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Bible Quotation For Today/Jesus Stresses the Importance Of persistence in life
Luke 11/05-08: "And he said to them, ‘Suppose one of you has a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say to him, "Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; for a friend of mine has arrived, and I have nothing to set before him." And he answers from within, "Do not bother me; the door has already been locked, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything."I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, at least because of his persistence he will get up and give him whatever he needs."

Bible Quotation For Today/The Apostils witness the faith Christianization of, Lydia the purple Cloth Dealer
Acts of the Apostles 16,11-23a./We set sail from Troas and took a straight course to Samothrace, the following day to Neapolis, and from there to Philippi, which is a leading city of the district of Macedonia and a Roman colony. We remained in this city for some days.
On the sabbath day we went outside the gate by the river, where we supposed there was a place of prayer; and we sat down and spoke to the women who had gathered there. A certain woman named Lydia, a worshipper of God, was listening to us; she was from the city of Thyatira and a dealer in purple cloth. The Lord opened her heart to listen eagerly to what was said by Paul. When she and her household were baptized, she urged us, saying, ‘If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come and stay at my home.’ And she prevailed upon us.One day, as we were going to the place of prayer, we met a slave-girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners a great deal of money by fortune-telling. While she followed Paul and us, she would cry out, ‘These men are slaves of the Most High God, who proclaim to you a way of salvation.’ She kept doing this for many days. But Paul, very much annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, ‘I order you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.’ And it came out that very hour. But when her owners saw that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the market-place before the authorities. When they had brought them before the magistrates, they said, ‘These men are disturbing our city; they are Jews and are advocating customs that are not lawful for us as Romans to adopt or observe.’The crowd joined in attacking them, and the magistrates had them stripped of their clothing and ordered them to be beaten with rods. After they had given them a severe flogging, they threw them into prison and ordered the jailer to keep them securely.

LCCC Latest analysis, editorials from miscellaneous sources published on July 13-14/15
Lebanese Problems and Solutions/Elie Aoun/July 13/15
Preparing for the fallout from Iran’s nuclear deal/Sharif Nashashibi/Al Arabiya/July 13/15
What should be at the core of Egypt’s counter-terror strategy/H.A. Hellyer/Al Arabiya/July 13/15
Where will the Arab World be 15 years from now/Khaled Almaeena/Al Arabiya/July 13/15
How Arabs will face a rising Iran/Raghida Dergham/Al Arabiya/July 13/15
Hillary Clinton is the X-factor for the Iranian nuclear deal’s congressional survival/DEBKAfile/July 13/15
Analysis: It took three decades, but in 10 years Iran will be able to run, not sneak, to A-bomb/By HERB KEINON/J.Post/July 13/15
Why Palestinians Cannot Make Peace with Israel/Khaled Abu Toameh/Gatestone Institute/July 13/15
Turkey: Jihadists in Lawyers' Robes/Burak Bekdil/Gatestone Institute/July 13/15
Why Lebanon's Sunnis Support ISIS/Hilal Khashan/Middle East Quarterly/July 13/15

LCCC Bulletin itles for the Lebanese Related News published on July 13-14/15
Naameh Landfill Crisis Set to Grow as Closure Deadline Looms
Several Dead, Injured in Akkar Land Plot Dispute
Bank Manager Kidnapped in Bekaa
Sources: Qatari Officials Ask Ibrahim to Meet them in Doha over Prisoner Exchange
Italian FM Arrives in Beirut for Talks with Top Officials
Report: Sami Gemayel Officially Assumes Tasks this Week
Berri Optimistic on Extraordinary Legislative Session
Seven People Land in Hospital over Food Poisoning

Lebanese Problems and Solutions
Elie Aoun/July 13/15
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/2015/07/13/elie-aounlebanese-problems-and-solutions/
What is the core cause for most of Lebanon’s problems?
It is the lack of principles to guide our decisions. The end result is a political gridlock due to conflicting personal benefits and what each side considers to be “in the national interest.“ The solution is to agree on a set of principles as a guide to making future decisions. Then, we judge the validity of a political position by whether it is compatible or contrary to the agreed upon principles. Here are suggested examples:
Principle # 1: “Do all you have agreed to do”
Principle #2: “Do not encroach on other persons or their property”The first two principles should be signed, or agreed upon, by all Lebanese political parties and communities to act as a pre-condition or a basis to all forms of dialogues and co-existence. If they cannot agree on these two lines, or if a side is not willing to do what it agrees to do, or to commit to not attack another, then all forms of dialogues or attempts for peaceful co-existence will be futile. When principles 1 and 2 are widely obeyed, life gets better. When they are violated, life gets worse. It is that simple.
Principle # 3: “Any society in which the guarantee of rights is not assured, nor the separation of powers determined, has no Constitution.” (Article 16, French Declaration of 1789)
Firstly, each side must recognize that the citizen is the source of political power. Therefore, regardless of the problems facing the country, any solution should begin by empowering the citizens and guaranteeing their rights and freedoms through the enactment of a Lebanese Magna Carta or a Bill of Rights.Secondly, meaningful separation of powers and a system of checks and balances is necessary for the proper functioning of government.
In Lebanon, it is illogical for the President to take an oath to defend the constitution while he lacks the means or authority to do so. Amendments must be enacted enabling the president to monitor, hold accountable, and punish governmental institutions where necessary. Institutions such as Tafteesh-al-Markazi, Diwan-al-Mohasaba, and Majlis-al-Khidmah al-Madaniyah should be under presidential authority. However, the Tafteesh-al-Qada’i should be independent. The judiciary’s affairs should be ruled and monitored by judges and lawyers through a mechanism prescribed by them. The primary roles of an independent judiciary are to ensure justice, timely adjudication of trials, and that the government would not enact laws that would abridge individual rights.
Principle # 4: “Avoid foreign entanglements, politically and militarily”
The National Pact agreed upon between Bechara El-Khouri and Riad al-Solh in 1943, includes the following principle: In case of conflict among Arab states, Lebanon should not side with one state against another. Both the Future Movement and Hizballah are in violation of this principle. The first is aligned with Syrian rebels (supported by Saudi Arabia and Qatar) against the Syrian regime — on whose side is Hizballah. This is a perfect example that the core of Lebanon’s problems lie in the refusal to abide by principles. Each side makes its political decisions without reliance on, or respect to, any defined principles. The Future Movement and Hizballah should each provide the Lebanese public with a one-line principle that guide their current foreign policy (which in practice should be reserved only to the Lebanese government).
The 1943 National Pact failed to include Principle #1 listed herein which is to commit parties to do all that they agree to do.
The divisions and conflicts caused to Lebanon by all past and present foreign attachments (without listing them) far outweighed the benefits, if any, received by Lebanon.
Foreign policy cannot be left to individual analysis of what each person considers to be a “national interest.” There is no logic in one side reserving for itself the right to interfere politically or militarily in a foreign nation, or on the side of a foreign entity, while denying to others the right to take an opposite stand. The principle of avoiding foreign entanglements should apply to all. If certain Lebanese believe strongly in a foreign cause and wish to participate in it, then they can relocate to wherever that cause is and stay there. Lebanon cannot be dragged into an unknown destiny because of the analytical wishes of a very few. In the same manner that we reject foreign interferences in Lebanese internal affairs, we should do the same towards the affairs of other nations.

Naameh Landfill Crisis Set to Grow as Closure Deadline Looms
Nanarnet/13 July/15/A major crisis looms on the Naameh landfill this week as environmentalists warned that they would stop trucks from hauling waste there starting Friday, which coincides with Eid al-Fitr. The landfill that lies in the town of Naameh south of Beirut is scheduled to be closed in accordance with a government decision. The July 17 deadline for the closure of the landfill also coincides with the expiry of the contract with Sukleen, which is responsible for collecting and transporting the garbage in Beirut and Mount Lebanon.
In January, the cabinet decided to delay the closure of the landfill, drawing the ire of the residents of Naameh and environmentalists. It approved the controversial decision after a long-heated debate regarding the country's plan to treat solid waste. But the spokesman of the grouping that is campaigning against the landfill, Ajwad al-Ayyash, told An Nahar daily published on Monday that environmentalists “will not allow a single kilogram of waste to enter Naameh after July 17.”He said there were reports that Environment Minister Mohammed al-Mashnouq has recently met with the municipal chiefs of towns near Naameh and proposed that they accept to dump only 600 tons of waste daily and distribute the rest in other landfills. But al-Ayyash accused them of violating the law. “We will only accept the implementation of the (government's) decision,” he said. The plan devised by Environment Minister al-Mashnouq decentralizes the management of solid waste, divides Lebanon into six blocks and limits the licensing of garbage collection to one contractor in maximum two blocks. When the government approved the plan, it also decided that contractors who win tenders would find the location of landfills. But an informed source told An Nahar last month that the authorities have failed to find a solution to the plan after only three contractors made proposals for the treatment of waste in the districts of Jbeil, Keserouan and Metn and no party made a bid for Beirut.The bidding process failed because the plan calls for having at least three bidders in each area, the source said.

Several Dead, Injured in Akkar Land Plot Dispute
Nanarnet/13 July/15/The Lebanese army contained on Monday a family dispute in the northern district of Akkar that left several people dead and wounded, the state-run National News Agency and Voice of Lebanon radio (93.3) reported.NNA said that Ahmed Hamza was killed and his brother Shaalan and three others were injured when the dispute on a land plot between members of the Hamza family in the town of Safinat al-Qateeh turned into a gunfight. VDL said, however, that at least two people died and seven, including two soldiers, were injured. The wounded were taken to hospitals in the region.

Bank Manager Kidnapped in Bekaa
Nanarnet/13 July/15/Unknown assailants kidnapped at dawn Monday the manager of a bank in the eastern Bekaa Valley in an apparent kidnap for ransom operation, the state-run National News Agency reported. The manager of a-Mawarid bank's Chtaura branch, Mohammed Abou Jakh, was abducted at gunpoint by the assailants who were riding a black four-wheeler near the West Bekaa town of al-Rawda, it said. The kidnappers left Jakh's Toyota behind, NNA added. His kidnapping came less than 24 hours after Lebanese national Nazih Zakaria al-Hussein was abducted in the northern city of Tripoli. Al-Hussein disappeared after leaving his workplace at the Tripoli Plaza company carrying with him 8 million Lebanese pounds. On Friday, security forces arrested the ringleader of a gang that had kidnapped a child from the town of Amchit near Jbeil, north of Beirut. 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.

Sources: Qatari Officials Ask Ibrahim to Meet them in Doha over Prisoner Exchange
Nanarnet/13 July/15/General Security chief Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim is expected to travel to Qatar this week after it was reported that he would visit Turkey to discuss with Qatari officials the case of Lebanese servicemen taken hostage by jihadists last year. Security sources told al-Akhbar daily published on Monday that the officials asked Ibrahim to meet them in Doha instead. Ibrahim, who is the official Lebanese negotiator in the case of the troops and policemen, is expected to inform the Qataris that Lebanon has completed the file on the prisoner exchange which was mediated by Doha's envoy. The deal reportedly includes the release of 16 soldiers and policemen taken by al-Qaida-linked al-Nusra Front from the northeastern border town of Arsal last August in return for setting free Islamists from Lebanon's notorious main prison of Roumieh. The Islamic State has also taken servicemen as hostages but the negotiations with the extremist group have reached a standstill over its crippling demands. Ibrahim is expected to inform the Qatari officials that the Lebanese authorities have not backed off from the deal, the same sources told al-Akhbar last week. But the problem lies in the failure of the jihadists to settle on specific conditions in the prisoner exchange.

Italian FM Arrives in Beirut for Talks with Top Officials
Nanarnet/13 July/15/Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni arrived in Beirut Monday evening for a two-day official visit, Lebanon's National News Agency reported. “He will meet with senior Lebanese officials to discuss with them the current developments in Lebanon and the region and the bilateral ties between the two countries,” NNA said. The minister will also visit the South to inspect the Italian contingent operating within the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL). In July 2014, Major-General Luciano Portolano, an Italian officer, assumed command as UNIFIL's Force Commander and Head of Mission. UNIFIL was established in 1978 to monitor the border between Lebanon and Israel. Its mission was extended and enlarged to include supporting the Lebanese troops who deployed in south Lebanon after the 2006 war between Israel and Hizbullah.

Report: Sami Gemayel Officially Assumes Tasks this Week
Nanarnet/13 July/15/MP Sami Gemayel is expected to officially assume his tasks as Kataeb Party leader during a meeting on Wednesday, al-Joumhouria newspaper reported. The daily said that Gemayel, who was elected Kataeb chief last month, will preside at the party headquarters in Beirut's Saifi area a meeting for the new politburo and the members of the political bureau whose terms have expired. During the meeting, which will also be attended by his father Amin Gemayel who was the Kataeb leader before the MP's election, Sami will officially assume his tasks, said the report. Sami was born on December 3, 1980. His older brother, Pierre, was a member of parliament and the minister of industry until his assassination on November 21, 2006. His grandfather, Pierre Gemayel, founded the Kataeb Party in 1936. Sami is also the nephew of slain President-elect Bashir Gemayel, who was assassinated in 1982. After the 2006 assassination of his brother Pierre, Sami rejoined the Kataeb Party to head the Youth and Student Council and he later became the coordinator of the Central Committee. He had left the party in 2006 to form the Loubnanouna Movement.

Berri Optimistic on Extraordinary Legislative Session
Nanarnet/13 July/15/Speaker Nabih Berri has said that he would call for a legislative session soon after it received the required signatures of cabinet ministers. Berri's visitors quoted him as saying that holding an extraordinary parliamentary session has become more than necessary. Parliament can no longer wait for a procrastination in the approval of several draft-laws, including the Bisri dam, which when built would bring potable water to 1.8 million people in Lebanon, he said. It is enough to have the signatures of half-plus-one minsters to open an extraordinary round, Berri added. The Bisri dam, which takes about five to seven years to be completed, is a $612 million project financed by the World Bank and the Islamic Bank. Parliament has been paralyzed since the term of President Michel Suleiman ended in May 2014. Several parliamentary blocs have been boycotting the sessions aimed at electing a head of state and have threatened not to attend any session which does not have on its agenda draft-laws that they support. Asked about optimism that Iran and major powers will strike a historic nuclear deal, Berri expected lingering issues to be resolved consecutively in the Middle East after such an agreement. But he warned that Lebanon might not be at the top of the list of expected solutions. The talks between Iran and the so-called P5+1 of the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China, the latest set of which have dragged on for more than two weeks, aim to nail down an agreement curbing Iran's nuclear activities to make it extremely difficult for Tehran -- which denies any such goal -- to develop the atomic bomb. Berri's remarks were published in several local newspapers published on Monday.

Seven People Land in Hospital over Food Poisoning
Agence France Presse/Nanarnet/13 July/15/Seven people, mostly children, were hospitalized after they were food poisoned in the eastern district of Zahle, the state-run National News Agency reported late Sunday. NNA said among the seven, who reached al-Hrawi state hospital in al-Maalaqa, are a woman and her four children. They felt sick when they ate sweets that they had bought from a street vendor in the Zahle town of al-Faour, said the agency. Cases of food poisoning continue to rattle Lebanon despite a campaign launched by Health Minister Wael Abou Faour last year to crack down on supermarkets, butcheries and restaurants selling expired food. The inspections of the health ministry have forced the closure of several institutions, the seizure of expired goods and even the arrests of businessmen.

U.S. Says 'Sticking Points' Remain in Iran Talks despite 'Genuine Progress'
Naharnet 13/July/15/
Iran and major powers headed into another late night of talks Monday on a deal to rein in Tehran's nuclear ambitions, as negotiators struggled to overcome the remaining few obstacles. The White House said the marathon discussions in Vienna had "made genuine progress" but suggested they would stretch beyond a Monday night deadline. "There continues to be some sticking points that remain unresolved," White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters in Washington. He said the United States and its partners did not want to rush the final stages of the lengthy talks. "Typically, some of the most difficult issues are the ones that get kicked to the end, and that's why the president is going to resist any effort to sort of fast-forward through the closing here," Earnest said. The P5+1 group -- the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany -- wants Iran to scale down its atomic activities in order to make any drive to make the nuclear bomb all but impossible. A source close to Iranian negotiators in the Austrian capital said that diplomats were "working without respite."Asked if the talks would continue for an 18th day on Tuesday, he said: "This depends on our work tonight."Over the weekend hopes had been raised that the end might be finally in sight and that ministers from Iran and the six powers might be able to nail down the agreement on Monday.
- 'Conditions in place' -
China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi, joining his counterparts at the Palais Coburg hotel in Vienna where the talks were being held, told reporters there should be "no more delays."No deal could be "perfect" but "conditions are already in place for a good agreement," Wang said through an interpreter, before going into talks with US Secretary of State John Kerry and other ministers. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said he believed there should be no further extension to the talks -- but added that he would negotiate as long as needed. "I always believe there shouldn't be any extension but we could work as long as necessary to finish this," Zarif said as he met Wang. Also present were Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his counterparts from Britain, France and Germany -- Philip Hammond, Laurent Fabius and Frank-Walter Steinmeier. The current diplomatic effort began when Iranian President Hassan Rouhani came to power in 2013. In November that year an interim deal was agreed but two deadlines in 2014 for a lasting accord were missed.
Then in April, the parties scored a major breakthrough by agreeing the main outlines of an accord, aiming to finalize it by June 30, a deadline since pushed back twice. The terms of the November 2013 interim deal under which Iran froze certain nuclear activities in return for minor sanctions relief were due to expire on Monday night, although they have been extended before. Much of the technical work in what will be a highly complex accord is done, but the talks have stumbled on the exact timing of sanctions relief and Iran's desire to have a U.N. conventional arms embargo lifted.
- Regional arms race? -
If a deal can be sewn up, the prospect of a thawing of U.S.-Iranian relations unsettles many in the Middle East, however. These include Shiite Iran's Sunni-ruled rivals Saudi Arabia and other Gulf monarchies who see Tehran as a destabilizing influence in the region.
Israel, widely assumed to have nuclear weapons itself, is also deeply concerned, complaining that the proposed deal will fail to stop its arch foe getting the bomb. "We are heading toward a bad deal, and in the period after it we will of course have to continue preparing to protect ourselves on our own," Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon said on Monday. Many in the United States, particularly among U.S. President Barack Obama's Republican opponents, agree that the mooted deal is too weak. The agreement will prove a "hard sell" in the U.S. Congress, which will have 60 days to chew over the accord, top Republican Mitch McConnell said in an interview broadcast Sunday. Agence France Presse

World Powers Seek Breakthrough in Iran Nuclear Talks
Agence France Presse/Nanarnet/13 July/15/Iran and major powers scrambled to finally nail down an elusive nuclear accord ahead of a Monday deadline, with China calling for "no more delays" in the marathon talks. After more than two weeks of intense political haggling in Vienna aimed at ensuring Iran does not get a nuclear bomb, diplomats said an agreement was tantalizingly close. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said the time had come to wrap up the talks, now in their 17th straight day. No deal could be "perfect" but "conditions are already in place for a good agreement", he told reporters as he arrived for discussions in the Austrian capital, speaking through an interpreter. Foreign ministers from the so-called P5+1 -- the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China -- were gathering "to bring the negotiation to its conclusion," he added. "We believe that there cannot and should not be further delay."
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said he believed there should be no further extension to the talks but he would negotiate as long as needed. "I always believe there shouldn't be any extension but we could work as long as necessary to finish this," Zarif said as he met Wang. Iran's President Hassan Rouhani will address the nation about the nuclear talks on state television on Monday night, a media official told AFP in Tehran. The official IRNA news agency said Rouhani would speak when the nuclear talks have concluded, but it did not give a time. The six major powers want Iran to scale down its atomic activities in return for an easing of crippling sanctions. They have already missed several deadlines in the highly complex discussions in Vienna, but diplomats were hopeful that this time would be different. "No one is thinking of another extension. Everyone working hard to get to yes today, but political will still required," Iranian diplomat Alireza Miryousefi said on Twitter. A source close to Iranian negotiators told AFP there were still "some important issues" to be resolved. There had been optimism that a deal would be clinched over the weekend, but finalizing a framework accord struck in April has proved difficult, with talks stumbling on the exact timing of sanctions relief and Iran's desire to have a U.N. conventional arms embargo lifted. Such an accord, if it can be agreed, approved and implemented properly -- which is also no small challenge -- would draw a line under 13 years of failed diplomacy and threats of military action.
In return Iran will be granted staggered relief from painful sanctions, although the six powers insist on the option of reimposing the restrictions if Tehran breaches the agreement. The current diplomatic effort dates back to Rouhani coming to power in 2013.
He sought a rapprochement with the West and an end to his country's diplomatic and economic isolation.The prospect of a thawing of relations between Iran and the United States unsettles many in the Middle East, however, not least Tehran's rivals Saudi Arabia and other Gulf monarchies. Israel, widely assumed to have nuclear weapons itself, is also deeply concerned, complaining that the proposed deal will fail to stop its arch foe getting the bomb. "We are heading toward a bad deal, and in the period after it we will of course have to continue preparing to protect ourselves on our own," Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon said on Monday. "It naturally contains implications on other states which perceive this situation as a threat, neighboring states that are talking about their need to be armed, which could start a regional nuclear armament race," he said. US Secretary of State John Kerry huddled with the rest of the P5+1 for fresh talks on Monday morning. When asked whether the deadline might be pushed back again, he did not reply.
Speaking in Brussels, French President Francois Hollande said the negotiations were picking up pace. "We are not necessarily very far" from an agreement but that "does not mean we are there yet," he said. The deal, if it can be sealed, will however prove a "hard sell" in the U.S. Congress, top Republican Mitch McConnell said in an interview broadcast Sunday. But Kelsey Davenport, Arms Control Association analyst, said she does not expect the Republicans to be able to scupper what would be President Barack Obama's biggest foreign policy achievement. "If the administration presents a good deal that blocks Iran's pathways to nuclear weapons and puts in place intrusive monitoring it should garner enough support from Congress to ensure implementation," Davenport told AFP.

Greece Seals New Bailout Deal to Avoid Euro Exit
Agence France Presse/Nanarnet/13 July/15/
Greece reached a desperately-needed bailout deal with the eurozone on Monday after marathon overnight talks, in a historic agreement to prevent the country crashing out of the European single currency. Leftist Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras agreed to tough reforms after 17 hours of gruelling negotiations in return for a three-year bailout worth up to 86 billion euros ($96 billion), Greece's third rescue program in five years. "EuroSummit has unanimously reached agreement," EU President Donald Tusk said. "All ready to go for ESM (eurozone bailout fund the European Stability Mechanism) program for Greece with serious reforms and financial support." The new rescue for Athens is the country's third since 2010 and came after a bitter six-month struggle following Tsipras's election in January that put Greece's membership of the eurozone in the balance. Greek banks have been closed for nearly two weeks and there were fears they were about to run dry due to a lack of extra funding by the European Central Bank, meaning Athens would have had to print its own currency and effectively leave the single currency. "Grexit has gone," European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker told AFP, ruling out the threat of Greece leaving the single currency, which could potentially destablise not only the euro but the world economy. Tsipras insisted the deal was good for Greece despite the fact that the harsh terms were near identical to those rejected by Greeks in a referendum just one week ago. "We fought a righteous battle to the end," a smiling Tsipras said as he left the talks, adding that despite the deal's harshness the "great majority of Greek people will support this effort." Asian markets rose on news of the debt deal, after a torrid few weeks while traders waited for an accord.
'Long, difficult road'
The austerity-pushing German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Europe's most powerful leader, said the situation for Athens however remained daunting, with success not guaranteed. "The road will be long, and judging by the negotiations tonight, difficult," Merkel told reporters.
Europe's first step will be to push the deal through several national parliaments, many in countries that are loath to afford Greece more help. Athens will now have to rush through new tough reform laws by Wednesday, according to the document agreed on by Tsipras and his eurozone counterparts. Greece has to introduce harsh conditions on labour reform and pensions, VAT and taxes, and measures on privatisation, it added. Under the agreement it will also park assets for privatisation worth up to 50 billion euros ($56 billion) in a special fund. The money in that fund will then be used to recapitalise Greece's cash-starved banks. Greece applied last week for a third programme after its previous bailout expired on June 30, leaving it without international financial assistance for the first time in years. Athens had infuriated its creditors -- the European Commission, ECB and IMF -- with its actions, including the surprise referendum on terms offered by the three institutions. The Greek parliament approved new reform plans drawn up by the government in the early hours of Saturday, despite them being similar to those rejected by Greeks in the plebiscite. A Greek government official had earlier said the terms offered by eurozone leaders were "very bad", amid concerns they would effectively take control of much of Greek finances away from Athens.
Franco-German rift
Tsipras was elected in January vowing to end five years of austerity tied to two previous bailouts since 2010. The 40-year-old has become a standard-bearer for leftist parties across the continent who say the austerity policies championed by Brussels undercut growth and cause massive unemployment. For the first time in the history of the single currency, the Eurogroup even proposed a temporary Greek exit from the euro, an idea first floated by Germany, but the idea was dropped from the final document amid opposition from France.
The crisis has exposed tensions between the eurozone's two biggest powers with pro-austerity Berlin going head-to-head with Paris, which has been supportive of Greece during the crisis. Five years have elapsed since the Greek debt drama began, but the latest installment has opened deeper-than-ever rifts in the European single currency, the heart of the post-war dream of a politically unified Europe. In Greece, there is growing alarm at capital controls that have closed banks and rationed cash at ATMs for nearly two weeks, leading to fears that food and medicine will soon run short. "We don't sleep, everybody's worried," a Greek pensioner said, watching with concern the events taking place thousands of kilometers (miles) away in Brussels. The ECB is providing emergency liquidity to keep Greek banks afloat but has frozen the limit, with any change dependent on a debt deal. Agence France Presse

Iraqi Forces in Renewed Anti-IS Push in Eastern Anbar
Agence France Presse/Nanarnet/13 July/15/Iraqi forces retook two villages in Anbar on Monday as part of their operations against the Islamic State group in the western province, security officials said. "The security forces were able to advance and liberate the areas of Albu Shijil and Shiha near Khaldiyah, between Saqlawiya and Ramadi," an army lieutenant colonel said. He said the operation was made possible by the fact that anti-IS forces had trapped the jihadists inside their stronghold of Fallujah, further east. A top official from the Khaldiyah area, Ibrahim al-Fahdawi, confirmed the liberation of the two villages in the Euphrates Valley. Iraq's joint operations command trumpeted the launch of "operations to liberate Anbar" at 5:00 am (0200 GMT) but provided few details. "Your armed forces, Hashed al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization), special operations (forces), federal police and tribesmen, are engaging in the liberation operations and advancing towards the set targets," a statement said. Hashed al-Shaabi said its forces were advancing northeast of Fallujah, an IS bastion which has escaped government control since early 2014 and where U.S. troops faced the toughest battles of their eight-year occupation. Iraqi security forces, Shiite militiamen and Sunni tribesmen have been fighting IS around Fallujah and Ramadi for months. Operations to liberate Anbar, the vast western Iraqi province which is largely controlled by IS, have been previously announced. The last one was proclaimed in the immediate aftermath of the shock capture by the jihadists of the provincial capital Ramadi in mid-May.
The government had to call in the Hashed al-Shaabi, an umbrella organization whose main components are Tehran-backed Shiite militias, to supplement its own under-performing forces. The army and the Hashed have sent conflicting messages as to whether Ramadi or Fallujah should be the first target of their efforts in Anbar. Agence France Presse

U.N. Says at Least 15,000 Civilians Killed in Iraq War
Agence France Presse/Nanarnet/13 July/15/At least 15,000 civilians have been killed and twice as many wounded in Iraq's armed conflict since the start of 2014, the United Nations said in a report Monday. The world body's mission in Iraq published the figure in the latest installment of its "Report on the Protection of Civilians in the Armed Conflict in Iraq." The U.N. "recorded at least 44,136 civilian casualties (14,947 killed and 29,189 wounded) as a result of the non-international armed conflict in Iraq." The report says the figure, which runs up to the end of April 2015, only accounts for casualties it was able to verify and acknowledges the real toll may be much higher. There are no official figures but thousands of fighters from the Islamic State jihadist group and from the Iraqi forces battling it have also died over the same period. The conflict began when jihadist fighters took over parts of the Anbar province in early 2014. It spread when IS launched a devastating offensive on June 9 last year, taking Iraq's second city of Mosul and large parts of the country. According to the International Organization for Migration, more than three million Iraqis have been displaced since the start of the armed conflict. Agence France Presse

13 Dead in Syria Regime Raids on IS-Held Town in Aleppo
Agence France Presse/Nanarnet/13 July/15/At least 13 people, among them a child, were killed in Syrian government raids on the Islamic State group-held town of Al-Bab on Monday, a monitor said. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said seven women were among those killed in raids using explosive barrel bombs on the town in northern Aleppo province. One of the places hit in Al-Bab was a market selling petrol, the Britain-based monitor said. More than 40 people were wounded and 10 others were still missing after the raids.The Local Coordination Committees activist network said charred bodies were recovered from the site of one of the strikes. On Saturday, 34 people, most of them civilians and among them three children, were killed in similar regime strikes on Al-Bab.
Syria's army has regularly targeted Al-Bab, which has been held by IS since early 2014, but the town has also been hit on occasion by U.S.-led air strikes. The Syrian government forces have been repeatedly accused of indiscriminately using barrel bombs on civilian areas. The regime denies deploying the weapons. The bombs are crudely constructed from weapons fashioned from barrels and other vessels such as gas cylinders packed with explosives and scraps of metal. But the bombs used by the army on Saturday and Monday were reportedly even larger than the regular barrel bombs. Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman described them as "container bombs" and said they were "three times more powerful" than barrel bombs. Agence France Presse

First Batch of U.S. F-16 Jets Delivered to Iraq
Agence France Presse/Nanarnet/13 July/15/
Four U.S. F-16 warplanes landed in Iraq on Monday, the first batch of a much-delayed delivery aimed at boosting the ailing Iraqi military's capacity, the defense ministry said. "Arrival of four F-16s at Balad air base," read a flash on the ministry's website, in an announcement also confirmed to AFP by the prime minister's office. Brett McGurk, U.S. President Barack Obama's deputy envoy for the international coalition against the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group, also confirmed the jets had arrived. "After years of preparation & training in the U.S., Iraqi pilots today landed the 1st squadron of Iraqi F16s in #Iraq," he said on social media. The delivery had most recently been delayed over security concerns at Balad, which lies about 70 kilometers (45 miles) north of Baghdad. IS fighters were still battling government forces not far from Balad earlier this year, which was deemed to make it unsafe for the U.S. contractors hired to maintain the jets. Iraq has ordered a total of 36 F-16 war planes from the U.S. but the delivery has been slow and reinforcements to its air force when IS threatened to take over the country last year came from Russia and Iran in the form of Sukhoi jets. An Iraqi pilot was killed when he crashed his F-16 during training in Arizona last month. The more sophisticated F-16 planes received on Monday are expected to enhance the Iraqi air force's capacity but, with foreign aircraft also taking on IS since last year, the delivery is not seen as a game-changer in the war against IS. Strikes are carried out on a daily basis by members of the international coalition against IS, most of them by U.S. planes. France and its Rafale fighters are also contributing to the air campaign, which has seen more than 5,200 strikes since early August 2014. An Iraqi Sukhoi jet killed eight civilians in a Baghdad neighborhood on July 6 when it accidentally dropped a bomb that had become stuck while returning to base. Agence France Presse

Michelle Obama's cousin to serve as first ‘black chief rabbi’
By JTA/J.Post/07/13/2015/Rabbi Capers Funnye of Chicago was nominated to become what an international organization is calling the first “black chief rabbi” of the 21st century. A statement from the International Israelite Board of Rabbis declared that Funnye would serve as the “titular head of a worldwide community of Black Jews.” Along with the United States, the community has branches in the Caribbean, South Africa, Uganda and Nigeria. Funnye, a cousin of first lady Michelle Obama, is expected to officially assume his duties in the fall. His nomination was unanimous; Funnye ran unopposed. The position has been vacant since the 1999 death of Rabbi Levi ben Levy. Funnye is the spiritual leader of the Beth Shalom Bnai Zaken Ethiopian Hebrew Congregation and the only black rabbi on the Chicago Board of Rabbis. He was ordained by the Israelite Rabbinical Academy in New York and not by one of the mainstream Jewish branches. Rabbi Capers FunyeRabbi Capers Funye His goal as chief rabbi is to build closer ties with the Ethiopian Jewish community that was transplanted to Israel, the International Israelite Board said in its statement. The Black Hebrew Israelites are not recognized as Jews by the mainstream Jewish community. Funnye converted to Judaism, the Chicago Tribune reported.
Funnye has traveled to Israel to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

UAE executes woman over U.S. teacher’s murder
By Staff writer | Al Arabiya News/Monday, 13 July 2015/An Emirati woman was executed on Monday after being found guilty in the jihadist-inspired murder of an American teacher in Abu Dhabi last December, Al Arabiya News Channel reported. The UAE Supreme Court last month found Alaa Bader al-Hashemi guilty of stabbing to death teacher Ibolya Ryan, 47, in a shopping mall toilet, as well as “creating a handmade bomb” she placed in front of an Egyptian-American doctor's home. The ruling was made by the Federal Supreme Court in Abu Dhabi, which meant it could not be appealed. The attacks took place within hours of each other in the UAE capital on December 1. Hashemi was arrested by Abu Dhabi CID during a raid at her home three days after the incident. Hashemi “was also found guilty of sending money to Al-Qaeda in Yemen, knowing the funds would be used in terrorist acts,” a report in Abu Dhabi-based newspaper The National said. Hashemi, surrounded by four police officers, “showed no emotion as the verdict and sentence were announced,” the daily said. “As she was led from court she smiled and waved at her father and brother, who were in court to witness the proceedings.”International media have been denied access to her trial, which began in March. Hashemi had asked the court to provide her with psychological help, saying she had “unreal visions” and would see “ghost-like people” due to a chronic mental illness. The court ordered psychiatric tests which it said showed she was aware of her actions.

Iraqi operation to retake Anbar province underway
Reuters, Baghdad/Monday, 13 July 2015/Iraqi troops backed by mainly Shi'ite Muslim militias launched military operations on Monday to recapture the country's largest province Anbar from ISIS militants, a military statement broadcast on state television said.The announcement of the offensive comes two months after ISIS militants seized Anbar's capital Ramadi, extending their control over the Sunni Muslim province west of Baghdad. "At 5 o'clock this morning operations to liberate Anbar were launched," said a joint military command statement read out on state television.It said the offensive was being carried out by the army, mainly Shi'ite militia known as Hashid Shaabi (Popular Mobilisation) units, special forces, police and local Sunni Muslim tribal fighters. The statement gave no other details, but military officers and Hashid Shaabi commanders have said the initial target will be the city of Falluja, about 50 km (30 miles) west of Baghdad. Hadi al-Ameri, commander of the largest Shi'ite force, the Badr Organisation, told Iraqi television on Sunday he expected the main assault on Falluja to take place after the Eid holiday at the end of Ramadan, later this week. Residents in Falluja and Ramadi reported heavy bombardment of both cities early on Monday. Security sources said ISIS insurgents also fired rockets and launched several vehicle bombs against army positions.

Cameron urges more spending on ISIS threat
Reuters, London/Monday, 13 July 2015/Britain should spend more of its defense budget on spy planes, drones and special forces to counter militants and Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), Prime Minister David Cameron will say on Monday.The government said last week it would meet NATO's defense spending pledge of two percent of gross domestic product (GDP) for the next five years, which would boost budgets to 47.7 billion pounds ($74 billion) a year by 2020. "I have tasked the Defense and Security chiefs to look specifically at how we do more to counter the threat posed by ISIS and Islamist extremism," Cameron will say, according to excerpts from his speech. "This could include more spy planes, drones and special forces. In the last five years, I have seen just how vital these assets are in keeping us safe."Britain's defense chiefs will conclude a security review later this year. Separately, Cameron has invited Harriet Harman, the acting leader of the opposition Labour party, and its defence secretary Vernon Coaker to a National Security Council meeting on Tuesday to discuss the threat posed by ISIS.It would mark the first time an opposition leader has attended such a meeting since 2013, and comes as the government considers whether it should do more to counter ISIS, including possible air strikes in Syria.
"The Prime Minister thought it was important to ensure the leader of the opposition was fully briefed on the current situation," a spokesman said.

ISIS says Afghanistan leader still alive
Reuters, Kabul/Monday, 13 July 2015/The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) on Monday released an audio tape it said was of the movement's leader for Afghanistan, contradicting reports that he was killed in a U.S. drone strike.The message purportedly from Hafez Saeed was posted to an ISIS website two days after the Afghan intelligence agency said he had been killed. The audio could not be independently verified. Saeed, a Pakistani, was reportedly killed in the Achin district of Nangarhar province late on Friday, the intelligence agency said. Saeed switched allegiance last year from the Taliban to ISIS in Afghanistan. ISIS figures have been targets for U.S drone strikes, which killed three other ISIS commanders in the same area in a week, including Shahidullah Shahid and Gul Zaman. After pushing out the Taliban insurgents, ISIS fighters have in the past two months gained ground in several districts of Nangarhar province, which shares a long and porous border with lawless areas inside Pakistan.

Miss USA crowned amid Donald Trump storm
AFP, Washington/Monday, 13 July 2015/With flashes of flesh and impressive resumes, Miss USA was crowned Sunday, after the pageant was shunned by major networks following controversial comments on Mexican immigrants by presidential candidate Donald Trump.
Miss Oklahoma, Olivia Jordan, took top honors at the contest, which is co-owned by Trump and came under fire after his controversial claim that Mexico was sending criminals to the United States. Broadcaster NBC and Spanish-language Univision both said they would not air the show and a co-host pulled out, but the pageant went forward and included numerous contestants with ties to Mexico. While the question of immigration and Trump’s comments never came up on stage, the competitors nonetheless faced questions on topical issues. For one of her winning questions, Jordan said race relations is the number one issue America still needs to tackle. “We really need to work on being an accepting society, and being a society where every single person -- no matter your race, no matter your gender -- is given the same rights and privileges and opportunities,” the model said at the show in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Women with careers ranging from modeling to law strutted in bikinis and gowns, and answered questions as the glamorous squad was whittled down to one.
Miss USA aired on the cable channel Reelz after NBC and Univision cut ties with Trump. The billionaire business magnate sparked a firestorm over his comments, saying Mexico was “sending people that have lots of problems... They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists.” “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best,” the Republican White House hopeful said on June 16. Trump did not attend the pageant, tweeting that he was busy campaigning in Arizona. Several companies and countries have decried Trump over the comments. Costa Rica pulled out of the Miss Universe competition following the remarks, and said they would not be sending their contestant to the international pageant. But Trump’s voluble and unfiltered style has won him a surge of support amid a chaotic Republican field with few frontrunners. While the mogul’s business interests have taken a hit, his political profile has soared. He is polling as the number two contender in the party’s showdown for the 2016 election.

Arab-led strikes, Houthi clashes continue in Yemen
Al Arabiya News, AFP/Monday, 13 July 2015/Arab-led warplanes bombed Yemeni Houthi militias who clashed with pro-government fighters in the south on Sunday. The coalition air raids targeted positions of the Iran-backed militias and their allies, forces loyal to deposed President Ali Abdullah Saleh, in Aden and Lahj provinces. Earlier this week, the Arab-led coalition said it did not receive a request from Hadi's government to halt attacks, amid U.N. calls for a truce to take effect. The leader of the Houthi militia said he did not expect the truce to take hold. Air strikes hit rebel positions on the outskirts of the port city of Aden as well as a convoy in the city's neighbourhood of Khor Maksar, a military source told Agence France-Presse. Meanwhile, clashes intensified in Aden, where rebels have laid siege to many areas that are controlled by southern fighters loyal to Hadi and known as the Popular Resistance. The southern fighters managed to push back the rebels in the coastal Ras Amran area, west of Aden, according to General Fadhel Hasan, a spokesman for the Popular Resistance. The fighting left 17 gunmen dead, including 11 militias, according to Hasan, who said the southern fighters have "received sophisticated weapons from the coalition". Three air raids struck Al-Anad air base which is controlled by rebel forces in Lahj, north of Aden, another military source told AFP. After the Houthis overran Sanaa unopposed in September, they went on to seize control of several regions, and advanced on Aden where Hadi had taken refuge after escaping house arrest. (With AFP)

Three leaders of Tunisian al-Qaeda-linked group killed
AFP, Tunis/Monday, 13 July 2015/Three leaders of an al-Qaeda-linked jihadist group that has been blamed for a spate of violence in Tunisia were killed in a raid by security forces last week, the country’s interior minister said on Sunday. “The operation carried out on Friday by our security forces in cooperation with the army in the region of Gafsa resulted in the elimination of five dangerous terrorists, including three senior leaders” of the Okba Ibn Nafaa Brigades, Najem Gharsalli told a news conference. The three were named as Tunisian nationals Mourad Gharsalli and Hakim Hazi, and Algerian national Lounis Abou Fath. The other two people killed have not yet been identified. A Tunisian government spokesman had previously announced Mourad Gharsalli’s death on Saturday. Abou Fath had been wanted by Algerian authorities since 1994, Tunisia’s interior minister said. Authorities have blamed the Okba Ibn Nafaa Brigades, Tunisia’s main militant 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, however. 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.

Turkey PM to launch coalition talks
AFP, Ankara/Monday, 13 July 2015/Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu is due to begin coalition talks on Monday with the second-placed CHP party after last month’s elections where his ruling party lost its overall majority. Davutoglu’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) failed to secure enough votes in the June 7 elections to form a government alone, for the first time since it came to power in 2002. The AKP has 258 seats in the new parliament, the Republican People’s Party (CHP) 132, and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP) hold 80 apiece. Davutoglu will meet this week with each of the three other parties in parliament, but no agreement is expected this week during the Eid feast marking the end of holy Muslim month of Ramadan. On Monday, he will hold talks with CHP leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu at 1100 GMT at the CHP headquarters in the capital Ankara. A coalition between the AKP and the nationalist MHP is seen by far the most likely option because both parties share a core conservative voter base in the centre of the country. Both AKP and HDP have excluded joining forces. If efforts to form a coalition within the constitutional limit of 45 days are unsuccessful, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan can call snap elections within 45 days. Erdogan’s authority is one of the tricky issues in coalition negotiations because opposition parties are contesting his broad presidential powers. Davutoglu said discussing Erdogan’s authority was out of the question. “Bringing our president’s legitimacy or prestige into question right now would sabotage coalition talks from the first,” Davutoglu told the Hurriyet newspaper. The June election was a blow not only to the AKP’s authority but also to Erdogan, who had been hoping the new parliament would agree on a new constitution to increase his powers.

Gunmen hold up store with some 10 people inside near Paris
By AFP | Paris/Monday, 13 July 2015/Gunmen were holed up inside a Primark store near Paris Monday with about 10 people inside after what appears to be an attempt to rob the shop, police said, adding that special forces had been dispatched to the scene. "Around 6:30 am (0530 GMT), two or three armed criminals went into the Primark store for what we think was initially an attempt at armed robbery," a police source, who wished to remain anonymous, said of the incident at Villeneuve-la-Garenne. Another police source said an employee first alerted her boyfriend of the hold-up around 7 am when she sent him a text message saying they had been taken hostage by two armed men. Police have stopped all traffic in the area around the Qwartz mall where the Primark store is located, and all other shops in the vicinity have closed up.

Ya'alon on 'bad deal' with Iran: Israel must be prepared to defend itself
By LAHAV HARKOV/J.Post/07/13/2015 /The World Powers' deal with Iran is a bad one, ignoring that Tehran continues to develop long-range missiles and sponsor terrorism, Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon said at the opening of a Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee meeting Monday. "Even if there are some last-minute improvements, the agreement as we understand it is bad, allowing Iran to legitimately be a nuclear threshold state, with all that implies," Ya'alon said. The defense minister warned that the agreement could spark an arms race in the Middle East, saying that Saudi Arabian, Egyptian and Turkish officials have talked about the need to arm their countries. Ya'alon focused on the many defense issues the expected agreement ignores, calling it "full of holes." "This agreement will not lead to the closing of nuclear site or to the destruction of one centrifuge," he stated. "It somewhat limits the pace of uranium enrichment, but it leaves a lot of holes, like what the military can use and what kind of supervision there will be from now on." The defense minister also pointed out that long-range missiles were not discussed. He said Iran is already capable of striking Israel and all of Europe, and that Tehran plans to develop missiles that can reach the east coast of the US. "What concerns us every day is Iran's terrorist activity against us, through arming Hezbollah and funding Hamas and Islamic Jihad and giving them information to develop weapons, and their attempt to open a terrorist front against us in the Golan," he said. Ya'alon said Iran is undermining other states in the region, like Yemen, where it backed the Houthis, impacting Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern states, while the talks were ongoing, but that was not mentioned, either. "After the agreement, we'll have Iran on the nuclear threshold and continuing to sponsor terrorism. Iran is mostly concerned with when and how sanctions will be removed. When they have more money to pay for these activities, Iran will be a greater threat not only to Israel but to the whole world," he added. Ya'alon concluded that "the bottom line is, a bad deal is coming, and after it, we will have to be prepared to defend ourselves on our own."

Israel warns of Iran's 'tricks and shticks' ahead of deal
Attila Somfalvi/Yoav Zitun/Ynetnews/Latest Update: 07.13.15 / Israel News /Nuclear deal expected to be signed in Vienna on Monday amid Israeli concerns of 'inconceivably dangerous' deal led by 'amateur' Western negotiators. After a grueling political marathon of negotiations, Iran and the P5+1 were reportedly close to striking a historic deal to end the Iran nuclear crisis. It is slated to be signed in Vienna on Monday. Meanwhile, an Israeli security source warned against Iran's "tricks and shticks" that he said would surely follow the "inconceivably dangerous" deal. "The West is leading problematic negotiations that will result in failure," said the source. "They have all the tools and capabilities to lead Iran down the correct path. "Iran entered negotiations at a disadvantage, economically strangled and desperate for an agreement. Instead of pushing them further, leading to the total freeze of the nuclear program, without tricks and shticks, the West acted like amateurs and gave Iran a gift."Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon also criticized the impending deal, calling it a "historic mistake" filled with "unprecedented concessions." According to Ya'alon, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Turkey would all feel an urgent need to develop their own nuclear options as a result of the impending agreement. French media reports cited one Iranian official claiming that 99 percent of the 100-page agreement had been completed, paving the way for the foreign ministers' signatures on Monday. According to the official, negotiators had yet to agree on the expiration date of the agreement and precise dates to end sanctions on Iran. **Moran Azulay contributed to this report.

State indicts Druse involved in alleged attack of ambulance carrying wounded Syrians
By YONAH JEREMY BOB, BEN HARTMAN, ARIEL BEN SOLOMON /J.Post/07/13/2015/The Haifa District Attorney's Office on Monday filed an indictment against Kamal Amar, 22, and Yusef Sarif, 54, of the Druse village of Hurfeish for an alleged June 22 attack on an IDF ambulance carrying wounded Syrians in an attempt to block the state from potentially helping Syrian rebels. The two were charged with endangering lives on a through-way. According to the indictment, the ambulance left with an IDF reserve doctor and four IDF soldiers transporting two wounded Syrians from the Filon military base near Safed to the Nahriya Hospital around 1:00 a.m. Around 1:30 a.m., the ambulance reached Sultan Basha intersection in Hurfeish in the Northern Galilee where the incident occurred.
Northern District police said the villagers threw stones at the ambulance and that as the vehicle fled the scene it was chased by two carloads of locals, but that the crew of the ambulance managed to arrive safely at the police station in Ma’alot. The ambulance was then given a police escort to the Western Galilee Hospital in Nahariya.

Preparing for the fallout from Iran’s nuclear deal
Sharif Nashashibi/Al Arabiya
Monday, 13 July 2015
Whether a deal over Iran’s nuclear program is reached by the extended deadline of Monday or at a later date, the regional repercussions will be huge. An agreement would improve relations between Tehran and Western powers, particularly its arch-foe the United States, though there would still be longstanding sources of friction beyond the nuclear issue. The saber-rattling between Iran and Israel is likely to escalate in light of the latter’s vehement opposition to the nuclear negotiations. However, the biggest regional fallout will be felt with regard to relations between Tehran and Riyadh, which are currently facing off in proxy wars to a greater extent and on more fronts than is the case with Israeli-Iranian rivalry. The escalation and widening of Saudi-Iranian rivalry in recent years may pale in comparison with what will follow a nuclear deal and Tehran’s subsequent rehabilitation A nuclear deal would entail the lifting of wide-ranging sanctions imposed on Iran, which would boost its economy and military. This would enable it to more forcefully flex its regional muscle, particularly in the Arab states and conflicts where it is most involved: primarily Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, and to a lesser extent Yemen. Tehran’s involvement could thus be prolonged and deepened. Saudi Arabia has made it clear that it will not stand idly by, with Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir reiterating just four days before the deadline for nuclear negotiations that his country “is working to confront Iran’s trouble-making activities in the region. We are determined that Iran should not have a negative intervention in the region or in Arab countries.”
Riyadh has already shown such determination recently by increasing material support for Syrian rebels – contributing to a string of battlefield gains – as well its military campaign against Iran’s allies in Yemen. Tehran in turn has become more entrenched in Iraq and Syria, and increasingly boastful about the expansion of its regional influence and of its Islamic revolution.
Escalation
However, the escalation and widening of Saudi-Iranian rivalry in recent years may pale in comparison with what will follow a nuclear deal and Tehran’s subsequent rehabilitation. In their war of words and in their actions, including increased military expenditure, both sides seem to be gearing up for such a development. Riyadh has sought to consolidate its regional influence to offset Tehran’s, which has been on the ascendance since the U.S.-led invasion and occupation of neighboring Iraq. Saudi Arabia is combining its traditional use of soft power (diplomatic and economic) with a greater willingness - particularly under its new monarch - to resort to hard, military power. To varying extents, it can count on the support of most Arab governments (with the exceptions of Syria, Iraq and Lebanon), including those of the wealthy Gulf states, and of geo-strategically important countries such as Egypt and Jordan. This is evidenced by the speed with which Riyadh was able to put together an Arab coalition against its opponents in the Yemen conflict. In the week prior to the nuclear-negotiations deadline alone, Jubeir held talks with Jordanian officials, and Saudi King Salman met with Qatar’s emir. Riyadh’s regional outreach is likely to intensify further. Saudi policies vis-à-vis the Middle East’s conflicts, as well as efforts to form a pan-Arab military force, suggest efforts to chart a course more independent from the United States. Washington’s negotiations with Iran, its reluctance to adequately support Syrian rebels, and its cooperation with Tehran in Iraq have angered Riyadh, which has grown more vocal in its frustrations. A central Saudi concern is that a nuclear deal will soften U.S. (and more generally Western) opposition to Iran’s regional footprint. A sense of patriotism will afford Tehran domestic support for its foreign policies, particularly when framed in terms of safeguarding the country from jihadists, imperialists and other aggressors. However, it is uncertain to what extent Iranians will be willing to see their resuscitated economy used to pay for costly, long-term military ventures abroad, and to perpetually prop up foreign allies, at the expense of much-needed internal development.

What should be at the core of Egypt’s counter-terror strategy?
H.A. Hellyer/Al Arabiya/Monday, 13 July 2015
Last week, the UK marked the 10th anniversary of the July 7 bombings in London. In a few more weeks, the U.S. will mark the 14th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. The attack that saw the “War on Terror” begin. Earlier this week, Cairo saw a massive explosion in the center of Egypt’s capital, directed at the Italian consulate, and claimed by ISIS afterwards. It won’t start a new “War on Terror” because Cairo’s establishment declared that in 2013. It seems some lessons are never learned. I was at that same consulate some months back. The same complex houses an old Italian restaurant, where a lovely couple I knew were offering farewells to friends and colleagues as they set off on a new adventure on other shores. That’s a common occurrence in Cairo, nowadays – the days where Cairo was the exciting and attractive destination for foreign analysts and journalists are gone, at least for now. In the aftermath of the calamitous attack in northern Sinai earlier this month, many public figures in the country were openly clamoring for a deepening of the “War on Terror” narrative
The day of the bombing itself reminded me precisely why that is the case. Of course, the security quotient that means a bomb of that magnitude can go off in downtown Cairo is hardly an appealing one for foreigners who want to visit and live in this historic city. Although, thankfully, the loss of life and limb was minimal – yes, we’ve sadly come to the point where we widely think one dead and around a dozen injured is supposedly “minimal” because, frankly, anyone who really analyses Egyptian affairs on a regular basis knows that it could have been far, far worse.
Dark comedic response
But beyond that security threat, which impacts upon all residents of Egypt, native and visitor alike, was exemplified by the dark comedic response that took place right after the attack. A number of foreign journalists descended to the scene, as journalists do, in order to investigate, cover and report – i.e., to do their jobs. Four of them were detained, and state TV reported them as having been detained as “suspects.” They were released some time later – but the very fact they were detained, and that a national television station would report them being detained as “suspects” is part and parcel of why so many foreign journalists feel they’re unwelcome in Cairo nowadays. Certainly, the Egyptian state isn’t giving them many reasons to feel otherwise and there are new signs that foreign journalists are coming under even closer scrutiny. A Spanish journalist, for example, reported he’d received information from his country’s security services that he ought not to remain in Cairo, that he was at risk of being arrested. An Egyptian newspaper reported earlier this week that the government’s State Information Service recently created a new outfit called “Fact Check Egypt,” designed to check up on foreign journalists when they report, at least according to the SIS, inaccurate information. Considering the large amounts of inaccuracy that is regularly reported from local and national media, one hopes that will be the bulk of the reportage this new group focuses on – but that seems a bit dubious. Of course, if the exodus of foreign reporters to other capitals in the region continues, “Fact Check Egypt” may be rather bored. As I think back to the farewell party I attended in the Italian restaurant on the consulate grounds those few moons ago, I wonder – how many more are going to happen in the weeks and months ahead in Cairo?
Not unique
Egypt isn’t unique in this regard, it ought to be noted. I was in England during the July 7 bombings, and I’ve worked in the U.S. with an establishment that was reacting to the 9/11 attacks. I’d like to think in the UK, we responded with more calm and composure than what happened in the U.S. But ten years later, in both countries, civil rights groups and human rights defenders seem convinced that the response to this type of militant and violent extremism could have been better and that there are lasting repercussions to our societies as a result.
After the July 7 bombings, I wrote in a letter to the Times that the successful upholding of fundamental rights would be a victory against those who sought to terrorize us into changing our way of life – and that to do otherwise would be to grant them a victory. In Egypt, many would argue that such a Rubicon has long been passed. A new raft of counter-terrorism legislation is in the works at the cabinet level in Cairo – but even without it, Egypt’s “War on Terror” has already tremendously changed the nature of life in the country. In the aftermath of the calamitous attack in northern Sinai earlier this month, many public figures in the country were openly clamoring for a deepening of the “War on Terror” narrative – rather than revert to a narrative where the Egyptian authorities fight militant extremism but safeguard all fundamental rights simultaneously. Despite the international condemnation, and the denunciation of many rights organizations in the country of the state of Egypt’s judicial processes, these figures wanted reforms that would speed up the conclusion of trials, rather than reforms that would ensure and shore up their integrity. That’s not a recipe for a successful counter-terrorism strategy – it’s only a recipe for diminishing respect for the Egyptian judiciary, and breaking it utterly in the long-term. The Italian foreign minister is in Cairo today. His prime minister has already said he stands with the Egyptian administration in its self-declared fight against terrorism. One hopes that Cairo’s allies recognize that any counter-terrorism strategy cannot treat fundamental rights as a nuisance but rather that it is a core part of any successful strategy. Italians ought to remember all too well that when an ultra-nationalist discourse gets mainstreamed, it’s bad news all around.

Where will the Arab World be 15 years from now?
Khaled Almaeena/Al Arabiya/Monday, 13 July 2015
The modern Middle East is passing through one of the most turbulent periods in its history. Bloodshed, internecine conflicts, absence of state actors and no moral authority have all contributed to the total chaos that has made the most optimistic well-wisher of the Arabs plunge into the depths of despair. We are in 2015. How will the Middle East look in 2030 asked an American analyst. Well it all depends on various socio-economic factors. And these depend on the political situation in the area. For without stability and security there can be no progress or development. In order to survive and to be viable, the Arabs have to do some serious thinking and ask themselves: Are there leaders up to the task of good governance?
This is something we have to look into seriously. The factors that will decide our fate will be population control, oil prices, alternative energy and water and food security.
A better future
If we are semi-independent in addressing these issues we can be hopeful for a better future. It would be disastrous if we end up with bands of jobless young men roaming around to be easily picked up by some future murderous cult.
On a larger note, the Middle East including Egypt and the Levant, which are connected to the Israel-Palestine conflict, will still remain key players and can act as partners in a peace process. Any further delay in a peace process will deprive the area of stability and usher further chaos that the people of the region have had enough of. Meanwhile, to solve their problems the Arabs will have to travel alone. Too much focus on the United States will get us nowhere as their grand strategy is to move towards South East Asia where it will increase its involvement because of economic gains. Therefore in order to survive and to be viable the Arabs have to do some serious thinking and ask themselves: Are there leaders up to the task of good governance? Can they erase at least some of the ills like sectarianism, corruption and injustice? Can they defend themselves locally without running to Uncle Sam for a nuclear deterrence? They should not forget that nuclear weapons are firmly intertwined with conventional weapons. Can there be at least a GCC command and control system for its defense forces? Will the West allow the Arabs to independently develop a peaceful nuclear program? Strategic deterrence in the Middle East can be assured more so by equality in conventional weapons vis-a-vis Israel and by a strong alliance. The U.S. is not expected to be an ally because of its heavy pro-Israel tilt. We Arabs should realize this once and for all. And so to be prepared for the future we need to depend on ourselves and find the right partners and the political framework to ensure our existence.
Let Arab strategists prepare from now.

How Arabs will face a rising Iran
Raghida Dergham/Al Arabiya/Monday, 13 July 2015
What style of Iranian rule will be born in the wake of the prospective nuclear deal that might be concluded soon, unless it fails at the 11th hour? Will it unleash a golden age for the Islamic Republic of Iran with hundreds of billions of dollars in cash flows and install Iran as a very successful regional power, as President Obama said? Will the moderate camp in Iran be able to deliver radical changes in the policies of the Islamic Republic in the region, for Iran to act as a rational, wise, and constructive regional power? Or will the hardliner camp fill its pockets with billions of dollars and proceed to implement their project for regional domination, control Iraq and prop-up Bashar al-Assad in Syria, not to mention sabotage Yemen and control Lebanon though Hezbollah? The decision will be Iranian primarily, whether the moderate camp wins or the extremist camp wins, or in the event the two factions play a good cop/bad cop routine. However, the six countries pushing for a historical deal with the Islamic Republic of Iran are responsible too for what the Iranian role in the Middle East will be like – constructive or destabilizing. These countries caved in when Tehran insisted on removing any discussion of its regional roles from the nuclear talks.
It is time for a Gulf strategy based on regional restraint, with new plans and a new roadmap for Syria, Yemen, Iraq, and even Lebanon
The six powers thus agreed to forfeit their pressure cards to counter Iranian regional meddling, while being fully aware that lifting the sanctions on Iran would bring between 100 and 150 billion dollars that would enable Tehran to upgrade its military capabilities and allow the camp in favor of Iranian regional domination to impose their plans on Arab countries. No one is oblivious of what is going to happen in the Middle East if the U.S. president does not make quick decisions concerning the region. However, the U.S. president is not the only actor shaping the history of the Middle East. Russia and China are strategic partners for the Islamic Republic of Iran, and this partnership will grow dramatically through the Shanghai club. Also recall that the BRICS club provided major support for Iran and its ally in Damascus, including at the Security Council. Europe is eager to benefit economically from the lifting of the sanctions on Tehran. Its corporations are keen to compete with U.S. companies to benefit from the coming golden age in Iran. Meanwhile, there is nothing to suggest there is a new Arab or Gulf strategy that is taking into consideration these radical changes in the position of the Islamic Republic for the region, for the United States, and for the world. Perhaps the Gulf countries have American promises that reassure them or nuclear plans as part of establishing a balance of terror. But what this crucial stage requires is new ideas from outside the box. Yet purchasing nuclear capabilities for deterrence will not cure the Arab region from the disasters in Syria, Yemen, Libya, South Sudan, Iraq, Lebanon, Tunisia, Egypt, or the Gulf region.
Before the expected date for concluding the nuclear deal between the P5+1 countries with Tehran, Iranian President Hassan Rowhani visited Russia to take part in an important political event. Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted him at the summits of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) – which includes Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan – and the BRICS group, which includes Russia, China, India, Brazil and South Africa, of half of the planet’s population.
India and Pakistan will become full members in the SCO in the city of Ufa, which is hosting both summits. All preparations have been made for Iran to join the SCO as soon as the sanctions are lifted, after the signing of the nuclear deal, bearing in mind that Tehran along is an observer at the SCO. Putting sees both summits as a political demonstration aimed at improving his regional alliances against the West and deepening the Asian depth of Russia.
Taking the lead
From the outset, China allowed Russia to take the lead on Iran’s nuclear deal and its regional ally in Syria, as part of the strategic Russian-Chinese alliance. China benefited secretly from that, and it will benefit publicly from Iranian oil when the sanctions are lifted. For its part, Russia will have a prime market to export weapons, and it will be the biggest winner thanks to its political investment in Iran, now a major strategic partner.Barack Obama is also overseeing a pivot to Asia, away from the traditional reliance on the Gulf countries and the Middle East. The United States can practically be considered an absent guest at the Ufa summit, 1100 km east of Moscow. The Islamic Republic of Iran will thus become the primary Middle East partner for the United States, Russia, and Iran after the nuclear deal, through the quantum leap expected in the bilateral U.S.-Iranian relationship does not mean an animus with any of the six countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), which are divided over the position on Iran. Indeed, Oman had brokered secret U.S.-Iranian talks, and it is of the view that a wise policy would factor in reconciliation, coexistence, and cooperation with Iran.
The U.S. scramble towards appeasing Iran has shaken confidence in the United States in the Gulf, and it may no longer be possible for the people and leaders of the Gulf to deal with President Obama. However, this does not represent a good strategy vis-à-vis the historical turning point in U.S.-Iranian relations, with the U.S. recognizing the theocratic regime there. Second, normalization in the U.S.-Iranian relations is something that the U.S. administration, Congress, and majority of public opinion approve of. The United States has chosen appeasement and rejected confrontation, and has chosen Tehran as a regional partner based on a deliberate decision related to its post-9/11 response. Thirdly, the nuclear deal recognizes Iran’s rights to a peaceful nuclear program, and practically accepts Iran as a member of the nuclear club a screw’s turn away from nuclear weapons capabilities, with Iran’s nuclear know-how and funds surviving the deal. Fourthly, the international reticence vis-à-vis Iran’s regional expansionist ambitions means blessing them, bearing in mind that the West’s wager is that a deal would empower moderates and curb regional expansion led by the Revolutionary Guards.
Radical shifts
These are radical shifts that need both urgent and long-term strategies to address. Perhaps participating in the new international relations with Tehran, in support of the moderates in Iran, serves the Arab and Iranian interest equally, and helps reduce the sectarian tension that is devastating both Sunnis and Shiites. This way, the Gulf countries can contribute to supporting the moderate camp in Iran, as part of an international partnership that would be clear in insisting on curbing the hardliner camp seeking to dominate the Arab countries.
Some in the West see benefit in the war between ISIS and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and its proxies, for mutual annihilation. The tragedy is that the arena for this destructive war is not Iran, the United States, Europe, or Russia, but Arab countries and peoples. This tragedy will not end as long as the Arab decisions remain incomplete and restricted, and mostly reactive rather than strategic and proactive.It is time for a Gulf strategy based on regional restraint, with new plans and a new roadmap for Syria, Yemen, Iraq, and even Lebanon. Even if core principles provide the preliminaries for the desired solutions, there is a need for new proposals in light of the historical transformations that will be brought about by the nuclear deal with Iran, if one is concluded.
Restraining the triumphalism of the Revolutionary Guard and its partners in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, and Yemen should be a priority for the United States, Russia, Europe, and Iranian actors too. The goal: to avoid this being translated on the ground in a way that Washington would regret and the moderates in Iran would pay the price for – and not just the Arab countries where the Revolutionary Guards are active.Israel has obtained guarantees from the United States for keeping Iranian military nuclear capabilities frozen for ten years, with the nuclear reactors placed under monitoring, and military preparations in the event Iran circumvents the agreement and makes nuclear weapons. In fact, the Iranian-Israeli relationship is one of “truce,” and the new U.S.-Iranian relationship would reinforce this.
If Israel were truly opposed to the nuclear deal with Tehran, it would have enlisted the pro-Israel lobby in Washington to build serious opposition in Congress to such a deal. But all indications suggest Israel’s objections are casual and not serious or radical.
The Islamic Republic of Iran will emerge from isolation and get a windfall. It will enter the peaceful nuclear club and begin a historical period of normalization with the United States.
How will Iran translate its “rebirth”? The answer probably lies with the supreme leader. He is the one who enabled the hardliners from encroaching into Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Yemen. He is the one who proved Iran’s ability to maneuver, negotiate shrewdly, and seize opportunities. So the hope is that he would support the moderates to take Iran towards normalization and constructive policies in the region.

Hillary Clinton is the X-factor for the Iranian nuclear deal’s congressional survival
DEBKAfile Exclusive Analysis July 13, 2015
A parade of concessions to Iran,” was Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s comment on the nuclear accord expected to be announced and fully revealed later on Monday July 13 in Vienna. He underscored his point by playing back President Bill Clinton’s words upon signing the nuclear deal with North Korea 21 years ago: "North Korea will freeze and then dismantle its nuclear program,” Clinton announced then. “South Korea and our other allies will be better protected. The entire world will be safer as we slow the spread of nuclear weapons.”Despite Bill Clinton’s pledge of carefully monitoring, Pyongyang broke through to a nuclear bomb in October 2006, twelve years later. By comparison; a ten-year limit on the period during which Iran is allowed to develop a bomb is believed to be incorporated in the Vienna accord. Its full text of100 pages plus is still to be fully disclosed. By playing back the Clinton clip, Netanyahu aimed to place high on Washington’s agenda, the leverage in the hands of his wife, Hillary Clinton, in determining whether the deal survives the US Congress, which will have 60 days to review it. Hillary is currently rated by the polls with a 62 percent lead in her run for the Democratic nomination in the 2016 presidential election. She tops the lists of alll declared Democratic and Republic contenders combined. In the first week of July, she is quoted as supporting Obama’s relentless drive for a deal when she said: “I so hope that we are able to get a deal in the next week that puts a lid on Iran’s nuclear weapons program because that’s going to be a singular step in the right direction.”
Before that, she echoed Obama’s words that “no deal is better than a bad deal.” Now that the accord is in its last stage, she has held back from judging whether it is good or bad – only in private conversations with wealthy Jewish contributors to her campaign, she has promised to be “a better friend to Israel than President Barack Obama.”But once the final accord is in the bag – expected in the coming hours - Clinton will have to come out in the open, because she holds the key to a Senate majority for blocking it. The 54 Republican senators are committed to voting against it: Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell told Fox News Sunday: "I think it's going to be a very hard sell, if it's completed, in Congress. We already know it's going to leave Iran as a threshold nuclear state. It appears as if the administration's approach to this was to reach whatever agreement the Iranians are willing to enter into," he said. But the 44 Democratic senators are wobbling between being loyal to the president and their profound misgivings about the deal with Iran. It would take 13 Democrats to cross the floor and join the Republicans to achieve the necessary majority for annulling the promised presidential veto of a negative vote. A Clinton declaration against the deal could swing those 13 senators against the accord - so painfully crafted in 13 months of agonizing bargaining led by Secretary of State John Kerry - and leave Obama in the position of a lame duck president. Iran’s leaders, after reading the map in Washington, took the precaution of submitting to the Majlis a motion that would require a parliamentary review every few months of the US performance in complying with the accord with the power to annul it if this performance was judged unsatisfactory. This pits the Iranian parliament against the US Senate and, by implication, puts Hillary Clinton in the driving seat in Washington versus Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Tehran. Whatever she decides now – whether for or against the Iranian deal - will have consequences for her campaign for president. That campaign has almost a year and a half to run before the November 2016 election. If she backs the deal and lets the Democratic senators refrain from voting against it, she will be held accountable – not only by Jewish campaign donors, but, up to a point, the American voter too. Israeli and Saudi intelligence will certainly use a microscope to discover the tiniest particles of evidence of Iran’s non-compliance. They will be thrown in her face. Republican rivals will certainly fuel their campaigns with allegations of the total surrender to Iran by Obama and Kerry – with consequences for the prospects of Obama’s former secretary of state, Hillary Clinton. Backing Obama would therefore cast a shadow over her presidential hopes, whereas taking the lead of a Democratic senatorial mutiny against it may well undo the deal before the year is out. Either way, Clinton faces one of her toughest decisions since she decided to run as the first American woman president.

Analysis: It took three decades, but in 10 years Iran will be able to run, not sneak, to A-bomb
By HERB KEINON/J.Post/07/13/2015
Iran has been pursuing nuclear weapons for most of the last three decades.
The quest began at the end of the Iran-Iraq War in 1988, when the Islamic Republic's founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini famously “drank the poisoned chalice” and accepted UN Security Council Resolution 598 that put at end to that eight-year, blood-drenched war. Never again, Khomenei vowed, would Iran drink such poison, and the country’s race for nuclear arms – something that would have precluded the need for what Khomeini viewed as a capitulation – was on.
During the last nearly 30 years the world – with varying degrees of seriousness and intensity – has tried to block that path.For much of that time period the strategy was to to kick the can down the road, delay the Iranians, place impediments in their way in the hope that in the interim something would happen: either there would be regime change in Iran, or the Iranian rulers -- of their own accord or because of popular unrest -- would come to realize that the price of a nuclear bomb was too high, and that if they wanted to save the country’s economy, they would have to scuttle the bomb.
So during this period computer viruses were sent to infect the Iranian computers, some Iranian nuclear scientists and engineers were assassinated or disappeared, and straw companies were set up around the world selling faulty material to the mullahs, so that when they spun their centrifuges, the centrifuges would blow up.
The accord on the verge of being agreed upon in Vienna, the one Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has railed against endlessly, buys the Iranians more time. Ten years of it. During this period the Iranians will be hard pressed to assemble a nuclear bomb. But then the sun will set on the agreement and all bets will be off. Then the Iranians, according to Israel’s reading of the deal, won't have to sneak around to put together a bomb, they will be able to do it in broad daylight.
And there is Israel’s problem. At a time when the Iranians came to the negotiations because their economy was being devastated, the world powers had the opportunity not to just kick the can down the road, but rather to kick it over the fence, deep, deep into one of the neighbor's bushes. Or, to use a boxing metaphor, two years ago the world powers had Iran on the ropes -- its economic badly limping, oil prices falling, its legitimacy at a low point. But instead of ratcheting up the sanctions and delivering a knockout blow, the powers let Iran slither off the ropes to come back and fight another round. And fight they did. As Iranian President Hassan Rouhani was reported to have said over the weekend, “Twenty-two months of negotiation means we have managed to charm the world, and it’s an art."
That was then. Now the reality has changed. Now what? The agreement has pretty much put to an end to any option of a preemptive Israeli military strike. No one seriously believes Israel would launch a preemptive attack on Iran to push back the program after that country signed an agreement with the world powers, including the US. It is also equally unrealistic to think Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – who has fought the Iranian nuclear program for years -- will now suddenly roll over, play dead, and say, “Ok, you win, I guess now we will have to accept it.” Netanyahu -- who has charged that this is a “very bad agreement,” and that what happened in Vienna was a foolish “march of concessions” that amounted to a near total capitulation to Iran -- will not now throw up his arms in surrender.
Rather, now his argument will move to Congress, the last place where changes in the accord might possibly still be made. If then ambassador Michael Oren -- as he writes in his recent memoir -- was given instructions to call congressmen and say “Israel felt abandoned” after US President Barack Obama delivered a speech in 2011 adopting an Israeli-Palestinian deal based on the 1967 lines with land swaps, then one can only imagine what Oren’s successor, Ron Dermer, will tell the congressmen when he calls about Iran.
And that type of campaigning in Congress against a policy that Obama sees as his foreign policy “legacy,” and which US Secretary of State John Kerry views as his possible Nobel Prize winning ticket, is not bound to win Netanyahu any points in the White House, where his credit is already depleted. The final year of the Obama-Netanyahu era, therefore, will most likely be much more fraught than even the fraught seven years that came before.
But Netanyahu will go ahead -- feeling duty-bound as a son of the Jewish people so soon after the Holocaust, and as the prime minister of the world’s only Jewish state -- to do whatever he can to try and override the agreement. If not to stop it, at least change it so that when the history books are written, it will be noted that he – alone among the world's leaders – did whatever he could to keep one of the world's most extreme regimes from getting the world's most lethal weapon.

Why Palestinians Cannot Make Peace with Israel
Khaled Abu Toameh/Gatestone Institute
July 13, 2015
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/6142/palestinians-peace-israel
Americans and Europeans fail to acknowledge that in order to achieve peace, the leaders must prepare their people for compromise and tolerance. If you want to make peace with Israel, you do not tell your people that the Western Wall has no religious significance to Jews and is, in fact, holy Muslim property. Palestinian Authority leaders who accuse Israel of "war crimes" and "genocide" are certainly not preparing their people for peace. Such allegations serve only to further agitate Palestinians against Israel.
If Yasser Arafat was not able to accept the generous offer made by former Prime Minister Ehud Barak at the 2000 Camp David summit, who is Mahmoud Abbas to make any concessions to Israel? Arafat was quoted then as saying that he rejected the offer because he did not want to end up drinking tea with assassinated Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, the first Arab leader to sign a peace agreement with Israel.
No Palestinian leader has a mandate to reach an everlasting peace agreement with Israel. No leader in Ramallah or the Gaza Strip is authorized to end the conflict with Israel. Any Palestinian who dares to talk about concessions to Israel is quickly denounced as a traitor. Those who believe that whoever succeeds Abbas will be able to make real concessions to Israel are living in an illusion.
There are two main reasons why Palestinians will not sign a real and meaningful peace agreement with Israel -- at least not in the foreseeable future.
The first is a total lack of education for peace. The second is related to the absence of a leader who is authorized -- or has the guts -- to embark on such a risky mission.
Americans and Europeans who keep talking about the need to revive the stalled peace process in the Middle East continue to ignore these two factors. They continue to insist that peace is still possible and that the ball is in Israel's court.
The Americans and Europeans fail to acknowledge that in order to achieve peace, the leaders must prepare their people for compromise and tolerance.
In fact, it is inaccurate to say merely that Palestinian leaders have failed to prepare their people for peace with Israel. Instead, one should say that the Palestinian leadership has long been inciting its people against Israel to a point where it has become almost impossible to talk about any form of compromise between Israelis and Palestinians.
Since its inception in 1994, the Palestinian Authority (PA) has devoted most of its energies and propaganda to delegitimizing and isolating Israel. Ironically, this incitement continued even as the PA was negotiating with Israel in an attempt to reach a peace agreement.
If you want to make peace with Israel, you do not tell your people every now and then that the Western Wall has no religious significance to Jews and is, in fact, holy Muslim property.
You cannot make peace with Israel if you continue to deny Jewish history or links to the land. Take, for example, what the PLO's Hanan Ashrawi said in response to statements made by President Barack Obama, in which he acknowledged Jewish history. "Once again, he [Obama] has adopted the discourse of Zionist ideology," she said. "He adopted it when he came to this region, speaking about the Jews' return to their land, and that this is a Jewish state."
You will never be able to make peace with Israel if you keep telling your people and the rest of the world that Zionism was created in order to implement the Jewish project of world domination. This is what the Palestinian Authority ambassador to Chile, Imad Nabil Jadaa, said at a conference on Israeli-Palestinian peace in Santiago.
Imad Nabil Jadaa, the Palestinian Authority ambassador to Chile, declared on May 15 that the The Protocols of the Elders of Zion (an antisemitic forgery) contains proof of a Jewish plan for world domination. In the same speech, Jadaa declared "there is no Jewish People" and that Palestinians do not recognize the existence of a Jewish people. (Image source: ISGAP video screenshot)
It will be impossible to make peace with Israel at a time when the Palestinian Authority is telling its people that Jews use wild pigs to drive Palestinian farmers out of their fields and homes in the West Bank. This is what PA President Mahmoud Abbas told a pro-Palestinian conference in Ramallah.
According to the PA, Jews have also used rats to drive Arab residents of the Old City of Jerusalem out of their homes. The official Palestinian news agency, Wafa, which reports directly to Abbas's office, claimed in a dispatch that, "Rats have become an Israeli weapon to displace and expel Arab residents" of the Old City of Jerusalem. The agency reported: "Settlers flood the Old City with rats... they release the rats to increase the suffering of the [Arab] residents and force them to evict their homes and leave the city."
These messages are being sent to Palestinians not only by Hamas, but also by the Western-funded Palestinian Authority, which happens to be Israel's "peace partner." The messages are being sent to Palestinians through the mosques, media and public statements of Palestinian leaders.
This is in addition to the PA's worldwide campaign to isolate, delegitimize and demonize Israel and Israelis. PA leaders and representatives who continue to accuse Israel of "war crimes" and "genocide" are certainly not preparing their people for peace with Israel. On the contrary, such allegations serve to further agitate Palestinians against Israel.
This is the type of incitement, in fact, that drives more Palestinians into the open arms of the Palestinian Authority's rivals, first and foremost Hamas. If you keep telling your people that Israel does not want peace and only seeks to destroy the lives of the Palestinians and steal their lands, there is no way that Palestinians would ever accept any form of reconciliation, let alone peace, with Israel.
Yet this is not only about the lack of education for peace or anti-Israel incitement.
It is time for the international community to acknowledge the fact that no Palestinian leader has a mandate to reach an everlasting peace agreement with Israel. That is because no leader in Ramallah or the Gaza Strip is authorized to end the conflict with Israel.
If Yasser Arafat was not able to accept the generous offer made by former Prime Minister Ehud Barak at the 2000 Camp David summit, who is Mahmoud Abbas to make any form of concession to Israel? Arafat was quoted back them as saying that he rejected the offer because he did not want to end up drinking tea with assassinated Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, the first Arab leader to sign a peace agreement with Israel.
In many ways, Abbas can only blame himself for the situation he faces today. If you are telling your people that you will never make concessions, how can you ever sign a peace agreement with Israel?
Those who believe that whoever succeeds Abbas will be able to make real concessions to Israel are living in an illusion. It is time to admit that no present or future Palestinian leader is authorized to offer even the slightest concessions to Israel. Any Palestinian who dares to talk about concessions to Israel is quickly denounced as a traitor.
These are the two reasons why the "peace process" in the Middle East will continue to revolve in a vicious cycle. In order to make peace with Israel, you need to prepare your people for peace with Israel. This is something that the Palestinian Authority has failed to do. And that is why we will not see the emergence of a more moderate Palestinian leader in the near future.

Turkey: Jihadists in Lawyers' Robes
Burak Bekdil/Gatestone Institute/July 13, 2015
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/6145/turkey-lawyers-jihadists
Islamist newspapers claim that the real victims are not those who were burned alive at the Hotel Madimak in Sivas, but those who murdered them and have since remained in prison.
An army of lawyers rushed to offer their services to the Sivas massacre defendants, most probably on a pro bono basis. They probably felt this was part of the jihad -- this time taking place at courtrooms with jihadists in lawyers' robes.
Those lawyers' career moves in later years are telling. One Sivas massacre defense attorney became the justice minister. One became an AKP state minister. Two became Erdogan's personal lawyers.
It was a hot July day in the central Anatolian city of Sivas, Turkey, in 1993. A group of Turkish intellectuals, mostly Alevis, including prominent writers, musicians, poets and artists, had gathered for a cultural festival at the downtown Hotel Madimak. The happy troupe came to commemorate the 16th century Alevi poet, Pir Sultan Abdal.
Among the intellectuals was one of Turkey's most famous writers and humorists, Aziz Nesin, who authored over 100 books that were translated into more than 30 languages. Not long before the assembly in Sivas, and sparking outrage from Islamist groups, Nesin had begun to translate Salman Rushdie's controversial book, "The Satanic Verses" into Turkish.
On July 2, shortly after Friday prayers, thousands of devout Sunni Muslims marched to the Hotel Madimak. They broke through the weak police barricades surrounding the hotel, chanting "Allah-u Aqbar (in Arabic, "God is the greatest.") When they reached the hotel, they set it alight, with policemen allegedly standing by and watching. The city's Islamist mayor refused to send fire brigades to put out the fire. The assault took eight hours, without any intervention from the police, military or fire department. When what would later be internationally known as the "Sivas massacre" ended and the mob dispersed, 35 people, mostly Alevi intellectuals as well as a Dutch anthropologist, had died, along with two hotel employees. Two arsonists also died. Ironically, Aziz Nesin survived the attack.
The faces of many of the victims who were murdered in the 1993 Sivas massacre are featured on this poster, used in a 2012 commemoration in Germany. (Image source: Bernd Schwabe, Wikimedia Commons)
In the following days, a total of 190 people were arrested and charged with "attempting to establish a religious state by changing the constitutional order." After a trial, 33 suspects were sentenced to death, 99 received between 28 months and 15 years, and 37 were acquitted. As Turkey later (in 2002) abolished the death penalty, the death sentences were commuted. Each defendant received 35 life sentences, one for each murder victim, and additional time for other crimes.
These 33 convicts who ended up with life sentences -- except one who died in prison -- are currently the only ones still serving time for their crimes; the other defendants were paroled early or released after completing their sentences.
In March 2012, due to the statute of limitations, the Sivas massacre case against five remaining defendants was dropped.
On July 2, 2015, the Sivas massacre was commemorated on its 22nd anniversary. Families of the victims were joined at the commemoration ceremony by parliamentary deputies from the main opposition Republican People's Party. The group marched through Sivas and ended at the site of the Hotel Madimak where they laid carnations in memory of the victims. Unsurprisingly, Turkey's Islamist government was not represented at the commemoration.
In recent years, the government has been quite mean to the families of the victims: A request that the site of the Hotel Madimak be turned into a "museum of shame" was rejected. Instead, the Turkish government, in 2010, expropriated the property and turned it into a "museum of science."
There is hardly anything surprising about that. To this day, Islamist newspapers claim that the real victims are not those who were burned alive at the Hotel Madimak, but those who murdered them and have since remained in prison. One such newspaper ran the headline "Madimak is the name of oppression against Muslims." It said the families of the convicts were pleading to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan "for an end to the slavery of their relatives." They are probably pleading to the right person.
The right to defend a suspect (any suspect) is sacred in law, no matter what the alleged crime is. An army of lawyers rushed to offer their services to the Sivas massacre defendants, most probably on a pro bono basis. In reality, they probably felt this was part of the jihad -- this time taking place at courtrooms with jihadists in lawyers' robes. Those lawyers' career moves in later years are quite telling -- if not totally ironic.
One Sivas massacre defense attorney became the justice minister when the ruling Justice and Development Party's (AKP) earlier predecessor, Welfare Party (later banned by the Constitutional Court on charges of attempting to topple Turkey's secular regime) came to power in 1996. One was appointed as a member of the Constitutional Court by the AKP. One became an AKP state minister. Two became Erdogan's personal lawyers. Four became AKP members of parliament (MPs), with one AKP MP becoming a member of Parliament's constitutional commission. Three became AKP mayors. Two became AKP's provincial chairmen and two, deputy provincial chairmen. Two became directors at the AKP-controlled Istanbul municipality. And one was appointed by the AKP as a board member of the state-run news agency, Anatolia.
A big coincidence? Or just rewarding jihadists in lawyers' robes?
**Burak Bekdil, based in Ankara, is a Turkish columnist for the Hürriyet Daily and a Fellow at the Middle East Forum.

Why Lebanon's Sunnis Support ISIS
Dateline
Hilal Khashan/Middle East Quarterly
Summer 2015
http://www.meforum.org/5316/lebanon-sunnis-isis
A pro-ISIS rally last year in Tripoli, Lebanon's second largest city. Some Salafi sheikhs have pledged allegiance to ISIS, including Abu Sayyaf al-Ansari and Ahmad Asir.
The claim by a recent public opinion poll that only 1 percent of adult Lebanese Sunnis are supportive of the self-proclaimed Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS)[1] must be taken with a large pinch of salt since "there is a vast gulf between how people say they behave and how they actually behave."[2] In fact, since Lebanese Sunnis are willing to support whoever can defeat their enemies and restore their pride, many of them find ISIS appealing for quite a few reasons: They have an aversion to Shiites and feel estranged from the Lebanese state while harboring nostalgia for the caliphate. Many admire power in any form, and others have a predisposition to anomic terrorism.
Aversion to Shiites
The rise to preeminence of Lebanese Shiites began after the Amal movement evicted the Lebanese army from the southern suburbs of Beirut in February 1984. A year later, Hezbollah made its debut and formed a militia to fight the Israel Defense Forces and its Southern Lebanese Army surrogate.
After a long period of Shiite ascendance, the prominence of Rafiq Hariri (left) revived Sunni political hopes in Lebanon, but his assassination in February 2005 crushed expectations. In May 2008, Hezbollah stormed mostly Sunni west Beirut and liquidated the militia of the Future Movement, headed by Hariri's son Saad (right).
The Sunnis thus lost political prerogatives that had accrued to them from the 1943 National Covenant with the Maronites. Having already lost the support of the Palestine Liberation Organization due to the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon, Sunnis suddenly found themselves giving way to a new Shiite contender that enjoyed strong regional support.
The appearance of Rafiq Hariri on the political scene in 1992 revived Sunni hopes, but his assassination in February 2005 put a damper on their expectations. In May 2008, Hezbollah stormed mostly Sunni west Beirut and, in a matter of hours, liquidated the militia of the Future Trend movement, headed by Hariri's son Saad. So after a long period of Shiite ascendance, the Sunni street rejoiced when an ISIS offensive rapidly seized Mosul and a large swath of Iraqi territory in June 2014. As a neighborhood leader in Tripoli put it: "Iraq witnessed a Sunni triumph against Shiite oppression. Forcing Tripoli's Sunnis to denounce ISIS amounts to coercing them to exercise political self-suppression."[3] The truth of the matter is that "hatred for Iran and Hezbollah has made every Lebanese Sunni heartily supportive of ISIS, even if its brutal methods will eventually affect them adversely."[4]
Estrangement from the Lebanese State
When Hezbollah shattered the main Sunni leadership, the Lebanese army watched but decided not to interfere. Weak Sunni leadership, both clerical and political, created a vacuum and caused the sect to drift apart and turn to radical Islamic leaders. One such leader was Salafi sheikh Ahmad al-Asir, whose movement had enjoyed the support and loyalty of hundreds of Sidon's families. They were routed from the city by the Lebanese army and Hezbollah in June 2013. Going underground after the debacle, Asir transferred allegiance from an-Nusra's Abu Muhammad Julani to ISIS's Abu Bakr Baghdadi.[5] This defection also underscored the eclipse of the Sunni clerical institution Dar al-Fatwa, which in recent years had been the subject of financial scandals and political weakness. The decimation of the office of the Sunni prime minister, to whom Dar al-Fatwa reports, rendered it rudderless, and it lost its traditional role maintaining the cohesion of the Sunni community.
Some government officials privately admit that ISIS has established itself in Lebanese Sunni areas, including Beirut.
In addition, some government officials privately admit that ISIS has established itself in Lebanese Sunni areas, including Beirut,[6] and there are examples to support this belief. Government-salaried Sunni clerics in Sidon, the hometown of former prime minister Saad Hariri, were impelled to react angrily to the spate of pro-ISIS wall graffiti in that city and warned that unless the trend was arrested, "Sidon would become a fertile land for breeding terrorism."[7] The Lebanese army frequently implements large-scale security measures in Sidon, despite insisting that "there is no fostering environment for ISIS in the city."[8]
In Tripoli, Lebanon's second largest city and its most important Sunni hub, Future Trend parliamentary deputies continue to refuse to admit publicly that ISIS is present in the city, but their denials have failed to hide "the existence of a radical Islamic environment in the city."[9] Several attacks on Lebanese army patrols and pro-Hariri activists in Tripoli succeeded in preventing formation of Iraqi-type awakening councils.[10] But the city is fully controlled by the army, internal security forces, and military intelligence. ISIS supporters are mainly located in its at-Tibbane neighborhood and are well known to the authorities, which choose to ignore them.[11] Pro-ISIS rallies outside mosques are commonplace in Tripoli after Friday prayers.[12] The twin explosions in January 2015 that rocked Tripoli's Alawite Jabal Muhsin sector were ordered by ISIS operatives in Rumye prison in the hills overlooking Beirut. It was only then that the embarrassed Interior Ministry decided to dismantle ISIS's operations room in the prison's Block-B.[13] Even a cursory look at the situation leads to the conclusion that "ISIS does not need to come to Tripoli. It is already there."[14] Dealing with the threat posed by ISIS is probably why the Interior and Justice portfolios in Tammam Salam's cabinet were given to Future Trend figures.
Rising Sunni anger and ISIS's successes do not bode well for Lebanese political stability.
But despite its anti-Sunni orientation, the army is careful not to get embroiled in confessional politics. Mindful that it disintegrated twice (in 1976 and in 1984) when it unabashedly took sides, the army command is obviously not interested in a third upheaval and seems to be keenly aware that Sunni approval of ISIS is a function of public distrust of the state machinery, including the military. Even though several Sunni soldiers have defected to an-Nusra and ISIS, the army command dismissed these as isolated cases.[15]
Local observers note that the "seed of ISIS terror is found in every depressed area of Lebanon."[16] Support for ISIS grows as Sunnis lament the sad state of their coreligionists in Iraq and Syria, comparing it to their own situation as Iranian-backed Hezbollah continues to exercise hegemony over Lebanese politics. Rising Sunni anger and ISIS's successes do not bode well for Lebanese political stability.[17]
Pining for the Caliphate
Unlike Shiites, who believe that the caliphate usurped the rights to the succession of Muhammad's household, Sunnis have viewed the caliph as their legitimate leader for thirteen centuries. Yearning for a resurrection, the caliphate continued to live on after its 1924 abrogation by Turkey's Kemal Atatürk as Sunnis "view it as the state of Muslim glory and justice."[18] Its reestablishment, for example, was the raison d'être of Hassan Banna's Muslim Brotherhood, founded in 1928. Lebanese Sunnis also find the neo-Ottoman policies of Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party appealing and are particularly fond of Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.[19]
Obsession with the caliphate has not spared Sunnis from delusional thinking. Arab fondness for Hitler is well documented, at times to the point of asserting that the tyrant viewed Islam and its culture with favor.[20] As Daniel Pipes points out: "Nazis portrayed Islam as an ally and, accordingly, called for its revival while urging Muslims to act piously and emulate Muhammad."[21] It is also not rare for some Arabs to argue that Napoleon converted to Islam and sought to create a great Muslim empire.[22] In June 2014, ISIS's Baghdadi announced the formation of the Islamic State and designated himself caliph. Given his extreme bloodletting, even against fellow jihadists, the announcement did not generate wide approval. However, the sight of cruising motorists in Sunni areas blowing their horns—the Lebanese tradition of expressing happiness—after Baghdadi's announcement sent a muted message of approval. The issuance of the Islamic State's passport was another cause for pride. It is difficult for Sunnis to disavow the inscription on IS's passport that reads, "We will deploy armies for the holder of this passport, if harmed."[23]
Admiration for ISIS Power
Shakir Wahiyib is one of the chief executioners for ISIS and one of the few willing to bare his face during executions. ISIS resorts to such ruthless tactics without regard to human cost. The group's rationale considers the use of power, as gross and as graphic as possible, as requisite to the subjugation of enemies. A flag vendor in Tripoli explained the popularity of ISIS: "People ... like whoever is strong."
Islam literally means submission to legitimate religious authority: "Believers, obey God, His Messenger, and those charged with authority among you."[24] This imperative may well dispose believers to revere power and display intolerance for dissenting voices. Using Bin Laden's famous strong-horse metaphor, Lee Smith argues that the "Sunnis have been a bloc of force that has never known accommodation or compromise, but has rather compelled everyone else to submit to its worldview."[25] Because of the central role of the caliph in enforcing the Shari'a and spreading the faith to all corners of the globe, the "Sunni figure has often been the able statesman, the hero of conquests, or the victory-maker."[26] In a study on Lebanese college students' reaction to Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in August 1990, 82 percent of Sunni respondents chose Saddam Hussein as their preferred political leader. When U.S. president George Bush initiated Operation Desert Shield to prepare for the liberation of Kuwait, Hussein ordered the apprehension of several hundred Western nationals to deter U.S.-led military action. In response to a question on this, 98 percent of Lebanese Sunnis "thought the Iraqis were justified in taking Western hostages."[27] Even Venezuela's late president Hugo Chavez's "anti-Israeli pronouncements enamored him to an Arab public hungry for a charismatic leader in the mold of Nasser."[28]
ISIS is no exception to the customary approach of Muslim power projected through strong leadership. If anything, it has exaggerated the use of coercion and carried it to new heights. ISIS adopted Abi Bakr Naji's gruesome publication titled The Management of Savagery[29] as a means to apply Sayyid Qutb's treatise Ma'alim fi-l-Tariq (Milestones).[30] The rationale is that only extreme terror can help construct the Islamic state on the ashes of degenerate apostate regimes. The use of awesome power, as gross and as graphic as possible, is requisite to the subjugation of enemies. As the jihadist sheikh Hussein bin Mahmud once said, "Let them [our enemies] find ruthlessness in you."[31]
ISIS has had success in recruiting from a pool of alienated and radicalized Muslims as well as impoverished individuals. The Lebanese executioner Abu Asma al-Australi (above) abandoned his wrestling career to join the ISIS jihad. ISIS also succeeded in recruiting at least two Lebanese Christians from Tripoli to its ranks.
In its war in Syria and Iraq, ISIS resorts to ruthless tactics without regard to human cost. To win the battle for Tabaqa airbase in northeastern Syria, eventually overrun in August 2014, ISIS did not mind losing twice as many militants as government troops.[32] What matters more for ISIS was to strip Iraqi and Syrian soldiers to their underwear and march them to their humiliating death in order to project invincible power. Kobani is another example of ISIS's efforts to achieve spectacular triumphs regardless of the cost. ISIS lost more than one thousand fighters before admitting that it had been driven out of the town by coalition airstrikes, even as it promised it would return to attack.[33] It avenged its defeat by burning a captured Jordanian pilot to death and parading Kurdish Peshmerga prisoners of war in metal cages.[34]
Like most Muslims, Lebanese Sunnis see themselves as the victims of centuries of backwardness, marginalization, and defeat. They tend to favor any signs, however elusive, that signal reversing Sunni weakness. A flag vendor in Tripoli explained the popularity of ISIS: "[P]eople ... like whoever is strong."[35] Poor, angry and marginalized teenagers in Tripoli want "great victories."[36] Even though public display of support for ISIS in Lebanon is punishable by law, "any young man in Tripoli, if asked, would confess how much he admired its power."[37] When confronted with the brutality and viciousness of ISIS, its supporters often lean on the Qur'an to justify their position: "Muhammad ... and those with him are firm of heart against the non-believers, compassionate among themselves."[38]
A Destination for the Alienated
There are reasons other than piety for Lebanese to join ISIS and other radical religious movements. Hezbollah fighters searching the bodies of Sunni militants in Syria often report finding spoons and personal memos about their scheduled lunches in heaven with the Prophet, as well as their first rendezvous with the promised seventy-two virgins.[39] But maladapted immigrants in the West also turn to militancy, and troubled individuals desperate for emotional freedom seek shelter in the crowd to avoid responsibility while indulging in abominable actions. Even scores of Muslim women in the West chose to join ISIS after Baghdadi declared the formation of the Islamic State. "Socially isolated and depressed ... [m]any of them suffer from a lack of purpose in their daily lives."[40]
Just as alienation can affect individuals from different walks of life, joining ISIS has appealed to recruits from a broad socioeconomic spectrum. Thus, Muhammad Emwazi, the British-educated butcher of ISIS, came from a well-to-do family in London[41] as did Egyptian soccer referee Mahmud Ghandur, who chose to abandon his promising career to join ISIS.[42] The Lebanese executioner called Abu Musab al-Australi abandoned his wrestling career and the comfort of Australia to answer the call of jihad and to mentor his 7-year-old child in the art of beheading.[43] The pool of alienated and radicalized youth did not just include maladjusted Muslim immigrants in the West or rising stars feeling empty inside and searching for meaning, but also poor persons saddled with the problems of poverty and crime. ISIS also succeeded in recruiting at least two Lebanese Christians from Tripoli to its ranks. The clichéd rationalization for their metamorphosis stresses ISIS's taking advantage of the city's "poor financial conditions to recruit them."[44]
More Trouble in the Making
What is happening in Syria and Iraq is a religious war with ethnic overtones. As a microcosm of the region's religious and ethnic conflicts, it is difficult to imagine how Lebanon can be spared. The return of Saad Hariri to Lebanon to initiate dialog with Hezbollah, after years of self-exile, is linked to soaring Sunni extremism and Saudi determination to reverse it.[45] The eventual curtailment of ISIS's presence in Syria and Iraq will take time, and it is unlikely that the group will be completely eliminated. But Lebanon already presents some of its hardened members with a convenient sanctuary since "it is an established fact that Arsal and Ain al-Hilwa Palestinian refugee camp near Sidon are sanctuaries for ISIS and other radical Islamic movements."[46]
Syria and Iraq are experiencing a religious war with ethnic overtones; it is difficult to imagine how Lebanon can be spared.
Furthermore, while there are no accurate figures about the number of Syrian refugees in Lebanon, this group is thought to exceed one million persons. Among them, thousands of Islamist militants masquerade as refugees. Lebanon's tenuous security situation largely depends on the whim of regional countries patronizing its antagonistic sects. In view of the spread of sectarian conflict in the region—and in the event it becomes permeable to its external environment—these refugees might well become Lebanon's Trojan horse.
Arabs missed their chance for religious reform in the nineteenth century, but the developments of the past few years suggest they are confronting the old problem. Lebanon is not exempt. When pressed to issue an anti-ISIS statement, Muhammad al-Juzu, a prominent Sunni Lebanese cleric, said only that "Hezbollah was a more difficult problem than ISIS."[47]
In view of the increasing sectarian tone of Hezbollah's military intervention, not only in Syria but also Iraq and Yemen, one can expect Lebanese Sunnis to support its ISIS nemesis, however ephemerally. And while it is difficult to know the extent of this support, it is plausible to believe that it exceeds single digit levels.
Hilal Khashan is a professor of political science at the American University of Beirut.
[1] David Pollock, "Isis Has Almost No Popular Support in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, or Lebanon," Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Washington, D.C., Oct. 14, 2014.
[2] Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner, Super Freakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes, and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance (New York: Harper Perennial, 2011), p. 7.
[3] An-Nahar (Beirut), June 27, 2014.
[4] Liban Space (Beirut), Oct. 14, 2014.
[5] El-Badil (Cairo), Feb. 1, 2015.
[6] El-Marada (Beirut), July 3, 2014.
[7] National News Agency (Beirut), Oct. 7, 2014.
[8] Al-Balad (Beirut), Oct. 8, 2014.
[9] Elnashra (Beirut), June 28, 2014.
[10] Al-Akhbar (Beirut), Sept. 25, 2014.
[11] As-Safir (Beirut), Dec. 3, 2013.
[12] Al-Hiwar TV (London), Sept. 19, 2014.
[13] Alankabout (Leb.), Jan.13, 2015.
[14] An-Nahar, June 27, 2014.
[15] The Daily Star (Beirut), Oct. 11, 2014.
[16] Al-Afkar (Beirut), June 20, 2014.
[17] The Wall Street Journal, Oct. 21, 2014.
[18] Al-Anba (Kuwait), Aug. 2, 2014.
[19] Ad-Diyar (Beirut), Oct. 14, 2014.
[20] Nahr al-Barid and al-Baddawi refugee camps' website, accessed Feb. 27, 2015.
[21] Daniel Pipes, review of Nazi Propaganda for the Arab World by Jeffrey Herf, Commentary, Apr. 2010.
[22] Al-Ahram (Cairo), May 29, 2006.
[23] Al-Arabiya (Dubai), July 5, 2014.
[24] Qur. 4:59.
[25] Lee Smith, The Strong Horse: Power, Politics, and the Clash of Arab Civilizations (New York: Doubleday, 2010), pp. 5-6.
[26] Hossam Tammam, "On Difference and Understanding: Al-Husayn, the Shiite Martyr, the Sunni Hero," Islamism Scope website, Mar. 11, 2004.
[27] Hilal Khashan, "The Revival of Pan-Arabism," Orbis, Winter 1991, p. 110-2.
[28] Ali Younes, "From Hero to Villain: The Arab World's Infatuation with Hugo Chavez Arc," Foreign Policy in Focus (Washington, D.C.), Mar. 15, 2013.
[29] Abu Bakr Naji, The Management of Savagery: The Most Critical Stage through which the Umma Will Pass, trans. William McCants (Cambridge: John M. Olin Institute for Strategic Studies, Harvard University, 2006).
[30] Sayyid Qutb, Ma'alim fi-l-Tariq (Cairo: n.p., 1964).
[31] "Senior al-Qaeda Sheikh," Special Dispatch, no. 1635, The Middle East Media Research Institute, Washington, D.C., June 27, 2007.
[32] The Independent (London), Sept. 9, 2014.
[33] Ibid., Jan. 31, 2015.
[34] The Daily Mail (London), Feb. 23, 2015.
[35] The Daily Star, July 18, 2014.
[36] The Wall Street Journal, Oct. 21, 2014.
[37] Al-Arabiya, Sept. 9, 2014.
[38] Qur. 48: 29.
[39] South Lebanon organization website, Jan. 26, 2014.
[40] Siamak Nooraei, "Jihadi Motives: Why Do Western Women Join the Islamic State?" Foreign Policy Journal, Jan. 16, 2015.
[41] Al-Arabiya.net (Dubai), Feb. 27, 2015.
[42] Lebanon 24 News (Beirut), Feb. 27, 2015.
[43] An-Nahar, Feb. 19, 2015.
[44] Naharnet (Beirut), Feb. 26, 2015.
[45] Raphael Lefevre, "Tackling Sunni Radicalization in Lebanon," Carnegie Middle East Center, Beirut, Dec. 24, 2014.
[46] Al-Binaa (Beirut), Jan. 17, 2015.
[47] An-Nahar, June 18, 2014.

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