LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN

October 16/16

Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani

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http://www.eliasbejjaninews.com/newsbulletin16/english.october16.16.htm

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Bible Quotations For Today

Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 15/08-10/:"‘What woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? When she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbours, saying, "Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost." Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents."

Don’t lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old man with his doings, and have put on the new man, who is being renewed in knowledge after the image of his Creator
Colossians03/01-17/:" 1 If then you were raised together with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated on the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things that are above, not on the things that are on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, our life, is revealed, then you will also be revealed with him in glory. Put to death therefore your members which are on the earth: sexual immorality, uncleanness, depraved passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. For these things’ sake the wrath of God comes on the children of disobedience. You also once walked in those, when you lived in them; but now you also put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and shameful speaking out of your mouth. Don’t lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old man with his doings, and have put on the new man, who is being renewed in knowledge after the image of his Creator, where there can’t be Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bondservant, or free person; but Christ is all, and in all. Put on therefore, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, a heart of compassion, kindness, lowliness, humility, and perseverance; bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, if any man has a complaint against any; even as Christ forgave you, so you also do. Above all these things, walk in love, which is the bond of perfection. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body, and be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your heart to the Lord. Whatever you do, in word or in deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father, through him. "
 
Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on October 15-16/16

Trump appoints an American Middle East Advisory Board/AMCTTrump/October 15/16
Pro Erdogan-Qatar blogger attacks Mideast Americans for Trump/Thawrat Al Arz/October 15/16/
The Lebanese who support Trump/Hussain Abdul-Hussain/Now Lebanon/October 15/16/
Hariri’s final stance on Aoun not imminent/Hussein Dakroub/The Daily Star/October 15/16
Unprecedented: Hungary Opens Office for Persecuted Christians/Raymond IbrahimFrontPage Magazine/October 14, 2016
Turkey's Dangerous Moves in Iraq/Burak Bekdil/The Gatestone Institute/October 15/16
Palestinians: "We Are Proud of You. You Killed Jews!"/Bassam Tawil/Gatestone Institute/October 15/16
The first US-Houthi confrontation/By Abdulrahman al-Rashed/Al Arabiya/October 15/16
Has Wikileaks become a front for Putin’s cyber warfare/Dr. Azeem Ibrahim/Al Arabiya/October 15/16
The myth surrounding Britain and the Middle East/Chris Doyle/Al Arabiya/October 15/16
Sex, lies, videotapes, ISIS and the American elections/Hisham Melhem/Al Arabiya/October 15/16
Welcome to the post-Trump world/Trisha de Borchgrave/Al Arabiya/October 15/16

Titles For Latest Lebanese Related News published on on October 15-16/16

Trump appoints an American Middle East Advisory Board
Pro Erdogan-Qatar blogger attacks Mideast Americans for Trump
The Lebanese who support Trump
Hariri’s final stance on Aoun not imminent
Report: Berri Says MPs Must Either Resume Dialogue or Elect President
Rahi Kicks off Pastoral Visit to Tyre
Rahi from Ain Ebel: We need officials who find solutions not problems
Rahi from Ain Ebel: We need officials who find solutions not problems
Report: Hariri Meets Khalil, France Reluctant to Support Aoun or Franjieh's Candidacy
Franjieh meets with US nongovernmental delegation
Franjieh: Still a Presidential candidate, final word on October 31
Derbas from Berkayel: I value Berri's full package
Lebanon security foils ISIS terror plot: report

Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin For Miscellaneous Reports And News published on on October 15-16/16
US officials say Iran supplied Houthis with missiles to target US ship
Diplomats Meet in Fresh Bid to Halt Syria Bloodshed
Iran provides weapons to Shiite militias globally
Syrian Opposition Slams Lausanne Talks as 'Procrastination'
Talks aimed at halting Syrian conflict begin
Erdogan: Iraq cannot handle Mosul assault alone
Turkey Condemns Cancellation of Coup Panel in Sweden
Turkey-backed Syrian rebels attack ISIS’s Dabiq
ISIS claims Baghdad bombing that killed dozens
Yemen’s president accuses Houthis of funeral blast
Dozens of Houthis killed following attempt to control Saudi checkpoints
Egypt’s PM: Cairo’s ties with Riyadh ‘good and solid’
Egypt's Sisi Defends 'Tough but Unavoidable' Economic Reforms
Egyptian arrested for trying to get on a plane with a dagger
Al Arabiya reveals details of Saudi man’s murder in Cairo
Egyptian air strikes hit extremist militants after deadly attack
Fourteen dead as pro-govt fighters squeeze ISIS in Libya’s Sirte
Blow to Libya Unity Government as Rival Seizes Offices
Israeli group urges end of Palestine occupation

Links From Jihad Watch Site for on October 15-16/16
Raymond Ibrahim: Hungary Helps Persecuted Christians, Bans Muslim Immigration
Hillary Clinton’s long record of enabling the global jihad
Florida: Convert to Islam threatens Islamic State jihad massacres at schools, beaches, bases
State Dept: “We continue to urge Pakistan to take actions to combat all terrorist groups operating on its soil”
Trump: Hillary Clinton should “give back the $25 to $35 million she’s taken from Saudi Arabia”
Uruguay: Muslim who stabbed Jewish man to death while screaming “Allahu akbar” avoids jail, declared insane
Mitri Raheb Occupies the Bible
Baghdad: Jihad/martyrdom suicide bombing at funeral murders 31, injures 65
Jamie Glazov Video: What if Trump’s Staff Ridiculed Islam?
Hugh Fitzgerald: May God Save “God Save The Queen”
UNESCO passes resolution declaring Temple Mount Muslim, not Jewish
Monroe, NY: Muslim known to FBI arrested for bomb threat against LaGuardia airport
Milwaukee: Two converts to Islam charged with trying to provide support to the Islamic State

Links From Christian Today Site for on October 15-16/16
US Broadens Syria Talks As Ferocious Assault On Aleppo Continues
US Aid Worker Kidnapped In Niger
Two Men Charged With Hate Crime In 'Savage' Attack On Sikh
Jesuits Elect First Latin American Leader
Hero Killed For The Name Of Jesus'. An Iraqi Christian Monk Describes Life Under Islamic State
This Spiritual Practice Is Shared By Millions Around The World Every Day

Latest Lebanese Related News published on on October 15-16/16

Trump appoints an American Middle East Advisory Board
AMCTTrump/October 15/16
http://amctrump.org/2016/10/15/trump-appoints-an-american-middle-east-advisory-board/

This Monday the “Donald J. Trump for President” Campaign will form the American Middle East Advisory Committee, and its AMCT partner will announce its public endorsement of Republican nominee Donald Trump in Washington DC at an official event. The board is composed of Eblan Y. Farris John Hajjar, Paul Elhindi, William Youmaran, Vedat Gurtan, David William Lazar, Sal Saygin Semsek, Michael “Mike” Namur Korbey, Hossein Khorram, Gabriel Sawma, Tariq I. Ismail, Hooshang Nematzadeh, Nahid M. Hyde, Karim M. Hindi and Philip Abirached. The Trump American Middle East Advisory Committee is backed by the support coalition “American Middle East Coalition for Trump” chaired by Tom Harb. In parallel the Trump campaign rolled out a Michigan Middle East coalition for Trump including Sam Yono, Sheikh Mohammad Al Hajj Hassan and John Akouri. It is to note that Trump has appointed two mideast American advisors this year, Dr Walid Phares as a foreign policy advisor in March and Tom Barrack as a member of the National Security Board in October. The Trump Middle East American task forces have been mobilizing communities from Mideast, Arab, Kurdish, Coptic, Sunni, Shia, Maronite, Assyrian, Chaldean and Syriac descent throughout the US to vote on November 8th.

Pro Erdogan-Qatar blogger attacks Mideast Americans for Trump
Thawrat Al Arz/October 15/16/In several pieces posted online, Hussain Abdel-Hussain, who works for Kuwait daily al Rai as a US based correspondent, and who had worked for Daily Star in Lebanon, attacked American Mideast Coalition for Trump claiming it does not represent the communities. His social media contacts used the posts to smear the AMCT and claim Muslims aren't represented within Trump campaign. Abdel Hussain is known among Lebanese Americans and in Lebanon as a defender of the Muslim Brotherhood and the Erdogan-Qatar bloc. Though he doesn't claim any representation but many sources and his writings show it clearly. Having worked at al Hurra TV in the past, sources from the US backed network claim he has always supported the position of Islamists, including in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and across North Africa. One source said "one of the reasons why he was removed from al Hurra was his constant defense of Sunni radicals against moderates and his constant attacks against the Shia." Abdel Hussain maneuvers in the US as a "neutral" media blogger while in reality he wages smear attacks against the opposition to the Ikhwan and Qatar. Sources from Kuwait claimed he has been hired by al Rai at the recommendation of Salafi circles. He boast about being a historian and he often attacks Middle East Christians at every opportunity. Abdel Hussain often claim he is backing "civil society groups" such as Beirut Madinati, or claim he is close to Saad Hariri, but he writes more so in defense of the Islamist movement in the region. In past years he approached Lebanese Christians as a supporter of the "Syrian revolution" against Assad but he re emerged as a defender of Jihadists, and an embellisher of the image of the al Qaeda's al Nusra. According to an observer in Washington "Abdel Hussain is like a chameleon who protects the Islamists while he wears a liberal coat. But he fools no one, he is known by most observer as a protector of the Salafi Islamists." John Hajjar, co chair of AMCT dismissed Abdel Hussain postings as "sheer pro Islamist blogs and pro Clinton propaganda." Hajjar added "we have been observing the activation of many Lebanese and Arab bloggers to strike at Donald Trump outreach to the Arab Muslim and Middle Eastern communities in the US. This has enraged the Clinton campaign and its surrogates online. Abdel Hussain attacks are just evidence of the success of Trump is mobilizing groups always intimidated by Muslim Brotherhood and Iran regime lobbies. But now it is over, a large segment of these communities is rejecting the radicals."

The Lebanese who support Trump
Hussain Abdul-Hussain/Now Lebanon/October 15/16/
The Lebanese diaspora is playing a dangerous game backing a megalomaniac rallying opposition to immigrants and non-white residents in the US
Partisanship sometimes turns people into fanatics who replace thoughtful debates with shouting matches. Political maturity usually softens partisans and pushes them closer to the center. However, it is unfortunate that a considerable number of Lebanese, including Lebanese-Americans, have endorsed the controversial, divisive and clearly inept Donald Trump. It is unfortunate that many Lebanese-Americans, mainly non-Muslims (with the notable exception of Shiite cleric Sheikh Mohammed al-Hajj Hassan), are cheering for Donald Trump, only because the Republican presidential candidate promises resolve against some American communities, especially Muslims.It is this abhorrent racism, common among many Lebanese at home and in diaspora, that should stop. For some reason, many Lebanese perceive of themselves as a chosen people: A nation with a long history of creativity and ingenuity that puts it on par with the great European civilizations of Greece and Rome. To start with, Greece and Rome were not as great as 19th century European historians depicted them. Like other civilizations throughout history, the Greeks and the Romans rose and fell, often copying from their predecessors and contemporaries without crediting them. So the Lebanese, like other nations, are a diverse group of many colors and sociocultural levels. Perhaps on a per capita basis, the Lebanese have better skilled workers than the average Middle Eastern population. But this does not make the Lebanese stand out. If the Lebanese were as outstanding as some think themselves to be, they could have at least built a state better than the garbage hole that they live in. Blaming outside powers for their ills is no excuse. If the Lebanese, including Lebanese-Americans, realize that they are not as chosen as they think they are, they might see what is wrong with the megalomaniac and narcissistic Trump.Trump is not the average Republican candidate. He is the epitome of everything rotten in human civilization: A spoiled brat turned Reality TV star, who then rallied all of America’s bigots to run for president. Thanks to Trump, dormant extreme right wing groups — like Alt Right and the Ku Klux Klan — are now planning a comeback. Those non-Muslim Lebanese who bask in Trump’s antagonism against Muslims should think twice before they endorse the Republican candidate or join his campaign. Once done with Muslims, Trump and the extreme Right will certainly come after non-white ethnicities. Even though they might not like to admit it, Lebanese-Americans are not as white as they think they are, especially in the eyes of white Americans. To understand how grave Trump is for non-white Americans, or even for white Americans who do not subscribe to his lunacy, think that almost every American Jew — Republican or Democrat — is actively supporting the Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. With an elevated sense of sniffing danger, perhaps because of the experiences of their ancestors throughout history, Jewish Americans have understood that Trump is a disaster. Trump’s vitriol against Muslims have not deceived Jewish Americans. Too bad this same vitriol has tricked the always gullible Christian Lebanese-Americans. The Lebanese who support Trump, including Lebanese-Americans, should understand that Trump’s candidacy is not politics as usual. His candidacy has so far brought the Republican Party near collapse, and threatens the very foundations of the American democracy, should he insist that the election was rigged and refuse to concede. Should Trump win, things might even turn to the worse. So far, he has promised to lock up his political opponent Clinton, threatened to sue the New York Times, called for racial profiling of Muslim-Americans, and practiced character assassination against Americans who vary between war heroes, federal judges, former Republican presidents, the Republican Speaker of the House and Republican journalists. So for once, non-Muslim Lebanese, including Lebanese-Americans, should be judicious and show wisdom. They should not fall for the populist leaders, like some Palestinians fell for Nazi propaganda in the 1940s and Saddam’s propaganda in the 1990s. The Lebanese should not fall either for charlatans pretending to be saviors, like many Lebanese fell for various kinds of invaders from Napoleon of France to Ariel Sharon of Israel. The Lebanese, including Lebanese-Americans, should realize that it is their choice to affiliate with Republicans or Democrats. It is their freedom to speak against religions they disagree with, including Islam. It is their right to decide what is in their best interest. They should only keep in mind that the Trump episode is an exceptional case of a megalomaniac exploiting fear mongering to wake up ugly beasts. They should not fall for his game, and should instead vote for Clinton, even if she is not to their liking, in order to make sure that the Trump phenomenon is defeated big, once and for all.

Hariri’s final stance on Aoun not imminent
Hussein Dakroub/The Daily Star/October 15/16
BEIRUT: Despite optimism by Free Patriotic Movement officials that a deal on backing MP Michel Aoun for the presidency is drawing near, all signs indicate that former Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s final word on whether to endorse Aoun’s presidential bid is not imminent, political sources said Friday.
“Hariri is intensifying his efforts both at home and abroad with the aim of ending the presidential vacuum,” a political source told The Daily Star. “Therefore, he is not expected to make a final decision on the presidential election before winding up his consultations with local and regional players.”
Hariri, currently in Paris as part of a foreign trip aimed at facilitating the election of a president, was reported Friday to have met with Finance Minister Ali Hasan Khalil, a top aide to Speaker Nabih Berri, who staunchly opposes Aoun’s candidacy for the presidency. Khalil flew to Paris earlier Friday on the same plane from Beirut with Nader Hariri, chief of Hariri’s staff.
Future Movement sources told The Daily Star that Hariri might also visit Egypt and Turkey as part of his current efforts to resolve the presidential crisis, which has entered its third year.
Former Prime Minister Fouad Siniora declined to comment on the FPM officials’ upbeat note about the possibility of Hariri finally declaring his support for Aoun’s candidacy for the president.
“So far, the Future Movement bloc’s stance on the presidential election has not changed,” Siniora told The Daily Star, referring to the bloc’s declared support for Marada Movement leader MP Sleiman Frangieh, who is standing against Aoun in the presidential race.
Siniora, head of the Future parliamentary bloc, said Hariri had promised to consult with the bloc if and when he decides to shift his support from Frangieh to Aoun.
Hariri had met in Paris Thursday with French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, the latest in a flurry of high-level consultations the head of the Future Movement has undertaken with local and international actors in an attempt to end the presidential stalemate. Hariri also traveled to Riyadh before visiting Paris. He has also visited Moscow earlier this month, where he held talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
Hariri’s consultations with Lebanese leaders have signaled that he might shift his support for Aoun in a bid to break the presidential impasse.
Education Minister Elias Bou Saab, one of the FPM’s two ministers, sounded optimistic that rival leaders would reach an agreement on the presidency soon, but stressed that the final say in the agreement remained with Hariri to endorse Aoun’s candidacy for the country’s top Christian post.
“It is no secret that the presidency issue is getting close, but it has not yet been resolved,” Bou Saab told a joint news conference with Kataeb Party leader MP Sami Gemayel at the latter’s Bikfaya residence.
“There were obstacles that have to a large extent been eliminated. We are waiting for the Future Movement and former Prime Minister Saad Hariri in particular to declare a clear stance on this issue,” he said.
“If the situation goes in the direction that we are witnessing, then yes, we are seeing that Aoun will be elected president,” Bou Saab added.
Bou Saab, who led a FPM delegation for talks on the presidential election with the Kataeb Party, said the FPM supported reaching understandings with all the parties over the presidency, while it opposed bilateral or quadripartite understandings that happened in the past.
Bou Saab and Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil, the FPM leader, have met with heads of several political blocs, seeking to rally their support for Aoun’s presidential bid. Describing the meeting with Gemayel as important, he said: “We have informed the Kataeb Party on what we have reached, and we discussed what measures will be taken in the following days.”
Gemayel has said the Kataeb Party will not support Aoun or Frangieh for the presidency due to political differences.
Gemayel acknowledged political differences between the Kataeb Party and the FPM. “Our political stance is not to be bought or sold and this is what we discussed with the [FPM] delegation,” he said.
“We are open to debate with Sleiman Frangieh and Michel Aoun to reach an understanding that will allow us to elect one of the two candidates without contradicting our principles,” Gemayel said. “But so far, there is no understanding. We might cast a blank ballot or support a third candidate.”
The FPM is set to hold a huge demonstration Sunday in memory of those who died on Oct. 13, 1990, when Syrian and Lebanese armies ousted Aoun from the presidential palace in Baabda, who was an Army commander heading an interim government.
For his part, Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblatt said electing any president and avoiding preconditions is better than continuing with the current political stalemate. “It’s now time to get out of the byzantine controversy over the presidency and elect any president without any restriction or condition,” Jumblatt, who supports Frangieh’s candidacy, said in a tweet.
The PSP chief advised Lebanese politicians to stop believing that their country is among the main concerns of the world, saying that they should instead look for an internal settlement to end the presidential vacuum.
Referring to the controversy over Berri’s package deal proposal to end the presidential void, Jumblatt said: “Enough empty baskets and illusions that Lebanon is listed on [foreign] countries’ priority agenda.”
Jumblatt emphasized his belief that no party in Lebanon, including Hezbollah, could endure the risks of this power vacuum any longer.
Ambassador Christina Lassen, head of the Delegation of the European Union to Lebanon, met with Aoun, discussing with him the political situation in the country, particularly the ongoing efforts to elect a president.
“The presidential vacuum in Lebanon has now lasted almost two and half years. The EU has repeatedly called on the Lebanese political forces and stakeholders to put partisan and individual interests aside and find a viable compromise to elect a president,” Lassen said after meeting at Aoun’s residence north of Beirut according to a statement from her office.

Report: Berri Says MPs Must Either Resume Dialogue or Elect President
Naharnet/October 15/16/Speaker Nabih Berri voiced calls on the parliamentarians to either resume the all-party talks, or go to the parliament to elect a president in the next session, al-Akhbar daily reported on Saturday. “They rejected the 'package deal' which is practically the agenda of the table of dialogue and accused me of disabling the constitution,” Berri told the daily. “It is either they resume dialogue, or let's go to the parliament and apply the constitution and elect a president in the next meeting,” added Berri. Berri, who chairs the national dialogue, suspended the meetings after the Change and Reform bloc said it would boycott future sessions. In June, Berri had launched a 'package deal' aimed at ending the presidential impasse. He called for shortening the term of parliament and that the elections be held based on the 1960 law should political forces fail to agree on a new electoral one. He also called for staging the presidential elections after the parliamentary ones and forming a national unity government. Several political parties rejected Berri's initiative. Lebanon has been without a president since the term of Michel Suleiman ended in May 2014 and Hizbullah, MP Michel Aoun's Change and Reform bloc and some of their allies have been boycotting the parliament's electoral sessions, stripping them of the needed quorum.

Rahi Kicks off Pastoral Visit to Tyre
Naharnet/October 15/16/Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi, began on Saturday his pastoral visit to Tyre, the National News Agency reported on Saturday. The Patriarch's first stop was the town of Ain Ibel, where he was met by representative of House Speaker Nabih Berri, MP Ali Bazzi, representative of Hizbullah, MP Hassan Fadlallah, representative of Kataeb, former Minister Salim Sayegh, and former General Wahbi Qatisha, representing the Lebanese Forces. Also greeting the Patriarch was UNIFIL Chief of Staff, and leaders of the French, Finnish, and Irish contingents, as well as representatives of the Lebanese Armed Forces. Rahi laid the corner stone for a shrine of the Virgin Mary and unveiled a commemorative plaque marking the occasion. He officiated over a mass service at the Church of Our Lady in Ain Ibel in which he said that Lebanon is in need of "politicians that offer political, economic and social solutions rather than complications." Rahi called on politicians "to rise above their personal interests and work for Lebanon's sake."

Rahi from Ain Ebel: We need officials who find solutions not problems
Sat 15 Oct 2016/NNA - Maronite Patriarch, Cardinal Beshara Boutros Rahi, officiated on Saturday over a mass service at the Church of Our Lady in Ain Ebel town in Tyre during which he said that Lebanon is in need of "politicians that offer political, economic and social solutions rather than complications."The Patriarch described the Middle East's situation as "miserable", adding that "coexistence and civilization in the East are being destroyed systemically."Rahi called on politicians "to rise above their personal interests and work for Lebanon's sake."

Rahi from Dibil: Lebanon's salvation comes from its people
Sat 15 Oct 2016/NNA - Maronite Patriarch Cardinal Bshara Butros al-Rahi deemed, on Saturday, that "Lebanon's salvation comes from its people, out of whom shall emerge men of goodness who will work for the sake of their country's wellbeing and advancement."
Speaking upon his arrival in the town of Dibil, where he was warmly greeted by a crowd of the town's dignitaries and citizens, al-Rahi praised their efforts in remaining attached to their land. "Day after day, we are more certain that Lebanon's deliverance springs from its people's love for their institutions and nation," said al-Rahi, encouraging townsmen to continue in serving their community and church. Rahi also commended the Army and Security Forces for preserving the nation's peace and the safety of its people.

Report: Hariri Meets Khalil, France Reluctant to Support Aoun or Franjieh's Candidacy
Naharnet/October 15/16/A meeting between ex-PM Saad Hariri and political adviser to the Speaker Minister Ali Hassan Khalil in Paris, did not achieve much at the level of the presidential nominations, media reports said on Saturday. The meeting between the two officials was not prepared beforehand, it happened by chance when Hariri was taking a walk and he ran accidentally into Khalil, who was on a visit to Paris to deliver a lecture, the reports added. However, the talks touched on the latest developments in the presidential file associated with the communications conducted by Hariri. Hariri affirmed that he will carry on with his consultations, as he assured that his efforts to nominate MP Michel Aoun are serious. On the other hand, As Safir daily quoted a well-informed diplomatic source as saying that “Hariri received international guarantees for the first time, and that this is the basis for his outside movement”, in a clear indication that the choice to adopt Aoun will not face the same fate as that of Marada Movement chief MP Suleiman Franjieh. Furthermore, Lebanese sources said the contrary, noting that “French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault has expressed to Hariri, France's lack of enthusiasm with regard to the nomination of Aoun and Franjieh,” which was interpreted as a signal to look for a third candidate. Lebanon has been without a president since the term of Michel Suleiman ended in May 2014 and Hizbullah, MP Michel Aoun's Change and Reform bloc and some of their allies have been boycotting the parliament's electoral sessions, stripping them of the needed quorum. Hariri's recent return to Lebanon has triggered a flurry of reports about a possible presidential settlement and the ex-PM is exploring the possibility of endorsing Aoun for the presidency in a bid to break the deadlock. Hariri, who is close to Saudi Arabia, launched an initiative in late 2015 to nominate Franjieh for the presidency but his proposal was met with reservations from the country's main Christian parties as well as Hizbullah. The supporters of Aoun's presidential bid argue that he is more eligible than Franjieh to become president due to the size of his parliamentary bloc and his bigger influence in the Christian community.

Franjieh meets with US nongovernmental delegation
Sat 15 Oct 2016/NNA - "Marada" Movement Head, MP Sleiman Franjieh, met at his Bnishii residence on Saturday with a delegation from the American non-governmental "East-West Institute," in presence of Culture Minister Raymond Areiji. Talks during the meeting touched on the local and regional situation, in addition to the presidential elections and ways of assisting Lebanon and Lebanese leaders in seeking to adhere to dialogue in order to reach outcome solutions.

Franjieh: Still a Presidential candidate, final word on October 31
Sat 15 Oct 2016/NNA - "Marada" Movement Head, MP Sleiman Franjieh, confirmed Saturday his determination to continue to run for Presidency, saying via "Twitter": "I am a candidate and shall not withdraw, and the final word is up to the ballot box on October 31st!"

Derbas from Berkayel: I value Berri's full package
Sat 15 Oct 2016/NNA - Social Minister, Rashid Derbas, praised Speaker Berri's full package regarding the presidential elections. Derbas words came during a tour to Berkayel village in Akkar in which he also spoke high of Akkar's national components mainly national coexistence, describing Akkar as the "State's jewel." Minister Derbas underscored that "Only developmental projects can fight terrorism." He urged politicians to exert more efforts and provide more services at all levels for Akkar's development.

Lebanon security foils ISIS terror plot: report
Now Lebanon/October 15/16/BEIRUT – Lebanese security has foiled an ISIS-directed terror plot aiming to target Shiite Muslims in the run up to the holy day of Ashura, according to a local daily. As-Safir newspaper reported Friday morning that Beirut’s southern suburbs (Dahiyeh) avoided a “massacre” after General Security managed to capture a would-be suicide bomber on October 5. The terror suspect confessed that he was preparing to blow himself up on October 7 in “one of the largest mosques in Dahiyeh” during Muslim Friday communal prayers. According to the report, another would-be suicide bomber was apprehended by Lebanese army intelligence, with both of them being dispatched by an ISIS official in the jihadist organization’s de facto capital of Raqqa, although neither of the suspects knew of each other. As-Safir added that two independent cells were providing logistic support for the attack, residency papers and secure transportation as well scouting intended targets. Meanwhile, General Security on Thursday also arrested a number of suspects at a warehouse belonging to a person “affiliated to the Nusra Front” who operated as an arms dealer. The security officers who raided the site in the mountain town of Bhamdoun discovered “detonators and hand grenades” in addition to a low-flying drone, which As-Safir said was “capable of carrying a small explosive.”Although the article’s headline touted that security forces seized an “explosive plane,” it did not go into the technical specifications of the device, referring to it as a “fly-cam," or "small camera attacked to a vehicle that flies at low altitudes."The arrested arms dealer in the warehouse admitted that he “sold explosives to more than one organization,” while allegedly adding that he also sold “five” of the “explosive flying cameras” to the Nusra Front—the former name of Jabhat Fatah al-Sham—the day before the raid. NOW's English news desk editor Albin Szakola (@AlbinSzakola) wrote this report. Amin Nasr translated Arabic-language material.

Latest LCCC Bulletin For Miscellaneous Reports And News published on on October 15-16/16

US officials say Iran supplied Houthis with missiles to target US ship
Staff writer, Al Arabiya English Saturday, 15 October 2016/The coalition battling Yemeni rebels said Saturday that one of its warplanes had “wrongly targeted” a funeral in the capital Sanaa after receiving false information from a party within the Yemeni army. The coalition added that the directing operations center of the Yemeni army approved the strike without the coalition’s authorization and announced disciplinary proceedings. “Because of non-compliance with coalition rules of engagement and procedures, and the issuing of incorrect information, a coalition aircraft wrongly targeted the location, resulting in civilian deaths and injuries,” an inquiry team found. “Appropriate action... must be taken against those who caused the incident, and... compensation must be offered to the families of the victims.” The coalition’s statement said also that “other parties” exploited the incident and “raised its toll.”
Coalition accepts probe results
The coalition also said that it accepts results by the Joint Incidents Assessment Team (JIAT) on the Great Hall incident in Sanaa after examining the investigation. “The coalition affirms that it accepts the results of the investigation, and has begun to implement the JIAT’s recommendations,” the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) quoted the coalition as saying. The coalition also expressed “its regret for the unintentional incident and the ensuing pain for victims’ families.”It added: “The incident is not in line with the coalition’s objectives, namely protecting civilians and restoring safety and stability to Yemen.”
Below is the official statement by JIAT on the Great Hall incident in Sanaa: The JIAT examined all related documents, and assessed evidence, including the rules of engagement (ROEs) and the testimonies of concerned personnel and those involved in the incident, and has concluded that a party affiliated to the Yemeni Presidency of the General Chief of Staff wrongly passed information that there was a gathering of armed Houthi leaders in a known location in Sanaa, and insisted that the location be targeted immediately as a legitimate military target. JIAT has found that because of non-compliance with Coalition rules of engagement (ROEs) and procedures, and the issuing of incorrect information a Coalition aircraft wrongly targeted the location, resulting in civilian deaths and injuries. JIAT is still gathering and analyzing data related to the incident, namely reports about some sides that used this erroneous bombing to increase the number of victims, in coordination with the relevant agencies of the legitimate Yemeni government and concerned states, and will announce the results as soon as its investigations are complete. (with AFP)

Diplomats Meet in Fresh Bid to Halt Syria Bloodshed
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/October 15/16/Top diplomats were to meet in Switzerland Saturday in a fresh push to revive a ceasefire in Syria, after pro-government forces intensified their bombardment of the battered city of Aleppo. Since the collapse of a truce last month, Aleppo has been ravaged by a major onslaught by forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, backed by Russia, which has prompted renewed efforts to secure a pause in the fighting. With Washington and Moscow backing opposite sides in the five-year war, the talks in Lausanne will bring together US Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov with top diplomats from the UN and regional powers including Iran. Kerry plans to hold one-to-one meetings with Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir and then with Lavrov before the multilateral talks start later in the afternoon, a US official said. Both sides have played down hopes of a breakthrough, with Lavrov telling reporters on Friday he had no "special expectations" of progress, while a senior official in Kerry's entourage said the aim was to explore ideas for ending the fighting. The talks come as Moscow faces growing criticism over its backing for Assad's assault in divided Aleppo, prompting Western allegations of possible war crimes. Intense air strikes hit rebel-held districts of east Aleppo again on Saturday, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based monitoring group with a network of sources on the ground. Leading charities issued a joint plea "to establish a ceasefire of at least 72 hours in east Aleppo". "This will allow the sick and wounded to be evacuated, and for food and medical aid to enter the besieged area," said a statement from Save the Children, the International Rescue Committee, the Norwegian Refugee Council and Oxfam International.
- Seeking concrete steps -Aleppo has been engulfed by some of the worst violence of the conflict since the collapse of last month's truce deal, which was brokered by Washington and Moscow and which diplomats are now hoping to revive. "I think we need to see what happens in the room to determine whether this is the beginning of a new process that continues in this format or not," said a senior US official travelling with Kerry, who arrived in Lausanne at around 0900 GMT. Lavrov on Friday insisted that Russia was not planning on presenting new initiatives on ways to resolve the conflict, which has claimed more than 300,000 lives since it erupted in 2011. Instead he said Moscow would call for "concrete steps" to implement earlier UN resolutions and the now defunct US-Russia ceasefire deal.
Speaking to AFP, a French diplomatic source said he did not hold out much hope.
"When you see the results from the previous efforts, quite frankly I'm a bit sceptical about the next ones," he said. Some believe Russia could be playing for time in a bid to solidify its positions ahead of the US presidential elections, now only weeks away.
"The Russians are seeking to maximise their advantage before (President Barack) Obama's successor -- probably (Hillary) Clinton -- steps in with a likely firmer approach to Syria," said Karim Bitar, a researcher at the Institute for International and Strategic Affairs think tank in Paris. Kerry and Lavrov will be joined by UN Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura, as well as top diplomats from Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar -- all backers of Syrian opposition forces. Iran, a key Assad supporter, said late Friday that Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif will also take part. Egypt, Iraq and Jordan will also be represented, the US official said. Kerry is then due to head to London, where he is expected to meet Sunday with his counterparts from Britain, France and Germany. - Huge escalation -The intensified bombardment has put increasing strain on rescue workers in besieged eastern Aleppo which is home to an estimated 250,000 residents. "This recent escalation has been huge and we've had a lot of work," said Ibrahim Abu al-Leith, a spokesman for the White Helmets rescue force. More than 370 people, including nearly 70 children, have been killed in regime and Russian bombardment of eastern Aleppo since the assault began on September 22, according to the Observatory. Dozens of civilians, including children, have also died in rebel bombardment of regime-controlled western districts, the monitor said. Buoyed by his forces' gains in Aleppo, Assad said he would use a victory there as a "springboard" to capture other rebel strongholds. "It's going to be the springboard, as a big city, to move to another areas, to liberate another areas from the terrorists," he told Russia's Komsomolskaya Pravda tabloid in remarks published Friday.

Iran provides weapons to Shiite militias globally
Staff writer, Al Arabiya English Saturday, 15 October 2016/The US army reported that the missiles launched by Houthi militias targeting its navy ship in the Red Sea were “C202 silkworm” missiles that Iran had imported from China. Iran has been using the coasts of Shabwa and Hadramout to traffic weapons to Houthi militias, thus violating the Security Council’s decision to ban the export of arms to rebel militias. Iran did not only provide weapon to Yemeni militias, as it has also transported arms to the Popular Mobilization units in Iraq and Hezbollah militia in Lebanon. Moreover, Iran has even sent arms and gear to Syrian militias. It has previously supplied the Popular Mobilization militia with tens of Scud missiles, shells and launchers, and so it did with Hezbollah and Assad regime militias. It is worth mentioning that the weapons sent to these militias are imported from China, North Korea and Russia. Slight modifications on these weapons, including the change in their names, are undertaken in Iranian factories. Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Jeffrey Feltman, confirmed that Iran is breaching international laws by providing weapon to the mentioned militias.

Syrian Opposition Slams Lausanne Talks as 'Procrastination'
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/October 15/16/A leading Syrian opposition group slammed international talks on Saturday in Lausanne aimed at ending the five-year war, as warplanes pressed fierce raids on second city Aleppo. Abdal Ahad Stefo, deputy head of the Istanbul-based National Coalition opposition body, told AFP the talks "will only lead to wasting more time, further procrastination, and the shedding of more Syrian blood". Key global players, including the top diplomats from Russia and the United States, will meet in Switzerland on Saturday for last-ditch talks aimed at ending Syria's five-year war. UN special envoy Staffan de Mistura, Iran's chief diplomat Mohammad Javad Zarif, and foreign ministers from rebel-backing countries like Qatar are also expected to attend. But Stefo said the meeting would fail to make any progress as no Syrians were invited.  "The absence of Syrians from these preparatory meetings is one of the problems that has complicated and confused (the path to) a political solution," he said. "The common denominator among all the meetings that have been held since 2012... until now is the absence of Syrians and a monopolisation by the United States and Russia," Stefo said. The US and Russia back opposing sides of Syria's conflict but have spearheaded efforts this year to secure a truce and a political settlement to the war. Two ceasefire deals brokered by the world powers in February and mid-September both collapsed. "Since February, we've been talking about a truce that would bring a cessation of hostilities, but what happened on the ground was the exact opposite -- more people are besieged and increasingly starving," Stefo said. "The United States and Russia are the main ones responsible." More than 800,000 people are living under siege in Syria, with an estimated 250,000 of them encircled by government forces in the eastern half of Aleppo. Fierce air raids pounded several opposition-held districts of the city on Saturday, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The Britain-based monitoring group did not have immediate word on casualties. Clashes were raging on the southern and northern edges of Aleppo, as well as in the central district of its Old City, the Observatory said.

Talks aimed at halting Syrian conflict begin
By Alexander Winning and Lesley Wroughton Reuters, Lausanne Saturday, 15 October 2016/Syria talks with a fresh format but few fresh ideas opened in the Swiss lakeside town of Lausanne on Saturday, with US Secretary of State John Kerry seeking a new path to peace after failing to secure a ceasefire in direct talks with Russia. Kerry hosted Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and seven foreign ministers from the region - from Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Qatar, Jordan and Egypt - three weeks after the collapse of a painstakingly crafted U.S.-Russian ceasefire plan that many saw as the last hope for peace this year. Lavrov has said he has “no special expectations” for Saturday’s meeting. A senior US State Department official said he foresaw no major announcement at the end of the day. “This is going to be, as it has been now for several years, a very difficult process,” the US official said. Europe is not represented at the meeting being held in a luxury hotel on Lake Geneva. But France’s Foreign Ministry confirmed that foreign ministers of like-minded nations plan to meet to discuss Syria in London on Sunday. Since the breakdown of US-Russia cooperation, long the backbone of efforts to end the war in Syria, US officials have worked on a number of ideas, and although no breakthrough is expected, the regional format could be the basis of a new process, the US official said. A Western diplomat in Lausanne said the meeting appeared ill-prepared and vague in its goals, and the list of invitees clarified only at the last moment. “If it is to reach an agreement on Aleppo, countries have to make commitments: Russia to stop bombing, Iran to withdraw its militia on the ground supporting Damascus” the diplomat told Reuters. “That is a lot to obtain in half a day. Especially when people who are arriving are not happy with the format of the talks,” he said. “If this format is to be credible, Kerry has to come out of the talks tonight saying we got something for Aleppo. A ceasefire would be credible.”Before the talks started, Kerry met separately with his Saudi counterpart Adel al-Jubeir and with Lavrov to discuss the logistics of the meeting. It was the first meeting between Kerry and Lavrov since the collapse of a second attempted ceasefire in September. The US is expected to once again push Russia to agree to a ceasefire in Aleppo, and Russia is seen as insisting on separating moderate opposition groups from those it considers terrorists.
Accusations
Pressure is rising for a halt to a ferocious, three-week-old Syrian government offensive to capture the rebel-held eastern zone of the city of Aleppo, where the United Nations says 275,000 civilians still live and 8,000 rebels are holding out against Syrian, Russian and Iranian-backed forces. Western powers have accused Russia and Syria of committing atrocities by bombing hospitals, killing civilians and preventing medical evacuations, as well as targeting an aid convoy with the loss of around 20 lives. Syria and Russia counter that they are only targeting militants in Aleppo and accuse the United States of breaking the ceasefire by bombing scores of Syrian troops fighting ISIS insurgents, over which the United States has expressed regret. A senior rebel commander said on Friday that Syrian government forces would never be able to capture Aleppo's eastern sector, but a military source said the operation was going as planned. The United Nations has said food, fuel and medicine are running out in eastern Aleppo and there will be no rations to distribute from the start of next month. In a gesture of apparent desperation, UN Syria peace envoy Staffan de Mistura has offered to escort members of an Islamist militant group, Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, out of Aleppo if that would entice Damascus to forge a ceasefire with the remaining rebels. Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov said Russia wants to discuss de Mistura’s offer, as well as elements of last month’s failed truce deal, namely humanitarian aid deliveries and a pullout of both sides’ troops from the Castello Road, a key supply route, he told Interfax news agency.

Erdogan: Iraq cannot handle Mosul assault alone
Staff writer, Al Arabiya English Saturday, 15 October 2016/Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday Iraq could not deal alone with driving ISIS from the city of Mosul.Erdogan also defended the presence of Turkish forces in a nearby military camp as an insurance against attacks on Turkey. Turkey has been locked in a fierce row with Iraq’s central government over the presence of Turkish troops at the Bashiqa camp in northern Iraq, and over who should take part in the planned US-backed assault on Mosul. Speaking at a ceremony in the Black Sea town of Rize, Erdogan said Turkey would not allow ISIS or any other organization to control Mosul. He also said Turkish-backed rebels in neighboring Syria were advancing on the ISIS-held village of Dabiq in the country’s northwest. Around 60,000-strong force made of Iraqi and Kurdish peshmerga forces are now finalizing plans to attack ISIS’s last stronghold in Iraq’s Mosul, London-based The Guardian reported on Friday. As the assault to liberate Mosul looms, ISIS claimed a suicide bombing that targeted a Shiite Muslim gathering in Baghdad, killing at least 31 people and wounding more than 50 on Saturday.(With Reuters)

Turkey Condemns Cancellation of Coup Panel in Sweden
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/October 15/16/Turkey has angrily reacted to the cancellation of a panel in Sweden about the failed July coup attempt seeking to oust the government from power, calling it a "blow" to the freedom of expression. The panel "July 15th -- Behind the Scene of the Bloody Coup" had been planned to take place in Stockholm on Friday. The office of the Turkish prime minister, in a statement late on Friday, condemned the cancellation and said it was the result of "interference by some Swedish parliamentarians." "The cancellation of the panel planned to inform the international community on the treacherous coup attempt of July 15 against Turkey’s democracy and parliamentarian system, and the prevention of Turkish journalists from making a statement contradicts with Sweden’s tradition as the country with the world’s oldest piece of legislation on the freedom of media," the statement said. The panel should have taken place in a small school of a Stockholm district. Local authorities claim they cancelled the event because of security concerns. "We did a risk assessment taking into account who would attend and what could happen outside. I don't want my schools turned into a battlefield," Bo Andersson, a Stockholm city schools official, said. The Swedish foreign ministry has not commented. Turkey has blamed the failed putsch on a rogue group in the army led by US-based Muslim preacher Fethullah Gulen, charges he denies. The government has launched a relentless crackdown on alleged coup plotters, detaining or suspending tens of thousands of people from state institutions including in education. The purge has alarmed European states, which have urged Turkey to act within the rule of law. Furious with the cancellation of the planned event in Stockholm, Ankara said it expected "the European countries, which unfairly criticise Turkey for hindering the freedom of the press at every opportunity, to show the necessary reaction to these attacks on the freedom of media and expression by Sweden."

Turkey-backed Syrian rebels attack ISIS’s Dabiq
Reuters, Beirut Saturday, 15 October 2016/Turkey-backed Syrian rebels began an attack on the ISIS-held village of Dabiq in northwestern Syria on Saturday, a rebel commander involved in the campaign and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Dabiq is symbolically important to the extremist group because it is the site of an apocalyptic Islamic prophesy, and ISIS has stationed around 1,200 of its fighters there said the Observatory, a Britain-based war monitor.

ISIS claims Baghdad bombing that killed dozens
Agencies Saturday, 15 October 2016/The ISIS militant group claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing that killed at least 27 people in a Shiite-majority area of Baghdad on Saturday. ISIS said in an online statement that a bomber wearing an explosive vest carried out the attack in the Shaab area of the Iraqi capital, which also wounded at least 36 people, according to security and medical officials. Police said a suicide bomber detonated an explosive vest inside a tent filled with people taking part in Shiite Ashura rituals, mourning the killing of Prophet Mohammad's grandson Hussein in the 7th century.
The tent was set up in a crowded market in the city's northern al-Shaab district. (With Reuters and AFP)

Yemen’s president accuses Houthis of funeral blast
Staff writer, Al Arabiya English Saturday, 15 October 2016/Yemeni President Abd Rabbu Mansour al-Hadi accused the Houthi militias of being the masterminds behind the explosion that targeting a mourning tent on Friday - killing least five people and wounding 20 in the city of Marib, east of the capital Sanaa - adding that the militias “won’t hesitate to do anything that would kill and destroy.”Local officials said the explosion was caused by a roadside bomb that went off near the mourning tent where condolences were being paid for Major-General Abdul-Rab al-Shadadi who was killed last week while leading an offensive against the Iranian-backed Houthi militias, local media reported. Among those killed in Friday’s blast was Salem al-Shadady, the older brother of the general killed earlier, Saba said. Shadadi, commander of Yemen’s Third Military Region — which has its headquarters in the city of Marib — was the most senior member of the pro-Hadi forces to be killed in nearly 19 months of civil war in Yemen. (with Reuters)

Dozens of Houthis killed following attempt to control Saudi checkpoints
By Hani Al-Sufian Alarabiya.net, Saudi Arabia Saturday, 15 October 2016/Dozens of Iran-backed Houthi militias were killed after Saudi forces foiled their attempt to claim control over the kingdom’s checkpoints near the border, Al Arabiya News Channel’s correspondent reported. The Saudi forces were able to target the militias before they stepped a foot near the Alab crossing in Dhahran Al-janoob province south of the kingdom. The Saudi attack has prompted the Houthi militia to further withdraw from their positions.

Egypt’s PM: Cairo’s ties with Riyadh ‘good and solid’
Staff writer, Al Arabiya English Saturday, 15 October 2016/Egypt’s Prime Minister Sherif Ismail said relationship with Saudi Arabia is “good and solid” after diplomatic tensions arose recently between the two countries, Al-Ahram newspaper reported on Friday. Ismail made his statement to Al-Ahram after signs of tension surfaced between Egypt and Saudi Arabia over Cairo’s votes on two rival UN Security Council resolutions on Syria last week. Cairo vetoed a Security Council resolution in favor of a decision espoused by Russia, which holds an opposite stance to that of Saudi Arabia and other Arab states on Syria. Following the Security Council incident, the Saudi ambassador left Egypt for a three-day visit to the kingdom while Saudi oil company Aramco did not deliver the monthly shipments of refined petroleum products to Cairo for October. However, Ismail said deliberations and exchange of points of view between the two countries is “normal and supports the two countries’ relationship.”He also said that Aramco had “a number of technical issues regarding its monthly oil shipment, which was discussed with the Egyptian oil ministry.” He added that these issues will not affect oil deals with Aramco. Since the toppling of President Mohammed Mursi in July 2013, Saudi Arabia was a big supporter of Egypt’s new government. Saudi funded Egypt with billions of dollars in aid, oil products and cash deposits.

Egypt's Sisi Defends 'Tough but Unavoidable' Economic Reforms
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/October 15/16/Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has defended what he described as "tough but unavoidable" reforms ahead of a $12-billion International Monetary Fund loan to revive his country's ailing economy. "The reforms are tough but they're unavoidable to save the economic situation," Sisi said in an interview published on Saturday by state newspapers. In exchange for the IMF loan, Egypt is expected to adopt drastic reforms to increase public revenues and reduce state subsidies, which make up 7.9 percent of government spending. Sisi described a "programme for real reforms that aims to provide subsidies to those who deserve them and no one else", promising "protection for those with low incomes". The former army chief, who became president in 2014 less than a year after toppling Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, also defended the army's participation in large scale projects touted as part of the country's recovery plan. "The army is playing an important role in development but this role will diminish in the coming years when it will have finished its plan for the reconstruction of state infrastructures," he said. For decades, the military -- which produced all but one president since 1952 -- has played a key economic role, producing everything from washing machines to pasta, alongside building roads and operating gas stations. The president also justified military spending including on two Mistral helicopter carriers from France on the need to defend a recently discovered gas field in Egypt's territorial waters. "We have gas fields more than 200 kilometres (125 miles) off our shores such as the Zohr field and others. We need to be able to secure and protect them," he said. Italian energy giant Eni in August announced the discovery of Zohr, the "largest ever" offshore natural gas field in the Mediterranean with a potential 30 trillion cubic feet (850 billion cubic metres) of gas in about 100 square kilometres (40 square miles). "The cost of a Mistral is equivalent to one month's revenues from the Zohr gas field," Sisi said. Egypt's parliament in August passed a law on value added tax, one of the reforms promised in exchange for the IMF loan, to be set at 13 percent for 2016-17 and 14 percent for the following fiscal year. The VAT replaces a sales tax of 10 percent, although the government says about 50 services and products will be exempt, including bread.

Egyptian arrested for trying to get on a plane with a dagger
Staff writer, Al Arabiya English Saturday, 15 October 2016/Authorities at the Cairo airport arrested an Egyptian man who tried boarding the plane heading to Italy while carrying a dagger. An official security source at Cairo airport said that the passenger has hidden the prohibited dagger inside his suitcase when traveling to Italy. The source added that upon the last checkup of the flight No. 705 heading to Milano, the supervisor of the lounge was suspicious about the luggage of the passenger who works as a merchant. He added that they placed the suitcase on the scanning machine, where they saw on the screen unidentified opaque objects. Upon opening the suitcase, they found a dagger whose possession is prohibited and can pose a threat to the safety of the aircraft and its passengers. The passenger has first denied the possession of the dagger saying that his friend asked him to carry it to some other friends in Milano, but at the end, he admitted that it was his. Major General Fahmy Mujahid, Interior Minister Assistant to the security of the Cairo airport gave directives to fine the passenger and sent him to the prosecution to continue the investigations.

Al Arabiya reveals details of Saudi man’s murder in Cairo
Staff writer, Al Arabiya English Saturday, 15 October 2016/Al Arabiya revealed further details regarding the murder of Saudi Arabian Khalil al-Omayrini in Cairo. This incident went viral through a hashtag circulated in Arabic on twitter. The 47-year-old Saudi man was found dead on Tuesday in his apartment in the South of Giza, with marks on his body showing signs of strangulation. His body was discovered after a foul odor led residents to complain to the police . In an interview with Al Arabiya, Saleh al-Omayrini, one of the victim’s relatives, said that the circumstances of the murder are still mysterious, yet the criminal side is obvious because the doors of his apartment were open, and his body was purposely hidden from the neighbors, the guardian of the building, and the maid who cleans his apartment from time to time. Omayrini added that the mother of the murdered victim does not know yet about the crime; her son used to “travel frequently to Egypt, but he delayed his recent trip because she was sick. He travelled during the Eid to finish some business deals. We do not know yet when his corps will reach Saudi Arabia, as the Egyptian authorities are still conducting investigations to uncover the circumstances of murder.”Sources revealed to Al Arabiya that the victim was reported as missing when a man who was supposed to meet him to watch the World Cup qualification game between Saudi and UAE couldn’t reach him over the phone. Abdel Razzaq al-Khalif, Khalil’s colleague, said that he was in touch with him on Whatsapp 24 hours before he went missing. When the embassy informed the parents of the murder, they appointed an attorney to pursue the case. Khalil was known for his noble morals and his kindness; he had recently retired from his work as a teacher. When the police in Giza, headed by Hossam Nassar, Director of Public Prosecutions, was inspecting the house of Khalil Bin Ibrahim, most of the contents of the apartment were scattered, indicating that the killer was searching for something. However, the victim’s belongings were still there, which means that the cause behind the murder was not robbery. Social media platforms circulated the news under the hashtag written in Arabic indicating the killing of a Saudi man in Cairo. People heavily retweeted the victim’s last tweet “When God takes something away from your grasp unexpectedly, he will surely give you what you

Egyptian air strikes hit extremist militants after deadly attack
AFP, Cairo Saturday, 15 October 2016/Egypt’s military launched air strikes against extremist targets in the Sinai Peninsula on Saturday, the army said, after ISIS killed 12 soldiers at a checkpoint. The northern Sinai is a stronghold of the Sunni extremists, who have killed hundreds of soldiers and police since the military overthrew Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013. Friday’s attack saw mortar rounds and rockets fired at an army post west of el-Arish, the provincial capital of north Sinai, according to officials. The military said in a televised statement that its aircraft had taken off at dawn on Saturday for a reconnaissance and bombing mission that lasted several hours and was still ongoing. It said the strikes targeted hideouts of armed extremists involved in Friday’s assault, adding that a number of the extremists were killed and weapons destroyed. The military has poured troops into the peninsula in recent years to battle the insurgency. ISIS has also targeted foreigners in Egypt and claimed last year’s bombing of a Russian airliner carrying tourists home from a Sinai resort. All 224 people on board were killed.

Fourteen dead as pro-govt fighters squeeze ISIS in Libya’s Sirte
AFP, Sirte, Libya Saturday, 15 October 2016/At least 14 pro-government fighters were killed on Friday in clashes with ISIS in the extremists’ former Libya bastion of Sirte, a medical source said. “Fighting today began at 9am (0700 GMT) and the toll to now is 13 dead and 25-30 wounded,” hospital official Abdellatif Abdel Ali said. One fighter, who was shot, later died after being operated upon. Ali said the majority of those killed were shot in the head by sniper fire. Forces allied with Libya’s UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) have cornered ISIS fighters in Sirte, 450 kilometers (280 miles) east of Tripoli, since launching an offensive on May 12. After a pause in fighting on Thursday, pro-GNA fighters resumed the battle against ISIS holdouts in a seaside residential district of Sirte. At least three US air strikes hit ISIS positions on Friday, an AFP journalist in the city said. A pro-government forces commander told AFP that ISIS snipers were slowing the anti-extremist advance. “These gunmen are well trained and equipped. They haven’t given in even with air raids and the siege we’ve imposed on them,” Al-Hedi Issa told AFP. “So we prefer to advance slowly in order to preserve the lives of our fighters.” The fighting has left more than 550 GNA fighters dead and 3,000 wounded. The ISIS death toll is not known.

Blow to Libya Unity Government as Rival Seizes Offices
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/October 15/16/Libya's UN-backed unity government suffered a blow in its Tripoli base late Friday when a rival seized key offices in the capital and proclaimed the reinstatement of the former administration. The Government of National Accord (GNA) is the centrepiece of Western hopes to stem an upsurge of jihadism in the North African nation and halt people trafficking across the Mediterranean that has led to thousands of drownings. It was intended to replace two rival administrations, one in Tripoli and one in the eastern Cyrenaica region. But late on Friday the head of the former Tripoli-based Government of National Salvation, Khalifa Ghweil, proclaimed its reinstatement from the offices of a key consultative body of the GNA. Ghweil has never accepted the legitimacy of the UN-backed government which took control of the administration in Tripoli in April. He is subject to international sanctions, renewed by the European Union just last month. In his statement, he declared all members of the GNA "suspended from their duties". The UN-backed government riposted with a statement threatening to arrest "those politicians who... attempt to create parallel institutions and destabilise the capital." It condemned "efforts to sabotage the political agreement" brokered by the UN last December and denounced the seizure of the Council of State building by an "armed group." The persistent chaos has hobbled Western efforts to battle a growing jihadist presence in Libya, which has been the launchpad of deadly attacks on holidaymakers in neighbouring Tunisia. The western Tripolitania region had been the GNA's main stronghold. The authorities in Cyrenaica still refuse to cede power, bolstered by the backing of the well-armed militia of controversial military strongman Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar. Libya has two rival parliaments, both elected since the NATO-backed overthrow of longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi in 2011. The first, elected in 2012, is dominated by Islamists. It appointed the Tripoli government. The second, elected in 2014, is not controlled by the Islamists but it is marred by a controversial court decision declaring its election illegal. It appointed the Cyrenaica-based administration. A majority of its members issued a statement expressing support for the UN-backed government. Many of them said they had been coerced into not holding a formal vote of endorsement as stipulated under the UN plan. In a careful balancing act, the UN plan made the 2014 parliament the sole legislative body, but also turned most of the members of the 2012 parliament into a mandatory consultative body, the Council of State, which was stormed on Friday. The battle for power erupted into armed conflict last month when the Cyrenaica administration's main backer Haftar seized all four of the main eastern oil export ports. He exploited the absence of fighters loyal to the UN-backed government who were battling IS in the city of Sirte to the west with air support from the United States.

Israeli group urges end of Palestine occupation
The Associated Press, United Nations Saturday, 15 October 2016/An Israeli human rights group urged the UN Security Council to take decisive action now to end the country’s occupation of Palestinian territory. Hagai El-Ad, executive director of B’Tselem, told an informal council meeting Friday on “Illegal Israeli Settlements: Obstacles to Peace and the Two-State Solution” that Israel has controlled Palestinian lives in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem for the past 49 years “and counting.” “Israel will not cease being an oppressor simply by waking up one day and realizing the brutality of its policies,” he said.
With the 50th anniversary approaching next year, El-Ad said “the rights of Palestinians must be realized, the occupation must end, the UN Security Council must act, and the time is now.”El-Ad stressed that the council “has more than just power: you have a moral responsibility and a real opportunity to act with a sense of urgency before we reach the symbolic date of June 2017 and the second half of that first century begins.”Another Israeli rights group, Peace Now, was invited to speak but it was represented by its sister organization, Americans for Peace Now, which has also campaigned for an end to Israeli occupation. “The occupation is a threat to Israel’s security and to Israel’s very existence,” said Lara Friedman, the group’s director of policy and government relations. When Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization signed the Oslo peace accords 23 years ago, the settler population in the West Bank was 116,000, she said. At the end of 2015, it was almost 390,000. “I urge you here today to finally take action in the Security Council to send a clear message to Israel that the international community stands by the two-state solution and unambiguously rejects policies that undermine it — including Israeli settlement policies,” Friedman said. Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon accused B’Tselem of joining “Palestinian attempts to wage diplomatic terror against Israel at the UN.”He also accused the group of choosing “to slander and besmirch Israel’s good name” and vowed that “we will continue to fight and tell the truth about Israel despite the attempts to spread lies about us. Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian UN Ambassador, called the informal meeting “a very positive exercise” that builds on his discussions about a new UN resolution that would demand an end to Israeli settlement building. The Palestinians pushed for the Security Council to adopt a resolution against settlements in February 2011 but it was vetoed by the United States. The 14 other Security Council members voted in favor of the resolution, reflecting the wide support for the draft which had over 100 co-sponsors. What the United States might do about a new settlements resolution remains to be seen. US deputy ambassador David Pressman told the meeting that “the United States remains firmly committed to advancing a two-state solution ... (and) we are deeply concerned about continued settlement activity.”He recalled that last week the United States condemned new Israeli settlements and said that since July 1 over 2,400 settlement units have been advanced in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. This makes “a viable Palestinian state more remote,” he said. “In short, we need to start implementing the two-state solution on the ground right now,” Pressman said. While a peace deal can only be achieved through Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, he said, “significant progress towards creating a two-state reality can be made now that will help restore hope and lay the groundwork for successful negotiations.”“We continue to stress the urgency and importance of taking these steps now and refraining from actions that corrode the prospects for two states,” Pressman said. Mansour called Pressman’s use of the word “now” twice very interesting, saying his comments are in line with strong messages from Washington expressing “outrage against the intensification of settlement activities.”
He said it’s too early to say whether this will translate into US support for a new settlements resolution.

Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on on October 15-16/16

Unprecedented: Hungary Opens Office for Persecuted Christians
Raymond IbrahimظFrontPage Magazine/October 14, 2016
http://www.meforum.org/6327/hungary-persecuted-christians

Excerpt
Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban says Europe should focus on helping Christians before helping millions of Muslim trying to enter the continent.
The nation of Hungary recently did something that is as unprecedented as it is commonsensical and humanitarian: it "has become the first government to open an office specifically to address the persecution of Christians in the Middle East and Europe."
Zoltan Balog, Hungary's Minister for Human Resources, explained:
Today, Christianity has become the most persecuted religion, where out of five people killed [for] religious reasons, four of them are Christians. In 81 countries around the world, Christians are persecuted, and 200 million Christians live in areas where they are discriminated against. Millions of Christian lives are threatened by followers of radical religious ideologies.
"Followers of radical religious ideologies" is of course code for Muslims—they who are responsible for the overwhelming majority of Christian persecution in the world.
This move comes "after Hungary's right-wing prime minister, Victor Orban, drew criticism in the EU by saying Europe should focus on helping Christians before helping millions of Muslims coming into Europe." Orban explained: "If we really want to help, we should help where the real problem is.... We should first help the Christian people before Islamic people."
Most Muslim 'refugees' are fleeing chaos created by the violent teachings of their own religion.
But do Western governments "really want to help" those suffering true persecution? For if they did, not only would taking in "Christian people before Islamic people" be the most humane thing to do; it would also benefit Western nations as well.
Consider some facts:
Unlike Muslims, Christian minorities are being singled out and persecuted simply because of their despised religious identity. From a humanitarian point of view, then—and humanitarianism is the reason being cited for accepting millions of refugees—Christian refugees should receive greater priority over Muslim migrants. Even before the Islamic State was formed, Christians were and continue to be targeted by Muslims—Muslim individuals, Muslim mobs, Muslim regimes, and Muslim terrorists, from Muslim countries of all races (Arab, African, Asian)—and for the same reason: they are infidel number one. (See Crucified Again: Exposing Islam's New War on Christians for hundreds of anecdotes before the rise of ISIS as well as the Muslim doctrines that create such hate and contempt for Christians.)
Conversely, Muslim refugees—as opposed to the many ISIS and other jihadi sympathizers posing as "refugees"—are not fleeing religious persecution (most Muslim migrants are, like ISIS, Sunnis), but chaos created by the violent and supremacist teachings of their own religion. Hence why when large numbers of Muslims enter Western nations—in Germany, Sweden, France, the UK—tension, crimes, rapes, and terrorism soar.
Hungarian Minister for Human Resources Zoltan Balog: "Millions of Christian lives are threatened by followers of radical religious ideologies."
And hence why Hungarian minister Balog also said: "Our interest not only lies in the Middle East but in forms of discrimination and persecution of Christians all over the world. It is therefore to be expected that we will keep a vigilant eye on the more subtle forms of persecutions within European borders."
Indeed, what more is needed than the fact that so-called Muslim "refugees" are throwing Christians overboard during their boat voyages across the Mediterranean to Europe? Or that Muslim majority refugee centers in Europe are essentially microcosms of Muslim majority nations: there, Christian minorities continue to be persecuted.
Most recently a report found that 88% of the 231 Christian refugees interviewed in Germany have suffered religiously motivated persecution in the form of insults, death threats, and sexual assaults. Some were pressured to convert to Islam. "I really didn't know that after coming to Germany I would be harassed because of my faith in the very same way as back in Iran," one Christian refugee said. "These are not isolated cases. I don't know of any refugee shelter from Garmisch to Hamburg where we have not found such cases," said a German authority.
Is persecuting religious minorities the behavior of people in need of a sympathetic welcome by the West?
Is persecuting religious minorities the behavior of people who are in need of a sympathetic welcome by Europeans and Americans? Or is this behavior yet another reminder that it is non-Muslims from the Middle East who are truly in need of sanctuary?
... In fact, it's the opposite: report after report has shown that in Western nations persecuted Christians are "at the bottom of the heap" of refugees to be granted asylum. Despite the U.S. government's acknowledgement that ISIS is committing genocide against Christians in Syria, the Obama administration has taken in 5,435 Muslims, but only 28 Christians—even though Christians are approximately 10 percent of Syria's population; in other words, to be on the same ratio with Muslims, at least 500 Christians should've been granted asylum, not 28.
There are even some benefits in taking in Mideast Christians instead of Muslims. Christians are easily assimilated in Western countries, due to the shared Christian heritage. Muslims follow a completely different blueprint, Islamic law, or Sharia—which condemns and calls for constant war (jihad) against all non-Muslims, and advocates any number of distinctly anti-Western practices (female subjugation and sex slavery, death for blasphemers and apostates, etc.). Hence it's no surprise that many Muslim asylum seekers are anti-Western at heart—or, as the German police union chief recently said, Muslim migrants "despise our country and laugh at our justice."
Mideast Christians bring trustworthy language and cultural skills that are beneficial to the West.
Mideast Christians also bring trustworthy language and cultural skills that are beneficial to the West. They understand the Middle Eastern—including Islamic—mindset and can help the West understand it. Moreover, unlike Muslims, Christians have no "conflicting loyalty" issues: Islamic law forbids Muslims from befriending or aiding "infidels" against fellow Muslims (click here to see some of the treachery this leads to in the U.S. and here to see the treachery Christians have suffered from their longtime Muslim neighbors and "friends"). No such threat exists among Mideast Christians. They too render unto God what is God's and unto Caesar what is Caesar's.
All the above reasons—from those that offer humanitarian relief to the true victims of persecution, to those that offer safety and even benefits to the West—are unassailable in their logic. Hungary seems to understand all this.
But can such common sense, reason, true altruism, and even self-interest ever prevail among the West's ruling elite—that is, assuming their motives in accepting millions of Muslims are sincere to start with?
**Raymond Ibrahim is a Judith Friedman Rosen fellow at the Middle East Forum and a Shillman fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center.
 

Turkey's Dangerous Moves in Iraq
Burak Bekdil/The Gatestone Institute/October 15/16
http://www.meforum.org/6326/turkey-dangerous-moves-in-iraq
Turkish intervention in Iraq is driven by sectarian concerns and ambitions.
In a span of five years Turkey has had serious political and military tensions with several countries in its vicinity: Israel, Syria, Russia, Jordan, Egypt, Cyprus and Greece. Most recently, Iraq has also joined the club of hostilities surrounding Turkey.
Despite the Iraqi government's vehement requests that Turkey withdraw its troops in Iraq, Ankara shrugs it off and says it will maintain its military presence in the neighboring country for "Iraq's stability." What a nice neighborly gesture! Behind the Turkish indifference lies sectarian concerns and ambitions.
On October 1, Turkey's parliament extended the mandate of Turkish troops deployed in Iraqi territory by one more year. The troops are stationed near Bashiqa in northern Iraq -- as unwanted guests. That sparked a row with Baghdad and may further complicate the cold sectarian war between the Sunnis in the region, supported by Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, and their Shiite enemies, supported by Iran and the Shiite-controlled government in Baghdad.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi renewed the call for the withdrawal of Turkish soldiers from his country and warned that Turkey's military adventurism could trigger another war in the Middle East. He said: "We do not want to enter into a military confrontation with Turkey ... The Turkish insistence on [its] presence inside Iraqi territories has no justification."
The Iraqi parliament said in a statement: "The Iraqi government must consider Turkish troops as hostile occupying forces."
Turkey's pretext that its troops are in Iraq to 'fight ISIS' doesn't convince anyone.
Baghdad has also requested an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to discuss the issue. The UNSC should "shoulder its responsibility and adopt a resolution to end to the Turkish troops' violation of Iraq's sovereignty," said Ahmad Jamal, spokesman for the Iraqi Foreign Ministry.
The Turkish move does not annoy only Iraq, but also its Western allies. Col. John Dorrian, the spokesman for the US-led coalition of 65 countries that fight the Islamic State (ISIS), said that Turkish troops in Iraq are not acting as part of the alliance. Dorrian said that Turkey is operating "on its own" in Iraq. He added that the coalition position is that every unit "should be here with the coordination or and with the permission of the government of Iraq."
By October 9, things started to get more annoying. Iraq's Ambassador to Turkey, Hisham Alawi, said: "If we do not reach some result, the Iraqi government will be forced to consider other options, and by doing so, Iraq would be practicing its right to defend its sovereignty and Iraq's interests."
Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim says his government's use of force in Iraq is designed "to make sure that no change to the region's 'demographic structure' is imposed by force."
Ankara remains defiant. Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said that Turkish troops would remain in Iraq. Turkey's pretext is that its troops are in Iraq to "fight ISIS." That does not convince anyone. Turkey's intention is largely sectarian (read: pro-Sunni) and Yildirim admitted that in a not-so-subtle way when he said that the Turkish troops were in Iraq also "to make sure that no change to the region's 'demographic structure' is imposed by force."
Turkey fears that the aftermath of a planned assault on Mosul, Iraq's second largest city and ISIS's Iraqi stronghold, could see a heavy Shiite and Kurdish dominance in the Mosul area. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said: "Involving Shiite militias in the operation [against IS] will not bring peace to Mosul. On the contrary, it will increase problems." Unsurprisingly Turkey's pro-Sunni Islamists want Sunni dominance in a foreign country. This is not the first time they passionately do so. The problem is that Turkey's sectarian ambitions come at a time when the coalition is preparing a heavy offensive on ISIS-controlled Mosul. Turkey's primary concern is not to drive ISIS out of Mosul but to make it a "Sunni-controlled city" after ISIS has been pushed out. And this ambition jeopardizes the planned assault on ISIS.
Turkey's primary concern is not to drive ISIS out of Mosul, but to ensure the city remains Sunni-controlled.
Iraqis think that the offensive to retake Mosul from ISIS is unlikely to begin as long as Turkish troops remain in Iraq. "I think that as long as these Turkish troops remain around Mosul, the operation to control the city will not start, or there must be a new agreement for the Turkish force not to take part in the offensive," said Iraqi lawmaker Abdelaziz Hasan, also a member of the defense and security committee at the Iraqi parliament.
Turkey's sectarian ambitions in neighboring Syria have ended up in total failure and bloodshed. Now Ankara wants to try another sectarian adventure in another neighboring and near-failed state, under the pretext of "bringing stability." Yildirim said that Turkey "bears responsibility for stability in Iraq." That is simply funny. You cannot bring stability to a country that looks more like a battleground of multiple religious wars than a country with just a few hundred troops.
**Burak Bekdil is an Ankara-based columnist for the Turkish newspaper Hürriyet Daily News and a fellow at the Middle East Forum.

Palestinians: "We Are Proud of You. You Killed Jews!"
Bassam Tawil/Gatestone Institute/October 15/16
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9108/palestinians-proud-killed-jews
Musbah Abu Sbeih is now the latest "hero" of many Palestinians and not only his family. He is being hailed as a "brave" man and a "hero" because he woke up in the morning, grabbed an M-16 assault rifle and set out on a mission to kill as many Jews as possible.
These calls have come not only from Hamas and Islamic Jihad extremists, but also from "moderate" leaders such as Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and his Fatah faction.
"We bless every drop of blood that has been spilled for Jerusalem, which is clean and pure blood, blood spilled for Allah, Allah willing. Every martyr will reach Paradise and everyone wounded will be rewarded by Allah." – Mahmoud Abbas, Palestinian leader.
As holders of Israeli ID cards, they were even entitled to drive cars with Israeli plates, which is what Abu Sbeih took advantage of to carry out his attack in Jerusalem. His family owns at least two homes in the city and are considered middle-class. Still, this did not stop Abu Sbeih from setting out on his deadly mission. And it did not stop his family members from celebrating the attack.
This is the inevitable result -- as in the Spanish Inquisition, the French Revolution, the Turkish Genocide of the Armenians, Rwanda, Darfur, or Nazi Germany -- of the poisoning of a people.
The family of Musbah Abu Sbeih say they are "very proud" of what their 40-year-old son did. So are many Palestinians representing all walks of life in Palestinian society. Members of his family, including his parents and daughter, have appeared on too may TV stations to keep track of to commend Abu Sbeih. They have even gone out onto the streets to hand out sweets in jubilation over the terror attack that he carried out in Jerusalem this week, which resulted in the death of a 60-year-old grandmother and a 29-year-old police officer.
Abu Sbeih is now the latest "hero" of many Palestinians, and not only by his family. He is being hailed as a "brave" man and a "hero" because he woke up in the morning, grabbed an M-16 assault rifle and set out to kill as many Jews as possible. His mission was "successful": he managed to shoot and kill two Jews before he himself was eliminated by policemen.
In a video that he left behind, Abu Sbeih claimed that he carried out the terror attack in response to visits to the Temple Mount by Jews. He claimed (falsely) that these visits were part of an Israeli scheme to destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount.
This is the same false claim that was originally made by Hitler's friend, the Mufti of Jerusalem at the time, Haj Amin al-Husseini, to pretend there was a good excuse to attack the Jews; it is, as we see, still trotted out from time to time to "justify" killing Jews.
For the record, it is a lie -- like Palestinian claims that Israel is poisoning wells and water, which Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas was later, for lack of evidence, forced to retract.
Like many other Palestinians who have carried out, or attempted to carry out, terror attacks over the past year, Abu Sbeih was in fact simply heeding his leaders' call to stop Jews from "desecrating with their filthy feet" the Al-Aqsa Mosque. These calls have been coming for months not only from Hamas and Islamic jihad extremists, but also from "moderate" leaders such as Mahmoud Abbas and his Fatah faction.
These are the Palestinian leaders that European leaders appear to adore. These leaders in Europe, especially the French, keep prodding Israel to negotiate with groups that openly say they want no Israel at all, and that at best are uninterested in the truth -- whether about Israelis or Palestinians.
These European leaders would like Israel to keep pretending that the people with whom they are negotiating are actually acting in good faith. They seem to be trying to offer up to the Arabs, Muslims and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), the destruction of Israel -- physical, diplomatic, economic, whatever they can get -- most likely as a bribe to stop Muslims from terrorizing them. They will soon find out, however, that nothing they offer will be seen as adequate. The Europeans will soon find out, as the Persians, Turks, Greeks, North Africans and Eastern Europeans all did, that anything short of submission will just be pocketed as a down-payment on a far bigger mark.
These European leaders are happy to make us in the region, Muslims, Christians and Jews, live under a brutal Islamic dictatorship so long as -- in their woozy fantasy -- they will not have to. They are in for a shock.
Anyhow, in September 2015, Abbas used the very words from 1924 of Haj Amin al-Husseini, days before the current wave of stabbing, vehicular and shooting attacks began.
Since then, incitement over Jews' visits to the Temple Mount has been feeding what many Palestinians call the "Al-Quds Intifada." Abbas has promised that those who die while defending the Al-Aqsa Mosque will go straight to Heaven:
"We bless every drop of blood that has been spilled for Jerusalem, which is clean and pure blood, blood spilled for Allah, Allah willing. Every martyr will reach Paradise and everyone wounded will be rewarded by Allah."
To repeat: Abbas made this statement two weeks before the Palestinians unleashed a new wave of anti-Israel terrorism. We know, then, what spurred these attacks. They are the direct result of ongoing indoctrination and incitement against Israel that is being waged by Palestinians representing almost all Palestinian institutions and parties in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Abbas's words have clearly not fallen on deaf ears. This week's terror attack, which was carried out by Abu Sbeih, shows that the "Al-Quds Intifada" is anything but dying out. On the contrary, there is increased fear that the terror campaign may escalate from the use of knives, vehicles and stones to pistols and rifles.
Musbah Abu Sbeih (right) is the latest "hero" of many Palestinians, because he murdered two Jews this week, acting on the incitement of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas (left).
Why is this scenario not far-fetched? Not only because of the motivation of the assailants, but also because of what appears to be widespread popular support among Palestinians for any attack on Israelis. Not a single Palestinian official has dared to come out against the Jerusalem terror attack. And no ordinary Palestinian has dared to question the damage the attacks cause to the Palestinian public, especially those who are directly affected by Israeli retaliatory measures, such as travel restrictions.
Far from crying out against such butchery, many Palestinians have been heaping praise on the assailant.
Abu Sbeih, who as a permanent resident of Jerusalem carried an Israeli ID card and thus enjoyed all rights and privileges granted to Israeli citizens (with the exception of voting in general elections), did not come from an impoverished family at all. Unlike his fellow Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, he had free access to Israel and could go anywhere and anytime he wanted to, any place in Israel.
He and his family were able to wake up in the morning and drive to the Tel Aviv beach or eat in any restaurant in Israel without having to pass through Israeli checkpoints. As holders of Israeli ID cards, they were even entitled to drive cars with Israeli plates, which is what Abu Sbeih took advantage of to carry out his attack in Jerusalem. His family owns at least two homes in the city and are considered middle-class. Still, this did not stop Abu Sbeih from setting out on his deadly mission. Nor has it stopped his family members from celebrating the attack.
The first to express her "joy" and "pride" over the death of two Jews was Abu Sbeih's 15-year-old daughter, Eman. "Thank God, we are very happy and proud of my father," she said in an interview with a local Palestinian television station.
As in previous cases, some Palestinians, including the sister of Abu Sbeih, handed out sweets to "well-wishers" as a way of expressing their joy over the terror attack. Hours after the attack, dozens of Palestinians gathered outside the family house, chanting slogans praising the assailant as a "hero" and calling on Hamas and other Palestinian groups to step up their attacks against Israel. Such scenes are familiar in the Palestinian arena and are reminiscent of those that used to take place following the wave of suicide bombings against Israelis during the Second Intifada.
Several Palestinian factions lauded Abu Sbeih, calling for stepped up "armed operations against the Zionist enemy." Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal, who together with his family lives in the comfort of Qatar, was quick to phone the assailant's family and "congratulate" them on the "martyrdom" of their son. "Our people and nation are proud of their heroism and courage displayed by your son, who sacrificed his life for the sake of Allah," Mashaal told Abu Sbeih's parents. He stressed that their son was a role model for Palestinians of his generation.
It was not clear whether the Hamas leader was making the phone call from his suite in one of Qatar's five-star hotels, or from his private gym.
Thus, for Hamas and many other Palestinians, a man who kills two Jews is the desired role model for young Palestinians. Accordingly, Abu Sbeih's supporters have taken to social media to praise him and urge Palestinians to follow suit. Because he managed to kill two Jews, Abu Sbeih is now being hailed on Twitter and Facebook as the "Lion of Al-Aqsa." As they see it, his was a noble act, an effort to save the mosque from being "defiled" with the "filthy feet" of Jews.
Support for Abu Sbeih seems to cross all Palestinian political factions. Even many belonging to President Abbas's Fatah faction came to the Abu Sbeih home in a show of solidarity with them. Fatah has also declared Abu Sbeih a "martyr." A Palestinian who goes to meet with a Jew is strongly condemned and accused of seeking "normalization" with the enemy. But a Palestinian who carries a knife or rifle and sets out to kill Jews gains the stars of a "martyr" and wins nearly universal Palestinian praise. This is the current mindset in Palestinian society, the fruit of decades of Palestinian incitement and delegitimization of Israel. This is the inevitable result -- as in the Spanish Inquisition, the French Revolution, the Turkish Genocide of the Armenians, Rwanda, Darfur, or Nazi Germany -- of the poisoning of a people.
*Bassam Tawil is a scholar based in the Middle East.
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The first US-Houthi confrontation
By Abdulrahman al-Rashed/Al Arabiya/October 15/16
US aircraft have finally raided the sites and radars of Houthi militias on the Red Sea coast even though the Houthis had bombed US military ships twice before. International tolerance toward Houthi militias, despite the huge number of crimes committed against Yemenis for two years, has frightened locals of this extremist religious terrorist group. The Houthis took advantage of this leniency to assassinate political opponents and threaten maritime navigation routes many times. They even bombed an Emirati aid shipment last week.
Do Houthi militias differ from al-Qaeda and ISIS?
The difference is that the Houthis had never attacked American or Western targets before, and this is why they were not included on terror lists. However, the Houthi militia actually has the same characteristics as al-Qaeda, including the use of religion to target civilians and wage wars. Houthis’ political slogans do not differ from al-Qaeda’s. They both call for fighting the “infidel West” and kill those who are not of their religion. They imposed their religious rules on the Zaidis and Shafi’i Sunnis. The extremist organization has filled the cities’ streets with images of religious leaders, along with slogans calling for a war to be waged against the “infidel West” and the Yemenis who are at odds with it.
Al-Qaeda, ISIS or Ansar Allah must all be classified as terrorist groups rather than limiting terrorism to al-Qaeda because it raises its weapons against the West
More recently, Houthis dared to wage battles against neutral parties; in Sanaa, they kidnapped an American teacher who works in an English teaching Institute and has lived in the Yemeni capital for many years. His fate remains unknown. On Sunday, Houthis bombed the US warship USS Mason, the Americans thought that it was a random bombing by the Houthis but the group did it again the following Wednesday and bombed the same ship, despite American warnings that followed the first bombing. The US Air Force raided the Houthis’ radars in Taiz and Hodeida. It was not a harmful sanction but rather a clear message in order to stop the attacks on the US Navy. These limited raids send a specific message to refrain from attacking the US Navy and do not necessarily suggest that the Americans are interested in the safety of navigation routes in the Red Sea and Bab al-Mandab strait in general. Battles are ongoing between legitimate government forces and the Houthis to seize control over this strait.
Over the past decade, international navigation may have suffered on the other side of the Red Sea, when Somali extremist pirates? spread terror. Thorough international coordination and the formation of multinational naval forces controlled the situation. History will repeat itself on the Yemeni side of the Red Sea if the world does not support the peaceful solution based on the same international resolutions which were disrupted when Houthis and former the Yemeni president orchestrated a coup and shared governance. The safety of maritime routes and the security in the region and the world require an international stance against harassment and militias, regardless of their religion, as long as they are carrying weapons.
The Houthi group, also known as “Ansar Allah,” was founded by the Iranians and trained by Lebanese Hezbollah. It is still receiving military, logistical and media support from there. It is similar to many armed groups founded by Iran in the region, whether from Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan and Lebanon; they all have one mission: serve Iranian politics through armed force. Dealing with religious groups should be the same whether they are Shiite or Sunni. Al-Qaeda, ISIS or Ansar Allah must all be classified as terrorist groups, rather than limiting terrorism to al-Qaeda because it raises its weapons against the West.
**This article was first published in Asharq al-Awsat on Oct. 15, 2016.

Has Wikileaks become a front for Putin’s cyber warfare?
Dr. Azeem Ibrahim/Al Arabiya/October 15/16
This week has seen the US government officially accusing Russia of interfering in the presidential election, claiming that “only Russia’s senior-most officials” could have authorized an attack like the one against the Democratic National Convention, which came close to derailing the Clinton primary campaign, after revelations of illicit plotting by supposedly neutral Democratic officials against her competitor, Bernie Sanders. It seems that Russia keeps upping its cyber-warfare capabilities and ambitions, even as our institutions and societies are becoming more vulnerable. What is particularly interesting in this saga is that for once, Putin has wielded the truth rather than deploying his usual thick fog of misinformation and confusion. And he has done so through a channel that many Western liberals respect and root for: Wikileaks. This has prompted quite a strong response against Wikileaks and Julien Assange from the security-minded parts of the establishment who had hated the outlet for years, now branding Assange as a client of Moscow. But that is to rather overstate the case. Assange is an inflexible dogmatist and consummate self-publicist. He may have been keen to leak something like the DNC plot all over the media. Nor can we make the argument that it was the wrong thing to do - if we are going to pretend that we have genuine democracy, our institutions must be able to survive the fire of transparency. As it happened, Hilary Clinton’s Democratic campaign bounced back from the leaks, because, one the one hand, neither she nor her campaign had any involvement with the plot, and secondly because Bernie Sanders duly rallied behind her - she did get substantially more primary votes than him in the end, and Bernie Sanders does respect democracy - quite unlike other runners in the current presidential race.
Political weapons
Yet this is a story that we can learn from. Lies and propaganda are certainly effective political weapons. But truth can be even more effective: certainly when wielded by democracies, for whom truth is a necessary basis of political discourse, against autocracies, to whom the truth is most corrosive. The current crisis in global political capital and authority for the West and the US in particular are large borne out of the fact that our side of the story no longer carries as much weight as it used to. And for good reason: the West has wielded propaganda and misinformation on a substantial scale, and not just in the Cold War. It has done so in its dealings with the rest of the world, even when this was not strictly necessary.
The reason why Russia’s revelations of hypocrisy against the West works is because they enable Putin to paint the country as a victim of ‘holier-than-thou’ imperialists. Against this, actors like Russia have been very capable of waging an ideological guerrilla war, deconstructing many of the political narratives that we have used in the West to justify our hegemony of the world. In doing so, they have learnt how to fight effectively not only against untruthful propaganda, but also against perfectly verifiable facts. And this has caught our governments, even our societies, flat-footed.
But now it surely must be time to fight back. There are two ways in which we can do so. Firstly, we can defuse the potency of these kinds of misinformation attacks by increasing transparency in our societies, in our governance and in the way we carry out business. In doing so, we not only increase proper and wholesome democratic and legal accountability, but we also pre-empt the kinds of damage that can be wrought by revelations such as those about the DNC. Wikileaks only has as much power as it has because there are still corners of our societies which are dark and hidden, where conspiracies against the public good can fester. Secondly, we can turn the table on Russia by using the same tactics against them. It’s all very well for Russian hackers to expose hypocrisy in our political systems - wait until the functioning of the Russian political system is exposed and properly scrutinised. The reason why Russia’s revelations of hypocrisy against the West works is because they enable Putin to paint the country as a victim of “holier-than-thou” imperialists. The funny part is that if the governance of the West were to be properly compared to that of Russia, the conclusion would just have to be that we are, in fact, holier, and that we have every reason to mock, disdain and berate it for its failures and shortcomings. Though what we supposed meddling imperialists really want is the luxury to not have to care about Russia at all.

The myth surrounding Britain and the Middle East
Chris Doyle/Al Arabiya/October 15/16
Myths about the Arab world and the broader Islamic world flourish in the “West” with a seemingly never-ending shelf-life but this is also a two-way street. Even as the British pound crashes, its future exit from the European Union creates seismic jitters, and the United Kingdom looks more disunited than ever, it is still astonishing that the myth persists in too many quarters that Britain pulls all the strings not just in the Middle East but in Washington as well. Occasionally, London even controls Moscow. Prime Minister Theresa May and Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson would splutter over their breakfast at this thought but these views are very much out there. Flattering at one level that Britain is seen as powerful, damning that the notion of Perfidious Albion flourishes. In an interview on Egyptian television, I was assailed as to why Britain was installing Muslim Brotherhood governments all across the region. Everywhere.
Another Arab journalist asked me recently why Britain tried to bring about a coup in Turkey arguing that it was not to topple Erdogan but just to make him weaker. Another claimed the opposition that it was a clever, devious plan to make the Turkish president stronger and more powerful. For sure Britain manipulating Washington is not a novel view even if flawed, but it is hard not to laugh when you are told that Putin’s Russia also acts solely on the say-so of Britain. In Egypt these views seem particularly strong. The British travel advice for Egypt is seen as Exhibit A of Britain’s Machiavellian intentions. “Sharm El Sheikh is so safe.” Gently pointing out that a flight was blown up coming out of the airport less than a year ago makes little impression nor that the travel advice only warns against flying to the Sinai resort capital not against being there. It becomes clear that many critical Egyptians have not even read the advice. Quite what the political and economic advantage to Britain is to maintain this advice is not answered and the argument that the priority is the safety of British citizens similarly carries no weight. As ever, there must be an agenda. Having influence is not control and does not mean that Britain is still capable of pulling all the strings as it did 100 years ago/
Palestinians can have a tendency to believe that it is almost as if Arthur Balfour and Mark Sykes are still running the British Foreign Office. For sure the colonial mentality in some British quarters is far from dead but thankfully Britain has moved on.
More assumptions
The other line is that Britain is pro-Shiite. The assumption here is that as we gifted Iraq on an open platter to Iran, this must be the case. All this is based on the startling assumption that the Anglo-American project for Iraq succeeded, not failed, that deliberately this alliance wanted to just wreck the country and invite Tehran in. Once again the reality is that most British MPs, as one survey, found could not even tell the difference between Sunni and Shiite. Some years back one British diplomat remarked to me that these views can sometimes work in his favor. He was asked which month Assad would fall as if London was determining the exact date on a pre-planned calendar. The belief that Britain was all-powerful meant that that local politicians listened and studied his every word. The secondary myth is the Britain knows the Middle East better than anyone else and therefore is able to collapse governments at will, install its chosen proxies and decide the future of an entire region. The reality is that expertise is fading. The quality of Arabic speaking the Foreign Office has declined. Fifty years ago there were British diplomats who had run areas of the Arab World like Aden for example, and knew nearly all the tribal chiefs personally. A bygone era. Most British MPs are honest enough to admit their knowledge of the region is scant. The sad thing is that Britain has suffered from a whole raft of major policy failures not least because of false policy assumptions and ill-informed notions of the Middle East. Iraq, Syria, Libya, Yemen and Palestine are all exhibits of British decline, not supremacy. Equally the tendency to blame the outside for the ills of the region remains powerful, dangerously glossing over what. Another remarkable feature of this enduring mythology is that well-educated, well-travelled worldly wise commentators indulge in this. It would be a mistake to see this is as just ill-informed group-think hypnotized by official media outlets. Britain does have influence, with major historic and present interests in the region. But having influence is not control and does not mean that Britain is still capable of pulling all the strings as it did 100 years ago. Most British people have zero desire to see their country craving any colonial style powers and want their government to sort the country’s own issues. The Britain of the 21st century is a different world where, increasingly instead of gazing out across the world and the Middle East through an imperial lens, it can barely see across the White Cliffs of Dover.

Sex, lies, videotapes, ISIS and the American elections
Hisham Melhem/Al Arabiya/October 15/16
It was the strangest, ugliest week in the most grotesque presidential campaign in modern times. It reeked of the decadence of Caligula’s Rome; sex, lies, debauchery and deception, minus the videotapes and the bloody intrigue. In one week, our political culture became a foul brew of vulgar debates, sexual harassment, predatory conquests and braggadocio, victims of reality television, unbridled social media, the he said/she said ad hominem, and scorched earth tactics leaving behind scorched souls. Everywhere one looked, one confronted the unbearable stench of rottenness. Yes, something is rotten in the state of the United States of America. It was offensive watching Donald Trump during his second debate with Hillary Clinton, shamelessly mouthing an unconvincing apology for his sexually predatory behavior captured on a videotape where he celebrated his offensive hands invading the sanctity of innocent women, objectifying them and violating them. No sooner than he finished his short pro-forma non-apology, apology Trump, the pretend commander-in-chief, vowed to fight and crush ISIS. It was a breathless and unique rejoinder, where only Trump could ram sex, lies, videotapes and ISIS in one sentence. The debate was tawdry and dirty, with one slimy proud sexual predator on the stage, accusing a former president, the spouse of his rival of belonging to a higher class of sexual predators. The debate encapsulated America’s current dark predicament; the utter failure of the ruling political and economic classes in charge of the two party system to come up with better candidates than the dangerous Trump, and the deeply flawed Clinton, the two most unpopular candidates in recent decades. Yes, the times they are a-changing in America, but not like Bob Dylan had prophesized.
The disinherited
Historians and social scientists will write tomes about the causes of the moral and political decay of America circa 2016. They will muster data, statistics and charts showing the negative effects of the international trade agreements on America’s labor force, the new marginalized Americans left behind watching in despair and anger the globalization caravan passing them by, the 21st century’s version of the displaced Oakies, roaming the country in search of non-existing manufacturing jobs that once were the beating heart of life in small town America. Both the candidates and their parties are totally unaware of the fraying of social and economic life in large swaths of rural America following the epidemic of drugs that ravaged them in recent years, where suicide rates are nearly double those in big cities. These are the disinherited of America, who have been hypnotized by the Siren calls of Donald Trump to join his movement of woes and wrath. These are the Americans who are driven by fear and loathing and who believe that their once proverbial shining city on a hill is being overtaken by the invading barbarians.
It is conceivable, given Trump’s warnings, that if Hillary Clinton wins a very close race, violent protests could occur
Future chronicles of America’s malady in the second decade of the twenty first century, will analyze the rise and fall of Donald Trump, the vile would-be savior of the disinherited, who stormed his way by sheer guile and intimidation to wrestle the mantle of leadership of the hapless, ossified Republican Party. His was the rise of the brute but cunning populist who, as the self-proclaimed Cassandra, weaves conspiracies of impending gloom and doom where America’s enemies, domestic and foreign collude to destroy the realm and presents himself as the sole supreme leader capable of providing deliverance. If Arabs, had a long genealogy of fake religious figures, America has had a less colorful genealogy of scoundrels and charlatans posing as populist saviors in times of crisis. But America has never seen a dangerous presidential contender as close to the White House as Donald Trump is now.
Scorched earth
The revelations of numerous videotapes and radio interviews in which Trump bragged about his sexual conquests forced some Republican leaders, including the Speaker of the House Paul Ryan and other party elders like John McCain, to abandon their candidate, who found himself confronting a growing number of his victims exposing his debauchery publicly. His reaction was predictable, swift and brutal, like a wounded animal. He adopted a scorched earth policy in dealing with what he sees as his endless list of enemies. One week after the second debate debacle, Trump was directing his fire against the “Clinton Machine,” the leadership of the Republican Party, the “corrupt” media and his accusers whom he described as not attractive enough to deserve his sexual advances. Trump, who does not share the ideological orthodoxy of the Republican Party such as international trade agreements, immigration reform and cutting entitlement programs, lashed out at the “disloyal” Republican leadership which he claimed is “far more difficult” than Hillary Clinton. Trump, who has alienated the conservative intellectuals and Republican national security experts, was acting now as an “unshackled” independent candidate, oblivious to the wishes of the Party hierarchy. What was described as the Republican “civil war” could eventually lead to the fragmentation of the Grand Old Party, particularly if Clinton is elected, but even if Trump becomes president it will be very difficult for him to reconstitute the Party.
Toward the end of the week, Trump resurrected the old reliable anti-Semitic canard of International bankers conspiring with Clinton to destroy America. Trump is explicitly Islamophobic but he is certainly implicitly anti-Semite, given his numerous references to Jews as moneyed people. In a speech in Florida, Trump attacked what he termed “a corrupt global establishment” at the heart of which is Hillary Clinton. He then went into the heart of darkness, where no candidate of a major Party dared to go in recent memory saying “Hillary Clinton meets in secret with international banks to plot the destruction of US sovereignty in order to enrich these global financial powers, her special interest friends, and her donors.” To drive the point home, Trump added that Clinton “doesn’t care for you unless you’re Wall Street or Hollywood,” two American bastions of Jewish presence that traditionally receive the ire of the anti-Semites.
Potential violence
With his popularity slipping in all national polls, and most polls taken in battleground states like Florida, Pennsylvania, Colorado and South Carolina, that will determine the race and with traditionally Republican states like Georgia and Arizona susceptible to Democratic inroads, Trump upped his warnings of potential rigging of the election results, telling his supporters that the presidency could be “stolen” from him. There was more than a racist whiff in these remarks when he warned his mostly white supporters in Pennsylvania, that “other communities” could deprive him of the ultimate prize. He was referring to the large concentrations of African-Americans in the two largest cities in the state: Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. Just to make sure that his concerns were fully understood, he said “everybody knows what I am talking about.” Questioning the legitimacy of presidential elections in the United States, have never seriously been raised since the Civil War. It is conceivable, given Trump’s warnings, that if Hillary Clinton wins a very close race, violent protests could occur.
Whither the Republican Party?
Reeling from their second humiliating defeat at the hands of Barack Obama in 2012, the Republican National Committee requested a report with recommendations to broaden the party’s appeal to minorities and other groups the Republicans needs to remain viable. The subsequent “autopsy” report which included some good recommendations such as “comprehensive immigration reform” was eventually ignored by the party leadership, and the critical introspection that some Republicans were hoping fore never materialized. Large organizations with entrenched leadership are usually resistant to self-examination or self-criticism, even though sometimes they do self-destruct, as maybe the case with the Trump candidacy. It is inevitable that the Republican Party will undergo a wrenching convulsion after the elections and what looks now, according to the polls and other indications, like a resounding defeat. What is certain is that Trump, and more importantly his “movement”also known as the “deplorables” as Hillary Clinton crassly called them, will remain a block of alienated and angry voters. It will be difficult for the traditional conservative wing of the Party, represented by Speaker Paul Ryan and the leadership in congress to build bridges with Trump’s base. However, in the absence of conducting a serious autopsy, the malady of the Republican Party may lead to further fragmentations and aimlessness in the political wilderness.
But the crisis of the Republican Party is a symptom of a more grave condition. The rise of Trump who received almost 14 million votes during the primaries, and whose popularity as a candidate hovered around 40 percent of voters, speaks of the failure of the whole political culture and not only of the Republican Party. In the last few years, the political dysfunction in Washington, exemplified by the occasional destructive and undemocratic “shutdown” of the Federal Government, and the abuse of the filibuster in the Senate have had a debilitating effect on both the Executive and Legislative branches. Beyond the mechanics of passing laws and budgets and approving senior officials and Supreme Court nominees, the challenge facing the whole political system, is what to do to help the millions of disinherited “deplorables,” who were victimized by the new economy that destroyed their world and their way of life in the once thriving small towns and farming areas of America, where some of these towns look today as if they were visited by a rampaging hurricane. The September 2001 attacks occurred in part because of lack of imagination in the realm of national security; to stop the decline of the inner cities where racial and economic tensions are rapidly rising, and to contain the decaying quality of life in rural America, will require the kind of national imagination and creativity that America did muster in the past when it was visited by truly hard times - during the war of independence, the Civil War, the Great Depression and the Second World War.
Admittedly, these are different and dire times but if past is prologue, then America is still capable of self-renewal and of achieving great things.

Welcome to the post-Trump world
Trisha de Borchgrave/Al Arabiya/October 15/16
So, after two stinging US presidential debates in which Donald Trump sneered, lied and prowled, the just-about Republican nominee still retains his voting base. These are people who don’t just want radical change, but a political earthquake of seismic, shocking magnitude that shakes the very foundations of a country, in the name of waking up Washington to its forgotten plight, and Donald Trump is their messiah, whatever his personal failings. Increasingly it looks like this will not be enough to shoehorn him into the White House, now that Republican lawmakers have stared into the eyes of their mothers, wives, daughters, sisters, aunts, female employees, bosses, shop assistants, dogs, cats and goldfish. Over the past year Trump has effectively weaponized disaffected voters by digging up the roots of the undervalued, white, Christian-right males, and cultivated them into vengeful offshoots who relish his attacks on minorities. He appeals to Americans who refer to their fellow citizens as “the” African Americans, “the” Latinos and “the” Muslims in the same way that David Attenborough identifies different species of animals. They remain hitched to the Trump wagon car crash, gathering around the bully who, like the family drunk on Jerry Springer, reels between angry outbursts and quiet seething. Those voters who simply wanted to provide for their families have been rewarded with a monster. Yet whatever the outcome of the presidential election in a few weeks’ time, America will be left staring into a mirror whose image it doesn’t recognize, not because of globalization’s continuing effects on wealth disparity, but because of the domestication of division inside its borders. It is hard to see how the aspiring, the multiethnic and progressives will ever find common and un-pitted ground, or indeed sympathy, with those who cheered at the taunts, the bashing, the threats and fear-mongering of anyone who doesn’t look or sound like them. America’s Achilles heel, an uneducated and blinkered heartland that will be suckered into believing anything, bodes well for Russia’s efforts to sow further doubt and mistrust into America’s vulnerable democracy
Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore, having won the popular vote and lost the election by a supreme court’s ruling in 2000, spoke afterwards of healing “the divisions of the campaign and the contest through which we’ve just passed”. Today, this sounds like a line from Edith Wharton’s “The Age of Innocence”, circa 1920, when reconciliation was post World War II and still meant something. Although protest politics rarely gains traction after victory, it festers in defeat. A post-Trump world is disquieting; conspiracy theories will formulate opinions and drive political conviction now that the goalposts of decency have been blown away, when hypocrisy dictates common sense and a lie is part of a belief-system. A nation’s intelligence has been infantilized and stupefied into speechlessness.
This is when Trump, the reality television star will come into his own. The man will not retreat into a corner and lick his wounds; win or lose, Terminator Trump will be back, either with a male menopausal news syndicate called “Trump News”, leaving Fox News blushing with modesty in comparison, or with Breitbart News broadcasting out of the White House headed by newly appointed national press secretary Stephen Bannon helping Putin get rid of NATO. America’s Achilles heel, an uneducated and blinkered heartland that will be suckered into believing anything, bodes well for Russia’s efforts to sow further doubt and mistrust into America’s vulnerable democracy. Trump might not know anything about Russia, as he contended in the second debate, but there is enough evidence to point to Vladimir Putin’s efforts to interfere with America’s presidential elections. This has proved an effective and winning tactic in a renewed conspiracy age and could play an even greater disruptive role when the presidential outcome is suspected of having been tampered with electronically by Democrats and Republicans alike, depending on whose candidate won. For now, the only thing that is rigged are the minds of the undecided and of those still planning to vote for Trump. His unmitigated triumph has been to energize his name, at the expense of a country’s future welfare and security, social civility and cohesion. To empathize with the angry frustration of voters has become a way to enable and perpetuate it, not repair it, when his fans are not informed enough to prove him wrong. Trump’s apology for assaulting women was less an act of contrition and more a sign of regret that things are not going his way. The wounded pride that is his conscience will turn into mental mayhem with every new accusation of sexual misconduct that he denies. He has consistently hissed at Hillary Clinton’s evilness and publicly fantasized about the effects of getting rid of her security detail. She has signaled that if she wins she will spend the first hundred days on immigration reform. He has a bevy of derailed minds shouting for a Mexican wall and for her incarceration.
No doubt his stoking and goading will result in a fashionable new line of Trump designer gun holsters made of the finest feed-lot leather because, as he is fond of reminding us, this is a scary world, the American dream is shattered, and success is owning the tallest building in Manhattan after the collapse of the Twin Towers on 9/11.