LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN

October 27/16

Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani

The Bulletin's Link on the lccc Site

http://www.eliasbejjaninews.com/newsbulletin16/english.october27.16.htm

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Bible Quotations For Today

When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what is sown in the heart
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 13/18-23/:"‘Hear then the parable of the sower. When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what is sown in the heart; this is what was sown on the path. As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; yet such a person has no root, but endures only for a while, and when trouble or persecution arises on account of the word, that person immediately falls away. As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the lure of wealth choke the word, and it yields nothing. But as for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.’".

The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her husband.
First Letter to the Corinthians 07/01/03/08//14/17/24/:"Concerning the matters about which you wrote: ‘It is well for a man not to touch a woman.’ But because of cases of sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband. The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her husband. To the unmarried and the widows I say that it is well for them to remain unmarried as I am. But if they are not practising self-control, they should marry. For it is better to marry than to be aflame with passion. To the married I give this command not I but the Lord that the wife should not separate from her husband. (but if she does separate, let her remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband), and that the husband should not divorce his wife. To the rest I say I and not the Lord that if any believer has a wife who is an unbeliever, and she consents to live with him, he should not divorce her. And if any woman has a husband who is an unbeliever, and he consents to live with her, she should not divorce him. For the unbelieving husband is made holy through his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy through her husband. Otherwise, your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy. However that may be, let each of you lead the life that the Lord has assigned, to which God called you. This is my rule in all the churches. In whatever condition you were called, brothers and sisters, there remain with God."

Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on October 26-27/16

In Lebanon deal, Iran wins and Saudi retreats/By Tom Perry and Laila Bassam/Reuters/October 26/16
Lebanese Army steps in as Aoun, Hariri posters torn down in Tripoli/The Daily Star/October 26/16
Aoun’s presidency leads to expiry of Lebanon’s two major alliances - says Farzali/Al Waqat/October 26, 2016
Christians And Muslims Join Forces In Pakistan To Save Nine-Year-Old Boy From Blasphemy Charge/Ruth Gledhill/Christian Today/26 October 2016/
Young Iraqi Christian Girl Who Forgave ISIS 'Joyful' About Returning Home After Liberation/Carey Lodge/Christian Today/October 26/16
Germany's Migrant Rape Crisis: Where is the Public Outrage/Soeren Kern/Gatestone Institute/October 26/16
Turkey: Erdogan's Stealth Jihad Against the West/Burak Bekdil/Gatestone Institute/October 26/16
UK: Labour Party Still Shooting Itself in Both Anti-Semitic, Far-Left Feet/Denis MacEoin/Gatestone Institute/October 26/16
Jostling for positions at the end of Obama presidency/Chris Doyle/Al Arabiya/October 26/16
The real threat is not Donald Trump - but what follows him/Dr. Azeem Ibrahim/Al Arabiya/October 26/16
Hillary, Wikileaks, Russia – theater of absurd goes viral/Maria Dubovikova/Al Arabiya/October 26/16

Titles For Latest Lebanese Related News published on on October 26-27/16

Saudi Minister to Voice Support for 'Hariri's Initiative' during Lebanon Visit
Franjieh Meets al-Rahi, Vows to Stay in Presidential Race
Lebanese Army Denies Shots Fired from Lebanon after Israel Says Soldier Injured on Border
Berri: Quorum Guaranteed, 2 Presidential Vote Rounds May be Held
Geagea Reassures Jumblat in Phone Call with Democratic Gathering MP
Geagea: We're Living Historic Moments and We'll Have '100% Made in Lebanon' President
Helou Says Nomination to Continue 'as Long as It's Beneficial for Country'
Syria Refugees in Lebanon Now Get Aid with Debit Card
Lebanese army denies cross border gunfire as Israeli soldier allegedly wounded
Information Minister arrives in Beirut coming from Paris
Turkish Ambassador after meeting Abou Faour: We hope a new president will be swiftly elected
Bou Saab receives IMF delegation, Lassen, Girard
Hajj Hassan at technology forum: We paid price of wrong economic policies
Salam meets Finance, Foreign Ministers and NNA Director
Hakim receives Lassen
EU organises workshop on support and information for Lebanese businesses
In Lebanon deal, Iran wins and Saudi retreats
Lebanese Army steps in as Aoun, Hariri posters torn down in Tripoli
Aoun’s presidency leads to expiry of Lebanon’s two major alliances - says Farzali

Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin For Miscellaneous Reports And News published on on October 26-27/16
‘Groundwork’ being laid for ‘isolation’ of Raqqa: US
U.S., UK Expect Raqa Offensive in Next Few Weeks
Top U.S. General Visits Key Hub in Fight for Mosul
Syria airstrikes kill 17, mostly children, outside school
France Extends Aircraft Carrier Mission to Back Mosul Offensive
Iraq Records Largest Displacement of Mosul Operation
5.4-Magnitude Quake Hits Central Italy
Canada Parliament Votes to Take in Yazidi Refugees
Clashes after Turkey Detains Diyarbakir Mayors
Israel Recalls UNESCO Envoy after Jerusalem Vote
Trump promises Israel he'd stand up to Iran
Israeli settlements in West Bank not illegal: Trump adviser
Israeli Guards Escape Charges in 'Attack' Shooting
US to vote on 10-year renewal of Iran sanctions
Iran security forces kill Ahwazi girl while arresting her father
Iranian intelligence minister hounded for gay US senator’s trip to Tehran
Saudi Arabia: Iran waging regional sectarianism
Pirates attack oil tanker near Bab al-Mandab
UN Yemen envoy submits peace plan to rivals
Maduro, Opponents Trade 'Coup' Charges in Venezuela Crisis
25 people found dead in Mediterranean migrant boat: MSF

Links From Jihad Watch Site for on October 26-27/16
Beyond the media propaganda: American Mideast Coalition endorses…Trump
After Italian town blocks Muslim migrant arrival, Pope calls on Italy to “welcome and care for” Muslim migrants
Islamic State jihadis “WILL unleash attacks on Europe as payback for Mosul”
John Brennan is completely unqualified to be Director of Central Intelligence
Germany: Muslim migrant screaming “Allahu akbar” disrupts wedding, tears down decorations, taken to psychiatric hospital
Turkey: Erdogan’s Stealth Jihad Against the West
German press deliberately covering up Muslim identity of attackers in rape crisis
Robert Spencer in FrontPage: The Clinton/Vatican/Tehran Axis
An Iranian dissident speaks out: Is Islam compatible with women’s rights and democracy?
Egypt: Salafis angered by ‘welcome’ for Coptic Christian pope
Islam’s Will to Power: An Interview with Raymond Ibrahim
Raymond Ibrahim: Islam’s ‘Western Liberal Values’?
Here’s what the Guardian calls “a 16-year-old from Ethiopia”
 

Links From Christian Today Site for on October 26-27/16
Young Iraqi Christian Girl Who Forgave ISIS 'Joyful' About Returning Home After Liberation
Out Of The Darkness: How God Transformed A Violent Criminal
The Church And Argentina's Dirty War: Why The Vatican Needs To Open Its Files
Survey Finds: Sex And Housework More Important Than Religion For Successful Marriage
Bishop Of Manchester: It Is Our 'God-Given Duty' To Help Refugees
500 Years After Reformation, No Meeting of Minds Between Catholics And Evangelicals
Hundreds Of Christian Volunteers Sign Up To Help Combat Britain's Growing Homelessness Crisis
Halloween Has Become An Orgy Of Blood-Spattered Nonsense. But We Trivialise Spiritual Forces At Our Peril
Ancient Papyrus Discovered In Israel Reveals Mystery Of King's Maidservant
Christians And Muslims Join Forces In Pakistan To Save Nine-Year-Old Boy From Blasphemy Charge

Latest Lebanese Related News published on on October 26-27/16
Saudi Minister to Voice Support for 'Hariri's Initiative' during Lebanon Visit
Naharnet/October 26/16/Saudi Arabia's state minister for Gulf affairs will visit Lebanon in the coming days and will express the kingdom's support for the presidential initiative of al-Mustaqbal Movement leader ex-PM Saad Hariri, a media report said on Wednesday. “The postponement of the visit of State Minister for Gulf Affairs Thamer al-Sabhan is solely linked to (Speaker Nabih) Berri's return from Geneva and Riyadh's envoy will express to Berri the kingdom's support for Hariri's initiative,” Mustaqbal Movement sources told al-Akhbar newspaper. “The Saudi envoy will carry suggestions aimed at resolving the obstacles and lowering the level of opposition that the speaker has showed against the agreement between Hariri and (Free Patriotic Movement founder) General Michel Aoun,” the sources added. Media reports have said that the “real battle” will only begin after Aoun's election as president in the October 31 session and that some parties will not facilitate the formation of a government led by Hariri. Aoun was tipped to become president after Hariri formally endorsed him on Thursday. Berri has voiced concerns over the Aoun-Hariri agreements that preceded the endorsement while openly declaring that his bloc will “vote against Aoun” and that it might “join the ranks of the opposition.”Lebanon has been without a president since the term of Michel Suleiman ended in May 2014 and Hizbullah, 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 had launched an initiative in late 2015 to nominate Hizbullah's ally and Marada Movement chief MP Suleiman 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 have argued 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 al-Rahi, Vows to Stay in Presidential Race
Naharnet/October 26/16/Marada Movement chief MP Suleiman Franjieh held talks Wednesday in Diman with Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi and stressed that he will maintain his presidential nomination. After a 45-minute closed-door meeting, Franjieh and al-Rahi continued their talks over a lunch banquet, state-run National News Agency said. “The atmosphere was excellent,” Franjieh told reporters after the talks. “The meeting with His Eminence is normal prior to the upcoming electoral session and we discussed the current developments in the country,” he added. And in response to a question, the Marada leader emphasized that he will stay in the presidential race although the chances of his electoral rival MP Michel Aoun seem to be much higher. Aoun was tipped to become president after al-Mustaqbal Movement leader ex-PM Saad Hariri formally endorsed him on Thursday. Lebanon has been without a president since the term of Michel Suleiman ended in May 2014 and Hizbullah, 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 had 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 nomination have argued 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.

Lebanese Army Denies Shots Fired from Lebanon after Israel Says Soldier Injured on Border
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/October 26/16/Gunfire from a vehicle in Lebanon towards Israeli forces on the border wounded an Israeli soldier on Wednesday and Israeli officers returned fire, Israel's army said, but the Lebanese army quickly denied the claims. "Shots were fired from a passing vehicle in Lebanon at (Israeli) forces during routine activity adjacent to the border in the area of Ramin Ridge," an army statement said. "Forces responded with fire towards the vehicle. A hit was confirmed. The injured soldier was evacuated for medical treatment," it added. But in remarks to Lebanon's National News Agency, the Lebanese army denied that any gunshots were fired from Lebanon towards an Israeli force. "The Israeli media reports are baseless," the Army Command said. A source close to Hizbullah also told AFP "there were no shots fired from the Lebanese side of the border." The U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon, UNIFIL, said it had received Israel's report of the incident and that an investigation had been opened. "At the moment, UNIFIL head of mission Michael Beary is in contact with the parties to help control the situation and help prevent escalation," said UNIFIL spokesman Andrea Teneti. "He also urged both sides to exercise maximum restraint."Voice of Lebanon radio (93.3) meanwhile quoted security sources as saying that the Israeli soldier was wounded by "gunshots fired mistakenly by his comrades."Lebanon and Israel are still officially at war although the border area has been relatively calm in recent years. Israel occupied parts of Lebanon for 22 years until 2000, with Hizbullah claiming credit for its withdrawal following persistent guerrilla attacks. A 34-day conflict in 2006 led to the deaths of 1,200 people in Lebanon, mainly civilians, and 160 Israelis, mostly soldiers. It began when Israel retaliated for a cross-border raid in which Hizbullah captured two Israeli soldiers and killed three, and quickly spiraled into a fully fledged war. In January, Hizbullah said it had targeted an Israeli army border patrol with a bomb in an attack that prompted retaliatory fire from Israel.

Berri: Quorum Guaranteed, 2 Presidential Vote Rounds May be Held
Naharnet/October 26/16/Speaker Nabih Berri reassured Wednesday that “quorum” will be “guaranteed” during the October 31 presidential vote session, reiterating that a second voting round would be held during the same session if no candidate manages to garner 86 votes in the first round. “The quorum of the presidential vote session is known and guaranteed, and seeing as the minutes of meeting of the previous (April 2014) session were recited and ratified, we might witness a session with two rounds if no candidate manages to win in the first round, and there is no need for controversy and ambiguity,” Berri told Lebanese reporters in Geneva. He also pledged anew that his bloc will attend the electoral session, noting once again that strenuous efforts will be needed after the election of the president, especially regarding the new electoral law. The October 31 session is expected to be marred by a constitutional dispute over whether it should include two rounds of voting or only one. The Free Patriotic Movement and its allies have argued that Monday's session will open with the second round of voting seeing as the first round was held during the April 2014 electoral session in which no candidate managed to garner 86 votes. The FPM says the session requires a quorum of 86 MPs and that FPM founder MP Michel needs only 65 votes to be elected president but Berri has repeatedly said that he had closed the minutes of meeting of the 2014 session. The speaker has argued that Aoun would need 86 votes to be elected president in the first round or else a second round of voting during the same session would be required. The second round would also need a quorum of 86 MPs but a president can be elected with only 65 votes. An Nahar newspaper has quoted Berri as saying that “this point does not need any interpretation or discussion.” “Should the FPM insist that the session must open with the second round of voting, Speaker Berri is willing to call for a parliamentary session dedicated to the interpretation of the Constitution that would precede the voting session,” al-Akhbar newspaper quoted sources close to Berri as saying. Aoun was tipped to become president after al-Mustaqbal Movement leader ex-PM Saad Hariri formally endorsed him on Thursday. Berri has voiced concerns over the Aoun-Hariri agreements that preceded the endorsement while openly declaring that his bloc will “vote against Aoun” and that it might “join the ranks of the opposition.”Lebanon has been without a president since the term of Michel Suleiman ended in May 2014 and Hizbullah, 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 had launched an initiative in late 2015 to nominate Hizbullah's ally and Marada Movement chief MP Suleiman 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 have argued 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.

Geagea Reassures Jumblat in Phone Call with Democratic Gathering MP
Naharnet/October 26/16/Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea has held phone talks with a member of MP Walid Jumblat's Democratic Gathering parliamentary bloc, in which he told him that the LF does not approve of statements by some FPM officials who hinted that “there would be cooperation with other parties in the Druze community,” a media report said Wednesday. Geagea stressed his keenness on the relation with Jumblat, reminding that he had led the 2001 reconciliation with Christians in Mount Lebanon, the pan-Arab daily al-Hayat quoted parliamentary sources as saying. The leadership council of Jumblat's Progressive Socialist Party had held a meeting on Tuesday to mull the presidential choices ahead of a meeting for the Democratic Gathering that will be held later this week. The Democratic Gathering comprises 11 MPs who are not all members of the PSP. “Regardless of what the objections might be, making a sacrifice and a settlement for the sake of the future is more important than anything else,” Jumblat tweeted after Tuesday's meeting. While Jumblat had announced his support for Marada Movement chief MP Suleiman Franjieh's presidential nomination in the past, Geagea's support for FPM founder MP Michel Aoun's bid has played a key role in tipping the latter to become the country's next president. Aoun was tipped to become president after al-Mustaqbal Movement leader ex-PM Saad Hariri formally endorsed him on Thursday. Lebanon has been without a president since the term of Michel Suleiman ended in May 2014 and Hizbullah, 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 had launched an initiative in late 2015 to nominate Hizbullah's ally Franjieh for the presidency but his proposal was met with reservations from the country's main Christian parties as well as Hizbullah. Hariri's nomination of Franjieh prompted Geagea to back Aoun's presidential bid. The supporters of Aoun's nomination have argued 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.

Geagea: We're Living Historic Moments and We'll Have '100% Made in Lebanon' President
Naharnet/October 26/16/Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea announced Wednesday that the country is going through “historic moments” with the looming election of a “100 percent made in Lebanon” president. “We are living historic moments, even if not everyone is satisfied,” said Geagea at a Maarab conference on oil and gas exploration in Lebanon. “We managed to do a lot of things regarding the presidency. There was a veto on the presidential election and there was a very big decision to block it, and I'll leave it to your imagination to guess where it was coming from,” he added. “Our conscience is clear and we have made a big achievement for the sake of the country,” Geagea boasted. He also stressed that the Lebanese will soon have a “100 percent made in Lebanon” president. “Some Lebanese refuse to believe that we have a national will. Some countries do not want elections in Lebanon but as soon as some political forces reached an agreement in Lebanon, they managed to reach a 100% 'made in Lebanon' presidential vote,” Geagea added. The LF leader played a key role in supporting the presidential nomination of Free Patriotic Movement founder MP Michel Aoun after the two parties reached a political agreement after months of rapprochement talks. Aoun was tipped to become president after his nomination was formally endorsed by al-Mustaqbal Movement leader ex-PM Saad Hariri on Thursday. Lebanon has been without a president since the term of Michel Suleiman ended in May 2014 and Hizbullah, 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 had launched an initiative in late 2015 to nominate Hizbullah's ally and Marada Movement chief MP Suleiman Franjieh for the presidency but his proposal was met with reservations from the country's main Christian parties as well as Hizbullah. Hariri's move prompted Geagea to endorse Aoun's nomination. The supporters of Aoun's presidential bid have argued 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.

Helou Says Nomination to Continue 'as Long as It's Beneficial for Country'
Naharnet/October 26/16/MP Henri Helou, a member of MP Walid Jumblat's Democratic Gathering bloc, announced Wednesday that his presidential nomination will continue “as long as it is beneficial for the country's interest.”In a statement, Helou said his final decision will be announced at the appropriate time. And in what he described as “an oath before the oath of office,” the MP pledged that he would “preserve freedom and democracy” in Lebanon and would “fiercely confront corruption.”“Corruption is an enemy that is not less dangerous than the other enemies of the Lebanese entity,” he said. After initially endorsing Helou's nomination, Jumblat shifted his support for Marada Movement chief MP Suleiman Franjieh after the latter was endorsed by ex-PM Saad Hariri in late 2015. But after Hariri formally endorsed the presidential nomination of Free Patriotic Movement founder MP Michel Aoun on Thursday, Jumblat has voiced support for what he described as a “settlement” and several members of his bloc are expected to vote for Aoun. Lebanon has been without a president since the term of Michel Suleiman ended in May 2014 and Hizbullah, 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 had launched an initiative in late 2015 to nominate Hizbullah's ally 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 nomination have argued 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.

Syria Refugees in Lebanon Now Get Aid with Debit Card
Associated Press/Naharnet/October 26/16/International agencies in Lebanon have begun distributing aid to Syrian refugees through a single debit card. The card is meant to simplify aid delivery and give refugees more choices. It is valid for five years, a reflection of the protracted Syria conflict that has displaced millions. The card replaces separate distributions for food, cash and winter aid, also by debit card. Contributors include the World Food Program, the U.N. refugee agency and the Lebanon Cash Consortium, an aid alliance that offers $175 a month in "unconditional" cash to the most vulnerable. On Tuesday, hundreds lined up in the town of Bar Elias in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley to pick up the new cards. Refugee Watfa al-Faraj, 38, said she relies on the aid to buy medicine for a sick teenage son.

Lebanese army denies cross border gunfire as Israeli soldier allegedly wounded
Wed 26 Oct 2016/NNA - The Lebanese army denied, in comments made to the National News Agency on Wednesday, that gunfire had been opened at an Israeli soldier along the southern borders, as enemy media outlets claimed. Enemy media earlier alleged that a drive-by shooting from a vehicle in Lebanon towards Israeli forces wounded a soldier.

Information Minister arrives in Beirut coming from Paris
Wed 26 Oct 2016/NNA - Information Minister, Ramzi Jreij, has arrived in Beirut coming back from Paris where he suffered a health setback, NNA field reporter said on Wednesday evening.

Turkish Ambassador after meeting Abou Faour: We hope a new president will be swiftly elected
Wed 26 Oct 2016/NNA - Turkish Ambassador to Lebanon, Cagatay Erciyes, on Wednesday relayed Turkey's support to Lebanon, and his country's hopes that a new Lebanese president would be elected soon without further delay. "Turkey supports all the efforts that aim at alleviating the Lebanese political deadlock. Turkey has always encouraged dialogue and cooperation among national partners," the Turkish diplomat said in the wake of a visit to Public Health Minister, Wael Bou Faour.
Talks between the pair reportedly touched on the best means to bolster bilateral ties, as well as the latest developments at the local and regional scenes. "We have discussed preparations underway to open a Turkish Hospital in Sidon city, which has been being built for six years under the support of the Turkish government. We hope the hospital opens its doors by the end of this year without delay," the Turkish diplomat added.

Bou Saab receives IMF delegation, Lassen, Girard
Wed 26 Oct 2016/NNA - Education and Higher Learning Minister, Elias Bou Saab, on Tuesday met with a delegation of International Monetary Fund (IMF), with talks focusing on the ministry's projects and the costs of education in the country.
Separately, Minister Bou Saab met with each of EU Ambassador, Christina Lassen, and UNHCR senior Mireille Girard with whom he discussed projects relevant to educating displaced Syrians in Lebanon.

Hajj Hassan at technology forum: We paid price of wrong economic policies
Wed 26 Oct 2016/NNA - Industry Minister, Hussein Hajj Hassan, categorically underlined the dire need for devising a coherent economic policy that will help to overcome the existing difficulties, pointing out that Lebanon has paid a price of wrong economic policies in the past. "One of the key priorities of the new mandate is to set matters right on track," Minister Hajj Hassan said on Wednesday during his inauguration of the 12th "Technology and Innovation" Industrial Forum, representing Prime Minister, Tammam Salam, at the UNESCO Palace in Beirut.
The event is organized by the Lebanese Industrial Research Program "Lira" in collaboration with the Industry Ministry, Lebanon's Central Bank, National Council for Scientific Research, the Lebanese industrialists' Association and the Order of Engineers in Beirut. Hajj Hassan called for a crystal clear economic policy which would reduce unemployment rate by creating new job opportunities, stimulating industrial and agricultural productive sectors, reducing imports, increasing exports, opening foreign markets for Lebanese products and activating tourism and services.

Salam meets Finance, Foreign Ministers and NNA Director
Wed 26 Oct 2016/NNA - Prime Minister Tammam Salam received on Wednesday Finance Minister, Ali Hassan Khalil, with talks touching on the current juncture.
Also, Premier Salam met Foreign Affairs and Expatriates minister, Gebran Bassil, with whom he discussed general affairs. Among the Grand Serail visitors for today was the Director of the National News Agency, Mrs. Laure Sleiman Saab.

Hakim receives Lassen
Wed 26 Oct 2016/NNA - Economy and Trade Minister, Alain Hakim, on Tuesday received at his office a delegation of the European Union chaired by Christina Lassen.
Both discussed the relation between EU and Lebanon at the industrial, agricultural and market levels. Minister Hakim said that Lebanon needed EU's experience to improve the essential, productive economic sectors.

EU organises workshop on support and information for Lebanese businesses
Wed 26 Oct 2016/NNA - The Delegation of the European Union to Lebanon organised today the workshop "How to export your product to the European Union" that gathered Lebanese private sector stakeholders and key experts from the European Commission and the European External Action Service. The workshop took place at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Beirut. The workshop aimed at informing Lebanese private sector representatives on the procedures and rules to follow when exporting their goods to the European Union, and at engaging them in a dialogue about the various needs and challenges of Lebanese businesses. In her opening remarks, Ambassador Christina Lassen, Head of the EU Delegation, highlighted that "the EU attaches great importance to further facilitate trade with Lebanon," underlining that "the trade volume between the EU and Lebanon has not yet reached its full potential." Ambassador Lassen assured: "We stand ready to assist Lebanon in increasing its exports to the EU, particularly through supporting the enhancement of the quality of export products." The workshop was also an opportunity to present a key information and resource tool - the "EXPORT HELPDESK" database. The EU is the world's largest single market and the EXPORT HELPDESK is the online portal to access it. In just a few clicks companies can find the EU tariffs, requirements, preferential arrangements, quotas and statistics relating to imports from trade partner countries.
Following the presentation of the EXPORT HELPDESK, the new "Private Sector Development Programme" for Lebanon, which is funded by the EU with €15 million, was introduced (by Virginie Cossoul, Trade and Economic Attaché at the EU Delegation). The programme aims at enhancing the quality of Lebanese products through value chain support. Quality improvement, product development, agricultural practices strengthening, and access to finance and business linkages are among its key activities. Support to economic development, including to imports substitution and trade development, is at the heart of EU assistance to Lebanon. For the EU, it is important to be in direct dialogue with the Lebanese private sector to understand where the challenges are and to further support the Lebanese economic ecosystem.
 

In Lebanon deal, Iran wins and Saudi retreats
By Tom Perry and Laila Bassam/Reuters/October 26/16
A veteran Christian leader is set to fill Lebanon's long-vacant presidency in a deal that underlines the ascendancy of the Iranian-backed Hezbollah movement and the diminished role of Saudi Arabia in the country.
It appears all but certain that Michel Aoun will become president next week under an unlikely proposal tabled by Sunni leader Saad al-Hariri, whose Saudi-backed coalition opposed Hezbollah for years.
Parliament will likely elect Aoun on Oct. 31. This will end one element of a paralyzing political crisis: the 29-month-long presidential vacuum. But it is also creating new tensions that may disrupt the formation of a new government expected to be led by Hariri under a deal with Aoun.
Aoun's election will also raise questions over Western policy toward Lebanon. Lebanon's army, guarantor of the country's internal peace, depends on aid from the United States, which deems Hezbollah a terrorist group.
Hariri's proposal, unthinkable a few weeks ago, appears to have been forced on him by problems at his Saudi-based construction firm, Saudi Oger, the financial backbone of his political network in Lebanon.
It marks the death throes of the Hariri-led alliance that struggled with Hezbollah for more than a decade, only to see the heavily armed Shi'ite group go from strength to strength in Lebanon and the wider region.
With Hezbollah seemingly unassailable, Lebanon has tumbled down Saudi Arabia's list of regional priorities as it focuses on confronting Iran in Yemen, Bahrain and Syria, where Hezbollah is fighting in support of President Bashar al-Assad.
That has led Riyadh's allies in Lebanon to cut new deals to preserve their interests.
"Lebanon is no longer a priority for the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and Saudi Arabia no longer backs its allies in Lebanon, which has led to the weakening of its main ally in Lebanon - Prime Minister Hariri," said Nabil Boumonsef, a political commentator in the Lebanese newspaper an-Nahar.
Announcing his endorsement of Aoun last week in a televised speech, Hariri said he was acting to protect Lebanon.
But acceptance of Hezbollah's candidate is being seen as a defeat for the Hariri camp. "There is a victor and a vanquished, this is something that always brings dangerous consequences in Lebanon," Boumonsef said. "We are facing a breakthrough with the election of a president, but a minefield the day after."
Aoun, who is in his 80s, is unlikely to secure the presidency in a first round vote on Monday that requires him to win a two-thirds majority in the 128 seat parliament. But barring surprises, analysts expect him to secure the simple majority needed to win a second vote to be held the same day.
A "HAPPY ENDING"?
The Lebanese presidency, reserved for a Maronite Christian in the country's sectarian power-sharing arrangement, has been empty since Michel Suleiman's term ended in May, 2014, pending a deal on who should succeed him.
Aoun, army commander during Lebanon's 1975-90 civil war, has long coveted the position his supporters deem rightfully his.
He led one of two rival administrations in the final years of the civil war, and was driven from the presidential palace and into exile by Syrian forces in 1990. He returned only after Syria withdrew from Lebanon in 2005 under international pressure following the assassination of Rafik al-Hariri, Saad's father.
Aoun has been a staunch ally of Hezbollah since declaring their alliance in 2006, surprising many. Hezbollah and its allies toppled the first Hariri-led cabinet in 2011, quitting while he was meeting President Barack Obama in Washington.
Explaining his decision to endorse Aoun, Hariri said they had agreed common principles, including strengthening the state. Aoun met Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Sunday to thank him for the "happy ending" to the presidential crisis.
But analysts say Aoun and Hariri, 46, face a formidable task to win the cross-party support needed to make a new administration a success.
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, head of the Shi'ite Amal Movement and a long-time opponent of Aoun's, strongly criticized his deal with Hariri, angry they did not consult more widely.
Berri, a close ally of Hezbollah, has said it could take five to six months to form the government, meaning it may not take office before parliamentary elections expected next year.
"There is quite a serious risk that Saad al-Hariri either fails to form a government or that it takes a long time," said a diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity.
That would add to the political damage Hariri has suffered.
His Sunni critics say he has already compromised too much with Hezbollah, five of whose members have been charged by a U.N.-backed tribunal over his father's killing.
Hezbollah denies any role.
Hariri's Future Movement faces a growing challenge from a former ally, Ashraf Rifi, who has cast himself as an uncompromising opponent of Hezbollah. Some Future MPs have said they will not vote for Aoun.
QUESTIONS OVER MILITARY SUPPORT
Aoun's swearing-in will be closely watched for his position on divisive issues including the powerful arsenal wielded by Hezbollah outside of the state's control, and Lebanon's stance towards the war in Syria. The state has adopted a policy of official neutrality, even as Hezbollah fights in Syria.
The diplomat said the West would be paying close attention to whether Aoun acts in the national interest given his alliance with Hezbollah, and whether he tries to install loyalists in critical institutions such as the central bank and military.
The Lebanese army is the world's fifth largest recipient of U.S. military aid. That support has become even more significant since Saudi Arabia canceled a $3 billion in aid to the army and security forces in February, angered at the government's failure to condemn attacks on Saudi diplomatic missions in Iran.
"If the army starts to look like an Aoun fiefdom it becomes harder for Western donors to maintain support for the Lebanese Armed Forces," the diplomat said.
(Writing by Tom Perry; editing by Giles Elgood)

Army steps in as Aoun, Hariri posters torn down in Tripoli
The Daily Star/October 26/16
BEIRUT: Political posters supporting former Prime Minister Saad Hariri and presidential candidate MP Michel Aoun were torn down by youth in Tripoli Tuesday, prompting the Army to intervene. After over two years without a head of state, Hariri made a surprise move and changed his nomination to Aoun last week – just ahead of a parliamentary electoral session scheduled for Oct. 31.
Local news outlets reported groups of young men from the northern city of Tripoli ripped down banners depicting Hariri and Aoun, who is backed by Hezbollah. The Army intervened and detained a number of the activists. Gunshots were reportedly heard during the arrests.
The torn-down posters were pro-Hariri and Aoun. Banners criticizing the pair were removed by officials over the weekend after a decision was made by Northern Lebanon Gov. Ramzi Nohra.
Nohra told The Daily Star that banners are allowed as long as they have positive comments and pictures.
“We are less than a week away from Gen. Michel Aoun becoming the next president. ... Therefore, no banners degrading him [Aoun] or any other individual will be allowed,” Nohra said.
When asked about the municipality law that banned political posters in public, passed in 2012, Nohra said, “The freedom of expression is a constitutional right, and it is election week so we cannot ban the people from expressing their opinions. As long the banners do not insult an individual, the posters will be allowed.” He added that the reason for his ban on derogatory posters is to prevent any sectarian strife which could arise if people put up offensive banners.
In a statement released to the National News Agency, Nohra said that “anyone who attempts to post banners which abuse or slander an individual will prosecuted.”
Former Tripoli Mayor Nader Ghazal said that “the banners being raised and brought down are a result of the public’s battle over who should become the next president. ... But we all know that this is decided inside the offices of lawmakers and even those of foreign countries.”
Local media reported that supporters of resigned Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi were behind a recent wave of anti-Hariri banners appearing around Tripoli.
Over the weekend, Rifi held a rally in which he denounced Hariri’s endorsement of Aoun, whom Rifi considers an “Iranian project.” The minister is a fierce critic of Hezbollah and was a member of the Future Movement until splitting with Hariri earlier this year, in large part because Hariri had backed Hezbollah-ally Sleiman Frangieh for the presidency.
In the last municipal elections in May, an electoral list backed by Rifi beat the Hariri-backed lists in Tripoli in a shock development.
Hariri endorsed Aoun’s candidacy last week, despite the general’s low popularity among Hariri’s Sunni base.

Aoun’s presidency leads to expiry of Lebanon’s two major alliances - says Farzali
Al Waqat/October 26, 2016

http://en.abna24.com/cultural/archive/2016/10/26/787878/story.html
Aoun’s presidency leads to expiry of Lebanon’s two major alliances - says Farzali
(AhlulBayt News Agency) - Lebanon’s Saad Hariri's announcement of backing for the leader of Free Patriotic Movement Michel Aoun’s presidency of Lebanon has reshuffled the cards in the Lebanese politics. Following the move, the stances have changed, and while some parties backed Hariri’s announcement others have opposed the position of the leader of March 14 Alliance. However, the challenges remain standing ahead as the country’s parliament is scheduled to hold meeting on October 31 to choose president for the country.
Alwaght News has talked to Ily al-Farzali, the former deputy speaker of Lebanon’s parliament, about an array of topics including the political stage of Lebanon, the anticipated parliamentary meeting to pick president, and also the latest speech made by Hezbollah’s Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on the country’s politics. The full text of the interview follows:
Q: Following Hariri’s announcement of backing for Michel Aoun's presidency, is Aoun now more than ever close to taking the post later this month? Are there other possible scenarios?
Al-Farzali: There have been a lot of talks recently about possibility of existence of secret scenarios or games dubbed election games under the table to target Michel Aoun. But I think that these so-called scenarios are a product of the imagination and baseless because the key parties of the political stage are responsible for any possible outcomes of taking any steps that are in conflict with the past agreements and those that take the country to bad destinations, and nobody can bear their brunts. So, I believe that the October 31 parliamentary session will be a meeting for picking the new president Michael Aoun.
Q: What do you think the opponents of Michel Aoun will do when he becomes president, especially those who once were his allies like the leader of Amal Movement Nabih Berri and the head of Marada Movement Suleiman Franjieh?
Al-Farzali: I think Nabih Berri's struggle is no longer with Michel Aoun, and Aoun is no longer his key opponent, rather, Berri’s key opponent now is Saad Hariri. Because Berri was clinging to the anti-Aoun stance of Hariri in a bid to manipulate the struggle to prevent Aoun from reaching the presidency. But now Aoun is out of circle of the rivalry. And I think what is left ahead of Berri is to accept the current situation and its results, regardless of his basic stance on Aoun or his public anti or pro-Aoun position.
Concerning the time after choosing Aoun a president for the country, I think that Berri will be present in the body of the upcoming cabinet and will take his share. He himself will be speaker of the parliament as long as Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah backs his candidacy for this post.
Q: What are the most significant hurdles and big challenges the Lebanese people and Michael Aoun will face after Aoun becomes the president of the country?
Al-Farzali: The most important challenge is Lebanon’s restoration of the logic of the government, and starting to implement the Taif Agreement. So, the main reason for choosing Aoun as a president is to begin implementation of the Taif accord. Will it be implemented? This is the big challenge: either in terms of implementing the constitutional terms or writing new electoral law according to the constitution's text.
Q: Two days ago we saw pictures of Nabih Berri and Suleiman Franjieh in Beirut's Tarik Al-Jadida district as well as in the sit-ins against Aoun’s taking the post of president despite the fact that they guarantee the national unity. Are what we are seeing in the Lebanese street and rise of new political camps and alliances best evidence signaling that the March 8 Alliance is collapsing after we witnessed collapse of opposing March 14 Alliance?
Al-Farzali: I think that these names no longer make any sense. March 14 Alliance ended some time earlier, and after Aoun becomes president there will be no reason for existence of March 8 Alliance. Concerning the Resistance, it is the backbone of the March 14 Alliance. The key forces that allied with the Resistance are still have their alliance standing. They still form a hosting environment for the Resistance either in its fight with the Israeli regime or the takfirists.
Q: Concerning Sayyed Hassan Nasallah’s speech and the message he wanted to send to the supporters of Aoun-led Free Patriotic, what did he aim at?
Al-Farzali: I think Aoun’s supporters have come under a heavy media propaganda campaign since two years ago. They to date cast doubts on the final intentions of Hezbollah for its backing to Michael Aoun’s presidency bid despite Hezbollah’s frequent announcements of support for Aoun. This strong, coordinated, and preplanned campaign has managed to work on some minds and those of weak personality. So, Sayyed Nasallah through his speech addressed those people to reiterate Hezbollah’s loyalty to Aoun, which combined with Aoun’s resistance has led to his becoming a president.

Latest LCCC Bulletin For Miscellaneous Reports And News published on on October 26-27/16

‘Groundwork’ being laid for ‘isolation’ of Raqqa: US
AFP, Paris Tuesday, 25 October 2016/The US-led coalition is "laying the groundwork" for the "isolation" of Raqqa, the ISIS group stronghold in Syria, US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said Tuesday."We have already begun laying the groundwork for our partners to commence the isolation of Raqqa," Carter said after meeting coalition defense ministers in Paris to discuss the aftermath of the planned capture of Mosul from ISIS in Iraq. "Today we resolved to follow through with that same sense of urgency and focus on enveloping and collapsing ISIL's control of Raqqa," he added, using another acronym for ISIS. Carter and ministers from 12 other countries attended the talks, which come a week after Iraqi forces backed by Kurdish fighters launched a major operation to retake Mosul, Iraq's second-biggest city. French President Francois Hollande reiterated warnings about ISIS fighters in Mosul fleeing across the border to Raqqa. He also urged vigilance over the prospect of foreign militants returning home from the battlefield.

U.S., UK Expect Raqa Offensive in Next Few Weeks
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/October 26/16/The offensive to drive the Islamic State group from its Raqa stronghold in Syria will begin in the next few weeks, top U.S. and British defense officials said Wednesday. U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter and his British counterpart Michael Fallon made the predictions nearly 10 days into a U.S.-backed Iraqi offensive on Mosul, the last major Iraqi city under IS control. "It will be within weeks, not many weeks," Carter told reporters at a two-day NATO defense ministers meeting in Brussels. During a visit Sunday to Iraq's autonomous region of Kurdistan to review the Mosul offensive, Carter said an operation to isolate IS in Raqa should begin in conjunction with the assault on its Iraqi bastion. Arriving for the defense ministers meeting, Fallon said: "We hope a similar operation will begin towards Raqa in the next few weeks." The United States leads a 60-nation anti-IS coalition that has provided key support for the Iraqi army offensive launched last week. It comes in the form of thousands of air strikes, training for Iraqi forces and advisers on the ground. The loss of Mosul -- where IS leaders declared their "caliphate" -- would leave Raqa the last major city still under the group's control. Carter said the idea of simultaneous operations against Mosul and Raqa "has been part of our planning for quite a while."Later Wednesday, he said the United States would likely work with key NATO ally Turkey to retake Raqa when asked about tensions between Baghdad and Ankara over its role in the attack on Mosul. "We already are working extensively with the Turkish military in Syria" and this had produced "significant" results. "So we are looking for other opportunities including further within Syria, to include Raqa. That's been part of our discussions," he added. Turkey's positioning of troops in northern Iraq and its insistence that it has a role in the Mosul offensive have led to sharp exchanges with the Iraqi government, creating a headache for Washington as it tries to keep both of its allies on-side. Iraq on Monday insisted that Turkey was not participating in the Mosul attack, rejecting Turkish claims that it was.

Top U.S. General Visits Key Hub in Fight for Mosul
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/October 26/16/A top U.S. Army general on Tuesday flew in to an airbase south of Mosul that will prove vital in Iraqi forces' offensive on the Islamic State-held city. U.S. Army General Joseph Votel, who heads the military's Central Command, arrived at the base, which boasts a newly repaired runway, on a cargo plane to see the facility and receive an update on the battle for Mosul, now in its second week. Qayyarah West, located about 60 kilometers (40 miles) south of the city, has been resurrected after jihadists smashed it to pieces when they seized much of northern Iraq in 2014. A dusty wasteland of twisted reinforcement bars, booby traps and smashed buildings until only a few months ago, much of the airfield has been restored by U.S. Air Force engineers and turned it into a key military installation for Iraqi security forces pushing north. IS were chased from the area around Qayyarah in July, and now about 500 Americans are stationed here, along with the Iraqis and other members of the U.S.-led anti-IS coalition including France and a small British team. Votel's C-130 cargo plane touched down in total darkness, one of the first fixed-wing aircraft in years to land at the base. "This is where supplies will come into, it's where Iraqi forces will come into. Being able to sustain the fight for the Iraqi forces will be critical, and this airfield will play a very important role," Votel told reporters traveling with him. The four-star general was accompanied by Lieutenant General Stephen Townsend, who heads the coalition effort supporting and training Iraqi security forces and Kurdish peshmerga units as they attack IS. They said the campaign to recapture Mosul is continuing apace, but cautioned IS defenses will grow stronger the closer Iraqi forces get to the city. The Islamic State group "has used an extraordinary amount of indirect fire -- mortars, artillery and rockets -- and an exceptional number of VBIEDs over the last eight days," Townsend said, referring to vehicle-borne suicide car bombs. IS fighters have refined their use of suicide bombers in recent days, he said, and are hiding custom-armored cars behind walls and inside structures. Jihadist drivers then race these vehicles toward advancing Iraqi security forces at the last minute, instead of attempting to drive across open plains where they can be quickly destroyed by missiles.
French artillery
Qayyarah is also being used to stage artillery units and HIMARS rocket launchers that aim north to help clear the way for Iraqi troops moving toward Mosul. Early in Votel's visit, the base reverberated with the sound of a French howitzer blasting out of the base. Military officials say the Mosul operation is going quicker than planned in some places, and on Tuesday units of Iraq's elite counter-terrorism force were just six kilometers (four miles) from Mosul, where IS two years ago proclaimed its "caliphate."As forces have closed in on Mosul, IS has set fire to oil wells, torched tires inside the city and set up a defense system around it that includes burning oil trenches to blind their enemy's air and satellite assets. Soldiers at Qayyarah said some of them have worn respiratory masks, especially after IS set a sulfur plant ablaze. But by Tuesday night, shifting winds meant the air at the base was reasonably clear. What will become of the base after the presumed defeat of IS remains to be seen. U.S. officials stressed that whether the United States will maintain a military presence there is for the Iraqis to decide.

Syria airstrikes kill 17, mostly children, outside school
The Associatded Press, Beirut Wednesday, 26 October 2016/Airstrikes in Syria killed 17 people, mostly children on Wednesday when warplanes struck a school complex in the northern rebel-held province of Idlib, activists said. The Idlib News network said the strikes hit as the children were gathered outside the school complex in the village of Hass. The activist-operated group put the death toll at 17, and said most of the victims were children. There were fears the death toll could rise further as some of the wounded were reported to be in critical condition, the network added. Another activist group, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights put the death toll at 22. It said 14 children and a woman were among those killed. Idlib is the main Syrian opposition stronghold, though radical groups also have a large presence there. It has regularly been hit by Syrian and Russian warplanes as well as the US-led coalition targeting ISIS militants. Footage posted by activists on line shows a huge plume of smoke rising from the area of the strikes. Rescuers are seen rushing casualties away along a dusty road lined with destroyed buildings.
A woman’s body is seen being carried on a stretcher while other bodies, covered in cloth and one with only a hat, are lying under shrubs in what could possibly have been a garden among the buildings. Other casualties are seen being ferried in pick-up trucks.
An activist at the scene, Muaz al-Shami, says as many as 10 airstrikes are believed to have hit the residential area. “I don’t want to go to school anymore,” a young girl says, weeping.Earlier in the day, the northern Aleppo province saw a new escalation as a helicopter believed to belong to Syrian government forces dropped barrel bombs in a deadly attack on Turkey-backed opposition forces in the border area, Turkish officials said. A statement attributed to the field commander of Syria’s pro-government troops said any Turkish advances in northern Syria under the pretext of fighting ISIS militants would be dealt with “forcefully and appropriately.”The barrel bombing was said to have occurred in the village of Tal Madiq, in a part of northern Aleppo where rival groups have been operating, mostly to rout ISIS militants. If confirmed, the attack would be the first by Syrian government forces on the Turkish-backed fighters. Turkey’s state-run news agency didn’t say when the attack happened and said at least two Syrian opposition fighters were killed and five others wounded. A Syrian opposition spokesman said it took place Tuesday. The Observatory’s chief, Rami Abdurrahman, said helicopters struck as intense clashes were underway between Kurdish-led fighters and Turkey-backed forces in Tal Madiq and that 11 Syrian opposition fighters and five Kurdish fighters were killed.
The Kurdish-led forces are now in control of the village, about 10 miles from the highly prized ISIS-controlled al-Bab town. A senior Kurdish commander, however, denied Syrian government bombings of the Turkey-backed fighters, saying it was an attempted explanation for battlefield losses. “They are trying to find a pretext for the loss. No aircraft were involved,” Mahmoud Barkhadan of the main Syria Kurdish militia, the People’s Protection Units, told The Associated Press by telephone from the region. A spokesman for the Syrian fighting group Nour el-Din el-Zinki Yasser al-Youssef said the Kurdish-led forces attacked them while they were fighting ISIS militants in the area. Then Syrian government helicopters followed, he said in a message. The complex terrain is a powder keg where confrontation among rival groups can break out anytime: US-backed Syrian Kurdish fighters, Turkey-backed Syrian rebels and Turkey. Ankara sent tanks, troops and aircraft into northern Syria in August in an unprecedented incursion that it said was part of efforts to help Syrian opposition clear the border area of ISIS fighters. But Ankara is also seeking to contain the US-backed Syrian Kurdish forces fighting the ISIS group, putting it at odds with its key ally, the United States. Ankara sees Kurdish fighters in Syria as an extension of its outlawed Kurdish militants and designated as a terrorist organization. Syria’s military threatened last week it would shoot down any Turkish warplane that enters Syrian air space, after Turkish jets raided villages in northern Syria in an escalation of Ankara’s offensive against Kurdish fighters.
On Wednesday, a statement attributed to the field commander of pro-government troops said Turkish advance under the pretext of fighting ISIS in northern and eastern Aleppo is an encroachment on the Syrian government’s area of operations and would not be tolerated. The fall of the town of al-Bab to Turkey-backed rebels would threaten the government’s siege on the rebels in the city of Aleppo, to the west. Meanwhile, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told reporters on Wednesday that Turkey is determined to push ahead with the offensive in northern Syria - dubbed Operation Eurphrates Shield - and liberate the key town of al-Bab from ISIS militants. It would not be deterred by the bombing of Tal Madiq, he said. “Such attacks will not stop us from combatting Daesh,” Cavusoglu said, using an Arabic language acronym for the ISIS group. “The Euphrates Shield operation will continue. The only goal of the Euphrates Shield operation is to clear Daesh from this area.”

France Extends Aircraft Carrier Mission to Back Mosul Offensive
France said Wednesday it had extended the mission of its aircraft carrier, the Charles de Gaulle, in the eastern Mediterranean until mid-December to help the offensive against the Islamic State group in the Iraqi city of Mosul. President Francois Hollande decided to extend the mission after France's defense council "reviewed the military, humanitarian, political and security stakes involved in the recapture of Mosul," a statement issued by his office said. The carrier was deployed to the region on September 30 with a one-month mission, its third since February 2015. With the offensive in its second week, Iraqi forces backed by U.S.-led coalition air strikes were inching towards eastern Mosul on Tuesday as growing numbers of civilians fled the city, Iraq's second largest.

Iraq Records Largest Displacement of Mosul Operation
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/October 26/16/More than 3,300 fleeing Iraqis sought help from the government on day nine of its offensive to retake Mosul, the most for a single day so far, a minister said Wednesday. The number is far short of the hundreds of thousands that aid agencies have been bracing for but the offensive is still in its early stages and many more are expected to flee as troops approach the city itself. On Tuesday, there was "a big wave of displaced people that is considered the greatest number since the start of the military operation to liberate Nineveh province," Displacement and Migration Minister Jassem Mohammed al-Jaff said in a statement. "The ministry received and transported more than 3,300 displaced people" to camps, he said. Most fled homes in Nineveh province, of which Mosul is the capital, but some left from Kirkuk to its west or Salaheddin to its south. According to a U.N. tally, 8,940 people have been displaced since the operation to recapture Mosul from the Islamic State group began on October 17. The number so far is a drop in the ocean compared with the more than three million people who have been displaced by violence in Iraq since the start of 2014. But the U.N. refugee agency expects tens of thousands to flee in the coming days and is establishing camps with a total of 30,000 tents, enough to accommodate 150,000 people.

5.4-Magnitude Quake Hits Central Italy
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/October 26/16/An earthquake with a magnitude of 5.4 hit central Italy on Wednesday, including the capital Rome. Italy's national geophysics institute registered the quake at a depth of nine kilometers (almost six miles) in the Macerata area of the central region of Marche. The U.S. Geological Survey confirmed the magnitude, locating the epicenter as seven kilometers south-southwest of the village of Visso in Macerata. The quake comes after a major quake in August devastated the Italian mountain town of Amatrice, killing nearly 300 people. That disaster caused an estimated four billion euros ($4.5 billion) of damage, with 1,400 people still living in temporary accommodation. Wednesday's quake was felt in the towns of Pescara, Ancone and L'Aquila -- which was itself struck in 2009 by a quake in which more than 300 people perished -- with many people rushing out of their homes in panic. In Rome, the quake rattled windows and doors.

Canada Parliament Votes to Take in Yazidi Refugees
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/October 26/16/Canada's parliament adopted Tuesday an opposition motion to resettle Yazidi refugees within four months, while declaring IS group's persecution of Yazidis near the Syrian border in northern Iraq a genocide. Iraqi activist Nadia Murad was on hand for the unanimous vote in the House of Commons. The government said it is still sorting out a plan for the airlift and does not yet know how many Yazidi refugees Canada will take in over the 120-day period. But Immigration Minister John McCallum reminded that Canada had managed to resettle more than 25,000 Syrian refugees in just a few months at the start of the year. "It is important to emphasize that Canada will always be an open country willing to step up and support people in need from all around the world," Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in the Commons. "I am pleased to see Nadia (Murad) again today and reassure her that in the coming months we are committed to bringing in vulnerable Yazidi refugees," he said. Murad was taken by the Islamic State group from her home village of Kocho near Iraq's northern town of Sinjar in August 2014 and brought to the city of Mosul. Among the first things IS forced on her was to disavow her Yazidi faith, an ancient religion with more than half a million adherents in Iraq. As a captive of the reviled extremist group, Murad, who today is 23, said she was tortured and raped for three months until she managed to escape and flee to Germany. Since then, she has become a human rights activist, bringing the plight of the Yazidi community, especially the forced sexual enslavement and human trafficking of women and children captured by IS to the forefront of international attention. Speaking in Ottawa through an interpreter, Murad said: "I would like to tell every single member of parliament that when they were standing I felt at that very critical moment IS was losing something, because IS never thought their slaves would one day come out and speak against them." Tory MP Michelle Rempel, who brought the asylum motion for a vote, also called for safe zones to be established in Iraq for persecuted minorities such as the Yazidis. "Canada stands with Nadia and her people," she said.

Clashes after Turkey Detains Diyarbakir Mayors
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/October 26/16/Turkish police clashed with protesters in Diyarbakir on Wednesday, using tear gas and water cannon to prevent them demonstrating against the detention of the Kurdish-majority city's co-mayors.
Gultan Kisanak and Firat Anli were taken into custody on Tuesday night in a surprise move against the leaders of a city hit by renewed fighting between Turkish forces and members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). The two were detained as part of a "terrorism" probe, security officials said. The Diyarbakir prosecutor said in a statement that Kisanak and Anli were accused of having links to the PKK and "inciting violence." Hundreds of protesters tried to march to the town hall in Diyarbakir, the largest city in Kurdish-majority southeastern Turkey. Some threw rocks at police, an AFP correspondent said.At least 25 protesters were now in custody, security sources told AFP. Internet access in Diyarbakir has been out of action since the morning, according to the correspondent. Dogan news agency reported that from 10:30am (0730 GMT), other southeastern and eastern cities like Batman, Van, Elazig, Gaziantep and Kilis also could not access the internet.
'No to intimidation'
Officers responded using batons, teargas and water cannon to repel the protesters, the correspondent said. "The pressure will not intimidate us," demonstrators chanted.
The Diyarbakir governor's office warned that any demonstrations on Wednesday were "unlawful" and would not be allowed, saying that since August 15, public gatherings and meetings were banned in the city. Rallies were planned elsewhere in Turkey, including Istanbul -- in the city's popular Istiklal Avenue. A group of around 50 people tried to hold a sit-in on the avenue as they carried a large banner saying: "Municipalities belong to the people -- people cannot be taken over," an AFP photographer said. But police refused to allow the protest and threatened to intervene, the photographer said, adding the group chanted: "We are shoulder-to-shoulder against fascism", and "If you are quiet, you will be next."The prosecutor said Kisanak was accused of being a member of the PKK, while both individuals had made speeches in support of the rebel group, they alleged. They are also alleged to have allowed the use of municipal vehicles for the "funerals of terrorist members," the prosecutor added, referring to the PKK. The prosecutor denied the co-mayors access to lawyers for five days, Dogan news agency reported, which is permitted under the state of emergency imposed after the July 15 failed coup.The pro-Kurdish leftist People's Democratic Party (HDP) described the move against the mayors as "extremely unlawful and arbitrary."In a statement, the HDP called on the international community not to remain silent in the face of "groundless and fabricated accusations".
'Arms must be laid down'
A spokesman for Council of Europe chief Thorbjorn Jagland said the detentions were a "matter of particular concern" and would be asking Turkey, a member of the rights watchdog, for the "necessary explanations".EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini and enlargement commissioner Johannes Hahn described their detention as "worrying" in a statement on Wednesday. More than 40,000 people have been killed since the PKK first launched an insurgency in the southeast in 1984. A two-and-a-half-year ceasefire collapsed last July which led to almost daily attacks by the PKK against security forces while Ankara launched military operations in the southeast to rid urban areas of fighters. Last month, 24 mayors suspected of links to the PKK were suspended and replaced with officials close to the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) co-founded by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
 

Israel Recalls UNESCO Envoy after Jerusalem Vote
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/October 26/16/Israel recalled its ambassador to UNESCO for consultations Wednesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced, after a second resolution accused of denying the Jewish connection to Jerusalem. "The theater of the absurd continues and I decided to recall our ambassador for consultation," Netanyahu said in a statement. "We will decide what the next steps will be."

Trump promises Israel he'd stand up to Iran
Gil Foffman/Jerusalem Post/October 26/16/Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump would fire State Department officials if they refused to move America's embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, his adviser on Israel David Friedman told a crowd of supporters at the David's Harp restaurant in Jerusalem's Old City Wednesday. In a minute-long taped address, Trump praised Jewish values, said he loved Israel, and spoke with pride about his Jewish daughter, Ivanka and her husband, Jarerd Kushner. "My administration will stand side by side with Israel and Jewish leaders," Trump said. "Together we will stand up to enemies like Iran bent on destroying Israel and your people. Together, we will make America and Israel safe again."Trump's running mate, Mike Pence, said in a taped speech that Israel was America's most cherished ally in the world and that Israel's values are America's values. He said that like the US, Israel fights its battles with restraint. "The real question is how any good person can not stand with Israel," Pence said. "Should Donald Trump and I have the privilege of serving this great nation, the world will know that the US stands with Israel." Friedman condemned UNESCO's controversial decision about Jerusalem. He told potential voters in the crowd and watching on the American networks that covered the event that casting a ballot for Trump was the way to protect Jerusalem's security. "In a Trump administration, the policy will be straightforward, reliable, dependable, and transparent," Friedman said. "There will be no daylight between the US and Israel. If there are disagreements, they will be handled in private. When there is daylight, it energizes the enemies of both Israel and the US to make mischief, to make trouble. It causes violence. We have seen in theObama administration the horrible consequences."Friedman promised that any UN resolution hostile to Israel would be vetoed and that Israel would be a full partner with the US in the global war against Islamic terrorism. He also made a promise to Israel on the Palestinian issue. "A Trump administration will never pressure Israel into a two-state solution or any other solution its people dont want," Friedman said. Trump adviser David Peyman revealed to the crowd that he delivered a note that Trump wrote to the Western Wall. Other speakers at the event included former Yisrael Beytenu MK Sharon Gal, Jerusalem deputy mayor Hagit Moshe (Bayit Yehudi), and International Christian Embassy spokesman David Parsons. Moshe, who was the only speaker who spoke in Hebrew, accused UNESCO of anti-Semitism and said that more than 1.5million Jews visited the Western Wall in the past month. "These elections are important," Gal said. "After eight years under Obama's administration, we need a real friend in the White House. I have no doubt Donald Trump will be such a friend." When speakers mentioned Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, the crowd booed and shouted "Lock her up" and "Hillary for prison.

Israeli settlements in West Bank not illegal: Trump adviser
AFP, Jerusalem Thursday, 27 October 2016/Donald Trump’s adviser on Israel said Wednesday that Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank were not illegal and he believed the candidate agreed with him, putting them at odds with much of the world. Speaking to AFP after a rally in support of Trump at a restaurant’s rooftop on Jerusalem’s Mount Zion, David Friedman also said the US presidential candidate was “tremendously skeptical” about the prospects for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Asked whether Trump viewed the West Bank as part of Israel, as many far-right Israelis do, Friedman did not answer directly. “I don’t think he believes that the settlements are illegal,” Friedman said. Israeli religious nationalists see the Palestinian territory as part of the country, citing Jews’ connection to the land from biblical times. The United States has intensified criticism of Israeli settlement building in the West Bank in recent months, warning it is eating away at hopes for a two-state solution. Settlements in the West Bank are viewed as illegal under international law and major stumbling blocks to peace efforts as they are built on land seized in the 1967 Middle East war and which the Palestinians see as part of their future state. Around 150 people, including right-wing Israelis and evangelical Christians, attended Wednesday’s rally outside the walls of Jerusalem’s Old City and near the flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque compound. The compound is holy to both Muslims and Jews, who refer to it as the Temple Mount. It is located in east Jerusalem, occupied by Israel in 1967 and later annexed in a move never recognized by the international community. Friedman reiterated that Trump would recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and move the US embassy there -- which would break with decades of precedent and put Washington at odds with most UN member states. There were chants of “lock her up” when Trump’s Democrat rival Hillary Clinton’s name was mentioned at the rally ahead of the November 8 vote -- a common refrain among Trump supporters who want to see her jailed over an emails scandal.
“I hate Hillary. She’s the same like (Barack) Obama,” said Ran Hofman, 54, who waved an Israeli flag. “They screw up the whole world.”A brief video message from Trump of about one minute was played at the event. “Together we will stand up to the enemies like Iran, bent on destroying Israel and her people,” Trump said. “Together we will make America and Israel safe again.”

Israeli Guards Escape Charges in 'Attack' Shooting
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/October 26/16/Israeli prosecutors decided Wednesday to close the files of two guards who shot dead Palestinian sibling "attackers" at a crossing between Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank. The justice ministry said in a statement the guards had acted in self-defense on April 27, as the sister was carrying a knife and had been intending to attack them at Qalandia north of Jerusalem. The first of the two guards, who both worked for a private security firm, was judged to have a "clear" case of self-defense, with the sister allegedly pulling a knife. Prosecutors ruled there was a lack of evidence against the second guard, who fired several shots at the two Palestinians. The names of the two guards were withheld. Palestinian witnesses gave AFP a different version of events at the time of the shooting. They said Maram Abu Ismail, 23, married with two children, and her brother Ibrahim Saleh Taha, 16, had panicked after going the wrong way at the checkpoint.The siblings were from Beit Surik, near Ramallah and Qalandia. Violence since October 2015 has killed 235 Palestinians, 36 Israelis, two Americans, one Jordanian, an Eritrean and a Sudanese national, according to an AFP count. Most of the Palestinians killed were carrying out knife, gun or car-ramming attacks, according to Israeli authorities. Others were shot dead during protests or clashes, while some were killed in Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip.

US to vote on 10-year renewal of Iran sanctions
Reuters, Washington Wednesday, 26 October 2016/The Republican leaders of the US House of Representatives plan a vote as soon as mid-November on a 10-year reauthorization of the Iran Sanctions Act, congressional aides told Reuters on Tuesday, setting up a potential showdown with the White House and Senate. The Iran Sanctions Act, or ISA, which expires on Dec. 31, allows trade, energy, defense and banking industry sanctions over Iran’s nuclear program and ballistic missile tests. Its fate is one of the major pieces of unfinished business facing lawmakers when they return to Washington on Nov. 14 for the first time after the Nov. 8 elections. US Representative Ed Royce, the Republican chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, is expected to introduce the 10-year renewal as soon as Congress gets back, aides said. Congressional aides said a “clean” renewal, meaning unchanged from the current legislation, was likely to pass the House. Its fate in the Senate was much less certain, and a White House spokesman would not say whether President Barack Obama would sign it into law. Republicans control majorities in both the House and Senate, and every Republican in Congress opposed the international nuclear deal announced in July 2015, in which Iran agreed to curtail its nuclear program in exchange for relief from crippling economic sanctions. Republicans have since tried repeatedly to pass legislation to clamp down on Iran, accusing Obama of being so eager to burnish his foreign policy legacy that he conceded too much to Tehran in the nuclear talks. Some Senate Republicans want more than a clean renewal of the ISA. They are trying to build support for legislation that would renew it but also do more to punish individual Iranians and businesses over the country’s ballistic missile tests and what they see as its support for terrorism.
“The Iran Sanctions Act was enacted to curb Tehran’s support for terrorism and its very dangerous weapons proliferation. It should remain in place until the regime stops exporting terror and threatening us and our allies with deadly weapons,” Royce said in a statement sent to Reuters. “That’s why I'll be introducing a bipartisan, long-term extension of these important sanctions,” he said.

Iran security forces kill Ahwazi girl while arresting her father
Saleh Hamid, AlArabiya.net Wednesday, 26 October 2016/Iranian security forces killed a three-year-old Ahwazi-Arab child after they opened fire on the car she was travelling in with her parents in the Alawi neighborhood, west of Ahvaz. Sources told Al Arabiya that security forces opened fire on the car on Monday night because the child’s father Abbas Sawari, who is wanted by internal security forces, did not comply with the checkpoint’s orders to stop. As a result, Sawari’s daughter Raghed was shot and killed immediately while his wife was shot and transferred to hospital for treatment.
The source added that security forces then arrested Sawari and led him to an unknown location. Last November, hundreds protested after Ali Jalali, a 17-year-old Ahwazi-Arab, was killed by Iranian police’s gunfire during the latter’s raid on a popular market in al-Nahda neighborhood in Ahvaz.

Iranian intelligence minister hounded for gay US senator’s trip to Tehran
Saleh Hamid, AlArabiya.net Wednesday, 26 October 2016/Iranian Intelligence Minister Mahmoud Alavi came under heavy questioning from parliament following his confirmation that openly-gay Utah state senator Jim Dabakis had visited the country.
Alavi defended the visit saying that Dabakis “was kept under full surveillance during his secret visit to Iran in September”. The Iranian intelligence minister also confirmed that Dabakis had visited Iran twice, the first time in 2010, noting that no one objected to his visit at the time although it was carried out when Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, whose government was supported by hardliners, was in power. In an interview with KUTV, a Salt Lake City television station in September, Dabakis revealed the details of a secret visit which he and a delegation recently made to Iran. Dabakis said he would visit Iran again May and hopes to bring a delegation of 12 people after he was invited by an Iranian university group. “I’ll invite a diverse group including community leaders and talk to the LDS church to see if they want to send a representative,” he is quoted as saying by KUTV. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is more commonly known as the Mormon Church. The senator said that during his six-day visit to Iran, he visited the cities of Tehran and Isfahan. “The people in Iran love Americans. We could not go down any city street without people following us, talking to us and inviting us to their home,” he said. Media outlets which are close to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and security apparatuses had fiercely criticized this visit because two delegation members are American military experts.

Saudi Arabia: Iran waging regional sectarianism
Staff writer, AlArabiya.net Tuesday, 25 October 2016/During a general assembly meeting of the United Nations held on Monday, Saudi Arabia’s deputy ambassador to the United Nations has warned against the dangerous role played by Iran in fueling sectarian strife in Lebanon , Syria, and Yemen “by supporting terrorist groups and providing them with weapons”. Saad al-Saad stressed Saudi Arabia’s rights to protect its security and its borders against militia groups, and those who back them, in reference to the Houthi militias. In his speech , the delegate talked about the Saudi Arabia’s experience in fighting arms smuggling to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Bahrain. He said :”Iran provides Hezbollah with weapons and the latter sends fighters to Yemen and Syria.”Saad stressed the perils of weapons trafficking, and appealed to the international community to take deterrent actions to address the phenomenon.
 

Pirates attack oil tanker near Bab al-Mandab
By Staff writer Al Arabiya English Thursday, 27 October 2016/A major pirate attack on an oil tanker has been reported on Wednesday while it was transiting the Bab al-Mandab Strait en route from Ukraine to India, coalition spokesman Major General Ahmed Assiri has said. The pirates fired a rocket-propelled grenade at LNG tanker Melati Satu, Assiri said. The crew of the Tuvalu-registered tanker sent a distress call that was received by a UAE ship and passed it to the Saudi Arabian naval ship Majesty Riyadh. Majesty Riyadh immediately headed to the site of the attack and was able to save the Melati Satu. It then accompanied Melati Satu until it safely transited Bab al-Mandab. Assiri mentioned that the incident highlights the importance of the restoration of peace on the Yemeni side of Bab al-Mandab so ships can properly transit this vital international trade route. He also noted that it shows how important it is that the Houthi rebels and their allies take immediate steps to implement the United Nations Security Council resolution 2216, which will lead to the resolution of the Yemeni conflict.

UN Yemen envoy submits peace plan to rivals
Staff writer, Al Arabiya English Wednesday, 26 October 2016/The United Nations envoy to Yemen has handed an outline for a peace plan to Houthi militias which includes their withdrawal from major cities. Special Envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed left Sanaa after a three-day visit aimed at pushing for an end the country's 19-month conflict. He held meetings with the Houthi rebels and their allies of the General People's Congress, the onetime ruling party of Yemen under ousted President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who is accused of aiding Houthis in their takeover of the capital in 2014 after descending from their northern enclave.

Maduro, Opponents Trade 'Coup' Charges in Venezuela Crisis
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/October 26/16/Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro accused the opposition-majority legislature Tuesday of staging a "parliamentary coup" after lawmakers voted to put him on trial amid a tense political and economic crisis. Accused by the legislature of "abandoning his post" and "criminal and political responsibility" for Venezuela's descent into crisis, Maduro fired back by calling a meeting of his National Defense Council on Wednesday -- the same day the opposition plans massive anti-government protests. "We will not permit a parliamentary coup of any kind," he told cheering supporters at a rally in Caracas, after jetting back from an international tour. Lawmakers earlier voted to open a "political and criminal trial" against Maduro over what they themselves have declared a coup: authorities' decision last week to halt their efforts to call a referendum on removing the leftist leader from power. It is unclear what impact Tuesday's legislative vote will have. The Supreme Court -- which the opposition claims Maduro controls -- has ruled the National Assembly's decisions invalid. Maduro accused the "useless" legislature of trying to "harm Venezuela," and urged his opponents to agree to talks. The offer to open talks has sown deep divisions in the opposition. On Monday opposition leaders first accepted and then rejected a proposal by Pope Francis for a "national dialogue" on Venezuela's crisis. Some top opposition leaders said they had only learned on TV about the proposal to hold negotiations on the Caribbean island of Margarita starting Sunday. The rift lay bare the tension in the opposition Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD), a shaky coalition united mainly by shared hatred of Maduro. Leading opposition figure Henrique Capriles accused Maduro of using the pope's goodwill for his own ends.
"What you must know is that we in Venezuela are fighting against Satan. This is the devil we're facing, they are devils. They believe in nothing, they have no principles. They say they're Christians when it's convenient," he said. Political analysts were meanwhile skeptical about the prospects for talks to resolve the crisis. "Even if Pope Francis comes here dressed up as Superman, dialogue won't resolve" Venezuela's problems, said political scientist Nicmer Evans. The MUD said Monday it would only agree to talks if the government respected the constitutional right to a referendum and freed its imprisoned activists and leaders, among other demands.
Bad to worse
Analysts have warned of a risk of violent unrest in Venezuela. Clashes at anti-government protests in 2014 left 43 people dead. On Monday a students' group said 27 people were injured in clashes with police at a protest in the western city of San Cristobal. Hit by the fall of global oil prices, Venezuela's economy has crashed, sparking protests and looting driven by shortages of food, medicine and basic goods. Maduro calls the economic crisis a capitalist conspiracy. His opponents say it is the result of severe mismanagement during 17 years of socialist rule under Maduro and his late mentor, Hugo Chavez. In recession since the beginning of 2014, Venezuela's economy is facing a contraction of 10 percent this year and inflation of 475 percent, rising to 1,660 percent next year, the IMF forecasts. A recent poll found more than 75 percent of Venezuelans disapprove of Maduro. The center-right opposition rode that discontent to a landslide win in legislative elections last December -- only for the Supreme Court to block its every move in the National Assembly.
Tense Wednesday
Tension is set to rise again Wednesday -- the day the opposition was to have begun collecting the four million signatures needed to trigger a recall referendum. Instead, the opposition now plans massive nationwide protests, even as Maduro huddles with his so-called National Defense Council, which includes the heads of the various branches of government. Venezuelan authorities detained at the airport three Peruvian journalists working for the Mexican network Televisa and an Argentine photographer for the Associated Press. The four were slated to be deported, according to a diplomatic source. Maduro meanwhile flexed his muscle Tuesday with a rally of thousands of supporters, almost immediately after arriving home from his trip abroad. Besides meeting Pope Francis -- with whom he said he had a "deeply human, spiritual conversation" -- Maduro pushed leaders in the Middle East to cut oil output in hopes of raising prices. He also made an unscheduled stop in Portugal to meet future U.N. secretary general Antonio Guterres.

25 people found dead in Mediterranean migrant boat: MSF
AFP, Rome Wednesday, 26 October 2016/The French aid group Doctors without Borders (MSF) said Wednesday that 25 migrants had been found dead aboard an inflatable dinghy in the southern Mediterranean. MSF said its chartered rescue ship, the Bourbon Argos, picked up 107 people aboard the boat 26 nautical miles off Libya on Tuesday. Its crew initially counted 11 corpses on the dinghy’s floor, which was flooded with a mixture of fuel and seawater. The Bourbon Argos was then called away to another rescue operation nearby, saving 139 people aboard another vessel.
The crew returned to the first vessel and found on closer examination that in fact 25 people had died, probably from suffocation, burns or drowning. The bodies were retrieved from the toxic mixture over a period of hours, with the help of a team from the German NGO Sea-Watch. “The mixture of water and fuel was so foul that we could not stay on the boat for long periods. It was horrible,” MSF project leader Michele Telaro said in a statement.

Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on on October 26-27/16

Christians And Muslims Join Forces In Pakistan To Save Nine-Year-Old Boy From Blasphemy Charge
Ruth Gledhill/Christian Today/26 October 2016/
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/2016/10/26/christians-and-muslims-join-forces-in-pakistan-to-save-nine-year-old-boy-from-blasphemy-charge/

Christians and Muslims in Pakistan worked together to get basphemy charges dropped against a nine-year-old Pakistani Christian boy.The boy, Izhan and his mother, Shakil, a nurse from Quetta, were accused six days ago of burning pages of the Quran. The police were called in and the mother and child imprisoned. This led to protests by local Christian and Muslim leaders and politicians, and the charges quashed. The political party Jamait Ulema Islam, or Assembly of Islamic Clergy, played a key role in freeing the two Christians from jail. Asiya Nasir, a member of the National Assembly of Pakistan from Quetta, William John Barkat, a member of the Provincial Assembly and Shahzad Kundan, an activist and resident of the area, cooperated to secure justice for the two accused. According to the Pakistan Christian Post, they were alerted to the case and "sense of horror and terror" in the Christian community. "There was so much sense of insecurity in the Christians until the matter was resolved," the Post reported. "Credit goes to the local leadership of Jamiat Ulema Islam which played a tremendous role." Nasir Saeed, director of CLAAS-UK, a Christian charity dedicated to helping persecuted Christians in Pakistan, said this was not the first time a minor had been charged with a blasphemy offence. In 1993 a boy, aged 12, was charged under the blasphemy law for a crime he had not committed. In 2011 a 13-year-old Christian girl was accused of blasphemy by her Muslim teacher for misspelling.
Mr Saeed said: "He [Izhan] may have never have even heard the word of blasphemy. Unfortunately, this is the worst example of hatred and intolerance against Christians and treatment towards them in Pakistan."The Government of Pakistan must look into such cases and take appropriate steps to bring necessary changes to stop the ongoing misuse of this law. "The international community has continuously expressed its concern and called for amendments."
 

Young Iraqi Christian Girl Who Forgave ISIS 'Joyful' About Returning Home After Liberation
Carey Lodge/Christian Today/October 26/16
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/2016/10/26/carey-lodgechristian-today-young-iraqi-christian-girl-who-forgave-isis-joyful-about-returning-home-after-liberation/

The young Iraqi Christian girl who forgave ISIS after being forced to flee her home in Qaraqosh has said she can't wait to return home now that the city is almost liberated.Twelve-year-old Myriam told SAT-7 KIDS on October 21: "Surely I am happy and joyful to return home and see my friends who didn't leave."I'll get to see them again," she added. "I'll see my home and my country again, the place that I love."Myriam's father, Waleed, said: "There are no words to express how we feel. But we say in Iraqi, Wenseh, which is the feeling we have when we are home. It doesn't matter if [we are living] under destruction."The family are currently living in Ankawa, a suburb of Erbil, along with tens of thousands of other displaced people who are already excited at the thought of going home. "If they are that joyful in Ankawa, then how will it be when 40,000 persons return to their homes?" Waleed added. "Imagine the joy we will feel!"
Myriam was first interviewed by SAT-7 in October 2014. She said then that she would ask God to forgive the militants who threatened her family's life, and a video of the exchange was watched by more than 200,000 people within 42 hours of appearing on the SAT-7 ARABIC Facebook page.
"God loves everybody," Myriam said. "I'm not angry with God because we left Qaraqosh, I thank him because he provided [for] us. Even if we're suffering here, he provides for us." She ended the interview with a song, How Joyful is the Day, about how much she loves Jesus.Last week, the family sang the worship song again, and Waleed said they had been strengthened during their difficult ordeal by the peace of God.
"Peace is the peace of Jesus and not worldly peace," he said. "Peace isn't in a house or in the land. Even in fire you can have the peace of Jesus. As long as we have it we will be stronger than those who threw us out. When you love Jesus, no one can conquer you."
Qaraqosh was once home to Iraq's largest Christian community, but around 50,000 people were forced to flee when ISIS overran the town in August 2014.
Some reports say Qaraqosh has now been liberated as part of the offensive to retake Mosul – ISIS' last stronghold in Iraq – which began on October 17, though others say Iraqi troops are still battling a small number of militants left in the town.
Security sources have confirmed that around 50 villages and towns around Mosul have been liberated, however. On Thursday, government troops reclaimed Bartella – a Christian town about nine miles from Mosul. On Saturday, the bells of the Mart Shmony Syriac Orthodox Church were rung for the first time since 2014. Father Thabet, a priest from Mosul, spoke to SAT-7's Ingy Magdy last weekend. He said that there were "only a few" Christian families left in Mosul, and that the Church is waiting until the Nineveh Plain is totally secure before they encourage Christians to return home.
"We need to make sure the liberation process is final and the area is secure and the path to return is safe as well as adjust the infrastructure and stabilize the economic situation so they can return home," Thabet said. "It is great that the liberation comes at this time especially after two years have passed but our joy will be complete when everyone is back home safe and secure."He added: "We want to double our prayers in order to have stability in Mosul so it becomes better than it was."
 

Germany's Migrant Rape Crisis: Where is the Public Outrage?
Soeren Kern/Gatestone Institute/October 26/16
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9204/germany-migrant-rape-outrage
Despite the mounting human toll, most of the crimes are still being downplayed by German authorities and the media, apparently to avoid fueling anti-immigration sentiments.
"The police are not interested in stigmatizing but rather in educating the public. The impression that we are engaging in censorship is devastating to the public's confidence in the police. Sharing information about suspects is also important for developing prevention strategies. We must be allowed to talk openly about the problems of this country." — Arnold Plickert, director of the GdP Police Union in North Rhine-Westphalia.
"The Press Council believes that editorial offices in Germany should ultimately treat their readers like children by depriving them of relevant information. We think this is wrong because when people realize that something is being concealed from them, they react with mistrust. And this mistrust is a hazard." — Tanit Koch, editor-in-chief of Bild, the most-read newspaper in Germany.
On October 24, a YouGov poll found that 68% of Germans believe that security in the country has deteriorated over the past two or three years. Also, 68% of respondents said they fear for their lives and property in German train stations and subways, while 63% feel unsafe at large public events.
A group of Serbian teenagers in the northern German city of Hamburg were handed suspended sentences for gang-raping a 14-year-old girl and leaving her for dead in sub-zero temperatures.
The judge said that although "the penalties may seem mild to the public," the teens had all made confessions, appeared remorseful and longer posed a danger to society.
The October 24 ruling, which effectively allowed the rapists to walk free, provoked a rare moment of public outrage over the problem of migrant sex crimes in Germany. An online petition calling for the teens to see time in prison has garnered more than 80,000 signatures, and prosecutors are appealing the verdict.
Thousands of women and children have been raped or sexually assaulted in Germany since Chancellor Angela Merkel welcomed into the country more than one million mostly male migrants from Africa, Asia and the Middle East.
Germany's migrant rape crisis — which has continued unabated day after day for more than a year — has now spread to cities and towns in all 16 of Germany's federal states. Despite the mounting human toll, most of the crimes are still being downplayed by German authorities and the media, apparently to avoid fueling anti-immigration sentiments.
The German Press Council (Presserat) enforces a politically correct "code of media ethics" that restricts the information journalists can use in their stories. Paragraph 12.1 of the code states:
"When reporting on criminal offenses, details about the religious, ethnic or other background information of the suspects or perpetrators is to be mentioned only if it is absolutely necessary (begründeter Sachbezug) to understand the reported event. Remember that such references could foment prejudices against minorities."
On October 17, the Press Council reprimanded the weekly newspaper, Junge Freiheit, for revealing the nationality of three Afghan teenagers who raped a woman at a train station in Vienna, Austria, in April 2016. The press council said the nationality of the perpetrators is "not relevant" to the case, and by revealing this information the newspaper "deliberately and pejoratively represented the suspects as second-class persons."
In the interests of "fair reporting," the council demanded that the newspaper remove the offending item from its website. The newspaper refused to comply and said it would continue to publish the nationalities of criminal suspects.
Lutz Tillmanns, the Press Council's managing director, said that self-censorship is necessary to avoid discrimination:
"An essential human rights-related principle is not to discriminate. When we refer to an individual we do not want to harm the entire group. This is, of course, a bigger issue for minorities than for the majority."
According to Hendrik Cremer of the German Institute for Human Rights, the Press Council's code of ethics also applies to German police, who often censor the information they release to the media:
"The police are not to provide information about the skin color, religion, nationality or national or ethnic origin of a suspect to the media or to the public. They may only do this if it is absolutely necessary, which is the case, for example, when they are searching for a suspect."
Arnold Plickert, director of the GdP Police Union in North Rhine-Westphalia, said self-censorship by the police is counterproductive:
"The police are not interested in stigmatizing but rather in educating the public. The impression that we are engaging in censorship is devastating to the public's confidence in the police. Sharing information about suspects is also important for developing prevention strategies. We must be allowed to talk openly about the problems of this country. This includes talking about the clear over-representation of young migrants in our crime rosters."
An example of how the Press Council's restrictions distort reporting on migrant crime can be found in the October 2 rape of a 90-year-old woman outside a church in downtown Düsseldorf. The Hamburger Morgenpost reported that the perpetrator was a "homeless 19-year-old" (obdachlosen 19-Jährigen). Düsseldorf Police described the suspect as "a Southern European with North African roots." The newspaper Bild later revealed that he is actually a Moroccan with a Spanish passport who is well known to German police as a serial shoplifter and purse-snatcher.
Another example: On September 30, a 28-year-old migrant sexually assaulted a 27-year-old woman on a Paris to Mannheim express train. Local media initially reported the nationality of the perpetrator but then deleted the information. A statement explained:
"This article initially included the nationality of the offender. The reference was subsequently removed because it did not correspond to our editorial guidelines — that is, there is no connection between nationality and action."
The German Press Council has rejected calls to rescind Paragraph 12.1. "This regulation is not a muzzle, but merely a guide for ethically appropriate behavior," said council spokesman Manfred Protze.
Tanit Koch, the editor in chief of Bild, the most-read newspaper in Germany, said:
"The Press Council believes that editorial offices in Germany should ultimately treat their readers like children by depriving them of relevant information. We think this is wrong because when people realize that something is being concealed from them, they react with mistrust. And this mistrust is a hazard."
The Press Council argues that the aim of voluntary self-regulation is to prevent the government from regulating the media. The council, which has so far limited its activities to the print media and associated websites, is now drafting an "online code" to regulate blogs, videos and podcasts.
Gatestone Institute first reported Germany's migrant rape crisis in September 2015, when Merkel opened up the German border to tens of thousands of migrants stranded in Hungary. A follow-up report was published in March 2016, in the aftermath of mass attacks against German women by mobs of migrants in Cologne, Hamburg and other German cities. In August 2016, Gatestone reported that the suppression of data about migrant rapes is a Germany-wide practice.
An angry crowd of German protestors in Cologne repeatedly yell "Where were you New Year's Eve?" at police on January 9, 2016, referring to the mass sexual attacks perpetrated in the city by migrants on New Year's Eve, in which more than 450 women were sexually assaulted in one night.
The mainstream media's failure to report the true scope of Germany's migrant rape crisis may explain why — after more than a year of daily sexual assaults — there has been very little public outrage over the calamity that has befallen so many Germans. Censorship has effectively become a national security problem.
Public spaces in Germany have become increasingly perilous. Migrants have assaulted German women and children at beaches, bike trails, cemeteries, discotheques, grocery stores, music festivals, parking garages, playgrounds, schools, shopping malls, taxis, public transportation (buses, trams, intercity express trains and subways), public parks, public squares, public swimming pools and public restrooms. Nowhere is safe.
On October 1, two migrants raped a 23-year-old woman in Lüneburg. She was walking in a park with her young child when the two men ambushed from behind. The men, who escaped and remain at large, forced the child to watch while they took turns attacking the woman.
October 8, a 25-year-old migrant from Syria groped a 15-year-old girl in Moers. The girl responded by slapping the man in the face. The man called police and complained that the girl had mistreated him. The man was arrested for sexual assault.
On October 18, Sigrid Meierhofer, the mayor of Garmisch-Partenkirchen, in an urgent letter (Brandbrief) to the Bavarian government, threatened to close a shelter that houses 250 mostly male migrants from Africa if public safety and order could not be restored. The letter, which was leaked to the Münchner Merkur, stated that local police had responded to more emergency calls during the past six weeks than in all of the previous 12 months combined.
On October 24, a YouGov poll found that 68% of Germans believe that security in the country has deteriorated over the past two or three years. Also, 68% of respondents said they fear for their lives and property in German train stations and subways, while 63% feel unsafe at large public events.
Meanwhile, the Federal Criminal Police Office (Bundeskriminalamt, BKA) has offered advice to German women on how they can protect themselves from rapists: "Wear tennis shoes instead of high heels so that you can run away."
**Soeren Kern is a Senior Fellow at the New York-based Gatestone Institute. He is also Senior Fellow for European Politics at the Madrid-based Grupo de Estudios Estratégicos / Strategic Studies Group. Follow him on Facebook and on Twitter.
© 2016 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.

Turkey: Erdogan's Stealth Jihad Against the West
Burak Bekdil/Gatestone Institute/October 26/16
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9091/erdogan-stealth-jihad

Erdogan fights anyone and anything outside the sphere of his understanding of Sunni Islamism. His arguments typically reflect an Islamist's angry inner thoughts, feelings of "defeat against the non-Muslim West" and a "powerful urge to reverse the world order in favor of political Islam."
Erdogan is not honest even when he insists on a Muslim contingent in the UN Security Council. He would be angry if the UN, as he passionately suggests, agreed on a Muslim seat and gave it to Shiite Iran. No, he wants a Sunni seat.
That is at the core of Erdogan's not-so-silent (and never-ending) war with the West: (Sunni) Muslim nations should be deciding on matters shaping world politics, not others.
Erdogan's Turkey is a solitary nation. It does not belong to Europe, hence its failure to join the EU. Theoretically it is a NATO ally and a "strategic partner" of the US. In reality, it is hostile to Western civilization and the US is only a tactical partner -- as long as it helps Islamists advance their political ambitions, not a partner with shared democratic values.
It is true that the worst enemy of Turkey's Islamist President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is another Islamist who was Erdogan's best political ally for several years. It is also true that Erdogan, publicly or privately, feels hostility against a number of Muslim communities in the Middle East, including secular and Alevi Muslims in Turkey, the Nusairi (Alawites) in Syria and the Shiite in Iran, Lebanon and Bahrain.
It is not a secret, either, that Erdogan does not admire Jews, to put it mildly. But essentially, his strict adherence to political Islam often reveals his war of domination with non-Muslim Western civilization in a broader context. Erdogan fights anyone and anything outside the sphere of his understanding of Sunni Islamism.
A few years ago, Erdogan launched a political campaign, "The World is Greater Than Five," arguing that it was not fair to leave the fate of the world to the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) -- members with veto powers.
That is fine. There are many politicians, artists and intellectuals from every corner of the world, regardless of ethnicity or religion, who campaign around the same idea. The world may or may not be greater than five. To challenge the idea that the United States, Britain, Russia, China and France should be the eternal permanent members is legitimate by all means. But Erdogan's argument over why "the world is greater than five" is problematic as it typically reflects an Islamist's angry inner thoughts, feelings of "defeat against the non-Muslim West" and a "powerful urge to reverse the world order in favor of political Islam."
In a February 2015 speech, Erdogan said:
"Currently, there are five permanent and ten non-permanent members. Do the latter have any authority whatsoever? None ... This must change ... You cannot make 196 countries live with the decisions made by any of the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council."
Then, in the same speech, Erdogan came to the bottom line when he criticized the lack of "Muslim voices" in the Security Council. "When we look at it in terms of religion, we see that all religions except Islam are represented. Is this justice? No".
That is at the core of Erdogan's not-so-silent (and never-ending) war with the West: (Sunni) Muslim nations should be deciding on matters shaping world politics, not others.
Never mind if he supports his argument with false and corrupted information such as "we see that all religions except Islam are represented." There are no Jewish, Shinto, Buddhist, Hindu or Animist nations in the UN Security Council, or nations predominantly adhering to other faiths. Erdogan is not honest even when he insists on a Muslim contingent in the Security Council. He would be angry if the UN, as he passionately suggests, agreed on a Muslim seat and gave it to Shiite Iran. No, he wants a Sunni seat.
Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan now insists on a (Sunni) Muslim contingent in the UN Security Council. Pictured: Erdogan addresses the UN General Assembly on September 23, 2011. (Image source: United Nations)
On October 1, in his annual speech for the inauguration of the new legislative year, Erdogan called the UN "a burden on humanity." He, then, challenged the European Union (EU) that "it's the EU's choice whether to continue on its path with or without Turkey." Then, in the same speech, he slammed the U.S. for the "inconsistency and disjointedness" of its policies on the Middle East.
Erdogan's Turkey is a solitary nation. It does not belong to Europe. Hence its failure to join the EU, despite a half century-long effort. Theoretically it is a NATO ally and a "strategic partner" of the US. In reality, it is hostile to Western civilization and the US is only a tactical partner -- a partner as long as it helps Islamists advance their political ambitions, not a partner with shared democratic values.
Erdogan's Turkey is a solitary nation because it cannot ally with any Russian-dominated bloc either. Turkey and Russia can be at best trading partners but never allies. Historic and present day hostilities between Turkey and Russia are as deep as between the West and Soviet Russia during the Cold War.
Worse, Turkey does not belong to any Islamic bloc either. The Shiite bloc hates Erdogan's passionate Sunni-ism. For most Sunni Arabs, Turks are not even Muslims simply because they are not Arabs. Ironically, Erdogan's Turkey is too Islamic to belong to Western culture and too secular to belong to the Islamic culture. Erdogan had some face value on the "Arab street" only when he aggressively fought Israel politically.
Erdogan's anti-Western, pro-Sunni Turkey is, and should be, doomed to purgatory.
**Burak Bekdil, based in Ankara, is a Turkish columnist for the Hürriyet Daily and a Fellow at the Middle East Forum.
© 2016 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.

UK: Labour Party Still Shooting Itself in Both Anti-Semitic, Far-Left Feet
Denis MacEoin/Gatestone Institute/October 26/16
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9149/labour-party-antisemitism
The Palestinian "resistance" is not a struggle to create a Palestinian state next to the state of Israel.No group or leader within the "resistance" movement has ever considered that their goal. Their position is summed up in the slogan chanted by many students and pro-Palestinian groups, "Palestine will be free, From the river [Jordan] to the [Mediterranean] sea".
It is not, in fact, illegal in the slightest for the Jews to be in a country in which they have continuously lived for 3000 years. The only title to the land the Palestinians seem to have is that under the Ottoman empire, the land had been subject to Muslim governance; and if one applies Islamic law, rather than common law, any land that has once been under Muslim control must stay that way forever -- including of course "el-Andalus," all of southern Spain and Portugal.
Seamus Milne added that Palestinians in Gaza have the right to "defend themselves" and claimed: "It isn't terrorism to fight back. The terrorism is the killing of citizens by Israel on an industrial scale." No, the terrorism is the tens of thousands of rockets and missiles fired from Gaza into Israel for more than a decade.
Given that Gaza had long been unoccupied by anyone at that date and that Israel had never killed "citizens" on an industrial scale, we can see something at play totally at odds with reason, fact, and political knowledge. That something is creeping out from beneath an unpleasant rock, and that it has a deep connection with anti-Semitism, if it is not anti-Semitism in its purest modern form.
A central feature of Labour's anti-Semitism is a staggering failure to understand the difference between traditional hatred of Jews from some religious and far-right sources, and modern expressions of that hatred through the medium of Zionism. The Labour enquiry into anti-Semitism entirely ignored several important definitions of anti-Semitism that included the singling out of Israel for condemnation, the use of double standards for Israel, and delegitimisation of Israel by negation of Zionism as the movement for self-determination of the Jewish people. The U.S. Department of State issued just such a new definition in 2010. Several of its clauses mention anti-Israel charges, including this: "Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, and denying Israel the right to exist".[1]
The Palestinian "resistance" is not a struggle to create a Palestinian state next to the state of Israel. From the PLO to Hamas to the PFLP to Hezbollah, no group or leader within the "resistance" movement has ever considered that their goal. Their position is summed up in the slogan chanted by leftist students and pro-Palestinian groups across the world, "Palestine will be free, From the river to the sea". The "river" is the Jordan and the "sea" is the Mediterranean, meaning that there is no room whatever for a Jewish state in the region. Self-determination, an ideal loudly proclaimed for practically every ethnic and cultural group in the world by people on the left, is denied for one community only: the Jews.
Failure to see this is the chief blind-spot that traps Britain's Labour Party inside its bubble of anti-Semitism and, what is worse, the refusal of its leader even to admit that it is a major problem. That this is so is encapsulated in a recent revelation about Seamus Milne, a revelation that inspired this article.
Britain's best-known contender in the "I am not an anti-Semite" stakes has shot himself in the foot yet again by burying his anti-Semitism and the anti-Semitism of so many in his party by making bland statements of presumed innocence.
Back in April, Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn planned to send greetings to Britain's Jewish community for the celebration of Passover (Pesach). Sincere or not, this was a decent gesture appropriate to a party leader in a democracy. But in September, apparently, Joshua Simons, a Jewish activist who had worked in Corbyn's office as a policy adviser, was instructed by a senior official, identified as Milne, to remove the standard Hebrew greeting that is used by Jews and their friends on cards, e-mails, and elsewhere for any Jewish festival: "chag kasher vesameach" (have a happy and kosher holiday). This is a religious greeting, wholly non-geographic, but, according to the Times, Milne wanted the phrase deleted because it might look "Zionist" -- thus confirming the suspicions of those who claim that anti-Zionism is actually just a transparent cover for the same old garden variety Jew-hatred, anti-Semitism.
Labour have denied the truth of this claim, saying that "any suggestion that Mr Milne had asked for the Hebrew to be removed was "categorically untrue". But a different source gives further credence. Dave Rich, a senior official of Britain's Community Security Trust, a Jewish charity for the defence of Jews in the country, wrote in The New York Times that "after some debate, Mr Milne was overruled".
If, indeed, Milne asked for the phrase to be removed for that reason, it shows abysmally poor lack of judgement. To think for a moment that a Jewish religious greeting constitutes support for Zionism indicates an inability to distinguish between religious Jews and frequently secular Zionists, thereby conflating Jews as a whole with a movement which Milne has always condemned and regarded as something evil. Is it hard, then, to see how a British political movement led by anti-Zionists has acquired a reputation for indulging and protecting anti-Semites?
Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of Britain's Labour Party (and, by default, Leader of the Opposition and a potential Prime Minister in the unlikely event that Labour were to win enough votes in a General Election), has been involved in a murky controversy about anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism within the party since the spring of this year. The story is well known and need not be rehearsed in detail here. Suffice it to say that Corbyn was elected leader of Labour on September 12, 2015 and two days later, appointed to serve on Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council (a body of advisors to the Queen). This latter appointment is automatic for opposition leaders, but in Corbyn's case it is ironic, given that he is a lifelong republican who wishes to see the monarchy abolished.
Corbyn is an experienced politician who has served as a member of parliament since 1983. But his political views have always been so far to the left that he remained on the back benches and was never given a cabinet or shadow cabinet post. This is not surprising. According to Philip Cowley:
"In the first parliament that [Corbyn] he entered, in 1983, he was the sixth most rebellious Labour MP. From then on, he was always in the top ten, and between 1997 and 2010 he was the most rebellious. Over those 13 years in government, he defied the whip 428 times. In the last five years, he dropped into second place but only just, one vote behind John McDonnell."
Not a comfortable presence, even in his own party.
This rebellious streak has informed Corbyn's policies and campaigning throughout his life. He claims never to have been a Trotskyite, but his views as a committed socialist have brought him into close contact with Trotskyites and other Communists. This August, a dispute broke out between Corbyn and the Deputy Leader of the party, Tom Watson, when the latter declared that Trotskyites and others were engaged in entryism through the Corbyn-supporting Momentum movement. This led to Corbyn's strenuous denial that this was the case.
It is, of course, arguable that Jeremy Corbyn would not recognize a hard-left revolutionary entryist if he saw one. Steven Fielding, Professor of Political History at Nottingham University, has defined Corbyn, not as a Trotskyite himself but as a gateway for their influence in the democratic Labour Party:
"Jeremy Corbyn sees actual Trotskyists as socialists. He does not really see them as being an issue for the Labour Party. In the 1980s, he didn't think Militant should be expelled even though they were trying to take over the party and turn it into a particular sort of organisation. Jeremy Corbyn isn't a Trotskyist, but he's an enabler for Trots and Trotskyists to enter the party."
Corbyn surrounds himself with colleagues who admire Trotsky and his anti-democratic stance. His right-hand man, the current Shadow Chancellor of the UK, John McDonnell, openly stated in 2006 where he stood:
Asked to name the "most significant" influences on his thought, McDonnell (who was then standing for the Labour leadership) replied: "The fundamental Marxist writers of Marx, Lenin and Trotsky, basically."
About a month after his election to the leadership, Corbyn appointed a long-standing Guardian journalist, Seamus Milne, to be the party's Executive Director of Strategy and Communications. Widely considered a very clever man, Milne is a hugely influential radical whose editorial and journalistic work for over 30 years with The Guardian informed a range of major political debates. Peter Wilby's long and informative account of Milne, published earlier this year, reveals a complex individual dedicated to far-left activism and an abiding support for the Palestinian cause mixed with loathing for Israel. Milne is politically complicated. According to Charlotte Edwardes:
"He'd be offended if you called him a Trotskyist, and would take umbrage if you called him a Stalinist," says a former colleague. "He's an old-fashioned Morning Star Communist and very focused on achieving his goals. He will make whatever alliances and use whatever tactics to achieve those."
Islamic radicalism holds a considerable attraction for Milne. During the six years when he edited The Guardian's "Comment is Free" columns, the number of Muslim radicals appearing on those pages greatly increased, culminating in an article by Osama Bin Laden, which Milne himself edited from taped statements by the al-Qa'ida leader and published in 2004. Milne has a reputation as a dyed-in-the world opponent of the West, from the United States to Israel, something that has led him to make outrageous comments for which he has never been properly censured. Writing critically about Milne in the left-wing magazine The New Statesman, Oliver Bullough cites some of these:
Whatever crisis strikes the world, the West is supposedly to blame. Why did a group of psychopaths attack a magazine and a supermarket in Paris? "Without the war waged by western powers, including France, to bring to heel and reoccupy the Arab and Muslim world, last week's attacks clearly couldn't have taken place".
Why did Anders Breivik slaughter 77 people? "What is most striking is how closely he mirrors the ideas and fixations of transatlantic conservatives."
Why did two maniacs in London decapitate an off-duty soldier? "They are the predicted consequence of an avalanche of violence unleashed by the US, Britain and others."
Milne's geopolitics spared us having to read how the children of Beslan or the theatregoers of Moscow only had themselves to blame, but office workers in New York had no such luck. "Recognition of why people might have been driven to carry out such atrocities, sacrificing their own lives in the process - or why the United States is hated with such bitterness, not only in Arab and Muslim countries, but across the developing world - seems almost entirely absent."
As with so many leftists on either side of the Atlantic, Milne can never summon up the courage to place blame on Muslim extremists, whom he sees as victims of Western oppression. He evokes the vogue for what French philosopher Pascal Bruckner has termed "the tyranny of guilt", whereby Westerners take upon themselves \ a desperate feeling of guilt for the crimes of their ancestors, whether it be for slavery, colonialism, or imperialism. To criticize Muslim radicals for their inhumane actions would be unthinkable. Writing in The Guardian on July 1 2004, Milne praised the Iraqi resistance, while condemning US and UK forces, hailing the resistance campaign as "in fact Iraq's real war of liberation". This, even though that campaign had led to the deaths of British soldiers. In the same newspaper, on 13 September 2011, he claimed:
Nearly two days after the horrific suicide attacks on civilian workers in New York and Washington, it has become painfully clear that most Americans simply don't get it... .Shock, rage and grief there has been aplenty. But any glimmer of recognition of why people might have been driven to carry out such atrocities, sacrificing their own lives in the process - or why the United States is hated with such bitterness, not only in Arab and Muslim countries, but across the developing world - seems almost entirely absent. Perhaps it is too much to hope that, as rescue workers struggle to pull firefighters from the rubble, any but a small minority might make the connection between what has been visited upon them and what their government has visited upon large parts of the world.
Remember that this is a man who has spent much of his life writing, not for an obscure far-left free-sheet but for one of Britain's mass-circulation papers, who is now one of the most powerful men within our country's "loyal" opposition. It is his influence, in part, that has led Labour into its current crisis, including the still live controversy over anti-Semitism within the party.
Milne has -- not at all surprisingly -- a particular fondness for the terrorist entity Hamas and the Palestinian "resistance" in general, coupled with a strong dislike for Israel and the Zionist enterprise. In a video recording from an anti-Israel rally in 2014 he claimed: "Israel has no right to defend itself from territory it illegally occupies", without even questioning if the so-called Israeli "occupation" is in fact, "illegal," as there are many who are firmly of the opinion, based on treaties, documents and international law, that it is not, in fact illegal in the slightest for the Jews to be in a country in which they have continuously lived for three thousand years. The only title to the land the Palestinians seem to have is that under the Ottoman empire, the land had been subject to Muslim governance; and if one applies Islamic law, rather than common law, any land that has once been under Muslim control must stay that way forever - - including of course "el-Andalus," all of southern Spain and Portugal. So far as the West is concerned, Islamic sharia is not - yet at least - the dispositive law.
Milne added that Palestinians in Gaza have the right to "defend themselves" and claimed: "It isn't terrorism to fight back. The terrorism is the killing of citizens by Israel on an industrial scale". No, the terrorism is the tens of thousands of rockets and missiles fired from Gaza into Israel, roughly the size of Victoria Island, for more than a decade.
Here is a man who went to one of England's most prestigious schools, Winchester College, and took a degree from Oxford University. Given that Gaza had long been unoccupied by anyone at that date, that Israel's former occupation of the Strip and its continuing occupation of the West Bank had never been illegal under any form of international law, and that Israel had never killed "citizens" on an industrial scale, we can see something at play totally at odds with reason, fact, and political knowledge. That something is creeping out from beneath an unpleasant rock, and that it has a deep connection with anti-Semitism if it is not – as I would argue – anti-Semitism in its purest modern form.
Milne was not just sympathetic to the Palestinians, he was obsessed with their cause. One commentator, writing of Milne's early years at the Guardian, states:
Colleagues tell how he would pace the newsroom, talking loudly on his mobile phone about his favourite subject: "It turned out to be Palestine every time." Guardian sources say Milne's preoccupation with the Israel-Palestine conflict was a factor in him leaving the opinion pages and being "promoted" to the less influential role of associate editor. "The feeling among many at the paper was that he was eventually moved by [then editor-in-chief, Alan] Rusbridger because of his obsession with Palestine. He just would not leave it out of the comment section," a colleague explains.
At this point, let us remember that Jeremy Corbyn himself has called both Hamas and Hezbollah "his friends". Challenged about this in May this year, he refused to disown them:
"The Labour leader refused to denounce the groups in the wake of calls from Jewish leaders, the Israeli Ambassador and members of his own party to distance himself from those with anti-Semitic views."
Yet by May 2nd, it was revealed that some fifty members of the Labour Party, including several MPs, had secretly been suspended for making anti-Semitic statements in public or on social media. This later led to the setting up of an inquiry into anti-Semitism in the party, an inquiry widely condemned as a whitewash. The details of the inquiry and how the author, Shami Chakrabarti (now awarded a peerage for her efforts), manipulated the facts available to her by proclaiming an absence of anti-Semitism in the party may be found in an earlier article.
In 2009, Jeremy Corbyn (left) said: "It will be my pleasure and my honour to host an event in Parliament where our friends from Hezbollah will be speaking. I also invited friends from Hamas to come and speak as well." Pictured in the middle is Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. Pictured at right is Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.
On 16 October 2016, the British parliament's Home Affairs Select Committee, which had earlier interrogated Corbyn with regard to the Chakrabarti report, issued a 68-page review of its own, in which Corbyn and Chakrabarti were severely criticized and their report dismissed.
Given their mutual antagonism to Israel, it is hard not to see how Corbyn and Milne have been in part responsible for the failure of the Labour party to come to grips with its abysmal record on anti-Semitism and its ongoing inability to resolve its problem with Jews. Milne is not just Corbyn's mouthpiece. Alex Whickham, writing in the popular glossy men's magazine, GQ, comments that "it has been remarked that they share the same worldview 'almost to the letter'. They are both veterans of the anti-war left, and for decades shared platforms at rallies, eulogising Latin American socialism, fighting the 'neoliberal consensus' arm in arm." Whickham goes on to say that Milne is a powerful figure on the Left:
In just a few short months, he [Milne] has forged a reputation as one of the most powerful men in Westminster. He is as loathed by some of his own MPs as he is revered by the hard left. He is feared as a brutally uncompromising, if inexperienced and error-prone, political operator. He is the intellectually brilliant right-hand man of a Labour leader who is completely in thrall to him. It has been a remarkable journey for a dissident writer on the fringes of British political life to rise to a position of almost unrivalled authority in Her Majesty's Opposition.
Just to top off this indigestible pudding, George Galloway, the demagogue and outspoken anti-Zionist, known for embracing Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, considers Milne to be his "closest friend".
*Dr. Denis MacEoin is an Irish and British citizen, an Islamic studies academic, and a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Gatestone Institute.
[1] For a broader discussion of Israel-linked anti-Semitism see Kenneth Marcus, The Definition of Anti-Semitism, Oxford University Press, 2015, chapter 6, 'Anti-Zionism and Anti-Semitism, pp. 146-190.
© 2016 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.

Jostling for positions at the end of Obama presidency
Chris Doyle/Al Arabiya/October 26/16
One of the tensest periods of the Middle East political cycle such as it is, are the dying months of a second term US president. Right now, there are just 85 days left of the current presidency. It ratchets up uncertainties and creates opportunities for those parties who seek to profit from American electoral distractions and a President leaking authority day-by-day. European diplomats in particular become edgy hoping to survive this transition and herald a new administration that is engaged and credible. Imagine if the 20th amendment had never been passed in 1933, these terrified statesmen would still have to wait until 4 March for a new President to be inaugurated. Go back three years, think of the virtual shut down of the US government and the odds were that Barack Obama would have had a long run-in as a lame duck president. Yet the reality is that even in his last few years he has achieved some notable results not least on Iran and Cuba. It is Congress that has proved incapable of halting much of the White House’s program and whose popularity has dipped. A significant economic recovery has helped the president as well as the paucity of high-quality candidates for either Democrats and Republics, so Obama’s approval ratings have approached a healthy 52 percent akin to Ronald Reagan’s. This is a fair achievement given that the US is so clearly divided and many Donald Trump supporters do not even think he is American. Remarkably he is a genuine asset to the Clinton campaign not a liability as George W Bush was to Mitt Romney in 2012. Bush was a marginal force, close to a political irrelevance in his last year of office with just a 27 percent approval rating in his final month in office. So as lame ducks go (technically he only becomes one on 9 November when his successor is elected), Obama is still able to walk the walk if not run.
The clock is ticking both for Obama to ring fence his legacy and for actors in the Middle East to rearrange the pieces in their favor before recalibrating their relations with Washington in the New Year
Core trends
Other than being predominantly foreign policy oriented, there are typically a few core trends at the end of a Presidential term.
Firstly, the outgoing American President wants to procure his legacy and ensure it is not undermined. For Barack Obama, this would include the restoration of ties with Cuba, the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) and of course, in the Middle East, the Iran nuclear deal. Ensuring Hillary Clinton succeeds him is perhaps the most vital ingredient to permitting all these to survive. The recent climate change deal with China will also require a Clinton Presidency as Trump would enjoy shredding that agreement. Secondly, there is an ungainly race to wrap up unfinished business. For Bill Clinton this was notably the Oslo Accords and the strenuous effort to produce a full and final peace agreement between Israel and the PLO, something Obama has failed miserably at. Obama has several issues he would love to put to rest. The closure of Guantanamo will not happen; guns will not be controlled nor will he have achieved a complete exit from the Middle East. Yet should things go reasonably to plan in Iraq, Mosul may be ISIS-free by the end of the year, although time may be too short for the recapture of Raqqa in Syria even though the US Defense Secretary has announced that an operation may be launched shortly.
No doubt the White House would love to add the capture or killing of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the ISIS leader, to that of Osama bin Laden as a fitting coda to his era. Still it will not be by any measure the destruction of ISIS.
Middle East actors
Thirdly, actors in the Middle East eye up opportunities created by a perceived vacuum in Washington. The most egregious and cynical example of this in recent times was Operation Cast Lead, when Israel initiated a 22-day bombing campaign of Gaza, ending it most conveniently on 18 January 2009, two days before Barack Obama was inaugurated. The new President was mute on the issue. A repeat is not impossible and Palestinians would be wise not to provide Israel with the slightest excuse to take action over the next quarter. Arguably this is being played out now not least in Syria, Iraq and Yemen. Obama’s authority domestically may not have plummeted but internationally rival powers see things differently. Vladimir Putin of Russia has spent the last year confident that the 44th President would not be an obstacle to his military intervention in Syria no matter how intense Russian attacks were.
For all the bluster at the United Nations no genuine pressure has been brought to bear on Moscow. Obama may rue Libya as his greatest failure but Syria might top most observers’ lists by some distance. But Russia is not the only state to have grown more assertive. Turkey’s military forays into both Syria and Iraq demonstrate that President Erdogan aims to ensure Turkish core aims are met, notably by frustrating Kurdish aspirations at home and abroad. Yet on 20 January 2017, the 45th President may not be quite so compliant. The clock is ticking both for Obama to ring fence his legacy and for actors in the Middle East to rearrange the pieces in their favor before recalibrating their relations with Washington in the New Year. It will not be a quiet 85 days.

The real threat is not Donald Trump - but what follows him
Dr. Azeem Ibrahim/Al Arabiya/October 26/16
The last couple of years have been a period of political surprises. Brexit and the rise of Donald Trump as the Republican nominee for President are surely the greatest. But as things stand, reality must take a complete leave of its senses for Hilary Clinton to lose the November election. Yet for all the trepidation that his rise has caused over the past year, the fall of Trump on election day will bring precious little relief. The fundamental problem for American democracy, indeed, for American society in general is that this year’s Trump phenomenon is a mere symptom of a much deeper problem. The problem is that the United States have become such a polarized and fractured society that 40 percent or more of Americans would rather vote for a candidate who actively despises them and throws schoolyard insults at them left, right and centre, than consider voting across the ideological line. And what is worse, everything which we might have thought would disqualify any person from high office: racism, misogyny, vast inherited wealth, a proven track record of deceit and fraud, and last, but by no means least, a strong inclination to believe conspiracy theories. To a very large extent the very traits that have propelled him to the nomination of a major political party in the world’s foremost democracy.
And herein lies the threat to the future of the American republic. Trump speaks for a sizeable minority of American society. And this minority is both unwilling and unable to engage in conversation with the rest of the American society. To be sure, this problem is not solely their own. The perplexion that the Trump phenomenon has caused amongst the “liberal metropolitan elite”, shows that the rest of us are equally bereft of the imagination required to have a meaningful political conversation with Trumpian America. But this is something that the rest of us are at least beginning to fret about. How could we have allowed things to get this way? When did we lose the capacity to talk to our fellow Americans like this? United Sates has always been a divided country: by race, by politics and by ideology. But for most of our history most of us have valued our shared American destiny more than anything else
Deepening radicalization
My worry over the future of the republic stems from the fact that the other side shows no such concern. They are fired up, and the expected defeat of Donald Trump in the election will likely only radicalize them further. This will be a country in which 40 percent of Americans will chant “Lock her up!” about the President, and will believe that she is somewhere between a serial fraudster and the devil. United Sates has always been a divided country: by race, by politics and by ideology. But for most of our history most of us have valued our shared American destiny more than anything else. There has only been one time in the history of the United States where we have been more divided: The Civil War. And the parallels between the people who support Trump and the secessionist South are hard to escape. Where America goes from here, however, is not clear. If someone as thoughtful, diligent and conciliatory as President Obama has not managed to heal the rift in American society, it is hard to imagine who would. And if the Trump bloc manages to find someone even marginally less of a controversial figure to speak for it at the next election, they will become and even more formidable force. Whatever happens, Hilary Clinton’s first priority for her upcoming term is to bring this country back together. And all of us must do our utmost to help re-engage with our fellow Americans. This must be our new national project: if we fail to do this, the price is too dire to contemplate.

Hillary, Wikileaks, Russia – theater of absurd goes viral
Maria Dubovikova/Al Arabiya/October 26/16
“Can people STOP referring to Wikileaks as a news organization. They are a foreign agent, supported by Russia, publishing stolen data,” tweeted Michael McFall, who is considered among the most controversial former US ambassador in Russia. During his tenure in Moscow, McFall was surrounded by controversies and continues to air bombastic tweets. On the other hand, Wikileaks, which was launched 10 years ago, has turned out to be a unique phenomenon. It is redefining modern media by attempting to expose even media outlets, tabloids, and successful channels alongside their big bosses. The website has been publishing leaked documents to bring truth out in the open. The sad state of affairs of our times is that truth has to find its way to the public through questionable ways and instruments. In case of Wikileaks, most of their documents are accessed either via hacking or are supplied by whistleblowers.
All these years Wikileaks has been revealing a lot of classified information on numerous subjects related to foreign and domestic policies of countries. Wikileaks publisher and journalists have won many awards. In 2015, it was nominated for the UN Mandela Prize and was nominated for six years in a row, from 2010 to 2015, for the Nobel Peace Prize. The sad state of affairs of our times is that truth has to find its way to the public through questionable ways and instruments
In an interview to Der Spiegel recently, Wikileaks founder, Julian Assange said that Wikileaks gives platform to the most persecuted documents in the world and that it constantly struggles with censorship and lies. The website has sympathizers as well as those who work for it all over the world. These people, according to Assange, just want to know the truth and spread it as they are aware of the lies that are serving the interest of political figures. Whosoever has visited Wikileaks knows that it is possible to submit documents directly to the website. Moreover, any accusation related to leaks should also take into account the global network of hackers that are always active.
Election fever
The ongoing presidential campaign in the United States has been the most controversial in living memory. It can be argued that both the candidates hardly deserve to enter the Oval office and lead the country. Even Hillary Clinton has dirty hands when it comes to campaign financing and Middle East policy. The leak of her emails has added to this “unreliability” factor. Trump, on the other hand, is a controversial figure who seems totally incapable of controlling himself. His campaign has been a bundle of scandals and even Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov made Christine Amanpour blush and laugh with his rather unexpected comment on it. Both candidates have also dragged Kremlin into their campaigns. Hillary accused Russian hackers of leaking her e-mails, which led to the American media trying to bring spotlight on Russian influence on the US elections. Questions have also been raised about Trump’s affiliation with Putin with several conspiracy theories doing the rounds. Americans should understand that for Russia, Hillary coming to power will be preferable to a Trump victory. Both the candidates have practically the same declared foreign policy approach. Hillary is predictable and calculated while Trump is unpredictable and hotheaded. The US nuclear arsenal with him in power can be extremely dangerous. In this tussle between two candidates Wikileaks seems to have gone to the Donald Trump side with the publication of material against Hillary. The website has threatened more damaging material, which could possibly ruin her chances. As soon as some documents were released, it was reported that Assange’s Internet connection was cut off. It was around the same time that the media started blaming Wikileaks for becoming a Kremlin project. The demonization of Russia and Europe is rising in the US and Wikileaks is becoming too dangerous for Hillary Clinton. An effort is hence being made to muffle the voice of Wikileaks to protect Hillary and secure her chances of winning the election. However, this campaign apparently won’t stop with the end of presidential campaign.