LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
June 25/15

http://www.eliasbejjaninews.com/newsbulletins05/english.june25.15.htm

Bible Quotation For Today/What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light; and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 10/27-33: "What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light; and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops. Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground unperceived by your Father. And even the hairs of your head are all counted. So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows. ‘Everyone therefore who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven; but whoever denies me before others, I also will deny before my Father in heaven."

Bible Quotation For Today/He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one ordained by God as judge of the living and the dead.
Acts of the Apostles 10/23b-27.34-43: "So Peter invited them in and gave them lodging. The next day he got up and went with them, and some of the believers from Joppa accompanied him. The following day they came to Caesarea. Cornelius was expecting them and had called together his relatives and close friends. On Peter’s arrival Cornelius met him, and falling at his feet, worshipped him. But Peter made him get up, saying, ‘Stand up; I am only a mortal.’ And as he talked with him, he went in and found that many had assembled; Then Peter began to speak to them: ‘I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. You know the message he sent to the people of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ he is Lord of all. That message spread throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John announced: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. We are witnesses to all that he did both in Judea and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree; but God raised him on the third day and allowed him to appear, not to all the people but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses, and who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one ordained by God as judge of the living and the dead. All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.’"

Latest analysis, editorials from miscellaneous sources published on June 24-25/15
Burning the Books of Hassan Al-Banna and Sayyid Qutb/Mshari Al-Zaydi/Asharq Al Awsat/24 June/15
The Scorpion, The Frog and The Pope/Susan Warner/Gatestone Institute/June 24/15
Al Jazeera Reporter,Ahmad Zaida Endorses Terrorists/Rachael Hanna/Gatestone Institute./June 24/15
Fear for the Druze—or for Assad/Diana Moukalled/Alsharq Al Awsat/June 24/15
Don't Let the Deadline Drive the Deal/Dennis Ross/Washington Institute/June 24/15
Turkey's Political Scene Post-Election (Part 1): The AKP-CHP Option/Soner Cagaptay/Washinton Institute/June 24/15
West reportedly offering nuclear help to Iran/Associated Press/Ynetnews/Published: 06.24.15/Israel News

Lebanese Related News published on June 24-25/15
Lebanon's Presidential Elections Postponed to July 15
Berri Urges Law Enforcement on Roumieh Torture Suspects, Rioters
FM, Bassil Says No Cabinet Session without Appointments as Berri Urges Postponement to September
STL hears about call claiming Hariri attack 
Salam wont set Cabinet session for next week 
Hariri decries the ‘suicide’ of state impasse 
Beirut's Mayor denies plan to buy  public beach 
Hezbollah gains new ground in northern Qalamoun 
Berri urges rivals to end political deadlock 
Bassil: Scrap Lebanon debt to ease refugee burden 
Subcommittee calls for Cabinet prison commission
Startups recall hitches in Kafalat applications 
Businessmen, not politicians, ruining the economy: Aoun 
Poll: Majority of Lebanese Don't Support U.S. but Back its Fight against IS
Banks to Take Part in Economic Committees' Movement but SCC Boycotts
Report: Christians to Activate Contacts to Develop Declaration of Intent
Bassil Appeals for Debt Relief to Resolve Refugee Crisis
Mustaqbal Bloc Voices Support for 'Measures' of Mashnouq, Rifi after Roumieh Scandal
Mother Begs Australia to Help Daughter Flee IS after Lebanese Terrorist's Reported Death

 Miscellaneous Reports And News published on June 24-25/15
Kurdish militia wants Syrian rebels to lead attack on ISIS HQ
Syrian Al-Qaeda leader praises Yemeni militant killed by US
Syrian Kurds say ISIS shoring up de facto capital Raqqa
Six killed in Somalia Shabaab attack on UAE embassy convoy
Yemen: Hadi loyalists in prisoner swap with Houthis
Anti-Houthi forces in Yemen seize Saudi border crossing
Khamenei rules out freezing nuclear activities
France voices concerns on Iran talks after Khamenei comments
'Israel doing you a favor by giving you citizenship,' deputy minister tells Arab MK
9 Druze arrested over attacks on Syrians
Druse steeped in conspiracy theories
Israeli PM remembers brother killed in Entebbe operation
PA to file allegations against Israel to ICC
IAF (Israeli Air Forces) strikes in Gaza after rocket explodes in
Turkey says in reconciliation talks with Israel
Obama administration rejects further consideration of UN Gaza report
Israeli on flotilla ship to Gaza: I am doing this for the Israeli people
More Germans worried about Islamophobia than anti-Semitism, new poll finds
Poll: Israelis more supportive of US actions against ISIS than Americans themselves
Jews and Muslims celebrate Iftar feast after Turkish synagogue reopens
Snowden papers suggest possible UK role in U.S. drone strike
More German women joining ISIS to fight, intelligence head says
Syria’s Nusra Front underlines Al-Qaeda link in audio message
Russia’s Caucasus Islamists ‘pledge allegiance’ to ISIS
Je Suis…Nasser Al-Qasabi!
It is true, the rules of the game have changed
Will the Palestinian leadership be forever divided?
Why ISIS poetry could be more dangerous than its videos
ISIS and its three states one year after Mosul’s fall
Rains cool Pakistan as heat wave's death toll climbs to 838
NATO won't be 'dragged into arms race' with Russia: Stoltenberg
EU migrant quota plan 'not going to fly,' officials say
France Calls U.S. Spying 'Unacceptable' after WikiLeaks Claims

Jehad Watch Latest Reports And News
|Canada: Convert to Islam approves of jihad attacks on Canadian police & military
UK cops knew Muslim rape gangs were targeting schools 5 years ago, did nothing
Study claims right-wing extremists bigger threat to US than jihadis
Obama administration will now communicate with jihad groups holding hostages
Islamic State calls for jihad, martyrdom during Ramadan
Islamic State set to issue its own currency, models coin designs after those of third caliph
Boston Marathon jihad murderer: “I am Muslim. My religion is Islam.”
AFDI Muhammad cartoons shown on Dutch TV
The New York Times and the Danish Election: Just a Few Little Things
Juan Cole blames Charleston race murders on Robert Spencer and Pamela Geller

Prostitution & Hezbollah
Elias Bejjani/24.06.15
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/2015/06/24/24627/
The Kuwaiti daily Al Seyasa published today a scandalous report in Arabic addressing in details a Hezbollah sponsored, financed and run intelligence and professional prostitution net and gang, entrusted to trap Lebanese politicians and dignitaries from all walks of life.
According to the report these well trained prostitutes target prominent Lebanese figures in a bid to shoot videos for them while practicing sex with the Hezbollah prostitutes and afterwards terrorize and subdue them by all attrition, financial, political means and otherwise.
For the last few years, there has been widely spread but unproven reports and rumors about certain high ranking Lebanese clergymen, bankers, union leaders, media men-women, politicians and judiciary personnel that Hezbollah and the Syrian Intelligence authorities are fully controlling their conduct and rhetoric because of such sex videos.
Meanwhile Prostitution is not a new invention by Hezbollah and its Axis of Evil, No not at all because it is the most ancient dirty trade since man was created with Eve. It is well known as a fact that many Intelligence world-wide agencies use this instinctive trade for subduing opponents and for numerous attrition purposes.
For Hezbollah to resort to such an unethical trade and means shows really the nature, education and evilness of its vicious schemes and merciless terrorism. At the same time those clergy, politicians, officials and citizens who fall preys to such traps do not deserve to hold any leadership position be religious or civil.
Sadly our mother country, Lebanon is currently fully controlled by an evil herd of leaders, both political and religious alike, the majority of them are mere mercenaries who do not fear God or His Judgment Day.
Let us pray that Almighty God protects and safeguard Lebanon and its people from these leaders.

Salam will not set Cabinet session for next week
Hasan Lakkis/The Daily Star/June. 24, 2015
BEIRUT: Prime Minister Tammam Salam will not set a Cabinet session for next week, sources said Tuesday, a day after the premier stated that he was adamant that the paralyzed government would meet and make decisions. Speaking to The Daily Star, the sources said Salam’s remarks, made during an iftar banquet at the Grand Serail Monday, were simply a reiteration of his position that the Cabinet must convene and make decisions at some point, and that he could not continue to wait indefinitely. After weeks of refraining from commenting directly on the Cabinet deadlock, Salam had said the government would resume its meetings.
“Amid these difficult circumstances, I will struggle and cooperate with everybody and there will be Cabinet sessions, decisions and positions [laid out],” Salam said. Some media outlets suggested that the remarks indicated Salam would call for a Cabinet session next week.
But sources said Tuesday that Salam was still giving negotiations a chance, and did not want to obstruct the opportunity for further communication and consultation between Cabinet members. Sources added that Speaker Nabih Berri was also making efforts to help reach an agreement between the Cabinet’s factions so that the government could resume its work as soon as possible. Salam’s government has not met since June 4, due to a dispute over security appointments. Backed by his allies Hezbollah, the Marada Movement and the Tashnag Party, Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun has said that his ministers will not allow the Cabinet to discuss any items on its agenda before first appointing his son in-law, Brig. Gen. Shamel Roukoz, to the top post of Army commander.
The Future bloc, the Kataeb Party, the Progressive Socialist Party, ministers loyal to former President Michel Sleiman, and even ministers loyal to Berri, Hezbollah’s ally, have rejected the FPM’s ultimatum.
In a bid to avoid confrontation, Salam has refrained from calling a Cabinet session for the past three weeks, in hopes that given enough time, ministers will be able to find a compromise. To this end, Salam may hold talks with Berri before the end of the week, according to sources, in order to coordinate steps to revive the Cabinet’s work. But they admitted that there are no signs that Aoun and his allies in Hezbollah would change their position. The sources stated that a proposal made by mediators – to postpone the appointment of a new Army commander until September, when the terms of Army Commander Gen. Jean Kahwagi and General Director of Army Intelligence Brig. Edmond Fadel expire – has fallen on deaf ears. Other sources asserted that Salam will not wait forever, and would call for a session once he is sure that Aoun and his allies will never accept a postponement of the security appointments.
March 8 ministers have also claimed that Finance Minister Ali Hasan Khalil’s contention – that Cabinet approval is required for him to allocate funds from the Treasury reserve to pay the September salaries of public sector employees – is aimed only at pressuring the Cabinet to convene. Sources stated that allocating the funds does not require Cabinet authorization. In a sign that no breakthrough has been achieved, Aoun insisted Tuesday that at the next meeting of the Cabinet, Roukoz must be appointed Army commander.
Speaking after chairing the weekly meeting of his parliamentary bloc, Aoun said there were rumors that a “theatrical, deceptive” Cabinet session would be held, during which the topic of security appointments would be brought up and then tabled due to a lack of consensus. “[The issue of] appointments will not fail [to be addressed]. There are specific names that all factions have promised to support,” Aoun said. Aoun claims that Future Movement leader Saad Hariri has already voiced his backing for Roukoz’s appointment as Army commander. “The session should end with the appointment of the agreed-upon person,” Aoun said. Countering arguments that the presidential interregnum and Cabinet paralysis were worsening the country’s economic situation, Aoun presented a study that he claimed proved Lebanon’s economy was “very good.” He contended that the state has more than sufficient revenues at present, but that money is being stolen through corruption.
The Future parliamentary bloc warned after its weekly meeting of “the dire consequences” the presidential deadlock and paralyzed government were having on the socio-economic conditions in the country, affecting people’s livelihoods and Lebanon’s security.
The bloc also expressed its support for a gathering planned by unions and leading private sector figures to warn of the negative economic consequences of the political deadlock. The event is scheduled to be held at BIEL Thursday.
The bloc called on MPs to elect a president at the 25th parliamentary election session, which Berri has scheduled for Wednesday. As government work stalled in paralysis, some top officials did meet Tuesday, as Salam chaired a meeting of the crisis cell responsible for securing the release of 25 Lebanese servicemen, held hostage by ISIS and the Nusra Front since last August. General Security Chief Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim, who attended the meeting, said that terms with the Nusra Front have now been finalized. Nusra holds 16 of the kidnapped men. Sources familiar with the talks told The Daily Star that under the agreement, the 16 servicemen will be swapped for 16 non-convicted female detainees held by Lebanese authorities. They said that Nusra has yet to specify the time and date of the exchange.
As for the hostages held by ISIS, the sources said there were no active negotiations with the militant group at present.

Lebanon's Presidential Elections Postponed to July 15
Naharnet/June 24/15/Parliament failed once again on Wednesday to elect a president after quorum was not met during the 25th elections session. Speaker Nabih Berri postponed the polls to July 15. MP Michel Pharaon stated after the meeting: “The paralysis at parliament and at cabinet are spreading to the remaining state institutions.”Meanwhile, MP Marwan Hamadeh responded to criticism directed by Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi against lawmakers, saying: “Why are we being lumped in sermons and statements with those who have been boycotting electoral sessions?” “We have attended all 25 meetings,” he stressed. The patriarch has repeatedly condemned the presidential vacuum and lawmakers for failing to elect a new head of state. Lebanon has been without a president since May 2014 when the term of Michel Suleiman ended without the election of a successor. Ongoing disputes between the rival March 8 and 14 camps over a compromise presidential candidate have thwarted the polls. The Loyalty to the Resistance bloc of Hizbullah and the Change and Reform bloc of Michel Aoun have been boycotting the elections.

FM, Bassil Says No Cabinet Session without Appointments as Berri Urges Postponement to September
Naharnet/June 24/15/Speaker Nabih Berri on Wednesday called for postponing debate over the thorny issue of the security and military appointments to September, as Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil stressed that the Free Patriotic Movement will not attend any cabinet session that does not have the file on the top of its agenda. “During his meeting with Minister Bassil, Speaker Berri suggested postponing the security appointments to September, as Bassil insisted on the FPM's stance regarding the issue of appointments,” Voice of Lebanon radio (93.3) reported after talks in Ain el-Tineh. Bassil, however, underlined that “there will be no cabinet session without the file of appointments.” “We are the ones who 'represent the president' and we're partners in the cabinet and the agendas of its sessions cannot be prepared without taking our opinion into account,” the minister emphasized. “Let the prime minister call a session and we will attend and debate, but we have a clear demand: the file of appointments must remain on the top of the agenda,” he added. On Tuesday, An Nahar newspaper reported that Prime Minister Tammam Salam was setting the agenda of a cabinet session that he intends to chair next week following an agreement with Berri. The cabinet has been paralyzed since early June when Salam suspended the sessions over a dispute on the appointment of high-ranking security and military officials. Free Patriotic Movement ministers have warned they would boycott any session whose agenda is not topped by the appointments. The parliament has also been paralyzed over a dispute between the rival MPs on the presidential elections. Their rivalry has left Baabda Palace vacant since the expiry of President Michel Suleiman's term in May last year.

Report: Christians to Activate Contacts to Develop Declaration of Intent
Naharnet/June 24/15/Contacts between Bkirki and officials from the Free Patriotic Movement, the Lebanese Forces and the Marada Movement are expected to be activated this week in an attempt to resolve the presidential deadlock.
An Nahar daily said Wednesday that Change and Reform bloc MP Ibrahim Kanaan is planning to hold separate talks with Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi, LF chief Samir Geagea and Marada leader MP Suleiman Franjieh.
Geagea's envoy Melhem Riachi is also planning to meet with FPM chief Michel Aoun, who heads the Change and Reform bloc, to discuss the second stage of the declaration of intent that was announced by the two rival leaders during a meeting they held in Rabieh earlier this month, said the newspaper. According to An Nahar, a proposal made by Aoun to have a referendum on the choice of Christians on their presidential candidate is under study. Both Aoun and Geagea are candidates. Their rivalry, in addition to differences between the March 8 and 14 alliances, has left Baabda Palace vacant since President Michel Suleiman's six-year tenure ended in May 2014. In their declaration of intent, the two Christian leaders called for “the election of a strong president who is embraced by his community and capable of reassuring the other components of the country.”They agreed to strengthen state institutions, not to resort to arms or violence and to support the army. The two parties also stressed commitment to dialogue and underlined “their faith in Lebanon, the coexistence formula and the Constitution.”

Banks to Take Part in Economic Committees' Movement but SCC Boycotts
Naharnet/June 24/15/The head of the Association of Banks in Lebanon, Francois Bassil, has said the ABL will participate in a conference organized by the Economic Committees on Thursday to shed light on the severe repercussions of the political crisis on the country's economy.Bassil told An Nahar daily published Wednesday that although the banking sector is functioning properly, the ABL will take part in the conference that will be held in BIEL.“Our conditions will not be better than the rest of the sectors if the situation remains the same,” he warned. Bassil hoped that Thursday's move would shake the conscience of politicians and they would think about Lebanon’s interest first. The head of the ABL stressed that the Lebanese Lira is strong and the conditions of the financial market are better off this week. Meanwhile, the Syndicate Coordination Committee said it would boycott the BIEL conference because the Economic Committees, a grouping of the country's businessmen and owners of major firms, stood against the SCC when it was asking for the approval of the wage scale for the public sector.On Tuesday, Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun criticized the Committees, saying the businessmen complaining that the political crisis is harming the economy are to be blamed for robbing the country.
The MPs from the Change and Reform bloc of Aoun, who is a presidential candidate, and Hizbullah lawmakers have been boycotting parliamentary sessions aimed at electing a head of state. The vacuum at Baabda Palace since the term of President Michel Suleiman ended in May last year has caused a paralysis in parliament and the cabinet.

Poll: Majority of Lebanese Don't Support U.S. but Back its Fight against IS
Naharnet/June 24/15/Countries across the world have a favorable view of the U.S. while 60 percent of Lebanese express an unfavorable view, according to a Pew Research Center report. The U.S. airstrikes in Iraq and Syria against Islamic State group fighters also drew 62 percent support worldwide. Among the supporters are 78 percent of the Lebanese population. But the U.S. scored less favorably when people were questioned about what Pew called "the harsh interrogation methods used against suspected terrorists in the wake of 9/11 that many consider torture.”Fifty percent of Lebanese said the methods were unjustified, compared to 58 percent of respondents in the U.S. who felt the acts were warranted. Pew said Tuesday that although many around the world take a grim view of the harsh interrogation policy America pursued in the wake of the September 11 attacks, the U.S. continues to receive strong marks for respecting the individual liberties of its own citizens.The survey said 81 percent of Lebanese believe that the U.S. respects the personal freedoms of its people, but only 36 percent said they have confidence in U.S. President Barack Obama's ability to do the right thing regarding world affairs. People in 40 countries were included in the study.

Bassil Appeals for Debt Relief to Resolve Refugee Crisis
Naharnet/June 24/15/Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil said Wednesday that the Syrian refugee crisis in Lebanon requires debt relief by the international community. “The refugee crisis needs qualitative solutions by the international community such as debt relief and buying all our agricultural products,” Bassil said at the opening of the Beirut Ministerial Conference on the European Neighborhood Policy Review. The FM warned that the crisis has severe economic, social and security repercussions on Syria's neighboring countries. Social Affairs Minister Rashid Derbas said last week that the number of refugees registered with the U.N. refugee agency, the UNHCR, has reached approximately 1.2 million. More Syrians have entered the country illegally and are not registered. In his speech, Bassil called for “cooperation to dry the sources of Takfiri and Islamic State thoughts and their financial support coming from states, organizations or individuals.”The conference is attended by European Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighborhood Policy Johannes Hahn.EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini and Hahn launched last March a consultation on the future of the European Neighborhood Policy (ENP) aiming at undertaking a fundamental review of its principles, scope and instruments in light of the significant developments in the region.Hahn on Wednesday signed with Lebanese officials two financing agreements totaling 34 million euros ($38.13 million) in grants in support of national stability and the protection of maritime resources.

STL hears about claim of responsibility for Hariri killing
Elise Knutsen/The Daily Star/ June. 24, 2015
BEIRUT: Less than an hour after the massive explosion that tore through the Beirut Marina killing Rafik Hariri and 21 others, an editor at Al- Jazeera’s Beirut office received a cryptic phone call from a man she did not know. Speaking in what she believed to be a feigned Lebanese accent, the man hurriedly began reading a declaration claiming responsibility for Hariri’s assassination.The editor testified before the Special Tribunal for Lebanon Tuesday, telling the court about the cryptic phone call and the almost Hollywoodian events that unfolded later that afternoon in February 2005. With her face obscured and her voice altered to conceal her identity from the public, the editor recalled the first phone call she received. The man on the other end of the line was speaking in “a high pitched tone and was tense,” the witness told the STL. “My impression was that he was trying to speak with a Lebanese accent but it was very clear that he was not Lebanese.” While he sounded like a native Arabic speaker, the editor testified that she was unable to determine the man’s nationality. The caller “just asked me to get a piece of paper a pen and he started reading a statement in classic Arabic,” the editor told the court. “When I was unable to [keep up with his dictation], he started telling me, ‘If you’re not going to write quickly, I’m going to hang up.’”
The editor gave the phone to journalist Ghassan bin Jeddo, who was Al-Jazeera’s bureau chief in Lebanon at the time. Not long after the first call, Al-Jazeera received a second call, ostensibly from the same individual. The editor picked up the phone and the man on the other end asked her to pass the phone to someone else and she once again passed the phone to bin Jeddo. After hanging up, bin Jeddo told the editor that the caller had informed him of a VHS tape stashed in a tree in Downtown Beirut. Another Al-Jazeera employee was dispatched to the site but found nothing. Soon after, the editor recalled that yet another Al-Jazeera employee went to the location described by the mysterious caller and returned to the Al-Jazeera offices with an envelope. A VHS tape was discovered inside. After loading the VHS into a player, the editor was faced with a bearded man seated before an Islamic flag. “Relying on God, we decided to hand the just punishment to the agent of [the Saudi] regime and its cheap tool in greater Syria ... Rafik Hariri ... through carrying out this martyrdom operation,” the man said, reading from a script. The editor testified Tuesday that the script read by the man in the video was identical to the declaration the mysterious caller had begun dictating to her a few hours prior. According to the prosecution, the video was part of an elaborate effort to throw Lebanese authorities off the scent of Hariri’s true killers. The claim of responsibility delivered to Al-Jazeera was completely fake, the prosecution claims. The man in the video was ultimately identified as Ahmad Abu Adass, a Palestinian who had recently disappeared under mysterious circumstances. While he claimed in the video that he was the driver of the truck bomb, his parents later told U.N. investigators that Abu Adass had never before driven a vehicle. No trace of Abu Adass’ remains were discovered at the crime scene. The court is scheduled to hear more testimony related to the delivery of the tape in the coming days and weeks.

Hariri decries the economic ‘suicide’ of state impasse
The Daily Star/June. 24, 2015 /BEIRUT: Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri Wednesday vowed to contain the economic crisis resulting from the country’s political impasse, expressing solidarity with Lebanese businessmen who have lambasted the situation.
“We are fully aware of problems and challenges facing the Lebanese due to the deteriorating economic and social situation,” Hariri said in a post on his official Twitter page, noting that he will join the country’s economic committees in rightfully decrying "national suicide" in light of the waning economy. Economic committees gathering the country’s most prominent bankers and business men are set to convene in a conference in Biel Thursday, to denounce the economic situation in the country. The Future Movement leader said that ministers and lawmakers loyal to his bloc “will mull all the recommendations proposed by Thursday’s meeting.”“We will do all we can to implement the needed solutions in favor of the well-being of all Lebanese,” Hariri added. Thursday’s gathering comes as a response to Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun, who accused businessmen of harming the economy by evading taxes and robbing the country. Hariri countered this logic by arguing that the economic downfall was a direct result of the “vacuum in the presidency and paralysis of the legislative and executive branches of government.” Chamber of Commerce President, Mohamed Choucair described the meeting as a "cry against [economic] suicide and against politicians who are affecting the country and the interests of its people through their political rifts.”Organizers said that the meeting would be followed by several escalatory measures.

Hezbollah gains new ground in northern Qalamoun
The Daily Star/June. 24, 2015 /BEIRUT: Hezbollah and the Syrian army captured a hilltop position and a strategic crossing outside a northern Qalamoun town Wednesday, Al-Manar reported. The Hezbollah-run channel said the allied forces took over Qirnat Wadi al-Maghara in the outskirts of government-held Jarajeer. The latest gain has allowed regime forces and their Lebanese allies to wrest full control over the Wadi al-Maghara crossing, which links the Qalamoun town to Lebanese territory. Hezbollah and the Syrian army have been battling militants in the Qalamoun region since May 4. Earlier this month, Hezbollah advanced into Arsal’s outskirts from the south and east, tightening the noose around Nusra Front militants encamped in the area. North of Arsal, Hezbollah is engaged in fighting with ISIS for control of the outskirts of Ras Baalbek, a Lebanese Christian border town. After taking over the Syrian town of Flita, Hezbollah and the Syrian army launched an offensive to take the outskirts of Jarajeer, which is south of Flita and southeast of Arsal. Meanwhile, the Lebanese Army bombarded militant hideouts on the outskirts of Arsal and Ras Baalbek Wednesday, in a bid to secure the volatile area from the threat of Syrian rebels. Security sources said that soldiers used heavy artillery to fire on suspected militant positions in the outskirts of the two towns. The Army has maintained a near-daily pattern of attacking militant positions on the outskirts of Arsal and Ras Baalbek in a bid to discourage any further attacks, vowing to eradicate terrorism from Lebanon.

Beirut Mayor: Jumblatt's claims on Ramlet al-Baida deal 'totally untrue'
The Daily Star/June. 24, 2015 /BEIRUT: Beirut's Mayor dismissed Progressive Socialist Party chief Walid Jumblatt's claims Wednesday that the capital's municipality would purchase the private property on Ramlet al-Baida beach from its current owners for $130 million. "With all due respect to Mr. Walid Jumblatt, these claims are completely untrue,” Bilal Hamad told The Daily Star by phone. “I have already stated many times to the media that expropriating the lots is not an item on the municipal council’s agenda.”
“We have not held, and we are not currently holding, any negotiations with the owners,” he said. Earlier Wednesday, Jumblatt had tweeted saying that the municipality had reached a deal to purchase private lots from their owners. “Finally, the endeavors of Beirut residents succeeded in preserving Ramlet al-Baida beach, but at what price?” Jumblatt said on his Twitter account, two days after Beirut Judge of Urgent Matters Zalfa al-Hasan reversed a decision to allow private real estate companies to block the entrances to Beirut’s only public beach. Jumblatt claimed that the municipality would buy three parcels of land on the beach for LL195 trillion ($130 million), despite selling it in the past for just LL45 billion ($30 million). “Where is he [Jumblatt] getting his information from?” Hamad said. “A couple of days ago he claimed that we were planning to build commercial centers inside the horse riding stadium, which was also completely unfounded."“Let him check his sources.”
Two real estate companies, Mediterranean Real Estate and Bahr Real Estate, both owned by businessman Wissam Ashour, are the current owners of the land on Ramlet al-Baida. Irad Investment Holding group also owns some shares in the companies. Hasan’s previous order granted the companies permission to cordon off the sections of beach they owned, blocking public access to roughly 28,000 square meters of Ramlet al-Baida. Activists, however, voiced fear that developers would transform these sections of Beirut’s only free public beach - a popular destination for low-income families - into luxury projects that cater to the wealthy, similar to what occurred last year when the state fenced off a section of Raouche.
Hasan claimed the reversal of the decision was due to new information she received that revealed the real estate companies had intentions beyond protecting private ownership. The PSP leader had also lamented Parliament’s failure to reach an agreement over law governing seaside property; decrying his National Struggle Front bloc’s inability to pass a law that defines Lebanon's beaches as public property. The “affluent” people, “who have seized the seafront property, are stronger than the state,” Jumblatt tweeted. He speculated as to whether there were “wealthy brokers" behind the alleged deal. “We continuously called on the municipality to preserve the heritage of Beirut,” but this fell on deaf ears, he added. In 1966, the state endorsed a decree that allow owners to build on their seaside properties if their plans were approved by the Lebanese government and served touristic or industrial purposes. Hamad, on the other hand, said the coastal areas were solely the responsibility of the Public Works Ministry, specifically the Transportation Directorate. He said his municipality was not to blame for whatever the outcome was with regard to Ramlet al-Baida, calling on the state to “take back the coastal properties” by finding “an adequate solution.” He refused to comment on what that solution could be. “Why are they throwing this on Beirut’s municipality when it’s not at all our responsibility?”

Businessmen, not politicians, ruining the economy: Aoun
The Daily Star/June. 24, 2015/BEIRUT: The businessmen complaining that the political crisis in Lebanon is harming the economy are the ones to blame for evading taxes and robbing the country, Free Patriotic Movement chief Michel Aoun said Tuesday. “Perhaps the financial situation of individuals and households is not good, but the overall economic situation in Lebanon is very good,” Aoun said in a news conference after the weekly Change and Reform Bloc meeting. “But Lebanon is being robbed, and this is why [the state] is not giving the Lebanese their rights.”Aoun lashed out at Lebanese businessmen who complain about the presidential vacuum and deadlock in Cabinet and Parliament, saying they were only worried about their own fortunes and not the welfare of the people as a whole. “Who is complaining about the economic situation? Those who do not pay taxes?,” he said. He cited studies he said were from international monetary organizations that showed large amounts of tax evasion in Lebanon. “Those called the Economic Committees... who do they represent?” he asked, referring to the coalition of wealthy business groups. “They represent themselves. What do they seek? They seek their own profits,” he added. “They only discuss the people’s conditions when they want to incite them against us.”
He accused the business elite of aiming to prevent average citizens from achieving “real reform” because it would harm their interests.

Berri urges rivals to end political deadlock
The Daily Star/June. 24, 2015/BEIRUT: Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri Wednesday reiterated calls for rival Lebanese parties to activate the work of the state institutions, as the Cabinet remained in the throes of a three-week long crisis.“The current circumstances compel everyone to assume their responsibilities,” visitors quoted Berri as saying during his weekly meeting with lawmakers. He urged politicians to favor the interests of the people, refusing to comment further on the situation in the country. Berri also met with Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil who said after the meeting that Cabinet could not draft an agenda for an upcoming session without consulting with the Free Patriotic Movement. “We represent the president and we are partners in this government, therefore Cabinet can't place an agenda without taking our opinion,” Bassil said. "Let the prime minister call for a session, we will attend and deliberate, but we have a clear demand and that is for the issue of security appointments to be the first item on the agenda,” he told reporters.
Bassil’s comments came amid reports that claimed that the Cabinet was expected to convene in the next two weeks, after one month of canceled sessions. Cabinet has not met since June 4, due to a dispute over security appointments. Backed by his allies Hezbollah, the Marada Movement and the Tashnag Party, FPM leader Michel Aoun has said that his ministers will not allow the Cabinet to discuss any items on its agenda before first resolving this issue. Aoun is backing his son in-law, Brig. Gen. Shamel Roukoz for the appointment of Army commander. The Future bloc, the Kataeb Party, the Progressive Socialist Party, ministers loyal to former President Michel Sleiman - in addition to ministers loyal to Berri, Hezbollah’s ally - have all rejected the FPM’s ultimatum. In a bid to avoid confrontation, Salam has refrained from calling a Cabinet session for the past three weeks, in hopes that given enough time, ministers will be able to find a compromise.

Kurdish militia wants Syrian rebels to lead attack on ISIS HQ
Reuters/June. 24, 2015/BEIRUT: A Kurdish militia leading an attack on ISIS strongholds in Syria so far has no plan to extend the assault to the group's de facto capital of Raqqa city, and such an advance should be led by Syrian rebels, a Kurdish leader said Wednesday. The comments by Saleh Moslem, leader of the Democratic Union Party (PYD), indicated there is no imminent offensive on Raqqa city by the Kurdish-led forces that have made swift gains against the extremists backed by U.S.-led airstrikes. Backed by smaller Syrian rebel groups, the Kurdish YPG militia moved to within 50 km (30 miles) of Raqqa city Tuesday with the capture of the town of Ain Issa in northern Syria, backed by U.S.-led air strikes. Driven from areas north of Raqqa, ISIS was reported to be reinforcing its positions near the city Wednesday, digging trenches and bringing in truck loads of weapons.
But Moslem, whose party holds sway in Syria's Kurdish areas, said it was up to rebel groups fighting with the YPG to decide on any advance on Raqqa itself. "We spoke to the YPG leadership. They don't have a plan towards Raqqa so far. This (decision) is linked to the revolutionary forces in Raqqa," Moslem said in a telephone interview."When they are ready to free Raqqa, to liberate it, perhaps the YPG will decide to support them. But the YPG have not made a decision in this regard so far," he said.
The YPG has emerged as the only notable partner on the ground to date for the U.S.-led alliance bombing Islamic State in Syria, and has fought several successful campaigns against the jihadists with air support.
Moslem's comments indicate the well-organised YPG's reluctance to venture far beyond Kurdish areas to attack Islamic State in parts of Syria where Arabs are in the majority: the YPG's stated aim is to defend the Kurdish areas. The Obama administration has touted Kurdish-led advances as a model for the U.S.-backed effort to roll back the extremist group. A U.S. plan to train and equip the "moderate" opposition to fight the militants is stumbling. The capture of Tel Abyad at the Turkish border last week severed an important ISIS supply route. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an activist group which monitors the war, said ISIS had called in reinforcements of 100 truckload of weapons and ammunition which it was believed to be deploying at a military base on the Raqqa outskirts. YPG spokesman Redur Xelil told Reuters the Kurds had received information that ISIS had "begun digging trenches in the vicinity of Raqqa to improve their defenses."
Some Syrian opposition activists have accused the YPG of driving Arabs and Turkmen from areas taken over in the latest advance - an accusation of ethnic cleansing echoed by the Turkish government but vehemently denied by the YPG. The Observatory says it has not recorded any systematic abuse of human rights by the advancing YPG forces, though there have been some individual cases. The capture of Tel Abyad linked up two of the autonomous Kurdish zones in northern Syria, fuelling Turkish concerns about Kurdish separatism in Syria that could encourage its own Kurdish minority. The Syrian Kurds say they do not want a separate state, but that their model of regional autonomy should be the basis for an eventual solution to the Syria war. More than 23,000 people fled into Turkey from Syria as the Kurdish-led advance approach Tel Abyad, and thousands more have reportedly fled to Raqqa city from the advancing YPG-led forces.
Moslem said claims of ethnic cleansing aimed at igniting Arab-Kurdish strife and would not succeed, adding that returning the displaced to their homes was a priority for the YPG.

Turkey says in reconciliation talks with Israel
Agence France Presse/June. 24, 2015/ISTANBUL: Turkey Wednesday said it was holding talks with Israel over a deal to reconcile the two former allies following a deadly Israeli commando raid on a Turkish aid vessel bound for Gaza. "It's quite normal for the two countries to talk for the normalization of the ties. How can reconciliation be achieved without holding any meetings?" Mevlut Cavusoglu told reporters in Ankara. Cavusoglu's comments came a day after Israel's Haaretz daily reported that Israeli and Turkish officials had held secret talks in Rome Monday in a bid to restore relations between the two countries. Cavusoglu confirmed such a contact had been made and said: "These meetings are not new. Expert-level talks have been held between the two countries for a while."In 2010, Israeli commandos stormed the Turkish-flagged Mavi Marmara, the largest ship in an aid flotilla for the besieged Gaza Strip. Nine Turks died in the raid and one more died in hospital in 2014 after four years in a coma. The assault sparked widespread condemnation and provoked a major diplomatic crisis between the two countries. Ankara expelled the Israeli ambassador, demanded a formal apology and compensation and an end to the blockade on the Gaza Strip, which is ruled by Hamas, a Palestinian militant group.Talks on compensation began in 2013 after Israel extended a formal apology to Turkey in a breakthrough brokered by U.S. President Barack Obama. The Israeli government reportedly presented a deal to pay compensation to the families of the victims, but an agreement has not yet been forthcoming.
"The ball is in the court of the other side on our two demands (the lifting of the blockade on Gaza and the payment of compensation to the families)," Cavusoglu said. "We are waiting for an answer from them. An agreement could perhaps have been reached much earlier but the process has been delayed because of the domestic balances of Israel," he said. The talks come two weeks after the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), co-funded by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan who is known for his angry outbursts at the Jewish state, lost its majority in parliament.

France voices concerns on Iran talks after Khamenei comments
Reuters/June. 24, 2015/PARIS: French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Wednesday that declarations from Iranian leaders appeared not to favor an international deal on the country's nuclear program. Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Tuesday ruled out freezing sensitive nuclear work in the country for a long time and said sanctions imposed on it should be lifted as soon it reaches a final deal with major powers, state TV reported. Major powers - Britain, France, Germany, China, Russia and the United States - want Iran to commit to a verifiable halt of at least 10 years on sensitive nuclear development work as part of a landmark atomic deal they aim to reach by June 30. "France wants a deal but wants the deal to be robust, a good deal, but not a bad deal," he said at a news conference alongside Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir. "A certain number of statements do not seem to go in that direction. France reaffirms that it wants a solid accord, but at the same time must stress the firmness of its positions."Fabius cited limitations on Iran's uranium enrichment capacity and research, rigorous verification systems, including for military sites, and restoring sanctions immediately if Tehran reneged on its obligations as key elements of a deal. France is deemed to have been one of the toughest in pressing for limits to prevent Iran acquiring an atomic bomb capability, although Tehran denies seeking nuclear weapons. Israel and Gulf Arab states have criticised the emerging agreement as not going far enough to guarantee Tehran will not obtain a nuclear bomb. Jubeir said he "completely supported" France's position in the talks.

Fear for the Druze—or for Assad?
Diana Moukalled/Alsharq Al Awsat/Tuesday, 23 Jun, 2015
Lebanese politician Wiam Wahab’s recent warning regarding the possibility of the Druze seeking refuge in Israel to escape the takfirist threat did not provoke the ire of the anti-Israel resistance ranks, whether on the media or the political level. Wahab, who has appeared on several TV channels yelling and threatening since the Al-Nusra Front killed 30 Druze in Syria, said: “When people sense danger, they’d even go to the devil”—meaning Israel. His statements went unnoticed, just like the statements of Rami Makhlouf, the Syrian businessmen and Bashar Al-Assad’s cousin, once did. Makhlouf had at the beginning of the Syrian revolution said that Israel’s security will be threatened if the popular uprising is not restrained in the country. Wahab’s statements were not considered to be issued by a “foreign agent” and were thus met with consent, just like Makhlouf’s statements were met back then. During the four years separating the two remarks, so-called anti-Israel resistance figures have made plenty of statements that profess enmity to Israel when in fact they harbor other intentions.
The truth is that the Israeli media has been abuzz with talk of concern over the Druze situation in Syria. This concern was marketed as worry over the fate of Syrian Druze who are closely connected to Israel’s own Druze community. Israeli military preparations and further security measures in the Golan Heights have now been announced. Arab media followed up on this propaganda campaign by Israel and the resistance who also used its media outlets to exaggerate fear of takfirists and to warn of a potential massacre of the Druze. It is as if we are back to square one four years ago: stability is linked to the survival of authoritarian repressive regimes whose interests intersect with those of Israel. There is no doubt that the recent developments have brought back questions regarding the situation of the Druze minority in Syria, Lebanon, Israel, and Jordan. What one group of Druze went through in Syria has directly affected the Druze of Lebanon and Israel. This brings into question the idea that in order for minorities to feel secure they have to remain loyal to authoritarian regimes.
We must not make the mistake of undermining the threat which takfirists pose to minorities. However, one should not forget the risk posed by authoritarian regimes, like the Ba’athists in Syria, who use minorities as a means to protect themselves. The Syrian regime’s exploitation of these minorities threatens the latter’s existence just as much as the takfirists do. This is not to mention that the Syrian regime has always used scaremongering over takfirism to gain legitimacy. Israel adds a new factor to the scene and complicates the whole situation. That Druze clerics have appeared on Israeli television channels to accuse Tel Aviv of negligence to protect their co-religionists in Syria is a new indication of the extent to which fundamentalists from both camps, the anti-Israel resistance and the takfirists, have pushed us and of how far the Syrian regime can go to employ the Israel card.

Burning the Books of Hassan Al-Banna and Sayyid Qutb
Mshari Al-Zaydi/Asharq Al Awsat/Wednesday, 24 Jun, 2015
There have been insistent demands for the renewal of religious discourse in several Muslim countries, including Egypt, which is known as “the Mother of the World” and home to the Al-Azhar university, its highest religious authority.
Ever since the toppling of Egypt’s former Muslim Brotherhood-led government, which led to a surge in terrorist attacks and pro-Brotherhood propaganda campaigns, there has been much talk about the need for religious reform, whether inside or outside Egypt. The discourse the Brotherhood, Al-Qaeda, or the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) employ to recruit people is based on specific religious texts and Islamic Shari’a concepts that lost touch with reality a long time ago.  Although easier said than done, asking Al-Azhar clerics to reform and revolutionize the Islamist discourse, as Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi recently did, is not enough. The problem of religious discourse is too divergent and therefore solving it should involve several factors, most importantly addressing issues such as collective psyche and upbringing. The solution lies in revisiting the religious concepts and ideas people were brought up upon. Similar attempts have been done by many of the great Muslim scholars in Iraq, Egypt, and Andalusia. It is understood that in such uncertain circumstances it is difficult to find the right point of departure for bringing about religious change and reform. Last week, Egypt’s Ministry of Religious Endowments ordered mosques to remove from their shelves books that encourage extremism, particularly those authored by Brotherhood leaders. According to the Egyptian daily newspaper Al-Masry Al-Youm, Minister of Religious Endowments Mohamed Mokhtar Gomaa has ordered the burning of all the books written by clerics who incite violence, such as Hassan Al-Banna, Sayyid Qutb, and Yusuf Al-Qaradawi. There is no doubt about the corruption of the Brotherhood’s ideology; however, does burning a few books constitute a real and effective solution? Those books must be available elsewhere outside Egypt and on the Internet. Moreover, some sides are spending millions on their publication. This is not to mention that thousands of the Brotherhood’s disciples reiterate Qutb and Banna’s ideas in a way that makes them more attractive and appealing to a 21st-century audience, using state-of-the-art technology. Burning books cannot be the solution despite the fact that the close monitoring of mosques is among the duties of the ministries of religious endowments. However, governments should adopt a more comprehensive and sustainable plan that affects all aspects of life. A few years ago I asked an Arab information minister about the purpose of banning books, since they are available online. He answered: “We know those books are available online but by banning them we would be registering a position and sending a political message.”What really need to be burned are the extremist ideas that control the public conscience not mere words on paper. Ibn Hazm, the Andalusian Imam, responded to the burning of his books by saying: Even if you burn the paper, you will not burn what The paper contains, for it is in my heart In fact, the problem is in what the hearts contain not what books say.

Nine Israeli Druze arrested over attacks on wounded Syrian rebels
Ahiya Raved/Reuters/Ynetnews /06.24.15/Police raids Druze villages in Galilee, Golan overnight in search for perpetrators of two attacks on IDF ambulances taking wounded Syrian rebels for treatment in Israel, which resulted in death of one rebel. Police said Wednesday it arrested nine people overnight who are suspected of involvement in two attacks earlier this week on military ambulances transporting wounded from Syria for treatment in Israel. Police also searched the suspects' homes in Druze villages in the Galilee and the Golan Heights. Inflamed by media reports suggesting some of the hundreds of wounded Syrians admitted to Israel for medical care belong to jihadi rebel groups fighting the Druze in Syria, the crowds of Druze blocked two army ambulances for inspection. Early Monday morning, an IDF ambulance transporting wounded Syrians was attacked in the Druze local council of Hurfeish. One of the rioters was run over by the ambulance and taken to a Nahariya hospital for treatment. Late Monday night, another ambulance was attacked in Majdal Shams. The ambulance managed to flee the lynch mob but attacked again in Neve Ativ, where one of the wounded Syrian rebels it was transporting was killed, while the other was critically wounded. An IDF doctor and another soldier were lightly wounded in the attack. The Nazareth Magistrate's Court decided on Wednesday to extend the remand of two of the suspects in six days. The Druze have protested Israel's continued treatment of wounded Syrian rebels, while pro-Assad Druze villages in Syria are in danger of being attacked by rebel forces, including jihadists from the al-Nusra Front. Radical Islamists see the Druze, whose religion is an offshoot of Islam, as apostates to be combated. Druze in Syria and many in the Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria in 1967, have long been loyal to President Bashar Assad. Police increased security over the past few weeks in a hospital in Nahariya where wounded Syrians are being treated, out of fear they will be targeted by Israeli Druze. Druze leaders condemned the attack at the end of an emergency meeting on Tuesday and urged calm. "This is a criminal act, which completely contradicts the values of the Druze community that is known for generations for its aid and help to others, even when to its enemies. Any act of protest must be done within the limitations of the law. Those involved must be brought to justice," they said in a statement. The Druze are an important minority in Israel and have influence within the government and the military. Netanyahu's office said in a statement he would convene Druze leaders on Wednesday with a call "to calm tensions and to say to every Druze citizen of Israel to respect soldiers, law and order and not to take the law into their own hands". Israel has also signaled it would intervene to prevent a massacre of Syrian Druze, with local media suggesting it might offer refugees from the community safe haven on the Golan.

Druse steeped in conspiracy theories
By ARIEL BEN SOLOMON, BEN HARTMAN/J.Post/06/24/2015
Israeli Druse are spreading various reports and conspiracy theories regarding the attacks on IDF ambulances carrying wounded from Syria.
In conversations with The Jerusalem Post, not only Druse leaders but also ordinary residents expressed belief in these rumors or at least some aspects of them. Some say Israel is purposefully aiding the jihadists, while others say they are taking advantage of Israel’s generous humanitarian policy. However, the IDF is adamant that these rumors are false.“The IDF has not aided the organization Jabhat al-Nusra since the fighting began in Syria four years ago,” said Spokesman Brig.–Gen. Moti Almoz, Channel 2 reported. Speaking on Army Radio, Almoz said the men in the ambulance that was attacked Monday night were Syrian citizens injured in their country’s civil war. In conversations with Druse from the Golan Heights and Galilee this past week, Israel was repeatedly accused of either directly supporting the Nusra Front or helping them indirectly by treating their fighters and returning them to battle. Israel was painted as playing a direct role in the crisis facing the Syrian Druse, and of being culpable and the only party that could stop a catastrophe, either by direct military action such as air strikes on jihadis, or by opening the border and allowing in droves of Syrian Druse refugees.Several Druse called on Israel to stop treating all Syrians who arrive at the border seeking treatment – except for Druse – and said they expect people to take the law into their own hands and stop and search IDF ambulances, such as happened this week. Mendi Safadi – an Israeli Druse who has served as Deputy Regional Cooperation Minister Ayoub Kara’s chief of staff, and who has traveled in the region and met with Syrian opposition activists – told the Post this week that “Israel knows what it is doing. People coming to Israel are not jihadists.”
Asked about the rumors, Safadi responded that many Druse listen to Syrian regime media and follow related Facebook pages of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government. These sources push the narrative that Israel is aiding Nusra, and numerous Druse believe this. The Druse are following the media in order to follow what is going on with their families in Syria, he added. The main claim by Druse leaders is that since Israel’s humanitarian aid policy is generous and does not discriminate based on political views, it is giving medical treatment to Nusra Front fighters, though perhaps not purposefully. Dolan Abu Saleh, the mayor of Majdal Shams, when asked about the rumors and conspiracy theory spread by some Druse, which led to the attacks, responded that Israel has a policy to give humanitarian aid to all who are wounded, no matter their political position. “Israel sometimes gives medical treatment to Hamas terrorists,” he said, noting that the daughter of senior leader Ismail Haniyeh received medical treatment in Israel.
Saleh said Samir Kuntar, a Lebanese Druse terrorist who as a member of the Palestine Liberation Front took part in murdering Israelis in a 1979 beach raid on Nahariya, was in the Syrian Druse border town of Hader seeking to stir up anti-Israel activity. Druse and Circassian Local Councils Forum head Jaber Hamoud said Kuntar, who was released in a prisoner exchange with Hezbollah, is not considered Druse anymore. He added that Kuntar and others associated with Hezbollah are trying to create chaos inside Israel.
Whether the rumor is that Israel is purposefully aiding jihadists, or whether a Hezbollah- affiliated terrorist is behind the violence, Israeli Druse are on edge and disturbed by what they see as Israel’s hands-off policy and perceived indifference to their brethren in Syria.
**Reuters contributed to this report.

Khamenei rules out freezing sensitive nuclear activities for long period
Reuters/Ynetnews/Published: 06.23.15/Israel News
A week prior to deadline, Khameini calls for sanctions to be removed immediately, rules out inspection of military sites and precludes freezing nuclear activities. A week before the deadline for signing a nuclear deal between Iran and the world's major powers, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei on Tuesday ruled out freezing Iran's sensitive nuclear work for a long period and said all sanctions imposed on the country should be lifted immediately, state TV reported. "Freezing Iran's research and development for a long time like 10 or 12 years is not acceptable," Khamenei said in a speech broadcast live. "Sanctions should be lifted immediately when the deal is signed and it should not be linked to verification by the UN watchdog body." If Khameini truly intends to stand by what he said, then there is no real hope for a diplomatic solution to the Iranian nuclear crisis. Washington and Europe are firm on removing sanctions progressively, in accordance with Iran fulfilling its side of the future deal. "Inspection of our military sites is out of question and is one of our red lines." Khamenei also said the US wanted to entirely destroy the Islamic republic's nuclear industry, state TV reported. "America is after destroying our nuclear industry altogether," he said. "Our negotiators' aim is to safeguard Iran's integrity ... and our nuclear achievements during the talks."Iran and six major powers are trying to clinch a final deal on Iran's nuclear activities by June 30.

West reportedly offering nuclear help to Iran
Associated Press/Ynetnews /Published: 06.24.15/Israel News
With deadline looming, the Associated Press reports that the US and its negotiating partners are offering Tehran high tech nuke help in exchange for shuttering military program aspects.
The United States and other nations negotiating a nuclear deal with Iran are ready to offer high-tech reactors and other state-of-the-art equipment to Tehran if it agrees to crimp programs that can make atomic arms, according to a confidential document obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press.
The draft document - one of several technical appendices meant to accompany the main text of any deal - has dozens of bracketed text where disagreements remain. Technical cooperation is the least controversial issue at the talks, and the number of brackets suggest the sides have a ways to go not only on that topic but also more contentious disputes with little more than a week until the June 30 deadline for a deal.
With that deadline looming, Iran's top leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, on Tuesday rejected a long-term freeze on nuclear research and supported banning international inspectors from accessing military sites. Khamenei, in comments broadcast on Iranian state television, also said Iran will sign a final deal provided all economic sanctions now on Iran are first lifted, in a sign the Islamic Republic may be toughening its stance ahead of the deadline.
The West has always held out the prospect of providing Iran peaceful nuclear technology in the nearly decade-long international diplomatic effort designed to reduce Tehran's potential ability to make nuclear weapons. But the scope of the help now being offered in the draft may displease US congressional critics who already argue that Washington has offered too many concessions at the negotiations.
Iran denies any interest in nuclear weapons but is prepared to make concessions in exchange for relief from billions of dollars in economic penalties. Beyond a pact limiting Iran's ability to make a nuclear weapon for at least 10 years, the US and its negotiating partners hope to eliminate any grounds for Iran to argue that it needs to expand programs that could be used to make such arms once an agreement expires. To that end, the draft, entitled "Civil Nuclear Cooperation," promises to supply Iran with light-water nuclear reactors instead of its nearly completed heavy-water facility at Arak, which would produce enough plutonium for several bombs a year if completed as planned.
Reducing the Arak reactor's plutonium output was one of the main aims of the US and its negotiating partners, along with paring down Iran's ability to produce enriched uranium - like plutonium, a potential pathway to nuclear arms. Outlining plans to modify that heavy-water reactor, the draft, dated June 19, offers to "establish an international partnership" to rebuild it into a less proliferation-prone facility while leaving Iran in "the leadership role as the project owner and manager."The eight-page draft also promises "arrangements for the assured supply and removal of nuclear fuel for each reactor provided," and offers help in the "construction and effective operation" of the reactors and related hardware. It also offers to cooperate with Iran in the fields of nuclear safety, nuclear medicine, research, nuclear waste removal and other peaceful applications.
As well, it firms up earlier tentative agreement on what to do with the underground site of Fordo, saying it will be used for isotope production instead of uranium enrichment. Washington and its allies had long insisted that the facility be repurposed away from enrichment because Fordo is dug deep into a mountain and thought resistant to air strikes - an option neither the US nor Israel has ruled out should talks fail. But because isotope production uses the same technology as enrichment and can be quickly re-engineered to enriching uranium, the compromise has been criticized by congressional opponents of the deal.
A diplomat familiar with the negotiations said China was ready to help in re-engineering the heavy water reactor at Arak; France in reprocessing nuclear waste, and Britain in the field of nuclear safety and security. He spoke on the eve of Wednesday's new round of nuclear talks in Vienna and demanded anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the confidential talks. Diplomats say the other appendices include ways of dealing with enrichment; limits on Iran's research and development of advanced uranium-enriching centrifuges and ways of making sure Tehran is keeping its commitment to the deal. Iran has most publicly pushed back on how much leeway the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency would have in monitoring Tehran's nuclear activities. Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is rebuffing US demands that the IAEA have access to military sites and nuclear scientists as they keep an eye on Iran's present activities and try to follow up suspicions that the country worked in the past on a nuclear weapon.
But a senior US official who demanded anonymity in exchange for commenting on the talks said Tuesday that the sides are still apart not only on how transparent Iran must be but all other ancillary issues as well. Separately, White House spokesman Josh Earnest suggested the talks could go past June 30. If a deal "requires us to take a couple of extra days, then we'll do that," he said. A delay up to July 9 is not a deal-breaker. If Congress receives a deal by then, it has 30 days to review it before President Barack Obama could suspend congressional sanctions. But postponement beyond that would double the congressional review period to 60 days, giving both Iranian and US opponents more time to work on undermining an agreement.
Earnest indicated that negotiations may continue even if the sides declare they have reached a final deal, in comments that may further embolden congressional critics who say the talks already have gone on too long.
He said that even past that point, ongoing "differences of opinion, may require additional negotiations."

Turkey's Political Scene Post-Election (Part 1): The AKP-CHP Option
Soner Cagaptay/Washinton Institute/June 24, 2015
A governing alliance bringing together the country's two largest parties could end an era of polarization, but would not be free of challenges.
On June 10, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan met with Deniz Baykal, former chair of the country's main opposition, leftist Republican People's Party (CHP), to discuss Turkish politics in the aftermath of the June 7 elections, in which Erdogan's Justice and Development Party (AKP) lost its thirteen-year legislative majority.
Turkish analysts report that, during the meeting, Erdogan and Baykal discussed a potential AKP-CHP coalition government. Indeed, many other coalition options are now being discussed in Ankara, including one between the AKP and similarly right-wing Nationalist Action Party (MHP), an apparently more plausible option (the MHP scenario is discussed in Part 2 of this PolicyWatch; Part 3 discusses scenarios involving the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party, or HDP). But the AKP-CHP option deserves analysis as an intriguing case because it would bring the country's two largest parties together, potentially ending a protracted era of political polarization, as well as align Turkey's Syria policy closer with that of the United States. Here are some possible developments under this unusual partnership.A Temporary Erdogan Retreat, a Possible Long-Term CHP Loss
A sine qua non for the CHP's entry into the coalition would be for President Erdogan to return to his constitutionally mandated powers. Since August 2014, Erdogan has often acted as an executive president, although the Turkish system is a parliamentary democracy in which the chief executive is the prime minister and the president is head of state. Erdogan could agree to withdraw from running the country's day-to-day affairs for now, if the CHP promised not to follow through on December 2013 corruption charges pressed against him and his family members. As part of this deal, four AKP ministers also implicated in the December 2013 case could potentially be brought to justice.
Erdogan's long-term vision would still be of the presidency. Historically, junior liberal parties tend to lose support in coalition governments when folded under conservatives, as happened to the Liberal Democrats during their coalition with the Conservative Party in Britain, the Free Democrats with the Christian Democrats in Germany, and the CHP's predecessor Social Democratic Populist Party with the True Path Party in the 1990s. Erdogan's ultimate vision in entering a coalition with the CHP would be that a premature coalition collapse could prompt a loss in CHP support, allowing the AKP to emerge stronger from early elections, armed with a constitution-changing majority to make him an executive-style president.
Union for Turkey's Disparate Halves
The AKP and CHP represent Turkey's two largest political parties and, as such, the country's competing visions of Islamism and secularism. An AKP-CHP coalition, favored by Turkish businesses and the markets, would usher in a period of coexistence, however uneasy, between these two movements, whose relationship has thus far been characterized by a win-lose attitude. In the 1990s, the secularists ran Turkey and often persecuted and jailed the Islamists. The Islamist AKP, founded in 2001 by Erdogan, who served as its chair and Turkey's prime minister until August 2014, when he stepped down to run for the presidency -- then took charge and inflicted similar punishments on the secularists. An AKP-CHP government could signal an end to this two-decade feud.Prominent Cabinet Positions for Women
Women have been increasingly marginalized in AKP cabinets, relegated to the single portfolio of "family affairs." The most dramatic change in the new cabinet would be that, after many years under the AKP, women politicians from the CHP would hold key seats. One such contender could be CHP deputy and party vice-chair Selin Sayek Boke, a renowned liberal economist, who could also be Turkey's first Christian-origin government minister since the end of the Ottoman Empire, if given a portfolio. Regarding the economy, an AKP-CHP coalition could also witness the return to Turkish politics of Kemal Dervis, the architect of Turkey's economic restructuring in 2001 and indirectly its economic growth since then, as a CHP cabinet member.
Strong Popular and Parliamentary Majority
On June 7, the AKP and the CHP received 40.7 and 25.1 percent of the vote, respectively. This gave the AKP 258 seats in the Turkish legislature, with the CHP getting 132 seats. Accordingly, an AKP-CHP coalition would represent 65.9 percent of the popular vote and hold 70.9 percent of the seats in the Turkish legislature, totaling to 390 seats. This would constitute a strong mandate for governing. Together, the AKP and CHP would have enough seats to make changes to the Turkish constitution. And while the Turkish constitution says that constitutional amendments approved with 367 votes need not be approved through a popular referendum, the AKP and CHP could revise Turkey's constitution to this effect should they desire to do so. This might occur if the two parties agree on a new social consensus that allows the AKP's and CHP's visions of Turkey to flourish simultaneously.Challenges on Domestic Issues
The biggest differences between the two parties would center on domestic politics, including education policy, where the CHP is keen to revive Turkey's secular education system created by Kemal Ataturk, founder of the Turkish republic. The AKP, in turn, would insist on keeping its own Islamizing changes to the education system, including a recent decision to teach Sunni Islamic practices to all schoolchildren beginning at age six in publicly funded schools. Control of the Ministry of Education would be hotly contested during government negotiations, as would control of the Ministry of Justice, another area where AKP and CHP visions would clash. If the AKP-CHP government were to fall prematurely, differences over domestic politics would probably be the cause.
Continuation of the Kurdish Process
While they would disagree on many other domestic issues, the two parties would continue peace talks with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and could also push for further cultural rights for Kurds. This strategy would align with a potential AKP outreach campaign aimed at bringing back conservative Kurdish voters who have migrated to the HDP. The CHP would likewise follow this strategy, reflecting its pivot to become a social democratic party that appeals to the country's liberals -- a pivot that includes advocating broader rights for Kurds.A Freer Media
In the past decade, the AKP has increasingly tightened its grip over the media through fines issued by the Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTUK), a regulatory watchdog that has become an instrument of censorship. Similarly, the governing party has turned the so-called Presidency of Telecommunication and Communication (TIB), which is supposed to regulate the Internet, into a censorship board that often bans websites including Twitter and YouTube. The AKP's domination of these two bodies over the past thirteen years derives from the appointment of members according to a party's parliamentary representation. Now, for the first time since 2002, the AKP will not appoint a majority of RTUK or TIB members. This suggests that the party's ability to intimidate the media and ban websites will be curbed.Potentially Closer U.S.-Turkey Alignment on Syria
The CHP has long taken issue with the AKP's active support of various rebels in the Syrian war, including some radical groups, against the Bashar al-Assad government. Typically in Turkish coalition governments, the junior partner gets the Foreign Ministry portfolio. Thus empowered, the CHP would downgrade Turkey's involvement in Syria and support to the rebels, bringing the country's policy closer to that of the United States. Turkey's support to anti-Assad rebels in northwestern Syria would come under scrutiny -- including closer journalistic scrutiny due to a relaxed media environment -- but not end, since in the short term Ankara cannot entirely cut itself off from Syria. This is largely because Turkey is now hosting nearly two million Syrian refugees. What is more, Turkey's five-year open-door policy for the rebels has exposed the country to threats from Syria, including elements connected to the Assad regime, al-Qaeda-related groups, and the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS). Under the CHP, the Turkish Foreign Ministry might also open communication channels with the Assad regime.CHP Pivot to Europe and NATO
Under a CHP foreign minister, Turkey would try to pivot back to its traditional foreign policy partners, including NATO and the European Union. Kemal Kirisci of the Brookings Institution likens Turkey's potential shift to a giant tanker slowly changing course. Given an AKP-led Turkey's total preoccupation with the Middle East since 2002, a reorientation to Europe and NATO would be gradual and would require support from Turkey's allies in Brussels and Washington.
Continued Turkish Agnosticism on Washington's Russia Policy
Perhaps the most unlikely foreign policy reversal for an AKP-CHP coalition would regard ties with Russia. Turkey-Russia relations, which have blossomed under Erdogan, are in many respects more real than the AKP's Middle East policy, which has left the country without allies, proxies, or friends in a volatile region. Beyond the AKP, Turkish politicians of various persuasions, including those in the CHP, see Russia as a historic enemy against which the Turks are yet to win a battle. Accordingly, Turkey will remain wary of provoking Russia in the Black Sea and will shy away from too closely identifying with Washington's punitive Russia policy. Furthermore, energy-hungry Turkey imports half of its gas consumption from Russia, and "Turkish Stream" -- a proposed pipeline carrying gas from Russia to Turkey under the Black Sea -- will keep Turkey relatively close to Russia.
**Soner Cagaptay is the Beyer Family Fellow and director of the Turkish Research Program at The Washington Institute, and author of The Rise of Turkey: The Twenty-First Century's First Muslim Power.

Don't Let the Deadline Drive the Deal
Dennis Ross/Washington Institute
U.S. News & World Report
June 14, 2015 (published on June19/15)
To get the best nuclear pact with Iran, Washington might have to let the June 30 target slide.
As both a practitioner and also a student of high stakes negotiations, I am well-acquainted with the use of deadlines to push toward agreements in difficult talks. With the June 30 date for concluding an agreement looming in the negotiations with Iran, there are those who argue that the deadline is important and must be met. Others see it differently. They worry that it creates pressures on us, with the Iranians prone to use the deadline as a lever to gain concessions given what they may see as our desire for the deal. Both arguments have merit.
Often times in difficult negotiations, it makes sense to impose a date by which a decision must be made -- or in other words, to create an action-forcing event. When I mediated between the Israelis and Palestinians on redeployment in Hebron, a highly controversial issue for the Likud-led government at the time, I imposed a deadline for two reasons: First, I felt there was a danger that an extraneous event or an act of violence would sink the negotiating process at a point when we were close to an agreement. Second, I could see how to resolve the remaining issues and the real challenge was to get each leader -- Yasser Arafat and Benjamin Netanyahu -- to make the final decisions and not try to hold out for what might be marginal gains. At the time, I knew each leader would face criticism for doing the deal and there was a natural instinct on both sides to postpone facing a likely backlash even as they tested to see if they could concede less.
It is rare for any national leader to seek out criticism. Putting off difficult or painful decisions is natural and it is one of the reasons deadlines in negotiations are so often employed. But to be credible, they have to be real. Each side has to see that failing to reach the agreement by a deadline truly threatens the possibility of having an agreement. If there is a balance of interest in reaching the agreement, and a comparable fear about the consequences of failing to do so, the deadline can work. Some may question whether the U.S. and Iran have a balance of interest and fear when it comes to reaching or failing to reach an agreement on the Iranian nuclear program.
Certainly, if one pays attention to public pronouncements, Iran's supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, has gone out of his way to suggest that his country does not need a deal. He speaks of not giving into the "bullying" of the "arrogant powers"; of not providing access to Iran's military sites or permitting inspectors to "interrogate" its nuclear scientists; of the Islamic Republic's need to develop a "resistance economy" to ensure it can tolerate sanctions; and that there are "no commitments" that Iran has made in the framework understanding. The tone of the Obama administration has obviously been different -- with the president calling the framework understanding a "historic opportunity" and other leading officials saying that there is no alternative to an agreement -- with some conjuring up the fear that war may be the only way to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear weapons state if the deal is blocked.
To be fair, President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry have both also said that "no deal is better than a bad deal" and that the military option remains on the table. But those words seem to carry less weight than the emphasis given to the dire consequences of the alternative to turning the framework understanding into an agreement. From a negotiator's standpoint you never want to signal that you need an agreement more than your partner or adversary at the table, and the conventional wisdom at this point is that the administration has not only positioned itself that way but that the Iranians also perceive that to be the case.
While the Iranians may have such a view, we should not discount that whatever their public posturing, their stake in reaching an agreement is high. Why else do the Iranians so insist on trying to get all sanctions lifted immediately -- notwithstanding Khamenei's call for a resistance economy? Moreover, the announcement of the framework understanding triggered spontaneous celebrations on the streets of Tehran. The Iranian public clearly wants an end to sanctions, the prospect of a better economy and less isolation internationally. No doubt the supreme leader's initial silence and subsequent downplaying of what had been achieved and announced in Lausanne, Switzerland -- saying there were no commitments and there was no deal -- were designed to lower expectations lest those become an increasing pressure on Iran to take steps to conclude the deal.
Moreover, as Mehdi Khalaji has pointed out, there seems to be a difference between the supreme leader's public pronouncements and his private instructions to his negotiators. Notwithstanding his declarations that there would be no access to military sites, the Islamic Republic's foreign minister and his deputy told the Iranian parliament that there would be "managed access" to military facilities under the rubric of the Additional Protocol of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty -- and they explained, when criticized for negotiating such understandings, that they had done so under "instructions." Only Khamenei could give such authoritative orders.
The Iranians clearly understand that they have much to gain by reaching an agreement, and there is probably much more of a balance of interest in reaching a deal than their public posture would suggest. While that could argue for sticking to the June 30 date to force decisions, there are two reasons not to do so: First, there is a pattern to the negotiations in which the Iranians hold out until the deadline, offer minimal concessions and count on us to creatively overcome the gaps. That creates too much pressure on us if there is deadline. Second, the sanctions clearly are a pressure on them, so why relieve them if they are not prepared to meet our essential minimums for the deal?
Precisely because the framework understanding offers the Iranians a lot -- it is essentially a roll-back of sanctions in return for transparency, not a roll-back of sanctions for a roll-back of their nuclear infrastructure -- we should not let the deadline push us toward any softening of what we need both on transparency and the high consequences that must be imposed if that transparency reveals that the Iranians are cheating. That Iran will be permitted to have a large nuclear infrastructure, and after 15 years not be limited in expanding it, creates a premium not just on thorough visibility into Iran's nuclear activities but also on ensuring unmistakable consequences for any transgressions. As such, it is the content of transparency and the agreed, meaningful costs for cheating -- not the deadline itself -- that matter. The administration would be wise to make that clear both to the Iranians and members of Congress.
Ironically, for those members of Congress who might be inclined to seize on the failure to meet the June 30 date to try to adopt new sanctions, this might be a reassuring message. It would certainly signal that the administration is holding out and won't be driven to accept something less than it needs -- and that could be used to get Congress to hold off on pressing immediately for new sanctions at a time when the other members of the P5+1 (the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council as well as Germany) are likely to oppose such action. In other words, if fear of congressional action is creating a pressure on the administration to try to meet the June 30 date, there ought to be a way to manage this concern.
For now is not the time for the administration to treat June 30 as an inviolable deadline. As Yitzhak Rabin once said about the timetable of the Oslo process, there are no "sacred dates." And, certainly, while June 30 might be a target, we should not regard it as a sacred date, particularly if we are to avoid it becoming a point of pressure on us and not the Iranians.
**Dennis Ross is the counselor and William Davidson Distinguished Fellow at The Washington Institute.

Al Jazeera Reporter,Ahmad Zaida Endorses Terrorists
Rachael Hanna/Gatestone Institute./June 24, 2015
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/6027/al-jazeera-terrorists
Zaidan's comparisons should raise concerns about whom the Obama administration designates as terrorists -- or even chooses as strategic partners: If these groups are not America's enemies, who is?
Whatever sympathies he may have for the Al Nusra Front, Zaidan's loyalty to the ethics of his profession and his responsibility to his readers evidently do not outweigh his loyalties to a terrorist organization.
Why is Ahmad Zaidan, Al Jazeera's Islamabad bureau chief, tacitly endorsing a terrorist organization?
In an op-ed for Al Jazeera's English website on June 2, entitled "Nusra Front's quest for a united Syria," Zaidan writes that the Islamist militant rebel group in Syria is distancing itself from Al-Qaeda and "positioning itself as the natural heir of jihadi ideology."
The Al Nusra Front, Al-Qaeda's offshoot in Syria, is one of the largest, most powerful and best-organized rebel groups fighting the Assad regime, and in December 2012 it landed on the U.S. State Department List of Terrorist Organizations. Officially designated as an alias of Al-Qaeda, Al Nusra was branded for the more than 600 attacks it had claimed responsibility for since November 2011, many of which had taken the lives of innocent Syrian civilians. Recent victories as part of a rebel coalition against the Assad regime in the northwest province of Idlib have further bolstered Al Nusra and strengthened the group's leadership position among Syria's anti-government forces.
Zaidan's bias in favor of Nusra is clear almost immediately, when he notes that when he was covering Al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan, his "hosts" from those two terror organizations never offered him more than "simple tea and bread for breakfast," whereas his Al Nusra hosts had generously laid out a "dozen dishes" for him. However, his appreciation of a wider range of breakfast options quickly turns to using his position as a leading reporter for the most influential news network in the Middle East -- and the larger Muslim world -- essentially to act as a mouthpiece for Al Nusra.
Ahmad Zaidan, Al Jazeera's Islamabad bureau chief, is shown here reporting from Damascus, Syria. (Image source: Al Jazeera video screenshot)
Zaidan recounts and quotes extensively from a separate interview conducted by Al Jazeera Arabic on May 27 with Al Nusra's leader, Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, to emphasize differences between Jolani's leadership tactics and those of Al-Qaeda under Ayman al-Zawahiri.
Zaidan writes that Jolani "defies al-Qaeda's legacy of going after minorities," highlighting a promise from Jolani that if the Alawites (an offshoot sect of Shia Islam to which Syria's ruling family and many of its supporters belong) were to abandon the Assad regime, they "would be welcome" in a new Syria.
Jolani, according to Zaidan, also promised that Druze communities in Syria would be protected; as a result of that statement, he has received support from Walid Jumblatt, leader of the Lebanese Druze.
The problem with Zaidan's translation of the interview with Jolani from Arabic to English is that he leaves out a critical caveat that Jolani made regarding protection of the Alawites, considered by many Sunni Islamists, including Al-Qaeda and Al Nusra, not to be true Muslims, but apostates of Islam. A Guardian article, reporting on Jolani's interview with Al Jazeera, accurately translated Jolani's relevant quote as: "If the Alawites leave their religion and leave Bashar al-Assad, we will protect them." [Emphasis added.]
Zaidan seemingly manipulated the original quote to obscure that Al Nusra is, in fact, not tolerant of other religions or religious minorities, and that only religious conversion would allow Alawites to remain safely in Syria under Al Nusra leadership.
Also absent from Zaidan's characterization of Al Nusra as more tolerant than Al-Qaeda, is any mention of Syria's significant Christian minority, which makes up about 10% of the population.
The Guardian article, however, does translate Jolani's remarks on Christians; his words are far from accepting. The Guardian paraphrases Jolani as saying that "in a future state ruled by Islamic law, the financially capable would pay 'jizya,' or tax reserved for non-Muslims."
Zaidan's misleading translation and editing of Jolani's interview reveal more than bias: they demonstrate a violation of a basic principle of journalistic ethics: not to manipulate quotes from sources in a way that fundamentally changes their meaning. Zaidan has done just that -- and to support a terrorist organization, no less.
Many who commented on Zaidan's article noticed his deceitful omission. Journalist Evan Hill, who speaks Arabic and has covered the Middle East for both Al Jazeera and the Guardian, tweeted, "Is it me or does Zaidan leave out the part of the Alawite quote where he said 'give up your beliefs'?"
Having less-than-subtly revealed his support for Al Nusra, Zaidan continues sounding off as an unofficial media spokesman for the group. He cites "recent leaks" that Al Nusra leaders have decided to leave "the al-Qaeda umbrella and operate exclusively as a Syrian party aiming to establish an Islamic State," although a public announcement of such a break has yet to happen.
According to Zaidan, "[S]uch a move, whenever made, would not only satisfy Nusra's followers," of which Zaidan certainly seems to be one; it would "also pull the carpet from under the feet of ISIL." In other words, as his article's subtitle, "Nusra Front is positioning itself as the natural heir of jihadi ideology," makes clear, Al Nusra sees itself as the group that will upstage the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) to control Islamist jihadi ideology in Syria -- hardly a comforting alternative to Assad and ISIS.
The Middle East -- especially Syria and Iraq -- needs a great deal of humanitarian aid just now; what it does not need is competition between brutal, seventh century-styled Islamic states. Nevertheless, Zaidan seems to be of the opinion that the way to take down ISIS is a competing caliphate.
Certainly, the half-hearted U.S.-led strategy for fighting ISIS has thus far failed to produce any promising signs that ISIS is on the retreat -- especially since the loss of Ramadi in Anbar province last month. Leaving terrorist groups to duke it out, however, has also failed to end the conflict.
The excuse Zaidan offers for his support of Al Nusra is that the international community -- as well as any non-Islamist rebel forces on the ground in Syria -- have failed to help citizens under siege from the Assad regime, and that these failures have led to increased sympathy among the population for Islamist rebel groups who "exercise real power."
While this is an accurate, although overly simple, assessment of the situation in Syria, it hardly seems a sufficient reason for Zaidan, as a leading reporter for a major global news network, with unparalleled media influence in the Muslim world, to endorse the cause of a terrorist organization.
To Zaidan, however, not only is the current situation in Syria reason enough to throw his support behind Al Nusra, it is also a reason to chastise the United States for not having already gotten on the group's bandwagon. Comparing Al Nusra to the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), Zaidan writes: "Washington used to depict the PLO as a terrorist outfit -- but then took a U-turn." Zaidan's use of the word "depict" is telling; to him, Al Nusra is not a terrorist group; rather it is unfairly being labeled one by the United States.
Instead, he suggests that the U.S. should repeat history and change its tactics toward Al Nusra. However, this change would entail the U.S. supporting a group that does not believe in religious tolerance even among Muslims; that views Christians as second-class citizens, and that uses terrorist tactics, including the attempted use of chemical weapons, in its fighting against the Assad regime, just as the regime has done.
Zaidan draws another parallel to support Al Nusra: between Al Nusra and the Taliban in Afghanistan. He notes that the group was "once the main target of the US military, but is not currently designated as a 'terrorist organization' by either the UN, UK or the US." Finally, he reminds his readers that Washington no longer brands "Hezbollah or Iranian Quds Force's Qassem Soleimani" as terrorists.
Zaidan argues that since the United States has changed relationships with these current or former terrorist organizations, it should take another extremely dangerous militant Islamist group off its terrorist list.
However, Zaidan's comparisons should raise concerns about whom the Obama administration designates as terrorists -- or even chooses as strategic partners: If these groups are not America's enemies, who is?
Zaidan proceeds to call the Obama administration hypocritical for supporting "alien" Shia militias "fighting on behalf of Baghdad," but not demonstrating the same support for "Syrian fighters -- such as those who make up Nusra's ranks" waging war against Assad. Again, Zaidan's argument should give the White House pause as to whom the U.S. is partnering with in Iraq. Iranian-backed Shia militias, while they may be committed to fighting ISIS, can hardly be considered long-term partners for a stable Iraq.
In his closing thoughts, Zaidan makes a half-hearted attempt to mention the importance of "tolerance" and "build[ing] bridges" in Syria, although given his support for a group whose goal is supposedly to convert everyone to its extremist brand of Sunni Islam or force discriminating taxes on them, honest reconciliation does not seem to be a priority for him.
More alarming than Jolani's support for Al Nusra and his editorial dishonestly is that Al Jazeera allowed this article to be published. Zaidan is entitled to express his opinions, regardless of how unsettling they might be. This was, after all, an op-ed piece; the disclaimer at the bottom clearly states that the views presented in the article do not represent the views of Al Jazeera. So while Al Jazeera should not have censored Zaidan for the content of his piece, it was irresponsible and unethical to have published an article that, through deceitful editing practices, grossly misrepresents Al Nusra's ideology.
As for Zaidan, whatever sympathies he may have for Al Nusra, his loyalty to the ethics of his profession and his responsibility to his readers evidently do not outweigh his loyalties to a terrorist organization.
Rachael Hanna is Associate Managing Editor of the Harvard Political Review.

The Scorpion, The Frog and The Pope
Susan Warner/Gatestone Institute/June 24, 2015/
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/6034/pope-francis-jews-israel
Despite attempts by post World War II popes to reconcile with the Jews, Pope Francis has, perhaps inadvertently, taken the first steps to disassemble any progress toward that goal.
The Pope's declaration inspires the already hate-infested Palestinians to commit murder with a symbolic pontifical blessing.
It might be premature to assign the term "anti-Semitism" to Pope Francis's current "missteps." However, it does not push the envelope too far to suggest that the Pope's view of the Jews and Israel is a product of a lifetime of Catholic and Replacement Theology bias.
At this momentous time, the Pope's repentance would be a welcome acknowledgement of Israel's right to exist.
Pope Francis recently declared Palestine to be a state. Thus, he writes a new chapter in the divisive history between Catholics and Jews.
The history of the Catholic Church is a two-thousand year old story of anti-Judaism, conspicuous by frequent massacres, murders, forced conversions, torture, pogroms, expulsions, demonization and other unspeakable acts of violence and offense.
The fable of the Scorpion and the Frog illustrates the notion that certain acts are not merely random chance but are as predictable as a "DNA" profile.
A scorpion and a frog meet on the bank of a stream and the scorpion asks the frog to carry him across on its back. The frog asks, "How do I know you won't sting me?"
The scorpion says, "Because if I do, I will die too."
So they set out, but in midstream, the scorpion stings the frog. The frog has just enough time to gasp "Why?"
The scorpion replies: "Because it is my nature; it is what I do...."
This year, the Catholic Church is celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Nostra aetate. Written in 1965, the document is a declaration of the relation of the Catholic Church to non-Christian religions including Moslems, Hindus, Buddhists and Jews (or what the document calls "Abraham's stock").
Its purpose was to promote "unity and love among men." At the same time, it served as a tool to start the repair of what had become an insurmountable rift between Catholics and Jews.
While the document has played a role in bridging one of the wide gaps between the two groups by releasing Jews from the burden of responsibility for the death of Jesus, it nevertheless fails to address a key issue for Jewish people -- the declaration of Israel as their historic, legitimate and legal homeland.
During the first few months after Pope Francis's March 2013 election, the Jewish community expressed hope that the Catholic Church would continue what appeared to be a warming relationship.
"Francis declared that 'since the Second Vatican Council, we have rediscovered that the Jewish People are still for us the holy root that produced Jesus.' He also stated that despite the horrors inflicted on the Jewish People by the Shoah, 'God never abandoned his covenant with Israel, and notwithstanding their terrible suffering over the centuries, the Jewish People have kept their faith. For this, we will never be sufficiently grateful to them as a Church, but also as human beings...."
Some optimistic Jewish leaders argue that, while there is a lot more work to do, the process of reconciliation has been steadily moving forward.
Current events, unfortunately, suggest a more pessimistic perspective.[1]
Israel is battling for its legitimacy and its very existence on every front, and Jews throughout the world are confronting a vigorous, revitalized and often violent resurgence of anti-Semitism.
Even as the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Hamas call almost daily for death to the Jews, the Pope has declared terrorist and Holocaust denier, Mahmoud Abbas, "a man of peace."
In his declaration of Palestine as a recognized "state", the Pope has spurned Israel's existential security concerns in order to advance a bond with the Palestinians before both parties have agreed to even basic terms of a peace agreement.
The symbolic timing (May 13) of the Pope's ex officio declaration of a Palestinian state couldn't be more obvious or more offensive to Israel: 1. Israel's Independence Day celebrates the birth of the State in 1949; 2. Nakba Day (Catastrophe Day), the Palestinian day of mourning for the loss of their land to the State of Israel; 3.The summer celebrations of Nostra aetate, commemorating a vision of harmony.
Such a reckless affirmation is also a caustic reminder that Jewish-Catholic reconciliation work is far from complete.
Is the Catholic Church, like the scorpion, simply standing against the Jewish state because it is part of Church's DNA? Do the Pope's sympathies with the Palestinian narrative suggest the beginning of a return to the days of a Catholic Church riddled with thousands of examples of Jew-hatred?
Among the many diverse threads woven into the fabric of the Church, anti-Semitism stands at the forefront. The fabric of all of Christianity was set against the Jews from the outset.
While the timing of the Pope's announcement was shocking, it was nonetheless predictable. It is an echo of a long-held theology of the Catholic Church, which turned against its own Jewish heritage within a mere fifty years after the Apostle Paul died.[2]
The theological grandfather of contemporary Christian anti-Semitism is known as "Replacement Theology" or what is dubbed by scholars "supersessionism." This is the ancient idea that the Christian Church "replaced" God's "chosen" people.
By 135 CE, the newly emerging gentile Church had lost much of the Jewish vigor that had energized the period of the Hebrew New Testament writings.
In the generation after the Apostle Paul died, the gentile Church Fathers began penning tomes of anti-Jewish theology and commentary.[3] Early second-century writers and theologians such as Tertullian and Origen inverted the Jewishness of the Jesus story and began to demonize the Jewish people, using their very own Hebrew scriptures as a cudgel.
The thesis of "Replacement Theology," according to Dr. Jim Showers, Executive Director of Friends of Israel, "maintains that, because the Jewish people rejected Jesus as the Messiah, God has replaced or superseded ethnic Israel with the Church and punished them by rescinding all of His covenant promises."
This early narrative proclaimed, "the Church as the New Israel," and fused with the idea that "the Church is the heir of God's promises to Abraham". Thus, the Church nullified God's original, unequivocal, irrevocable and eternal promise of the land and nation to Israel in His covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. It was these early Church Fathers (125 - 325 CE) who first carved the "DNA" of Jew hatred in stone.
At the Council of Nicaea in 325 CE, the Church put its final stamp on an anti-Jewish legacy. Among the Council's many proclamations, it designated a pagan day, Easter, to replace Passover as a way to separate itself from its Jewish roots.
At the conclusion of the Council, Constantine's summary letter to the attending Bishops stated:
"For it is unbecoming beyond measure that on this holiest of festivals we should follow the customs of the Jews. Henceforth let us have nothing in common with this odious people... We ought not, therefore, to have anything in common with the Jews... our worship follows a... more convenient course... we desire dearest brethren, to separate ourselves from the detestable company of the Jews... How, then, could we follow these Jews, who are almost certainly blinded."[4]
"Replacement Theology" deliberately poisoned the ancestral roots of Christianity. The two-thousand year war against the Jewish people began there.
Despite attempts by post-World War II popes to reconcile with the Jews, Pope Francis has, perhaps inadvertently, taken the first steps to disassemble any progress toward that goal. By preemptively positing a Palestinian state, he has essentially re-ignited the ceasefire lines of this age-old conflict. The Pope's declaration inspires the already hate-infested Palestinians to commit murder with a symbolic pontifical blessing.
The New York Times reported on the occasion of Pope Francis's 2014 visit to the Holy Land:
"Pope Francis plans to give a strong show of support for a sovereign Palestinian state when he makes his first visit to the Holy Land this weekend, becoming the first pontiff to travel directly into the occupied West Bank rather than passing through Israel.
The pope's decision to fly straight to Bethlehem from Jordan would be a symbolic lift to the Palestinians at any time. But its resonance is even greater given his tremendous popularity, his focus on the downtrodden, and his timing amid the recent collapse of peace talks and the Palestine Liberation Organization's unity pact with the militant group Hamas."
On that same visit, the Pope also made a "surprise" stop at an Israeli security wall to pray and to pose for photos. "By chance," he parked himself for prayer within camera range, beneath graffiti with the slogan: "Bethlehem look like Warsaw Ghetto." Does he need to say more?
Pope Francis approaches the separation barrier near Bethlehem, May 25, 2014. (Image source: Al Jazeera video screenshot)
After nineteen centuries of Christian persecution; after a modern-day genocide upon which the Catholic world turned its back, just when the Jewish people and Israel might have looked for a ray of hope toward continued reconciliation, Pope Francis is making a pact with the devil. "Nothing new here," said the scorpion to the frog; "it is what I do."
Perhaps it is premature to assign the term "anti-Semitism" to Pope Francis's current "missteps." However, it does not push the envelope too far to suggest that the Pope's view of the Jews and Israel is a product of a lifetime of Catholic and Replacement Theology bias.
At this momentous time, the Pope's repentance would be a welcome acknowledgement of Israel's right to exist.
Susan Warner is a Distinguished Senior Fellow of Gatestone Institute and co-founder of a Christian group, Olive Tree Ministries in Wilmington, DE, USA. She has been writing and teaching about Israel and the Middle East for over 15 years. She can be reached at israelolivetree@yahoo.com.
[1] Giulio Meotti, an Italian journalist, writes for Israel National News and has authored the book, "The Vatican Against Israel: J'accuse".
[2] For those who are interested in exploring some of these historical issues in depth, there is an interesting and informative essay about the relationship between the Jews and the early church by John J. Parsons. Parsons has compiled a worthwhile, not too lengthy, discussion of Replacement Theology, anti-Semitism and other related issues.
[3] Tertullian (circa 135CE) and Origen (circa 185CE) were two of the earliest theologians against the Jews. All of their extant writings are available online. Tertullian's commentaries are entitled Adversus Judaeos (Against the Jews). Comments on Origen here.
[4] Letter of Constantine to the churches after the Council of Nicaea (325AD).

Canada: Convert to Islam approves of jihad attacks on Canadian police & military
June 24, 2015/Robert Spencer
We see it again and again: when someone in the West converts to Islam, he or she no longer considers himself to be a citizen of the country of his birth. Loyalty to the umma, the global Muslim community, supersedes all national allegiances.
Meanwhile, law enforcement officials should consider the fact that while Muslim groups are making concerted efforts to convert young Westerners to Islam, no non-Muslim groups are making any attempt to counter those efforts. One might think, in light of the story of Aaron Driver and so many others like him, that authorities would see doing so as a matter of national security. But that would be “Islamophobic.”

“Aaron Driver defends ISIS, attack on Parliament, but denies he’s a threat,”
 by Caroline Barghout, CBC News, June 24, 2015:
Aaron Driver doesn’t consider himself a terror threat and doesn’t think Canadians should fear him, despite the Winnipeg man’s justification of the attacks on police and military members here at home.
“I think if a country goes to war with another country, or another people or another community, they have to be prepared for things like that to happen,” Driver said in a nearly 90-minute phone conversation with CBC News.
“And when it does happen, they shouldn’t act surprised. They had it coming to them. They deserved it.”
Driver was arrested near his home in Winnipeg’s Charleswood neighbourhood on June 4 and detained for eight days. RCMP took his custom-made computer, phone, flash drives and Qur’an.
RCMP want a peace bond against him, saying they consider him a terror threat.
Court documents said Driver “will participate in, or contribute to, directly or indirectly, the activity of a terrorist group for the purpose of enhancing the ability of any terrorist group to facilitate or carry out a terrorist activity, pursuant to S.810.01 of the Criminal Code.”
Driver caught the attention of CSIS in October 2014 when he was tweeting his support for ISIS. That activity landed him on a watch list.
The 23-year-old regularly shared his views on social media, and he was regularly shut down by Twitter for doing so.
He calls the Oct. 22 attack in Ottawa “retaliation” and the death of Cpl. Nathan Cirillo “justified” for Canada’s role in bombing Muslims in Syria and Iraq.
“These are not attacks on malls or any kind of public place, like churches. These are attacks on police officers and these are attacks on soldiers. These are people who are part of the system. It’s entirely different,” Driver said.
“That’s my opinion, those are my personal beliefs, and I don’t think my opinions or the things I’ve said online have had a direct impact on anyone else or that I’ve inspired anyone to carry out any kind of attack or anything like that. So I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that.”
He added, “I think the big issue is I’m a Canadian living in Canada, and I’m OK with soldiers or police officers being targeted for what they’re doing to Muslims.
“I think it’s a little hypocritical that people would take issue with people retaliating against them … when it’s the police and the military who are killing Muslims.”
Interrogated for hours
Driver was arrested as he was walking to a bus stop just before 7 a.m. on June 4. He said an unmarked white van pulled up in the wrong lane and several armed officers surrounded him and took him away.
“I think they were hoping that after arresting me they’d find something, you know, they’d find things on my hard drive or my phone,” he said.
“They probably think they’d find a gold mine and they didn’t, so I think that’s why I’m out right now and I’m not in jail.”…
“Basically I retweeted something from a fighter or recruiter or something in Syria and the interrogator was just asking me over and over again why I did that. What was I thinking, what was the purpose?” Driver said.
Driver doesn’t remember the exact motivation behind the retweet, but said he believes he found it funny at the time.
After eight days in custody, Driver was released on bail under 25 conditions.
He surrendered his passport and must live in Winnipeg for the next 12 months. He has a curfew of 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. He can’t have a computer or smartphone or log into any of his social media accounts.
Driver is forbidden from contacting any members of the Islamic State or own anything with the ISIS logo on it. He’s also supposed to get religious counselling, but he doesn’t know what that entails.
“I feel like I’m living in a prison now, you know, without having access to the internet,” he said.
“I feel really cut off from the outside world. I’m not sure it will be that much different than me being in prison, so yeah, I’m going to fight the peace bond.”
Found Islam online
Driver was born in Saskatchewan to a Christian family and has lived in New Brunswick, Ontario, Alberta and Manitoba. His mother died when he was seven years old.
His father later remarried and joined the Canadian Forces. Driver said he’s never gotten along with his father or stepmother and isn’t close with them now.
Driver said his father caught him smoking a joint at age 14 and sent him to London, Ont., to live with his sister. For the next three years, he hung out with the wrong people and got into trouble.
But that changed when Driver was 17, after he discovered his girlfriend was pregnant.
“That’s why I stopped drinking and I stopped doing drugs and I stopped partying and stuff, and I started reading the Bible … because, you know, I had a lot of responsibility coming my way very soon,” he said.
The Bible is also what Driver said drove him to Islam.
“I just decided it couldn’t possibly be the word of God, so I started watching debates to find some answers. A lot of debates between Christians and atheists and Christians and Muslims, and the Muslims were always destroying them in these debates,” he said.
When asked how he turned from devout Muslim to a “radical extremist,” Driver said it was a result of reading up on the Middle East online.
“Seeing some of the things that happened in Syria, it infuriates you and it breaks your heart at the same time. And I think that if you know what’s going on, you have to do something. Even if you’re just speaking about it,” he said.
“Something has to be done. People need to know what’s happening to Muslims so I think maybe that’s why.”
And while Driver may justify acts of retaliation for injustices against Muslims, he said violence isn’t in his nature.
“I don’t have a violent history. I’ve only been in a few fistfights in my whole life,” he said.
“No, I don’t think I’m a threat, and I don’t think there’s a reason for Canadians to think that I’m a threat.”
He thinks religious counselling might mean the RCMP want him “deradicalized.”
When asked what would it take to change his views, he said, “for the West to stop killing Muslims, stop bombing, stop arresting Muslims … take responsibility for the crimes they’ve committed and just stay home and work on their own problems.”…