LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
November 05/15

Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
http://www.eliasbejjaninews.com/newsbulletins05/english.november05.15.htm 

Bible Quotation For Today/So that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me
John 17/20-23: "‘I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

Bible Quotation For Today/But we are not among those who shrink back and so are lost, but among those who have faith and so are saved
Letter to the Hebrews 10/32-39: "But recall those earlier days when, after you had been enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, sometimes being publicly exposed to abuse and persecution, and sometimes being partners with those so treated. For you had compassion for those who were in prison, and you cheerfully accepted the plundering of your possessions, knowing that you yourselves possessed something better and more lasting. Do not, therefore, abandon that confidence of yours; it brings a great reward. For you need endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised. For yet ‘in a very little while, the one who is coming will come and will not delay; but my righteous one will live by faith. My soul takes no pleasure in anyone who shrinks back.’ But we are not among those who shrink back and so are lost, but among those who have faith and so are saved."

Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on November 04-05/15
Lost military figures resurfacing..."The Marada Archers"/Dr. WAlid Phares/November 04/15/
How to Heal a Politically “Reprobate Mind”/Elie Aoun/November 04/15
Media misleading by reporting that Iran implementing nuclear deal/Ariel Ben Solomon/J.post/November 04/15
Russian-made cargo plane crash in S. Sudan kills dozens. Second Mid East air disaster/DEBKAfile/November 04/15
A 'Cold War 2.0' playing out in the Middle East/ARIEL BEN SOLOMON/J.Post/November 04/15
Video: Jordanian cleric, Sheikh Ali Halabi, walks back fatwa against killing Jews/JPOST/November 04/15
Jordanian sheikh stirs controversy with fatwa against killing Jews/YASSER OKBI/ MAARIV HASHAVUA/J.Post/November 04/15
Britain's New Racism/Douglas Murray/Gatestone Institute/November 4, 2015
The Syrian conflict, ISIS and Russian Muslims/Maria Dubovikova/Al Arabiya/November 04/15
An Egyptian social media alliance/Diana Moukalled/Al Arabiya/November 04/15
Temple Mount status quo in High-Definition/Yossi Mekelberg/Al Arabiya/November 04/15
The Iran deal is Iran’s nuclear bomb/Mohammed Alyahya/Al Arabiya/November 04/15

Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin for Lebanese Related News published on November 04-05/15
Cyprus Rescues Lebanese, Syrian Migrants from Boat Sinking in Mediterranean
Lebanese Soldier Shot in Hermel, Fugitive Arrested at Baalbek Hospital
Lebanon’s speaker calls first parliament session in months
Berri Sets Date for Legislative Session, Dubs Trash Crisis as 'Farce'
Shehayyeb: Politicians Let Me down over Trash Crisis
Maronite Bishops Reiterate Need to Elect President, Urge Officials to Respect Constitution
Report: LF, FPM Will not Attend Legislative Session without Electoral Law
Mashnouq: Failure to Approve Financial Laws Endangers Lebanese Pound
Army Raids Tripoli Arms Depot, Arrests Syrian Suspects in Arsal
Syrian Held for Murdering His Infant Daughter
Lost military figures resurfacing..."The Marada Archers"
How to Heal a Politically “Reprobate Mind”?

Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin For Miscellaneous Reports And News published on November 04-05/15
Members of Canada's New Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's new cabinet sworn in
U.S. Intelligence Says Russian Jet Likely Downed by IS Bomb, UK Suspends Sharm Flights
Egypt: Christian tortured for refusing Islam
UN: Iran’s human rights record worse under Rouhani than Ahmadinejad
Dozens killed in cargo plane crash in S. Sudan
U.S. Says at Least 120,000 Displaced in Syria since Russia Strikes Began
16 Dead, 40 Hurt, 100 Trapped as Pakistan Factory Collapses
Russia: Lavrov, Kerry hold phone call on Syria crisis
Bahrain says it foils plans for attack by Iran-linked terrorist group
Sisi says Muslim Brotherhood can play role in Egypt before UK visit
One of two black boxes from Russian plane damaged: Egypt ministry
Iraq leaders attend funeral of U.S. invasion backer Chalabi
Iran says no cooperation with U.S. in ‘fight against terrorists
Aid rushed to Yemen island after cyclone displaces over 40,000: U.N.
Saudi King Salman meets with UAE foreign minister, Pakistani army chief
Apparent Russian Syria strikes kill 23 civilians
Syrian army recaptures Aleppo supply route
Turkey may hold referendum on executive presidency: Erdogan’s spokesman
Erdogan: ‘no break’ in fighting Kurd rebels
First veiled female judge conducts trial in Turkey
Palestinians say videos back claims of Israeli abuse
Egypt calls for NATO support in Libya ‘vacuum’
Car bomb kills 6 in Sinai, ISIS in Egypt claims responsibility
At least four Egypt police killed in Sinai bombing
Syrian opposition figure welcomes more Israeli attacks

Links From Jihad Watch Site for November 04-05/15
Egypt: Christian tortured for refusing Islam
UN: Iran’s human rights record worse under Rouhani than Ahmadinejad
Muslims in Australia give $35 million to fund jihad terror
As jihadis attack Kurds, so do the Turks
Philippines: Muslims demand $60 million for 3 non-Muslim hostages
Swedish editor wants to “fill land with ISIS” to get rid of anti-immigrant Swedes
Spain: Muslims break into church, spray “Allah” on wall, destroy crucifix
New Glazov Gang: Stephen Coughlin on ‘Catastrophic Failure’
Kerry urges Tajikistan not to go overboard in its crackdown on Islam
Robert Spencer in FrontPage: Muhammad Had “British Values”?
Muslim screaming “Allahu akbar” tries to murder Israeli on international flight

Cyprus Rescues Lebanese, Syrian Migrants from Boat Sinking in Mediterranean
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/November 04/15/The Cyprus coastguard rescued 26 people -- mainly women and children believed to be Syrian and Lebanese migrants -- from a boat sinking in the Mediterranean in an operation completed early Wednesday, officials said. Some of the migrants had to be plucked from the water in the dark after the eight-meter (26-foot) pleasure boat ran into heavy seas off the island's southeast coast, the officials said. The youngest was just five months old and several were kept in hospital for treatment, including a young child suffering from hypothermia and dehydration. Three of those rescued were arrested on suspicion of people trafficking after others on the boat claimed they had paid for their passage from Lebanon to Greece -- 2,000 euros a head for adults and 1,000 euros for children. State radio said two of those arrested were Syrian and one Lebanese. It said most of those rescued are originally from Tartus, a government-controlled province on the Mediterranean coast that is one of the safer areas of Syria. They had travel documents and were believed to have been seeking a better life in Europe. The rescue took place not far from a British army garrison where 114 migrants who landed on the beach at a British airbase last month are being housed. Both the army garrison at Dhekelia and the airbase at Akrotiri, from which Britain carries out strikes against the Islamic State group in Iraq, are British sovereign territory and the fate of the 114 remains unclear. British and Cypriot officials are still in talks over what should happen to the migrants, some of whom have claimed asylum on British soil. EU member Cyprus lies just 100 kilometers (60 miles) off the Syrian coast but has so far avoided a mass influx of refugees from that country's conflict like that passing through the Balkans to Austria and Germany. In September, 115 refugees, including 54 women and children, were rescued from a small fishing boat that ran into trouble off the south coast. The UN refugee agency says more than 2,500 people have died trying to cross the Mediterranean this year, many of them Syrian refugees.

Lebanese Soldier Shot in Hermel, Fugitive Arrested at Baalbek Hospital
Naharnet/November 04/15/An army intelligence agent was shot and wounded Wednesday in the Bekaa city of Hermel as a fugitive was arrested at a hospital in Baalbek. “Members of the Allaw family opened fire at an army intelligence patrol in Hermel's al-Marah neighborhood, leaving a soldier wounded,” state-run National News Agency reported. It said the agent was rushed to al-Assi Hospital for treatment. Separately, security forces arrested a fugitive from the al-Effi family at the Dar al-Amal Hospital in Baalbek, the agency said.

Lebanon’s speaker calls first parliament session in months
Reuters, Beirut Wednesday, 4 November 2015/Lebanon’s parliament speaker on Wednesday called parliament to convene next week in the first attempt for months to bring deeply divided politicians together to pass laws vital to keeping the paralyzed state afloat. Lebanese politicians, bitterly divided by their own rivalries and wider conflict in the region, have been unable to take even basic decisions, including where to dump the country's rubbish. The paralysis of government was laid bare again in recent days when the government failed to pay the army on time. “The resumption of legislative work has become more than a necessity for the country,” parliament speaker Nabih Berri said in a statement, calling the session for next Thursday and Friday. It was not immediately clear whether enough MPs would attend the session to secure a quorum. Lebanon’s main political blocs have been unable to agree an agenda for a legislative session, obstructing previous efforts to convene the chamber. One of the rare occasions parliament met was a year ago, when it extended its own term until 2017, after legislative elections were postponed for a second time. “There is an agreement in principle on attendance of the session to pass important laws, otherwise the country will be in danger. We cannot continue in the country in this way - no government sessions, no legislative sessions, complete paralysis in the institutions of state,” a politician close to Berri told Reuters. Berri’s statement did not say which laws would be on the agenda. The governor of Lebanon’s central bank, widely seen as one of the only functioning institutions of state, told Reuters on Tuesday it was essential parliament convene to pass laws for development loans, debt issuance, and banks. World Bank loans approved for Lebanon will be cancelled unless approved by parliament before the end of the year, risking more pain for an economy already hit by the deadlock. Interior Minister Nohad Machnouk, a political opponent of Berri and his allies including the Shi'ite party Hezbollah, echoed the urgent need for a legislative session in comments to al-Akhbar newspaper, saying a set of financial laws needed to be approved. “For the first time in 22 years, there is a serious threat to the Lebanese pound if Lebanon delays approving the laws before the end of the year,” said Machnouk, a member of the Future Movement led by Sunni politician Saad al-Hariri. Parliament has also failed to elect a new head of state in the absence of consensus on who should fill the position that fell vacant when Michel Suleiman’s term expired 17 months ago. Berri has called 30 sessions to elect a new president. The unity government headed by Prime Minister Tammam Salam is also barely functioning. It includes Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran, and Hariri's Future Movement, backed by Saudi Arabia. The picture is further complicated by deep rivalries between Christian leaders allied to Hezbollah and the Future Movement. Illustrating the policymaking paralysis, the finance minister had to take an exceptional legal measure on Monday to pay soldiers whose salaries were late. He warned that government must meet to agree future transfers - indicating the problem could recur unless cabinet convenes. The army, which recruits from across Lebanon’s sectarian communities, has been the guarantor of civil peace in the country since the end of its 1975-90 civil war. Meanwhile, the government has also failed to find a solution to the trash crisis that allowed refuse to pile up in the streets of Beirut this summer. The search for a new dump has been complicated by resistance from local communities, with politicians rejecting a number of proposed sites.

Berri Sets Date for Legislative Session, Dubs Trash Crisis as 'Farce'
Naharnet/November 04/15/Speaker Nabih Berri dubbed on Wednesday the four-month trash crisis as a “farce”, and scheduled a legislative session on the November 12. “The trash crisis has become a farce. It is unacceptable that it stays trapped in bickering and disputes among the regions,” said Berri after his weekly meeting with lawmakers. The speaker had called for general legislative sessions at 11:00 am and in the afternoon on November 12 and another session the day after at noon in order to tackle and approve several draft laws listed on the agenda. Lawmakers quoted Berri as saying that “resuming legislative work has become more than necessary for the country. The situation cannot continue the way it is in light of the aggravating financial, economic and social threats.” The cabinet has been so divided that it has failed more than two dozen times to elect a successor to president Michel Suleiman, whose mandate expired in May 2014. The country has not had legislative elections since 2009, with parliament meeting only to extend its own mandate twice. The deadlock has manifested itself most recently in a trash crisis created by the government's failure to respond to the closure of the country's largest landfill.

Berri: Christian Parties' Absence from Legislative Session Unjustified
Naharnet/November 04/15/Speaker Nabih Berri said that the legislative session agenda caters to the concerns of various Christian parties, saying that he will not amend it, reported As Safir newspaper on Wednesday. He told the daily: “There is no justification for the absence of Christian parties from the session seeing as its agenda includes two articles that concern it.”These articles are the draft-law on naturalization of Lebanese expatriates and the referral of mobile phone revenues to municipalities. The agenda includes 40 articles. Berri explained that the parliamentary electoral law was not included because there are a number of draft-laws that require approval. Another meeting of the parliament bureau will not be held ahead of the legislative session, he stressed. The session has been scheduled for November 12 and 13. Christian circles remarked to As Safir however that if the agenda is really not subject to amending, then the speaker would have immediately set a date for the legislative session. The speaker cannot take the risk of scheduling a session that is not completely legitimate, they explained. The Lebanese Forces and Free Patriotic Movement have repeatedly said that they would not take part in a legislative session that does not include the contentious electoral law.

Shehayyeb: Politicians Let Me down over Trash Crisis
Naharnet/November 04/15/Agriculture Minister Akram Shehayyeb expressed his disappointment with the manner in which the garbage disposal crisis has been handled in the wake of the ongoing failure to resolve the problem, reported As Safir newspaper on Wednesday. He told the daily that some politicians who had showered him with “theoretical support have let me down.” In addition, he held some media outlets responsible for creating incitement against his garbage disposal plan, “which resulted in its practical and environmental defeat.”Sources monitoring the case told As Safir that there is still time before Lebanon reaches the point of no return in the garbage crisis. They explained that the dumps near the Rafik Hariri International Airport can take in a month's worth of trash, despite holding more than 100,000 tons so far. In addition, they said that areas that are receiving Beirut's waste can carry on doing so for about two weeks. The real problem lies in the garbage of the Metn and Keserouan regions, clarified the sources. Efforts to resolve the trash disposal crisis that erupted in July have so far failed as officials floated once again on Tuesday the possibility of exporting the waste. Lebanon has been suffering from a trash disposal crisis since July with the closure of the Naameh landfill. Politicians have failed to find an alternative to the landfill, which resulted in the pile up of garbage on the streets of the country. There are fears the uncollected waste, coupled with the rain season, could spread diseases such as cholera among the population.
Various proposals made by Shehayyeb have been met with rejection and stalling.

Maronite Bishops Reiterate Need to Elect President, Urge Officials to Respect Constitution
Naharnet/November 04/15/The Maronite bishops council reiterated on Wednesday the recent call of Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi for the election of a new president, condemning the ongoing delay in the issue. They said after their monthly meeting: “We urge the need to elect a new president, which will restore normalcy to Lebanon and its state institutions.” They also stressed the importance of adhering to the constitution in the electoral process. Lebanon has been without a head of state since May 2014 when the term of Michel Suleiman ended without the election of a successor. Turning to the garbage disposal crisis, the bishops voiced their support for the civil society movement, but condemned the incidents of violence that had marred their actions. “It is shameful to link public issues to personal interests and to link the people's concerns to political ones,” they lamented.The country has since July been suffering from a waste management crisis that has resulted in the pile up of trash on the streets throughout Lebanon. The civil society activists have been protesting the politicians' ongoing failure to resolve this case as experts have warned of the environmental and health hazards of the prolonged crisis.

Report: LF, FPM Will not Attend Legislative Session without Electoral Law
Naharnet/November 04/15/The Lebanese Forces and Free Patriotic Movement have reiterated their commitment to addressing the parliamentary electoral law above any other article at the upcoming legislative session, reported An Nahar daily on Wednesday. Sources from the LF told the daily that the two sides will adhere to their “rejection to attend any session that does not have the electoral law on its agenda.” FPM MP Ibrahim Kanaan told al-Joumhouria newspaper: “The electoral law should be a top priority, because it will introduce a radical solution to the political crisis we are enduring and which we have been suffering from for 15 years.” “The presidential vacuum, extension of the term of parliament, and the paralysis at constitutional institutions are evidence of the need to exert all efforts to adopt a new electoral law,” he explained. Meanwhile, a lawmaker from the March 14 camp expressed his conviction that Speaker Nabih Berri will not call for a session without ensuring that all members of the parliament will attend. The parliament bureau had convened on Tuesday and it approved 40 articles to include on the agenda of a legislative session, which has been scheduled for November 12 and 13. Its agenda includes the draft-law on naturalization of Lebanese expatriates and the referral of mobile phone revenues to municipalities. The LF and FPM had reached an agreement last month on the naturalization draft-law. Kanaan hoped that the law would be adopted during the legislative session. “We hope that this national demand would be the demand of all parliamentary blocs,” he added.

Mashnouq: Failure to Approve Financial Laws Endangers Lebanese Pound
Naharnet/November 04/15/Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq said on Wednesday that the Lebanese pound faces a real threat if Lebanon fails to hold a legislative session to adopt a number of financial laws before the end of the year. “The Lebanese pound faces a real threat for the first time in 22 years if Lebanon fails to adopt a number of financial laws before the end of the year,” said Mashnouq to the al-Akhbar daily. He explained that the World Bank and international bodies are waiting for Lebanon to approve the laws of “anti-money laundering, amending the tax law procedures and the transfer of funds across the border.” The minister's comments came in parallel with media reports pointing to a letter sent by a Lebanese formal body to the parliament, premiership and other officials pointing to the end of the international grace period given to Lebanon before its classification among the “worst in financial and economic performance.”The letter pointed out that Lebanon has an opportunity before the meeting of Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering FATF, also known as GAFI, in early February that it has to take advantage of it to pass laws sent by the Central Bank of Lebanon to the government and that need the approval of the parliament. According to the letter, the parliament has a short period of time to pass the legislation otherwise Lebanon faces the possibility of having restrictions on the banking and financial transfers, which would in turn reflect negatively on the remittances that have been estimated by the World Bank in April last year worth $8.9 billion.

Army Raids Tripoli Arms Depot, Arrests Syrian Suspects in Arsal
Naharnet/November 04/15/Army intelligence agents raided Tuesday a building's bomb shelter in the Tripoli neighborhood of Bab al-Tabbaneh and seized arms and ammunition. "Following investigations, an army force raided a bomb shelter in a building in the vicinity of the house of the detainee Abdul Rahman Fares in the Abou Ali roundabout area," an army statement said. "An RPG rocket launcher, eight RPG rockets, a machinegun and a quantity of medium- and light-caliber ammunition were seized in the depot," it added. The northern city of Tripoli witnessed unprecedented deadly clashes between the army and Islamist militants in October 2014. It was the last military battle in Tripoli following dozens of rounds of sectarian fighting between the Bab al-Tabbaneh and Jabal Mohsen neighborhoods. Violence in the city largely abated after the army implemented a security plan that involved the arrest of the heads of the fighting frontiers and the killing of many notorious militants. Separately, the army announced Tuesday the arrest of two Syrian suspects in the northeastern border town of Arsal. “The Syrians Hassan Abdul Karim Awad and Alaeddine Saadiya were arrested this afternoon in Arsal's Wadi al-Hosn area during their presence in an under-construction building,” an army statement said. They were held on suspicion of belonging to terrorist groups and for carrying no identification papers, it added. Ever since the Syrian revolt erupted in March 2011, Arsal has served as a key conduit for refugees, militants and wounded people fleeing the strife-torn country. Jihadists from al-Nusra Front and the Islamic State are entrenched in the town's outskirts. In August 2014, they stormed the town and engaged in bloody battles with the Lebanese army following the arrest of a senior IS militant. The jihadists withdrew after a ceasefire, but took with them several dozen hostages from the army and police four of whom have since been executed.

Syrian Held for Murdering His Infant Daughter
Naharnet/November 04/15/A Syrian man was arrested Wednesday on charges of murdering his paralyzed infant daughter, state-run National News Agency reported. “A patrol from the Jbeil police station arrested Syrian national Ahmed Qdeij on charges of murdering his paralyzed infant daughter and burying her body in the Batroun region,” NNA said. It said the girl was one and a half year old. “An investigation got underway at the request of the Mount Lebanon prosecutor's office,” the agency added.

Lost military figures resurfacing..."The Marada Archers"
Dr. WAlid Phares/November 04/15/Lebanon's modern history books between 1943 and 1990 were carefully written and illustrated so that large areas of the country's history, bad or good, was suppressed. My book of 1979 included a severe critique of the educational system of "1943." But the Taef "educational regime" did worse. Not only it suppressed parts of history, it disfigured the remaining parts. Nothing pertaining to the historical evolution of Lebanon from the 7th century to the 16th survived the Taef history books. More precisely the entire history of Mount Lebanon disappeared. Even more particularly its military history. Now more research is surfacing and more material is being gathered. I wish if time was available to write extensions to my books in the 1980's and the 1990s. Maybe few years from now. Here is an exclusive portrait-painting, of a Marada archer circa 1099. The Marada, Mardaites, Mordoyo, were the armed forces of the Aramaic-speaking populations of Mount Lebanon between the 7th century and 1305 AD. According to growing research, the Marada archers were among the best of medieval times in the Levant. Today they would be the equivalent of sniper corps. They were portrayed as the defensive force barring the valleys of the Mount Lebanon range to the Umeyads and Abbassids for centuries. Some history references describes them as playing a role in the Crusaders advances in the Levant in the 10th and 11th centuries, along with Armenian brigades. Note their light uniforms and hats and small shields. Ironically and mysteriously the "Marada archers" appeared in online games few years ago along with Mameluks, Franks, Seleucids and Byzantines. No matter how we read history today, these prominent soldiers active for six hundred years, almost ten times the history of the "Lebanese Republic", are no where to be found in official history, in museums or in the speeches of national leaders and politicians. This is a drop in a sea of information and literature, gone absent from the curricula and from the minds of any young generations of Lebanese. Fortunately, there are those very few researchers, very young ones, who are excavating the patrimony of a national history, abandoned by an power-hungry elite.

How to Heal a Politically “Reprobate Mind”?
Elie Aoun/November 04/15
“I wisdom . . . . Blessed is the man who hears me.” (Proverbs 8:12, 34)
The divine order is: first salvation, then works.
One aspect of salvation is to be saved from the habit and dominion of sin, whose traits are exhibited within the Lebanese political realm as:
Being full of all unrighteousness, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, of murder, of debate, of deceit, taking all things in the evil part, whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, doers of wrong, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, such as can never be appeased, merciless. The root cause of these things, according to the Bible, is a “reprobate mind” (Romans 1:28-32) which is given to those who:
(1) “changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man,”
(2) “changed the truth of God into a lie,”
(3) “worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator,” and
(4) “did not like to retain God in their knowledge.” (Romans 1:23, 25, 28)
Where did the Lebanese change the truth of God into a lie, etc? By false worship.
Firstly, God commands us: Thou shall not bow down to graven images, neither any similitude of things that are in heaven above, neither that are in the earth beneath. (Exodus 20:4-5)
The Lebanese cannot establish a viable nation when about half of them (Christian) bows down to statues and corrupted images, while the other half (Muslim) bows down east towards a black cube. Those who bow to them become like them -- They have a mouth, and speak not: they have eyes, and see not. They have ears, and hear not: they have noses and smell not. (Psalm 115:5-8)
By not properly honoring God, the Lebanese dishonored themselves. They shamelessly changed the truth of God into idol falsehood, and lost sight of  the Creator in that which was created (while falsely proclaiming to worship the Creator by means of the created statues, images, and a black cube). Not to worship at all is better (for the mind) than false worship.
Secondly, many Lebanese have forgotten the true God and chased after other “gods”: their political leaders -- to whom they sacrifice their time, their energy, their talent, their money, their service, and even their lives. They became their politicians’ slaves working on their politicians’ projects. Those who do so, God gave them up to an undiscerning mind. Instead, they should have been working on God’s project in their own lives.
CONCLUSION
The contempt of religion is the fountain of all mischief. If a man will not worship God as God, he is so left to himself that he throws away his very manhood.
Let us transcend false traditional worship and political practices. Let us directly pursue the Word of God by reading the Bible so that we and our nation may be blessed to overcome the deceptions enslaving us.
Even Muslim nationals are called to do the same. The Quran states: “And let the people of the Gospel judge by what Allah has revealed therein. And whoever does not judge by what Allah has revealed, then it is those who are defiantly disobedient.” (Surat Al-Ma’idah 5:47)
We must act according to what God has revealed in the Gospel -- where God clearly commands us not to bow to hand-made things.
Those who kneel east towards a black cube, and those who kneel to religious statues, are “defiantly disobedient,” Through their practices, they bring the wrath of God against our people and our nation.
The black-robed clergy are leading the people astray to their own destruction. Any clergymen who pursues false worship -- and any political leader with pagan idols: logos, flags, or hand-signs -- are not acting according to the Word of God and are not fit to be followed.
The Lebanese must, each on his or her own, (1) read at least one paragraph
from the Bible every day; (2) stop bowing to statues or the black cube; (3) abandon political parties with pagan logos and hand-signs; and (4) act with love -- by teaching, guiding, and assisting where possible.
This “campaign” does not require of anyone to do anything except committing to these four objectives in their own personal life. They could do so without even explaining to anyone about what they are doing. It would be their journey with God. In time, their “silent action” will bring healing to their lives, their families, their community, and their nation.
“This is that victory that has overcome this world: our faith.” (1 John 5:4)

Members of Canada's New Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's new cabinet sworn in
The Canadian Press
OTTAWA - The 31 members of the new Liberal cabinet were sworn in Wednesday at Rideau Hall. The list:
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, also minister of intergovernmental affairs and youth;
Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale;
Agriculture and Agri-Food Minister Lawrence MacAulay;
Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Dion;
Immigration Minister John McCallum;
Indigenous and Northern Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett;
Treasury Board President Scott Brison;
Government House leader Dominc LeBlanc;
Innovation, Science and Economic Development Minister Navdeep Singh Bains;
Finance Minister Bill Morneau;
Justice Minister and Attorney General Jody Wilson-Raybould;
Public Services Minister Judy Foote;
International Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland;
Health Minister Jane Philpott;
Families, Children and Social Development Minister Jean-Yves Duclos;
Transport Minister Marc Garneau;
International Development Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau;
Natural Resources Minister James Carr;
Canadian Heritage Minister Melanie Joly;
Revenue Minister Diane Lebouthillier;
Veterans Affairs Minister Kent Hehr;
Environment and Climate Change Minister Catherine McKenna;
Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan;
Employment Minister MaryAnn Mihychuk;
Infrastructure Minister Amarjeet Sohi;
Democratic Institutions Minister Maryam Monsef;
Sports Minister Carla Qualtrough;
Fisheries Minister Hunter Tootoo;
Science Minister Kirsty Duncan;
Status of Women Minister Patricia Hajdu;
Small Business Minister Bardish Chagger.

U.S. Intelligence Says Russian Jet Likely Downed by IS Bomb, UK Suspends Sharm Flights
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/November 04/15/The latest U.S. intelligence suggests that the crash of Metrojet Flight 9268 was most likely caused by a bomb on the plane planted by the Islamic State group or an IS affiliate, a U.S. official familiar with the matter told CNN on Wednesday. The official stressed that there has not been a formal conclusion reached by the U.S. intelligence community. "There is a definite feeling it was an explosive device planted in luggage or somewhere on the plane," the official said. The assessment was reached, the official added, by looking back at intelligence reports that had been gathered before Saturday's plane crash and intelligence gathered since then. The United States did not have credible or verified intelligence of a specific threat prior to the crash, however, the official said, prior to the incident, "there had been additional activity in Sinai that had caught our attention."Another U.S. official said the intelligence regarding the IS is in part based on monitoring of internal messages of the extremist group. Those messages are separate from public IS claims of responsibility, that official said. Earlier in the day, Britain said it was concerned the airliner may have been downed by a bomb, as the IS insisted it caused the disaster.
London's announcement came as Egyptian officials said investigators probing the black boxes had extracted the data from one for analysis, but the other had been damaged and required a lot of work. "While the investigation is still ongoing we cannot say categorically why the Russian jet crashed," British Prime Minister David Cameron's office said. "But as more information has come to light, we have become concerned that the plane may well have been brought down by an explosive device."Britain temporarily suspended flights from Egypt's Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh. It was from there that the Metrojet Airbus A-321 that crashed killing all 224 people on board took off on Saturday. "We recognize that this information may cause concern for those in Sharm and indeed for those planning to travel to Sharm in the coming days," Downing Street said, adding that Cameron would hold an emergency cabinet meeting on the issue later Wednesday. In Dublin, the Irish Aviation Authority told the country's airlines not to fly to Sharm el-Sheikh or over the Sinai "until further notice."Within hours of the crash, the jihadist IS claimed it downed the plane but provided no details. Both Russia and Egypt doubted the claim, but officials say they cannot rule out anything and that investigation of the black boxes may take weeks or even months.In a new statement Wednesday, IS insisted it had brought down the plane -- and challenged skeptics to prove otherwise.
'Prove it'
"We are under no obligation to explain how it came down," the group said in an audio statement posted online. "Prove that we didn't bring it down, and how it came down. We will detail how it came down at the time of our choosing." Cameron's office said he and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi agreed in a phone call Tuesday on the need for tight security at Sharm el-Sheikh airport. Cameron and Sisi "agreed it was important not to pre-judge the investigation", the British statement said. They "noted that there was still uncertainty about the cause of the crash and agreed it would be prudent to ensure the tightest possible security arrangements at Sharm el-Sheikh airport as a precautionary measure."The IS affiliate in Egypt is waging a bloody insurgency in the north of the Sinai Peninsula that has killed hundreds of policemen and soldiers.On Wednesday, it claimed responsibility for a suicide car bombing on a police social club in El-Arish, which the official MENA news agency said killed four policemen. Sisi, who left for London Wednesday, has downplayed as propaganda the IS claim of responsibility for the crash but said a full investigation will take time. U.S. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper also said this week it was "unlikely" IS was involved, but he did not exclude the possibility. The airline itself has ruled out a technical fault or human error, drawing fire from the head of Russia's aviation authority. Alexander Neradko said the airline's conclusions were "premature and not based on any real facts."
Heat flash
Experts say the fact that debris and bodies were strewn over a wide area points to a mid-air disintegration of the aircraft.That leaves two possibilities -- a technical fault that caused the plane to disintegrate or an explosion caused by a bomb smuggled on board, experts say. American officials told CNN and other U.S. television networks that a military satellite had detected a heat flash at the time of the crash, which could point to a catastrophic in-flight event, possibly a bomb explosion. Search operations had been extended to a radius of about 40 kilometers (25 miles).President Vladimir Putin has described the crash -- Russia's worst-ever air disaster -- as a "huge tragedy." Relatives of the victims have begun identifying the bodies after two planes delivered the remains of many to Saint Petersburg. In the city center, about 300 people attended a vigil for the victims on Wednesday. "We are here to honor those who died. This is not the time to say who is to blame, the most important thing is to express our common grief," said activist Valentin Podsvin. IS has deployed shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles in the past, but they are not known to possess weapons that could bring down an airliner at high altitude. Militants have staged many attacks since the military overthrew Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013. They say these are retaliation for an ensuing police crackdown in which hundreds of Morsi supporters have been killed and thousands, including the ousted president, jailed.

Egypt: Christian tortured for refusing Islam
November 4, 2015 5/By Raymond Ibrahim/Jihad Watch
A Christian man was abducted and tortured for refusing to convert to Islam last week in Egypt. Fayiz Fouad, a Coptic Christian, was kidnapped as he was returning from a visit to the St. George Coptic Orthodox Monastery in Qena. His vehicle was forcefully stopped in a Nag Hammadi village that he had to cross through, and he was taken hostage for three days. During that time, Fouad was tortured in an “ugly manner,” according to rights activist Safwat Sim‘an: “The story isn’t merely about kidnapping; it has an ISIS component to it.”The Christian was tortured for refusing to say the Islamic shahada—that “There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is his messenger”—and thus becoming Muslim. His family could not reach the Copt except by way of an influential village elder and the subsequent payment of 50,000 Egyptian pounds, or $6,225 USD. According to Sim‘an, “The issue of kidnapped Copts continues in Nag Hammadi, despite the fact that Egyptian Security knows where these kidnappers are situated and their identities, and yet remains silent about their crimes.”

UN: Iran’s human rights record worse under Rouhani than Ahmadinejad
November 4, 2015 /Jihad Watch
Rouhani, you’ll remember, is a “moderate” according to the international media. He is supposed to represent a departure from Ahmadinejad, Iran’s coming in from the cold. Reality, as always, is different. “UN Report: Iran’s Human Rights Record Worse Under Rouhani than Ahmadinejad,” by Adelle Nazarian, Breitbart, November 2, 2015 (thanks to Cecilia): A report released this month on “The Situation of Human Rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran” reveals that Iranians are worse off under “moderate” President Hassan Rouhani than his more conservative predecessor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and that, based on their current trajectory, they are expected to exceed well over 1,000 executions by year’s end. “The human rights situation in the country remains dire,” Dr. Ahmed Shaheed, the UN’s special rapporteur on Iran, said during a briefing at the United Nations last week. Iran executes more individuals per capita than any other country in the world. In his 26-page report, Shaheed notes that between January 1 and September 15 of this year, Iran executed at least 694 people by hanging, which included at least 10 women and one juvenile. In 2014, Iran clocked in at a shocking 753 executions. Shaheed’s analysis also found that “more than 480 persons were flogged during the first 15 days of Ramadan for not fasting,” but that the Iranian regime has falsely maintained that only three individuals were subject to this punishment for their non-observance of the fast. Additionally, two people who were convicted of theft had their limbs amputated mere weeks prior to the conclusion of the Iran nuclear deal (the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or JCPOA) in July. A man identified as “Hamid S.” reportedly had his left eye and right ear surgically removed in January of this year after being found guilty of attacking another man with acid in 2005, which caused the victim to lose the same body parts. Another man was also forcibly blinded in March of this year in a process known as qisas, or “retribution-in-kind,” for throwing acid on another man in 2009.
An Iranian exile shouts slogans to protest against executions in Iran during a demonstration in front of the Iranian embassy in Brussels, December 29, 2010. (Francois Lenoir/Reuters)
The egregious human rights abuses do not stop there. Adhmadinejad had infamously said gays do not exist in Iran several years ago. Shaheed’s recent UN report indicated that Rouhani had rejected the UN’s proposals to improve the situation of LGBTs in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Homosexuality is punishable by death in Iran, and the Ayatollah Khamenei has declared a fatwa that essentially forces gay and lesbian individuals into gender reassignment surgery, and a tremendous amount of pressure comes from families of these individuals who are concerned about their image in society. Despite perceived social strides forward in the Iranian regime, particularly by way of reformists who seek to implement change internally, the hardliners still maintain control. Omri Ceren, managing director of press and strategy at the Israel Project, told the Jerusalem Post on Sunday that “[e]very day brings new evidence that, whatever moderates there are in the Iranian political system, they’re not the ones in control… At some point the Obama administration will have to come to grips with who they’re dealing with, and work with Congress to push back strongly.” While the Iranian regime officially recognizes Zoroastrianism, Judaism, and Christianity as minority religions, the report maintains that members of these faiths continue to face severe restrictions in their ability to practice. Adherents of the Baha’i faith remain the most severely persecuted minority religious group in Iran. Women are also barred from attending sporting events such as volleyball matches, a concern the JPost describes as a “gender apartheid” system. The UN report notes that “Iran ranked 135 of the 142 countries assessed by the World Economic Forum for women’s political empowerment in 2014.” According to i24News, Iran has consistently barred Shaheed from visiting the country and “while Iranian officials have met with him, they have strongly disputed his criticisms and have frequently denounced his reporting as politically motivated and lacking credibility.”

Dozens killed in cargo plane crash in S. Sudan
By Staff writer, Al Arabiya News Wednesday, 4 November 2015/A Russian-built cargo plane with passengers on board crashed on Wednesday after taking off from the airport in South Sudan’s capital, killing dozens of people, witnesses said. An official said three people on board survived.
A statement from the aircraft’s Ukraine-based maker Antonov said that the plane was “in no to state to fly” due to its failure to undergo “timely technical servicing.”The precise death toll was not immediately clear after the Antonov-12 B plane turbo prop plane crashed soon after take off, leaving chunks of wreckage, bodies and cargo strewn along a bank of the White Nile River. The Civil Aviation Authority said the number of dead was still being counted. A Reuters witness saw 41 bodies, some of which were covered by cloth. A police officer, who did not give his name because he was not authorised to speak to the media, also put the death toll at 41. Another witness counted at least 32 killed. Presidential spokesman Ateny Wek Ateny told Reuters the plane was carrying 18 people, including the six foreign crew, according to official documents. He said 15 of them died and three South Sudanese nationals survived, including a child.
No indiciation
“This is the number given to us by the (control) tower,” he told Reuters in reference to those on board. Asked about figures suggesting a higher toll, he said it could be people killed on the ground but said he had no indication about any such deaths. Officials said the plane belonged to freight and logistics firm Allied Services Ltd. Officials at the company could not immediately be reached for comment. “We have rushed to the site of crash which is located near the airport, southeast of Juba International Airport (across) the river,” said the chief executive of the Civil Aviation Authority at Juba airport, Stephen Warikozi.
“We have secured the site of crash and also we are in the stage of recovering bodies and black box,” he said. “We are still now recovering the dead bodies and we cannot give you the exact number.”The plane, registration number EY406, had been on its way to Paloch, in the north of South Sudan, Warikozi said. The presidential spokesman said the six crew were comprised of five Armenians and one Russian. He said all the others on the flight were South Sudanese. Armenia’s Foreign Ministry confirmed that five of its citizens who were members of the crew died in the crash.(With Reuters)

U.S. Says at Least 120,000 Displaced in Syria since Russia Strikes Began
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/November 04/15/Syria government offensives backed by Russian air strikes have displaced at least 120,000 people in the war-wracked country, a senior U.S. official said Wednesday, accusing Moscow of complicating the situation on the ground.
"Russia's military intervention has dangerously exacerbated an already complex environment," Anne Patterson, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, told the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

16 Dead, 40 Hurt, 100 Trapped as Pakistan Factory Collapses
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/November 04/15/At least 16 people were killed and 40 injured when a factory collapsed in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore Wednesday, the local administration chief told AFP, with around a hundred more still trapped. "The rescue workers have so far retrieved 16 dead bodies while at least 40 injured have been taken to hospitals," Mohammad Usman said. The incident took place at a polythene bag factory in the Sundar industrial estate, around 45 kilometers (30 miles) southwest of the city center. Jam Sajjad Hussain, a spokesman for the rescue services, said 100 people were still trapped, while ambulances were taking the injured to hospital. "All our rescue workers are on site but it is such a big incident that we have called rescue workers from other nearby districts," he added. The army meanwhile announced it was deploying specialist search teams and engineers to the factory. Pakistan has a poor safety record in the construction and maintenance of buildings. Last year, a mosque collapsed in the same city, killing at least 24 people. More than 200 people lost their lives to collapsed roofs following torrential rainfall and flooding in 2014.

Russia: Lavrov, Kerry hold phone call on Syria crisis
Staff writer, Al Arabiya News Wednesday, 4 November 2015/Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Wednesday held a phone call in which they discussed ways for the international community to help support efforts to end the Syria crisis, Russia’s foreign ministry said. Their discussion included ways to form a united Syrian opposition delegation so as to swiftly improve Syrian national political dialogue and to consolidate positions on fighting terrorism, the ministry said in a statement on its website. It added the call took place on the initiative of the United States. Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan also held a phone conversation and shared their opinions on the Syria crisis in light of ministerial meetings in Vienna last week, the Kremlin said on Wednesday. Both sides confirmed they were willing to continue political dialogue, it said. Earlier, Lavrov said on Wednesday that before the next round of Vienna talks on Syria, it is essential to decide who to consider terrorists and who the opposition members are.
Lavrov also said Moscow actively supports efforts of U.N. Syria envoy on the Syrian crisis.(With Reuters)

Bahrain says it foils plans for attack by Iran-linked terrorist group
Reuters, Dubai Wednesday, 4 November 2015/Bahrain said on Wednesday it had arrested 47 members of a group believed to have links to “terrorist elements in Iran” who it said were planning to carry out attacks in the coming days. An interior ministry statement carried by Bahrain’s state news agency BNA said a large number of explosives and weapons had been found in secret caches in residential areas of several villages. “The results of the inquiry and investigation indicate that the group has close links to Iranian elements and terrorist elements residing in Iran,” the statement said. Several members of the group received training in Iran on how to use weapons and manufacture explosives, it added. Last month Bahrain recalled its ambassador to Iran, a day after the Gulf Arab state said its security forces had discovered a large bomb-making factory and had arrested a number of suspects linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards. Bahrain has been cracking down on militants behind bomb attacks against security forces that have killed several people this year. Shiite Iran denies involvement in any violence in Bahrain.

Sisi says Muslim Brotherhood can play role in Egypt before UK visit
By Reuters, London Wednesday, 4 November 2015/Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi suggested the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood could again play a role in public life if Egyptians wanted a return of the grouping he currently classifies as terrorist. Sisi, who launched the toughest crackdown on Islamists in Egypt’s modern history after toppling President Mohamed Mursi of the Brotherhood, was due in London on Wednesday on a visit to Britain criticised by rights campaigners. The visit has drawn criticism from rights campaigners and some politicians, with the leader of Britain’s main opposition party saying it showed “contempt for human and democratic rights”.In an interview with the BBC, Sisi signalled a possible softening of position towards the Muslim Brotherhood. “The problem doesn’t lie with the government and it doesn’t lie with me. It lies with public opinion, with Egyptians. Egyptians are peaceful people and they don’t like violence. They reacted against the Muslim Brotherhood and are wary of them,” Sisi said in the TV interview, due to be broadcast in full on Thursday. “This country is big enough to accommodate all of us. They are part of Egypt and so the Egyptian people must decide what role they can play.”
Protest
The Brotherhood, the Middle East’s oldest Islamist movement and long Egypt’s main political opposition, says it is committed to peaceful activism designed to reverse what it calls a military coup, when Sisi seized power from Mursi in 2013. Security forces killed hundreds of Mursi supporters at street protests and thousands of others were arrested. Senior Brotherhood leaders have been sentenced to death in what human rights groups call unfair trials. Sisi has said tough security measures were needed to protect Egypt from what he describes as terrorist attacks by militants. ISIS’s Egypt affiliate has killed hundreds of soldiers and police since Mursi’s ouster. The BBC said Sisi had stressed those sentenced to death would most likely not be executed because they were convicted in absentia or due to the appeals process. Western diplomats say the death sentences could radicalise Islamists and would amount to political suicide. Sisi’s visit to London comes soon after a visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping, when critics said Britain was selling off its assets to a country with a questionable rights record. Around 150 demonstrators gathered outside Cameron’s Downing Street residence to protest against Sisi’s visit. “David Cameron, can’t you see, Sisi killed democracy?” the group chanted from within a heavily-policed enclosure. More than 50 lawmakers have signed a motion calling for the visit to be cancelled. Cameron’s spokeswoman has said “no issues will be off the table” when the two leaders meet on Thursday. But Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of Britain’s opposition Labour Party, said just welcoming Sisi “makes a mockery of government claims to be promoting peace and justice in the region”. The Egyptian leader told the BBC efforts to improve democracy in Egypt were “a work in progress” which would take time, but his people now had the right to choose their leader. “Now a president can only serve one or maximum two terms. Never again will Egyptians be ruled against their will,” he said. Egyptians have been ruled by men from the military since army officers deposed the monarchy in 1952. “No one is oppressed in Egypt, but we are living through incredible times,” Sisi said. “Egypt doesn’t want to become like other countries in the region.”

One of two black boxes from Russian plane damaged: Egypt ministry
By Reuters Cairo Wednesday, 4 November 2015/Investigators have extracted and validated the contents of the flight data recorder, one of two so-called black boxes recovered from the Russian airplane that crashed in Egypt, Egypt's Civil Aviation Ministry said on Wednesday. The ministry said the second black box which contains the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) was partially damaged and much work was required to extract data from it. "Consequently no further comment on the CVR can be made. Examination of parts on site is continuing," said the ministry's statement. Earlier, Islamic State's Egyptian affiliate dismissed in an audio message doubts that it had downed the Russian passenger plane over Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, killing all aboard, and said it would tell the world how it did so in its own time. The Russian-operated Airbus A321M crashed on Saturday shortly after taking off from the Red Sea resort of Sharm al-Sheikh on its way to St Petersburg, killing all 224 people on board. Sinai Province, an Egyptian group loyal to Islamic State, said in a statement the same day that it had brought down the airliner "in response to Russian air strikes that killed hundreds of Muslims on Syrian land". The claim was dismissed by Russian and Egyptian officials. Security experts and investigators have said the plane is unlikely to have been struck from the outside and Sinai-based militants are not believed to possess the technology to shoot down a jet from a cruising altitude above 30,000 feet. Russian officials have, however, said the plane probably broke up in the air, leaving open the prospect of some kind of explosion on board. Asked to comment on those remarks and local press reports that the black box voice recorders had picked up unusual sounds before the crash, Civil Aviation Minister Hossam Kemal said the facts had yet to be established. "This is all speculation. There is nothing definitive until the investigation commission completes its probe," he said. In an audio message posted on a Twitter account used by the group, Islamic State's Egyptian affiliate insisted it was behind the crash. The claim could not immediately be authenticated. We, with God's grace, are the ones who brought it down, and we are not obliged to disclose the mechanism of its demise," the speaker said. Russia, an ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, launched air raids against opposition groups in Syria including Islamic State on Sept. 30. The hardline group has called for war against both Russia and the United States in response to their air strikes in Syria. Islamic State backers in Iraq issued a video on Tuesday congratulating their Egyptian colleagues and warning Russian President Vladimir Putin that more was to come. Sinai-based militants have killed hundreds of Egyptian soldiers and police in recent years and have also attacked Western targets. Egypt has carried out air strikes on them. Islamic State websites have in the past claimed responsibility for actions that have not been conclusively attributed to them. Officials say there is no evidence to suggest so far that a bomb brought down the plane.

Iraq leaders attend funeral of U.S. invasion backer Chalabi
AFP, Baghdad Wednesday, 4 November 2015/Top Iraqi officials attended a funeral Wednesday for politician Ahmed Chalabi, a controversial champion of the US-led invasion of his country. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, President Fuad Masum, parliament speaker Salim al-Juburi and other officials were among the large crowd of mourners at the ceremony held in Baghdad’s heavily-fortified Green Zone, where the government is headquartered. Chalabi, the head of parliament’s finance committee, died of a heart attack aged 71 the day before. Living in exile as head of the Iraqi National Congress (INC), which opposed Saddam Hussein, Chalabi became a White House favourite for information he provided which supported the U.S. justification for attacking Iraq in 2003. But he lost favour after the invasion when information regarding Saddam’s alleged possession of weapons of mass destruction and links to Al-Qaeda turned out to be false. He was also accused of providing information to U.S. foe Iran. Chalabi held the rotating presidency of the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council after the invasion, served as deputy prime minister and also temporarily held the key oil portfolio, but he never reached the political heights to which he aspired.

Iran says no cooperation with U.S. in ‘fight against terrorists’
Reuters, Dubai Wednesday, 4 November 2015/Iran will not cooperate with the United States on the “fight against terrorists in Syria”, a top adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was quoted as saying by state media on Wednesday. “Iran will not cooperate directly or indirectly with the United States,” Ali Akbar Velayati was quoted as saying on Press TV after a meeting with Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad in Tehran. “Iran will not accept any initiative regarding Syria without consultation with the country’s government and people,” Press TV also quoted Velayati as saying. In a meeting with Mekdad on Wednesday, Iran’s foreign minister reiterated Tehran’s position that it believed the Syrian crisis only had a political solution. “We believe only the Syrian people should decide about their future and others can only facilitate this political process to resolve the crisis,” Mohammad Javad Zarif was quoted as saying by Fars news agency. World and regional powers including rivals Iran and Saudi Arabia met in Vienna this month to discuss a political solution to Syria’s civil war but failed to reach a consensus on the future of President Bashar al-Assad. Iran backs Assad in the war while Saudi Arabia supports rebels seeking to oust him. It was the first time Tehran and Riyadh were at the same table to tackle a war that has evolved into a wider proxy struggle for regional dominance between Russia and Iran on Assad’s side and Turkey, U.S.-allied Gulf Arab states and Western powers who support rebels to varying degrees.

Aid rushed to Yemen island after cyclone displaces over 40,000: U.N.
Reuters, Aden Wednesday, 4 November 2015/Aid flights rushed food and tents to the Yemeni island of Socotra, local officials said on Wednesday, after it was hit by a rare cyclone the United Nations said has displaced 40,000 people there and on the mainland. Cyclone Chapala killed three people when it made landfall on Monday on Socotra, an isolated island closer to the Horn of Africa than to Yemen that has about 50,000 inhabitants and an exotic mixture of unique flora and fauna. Another man drowned when the hurricane-force storm reached mainland Yemen’s fifth largest city, Mukalla, on the Gulf of Aden on Tuesday, sending thousands of families in the region scrambling for higher and drier land. Three Omani planes bearing tents and food and a United Arab Emirates cargo plane with 20 tons of food and blankets have arrived on the remote island in the past 24 hours, the Emirates News Agency reported on Wednesday citing local officials. “Initial reports suggest more than 40,000 people displaced or temporarily evacuated from coastal areas and at least 450 homes damaged and destroyed,” the U.N. aid agency OCHA said, with Socotrans accounting for half of the total displaced. The storm is set to dissipate as it leaves warm waters and heads inland into Yemen and Saudi Arabia’s desert interior. Civil defense and recovery efforts are hampered by a seven-month war raging in the impoverished country between Yemen’s exiled government backed by a Saudi-led military coalition and an Iran-allied militia that runs the capital
Sanaa.
Residents despaired of receiving help any time soon. “There’s been severe damage the people’s farms and homes ... two villages have been completely submerged, roads and bridges have been totally washed away by the floods and the government didn’t do a thing,” said Jamal al-Awlaqi by telephone from Ataq, capital of Shabwa province located along the coast and inland.The Saudi-owned TV channel Ekhbariya reported that the Arab coalition conducted air strikes on seven Houthi-run provinces nationwide on Tuesday.Security sources said unknown assailants killed two people at a checkpoint in the capital on Wednesday.

Saudi King Salman meets with UAE foreign minister, Pakistani army chief
Staff writer, Al Arabiya News Wednesday, 4 November 2015/Saudi Arabia’s King Salman received on Tuesday in a two separate meetings the UAE’s foreign minister and Pakistan’s army chief in his palace near the capital Riyadh, the state-run Saudi Press Agency reported. During King Salman’s meeting with UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan at the al-Yamamah palace, the two discussed “aspects of bilateral cooperation” and regional and global developments, according to SPA.Since late March, Saudi has led a coalition fighting Iranian-backed Houthi militias in Yemen, in a bid to restore the internationally-recognized government of President Abdrabbu Mansour Hadi. The UAE is a major member of the coalition. In a separate meeting, the Saudi king reviewed with Pakistan’s Chief of Army Staff Gen. Raheel Sharif bilateral ties and issues of “common interest.” Saudi King Salman seen shaking hands with Pakistan’s Chief of Army Staff Gen. Raheel Sharif (Photo courtesy: SPA) Present at both meetings were Crown Prince Mohammad bin Nayef and Deputy Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, and other senior officials.

Apparent Russian Syria strikes kill 23 civilians
AFP, Beirut Wednesday, 4 November 2015/Air strikes believed to have been carried out by Russian warplanes on an Islamic State of Iraq and Syria group-held town in central Syria killed 23 civilians, a monitoring group said on Wednesday. Among those killed in the Monday strikes on the Homs province town of Al-Qaryatain were three children and a woman, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The Britain-based group had earlier reported at least 10 people killed in apparent Russian strikes on the town on Monday.It said ISIS fighters were also believed to have been killed in the strikes, but had no confirmed figure. ISIS seized Al-Qaryatain in August, kidnapping several hundred civilians. The group has also destroyed an ancient monastery in the town, which was once seen as a symbol of coexistence in Syria. The Observatory relies on a network of sources on the ground in Syria, including opposition activists and individuals in government-held territory. The group says it distinguishes between strikes carried out by Syrian, Russian and U.S.-led coalition aircraft based on flight patterns indicating whether planes took off from inside the country, as well as the type of planes and ordnance used. Russia began its air campaign in support of ally President Bashar al-Assad on September 30, saying it was targeting ISIS and other “terrorists”.But rebels and their backers accuse Moscow of focusing largely on moderate and Islamist opposition forces rather than jihadists. According to the Observatory, the first month of Russian strikes killed nearly 600 people, two-thirds of them fighters. The rest -- some 185 -- were civilians, it says. A U.S.-led coalition that has been bombing jihadist targets in Syria since September 2014 has killed 3,649 people, according to the Observatory. It says 226 of those, around six percent, have been civilians. More than 250,000 people have been killed in Syria since the conflict began with anti-government protests in March 2011.

Syrian army recaptures Aleppo supply route
Reuters, Amman Wednesday, 4 November 2015/The Syrian army regained control of a road southeast of Aleppo on Wednesday, state television said, taking back the government’s only supply route into the city from Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) fighters who had seized it last month.
Army forces took full control of the road which runs from Aleppo through the towns of Khanaser and Ithriya and links up with the cities of Hama and Homs further south, the channel flashed in a news bulletin. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group confirmed the report.
The road is the army’s supply route to government-held western parts of Aleppo, home to around 2 million people. Rebels are mainly in the eastern sector of the city, which was Syria’s most populous before the conflict broke out in 2011. ISIS said late last month it had taken control of most of the Syrian army checkpoints on the road and seized large caches of ammunition from army outposts in the area. Areas around Aleppo have seen weeks of heavy fighting after Syrian troops backed by Lebanese Hezbollah and Iranian fighters launched an offensive to retake territory around Aleppo from rebels and jihadist fighters. The offensive has concentrated so far on clearing insurgent-held areas south of Aleppo rather than the city itself. It is one of several assaults carried out by pro-government ground forces since Russian jets began carrying out air strikes on Sept. 30 in support of President Bashar al-Assad. Syrian troops are also trying to advance to the east of Aleppo towards Kweires military airport, aiming to break a siege of the base by ISIS and other insurgents.

Turkey may hold referendum on executive presidency: Erdogan’s spokesman
By Tulay Karadeniz, Reuters Ankara Wednesday, 4 November 2015/Turkey may hold a referendum on changing the constitution to create an executive presidential system and discussions on the issue will accelerate in the period ahead, President Tayyip Erdogan's spokesman said on Wednesday. Ibrahim Kalin was speaking three days after the ruling AK Party clawed back a majority in a general election, a triumph for Erdogan, whose ambition for stronger presidential powers rests on the AKP controlling parliament. Erdogan cast the outcome as a vote for stability after months of uncertainty, but opponents fear it will only fuel the hunger for power of a leader they say has grown increasingly authoritarian. “An issue like the presidential system can't be decided without the nation. If the mechanism requires a referendum, then we will hold a referendum,” Kalin told reporters, adding the change was not simply a personal issue for Erdogan. “The executive presidency is not a question of our president's personal future. He has already entered the history books. The basic motivation is to make the system in Turkey as effective as possible.” Kalin indicated little change in Turkey's foreign policy following Sunday's election, saying its “open-door” policy to refugees from Syria would continue whether or not it received assistance from the European Union. Turkey is under pressure from the EU, which it aspires to join, to do more to keep refugees on its soil and help stem the biggest migration movement the continent has seen since World War Two. The EU has proposed financial aid and faster membership for Turkey in the hope of winning its help. Kalin also said Turkey's fight against Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militants and against Islamic State would continue “with determination”. The struggle against terrorism and the migration crisis would be discussed at a G20 leaders' summit in Turkey later this month, he said.

Erdogan: ‘no break’ in fighting Kurd rebels
Agencies Wednesday, 4 November 2015/Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday vowed to press ahead with a military campaign against Kurdish militants after his ruling party swept back to power in a weekend election. “The operations against the terrorist organisation inside and outside the country are continuing in a determined fashion,” he said. “There will be no break. We will keep on.”Two Turkish soldiers were killed in fighting with Kurdish rebels in a southeastern town near the Iraqi border on Wednesday, the army said. “Two hero comrades fell as martyrs during clashes that erupted after an operation” in Yuksekova, the army said on its website, adding that one soldier was also wounded. On Wednesday, Turkish warplanes have again struck Kurdish rebel targets in the southeast of the country and northern Iraq, the military said. “Sixteen targets were destroyed as a result of air strikes,” the army said after the operations Tuesday that focused on Turkey’s mountainous Daglica region near the Iraqi border as well as several regions in northern Iraq. Similar strikes were carried out on Monday against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), the day after an election that returned the Justice and Development Party (AKP) to power. Four Kurdish militants died Tuesday after clashes with Turkish security forces in several parts of the restive southeast, security sources said. Also Tuesday, Ankara ruled out any resumption of the peace process with the outlawed PKK after a wave of violence erupted in July, leaving a 2013 ceasefire in tatters. Meanwhile, one person was killed in clashes in southeastern Turkey on Wednesday, security sources said, as violence continued to rock the mainly Kurdish region days after a general election. A 20-year-old man was shot dead in the town of Silvan, where authorities have ordered a 24-hour curfew in three neighborhoods for a second successive day, security officials said. Clashes between security forces and the PKK’s youth wing continued throughout the day.On Tuesday, one man was killed in Silvan and two others in Yuksekova, some 450 km (280 miles) to the east. The autonomy-seeking PKK, listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union, took up arms in 1984, and more than 40,000 people, mainly Kurds, have died in the conflict. Erdogan had granted some political and cultural rights to Turkey’s estimated 15 million Kurds, but the government abandoned efforts for a negotiated settlement this year ahead of a June vote when the AKP lost its parliamentary majority. (With Reuters and AFP)

First veiled female judge conducts trial in Turkey
By AFP, Istanbul Wednesday, 4 November 2015/A female judge wearing an Islamic headscarf has conducted a trial in Turkey for the first time in the history of the Muslim but secular state, media reports said Wednesday. A picture of a young, black-robed judge wearing a dark-coloured headscarf in an Istanbul courtroom has been widely shared on social media, with some Twitter users denouncing it as "the declaration of Islamic sharia law". The judge was not identified and the details of the case she was hearing were not known. Turkey’s Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK) had lifted the ban on female judges and prosecutors wearing the Islamic headscarf just ahead of the June parliamentary election. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Islamic-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP) has long been accused of seeking to force Islamic values on society. Over the past two years, the government has lifted bans on women and girls wearing headscarves in schools and state institutions, moves denounced by opponents as undermining the basis of Turkey’s secular state. The ban still remains in place for military and security personnel. In a snap election on Sunday, the AKP recovered the parliamentary majority which it lost for the first time in 13 years in June.

Palestinians say videos back claims of Israeli abuse
By The Associated Press, Ramallah Wednesday, 4 November 2015/Recent videos show Israeli troops shooting a wounded Palestinian at close range, pepper-spraying Palestinian medics, ramming a Palestinian with a jeep and threatening refugee camp residents with tear gas “until you die” unless they stop throwing stones. Palestinians and Israeli human rights groups contend the images, many captured by amateur smartphone users, buttress long-standing allegations of excessive force — particularly amid a wave of Palestinian stabbing attacks in which top Israeli politicians and security commanders have encouraged forces to shoot to kill suspected assailants. “There is a very clear message sent by those politicians and military commanders that this is how law enforcement should behave,” said Sarit Michaeli of the Israeli group B’Tselem, which documents rights abuses. Israel’s army and police defended the actions shown in the videos, with the exception of an officer who was suspended over the tear gas threat. “Our activities in all of the cases have been responses to Palestinian aggression,” said Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, an Israeli military spokesman. Israel itself has released several videos showing its forces shooting stabbers.
Video footage is increasingly central in the competition over international opinion — a contest Palestinians say they often lost in the past when it came down to their word against that of the Israeli military or Jewish settlers. In 2007, B’Tselem began distributing video cameras to Palestinians in West Bank hot spots, such as the Israeli-controlled center of Hebron, carved out for 850 Jewish settlers. One of the first videos, showing a settler woman harassing a female Palestinian neighbor, went viral, Michaeli said. About 200 Palestinians have B’Tselem-issued cameras today. With the rise in smartphone use — 10-fold over five years — the impact of such amateur images has only grown. Take several controversial videos that have emerged in recent days. One shows the aftermath of what Israeli police say was a stabbing attack of an Israeli soldier by 23-year-old Mahdi Mohtasseb last Thursday. The video begins with Mohtasseb lying face-down in a Hebron street — already wounded by Israeli fire, according to local activists. A member of the Israeli security forces approaches and — as Mohtasseb slowly tries to lift himself — shoots him from about 15 feet (five meters). Mohtasseb is then shown lifeless and bloodied as Israel’s paramilitary border police inspect the body. Israeli police spokeswoman Luba Samri said Mohtasseb still posed a danger because he might have a gun or explosives and ignored calls not to move. “He tried to get up” as a soldier approached, she said, adding that the officer who fired the fatal shot was “worthy of praise.” Shukri Mohtasseb, a cousin, said Mahdi Mohtasseb was planning on getting engaged and had no reason to carry out an attack. He maintained his cousin was unarmed, though he did not witness the incident. “The soldiers ... could have arrested him because he was injured, but they killed him in cold blood,” he said. Israeli regulations permit security forces to use lethal force when they believe their lives are in danger — a subjective gauge, especially when Israelis are feeling so jittery. Since mid-September, 11 Israelis have been killed and dozens wounded in Palestinian attacks, mostly stabbings, while 69 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire, including 43 who Israel says were involved in attacks or attempted attacks. “We are faced with a reality of people walking down the street and pulling out a knife with lethal intentions,” said Lerner, the military spokesman. “There are both means and intent on behalf of those attackers. That is why they have to be stopped, even at the price of lethal force.”Rights groups say Israeli troops are often too quick on the draw and are rarely held accountable.

Egypt calls for NATO support in Libya ‘vacuum’
AFP, London Wednesday, 4 November 2015/Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi called for NATO powers to help rebuild Libya, beset by violence since an uprising backed by the Western military alliance toppled leader Muammar Qaddafii, in an interview. Sisi was quoted in British newspaper the Daily Telegraph ahead of a visit to London in which he is to discuss security co-operation with Prime Minister David Cameron. "Libya is a danger that threatens all of us. If there is no government then this only creates a vacuum where extremists can prosper," Sisi said, according to the Telegraph. "It was a mission that was not completely accomplished... We must support all efforts to help the Libyan people and the Libyan economy." Libya has descended into chaos since longtime dictator Qaddafi was ousted in 2011 and killed in the midst of an uprising supported by NATO states. Chronic insecurity, with armed groups battling to control its energy resources and two governments vying for power, has made Libya a key launching point for people smugglers feeding Europe's migrant crisis by sending boatloads of people across the Mediterranean. "We need to stop the flow of funds and weapons and foreign fighters to the extremists. All the members of NATO – including Britain – who took part in the mission to overthrow Qaddafi need to give their help," Sisi said. It is Sisi's first visit to Britain since his 2013 toppling of Egypt's first freely elected civilian leader Mohammad Mursi, whose divisive 12-month rule had drawn mass protests. In the interview, Sisi dismissed claims that a Russian airliner that crashed in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula could have been brought down by a missile or bomb as "unfounded speculation". He also criticized Western efforts to combat ISIS militants in Iraq and Syria, according to the Telegraph, saying: "The map of extremism and instability is expanding and not retreating. We need to reassess our priorities."

Car bomb kills 6 in Sinai, ISIS in Egypt claims responsibility
Reuters/04/11/15/ISMAILIA - A car bomb targeting a policeman's club in the Egyptian city of El Arish killed six people and wounded 10 on Wednesday, security sources said. Islamic State's Egypt affiliate, Sinai Province, claimed responsibility for the attack, which it described as a suicide bombing. The group has killed hundreds of soldiers and police since the army toppled Islamist President Mohamed Morsi in 2013 after mass protests against his rule. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has said Islamist militants pose a grave threat to Egypt, the most populous Arab country. On Saturday, a Russian jet, carrying 224 passengers, most of them holidaymakers flying back to St. Petersburg from the Sinai Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, crashed into a mountainous area of Egypt's Sinai peninsula shortly after losing radar contact near cruising altitude, killing all aboard. A Sinai-based Egyptian militant group allied to Islamic State claimed to have shot down the plane in response to Russia's military intervention in Syria in support of President Bashar Assad against rebels including Islamic State. However, the ISIS-linked group is not believed to have missiles capable of hitting a plane at 30,000 feet. A source in the committee analyzing the flight recorders told Reuters on Monday that the plane had not been struck from the outside. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said it was inappropriate to link the crash to Russia's military strategy in Syria. The crash left wreckage strewn over more than 3 km (2 miles) of desert. Once investigations at the site were completed, the investigators will focus on analyzing the contents of the black box flight recorders, Egypt's civil aviation ministry said.

At least four Egypt police killed in Sinai bombing
By AFP, Cairo Wednesday, 4 November 2015/At least four Egyptian policemen were killed when a suicide bomber rammed his vehicle into a police club in the Sinai Penisula on Wednesday, state media reported, as the Islamic State group claimed the attack. State television said there were also wounded in the bombing in North Sinai provincial capital El-Arish. The Islamic State group of Iraq and Syria’s affiliate in the Sinai said one of its militants drove an explosives-laden vehicle into a police club in the town. The militants have carried out a string of attacks in or around the provincial capital in recent months after the army launched a sweeping campaign in the peninsula bordering Israel and the Gaza Strip. The attack came days after a Russian passenger plane crashed in the peninsula after taking off from a resort airport in South Sinai, killing all 224 people on board. ISIS has claimed it downed the plane but provided no details, and experts say other scenarios include a mechanical fault that caused it to disintegrate in mid air. The group has deployed shoulder fired anti-aircraft missiles in the past but they are not known to possess weapons that could bring down an airliner flying at high altitude. The militants have killed hundreds of policemen and soldiers since the military overthrew Islamist president Mohammed Mursi in 2013. They say their attacks have been in retaliation for an ensuing police crackdown in which hundreds of Morsi supporters have been killed and thousands, including the ousted president, have been jailed. In an interview with BBC, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Sisi, who is expected in London on Thursday, said the Sinai “is under our full control.” But the attacks around El-Arish suggest the militants are still capable of continuing their deadly insurgency. In its statement on Wednesday, ISIS said it carried out the bombing against the “apostate” police force in retaliation for the arrests of Bedouin women in the region.

Syrian opposition figure welcomes more Israeli attacks
ARIEL BEN SOLOMON/11/04/2015/A Syrian opposition activist based in Jordan told The Jerusalem Post that the rebels want Israel to increase attacks against President Bashar Assad’s forces and those of his Shi’ite allies.Naser Abu-Magd told the Post on Monday night – in an ongoing email exchange dating back to late last year – that the Syrian opposition welcomes Israeli strikes against Assad’s regime or Hezbollah. However, he argues that Russia and the Shi’ite axis want to change the rules of the game and disrupt Israeli action in the country. Magd also complained about Russia’s military intervention on behalf of the Syrian regime and its Shi’ite allies Iran and Hezbollah. However, Magd predicts that, ultimately, Russia’s war will fail and the rebels will topple the Assad regime. The opposition activist also claimed that Assad lied to Russian President Vladimir Putin about the Western-backed Free Syrian Army’s strength, which supposedly upset him. Magd also peddled a conspiracy theory common among some Sunni Arabs in the region, that Iran is supporting Islamic State. Mendi Safadi – an Israeli Druse who served as Deputy Regional Cooperation Minister Ayoub Kara’s chief of staff, and who has met with Syrian opposition activists – told the Post on Tuesday that “Israel would not be wise to go to war against Syria. “The only loser of this would be the Syrian opposition, even more than Israel,” he said. An Israeli attack would complicate the Syrian war and taint the Syrian opposition, as many believe it is backed by Israel. It is no secret that Israel’s reported military interventions in Syria against Assad’s regime, Hezbollah and Iranian forces aid the opposition; but that does not mean the world would not react if Israel would decide to launch a war in Syria, said Safadi. “When you look at the strategic landscape, it is clear that limited Israeli attacks serve Israel and the Syrian rebels, but opening a full-scale war would destroy all of our achievements and help Assad’s regime,” he said.

Media misleading by reporting that Iran implementing nuclear deal
Ariel Ben Solomon/J.post/11/03/2015
The mainstream media are misleading the world into believing that Iran has accepted and is implementing the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action that was agreed upon on July 14, a prominent Middle East expert who served in military intelligence and was an adviser to two prime ministers told The Jerusalem Post Tuesday.“The recent phenomenon in the Western media saying that Iran has accepted the nuclear deal when it has not, shows that it has completely coddled to the line in defending the Iran deal,” Yigal Carmon, president of the Washington-based Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), told the Post.
“This is very dangerous,” he asserted.In an article Carmon published on MEMRI’s website on Friday titled, “The emperor has no clothes,” he wrote: “With every passing day, Iran is more and more in violation of the JCPOA. But neither the Republicans nor the Democrats, nor the media, nor anyone else will acknowledge this, for the implications are too devastating.” On Monday, Tehran’s atomic energy chief said during a visit to Tokyo: “We have already started to take our measures vis-a-vis the removal of the centrifuge machines – the extra centrifuge machines. We hope in two months time we are able to exhaust our commitment,” Ali Akbar Salehi told public broadcaster NHK. In a separate development that appeared to confirm that Iran had begun implementing its side of the deal, 20 hardline conservative members of Iran’s parliament wrote to President Hassan Rouhani to complain about the deactivation of centrifuges at two enrichment plants at Natanz and Fordow. “Unfortunately, in the last two days, some contractors entered Fordow and started dismantling centrifuges... they said they could finish the job in two weeks,” Fars cited the lawmakers, among those loath to accept the nuclear deal, as saying.
However, MEMRI showed a recent report from the Iranian press that directly refuted such claims. Behrouz Kamalvandi, spokesman for Iran’s atomic energy agency, addressed the concerns of several Majlis representatives and, according to a report on Tuesday by ISNA, he said: “We are also taking care of this matter. We will promote work in a way that follows the leader’s principles and guidelines.” “The leader’s emphasis on the steps to be taken after the possible military dimensions dossier is closed was centered on the Arak reactor and the replacement of the uranium stockpiles,” he said.
“We are carrying out the leader’s orders meticulously and currently working on receiving the necessary guarantees on this matter. “Indeed, we have taken several steps to implement the JCPOA so that we have more time when we wish to carry out matters in effect, but no centrifuge has been dismantled, and we are currently taking preparatory steps,” Iran’s nuclear spokesman continued. “Regarding an official document on the rebuilding of the Arak reactor, all member-states of the P5+1 Group signed the document except for one, and we are currently waiting for the opinion of this country, which should arrive today or tomorrow,” Kamalvandi said. Commenting on this previously unmentioned report, Carmon said, “Lo and behold, the only place you will find this report alongside the other one is in The Jerusalem Post, which sticks with the principles of journalism and doesn’t hide the reality when it doesn’t fit its beliefs, whatever they would be. “The JCPOA, as concluded and celebrated on July 14, was never approved by Iran,” he said. “They will never violate Khamenei’s conditions,” since even Iran’s leaders have already said they would adhere to them. Conditions set out by Iran Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei effectively give him the power to bypass the government and cancel the nuclear deal, Carmon and the head of MEMRI’s Iran desk, Ayelet Savyon, wrote in a report last month. Khamenei published a letter of guidelines for President Hassan Rouhani, adding new conditions for Iran’s execution of the agreement.
“The set of conditions laid out by Khamenei creates a situation in which not only does the Iranian side refrain from approving the JCPOA but, with nearly every point, creates a separate obstacle such that executing the agreement is not possible,” they wrote. Following the publication of the supreme leader’s letter, Majlis Speaker Ali Larijani and Rouhani fully accepted Khamenei’s stipulations, Savyon told the Post last month. Some close to the leadership will declare progress to the press, explained Carmon, but in reality, according to their own nuclear official, “Not one centrifuge has been removed.”
For the Americans, the JCPOA has no time limitation for implementation. “Implementation day will happen when it happens and when the IAEA reports that it happened,” Carmon added. Asked about the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations nuclear watchdog, which is due to issue a report by December 15 on whether Iran’s nuclear program ever had a military application, Carmon responded that the IAEA will not report about implementation if it does not occur.
Therefore, Carmon argued, this saga could take months, or even well beyond that, or it may not even happen at all. Reuters contributed to this report.

Russian-made cargo plane crash in S. Sudan kills dozens. Second Mid East air disaster
DEBKAfile Special Report November 4, 2015
No cause has yet been established for the Russian-made Antonov Ant-12’s crash-landing on the east bank of the Nile River 800 m short of Juba international airport in South Sudan Wednesday, Nov. 4. Its five-man crew were Russians. According to first reports some 40 people were killed both on board and on the ground, although there appear to be two survivors.
But none of the 224 passengers and crew aboard the Metrojet Flight 9268 Airbus 321 survived the airliner’s crash in central Sinai Saturday, Oct. 31, en route from their holiday in Sharm El Sheikh to St. Petersburg.
Russian sources following the forensic examination of the bodies and partial remains of the victims flown to St. Petersburg report that they show evidence of an explosion in the plane before it plummeted to the ground. Further testing is required to establish the cause of the explosion.
A US infrared satellite detected a heat flash at the same time and same vicinity over Sinai where the Russian plane went down. A US defense official added that the same satellite would have been able to track the tell-tale heat trail of a missile from the ground. "The speculation that this plane was brought down by a missile is off the table," the official said.
Another official said, "the plane disintegrated at a very high altitude.”
The general consensus ahead of the Egyptian and Russian probes is that a sudden, catastrophic explosion caused the crash - whether from a bomb inside, “external impact” – as the Metrjet company claims - or from faulty fuel. Russian fuel experts found nothing wrong with the fuel.
An Egyptian physician who inspected the scene of the disaster found that one out of every five bodies he saw had been incinerated to death from a fire that may have started in the passenger’s cabin and spread to the rest of the plane.
Egyptian experts reported that “the large number of separate body fragments” could indicate that a strong explosion occurred onboard before the aircraft hit the ground. They were scattered across a radius of 8-10 square kilometers from the wreckage.
Russian and Egyptian sources tracking the examination of the two black boxes found evidence that the calamity occurred too rapidly for the pilots or crew to send an SOS or even say a few words.
As the probe of the air catastrophe began Tuesday and Wednesday, Moscow and Cairo were increasingly at odds on their findings. The Russians asserted that the plane must have broken up into two parts as a result of a strong explosion, whereas Egyptian officials remained intent on playing down the claim of responsibility for the crash published Saturday by the Sinai wing of the Islamic State. They criticize the Russians as rushing to conclusions ahead of the probe.
Egyptian President Abdel-Fatteh El-Sisi arrived in London Wednesday for talks with British Prime Minister David Cameron. In interviews prior to his arrival, the Egyptian president said that he will demand that David Cameron “complete his mission in Libya to prevent the country being dominated by Islamists.”
By “mission,” El-Sisi was referring to the UK’s role in the coalition which toppled Muammar Qaddafi in 2011.
debkafile’s counterterrorism sources report that Egypt faces an acute problem from Libya’s transformation in the last two years into the main supply source of smuggled arms and fighters for the Islamist terrorists operating in Egypt and Sinai.
While neither the Egyptians or the Russians are willing to admit this, it is highly likely that the missile or explosives which brought down the Russian airliner Saturday came from Libya.

A 'Cold War 2.0' playing out in the Middle East
ARIEL BEN SOLOMON/J.Post/11/04/2015
The US is facing a "Cold War 2.0" against Russia in places such as Ukraine, the Baltic states, and Syria as President Vladimir Putin’s government tries to establish an external security belt stretching from Iraq to the Mediterranean, a US-based expert told The Jerusalem Post. Such a security belt would pass from Iran to parts of Iraq and Syria, and form a barrier against Sunni Islamists, Ariel Cohen, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and the director of the Center for Energy, Natural Resources and Geopolitics at the Institute for Analysis of Global Security in Washington, told the Post in an interview on Tuesday. Cohen is in Israel for the Jerusalem Leaders Summit being held in Jerusalem this week, where Post editor-in-chief Steve Linde moderated a session on Tuesday. The security belt would be approximately at a distance of 1000 miles from Russia’s southern border. “Russia is in an alliance with the Shia because they are afraid of the Sunnis,” said Cohen, adding that it is a pragmatic relationship “where each side is using the other.” Asked if Russia’s military intervention in Syria would hamper Israel’s ability to attack by air, Cohen responded that Israel's reported recent strike against Hezbollah on Friday shows that it maintains its redlines and that it advised the Russians about what they are. Of course, noted Cohen, there is a real risk in Syria that “we could wake up one day with the headline that a Russian jet shot down a US or Israeli plane or vice versa.”However, Russia, the US, and Israel are prepared for such a scenario as they have created emergency lines of communication. Regarding US strategy in Syria, Cohen said that its idea of using proxies in Syria failed, and the only viable force in Syria is the Kurds.
Speaking of the future of the Syrian civil war, the logical assumption is that there will be an agreement that paves the way for a transition from the regime of President Bashar Assad, he said. The other option is that the conflict there will expand between the Shia-Russian axis and the Sunnis.
Regarding Turkey’s election results, which gave a victory to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Islamist AK Party, Cohen said that “the US and Israel need to find ways to work with Turkey,” as its geopolitical importance and central geographic location dictates this.
“It is clearly in Turkey’s interest not to continue this prolonged friction with Israel. The gain on both sides would be so much greater if both sides could work together,” he noted. On Turkey’s part, it is clear that its support of the regional Muslim Brotherhood project has failed. But, “if Erdogan’s government does not act pragmatically and its Islamist ideology becomes predominant, then all bets are off.”The erasing of borders in the Middle East could mean the historical conflict between Russia and Turkey could return, he added. “They have fought more than 20 wars in the past 300 years and Turkey has lost every time,” said Cohen, noting the exception of the Crimean War, where the Ottoman Empire was allied with France and Britain.

Video: Jordanian cleric, Sheikh Ali Halabi, walks back fatwa against killing Jews
By JPOST.COM STAFF/11/04/2015
A senior Jordanian Salafi sheikh who stirred controversy in the Muslim world recently by issuing a fatwa against the killing of Jews, walked back his comments in a video released Tuesday. Sheikh Ali Halabi had said in a video from February, which went viral in recent days, that Jews can be killed during war only, and that killing them at other times is a betrayal. When asked by a student if it is permissible to kill Jews in Palestine, the sheikh answered: "Someone who protects you, gives you electricity and water, transfers you money and you work for him and take his money - would you betray him, even if he was a Jew?"According to the sheikh's original fatwa, killing is allowed during clashes or declared war, "But if you trust him and he trusts you, then it is forbidden to betray him. And therefore you are forbidden to murder him." When the sheikh was asked by a student about armed Israeli soldiers in the streets, he responded: "The same answer. Does a soldier holding a weapon in the street kill every Muslim he sees?" The student answered "No."After facing a backlash for the comments from the Muslim Brotherhood and other political rivals, Halabi released two videos, translated by MEMRI, in which he rebutted the criticism. In his rebuttal, the sheikh called Jews "occupiers and plunderers," who are prone to "betrayal, fraud, cunning and deceit." Halabi said that jihad against the Jews is a "mandatory jihad...upon any Muslim who accepts Allah as the Lord and Islam as his religion."
Clarifying his earlier fatwa, however, the sheikh said that the jihad could not be carried out by an "emotional thrust and with such excitement that only serves to harm us.""How can we think that this leads to victory?" he asked. "The nation must prepare and unite in order to uproot his enemy," Halabi charged. "By Allah, if your brother, the son of your mother and father, were to attack you in your own home, and you have no way to fend him off other than killing him, then we say that he was the aggressor and you were the defender - all the more so when the aggressor is an evil Jew, from among the brothers of apes and pigs," he said.Halabi said that "unfortunately tens of thousands of Palestinians work with the Jews, and accept money from the Jews. They need the Jews. Sadly this is the reality of an occupied people. I am not saying this as some people mistakenly understood it, as praise for the Jews, who deserve nothing but more and more curses. I am talking about the reality."Halabi said that an asymmetrical war by the Palestinians against the Jews could only end in "total defeat.""Yes, we are happy when the Jews are humiliated and defeated, when they fall, but there is a way of doing things."
Halabi said that Jihad against the Jews is a duty, but is dependent on capabilities. "Everybody knows America has Israel's back. Are today's fragmented Muslims up for the task?" He said that Muslims must not "fool themselves."
http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Jordanian-sheikh-stirs-controversy-with-fatwa-against-killing-Jews-431785

Jordanian sheikh stirs controversy with fatwa against killing Jews
YASSER OKBI/ MAARIV HASHAVUA/J.Post/11/02/2015
http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Jordanian-cleric-walks-back-fatwa-against-killing-Jews-432015
A senior Jordanian Salafi sheikh has stirred controversy in the Muslim world in recent days after he issued a fatwa against killing Jews. Sheikh Ali Halabi said in a video distributed via social media that Jews can be killed during war only, and that killing them at other times is a betrayal. When asked by a student if it is permissible to kill Jews in Palestine, the sheikh answered: "Someone who protects you, gives you electricity and water, transfers you money and you work for him and take his money - would you betray him, even if he was a Jew?" According to the sheikh, killing is allowed during clashes or declared war, "But if you trust him and he trusts you, then it is forbidden to betray him. And therefore you are forbidden to murder him." The Salafi sheikh provided an example from the period of the British Mandate in Palestine, when a well-known Saudi sheikh issued a ruling that agreements which preserve rights and prevent bloodshed must be honored. Halabi stressed that there is a difference between emotional outlook and outlook based on Sha'aria law. When the sheikh was asked by a student about armed soldiers in the streets, he responded: "The same answer. Does a soldier holding a weapon in the street kill every Muslim he sees?" The student answered "No."Another student asked if it was correct that "they (IDF soldiers) only attack if they are first attacked?" The sheikh answered: "I don't live in Palestine, but that is what the brothers there tell us. That he who does not attack Jews is not attacked in return."Halabi said that he didn't want it to seem as if he was "defending the despised Jews. But this is the reality. Because if they would kill everyone they met, nobody would remain and the Palestinians would continue to escape to other countries in the world."The video that went viral on social media caused a stir in the Muslim world, with activists attacking the sheikh and distributing videos in which IDF soldiers are seen in the West Bank "executing Palestinians under the guise that they tried to stab soldiers."
Halabi is one of the most well-known Salafi sheikhs in Jordan and he is the head of the Imam al-Albani religious studies center in Jordan.
Video translation provided by MEMRI - The Middle East Media Research Institute

Britain's New Racism
Douglas Murray/Gatestone Institute/November 4, 2015
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/6799/britain-new-racism
The most predictable and worrying result of Jeremy Corbyn's election was always the effect it was going to have on the growing anti-Semitism and anti-Israel activism in the UK.
For someone such as Jeremy Corbyn, an elevation to a position of leadership is a vindication of those years in the wilderness, not an opportunity to find an ideological replacement.
One of the reasons Hamas supporters spend so much time speaking to university students is because they hope such students will demonstrate a naïveté about them and their goals that might be unusual elsewhere in society.
What happens when a pro-Hamas speaker is confronted by an anti-Hamas speaker? The anti-Hamas speaker may rightly say that Hamas is an extremist organisation. The pro-Hamas speaker or naïve student might easily come back by asking how an organization can be deemed extreme if the leader of Her Majesty's opposition is a friend and supporter of the group. This certainly makes it easier to depict its terrorists as tolerable and its racism as acceptable.
The British left, under Corbyn's leadership, now harbour the proponents of the greatest racism of our time.
It was never hard to predict the effects of the election of Jeremy Corbyn to the leadership of the British Labour party. Although some people wondered whether the candidate of the far-left might soften some of his opinions once in power, most observers never doubted that someone who had cherished such opinions almost alone on the backbenches for three decades was hardly going to change them overnight just because he had become party leader. For someone such as Corbyn, an elevation to a position of leadership is a vindication of those years in the wilderness, not an opportunity to find an ideological replacement.
To the surprise of nobody who was familiar with his politics, Corbyn has spent his time so far surrounding himself with figures arguably even more hard-core than him. He immediately appointed IRA-supporter John McDonnell as his Shadow Chancellor and more recently appointed Seamus Milne as his spin-doctor. Milne's support for absolutely anyone so long as he is anti-British made him too extreme in recent decades even for many of his former colleagues at Britain's Guardian newspaper.
But the most predictable and worrying result of Corbyn's election was always the effect it was going to have on the growing anti-Semitism and anti-Israel activism in the UK. During Corbyn's election campaign, his sympathetic attitude towards his whole milieu of anti-Semites, terrorists and Holocaust-deniers became an issue. Having spent many days of his life standing on platforms alongside such figures as Paul Eisen, Dyab Abu Jahjah and Raed Saleh, media criticism of such relationships came as a surprise only to the youngest among Corbyn's supporters, who chose to dismiss such serious questions as "press smears." During that period, Corbyn was careful not completely to drop his most extreme friends. Instead, he pretended his relationships with them was less than it was, or that they had only connected because of a concern to further 'peace' or 'inter-faith issues'. And he certainly did nothing to suggest that his views of the Israeli-Palestinian dispute -- a dispute in which Corbyn has only ever supported the most intransigent and extreme forces on the Palestinian side -- had in any way changed.
In 2009, Jeremy Corbyn (left) said: "It will be my pleasure and my honour to host an event in Parliament where our friends from Hezbollah will be speaking. I also invited friends from Hamas to come and speak as well." Pictured in the middle is Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. Pictured at right is Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.
As it was clear that Corbyn's views would not have changed, and as the only people he can rely on to be loyal to him are people who have views as extreme or even more extreme than him, there was only one possible result to his election: that Corbyn would end up bringing into the mainstream views that ought to be at the farthest fringes of politics.
Take the UK view of Hamas. The terrorist organization is proscribed in Britain, but Jeremy Corbyn has been friendly with the group for years. Indeed, he has been on record describing its members as "friends" and has repeatedly appeared alongside the group's representatives in the UK and the Middle East. Now, a sympathetic stance towards proscribed groups such as Hamas is one of the hallmarks of bigots in the UK, and also of the interminably naïve and ignorant. One of the reasons Hamas supporters spend so much time trying to speak to university students in the UK is because they hope such students will demonstrate a naïveté about them and their goals that might be unusual elsewhere in society.
What happens when a pro-Hamas speaker is confronted by an anti-Hamas speaker? The anti-Hamas speaker may rightly say that Hamas is an extremist organization. The pro-Hamas speaker or naïve student might easily come back by asking how an organization can be deemed extreme if the leader of Her Majesty's opposition is a friend and supporter of the group. Obviously, this does not make Hamas non-extreme, but it certainly makes it easier to depict its terrorists as tolerable and its racism as acceptable.
This effect -- the Corbynization of British politics -- has already had one notable effect. Last week Sir Gerald Kaufmann, a man with a track record of anti-Semitic comments, said something crazed even by his own high standards. Speaking at an event organized by the Hamas-affiliated "Palestine Return Centre" in Parliament, Kaufman claimed that the Conservative party had been influenced by "Jewish money." Asked why the UK government had allegedly become more pro-Israel in recent years he said, "It's Jewish money, Jewish donations to the Conservative Party -- as in the general election in May -- support from the Jewish Chronicle, all of those things bias the Conservatives."
What Kaufman said next is in some ways even more extraordinary. He claimed that the Palestinians "are living a repressed life, and are liable to be shot at any time. In the last few days alone the Israelis have murdered 52 Palestinians and nobody pays attention and this government doesn't care." He went on to claim that the recent stabbing attacks on Israeli citizens had been fabricated by the Israeli government in order to allow it to "execute Palestinians."
There have already been complaints about this statement from other MPs, including other Labour MPs. But what can be expected of the Labour leadership? Jeremy Corbyn is an old friend and ally of Kaufman's. They have shared anti-Israel platforms for years. However, whereas ordinarily a party leader would discipline an MP for such outrageous and false claims, nothing has happened -- nor will happen -- to Kaufman. It is a failure that should bring shame on the party. Even the Liberal Democrats managed eventually to withdraw the whip from their Baroness Jenny 'Boom' Tonge, who has repeatedly spread blood-libels about Israel. But Kaufman is part of Corbyn's Parliamentary base, and the kind of people who lap this sort of thing up are part of Jeremy Corbyn's wider base in the country. What is a leader like him to do?
This, then, is one of the already jolting effects of the Corbyn leadership. Wholly predictably, it has begun to mainstream anti-Semitism and conspiracy theories, and it has encumbered the political left with few defences to the accusation that it is they who now harbour the proponents of the greatest racism of our time. Is it too much to hope that an alliance of Jews and non-Jews of every imaginable political stripe will push back to ensure this does not happen?

The Syrian conflict, ISIS and Russian Muslims
Maria Dubovikova/Al Arabiya/November 04/15
More than 20 million Muslims live in Russia, representing some 15 percent of the population. Several regions of the country are predominantly Muslim, such as the Caucasus republics, whose population is over 90 percent Muslim. Islam is integral to the reality and life of Russia, and the role of Muslims in the country is growing - the government understands this well. Most Russian Muslims are Sunni, but the sectarianism of the Middle East, enflamed mostly by Saudi-Iranian rivalry, does not exist in Russia. Moscow's foreign policy and its relations with the Middle East are guided exclusively by its national interests, without focusing on religious, ethnic, or other regional complexities. Its priority is stable relations with different, even opposing sides, such as Iran and Saudi Arabia, or Israel and Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah, or Turkey and the Kurds. Moscow's operation in Syria has caused concern in Russia over the possibility of aggravating and dividing its Muslim population. The reason for the concern is the portrayal by Middle Eastern and Western commentators of Russia allying with Shiite partners. However, these commentators do not take into account that the Syrian army is not composed exclusively of Shiites - especially since they are a minority - and that rebels are not only Sunni. The conflict in Syria is not religious but geopolitical - religion is just a pretext to fuel the conflict. As such, Russia's coalition is based on geopolitical, not religious considerations.
ISIS
There is a flow of Russian Muslims, especially from the Caucasus, aspiring to join the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). The organization has brainwashed them with promises of a better life and holy war. It is a huge mistake to blame Russia’s stance on Syria for its Muslim citizens joining ISIS, as the inclination toward extremism in the Caucasus has a long history, and people from the Central Asian post-Soviet republics - which are not involved in the conflict - are also joining the organization. Moscow's operation in Syria has caused concern in Russia over the possibility of aggravating and dividing its Muslim population.
The head of Russia’s Council of Muftis, Sheikh Ravil Gainutdin, supports Moscow’s operation in Syria as necessary to counter extremism and terrorism. His official statement was published and widely shared within the Russian Muslim community. His position is shared by the supreme mufti and chairman of Russia’s Central Spiritual Governance for Muslims, Talgat Tadjuddin. The religious leaders highlight the fact that to fight ISIS bombs are not enough - enlightenment of the masses is necessary. Many Muslim volunteers are ready to fight in Syria to prove their loyalty to Russia.

An Egyptian social media alliance
Diana Moukalled/Al Arabiya/November 04/15
Let's take a look at the confrontation which prominent Egyptian media personality Bassem Youssef and renowned journalist and activist Wael Abbas launched against a recent case of media deterioration that this time was embodied by controversial Egyptian TV presenter Riham Saeed. Saeed has stirred several controversies in the past. In September, she launched a series of insulting remarks against Syrian refugees in Lebanon. Last week, she shocked her Egyptian and Middle Eastern audience when she hosted a sexual harassment victim and violated her privacy by posting personal photos of her, and almost justified the attack against her by criticizing her attire. The incident outraged Egyptians and Arabs, and Saeed, as well as other similar media personalities who only care about high ratings without taking professional or moral standards into consideration, was widely criticized. This is not the first time this happens. In the past we've witnessed similar outrage towards other presenters who have either said or did things that harm and insult journalism, the audience and the most basic of human principles. It is no longer enough for condemnation to be limited to criticism on social media as this has short-term effects
However this time, reactions were not limited to commenting on the incident and voicing anger. We've witnessed an impressive breakthrough - which I think is a first - represented in an alliance of influential figures on social media to pressure advertisers to pull their sponsorship of Saeed's show.
Activist Wael Abbas began using a satirical hashtag against Saeed while Bassem Youssef followed suit and called on companies advertising and sponsoring her show to withdraw their ads and promised them free advertisement on his Twitter page which has more than 5 million followers.
These calls attracted many supporters, revealing the true extent of the public’s anger. This pressured advertisers and pushed them to withdraw their ads and to quickly announce this on their Facebook and Twitter pages. Bassem Youssef responded by commending them and by mentioning in his tweets the names of companies who withdrew their sponsorship of Saeed's show. Many of Youssef's followers also mentioned the names of these companies in their tweets.
This Twitter alliance between Youssef and Abbas - figures who prominently influence public opinion - against advertisers represented a breakthrough in the traditional confrontation between an audience typically divided on social media and a category of submissive media figures who are willing to say anything as part of their absolute loyalty to an authority or who are willing to resort to sensationalism to attract more viewers and advertisers. It is no longer enough for condemnation to be limited to criticism on social media as this has short-term effects. Insulting campaigns no longer alter the fact that such a quality of presenters still occupies the media arena as they benefit from controversies surrounding them and consider them a factor that increases publicity. Some even seek to stir controversy to gain notoriety, even if it is built on negative foundations. Therefore, this time, pressure came from outside the means of traditional confrontation. Those who took action were not relying on any legal procedures (which can be manipulated) against Saeed, as there was a need to adopt think outside the box.
Social media intervened to rectify the performance of traditional media, and it succeeded by using market mechanisms, which have long represented significant successes in the West by making traditional media available to consumers and biased to their interests through the idea that it’s the public opinion, and not countries or corporations, that fund the free media. This time, the market was not a means to merchandise media material. An important breakthrough has happened in a scene that is under political, security and advertising controls. This breakthrough did not target one single and specific person but it targeted an entire system. The presenter, Saeed, who sparked this breakthrough does not only represent herself, after all she has not continued to provoke scandal without support, funding and encouragement. However, social media pressures in recent days has embarrassed advertisers and sponsors of her show.
The victory Youssef and Abbas have achieved is an important beginning that facilitates the capability to confront mutual interests between advertisers and the ruling authority.

Temple Mount status quo in High-Definition
Yossi Mekelberg/Al Arabiya/November 04/15
There is something surreal in the mere thought of high-definition modern technology calming down tensions over a centuries-long disputed religious site. Israeli consent to install round the clock cameras on Temple Mount, in order to verify that the status quo on the holy site is maintained, seems for the time being to prevent further escalation between Israel, the Palestinians and Jordan. However, the impact on the streets of East Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank, where attacks on Israeli soldiers and settlers continue, is so far marginal. Evidently, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict needs much creativity and innovation. Yet, it would be dangerously delusional to assume that twenty-four hour monitoring alone will provide a miracle remedy for the suspicion regarding Israeli intentions over the Al Aqsa compound, or the complexity of the conflict.
Events surrounding Temple Mount are symptomatic of the current state of affairs between Palestinians and Israelis. It is indicative of the complete distrust between the two, and the despair of finding a way out of the current political deadlock. The agreement to scrutinise Israeli activity on Temple Mount, followed last-ditch diplomatic efforts, led by U.S. Secretary of State Kerry, to avert a full blown Palestinian uprising. Tragically, though typically, this crisis would have never taken place had Prime Minister Netanyahu and his government prevented right wing provocateurs, politicians and NGOs from attempting to pray on Temple Mount. He was also forced, due to the severity of the situation, to explicitly state that "Muslims pray on the Temple Mount, non-Muslims visit the Temple Mount”. In other words, accepting and publically articulating that praying on Temple Mount is exclusively for Muslims.
Events surrounding Temple Mount are symptomatic of the current state of affairs between Palestinians and Israelis
The long-established praying arrangements in which Jews worship in the Wailing Wall area and Muslims on Haram Al Sharif date back to Ottoman times, and were reinforced by Israel after the 1967 Six Day War. Jews who insist on praying on Temple Mount are a mix of religious-messianic-nationalist fanatics, who would like to spark a religious war. A report published by two Israeli NGOs, Ir Amim and Keshev, warned that 19 organizations challenge the current status quo in various ways on Temple Mount, even to the extent of planning the building of the third Jewish temple there, are legitimised by the Israeli government. They are allowed to register legally, some of them receive direct and indirect funds from the government, and most perilously, in the long run they are allowed to spread their ideology among youth in schools and youth movements. Paradoxically, as the report accentuates, while certain elements within the Israeli government support these movements, others, especially among the security services, are required to contain their subversive and at times illegal activities.
Extreme religious-nationalist elements
This represents an Israeli government controlled by extreme religious-nationalist elements and led by a prime minister whose main concern is to stay in power. There are indeed elements within the Palestinian society that are interested, for their own political and religious reasons, in overplaying Israeli intentions regarding the harming of the Al Aqsa mosque. However, the Israeli government’s behaviour increasingly provides them with ample ammunition. Only last week Deputy Foreign Minister, Tzipi Hotovely declared that “my dream is to see the Israeli flag flying over the Temple Mount,” calling also on the Israeli government to allow Jews to go up to the mount and pray there. She was rebuked by the prime minister, and consequently released a statement asserting that she was only expressing her personal opinion. Hotovely is a young and inexperienced member of government. Nevertheless, she should know better, and should keep her private opinions to herself or for behind closed doors. Airing such inflammatory opinions on the official Knesset’s TV channel, shows either naivety or a deliberate attempt to cause mischief. Netanyahu’s decision not to take any action beyond distancing himself from Hotovely’s remarks shows either political weakness or tacit agreement with her – maybe both. There are too many people within the current government, or in its close proximity, that share the view that the Zionist dream will only be complete when the third Jewish temple is built on Temple Mount. Incidentally, some of them were part of the dream decades ago, a dream that one day hundreds of thousands of Jews would live in the occupied West Bank. If these zealots are not contained and marginalised, their acts will only deepen an already existing religious rift that may lead to war and bloodshed.
To draw at least one positive from the recent events surrounding Temple Mount, there is a good chance that diplomacy prevailed before violence got completely out of hand. It is too early to conclusively say whether the agreement brokered by the U.S. has allayed Muslims’ fears over Israeli intentions to make changes to the status quo of the Muslim holy site. However, on the brink of what seemed to be a potential full-blown Palestinian uprising, the Israeli, Palestinian and Jordanian leadership resorted to diplomacy, and turned to American mediation. It is tempting to believe that this might encourage the Obama administration to embark on one last push to restart serious peace negotiations over a two-state solution. Sadly, this does not seem a very likely scenario. President Obama and Secretary Kerry are battered and bruised by previous experiences of trying to bring peace between Israelis and Palestinians. As Obama enters the last year of his presidency, he is more likely to concentrate on leaving a legacy elsewhere, while simply trying to limit the damage where Israel and Palestine are concerned.

The Iran deal is Iran’s nuclear bomb
Mohammed Alyahya/Al Arabiya/November 04/15
‪There is little disagreement among Middle East analysts that had it not been for Hezbollah's intervention in Syria in 2012, Bashar al-Assad would have been toppled, the ISIS phenomenon in its current form and strength would have been avoided, and that al-Nusra Front and other extremist groups would have never gained the same power and clout they enjoy today. With the recent Russian escalation in Syria, the stakes have been raised to a whole new level, and prospects for a resolution that would end the unabating bloodshed in Syria seem bleaker than ever before. ‪Since the announcement of the final Iran Nuclear Deal (JCPOA) in July, 2015, Iran has reportedly stepped up its support for Shiite militias in Iraq, increased its Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) presence in Syria, and continued its support for the Houthi-Saleh militias in Yemen. In recent months, Bahrain and Kuwait have announced the interception of Iranian arm shipments and the uncovering of bomb making facilities on their soil. And, recently, the Saudi-led Arab coalition fighting the Houthis in Yemen announced the seizure of an Iranian arms shipment loaded on a vessel masquerading as a fishing boat on its way to Yemen, some 150 km southeast of Oman’s Salalah coast.
Pipe dream
I believe the Iran deal was an advance payment to Iran for its goodwill that the IRGC was too quick to dishonor. The argument that the nuclear deal would encourage Iran to become a more responsible state invested in building peaceful relations with its neighbors and the international community has now become a pipe dream to be lamented in history books. The nuclear deal paradoxically gives Iran the same protection that a nuclear bomb would have given it. In a July interview with President Obama on the BBC, interviewer Jon Sopel suggested that "The net effect of lifting sanctions is that billions more will go to groups like Hezbollah, the Assad regime, and that is going to destabilize the region even more."The president's response was: "If Iran obtained a nuclear weapon, then they could cause all those same problems that you just listed with the protection of a nuclear bomb. And create much greater strategic challenges for the United States, for Israel, for our Gulf allies, for our European allies." Obama was in effect saying that it was acceptable for Iran to be causing all these problems as long as that happened without the protection of a nuclear bomb. This is now an evident and tested flaw in the deal as regional neighbors witness an intensification in Iran's destabilizing activities only with more money, confidence, and the protection of the nuclear deal itself.
Track record
‪The nuclear deal has arguably achieved its primary objective of eliminating the threat of Iran as a nuclear threshold state – at least in the short to medium term. Yet one must not forget why a nuclear Iran, unlike a nuclear Pakistan or a nuclear India, is such a grave threat to the international and regional community in the first place. It is precisely because Iran has a track record of supporting and exporting terrorism and sowing instability and discord in neighboring countries that the thought of a nuclear Iran is so terrifying. ‪What the P5+1 have done, essentially, is traded every single bargaining chip at their disposal, i.e. all the sanctions, for a bomb that Iran does not yet have. The only ground for the return of any of the sanctions according to the concluded deal, would have to be a violation related to Iran's nuclear program. This deal is, in effect, normalizing Iran's destructive foreign policy. Not only does it seem impossible that any sanction can be re-imposed should Iran redouble its regional meddling and backing of terrorist organizations and proxies, but even minor nuclear restrictions will unlikely prompt any backtracking on the lifting of sanctions. The P5+1 and the West have put themselves in the vulnerable position of constantly fearing that a failure in the concluded deal might instigate a regional nuclear arms race.
In a letter addressed to President Rowhani last month, Ayatollah Khamenei wrote, “throughout the eight-year period, any imposition of sanctions at any level and under any pretext (including repetitive and fabricated pretexts of terrorism and human rights) on the part of any of the countries involved in the negotiations will constitute a violation of the JCPOA and the [Iranian] government would be obligated to take the necessary action as per Clause 3 of the Majlis bill and stop its activities committed under the JCPOA.” Khamenei was sending a clear signal to the West that any attempts to pressure Iran to cease any non-nuclear violations will be met with the return of Iran’s nuclear program in full force.
Khamenei made the obvious clear: Iran has carte blanche to meddle in the region and support terrorism and no one has any leverage on Iran as a result of this deal. ‪The geopolitical threat before the deal was a potential nuclear threshold Iran sowing instability through a network of proxies and terrorist organizations. The geopolitical reality after the nuclear deal is a non-nuclear Iran (arguably for 10 years) with the same foreign policy albeit with more money to spend and the comfort of knowing that the west has no appetite nor any real leverage to pressure it to cease its destructive activities. In its essence, the nuclear deal in its final configuration is a self-defeating endeavor. ‪The main threat of a nuclear Iran is not that Iran would use a nuclear weapon against any of its enemies. It is, as President Obama suggested in the interview, that Iran will continue with its destructive and expansionist foreign policy and meddling with the protection of a nuclear bomb. The nuclear deal paradoxically gives Iran the same protection that a nuclear bomb would have given it. The Iran deal is Iran's nuclear bomb.