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Bible Quotation For Today/Jesus teaches His Disciples the Holy: Our Father
Luke 11/01-04: "He was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.’He said to them, ‘When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come.Give us each day our daily bread.And forgive us our sins,for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us. And do not bring us to the time of trial.’"

Bible Quotation For Today/When he had seen the vision, we immediately tried to cross over to Macedonia, being convinced that God had called us to proclaim the good news to them.
Acts of the Apostles 15/36-41./16,1-3.6-10./" After some days Paul said to Barnabas, ‘Come, let us return and visit the believers in every city where we proclaimed the word of the Lord and see how they are doing.’ Barnabas wanted to take with them John called Mark. But Paul decided not to take with them one who had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not accompanied them in the work. The disagreement became so sharp that they parted company; Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed away to Cyprus.But Paul chose Silas and set out, the believers commending him to the grace of the Lord. He went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches. Paul went on also to Derbe and to Lystra, where there was a disciple named Timothy, the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer; but his father was a Greek. He was well spoken of by the believers in Lystra and Iconium. Paul wanted Timothy to accompany him; and he took him and had him circumcised because of the Jews who were in those places, for they all knew that his father was a Greek. They went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. When they had come opposite Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them; so, passing by Mysia, they went down to Troas.During the night Paul had a vision: there stood a man of Macedonia pleading with him and saying, ‘Come over to Macedonia and help us.’When he had seen the vision, we immediately tried to cross over to Macedonia, being convinced that God had called us to proclaim the good news to them.

What does the Bible say about legalism? How can a Christian avoid falling into the trap of legalism?"
GotQuestions.org/Answer: The word “legalism” does not occur in the Bible. It is a term Christians use to describe a doctrinal position emphasizing a system of rules and regulations for achieving both salvation and spiritual growth. Legalists believe in and demand a strict literal adherence to rules and regulations. Doctrinally, it is a position essentially opposed to grace. Those who hold a legalistic position often fail to see the real purpose for law, especially the purpose of the Old Testament law of Moses, which is to be our “schoolmaster” or “tutor” to bring us to Christ (Galatians 3:24).
Even true believers can be legalistic. We are instructed, rather, to be gracious to one another: “Accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on disputable matters” (Romans 14:1). Sadly, there are those who feel so strongly about non-essential doctrines that they will run others out of their fellowship, not even allowing the expression of another viewpoint. That, too, is legalism. Many legalistic believers today make the error of demanding unqualified adherence to their own biblical interpretations and even to their own traditions. For example, there are those who feel that to be spiritual one must simply avoid tobacco, alcoholic beverages, dancing, movies, etc. The truth is that avoiding these things is no guarantee of spirituality.
The apostle Paul warns us of legalism in Colossians 2:20-23: “Since you died with Christ to the basic principles of this world, why, as though you still belonged to it, do you submit to its rules: ‘Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!’? These are all destined to perish with use, because they are based on human commands and teachings. Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.” Legalists may appear to be righteous and spiritual, but legalism ultimately fails to accomplish God’s purposes because it is an outward performance instead of an inward change.
To avoid falling into the trap of legalism, we can start by holding fast to the words of the apostle John, “For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” (John 1:17) and remembering to be gracious, especially to our brothers and sisters in Christ. “Who are you to judge someone else's servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand” (Romans 14:4). “You, then, why do you judge your brother? Or why do you look down on your brother? For we will all stand before God's judgment seat” (Romans 14:10). A word of caution is necessary here. While we need to be gracious to one another and tolerant of disagreement over disputable matters, we cannot accept heresy. We are exhorted to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints (Jude 3). If we remember these guidelines and apply them in love and mercy, we will be safe from both legalism and heresy. “Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world” (1 John 4:1).

LCCC Latest analysis, editorials from miscellaneous sources published on July 12-13/15
Turkey, Tears, and Terrorism/Burak Bekdil/The Gatestone Institute/July12/15
Five Grossly Un-American Supreme Court Justices Have Ruled Against Traditional Marriages/Jerry McConnell/Canada Free Press/July 12/15
Turkey Finds China Too Big To Bite/Burak Bekdil/Gatestone Institute/July 12/15
Saudi Blogger Raif Badawi: 'I Say What I think'/Stephen Schwartz and Irfan Al-Alawi/The Huffington Post/July 12/15
The feared ‘catastrophic success’ in Syria/Hisham Melhem/Al Arabiya/Sunday, 12 July/15
Can today’s Arab World give us another Omar al-Sharif?/Faisal J. Abbas/Al Arabiya/12 July/15
Blocking Twitter is not the solution/Abdulrahman al-Rashed/Al Arabiya/12 July/15
The Egypt bombing wave: Why did ISIS now pick Italy?/Dr. Theodore Karasik/Al Arabiya/12 July/15
The rise and fall of a forgotten Phoenician city (and its connection to the Israelites)/J.Post/12 July/15
Israeli-Canadian woman returns to Israel after fighting ISIS/Roi Kais/Ynetnews/12 July/15
Iranian-Western Nuclear deal/Blindness has no political color/Ben-Dror Yemini /Ynetnews/July 12/15

LCCC Bulletin itles for the Lebanese Related News published on July 12-13/15
Shaming is not a strategy/Dr. Walid Phares
Iran deal: A Mountain producing a mouse...?/Dr.Walid Phares
Report: Washington Rejects Vacuum in Army Leadership, Could Reconsider Aid
Aoun defends FPM protest, blames Army chief for violence
Hariri failed to deliver on security appointments: Aoun
Israel Stages Live Ammo Drill in Shebaa Farms
Rifi: Aoun Will Never be President
Man Reportedly Abducted after Leaving Tripoli Workplace Carrying
Salam: Keep Political Differences Away from Cabinet
Bou Saab: I Refuse Describing Salam as 'Daeshi'
Malala Inaugurates School for Syrian Refugee Girls in Bekaa

LCCC Bulletin Miscellaneous Reports And News published on July 12-13/15
After bombing, Italy PM hails Egypt’s Sisi as ‘great leader’
Israel frees Palestinian hunger striker Khader Adnan
Back in Tehran… Khamenei adds red lines, Rouhani tries to resign, Jaafari hints at “fait accompli” soon
Diplomats Say Provisional Iran Nuke Deal Likely Ready Sunday as U.S. Says 'Major Issues' Remain
Israel Frees Palestinian after 56-day Hunger Strike
Bahrain Re-arrests Prominent Sunni Opponent Freed in June
EU Welcomes Libya's U.N. Deal as Step Toward Stability
Israel Arrests Jewish Suspects over 'Miracle' Church Arson
Senior Leader of Tunisian Qaida-Linked Group Killed
IS Releases New Footage of 2014 Tikrit Massacre
Libya Groups Agree Peace Deal without Tripoli Parliament
Saudi-Led Strikes Hit Yemen Rebels Despite Truce
Kurdish Militants Threaten to Attack Turkey Dams
Canada's FM, Minister Nicholson Makes Statement on Latest ISIS Developments
Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's crackdown in Sinai risks more instability in Egypt
Iran's supreme leader dashes hopes of post-deal relations boost with US

Shaming is not a strategy...
Dr. Walid Phares/Face Book Page/12 July/15/"3Aib, 3Aib-el-shum, Jarrasuna, walaw, mish ma3ul, mish ma2bul, Yi 3aleiun, bala akhla2, met'akh'reen, mett-tarfeen, and even Tfeh," are terms often used in Lebanon to respond to strategic challenges posed by the Iranian-led forces or by the Salafi-Jihadists. This is called "shaming" the threat into retreat. Today's civil society seems to have "shaming" as the only option available. During the Bashir Gemayel-Camille Chamoun era there was no shaming or Ta3yeeb, there was a resistance with some sort of strategy. At least there was an attempt for a strategy, even though it was failed at the end. The terror forces Lebanon is facing now aren't impressed by the "Ta3yeeb." In the past to push them out, Lebanon's civil society opted for resistance in 1978 and for a popular revolution in 2005...Clearly "shaming" is not a strategy...

Iran deal: A Mountain producing a mouse...?
Dr.Walid Phares/Face Book Page/12.07.15
"Tamakhada al Jabalu fa tawallada fa'ran"
A well known Arab proverb says: ""Tamakhada al Jabalu fa walada fa'ran". A raw meaning would be: The mountain went into a long and intense labor and in the end it gave birth to a mouse, or a small rat. This saying could apply to the two years long US-Iran talks and its final product. What the final product of such an agreement would look like is a platform for the regime to gain even more time to achieve its own strategic goals.
Phares to Raymond Arroyo on EWTN: "Too much cash transfer to the Iranian regime will be the seed to the next revolution in Iran.."
In an interview with Raymond Arroyo on EWTN, Dr Walid Phares said: "Too much cash transfer to the Iranian regime will be the seed to the next revoution in Iran." He argued that "Tehran is receiving funds and is able to develop its protective dome, while the talks are going on" Phares said "the regime is expanding in the region. Instead of allowing the latter to grow stronger and attain its goals unhinged, Washington should have engaged the opposition." On the campaign against ISIS, Phares said "airstrikes are successful individually but without a change on the ground the strategy is not winning. A city is taken away from ISIS as in Tikrit and they take another in exchange as in Ramadi. Their centers are pounded but they seize half of Syria." Phares said "the Jihadists are spreading across the region from Tunisia, Libya to Sinai and beyond and ISIS is drawing most of them to join its ranks.

Report: Washington Rejects Vacuum in Army Leadership, Could Reconsider Aid
Naharnet/July 12/15/A European diplomatic source said that the United States will not accept vacuum in the leadership of Lebanon's military institutions, warning that it could halt the aid program it provides to the army, the Kuwaiti al-Qabas daily reported on Sunday. The United states, which continuously provides the army with aid and cover to dismantle terrorist cells, will not accept vacuum in the leadership of the military institution, threatening that it could reconsider the aid program if that happened, the daily added. The sources told the daily that any vacuum in the army leadership could also affect the delivery of French weapons to Lebanon, that have been financed through a $1 billion Saudi grant. The warnings are well known to some political parties now, who beleive that the extension of the term of army commander Gen. Jean Qahwaji could become a de facto if the process of military and security appointments failed, they stated. The next three weeks will be sufficient for things to crystallize. Free Patriotic Movement chief MP Michel Aoun wants his son-in-law Commando Regiment chief Brig. Gen. Chamel Roukoz to be appointed army chief. Roukoz's tenure ends in October 2015 while the term of army commander Gen. Jean Qahwaji expires at the end of September. Despite the reports about his insistence to have his son-in-law as army chief, Aoun denies that he had made such a proposal. The cabinet is scheduled to meet early in August after a heated session on Thursday that began with a dispute between Prime Minister Tammam Salam and Foreign Minister Jibran Bassil, who is the son-in-law of Aoun. The thorny file of military and security appointments drives the attention of all parties, as it comes a month and a half before the tenure of Qahwaji ends. The tenure of Qahwaji was extended for two years in September 2013.

Aoun defends FPM protest, blames Army chief for violence
The Daily Star/July 11, 2015 /BEIRUT: Army commander Gen. Jean Kahwagi gave the order for the attack against supporters of the Free Patriotic Movement who protested in Downtown Beirut Thursday, party chief Michel Aoun said Saturday, accusing him of "politicizing" the military. “It was a planned operation that falls under the responsibility of the commander, because such a command can only come from the highest rank of leadership,” Aoun told a crowd of supporters from the district of Aley who visited him at his home in Rabieh. He said the attack was part of “a retaliatory policy against those who oppose the commander," describing the statement released by the Army which stated that troops were attacked and seven were wounded, as “very despicable.” “As I said two days ago, a statement should not have one wrong comma, so of course it should not include propaganda to cover a crime ordered by the leadership,” he added. He also mocked the statement, wondering how "a soldier was wounded in the hand" while protesters did not use any sharp objects. "How did he get that wound, by punching someone?" he asked. “It seems that the Army is being politicized and transformed into a party against other parties.”Aoun held that Army troops surrounded the protesters by blocking the entrances to the area and attacked them with batons and metal sticks without being provoked, citing videos posted online. “There were not more than 20 cars that went to protest in Beirut, but after the incidents, people left their offices and joined,” he said. “Among those were my daughters and our MPs. I am still waiting for a statement of condemnation by the Parliament.” He said he had seen videos that prove the Army started the violence, adding that he was collecting names of the soldiers involved. “We are following up on this case, and it will not go by unnoticed.

Hariri failed to deliver on security appointments: Aoun
The Daily Star/July 11, 2015 /BEIRUT: Future Movement chief Saad Hariri suggested making a deal to appoint new police and Army commanders, but failed to hold up his part of the bargain, Free Patriotic Movement Michel Aoun said. “Hariri raised the security appointments matter in our meeting [in February] and asked for our opinion on extending [Internal Security Forces chief] Maj. Gen. Ibrahim Basbous’ term,” Aoun told Al-Akhbar in an interview published Saturday. “I answered honestly that we oppose the extension because there were many competent generals in the ISF [to select as a successor].” Aoun said Hariri, a former prime minister, then proposed two names to succeed Basbous: Information Branch chief Brig. Gen. Imad Othman and ISF's South Lebanon chief Brig. Gen. Samir Shehadeh.
Hariri said he preferred Othman, who had served as the head of the Cabinet’s protection unit when he was premier.
Then, according to Aoun, the following conversation took place.
Hariri: “You should get me the approval of your friends (the March 8 coalition). And who do you want as Army Commander?”
Aoun: “Who do you think?”
[Hariri laughs]
Aoun: “You tell me, you know him.”
Hariri: “Shamel [Roukoz]?”
Aoun: “Yes, you know him from May 2008.”
Roukoz, a brigadier general who heads the Army's Commando Regiments, is Aoun's son-in-law.
The FPM chief continued that when he consulted Hezbollah over the potential deal, the party’s leadership approved the appointment of Othman, as did Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblatt, the Kataeb Party and the Lebanese Forces.
“This is when I called Hariri, while he was in Saudi Arabia, and told him: ‘It’s a deal. Everyone agreed, and we have consensus’.”
“I am returning to Beirut tonight or maybe tomorrow,” Hariri replied.
“But he has not returned till today,” Aoun said.
Aoun said the Future Movement kept procrastinating until May 2015, when “their real intentions were revealed.”
When he asked them about the deal, he was told the appointments had to be put on hold until the military developments in Syria stabilize especially after rebels captured Jisr al-Shughour.
“What do they mean? If the regional circumstances change, then so would Shamel Roukoz?” Aoun told Al-Akhbar. “This is proof of bad intentions.”
He said he was only stating facts and not attempting to “disturb Hariri,” but then added: “Hariri cannot commit. He who does not have the say cannot make a commitment.”
During a Cabinet session on June 4, the Future Movement's Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk proposed appointing Othman to succeed to Basbous.
When rival ministers refused, Machnouk extended Basbous’s term by two years. The move enraged FPM’s ministers and prompted them to vow to prevent the Cabinet from making any decisions before the security appointments, resulting in the cancellation of three consecutive regular sessions.

Israel Stages Live Ammo Drill in Shebaa Farms
Naharnet/July 12/15/The Israeli army carried out a live ammunition maneuver early Sunday in the Shebaa farms, the National News Agency said.At around 7:00 am, Israeli troops kicked off simulated military operations in the southern side of the Shebaa farms close to the border line using live ammunition. The sounds of artillery shells could be heard up to the villages of al-Arqoub that are adjacent to the border line, NNA added. Lebanon regularly files U.N. complaints over Israel's near-daily land, air, and sea violations of Lebanese sovereignty. Israel occupied much of southern Lebanon for 22 years between 1978 and 2000 and its invading army reached the capital Beirut in 1982. It fought a devastating 2006 war with Hizbullah in which more than 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed in Lebanon.

Rifi: Aoun Will Never be President
Naharnet/July 12/15/Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi said on Sunday that the Free Patriotic Movement chief MP Michel Aoun will never be a president, criticizing the street mobilizations that the latter kicked off during the latest cabinet session. “Aoun will never be a president. What he did in the streets only indicate a state of national downfall and is a proof that he is not fit to handle responsibility at the level of the state,” said Rifi in an interview to the Kuwaiti al-Anbaa daily. “Aoun has realized that his political horizons are now blocked and he is only struggling with his ambitions and personal interests without taking into consideration the results of his demagoguery actions,” added the Minister. Urging all the “reasonable political parties not to allow Aoun's floundering drive the country into chaos,” he also called on Aoun to be “rational in order for Lebanon to pass out of the state of tension it is living.”Earlier this week, Aoun had called on his supporters to prepare for rallies, that coincided with a cabinet session, to regain what he described as the “Christians' rights.”His supporters began preparing to stage anti-government rallies after the cabinet failed to discuss the appointment of high-ranking security and military officials. Aoun also has aspirations to become a president.

Man Reportedly Abducted after Leaving Tripoli Workplace Carrying
Naharnet/July 12/15/ A man was kidnapped Sunday in the northern city of Tripoli after leaving his workplace carrying a large sum of money, media reports said. “Lebanese national Nazih Zakaria al-Hussein was abducted after he left his workplace at the Tripoli Plaza company carrying 8 million Lebanese pounds,” LBCI television reported. His family has urged the captors to free him, stressing that “if the motive is the money, they can take the money, and if it's personal, they're willing to resolve any issue,” LBCI said. It noted that security agencies have launched a probe into the incident. On Friday, security forces arrested the ringleader of a gang that had kidnapped a child from the town of Amchit near Jbeil. Authorities also managed to recover a $50,000 ransom that had been paid to secure the release of the boy. The child's kidnappers have been identified as Lebanese and Syrian residents of the northern border region of Wadi Khaled.

Salam: Keep Political Differences Away from Cabinet
Naharnet/July 12/15/Prime Minister Tammam Salam stressed on Sunday that he will not let the attempts to obstruct the cabinet succeed in their endeavors, calling on all parties to keep political differences away.“I will not allow any attempts to obstruct the cabinet's work. Let them keep their political differences away from the government,” said Salam during a meeting with popular delegations at his residence. Salam urged for dialogue among political parties. On electing a head of state he said: "We want a president who makes us proud and who represents all the Lebanese." Regarding the cabinet's decision-making mechanism he emphasized that: “I will not put a constant decision-making cabinet mechanism but I will more likely put an approach to get things going in the country,” he told VDL (93.3). “The cabinet must take all the decisions and measures to provide the country with the required immunity. I will continue to shoulder my responsibilities and my stances," added the PM.“I am always here if anyone wants to communicate with me.”The cabinet convened on Thursday to tackle the government's mechanism of taking decisions in light of the presidential vacuum. A number of heated exchanges took place in the session before they died down and the ministers were able to discuss the cabinet agenda. It managed to approve one ordinary agenda article. On the accusations naming him a 'Daeshi' in a reference to the Arabic acronym of the Islamic State extremist group, Salam said: “People can distinguish right from wrong.”Foreign Minister Jibran Bassil, of the Free Patriotic Movement, said on Friday a day after the heated debate with Salam at cabinet, that the movement “will confront 'Daeshi' politics."

Bou Saab: I Refuse Describing Salam as 'Daeshi'
Naharnet/July 12/15/Education Minister Elias Bou Saab refused on Sunday descriptions hinting at PM Tamam Salam as a “Daeshi,” stressing that Salam is a “moderate figure.”“Salam is a moderate figure and our differences with him are strictly political,” said Bou Saab, of the Free Patriotic Movement, to LBCI. He denounced the accusations that described Salam's politics as 'Daeshi,'in a reference to the Arabic acronym of the Islamic State extremist group. Foreign Minister Jibran Bassil of the FPM said on Friday, a day after a heated debate with Salam during a cabinet session, that the movement “will confront 'Daeshi' politics.”Bassil had hailed the street protests by FPM supporters that were paralleled with a Thursday cabinet convention, saying that they have restored hope for the Christians in Lebanon.
He said during a press conference: “ We are waging the battle of defending all the Christians and Lebanese.”Bou Saab added that another heated debate took place between Bassil and Health Minister Wael Abou Faour during the cabinet meeting. Furthermore he called for a joint agreement to solve the governmental crisis.

Malala Inaugurates School for Syrian Refugee Girls in Bekaa
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/July 12/15/Malala Yousafzai told world leaders they were failing Syria's children, as the Nobel Peace Prize winner spent her 18th birthday Sunday on the Syrian border. As she became an adult, the teenager, who was shot by militants in her native Pakistan for campaigning for girls' rights, opened a school for more than 200 Syrian girls living in refugee camps in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley. The Malala Yousafzai All-Girls School will offer education and skills training to girls aged 14 to 18. "I am honored to mark my 18th birthday with the brave and inspiring girls of Syria," Yousafzai said in a statement received in London. "I am here on behalf of the 28 million children who are kept from the classroom because of armed conflict. "Their courage and dedication to continue their schooling in difficult conditions inspires people around the world and it is our duty to stand by them. "On this day, I have a message for the leaders of this country, this region and the world: you are failing the Syrian people, especially Syria's children. This is a heartbreaking tragedy -- the world's worst refugee crisis in decades."Later on Sunday, Malala held talks in Beirut's Msaitbeh with Prime Minister Tammam Salam, in the presence of her father and MP Walid Jumblat's wife Noura, the National News Agency said. Lebanon is hosting nearly 1.2 million registered Syrian refugees, though the total number in the country may be even higher. The influx has placed strains on Lebanon, which has just four million citizens.The Lebanese government has prevented the establishment of official refugee camps, giving rise to informal shanties known as "tented settlements" in rural areas. Malala was flown to Britain for treatment after the Pakistani Taliban tried to kill her in October 2012, and now lives permanently in Britain with her family.

After bombing, Italy PM hails Egypt’s Sisi as ‘great leader’
AFP, Rome/Sunday, 12 July 2015/Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi has hailed Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi as the only leader who can "save" Egypt, after a deadly car bomb attack on Rome's consulate in Cairo. He also vowed that Italy would not be "intimidated" after Saturday's attack claimed by the Islamic State group that killed one civilian and injured nine more people. "I think al-Sisi is a great leader," Renzi said in an interview with Al-Jazeera television broadcast Sunday. "Let me be very frank. In this moment Egypt will be saved only with the leadership of al-Sisi," Renzi said in English. "This is my personal position and I am proud of my friendship with him and I will support him in the direction of peace because the Mediterranean without Egypt will be absolutely a place without peace."Speaking to Sisi on Saturday after the consulate bombing, Renzi said the two countries will stand together "in the fight against terrorism and fanaticism".The attack was the first on a foreign mission in Egypt since jihadists began a campaign against the country's security forces two years ago following a crackdown on Islamists. Asked by La Repubblica newspaper about possible reasons Italy was targeted, Renzi said he would not play a "guessing game"."Attacks like this can have random aspects, to show the logistical ability to hit a Western nation," he told the paper."One thing is for sure, Italy must react with quiet steadfastness. We will not allow ourselves to be intimidated."Sisi, the former army chief who ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in July 2013, has come under fire from rights groups over the deadly Islamist crackdown as well as increasing restrictions on media freedom.

Israel frees Palestinian hunger striker Khader Adnan
By AFP | Occupied Jerusalem/Sunday, 12 July 2015
Israel overnight released a Palestinian prisoner who staged a 56-day hunger strike while being detained for a year without charge, a spokeswoman said Sunday. “Khader Adnan, who was in administrative detention, has been released,” Sivan Weizman, a spokeswoman for the Israel Prison Authority, told AFP. Adnan, 37, had been held for a year under administrative detention, which allows imprisonment without charge for renewable periods of six months indefinitely. His hunger strike, which had brought him near death by the time it concluded last month, had sparked warnings from the Palestinian government that it held Israel responsible for his fate. Adnan ended his hunger strike on June 28 after Israel agreed to release him, at which point he was transferred to an Israeli hospital.
He was detained a year ago, shortly after the kidnapping and murder of three young Israelis, which triggered the arrests of hundreds of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. He had previously gone on hunger strike for 66 days in 2012 to protest against his detention. He was released at the end of the protest, during which he had ingested vitamins and salt. This time, he refused to swallow anything except water. The Palestinian government had warned it held Israel responsible for his fate, while the Israeli government in mid-June renewed efforts for legislation that would allow prisoners to be force-fed when their lives are in danger. The Palestinian leadership submitted a report to the International Criminal Court last week that included the treatment of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.

Iran's supreme leader dashes hopes of post-deal relations boost with US
Associated Press/Ynetnews/Published: 07.11.15/ Israel News
As negotiators at Iran nuclear talks labored to make headway, the country's supreme leader called Saturday for the struggle against the US to continue, in comments suggesting that Tehran's distrust of Washington will persist no matter what the outcome of the talks.
The negotiations entered their 15th day Saturday with no indications of major progress after three extensions and four target dates for a deal, and diplomats said it remained unclear whether an agreement could be reached by Monday, the latest deadline.
Iran and the US have threatened to walk away unless the other side makes concessions. Although it was unclear whether Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was preparing the ground for the failure of the talks, his comments were likely to add to skepticism over the outcome at the negotiating table. Iran's state-run Press TV cited Khamenei as calling the US an "excellent example of arrogance." It said Khamenei told university students in Tehran to be "prepared to continue the struggle against arrogant powers."
Even if Khamenei isn't signaling that the talks have failed, his comments appear to be a blow to US hopes that an agreement will lead to improved bilateral relations that could translate into increased cooperation in a common cause -- the fight against Islamic radicals.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif had hinted at just that last week, suggesting a deal acceptable to his country will open the door to joint efforts on that front.
Zarif and US Secretary of State John Kerry met again Saturday, this time with European Union foreign policy chief Frederica Mogherini present. Of the chief diplomats of the six countries negotiating with Iran, British Foreign Secretary Phillip Hammond and Foreign Ministers Frank-Walter Steinmeier of Germany and Laurent Fabius of France also are already in Vienna. Kerry spoke by telephone to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. The Chinese and Russian foreign ministers have said they will come to Vienna if a deal appears close. On Friday, Kerry suggested that some progress had been made, telling reporters that the "atmosphere is very constructive," but stressing that "very difficult issues" remained to be resolved. Since the start of the current round 15 days ago, he has said twice that the negotiations couldn't be open-ended and warned that the US was prepared to call an end to the talks.
Any deal is meant to clamp long-term and verifiable restrictions on Iranian nuclear programs that are technically adaptable to make weapons in exchange for sanctions relief for Tehran. The scope of access to UN inspectors monitoring Iran's nuclear program remains a sticking point. The Americans want no restrictions. Iranian officials say unrestricted monitoring could be a cover for Western spying. Diplomats say Iran's negotiators have signaled a willingness to compromise, but hardliners in Iran remain opposed to broad UN inspections.
Another unresolved matter is Iran's demand for a UN arms embargo to be lifted as part of sanctions relief, a stance supported by Russia and China but opposed by the US and some Europeans. The current round was supposed to conclude on June 30, but was extended until July 7, then July 10 and now July 13. The sides had hoped to seal a deal before the end of Thursday in Washington to avoid delays in implementing their promises. By missing that target, the US and Iran now have to wait for a 60-day congressional review period during which President Barack Obama can't waive sanctions on Iran. Had they reached a deal by Thursday, the review would have been only 30 days.
Iran is unlikely to begin a substantial rollback of its nuclear program until it gets sanctions relief in return.

Back in Tehran… Khamenei adds red lines, Rouhani tries to resign, Jaafari hints at “fait accompli” soon
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report July 12, 2015 /Iran’s top leaders remain ambivalent about whether or not to sign the comprehensive nuclear accord with the six world powers in Vienna as 22 agonizing months of negotiation falter on the brink. The all-powerful supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s latest comment was far from helpful. Saturday, July 11, he said publicly: “The US is the true embodiment of global arrogance,” the fight against which “could not be interrupted” even after the completion of the nuclear talks. He also boasted that the Islamic Republic had “managed to charm the world” by sticking with those negotiations.
debkafile’s Iranian sources report that Khamenei’s remarks reflect the struggle between the pro- and anti-nuclear deal factions at the highest level of the Iranian leadership. For now, President Barack Obama’s odds of less than 50 percent on a final accord may well describe the balance in Tehran.
On June 29, President Hassan Rouhani was planning to resign when he asked the supreme leader to receive him first. He was upset by Foreign Minister Mohamed Zavad Zarif’s recall from Vienna to Tehran for a tough briefing. Zarif had warned the president that the talks were doomed unless Iran gave some slack. The foreign minister said that the six foreign ministers were preparing to leave Vienna in protest against Iran’s intransigence.
Rouhani when he met Khamenei warned him that Iran was about to miss the main diplomatic train to its main destination: the lifting of sanctions to save the economy from certain ruin.
The supreme ruler was unconvinced: He referred the president to the conditions for a deal he had laid down on June 23 and refused to budge: Sanctions must be removed upon the signing of the final accord; international atomic agency inspectors were banned at military facilities, along with interviews with nuclear scientists; and the powers must endorse Iran’s right to continue nuclear research and build advanced centrifuges for uranium enrichment.
Rouhani hotly stressed that those conditions had become a hindrance to the deal going through and insisted that sanctions relief was imperative for hauling the economy out of crisis.
Khamenei disputed him on that point too. He retorted that the revolutionary republic had survived the eight-year Iranian-Iraqi war (1979-187) with far fewer resources and assets than it commanded at present.
For back-up, the supreme ruler asked two hardliners to join his ding-dong with the president: Defense Minister Hosseim Dehqan and Revolutionary Guards chief Mohammad Ali Jaafari.
Both told Rouhani in the stiffest terms that Tehran must not on any account bow to international pressure for giving up its nuclear program or the development of ballistic missiles.
In a broad hint to President Rouhani to pipe down, Khamenei reminisced about his long-gone predecessor Hassan Bani-Sadr (president in 1980-1981) who was not only forced out of office but had to flee Iran, and the former prime minister and presidential candidate Mir Hossein Moussavi, who has lived under house arrest for six years since leading an opposition campaign.
The supreme leader then set out his thesis that the danger of Iran coming under attack had declined to zero, since Europe was in deep economic crisis (mainly because of Greece) and because the US president had never been less inclined to go to war than he is today.
Jaaafri added his two cents by commenting that after a succession of fiascos, Obama would go to any lengths to reach a nuclear deal with Iran as the crowning achievement of his presidency. The Revolutionary Guards chief then added obliquely: “Before long we will present the West with a fait accompli.”
He refused to elaborate on this when questioned by the president, but it was taken as a reference to some nuclear event. Rouhani left the meeting empty-handed, but his letter of resignation stayed in his pocket.The next day, when Zarif landed in Vienna to take his seat once more at the negotiating table, he learned about a new directive Khamenei had sent the president, ordering him to expand ballistic missile development and add another five percent to its budget - another burden on Iran’s empty coffers. Khamenei’s office made sure this directive reached the public domain. Zarif too was armed with another impediment to a deal. Khamenei instructed him to add a fresh condition: The annulment of the sanctions imposed against Iran’s missile development and arms purchases.

Diplomats Say Provisional Iran Nuke Deal Likely Ready Sunday as U.S. Says 'Major Issues' Remain
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/July 12/15/Negotiators at the Iran nuclear talks are expected to reach a provisional agreement Sunday on a historic deal that would curb the country's atomic program in return for sanctions relief, diplomats said. Two diplomats at the talks told The Associated Press the envisioned accord will be sent to capitals for review and, barring last-minute objections, be announced on Monday. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the negotiations publicly. The agreement would cap nearly a decade of diplomacy, including the current round in Vienna that has run more than two weeks and blown through three deadlines. However, a U.S. official said later on Sunday that "major issues" must still be resolved in the talks. "We have never speculated about the timing of anything during these negotiations, and we're certainly not going to start now -- especially given the fact that major issues remain to be resolved in these talks," the senior State Department official said.
Iranian diplomat Alireza Miryousefi, writing on Twitter, quoted a senior official from Tehran as saying a deal by Sunday night was "logistically impossible" as the agreement being drawn up spanned 100 pages.
The tortuous talks entered Sunday what France's foreign minister said he believed is the "final phase" but with Tehran warning that "political will" was still required. "I hope we are finally entering the final phase of these marathon negotiations. I believe it," French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told reporters as he returned to Vienna on the 16th day of talks. "A deal is in reach," agreed Iranian diplomat Alireza Miryousefi, adding however on Twitter on the eve of the latest effective deadline for an accord: "It only requires political will at this point." Earlier, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who has been locking horns with his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif in the Austrian capital since June 27, was hopeful but said that "tough" issues remained. "I think we're getting to some real decisions. So I will say, because we have a few tough things to do, I remain hopeful. Hopeful," Kerry said, calling his latest meeting with Zarif "positive." The talks are aimed at nailing down a deal curbing Iran's nuclear activities in order to make it extremely difficult for Tehran -- which denies any such aim -- to develop the atomic bomb.
In return Iran will be granted staggered relief from painful sanctions, although the six powers are insisting that they retain the option to reimpose the restrictions if Tehran violates the deal. EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini who chairs the P5+1 group -- the U.S., Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany -- said Sunday on Twitter that these were the "decisive hours."And a diplomatic source said Saturday as a flurry of bilateral and multilateral meetings went deep into the night that "98 percent of the text is finished."Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was meanwhile on his way to join the talks in Vienna, his ministry said.
- 'Time to decide' -
Under the parameters of a framework deal reached in Lausanne in April, Iran is to slash the number of its centrifuges from more than 19,000 to just over 6,000 and sharply cut its stocks of enriched uranium, which could be used for a bomb. Negotiators left the thorniest issues until last, including a mechanism for lifting interlocking EU, U.S. and U.N. sanctions. A new hurdle was thrown up in recent days, with the Iranian delegation insisting that a U.N. arms embargo be lifted once a deal is reached. The talks have also stumbled over demands to allow U.N. nuclear inspectors access to military sites, to investigate suspicions Iran sought to develop nuclear weapons in the past. A final agreement would be a diplomatic victory for U.S. President Barack Obama, who has made the talks a centerpiece of his foreign policy, and for his Iranian opposite Hassan Rouhani, a moderate seeking to end his country's diplomatic isolation. Both have faced opposition from hardliners at home, as well as from Iran's arch-foe Israel, believed to be the Middle East's only nuclear-armed state, although it has never confirmed it. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that the deal would allow Iran to make "many nuclear bombs and gives it hundreds of billions of dollars for its terrorism and conquest machine."
Saudi Arabia and other Sunni-ruled Gulf Arab states are also deeply suspicious of Shiite Iran, accusing it of fomenting unrest in Syria, Yemen and other flashpoints. Obama, a Democrat, has faced persistent opposition to his Iran policy from U.S. Congress, controlled by Republicans, who in a 60-day review period may try to scupper the accord. Iran has for years faced U.N., EU and U.S. sanctions that have placed restrictions on the country's oil and banking sectors, trade and everyday life for the 78 million population. In Tehran, Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Saturday that the battle against the "arrogance" of the United States would continue even if there is a deal. "This is an historic moment and there could be serious repercussions if negotiators fail to seize this opportunity to get a good deal," Arms Control Association analyst Kelsey Davenport told AFP.

Israel Frees Palestinian after 56-day Hunger Strike
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/July 12/15/Israel on Sunday released a Palestinian prisoner who staged a 56-day hunger strike which brought him near death in a protest against the controversial procedure allowing detainees to be held indefinitely without charge. Khader Adnan was greeted to a hero's welcome in his village near Jenin, in the northern West Bank, that included fireworks, songs and flags for Islamic Jihad, the militant movement to which Israel says he belongs. Residents wore shirts donning Adnan's picture. The bespectacled 37-year-old, thin and with a long beard, was released before dawn in an apparent effort to limit attention to the move, initially expected at midday. A spokeswoman for the Israeli Prison Authority confirmed the release but provided no other details. Islamic Jihad congratulated Adnan in a statement for his "victory" and said a celebration was being organised in his village of Arraba for Sunday evening. Adnan had been held for a year under administrative detention, which allows imprisonment without charge for renewable periods of six months indefinitely.Of the 5,686 Palestinian prisoners currently held by Israel, 379 are detained under the procedure. His hunger strike, which had brought him near death by the time it concluded last month, had sparked warnings from the Palestinian government that it held Israel responsible for his fate. Regular protests were organised in support of him. Adnan ended his hunger strike on June 28 after Israel agreed to release him, at which point he was transferred to an Israeli hospital.
Debate over force-feeding -
An Israeli official said at the time that the deal was made possible after Adnan withdrew his demand that Israel undertake never again to place him under administrative detention. The official said Adnan's deteriorating health and appeals from the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Palestinian Authority had contributed to the decision to release him. He was detained a year ago, shortly after the kidnapping and murder of three young Israelis, which triggered the arrests of hundreds of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.
The killings were part of an upsurge in violence in the run-up to the 2014 Gaza war. Adnan had previously gone on hunger strike for 66 days in 2012 to protest against his detention. He was released at the end of the protest, during which he had ingested vitamins and salt.
He refused to swallow anything except water during his most recent detention. A long list of Palestinian prisoners have gone on hunger strike, including nearly 2,000 in 2012 to protest against the administrative detention policy. The Israeli government in mid-June renewed efforts for legislation that would allow prisoners to be force-fed when their lives are in danger, sparking criticism from health experts and rights groups. The bill was initially approved by the government in June 2014 at the height of another mass hunger strike of Palestinian prisoners during which 80 were hospitalised. The Palestinian leadership submitted a report to the International Criminal Court last week that included the treatment of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.

Bahrain Re-arrests Prominent Sunni Opponent Freed in June
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/July 12/15/Bahraini authorities on Sunday re-arrested a prominent Sunni opposition leader for "violating the law," just three weeks after his release from jail, the interior ministry said on Twitter. Ibrahim Sharif, who used to head the Waed secular group, had been freed on June 19 after spending four years in jail over his involvement in 2011 Shiite-led anti-government protests. He had played a prominent role in the month-long protests and was later among a group of 20 activists tried for plotting to overthrow the Sunni rulers of Shiite-majority Bahrain. The interior ministry did not say why he was re-arrested. Opposition sources said he was taken back to prison after he criticized the government during a ceremony for one of the victims of unrest that rocked the kingdom, home to the U.S. Fifth Fleet. Waed party said Sharif was remanded him in custody for 48 hours pending investigations on charges of "inciting hatred against the regime.""The arrest of Sharif is an attempt to silence him and confiscate the freedom of speech guaranteed by the constitution," said Waed in a statement. Bahrain's opposition is demanding a constitutional monarchy and an elected prime minister. At least 89 people have been killed in clashes with security forces since 2011, while hundreds have been arrested and put on trial, rights groups say.

EU Welcomes Libya's U.N. Deal as Step Toward Stability
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/July 12/15/European states on Sunday welcomed a U.N. peace deal initialed by some Libyan factions but not the opposition as a step towards restoring stability in the lawless North African country. Plunged into chaos since the 2011 overthrow of strongman Moammar Gadhafi, Libya has two parliaments and governments vying for power, as a slew of armed groups battle for control of its oil wealth. The elected parliament which initialed Saturday's agreement in Morocco along with some members of political parties and civil society and local officials, is based in the eastern city of Tobruk. The rival General National Congress (GNC) is based in Tripoli and was set up by a militia alliance, including Islamists, known as Fajr Libya, after it seized the capital last August. The two sides have been locked in months of thorny negotiations brokered by U.N. envoy Bernardino Leon who has been struggled to clinch a deal to set up a national unity government and hold fresh polls. The GNC boycotted Saturday's ceremony in the Moroccan resort of Skhirat, after having said Leon's draft deal was not "satisfactory" and calling for "modifications." The European Union and Italy welcomed the agreement as a step toward restoring peace in Libya. The U.N. Security Council has urged Libyan factions to sign on to Leon's proposals in a bid to stem rising violence and the spread of radical organizations such as the Islamic State group. The jihadists have taken advantage of the Libya's divisions to establish itself in the country, close to Europe's shores. Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said on his Twitter account that the agreement was an "important step in efforts to stabilize the region and re-establish peace in this great country." Renzi said that a solution to the conflict in Libya was a "central" to battling "terrorism and (illegal) immigration."Italy has repeatedly said an accord would help stem the flow of migration to Europe from Africa via Libya -- where people smugglers have stepped up their lucrative business.
'Huge breakthrough'-
The International Organization for Migration said Friday that some 150,000 migrants have crossed the Mediterranean to Europe so far this year, with nearly all landing in Italy. EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini also welcomed Saturday's deal as "an important step towards restoring peace and stability in Libya" and urged the GNC to initial the agreement as well. The Tobruk government, recognized internationally, has welcomed what it called a "huge breakthrough," urging all parties in Libya to overcome their differences and finalize the deal. "What happened in Morocco is positive," said political activist Othman al-Sassi, stressing that Libya needs a national unity government. "The Congress was not present but other parties to the Libyan conflict initialed the political agreement and that is a breakthrough," said Sassi, himself a former GNC member. Leon told Saturday's ceremony in Morocco that the door to further negotiations would remain open, expressing confidence that the GNC will return to the negotiations. "This is one but a very important step on the road to peace ... a peace, which all Libyans have been long seeking to achieve," he said. "The door remains open for those who chose not to be here today... I am confident that in the weeks ahead we will try to clarify the issues that remain contentious and address the outstanding concerns," he added. The deal initialed on Saturday was the fourth draft proposed by Leon to Libya's warring factions. It consists of six points aimed at "laying the foundation for a modern, democratic state based on the principle of inclusion, the rule of law, separation of powers and respect for human rights," Leon said. Among the sticking issues is a call for "respecting the judiciary," a possible reference to a Supreme Court decision invalidating the Tobruk parliament which was elected in June 2014.

Israel Arrests Jewish Suspects over 'Miracle' Church Arson
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/July 12/15/Israeli police said Sunday they have arrested several Jewish suspects over an arson attack last month at a shrine where Christians believe Jesus performed the miracle of loaves and fishes. The arson had sparked widespread condemnation and concern from Christians globally, with the site visited by some 5,000 people daily, while also drawing renewed attention to religiously linked hate crimes in Israel. "Several Jewish suspects have been arrested for the burning of the church and the Nazareth court has decided to extend their detention for the purposes of the investigation," police spokeswoman Luba Samri said in a statement of the overnight arrests. Police did not provide a number or further details on their identities, but an ultra-nationalist organization said three young Jewish men had been arrested. Another police spokesman said the arrests followed an undercover investigation also involving the Shin Bet internal security agency. The Church of the Multiplication at Tabgha, on the northwestern shore of the Sea of Galilee, is at the site where many Christians believe Jesus fed the 5,000 in the miracle of the five loaves and two fish. One of the buildings within the compound was completely destroyed in the blaze but the church itself was not damaged.
Hebrew graffiti was found on another building within the complex, reading "Idols will be cast out" or destroyed. The text is part of a common Jewish prayer.
Religiously inspired hate crimes -
A modern church currently sits at the site, incorporating remains of a 5th-century Byzantine church and its mosaics. The first building constructed there, a small chapel, is believed to have been built in the 4th century. Versions of what Christians believe was Jesus' miracle are recounted in all four of the gospels of the New Testament of the Bible. The site is now owned by the German Roman Catholic Church. Father Gregory Collins, head of the Saint Benedictine Order in Israel, which oversees the church, last month called the arson "an attack on Israeli democracy, not just on a religious group."There has been a long line of attacks on Christian and Muslim holy places in both Israel and the West Bank in which the perpetrators are believed to have been Jewish extremists. Tabgha was subjected to a previous attack in April 2014 in which church officials said a group of religious Jewish teenagers had damaged crosses and assaulted clergy. In the immediate wake of last month's attack, police had detained 16 young Jewish settlers, but they were later released without charge after providing statements. Ten of those initially detained were from Yitzhar, a Jewish settlement in the West Bank which is known as a bastion of extremists and where some residents have been involved in previous hate crimes. In April, vandals smashed gravestones at a Maronite Christian cemetery near Israel's northern border with Lebanon. That attack prompted President Reuven Rivlin to meet church leaders and pledge a crackdown on religiously inspired hate crime.

Senior Leader of Tunisian Qaida-Linked Group Killed
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/July 12/15/A senior leader of an al-Qaida-linked jihadist group that has been blamed for a spate of violence in Tunisia was among five militants killed by security forces in a recent raid, an official said Saturday. "The DNA test just confirmed that Mourad Gharsalli was shot dead yesterday (Friday)," presidential spokesman Moez Sinaoui wrote in a post on his Twitter account. The interior ministry had previously said that five "terrorists" were gunned down on Friday in the central region of Gafsa. Gharsalli, a 32-year-old Tunisian, was one of the leaders of the Okba Ibn Nafaa Brigades, the country's main jihadist group and one the authorities have accused of being behind several recent attacks. Authorities have blamed the group for a series of attacks, including the March massacre at the Bardo National Museum in Tunis that killed 21 foreign tourists and a policeman. The Islamic State group has claimed that attack. Tunisia has seen a surge in radical Islam since veteran president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was ousted in a 2011 revolution. Dozens of members of the security forces have been killed since then in jihadist attacks.

IS Releases New Footage of 2014 Tikrit Massacre
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/July 12/15/The Islamic State jihadist group on Saturday released new footage of its June 2014 massacre of hundreds of mostly Shiite military recruits in Tikrit. The highest estimates put at 1,700 the number of cadets IS gunmen captured at the Speicher military base near Tikrit and executed at various locations, mostly in the city's former presidential palace complex. The 22-minute video posted on jihadist forums, which included both new and previously released footage, shows hundreds of executions, providing further evidence of the scope of the atrocity. Some of the victims are shown pleading for their lives, attempting to explain they had only just joined the security forces. The grisly footage shows executions on an industrial scale, with victims falling out of dump trucks and later lying side by side in shallow mass graves before being shot dead one by one. The killing went on into the night and the video shows an excavator being used to move piles of bodies. Around 600 bodies have been exhumed since government and allied fighters retook Tikrit from IS in April but many of the victims were dumped into the Tigris river. An unidentified IS leader in military uniform is seen in the video released on Saturday. "This is a message I address to the whole world and especially to the Rafidha dogs, I tell them we are coming," he said, using the pejorative term IS employs for Shiite Muslims. The video was released four days after a court in Baghdad sentenced 24 men to death by hanging over the Speicher massacre. The trial lasted only a few hours, and the convictions were based mostly on confessions the defendants claimed were obtained under torture. Combined with a call by the country's top Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani for Iraqis to take up arms against them, the Speicher massacre played a key role in the mass recruitment of Shiite volunteers to fight the jihadists.

Libya Groups Agree Peace Deal without Tripoli Parliament
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/July 12/15/Libyan political parties and members of civil society initialed a UN-proposed peace accord in Morocco on Saturday, despite the absence of a rival parliament not recognized by the international community. "This is a step, but it is really an important step along the path to peace," UN envoy Bernardino Leon said at a ceremony in the Moroccan resort of Skhirat marking the agreement. The deal was backed by members of Libya's internationally recognized parliament, based in the eastern port city of Tobruk, as well as representatives of political parties, municipalities and civil society groups. Libya has been plunged into chaos since the 2011 overthrow of dictator Moamer Kadhafi, and now has two parliaments and governments vying for power. No representatives attended from the rival parliament in Tripoli -- controlled by Islamist militias since last year -- which has rejected a UN proposal to resolve Libya's political crisis by forming of a national unity government and holding new elections. Leon said the door remained open to groups that did not attend, and added that remaining contentious issues could be discussed after the conclusion of the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramadan this month. Among these issues are a call for "respecting the judiciary", a possible reference to a Supreme Court decision invalidating the parliament in the east, which was elected in June 2014.

Saudi-Led Strikes Hit Yemen Rebels Despite Truce
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/July 12/15/ Saudi-led warplanes bombarded Yemeni rebels at dawn Sunday, witnesses said, in a new blow to a U.N.-proposed truce in the impoverished country where millions are threatened with famine. Air strikes hit the Shiite Huthi stronghold of Saada in Yemen's north, as well as other rebel positions south of the capital Sanaa and in the southern province of Lahj, residents said. There were no immediate reports of any casualties. The U.N.-proposed humanitarian truce technically went into effect at 2059 GMT Friday and is supposed to run until July 17, the last day of the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. But the ceasefire, much needed to rush food supplies to a population threatened by famine, has been flouted by strikes conducted by the Saudi-led coalition and fighting on the ground. The ceasefire was declared after U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon received assurances from exiled Yemeni President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi and the Huthis that it would be respected. The coalition said it has not received a formal request from Hadi's government to observe a truce, while the rebels said before the ceasefire went into effect they had little hope it would succeed. More than a week ago the United Nations declared Yemen a level-3 humanitarian emergency, the highest on its scale, with nearly half the country facing a food crisis. More than 21.1 million people -- over 80 percent of Yemen's population -- need aid, with 13 million facing food shortages, while access to water has become difficult for 9.4 million people. The U.N. says the conflict has killed more than 3,200 people, about half of them civilians, since late March.

Kurdish Militants Threaten to Attack Turkey Dams
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/July 12/15/A Kurdish militant group on Sunday threatened to target dams harnessing hydroelectric power in southeastern Turkey, accusing the government of violating a fragile ceasefire. The Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK) said in a statement quoted by the pro-Kurdish Firat news agency that the building of the dams was aimed at displacing people and to help the Turkish military rather than creating energy. Turkish forces and the rebel Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) have largely observed a ceasefire since 2013 but tensions have flared again in the last months as the parties remain short of a final deal. The KCK -- considered the urban wing of the PKK -- said it would use all means, including guerrilla attacks, to prevent the construction of dams. "From now on, all the dams and vehicles used in the construction will be targeted by our guerrilla forces," the KCK said, urging contractors involved in new projects to leave the areas. The public "should know that our guerrilla forces will use their right of resistance against construction of dams and outposts for military purposes," the statement added. The KCK said that while it had demonstrated great responsibility in observing the ceasefire, the Turkish state had failed to observe the conditions of the truce. It said there was no need to build additional hydroelectric dams in the region. Turkey argues the projects are needed to improve its energy self-sufficiency. Kurds, widely seen as the world's largest stateless people, are Turkey's largest minority and the main group in the southeast of the country. The PKK waged a decades-long insurgency for self-rule that claimed tens of thousands of lives but declared a truce in 2013 after the government opened secret peace negotiations with its jailed chief Abdullah Ocalan. However Kurds have become increasingly frustrated with the government's policy on Syria, as Ankara refuses to support the Kurdish groups fighting Islamic State (IS) jihadists inside Syria. The tensions come as the main pro-Kurdish party in Turkey -- the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) -- scored a breakthrough in June elections to take 80 seats in parliament.

Canada's FM, Minister Nicholson Makes Statement on Latest ISIS Developments
July 11, 2015 – Ottawa, Ontario – Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada
The Honourable Rob Nicholson, P.C., Q.C., M.P. for Niagara Falls, Minister of Foreign Affairs, today issued the following statement:
“Canada condemns the cowardly terrorist attack in downtown Cairo this morning, reportedly claimed by a group linked to ISIS. Canada stands firmly with Egypt in its fight against terror. ISIS will not succeed in destabilizing Egypt.
“We welcome the cooperation between Afghan intelligence and the U.S. military that has struck a severe blow to the top leadership of a group affiliated with ISIS in Afghanistan.
“It is clear that the terrorism threat is real. That is why Canada will continue to stand by the governments of Afghanistan and Egypt, and other affected countries, to combat the growing threat of terrorism in all its forms in order to bring peace, stability and prosperity to the region and its people.”

Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's crackdown in Sinai risks more instability in Egypt
Reuters/Ynetnews/Published: 07.11.15/Israel News
Despite the lessons of the past, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi is relying on fighter planes, mass arrests and death sentences to battle Islamist militants in a crackdown that could in fact prolong instability in the Sinai; unlike former President Hosni Mubarak, whose more subtle approach induced even his most diehard militant opponents to opt for a truce in the 1990s. He has moved relentlessly against the Islamists since orchestrating a military takeover that toppled President Mohammed Morsi of the now outlawed Muslim Brotherhood in 2013. Yet Sinai-based insurgents affiliated with Islamic State, angered by Sisi's campaign, are carrying out brazen attacks on security forces that have opened a dangerous new chapter in the decades-old struggle between the Egyptian state and Islamists.
And signs are growing that Sisi's constant squeeze on the Brotherhood has encouraged some of the movement's youth to take up arms against the state, complicating efforts to improve security in the Arab world's most populous country. Critics say Sisi's hardline tactics risk creating more enemies in Egypt, where militants have killed hundreds of soldiers and police since Morsi's fall.
Mubarak relied mainly on the police to counter threats from his main militant foe, al-Gamma'a al-Islamiya (Islamic Group). Sisi, however, has unleashed the military with maximum force, but little apparent success in the vast Sinai desert.
Brazen Assualts
Though the peninsula has long been a security headache for Egypt and its neighbors, the removal of Morsi brought new violence that has morphed into an Islamist insurgency.Militants have carried out several major operations in recent months, exposing the vulnerability of the Arab world's largest army, which is far more familiar with conventional warfare than counter-insurgency measures. Hardline tactics weakened militant groups in the past but never secured a lasting calm. Sisi now faces an increasingly ambitious Sinai Province, the group that pledged allegiance to Islamic State.
Its ties to that organization, which has expanded from Iraq and Syria to Egypt's neighbor Libya, could mean more funding, logistical support and training. While Islamic State does not pose a threat to Sisi's rule, any significant incursions into the rest of Egypt, or even attacks on foreign visitors like the recent one at a Tunisian beach hotel, could devastate the tourism industry. That would undermine efforts to rebuild Egypt's fragile economy after four years of turmoil triggered by the uprising that deposed Mubarak in 2011. Sisi is likely to crack down harder on militants after last week's assassination of Egypt's top prosecutor in an attack that bore the hallmarks of an operation by militants. Egypt's neighbor Israel is also keeping a close eye. Shaul Shay, former deputy head of Israel's National Security Council, says Sisi is taking valuable steps such as engaging Sinai Bedouins to rally them behind the army. But he cautions against expecting any quick fixes. "Anyone who thinks there is some kind of magic solution does not understand the reality. This is a long-term process," said Shay.

Turkey, Tears, and Terrorism
Burak Bekdil/The Gatestone Institute/July12 2015
Originally published under the title, "Turkey's View of Terror."
Turkey's Islamist government, now squeezed in a political drama in which it lost its parliamentary majority for the first time since 2002, has in many recent years boldly challenged its Western allies by calling them to join an allied fight against terror. But the target was not al-Qaeda, or the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) or one of the dozens of different Islamist groups designated by the civilized world as terrorist.
Instead, Turkey wanted the West to fight the "terrorist state, Israel."
Turkey's Islamist rulers have a deeply corrupted perception of which acts count for terror and which ones do not: Anyone who kills in the name of a cause other than Islamism is probably a terrorist.
Erdogan has said that "there is no Islamic terror."
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan once publicly declared a 15-year-old boy, who was shot by the police and died after many months in a coma, "a terrorist." In a claim never proven, Erdogan said the boy was carrying a slingshot in his pocket. He was hit in the head by a tear gas canister fired by anti-riot police. In Erdogan's thinking, the boy was a terrorist because he was hit during anti-government protests, he was carrying a slingshot and he was an Alevi (a member of a heterodox Muslim Shi'ite religious minority).
In 2013, the world was shocked at the dramatic death tolls in Kenya and Pakistan, when jihadists, in separate attacks over one weekend, killed more than 150 innocent people -- with the Kenya attack claiming victims aged between two and 78. Erdogan, then prime minister, looked very sad indeed -- but not for the victims of the terror attacks. He was mourning Asmaa al-Beltagi, a poor, 17-year-old Egyptian girl who had been shot dead by security forces in Cairo, as she was protesting the ouster of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood president, Mohamed Morsi, in a coup d'état. Asmaa's father was a senior Brotherhood figure; after her death, Erdogan once even shed tears during a televised interview. He then commemorated the girl at almost every election rally.
Erdogan, shedding a tear for Asmaa
One of Erdogan's favorite statements is his famous line, "There is no Islamic terror." Erdogan also rejects outright any link between Muslims and massacres or genocide.
Last November, after a meeting in Paris with French President François Hollande, Erdogan accused "those who try to portray ISIS as an Islamic organization...." Fortunately, he did not claim that ISIS was a Jewish organization. But funny, the organization he says is not "Islamic," flags itself as the "Islamic State."
The Turkish Islamist show of ridiculous denials continues on at full pace. The latest wave of Islamist violence, in five different corners across the world, once again unveiled Turkey's hypocritical take on terrorism. On June 25, ISIS attacked a Kurdish town in northern Syria and slaughtered over 140 people, including women and children.
Then, on June 26, there was the terrorist attack at a tourist hotel in Sousse, east Tunisia. The attack left at least 37 people dead, including many foreign tourists, and injured 36 others. In a separate attack the same day in Kuwait, 25 people were killed and 202 were injured in a suicide bombing that targeted a Shia mosque during Friday prayers. ISIS claimed responsibility for both attacks. Meanwhile, Yassin Salhi, who murdered one man (his employer) at a U.S.-owned industrial gas factory in southern France, was reported to be well known to the French intelligence service for his alleged links with Salafist groups.
Finally, on July 1, the Islamic State killed 50 people in attacks in Egypt's north Sinai. That put the one-week death toll at nearly 260.
Did the Turks watch a weeping president on television in the face of such violent human tragedy, as he had wept for the poor girl from the Muslim Brotherhood?
Not at all. Instead, quite dry statements from Erdogan's office and the Turkish foreign ministry merely condemned the killings in Tunisia, Kuwait and France. "These bloody assaults, which target Kuwait and Tunisia's peace and stability and aim to trigger sectarian clashes in Kuwait, reveal the importance of regional and international cooperation in fighting against terrorism," Erdogan said in a written statement.
Erdogan should be able to understand that fighting terrorism cannot succeed without a necessary first step: Figuring out why the terrorists are terrorizing. What is the ideology they fight for? Are they fighting to impose onto others by force the laws stipulated in Christian, Jewish, Hindu or Shintoist holy books? If their acts of terror are not related to Islam, what are they related to?
Erdogan will never be viewed as a reliable partner in any anti-terror fight before he gives honest and public answers to those questions.
**Burak Bekdil, based in Ankara, is a columnist for the Turkish daily Hürriyet and a fellow at the Middle East Forum.

Five Grossly Un-American Supreme Court Justices Have Ruled Against Traditional Marriages
Jerry McConnell/Canada Free Press/July 12, 2015
The word “family” as we and others around the world know it, will soon disappear from the daily lexicon of human beings. The family normally consists primarily of a female who, after giving birth, is entitled to be the ‘mother’ and a male, who after creating a birth with his female partner in the marriage, is given the title of ‘father’. Just observing animals or insects, let alone humans, is enough education to understand why the word was conceived and the mating process, save for those convoluted participants, inevitably produced offspring enhancements of the couple’s personal genes, thereby creating the ‘family’.
Now that the miracle of birth has been voided by the “marriage” of two same sex providers, the new “partners”, because of their inherent deficiencies will have to depend on other more normal humans to provide the elements that create a family, no thanks to the five not only misguided but mentally deficient justices (I cringe when calling them by that misnomer) who stepped far out of character and bounds with their choice of vote.
Already there is great turmoil and dissatisfaction in America over these five un-Americans who now welcome un-constitutional conduct favored by socio-communists around the world. Predominately liberal Democrats who follow the homosexual beliefs and practices that our president favors at the disapproval of the Islamic culture who he also is fond of. Methinks our “please everybody but good old fashioned traditional conservative loyalists in the mold of our Founding Fathers” prez is weaving himself into some very deceptive and sneaky behavior patterns.
As stated above, there is already contention and confusion as reported by Tony Perkins in his online posting, July 10, 2015, “Washington Update of the Family Research Council” with “By redefining marriage, the Supreme Court’s five justices did more than undermine democracy. They undermined their profession, too. And for principled judges across America, that was just as offensive.”Perkins goes on to say that “The country’s confidence in the courts was already in a freefall—slumping to its second lowest score (Gallup Poll — 32%) since 1973.” You may recall that was when the Court performed in another liberal Democrat injustice, called Roe v Wade, which still rankles citizens to this day.
Perkins goes on to say, “Now as the highest court in the land chases the cultural winds, the rest of the bench is left to clean up the mess. In Louisiana, justices at the state supreme court reflected the deep division the June 26 decision caused when its effects made their way to the justices doorstep this week. Soon, what should have been a routine order certifying the ruling became anything but.” The Louisiana Supreme Court unloaded on the Supreme Court for putting them in this position, said Perkins and “In a fiery dissent, three of the seven judges erupted over the high court’s unconstitutional farce on marriage and eviscerated whatever rationale the majority used to justify it. Justice Jeannette Knoll led the charge, with a blistering criticism of “five lawyers” playing the “super-legislators” who imposed their “will over the solemn expression of the people.” “Unilaterally,” she wrote, “these five lawyers took for themselves a question the Constitution expressly leaves to the people and about which the people have been in open debate—the true democratic process.” Calling it a “mockery of rights” and an “utter travesty,” Knoll warns of the “horrific impact these five lawyers have made on the democratic rights of the American people to define marriage.”
You can bet your next pair of new boots that in court after court all across these United States you will be hearing similar, if not worse, diatribes hurled at the unwise and foolish two old men and three crotchety, vigorously anti-American women who all talk like they would rather be in Soviet Russia than here in the U.S.
The Family Research Council spokesperson, Tony Perkins, reminds us that “In Louisiana, where the 2004 marriage amendment won in a 78% landslide, you can’t blame the justices for blasting SCOTUS’s stampede over voters. “Simply stated,” Knoll vented, “it is a legal fiction imposed upon the entirety of this nation because these five people think it should be.” Her colleague, Justice Jefferson Hughes took it a step further and said that his bench should flat-out defy the Supreme Court. “Judges instruct jurors every week not to surrender their honest convictions merely to reach agreement. I cannot do so now… [Marriage’s] definition cannot be changed by legalisms.”
Special: See How He Was Able to Lose 53 Pounds in Six Weeks
At my age I have to wonder how soon this country will implode and wither away into a vast nothingness, with the inefficient and country-killing Executive Order travesty he holds over all of our heads. I am hoping that the disastrous and calamitous possibility of the end of freedom and democracy will encompass all of the witless and so willing accomplice liberal Democrats will get their just rewards when Armageddon becomes America’s new name. I seriously doubt and just as strongly hope that the good people in this country wake up before we end up, and maybe I’ll live to see a fresh new loyalty to our country instead of the recent celebrity brat Ariana Grande who said, “I hate America” as she enjoyed all its fruits and benefits. She should be put in a glass case for good Americans to see up close and learn to recognize traitors.
I would be remiss if I neglected to mention there was more favorable news about a judge in Toledo, Ohio, that Tony Perkins mentioned who came face-to-face with the consequences of the Supreme Court’s decision: a same-sex “marriage” request. This particular judge was a black man and happened to be named (ironically) Allen McConnell. Perkins stated, “A former leader in Toledo’s NAACP chapter, McConnell—a Democrat—apologized but said that his personal beliefs prevented him from officiating. After a brief delay, the court found another judge to marry the couple. Despite that very minor inconvenience, the Left is demanding McConnell’s impeachment. So much for a religious liberty balancing act!”“On Monday, July 6, McConnell explained, ‘I declined to marry a non-traditional couple during my duties assignment. The declination was based upon my personal and Christian beliefs established over many years. I apologize to the couple for the delay they experienced and wish them the best’.” Sometimes even judges are damned if they do and damned if they don’t. Nobody should ever be put in a dichotomy such as that.
http://canadafreepress.com/article/73671?utm_source=CFP+Mailout&utm_campaign=9743406e2a-5_20_2015&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_d8f503f036-9743406e2a-291119657

Turkey Finds China Too Big To Bite
Burak Bekdil/Gatestone Institute/July 12, 2015
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/6121/turkey-china
The self-declared "caliph" of the Islamic State, Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, put China at the top of his list of countries that violate Muslim rights. The owner of the (no longer) "Happy China" restaurant, almost in tears, told reporters: "We are Turkish. Our cook is an Uighur Turk ... We do not even sell alcohol here ... It seems I will close down the restaurant and leave." Also in Istanbul, a group of nationalist Turks attacked a group of Korean tourists, mistaking them for Chinese.
These days, it is quite dangerous for anyone with Far Eastern facial features to take a stroll on a Turkish street or to enjoy a plate of sushi. To angry Turks, every Far Easterner is a Chinese to attack. In protesting China's alleged ill treatment of Muslim Uighur Turks, angry Turkish Turks attacked a Chinese restaurant in Istanbul's Tophane district. Cihan Yavuz, the owner of the (no longer) "Happy China" restaurant, almost in tears, told reporters: "We are Turkish. Our cook is an Uighur Turk ... We do not even sell alcohol here ... It seems I will close down the restaurant and leave." Istanbul's "Happy China" restaurant, after its window was smashed by an anti-Chinese mob. In an even more painful incident, also in Istanbul, a group of nationalist Turks attacked a group of Korean tourists, mistaking them for Chinese. One can only cry at this primitive blend of ignorance and fanaticism. The staff at a popular Chinese restaurant in downtown Ankara mentioned they had requested police protection.
On the morning of July 5, this otherwise-very-quiet neighbourhood in Ankara was noisy with chants from the same angry protesters. Unluckily, the Chinese Embassy is located just about a hundred yards away. The protesters were waving Turkish and East Turkestan flags (identical except their colors: the Uighurs' flag features the same white crescent and star against a sky-blue background, as opposed to Turkey's red.) The group's entry into the street, where the embassy building is located, was blocked by the police. The group consisted of a strange assortment of Uighurs and nationalist and Islamist Turks, loudly vowing to take revenge on the "the red bastards of China." Occasionally, they would shout the cliché Islamist slogan "Allah-u aqbar" (In Arabic: "God is the greatest.") They asked the police to "surrender the consulate to them" probably so that they could lynch the personnel.
By early evening, the protesting group had grown into a few thousand. Most of the roads in the neighbourhood were blocked or shut. The chanting of slogans, featuring a rich menu of ultra-nationalist, racist and Islamist genres, continued on until late in the evening before the crowd dispersed, luckily, without a serious incident. When the incidents of unrest erupted in China's Xinjiang province, where most Uighurs live -- and, reflecting their fight for independence, call the region "East Turkestan" -- an Islamist newspaper, Yeni Akit, ran the headline: "China, Israel's twin." The story claimed that this was "China's unnamed war against Islam and Muslims." It quoted Seyit Tumturk, vice president of the World Uighur Congress, as explaining what the problem was: "The Chinese organized a drinks festival in order to mock at Muslims' fasting [during Ramadan] and provoke them [into violence.]" In the Uighur man's thinking, non-Muslim Han Chinese should not consume alcohol because otherwise Muslim Uighurs would be provoked. And what happens when they are provoked?
According to a Turkish magazine, Aktuel, the killings in Xinjiang province were sparked after a car tried to escape a police checkpoint. Chinese police officers who reportedly followed the car were fatally stabbed by the occupants of the vehicle. Backup police officers then came and began shooting suspects on sight. In the ensuing violence, 28 Uighurs were reportedly killed. The problem is deeper than occasional unrest and violence, based on the Uighurs' more than six-decade-long fight for an independent homeland, which often includes terrorist methods.
Chinese officials accuse Turkey of systematically allowing for a safe passage of militant Uighurs into the ranks of jihadist warriors in Syria and Iraq, and then letting them cross back into Turkey, where are secretly hosted and sent to China for terrorist activity there. "We suspect there are over 1,000 Uighurs subscribed into extremist groups [in Syria and Iraq]. They are potential security threats to China," one Chinese official said on condition of anonymity.
China has legitimate concerns. The self-declared "caliph" of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, in his declaration of the caliphate, put China at the top of his list of countries that violate Muslim rights. Al Baghdadi also circulated on Twitter maps purporting to highlight ISIS's expansion plans, which included substantial parts of Xinjiang, China's largest province. Once again, nationalist and Islamist Turks are angry. But their government, compared to earlier anti-Israeli tirades over the Arab-Israeli dispute, is unusually quiet. In 2009, when similar incidents took place in Xinjiang, and around 100 Uighurs were killed in clashes, then-Prime Minister (now President), Recep Tayyip Erdogan, called their killing "an almost genocide." That angered China. In addition, the Turkish government called for a boycott of Chinese products.
Then, as political relations between Turkey and China soured, geopolitical realities came into the picture. Erdogan et al forcefully grasped that China was too big to bite. Meanwhile, the Turkish boycott over Chinese products showed the level of seriousness when Turks threaten economically to hit a foreign country. Turkey's imports from China nearly doubled from $12.6 billion in 2009 to $24.9 billion in 2014. What is the Turkish word for hypocrisy? Turkey keeps on making new enemies -- in its region and far away. This is the result of bringing the popular sentiment on foreign matters into making public policy.
The Turks feel both hostile to, and threatened by, most of the world -- not surprising in a country where the national dictum seems to be, "A Turk's only friend is a Turk." The latest Turkish-Chinese drama is merely another example showing how Turkey's desire to play the savior of all Muslims and Islamists in foreign lands is sometimes embarrassingly disproportionate to its power.
**Burak Bekdil, based in Ankara, is a Turkish columnist for the Hürriyet Daily and a Fellow at the Middle East Forum.

Saudi Blogger Raif Badawi: 'I Say What I think'
Stephen Schwartz and Irfan Al-Alawi/The Huffington Post/July 12/ 2015
Originally published under the title, "The Writings of Saudi Blogger Raif Badawi."
Saudi Arabia's clerical establishment hopes that the threat of ritualized public torture will keep dissidents like Raif Badawi in line.
In 2012, Raif Badawi, a blogger in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) who is now 31, was arrested in his native land and charged with offenses ranging from parental disobedience to cyber-crime and apostasy from Islam. Badawi had written in Arab media and established a website, "Free Saudi Liberals." When he was jailed, the site was closed by the Saudi regime.
His detention then was not the first action by the KSA against Badawi. As noted by Human Rights Watch, he was held for one day in 2008 after launching the "Free Saudi Liberals" site, and, in 2009, was banned from travelling abroad, with a freeze of his financial assets.
After a trial in 2013, Badawi was sentenced to seven years in prison and 600 lashes. But the outcome of an appeal, in 2014, was worse: his punishment was increased to 10 years in jail and 1,000 strokes of a whip, with a fine of 1 million Saudi riyals (about $267,000).
Apostasy from Islam is a capital crime in the KSA, and BBC News reported in 2013 that the apostasy allegation against Badawi had been rejected by a higher court. Evidence for the claim was ridiculously flimsy, including such assertions as that he pressed a "Like" button on a Facebook page for Arab Christians.
Raif Badawi is not a critic of Islam, although he favors a secular state.
All restrictions on freedom of religious belief are abominable, but they are particularly despicable when they are trumped up as a pretext to suppress independent debate - as happened to Badawi. On January 9, 2015, a first session of 50 blows was imposed on Badawi at a mosque in Jidda, the KSA's commercial capital and seaport.
The infliction of 1,000 lashes was to be extended over 20 weeks, with 50 applied weekly. Since the beginning round of his caning, continuation of Badawi's beating has been suspended repeatedly, originally on medical grounds. The deeper reason for the continued postponement is, nevertheless, unclear. International protests have been extensive and may have played a role. But Badawi was dragged to be lashed this year when the health of the late Saudi King Abdullah was failing and his successor, Saudi King Salman, had yet to assume power.
Elements in the Saudi-Wahhabi clerical apparatus may have acted recklessly to make an example of Badawi, but were then halted in carrying out their scheme. On June 7, 2015, the Saudi Supreme Court upheld the judgment against Badawi, but, again, no further whipping has taken place.
While it is difficult to predict the outcome of Badawi's case, some of his writings will soon be available to English-speaking readers. A slender volume titled 1000 Lashes: Because I Say What I Think is scheduled for release in July in Canada, in August in the U.S., and in October in the U.K., with the support of Amnesty International.
The collection has already appeared in French as 1000 coups de fouet: parce que j'ai osé parler librement. The personality of Badawi and his message appear in its pages to be very different from what many Westerners might expect.
A collection of Badawi's English-translated writings will be published next month.
Some of the articles therein were posted on the pan-Arab news portal Al-Jazeera, which is considered aligned with the Muslim Brotherhood (two dated April and May 2012, with two more undated) and six were published in the Saudi newspaper Al-Bilad (The Country).
Raif Badawi is not, as expressed in his own words, a critic or enemy of Islam, although he favors a secular state. Indeed, it may be argued that he seeks to save Islam from the Saudi-Wahhabi clerics and other fanatics. In one text from 2011 that provoked the apparent rage of the Wahhabis, titled "Astronomy According to Sharia," Badawi criticized Wahhabi doctrinaires who condemn as incorrect and in violation of the Qur'an the Renaissance understanding of the solar system (which recognizes that the planets circle the sun). But this is an old debate that was settled presumably in 1985 when Prince Sultan, son of the now-ruling King Salman, traveled in a U.S. space shuttle and observed the relations of the heavenly bodies.
In another, unfortunately prescient article, titled "Dreams of a Caliphate," from 2012, Badawi linked Saudi Islamists who preached a revived caliphate - like that of the so-called "Islamic State" - with the habit of Muslim caliphs from the eighth to the tenth centuries C.E. in killing their opponents for alleged apostasy, as a cover for politicized Islam. This also is hardly a new criticism in Islamic historical thought.
In the same article, Badawi, surprisingly, rejected statements that another incarcerated blogger, Hamza Kashgari, a Uyghur originating in Central Asia, but whose family moved to the KSA, is a liberal. Kashgari was held from 2011 to 2013 for a series of tweets addressed to Prophet Muhammad. According to Badawi, Kashgari is closer to the Muslim Brotherhood and has never expressed liberal views.
Badawi is a non-conformist whose opinions cannot be classified. In a 2010 text on the anniversary of the atrocities of September 11, 2011, he denounced the project for construction of a mosque at the site of the World Trade Center in New York, which he described as "a flagrant provocation against the collective memory of Americans in particular and humanity in general."
On the topic of Israel and the Palestinians, in another article dating from 2010, he decried the Israeli occupation of Arab lands but also said he would fight against Hamas. He wrote, "I am not for the occupation of an Arab country by Israel, but, at the same time, I do not want to replace Israel with an Islamic nation installed on its ruins, and of which the only aim would be to promote a culture of death and ignorance." Sadly, however, Badawi's short book concludes with praise for the ill-fated "Arab Spring" revolutions in Tunisia, Egypt, Syria, Yemen, and Libya.
Violations of religious and intellectual liberty are hardly rare in the world, as seen by radical Islamist violence, from the global assault on Salman Rushdie's Satanic Verses beginning in 1989 to the homicidal raid on the French satirical journal Charlie Hebdo in January of this year. Cultural vandalism by religious extremists has been displayed to the world in the KSA and in the territories controlled by the spurious "Islamic State" in the Middle East and "Ansar Dine" in North Africa.
Such acts against personal conscience are not limited to Muslim lands. An Indian court suit forced the withdrawal of a scholarly work on that country's history, The Hindus, by Wendy Doniger, from the Penguin India publisher's list in 2014. The military regime in Burma, a/k/a Myanmar, allows anti-Muslim agitation that has driven thousands of Rohingya Muslims to flee the country by sea, in ramshackle boats. Russia, reviving its nationalist ideology, refuses to recognize the legal status of the Roman Catholic church.
But the KSA stands alone in banning public observances by any religion other than Islam and harassing metaphysical Sufis and Shia Muslims. Muslims around the world are currently observing the holy fasting month of Ramadan, during which it is customary for Islamic rulers to proclaim an amnesty for prisoners. This year's Ramadan ends on Eid Al-Fitr, 16-17th July by the Western calendar. Saudi King Salman would improve the image of the KSA if he orders the release of Raif Badawi as an act of Ramadan mercy.
**Stephen Schwartz, a fellow at the Middle East Forum, is executive director of the Center for Islamic Pluralism in Washington, DC. Irfan Al-Alawi is executive director of the London-based Islamic Heritage Research Foundation.

The feared ‘catastrophic success’ in Syria
Hisham Melhem/Al Arabiya
Sunday, 12 July 2015
The exchange was surreal. And when it was over, the Obama administration proved once again that all of its pronouncements, protestations, and promises regarding the slow death of Syria could be summarized in two words: unadulterated mendacity. The scene: The Senate Armed Services Committee’s room. The protagonists: defense secretary Ashton Carter and Republican senator John McCain. The exchange between the consummate, banal bureaucrat Carter and the passionate (and clearly flustered) McCain took place after the secretary of defense matter-of-factly said that a year after its celebrated Train and Equip program to recruit 15,000 Syrian anti-Assad fighters over a three year period, the United States is currently training 60 rebels only. To which the incredulous senator McCain said ‘I’ve got to tell you after four years, Mr. Secretary, that’s not a very impressive number. And, is it true you are telling them they’re only there to fight ISIS and not Bashar Assad? Is that true?’ Carter’s cold answer:’ Yes. We are arming and training them in the first instance to go after ISIL, and not the Assad regime. That’s our priority’. But what would happen to the fighters when they find themselves at the receiving end of Assad’s barrels bombs, inquired McCain, well, said the bureaucrat ‘that decision will be faced when we introduce fighters into the field.’
A train-wreck
The United States government wants to train and equip Syrian rebels to fight (and die) on its behalf against its own enemies, but not against the very regime that has been tormenting Syrians for decades and whose atrocities galvanized the opposition and attracted some of the worst fanatical Jihadists that are at the core of ISIS and al-Nusra. The U.S. is asking Syrians to stop pursuing their number one enemy, the Assad regime, and begin fighting America’s number one enemy, ISIS. Instead of developing a strategy that cultivates and relies on moderate political and armed groups, both nationalists and Islamists willing to take on ISIS and al-Nusra as well as the Assad regime, to restore Syria as a unitary civil state for all its social, religious and ethnic components, the U.S. is attempting to create a small force, according to impossible vetting standards that may be problematic in a more peaceful society, let alone a country that has been ravaged physically, morally, and politically for years, to do its bidding thus reviving memories of similar formations designed by the colonialist powers of yore. It is intriguing to say the least that the administration’s stringent vetting standards of Syrian opposition elements, are not applied when it comes to military coordination between the international coalition led by the U.S. with the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) an armed militia operating against ISIS in northern Syria and affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) a group the U.S. government has designated years ago as a terrorist group. The same American standards don’t cross the borders of Iraq to be applied to the notoriously sectarian Shiite militias that are an integral part of the security forces of the government of Iraq.
Secretary Carter should have been asked: what do you think Assad would do, if and when the American sponsored, trained and equipped Syrian opposition groups take the battle to ISIS and al-Nusra? Will he stop throwing his barrel bombs against civilians? Will he be more amenable to stepping down? Or as recent history shows Assad will double down against his real enemies and in the process collaborate with ISIS? It should be clear by now that the Train and Equip program, the way it is conceived and implemented will end up a train-wreck, like most of Obama’s Syria decisions.
Meanwhile, the world in which Syrians barely live and frequently die got grimmer, with the announcement by the United Nations that the number of Syrian refugees has reached more than four million, half of them children, along with 7.6 million people displaced within Syria. All of this coinciding with the 20th anniversary of Europe’s worst massacre since the Holocaust when Serb troops killed 8000 Muslim men and boys in the Bosnian town of Srebrenica, an ugly reminder of the failure of that vague, brittle thing we call the ‘international community’ to protect civilians.
Catastrophic success
In their internal deliberations American officials use the expression ‘catastrophic success’ to describe the sudden collapse of the Assad regime at the hands of Islamist extremists antithetical to the U.S. be it the ‘Islamic State’ (ISIS), Jabhat al-Nusra or any coalition of such extremists. Such potential catastrophic success achieved by radical Islamists has been animating the Obama administration in recent months following a string of victories by Islamist groups. Last March CIA Director John Brennan warned that a sudden collapse of the Assad regime could lead to ‘Islamist extremists, including the Islamic State, Jabhat al-Nusra, and al-Qaeda elements within Syria to seize power from a collapsed regime’. He told an audience at the Council on Foreign Relations, ‘the last thing we want to do is allow them to march into Damascus.’ This fear was reiterated this week by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin Dempsey, while testifying with Secretary Carter. General Dempsey said that the U.S. along with its allies in the region are planning for the possibility of a collapse of the Assad regime in Damascus, ‘or enclaving itself’ in the Alawite dominated coastal area, ‘which is to say, we don't want this to be a foot race, if it occurs, between al Nusra and ISIL and all of these other groups converging on Damascus’. He added ‘I won't sit here today and tell you that I have the answer to that, but I will tell you that we're in consultations, even as I sit here with the Turks, the Israelis and the Jordanians about that scenario.’
…And catastrophic failures
If there is a catastrophe in the making in Syria, and time is running out very fast on the possibility of saving Syria from total unraveling, it is in part because the Obama administration never meant to deliver on its threats to punish the Syrian regime for its savage depredations, or on its promises to provide serious material support even for the ‘moderate’ Syrian opposition. President Obama, even when he was promising modest military support for the moderate rebels, never wanted a military victory by the opposition. Not even the catastrophic chemical attacks the regime waged against the Ghouta suburbs of Damascus in August 2013, killing more than 1400 civilians, were outrageous enough to warrant acting on President Obama’s own threats against the Assad regime.
Over the last few months, a number of government sources confirmed that concern over violent Iranian reaction against the U.S interests and personnel in Iraq was one of the reasons U.S. warplanes have not bombed Assad’s installations. However, the same sources point out to a more significant reason for Washington’s reluctance to hit the Syrian regime, and that is President Obama’s significant political investment in the success of the P+5 nuclear talks with Iran. Hitting Assad’s military installations would alienate Iran and more importantly could lead to the collapse of the talks, went the thinking of the administration.
More than four years after the beginning of the Syrian uprising against the tyrannical Assad regime, and the Obama administration continues to frame the Syrian crisis in a maddening mendacious way. Even when the uprising was peaceful and represented a great opportunity for President Obama to act on his demand of Assad in August 2011 to step down, an objective that would have defanged Iran’s regional mischief by removing its linchpin in Damascus and crippling its Hezbollah proxy in Lebanon, he opted to believe the naïve counsel of his aides that the winds of the Arab uprisings will sweep Assad just as they swept the Tunisian and Egyptian presidents Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and Hosni Mubarak before. Later on, anyone calling on the President to exercise a more assertive role in Syria was falsely painted as someone calling for military intervention, or advocating taking sides in somebody else’s civil war, or worst still calling for the occupation of Syria.
The only thing we have to fear is fear itself
Listening to U.S. officials describing the effects of the potential ‘catastrophic success’ of the Islamists against the Assad regime, one would think that there is an unstoppable Juggernaut on its way to overwhelm Damascus and spell the end of the Assad dynasty, and accelerate the unraveling of Syria. There is no denying the tactical and significant military achievements of the Syrian opposition groups, mainly the Islamists in the last few months, still no single rebel force (nationalist, Islamists or Kurdish) is capable of dislodging Assad from Damascus. Syria is so fragmented today that it is impossible even for a coalition of forces to exercise its writ in all of Syria.
And when it was over, the Obama administration proved once again that all of its pronouncements, protestations, and promises regarding the slow death of Syria could be summarized in two words: unadulterated mendacity.
The Obama administration is whipping the fear of ISIS and al-Nusra to get its hitherto bickering allies in the region, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Qatar in line, and nudging them to greater cooperation to stem the flow of foreign terrorists to Syria and Iraq, and to dry up the sources of funding for ISIS. More importantly, the Obama administration is using the growing influence and military experience of groups like ISIS and al-Nusra to try to convince Russia and Iran to review their long-standing policies of support for the Assad regime. Last May Secretary of State John Kerry visited Russia for the first time in two years to discuss Syria with President Vladimir Putin. In June Saudi Arabia’s Deputy Crown Prince and Minister of Defense Mohammed Bin Salman visited Russia and held talks with Putin to discuss Syria among other issues. Last week Syria’s foreign minister Walid al-Moualem met President Putin, and it was significant that Russia’s foreign ministry issued a statement in which Putin reminded al-Moualem that Russia has good relations with Turkey, Jordan and Saudi Arabia and that these countries are committed to ‘fighting the evil that is the Islamic State’. Putin urged his Syrian visitor very strongly to establish ‘constructive dialogue’ with these states.
Some U.S. analysts believe that the Obama administration is trying to lean on Russia so that Moscow in turn could lean on Iran to take a fresh look at the Syrian war in the light of the recent battlefield successes of ISIS and al-Nusra and explore the possibility of sacrificing Assad and his cohorts, in the hope of preserving a role in influencing the transition towards a new political order without Assad. The argument to the Iranian goes like this: ‘You may be able to save Assad, but that means that you have to send your own troops, to engage in a protracted fight, because there limits to what Hezbollah can do to prop up the regime in Syria. Or you can collaborate with Russia and the U.S. to shape the transition.’ It is difficult to see Iran accepting such an offer, but the fact that it is being discussed is an indication of the shifting military ground in Syria. The fact remains that absence a significant initiative involving all the major players, and absence a major shift in Iran’s position, the unraveling of Syria will continue to accelerate and reach the point where saving Syria as a unitary state will become impossible.

Can today’s Arab World give us another Omar al-Sharif?
Faisal J. Abbas/Al Arabiya/Sunday, 12 July 2015
The Arabs are running out of their most valuable resource; and no, I don’t mean oil. I am actually referring to a much more precious, truly irreplaceable resource: good, talented and internationally-experienced human capital. Over the last few days, we have lost two men who are unlikely to ever be matched: HRH Prince Saud al-Faisal, who has served as the Saudi Foreign Minister for over 40 years and Omar al-Sharif, who despite an extremely unkind obituary in the UK’s Daily Mail, remains an Arab success story given that he is a multi-Golden Globe winning actor who has starred in internationally-renowned masterpieces such as Dr. Zhivago and Lawrence of Arabia. I fear that we could also be mourning the Arab world’s ability to produce the same caliber of ‘giants’ as it did back at the time Prince Saud and Sharif were born. Of course, given the age factor (at the time of their passing, Prince Saud was 75 and Sharif was 83) it is only fair to say that it was only a matter of time before nature took its course.
However, today we are mourning more than just two great men that are no longer with us. Indeed, we are also mourning the fact that neither of these veterans got a chance to document their experiences in autobiographies; in 'how I did it’ books, or even get a chance to teach at universities for enough time to pass on their wealth of knowledge to a new generation. More importantly, I fear that we could also be mourning the Arab world’s ability to produce the same caliber of ‘giants’ as it did back at the time Prince Saud and Sharif were born. Of course, one might easily dismiss such an argument as being too pessimistic, however, just take a moment to wonder if Egypt was able – thus far – to give us another singing sensation a la Umm Kulthum (1898 - 1975) or another intellect like Naguib Mahfouz (1911 – 2006), whose literature won him a Nobel Prize in 1988?
We reap what we sow
Given that societies will always reap what they sow (or what they allow to be sowed on their behalf) I fear that the only ‘giants’ that will come out of Syria and Iraq are not going to be cultivated, progressive thinkers like legendary poets Nizar Qabbani (1923 – 1998) and Nazik al-Malaika (1923 – 2007), but extreme, blood-thirsty hate-preachers like ISIS’s leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. While it is too late to undo the radicalization or take back the devastating ideas that were spread over the past 60 years or so, what we must do now is begin planting the seeds for a better future. Egyptian cinema is only one example, but the same argument can sadly be applied to many other industries and many other Arab countries. What we need to understand is how and why, for example, Egypt was able to once produce so many intellectuals, artists and writers but is unlikely to be able to do so now. Take a look at the Egyptian film industry for example, it is said that until the late 50s, it was impossible to distinguish – technically - between an Egyptian, American, Italian or French films!Yes, Egyptian cinema was THAT advanced and the main reason was that the whole country was under the leadership of an open-minded and truly cosmopolitan ruling elite. Actor Omar Sharif, in movie based on Boris Pasternak' s "Doctor Zhivago". November 1965, location unknown. (AP). The Egyptian leadership at the time understood the importance of opening up the country so that expats and locals could interact freely, share knowledge, build businesses and import best practices.
However, despite some successful flicks in the 70s, it is argued that the Egyptian film industry began decaying ever since Nasser (who was part of the Free Officers movement that overthrew King Farouq in 1952) enforced the ‘nationalization’ of the sector in 1961 (and of the whole country eventually). Egyptian cinema is only one example, but the same argument can sadly be applied to many other industries and many other Arab countries. Of course, what made things worse for Egypt is the popularity of the views of the likes of the Muslim Brotherhood, which took the country even farther away from the cosmopolitan, open melting-pot it once was and added even more restrictions, in the name of religion, on freedom of thought, art and business. As such, there is a reason why many of today’s artists, thinkers and entrepreneurs are based in the United States, or want to go there. The American dream, with all its faults, is still partly true. If you are talented, you are welcomed and you can thrive in the USA. In the Arab World, it seems that only the UAE – and Dubai in particular – has what it takes to head in that direction.

Blocking Twitter is not the solution
Abdulrahman al-Rashed/Al Arabiya/Sunday, 12 July 2015
Many terrorism experts believe they have pinpointed the source of the problem, saying social media networks are to blame because they play a hand in inciting extremism and recruiting militants. Some experts have even called for blocking these sites in order to starve ISIS and its ilk, while considering Twitter to be their secret and direct means of communicating with others. Despite the rush of calls to shut down Twitter and other social media sites, this is not an ideal solution because alternative platforms will simply replace them. It’s also not fair to punish millions of ordinary users in order to get rid of the thousands of militants or militant supporters online. It’s a known fact that the world is battling against extremist ideologies, and therefore it’s understandable that this sometimes requires giving up our privacy and freedom at times. However, even the necessities of war aren’t enough reason to restrain the masses just because the problem was not dealt with from another angle. Reform education, reform “dawah” (the preaching of Islam) and spread Islam’s real and beautiful values, then you’d realize that extremist concepts are an exception and are actually rejected. If such steps are implemented, moderation would become a real ideological movement that everyone adopts.
Battling the root of the problem
Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and other websites are a means of communication that can either eliminate extremism or help spread it. What distinguishes extremists is that they are an active and determined party with a cause which they believe is righteous. They are capable of adapting to technological changes. They exploit religious communities, which they don’t belong to, and try to lure people into their extremist ideologies. There are hundreds, and perhaps thousands, of militants who spend hours on these websites surfing them in search of lost, angry or curious youths, having conversations to “guide them” to jihadist solutions and then recruit them as soldiers who await orders. I believe that without a comprehensive plan to combat extremism - as an ideology and as a practice - and everything that surrounds it or nurtures it, eliminating it will be impossible. Proof of this is seen in al-Qaeda, an organization that exploited TV broadcasts and Internet chatrooms. ISIS kept up with modern day advancement by using social media. The problem is in both the ideology and the means. The development of jihadist movements shows how they have moved on from being incubators to being present in the streets and battlefields. In Afghanistan, foreign fighters who refused to return to their countries decided to establish al-Qaeda and although there was only a few hundred of them, marketing their cause through television and Internet platforms helped them swell to around 2,000 fighters, spreading terror across the world, from Southeast Asia to New York and Washington.
Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and other websites are a means of communication that can either eliminate extremism or help spread it. After eliminating most al-Qaeda leaders and besieging them in Afghanistan and Iraq and aborting many of their operations, many thought the organization had diminished, but then the ISIS emerged. Now, the surprise is that the number of armed ISIS fighters is around 70,000 and they’re deployed in Iraq, Syria, Libya and elsewhere. Social media is their interactive arena. The chronology of the rise and fall of organized terrorism and its resurgence prove that the problem is deep-rooted and that it’s not possible to besiege terrorism without addressing the root problem. Blocking some tools, like the Internet, Twitter and Facebook is not the solution.

The Egypt bombing wave: Why did ISIS now pick Italy?
Dr. Theodore Karasik/Al Arabiya/Sunday, 12 July 2015
Yesterday, an explosion outside the nearly empty Italian Consulate in Cairo killed one person and injured seven. It’s the first major bombing of a foreign diplomatic mission since the upswing in attacks against the Egyptian government since June 2014 when Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi was elected to the presidency.
Many suggest the rise in attacks against the Egyptian state is mainly part of the ISIS project for Egypt.
In Egypt, the ISIS’s Sinai Province formerly (Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis) is a hub of ISIS activity. But it is important to note that the cult-like ability for ISIS to recruit sympathizers and lone wolves may be strong in Egypt. An Egyptian official told me that ISIS is attracting more and more disenchanted Muslim Brotherhood (Ikhwan) sympathizers. In other words, the nexus between ISIS as a Sunni extremist group and the Ikhwan is growing stronger to the point that the Brotherhood’s revolutionary stance of violence could be matching ISIS’s violent goals. That’s dangerous. Thus, the attack on the Italian consulate, claimed by ISIS, is symptomatic of the current ISIS program for Egypt.
Let’s face the truth: ISIS in Egypt is on a roll. For all the violence against Egyptian military personnel and police officers killed in the past year, we need to think about how ISIS in Egypt is hijacking the agenda of other Islamist militants not caught up in security sweeps. Recent attacks also have the hallmark of ISIS including Egypt’s most popular tourist destinations, including the Karnak Temple in Luxor, threatening a pillar of the country’s economy. On social media, some ISIS members say they are gunning for the Sphinx and the Pyramids of Giza. It is highly recommended to take their threats seriously.
This month’s offensive by ISIS in Egypt mirrored the attacks on France, Tunisia, and Kuwait on the 9th day of Ramadan. Almost simultaneously, an obscure Giza Popular Resistance claimed the killing of Egyptian Prosecutor-General Hisham Barakat. A few hours before the targeted killing, Sinai Province, the local appendage of the ISIS “Caliphate” in the Levant, released a video titled “The Liquidation of Judges” which I believe served as a justification for the upcoming assassination. Simultaneously, hundreds of ISIS militants from Sinai Province attacked up to 15 Egyptian military sites in Northern Sinai including the urban area of Sheikh Zuweid and Rafah with dozens of Egyptian soldiers dead. The ISIS militants used a wide range of weapons, deploying an arsenal of rocket-propelled grenades, Kornet anti-tank guided missiles, and mortars in synchronization with roadside improvised explosive devices.
Why Italy?
Egyptian President Al-Sisi visited Italy last November. Sisi also visited Pope Francis to restore relations between al-Azhar and the Vatican. In addition, Italy’s Prime Minister Matteo Renzi stated strongly that the country is seeking to build a strong defense and military relationship with Egypt because of the threat from Islamic extremists, specifically ISIS and al-Qaeda franchises. Renzi argued that “Italy is absolutely convinced that the Mediterranean is not the frontier but the heart of Europe, and Egypt must be considered a strategic partner in addressing together the problems of this area. The only way to avoid an escalation of them is through very strong cooperation between Egypt and Europe.” Let’s be clear that the primary point of impact of the Libyan situation in Europe is Italy. Italy has borne the brunt of Libyan refugees and the political fallout regarding this refugees is affecting the country’s security. Perhaps ISIS and its minions see the Italian consulate as a simple statement of what comes next.
In regard to Italian targets, we need to recall ISIS’s gruesome February 2014 “A Message Signed in Blood to the Nation of the Cross” when 21 Egyptian Copts were executed on a Libyan beach. It is well known that ISIS in Libya through the Derna, Sirte and affiliated Vilayet system are connected to extremists who use Western Egypt as a transit zone for weapons across North Africa. Sinai Province, demonstrating their reach, has launched attacks in this area before against Egyptian forces over the past year.
Italy is also helping Egypt in monitoring the situation in Libya through intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) missions. Italy may also be a target because of the Tripoli-based Libya Dawn-ISIS connection in turning a blind eye to that government’s activity in migrant smuggling to southern Europe. Recently, an EU official recently announced that ISIS are using these migrant routes to send its adherents to Europe.
The key issue is now how the Egyptian government contends with the ISIS threat in the coming months. Clearly, the Egyptian air force responding with F-16 fighter jets and Apache helicopters following the Northern Sinai attack were robust and halted the onslaught. Egypt’s use of its military assets is known against the so-called Derna Province in Libya. But the response is just that: a response, not mitigation.
Attacks on foreign national interests in Egypt by ISIS and their allies cannot become a norm.
Clearly, Egyptian national security is being challenged by ISIS. The requirements to protect not only Cairo but other urban areas – including infrastructure and tourism sectors - are critical. But the Egyptian government needs to be more alert to the gaps that ISIS – as a cult – can fill in rural areas, particularly the Upper Nile. The key question is whether ISIS activity in Egypt will push Sisi to launch a campaign with the Tobruk government in Libya to clean up the militant threat together. Perhaps that time is now here.
Warning signs
The other issue is what to do about the Sinai Peninsula. Egypt’s security policy needs revamping to tear down the ISIS Province that Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis established. Sinai Province launched the exact same attack on January 28, 2015, when the deviants carried out multiple, simultaneous attacks against Egyptian security forces in the vicinity of El Arish, Sheikh Zuweid and Rafah. In between the two attacks of January and July, didn’t the Egyptian government learn what to expect from ISIS?
Apparently not. This fact is why Egyptian security forces need to be augmented for counter-insurgency and counter-terrorist operations. Sisi needs to become more aggressive with the extremists on their territory in the coming days and months, including weaving the right counter voices in social media and the Egyptian press. These repeated attacks throughout Egypt do not bode well for the country’s future unless clear adjustments are made to the government’s strategic and tactics. Attacks on foreign national interests in Egypt by ISIS and their allies cannot become a norm.

The rise and fall of a forgotten Phoenician city (and its connection to the Israelites)
Jpost Holy Land: More than 30 years of excavations have unearthed a Phoenician city that was extremely prosperous and indeed truly cosmopolitan.
Tel Dor and the Carmel coast
JPost Holy Land is a new column that will bring you the latest archaeology news and stories from Israel in collaboration with the University of Haifa.
The Mediterranean Sea is an enclosed, relatively small and to a large extent easily-navigated basin. Many modern historians and archaeologists claim therefore that cross-Mediterranean contacts were rather constant and continuous throughout history. In fact, however, they were rather fragile, and their sustenance (or not) depended on many factors, not least of all – politics.
The first truly 'international' period around the Mediterranean was in the fourteenth and thirteenth century BCE, the period archaeologists call the Late Bronze Age, when the region of present-day Israel was dominated by Canaanite city-states. Extensive maritime activity is attested in this period between polities over a vast range, from Mesopotamia to the Atlantic coast of Iberia. But in a complex process that culminated around 1200 BCE nearly all the political entities that were involved in these networks collapsed – the Mycenaean centers in Greece, the Hittite Empire in Anatolia (modern Turkey), the city-states of Canaan and Syria, most famously the city of Ugarit, and even mighty Egypt was considerably weakened.
What happened next? It is usually assumed that the main beneficiaries of this collapse were the inhabitants of the great Phoenician centers in Lebanon, such as Tyre and Sidon, who eventually, around 850-800 BCE started to colonize the West Mediterranean and their activities were long remembered in Greek and Latin history and myth. However, new evidence from Tel Dor, the major port town on Israel's Carmel coast (just east of Kibbutz Nahsholim) shows that the process was more gradual and complex.
More than 30 years of excavations have unearthed a Phoenician city that was extremely prosperous and indeed truly cosmopolitan after the 1200 BCE collapse. It boasted monumental administrative structures, among the largest known around the Mediterranean and it maintained close commercial connections with Cyprus, Egypt and other Phoenician port cities.
It imported silver from Anatolia and the west Mediterranean, it produced purple dye and resins – among the most coveted commodities of the era. It even imported cinnamon from South Asia and indeed produced the earliest evidence for sustainable trade with this distant region. As a matter of fact, no other city in the Levant produced such ample evidence for extensive and far-flung commercial networks during the 11th-9th centuries BCE. So why did no memory of Phoenician Dor make it into the Greek and Latin traditions? Why do we not hear about 'Dorian' colonies in the West? We now think that we may have the answer. Excavations have revealed that around the mid-ninth century BCE the Phoenician town was transformed and replaced by a new and imposing administrative center with new monumental buildings that recall Israelite cities such as Megiddo and Dan. None of the Phoenician structures, which functioned for hundreds of years, remained intact. We believe that this drastic change occurred during the reign of King Ahab, who battled Israel's enemies on all fronts.
Therefore, the allusion to Dor as part of Solomon's kingdom in the 10th century (1 Kings 4:11) is probably anachronistic. Be that as it may – the Israelites had no maritime interests at Dor, and possibly as part of their alliances with Phoenician cities in Lebanon (recorded, for example, in the biblical account of Ahab marrying the Sidonian princess Jezebel) they agreed to direct trade through harbors in Lebanon, at the expense of the Dorians. This is patently evident in the ground. Nearly all the previously ample evidence of Dor's commercial contacts has vanished and from now on the town looks inland rather than to the sea. Thus, when the Phoenicians started their westward thrust in earnest around the 850 BCE, Dor and the Carmel coast were already insignificant from a commercial point of view. In fact, it seems that the Phoenician cities in Lebanon, especially Tyre, should have been thankful to the Israelites for eliminating one of their major competitors.
**Prof. Ayelet Gilboa is a researcher at the Zinman Institute of Archaeology and a teacher at the Department of Archaeology at the University of Haifa. She co-directs the Tel Dor excavations and her main fields of interest are the Levant in the Bronze and Iron Ages, Phoenicians, "Sea Peoples", Israelites and cross-Mediterranean maritime contacts.
The Tel Dor Excavations are a joint University of Haifa – Hebrew University project, Directed by Profs. Ilan Sharon and Ayelet Gilboa.

Israeli-Canadian woman returns to Israel after fighting ISIS
Roi Kais/Ynetnews/Latest Update: 07.12.15/ Israel News
Gill Rosenberg says its good to be home, after spending the last several months on the frontlines in Syria and Iraq.
Gill Rosenberg returned to Israel on Sunday, after spending the months since November fighting ISIS alongside Kurdish forces in the Middle East. In an exclusive conversation with Ynet, Rosenberg says that she left Syria in January and moved to Iraq, from which she took off for Paris a week and a half ago. Now she is back in Israel. "It's good to be home. I'm here fore now, and don’t plan on going back there anytime soon," she says. The Shin Bet confirmed that Rosenberg was questioned. "In the month of November 2014, there was a report that Gill Rosenberg joined the Kurdish rebels in order to fight ISIS," said a Shin Bet source. "Rosenberg was questioned and released upon her return, as a result of the reports."The person responsible for bringing her back to Israel was the American–Israeli businessman Moti Kahana, who has provided aid to the Syrian opposition on several occasions since the beginning of the civil war four years ago. Of the combat in Syria, Rosenberg said it was difficult to witness the humanitarian crisis there. "It’s a country at war," she says. "There are three million refugees scattered across the country, most of them women and children."According to Rosenberg, the humanitarian crisis is deepening, and the effects of the war on the civilian population are evident. "There is immense suffering and its difficult to see them in that situation," she says. In November, Rosenberg , who made aliyah from Canada in 2006, made her way through Jordan's international airport to the Irbil airport, in Iraq's Kurdish autonomous area, from which she entered Syria. On November 9, she uploaded images from the Kurdish region of Syria and wrote, "In the IDF (Israeli army), we say 'aharai', After Me. Let's show ISIS (Islamic State) what that means." A friend wrote, "Take care of yourself, friend. You are one strong woman, and you'll destroy the Islamic State."
"I wasn’t sure I would come back to Israel"
A few weeks before her trip back, rumors began spreading that she had been captured by ISIS. A day later she beat back the rumors in a Facebook post, saying, "Guys, I'm totally safe and secure." Rosenberg added that she had no access to internet or means of communication. Rosenberg explains that she felt the need to act on behalf of those who suffered because of ISIS, mainly woman and children who were raped and forced into sexual slavery. "As Jews we say never again, as far as a Holocaust or genocide," she says. "I don’t think there is any difference between Jews and anyone else, never again means never again for anyone. "For me, I felt really strongly about what was happening there, and I felt that I could do something. I wanted to contribute in any way that I could."Rosenberg says she plans to take time off from being a fighter and turn her attention to a more political track; "There are plans in the works to maybe switch to more of an activist role as opposed to being a front line fighter, raising awareness about the Kurdish cause, and the minorities in Iraq like the Christians and Yazidis, who are being persecuted."
Rosenberg added that she left the area for political reasons, saying that peoples attitudes' towards the US and Israel and increasing Iranian advances warranted her departure.
First Published: 07.12.15

Iranian-Western Nuclear deal/Blindness has no political color
Ben-Dror Yemini /Ynetnews/Published: 07.12.15/Israel Opinion
Op-ed: Why are so many people struck by such incredible blindness when the facts are so obvious? Iran will become more dangerous if an agreement is reached, and the idea that Jews can live as a minority under Arab rule is absurd.
A bipartisan group of experts that includes former senior officials in the US government published a public statement sponsored by the Washington Institute, in which it warned against the emergent agreement with Iran.
Some of the signatories are known as clear supporters of the Obama administration and its attempts to obtain a deal. Others are known for their critical line towards Israel. And despite this, they have not been struck by blindness. The open letter stated that the US government had claimed there would be no concessions on the issue of inspections. But like previous red lines, they feared, the government is about to cross the final red line, which it set itself.
As I write this, reports are conflicting. There is optimism in Vienna. Obama, on the other hand, declared that chances of reaching a deal are less than 50 percent. It's possible that this was a tactical statement in the context of negotiations.
What's clear is that the public statement and the fact that the Iranians have already nearly attained everything they wanted raise the inevitable question: Why are so many people struck by such incredible blindness when the facts are so obvious?
The Iranian regime was and remains dark, dangerous, and subversive. It will try to do to the Gulf nations what it has done to Yemen. It is initiating terror and funding terrorist groups. It is repressing any expression of political opposition. It tramples on human rights. This regime deserves a boycott for its subversion, for its encouragement of terror, for its threats to annihilate another state. And it will become much stronger and more dangerous if an agreement is reached.
Blindness has no political color. Part of the Israeli right refuses to understand that the settlement enterprise is leading Israel to become one state, which will be neither Jewish nor democratic. Part of the Israeli and global left refuses to understand that supporting BDS is support for a campaign to destroy Israel. When it's only a question of political dispute, fervor is tolerable. Sometimes even desirable. But with the Iranian issue, it's no longer a political dispute. Even pronounced supporters of the government look on in disbelief at Obama and Kerry's conduct.
This week Le Monde published an interview with Omar Barghouti, one of the leaders of BDS. His theory, in essence, was that there is no problem with the Jews living as a minority under an Arab majority in the exemplary state he aims to create. After all, the Jews, he explained, "did not suffer in Arab countries. There were no pogroms. There was no persecution. And in general, the Jews thrive as minorities in Europe and the United States." So what's the problem? Please leave as a minority under Arab democracy, which is known for its protection of minorities, especially if they are Jews.
The man suffers from double blindness. Both to the past and to the present. It's doubtful whether there is a Jewish community under Muslim rule that did not suffer from persecution, with or without any relation to Zionism. The list is long. And the leader of the Arab Higher Committee, Haj Amin al-Husseini, was actually a well-known fan of Jews. That's why he apparently led the pogrom against the Jews of Baghdad in 1941, the "Farhud", and from there traveled to Berlin in order to turn more Muslims into Nazis. He also wrote about his plans to destroy all of the Arab countries' Jews.
It's Barghouti's right to spout nonsense. But when he's given such an important platform, he should be asked: Excuse me, what are you talking about? And did you forget the pogroms against Jews in Libya in 1945 and 1948, and in Aden in 1948, and in Morocco, in Damascus, and in Aleppo? Hundreds were murdered, merely because they were Jewish. And if we turn to the present, where exactly are minorities living in peace and quiet in Arab nations? It's possible that Barghouti means the black Muslims of Darfur in Sudan.
How is it that the interviewer did not push him? Well, it turns out that the interviewer is an Israeli, Nirit Ben-Ari. In the past she supported Balad. Towards the last elections she published an article supporting the Joint Arab List. She is also a declared supporter of BDS. She asked to interview Barghouti for Haaretz, but he made it clear that he refused to be interviewed for any Israeli newspaper, because of Zionist hegemony. He should have been informed that supporting the boycott is becoming the central line of Haaretz. Only this week, Amos Shoken stated that he supports a general boycott, not only on settlements, because he "cannot understand the difference between what we do and what the whites in South Africa did".
He doesn't understand? Time after time, from the Peel Committee, to the partition plan, to the Clinton Parameters, to the Olmert proposal – the Palestinians refused any proposal that would have given them independence. They do not want a state alongside Israel. Barghouti's boycott campaign underscores that they want a state instead of Israel. But blindness is a serious problem. Shoken refuses to understand.

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