LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
August 03/15

Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
http://www.eliasbejjaninews.com/newsbulletins05/english.august03.15.htm

Bible Quotation For Today/Conspiracy to Kill Paul
Acts of the Apostles 23/12-22: "In the morning the Jews joined in a conspiracy and bound themselves by an oath neither to eat nor drink until they had killed Paul. There were more than forty who joined in this conspiracy. They went to the chief priests and elders and said, ‘We have strictly bound ourselves by an oath to taste no food until we have killed Paul. Now then, you and the council must notify the tribune to bring him down to you, on the pretext that you want to make a more thorough examination of his case. And we are ready to do away with him before he arrives.’Now the son of Paul’s sister heard about the ambush; so he went and gained entrance to the barracks and told Paul. Paul called one of the centurions and said, ‘Take this young man to the tribune, for he has something to report to him.’So he took him, brought him to the tribune, and said, ‘The prisoner Paul called me and asked me to bring this young man to you; he has something to tell you.’ The tribune took him by the hand, drew him aside privately, and asked, ‘What is it that you have to report to me?’He answered, ‘The Jews have agreed to ask you to bring Paul down to the council tomorrow, as though they were going to inquire more thoroughly into his case. But do not be persuaded by them, for more than forty of their men are lying in ambush for him. They have bound themselves by an oath neither to eat nor drink until they kill him. They are ready now and are waiting for your consent.’ So the tribune dismissed the young man, ordering him, ‘Tell no one that you have informed me of this.’

LCCC Latest analysis, editorials from miscellaneous sources published on August 02-03/15
Israel’s hysterical self-blame spree will fuel more terror and violence: Not everyone is guilty/DEBKAfile/August 02/15
The idea of reconciliation with Iran is fruitless/Abdulrahman al-Rashed/Al Arabiya/August 02/15
Who can defeat ISIS/Abdallah Schleifer/Al ARabiya/August 02/15
Ayatollah publishes book calling to wipe out Israel, give Iran full reign in the Middle East/JPOST.COM STAFF/August 02/15
Turkey and ISIS/JPOST EDITORIAL/August 02/15
Column One: Obama strikes again/CAROLINE B. GLICK/J.Post/August 02/15
Christians Burn While Pope Worries about “Worldly” Matters/Muslim Persecution of Christians, June 2015/Raymond Ibrahim/Gatestone Institute/August 02/15
George Deek is an Arab in a Jewish state and Christian in a predominantly Muslim Arab world—and he recognizes that his multilayered identity is an asset/ Adi Schwartz/Tablet/August 02/15

LCCC Bulletin titles for the Lebanese Related News published on August 02-03/15
The Agenda For Lebanon/Elie Aoun/August 02/15
Wildfires in Several Regions as Civil Defense Warns over Heat Wave
Families of Arsal Captives Mark One Year of their Kidnapping
Lebanon Submits Official Request to Extend UNIFIL’s Term
Army Destroys Vehicle Transporting Jihadists on Arsal Outskirts
Gemayel: Some Sides Pushing Lebanon to Suicide through ‘Emptying’ State Institutions

LCCC Bulletin Miscellaneous Reports And News published on August 02-03/15
Two Turkish Soldiers Killed in 'PKK Suicide Attack'
Egypt Court Again Postpones Verdict in Jazeera Reporters' Retrial
Canada Concerned by Delay of Mohamed Fahmy Trial
 Netanyahu shuns peace because he wants another intifada,' Abbas tells Meretz MKs
Kerry tries to bolster Egyptian ties damaged after Morsi ouster
Amal Clooney in last minute legal bid to save Qaddafi's son
Israel to detain Jewish militant suspects without trial
Egypt: ISIS offshoot leader killed in shootout
UAE to try 41 on charges of seeking ‘Caliphate’
Saudi citizen killed in Yemen border shelling
Turkey denies hitting civilians in airstrikes
New Taliban leader vows to continue insurgency
Pakistan claims killing of major al-Qaeda commander in country
Italy coast guard rescues 1,800 sea migrants, five found dead

Links From Jihad Watch Web site For Today
Islamic State in West Africa slits the throats of 16 Christian fishermen
Muslim who “radicalized” Garland jihadi is a “computer geek” from UK
Obama’s $500 million 50-man “moderate” army: half already dead, captured, out of action
Lackawanna, NY Muslims fear “Islamophobia” after arrest of jihadist
UK Muslima who joined Islamic State was “radicalized” at London mosque
Police warn of No-Go Zones in Germany
Rutgers prof says US is worse than the Islamic State, then complains of “death threats”

The Agenda For Lebanon
Elie Aoun/August 02/15
We should not ask about the causes or reasons for current political confrontations in Lebanon. Rather, we should ask: what change is intended from the confrontations. Then, we realize that all sides have the same agenda. Whether it is a “garbage crisis” or a “presidential crisis,” Europe is intended to be the beneficiary. The crisis is created, and in time, a European “solution” will be implemented to “closely integrate“ Lebanon with Europe.
The European Agenda For Lebanon
Many American, British, and western politicians referred to the creation of a “New World Order“ under the United Nations. One step towards the intended centralized world governance is the creation of regional unions or alliances -- such as the European Union.
Lebanon, Syria, and Israel are members of the “European Neighborhood Policy“ (ENP), and the “Union for the Mediterranean” (referred to as “Euro-Mediterranean Partnership“).
ENP’s purpose is to “tie” its members to the European Union. In other words, Lebanon, Syria, and/or Israel could “one day become either a member state of the European Union, or more closely integrated with the European Union.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_for_the_Mediterranean
While some Lebanese politicians preach hatred against the Syrian regime and others preach enmity towards Israel, they all share the same regional membership and have the same regional agenda. Eventually, any animosity between them is orchestrated to advance regional interests. For example, in 2005, both Hezballah and its Lebanese political opponents rejected plans aimed at finding a solution to the militant group. The absence of a Lebanese solution led to the 2006 war which resulted in the deployment of 15,000 foreign UNIFIL troops on Lebanese soil -- most of whom are European. This deployment was fully consented to by Hezballah and its Lebanese opponents. In other words, both sides rejected Lebanese solutions intentionally to pave the way for regional “solutions.”Today, the same strategy is being pursued by both political camps.
At a June 25, 2015 ENP conference, Lebanon’s Foreign Minister called for a “real partnership” and “greater political assistance.” The Daily Star newspaper quoted a source saying that “Lebanon wants the [ENP] to be given a more political dimension” because the country is “passing through a very delicate phase.” http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Lebanon-News/2015/Jun-25/303670-lebanon-demands-political-support-from-eu-policy-group.ashx
Of course, this “very delicate phase” is created by Lebanese political camps on both sides to eventually justify foreign “political assistance” to resolve matters which they themselves could resolve but refuse to do so.
Within two days of becoming a Prime Minister, Former P.M. Saad Hariri expressed support to the Mediterranean union, in a speech before a similar group. Former President Michel Sleiman expressed the same during his presidential visit to Spain.
The Islamic Agenda For Lebanon
Former Mufti Mohammad Rashid Qabbani stated that a “New Order is coming and no one could stop it.” No one asked him what he meant.
The terrorist group Daesh or ISIS seeks to establish a regional “Islamic State.”
Hezbollah's Chief Nasrallah stated in 1988 that Lebanon should be part of "the Greater Islamic Republic."
http://pamelageller.com/2013/06/hezballah-chief-hassan-nasrallah.html/
Hezballah’s political opponent, Sheikh Ali Al-Amine said: “What prevents the Islamic nations from creating an Islamic Union among themselves (similar to the European Union)! ”
 http://al-amine.org/uploads/9795_1749_3639.pdf
It is evident that Daesh, Hezbollah, and their opponents have the same ideology -- creating some type of a regional Islamic union.
The real objective for the mostly Sunni refugees in Lebanon is to drastically increase the level of Sunnis in the country -- to facilitate the country’s absorption into a region the vast majority of which is Sunni.
The “solutions” to the refugees’ issue remain slogans intended for public appeasement and never get implemented even by those who publicly oppose the refugee situation and have good relations with the Syrian regime to implement their own solutions.
THe Vatican Agenda For Lebanon
Maronite Patriarch Rahi stated in his first speech as a Patriarch that “the purpose of the Vatican Synod for the Middle East is to put the region under the banner of Mary.” No one asked the Patriarch what he meant by the “banner of Mary” -- which reflects some type of unity (geographical or spiritual) under one banner.
The real Mary, mother of Jesus, never had a political or a geographical ambition. The Patriarch is required to explain what he meant, especially after the losses suffered by Christians in the aftermath of the Synod.
What could the “banner of Mary” mean?
On December 8, 1955, on the Catholic Feast of The Immaculate Conception, the Council of Europe adopted the Flag of Europe. The designer of the flag, Arsene Heitz, later revealed to a French magazine that the flag (twelve stars on a blue background) was designed exactly the way it is represented in traditional iconography of the image of the Immaculate Conception (where twelve stars are shown around the head of Mary, with a blue background).
Could the European Union flag be “the banner of Mary” the Patriarch is referring to? If that is the case, then the Vatican agenda is the same as the European agenda. After all, Europe is under Vatican authority. The Marian symbol of twelve stars is on every banknote and every license plate in Europe.
Is there a conflict between the “Islamic Union” and the “Marian Union”? Not at all. Even if Muslims rule, it does not mean that they are not ruled from Europe. After all, the ENP already has nine Arab nations as members in it.
Conclusion
Some sources claim that the foreign agenda is to divide certain Arab nations. Even if divisions take place, the final objective is not to establish smaller independent states -- but to unify these states under some form of a federation.
It took two world wars and a fifty years cold war to finally achieve a “European Union.” It is not clear how many wars it will take to achieve some type of a “Union” in the Arab world.
Proponents of the “union” idea fail to realize that it is not the “union” by itself that benefited a nation such as the United States, which is a union of 50 states. What is most relevant is the principles upon which the union is founded, and the principles that guide each of the member states.
It is illogical to form a union among failed, corrupt, and dictatorial Arab states and expect them to become prosperous overnight as a result of the “union.” Before more Arabs are killed and before more Arab nations are destroyed, could the radicals and moderates alike provide the laws, constitution, and principles of the “union” they call for? Where is the benefit in killing and destroying for the purpose of a “union” that carries the seed of its own destruction? The alternative is to fortify existing independent states with viable legal and economic principles.
Many Lebanese political leaders and the top clergy -- Christian, Muslim, and Druze -- are pursuing a regional agenda, by policy and practice. The proof is in their failure to expose the lies and deceptions.
The Arab confrontations (whether political, such as in Lebanon, or military, such as in Syria) are intended to deplete the resources and sovereignty of independent states, to facilitate greater foreign dominance.
The revolution required is for true patriots and nationalists within each Lebanese political party and religious institution to replace the “regionalists“ or “internationalists” in each party’s or institution’s hierarchy.

Wildfires in Several Regions as Civil Defense Warns over Heat Wave
Naharnet/02 August/15/Several wildfires erupted Sunday in many areas across Lebanon as the country started to be engulfed by a scorching heat wave. In the Beirut suburb of Hadath, a blaze ripped through a forestland on the peripheries of the Lebanese University complex, state-run National News Agency said. Residents were urging the Civil Defense to intervene and “prevent the spread of the flames to the nearby houses,” NNA said. Meanwhile, a wildfire renewed in the forests of the Akkar town of Baino as temperatures soared in the region. “Five firefighting vehicles from the Bizbina, Akkar al-Atiqa, al-Bireh and Deir Janine have headed to the location,” NNA said. The flames were mainly raging in the Wadi Sahel forest, after a helicopter doused them two days ago, the agency added. “A Lebanese army patrol has also inspected the location of the wildfires and a military helicopter will be dispatched to contribute to the firefighting efforts, given the inaccessibility of the site,” NNA said. Also in the North, Civil Defense firefighters were struggling to extinguish flames that erupted in the outskirts of the Akkar town of Shikhlar, near the town of Minjez, Voice of Lebanon radio (100.5) said. In the South governorate, crews from the Civil Defense, Lebanese army and the U.N. peacekeeping force were trying to put out a fire that had erupted in the morning in the outskirts of the Bint Jbeil District town of Ain Ibl, the agency reported. The Civil Defense Directorate General had warned Saturday that the hot weather could contribute to the eruption of wildfires, urging citizens to be cautious and to avoid using fireworks and dumping garbage and glass bottles in forests. The directorate cited a statement by the meteorological department of the Civil Aviation Administration that had warned that all Lebanese regions would be engulfed by a heat wave that would start Sunday and continue until mid-week. Lebanon witnessed a similar heat wave in May. Scorching temperatures are normal this time of year in the Middle East, but the current one has been described as unprecedented. In Iraq, the unbearable heat prompted authorities to declare a mandatory four-day holiday.

Families of Arsal Captives Mark One Year of their Kidnapping
Naharnet/02 August/15/The relatives of servicemen kidnapped by Islamist groups from the northeastern border town of Arsal in 2014 on Saturday the first-year anniversary of their abduction, reported the daily al-Mustaqbal on Sunday. They chose Saturday to mark the occasion because it coincided with Army Day. The families demanded officials to speed up resolving the file “to reach its happy ending.”Prime Minister Tammam Salam had sent Higher Relief Council chief Mohammed Kheir as an envoy to reassure them that the case of their loved ones is at the heart of his concerns. The relatives meanwhile reiterated their accusations against the state of not doing enough to release the captives. “We wish that the servicemen had died on the field, instead of dying a little every day,” they said. The servicemen were kidnapped by the Islamic State and al-Nusra Front groups on August 2, 2014, in the wake of clashes in Arsal. A few of them have since been released, four were executed, while the rest remain held. Their captors have made demands for the release of Islamist inmates in Lebanon in exchange for the servicemen.

Lebanon Submits Official Request to Extend UNIFIL’s Term
Naharnet/02 August/15/Lebanon has submitted an official request to the United Nations chief to extend the term of the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon, reported al-Mustaqbal daily on Sunday. The request was made in accordance to U.N. Security Council resolution 1701 and without making alterations to UNIFIL’s mission. Its term ends on August 31. The request, made to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, calls for extending the term by one year. Diplomatic sources revealed to the daily that international contacts had been taking place away from the spotlight in order to extend the mandate of the peacekeeping force. There is currently consensus on the extension and it should not face any obstacles, they added. On whether the memo sent to the U.N. asks for the deployment of the international force along the Lebanese-Syrian border, the sources explained that despite Lebanon’s demands for it, no official government request was made and therefore no U.N. resolution over the matter will be issued. UNIFIL was created by U.N. Security Council resolutions 425 and 426 of March 19, 1978, to confirm Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon, restore international peace and security and assist the Lebanese government in restoring its effective authority in the area. Following the July 2006 conflict, the Security Council, by its resolution 1701, significantly enhanced UNIFIL’s mandate and capacity and assigned it additional tasks working closely with the Lebanese Armed Forces in southern Lebanon. Today, UNIFIL comprises almost 12,000 troops from 38 countries and it is supported by over 1,000 civilian national and international staff. This includes about 800 naval personnel of the UNIFIL Maritime Task Force deployed along the Lebanese coast.The March 14 alliance has since the eruption of the revolt in Syria demanded the deployment of the peacekeeping force along the Lebanese-Syrian border to tackle the flow of extremists to and from Syria.

Army Destroys Vehicle Transporting Jihadists on Arsal Outskirts
Naharnet /02 August/15/The Lebanese army destroyed on Saturday a vehicle transporting gunmen on the outskirts of the northeastern border town of Arsal, the state-run National News Agency reported. NNA said in the army's operation took place in Khirbet Daoud. The threat of jihadists, deployed on the porous Lebanese-Syrian border, rose a year ago when al-Nusra Front and Islamic State group fighters overran Arsal and engaged in heavy battles with the army. The gunmen took with them hostages from the military and police and later executed four of them. Since then, the jihadists are carrying out several infiltration attempts but troops, which are heavily deployed in the area, are confronting them.

Army Arrests Dozens of Syrians in Akkar for Lacking Legal Documents
Naharnet /02 August/15/The army carried out on Sunday raids against Syrian refugee encampments in the northern region of Akkar, reported the National News Agency. It said that the military arrested at least 30 Syrians on the outskirts of the town of Kfartoun for lacking proper legal documents. They were detained in the Jabal Akroum area. The army frequently carries out raids against Syrian encampments in search of wanted suspects and to verify the refugees’ proper residence in Lebanon.

Gemayel: Some Sides Pushing Lebanon to Suicide through ‘Emptying’ State Institutions
Naharnet /02 August/15/The former chief of the Kataeb Party Amin Gemayel accused Hizbullah and its ally the Free Patriotic Movement of crippling the functioning of the government through their tactics, saying that the paralysis of the state ends with an initiative on their part, reported the pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat on Sunday. He told the daily: “Some sides are pushing the country towards suicide through their efforts to empty state institutions.” “Given their insistence to obstruct government work, after imposing a vacuum in the presidency, the cabinet is practically resigned because it is no longer able to take any decision,” he remarked. “We are passing through extraordinary circumstances that obligate ministers to perform their duties and to take extraordinary measures to revitalize state functioning,” Gemayel said. “We are unfortunately witnessing excessive acts that are pushing us towards fatal vacuum,” he noted.“Mistaken are those who believe that the vacuum will push us to change the current system,” he added. “Such measures require the minimum amount of consensus that is completely missing over minor issues at the moment, so how can it be reached over major national ones?” he wondered to Asharq al-Awsat. Lebanon has been without a president since May 2014 when the term of Michel Suleiman ended without the election of a successor. Hizbullah’s Loyalty to the Resistance and MP Michel Aoun’s Change and Reform blocs have been boycotting presidential elections session over a dispute with other political parties on a compromise candidate. The Change and Reform bloc’s insistence to address the government’s decision-making mechanism during cabinet sessions has led to the obstruction of its ability to address other pressing issues.

Two Turkish Soldiers Killed in 'PKK Suicide Attack'
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/02 August/15/Two Turkish soldiers were killed and at least two dozen other troops were wounded early Sunday in a suicide attack blamed on Kurdish militants, as Ankara kept up its air campaign against the rebels' bases in northern Iraq. The attack in the Dogubayazit district of the eastern Agri province is the first time Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants have been accused of staging a suicide attack in the current crisis, amid an escalating cycle of violence that appears to have no end in sight. Ankara has launched a two-pronged "anti-terror" offensive against Islamic State (IS) jihadists in Syria and PKK militants based in northern Iraq after a wave of attacks inside Turkey. But so far the bombardments have focused far more on the Kurdish rebels -- with Turkish official media claiming that 260 suspected PKK members have been killed so far -- and the militants have retaliated inside Turkey. There is also growing controversy over possible civilian casualties in the Turkish bombings, and the local Kurdish authorities in northern Iraq on Saturday urged the PKK to spare civilians. The suspected PKK suicide bomber drove a tractor laden with explosives up to the military station in the Dogubayazit district, the official Anatolia news agency reported, quoting the local governor's office. Two soldiers were killed and 24 were wounded. The soldiers were deployed with the local Jandarma (Gendarmerie), a branch of the army that looks after internal security in Turkey. In a separate incident also blamed on the PKK, one Turkish soldier was killed and four were wounded early Sunday when a mine exploded as their convoy was travelling on a road in the Midyat district of the Mardin province in southeastern Turkey, Anatolia said. The PKK's insurgency for greater rights and powers for Turkey's Kurdish minority has claimed tens of thousands of lives since it began more than 30 years ago. The current fighting has left a 2013 ceasefire in tatters.
According to an AFP toll, at least 17 members of the security forces have now been killed in attacks blamed on the PKK since the fresh crisis erupted last week. The attacks are the most severe in Turkey since the 2013 ceasefire, which raised hopes of finding a peace deal and sealing a historic reconciliation between the modern Turkish state with Kurds, by far its largest minority. Turkey's Kurdish militants have sought cover in neighboring northern Iraq where the presence of the PKK has long been tolerated in Iraq's Kurdish-ruled region. More fighters also crossed into the area from Turkey as part of the 2013 ceasefire. Yet the PKK's relations with the autonomous Iraqi Kurdish authorities in Arbil have been beset by tensions, while Iraqi Kurds have expanded economic cooperation and relations with Turkey. The office of the region's president Massud Barzani said in a statement Saturday that the PKK rebels must "keep the battlefield away from the Kurdistan region" to prevent civilian casualties. Pro-Kurdish news media said that at least nine civilians were killed early Saturday in a Turkish air strike on a Kurdish village in northern Iraq. The Turkish foreign ministry promised a "full investigation" into the claims but also accused the PKK of using civilians as "human shields".The government has vowed to press on with the over week-long bombing campaign against the PKK, saying late Saturday that "for the peace and security of our people, the fight against terror organizations will continue without interruption."
The impact of the bombing campaign -- which has seen daily raids by dozens of Turkish F-16s on the PKK's holdouts in remote mountain territory in northern Iraq -- remains unclear. Anatolia published a report late Saturday claiming that the group's leadership has split into three to protect itself from further air strikes. One group will stay at its headquarters on Qandil Mountain in northern Iraq, one has gone to a Kurdish-controlled region in Syria and another, including top PKK leader Murat Karayilan, has fled to Iran, it said.

Egypt Court Again Postpones Verdict in Jazeera Reporters' Retrial
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/02 August/15/An Egyptian court on Sunday postponed for a second time its verdict in the retrial of three Al-Jazeera journalists, rescheduling it for August 29. The court had already put off its much anticipated verdict last Thursday because the judge was reportedly ill. Another judge at Sunday's hearing said the verdict was being delayed again because other defendants in the trial could not be brought to the court room from their cells. Australian Peter Greste, Canadian Mohamed Fahmy and Egyptian Baher Mohamed were jailed last year for "spreading false news" that supported the blacklisted Muslim Brotherhood during their coverage of the turmoil after the army ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013. Fahmy, Baher and several other defendants in the trial were released on bail at the start of the retrial early this year, but at least one codefendant has been jailed in a separate case. The Al-Jazeera case has deeply embarrassed the government of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who has said he wishes the reporters were never put on trial. "Verdict postponed until August 29th The audacity & continuous disrespect to our rights is unprecedented!" Fahmy tweeted minutes after the judge postponed the verdict. A guilty verdict for the journalists may further embarrass the government, as it resumes close ties with Washington after a diplomatic rift in 2013. On Sunday, U.S. Secretary of State Johan Kerry and his Egyptian counterpart Sameh Shoukry launched strategic talks in Cairo to repair ties. Fahmy and Greste, who has since been deported, received seven-year prison terms in the original trial, while producer Mohamed was jailed for 10 years. The case further strained Egypt's ties with Western countries which had condemned a deadly crackdown on Morsi's supporters.An appeals court ordered a retrial, saying the original judgment lacked evidence against the three journalists, who work for the Doha-based network's English channel. The trial had come against the backdrop of a diplomatic spat between Egypt and Qatar, which supports Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood movement.

Canada Concerned by Delay of Mohamed Fahmy Trial
August 2, 2015 - Ottawa, Ontario - Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada
The Honourable Lynne Yelich, Minister of State (Foreign Affairs and Consular), today released the following statement:
“We remain deeply concerned with Mr. Fahmy’s current situation and are disappointed at yet another delay in his trial. We hope to see no further delays occur.
“Canada calls on the Egyptian government to use all tools at its disposal to allow for the resolution of Mr. Fahmy’s case and allow for his immediate return to Canada. Canada continues to advocate for the same treatment of Mr. Fahmy as other foreign nationals have received. “The Canadian Government including the Prime Minister and I have been raising this case with Egyptian officials at the highest level for some time, and will continue to do so. Officials are providing consular assistance to Mr. Fahmy to ensure his wellbeing.”

 Netanyahu shuns peace because he wants another intifada,' Abbas tells Meretz MKs
By ARIK BENDER/J.Post/08/02/2015/Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is shunning Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in peace talks "because he wants another intifada," the Palestinian leader charged on Sunday. Abbas said that despite the horrific arson attack in the village of Duma on Friday, his security forces will continue to coordinate their activities with Israel while working to prevent any acts of vengeance. A delegation of lawmakers from the dovish Meretz Party received reassurances from Abbas in Ramallah on Sunday that as long as he was in charge, his regime would make every effort to prevent terrorism against Israelis."The attack in Duma was a crime against humanity," the Palestinian leader was quoted as telling the Meretz members. "We cannot say this was a crime committed by a crazy man. We need to view this as a terrorist attack. Condemnations and expressions of sorrow are not enough. There need to be genuine steps taken [by Israel] against terrorists who burn families."
Meretz chair Zehava Gal-On said she spoke on behalf of the Israeli public in expressing its "shock" over the attack. Abbas then proceeded to criticize Netanyahu, accusing the Israeli leader of refusing to engage in sincere peace talks. "Why does Netanyahu say there is no partner for peace?" Abbas said. "Is it because he has no interest in peace? His best weapon is the intifada." Abbas told the Meretz lawmakers that Ramallah is opposed to a boycott of Israel proper. Instead, it seeks a boycott of the settlements, the Palestinian leader said.
"What do you want me to do?" Abbas told a group of MKs. "As long as I'm sitting in this chair, I will not allow harm to come to Israelis. I will continue fighting terrorism and violence with all my might." The Palestinian leader told his Israeli guests that the PA's security apparatus was "keeping its eyes open during this tense time" - just two days after the arson attack by suspected Jewish extremists that killed a Palestinian toddler near Nablus. "As long as I'm here, there won't be an Islamic State or a Nusra Front [in the West Bank]," he said. Abbas told the Meretz delegation that his advanced age needs to be factored into the regional calculus. "Time is running out," he said. "I'm 80 years old. As long as I'm here, the authority will continue to act against attempts to harm Jews."Nonetheless, Abbas said that Israel's continued settlement activity poses a problem.
"Sometimes I dream that I wake up in the morning and find a settlement right here in the Muqata," he said. "What possibilities are we left with [if building continues]?"Abbas told the Meretz MKs of a meeting he briefly held with Interior Minister Silvan Shalom.
"[Palestinian chief negotiator] Saeb Erekat asked me to meet with Silvan Shalom," Abbas said. "I told him that the way I see it, ahlan wasahlan, I'm willing to meet with anyone, even [Naftali] Bennett."The Meretz delegation included Gal-On as well as other senior party officials, among them former MK Mussi Raz. Esawi Frej, the lone Arab lawmaker in the Meretz faction, described an atmosphere of "desperation." "The meeting today was a difficult one," Frej said. "There was desperation in the air, an understanding that we are approaching the point in time in which it will be too late [for a two-state solution]."
"Abu Mazen (Abbas' nom de guerre) is doing all he can to maintain quiet, but he told us of his fear that if Israel is not quick to act, it is uncertain that it will have someone to work with once he is gone," he said. "Freezing of settlements and releasing the fourth tranche of Palestinian prisoners as Israel had promised is not a steep price for exploiting what is perhaps the final opportunity to return to the negotiating table," Frej said. "Unfortunately, Abu Mazen gives off the impression of a partner, but he has no partner on the other side."
"The Netanyahu government doesn't really want to talk," he said. "It's not really ready to make the concessions that can lead to calm, and this reality is sad and deflating."

Kerry tries to bolster Egyptian ties damaged after Morsi ouster
By REUTERS/J.Post/08/02/2015/The United States and Egypt are returning to a "stronger base" in their relationship despite tensions and concerns over human rights, US Secretary of State John Kerry said on Sunday at the first strategic dialogue between the two sides since 2009. US-Egyptian relations cooled considerably after Islamist president Mohamed Morsi was ousted in 2013 by the military amid mass protests against his rule. Egypt's Foreign Minister Sameh Shukri told a joint news conference with Kerry in Cairo that his country had no major disagreements with the United States but that there were "differences in points of view over some issues, which is natural." Despite US concerns about Egypt's lagging democratic reforms, Cairo remains one of its closest security allies in the Middle East, an increasingly crucial role in a region beset by turmoil in Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Libya. Kerry said the talks had tackled increased cooperation on border security with neighbouring Libya. Islamic State militants have exploited a power vacuum in Libya to gain a foothold there, creating worries of a potential spillover of violence. Earlier this year, Islamic State militants in Libya beheaded 21 Egyptian Christians, prompting Egyptian air strikes on militant targets. Kerry also said he and Shukri had agreed on the importance of ensuring "free, fair and transparent" parliamentary elections due by the end of the year after long delays. While Washington has prized former general Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who led Morsi's overthrow and was elected to succeed him, for the stability he has brought to Egypt, it has also cautiously criticised Egypt's human rights record and a crackdown on Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood. The Egyptian government says the Brotherhood is a threat to national security and denies all allegations of abuse, but its crackdown has extended to liberal activists and journalists. A Cairo court on Sunday postponed giving its verdict in the retrial of Al Jazeera television journalists accused of aiding a terrorist organisation, a reference to the Muslim Brotherhood. Shukri said no journalists in Egypt were in jail over their reporting. A prison census conducted by the Committee to Protect Journalists on June 1 which found at least 18 Egyptian journalists were being held in jail for reasons related to their reporting.
A government source at the time said that the numbers were not accurate.
EXPAND SECURITY RELATIONSHIP
Cairo and Washington said they had also agreed to explore opportunities to expand a security relationship. Earlier this year, US President Barack Obama lifted a hold on a supply of arms to Cairo, authorising deliveries of US weapons valued at over $1.3 billion.
The United States delivered eight F-16 Block 52 aircraft to Egypt last week. Egypt has been fighting an insurgency based in the Sinai Peninsula that has killed hundreds of soldiers and police since Morsi's removal. The most active group is Sinai Province, an affiliate of Islamic State. Kerry also said a nuclear deal between world powers and Iran agreed last month would make the region safer. "There can be absolutely no question that the Vienna plan, if implemented, will make Egypt and all the countries of this region safer than they otherwise would be," Kerry said.

Amal Clooney in last minute legal bid to save Qaddafi's son
By Staff writer | Al Arabiya News/Sunday, 2 August 2015/Amal Clooney, barrister and wife of Hollywood actor George Clooney, has made an 11th-hour bid to save the lives of Libya's Saif al-Islam Qaddafi and former intelligence chief Abdullah Al-Senussi after a court sentenced them to death, reported Britain's Daily Mail on Saturday. The son of the former Libyan president, Muammar Qaddafi, and al-Senussi were tried in a Tripoli court, which found them both guilty for crimes against the Libyan people.
Clooney reportedly had a leading role in the bid for the intelligence chief to have his case heard by judges from the International Criminal Court, which has no death penalty. According to the Daily Mail, last night her London chambers called on the U.N. to halt the executions, which are to be carried out by firing squad. Eight others were also sentenced to death over war crimes that include the killings of protesters during the 2011 revolution that ended Qaddafi's rule, including ex-prime minister Baghdadi al-Mahmoudi.

Israel to detain Jewish militant suspects without trial
By Reuters | Occupied Jerusalem/Sunday, 2 August 2015/Israel intends to detain without trial citizens suspected of political violence against Palestinians, government officials said on Sunday following a lethal West Bank arson attack blamed on Jewish militants.The extension to Israelis of so-called "administration detention", a practice commonly applied to Palestinian militant suspects and condemned internationally, laid bare authorities' frustration at failing to curb Jewish ultra-nationalist attacks. Friday's torching of a Palestinian home killed a toddler and seriously hurt his parents and brother, causing an outcry abroad and vows by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to crack down on what he deemed "terrorism" by "criminals in our nation". There was no claim of responsibility for the arson at Duma village, in the occupied West Bank. Graffiti in Hebrew reading "revenge" daubed at the site was consistent with past vandalism and other hate crimes by bands of young Jewish zealots targeting Arabs, Christians, peace activists or Israeli army property. With no arrests yet made for the arson, some Israeli commentators on Sunday questioned the resolve of security services which, when responding to Palestinian attacks, often round up suspects en masse as part of accelerated investigations. Such detainees are sometimes held without trial for months, a measure Israel says is required to prevent further violence in the absence of sufficient evidence to prosecute, or where going to court would risk exposing the identity of secret informants. Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon, who oversees law and order in the West Bank, would now subject any Israelis arrested for the Duma arson or similar incidents in the future to "administrative detention," his spokesman said. "As always, each case of administrative detention will have to be approved by the courts, but by invoking this the minister is taking action consistent with his effort to exact the full measure of the law against these people," the spokesman said. Officials with Israel's Shin Bet security service and Justice Ministry said they were aware of government plans to seek administrative detention for Israeli citizens. According to the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem, 5,442 Palestinians were in detention without trial as of June. The measure, which foreign critics see as a blow to due process of the law, has seldom been imposed by Israel against its own citizens. "To the best of my knowledge, there have been no instances of Israelis being held in administrative detention in recent years," said B'Tselem spokeswoman Sarit Michaeli. Israeli officials say the Jewish zealots elude discovery by operating in small networks that are hard for informants to penetrate, avoiding electronic communications that might be monitored, and clamming up when detained for interrogation.

Egypt: ISIS offshoot leader killed in shootout
By Reuters | Cairo/Sunday, 2 August 2015/Egyptian armed forces killed a leading member of the country's ISIS affiliate in a shootout outside his North Sinai home, the army spokesman said in a statement on Saturday. Selim Suleiman al-Haram, identified in the statement as a leader of the militant group known as Sinai Province, was asked to turn himself in by a group of soldiers that surrounded his house in the town of Sheikh Zuweid, the army said. He refused, opening fire on the troops and attempting to blow himself up before being shot dead, the army said. Egypt is battling an increasingly brazen insurgency in the Sinai Peninsula that has killed hundreds of police officers and soldiers since the army toppled Islamist President Mohammed Morsi in 2013 after mass protests against his rule. President Abdel-Fattah al-Sissi has said militancy poses an existential threat to Egypt, the most populous Arab country. Sinai Province, which has pledged allegiance to Islamic State, claimed responsibility last week for a bombing that the army said killed four soldiers near Rafah, a town on the border with the Gaza Strip. The group claimed responsibility earlier this month for a rocket attack on an Egyptian naval vessel near the coast of Israel and Gaza, less than a week after claiming a bombing in Cairo that heavily damaged the Italian consulate. It also assaulted several military checkpoints in North Sinai, in the fiercest fighting in the region in years.

UAE to try 41 on charges of seeking ‘Caliphate’
AFP, Abu Dhabi/Sunday, 2 August 2015/The United Arab Emirates is to try 41 people on charges of seeking to overthrow the government to set up an ISIS group-style caliphate, prosecutors said on Sunday. Such mass trials on terrorism charges are rare in the UAE which has largely been spared the Islamic militancy that has hit other Arab states. The suspects, who include Emiratis as well as foreigners, are accused of setting up a group "with a terrorist, takfiri (Sunni Muslim extremist) ideology," in a bid to "seize power and establish a caliphate," the prosecutor general said in a statement carried by the official WAM news agency. They are accused of setting up cells to train members in handling weapons and the manufacture of explosives in preparation for attacks on UAE soil. Prosecutors charge that they were "in contact with foreign terrorist organizations... to help them achieve their goals." The UAE is part of the U.S.-led coalition that has been carrying out air strikes against ISIS in Syria since September last year. Last month, it adopted new legislation imposing heavy prison terms or even the death penalty for those convicted of membership of "takfiri" groups. Takfiris regard Muslims who do not follow their extreme interpretation of Islam as apostates punishable by death. It is the ideology of Al-Qaeda as well as ISIS.

Saudi citizen killed in Yemen border shelling
By Reuters | Cairo/Sunday, 2 August 2015/A Saudi citizen was killed in shelling fired across the border from Yemen into the southwest of Saudi Arabia on Sunday, the official PA news agency reported. A shell fell on a house around dawn in Najran province, civil defense department spokesman Ali bin Omair al-Shahran was quoted as saying. SPA did not say who carried out the shelling, but Houthi militias and forces loyal to former Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh have carried out similar attacks since war erupted in Yemen four months ago. A Saudi-led Arab alliance launched a military campaign on March 26 to end Houthi control over much of Yemen and to return President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi from exile.

Turkey denies hitting civilians in airstrikes
By AFP and Reuters | Istanbul/Sunday, 2 August 2015/Turkey's military on Sunday denied allegations that it hit civilians in the village of Zargala during air strikes and said the target was a shelter for Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants."The targets in northern Iraq and inside Turkey are being identified by qualified personnel, based on confirmed visual data and as a result of a very meticulous and detailed study," the military said. It added that an investigation regarding the village in question returned no findings of civilian residential areas within the impact range of the bombardment. Earlier today, two Turkish soldiers were killed and 31 were wounded early on Sunday in a suicide bombing blamed on PKK militants that ripped through their local headquarters in eastern Turkey, reports said. A suicide bomber drove a tractor laden with explosives up to the military station in the Dogubayazit district of the eastern Agri province, the official Anatolia news agency reported, quoting the local governor's office. The soldiers were deployed with the local Jandarma (Gendarmerie), a branch of the army which looks after internal security in Turkey. The attack was blamed on the PKK, which has stepped up attacks against the security forces in the last days as Turkish warplanes bomb its positions in northern Iraq. In a separate incident also blamed on the PKK, one Turkish soldier was killed and four wounded early Sunday when a mine exploded as their convoy was travelling on a road in the Midyat district of the Mardin province in southeastern Turkey, Anatolia said. The PKK's insurgency for greater rights and powers for Turkey's Kurdish minority has claimed tens of thousands of lives since it began more than 30 years ago. The current fighting has left a 2013 ceasefire in tatters. According to an AFP toll, at least 17 members of the security forces have now been killed in attacks blamed on the PKK since the current crisis erupted last week. The attack in Agri province is believed to be the first time the PKK is accused of deploying a suicide bomber in the current phase of the conflict, although it has used the tactic repeatedly in the past. Ten suspected members of the PKK have also lost their lives in clashes during the current surge in tensions, according to Anatolia.

New Taliban leader vows to continue insurgency
The Associated Press, Kabul/Sunday, 2 August 2015/Political uncertainty inside the Taliban has cast doubt on the prospects for an end to the war in Afghanistan. On Saturday the Taliban's controversial new leader vowed to continue fighting while urging unity among his followers in a message aimed at preventing a split in the group between those who want peace and those who still believe they can win. An audio message purportedly from newly elected Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansoor came as cracks in the Taliban's previously united front widened, two days after the group confirmed an Afghan government report that reclusive longtime leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, had died. The 30-minute speech attributed to Mansoor was emailed to The Associated Press by the Taliban's spokesman. It could not be independently verified. In it, the man purported to be Mansoor seemed to be carefully parsing his words to calm internal dissent and solidify his political base inside the Taliban, urging his fighters to remain unified and continue the jihad, or holy war, to establish an Islamic state in Afghanistan. He did not endorse or reject the nascent peace talks with the Afghan government despite the fact that, according to the government, Mansoor has been effectively running the Taliban for more than two years and the group's decision to participate in landmark face-to-face talks in Pakistan last month took place under his leadership. A second round of talks, which has been scheduled to begin Friday in Pakistan, has been indefinitely postponed. “We have to continue our jihad, we shouldn't be suspicious of each other. We should accept each other. Whatever happens must comply with Sharia law, whether that be jihad, or talks, or an invitation to either. Our decisions all must be based on Sharia law,” he said. Mansoor took over the Taliban after the group on Thursday confirmed that Mullah Omar had died and said they elected Mansoor as his successor. The Afghan government announced Wednesday that the reclusive mullah had been dead since April 2013; the Taliban has remained vague on exactly when Mullah Omar died.
Mansoor's first priority seems to be quelling internal opposition to his election. Mullah Omar's son Yacoob has publicly rejected Mansoor's election, which was held in the Pakistani city of Quetta. He said the vote took place among a small clique of Mansoor's supporters and demanded a re-election that includes all Taliban commanders, including those fighting in Afghanistan. “We should keep our unity, we must be united, our enemy will be happy in our separation,” Mansoor purportedly said in the message. “This is a big responsibility for us. This is not the work of one, two or three people. This is all our responsibility to carry on jihad until we establish the Islamic state.” Observers said the coming days should reveal how the Taliban leadership crisis plays out - a process which could have a seismic effect on Afghanistan's political landscape. “There's a lot of unknowns right now, but hopefully within the next few days we would know more about what will be the intentions of the new leadership and if the new leader would be able to keep unity within the Taliban,” said Haroun Mir, a political analyst. If Mansoor fails to appease his fighters and field commanders on the ground, the ultimate beneficiary could be the Islamic State group. The rival Islamic extremist group, which already controls about a third of Syria and Iraq with affiliates in Egypt and Libya, has established a small foothold in Afghanistan and is actively recruiting disillusioned Taliban fighters, according to Afghan government and U.S. military officials. The position of the Afghan government was also unclear, he said, as President Ashraf Ghani - who has made peace a priority of his administration - is in Germany for medical treatment. “We are hopeful that when President Ghani returns to Kabul, he will make a statement about this new event and about the future of the peace process,” Mir said. Mullah Omar was the one-eyed, secretive head of the Taliban, who hosted Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaida in the years leading up to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. He had not been seen in public since fleeing over the border into Pakistan after the 2001 U.S.-led invasion that ousted the Taliban from power. Under Mansoor's shadow leadership, the Taliban has participated in a series of indirect meetings with government representatives, culminating in last month's landmark meeting. But the Taliban has simultaneously intensified its attacks on Afghan security forces, expanding its footprint into the previously peaceful northern provinces after NATO and U.S. troops ended their combat mission and handed over security to local forces at the end of last year. Officials said on Saturday that Taliban gunmen had surrounded a police station in southern Uruzgan province and were holding 70 police officers hostage. The head of the police in Khas Uruzgan district said that five police officers had been killed and four wounded in fighting so far. “If we don't get support then all 70 police will be either dead or captured,” he said. In a separate statement on Saturday, the Taliban refuted media reports that the leader of the Haqqani Network, Jalaluddin Haqqani, had died in eastern Afghanistan a year ago.
“These claims have no basis,” the statement said. It said the leader of one of the country's most brutal insurgent groups, based in Pakistan's tribal belt with links to al-Qaeda, “has been blessed with good health for a long time now and has no troubles currently.”
Like Mullah Omar, Haqqani has been reported dead on a number of occasions, but the reports have not been independently verified. Jalaluddin's son Sirajuddin was elected as the Taliban's deputy to Mansoor - a move possibly aimed at ensuring a steady cash flow from the Haqqani's wealthy backers and appeasing hardliners. The Haqqani Network is considered one of the country's most vicious militant organizations, responsible for complex and well-planned attacks that often involve large numbers of suicide bombers and produce heavy casualties.

Pakistan claims killing of major al-Qaeda commander in country
By AFP | Pakistan/Sunday, 2 August 2015/Pakistani security forces have killed a senior Al-Qaeda commander and detained his wife in an overnight raid on his hideout in the southwestern province of Baluchistan, a provincial minister said Sunday. The security forces also took the couple’s two young daughters into custody during the raid in the Chaghi district. “An important Al-Qaeda commander -- namely Umar Lateef, a Pakistani national -- was killed in an encounter with local security agencies,” provincial home minister Sarfraz Bugti told reporters. The minister said Umar Lateef, his wife Tayyaba alias Fareeha Baji, one brother and two daughters both aged under five had lived in Chaghi for the last 8-10 months after moving from the Afghan border province of Nimruz. “Lateef was a senior commander of Al-Qaeda for Pakistan’s Baluchistan and south Punjab regions,” Bugti said. “His brother Bilal succeeded in escaping during the raid, probably to neighbouring Afghanistan.”Bugti said Punjab province had offered a reward of two million rupees ($20,000) for Lateef and half a million rupees for his wife, who was head of Al-Qaeda’s women’s wing in south Punjab and Baluchistan. The minister said Lateef had established an Al-Qaeda network and was supervising its “terrorist activities and providing travel and logistical facilities to terrorists in both Baluchistan and south Punjab as well as in Afghanistan”.His wife is being interrogated by security officials. Al-Qaeda announced last September it was setting up a chapter in the sub-continent to counter the spread of the rival Islamic State group, which controls a broad swathe of territory in Iraq and Syria. Pakistan launched a major military operation against Taliban and Al-Qaeda-led militants in the northwestern tribal regions in June last year. The operation intensified in December after Taliban militants attacked a school in Peshawar and killed more than 150 people, mostly children. Mailk Ishaq, the leader of an anti-Shiite group behind some of Pakistan’s worst sectarian atrocities, was killed in a shootout with police last week along with 13 other militants, authorities said.

Italy coast guard rescues 1,800 sea migrants, five found dead
By Reuters | Rome/Sunday, 2 August 2015/Italy’s coast guard said about 1,800 migrants were rescued from seven overcrowded vessels on Saturday, while five corpses were found on a large rubber boat carrying 212 others. The dead bodies were found on board at the time of the rescue, a coast guard spokeswoman said on Sunday. The cause of death was not yet known, she said. The Mediterranean has become the world’s most deadly barrier for migrants and refugees, with 3,500 thought to have died at sea last year and almost 2,000 so far this year. Many are fleeing poverty and violence in the Middle East and Africa. While there was no breakdown by nationality of those rescued on Saturday, about a quarter of arrivals this year have come from Eritrea, followed by Nigerians, Somalis, Sudanese and Syrians, according to the UN refugee agency. Italy has had about 90,000 sea migrant arrivals so far this year, after receiving 170,000 in 2014, the agency says. Many of the newcomers look to move swiftly to wealthier northern Europe, including to England from Calais, France. Nightly attempts by large groups of the estimated 5,000 migrants in Calais to force their way through the rail tunnel linking France and Britain have provoked public anger and severely disrupted the flow of goods between the two countries.

Israel’s hysterical self-blame spree will fuel more terror and violence: Not everyone is guilty
DEBKAfile Exclusive Analysis August 2, 2015
Israeli leaders and media indulged in their knee-jerk responses -‘We’re all to blame” and “”We all ignited the flames” - to two separate, individual Jewish hate crimes, repulsive though they were. It should be a far cry from universal condemnation of the fire bombing of the home of a sleeping Palestinian family, burning a toddler to death and critically three members of his family, to collective self-flagellation and loud laments that “The whole house is on fire,” and “Israel has fallen.”
The whole house is not on fire and we are not all guilty, although this was the message President Reuven Rivlin offered the nation Saturday night, July 1, in an outpouring of raw emotion that will inflame passions instead of offering remedies.
Equally counter-productive was the linkage of the murder of a Palestinian baby Friday, July 31, with the stabbing attack by another individual from a separate fringe group of radicals on the Jerusalem gay pride parade Thursday night. This linkage was made by far-out groups of protesters in order to point the finger at their standard culprits – the ruling parties – and force the entire nation to bow their heads in shame. It did not matter that the heads of all government factions, from Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu down utterly denounced both crimes and condoled with the victims.
But gay protest leaders saw fit to deny Education Minister Naftali Bennett and MK Magal Yinon a platform for speaking in support of their Tel Aviv rally, because they refused to sign a document put before them enumerating the gay community’s demands. While not at all funny, this incident recalled a scene from the Seinfeld comedy series when Kramer was pushed out of a gay parade in New York, when he refused to attach the parade’s official pin to his shirt.
The same Israeli opposition groups never used the superlatives they are throwing out now when three Israeli teenagers were brutally kidnapped and murdered in cold blood by Hamas terrorists on June 12, 2014. There were no cries that the “house is on fire” then, or when a Palestinian firebomb brought 11-year old Ayala Shapira close to death in an Israeli car driving on a West Bank road near her home, least of all for the countless Palestinian terror attacks committed during the years before and after the 1967 war.
No one makes a fuss, certainly not President Rivlin, when hardly a day goes by without fire bombs and firecrackers being tossed into Jewish homes in Jerusalem and civilian and law enforcement vehicles as a matter of course. By some miracle, no one has been burned to death, only their homes and cars trashed.
None of this of course justifies in any way the murder of Palestinian children or a knife attack on a gay parade in Jerusalem. But living in the nostalgic past when we believed we were different and special is unrealistic. Life in Israel is tough, hardscrabble and fraught with security threats never far away. People are rougher than they would like to be. The self-styled “liberal” media, by falsely depicting two Israels – one enlightened and progressive, the rest hooligans, murderous mobsters and trigger-happy soldiers – pour kerosene on fires set by certain parties for personal or political advantage.
In an environment of crisis such as Israeli society is undergoing today it is more important than ever to keep a sense of proportion.
Equating an undoubted act of terror by Jewish individuals against Palestinians with the organized, self-condoned Palestinian terrorism against Israelis and Jews, decade after decade, is an oversimplification that clouds the path to a constructive approach. Both should be energetically addressed, but they are different in nature and call for different remedies. It is important to de-emotionalize the atmosphere, put a stop to the orgy of self-flagellation and collective blame and turn to a professional, objective course of action.
A lesson in calm and good sense in a crisis came from an unforeseen source: Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. His first reaction was a decision to turn to the International War Crimes Court at The Hague - over the top, like that of Israelis. But the next day, he instructed Palestinian security forces to act firmly to prevent the outbreak of violent Palestinian protests and, above all, the use of firearms.

The idea of reconciliation with Iran is fruitless
Abdulrahman al-Rashed/Al Arabiya/Sunday, 2 August 2015
It’s not difficult for Arab Gulf countries to shake hands with Iranian president Hassan Rowhani, sign a friendship agreement with Iran and end the disagreement which lasted for thirty years. Theoretically, this is very easy; however it will be an agreement that is not even worth the ink used to sign it if there are no guarantees. My friend and colleague Turad el-Amri wrote an article dedicating it to me and another colleague and expressed an opinion and vision of a roadmap that defies our warnings of Iran. If Amri was popular in the Iranian supreme guide’s court or if his word counted at the White House, I may have changed my mind and adopted his suggestion of openness to Iran. However, he’s like me and other writers, his word is all he’s got to sell. Arab Gulf governments cannot bet on the lives of thirty million citizens on the basis of good intentions and personal analysis of events.In his op-ed published in An7a, he spoke of what he called a Gulf initiative for peace, which is merely “Turad’s initiative for peace!” Such an initiative is worthless if the regional governments do ensure that Iran really changes its hostile policy towards them, diminishes its military capabilities against them or that superpowers are needed to provide military guarantees as a form of insurance against Iranian threats. None of these conditions are present and good intentions are not enough in the real world.
Easy to sign a deal, but...
It’s easy for superpowers like the United States, who’s more than 7,000 kilometers away from Iran, to sign a deal with the latter as it possesses a huge arsenal of technological, military and financial intelligence units – capabilities it can use to deter, prevent and annihilate. However, Gulf countries are a stone throw away from Iranian shores and with our limited capabilities, we cannot be reassured with promises of good intentions. Gulf countries need proofs and guarantees that Iran changed after signing the agreement with the West or they are forced to fortify themselves. States are like individuals, you can tell how they are through their biography and behavior and it’s not enough to analyze their intentions by saying that Iran’s aim of signing the nuclear deal with the West is to end the siege against it and ensure the safety of its existence. To begin with, sanctions against Iran were imposed due to its hostile behavior and not the other way around. There’s a long list detailing Iran’s offensives since the 1980s till present from the Philippines to Argentina. Iran thus brought the siege and sanctions upon itself. Iran’s enmity towards Israel is not for the sake of defending the Palestinians, as Turad believes, and it’s actually part of the expanded regional struggle. It’s in the name of Palestine that Iran manages a hostile expanded system that’s formed of Bashar al-Assad in Syria, Hassan Nasrallah in Lebanon, Mahmoud al-Zahar and Ramadan Shalah in Gaza, Nayef Hawatmeh in Syria, Mohamed Badie in Egypt, Watheq al-Battat in Iraq and Abdullah al-Houthi in Yemen. All those have nothing to do with defending Palestine. It’s enough to realize that by just looking at what’s happening in the Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmuk in Damascus where groups affiliated with Palestinian parties and linked to Iran are committing hideous crimes.
There’s a long list detailing Iran’s offensives since the 1980s till present from the Philippines to Argentina
There are massive hostile military and political operations implemented by Iran or its proxies against us. These operations date back to the days of the Iranian revolution and they are neither directed against Israel nor against the West.
I don’t want to exhaust everyone by addressing all the details of Amri’s article as they are irrelevant had we thought well of the brothers in Tehran. Brother Turad, it’s not new for us to understand and analyze the dispute with Iran. Gulf countries have previously believed Tehran, tried to extend their hands to it and opened their borders and capitals to it only to realize later that the Iranian regime’s hostility towards them has increased. In the 1990’s, they held several negotiation sessions with it and even signed an important detailed agreement in 2001. However, Iran pretty much violated the entire agreement and all its pledges. In 2008, Saudi Arabia hosted Sheikh Hashemi Rafsanjani and it was the longest visit of its kind as he stayed for two weeks and toured Jeddah, Dammam, Khobar, Jubail, Qatif, Makkah, Medina and Yanbu. Embassies were reopened and Iranian airlines were allowed to open offices there. Riyadh received Iranian businessmen and hosted them at showrooms and princes, ministers and military figures exchanged visits. In the end, Saudi Arabia found out that someone within the Iranian regime wanted to exploit good intentions and good relations in order to smuggle arms, recruit the opposition and conspire against the Saudi kingdom.
Therefore, some people’s suggestions of the importance of reconciliation with Iran are actually common sense but they are not enough without guarantees that protect the Arab Gulf countries from the hostility Iran is surrounding us with in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Bahrain, Yemen and Sudan. I like to reassure doves in the Gulf, including brother Turad, that despite the dispute with Tehran, our traditional relations with brothers in Iran are alive and well. There are currently ambassadors and embassies between the Gulf and Iran and there are Saudis who visit Iran and Iranians who visit Saudi Arabia for Hajj and Umrah. However, apprehension against Iran has approached the maximum and is increasing due to the ending of financial, military and diplomatic sanctions against it.

Who can defeat ISIS?
Abdallah Schleifer/Al ARabiya/Sunday, 2 August 2015
The Syrian Army is wobbling. Bashar al-Assad said as much in an extraordinary speech that was not behind closed doors in which he acknowledged that his army was “tired” which is a curious but diplomatic way of putting it. The best assault forces he has left are the Iranian-backed Hezbollah and the Iran Revolutionary Guard. Neither of those two forces are particularly interested in taking losses fighting for territory that is not vital to defending the Alawite coastal heartland of Latakia and the land linking Damascus airport to Hezbollah-controlled portions of the Syrian- Lebanese border which enables Iran to securely supply Hezbollah. That is why Assad appears not to be contesting so much of Syrian territory that he does not have, from this perspective, strategic value.
But what if much of the Syrian Army simply starts to disintegrate and only elite Alawite units remain to hold a very vulnerable line around the capital? That happened in World War One when an exhausted and embittered Russian Army holding the Eastern Front against the Germans started to disintegrate and the Bolsheviks seized power and kept their promise to immediately make a separate peace with the Germans.
The so-called safe zone in Syria adjacent to its border with Turkey will now conceivably become a no-fly zone protecting Turkish infantry there theoretically providing training and arms to Syrian Rebel forces. But the primary objective of a Turkish- controlled, U.S. Air Force maintained no-fly zone was always the Turkish price for actually joining the war against ISIS in order to return a good portion of the more than one and a half million Syrian refugees in Turkey back into Syrian territory.
To that is added a new concern, occupying a key stretch of Syrian territory that would prevent the Syrian Kurds holding Kobane from linking up with Syrian Kurds holding an enclave on the border far to the east. Until the past few months, ISIS did that job and the Turks did little to nothing to help the Syrian Kurds hold off ISIS from taking Kobane. On the contrary, Turkey was allowing ISIS militants to maintain safe houses for ISIS foreign recruits going to Syria on the Turkish side of the border. Only now that is all ending.
Defeating Assad before taking on ISIS
Arab intelligence sources disclosed earlier this year that Turkish Intelligence was clandestinely running covered trucks loaded with weapons and ammunition across the border late at night to ISIS forces on the Syrian side of the border. And that claim is quite conceivable since only a few months ago Erdogan was declaring that the Kurdish Workers Party which had fought a thirty-year guerrilla war against the Turkish Army in the mainly Kurdish districts of Turkey and maintained fraternal relations with the Syrian Kurds was more dangerous than ISIS. Erdogan has also argued over the past few years that Syrian rebel energies should first concentrate on defeating Assad before taking on ISIS.
The so-called safe zone in Syria adjacent to its border with Turkey will now conceivably become a no-fly zone protecting Turkish infantry
So who among ISIS' many enemies—the U.S., Iran via Hezbollah, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, the Syrian regime, the Kurds and Jordan will put sufficient, if any, “boots on the ground?” Sufficient, that is, to dramatically transform a campaign that at present harasses ISIS from the air but does not destroy it, nor prevent it from overrunning new territory in Syria even while losing some of its earlier acquisitions. The U.S., which leads the Coalition air campaign, has made it clear in will not be sending ground troops. Even its conduct of the air campaign is curiously vapid, running far fewer and less ferocious sorties against ISIS than it ran against Serbia in the Kosovo air campaign. As for the others, as Hussein Ibish recently noted (link www.thenational.ae/opinion/comment/isil-cannot-be-defeated-without-concerted-turkish-involvement ) they all have other priorities. Saudi Arabia sees Iran and its proxies as the greater threat, Iran focuses on keeping Al-Assad in power, Al Assad’s forces have invariably focused on fighting the anti-ISIS Syrian rebels than upon ISIS, and the rebels reciprocate. The Kurds who are the most effective fighters against ISIS in Syria and Iraq are fighting to either defend or secure autonomy.
Only Jordan stands out. It is a perfunctory member of the anti-Iranian coalition and an overwhelmingly Sunni country that treats its Jordanian-Palestinian Christian minority well. It shares tense segments of its borders with Syria and Iraq that are either dominated or threatened by ISIS. It supports a functioning coalition of Southern Syrian rebel forces that has been far more successful against Assad’s forces in 2015 than any other rebel front and it has links with Sunni tribes in Syria that could be effectively armed. Jordan does not support the Muslim Brotherhood as Turkey and Qatar do in Syria, Libya and Egypt.
The Jordan Arab Army is a relatively small force – about 85,000 strong, but on a strictly man-to-man basis it is probably the best Arab fighting force. It was the only Arab army to defeat the Israelis in a series of battles during the 1948 War. One Jordanian battalion dug in just east of the Old City of then Jordanian controlled Jerusalem and fought hand-to-hand, inflicted half of all Israeli casualties in the 1967 War before being wiped out.
All of Jordan’s Hashemite rulers have had military careers and maintained close ties with the Jordan Arab Army, and the Hashemites - descendants of the Prophet - lead an army that incorporates traditional moderate Islamic values into the moral aspect of troop training and its air force is already attacking the perverters of Islam. Last June, during Army Day celebrations, Jordan King Abdallah II presented the Hashemite flag to the Commander of the Arab Army for it to be carried alongside the Jordanian national flag, and the King declared that if necessary Jordan would carry its fight against extremism beyond its borders. If I recall correctly, from the Jordanian frontier it is only an hour’s drive to Damascus. Jordan is a relatively poor country, but with serious funding and extensive and coordinated air cover from most of the other members of the anti-ISIS coalition, it would be the logical force to defeat ISIS in Syria.

Ayatollah publishes book calling to wipe out Israel, give Iran full reign in the Middle East
JPOST.COM STAFF/08/02/2015
The supreme leader of Iran is apparently now an aspiring author but one thing is for sure: this is no love story. According to a report on Saturday in the New York Post, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's new book Palestine outlines his case for why Israel must be wiped out and how. "The solution is a one-state formula," he writes, which is called "Palestine."He said this "practical and logical mechanism" would have Israel under Muslim rule with some Jews being allowed to stay as a "protected minority" but only after proving "genuine roots." He advocates strict apartheid against Jews saying that they would not be allowed to vote in a future Muslim state while Arabs would have full rights.
He claims that his plan would promote "the hegemony of Iran" while removing "the West's hegemony" from the Middle East.  Khamenei, who is described in the book as "the flagbearer of Jihad to liberate Jerusalem," wrote that his views are not anti-Semitic but Islamic and based on "well-established Islamic principles." This goes on the opinion in Islam that land which was once owned by Muslims can never be ruled by non-Muslims again. Along with Israel, this also includes Russia, many parts of Europe, Thailand, India and parts of China and the Philippines. However, Khamenei singles Israel out as an adou [enemy], doshman [foe] and a "cancerous tumor" for several reasons, the first of which is for being an "ally of the American Great Satan" which is waged in a war to overtake "the heartland of the Ummah [nation]."Second, he says Israel is singled out because of his claim that it has waged a war on Muslims and therefore has become a kaffir al-harbi [hostile infidel].
Third, he claims that Israel "occupies" Jerusalem and calls it "Islam's third Holy City."Khamenei says his plan entails low-intensity warfare based on wearing down the patience of Israelis and the international community. He writes that this plan does not entail "classical warfare" and he supposedly does not want to kill Jews. His plan goes on the assumption that all Israelis have dual citizenship and would rather live in the US or Europe. He recommends therefore to make life in Israel so uncomfortable that they leave voluntarily to avoid threats on them. He then describes using the tactic of "Israel fatigue" wherein the international community would decide to stop supporting Israel's military programs.
Another section of the book boasted past Iran-supported warfare against Israel using examples from Gaza and Lebanon. He writes that he aims to recruit West Bank "fighters" in units modeled after Hezbollah. “We have intervened in anti-Israel matters, and it brought victory in the 33-day war by Hezbollah against Israel in 2006 and in the 22-day war between Hamas and Israel in the Gaza Strip." Though he doesn't reference an Iranian nuclear program directly, he mentions that a nuclear Iran would be able to deter Israel from taking any military action against the Islamic republic. Referring to the Holocaust, Khamenei called it a "propaganda ploy" and writes that "we don't know why it happened and how." The 416-page book is currently only available in Iran in Persian, but apparently an Arabic version is on the way.

Turkey and ISIS
By JPOST EDITORIAL/August 02/15
Turkey’s recent air strikes grab the headlines worldwide and are used by the Obama administration to suggest that its Middle East policy is not as bungled as meets the eye. The US, it is asserted, has won itself another ally in the war against Islamic State and a formidable ally at that. The problem with this perception is that nothing Turkey does is quite as straightforward as foreign diplomats and uninitiated analysts in the West often suppose. Turkish bombers did fly some sorties against Islamic State encampments after a recent Islamic State suicide bombing in the southeastern Turkish city of Suruc killed 32 people. Both the attack and response seemed to fly in the face of what was previously taken at face value. Conventional wisdom considered Turkish President Tayyip Recep Erdogan – a Sunni with Muslim Brotherhood attachments – as antagonistic to Shi’ite Iran, its lackey Bashar Assad of Damascus and Iran’s and Assad’s Hezbollah foot soldiers.
That should have theoretically placed Erdogan to some degree on the Islamic State side and he indeed facilitates the terrorist group’s oil trade and keeps his borders open to its traffic. So why would Islamic State attack Turks and why would Turks attack Islamic State? This only fails to make sense to those who against all odds persist in making sense of the Middle East. And just to prove how futile the effort is to pin down Erdogan’s allegiance, he also sent his air force to wallop Islamic State’s staunchest adversaries – the Kurds. That was the first time Erdogan had done so since 2013, when he and the Kurds reached a semblance of accommodation following the three-decade struggle for autonomy by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK.
Syria’s semi-autonomous Kurds (the largest ethnic minority in that decomposing country) and their kin in northern Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish enclave are among the most successful so far in stymieing Islamic State advances. So what is Erdogan doing? There is a belated, tentative agreement to allow US access to Turkish air bases such as Incirlik, but whose side is Erdogan really on? He hits Islamic State. He hits Islamic State’s leading enemies. In fact, the only thing which can be said with a modicum of confidence is that Erdogan is playing both ends against the middle. Given his record, that’s quite in character. The Kurds are straining under the growing realization that Erdogan certainly is not aiding their cause in Syria and Erdogan is irked by their insubordination. He’s also in punitive mode against Islamic State for daring to create the impression of Turkish vulnerability. So in effect, Erdogan is fighting for Erdogan and against anyone who puts him in a bad light.
Thus Erdogan struts like the tough guy who suffers no disrespect from Islamic State but doesn’t want to appear to strengthen the Kurds either. This is useful should he call early elections. Furthermore, new obstacles hinder Erdogan’s aim to depose Assad while concomitantly preventing the Kurds from making history-altering gains from the shift in Iran’s favor. Erdogan feels miffed because the deal on Iran’s nukes has left him behind and reinstated Tehran as the major regional force. It might have likewise improved Assad’s survival prospects. Erdogan must adjust and move to cut his losses in the escalating chaos all around.
The likely reality is that Turkey is not simply and altruistically siding with Obama against Islamic State. Erdogan has not suddenly seen the light from Washington and has not been converted to Obama’s concept of good. Neither has Erdogan decided overnight to cast his lot with the Iranian axis. Nothing in this region is as it seems or as it’s presented. Presumed proxies – via whom Obama means to fight Islamic State – have their own agendas. Their attitude to Obama’s notion that the villain of the piece is only Islamic State and not Iran remains expediently fluid. Most probably, Erdogan has extracted a price from Obama for Turkey’s ostensible cooperation. It may be that the Erdogan-Obama chumminess will chillingly come at the Kurds’ expense. In other words, Obama may evince disloyalty toward yet another embattled ally. Chances are that the Kurds are being sold down the river. The possibility that the Kurds will be sacrificed does not augur well for Israel.

Column One: Obama strikes again
CAROLINE B. GLICK/J.Post/August 02/15
While Israel and much of official Washington remain focused on the deal President Barack Obama just cut with the ayatollahs that gives them $150 billion and a guaranteed nuclear arsenal within a decade, Obama has already moved on – to Syria. Obama’s first hope was to reach a deal with his Iranian friends that would leave the Assad regime in place. But the Iranians blew him off. They know they don’t need a deal with Obama to secure their interests. Obama will continue to help them to maintain their power base in Syria though Hezbollah and the remains of the Assad regime without a deal. Iran’s cold shoulder didn’t stop Obama. He moved on to his Sunni friend Turkish President Recep Erdogan.Like the Iranians, since the war broke out, Erdogan has played a central role in transforming what started out as a local uprising into a regional conflict between Sunni and Shiite jihadists.
With Obama’s full support, by late 2012 Erdogan had built an opposition dominated by his totalitarian allies in the Muslim Brotherhood. By mid-2013, Erdogan’s Muslim Brotherhood- led coalition was eclipsed by al-Qaida spinoffs. They also enjoyed Turkish support.
And when last summer ISIS supplanted al-Qaida as the dominant Sunni jihadist force in Syria, it did so with Erdogan’s full backing. For the past 18 months, Turkey has been ISIS’s logistical, political and economic base.According to Brett McGurk, the State Department’s point man on ISIS, about 25,000 foreign fighters have joined ISIS in Syria and Iraq. All of them transited through Turkey. Most of the antiquities that ISIS plunders in Iraq and Syria make their way to the world market through Turkey. So, too, most of the oil that ISIS produces in Syria and Iraq is smuggled out through Turkey. According to the US Treasury, ISIS has made $1 million-$4m. a day from oil revenue.
In May, US commandos in Syria assassinated Abu Sayyaf, ISIS’s chief money manager, and arrested his wife and seized numerous computers and flash drives from his home. According to a report in The Guardian published last week, the drives provided hard evidence of official Turkish economic collusion with ISIS. Due to Turkish support, ISIS has become a self-financing terrorist group. With its revenue stream it is able to maintain a welfare state regime, attracting recruits from abroad and securing the loyalty of local Sunni militias and former Ba’athist forces. Some Western officials believed that after finding hard evidence of Turkish regime support for ISIS, NATO would finally change its relationship with Turkey. To a degree they were correct. Last week, Obama cut a deal with Erdogan that changes the West’s relationship with Erdogan.
Instead of maintaining its current practice of balancing its support for Turkey with its support for the Kurds, under the agreement, the West ditches its support for the Kurds and transfers its support to Turkey exclusively. The Kurdish peshmerga militias operating today in Iraq and Syria are the only military outfits making sustained progress in the war against ISIS. Since last October, the Kurds in Syria have liberated ISIS-controlled and -threatened areas along the Turkish border. The YPG, the peshmerga militia in Syria, won its first major victory in January, when after a protracted, bloody battle, with US air support, it freed the Kurdish border town of Kobani from ISIS’s assault. In June, the YPG scored a strategic victory against ISIS by taking control of Tal Abyad. Tal Abyad controls the road connecting ISIS’s capital of Raqqa with Turkey. By capturing Tal Abyad, the Kurds cut Raqqa’s supply lines. Last month, Time magazine reported that the Turks reacted with hysteria to Tal Abyad’s capture.
Not only did the operation endanger Raqqa, it gave the Kurds territorial contiguity in Syria.
The YPG’s victories enhanced the Kurds’ standing among Western nations. Indeed, some British and American officials were quoted openly discussing the possibility of removing the PKK, the YPG’s Iraqi counterpart, from their official lists of terrorist organizations.
The YPG’s victories similarly enhanced the Kurds’ standing inside Turkey itself. In the June elections to the Turkish parliament, the Kurdish HDP party won 12 percent of the vote nationally, and so blocked Erdogan’s AKP party from winning a parliamentary majority.
Without that majority Erdogan’s plan of reforming the constitution to transform Turkey into a presidential republic and secure his dictatorship for the long run has been jeopardized. As far as Erdogan was concerned, by the iddle of July the Kurdish threat to his power had reached unacceptable levels. Then two weeks ago the deck was miraculously reshuffled.
On July 20, young Kurdish activists convened in Suduc, a Kurdish town on the Turkish side of the border, 6 kilometers from Kobani. A suicide bomber walked up to them, and detonated, massacring 32 people. Turkish officials claim that the bomber was a Turkish Kurd, and a member of ISIS. But the Kurds didn’t buy that line. Last week, HDP lawmakers accused the regime of complicity with the bomber. And two days after the attack, militants from the PKK killed two Turkish policemen in a neighboring village, claiming that they collaborated with ISIS. At that point, Erdogan sprang into action.
After refusing for months to work with NATO forces in their anti-ISIS operations, Erdogan announced he was entering the fray. He would begin targeting “terrorists” and allow the US air force to use two Turkish air bases for its anti-ISIS operations. In exchange, the US agreed to set up a “safe zone” in Syria along the Turkish border. Turkish officials were quick to explain that in targeting “terrorists,” the Turks would not distinguish between Kurdish terrorists and ISIS terrorists just because the former are fighting ISIS. Both, they insisted, are legitimate targets. Erdogan closed his deal in a telephone call with Obama. And he immediately went into action. Turkish forces began bombing terrorist targets and rounding up terrorist suspects. Although a few of the Turkish bombing runs have been directly against ISIS, the vast majority have targeted Kurdish forces in Iraq and Syria.
Moreover, for every suspected ISIS terrorist arrested by Turkish security forces, at least eight Kurds have been taken into custody. Then, too, Erdogan has called on AKP lawmakers to begin criminalizing their counterparts from the HDP. Kurdish lawmakers, he urged them, must be stripped of their parliamentary immunity to enable their arrests. As Erdogan apparently sees things, by going to war against the Kurds, he will be able to reestablish the AKP’s parliamentary majority. Within a few weeks, if the AKP fails to form a governing coalition – and it will – then new elections will be held. The nationalists, who abandoned the AKP in June, will return to the party to reward Erdogan for fighting the Kurds. As for that “safe area” in northern Syria, as the Kurds see it, Erdogan will use it to destroy Kurdish autonomy. He will flood the zone with Syrian Arab refugees who fled to Turkey, to dilute the Kurdish majority. And he will secure coalition support for the Sunni Arab militias – including those still affiliated with al-Qaida – which will be permitted by NATO to operate openly in the safe area.
Already the Kurds are reporting that the US has stopped providing air support for their forces fighting ISIS in the border town of Jarablus. Those forces were bombed this week by Turkish F-16s. For their part, despite Erdogan’s pledge to fight ISIS, his forces seem remarkably uninterested in rolling back ISIS achievements. The Turks have no plan for removing ISIS from its strongholds in Raqqa or Haskiyah. The Obama administration is presenting the deal with Turkey as yet another great achievement. In an interview with Charlie Rose on Tuesday, McGurk explained that the deal was a long time in the making. It began with a phone conversation between Obama and Erdogan last October and it ended with their phone call last week. In October, Obama convinced Erdogan not to oppose US air support for the Kurds in Kobani and to enable the US to resupply YPG fighters in Kobani through Turkey. In the second, Obama agreed not to oppose Erdogan’s offensive against the Kurds.
Two years ago, in August 2013, the world held its breath awaiting US action in Syria. That month, after prolonged equivocation amidst mountains of evidence, the Obama administration was forced to acknowledge that Iran’s Syrian puppet Bashar Assad had crossed Obama’s self-declared redline and used chemical weapons against regime opponents, including civilians. US forces assembled for battle. Everything looked ready to go, until just hours before US jets were scheduled to begin bombing regime targets, Obama canceled the operation. In so doing, he lost all deterrent power against Iran. He also lost all strategic credibility among America’s regional allies. To save face, Obama agreed to a Russian proposal to have international monitors remove Syria’s chemical weapons from the country.
Last summer, the administration proudly announced that the mission had been completed.
UN chemical weapons monitors had removed Syria’s chemical weapons arsenal from the country, they proclaimed. It didn’t matter to either Obama or Secretary of State John Kerry that by that point Assad had resumed chemical assaults with chlorine-based bombs. Chlorine bombs weren’t chemical weapons, the Americans idiotically proclaimed. Then last week, the lie fell apart. The Wall Street Journal reported that according to US intelligence agencies, Assad not surrendered his chemical arsenal. Rather, he hid much of his chemical weaponry from the UN inspectors. He had even managed to retain the capacity to make chemical weapons – like chlorine-based bombs – after agreeing to part with his chemical arsenal. Assad was able to cheat, because just as the administration’s nuclear deal with the Iranians gives Iran control over which nuclear sites will be open to UN inspectors, and which will be off limits, so the chemical deal gave Assad control over what the inspectors would and would not be allowed to see. So, they saw only what he showed them.
Obama has gone full circle in concluding his deal with Erdogan. Since entering office, Obama has sought to cut deals with both the Sunni jihadists of the Muslim Brotherhood ilk and the Shi’ite jihadists of the Iranian ilk. His chemical deal with Assad and his nuclear deal with the ayatollahs accomplished the latter goal, and did so at the expense of America’s Sunni Arab allies and Israel. His deal last week with Erdogan accomplishes the former goal, to the benefit of ISIS, and on the backs of America’s Kurdish allies.
So that takes care of the Middle East. With 17 months left to go till Obama leave office, the time has apparently come for the British to begin to worry.

Christians Burn While Pope Worries about “Worldly” Matters/Muslim Persecution of Christians, June 2015
Raymond Ibrahim/Gatestone Institute/August 2, 2015
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/6258/christians-burn-pope-worries
Although the Egyptian constitution stipulates equality before the law, the judiciary refuses the testimony of Christians against Muslims in courts. Islamic law maintains that the testimony of an “infidel” cannot be accepted against a Muslim.
Al Azhar University in Egypt continues to incite Egypt’s Muslims against Christians. Most recently, the university was exposed distributing a free booklet dedicated to discrediting Christianity. It is full of direct attacks on Christianity in general and the nation’s Coptic Christians in particular. Islam is hailed as the true and superior religion. No mention of violent Islamic conquests is made.
More than 200 girls, mostly Christian, remain missing in Nigeria after Boko Haram kidnapped them in 2014. Escapees testify that some were told to slit the throats of Christians and to carry out suicide attacks. Girls who cannot recite the Koran are flogged.
The “lawyers” of a Christian man imprisoned in Pakistan on the charge of desecrating the Koran last May are actually working against him. Faisal’s lawyers officially canceled the request for bail, previously submitted by other lawyers.
Christians and others in the southern Philippines say they fear that legislation meant to create an Islamic sub-state — legislation meant to appease Islamists — will only create more extremism against Christians. Critics say it would render the federal government powerless to redress human rights abuses under Islamic law. In some areas, violence has been increasing, including trademark Islamic attacks on churches and nuns.
In June, Pope Francis released his first independent encyclical. It merely served to highlight the indifference to the plight of persecuted Christians around the world.
The Pope warned about issues dealing with the environment, but he did not once mention the plight of persecuted Christians — even though he is well acquainted with it, and even though previous popes mentioned it when Christians were experiencing far less persecution than they are today.Encyclicals are formal treatises written by popes and sent to bishops around the world. In turn, bishops are meant to disseminate the encyclical’s ideas to all the priests and churches in their jurisdiction, so that the pope’s thoughts might reach every church-attending Catholic.If the plight of persecuted Christians had been mentioned in the encyclical, bishops and the congregations under their care would be required to acknowledge it. Perhaps a weekly prayer for the persecuted could be institutionalized, keeping the plight of those Christians in the spotlight so that Western Catholics and others would remember them, talk about them, and, perhaps most importantly, ask why they are being persecuted. Once enough people were familiar with Christian persecution, they could influence U.S. policymakers — for starters, to drop those policies that directly exacerbate the sufferings of Christian minorities in the Middle East.
Instead, Pope Francis apparently deemed it more important to issue a proclamation addressing the environment and climate change. Whatever position one holds concerning these topics, it is telling that the pope — the one man in the world best placed and most expected to speak up for millions of persecuted Christians around the world — is more interested in speaking up for a “safe” (politically correct, if scientifically questionable) subject, “the world” itself, rather than the pressing bloodbath in front of him, or a topic requiring real leadership from a Christian authority.
Meanwhile, Christians around the world and the Muslim world especially continue to be persecuted and slaughtered. In one little-reported story, the Islamic State burned an 80 year-old Christian woman to death in a village southeast of Mosul. The elderly woman was reportedly burned alive for refusing to comply with Islamic law.
In east Jerusalem, a group calling itself the “Islamic State in Palestine” distributed fliers threatening to massacre all Christians who failed to evacuate the Holy City. The leaflets, which appeared on June 27, said that the Islamic State knows where the city’s Christians live, and warned that they have until Eid al-Fitr — July 19, the end of Ramadan — to leave the city or be slaughtered. The leaflet was emblazoned with the Islamic State’s black flag.In Egypt, after a foiled suicide attack on the ancient temples of Karnak in Luxor (a tourist destination), the Islamic State promised a “fiery summer” for Egypt’s Christian Copts. Abu Zayid al-Sudani, a leading member of the Islamic State, tweeted: “The bombing of Luxor, a burning summer awaits the tyrant of Egypt [President Sisi] and his soldiers, and the worshippers of the cross. This is just the beginning.”
The rest of June’s roundup of Muslim persecution of Christians around the world includes, but is not limited to, the following accounts, listed by theme.
Muslim Attacks on Christian Churches and Cemeteries
Turkey: On June 9, a Muslim man attacked a church in the Kadıköy district of Istanbul with a Molotov cocktail, setting the building’s door on fire. In a video of the attack, the man is seen shouting “Allahu Akbar” ["Allah is Greater!"] and “Revenge will be taken for Al-Aqsa Mosque” as he throws a firebomb at the Hagia Triada Orthodox Church. The man was eventually detained by police.Egypt: A bomb was placed alongside the Virgin Mary Coptic Christian Church in Helwan, part of Greater Cairo, but the security services managed to dismantle it before it exploded.France: On June 7, two Muslim men were arrested by French authorities in connection to a thwarted terror plot to attack a church near Paris last April. Authorities said they had detained Sid Ahmed Ghlam, a computer science student, who had planned an attack on churches in Villejuif, south of Paris, and is suspected in the killing of a woman nearby. Documents in Arabic mentioning al-Qaeda and the Islamic State were found during a search of Ghlam’s home. Several military weapons, handguns, ammunition, bulletproof vests and computer and telephone hardware were also found in Ghlam’s home and car.Zanzibar: Muslims on the majority-Muslim island harassed and persecuted two churches:
1) They drove Pastor Philemon, a father of five, into hiding and took over his New Covenant Church’s worship hall by getting the landlord to rent it to them before the church’s lease ended. Once a congregation of 100, members now number 25. “The church faithful are so scattered,” said Philemon. “Some members are always knocking at my door requesting a place for worship.” The pastor is also helping care for several converts from Islam who fled their homes after persecution, and he is struggling financially to help them while also providing for his own family, which includes five children.
2) Just outside Zanzibar City, in Chukwani, Muslims made false land claims to bleed dry a church with legal costs. Said Pastor Lukanula: “The Muslims are waiting for the time when we shall fail to attend the court hearing, implying losing the case and subsequently having to pay a substantial amount of money.” Before the false claims were made, regarding ownership of the land, the leader of a local mosque told the pastor, “We do not want to see a church building here in Chukwani.” In 2007, Muslims in the area had demolished the original structure under construction.
Iraq: The Islamic State posted notices around the captured city of Mosul announcing that the Syriac Orthodox Cathedral Church of St. Ephrem, seized a year ago, was to be become the “mosque of the mujahedeen,” or “jihadis.” The new name was announced on the anniversary of the date the church had been seized. The Islamic flag stating the shehada (“there is no god but Allah and Muhammad is his Messenger”) was draped over the building. “If they changed a church to a mosque it is further proof of their cleansing,” said the president of A Demand for Action, a group advocating the protection of minorities in the Middle East. “They destroy our artefacts, our churches and try to erase us in any way they can.”
Libya: Yet another Christian cemetery, in the old Christian section of post-”Arab Spring” Tripoli, was recently desecrated by Muslim militants. Described by witnesses as “Salafi” Muslims, the vandals of the grave destroyed crosses and tombstones, and dug up graves in the early morning hours of June 3. Security forces charged with protecting the region did nothing to stop or arrest the men.
Muslim Slaughter of Christians
Egypt: Two Christians were killed under questionable circumstances:
1) The only Christian in his army unit was found shot dead in a chair at the office of the military base in which he was stationed. On June 24, Bahaa Gamal Mikhail Silvanus, 23, a conscript in the Egyptian Army, was found with two bullet wounds in his chest and a gun at his feet. Relatives who later saw the body also say there were wounds on his head, as if he had been struck with a blunt object. The military’s official position is that the Copt committed suicide. Family, friends, and church leaders strongly disagree. They point out that those who commit suicide are rarely able to shoot themselves twice — or first hit themselves on the head with blunt objects. They also point out that Silvanus was a happy man with strong faith, a college degree in music, and plans to enter the monastic life. “My son was killed by someone. He didn’t kill himself,” said his father, Gamal Silvanus, who had advised his son to finish his military obligation, then work for five years to help support the family, and after that to join a monastery. A friend of Bahaa Silvanus, who wished to remain anonymous, said that Silvanus had confided to him that he was regularly pressured by other soldiers in his unit to convert to Islam or else: “He told me that the persecution of the fanatical Muslim conscripts in the battalion against him had been increased the last days, and they threatened him with death, that they would kill him if he wouldn’t convert to Islam.”[1]
2) According to MCN, “Police officer Mohammed Megalli, who killed a Coptic woman, Sarah Youssef Ghali, used to insult Copts of the district and treat them with contempt, said Nour Rashad, a cousin of the Coptic woman. Ghali was accidentally shot dead by Megalli, a police officer from Manshiet Nasser Police Station in Cairo.”
Uganda: A mother of 11, who, along with her husband, left Islam (considered by many Muslims apostasy) and converted to Christianity almost a year earlier, was poisoned to death on June 17 in a village in eastern Uganda. Namumbeiza Swabura, the mother of a 5-month-old baby, died after her sister-in-law visited and offered to prepare a meal for her. She complained of stomach pain that started immediately after eating the food. According to Morning Star News:
Swabura’s pain grew worse as she began vomiting and her nose began to bleed uncontrollably; her face turned pale, and two hours later she died in their home as Muhammad [her husband] was trying to rent a car to take her to a hospital, they said. Her sister-in-law has gone into hiding, the sources said. Swabura and her husband have received several death threats since putting their faith in Christ, according to Muhammad. During a visit by Morning Star News to the area in late May, he said, “We are fearing for our lives as the Muslims are threatening to kill us if we continue in Christianity.” Besides her infant and husband, Swabura wife leaves behind 10 other children.
Dhimmitude: Generic Contempt and Discrimination against ‘Infidels’
Ethiopia: On April 25, police raided a Christian worship service in Asella, just south of the capital, Addis Ababa. The Church of Asella had just baptized 40 new converts to Christianity, an act that prompted mass arrests. One of those imprisoned, a former Muslim, known only as “Palus Ejigu,” who converted to Christianity, said, “We were gathered for sharing and encouraging each other with the Word of God. After we finished the service, police imprisoned us. Some of our friends ran away when they saw the way we were harshly handled.” After weeks of suffering unspeakable prison conditions and abuses, Ejigu was eventually released. But five days later, four masked men forced him on his knees, put a pistol in his mouth, and ordered him to kill two pastor friends, or his children would die.
His wife’s Muslim family, in accordance with Islamic law, had already taken the children away from him.
Egypt: The inferior status of Christian minorities was again on display. The principal of a school in Sohag has been openly refusing the enrollment of Christian students, simply on the basis of their religion. When Copts and others protested — the current law of Egypt is on their side — the principal declared that, “As long as I am present in the school, no Christian pupils will be accepted.”
Popular Egyptian columnist Karima Kamal wrote that although the Egyptian constitution stipulates equality before the law, the judiciary does not apply this provision, and refuses the testimony of Christians against Muslims in courts. Anecdotal evidence supports her claim. Some weeks earlier, the following letter was published:
Yesterday I suffered an extremely harsh psychological shock. I went to court with one of my neighbors, a widow, to serve as witness in an inheritance case. Another neighbor and witness accompanying us was a young Christian. We had all been living as one family. Imagine my shock, then, at the judge who very rudely and with incomprehensible disapproval rejected the testimony of the [Christian] youth: [saying]: “It is unacceptable for a Christian to testify against a Muslim.”
In fact, Islamic law maintains that the testimony of an “infidel” cannot be accepted against a Muslim.
Al Azhar — arguably the Islamic world’s most prestigious Islamic university — continues to incite Egypt’s Muslims against Christians. Most recently, the university was exposed distributing a free booklet dedicated to discrediting Christianity. It is full of direct attacks on Christianity in general and the nation’s Coptic Christians in particular. Christianity is referred to as a “failed religion,” while Islam is hailed as the true and superior religion. Because the “seeds of weakness” are inherent in Christianity and the Bible, says the booklet, Islam was easily able to supplant it in the Middle East. No mention is made of any violent Islamic conquests.
Iran: Iran’s revolutionary court sentenced 18 Christian converts on charges that include evangelism, propaganda against the regime, and creating house churches to practice their faith. The sentences totaled almost 24 years (the lack of transparency in Iran’s tightly controlled judicial system does not allow for a breakdown of individual sentences). The defendants were also barred from organizing home church meetings and given a two-year ban from leaving Iran. The Christians, many of whom were arrested in 2013, were sentenced in accordance with Article 500 of the Islamic Penal Code, which states that “Anyone who engages in any type of propaganda against the Islamic Republic of Iran or in support of opposition groups and associations, shall be sentenced to three months to one year of imprisonment.”[2]
Nigeria: More than 200 girls remain missing after Boko Haram stormed a government school in Chibok in 2014, kidnapping scores of mostly Christian young girls. Escapees continue to testify to the brainwashing that they encountered from their captors. Some were told to slit the throats of Christians and to carry out suicide attacks. One witness said that the Chibok girls have been given special status as “teachers” told to memorize the Koran and teach others to do so. Girls who cannot recite the Koran are flogged.
Pakistan:
1) The “lawyers” of a Christian man imprisoned in Pakistan on the charge of desecrating the Koran last May[3] are actually working against him. Humayun Faisal, a mentally disabled Christian, will remain in prison because his lawyers have withdrawn their request for bail. According to the pool of Christian attorneys of the NGO “Lead,” during the hearing on June 27 before the Lahore High Court, Faisal’s lawyers officially canceled the request for bail, previously submitted by other lawyers. Said Lead:
[There are lawyers who] intervene in cases in which Christians are accused of blasphemy or other crimes and, instead of obtaining justice, do not operate in the interests of the accused, their clients, but act for others purposes.
2) Mumtaz Masih, a Christian man, was recently released from forced slavery by his Muslim employer. Masih had an arrangement with his Muslim employer, part of which was that Masih remain on his employer’s property at all times except once a month when he would receive payment and could go home to visit his family. In July 2014, the employer stopped paying Masih, banned him from home visiting, and effectively turned him into a slave. Masih’s wife sought help when her husband stopped coming. After a habeas corpus court case on May 29, a court official was directed to find Masih, who was found on his master’s property in a locked room. Although slavery is illegal in Pakistan, many poor Christians live and work in such conditions.
Sudan: On June 25, 12 Christian girls were detained for wearing “scandalous outfits” by the Public Order Police as they left the Baptist church in El Izba, Khartoum. The young women, in trousers and skirts, were transferred to a police station; two were acquitted on Friday, after the agents of the Public Order Police reconsidered their opinion. The ten others were charged with “deeds against the public morality” under Article 152 of the 1990 Criminal Code. “The young women attended a religious festivity in the church, and were wearing fancy dress. The charges are an insult to the church,” argued their lawyer. “Furthermore, the students were forced to change their clothes inside the police station, which is an affront to their dignity.”
Turkey: Authorities shut down Christian schools belonging to the Association of Churches of Jerusalem. Schools in several districts of the southeastern city of Gaziantep, where many refugees from Syria had fled, and in three other regions, were closed. Although providing much needed humanitarian relief, the Christian schools were found giving Bibles and other Christian literature to their refugee students, many of whom come from Muslim backgrounds.
Philippines: Christians and others in the southern Philippines say they fear that legislation meant to create an Islamic sub-state on Mindanao Island — legislation meant to appease Islamists — will only create more extremism against Christians. They believe that if Bangsamoro, or “Moro Country” — Moro is colloquial for “Muslim” — were ruled under Sharia, non-Muslims would become second-class citizens with drastically reduced rights. Critics of the bill say it would render the federal government powerless to redress human rights abuses under Islamic law.[4] “What President Aquino is doing is treasonous to Christian communities in Mindanao,” said Rolly Pelinggon, national convener of Mindanaoans for Mindanao (M4M).
United Kingdom: Nissar Hussain, a former Muslim from Pakistan who converted to Christianity in 1996, recently wrote a letter to his local MP recounting some of the violence, abuse, and other attacks that he, his wife and their six children have suffered at the hands of Muslims in the area of Bradford where they live.[5]
Iraq: According to Nineveh Provincial Council member Anwar Mata, “more than 120 thousand Christians [were] displaced from Mosul and Nineveh after the Islamic State invaded Mosul. He further noted that, “about 20 thousand of them have migrated [from] Iraq since last year…. The lack of interest of the federal government towards the displaced Christians pushed them to migrate outside the country … the psychological and moral damage was greater than the loss of their money and property as a result of ISIS occupation of Mosul.” Meanwhile, the theft of Christian property was conducted, not only by IS but by local politicians in Iraq. Impostors and fraudulent groups, thanks to corrupt officials, have managed to acquire illegal possession of thousands of houses belonging to Christian families in Baghdad, who fled the city after the U.S-led ousting of Saddam Hussein uncorked a virulent jihad on them. Mohammed al-Rubai, member of the city council of Baghdad, said that almost 70 percent of Christian houses in Baghdad have been expropriated illegally, and property titles were forged with the tampering of land registers carried out by dishonest bureaucrats. The NGO “Baghdad Beituna” has calculated that the thefts of Christian properties carried out with the complicity of corrupt public officials were about seven thousand. Even members of the political and military apparatus have enjoyed the “legalized” theft of Christian properties.
About this Series
While not all, or even most, Muslims are involved, persecution of Christians is expanding. “Muslim Persecution of Christians” was developed to collate some — by no means all — of the instances of persecution that surface each month.
It documents what the mainstream media often fails to report.
It posits that such persecution is not random but systematic, and takes place in all languages, ethnicities and locations.
Raymond Ibrahim is author of Crucified Again: Exposing Islam’s New War in Christians (published by Regnery in cooperation with Gatestone Institute, April 2013).
Previous reports
May, 2015
April, 2015
March, 2015
February, 2015
January, 2015
December, 2014
November, 2014
October, 2014
September, 2014
August, 2014
July, 2014
June, 2014
May, 2014
April, 2014
March, 2014
February, 2014
January, 2014
December, 2013
November, 2013
October, 2013
September, 2013
August, 2013
June, 2013
May, 2013
April, 2013
March, 2013
February, 2013
January, 2013
December, 2012
November, 2012
October, 2012
September, 2012
August, 2012
July, 2012
June, 2012
May, 2012
April, 2012
March, 2012
February, 2012
January, 2012
December, 2011
November, 2011
October, 2011
September, 2011
August, 2011
[1] Mikhial Shenouda, senior priest of Archangel Mikhial, adds: “A person who commits suicide is a disappointed and desperate person, but Bahaa was in a very good spirits. He was smiling always. He was keeping the word of God.” Although the Egyptian military and media have said little about this incident, hundreds attended his funeral.
[2] According to a 2015 U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom report, “Over the past year, there were numerous incidents of Iranian authorities raiding church services, threatening church members, and arresting and imprisoning worshipers and church leaders, particularly Evangelical Christian converts…. Since 2010, authorities arbitrarily arrested and detained more than 500 Christians throughout the country.” Christians make for less than one percent of Iran’s Shia Muslim majority population. “The Iranian regime’s systematic persecution of Christians, as well as Baha’is, Sunni Muslims, dissenting Shi’a Muslims, and other religious minorities, is getting worse not better,” said U.S. Senator Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) in a statement. “This is a direct consequence of President Obama’s decision to de-link demands for improvements in religious freedom and human rights in Iran from the nuclear negotiations.”
[3] On Sunday, May 24, Faisal was accused of blasphemy when some Muslims saw him burning newspapers that reportedly contained Arabic verses from the Koran. After the accusation, a Muslim mob caught the Christian, severely beat him, and even attempted to set him on fire. A few months earlier, another Muslim mob burned a Christian couple alive inside a kiln after they, too, were accused of insulting Islam. After the attack on Faisal, the Muslim mob, reportedly numbering in the thousands, rampaged through the neighborhood and set fire to Christian homes and a church.
[4] The Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL), proposed by President Benigno Aquino III last September with the aim of ending decades of Islamist rebel violence in Mindanao, was approved by a House Ad Hoc Committee on May 20. The area, comprising five provinces with sizeable non-Muslim populations, already enjoys a measure of autonomy and the proposed BBL would give leaders sufficient independence to impose sharia (Islamic law). The BBL came about as part of a preliminary peace accord between the Aquino administration and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebel group. But it has done little to reduce violence.The BPFA was signed in 2013 as a precursor to a final peace agreement. The government claimed there would be no more Muslim rebel attacks in Mindanao after it was signed, but in some areas violence –including trademark Islamic attacks on churches and nuns — has been increasing.
[5] The letter reads:
Dear Naseem Shah MP,
Can I congratulate you on behalf of myself and family on your stunning victory and we can’t express our delight as our newly elected MP for the Ward of Manningham and wish you every success for the future. On a serious note can I express our utter misery and dire situation as Christian converts from a Mirpuri/Muslim background since 1996 [Mirpur is a region in Pakistan].
We were forced out of our previous home after over several years of suffering as converts and in short my family and I endured ‘hell’ by my fellow Pakistani young men in the form of persecution which entailed assault, daily intimidation, criminal damage to property: smashing house windows and also 3 vehicles written off whilst the community looked on and even endorsed this. One of vehicles was torched outside my home. Despite witnessing another vehicle being rammed deliberately by a man who I knew, the Police did not even take a statement never mind an arrest. Finally after being threatened to be burnt out of my home these young men deliberately set the neighbours’ house (which was vacant) on fire in the hopes that our house would catch fire. When I had reported it to Police prior to this happening the Police sergeant’s response was: “Stop trying to be a crusader and move out!” In short the Police had wilfully failed us so as not to be labelled racists or seem to cause the Muslim community offence at our suffering and expense.
After being forced to move out in June 2006 we settled in St Paul’s Rd and set about rebuilding our lives, which was going well and had no issues and forged good relations with neighbours until we contributed in a Dispatches documentary called ‘Unholy War’ highlighting the plight of converts from Islam to Christianity in September 2008. Then our problems began, largely posed by the A. family who have been engaged on a campaign to drive us out our home given their bigoted attitude and thoroughly unscrupulous conduct and since last July they have embarked upon criminal damage to my vehicle to the point I have now had my vehicle windscreens smashed for the fourth occasion. The most recent incident occurred on 24 April when I had my vehicle smashed in the early hours of the morning and cannot express the financial impact also as I have to wait 3 weeks at a time for the glass to be ordered from the States as my vehicle is American. And again as in our previous experience the Pakistani community has looked on at our suffering and turned a blind eye whilst others have been openly hostile, while they enjoy freedom and liberty religious or otherwise whilst imposing their will rule and reign upon us and we are treated as second class citizens.
As a result of the latest criminal damage, and after weeks of having no car until it was repaired, I took the liberty of parking my vehicle away from outside my home for peace of mind, as given the misery over the last several years I have been diagnosed with PTSD and my wife and family also suffer stress and anxiety. When I went this morning to get my car I was mortified to discover that my car has been smashed deliberately yet again. Clearly we cannot go on living like this; … our lives have been sabotaged, we fear for our safety and suffer anxiety daily, not to mention the financial costs to all of this wanton criminal damage.
I cannot express in words the Police failure over the years which has led to our suffering and have no confidence in them whatsoever and am desperate for your help.
Kind regards,
Nissar Hussain

George Deek is an Arab in a Jewish state and Christian in a predominantly Muslim Arab world—and he recognizes that his multilayered identity is an asset
By Adi Schwartz/Tablet/02 August/15
When George Deek uses the word “we” in a conversation, it is not entirely clear whether he means “we Palestinians,” or rather “we Israelis,” or perhaps “we Westerners,” or even “we Arabs.” At the age of 30, with a constant five-o’clock shadow compensating for his baby-face and thin silhouette, he is both an Israeli diplomat, representing the Jewish state, and a descendant of a Palestinian family who fled its home during the Arab-Israeli War of 1948. His cousins live today in Canada, Dubai, Damascus, and Ramallah, and some of them are considered by the United Nations to be refugees of that same war.
This personal tension came fully into being last summer, during the war between Israel and Hamas, when Deek was Israel’s chargé d’affaires in Oslo. He presented Israel’s positions and defended its actions, while Norwegian TV networks were screening endless footage of destruction coming out of the Gaza Strip. He explained how the Israeli army works, without ever serving in it. He spoke on behalf of Israel, when none of his viewers and listeners knew that he was actually (also) a Palestinian.
A few weeks later, at the end of September, he decided to unveil his personal story for the first time. In a lecture in the House of Literature in Oslo, during the launching of the Norwegian translation of Benny Morris’ history book dedicated to the 1948 war, Deek recounted how his grandfather fled Jaffa and reached Lebanon, how he insisted on getting back into Israel when the war ended, and how he raised his family in the nascent Jewish state. He talked about the personal suffering of his own family, now scattered all around the world, but also about the fact that “the Palestinians have become slaves to the past, held captive by the chains of resentment, prisoners in the world of frustration and hate.”
But he talked mainly about the way forward, and mainly about hope. He spoke about his neighbor Avraham, a Holocaust survivor, who taught him always to look to the future and not to the past. He gave his listeners a sense of why a young Arab-Palestinian has decided to dedicate his career to the Israeli Foreign Service. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the speech quickly went viral under the somewhat ironic title “the best speech an Israeli diplomat ever held.”
***
As a native son of Jaffa, the mixed Arab-Jewish suburb of Tel Aviv (population 60,000), Deek knows its decaying streets and alleys inside out. Our meeting occurred when he was in Israel for the winter holidays, just after he returned from Sunday prayer in the local Christian Orthodox church. He was dressed in a dark blue suit and a pair of shiny black shoes. His late father, Joseph, was head of the Orthodox community in town, so everybody knew him and greeted him with a nod. A group of elderly women sitting outside a simple one-story home, all in black dresses, called to him and urged him to find himself a woman already. He chuckled.
Deek took me to where his grandfather’s house stood in the Ajami neighborhood before 1948; it was now a complete ruin. His grandfather George worked as an electrician and had some Jewish friends who even taught him Yiddish, making him one of the first Arabs to ever speak the language. He got engaged to his wife Vera in 1947. A few months later, when the United Nations approved the Partition Plan, Arab leaders warned that the Jews would kill them if they stayed home. “They told everyone to leave their houses, and run away,” said Deek. “They said they will need just a few days, in which together with five armies they promised to destroy the newly born Israel.”
His family, horrified by what might happen, decided to flee to the north, toward Lebanon. They stayed there for many months, and when the war was over, they realized that they had been lied to—the Arabs did not win as they promised, and the Jews did not kill all the Arabs, as they were told would happen. “My grandfather looked around him and saw nothing but a dead-end life as refugees,” said Deek. “He knew that in a place stuck in the past with no ability to look forward, there is no future for his family. Because he worked with Jews and was a friend to them, he was not brainwashed with hatred.”
His grandfather did what few others would have dared—he got hold of one of his old friends at the electricity company, and asked for his help to get back into Israel. That friend not only was able and willing to help him come back, but even made sure that he got his job back.
We stared at the ruined house for a few more moments. “Let’s continue?” he suggested.
Among Deek’s siblings and cousins living in Israel there are accountants, hi-tech engineers, factory managers, university professors, doctors, lawyers, architects—and of course electricians. “The reason we have succeeded,” he said, “and that I am an Israeli diplomat, and not a Palestinian refugee in Lebanon, is that my grandfather had the courage to make a decision that was unthinkable to others.”
He spoke slowly and softly, as someone who had given much thought to the issue. He said that his grandfather’s choice should be a model for the Arab minority in Israel as a whole: “Unfortunately, Arabs in Israel today are forced to choose between two bad options. One is assimilation—young Arabs look at their Jewish peers and decide they want to speak like them, walk like them, and behave like them. This attempt is a bit comic but also sad, since it is doomed to fail. In the end they are not Jews and will never be.
“On the other hand, and this is a far more common choice, there is an option of separatism, which is promoted by the Arab political and religious leaders. They say that we are not really Israelis, only Palestinians with Israeli citizenship, but this nuance creates dissociation. They speak about Arab cultural autonomy and about separation, which I think lead to extremism and animosity with the Jews. According to this version, a loyal Arab-Israeli must define himself first and foremost through being anti-Israeli.
“With the first choice, you lose who you are; with the second, you lose who you can become. But I believe that there’s a third way. We can be proud of our identity and at the same time live as a contributing minority in a country who has a different nationality, a different religion, and a different culture than ours. There is no better example in my view than the Jews in Europe, who kept their religion and identity for centuries but still managed to influence deeply, perhaps even to create, European modern thinking. Jews suffered from the same dissonance between their own identity and the surrounding society. Their success was not despite their distinctiveness, but because of it. I am talking about Marx, Freud, Einstein, Spinoza, Wittgenstein.
“Are we less smart? I don’t think so. We must contribute to the common good and be part of the Israeli mainstream in politics, economy, culture, fashion, technology, music, everything. We have our role models. Supreme Court Justice Salim Joubran; Judge George Kara, who sent a Jewish president to jail; Weizmann Institute researcher Jacob Hanna; and authors such as Sayed Kashua and Anton Shammas, who are doing to Hebrew what Franz Kafka did to the German language.”
He lamented the fact that Arab leaders don’t follow this path and instead put the Arab identity and the Israeli identity on a constant collision path. The Arab minority in Israel, he said, could have a paramount role in creating a bridge with the entire Arab world through commerce, culture, and literature, thanks to its unique position. “There is a challenge here for the Jewish community as well,” he added, “who have to accept a minority that wants to maintain its distinct character and still be part of the decision-making process.”
***
Orthodox Christians in Jaffa celebrated their New Year in mid January, and so a few thousand of them lined the city’s main street on a chilly winter’s night for the annual festive parade. There was a mixed boys-girls group of break-dancers, and huge balloons, and many many fireworks, but the main attraction was the Orthodox Christian scouts band that played anything from “Jingle Bells” to Beethoven’s Ode to Joy. As a trumpet player and a former leader of the band, Deek does not miss an opportunity to play with the band; each year he returns to Israel for the winter holidays to be once again part of the community.
As a boy he studied in Jaffa, but his father sent him to one of the best high schools in northern Tel Aviv, where he was the only Arab. He stood out as an eloquent speaker, and when the second Intifada broke out in 2000 he enthusiastically defended the Palestinian side, though he says today that already at that time he felt that he was only playing a role written for him and not expressing himself. After graduating, he practiced law for a few years but got bored. One day he saw an ad in the newspaper for the upcoming cadet course for diplomats.
His Arab friends told him he did not stand a chance; he didn’t even serve in the military, they said. Convincing his father, an Arab nationalist and member of an anti-Zionist political party, was a tougher sell. The young Deek promised his father that he was doing it out of a real sense of purpose and not for the status or the perks. “I will never forget his answer,” he said. “He told me that he wanted to bring up a man, and therefore taught me how to think and not what to think.”
Representing Israel in Norway, where for a while he was the most senior diplomat in the embassy, wasn’t always an easy task. However, his mixed and conflicting identities helped him notice elements that other people would have probably missed; always a stranger, he picked up nuances that others were blind to. “Despite all differences,” he said, “Norwegians and Israelis have in common the feeling that they know better than anyone else how to do things. Norwegians have this sense of geographical superiority toward the rest of the world; sort of ‘we are far away and above all this.’ I remember that when I just arrived there from my previous post in Nigeria, I saw a billboard advertising a ‘Films from the South’ festival. I was sure that these were going to be African films, but I discovered they were actually German and French films. For Norway, that was south. That’s beyond geography. That’s about the mentality of looking at the world from a higher pedestal.”
‘How could it be that I was both Israeli, Arab, Christian, and a diplomat in Norway?’
Until recently, Norway was considered one of the most hostile countries in Europe toward Israel, and Deek had to confront these sentiments on a daily basis. “If you ask me how many Norwegians think that Jews belong to an inferior religion, or that Jews control the world, the answer would be very little,” he said. “But I think that the State of Israel itself has become a substitute for those same old anti-Semitic sentiments.
“Back when religion was the source of authority, the Jews suffered because of their religion. When science became the source of authority, Jews suffered because of their racial-biological features. Now the source of authority is the issue of human rights, and the Jewish State is accused of committing all the gravest abuses at once: apartheid, genocide, ethnic cleansing, war crimes, crimes against humanity. Just as Jews posed a challenge to the non-Jewish society throughout the ages, so does Israel pose a challenge to the world today. This is what I had to deal with: the Norwegians’ ability to accept a Jewish State with all its uniqueness.”
He had a revealing conversation with one of Norway’s YMCA leaders, who decided to boycott Israel. “I asked her, ‘Why Israel?’ There are surely much graver cases of human rights abuses around the world. Even if everything she said was true, Israel was still not the worst country in the world. And to my astonishment, she replied, ‘Well, we have to start somewhere.’ She reminded me of the famous story of the former president of Harvard University, who when asked why he singled Jews out for quotas, responded, ‘Jews cheat.’ When he was reminded that Christians also cheat, he said: ‘You’re changing the subject. We are talking about Jews now.’ ”
One of the tricks he uses when discussing Israel is to reveal his full identity only halfway through the conversation. “During the war between Israel and Hamas in 2012, I invited a very senior journalist who was reporting at the time on the conflict. At a certain point he started to accuse me, saying, ‘You Jews don’t want the Palestinians to have their own state.’ I answered that I was not Jewish. I represent the Jewish State but I am an Arab-Palestinian with relatives in Ramallah, and I can tell him that he is wrong.
“Every Israeli diplomat could have told him that he was wrong, but when I did so, it had a different meaning. He said, ‘Wait a moment, are you Israeli?’ I replied yes. He asked, ‘And you represent Israel?’ I said yes. ‘But you are Arab?’ I said yes. He was very confused and did not understand how it could be that I was both Israeli, Arab, Christian, and a diplomat in Norway. And this was someone supposedly knowledgeable in Israel and its society. But many times very prominent figures in politics, in the media or the academia, make up their thoughts based on fashion and not on facts or substance.”
***
Why, of all jobs and professions he could pick, did Deek chose to align himself with one part of his identity, which is set in such a conflict with other parts of his identity? A key to the answer lies perhaps in the fact that stories like his can happen only in free and open societies. His decision to fight for Israel and pursue the career of a diplomat is in a way a fight for himself—a multilayered persona, struggling to find his own voice in a double minority situation: Arab in a Jewish state and Christian in a predominantly Muslim Arab world. Israel’s survival guarantees his own survival.
“If there is no place in the Middle East for a Jewish State, than there is no place for anyone who is different,” he said. “And this is why we see today persecution of Yazidis, Christians, Baha’i, Sunni against Shia and vice versa, and even Sunni against other Sunni who do not follow Islam exactly the same way. The key to change is connected deeply to our ability as Arabs to accept the legitimacy of others. Therefore, the Jewish State is our biggest challenge, because it has a different nationality, religion, and culture. Jews pose a challenge because as a minority they insist on their right to be different. The day we accept the Jewish State as it is, all other persecution in the Middle East will cease.”
‘The key to change is connected deeply to our ability as Arabs to accept the legitimacy of others.’
It is clear to him that the problem with Israel, in the eyes of the Arab world, is not its policies but its identity. If Israel were a Muslim state, he says, nobody would care about its policies; after all, most Muslim states treat their citizens much worse, and no Arab cries foul at other abuses, wars or cases of occupation in the Middle East. “You don’t need to be anti-Israeli to acknowledge the humanitarian disaster of the Palestinians in 1948,” he said. “The fact that I have to Skype with relatives in Canada who don’t speak Arabic, or a cousin in an Arab country that still has no citizenship despite being a third generation there, is a living testimony to the tragic consequences of the war.”
But at the same time, he continued, some 800,000 Jews were intimidated into fleeing the Arab world, leaving it almost empty of Jews. And the list goes on: When India and Pakistan were established, about 15 million people were transferred; following World War II some 12 million Germans were displaced; and only recently, more than 2 million Christians were expelled from Iraq. The chances of any of those groups to return to their homes are non-existent.
Why is it then that the tragedy of the Palestinians is still alive in today’s politics? “It seems to me to be so,” he said, “because the Nakba has been transformed from a humanitarian disaster to a political offensive. The commemoration of the Nakba is no longer about remembering what happened, but about resenting the mere existence of the state of Israel.
“It is demonstrated most clearly in the date chosen to commemorate it, May 15, the day after Israel proclaimed its independence. By that the Palestinian leadership declared that the disaster is not the expulsion, the abandoned villages or the exile. The Nakba in their eyes is the creation of Israel. They are saddened less by the humanitarian catastrophe of the Palestinians, and more by the revival of the Jewish state. In other words: they do not mourn the fact that my cousins are Jordanians, they mourn the fact that I am an Israeli.”
“I,” said Deek clearly this time; he didn’t say “we.”
Adi Schwartz is an independent Israeli journalist and researcher.
http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/190615/israels-best-diplomat-george-deek