llLCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN

June 04/16

Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani

http://www.eliasbejjaninews.com/newsbulletin16/english.june04.16.htm

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Bible Quotations For Today

I came from the Father and have come into the world; again, I am leaving the world and am going to the Father
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 16/25-28:"‘I have said these things to you in figures of speech. The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures, but will tell you plainly of the Father. On that day you will ask in my name. I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf; for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. I came from the Father and have come into the world; again, I am leaving the world and am going to the Father.’"

Moses fled and became a resident alien in the land of Midian. There he became the father of two sons."
Acts of the Apostles 07/17-29:"‘But as the time drew near for the fulfilment of the promise that God had made to Abraham, our people in Egypt increased and multiplied until another king who had not known Joseph ruled over Egypt. He dealt craftily with our race and forced our ancestors to abandon their infants so that they would die.At this time Moses was born, and he was beautiful before God. For three months he was brought up in his father’s house; and when he was abandoned, Pharaoh’s daughter adopted him and brought him up as her own son. So Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in his words and deeds. ‘When he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his relatives, the Israelites. When he saw one of them being wronged, he defended the oppressed man and avenged him by striking down the Egyptian. He supposed that his kinsfolk would understand that God through him was rescuing them, but they did not understand. The next day he came to some of them as they were quarrelling and tried to reconcile them, saying, "Men, you are brothers; why do you wrong each other?" But the man who was wronging his neighbour pushed Moses aside, saying, "Who made you a ruler and a judge over us? Do you want to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?"When he heard this, Moses fled and became a resident alien in the land of Midian. There he became the father of two sons."

Pope Francis's Tweet For Today
Our priestly life is given over in service, in closeness to the People of God, with the joy of those who hear the Lord.
Notre vie sacerdotale se donne dans le service, dans la proximité du peuple de Dieu, avec la joie de celui qui écoute son Seigneur.
إن حياتنا الكهنوتيّة تُبذل في الخدمة والقُرب من شعب الله الأمين وفرح من يصغي إلى ربّه.

Question: "What is the meaning of life?"
GotQuestions.org
Answer: What is the meaning of life? How can purpose, fulfillment, and satisfaction in life be found? How can something of lasting significance be achieved? So many people have never stopped to consider these important questions. They look back years later and wonder why their relationships have fallen apart and why they feel so empty, even though they may have achieved what they set out to accomplish. An athlete who had reached the pinnacle of his sport was once asked what he wished someone would have told him when he first started playing his sport. He replied, “I wish that someone would have told me that when you reach the top, there's nothing there.” Many goals reveal their emptiness only after years have been wasted in their pursuit.
Watch the video version of this article
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_C7DzloSiCM&feature=youtu.be
In our humanistic culture, people pursue many things, thinking that in them they will find meaning. Some of these pursuits include business success, wealth, good relationships, sex, entertainment, and doing good to others. People have testified that while they achieved their goals of wealth, relationships, and pleasure, there was still a deep void inside, a feeling of emptiness that nothing seemed to fill.
The author of the biblical book of Ecclesiastes describes this feeling when he says, “Meaningless! Meaningless! ...Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless” (Ecclesiastes 1:2). King Solomon, the writer of Ecclesiastes, had wealth beyond measure, wisdom beyond any man of his time or ours, hundreds of women, palaces and gardens that were the envy of kingdoms, the best food and wine, and every form of entertainment available. He said at one point that anything his heart wanted, he pursued. And yet he summed up “life under the sun”—life lived as though all there is to life is what we can see with our eyes and experience with our senses—is meaningless. Why is there such a void? Because God created us for something beyond what we can experience in the here-and-now. Solomon said of God, “He has also set eternity in the hearts of men...” (Ecclesiastes 3:11). In our hearts we are aware that the “here-and-now” is not all that there is.
In Genesis, the first book of the Bible, we find that God created mankind in His image (Genesis 1:26). This means that we are more like God than we are like anything else (any other life form). We also find that before mankind fell into sin and the curse of sin came upon the earth, the following things were true: 1) God made man a social creature (Genesis 2:18-25); 2) God gave man work (Genesis 2:15); 3) God had fellowship with man (Genesis 3:8); and 4) God gave man dominion over the earth (Genesis 1:26). What is the significance of these things? God intended for each of these to add to our fulfillment in life, but all of these (especially man's fellowship with God) were adversely affected by man's fall into sin and the resulting curse upon the earth (Genesis 3).
In Revelation, the last book of the Bible, God reveals that He will destroy this present earth and heavens and usher in the eternal state by creating a new heaven and a new earth. At that time, He will restore full fellowship with redeemed mankind, while the unredeemed will have been judged unworthy and cast into the lake of fire (Revelation 20:11-15). The curse of sin will be done away with; there will be no more sin, sorrow, sickness, death, or pain (Revelation 21:4). God will dwell with them, and they shall be His sons (Revelation 21:7). Thus, we come full circle: God created us to have fellowship with Him, man sinned, breaking that fellowship, God restores that fellowship fully in the eternal state. To go through life achieving everything only to die separated from God for eternity would be worse than futile! But God has made a way to not only make eternal bliss possible (Luke 23:43) but also life on earth satisfying and meaningful. How is this eternal bliss and “heaven on earth” obtained?
Meaning of life restored through Jesus Christ
Real meaning in life, both now and in eternity, is found in the restoration of the relationship with God that was lost with Adam and Eve's fall into sin. That relationship with God is only possible through His Son, Jesus Christ (Acts 4:12; John 1:12; 14:6). Eternal life is gained when we repent of our sin (no longer want to continue in it) and Christ changes us, making of us new creations, and we rely on Jesus Christ as Savior.
Real meaning in life is not found only in accepting Jesus as Savior, as wonderful as that is. Rather, real meaning in life is when one begins to follow Christ as His disciple, learning of Him, spending time with Him in His Word, communing with Him in prayer, and in walking with Him in obedience to His commands. If you are not a Christian (or perhaps a new believer), you might be saying to yourself, “That does not sound very exciting or fulfilling to me!” But Jesus made the following statements:
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30). “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10b). “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it” (Matthew 16:24-25). “Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart” (Psalm 37:4).
What all of these verses are saying is that we have a choice. We can continue to seek to guide our own lives, which results in emptiness, or we can choose to pursue God and His will for our lives with a whole heart, which will result in living life to the full, having the desires of our hearts met, and finding contentment and satisfaction. This is so because our Creator loves us and desires the best for us (not necessarily the easiest life, but the most fulfilling).
The Christian life can be compared to the choice of whether to purchase the expensive seats at a sporting event that are close to the action, or pay less and watch the game from a distance. Watching God work “from the front row” is what we should choose but, sadly, is not what most people choose. Watching God work firsthand is for whole-hearted disciples of Christ who have truly stopped pursuing their own desires to pursue instead God's purposes. They have paid the price (complete surrender to Christ and His will); they are experiencing life to its fullest; and they can face themselves, their fellow man, and their Maker with no regrets. Have you paid the price? Are you willing to? If so, you will not hunger after meaning or purpose again.
Recommended Resources: Cure for the Common Life: Living in Your Sweet Spot by Max Lucado and Logos Bible Software.
What's new on GotQuestions.org?

Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on June 03-04/16

In Lebanon, the presidency is the priority/Nayla Tueni/Al Arabiya/June 03/16
Tipoli’s Example/Ahmad El-Assaad/June 02, 2016
Everybody’s Gathered at the Gates of Fallujah/Abdulrahman Al-Rashed/Asharq Al Awsat/June 03/16
Iran’s preference – Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump/Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Al Arabiya/June 03/16
All eyes on Fallujah/Abdulrahman al-Rashed/Al Arabiya/June 03/16
Financial rewards aside, the Uber deal actually empowers Saudi Women/Faisal J. Abbas/Al Arabiya/June 03/16
What to expect from this week's Paris talks on Israeli-Palestinian peace/Laura Rozen/Al-Monitor/June 03/16
Peshmerga gaining ground en route to Mosul/Shelly Kittleson/Al-Monitor/June 03/16
Does Liberman have his eye on Netanyahu's throne/Yossi Melman/Jerusalem Post/June 03/16
Will Israel's new defense minister agree to meet with Abbas/Shlomi Eldar/Al-Monitor/June 03/16
Khomeini’s grandson says there is more to Islam than hijab/Arash Karami/Al-Monitor/June 03/16
Sanctioned Syrian Official Invited To D.C. Event Delivers Outrageous Defense Of Assad/Jessica Schulberg/The Huffington Post/June 03/16
European Union Declares War on Internet Free Speech/Soeren Kern/Gatestone Institute/June 03/16
France and Stalin’s Ladies’ Fan/Amir Taheri/Asharq Al Awsat/JUne 03/16

Titles For Latest Lebanese Related News published on  June 03-04/16

Photo of Hezbollah's rising star uncovered
IDF troops simulate Hezbollah warfare
Lebanon warns Hezbollah against threatening banks
In Lebanon, the presidency is the priority
Tipoli’s Example
Rifi Says Initiative in Tripoli's Elections was Ignored
Britain Slams Claims it Pushed for the Nomination of Franjieh
Asiri Rejects Mashnouq Claims, Says No Saudi Interference in Presidential File
Mashnouq Says Franjieh Nomination was 'UK-U.S.-Saudi' Idea, Urges Rifi to Stop Mentioning 'Martyrs'
Arsal Man Killed as Hizbullah Clashes with al-Nusra in Outskirts
Ricky Martin Visits Syrian Refugee Children in Lebanon
State Security Unveils Terror Cell in Mount Lebanon
U.S. Embassy Trains 260 ISF Members on VIP Protection
Lebanese Army Arrests Two in Ayal and Confiscates Arms
Mustaqbal Urges Clearing Militants, Hizbullah from Arsal Outskirts after Resident Killed by Shelling
Fillon: Rahi represents Christian voice in Lebanon, Middle East
Bassil: Excuses are many, reason is to stop Janneh dam
Azzi from Geneva: To set up buffer zone inside Syria to accommodate displaced Syrians
Russian Ambassador highly values Lebanese army steadfastness
Rifi in televised interview discloses inclination to form movement in upcoming stage
Fathali confirms Iran support for Lebanon
Bar Association denounces detention of lawyer Nabil Halabi
 

Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin For Miscellaneous Reports And News published on  June 03-04/16

Canada renews calls for improved humanitarian access in Syria
IRAN: 62 people arrested in a party in Bandar Abbas
Iran hangs man and woman in prison
Syria regime strikes kill 31 in and near Aleppo
Coalition drops ammo to Syrian rebels fighting ISIS
Homeland Security chief: US approves 4,700 Syrian refugees
ISIS ‘gradually focusing more’ on global attacks
Iran-born Turkish trader seeks $50 mln bail in US sanctions case
Iran’s Khamenei: US, ‘evil’ Britain can’t be trusted
Libyans will eradicate ISIS in their country: PM
Qatar: 11 killed in labor accommodation fire
Israel Says Paris Meeting 'Distances Peace' as Palestinians Hail 'Very Significant Step'
Paris on Alert as Swollen Seine Reaches Peak Levels
Turkey Says Germany Still Ally after Genocide Resolution
Over 1,000 Iraqi Forces Wounded in Fallujah Operation
 

Links From Jihad Watch Site for  June 03-04/16
1930’s Iran: “Moth-eaten mullahs”
US Muslim leader at Chicago conference: “Islam is here to dominate”
1,037 Syrian refugees admitted in May: Two Christians, 1,035 Muslims
Muslims hack over 100 Catholic websites
CFR’s Max Abrahms claims Syrian jihad groups growing because they’re moderate
Robert Spencer, PJ Media: Do Facebook and Twitter want foes of jihad dead?
London, Ontario police cars marked in Arabic above Canadian flag
Muslim cleric says astrologist affronts Islam, threatens him with shoe
Nigeria: Muslim mob beheads Christian woman for “blasphemy”
The Deborah Weiss Moment: Ballet Jihad
Georgia: Muslim woman in burqa attacks family with American flag

Latest Lebanese Related News published on  June 03-04/16

Photo of Hezbollah's rising star uncovered
Roi Kais/Ynetnews/June 03/16
Talal Hamia, head of Unit 910, Hezbollah's foreign operations unit, was published for first time; he is expected to be promoted as a result of the killing of Mustafa Badr al-Din. The first ever photo of Talal Hamia, the head of Hezbollah’s foreign operations unit - Unit 910- and whose name is linked with the attack on the Jewish community building in Buenos Aires in 1994, was published online Thursday afternoon.It was Ronen Solomon, the intelligence analyst for Intelli Times which closely monitors Hezbollah, who came upon the picture. Hamia, who comes from Baalbek in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, is considered one of the veteran commanders of Hezbollah’s military wing. According to reports in recent years, based on intelligence sources, he in effect replaced Badr al-Din after the International Court included the latter on the indictment regarding the murder of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Similar to Badr al-Din, Hamia is also a mysterious figure. His name has been linked to the planning of terrorist attacks perpetrated by Hezbollah abroad. In 2012, the US Treasury Department placed sanctions on him. In a recent publication of Asharq Al-Awsat, an Arabic language newspaper published in London, reported the person to replace Badr al-Din - who served as a senior figure in Hezbollah’s military wing and the commander of the terrorist organization in Syria - is Mustafa Mughniyeh, Imad Mughniyeh’s eldest son, who was killed Damascus in 2008. But the credibility of the report is in doubt as the newspaper, owned by Saudi Arabia, is known for its biased coverage against Iran and Hezbollah. virtue of being owned by a Saudi. At the same time, the Special Tribunal for Lebanon - the international court dealing with the assassination of former Lebanese President Rafik Hariri in 2005 - does not accept the assertion that Badr al-Din is involved in the former’s assassination. Therefore the trial is taking its usual course.

IDF troops simulate Hezbollah warfare
Yoav Zitun/Ynetnews /June 03/16
Camouflage, Kalashnikov rifles, and planting bombs were all a part of the Nahal Brigade's recent drill simulating warfare against Hezbollah. The drill took place in the Galilee region, with Nahal soldiers acting as Hezbollah fighters. The IDF has recently upgraded its enemy simulation process during combat training, but its Nahal infantry brigade has taken things one step further, ordering some of its fighters to plan and simulate a battle against the IDF while acting as a Hezbollah combat company.  As part of the Nahal's training, which has been taking place over the past several months, some of the brigade's companies were converted to replicate those of the Lebanese-Shiite terror organization, with the rest of the forces fighting against them. The Nahal's "Hezbollah Companies" wear camouflage uniforms (as opposed to the IDF's olive-green uniform), use weapons that were actually captured from Hezbollah such as AK-47 rifles and RPG launchers, and employ Hezbollah tactics, such as placing bombs on the IDF's expected path. In addition, these companies have been provided command and control centers modeled on intelligence information relating to the originals, which would be used by Hezbollah in case of a third armed conflict in Lebanon. These centers have deliberately been placed by Hezbollah in the midst of civilian areas, and thus so have the simulated command hubs of the IDF "Hezbollah Companies."The "Hezbollah Companies" operated in the Druze village of Samia in the Galilee, with regular Nahal troops being assigned the task of taking and clearing their positions, following a 30 kilometer march. Both sides fired blanks at each other during the drills and used pyrotechnics to simulate the battle scenarios they would likely encounte in a Southern Lebanon clash with Hezbollah's real fighters. "Enemy simulation is a profession for us, and we check the commanders and fighters in enemy simulations as a legitimate way of gauging how they would act in the face of the IDF if they were Hezbollah's people?," a senior Nahal officer said, "They are tested on where the correct place to lay their Improvised Explosive Devices (IED) is on the outskirts of the village in the face of IDF forces. A 'Hezbollah Company' needs to cleverly place lookouts, whose goal is to identify battalion soldiers approaching." "When the enemy simulation company identified (the regular Nahal troops) first, we 'destroyed' the force that was identified and the battalion continued without it," the officer continued. "This all happens in a Galilee village, with barking dogs, surrounded by building structures in town outskirts with large vegetation. (It smells like ) the scents of the village. Construction is low, there are fences around houses, and (we evem simulate) the same way of parking on the sides of narrow streets. It's the closest (we can get) to the expected reality in Southern Lebanon

Lebanon warns Hezbollah against threatening banks
Staff writer, Al Arabiya News Friday, 3 June 2016/Lebanon’s Interior Minister Nohad Machnouk has warned Iran-backed militia group Hezbollah against threatening Lebanese banks and said the country will not stand against any US sanction placed on the group. The warning comes as ministers and members of parliament belonging to Lebanon's Hezbollah could be sanctioned under a new US law targeting the group's finances, a US Treasury official said last week. The US Hezbollah International Financing Prevention Act (HIFPA) passed in December threatens sanctions against anyone who finances Hezbollah in a significant way. It has ignited an unprecedented dispute between Lebanon's most powerful group - the heavily armed Hezbollah - and a central bank widely seen as a pillar in a country plagued by political fatigue. This article is also available in Arabic on AlArabiya.net.

In Lebanon, the presidency is the priority
Nayla Tueni/Al Arabiya/June 03/16
Parliament speaker Nabih Berri’s recent proposal to hold parliamentary elections before electing a president is due to despair with political parties and some of his allies, which prevent electing a president, boycott parliamentary sessions, involve Lebanon in foreign wars, and suggest proposals that violate the constitution. All this has obstructed political and democratic life in Lebanon, and made it a hostage of Hezbollah, which is strong due to its arms. This almost makes Lebanon a failed state in the eyes of other nations and peoples, as no other country in the world is incapable of electing a president and meeting constitutional deadlines.
Obstacles
Berri’s proposal faces several obstacles. The first is that it has not been possible to agree on a new law for parliamentary elections. This takes us a step back as it deprives Lebanon of a chance to approve a modern electoral law that guarantees the representation of all society. Perhaps this is what many political parties want, as they think the previous law - known as the 1960 electoral law - will guarantee their continuous presence in power. Those obstructing the election of a president will continue to do so, as there is nothing that obliges them to do otherwise . The other obstacle is that Berri is unable to guarantee that newly elected MPs - should elections happen - will participate in electing a president. This is because holding parliamentary elections under the 1960 law will guarantee the return of most of the current MPs. Those obstructing the election of a president will continue to do so, as there is nothing that obliges them to do otherwise. They will continue to do so even if they promise not to, as they will not be held accountable. People no longer believe their promises, but the current system does not allow people to hold their officials accountable. Electing a president is the top priority, and there is no need for judicial discretion that obliges MPs to practice their electoral duty. We must confront those who submit to foreign wills that have nothing to do with Lebanon’s interests.
This article was first published in an-Nahar on May 30, 2016.

Tipoli’s Example
Ahmad El-Assaad/June 02, 2016
There is no doubt that municipal elections in the different Lebanese regions have expressed the Lebanese people’s desire to change the political status quo, regardless of their religious affiliations. Out of the ballot boxes emerged the cries of opposition, shy here, resounding there. They were against the performance of the political forces, and reflective of the Lebanese people’s dissatisfaction of the current political situation. This trend found its apex in Tripoli’s elections, which were the clearest representation of the people’s anger with a political class who has proved to be incompetent and unable, whose fluctuating political positions have made the people grow weary – not to mention the daily findings of corruption in many of its components. What happened in Tripoli, and in other towns and village at a lesser degree, was democracy at its best.
Democracy isn’t just the right to vote; it is to be able to draw change from the act of voting. Democracy shines bright when it achieves its most noble goal: to be a means for the people to hold the political class accountable, and a way to transfer power. This is exactly what happened in Tripoli.
Up until recently, Tripoli was the ground of a fierce civil battle; and now, it is the perfect example for what the practice of democracy should be like.
We read left and right about the reasons that led to such results, but the conclusion of all these readings is that the people of Tripoli wanted to send a simple message to their traditional political class: “No. we will not make the same mistake again. We’re tired of you, your concessions and the deals you make among you. It is time to try a new option.”And if this new option that the people of Tripoli chose is General Ashraf Rifi, then accountability must not stop there. The same accountability that brought Rifi should be applied to him in the next elections, in order to either confirm him, or opt for another. And so on and so forth, with him or with another. Maybe a year from now, in the parliamentary elections we wish and hope for, or after six years in the next municipal elections, the people of Tripoli must hold Ashraf Rifi accountable. If it turns out that he stuck to his principles and delivered his promises, they must renew their trust in him. Otherwise, they must act accordingly and once again, pick a new option.
This is the very essence of democracy worldwide, this is how its wheel turns. But the wheel of democracy in Lebanon turns in place, not pushing the country forward, and that’s because of the absence of checks and balances of the elected officials. The Lebanese people regularly complain and whine about the situation of their country. But when it is time to hold accountable, when the chance for change arises during elections, most of them reelect the same political class that brought the country to the deterioration and decline it is in today. The municipal elections have presented us with an exceptional example, that of the people of Tripoli, who have proved to be very progressive in their political and electoral behavior, compare to the rest of the country.Congratulations are in order for Tripoli… for being a role model for all of the Lebanese people.

Rifi Says Initiative in Tripoli's Elections was Ignored
Naharnet/May 03/16/Resigned Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi stated on Friday, that he made an initiative that guarantees the representation of the Christians and Alawites in the municipal elections in Tripoli but the other party did not respond to it. “I explained to Patriarch Bshara al-Rahi the initiative that I made to represent the Christians and Alawites in the municipal elections in Tripoli, but the other party did not reply,” said Rifi from Bkirki after a meeting with Rahi. He pointed out to the people's needs which shaped the outcome of the elections, he said: “The people have needs and demands. They are saying that the decision is theirs.”Rifi backed a municipal list in the northern city of Tripoli which scored a landslide victory on Sunday in the face of other lists mainly one backed by a major alliance between al-Mustaqbal Movement, ex-PM Najib Miqati, and the major local powers in the city. Rifi's list clinched 18 seats on the municipal council as the broad coalition's list won only six. Christian and Alawite candidates representing the city's two minorities failed to win any seats, which is a first in the history of Tripoli's municipal elections.

Britain Slams Claims it Pushed for the Nomination of Franjieh
Naharnet/May 03/16/Britain slammed on Friday the statements made by Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq that it encouraged the nomination of Marada chief MP Suleiman Franjieh for the post of president. "We do not support or oppose any particular candidate for the presidency. The election of a president is the decision, and the responsibility, of the Lebanese,” said a statement issued by the British embassy in Beirut. “We are ready to work with the next president of Lebanon, whoever that may be. We continue to urge the election of a president as soon as possible,” added the statement. Mashnouq declared in a televised interview on Thursday that the British pushed for the nomination of Franjieh, he said: “Franjieh's nomination did not come from (al-Mustaqbal Movement chief) Saad Hariri but rather from the British foreign ministry and later the Americans and Saudi Arabia.”Lebanon has been in a state of vacuum at its top state post since May 2014 when the term of the president ended. Franjieh and founder of the Free Patriotic Movement MP Michel Aoun are the major candidates running for the elections, in addition to MP Henri Helou.

Asiri Rejects Mashnouq Claims, Says No Saudi Interference in Presidential File
Naharnet/May 03/16/Saudi Ambassador to Lebanon Ali Awadh Asiri voiced astonishment on Friday at the latest statements made by Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq who said that the kingdom had several roles in Lebanon's internal files, the state-run National News Agency said. “I am surprised at the stances made by the Interior Minster that involved the kingdom in several internal files,” said Asiri in a statement. “The kingdom has never and will not interfere in Lebanon's internal affairs particularly the file of the presidency. This file is sovereign and the brethren Lebanese alone have the right to take a decision regarding it,” remarked the ambassador.“The kingdom's role is limited to the encouragement of Lebanese officials in order to find a solution for the political crisis, end the presidential vacuum and help Lebanon cross to the stage of stability and prosperity whoever the new president may be ” he added.
Mashnouq fired a series of heated statements in an televised interview on Thursday where he said that the decision to nominate Marada Movement chief MP Suleiman Franjieh for the presidency was not ex-PM Saad Hariri's idea. “Suleiman Franjieh's nomination did not come from Saad Hariri but rather from the British foreign ministry and later the Americans and Saudi Arabia,” Mashnouq disclosed. Mashnouq also said that the visit of al-Mustaqbal movement chief Hariri to Damascus in 2009 and his meeting with Syrian President Bashar Assad, happened at the request of Saudi Arabia. Lebanon has been without a president since May 2014 due to the rival parties' failure to agree on a candidate and Hariri launched late in 2015 a proposal to nominate Franjieh for the country's top Christian post. His initiative was however met with rejection and reservations from the country's main Christian parties as well as Hizbullah, which is clinging to the nomination of Change and Reform bloc chief MP Michel Aoun. Change and Reform and Hizbullah, as well as March 14's Lebanese Forces, argue that Aoun is more eligible than Franjieh to become president given the size of his parliamentary bloc and his bigger influence in the Christian community.

Mashnouq Says Franjieh Nomination was 'UK-U.S.-Saudi' Idea, Urges Rifi to Stop Mentioning 'Martyrs'
Naharnet/May 03/16/Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq on Thursday defended al-Mustaqbal movement's policies in the past few years, as he criticized the recent political rhetoric of resigned Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi. Describing Rifi as a “friend,” Mashnouq congratulated the minister on his stunning municipal victory in the northern city of Tripoli but urged him to stop mentioning slain ex-PM Rafik Hariri and other assassinated figures in his daily political rhetoric. “It's about time we stopped mentioning the martyrs. Minister Rifi knows very well that we have not forgotten the martyrs, but the issue of martyrs must not become a daily rhetoric,” Mashnouq added in an interview on LBCI television. A list backed by Rifi achieved a surprising victory in Sunday's polls in Tripoli against a list backed by Hariri, ex-PM Najib Miqati, former ministers Faisal Karami and Mohammed al-Safadi, Jamaa Islamiya, al-Ahbash and the Arab Democratic Party. The Rifi-backed list clinched 16 seats on the municipal council as the broad coalition's list won eight. Reminiscing Saad Hariri's visit to Damascus in 2009 and his meeting with Syrian President Bashar Assad, the minister noted that it happened at the request of Saudi Arabia. “The previous Saudi policy is what forced us to go to Damascus to seek pacification with the Syrian regime and it was behind the stances that al-Mustaqbal movement took,” Mashnouq added. He also revealed that the decision to nominate Marada Movement chief MP Suleiman Franjieh for the presidency was not ex-PM Hariri's idea. “Suleiman Franjieh's nomination did not come from Saad Hariri but rather from the British foreign ministry and later the Americans and Saudi Arabia,” Mashnouq disclosed. He noted that the move was an international decision based on the viewpoint that Hizbullah will sooner or later “return defeated from Syria.”Considering the possibility that Hizbullah might then act “like an elephant in a china shop,” world powers suggested offering the party “a guarantee president rather than a guarantee political system,” Mashnouq said. “This is what the West thought and that's why it supported Franjieh's nomination,” the minister explained. He noted however that the election of a new president “is not imminent due to the known reasons.” Lebanon has been without a president since May 2014 due to the rival parties' failure to agree on a candidate and Hariri launched late in 2015 a proposal to nominate Franjieh for the country's top Christian post. His initiative was however met with rejection and reservations from the country's main Christian parties as well as Hizbullah, which is clinging to the nomination of Change and Reform bloc chief MP Michel Aoun. Change and Reform and Hizbullah, as well as March 14's Lebanese Forces, argue that Aoun is more eligible than Franjieh to become president given the size of his parliamentary bloc and his bigger influence in the Christian community.

Arsal Man Killed as Hizbullah Clashes with al-Nusra in Outskirts
Naharnet/May 03/16/A Lebanese man who hails from Arsal was killed Friday in the outskirts of the restive northeastern border town as clashes erupted between Hizbullah and the Qaida-linked al-Nusra Front in the area, media reports said. “Hizbullah-Nusra clashes in Arsal's outskirts have resulted in the death of a Lebanese man from the al-Fliti family who was working at his field and the army intelligence directorate is making contacts for a ceasefire,” Voice of Lebanon radio (100.5) reported. Future TV for its part said “Lebanese citizen Hassan al-Fliti died of his wounded after Hizbullah members opened fire at him in Arsal's outskirts.”Earlier in the day, media reports said Hizbullah attacked a group of Nusra militants in the al-Rahweh area southeast of Arsal. Militants from al-Nusra and the Islamic State group are entrenched in rugged mountains along the Lebanese-Syrian border and the Lebanese army regularly shells their positions while Hizbullah has engaged in clashes with them on the Syrian side of the border. The two groups overran the town of Arsal in 2014 and engaged in deadly battles with the Lebanese army for several days. The retreating militants abducted around 35 troops and policemen of whom four have been executed and nine remain in captivity.

Ricky Martin Visits Syrian Refugee Children in Lebanon
Associated Press/Naharnet/May 03/16/Ricky Martin, the world-renowned singer and UNICEF goodwill ambassador, said that the word "refugee" had lost its value but that the international community should "open its heart."The 44-year-old Puerto Rican spoke during a visit to Lebanon with UNICEF to meet Syrian refugee children. "At this point what we want is to make sure children get their rights. Some children unfortunately are not going to school," he said Thursday in an exclusive interview with The Associated Press in Minieh, north Lebanon. News of the visit was released by UNICEF on Friday because of an embargo.The singer met with Syrian children in Zahle, in the Bekaa Valley on Wednesday, and in the Minieh informal settlement, near the northern city of Tripoli, the following day. In Minieh, the children performed "Maria," the singer's dance-along hit tune, and played a game of soccer with the star. During his visit, Martin also met teenagers attending life-skills training, according to UNICEF. The star, whose charity and advocacy work has focused on combating child labor and human trafficking, said he was moved by a Syrian refugee from Homs he met in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley. He says the 11-year-old refugee, named Batoul, is "working in agriculture, 12 hours a day. And she's getting paid with water.""This is happening to our kids. This is happening to our future generation," he said. According to UNICEF, there are 2.8 million children out of school in the region and child refugees are particularly at risk of exploitation and abuse. The U.N. agency says it is addressing child labor by providing free education and economic opportunities for parents and youth of working age.

State Security Unveils Terror Cell in Mount Lebanon
Naharnet/May 03/16/The State Security announced on Friday the arrest of an Islamic State terror cell in the Mount Lebanon town of Aley, the state-run National News Agency reported. Based on the order of the State Commissioner to the Military Court and after thorough observation, the State Security arrested the leader of the cell and its members, said NNA. Lebanon's security forces have intensified raids on suspicious locations where IS group members take a hide and prepare for terror schemes. On Thursday the army killed an Islamic State group militant and arrested three others in Khirbet Daoud in Akkar.

U.S. Embassy Trains 260 ISF Members on VIP Protection
Naharnet/May 03/16 /The Department of State’s Office of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut has trained 260 Internal Security Forces members on “Protection of National Leaders” skills over the last 10 months, Embassy of the United States in Beirut said in a statement on Friday. “Yesterday Head of the ISF Academy Brigadier General Ahmad Hajjar, INL Beirut Director Diana Brown, ISF Officials and officials from the U.S. Embassy attended the graduation of the ISF members who participated in the ninth and final session of this training at Aramoun Academy,” added the statement. “The 260 trainees, which include female ISF officers, are now equipped with specialized skills related to VIP protection. There are also 14 ISF members who are now certified to conduct this training for their fellow officers.”The statement added that “this latest round of training is part of the U.S. government’s continuing support for Lebanon’s Internal Security Forces. To date, INL has invested $160 million in strengthening the professional capacity of Lebanese law enforcement and as part of the overall U.S. security assistance program to Lebanon.”

Lebanese Army Arrests Two in Ayal and Confiscates Arms
Naharnet/May 03/16 /The army intelligence arrested two people and confiscated arms in the northern Zgharta town of Ayal, the state-run National News Agency said on Friday. NNA said that the army carried out a raid on a farm in the town of Ayal. Two people were arrested and the military confiscated a quantity of arms and ammunition.
 

Mustaqbal Urges Clearing Militants, Hizbullah from Arsal Outskirts after Resident Killed by Shelling
Naharnet/May 03/16 /A Lebanese man who hails from Arsal was killed Friday in the outskirts of the restive northeastern border town as clashes erupted between Hizbullah and the Qaida-linked al-Nusra Front in the area, media reports said. “Lebanese citizen Hassan Mohammed al-Fliti, 64, was killed and his son Mohammed, 39, was seriously wounded as they were heading to a cherry grove they own in the Jwar al-Sheikh area in Arsal's outskirts,” state-run National News Agency reported. It quoted the son as saying that “a rocket or a grenade” had exploded near them. The agency did not say where the shelling came from but noted that the region in which the two were hit lies in the middle of areas controlled by al-Nusra and Hizbullah. Voice of Lebanon radio (100.5) had earlier reported Hizbullah-Nusra clashes in Arsal's outskirts, adding that the Lebanese army intelligence directorate was "making contacts for a ceasefire."Future TV for its part said “al-Fliti died of his wounds after Hizbullah members opened fire at him in Arsal's outskirts.”Earlier in the day, media reports said Hizbullah attacked a group of Nusra militants in the al-Rahweh area southeast of Arsal. The developments prompted al-Mustaqbal Movement's Arsal-Hermel Department to hold an emergency meeting in which it called on “the government, the interior minister and all influential political forces to clear Arsal's outskirts from all militants, specifically Hizbullah's gunmen who murder and terrorize civilians.”It also called on the Army Command to “preserve security and the safety of Arsal's sons” and to “secure their access to their land and groves.”Militants from al-Nusra and the Islamic State group are entrenched in rugged mountains along the Lebanese-Syrian border and the Lebanese army regularly shells their positions while Hizbullah has engaged in clashes with them on the Syrian side of the border.The two groups overran the town of Arsal in 2014 and engaged in deadly battles with the Lebanese army for several days.The retreating militants abducted around 35 troops and policemen of whom four have been executed and nine remain in captivity.

Fillon: Rahi represents Christian voice in Lebanon, Middle East
Fri 03 Jun 2016/NNA - Maronite Patriarch, Mar Bechara Boutros Rahi, met on Friday with former French Prime Minister, Francois Fillon, on top of a French parliamentary delegation. "Our visit to Lebanon comes within the frame of preserving solidarity and unity that's built on a long historic, cultural, and religious relation with the Christians of the east, and on our vision of a future which is built on the basis of dialogue," he added. "Attempts to abolish Christian existence in the Middle East herald a dangerous future," the French diplomat warned, hailing Rahi as "the clear voice of power that that defends the Christian cause in Lebanon and the Middle East," he added.

Bassil: Excuses are many, reason is to stop Janneh dam
Fri 03 Jun 2016/NNA - Foreign and Expatriates Minister, Gebran Bassil said on Friday at an illustrative and scientific Conference on Janneh dam, "The project is strategic."
He added "No one accepts to put at his record a project which might be at risk, and there must be a reason for greater incentives to halt work at this dam."He pointed that excuses were many and "the reason is one to stop the project," adding that seismic fault has not been found at the dam. Why fear landslides while the rest of the dams and lakes are not at risk?" he asked.He stressed that "the dams do not pollute the environment and Janneh dam meets the requirements.""Have you seen a country in the world pays $ 100 million and then decides to stop the project," Bassil concluded.

Azzi from Geneva: To set up buffer zone inside Syria to accommodate displaced Syrians
Fri 03 Jun 2016 /NNA - Minister of Labor Sejaan Azzi met on Friday with the Director General of the International Labor Organization, Guy Ryder, as part of the meetings he conducts at the UN headquarters in Geneva to further explain the Lebanese situation to international officials. In the wake of the meeting, Azzi said "international officials unfortunately have one point of view on the subject of displaced Syrians in Lebanon. They are not well-informed of the gravity of the situation in Lebanon and the rate of unemployment and poverty in the country." "Mr. Ryder informed me that he would stand alongside Lebanon in defense of the Lebanese labor force, so as to reduce the unemployment rate," Azzi said. Azzi had also delivered a speech at the International Labor Conference held in Geneva in its 105th round. Attendees welcomed and applauded the Minister's statement in which he tackled three issues "the 5-year old Syrian exodus to Lebanon, the 70-year old Palestinian refugees' crisis and the six thousand years of Lebanese presence.""We are in favor of solidarity with Arab brothers and with Lebanon's friends in the world. However, Lebanon is unable to bear others' mistakes, errors in regulations, extremism and terrorism, or the mistakes of regional countries and major entities that subvert Middle Eastern States," Azzi said, calling upon international organizations to turn their ideas on naturalizing displaced persons and refugees where they are, into relocating refugees in their homelands. "The Palestinian people must not remain homeless, because the world is powerless to impose an independent Palestinian state. The Syrian people must not remain displaced because the world does not want a solution to the war in Syria," Azzi argued."That being said, we suggest for the displaced Syrians in Lebanon (...) the establishment of a buffer zone inside Syria to accommodate those displaced. Lebanon must not fall, because that would suggest the end of democracy in the Middle East, as well as the abolition of Islamic-Christian coexistence," Azzi concluded.

Russian Ambassador highly values Lebanese army steadfastness
Fri 03 Jun 2016/NNA - Russian Ambassador to Lebanon, Alexander Zasypkin, highly valued on Friday the steadfastness of the Lebanese army while fighting terrorism, renewing his country's holding onto home stability and security. "Our joint mission is to prevent the spread of takfiri terrorism, whether in Iraq, Syria, or Lebanon. Accordingly, we are proud of the steadfastness of the Lebanese army," he "We do not accept any scheme to divide countries or redraw the region's map," he stressed. Zasypkin made these remarks during a reception ceremony to mark the Russian National Day, at Coral Beach Hotel.

Rifi in televised interview discloses inclination to form movement in upcoming stage
Fri 03 Jun 2016/NNA - Resigned Justice Minister, Ashraf Rifi, disclosed that he is leaning in the upcoming stage to establish a Movement or Trend, disclosing that he shall form an electoral list for the city of Tripoli in the forthcoming parliamentary elections in cooperation with what he termed as "forces of change.""The civil society is the womb from which the new political class shall emerge," Rifi said on Friday in a televised interview on Jazeera's Program "Liqaa Lyawm."Rifi also beseeched former Prime Minister, Saad Hariri, and Lebanese Forces leader, Samir Geagea, to withdraw the nomination of MPs Sleiman Franjieh and General Michel Aoun for the presidency, and return to their primary alliance.The resigned minister indicated that he clings in his approach on the constants of March 14th, summarized in the return to the state notion, rejecting what he termed the illegitimate weapons, and proceeding with the building of a liberal, democratic state enjoying free economy. Rifi said that Tripolitans voted for his list in the recent municipal elections due to numerous factors, including their rejection of the concept of quotas and the marginalization of popular regions. He also pointed out that the beginning of his contrast with former Prime Minister Saad Hariri emerged as a result of Hariri's nomination of Sleiman Franjieh to presidency, which he considered as "an option of defeat and submission."

Fathali confirms Iran support for Lebanon
Fri 03 Jun 2016/NNA - Iranian Ambassador to Lebanon, Mohammad Fathali, reiterated on Friday his country's continuous siding with the Lebanese state, people, and Resistance. "We also confirm support for what unifies the Lebanese and brings them together," the diplomat said, holding out hope for the near election of a new president of the republic. "The Islamic Republic of Iran shall keep beside oppressed people in the world, on top of whom the Palestinian people," he added. "Palestine shall remain our key cause and decisive battle with the Zionist enemy," he corroborated. Fathali made these remarks during a ceremony to commemorate the 27th anniversary of the passing away of the Islamic Republic founder, Sayyed Rouhollah Khomeini, at UNESCO Palace.

Bar Association denounces detention of lawyer Nabil Halabi
Fri 03 Jun 2016/NNA - Beirut Bar Association denounced on Friday the detention of activist lawyer Nabil Halabi, as "incompliant with the legal procedures and violating human dignity and freedom.""The Bar Association shall follow up on this issue; and we will not accept its recurrence no matter what," lawyers promised.

Latest LCCC Bulletin For Miscellaneous Reports And News published on  June 03-04/16

Canada renews calls for improved humanitarian access in Syria
June 3, 2016 - Ottawa, Ontario - Global Affairs Canada
The Honourable Stéphane Dion, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and the Honourable Marie-Claude Bibeau, Minister of International Development and La Francophonie, today issued the following statement concerning the expiration of the International Syria Support Group’s (ISSG’s) June 1, 2016, deadline for improved access to humanitarian aid in Syria:
“The obstruction of vital humanitarian assistance in Syria and the targeting of medical facilities and personnel violate international humanitarian law.
“On May 17, 2016, Canada, along with 25 other countries and organizations, made a commitment as part of the ISSG to compel parties to the conflict to guarantee immediate, full, sustained and unrestricted access for humanitarian assistance to all hard-to-reach and besieged communities across Syria.
“The ISSG called on the World Food Programme to undertake humanitarian air bridges and airdrops for all areas in need in Syria, where operationally feasible, if access were not provided to the United Nations by June 1, 2016. These methods of aid delivery remain a last resort, particularly when overland access remains possible as recent aid convoys that have reached long-besieged Darayya and Moadamiya demonstrate. However, much more is immediately needed in these and other communities beyond the hygiene and few medical items that were delivered. Food aid must be delivered urgently before besieged populations begin to starve to death.
“It is vital that everyone prioritize efforts to alleviate the suffering of the Syrian people. Canada will continue to play its part.”
Associated links
Statement by Minister Dion at conclusion of the International Syria Support Group meeting
http://news.gc.ca/web/article-en.do?crtr.sj1D=&crtr.mnthndVl=6&mthd=advSrch&crtr.dpt1D=6673&nid=1067009

Iran: Spokesperson of Judiciary defended flogging of students
Friday, 03 June 2016/The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) /On Thursday, June 2, state media reported that a spokesperson for the Iranian Judiciary had defended last week’s incident in which students were flogged for taking part in a mixed-gender graduation party. Tasnim News agency, which is affiliated with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force, reported that Mullah Gholamhossen Eje’I, the First Deputy and Spokesman of the Judiciary said the implementation of this punishment is legal. He said the floggings were carried out according to due process of law, and suggested that there was no basis for the protests being held against the sentence.
Eje’i's commentary on the incident pointed to talking points frequently utilized by the regime in response to instances of activism and reformist journalism, suggesting a foreign source for social trends that are out of step with the regime’s ideology. “There are indications that not all of the participants were aware of the real driving force, and that these parties are being led from other places,” he said. “This issue is being reviewed by security and law-enforcement institutions to establish who is behind these parties,” he added. According to Eje’i, “Some of these criminal cases are reviewed directly in courts and there is no reason for them to be reviewed at the prosecutor’s office, and the prosecutor’s office has no right to intervene in those cases.”On May 25, the Iranian regime’s suppressive forces raided a party following a graduation ceremony in Qazvin and arrested 35 young men and women. On that same day, all of the arrestees were condemned by the judiciary to 99 lashes and the sentences were immediately carried out by “Moral Security Police”.On May 31, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights issued a statement saying: "We condemn the outrageous flogging of up to 35 young men and women in Iran last week, after they were caught holding a graduation party together in Qazvin, north of Tehran."

IRAN: 62 people arrested in a party in Bandar Abbas
Thursday, 02 June 2016/The National Council of Resistance of Iran/NCRI- The Iranian regime's suppressive state security forces (police) in Bandar Abbas, southern Iran, have raided a mixed-gender party, arresting 62 people and transferring them to prison, state media reported on Thursday.The state-run Shahrvand daily wrote on June 2 that 23 men and 39 women, who were caught dancing and partying, were arrested in the raid which was carried out on Sunday, May 29.Similar raids have been carried out in Iran in recent days. More than two dozen young Iranian men and women were arrested last weekend by the mullahs' regime for participating in a mixed-gender party in Mashhad, north-east Iran. The 29 youngsters were rounded up by the regime's police at a party on the evening of May 28 at a villa near the Danesh Junction in Mashhad.The state-run Rokna news agency reported that altogether 15 young men and 14 young women were arrested at the party and were taken to the regime's court in District 6 of Mashhad on Sunday to face prosecution. Some 35 young men and women were flogged last week for taking part in a mixed-gender party after their graduation ceremony near Qazvin, some 140 kilometers northwest of the Iranian capital Tehran, the regime's Prosecutor in the city said on May 26. Ismaeil Sadeqi Niaraki, a notorious mullah, said a special court session was held after all the young men and women at the party were rounded up, the Mizan news agency, affiliated to the fundamentalist regime's judiciary, reported on May 26. "After we received information that a large number of men and women were mingling in a villa in the suburbs of Qazvin ... all the participants at the party were arrested," he said. Niaraki added that the following morning every one of those detained received 99 lashes as punishment by the so-called 'Morality Police.' According to Niaraki, given the social significance of mixed-gender partying, "this once again required a firm response by the judiciary in quickly reviewing and implementing the law." "Thanks God that the police questioning, investigation, court hearing, verdict and implementation of the punishment all took place in less than 24 hours," Niaraki added. The regime’s prosecutor claimed that the judiciary would not tolerate the actions of “law-breakers who use excuses such as freedom and having fun in birthday parties and graduation ceremonies.”He warned the youths that they should be careful about their conduct “since being arrested in mixed-gender parties and receiving sentences is a crime and would create problems for their future education and employment.” Last month, the Iranian regime’s paramilitary Basij in north-eastern Iran broke up two mixed-gender parties within 72 hours, detaining 70 people.The head of the fundamentalist Basij in Nishapur precinct, Ali-Akbar Hosseini, announced that his forces were alerted to a so-called “obscene party” in the city. During the raid, 14 boys and 14 girls were arrested and transferred to a local police station.
A second party was raided on May 20, leading to the arrest of over 40 participants, Hosseini told the state-run Fars news agency on May 21.

Iran hangs man and woman in prison
Thursday, 02 June 2016/The National Council of Resistance of Iran/NCRI – Iran’s fundamentalist regime has hanged a man and a woman in a prison in Qazvin, north-west of Tehran. The woman was not named, but the office of the regime’s prosecutor-general in Qazvin Province said that she had been imprisoned since 2014.The regime’s local deputy prosecutor was present to oversee the execution, the state-run Borna news agency reported on Thursday.The man was identified only as Amir Q., the official state broadcaster IRIB said in its website for Qazvin Province. He was arrested on May 30, 2011.The latest hangings bring to at least 120 the number of people executed in Iran since April 10. Three of those executed were women and two are believed to have been juvenile offenders.Ms. Farideh Karimi, a member of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) and a human rights activist, last month called for an urgent response by the United Nations and foreign governments to the recent spate of executions and the appalling state of human rights in Iran. Iran's fundamentalist regime last month amputated the fingers of a man in his thirties in Mashhad, the latest in a line of draconian punishments handed down and carried out in recent weeks. The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) said in a statement on April 13 that the increasing trend of executions “aimed at intensifying the climate of terror to rein in expanding protests by various strata of the society, especially at a time of visits by high-ranking European officials, demonstrates that the claim of moderation is nothing but an illusion for this medieval regime.”Amnesty International in its April 6 annual Death Penalty report covering the 2015 period wrote: "Iran put at least 977 people to death in 2015, compared to at least 743 the year before.""Iran alone accounted for 82% of all executions recorded" in the Middle East and North Africa, the human rights group said.There have been more than 2,400 executions during Hassan Rouhani’s tenure as President. The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Iran in March announced that the number of executions in Iran in 2015 was greater than any year in the last 25 years. Rouhani has explicitly endorsed the executions as examples of “God’s commandments” and “laws of the parliament that belong to the people.

Syria regime strikes kill 31 in and near Aleppo
AFP, Aleppo Friday, 3 June 2016/Regime bombing raids in and around the northern Syrian city of Aleppo killed 31 civilians Friday, including 10 when their bus was hit, the civil defense said. "As well as the 10 civilians killed in strikes on the bus... 21 others died in intense strikes on several neighborhoods in the east of the city since dawn," the organization known as the White Helmets said. An AFP correspondent in Aleppo said Friday's bombing raids were the most intense in more than a week, with dozens of barrel bombs -- crude, unguided explosive devices -- hitting several eastern quarters of the city. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported intense strikes on the Castello road -- a key rebel supply route out of divided Aleppo -- giving a toll of eight dead civilians. A bus on the road was also hit on Wednesday, resulting in seven civilian deaths. Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said the Castello road, which for civilians in rebel-held areas is the route out of Aleppo, was now "effectively cut". "All movement is targeted, be that buses or bystanders," he said. Abdel Rahman said rocket fire on government-held areas of the city overnight caused several casualties, but he was unable to provide an exact toll. A truce agreed by Russia and the United States in February has been violated nearly continuously around Aleppo, where the regime and rebel groups have fought for control since 2012. More than 300 civilians have been killed in Aleppo since April as rebels have pounded government-controlled neighborhoods with rocket and artillery fire and the regime has hit rebel areas with air raids.At least 280,000 people have been killed and millions displaced since Syria's war started in 2011 with the brutal repression of anti-government protests.

Coalition drops ammo to Syrian rebels fighting ISIS
AFP, Beirut Friday, 3 June 2016/Coalition aircraft dropped ammunition to Syrian rebels fighting ISIS in northern Aleppo as they try to prevent the extremists from entering the town of Marea, a monitoring group said on Friday. “The coalition airplanes dropped, in the last 24 hours, ammunitions, light weapons and anti-tank weapons to rebels in Marea,” Syrian Observatory for Human Rights chief Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP. He said it was the first time the coalition had made such a drop to rebel fighters other than the Kurds, although a US defense official denied this.The official confirmed the drops, but said they did not include light weapons or anti-tank weapons. ISIS fighters swept through rebel-held territory in a shock offensive in Aleppo province late last month, cutting off the main road between Marea and Azaz -- two main rebels bastions in the province. The ISIS advance forced thousands to flee towards the northern frontier with Turkey. The United Nations said it was “deeply concerned over the fate of an estimated 8,000 Syrians trapped by fighting around the towns of Marea and Sheikh Issa”. An unknown number of people are unable to flee due to fighting and the closure of the main road between Marea and Azaz, it added.

Homeland Security chief: US approves 4,700 Syrian refugees
Reuters, Washington Friday, 3 June 2016/The United States has approved 4,700 Syrian refugees who are awaiting resettlement to the country, while an additional 7,900 are awaiting security review, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said on Thursday.
Johnson, speaking to a homeland security advisory panel at the Department of Homeland Security, was defending against critics who say the Obama administration is falling behind meeting its goal of bringing in 10,000 Syrian refugees into the country by the end of fiscal year 2016.

ISIS ‘gradually focusing more’ on global attacks
The Associated Press, United Nations Friday, 3 June 2016/The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is entering a new phase with an increased emphasis on attacking international civilian targets, according to a United Nations report circulated Thursday. The report by Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to the Security Council says the global threat from the group remains high and continues to diversify even though its territorial expansion has been halted or even reversed in Iraq and Syria. “Recent international attacks perpetrated by members of ISIS demonstrate that the terrorist group is now moving into a new phase, with the increased risk that well-prepared and centrally directed attacks on international civilian targets may become a more frequent occurrence,” the report states, using an acronym to refer to the group. The report notes that in the last six months ISIS has carried out attacks in 11 countries, excluding fighting in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Afghanistan or Libya, killing more than 500 people and injuring hundreds more.It also said that an increasing number of “foreign terrorist fighters” were returning to their home countries and that while some had done so after becoming disillusioned with the group, many returned with the intent and capability to “conduct terrorist attacks in their country of origin or residence.”According to the report, the group is seeking to elevate the role of its affiliates and may even be transferring funds to them as they find themselves under increasing pressure in Iraq and Syria. The report also says that for the first time since the declaration of “so-called Caliphate” in June 2014, the group is under financial pressure with international air strikes reducing oil production by between 30 and 50 percent. Despite this, the report says the group does not appear to be lacking or short on arms or ammunition. Watch: Europol chief: ISIS planning to carry out mass killing in France

Iran-born Turkish trader seeks $50 mln bail in US sanctions case
Reuters Friday, 3 June 2016/A lawyer for a wealthy Iranian-born Turkish gold trader accused of conspiring to violate U.S. sanctions against Iran urged a U.S. judge on Thursday to release his client from jail on a $50 million bond and to place him under house arrest. Benjamin Brafman, a lawyer for Reza Zarrab, told a Manhattan federal judge that his client posed no risk of fleeing if he was allowed to reside before trial at a 15-floor apartment under 24-hour watch by armed guards paid for at his personal cost. "He has every incentive to clear his name," Brafman said. Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Lockard countered that Zarrab if released could use his wealth to flee the country, and urged U.S. District Judge Richard Berman to not allow him to hire guards who would become "jailers being paid by the inmate."But Brafman noted other well-off defendants have been granted similar house arrest arrangements with private guards. Those include convicted Ponzi schemer Bernard Madoff, Macau billionaire Ng Lap Seng, and New York lawyer Marc Dreier. While Brafman acknowledged low-income individuals could not afford to seek similar arrangements, that is "not something that is Mr. Zarrab's fault, nor is it something we're going to solve today." Berman said he would rule in one or two weeks on whether to grant bail to Zarrab, 33, who has been in custody since his arrest in Miami in March on a family trip to Disney World. Prosecutors said from 2010 to 2015, Zarrab and two others engaged in hundreds of millions of dollars of transactions on behalf of Iran's government and Iranian entities in a scheme to evade U.S. sanctions. Zarrab's case has garnered headlines in Turkey, where he was arrested in 2013 along with several members of the government on charges that he bribed officials to facilitate transactions benefiting Iran. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, then prime minister, cast the case as a coup attempt orchestrated by his political enemies. Several prosecutors were removed from the case, police investigators reassigned and the investigation was dropped. In arguing against bail, U.S. prosecutors said the Turkish case showed the lengths Zarrab would go to free himself "by causing the wholesale reorganization of the Turkish prosecutor's office and police department through bribery."Prosecutors said Zarrab's tremendous resources also make him a flight risk, citing his ownership of businesses that generate $11 billion annually, an airplane, several homes and yachts. The case is U.S. v. Zarrab, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 15-cr-867.

Iran’s Khamenei: US, ‘evil’ Britain can’t be trusted
Reuters Friday, 3 June 2016/Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Friday Tehran had no intention of cooperating on regional issues with its main enemies, the United States and “evil” Britain. Khamenei also accused Washington of not being committed to a nuclear deal reached between Tehran and six major powers, including the United States, in 2015 that aims to curb the country’s disputed nuclear program. Under the agreement, economic sanctions were lifted in January after Iran suspended sensitive nuclear work that the West suspects was aimed at creating a nuclear bomb. Iran denies se
Inflation, unemployment and other economic hardships persuaded Khamenei to support President Hassan Rouhani on the nuclear question aimed at improving the parlous state of Iran’s economy. “America has continued its enmity toward Iran since (the 1979 Islamic) revolution ... It is a huge mistake to trust evil Britain and the Great Satan (the United States),” Khamenei said in a speech broadcast live on state TV. “We will not cooperate with America over the regional crisis,” he said, adding that: “Their aims in the region are 180 degrees opposed to Iran’s.”Relations with Washington were severed after Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution and enmity to the United States has always been a rallying point for hardliner supporters of Khamenei in Iran. Tehran and Washington have common interests and threats across the Middle East. They have cooperated tactically in the past, including when Tehran helped Washington counter al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Islamic State militants (IS) in Iraq. The United States and its allies in the Middle East accuse Iran of supporting terrorism and interfering in the affairs of regional states, including Syria, Yemen and Iraq. Tehran is Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s main regional ally and has provided military and economic support to his fight against rebel groups and IS. Following the end of the sanctions on Iran, the country has started to increase trade with the West. But some U.S. sanctions remain and U.S. banks remain prohibited from doing business with Iran directly or indirectly because Washington still accuses Tehran of supporting terrorism and human rights abuses. “They use human rights, terrorism ... as pretexts to avoid fulfilling their commitments,” Khamenei said. “If we remain strong and united and revolutionary, those who are trying to bully Iran and are against us will not succeed,” he told a gathering to commemorate the anniversary of the death of the revolution’s founder, Ayatollah Rouhollah Khomeini, in 1989. Iran has repeatedly urged Washington to do more to remove obstacles to the banking sector. Khamenei, whose hostility toward Washington holds together Iran’s faction-ridden leadership, said Iran should “remain cautious in its economic interaction with the West”.

Libyans will eradicate ISIS in their country: PM
Reuters, Tripoli Friday, 3 June 2016/Libyans will tackle and eradicate ISIS in their country but Libya is already benefiting from international cooperation on intelligence, the prime minister of the UN-backed unity government in Tripoli told Reuters in an interview on Friday.
Fayez Seraj said efforts to unify Libya's armed factions were progressing and that no one - including controversial eastern commander Khalifa Haftar - would be excluded from a national army as long as they submitted to the central political authority.

Qatar: 11 killed in labor accommodation fire
Tom Finn, Reuters Friday, 3 June 2016/A fire which broke out at a labor camp in Qatar late on Wednesday has killed 11 people and injured 12, the interior ministry said. Firefighters were able to contain the blaze from spreading to adjacent areas. The cause of the fire is still being investigated. Workers living in the accommodation were hired by the Slawa Tourism Project, the ministry said.Wednesday's fire appeared to be the deadliest since a fire at a mall in 2012 killed at least 19 foreign nationals, including 13 children. Qatar, an energy exporter which has the highest income per capita in the world, has been criticized by rights groups for labor abuses as it prepares to host the 2022 World Cup.

Israel Says Paris Meeting 'Distances Peace' as Palestinians Hail 'Very Significant Step'
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/May 03/16 /The international community committed Friday to try and push Israel and the Palestinians to resume peace talks under a French-led initiative, despite a decidedly lukewarm reaction from Washington and hostility from Israel. Indirect peace talks between the two sides collapsed more than two years ago, and French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault warned that the diplomatic void meant the prospect of a two-state solution to the decades-long conflict was in "serious danger." Neither Israeli nor Palestinian representatives attended the talks in the French capital which are aimed at laying the ground for a fully-fledged peace conference to be held by the end of the year. The Palestinians hailed the Paris meeting as a "very significant step" towards peace which sent a clear message to Israel about its ongoing occupation of lands they want for a future state.
But Israel lashed out, saying the initiative would only strengthen the Palestinians' hand and would go down in history has having "pushed peace further away." At the meeting, representatives from 28 countries, the Arab League, European Union and United Nations discussed ways in which the international community could "help advance the prospects for peace, including by providing meaningful incentives to the parties to make peace," according to a joint statement. But few believe genuine progress will be made. Despite a widespread sense of skepticism that the French initiative will succeed where so many others have failed, Ayrault said the world could not "fold its arms and do nothing."
A sense of urgency
"Everyone knows the risks of this impasse, there have been three wars in six years in Gaza and there is currently daily violence. It is essential that we take action urgently," he said. "We have chosen to extend a hand to the Israelis and the Palestinians. We hope they accept it."Opening the conference, French President Francois Hollande had urged Israel and the Palestinians to make a "courageous choice" for peace. But Israel has said it believes the initiative is doomed to failure, and although U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry attended the conference, Washington has also made it clear it thinks little or nothing will be achieved. Washington, which has traditionally taken on a mediating role between the two sides, has not tried to initiate any fresh peace moves since the previous U.S.-led round of indirect talks talks collapsed in April 2014 and has remained decidedly cool on the French initiative.
"We're not bringing any specific proposals to this meeting tomorrow," a senior State Department official said before the conference.
'A clear message'
But senior Palestinian official Saeb Erakat said the Paris talks sent a "clear" message to Israel."The Paris meeting is a very significant step and its message is clear: If Israel is allowed to continue its colonization and apartheid policies in occupied Palestine, the future will be for more extremism and bloodshed rather than for coexistence and peace," he said in a statement. In an opinion piece in Israel's left-leaning Haaretz newspaper, Erakat said the latest initiative offered a "flicker of hope" that the Palestinians had been waiting for, and would "provide a clear framework with defined parameters for the resumption of negotiations."But Israel said the French effort would only cause the Palestinians to harden their positions. "The Paris meeting will go down in history as having only hardened Palestinian positions and pushed peace further away," foreign ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon said in a statement after the meeting.
Ayrault said the talks were focused on the 2002 Saudi-led Arab peace initiative. Under that proposal, Arab leaders offered to establish full diplomatic relations with Israel in exchange for an Israeli withdrawal from territories occupied since 1967, and the creation of a Palestinian state.
At the time, the plan was largely ignored by Israel, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said this week he would be open to re-negotiating aspects of it with the Palestinians. Speaking after the meeting, Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Adel شl-Jubeir rejected this idea, saying the Arab peace initiative already "has all the elements for a final settlement"."To argue that the Arab peace initiative should be watered down to accommodate the Israelis is not a wise approach," he said. "It provides Israel with a lot of incentives and it's incumbent on the Israelis to accept that."Analysts say Palestinian frustration of the deadlock in negotiations has driven a wave of violence which has left 206 Palestinians and 28 Israelis dead since October. Israel blames the bloodshed on incitement by Palestinian leaders and media.

Paris on Alert as Swollen Seine Reaches Peak Levels
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/May 03/16 /Paris' world-famous Louvre and Orsay museums shut on Friday to retrieve priceless artworks from their basements, as the swollen River Seine neared its highest level in three decades. At least 14 people have been killed in floods that have wrought havoc in Europe after days of torrential rain, trapping people in their homes and forcing rescuers to row lifeboats down streets turned into Parisians were urged to stay away from the Seine, which has burst its banks in places and rose more than six meters (19ft 8ins) above its normal level on Friday. Authorities said the river could swell to "perhaps 6.5 meters (21 feet) in a worst-case scenario," comfortably beating the level reached during floods in 1982. The record remains the 8.68 meters reached during devastating floods in 1910. A small number of basement flats in the capital began to flood on Friday and the environment ministry warned it was possible some residents in areas near the Seine in western Paris might have to be evacuated.
'It's too bad'
Persistently heavy rainfall across western and central Europe has swollen rivers and claimed victims from at least four countries. Ten people have been killed in Germany and two in Romania, while a beekeeper died in Belgium while trying to protect his hives. In France, a man on horseback drowned on Thursday after being swept away by a swollen river in Evry-Gregy-sur-Yerre, southeast of Paris. French Environment Minister Segolene Royal said she feared more bodies would be found as waters recede in villages in central France, some of which have suffered their worst floods in a century. Meanwhile the environment ministry said a "plateau" had probably been reached. "This high level should likely remain relatively stable throughout the weekend before (the flooding) begins to recede," it said. In Paris, officials have erected emergency flood barriers along the Seine, whose banks are home to both the Louvre -- the world's most visited museum, with attractions including the Mona Lisa -- and the Musee d'Orsay. The riverbanks are normally thronged with tourists in what is supposed to be the start of summer. Instead visitors in raincoats gathered to take pictures of the muddy floodwaters."We were going to go the Louvre today, and we were going to go on the boat cruise for dinner tonight -- and they were both canceled," said American tourist Elle Yarborough, an English teacher from Boston."It's too bad, but we're still happy to be in Paris."
Museums prepare for the worst
The downpours add to a gloomy atmosphere in France a week before the country hosts the Euro 2016 football championships, with workers facing more train strikes Friday after months of protests and political turmoil. Both the Louvre and Orsay Museum, which see a combined 12.5 million visitors a year, closed their doors Friday so that artworks could be moved out of basement archives to higher floors. The Orsay Museum, which houses a world-renowned collection of 19th and early 20th century art, said it would remain closed until Tuesday. The Grand Palais museum also shut Friday, as did two of the National Library's sites. Boat traffic has been banned in the capital, and a regional train line that runs along the Seine has been suspended. More than 20,000 people have been evacuated in France since the weekend and around 19,000 homes are without power. Rescuers in the Parisian suburb of Longjumeau paddled up streets in lifeboats Thursday, while in the town of Montargis, only the tops of cars could be seen peeking above the surface. French President Francois Hollande said a state of "natural catastrophe" would be declared when the cabinet meets next Wednesday, a necessary step to trigger compensation payments. Losses across France could reach more than 600 million euros ($680 million), said Bernard Spitz of France's association of insurers.
German devastation
Several towns in southern Germany have been devastated by flooding, and seven people have died since Wednesday. In Simbach am Inn, the force of the water swept away the entire stock of a sawmill, leaving huge stacks of splintered wood blocking roads. On one street, a car could be seen parked vertically against the wall of a house, pushed there by the floodwaters. Many other vehicles lay flipped over on roads blanketed by mud. Six people have been killed in the Simbach area, including three women from the same family -- a mother, grandmother and daughter -- who had been trapped in their house. "The (rise in) water was so quick that practically no residents had the time to run away," police spokesman Armin Angloher said. A 72-year-old man in Triftern nearby died in hospital Friday after he was rescued from the floods. Four people were killed earlier this week in the southern German region of Baden-Wuerttemberg, with four others still missing, police in Bavaria said. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said her thoughts were with the families "who have been plunged into this devastation."

Turkey Says Germany Still Ally after Genocide Resolution
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/May 03/16 /Turkey on Friday said Germany was still a key ally even after a parliament resolution recognizing the mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman forces as genocide infuriated Ankara, predicting the spat would not lead to a sudden deterioration in ties. Apparently seeking to keep the dispute from developing into a full-blown diplomatic crisis, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim emphasized the key Berlin-Ankara relationship would continue. The German lower house on Thursday passed a non-binding resolution recognizing the mass killings of Armenians from 1915 under the Ottoman Empire as genocide, prompting Ankara to recall its ambassador from Berlin for consultations. The dispute sparked alarm over the potential damage to relations between Turkey and Germany at a sensitive time when the sides are working together to implement a deal seeking to halt illegal migration to the EU. "Germany and Turkey are two very important allies. No one should expect that relations will suddenly deteriorate completely because of this decision or similar decisions," Yildirim told a news conference before a visit to Azerbaijan. "That doesn't mean however that we will not react, that we will say nothing," he added, pointing to a counter resolution passed by the Turkish parliament condemning its German counterpart. "With this decision, Turkey's relations with Germany have been seriously damaged," he said. But he added: "Whatever the circumstances, we will continue the relationship with our friends and our allies." The use of the word "genocide" goes to the heart of a long-running battle for world opinion between Armenia and Turkey over the massacres committed a century ago. Armenia has led a decades-long campaign to have the bloodshed characterized as genocide, which Turkey rejects as a gross injustice. Ankara argues the killings were a collective tragedy in which equal numbers of Turks and Armenians died. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned on Thursday that the motion would "seriously affect" ties between the countries and said he would take further action when he returned to Turkey from a visit to Kenya. The move also caused fury among radical elements within the Turkish elite, with ruling party executive committee member Burhan Kuzu saying it was because of the "infidel" Germany that the Ottoman Empire had collapsed. At the time of the killings in World War I, the Ottoman Empire and Imperial Germany were allies with German generals commanding Ottoman forces in some areas. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who did not attend the vote in parliament, vowed that her government will "do everything to foster dialogue between Armenia and Turkey".

Over 1,000 Iraqi Forces Wounded in Fallujah Operation
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/May 03/16 /More than 1,000 members of the Iraqi forces have been wounded since the start of the operation to retake Fallujah from the Islamic State group, a health official said Friday.
"We have received 1,119 wounded since the start of the operation," a senior Baghdad health official told AFP on condition of anonymity. "The wounded fighters were treated at Kadhimiya, Abu Ghraib, Al Karama, Al Karkh and Yarmuk hospitals," he said. The official said the casualty toll included members of the army, police, counter-terrorism service and Hashed al-Shaabi paramilitary organization. Iraqi forces on May 22-23 launched a vast offensive aimed at retaking the IS bastion of Fallujah, a city only 50 kilometers (30 miles) west of Baghdad that was the first to fall out of government control in 2014. Iraqi military commanders are not divulging casualty figures. The health official could not provide a figure for the number of fighters The bodies of the dead are usually taken to a morgue near Baghdad airport or other locations and then collected directly by the families. The number of funerals held across the country however suggests the Fallujah battle is taking a high toll.
The coffins of at least 70 fighters killed in the Fallujah fighting had by Wednesday been brought to Najaf's Valley of Peace cemetery, where many from Iraq's Shiite majority bury their dead, according to a security source there. Officials in Basra said the southern province had lost 26 fighters from the Hashed al-Shaabi force alone.Commanders say that since elite forces backed by police and army moved to the fringes of the city center, IS has put up fierce resistance.
 

Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on  June 03-04/16

Everybody’s Gathered at the Gates of Fallujah
Abdulrahman Al-Rashed/Asharq Al Awsat/June 03/16
Discretion stars the Fallujah current state-of-affairs, as imminent war approaches; the ISIS-infested Sunni city is also engulfed by bigoted Shi’ite militias. Presence of Iranian leaders and ground forces about and around the city is also being registered. As for Iraqi army forces sieging Fallujah, Sunni parties and political leaderships are included alongside Anbar tribal fighters who are partaking in the preparations for entering the city. Reported crimes of Shi’ite militias against uprooted Fallujah citizens are a reality. Fallujah citizens also complain about the insufferable brutality of the so-called Sunni terrorist organization ISIS. Despite, the loud contradiction present in the previous statements, they all are evidently true. Fallujah’s case is the apparent Iraqi paradox. On the city’s frontier, Iranian militias commander Qassem Soleimani sides with Sunni Iraqi Minister of Defense Khaled al Obeidi, Sunni Iraqi Parliament Spokesperson Salim al-Jabouri, Shi’ite Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, bigoted Popular Mobilization Forces, and with Sunni Anbar tribal factions in a mission to besiege ISIS.
The concoction of Iraqi forces lining up on Fallujah’s gates and deploying in one camp does not necessarily mean there is consensus among them. On the contrary, it represents the lack of trust and the widened gap of differences, so that everyone showed up to fight the same battle. All those contributing to the Fallujah mission, come with a different aim and opinion on how the battle should be carried out. They disagree on how the current circumstances should be dealt with, and how the liberated Fallujah should be molded. What unifies the mixed bag of forces is the united hatred to a common enemy, ISIS– a terrorist organization which delivered Fallujah, Anbar and Iraqi citizens in general to an excruciating humanitarian low.
Shi’ite extremists have come to contribute to incitement to sectarian strife. Iranian General Soleimani -who had made the besiegement of Fallujah the slogan of alleged IRGC heroic deeds to be sold back home- hopes to compensate for the crushing defeat he suffered in Syria and to clean up his image.
As for PM al-Abadi and other parliamentary leaders- both Shi’ite and Sunni- all they pursue is a self-sought salvation from the escalating national crisis and the threat of them being ousted. On the other hand, Anbar Sunni tribal leaders seek to protect their territory from a Shi’ite militias overrun, in addition to their desire for getting rid of the locally-pervading enemy, ISIS. The tribal leaders also look forward to strike an agreement with the government to be in charge of entering Fallujah after its liberation in order to prevent sectarian clashes. Moreover, the inner city debuts ISIS terrorists coexisting with enemy members of the Arab Socialist Ba’ath Party and the spiteful youth of Fallujah.
As to why do extremist groups return to Fallujah, despite the massive 10-year-old record of losses at hand, it is simply because Fallujah represents the Sunni gate to the Anbar governorate they long to dominate. Anbar, strategically located, borders three countries – Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia. Not to mention that Fallujah is a 30 min drive to the Iraqi capital Baghdad. Former Iraqi PM Nouri al-Malki had pictured Anbar as a governorate which goes up against political authorities, and had used ISIS as an excuse for taking down rivals, and taking over all strings to the government into his personal hand, whether the security, military or financial sectors. Nowadays, ISIS and the likes of Iran attempt to exploit the same strategy to take over Iraq. Iranians have entered Iraq last year allegedly to free the then ISIS-occupied Mosul. However, not a single parcel of land was freed—while Iranian presence is ongoing.
With all that being said, Iranians still boast about their protection of Baghdad from ISIS-held Fallujah posed threats. Iranians are drawing parallels to what the Syrian administration once did in Lebanon, a foreign country taking in a legally excused cover for it to help the central government against both ISIS and those who rebel against it.

Iran’s preference – Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump?
Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Al Arabiya/June 03/16
Bernie Sanders would have been Iran’s top preference to become the next American president. His speeches criticizing corporations, the widening gap between rich and poor in the US, and the size of American military and its involvement around the world, were even televised on Iran’s state media outlets.
Sanders’ foreign and Middle East policies lean towards isolationism, which would be congruent with Iran’s agenda of pushing American forces out of the region, and pursuing its regional hegemonic ambitions.
But currently Sanders has most likely run out of luck and lacks delegate votes to win the democratic nomination. Therefore, which candidate – Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump – would be Iranian leaders’ top choice?
On the nuclear deal
For Iranian leaders, the first issue to examine is the candidate’s view on the nuclear agreement. Although the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, publicly criticizes some aspects of the nuclear agreement and condemns the West for not fulfilling its share completely, he remains in favor of the agreement.
The continuing implementation of the nuclear agreement is leading to the release of billions of dollars into Iran’s treasury, increase in oil sales, rejoining the international community, the global financial system, and enhancing Iran’s global legitimacy which allow Iran to more efficiently, comfortably, and freely deploy its hard and soft power in the region.
Although Clinton is slightly more hawkish in comparison to Obama, she has shown almost no deviation from Obama’s foreign and Middle East policies. Hillary Clinton has come out in favor of the nuclear agreement. In fact, during the time that she served as Secretary of State, Clinton assisted in ushering the Iranian leaders to the negotiating table.
She pointed out, at the MSNBC Democratic forum, “I spent 18 months putting together the sanctions against Iran so that we could force them to the negotiating table”.
On the other hand, Donald Trump has rallied his campaign against Iran’s nuclear agreement. Standing against the nuclear agreement appears to be Trump’s top priority as the billionaire’s son, Eric Trump, stated on a radio show that what drove his father to run for presidency was Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran.
“I think, honestly, the Iran nuclear deal was one of the things that made him jump into the race…I think that was a game changer for him.”
As a result, when it comes to the nuclear agreement, Clinton’s policy scores better with the Iranian leaders, particularly the major decision makers: Khamenei, and the hard-line military officers of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Middle East Policy
The best candidate that Iranian leaders can wish for would be someone who does the following: not take leadership positions on issues concerning the Middle Eastern nations, envisions a minimal role in Iraq and Syria (Iran’s redlines), allows Iran to take the front seat, allows tactical cooperation with Iran – assisting Tehran behind the scenes but not strategic cooperation – turns a blind eye on IRGC role in the region including in Iraq, Syria, and Yemen, and ignores Iran’s enhancing military capacity such as ballistic missiles.
In other words, Iran desires a president whose policies resemble those of President Obama. Although Clinton is slightly more hawkish in comparison to Obama, she has shown almost no deviation from Obama’s foreign and Middle East policies.
Iranian leaders also desire predictability in US foreign policy in order to more effectively chart their long-term agenda. Clinton’s policies are mostly predictable.
Clinton’s “wait and see” foreign and Middle East policy would be beneficial to Iran’s political establishment. She is more likely to allow the IRGC to continue its activities in the region and thus allow Iran to take a leadership role.
On the other hand, although Trump appears isolationist and converges with Sanders when it comes to foreign and Middle East policies, he is, however, more critical of Iran’s military role in the region and he has argued that he is willing to put forces on the ground in the region.
Finally, since Trump is not part of the long-standing American political establishment as Clinton is, since there exists no precedence of how he will implement his foreign and Middle East policy, and since his foreign and Middle East policies are not as predictable as those of Clinton, Iran would be uncomfortable

 with the unpredictable aspect of Trump’s policies, hence, favoring Clinton in that respect as well.

All eyes on Fallujah
Abdulrahman al-Rashed/Al Arabiya/June 03/16
A big battle is about to be waged in the Iraqi city of Fallujah, a haven of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). Iraqi sectarian Shiite militias are besieging the Sunni city. There are Iranian leaders and troops with Iraqi forces in the vicinity of Fallujah. At the forefront of the Iraqi forces are Sunni troops, political leaders, and tribal fighters from Anbar province. Many crimes are being committed by Shiite militias against Sunnis displaced from Fallujah. Residents also complain about ISIS’s brutality. This is Fallujah today. The presence of these contradictory forces in one camp does not mean they are on good terms.
There is a battle, and all were called to it. The participants have different stances regarding the management of the battle and the city, and how to deal with the situation now and after the promised liberation.
Motives
What brought them together is their hatred of ISIS, especially that Fallujah residents are complaining about its crimes and tyranny. Anbar residents, and Iraqis in general, have been living a state of war for years due to ISIS. Shiite extremists are participating, along with Qassem Soleimani - head of Iran’s elite Quds Force - who wants to compensate for his failure in Syria and restore his image. Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi and other government and parliamentary figures, whether Shiite or Sunni, want Fallujah to save them from demonstrations and threats against their overthrow. The presence of these contradictory forces in one camp does not mean they are on good terms. What brought them together is their hatred of ISIS. Sunni tribal leaders want to protect their areas from Shiite militias and get rid of ISIS, then seal a deal with the government and be the ones to enter the city when liberated, to prevent sectarian clashes. Inside besieged Fallujah, ISIS fighters coexist with their Baathist enemies, who are young disappointed men. Extremist groups value the city because it is the gateway to Anbar, which borders Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia. Fallujah is only 30 minutes away from Baghdad. Former Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has succeeded in portraying Anbar as against the political system. He used prosecuting ISIS and the Baathists as a pretext to kill his opponents and dominate the government on the military, security and financial levels. ISIS and the fools around the organization have helped Iran achieve its goal of seizing Iraq. The Iranians entered the country last year under the pretext of liberating the city of Mosul from ISIS. They did not liberate one inch, and did not get out of Iraq. They are repeating what the Syrians did to Lebanon.
This article was first published in Asharq al-Awsat on June 3, 2016.

Financial rewards aside, the Uber deal actually empowers Saudi Women!
Faisal J. Abbas/Al Arabiya/June 03/16
Saudi Arabia’s $3.5 billion investment in global transportation company, Uber, grabbed headlines yesterday, and rightly so. After all, it was the largest single investment ever made in a private company. The generally mixed reactions were also understandable given that Saudi Arabia has numerous critics. However, one can’t help but say that some of the criticism appeared blatantly misguided and extremely far from the realities on the ground. Specifically, there were some wild and unfounded speculations that Saudi Arabia is investing in Uber to maintain its ban on women driving. Others ridiculed Uber for seeking business, leave alone investment funds, in a country that bans women from driving. Some activists even called for the boycott of Uber for accepting money from Saudi Arabia, a country which they said discriminates against women. Now, while one must emphasize that these activists are certainly free to say or do whatever makes them feel good about themselves, I would urge such people to first look within, before getting judgmental over “bad deals”.As such, if the driving-ban forms grounds for these so-called activists to boycott Saudi Arabia or Uber, then I expect them to go all the way and not just do what is convenient. Otherwise, one can’t help but suggest that it would be extremely hypocritical for these people not to boycott US or Chinese products too!
After all, wouldn’t purchasing any American product be an endorsement of a government which uses drones that indiscriminately take innocent lives around the world? Or is that okay, because women are allowed to drive in the US? Furthermore, these critics should immediately cease buying Nike shoes and Apple devices, unless they can assure us that they have been manufactured under international labor standards in China! What stronger message could there be more than the Kingdom’s powerful Deputy Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman, personally and publically endorsing women’s right to drive?
Missing the point
More importantly, such ridiculous claims miss the point and are disconnected from the realities on the ground. In my opinion, the question in Saudi Arabia was never if women will be allowed to drive but rather, when and how will they be allowed to drive. What stronger message could there be more than the Kingdom’s powerful Deputy Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman, personally and publically endorsing women’s’ right to drive? Furthermore, it is not like the topic is a taboo anymore. It is regularly discussed in the Shoura Council and in Saudi media (this includes an article that I personally wrote on this website back in 2011). As such, nobody should view the Uber investment as a way to enforce the driving-ban, on the contrary: it is an immediate and practical ‘work-around’ that actually empowers women and facilitates their movement and productivity. If you are unaware of the situation in the Kingdom, you should know that 80 percent of Uber users in Saudi Arabia are women and that the introduction of this app, alongside its main local-competitor Careem, has really helped in solving a big logistical hurdle. After all, not all women can afford hiring their own driver and male chaperons (such as fathers, brothers, husbands…etc.) are not always available. Have those who called for the boycott thought that they may be stopping a mother from taking a crying child to the hospital? Did they think that they could be preventing a perfectly eligible fresh female graduate from getting a job which may not only help sustain herself but her whole family as well? Just for background, public transport is sadly unreliable in the kingdom and traditional taxis are incredibly inconvenient to hail and largely unsafe to use for women. Uber and Careem, on the other hand, provide a much safer, traceable, cost-effective and convenient substitute.
A sound decision
As such, this recent Saudi investment should be taken within its correct context: the Kingdom’s 2030 Vision. I say this not just because experts believe this is a sound financial decision, which serves in diversifying the Kingdom’s stream of revenues, but because part of the Vision’s objective is also to reduce female unemployment. In fact, sources within the pool of consultants behind the vision suggest that Riyadh is considering paying female employees an additional allowance for transport to help them overcome this hurdle and find jobs. I don’t know if you are convinced or not, but to me, these are certainly not signs of a government that wants to further restrict women! However, if we were to go by the whims and speculations of those unreasonable critics who slammed the Uber deal, I am certainly glad that The Saudi Public Investment Fund did not invest in driverless cars. Judging by the silliness of some of the Western analysis I read, I wouldn’t have been surprised that they made an assumption that Kingdom’s real intention is to eliminate women altogether!
 

What to expect from this week's Paris talks on Israeli-Palestinian peace
Laura Rozen/Al-Monitor/June 03/16
WASHINGTON — Over two dozen foreign ministers, including US Secretary of State John Kerry, will convene in Paris June 3 for an international conference on advancing a two-state solution in the Middle East, but neither Israel nor the Palestinian Authority will send envoys. While Kerry agreed to attend, the United States has expressed ambivalence about the French initiative, saying without the will of the two parties, the peace process won’t succeed. France, for its part, said it was well aware of the difficulties, but something must be done to break the deadlock and get the parties back to the table.
“The first and most important thing is that the leaders themselves in the region have got … to make some tough decisions,” State Department spokesperson John Kirby told journalists at the State Department press briefing May 30. “And they have to show in real ways, not just rhetoric, that they’re willing to take the steps necessary to get us to a two-state solution, and to date they haven’t done that.”
Kerry “is not going to turn up his nose at any good ideas that could get us closer to seeing a two-state solution in place,” Kirby said June 1. “And so he looks forward to discussing all manner of options and alternatives that might come up on Friday.”
“The Israelis and Palestinians will resolve their differences when they sit down face to face and actually engage in constructive conversations about resolving their differences,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said May 31. “But nobody in the international community, including the United States, can make those difficult decisions for the parties. Ultimately, the parties themselves have to make those decisions.”
France’s Foreign Ministry said the June 3 ministerial meeting is a “first step” to try to revive collapsed Middle East peace negotiations and the effort deserved attention because the situation on the ground is deteriorating.
“France wanted to take this political initiative because the situation in Israel and the Palestinian territories is worsening due to the lack of prospects for negotiations,” the French Foreign Ministry said in a statement. “It is up to us to take action to recreate a political outlook which encourages renewed bilateral negotiations between the two currently deadlocked parties.”
“Each of us is well aware of the difficulties, but we cannot afford to do nothing,” the ministry statement read. “All our partners agree that the two-state solution is falling apart and that the current situation is dangerous. Our aim is to mobilize the entire international community so that it can actively support relaunching the peace process.”
Ilan Goldenberg, who previously worked on Kerry’s State Department Middle East peace team, said whatever misgivings the United States may have about the French initiative, it was better to attend than skip it.
“Probably the administration decided it is worth going, and better to be in the room than out of the room,” Goldenberg, now director of Middle East programs at the Center for New American Security (CNAS), told Al-Monitor June 1.
“The French have a couple different visions for it. Some things can be productive, some things can be unproductive,” said Goldenberg, who hosted a CNAS/Israel Policy Forum conference on security measures for a two-state solution. “If they want to use it to build consensus for parameters for a two-state UN Security Council resolution, that would seem to me a terrible idea. … You are not going to be able to get everyone to agree, with so many countries, on parameters to set up negotiations. It’s a pipe dream.”
Alternatively, “If they want to use it to lay out some incentives for the parties, practical steps for the parties to take practically right now — positive steps, or incentives or disincentives — that is more productive,” Goldenberg continued.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has angrily denounced the French initiative as unwelcome international meddling and said that the only way to proceed is to hold direct bilateral talks between the Israelis and Palestinians, without preconditions.
"The path to peace is not via international conferences that attempt to force a settlement, that make the Palestinian demands more extreme and in the process distance peace," Netanyahu said June 1, Haaretz reported. "If the countries gathering this week in Paris really want to advance peace, they should join my call to Abu Mazen [Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas] to come to such direct negotiations. That's the path to peace. There is no other way."
Netanyahu added, "The path to peace is via direct negotiations and without preconditions between the parties. That's how it was in the past when we achieved peace with Egypt and also with Jordan and that's how it needs to be with the Palestinians.”
But perhaps partly in a bid to deflect pressure from the Paris peace conference and propose an alternative, this week Netanyahu expressed support for a modified Arab Peace Initiative, under which Israel would hold parallel discussions with the Arab League alongside Israeli-Palestinian talks.
“I take this opportunity to make clear that I remain committed to making peace with the Palestinians and with all our neighbors,” Netanyahu said in the Knesset May 31. “The Arab Peace Initiative contains positive elements that could help revive constructive negotiations with the Palestinians.”
He added, “We are willing to negotiate with the Arab states revisions to that initiative so that it reflects the dramatic changes in our region since 2002 … but maintains the agreed goal of two states for two peoples.” Netanyahu made his statement first in Hebrew and then repeated it in English, the Times of Israel noted.
While prospects for a breakthrough in Israeli-Palestinian peace talks seem dim at the moment, the attitude of the parties could change and provide an opening at a future point. Practical steps and a phased approach could be key to build trust in the interim.
“The Palestinians see the end game, 10 years from now,” Ghaith al-Omari, a former member of the Palestinian negotiating team, said at a May 31 CNAS/Israel Policy Forum conference on security measures for advancing a two-state solution. “They have no belief in this process. A phased approach, with visible change early on — this is the key to building trust. … What can be done now.”

Peshmerga gaining ground en route to Mosul
Shelly Kittleson/Al-Monitor/June 03/16
MANGUBA VILLAGE, Iraq — Three ambulances rushed through the last checkpoint and another, sirens blaring, exited at the Khazir front on the morning of May 29. A military operation, part of a push toward Mosul in Iraq’s northwestern Ninevah province, had started a few hours earlier, around 5 a.m., and would continue into the following day. Trucks rushed to and from the front, with light-reflecting sheets covering their hoods to prevent aircraft from the US-led international coalition from mistaking them for Islamic State (IS) vehicles.
“Around 6,000 peshmerga and [the elite paramilitary] Zerevani forces are involved,” Gen. Sheikh Ato Zebari, the deputy head of the Khazir front, told Al-Monitor at a nearby base. Gen. Dedewan Khorsheed Tofeq added that the operation west of Erbil would push IS farther from Gwer and the capital of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), enabling more freedom of movement for forces hoping to push toward Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, still firmly under IS control.
The two-day operation was the largest the peshmerga had taken part in since the campaign to liberate Sinjar in November. The aim at the moment, Zebari said, was to retake several villages that had been inhabited by Kakai and Shabak, Kurdish minority groups, as well as other Kurds and Christians, before IS captured them in June 2014. The territory involved covers some 14 miles, from the village of Hassan Shami to Wardak. The area had been disputed by the Iraqi central government and the KRG prior to IS seizing Mosul and the surrounding area in summer 2014.
“The offensive should result in control over both sides of the Khazir River and prepare the way for successive stages toward the long-anticipated retaking of Mosul,” Zebari said. “Support from Canadian, French, British and US aircraft are playing an extremely important role in the operation, while the main problems are IEDs [improvised explosive devices] and suicide bombers.” Tofeq added that IS had recently been using a significant number of suicide bombers on motorcycles, posing a threat to areas near the capital.
As for the possibility of any civilians being left in the villages, Zebari said, “Since the inhabitants were all Shabak, Kakai and Kurdish, they all left in 2014 when IS took them over. They’re IDPs [internally displaced persons] in the KRG now.”
At a high point close to the front line just outside Manguba village, several armed volunteers from the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), wearing traditional baggy attire in hues matching the surrounding fields, watched the smoke rise from mortar strikes and fires sparked by the fighting on the dry terrain.
A 62-year-old armed with a Russian pistol and with black-and-white checkered keffiyeh around his head identified himself as KDP's staff for Tel Aswad and the village of Maguba, one of the first villages retaken that morning. He said that he and his companions had been prohibited from taking part in the fighting, explaining, “Untrained fighters just end up creating chaos.” This was a lesson learned from previous battles, but they nonetheless stood willing and armed. The men watched the billowing smoke a few miles away with unveiled enthusiasm.
Another of the local volunteers, Ali Milham, from the KDP office in the nearby IS-held village of Bartala, spoke on the phone with people he said were in Mosul and with whom he kept in contact for information purposes. He said that many were trying to escape the city, heading for Kurdish-held territory in Syria.
A vehicle-mounted Grad rocket launcher had been positioned at a vantage point near the base from which officers, an adviser to the president on engineering and a few local leaders monitored operations.
Peshmerga stand next to a Grad rocket launcher near the Khazir front, in northwestern Iraq, during an operation in the prelude to liberating Mosul from the Islamic State, May 29, 2016. (photo by Shelly Kittleson)
Sgt. Rebwar Husain told Al-Monitor that three Grad rockets had been launched from the position that morning. The first target was the village of Zarakhatun, some four miles away. The rocketing was to create confusion so the peshmerga could move in.
Back at the base, an officer with blood on his sand-colored lace-up boots told Al-Monitor that the first officer to die since the fighting began that morning had been Lt. Gen. Rezgar, on the road into Mufti village.
“He wasn’t just a simple peshmerga,” Maj. Gen. Muhsin Rashed said, somewhat shaken. “He was a medical doctor, like me. He studied medicine in the Czech Republic when he was a refugee, but he came back later to fight as a peshmerga. I was 100 meters behind, and I tried to resuscitate him but I couldn’t.”
Arif Tayfar, sector commander in Khazir, said more calmly, “This is war. We expect to lose men.”
“We are astonished by the amount of materiel IS has. We are wondering where they got all this from,” said another officer in the room. He also remarked that the losses from the operation had thus far been much less than previous ones, due to international coalition airstrikes and the experience and training the peshmerga have gained in recent months.
Sources said that a US adviser had suffered minor injuries in the operation, but Al-Monitor could not independently verify the information. The US military did, however, publicly disclose on May 31 that a soldier had been injured in northern Iraq near Erbil without specifying the exact location or circumstances.
Several high-ranking officers fielded telephone calls and received updates, occasionally glancing at a television tuned to Kurdistan 24. The operation was declared completed on May 30, with a reported nine villages retaken and 140 enemy combatants killed. Four peshmerga died, and 34 others were wounded. On May 31, IS tried to retake territory in the early morning hours, in a 3 a.m. attack, but was unable to do so.
The second stage of the peshmerga’s drive toward Mosul, officials told Al-Monitor, will be a push toward Christian villages en route to the city that IS calls its capital in Iraq.
Farther south, Iraqi government troops backed by Shiite militias and international airstrikes had begun an offensive to retake Fallujah, Iraq’s fourth-largest city, overrun by IS six months before it took Mosul. The operations in Iraq are occurring at the same time as a push across the border in Syria by a US-backed, Kurdish-dominated coalition to retake Raqqa, considered IS’ de facto capital.

Does Liberman have his eye on Netanyahu's throne?
Yossi Melman/Jerusalem Post/June 03/16
AS FAR as he is concerned, the appointment of the maverick Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Liberman as defense minister is just another station on the way to his final destination – the house on Balfour Street in Jerusalem, the Prime Minister’s residence, home of his benefactor and Likud party leader, Benjamin Netanyahu.
In a surprising, controversial and Machiavellian move May 19, Netanyahu chose Liberman to replace the respected and solid Moshe (Bogie) Ya’alon.
An angry and insulted Ya’alon refused Netanyahu’s offer to take over the Foreign Ministry and resigned from both the government and the Knesset. Ya’alon said he had lost faith in the prime minister and called his move a “political time out.” It is likely that he is contemplating his own political maneuver to topple Netanyahu, either within the Likud or with outside forces.
With his entry into the 14th floor of the Kirya Tower, the Defense Ministry compound in central Tel Aviv, the public could rightly view many of Liberman’s past statements as a source of concern – both for themselves and for Israel’s foes and friends alike.
In 2001, amid a period of tension in Israeli- Egyptian ties, Liberman said that if a war were to break out with Egypt, the Israel Defense Forces should bomb the Aswan Dam a strategic installation that is key to Egypt’s electricity production and agriculture.
Nowadays, the relations between the two countries are at their prime and the two share intelligence and coordinate military moves in the war against the Sinai Province of the Islamic State terrorists in the strategic Sinai Peninsula, as well as against Hamas in Gaza.
During the war in Gaza in the summer of 2014, when Liberman was a member of the inner security cabinet, he unleashed harsh criticism against the management of the war by Netanyahu, Ya’alon and then-chief of staff Lt.-Gen. Benny Gantz. He demanded that the IDF occupy Gaza and topple the Hamas regime.
His belligerence has continued in recent years.
Recently he demanded that Ismail Haniyeh, the de facto Hamas prime minister, be given an ultimatum: Return the bodies of two Israeli soldiers killed in action in 2014 within 48 hours, or else consider yourself dead and start searching for a plot in a nearby cemetery.
He has often demanded that Israel adopt a much tougher policy against the Palestinian Authority (PA) and the war against Palestinian terrorism. He also advocated an uncompromising approach to the so far futile efforts to improve relations with Turkey.
These statements and others indicate that Liberman is a strong believer in power politics in the international arena. It’s no wonder that he is an admirer of the strongman approach of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
While many – though not the majority – of the Israeli public supports his worldview, the top echelon of the defense establishment regards his appointment with unease. Their reticence is compounded by the fact that Liberman has no serious military experience – nearly a must in Israeli security circles – and, therefore, isn’t considered “one of us.”
After immigrating to Israel from the Soviet Union, Liberman served a single year in the IDF in a noncombatant unit. His short military service has been a source of humor for many critics, including recent remarks made by Netanyahu aides, who said Liberman has “never heard bullets, only the buzz of tennis balls” – a reference to the Yisrael Beytenu leader’s hobby of playing tennis.
Netanyahu, who never misses an opportunity to remind his audiences that he served as a young lieutenant in the elite Sayeret Matkal commando unit, has said that Liberman doesn’t have the skills even to be “a military commentator.”
There is also no doubt of Liberman’s attitude toward what Ya’alon and Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Gadi Eisenkot calls “the spirit and ethics of the IDF.” The controversy surrounding these values were one of the reasons Netanyahu decided to get rid of Ya’alon in the first place.
In March, an IDF soldier killed a wounded Palestinian terrorist who no longer posed a threat to the soldiers. Eisenkot deplored the action, describing it as contrary to the IDF spirit and its open-fire orders. Rightwing politicians – including Liberman – rushed to the support of the soldier, and criticized Eisenkot and the army’s decision to court-marshal the soldier.
Ya’alon backed the decision made by Eisenkot and the IDF, rhetorically declaring do we want the IDF to engage in “gang warfare?” Netanyahu, in keeping with his habit of sitting on the fence to see where the wind blows, paid lip service to the IDF conduct and called the soldier’s father to express his sympathy. Liberman went even further, going to the military court to demonstrate that he supported the soldier and not Ya’alon and the military who indicted him for manslaughter.
Nonetheless, the history of Israeli governments shows that it is not self-evident that civilians are worse defense ministers than professional military men. Levi Eshkol, Menachem Begin, Moshe Arens, and a decade ago even Amir Peretz are examples that a civilian can be a strong and competent defense minister ‒ maybe even more so than the generals who tend to identify with their previous employer, the IDF, and lose sight of their political role of managing and supervising the military.
One should not forget that Liberman does have many years of experience in interfacing with the IDF and the defense establishment ‒ he served as chairman of the foreign relations and defense committee of the Knesset and as foreign minister in Netanyahu’s previous government before the last elections in 2015. He is also known to have an especially good relationship with Yossi Cohen, the current head of the Mossad.
As a foreign minister, he was liked by the foreign service personnel. He was attentive to their requests and patient during deliberations.
He demonstrated pragmatism and responsibility in dealing with the most sensitive and complicated security and foreign relations issues.
HE NEVER ignored opportunities to launch secret diplomatic missions or to reach out to Arab nations, and sanctioned almost every initiative brought before him to enhance ties with Middle Eastern countries. Actually, his image as a tough leader, especially in the face of Iran and the Shi’ite Lebanese organization Hezbollah made him a favorite Israeli official in the eyes of some, such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
It is most likely that in his new position, he will continue to try to reach out to the Sunni Arab world, stressing the common enemy – Iran and Hezbollah – and the shared interests in defeating them. Already, clandestine ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia have warmed dramatically in the last year. According to foreign reports, there is strong military cooperation between the two countries, and Israeli companies are selling hi-tech software and equipment to upgrade Saudi Arabia’s intelligence capability and military command and control centers.
Therefore, Liberman the defense minister is quite likely to reject the ideas and proposals suggested by Liberman in opposition.
He will not order an attack on the Aswan Dam – on the contrary, he will try to improve even deeper relations with Cairo. He won’t unleash the Israeli army to conquer Gaza and topple Hamas. Moreover, he will not ask the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) to stop its close cooperation with the Palestinian Authority’s security forces.
Yet, Liberman, together with Netanyahu, will have his fingers poised on the red buttons of Israel’s strategic deterrence capabilities, and will have to learn how to live with the chief of staff and his general staff, who are no less opinionated and assertive than he is, and so far, are not afraid of expressing their professional views and recommendations on advancing and designing Israeli security policies.
It is ironic that Netanyahu pushed Ya’alon out, despite the fact that the two had seen eye to eye and were very close allies when it came to military and security issues. Neither believed in peace initiatives, be they by the international community or Arab states.
They had no faith in the leadership qualities of PA President Mahmoud Abbas and did everything possible to avoid negotiating with the Palestinians, knowing that it would eventually force Israel to make territorial concessions and dismantle Jewish settlements in the West Bank. Ya’alon opposed the lifting of the siege on Gaza, no less than Netanyahu or Liberman.
Netanyahu and Ya’alon were very cautious in the way they managed the military and didn’t want to be dragged into any adventurous escapades against Israeli enemies. This was evident in the carefully measured war, which they conducted in the summer 2014 war against Gaza.
THEIR STRATEGIC doctrine was to maintain peace and tranquility along Israel’s borders with Lebanon, Sinai and Gaza and not to get involved in the bloody Syrian civil war. At the same time they maintained what they perceived as an Israeli strategic military interest: preventing the establishment of Iranian-Hezbollah networks in the Syrian Golan near the Israeli border and the transfer of advanced weaponry such as antiaircraft missiles and components that could enhance the effectiveness of Hezbollah’s long-range missiles.
As for the PA, both accepted the recommendations of the security chiefs to allow the Palestinians to enjoy relative economic stability, but rejected their suggestions to supplement this with diplomatic initiatives and gestures.
What divided Netanyahu and Ya’alon was not ideology or strategic issues, but rather character and personality traits.
Ya’alon is a rigid, stubborn and reserved person, but he is honest and has integrity, while lacking any political maneuvering skills. He, therefore, rushed to defend the military, and publicly endorsed the army’s norms, values and the need to maintain its moral compass.
Netanyahu is exactly the opposite. He is eloquent and outspoken, with no fixed notions – he knows how to be flexible to serve his political agenda – and is above all cunning and manipulative, with brutal political instincts.
In that sense, Ya’alon was easy prey for Netanyahu. Liberman will be much harder for Netanyahu to target. It may well be that Netanyahu will eventually regret this political opportunism when he realizes that Liberman is just as cunning and manipulative as he is, and has his eyes fixed on Netanyahu’s throne.

Will Israel's new defense minister agree to meet with Abbas?
Shlomi Eldar/Al-Monitor/June 03/16
Many people were surprised by comments that new Minister of Defense Avigdor Liberman made to the Israel Defense Forces’ General Staff this week, just a few hours after a reception in his honor at the Defense Ministry on May 31. “When there is a clash of values between the unity of the people and territorial integrity, the people are more important,” Liberman said.
While Liberman was addressing the General Staff, Israeli mayors were meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at the Palestinian Authority (PA) headquarters, the Muqata, in Ramallah. At that meeting, they were treated to a no less surprising statement. “If Liberman truly supports the two-state solution, nothing will prevent us from negotiating with him,” said Abbas. “If Liberman really means that, the Palestinians will forget that he accused them of being diplomatic terrorists and will judge him on his future actions.”
These moderate statements by the two leaders, which were made almost simultaneously, were no coincidence. Al-Monitor was informed that the tempered remarks were preceded by a series of messages sent by the Palestinians, saying that they do not reject the idea of a meeting between the Palestinian president and Israel’s new minister of defense.
After word began circulating May 18 that Liberman was to replace Moshe Ya’alon as minister of defense, a brainstorming team was created at the Muqata to work out where Israel is headed. The conclusion was that Liberman, after facing sharp criticism surrounding his appointment as minister of defense, would attempt to shatter his image as an extremist, regardless of whether he himself is responsible for that image or whether it was built by others.
During their discussions, this team of senior Palestinian officials decided that Liberman is very different from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and that he would have no problem taking back any harsh statements he made in the past about the PA and Abbas. “He doesn’t have to face the Likud Central Committee, and he can only benefit politically if he pushes a new diplomatic initiative forward, going over the head of Netanyahu the rejectionist,” one Palestinian who was present at the discussions told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity.
The Palestinians received indications that their assessment was correct much faster than they anticipated. It happened almost immediately, when Liberman was being sworn in to his new position in the presence of Netanyahu on May 30. Not only did Liberman announce that he supports a two-state solution, but he also surprised everyone by saying that the recent speech on Middle East peace delivered by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi offers a real opportunity, and that “we must try to pick up the gauntlet.”
While the meeting between the Israeli mayors and Abbas at the Muqata this week was actually planned several weeks ago, the mayors reported that they found the Palestinian leader to be optimistic and determined to move a diplomatic peace process forward.
“I told Abbas that Liberman is very different from the person that is portrayed among the Israeli public. He is very moderate,” Maalot Mayor Shlomo Bohbot told Al-Monitor. “Abbas responded that he would be happy to meet with Liberman.”
Bohbot said that all that was left for the mayors’ delegation to do was to offer support to the Palestinian leader, who hadn't lost hope. “I told Abbas that [Israeli Prime Minister] Menachem Begin shook hands with [Egyptian President] Anwar Sadat and withdrew from the Sinai Peninsula, and [Prime Minister Yitzhak] Rabin shook hands with [PLO leader Yasser] Arafat and began the peace process. We believe that Liberman will surprise everyone and follow the path set by these leaders who were inspiring in the ways they changed their worldviews. I want to say that the man I found in Ramallah is completely different from the man that the Israeli leadership depicts to the public. Abbas told us, ‘We want peace so that we can bring good tidings to our people and to yours,’” said Bohbot, whose city is in the north of Israel.
“Abbas is determined to test Liberman,” one Palestinian senior diplomatic source told Al-Monitor. “If there is a meeting [between them], and they exchange statements and improve the atmosphere between the two peoples, it would be excellent for everyone. If, on the other hand, Liberman rejects all of our appeals, we will know that he is all talk.”
While Abbas did ask to open a channel of communication with Liberman’s office, using the mayors as a conduit, it would not be the only channel open to him. Ever since Liberman’s appointment was announced, messages have been relayed to Israel by way of a “military channel,” i.e., the defense coordination committees that exist between Israel and the Palestinians. These messages, sent via the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories Maj. Gen. Yoav (Poli) Mordechai, focused mainly on the Palestinians’ desire to maintain and preserve the close cooperation that exists between the parties. The Palestinians even advised the Israelis to brief the new defense minister about the current state of this cooperation and to emphasize its achievements in curbing the intifada.
Among other things, Mordechai was asked to relay the message that in order to maintain the current state of affairs and advance the diplomatic process, Abbas does not reject the idea of holding a public meeting with Liberman, even though Abbas knows that he will come under severe criticism for it from his own constituency. Palestinians associated with Abbas believe that the Palestinian president can overcome this criticism if Liberman provides a “positive milieu” to the idea of such a meeting.
As aforementioned, Liberman indeed gave that “positive milieu” to Abbas. “Based on Liberman’s public remarks, we take away a few things,” one Palestinian diplomatic source told Al-Monitor. “Liberman supports a two-state solution, the adoption of the Arab League’s initiative with the necessary emendations, a withdrawal from the territories and acceptance of the Egyptian president’s initiative, who is [Sisi] the key to progress.”
Former Knesset member Taleb el-Sana, an Arab who works with the Palestinian Integration Committee, told Al-Monitor that the PA plans to get everything it can out of the possibility of advancing a diplomatic initiative through Liberman. “Abbas is willing to meet with anyone who is willing to meet with him, and to speak to anyone who is willing to speak to him. When it comes to Liberman, this is the time to see if he is serious or not.”

Khomeini’s grandson says there is more to Islam than hijab
Arash Karami/Al-Monitor/June 03/16
On the anniversary of the death of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Iranian officials and the media typically release statements and make speeches about the legacy of the leader who led the 1979 Islamic Revolution. This year, for the 27th anniversary, the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) conducted a rare interview for the occasion with Khomeini’s grandson Hassan, who is often referred to as the “remembrance of Khomeini” and is tasked with carrying the legacy of the Khomeini name. In the interview, the grandson made controversial remarks about Islam, the hijab and a former president currently under a media ban.
Hassan Khomeini, who registered to run in the Assembly of Experts elections but was controversially blocked by the hard-line Guardian Council, has had a difficult relationship with hard-liners. His political and religious views have mostly been in line with Reformists, though his avoidance of partisan politics and his position as custodian of Khomeini’s mausoleum and thus his legacy has shielded him from the harsh attacks other Reformist-minded clerics received.
That the hard-line IRIB would interview Hassan Khomeini on the anniversary of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s death is also a rare occurrence. According to Hassan’s website, the last time IRIB interviewed him for the occasion was in 2007. Hassan Khomeini even joked with the IRIB interviewer about this, saying, “Finally you stopped avoiding [me] and after years invited me to a TV [interview].”
During the two-hour interview, Hassan Khomeini was mostly invited to discuss his memories of the final years of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s personal life, and his religious and political views. However, Hassan Khomeini took the opportunity on a few occasions to present his own views on controversial domestic issues.
“When we say piety, we say the hijab, prayers, fasting, non-mixing between unrelated men and women — these are certainly parts of religion but religion is not only this,” said Hassan Khomeini when asked about his grandfather's contribution to religion and its importance for Iranians today. “Religion is the rights of the people. Religion is fighting oppression. Religion is that one institution that must not take away someone’s rights. Religion means that everyone can speak freely. Religion means that there is no poverty in society.”
When asked by the interviewer to discuss how Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini was aware of the people’s demands, Hassan Khomeini, without mentioning the name of former President Mohammad Khatami, discussed the media ban on the Reformist politician. “Today you realize you cannot prevent someone’s words from reaching people,” he said. “Meaning you cannot ban someone’s images, ban them from speeches or ban someone from speaking to someone else. In reality this is mocking ourselves.” Many believe that Khatami’s position on the 2009 contested presidential elections caused his media ban. However, the popular former president is still influential; his video-recorded message urging Iranians to vote for Reformist candidates in the February parliamentary election was one of the most popular of the election period.
Hassan Khomeini also criticized the so-called newcomers who joined the government after the revolution, mostly hard-liners today, who have now consolidated power under the slogan of continuing the revolution. “I was there and I saw who was there and who wasn’t,” he said. “Who sat down after the table was set and those who suffered from the beginning. I was part of the struggle and I know who took a beating for the revolution. I know who came to the table only once the rice was served.”
He added, “Of course, the table of the revolution belongs to everyone — everyone should sit, but don’t make it a tight space for others.”

Sanctioned Syrian Official Invited To D.C. Event Delivers Outrageous Defense Of Assad
There is no moderate opposition and nobody is starving in Syria, according to Bouthaina Shaaban.
Jessica Schulberg/The Huffington Post/June 03/16
Bashar Assad spokeswoman Bouthaina Shaaban was invited to speak via Skype despite facing U.S. sanctions.

WASHINGTON — A panel discussion that had been billed as an effort to create a global alliance to defeat the so-called Islamic State spiraled downward Thursday into a tense two-and-a-half hour event dominated by a top Syrian official who has been sanctioned by the U.S. government. She insisted that her country’s brutal crackdown on its own people is just part of the war on terrorism.
“There is no such thing as moderate opposition,” Bouthaina Shaaban, spokeswoman for Syrian President Bashar Assad, said during the event hosted by an obscure group called the Global Alliance for Terminating ISIS/al-Qaeda (GAFTA).
In a lengthy pre-recorded speech, which was aired at the National Press Club event, Shaaban blasted Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Western countries for backing Syrian opposition fighters in her country’s civil war. She accused them of directly aiding both the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, and Jabhat al-Nusra, an al-Qaeda offshoot.
During a subsequent question-and-answer session, Shaaban sparred with reporters via Skype, dismissing accusations that the Assad regime had blocked humanitarian groups from delivering food to besieged areas of Syria and had aided ISIS by releasing its members from prison and purchasing oil from the terrorist group.
“It is a very fertile land. Nobody is starving in Daraya,” Shaaban said, despite well-documented reports of the Assad regime’s “surrender or starve” tactics in areas like Daraya and Madaya.
In 2011, the U.S. sanctioned Shaaban, along with Assad and a handful of other regime officials, in response to the Syrian government’s violent repression of its people. The sanctions froze any assets the officials had in the U.S. and prohibited Americans from providing “financial, material, or technological support” to them.
It is unclear whether GAFTA, a Florida-based nonprofit, violated the sanctions by hosting Shaaban electronically. Ghassan Mansour, GAFTA’s treasurer, claimed that the group did not know about the sanctions until the day before the event.
A Treasury spokeswoman declined to comment on the specific case, only vaguely suggesting that the arrangement could be problematic. “Transactions with designated persons are generally prohibited,” she told The Huffington Post.
GAFTA founder Ahmad Maki Kubba, speaking at the event, defended the invitation to Shaaban as part of an effort to hear from all parties involved in the fight against ISIS and claimed that the group has no allegiance to either side. But the Thursday discussion was decidedly one-sided, and there are indications that GAFTA itself is sympathetic to Assad and his allies.
The organization’s Facebook page contains numerous news stories that frame the Assad regime and its ally Russia in a flattering light. Mansour himself was previously accused by the U.S. Department of Justice of participating in a money-laundering operation to aid the Lebanese militia group Hezbollah, which has fought on behalf of Assad in Syria. Mansour denies the 2011 allegation.
“We are not associated with [Shaaban] or anybody,” he told HuffPost in a phone interview. “We’re trying to fight an evil. Is there sanctions against that?”
In the lead-up to the panel discussion, critics of the Assad regime accused GAFTA of providing a propaganda platform for a top-level Syrian official in violation of the spirit of the sanctions, if not the law itself.
“The point of sanctioning someone is to change their behavior, isolate them and force them to reconsider the actions they were taking. This is not in line with that,” one House Republican aide said of inviting Shaaban.
Mansour said his group has reached out to members of Congress but has had little luck securing meetings in Washington.
She’s been propagandizing, denying the use of chemical weapons, denying massacres. Syria expert Joseph Bahout on Bouthaina Shaaban
Others accused GAFTA of undermining the United Nations-led peace process by giving Assad’s spokeswoman a direct line to a U.S. audience. “She is regularly the one who speaks for the regime,” said Joseph Bahout, a visiting fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “She’s been propagandizing, denying the use of chemical weapons, denying massacres.”
Bahout rejected GAFTA’s argument that hearing from the Syrian regime at Thursday’s event was part of an effort to resolve the civil war.
“I’m sorry to be blunt, but this is the classical, usual bullshit used every time someone is trying to open a channel with the regime. If you want to negotiate with the regime, there are proper channels in Geneva,” Bahout said, referring to the U.N.-led talks.
The Syrian American Council, a U.S.-based group that has lobbied for more support for the Syrian opposition, said that it had pushed the National Press Club to remove Shaaban from the event, but as of Wednesday evening, had not heard back from Bill McCarren, executive director of the club. McCarren also did not respond to a request for comment from HuffPost.
“This is supposed to be about combating ISIS, and the Assad regime is directly responsible for not only fueling the rise of ISIS, but for supporting it financially through lucrative oil deals,” said Mohammed Ghanem, director of government relations for the Syrian American Council. “It’s unacceptable for a prestigious venue such as the National Press Club to be turned into a platform to spew propaganda.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/syria-official-bouthaina-shaaban-sanctions_us_575032b5e4b0c3752dcc9025

European Union Declares War on Internet Free Speech
Soeren Kern/Gatestone Institute/June 03/16
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/8189/social-media-censorship
Opponents counter that the initiative amounts to an assault on free speech in Europe. They say that the European Union's definition of "hate speech" and "incitement to violence" is so vague that it could include virtually anything deemed politically incorrect by European authorities, including criticism of mass migration, Islam or even the EU itself.
Some Members of the European Parliament have characterized the EU's code of online conduct -- which requires "offensive" material to be removed from the Internet within 24 hours -- as "Orwellian."
"By deciding that 'xenophobic' comment in reaction to the crisis is also 'racist,' Facebook has made the view of the majority of the European people... into 'racist' views, and so is condemning the majority of Europeans as 'racist.'" — Douglas Murray.
In January 2013, Facebook suspended the account of Khaled Abu Toameh after he wrote about corruption in the Palestinian Authority. The account was reopened 24 hours later, but with the two posts deleted and no explanation.
The European Union (EU), in partnership with Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Microsoft, has unveiled a "code of conduct" to combat the spread of "illegal hate speech" online in Europe.
Proponents of the initiative argue that in the aftermath of the recent terrorist attacks in Paris and Brussels, a crackdown on "hate speech" is necessary to counter jihadist propaganda online.
Opponents counter that the initiative amounts to an assault on free speech in Europe. They say that the EU's definition of "hate speech" and "incitement to violence" is so vague that it could include virtually anything deemed politically incorrect by European authorities, including criticism of mass migration, Islam or even the European Union itself.
Some Members of the European Parliament have characterized the EU's code of online conduct — which requires "offensive" material to be removed from the Internet within 24 hours, and replaced with "counter-narratives" — as "Orwellian."
The "code of conduct" was announced on May 31 in a statement by the European Commission, the unelected administrative arm of the European Union. A summary of the initiative follows:
"By signing this code of conduct, the IT companies commit to continuing their efforts to tackle illegal hate speech online. This will include the continued development of internal procedures and staff training to guarantee that they review the majority of valid notifications for removal of illegal hate speech in less than 24 hours and remove or disable access to such content, if necessary.
"The IT companies will also endeavor to strengthen their ongoing partnerships with civil society organisations who will help flag content that promotes incitement to violence and hateful conduct. The IT companies and the European Commission also aim to continue their work in identifying and promoting independent counter-narratives [emphasis added], new ideas and initiatives, and supporting educational programs that encourage critical thinking."
Excerpts of the "code of conduct" include:
"The IT Companies share the European Commission's and EU Member States' commitment to tackle illegal hate speech online. Illegal hate speech, as defined by the Framework Decision 2008/913/JHA of 28 November 2008 on combating certain forms and expressions of racism and xenophobia by means of criminal law and national laws transposing it, means all conduct publicly inciting to violence or hatred directed against a group of persons or a member of such a group defined by reference to race, color, religion, descent or national or ethnic origin....
"The IT Companies support the European Commission and EU Member States in the effort to respond to the challenge of ensuring that online platforms do not offer opportunities for illegal online hate speech to spread virally. The spread of illegal hate speech online not only negatively affects the groups or individuals that it targets, it also negatively impacts those who speak out for freedom, tolerance and non-discrimination in our open societies and has a chilling effect on the democratic discourse on online platforms.
"While the effective application of provisions criminalizing hate speech is dependent on a robust system of enforcement of criminal law sanctions against the individual perpetrators of hate speech, this work must be complemented with actions geared at ensuring that illegal hate speech online is expeditiously acted upon by online intermediaries and social media platforms, upon receipt of a valid notification, in an appropriate time-frame. To be considered valid in this respect, a notification should not be insufficiently precise or inadequately substantiated.
"The IT Companies, taking the lead on countering the spread of illegal hate speech online, have agreed with the European Commission on a code of conduct setting the following public commitments:
"The IT Companies to have in place clear and effective processes to review notifications regarding illegal hate speech on their services so they can remove or disable access to such content. The IT companies to have in place Rules or Community Guidelines clarifying that they prohibit the promotion of incitement to violence and hateful conduct.
"The IT Companies to review the majority of valid notifications for removal of illegal hate speech in less than 24 hours and remove or disable access to such content, if necessary.
"The IT Companies and the European Commission, recognising the value of independent counter speech against hateful rhetoric and prejudice, aim to continue their work in identifying and promoting independent counter-narratives, new ideas and initiatives and supporting educational programs that encourage critical thinking."
The agreement also requires Internet companies to establish a network of "trusted reporters" in all 28 EU member states to flag online content that "promotes incitement to violence and hateful conduct."
The EU Commissioner for Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality, Vĕra Jourová, has defended the initiative:
"The recent terror attacks have reminded us of the urgent need to address illegal online hate speech. Social media is unfortunately one of the tools that terrorist groups use to radicalize young people and racists use to spread violence and hatred. This agreement is an important step forward to ensure that the internet remains a place of free and democratic expression, where European values and laws are respected. I welcome the commitment of worldwide IT companies to review the majority of valid notifications for removal of illegal hate speech in less than 24 hours and remove or disable access to such content, if necessary."
Others disagree. The National Secular Society (NSS) of the UK warned that the EU's plans "rest on a vague definition of 'hate speech' and risk threatening online discussions which criticize religion." It added:
"The agreement comes amid repeated accusations from ex-Muslims that social media organizations are censoring them online. The Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain has now begun collecting examples from its followers of Facebook censoring 'atheist, secular and ex-Muslim content' after false 'mass reporting' by 'cyber Jihadists.' They have asked their supporters to report details and evidence of any instances of pages and groups being 'banned [or] suspended from Facebook for criticizing Islam and Islamism.'"
NSS communications officer Benjamin Jones said:
"Far from tackling online 'cyber jihad,' the agreement risks having the exact opposite effect and entrapping any critical discussion of religion under vague 'hate speech' rules. Poorly-trained Facebook or Twitter staff, perhaps with their own ideological bias, could easily see heated criticism of Islam and think it is 'hate speech,' particularly if pages or users are targeted and mass reported by Islamists."
In an interview with Breitbart London, the CEO of Index on Censorship, Jodie Ginsburg, said: "Hate speech laws are already too broad and ambiguous in much of Europe. This agreement fails to properly define what 'illegal hate speech' is and does not provide sufficient safeguards for freedom of expression.
"It devolves power once again to unelected corporations to determine what amounts to hate speech and police it — a move that is guaranteed to stifle free speech in the mistaken belief this will make us all safer. It won't. It will simply drive unpalatable ideas and opinions underground where they are harder to police — or to challenge.
"There have been precedents of content removal for unpopular or offensive viewpoints and this agreement risks amplifying the phenomenon of deleting controversial — yet legal — content via misuse or abuse of the notification processes."
A coalition of free speech organizations, European Digital Rights and Access Now, announced their decision not to take part in future discussions with the European Commission, saying that "we do not have confidence in the ill-considered 'code of conduct' that was agreed." A statement warned:
"In short, the 'code of conduct' downgrades the law to a second-class status, behind the 'leading role' of private companies that are being asked to arbitrarily implement their terms of service. This process, established outside an accountable democratic framework, exploits unclear liability rules for online companies. It also creates serious risks for freedom of expression, as legal — but controversial — content may well be deleted as a result of this voluntary and unaccountable take-down mechanism.
"This means that this 'agreement' between only a handful of companies and the European Commission is likely in breach of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights (under which restrictions on fundamental rights should be provided for by law), and will, in practical terms, overturn case law of the European Court of Human Rights on the defense of legal speech."
Janice Atkinson, an independent MEP for the South East England region, summed it up this way: "It's Orwellian. Anyone who has read 1984 sees its very re-enactment live."
Even before signing on to the EU's code of conduct, social media sites have been cracking down on free speech, often at the behest of foreign governments.
In September 2015, German Chancellor Angela Merkel was overheard on a live microphone confronting Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on what he was doing to prevent criticism of her open-door immigration policies.
In January 2016, Facebook launched an "Online Civil Courage Initiative" aimed at Facebook users in Germany and geared toward "fighting hate speech and extremism on the Internet."
Writing for Gatestone Institute, British commentator Douglas Murray noted that Facebook's assault on "racist" speech "appears to include anything critical of the EU's current catastrophic immigration policy." He wrote:
"By deciding that 'xenophobic' comment in reaction to the crisis is also 'racist,' Facebook has made the view of the majority of the European people (who, it must be stressed, are opposed to Chancellor Merkel's policies) into 'racist' views, and so is condemning the majority of Europeans as 'racist.' This is a policy that will do its part in pushing Europe into a disastrous future.
Facebook has also set its sights on Gatestone Institute affiliated writers. In January 2013, Facebook suspended the account of Khaled Abu Toameh after he wrote about corruption in the Palestinian Authority. The account was reopened 24 hours later, but with the two posts deleted and no explanation. Abu Toameh wrote:
"It's still a matter of censorship. They decide what's acceptable. Now we have to be careful about what we post and what we share. Does this mean we can't criticize Arab governments anymore?"
In June 2016, Facebook suspended the account of Ingrid Carlqvist, Gatestone's Swedish expert, after she posted a Gatestone video to her Facebook feed — called "Sweden's Migrant Rape Epidemic." In an editorial, Gatestone wrote:
"After enormous grassroots pressure from Gatestone's readers, the Swedish media started reporting on Facebook's heavy-handed censorship. It backfired, and Facebook went into damage-control mode. They put Ingrid's account back up — without any explanation or apology. Ironically, their censorship only gave Ingrid's video more attention.
"Facebook and the EU have backed down — for now. But they're deadly serious about stopping ideas they don't like. They'll be back."
This week, the EU, in partnership with Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Microsoft, unveiled a "code of conduct" to combat the spread of "illegal hate speech" online in Europe. The next day, Facebook suspended the account of Ingrid Carlqvist, Gatestone's Swedish expert, after she posted a Gatestone video to her Facebook feed — called "Sweden's Migrant Rape Epidemic."
**Soeren Kern is a Senior Fellow at the New York-based Gatestone Institute. He is also Senior Fellow for European Politics at the Madrid-based Grupo de Estudios Estratégicos / Strategic Studies Group. Follow him on Facebook and on Twitter. His first book, Global Fire, will be out in 2016.
© 2016 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. 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.

France and Stalin’s Ladies’ Fan
Amir Taheri/Asharq Al Awsat/JUne 03/16
For the past several weeks, big chunks of French life have been paralyzed with a cascade of strikes by what was known in the pre-Thatcher era as “flying pickets”. These are units of specially trained tough guys recruited and trained by the general Confederation of Workers (CGT), the trade union wing of the French Communist Party (PCF).
Their mission is to prevent employees of sensitive sectors of the economy from reaching their place of work, thus, imposing a wave of disruptions on the nation through ripple effect. The excuse for these guerrilla-style operations is a new draft law presented by the Socialist Government of President Francois Hollande.
After months of negotiations, all trade unions, with the exception of the CGT, have accepted the new draft with some amendments. The CGT says it won’t settle for anything less than the total withdrawal of the draft. To achieve that, the CGT leaders say they are going to go “as far as needed”, even if it means plunging the national economy into recession.
Because French things are never simple, the CGT’s war on the national economy comes at a time when the nation is supposed to be under a State of Emergency, imposed in the wake of last November’s terrorist attacks in Paris. Outsiders might wonder what kind of emergency allows a few dozen “flying pickets” to hold the country to ransom.
Before we tackle that question a few more points must be made.
To start with the proposed draft, presented by its authors as a reform of France’s rigid labour laws, is no such thing. Even if fully implemented it would still leave France on top of a European Union list for asking its workers to work less, earn more and enjoy protections that the British, not to mention the Poles, could only dream of.
The draft tries to achieve two things.The first is to allow employers to negotiate triennial rosters with the unions so that workers would work more when the company’s order books are full and less when business is slack. In any case, the total of hours worked could not exceed 35 a week which has been the legal norm since the 1990s.
The second proposal is to allow deals between employers and employees within each enterprise with more than 50 workers, albeit within limits of agreements negotiated by trade unions, at the level of each sector of the economy.
But how does CGT manage to defy the state in a State of Emergency, paralyze the economy and, at the time of this writing, simply get away with it. The reason is not CGT popularity with the so-called working class. In fact, the “syndicate”, as it is called in French, is estimated to have around 400,000 members out of a labour force of 30 million. The Communist Party, the CGT’s political twin, collected around 1 per cent of the votes in the latest presidential election in 2012. So, how do they do it? The answer is what students of Stalinism call “The Spanish Ladies’ Fan”.
We all know the kind of fan used by medieval Castilian belles to hide and reveal their faces, especially when doing the paso doble. As the lady dances she reveals more of her face by fingering aside part of the fan. In the final act she presses the spring in the middle of the fan to open it completely, revealing the whole of her face, transfixing the caballero.
The political version of the Spanish ladies fan provides for starting with a number of small-scale strikes; let’s call them teasers, to test the waters, before proceeding to larger shut-downs, producing an avalanche of disruptions on the way to the crescendo of a general strike.
In the “Spanish fan” style of strikes you start by blocking oil refineries, crippling the railway and urban Metro networks, closing air and sea ports and even stopping publication of the press.
Last month for example the CGT stopped all Paris newspapers, except one, from being printed because they refused to publish a whole page article by union leader Philippe Martinez justifying the “Spanish fan” strikes. The only paper allowed to publish was L’Humanite, the organ of the Communist Party of France (CPF).
In 1995, the CGT even shut down the state-owned radio and television networks according to an old plan of the defunct Soviet Union which was to be put into operation if and when the USSR went to war against NATO (of which France is a member).
Since the 1920s the CPF and its union wing have used the tactic on numerous occasions, often with success. In the past decade or so they used the “fan” to crush attempts by premiers Alain Juppe (1997), and Dominique de Villepin (2007), to introduce similar reforms.
The tactic was initially worked out by the Communist International (Komintern) in the 1920s when the newly established Bolshevik regime in Moscow, fearing attacks by capitalist powers, looked for means of weakening potential foes from within.
In 1919, less than two years after seizing power, Lenin decided to break from the Socialist International, which he regarded as “bourgoisified” and set up his own network. The aim was the “bolshevizification” of Socialist parties in Europe, notably France and Germany. That led to splits within the labor movement in Europe and led to the creation of the French Communist Party (CPF) after the Congress of Tours.
A master tactician, Lenin knew that his “party of the vanguard of proletariat” could never come to power through any kind of free elections, leaving the use of revolutionary force as the sole alternative. In his famous pamphlet “The April Thesis” he had already called for focusing on small elite groups with the slogan “Better few, but better!” But where should we look for the “better few”?
The answer was provided by the first two heads of the Komintern Grigori Zinoviev and Nikolai Bukharin in terse manuals. The new Communist parties in capitalist countries had to focus on building networks of influence, sympathy and active support in “neuralgic sectors”.
That meant the intelligentsia, the media, academia and strategic industries such as public transport, power generation, sea and air ports, oil and gas refineries, and armament factories. Special attention was given to building networks in the public sector because employees could not be easily dismissed there. Using a mixture of intimidation, fascination and psychological or even material bribery, the hardcore “vanguard” would develop a wider support base thanks to “useful idiots”, well-meaning but ill-informed citizens who would join any fight for “justice and equality.”
The man charged by Komintern to apply that theory in France was the Czech Bolshevik Eugen Fried who played godfather to both the CPF and the CGT. Fried was also instrumental in shaping the Popular Font coalition government of 1937 that introduced major social reforms in France. In time, Komintern recruited and trained French-born agents, notably Jacques Duclos, Andre Marty and Maurice Thorez who was to become Secretary-General of the CPF.
Zinoviev and Bukharin were executed by Stalin in the 1930s purges and Komintern was formally disbanded in 1943 when Stalin had joined the Allies in World War II. Lenin’s Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was disbanded in 1991 and almost all Communist parties in the West disappeared- all but a miniaturized PCF.
In other words, the world changed, rendering the Stalinist “Spanish Ladies’ Fan” tactic redundant, for everyone, except a truncated CGT, a ghost that still haunts France with the threat of opening the incendiary fan with a sudden swish.
**Amir Taheri was the executive editor-in-chief of the daily Kayhan in Iran from 1972 to 1979. He has worked at or written for innumerable publications, published eleven books, and has been a columnist for Asharq Al-Awsat since 1987. Mr. Taheri has won several prizes for his journalism, and in 2012 was named International Journalist of the Year by the British Society of Editors and the Foreign Press Association in the annual British Media Awards.
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