's visit comes amid a flurry of diplomatic activity in Lebanon following Aoun's election.

Lebanon: Patriarch Rai Calls on Political Blocs to Facilitate Government Formation
Asharq Al-Awsat/December 05/16/Beirut- Lebanon’s Maronite Patriarch Bechara Rai called on political blocs to facilitate the formation of a new government, a month after leaders failed to reach an agreement over a cabinet lineup. The main obstacle hindering the birth of a new cabinet is linked to the share of MP Suleiman Franjieh, whose party wants a weighty portfolio. The two Shiite parties represented by Speaker Nabih Berri and the so-called Hezbollah insist that their ally, Franjieh, gets a weighty portfolio such as the Health or the Telecommunication ministries.
Franjieh’s camp asserted on Sunday the presence of such an obstacle. The Marada Movement’s media officer Suleiman Franjieh said President Michel Aoun should invite head of the Marada Movement, MP Suleiman Franjieh to visit the Baabda Palace and reach a suitable solution for the ongoing crisis. In an interview with a local radio, the media officer said: “The problem remains inside the Christian camp. We ask for a weighty ministry, and we reject the logic of veto.”In light of the difficulties Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri face while forming his new government, Maronite Patriarch Rai said on Sunday during the mass service in Bkirki he was concerned regarding the delay in the formation of the government, which should be a unifier and capable of acting in accordance with the national pact and the Constitution. Rahi said the socio-economic and national situations could not progress well in an environment of injustice and absence of freedom in favor of personal and partisan interests. Meanwhile, former President Michel Suleiman called on political leaders to start drafting a modern parliamentary elections law and to form a committee that would annul political sectarianism in the country. “We do not aim to annul sects, but to abolish sectarianism,” he said on Sunday during a two-day workshop in Beirut.

Armed Attack at Lebanese Army Position North Kills One Soldier
Naharnet/December 05/16/After a late armed attack against an Infantry Brigade in north Lebanon killed a soldier, the Lebanese army staged raids early on Monday in the northern district of Dinniyeh in search for the assailants, media outlets reported on Monday. One soldier, Amer Mustafa al-Mohammed, was killed and another was injured overnight when gunmen attacked the 10th Infantry Brigade in the northern town of Bqaa Safrine, they added. The army staged raids early on Monday in Dinniyeh after the aggression against its troops. A security source told LBCI that the army had not staged raids before the assault on the army. In an interview to the VDL (93.3), the Mayor of Bqaa Safrine denounced the attack and affirmed “total support for the Lebanese army,” as he assured that the identity of the perpetrator is unknown. Investigations were run into the incident.

Aoun Meets Canadian Foreign Minister
Naharnet/December 05/16/President Michel Aoun held a meeting at the Presidential Palace with Canadian Foreign Minister Stephane Dion where discussions touched on the Syrian refugees in Lebanon and highlighted the need for a political solution in Syria, the National News Agency reported Monday. The issue of the displaced Syrians in Lebanon was discussed during talks between the two men, and Aoun focused on the “need for a political solution for the Syrian crisis which will reflect positively on the issue of displaced Syrians in Lebanon,” NNA added. For his part, Dion who is on a four-day official visit, stressed the importance of the Lebanese role in Canada, he said: “Canada is assisting Lebanon in several developmental and non-developmental projects,” he said. On the other hand, Aoun confirmed firm ties with Canada, touching on the role of the Lebanese in Canada. Also talks featured high on bilateral ties between both states and ways to boost them. Over the weekend, Dion held separate meetings with Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri and Democratic Gathering bloc leader MP Walid Jumblat.

China's Syria Envoy Meets Hariri, Vows Continued Humanitarian Aid
Naharnet/December 05/16/Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri held talks Monday at the Center House with the Chinese special envoy for Syria, Xie Xiaoyan. The meeting, which was attended by a Chinese delegation and Beijing's ambassador to Lebanon, tackled “the regional developments and bilateral ties between the two countries,” Hariri's office said in a statement. The Chinese envoy spoke after the meeting, saying he held very good talks with Hariri.“We exchanged viewpoints about the current situations in Syria, the expected developments and the steps that the international community and the regional countries intend to take,” Hariri's office quoted Xie Xiaoyan as saying. The Chinese visitor also vowed that his country will continue to offer humanitarian aid to Lebanon and other countries to help them cope with the Syrian refugee crisis, adding that Beijing will maintain communication and consultations with Lebanon over the Syrian crisis.

Report: Berri Urges Aoun to 'Extend Hand' to Franjieh
Naharnet/December 05/16/Speaker Nabih Berri stressed on Monday that he made many concessions to facilitate the formation of the cabinet, as he urged President Michel Aoun to “open up” to Marada chief MP Suleiman Franjieh to end the stalemate hampering the formation of the cabinet, As Safir daily reported Monday. “Despite the apparent obstacles, the government could be formed any minute now,” Berri told the daily, as he described as “unrealistic” the reports blaming his for the delay. “I believe that if Aoun makes an initiative towards Franjieh, the latter will reply the initiative with a better one,” added the Speaker, as he urged Aoun to open up to Franjieh and to end the difference between the two. He added that the subject was discussed with the President on the sidelines of the reception held on Independence Day. “The crisis is unjustified. Indicators show that some (party officials) are reviewing their stances and a solution could be reached leading to the formation of the cabinet,” he added. Touching on the need to stipulate a new electoral law to hold the upcoming parliamentary elections, the Speaker said that shall the 1960 law be adopted, it will “aggravate sharp sectarian alignments” between the Lebanese and will have “dangerous repercussions,” as he stressed the need to stipulate a “new law before it is too late.”

Two Palestinian Security Force Members Injured in Ain el-Hilweh Attack
Naharnet/December 05/16/Two Palestinian security force members were critically injured when armed assailants opened gunfire at a security position in the southern refugee camp of Ain el-Hilweh, the National News Agency reported Monday. Unknown assailants opened gunfire at the position of the Palestinian joint security forces in Ain el-Hilweh injuring Mohammed Abdullah aka al-Iraqi and another member from al-Jaber family, NNA added. The two were seriously injured and were transported to the hospital for treatment. Security forces deployed heavily in the camp in search for the perpetrators. By long-standing convention the Lebanese army does not enter the camps, leaving security inside to the Palestinians themselves. There have been several reports that the camps have become a safe haven for extremists.

AMAL Says 'Shiite Duo' Not Seeking to Confront FPM-LF Alliance
Naharnet/December 05/16/A senior official of Speaker Nabih Berri's AMAL Movement announced Sunday that AMAL and Hizbullah are not seeking a confrontation with the rising Lebanese Forces-Free Patriotic Movement alliance. “Let no one bet that AMAL Movement and Hizbullah will form a Shiite duo to confront a Christian duo represented in the FPM and the LF. We support the unity of Christians, the unity of Muslims and the unity of the country,” Sheikh Hassan al-Masri, the deputy head of AMAL's politburo, said. “What we share with President (Michel) Aoun is a lot bigger than our differences,” Masri noted, downplaying the latest tensions between Aoun and Berri. “We share the same vision regarding Lebanon’s unity, Lebanon's Arab identity and his endorsement of the resistance. We and President Aoun are working for Lebanon's unity and Arab identity and we're seeking to protect Lebanon, so let no one bet on anything else,” the AMAL official added.

Zahra Fears 'Internal Tutelage' Could Block Taef Implementation
Naharnet/December 05/16/Lebanese Forces MP Antoine Zahra voiced hopes that efforts to implement the Taef Accord start without any obstruction from what he described as “internal tutelage.”Addressing mayors of the Batroun area during a lunch banquet on Sunday, Zahra said: “We have always called for the implementation of the Taef accord, the establishment of civil peace, the unification of the country and the reinforcement of the state and its institutions. “We have been waiting for 27 years, we hope to start the implementation of the agreement during this tenure now that we are over with the external tutelage,” said Zahra in reference to the Syrian tutelage in Lebanon without naming them. “We hope the internal tutelage, the de-facto forces and policies do not obstruct us," he went on to say. Wrangling among various political parties over the distribution of portfolios have thwarted the attempts to form a cabinet since the designation of Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri for the task on November 3. The Taef Accord was an agreement reached to provide the basis for the ending of the civil war and the return to political normalcy in Lebanon. The 1989 agreement set a time frame for Syrian withdrawal and stipulated that the Syrians withdraw in two years.

Kataeb Urges 'Burying' 1960 Electoral Law, Slams 'Absurd Conflict' over Govt.
Naharnet/December 05/16/The Kataeb Party on Monday called for “burying” the 1960 electoral law under which the last parliamentary polls were held in 2009, as it slammed what it called the “absurd conflict” over cabinet shares. “The party urgently calls for burying the 1960 law which undermines partnership and excludes large segments of the Lebanese,” said Kataeb in a statement issued after its political bureau's weekly meeting. It accordingly called for devising a new electoral law that “ensures correct and fair representation.”Caretaker Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq has recently warned that there is not much time left to pass a new law while reassuring that the ministry is ready to organize the 2017 polls under the 1960 law. Hizbullah and its allies have repeatedly called for passing an electoral law based on the proportional representation system but other parties, especially al-Mustaqbal Movement, have rejected the suggestion, arguing that Hizbullah's controversial arsenal of arms would prevent serious competition in regions where the Iran-backed party is influential.
Mustaqbal, the Lebanese Forces and the Progressive Socialist Party have meanwhile proposed a hybrid electoral law that mixes the proportional representation and the winner-takes-all systems. Hizbullah's ally Speaker Nabih Berri has also proposed a hybrid law.
 The country has not voted for a parliament since 2009, with the legislature instead twice extending its own mandate. Separately, Kataeb blasted what it called “the absurd conflict over ministerial shares and portfolios” and the classification of ministries as “sovereign, services-related, important and secondary.” “The party calls for rising above this polarization that is insulting to logic and the dignity of the Lebanese and for speeding up the formation of a cabinet whose priorities should be the approval of an electoral law and a state budget in addition to the economic situations,” Kataeb added.

Sami Gemayel Says Some Don't Want 'Annoying' Kataeb in Govt.
Naharnet/December 05/16/Kataeb Party leader MP Sami Gemayel announced Monday that “Kataeb's voice annoys all parties” in the country because it is “different.” “Some parties have in one way or another said that Kataeb's presence in the Cabinet is not necessary,” Gemayel added during an interview with al-Mayadeen television. Asked about Kataeb's participation in the new government, Gemayel said his party is not insisting on a certain ministerial portfolio because the Cabinet will only serve for six months. “We do not have a problem in staying outside the government but like everyone else we have the right to be in a national unity cabinet,” Gemayel went on to say.

Land Transportation Union confirms ongoing strike
Mon 05 Dec 2016/NNA - Land Transportation Union chief, Bassam Tleiss, denied, in a statement on Monday, the reopening of the mechanical inspection offices and the end of the sit-in observed by public drivers and truckers nationwide. "This is not true," Tleiss said in reference to posts via social media claiming that the said authority reopened its offices. He also confirmed that the strike was still ongoing in all the Lebanese regions, adding that the land transportation sector will meet at 11:00 am tomorrow ahead of Thursday's general strike.

Rahi, Canadian Foreign Minister tackle current developments
Mon 05 Dec 2016/NNA - Maronite Patriarch Cardinal Bechara Boutros Rahi met on Monday afternoon in Bkirki with Canada's Foreign Minister, Stephane Dion, with talks reportedly dwelling on the overall situation in Lebanon and the broad region, notably the war in Syria and its implications on Lebanon. Talks also touched on the existing humanitarian and social conditions of Syrian and Palestinian refugees and the great burden endured by Lebanon as a result of the Syrian displacement and the Palestinian and asylum.
Patriarch Rahi stressed on the role by the international community, including Canada, in ending the existing wars in the region, resolving the Palestinian cause, consecrating a lasting and permanent peace in the Middle East for the sake of a dignified and secure life for citizens.

Hariri discusses with Chinese envoy situation in Syria
Mon 05 Dec 2016/NNA - Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri received this afternoon at the "Center House" China's special envoy to Syria, Xie Xiaoyan, at the head of a delegation, accompanied by the Chinese Ambassador to Lebanon Wang Kejian, a statement by Hariri's office indicated on Monday. After the meeting, the Chinese envoy said: "I had a very good meeting with Prime Minister Saad Hariri. We exchanged views on the latest developments in Syria, and the steps that will be taken by the international community and the countries in the region."He added: "China and Lebanon are friends and have good cooperation on international and regional affairs. They also have good coordination on the Syrian issue, and we hope to make progress concerning reaching a cease-fire, the fight against terrorism, humanitarian aid and a political solution. There is a relationship between these four areas so they must be given great attention. The fight against terrorism is an important issue because terrorism hinders a cease-fire and leads to the continuation of chaos, and it is a common enemy to all mankind. Therefore, all terrorist organizations listed by the United Nations on the black list must be hit with an iron fist."
 He concluded: "We hope to make progress in the political process and the resumption of political negotiations in Geneva as soon as possible. The international community must give the humanitarian situation more attention. China has provided aid to the Syrian people, including the Syrian refugees in Lebanon, that reached 480 million yuan. At the beginning of this year and during the tour of the Chinese president in the Middle East, he announced additional aid to the peoples of this region that reached 230 million yuan. And in February, the Chinese Foreign Minister announced food assistance of ten thousand tons. China will continue to provide humanitarian aid and wants to continue consultations with Lebanon on the Syrian issue". Separately, Hariri received a message from Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy Brey who congratulated him on his assignment to form the government.

Cyprus Maronite Minority Sees Chance to Save Ancient Language
Naharnet/Agence France Presse/December 05/16/
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/2016/12/05/cyprus-maronite-minority-sees-chance-to-save-ancient-language/
In a village in northern Cyprus, a community struggling to save its ancient language has seen a glimmer of hope in intensified efforts to reunify the divided island. Kormakitis was once the hub of Cyprus' Maronite minority, descendants of Lebanese and Syrian Christians who spoke Sanna, a unique dialect of Arabic influenced by the Aramaic spoken by Jesus. The language is now severely endangered, according to UNESCO. Uprooted by the 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus, many Maronites assimilated into Greek Cypriot communities where they sought shelter. They have seen fresh hope in recent months as the Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders intensified their efforts to reunite the island. Talks in Switzerland ended on November 21 with no breakthrough, but the leaders have since agreed to resume negotiations and are due to meet again in Geneva in January. The Maronites hope a deal could eventually encourage the community to return to live in northern Cyprus. That could help revive Sanna, which is in decline despite years of classes, the efforts of NGOs and an annual summer school in the village.  "The problem is that because we have lost our village it's very difficult to keep our language," teacher Katy Foradari said, taking a break from teaching Sanna under the vaulted ceiling of an 18th century church in Kormakitis. Able to visit and stay in the village despite living outside the Turkish-controlled part of the island, young Maronites have attended Sanna classes at a summer camp there every August since 2008. In sunbaked sandstone chapels and whitewashed bungalows around the small main square, around 100 children aged five to 17 took part in this year's camp.They learned basics from the alphabet -- codified for the first time only a few years ago -- to songs, vocabulary and grammar.
 - 'Losing our language' -
 Making up less than one percent of the island's population, Maronites are a branch of the Catholic church and have been in Cyprus since the eighth century. Like many of the volunteers at the school, Foradari grew up in Kormakitis, the largest of the island's four Maronite villages and the last where Sanna was spoken. But when she was 16, Turkey occupied the northern third of Cyprus after an Athens-backed coup in the capital Nicosia. She and most of the community fled to the south, leaving their homes behind. They established Maronite churches in their new communities, with parts of services still given in the ancient Semitic language of Syriac -- like their more numerous counterparts in Syria and Lebanon. But Sanna did not weather the displacement well. Because Maronite children do not go to school in Kormakitis, "we have started losing our language," Foradari said. "We are used to speaking Greek." A few hundred, mostly elderly, residents remained in the village after 1974, using Sanna in their daily life and helping out with the summer camp. But of nearly 5,000 Maronites living across the island today, only around 1,000 speak Sanna. Some of them see the peace talks as the best hope in years for reviving their language. For Yiannakis Mousas, the community's representative to the parliament, only a solution to the Cyprus dispute can save Sanna. "Only through the return of the Maronite people, of their property, of their schools, of their churches, only in this way do we have a good chance to revive the language," he told AFP.
 - 'A new beginning' -
 Since 1974, Mousas and many other Maronites have been based in Nicosia, the island's divided capital. They have a modern church and a small social club named after Kormakitis, where they sip coffee a few hundred yards from the U.N. buffer zone that splits the old town.
Mousas said reunifying the island would encourage young Maronites to move to their villages, where they would hear Sanna spoken daily, encouraging them to adopt it again. "Once the Maronites are resettled to their villages, there will be a new beginning," he said.
 But the latest talks produced no concrete results, and the memory of previous, failed negotiations looms over ongoing efforts to reach a solution. The community is teaching Sanna as usual, with classes at Nicosia's Maronite primary school and more summer camps planned.
 "We have to create projects like this camp where we combine learning the language with entertainment," said Antonis Skoullos, an IT expert in his 40s who helps organize the Kormakitis language school. He recognized the need to make Sanna appealing to young people who had no memory of living in Kormakitis. But nostalgic for the village he fled as a young boy, he admitted his motivation to revive the language was more personal than practical. "Behind this language are my memories and my feelings," he said.

Precious opportunity
The Daily Star/December 06/16
The great news is that, after some very difficult and lean years, Lebanon still matters in the minds of a cross section of big countries. From Saudi Arabia to France and Qatar to Canada, since the election of President Michel Aoun representatives of these countries have converged on Lebanon offering their support. Much like the Lebanese, they hope that Aoun’s election will be the first step toward reviving all branches of governance, including, of course, the formation of a Cabinet, as well as a raft of top posts that remain unfilled. This is no minor feat. It is a sign of confidence in the future of Lebanon, which in itself is substantial capital that the country should build upon. However, all this goodwill shown will disappear down the drain unless a new government is formed to utilize the available support, be it economic, military or political. We have to realize that the massive show of confidence witnessed is a treasure to be banked, but without a government to deal with, there is no vehicle for these friendly countries to turn warm words into material benefits.  The Lebanese must realize that such support is not open-ended, nor is it without conditions, for no country is willing to deal with a state that lacks even a Cabinet. This support is a precious opportunity that should not be wasted by these incessant delays in forming a government.  The hurdles placed in Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri’s way are reminiscent of the tools used in the ’60s, ones that history shows led to the darkest period Lebanon has ever seen. A new Cabinet is meant to be the catalyst for the recovery of the country and the reinvigorating of its flagging institutions.Should it be treated as a delicious Black Forest cake by cunning politicians hungry for a slice larger than they deserve, then the real banquet that the whole country needs and desires is in danger of disappearing all together. 

Saraya Al-Tawheed: A Pro-Assad Druze Militia in Lebanon and Syria
Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi/Syria Comment/December 5th, 2016
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/2016/12/05/aymenn-jawad-al-tamimisyria-comment-saraya-al-tawheed-a-pro-assad-druze-militia-in-lebanon-and-syria/
 The involvement of the Arab Unity Party- primarily supported by Lebanese Druze opposed to Walid Jumblatt- and its leader Wi’am Wahhab in the Syrian civil war has long been known, as Wahhab and his party have played a role in organizing forces in support of the Assad regime among Syrian Druze. Indeed, the Arab Unity Party has openly identified a militia called the Ammar bin Yasir Battalion as its affiliate operating in Syria, claiming ‘martyrs’ on fighting fronts in both Suwayda’ and Quneitra provinces as part of efforts to defend Druze areas.
 However, more recently another armed affiliate of the Arab Unity Party has come to attention: Saraya al-Tawheed (“The Unity Brigades”). The group received widespread coverage in the Arabic press for a parade and festival held in the Lebanese locality of al-Jahiliya (Wahhab’s hometown) in late November 2016. According to the Lebanese newspaper al-Diyar (which is pro-Assad), the event was attended by a variety of notables from both Lebanon and Syria: “Representatives from diplomatic commissions, national parties, heads of municipalities and elective commissions in all the regions and villages of Chouf and Aley, as well as a number of the mashayakh [Druze sheikhs] in Hasbaya, Rashaya, Aley and Matn, along with mashayakh from Suwayda’, Jabal al-Arab and Jabal al-Sheikh, and popular delegations from all regions of Chouf, Aley, Rashaya and Hasbaya.”
 Among those attending was Mahmoud Qamiti, a member of the political office of Hezbollah, which is an ally of the Arab Unity Party. Echoing familiar ‘resistance’ axis discourse, Qamiti affirmed:
 “Our honour will only be the honour of confronting the occupation and confronting the conspiracy, the Western-American project, the takfiri enemy and the Israeli enemy. Our honour is from Palestine and in Palestine, from Gaza and in Gaza, and in all the land of Palestine. Our honour is in Syria and in the face of the conspiracy against Syria, and our honour is in the resistance.”
 For some context, takfiri refers to the one who declare others to be disbelievers, even when they profess to be Muslims. In the discourse of Hezbollah and the ‘resistance’ axis, the term is often used to refer to the wider Sunni insurgency in Syria, which, to be sure, harbours considerable anti-Shi’a sentiment to the point of pronouncing Shi’a to be non-Muslims. Qamiti also took the opportunity to emphasize the supposed role of the ‘resistance’ in protecting Lebanon, working alongside the Lebanese army and the security apparatus. Finally, Qamiti appealed to the Druze in the Golan as well as Jabal al-Arab and Jabal al-Sheikh, saying that they are “our brothers and allies in the resistance and working to the protect the Golan and Syria.”
 For his own part, Wi’am Wahhab outlined the supposed role of Saraya al-Tawheed, clarifying that the group does not comprise “military or security brigades, or terrorist as the anxiously afraid say, but rather brigades of the coming change, the stormy change, the change towards a better tomorrow for us, our mountain and our people from Iqlim al-Kharoub to the last mountain and last patch of eart in Lebanon, from the south to the north: they are civilian brigades, rejecting the use of weapons except in self-defence and supporting the Lebanese army and the security forces if anything requires that, and confronting any ‘Israeli’ aggression. They are part of the resistance.” Wahhab also highlighted his solidarity with the Assad regime, the Syrian army, “the Lebanese resistance” that has stood by Assad, and the Druze communities in Syria that have fended off rebel assaults (e.g. Hadr in Quneitra). Wahhab further took the opportunity to address his rival Walid Jumblatt, calling on him and others to come together “in solidarity under the banner of the mashaykh and not under the banner of anyone else.”
 Here, it is worth noting two points with regards to Saraya al-Tawheed. First, the group did not suddenly come into existence last month. Rather, the groundwork was being laid for months prior to the parade and event in al-Jahiliya. According to the official for the Saraya al-Tawheed Facebook page who spoke with me, Saraya al-Tawheed was established six months ago. Indeed, in October 2016 the group was discussed in an article in the Lebanese newspaper al-Nahar, in which the Arab Unity Party’s media director Hisham al-Awar made clear that the outlining of the framework and aims had already begun some time ago and that there were plans to hold a Saraya al-Tawheed parade on 20 November (as reported above) as part of “a celebration of solidarity with our Arab people in the occupied Golan, Jabal al-Sheikh and Jabal al-Arab”- all areas inhabited by Syrian Druze.
 In the same discussion with al-Nahar, al-Awar claimed that Saraya al-Tawheed already had “hundreds of members” not limited to Druze areas only, and that there were young women in the group as well. According to al-Awar, the notion of women being encouraged to join Saraya al-Tawheed was partly based on what Wahhab saw on his last visit to Hadr, in that a group of young women were apparently fighting in the area (cf. Labawat al-Jabal in Suwayda’). On the subject of whether there were links with Hezbollah’s Saraya al-Muqawama (“The Resistance Brigades”) that recruits non-Shi’a, al-Awar said that while the aims of Saraya al-Tawheed and Saraya al-Muqawama may overlap in many respects, Saraya al-Tawheed is “independent with its own framework, assignments, responsibilities and administrative organization.”
 The second important point to make is that Saraya al-Tawheed’s scope is not limited to Lebanon, even as the Arab Unity Party’s messaging at the present time has largely focused on the idea of Saraya al-Tawheed as a youth group and support force for the Lebanese army and security forces to defend against attacks on Lebanon. The same official for the Saraya al-Tawheed Facebook page affirmed to me that “Saraya al-Tawheed in Syria is defending the land and honour in the localities and villages, particularly in Hadr and Suwayda’.” The members of Saraya al-Tawheed in Syria, according to this source, are “of Syrian origin.” A photo circulated on 24 November appears to show members of Saraya al-Tawheed in the Hadr area, put out with a caption on a Wi’am Wahhab Facebook page: “Tribute to Saraya al-Tawheed in Hadr who have prevented the terrorists from entering the locality with the participation of the rest of their brothers, mashaykh and people.”
 It may then be asked what the difference is between Saraya al-Tawheed and the Ammar bin Yasir Battalion. Well, not much, really. As per the official for the Saraya al-Tawheed Facebook page, the Ammar bin Yasir Battalion has supposedly been around since “the July war until today,” whereas Saraya al-Tawheed is a newer formation, even as both groups are “two faces of one coin.” The July war, known in Arabic as Harb Tamuz, refers to the conflict between Israel and Lebanon that began in July 2006 after Hezbollah attacked a group of Israeli soldiers. These events took place soon after the initial foundations of the Arab Unity Party in late May 2006. It should be noted that there appears to be no public information attesting to the existence of the Ammar bin Yasir Battalion as far back as 2006, though that does not necessarily mean it did not exist at that point. For comparison, the Iraqi militia and political faction Saraya al-Khorasani only really came to public light at first in 2013 with its involvement in the Syrian civil war but in reality, as subsequent information that has come to light has shown, it has roots going back much further to the 1980s and 1990s. Another case for comparison might be the Syrian Hezbollah faction called the National Ideological Resistance, which, as its leader claimed to me in an interview in 2014, has roots going back to mid-2009. Of course, there could be a degree of rhetorical exaggeration here, but one must not automatically assume that a movement comes into being simply when it begins announcing its existence on contemporary social media.
 The most likely motivation for the establishment of Saraya al-Tawheed is that it ostensibly represents more than just a mere militia amid a Lebanese political climate that may be wary of new militias that simply display shows of armed force. In contrast, the Ammar bin Yasir Battalion is something that has been very low-key apart from the claiming of ‘martyrs’ in Syria and cannot necessarily be presented as something beyond an armed group/militia. Wahhab also presents Saraya al-Tawheed as embodying something analogous to sports associations, while emphasizing a defensive function in support of the Lebanese state and within the framework of the law.
 Accordingly, Saraya al-Tawheed can perhaps be seen as more useful than the Ammar bin Yasir Battalion in terms of being a means of asserting greater political influence in Syria and Lebanon, by functioning as both a militia force and a form of wider social outreach. To conclude, an analogue here might be the Lebanese branch of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP), which has a militia in the form of Nusur al-Zawba’a that has been fighting in support of the Assad regime in Syria and presenting itself as defending Lebanon, while engaging in wider social outreach in its zones of influence and control. The Lebanese SSNP has been able to extend its influence deep into regime-held Syria in particular, especially among the Christian populations in Homs and Hama. Perhaps the Arab Unity Party could achieve something similar with the Druze populations in Syria through the Saraya al-Tawheed project.
http://www.joshualandis.com/blog/saraya-al-tawheed/

Did Hezbollah really censor Fairouz?
Hussain Abdul-Hussain/Now Lebanon/December 05/16
https://now.mmedia.me/lb/en/commentaryanalysis/567535-did-hezbollah-really-censor-fairouz
The ban by Hezbollah-affiliated students at Lebanese University of Fairouz’s music should be taken up with the dean, and, failing that, the LU president
Last week, pro-Hezbollah members of the Student Council at the Lebanese University (LU) forcefully prohibited their fellow students from playing Fairouz songs on campus. Social media exploded. A flurry of angry Lebanese denounced Hezbollah’s bullying at LU, as media organizations reported that “Hezbollah banned Fairouz’s songs on LU campus.” But there is a catch. To my knowledge, there has been no statement from the Hezbollah party apparatus on the issue. Hezbollah’s media arms, such as Al-Ahed and Al-Manar websites, remained silent. Outside of the social media sphere, nothing suggests that Hezbollah was involved in the LU censorship incident. Media organizations that reported on Hezbollah’s censorship could have contacted the party’s communication officials to inquire about the incident, something these media organizations failed to do, leaving many of us with the feeling that what happened at LU could have just been some childish behavior on part of the Student Council.
Hezbollah’s LU censorship incident was not the first of its kind. There have been reports of pro-Hezbollah mayors in south Lebanon issuing warnings against Internet cafes, and other mayors forcing illegal ban on alcohol sale. While all such acts, including the censorship of music, harassment of Internet cafes and banning alcohol sales, match Hezbollah’s taste and ideology, we cannot ascribe enforcing them to the party, especially when Hezbollah remains silent on these incidents. Hezbollah has the strongest intelligence network in Lebanon, and should it plan to harass music listeners or alcohol consumers, the list of night clubs to-be-harassed in the country will keep the party busy for a few years. Hezbollah can do serious damage to Lebanon’s night life, the pride of many Lebanese, had the party really intended to do so.
Yet apparently, Lebanon’s night life is flourishing, and there are even reports of night life joints opening shop in the Beirut’s southern suburb, Hezbollah’s stronghold, to the extent that the party’s leadership has publicly asked police to crack down on drug sales and consumption in Hezbollah’s neighborhoods.
So who censored Fairouz songs at LU? What we know is that the members of the Student Council have an open affiliation with Hezbollah. What we do not know is to what extent were these students acting independently, or under instructions from a central Hezbollah authority. For us to believe that Hezbollah has decreed to censor music on university campuses, we would have expected pro-Hezbollah students at other universities to show similar behavior, which is not the case. This leaves us with one remaining possibility. Hezbollah does grant its student leaders autonomy on campuses, provided that these students stick to the party’s guidelines and ideology. It is in the party’s creed that “non-anthem” music is prohibited. The LU Hezbollah students did bully their colleagues to stop playing Fairouz's songs, and perhaps Hezbollah is not happy with the attention that its LU students have brought its way. Yet the party, in line with its ideology, cannot instruct its loyalist students who censor music on their campuses to behave otherwise.
 The best way to deal with Hezbollah students at LU was to pursue the issue through legal channels: Raise the issue with the dean, and if nothing comes out of him, take it up with the LU president. If all else fails, go to the local police, and even to courts.
 The best way to call the bluff of Hezbollah’s students is to take up the issue with higher authorities in a way that will force the leadership of the party to react. Hezbollah will most probably distance itself from its bully students. If the party does not, and rather supports their position, then it will be interesting to debate the issue on a national level. Exchanges over social media and trying to score a quick victory against Hezbollah by accusing it of censorship may not be the best course of action. There is no firm evidence that censorship came from the party, apart from speculation. Freedom of expression is a serious matter, and dealing with any infringements should be similarly serious, mature and smart. 

Meet the Lebanese businessman building Israel's new warships
Smadar Perry, Tamar Shabak/Ynetnews/December 05/16
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/2016/12/05/smadar-perry-tamar-shabakynetnews-meet-the-lebanese-businessman-building-israels-new-warships/
Iskandar Safa is the CEO of Abu Dhabi MAR, contracted to build four Sa'ar 6-class corvette warships for the Israeli Navy. But his relationship with Israel began years earlier, when in 1989 he was asked to help in the search for Israeli navigator Ron Arad.
French-Lebanese businessman Iskandar Safa is the CEO of shipbuilding company Abu Dhabi MAR, which was contracted last year to build four Sa'ar 6-class corvette warships for the Israeli Navy. But his relationship with Israel began years before—when asked to help in the search for Israeli navigator Ron Arad.
In the summer of 1989, on a luxurious yacht in the French Riviera, a polite but straightforward Israeli man approached French journalist Roger Auque.
"My name is Amos, I'm Israeli. There's an Israeli pilot—Ron Arad is his name—who has been held captive since 1986," the Israeli man told Auque without wasting any time on formal introductions. "We think the person who got you released from captivity can help us," Amos added.
The Israelis, Auque revealed in an autobiography released after his death, had asked to be introduced to a French businessman of Lebanese descent—Iskandar Safa, nicknamed "Sandy"—and in return promised Auque an interview with Sheikh Obeid, the spiritual leader of the Amal militant group based in Lebanon.
Safa had helped free Auque, who was kidnapped by Hezbollah when he was in Beirut.
Auque accepted the request and came to Israel, where Amos was waiting for him along with the Mossad agent "Tony" and Israeli diplomat Uri Lubrani, who was at the time the Coordinator of Government Activities in Lebanon.
The interview with Sheikh Obeid never materialized, but Auque got a different story instead. When he returned to Paris, Auque fulfilled his part of the deal and introduced Lubani to the French businessman.
In his autobiography, Auque revealed that the meeting between Lubani and Safa was held in the latter's spacious apartment in one of Paris' upscale arrondissements.
Lubani confirmed the story to Yedioth Ahronoth on Sunday, saying "I met with a lot of Lebanese figures in an effort to gather information
on the fate of Ron Arad, and I remember there was one among them called Safa."
Iskandar (Alexandre) Safa was born in 1955 to a a Maronite Christian family in Ghadir, a town in northern Lebanon. Having completed his BE in Civil Engineering at the American University of Beirut in 1978, Safa proceeded to take his MBA at INSEAD, in Fontainebleau, France in 1982.
Along with his younger brother Akram, Iskandar Safa owns the Beirut and Paris-based Privinvest Holding Group, a major defense contractor in Europe. It controls shipyards and facilities in France, the United Kingdom, Greece, the United Arab Emirates and Germany.
Through Privinvest, Safa owns 30 percent of the shares of Abu Dhabi MAR, serves as the non-executive vice chairman of the board of Marfin Investment Group, a Greek listed holding company, and controls FIMAS SA, a French company with extensive real estate development and hospitality activities in the south of France. He also controls French shipyard Constructions Mécaniques de Normandie.
Safa is known in France for his involvement in two dubious affairs in the 1980s and 1990s. The first, in the late 1980s, involves ransom that was reportedly paid by the French government to free a group of French diplomats and journalists that were kidnapped in Lebanon.
The second affair, dubbed "Angola-gate," came to light in 1991, when reports emerged that right-wing politicians in France tried to send $790 million worth of arms to Angola President José Eduardo dos Santos, who was fighting rebels in his country.
In both cases, some of the money disappeared somewhere along the way, and Safa was suspected of having mediated between the two sides and taking a hefty commission.
An anonymous source told a French newspaper at the time that Safa "had connections in all communities in the Middle East, including Israel and the Mossad."
In 2010, he was reported to be brokering a deal for the French company Dassault Aviation, which was trying to sell its Rafale fighter plane to Saudi Arabia.
In 2012, it was reported that Safa, a friend of Muammar Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, tried to broker several deals between Libya and different shipyards around the world.
Safa also brokered a deal to purchase to battle ships for the Algerian Navy from the German-based ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems.

Latest LCCC Bulletin For Miscellaneous Reports And News published on December 05-06/16
Iran Detains Dozens Of Christian Converts As Rights Group Urge World To Intervene
BosNewsLife, December 3, 2016
TEHRAN, IRAN (BosNewsLife)– A group of 19 influential human rights groups have urged the United Nations and the international community to help protect Christian converts in Iran saying scores of believers were detained for leaving Islam. In a statement to BosNewsLife the activists said that the “Islamic Republic of Iran” has been “homing in on converts from a Muslim background”. Between May and August 2016 security forces forces arrested at least 79 Christians, according to activists, family members and friends.
“The majority of those arrested were interrogated and detained for periods ranging from a few days to months.” the groups said. “At the time of writing some of these 79 Christians remain in detention and have still not been formally charged.”
Rights groups say “the true number of Christians apprehended by the authorities could be notably higher” as “many” arrests would have gone unreported. In 2012, Iran’s government began to bar converts from Muslim backgrounds from attending services in official churches. Instead Christian converts “are forced” to gather in informal groups known as “house churches”, the activists said. “These gatherings are considered illegal by authorities and are often raided. In August 2016 alone security agents allegedly raided at least four house churches and the house church members were arrested and interrogated.

Iran IRGC commanding Aleppo killings from “Fort Behuth” southeast of the city
 NCRI Statements/ Monday, 05 December 2016
 IRGC presence, transfer of weapons to Syria are flagrant violations of UNSC resolutions
 The main Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) command center and barracks in Aleppo is at “Fort Behuth,” located 30 kilometers southeast of the city (5 kilometers south of the city of al-Safire). Iran has named this site as “Fort Hazrat Roqiye,” under the command of IRGC Brigadier General Seyed Javad Ghafari, commanding all IRGC forcers in Aleppo.
Ghafari, with experience from the Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s, has for the past three years commanded the Aleppo military campaign and Syria’s northern front. He has recently been appointed as field commander of all IRGC forces in Syria. A few months ago he joined IRGC Quds Force commander Qassem Suleimani in a meeting with Bashar Assad, where the Syrian dictator praised Ghafari. He has also joined Suleimani to meet with Lebanese Hezbollah leader Hassan Nassrollah.
 There are two command centers inside this base. One is associated to the IRGC command structure, while the second center is home to senior Hezbollah commanders alongside the IRGC. This is where military operations are blueprinted. A number of Syrian army officers and commanders are also present in this base, busy coordinating their operations with the IRGC. This base is one of the permanent centers of the IRGC’s so-called “Saberin” (commando) battalions. These forces are equipped with armored personnel carriers and 107mm mini-Katiusha rockets.
 Each of the proxy groups linked to the IRGC have their own specific section in the base. Commander of the Fatemiyoun (IRGC’s Afghan mercenaries) in Fort Behuth is Brigadier Commander Amirpour.These forces are stationed 500 meters from the IRGC.
Fort Behuth, located near the Jabul salt lake, was prior to this considered one of the most important centers of chemical, ammunition and missile production for the Assad regime’s weapons of mass destruction. Located close to a salt mine, this base facilitates the provision of raw material needed for chemical weapons. The Assad army has codenamed the site as 350.
Fort Behuth and its related centers located south of al-Safire comprise the IRGC’s missile production site.
 “Syria has reached the point that in the past few years Iran has launched missile production units in Aleppo,” said General Mohammad Bagheri, joint chiefs of staff of Iran’s armed forces on November 10.
 Former IRGC commander Rahim Safavi, currently the military advisor to Iranian regime leader Ali Khamenei, said in an interview on September 22 with Iran’s state TV that the main role in this war is on the shoulders of the ground forces, consisting of the IRGC, terrorist Quds Force foot-soldiers from various countries and the Syrian army. The IRGC and its mercenaries are coordinating the vicious bombings conducted in Aleppo, he admitted.
 As the Iranian Resistance has announced time and again, the mullahs’ regime and the IRGC are the main elements behind massacring the Syrian people and prolonging this crisis. By plundering money belonging to the Iranian people in the Syrian war, the Iranian regime has forced the entire region to bring of utter devastation. Last week the Iranian Resistance made public the names of 39 IRGC brigadier generals and 30 IRGC colonels killed in the Syria war.
 The Iranian regime deploying armed forces and sending weapons to Syria is a flagrant violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions and international covenants. The first necessary step to resolve this crisis is to fully evict the mullahs’ regime, the IRGC and their proxy groups from Syria. Otherwise, peace will never return to the region and nor will Daesh (ISIS/ISIL) be ever uprooted.
 National Council of Resistance of Iran/Security and Anti-Terrorism Commission/December 5, 2016

Iran: 12 Fashion Models Were Totally Sentenced to 379 months of Imprisonment
Monday, 05 December 2016/NCRI - Iran's Criminal Court in Shiraz – Central Iran, sentenced the 12 accused of modeling case to 379 months of imprisonment, banned from leaving the country as well as employment in certain professions. As state run Ilna news agency reports on 5th December 2016, the attorney of the modeling defendants said:"this file has 12 accused consisting of 8 women and 4 men. The head of Branch 117 of the Criminal Court 2 of Shiraz charged the defendants with offering Western models in fashion exhibitions, shaping mannequins, and promoting the culture of nudity." Mahmoud Taravatrooy claimed that each defendant is sentenced to imprisonment from 5 months to 6 years. He also talked about the issued sentences and said:"a man and woman were each sentenced to 5 years of imprisonment, the prohibition of employment in the industry of fashion design and production. They are also banned from exhibiting any fashion shows for two years after the end of the sentence. Another woman was sentenced to 1 year of imprisonment and a couple was each sentenced to 8 months of imprisonment as well as the prohibition of employment in the fashion industry. They are also banned from working in photography studio two years after the end of prison time. In addition to that, another woman was sentenced to 6 years of imprisonment, prohibition of employment in the fashion industry and she is forbidden to hold fashion exhibitions for two years after the end of prison time. " The attorney of those accused of modeling in Shiraz also added:"in this case, another woman is sentenced to 5 months of imprisonment and banned from designing and holding fashion exhibition for two years after the end of the sentence. The last accused is a man who is also sentenced to two years of imprisonment and prohibition of employment in the photography industry for two years after the end of the sentence. As a complementary punishment, the court also bans the defendants from leaving the country for two years; starting from the end of detention."

Iran: Political Prisoners Condemn Ahmad Montazeri's Prison Sentence
 Monday, 05 December 2016/NCRI - Some of political prisoners in Karaj’s Gohardasht Prison – West Tehran have condemned Ahmad Montazeri’s 21-year prison sentence.
 The statement issued by these prisoners reads: “Mr. Ahmad Montazeri’s unjust and questionable sentence issued by the Special Clerical Court for his publishing an already revealed audio tape belonging to Ayatollah Montazeri regarding the massacre of political prisoners in the summer of 1988 is a clear injustice.”The essay continues: “at a time when the regime’s security president Rouhani and the corrupt Minister of Justice are speaking of freedom of expression, the issuance of such a sentence is oppressive and contrary to all international legal standards. On one hand, the sentence shows the confusion and insecurity of the whole system and on the other hand it points to regime’s fear of the new wave of disclosures and international justice seeking demands initiated by nations and natural and legal figures regarding the massacre of political prisoners in the summer of 1988. But the regime is unaware of the fact that its chances are over and it must reap what it has already sown. Regime has no option but to accede to a series of trials regarding the tortures, executions, assassinations, behind-the-scenes crimes during the 8-year-old war (Iran-Iraq war), nuclear program, killing people in Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Lebanon, thefts, corruption, billion-toman embezzlements and suspicious deaths of prisoners of conscience. And this is the history’s clear message to all the dictatorships. Mandated by our human responsibility, we, the political prisoners, fundamentally condemn the interrogation, filing lawsuit, and issuance of such a cruel and inhumane sentence, and demand the international bodies and human rights organizations to prevent its execution.”

Russia, China Veto U.N. Resolution Demanding Aleppo Truce as Regime Forces Advance on Ground
Naharnet/Agence France Presse/December 05/16/Russia said Monday it would hold talks with Washington on a total rebel withdrawal from Syria's Aleppo, where the army has made sweeping advances, but opposition factions rejected any evacuation. President Bashar Assad's forces have seized two-thirds of the former rebel bastion in east Aleppo since they began an operation to recapture all of the battered second city in mid-November. The assault has raised an international outcry, but Russia and China Monday vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution calling for a seven-day ceasefire in the city. Tens of thousands of east Aleppo residents have fled to other parts of the city from the fighting, which has raised widespread international concern. The rapid regime gains have left opposition fighters reeling, and earlier Monday Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said talks would be held on a rebel evacuation. "During the Russian-American consultations the concrete route and timeframe for the withdrawal of all fighters from eastern Aleppo will be agreed upon," Lavrov said, adding the discussions in Geneva would probably start on Tuesday or Wednesday. "As soon as these routes and timeframes are agreed on, a ceasefire can come into effect," Lavrov said. But rebel groups swiftly rejected any talk of an evacuation. Yasser al-Youssef of the Nureddine al-Zinki faction, a leading rebel group in Aleppo, described any such proposal as "unacceptable.""It is for the Russians to leave," he told AFP. Moscow is a close ally of Assad's government, and launched a military intervention in support of Damascus last year. Government troops have also been bolstered by Iranian forces, fighters from Lebanon's Hizbullah and Shiite fighters from other countries.
'Revolutionaries won't leave'
"The revolutionaries will not leave Aleppo and will fight the Russian and Iranian occupation until the last drop of blood," said Abu Abdel Rahman al-Hamawi of the Army of Islam, another smaller rebel group active in Aleppo. Rebels have been forced to evacuate several of their strongholds in Syria during the conflict, including a string of areas near Damascus in recent months. In many instances, they have reached deals with the government after months of army siege and fierce fighting, agreeing to lay down their arms in return for safe passage to rebel territory elsewhere. Among the most well-known evacuations was the 2014 exit of rebels from the Old City of Homs after a two-year government siege. But if Washington and Moscow were to agree a deal for a rebel evacuation from Aleppo, it would mark the first time that the two powers, which back opposing sides in the war, have negotiated the withdrawal of opposition forces. Estimates for the number of rebels in east Aleppo vary, with the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor putting the figure at 15,000 before the current assault began. The U.N.'s Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura in October put the number at 8,000 rebels, saying around 900 of them belonged to the Fateh al-Sham Front, al-Qaida's former Syrian affiliate previously known as al-Nusra Front. The loss of Aleppo would be the biggest defeat yet for opposition forces in Syria's five-year civil war.
Army pounds east Aleppo
Russia is a staunch ally of Syria's government, and began a military intervention in support of Damascus in September 2015. It says it is not involved in the current offensive in Aleppo, which has seen the army advance quickly as it pounds the east with air strikes, barrel bombs and artillery fire. But Moscow has sent field hospitals to the city, and said Monday one of the facilities was hit by rebel fire, killing two Russian army medics and wounding another. On the ground in the east, Syrian troops battled rebels in the Shaar district, which the army has almost completely encircled after advancing overnight. The army on Monday pounded remaining rebel territory with incessant strikes and artillery fire that sent up plumes of smoke visible from across the city. The Observatory says at least 324 people have been killed in east Aleppo during the offensive, including 44 children. Rebel fire into the government-held west of the city has killed 73 people, including 29 children, in the same period, the monitor says. On Monday, state news agency SANA said eight people had been killed in rebel fire on west Aleppo, and an AFP correspondent in the west reported heavy incoming rocket fire that shook buildings.

Syria Rebels Rule out Withdrawal from Aleppo
Naharnet/Agence France Presse/December 05/16/Syrian rebels on Monday ruled out a pullout from east Aleppo despite sweeping government advances, after Moscow announced it would hold talks with Washington on their withdrawal from the city. The Syrian army has seized two-thirds of east Aleppo and continued to advance on Monday, pounding remaining opposition-held territory. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said earlier that Moscow would hold talks with Washington this week on a timeframe for the withdrawal of all rebels from Aleppo. "During the Russian-American consultations, the concrete route and timeframe for the withdrawal of all fighters from eastern Aleppo will be agreed upon," he said, indicating the talks in Geneva would likely start on Tuesday or Wednesday. "As soon as these routes and timeframes are agreed on, a ceasefire can come into effect," Lavrov said. But officials from two rebel groups in Aleppo said they would reject any plan that involved the withdrawal of fighters from the city. Yasser al-Youssef of the Nureddine al-Zinki rebel group said any proposals "for the exit of rebel groups would be unacceptable.""It is for the Russians to leave Aleppo, and for the sectarian militias to leave Aleppo and Syria and stop interfering in the internal affairs of Syrians," he told AFP. Russia is a staunch ally of Syria's government, and it launched a military campaign to bolster President Bashar al-Assad's forces in September 2015. The government also fights alongside Lebanon's Shiite Hezbollah movement, Iranian forces and Shiite fighters from other countries. "The revolutionaries will not leave Aleppo and will fight the Russian and Iranian occupation until the last drop of blood," said Abu Abdel Rahman al-Hamawi of the Army of Islam, another rebel group. "This is our land and the land of our ancestors, and we will stay on it, and defend it, God willing," he said. "The revolution will continue until victory."Both officials said rebels remained willing to approve a UN plan for the entry of humanitarian aid into the east, which has been besieged by government forces since mid-July. Rebel forces seized east Aleppo in 2012, and the army last month launched a major operation to recapture it. So far it has seized two-thirds of the east in a ferocious assault that has killed nearly 320 civilians and over 200 rebels, according to a monitoring group.

Russian Field Hospital Hit in Syria's Aleppo, Nurse Killed
Associated Press/Naharnet/December 05/16/Rebel shelling of Syrian government-held part of Aleppo killed a Russian nurse in a makeshift Russian hospital in the city on Monday while the Defense Ministry in Moscow said a Russian fighter jet crashed into the Mediterranean Sea after returning from a sortie over Syria. The developments were a blow to Russia, which has been one of the staunchest supporters of Syrian President Bashar Assad in his country's bitter civil war, now in its sixth year. The shelling in Aleppo that killed the female nurse also wounded two Russian doctors working in the field hospital, a Russian officer in Aleppo told reporters. He spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations. The hospital equipment was part of aid that Moscow had sent into the Furqan neighborhood in the government part of Aleppo the previous day. In Moscow, the Russian Defense Ministry said a Su-33 fighter jet, based on the aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov, crashed into the Mediterranean Sea after returning from a sortie over Syria. The ministry said that "because of the failure of the arrester system's cable, the Su-33 fighter rolled off the deck" on Monday. The pilot successfully ejected and was unharmed in the incident, the ministry said, adding that Russian military operations over Syria will not be affected by the incident. This is the second loss of an aircraft from Russia's only aircraft carrier since it arrived off Syria last month. A MiG-29 crashed into the sea on Nov. 15 while attempting to land on the Admiral Kuznetsov. In Aleppo, rebel shelling on the government-held part of the contested city has intensified in recent weeks as Syrian government and allied troops push their way into parts of Aleppo controlled by the opposition. In an offensive that began last week, Syrian government forces seized large swaths of the Aleppo enclave that have been under rebel control since 2012. The fighting was most intense on Monday near the dividing line between east and west Aleppo as government and allied troops pushed their way from the eastern flank, reaching within less than 1 kilometer (half a mile) from the citadel in the center of the city. Rebel fighters clashed with advancing troops and also lobbed mortars and shells into the government-controlled part of Aleppo to the west. Syrian State TV said four civilians were killed Monday in three different neighborhoods in western Aleppo. The opposition-run Thiqa News agency and the Syrian Civil Defense in Aleppo city said four civilians were killed in rebel-held Zabadiyeh district when barrel bombs were dropped there. In the nearby rebel-controlled Idlib province, Syrian opposition activists said Russian and Syrian aircraft stepped up assaults, a day after air raids killed more than 60 people. The activist-run Local Coordination Committees said airstrikes on Monday hit the towns of Binnish, Maarat Nasaan, and Saraqib, as well as the provincial capital, Idlib. The network said three children were killed, blaming the attacks on Russian aircraft. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 288 civilians have been killed in the province since Oct. 20, when Syrian government and Russian aircraft intensified airstrikes. The Syrian Civil Defense in Idlib said 65 civilians were killed in Sunday's airstrikes across the province, including attacks on two rural marketplaces that killed dozens.

In Aleppo, Dreaming of Home but Finding Only Rubble
Naharnet/Agence France Presse/December 05/16/Kafa Jawish hadn't slept in days, daydreaming of seeing her home in east Aleppo for the first time in four years, but when she arrived she found little more than rubble. The 36-year-old was among hundreds of Syrians returning to east Aleppo in recent days after the army recaptured large swathes of the city from rebels and encouraged residents to visit neighborhoods and homes they left years earlier. She could barely contain her excitement as she sat on a government bus heading to her neighborhood of Haydariya in northeast Aleppo, recaptured by the army earlier in the week. "I left my house four years ago and I'm just so happy to be going to see it, I haven't slept for three days because I'm so excited," she told AFP as the bus wound its way from western Aleppo. "I want to ululate with happiness when I see my house safe and sound," she said, dressed warmly in a black coat and headscarf that framed her smiling face. Stuffed into a bus crowded with other passengers, she and her husband Tajeddin Ahmed discussed their plans to return home, after years living in the Syriac Quarter in central Aleppo. "I'm going to go back to living in my house no matter what condition it's in," she said firmly. "We're tired of paying rent, we miss our house and our families and our neighbors." The couple fled Haydariya in July 2012, when rebels entered the city, leaving at dawn one morning without any of their belongings and moving into the ancient Syriac Quarter. More than half of Syria's population has been displaced internally or abroad by the conflict that began with anti-government protests in March 2011 before spiraling into a war that has killed over 300,000 people.
Shocking destruction
"I want to go back to the house that I lived in with my family and go back to living together safely and happily," said Ahmed, 45. "I'm really hoping we'll find the house in good shape." His phone rang as they talked: an old neighbor who couldn't leave work asked Ahmed to check on his house too. As the bus set out, Jawish expressed hope that her neighborhood might be relatively untouched, reasoning it was far from the frontlines that saw the worst fighting. East Aleppo has seen some of the worst violence of the war, and has been pounded by the army since it began an operation to recapture the city in mid-November. As the bus edged closer to Haydariya, Jawish’s smile dropped away, and she and Ahmed fell silent. Along the road, buildings were partially or fully collapsed, windows long blown out and furnishings destroyed or looted. The route itself was cratered in places, and the bus bounced as Ahmed stared grimly out of the window, murmuring prayers. Jawish tried to pick out places that held memories, spotting an area she used to picnic with her husband. Growing impatient with the bus's slow, careful progress, she tried in vain to convince her husband to get out and walk the rest of the way so she could get to her house quicker. But when they finally arrived, she burst into tears at the sight of their building, parts of the length of one side of it completely gone, leaving the inside exposed to the elements.
Old life 'a memory'
Most of the windows were blown out, along with their frames, the front door was missing and a stack of broken tiles was piled up in the doorway. Unable to enter the damaged building, the couple stood on tiptoes to peer in through a ground floor window at their old apartment. "We were so optimistic, I thought I was going to ululate when we arrived, but now we've found it like this, uninhabitable," she said tearfully. "We spent years working to make a home, buying things for it, bit by bit, until we had a washing machine and a fridge, and now there's nothing in it and the house is destroyed. Oh God."She described the concerts that once took place at their house, with people playing the lute and singing. "When I look at the house I remember all those beautiful moments." Ahmed appeared stunned as he looked on, repeating over and over: "Thank God for our health and wellbeing.""We sacrificed so much to make this house our home, how will we start over again?" Jawish asked. "I know that our relatives will all be in the same situation as us, who will help us?" The couple left to walk through the neighborhood, checking on the homes of their neighbors, all similarly damaged and gutted. Their old life, Jawish said, "has become just a memory."

Second Russian Airplane Crashes in Failed Carrier Landing near Syria
Naharnet/Agence France Presse/December 05/16/Russia's defence ministry on Monday said a Sukhoi jet attempting a landing on its Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft carrier crashed after rolling off the deck, making it the second warplane to crash in a month. "After carrying out its military assignment in Syrian airspace, a Su-33 fighter rolled beyond the deck of the Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft carrier during landing due to breakage of the arresting cable," the defence ministry said in a statement quoted by Russian news agencies.

Two Senior Iraqi Officers Killed in Clashes with IS
Naharnet/Agence France Presse/December 05/16/Two senior Iraqi army officers have been killed in clashes with the Islamic State group south of the embattled jihadist bastion of Mosul, the military command said Monday. The brigadier general and colonel were killed Sunday in the Sharqat area, 90 kilometers (55 miles) from Mosul where Iraqi forces are pressing an offensive to retake the city from the jihadists, the Joint Operations Command said. Iraqi forces recaptured the western part of Sharqat in September but IS still controls eastern Sharqat. Tens of thousands of Iraqi forces backed by a U.S.-led coalition launched a massive operation to retake Mosul, the jihadists' last major bastion in Iraq, on October 17.

French PM Valls Joins Presidential Race
Naharnet/Agence France Presse/December 05/16/French Prime Minister Manuel Valls on Monday threw his hat in the ring to succeed Francois Hollande in next year's presidential election. "I am a candidate for the presidency of the Republic," Valls said, announcing he would step down as prime minister on Tuesday to campaign for the Socialist nomination in a primary in January. The 54-year-old Spanish-born premier announced his candidacy in a speech from his political base in the tough Paris suburb of Evry, in which he appealed to the fractured left to unite behind him. "I have a responsibility today -- to unite," Valls, seen as a divisive figure, said. He warned of the risk of far-right leader Marine Le Pen shutting the left out of the decisive second round of the election in a repeat of France's 2002 electoral earthquake when her father Jean-Marie Le Pen was beaten in the runoff. Valls' entry into the race had been expected after Hollande announced last week he would not seek a second term, bowing to pressure to step aside, including from his prime minister. Health Minister Marisol Touraine and Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve are among those tipped to succeed him as premier for the six months until legislative elections that follow the presidential vote. The combative Valls meanwhile will go up against at least seven other candidates for the nomination of the mainstream left in a two-round primary on January 22 and 29.
The first round of the presidential election in France is due to be held on April 23 with a run-off on May 7. Polls show Marine Le Pen could come first or second in the first round, but would likely lose to the conservative candidate Francois Fillon in the second round. But with Sunday's Italian referendum defeat for Prime Minister Matteo Renzi just the latest rout of mainstream political figures at the ballot box, no-one is ruling out a Le Pen victory.
Divided Socialists
The divided French left currently appears ill-equipped for such a fight. Valls is a polarizing figure on the left, accused of being a closet conservative for using decrees to force labor reforms through parliament and endorsing controversial bans last summer on the Islamic "burkini" swimsuit. Martine Aubry, a veteran Socialist and the mayor of the northern city of Lille, said Monday she did not believe Valls could unite the Socialists. Polls currently show Valls winning the primary but trailing behind Le Pen and Fillon in the first round of the presidential election. Valls would face a fight for votes with two candidates who are not standing in the nominating contest -- business-friendly former economy minister Emmanuel Macron and the fiery hard-left Jean-Luc Melenchon. Valls sought the Socialist nomination five years ago as a rank outsider, winning only 5.6 percent on a platform seen as too economically liberal. He became a spokesman for Hollande's campaign and when the Socialist won the presidency he rewarded Valls with the post of interior minister. In 2014, Valls was promoted to prime minister with a mandate to rein in a group of unruly ministers that were undermining Hollande's authority. Within months he had a rival for the title of reformer-in-chief, in the telegenic banker-turned-economy minister Macron. Hollande's protege walked out on the government in August to further his own presidential ambitions -- infuriating Valls who accused him of "destroying the left." Valls said Friday he was determined to "defend the legacy" of Hollande, despite opinion polls showing that his former boss is the least popular French president for nearly 60 years. But in a newspaper interview last month, the normally loyal Valls had himself turned on Hollande, saying explosive revelations contained in a book of interviews between the president and two journalists had "plunged the left into total disarray." Valls said he wanted to "dispel the notion that defeat is inevitable" for the Socialists.

IS Loses Libya Bastion in Major Blow to Jihadists
Naharnet/Agence France Presse/December 05/16/Forces loyal to Libya's U.N.-backed government said Monday they had seized full control of Sirte from the Islamic State group, in a major blow to the jihadists who battled for months to retain their bastion. The battle for the coastal city, which was the last significant territory held by IS in Libya, cost the lives of hundreds of loyalist troops as well as an unknown number of IS fighters. "Our forces have total control of Sirte," Reda Issa, a spokesman for pro-government forces, told AFP. "Our forces saw Daesh (IS) totally collapse."Forces allied with the country's unity government launched an offensive to retake the city on May 12, quickly seizing large areas of the city and cornering the jihadists. But IS put up fierce resistance with suicide car bombings, snipers and improvised explosive devices. "Daesh has totally collapsed and dozens of them have given themselves up to our forces," said a statement on the loyalist forces' official Facebook page. The capture of Sirte boosts the authority of the U.N.-backed Government of National Accord (GNA), which was launched in Tripoli last March but whose legitimacy is contested by a rival administration based in eastern Libya. The United States started a bombing campaign in August at the request of the GNA to help local forces recapture the city, seized by jihadists in June 2015. As of December 1, U.S. warplanes, drones and helicopters had conducted 470 strikes. Libya descended into chaos following the NATO-backed ousting of longtime strongman Moammar Gadhafi in 2011, with rival administrations emerging and well-armed militias vying for control of the country's vast oil wealth. The infighting and lawlessness allowed extremist groups such as IS to seize several coastal regions, giving the jihadists a toehold on Europe's doorstep.
Far longer than planned
The fall of Sirte -- Gadhafi's hometown located 450 kilometers (280 miles) east of Tripoli -- represents a major setback for IS, which has also faced a series of military defeats in Syria and Iraq. Iraqi forces are advancing on the IS stronghold of Mosul, while a U.S.-backed Kurdish-Arab alliance last month launched an offensive to retake Raqa, the Syrian capital of the "caliphate" the jihadists proclaimed in 2014. "Losing it (Sirte) could cause a momentary loss of traction, but a lot will depend on what happens in Syria and Iraq and whether the ungoverned spaces in Libya will remain such," said Mattia Toaldo, a Libya expert with the European Council of Foreign Relations. Toaldo said IS' failure to hold Sirte was due in part to the group's lack of resources in Libya. "They didn't manage to seize any considerable source of revenue," he said. "What they found in the banks in Sirte was not comparable to what they found in Mosul, nor was there an equivalent weapons stockpile." The fight for Sirte took far longer than originally planned, but signs emerged in recent days that IS fighters were about to capitulate. The Pentagon last week said that IS holdouts were staging a "last stand" in their former stronghold. Pro-GNA forces on Sunday said they had even arrested several jihadists attempting to swim to safety. Almost seven months of fighting left nearly 700 GNA fighters dead and 3,000 wounded. Issa said in November that the final assault was held up mainly because it would "result in very intense street fighting and Daesh is determined to defend its positions right down to the last square meter."Claudia Gazzini, an analyst with the International Crisis Group think-tank, said that jihadists who escaped from Sirte had likely moved south to Sebha, closer to Libya's borders with Algeria and Niger. Others from the group are believed to be operating in Benghazi and possibly in and around Tripoli.
"Despite the demise of IS in Sirte we cannot rule out that they will continue to have cells in other parts of the country," Gazzini said.

With Fall of Sirte, IS Down but Not Out in Libya
Naharnet/Agence France Presse/December 05/16/The fall of Sirte to pro-government forces is a significant setback for the Islamic State group in Libya, but will not spell the end of the jihadists in the strife-torn country, experts say. The loss of the coastal city is the toughest blow yet to the group's ambitions to seize and control territory in Libya along the lines of its self-proclaimed "caliphate" in Syria and Iraq. But the group is likely to maintain a clandestine presence and seek to undermine Libya's fragile unity government. "The retaking of Sirte is certainly a negative blow to IS affiliates in Libya because they will no longer have a territorial stronghold in the country," said Claudia Gazzini, a Libya analyst at the International Crisis Group. But the group is likely to maintain cells in other parts of the country, she said. IS took advantage of the chaos following the fall of dictator Moammar Gadhafi in 2011 to gain a foothold on Libya's Mediterranean coast, just a few hundred kilometers from Italy. As rival militias fought for control, it had free rein to implant itself in Gadhafi's home town, where it took control in 2015. "Conquering Sirte and establishing a wilayat (a province in the 'caliphate') was a big propaganda coup which attracted fighters from all over North Africa and the Sahel," said Mattia Toaldo, a Libya expert with the European Council on Foreign Relations. "Losing it could cause a momentary loss of traction, but a lot will depend on what happens in Syria and Iraq and whether the ungoverned spaces in Libya will remain such."
A new base
According to French and American sources, some 5,000-7,000 IS fighters are present across Libya. It is impossible to say how many were killed during the seven-month battle for Sirte. Those who escaped may try to set up a new base elsewhere in Libya, said Gazzini.
She said IS militants may still have a presence around the capital Tripoli and in second city Benghazi in the east. Fighters who escaped Sirte have likely moved south to Sebha, closer to Libya's borders with Algeria and Niger, she said. The lawless south is an important base for arms and people smugglers across the Sahel region. "Southern Libya offers ISIS some haven and logistical benefits but its remoteness is also a liability," said Frederic Wehrey, a Libya expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, using another name for the group.
"For it to find a place to govern and rule it would need to find a locale suffering from marginalisation and some sort of tribal or social constituency," he said. To operate, the group also needs money. IS fighters in Libya have had few financial resources compared to their colleagues in Iraq, who seized assets from local banks and sold oil and archeological treasures to fill the coffers of their "state." "(IS in Libya) didn't manage to seize any considerable source of revenue," Toaldo said. "What they found in the banks in Sirte was not comparable to what they found in (the Iraqi city of) Mosul, nor was there an equivalent weapons stockpile."Foreign diplomats hope that the fall of Sirte will strengthen the Government of National Accord (GNA), which has been operating in the capital since the spring but has little clout across vast areas of the country. Experts fear the jihadists may operate an underground network to carry out attacks against the GNA. "(IS might) try to utilize clandestine networks to undertake spectacular attacks to erode support for the already embattled GNA or dissuade foreigners from returning," Wehrey said.

Jordan Military Plane Crash Kills Pilot
Naharnet/Agence France Presse/December 05/16/A Jordanian air force pilot was killed on Monday after his F-16 jet crashed due to a technical fault during a training exercise, the army said. The army statement did not specify the location of the accident, which happened as the jet took off. In 2015, a Jordanian pilot and an Iraqi trainee were killed when a light training aircraft -- a T67 Firefly -- crashed during a routine military exercise. In 2013, another Firefly crashed in the north of the kingdom because of technical problems, killing the pilot and a trainee. Jordan is part of the U.S.-led coalition of Arab and Western countries carrying out air strikes against the Islamic State jihadist group, which controls parts of Iraq and neighboring Syria.

Saudi King on Regional Tour ahead of GCC Summit
Naharnet/Agence France Presse/December 05/16/Saudi Arabia's King Salman arrived in Qatar on Monday as part of a rare regional tour ahead of the annual summit of Arab leaders of the oil-rich Gulf states. The trip comes at the time of a political transition in the United States and as deadly conflicts rage in Syria, Iraq and Yemen. Salman began his tour in the United Arab Emirates, a key pillar of a Saudi-led Arab coalition that has been battling Iran-backed Shiite Huthi rebels in Yemen since March 2015. After Qatar, he will travel on to Kuwait and Bahrain, which is to host this year's Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) summit. His trip excludes Oman, known for its warm ties with the kingdom's regional arch-foe Iran and the only GCC member which is not taking part in the Saudi-led coalition. British Prime Minister Theresa May, visiting the Gulf for the first time since she came to office in July, will attend the two-day GCC summit which begins December 6.

Israel Resumes Parcel Post into Gaza
Naharnet/Agence France Presse/December 05/16/Israel has begun allowing parcels to be sent to Gaza again, officials said Monday, months after a ban over allegations the Palestinian enclave's Hamas rulers were using them to smuggle weapons. "It was decided yesterday to renew the postal services for packages into the Gaza Strip," said a statement from COGAT, the Israeli defence ministry unit that implements government policies in the Palestinian territories. It said the ban had been a result of multiple attempts by Islamist movement Hamas, which runs Gaza, to "smuggle materials for terror purposes, including knives, drones (and) spy equipment."The statement did not say when the ban came into force but Palestinian border authorities said it had been in place for five months. COGAT said that letters and documents had not been affected by the ban. Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza have fought three wars since 2008 and the strip has been under an Israeli blockade for around a decade. UN officials have called for the blockade to be lifted, citing deteriorating conditions in the enclave of some two million people. Israeli authorities say it is necessary to prevent Hamas from obtaining weapons or the materials to make them.

Kerry Accuses Israeli Right of Sabotaging Peace Process
Naharnet/Agence France Presse/December 05/16/U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Sunday accused right-wing Israelis of deliberately thwarting efforts to broker a peace deal with the Palestinians. In unusually stark terms, Washington's top diplomat warned that Israeli settlement building was undermining any hope of an agreement to allow two states to live side-by-side. At the Saban Forum, an annual gathering of senior Israeli and U.S. policymakers, Kerry said some members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government had made "profoundly disturbing" statements. "And more than 50 percent of the ministers in the current government have publicly stated they are opposed to a Palestinian state and that there will be no Palestinian state," he said. Earlier in the day, Netanyahu had addressed the forum via video link, arguing that Israeli settlement building was not an obstacle to peace. Israel was ready for talks with no preconditions, he said, urging Arab governments to recognize the state of Israel. However, Kerry dismissed the idea that more Arab states would strike peace deals with Israel without any moves towards an agreement with the Palestinians. "There will be no advance and separate peace with the Arab world without the Palestinian process and Palestinian peace," he said. "Everybody needs to understand that. That is a hard reality." In the U.S. government's view, Israel's accelerated building on Palestinian-owned land is not only an obstacle to peace but deliberately so, Kerry added. "I'm not here to tell you that the settlements are the reason for the conflict, no, they're not," Kerry said. "But I also can not accept the notion that they don't affect the peace process, that they aren't a barrier to the capacity to have peace," he argued. "And I'll tell you why I know that: because the left in Israel is telling everybody they are a barrier to peace and the right that supports it openly supports it because they don't want peace." U.S. President Barack Obama's administration, which comes to an end next month with no prospect of a revived peace process, has been frustrated by the attitude of Netanyahu's government. Still, Kerry insisted Israel has no greater friend than Washington. Since he arrived at the State Department in February 2013, he has spoken to Netanyahu on 375 formally recorded occasions for more than 130 hours of discussions, he said. Washington has opposed all attempts to pressure Israel through votes on United Nations bodies, he added, and has just signed a 10-year $38 billion military support deal, the biggest in U.S. history.

Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on December 05-06/16
Iran to Trump: Death to America Will Live On
Majid Rafizadeh/Gatestone Institute/December 05/16
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/2016/12/05/majid-rafizadehgatestone-instituteiran-to-trump-death-to-america-will-live-on/
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9467/iran-trump-death
 Ayatollah Ali Khamenei made it clear that Trump's presidency causes "no difference" to Iran-US relationships. He called the Americans' election "a spectacle for exposing their crimes and debacles."
 "Thank God, we are prepared to confront any possible incident." — Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
 From the perspective of Iranian moderates, reformists and hardliners, the US is not a superpower anymore; but a weak actor in the Middle East and on the global stage.
 Iranian leaders also made it clear that Tehran will continue supporting Hezbollah and other groups that have been designated as terrorist groups by the US Department of State. These groups pursue anti-American and anti-Israeli agendas.
 Ideologically speaking, Iran's hardliners, primarily Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and senior officials of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) who enjoy the final say in Iran's domestic and foreign policies, have made it clear that Iran will not change the core pillars of its religious and revolutionary establishment: Anti-Americanism and hatred towards the "Great Satan" and the "Little Satan", Israel.
 Supporters of Ayatollah Khamenei and the IRGC enthusiastically shouted "Death to America" in response to a recent speech that Khamenei gave, applauding the 1979 hostage-taking and takeover of the US Embassy in Tehran.
Iran's major state newspapers carried anti-American headlines this week, quoting the Supreme Leader. In his latest public speech to thousands of people, which was televised via Iran's state TV, Khamenei made it clear that Trump's presidency will cause "no difference" to Iran-US relationships. Khamenei pointed out that, "We have no judgment on this election because America is the same America". In his speech, Khamenei attacked President-elect Donald Trump and the American people. The Ayatollah called the US election "a spectacle for exposing their crimes and debacles."
 Other hardliners echoed the same message that there would be no change in Iran's revolutionary principles and ideals against the US and its allies. The deputy commander of the Revolutionary Guards, Hossein Salami, told Iran's Fars news agency: "When the Republicans were in power, they threatened us and showed their hostility... and when the Democrats were in power, the policies of the United States were the same."
Khamenei also remarked that the US will remain the evil, or the "Great Satan," saying:
 "In the past 37 years, neither of the two parties who were in charge did us any good and their evil has always been directed toward us....We neither mourn nor celebrate, because it makes no difference to us... We have no concerns. Thank God, we are prepared to confront any possible incident."
 He added that the remarks made by Donald Trump "over the last few weeks on immoral issues -- which are, for the most part, not baseless accusations -- are enough to disgrace America."
 Militarily, strategically and geopolitically, Tehran's core pillars of damaging US national interests, and scuttling US foreign policy objectives will remain intact.
Iran's semi-official Fars news agency reported that Iran's armed forces chief of staff, General Mohammad Hossein Bagheri, has heavily criticized Donald Trump for stating that the US will confront Iranian boats in the Gulf if they harass US Navy ships. In the last year, Iran has increasingly harassed and provoked US Navy ships, and detained 11 American sailors.
 General Bagheri stated out that, "The person [Trump] who has recently achieved power, has talked off the top of his head! Threatening Iran in the Persian Gulf is just a joke."
 In 2016, the number of incidents of boats from Iran's navy and Revolutionary Guards provoking and harassing the US Navy ships rose significantly to 31 incidents, highlighting that the IRGC evidently feels sufficiently emboldened to damage US national security publicly and on a regular basis. From the perspective of Iranian moderates, reformists and hardliners, the US is not a superpower anymore; but a weak actor in the Middle East and on the global stage.
 In addition, Iran, with underlying anti-American objectives, is aggressively expanding its military presence and naval bases in foreign nations and international waters. Major General Mohammad Hossein Baqheri said, as cited by the Iranian Tasnim news agency, that the expanding presence in international waters and naval bases in foreign countries "could be ten times more efficient than nuclear power." For the first time, the Iranian Navy's 44th flotilla, comprised of a Bushehr logistic warship and an Alvand destroyer, has now sailed into the Atlantic Ocean as well.
Tehran is also considering having naval bases on the coasts of Yemen and Syria to support the Assad government and the Houthis. As Iran's Chief of the General Staff told a gathering of senior naval commanders, "One day, we may need bases on the coasts of Yemen and Syria, and we need the necessary infrastructures for them under international maritime law."
Iran's naval commander, Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari, also told the gathering of senior naval commanders that boosting military presence in international waters reflects Iran's power.
 According to the Tasnim news agency, Iran's navy has already deployed 49 flotillas to various maritime zones. Sayyari added that the flotillas "showcased Iran's symbol of power."
 Iranian leaders also made it clear that Tehran will continue supporting Hezbollah and other groups that are designated as terrorist groups by the US Department of State.
 These groups pursue anti-American and anti-Israel agendas.
Khamenei and IRGC are sending a strong message that Iran will neither alter its core religious and revolutionary pillar of anti-Americanism, nor change its foreign policy and military objectives of damaging US interests. Iran's policy towards the "Great Satan" will remain as it has been since the establishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran in 1979.
 *Dr. Majid Rafizadeh, political scientist and Harvard University scholar is president of the International American Council on the Middle East. He can be reached at Dr.rafizadeh@post.harvard.edu.
 © 2016 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. 

10 Things We Should Learn From the Ohio State Attack
Shireen Qudosi/Family Security Matters/December 4, 2016
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/2016/12/05/shireen-qudosifamily-security-matters-10-things-we-should-learn-from-the-ohio-state-attack/
http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/10-things-we-should-learn-from-the-ohio-state-attack
Americans returned from Thanksgiving to news of the latest jihadi attack waged by a Somali Muslim, Abdul Razak Ali Artan. Declaring that he had reached a "boiling point," the 18-year-old Ohio State University student drove a car into a crowded area on the Columbus campus. He then exited the vehicle and attacked the crowd with a knife. Artan injured 11 students before being killed by a university police officer.
Artan was a legal resident who came to the US through Pakistan in 2014. He arrived with his family, securing a refugee status after having escaped from Somalia.
 Ohio State University President Michael V. Drake, along with Ohio State Governor John Kasich, shied away from identifying the cause of the attack. This despite Artan's last Facebook post embracing a chilling message that in part read, "By Allah, we will not let you sleep unless you give peace to the Muslims..."
 Terrorism expert Walid Phares is clear about the motive. In private correspondence, Dr. Phares shares his belief that the Ohio State attack is "Another case of urban Jihadism. At this point the issue isn't even a link or not to ISIS or al Qaeda, but a link to the specific ideology called Jihadism. This is the generator of terror."
 In his book, The War of Ideas: Jihadism Against Democracy, Dr. Phares charts irreconcilable views between democracy and the violent ideology of jihadism that promotes a doctrine of death. Writing in The War of Ideas, Dr. Phares shares the insight that seems to escape academia and a former GOP presidential candidate:
 The ushq al mout (love of death) is the backbone of suicide bombing and gives terrorism its most frightening firepower. Indeed, once the fear of death is subtracted from political planning and public concern, there are no limits to the power of Jihadism.
 In the case of Ohio State jihadi Abdul Artan, the question is how did a child once fleeing Somalia under the fear of death then embrace death when finally under the protection of the greatest superpower? Further, how did decades of experience as a refugee escaping persecution not deter Artan from the jihadi doctrine of death? Answering these questions requires understanding how violent ideology slips through the slightest cracks in the system.
America is dealing with a crushing rise of jihadi dark web chatter that privatizes radicalization. Indoctrination into a violent political ideology thrives through combination of secret portals and chat rooms like AMAQ on Telegram that provide safe online communities for jihadi talk. Instant radicalization paired with travel to or from red-flag nations, broken immigration vetting and tracking systems, lack of community emphasis on assimilation, and the politicization of mosques as polarizing hotspots, places individuals on a three month fast track to radicalization.
 Just three months prior, Artan was featured in ‘Humans of Ohio State' - a profile in the university's student paper - that showed Artan hyper-focused on prayer spaces and identity politics. Three months later, he's pledged allegiance to ISIS in a killing spree. We could conclude that time period of radicalization was just this brief- or we could, far more reasonably, conclude that Artan's use of the left's victimhood narratives dovetail quite comfortably with his jihadi beliefs.
 That is the hard reality we're faced with. Instead, talking points have shifted to Islamophobia as a public health crisis for Muslims. And rather than recognizing the victims, mainstream media is humanizing the attacker as a social outcast who "loved America." That real problem is the killing sprees some Muslims are engaging in; it is not the mean words penciled and shoved into the mail slot at the local mosque. The inability of Muslims to recognize a present danger versus fear of a hypothetical threat, only further places all Americans at risk because it prevents us from being able to collectively move forward in dealing with radical Islam. It also places Muslim Americans at greater risk; the more Muslims deny the causal link between Islam and jihad, deflecting attention to a self-victimizing rhetoric, the more rest of America grows frustrated. It is also worth asking whether Muslim American organizations and communities that obstruct discourse and discovery by misdirecting away from real problems should be included in a broader perimeter of public inquiry. Instead of dealing with the most recent eruption of radical Islam, the issue is swept under the rug and upon it sits the incubus we call Islamophobia.
 Muslim Brotherhood affiliated Islamist groups like CAIR, who could not step away from the abacus of Muslim grievances for just one day, continued tallying letters (real or scripted) rather than looking beyond themselves to see that Muslim American communities have a much bigger problem: radicalization.
 In fact, across American there were only a handful of outlets and personalities that are pressing for truth in dialogue. This includes Conservative Review's Carly Hoilman, who took to higher ground in a piece titled "Difficult Conversations: Challenging Islam in the Wake of the Ohio State Attack."
 It also includes Michelle Malkin who tweeted, "Ohio State University jihad has virtually disappeared from national headlines -except for the p.c. ‘Muslims fear backlash' stories." That pattern was also spotted by the The Foreign Desk, which noted dark web chatter was on the rise with talk hailing the attack and allegiance being shown in the form of profile pics replaced with a photo of Artan.
Being able to move forward means treating thought process behind this attack as a forensic scene that requires precision and analysis. That scene tells that that the only public health crisis an ideological virus with a three month incubation period. This means that the next attacker is set to be radicalized by Inauguration Day.
 Studying that virus for actionable intelligence means observing how that strain has formed and how it influences another host. Yet, the Ohio State attack was one of the least exhaustively covered jihadist attack on American soil; due to the uncomfortable questions it raises, the media dropped the issue like a hot potato.
 The implications of the attack encompassed key crisis points facing our nation and new administration, including immigration, travel to red-flagged state sponsors of terror, and questions of assimilation. Not only were these though questions glossed over, but the intelligence we could gain from them were missed opportunities, including:
 1. Failing to look at the radicalization of the Somali Muslim community and its troubled history in the United States as one of the leading actors of domestic terror.
 2. Waiting for ISIS to confirm the attack rather than moving proactively on the facts that jihad comes from the doctrine of war in Islam. That doctrine is not limited to ISIS. It will continue to be a problem long after ISIS is defeated - if it's defeated.
 3. Failing to spot that ISIS does not claim every attack; they prefer to take credit posthumously. ISIS didn't claim three radicalized women in France who failed carry out attacks against Notre Dame, but it did claim radicalized women in Kenya. ISIS also didn't claim New Jersey attacker Ahmad Khan Rahami, though the pattern of attack mirrors ISIS.
 4. Failing to see that Ohio State attacker Adul Artan self-identified with ISIS in Facebook statement that called for the message being screen-grabbed before it was deleted. This is standard direction under ISIS to individual actors so that ISIS may identify the attack as a pledge. Those directions appear on page 12 of the latest issue of Rumiyah, an ISIS propaganda magazine.
 5. Failing to identify the relevance of Artan's pledge to ISIS versus Al-Shabab, a Somalia-linked terror group that, itself, in 2012 pledged allegiance to Al-Qaeda. If the most popular Somali terror group is Al-Shabab, and the most popular Pakistani terror group is Al-Qaeda, what does it say that Artan would self-identify with ISIS? This is particularly noteworthy considering Artan's family fled Somalia for Pakistan in 2007 before arriving to the United States in 2014. The desired affiliation with the most popular and coveted terror group on the planet right now - rather than the group associated with national identity - tells us that ISIS has come a long way from being a ‘JV team' and has secured global appeal.
 6. Failing to understand that when ISIS claims Artan as a soldier, they're telling us that the face of war has shifted. Artan's last online statement confirms that theirs is ideological war, born in an ideology, bursting kinetically through physical attacks. Their soldiers don't wear uniforms and their war zone is the public space. Their targets are civilians.
 7. The media and politicians' premature resurrection of gun control debate in a desperate attempt to politicize the attack along the lines of their preferred policy solutions. Of course, it became that a knife and vehicle were also used as weapons in the attack.
 8. Ignoring the correlation between attacks in Europe and Canada with the Ohio State attack, all of which follow the 2014 instructions of then ISIS chief spokesman Abu Muhammad al-Adnani who called for mobilized attacks using any tool available, including weaponizing vehicles.
 9. Ignoring those instructions to weaponized vehicles were again detailed as a call to action this past Thanksgiving, also shared in the most recent issue of Rumiyah.
 10. Trusting the public face of the Muslim community rather than engaging in investigative journalism to discover the true nature of comments shared by Artan's brother and his network of family and friends. His brother's Facebook page shows almost zero awareness of the gravity of the attack, no denouncement of Artan's actions as being against an Islam Muslims publically claim jihad has nothing to do with, and no sympathy for victims of the Ohio State attack.
 **Shireen Qudosi writes for http://counterjihad.com/. She is a Muslim writer based in California. @ShireenQudosi

In Silencing Of Loudspeakers, Israel Is No Different
Robert Ilatov/Jewish Member of the Israeli Knesset /Newsweek/December 05/16
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/2016/12/05/robert-ilatovjewish-member-of-the-israeli-knesset-newsweek-in-silencing-of-loudspeakers-israel-is-no-different/
Israel’s draft loudspeaker bill, proposed initially in March and again in November, seeks to silence places of worship at certain hours of the day by preventing them from using loudspeakers for calls to prayer. Israel’s cabinet has backed the bill, but it must pass three readings in the Israeli Knesset, or parliament, before becoming law. Israel’s Arab minority consider the bill an attack on their freedom of religious expression, specifically the Islamic call to prayer from mosques, while right-wing sections of Israeli society complain about the noise disrupting Jewish communities. After one of Israel’s top Arab lawmakers, Ahmad Tibi, offered his views on the bill, one of the bill’s sponsors, Jewish Israeli lawmaker Robert Ilatov, offers his own take on the matter.
In recent weeks, several Israeli Knesset members have voiced their concern that a new law I am advocating would harm the Muslim call for prayer and disrupt the freedom of religion in Israel. This cannot be further from the truth.
The ‘Muezzin Bill,’ as it is being called by some Israeli parliament members, is designed to provide a solution for all of Israel’s citizens, be they Jewish, Muslim, Christian or any other faith.This bill was created in response to complaints by Israelis from all walks of life asking to limit the use of massive loudspeakers at religious institutions across the country.
For a thousand years, muezzins climbed the minarets of mosques and their strong voices chanted the adhan, or call to prayer. Our specific problem is that in their bid to raise the faithful, mosques are now dueling with loudspeakers worthy of the best rock concerts.
Today’s modern-day muezzin includes a microphone and megawatt amplifiers, blasting out the azan from several mosques at once, and rattling windows and tooth fillings of the surrounding area well before sunrise. The problem is magnified by the mosques not all starting at the same time, so that the adhan becomes an unbearable symphony of high-decibel vibrations that can last up to 10 minutes or more—and at 4:30 in the morning. Imagine your kids being woken up that early because of that noise.
The result is not an inspiring call to prayer, but a wall of noise that adversely affects the quality of life of hundreds of thousands of Israeli citizens, both Jews and Arabs. In many ways, the goal of the proposed law is to prevent people’s sleep from being disturbed without harming Muslim prayer.
In Israel, we take the issue of freedom of religion seriously. This right for all is protected by law and backed up by the legal system. All citizens in Israel are allowed to practice their religion openly and freely. The new legislation supports a worldview whereby freedom of religion should not at the same time be an excuse to harm quality of life.
In an age where almost everyone has a smartphone and technology is providing creative solutions, the need for loudspeakers is reduced, especially when it’s in the middle of the night. Such a solution was implemented in Jerusalem, where local representatives of the adjoining neighborhoods of Jewish Gilo and Arab Beit Safafa independently reached a compromise using contemporary technology as an alternative to loudspeakers.
And Israel is not alone in this cause. The opponents of this bill fail to mention that many Muslims themselves are also calling for this type of legislation, not just in Israel, but in countries around the world. In researching this matter, I discovered that Israelis of all faiths have common ground with the residents of Cairo and citizens of Saudi Arabia.
Ten years ago, the Ministry of Religious Endowments in Egypt received complaints about the same issue we have here in Israel, that some mosques have “ loudspeakers that shake the world.” And last year a Saudi Arabian newspaper carried an article asking the Ministry of Islamic Affairs to “consider using audio technology for the call to prayer.”
The issue, we discovered, is not Israel’s alone—it is a common concern around the globe. As the world continues to adjust to the 21st century, the subject evokes emotion wherever and whenever it arises—be it in a predominantly Muslim nation such as Egypt, a predominantly Christian country like Germany, or a predominantly Jewish country like Israel.
Just like the Egyptians and the Saudis, the proposed law has nothing against religion and Israel is not banning the call to prayer. The law will in no way affect anyone’s right to prayer. Just like any other society around the world, all the law will do is to regulate the use of massive sound systems. And all the criticism you hear around it is just background noise.
*Robert Ilatov is a member of the Israeli Knesset, or parliament, for the far-right Yisrael Beitenu party and a sponsor of the ‘Muezzin Bill’ that seeks to silence loudspeakers at places of worship.
http://www.newsweek.com/silencing-loudspeakers-israel-no-different-528256

The New Israeli Prayers Law is Unjust, & We Are Obliged To Reject It
Ahmad Tibi, Deputy Speaker of Israeli Knesset/Newsweek/November 30/16
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/2016/12/05/ahmad-tibiarabic-deputy-speaker-of-israeli-knessetnewsweek-the-new-israeli-prayers-law-is-unjust-we-are-obliged-to-reject-it/
Israel’s mosque loudspeaker bill, proposed initially in March and again in November, seeks to silence places of worship at certain hours of the day by preventing them from using loudspeakers for calls to prayer. The Israeli cabinet has backed the bill, but it must pass three readings in the Israeli Knesset, or parliament, before becoming law. Israel’s Arab minority views the bill as an attack on their freedom of religious expression while right-wing sections of Israeli society complain about the Islamic call to prayer disrupting Jewish communities. Below is the view of one of the country’s top Arab lawmakers, Ahmad Tibi.
The Israeli government’s decision to initiate a new law that aims to ban the call to prayer, or Adhan, from mosques in Israel is the latest official attempt to impose what they refer to as the “Jewish State” upon 1.5 million Palestinian citizens living in Israel, as well as upon more than 300,000 Palestinians in East Jerusalem. It is the outcome of the Israeli government’s Islamophobia that is gaining strength in its anti-democratic effort following the election of Donald Trump as the next U.S. president.
In the government coalition in Israel, there is an aggressive clash between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Education Minister Naftali Bennett. They are both competing to be the leader who can consolidate the occupation and provide the most help to the settlers.
With this proposed law, mosques that date back more than 200 years are the targets of the Israeli government, such as the Mahmoudiya Mosque in Jaffa or the Aljazar Mosque in Acre, both built in the 19th century. But this is not the first time that the Israeli establishment has attempted to deny our Arab, Christian and Muslim identity.
Netanyahu and his government insist on treating all Palestinians as immigrants. The discriminatory attitude that the Israeli government has directed toward us is not recent and can be seen in more than 50 laws approved in the Israeli parliament since 1948 that we believe undermine our basic rights.
The Middle East is affected by extremism, and many have pledged to fight the cancer of the so-called Islamic State militant group (ISIS), but it feels to me that the government of Israel is pushing us all into a religious war due to its decision to reject its obligations to allow religious freedom under international law. I want to make it clear that these policies and Netanyahu’s plans to divide our people will end as a failure. He cannot change our identity.
In the Joint Arab List, Israel’s third-largest party, we have tried to establish ties with Jewish religious parties in order to stop the initiative to prevent the call to prayer. Some of the responses have been positive, including from several local rabbis. We have also supported the work of Arab-Israeli civil society in order to promote a local dialogue about this issue in several communities.
Thomas Jefferson once said: “If a law is unjust, a man is not only right to disobey it, he is obliged to do so.” The Arab citizens of Israel will continue their struggle for equal rights, and so we will disobey this law. From our schools and theaters, from our homes and streets, from our churches and from the minarets of our mosques, we will remind the Israeli government that we are here to live as who we are: proud Arabs and equal citizens.
Ahmad Tibi is the deputy speaker of Israel’s Knesset, representing Israel’s third-largest political party, the Arab Joint List. He is the leader of the Ta’al (the Arab Movement for Change) party.
http://www.newsweek.com/new-israeli-prayers-law-palestinians-unjust-obliged-reject-525090

The Real Illegal Settlements
Bassam Tawil/Gatestone Institute/December 05/16
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9490/illegal-settlements
While construction in Jewish settlements of the West Bank and neighborhoods of Jerusalem has long been carried out within the frame of the law and in accordance with proper licenses issued by the relevant authorities, the Palestinian construction is illegal in every respect.
The Palestinian goal is to create irreversible facts on the ground. The sheer enormity of the project raises the question: Who has been funding these massive cities-within-cities? And why? There is good reason to believe that the PLO and some Arabs and Muslims, and especially the European Union, are behind the Palestinian initiative.
The Jewish outpost of Amona, home to 42 families, is currently the subject of fiery controversy both in Israel and in the international arena. Apparently, settlements are only a "major obstacle to peace" when they are constructed by Jews.
The EU and some Islamic governments and organizations are paying for the construction of illegal Palestinian settlements, while demanding that Israel halt building new homes for Jewish families in Jerusalem neighborhoods or existing settlements in the West Bank.
The hypocrisy and raw malice of the EU and the rest of the international community toward the issue of Israeli settlements is blindingly transparent. Yet we are also witnessing the hypocrisy of many in the Western mainstream media, who see with their own eyes the Palestinian settlements rising on every side of Jerusalem, but choose to report only about Jewish building.
As the international community continues to slam Israel for construction in Jewish settlement communities, Palestinians are quietly engaging in massive construction of entire neighborhoods in many parts of the West Bank and Jerusalem. In addition to overlooking the Palestinian building project, the West has clearly been neglecting a crucial difference between the two efforts: while the construction in the Jewish settlements of the West Bank and neighborhoods of Jerusalem has long been carried out within the frame of the law and in accordance with proper licenses issued by the relevant authorities, the Palestinian construction is illegal in every respect.
In this behind-the-scenes endeavor, which does not meet even the most minimum standards required by engineers, architects and housing planners, the Palestinian goal is to create irreversible facts on the ground.
A quick tour of the areas surrounding Jerusalem from the north, east and south easily exposes the colossal construction that is taking place there. In most cases, these high-rise buildings are slapped together without licenses or any adequate planning or safety concerns.
An example of massive illegal Palestinian construction near Shufat and Anata, on the northeastern outskirts of Jerusalem.
The Jewish outpost of Amona in the central West Bank, home to 42 families, is currently the subject of fiery controversy both in Israel and in the international arena. In 2006, the High Court of Israel ruled that the outpost is illegal under Israeli law because it lies on private Palestinian land. In 2014, the High Court ordered the government to evacuate and demolish the entire outpost within two years.
In Israel, as Amona demonstrates, no one is above the law. Israel boasts an independent judiciary system that is second to none.
Yet as the debate in Israel intensifies over the fate of Amona, the Palestinians are making a mockery of laws and building regulations by embarking on massive construction of illegal neighborhoods and buildings. Apparently, settlements are only a "major obstacle to peace" when they are constructed by Jews.
In recent years and continuing to the present, the Palestinians, with the aid of Western donors for whom only Jewish construction is anathema, are working night and day to create irreversible facts in the form of not just single-family houses, but masses of giant high-rise buildings. The sheer enormity of the project raises the question: Who has been funding these massive cities-within-cities? And why? There is good reason to believe that the PLO and some Arabs and Muslims, and especially the European Union are behind the Palestinian initiative.
Ironically, this has been taking place even when it means that the Palestinians have been stealing land from our own people.
The Palestinian building is taking place mostly in what is called Area C of the West Bank, which, under the terms of the Oslo Accords, is supposed to be under exclusive Israeli control. The building has also been mushrooming in many neighborhoods -- even in entire villages -- surrounding Jerusalem from the north, east and south, leaving the city with only one option: to expand towards the west, thereby building a giant collar of cement effectively to surround and choke off Jerusalem from the Jews.
Recently, entire Arab neighborhoods with crowded high-rises have shot up around Jerusalem. Only a handful of steps separate some of the buildings, and most lack proper sewage systems. Apartment prices range from $25,000 to $50,000 USD. These are ridiculous prices compared with the real costs of apartments in both Arab and Jewish (legal) neighborhoods in Jerusalem. Today, it is almost impossible to purchase a three-room apartment in the city for less than $250,000 USD.
The new neighborhoods are located in Kufr Akab, Samiramis, Kalandya, Beit Hanina, Shufat, Ras Khamis and Anata in the north of Jerusalem.
In the southern and eastern parts of the city, new neighborhoods have emerged with noticeable suddenness in Ras Al-Amoud, A-Tur, Al-Zaim, Jabal Mukaber, Um Tuba and Jabal Mukaber. These areas fall within the municipal boundaries of Jerusalem. However, failing to halt the illegal construction and leaving the city besieged from north, east and south, Jerusalem Municipality officials admit that Israel will have lost the war against illegal Palestinian construction unless immediate action is taken.
Alarmed by the ongoing illegal construction, Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat recently took the unprecedented measure of petitioning the High Court to allow the city to demolish 14 illegally built structures in east Jerusalem.
Most importantly, there is no housing crisis for the Arab population; it is not an Arab housing crisis that is prompting this spree of illegal Palestinian construction. Rather, the goal is political: to show the world that Jerusalem is an Arab, and not a Jewish, city. By and large, the apartments remain empty: there is simply no real demand.
Who is behind the unprecedented wave of illegal construction? According to Arab residents of Jerusalem, many of the "contractors" are actually land-thieves and thugs who lay their hands on private Palestinian-owned land or on lands whose owners are living abroad. But they also point out that the EU, the PLO and some Arab and Islamic governments are funding the project.
"They spot an empty plot of land and quickly move in to seize control over it," said a resident whose land was "confiscated" by the illegal contractors.
"They tell you if you don't like it, go to court, knowing that by the time the legal procedures are over they would have succeeded in building another tall building and even selling some of the apartments.
"Many Arab land owners feel helpless. They tell us that it is their national duty to build as much as they can on any empty land, otherwise the Jews would be building there."
Palestinians estimate that in the past few years they have managed to build more than 15,000 illegal housing units in areas surrounding Jerusalem as part of a plan to encircle the city. The construction continues to this moment, unabated. Partial funding comes from the Palestinian Authority (PA) and some Arab and Islamic countries These countries include Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and other oil-rich countries in the Gulf. However, the Palestinians continue to complain that the Arab and Islamic funding is below expectations.
In Area C, a stretch of land accounting for 60% of the West Bank, the European Union, which bitterly condemns construction in Jewish settlements as illegal, openly funds illegal construction carried out by Palestinians. The EU argues that its support for Palestinian construction falls under the category of "humanitarian relief" and is permissible under international law.
The EU's real goal is to help the Palestinians create these irreversible facts on the ground ahead of any possible future peace deal between the Palestinians and Israel. It is aimed at facilitating the mission of the Palestinians to seize as much land as possible, even if that means funding illegal construction or providing mobile homes to Palestinian communities in this area.
In short, it is the EU and some Arabs and Muslims who are paying for the construction of illegal Palestinian settlements, while demanding that Israel halt building new homes for Jewish families in Jerusalem neighborhoods or existing settlements in the West Bank.
The hypocrisy and raw malice of the EU and the rest of the international community toward the issue of Israeli settlements is blindingly transparent. Yet we are also witnessing the hypocrisy of many in the Western mainstream media -- those dozens of correspondents who see with their own eyes the Palestinian settlements rising on every side of Jerusalem, but choose to report only about Jewish building.
Forty-two Jewish families in Amona have the world riveted, but what does the world think about the Palestinian land-grab? It is time to call out this treachery, this illegality and this double-standard, and demand that the Palestinians also cease the construction of illegal settlements, which are designed with one aim in mind: to pre-determine the outcome of any future peace deal.
*Bassam Tawil is based in the Middle East.
© 2016 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.

Changing loyalties in Aleppo are clouding the forecast
Maria Dubovikova/Al Arabiya/December 05/16
In two weeks, 300 civilians perished in Mosul. In one month, battles in Aleppo have claimed more than 600 lives. But evaluations and coverage are still unbalanced. Apparently not all lives matter and not all conflicts matter. It all depends on whose interests the conflicts serve. And meanwhile, the liberation of Mosul is turning out to mean yet more bloodshed while the world’s eyes remain on Aleppo.
At the same time, forces loyal to Bashar al-Assad, thanks to significant ground support provided by Iran, Hezbollah and Russia’s air force, have already taken under control of about 60 percent of the territory that was occupied by the Jabhat al-Nusra group and opposition groups. According to the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, in the recent weeks 4,000 people have managed to arrive safely in some government-held areas of Aleppo.
Western media assumes that Russia seeks the full withdrawal of the rebels from Eastern Aleppo, while Russia discusses the withdrawal of the al-Nusra Front with the US. A few days ago, the UN special envoy to Syria once again called on Jabhat al-Nusra to leave Eastern Aleppo. The response came not from al-Nusra, but from rebel commanders declaring that Aleppo fighters will not surrender the eastern part of the city. Observers are now questioning whether any moderate rebels are left in the city at all, with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov saying that most of the rebel groups in Eastern Aleppo are now under the control of Jabhat al-Nusra.
The retreat of all radicals from Aleppo is a must. With their retreat, the status quo can be easily maintained, creating momentum for political figures to listen and speak to each other
According to a recent leak by the Financial Times, Syrian rebels conducted secret talks with Russia and Turkey. What is remarkable about these talks is that the US was completely shut out, as is Damascus. Another significant feature of the ongoing talks is that it is the first time such a large number of opposition groups have taken part in negotiations.
Intensified commotion
This intensified commotion over Aleppo is quiet understandable and clear as long as the rebels are losing the last stronghold and thus misbalancing situation both on the ground and at the negotiation table. It is naive to expect anyone to care about civilians in a purely geopolitical game where people are just pawns on a chessboard. Russia is successfully using the current power vacuum to its advantage as the old administration in Washington is leaving and the new one is yet to take office. Russia demonstrates the will to negotiate and find new solutions and compromises, continuing talks with the leaving team of the State Department, but feels free to lead its own game. But no matter what the game is and who leads it, the end goal is unanimous - Assad should step down. For all the puppet-masters of the conflict, the key to the crisis’ solution lies in the fate of Aleppo.
But the only thing that is missing in the general understanding of the situation is the fact that when al-Nusra claims to retreat from Aleppo, the rebels answer negatively. If the rebels have indeed joined forces with the al-Nusra Front, who can the situation be handled? Has the moderate opposition lost its moderate armed militias who have drifted toward extremism and terrorism? Maybe it is high time to view the situation from a purely political aspect and focus on the political process of transition? There is a chance to divide the belligerent sides into layers themselves, making politicians decide the political fate of the country without any linkage to the situation on the ground. For such a split, the retreat of all radicals from Aleppo is a must. With their retreat, the status quo can be easily maintained, creating momentum for political figures to listen and speak to each other One must remember that both the armed forces and the opposition are Syrians, dreaming only about peace in their homeland.

Aleppo and the United Nations’ inaction
Mshari Al Thaydi/Al Arabiya/December 05/16
Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Turkey issued a statement calling on the UN to hold an emergency special session of the General Assembly to end the Aleppo crisis, particularly in east of the city. The statement urged the UN “to bear its responsibilities pertaining to maintaining international peace and security particularly when the Security Council is incapable of doing so due to lack of consensus.” The statement also condemned dealing with the Syrian crisis like it was an ordinary event, and said the horrific circumstances there confirm that calls to hold an emergency special session of the General Assembly were justified. The international institution’s incapability to perform the tasks it was established for following World War II, and which are achieving world peace, ending wars and protecting people, indicates the extent of its damage and hypocrisy.
Syria’s disastrous situation - which has been ongoing for six years now - is the world’s current tragedy
Syria’s disastrous situation - which has been ongoing for six years now - is the world’s current tragedy. The number of those killed is almost 500,000, while there are millions of displaced and missing people and refugees. There are shocking images of victims, whether children, women or the elderly. This has been happening on a daily basis. The disaster exposes Arabs’ and Muslims’ weakness to protect their countries, people, sovereignty, dignity, present and future.
“Huge scandal”
How can the Russians, from Siberia, or the Shiite Afghanis from Herat’s valleys, or the Iranians from Qom and Hamadan, or the Iraqi militant invaders from the marshes of Nasiriyah and extremist alleys in Baghdad, or terrorists of Hassan Nasrallah’s Lebanese party Hezbollah, invade the land, sky and sea of Syria, kill children and women, shell refugees while the UN Security Council does nothing?
It’s a huge scandal. It’s a permanent shame that will never be erased. It’s not acceptable to co-exist with such a situation like “it does not concern us” like the statement by Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the UAE and Turkey said.
There are international efforts on a daily basis to pursue ISIS and Al-Qaeda. Measures have been quick and this is great. These are good and blessed efforts which are actually required, however we do not see the same pace, enthusiasm, speed and consensus to end the hideous Iranian terrorism in Arab countries. We do not see these efforts in stricken Aleppo. Why? Is it because the Syrians in Aleppo or the Iraqis in Mosul are this cheap?
“Swamp of anger”
Ending the Iranian-Syrian invasion and stopping Russian intervention is the core of Gulf and Turkish security or rather of all Arab countries’ security. Only if some Arabs were wise and considered matters away from maliciousness and altered that old mentality regarding Arab national security.
What’s strange is that international governments are shocked, afraid and on alert, as ISIS’ methods flourish around the world, but they help provide the perfect environment to create a breeding ground in the swamp of anger and vengeance.
Aiding Aleppo, breaking the siege and saving its people from the monsters of Bashar al-Assad, Iran, Khamenei, Hadi al-Amiri and Vladimir Putin are not a moral or humanitarian issue, but a very high security and political interest.
**This article was first published in Asharq al-Awsat on December 5, 2016.