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Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.
Go and learn what this means, "I desire mercy, not sacrifice." For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners."
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 09/09-13: "As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth; and he said to him, ‘Follow me.’ And he got up and followed him. And as he sat at dinner in the house, many tax-collectors and sinners came and were sitting with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, ‘Why does your teacher eat with tax-collectors and sinners?’But when he heard this, he said, ‘Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means, "I desire mercy, not sacrifice." For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners."

Jesus judged me faithful and appointed me to his service, even though I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a man of violence
First Letter to Timothy 01/12-19: "I am grateful to Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because he judged me faithful and appointed me to his service, even though I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a man of violence. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am the foremost. But for that very reason I received mercy, so that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display the utmost patience, making me an example to those who would come to believe in him for eternal life. To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen. I am giving you these instructions, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies made earlier about you, so that by following them you may fight the good fight,having faith and a good conscience. By rejecting conscience, certain persons have suffered shipwreck in the faith;"

Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on November 15-16/15
Egypt Enters the Danger Zone/Middle East Briefying/November 15/15
Pentagon to Escalate Syrian Bombing Campaign/Middle East Briefying/November 15/15
ISIL Cannot be Defeated in Iraq without Major Reforms/Middle East Briefying/November 15/15
What France and Europe Might Learn/Bassam Tawil/Gatestone Institute/November 15/15
False Friends: The Global War Against Israel/Guy Millière/Gatestone Institute/November 15/15

Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin for Lebanese Related News published on November 15-16/15
Aoun's Text Interview with Pat Robertson -CBN of the USA, , September 12/2002
Raids House of Suspect who Smuggled Dahieh Bombers from Syria
Mashnouq: Bourj Barajneh Attackers Held in 48 hrs, Political Agreement Only Way to Security
Hariri: Determining Destiny of Presidency Reactivates Executive Authority
FPM-March 8 Candidate Antonio al-Hashem Elected Head of Bar Association
FPM-March 8 Candidate Antonio al-Hashem Elected Head of Bar Association
Abou Faour Calls for 'Comprehensive Political Settlement' after Dahieh, Paris Attacks
Rahi Condemns Beirut and Paris Blasts, Touches on Election of Presidnet
Armed Dispute in Beddawi Camp Injures Two
Ibrahim Urges 'Preemptive' Anti-Terror Hits, Expects 'Progress' in Captives Case
Lebanese, Syrian Held for Role in Dahieh Attack as Car, Money, IDs Seized
Lebanese Army Bombs Militants from Air and Land amid Russian Raids near Border

Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin For Miscellaneous Reports And News published on November 15-16/15
World Leaders Unite to Condemn Paris Terror Despite Syria Split
Obama, Putin Agree Need for U.N.-Negotiated Syria Talks, Ceasefire
Global Arrest Warrant for One of 3 Brothers Tied to Paris Attacks as Probe Advances
Saudi Seized over 22 Million Amphetamine Pills in a Year
Yazidis Burn Muslim Homes in Iraq's Sinjar
Iraq Says Shared Intel on Threats to France, U.S., Iran
Qatar PM's Visit to France Goes Ahead despite Attacks
Israel Minister Urges Europe to Focus Less on Rights, More on Security
15 African Migrants Found 'Shot Dead' on Egypt-Israel Border
12 Bahrainis Jailed, Stripped of Nationality over Bombings
Palestinians Arrested over Murder of Israeli Father and Son
Iran Says up to Assad to Decide on Syria Election Run
U.S., Saudi Leaders to Meet after Paris Attacks

Links From Jihad Watch Site for November 15-16/15
NATO top dog on Paris jihad massacre: “This is not a fight between the Islamic world and the western world”
U.S. Embassy in Paris turned away Americans who sought shelter there during jihad attacks
Minnesota state representative candidate: “ISIS isn’t necessarily evil”
In the wake of the Paris jihad attacks, France says it’s “essential” to combat…climate change
Bernie Sanders: “Climate change is directly related to the growth of terrorism”
FBI top dog won’t release motive in Chattanooga jihad shootings: “We don’t want to smear people”
Main target in Paris jihad attack: Jewish-owned Bataclan Theater, frequent target of Muslims and BDS groups
After Paris jihad massacre, Lindsey Graham wants to double funding for Syrian “refugees” and bring even more to U.S.
Iceland paper: “The Attack in Paris: Racists more dangerous than Islamists”
Raymond Ibrahim: The Grand Lesson of the Paris Jihad
MSNBC frets “tsunami of hatred” will meet Muslims in France

From Aoun's Camouflaging & Contradicting Archive
Aoun's Text Interview with Pat Robertson -CBN of the USA, , September 12/2002
Lebanon’s Former Prime Minister Seeks Freedom from Syria
September 12, 2002
CBN.com Syria is a nation which is known to support terrorism, but for years its agenda of subversion in Lebanon, Israel, and elsewhere has gone unchecked. Now Congress may vote on the Syria Accountability Act. To learn more about the persecution of Christians, and the threats posed by Syria, Pat Robertson spoke with General Michel Aoun, the elected Prime Minister of Lebanon who was forced from power when Syrian forces seized control of Lebanon.
PAT ROBERTSON: Just think, Lebanon was a model country, a beautiful country, and the Christians elected the president. The Christians have roughly half of the population of Lebanon, it’s a little less than 50 percent now. But they are second class citizens, they’re being trampled underfoot by the Syrians, and nobody seems to be doing anything about it.
With me is General Michel Aoun who is the former prime minister of Lebanon and the former commander-in-chief of the armed forces. General Aoun, delighted to have you with us on The 700 Club, welcome. Tell me about Hezbollah. We hear about the terrorist group Hezbollah. What relation do they have to Syria?
GENERAL AOUN: Hezbollah is not a separate entity from Syria. It is under the Syrian operational control.
ROBERTSON: The so-called terrorist group is under the operational control of Syria?
AOUN: Yes, 100 percent, no question about that.
ROBERTSON: I understand that Damascus is the headquarters of a number of other terrorist organizations that have received aid and assistance from the Syrians. Can you tell us what they are, those other terrorist organizations?
AOUN: There are about 11 organizations of terrorism in Damascus. Among them, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, the Democratic Front and the General Command Front of the Palestinians [Liberation Army], all of them are listed in the United States as classified as terrorist organizations.
ROBERTSON: I understand that there were estimated as many as 10,000 Katyusha rockets that were moved from Syria into Lebanon to reinforce Hezbollah against Israel. Is something like that the case?
AOUN: Yes, since Lebanon was occupied by Syria, they extended the base of their terror operations to Lebanon, and they are stationed in Syria, but they act from the Lebanese territory.
ROBERTSON: Bashar Assad [leader of Syria] made a shocking statement that you called into account. He said that all Israelis are combatants and therefore there’s no such thing as an innocent civilian in Israel. Could you comment on that?
AOUN: Yes, during the Arab Summit in Beirut last March, I think, he made this declaration that there is no civilian in Israel, all of them are military.
ROBERTSON: So you can shoot any one of them you want to as a combatant?
AOUN: He did not say it like that directly, but it means that.
ROBERTSON: All right. What happened and how did Syria get control of Lebanon? Lebanon was essentially a Christian country. How did they gain this dominance in the country?
AOUN: They first destabilized the country by opening the Syrian borders to the Palestinians and they came from Syria with the refugees who were stationed in Lebanon. Together they destabilized Lebanon and called it a civil war, but it was not a civil war.
ROBERTSON: Then they came in to stop the so-called civil war that they engendered?
AOUN: They created it. That’s what we call in military terminology “indirect strategy.” You make a problem and then you come to solve it.
ROBERTSON: What is the danger to world peace? We are engaged in a war on terror and yet the Syrians are in the United Nations Security Council how can that be?
AOUN: It's a big contradiction that we have to solve in the world. Because people, the terrorist regimes, they are still, you know, having good stature in the world. And there are terrorist regimes like Syria that are generating terrorist organizations. Therefore, I propose a plan that first, to disarm the organizations; second, to democratize the regimes; and then to help them to develop their country.
ROBERTSON: What do you think of President Bush’s initiative to go against Saddam Hussein to help democratize Iraq? Is that a wise course or not?
AOUN: I would like personally to see that all of the United Nations resolutions be implemented. And if Iraq complies with these resolutions, maybe it would be a happy end for everybody.
ROBERTSON: Okay. What is happening to the Christians? When I was there in 1972, Beirut was the Paris of the Middle East, a beautiful city, and then little by little it’s been torn asunder. What is the role of a lot of the Christians now? What is being done to them in Lebanon?
AOUN: They are rejected as second class citizens and they don’t enjoy liberty and freedom. And they are threatened.
ROBERTSON: We have pictures of Lebanese Christians being beaten by Lebanese soldiers who were apparently in the employ of Syria. How does that happen?
AOUN: There are some collaborators in Lebanon, especially among the politicians. We have a puppet government, and they represent the Syrians instead of representing the Lebanese people. They do everything that they are asked to do. Between those, they have some military units especially organized for that. And between these military units, we have many intelligence agents and they participate all the time to torture and arrest and beat people.
ROBERTSON: Arrest, torturing, and beating, and no more freedom of speech now.
AOUN: No, no more.
ROBERTSON: This resolution is before the Congress, the Syria Accountability Act. What would you like to see done and see America do?
AOUN: First we would like America to support this bill, to vote for it in the Congress and the Senate. And also to pray for the Lebanese, you know, to liberate Lebanon. Because Lebanon is a pluralist society that may help spread the human values all around.
ROBERTSON: You are a man of great courage, and I thank you for being here. Many times your life has been in danger and you have been extremely brave, so thank you very much for being with us. God bless you.
Ladies and gentlemen, what the General was speaking about, there is an initiative now before the United States Congress called the Syria Accountability Act. It is supported by 150 Democrat and Republican sponsors in the House of Representatives and a remarkable 35 sponsors in the Senate. The principal sponsor in the Senate is Senator Barbara Boxer, a Democrat of California and Senator Rick Santorum, a Republican from Pennsylvania. So it is a bipartisan initiative.
This picture on your screen that you see shows, on the one hand, there is a rally of the Christians to pray and celebrate and mourn with America for its attack on September 11th. And on the right hand side are the Syrians and those opposed to the Christians, burning the American flag. So that’s the choice we have.
Folks, this bill is kind of like a no-brainer. But we understand there’s a gentleman named Dave Satterfield [U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state for Near East affairs] in the State Department, who is opposed to the Christians in Lebanon. And he wants Lebanon to stay under the Syrian domination. But I don’t think one holdover from the Clinton administration should stop a bill that has this kind of broad sponsorship in the Congress. And I understand the White House is asking Henry Hyde not to bring it forth in the House.
But it needs to come out in the House of Representatives, and the President needs to get behind it. He’s a Christian and he’s against terror and to think that there are 11 terrorist regimes being given sanctuary in Syria, which in turn is tied in with Iran, which in turn is tied in with, I’m sure, Al Qaeda and the other terrorists that have been coming against America.
This is the bill. I think you ought to call not just your congressman, but the White House. This has overwhelming sponsorship. It is called the Syria Accountability Act. I would like you to call the White House and say the President should to stand on the side of the Christians in Lebanon, and get Syria out of Lebanon, and be free as it should be, and have its own government and its own authority as it had for many years. And the Syrians are invaders and they ought to come out of there. The White House phone number is 1-202-456-1414, fax number is 1-202-456-2461.
Or you can write to the White House, and address it President Bush who I know would be on the side of freedom and liberty, and this would be a blow against terror. We want to shut down 10 or 11 terrorist organizations currently headquartered in Syria, if you can believe it, a nation on the United Nation’s Security Council. Write or call the White House, also let your congressman or senator know. This needs to get passed. If the State Department doesn’t like it, that’s tough luck. I think its time we stand up for freedom around the world, and not just kowtow to terrorist regimes who we think might help us somewhere along the way. No way! Syria is bad news and we need to hold them accountable and get them out of Lebanon.

Raids House of Suspect who Smuggled Dahieh Bombers from Syria
Naharnet/November 15/15/Agents from the Internal Security Forces Intelligence Branch raided Sunday the house of a suspect accused of helping the suicide bombers who staged the Bourj al-Barajneh bombings cross from Syria into Lebanon. “Intelligence Branch agents raided in the northern Bekaa town of al-Labweh the house of the detainee A. S., who is suspected of having helped the two suicide bombers who blew themselves up in Bourj al-Barajneh in crossing from Syria into Lebanon via Arsal,” state-run National News Agency said. It said the raiding force seized fake documents and a car “suspected of having been used in the transfer of the terrorists.” The detainee was arrested on Saturday while his father was arrested Sunday for further investigations, NNA added. The development comes four days after two Islamic State suicide bombers killed 43 people and wounded around 239 others in the Beirut southern suburb of Bourj al-Barajneh, in the worst such attack in years. On Sunday, Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq announced that "the whole suicide bombing network and its supporters were arrested in the 48 hours following the explosion," calling the arrests "an extraordinary achievement.""The detained include seven Syrians and two Lebanese, one of them a (would-be) suicide bomber and the other a trafficker who smuggled them across the border from Syria," Mashnouq said. He said the Syrians were detained in a Palestinian refugee camp located in Bourj al-Barajneh and a flat in the capital's eastern district of Ashrafieh that had been used to prepare the explosive belts. Security forces arrested the Lebanese would-be suicide attacker in the northern port city of Tripoli after he had failed to detonate his suicide belt, Mashnouq said. The initial plan was apparently to send five suicide bombers to the Hizbullah-owned Great Prophet Hospital near the targeted Bourj al-Barajneh area, he said, but heavy security forced them to change the target to a densely populated area.

Mashnouq: Bourj Barajneh Attackers Held in 48 hrs, Political Agreement Only Way to Security
Naharnet/November 15/15/Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq stated on Sunday that the Internal Security Forces Information Branch was able to arrest within 48 hours the whole network that was responsible for the Bourj al-Barajneh blast. “The Information Branch recorded an exceptional achievement and was able to arrest within 48 hours the entire network that stood behind the Bourj al-Barajneh bombings. The Security Forces are doing well in light of the political disputes,” said Mashnouq in a press conference. “Investigations have shown that the attack was planned to take place in the al-Rasoul al-Aazam hospital with five suicide attackers, but the assailants changed the plans because of the security measures,” he added, assuring that the security forces will not cease to pursuit terrorism and the terrorists. “The network included 7 people in addition to the suicide attackers. It is clear that there is a major decision to carry out bombings in Lebanon,” lamented the Minister. “The Lebanese have proven that there is no environment that nurtures terrorism in Lebanon.” Mashnouq addressed the political figures saying: “We should take good care of Lebanon and find solutions (for political disputes). Lebanon is not on the international map, only Yemen and Syria are. “We must realize this fact and work on that basis to preserve the Lebanese form the criminal takfiris. Political stability is the only means to achieve security in the country. I hope that this achievement paves way for a serious political dialogue,” he concluded.
Twin suicide bombings rocked the area of Bourj al-Barajneh south of Beirut on Thursday killing at least 46 people and wounding more than 200. The Information Branch was able to arrest five Syrians and a Palestinian over suspected involvement in the attack, reports said. Investigators have also identified the network behind the schemed operation.

Hariri: Determining Destiny of Presidency Reactivates Executive Authority
Naharnet/November 15/15/Al-Mustaqbal Movement leader and former Prime Minister Saad Hariri stated on Sunday that he is eager for a solution that meets the will of the Lebanese in a bid to end the vacuum at the top state post.
“We are eagerly waiting for a course that meets the will of the majority of the Lebanese in order to find a solution for the presidential vacuum,” said Hariri via twitter. “We have always called for setting a road map that primarily begins with an agreement on a president,” he added. The former PM stressed saying: “Deciding the fate of the presidency is the proper entrance for a settlement to re-produce the executive authority and the electoral law.”“Thwarting strife in Lebanon requires fateful decisions that would prevent the country from going into the surrounding wars.”He concluded reiterating solidarity with the victims of the Bourj al-Barajneh blast, he said: “Solidarity with our people in Bourj al-Barajneh is a moral and national responsibility. The unity of the Lebanese people must prevail over any other consideration and conflict."At least 43 people were killed and 230 others were wounded in a suicide bombing that rocked the Bourj al-Barajneh area south of Beirut on Thursday. Lebanon has been without a president since the term of President Michel Suleiman ended in May 2014. The rival political camps of March 14 and March 8 camps have failed so far to agree on a successor over political disputes.

FPM-March 8 Candidate Antonio al-Hashem Elected Head of Bar Association
Naharnet/November 15/15/Antonio al-Hashem, the candidate backed by the Free Patriotic Movement and the March 8 coalition, was elected Sunday as head of the Beirut Bar Association, replacing George Jreij. Hashem garnered 2,236 votes as Pierre Hanna, who was backed by the March 14 forces and the Progressive Socialist Party, received 1,513 votes. Independent candidate Nader Kaspar won 371 votes. As for the membership of the association's council, the FPM and the March 8 forces won two seats – Antonio al-Hashem and Zaher Azouri – as March 14 and the PSP won two seats – Pierre Hanna and Jamil Qbayres.

Abou Faour Calls for 'Comprehensive Political Settlement' after Dahieh, Paris Attacks
Naharnet/November 15/15/Health Minister Wael Abou Faour said Sunday that the Progressive Socialist Party led by MP Walid Jumblat has become more convinced of the need for a “comprehensive political settlement” in Lebanon after the deadly attacks in Bourj al-Barajneh and Paris. “This moment should be a moment for national unity and the national conscience must awaken,” Abou Faour said at a PSP ceremony. “Prior to this bombing, we were stressing the importance of a political settlement ... and we wanted the (Thursday-Friday legislative) session to be the launchpad for a broader political settlement that involves the cabinet and the election of a president,” the minister, who is close to Jumblat, added. He noted that the bloody events in Dahieh and Paris have made the PSP more convinced that a “comprehensive political settlement” is needed. “If the national interest fails to unite us, let us unite for the blood that has been shed, as no one can guarantee that similar bombings won't target other Lebanese regions,” Abou Faour added, warning that the attacks were aimed at stirring sectarian sedition. “The bombings will not discourage us but will rather give us an additional motive to launch this call” for a political settlement, he said. Abou Faour's remarks come four days after two Islamic State suicide bombers killed 43 people and wounded around 239 others in the Beirut southern suburb of Bourj al-Barajneh, in the worst such attack in years.

Rahi Condemns Beirut and Paris Blasts, Touches on Election of Presidnet
Naharnet/November 15/15/Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi urged Lebanese factions on Sunday to get rid of the obstacles hampering the election of a president, as he extended condolences over the victims of the Bourj al-Barajneh and Paris bombings that left several dead, the National News Agency said. “We urge the Christian political forces to seek to remove all the hurdles hampering the election of a president, and to facilitate the process as fast as possible and to agree with the allying political factions on a new electoral law,” said Rahi during the Sunday mass in Bkirki. He concluded extending his condolences over the victims of the blasts that rocked Bourj al-Barajneh and the French capital recently, he said: “We strongly condemn the criminal acts and pray for the souls of the victims.” Lebanon has been without a president since the term of President Michel Suleiman ended in May 2014. The conflict between the rival March 8 and March 14 camps have thwarted all attempts so far to elect a successor. On Thursday a blast ripped through Bourj al-Barajneh area in south Beirut leaving 43 dead and more than 239 injured. A similar terrorist act took place in France on Friday when at least eight gunmen struck numerous locations around the French capital, in the bloodiest attack in Europe for more than a decade.

Armed Dispute in Beddawi Camp Injures Two
Naharnet/November 15/15/Two Individuals were injured overnight in an armed dispute in Tripoli's al-Beddawi Palestinian refugee camp, the state-run National News Agency said on Sunday. The conflict, that erupted between a man from the al-Shams family and another from the Abou Arab family, inside the camp quickly developed into a shooting that injured both men. The actual cause of the clash remains unknown.

Ibrahim Urges 'Preemptive' Anti-Terror Hits, Expects 'Progress' in Captives Case
Naharnet/November 15/15/General Security chief Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim has called for “preemptive” strikes in the fight against terrorism, as he revealed that he expects “progress” in the case of the captive troops and policemen. In an interview with Iran's official news agency IRNA, Ibrahim stressed the importance of “exchanging intel and expertise and coordination among nations in order to achieve the highest extent of success in the anti-terror fight.”And as he called for confronting terrorism through “the preemptive security strategy,” Ibrahim noted that “the Lebanese General Security was behind developing the preemptive security theory, which is the ability to foil any act of terror before it happens.”“Lebanon and all countries in the region are facing conspiracies and schemes seeking to undermine their security and stability and to plunge them into chaos through terrorist acts, but the General Security agency has managed to prevent a lot of operations through arresting many individuals,” Ibrahim added. “But this does not mean that the terrorists will stop trying and the General Security agency is in full readiness and preparedness for the confrontation no matter the sacrifices,” he went on to say, reminding that “Lebanon is relatively secure compared to the rest of countries.” Citing security “complications” such as “the unrest in Palestinian camps and the infiltration of terrorists into Syrian refugee encampments,” Ibrahim reassured the Lebanese and noted that the challenges can be confronted through “the political and popular support for the work of security agencies.”The general's remarks come four days after two Islamic State suicide bombers killed 43 people and wounded around 239 others in the Beirut southern suburb of Bourj al-Barajneh, in the worst such attack in years. On Sunday, Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq announced that "the whole suicide bombing network and its supporters were arrested in the 48 hours following the explosion," calling the arrests "an extraordinary achievement." Separately, Ibrahim revealed that he had proposed “additional solutions” during his latest trip to Qatar over the case of the abducted servicemen, expecting imminent “progress” in the case. The Lebanese soldiers and policemen were taken hostage during a deadly raid by the jihadist Islamic State and al-Nusra Front groups on the northeastern border town of Arsal in August 2014. The extremists have so far executed four servicemen and are threatening to kill more if the Lebanese state does not fulfill their demands which include the release of Islamists from Lebanese jails.

Lebanese, Syrian Held for Role in Dahieh Attack as Car, Money, IDs Seized
Naharnet/November 15/15/A Lebanese man and a Syrian man have been arrested over their role in plotting and financing the deadly Bourj al-Barajneh suicide bombings as a car and fake documents have been seized, security forces said on Sunday. “Lebanese national Ibrahim Ahmed Rayed and Syrian citizen Mustafa Ahmed al-Jarf have been arrested,” the General Security said in a statement. “During interrogation under the military prosecutor's supervision, the first man confessed to taking part, along with others, in the plotting for the terrorist suicide attack that occurred in Bourj al-Barajneh on November 12,” it added. Rayed also confessed to having transferred one of the two suicide bombers from Syria to northern Lebanon, and then to Beirut, where he gave him explosives, fuses and light weapons, the statement said. Rayed received his orders from “S Sh., one of the emirs (leaders) of the Islamic State group in Syria,” the General Security added. It said the Lebanese man was also in charge of “overseeing the terrorist network that was operating in Tripoli, Ashrafieh and Bourj al-Barajneh.” The Syrian detainee al-Jarf meanwhile confessed to transferring money to the network's members. The General Security said a large amount of money was seized in his possession. “The rest of the terrorist network's members are being pursued,” it added. Earlier on Sunday, agents from the Internal Security Forces Intelligence Branch raided the house of a suspect accused of helping the suicide bombers cross from Syria into Lebanon. “Intelligence Branch agents raided in the northern Bekaa town of al-Labweh the house of the detainee A. S., who is suspected of having helped the two suicide bombers who blew themselves up in Bourj al-Barajneh in crossing from Syria into Lebanon via Arsal,” state-run National News Agency said. It said the raiding force seized "fake Lebanese IDs, $450,000 in cash and a car suspected of having been used in the transfer of the terrorists.”The detainee was arrested on Saturday while his father was arrested Sunday for further investigations, NNA added. The developments come four days after two Islamic State suicide bombers killed 43 people and wounded around 239 others in the Beirut southern suburb of Bourj al-Barajneh, in the worst such attack in years. On Sunday, Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq announced that "the whole suicide bombing network and its supporters were arrested in the 48 hours following the explosion," calling the arrests "an extraordinary achievement.""The detained include seven Syrians and two Lebanese, one of them a (would-be) suicide bomber and the other a trafficker who smuggled them across the border from Syria," Mashnouq said. He said the Syrians were detained in a Palestinian refugee camp located in Bourj al-Barajneh and a flat in the capital's eastern district of Ashrafieh that had been used to prepare the explosive belts. Security forces arrested the Lebanese would-be suicide attacker in the northern port city of Tripoli after he had failed to detonate his suicide belt, Mashnouq said. The initial plan was apparently to send five suicide bombers to the Hizbullah-owned Great Prophet Hospital near the targeted Bourj al-Barajneh area, he said, but heavy security forced them to change the target to a densely populated area.

Lebanese Army Bombs Militants from Air and Land amid Russian Raids near Border
Naharnet/November 15/15/The Lebanese army opened artillery and mortar fire and launched helicopter raids Sunday against the positions of the extremist militant groups in the outskirts of the eastern border towns, amid reports of Russian airstrikes on Syrian regions near Lebanon's border. The army went on alert along the eastern border as its shelling caused casualties among the ranks of the militants in the outskirts of Arsal and Ras Baalbek, al-Jadeed and LBCI reported. Lebanese military helicopters also bombed several militant positions in Ras Baalbek's outskirts amid artillery shelling against the same posts, al-Jadeed said. The army also fired mortars from its positions in Arsal's Wadi Hmeid as its helicopters hit the posts of the armed groups for the first time in that region, al-Jadeed TV added. Meanwhile, the sounds of explosions echoed across Lebanon's northern Bekaa region as “Russian helicopters” bombed the outskirts of the Syrian town of Qara and an area facing the outskirts of the Lebanese region of al-Qaa, Lebanon's National News Agency reported. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also reported “Russian airstrikes” on areas in the Syrian region of Qalamoun. Earlier in the day, NNA said residents in the northern Lebanese region of Wadi Khaled saw “three Russian helicopters” flying over the Lebanese-Syrian border around 3:30 pm.

World Leaders Unite to Condemn Paris Terror Despite Syria Split
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/November 15/15/World leaders united Sunday to denounce terrorism at a heavily-guarded summit in Turkey after the gun and bomb assaults in Paris, despite divisions over conflict-riven Syria.U.S. President Barack Obama, Vladimir Putin of Russia, China's President Xi Jinping and other leaders gathered at the Mediterranean resort of Antalya two days after the Paris attacks claimed by Islamic State jihadists. Obama condemned the killing of 129 people in Paris as well as a double suicide bombing in Ankara last month as attacks "on the civilised world" and vowed to "redouble our efforts" to eliminate the Islamic State network. "We stand in solidarity with France in hunting down the perpetrators of this crime and bringing them to justice," Obama declared after talks with his host, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The Paris killings darkened the mood of the summit of the Group of 20 top world economies, with security and the Syrian conflict now eclipsing an economic agenda that will also deal with the spreading refugee crisis, climate change and tax avoidance. - 'Strong, tough message' -Erdogan said the summit agenda was now "very different" given the massacre in Paris, with the leaders to condemn the attacks in their communique or a separate statement. "I believe that our stance against international terrorism will find its expression in a very strong, tough message at the G20 summit," Erdogan said. "This terrorist action is not only against French people but all humanity." Russia's Putin said that overcoming global terror was possible only "if all the international community unites its efforts".Putin is key to the gathering, which is taking place without French leader Francois Hollande who remains home to lead his shaken country in the aftermath of the attacks. Russia launched its own Syrian air campaign in September but the West suspects the Russian bombardment is aimed at propping up the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, a difference that risks driving a wedge through the summit.
European Union President Donald Tusk told reporters that Russian actions in Syria must be focused on Islamic State and not the anti-Assad opposition.
The summit offers the possibility of the first encounter between Obama and Putin since Russia launched its Syrian air campaign, although the White House said no formal summit is so far scheduled. Their icy body language at previous encounters has grabbed as many headlines as their comments. Erdogan wants to use the summit to cement his status as a global leader after winning a resounding victory in an election last month, held three weeks after a twin suicide bombing in Ankara that killed 102 people and was blamed on Islamic State militants.
- Heightened security -All musical events, including at the official dinner on Sunday night, have been cancelled as a mark of respect for the Paris victims and Turkish state media said the already tight security at the summit was stepped up. Turkey is deeply opposed to Russia's air strikes but has received only a lukewarm reaction so far to its proposal for a safe zone free of Islamic State jihadists to be created inside Syria as a haven for refugees. Top diplomats gathered in Vienna on Saturday agreed a fixed calendar for Syria that would see a transition government in six months and elections in 18 months but failed to agree on the future of Assad. The refugee crisis is a key topic at the summit here, with Turkey housing some 2.2 million Syrian refugees from the conflict but the European Union urging Ankara to do more to prevent migrants undertaking risky boat crossings to the EU. European Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker warned that the attacks in Paris should in no way poison the sensitive debate over refugees. "Those who organised, who perpetrated the attacks are the very same people who the refugees are fleeing and not the opposite," Juncker said. Discussions on climate change will assume greater importance than usual coming just ahead of a U.N. conference in Paris that aims to agree a global pact to curb warming of the planet.

Obama, Putin Agree Need for U.N.-Negotiated Syria Talks, Ceasefire
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/November 15/15/U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed on Sunday on the need for U.N.-sponsored peace talks and a ceasefire to resolve years of war in Syria, a White House official said. The two leaders spoke during a short and unannounced summit meeting over a coffee table on the margins of a G20 summit in the Turkish resort of Antalya. "President Obama and President Putin agreed on the need for a Syrian-led and Syrian-owned political transition, which would be preceded by U.N.-mediated negotiations between the Syrian opposition and regime as well a ceasefire," the official told reporters after the meeting. The two "held a constructive discussion" that lasted about 35 minutes, the official added, calling the need for a solution for Syria "an imperative made all the more urgent by the horrifying terrorist attacks in Paris." The official, who wished to remain anonymous, said Obama welcomed efforts by all nations to confront Islamic State jihadists in Syria amid Western suspicions that Russia's intervention is really aimed at propping up Syrian President Bashar Assad. A top Kremlin official said that while Moscow and Washington shared "strategic objectives" to fight Islamic State, divergences still existed. "Differences on tactics still remain," Putin's foreign policy advisor Yuri Ushakov told reporters on the sidelines of the summit. Obama also offered his "deep condolences for the loss of Russian life" in the bombing of a Metrojet passenger flight in Egypt killing all 224 people on board in Russia's worst air disaster.

Global Arrest Warrant for One of 3 Brothers Tied to Paris Attacks as Probe Advances
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/November 15/15/Belgium issued an international arrest warrant Sunday for one of three brothers linked to the brutal attacks in Paris that killed 129 people, as the probe spread across Europe. As thousands gathered in central Paris in mourning and solidarity, authorities in at least five European countries scrambled to tie together leads and hunt down possible accomplices. Security sources said one of the three brothers died in the Bataclan concert hall where the worst of the bloodshed took place, while another had been detained along with six other people in Belgium. Seven gunmen wearing suicide belts died during the attacks, which have been claimed by the Islamic State group -- either at the Stade de France stadium, or in and around the Bataclan venue. The sports minister said at least one of the bombers who detonated their explosives near the stadium had tried to enter the venue where France were playing Germany in an international football match at the time. Prosecutors say they believe three groups of attackers were involved in the Paris carnage, raising the possibility that one group may still be at large. It is now known that three of the suicide bombers were French nationals, but two of the men had lived in the Belgian capital Brussels. Two cars used in the attacks were hired in Belgium. One was quickly found near the Bataclan venue, and one overnight on Saturday in the suburb of Montreuil east of Paris, with two AK47 rifles inside. Witnesses said the second car, a black Seat, was used by gunmen who shot dozens of people in bars and restaurants in the hip Canal St Martin area of Paris.
Attacker identified
The first attacker to be named by investigators is Omar Ismail Mostefai, a 29-year-old father and French citizen, who was identified from a severed finger among the carnage at the Bataclan, where 89 people were killed after heavily armed men in wearing explosives vests stormed into the venue. Police detained six people close to Mostefai, including his father, brother and sister-in-law, judicial sources said. Born in the modest Paris suburb of Courcouronnes, he had eight convictions for petty crimes but had never served a prison sentence. "It's a crazy thing, it's madness. Yesterday I was in Paris and I saw what a mess this was," one of his brothers told AFP before he was taken into custody on Saturday night. Belgian prosecutors said two of the attackers were Frenchmen who had lived in Brussels, at least one in the neighborhood of Molenbeek which has been linked to Islamic radicalism. Premier Charles Michel conceded Molenbeek, a poor immigrant neighborhood known as a hotbed of radicalization, was a "gigantic problem."Meanwhile, German authorities were questioning a man from Montenegro found last week with a car-load of eight Kalashnikov rifles, three pistols and explosives. The man, who had been heading for Paris, has refused to cooperate with police. The discovery of a Syrian passport near the body of one attacker has raised fears that some of the assailants might have entered Europe as part of the huge influx of people fleeing Syria's civil war. Greek and Serbian authorities have confirmed the passport belonged to a man who registered as a refugee in October on the island of Leros and applied for asylum in Serbia a few days later. But European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, who has urged EU countries to take in refugees, said there was no need for a complete review of the bloc's policies. "Those who organized, who perpetrated the attacks are the very same people who the refugees are fleeing and not the opposite," he said.
Paris in mourning
Paris was plunged into three days of mourning as residents struggled to come to terms with the latest shock, 10 months after jihadists hit satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and a Jewish supermarket. Although much of the city was shut and the government had banned public demonstrations on security grounds, thousands flocked to lay flowers and lit candles at the sites of the violence. By early evening, the Place de la Republique square was full of people standing in quiet solidarity while many more joined a solemn memorial at Notre Dame cathedral. Meanwhile, outside the Bataclan venue, 38-year-old Herve came to pay his respects with his six-year-old son. "We need to get out, you shouldn't stay at home," he told AFP. "You need to go out and look, get a feel for yourself of what happened." The Islamic State group said they carried out the attacks that left a trail of destruction. The group said they were acting in revenge for French air strikes in Syria and threatened further violence in France "as long as it continues its Crusader campaign." President Francois Hollande has called the assault an "act of war" and vowed to hit back "without mercy."Forensic teams were still scouring the Bataclan venue, where three attackers burst in shouting "Allahu akbar" (God is greatest) and sprayed gunfire during a gig by Californian band Eagles of Death Metal. They are believed to have executed hostages one by one after rounding them up near the stage. Videos have shown terrified people scrambling out of a door and hanging out of windows to escape the violence. As armed police stormed the venue, two gunmen blew themselves up, while the third was shot by police. World leaders united Sunday to denounce terrorism at a heavily-guarded G20 summit in Turkey and observed a minute's silence in respect of those who were killed. "We stand in solidarity with France in hunting down the perpetrators of this crime and bringing them to justice," U.S. President Barack Obama said after talks with his host, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Russia's Vladimir Putin said overcoming global terror was possible only "if all the international community unites its efforts."

Saudi Seized over 22 Million Amphetamine Pills in a Year
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/November 15/15/Saudi authorities, where drug traffickers are sentenced to death, have seized 22.4 million amphetamine pills in one year, an interior ministry spokesman said Sunday. Around 28.8 tons of hashish and 26.2 kilograms of heroin have also been seized during the past Hijri Islamic year which ended in mid-October, the spokesman said in a statement published on the official SPA news agency. In their campaign against drug-trafficking, authorities have also confiscated hundreds of weapons, including 184 machineguns as well as rifles and guns, in addition to over 41 million riyals (11 million dollars), said the statement. During eight months of the past Hijri year, 1,776 drug traffickers were arrested in the kingdom. Under the Gulf state's strict Islamic legal code, murder, drug trafficking, armed robbery, rape and apostasy are all punishable by death. Last month, Lebanese airport security arrested Saudi Prince Abdel Mohsen Bin Walid Bin Abdulaziz and four others after nearly two tons of Captagon capsules and cocaine were found waiting to be loaded onto their private plane at Beirut airport.

Yazidis Burn Muslim Homes in Iraq's Sinjar
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/November 15/15/Members of Iraq's Yazidi minority, which was brutally attacked by the Islamic State group, looted and burned Muslim homes in Sinjar after its recapture from the jihadists, witnesses said Sunday. IS overran the northern town last year, targeting Yazidis -- whose faith it considers heretical -- in a campaign of massacres, enslavement and rape that the United Nations has described as a possible genocide. Yazidis fleeing the IS onslaught in August 2014 told AFP that some of their Muslim neighbors enabled the attacks, identifying them for the jihadists. Sinjar was recaptured from IS on Friday in a major operation led by forces from Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region and backed by U.S.-led air strikes. "Muslim houses were looted and burned," especially those that had "Sunni" written on them after IS seized the town, said one witness, who declined to be named. An AFP journalist saw houses in Sinjar that had been marked "Sunni", possibly as a means for IS to identify which homes should be protected. "I saw one of the mosques burned at the hands of Yazidis," the witness said. A second witness, who also asked not to be identified by name, also reported seeing Yazidis looting Muslim homes and setting them alight. Kurdish security commanders denied that burning and looting was taking place, and accounts of the unrest could not be independently confirmed. Rights group Amnesty International documented attacks by Yazidi militiamen against two Sunni Arab villages north of Sinjar in January, in which 21 people were killed and numerous houses burned. Looting and burning has followed the recapture of other areas in Iraq from IS, sparking resentment among residents and posing a threat to long-term stability.

Iraq Says Shared Intel on Threats to France, U.S., Iran
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/November 15/15/Iraq shared intelligence on threats of attacks on France, the United States and Iran, Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari said on Sunday, after jihadists killed at least 129 people in Paris. "Sources in Iraqi intelligence obtained information that some countries would be targeted, especially France, America and Iran, and they were informed of this," Jaafari said in a statement. Asked if the intelligence was directly related to Friday's attacks, ministry spokesman Ahmed Jamal said it had indicated that a number of countries, especially in Europe, were at risk of attack by the Islamic State jihadist group. Jamal said the intelligence had been obtained months ago and declined to provide further details on the nature of the information. IS, the jihadist group that has seized control of larges parts of Syria and Iraq, claimed responsibility for the attacks in Paris at the packed Bataclan concert hall, restaurants and bars, and outside the Stade de France national stadium.

Qatar PM's Visit to France Goes Ahead despite Attacks
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/November 15/15/Qatar's prime minister went ahead with a scheduled visit to France on Sunday despite the attacks in Paris that left at least 129 people dead, a government spokesman said.
Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al-Thani and senior officials left Doha for the three-day visit, Qatar's state media reported. The visit to France is Thani's first since he became prime minister in June 2013. France and gas-rich Qatar have close economic and military ties. In May, Qatar signed a deal with French defense group Dassault to buy 24 Rafale fighter jets for 6.3 billion euros ($6.75 billion). Qatar's foreign ministry has condemned Friday's gun and bomb attacks, saying they "contradict all moral and humanitarian principles and values."On Saturday, President Hassan Rouhani postponed what would have been the first visit to Europe by an Iranian president in 10 years following the attacks.

Israel Minister Urges Europe to Focus Less on Rights, More on Security
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/November 15/15/Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon said Sunday that European nations must reduce their focus on human rights in favor of more security to avoid a repeat of the Paris attacks that killed 129 people. "In Europe, the balance between security and human rights has until now leaned in favor of human rights, but there is no longer any choice," Yaalon told army radio. "The balance must now be tipped toward security to defend democracy."He urged laws to allow for a "more effective fight against terrorism"."Europeans understood that there was a danger, but the measures that should have been taken were not, such as changes in legislation allowing surveillance of potential terrorists, for example," the minister said. Yaalon, an ally of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, also urged passport controls in Europe and tighter access to public places. He said action should be taken in Turkey to "bridge the gap" -- meaning to stop the flow of European jihadists travelling via the country to train with the Islamic State group and Al-Qaeda-affiliated Al-Nusra Front in Syria and Iraq before returning home. "In the anti-terrorism fight, we are all in the same boat when it comes to defending Western civilization," he said. Netanyahu on Saturday said he had instructed his country's security and intelligence agencies to assist France and other European nations as they investigate Friday night's attacks. IS said it was responsible for the attacks that left a trail of destruction at the packed Bataclan concert hall, restaurants and bars, and outside the Stade de France national stadium.

15 African Migrants Found 'Shot Dead' on Egypt-Israel Border
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/November 15/15/The bodies of 15 African migrants were found in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula near the Israeli border on Sunday after they were shot dead, security sources and a medical official said. "Fifteen bodies of Africans shot dead were found at dawn on Sunday south of (the town of) Rafah," said Tariq Khatir, a representative of the health ministry in North Sinai. "We also found eight Africans who were wounded but whose condition is stable." Security sources confirmed the migrants were shot but said the circumstances of their deaths had not yet been determined. The Sinai Peninsula, where Egyptian authorities are battling a jihadist insurgency, is a major route for African migrants trying to reach Israel. Jihadists have stepped up their attacks against security forces in the north of the peninsula since the army's ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013. The army also regularly announces the death or capture of jihadists although its figures cannot be independently verified.

12 Bahrainis Jailed, Stripped of Nationality over Bombings
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/November 15/15/A Bahraini court on Sunday jailed 12 Shiites for life and stripped them of their citizenship after convicting them of bomb attacks against police in the Sunni-ruled kingdom, a judicial source said. The defendants were behind six bombings that targeted police patrols between 2013 and 2014, the source said, citing the verdict.The prosecution had charged the group with "attempting to kill policemen... bombings, (and) possessing explosives to terrorise people and endanger lives".
Their acts were "serving a terrorist objective," it said. An Indian and a Bangladeshi were also jailed for one year, and ordered deported after serving their sentences, for forging the registrations of mobile phones used in detonating the bombs. The two were not aware that the phones would be used for bombings, prosecutors said. Bahrain in 2013 passed a law allowing for those convicted of "terrorist" crimes to be stripped of their nationality. The country's main Shiite opposition group, Al-Wefaq, said recently that at least 187 people have lost their citizenship under the law. The Gulf country, home to the U.S. Fifth Fleet, has witnessed unrest since the repression of a protest movement launched in 2011 by members of the Shiite majority demanding political reforms.

Palestinians Arrested over Murder of Israeli Father and Son
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/November 15/15/Israeli security forces have arrested several Palestinian suspects over the murder of a Jewish rabbi and his son near the flashpoint West Bank city of Hebron, the army said Sunday. The army, in a joint statement with the Shin Bet security agency, did not disclose the number of people arrested, but added that "forces also located the weapon and vehicle used to execute the attack". It said in the English-language statement that one of the suspects "during the investigation ... associated himself in the involvement in the attack" on Friday in the occupied West Bank. The 40-year-old father and 18-year-old son, Yaakov and Netanel Litman, were ambushed and shot dead as they drove near the Jewish settlement of Otniel, south of Hebron, in the bloodiest attack on Israelis in nearly a month. There were a total of seven people in the car, and a woman and a 16-year-old were also wounded, Israeli media reported. The army said the family was on its way to a Sabbath dinner at the time. Their murders sparked a manhunt, with soldiers backed by air units deploying in the neighbouring Palestinian communities of Yatta and As Samou. The shooting deaths of two Israeli settlers in front of their children in the northern West Bank on October 1 was the first incident in a weeks-long wave of gun, knife and car-ramming attacks by Palestinians. iolence since the start of October has killed 81 people on the Palestinian side -- including one Arab Israeli -- and 12 Israelis.Many of the Palestinians killed were alleged attackers, while others have been shot dead by Israeli security forces during clashes.

Iran Says up to Assad to Decide on Syria Election Run
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/November 15/15/A top Iranian official said Sunday several countries involved in Syria peace talks had tried to exclude President Bashar al-Assad from future elections but Tehran insisted the demand be withdrawn. The remarks came after officials said agreement was reached on a roadmap to a more inclusive government in Damascus in the next six months aimed at ending Syria's conflict, with polls to follow one year later. The peace talks involving 20 countries and organisations meeting in Vienna however remained deeply divided on the future of Assad, whose main regional ally has been Iran. A final statement after Saturday's meeting said the goal was to bring Syrian government and opposition representatives together by January 1, but the political process would require a ceasefire. It failed to breach the divide over Assad, however, and Iran's deputy foreign minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian went further by saying only the Syrian president could decide on whether to contest future polls. "Some participants insisted that the sidelining of Bashar al-Assad be included in the text, but the Islamic Republic of Iran did not allow this issue to be mentioned in the final declaration," he told state television. "We have insisted that only Bashar al-Assad may decide to take part or not in the elections and only the Syrian people can vote or not vote for him," he added. The talks in Vienna took on new urgency after Friday's devastating attacks in Paris, claimed by the Islamic State jihadist group, killed at least 129 people. IS said the attacks were in response to French policies on Syria. Vowing France would not stop its "international action", Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said the Paris killings underlined the need to "increase the international coordination in the struggle against Daesh," referring to IS by its Arabic acronym. The countries gathered in Vienna agreed Syria's next elections be held under a new constitution and be administered by the United Nations with the diaspora allowed to vote. Western and Arab countries want Assad, who has been fighting an uprising since 2011, removed to allow what they say would be a transitional government that can unite the country. But Russia, carrying out air strikes against Syrian rebels since late September, is sticking by Assad along with Iran. Iran has provided Syria, an Arab state ruled by Assad's minority Alawite sect, a Shiite offshoot, with financial aid and military advisers from its elite Revolutionary Guards Corps. The two countries have been close allies since Syria, then ruled by Assad's father Hafez, sided with Tehran against the later executed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war.

U.S., Saudi Leaders to Meet after Paris Attacks
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/November 15/15/U.S. President Barack Obama will hold talks with Saudi Arabia's King Salman on Sunday, a U.S. official said, as world leaders seek a united response to the Paris assaults claimed by Islamic State jihadists. The U.S. and Saudi leaders plan to meet on the sidelines of a two-day summit of the Group of 20 top economies in the heavily guarded Turkish Mediterranean resort of Antalya where the battle against jihadist violence is on the leaders' agenda, the official said.The Paris attacks, which killed 129 people, have sent a jolt through the gathering, where leaders will try to forge a joint statement on the attacks and narrow a deep divide over conflict-riven Syria. Washington and Riyadh are part of a U.S.-led coalition that last year launched an air campaign targeting the Islamic State jihadist group which controls swathes of territory in Syria and neighboring Iraq.

Egypt Enters the Danger Zone
Middle East Briefying/November 15/15
It is probably ironic that any return of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) to the political theatre in Egypt would be the result of the actions of nobody other than the regime of President Abdel Fattah Al Sissi. The fall of former President Mohamed Morsi, which was triggered by massive public protests in June 2014, spread a typical Egyptian joke: In 50 years, Presidents Nasser, Sadat and Mubarak tried in vain to defeat the MB, it took Morsi only one year to do it.
However, the joke seems to have a second unexpected episode. It seems that the regime of Sissi, an arch enemy of the MB, is working hard to reverse what Morsi did so effectively. Sissi had it all -huge public support, a sincere will to put the country together, popular fatigue of demonstrations and protests, a wounded Islamic opposition and wide regional support. What he did not have is a deep understanding of how to handle the mess and a detailed plan to rebuild the country with as little as was available at the time.
The “logic” of the mission that Sissi had before him was as follows: There are three main central points in the picture-the population, the State machine and the MB. The population rejected Morsi because he could not deliver on promises to improve daily life or reform the state machine and stop the decay of public services. Sissi needed to work on these areas seriously and immediately. Of course he could not deliver right away. But the population was ready to wait if they saw credible attempts to implement a plan that promises results and give them some hope. However, Sissi chose to postpone any administrative reform and the pretext was not to disturb the State machine while it helps to fight the MBs and their allies. The choice was wrong. It costed Sissi most of his popularity. The relative weight and inter-reaction of each of the three poles in Egypt’s post Morsi triangle was not understood right.
It was a tough choice. But only unsophisticated minds see that the opposition between reforming the State machine and using it to fight the MBs as irreconcilable. It was possible to combine both in order to maintain popular support, which is also crucial to fight the MB. But now, popular support is diminishing fast. In fact, the population is reconsidering its two-year old rejection of the MB altogether.
No one could do the job of putting Egypt back together properly without adequate tools. If the job is to rebuild a country which was on the verge of total collapse, the main tool is the State machine and the main science is political management. None was available to Sissi. The main ally in the fight against the MB was the population itself. And this population conditioned its support to Sissi on doing some serious effort to reform the state and improve daily life. None came. Not even the hope they may come in the foreseeable future. Things were going the opposite way.
The “points of touch” between the regime and the population are known-any ordinary Egyptian “sees” the abstract term “State” in his daily life through civil servants, public services, police force, bureaucratic and administrative performance, prices and media. If Egyptians see the State as an organizer of the society, Sissi should have asked: Organize it with what? Where are the tools? And what happened was that all these points of touch, which form the population’s perception of the State, were getting worse, in fact, much worse, in the last couple of years.
To accomplish such a complex mission like leading the country safely through the current storm, Sissi needs to gain a steadfast support from the mood makers-the middle class, and particularly the urban middle class. There is, Grosso Modo, an urban Egypt and a rural Egypt. Of course they are both Egyptian, but due to many reasons, mainly related to the pattern of development in the last few decades, there is a substantial difference between the ways of thinking of these two Egypts.
But let us see one example of the “quality” of the media discourse which was used to address the urban middle class to show them that there is indeed an effort to change things. A famous newspaper editor said publicly few days ago that he “finally” found out why Sissi wears sunglasses all the time. “The man cries every night for long hours because he deeply feels the suffering of the poor in Egypt”. Well, and that is supposed to convince urban Egyptians that Sissi is alright? On the other hand, real journalists and human rights defenders like Hossam Bahgat are arrested or threatened.
In dire moments like those, the political legitimacy of the regime should be based on hope. Hope is generated through perceptions and experiences. Yet, hope cannot sustain itself for a long time. It has to be injected with signs of concrete improvement, however modest. If hope dwindles down, preserving the regime will be more and more based on oppression.
However, oppression is a double edged sword, particularly in a country that went through two or three years in a revolutionary mode. Egypt is not on the verge of another revolution. But it is getting closer fast. Very fast. And time is a valuable commodity in such cases. If there would be another revolt, the level of violence may threaten the country with total collapse a la Syria. The MB would be the lesser devils. It is clear that the security machine has an extremely raw and unsophisticated view of the situation in Egypt. This view is pushing large sectors of Egypt’s urban middle class to the anti-Sissi camp needlessly in most cases. But this machine lives on exaggerating the threat and its responses alike. This dynamics do not necessarily include a socio-political analysis of the challenges as they really are. The people working in the security machine are too close to the picture to see all of it in a real political context.
Sissi is left, unfortunately, only with the tool of oppression to be able to gain time. The other tools are all parroting the sunglasses theory or are utterly corrupt and incompetent. The man is well intentioned. He came to rule a country where nothing was standing or working. The magnitude of the problem in Egypt is even bigger than Egyptians can imagine. Yet, it is abundantly clear that he is on the wrong track. He should have started with sharpening and oiling his tools. The isolation of his enemies should have been understood as a political task. Security comes second. This order was reversed not only in confronting the enemy but in preserving the base of support as well. Short term success were presented as signs of a good strategy while they may well be signs of utter failure. Political free speech was dealt with as a source of troubles not as a potential tool to strengthen Egypt. Opposition voices were needlessly – in certain cases – silenced even when they were pointing to the incompetence of the State machine. Encouraging criticism to the performance of the State machine was not viewed as a tool to reform this machine.
Therefore, it is safe to say that the MBs have a powerful ally: The State machine and Sissi’s total loss of direction, regardless of what he says about himself or his role. And the MBs are letting the State machine do the group’s work: To move the population from the land of supporting the regime to the land of opposing it. And the State machine is doing this job surprisingly competently.
The MBs are now in midway to being rehabilitated and forgiven by the very population that forced them out of power a year and half ago. We saw in the last Parliamentarian elections two peculiar signs. First, the population did not vote. Second, the Salafi Islamist Nour party, which supported the regime, got a ridiculous number of votes. It is evident that Egyptian voters withheld their votes in a sign of silent protest. It is also evident that the MB has whatever it has of support not only because it is Islamist, but also, and maybe mainly, because it is “the opposition” to a regime working hard to alienate its own popular base. For if the votes were to be Islamists, the Egyptian voters had the Nour party to vote for.
Is it too late? No. Sissi still has a reasonable popular capital. He was given a wrong advice not to explain to Egyptians the real magnitude of the existential problems of the moment. He enjoyed his honeymoon, and it is time to show results when there is none. The advice not to explain the real problems obviously came from advisors with rural backgrounds. After the defeat of the six-day war in 1967, Nasser explained to the population the real magnitude of the catastrophe and asked them to help. They willingly accepted to tighten the belts and live on rationalized food supplies for several years. Obviously, Nasser did not have advisors like those surrounding Sissi today.
Yet, it is the urban middle class that will define the future of Egypt. The regime’s discourse should target this key social stratum if it wants to survive. And addressing the urban middle class should begin from respecting their minds and avoiding stuff like the “Sunglass” and weeping nights. But the central task is that of reforming the State machine. In East Europe, the job started with a plan then with changing high level officials and structures from up to down and not vice versa. Monitoring mechanisms to fight corruption and cronyism were given full authority within every government agency. But for this to work, you have to start with respecting the population and ceasing to see them as objects.
Recent rain storms flooded Egyptian cities and villages killed dozens. The tragedy focued the lime light on the paralysis of the state machine and public services. The disaster of the Sharm Al Sheikh Russian plane will further cripple tourism and deprive the public coffers of badly needed hard currencies. The state media continues its stupide explanation of bad things happening as part of a “global conspiracy” against Egypt. A “respected” military general-turned-analyst was telling his viewers on TV screens that even storms and rain can be “fabricated” by intelligence services in powerful nations.
Egyptian youth are preparing for a new episode of protests on the anniversary of the 2011 revolt-that is next January 25. This new wave of protests will not fly high as Egyptians did not give up on Sissi yet. But if the current course of the regime is maintained, these protests will be a rehearsal for something much worse. No one should hope for shaking Sissi as there are no valid alternatives except real chaos. No one should even hope that the Egyptian leader does not succeed as his failure is more ominous news to the region. And no one should hope for more instability as it is the last thing that the region needs is another Syria. The collapse of Egypt would usher in yet a more violent phase in the heart of the Middle East. But someone has to convince the Egyptian State machine with all this or manage to get Sissi to put his house under control.
Time is running out. Fast.

Pentagon to Escalate Syrian Bombing Campaign
Middle East Briefying/November 15/15
The US Air Force will resume more intensive bombings of Islamic State (ISIL) targets inside Syria, following a several week lull, in which the jihadist forces hunkered down and restricted movements and avoided deployment of heavy military equipment. During the period of relatively few sorties, due to the Islamic State’s shift in tactics, the US concentrated on developing new targets. At the same time, the small contingent of US Special Forces established plans to work with Kurdish militias on new assaults on core ISIL positions in the north of the country.
Once these operations increase, the US will be in a better position to develop a larger range of ISIL targets, and could increase the number of combat support missions by the US and allied Air Forces.
That initial contingent of 50 Special Forces is viewed by US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter as the vanguard of what will likely soon to be a larger contingent of special warfare troops, linking up with other Kurdish and non-jihadist rebel forces.
While the Russians have persisted in carrying out far more sorties against a range of rebel targets, there is now a near-unanimous consensus among the Joint Chiefs of Staff and CENTCOM commanders that the primary objective of the Russian military presence is to prop up Bashar Assad. The Pentagon is critical of this Russian posture, with one top defense official declaring that the US and Russian operations inside Syria are “like apples and oranges. There is no comparison.”
What he meant was that the US operational plans are singularly focused on degrading the Islamic State’s fighting capacity and territorial hold. Russia is targeting a wide range of rebel forces, as a means of defending the Assad regime. The net effect is that the Russian actions are extending the fighting.
An average of four Russian cargo planes are landing in Syria every day. Two of those four flights are stopping in Iran, to pick up Iranian fighters and their equipment. There is a dispute between the CIA and the State Department over how many Iranian troops are now inside Syria, fighting against rebels. The overall number, however, is somewhere between 3,000 and 5,000 fighters. This does not include Shia militia fighters who have been also coming in to Syria from Iraq and Lebanon to beef up the Syrian Army.
There are increasing reports of instances where IRGC officers are refusing assignments to go fight in Syria. These reports coincide with official Iranian admissions that Quds Brigade fighters are sustaining higher casualties. According to one account, three leading Quds Force officers, Col. Mostafa Ezzatollah, Gen. Farshad Hazoonizadeh and Gen. Hossein Hamedani, have been killed in combat in Syria since October.
Despite this beef up of fighters defending the Assad government, the Pentagon believes that, at best, the regime forces are at a standstill in their fight against ISIL and other rebel forces. The tempo of operations is seen as unsustainable, given limits on how much manpower and funding Russia and Iran can provide, without creating economic and morale problems back home.
Secretary of State John Kerry will be testing both Iran and Russia’s readiness to make serious concessions to move the Geneva-3 process forward, when talks resume in Vienna in the coming days.

ISIL Cannot be Defeated in Iraq without Major Reforms
Middle East Briefying/November 15/15
On Friday, November 6, in his regular weekly sermon, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani issued a stern warning to the Iraqi parliament to stop obstructing the efforts at political reform and the crackdown on corruption being attempted by Prime Minister Haidar Abadi. Within hours of Sistani’s sermon, PM Abadi announced that salaries for three vice presidents and three deputy prime ministers had been cancelled, and that he planned to go ahead with his reforms, aimed at streamlining his cabinet and accelerating the anti-corruption campaign.
The intervention by the powerful Grand Ayatollah was welcomed by the Obama Administration and the Pentagon. There is a strong consensus within the US military command that there can be no success against ISIL in Iraq, without a wide range of government reforms in Baghdad. Without the reforms, Iraq will remain in a state of permanent crisis. Some American military commanders are drawing a direct parallel to Lebanon, where sectarian conflicts have made it impossible to conduct parliamentary elections or choose a new president. In the Iraq case, the consequences are far more devastating, given the presence of the Islamic State and the growing danger that the country will be partitioned along sectarian lines. Grand Ayatollah Sistani warned about the danger of partition during the summer.
Because the United States now has more than 3,500 troops on the ground in Iraq—and an even larger contingent of civilian contractors—the US has a much better grasp of the weakness of the situation than in the past.
As the US military advisors prepare to assist the Iraqi Army in launching new combat offensives against ISIL in the coming days, there are some serious unanswered questions. Will the Iraqi forces stand and fight or will they run, despite the upgraded supplies and training? Will the government in Baghdad interfere in the combat operations, by attempting to micro-manage the operations? Until these two vital questions are answered, there is no way to judge the prospects of sustained victories against the Islamic State.
Ultimately, the government in Baghdad must convince Sunni populations that they will have a genuine power-sharing stake in the future of Iraq. Without that assurance, it will be impossible to “win the hearts and minds” of the Sunni.
The number one problem that the Obama Administration and the Joint Chiefs of Staff face in Iraq is the rampant corruption that permeates every aspect of government in Baghdad. The heart of the corruption problem is the ruling Dawa Party. Ten percent of all of the country’s oil revenue is skimmed off the top and divided among top party bosses. While Dawa is beholden to Iran out of necessity, the built-in corruption and sectarianism of Dawa is deeply entrenched.
One manifestation of this deep corruption was the fact that during the period that Nouri Al-Maliki was in power, he appointed political cronies to all top civil and military posts, and they were almost universally incompetent, as well as thoroughly corrupt. Some limited reforms within the Iraqi Army have been carried out, under strong US pressure, but this has been a limited factor at best.
Even Grand Ayatollah Sistani is aware of the limitations on his intervention to boost Prime Minister Al-Abadi’s top-down reform efforts. He cannot anger Supreme Leader Khamenei beyond a certain point, and he cannot force the tempo of reform to a point that it leads to Al-Abadi being ousted by a coup from within Dawa.
Even as US military advisors work with select Iraqi commanders to plan out “trial” military offensive operations, there is deep concern that the Iraqi Army is incapable of holding territory it takes back from ISIL. If the Iraqi forces were to retake towns in the Sunni provinces and fail to govern, it could, US military planners fear, lead to the Islamic State being invited back in by enraged local Sunni populations. That would be a recipe for permanent partition.
While there is confidence that some Iraqi Army combat units are now ready to engage the enemy, there is growing worry that the US is being once again dragged into an endless quagmire, costing billions of dollars a month.
It is for this reason that there is so much attention, back in Washington, on the question of whether or not Abadi and Sistani can make any true progress on reform. If that effort is blocked, even if there are some short-term combat gains, more voices at the Pentagon and in Congress will be talking about the US cutting its losses and withdrawing at some point in the not-too-distant future. The fact that the US is in the midst of presidential elections will only sharpen the political polarization.

What France and Europe Might Learn
Bassam Tawil/Gatestone Institute/November 15/15
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/6881/paris-attacks-lessons
By constantly endorsing pro-Palestinian and anti-Israeli policies, France has obviously been seeking to appease Islamic countries. France seems convinced that such policies will keep Muslim terrorists from targeting French nationals and interests. The French are now in grave danger of mistakenly believing that the November 13 attacks occurred because France did not appease the Muslim terrorists enough.
When the terrorists see that pressure works -- increasing the pressure should work even more!
The French and Europeans would do well to understand that there is no difference between a young Palestinian who takes a knife and sets out to murder Jews, and an Islamic State terrorist who murders dozens of innocent people in Paris.
The reason Muslim extremists want to destroy Israel is not because of the settlements or checkpoints it is because they believe that Jews have no right to be in the Middle East whatsoever. And they want to destroy Europe because they believe that Christians -- and everyone -- have no right to be anything other than Muslim.
The terrorists attacking Jews also seek to destroy France, Germany, Britain and, of course, the United States. These countries need to be reminded that the Islamist terrorists' ultimate goal is to force all non-Muslims to submit to Islam or face death.
Earlier this year, France was one of eight countries that supported a Palestinian resolution at the United Nations Security Council, calling for a full Israeli withdrawal to the pre-1967 lines by the end of 2017.
This vote means that France supports the establishment of an independent Palestinian state, likely to be ruled by the same type of people who on Friday carried out the most grisly terror attacks in France since World War II.
Scenes from Friday's grisly terror attacks in Paris.
Today, every Palestinian child knows that in the best case, a future Palestinian state will be run by Hamas or Islamic Jihad, and in the worst case by the Islamic State and its affiliates. Has it occurred to anyone in Europe that the Palestinian people might not want to live under the rule of any of the groups, any more than Europeans would?
France and the rest of the EU countries have long been working against their own interests in the Middle East. By constantly endorsing pro-Palestinian and anti-Israeli policies, France has obviously been seeking to appease the Arab and Islamic countries. France seems convinced that such policies will keep Muslim terrorists from targeting French nationals and interests. That is probably why the French have made the catastrophic mistake of believing that the policy of appeasement toward Arabs and Muslims would persuade the Islamist terrorists to stay away from France. The French are now in grave danger of mistakenly believing that the November 13 attacks occurred because France did not appease the Muslim terrorists enough.
Sadly, the two earlier terrorist attacks that took place in Paris this year -- against the Charlie Hebdo satirical newspaper and the HyperCacher Jewish supermarket -- failed to convince the French that the policy of appeasement towards Arabs and Muslims is not only worthless, but also dangerous.
Instead of learning from these previous mistakes and embarking on a new policy toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in general and extremist Islam in particular, the French continued with their strategy of appeasement even after the Charlie Hebdo and the HyperCacher supermarket attacks.
Most recently, France voiced its backing for EU plans to label products from Israeli settlements, doubtless thinking that such a move would make the Muslim terrorists happy with the French. But, as last Friday's terrorist attacks showed, the Islamic State and its supporters are not particularly impressed by anti-Israel moves.
Muslim terrorists do not care about the settlements. For them, that is a trivial issue compared to their chief goal and dream: truthfully, to kill all infidels and establish an Islamic empire. The Muslim terrorists who have been murdering Jews in Israel and other parts of the world also seek to kill anyone they perceive as being friends of Western values in general. These include, above all, Christians -- either those unfortunate enough still to be living in the Middle East, but also those living in France and other Western countries.
The reason Muslim extremists want to destroy Israel is not because of the settlements or checkpoints. They want to destroy Israel because they believe that Jews have no right to be in the Middle East whatsoever. And they want to destroy Europe because they believe that Christians -- and everyone -- have no right to be anything other than Muslim. That is also why Muslims seem not particularly interested in the EU's decision to label products from Israeli settlements. It is worth noting that the decision to label Israeli goods was not even an Arab or Islamic initiative.
The EU's decision to boycott products from Israeli settlements has sent entirely the wrong message to the enemies of Israel and the enemies of Western values. These enemies of the West see the decision to label products as just the first step toward labeling all of Israel as an "illegal settlement." It is no surprise that the first to celebrate the decision were Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
What France and other Western countries do not understand is that concessions and gestures are being misinterpreted by the terrorists as signs of weakness, which just invite more violence. When the terrorists see that pressure works, increasing the pressure should work even more!
The European boycotts are seen by the people here as nothing but cynical and heartless -- attempts to court a thieving leadership at the expense of the people. The boycotts are seen here as nothing but keeping the Palestinian people in the grip of its corrupt leadership and prompting us to take another look at the extremists -- the only choice offered up.
What the Europeans might have learned is that the assaults in Paris are what all of us here -- Muslims, Christians and Jews -- have been living with for decades.
During the past 22 years, all Israel's territorial concessions and goodwill gestures have resulted only in increased terrorism against Israel, including us Arabs. Many Palestinians incorrectly saw the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in 2005 only as a retreat and a sign of weakness. If shooting at Jews made them leave Gaza -- as it appeared -- keep shooting at Jews. The result was that Hamas took credit for driving the Jews out of the Gaza Strip with rockets and suicide bombings, and quickly rose to power.
In the same manner, each time Israel has released Palestinian prisoners (including dozens with blood on their hands) as a gesture to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas or U.S Secretary of State John Kerry, the Palestinians regarded the gesture as having their demands met. So the next step is to increase the violence and demand more. The Palestinians saw Israel's withdrawal from southern Lebanon and Gaza, and the release of Palestinian prisoners, not as a sign that Israel was interested in peace and calm, but as a reward for terrorism.
Two months ago, France took another step in appeasing the Arabs and Muslims. This time, the French voted in favor of raising a Palestinian flag at the UN headquarters. "This flag is a powerful symbol, a glimmer of hope for the Palestinians," UN French Ambassador Francois Delattre said. Again, the French apparently thought that the vote would satisfy the Arabs and Muslims and persuade the terrorists that France was on their side in the fight against Israel.
France's -- and Europe's -- flawed policy toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict did not start in the past year or two. Four years ago, France voted in favor of granting the Palestinians full membership of the UN's Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Last month, the Palestinian Authority leadership unsuccessfully tried to use UNESCO to pass a resolution declaring the Western Wall a holy site for Muslims only. The resolution was changed at the last minute into one just condemning Israel, but instead of opposing the resolution, an embarrassed France chose to abstain. UNESCO, however, did vote that two ancient Jewish heritage sites symbolic of the Biblical era, Rachel's Tomb and the Cave of the Patriarchs, would henceforth be known as Muslim heritage sites. The same week, another Biblical site, Joseph's Tomb, was set on fire (for the second time; the first was in 2000) by people whose government, the Palestinian Authority, had agreed to protect it.
For the past few weeks, Palestinians have been waging a new wave of terrorism against Israelis. This time, the Palestinians are using rifles, knives, stones and cars to murder as many Jews as possible. But we still have not heard any real condemnation -- from France, Europe or anyone -- of the Palestinian terrorism.
We have also not heard France or other EU countries demand that President Mahmoud Abbas condemn the terrorist attacks against Israelis. Most French media outlets and journalists have even refused to refer to the Palestinian assailants as terrorists -- despite many of the terrorists being affiliated two Palestinian groups that share the same ideology as Islamic State: Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
By failing to condemn the terrorist attacks against Israelis and name the perpetrators for what they are -- ruthless murderers and terrorists -- France and Western countries are once again sending the wrong message to the Islamists: that killing Jews is not an act of terrorism.
What these countries do not realize is that the terrorists who are attacking Jews also seek to destroy France, Germany, Britain and, of course, the "Big Satan" (the United States). These countries need to be reminded every day that the Islamist terrorists' ultimate goal is to force all non-Muslims to submit to Islam or face death. Sometimes, the terrorists do not even have the patience to offer this choice to the "infidels," and just kill them while they are watching a concert or a soccer match.
It now remains to be seen whether the French will wake up and realize that radical Islam is at war with the "unbelievers" and all those who refuse to accept the dictates of Islamic State and other Muslim extremists. This is a war that Israel has been fighting now for more than two decades, but, sadly, with little support -- and most often with venomous obstruction -- from countries in Europe, including France.
The French and Europeans would do well to understand that there is no difference between a young Palestinian who takes a knife and sets out to murder Jews, and an Islamic State terrorist who murders dozens of innocent people in Paris. Once the French and other Europeans understand this reality, it will be far easier for them to engage in the battle against Islamic terrorism.
*Bassam Tawil is a scholar based on the Middle East.

False Friends: The Global War Against Israel
Guy Millière/Gatestone Institute/November 15/15
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/6880/global-war-against-israel
Just as people in Paris were murdered one day last week, Jews in Israel are murdered virtually every day.
Undoubtedly, Rabin wanted peace -- virtually all Israelis want peace -- but not at any price. He never envisaged the creation of a Palestinian state: the Oslo Accords provided for the establishment of a "provisional self-government," not a state.
Rabin did not contemplate infinite and unconditional negotiations: the Oslo Accords call for a five-year period of negotiations, and include the possibility of breaking off the talks if one of the parties does not respect the spirit in which the Accords were to be implemented.
In addition, Rabin, seeing the rise of violence, wanted during the last weeks of his life to break off the talks. If the Oslo talks did not live up to their expectations, it was in continuing to pursue the vain and useless negotiations -- exactly the opposite of what Rabin had envisioned.
Palestinian leaders have an overwhelming responsibility for what has happened during the last twenty years. Not only have they continued to make the very demands that Rabin rejected -- and that no leader in a comparable situation could ever accept; they have done worse.
Israel cannot make peace, because there is no one to make peace with.
Peace implies conditions. One of the first is that those with whom a country intends to make peace also want to make peace. Nothing, however, indicates that Palestinian leaders have the slightest intention of making anything that even resembles peace.
One hopes the French will not surrender to terrorists; neither should the Israelis.
On October 31, tens of thousands of people gathered in Tel Aviv to commemorate the twentieth anniversary of the assassination of Israel's Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.
In a pre-recorded speech, Barack Obama addressed the crowd and praised the man who had presided over the Oslo Accords. Former U.S. President Bill Clinton, who came in person, spoke of the need to respect "the legacy of Rabin," and said that Israelis should "finish" what Rabin started, and choose between "the risk of peace" and "the risk of walking away from it." He added that it was up to the Israelis to take "the right decision."
His comments were well received both by the crowd and the media worldwide as the words of a friend of Israel. Unfortunately, and possibly unwittingly, they were the words of a false friend. They carried deeply harmful inaccuracies that serve only the enemies of Israel, and are, sadly, part of the verbal war against Israel.
Since the death of Yitzhak Rabin, a false legend has taken shape. The legend says that Rabin wanted peace and the rapid creation of a Palestinian state. It adds that Rabin's assassination "killed a hope" that otherwise would have been fulfilled. It accuses all the Israeli prime ministers who succeeded Rabin of failing to complete his mission, and suggests that they did not live up to their task. It also infers that these succeeding Israeli prime ministers are responsible for the failure of all negotiations during the last twenty years. Above all, it exempts the Palestinian leadership from any responsibility.
The reality is quite different.
Undoubtedly, Rabin wanted peace -- virtually all Israelis want peace -- but not at any price. As a General in the Israel Defense Forces, he devoted his entire life to the security of Israel; he did not change his mind in the years before his assassination. He never envisaged the creation of a Palestinian state: the Oslo Accords provided for the establishment of a "provisional self-government," not a state. Rabin rejected explicitly the idea of a "Palestinian state".
Rabin did not contemplate infinite and unconditional negotiations: the Oslo Accords call for a five-year period of negotiations, and include the possibility of breaking off the talks if one of the parties does not respect the spirit in which the Accords were to be implemented. Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Yasser Arafat violated the Accords on the very first day -- by trying to smuggle into Israel, under the seat of his car, an operative who had been prohibited from entering the country. In addition, Rabin, seeing the rise of violence, wanted during the last weeks of his life to break off the talks.
Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, U.S. President Bill Clinton, and PLO chairman Yasser Arafat at the Oslo Accords signing ceremony on September 13, 1993. (Image source: Vince Musi / The White House)
Rabin's successors did not break off the talks, as Rabin was planning. His successors went well beyond the five-year period of negotiations initially planned. If the Oslo talks did not live up to their expectations, it was in continuing to pursue the vain and useless negotiations -- exactly the opposite of what Rabin had envisioned.
The failure of negotiations for that last twenty years has in reality come from Palestinian demands, which Rabin had explicitly rejected. Palestinian leaders have called non-stop for eliminating West Bank Jewish communities: in a speech to the Knesset nine days before his death, Rabin said that Israel would never abandon the West Bank Jewish communities. Palestinian leaders have repeatedly said they wanted a return to the 1967 borders (the armistice lines of 1949); in the same speech to the Knesset, Rabin said that Jerusalem, complete and united, was, and would remain, the capital of Israel. Palestinian leaders have ceaselessly demanded the "right of return" of Palestinian "refugees." Rabin stated several times that he rejected the "right of return." No Israeli leader could accept the "return" of six million Arabs -- who four generations later are no longer refugees. Six hundred thousand Arabs left Israel in 1948-49, most of their own accord. Most are long gone. Arabs who stayed within the boundaries of Israel became Israeli citizens (Arabs represent 20% of Israel's population).
In addition, Palestinian leaders have an overwhelming responsibility for what has happened during the last twenty years. Not only have they continued to make the very demands that Rabin rejected -- and that no leader in a comparable situation could ever accept; they have done worse.
Since the creation of the Palestinian Authority, they have used Palestinian schools and the Palestinian media to inculcate hatred for Jews and to incite terrorism and murder against Jews. Despite the Bible and archaeological evidence unearthed daily, Palestinian leaders ceaselessly persist in trying to rewrite history, in order to deny the existence of any historical Jewish presence in the Middle East -- going back thousands of years. Recently, in an act of monumental duplicity, UNESCO colluded with them to declare the Cave of the Patriarchs and Rachel's Tomb Muslim heritage sites. The Palestinian leadership and media also practice Holocaust denial.
In Germany now, there is apparently a movement to exempt Muslim students from field trips to sites of concentration camps, for fear of disabusing the children of the Jew-hating propaganda they are fed.
Palestinian schoolchildren are also to this day shown only maps on which all of Israel does not exist, and are raised to glorify killers of Jews as heroes and "martyrs." Palestinian schoolchildren are, bluntly, raised to be murderers when they grow up.
Despite nearly century of being constantly attacked, Israeli leaders, although they know what the Palestinian Authority does, have nonetheless continued to negotiate. Netanyahu has repeated many times that he is open to negotiations with no preconditions.
The Israelis have taken huge risks for peace, such as the withdrawals from southern Lebanon and Gaza, often at the cost of their lives. These gestures of good will, to allow the people there the "freedom" from a Jewish presence they said they wanted to be able to build better lives, were seen by the Arabs merely as retreats by the supposedly defeated.
Israel's decision to build the security fence was taken in 2002, after attacks such as the bombing of the Dolphinarium discotheque in Tel Aviv in 2001, and another, two months later, at a pizzeria in Jerusalem.
Israel offered still more "land for peace." In 2001, at the Taba summit, Israel's Prime Pinister Ehud Barak proposed abandoning the Jordan Valley, considered crucial for the defense of Israel. He also proposed a "safe road crossing" between Gaza and the West Bank, a route that would have bisected Israel. Later, in 2008, Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said he was ready to give up Israeli sovereignty over the Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism.
Anyone now saying that Israelis have a choice between the "risk of peace" and the "risk to walk away from it" is sadly either idiotic or a liar. Israel cannot make peace, because there is no one to make peace with.
This stalemate is further compounded by people who seem to have a salivating appetite for Jewish blood.
Palestinian leaders have made other choices. They not only submitted to UNESCO a resolution that succeeded in relabeling ancient, indisputably Jewish, heritage sites -- Rachel's Tomb and the Cave of the Patriarchs -- as Muslim; they also tried to have the Western Wall -- all that is left of the Jews' Second Temple, destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE -- named part of the Islamic Al Aqsa Mosque compound (known as the Temple Mount). That effort, at least, was rejected. The same week, the Palestinian Authority security services -- not Hamas -- stood by as Joseph's Tomb, which they are required to protect, was set on fire by a Palestinian mob.
Earlier, in a charming speech on September 16, Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas described the Jews as desecrating Al-Aqsa Mosque with their "filthy feet."
Borrowing a pretext used to launch anti-Jewish pogroms in 1929 by Haj Amin al Husseini, the Mufti of Jerusalem and later also a friend of Adolf Hitler, Abbas falsely accused Israel of wanting to change the status quo of the Temple Mount, and called for the killing of Jews in the name of Allah: "We bless every drop of blood that has been spilled for Jerusalem ... Every martyr will reach Paradise and everyone wounded will be rewarded by Allah," he said.
Just as people in Paris were murdered one day last week, Jews in Israel are murdered virtually every day.
When Israel returns bodies of the dead murderers to their families, the Palestinian Authority holds official funerals in their honor, calls the murderers shaheed [martyrs], and then falsely accuses Israel of harvesting organs.
As a result of Palestinian Authority indoctrination, today more than 80% of the Arab population under its control approves of terrorist attacks against Jews.
It is hard to know what this "good decision" that Israelis are supposed to make would look like. The international community, in line with Hitler's friend, the former Mufti of Jerusalem, appears to keep calling -- through recognitions of a state of "Palestine" and boycotts deep down aimed at destroying Israel -- for Israel to surrender. One hopes the French will not surrender to terrorists; neither should the Israelis.
Peace implies conditions. One of the first is that those with whom a country intends to make peace also want to make peace. Nothing, however, indicates that Palestinian leaders have the slightest intention of making anything that even resembles peace.
Another condition for peace is that those with whom a country intends to make peace do not incite the people they rule to hatred and war. The Palestinian leadership has never stopped firing up Palestinian Arabs to hatred, murder and war.
A third condition for peace is that those with whom a country is supposed to make peace have a minimal legitimacy and a minimal capacity to administer a country in a civilized way.
People ruled by the Palestinian Authority have been so fired up to hatred, murder and war that, at this point, many consider the Palestinian Authority too moderate. Mahmoud Abbas is in the eleventh year of his four-year term. If elections were held today, all indications are that Hamas would win handily.
Hamas, incidentally, has always been refreshingly open about having no intention of negotiating -- ever.
Western leaders who visit Israel and speak of "peace" might start to sound sincere if they would start to speak the truth, and stop trying to bamboozle themselves and everyone around them.
President Clinton, who used to be a true friend, did not speak the truth in Tel Aviv, even though, after his failed negotiations with Arafat, he should have known better. Instead of defending the legacy of Rabin, he betrayed it. Clinton did not even say a single word about the Jews murdered in recent days in Israel.
Because no one has said a single word about the Jews murdered, or about what is really going on inside Israel, the false myth about Rabin has replaced reality. For most of the evening, the ceremony in Tel Aviv did not pay tribute to Yitzhak Rabin -- it murdered him again.
In recent days, the State Department has condemned "all acts of violence" in Israel, and placed the victims on the same level as their killers.
European leaders also vacuously condemn "all acts of violence." The Western mainstream media even claim as victims the Palestinians who have been killed while in the act of committing murder. The media sentimentally refer to them as the "victims of violence."
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on October 4 that "violence in the region" showed "the urgency of the implementation of the vision of Rabin." Like President Clinton, he attributed to Rabin a vision that was uninformed, totally false, and ended up making himself look, as usual, pathetic.
Those assembled were hoping for peace. If they look around, they see nothing but the many faces of Jew-hate. If they think it is the fault of the Israeli government, they should listen again to what Palestinian leaders are openly saying every day.
Rabin was no myopic dreamer. He saw the Oslo Accords for the hoax the Palestinians have unfortunately made of them. It is high time for other leaders to see it, too.
**Guy Millière is a Professor at the University of Paris, and the author of 27 books on France, Europe and the United States. He is also the author of countless articles published internationally and is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at Gatestone Institute.

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