New Page 5

News Bulletin Achieves Since 2006
Click Here to go to the LCCC Daily English/Arabic News Buletins Archieves Since 2006

Bible Quotation For Today/ I am the gate for the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and bandits; but the sheep did not listen to them
John 10/07-10: "Again Jesus said to them, ‘Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and bandits; but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly."

Bible Quotation For Today/In speaking of ‘a new covenant’, he has made the first one obsolete. And what is obsolete and growing old will soon disappear.
Letter to the Hebrews 08/07-13: "If that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no need to look for a second one. God finds fault with them when he says: ‘The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah; not like the covenant that I made with their ancestors, on the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; for they did not continue in my covenant, and so I had no concern for them, says the Lord. This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my laws in their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall not teach one another or say to each other, "Know the Lord", for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. For I will be merciful towards their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.’In speaking of ‘a new covenant’, he has made the first one obsolete. And what is obsolete and growing old will soon disappear."

Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on November 09-10/15
Protecting the Profane/Ahmad El-Assaad/LOP General Chancellor/November 09/15
Anonymous Lebanon’ promises more to come after Bassil leaks/Alex Rowell/Now Lebanon/November 09/15
Prisons: Microcosms of Islamic Supremacy and Western Idiocy/Raymond Ibrahim/FrontPage Magazine/November 09/15
Netanyahu tells Obama: Israel hasn't given up on two-state solution/Yitzhak Benhorin/Ynetnews/November 09/15
Iran's Mirage: More Humiliation to Follow/Lawrence A. Franklin/Gatestone Institute/November 09/15
Iran: Poets Face 99 Lashes and Prison/Amir Taheri/Gatestone Institute/November 09/15
Is Erdogan waging a war of choice against the PKK/Erdogan’s ‘Machiavellian cunning’/Al-Monitor/November 09/15
Egypt can’t blame everyone else/H.A. Hellyer/Al Arabiya/November 09/15
Jordan’s ‘natural disasters’ are partly man-made/Raed Omari/Al Arabiya/November 09/15
Resolving the Russian plane crisis/Abdulrahman al-Rashed/Al Arabiya/November 09/15

Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin for Lebanese Related News published on November 09-10/15
Geagea: Financial Laws Will Be Adopted, We Refuse to Be Used as Scapegoats over Legislative Session.
Berri on Holding Legislative Session without LF, FPM: I am Choosing Lesser of Two Evils.
Al-Rahi: Parliament Should Take Technical Action for Financial Laws in Absence of Normal Legislation.
Lebanese Officer among Wounded in Jordan Shooting.
Report: March 14 Alliance Meets to Resolve Disputes over Legislative Session.
Sami Gemayel: Kataeb Still Committed to its Decision on Boycotting Legislative Session.
Many Injured in Minieh Families Clash, 2 Hurt in Tripoli Shooting
Protecting the Profane
Anonymous Lebanon’ promises more to come after Bassil leaks

Geagea: Financial Laws Will Be Adopted, We Refuse to Be Used as Scapegoats over Legislative Session
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/November 09/15/Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea rejected on Monday the criticism directed against the party regarding its position on the upcoming legislative session, wondering how financial draft-laws are priority over the parliamentary electoral draft-law. He said during a press conference: “The financial draft-laws will be approved in due time.” He added that a deadline for adopting these laws is in December and “they will be approved.”There have been growing concerns in recent weeks that Lebanon will lose international grants and loans over its ongoing failure to ratify laws linked to them. Addressing these fears, Geagea remarked: “Some of these laws have been postponed since 2012 and the world did not end then.” Some of these laws had also been devised since 2001 and they were aborted by the same sides that are demanding their ratification today, he noted.
“We refuse to be used as scapegoats over the legislative session,” he said in anticipation of accusations that the LF will be held responsible for the failure of the meeting. Furthermore, he defended the LF and Free Patriotic Movement's demands for the adoption of the draft-law on restoring the nationality of expatriates. He asked: “How is it that we value the funds provided by these expatriates and yet we deny them the right to obtain their Lebanese nationality?”The purpose of the draft-law on restoring the nationality of expatriates is aimed at establishing an authority that would allow them to do so given the presidential vacuum and paralysis at state institutions, explained Geagea. On the electoral draft-law, he stressed that the parliamentary elections are due in just over a year. “When would it be appropriate to address the draft-law if not now?” he wondered. He stressed that the LF, Mustaqbal Movement, and Progressive Socialist Party leader had reached an agreement over an electoral law, but it was met with rejection. “We demand the adoption of a new law to save the Taef accord,” he declared. Political parties' failure to approve an electoral law despite months of debate in 2013 resulted in lawmakers extending their own term. A similar dispute, coupled with other differences, resulted in parliament extending its term again in November 2014. The next parliamentary elections are set for 2017. Commenting on the attendance of independent Christian lawmakers of the legislative session, Geagea said: “These MPs are not representatives of the absentee parties.” Speaker Nabih Berri had told As Safir newspaper on Monday that the attendance of Christian lawmakers not affiliated with the LF, FPM, and Kataeb would render the meeting legitimate. The lack of any Christian MPs however would result in lack of quorum at the session, he explained. The legislative session is scheduled for November 12 and 13 amid the boycott of the Kataeb Party over the ongoing presidential vacuum. The LF and FPM are likely to boycott the meeting over the failure to include the parliamentary electoral law on its agenda.

Berri on Holding Legislative Session without LF, FPM: I am Choosing Lesser of Two Evils
Naharnet/November 09/15/Speaker Nabih Berri stressed the legality of the upcoming legislative session, despite the possibility that the Christian parties of the Lebanese Forces and Free Patriotic Movement may boycott it, reported As Safir newspaper on Monday. He told the daily: “Given the choice between eating a dish that would make me sick and another that would kill me, I would choose the former.” He explained that the absence of the LF and FPM from the session would not result in it not being held, because other Christian MPs are attending it. If no Christians are present at the session, then it will not be legal, added the speaker. The LF and FPM have not yet made up their mind about the boycott, while the Kataeb Party has repeatedly said that it would not attend the meeting in light of the ongoing presidential vacuum. The legislative session is scheduled for November 12 and 13. In addition, Berri criticized demands that the parliamentary electoral law should be included on the session's agenda, describing them as a “joke.”“How can 17 draft electoral laws be included on the agenda? The session would be adjourned before it is even held,” he continued. He voiced his rejection of such “deception.”
“How can we deal so lightly with such a vital law?” he wondered. The LF and FPM have voiced their rejection to attending a legislative session that does not include the parliamentary electoral law. Political parties had failed to approve an electoral law despite months of debate in 2013, resulting in lawmakers extending their term. A similar dispute, coupled with other differences, resulted in parliament extending its term again in November 2014.

Al-Rahi: Parliament Should Take Technical Action for Financial Laws in Absence of Normal Legislation
Naharnet/November 09/15/Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi stressed on Monday that it is necessary to call for the election of a head of state, urging the parliament to take "technical action" with regard to the financial laws. “As Christians, it is our duty to call for the election of a president and for the restoration of the functions of the parliament, the cabinet and public institutions” said al-Rahi during the opening of 49th cycle of the Council of Catholic Patriarchs and Bishops in Bkirki. “We ask the parliament to take the necessary technical action with regard to the financial laws in light of the inability for normal legislation” he added. A legislative session is set to convene on the 12th and 13th of November to ratify urgent laws under the title the legislation of necessity, and to ratify financial laws. The World Bank has warned Lebanon that it would drop it from its list of aid receivers for years to come in the absence of the necessary financial legislation. “It is a pity how personal interests are surmounting the interest of the state,” lamented al-Rahi in reference to the disputes among politicians, the latest on what items to include on the agenda of the session. “We are sorry for the manner that some politicians are using to address the national interests,” he concluded. The Kataeb Party said they will boycott the legislative seseion over the failure to elect a new president. The Lebanese Forces and Free Patriotic Movement are also considering a boycott over the failure to include the parliamentary electoral law on the session's agenda. The two sides had recently signed an agreement on the draft-law on restoring the nationality of expatriates.

Lebanese Officer among Wounded in Jordan Shooting
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/November 09/15/A Lebanese officer was among those who were wounded Monday when a Jordanian policeman opened fire at a police academy in al-Muwaqqar, Lebanon's state-run National News Agency reported. It identified the officer as 23-year-old Internal Security Forces lieutenant George Hazzouri, saying he sustained "very light injuries." Earlier in the day, Jordanian government spokesman Mohammed Momani confirmed that a “Lebanese citizen” was among the wounded. Two U.S. instructors, a South African and a Jordanian were killed in the incident, Jordanian officials and the U.S. embassy in Amman said. The shooter, identified as police captain Anwar Abu Zeid, also wounded two American instructors and four Jordanians in the attack at the Jordanian International Police Training Center. Momani said that the assailant was gunned down by colleagues at the center in al-Muwaqqar, 30 kilometers east of Amman. An investigation is underway to determine the motive for the shooting, he added. The three foreign instructors killed were on contract with Jordanian police, Momani said. "He has no ties with any terrorist organization like Daesh," a source close to the family told AFP, using an Arabic acronym for the jihadist Islamic State group. "The family is in shock and security forces are questioning them about the incident," said the source, who declined to be named. The English-language Jordan Times quoted a relative of the assailant as saying he was a 28-year-old father of two from the northern village of Rimun. He was known in his hometown as "a very kind person, who is religious but moderate," the relative who declined to be named told the paper.

Report: March 14 Alliance Meets to Resolve Disputes over Legislative Session
Naharnet/November 09/15/Independent figures of the March 14 alliance and representatives of its parties held a meeting over the weekend to address the upcoming legislative session and overcome various disputes linked to it, reported the daily al-Mustaqbal on Monday. Sources from the camp told the daily that the meeting “witnessed honest and serious discussions, as well as attempts to reach a consensual solution to pending disputes ahead of the legislative session.” The session is scheduled for November 12 and 13. Attention was also given to the financial draft-laws that would be addressed at the meeting. Sources told al-Joumhouria newspaper that Lebanon no longer has any room to maneuver regarding meeting its international economic obligations and its commitment to its people's daily needs. The Mustaqbal Movement of the March 14 alliance is meanwhile expected to attend the legislative session out of its keenness on preserving Lebanon's economy, said the daily. It will make its position clear after its weekly meeting on Tuesday.

Sami Gemayel: Kataeb Still Committed to its Decision on Boycotting Legislative Session
Naharnet/November 09/15/Former head of the Kataeb Party Amin Gemayel reiterated the party's decision to boycott the upcoming legislative session, saying that it will remain committed to the constitution, reported al-Joumhouria newspaper on Monday. He told the daily: “If the same efforts being exerted to hold the legislative session had been made to elect a new president, we would not have become embroiled in such an endless political debate.” The Kataeb party is still committed to its position on the legislative session, he stressed. “The election of a president is key to resolving all crises and ending the useless debate that violates all constitutional norms,” he remarked. In addition, he warned that the ongoing efforts to hold a legislative session “pave the way to creating bizarre norms that contradict the constitution and lead us towards chaos.”“No one can predict the dangers of such a precedent,” Gemayel continued. “We have heard numerous strange explanations of the constitution, which can only be deemed as novelties,” he stated. “The most prominent of such novelties is the so-called legislation of necessity,” he noted. “Given the paralysis of state institutions and the presidential vacuum, who has the right to deem what is necessary and what isn't?” he wondered to the daily. “One of a president's most important roles is studying laws and determining how much they adhere to the constitution,” Gemayel added. At a press conference he held Monday afternoon, Kataeb chief MP Sami Gemayel echoed the same stances.
"There is an economic threat and legislation is necessary but the solution is to press the 40 MPs who are boycotting sessions to head to parliament to elect a president," he said. The lawmaker noted that "the responsibility falls on those who are impeding the work of institutions, not on those who are seeking to implement the Constitution and who are attending sessions aimed at electing a new president." "The roadmap is clear -- the election of a president, the formation of a new government, devising an electoral law and holding parliamentary elections," he underlined. The Kataeb Party had on numerous occasions voiced its rejection to attending a legislative session in the absence of a head of state. Speaker Nabih Berri had scheduled a legislative session for November 12 and 13. The Lebanese Forces and Free Patriotic Movement are also considering a boycott given that the session's agenda does not include the parliamentary electoral law.Efforts are ongoing to persuade them to attend the meeting, amid fears that their boycott would cause the session to lose its needed quorum.Lebanon has been without a president since May 2014 when the term of Michel Suleiman ended without the election of a successor.

Many Injured in Minieh Families Clash, 2 Hurt in Tripoli Shooting
Naharnet/November 09/15/Several people were wounded Sunday in two separate incidents in the North district, according to the National News Agency. In the Minieh town of Deir Amar, a dispute between the Eid and al-Dheibi families erupted into a fight with fists, sticks and firearms, which resulted in the injury of several people. The army intervened to contain the situation as “intensive contacts started between the town's dignitaries and the two families in a bid to calm the tensions,” NNA said. Two people were meanwhile wounded in a drive-by shooting in Tripoli's al-Qobbeh neighborhood, the agency reported. It said an unknown assailant riding a motorbike opened fire at Khaled Othman and Ahmed al-Dib, leaving them wounded. The attacker fled the scene as the victims were rushed to the state-run hospital for treatment, NNA added.

Protecting the Profane
Ahmad El-Assaad/LOP General Chancellor
November 09, 2015/It is by no coincidence that many of the crimes committed around the country, the last of which in Maameltein, are linked to individuals who belong to the illegal weapons’ environment. And it is not strange that the hotbeds of burglary, drugs, prostitution, gangs, and all sorts of crime, are geographically located within the turf of the Shiite Forces of the Status Quo. It is really painful that entire Shiite regions are stigmatized with a criminal reputation, all because of gangs that benefit from weapons outside of the government’s power, claiming to fight there, beyond the border, in protection of holy sites – while it harbors profanities here, without borders. One thing is for sure: these islands of crime would have never existed if not under the wing of the Statelet, and had the gang leaders and members not been reassured that no one will ever touch them as long as they’re under the cloak, or the turban, of this or that party leader. As for the State, it will remain incapable, and its military and law enforcement agencies will suffer many losses in vain, unfortunately, as long as they deal with these islands exactly as they are dealing with the garbage crisis: they’ll wait for the permission of a party, or the approval of a movement, or the so-called “lift of the cover” before they take action and target crime at the source. That’s if they’ll do anything – which they’re not. Two martyrs today; many before them have fallen, and many after them will, as long as the State is waging sporadic attacks against politically-protected crime, without a comprehensive plan of action, and as long as the main reason for the spread and success of this crime is the presence of weapons outside the government’s frame.Yes, crime would still roam free as long as the State’s security plan looks like… the garbage crisis plan.

Anonymous Lebanon’ promises more to come after Bassil leaks
Alex Rowell/Now Lebanon/November 09/15
Until last week, few in Lebanon had heard of the group calling itself Anonymous Lebanon, the self-designated local chapter of the global Anonymous movement that made its name hacking high-profile targets ranging from the US and Israeli governments to the Church of Scientology to the Stratfor intelligence firm to the personal emails of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Launched in late August at the height of the #YouStink protest movement, Anonymous Lebanon had done little of note beyond temporarily disabling certain ministry websites, and neither the media nor the authorities paid them particular attention.
That changed last Monday, when a major Lebanese TV network broadcast documents leaked to their staff by Anonymous Lebanon revealing that Gebran Bassil, Lebanon’s foreign minister and president of the Free Patriotic Movement, had acquired 38 properties, collectively worth an estimated $22 million, since the return from exile in 2005 of his father-in-law and political patron, MP Michel Aoun. In a subsequent press conference, Bassil did not dispute the authenticity of the documents, claiming the properties were inherited from his father and grandfather — a claim the producers of the TV show reject.
The ensuing scandal has prompted speculation — confirmed by Anonymous Lebanon in correspondence with NOW — that other politicians may soon face similar revelations about their financial holdings. In a tweet Monday afternoon, the presenter of the same TV show hinted Telecoms Minister Boutros Harb may be the next target of scrutiny.
How did Anonymous get the documents?
Among the mysteries of the matter is how Anonymous Lebanon acquired the documents, on which the name of the Finance Ministry’s General Directorate of Real Estate Affairs (GDREA) is visibly printed in the video report. In a written exchange with NOW, an Anonymous Lebanon spokesperson declined to explain how they did it, saying, “If we disclose our methods we might not be able to leak any further documents, as it is really hard to do so in a government that does not store any information on the internet.”
Nor did George Maarawi, general director of the GDREA, know how the data escaped his department.
“We do not have answers for the moment,” Maarawi told NOW. “We are still investigating within the directorate how these leaks happened.”
The possibilities, said Maarawi, included a whistleblower-style leak from within, or a hack of the network, or a leak or hack of other departments, such as the directorates of revenues and VAT, which have access to the same data. Irrespective of the results of the internal investigations, Maarawi added, the directorate has “started from this day to take steps to combat such leaks.”
According to Dr. Haidar Harmanani, Lebanese American University professor of computer science, the more likely of the possible scenarios is a leak “by an employee or someone who has physical access to the database files.” If it were, on the other hand, a hack, Harmanani told NOW the hypothetical methods used could include a cracked, leaked or “sniffed” password for the ministry database, or malware planted in the network “by entering the building or through someone inside,” which would then “search/capture the network and steal the password.”
Both possible explanations — a paper leak or a digital hack — prompt further questions. If the ministry’s system was hacked, the hackers would have had access to the real estate holdings of dozens of politicians. Why release Bassil’s only? They wouldn’t, according to their spokesperson, who told NOW they “did not target Gebran Bassil in particular” and would “disclose anything we get [on other politicians] as soon as we get it.”But if, then, the documents were simply extracted physically from the ministry building, this would require no computing expertise at all, and would thus be out of step with the usual modus operandi of ‘hacktivists’ such as Anonymous. Why would those in possession of the documents not just leak them directly to the media? Perhaps future leaks, if they are indeed forthcoming, will provide answers.
Who are Anonymous Lebanon?
As their name suggests, they would prefer nobody to know. When contacted by NOW, they agreed to talk only on the condition that “we will not answer any question related to the personal life of any Anonymous member.” Speaking in English last month live on air — using a voice distorter — to the same TV network that broadcast their leaks, a member of the group painted a picture of a motley of activists, saying, “We are students, we are employees, we are young, we are old.” Beyond this, they have given away few clues to their identity, except that they tweet in a mix of English and Lebanese Arabic, and have implied at least once that they were physically present during some of the recent anti-government demonstrations in Beirut.
They did, however, elaborate to NOW on their links with the global Anonymous movement, saying “we are part of the international group, of course.” Asked what this meant in practical terms, the spokesperson said “we […] coordinate our activities with them […] but at the same time we have full control over our own operations. We receive no training, but if we call for help or backup, fellow Anons will help us.”
What do they want?
Their description on Twitter states their “main objective is the disposal of The Corrupted Government [sic].” In a video message released last month, the group also specifically demanded an end to violence by Lebanese security forces against peaceful demonstrators, and a solution to the trash crisis “taking in consideration the plans offered by the protestors themselves.”
To these ends, they vow to continue their campaign against any and all government entities and representatives upon whom they can get their hands.
“We are targeting every political member,” they told NOW. “Gebran Bassil was the first, but he wasn’t the only one.”
Alex Rowell tweets @disgraceofgod
Amin Nasr contributed reporting.

Prisons: Microcosms of Islamic Supremacy and Western Idiocy
Raymond Ibrahim/November 09/15/FrontPage Magazine
Islam’s Rule of Numbers holds that, wherever and whenever Muslims grow in numbers, the same acts of “anti-infidel” violence that are endemic to the Islamic world grow with them. This has become especially evident in one Western institution that has a disproportionately large number of Muslims: prisons. Several anecdotes just surfaced last month alone. Whitemoor prison in Cambridgeshire recently became the first Muslim-majority prison in Britain. Between the ages of 22 and 39, Muslims now represent 56 per cent of the population there. “Prisoners and staff found the Muslim presence overwhelming” says a recent report. Non-Muslims “were often bullied into converting to Islam, and those who resisted were too scared to cook pork in communal kitchens in case it caused offence.”As for those non-Muslim inmates who refuse to convert, they are being pressured to pay a “protection tax”—or in Islamic parlance, jizya—to Muslim gangs. Along with Whitemoor prison, the collection of jizya is taking place in at least three other of Britain’s largest prisons. According to a new investigation, “religious extremists in prison are using bullying tactics and violent threats to force prisoners to convert or pay money. Tobacco and other luxury commodities smuggled inside prisons are often used by non-Muslims to pay the tax, while some victims said they had to ask friends and family for money…. Faced with the option of paying up or suffering at the hands of the radicals, some prisoners have been pressured into converting to Islam to ease their time in prison.” A Whitehall source said that “the tax may have been inspired by the actions of ISIS, who are well known to demand jizya from non-Muslims living in Syria and Iraq.”
In fact, it is the Koran, Islam’s holy book, that calls for the collection of jizya from subdued Christians and Jews: Fight those among the People of the Book [Christians and Jews] who do not believe in Allah nor the Last Day, who do not forbid what Allah and His Messenger have forbidden, and who do not embrace the religion of truth [Islam], until they pay the jizya with willing submissiveness and feel themselves utterly subdued” (Koran 9:29). In other words, Muslim prisoners are not copying ISIS; rather, both they and ISIS are obeying the Koran. Meanwhile, down under, in Australia’s highest security prison, “an extremist ISIS gang … has threatened tobehead correctional officers and inmates unless they convert to radical Islam.” At least 30 Muslim gang members residing in Goulburn jail “have engaged in warfare against ‘infidel’ that oppose their religious ideologies.” “They were going to take a hostage — one of the six Christians in the yard — and behead them,” reported a prison guard. Bullying and threatening non-Muslims into converting to Islam or else demanding money (jizya) from them if they refuse is a regular occurrence around the Muslim world, wherever “infidel” minorities live side by side with Muslim majorities. As Muslims make for disproportionately large numbers in Western prisons—another fact that speaks for itself—it should come as no surprise that coercion, threats, and extortion in the name of Islam are also becoming a regular occurrence. Ironically, one may have supposed that, if anywhere, it would be in prisons that the Muslim sense of supremacism would be broken. Far from it; Western prison policies—whether banning pork for all inmates to appease Muslims (in an Ohio prison), allowing prayer mats where knives are concealed and used, spending thousands of tax payer dollars to rebuild toilets to face away from Mecca, apologizing for serving non-halal food to Muslim criminals, or possibly accommodating the Salafi beard against prison policies—all serve to confirm Muslims in their sense of supremacy. This is to say nothing about the fact that lax and politically correct policies have made prisons prime recruiting grounds for the jihad. One U.S. prison was referred to as a “terrorist university” for the Islamic State and one U.K prison allowed the distribution of a jihadi book calling on the slaughter of non-Muslim “infidels.” Thus prisons have become microcosms of Islamic behavior vis-à-vis “infidels”—replete with a sense of violent Islamic supremacism on the one hand and craven political correctness on the other.

Shortly before the Obama-Netanyahu summit, ISIS hit Americans in Jordan
DEBKAfile Special Report November 9, 2015
After the Islamic State succeeded in downing a Russian airliner that took off from Sharm El-Sheikh on October 31, causing the deaths of all 224 passengers and crew, the terrorist organization Monday, Nov. 9, put a US military target in its crosshairs. A captain in the Jordanian police opened fire in the cafeteria of the Special Operations Training Center outside the Jordanian capital, Amman, where American instructors train Iraqi troops to fight ISIS. Two trainers from the US and one from South Africa were initially reported killed and another six wounded, including two more Americans and four Jordanians. A Jordanian government spokesman said later Monday that the number of fatalities had risen to eight, without specifying how many foreigners. The gunman did not survive. He was variously reported to have committe suicide after the assault or killed by Jordanian troops. The modus operandi resembled the “green on blue” insider attacks committed in Afghanistan by al Qaeda and Taliban “insiders” against American and British troops serving at the same base. Jordan’s Al-Rai newspaper identified the shooter as Anwar Abu Ubayd, but other news outlets said his name was Anwar Abu Zaid. If the downing of the Russian plane rocked the regime of Egyptian President Fattah El-Sisi, there is no doubt that Monday’s attack will shake King Abdullah’s Hashemite throne. The attack, furthermore, demonstrated that ISIS is rapidly approaching Israel’s borders with Syria in the north, Egypt in the south and Jordan in the east. The assault gained particular attention as it was carried out just hours before the summit Monday between Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and US President Barack Obama at the White House in Washington. They met for the first time after more than a year and after a major row over the Iranian nuclear accord. Both leaders made statements strongly indicating that they had determinedly buried the hatchet and were looking to the future of strong and amicable ties and expanded US support for Israel’s security. A large part of their two-hour conversation was undoubtedly devoted to the threat posed by ISIS, on which they concur. Until now, Jordan had been home to the most important and secure US forward base for the war on ISIS in Iraq and Syria. US air strikes come from bases in Turkey, but more than 10,000 ground troops and special operations forces troops are present in Jordan. The kingdom serves as a training, operations and logistical center for US missions in Iraq and Syria, and for that purpose a command center, the US Central Command Forward-Jordan, was established outside Amman. Until now, ISIS had not managed to infiltrate Jorda for attacks capable of destabilizing Abdullah’s rule. Numerous infiltration and terrorist attacks were thwarted by Jordanian intelligence and security. The Jordanian authorities focused primarily on keeping the jihads out of the refugee camps housing Syrians and Iraqis in flight from war zones, but this came at the expense of efforts to block the threat from reaching inside the Hashemite kingdom and its security facilities. Their first success will no doubt embolden ISIS to keep on pressing its advantage. Immediately following Monday’s shooting, Jordan’s military went into high alert nationwide and along its borders. The US, Russia, Egypt, Jordan and Israel are all boosting their vigilance as the threat from ISIS continues to grow. But no one can reliably predict where the Islamist terrorists strike next.

Jordan Policeman Kills 2 U.S. Instructors, South African
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/November 09/15/A Jordanian policeman shot dead two U.S. instructors, a South African and a fellow Jordanian at a police academy Monday before being gunned down, officials and the U.S. embassy said. Government spokesman Mohammed Momani said the shooter also wounded two American instructors, four Jordanians and a Lebanese citizen in the attack at the Jordanian International Police Training Center (JIPTC). Momani, who is also information minister, said in statements carried by state news agency Petra that the assailant was gunned down by colleagues at the center in al-Muwaqqar, 30 kilometers (20 miles) east of Amman. An investigation is underway to determine the motive for the shooting, he added. The three foreign instructors killed were on contract with Jordanian police, Momani said. Sources close to the family identified the shooter as police captain Anwar Abu Zeid. "He has no ties with any terrorist organization like Daesh," one source told AFP, using an Arabic acronym for the jihadist Islamic State group. "The family is in shock and security forces are questioning them about the incident," said the source, who declined to be named. The English-language Jordan Times quoted a relative of the assailant as saying he was a 28-year-old father of two from the northern village of Rimun. He was known in his hometown as "a very kind person, who is religious but moderate," the relative who declined to be named told the paper. The U.S. embassy condemned the attack, confirming the casualty toll and the nationality of the victims. "Our heartfelt condolences go out to the families of all of the victims," a statement said. "The investigation is on-going and it is premature to speculate on motive at this point," it added.
Anniversary of hotel bombings
The embassy also posted on its website a message for U.S. citizens reporting a "security incident" at the JIPTC and urging individuals "to please avoid that area for the time being.""Please monitor the news for further developments and maintain security awareness," the message said. The attack coincides with the 10th anniversary of suicide bombings in Amman hotels that cost 60 lives and wounded dozens more. On Monday, King Abdullah II and his wife Queen Rania attended a memorial for the victims of the November 9, 2005 attacks. "I know that this is a difficult day for you," the king told families of the victims, and deplored the "tragedies caused by terrorism" around the world. The king later visited the wounded from Monday's attack who were being treated at a military hospital, Petra said. The 2005 bombings, which were claimed by al-Qaida, had shocked one of the Middle East's most stable countries and a key U.S. ally. Earlier this year Jordan executed an Iraqi woman whose husband was one of the bombers. Sajida al-Rishawi was arrested after the attacks and confessed that she was also wearing an explosives belt but had been unable to activate it. She was tried and sentenced to death. She was executed on February 4 along with another Iraqi jihadist who had been on death row in revenge for the killing by IS of fighter pilot Maaz al-Kassasbeh. IS captured the fighter last December and later burned him alive in a cage. The pilot's murder sparked international outrage and was described by a senior Jordanian official as a "turning point" in the kingdom's fight against IS. Jordan is part of a U.S.-led coalition battling IS, which has seized swathes of territory in its neighbors Syria and Iraq. The tiny desert kingdom has trained tens of thousands of Iraqi, Palestinian and Afghani police officers and announced earlier this year plans to train former Libyan rebels at the police academy. The center was set up initially after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq to train Iraqis for their country's post-war police force.

Israel Says 'Strong Probability' Egypt Crash was Result of Attack
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/November 09/15/Israel said Monday there was a "strong probability" a Russian Metrojet airliner crash in Egypt's Sinai last month that killed all 224 on board was the result of an attack. Israel has strong intelligence links to the neighboring Sinai, where the Airbus came down on October 31 while en route from Sharm el-Sheikh to Saint Petersburg. Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon spoke about the crash to local journalists and his spokesman confirmed the comments to AFP. "There is a strong probability that this is an attack," Yaalon said. "From what we know and what we understand, I would be surprised if it turns out that it was not an attack." The Islamic State group's branch in the Sinai claimed responsibility after the crash and said it downed the plane in retaliation for Russian air strikes in Syria, but it has not said how. Britain and the United States, as well as international investigators, suspect a bomb exploded on board, but Egyptian officials insist there is no evidence yet of an attack on the plane. If IS 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. The IS affiliate in Egypt is waging a bloody insurgency in north Sinai that has killed hundreds of policemen and soldiers.

Russia PM Says 'Act of Terror' Possibly behind Egypt Crash
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/November 09/15/Russia's Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev admitted Monday that a plane crash in Egypt's Sinai peninsula that killed 224 people was possibly a terrorist attack. "The possibility of an act of terror is of course there as the reason for what happened," he said in an interview to Rossiyskaya Gazeta state newspaper, parts of which were published Monday evening. Britain and the United States, as well as international investigators, suspect a bomb exploded on board of the A321 plane chartered by a Russian tourism firm, but Egyptian officials insist there is no evidence yet of an attack on the plane. Russia has also kept from blaming the October 31 crash, which killed everyone on board, on terrorists, however President Vladimir Putin on Friday ordered a ban on all Egypt flights for the time being. The Islamic State group's branch in the Sinai claimed responsibility after the crash and said it downed the plane in retaliation for Russian air strikes in Syria, but it has not said how. Medvedev said about 80,000 Russians were vacationing in Egypt at the time when Putin ordered the halt, as Red Sea resorts are extremely popular among Russians during winter. He said at a government meeting Monday that "this security measure is necessary until the reason for the A321 crash is known." Since Friday, about 25,000 Russian citizens have been returned from Sharm el-Sheikh, Hurghada and Cairo via special flights, with their luggage flown in separately, said Arkady Dvorkovich, a deputy premier. Russia will need two more weeks to bring the remaining tourists back home, he told Medvedev at the meeting.

Russia Agrees Deal to Deliver S-300 Missile Systems to Iran
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/November 09/15/Russia announced Monday that it has agreed to push on with a deal to deliver S-300 missile systems to Iran after Moscow halted an earlier agreement due to U.N. sanctions slapped on Tehran. "The contract between Russia and Iran for delivery of S-300 missile systems is back in force," the state-run Russian Technologies corporation said in a statement, adding that the two sides had "signed a contract". Moscow in April lifted a ban on selling the missile systems to Iran, ahead of Tehran sealing a final historic deal with world powers in July to curb its nuclear program. The decision sparked condemnation from Israel and concern from Washington, as it came before the lifting of the sanctions by the U.N. Security Council. Russia argues that the missile system is exclusively defensive and does not even fall under the sanctions. Moscow blocked deliveries of the surface-to-air missiles to Tehran in 2010 after the U.N. Security Council imposed the curbs on Iran over its nuclear program barring hi-tech weapons sales. Iran then filed a $4-billion suit at an arbitration court in Geneva for the cancellation of the $800 million order by Russia, which has long been Iran's principal foreign arms supplier. Moscow says its has now offered Tehran more modern versions of the weapons but has yet to announce publicly when they will be delivered. Russian Technologies said Iran had agreed to drop its legal claims against Moscow after the "first part" of the contract is fulfilled. Russia and Iran are allied over their backing for Syrian President Bashar Assad, with both sides helping regime forces fighting on the ground.

Arab League Seeks End to Israel's Violent 'Escalation'
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/November 09/15/Arab foreign ministers searched on Monday for ways to halt what one called Israel's "dangerous escalation" of violence against Palestinians. Weeks of knife, gun and car assaults by Palestinians in Israel and the West Bank have left 74 Palestinians dead, around half of them alleged attackers. Ten Israelis and one Arab Israeli have also been killed, and violence has spread to the Gaza Strip as well.Attacks against Jews began in early October as tensions over the flashpoint al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem erupted. The compound is the third holiest site in Islam, as well as being the holiest site in Judaism which venerates it as the Temple Mount. "This emergency meeting comes with the dangerous escalation by the Israeli government, the settlers, the Jewish extremist groups, and the Israeli forces in the blessed city of Jerusalem," United Arab Emirates Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan told the meeting, the official Saudi Press Agency reported. He chaired the gathering of the 22-member bloc, and said the Palestinian issue is key to peace and security in the region. "We gather today to take a decision about what we can do to stop these crimes and violations," the UAE minister said. Arab League Secretary General Nabil al-Arabi urged the U.N. Security Council and others to work towards an end to the conflict, SPA reported. The meeting came on the eve of the Fourth Summit of Arab and South American countries, to be held in the Saudi capital on Tuesday and Wednesday. Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir spoke of a "convergence of positions" between countries of the two regions on many issues and commended the Latin nations' "positive stance" on the Palestinian issue. The summit between the Arab League states and 12 nations from South America will be their fourth meeting since 2005. The summits were an initiative of Brazil's former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Jubeir told a pre-summit meeting that the previous three gatherings tried to develop trade, investment and transport links. There remain "promising opportunities for collaboration," he said, according to a written text of his speech. Two South American nations, Argentina and Brazil, belong to the Group of 20 world's largest economies, as does Saudi Arabia. The kingdom and its Gulf neighbors pump much of the world's oil, but Brazil and Venezuela are also major producers. There are also cultural ties, as Chile hosts some 350,000 Palestinian immigrants and their descendants who have settled there over the past century. Recent immigration has brought more than 2,000 Syrian refugees fleeing the war in their homeland to Brazil since 2011. The figure is far more than for any other Latin American state, although some pledged open doors and Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro said 20,000 were welcome in his country. Maduro, however, is a staunch ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad, who is facing rebel forces supported by Saudi Arabia and other Arab states.

Syria regime gains clerical approval to “kill” Druze group
Now Lebanon/November 09/15/BEIRUT – The Syrian regime’s top security official in Suweida province has appeared in a video with official religious representatives of the country’s Druze sect announcing a crackdown on the Men of Dignity, days after the movement was accused of kidnapping a Baath Party official. “The words ‘Balaous’s group,’ that phrase must be killed,” Suweida province’s Political Security Branch chief Wafiq Nasser said in a video published on the internet over the weekend. “It must be killed on the ground as an armed aggressing force and it must be killed as a term.”The top security official’s remarks come less than a week after Syria’s official Organization of Syrian Arab Radio and TV (ORTAS) linked Men of Dignity leader Rafaat Balaous to the death of local Baath Party official Shibli Junoud. Nasser went on to address the province’s top three Druze figures Sheikh Akl Hikmat al-Hajri, Sheikh Youssef Jarbou and Sheikh Hammoud al-Hinnawi, all of whom were present in the video. The top security official told the the three sheikhs that the Men of Dignity movement was: “an attack on you and an attack on all the honorable people in the Jabal [al-Arab region].”Clerics approve regime crackdown. At the beginning of the video Hajri and Hinnawi gave tacit approval to Nasser’s threat of action against the Men of Dignity after having stopped short of that in public remarks a few days before. “We have agreed to give free reign to the state and the law in the appropriate places,” Hajri said. For his part Hinnawi said that “the problem” was very dangerous and that “we must not make light of it.”“Very dangerous things have been planned for the province. [A game] is being played against it.”At the end of the video Nasser said he would treat the Sheikhs’ words as authorization and translate them in to action. “I consider what you have said authorization to us. The lid has been lifted.”The assent of the three Sheikhs would be transferred the province’s security committee, Nasser said. “Tomorrow I will translate your words in to searches at checkpoints,” he added. The appearance of Hajri, Jarbou and Hinnawi in the video and their tacit approval of Nasser’s call to action against the Men of Dignity marks a significant escalation of their stance towards the group. OTRAS’s report accusing Rafaat Balaous of being responsible for Junoud’s killing featured praise of the deceased official and condemnations of his death by the three pro-regime sheikhs. However, at the time, none of them suggested that the Men of Dignity leader was responsible for Junoud’s kidnapping and subsequent death. Wafiq Nasser YouTube capture. It must be killed on the ground as an armed aggressing force and it must be killed as a term.

Iran’s president to visit Europe in historic trip, amid criticism at home
Staff writer, Al Arabiya News Tuesday, 10 November 2015/Iranian President Hassan Rowhani is to begin a visit to Italy and France on Saturday, becoming the first leader of the Islamic Republic to travel to Europe for a decade. State media agency IRNA said that the president would engage in official talks in Italy before he travels on to France on November 16-17. Rowhani’s office said that he would also meet Pope Francis while in Italy. On the same day of the report, Iran’s judiciary chief slammed Rowhani for critical comments that appeared to be aimed at both some state media outlets and the judiciary. The talks follow the nuclear deal Iran signed with world powers back in January. Rowhani said in a speech to representatives from news outlets on Monday that the “you learn from some publications who will be arrested tomorrow, what is going to be closed down tomorrow, which individual’s reputation should be damaged,” he said. “The government must be criticized, the judiciary must be criticized, the parliament must be criticized,” Rowhani said. “But criticizing does not mean... smearing, insulting or lying.”In response, Iran’s judiciary chief Ayatollah Sadegh Larijani, hit back at Rowhani. “The president made several comments, notably that justice must be a refuge for society, and that if the salt becomes rotten, the task becomes difficult,” said Larijani. “One wonders what he means by that. Could the response be that if the government is rotten and if the president is corrupted that the task becomes difficult?” ISNA, another new agnency, quoted Larijani as saying. “If the meaning is that justice is corrupt this is libelous, if not it is still an insult.”
Clear warning
It comes days after the arrest of four journalists by intelligence officers in the elite Revolutionary Guard who accused them of being “linked to hostile Western governments who were working in the country’s media and social networks.”Larijani charged that “some media disrupt the public order... it is not acceptable that some newspapers receive money and work for foreigners against national security.”He also issued a clear warning ahead of February parliamentary elections in which Rowhani hopes to get a majority of moderates and reformers elected to the body currently dominated by conservatives. Reformist and moderate parties have said they will put forward so many candidates that the Guardians Council will not dare reject all of them. The conservative-controlled Council has the power to reject candidates it sees as unsuitable.“The Guardians Council will reject suspicious candidates, be there two thousand of them or ten thousand,” Larijani said.(With AFP)

Canada eyes taking in Syrian refugees from Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey
AFP, Ottawa Tuesday, 10 November 2015/Canada will soon discuss with Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey taking 25,000 Syrian refugees off their hands and resettling them in this country by year’s end, the immigration minister said Monday. “The government is committed to welcoming 25,000 refugees by the end of the year,” Immigration Minister John McCallum told reporters, “But we are also determined to do the job well, which means proper consideration be given to security concerns and to health concerns.” He said Ottawa is looking to use commercial airlines, passenger ships and military transports to move asylum seekers, and could house them at Canadian military bases or with Canadian families who sponsor them. He said work has already started to select refugees, get exit permits for them and in the coming days Ottawa will “engage with the leaders of the countries where these refugees are residing.” McCallum singled out Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey as the “primary countries” it is looking to. “It’s possible that we will take refugees from each of those countries, or maybe there will be more of a focus on one or two of them,” he said. “We’re working on the logistics,” he said. “Every option is on the table. Whatever works. Whatever is cost effective. Whatever will get them here safely and quickly.”McCallum said an ad hoc committee chaired by Health Minister Jane Philpott, and including McCallum and ministers of foreign affairs, defense, public safety would sort it all out. A detailed plan is to be announced in the coming days or weeks, he said. Meanwhile, McCallum also announced Can$100 million (U.S.$75 million) contribution to the U.N. refugee agency to support relief efforts in Syria and in neighboring countries.

One killed in clashes with Kurdish militants in southeast Turkey
Reuters, Diyarbakir Monday, 9 November 2015/A taxi driver was killed and five other people, including a police officer, were wounded on Monday when Turkish security forces clashed with Kurdish militants in the southeastern town of Silvan, local media reported. Silvan, about 80 km (50 miles) east of Diyarbakir, the biggest city in mainly Kurdish southeast Turkey, has been under a week-long police curfew imposed in the fight against militants from the youth wing of the banned Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). A 45-year-old cab driver was killed during the clashes and an elderly man was wounded when his house was hit by a shell, Hurriyet daily reported. The newspaper’s images from Silvan showed armoured police vehicles on guard between bullet-scarred buildings. Streets were deserted but strewn with pavement stones, rubble and trash. Turkey’s southeast has been hit by the worst violence in years after a two-year old ceasefire between the Turkish state and the PKK militants collapsed in July. Turkish jets pounded PKK targets in the southeastern town of Daglica and in northern Iraq last week, a day after Turkey’s AK Party, founded by President Tayyip Erdogan, regained its parliamentary majority in a Nov. 1 election. Erdogan, who had previously championed greater Kurdish rights and initiated the peace process, vowed last Wednesday to continue battling the group until every last fighter was “liquidated.”
The PKK, which wants autonomy for Turkey’s large ethnic Kurdish minority, is listed as a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union as well as by Ankara.It took up arms against the Turkish state in 1984 and more than 40,000 people, mostly Kurds, have died in the prolonged conflict.

Video purports to show ISIS gunmen executing 200 captives
Ynetnews/11.09.15/Israel News/Islamic State releases footage allegedly showing kids shot dead in firing squad after being made to lie face-down on the ground. A gruesome new video has been making the rounds online on Monday, purporting to show Islamic State terrorists executing 200 captives in a firing squad. While many British newspapers reported the captives were children, The Independent quoted an expert saying the people being executed were soldiers and not children, and that the video was dated back to 2014. The video shows the captives being made to lie face-down on the ground, with some ten gunmen standing in front of them, armed with guns and automatic rifles. In the beginning of the video, an ISIS gunman examines the captives one by one, shooting some of them from short-range. He is then joined by the other gunmen who open fire at the captives. ISIS has released videos in the past showing the execution of children, but if these are indeed children, it would be the largest group to be executed in one time to date. Estimates are that the video was filmed in Syria, but it is unclear when that was. Ynet cannot confirm the veracity of this footage.

French strike hits ISIS oil facility in Syria
By AFP, Dakar Monday, 9 November 2015/The French army on Sunday bombed an oil supply center held by ISIS in eastern Syria, Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian announced Monday. “We intervened in Syria... yesterday evening with a strike on an oil supply center near Deir Ezzor on the border between Iraq and Syria,” Le Drian told journalists on the sidelines of a forum on African peace and security in Dakar, Senegal. It was France’s third wave of strikes in Syria since President Francois Hollande decided in September to join the campaign there against ISIS. The two previous waves targeted training camps for foreign jihadists who were suspected of preparing attacks in France. Hollande on Thursday said operations would be expanded to include “all those sites from which terrorists could threaten our territory.” The president also said France would deploy its nuclear-powered aircraft carrier -- the flagship of the French navy -- to boost operations against IS in Syria and Iraq.

Egypt police kill leading ISIS militant in Cairo
AFP, Cairo Monday, 9 November 2015/Egyptian police said on Monday they killed a top Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group operative in the capital implicated in a string of attacks including the murders of a Croat and an American. An interior ministry statement said Ashraf Ali Ali Hassanein al-Gharabli was shot dead in an exchange of fire after police tried to arrest him. Hassanein was one of the most sought after militants in the country, and had featured in a wanted notice by police as early as January 2014, months into a militant insurgency centred in the Sinai Peninsula. He was also implicated in the bombing of the Italian consulate in Cairo last July. A police official told AFP he had been the right-hand man of Hisham al-Eshmawi, a feared former commando who is believed to have spearheaded a string of bombings and assassinations in the capital for the militant Ansar Beit al-Maqdis group. In November 2014, the group pledged allegiance to ISIS, prompting Eshmawi to abandon it, and leaving Hassanein as one the group’s top operatives west of Sinai. The interior ministry statement said police had managed to track down Hassanein in the capital, but when they tried to arrest him as he drove a car in a north Cairo suburb he opened fire. “He sensed them and shot at them, in an attempt to flee, requiring the police forces to exchange fire with him leading to his death,” the ministry statement said.

Cholera case diagnosed in Oman: health ministry
AFP, Muscat Monday, 9 November 2015/Omani health authorities have urged caution after a woman who had visited Iraq was found to be infected with cholera, local media reported on Monday. “The Omani woman who was diagnosed with the disease had visited Iraq recently,” the local Times of Oman daily quoted the health ministry as saying. “The patient is receiving treatment in one of the health institutions in the sultanate” and her condition is stable, it added. “The ministry will continue to pursue precautionary measures for some more time,” the ministry said, urging Omanis to ensure they follow strict hygiene guidelines. Iraqi health authorities launched a major vaccination campaign this month to combat a cholera outbreak that has infected more than 2,200 people, raising fears of a possible spread to neighboring Gulf countries. Many Shiites in Oman and other Gulf countries travel for pilgrimage in the holy Iraqi city of Najaf. Authorities in Iraq have blamed the cholera outbreak mostly on the poor quality of water caused by the low level of the Euphrates. After a short incubation period of two to five days, cholera causes severe diarrhea, draining the body of its water. The vaccination campaign in Iraq is focused on people displaced by conflict including the war with the Islamic State group. The United Nations says the number of people displaced by conflict in Iraq since the start of 2014 has topped 3.2 million.1

Netanyahu tells Obama: Israel hasn't given up on two-state solution
Yitzhak Benhorin/Ynetnews/11.09.15
In White House meeting, US president switches focus from trying to push for peace accord to seeking ways to avoid further violence between Israel and the Palestinians; two leaders also expected to discuss Iran, Syria, and military aid package to Israel. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Barack Obama exchanged platitudes in their first face-to-face meeting in over a year on Monday. Netanyahu declared he has not given up on peace with the Palestinians, while Obama stressed that Israel's security is one of his top foreign policy priorities. Speaking to reporters ahead of their private meeting, Obama said he would seek Netanyahu's thoughts on ways to lower tensions between Israelis and Palestinians and get the parties "back on a path towards peace.""I want to be very clear that we condemn in the strongest terms Palestinian violence against innocent Israeli citizens. And I want to repeat, once again, it is my strong belief that Israel has not just the right, but the obligation to protect itself," Obama said. "I want to make it clear we haven't given up on our hope for peace," Netanyahu told Obama, stressing he supporting a two-state solution, with a demilitarized Palestinian state that recognizes the Jewish state.The leaders largely sidestepped the Iran nuclear issue in their public comments.
"It's no secret that the prime minister and I have had a strong disagreement on this narrow issue," Obama said of the nuclear deal signed between Tehran and world powers. "But we don't have a disagreement on the need to making sure that Iran does not get a nuclear weapon, and we don't have a disagreement about the importance of us blunting destabilizing activities that Iran may be taking place. And so, we're going to be looking to make sure that we find common ground there." Netanyahu, meanwhile, made no mention of the Iran issue. Obama said he wanted to get a head start on negotiating a new 10-year military aid deal with Israel, even though before the meeting US officials downplayed the chance of a breakthrough in ongoing security talks.
"A lot of our time will be spent on a memorandum of understanding that we can potentially negotiate. It will be expiring in a couple of years, but we want to get a head start on that to make sure that both the United States and Israel can plan effectively for our defense needs going forward," the US president said.
Israel receives $3.1 billion from the United States annually and wants $5 billion per year for the next package, for a total of $50 billion over a decade, congressional officials have told Reuters. One U.S. official predicted the sides would settle for an annual sum of $4 billion to $5 billion. Despite Netanyahu's statement on Israel's commitment to peace, the US officials said Obama has given up hope on reaching a peace accord before the end of his term, 14 months from now.
"The president has reached that conclusion that right now - barring a major shift - that the parties are not going to be in a position to negotiate a final status agreement," White House Middle East adviser Rob Malley said ahead of Netanyahu's arrival in Washington. Minister Silvan Shalom, Netanyahu's designated negotiator with the Palestinians, said in a radio interview that the prime minister would offer a number of confidence-building gestures toward the Palestinians, including easing restrictions on communications, water usage, work permits in Israel and Palestinian development in the West Bank. While Obama's predecessors have also been unable to bring the two parties together, the frankness of the White House's admission was still striking. Even with the low expectations, the fact that Obama and Netanyahu are meeting at all is seen as an important step. While the two leaders have long had a chilly relationship, tensions boiled over earlier this year amid Obama's pursuit of the Iranian nuclear deal. Netanyahu views Iran's nuclear program as an existential threat to Israel and argued that the international agreement struck earlier this year leaves Tehran within reach of a bomb. The Israeli leader unsuccessfully lobbied US lawmakers to oppose the deal, even delivering a rare speech to Congress that infuriated the White House.
Obama didn't meet the prime minister when he traveled to Washington to address lawmakers, citing the proximity to Israeli elections that resulted in Netanyahu staying in power. The leaders also did not meet while Netanyahu was in the US in September to speak to the United Nations General Assembly.
One of the items on the agenda for Monday's meeting, it would seem, was to mend fractured ties between the two leaders. "There's no foreign leader who I've met with more frequently and I think that's a testimony to the extraordinary bond between the United States and Israel," Obama said at the beginning of his comments to the press. "As I've said repeatedly, the security of Israel is one of my top foreign policy priorities, and that has expressed itself not only in words, but in deeds. We have closer military and intelligence cooperation than any two administrations in history," the American president said.
Officials in both governments have been discussing a new security agreement that could result in increased US military assistance to Israel. US officials said that while they did not expect Monday's talks to result in a final agreement, it was significant that the leaders planned to discuss the matter given that Netanyahu had refused to do so in the immediate aftermath of the nuclear agreement.
"We do believe it's very important that in an uncertain security environment, we are signaling our long-term commitment to Israel and its security, and are designing a package that is tailored to the threats and challenges that Israel will be facing over the course of the next decade," said Ben Rhodes, Obama's deputy national security adviser. Netanyahu is also seeking to use his visit to patch up relations with some Democrats, who felt his fight against the Iran deal damaged the bipartisan consensus in Congress on Israel's security, and heal a rift with more liberal segments of the American Jewish community.
He was due to address the conservative American Enterprise Institute on Monday as well as the liberal Center for American Progress on Tuesday.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

Iran's Mirage: More Humiliation to Follow
Lawrence A. Franklin/Gatestone Institute/November 09/15
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/6813/iran-mirage
The Rouhani-Zarif façade of civility toward the West was enough to persuade the vain, delusional and acquisitive in Western leadership circles that change had finally come again to Iran. However, no amount of Persian tea or Iranian rosewater-drenched ice cream shared between Kerry and Zarif can drown out the deceptive hoax of the JCPOA. Before the ink was dry, Khamenei and the security services announced that the agreement has no standing in Iran. To punctuate the point, Tehran arrested a prominent Iranian-American businessman, Siamak Namazi, and a Lebanese-American, Nazar Zaka, to add to its collection of fraudulently-charged hostages: Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian; former marine Amir Hekmati; Pastor Saeed Abedini, and retired FBI agent Robert Levinson. Just in case the U.S. needed one more symbolic kick, the regime closed down the first KFC fast food restaurant in Tehran on Monday, just one day after it opened.
In the end, it matters little what the government, people, or even the theocratic institutions think is in Iran's best long-term interests. Unfortunately, for those U.S. career diplomats, hopeful politicians, and international businessmen, normative incentives, such as money, sanctions relief, and better foreign relations take a back seat in a regime such as the Islamic Republic. It is a regime where one man, Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, supported by a clique of militants, makes all the critical decisions. Whenever it seems that the revolution is about to evolve into a kinder and gentler order, the gear is thrown into a rapid reverse. This was so when most CIA and British intelligence analysts, after being at first surprised by Mohammad Khatami's presidential "election" in 1997, insisted that evolutionary change was inevitable (except for a couple of Defense Intelligence Agency holdouts). Though the "reformist" regime had arrested more than a dozen Jews after falsely accusing them of treason, killed several intellectuals and suppressed the massive student demonstrations of July 1999, a mere nine months later the Clinton Administration decided to let Iran sell us rugs and pistachio nuts.
More recently, there was the "Green Movement" which shook the foundations of the regime after the allegedly fraudulent 2009 re-election of hard-liner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as president. Yet again, the reactionary junta of mullahs and Revolutionary Guards operatives, who control all the levers of power as well as most of the economy, managed to survive and later thrive. Again, this fascistic-theocratic alliance was most skillful in later arresting and executing the liberal ringleaders of the rebellion while simultaneously isolating the regime's more moderate politicians, such as Karrubi and Mousavi, from their supporters.
Finally, there is the most recent Rouhani-Zarif mirage that the regime displayed to the West. The two men's façade of civility was enough to persuade the vain, delusional and acquisitive in Western leadership circles that change had finally come again to Iran. However, no amount of Persian tea or Iranian rosewater-drenched ice cream shared between John Kerry and Javad Zarif can drown out the deceptive hoax of the JCPOA. Before the ink was dry, Ayatollah Khamenei and the security services announced that the agreement has no standing in Iran. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani (left) and Foreign Minister Javad Zarif (right). The two men's façade of civility was enough to persuade the vain, delusional and acquisitive in Western leadership circles that change had finally come again to Iran. Just this week, it was announced that Iran's so-called "resistance economy" will not permit any U.S. consumer goods to be imported into Iran -- and just to punctuate the point, Tehran arrested a prominent Iranian-American businessman, Siamak Namazi, and a Lebanese-American, Nazar Zaka, to add to its collection of fraudulently charged hostages: Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian; former marine Amir Hekmati; Pastor Saeed Abedini, and retired FBI agent Robert Levinson. Just in case the United States needed one more symbolic kick, the regime closed down the first KFC fast food restaurant in Tehran on Monday, just one day after it opened. For the Obama Administration, there will be more humiliation to follow. This President has been poorly served by his Iran "experts" and untutored diplomats.
**Dr. Lawrence A. Franklin was the Iran Desk Officer for Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld. He also served on active duty with the U.S. Army and as a Colonel in the Air Force Reserve, where he was a Military Attaché at the U.S. Embassy in Israel.

Iran: Poets Face 99 Lashes and Prison
Amir Taheri/Gatestone Institute/November 09/15
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/6839/iran-poets-prison
"She writes something but means something else." — Tehran Islamic Prosecutor.
The irony in all this is that Ekhtesari is not a political poet. In fact, she has written that those who try to use poetry for politics betray both.
The sentencing was made easier thanks to a recent lecture by "Supreme Guide" Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, laying down the rules of what he believes "good Islamic poets" should observe when writing poetry.
The poet Sa'id Sultanpour was abducted on the day of his wedding and shot dead in a Tehran prison. Rahman Hatefi-Monfared had his veins cut and was left to bleed to death in the notorious Evin Prison.
"I hope to see the day when no one is sent to jail in this land for writing poems." — Mehdi Mussavi, convicted poet.
Does a seminar on reforming the meter and rhyme schemes of Persian poetry violate "Islamic values" and threaten the foundations of the Islamic Republic of Iran?
That is the view of the Islamic Court in Tehran, which last month sentenced two poets, Fateme Ekhtesari and Mehdi Mussavi, to nine and 11.5 years in prison respectively, plus 99 lashes of the cane for each in public.
One of the two, Mrs. Fateme Ekhtesari, was sentenced to 11.5 years for "undermining the security of the Islamic state" by composing and reciting in public a number of "poems full of ambiguity and capable of being read in deviant and dangerous ways."
The Islamic Court in Tehran sentenced two poets, Fateme Ekhtesari (left) and Mehdi Mussavi (right), to nine and 11.5 years in prison respectively, plus 99 lashes. Ekhtesari was charged with reciting "poems full of ambiguity and capable of being read in deviant and dangerous ways." Mussavi was charged with "insulting sacred values of the Islamic ummah."
Ekhtesari is a surrealist poet whose verse could, and indeed is intended to, be read in many different ways. One of her diwans (collections of verse), for example, is called "Crying on the Shoulder of An Egg". Another comes under the title "A Feminist Discourse Before Baking Potatoes."
Feminism is a strong theme with Ekhtesari, who insists that, as God created both men and women from the same "red mud" mentioned in the Koran, there is no reason to prevent the latter from enjoying any freedoms available to the former.
The Tehran Islamic Prosecutor, however, insisted that Ekhtesari's "ambiguous poems" were meant to pass "dangerous political messages that could encourage people to distance themselves from the True Faith."
"She writes something but means something else," the prosecutor claimed. "Her trick is to avoid saying anything in a straightforward way, creating space for all manner of dangerous thinking."
The prosecutor based part of his case on the claim that what matters in Islam is "zikr," that is to say, a constant remembrance of God by repeating, if necessary in silence and to oneself, the formula "There is no God but Allah". Those who abandon "zikr" for its opposite -- which is "fikr", that is to say, thinking -- move away from the Path of Faith.
The irony in all this is that Ekhtesari is not a political poet. In fact, she has written that those who try to use poetry to advance political ideals betray both.
As editor of the monthly literary magazine Only One Tomorrow, Ekhtesari offered space to writers and poets across the ideological spectrum, including some Khomeinists. Her magazine was shut down soon after Hassan Rouhani became president.
However, as a poet, Ekhtesari cannot but be affected by the ambient social and political order in her homeland. She cannot turn her face the other way when she sees ugliness, oppression and terror -- themes that force their way into some of her poems.
Ekhtesari is also an original theoretician of poetic modes. Her collection of essays entitled "Linguistic Tricks in Postmodern Sonnet" is both intriguing and instructive.
Ekhtesari's fellow convict-cum-poet is Mehdi Mussavi, who received a six-year sentence. Mussavi is the founder and principal animator of a poetry workshop in Tehran where Ekhtesari has often spoken and recited her poems. The workshop is supposedly dedicated to developing a new form that Mussavi calls "postmodern ghazal." The classic form of Persian sonnet, ghazal, has been the subject of numerous attempts at modernization, notably by Simin Behbahani, one of Iran's greatest contemporary poetesses.
Like Behbahani, Mussavi argues that, having experimented with modern forms, including European-style prose-poetry, for almost a century, Persian poets need to return to traditional forms, albeit with changes to reflect modern realities.
Mussavi rejects the argument of the older generation poets such as Ahmad Shamlou, who claimed that the traditional ghazal is so beholden to the musicality of its meter and rhyme schemes that it cannot relay any meaning in a powerful way.
According to Mussavi, once the Persian poet has learned to play by the traditional rules, he could invent virtually countless meters and rhymes capable of expressing any sentiment.
Literary opponents of Mussavi's theories, especially on the left, argue that he, like Behbahani and other reformers of the ghazal before them, suffers from a sense of insecurity in a changing world where the Iran they knew is being remolded into something repulsive in the name of Islam.
The Islamic Court, however, charged Mussavi with propagating "immoral images" in his poetry and thus "insulting sacred values of the Islamic ummah."
Equally painful is the Islamic Court's decision to impose a blanket ban on the publication and recital of any poems by Ekhtesari and Mussavi. Under an edict issued by the Islamic Guidance Ministry in 2003, people like Ekhtesari and Mussavi, who are found guilty of "insulting Islam" and thus put on the official index, become "non-persons" -- even their names and pictures are banned.
Both Ekhtesari and Mussavi had spent several months in prison two years ago, but were released after the Islamic Prosecutor Ayatollah Ra'isi failed to prove any political crime.
That is why this time, the prosecutor focused on a claim that the poets had attacked "the sacred tenets of the faith".
The sentencing was made easier thanks to a recent lecture by "Supreme Guide" Ayatollah Ali Khamenei laying down the rules of what he believes "good Islamic poets" should observe when writing poetry.
However, as exiled poet Yadallah Roya'i notes, one could write an advertising text or a police report on demand, but not poetry. "Even the poet cannot order himself to write poetry," Roya'i noted." The poet is like a tree, shedding its leaves and flowers so that there is room for future leaves and flowers."
Iran is one of the few countries in the world where poetry has always been regarded as the highest form of literary creation. In Iranian cities, streets and parks were more often named after poets than conquerors or empire-builders or, until the mullahs seized power, Islamic saints and/or theologians. If an Iranian home has at least one book, it is likely to be a collection of poems.
And yet, with the seizure of power by mullahs in 1979, Iran has experienced one of the most dangerous phases in its long history, as far as poets -- and intellectuals in general -- are concerned.
Another irony is that both the founder of the regime, the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, and his successor as "Supreme Guide" Ali Khamenei, cast themselves as amateur poets. Khomeini banned publication of his own divans while he was alive, believing that appearing as a poet might soften the dour persona he was building as leader of a revolution that could execute 4000 people on a weekend.
Since his death, however, hundreds of his poems, most of them traditional-style sonnets (ghazals) have been published by the foundation bearing his name. Ali Khamenei does not publish his poems, but organizes private readings with a few dozen "appreciators" once or twice a year and is reportedly "in seventh heaven" when his entourage quote one of his verses.
Ekhtesari and Mussavi have been sent to jail, not killed. Other poets have not been so lucky.
Hashem Shaabani was hanged on the eve of President Rouhani's visit to Ahvaz in 2014. Shaabani was not the first Iranian poet to be murdered by the mullahs. The left-wing poet Sa'id Sultanpour was abducted on the day of his wedding on Khomeini's orders, and shot dead in a Tehran prison. Rahman Hatefi-Monfared, writing under the pen-name of Heydar Mehregan, had his veins cut and was left to bleed to death in the notorious Evin Prison. Under President Hashemi Rafsanjani, a plan to kill a busload of Iranian poets on their way to a festival in Armenia failed at the last minute. Nevertheless, Rafsanjani succeeded in eliminating more than a dozen writers and poets. The worst spate of killings happened under President Khatami, when more than 80 intellectuals, including the poets Mohammad Mokhtari and Mohammad-Ja'far Pouyandeh, were murdered by the Islamic regime's security agents.
Let's give the final word to Mussavi: " I hope to see the day when no one is sent to jail in this land for writing poems." Inshallah!

Is Erdogan waging a war of choice against the PKK?
Erdogan’s ‘Machiavellian cunning’/Al-Monitor/November 09/15
Kadri Gursel argues that “the Erdogan regime won the [Grand National Assembly] elections by adding new problems to Turkey’s already hefty load of them and then convincing part of the electorate that only the AKP could resolve them. The credit should go to Erdogan as the architect of an exceptional tactical victory achieved with Machiavellian cunning."
Gursel suggests that increase in the Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) share of the popular vote from 40.8% to 49.4% resulted from the AKP’s emphasis on the threat of terrorism from the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
“The new war against the PKK, launched as a deliberate political choice by Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s regime, coupled with the bombings blamed on IS, suppressed the perception of the economic downturn as the country’s biggest problem, which had been a key factor in the AKP’s failure in the June 7 polls,” Gursel writes.
Mustafa Akyol describes two major changes that shaped the election in favor of the AKP: “The first major change was an upsurge in terrorism, by the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and the Islamic State, and an accompanying sense of diminishing security. The second change was a decline in the economy, in particular a surge by the US dollar at the expense of the Turkish lira. Many critics, in the Turkish opposition as well as the Western media, blamed the AKP government and President Erdogan for both of these problems. Many Turks, however, viewed things to the contrary. To them, these problems had been caused by the absence of a strong AKP government since June 7. The 13 stable years Turkey experienced under AKP has helped create a longing for that same stability under yet another strong AKP government.”
Gursel adds that “the regime’s media played a major role in ensuring this outcome. Equally influential was the huge government pressure on other media that severely curbed press freedoms. All in all, the government managed to convince the conservative Sunni electorate that it was the PKK that had reignited the conflict and ended the settlement process.”
Mahmut Bozarslan writes that many voters held the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) accountable because of presumed links to the PKK and the Revolutionary Youth Movement (YDG-H). “The consensus is that the HDP was made to pay for the violence instigated by the YDG-H in Turkey’s predominantly Kurdish cities of Sirnak, Silopi, Silvan and Cizre,” Bozarslan writes.
Semih Idiz considers whether the election will bring a change in Erdogan’s foreign policy: “All indications are that Erdogan will continue to believe in a Western conspiracy against him and the AKP and aimed ultimately at undermining Turkey’s success. Despite Erdogan’s political fixations, however, there are those who argue that developments, especially on Syria, will force Ankara to revise its positions … The bottom line is that the jury remains out on what influence the election results will have on Turkey’s foreign policy. The most likely outcome is that if Ankara avoids long overdue revisions, they will nevertheless come to pass due to the sheer force of circumstances.”
Akyol speculates on the consequences of the elections on Turkish opposition parties: Erdogan’s “grip on power will be rock solid until 2019. Of course, this is incredibly blissful for AKP supporters, but what does it mean for opposition circles, which have of late been demonized by the government and its propaganda machine as the enemy within? Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, in his victory speech, sent a reconciliatory message to them, promising an “end to polarization and tension.” If he and Erdogan really chose a moderate and reconciliatory path, then they will be achieving a much bigger victory than in the actual elections.”
The intifada’s uncertain direction
Adnan Abu Amer writes this week that there is a “conflict between Fatah and Hamas in terms of defining the intifada, its repercussions and the means used. Fatah wants a peaceful popular uprising, while Hamas calls for militarization and taking up arms. This is not a conflict over the formal methods, but rather over the intifada’s content and essence.”
According to Abu Amer, while neither Hamas nor Fatah have influence or control over intifada, both are seeking to capitalize on it. “This intifada is taking place amid a sharp political and geographical division, which casts a shadow over each faction’s concerns regarding the other's aspirations,” he writes.
Akiva Eldar explains how the recent violence around the Temple Mount and Haram al-Sharif has increased the influence of the Islamic Movement at the expense of both King Abdullah of Jordan and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Shlomi Eldar reports that although neither Hamas nor Fatah have organized attacks, both groups have embraced the role of martyrs in the uprising. “What began as a campaign to defend Al-Aqsa and turned into young people carrying out attacks in Israel to bring about a change in Palestinians' economic, social and diplomatic status then became a religious-oriented wave of terror. Yet when Palestinians follow this martyrdom script, they do so not only out of religious belief but also out of national pride, which comes with materialistic benefits on the side. A shahid and his or her family are guaranteed elevated standing in Palestinian society. The family gets a monthly allowance from the PA and organizations such as Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Islamic charities. As PA president, Mahmoud Abbas, who is trying to stop the recent wave of terror, gives family members of a suicide bomber financial support for the rest of their lives. This assistance is construed as a clear message in support of the terrorists’ actions,” Eldar writes.
The elevation of martyrs as heroes has complicated Israel’s response to the violence. “When it began, with Palestinians armed with a gun or knife bent on carrying out an attack, the prevailing attitude in Israel was that such an incident had to end with the killing of the assailant, even if he or she could have been stopped without deadly force. The objective was to use death as a deterrence to dissuade future attacks. It is now clear that this approach was misguided. Not only did killing the attackers not deter other Palestinians, it actually encouraged more to follow in their footsteps. Martyrdom has become the biggest driver for continuing the escalation with Israel. Unless PA officials, chief among them Abbas, stop this phenomenon, they might discover that it is a double-edged sword that can be turned against them as well. The violence could spiral out of control and an unintended, armed religious intifada erupt,” Eldar reports.
Daoud Kuttab suggests that the escalation in violence requires an international presence in Jerusalem and perhaps other flashpoints. Kuttab analyzes the experience of the Temporary International Presence in Hebron (TIPH), per the Hebron Accords, agreed to by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in 1997. The weakness of TIPH, according to Kuttab, is that its reports are kept confidential, and there is no follow-up from Israeli authorities.
Al-Monitor supports UNICEF program for Syrian children
Al-Monitor will provide major support for a UNICEF–Education Above All Foundation partnership aimed at getting children affected by the war in Syria back into classrooms.
“The No Lost Generation campaign offers Syria’s children hope for a better future by embracing and acting upon their potential. Al-Monitor is proud to support this essential initiative, which provides equitable access to education, which so many of these children so greatly need,” said Jamal Daniel, founder and chairman of Al-Monitor.

Egypt can’t blame everyone else
H.A. Hellyer/Al Arabiya/November 09/15
Cairo has not had the best of weeks. It was supposed to be a showcase week – Egyptian president, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, had his official visit scheduled to the UK. It was supposed to be a reconfirmation of the international recognition already provided to Sisi’s political dispensation. Instead, the week began with political controversy, continued with diplomatic catastrophes, and ended with media cataclysms on plane crashes and civil rights activists. Cairo isn’t fazed, though – because it is everyone else’s fault. Quite. Let’s put a few things into context. When Sisi decided to go to London, he wasn’t going to a hostile capital to defend Egypt’s reputation or engage in aggressive diplomacy. That’s wholly unnecessary. London stood to gain exceedingly little from the visit – it was looking to strengthen relations with Cairo, on issues of what it saw as mutual interest. During the visit itself, Downing Street minimized the amount of critical engagement Sisi would get in public – whether from Prime Minister Cameron himself, the media, or other parts of British society. If Cameron had wanted to give Sisi a hard time, it would have been very easy to do so. He didn’t. On the contrary. Cairo, if it stays true to fashion, will response to criticisms of the investigation with indignation and outrage, and decry the negative portrayal of Egypt in the global media establishment.
Egypt’s human rights record over the past two years has been the subject of very many articles and conferences in Britain’s capital indeed, and a number of Egypt’s pro-Mursi opposition reside in London. If London had wanted to give Cairo a hard time, it would have been rather easy to do so.
That hasn’t stopped large swathes of Egypt’s media circuit from attacking the UK, and Egypt’s foreign ministry from expressing outrage as one of Britain’s top journalists points out: ‘"They're jumping to conclusions," Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry angrily declared when I reached him by telephone shortly after the UK prime minister's office announced a suspension of all flights in and out of the popular tourist enclave on the southern edge of the Sinai which is meant to be highly protected.’But is the anger justified? Did Britain do something that Egypt itself wouldn’t? Was London somehow unusual in this regard?
That seems to have been the implication by Cairo – but it is an implication that was difficult to sustain. Russia went even further than the UK, after initialling expressing some displeasure – it suspended flights to all of Egypt. Moscow can hardly be accused of being also anti-Cairo, surely…
Blame game
As for jumping to conclusions – London very well may have done so. But can they be blamed for that with such gusto? The explosion that brought down the Russian airliner took place more than a week ago – yet, it took Cairo a week to schedule a press conference by the Civil Aviation Authority to brief the international press. When it did happen, the state’s representative declared he had ‘limited time’ to engage with the press, and proceeded to take only a few questions. That is certainly not going to endear the press to report favourably on Cairo. Yesterday, Cairo proceeded to move forward in another direction that is hardly going to result in much positive reportage and analysis about Egypt. One of Egypt’s most renowned civil rights activists, turned investigative reporter, Hossam Bahgat, was summoned to military intelligence for interrogation. After around eight hours of interrogation, Bahgat was then referred to the military prosecutor – apparently on the charge of ‘publishing false and inaccurate information that harms national security.’ Let’s break that down. Bahgat, a civilian, is being summoned for interrogation by the military. That’s not going to go down well – he’s not a serving military officer, so one might expect he would be referred to a civilian court. He’s a journalist, and the publication of news may not make anyone happy. But if the publication of his story (published on October 13) on a set of military trials had been so egregious in terms of ‘national security’, then it wouldn’t have taken more than three weeks for the state to respond. What’s the likely response going to be, just to this? Entirely predictable: the international media will publish a slew of negative stories about Egypt. Diplomats from countries friendly to Egypt will declare their concern – because Bahgat has a long track record of speaking truth to power, under a variety of different political dispensations. He was critical of all administrations – Mubarak, of the military council that replaced him, of Mohammad Mursi, of the interim President Adli Mansour and of Sisi’s presidency.
The truth is – Bahgat does indeed warrant an investigation, as do so many civil rights activists in Egypt; an investigation by awards committees. These figures deserve recognition of praise and commendations – not to be treated as common criminals. But then, there is, alas, likely to be another very predictable counter-response. Cairo, if it stays true to fashion, will response to criticisms of the investigation with indignation and outrage, and decry the negative portrayal of Egypt in the global media establishment. But it isn’t the international community that waited for a week to have the civil aviation authority brief the world’s press; that was Cairo’s decision. It wasn’t the international community that summoned a world-renowned rights defender and journalist to military intelligence’s headquarters; that was Cairo’s decision. At some point, Cairo is going to have to ask where blame really does lie.

Jordan’s ‘natural disasters’ are partly man-made
Raed Omari/Al Arabiya/November 09/15
In a country like Jordan, ranked as the world’s second water-poorest country, rainfall should be a blessing. But it has proved to be not always so. Only 40 minutes of non-stop heavy rain has recently caused flooding across Amman, leaving four people dead and dozens homeless and trapped. It was a wild scene in the mountainous capital, resembling massive floods in Bangladesh, Laos and other flat countries in South Asia. That is not at all an exaggeration because four days ago, Amman looked like it had Venice’s water-traffic corridors. This also occurred in winter last year when the heavy rain storm and melting snow caused flooding across the capital. The authorities, much-criticized over the issue, at the time said they took the necessary measures to avoid similar incidents - but what happened last Thursday proved that little has been done. Officials, especially from the Greater Amman Municipality (GAM) were silent and were “unable” to comment on a disaster which they once pledged to fully address. Those who appeared blamed the ‘unprecedented’ and ‘sudden’ rain storm behind the disaster. The storm was so strong and beyond the capabilities of the municipality to handle, they claimed. In statements, seen as an attempt to absorb public anger, some officials from other executive bodies blamed GAM’s inadequate maintenance of sewage systems and insufficient preparation for the change in weather. But aside from public anger at the authorities excuses – or lack of – we should also pause to think about changes happening in Amman. Jordan’s excessively expanded capital has transformed dramatically over the last 15 years into a city of cement and asphalt with few empty spaces to absorb any rainfall. Amman is a city of asphalt with an old, rusty and inefficient drainage system –a recipe for flooding. Construction in Amman is expanding dramatically, covering all corners of the Jordanian capital, including areas with narrow paths and difficult-to-reach hills. Between buildings there is either a building already built or in the process of being built. Amman, as visitors usually say, is a city for cars and not people. As a resident of Amman, one cannot walk in its streets, let alone run or do sports. In other words, it is a city of asphalt with an old, rusty and inefficient drainage system –a recipe for flooding. GAM civil engineers have also previously said that the yearly floods is due to the lack of empty spaces in the capital. However, the GAM is continuing to grant rental construction licenses to contractors without considering the inevitable risks. Although climate change, nature’s surprises, Amman’s topography, urbanization and refugee influxes are the main reasons behind the yearly floods, the city’s poor planning, unnecessary expansion, poor sewer systems and lack of empty spaces also have an undeniable impact on Amman’s natural disasters. “Natural disasters” can also be man-made.

Resolving the Russian plane crisis
Abdulrahman al-Rashed/Al Arabiya/November 09/15
A campaign by Egyptian officials and media figures in response to recent precautionary measures taken by western countries, including the suspension of flights and evacuating tourists from Sharm el-Sheikh, won’t impact any official government decisions made following the Russian plane crash. These governments are forced to take measures that clear them of legal and political responsibilities in their countries and in front of their voters. If they do not take such measures and another accident happens again, they would be held strongly accountable.Western government measures to suspend flights, place travel advisories and urge citizens to evacuate have become common practice in the Middle East ever since terrorism became rampant.
Political considerations
Recent measures are therefore neither directed against the Egyptian government nor are they a result of Muslim Brotherhood oppositional activity. Western governments are obligated to warn their citizens and businesses, even if those warnings are based on weak justifications, such as bogus calls or security reports relying on weak sources. These governments have political considerations that worry them when they see spreading chaos and war and when they know that their citizens and interests are targeted. If the Russian plane crash is a result of terrorism, the situation here can be resolved within political and security contexts
It’s true that no one yet knows for a fact whether the Russian plane crash was a result of a deliberate act or not, but it’s a matter of time before the entire truth comes to light. Other countries do not have the time to wait for the investigation results as they fear the crash is a result of a terrorist act and worry there will be more to come. They will therefore not accept the reassurances of the Egyptian government regardless of what they are. Let’s take a look at the bigger picture here if it turns out to be an act of terrorism. The entire region, and not just Egypt, is continuously threatened and targeted. Terrorist organizations deliberately target western interests, transportation and tourist sites because they harm Arab governments’ vital incomes and shake their image. These terror groups want to lead these Arab countries to chaos and consequently topple their regimes. So long as we’re in a war against terrorism, political and media solutions are not supposed to be based on denial and on attacking others, but they must begin by bearing responsibility, adopting transparency and fixing defects if there are any. If the Russian plane crash is a result of terrorism, the situation here can be resolved within political and security contexts. Resolving the situation will also require transparency, even if the crash was not an act of terrorism.
What Egypt needs to not do
Egyptian officials’ criticism of other governments does not affect the latter at all, and it rather weakens the stance of their own government at a time when it needs someone to support it. Egyptian media outlets’ criticism of others and resorting to conspiracy theories make them lose their credibility, and we must keep in mind that the final verdict regarding these incidents is that of investigators. Before these incidents in Egypt, several Arab countries, such as Jordan, Morocco and Tunisia suffered similar tragedies and were harmed a lot when terrorists targeted foreigners and touristic sites. For example, Tunisia passed through a more difficult phase as a result of attacks against its touristic cities, which are considered the country’s primary sources of income. Despite that, Tunisian officials did not criticize governments who boycotted their tourism. They rather voiced their full understanding and took extra measures to prove their concern over the safety of foreign tourists, and tourism finally flourished there once again. Of course this does not fortify the country from another terrorist attack that may once again ruin the situation; but transparency and bearing responsibility helped the government gain trust and sympathy from others. No one sympathizes with bombing a plane or attacking tourists who came along with their children to our countries to spend their vacations. Talk of holding onto sovereignty when it comes to services, like flights and tourism, is futile. It is in each country’s interests to allow airliners and the latter’s countries to take the measures they need to be reassured over the safety of their flights and citizens, and this includes the additional security search of passengers and luggage. Those who travel through the airport of the Emirati capital, Abu Dhabi, to the U.S. do not feel sovereignty has been harmed due to the presence of American security personnel or employees at border controls, prior to departure. If countries want tourists, visitors and booming economic activities, they must take initiative and implement required measures to reassure other governments even if that requires including the latter in their inspection procedures as this does not detract from sovereignty, but instead enhances trust.

News Bulletin Achieves Since 2006 Click Here to go to the LCCC Daily English/Arabic News Buletins Archieves Since 2006

News Bulletin Achieves Since 2006
Click Here to go to the LCCC Daily English/Arabic News Buletins Archieves Since 2006