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Bible Quotation For Today/My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish
John 10/22-42: "At that time the festival of the Dedication took place in Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the portico of Solomon. So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, ‘How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.’ Jesus answered, ‘I have told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name testify to me; but you do not believe, because you do not belong to my sheep. My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand.
What my Father has given me is greater than all else, and no one can snatch it out of the Father’s hand.The Father and I are one.’ The Jews took up stones again to stone him. Jesus replied, ‘I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these are you going to stone me?’
The Jews answered, ‘It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you, but for blasphemy, because you, though only a human being, are making yourself God.’Jesus answered, ‘Is it not written in your law, "I said, you are gods"?If those to whom the word of God came were called "gods" and the scripture cannot be annulled. can you say that the one whom the Father has sanctified and sent into the world is blaspheming because I said, "I am God’s Son"? If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me. But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, so that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.’ Then they tried to arrest him again, but he escaped from their hands. He went away again across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing earlier, and he remained there. Many came to him, and they were saying, ‘John performed no sign, but everything that John said about this man was true.’And many believed in him there."

Bible Quotation For Today/Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to worship the living God!
Letter to the Hebrews 09/11-15: "When Christ came as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation), he entered once for all into the Holy Place, not with the blood of goats and calves, but with his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls, with the sprinkling of the ashes of a heifer, sanctifies those who have been defiled so that their flesh is purified, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to worship the living God! For this reason he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, because a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions under the first covenant."

Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on November 07-08/15
Question: "Is God / the Bible sexist?GotQuestions.org/November 07/15
Lebanon’s Salafist, Sheikh Ahmad al-Assir Trials: An Explainer/Ana Maria Luca/Now Lebanon/November 07/15
Analysis: Why the West should worry about Turkey/PETER MARINO, REUTERS/J.Post/November 07/15
No one falls on his sword anymore: The ghosts of Iraq, again/Hisham Melhem/Al Arabiya/November 07/15
Reviving interfaith and intercultural dialogue/Samar Fatany/Al Arabiya/November 07/15
Rampant sexual harassment on Egypt’s public transport/Yara al-Wazir/Al Arabiya/November 07/15

Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin for Lebanese Related News published on November 07-08/15
“Patriarch of Antioch: Muslims want to conquer Europe with ‘faith and the birthrate'”
Minor Earthquake Jolts Northern Bekaa
Army Apprehends Fugitive for Smuggling Weapons
Jumblat: Boycotting Legislative Session is 'Suicide'
Report: Sweden to Deport Tens of Lebanese Families
U.S. Chargé d’Affaires Urges Lebanon Leaders to Find 'Innovative Compromises'
Lebanon’s Salafist, Sheikh Ahmad al-Assir Trials: An Explainer.

Question: "Is God / the Bible sexist?"
Answer: Sexism is one gender, usually male, having dominance over the other gender, usually female. The Bible contains many references to women that, to our modern mindset, sound discriminatory towards women. But we have to remember that when the Bible describes an action, it does not necessarily mean that the Bible endorses that action. The Bible describes men treating women as little more than property, but that does not mean God approves of that action. The Bible is far more focused on reforming our souls than our societies. God knows that a changed heart will result in a changed behavior.
During Old Testament times, virtually every culture in the entire world was patriarchal in structure. That status of history is very clear—not only in Scripture but also in the rules that governed most societies. By modern value systems and worldly human viewpoint, that is called “sexist.” God ordained the order in society, not man, and He is the author of the establishment principles of authority. However, like everything else, fallen man has corrupted this order. That has resulted in the inequality of the standing of men and women throughout history. The exclusion and the discrimination that we find in our world is nothing new. It is the result of the fall of man and the introduction of sin. Therefore, we can rightly say that the term and the practice of “sexism” is a result of sin. The progressive revelation of the Bible leads us to the cure for sexism and indeed all the sinful practices of the human race.
To find and maintain a spiritual balance between the God-ordained positions of authority, we must look to Scripture. The New Testament is the fulfillment of the Old, and in it we find principles that tell us the correct line of authority and the cure for sin, the ill of all humanity, and that includes discrimination based upon gender.
The cross of Christ is the great equalizer. John 3:16 says, “Whoever believes,” and that is an all-inclusive statement that leaves no one out on the basis of position in society, mental capacity, or gender. We also find a passage in Galatians that speaks of our equal opportunity for salvation. “You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:26-28). There is no sexism at the cross.
The Bible is not sexist in its accurate portrayal of the results of sin in both men and women. The Bible records all kinds of sin: slavery and bondage and the failures of its greatest heroes. Yet it also gives us the answer and the cure for those sins against God and His established order—a right relationship with God. The Old Testament was looking forward to the supreme sacrifice, and each time a sacrifice for sin was made, it was teaching the need for reconciliation to God. In the New Testament, the “Lamb that takes away the sin of the world” (see John 1:29) was born, died, was buried and rose again, and then ascended to His place in heaven, and there He intercedes for us. It is through belief in Him that the cure for sin is found, and that includes the sin of sexism.
The charge of sexism in the Bible is based upon a lack of knowledge of Scripture. When men and women of all ages have taken their God-ordained places and lived according to “thus says the LORD,” then there is a wonderful balance between the genders. That balance is what God began with, and it is what He will end with. There is an inordinate amount of attention paid to the various products of sin and not to the root of it. It is only when there is personal reconciliation with God through the Lord Jesus Christ that we find true equality. “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32).
It is also very important to understand that the Bible’s ascribing different roles to men and women does not constitute sexism. The Bible makes it abundantly clear that God expects men to take the leadership role in the church and the home. Does this make women inferior? Absolutely not. Does this mean women are less intelligent, less capable, or viewed as less in God’s eyes? Absolutely not! What it means is that in our sin-stained world, there has to be structure and authority. God has instituted the roles of authority for our good. Sexism is the abuse of these roles, not the existence of these roles.
Recommended Resources: What's the Difference? Manhood and Womanhood Defined According to the Bible by John Piper and Logos Bible Software.
What's new on GotQuestions.org?

“Patriarch of Antioch: Muslims want to conquer Europe with ‘faith and the birthrate'”
Thomas D. Williams, PhD, Breitbart News, November 6, 2015
In a stunning interview, the Maronite patriarch of Antioch, Cardinal Bechara Boutros al-Rahi, has contended that Islam has a clear, two-pronged strategy to take over Europe: religion and procreation. The cardinal said that Muslims look on Christians as weak and believe that since they have no children and barely practice their faith, Islam will easily conquer them. Sadly, he said, Muslims take their faith more seriously than most Christians, and they are gaining ground because of it. “I have often heard from Muslims that their goal is to conquer Europe with two weapons: their faith and their birthrate,” al-Rahi said in a recent interview with Famiglia Cristiana, an Italian Catholic weekly magazine. For the Muslims, the Cardinal said, “the practice of the faith is essential and fundamental. In Saudi Arabia they go to Friday prayers even if they need a walking stick. They know the Koran by heart, and when they talk they often cite it. The same is not true for Christians who do not refer either to the Bible or the teachings of the Church.” The Muslims “believe that God’s will is to procreate and that marriage is aimed at this,” he said. “They think that numbers will give them the upper hand.” Christians, however, “hardly get married anymore, and have few children,” he said. The Cardinal also said that Muslims “identify anything that comes from the West as Christian per se. All Western politics is Christian politics, it is a new crusade. They say that Christians are the remains of the Crusades and of Western imperialism,” he said.
At the same time, al-Rahi sharply criticized the EU’s ineffective solutions to Europe’s migration crisis, arguing that the only way to end the chaos is by stopping the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. The 75-year-old cardinal is the Maronite Patriarch of the ancient city of Antioch, where Christianity has deep and millennial roots. He said that the ongoing conflict provoked by the Islamic State is forcing both Christians and moderate Muslims to emigrate from the Holy Land, so before all else, attention must be given to putting an end to the siege. It is useless for Europe to quarrel over the reception of refugees without addressing the root cause of emigration from the Middle East, which is armed conflict, he said. “The first thing to do to protect Christians in the Middle East is to end the war in Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Palestine,” the Cardinal said. “European states quarrel with each other about the number of refugees to be admitted but do nothing to end the conflict.” “The Middle East is emptying and leaving the field open to fundamentalist and terrorist organizations,” al-Rahi said. For some reason, he said, “States do not talk about it, the only one making appeals is Pope Francis.”“Europe is talking about the reception of refugees, those who would like ten thousand and another who will take three thousand people, but this does not help us,” he said. “Europe should focus on the cause of migration, namely the war. You have to turn off the tap and ensure that Muslims and Christians will return to their lands.”“A Middle East without Christians,” the Cardinal continued, “has no identity.”“This is the place of all divine revelation. It is where Jesus took flesh, died and rose again. It is where the Church was born and began to proclaim the Gospel to the world,” he said. Al-Rahi also noted that Christians resent being called a “minority” in the Middle East. We have been here for two thousand years, he said, “six hundred years before the arrival of Islam.” “Just as Europe discusses how to preserve its identity, it is urgent that we do the same,” he said.

Minor Earthquake Jolts Northern Bekaa
Naharnet/November 07/15/A minor earthquake rocked several regions in northern Bekaa on Friday evening, causing no casualties or damage. The state-run National Center for Geophysical Research said the epicenter of the 3.9-magnitude tremor was an area between the city of Baalbek and the town of al-Fakiha. It said the earthquake hit at 7:50 pm. The National News Agency said the tremor was felt by residents in Baalbek, northern Bekaa, Hermel and the northern district of Bsharri. According to NCGR, over 600 earthquakes with magnitudes below 3 degrees hit Lebanon each year. In 1956, a 6 degrees on the Richter scale earthquake struck Lebanon, killing 136 people and destroying 6,000 houses.

Army Apprehends Fugitive for Smuggling Weapons
Naharnet/November 07/15/The army arrested a Lebanese national in the northern region of Akkar on charges of smuggling weapons to a terrorist group, an army statement said on Saturday.“An army patrol arrested Youssef Mahmoud al-Khodr on Friday, in the northern Lebanese border town of Mashta Hassan,” the statement said. “Khodr is wanted on charges of transporting weapons and ammunition in 2014 in the town of al-Douseh, and attempting to smuggle them through the northern border to one of the terrorist groups,” it added. The man was handed to the related authorities for interrogations.

Jumblat: Boycotting Legislative Session is 'Suicide'
Naharnet/November 07/15/Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat described the stances of Christian blocs that are rejecting to take part in a legislative session as a "suicide," An Nahar daily reported on Saturday. “The stances of the Christian blocs is only a bidding and a message towards additional self suicide,” Jumblat told the daily in a phone conversation from Paris. “It is a pity that some of them (political factions) have not learned from the lessons of the past, but we will not join them in this suicide,” he added. Speaker Nabih Berri has called for a legislative session on the 12 and 13 of November to pass urgent laws and to prevent Lebanon from losing millions of dollars in grants and loans amid threats that the major Christian parties could boycott the session. The Free Patriotic Movement and the Lebanese Forces are set to boycott the legislative sessions over the exclusion of the electoral law proposal and a citizenship draft law from the agenda. The Kataeb Party also refuses to attend the legislative session amid the presidential vacuum, reiterating the need to hold the session primarily to elect a head of state. Parliamentary sources supporting a parliament convention said on the expectation of a quorum that more than 85 lawmakers are expected to take part in the session, reflecting the concern to pass inevitable financial entitlements. Later on Saturday, LF leader Samir Geagea addressed Jumblat via Twitter saying: “My friend Walid Jumblat, you are very kind but sometimes love can kill.”

Report: Sweden to Deport Tens of Lebanese Families
Naharnet/November 07/15/Swedish authorities decided to deport tens of Lebanese families that have already resorted to Sweden many years ago after it refused to give them the necessary accommodation to settle on its territory, media reports said on Saturday. Despite the fact that these families have settled in Sweden for more than ten years and have founded private businesses and paid the taxes, they did not get the accommodation required, the reports stated. With the aggravation of the Syrian migrants crisis to Europe, the Lebanese expats were surprised with the decision to expel them. Some of the Lebanese families who are listed for deportation from Sweden face several humanitarian and economic problems, most notably the children who were born there and got adapted with the Swedish educational curricula and the families who have started their own business, it added. A delegations from the listed families are expected to meet with Lebanon's Ambassador to Sweden and Scandinavia Ali Ajami to ask for help. The step will take place in parallel with moves that include peaceful marches and sit-ins in front of the Swedish official quarters with the participation of Swedish citizens supporting the case.

U.S. Chargé d’Affaires Urges Lebanon Leaders to Find 'Innovative Compromises'
Naharnet/November 07/15/U.S. Chargé d’Affaires ad interim Richard Jones on Friday urged Lebanon's political leaders to find “innovative compromises” and “Lebanese solutions” in order to overcome the country's growing political crisis. “Domestic political stability cannot be bought or furnished from the outside. Lebanese political leaders need to come together now to find innovative compromises and Lebanese solutions to the challenges facing the country, so as to end the current political paralysis,” said Jones after his first meeting with Prime Minister Tammam Salam at the Grand Serail. The chargé d’affaires, who arrived in Beirut overnight, will help fill a transition period until the nomination and confirmation of a new ambassador, the U.S. embassy said in a statement. “The Cabinet, Parliament, and a new President need to get back to work for the benefit of the people they were or will be elected to serve,” Jones said after his talks with Salam. “While these challenges require Lebanese solutions, please rest assured that America will stand by your side as you grapple with them,” he added. The envoy said talks tackled “the many interlocking political, economic, security, and humanitarian challenges confronting Lebanon today.”“I told Prime Minister Salam that America will remain a steadfast partner as Lebanon responds to the threats presented by the spillover from the crisis in Syria,” he said. Jones also vowed to “work tirelessly to ensure American assistance in the military, economic, and humanitarian spheres continues to help build a secure, prosperous, and stable Lebanon.”“Our assistance will continue to equip and modernize the Lebanese Armed Forces in order to bolster their ability to counter the extremist threat and to fulfill the LAF’s responsibilities as the sole entity with the legitimacy and capacity to defend Lebanon’s territory and its people,” he said. Jones has “deep experience” serving in the region, including as ambassador to Lebanon from 1996 to 1998, the embassy said in its statement. “His return to Beirut and continued service underscores the priority that the United States places on its strong and enduring partnership with Lebanon at this critical time,” it underlined.

Lebanon’s Salafist, Sheikh Ahmad al-Assir Trials: An Explainer
Ana Maria Luca/Now Lebanon/November 07/15
When Salafist Sheikh Ahmad al-Assir, clean shaven and disguised, was arrested at the Beirut airport on his way to Cairo this August, there was little doubt he would face serious charges. He reportedly admitted immediately to funding a group led by another Salafist cleric, Sheikh Khaled Hoblos, whose sermons often openly supported Jabhat al-Nusra and whose mosque displayed the group’s flag. The charges, which were already serious before Assir’s arrest, accumulated over a few weeks while he was interrogated. He’s accused of murder and attempted murder of military personnel, including officers, as well as civilians; incitement to murder army officers; forming sleeper cells in order to carry out “terror acts” and assassinations of religious, political, and military figures; forming an armed group with intent to undermine state authority; funding a separate armed group led by the militant Khaled Hoblos; “incitement of sectarian strife;” and damage to public and private property. The trial has already been postponed twice. The next hearing was set for January 2016 at the request of the defense lawyer. The excuse was that Assir needs the approval of Dar al-Fatwa, the only Sunni religious authority recognized by the Lebanese state, in order to appear in court. However, being a Salafist cleric, Assir is not officially recognized by Dar al-Fatwa as a Sunni cleric in Lebanon. Both lawyers and members of the Salafi community expect the trial to be postponed for much longer. Salafist detainees investigated by the Lebanese security forces usually face long legal procedures. Nabil Halabi, human rights lawyer and executive director of the Lebanese Institute for Democracy and Human Rights (LIFE), says this is so not only because of the political implications of Salafist trials, but also because of the lack of due process in a complicated legal system based on the military court, which is the only court in Lebanon that handles terrorism and security cases.
The average Salafist trial
Lawyers are used to waiting for months, sometimes years, before a case is even sent to the military court. Halabi told NOW that Islamist detainees are detained without charges and kept in detention by the security forces without being given a reason. When they are sent to the military court things get even more complicated. “If any of the detainees said things in the court contrary to what they’d said in the primary investigations in the Defense Ministry, or accuses the investigators of torture, they get sent back to military intelligence where they are investigated once again, sometimes by the same people,” Halabi said. This raises questions over how real the evidence is. It also leads to situations in which people who have served years in prison are eventually released for lack of evidence. In many cases, Salafists are detained for being part of militant groups, Halabi says. Investigations last much longer because the members are not tried individually but rather as a group. The security forces rarely arrest all the group members at the same time, and those arrested first have to wait until the rest of the group are detained before they are sent to court as a group. These practices also delay the trials. Other legal sources familiar with the process say that many times the confessions of the detainees are obtained under alleged torture. Allegations of torture have been documented by several international human rights organizations, including Human Rights Watch. In these cases, lawyers usually contest the primary investigation in court. The detainees appear at a hearing and most say that they were forced to sign a confession. That also takes time, and erstwhile the detainees remain in prison.
Political pressure
The same sources also explain that Salafists’ trials are also sensitive because there is always political pressure. It all goes back to the Syrian crisis and how the political factions in Lebanon position themselves in relation to the war. Most activist Salafist leaders support the Syrian rebel factions and are outspoken against Hezbollah’s intervention in Syria. They also gained a lot of political support towards the beginning of the Syrian crisis. Many militants fought in Syria and also were involved in attacks against Hezbollah that also killed civilians. The political battle over which political faction controls Lebanese security is also visible in how the cases of Salafists are treated: the pro-Syrian March 8 movement controls security institution hunts for Salafists and arrests them indiscriminately, which creates more unrest among the Salafist community against the Lebanese Army.
A Salafist sheikh based in Tripoli told NOW on condition of anonymity that, indeed, most young men who attend Salafist mosques fear they might be arrested. “People just stay in their neighborhood; they don’t go out anymore,” he said. “The authorities issued around 1,000 or more warrants for the people who participated in the clashes that took place between Jabal Mohsen and Bab al-Tabanneh. But in 2014 the Ministry of Justice decided to withdraw the warrants. However, it seems that some security institutions, such as General Security and Military Intelligence, continue to arrest people.” The sheikh also said that many young men are afraid not so much of getting caught but that it will take a long time for the state security apparatus to admit that there is no evidence to incriminate them.
The precedents
Such arbitrary detention has happened before. Tripoli-based Salafists were arrested in connection with the Nahr al-Bared war against jihadist Fatah al-Islam. According to Halabi, many young men were detained for years without being charged. In some cases, he says, the trials were resumed in 2014 after Ashraf Rifi was named Minister of Justice. “When the cases were reopened, they found that some of the detainees were innocent. In other cases, the prisoners were released after the ends of their sentences. Also, could you imagine that some were accused and sentenced for terrorism and received the death penalty because they did not appear on time before the court. They claim it was because of the absence of a private courtroom. When the retrial began, they turned out to be innocent. Can you imagine that they were detained for seven-and-a-half years?” Another spin to many of their stories is that after being charges of belonging to Fatah al-Islam or militant Salafist groups, they were charged with possession of assault rifles. “In this country almost every family owns one!” Halabi adding that this approach angers the Sunni community and leads to resentment and even to terrorism. “Most of the time, terrorism comes from injustice and not just from deviant ideologies.”Ahmad al-Assir was the main figure in the Abra clashes that took place in June 2013 between his supporters, the Lebanese Army and, reportedly, members of the Resistance Brigades. He was indicted for these incidents, which carry the risk of a death penaly, in February 2014, and many others were arrested for supporting him. “Many were arrested incommunicado [without a warrant issued by a judicial authority] despite the fact that the government cancelled that type of warrant, which was used heavily during the Syrian occupation of Lebanon,” Halabi said. “The thing is that as long as you’re accused of terrorism on any type of evidence, the Lebanese Criminal Code allows the judge to detain you indefinitely. And that is a long time.”
Ana Maria Luca tweets @aml1609.
Amin Nasr contributed with translation.
https://now.mmedia.me/lb/en/reportsfeatures/566188-lebanons-salafist-trials-an-explainer

ISIS frees 37 kidnapped Syrian Christians: NGO
AFP, Beirut Saturday, 7 November 2015/The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group on Saturday released 37 Syrian Christians, most of them women, who were among more than 200 people kidnapped more than eight months ago, an NGO said. The Assyrian Monitor for Human Rights said the group of freed Assyrian Christians included 27 women and 10 men, most of them elderly. They arrived on Saturday morning in the town of Tal Tamr in the Khabur region of Hasakeh province in northeastern Syria, the group said. The releases were confirmed by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor, which said most of those freed were from other towns elsewhere in the Khabur region. The former hostages were among a group of 220 Assyrians captured by ISIS when they overran parts of the Khabur region in February. Since then, a trickle of the prisoners have been released, with between 140 and 150 believed to still be held by ISIS. The Assyrian Monitor said the releases were the result of negotiations carried out by the church, but other reports suggest ISIS has been paid to free the hostages. Assyrians numbered about 30,000 among Syria’s 1.2 million Christians before the country’s conflict began. They lived mostly in 35 villages in Hasakeh. In February, ISIS overran many of the villages, but Kurdish forces later expelled them. ISIS has captured hundreds of hostages, including Christians from different sects, in territory it controls in Syria and Iraq. Elsewhere, the Britain-based Observatory said the toll in Thursday’s air strikes on the town on Albu Kamal on the Syrian border with Iraq had risen to 49 people, at least 31 of them civilians. The monitoring group had previously said at least 22 people were killed in the strikes, but it was not able to confirm who was behind the attacks. Russia, Syria’s government and a US-led coalition are all carrying out air strikes on Syrian territory, sometimes operating in the same areas. The Observatory said at least four of those killed in the raids on the ISIS-held town were children.

Intercepted ISIS chatter ‘boasted about Egypt crash’
Staff writer, Al Arabiya News Saturday, 7 November 2015/Communications between ISIS leaders in Raqqa, Syria, and persons in the Sinai Peninsula included boasts about the downing of a Russian passenger jet over the area, NBC reported on Friday, citing unidentified U.S. officials. “They were clearly celebrating,” NBC Nightly News quoted a U.S. official as saying. The “chatter” included a boast of taking down the plane on Saturday and how it was done.The U.S. intelligence community intercepted a message from a Sinai group affiliated with ISIS that warned of “something big in the area” before the jet crash.
U.S. steps up screening of flights. The U.S. said Friday it was stepping up security screenings of U.S.-bound flights from some Middle East airports as a precaution after the crash of the Russian airliner in Egypt. In this photo made available Monday, Nov. 2, 2015, and provided by Russian Emergency Situations Ministry, Egyptian Military on cars approach a plane's tail at the wreckage. (Reuters) Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said the U.S. also would review its assessments of certain foreign airports and offer them help with security, as well as take other measures, “both seen and unseen.”There is growing evidence that the plane that crashed Saturday in the Sinai, killing all 224 people, was brought down by an explosion. Sources close to the investigation told AFP that information from the airliner’s flight data and voice recorders “strongly favors” the theory that a bomb exploded on board the Airbus A321.
Russia suspends Egypt flights. Moscow suspended passenger flights to Egypt, but has said it is premature to reach conclusions that the flight was attacked. However President Vladimir Putin agreed with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to bolster coordination to secure Russian flights and resume them as soon as possible. Sisi called Putin and they agreed “to bolster cooperation between the two countries’ relevant agencies to ensure the safety of Russian tourists and strengthen security measures for Russian planes,” a statement said. International security warnings. Following international security warnings in the wake of the crash, Denmark urged its citizens on Friday to avoid Egypt’s southern Sinai Peninsula, including the Sharm el-Sheikh resort. The foreign ministry said the advice was based on an assessment of aviation safety made after fresh information was received on Friday, without going into further details. The Danish ministry said on its website it now advised “against non-essential journeys to the southern part of the Sinai Peninsula, including Sharm el-Sheikh”. [With agencies]

UK plane entering Sharm ‘missed rocket by 300m’ in August
AFP, London Saturday, 7 November 2015/A British tourist plane heading in to land at the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh came within 1,000 feet (300 metres) of a missile in August, newspapers reported Saturday. The near-miss involved a Thomson Airways plane carrying 189 passengers from London on August 23. British authorities concluded it was not a “targeted attack.”The incident happened around two months before a Russian tourist plane leaving the Red Sea resort plummeted from the sky into the Sinai Peninsula last Saturday, killing all 224 people onboard. A spokesman for Britain’s Department for Transport (DfT) said of the August near-miss: “We investigated the reported incident at the time and concluded that it was not a targeted attack and was likely to be connected to routine exercises being conducted by the Egyptian military in the area at the time.”The Daily Mail newspaper said the Thomson Airways pilot took evasive action and landed safely. Holidaymakers were not told about the incident. “The pilot was in the cockpit and saw the rocket coming towards the plane. He ordered the flight turn to the left to avoid the rocket, which was about 1,000 feet away,” the tabloid quoted a source as saying.
“Another Thomson plane was also flying into (Sharm el-Sheikh) at the same time and saw the rocket. “The crew were told the rocket was from an Egyptian military exercise, but with what has happened there is a lot of fear. The incident left staff petrified.” A Thomson spokesman said: “Thomson Airways can confirm that an event was reported by the crew of flight TOM 476 on August 23. “Upon landing into Sharm el-Sheikh, an initial assessment was conducted and the event was immediately reported to the UK DfT in line with established protocol. “The DfT conducted a full investigation in conjunction with other UK government experts. “After reviewing the details of the case, the investigation concluded that there was no cause for concern and it was safe to continue our flying programme to Sharm-el Sheikh.” Britain suspended flights to Sharm el-Sheikh on Wednesday after saying it feared a bomb may have brought down the Russian jet, with Moscow following suit on Friday. The resort is a popular destination with British and Russian holidaymakers, usually hosting some 20,000 Britons. Moscow said Saturday that it still has nearly 80,000 nationals in Egypt but there will be no emergency evacuation, with tourists able to return at their own pace. Thomson Airways has been repatriating Britons trying to return home following last weekend’s crash. The first such flights back to Britain landed on Friday.

Putin halts flights to Egypt until “true causes” known for Metrojet crash
DEBKAfile Special Report November 6, 2015: President Vladimir Putin halted all Russian flights to Egypt Friday, Nov. 6, “until we know the true causes of the incident” .i.e. the cause of the Russian Metrojet flight crash over Sinai Saturday which killed all 224 people aboard. Several European and Gulf Arab governments suspended flights to Sharm el-Sheikh, but Russia was the first to halt all outbound flights to Egypt. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Putin acted on the recommendation of the Russian security service chief Alexander Bortnikov.
The language of the statement – “true causes of the incident” - indicates that the Russians have lost patience with President Abdel-Fatteh El-Sisi and don’t trust the Egyptian investigation into the causes of the disaster. For most of the week, the Russians played along with Egypt’s obstinate resistance to any suggestion of terrorism and insisted on waiting for the official investigations before making any determinations. Thursday, Moscow sharply criticized British prime minister for presuming on the strength of intelligence that the plane was most likely downed by a bomb.
Putin abruptly changed course Friday following four developments:
1. Russian investigators collecting samples at the crash scene in Sinai found residue and other evidence of an explosion emanating from inside the plane or externally from a missile. They discovered holes made by iron balls planted inside a bomb and scattered through all parts of the plane (see attached photos), as well as large tears in the outer walls that were caused by a powerful explosion. Samples from the airplane’s wreckage were collected and presented to a meeting of the National Anti-Terrorist Committee Thursday.
2. Forensic examination of victims’ remains left no doubt that they died as a result of an explosive blast.
These findings spread like wildfire in Moscow and in St. Petersburg among the grieving families. The Russian leader saw he could no longer afford to line up with Cairo’s playdown of the terrorist factor.
3. Moscow received intelligence that the Islamic State plans to follow up on its first “success” with further terrorist attacks on Russian and European passenger jets.
By downing the Russian airliner over Sinai, the Islamist terror group delivered a huge blow to Egypt’s tourism industry. Russia tops Egypt’s tourist market. Last year, 3.1 million Russians visited Egypt, yielding $2.5bn out of the total national tourism income of $7.3bn in 2014.
Sharm el-Sheikh was the scene of havoc Friday, as Russian and British tourists mobbed the airport in an attempt to fly home after the Egyptian authorities limited the number of outbound flights.

Report: Israel worried Egypt's Sisi might fall to jihadist insurgents
J.Post/November 07/15/Israeli officials are reportedly growing concerned over the long-term viability of the current Egyptian regime in light of gains made by Islamists in their insurgency. Bloomberg News quoted a former Republican lawmaker on Friday as saying that Israeli government figures are beginning to wonder whether Egypt's president, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, can successfully overcome the threats posed to his rule by Islamic State-inspired Salafist gunmen. Egypt's tourism industry - a key source of revenue for the cash-strapped Arab giant - is expected to take an even bigger hit in the wake of Saturday's crash of a Russian airline in the Sinai Peninsula. All 224 passengers on board were killed in what Western intelligence agencies say may have been a terrorist bomb. "We encountered a lot of people in Israel and elsewhere that don't think that he is going to survive his term," Vin Weber, a former Republican member of Congress, told Bloomberg. Weber is currently the co-chairman of the Egypt policy task force of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
The think tank released a report co-authored by Weber in which he states that his team met with a number of Israeli defense and security analysts in recent weeks. According to the report, Weber's interlocutors paint a bleak picture of Sisi's current standing in Cairo. "[Sisi] is under constant death threats," Weber told Bloomberg. "Many people said we're not sure where he sleeps every night. And I think there is that question mark in the minds of the Israelis about whether or not the government can succeed."An insurgency based in Sinai and mounted by Islamic State's Egyptian affiliate has killed hundreds of soldiers and police. In recent months, it has expanded to Western targets in Egypt. The Islamist insurgency gained pace after Egypt's military, under Sisi's command, overthrew President Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood Islamist movement in mid-2013 in the wake of mass protests against his rule.
Islamic State controls large parts of Iraq and Syria, has a presence in Libya and the support of militants in Egypt seeking to topple the Cairo government.
Sisi has described Islamist militancy as an existential threat to Egypt, the most populous Arab state and a close US ally. Weber's co-chair in heading the task force, Greg Craig, told Bloomberg that while Egyptian-Israeli security cooperation in the Sinai has never been better - particularly since the 2014 Israeli military offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip - Jerusalem gives the former general low marks in the manner in which he has tried to crush the Islamist uprising. "We did spend some time with Israeli national security folks," said Craig, a former Obama administration official. "One of the smartest persons I've ever met in terms of analytical capacity was talking about the Egyptian proclivity to do all the wrong things when it comes to counter-insurgency." "If you had a list of boxes you checked of things not to do, the Egyptian military has checked every one of those boxes," Craig said.Sisi has reportedly acknowledged that Islamists have tried to assassinate him on at least two occasions. Remarkably, though, there is now concern that the Egyptian president has enemies within the ranks of the military.This past August, 26 Egyptian officers were sentenced to jail by a military court for allegedly plotting to overthrow Sisi.

Egypt Says no Findings Yet from Russian Plane Crash Probe
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/November 07/15/Egypt pushed back on Saturday against international suspicions a bomb downed a Russian plane in the Sinai, as intensifying restrictions on air travel threatened to cripple its vital tourism industry. In the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, from where the doomed airliner took off on October 31, thousands of Russian and British tourists waited anxiously for word of when they might be able to fly home. Moscow on Friday halted all Russian flights to Egypt and London has stopped British flights to Sharm. Empty aircraft are to be sent out to bring home stranded holidaymakers but the process will be slow. Sources in France close to the crash probe told AFP that black box data pointed to a bomb having gone off and a sudden, violent demise of the Airbus less than half an hour after takeoff. British Prime Minister David Cameron has said that a bomb "had more likely than not" been the cause of the explosion in which all 224 people on board lost their lives. But Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said on Saturday the Egyptian-led inquiry into disaster had yet to establish any theory about the cause. "We have not dismissed any possibility but there is no hypothesis yet, before the investigations are over and a full report is ready," Shoukry said. He said that foreign intelligence that had triggered the international travel restrictions had not been shared with Egypt. "We expected that any technical information should have been shared with us, at a technical level, before publicising it in the media," he said. Already battered by years of unrest, Egypt is heavily reliant on tourism revenues and fears the impact any firm determination that a bomb caused the crash would have on the key industry.
Fortnight for Russian repatriations
Russians make up the bulk of tourists who visit Red Sea resorts such as Sharm el-Sheikh each year, and nearly 80,000 are currently holidaying in the country, a Russian official told AFP. Empty aircraft will be sent to Egypt to bring them home after President Vladimir Putin's decision to halt Russian flights but the repatriations will be spread over the coming fortnight. "Tourists will be returning from Egypt to Russia when they planned to," said Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich, who heads a task force established to oversee their return. "Most people left for two weeks -- our usual holiday tour lasts two weeks -- therefore they will return in about two weeks," he said. Russia followed in Britain's footsteps, saying that holidaymakers would be returning home without their hold luggage, which will be brought back to the country separately. That restriction has prompted Egypt to limit the number of daily repatriation flights because it says there is only so much left behind baggage its airports can accommodate. At Sharm airport, one bemused Russian tourism stared at the departures board trying to figure out when she might be able to fly home. "An hour ago my flight was there but now it disappeared," Yulia Suvorova said. British airlines said they expected to operate seven repatriation flights on Saturday, only enough to make a small dent in the 19,000 Britons still in Sharm. There were tears of relief as the first returning passengers landed in London's Gatwick Airport on Friday after days of delays. "I'm so grateful to be home with my family. I didn't think we would come back," said Emma Turner, 34, from Kent in southeast England. - 'Suddenly there was nothing' -Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told news agencies the decision to restrict flights did not mean Moscow believed the crash -- the worst aviation disaster in Russia's history -- was due to an attack, and the investigation continued. The head of Russia's emergencies ministry said Russian experts had taken samples from the crashed jet and were testing it for any traces of explosives. A source in Paris close to the investigation told AFP the black box data "strongly favours" the theory a bomb on board brought down the plane. Another person close to the case said the plane had suffered "a violent, sudden" end, saying: "Everything was normal during the flight, absolutely normal, and suddenly there was nothing." The Islamic State group said it downed the plane in retaliation for Russian air strikes in Syria, but has provided no details as to how. If it was behind the attack, it would be the first time the jihadists, who control large areas of Syria and Iraq, have hit a passenger plane. U.S. President Barack Obama has said that Washington is "seriously" considering the possibility of a bomb aboard the plane. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said security screenings of U.S.-bound flights from some Middle East airports would be stepped up as a precaution. Once a remote beach on the edge of the Red Sea, Sharm el-Sheikh has grown into the jewel of Egypt's tourism industry, with dozens of luxury hotels and night life attracting tourists from around the world. The town attracted on average three to four million tourists a year before the 2011 popular uprising that ousted longtime president Hosni Mubarak.

Egypt: West ignored calls to fight terrorism
By Asma Alsharif and Omar Fahmy Reuters, Cairo Saturday, 7 November 2015/Egypt criticized its foreign partners on Saturday for ignoring calls to work harder to combat terrorism, after Western intelligence sources said there were signs Islamist militants may have bombed the Russian plane which crashed in Sinai. An Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) affiliate has claimed responsibility for the crash of the Airbus A321 operated by a Russian carrier that was bringing holidaymakers home from the Sinai Peninsula resort of Sharm al-Sheikh one week ago. All 224 people on board were killed in what the militants described as revenge for Russian air strikes against Islamist fighters in Syria. Russia, Turkey and several European countries have suspended flights to Sharm al-Sheikh and the United States has imposed new air travel security requirements in the wake of the crash. Egypt's Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, speaking hours before authorities were due to make an announcement about their investigations so far, said it would be wrong to speculate on the cause until findings were delivered. But he said Cairo was not ruling out any possibility, and suggested countries now flagging the likelihood that militants were behind the crash should have heeded Egypt's repeated calls for coordination to combat militants. "The spread of terrorism, which we have for a long time called on our partners to tackle more seriously, did not get through to many of the parties which are now exposed and which are currently working for the interests of their citizens to face this danger," Shoukry told a news conference. He also expressed frustration that foreign intelligence about the cause of the crash had not been passed on to Cairo. "The information we have heard about has not been shared with Egyptian security agencies in detail," he said. "We were expecting that the technical information would be provided to us."
Explosion
An Egyptian source close to the investigation of the Russian plane's black boxes said on Wednesday the cause of the crash was believed to be an explosion, but it was not clear whether that was the result of a bomb. Western intelligence sources have said British and U.S. spies intercepted "chatter" from suspected militants suggesting that a bomb, possibly hidden in luggage in the hold, downed the plane. U.S. television network NBC said some communications between Islamic State leaders in Syria and the Sinai Peninsula included boasts about bringing down the jet. "They were clearly celebrating," it quoted U.S. officials as saying.On Friday, Moscow suspended flights to Egypt, leaving nearly 80,000 Russians stranded, mainly in the Red Sea resorts of Hurghada and Sharm al-Sheikh, and adding to the growing chaos facing many tourists. British attempts to fly home thousands of holidaymakers on Friday were mired in confusion when Egypt restricted the number of flights, citing capacity limits at Sharm al-Sheikh airport and British airliners' refusal to take passenger luggage in the hold. British media reported on Saturday that a British passenger jet came close to being hit by a rocket as it came in to land at Sharm al-Sheikh in August, although the British government said it concluded the incident was part of routine Egyptian military exercises, not a deliberate attack. The pilot of the Thomson flight from London to Egypt took evasive action after spotting the missile coming towards the plane as it flew to the Red Sea resort, the Daily Mail reported. Egypt's Tourism Minister Hesham Zaazou said Cairo regretted the suspension of flights and was doing all it could to secure its airports and tourist sites, adding that he would fly to Sharm al-Sheikh to oversee measures to support tourists there.

Russia faces evacuating 80,000 nationals from Egypt
Reuters, Moscow Saturday, 7 November 2015/Around 80,000 Russians are stranded in Egypt after the Kremlin grounded all flights to the country following the crash of a Russian airliner in the Sinai Peninsula, Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich said on Saturday. President Vladimir Putin ordered the flight suspension on Friday, a possible sign that Russia is attaching more credence to the theory that a bomb brought down the Russian passenger jet in Egypt a week ago, killing all 224 people on board. “Today the number of tourists in Egypt was clarified, it is around 80,000,” RIA news agency quoted Dvorkovich as saying. “The Egyptian military has taken control of the operation to put passengers on flights,” he added. Russia will be wanting to avoid the chaotic scenes endured by thousands of British holidaymakers stuck in Red Sea resorts after Egypt slashed the number of flights it would allow to take them home. Oleg Safonov, head of Russian state tourism agency Rostourism, said 1,200 Russian tourists had returned home and future flights would be leaving without hold luggage. “A planned process to evacuate tourists will be executed,” Russian news agencies quoted Safonov as saying. “Planes will arrive empty and be boarded by those tourists who should return home on that date.”The Russian Travel Industry Union said nearly all Russian tourists due to visit Egypt in the coming days had agreed to fly to Turkey instead. “In the near future, flights which should have flown to Egypt are being redirected to Antalya,” the Interfax news agency quoted union spokeswoman Irina Turina as saying. “Practically all tourists have agreed with this.”

The ISIS affiliate in Sinai that is eluding Egypt's security dragnet
Reuters/J.Post/November 07/15
The Islamic State branch suspected of bringing down a Russian airliner in Egypt had eluded a security dragnet by operating in secretive cells inspired by a leader who used to import clothes for a living, Egyptian intelligence officials say. Western officials are increasingly pointing the finger of blame at Sinai Province, which has focused on killing Egyptian soldiers and police since the military toppled President Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood in 2013 after mass protests. If solid evidence emerges it attacked the aircraft, that would instantly propel the group to the top of the jihadi ladder, with one of the deadliest attacks since al-Qaida flew planes into the World Trade Center in New York in 2001.If a bomb knocked Airbus A321 out of the sky, that would challenge Egypt's assertions that it had brought under control militants who have carried out high-profile attacks on senior government officials and Western targets. Security experts and investigators have said the plane is unlikely to have been struck from the outside and Sinai militants are not believed to have any missiles capable of striking a jet at 30,000 feet.Sinai Province is partly the product of Egypt's efforts to eliminate militancy, which has threatened the most populous Arab country for decades, according to the intelligence sources. The three officials, who closely follow the Sinai-based insurgency, say many of its fighters fled to Syria after Morsi was removed and then army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi unleashed security forces on Islamists, both moderate and radical. Sinai Province's leader - a 42-year-old former clothes importer known by his nom de guerre Abu Osama al-Masri - studied at Al-Azhar, a 1,000-year old Egyptian center for Islamic learning that supports the government, said the officials. But like others who learned in a center known for its moderation, he was radicalized and took up arms in Sinai before heading to Syria with about 20 followers when security forces clamped down on Islamists after Morsi's departure, the sources said.
'THEY BECAME EXPERTS'
There, he and the other fighters gained experience that would prove useful upon their eventual return to the Sinai, when they were approached by Islamic State and embraced its goal of creating a caliphate across the Muslim world. It seems they were mesmerized by Islamic State's mysterious Iraqi leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, said the officials. Islamic State sent arms and cash by boat from Iraq to neighboring Libya, where militants have thrived in the chaos that followed the fall of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, said another intelligence official. A porous border then enabled Baghdadi's supporters to travel to Sinai, on the other side of Egypt, to deliver the goods to Islamist militant comrades, the officials added. "Other militants taught them how to evade capture and they learned how to shoot accurately and assemble bombs," said one of the intelligence officials, speaking on condition of anonymity. "They became experts."Will McCants, director of the Center for Middle East Policy at the Washington-based Brookings Institution, said that not a lot is known about the working relationship between the Islamic State's Sinai affiliate and the movement's central leadership. But the Egyptian group - like other affiliates - appears to enjoy considerable autonomy. The state security crackdown launched against the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamists has gained the Islamic State's Sinai branch significant local support, allowing its fighters to hide and operate among ordinary people, he said.
SECRETIVE
During Morsi's time, security officials allege, militants from al-Qaida, including some who had traveled from as far away as Afghanistan, had a free hand in Sinai. They included about 4,000 fighters who would form the core of Sinai Province, which was called Ansar Beyt al-Maqdis before declaring its support for Islamic State last year, said the officials. The crackdown on Islamists by Sisi - now president - led to many militants being killed, jailed or fleeing for countries like Syria and Libya. Sinai Province now consists of only hundreds of militants scattered into groups of 5-7 men, which have few links to reduce the chances of capture, said the officials. "They are very secretive," one of the intelligence officials said. "Each cell doesn't know about other cells." Another said: "It's a small number of militants but it takes just one person to carry out a suicide bombing." Last year, security officials said Masri and a few other leaders had been killed. He later appeared in a video purported to prove he is alive and reaffirmed his loyalty to Baghdadi. Masri could be seen kneeling beside weapons he said were seized from 30 Egyptian soldiers killed in an attack. A military armored personnel carrier burned in the background. A tribal leader in the Sinai told Reuters he had recently noticed pro-Islamic State militants driving around in new Toyota Land Cruisers. Some had Apple computers. "It seems they are getting more and more ambitious," he said.

Despite Russian strikes, Syrian rebels hold ground
By Bassem Mroue, The Associated Press Saturday, 7 November 2015/Despite a month of heavy battering by Russian airstrikes, Syria's rebels have so far been able to fend off offensives by government forces trying to retake territory from the rebel's heartland. The fierce fighting shows how even greater backing from Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's international allies is not swiftly tipping the conflict in his favor. aAssad's military has launched assaults on severl fronts in the north and northwest the past weeks, supported by Russian airstrikes pummeling rebel positions that government forces are trying to retake. Assad's troops have also been backed by the tougher fighters of Lebanon's Hezbollah guerrilla army and combat advisers from Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard — and top commanders from both Hezbollah and the Iranians have been killed, a sign of the intensity of the battles. The rebels say they have been able to hold out because of support from their own allies: An increasing flow of American anti-tank TOW missiles that have allowed their fighters to blunt attempted advances by Assad's forces. Despite more than 1,000 combat sorties by Russian aircraft hitting more than 2,000 targets, government forces' gains have been minimal. "We don't deny that the airstrikes are effective, but they (troops) will not advance on the ground," Lt. Col. Fares al-Bayoush, commander of the 1,300-strong Fursan al-Haq Brigade, told The Associated Press, speaking in the Turkish border city of Reyhanli.
The TOW rockets have been instrumental, he and other commanders said. The United States has been supplying the missiles to select rebel factions for months, part of its program alongside Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar to boost the insurgency. Al-Bayoush, a defector from Assad's army, said his fighters have a constantly replenished supply and use them not only against tanks but also against troop formations and other positions. "We fire 15 TOWs and we get 15 TOWs in return," he said. The combination of Russian strikes and Assad's ground offensives have also rallied the multiple rebel factions to defend northwest Idlib province, which they wrested completely from government control over the spring. The territory is now the heartland for the rebels, a mix of moderate nationalist factions and others with hard-line Islamic ideologies. "There is a sort of competition now among the factions to excel in defending the areas so none of them can get accused of being a traitor for losing a strip of land," said Hadi Abdullah, an opposition activist who travels with the rebels to the front lines to report on fighting. "They come to the rescue of each other on their different turf."
The fighting suggests the Russians may run into the same reality as the 13-month-old American-led air campaign against ISIS in Syria: Air power doesn't automatically translate into victories on the ground. It also points to how international patrons have ensured each side can keep fighting in a war grinding toward the 5-year mark with more than 250,000 killed and millions displaced. Nikolay Kozhanov, a fellow with the Russia and Eurasia Programme at the international affairs think tank Chatham House, said Russia's intervention is "not enough to completely change the situation in the favor of the regime. ... When it comes to urban fighting the Syrian army is still quite limited in its capacities to advance." Soon after the Russian air campaign began on Sept. 30, Assad's forces launched several ground offensives. One campaign is aimed at taking back territory in Idlib to carve out a belt separating the province from neighboring Hama province and connect government-held areas in Hama with Assad's stronghold on the Mediterranean coast. Moscow says its air campaign is intended to crush ISIS and other Islamic militants, not to help Assad in the war. But while some strikes have targeted ISIS forces, more often they have battered rebels factions that are rivals of ISIS and seem directly intended to help the Syrian military's offensives.
For example, Russian strikes have hit the rebel-held town of Kfar Naboudeh almost daily, according to Rami Abdurrahman, head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the Syrian war. The town, in Idlib, is near the border with Hama province, and Assad's troops and Hezbollah fighters have been battling to try to seize it as part of a campaign aimed at increasing protection to a string of Alawite-majority, pro-government towns in Hama. Backed by the strikes, Assad's forces briefly captured the town, but days later rebel forces retook it. During the fighting, Hezbollah commander Hassan Hussein al-Haj was killed, believed to be the highest-ranking figure lost by the group since it joined Syria's civil war in 2012. The Russian airstrikes have been punishing for the rebels, several commanders said. The more advanced Russian warplanes pack a far more powerful and accurate punch and have better observation capabilities than Assad's air force. Al-Bayoush said he sent home 130 fighters who had been undergoing training because if a missile hit their training camp, "there would be a massacre."Another local commander, Murhaf Anjeer from the small Al-Arbaeen Battalion, said the Russian strikes were "wearing out" his fighters, leaving them constantly on edge that they are about to be hit from the air. But the rebels have adapted by avoiding fixed positions and hiding their movements better. Factions rely more on small groups of fighters that fire TOWs and retreat to avoid drawing attention of warplanes. The battles have continued in the farmland and villages all along the Idlib-Hama border. A video released by Fursan al-Haq last month showed one of its fighters using a TOW to destroy a government tank at Tell Skeik, a hill that has gone back and forth between the two sides. In parts of Hama, jihadi fighters from Uzbekistan and other parts of Central Asia with the hard-line Syrian rebel group Army of Conquest have played a big role in repelling government attacks, Abdurrahman said.
Another government campaign that has stalled aimed to open the highway linking Hama with the city of Homs, further south. In weeks of fighting, troops have been unable to advance despite Russian strikes on the rebel-held towns of Talbiseh and Rastan. The Russian campaign has also been hitting ISIS, which controls a large stretch from the outskirts of the northern city of Aleppo east across the country to Iraq. Russian warplanes have been striking almost daily around Kweiras, a base of Assad's military in Aleppo province that ISIS fighters have been besieging for months. Backed by the strikes, Syrian troops have been trying to reach Kweiras and break the siege. They have so far reached about 5 miles away in heavy fighting that killed a senior Iranian Revolutionary Guard commander, Gen. Hossein Hamedani. ISIS fighters have lashed back. They captured several towns north of Aleppo from rebels. They also launched a surprise attack south of Aleppo, capturing part of a main highway used by the military to supply government-held parts of the city. Assad's forces battled for two weeks and finally took back the road Wednesday. Several rebel commanders said Russia's entry in to the battle only encourages them by showing how reliant Assad is on his allies. In July, Assad acknowledged in a speech that his troops had lost territory and were running short on manpower. "The regime is collapsing and only the Russians are propping them up," said Ahmed Saoud, a commander in the 13th Division, another American-based FSA faction that has gotten new infusions of TOWS and ammunition. "Even though we are the weakest link in the Syrian conflict, we will win with our weapons."

U.S.-led strikes on ISIS to ‘increase in coming weeks’
Reuters, Dubai Saturday, 7 November 2015/U.S. and coalition forces are likely to increase air strikes against ISIS targets in Iraq and Syria in coming weeks after a lull in September and October, the head of U.S. Air Forces Central Command said Saturday. Lieutenant General Charles Brown told reporters at the Dubai International Air Chiefs Conference that the reduction in air strikes was due to weather and to a slowdown in activity on the ground and not due to the start of Russian air strikes in the region. He said both government forces and insurgents were increasing their ground movements, which could create more opportunities for the United States and its allies to carry out more air strikes against ISIS targets. "If they're not out and about, it's harder to strike, particularly for an adversary that may wrap themselves in the civilian population," he said. Brown also rejected criticism that the United States was not using air strikes as much or effectively as possible, saying coalition forces were striving to avoid civilian casualties that could help recruitment for ISIS. He also noted that the sheer number of air strikes was less of an indicator than the targets hit and the number of weapons used. The United States and its allies targeted ISIS in Iraq with 14 air strikes on Thursday, and also hit the militant group with nine air strikes in Syria, the U.S. military said on Friday. Brown told reporters that an agreement signed with Russia to avoid possible mid-air collisions was working well, and no incidents had been reported. "They don't want a mid-air and neither do we," he said. He said the agreement did not hinder U.S. forces from carrying out strikes where needed. "We've said we're going to fly where we need to get the job done," he said.

U.S. to launch Syrian refugee screening centers
Julia Edwards, Reuters Washington Saturday, 7 November 2015/The Obama administration is moving to increase and accelerate the number of Syrian refugees who might be admitted into the United States by opening new screening outposts in Iraq and Lebanon, administration officials told Reuters on Friday. The move comes after President Barack Obama pledged in September to admit an additional 10,000 refugees in 2016 from Syria, torn by four years of civil war and disorder. The U.S. State Department confirmed the plans to open a refugee settlement processing center in Erbil, Iraq, before the end of 2015, and to resume refugee processing in Lebanon in early 2016, said spokeswoman Danna Van Brandt. The White House would not say how many additional refugees it may take in beyond the 10,000, but two senior administration officials said they are seeking ways to increase the number. "We want to be in a place where we can push out really ambitious goals," said one of the officials, who spoke to Reuters on the condition of anonymity. The State Department runs nine screening centers worldwide that serve as meeting points for refugees and U.S. Department of Homeland Security employees who have to decide who is suitable for resettlement in the United States. The additional centers will double the number available to refugees in the Middle East. Most Syrians are now screened for potential U.S. resettlement at centers in Istanbul and Amman, Jordan. The new centers are designed to "increase the channels" the United States has for reaching Syrian refugees, the official said. Homeland Security workers stopped traveling to Lebanon to meet with refugees when the facility there closed over a year ago due to security concerns. That closure sparked outrage among refugee advocates who say Lebanon holds the largest number of Syrian refugees, most of whom live in poverty because it is illegal for them to work. Lebanon announced last month, however, that it would no longer accept Syrian refugees except in special cases. Amid a tide of refugees in Europe, some congressional Democrats and refugee advocates say the United States should do more for Syrians who often make dangerous journeys to lands where they have no home or means of employment. Some Republicans have raised concerns that allowing more Syrians into the United States jeopardizes national security. "We have little or no information about who these people are ... no ability to determine whether they are radicalized," Republican Senator Jeff Sessions said at a hearing on Oct. 2. Another senior administration official told Reuters that the United States is also encouraging other countries to contribute more money to the United Nations' effort to help refugees. The administration is also looking to increase aid to Syria's border countries of Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey as they take in millions fleeing the war, the official said.

‘Children massacred’ in South Sudan battles
AFP, Juba Saturday, 7 November 2015/Dozens of children have been killed in fighting in South Sudan, where battles rage despite political deals to end almost two years of civil war, the United Nations has said. The U.N. said that fighting in the northern battleground state of Unity has "intensified with grave consequences for civilians" in recent weeks, adding that 40,000 people are also starving to death. The report by the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) released late Friday detailed killings in just one area of Unity state during a two-week period.It said that in the Leer district of southern Unity, which has swapped hands multiple times between government and rebel forces, at least 80 civilians were killed between October 4 to 22. Almost three-quarters of those killed were children -- at least 57 killed in Leer -- while there were more than 50 cases of rape being used as "a weapon of war", the report said. Both sides are accused of having perpetrated ethnic massacres, recruited and killed children and carried out widespread rape, torture and forced displacement of populations to "cleanse" areas of their opponents. Hunger experts from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) have warned of a "concrete risk of famine" before the end of the year if fighting continues and aid does not reach the hardest-hit areas. While some aid has reached two districts in Unity -- Buaw and Koch -- other areas are cut off. Some 3.9 million people are in critical need of aid -- a third of the country's population and a massive 80 percent rise compared to the same period last year, the U.N. said. Civil war began in December 2013 when President Salva Kiir accused his former deputy Riek Machar of planning a coup, setting off a cycle of retaliatory killings that have split the poverty-stricken, landlocked country along ethnic lines. The army and rebels have repeatedly accused each other of breaking an internationally-brokered August 26 ceasefire, the eighth such agreement aimed at ending the nearly two-year long war.

Sierra Leone celebrates end of Ebola epidemic
Saturday, 7 November 2015/Following 42 days with no new cases, the West African nation’s epidemic was declared over on Saturday at a ceremony attended by President Ernest Bai Koroma and U.N. World Health Organization (WHO) representative Anders Nordstrom. Thousands of people gathered overnight around the Cotton Tree, a massive tree in the center of Freetown, for a candlelit vigil organized by women’s groups to pay tribute to health workers who lost their lives. “They died so we could live,” university student Fatmata said with tears in her eyes. Many of the health workers who died were infected due to inadequate protective equipment and training. The country’s first confirmed Ebola survivor, Victoria Yillia, told the crowd she was “happy that this disease which almost killed me has finally ended.” She appealed to authorities not to forget survivors, many of whom have faced social stigma and persistent health problems. Elsewhere in the city, residents celebrated the end of the epidemic, which forced schools to close, overwhelmed healthcare systems and hurt the local economy. “We’re happy. I feel free again after a period of bondage in the hands of Ebola,” said trader Joseph Katta as he clutched a pint of beer at a pub in the suburb of Lumley. Ebola has killed more than 11,300 people in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea since the epidemic was announced in March 2014 and about 28,500 were infected, according to WHO data. Sierra Leone’s death toll was 3,955 people. Liberia was declared free of Ebola on Sept. 3, while a handful of cases remain in Guinea. The 42-day countdown to be declared Ebola-free starts when the last patient tests negative a second time, normally after a 48-hour gap following their first negative test. The country now enters a 90-day period of surveillance with support from the WHO, which said the monitoring phase was critical to ensure early detection of any possible new cases. “We now have a unique opportunity to support Sierra Leone to build a strong and resilient public health system ready to detect and respond to the next outbreak of disease or any other public health threat,” Nordstrom said at the ceremony. Fear of the virus transformed the three countries and hampered efforts in Sierra Leone and Liberia to recover from civil wars. At the height of the epidemic, authorities in Sierra Leone and Liberia ordered people to stay indoors for days at a time in an attempt to identify new cases and slow the disease’s spread.''

Israeli troops in Hebron crackdown after shootings
AFP -Hebron, Occupied West Bank Saturday, 7 November 2015/Israeli forces blocked on Saturday exits from the southern West Bank city of Hebron as they launched a manhunt for assailants after shooting incidents targeting Jewish worshippers and a soldier. Two Israeli teens were shot and wounded on Friday at the flashpoint site known to Jews as the Tomb of the Patriarchs and Muslims as the Ibrahimi Mosque, the army said. Around 4,000 Jewish worshippers were visiting Hebron on Friday and Saturday as part of a religious pilgrimage centered around the biblical matriarch Sarah, who according to tradition was buried in a field which eventually became part of the city Hebron. A soldier was also shot and wounded on Friday near the Palestinian village of Beit Anon north of Hebron. Army spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner told AFP there was “ongoing activity to locate the perpetrators of yesterday’s attacks.”Israeli forces were searching Palestinian homes in and around Hebron as well as setting up new checkpoints for vehicles and people, an AFP reporter said. In addition the army blocked off the northern entrance of Hebron with mounds of dirt. The eastern entrance has been sealed off for days. Israeli rights group B’Tselem on Friday criticized the army for carrying out “immoral and unlawful” measures which it said hinder Palestinian freedom of movement in Hebron, including closing off the Tel Rumeida neighborhood. “These steps constitute collective punishment of residents of Hebron who are suspected of nothing and are forced to suffer serious disruptions in their daily lives,” the group said. Hebron has 200,000 Palestinian residents with approximately 500 Israeli settlers living in the centre, protected by an army-patrolled buffer zone. The situation is a constant source of tensions. Also on Friday a 72-year-old Palestinian woman was shot dead by soldiers after allegedly attempting to ram them with her car nearby Hebron. Friday’s unrest broke a brief lull in the wave of deadly attacks and violent protests throughout October that raised fears of a new Palestinian intifada, or uprising, against Israeli occupation. Most of it had occurred in and around Hebron and mainly involved Palestinian stabbing attacks. There were no clashes or attacks in the city on Saturday as troops searched for the assailants. But an army spokeswoman said a soldier was slightly wounded by “an accidental discharge of a bullet near a military position in Hebron.”

Analysis: Why the West should worry about Turkey
By PETER MARINO, REUTERS/J.Post/11/06/2015
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan appears to have beaten down his opponents and returned his Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party (AK Party) to a fourth term of single-party rule over the country. In doing so, he has cemented his own already-firm control over the country, and is a large step closer to becoming the most influential figure in Turkish politics since Ataturk himself. The consequences of the AK Party’s victory are likely to be enormous, for Turkey, the region, and possibly for Europe, Russia and the United States as well.
After Sunday’s parliamentary election, it is now possible that the secular Turkish republic - as it has been established since 1923 - will eventually become something unrecognizable to its founders. In his early years in power, Erdogan and his AK Party were hailed by Western governments as pragmatic reformers, and proof that political Islam could be democratic and pluralistic. Turkey was moving closer to serious consideration for EU membership, opening up to foreign investment and growing economically.
But since the 2008 financial crisis, and especially since the 2013 Gezi Park protests in Istanbul, during which Erdogan cracked down on perceived opponents in full view of the world, he has become increasingly autocratic. Indeed, Erdogan called for Sunday’s elections after the AK Party failed to gain the majority of votes in June elections and Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu was unable to form a coalition with the three opposition parties in parliament. Many Turkey analysts believe that Erdogan had no intention of letting the talks succeed in the first place, and may have pressured Davutoglu to allow them to fail.
Erdogan’s unwillingness to accept a legitimate, democratic election result, and his desire to politicize an office that is nominally non-partisan - the presidency - are just two of many signs that he is tightening his grip on power.
Sunday’s results will likely make Erdogan more autocratic, as the former prime minister has been vocal about his desire to convert the parliamentary republic into one headed by a president, which, conveniently for him, is the office he already holds. And while the results don’t give the AK Party sufficient power to amend the constitution on its own, Erdogan’s party has a history of following his orders regardless of what the constitution says.
Erdogan’s relationship with the liberal and secular Turkish Kurds, damaged by his divisive rhetoric and political tactics, is likely to deteriorate further under the new AKP government. Indeed, it was because of the Kurds’ success in the June elections that Erdogan’s AK Party was denied a majority, compelling him to call for Sunday’s election.
On Sunday the Kurds were successful enough that they denied Erdogan his longed-for supermajority. And Erdogan is unlikely to forget. The possibility that the Kurds and the Turkish government will resume conflict in the Kurdish regions is no longer that farfetched.
All of this, of course, comes amid a rapidly worsening security situation in Turkey’s backyard, much of which involves Kurds in Iraq and Syria. Additional instability in this already very unstable region worries Europe and the United States, as well as other Middle Eastern countries.
But the same instability that troubles these countries also prevents them from being able to do much about Turkey’s commitment to democracy in the near-term. Turkey’s location, combined with its NATO membership, makes it an indispensable partner in dealing with Russian activity in the region, Islamic State, the Syrian civil war and the unfolding migrant crisis. Dealing with Erdogan is now, for his Western partners, much like holding a wolf by the ears: risky, but the alternative seems much worse.
Sunday’s results don’t end the political and social divides that threaten Turkey. They merely reset the stage for continued struggle: the AK Party against the secular cosmopolitan elite; Erdogan against the Kurds; Islamic State against Turkey and the region; and Europe, the United States and even Russia standing by nervously, assessing the potential impact on their regional interests. Erdogan has the means, motive and opportunity to exploit this moment of authority, and his recent political behavior suggests he will.
**Peter Marino is an international politics analyst, specializing in Northeast Asian affairs and international political economy. He holds an MSc from the London School of Economics and currently produces and hosts the global politics web series Globalogues.

No one falls on his sword anymore: The ghosts of Iraq, again
Hisham Melhem/Al Arabiya/November 07/15
‘Finally, he [Brutus] spoke to Volumnius himself in Greek, reminding him of their student life, and begged him to grasp his sword with him and help him drive home the blow. And when Volumnius refused, and the rest likewise ... grasping with both hands the hilt of his naked sword, he fell upon it and died.’
Plutarch
The ghosts of Iraq are haunting us again. In fact these ghosts have been hovering over us ever since that fateful violent encounter on March 19, 2003 when the American invasion of Iraq began. Millions of Iraqis are still experiencing the painful and chaotic reverberations of that transformative day, and hundreds of thousands of Americans have been scarred by a war that refuses to end. In the span of few days some of the participants in that in that invasion forced us to reflect once again on the folly of a war that was supposed to end all the wars that Iraq went through ever since Saddam Hussein blundered into the invasion of Iran in September 1980.
These ghosts have been hovering over us ever since that fateful violent encounter on March 19, 2003 when the American invasion of Iraq began
Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair offered a pre-emptive and very qualified apology for ‘mistakes in planning’ the war, and former American President George Herbert Walker Bush lashed out at his son’s senior aides such as former Vice President Dick Cheney and former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, accusing the former of pushing for a ‘very hard line’ and of being too eager to ‘use force to get our way’ in the Middle East and the latter of being an ‘arrogant fellow’ and full of ‘swagger’. In the interim came the news of the passing of Ahmad Chalabi, the Iraqi opposition leader in exile, who exaggerated Iraq’s supposed arsenal of weapons of mass destruction and was close to many U.S. lawmakers and the darling of the neo-conservatives in Washington who wanted him to lead a liberated, pro-American Iraq.
Insincere and very late ‘apology’
Blair’s apology was a pre-emptive spin designed to address in part the so-called Chilcot inquiry (named after Sir John Chilcot) into the British role in the Iraq war, and particularly Blair’s actions before the expected damning findings are published. The apology was hedged with qualifications; ‘I apologize for the fact that the intelligence we received was wrong’ implying that the fault is that of U.S. Intelligence agencies only. But, according to U.S. officials then, Blair was a very enthusiastic warmonger. Blair also apologized for ‘our mistake in our understanding of what would happen once you removed Saddam Hussein’. But, the smarmy unreconstructed Blair said ‘I find it hard to apologize for removing Saddam’. Blair dismissed calls that he should stand trial as a war criminal, implying that the judgement of history on ‘my crime’ will not be very harsh.
But Blair came closer to the truth when he admitted that ‘there are elements of truth’ that the invasion of Iraq had been the ‘principal cause’ of the rise of the Islamic State (ISIS). Blair’s insincere apology was many years late, and instead of addressing a sincere apology to the people of Iraq, who bore the brunt of it, and to the British people in whose name he participated in the invasion, he made his pro-forma gesture in an interview with CNN. Blair’s apology is a way of avoiding moral and legal responsibility for the invasion, and certainly not an attempt at atonement. Blair is not the kind of a man who would fall on his sword.
The rage of the Patriarch
In the twilight of a long life, the Patriarch of the Bush family former President George H. W. Bush raised implicitly the uncomfortable question as to who is responsible for the invasion of Iraq. The first President Bush, after directing his rage against his son’s lieutenants, also threw some gentle jabs at his son because of his ‘hot rhetoric’ like his infamous ‘axes of evil’ speech, and he pointedly said that final responsibility for the faulty views of Cheney and Rumsfeld rests with Bush the second. But the Patriarch Bush, who stated these assessments in a new biography, did not fault his son for the invasion which is still rattling the Bush dynasty, particularly the presidential campaign of the third Bush who would be President, Jeb Bush who is still dogged by a war he cannot denounce nor embrace.
Me saying Mea Culpa?
People are reluctant to apologize and own their mistakes. Harder still is for people to be held morally and legally accountable. For leaders to apologize publicly, to seek atonement or resign from their positions because they failed the institutions they represent is infinitely more difficult in part because of the legal and political ramifications of their apologies.
For a leader saying mea culpa is very hard to do. No American President ever apologized for the war in Vietnam or for the invasions of Panama, Afghanistan and Iraq. Moreover, no president or senior official was held legally accountable for using force overseas and very few resigned over principles. Former U.S. secretary of defense Robert McNamara, who was the architect of escalating the war in Vietnam, spent the last years of his life beating his chest and apologizing repeatedly for his errors of judgement during the war. The once powerful man was haunted by his bloody blunders ‘We were wrong, terribly wrong. We owe it to future generations to explain why’. But, McNamara also opted not to fall on his sword when he had the chance.
There were two significant resignations in protest of the war in Vietnam during the presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson. Johnson’s first secretary of health, education and welfare, John Gardner resigned because of his moral opposition to the war; he even told Johnson that he could not support his re-election. The second official to resign was deputy secretary of defense Cyrus Vance, who initially supported the war, before he realized that it could not be won. But Vance is known more for his second resignation over a principle. Vance served as President Jimmy Carter’s first secretary of State. When the principled statesman who strongly believed in diplomacy realized that President Carter decided to accept the recommendation of his rival the National security advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski to use force to rescue the American diplomats held hostage in Iran in 1980, he quietly submitted his resignation. Several days after the rescue mission failed tragically the resignation was made public. Vance was the second secretary of state to resign his position over a principled opposition to force in the twentieth century after William Jennings Bryan who opposed America’s entry into the First World War in 1915.
Vance was the last senior American official to resign over a principled opposition to the use of military force. In the run up to the invasion of Iraq, it was believed that former deputy secretary of state Richard Armitage had suggested to his friend and boss former secretary of state Colin Powell that they should resign, given Powell’s initial skepticism about the claims of WMD in Iraq, but that Powell, after mulling the idea for few days decided against it. His argument was that if they had resigned, things could have degenerated further. Powell also chose not to fall on his sword when it became clear that his testimony at the United Nations about Iraq’s WMD program was bogus.
Apologies have become meaningless
In recent years a strange culture of qualified apologies appeared. American officials, public figures and chairmen of powerful corporations, when they give up their initial resistance to issue apologies for mistakes of judgements, turn and issue apologies that are laced with many qualifications that they lose their meanings. Most of them use the preferred form of neutral apology; ‘mistakes were made’. Rarely these apologies carry legal ramification. There is also the redemptive and cathartic aspect of apologies. When the financial or sexual transgressions of a prominent politician, a major CEO, or a head of a church are exposed, they perform an impressive amount of breast-beating asking for redemption and forgiveness, hoping to reach the next stage of ‘moving on’. Americans like public catharsis, and are willing to give the sinners a second chance. In most cases these public rituals of seeking redemption work.
In recent years some American presidents were forced to issue public apologies for their failings, and the return of these apologies were impressive. In 1961, President John F. Kennedy took responsibility for the ill-fated of the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba. He famously said ‘there is an old saying that victory has a hundred fathers and defeat is an orphan.’ He assured the American people that he will not conceal his responsibility ‘because I am the responsible officer of the government’. Kennedy’s popularity after his mea culpa in fact soared. After the Iran-Contra scandal rocked his administration, President Ronald Reagan took responsibility for his government’s illegal schemes. He said: ‘now, what should happen when you make a mistake is this: you take your knocks, you learn your lessons, and then move on. That’s the healthiest way to deal with a problem...’ Reagan fully succeeded in ‘moving on’ beyond the scandal. President Bill Clinton’s apology over his sexual tryst with the intern Monica Lewinsky allowed him to dampen the frenzy of those seeking his head, and like Kennedy and Reagan, his popularity remained high until the end of his tenure.
No one falls on his sword anymore
The George W. Bush administration which launched the two longest wars in American history is infamous for living in denial of the human and material wreckage it left behind in Afghanistan and Iraq. No official had the moral courage to fall on his or her sword and resign or to seriously apologize to those Iraqis and Americans who suffered mightily because of the war, and no one showed genuine remorse, for the deceptions and the horrors visited on many including those tortured in detention camps. The pro-forma apologies over the abomination of Abu Ghraib torture, do not count, because those who were held legally accountable were not high on the totem pole. Almost every senior official, from President Bush on down published his or her memoirs, made money, and toured the country peddling their accounts of what happened in Afghanistan and Iraq; they claimed the high moral ground, while passing the buck implicitly or explicitly to other officials. It is still murky as to the decision making process that led Paul Bremer, America’s civilian ‘Viceroy’ in charge of Iraq after the fall of the Baathist regime to issue his infamous and destructive Provisional Authority Order Number 1 to ban the Baath party, and the more self-defeating Order Number 2 which disbanded the Iraqi army.
In his memoir as well as in interviews and speeches Bush would acknowledge that he continues to have that ‘sickening feeling’ about the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, but that does not negate the fact that toppling the Iraqi regime was the right thing the former President would insists. President Bush would only admit that Abu Ghraib was a mistake in addition to other minor ones like his strong rhetoric and braggadocio in phrases like ’bring them on’ or ‘dead or alive’. In his biography of his father, which was published last year, President Bush wrote: ’ one thing is certain: the Iraqi people, the United States and the world are better off without Saddam Hussein in power’. Bush added ‘I believe the decision that Dad made in 1991 was correct - -and I believe the same is true of the decision I made a dozen years later.’
Saddam Hussein was a war criminal; he victimized and brutalized his own people before he terrorized the Iranians and Kuwaitis. But Iraq today is a broken country as a result of the invasion and the early decisions of the Bush administration, as well as the depredations of Iraq’s sectarian and corrupt rulers.
Twelve years after the invasion and the horrendous number of Iraqi and American casualties, Baghdad is firmly in the grip of Iran, while large swath of Iraqi ( and Syrian) territories are under the barbaric rule of ISIS, which emerged from the ashes of the invasion. And yet the man who ordered the invasion still insists that Iraq, the U.S. and the world are better off because of his historic blunder. No one falls on his sword anymore.

Reviving interfaith and intercultural dialogue
Samar Fatany/Al Arabiya/November 07/15
The Saudi Council of Ministers recently directed its National Committee to follow up on King Abdullah’s initiatives for dialogue among followers of various religions and cultures. It is heartening to finally hear about a positive contribution to this cause. The King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz International Center of Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue which was established in Vienna in 2010 needs more support to carry out its ambitious mission. The interfaith initiative needs to be renewed and given more serious political, financial, academic and media support to dispel misconceptions about the Muslim faith and to end the cycle of suspicion based on distorted information which attempts to demonize Muslims and to create a divide between Islam and the West. The management of interfaith dialogue is not an easy task. It needs international experts to efficiently engage faith-based organizations, social activists, prominent religious leaders and advocates of peace who can actively address universal challenges and concerns with a more scientific, civil and humane approach. It is important to establish cooperation with global organizations that acknowledge Muslim contributions and exhibit genuine goodwill toward Islam and Muslims. International Muslim organizations do not have enough backing to carry out their mission effectively. As a result, many religious scholars and specialists in the field have lost their enthusiasm to contribute. Extremism is still prevalent in many parts of the Muslim world. It is important to promote moderate and reputable Muslim scholars to influence change and to expose those who instigate wars in the name of religion. Moderate scholars should be more vocal and should be given international exposure and support. Religious leaders in the Muslim world need to effectively integrate the perspectives of traditional Islam with the realities of the 21st century. Human rights values should be integrated into our Islamic teachings. The debate among Muslim scholars and the lack of a consensus on Islamic teachings continue to undermine the image of all Muslims and to reflect badly abroad on Islamic culture and heritage.
We need to provide more opportunities for Arab and Muslim scientists and professionals to cooperate in global scientific and humanitarian projects and events. Muslim contributions in global initiatives can project the true image of Muslims who are peaceful and caring.
Religious leaders in the Muslim world need to effectively integrate the perspectives of traditional Islam with the realities of the 21st century
A coalition of academic institutions can also play an important role. Muslim and international educators, writers and book publishers if given enough support can be effective in confronting the teachings of hatred and the contempt and damaging stereotypes that are found in various religious school classrooms in many parts of the world today. Interactive workshops involving religious school educators and administrators can stimulate inter-religious thinking and promote moderate teaching models and literature. What we also lack is a strong media campaign to counter the vicious attack on Islamic values and heritage. Media analysts urge the need to train Muslim journalists and seek expert advice from media professionals in the West who advocate peace. We need to establish strong cooperation with international Islamic organizations, like the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) or the U.S. Council of Muslim Organizations that provide the mechanisms to enable the American Muslim community to overcome their challenges. They offer advice and direction and institutionalize policies to protect the interests of Muslim communities. They support their mission by monitoring publications, films, cartoons and other damaging stereotypes that propagate hatred and contempt against Islam in Europe and the U.S. We need to learn from their experience and build our own media professionals and organizations to provide direction for our youth and expose the evil designs of our enemies who continue to threaten our security and social stability. Cultural exchange can play a very important role in building bridges of understanding. Engaging Muslim women in interfaith and intercultural dialogue can also greatly contribute to erasing negative stereotypes about women in Islam. A revival of King Abdullah’s noble initiative of interfaith dialogue needs a well-structured strategy on a global scale to confront the rise of Islamophobia and expose the extremist elements with vested interests who attempt to defame Islam and Muslims.

Rampant sexual harassment on Egypt’s public transport
Yara al-Wazir/Al Arabiya/November 07/15
According to the United Nations, 99.3percent of women in Egypt have experienced some form of sexual harassment, with 81 percent reporting frequent harassment while using public transport. To tackle this, Cairo’s metro service now features billboards of cartoons that advocate against sexual harassment.
They feature a woman in various scenarios: on the street, the metro or a bus. The emotional toll of harassment on the woman is depicted through thought bubbles as men verbally abuse her. The cartoons remind commuters of the important roles that women play in Egyptian society, for example as doctors, engineers and teachers. They also remind commuters that sexual harassment affects everyone. Yet the cartoons merely touch on the impact of the harassment, and focus more on the impact on the harasser than on the victim. In a block of images, the cartoons tell the story of how a newlywed wife is “on edge” with her husband, how a teacher now educates with a “cane” after she once taught with conviction, and how a female engineer was so upset because of the harassment that she faced, that the drawings of a bridge she designed had a mistake that jeopardise the integrity of the structure of the bridge. The impact of sexual harassment goes far beyond anxiety, as depicted by the cartoons. Victims live in a constant state of fear. It can lead to depression, insomnia, eating disorders, elevated blood pressure and even suicidal thoughts, according to Shepherd University.
The prevalent mentality that blames the victim for her looks, behavior or clothing must be addressed. In one cartoon, a woman tries on several outfits, but imagines what negative comments male commuters will make for wearing each one. Yet no link has been found between sexual harassment and clothing in Egypt, as 72 percent of veiled women reported harassment, according a study by the U.N. Population Fund.
Blaming the victim
Sexual harassment was outlawed in Egypt last year, yet women continue to suffer. One of the main factors that contribute to its continuation is the shaming and blaming of women. The audacity of TV presenter Reham Saeed to publically shame a woman for alleged ‘indecency’ after she was slapped in a Cairo mall is a prime example of how society reacts to a woman being harassed. Saeed scrutinized the way the victim was dressed during the incident, and in private pictures obtained from her mobile phone. Regardless of the backlash against the TV show, the producers would not have agreed to broadcast Saeed’s statements if they did not believe the public agreed with what she said. Research shows that 98 percent of attacks occur when a woman wears conservative clothing, compared with 2.1 percent of attacks that occur when a woman wears revealing clothing and full-face makeup. There is no correlation between what a woman wears and the probability of her being harassed. The absence of a safe environment and support system is the biggest hurdle to tackling sexual harassment in Egypt. The prevalent mentality that blames the victim for her looks, behavior or clothing must be addressed. Women must be able to commute to work in safety. They must know their rights and understand that sexual harassment is illegal - 23 percent of victims are not aware of this. Female-only commuter carriages on the metro, introduced in Egypt in 2007, are the equivalent of a plaster on a gushing wound. The government must work diligently to prosecute attackers.

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