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Bible Quotation For Today/The Parable of the Squandering & Dishonest Manager/his master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 160-12: "The Lord Jesus said to the disciples: ‘There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was squandering his property. So he summoned him and said to him, "What is this that I hear about you? Give me an account of your management, because you cannot be my manager any longer." Then the manager said to himself, "What will I do, now that my master is taking the position away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. I have decided what to do so that, when I am dismissed as manager, people may welcome me into their homes." So, summoning his master’s debtors one by one, he asked the first, "How much do you owe my master?" He answered, "A hundred jugs of olive oil." He said to him, "Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it fifty." Then he asked another, "And how much do you owe?" He replied, "A hundred containers of wheat." He said to him, "Take your bill and make it eighty."And his master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light. And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes. ‘Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much. If then you have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to another, who will give you what is your own?"

Bible Quotation For Today/I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that has been given you in Christ Jesus
First Letter to the Corinthians 01/01-09: "Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and our brother Sosthenes, To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, together with all those who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours:Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that has been given you in Christ Jesus, for in every way you have been enriched in him, in speech and knowledge of every kind. just as the testimony of Christ has been strengthened among you. so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ. He will also strengthen you to the end, so that you may be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful; by him you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord."

Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on October 19-20/15
Why young Hezbollah fans love the number 313/Alex Rowell/Now Lebanon/October 19/15
Analysis: Why the German foreign minister's Iran trip flopped/By BENJAMIN WEINTHAL/Jpost/October 19/15
Neither Israeli nor Palestinian leadership has an exit strategy/By YOSSI MELMAN/J.Post/October 19/15
Analysis: Neither Israeli nor Palestinian leadership has an exit strategy/By YOSSI MELMAN/J.Post/October 19/15
ISIS Fires Up Palestinians/Bassam Tawil/Gatestone Institute/October 19/15
Middle East Peace Process: Oh No, Not Again/Shoshana Bryen//Gatestone Institute/October 19/15
Who is leading the intifada/Adnan Abu Amer/Al-Monitor/October 19/15
Are we witnessing ‘Syrianization’ of Turkey/Al-Monitor Week in Review/October 19/15
Sheryl Saperia: Cracking down on human-rights violators/Sheryl Saperia | National Post/October 19/15
Twelve air forces crowd Syrian skies. Israel-Russian hot line may channel coordination/DEBKAfile/October 19/15
U.S. foreign policy in a changing world/John Kerry/Al Arabiya/October 19/15
Chechnya in the shadow of Russia’s Mideast strategies/Dr. Theodore Karasik/Al Arabiya/October 19/15
Whether it is a Palestinian intifada or not is irrelevant/Sharif Nashashibi/Al Arabiya/October 19/15
Russian Intervention Shatters Turkey's Neo-Ottomanist Dreams For Syria/By: R. Krespin/MEMRI/October 19/15

Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin for Lebanese Related News published on October 19-20/15
8 Dead, Many Hurt as 'Rocket' Hits Arsal Outskirts Encampments
Report: Mustaqbal-Hizbullah Tensions Weigh Heavily on Political Scene as Salam Urges Sensible Stances
Salam: How Come All Sides Support Cabinet, but Refuse to Help Revitalize it?
Court Approves Release of Remaining Activists from Custody
Abou Faour: Government Will 'Enter a Coma'
Kaag Visits Syrian Refugees, LAF Base in Akkar
Kataeb: PM Bears Responsibility for Failure to Convene Cabinet
Lebanon army bombs militants outside Arsal
Hezbollah suffers casualties in Latakia fighting: rebels
Why young Hezbollah fans love the number 313

8 Dead, Many Hurt as 'Rocket' Hits Arsal Outskirts Encampments
Naharnet/Agence France Presse/October 19/15/Eight people were killed and many wounded on Monday when the Lebanese army targeted militant positions along the eastern border with war-torn Syria, security sources told AFP. "The Lebanese army targeted militants on the border" with Syria, a security source said. A separate security source said a "helicopter fired a missile at takfiri positions in Wadi Hmeid," on the eastern outskirts of the northeastern border town of Arsal. He said eight people were killed and "a large number" of others wounded, but he could not say if the dead were militants or civilians. Earlier in the day, state-run National News Agency said four people were killed and ten others wounded as a blast ripped through Syrian refugee encampments near the amusement park in Wadi Hmeid. LBCI television meanwhile quoted a military source as saying that the blast was the result of a Lebanese army strike against a vehicle for the armed groups. Security sources denied the camps were hit. Another security source told AFP that earlier on Monday a mortar shell crashed outside a Lebanese army border post on the outskirts of Arsal, without causing any casualties. The army frequently shells the militants' positions in the border area, while Hizbullah fighters have confronted them on the Syrian side. The border area is also home to informal Syrian refugee camps largely beyond the reach of authorities or aid agencies. In August 2014, Islamic State and Nusra Front militants seized some 20 Lebanese soldiers and police officers during a brief cross-border raid on the town of Arsal. The extremists have executed four of them and are still holding the rest.

Report: Mustaqbal-Hizbullah Tensions Weigh Heavily on Political Scene as Salam Urges Sensible Stances
Naharnet/October 19/15/Tensions between the Mustaqbal Movement and Hizbullah reached their peak over the weekend in light of party chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah's response to Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq's recent speech, with the cleric stressing his commitment to dialogue and the minister threatening to quit it, reported al-Joumhouria newspaper on Monday. The dispute between the two sides is threatening the 20th Mustaqbal-Hizbullah dialogue scheduled for October 26 and the country's national dialogue. Informed sources told al-Joumhouria that the escalation is “linked more to the growing tensions between Tehran and Riyadh rather than the situation in Lebanon.” “The fiery speeches will have short-term repercussions over the two sets of dialogue,” they predicted. They also doubted that the dispute will hamper efforts to hold a cabinet session over the trash disposal crisis. They remarked however that the heightened differences between the Mustaqbal Movement and Hizbullah have hampered Prime Minister Tammam Salam's efforts to call cabinet to session. He was hoping to convene cabinet to address the waste crisis and approve a number of laws and decrees, explained the sources. Easing the tensions “requires great efforts,” they continued, while highlighting the role of Speaker Nabih Berri and Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat to that end. Meanwhile, Salam highlighted the “dangerousness” of the current regional situation, hoping that “all sides would assume their responsibilities.” His visitors on Sunday told the daily that he “will never abandon his responsibilities” and that he is seeking to “maintain government and constitutional institutions' readiness to follow up on the people's pressing needs should it be unable to reach an agreement over greater affairs.”On the war of words between the Mustaqbal Movement and Hizbullah, the premier said that it will only create more division and fuel tension among the people who “have grown weary of the debate that cannot resolve any pending security or administrative dispute.” Mashnouq on Friday warned that the Mustaqbal Movement might quit the government and the ongoing dialogue if the political deadlock continues in the country. Nasrallah on Sunday voiced his party's commitment to the government and dialogue, adding: “We refuse to be blackmailed. Those who wish to stay in the dialogue sessions and the government are welcome, and those who wish to leave, are free to do so.”

Salam: How Come All Sides Support Cabinet, but Refuse to Help Revitalize it?
Naharnet/October 19/15/Prime Minister Tammam Salam hoped that the obstacles hindering the cabinet from convening would be overcome this week in order to call it to session, reported the daily An Nahar on Monday. He told the daily: “How is it that all sides are committed to the government and yet they do not help eliminate hurdles that are hampering its productivity?” An Nahar said that the premier is waiting for the appropriate time to call cabinet to session. This includes ensuring that all factors needed for the success of the discussions on the garbage disposal crisis are available, added the daily. Salam hopes to achieve this goal this week, noting: “Is more stalling in this sensitive file acceptable?” “Tackling the crisis does not require miraculous solutions,” he remarked. If the trash file is not tackled at cabinet, then “Salam will reveal those hindering this issue and apologize to the Lebanese,” reported An Nahar. Speculation was rife last week that cabinet would convene on Tuesday in order to tackle the garbage crisis, but no session has been scheduled. The government's work has been paralyzed in recent months over a dispute with the Free Patriotic Movement of MP Michel Aoun over its decision-making mechanism and over the security appointments and promotions, prompting a boycott by the movement's ministers. The lawmaker announced last week that the ministers would not attend a cabinet session aimed at tackling the garbage crisis even though he supports Agriculture Akram Shehayyeb's proposal to solve it.

Court Approves Release of Remaining Activists from Custody
Naharnet/October 19/15/The Military Court of Cassation approved on Monday the release of the remaining civil society activists, reported various media outlets. Waref Suleiman and Pierre Hashash were released from custody following over a week of detention over their involvement in civil society protests that turned violent on October 8. They were released on a bail of LL500,000 each. They were arrested along with a number of other campaigners in the wake of the demonstration that was held in downtown Beirut. Activists from the movement staged numerous sit-ins by the Military Court last week in protest against the arrest. Civil society protests first began with the closure of the Naameh landfill in July that sparked a waste disposal crisis in Lebanon that persists to this day. The demonstrations, which had been staged to protest the crisis, soon developed into a movement against political corruption in Lebanon.

Abou Faour: Government Will 'Enter a Coma'
Naharnet/October 19/15/Health Minister Wael Abou Faour announced Monday that Prime Minister Tammam Salam's government is on the brink of entering a “coma.”“The government will enter a coma and it will only wake up to address the garbage crisis exclusively,” Abou Faour, who is close to Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat, told Voice of Lebanon radio (93.3). “No contacts can rescue the government from the state of paralysis it is heading into,” the minister noted. Hoping the national dialogue sessions will “remain away from political disputes amid the paralysis of state institutions,” Abou Faour stressed the need to “keep communication ongoing through dialogue,” describing it as “the only bridge among the Lebanese.”Tensions surged between al-Mustaqbal movement and Hizbullah over the weekend in light of a war of words between officials from the two parties. Speculation was rife last week that the cabinet would convene on Tuesday in order to tackle the garbage crisis, but no session has been scheduled until the moment. The government's work has been paralyzed in recent months amid a dispute with the Free Patriotic Movement of MP Michel Aoun over its decision-making mechanism and the thorny issue of military and security appointments, which has prompted a boycott by the movement's ministers. Aoun announced last week that his ministers would not attend a cabinet session aimed at tackling the garbage crisis even though he supports Agriculture Minister Akram Shehayyeb's proposal to solve it.

Kaag Visits Syrian Refugees, LAF Base in Akkar
Naharnet/October 19/15/U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon Sigrid Kaag visited Monday the northern district of Akkar where she inspected Syrian refugee encampments and a Lebanese army base. “She met with authorities in Halba to discuss political and socio-economic challenges and the impact of the Syria crisis,” her office said in a statement. Kaag met with Syrian refugee families in a tented site in the town of Kweshra and visited a public school in Rama that offers classes to Lebanese and Syrian children. “Syrian refugees are facing incredibly difficult conditions far from their homes and their country,” the Special Coordinator said. “The generosity and support they receive from the residents of Akkar, who live in already difficult circumstances, has been impressive,” she added. Kaag reaffirmed that the United Nations “will continue to encourage greater assistance for both the Syrian refugees and vulnerable Lebanese communities as a matter of urgency.” The Special Coordinator also visited a Lebanese army base in the town of Chadra. “The LAF is playing a crucial role in protecting Lebanon’s borders at a very challenging time,” she said, underscoring the need for “continued international support to the Lebanese Army.”
A country of four million people, Lebanon hosts more than 1.1 million Syrian refugees, including at least 400,000 school-aged children, according to the U.N.'s refugee agency, UNHCR.

Kataeb: PM Bears Responsibility for Failure to Convene Cabinet
Naharnet/October 19/15/The Kataeb Party declared Monday that it will hold Prime Minister Tammam Salam responsible should he “bow to the boycotters' will” and “fail to call a cabinet session.”“Amid the deteriorating economic situation, the aggravating garbage crisis, the school tuitions crisis, the other social and developmental junctures, and the Syrian refugee burden … the obstruction of cabinet sessions becomes a crime against the Lebanese whose responsibility falls on the shoulders of the boycotting camp,” said the party in a statement issued after its political bureau's weekly meeting. “On the other hand, failure to call a cabinet session would be surrender to the will of the boycotters, whose responsibility would fall on the prime minister, who is liable towards the aggrieved Lebanese people,” it added. Kataeb also stressed that the national dialogue sessions are aimed at “facilitating the election of a new president, not replacing the government.”Speculation was rife last week that the cabinet would convene on Tuesday in order to tackle the garbage crisis, but no session has been scheduled until the moment. The government's work has been paralyzed in recent months amid a dispute with the Free Patriotic Movement of MP Michel Aoun over its decision-making mechanism and the thorny issue of military and security appointments, which has prompted a boycott by the movement's ministers. Aoun announced last week that his ministers would not attend a cabinet session aimed at tackling the garbage crisis even though he supports Agriculture Minister Akram Shehayyeb's proposal to solve it.

Lebanon army bombs militants outside Arsal
Now Lebanon/October 19/15/BEIRUT – A large blast rocked a Syrian refugee encampment outside the Bekaa town of Arsal, with reports indicating the explosion was caused by Lebanese army fire targeting militants. “Four people were killed and ten others injured in an explosion in the refugee camps in Wadi Hmeid near the amusement park on the outskirts of Arsal,” Lebanon’s state National News Agency reported Monday afternoon. The NNA made no mention of what caused the blast, while local media outlets quickly reported that the explosion was the result of a Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) missile strike against Islamist militants. “The explosion in Wadi Hmeid was the result of the army targeting a militant vehicle,” LBC news said. AFP, meanwhile, cited security sources as saying that eight people were killed in a LAF strike near Lebanon’s border with Syria. “A helicopter fired a missile at takfiri positions in Wadi Hmeid,” a security source told the news agency. The LAF has yet to issue an official statement on the matter, while initial reports have not indicated whether there were any civilian casualties in the missile strike. The LAF in the past year has reinforced its defensive lines in the eastern Beqaa along the Anti-Lebanon Mountain range, from where Islamist militants have launched probing raids raids into Lebanon. Lebanon’s army has conducted artillery attacks against Islamist positions along the Syria border, while foreign powers—including France, the US and Jordan, have all rushed military aid to the country. Last October, the Al-Nusra Front attacked Hezbollah positions in Brital, and in January militants killed eight LAF soldiers in fighting outside Ras Baalbek. In August 2014, Syrian militants conducted a cross-border rain into Arsal, taking dozens of security personnel during 5-days of fierce battles in the town that hosts more refugees than Lebanese nationals. The LAF reportedly hit militants outside Arsal. The explosion in Wadi Hmeid was the result of the army targeting a militant vehicle.

Hezbollah suffers casualties in Latakia fighting: rebels
Now Lebanon/October 19/15/BEIRUT – Free Syrian Army-affiliated rebels have claimed to have killed a number of Hezbollah fighters during battles over the weekend in the mountains overlooking the coastal city of Latakia. Al-Jazeera cited sources in the First Coastal Division as saying that the rebel unit killed four Hezbollah troops and 23 regime soldiers Saturday in clashes near Jubb al-Ahmar and Kfar Dalba north of Latakia. “Regime forces launched a fierce attack, the fourth of its kind, Saturday against Kfar Dalba,” FSA fighter Ahmad Hamdo told the station. Hamdo, who said he participated in Saturday’s fighting, claimed that the First Coastal Division along with other armed opposition groups repelled the regime’s attacks, conducting two ambushes that killed more than 10 fighters, including one from Hezbollah. The rebel fighter added that the regime targeted Kfar Dalba with dozens of rockets prior to its offensive, which he called an “abject failure.”Pro-Hezbollah outlets have made no mention of the fighting, while the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights’ recent reports on the Latakia front have made no mention of Hezbollah taking part in the regime’s offensive. A picture purports to show Hezbollah fighters heading to the frontlines outside Latakia on Sunday.The monitoring NGO’s report on Saturday fighting near Jubb al-Ahmar said that rebels had attempted to turn back regime gains in the area, but added that it did not have information on casualties. The regime, backed by Russian airstrikes, launched an offensive in Jubb al-Ahmar—which lies northeast of Latakia near the Idlib province and the Al-Ghab Plain—on October 8 and seized considerable ground in the hilly region the following day. The Latakia offensive comes amid a series of campaigns launched by the regime across northwest Syria, including south of Aleppo, north of Hama and between Hama and Homs. Hezbollah has suffered a number of casualties in the recent bouts of fighting, including two commanders. Reports have emerged that Iran has been deploying thousands of troops to take part in ground operations, while Hezbollah has purportedly redeployed hundreds of its fighters to assist the Bashar al-Assad regime’s campaigns outside its coastal heartland. “There is a large mobilization of the Syrian army ... elite Hezbollah fighters, and thousands of Iranians who arrived in stages in recent days,” one unnamed official told Reuters on October 13. Meanwhile, a pro-opposition Facebook page based in Latakia on Sunday posted pictures purporting to show Hezbollah troops headed to the frontlines north of the city. In early May, Hezbollah had bolstered its presence in Latakia with the official opening of a party office and the conversion of a Sunni Mosque into a Shiite seminary. Hezbollah reportedly took part in the government’s failed offensive launched in early March 2015 to take the town of Salma, a rebel stronghold approximately 35 kilometers northeast of Latakia. Al-Jazeera cited sources in the First Coastal Division as saying that the rebel unit killed four Hezbollah troops and 23 regime soldiers.

Why young Hezbollah fans love the number 313
Alex Rowell/Now Lebanon/October 19/15
For Western hip-hop fans, the number 313 may call to mind the area code for Detroit, Michigan, made famous by the rapper Eminem, who hailed from the city (“Everybody from the 313, put your motherf*cking hands up and follow me!” he bellows at the start of the final verse in the biographical 8 Mile film).
For many Shiite Lebanese, especially the youth, the number is also increasingly gaining a certain vogue in the run-up to the holy occasion of Ashura, the 10th day of the Islamic month of Muharram, which will occur this year on Friday, 23 October. As the Bint Jbeil Org website reported last week, clothes shops in Shiite-majority areas in Beirut and across Lebanon have been marketing a new range of black robes for women (Ashura, which marks the death of the Prophet Muhammad’s grandson, Hussein bin Ali, is a day of mourning) with “313” printed on the fronts and backs in large white typeface. Pictures sent to NOW — see above — also show black t-shirts bearing the number on sale in south Beirut, and even a barber’s salon re-branded with the digits in Lebanon’s South region. The number also drew attention when it was seen tattooed on the shirtless torsos of some young men accused of sparking riots at a You Stink demonstration in downtown Beirut in August (NOW saw one demonstrator with a “313” tattoo on his neck at a later, peaceful protest).
“This year they’re really going for the 313 thing,” said Rasha al-Amin, a resident of Beirut’s predominantly Shiite southern suburb, Dahiyeh. “They’re selling a lot of t-shirts, all over the place.”
At the root of this phenomenon is not a renewed interest in freestyle rapping, but rather a religious belief, part-numerological, part-eschatological, that the number holds divine significance for adherents of so-called Twelver Shiite Islam — those who believe there were 12 righteous successors to the Prophet as leader of the Muslims, the last of whom (Al-Mahdi) is currently in occultation. According to this doctrine, 313 is the number of military commanders that will lead Al-Mahdi’s army upon his anticipated reappearance. Or, at least, that is the prevailing contemporary view — Sheikh Abbas Yazbek, an independent Shiite cleric from Lebanon’s Baalbek-Hermel region, told NOW it has meant different things at different times throughout history, and to this day there is no complete consensus. “This figure in general is related to the number of Al-Mahdi's men who will appear with him as per the Twelver Shiite religious beliefs or doctrine,” said Yazbek. “It was widely accepted in the old societies, but today in modern society this number sounds irrelevant — what can an army of only 313 men do in wars? So they philosophize that this 313 could be the number of the commanders of Al-Mahdi’s army, or his most loyal supporters, or his henchmen, etc.”
Beyond End Times theology, Yazbek echoed other sources in saying the 313 phenomenon also had significant political connotations, being affiliated with the wilayat al-faqih doctrine shared by the Iranian regime and its Lebanese ally, Hezbollah. Iran has incorporated the number more than once into the names of its military hardware, such as the Fateh-313 ballistic missile and the Qaher-313 stealth fighter jet. Several pro-Hezbollah Facebook pages, such as “The Voice of the Resistance 313,” include the digits in their titles. “[This] is a political project,” Yazbek told NOW. “Nowadays, the political discourse is overlapped with the religious discourse, [and] the religious discourse is one of the tools of the political discourse.”For that reason, some Dahiyeh residents, such as Amin, worry the 313 fad, along with other recent, overt displays of sectarian identity such as the increased wearing of sword necklaces, are further symptoms of deepening communal divisions in Lebanon, particularly between Shiite and Sunni citizens.
“This year, the spectacle is really frightening,” Amin told NOW. “All of the young men of Amal and Hezbollah are wearing the really large swords of Imam Ali [on necklaces]. I mean, they always wear them, but this year they’re wearing big ones.” The general trend, in Amin’s view, is driven by developments in Syria, where Hezbollah recently fought one of its fiercest — and most costly — battles in the town of Zabadani. It isn’t only Shiites, however, who have shown interest in the number 313. Indeed, to the contrary, it was a Sunni militant group calling itself the 313 Brigade that claimed responsibility for a July 2013 car comb that injured over 50 civilians in Dahiyeh itself. Extremist Sunni Al-Qaeda militants have also operated under the name in Pakistan and Afghanistan. The pan-Islamic appeal of the number derives, according to Yazbek and others, from the traditional view that 313 was the number of soldiers accompanying the Prophet in the victorious Battle of Badr in 624 — a battle seen as decisive in defeating pagan Arab opposition to the new monotheistic faith. And, even within the Twelver Shiite community, many are unimpressed by the 313 trend and some of its accoutrements, including young women painting their nails black and wearing dark kohl eyeliner. When the aforementioned Bint Jbeil Org article was shared on the popular “Al-Dahiyeh” Facebook group, it attracted dozens of critical comments. “What is this idiocy, al-Imam al-Hussein deserves better than this,” said one commenter. “Hussein is innocent of this, by God, I feel some of these girls need to be whipped,” opined one woman. In an indication that perhaps the 313 crowd were not so different from American hip-hop devotees after all, one user ranted: “These people probably don’t pray the prayers on time, and fasting [during Ramadan] for them is just a trend […] They annoy their neighbors when they’re smoking arguileh in the middle of the night, and shouting, and guffawing with laughter.”**Amin Nasr contributed reporting.

Druze figure takes up assassinated brother’s mantle
Now Lebanon/October 19/15/BEIRUT – Rafaat Balaous has taken over the leadership of Suweida’s Druze Sheikhs of Dignity movement, issuing a fiery statement blaming the Bashar al-Assad regime for the assassination of his brother Waheed. “This cowardly operation that targeted one of the symbols of the homeland was carried out with intelligence agency planning at the highest of levels,” Rafaat Balaous said in reference to the September 4 car bombing that killed Waheed. Balaous’ assassination came less than a month after the anti-Assad cleric announced the formation of an armed party, which he cryptically implied had been equipped with the help of Druze compatriots in Israel. The Druze sheikh issued a statement on August 11 heralding the founding of Bayrak al-Fahd (Banner of the Leopard) in the village of Mazraa – the site of a historic August 1925 battle which saw Druze rebels lead by Sultan Pasha al-Atrash rout French troops in a victory that would inspire the Great Syrian Revolt against colonial mandate. Balaous also launched a broadside against Syrian security chief Ali Mamlouk in his statement, accusing him of trying to eliminate Syrian Druze who oppose the regime. “We know about the decision of Ali Mamlouk and others to liquidate us. We say to them: do your worst.”Rafaat argues only regime could have killed his brother. Rafaat Balaous went into details on the September 4 car bombing, arguing that only the Bashar al-Assad regime could have perpetrated the attack. “The IED’s used in the operation contained incendiary materials that only states could possess,” he said in his statement. “They were present under the ground at a depth of no more than two meters under the road, and this was on the Dhuhr al-Jabal road in the Ayn al-Maraj area.” He added that an explosive-rigged pickup truck was deployed next to the IED buried under the road, saying that both had been detonated simultaneously. Any survivors were picked off by “a group of people at a distance of no more than 200 meters from the bombsite on the north and east side of the road,” Balaous said. “Their goal was to kill any members of the procession left alive by letting off bursts of gunfire at random on the procession.” Rafaat Balaous also rejected the regime’s narrative that a Nusra Front member named Wafed Abu Tarabeh had perpetrated the attack, calling the claim a “ridiculous charade.”
Rafaat stresses independence
Despite the accusations he leveled against the Syrian regime, Rafaat Balaous stressed that the Sheikhs of Dignity movement is independent and not on the side of the opposition. “We are not [regime] supporters or opposition. We are Arab nationalist patriots. Or rather, we are humanitarians,” the preamble of his statement said. “We forbid transgressions by us and we forbid transgressions against us. This was the plan of our pious ancestors,” he added. Balaous also stressed that his movement was “not a secessionist project.”The Druze figure, who is younger than his slain brother, also touched on the issue of young men from Suweida joining the Syrian army. “Signing up with the army is a voluntary action and is not mandatory because the fighting in Syria is between the Syrians themselves,” he said. “Therefore, the decision to sign up reverts to the individual in question. We no longer know who this land belongs to. Does it belong to Iran or Hezbollah, or ISIS and Nusra? Or does it belong to the Russian army that has entered our country?” While Suweida is under regime control, residents of the region have generally maintained an autonomous attitude against not only Islamist rebels but also regime efforts to enlist Druze locals to fight in far-off areas of the country. Druze youths in southern Syria have protested against the regime’s military conscription efforts, while the Sheikhs of Dignity have previously opposed young men joining the army to fight outside the province. However, as the regime has faced growing pressure, pro-Assad figures in Suweida as well as the Druze community outside the province have attempted to rally support behind Damascus. On June 9, the spiritual chief of the Druze community in Syria issued a call for young men in Suweida to join the Syrian army.

Migrants Stream into Balkans, Germany Braces for Far-Right Rally
Naharnet/Agence France Presse/October 19/15/Thousands of migrants kept streaming Monday into the Balkans, where tighter border controls caused bottlenecks, as the German government braced for an anniversary rally of the xenophobic PEGIDA movement, accusing it of spewing "hate and poison". The unprecedented refugee wave into Europe has seen asylum seekers -- mostly fleeing war in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan -- traveling via Turkey, Greece and through the western Balkans, hoping to seek safe haven in Germany and other EU states. A new surge entered Macedonia from Greece at the weekend, with 10,000 crossing in just 24 hours, police said. But tensions have built further along the migrant trail after Hungary shut its borders with razor wire, diverting the flow west to Slovenia, which in turn also limited arrivals. On Monday Slovenia refused to let in more than 1,000 migrants arriving from Croatia, saying a daily quota had been reached. The move stoked fears of a new human bottleneck, as a train carrying 1,800 people arrived overnight on the Croatian side of the border, but only 500 of the "most vulnerable", mostly women and children, were allowed to cross, police said. Long lines also formed on the Serbia-Croatia border, where hundreds spent the night in rain and freezing temperatures. The goal for many of the migrants has been the EU's biggest economy, Germany, which expects to take in around one million refugees this year, and where Chancellor Angela Merkel's open-door policy has sparked a dangerous backlash. Two days after a man with a neo-Nazi background stabbed a pro-refugee politician in the neck, badly wounding her, Germany's anti-refugee PEGIDA movement was planning a mass rally to mark its first anniversary.Police expect thousands to join the march of the "Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the Occident" in Dresden in the former communist East, as well as a large antifascist counter-protests, from 1600 GMT. The movement had all but vanished after pictures surfaced in January showing its co-founder Lutz Bachmann sporting a Hitler moustache, but it has made a comeback since September, when Merkel opened the doors to a surge of asylum seekers. Angry protesters have accused her of "treason" and last week carried a mock gallows with Merkel's name on it. The chancellor on Monday again urged people to "stay away from those with hate in their hearts," her spokesman said. Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said PEGIDA's organizers were "hardcore right-wing extremists" who "call asylum seekers criminals, and politicians traitors". De Maiziere implored citizens, even if they are concerned about the record migrant influx, to "stay away from those who inject this hate, this poison into our country". Anti-foreigner sentiment motivated a bloody attack in the western city of Cologne on Saturday when a man used a hunting knife to stab independent mayoral candidate Henriette Reker, 58, who is active in helping refugees. Reker, who was seriously wounded in the neck, went on to win Sunday's election with an absolute majority. The attacker, a 44-year-old unemployed man, had "a racist motivation" and said he had been active in a neo-Nazi group in the 1990s, according to police. De Maiziere said the attack had left him "speechless" and also pointed to a tripling of attacks against asylum seekers and refugee homes from last year that had left more than 40 people injured. Justice Minister Heiko Maas charged that "PEGIDA sows the hatred that breeds violence" and warned that "there are no excuses for those who follow gallows and Hitler beards". The migrant influx has boosted support for populist right-wing parties in other European countries, including Austria. A Swiss populist party known for its virulent campaigns against immigration, the EU and Islam won a record number of seats in parliamentary elections on Sunday. In Germany, Merkel has faced a dip in opinion polls and a rebellion in her own conservative ranks, especially in the southern state of Bavaria, the main gateway for migrants. While the Bavarian CSU party wants to establish "transit zones" along the Austrian border to hold and register asylum-seekers, a police union chief has called for a fence to secure the Alpine frontier. A group of 188 of the 310 lawmakers in Merkel's conservative block has doubts about her open-border policy, and its chairman Christian von Stetten said considering "border fortifications" must "not be taboo", according to Bild daily. Merkel, hoping for Turkey's help in slowing the migrant influx, held talks with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Istanbul. The EU wants Turkey to tighten border security and house more refugees in return for billions in financial help, visa liberalization for Turkish citizens and an acceleration of its stuttering drive for EU membership. But Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Monday said his country would not host migrants permanently to appease the European Union. "We cannot accept an understanding like 'give us the money and they stay in Turkey'," he said in a television interview. "Turkey is not a concentration camp."

U.S. Wants to Avoid Total Destruction of Syria, Says Kerry
Naharnet/Agence France Presse/October 19/15/The United States is working to avoid the "total destruction" of Syria, and plans a meeting in the coming days with Russian, Saudi and Turkish leaders to seek an end to the conflict, Secretary of State John Kerry said Monday. Washington considers that it bears the responsibility "to try and avoid the complete and total destruction of Syria", fearing the potential fallout across the region and a possible surge in migration, Kerry said on a stop in Madrid. "We have a moral interest to try and stop this unfolding catastrophe," he said. "The threat of many more (refugees) coming if the violence continues and Syria absolutely implodes is real." Kerry also said he feared the consequences of Russia's air strikes in Syria. "Our fear (is that)... Russia is simply there to prop up (President Bashar) Assad," he said, warning that Moscow's air campaign might "attract more jihadists to the fight". If Moscow is willing to "help us find a political solution as well as... fight Daesh, then there is a possibility to try to find a way to another path", he said, using an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State extremist group.

Al-Jubeir: Hard to envision Iran role in Syria solution
Al Arabiya/Monday, 19 October 2015/Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said on Monday it was difficult to envision a role for Iran in Syria peacemaking efforts due to its military role in the conflict there.

Obama orders steps towards lifting Iran sanctions
By Staff Writer | Al Arabiya News/Sunday, 18 October 2015/President Barack Obama ordered the U.S. government Sunday to take steps towards lifting sanctions on Iran, in accordance with the historic nuclear deal struck between six world powers and Tehran. Obamas directive comes 90 days after the U.N. Security Council endorsed the accord signed in Vienna in July, a milestone referred to as “Adoption Day.”“I hereby direct you to take all necessary steps to give effect to the U.S. commitments with respect to sanctions,” Obama said in a memorandum addressed to the U.S. secretaries of state, energy, commerce and the treasury. The measures will take effect upon confirmation by the Secretary of State that Iran has met its commitments under the so-called Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), as the accord is known, Obama said. “This is an important day for all of us and a critical first step in the process of ensuring that Iran’s nuclear program will be exclusively for peaceful purposes,” Secretary of State John Kerry added in a statement. But no sanctions will be lifted immediately - full relief will come not on “adoption day” but on “implementation day,” the point when the IAEA is able to certify that Iran has fully complied with its end of the bargain. Under the deal with world powers, Iran will dramatically reduce its uranium enrichment program, surrender or dilute most of its highly enriched fuel and open its nuclear sites to inspectors from the IAEA, the U.N. nuclear watchdog. A top official said Sunday the “huge task” of disabling parts of Iran’s nuclear infrastructure would probably start this week, as Obama was taking steps to end the sanctions. In return, the United States, Europe and other countries will rescind a raft of economic sanctions imposed on Iran because of fears that its nuclear research program concealed plans to develop an atomic bomb. Tehran has said it hopes “implementation day” will come quickly, in less than two months, but Washington envisages a longer timeframe. “For us it’s important that it's done right, not that it’s done quickly,” a senior administration official told reporters. “We cannot imagine less than two months.”Ali Akbar Salehi, head of Iran’s nuclear agency, told state television he was awaiting President Hassan Rowhani’s order to remove thousands of centrifuges from atomic sites at Natanz and Fordo.The rendering of the centrifuges – fast-spinning machines that enrich uranium - was part of a July 14 deal, known as the Joint omprehensive Plan of Action, between Iran and six world powers to end a 13-year dispute over Tehran’s atomic activities. As well as slashing its number of centrifuges to around 6,000, Iran will have to satisfy the International Atomic Energy Agency that it has taken steps to ensure its Arak reactor and other installations cannot be used for military purposes. The IAEA’s final report on Iran is due by Dec. 15. “We will start our actions when the president gives the order," Salehi said of Rowhani, estimating that the work to comply with the JCPOA would take around two months. “What we need to accomplish is a huge task. We hope to start this week or next week.” The July agreement won final approval in Iran on Wednesday. Also on Sunday the European Union published legal acts that would open the way for the bloc to lift sanctions if Tehran met the conditions tied to a landmark nuclear agreement between Iran and world powers. The legal acts would have no immediate effect, but would cement the process. “The EU today adopted the legislative framework for lifting all of its nuclear-related economic and financial sanctions,” EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Federica Mogherini and Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif said in a joint statement. “It will take effect on Implementation Day, simultaneously with the IAEA-verified implementation of agreed nuclear measures by Iran,” the statement said. In Tehran, some hardline lawmakers say Rowhani’s government made too many concessions to the West. The deal also came despite fierce opposition from US and Israeli critics who say safeguards on Iran are not sufficiently robust. Iran has always denied seeking a nuclear weapon. The accord is meant to ensure it never can through an inspection regime over 15 years.

Turkish PM: Downed drone was Russian-made
By Reuters, AFP | Istanbul/Monday, 19 October 2015/A drone shot down by Turkish warplanes in Turkish air space near Syria on Friday was Russian-made, but Moscow has told Ankara the unmanned aircraft did not belong to Russia, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Monday. The drone was downed on Friday after it continued on its flight path despite three warnings, the Turkish military said. Earlier this month, Russian jets violated Turkish air space on two occasions and Ankara warned it would respond if such incursions recurred. “The downed drone is Russian-made but Russia has told us in a friendly manner that it doesn’t belong to them,” Davutoglu said in an interview with Turkish broadcaster AHaber. A U.S. official said Washington believed the drone was of Russian origin. Davutoglu said it could have belonged to Syrian government forces, whose biggest arms supplier is Russia, or to the Syrian Kurdish PYD militia or other elements. The incident highlighted the risks to NATO member Turkey as Syrian, Russian and U.S. coalition aircraft target various insurgent groups inside Syria often close to Turkish borders. Davutoglu said the downing of the drone proved Turkey is determined to react against any air space incursions. “This incident...has shown that Turkey both has the capacity and the political will to put an end to such violations,” he said. “I hope Russia, whose friendship and neighborliness we value, will adopt a more careful stance and Turkish-Russian relations will not be negatively affected.”Turkey ‘not a concentration camp’In the same interview, Davutoglu said his country was “not a concentration camp” and would not host migrants permanently to appease the EU, which wants Turkey to stop the flow of people to Europe. “We cannot accept an understanding like ‘give us the money and they stay in Turkey’. Turkey is not a concentration camp,” he said a day after meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on the migrant crisis. “I said this to Merkel too. No-one should expect Turkey to turn into a concentration camp where all the refugees stay in,” he said. But he agreed that “illegal immigration should be properly kept under control, therefore we will set up joint mechanisms” to contain the historic influx of Syrians and others escaping conflict, persecution and poverty who use Turkey as a gateway to Europe. “We spoke of three billion euros ($3.4 billion) as ‘fresh money’ but it is not a fixed sum. Our (financial) needs may increase,” Davutoglu said. Merkel on Sunday had hailed progress on an EU-driven “action plan” after talks in Istanbul with Davutoglu and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Brussels has offered Turkey financial help and an acceleration of its drive for EU membership among other sweeteners to persuade it to do more to tighten its border security. Though Turkey had initially poured cold water on Brussels’ plan, describing it as nothing more than a draft, both Merkel and the Turkish leadership indicated that officials were making progress towards a deal on cooperation. More than 630,000 people fleeing war and misery have landed on Europe’s shores so far this year, many making risky sea crossings from Turkey to Greece.

Turkey identifies one of Ankara suicide bombers
By Reuters | Istanbul/Monday, 19 October 2015/Turkish authorities have confirmed the identity of one of two suicide bombers who blew themselves up outside Ankara's main train station on Oct. 10, killing 102 people, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Monday. In an interview on Turkey's AHaber TV, Davutoglu said investigations into the second attacker were continuing. He said 15 people had been detained in connection with the bombing, four of whom had been remanded in custody. Footage screened by broadcaster CNN Turk showed the a line of young men and women holding hands and dancing during a peace rally on Oct. 10, and then flinching as a large explosion flashed behind them, engulfing people carrying HDP and leftist party banners. "Like other terror attacks, the one at the Ankara train station targets our unity, togetherness, brotherhood and future," said Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has vowed to crush a Kurdish militant insurgency since the collapse of a ceasefire and resumption of intense violence in July. Witnesses said the two explosions happened seconds apart shortly after 10 a.m. as crowds, including HDP activists, leftists, labour unions and other civic groups, gathered for a planned march to protest over the deaths of hundreds since conflict resumed between security forces and the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in the mainly Kurdish southeast.

Syrian rebels receive weapons for Aleppo battle
Reuters, Beirut/Amman/Monday, 19 October 2015/Rebels battling the Syrian army and its allies south of Aleppo say they have received new supplies of U.S.-made anti-tank missiles from states that oppose President Bashar al-Assad since a major government offensive began there on Friday. Rebels from three Free Syrian Army-affiliated groups contacted by Reuters said new supplies had arrived since the start of the attack by the army backed by Iranian fighters and Lebanon's Hezbollah. But officials from one of the groups said that while new quantities had arrived, the supplies were not enough for the scale of the assault. They declined to be identified due to the sensitivities of the matter. "A few will not do the trick. They need dozens," said one of the officials. A number of rebel groups vetted by states opposed to Assad have been supplied with weapons via Turkey, part of a programme supported by the United States and which has in some cases included military training by the Central Intelligence Agency. Rami Abdulrahman, director of the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights which monitors the Syrian conflict, said rebels had hit at least 11 army vehicles with guided anti-tank missiles near Aleppo since Friday.

Kerry calls for clarity to help end Israeli-Palestinian violence
By Lesley Wroughton | Reuters, Madrid/Monday, 19 October 2015/
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Monday Israeli and Palestinian leaders need to clarify the status of Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque compound to help end a spate of bloodshed and restore stability. Kerry, preparing for meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Germany and then with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Jordan’s King Abdullah, likely in Amman, also rejected a proposal by France at the United Nations for an international observer presence at the holy site. Israel called in France’s ambassador on Monday to make clear its opposition to the idea, a foreign ministry spokesperson said. “Israel understands the importance of the status quo and ... our objective is to make sure that everyone understands what that means,” Kerry told a news conference in Madrid. The Palestinians’ unrest, the most serious in years, has been stirred in part by anger over what they see as increased Jewish encroachment on the mosque compound, Islam’s most sacred site outside Saudi Arabia and also revered by Jews as the location of two destroyed biblical Jewish temples. Netanyahu has said his government is committed to maintaining the status quo at the compound, which has long been under Muslim religious administration while Jews are permitted to visit the site but not pray there. “We are not seeking a new change or outsiders to come in, I don’t think Israel or Jordan wants that and we’re not proposing it,” he said. “What we need is clarity.” Israel has deployed troops in and around Jerusalem and erected roadblocks in Palestinian neighborhoods in East Jerusalem to try and stop the most serious outbreak of Palestinian street attacks since an uprising in 2000-2005. Kerry said Israel had a right to protect citizens against random acts of violence. Netanyahu had told him he was committed to preserving the status quo at al Aqsa, he added. “I don’t have specific expectations except to try to move things forward,” Kerry said of the upcoming meetings. “That will depend on the conversations themselves as to what it is that we’re able to define in the context of steps that might be taken so people understand that in fact leaders are leading and making a serious effort to try and resolve the current ... conflict.”Some U.S. and Israeli officials have said that now is not the time for diplomacy, but Kerry stressed that security and diplomacy should go hand in hand. “There is not a time for one and then the other. There is an importance to both.”He also said he would meet counterparts from Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Russia in Europe to explore “real and tangible options” for a peaceful political transition in Syria, whose civil war has intensified with Russia’s intervention last month in support of the Damascus government against insurgents. “This is a human catastrophe unfolding before our eyes and it is a catastrophe that now threatens the integrity of

Eritrean mistakenly shot during Israel bus station attack dies
By AFP | Occupied Jerusalem/Monday, 19 October 2015/An Eritrean man mistakenly shot and beaten by a mob during an attack in the city of Beersheba has died, police said on Monday. The attack on Sunday night at a bus station in the southern city saw a gunman also armed with a knife kill a 19-year-old soldier and wound around 10 other people. The gunman was killed, while a security guard shot the Eritrean man mistakenly thinking he was a second attacker. A mob also attacked and beat him, Israeli media reported. Police identified the attacker as a Mohannad Al-Aqaby, 21, an Arab Israeli citizen from the area. "During a raid last night, security forces and Shin Bet (internal security agency) arrested one of his family members, who was accused of providing support" for the attack, police said. Video that spread online appears to show the Eritrean lying on the ground after being shot and being kicked in the head and body by angry bystanders.More than two weeks of violence and unrest has raised questions of a full-scale Palestinian Intifada, or uprising, while some Israeli politicians have urged residents to arm themselves in the face of attacks. Police have not said whether anyone was arrested over the shooting and beating of the Eritrean. Israeli media described him as an asylum seeker, like many Eritreans who have come to Israel, though authorities have not confirmed those details. Official figures show some 45,000 undocumented immigrants are in Israel, almost all from Eritrea and Sudan. About two-thirds are Eritrean.

Jerusalem divided as Israel blocks off Arab areas
By The Associated Press | Occupied Jerusalem/Monday, 19 October 2015/Palestinians in occupied Jerusalem, more than a third of the city’s population, have awoken to a new reality: Israeli troops are encircling Arab neighborhoods, blocking roads with concrete cubes the size of washing machines and ordering some of those leaving on foot to lift their shirts to show they are not carrying knives. The unprecedented clampdown is meant to halt a rash of stabbings attacks. Many of the attacks were allegedly carried out by residents of occupied East Jerusalem, the sector captured and annexed by Israel in 1967 and claimed by Palestinians as a future capital. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has portrayed the measures as temporary, in line with what his advisers say any police department in the U.S. or Europe would do to quell urban unrest. But some allege he is dividing occupied Jerusalem, something Netanyahu has said he would never do. Arab residents, who have long complained of discriminatory Israeli policies, say the latest closures are bringing them to a boiling point and lead to more violence. ‘They want to humiliate us’“They want to humiliate us,” said Taher Obeid, a 26-year-old janitor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He spoke over the din of car horns, as drivers stuck at one of the new checkpoints vented their anger. Domestic critics say Netanyahu — long opposed to any negotiated partition of Jerusalem into two capitals — is effectively dividing the city along ethnic lines with his security measures. “The great patriots ... who don’t go to bed at night before praying for a unified, undivided, greater occupied Jerusalem, are now proposing to dissect it, divide it and return it back 48 years in time,” commentator Nehemiah Strassler wrote in the Israeli daily Haaretz. Some warn that recent events — a rise in “lone wolf” attacks by Palestinians and Israeli crackdowns — offer a taste of the constant hate-filled skirmishes that would likely prevail for years if there’s no deal on setting up Palestine next to Israel. They say that due to the growth of Israeli settlements, the land between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River has effectively become a binational entity, with Israel ruling over several million Palestinians. “This is what the future looks like,” said expert Daniel Seidemann. “It’s the one-state reality.”
Ongoing violence
Amid the blocking of Arab areas in occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank, a Palestinian gunman attacked the central bus station in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba on Sunday, killing a soldier and wounding 11 other people, police said. In one of the most serious attacks during this month’s upsurge of violence, police said the attacker was shot dead after a protracted gun battle, police said. Palestinian media outlets named the attacker as Asam al-Araj from Shuafat, on the outskirts of occupied Jerusalem. A number of the wounded were police officers. Hospital officials said two people were in critical condition.
Forty-two Palestinians and eight Israelis have died in the recent violence, which was in part triggered by Palestinians’ anger over what they see as increased Jewish encroachment on occupied Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa Mosque compound.

Jews will worship devil, be exterminated by Muslims, says al-Aksa hate preacher
JEREMY SHARON/J.Post/10/19/2015
Sheikh Khaled Al-Mughrabi, an notorious radical Islamic cleric who teaches religious classes at al-Aksa mosque, has stirred controversy once again, saying that at the end of days Muslims will exterminate Jews. A video of his sermon given on Friday in the mosque was published online and translated by the Palestinian Media Watch NGO. Al-Mughrabi first explained that “the Children of Israel…will be forced to change their plans to build the Temple inside the structure of al-Aksa Mosque and will have to build it outside al-Aksa Mosque... A Temple of heresy to worship the Devil.”
He then quotes a well known Hadith, collected Islamic sources not in the Koran, in which at the end of days trees and rocks tell Muslims to come and kill Jews hiding behind them. “The Children of Israel will all be exterminated, the Anti-Christ will be killed and the Muslims will live in comfort for a long time,” Al-Mughrabi concluded in his Friday sermon. The cleric has in the past made other comments inciting hatred in his lessons in al-Aksa mosque. In June this year, he gave a sermon in which he utilized medieval accusations of blood libels against the Jewish people, saying that they slaughter gentile children and drain their blood for use in Passover matzot. Jews, he said, “would look for a small child, kidnap and steal him, bring a barrel called the barrel of nails... They would put the small child in the barrel and his body would be pierced by these nails. In the bottom of the barrel they would put a faucet and pour the blood.”
Al-Mughrabi said that this behavior caused the Holocaust. The cleric teaches two religious classes a week at al-Aksa mosque, which is run by a Jordanian Waqf, or religious trust, which also administers the Temple Mount. He was arrested in August in relation to his inflammatory lessons and released shortly thereafter. According to Palestinian Media Watch Friday’s sermon was the first that was uploaded to the internet since he was arrested.

Hamas making efforts to carry out suicide attacks against Israel, officials say
J.Post/19 October/15/Israeli officials on Monday said they've learned that the senior Hamas leadership in the Gaza Strip has instructed its operatives in the West Bank to carry out suicide attacks against Jewish targets, a number of media outlets reported on Monday. The focal points of Hamas activity in the Palestinian territories are Nablus and Hebron, Israeli officials said. As authorities struggle to grapple with the wave of Palestinian acts of violence in recent weeks, Israeli officials are convinced that Hamas will make every effort to execute a large-scale attack by using whatever means are available to its men in the field. A Palestinian source told Israel Radio that the Palestinian Authority's security forces apprehended a group of Hamas men in Hebron who were planning a number of attacks. According to the PA, the Hamas operatives were found to have in their possession large sums of money as well as explosives.
While it was unclear exactly how the men planned to carry out the attack, the Palestinian security forces said they had expressed their desire to die. Mahmoud al-Zahar, a senior figure in Hamas' political bureau, told an Islamist-affiliated web site in Gaza that he was hopeful the current violence would escalate into "an armed intifada." The Hamas leader said that it was incumbent on the Palestinians to use firearms and more deadly means "since this is what the Israeli side is doing." "Those who are coming out against an armed intifada are doing so out of personal interest and VIP status," he said, taking a veiled verbal swipe at Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

UK to block passports to stop ISIS teen recruits
By Reuters | London/Monday, 19 October 2015/British parents worried that their 16 and 17-year-old children might travel to Syria or Iraq under the influence of militants will be able to apply to have their passports removed, Prime Minister David Cameron is set to announce on Monday. The measure is aimed at disrupting a steady stream of young Britons lured by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS)’s radical ideology to join the militant group fighting in the Middle East. Cameron has said that defeating militants is the “struggle of our generation.”“The government’s new ‘Counter-Extremism Strategy’ is a clear signal of the choice we have made to take on this poisonous ideology with resolve, determination and the goal of building a greater Britain,” he will say, according to extracts from his speech. “And a key part of this new approach is going further to protect children and vulnerable people from the risk of radicalization by empowering parents and public institutions with all the advice, tools and practical support they need.” Cameron will also say that anyone with a “conviction for terrorist offences or extremist activity” will be automatically banned from working with children and vulnerable people. The government said that over the last year there had been a number of cases of young Britons travelling to join ISIS in Syria and Iraq. According to the latest police figures, of 338 counter-terrorism-related arrests, 157 were linked to Syria and 56 were of people aged under 20, it said.

MSF says bombing of Afghan hospital no mistake
By The Associated Press | Kunduz, Afghanistan/Monday, 19 October 2015/The head of an international medical charity whose hospital in northern Afghanistan was destroyed in a U.S. airstrike says the “extensive, quite precise destruction” of the bombing raid casts doubt on American military assertions that it was a mistake. The Oct. 3 attack on the compound in Kunduz city, which killed at least 22 patients and hospital staff, should be investigated as a possible war crime, said Christopher Stokes, general director of Doctors Without Borders, which is also known by its French abbreviation MSF. The trauma hospital was bombed during a firefight between Taliban and government troops, as U.S. advisers were helping Afghan forces retake the city after the insurgents overran it and seized control on Sept. 28. Afghan authorities say they are now largely back in control of Kunduz. In this Friday, Oct. 16, 2015 photo, Christopher Stokes, the general director of the medical charity, Doctors Without Borders, which is also known by its French abbreviation MSF, stands amid the charred remains of the organization's hospital, after it was hit by a U.S. airstrike in Kunduz, Afghanistan. (AP). U.S. President Barack Obama has apologized for the attack, and the commander of U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan, Gen. John F. Campbell, said it was a mistake. He said the strike had been called in by Afghan forces, but has not explained exactly how it happened or who granted final approval. Internal military investigations are underway, with preliminary results expected in coming days. According to Associated Press reporting, American special operations analysts were scrutinizing the Afghan hospital days before it was destroyed because they believed it was being used by a Pakistani operative to coordinate Taliban activity. The analysts knew it was a medical facility, according to a former intelligence official who is familiar with some of the documents describing the site. It’s unclear whether that information ever got to commanders who unleashed the AC-130 gunship on the hospital. “The hospital was repeatedly hit both at the front and the rear and extensively destroyed and damaged, even though we have provided all the coordinates and all the right information to all the parties in the conflict,” Stokes said, standing in the burned-out main hospital building. “The extensive, quite precise destruction of this hospital ... doesn’t indicate a mistake. The hospital was repeatedly hit,” Stokes said. The bombing went on for more than an hour, despite calls to Afghan, U.S. and NATO to call if off, MSF has said. Stokes, who has called for an independent inquiry into the incident, told The Associated Press in an interview in the remains of the hospital on Friday that MSF wanted a “clear explanation because all indications point to a grave breach of international humanitarian law, and therefore a war crime.” In this Friday, Oct. 16, 2015 photo, the charred remains of the Doctors Without Borders hospital is seen after it was hit by a U.S. airstrike in Kunduz, Afghanistan. (AP). Afghan authorities have refused to comment before investigations are complete. President Ashraf Ghani’s deputy spokesman, Zafar Hashemi, told reporters on Saturday that the Afghan government has “faith” in investigations being conducted by the U.S. military, and by a joint Afghan-NATO team. MSF has denied there were any armed Taliban on the hospital grounds at the time of the attack. “The compound was not entered by Taliban soldiers with weapons,” Stokes said. “What we have understood from our staff and guards is that there was very strong, very good control of what was happening in and around the compound and they reported no firing in the hours preceding the destruction of the hospital.” More than 70 staff members were on duty, tending to more than 100 patients at the time, he said. According to its policy, MSF treats government troops and insurgent combatants equally. Hospitals are regarded as protected sites in war. Doctors Without Borders officials have said the U.S. gunship made five separate strafing runs over the course of an hour, directing heavy fire on the main hospital building, which contained the emergency room and intensive care unit. Surrounding buildings were not hit. The hospital is no longer operable.
In this Thursday, Oct. 15, 2015 photo, Christopher Stokes, the general director of medical charity Doctors Without Borders, which is also known by its French abbreviation MSF, stands at the gate of the organization's hospital, after it was hit by a U.S. airstrike, in Kunduz, Afghanistan. (AP) Stokes said that “until we understand what happened and we can gain guarantees that this unacceptable attack cannot happen again, we cannot reopen and put our staff in danger.” MSF, a Nobel Peace Prize-winning organization that provides medical aid in conflict zones, has called for an investigation by the International Humanitarian Fact-Finding Commission, based in the Swiss capital, Bern. It is made up of diplomats, legal experts, doctors and some former military officials from nine European countries, including Britain and Russia.An IHFFC investigation needs the cooperation of both Afghanistan and the U.S. before it can proceed, which neither government is expected to give.

Analysis: Why the German foreign minister's Iran trip flopped
By BENJAMIN WEINTHAL/Jpost/10/19/2015
BERLIN – German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier’s trip to Iran on Saturday turned the clock back to the Federal Republic’s pre-sanctions pro-Iran policies by showing an indifferent posture to growing Iranian jingoism, domestic repression and anti-Israel rhetoric. “It is of course my wish that Iran uses its influence in the region and… on [Syrian President Bashar)] Assad to ensure that we take the first steps toward a deescalation in Syria,” said Steinmeier, in the second visit by a German foreign minister to Iran in 12 years. Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian responded: “We have military advisers in Iraq and Syria at the request of the governments of the two countries... We are going to step up our aid to Syria in the form of advice on the fight against terrorism.”Writing on Spiegel Online Christoph Schult authored a rare German-language criticism of Steinmeier’s Iran diplomacy calling it “too early to term the nuclear deal ‘historic,’” as Steinmeier frequently does.Schult added “it was false to hope that the atomic deal would mark the beginning of a change in Iran. Tehran agitates against Israel and tests new rockets.”
He said Iran’s regime’s policies had remained the same, citing “the repression of the opposition, the support for the terror of Hezbollah.” He urged Steinmeier not to shy away from criticizing Iran. The head of Germany’s Human Rights Watch division Wenzel Michalski wrote on Twitter that “Steinmeier should prioritize human rights at his visit in Iran” and linked to a July HRW report containing a laundry list of Iran’s human rights violations. More than 650 people have been hanged this year alone, including several who allegedly committed crimes as children, “ HRW wrote. Iran expert and journalist Amir Taheri took Steinmeier to task for ignoring human rights issues and meeting with anti-Zionist Iranians such as former president Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani, who has discussed the idea of dropping a nuclear bomb on Tel Aviv. Taheri tweeted,”#German FM #Steinmeier can’t be proud. In #Tehran not a pip on #executions, #prisoners of conscience, #hostages, #minorities, #trade unions.”
Steinmeier also met with Ali Larijani, the president of Iran’s parliament, who reportedly denied the Holocaust at the Munich 2009 Security Conference and remains committed to Israel’s destruction. Steinmeier did not launch any barbs at Iran’s clerical regime or publicly confront Larijani about his denial of the Shoah. Oddly, Steinmeier has reserved his harshest attacks not for Iran’s regime but for Netanyahu’s criticism of the Iran deal, which the foreign minister deemed to be very “coarse” and urged the prime minister to rein in his rhetoric. Steinmeier’s trip coincided with Sunday’s “adoption day” of the nuclear agreement. The implementation process has started; the EU and US will begin to adopt measures to lift sanctions against Iran for its cooperation in restricting its nuclear program. Steinmeier assured Iran’s rulers that “If Iran fulfills its duties the economic situation will quickly and markedly improve. And that will create room for a strong revival of our economic relations.”
His Social Democratic Party colleague, economics minister Sigmar Gabriel, visited Iran in July with a 60-member delegation of the country’s captains of industry to lay the groundwork for flourishing German-Iranian trade. According to data obtained by The Jerusalem Post from Germany’s statistical agency, pre-sanctions bilateral trade amounted to nearly €5 billion in 2010. After powerful EU sanctions were imposed in 2012, German- Iran trade plummeted to €2 billion in 2013. The head of the BDI – Federation of German Industries estimated that post-sanctions exports could climb to more than €10 billion.
In the 1980’s, Germany’s policy toward Iran was called “critical dialogue.” There were robust trade relations in exchange for discreet conversations about improving human rights. Steinmeier’s trip seems to suggest he is regressing to this German policy toward Iran.
***Benjamin Weinthal is fellow for the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

Analysis: Neither Israeli nor Palestinian leadership has an exit strategy
By YOSSI MELMAN/J.Post/10/18/2015
For several hours, perhaps as long as a whole day, there was a feeling among the Israeli public on Thursday that the Palestinian wave of terror had significantly subsided. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made hay of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas's lie that Israel murdered in cold blood a 13-year-old Palestinian boy, who it turned out is alive and hospitalized at Hadassah University Medical Center in Jerusalem's Ein Kerem. Indeed, there were no terror attacks within the Green Line and in Israel a sort of "countdown" started, that is increasingly becoming a conditioned response - counting the hours that have passed since the last terror attack. However, this feeling is an illusion, as Sunday's attack in Beersheba proved. The relative quiet is deceptive. Over the weekend, the violence came back to its usual focal points - east Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza.
In Hebron, a Border Policewoman was lightly stabbed, but managed to kill the terrorist. In Hebron and east Jerusalem, there were two attempts to attack police, which ended in the deaths of the terrorists. In Nablus, Joseph's Tomb was set fire to by arsonists. And in Gaza, there were again demonstrations, riots and attempts to break through the border fence. The IDF responded with live fire and media outlets in Gaza reported that two people were killed and a few dozen were wounded. In all of the epicenters of violence there was also stone-throwing, Molotov cocktails, a bus that went up in flames and rioting. In short, the usual. The usual violence and terror. The public in Israel and in the Palestinian territories has quickly become used to and accepted the reality which the defense establishment, unable to decide if it's a third intifada with new characteristics, prefers to refer to as "the new situation."
New or old, as opposed to previous instances, the leadership on both sides has no exit plan nor do they have the desire or will to try and extricate their people from the situation. Both leaderships are captive to their respective narratives and trapped by political forces that will not allow them to attempt to break the impasse. Unlike in previous intifadas, this time the apathy extends to the international community and the Arab world. The French daily Le Figaro reported Saturday that France is trying to promote a diplomatic process by which the UN secretary-general will try to send international observers to the Temple Mount. The move proves that Paris is the only one of Israel's friends that still cares and is trying to advance proposals to stop the violence through diplomacy.
In the past, Paris tried to do this with a draft resolution which called for the UN Security Council to declare the establishment of a Palestinian state. The draft resolution was torn up because the US did not support it and Israel staunchly opposed the proposal. It is not clear to what extent the new French initiative is serious and realistic, or if it is only a half-baked idea, but in any event, the chances that it will come to fruition are slim. Israel opposes any initiative that includes the sending of observers or international forces to the territories because this will "internationalize" the conflict with the Palestinians, which is what Abbas wants. Later this week, there will also be an attempt by US Secretary of State John Kerry to promote some sort of mini-diplomatic process. This is also likely to fail.
The violence here is over a low flame, especially in comparison to what's happening in Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Sinai, where dozens, if not hundreds, are killed every week. Therefore, the world's attention is focused on other centers of violence and terrorism. The world is tired of efforts to advance the moribund peace process. Netanyahu speaks of Palestinian "incitement" and "terror" and ignores the fact that the entire world sees the Israeli occupation as the biggest cause of the violence. And the occupation is not going to end. The Israeli government continues to strengthen the occupation and manage the conflict. In short, we are going to experience more of the same for days and weeks, and perhaps even years, unless a process of Deus ex machina (outside intervention) occurs.

ISIS Fires Up Palestinians
Bassam Tawil/Gatestone Institute/October 19, 2015
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/6712/palestinians-islamic-state
The current wave of stabbings of Jews in Israel is an attempt to imitate Islamic State terrorists, who have been using knives to behead many Muslims and non-Muslims. In most attacks, the Palestinian terrorists focused on the victims' throats and necks. They are trying to replace Islamic State jihadis as the chief "butchers" of humans in the Middle East.
How can our leaders in Ramallah accuse Jews of "contaminating" the Aqsa Mosque with their "filthy feet" at a time when our youths burn a religious site such as Joseph's Tomb? Palestinian Authority security forces, which maintain a tight grip on Nablus, did nothing to prevent the arson attack.
The attacks are an attempt to erase history so that Jews will not be able to claim any religious ties to the land. This is exactly what the Islamic State is doing in Syria and Iraq.
Mahmoud Abbas and other Palestinian leaders are lying. This is not a struggle against "occupation" or a wall or a checkpoint. This is an Islamic State-inspired jihad to slaughter Jews and wipe Israel off the face of the earth.
By now, it has become clear that our young Palestinian men and women have learned a lot from the Islamic State (ISIS) terror group.
This new "intifada" that some Palestinians are now waging against Israel should be seen in the context of the wider jihad that is being waged by the Islamic State, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Boko Haram and Al-Qaeda against the "infidels, Zionists, apostates, Crusaders" and against non-extremist Muslims.
The tactics employed by Palestinian youths over the past two weeks show that they are doing their utmost to copy the crimes and atrocities committed by the Islamic State in Syria, Iraq, Libya and other Arab countries.
Although the Islamic State is not physically present in the West Bank or Jerusalem (largely thanks to the efforts of the Israel Defense Forces and other Israeli security agencies), there is no denying that its spirit and ideology are hovering over the heads of many of our young men and women.
The current wave of stabbings of Jews in Israel and the West Bank is an attempt to imitate Islamic State terrorists who have been using knives to behead many Muslims and non-Muslims during the past two years.
Like the Islamic State, many of the Palestinian terrorists who recently stabbed Jews saw themselves as jihadis acting in the name of Allah, the Quran and the Prophet Mohammed. This was evident by the Palestinian terrorists' cries of "Allahu Akbar!" ["Allah is Greater!"] as they pounced on their victims. Our young men and women must have been watching too many videos of Islamic State jihadis shouting "Allahu Akbar!" as they beheaded or burned their victims.
The stabbing attacks that were carried out in the past two weeks were actually attempts to slit the throats of Jews, regardless of their age and gender. In most instances, the terrorists were aiming for the upper part of the body, focusing on the victims' throats and necks. The Palestinian terrorists are now trying to replace Islamic State jihadis as the chief "butchers" of human beings in the Middle East. For now, they seem to be partially successful in their mission.
Our young men and women have learned from the Islamic State not only the practice of stabbing the "infidels," but also how to destroy religious sites. On Thursday night, scores of Palestinians attacked and torched Joseph's Tomb in the West Bank city of Nablus, in scenes reminiscent of the Islamic State's destruction of ancient and holy sites in Syria and Iraq.
Last week, Palestinians torched Joseph's Tomb in Nablus (left), in scenes reminiscent of the Islamic State's destruction of holy sites in Syria and Iraq, such as the Armenian Church in Deir Zor (right).
The shrine was set on fire for no reason other than that it is revered as the tomb of a Jewish biblical figure. This is a site frequented by Jewish worshippers, although it is under the control of the Palestinian Authority (PA) and its security forces in Nablus. It is worth noting that agreements signed between Israel and the Palestinians guarantee access for Jewish worshippers to Joseph's Tomb, and there were assurances to the Israelis that the PA could be trusted to safeguard the site.
What the Palestinians did to Joseph's Tomb is no different from what the Islamic State and other terrorist groups have been doing to holy sites and archaeological sites in Syria and Iraq. The Palestinians who attacked Joseph's Tomb were obviously influenced by the crimes of the Islamic State against religious and ancient sites.
What is still not clear is why the Palestinian Authority security forces, which maintain a tight grip on Nablus, did nothing to prevent the arson attack.
How can our leaders in Ramallah accuse Jews of "contaminating" the Aqsa Mosque with their "filthy feet" at a time when our youths burn a religious site such as Joseph's Tomb?
This is not the only Jewish holy site that has been targeted by Palestinians in recent years. While our leaders are screaming day and night about Jews "invading" and "desecrating" the Aqsa Mosque, Palestinians from Bethlehem have been throwing stones, petrol bombs and explosive devices at Rachel's Tomb near the city. This has been going on for several years now, in an attempt to kill Jewish worshippers and the Israeli soldiers guarding Rachel's Tomb.
The attacks on Joseph's and Rachel's Tombs in Nablus and Bethlehem are part of a Palestinian-Islamic campaign to destroy Jewish holy sites and deny any Jewish link to the land. The attacks are an attempt to rewrite history so that Jews will not be able to claim any religious ties to the land. This is exactly what the Islamic State is doing these days in Syria and Iraq: "erasing history that lets us to learn from the past."
The terror campaign that we have been waging against Israel in the past few weeks shows that the Islamic State and Islamic fundamentalism and fascism have invaded the minds and hearts of many of our young men and women. We have turned the conflict with Israel into a jihadi war, the goal of which is to slaughter Jews, erase their history and expel them from this part of the world. This is not an intifada. This is brutal killing spree targeting Jews of all ages, including a 13-year-old boy, a 72-year-old woman and a 78-year-old man.
President Mahmoud Abbas and other Palestinian leaders are lying to us -- and the rest of the world -- when they describe the stabbing attacks against Jews as a "peaceful popular resistance." This is not a struggle against "occupation" or a wall or a checkpoint. It is time to recognize that this is an Islamic State-inspired jihad to slaughter as many Jews as possible and wipe Israel off the face of the earth. When and if the Islamic State is finally eliminated or disappears, the Palestinians will emerge as the successors of one of the most brutal and murderous Islamic gangs that has surfaced in modern history.
**Bassam Tawil is a scholar based in the Middle East.

Middle East Peace Process: Oh No, Not Again!
Shoshana Bryen//Gatestone Institute/October 19/15
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/6673/middle-east-peace-process
The Palestinians seek three things: a) Creation of an independent state without recognizing a legitimate and permanent State of Israel in any territory. b) Sovereign control of East Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine. c) The right of entry for all remaining 1948/9 Arab refugees from Britain's Mandatory Palestine, and for their descendants, to any place within pre-1967 Israel in which they, or their antecedents had lived.
Israel seeks three different things: a) Recognition of the legitimacy and permanence of Israel within finalized "secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force." This is the security promise of UN Resolution 242 to which Israel is entitled. b) The capital of Israel in Jerusalem and Israeli protection for Jewish patrimony in Eastern Jerusalem. c) "End of conflict; end of claims." After an agreement, the Palestinians will not be able to press additional claims against Israel for territory or other "rights."
For the Obama administration now to pursue a Palestinian state...would likely be seen by both sides as nothing more than a shiny new distraction for the benefit of the U.S. negotiators' vanity, nothing more.
Although most of what Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas recently said at the United Nations has been heard already, many times, the context has changed.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas addresses the UN General Assembly, on September 26, 2014. (Image source: UN)
West Bank Palestinians are -- and are known to be -- the most privileged refugees in the world. They are not running; they do not have to. Unlike Syrians, no one is dropping barrel bombs on them, starving them, or refusing them entry -- as Jordan does with Palestinians among the refugees from Syria. The West Bank Palestinians have homes, food, jobs (often with Israeli companies that pay three times the prevailing Palestinian West Bank wages), education, political parties, seats in parliament, and relative security. Gazans are different, but Israel ensures that they have the basics.
Palestinians are irrelevant in the world, except that they suck up a vastly disproportionate share of the world's aid money, which has allowed the PA to create a bureaucracy that even Palestinians complain is corrupt and unresponsive.
Hence Mahmoud Abbas's jeremiad, accusing Israel of "crimes," but without actually citing any.
Possibly to attempt relevance, Abbas used the U.N. pulpit to incite his followers -- with false claims -- to violence against the Jews. Now in the 11th year of his four-year term, he threatened to quit. He threatened to torch the Oslo Accords. But, in the end, the Palestinians have been heard already, and the discussion has moved to the hundreds of thousands of migrants sailing and marching to Europe, demanding food, housing and money.
It is in this context, dismayingly, that members of the U.S. Administration are lining up to restart the "peace process." After reports that Secretary of State John Kerry had scuttled a meeting between Abbas and Prime Minister Netanyahu, a senior American official told the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz, "The secretary is interested in reengaging on the issue. He is talking to a full range of experts and stakeholders to better understand the options as part of our ongoing policy review."
"Policy reviews" have also been heard already. The parameters never change. The absence of progress is owed to the absence of a shared goal toward which both parties can be induced to work. The Palestinians seek three things:
Creation of an independent state without recognizing a legitimate and permanent State of Israel in any territory.
Sovereign control of East Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine.
The right of entry for all remaining 1948/9 Arab refugees from Britain's Mandatory Palestine, and for their descendants, to any place within pre-1967 Israel in which they, or their antecedents had lived.
Israel seeks three different things:
Recognition of the legitimacy and permanence of Israel within finalized "secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force." This is the security promise of UN Resolution 242 to which Israel is entitled.
The capital of Israel in Jerusalem and Israeli protection for Jewish patrimony in Eastern Jerusalem.
"End of conflict; end of claims." After an agreement, the Palestinians will not be able to press additional claims against Israel for territory or other "rights."
Flying the Palestinian flag at the UN makes some people very happy and others less so, but it is clear that it was only symbolic. The impossibility of finding a shared goal is clear from the first priority on each side -- before the questions of boundaries; Jews living in Palestine; security control of the Jordan River Valley; demilitarization; Jewish refugees from Arab countries and their descendants; or settlement of the Arab-Israel dispute, which is separate from the Palestinian-Israeli dispute.
The Obama administration is watching the disintegration of Sunni Arab culture in Iraq, Syria, and Libya. The millennia-old Christian minorities are gone or fleeing. The foundations of Lebanon, Jordan, Tunisia, Mali, and Nigeria are shaking. Turkey is pursuing its old vendetta against the Kurds. Russia, in addition to its new Iran-Shiite-Russian axis, evidently blessed by Obama, may be pursuing its old vendetta against Sunni Turkey -- successor to the Ottoman Empire that committed genocide against Christian Armenians, cousins of Slavic Christians. Russia is also pursuing Chechens who gravitate to ISIS for arms and training to take back to Chechnya to restart the Muslim wars in southern Russia. Saudi Arabia is bombing Yemen; Egypt is bombing Libya on occasion, as well as the Iranian-supported Sunni jihadists in Sinai. Sunni Hamas and Shiite Hezbollah both take funding, training, and direction from Shiite Iran.
This sweeping convulsion also has been with us before. After a century, Sykes-Picot is being overtaken by events, with should-have-been-anticipated results. Strong governments are needed to resist guerrilla warfare or colonial wars of occupation; but overthrown strongmen in the Middle East have been replaced by chaos, which serves only the forces of war, and a vacuum that seems to be filled enthusiastically by Russia and Iran.
Mahmoud Abbas and Palestinian nationalism appear have outlived their moment. For the Obama administration now to pursue a Palestinian state, at the expense of Israel, already under daily explicit and lethal threats from Iran -- re-empowered by the prospect of $150 billion followed by legitimate nuclear weapons soon -- would likely be seen by both sides as nothing more than a shiny new distraction for the benefit of the U.S. negotiators' vanity, nothing more.

Who is leading the intifada?
Adnan Abu Amer/Al-Monitor/Octobe 19/15
Two weeks into the latest outbreak of Israeli-Palestinian clashes in the West Bank and Jerusalem, none of the Palestinian factions have claimed responsibility for the events, as the field seems to have gone for a random, leaderless walk. In fact, there is disagreement over whether a leader is even needed.Yahya Moussa, a Hamas leader, chairman of the Oversight Committee in the Legislative Council and one of the leaders of the first intifada in 1987, told Al-Monitor, “The intifada requires that a unified national leadership be swiftly formed in order to coordinate and preserve the [intifada], and the Palestinian Authority leadership should return from the West Bank to the Gaza Strip because if it stays in the West Bank, then the intifada will inevitably fail.”
It's remarkable that it took Palestinian leaders so long to address the confrontations. Ismail Haniyeh, head of Hamas’ political bureau, didn't address the clashes until Oct. 9. He called for support of what he described as the Jerusalem intifada and for protecting it from any efforts to undermine it.
For his part, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas tackled the confrontations Oct. 14, demanding that the international community immediately intervene to stop Israeli crimes against the Palestinian people. He said the ongoing crimes threaten peace and stability and could trigger a religious conflict in the region and the world.
In a striking paradox, several names are being considered for the leadership that does not exist: Jerusalem Intifada, Mass Intifada, Revolutionary Wave and Third Intifada.
Hussam Khader is a former member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, a Fatah figure in the West Bank and one of the leaders of the second intifada in 2000. In an interview with Al-Monitor, he called on Palestinians “not to get involved in a new intifada, as the latter is a national act that Palestinians resort to when they lose hope or reach a specific level of desperation."
He added, "However, the Palestinian reality cannot afford to bear the consequences of a new intifada.”
The fact that this much time has passed without a political field leadership being formed raises questions as to who should lead the mass movement and whether this popular wave has a clear political vision and specific objectives, or stems from a mere emotional reaction to Israeli incursions into Al-Aqsa Mosque.
It should be noted that the average age of demonstrators and people responsible for stabbing and running over people is less than 20 years old. They were born after the Oslo Accord between the Palestinian Liberation Organization and Israel in 1993 and 1995. They are just coming of age, and it's hard for them to see any future but a bleak one.
A senior Palestinian official in Ramallah told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, “President Abbas is facing calls within the Fatah leadership to support the Palestinian popular movement and allow the movement’s leaders to participate in the funeral of martyrs. [This call] came following instructions issued by high-ranking Palestinian quarters not to participate in such funerals, contrary to what happened in Gaza, when Hamas rushed to recognize the seven martyrs who were killed on the Gaza border in clashes with the Israeli army on Oct. 9.”
Reports about a leaderless intifada have gone viral on social networks in the past few days. Some Palestinian activists are calling for a decentralized field leadership capable of planning and guiding the movement while confronting Israeli escalations.
Others demand that the intifada remain spontaneous and leaderless. Still others believe that the success of the popular spontaneous movement is conclusive evidence of the failure of Palestinian organizations and leaders in their political performance in past years.
Also, there are those who say that swiftly forming a political leadership would harm the intifada because Palestinian faction leaders are helpless and have no role to play in expanding the intifada.
Abdul Alim Dana, leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, told Al-Monitor, “Forming a unified political leadership is of the utmost importance in the event that an agreement between the Palestinian factions participating in the current events in the Palestinian territories — albeit minimal — has been reached about a common national program aimed at confronting [Israel]. Some factions have perceptions as to the formation of this leadership, but most of the intifada participants do not belong to political movements, and agreeing on a common national program requires long, in-depth discussions.”
Palestinian demonstrators will probably fail to continue confronting the Israeli army in the absence of an official Palestinian to lead the support, which is made up of various factions and organizations. The Palestinian Authority (PA) supports a mass uprising, but doesn't want it to reach the stage of armed operations. Hamas seems to support continuation of the uprising in the West Bank, but does not want it to reach the Gaza Strip because Hamas does not want a new war with Israel, as Palestinian analysts said Oct. 12.
A preliminary review of the confrontations in the Palestinian territories indicates the absence of a political leadership to guide the developments, call for strikes, issue statements to mourn victims and support the families of victims by organizing condolence-paying services.
Al-Monitor looked into statements issued by Palestinian organizations in the past few days and found that they lack any documentation as to the number of victims or the areas of confrontation. Al-Monitor found only a Facebook page called Moqawama Press. The page documents events day by day and provides a round-the-clock account of the number of killed and wounded Palestinians and Israelis.
Hamas spokesman Husam Badran told Al-Monitor, “Hamas is all for having the intifada led through national consensus and everyone’s participation. Therefore, we are working to create a national command comprising all Palestinian forces, the first and easiest step being the formation of zonal leaders to guide field activities.”
There seems to be a clear conviction in the Palestinian street that the revolution in the West Bank and Jerusalem did not ask for the PA’s or any other faction’s permission. Also holding back formation of a unified political leadership could be differences between Fatah and Hamas regarding their description of the confrontations and their perceptions of consequences.
That idea was expressed in an article published Oct. 8 by the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies in Doha, Qatar, headed by Azmi Bishara. The article stated that the developments in the West Bank and Jerusalem broke out amid a deteriorating partisan and factional situation plaguing the Palestinian lands. Also, these developments are taking place outside the control of the PA.
The absence of leadership has seemingly not been spontaneous. There are those who believe that this mass uprising may stop any day now, eliminating the need for leadership.
There are also those who believe that the effort to agree on a leader could polarize Palestinians, knowing that there are more issues that could divide the factions than those that could unite them.
Add to this a third group — probably represented by Hamas — that dreads exposing its field leaders, who could be arrested by Palestinian and Israeli security services as soon as the uprising ends.
**Adnan Abu Amer is dean of the Faculty of Arts and head of the Press and Information Section at Al Ummah University Open Education, as well as a lecturer there in the history of the Palestinian issue, national security, political science and Islamic civilization. He holds a doctorate in political history from Damascus University and has published a number of books on issues related to the contemporary history of the Palestinian cause and the Arab-Israeli conflict. On Twitter: @adnanabuamer1

Are we witnessing ‘Syrianization’ of Turkey?
US, Turkish divisions on Syria greater than ever
Al-Monitor Week in Review/Octobe 19/15
Fehim Tastekin reports that the charge made by Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on Oct. 14 that the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) may have collaborated with the Islamic State (IS) in the terrorist bombings in Ankara four days earlier “is being whispered persistently into the ears of journalists and opinion-makers. An extraordinary effort appears to be underway to lead the public by the nose rather than to shed light on the attack.”
Cengiz Candar writes, "The moment he [Davutoglu] made this allegation, IS not only still was the main suspect, but reporters had found who the second suicide bomber was. The first suicide bomber had already been identified as an IS operative. Key information came from Idris Emen, a young reporter who discovered the eastern town of Adiyaman as one of the sources of IS recruits in Turkey and had extensively reported about the community for the Radikal daily all the way back on Sept. 29, 2013, under the headline 'Adiyaman: The jihadist route to Syria.' The names he reported then became the perpetrators of IS suicide attacks at Diyarbakir on June 5, at Suruc on July 19 and at Ankara on Oct. 10. In the wake of the Ankara bombing, Emen spoke, in Adiyaman, to the father of the second suicide bomber in the Ankara attack. Although the man had informed security officials about his son’s IS involvement, no precautionary measures were taken. When all these reports were widely circulated, the government declared a ban on any reporting on the Ankara bombing while the investigation was underway.”
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Oct. 14, “For Turkey, there is no difference between the PKK, its extension PYD [Democratic Union Party of Syria] or [IS]. … They are all terrorist organizations with bloody hands.”
Candar concludes, “The imminent result of this ostensible vicious circle will be expanding the fight between the Kurds and IS into Turkey. That means further destabilization of Turkey; in other words, the beginnings of Turkey’s 'Syrianization.'”
Erdogan’s charge complicates US policy toward Syria. The United States does not consider the PYD a terrorist group. To the contrary, the PYD is now among Washington’s preferred partners in Syria. Erdogan’s linking the PYD with IS can’t but clash with US strategy, including speculation over a no-fly or "safe" zone in northern Syria. US Secretary of State John Kerry reportedly raised the idea again this month, and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton endorsed a coalition-enforced safe zone in the Democratic presidential debate Oct. 13.
US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter said in May that a no-fly zone would be a “major combat mission” and "difficult to contemplate."
"Difficult to contemplate" may be an understatement, especially if Turkey considers the US-allied PYD a terrorist enemy.
Syrian opposition unites against UN plan
Asaad Hanna explains how the expatriate Syrian opposition groups have sought to bridge the gap with armed resistance groups operating in Syria by rejecting the latest peace effort of UN special envoy Staffan de Mistura. Hanna writes, “After becoming closer to the factions, the political opposition now hopes to obtain public support and restore its legitimacy, a big part of which it lost in the Syrian street. Perhaps it can count on that support more than that of the foreign countries that used to support it, and then abandoned it. The political experience of the military factions and the coalition is now being put to the test by the diplomatic forces, especially since the Russian intervention in Syria in early October, which led to ongoing negotiations between international parties that will include the opposition formations.”
The bottom line for the United States, already reeling from the failed "train-and-equip" mission, may be that the usually fragmented Syrian opposition found a way to rally around opposition to UN-brokered peace talks rather than more intensive coordination against IS.
Did Netanyahu ignore warning of an intifada?
Ben Caspit reports that “the explosiveness of the Temple Mount issue and whether the next intifada will result from it have been covered by Al-Monitor. There is also more: After the meeting between Zionist Camp leader Isaac Herzog and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Aug. 18 in Ramallah, an Al-Monitor article cited a warning issued in the form of a concern by the Palestinian leader to the Israeli opposition head: Abbas feared a third intifada and losing control over PA territory. Herzog delivered this message not only to Al-Monitor, but also to Netanyahu, who did not respond. Now he’s probably sorry."
Caspit adds, “Until the Israeli government takes crystal clear action, such as closing the Temple Mount to Jews for a cooling-off period, there is no chance that the Palestinians' state of mind will change. If it doesn't change, this peculiar intifada will continue.”
Daoud Kuttab blames the absence of a peace process as the cause of the latest violence. He writes, “A political process that addresses the national issues of Jerusalem’s Palestinians and reaches permanent understandings of the administration of the holy sites is crucially necessary. The absence of a serious process that empowers Jerusalemites and addresses their needs will cause uncertainty and anger to continue irrespective of a calm that might be established for a month, a year or a decade.”
Akiva Eldar writes that responsibility ultimately rests with the Israeli prime minister: “Netanyahu's instruction to right-wing ministers to refrain from visiting the Temple Mount is like giving expired aspirin to a patient with metastasized cancer. To prevent the violence plaguing Israel from becoming a fatal disease, we must take steps that are appropriate to the extent of the danger. When the Arab sector is burning and Jerusalem is deteriorating, talk is not enough, especially when the speaker is Netanyahu. It is time to dust off the Or Commission Report, which dealt with the events of October 2000, when 13 Arab demonstrators were killed, and immediately implement its recommendations for closing the wide gaps between Jewish and neighboring Arab municipalities in the fields of education, health, infrastructure and policing. First and foremost, the police’s fatally trigger-happy tendencies toward Arab citizens must be addressed. (Since the second intifada, when 13 Arab citizens were killed, police have killed 51 Arab citizens, compared with two Jewish citizens.)”
Ahmad Melhem reports from the West Bank that Israeli actions in response to Palestinian violence may violate the Geneva Convention.
Adnan Abu Amer reports on Israeli spies, known as mistaravim, operating among Palestinian demonstrators. He writes, “Recently, the mistaravim have taken to standing in the front rows of demonstrators, yards away from the Israeli soldiers at the entrances of West Bank cities. The mistaravim throw stones at the soldiers and take shelter behind large barricades from the tear gas and rubber bullets. But then, suddenly, they step away from the demonstrators, pull out pistols and fire at them. The mistaravim arrest people as the soldiers join them and pull the demonstrators into military vehicles.”

Sheryl Saperia: Cracking down on human-rights violators
Sheryl Saperia | National Post
Friday, Oct. 19, 2015
Federal election campaigns are often characterized by negativity, but they are also a unique platform to present new policy ideas. Two recent Conservative pledges are worthy of consideration. Foreign Affairs Minister Rob Nicholson announced on Sept. 23 that his government, if re-elected, would strengthen the Special Economic Measures Act (SEMA) by adding gross violations of human rights to the list of eligible grounds for sanctions against foreign states, individuals and organizations. A day earlier, National Defence and Multiculturalism Minister Jason Kenney pledged the establishment of a Financial Task Force to track Russian capital flows in global markets. Both are sound policies and should be instituted by whichever party forms the next government.
Currently, SEMA sanctions can be imposed by Canada for two purposes: to implement an international resolution to take economic action against a foreign state and to respond to a grave breach of international peace and security that has resulted, or is likely to result, in a serious international crisis. The government’s promise to include severe human rights abuses as new grounds for sanctions fills an important gap, enabling economic pressure on the most egregious of violators to complement diplomacy in the promotion of human rights. Such a measure is consistent with Canada’s cross-party historical legacy of standing up for human rights and could prove particularly useful in Ottawa’s ongoing efforts to hold countries like Iran and Russia accountable for their actions.
The violations of human rights in Iran are widespread and well documented. These abuses have not lessened under President Hassan Rouhani’s tenure. They include the stoning of women; the executing of minors and homosexuals; the imprisonment of journalists, bloggers and human rights defenders; the persecution of ethnic and religious minorities; and the criminalization of political dissent. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has been a principal perpetrator of these and other offences. The IRGC’s behaviuor stems directly from its constitutional mandate to “safeguard the revolution and its achievements,” which essentially authorizes this unconventional army to interpret any opposition to the regime as a counterrevolutionary act deserving of a violent response. The IRGC can violate the basic rights of every Iranian citizen on mere suspicion of misconduct, and operates outside the normative justice and military systems.
Individuals arrested by the IRGC have been subjected to severe physical and mental abuse in the IRGC-controlled wards of Evin prison. Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi was detained, tortured and raped there in 2003. She died in hospital shortly thereafter, furthering the breakdown of diplomatic relations between Ottawa and Tehran.
Canada has been a global leader in focusing attention at home and abroad on the plight of the Iranian people. Every year, Canada introduces a resolution at the United Nations General Assembly on the situation of human rights in Iran. In Ottawa, numerous House of Commons and Senate committees have studied the issue and put recommendations forward. Notably, the Iranian human rights file is one of those rare causes where members of all of Canada’s federal parties can find common ground. In 2014, the House of Commons Subcommittee on International Human Rights unanimously adopted a motion condemning the Iranian regime’s systematic domestic repression of its people and called for imposing SEMA sanctions on Iranian human rights violators. This is an idea whose time has come.
Russia, too, has drawn the ire of Canadian policymakers, in its rising human rights abuses. The torture and murder of Russian anti-corruption lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, as well as the assassination of Boris Nemtsov, a strong critic of President Vladimir Putin, are among the most high-profile examples. With its unrelenting support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Russia also shares culpability with Iran for the death and displacement of millions of Syrian civilians.
As tensions rise following Russia’s invasion of and violence in eastern Ukraine, U.S. policymakers have begun re-opening the Iranian playbook to see what economic warfare tools can be applied to change the calculus of the Russian leadership. In that context, Minister Kenney’s announcement of a financial task force that would track Russian capital flows in global markets is important. In essence, the task force would be charged with ascertaining whether sanctions are doing their job and how they could be further calibrated in implementation and targeting.
The task force should be comprised of experts from both the public and private sectors because cooperation between the two is necessary for an effective sanctions regime designed to isolate rogue actors from global markets. The approach should be based on persuading private-sector players — principally financial institutions — to act in their own self-interest to avoid unnecessary business and reputational risk. After all, the illicit activities of rogue actors pose a threat to the integrity of the entire international financial system.
The escalation of Russian aggression and human rights violations at home and beyond its borders, as well as its brazen mischief in the Middle East, demand a concerted response. Meanwhile, the West has essentially paved the way for Iran to acquire nuclear weapons capability within the next two decades. A Canadian commitment to impose sanctions on states like Iran and Russia for their human rights abuses at least signals that the Iranian and Ukrainian people have a real ally in the world and their repressive regimes cannot get away with murder.

Twelve air forces crowd Syrian skies. Israel-Russian hot line may channel coordination
DEBKAfile/October 19/15
On Sunday, Oct. 18, Russian and Israeli air force headquarters near Latakia in Syria and Tel Aviv began practicing procedures for using the hot line they established last week to coordinate their operations in Syrian skies. They were putting into effect the agreement reached between Vladimir Putin and Binyamin Netanyahu in Moscow on Sept. 22, which was worked out in detail on Oct. 6 by Russian Dept. Chief of Staff Gen. Nikolay Bogdanovsky and his Israeli counterpart Gen. Yair Golan.. On Oct 15, the defense ministry in Moscow confirmed that “mutual information-sharing on the actions of aircraft has been established” to avoid clashes in the skies of Syria “between the Russian aviation command center at the Hmeimim air base and a command post of the Israeli air force.” He added that the two sides were holding practice sessions on the new line.
The next day, Turkish fighters downed a Russian Orlan 10 UAV that intruded 3 km into their space. The Turks complained they had shot down the drone after repeated warnings to the Russian pilots. Sine the drone has no pilots, the complaint must have been relayed to the Russian airbase in Syria. But in the absence of coordination, there was no answer.
Neither did Ankara have the option of resorting to a Washington line to the Kremlin, since the Obama administration had spurned Moscow’s proposal to send a military delegation to Washington for setting up a military coordination mechanism for their aerial operations over Syria.
The White House spokesman Josh Earnest dismissed the offer as “a sign of desperation for Mr. Putin’s air campaign.” It just so happens that, this Sunday, the US and Israel launched their bi-annual Blue Flag air exercise from Israel’s southern air base at Ovda, their combat squadrons joined by Greek and Italian air units. They will spend two weeks “simulating a high-intensity confrontation against a political entity with a strong army,” according to the official statement. The question hanging over this exercise is this: How will this drill pan out in the absence of US-Russian coordination on their air movements over the Middle East and Syria?
Unlike the airspace of the world’s countries, Syria’s skies are in fact ungoverned by any fully-functioning sovereign government, and so the normal rules of air conduct and international safety procedures have gone by the board. Syrian air space is frequented by the fighters, heavy bombers, transports and UAVs of a dozen air forces: Syria, Russia the US, Israel, Turkey and Iran as well as the US-led coalition planes of Canada, France, Australia, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. The miracle is that no major air disasters have so far occurred in skies crowded by this swarm of uncontrolled, unmonitored air traffic – all bent on their separate missions.
Most may be identified by radio signals or external markings and emblems. Some carry transponders which broadcast their location, identity, speed and direction. But what about the few who don’t? One such case was the Russian drone that violated Turkish air space Friday with no identifying markings.
As soon as Russia embarked on its large-scale military buildup in Syria, Moscow and Jerusalem made haste to set up a hot line to avert disastrous collisions over Syria. debkafile’s military and intelligence sources say it is safe to assume that the Russian end of the hot line with Israel at the Al-Hmeineem air base near Latakia, will be manned by Arab-speaking flight controllers. And at the Tel Aviv end, along with Israeli officers, there will also be a presence of air controllers from western allies, including the US Air Force, who will use the facility to coordinate their flights with the Russian command.
The US-Israeli Blue Flag exercise provides an excellent opportunity for testing the Israeli-Russian hot line in combat conditions. Far from being a fantastic scenario, it offers a dose of reality on the current military conditions prevailing in the region.

U.S. foreign policy in a changing world
John Kerry/Al Arabiya/October 19/15
Earlier this week, I visited Indiana University, one of the finest public universities in America, to convey an important message about the United States of America, foreign policy, and about the difference that each of us can make in shaping a better world.
Young people play a central role in advancing American interests, and creating an ever-stronger global community. So it was particularly important for me to talk to this group of young leaders – right in the heart of America – against the backdrop of a growing perception among some that the world is increasingly chaotic, even falling into disorder. I flat out disagree with that notion. That is why I underscored despite the many challenges we face, we have many reasons for confidence. And I see a world that is finding common ground and advancing global policy in four critical areas:
A trade agreement that represents 40 percent of the global economy
The first such area is within the arena of international economics and trade. Earlier this month, our negotiators finished work on one of the most significant trade agreements in history – the Trans-Pacific Partnership, also called TPP. But why should the American people care? Because three of the United States’ major trading partners – Canada, Mexico19 out of 20 of the world’s consumers live beyond U.S. borders. In order to keep building our prosperity we have to keep opening and expanding overseas markets. That’s pretty simple math. The TPP is a plus economically, but it’s more than just another trade agreement. It is also a real breakthrough in bringing disparate nations together to raise international labor and environmental standards.
Today, 70 percent of U.S. imports cross our borders tariff-free. That’s not the case with all our trading partners. In fact, America’s exporters face a wide range of high tariffs in many TPP countries. That’s what we have to gain from this deal; it will eliminate over 18,000 foreign taxes on “Made in America” products and help our manufacturers, farmers, and small businesspeople to compete and win in fast-growing markets. Remember that, in our era, economic and security issues overlap; we can’t lead on one and lag on the other. Foreign trade should be viewed as an opportunity, not a threat. Globalization is not simply a policy choice on which you can come down one side or the other. It is a force driven not only by technology, but also by the aspirations of people around the world for opportunity and a better life.
But TPP also matters for reasons far beyond trade. The Asia Pacific includes three of the globe’s four most populous countries and its three largest economies. Going forward, that region is going to have a big say in shaping international rules of the road on the Internet, financial regulation, maritime security, the environment, and many other areas of direct concern to the United States. Remember that, in our era, economic and security issues overlap; we can’t lead on one and lag on the other. By voting for this trade agreement, the U.S. Congress can reinforce the message that the United States is – and will remain – a leading force for prosperity and security throughout the Asia Pacific. That will be welcome news for our allies and friends, a huge boost for stability in a region vital to our future well-being, and glad tidings for American companies and workers.
A potential climate accord that will require contributions from every nation
A second major area where the world is coming together is on global climate change. You don’t have to be a scientist to know that clean air is better than dirty air. You don’t have to be a meteorologist to know that fourteen of the fifteen warmest years ever recorded have taken place in this century. And you don’t have to be a polar bear to know that virtually every major chunk of ice on Earth is starting to melt. The scientific debate may have had legitimacy once upon a time, but it’s over. And let me tell you, there’s nothing uniquely liberal or conservative, Republican or Democrat, American or foreign about wanting to preserve the health of our planet. We’re all affected because we all share the same fragile home. In just two months, representatives from around the world will gather in Paris to approve what I hope will be by far the most ambitious agreement on global climate ever reached. There are still many issues to be resolved, but the momentum is building.
Skeptics argue that even a strong agreement will likely fall short of what is needed, and they’re right. But if what we agree to in Paris is considered the least we must do, instead of the most we can do; in other words, if we treat it like a floor rather than a ceiling, we can continue on the right path while finding ways to do more. In recent months, we have made big inroads in mobilizing urban and provincial governments worldwide to set their own targets, and both the private sector and civil society are treating this challenge as one we must meet. After all, anything less would be a felony against the future.
A nuclear agreement involving Iran and six very different global powers
A third area where major countries have come together with U.S. leadership is in an historic agreement to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. Under the agreement every single one of Iran's potential pathways to a bomb will be blocked. And because of the unprecedented monitoring and verification requirements that are part of the agreement, we will know if the Iranians try to cheat and we will stop them – by re-imposing sanctions and, if necessary, by other means. As a result, Iran has every reason to live up to its obligations, just as it did throughout the negotiating process.
This agreement came together as a result of years of tough diplomacy extending over two presidencies. We began with sanctions, but sanctions were a means not an end. Only by direct negotiations with support from a broad array of partners – including Russia, China, and the leaders of Europe – were we able to convince Iran's top officials to accept the severe limits on their nuclear program that they have.
We are moving now to the implementation stage and it is essential that we maintain our vigilance, our unity of approach, and our common purpose. The Middle East remains a deeply troubled place but every problem in the region would be made much worse if Iran had or was close to obtaining a nuclear weapon. The Iran agreement is the best way to ensure that this possibility is foreclosed now and for all time. And every nation in the region – including our key allies – is safer because of the agreement.
A counterterrorism coalition of 65 members that carries with it the hopes of good and decent people everywhere
The fourth critical area in which the United States and our partners have come together and that is the fight against international terrorist organizations. Along with climate change, this may well be the defining challenge of our generation. Daesh is doomed to fail, but it has the ability to inflict immense suffering between now and when that failure is fully realized. That is why we must hasten its decline. And we are.
The opposition to international terrorists – whether groups like ISIL (or Daesh) in the Middle East, al-Shabaab in East Africa, and Boko Haram in West Africa – and repugnance at their actions has become a powerful unifying force. As it should be, because the terrorists are committing heinous crimes that include: destroying ancient cultural treasures; attacking schools and butchering teachers; beheading innocent journalists; and literally auctioning off terrified girls in a modern day slave market complete with notarized sales contracts; and using the term “marriage” to describe what is actually systematic rape.
Daesh is doomed to fail, but it has the ability to inflict immense suffering between now and when that failure is fully realized. That is why we must hasten its decline. And we are.
Over the past 14 months, the 65 member U.S.-led Global Coalition has launched thousands of air strikes forcing Daesh to change how it conducts military operations and impeded its command and control. The Coalition continues to strike Daesh targets in both Iraq and Syria, degrading its leadership and putting it under more pressure than ever before. In Syria, we see a chance to increase pressure on Daesh from more than one direction, especially if Russia makes good on its commitment to help. But the reality is there will be no end to the refugee crisis until there is an end to the conflict. That is and has been our goal. To find a way out of this conflict we have to bring together all who oppose both despotism and terrorism. And the way to do that is through a diplomatic process that gives hope to every Syrian who wants to marginalize the extremists and put in place a government capable of uniting and leading the whole country.
These initiatives are distinct in purpose, but each requires both American leadership and the strong support of our partners. Each is a product of principle and pragmatism, embodying both what we should do and what we can do. And each will have an impact that extends far beyond the headlines of the day.
While we know we must address the immediate crises of the day, our strategy must also lay the groundwork for solutions that will strengthen the community of nations for decades to come. To succeed in that, we must mobilize the help and support of allies and friends across the globe. We must make the best use of every foreign policy tool, from multilateral institutions to the selective and necessary use of force, to uphold democratic principles and strengthen the rule of law. And we must be willing to invest in American leadership like the richly blessed nation we are.
You can read my full remarks at Indiana University here.
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John Kerry is the 68th and current United States Secretary of State. He has served in the United States Senate, and was chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Chechnya in the shadow of Russia’s Mideast strategies
Dr. Theodore Karasik/Al Arabiya/October 19/15
There is no doubt that Chechnya, a Russian Federation republic in the Northern Caucasus, plays a key foreign policy role in the Kremlin’s strategy towards the Levant and the rest of the Near East. The alliance, if you will, between Russian President Vladimir Putin and the head of the Chechen Republic Ramzan Kadyrov has evolved over the past few years into a net positive. Kadyrov rules Chechnya with Kremlin backing. Consequently, Grozny, the capital of Chechnya, plays an important role in connections with Islamic countries on behalf of Moscow. Primarily, Kadyrov’s Chechnya is focusing on Syria for both political and historical reasons. From the late years of Imperial Russia through the Soviet Union, Chechens migrated to the Levant, including Syria, and consequently absorbed into those societies. Some of these Chechen descendants, noted for their warrior skills, serve in the highest levels of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s military and security organs.
The above fact translates into current Chechen foreign policy towards Syria. Earlier this month, Kadyrov appealed to the Russian president to send Chechen units to fight ISIS in Syria, adding that his fighters have sworn to fight terrorists till the end: “This is not idle talk, I am asking for permission to go there and participate in special operations. Being a Muslim, a Chechen and a Russian patriot I want to say that in 1999 when our republic was overrun with these devils we swore on the Quran that we would fight them wherever they are.”In a more recent interview, Kadyrov stated: “If we think that the Syrian issue will be resolved quickly and will not affect the security of our country, it is not true. I am sure they will show up. ISIS was created primarily against Russia.”
Chechen intervention in Syria?
It seems that Kadyrov is setting the ground work for Chechen intervention in Syria in order to protect the Russian motherland. This language plays well with Putin’s Kremlin in terms of loyalty.Although Putin tries to keep Kadyrov on a leash, the Chechen leader is firmly cementing himself in to the Russian body politique. Kadyrov noted that Chechen special forces units were at a very high level of combat readiness and promised that “as soon as the terrorists in Syria understand that we are heading there they will very quickly get out,” adding that terrorists have little experience of real warfare.
Kadyrov added an important point: “We know them because we have destroyed them here, we have fought them. And they also know us.” Consequently, there are plans afoot to send at least 1000 Chechen special operation forces to Syria when Putin and the Russian General Staff deem necessary to fight anti-Moscow anti-Grozny Chechens not only belonging to ISIS but also to al-Nusra and other smaller anti-Assad opposition forces.
It appears that Kadyrov is trying to be a broker on Muslim issues for the Kremlin to the outside world. The Chechen leader sees his role as all-encompassing by putting his mark on critical relations with senior Middle East leaders. It is noteworthy that Kadyrov meets with almost every senior Middle East leader either in their home countries or when those leaders visit Moscow, Sochi, St. Petersburg or Grozny. In the past year alone, Russian forums or sports events, act as opportunities for Putin and Kadyrov to meet Arab elites. Kadyrov is always in attendance and holding meetings with these notables. In a sense, Kadyrov acts as a Russian Muslim politician – a middleman – who Muslim leaders look to lobby “issues” to the Kremlin.
Besides the Syrian issue, Chechnya’s foreign security policy is beginning to be an important player in the Russo-Islamic outlook towards conflict from the Middle East to Afghanistan. During this month, Kadyrov and his close associates are using their platform to expand Chechnya’s role as a power broker that translates into potential gains for the Kremlin.
In early October, Afghan First Vice President Abdul Rashid Dostum, who is an Afghan Uzbek militia leader, visited Moscow and Grozny. Dostum is looking for military and political aid from Russia not only because of the threat to Kabul from the Taliban but also ISIS, which has a presence in at least three-quarters of Afghanistan. Significantly, Dostum visited Kadyrov on the latter’s birthday. The two leaders, who in their own right have significant militia experience, discussed the fight against terrorism, especially against ISIS. Dostum noted that ISIS is trying to make Afghanistan into a bridgehead and that both Kabul and and Grozny have been waging a struggle with international terrorism. Kadyrov said that in order to prevent this threat, Kabul needs Russia's support, as in Syria. That statement is important indicator of the Chechen leader’s prowess. In a sense, Kadyrov is acting as a broker with the Kremlin to send Russian air support, weapons, ammunition.
Chechnya’s attention to Libya
Chechnya’s attention to Libya also merits examination. Also in October, Kadyrov received Libya’s Tripoli General National Congress (GNC) Prime Minister Khalifa Al-Ghawiel. Just prior to the visit to Grozny, Chechen politician Adam Delimkhanov, Kadyrov’s vizier, who is also a member of the Russian State Duma, reportedly went to Tripoli to negotiate the release of 12 Russian merchant sailors from the Mekhanik Chebotarev oil tanker held by the Tripoli government that was seized the previous month. Delimkhanov’s talks included discussions with GNC President Nouri Abu Sahmain and representatives from the Misrata business community. Only two sailors have been released because a deal, unknown in detail, has been struck. From the Grozny/Moscow point of view, a “Russian Muslim” entry into Tripoli’s politics may pay off later, given that the Kremlin already supports Tobruk’s House of Representatives (HOR). The theory is that as Russia proceeds to eradicate extremists in Syria, those escaping may end up in Islamic State Vilayets in Libya. There, Russia will be able to work with both Libyan governments, and a unified Libyan government, if one exists, thereby helping –possibly—to build the Kremlin’s role in Libya’s future based on any perceived successes in Syria. Clearly, Chechnya is playing a key role that will only likely to grow in other regional hot spots. Kadyrov’s role in Russian foreign policy brings a new vision to the Kremlin’s intentions in the Middle East and Afghanistan.
Although Putin tries to keep Kadyrov on a leash, the Chechen leader is firmly cementing himself in to the Russian body politique. This fact bodes well for Russia in using Kadyrov’s savvy ethos as a policy tool especially in Syria and beyond.

Whether it is a Palestinian intifada or not is irrelevant
Sharif Nashashibi/Al Arabiya/October 19/15
No bout of Israeli-Palestinian violence seems complete without speculation about whether we are seeing the beginning of another intifada (uprising). However, this knee-jerk debate is unhelpful, irrelevant and misleading. It fosters the false impression that if it is not proclaimed an intifada, the situation is unfortunate but somehow tolerable. It becomes an abstract discussion about labels, rather than an analysis of the grim facts on the ground. The result is a perverse nostalgia among the uninformed for the days of the ‘peace process’ and ‘relative calm’ - as if they symbolized some sort of heyday for Palestinian fortunes and coexistence with the Israelis. This thinking conflates the absence of resistance with the absence of grievances, ignoring the constant provocations and injustices inherent in Israel’s occupation and colonization of Palestine. In such a distorted context, attention is only paid when Palestinians resist forcefully - the media ignores peaceful resistance because it does not sell (as the old news adage goes, “if it bleeds it leads”). Palestinian anger thus seems irrational, and Israel is viewed as a stunned victim that is forced to retaliate.
Resistance
The Palestinians are too divided, politically and geographically, to undertake a national uprising. However, the absence of an intifada does not mean the lack of the desire - or more accurately, the necessity - for one. A poll last month by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research revealed that 42 percent of Palestinians say armed action is the most effective way of establishing an independent Palestinian state next to Israel, while only 29 percent say negotiation is the best route. This knee-jerk debate fosters the false impression that if it is not proclaimed an intifada, the situation is unfortunate but somehow tolerable. Such is the level of frustration over a decades-long ‘peace process’ that is all process and no peace. This facade has enabled Israel to consolidate its stranglehold over the Palestinians and their homeland, to the extent that according to the same poll, two-thirds of Palestinians no longer believe a two-state solution is possible due to Israel’s voracious (and illegal) colonization project. Amid the absence of a unified, national liberation movement, a new term has been coined: an “intifada of individuals.” To Israel and its supporters, this might seem less threatening than a mass movement. However, it arguably serves as a more accurate barometer of Palestinians’ exasperation, precisely because they are rising up as individuals rather than as a collective mass (out of necessity, not choice), without the relative safety of numbers and the backing of their leadership.
Failed leadership
This bring us to another important point that is often overlooked. The previous intifadas were embraced by Palestinian leaders. Today, however, the Palestinian Authority (PA) is urging ‘calm,’ dispersing protests against Israel (sometimes violently), and blocking demonstrators from reaching Israeli checkpoints.
In its shameless and indefensible duplicity, the PA has strongly condemned Israel throughout this latest flare-up, but has steadfastly maintained security coordination with it while Palestinian civilians are being killed, attacked, oppressed and demonized. So much for PA President Mahmoud Abbas’s defiant speech at the U.N. General Assembly last month, in which he said the PA would no longer be bound by agreements with Israel. In practice, he and his Authority are as subservient as ever. This is also lost on the intifada-speculation industry: that anger is no longer aimed only at Israel, but also at a leadership that has utterly - even wilfully - failed to realize the fundamental rights of its own people. Little wonder, then, that two-thirds of Palestinians want Abbas to resign, according to the aforementioned poll, and that according to another poll, 55 percent say the PA has become a “burden” on them. Let us ditch the bickering over hollow terminology, and instead agree on key facts: the Palestinians have endured the longest military occupation in modern history, and they have the moral and legal right to be free of it, with or without their occupier’s consent. Who cares what that is called?

Russian Intervention Shatters Turkey's Neo-Ottomanist Dreams For Syria
By: R. Krespin/MEMRI/October 19/15
http://www.memri.org/report/en/0/0/0/0/0/0/8805.htm
Introduction
Since the Arab Spring of 2011, Turkey's foreign policy has been focused on Syria and on the ousting of its 'Alawite President Bashar Assad, who Turkey hoped would be replaced by a like-minded Sunni ruler from the Muslim Brotherhood. During the 13 years of its rule, Turkey's government, led by the Justice and Development Party (AKP), steered the country away from its traditional alliance with the West and towards the Middle East and the Islamic world, claiming historic hegemony over, and responsibility for, the countries of the region – a role that Turkey sees as its Ottoman legacy. President [formerly PM] Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the Prime Minister [formerly FM] Ahmet Davutoglu designed a neo-Ottomanist, expansionist and foreign policy that involved grand aspirations to become the region's main superpower. They supported Islamist jihadist factions in many countries, incurring sharp criticism from the governments of Libya, Tunisia, Egypt, Iraq and especially Syria, where they played a major role in sparking and escalating the civil war. The AKP government allowed free passage to thousands of jihadi fighters into Syria, and provided material and logistic support to radical organizations that are fighting the Assad regime, including ISIS, Jabhat Al-Nusra and Ahrar Al-Sham –with the exception of the Kurdish forces, whom Turkey terms "terrorists" despite their important role in fighting ISIS.
After Turkey, a NATO ally, finally opened its strategically important Incirlik airbase for the use of coalition forces in July 2015, the U.S. and the West turned a blind eye to Turkey's aggression against the Kurds, and agreed to most of Turkey's demands,[1] including by supporting its program for training and equipping an opposition force in Syria to fight both ISIS and the Assad regime– a project that turned out to be a failure. When the U.S. and Europe rejected Turkey's initiative for a safe zone in Syria where Turkey would build cities to settle refugees, Turkey pressured them by allowing hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees from camps in Turkey to migrate to European countries, thus presenting Europe with a massive refugee problem. Russia's current involvement in Syria has definitely put an end to Turkey's safe-zone plans.

Turkey's opposition parties, as well as its independent media, have for years criticized Erdogan and Davutoglu's Syrian policies as "disastrous," yet the AKP government was confident that its plans for Syria would produce the outcome it desired. AKP leaders treated Syria as a domestic issue, and claimed that "not a bird could fly over that country without Turkey's approval."[2] In August 2012 Davutoglu predicted that Assad would fall within a few weeks,[3] and in September of that year Erdogan announced that "very soon, we [Turks]will meet and hug our [Sunni] brethren in liberated Damascus, say the Fatiha [prayer] at the tomb of Salah Al-Din Al-Ayyoubi and pray together in freedom at the Emevi mosque."[4]
Russia's recent military intervention in Syria along with Iran, aimed at propping up Assad's rule, as well as its airstrikes that target not only ISIS but also the so-called moderates supported by Turkey (which in reality are also Islamist terrorist groups), have transformed the face of the conflict. Russia's reassertion of its involvement in the Middle East, and its recent incursions into Turkish airspace, threaten to spark a Russia-NATO clash on the Turkey-Syria border. With its naval bases in Western Syria, Russia could interfere with Turkish and other vessels along the navigation routes in the eastern Mediterranean. Turkey is certainly the most affected party in this new game, for its dreams regarding Syria, which never matched its actual abilities, are fast becoming a nightmare.
Reactions to the recent development in Syria, some oppositionist Turkish columnists criticized the AKP government for its foreign policies, which they characterize as sectarian, Islamist and based on neo-Ottoman fantasies. They also criticized the government for supporting radical Islamist organizations in Syria that have become a threat to the region and to Turkey's own security, and for manipulating the West into believing that there is a moderate opposition to the Syrian government, when in fact there is none.
Conversely, columnists in Islamist and pro-AKP papers slammed Russia's campaign in Syria and accused that it was part of a plan secretly concocted by Russia along with the U.S.
The following are excerpts from some of these articles.
Turkish Columnist: Russia's Intervention In Syria Has Thwarted The Turkish Government's Deluded Policies Regarding That Country; A Regime Change Is Needed In Turkey: A Transition To Democracy
Prominent Turkish columnist Kadri Gursel wrote on the liberal oppositionist news portal Diken:[5] "Russia's build-up of its military assets in Syria is aimed at protecting the Assad regime from Erdogan's regime and at preventing [Assad from being]toppled by various jihadist forces. With the power it has amassed, Russia can stop the advance of the jihadists supported by Ankara and oblige the coalition led by the U.S. to coordinate its moves against ISIS with Russia. Russia is becoming a source of concern for the U.S., but not too much concern. After all, toppling Assad is not a priority for the U.S., and ISIS is a common enemy of both powers. Russian jets can only be a serious concern for the Erdogan-Davutoglu duo. When Russian fighter planes fly near our border and bomb the jihadists, what will Ankara's reaction be, according to the rules of engagement [that were revised in 2012]? Will Turkish F-16s take off to pursue these planes, and if they do not leave the area, will they down the Russian planes like they have been doing to the Syrian planes and helicopters? They will have to either engage the Russian planes in battle or else forget about their rules of engagement, which is the right thing to do. And if they [indeed] do this, Turkey's de facto areal support for the jihadists will finally stop, and then it will be difficult for Turkey to continue providing logistical support to the jihadists.
"Having imagination and living in an imaginary world two are different things. If Davutoglu had a shred of imagination, he would have foreseen the bitter consequences of the Syria policy that he and Erdogan have pursued all along. Their policy left Turkey with the biggest refugee crisis in its history, created the curse of ISIS that is plaguing the region and Turkey, and drew the U.S. into Turkey and the Russians into Syria.
"Russia's air power in Syria also shatters the Erdogan-Davutoglu fantasy of a 'safe zone,' because [such as safe zone] would necessitate a 'no-fly zone', the enforcement of which would require willingness to fight the Russians. In any case, this zone is a fantasy of Erdogan's and Davutoglu's alone, which no Western ally or even Turkey's own institutions support.
"Instead of realizing [the nature of] his bankrupt and paralyzed policies, Davutoglu imprisons himself in his imaginary world, and continues talking at the U.N. about a safe zone between Jarablus and A'zaz, where Turkey means to build three new cities [for refugees] that will be defended by 'moderates' recruited from the Free Syria Army [FSA] and trained [by Turkey and the U.S]. This cannot be done with the FSA! Looking for 'moderates' among the urban myth known as the FSA is a fantasy! Davutoglu is dreaming about moderate ghosts.
"Such a problematic, incoherent and fixated leadership cannot extract Turkey from the Syrian disaster into which it has driven us. There is urgent need for a regime change in Turkey. We must move quickly towards democracy."
Turkish Columnist: Turkey and Anti-ISIS Coalition Urged Russia To Fight ISIS, Not 'Syrian Opposition' – But The Only Opposition left In Syria Is The Jihadists And Middle-Eastern Taliban
Fehim Tastekin, a columnist for the liberal daily Radikal, has analyzed the situation in Syria in multiple articles. Following the Turkish Foreign Ministry's release of a joint declaration by seven countries (Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, U.S., France, Britain and Germany) on October 2, in which they called on Russia to cease its attacks on the "Syrian opposition" and focus on fighting ISIS, Tastekin wrote an article titled "Do Not Touch Al-Qaeda and Friends!"in which he wondered exactly who this "opposition" is.[6] He argued that Turkey and all other parties who had expressed surprise at Russia's attacks in the vicinity of Lattakia, Hama, Homs and Aleppo, and at its targeting of the FSA, should have realized from Russia's clear statements that it meant to fight not only ISIS and Jabhat Al-Nusra but all terrorist organizations, including those supported by the West and the Gulf. Tastekin wrote: "When the FSA is mentioned, Russia has a ready response: 'There is no FSA left. They have all joined ISIS and Al-Qaeda.' Therefore the [anti-ISIS] coalition uses the term 'Syrian Opposition' instead. [But] who is this Syrian Opposition? Other than some small ineffective groups that still [operate] under the FSA umbrella, the real forces in the field are jihadi-Salafi groups such as Al-Nusra, Ahrar Al-Sham, The Islam Army and the Conquest Army. What is the game plan of those [i.e. Turkey, the West and Gulf States] who are telling Russia to focus on ISIS? The only cards they have in their hands are Al-Qaeda and the new Middle Eastern Taliban, whose dangerous nature they try to minimize. The area [in Western Syria] where Turkey is providing air security by means of its 'rules of engagement' is fast becoming Talibanized. This area, dominated by Al-Nusra and Ahrar [Al-Sham], is being flooded by Taliban-affiliated Uygur militants coming from Central Asia, as well as by Khazak, Uzbek, Tacik and Kirghiz fighters.
"Since the coalition of the hopeless did not have at hand any trustworthy moderates, it tried to cast the jihadist Al-Nusra and Ahrar as moderate and make them acceptable to the international community. Qatar pressured Al-Nusra to cut its ties with Al-Qaeda in return for more money and arms, and even banned its Al- Jazeera channel from describing Al-Nusra as linked to Al-Qaeda. Despite these marketing efforts, Al-Nusra keeps reiterating its allegiance to Ayman Al-Zawahiri. Ahrar, being more pragmatic, agreed to declare that its aims are not 'global' jihad but are limited to Syria, thus making it easy for support to flow [to it] from Turkey and Qatar. While Al-Nusra attached itself to Al-Qaeda to avoid losing its militants to ISIS, Ahrar's veteran Al-Qaeda-affiliated militants became a magnet for Islamists who failed to join the other two organizations. As part of the plan to make Ahrar seem 'moderate,' Abu Yahya Al-Hamawi was brought into its leadership as a 'moderate Salafi'. Lebanon's Al-Safir daily wrote that Hamawi's appointment was an attempt to adapt to the changes taking place in Syria, and claimed that the new leader was affiliated with MIT [Turkey's National Intelligence Organization]. Ahrar's support of Turkey's plan to establish a safe zone also indicates that it acts in coordination with Ankara. The region where Al-Nusra and Ahrar are dominant is precisely the area where Turkey wants [to establish] a safe zone.
"Clearly, some people fall for this Ahrar makeover, one of them being Robert Ford, the former U.S. ambassador to Damascus, who worked hard to form a Syrian opposition. Following the collapse of [the Turkish-American] 'train and equip' project, when moderate trainees fell prey to Al-Nusra, this retired diplomat told Obama to work with Ahrar, whose reputation was improving. But, while Ahrar is a rival of Al-Nusra, it is also Al-Nusra's closest ally. The two organizations [which are the major factions within the Conquest Army], complement one another. They both are allies of the Taliban. In short, the Islamists, which are [supposed to be] an antidote to ISIS, are increasingly becoming [affiliated with] Al-Qaeda and the Taliban. This Talibanization is happening near the Turkish border.
"Now Russia is bombing the Conquest Army in the area that Turkey [used to] protect with its 'rules of engagement'. Are these rules also applicable to the downing of Russian planes? Where are [Erdogan's] angry rants starting with 'Hey, Putin!' [Erdogan is known for talking this way of Obama, the U.S. and Europe]? Now he talks [to Putin] about his 'hurt feelings' and speaks in a restrained tone of voice. He is helpless, having lost all his options!"
Turkey Complains About Airspace Violations In Northern Syria, While Doing The Same Thing In Northern Iraq
In an October 8, 2015 article, Fehim Tastekin wrote:[7] "When the grand ambitions of a country [Turkey] exceed its ability, it ends up hitting brick walls in the international arena. [Erdogan and Davutoglu] who used to say arrogantly, 'No one should test Turkey's power', are now asking in bewilderment: 'What is Russia doing?'... After multiple incursions by Russia into Turkey's airspace,[the Turkish government] knocked on NATO's door, complaining: 'Russia is violating our airspace, it is playing a dangerous game.' You [Turkey] want to know what Russia is doing? It is not only violating your airspace, it is locking its plane radars and its ground-to-air missiles on you, monopolizing Syria's skies. In other words, it is establishing de facto the very 'no-fly zone' that you have been pressuring your allies to establish for the past four years. The safe zone that you wanted [to establish] for the armed Islamist militants whom you equipped with thousands of truckloads of arms is now becoming [Russia's] safe zone, [where it means to]mop these groups up. While you hooked up with armed militants to fight a proxy war in a foreign country, Russia is operating legitimately under international law, with the permission of the Syrian government that is represented in the U.N.. The law is on Russia's side.
"As for the incursions into your airspace, and harassing your F-16s by locking radars on them, [I say]: Yes, it is violation of sovereignty. But when we mention this to our international friends, they all smile and say: 'Aren't you violating the airspace of Iraq every single day?'Don't even think of saying, 'We have solid justification [for this], we are fighting terrorism', because Russia is using the very same argument."
In the article Tastekin also warns about jihadists who have recently begun entering Turkey to escape the Russian attacks, and who pose a grave threat to Turkey's security. He also notes that China, the "awakening giant," is discreetly aiding Russia in its Syrian intervention.
Pro-AKP, Islamist Media Criticize Russia, U.S. For "Joint" Syria Policies
Pro-AKP media accused Russia of attacking Syrian opposition groups and Syrian civilians as part of a secret joint plan drawn up along with the U.S.in meetings held during the U.N. General Assembly.
Signs read: "Murderous U.S.A, Russia – Get out of Syria!"; "Imperialist Russia"; "Putin Murderer" (Photos: Haksozhaber, October 3, 2015)
Ahmet Varol, a columnist for the pro-AKP daily Yeni Akit, wrote: "While U.S. President Obama said that a real solution in Syria required Assad to go, the Russian leader Putin claimed that there could be no solution without cooperating with Assad. While they were making a show of disagreeing, Russian planes were already in Syria, preparing to carry out their inhuman attacks with the purpose of saving Assad.
"Putin's decision to launch these attacks was not taken by Russia alone. Rather, it was taken following discussions and agreements reached with the U.S. The leaders of the Eastern and Western wings of imperialism held a summit in New York during the U.N. Assembly. As soon as the meeting took place, the Russian planes began their operations, showing the world clearly that any conflict between [Russia and the U.S.] was in fact for show and [in practice] there was an alliance between them."[8] * R. Krespin is Director of MEMRI's Turkish Media Project.
Endnotes:
[1] See MEMRI Inquiry & Analysis No.1180, Turkey Finally Opens Air Bases To U.S., Joins Fight Against ISIS – But It's All About Fighting The Kurds, August 12, 2015.
[2] Cumhuriyet, June 13, 2014.
[3] Hurriyet, August 25, 2012.
[4] Hurriyet, September 5, 2012.
[5] Diken (Turkey), September 28, 2015; Kadri Gursel, who formerly wrote for Millie, was fired in July 2015 due to a tweet deemed insulting to President Erdogan.
[6] Radikal, October 3, 2015.
[7] Radikal, October 8, 2015.
[8] Yeni Akit, October 2, 2015.

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