LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS
BULLETIN
November 24/16
Compiled
& Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
The
Bulletin's Link on the lccc Site
http://www.eliasbejjaninews.com/newsbulletin16/english.november24.16.htm
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Bible Quotations For Today
For whoever does the
will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 12/46-50/:"While he
was still speaking to the crowds, his mother and his brothers were standing
outside, wanting to speak to him. Someone told him, ‘Look, your mother and your
brothers are standing outside, wanting to speak to you.’But
to the one who had told him this, Jesus replied, ‘Who is my mother, and who are
my brothers?’And pointing to his disciples, he said,
‘Here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of my Father in
heaven is my brother and sister and mother.’
You are no longer a slave but a child, and
if a child then also an heir, through God
Letter to the Galatians 04/01-07/:"My point is this: heirs, as long as
they are minors, are no better than slaves, though they are the owners of all the
property; but they remain under guardians and trustees until the date set by
the father. So with us; while we were minors, we were enslaved to the elemental
spirits of the world. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son,
born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who were under
the law, so that we might receive adoption as children. And because you are
children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’So you are no longer a
slave but a child, and if a child then also an heir,
through God."
Titles For Latest LCCC
Bulletin analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on
November 23-24/16
Prince Khalid al-Faisal in Lebanon/Tariq Alhomayed/Asharq
Al-Awsat/November 23/16
Donald Trump's New Cabinet Will Hold Iran to Account/Struan Stevenson/
UPI/November 23/6
Dividing or Sharing Syria/Tariq Alhomayed/Asharq Al-Awsat/November 23/16
Stop Facebook, Social Media Fake News/Abdulrahman Al-Rashed/Asharq Al-Awsat/November 23/16
Iran, Hamas and the Dance of Death/Khaled Abu Toameh/Gatestone Institute/November 23/16
Status of the Syrian Rebellion: Numbers, Ideologies, and /Fabrice
Balanche/The Washington Institute/November 22/16
Letting Catholic priests into Australia was a mistake/By Richard
Cooke/Monthly/November 23/16
The Atrocious Scandal of the UNESCO Vote on Jerusalem/ Salim
Mansur/Gatestone Institute/November 23/16
Trump's Iran policy can finally correct for Obama, Bush failures/ Heshmat Alavi/The Hill/November
23/16
A global library in Dubai/Turki Aldakhil/Al
Arabiya/November 23/16
Getting to know the company Trump would like to keep/Chris Doyle/Al Arabiya/November 23/16
Arab action for happiness is need of the hour/Samar Fatany/Al
Arabiya/November 23/16
Titles For Latest Lebanese Related News published
on on November 23-24/16
Butterball turkey supplier investigated for business ties to Hizballah
Your Thanksgiving Turkey May Come from a Company with Terrorist Ties
Salam receives Foreign Minister of Qatar
Qatari Foreign Minister meets Geagea
Qatari Foreign Minister visits Hariri: Confident that a strong government will
be formed
Jumblatt meets German official in Clemenceau
Justice Council to look into Bachir Gemayel assassination lawsuit Friday
Rahi in Rome: Lebanon at threshold of new phase
Hakim inaugurates Art of Living exhibition at Forum Du Beirut
Man shot in cheek in Sidon
Bassil: All Parties Can be Represented in 24-Member
Govt., Minor Details Delaying Line-Up
Qatar FM Invites Aoun to Visit Doha, Vows 'Continued
Support' for Lebanon
Qatar’s FM says Doha stands with Lebanon
Sideline Meetings on Indepedence Day Tackled Cabinet
Formation Hurdles
Berri: Minor Obstacles Impeding Cabinet Will be Eased
Baalbek-Hermel Vendettas Panel Begins Action after
Meeting Nasrallah
Zahra: Lebanese Forces Share in Cabinet Rightful
Houri: Visits of Gulf Officials Reinstates Confidence
in Lebanon
Ogassapian: Hurdles to Form Cabinet Result of
Concerns over 'Christian Agreement'
Prince Khalid al-Faisal in Lebanon
Rouhani felicitates Lebanon on Independence Day
Lebanon: Ministerial Consultations Mark Independence Day Celebrations
Reports: Hezbollah chief’s guard seen in Syria’s Aleppo, Homs
Titles For Latest LCCC
Bulletin For Miscellaneous Reports And News published on on
November 23-24/16
Aleppo Civilians Try to Flee as Syrian Army Advances
Family of six die in east Aleppo chlorine gas attack
Moral outrage’ over Aleppo child deaths, suffering
Israel bid to quiet Muslim call to prayer revived
A Top Egyptian Human Rights Activist Banned from Travel
Israel Minister Doesn't Expect Mideast Move by Obama
European Parliament Vote on Turkey Has 'No Value'
Libya unity forces closing on Sirte militants
Trial begins for suspects held in King Abdullah assassination bid
Trump keen to broker Palestine-Israel peace deal
Trump chooses immigrant background Haley for UN ambassador: Reports
Eight Arab countries follow Morocco, withdraw from Guinea summit
Eighteen members of Canadian military took their own lives in 2015, DND reports
Soldiers generic
US-Iranian citizen convicted in US for trying to buy missiles for Iran
Iran: Arrest and beating of demonstrators
Iran – Tehran, Gathering in Front of the United Nations to Protest the
Continued Detention of Mohammad Ali Taheri
Donald Trump's New Cabinet Will Hold Iran to Account
Iran: Call to save political prisoners on hunger strike
For Iran Regime, to Truly Reform Is to Lose Power and to Face the Wrath of the
Population
New Developments in the Internal Conflict of the Iranian Regime
Iran Warns of Reaction to Renewal of Decades-Old Sanction
The Iranian Regime Fears for the Future Combination of the US Cabinet
Links From Jihad
Watch Site for on November 23-24/16
Austin,
TX “Support Our Muslim Neighbors” event tries to
“ease anxiety of local Muslims following Trump’s election”
Islamic
jihad terrorists not poor and illiterate, but rich and educated
DC
imam: “We’re going to invite people to a little sweetie-pie Islam…We have to
rescue the poor, dumb American people”
Providence,
RI mayor establishes Muslim-American Advisory Board to protect Muslims
UK:
Trojan Horse school governor’s son killed waging jihad with the Islamic State
Obama
Justice Dept. sues NJ township for rejecting mosque
Butterball
turkey supplier investigated for business ties to Hizballah
Pat
Condell video: A word to the criminal migrant
New
Zealand: Muslim cleric removed from Federation of Islamic Associations for
anti-Semitic remarks
Iran’s
Supremo warns of retaliation if U.S. breaches nuclear
deal
Latest Lebanese Related News
published on November 23-24/16
Butterball turkey supplier
investigated for business ties to Hizballah
Robert Jihad Watch/November 23, 2016
Maybe this is why all Butterball turkeys used to be all halal,
whether labeled as such or not.
butterball-turkey
Your Thanksgiving Turkey May Come from a
Company with Terrorist Ties
Michal Addady, Fortune, November
22, 2016:
The Justice Department is currently investigating the company that sells
your Thanksgiving turkey for potential terrorist ties.
Seaboard SEB -2.11% is an international company that, among other things,
sells Butterball turkeys. The Wall Street Journal reports that in 2010 it
bought a 50% stake in Butterball, the largest turkey producer in the
The allegations are that a Seaboard milling subsidiary in Africa has done
business with Kassim Tajideen,
a man who was blacklisted by the
Tajideen says that he has no ties to Hezbollah
and that he has never even heard of Seaboard, claiming that investigators often
confuse him with two of his brothers who are also on the blacklist, Ali and Husayn Tajideen. Ali says he’s
never heard of Seaboard and has no ties to the organization. While Husayn has heard of Seaboard, he claims to have no recent
business dealings with the company.
Seaboard claims that it didn’t enter into any contracts with firms
connected to the Tajideen family after they’d been
blacklisted by the
Federal investigators are particularly interested in an alleged meeting
between Seaboard and a Hezbollah financier in 2012. The Journal writes that
people with knowledge of the meeting say the two parties had discussed using a
middleman to hide Seaboard’s ties to Tajideen firms….
Salam receives Foreign Minister of Qatar
Wed 23 Nov 2016/NNA - Prime Minister, Tammam Salam,
met at the Grand Serail on Wednesday with visiting
Foreign Minister of Qatar, Mohammad Abdul Rahman Al-Thani, delegated by Prince of Qatar, Tamim
Bin Hamad Al-Thani.
The meeting took place in the presence of Qatari Ambassador to
Qatari Foreign Minister meets Geagea
Wed 23 Nov 2016/NNA - Visiting Qatari Foreign Minister, Mohammad Bin Abdul Rahman Al-Thani, met at his
temporary residence at Phoenicia Hotel with Lebanese Forces Leader, Dr. Samir Geagea.
Qatari Foreign Minister visits Hariri:
Confident that a strong government will be formed
Wed 23 Nov 2016/NNA - Prime Minister Saad Hariri
received this evening at the Center House Qatari Foreign Minister, Sheikh
Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman Al Thani,
as an envoy of Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, at the head of a
delegation, accompanied by Qatar's ambassador to Lebanon Ali bin Hamad Al Marri and in the
presence of the Minister of Interior and Municipalities Nouhad
Machnouk, advisers Bassem Sabeh and Ghattas Khoury and Hariri’s chief of staff Nader Hariri.
The meeting focused on the latest developments in
Hariri then hosted a dinner in honor of the Qatari
Minister and the delegation during which they pursued the talks.
Upon leaving, the Qatari minister said: "First I would like to thank Prime
Minister Hariri, to whom I conveyed the greetings of His Highness Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad, stressing the
support of
We will pursue our support for our brothers in
Hariri
Prime Minister Hariri was asked about his opinion regarding the Gulf
delegations visiting
Question: Will there be new high-level Gulf visits?
Hariri: We hope so.
Question: How do you assess the visits of Saudi Prince Khaled
al-Faisal, and today of the Qatari foreign minister to
Hariri: The Lebanese lost hope at one stage because the country was mixed-up,
and so did the non-Lebanese especially the Gulf. Today, hope is back with the
election of President Michel Aoun therefore hope
returned to the entire Gulf that
Jumblatt meets German official in Clemenceau
Wed 23 Nov 2016/NNA - Democratic Gathering Leader, MP Walid
Joumblatt, received this evening in Clemenceau the
regional director for the Middle East and Morocco at the German Foreign
Ministry, Philippe Ackermann, accompanied by German ambassador to Lebanon,
Martin Huth. Jumblatt
discussed with his visitor the current situation in
Justice Council to look into Bachir Gemayel assassination
lawsuit Friday
Wed 23 Nov 2016/NNA - The Justice Council shall convene on forthcoming Friday
to look, for the time, into the lawsuit on the 1982 assassination of former
president Bachir Gemayel,
National News Agency correspondent reported on Wednesday.
Rahi in Rome: Lebanon at threshold of new phase
Wed 23 Nov 2016/NNA - Maronite Patriarch Mar Bechara Boutros Rahi said that
the official ceremony and the military parade that took place marking Lebanon's
73rd Independence Day, in the presence of the Lebanse
President, Prime Minister, and House Speaker, were all indicators that Lebanon
stood at the threshold of a new stage which was to witness a new spirit in
terms of power rotation. Rahi's words came on
Wednesday in an address he gave during a reception organized by the Lebanese
Embassy in
Hakim inaugurates Art of Living exhibition
at Forum Du Beirut
Wed 23 Nov 2016/NNA - Trade and Economy Minister, Alain Hakim, inaugurated this
afternoon the Art of Living exhibition at Forum Du Beirut. Minister Hakim
visited the various pavilions of the exhibition.
Man shot in cheek in
Wed 23 Nov 2016 /NNA - A young man, Omar. A. (born in 1995), was shot in the
cheek in Al-Filat region of Sidon city, NNA field
reporter said on Wednesday.The man was duly rushed to
Sidon Governmental hospital for treatment. Security Forces have launched an
investigation into the incident, NNA reporter added.
Bassil: All Parties Can be Represented in 24-Member Govt.,
Minor Details Delaying Line-Up
Naharnet/November 23/16/Free Patriotic Movement chief
Jebran Bassil announced
Wednesday that all parties can be represented in a 24-member cabinet, noting
that only “minor details” are still delaying the line-up. “We have agreed on
the important and essential parts and there is no real reason to delay
announcing the cabinet line-up except for some minor details, which might be
important for some parties and less important for others,” Bassil
said after the weekly meeting of the Change and Reform bloc in Rabieh.“We want a national unity
cabinet that includes everyone, at least the forces that are represented in
parliament,” he added. “We are not rejecting any party and we want the Marada (Movement), the Kataeb
(Party), the Syrian Social National Party, the non-Mustaqbal
Sunni forces and MP Talal Arslan
to be represented, even in a 24-member cabinet,” Bassil
emphasized. He added that the parties have agreed that the new government “will
not establish any new norms” and that “no portfolios will be permanently
allocated to a certain sect or party.”“There will be
no vetoes. We have not put a veto on anyone and in return we won't accept
vetoes from anyone,” Bassil went on to say. He noted
that Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri is not
opposed to the nomination of a Sunni minister by President Michel Aoun and “in return we have accepted that al-Mustaqbal (Movement) be represented by a Christian minister.”Bassil also urged a new electoral law,
emphasizing that “no one wants to keep the 1960 law and we must not allow
anyone to keep the 1960 law.”
Qatar FM Invites Aoun
to Visit Doha, Vows 'Continued Support' for Lebanon
Naharnet/November 23/16/Qarati Foreign Minister
Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdul Rahman al-Thani held talks Wednesday in Baabda
with President Michel Aoun as part of an official
visit to Lebanon. The minister handed Aoun a letter
from
Qatar’s FM says Doha stands with
Lebanon
The Daily Star/November 23/16/BEIRUT: The Qatari Foreign Minister Wednesday
invited President Michel Aoun to visit Doha,
conveying a message of support from the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamid al-Thani to Lebanon. "
Sideline Meetings on Indepedence
Day Tackled Cabinet Formation Hurdles
Naharnet/November 23/16/Closed meetings held between
Lebanon's top officials at the sideline of the presidential reception at the Baabda Palace on Independence Day, generated positive
signals that the diplomats have finally eased the difficulties that have been
hampering the formation of a new cabinet. Before the reception to receive
well-wishers began, a meeting was held between President Michel Aoun and Speaker Nabih Berri. Prime Minister-designate Saad
Hariri later joined the two men, to be followed shortly by Caretaker PM Tammam Salam. According to the media office at the
presidential palace, discussions touched on the general situation in the
country and the process of forming a new cabinet. They did not elaborate any
further. Sources close to Hariri told pan-Arab al-Hayat
daily that the discussions focused on the difficulties the formation process is
facing, and that the issue was a subject of a lengthy phone call between Hariri
and Berri a day earlier. The sources however have
described the atmospheres as positive. They assured that there are no
differences between Hariri and Berri. The issue at
hand is that the PM-designate had promised to give the public works portfolio
to the Lebanese Forces, which Berri insists that it
be given to his party. For his part, Salam was optimistic when he described the
short meetings and said “the atmospheres are positive.”Berri's
TV station, the NBN, quoted the Speaker as saying: “The atmospheres are well
and shining.”Hariri was optimistic as well, as he
pointed out the “consultations will carry on,” without specifying a date for
the completion of a cabinet formation. Hariri is still facing obstacles
bringing together a line-up that balances
Berri: Minor Obstacles Impeding Cabinet Will be Eased
Naharnet/November 23/16/Speaker Nabih Berri said after the weekly
Wednesday meeting with MPs that he is optimistic as for the efforts to line-up
the cabinet, and emphasized that he insists to be given the public works
ministerial portfolio. “We expect minor problems hindering the formation to be
eased. Efforts are ongoing to solve them and form a government in order to
stipulate a new electoral law,” Berri remarked.
However, the Speaker emphasized that he still wants the ministerial portfolio
of public works as part of his share in the cabinet. MPs quoted Berri as saying that a lot of work awaits the new
government mainly the stipulation of a new electoral law. He added that the
issue must top future discussions to pave way for the upcoming parliamentary elections.Following President Michel Aoun's
election in October, Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri is still facing obstacles bringing together a
line-up that balances
Baalbek-Hermel
Vendettas Panel Begins Action after Meeting Nasrallah
Naharnet/November 23/16/After dignitaries from
Baalbek and Hermel discussed the security situation
and the issue of blood feuds with Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on
October 29, a reconciliation committee has started implementing the
recommendations of the conference, a Hizbullah
statement said on Wednesday. “The reconciliation committee formed during this
conference has started implementing Sayyed Nasrallah's recommendations on the ground,” Wednesday's
statement said. “The committee started its efforts in the town of
Zahra: Lebanese Forces Share in Cabinet
Rightful
Naharnet/November 23/16/Lebanese Forces party MP Antoine
Zahra stressed on Wednesday that the party's share in the government is a right
of theirs as he stressed that they have no problem with Speaker Nabih Berri, the National News
Agency reported. “Our share in the government is a total right for us,” emphasized
Zahra. “The momentum that was created upon the arrival of President Aoun to office is being tampered with by hampering the
government formation,” added the MP, assuring that all portfolios are sovereign
when treated so.
“Minister Jebran Bassil,
who is the actual representative of the President, is highly keen on the LF-Aouni duality, and no promise has been broken yet,” he
noted, stressing that the oath of office,the
statement made before the crowd in Baabda and the
Independence message were all proof of the President's ambitions and of his
intention to put Lebanon outside the political polarizations and the regional
conflicts. “The President abides by
Houri: Visits of Gulf Officials Reinstates Confidence
in Lebanon
Naharnet/November 23/16/Al-Mustaqbal MP Ammar Houri confirmed on
Wednesday that the consecutive visits of the Saudi and Qatari officials to
Lebanon would re-activate confidence in Lebanon and open once closed doors due
to “improvised policies.”The lawmaker pointed out in
an interview to VDL (100.5) that President Michel Aoun's
oath of office had focused on the constants and reassembled the Lebanese
approaches, stressing that “commitment to it falls in
Ogassapian: Hurdles to Form Cabinet Result of Concerns over
'Christian Agreement'
Naharnet/November 23/16/MP Jean Ogassapian said Wednesday that not all political parties
were content with the understanding reached between the two Christian parties,
Lebanese Forces and the Free Patriotic Movement, which explains the reactions
of some, including Speaker Nabih Berri's.
The MP said the hurdles hampering the distribution of ministerial portfolios
and the reactions of Speaker Nabih Berri could be the result of “susceptibility” generated
after the Christian understanding. “It is not easy for political parties to
accept it mainly because of concerns of the great influence planned to be given
for the LF, and the fears to begin a presidential term under a strong
president,” Ogassapian told VDL (93.3). In January,
LF chief Samir Geagea and founder
of the FPM Michel Aoun reached an understanding that
ended over two decades of bitter ties between the war-time Ogassapian
warned that differences over the distribution of portfolios would delay the
formation of the cabinet until next year, and would gravely reflect on the new
term of President Michel Aoun. He wondered if the
goals from the fight over portfolios aim to keep
Prince Khalid al-Faisal in Lebanon
Tariq Alhomayed/Asharq Al-Awsat/November
23/16
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/2016/11/23/tariq-alhomayedasharq-al-awsatprince-khalid-al-faisal-in-lebanon/
In a remarkable move, Governor of Makkah Prince
Khalid bin Faisal bin Abdulaziz, advisor to the
Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques visited Lebanon and carried with him a
congratulatory message from King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud to Lebanon’s new President Michel Aoun.
Al-Faisal said in
This is what many Lebanese politicians have been convinced with and what those
– who believe that
Saudi Arabia, as a country, would never retreat – and politics in general is an
art where there is no place for rupture; even in crises and wars communication
still takes place either directly among countries or through mediators. This
does not reflect any weakness; instead, this communication remains in order to
achieve desired goals. Notably,
The other important thing about al-Faisal’s visit was the fact that it was
culminated by meeting leaders of the Lebanese institutions instead of meeting
the different Lebanese parties.
Therefore, Prince al-Faisal’s visit to
We have to remember that by communicating with
Rouhani felicitates
Lebanon: Ministerial Consultations Mark
Independence Day Celebrations
Asharq Al-Awsat/November
23/16/Salam, Aoun, Berri,
Hariri at the Presidential Palace on Tuesday/NNA
Beirut – The ministerial consultations on Tuesday marked celebrations held in
Lebanon on the 73rd commemoration of the country’s Independence Day embraced by
the four leaders, President Michel Aoun, Speaker Nabih Berri, Prime
Minister-designate Saad Hariri and caretaker Prime
Minister Tammam Salam. The four failed until now to
reach an agreement on a new cabinet with some parties still attached to certain
ministerial portfolios and shares – which their opponents say – are over their
representational size. On Tuesday, while Hariri described things as “good”
stating that “negotiations are ongoing as there is no time-limit for the
government lineup,” Speaker Berri
was content to reply to reports by saying: “Things are good, glittering and polished.”Head of the Lebanese Forces Samir
Geagea said on Tuesday that those who reject the new
term wish to return to the days of Syrian custodianship. “President Michel Aoun was a strong man that could not be subdued to the will
of others,” Geagea said. In the past two years,
Reports: Hezbollah chief’s guard seen in
Ahd Fadhel, Alarabiya.net
Wednesday, 23 November 2016/Social media accounts since last week have
circulated pictures of Lebanese Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah’s
body guard, donning a military attire, in
(The article was first published in the Arabic language website for Al Arabiya News Channel)
Latest LCCC Bulletin For
Miscellaneous Reports And News published on November 23-24/16
Aleppo Civilians Try to
Flee as Syrian Army Advances
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/November
23/16/Dozens of civilians tried to flee rebel-held east Aleppo overnight but
were forced back by gunfire, as the Syrian army on Wednesday pressed an
offensive to recapture the whole city. The government last week resumed its
drive to retake the east of the city, where more than 250,000 civilians have
been trapped under siege by the army for months, with dwindling food and fuel
supplies. The regime has pounded the east with air strikes, barrel bombs and
artillery fire for more than a week, killing more than 140 people as it advances.Recapturing the east would give President Bashar Assad's government perhaps its most important
victory yet in the conflict, which has killed more than 300,000 people since it
began in March 2011.The government accuses rebels in the east of using
residents as "human shields" and preventing them from leaving. On
Wednesday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor of
the war, said dozens of civilians had tried to flee overnight but were forced
back by gunfire."On Tuesday night, around 100
families gathered near a passage from the (rebel-held) Bustan
al-Basha district to cross to Sheikh Maqsud," said Observatory director Rami
Abdel Rahman."But when the civilians tried to
cross to the other side, gunfire broke out," he told AFP without
elaborating. Sheikh Maqsud is a northern neighborhood controlled by Kurdish forces, allied with
neither the regime nor the rebels, between the government-held west and
rebel-held east.
'Regime rumors'
On Tuesday, the army issued a statement accusing rebels of holding
civilians as "hostages.""Permit those
citizens who want to do so to leave, stop using them as hostages and human
shields, clear the mines from the crossings identified
by the state."Rebel groups deny they are
preventing civilians from leaving and accused the regime of spreading "rumors.""This has nothing to do with
reality," said Yasser al-Youssef, from the
political office of rebel group Nureddin al-Zinki. "The regime is spreading rumors
to try to undermine the resolve of the rebels and those who support them in Aleppo,"
he told AFP.The Syrian army, backed by allied forces
from Iran, Russia and Lebanon's Hizbullah group,
launched a renewed assault on east Aleppo on November 15.The offensive has
killed at least 143 civilians in the east, among them 19 children, since then.
Rebel fire has killed 16 civilians in the government-held west, including 10
children. After days of ferocious bombardment, regime troops now control half
of the strategic Masaken Hanano
district in the northeast of the city, the Observatory said.
Capturing the district would give the army line-of-fire control over
several other parts of the rebel-held east and divide it in two.
- 'Moral outrage' -
The renewed bloodshed has stoked international concern, though there has
been little sign so far of a plan to halt it. French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc
Ayrault said on Wednesday that backers of
Family of six die in east
Staff writer, Al Arabiya English Tuesday, 22
November 2016
A photo apparently showing a family of six
killed in a suspected chlorine gas attack in rebel-held eastern
Moral outrage’ over Aleppo child deaths,
suffering
AFP, Beirut Wednesday, 23 November 2016/Save the Children has hit out at the
“moral outrage” of the mounting deaths and suffering of children in the
battleground Syrian city of Aleppo, in a statement released Wednesday. The
charity said medics across northwest
AFP,
A Top Egyptian Human Rights Activist
Banned from Travel
Associated Press/Naharnet/November 23/16/An
airport security official says Egyptian authorities have banned a prominent
human rights activist, who heads a center investigating police abuses, from
leaving the country. Aida Seif el-Dawla,
a psychiatrist and co-founder of the
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/November
23/16/Israel's hardline defense
minister said Wednesday that he does not expect any new U.S. Middle East policy
initiative from Barack Obama in the final weeks of his presidency. Avigdor Lieberman's comments came as the U.N. Security
Council was set to debate proposals for a draft resolution calling for a halt
to Israeli settlement expansion in the occupied Palestinian territories, which
could be tabled before the end of the year. There has been speculation that
Obama, whose administration has expressed mounting anger over Israeli
settlement policy, could break with recent
European Parliament Vote on Turkey Has 'No
Value'
Associated Press/Naharnet/November
23/16/Turkey's president says an upcoming vote in the European Parliament on
whether to freeze membership talks with Turkey is of no "value" to
his country. European Union legislators are scheduled to hold a non-binding
vote this week on whether
AFP,
Trial begins for suspects held in King
Abdullah assassination bid
Staff writer, Al Arabiya English Wednesday, 23
November 2016/Security sources in Saudi Arabia reported on Tuesday that 4
suspects affiliated to al-Qaeda have gone on trial, accused of plotting to
assassinate the late Saudi King Abdullah. The retrial of the four defendants
comes after the Supreme Court in
Trump keen to broker Palestine-Israel
peace deal
AFP, Washington Wednesday, 23 November 2016/President-elect Donald Trump
said Tuesday he would “love” to clinch a deal to end the intractable conflict
between Israel and the Palestinians despite the checkered
history of US attempts to broker a Middle East peace. “I would love to be the
one who made peace with
Trump chooses immigrant background
Haley for UN ambassador: Reports
Reuters Wednesday, 23 November 2016/US President-elect Donald Trump has
chosen South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, a daughter of immigrants from India
who has little international experience, to be US ambassador to the United
Nations, The Post and Courier newspaper and other media reported on Wednesday.
The 44-year-old governor has accepted the offer, the
Eight Arab countries follow Morocco,
withdraw from Guinea summit
Staff writer, Al Arabiya English Wednesday, 23
November 2016/As many as eight Arab countries have announced their withdrawal
from the fourth Arab-African Summit being held in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea,
because of the insistence of the African Union on the participation of the
Desert Polisario separatist delegation. The countries
that pulled out are
Eighteen members of Canadian military took
their own lives in 2015, DND reports Soldiers generic
The Canadian Press/Published Wednesday, November 23, 2016/OTTAWA -- The
Canadian military says 18 service members died by suicide last year. The
findings are contained in a report published today by the surgeon general of
the Canadian Armed Forces.
The report says many of the 18 had sought some type of mental-health treatment
shortly before taking their own lives. more likely to
kill themselves than members of the general population, as well as fellow
service members in the navy and air force.
The report finds that the likelihood of a Canadian Forces member taking his or
her own life was even higher if the person had been deployed on a mission
overseas. The military has been struggling with how to deal with mental-health
injuries among its soldiers, with attempts to increase services and ease the
transition to civilian life introduced in recent years.
US-Iranian citizen convicted in US for
trying to buy missiles for
By Reuters,
NCRI Statements/Wednesday, 23 November 2016/Protesters demanded the release of
Mohammad Ali Taheri, being in his second month of
hunger strike. On Tuesday, November 22, the regime's oppressive forces brutally
attacked a group of people who had gathered in front of the UN office in
Mr. Taheri was sentenced to five years in prison on
charges of "blasphemy, unauthorized use of academic titles, subversive
books and works". He was due to be released on 7 February 2016. However,
the regime's judiciary refuses to release him by fabricating fake new dossiers
against him. He has been on hunger strike since September 28 in protest at his
continued detention; however, this morning (November 22), he went unconscious
on his fifty-sixth day of hunger strike due to a sharp drop in his blood
pressure and blood sugar. The prison guards have conditioned meeting his family
upon ending his hunger strike. The Iranian Resistance calls all human rights
advocates and international authorities to take urgent action for the release
of Mr. Taheri and those arrested in recent days, and
to strongly condemn the regime's repressive measures against political
prisoners' families.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran/November 22, 2016
Iran – Tehran, Gathering in Front of the United Nations to Protest the
Continued Detention of Mohammad Ali Taheri
Wednesday, 23 November 2016/NCRI - On Tuesday morning, November 2, dozens of
sympathizer of political prisoner Mohammad Ali Taheri,
staged a protest gathering in front of the United Nations’ office against his
continued detention, while at the fifty-sixth day of hunger strike. Protesters
delivered the documents of the brutal attack on demonstrators by security
forces on Monday, November 21 in front of the Parliament, to the Office of
United Nations, It is noteworthy that, on Monday, November 21, also calling for
the unconditional release of all the political prisoners, especially Mr Taheri, supporters of this political prisoner, held protest
rallies for the third day in front of Iran regime’s parliament and 7 other
parts of Tehran, in which Plainclothes agents and security officers brutally
attacked and bit the protesters.
Donald Trump's New Cabinet Will Hold Iran
to Account
Struan Stevenson/ UPI/November 23/6
Trump and his team know the nuclear deal may have postponed Iran's ability to
produce a nuclear bomb, but they also know that this has not made the world a
safer place, wrote Struan Stevenson, in an article published by UPI on Nov.21.
The Following is the full text of the article.
Trump's selection of Congressman Mike Pompeo, R-Kan.,
to serve as the next CIA director has gained significant praise from senior
congressional insiders and foreign policy experts, who say the lawmaker won plaudits for taking a tough line on Iranian
intransigence and investigating the Obama administration's secret negotiations
with
Nominee for the post of attorney general is veteran Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala.,
who called the
Rudy Giuliani, the ex-
Also potentially in the frame for a key post is ex-House Speaker Newt Gingrich
who was a top adviser and television spokesman for Trump during the campaign. Like
Giuliani, Gingrich is a fierce critic of the Iranian regime and a key backer of
the Iranian democratic opposition.
Trump and his potential Cabinet appointees are sure to watch closely how
Obama chose to base his
The past eight years have proven this policy to be an utter failure.
Far from curtailing
Trump and his team know the nuclear deal may have postponed
**Struan Stevenson, president of the European Iraqi Freedom Association, was a
member of the European Parliament representing Scotland (1999-2014), president
of the Parliament's Delegation for Relations with Iraq (2009- 2014) and
chairman of Friends of a Free Iran Intergroup from 2005-2014.
Iran: Call to save political prisoners on
hunger strike
NCRI Statements/ Wednesday, 23 November 2016/Iranian Resistance calls on
international human rights bodies, especially the High Commissioner for Human
Rights and the Special Rapporteur on the human rights
situation in Iran, for immediate and effective measures to address the
situation of political prisoners on hunger strike. Not only does the religious
fascism ruling
- Morteza Moradpour, being
in solitary confinement in the central prison of
- Arash Sadeghi
in ward 8 of Evin prison and on the 30th day of
hunger strike. He suffers from severe heart palpitation and shortness of
breath and kidney pain. On November 21, he became unconscious due to a sharp
drop in blood pressure, but the prison guards conditioned sending him to
hospital on wearing prison uniform and putting handcuffs on his hands and feet.
He was detained in 2014 and was sentenced to 19 years in prison on the charge
of "holding assemblies, and collusion against the regime and insulting the
sacred".
- Vahid Sayyadi Nassiri, in notorious quarantine ward of Evin prison, is suffering severe weight loss and low blood
pressure. He has been on hunger strike in protest at 13 months of uncertainty
and lack of attention to his case. In order to punish him, the prison guards
have transferred him to the quarantine ward (ward 4) of Evin
prison. In this ward the prisoners are under more pressure and torture and are
denied their most basic rights, including visitation rights and access to
medical needs. He was arrested in September 2015 and was sentenced to eight
years of imprisonment on the charge of "insulting sanctities and
propaganda against the regime".
- Mehdi and Hossein Rajabian are two artist prisoners in ward 7 of Evin prison. They are on their 25th day of hunger strike. Mehdi Rajabian was taken to
hospital in recent days due to stomach bleeding, but was returned to prison
without proper treatment. His brother, Hossein came
down with left kidney infection. These two artists were arrested in their
office in the city of
- Amir Amir-Gholi, in ward 8 of Evin
prison, has been on hunger strike since November 16 in protest at lack of
separation of prisoners' crimes and failing to address the situation of
political prisoners. Mafia-like gangs in prison, provoked by the henchmen,
attacked and wounded him with a knife. The torturers prevented his injury
treatment. Mr. Amir-Gholi was arrested in January
2016 and was sentenced to five years of imprisonment on the charge of
"holding assemblies and collusion, propaganda against the regime and…".
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran/November 23, 2016
For Iran Regime, to Truly Reform Is to
Lose Power and to Face the Wrath of the Population
NCRI Iran News/Wednesday, 23 November 2016/It's time for a new policy on Iran,
this is the topic of an article in thehill.com by Dr. Davina
Mille senior lecturer and former Head of Peace Studies at the University Of
Bradford (UK),
From Reagan to Obama, each U.S. president has approached the theocracy in Iran
with a sense of defeatism. One can hope that President-elect Trump, who prides
himself on being the arch negotiator, will have a better sense of the actual
hand he has to play. In spite of Trump’s avowed distaste for the nuclear deal
with Iran — the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) — Obama’s ‘echo
chamber’ is still reverberating with no shortage of ‘experts’ taking to the web
to claim that the re-negotiation is impossible and tearing it up would have a
range of consequences from a more rapidly nuclear-armed Iran to international
distrust in the U.S.’ future deal-making. There are a number of assumptions
underpinning these positions which need urgent unpicking.
In terms of a more rapidly nuclear-armed
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) told
Thus, Trump’s critics would do well to remind themselves that
Most important in countering the defeatism with which
It cannot — and the evidence is clear a year on — with, in the UN’s words, “a new wave of oppression” at home and
increasingly vicious adventurism abroad. The fundamental driver of the Iranian
élite is regime survival. Once that is understood, all assumptions about
moderation dissolve.
That the regime is driven only by its need to survive can be grasped if one
understands its origins. The
These are the means of survival, and factional fighting is about how best to
maintain the regime, not reform it. To truly reform is
to lose power and to face the wrath of the population. The factions, and the
personalities within them, are, in the words of a 1990 State Department cable,
“interchangeable parts of a machine.”
To understand this dynamic is to understand that there is no prospect of
moderation, and, thus, that the wider ambitions of the JCPOA were always a
chimera.
As for the risk to the U.S.’ standing as a dealmaker, any glance at the history
of the West’s foreign policy towards Iran reveals each Western capitol
criticizing the others for concessions to Iran while each making their own
unholy deals to avoid the pain of terrorism or to gain a corner of the Iranian
marketplace. Leadership in policy towards
The dirty little secret of Western political élites is that
The long-term has always been sacrificed to the short-term, whether that was
the retrieval of U.S. citizens from Lebanon or Evin
Prison or a brake — for that is all the JCPOA is — on Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
The last faulty assumption is that Western governments must yield to the
Iranian regime as no alternative presents itself. Ironically — and, again, we
see the regime outplaying the West — by restricting and demonizing the main
opposition, the People’s Mojahedin Organization of
Iran (PMOI or MEK) in exchange for concessions from Iran, Western governments
have strengthened the security of what is an inherently weak regime.
Of course, the regime has worked hard both to demonize and to minimize the
significance of its opposition. Those who buy into the regime’s propaganda
about the MEK have clearly never interacted with it. Many of its supporters
among
It should also be noted, when apologists for the Iranian government attempt to
say it has no popular standing in Iran, that it was the MEK which exposed the
regime’s nuclear programm. To penetrate the most
secretive part of the state in the most comprehensive of ways demonstrates the
depth and breadth of support the MEK has inside
In addition, the fact that the regime always puts the MEK on the negotiating
table as a “diplomatic commodity,” in Ambassador Lincoln Bloomfield’s words,
gives the lie to its insignificance.
The CIA once concluded that
New Developments in the Internal Conflict
of the Iranian Regime
Wednesday, 23 November 2016/NCRI - As the speech of Ali Motahari,
Vice-President of the Iranian regime’s Parliament was canceled
in Mashhad – Northeastern Iran, a new development
enhanced in the internal conflict of the regime, and the two rivals including Khamenei and Rafsanjani have seriously disputed. Ali Motahari's speech which was going to be held on Sunday
November 20th was canceled by
As regime's authorities stated, the speech delivery was coordinated 10 days
ago. Simultaneously, an office affiliated with Rafsanjani and Rouhani was shut down.
Ali Motahari in a letter to President Rouhani described these actions as ISIS-deeds and wrote:"my speech delivery was canceled
by the order of
At the same time, the Spokesman of the Ministry of Interior described the act
of
The Interior Minister of Rouhani's government has
ordered his political Deputy to investigate the cause of the cancellation of
the speech.
Media report that the governor of
The Mullah Lotfi affiliated with Khamenei
supported the cancellation of Ali Motahari's speech
and stated:"if nothing was done against it, the
youths undoubtedly would have reacted more violently."
Following the current incident that happened in
Fars News Agency, affiliated with IRGC also printed the handwritten apologies
of Ali Motahari to the Leader of Karaj's Friday
Congregational Prayers, Mullah Alamolhoda ; asking to
be forgiven. The news is hesitantly written:"now
we have to see how Ali Motahari reacts to the
baseless accusations in which he made to the representative of the Supreme
Leader in
On the other hand, a number of MPs affiliated with Rafsanjani and Rouhani, including Mohammad Reza Aref
as the main member, called for the government's clarification on the reason for
preventing Ali Motahari to deliver a speech.
Associated Press/Naharnet/November 23/16/Iran's top
leader has warned that renewal of a decades-old sanction on his country will
lead to reaction by
The Iranian Regime Fears for the
Future Combination of the US Cabinet
Wednesday, 23 November 2016 /NCRI - After introducing Gen. James Mattis as the leading candidate for defense
secretary in Trump's cabinet, the Iranian regime’s terrorist Quds Force News Agency on November 20th 2016 in an article
entitles "Pentagon is waiting for a General that considers Iran more
threatening than al-Qaeda and ISIS." and writes: "Donald Trump
introduced the retired Army General as a leading candidate for defense secretary." Gen. Mattis
is against the Iranian regime and he believes that the regime is the main
threat to the stability in the Middle East and it is even more dangerous than
al-Qaeda and
Quds Force News Agency affiliated with Iranian
Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) wrote that Trump's option for defense secretary is an anti-regime General. Trump intends
to appoint a person to this position whom Obama could not tolerate his
extremist stances against the Iranian regime thus Gen. Mattis
became sedentary.
The "Foreign Policy" Magazine wrote that Gen. Mattis
was forced into early retirement by Barack Obama in 2013 since he had radical
views on how to deal with the Iranian regime."Entekhab"
News Agency wrote about
Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis
& editorials from miscellaneous sources published on November 23-24/16
Dividing or Sharing
Tariq Alhomayed//Asharq Al-Awsat/November
23/16
Bashar al-Assad’s regime rejected U.N. Convoy Stephan
de Mistura’s proposal to save
Visitors in
So, what about
It doesn’t end here, surely. Assad didn’t ignore the political sharing process
when he commented on Trump’s winning of
I think we are closer to a downfall similar to
Stop Facebook,
Social Media Fake News
Abdulrahman Al-Rashed/Asharq
Al-Awsat/November 23/16
Earlier, some journalists used to lie to their
audience. Today, one audience can lie to another. This is the new situation
with social media which became our source for information and where everybody
has become a journalist. We used to underestimate the effect of social media
and its fabricated stories and images. We didn’t think it was much worthy
because we believed it’s not credible or we thought it won’t have that much of
an effect. This is not true. It turned out to have the ability and the
methodology to create or change the public opinion.
Studies criticized fabricated news saying it had affected the convictions of
voters in
I think it is worse in our area. Though there might not be elections that could
be affected by social media, it is more dangerous. It provides the mass with
faulty convictions at times prevailed with provocation and struggles like no
other. It used to be little harmless lies of jinn and wonders of nature. Mark Zuckerberg, owner of Facebook;
considered to be the most important platform in providing social communications
around the world, promised that his company would provide a solution for this
issue. He said that Facebook will soon have an
additional feature to flag fake news and alert the provider. But
what about Twitter? And what about WhatsApp
which is widely spread?
Spreading fake news used to be part of entertainment and we used to believe it
exists in countries of less credible media outlets. But it turned out to be an
epidemic all over the world, inflicting the educated and the illiterate, the
smart and the idiot, and societies full or poor with media outlets. I don’t
trust what Zuckerberg said; fake news and hoaxes on Facebook are much more than just 1%. Although I don’t have
statistics about this, but a big percentage of the news that reache people through social media from unknown sources are
misinformation or forged. Despite repeated attempts to warn the public of fake
news and all awareness campaigns asking them not to believe everything they
receive and to refute every story, nothing can stop the tide. Many people
believe what seems to them like real news. Fabricators are now skilled in
formulating news and convincing the public with their credibility.
Governments, institutions, and individuals are now busy trying to correct or
minimize damage done from conspiracy, tarnishing images of public figures, and
the rise of faulty news created to form new opinions. I believed we still have
a long way before the new media outlets and primarily social media,
provide more truthful information and less invented ones. Credibility is one of
the most important things that every newspaper or TV channel dream of, and
there are media trademarks known for gaining the trust of the public, like BBC
which created a spot for itself in people’s minds for over half a century.
Today, we are in a chaotic world created by the collapse of the old
international media system. That is why – and because lies are prevailing over
truths – I think credibility will make a comeback and become a demand. It will
be create a distinctive place for whoever wants to be special in this crowded
medium because the truth, according to journalism ethics, deserves it no matter
how harmful or costly it might be. Integrity means that people trust this
media; it can create one and destroy another.
Iran, Hamas and the Dance of Death
Khaled Abu Toameh/Gatestone
Institute/November 23/16
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/2016/11/23/khaled-abu-toamehgatestone-institute-iran-hamas-and-the-dance-of-death/
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9395/iran-gaza-hamas
It now appears that the Obama Administration's failed policies in the Middle
East have increased the Iranians' appetite, such that they are convinced that
they can expand their influence to the Palestinians as well.
"Relations between
Hamas and
As far as
The biggest losers, once again, will be President Mahmoud
Abbas and his Palestinian Authority in the
The Iranians and Hamas are exploiting the final days of the Obama
Administration to restore their relations and pave the way for
Emboldened by the nuclear deal framework with the world powers,
It now appears that the Obama Administration's failed policies in the
Thanks to the civil war in
This, of course, bodes badly for any future peace process between
The new US administration would do well to take very seriously Iran's comeback
to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, because of its implications not only
concerning prospects for peace, but also because it means that this will lead
to an upsurge in violence and terror attacks against Israel.
Proof of
"Relations between
"Relations between
In reality, Hamas and
Another sign of the apparent rapprochement between
El Alami's rise to power will undoubtedly further
facilitate
In the coming months, Hamas is scheduled to hold secret elections to elect a
replacement for Khaled Mashaal.
Mashaal's departure from the scene is also set to
facilitate
PA officials continue to express deep concern over Iran's meddling in
Palestinian affairs, especially its financial and military support for terror
groups in the Gaza Strip and even some parts of the West Bank. Yet
Abbas and his senior aides are nonetheless plenty
worried about
"
But this warning is likely to fall on deaf ears in the waning Obama
Administration, which obviously no longer shares the widespread concern among
Arabs and Palestinians that
*Khaled Abu Toameh, an
award-winning journalist, is based in
© 2016 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The
articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of
Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced,
copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone
Institute.
Status of the Syrian Rebellion:
Numbers, Ideologies, and Prospects
Fabrice Balanche/The
Washington Institute/November 22/16
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/2016/11/23/fabrice-balanchethe-washington-institute-status-of-the-syrian-rebellion-numbers-ideologies-and-prospects/
An in-depth look at how many fighters are still arrayed against the Assad
regime, which ideology they subscribe to, and whether more moderate actors can
still seize the mantle from extremist factions.
After more than five years of war, most of the armed opposition to Bashar al-Assad is increasingly fragmented, aside from the
Islamic State (IS) and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). It is
becoming more and more difficult to predict the rebellion's dynamics, as the number
of groups continues to grow and the coalitions that house them change in
composition and name. The opposition's most universal trait is its Sunni
identity -- apart from foreign jihadists, most of the rebels are Sunni Arabs,
joined by a few thousand Sunni Turkmens, so it is fair
to refer to them as a "Sunni rebellion." But this religious
homogeneity is not enough to give the armed opposition the military cohesion
and unified political identity it so sorely needs. A closer look at the
geography of this fragmentation can help observers better understand the
rebellion and assess whether it still has a chance to prevail.
BETWEEN 100,000 AND 150,000 FIGHTERS
A March report by the Institute for the Study of the War (ISW) categorized
twenty-three of Syria's hundreds of rebel groups as the main
"powerbrokers" and "potential powerbrokers" in the
opposition. In total, these groups command an estimated 90,000 fighters.
The report described a third category of groups with a few hundred fighters
each. While most of the twenty-six factions in this category do not profess any
ideology, several of them are linked to al-Qaeda: namely, Jund
al-Aqsa, Harakat al-Fajr al-Sham al-Islamiyah, Imarat al-Qawqaz fi al-Sham, and a brigade called "Ajnad
Kavkaq."
The report also outlined a fourth category composed of hundreds of smaller
groups with a few dozen fighters each. These factions correspond to local
clans, and their main objective is to protect their given neighborhood
or village; they are incapable of launching offensives.
Estimating the total number of fighters in the third and fourth categories is
difficult. The best approximation is between 10,000 and 60,000. In total, then,
the "Sunni rebellion" could have anywhere from 100,000 to 150,000
fighters.
In comparison, the Syrian regime has about 125,000 regular army troops and
150,000 pro-government militia members, including around 50,000 Shiite foreign
fighters (i.e., Hezbollah personnel and Iranian-trained Iraqis, Pakistanis, and
Afghan Hazaras). Yet most of the native forces are
preoccupied with defending territory and communication lines; only about a
fourth of them are able to launch offensives.
For their part, the SDF and its main component, the Syrian Kurdish Democratic
Union Party (PYD), have about 30,000 fighters. As for IS, the CIA believes it
has as many as 30,000 total fighters in
POLITICO-RELIGIOUS CATEGORIES
The ISW usefully classified the various rebel groups into four ideological
categories: transnational Salafi-jihadists (i.e.,
al-Qaeda-linked fighters), national Salafi-jihadists,
political Islamists, and secularists. The difference between national jihadists
and political Islamists is more or less akin to the difference between Salafists and the Muslim Brotherhood -- in simplified
terms, the former seek strict application of Islamic law, while many of the
latter tend to favor a state with an Islamic civil
constitution but protections for religious freedom. As for the
"secularists," the term is used very loosely because most of the
fighters in this category are conservative Muslims who do not actually want a
secular government.
Among the 90,000 "powerbroker" rebels, some 20 percent can be
classified as transnational jihadists, 31 percent as national jihadists, 24
percent as political Islamists, and 25 percent as "secularists." When
the thousands of rebels in the non-powerbroker categories are added, the
"secularists" become the largest grouping, but they are also the most
fragmented and therefore the least effective.
EXTERNAL INFLUENCES ACCENTUATE THE DIVISION
The opposition's external supporters have failed to establish a single, unified
operations room from which rebel coalitions can coordinate large-scale
offensives. Western governments,
The division among donors has combined with internal ideological differences to
cause multiple confrontations between rebel groups. Al-Qaeda affiliate Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, which until this summer called itself
Jabhat al-Nusra (JN), has
systematically eliminated groups that opposed its hegemony in the northwest,
especially those linked to the Free Syrian Army. And in the Ghouta
suburbs of Damascus, Jaish al-Islam and Failaq al-Rahman, assisted by JN,
waged a bloody war against each other this spring, allowing the army to retake
half of East Ghouta over a six-month period. Most
recently, fighting between Jund al-Aqsa and Ahrar al-Sham, both
members of the same coalition (Jaish al-Fatah, or the
Army of Conquest), was largely responsible for the failure of the
DIFFERENT FRONTS
In the absence of a single command, rebel factions meet in regional coalitions;
once they accomplish a given military objective, they separate and renegotiate
their participation in a new operation. The coherence of these coalitions
depends mainly on the sustainability of external financing and/or the ability
of the dominant group to maintain unity.
The most sustainable and effective coalition so far has been Jaish al-Fatah, which JN created in the northwest in
February 2015. It continues to grow thanks to its military successes and its
coercive power over other groups. JN is trying to reproduce this formula on
other fronts. Currently, this al-Qaeda affiliate (along with Ahrar al-Sham, another powerful faction) is present in
seven of the opposition's ten regional coalitions; the three exceptions are the
Southern Front, Fatah Halab, and the Euphrates
Shield.
The Southern Front. Established in February 2014 by
the
These encircled rebels had hoped to take
The northwest. The main focus of the rebellion is now
in the northwest, where nearly 47,000 fighters are active. Jihadist and
Islamist factions represent three-fourths of these personnel. JN and its allies
have essentially built an Islamic emirate in the Idlib
area by gradually eliminating or integrating secularist groups.
Since last year's Russian intervention, however, even rebels on this front have
been forced to withdraw. Although their territorial losses have not been large,
they have been strategic -- key regime areas in Latakia,
In
The Houla-Rastan pocket. A
few thousand rebels are essentially surrounded in this enclave between
Yet the situation is calmer in this region than in
HOW AVOID JIHADISTANS
Although the non-jihadist rebels technically outnumber
the jihadists, they are very fragmented and marginalized on most fronts, which
gives the jihadists the ascendancy. Only the West, particularly the
**Fabrice Balanche, an
associate professor and research director at the
.
Letting Catholic priests into
By Richard Cooke/Monthly/November 23/16
Centuries of failed migration policy must not be repeated
Warning: you are now entering a politically incorrect zone.
But that’s a phrase our prime minister hasn’t used it for some time now. Things
change. Our nation is not counting its immigration successes, but its
immigration failures. Chief among those is the introduction of Lebanese
Muslims. Mr Dutton says that allowing them to flee the Lebanese Civil War to
our shores was a “mistake”. And what better way to quantify that mistake than
crime statistics. In question time, Dutton pointed out that, of 33 recent
terrorism charges, 22 were against people of Lebanese Muslim background.
How refreshing. No dithering about community cohesion, just the cold calculus
of raw stats. And such vision – seeing all the way from 40-year-old policy
decisions to the ethnic crime of now and the future. The belly-ache brigade is
already making contrived comparisons to sci-fi action movie Minority Report,
but it’s just common sense.
Obviously, this new migration “pre-crime” framework will take some time to
codify. Weeding out groups that might turn anti-social is not work our nation
can just rush into. But on evidence available already, one thing is clear:
letting Catholic priests arrive and operate in
Just look at the numbers. There are around 80,000 Lebanese Muslims in
I know what you’re thinking, what we’re all thinking: that Catholic priests are
about 250 times worse than Lebanese Muslims. But go deeper. Even if we include
all categories of crimes committed by Lebanese Muslims, Catholic clergy are so
committed to child molestation that are still dozens
of times more likely to wind up in gaol. They offend at six times the rate of
all other Christian denominations combined.
Some have argued celibacy is a factor in this pattern of offending. But, thanks
to Peter Dutton, I’m beginning to think that church doctrine is a blessing in
disguise. Just imagine the kind of multi-generational crime-wave we’d be
looking at otherwise!
Now, some bleeding hearts might suggest that the Catholic Church is not all
bad. That its priests and lay members tend to the sick and
poor and otherwise make a valuable contribution to Australian society.
But under the Dutton scheme, we must give crimes their due weight, and this
huge quantity of good works is easily outweighed by a small number of outrages.
And it gets worse. After all, no-one has been harmed or killed by a Lebanese
Muslim terrorist attack in
That’s not surprising: it represents a medieval pre-Enlightenment system of
thought. Many Catholic priests came from rural areas of
In fact, if we’re honest, if we add these cultural issues to the number of
victims, the evidence is undeniable: Catholic priests are literally thousands
of times worse than Lebanese Muslims.
Shamefully, many sounded the alarm and were ignored. As early as the 18th
century, commenters tried to bell the cat by pointing
out that Irish Catholics in
Now that the blinkers are off, those so-called “sectarians” have been proven
correct. Indeed, they are owed an apology. Evidence of the folly is everywhere,
not just in our prisons. Under the rose-tinted policy of co-existence,
Catholics were even allowed to play cricket for
To avoid the mistakes of the past, Peter Dutton must now prioritise vetting of
Catholic priests as matter of urgency, and introduce an all-out ban if
necessary. But in time his approach should be applied to other groups, and for
other crimes. There are already some suggestions coming from the Liberal Party.
Josh Manuatu, an advisor to Eric Abetz,
appeared on The Drum where he defended Mr Dutton’s comments: “You just have to
have a look at the people being recruited into bikie
gangs, who end up in jail, it is a problem.”
He’s right. But while Mr Manuatu’s viewpoint is
welcome, under the new system he will presumably be offering it from somewhere
else. Unfortunately his heritage is Polynesian, which on his own metrics of
gaol overrepresentation and biker gang recruitment means he fails the Dutton
test by some margin.
This might seem harsh at first, even antithetical to liberty and the
presumption of innocence. After all, Mr Manuatu
appears to be a political staffer engaged in the business of doing government.
But statistics don’t lie. There’s a real danger he might join an anti-social
gang hostile to the values of Team
About the author Richard Cooke
**Richard Cooke is a writer, broadcaster and contributing editor to the
Monthly.
The Atrocious Scandal of the UNESCO Vote
on Jerusalem
Salim Mansur/Gatestone
Institute/November 23/16
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9402/unesco-jerusalem-scandal
It was over the ruins of these sacred Jewish sites, left behind by the
Romans, that Arab conquerors of Jerusalem in the seventh century built two
mosques, the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa, to lay
claim on the City of David for Islam.
There can be no dispute about Jewish links with
There is precedent for such a resolution to nullify the recent UNESCO
resolution on
Muslim denial of the Jewish links to the City of
Their claim on
A resolution on "Occupied Palestine" this past October, at the
200th session of the Executive Board of the UNESCO (United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization) in Paris, France, was orchestrated by
Arab and Muslim member-states as another attempt to diminish Jewish links with
Jerusalem. UNESCO's World Heritage Committee, despite
In 1975, UNESCO was already an official supporter of the UN declaration
that "Zionism equals racism." So it should come as no surprise that
in October 2016, a UNESCO resolution pointedly ignored the Biblical Jewish
connection to two of the faith's holiest sites in
Instead, the resolution refers to the
In effect, the passage of this resolution amounts to diplomatic jihad by
The Arab-Muslim countries together, as the 57-member OIC, including the
"Palestine Authority" -- form the largest single bloc in the UN;
their numbers alone are mostly responsible for the one-sided prejudicial
treatment of
Any fair-minded individual, however, will agree with Italian Prime
Minister Matteo Renzi,
"To say that the Jewish people has no connection
to
A reasonable response at UNESCO, or in any other forum, to this deranged
effort of OIC members to delegitimize Jewish and Israeli links to
One may note how often the stories of the Old and New Testament were
enacted in the precinct of the Jewish Temple, as in the story of Jesus's confrontation with the moneychangers. Then one may
take into account the eyewitness testimony of Josephus Flavius, a priest in the
Jewish Temple during the Herodian era and a rebel
against
In
In
Then those who want to study the history of the sacred sites of Jews in
their ancient city may read The Temple of Jerusalem by Professor Simon Goldhill of
There can be no dispute about Jewish links with
In such circumstances, when the UN is abused by the numerical weight of
Muslim countries, it might be asked on the basis of fairness: would UNESCO
adopt a resolution that declares Muslim claims on
The likelihood of reversing the UNESCO resolution on
It is undeniable that the Muslim claim on
It is an article of Muslim faith that the Quran is the Word of God. And
there is no explicit mention of
At the beginning of Muhammad's prophetic mission, he prayed in the
direction (qiblah) of
Then follows the claim based on the story of Muhammad's heavenly
"night journey" from "the Inviolable Place of Worship to the Far
Distant Place of Worship the neighbourhood whereof We have blessed"
(17:1). Again, there is no explicit mention of
It was much later, and after Muhammad's demise, that the ulema (religious scholars) agreed the location of the
"far distant place of worship" was the
According to the earliest historians of Islam, the grounds of the Temple
Mount was piled high with garbage, deposited there over the centuries by the
Byzantine Christian inhabitants of the city. The same historians -- Tabari (d. AD 923) was the most notable -- report that when
the Arab armies took Jerusalem in AD 638, the Byzantine Patriarch or ruler,
Bishop Sophronius, indicated he wished to surrender
the key of the city to the Muslim leader in person. Hence Umar,
the second Caliph, or Successor of the Prophet (AD 634-44), came to
When it was prayer time, as we find in the narratives of Syed Ameer Ali and F.E. Peters[2], based on the earliest Muslim sources, the Bishop
invited the Caliph to pray inside the Church. Umar
declined Sophronius's invitation by observing that if
he did, then those Muslims who came after him in following his example might
lay claim on the Church. Umar obviously knew well the
mentality of his people. Instead, Umar prayed outside
in an open area where now stands the Mosque of Umar
adjacent to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
But when Umar wanted to learn about the sacred
sites of
When Arabs and Muslims deny Jewish links to
On the contrary, the Quran is explicit in addressing Jews as
"children of Israel" and speaking of them, as in "Remember those
blessings of Mine with which I graced you, and how I favoured you above all other
people" (2:47). Or, as the Quran recalls the words of
Moses to his people, "O my people! Go into the holy land which God
hath ordained for you. Turn not in flight, for surely ye turn back as
losers" (5:20-21).
An objective reading of the Quran -- setting aside the later exegesis of
the ulema as more or less politically motivated --
and the accounts of the earliest Muslim historians does not give unequivocal
support to claims of Muslim countries over
It is Muslims who are in the wrong over
**Salim Mansur is a Distinguished Senior Fellow
at the Gatestone Institute. He teaches in the
department of political science at
[1] F.E. Peters,
[2] Ibid.
© 2016 Gatestone Institute. All rights
reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the
Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced,
copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone
Institute.
Trump's
Heshmat Alavi/The
Hill/November 23/16
The U.S. presidential elections and the victory of Donald Trump alludes
to the end to a long era. After all,
MAJOR MISTAKES UNDER TWO PRESIDENTS
George W. Bush launched a war with
Obama’s foreign policy pillar of engagement with
Thus, it goes beyond doubt that an end to the Obama tenure will be
considered a severe blow to
In the past 16 years,
The election of Obama marked the beginning of the 2009 uprising in
Unfortunately, positions taken by Obama and U.S. Secretary of State John
Kerry decreased the pressure on the mullahs.
WHAT TO EXPECT
Whether Trump remains loyal to all his election campaign pledges is a
legitimate question. From
The fact that Trump has taken very firm positions against
While Trump may not eliminate the JCPOA, it is obvious he is not
committed to any made pledges.
Any JCPOA tension can spark major change for
More importantly, however, are appointees of Trump’s probable
administration lineup. This team has been completely
against
Many possible Trump cabinet candidates vehemently oppose the
HOW
Analysts in
Hossein Mousavian, a
member of
FINAL THOUGHTS
A new American president with a firm stance will have a major impact on
politics inside
Time will tell.
A new era in U.S.-Iran foreign policy began Nov. 8. With Trump’s
election, a complete restructuring is in the making for
The election of Donald Trump marks a new beginning, and the mullahs themselves
understand this best.
**Alavi is an Iranian political and human
rights activist. He tweets at @HeshmatAlavi
A global library in
Turki Aldakhil/Al Arabiya/November 23/16
Some people’s idea about
In my previous articles, I talked about cultural projects. In this article, I
will discuss the law which Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE His
Highness Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashid Al-Maktoum issued
last week. The law stipulates establishing a cultural library.
Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashid explained the purpose of this project and said the
aim is “for the library to be a cultural forum that embraces knowledge and that
acts as a civilized center in the region to contribute to enhancing reading and
turning culture into a social product that complements the developmental path
of the state.”
The library’s aim is bigger than making it a reference for researchers at
universities or for those who look into manuscripts or who are addicted to
reading and borrowing books
“The library - thanks to the knowledge it will provide - will activate writing
and translating, bring intellectuals and thinkers closer and solidify the
culture of dialogue, tolerance and acceptance of others. It will plant the
passion for knowledge in children and future generations, and become a
gathering place for authors, intellectuals, translators and researchers from
all nationalities,” he said.
“It will contribute to preserving the Arabic language and enriching it and
encourage writers, authors, promising amateurs and translators to enhance
different intellectual works in the Arabic language. The library also aims to
preserve and document cultural heritage,” Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashid added.
Beyond borrowing books
The library’s aim is bigger than making it a reference
for researchers at universities or for those who look into manuscripts or who
are addicted to reading and borrowing books. Its aim carries cultural messages
such as solidifying the importance of reading regardless of one’s age, spread
values of tolerance and positively behave with others.
The library is bigger than a hall that contains hundreds of books as it has
responsibilities. When assigning the library’s members of board of directors,
who include academics, intellectuals and people interested in publishing books,
Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashid recommended these cultural messages to them and
instructed them to include them in the strategy of launching the library.
The library will be established at a cost of more than $270 million and will be
built on an area that exceeds one million square feet. It will include 1.5
million books and receive around 42 million people annually from the region and
the wider world. In addition to the major library, there will be eight special
libraries that include one for children, one for the youth and one for
business.
According to the law the Mohammad bin Rashid Al Maktoum
Foundation will be in charge of the general supervision of the library and will
be tasked with carrying out the required duties to achieve the library’s aims.
Some of these tasks include devising general policy, developing comprehensive
strategic plans to implement the library’s cultural and educational vision, and
achieving its aims and improving societies’ awareness in this vision locally,
regionally and globally.
Through this library,
Mohammad bin Rashid’s Library will be another precious jewel that decorates the
beautiful city of
**This article was first published in AlBayan on Nov.
23, 2016.
Getting to know the company Trump would
like to keep
Chris Doyle/Al Arabiya/November 23/16
Imagine being in a newsroom and you have to label President-elect Donald Trump
and his administration-in-waiting. Is it hard-line, controversial, right wing,
far-right, Republican, anti-establishment, insurgent, or perhaps
ultra-nationalist, isolationist, anti-immigrant, extremist, or even racist,
sexist, fascist and neo-Nazi? Love or loathe the Donald, attaching a suitable
moniker to him is not as easy as one might first think. The media adores simple
reductive tags and labels for senior politicians – right wing, liberal, left wing. They need to be put in their appropriate boxes
but can this be done in a way that is fair, accurate and not partisan but also
widely understood? What should be used when one label does not neatly fit all?
In traditional politics, this has not been an issue. Politicians are Democrat
or Republican; Conservative or Labour. But traditional labels are eroding.
Across
The challenge is that aside from some mainstream policies, Trump champions what
many view as deeply extremist and racist positions chief of which are the
registry of Muslim immigrants in the
Trump is fingertips Republican and on certain issues such as free trade, is on
the left even echoing Bernie Sanders. Many of those he has brought in to his
transition team are similarly tough to label. How should the media treat
Trump’s crowd from the so-called alt-right?
Sugar coating reality
The risk is that the media will sugar coat the new
Trump order scared now that he is on the cusp of power to describe the overt
reality. Just describing him as right-wing risks legitimising
his racist, sexist and Islamophobic positions.
This has happened with so many other leaders.
Ariel Sharon shifted from being decried as a war criminal to being billed a man
of peace, based on no evidence at all. NPR reported on the “strongman of
Most American politicians will willingly describe themselves as against
extremism but Flynn is clearly and openly anti-Islam and Muslims. He has
described Islam as a “malignant cancer”
Most American politicians will willingly describe themselves as against
extremism but Flynn is clearly and openly anti-Islam and Muslims. He has
described Islam as a “malignant cancer.” That is being soft on Islamic
extremism as it starts depicting al-Qaeda and
The chief strategist
Steve Bannon, Trump’s chief strategist, was described
on the BBC as just a “right-wing media chief”. Yet he is seen by many to be a
white nationalist (Nancy Pelosi); a white supremacist, a Nazi (Howard Dean)
sexist and racist. Is hardliner adequate? Neo-Nazi movements claim him as their
guy in the White House. Even Glenn Beck describes Bannon
as a “terrifying” man. Some papers referred to him as “controversial”, hardly
illuminating in an administration whose raison d’etre
is to be exactly that. The anti-Muslim brigade is trying lamely to defend Bannon from the charge of being an anti-Semite, merely on
the basis that he is pro-Israel. (History is replete with examples of
anti-Semites backing the Zionist movement). Bannon
was the head of Breitbart, a so-called news
organisation that he described as the platform for the ‘alt-right’. Typically, Breitbart is just billed as right-wing. Yet the leader of
this alt-right movement, Richard Spencer is clearly and undeniably a Nazi
sympathiser as his “Hail Trump” speech on 19 November highlighted. If he
appears on CNN and the BBC, will he be so described? If not
why not? Lindy West in The Guardian has argued that calling the movement
alt-right is misleading. “If you see a Nazi, say Nazi.” This Nazi group, the
so-called alt-right, disputes any of these terms. For example, its sexism is
merely an application of “masculinist principles”
that “opposes feminism.” For years Trump and his retinue castigated President
Obama for not talking about radical Islamic terrorism. So he can have no
complaints if media outfits and commentators start using stronger terms even if
negative. Maybe Nazi is a goosestep too far for the administration-in-waiting,
but if Trump governs as he campaigned just what word would suffice? Perhaps one
world could be deployed, Trumpery. It was first used in 1456 to denote “deceit,
fraud, imposture, trickery” – or something that is showy but worthless.
Arab action for happiness is need of
the hour
Samar Fatany/Al Arabiya/November
23/16
Many governments are now focused on putting the happiness
of citizens at the forefront of their priorities. Researchers argue that true
happiness depends on social capital and not only on financial resources.
Research shows that “happiness is intertwined with all elements of sustainable
development, and it is integrally linked to the promotion of human rights,
especially gender equality.” The concept of happiness from a German and Arab
perspective was the subject of discussion during the Euro- Mediterranean-Arab
Association (EMA), third German-Arab Women’s Forum held in
UAE Ambassador Ali Alahmad spoke about the UAE’s experience in introducing a Ministry for Happiness
and its role in society. He highlighted the role of the government in creating
an environment where people can reach their potential and find happiness. He
said the Ministry is keen on building the skills of the people and providing
services. The UAE government has linked happiness to the principle of gender
equality. Societies cannot be happy and cannot function if one-half of their
members are not empowered, he said.
The UAE is ranked as the 28th happiest country in the world and the happiest
country in the region. According to the 2015 UN World Happiness report,
During the panel discussion, Prof. Jutta Allmendinger, President of the WZB Berlin Social Science
Center and professor of educational sociology and labor
market research at the
Productivity and positivity
Science has shown that people are more productive when positive. When we feel
positive our intelligence, creativity and energy levels rise. In order to have
success and happiness in our lives, we must stop thinking that happiness is
dependent on success, and realize the success is aided by happiness. Today,
happiness research has become politically more relevant. Many economists and
political analysts view happiness as a serious job for governments. Martina Nibbeling-Wriebnig, head of the government strategy, good
living in
According to research, the concept of wealth-creation is no longer the goal of
government. Success and achievement bring happiness; therefore, policies should
be directed at increasing economic mobility.
Economists advocate increasing educational opportunities and stimulating the
spirit of entrepreneurship. Researchers emphasize that those who believe there
is opportunity to advance through hard work are happier than those who do not.
They also emphasize that people are happier when they are content and have
stability in their lives.
There is a lot of evidence that trust is also relevant to happiness. Research
suggests that the trusting live longer and are
healthier, happier and more successful. Government policies should focus more
on gaining the trust of citizens to build a more stable and prosperous society.
Researchers argue that it is important for citizens to learn how to make
choices that will increase community happiness. They stress the value of
increasing employment and education, and specifically suggest an emphasis on
“moral education.” That is, education in the value of helping others, as well
as the “control of one’s own emotions, parenting, mental illness” and
citizenship. The discussion was very informative and brought to light a new
perspective that could be of great benefit to our region. Such initiatives and
innovative solutions could have a great impact on our troubled societies. We
need to bring happiness to our communities and work toward implementing
policies and practical rules that can promote a happier society and a more
positive outlook toward life.
Arab countries are in desperate need of promoting innovative approaches to the
well-being of their citizens. Happiness can provide them a boost to overcome
their challenges and the determination to achieve a happier environment for
their children.
During these times of turmoil, uncertainty and suspicions that prevail within
our region, EMA’s role comes as a breath of fresh
air. The genuine German-Arab women exchange is a positive initiative that can
enable Arab women to serve and make a difference. Women in the region have the
potential to play a bigger role to help their societies prosper. It also
remains critical for Arab governments to empower women and support their
contributions to protect the future of their children.
**This article was first published in the Saudi Gazette on November 19, 2016.