LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS
BULLETIN
December 08/16
Compiled
& Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
The
Bulletin's Link on the lccc Site
http://www.eliasbejjaninews.com/newsbulletin16/english.december08.16.htm
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Bible Quotations For Today
Blessed is
the womb that bore you and the breasts that nursed you
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke
11/27-32/:"A woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, ‘Blessed
is the womb that bore you and the breasts that nursed you!’But he said, ‘Blessed rather are those who hear the
word of God and obey it!’
When the crowds were increasing, he began to say, ‘This generation is an evil
generation; it asks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign
of Jonah. For just as Jonah became a sign to the people of
The queen of the South will rise at the judgement with the people of this
generation and condemn them, because she came from the ends of the earth to
listen to the wisdom of Solomon, and see, something
greater than Solomon is here! The people of
You are a priest for ever,
according to the order of Melchizedek
Letter to the Hebrews 07/11-17/:"If perfection had been attainable through
the levitical priesthood for the people received the
law under this priesthood what further need would there have been to speak of
another priest arising according to the order of Melchizedek, rather than one
according to the order of Aaron? For when there is a change in the priesthood,
there is necessarily a change in the law as well. Now the one of whom these
things are spoken belonged to another tribe, from which no one has ever served
at the altar. For it is evident that our Lord was descended
from
Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis
& editorials from miscellaneous sources published on December 07-08/16
Report: Hezbollah accuses Israel of striking targets near
Damascus/Jerusalem Post/December 07/16
Liberman: Israel working to thwart WMD transfers to
Hezbollah/Jerusalem Post/December 07/16
Egypt: Muslim throws bomb at entrance of packed church/Raymond Ibrahim/December
07/16
PLO Executive Committee Member At Herzliya
Conference: We Are Ready For Peace On Basis Of Palestinian State In '67
Borders/MEMRI/December 07/16
Europe's Epochal Elections/Daniel Pipes/Washington Times/December 07/16
France: Decomposing in Front of Our Eyes/Yves Mamou/Gatestone
Institute/December 07/16
Fidel Castro: Neither a saint nor a villain, but a revolutionary/Yossi Mekelberg/Al Arabiya/December 07/16
Doubly Targeted – In The Middle East And In The West/By: Alberto M.
Fernandez/MEMRI Daily Brief /December 07/16/The Battle for Mosul and Iran's
Regional Reach
Michael Eisenstadt and Michael Knights/The Washington
Institute/December 5, 2016
Turkey’s Slide into Authoritarianism/Burak Bekdil/Middle East Quarterly/Winter 2017
Titles For Latest Lebanese Related News
published on December 07-08/16
Syria Grand Mufti Meets with Aoun, al-Rahi
Aoun Calls for Building 'Just, Strong and Capable
State'
Hariri Voices Solidarity with Aleppo against 'Policies of Oppression, Extermination'
Terror Suspect Held in N. Bekaa as Army Bombs IS in Ras Baalbek Outskirts
Geagea Meets Aoun, Hopes
Cabinet Will be Formed before Holidays
Hariri Holds Cabinet Formation Talks with Franjieh
UNRWA Condemns Ain el-Hilweh Violence that Forced
Children to Flee
Parliamentary Committee Repeals Contentious Rape Law
FPM Urges Franjieh to Turn 'New Page' with Aoun
Lebanese Army Detains Culprits Involved in Bqaa Sifrin Attack
Overnight Armed Clashes Erupt in Ain el-Hilweh
Aoun to protect political agreements, Kanaan says
Lebanon’s Aoun: No Fears from Delayed Government
Formation…Battle Continues with Provokers of Political Crisis
Syria's Grand Mufti extends hand to Lebanese
Kahwagi reviews bilateral ties with US Ambassador
Samy Gemayel, Quraa tackle state security dossier
Gemayel welcomes step to annul article 522 of penal
code
Hariri reaffirms solidarity with Aleppo, praises abolition of article 522
Report: Hezbollah accuses Israel of striking targets near Damascus
Liberman: Israel working to thwart WMD transfers to
Hezbollah
Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin For
Miscellaneous Reports And News published on December 07-08/16
Egypt: Muslim throws bomb at entrance of packed church
U.N. Chief Urges Ceasefire in Aleppo
Hollande Slams Russia's 'Systematic Obstruction' at
UN over Syria
U.S., Britain, France Lead Call for Aleppo Ceasefire
Kerry to Resume Talks with Lavrov on Syria Wednesday
Rebel Rockets Scar West Aleppo Residents
Syria Rebels Call for Truce as Aleppo Losses Mount
Assad Says Aleppo Win 'Huge Step' towards End of War
Russia Says Army Colonel Dies after Aleppo Rebel Shelling
Turkish Soldier Killed in Bomb Attack in Syria
Iraq Forces Push Deep inside Mosul, Face Fierce Resistance
Pakistan Plane Carrying 48 Crashes Killing All on Board
Israel Set for Vote to Advance Bill Legalising Settler Homes
Britain Will Help Gulf 'Push Back' against Iran Aggression
Britain Will Help Gulf 'Push Back' against Iran Aggression
Member of Iran Regime Parliament: Corruption in Government Is More Than Before
Revolution
Former Italian Foreign Minister: Doing Business With Iran Is Too Risky
Consequences of the Economic Crisis and People's Discontent in Iran
Iran: Insult and Beating Baluch Sunni Cleric in
Mashhad Prison
Iran: Chanting "Death to Khamenei and Curse on
Khomeini" Slogans in Hall 12 of Gohardasht
Prison
Nobel Peace Prize nominees White Helmets to visit five Canadian cities
Links From Jihad
Watch Site for on December 07-08/16
Obama:
“If we act like this is war between US and Islam, we’re going to lose more
Americans to terrorist attacks”.
Germany:
Muslim migrant, 16, plotted Islamic State jihad bombing in Cologne.
YouTube
censors video of pro-Jewish Muslim as ‘hate speech’.
NJ:
Hamas-linked imam faces deportation, The Record calls him “voice of moderation”.
Amazon
pulls Allah doormats, “but you can still wipe your feet on Jesus”.
Obama:
“The United States cannot eliminate the Taliban”.
Video:
Robert Spencer on Hannity on the hijab
and human rights.
Saudi
Arabia caught funding Taliban in Afghanistan.
Obama:
“No foreign terrorist organization” has attacked in US during my tenure.
Thousands
of pounds in UK benefits used to fund the Islamic State and jihad cells.
Egypt:
Muslim throws bomb at entrance of packed church.
Canada
Islamic State supporter: “I love jihad more than everything”.
Links From Christian Today Site for on December 07-08/16
Assyrian
Christians Explain Why They Are Prepared To Form A Militia To Stop ISIS
The
Incredible Story Of How One Bishop Saved The Lives Of Over 200 Assyrian
Christians
Employers
'Shouldn't Be Afraid Of Causing Offence' When It Comes To Religion
Decision
to Deny Pakistani Christians' Visit To Glasgow To Be Reviewed
Humanists
Call For Scotland's Blasphemy Law To Be Scrapped
Christians
Accused Of Proselytising In Nepal Cleared Of Charges
What
If Our Identity Isn't Only In Christ?
Persecution
Of Christians At An All-Time High In India: Has The World Stopped Caring?
Some
Peers Want Bishops To Lose Their Seats In The Lords.
Are They Right?
Are
You Living With A Ten-Verse Bible? Here's Why It's So Dangerous For Your
Spiritual Health
Why
It's OK If People Don't Respond To Your Evangelism
Latest Lebanese Related News
published on December 07-08/16
Naharnet/December 07/16/President Michel Aoun met on Wednesday with
Aoun Calls for Building 'Just, Strong and Capable State'
Naharnet/December 07/16/President Michel Aoun on Wednesday called for “immunizing national unity”
and building “a just, strong and capable State.”During
meetings with his visitors at the
Hariri Voices Solidarity with Aleppo
against 'Policies of Oppression, Extermination'
Naharnet/December 07/16/Al-Mustaqbal Movement leader
and Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri on Wednesday
expressed his solidarity with “the Syrian people and the city of Aleppo” in the
face of what he called “the policies of oppression and extermination.”“The
calls of condemnation and the false claims about fighting terrorism do not make
Terror Suspect Held in N. Bekaa as Army Bombs IS in Ras
Baalbek Outskirts
An army unit carried out a raid Wednesday in the
eastern border town of
Geagea Meets Aoun, Hopes
Cabinet Will be Formed before Holidays
Naharnet/December 07/16/Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea stated, following
his meeting with President Michel Aoun in Baabda on Wednesday, that the differences over the
distribution of ministerial portfolios in the new cabinet are political, as he
remarked that the party made many concessions before anyone else did.
“Differences over the distribution of ministerial portfolios are political. We
were the first to make concessions,” said Geagea.
“There is no change in the government lineup which
shall include 24 ministers. President Aoun is very
optimistic and he promised to overcome hurdles.”The
LF leader added that Prime Minister-designate, Saad Hariri, was holding the necessary contacts in that respect.
“We are not against anybody and we hope agreement will reach Ain-el-Tineh, and even Dahiyeh,” he
said. “According to the constitution, the President and the Prime
Minister-designate are the ones who form the government,” he concluded. Geagea also voiced hopes that the new cabinet would be
formed before the holidays, indicating that the delay is due to political
issues. Aoun's election as president and Hariri's
appointment as premier-designate have raised hopes that
Hariri Holds Cabinet Formation Talks with Franjieh
Naharnet/December 07/16/Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri was on Wednesday evening holding cabinet
formation talks with Marada Movement chief MP Suleiman
Franjieh, whose demand to get a key ministerial
portfolio is one of the main declared obstacles that are delaying the formation
of the new cabinet. The meeting was being held in the presence of caretaker
Culture Minister Rony Araiji
who accompanied Franjieh to the Center House as well
as Hariri's advisers Nader Hariri and Ghattas Khoury, Hariri's office said in a statement. “The meeting
is tackling the latest political developments in the country and will involve a
dinner banquet during which the rest of the topics will be discussed,
especially the consultations and the efforts that are being exerted to form the
government,” the office added. LBCI television said the meeting was requested
by Hariri. Franjieh has announced that Marada will not join the new cabinet if it does not get one
of three so-called important portfolios – public works, energy or
telecommunications. Speaker Nabih Berri,
who is negotiating on behalf of the Hizbullah-led
March 8 forces, has backed Franjieh's demand and
insisted that Marada should be represented in the
government with an important portfolio.
UNRWA Condemns Ain el-Hilweh
Violence that Forced Children to Flee
The U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, UNRWA, strongly
condemned Wednesday the armed violence that took place in the Ain el-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp in Sidon on December 5.
“Armed violence, including the use of firearms, shocked and frightened
Palestine refugees in the Bostan Al Qudes area in the proximity of four UNRWA schools -- Faloujah, Hitten, Marj Ben Amer and Qibya schools -- putting at considerable risk the lives of
students receiving education from UNRWA,” said a statement issued by UNRWA
Spokesperson Christopher Gunness. “One armed person
entered UNRWA schools without authorization, contrary to the inviolability and
neutrality of U.N. premises and instructed children to leave the schools. The
school buildings were clearly marked with a U.N. flag,” the statement said.
UNRWA students were able to evacuate the area “without injury, notwithstanding
that live fire continued while the children were leaving,” it added. As a
result of the incident, all UNRWA schools and installations were closed in Ain
el-Hilweh on December 5. “Due to repeated armed
violence and increased risks to civilian lives, UNRWA suspended its operations
in the camp today 7 December 2016 for one day,” the statement said. UNRWA
called on all those involved to “respect the rule of law, the sanctity of human
life and the protection of
Parliamentary Committee Repeals
Contentious Rape Law
Associated Press/Naharnet/December 07/16/The
Administration and Justice Parliamentary Committee repealed on Wednesday
article 522 in the Lebanese law that allows a rapist to get away with his crime
if he marries the survivor. The decision came following protests that called
for the law annulment. On Tuesday, dozen Lebanese women, dressed as brides in
white wedding dresses stained with fake blood and bandages, gathered outside
government buildings in the capital
FPM Urges Franjieh
to Turn 'New Page' with Aoun
Naharnet/December 07/16/The Free Patriotic Movement
called on Marada Movement chief MP Suleiman Franjieh to display readiness to turn a new leaf of
relations between the two parties and urged him to deal with President Michel Aoun with “pragmatism and flexibility”, As Safir daily reported Wednesday. “Franjieh
is invited to deal with the Presidency with some pragmatism and flexibility,
and to show readiness to open a new page just like the Kataeb
party did following the election session (of President Michel Aoun). Only then will he be received with understanding and
positivity from the General's (Aoun) part,” a
prominent FPM source told the daily. “If the real problem lies in the allotment
of a ministerial portfolio, then it is a solvable matter,” the source pointed
out. On the latest call of Aoun where he extended his
hand to political parties after inviting “those who have concerns” to meet with
him at the
Horsetrading is still revolving around the
so-called services-related ministerial portfolios, mainly public works and telecommunications.Speaker Nabih Berri, who is negotiating on behalf of the Hizbullah-led March 8 camp, is clinging to the finance and
public works portfolios while also insisting that the Marada
Movement must get a key portfolio.
Lebanese Army Detains Culprits Involved in
Bqaa Sifrin Attack
Naharnet/December 07/16/The Army Intelligence
arrested the culprits involved in the attack that targeted army troops in the
northern al-Dinniyeh district that left one soldier
dead and another wounded, LBCI reported Wednesday. The army was able to arrest
all the parties involved after staging night raids in the town of
Overnight Armed Clashes Erupt in Ain el-Hilweh
Naharnet/December 07/16/Armed clashes erupted
overnight between the Palestinian Fatah Movement and the Bilal
Badr armed group in the Ain el-Hilweh
refugee camp near the southern city of
Aoun to protect political agreements, Kanaan
says
The Daily Star/DEcember 07/16/BEIRUT: According to
Free Patriotic Movement MP Ibrahim Kanaan, President
Michel Aoun will “gather and safeguard his national
understandings” with key allies, referencing several agreements that ended
notable political feuds. Kanaan made the statement
via Twitter Tuesday, explicitly mentioning the so-called Mar Mikhael and Maarab understandings
– the former referencing the 2006 memorandum between Aoun
and Hezbollah, and the latter, the agreement reached between Aoun’s FPM and the Lebanese Forces in January 2016, which
ended a long-standing disagreement between the Christian parties.
Lebanon’s Aoun:
No Fears from Delayed Government Formation…Battle Continues with Provokers of
Political Crisis
Asharq Al-Awsat/December
07/16/Beirut – Lebanon’s President Michel Aoun saw on
Tuesday there is no fear from a delay in the cabinet formation, hoping the
government will soon see the light to achieve the already set goals, on top of
which is fighting corruption.
Speaking during his meeting with the Union of Beirut Families at Baabda Palace, Aoun asserted he
would fight the parties that are provoking political crises, adding that people
must be encouraged to support his ideas. The president said sustainable
negligence and corruption in the country are causing a financial instability
and a “brain drain”.Aoun stressed that the government
would be formed, calling for comfort – not fear. In the next phase,
The Daily Star/December 07/16/BEIRUT:
Kahwagi reviews bilateral ties with US Ambassador
Wed 07 Dec 2016/NNA - Lebanese Army Chief, General Jean Kahwagi,
on Wednesday received in Yarzeh US Ambassador,
Elizabeth Richard, and discussed with her bilateral military ties as well as
the general situation.
Samy Gemayel, Quraa tackle state security dossier
Wed 07 Dec 2016/NNA - Lebanese Kataeb Party chief MP
Sami Gemayel met at the Central House in Saifi with State Security Chief General George Quraa, in the presence Minister Alan Hakim. Talks
reportedly dwelt on the "latest developments regarding endeavors
to reach a solution to the standing state security dossier," as per a
statement by Gemayel's Media Bureau. MP Gemayel emphasized the Party's support for the just demands
of state security apparatus, stressing "the need to do justice to its
members, akin to other security services."
Gemayel welcomes step to annul article 522 of penal code
Wed 07 Dec 2016/NNA - Kataeb president, Sami Gemayel, welcomed the Justice Parliamentary Committee's
inclination toward annulling article 522 of the penal code, hoping for a fast
approval at the general assembly.
Hariri reaffirms solidarity with Aleppo, praises abolition of article 522
NNA Prime Minister Saad Hariri said: "Today more
than any other day, we affirm our solidarity with the Syrian people and with
the city of
Wed 07 Dec 2016/He said on Twitter "that the calls for denunciation and
condemnation and the false allegations of fighting terrorism do not make the
tragedy of
Report: Hezbollah accuses
Jerusalem Post/December 07/16
The IDF has neither confirmed nor denied the reports, as is their policy
regarding foreign reports on purported Israeli strikes.
The Syrian regime has accused
According to a military source quoted by
Earlier on Wednesday, Hezbollah accused the Israeli Air Force of striking Mezze west of the Syrian capital close to President Bashar Assad’s palace at around 4 am, causing large
explosions but no casualties.
According to Syrian reports the strike would “only make the Syrian Arab Army
even more determined to cut off the hands of the terrorists agents of the
Zionist entity, which should be held fully responsible for the repercussions
and consequences of these criminal attacks.” t.
Map of location of allefed strikeMap
of location of allefed strike
Unnamed Syrian sources quoted by Lebanon’s Al-Nashrah,
the strikes targeted the airport’s runway and operations command center while
another unnamed source said that the strikes targeted the regime’s 4th division
operations center at the airport.
The airbase is home to the headquarters of the notorious air force intelligence
service and its prison.
The IDF has neither confirmed nor denied the alleged strikes, as is their
policy regarding foreign reports on purported Israeli strikes.
While Syrian state media said the attack came from “inside the occupied
territories to the west of Tall Abu al-Nada,” or Mount Avital
in the Golan Heights, Hezbollah’s Al Maydeen channel
said the group “was almost certain” that the Israeli Air Force carried the
strikes from Lebanese airspace, similar to the last reported Israeli airstrike
against Hezbollah weapons convoys near Damascus as well as an arsenal belonging
to the Syrian Army's Fourth Battalion.
The border with Syria has been tense since the war there erupted in 2011, and
while Israel has never publicly admitted to carrying out any strikes, Israel is
suspected of carrying out occasional retaliatory strikes on Syria after stray
rockets or mortar rounds struck Israeli territory.
In April, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu admitted for the first time that
the IDF had carried out strikes in Syrian territory.
"We will not agree to the supply of advanced weaponry to Hezbollah from
On Tuesday night the IDF Spokesman’s twitter account posted a map showing over
200 towns and villages which Hezbollah uses as operations bases, as well as
thousands of potential targets that
Speaking at the Jerusalem Post Diplomatic Conference in late
November, Brig.Gen. Ram Yavne,
Head of the IDF Strategic Division said that almost every Shiite village of neighborhood in southern
One civilian village pointed out by Yavne, Chakra
which has 4,000 Shiite inhabitants, “reflects the situation every neighborhood, town, or
Several weapons warehouses, rocket launching sites, anti-tank positions,
underground infrastructures and a command post in Chakra was identified on the
map.
Liberman: Israel working to thwart WMD transfers to Hezbollah
Jerusalem Post/December 07/16
Liberman's comments come after Syria earlier in the
day accused Israel of striking targets near Damascus.
Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman indicated in a rare admission on Wednesday that
Israel, which usually neither confirms nor denies alleged strikes, is “working
primarily to protect the security of our citizens, defend our sovereignty, and
try to prevent the smuggling of sophisticated weapons, military equipment and
weapons of mass destruction from Syria to Hezbollah,” Liberman
said.
And while
Liberman told the diplomats that “in today’s world it
is impossible to rely on the international community and that every country
should rely only on itself.”
Earlier on Wednesday, the Syrian regime accused
Map of location of allefed strikeMap
of location of allefed strike
According to a military source quoted by
The strike would “only make the Syrian Arab Army even more determined to cut
off the hands of the terrorists agents of the Zionist entity, which should be
held fully responsible for the repercussions and consequences of these criminal
attacks,” the military source continued.
The airbase is home to the headquarters of the notorious air force intelligence
service and its prison. The allegations mark the second instance of suspected
Israeli strikes against targets in
While Syrian state media said the attack came from “inside the occupied
territories to the west of Tall Abu al-Nada,” or Mount Avital
in the Golan Heights, Hezbollah’s Al Maydeen channel
said the group “was almost certain” that the Israeli Air Force carried the
strikes from Lebanese airspace, similar to the last reported Israeli airstrike
against Hezbollah weapons convoys near Damascus as well as an arsenal belonging
to the Syrian Army's Fourth Battalion.
Hezbollah had earlier accused the Israeli Air Force of striking Mezze west of the Syrian capital close to President Bashar Assad’s palace at around 4 a.m. Unnamed Syrian
sources quoted by Lebanon’s Al-Nashrah had said that
the strikes targeted the airport’s runway and operations command center while
another unnamed source said that the strikes targeted the regime’s 4th division
operations center at the airport.
The border with Syria has been tense since the war there erupted in 2011, and
while Israel has never publicly admitted to carrying out any strikes, Israel is
suspected of carrying out occasional retaliatory strikes on Syria after stray
rockets or mortar rounds struck Israeli territory.
In April, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu admitted for the first time that
the IDF had carried out strikes in Syrian territory.
"We will not agree to the supply of advanced weaponry to Hezbollah from
On Tuesday night the IDF Spokesman’s twitter account posted a map showing over
200 towns and villages which Hezbollah uses as operations bases, as well as
thousands of potential targets that
Speaking at the Jerusalem Post Diplomatic Conference in late November,
Brig.-Gen. Ram Yavne, Head
of the IDF Strategic Division said that almost every Shiite village of neighborhood in southern
One civilian village pointed out by Yavne, Chakra
which has 4,000 Shiite inhabitants, “reflects the situation every neighborhood, town, or
Several weapons warehouses, rocket launching sites, anti-tank positions,
underground infrastructures and a command post in Chakra was identified on the
map.
Latest LCCC Bulletin For
Miscellaneous Reports And News published on December 07-08/16
Egypt: Muslim throws bomb
at entrance of packed church
Raymond Ibrahim/December 07/16
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/2016/12/07/raymond-ibrahimegypt-muslim-throws-bomb-at-entrance-of-packed-church/
A man hurled an improvised bomb at the entrance of a packed church in
Egypt in what observers say could’ve been a repeat of the Two Saints Church
attack in Alexandria, 2011, which left 23 dead, and 100 injured. The bomb
was dismantled before exploding. The attack occurred during the late hours of
Saturday, November 12. Thousands of Coptic Christian worshippers had assembled
for a church celebration inside the St. George Church in Samalout,
al-Minya province. One Christian near the
entrance saw an unknown man drive up on a motorbike, hurl the bomb at the
church, before quickly riding away. Security agents were instantly contacted,
even as one young Coptic man grabbed the bomb and rushed it away from the
church’s premises. The congregation fled out of the church in what was
described as a “tense” and “terrifying” night. The bomb squad arrived quickly
and managed to dismantle the bomb before it detonated. The St. George
Church has stood for more than one hundred years in Samalout.
Although the total church property is 1200 square meters, the church building
is only 300 square meters. In an effort to accommodate Samalout’s
thousands of Christians, church leaders have for seven years attempted to
enlarge the church on its own property, as well as build a fence for
protection, but authorities refuse to allow them.
U.N. Chief Urges Ceasefire
in
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/December
07/16/U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon appealed for
a ceasefire Wednesday in the besieged Syrian city of
Hollande Slams Russia's 'Systematic Obstruction' at UN over
Syria
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/December
07/16/French President Francois Hollande denounced on
Wednesday "systematic obstruction" by Russia at the UN Security
Council after the failure of a resolution calling for a seven-day ceasefire in
the Syrian city of Aleppo.
U.S., Britain,
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/December
07/16/The
Kerry to Resume Talks with Lavrov on Syria Wednesday
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/December
07/16/U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will hold fresh talks with his Russian
counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Germany on Wednesday on
efforts to halt fighting in the devastated Syrian city of Aleppo. Kerry, who is
on a farewell tour in Europe, and Lavrov
will be in the northern city of
Rebel Rockets Scar West Aleppo Residents
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/December
07/16/Syrian teenager Diaa al-Din Hassan lay in a
hospital bed in western
'Fate follows people'
Lying next to Diaa is
23-year-old Jamila Abdulrahman.
Days ago, she was hanging laundry from her third-story apartment in west
150 wounded per day
As it advanced into the eastern neighborhood of Masaken Hanano in late November, the army discovered a warehouse it
said had been used by rebels to assemble and store rockets. An official from
the army's engineering unit said it was used "to fill artillery rounds and
old gas canisters with explosives, a weapon called a 'Hellcannon.'""They
are unguided missiles with a huge margin of error... but could be produced
locally very easily," said the official, who spoke on condition of
anonymity. Radwan Qahwatiya,
deputy head of the
Syria Rebels Call for Truce as Aleppo
Losses Mount
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/December
07/16/Rebels in Aleppo called for a five-day truce and the evacuation of
civilians Wednesday after losing more territory including the Old City to a
Syrian army offensive. Heavy fighting in the city stoked mounting international
concern, with six Western powers urging a ceasefire and U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon describing the plight of civilians as
"heartbreaking." U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry was to hold fresh
talks with Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in
Disaster 'before our very eyes'
Opposition fighters have rejected talk of leaving Aleppo, however, and
Syria's government has said it will not agree to any ceasefire without a full
rebel withdrawal. The army extended its advances on Wednesday afternoon, with
state media saying government troops had taken control of the Bab al-Nayrab, Al-Maadi and Salhin neighborhoods. Remaining rebel-held districts were coming
under heavy bombardment, an AFP correspondent in the area said.
The statement from the six Western powers -- Britain, Canada, France,
Germany, Italy and the United States -- said a humanitarian disaster was
"taking place before our very eyes" in Aleppo. "The urgent need
now is for an immediate ceasefire to allow the United Nations to get
humanitarian assistance to people in eastern
Fleeing civilians
Assad's government has been urging civilians to leave east
Assad Says
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/December
07/16/Syrian President Bashar Assad said a victory
for his army in the battered second city of
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/December
07/16/Russia said Wednesday that an army colonel working as a military adviser
in
Turkish Soldier Killed in Bomb Attack in
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/December
07/16/A Turkish soldier was killed Wednesday in a car bomb attack in northern
Iraq Forces Push Deep inside Mosul, Face
Fierce Resistance
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/December
07/16/Iraqi forces battled jihadists deep inside
The elite Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS) has spearheaded the drive into
Water crisis
Forces on the southern and northern fronts made quick early gains when
Pakistan Plane Carrying 48 Crashes Killing All on Board
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/December
07/16/A Pakistani plane carrying 48 people crashed Wednesday in the country's
mountainous north and burst into flames killing everyone on board, authorities
said, in one of the deadliest aviation accidents in the country's history.
Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) Flight PK661 came down while traveling
from the city of
Addressing a press conference, Azam Saigol, the airline's chairman said the plane was an ATR-42
turboprop aircraft, which contacted ground authorities after one engine failed
and issued a Mayday call at 4:14 pm. It began descending a minute later before
disappearing from radar at 4:16 pm. "This plane was technically sound, and
was checked in October," he said, adding the captain had flown more than
12,000 hours and the aircraft was nine years old. "Our focus now is to
retrieve all the dead bodies," he added, vowing a full investigation.
A senior rescue official on the site who requested anonymity added:
"The villagers told us that the plane was shaky before it crashed. It was
about to hit the village but it seems that the pilot managed to drag the plane
towards the hills. The fire is still on but it's near to end."
Three foreigners were among the dead, officials said, with
Nation mourns ex-singer
Among those on board was Junaid Jamshed, a former Pakistani pop star turned evangelical
Muslim who was embroiled in a blasphemy controversy in 2014, according to the Chitral airport manager and a local police official. The
singer's Twitter account had said he was in Chitral.
Tributes were pouring in on social media for the former lead singer of the
country's first major pop band, whose popular "Dil Dil
Checkered history
But the deadliest accident involving PIA came
when an Airbus A300 crashed into a cloud-covered hillside on approach to the
Nepalese capital
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/December
07/16/Israeli lawmakers could vote Wednesday to advance a bill legalising some
4,000 settler homes in the occupied
"We've also been troubled by comments that we've heard by some
political figures in Israel that this would be the first step in annexing parts
of the West Bank."Walid Assaf,
the Palestinian minister responsible for monitoring Israeli settlements, has
called the bill "the most dangerous law issued by
According to settlement watchdog Peace Now, the bill would legalise some
3,881 housing units.Most of the homes are in
Israeli-approved settlements but were built on Palestinian land. Around 750 are
located in outposts which
Britain Will Help Gulf 'Push Back' against
Iran Aggression
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/December
07/16/Britain will help Gulf states "push back" against aggressive
regional actions by Iran, Prime Minister Theresa May told the Gulf Cooperation
Council in Bahrain on Wednesday in a televised address. "We must...
continue to confront state actors whose influence fuels instability in the
region," May told Gulf leaders at the summit. "So I want to assure
you that I am clear-eyed about the threat that
Member of
Wednesday, 07 December 2016/NCRI - A representative of Iranian regime’s
parliament from
Former Italian Foreign Minister: Doing
Business With
Wednesday, 07 December 2016/Former Italian Foreign Minister, Ambassador Giulio Terzi, warned companies
that the risks of doing business with
Consequences of the Economic Crisis and
People's Discontent in Iran
Wednesday, 07 December 2016/NCRI - On Sunday December 4, in a session of Iran
regime's parliament, some representatives expressed concerns about the
consequences of the economic crisis and people’s discontent and tried to blame
their rival faction for deterioration of the situation. The cost of a simple
cold is not less than 1 million Rials (~$32) In this parliament session, Abdolreza
Mesri, the Iranian regime’s Majlis
representative from
Representative of the regime’s parliament from
Iran: Insult and Beating Baluch Sunni Cleric in Mashhad Prison
Wednesday, 07 December 2016/NCRI - The political prisoner, Mowlavi
Nour al-Din Kashani, Baluch Sunni cleric, who was transferred last week from Zahedan prison to Special Clerical Court in Mashhad, was
transferred back to Zahedan prison after harassment,
insult and beating in Vakil Abad Prison in Mashhad.
He was held in Ward 101 in Vakil Abad Prison in
Wednesday, 07 December 2016/NCRI - According to reports, political prisoners in
Hall 12 of Gohardasht prison in
Nobel Peace Prize nominees White Helmets to visit five Canadian cities
December 6, 2016 - Ottawa, Ontario - Global Affairs Canada
Syria Civil Defence and Mayday Rescue team members to share with Canadians
their stories from war-torn Syria.
The Honourable Stéphane Dion, Minister of Foreign
Affairs, and Howard Drake, British High Commissioner to Canada, announced today
that members of the Nobel Peace Prize-nominated Syria Civil Defence, also known
as the White Helmets, will be visiting Canada from December 7 to 13, 2016, as
part of a series of free public events called Searching for Hope in Syria: In
Conversation with the White Helmets.
Each event will include a screening of the award-winning Netflix documentary
The White Helmets followed by a panel discussion. The panellists will include Raed Saleh, Head of the White
Helmets and Chair of Syria Civil Defence; Farouq Habib, Syria Program Director at Mayday Rescue Foundation;
and James Le Mesurier, founder and Director of Mayday
Rescue. They will explain the work they do training volunteers and saving
thousands of lives in one of the most dangerous places on earth.
Made possible through the support of the British High Commission and Global
Affairs Canada, these events are a further example of how the United Kingdom
and Canada are working together to raise awareness of the devastating situation
in Syria. Both countries are major donors to the humanitarian effort in
Today,
Quotes
“
- Stéphane Dion, Minister of Foreign Affairs
“I’m delighted to be partnering with Global Affairs Canada to be bringing this
remarkable organization to
- Howard Drake, British High Commissioner to
“We look forward to coming to
- Raed Saleh, Head of the
White Helmets and Chair of Syria Civil Defence
Quick facts
Mayday Rescue is a not-for-profit organization that partners with communities
undergoing conflict by providing training and equipment as well as advocacy and
outreach.
The ongoing conflict in
On February 8, 2016,
The Government of Canada has resettled more than 33,000 Syrian refugees since
November 2015.
Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis
& editorials from miscellaneous sources published on December 07-08/16
PLO Executive Committee
Member At Herzliya Conference: We Are Ready For Peace
On Basis Of Palestinian State In '67 Borders
With Jerusalem As Its Capital And Return Of Refugees To The Homes They Were
Expelled From
MEMRI/December 07/16
Dr. Ahmed Majdalani, a member of the PLO Executive
Committee and a former Palestinian Authority (PA) minister, attended the 16th Herzliya Conference on June 16-18, 2016. Speaking at the
conference, Majdalani called on attendants to fulfill
their responsibility "to have courage to make fateful decisions for
comprehensive and just peace" by adopting the Arab peace initiative, which
is based on the two-state solution – that is, the establishment of a
Palestinian state in the June 4, 1967 borders with Jerusalem as its capital,
and the return of refugees to their homes.
Majdalani stressed that the Palestinian people yearns
for liberty and fights for it and for comprehensive and just peace. He added
that historically, Palestinians have based all their policy and strategy on
"international legitimacy"[1] and UN resolutions regarding the
Palestinian issue, and that they have reached out their hand in peace, from
Yasser Arafat's 1974 speech at the UN, through the Madrid conference and the
Oslo Accords, to the 20 years of negotiations since then. However, according to
him, Israeli governments have thwarted peace under false pretenses,
and have created facts on the ground by expropriating land, expanding
settlements, and increasing aggression towards the Palestinians.
Majdalani accused the current Israeli government of
extremism, racism, and engaging in warring discourse, and even compared its
treatment of Palestinians with the Nazi treatment of Jews. He also compared
settlers to ISIS and Jabhat Al-Nusra,
warning that the price for these policies and trends will not be paid for only
by the Palestinian people, but by the entire Israeli society as well. He noted,
however, that those who signed peace agreements with the Palestinians thus far
were actually right wing governments, and that the current Israeli
administration must choose between peace, which would bring security,
stability, and growth, and war, which would bring ruin and disaster.
It should be mentioned that according to the Palestinian news agency Ma'an, the PA presidency stated that Majdalani's
participation at the conference was on orders from President Mahmoud 'Abbas.[2]
Following are excerpts from Majdalani's speech:[3]
"Just Peace Is The True Victory... And Grants Love, Coexistence, And
Humaneness To People"
"When I received the invitation to attend the 16th Herzliya
Conference on June 16-18, I did not hesitate for a second [and decided] to
attend and deliver a speech to an audience of academics, politicians, and
intellectuals, out of the belief that those who seek comprehensive and just peace
should go even to the ends of the earth for its sake...
"Leaders are the ones who choose if they want war or peace. Anyone who
believes that in war there are winners and losers is deluding himself, since in
war, the only loser is man, who is meant to be the most precious thing.
Comprehensive and just peace is the true victory, not just for one side or one
people at the expense of the other, but rather for all, because it always
provides peoples with security and stability, and with all the elements and foundations
for constant development in all fields, and, most importantly, grants love,
coexistence, and humaneness to people...
"In the life of nations and peoples, there are moments at which the wise
and sharp-witted are required to look to the past and its residues in order to
establish a bridge to a new horizon. You [conference attendees] are those who
should – even prior to the Palestinian people and leadership – bear the
responsibility that rests with us all, to have courage to make fateful decisions
for comprehensive and just peace... A soul that perishes in war is a human
soul, not a military vehicle or a building. Over the years, [mutual killing]
breeds hatred, resentment, and blind extremism that becomes blind terrorism
that does not distinguish one [person] from another or black from white."
Jews Established A Homeland On Land That Is Not
Theirs; They Must Understand The Palestinian People's Determination To
Establish Its State In Its Homeland
"I do not wish to speak of the past and the bitter reality since the
Balfour Declaration. You, and your previous governments, know the facts well,
and if you found the legal and moral justification to establish a national
homeland on land that wasn't yours, then you should now understand the
Palestinian people's determination and struggle to establish its state in its
homeland on the June 4, 1967 borders with Jerusalem as its capital. When some
fanatics and extremists demand that the Palestinian people relinquish its
permanent rights, which were affirmed by international treaties and UN
resolutions, they essentially demand that it abandon its identity, its future
existence, and any hope it has for life. What does this mean? It means the
erasure of the people's rights of self-determination and a blatant challenge to
international legitimacy and to the UN and its charter... Racism and fascism
also contradict the monotheistic faiths, which call for tolerance and
fellowship. Instead of reawakening the hatred of wars and aggression, we should
reawaken the spirit of [second Caliph] 'Omar bin Al-Khattab
and Salah Al-Din – meaning the spirit of tolerance
and respect for rights."
The Palestinians Have Been Extending Their hand In Peace For Decades, But
Israeli Governments Avoid Solving The Crisis
"Since the PLO was established, it has struggled to restore the rights of
the Palestinian people by establishing an independent Palestinian state with
Jerusalem and its environs as its capital, and through the return of refugees
to the homes from which they were expelled, in accordance with UN resolution
181. Historically, the PLO and its leadership have based all their policy and
strategy on international legitimacy and UN resolutions concerning the
Palestinian issue and the rights of our Palestinian people, as well as on the
belief that only comprehensive and just peace would ensure the realization of
rights and bring about security and stability."
"This was expressed in the historic speech by the late brother and leader
Yasser Arafat at the UN in 1974, in which he addressed the whole world,
including the Israeli people and its government, and said our hand is extended
in peace. Indeed, for the Palestinian people and its leadership, peace is not
just words or a refrain that we repeat to our people and the world, but is a
plan of action through which we aspire to realize our permanent and just rights
in accordance with international legitimacy resolutions, chiefly UN resolutions
194, 181, 242, and 338...
"In 1988, negotiations between the PLO and the U.S. administration began,
not due to conflict between the Palestinian and American peoples, but because
the U.S.,... being Israel's first and foremost strategic ally committed to
protecting Israel's existence and security, chose to deal with the reality on
the ground and recognize that the Palestinian people have legitimate rights and
that the Palestinian issue is the heart and the essence of the struggle [in the
Middle East], and that so long as it remains unsolved – the conflict will
continue and even intensify...
"We are a people that yearns for liberty and
struggles for it and for comprehensive and just peace, through which we will
build bridges of love and tolerance. This was embodied by the
"Despite this, the Palestinian people and its leadership did not despair
for a moment. They entered U.S.-sponsored bilateral talks for 20 years, and in
response, Israeli governments used evasion tactics, and moreover, created facts
on the ground by expropriating land, expanding settlements, and increasing
aggression against our people... But the extremists, in their attempt to thwart
the two-state solution that was approved by the whole world, both on the
popular and official levels, did not consider the Palestinian people and its
mighty national rights... and [did not realize] that it is unthinkable for the
international community – that recognized Palestine in the June 4, 1967 borders
including East Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip, and the West Bank – to turn a blind
eye to the attempts of Israel and the current Netanyahu government to thwart or
eliminate this decision with steps that violate international law, and to
continue controlling occupied Arab territory.
"Many changes rocked the world late in the last century, and it is
currently being rocked by others, which could influence the future of the
region and its alliances... The only thing that hasn't changed is the dominant
mentality in
"It is true that those who signed peace agreements and started the
negotiations in Israel are right wing Israeli governments... and it is also
true that the current Israeli government headed by Netanyahu, which is the most
right wing in the history of Israeli administrations... can follow [the example
of those] governments that made peace with Egypt... and Jordan... by taking a
brave step and a daring decision to reach a permanent agreement with the PLO
and recognize the two-state solution. This will ensure that this government
receives widespread support from the opposition parties that are not
represented in it. But it is clear that the [coalition] deal signed with
[Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor]
Lieberman, and the political discourse of this government to this moment,
constitute a discourse of war, not of peace. [It is] an extremist discourse
that will only bring disasters, a racist discourse that reeks of fascism, which
reminds me of statements by many Israeli military commanders on the buds of
fascism in Israel, including [Ehud] Barak and [Moshe] Ya'alon,
and most recently, Amir Peretz. This means that not
only will the Palestinian people pay the price of these policies and trends,
but the entire Israeli society as well."
Palestinians Have Already Chosen Peace, Now Israelis And Regional Peoples Must
Make Their Own Decision
We are facing a historic opportunity, and we must use it and benefit from it...
for the sake of comprehensive and just peace... based on the Arab peace
initiative approved by the Arab summit in Beirut in March 2002, and later
adopted by the [Organization of the] Islamic [Conference] summit in Tehran in
2003. Therefore, 57 Arab and Islamic countries, including Iran, are currently
prepared to have normal political relations with Israel in return for ending
the occupation and recognizing Palestine in the 1967 borders.
"The Palestinian leadership is deeply convinced that ending the
Arab-Israeli and Palestinian-Israeli conflict is the true path to regional
stability and to stopping the influence of the forces of terrorism and
extremism that we witness in a thousand forms and garbs, regardless of the
religious banner they hide behind. The best evidence of this is that we have
"It should be mentioned that the attempts of the current Israeli
government to deceptively claim that normalization with Arab countries is
moving forward with full force is [nothing but] throwing sand in people's
eyes... The security that the Israeli government uses as an excuse cannot be
achieved without comprehensive and just peace... since security is the result
of international guarantees only, and not of control and tyranny. War on terrorism starts by removing the fuse that causes it, which
is the occupation, considered to be the world's last occupation of one people
by another. The key to peace or war in the entire region is the
Palestinian issue. The Israeli government should choose between peace, which
will bring security, stability, and growth, and war, which will bring ruin and
disaster.
"We have already chosen peace from [a position of] strength and out of a
deep conviction in our legitimate struggle to liberate our people. [Now] you,
the Israeli people and the peoples of the entire region, what do you choose? I
propose that this conference adopt a strategy of peace according to the Arab
peace initiative which is based on the two-state solution, and of conducting
measured relations between all countries in the region, including
[1] This refers to U.N. resolutions on the Palestinian issue as well as various
international treaties and charters.
[2] Maannews.net, June 18, 2016.
[3] Maannews.net, June 16, 2016.
Europe's Epochal Elections
Daniel Pipes/
http://www.danielpipes.org/17100/europe-epochal-elections
"The novelty and magnitude of
True, the elites, as symbolized by
The French center-right political party, the Republicans, just held its first-ever U.S.-style primary for the position of
president of the country. In the first of two rounds, seven candidates,
including a former president (Nicholas Sarkozy) and
two former prime ministers (Alain Juppé and François Fillon), vied to place in the top two slots.
For months, Juppé and Sarkozy
ran one-two in the polls, with Fillon a distant
third. Fillon was so invisible that, for example, a
commentary on the French primaries by the excellent Christopher Caldwell
ignored him completely.
Juppé and Sarkozy led
for months, with Fillon a distant third - until the
last few days.
But, as has happened often in recent years (Benjamin Netanyahu and David
Cameron in 2015, Brexit and Donald Trump in 2016),
the more conservative option did far better than expected. In a stunning
surprise, Fillon won 44 percent of the vote, way
ahead of Juppé with 29 percent and Sarkozy with 21 percent. (The other four candidates won 7
percent.)
Fillon went on to crush Juppé
in the second round, 66-34 percent. Fillon will
likely win the first round of the general election and then win the run-off
against either the Socialist Party candidate or Marine Le Pen of the National
Front. He will have offered a way forward between the silly notion of a
"happy identity" (really!) forwarded by Juppé
and the insurgency of le Pen, which seeks "temporarily" to
nationalize the banks.
Assuming Fillon stays true to his platform, his becoming president has epochal importance for
The generally staid François Fillon has a taste
for flamboyantly fast cars.
Fillon has broken the Europe-wide taboo against
a legacy party stealing the thunder of an insurgent party. If he rides this
tactic to victory, he will chart a course for politicians of the center-right
from
The timing of these events is not fortuitous but follows on two
developments: repeated major acts of jihadi violence
in
Alexander van der Billen
and Norbert Hofer, candidates for
Granted,
Together, then, the French and Austrian elections suggest Europeans have two
alternate paths to reject multi-culturalism,
Islamism, and unceasing immigration: either by transforming legacy parties or
supporting insurgent parties.
Whether they will do so in turn depends mainly on two key developments:
the willingness of legacy center-right parties to adopt insurgent party ideas;
and the frequency and death toll of jihadi attacks.
The terra is becoming more cognita.
**Mr. Pipes (DanielPipes.org, [twitter.com/danielpipes]@DanielPipes) is president of the Middle East Forum. © 2016 by Daniel Pipes. All rights reserved.
France: Decomposing in Front of Our Eyes
Yves Mamou/Gatestone Institute/December 07/16
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9174/france-decomposing
Four officers were injured (two badly burned) when around 15
"youths" (Muslim gang-members) swarmed their cars and hurled rocks
and firebombs at them. Police were aggrieved when the minister of interior
called the attackers "little wild ones." Police and opposition
politicians replied that the attackers were not "little wild ones but
criminals who attacked police to kill."
Two students at a vocational training school in
This is a warning. These young people did not attack the school by
chance; they wanted to attack the institution, to attack the State." — Yacine, 21, a student at the
The riot, which lasted for four nights, broke out after the arrest of a
driver who did not stop when asked to by a policeman.
This revolt of one pillar of French society, the police, was the biggest
that ever happened in modern
"Everything that represents state institutions (...) is now
subjected to violence based on essentially sectarian and sometimes ethnic
excesses, fueled by an incredible hatred of our
country. We must be blind or unconscious not to feel concern for national
cohesion". — Thibaud de Montbrial,
lawyer and expert on terrorism.
What is reality in
Violence. It is spreading. Not just terrorist
attacks; pure gang violence. It instills a growing
feeling of insecurity in hospitals, at schools, in the streets -- even in the
police. The media does not dare to say that this violence is coming mainly from
Muslim gangs -- "youths," as they call the in the French media, to
avoid naming who they are. A climate of civil war, however, is spreading
visibly in the police, schools, hospitals and politics.
The Police.
The most jolting evidence of this malaise was to see more than 500 French
police officers demonstrating with police cars and motorcycles on the night of
October 17, without the backing of labor unions,
without authorization, on the Champs Elysées in
On October 18, when Jean-Marc Falcone,
director-general of National Police, met the leaders of the protest, he was
surrounded by hundreds of police officers urging him to resign.
The main cause of their anger seems primarily the violence often directed
against police, and terrorist attacks. On the terrorist level, two policemen
were stabbed to death in Magnanville in June 2016 by
a Muslim extremist, Larossi Aballa.
This spring, more than 300 police officers and gendarmes were injured by
demonstrators. In May, police unions demonstrated in the streets of
This autumn, the last straw was an attack on a police patrol in the
Four police officers were recently injured (two badly burned) when a
group of around 15 "youths" (Muslim gang-members) swarmed their cars
and hurled rocks and firebombs at them, in the
Police were also aggrieved by Bernard Cazeneuve,
the minister of interior, who called the attackers "sauvageons"
("little wild ones"). Police and opposition politicians replied that
the attackers were not "little wild ones but criminals who attacked police
to kill."
"Police are seen as an occupying force," declared Patrice Ribeiro of the Synergie Officiers police commanders' union. "It is not surprising
that violence is spiking."
On October 18, Le Figaro launched an online poll online with one
question: "Do you approve the protest by policemen?" Ninety percent
of the 50,000 respondents answered "yes."
Since then, police demonstrations have spread to other cities. More than
a month after the start of the discontent, police officers were still
protesting in every big city. On November 24, two hundred police officers
demonstrated in
This revolt of one pillar of French society, the police, was the biggest
that ever happened in modern
Schools
Tremblay-en-France (Seine-Saint-Denis close to
One month later, the daily Le Monde held a
meeting with several students, The goal of this
meeting was to try to understand the cause of the violence in in Tremblay. Yacine, 21, a
student at the
Colomiers (
All these attackers were not terrorists, but like Islamic terrorists,
they apparently wanted to destroy "attack the institution, to attack the
State."
Hospitals
On October 16, fifteen individuals accompanying
a patient sowed terror in the emergency department of
"Ten people forced their way into the heart of the ER. The
doctors asked them to leave... When everything stopped, I realized that the ER
was ravaged, patients terrorized, relatives of patients crying."
The attackers were from the district of La
In the same area of La
Politics
On October 14, Nadine Morano, deputy of the
opposition party Les Républicains, tried physically
to prevent an Algerian businessman, Rachid Nekkaz, from entering the Center of Public Finance of Toul, in the east of
President François Hollande is currently under
fire after the publication of a book, A President Should Not Say That... In it, he is reported to have said, "
"We cannot continue to have migrants who arrive without control, in
the context of the attacks... The secession of territories
(no go zones)? How can we avoid a partition? Because it is still what is
going to happen."
President Hollande spends his time apologizing
for things he never said, but should have said because they are true.
French People
French Chinese: The French Chinese live in the same suburbs as Muslims
and are attacked and harassed, to the general indifference of police.
As crime against community members has spiraled,
about 50,000 ethnic Chinese staged a protest march in
The protesters, all of them wearing white T-shirts reading "Security
for All" and waving French flags, rallied at the
Place de la République. They had organized the
demonstration by themselves and were not supported by the traditional
"human rights" groups, which prefer to help Muslim migrants.
Public Opinion: In January 2016, Cevipof, a
think tank of the Paris Institute of Political Studies (Sciences Po), released
its seventh Barometer of Political Trust, a poll published annually to measure
the values of democracy in the country, and based on interviews with 2074
people:
What is your current state of mind? Listlessness 31%, Gloom 29%, Mistrust
28%, Fear: 10%
Do you trust government? Not much 58%, not at all 32%
Do you trust lawmakers? Not much 39%, not at all
16%%
Do you trust the president? Not much 32%; not at all 38%
Do politicians care about what the people think?
Not much 42%, not at all 46%
How democracy is working in
Do you trust political parties? Not much 47%,
not at all 40%
Do you trust the media? Not much 48% not at all
27 %
What do you feel about politics? Distrust 39%;
disgust 33%, boredom 8%
What do you feel about politicians? Disappointment 54%; disgust 20%
Corruption of politicians? Yes 76%
Too many migrants? Yes, plus tend to agree: 65%
Islam is a threat? Yes, plus tend to agree: 58%
Proud to be French? Yes 79%
What this poll shows is the gap between people
and politicians has never been so vast.
Thibaud de Montbrial,
lawyer and expert on terrorism, declared on October 19 to Le Figaro:
The term "dislocation" of French society seems appropriate.
Violence against police, hospitals, attacks that multiply against schools and
teachers... are attacks against pillars of the ruling domain. In other words,
everything that represents state institutions (...) is now subjected to
violence based on essentially sectarian and sometimes ethnic excesses, fueled by an incredible hatred of our country. We must be
blind or unconscious not to feel concern for national cohesion."
*Yves Mamou, based in
© 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.
Fidel Castro: Neither
a saint nor a villain, but a revolutionary
Yossi Mekelberg/Al
Arabiya/December 07/16
Considering the numerous assassination attempts on his life, some argue 638
since he came to power in 1959, it is nothing short of a miracle that former
Cuban leader Fidel Castro died peacefully of natural causes at the grand old
age of 90. He outlasted 11
Since the man known as the “Maximum Leader” passed away, much of what has been
written about him has failed to capture the complexity of his character, the
unforgiving environment in which he had to operate and his utter inexperience
when he came to power at the very young age of 32. He was steering a revolution
under constant hostility from a colossal enemy situated only 90 miles away. A
group of young revolutionaries dismayed by the oppression and deprivation
inflicted by the corrupt regime of Fulgenico Batista, took it upon themselves to bring a much needed
radical change, battling against the odds. The initial 82 would-be guerrilla
fighters led by Fidel, his brother Raul and Che
Guevara that set sail from
Their success was not necessarily due to superior military tactics, but instead
thanks to popular support. Cubans longed for leadership that would resist
exploitation by a small class of landlords, rebel against an incompetent and
despotic government and get rid of US gangsters and exploitative businessmen
who had turned
The Castro brothers’ family background does not indicate an obvious inclination
to revolutionary politics. They were born to a well-to-do farmer father, who
originated from
It is impossible to understand
The
Fidel Castro was not the villain that his enemies try to portray him as, though
to suggest that he could do no wrong would be equally unwise. No violation of
human rights can be justified, the execution of political opponents is
completely wrong, as is their incarceration. It is also wrong to justify any of
these types of actions with the excuse that it is OK because others do it – I
do not believe in human rights relativism. Nevertheless, the Cuban revolution
was one of the least violent revolutions in history. To be sure, the
Castro was a very confident and a single-minded leader, but at the same time
also harbored strong reflective intellectual
inclinations. In my visits to
One can only speculate that Fidel Castro, the most recognizable revolutionary
of the 20th century, together with his comrade Che
Guevara, would have cherished the fiery debate that his death evoked around the
world. If he could answer all his critics, he would probably have repeated what
he told his judges who locked him behind bars in 1953: “History will absolve
me.”
Doubly Targeted – In The
By: Alberto M. Fernandez/MEMRI Daily Brief /December 07/16
We live in a deeply politicized and polarized world. This is a place where
saying that "all lives matter" is seemingly politically incorrect.[1] It is a world where privileged adult students at
expensive, elite American universities complain about "white
privilege" and demand "safe spaces," "trigger word"
protection against upsetting speech, better food choices in the cafeteria and
all sorts of accommodation and coddling.[2]
These seeming contradictions abound outside the West. In the supremacist
discourse of Islamists and jihadis like the Islamic
State, two thoughts predominate: that the "Muslims" (as defined by
the extremist group) are oppressed, essentially everywhere by everyone (but
especially by the Jews, America, and the "Crusaders"), and that the
"Muslims" will one day soon rule the world, "conquer Rome,
enslave your women and break your crosses." They will regain any territory
ever held by any Muslim ruler – although the most cited places are usually
But while the Left and Islamists both play the victim card while dreaming of
imposing their will on others, there are actually groups of people who are
often doubly targeted, doubly victimized in both the East and the West. These
are the victims of extremist violence in the Middle East who after multiple
indignities in the lands of their birth, and after fleeing to the West, run the
risk of being abused by both Islamists and by an inchoate coalition of
Left-wing "social justice warriors" embedded in the bureaucracy,
academia, and advocacy who seek to signal their virtue by serving as a sort of
thought police against political incorrectness related to the Middle East.
Those doubly victimized by the Left and by Islamism are Middle East Christians
and other members of minority religious or ethnic groups like the Yazidis, and any sort of heterodox Muslim, from
freethinkers to ex-Muslims who dare to criticize violent or intolerant
tendencies within Islam.
All of these groups suffered persecution in the pre-modern
But if much of these historic events are in the past, the late 20th and early
21st centuries have continued the trend. Yazidis and
Christians in
And the ire of Islamists and Jihadists is not limited to religious minorities
but also often expressed violently against anyone from the Muslim population
who strays from the extremists' perception of rigid orthodoxy. An ISIS-led
campaign in
Now one would think that, for these targeted people, the situation in the West
would be radically different. After all, this is the West that values freedom
of expression and all sorts of liberty more than anything else, right? It
hasn't worked out entirely that way.
Religious minorities as refugees have been targeted while fleeing with Muslim
refugees (in one notorious case, Christians being thrown overboard to drown)
and, pervasively, while in European refugee camps.[11] According to one survey,
88% of Christian refugees had personally experienced religiously motivated
persecution in by Muslims while in shelters; 32% claimed to have experienced
actual violence.[12] But Western governments are uneasy, to say the least, to
acknowledge cases where Muslims may be the victimizers for fear of stoking
xenophobia. Coptic Christians have also been targeted by Muslims in the West.[13] They have even been threatened by a former
Higher profile persons of Middle East Christian origin are not immune to
stigmatization. When Lebanese-American scholar Walid Phares was identified early on as an advisor for the Trump
campaign, he was criticized in the Western media because of his political
activism decades before in his native
So we see the bizarre development of a liberal elite which supposes that Islamophobia in an allegedly racist West (a place that
actually seems to be irresistible to Muslim migrants) is a greater problem than
the actual persecution (if not extinction) of religious minorities in the
Middle East.[16]
If Middle East Christians fleeing westward have had their challenges, one could
assume that the multi-culturalism of the secular West
would enthusiastically embrace the great religious diversity existing within
Islam. But it is not so simple. Radical Islamists in the West have persecuted
and even killed heterodox Muslims in the West, of course.[17]
This is a process that has been going on for decades, as Salafis
and other extremists seek to either browbeat or violently cow their Muslim
co-religionists in the West.[18]
But the attacking of supposedly heterodox Muslims in the West is not limited to
Islamists. It can come from the political Left as well. There are few better
examples of this than the left-wing Southern Poverty Law Center's (SPLC)
recently released list of "prominent anti-Muslim extremists" which
included three persons of Muslim origin on a list of 15 individuals.[19] And
while ex-Muslim and now atheist Ayaan Hirsi Ali, and former Muslim and now Christian Walid Shoebat made the list, so
did practicing liberal Muslim Maajid Nawaz.[20] Nawaz sarcastically
noted that "the regressive left is now in the business of issuing fatwas against Muslim reformers."[21]
Secular Moroccan activist Zouhair Mazouz
recently pointed out the same phenomenon which labeled
him a racist because "I criticized the misogynistic treatment of women in
predominantly Muslim societies, [and thus] I was accused of racism. Against my own people."[22] The Left hates what they
call these "native voices" whom they accuse of "simplistic
distortions of complex cultures."[23] Egyptian-German scholar Hamid Abdel-Samad has criticized
this "reversed racist perspective" or "racism of low expectations"
in which Leftist European intellectuals and politicians avoid criticism of
intolerance within Islam.[24]
The same activists who bray about listening to victims (of white males or
heterosexuals) are strangely silent when the victims may be Middle East
Christian refugees or immigrants or liberal Muslim reformers. Those victims are
far less interesting and far less in need of open support.
One would hope to see a West which is truly free and truly respects all sorts
of diversity, not just when it fits a left-wing narrative which assigns
inherent virtue or vice – just like jihadis do –
according to their preconceived identity politics agenda. What a great irony
that the coercive identity politics of the Western Left and the deadly identity
politics of Islamism would find common ground in the hunting of heretics and
dissenters from the pure faith!
*Alberto M. Fernandez is Vice-President of MEMRI.
[1] Huffingtonpost.com, July 25, 2016.
[2] Learning.blogs.nytimes.com, September 14, 2016.
[3] MEMRI Daily Brief
[4] Thesufi.com/sufi_biographies_and_stories/mansoor-al-hallaj.html, undated.
[5] Thenational.ae, April 14, 2015.
[6] Hudson.org, June 2, 2016.
[7] Telegraph.co.uk, February 6, 2015.
[8] CNN.com, June 20, 2016.
[9] Nervana1.org, May 5, 2016.
[10] MEMRI Daily Brief No. 105, Fighting A Culture Of
Illusion: The Long Struggle Of Dr. Turki Al-Hamad. October 5, 2016.
[11] Barnabasfund.org/news/Persecution-of-Christians-in-Middle-East-being-replicated-in-European-refugee-shelters,
October 28, 2016.
[12]
Opendoors.de/downloads/Berichte/Open_Doors_Survey_Religiously_motivated_attacks_on_Christian_refugees_in_Germany_2016.pdf,
May 2016.
[13] MEMRI TV Clip #5691, N.Y.-Based Egyptian-American Activist Ayat Oraby Calls For Economic
Boycott Of Copts: The Crescent Must Always Be On Top Of The Cross, September
21, 2016.
[14] PJmedia.com, June 25, 2016.
[15] Cairchicago.org, June 29, 2012.
[16] Crisismagazine.com, October 18, 2016.
[17] BBC, April 6, 2016.
[18] Parool.nl, November 21, 2016.
[19] Splcenter.org, October 26, 2016.
[20] The
[21] Thedailybeast, October 29, 2016.
[22] Wbur.org, December 1, 2016.
[23] Huffingtonpost.com, April 25, 2012.
[24] MEMRI TV Clip #5776, Egyptian-German Scholar Hamed
Abdel-Samad: Western Intellectuals' Refusal To
Criticize Islam Reflects Racism;
The
Michael Eisenstadt and Michael Knights/The Washington
Institute/December 5, 2016
Absent preventive measures, the
Saddam's ouster created a historic opportunity for
One area to watch following the battle for
Moreover, while
MOSUL'S IMPACT
Given that the coalition campaign against IS will likely drive much of the
group underground rather than out of Iraq, a victory in Mosul will create
opportunities for Iran. Many key IS figures are former Baath regime military
officers, and they will go to ground and live to fight another day as previous
generations of Baathist officers did after the 1963
pro-Nasserist coup, the 2003 U.S. invasion, and the
2007 U.S. surge. IS functioned well as an underground
terrorist network in 2011-2014, and
Such an outcome would ensure
In addition,
For these reasons, the United States should consider five steps to counter
Iranian influence in Iraq and prevent the return of IS:
1. Lock in the international coalition's commitment to Baghdad by enlisting its
help on the following: securing Iraq's borders (especially with Syria), dealing
with the heightened terrorism that is almost certain to emerge once the Islamic
State is defeated as a quasi-conventional military force, and creating the
basis for a multinational security venture that will outlast the war against
IS. This means maintaining Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve
(CJTF-OIR) as a broad multinational coalition rather than allowing it to shrink
back into a
2. Rethink the CJTF's approach to security force
assistance, building on the training successes of the past year to establish
create a more effective Iraqi counterinsurgency force. Rather than trying to
create a miniature Western military force, the
3. Help
4. Deter
5. Prepare an inform-and-influence campaign documenting malign Iranian activities
in
**Michael Eisenstadt is the Kahn Fellow and director
of the Military and Security Studies Program at The Washington Institute.
Michael Knights, the Institute's Lafer Fellow,
recently returned from a trip to
Burak Bekdil/Middle East
Quarterly/Winter 2017
Tanks and soldiers closed the Bosphorus bridge and surrounded the Turkish parliament in
On the evening of July 15, 2016, the inhabitants of
All of this happened at a time when no one was expecting a putsch, even in a
country torn by ethnic strife, perpetual terror attacks, and deep ideological
polarization.
Turkish Coups in Brief
Turks soon learned that the coup attempt had not been staged by the military’s
top brass but by dissident officers.[8] A similar attempt on May 27, 1960, had
succeeded, leaving behind the bodies of the executed prime minister and foreign
minister.[9] When in 1971 the military issued an ultimatum to the government of
Prime Minister Süleyman Demirel,
the prime minister resigned.[10]
The military intervened again in 1980, but Gen. Kenan
Evren, elected president after the coup, resumed
parliamentary democracy in 1983. Things would go smoothly until 1997 when the
generals, deeply annoyed by the coalition government of Turkey’s first Islamist
premier, Necmettin Erbakan,
forced him out, not by sending tanks into the street but by masterminding political
intrigues that led to the collapse of his government.[11]
In 2007, Turkey’s top general issued a statement on the military’s website,
warning the Islamist government of then-prime minister Recep
Tayyip Erdoğan against
any move that might undermine Turkey’s secular regime. Erdoğan
did not retreat. Instead, he launched a full-scale struggle “against military
tutelage” and had his long-time Islamist associate, Abdullah Gül, elected president of the country.[12]
In 2011, the entire military leadership, including Chief-of-Staff Isik Kosaner, resigned in protest
over a slew of trials that put hundreds of officers in jail on fabricated
evidence of planning a coup. Since then, the top command has been loyal to Erdoğan.[13]
The perpetrators of the July 15 coup attempt are widely believed to be a
coalition of officers: members of the “Gülen” group,
who had infiltrated military ranks and successfully hidden their ideological
leanings, often by drinking alcohol publicly and showcasing wives without
Islamic headscarves; Kemalists loyal to the
republican tradition of modern Turkey’s founding father, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, and opportunists. Fetullah Gülen, a Muslim
preacher, self-exiled in Pennsylvania since 1999 and once Erdoğan’s
staunchest political ally, has emerged as the prime suspect.[14]
A Turkish Intra-Islamist Fight
After coming to power in parliamentary elections in November 2002, Erdoğan, fearing that his government could face the
typical end of Islamist regimes in the Middle East—a military coup—quickly
allied with Gülen, whose powerful network would help
to shore up Erdoğan against the staunchly
secular military establishment.
After coming to power in parliamentary elections in November 2002, Erdoğan (left) quickly allied with Fetullah
Gülen (right), a Muslim preacher with a powerful
network of followers. But the two leaders have since fallen out, and following
the attempted coup, Erdoğan accused his former
ally of masterminding the uprising.
For many years, the Erdoğan-Gülen alliance was a
marriage made in heaven. But when, at the end of 2013, Erdoğan
decided to break it up, a secretive Gülenist network
in state bureaucracy (mostly in police and judiciary) moved to accuse him, his
family, four cabinet ministers, bureaucrats, and prominent businessmen of
corruption amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars. A flurry of audio
tapes revealing massive fraud was leaked to social media—apparently by Gülenists who had vigorously collected material for
years—in an attempt to slash Erdoğan’s
popularity ahead of local elections in March 2014.[15]
The plan failed as Turks shrugged off embarrassing revelations, and Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) won the
elections with 43 percent of the vote. Erdoğan
then won three more elections: the presidential elections in August 2014 and
two parliamentary elections in June and November 2015.[16]
As Erdoğan lamented after the July 15 failed
coup:
I am saddened for not having been able to unmask this treacherous organization
[Gülenists] a long time ago. For that [failure], I am
liable to God and to my nation. May God and our nation forgive us … We
tolerated them because they spoke of God … We failed to see that this structure
which we viewed as having a common range [goal] through different ways could be
one with different intentions and sinister goals.[17]
That common goal was to Islamize Turkey.
A Suspicious Putsch?
Post-coup analyses, including confessions from suspects, pointed to Gülen as the mastermind. But there were reports that the
suspects might have made statements under torture, and the main question is, who benefits? According to Howard Eissenstat
of St. Lawrence University, Erdoğan
comes out of this tremendously strengthened … This has remobilized a base that
was getting sort of tired of him. It gave him at least a moment in which he
unified all elements of society against a clear threat.[18]
Unsurprisingly, Erdoğan has used the failed coup
to go after, not just the Gülenists, but everyone he
suspected to be hostile to him, including Kurds, leftists, and secularists.
To some extent, the failed Turkish coup looked like the “Reichstag fire,” the
arson attack on the German parliament building in
The Purge
The crackdown following the coup attempt has been brutal, frequently violating
basic principles of Turkish law. Under the state of emergency, it is dangerous
to question whether July 15 was a hoax, orchestrated or tolerated by Erdoğan for political gains. Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag (above) stated that
anyone questioning the coup’s authenticity “likely had a role.”
Erdogan’s actions following the attempted coup
closely resemble historical purges by the Nazis and Soviets. In the days before
July 2, 1934, Nazi Germany undertook the “Röhm-Putsch,”
a series of systematic political executions and arrests of alleged coup
plotters within the Sturmabteilung, the Nazi
paramilitary group, in order to consolidate Hitler’s absolute hold on power.
With many social democrats and communists already imprisoned, Hitler also went
after conservatives.[20] Just a few years later, in
1937–38, Stalin carried out a massive purge in the
In some ways, the Turkish post-July 15 purge does not look much different.
There have been no executions or labor camps, but
millions are suffering on suspicion of links with the Gülen
movement. During the month and a half after July 15, the Turkish government
purged more than 100,000 civil servants and arrested tens of thousands,
including nearly half of
The crackdown was brutal and often violated basic principles of law. Under the
state of emergency, it is dangerous in
More than 10,000 people have been arrested in
On October 30, the government passed a new emergency law allowing judges to ban
a suspect meeting with his defense lawyers for up to
six months, prompting an immediate denunciation of the move as unlawful by the
president of the Turkish Bar Association.[25] More than 10,000 people have been
arrested, and there are serious allegations of torture. Witnesses told Amnesty
International that captured military officers were raped by police; hundreds of
soldiers were beaten, and some detainees were denied food and water and access
to lawyers for days.[26] The Turkish authorities also arrested sixty-two young
cadets aged 14-17 from Kuleli Military school in
Istanbul and charged them with treason, reportedly throwing them in jail and
denying them access to their parents.[27] In September, prominent journalist Ahmet Altan and his brother,
academic and columnist Mehmet Altan,
were detained for questioning. Their alleged crime?
Passing “subliminal messages suggesting a military coup” during a recent television
debate.[28] In yet another case, the police detained
an elderly woman in a wheelchair because they failed to find her
son-in-law.[29]
Other political enemies were also swept up in the purges. On a single day,
September 8, the government suspended more than 11,000 schoolteachers for
suspected links with the militant Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).[30] Three
days later, the government appointed trustees to twenty-eight municipalities
across the country’s predominantly Kurdish southeast on the grounds that local
officials had provided support to both the PKK and the Gülen
network. Elected mayors, too, were suspended without court rulings.[31]
Thorbjorn Jagland,
secretary-general of the Council of Europe, demanded that Ankara produce clear
evidence against coup participants and avoid targeting teachers and journalists
simply because they worked for firms run by the alleged mastermind. Otherwise,
he said, these actions might be challenged in the European Court of Human
Rights,[32] a threat that may further damage Turkey’s strained relations with
the EU.
The insanity also took on absurd forms. In August, the government began to
investigate motorists on terror charges if their car number plates featured the
letters “FG”—an alleged reference to Fetullah Gülen.[33]
Only two months after the coup attempt, the number of Turks traumatized by the
purge was estimated between one million and two million. Some 163 years after
Tsar Nicholas I told the British ambassador to
Damaged Ties with the West
In the early years of Erdoğan’s government, the
West offered him unconditional support, mistakenly thinking that this supposed
Muslim reformist would strengthen democracy in
The government of
With Gülen on U.S. territory, Erdoğan
challenged Washington for the exile’s quick extradition. “We want a terrorist
from you … And you still resist … What court for a terrorist? Is it too
difficult to cancel a Green Card?” the Turkish president said after a visit to
New York, in remarks highlighting his limited understanding of American
democracy.[37] The U.S.-Turkish tension over Gülen came at a time when the two NATO allies also diverged
widely on the issue of the Syrian Kurds, whom Ankara views as terrorists and
Washington as potential allies in a ground operation against the Islamic State.
Erdoğan even claimed that remarks by U.S. Gen.
Joseph Votel, who voiced concerns over the
“longer-term impact” of the coup on the Pentagon’s relations with the Turkish
military, were evidence that the U.S. military was siding with the coup
plotters.[38]
Indeed, Erdoğan and his men did not shy away
from publicly accusing NATO and, in particular, the United States, of possible
roles in the failed coup. Turkish defense minister Fikri Isik stated that NATO
should sit down and think where it went wrong in response to the coup attempt.[39] According to Justice Minister Bozdag,
Washington would be sacrificing its alliance with Ankara to “a terrorist” [Gülen] if it were to refuse to extradite him.[40]
Following the coup attempt, Erdoğan’s government
has reached out to the Russians and moved farther from an alliance with Europe.
Here Erdoğan joins Russian president Vladimir
Putin (right) for a news conference, August 9, 2016, following their meeting in
Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoğlu
even threatened that
Turkey’s newfound love affair with Russia not only pleases Putin but also
Tehran, his partner in the Syrian civil war, and puts Ankara on the side of the
Russian-Iranian-Assad coalition in the five-year-old conflict.
Erdoğan’s response to the failed coup further
weakened
Erdoğan then threatened that
Another European country wary of
Revealingly, even the Turks’ next of kin were not happy. According to the
Associated Press, on August 3, thousands of Turkish Cypriots in their tiny statelet on the divided island took to the streets to
protest against “
A Society of “Passionate” Politics
Turkish politics is an anomaly in a century-long war of religion between the
pious and secular adherents of the same sect of the same religion. The
thousands of people, urged by Erdoğan to take to
the streets in the aftermath of the failed coup, passionately chanted “Allahu Akbar.” They were in the streets not to defend
democracy but to defend the man whom they viewed as guardian of their religion.
Ironically, the same “pro-democracy” crowds chanted the slogan, “We want the
death penalty [back].”[50]
Religion was why Erdoğan and Gülen
had long been allied against the “infidel” Kemalists,
leftists, and seculars. Religion was also why Erdoğan’s
and Gülen’s Sunni Islamist followers are now at each
other’s throat. Erdoğan and Gülen
did not break up because one of them abandoned their common faith. They keep
praying to the same God, reciting the same prayers, while their followers keep
attending the same mosques.
One lesson from the failed Turkish coup is that Islam the religion or Islamism
the political ideology will never forge the alliances Islamists often seek.
Political Islam is not the right glue for enduring political alliances.
Ironically, for many years, Erdoğan feared a
coup by Kemalist generals. Instead, the coup attempt
came from fellow Islamists disguised within the military as secular officers.
Moreover, on July 15, Kemalist officers helped Erdoğan by fighting their crypto-Islamist colleagues.
In short, July 15 was an Islamist coup attempt targeting Islamists.
For Erdoğan and his camp, the Gülenists were the useful dupes; for the Gülenists, Erdoğan and his
AKP bigwigs were the useful dupes; and for both, the pro-government liberals
were the useful dupes. Probably all of them were right. The alliance of the
faithful was designed to crush the secular system, to Islamize
In the early years of Erdoğan’s government, the
West offered him unconditional support, mistakenly thinking that this supposed
Muslim reformist would build a strong democracy in
This is hardly surprising. Since the foundation of modern
What Now?
Just because a coup was averted on July 15 and the parliamentary system is
ostensibly functioning does not make
The Turkish Röhm-Putsch will run at full speed with
thousands of non-Gülenists punished on false charges.
Meanwhile, crypto-Gülenists who successfully disguise
themselves will plan the movement’s recovery, thus adding to Erdoğan’s deep paranoia. And millions of opportunists
will keep informing on their rivals and enemies as Gülenists.
Erdoğan’s popularity still runs high. His party
won 49.5 percent of the national vote in the November 2015 parliamentary elections,
and some pollsters put his ratings today as high as 67 percent.[51] The coup
provided Erdoğan the opportunity to introduce
the executive, presidential system he has long craved. His push is no longer
controversial.
Burak Bekdil is an
Ankara-based columnist for Hürriyet Daily News and a
fellow of the Middle East Forum. He has written for the
[1] Hürriyet (
[2] Reuters, July 16, 2016.
[3] The Wall Street Journal, July 17, 2016.
[4] RT TV (
[5] Hürriyet, July 18, 2016.
[6] Ibid., July 29,2016.
[7] Ibid., July 17, 2016.
[8] CNN News, July 18, 2016.
[9] William Armstrong, “
[10]
[11] Ibid.
[12] The Guardian (
[13] The New York Times, July 29, 2011.
[14] The Independent (
[15] Der Spiegel (
[16] “
[17] TRT Haber TV (
[18] Associated Press, July 16, 2016.
[19] The Guardian, Jan. 12, 2008.
[20] Holocaust Encyclopedia, r.v. “Röhm Purge,” accessed
Oct. 21, 2016.
[21] Encyclopædia Britannica, s.v.
“Purge trials: Soviet history,” accessed Oct. 21, 2016.
[22] Reuters, Aug. 18, 2016.
[23] Hürriyet, July 25, July 28, 2016; “
[24] Hürriyet, July 25, 2016; The
Guardian, July 27, 2016.
[25] Hürriyet, Oct. 31, 2016.
[26] CNN News, July 27, 2016.
[27] The Daily Mail (
[28] Hürriyet, Sept. 10, 2016.
[29] Ibid., Sept. 3, 2016; AA (Anadolu Ajansı,
[30] CNN News, Sept. 8, 2016.
[31] Hürriyet, Sept. 11, 2016.
[32] EurActiv Media,
[33] Hürriyet, Aug. 22, 2016.
[34] Efraim Karsh and Inari Karsh, Empires of the
Sand: the Struggle for Mastery in the
[35] Hürriyet, July 28, 2016.
[36] MemurlarNet Media, July 31, 2016; Strategic
Culture Foundation Online Journal (
[37] Bob Unruh, “Obama Lives in Make-believe World with Muslim Dictator Erdogan,” World Net Daily (
[38] Voice of
[39] Hürriyet, Aug. 15, 2016.
[40] Associated Press, Aug. 9, 2016.
[41] Time Magazine, Aug. 11, 2016.
[42] NBC News, Nov. 28, 2015.
[43] Reuters, July 18, 2016.
[44] Associated Press, July 18, 2016.
[45] Reuters, Aug. 4, 2016.
[46] Ibid., Aug. 2, 2016.
[47] Ibid., Aug. 2, 2016; Sept. 21, 2016.
[48] Ibid., Aug. 3, 2016.
[49] The National Herald (
[50] BBC News, July 19, 2016.
[51] Bloomberg News (
Related Topics: Russia/Soviet Union, Turkey and Turks, US policy | Burak Bekdil | Winter 2017 MEQ
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