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Bible Quotation For Today/ For as the lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one side to the other, so will the Son of Man be in his day.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 17/20-25: Once Jesus was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God was coming, and he answered, ‘The kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed; nor will they say, "Look, here it is!" or "There it is!" For, in fact, the kingdom of God is among you.’Then he said to the disciples, ‘The days are coming when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it. They will say to you, "Look there!" or "Look here!" Do not go, do not set off in pursuit. For as the lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one side to the other, so will the Son of Man be in his day. But first he must endure much suffering and be rejected by this generation.

Bible Quotation For Today/ If any think they are religious, and do not bridle their tongues but deceive their hearts, their religion is worthless.
Letter of James 01/19-27:"You must understand this, my beloved: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger; for your anger does not produce God’s righteousness. Therefore rid yourselves of all sordidness and rank growth of wickedness, and welcome with meekness the implanted word that has the power to save your souls. But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves. For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror; for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like. But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget but doers who act they will be blessed in their doing. If any think they are religious, and do not bridle their tongues but deceive their hearts, their religion is worthless. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world."

Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on September 01-02/15
14th Of March Stupid Trailing Behind, House Speaker, Berry/Elias Bejjani/September 01/15
Why the Lebanese protest, and what next/Hussain Abdul-Hussain/Now Lebanon/September 01/15
Women are underestimated in Lebanon’s protests/Diana Moukalled/Al Arabiya/September 01/15
With Khobar bomber's arrest, Saudi Arabia deals blow to Iran/Ali Hashem/Al-monitor/September 01/15
Will Rouhani serve a second term/Arash Karami/Al-monitor/September 01/15
Iranian clerics, filmmakers face off over religious movie/Al-monitor/September 01/15
Khamenei:The U.S. Is The Perfectly Clear Embodiment Of The Concept Of The Enemy'; 'We Must Combat The Plans Of The Arrogance With Jihad For The Sake Of Allah'/MEMRI/September 1, 2015
Palestinians: Turning Refugee Camps into Weapons Warehouses/Khaled Abu Toameh/Gatestone Institute/September 01/15
The "Cat and Mouse" Problem of Hunger Strikes in Prison/Paul Leslie/Gatestone Institute/September 01/15
The awakening and comeback of the Arab Spring/Jamal Khashoggi/Al Arabiya/September 01/15
Abandoning Hope: Obama’s Betrayal of Syria/Evan Barrett/Al Arabiya/September 01/15
Obama: Israel will remain more powerful than Iran/Yitzhak Benhorin/Ynetnews/September 01/15
Letter to undecided senators on the Iran deal/Robert Satloff/Washington Institute/September 01/15

Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin for Lebanese Related News published on September 01-02/15
14th Of March Stupid Trailing Behind, House Speaker, Berry
Possible Yarze' in Baabda?
Lebanese Security forces end YouStink occupation of Environment Ministry
Lebanon: Injuries as ISF Forcibly Clears 'You Stink' Activists who Occupied Environment Ministry
Why the Lebanese protest, and what next
Authorities eject ministry protesters in Beirut
You Stink' Activists Storm Environment Ministry, Vow to Stay until Demands are Met
Women are underestimated in Lebanon’s protests
Obama Calls for Better Cooperation with Israel to Confront Hizbullah
Kuwait Charges Hizbullah, Iran-linked Suspects with Plotting Attacks
Ibrahim Says al-Asir's Cell has Disintegrated
Berri Sets Dialogue Session for September 9
Aoun Voices Fear of Arab Spring's Effect on Lebanon, Questions 'Sides that are Mobilizing Youth Protests'
Mustaqbal Rejects 'Coup-like Pressure' for Any Minister's Resignation
Shehayyeb's Committee Report Expected this Week as Municipalities Await Funds

Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin For Miscellaneous Reports And News published on September 01-02/15
Iran justice chief rebuffs U.S. remarks on jailed marine
Iranian Guard chief says U.S. ‘still the Great Satan’
Worst Fears Confirmed as Famed Palmyra Temple Flattened
Coalition Air Strikes on South Yemen Kill 20
IS Claims Tripoli Car Bomb near Oil Firm
Migrants Using Fake Syrian Passports to Enter EU, Says Frontex
Clashes Erupt during Israeli Raid in West Bank
White House fight to preserve Iran deal is won, Senator Ben Cardin
Foreign Bomb Suspect Arrested at Thai-Cambodia Checkpoint

14th Of March Stupid Trailing Behind, House Speaker, Berry
Elias Bejjani/September 01/15
14th of March Coalision in Lebanon is losing its entity and mission more & more because of its stupid trailing behind the Iranian Syrian mercenary, House speaker Nabih Berry. Meanwhile Mr. Saad Al Harri's childish, hasty and bizarre hailing of Berry's sarcastic recent dialogue initiative is a mere act of stupidity and superficiality. The question is: what did the absurd and futile on going dialogue between The Future Movement and Hezbollah under Berry's auspices achieve except more and submissiveness to Hezbollah and to Its Iranian anti Lebanese Schemes? The recent proposed Berry national dialogue will be replicate of the Hezbollah-Future futile one. All The scenarios in circulation sadly stress the fact that simply the legitimization Iran's Occupation of Lebanon no more no less. This means simply legitimizing Iran's Occupation of Lebanon no more no less and keeping Hezbollah in full control. General John Khawaji will be another Micheal Slieman in case he is elected President. According to the same scenario that was published in the Saudi daily, Asharq Al Awsat two days ago, Aoun's son in-law Chamel Roukoz will replace Khawaji as Army Chief. It seems that the Iranian puppet and mercenary, House Speaker Nabih Berry is entrusted to implement this scenario and this explains his yesterday's sarcastic call for a national dialogue .

Possible Yarze' in Baabda?
Walid Phares/01/09/15?face Book
Word in Washington has been circulating today about a possible fast track to elect the commander in chief of the Lebanese Army as the next President of the Republic as a result of the Iran Deal and of the latest rumblings in Beirut. No confirmation are available, but more than one source have reported that such a scenario could be activated if the small country would face a void. Guarantees to both sides would be distributed "a la Libanaise" with March 8 securing Yarze' and Bustros, and March 14 some slices. Maybe few positions to the emerging youth, and the status quo to be reaffirmed. The next days will provide more evidence, unless another scenario would preempt what seems to be a strong thesis in Washington.

Lebanese Security forces end YouStink occupation of Environment Ministry
Now Lebanon/September 01/15/BEIRUT - #YouStink activists infiltrated the Environment Ministry early Tuesday afternoon to hold a sit-in, sparking a protracted standoff that saw riot police storm the building to remove protesters by force. The activists entered the ministry’s offices in Downtown Beirut shortly after midday, announcing their announcing their refusal to leave the premises until Environment Minister Mohammad Machnouk steps down from his post. Lebanese Interior Minister Nohad Machnouk at 3:30 p.m. issued a 30-minute deadline for the activists to end their sit-in, however the protesters refused to leave and rejected attempts to negotiate with the environment minister as well as Green Party chief Nada Zaarour, who they heckled. As demonstrators continued to gather outside the Environment Ministry building, security forces blocked off its entrances while riot police prepared to go into action, cutting off news transmissions from inside the building while forcing journalists out of the sit-in. Shortly before 7 p.m., riot police officers began marching activists, many of them wounded and beaten, out of the building. Red Cross emergency responders also carried a number of injured activists out. However, Environment Minister Mohammad Machnouk remained holed-up inside his office on the eight floor of the Azariyeh Building, while #YouStink activist Imad Bazzi said he and thirteen other protesters were keeping up their sit-in. At around 9:30 p.m. the remaining #YouStink protesters conducting the sit-in were forced out of the building, while Bazzi claimed they had been moved to the third floor the building before being released. Mohammad Machnouk, for his part, fled the building from a back door amid the chaos gripping the area as angry protesters faced off against riot police guarding the entrances of the ministry.

Lebanon: Injuries as ISF Forcibly Clears 'You Stink' Activists who Occupied Environment Ministry
Naharnet/September 01/15
Riot police forcibly removed protesters who had occupied part of the environment ministry in central Beirut on Tuesday following a several-hour standoff, which left several activists wounded. Police gradually moved the several dozen protesters from the "You Stink" campaign down from the eighth floor of the building in downtown Beirut. The Lebanese Red Cross said around 15 protesters were offered first aid on the spot while the activists Lucien Bourjeily and Nehmat Badreddine were rushed to hospital.But after scuffles erupted outside the ministry later in the evening, the Red Cross said seven protesters were rushed to hospitals while 60 were given medical care on the ground. Meanwhile, Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq said security forces did not use force against the protesters, promising to penalize anyone who beat up activists “if the reports turn out to be true.” He later dispatched “his security team and a number of officers to the Environment Ministry to oversee the evacuation of the rest of protesters from the building and to ensure that they will not be assaulted under any circumstances,” state-run National News Agency reported. However, the remaining 15 protesters said later in the evening that they were beaten up and forcibly ejected from the building. They had refused to leave, insisting police would have to handcuff and remove them by force.
State-run National News Agency meanwhile said Environment Minister Mohammed al-Mashnouq left the ministry building late on Tuesday. Media reports said he left through a back entrance. Several scuffles erupted outside the ministry building between security forces and protesters who arrived to express solidarity with the You Stink activists. Some TV reporters and journalists said security forces had ordered them to leave the building before forcibly ejecting some of them. The activists said they stormed the ministry building to push for the resignation of Environment Minister Mohammed al-Mashnouq over his failure to resolve the country's waste crisis. “We will stay here until our demands are met,” Imad Bazzi, one of the organizers of anti-government protests held by “You Stink,” said.
Another protester said: “This is our ministry. We will protect it. We don't need the presence of security forces," which deployed heavily at the building's entrance and blocked it. In their surprise action, the activists chanted “Mashnouq out” and urged the ministry employees and Lebanese citizens to join them. In a video footage, they were seen sitting cross-legged on the floor, clapping hands and shouting slogans against the minister.
But al-Mashnouq refused to resign, telling TV stations: “I am carrying out my duties.”He said he was at his office on the building's 8th floor and urged security forces to assume their responsibilities.But the activists urged the minister to come out of his office and address the protesters, saying they refused to send a representative to negotiate with al-Mashnouq. Informed sources later said that Prime Minister Tammam Salam would not accept Mashnouq's resignation should he take such a step. They added that the minister is “being wrongfully held responsible for a crisis which dates back to years and which the political powers have shied away from resolving.”Some protesters had suffered from fainting spells due to the poor ventilation at the building after the windows were shut and air-conditioning was turned off. Meanwhile, al-Mustaqbal bloc warned that “storming the Environment Ministry serves the interests of those seeking chaos in Lebanon,” rejecting what it called “pressure for the resignation of any minister or official in this coup-like manner.”
Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat who had previously voiced his support for the activists' demands said via Twitter: “The occupation of the environment minister's office is not a solution to the waste crisis or any other problem.”Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun also expressed his support for the youth's demands, but advised them instead to focus their attention towards the adoption of a new electoral law, staging of parliamentary elections, and election of a new president.During its last protest in downtown Beirut on Saturday, “You Stink” issued a 72-hour ultimatum for the authorities to meet their demands, including the resignation of the environment minister, holding Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq accountable for police violence in previous demonstrations, and releasing funds for municipalities to begin their own garbage management programs. In longer term goals, the activist group called for new parliamentary elections and the election of a president to fill a post that has been vacant since May last year due to political squabbling.
The waste crisis erupted after the closure of the Naameh landfill that lies south of Beirut on July 17.

Why the Lebanese protest, and what next
Hussain Abdul-Hussain/Now Lebanon/Published: 31/08/2015
Many Lebanese want change, but not most. While heart-warming, images from downtown Beirut showed crowds short of filling the two squares. Their demands reshuffled priorities of the Independence Intifada, aka March 14. Other demands were either unjustified or irrelevant. The protests are understandable. In less than a year, four Lebanese patriarchs — Walid Jumblatt, Michel Aoun, Amin Gemayel and Suleiman Franjieh — ‘passed on’ their leadership mantles to their sons or sons-in-law. And since the exit of Michel Suleiman in May 2014, Lebanon has been living without a president. Parliament, which constitutionally becomes an electoral body with the sole mission of electing a president, is on lockdown because Mr. Aoun wants to become president but does not have enough votes to secure the post. In functioning states, citizens express their opinions on public matters and run for office. In Lebanon, elections of all kinds — presidential, parliamentary and mayoral — have been suspended since the end of the current parliament’s term in 2013. This means that the Lebanese can either express their opinions through the reigning oligarchs, or not at all. And the Lebanese have a lot of rage to express. The frozen political system has pushed an already-stressed infrastructure to the brink of collapse. In one of the hottest summers on record, the Lebanese have had to grapple with more frequent electricity and water cuts. Fighting among the oligarchs for lucrative contracts of garbage collection has allowed trash to pile up across the country, further aggravating the feeling of a rotten summer. And so thousands of Lebanese took to the streets. Yet the number of protesters on Saturday — 25,000 by generous estimates — fell short of the mega rally of 14 March 2005. By its sheer size, March 14 forced historic changes. It forced Assad to withdraw his troops from Lebanon after 29 years. March 14 undermined Hezbollah’s arguments for maintaining a militia and pushed for trying perpetrators of political crimes.
If the March 14 coalition proved to be a hodgepodge of incompetent tribal politicians, it does not mean that the March 14 agenda should be abandoned or its priorities reshuffled. Beirut’s garbage problem started a few weeks ago and will be resolved after contract renewal, even if the contracting process is corrupt. Hezbollah’s arms is a much older and pressing problem that remains unresolved. The debate over why Hezbollah should disarm is not ‘dirty politics.’ Hezbollah’s militia issue is not part of the corrupt political establishment issue. Hezbollah’s problem is much bigger than Lebanese corruption. With or without March 14, Hezbollah should disarm. Adding Hezbollah to the rest in the slogan “all of them means all of them” trivializes Hezbollah’s arms issue and makes it equivalent to issues as mundane as the Gemayel succession of the Phalange Party leadership — a dumb comparison, to say the least. Garbage and corruption should not overshadow the fundamental problems that undermine the sovereignty of the Lebanese state, weaken it and allow for corruption in the first place. Yet, the rally on 29 August did just that. It made garbage a priority ahead of much more serious infractions.
When not refocusing Lebanese rage from Hezbollah’s arms to garbage, the 29 August folks presented unjustified demands. A week earlier, protesters had tried to break the security ring protecting the seat of government at the Grand Serail in downtown Beirut. Employing standard procedure, security forces held their ground by using tear gas and rubber bullets. For doing their job, the 29 August crowd wants to hold security forces accountable; an unjustifiable demand. Next, 29 Augus activists asked for the resignation of Environment Minister Mohammad Machnouq, a political appointee whose ministry is irrelevant and commands meager resources. In 2000, Machnouq ran on Prime Minister Tammam Salam’s parliamentary ticket against the late Rafiq Hariri. Hariri easily defeated them. When Salam was called from the world of obscurity to form a cabinet, he brought his partner Machnouq with him. Going after a figure as minor as Machnouq suggests that YouStink and its supporters have no muscle or will to go after the actual culprits responsible for the failure of the state. Otherwise, they would have marched on Dahiyeh, Rabiyeh, Ayn el-Tineh, Moukhtara or any of the sectarian capitals of the country. While the jury is still out, the Lebanese should bear in mind that in Arab countries and Iran, change has always been to the worse. None of Egypt’s 1952 coup and the many Arab coups that followed — popular revolts like in Iran in 1979, Lebanon in 2005, and Tunisia, Yemen and Egypt in 2011, and the toppling of Iraq’s regime in 2003 — resulted in improvement. In the US, a common question to those who are running for office and once supported the Iraq War is this: Had you known in 2003 what we know now, would you still have gone to war? The Arabs should think similarly to reassess the Arab Spring: if they had known that their inspiring popular revolts would have taken things to where they are now, would they still have revolted?
**Hussain Abdul-Hussain is the Washington Bureau Chief of Kuwaiti newspaper Alrai. He tweets @hahussain

Authorities eject ministry protesters in Beirut
By Staff writer /Al Arabiya News, Beirut/Tuesday, 1 September 2015/Lebanese police forces began to forcefully evacuate several dozen protesters who stormed the Ministry of Environment in downtown Beirut earlier on Tuesday, Al Arabiya News Channel reported. The country’s interior minister gave the protesters 30 minutes to clear the building, the channel quoted him as saying on Tuesday. Protesters stormed the building earlier demanding the resignation of Environment Minister Mohammed Machnouk over the country's trash crisis.The group from the movement known as "You Stink" posted a video of themselves sitting cross-legged on the floor, shouting slogans against Machnouk. "Out, out, out!" they shouted Tuesday. Machnouk is reportedly trapped in his office inside the ministry building besieged by protesters, Al Arabiya’s correspondent reported. It was not clear what would happen if the protesters do not leave. Infographic: Protesters storm environment ministry in Beirut.The move came hours ahead of a deadline set by the campaign for the government to respond to their demands after a massive weekend demonstration. "They refused to listen to our demands that we gave them 72 hours to fulfill," activist Lucien Bourjeily told Agence France-Presse. "They announced clearly that the minister will not resign. We are asking for the resignation of the minister and won't leave until that happens." The "You Stink" campaign began in response to a trash crisis that erupted with the closure of Lebanon's largest landfill in mid-July. But it has evolved into an outlet for deep-seated frustrations over Lebanon's crumbling infrastructure and stagnant political class. Last week, the campaign set out four key demands: the resignation of Machnouk, new parliamentary elections, the devolvement of trash collection duties to municipalities and accountability for violence against protesters.
Machnouk has refused, resigning only from a government committee assigned to resolve the trash crisis. The group said Saturday after a massive protest that the government had 72 hours to respond to its demands, with that deadline set to expire on Tuesday night. "(We began early) for the element of surprise," Bourjeily told AFP of the sit-in. He said additional measures could yet be announced later Tuesday. "It will depend on the response of the government."(with Reuters, AFP and the Associated Press)

You Stink' Activists Storm Environment Ministry, Vow to Stay until Demands are Met
Naharnet/September 01/15/Scores of activists from the “You Stink” movement stormed on Tuesday the Environment Ministry building in downtown Beirut to push for the resignation of Minister Mohammed al-Mashnouq over his failure to resolve the country's waste crisis.
“We will stay here until our demands are met,” Imad Bazzi, one of the organizers of anti-government protests held by “You Stink,” said. Another protester said: “This is our ministry. We will protect it. We don't need the presence of security forces," which deployed heavily at the building's entrance and blocked it. In their surprise action, the activists chanted “Mashnouq out” and urged the ministry employees and Lebanese citizens to join them. In a video footage, they were seen sitting cross-legged on the floor, clapping hands and shouting slogans against the minister. But al-Mashnouq refused to resign, telling TV stations: “I am carrying out my duties.”He said he was at his office on the building's 8th floor and urged security forces to assume their responsibilities. But the activists urged the minister to come out of his office and address the protesters, saying they refused to send a representative to negotiate with al-Mashnouq. Informed sources later said that Prime Minister Tammam Salam would not accept Mashnouq's resignation should he take such a step. They added that the minister is “being wrongfully held responsible for a crisis which dates back to years and which the political powers have shied away from resolving.”
As their sit-in continued, some protesters suffered from fainting spells due to the poor ventilation at the building after the windows were shut and air-conditioning was turned off. Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat who had previously voiced his support for the activists' demands said via Twitter: “The occupation of the environment minister's office is not a solution to the waste crisis or any other problem.” Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun also expressed his support for the youth's demands, but advised them instead to focus their attention towards the adoption of a new electoral law, staging of parliamentary elections, and election of a new president. During its last protest in downtown Beirut on Saturday, “You Stink” issued a 72-hour ultimatum for the authorities to meet their demands, including the resignation of the environment minister, holding Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq accountable for police violence in previous demonstrations, and releasing funds for municipalities to begin their own garbage management programs. In longer term goals, the activist group called for new parliamentary elections and the election of a president to fill a post that has been vacant since May last year due to political squabbling. The waste crisis erupted after the closure of the Naameh landfill that lies south of Beirut on July 17.

Women are underestimated in Lebanon’s protests
Diana Moukalled/Al Arabiya/September 01/15
Last week’s protests in downtown Beirut broke the monotony of news of deaths that has come to dominate the Arab media landscape. Amid Syrian deaths and tragedies, protests in Iraq, war scenes in Yemen and everything else happening in the region, it seemed strange for Beirut’s protests, clashes, chants and even a wall – thought built and removed within 24 hours – to gain so many people’s attention by comparison. It seemed strange for Lebanon’s protests to garner such wide public opinion on social media platforms, especially by societies whose crises and wars are far more important than Lebanon’s affairs. Lebanese demonstrations seem less violent and confrontational than other Arab popular protests and this is what pushed those experienced in protesting in Egypt, Tunisia, Syria and Yemen to comment on what’s happening in Lebanon by either supporting them or voicing fear that the ongoing protests might possibly be aborted and exploited. However, many people’s attention and comments were limited to photos of Lebanese female protestors. I am not only referring to those on Twitter and Facebook but also several news websites, columnists and commentators who gathered photos and wrote headlines like “Lebanon’s female protestors ignite...”
‘Ignite’
The word “ignite” was used by many and it was even used by news websites who were supposed to be thoughtful. He who observes this preoccupation with photos of Lebanese female protestors would be disappointed when he actually sees them. Not because there is anything shameful about the pictures but because they are actually just ordinary scenes of women who took to Beirut’s streets to protest the deterioration of services and to challenge the status quo. Some female protestors were even beaten up and injured by security forces. Some of them stood between angry protestors and security forces to prevent them from clashing. Others played major roles at leading protests while trying to calm angered youths in order to prevent rising tensions from turning into violent ones.
Yes, some female protestors screamed out, protested and voiced their anger while others danced, sang and drew on their faces. Some even raised slogans which were viewed as “bold” by many. He who observes this preoccupation with photos of Lebanese female protestors would be disappointed when he actually sees them. Not because there is anything shameful about the pictures but because they are actually just ordinary scenes of women who took to Beirut’s streets to protest the deterioration of services and to challenge the status quo
But some commentary on social media underestimated such activities and limited it down to the label of “Lebanese women.”
Some sarcastic comments were funny and harmless and while other commentaries condemned the exaggerated patriarchy when evaluating the photos of female protestors and of the Lebanese situation. But the fact that photos of ordinary female protestors turned into such a big deal takes us back to square one in regards to how the Arab public views women and how Lebanese women are specifically stereotyped.
Persistence
“Lebanese women” has thus become a description that hides common gender mainstreaming which some adopt towards the country and its women and it depicts liberalism as immorality and looks at natural beauty with an eye of lust and desire. Yes, Lebanon enjoys a clear margin of freedom compared to other Arab societies whose women, who played a very important role during their protests, were killed, tortured or humiliated, as evidenced in Egypt and Syria. Lebanon enjoys a clear margin of freedom compared to other Arab societies whose women, who played a very important role during their protests, were killed, tortured or humiliated, as evidenced in Egypt and Syria. These women’s images have been distorted. In addition to the fact they’ve also suffered from sexual harassment and even mob sexual assaults. However, Lebanon’s protests did not witness assaults. Protest squares in Lebanon are not considered dangerous to women and are actually serious arenas for women and other Lebanese people to express their opinions. It’s true that in Lebanon we are influenced by laws that discriminate against women, a patriarchal culture that at times tends to be shallow, and a rise of an extremism wave. But in Lebanon, strong energy and freedom still persists over here, which have been manifested in our protests and should not be disparaged but more reasons to celebrate, unite and develop.

Obama Calls for Better Cooperation with Israel to Confront Hizbullah
Naharnet/September 01/15/U.S. President Barack Obama has stressed the importance of better intelligence cooperation between Washington and Tel Aviv to stop Hizbullah from obtaining more missiles with which to target Israel. “As much intelligence cooperation and sharing as we’re already doing, we need to do better if we want to stop Hizbullah from continuing to get missiles that can be trained on Tel Aviv,” Obama told The Forward, a newspaper published in New York for a Jewish-American audience, in an interview. He said Washington should discuss more with Israel on whether “there (are) additional capabilities that Israel may be able to use to prevent Hizbullah, for example, from getting missiles.”He said Iran has been effective in its destabilizing activities because it has used proxies. Tehran has “invested in places like Lebanon for decades and become entrenched. And the reason we haven’t done a better job of stopping that is not because they’re outspending us. The reason is because we haven’t been as coordinated, had as good intelligence and been as systematic in pushing back as we need to be,” Obama told The Forward. The U.S. president reiterated that his disagreement with Israel over the terms of the Iran nuclear deal was a "fight within the family.""Over the next several weeks as we get to the conclusion of the congressional debate, I think it is important for everybody to just take a breath for a moment and recognize that people on both sides of the debate love the United States and also love Israel," he said.

Kuwait Charges Hizbullah, Iran-linked Suspects with Plotting Attacks
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September 01/15/Kuwait on Tuesday charged 24 people suspected of links to Hizbullah and Iran with plotting attacks against the Gulf state, a statement by the public prosecutor said. The men were charged with "spying for the Islamic republic of Iran and Hizbullah to carry out aggressive acts against the State of Kuwait" by smuggling in and assembling explosives, as well as possessing firearms and ammunition, the statement said. They were also charged with "carrying out acts that would undermine the unity and territorial integrity" of Kuwait, and of possessing eavesdropping devices, it said. Two other men were also charged in the same case, one with possessing illegal weapons and another with failing to inform authorities about the arms. One of the suspects is Iranian and the rest are Kuwaiti nationals. Three who remain at large were charged in absentia. Prosecutors said the suspects were linked with a "terror cell" the interior ministry said it had busted last month while seizing large amounts of weapons, ammunition and explosives. Officials said at the time that three men had been arrested and confessed to joining an illegal group that local media reported was Hizbullah. Media had reported that more arrests followed and the prosecutor said 22 of the suspects charged on Tuesday had received explosives and weapon training to "achieve illegal goals". A number of suspects were accused of being members of Hizbullah which "aims to demolish the social and economic foundations of the country", the prosecutor's statement said. Sunni-ruled Kuwait has traditionally had better ties with Iran than its fellow Gulf Arab states, but tensions have been rising. On Sunday, the head of parliament's foreign relations panel, MP Hamad al-Harashani, described Iran as the "true enemy" of Sunni-ruled Gulf Arab states and said it sought "to spread chaos" in the region. This was not the first Iran-linked espionage ring to be spoken of in Kuwait. In May 2013, the supreme court upheld life terms for two Iranians, a Kuwaiti and a stateless man on charges of forming a ring to spy for Tehran. The convicts, who worked for the army, were accused of spying for Iran and passing information on Kuwaiti and U.S. military forces in the emirate to the Islamic republic's elite Revolutionary Guards.
Iran dismissed the accusation.
They were also convicted of plotting to blow up key pipelines in the oil-rich state. The case strained relations between Kuwait and Iran, prompting a tit-for-tat expulsion of diplomats after investigations showed the information was passed to diplomats in Tehran's embassy in Kuwait City. A decades-old row between the two countries over the disputed offshore Dorra gas field resurfaced last week. Kuwait summoned the Iranian charge d'affaires to protest against Tehran's apparent offer of investment opportunities in the Dorra field. Kuwait has also arrested alleged members of the Sunni extremist Islamic State group, which said it was behind an attack on a Shiite mosque in June that killed 26 people. The lower court on Tuesday set September 15 as the date when it will issue its verdict on 29 suspects in that case.

Ibrahim Says al-Asir's Cell has Disintegrated
Naharnet/September 01/15/General Security chief Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim has said that the cell of Ahmed al-Asir has disintegrated after the arrest of the Salafist cleric at Beirut's airport last month. In remarks to several local newspapers published on Tuesday, Ibrahim said al-Asir had been put under surveillance since the end of the battles between his supporters and the Lebanese army in Abra near the southern city of Sidon in June 2013. The anti-Hizbullah cleric was arrested on August 15 at Rafik Hariri International Airport while trying to travel to Nigeria via Cairo using a fake Palestinian passport. Ibrahim denied that al-Asir had done plastic surgeries, saying he had only changed his looks. He also revealed that when al-Asir began making headlines after the Syrian civil war erupted in 2011, he was being funded by local Lebanese businessmen, who “will be taken to court” for trial. Al-Asir was a virtual political unknown until the outbreak of the conflict in the neighboring country. But later he began encouraging his supporters to join mainly Sunni rebels and to rise up against Hizbullah, which has sent its fighters to Syria to help Syrian President Bashar Assad. Ibrahim said al-Asir has been answering the questions of investigators “calmly.”The General Security chief added that he was referred to the military intelligence for questioning because he is responsible for the killing of 18 soldiers during the clashes in Abra. In 2014, a military judge recommended prosecutors seek death sentences for al-Asir and 53 others, including singer-turned-fundamentalist Fadel Shaker. He and his associates were accused of "having formed armed groups that attacked an institution of the state, the army, killed officers and soldiers, took explosive materials and light and heavy weapons and used them against the army."Last month, Military Examining Magistrate Judge Riad Abu Ghida issued an arrest warrant against al-Asir after he admitted to funding extremist cleric Sheikh Khaled Hoblos, who was arrested in April.

Berri Sets Dialogue Session for September 9
Naharnet/September 01/15/Speaker Nabih Berri has set September 9 as the date for the first dialogue session that will bring together Prime Minister Tammam Salam and the heads of parliamentary blocs.Earlier, al-Mustaqbal daily reported on Tuesday that Salam has urged Berri to bring the date of the national dialogue forward over fears of a prolonged cabinet paralysis. The newspaper quoted government sources as saying that Salam made the request because he does not intend to keep cabinet sessions suspended pending the end of the dialogue. Meanwhile, Berri's visitors told al-Mustaqbal that contacts were launched with the leaders of parliamentary blocs to agree on the date for the dialogue. Hizbullah, ex-PM Saad Hariri's al-Mustaqbal Movement and the Progressive Socialist Party of MP Walid Jumblat have welcomed Berri's initiative which is aimed at ending the presidential deadlock and allowing the parliament and the government to function. The Kataeb Party has also praised the speaker's initiative. Labor Minister Sejaan Qazzi, who is a Kataeb official, told An Nahar daily that the party hoped Berri's efforts would lead to the election of a new president and for the dialogue to have a specific agenda so that it does not get adjourned from one session to the other. The Lebanese Forces is still studying its stance and the Change and Reform bloc of MP Michel Aoun is expected to announce its position following its weekly meeting on Tuesday.

Aoun Voices Fear of Arab Spring's Effect on Lebanon, Questions 'Sides that are Mobilizing Youth Protests'
Naharnet/September 01/15/Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun stressed on Tuesday the “rightful” demands being made by civil society protesters over the political reality in Lebanon, adding that he had objected to corruption in the country years ago. He added however: “We have questions over those who are mobilizing the demonstrators.” He also expressed his fear over the effect the Arab Spring may have on Lebanon, citing the bloody conflicts in Syria and Iraq and other countries. “Would the protesters prefer the garbage piling up on the streets or the chaos in those countries?” Aoun asked after the Change and Reform bloc's weekly meeting. He instead advised the youth to demand the adoption of a new electoral law, the staging of parliamentary elections, and election of a new head of state. Addressing the youth, the MP said: “If you want power to be restored to the people, then you should demand that the president be elected through a popular vote.” The lawmaker had on numerous occasions demanded that a new president be elected through the people. “Only elections can help cleanse institutions,” Aoun stressed. He therefore called on the youth to join the FPM protest scheduled for 5:30 pm on Friday. The “You Stink” civil society campaign has staged a number of demonstrations against the country's ongoing waste management crisis, which erupted in July following the closure of the Naameh landfill. The crisis has resulted in the piling up of trash on the streets as the government failed to find a new landfill. On Tuesday, the activists stormed the Environment Ministry to demand the resignation of Minister Mohammed al-Mashnouq. The FPM will stage a protest on Friday to demand “the restoration of Christian rights”, which it says has been usurped by the prime minister in the absence of a president.

Mustaqbal Rejects 'Coup-like Pressure' for Any Minister's Resignation
Naharnet/September 01/15?Al-Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc on Tuesday slammed the storming of the Environment Ministry building by “You Stink” activists as a “dangerous coup-like method,” warning that such tactics serve the interests of “those who are seeking chaos in Lebanon.”“In principle, peaceful protest highlights the vigor of the Lebanese people, who had revolted in March 2005 against tyranny and hegemony … Therefore, the return of the Lebanese to peaceful protest underscores their patriotism and adherence to the peaceful, democratic and civil heritage,” said the bloc in a statement issued after its weekly meeting, in reference to Saturday's mass rally in downtown Beirut.“Real peaceful and democratic change is a legitimate right related to freedom of expression … and it should not descend to violence in the streets or stirring chaos through groups of infiltrators whose only objectives are destruction and sabotage,” Mustaqbal warned. It cautioned that “storming the Environment Ministry or any other state institution serves the interests of those seeking chaos in Lebanon, not those of the peaceful protest movement.”Mustaqbal also stressed the need for the current government to “continue performing its missions,” warning against “its fall or resignation amid the presidential vacuum.”“In this regard, the bloc also rejects pressure for the resignation of any minister or official in this dangerous coup-like method which was tried today,” it added. Proposing solutions, Mustaqbal reiterated its call for “the immediate election of a president and consequently the formation of a new government that addresses all the national, political, economic and social issues, including the drafting of a new electoral law.” Earlier in the day, protesters from the You Stink movement and other groups occupied part of the environment ministry in downtown Beirut, in an escalation of a campaign against the country's trash crisis and a stagnant political class.In the evening, riot police forcibly removed the protesters from the building after a several-hour standoff, which left several activists injured. The activists said they stormed the ministry building to push for the resignation of Environment Minister Mohammed al-Mashnouq, who is close to Mustaqbal, over his failure to resolve the country's waste crisis. But al-Mashnouq refused to resign, telling TV stations: “I am carrying out my duties.” During its last protest in downtown Beirut on Saturday, “You Stink” issued a 72-hour ultimatum for the authorities to meet their demands, including the resignation of the environment minister, holding Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq accountable for police violence in previous demonstrations, and releasing funds for municipalities to begin their own garbage management programs. In longer term goals, the activist group called for new parliamentary elections and the election of a president to fill a post that has been vacant since May last year due to political squabbling. The waste crisis erupted after the closure of the Naameh landfill that lies south of Beirut on July 17.
Shehayyeb's Committee Report Expected this Week as Municipalities Await Funds
Naharnet/September 01/15/Agriculture Minister Akram Shehayyeb is expected to deliver to Prime Minister Tammam Salam this week a report on ways to resolve the country's waste crisis.Salam appointed Shehayyeb on Monday to lead a committee of waste specialists after Environment Minister Mohammed al-Mashnouq suspended his participation in the meetings of a ministerial committee tasked with resolving the garbage problem. Ministerial sources told An Nahar and al-Mustaqbal dailies on Tuesday that the report will include a proposal on the collection of waste in light of which it will be decided if an extraordinary cabinet session is necessary to approve the mechanism. Al-Mashnouq complained on Monday that he was the only official trying to resolve the garbage crisis. “Most of the political parties are running away from their responsibilities,” he said. Last week, the cabinet failed to award contracts for waste management to bidding companies over the high costs but it promised municipalities funds to begin their own garbage management programs. “You Stink,” which is the main organizer of anti-government protests, has threatened escalatory measures if the government doesn't release the funds by Tuesday evening. During its last protest in downtown Beirut on Saturday, it issued the 72-hour ultimatum for the authorities to meet their demands, including the resignation of the environment minister. In longer term goals, the activist group called for new parliamentary elections and the election of a president to fill a post that has been vacant since May last year due to political squabbling. The government's failure to resolve the trash crisis has evolved into wider protests against a political class that has dominated Lebanon since the end of the country's civil war in 1990 and a government that has failed to provide even basic services to its people.

Iran justice chief rebuffs U.S. remarks on jailed marine
Tehran, AFP/Tuesday, 1 September 2015/Iran’s judiciary chief has urged the United States not to interfere in cases of detained Americans, days after US Secretary of State John Kerry said a jailed Marine should be freed. Ayatollah Sadegh Larijani’s remarks followed the fourth anniversary of Amir Hekmati’s imprisonment in Tehran on what Kerry called “false espionage charges.”Hekmati was visiting relatives in the Islamic republic when he was arrested. Larijani, quoted in Iranian media on Tuesday, said Iran examined legal cases “including those accused of spying for America, with absolute composure and dignity, based on duty and procedure. “The judiciary does not need American officials to write prescriptions for it," Larijani said. "Our advice to them is not to hype (such matters) up uselessly.”In his remarks on Friday, Kerry called Hekmati’s detention “unjust” and also renewed his call for Iran to release two other Americans. Pastor Saeed Abedini was arrested in Iran in 2012 and sentenced to eight years in jail for gathering a group of people to study the Bible. Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian, meanwhile, has gone on trial on spying charges and after more than a year in custody is awaiting sentencing. Kerry also urged Iran to “work cooperatively” to help locate Robert Levinson, a former FBI agent who disappeared while on Iran’s Kish island in 2007. Larijani said the judiciary would perform its duties, while interests of national security also provided for Iran’s Supreme National Security Council to have a say under the law. In some cases, the country’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is authorized to issue a pardon, the judiciary chief added.

Iranian Guard chief says U.S. ‘still the Great Satan’
Tehran, Iran, AP/Tuesday, 1 September 2015/The head of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard said Tuesday that the U.S. is still the “Great Satan,” regardless of the nuclear deal struck with Americans and world powers over the Islamic Republic’s contested nuclear program. The comments by Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari, reported by the official Guard website, said that “the enmity against Iranian nation by the U.S. has not lessened and it has been increased.” “We should not be deceived by the U.S.,” Jafari reportedly said. “It wants to infiltrate into Iran, resorting to new instruments and method.” The Guard and hard-liners remain suspicious of the U.S., even as authorities look over the historic accord that curbs Iran's nuclear program in return to lifting economic sanctions. Earlier Tuesday, Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi, the head of powerful Iran’s Experts Assembly, which oversees the nation's Supreme Leader and institutions under his supervision, also said the nuclear deal will not alter Iran’s foreign policy toward the United States. “The Islamic Republic of Iran considers the U.S. its No. 1 enemy,” Yazdi said. “If you try to discover the root of the sedition that is happening around us today, you will identify U.S. as its main supporter.”His remarks echo those earlier made by Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. But while Khamenei hasn’t said whether he supports the nuclear deal, he has praised the work of the country's negotiators.Meanwhile Tuesday, the state news agency IRNA quoted Tehran’s police chief, Gen. Hossein Sajedinia, as saying his officers detained several people for distributing apparel bearing the flags of the U.S., Israel and Britain, as well as items bearing Satanic symbols. Such crackdowns on Western items are common in Iran.

Worst Fears Confirmed as Famed Palmyra Temple Flattened
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September 01/15/Satellite images show the main temple in Syria's Palmyra has been flattened, confirming the worst fears for the ancient ruins held by the Islamic State group. The destruction of the Temple of Bel sparked outrage and international headlines, precisely the reaction the jihadist group may have been seeking, experts said. The U.N.'s cultural watchdog called it an "intolerable crime against civilization."Dozens of relics remain at risk in the ruins of Palmyra, which IS jihadists seized from regime forces in May as they pursued their campaign for territory in Syria and Iraq. The extremist group's harsh philosophy condemns pre-Islamic religious sites and considers statues and grave markers to be idolatrous, but it has also been accused of destroying heritage to loot items for the black market and to gain publicity. Satellite images taken before and after an explosion at Palmyra on Sunday "confirm the destruction of the main Temple of Bel as well as a row of columns in its immediate vicinity," U.N. training and research agency UNITAR said late Monday. The 2,000-year-old temple was the centerpiece of Palmyra's famed ruins and one of the most important relics at the UNESCO-listed heritage site. "The Temple of Bel was the most beautiful symbol of all of Syria. It was the most beautiful place to visit," Syrian antiquities director Maamoun Abdulkarim told AFP by telephone from Damascus. "And we have lost it forever." IS fighters seized Palmyra from Syrian regime forces on May 21, immediately sparking fears for the city's ruins and historic sites. While antiquities staff evacuated most of the city's museum before IS arrived, the group destroyed an ornate lion statue outside the building and also mined Palmyra's ruins. Last month the jihadists beheaded the 82-year old former antiquities chief in Palmyra and destroyed the ancient shrine of Baal Shamin.
On Sunday, activists and a monitor reported a large explosion at the site had destroyed the Temple of Bel. Abdulkarim said Palmyra's remaining ruins, which lie in the southwest of the city, include "dozens of the greatest grave markers, the amphitheater, and the Temple of Nabu, which only has its foundations." The city's grand Roman amphitheater, which dates from between the second and third century, is not believed to have been damaged. But it was the scene of a gruesome massacre shortly after IS seized Palmyra, with child members of the group executing 25 Syrian soldiers in the amphitheater. "They have killed Palmyra. Now, they will terrorize it," Abdulkarim said. "It's the last warning before the complete destruction of Palmyra." Cheikhmous Ali of the Association for the Protection of Syrian Archeology (APSA) described the razing of the ruins as "a way to pressure and torture the local population -- to suppress their history and their collective memory." It was also an attempt to "remain in the headlines", he said, warning: "The more we give IS's savage actions media attention, the more they will repeat this."UNESCO chief Irina Bokova expressed "deep distress" over the temple's destruction, but vowed it would "not erase 4,500 years of history."Gruesome violence and the destruction of priceless artifacts have become hallmarks of IS as it expands its so-called "caliphate" across swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria. In addition to damaging sites in Syria, IS has destroyed statues, shrines, and manuscripts in the Iraqi city of Mosul, and demolished the ancient Assyrian city of Nimrud further south.
Charlie Winter, an analyst with the London-based Quilliam Foundation, said the destruction of artifacts in Palmyra and elsewhere "makes sense with the jihadist worldview, because these temples are symbols of polytheism." "They are pre-Islamic and are considered by IS not to be worthy of existence," Winter said. He agreed that IS may be seeking to reclaim headlines at a time when its gruesome killings no longer receive the same media attention as before. The militants have used sophisticated media techniques to gain publicity and lure thousands of foreign fighters to join their ranks."The videos IS publishes of people being burned alive don't grab headlines anywhere near as much as headlines about Palmyra do," Winter said. IS "has recognized the symbolic power of destroying these ruins."If there's anything IS revels in, it's condemnation" of its actions, he said. Regime forces have launched an offensive to retake the ancient city and as they edge closer the jihadist group may be looking to sow as much destruction as it can. "The more likely it looks that IS will end up losing Palmyra, the more likely it will destroy what's left there," Winter said.

Greek Police Find Large Weapons Stash on Libya-Bound Ship
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September 01/15/A large weapons stash was discovered Tuesday on a cargo ship off the Greek island of Crete, a police source said, with initial information suggesting it sailed from Turkey and was headed for Libya. Greek port police boarded the Haddad 1 and found shotguns in a shipping container, although no details were given on the other weapons found. The Bolivian-flagged ship had a seven-strong crew of Syrians and Egyptians. The boat was seized off Ierapetra on Crete's southern coast because it was not carrying the correct papers for its cargo, the police source said. The boat was being towed to another port on the island for further investigation.

Coalition Air Strikes on South Yemen Kill 20
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September 01/15/At least 20 rebels and pro-government fighters have been killed in Saudi-led coalition air strikes targeting insurgent positions in south Yemen, military sources said on Tuesday. The raids struck the rebel-held headquarters of the 19th Infantry Brigade and checkpoints in Baihan, a region between the provinces of Shabwa which is government-held, and oil-rich Marib which both sides are fighting to control. Over the past 24 hours, 17 rebels were killed in strikes that also "mistakenly" left three pro-government fighters dead, the sources said. The coalition, which began its air campaign against Iran-backed rebels in late March in support of exiled President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi, has backed government loyalists with both weapons and troops. Loyalists have seized five southern provinces, including Shabwa, since mid-July and have been advancing towards the capital Sanaa which has been held by the rebels for almost a year.

IS Claims Tripoli Car Bomb near Oil Firm
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September 01/15/The Islamic State jihadist group on Tuesday claimed a car bomb attack against an oil company co-owned by Italy's Eni in the Libyan capital that wounded one person. IS said in a statement on Twitter that one of its "security detachments targeted the headquarters of Mellitah Oil and Gas with a car bomb in the Dhahra district in downtown Tripoli".At least one unidentified person was hurt in the explosion on Monday a few meters (yards) away from the offices of the oil firm, according to a security official in the militia-held capital. Islamist extremists have exploited the turmoil in Libya since the fall of veteran leader Moammar Gadhafi in 2011 to establish a foothold in the energy-rich North African country. IS militants in June took over the coastal city of Sirte, 450 kilometers (280 miles) to the east of Tripoli. Over the past few months, the group has claimed several attacks in the Libyan capital, mostly against embassies. IS did not say why it had targeted Mellitah Oil and Gas, which is owned equally by Eni and the Tripoli-based National Oil Corporation (NOC). Its offices sit on the same street as the shuttered embassies of Saudi Arabia and the Netherlands as well as a branch of the Al-Jumhurriya state bank and a post office. Most embassies in Tripoli have been closed because of the unrest. In a statement on Monday, the NOC said there were no casualties among Mellitah's staff and only minor damage to the side of the building housing its offices. "This incident will not affect the operations of the company," it said. Nearby buildings including the bank were also damaged. Libya has two rival governments and several armed groups vying for control of the country and its oil wealth. After fleeing Tripoli in September 2014, Libya's internationally recognized government and parliament now operate out of the country's east. The Fajr Libya (Libya Dawn) coalition has established its own government and parliament in Tripoli.

Migrants Using Fake Syrian Passports to Enter EU, Says Frontex
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September 01/15/A market in fake Syrian passports has sprung up, particularly in Turkey, to help migrants and refugees enter the EU, the head of Europe's border agency Frontex said on Tuesday. "There are people who are in Turkey now who buy fake Syrian passports because they know Syrians get the right to asylum in all the member states of the European Union," Fabrice Leggeri told French radio station Europe 1. "People who use fake Syrian passports often speak Arabic. They may come from North Africa or the Middle East but they have the profile of economic migrants," he said. Leggeri said there was no evidence that fake passports had been used by potential terrorists to enter Europe. He repeated his call for additional EU border guards to help register migrants in Greece, one of the main entry points into Europe. "Faced with the influx, registration systems are overwhelmed. We have an idea of nationalities, but not a clear picture of who is entering and the real profile of these migrants."Mirroring recent comments from German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Leggeri said the failure to share the burden among EU members would lead to the return of closed borders across the continent. "The risk is growing every day. We are seeing more and more police patrols along interior borders (between EU countries)," he said. "If the external borders cannot be managed with solidarity between member states, there is a risk that each state retakes control of its national borders, which would not be more effective."

Clashes Erupt during Israeli Raid in West Bank
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September 01/15/Clashes erupted during an overnight Israeli raid to arrest an alleged Hamas member at a refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, leaving a border policeman and five Palestinians wounded, officials said Tuesday. The clashes that included gunfire lasted for hours at the city of Jenin in the northern West Bank and were among the most violent to occur there in recent years. Israel's military said in a statement that the raid was carried out to arrest a "senior Hamas operative"."During the activity, after repeated calls to surrender himself to the forces, security forces demolished the house in which the wanted terrorist was suspectedly hiding," it said. "A violent riot of hundreds of Palestinians erupted in the area. The crowd hurled rocks and Molotov cocktails at the forces. A border police officer was moderately injured." Israeli public radio said it was possible that the soldier had been injured when Israeli forces opened fire. Palestinian security sources and witnesses said that the clashes included exchanges of gunfire between protesters and security forces. They reported five Palestinians lightly wounded. Palestinian security officials said the house targeted in the raid belonged to Majdi Abu al-Hija, a Hamas official, who was arrested. They added that a militant from the radical Islamic Jihad group managed to escape during the raid.The camp where the raid occurred has been home to many Islamic Jihad and Hamas members and has been a flashpoint in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

White House fight to preserve Iran deal is won, Senator Ben Cardin
MICHAEL WILNER/J.Post/09/01/2015 /WASHINGTON -- By the end of the week, the White House will succeed in securing the number of Senate votes necessary to preserve the Iran nuclear accord through a vote of disapproval, Senator Ben Cardin of Maryland said on Tuesday. The top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, speaking to constituents at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, said a 32nd senator would endorse the deal by the end of the day. Senator Chris Coons of Delaware, seen as wavering in recent weeks, is expected to announce his intentions in a speech at 2:00 pm EST. "The president will have at least 32 committed Democrats on his side by the end of the day," Cardin said. "That number looks like it will clearly get to the 34 number by the end of the week so it looks pretty clear the president is going to have the support to sustain a veto." Before the event, Cardin granted an interview to a local radio station in which he bemoaned the fateful decision ahead. Congress will debate and vote on the deal later this month, near the end of a September 17 review period. Iran is given, under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action announced on July 14, "the green light to enrich at a pretty high level, legally," Cardin said, "dangerously close to breakout." The senator said he would announce his decision shortly.
US President Barack Obama needs only one third of one house of Congress to preserve the deal through a vote, and hopes to prevent a vote altogether by earning the support of 41 senators. That would allow Democrats to filibuster debate on the resolution.
Thus far, only two Senate Democrats have announced opposition to the deal: Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey and Chuck Schumer of New York. 31 of their colleagues have announced support, and 14 remain undecided.

Foreign Bomb Suspect Arrested at Thai-Cambodia Checkpoint
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September 01/15/Thailand's prime minister said a foreign man believed to be a "main suspect" in the Bangkok bombing was arrested Tuesday at a checkpoint on the Cambodian border, the second foreigner to be detained. The August 17 blast tore through a religious shrine in central Bangkok and killed 20 people, mostly ethnic Chinese tourists. Prayut Chan-O-Cha, who also heads the nation's junta, was asked by reporters to comment on rumors another person had been detained.
"It's true. He has been arrested at Sa Kaeo checkpoint," Prayut said, referring to the Thai side of a border crossing with Cambodia.Asked whether he is thought to be the person who planted the bomb at the Erawan shrine in Bangkok's busy Chidlom shopping district, he replied: "We are interrogating. He is a main suspect and a foreigner."The "important" suspect was arrested "this early morning" he said, adding he was "probably running away".The checkpoint is located at a bustling and seedy border town which is a transit route for smuggled goods between the two countries.The motive for the shrine attack-- Thailand's worst single mass-casualty attack -- remains shrouded in mystery. Suspicion has alternated between Thailand's bitter political rivals, organized criminal gangs, Islamist militants, rebels in the kingdom's strife-torn south and sympathizers of refugees from China's Uighur minority. In July Thailand deported 109 Uighurs to China, enraging supporters of the minority who allege they face torture and repression back home. Turkish protesters stormed the Thai consulate in Istanbul and forced it to close. The shrine is popular with ethnic Chinese visitors to Bangkok. The hunt for the perpetrators of the bomb blast has been characterized by confusing and at times contradictory statements from police and junta officials. But the tempo of the investigation has increased since the weekend when the first arrest was made. The foreigner was detained on Saturday at a flat in a Bangkok suburb, allegedly in possession of bomb-making paraphernalia and dozens of fake Turkish passports. He is in military custody but has not been publicly identified. Police have speculated that the attack was in retaliation for a crackdown on a major people-smuggling network. But analysts say crime alone was unlikely to be the motivating factor behind a bomb that brought such carnage. A junta spokeswoman said in a broadcast the ongoing interrogation of the foreigner detained Saturday had led to "the apprehension of additional suspects". The broadcast was made before the announcement by Prayut. Arrest warrants have been issued for several people including three unnamed males. The only named warrant is for a 26-year-old Thai Muslim woman called Wanna Suansan. Police say she rented a separate flat also in the city suburbs where bomb-making equipment was also found. They issued a sketch on Monday of an unknown male suspect believed to have rented the flat. Thai authorities confirmed Tuesday that Wanna is overseas but refused to say in which country. Late Monday AFP tracked down her number and a woman answering that name took the phone call, saying she was living in the Turkish city of Kayseri with her husband whose nationality she did not state. The number was for a Turkish mobile phone. In her phone interview Wanna denied involvement in the blast, saying she had not visited the flat where the bomb-making equipment was found for around a year. Instead, she said it had been rented to a friend of her husband. National police spokesman Prawut Thavornsiri told reporters Tuesday that officers had searched her parents' home in the southern province of Phang Nga. "Her parents said she was not there, she was abroad. We are coordinating for her to come talk to police," he said, without revealing her presumed whereabouts.

With Khobar bomber's arrest, Saudi Arabia deals blow to Iran
It was just another Iran Air flight to Beirut, almost fully booked, carrying two or three groups of pilgrims on their way back from visiting Shiite holy shrines in Iran. Friends and family awaited the passengers’ arrival — with one exception.
Ali Hashem/Al-monitor/September 01/15
Intelligence officials were waiting for Ahmed Ibrahim al-Mughassil, the man authorities blame for the 1996 bombing of US military barracks in Khobar, Saudi Arabia, near the Dhahran air base. The blast killed 19 US Air Force personnel and wounded 372. Mughassil is said to be the head of Saudi Hezbollah, also called Hezbollah al-Hejaz, a group that Saudi authorities accuse of being an Iranian arm in the country. As three men from Lebanon's intelligence branch watched, Mughassil, also known as Abu Omran, was "heading from the plane to the airport security booth to stamp his Iranian passport, which had been issued under a false name,” according to a Lebanese security source. The source revealed that none of the security personnel who arrested Mughassil knew who he was, yet “they knew he was a most-wanted fugitive.”“Everything was in place to make sure this operation was carried out with no mistakes,” the source said.
According to information acquired by Al-Monitor, the Aug. 7 operation was a joint effort that involved Lebanese, Saudi and US security. The intelligence part was mainly Saudi and American. “They provided the trusted Saudi information branch with the information, and they did the operation,” said the security source. On Aug. 15, also at Beirut's Rafik Hariri International Airport, another major intelligence-driven operation took place, this time by Lebanon’s General Security, the Hezbollah-trusted security apparatus. Radical cleric Ahmad al-Assir was arrested; he was using a forged Palestinian travel document and a pseudonym. Assir is suspected of being responsible for the killing of at least 10 Lebanese soldiers in June 2013, when clashes erupted in the town of Abra near the southern city of Sidon between him on one side and the Lebanese army and the Hezbollah-backed Resistance Brigade on the other.
“There's no link between the two arrests,” said the security source. "Assir isn't following the Saudi line — he is financed by another regional party. Since the battles of Abra in June 2013, he has become a liability to his backers." The security source explained that Mughassil cannot be compared to Assir in any way.“Mughassil’s arrest is a major under-the-belt hit by the Saudis to Iran; now we are waiting to see the response, if there will be any.”Hours after the arrest was announced Aug. 26, a statement by Hezbollah in Hijaz said, "We hold the Saudi regime and its proxy in Lebanon, the Future Movement, responsible for this cowardly act. We hereby call for the release of our leader and our detained brothers. We stress that the regime, through this crime, has opened a door that will bring them ongoing harm.”
Mughassil was interrogated after his arrest for a few hours by the information branch, and was later handed over to Saudi Arabia.
"The decision to hand over Mughassil to the Saudis came from Prime Minister Tammam Salam after consulting [Future Movement leader] Saad Hariri,” said a political source to Al-Monitor. “Salam didn't even know who Mughassil was. Many here in Beirut thought he was an al-Qaeda operative until the Saudis announced the news.”Saudi Arabia accused Iran of being behind the Khobar bombing, but Iran denied any involvement. There were also accusations that slain Lebanese Hezbollah military commander Imad Mughniyeh had a hand in the bombing. A third theory pointed to al-Qaeda, whose leader Osama bin Laden didn't confirm or deny responsibility when asked by veteran Palestinian British journalist Abdul Bari Atwan in 1996, according to Atwan.
Mughassil, born in 1967, is a Saudi national. He was the senior Saudi Hezbollah official interacting with the Iranians at the time of the bombing. US authorities believe that Iran directed Mughassil to identify US facilities in Saudi Arabia and that he began surveillance of the Khobar Towers facility and the nearby Dhahran air base nearby in 1994. According to the indictment issued in 2001 by the US Department of Justice, Mughassil made regular trips to Dhahran to direct surveillance and recruit Saudi Shiites for the attack.
The indictment said that the bomb was made by Lebanese Hezbollah and that Mughassil remained in contact with his Iranian handlers throughout the planning and implementation of the attack. Authorities believe Mughassil drove the truck containing the bomb up to a protective wall near the barracks and then detonated the bomb remotely. It generated an explosion equivalent to 20,000 pounds of TNT. In addition to the Americans casualties, dozens of Saudis and South Asian guest workers were injured. Mughassil was thought to have fled to Iran after the attack and his arrest at the Beirut airport now confirms this long-held suspicion.

Will Rouhani serve a second term?
Arash Karami/Al-monitor/September 01/15
Iran’s Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli caused a stir when he said that President Hassan Rouhani would serve a second term as president. When asked about the administration’s midterm scorecard and how many of his ministry’s plans have become operational, Fazli said, “This administration has not reached midterm yet, it’s only spent a quarter of its duration. Mr. Rouhani is to be president for eight years.”Fazli is a traditional conservative politician politically aligned with parliament Speaker Ali Larijani. His entrance into the Rouhani administration as interior minister, with one of the main functions being to implement elections, was disappointing to some Reformists, although it helped deepen ties between Rouhani and Larijani and the bodies they lead. The Reformist Etemaad published, “It’s unlikely that an individual like [Fazli], who entered the moderate administration under the conservative umbrella, does not know what his former political friends will interpret and infer from this one sentence. With the emphasis on such an issue, it shows that, at the least, officials from the administration do not want to keep their comments to themselves like they did before.”The article continued, “These comments might be a response to those groups who as of now are drawing lines to end the political life of Hassan Rouhani’s administration. … A message to the extremists that apparently after the administration’s success in foreign policy and the nuclear agreement have a common agenda to not allow this administration to exceed four years.”In criticism of Fazli’s comments, hard-line Raja News wrote, “The executive of the elections has stated the results of the 2017 elections.” The article continued, “By citing the interior minister’s latest comments, perhaps it is easier to understand the logic of the attacks on the Guardian Council from the officials in the administration.” On Aug. 20, Rouhani and the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Mohammad Ali Jaffari, clashed when the president suggested the Guardian Council’s role in the elections should be limited. The Guardian Council is the body that evaluates a candidate’s qualifications to run in the elections and is headed by hard-line Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati. Raja News continued, “It is not unlikely that the attacks on the Guardian Council is [part] of a larger puzzle to result in the engineering of the elections.” While the parliamentary and Assembly of Experts elections are six months away, there have been major announcements. A conservative union between the Islamic Coalition Party, Society of Devotees of the Islamic Revolution and the Endurance Front was announced. It is too early to tell if the union between a traditional Islamist group, a group that counted Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as its member and one led by hard-line Ayatollah Mohammad Taghi Mesbah Yazdi can remain together. Hojat al-Islam Morteza Agha-Tehrani, the secretary of the Endurance Front, said Aug. 31 that none of the three groups will present separate candidates. The newly formed Reformist group, the Union of Islamic Iran Party, elected Ali Shakouri-Rad as its secretary in its first meeting Aug. 20. At a news conference Aug. 31, Shakouri-Rad said that his group will work with all Reformist groups and would not consider any other Reformist group a competitor. Some media accounts reported that Shakouri-Rad was arrested after his news conference; however, Iranian news agencies reported that he went to court to answer questions.

Iranian clerics, filmmakers face off over religious movie
A correspondent in Tehran/Al-monitor/September 01/15
TEHRAN — The banning of a big-budget religious film has once again ignited controversy over freedom of speech in Iran’s cultural scene.
Following criticism by senior clerics, Iran’s Cinema Organization — which operates under the supervision of the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance — announced that “Rastakhiz” (Resurrection) won’t be screened. Directed by celebrated Iranian filmmaker Ahmad Reza Darvish, the film portrays parts of the life of the Prophet Muhammad’s grandson, Hussein. Hussein, the third imam in Shiite Islam, is revered for his and his followers’ revolt against Caliph Yazid, which ended with slaughter. This battle, marked by Shiites on Ashoura (the 10th day of the Islamic lunar month Muharram), has been a key symbol for Shiite revolutionaries both before and after Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution. The religious and political significance of Ashoura thus ignites sensitivities whenever it’s addressed.
The criticism of "Rastakhiz" centers on its depiction of Hussein’s half-brother Abbas, one of the principal martyrs of Ashoura. Senior clerics in the holy city of Qom, including Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi, Ayatollah Alavi Gorgani, Ayatollah Sobhani and Ayatollah Vahid Dastgerdi, have lashed out at how Abbas’ face is shown in the film. Of note, mainstream Shiite jurisprudence forbids reproduction of the faces of the 12 imams and their kin. However, such images are widely available and popular.
"Rastakhiz" made its debut at the Sacred Defense Museum in Tehran on July 13 and was set to be screened across the country July 15. However, on its opening day, hundreds of protesters close to the paramilitary Basij gathered outside the Ministry of Culture as well as Shekoofeh Cinema on Tehran’s Martyrs’ Square. In response, the ministry announced a halt to screenings, pending modifications demanded by the protesters. A Shekoofeh Cinema employee told Al-Monitor, “They were many. They were angry and were shouting slogans. They even wanted to break into the cinema, but the police prevented them. It was truly scary.”
With a production budget of 120 billion rials ($3.53 million), "Rastakhiz" is one of the most expensive films in the history of Iranian cinema. It has won eight awards and was named best film at the Fajr Film Festival, the most important cinematic event in Iran.
This isn’t the first time that there has been controversy over depictions of Abbas’ face. Celebrated Iranian director Davoud Mirbagheri once requested permission from clerics to show Abbas' face for his popular religious TV series, “Mokhtarnameh,” and was met with stern opposition. Indeed, prior to "Rastakhiz," the custom in Iranian cinema and television has been that faces of the 12 Shiite imams be shown as illuminations. This was the case in Mirbagheri’s TV series “Imam Ali,” which aired on Iranian state television in 1997, and also in his two later series “Tanhatarin Sardar” (The Loneliest General) and “Revayat-e-Eshgh” (Narration of Love), which respectively address the lives of the second (Hassan) and eighth (Reza/Ridha) Shiite imams.
Shiites consider the imams and Lady Fatimah, the daughter of Muhammad and mother of Hussein, as infallible. It is perhaps for this reason that depictions of their faces are frowned upon. However, some intellectuals and clerics dispute the notion that Islam prohibits the latter. In an interview with Al-Monitor, Iranian political dissident and cleric Mohsen Kadivar criticized the ban on "Rastakhiz": “The reasons given by critics lack all credibility according to Islamic jurisprudence. The portrayal of figures from the early period of Islam … has no legal prohibition in Islamic law. The ban on depictions of the prophet is because the consensus among Muslims does not tolerate such things. As for the depiction of imams, Shiite Muslims claim to have consensus among themselves. However, both these consensuses are questionable and full of ifs and buts.” Even if these prohibitions are recognized, their extension to other Islamic figures is questioned. Kadivar pointed to Abbas, saying, “Portrayals of the gallantry of these beloved religious heroes will promote religion and strengthen the faith of the believers.”
Every year, the faces of Hussein and other Islamic figures are depicted in ta’ziyeh (street theaters) across Iran, where the tragedy of Ashoura is re-enacted. Yet, no senior cleric has criticized this. Indeed, Kadivar told Al-Monitor, “What is the difference between these street theaters and a film for the cinema or television?”The approach adopted by conservative clerics and some Basij members has thus raised speculation about a political dimension to their criticism of "Rastakhiz."
For instance, in the 2007 series “Masih, Rouh Khoda” ("Christ, Spirit of God"), produced by Nader Talebzadeh — who is close to the Principlists — the face of Jesus Christ was depicted. However, conservative clerics and other Principlist forces raised no objections. Talebzadeh’s series was notably later screened full-feature length in cinemas. It appears that the past of the film's director may play a role in the debacle surrounding the film. Darvish directed a campaign video for 2009 presidential hopeful Mir Hossein Mousavi, who has been under house arrest since the unrest following that vote. Darvish is also part of the group of filmmakers who have continuously supported the reform movement.
In an interview with Al-Monitor, Reformist political activist and journalist Hossein Naghashi said the main driving force of the criticism of the film “is not religious concerns, but politics, pursuit of power and undermining of rivals. If the concern was religious, many of the [previous] conservative government’s actions would also have raised similar issues.” Meanwhile, prominent University of Tehran professor Sadegh Zibakalam has penned an open letter in which he criticizes the ban on "Rastakhiz." Addressing the film’s critics, Zibakalam asks whether the same ire would be raised had it been directed by filmmakers associated with Principlist and hard-line forces: “Don’t address your answer to this question to me. Look into the eyes of Ahmad Reza Darvish and answer him.”
In late July, a Ministry of Culture spokesman told reporters that the plan — in coordination with the director — is to alter controversial scenes with the use of light effects and then re-screen it. This is while Darvish said no changes will be made to "Rastakhiz" after it was taken off screens. No new date has so far been announced for the film’s return to cinemas. In the meantime, the moderate government’s retreat in the face of conservative pressure has not been left without criticism, including from Darvish.
Indeed, it seems that the maneuvering against "Rastakhiz" is a continuation of efforts to undermine President Hassan Rouhani’s social and cultural agenda, which emphasizes openness. A political analyst in Tehran who preferred to remain anonymous told Al-Monitor, “Many believe that after the signing of the nuclear agreement [with six world powers], Rouhani plans to implement serious reforms related to freedom of speech. I think these protests are a severe message from the extremists that such reforms will not be tolerated.”

Iranian Supreme Leader Khamenei In Mid-August 2015: 'The U.S. Is The Perfectly Clear Embodiment Of The Concept Of The Enemy'; 'We Must Combat The Plans Of The Arrogance With Jihad For The Sake Of Allah'
MEMRI/September 1, 2015 Special Dispatch No.6146
On August 17, 2015, just over a month after the announcement of the JCPOA in Vienna, Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said in a speech at a conference held by the Iranian Shi'ite Ahl Al-Bayt organization that the U.S. is the embodiment of the enemy of the Islamic peoples and of Iran. It must be fought with military, cultural, economic, and political jihad, he said, adding that Islamic Iran is not interested in reconciling with it. He further claimed that the U.S. is attempting to divide the Islamic world into Shi'ite and Sunni camps that will wage a religious war against each other, and in this way gain it will be able to gain control over the peoples of the region.[1]
Iran, he stressed, stands behind the resistance axis, opposes the division of Syria and Iraq, and will continue to support anyone who fights Israel.
Following are excerpts from a report on the speech that was posted on Khamenei's website (Leader.ir):
"[Khamenei said:] 'We must combat the plans of the arrogance [i.e. the West, led by the U.S.] with jihad for the sake of Allah.' The Leader pointed to 'America's efforts to exploit the results of the nuclear talks and exert economic, political, and cultural influence in Iran' and to the plots of the power-hungry order aimed at sowing conflict and gaining influence in the region. The Leader called for 'adopting the correct plans in order to wisely and consistently fight this plot, in an offense against it and a defense against it.'
"[Khamenei said:] 'Jihad for the sake of God does not only mean military conflict, but also means cultural, economic, and political struggle. The clearest essence of jihad for the sake of God today is to identify the plots of the arrogance in the Islamic region, especially the sensitive and strategic West Asian region. The planning for the struggle against them should include both defense and offense.
"[He continued:] 'The plots of the arrogance in the region have continued for a century, but [its] pressure and plotting increased after Iran's Islamic Revolution [1979], in order to prevent [this Revolution] from spreading to other countries. For 35 years, the regime in Iran has been subjected to threats, sanctions, security pressure, and various political plots. The Iranian nation has grown accustomed to this pressure. After the Islamic awakening movement blossomed in recent years in North Africa [i.e. the Arab Spring], the enemy greatly stepped up its plots in the West Asian region because of its panic.
"'The enemies thought that they could suppress the Islamic awakening movement, but it cannot be suppressed. It continues, and sooner or later it will prove itself as reality.
"'The power-hungry order led by the United States of America is the perfectly clear embodiment of "the concept of the enemy." America has no human morality. It carries out evil crimes under the guise of flowery statements and smiles. The enemy's plot is two pronged: creating conflict and [exerting] influence. [The enemy sows conflict] among governments, and, worse, among the nations. At this stage, they are using the Shi'a and the Sunna to create conflict among the nations. Britain is an expert in sowing conflict; the Americans are its apprentices.
"'Establishing violent despicable criminal takfiri circles, which the Americans have acknowledged establishing, is the main means of sowing conflict, ostensibly religious conflict, among [the Muslim] nations. Sadly, some innocent and ignorant Muslims have been fooled by this plot, and have been tricked by the enemy and fallen into its trap. Syria is an obvious example of this. When Tunisia and Egypt, with Islamic slogans, ousted their infidel governments, the Americans and Zionists decided to use this formula to eliminate the countries of the resistance, turning their attention to Syria. After the events in Syria began, some ignorant Muslims were tricked by the enemy and dragged Syria to its current situation. What is happening today in Iraq, Syria, Yemen, and other countries, which some people insist on calling "a religious war," is in no way a war of religion [i.e. Sunni vs. Shi'ite], but a political war. The most important duty today is to remove these conflicts.
"'I have explicitly stated that Iran reaches out in friendship to all the Islamic governments in the region, and that we have no problem with Muslim governments. Iran has friendly relations with most of its neighbors. Some still have conflicts with us; they are stubborn, and carry out nefarious acts, but Iran aspires to good relations with its neighbors and with the Islamic governments, especially with the governments in the region. The basis for Iran's conduct comprises the principles laid out by Imam Khomeini, which he used to bring about victory for the Islamic Revolution, and he led it to a phase of stability.
"'One of the principles of the [Islamic] regime [in Iran] is to be "forceful against the disbelievers, merciful amongst themselves [Koran 48:29]." On the basis of Imam Khomeini's lesson, we do not wish to reconcile with the arrogance, but we aspire to friendship with our Muslim brothers. When we support [any of] the oppressed, we ignore the religious element; we provide the same aid to our Shi'ite brothers in Lebanon and to our Sunni brothers in Gaza. We see the Palestinian issue as the chief issue of the Islamic world.
"'There must be no exacerbation of the conflict in the Islamic world. I oppose any conduct, even by Shi'ite circles, that creates conflict. I condemn the insults against the sanctities of the Sunna.
"'The U.S. has aspired for decades to infiltrate the region and regain its lost reputation. The Americans wish to infiltrate Iran with the [JCPOA] agreement, whose fate in Iran and in the U.S. is still unknown. But we have decisively blocked this path, and we will do anything to keep them from infiltrating Iran economically, politically, and culturally.
"'Iran's regional policy is the opposite of America's. While [America] seeks to divide the countries of the region and to create statelets that obey it, this will not happen. Some were amazed by statements I made in the past about America's attempt to divide Iraq, but today the Americans themselves honestly acknowledge this. The Americans' clear goal is to divide Iraq, and, if they can, Syria as well. But the territorial integrity of the countries of the region – Iraq and Syria – is very important to Iran.
"'Iran supports the resistance in the region, including the Palestinian resistance, and we will support anyone who struggles against Israel and strikes at the Zionist regime. Iran's chief policy is a struggle against America's policy of division and its sowing of conflict. We do not recognize the Shi'a that is based in London and works in the service of the arrogance. "'In contrast to unfounded claims, Iran is not interfering in Bahrain and Yemen, but will continue to support the oppressed. The massacre of oppressed Yemenis and the destruction of that country must be strictly condemned. Promoting some [Saudi] political goals via foolish methods results in ongoing crimes against the Yemeni people.
"'There are also painful events in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Muslims must be wise and vigilant, and thus they will solve these problems.
"'The Islamic Radio and Television Union [organization in Iran] is an important center in the struggle against the dangerous empire of the sophisticated American-Zionist media mafia. We must strengthen and grow this movement...
"'The future of the region belongs to the Muslim nations. Islam's might is clear and will be maintained because of the presence of the fighting men and women.'"[2]
Endnotes:
[1] It should be noted that in the main Friday sermon in Tehran on August 28, 2015, prayer leader Ayatollah Kazem Seddiqi advised the officials in the government of Iranian President Hassan Rohani not to be misled by the West and the U.S. following the JCPOA, because they are "cannibals, liver-eaters, and anti-religion." Fars, Iran, August 29, 2015.
[2] Leader.ir, August 18, 2015.

Palestinians: Turning Refugee Camps into Weapons Warehouses
Khaled Abu Toameh/Gatestone Institute/September 1, 2015
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/6417/ain-al-hilweh
*Most of the Palestinian camps in Lebanon and Syria have long served as large weapons warehouses controlled by various militias belonging to different groups. This has been happening while the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), which is formally in charge of the refugee camps, continues to look the other way.
*The 120,000 Palestinians living in Ain al-Hilweh are "unfortunate" because they are not being targeted by Israel. Otherwise, there would have been an international outcry and the UN Security Council would have held an emergency session to condemn Israel and call for an immediate cessation of hostilities. Instead, Ain al-Hilweh may soon fall into the hands of Al-Qaeda and Islamic State terrorists.
*The Syrian Army has also been dropping barrel bombs on the camp almost on a weekly basis. But because Israel cannot be blamed, Palestinians killing Palestinians is not something that the international media and community are interested in.
*Instead of admitting their responsibility for turning the camps into military bases, Palestinian leaders often prefer to blame others, preferably Israel, for the plight of their people.
Palestinians are once again paying a heavy price for allowing terror groups and armed gangs to operate freely inside their communities. But this is not happening in a refugee camp in the West Bank or the Gaza Strip. Rather, it is taking place in Lebanon, one of three Arab countries that host hundreds of thousands of Palestinians.
This explains why the international media and human rights organizations have shown little interest in what is happening inside the largest Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon, Ain al-Hilweh.
For the past two weeks, dozens of Palestinian families from Ain al-Hilweh have fled their homes after fierce clashes that erupted between Fatah militiamen and terrorists belonging to a radical Islamist gang affiliated with Al-Qaeda and Islamic State.
The UN Security Council has clearly not heard of the fighting in Ain al-Hilweh. That is why it has not even issued a statement expressing "concern" over the plight of the Palestinians in the camp.
The international media, for its part, has thus far shown little interest in the story. Why? The answer, as usual, is simple: No Israeli involvement.
The 120,000 Palestinians living in Ain al-Hilweh are "unfortunate" because they are not being targeted by Israel. Otherwise, there would have been an international outcry and the UN Security Council would have held an emergency session to condemn Israel and call for an immediate cessation of hostilities.
But, because Israel cannot be blamed, Palestinians killing Palestinians is not something that the international media and community are interested in.
The clashes in Ain al-Hilweh have so far resulted in the killing of four Fatah militiamen. At least 35 people were wounded in the fighting, which has been described as the worst in years. According to eyewitnesses, the rival parties have used various types of weapons to attack each other, including rocket-propelled grenades.
The four dead men have been identified as Fadi Khdeir, Ala Othman, Rabi Mashour and Hussein al-Saleh.
Smoke from explosions rises from Ain al-Hilweh refugee camp in Lebanon, Aug. 25, 2015. (Image source: Arab Tomorrow video screenshot)
The latest round of fighting in Ain al-Hilweh began after Islamist terrorists tried unsuccessfully to assassinate Abu Ashraf al-Armoushi, a senior Fatah security commander. Earlier, the terrorists managed to kill another top Fatah official, Talal al-Urduni.
Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon have always been considered "extraterritorial" zones, managed exclusively by various armed groups. The Lebanese police and army have no role in maintaining law and order inside the camps. As in most similar situations, where armed clashes have erupted inside refugee camps, all that is left for the Lebanese Army to do is monitor the situation from a distance.
In 2007, however, the Lebanese Army was forced to intervene to stop armed clashes at another refugee camp, Nahr al-Bared. Dozens of people, many of them soldiers, were killed in the fighting, which also resulted in the near destruction of the camp. Nearly 30,000 Palestinians were displaced, and Nahr al-Bared remains a closed military zone.
Residents of Ain al-Hilweh are worried that they will meet the same fate as Yarmouk refugee camp in Syria. Yarmouk was once home to some 200,000 Palestinians. Today, the number of the residents has dropped to 12,000. Hundreds of Yarmouk residents have been killed and injured in fierce fighting between rival militias during the past four years. The Syrian Army has also been dropping barrel bombs on the camp almost on a weekly basis.
Yarmouk, Nahr al-Bared and Ain al-Hilweh continue to pay an extremely heavy price for agreeing to turn their camps into military bases. Most of the Palestinian camps in Lebanon and Syria have long served as large weapons warehouses controlled by various militias belonging to different groups. This has been happening while the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), which is formally in charge of the refugee camps, continues to look the other way.
As the fighting in Ain al-Hilweh shows, the Palestinians have once again fallen victim to what many of them describe as the "chaos of weapons." It is this type of anarchy that allowed Hamas to expel the Palestinian Authority from the Gaza Strip in 2007. Refugee camps in the West Bank and Gaza Strip are also full of weapons and gunmen belonging to various groups, including Fatah and Hamas.
Maher al-Shawish, a Palestinian writer and political analyst from Lebanon, says that Ain al-Hilweh is now facing a serious humanitarian crisis due to the ongoing fighting. "If you see the destruction inside the camp, you will realize that it is facing a real catastrophe that needs to be stopped immediately," al-Shawish said. "The clashes are disgraceful for the Palestinian cause."
But instead of admitting their responsibility for turning the camps into military bases, Palestinian leaders often prefer to blame others, preferably Israel, for the plight of their people.
Ain al-Hilweh may soon fall into the hands of Al-Qaeda and Islamic State terrorists. Yet instead of facing this threat and calling on the international community to assist in foiling the terrorists' plan, Gen. Subhi Abu Arab, a top Fatah security commander in Lebanon, chose to hold Israel responsible. Needless to say, Israel has nothing to do with the latest round of fighting in Ain al-Hilweh or the "chaos of weapons" inside Palestinian refugee camps.
Still, Palestinian officials such as Gen. Abu Arab never miss an opportunity to lay the blame at Israel's door. They also continue to lie to their people by claiming that Israel is behind Islamic State. Referring to the clashes in Ain al-Hilweh, Gen. Abu Arab had no problem explaining that, "This is a Zionist scheme to eliminate the right of return, displace the Palestinians and stir trouble inside the camp by using a fifth column."
As long as Palestinian and Arab leaders continue to believe conspiracy theories and refuse to wake up to the reality of the dangerous situation inside the refugee camps, the Palestinians of Ain al-Hilweh, like those of Yarmouk, sadly will face a bleak future.

The "Cat and Mouse" Problem of Hunger Strikes in Prison
Paul Leslie/Gatestone Institute/September 1, 2015
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/6416/israel-hunger-strike
The European Court of Human Rights ruled that in situations where hunger strikes are organized as a means of pressuring the relevant authorities into releasing detainees, a refusal to comply with the demands of the hunger-strikers does not constitute a violation of Article 2 -- provided that there is a regulatory system in place guaranteeing all the necessary measures are taken to monitor and manage these situations, including unrestricted access to appropriate medical care.
Israel has the benefit of the European Court rulings to refer to, as well as the provisions many fellow democracies have on their statute books concerning the membership of proscribed groups and the criteria for proscribing them -- in the case of less liberal democracies like France, they are more wide-ranging than those applied in Israel. Israel has a dilemma. Is it better when confronted with hunger-striking "activists" belonging to terror groups to let them starve themselves to death or not to let them starve themselves to death, even if it means feeding them by force.
In Britain, for instance, decisions about force-feeding in prisons have in general been governed by legislation that relates to the medical profession -- and in particular those laws which pertain to mental health and mental incapacity -- as well as being influenced by considerations linked to the criminalisation of aiding and abetting suicide. There has been nothing on the statute book specifically relating to hunger-striking detainees with the exception of the Prisoners (Temporary Discharge for Ill-Health) Act. This was adopted in 1913 by way of response to a specific set of historical circumstances. Suffragettes who were imprisoned for public order offenses and related illegal activities had embarked on hunger strikes.
The law, given the popular nickname of the Cat and Mouse Act, allowed hunger-striking prisoners, whose fasting had placed them at risk of death, to be temporarily discharged. Once their health was deemed to have been restored, they were to be recalled to prison to complete their sentences. In a suffragette-related case, Leigh v Gladstone, of 1909, it had been held that the Home Office had a duty to preserve the lives of prisoners. Even after the passage of the 1961 Suicide Act, the management of hunger strikes in British prisons was largely dictated by the fear that allowing fasting prisoners to die might be considered aiding and abetting suicide. Consequently, force-feeding prisoners when considered medically essential continued to be the general practice.
Force-feeding, then and now.
This state of affairs changed after the statement in House of Commons by Roy Jenkins on 17 July 1974, in connection with the hunger striking Price sisters: "The doctor's obligation is to the ethics of his profession and to his duty at common law; he is not required as a matter of prison practice to feed a prisoner artificially against the prisoner's will."
Henceforth, policy in the management of hunger strikes was no longer uniform and became more complex. (Australia is still influenced by British legislation and case law in this area.)
While French law upholds the right of prisoners not to be submitted to any medical treatment to which full and informed consent has not been given, in accordance with Article D. 362 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, it also permits force-feeding under medical supervision in situations where it has been determined by independent medical professionals that there has been such a deterioration in the physical condition of the hunger strikers that there is an immediate risk to their lives, in accordance with Article D. 364.
According to a ruling issued by the French Conseil d'État on August 16, 2004, in cases where there is an opportunity to do so, the physicians concerned must make all the necessary efforts to inform reluctant patients of the consequences of their decision to refuse treatment.
As far as the United States is concerned, cases involving force-feeding -- which has never been found to be unconstitutional in cases where there is an immediate threat to life -- have been considered at both federal and state level.
There have been, and continue to be, divergences in the ways different states manage hunger strikes in penal institutions.
Germany has specific legal provisions directly addressing the situations in which force-feeding might be carried out -- whether in prisons or in institutions where there are patients suffering from some forms of dementia, or from conditions which temporarily present as dementia.
In 1999 Muharrem Horoz, a sometimes violent opponent of the Turkish government, was placed in preventive detention by the Turkish authorities. He had been arrested for involvement in subversive activities against the Turkish state and various terrorist acts, including involvement in a bomb attack against the governor of Çankin. In 2001, to protest high security Turkish prisons that, instead of dormitories, accommodated cells that held one-to-three people, Horoz embarked upon a series of hunger strikes. He was hospitalized several times; but after his application for a release was rejected on the grounds that he had access to medical treatment, his hunger strikes culminated in his death on August 3, 2001.
His mother claimed that his right to life, guaranteed under Article 2 of the European Convention of Human Rights, had been violated. She petitioned the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). But its ruling of 31 March 2009, Affaire Horoz c. Turquie (petition 1639/03), confirmed that a majority of the judges found not only was it impossible to establish a causal link between Horoz's death and the refusal of the authorities to release him, but that, by ensuring that the detainee had full uninterrupted access to medical care and to any treatment deemed necessary, dispensed by fully qualified medical professionals, the Turkish state had satisfied its obligation to sustain him.
The ECtHR ruled that in situations where hunger strikes are organized as a means of pressuring the relevant authorities into releasing detainees, a refusal to comply with the hunger-strikers' demands does not constitute a violation of Article 2 -- provided that there is a regulatory system in place guaranteeing all the necessary measures are taken to monitor and manage these situations, including unrestricted access to appropriate medical care.
The Court determined that Horoz's decision had been made freely, without any constraint, and that he was in full possession of his mental faculties, so that the Turkish authorities had the right to accept Horoz's refusal of medical intervention, even if his refusal led to his death.
Bernard Rappaz is a repeat offender and serial hunger striker who has been imprisoned more than once for a number of offenses, including fraudulent activities and drug trafficking. On 20 March 2010, he began a hunger strike to protest, he said, the excessive severity of his prison sentence -- five years, eight months – as well as the criminalization of the use and sale of cannabis. After being temporarily discharged by the authorities -- for fifteen days in May 2010, during which time he ceased his hunger strike and was provided with the all the medical care required -- he was returned to prison, where he resumed his hunger strike; but this time the authorities refused to consider any further temporary release. They instead upheld the principle -- given legal force in Article 92 of the Swiss penal code -- that prison sentences should be served without interruption, except in exceptional circumstances.
Rappaz was allowed to exhaust all the avenues of legal appeal against this decision, and several doctors were consulted by the penal authorities on this matter. Rappaz, in detention, continued to receive constant medical supervision -- whether in his cell, or in hospital. When his hunger strike had finally weakened him to the extent that he was at risk of death, and he had been informed by qualified professionals of all the medical consequences of his hunger strike, the decision was made at the beginning of November to feed him, despite the opposition to force-feeding that had been expressed by several doctors. On 24 December 2010, he ended his hunger strike.
In a ruling by the ECtHR dated 26 March 2013, Bernard Rappaz contre la Suisse (petition 73175/10), a majority found that there were no grounds to condemn the Swiss authorities. Unlike other cases of force-feeding, where the rights of petitioners "not to be subjected to cruel or inhuman and degrading treatment" had been found to have been violated, the Swiss ruling found that the decision to feed Rappaz forcibly had been made in response to an immediate threat to his life, solely to satisfy a clear medical necessity and not to maintain discipline, or to break the will of the prisoner, or any other non-medical reason. Moreover, they ruled, the medical means to save his life did not inflict unnecessary or disproportionate suffering.[1]
Currently, Israeli authorities entrusted with the detention of potential or actual murderers belonging to terror groups whose ultimate aim is Israel's destruction, have recently been faced with same painful "Cat and Mouse" decision as European countries: whether to allow hunger strikers to fast to death, give in to their demands, or force-feed them. Israel has the benefit of being able to refer to the ECtHR rulings. The rulings apply both in cases of prisoners convicted in regular criminal proceedings, and also in cases of security detainees against whom it is judged not (yet) advisable to present evidence, in order not to jeopardise intelligence contacts.
There are plenty of arguments that can and should be used to defend Israel from any unjust attacks directed against it regarding its treatment of hunger strikers.
It is also important to refer to the provisions many fellow democracies have on their statute books concerning the membership of proscribed groups and the criteria for proscribing them. In the case of more illiberal democracies like France -- which allows for the banning of groups rightly or wrongly deemed racist, as well as having specific statutes that punish severely its equivalent of "criminal conspiracy" ("association de malfaiteurs") where terrorism is involved -- they are more wide-ranging than those applied in Israel.
*Paul Leslie is an independent journalist living in London. He has degrees from Exeter College, Oxford University and the Sorbonne, where he received a doctorate.
[1] An analysis by Yonah Jeremy Bob, published by the Jerusalem Post on 17 June 2014, shortly before the adoption of a new law -- incorporating all the necessary safeguards, both medical and non-medical and specifically permitting and regulating the force-feeding of -- highlights the ethical or moral issues raised when decisions are made either to order the force-feeding of detainees or to allow them to fast without intervention, even if this leads to their deaths. The article also discusses the conflicting principles involved, and gives examples of the policies adopted by the governments of various democratic states to tackle the challenges of politically motivated hunger strikes.

The awakening and comeback of the Arab Spring
Jamal Khashoggi/Al Arabiya/September 01/15
The Iraqi people restored the image of the Arab Spring after it faded beneath the rubble and victims of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Iran’s barrel-bombs, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), and the war on the Muslim Brotherhood. The Arab Spring embodies the right to live decently. This is what the people of Iraq have called for clearly. These are the same masses who once chose sectarianism, who voted for former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and his State of Law coalition, and endured corruption and poor services in a rich country for a whole decade. They had enough, for the same reasons Tunisians, Egyptians, Yemenis, Syrians and Libyans revolted five years ago. They did not differentiate between Shiites and Sunnis, between liberals and Brotherhood members.
They did not bring up back then the debate between a civil state and religious state. They only demanded decent living, good jobs, clean neighborhoods, electricity, education, health, representative and accountable government, and a humble, elected leader. Unfortunately, no such things happened as counterrevolutions prevailed and people became angry.
Tyranny is bad anywhere, but an Arab dictator is the worst
The Lebanese people no longer fear the Syrian war spilling over, and so do not have to overlook the absence and inefficacy of their government. They have taken to the streets, fed up of all the politicians, liberal and religious, those in and out of government. Will the next wave of anger in the Arab Spring uproot everyone? People might bear tyranny for a long period out of fear. However, an outburst can occur unpredictably, at which time a leader will believe that it is mere exaggeration influenced by the propaganda of enemies and foreign conspiracies, and that the people believe in him and his wisdom. However, these people will not endure poverty, hunger, constant power outages, the smell of accumulated garbage, the late payment of salaries, unemployment and high prices while politicians and army officers live in bliss.
Arab tyranny
Tyranny is bad anywhere, but an Arab dictator is the worst. For him, governance is the art of controlling and monopolizing all the benefits. He knows and cares nothing about proper governance. Thousands were killed or disappeared during the reign of Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, who pretended to save the country from communists. Despite his acts of injustice and oppression, he performed a miracle for Chile’s economy. He was smart enough to let a specialist handle the economy, turning it from a sterile totalitarian one to a productive market economy. The Arab dictator is ruthless and does not want any blessing. The only important thing to him is his longevity. During the last few years, we have witnessed conflicts, civil wars and biased media motivated by hatred, fear, sectarianism and partisanship.
All of that was planned. The tyrant does not want to hear about decent living, employment, clean streets, pride or dignity because he is incapable of providing them. He only promises stability and security.
If he is absent, chaos will prevail. Terrorism serves him and encourages him implicitly. Media affiliated to him remind citizens of terrorism day and night, in a bid to make them accept his violence. He is necessary to protect the state that terrorism wants to tear apart. Anyone who remains silent or presents another opinion is a terrorist who deserves to die. This dirty tactic will work for one or two years, even a decade, but it will inevitably collapse. It is happening today in Iraq. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi is trying to save what can be saved. He is backed by cleric Ali al-Sistani and a group of Iraqi politicians. They might have been convinced that the anger of their Shiite voters could bring them all down, not just Maliki. They were all his accomplices once. Iraqis awakened. Will others do the same?

Abandoning Hope: Obama’s Betrayal of Syria
Evan Barrett/Al Arabiya/September 01/15
This piece is co-authored by Evan Barrett and Tyler Jess Thompson.
President Obama's diplomatic "breakthroughs" are achieved at the cost of Arab lives and sectarian escalation. As they lobby Congress and the American people on the advantages of the nuclear accord with Iran, the President and his allies have returned again and again to a central theme: “It was this deal or another intractable war in the Middle East.”This attitude of appeasement – here expressed toward the world’s foremost sponsor of terror -- did not begin with the Iran negotiations. The President has always wanted to cast himself as a peacemaker; a central tenet of this undertaking has been to loudly announce his intention to retreat, and then deem it the only responsible path. Whether negotiating an ineffectual chemical weapons handover from the Assad regime, or dealing with Tehran, this is what the President’s reported foreign policy credo, “don’t do stupid s***,” has looked like in practice.
Obama has sought to end our major interventions, hoping that responsible regional players will assert themselves. Popularly, the No Stupid S*** approach reduced troop levels in Afghanistan, aspired for zero combat troops in Iraq, and took a cautious posture towards Middle Eastern conflicts post-Libya. The approach has also broadcasted to all actors in the region that military options are, in-fact, off the table. This amputation of American military influence for its own sake has vastly destabilized the region to the measurable benefit of the Taliban, ISIS, Al Qaeda, and Iran. Wars do not end because America leaves the battlefield.
With his concessions in the Iran deal along with his feckless abandonment of his redline in Syria, Obama has done anything but avoid war. Instead, cynically, he has simply created a measure of distance in the publics’ mind between his own actions and the suffering and violence that still engulf the region. This is about optics, not peace. The President has regularly utilized the straw man that his critics suggest boots on the ground in Syria, a request no Syrian has ever made. To occupy a productive role in the region would involve political risk and ownership of a complicated conflict, and require challenging a freshly courted pariah state. Despite these complexities, he first move towards a real policy could also be a simple one, as simple as shooting down one regime helicopter the next time it tries to drop its deadly payload on civilians of a Damascus suburb, as the regime did on August 16, killing at least 100 civilians. As noted by Ken Roth in the New York Times earlier this Summer, it is Assad's vicious barrel-bombs, and not ISIS, that are the main cause of civilian death and displacement in Syria. To date, there has been no response to demonstrate that America is still capable of some proportional response to ghastly violence that deliberately targets civilians. Instead of leadership, Obama has chosen abdication, and it is paid for in Syrian and Iraqi blood.
Symbolic pageants, made-for-TV toughness
This supposedly circumspect approach has increased violence and instability throughout the Middle East. The most “kinetic” aspect of the President’s approach to ISIS – in Syria only, and not Iraq - is aerial assaults. This “strategy” hits targets of questionable value, and certainly kills civilians who already feel abandoned, or far worse, by their own government and the international community. There is no reliable evidence that the bombings have degraded ISIS or helped to stabilize the conflicts in Iraq and Syria. They are symbolic pageants, made-for-TV toughness. For example, the heaviest U.S. bombing runs were made in the small city of Kobani, a border town that was of dubious importance to ISIS, but for a time became the media centerpiece of America’s confrontation with the Islamic State.
This attitude of appeasement – here expressed toward the world’s foremost sponsor of terror -- did not begin with the Iran negotiations
Another element of America’s Syria non-policy is the rightly derided “Train and Equip” (or T&E) program, which Defense Secretary Ashton Carter revealed to congress had only produced 60 graduates. That number is now a bit lower, as al-Qaeda affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra kidnapped several of these recruits days after they entered Syria, and more have now been killed fighting the group. The American trainees themselves have also been vocal that they feel abandoned by Washington. Administration officials, who had been warned of this probable outcome by our organizations and others, apparently told journalists they “did not anticipate” attacks on their trainees from Nusra. This seems odd given that Nusra had already successfully routed two U.S.-backed groups, Harakat Hazzam and the Syrian Revolutionaries Front, in Idlib last fall. The U.S. eventually took the face-saving measure of bombing Jabhat al-Nusra as they attacked more U.S. backed fighters, but this will not protect these recruits in the long-term. The few dozen men trained and equipped by the United States have been sent into a war-zone as cannon-fodder, neither equipped nor sufficiently supported to do anything but offer the President more evidence that Syria cannot be saved.
The main enemy of the Syrian people remains Bashar Assad, and this means that even potential allies will meet our trainees with suspicion. After all, one reason the number of T&E recruits is so low is that they are required to make an impossible oath committing to not use American assistance to fight the Assad regime. The New Syrian Force’s inevitable demise may amount to a Syrian Bay of Pigs. The crucial difference, when the rest of these men meet their inevitable and grisly fates, will be that our pawns are Arab-Muslims, and thus less likely to elicit much outrage or media coverage. What are 60 Syrian lives, even dying at our behest, to a President and a public who watched sanguine as hundreds of thousands choked to death on gas, gasped their last breaths crushed beneath rubble, or were raped and tortured in underground prisons?
When Obama ends his presidency, it is easy to imagine him standing on an aircraft carrier, in a strange inversion of our former president’s most idiotic, iconic act, under a banner that reads not “Mission Accomplished” but “No New Wars.” Below the banner, the bodies will stretch further than the eye can see.
**Evan Barrett is the Deputy Director of the Syrian Emergency Task Force. He last lived in Syria in 2010.
Tyler Jess Thompson is an international lawyer and the Policy Director of United for a Free Syria.

Obama: Israel will remain more powerful than Iran
Yitzhak Benhorin/Ynetnews/09.01.15
US president reassures critics in recent interview with Jewish-American publication, saying allies will maintain military superiority in Middle East.
WASHINGTON - US President Barack Obama continued in attempts at reassuring critics over a recent nuclear deal signed with Iran, telling the Forward in an interview published on Monday that Israel, the US and Gulf States would maintain military superiority over the Islamic Republic for decades to come. The president said even after the nuclear deal ends in a decade, "They would still be subject to what's called the additional protocol - a whole range of inspection mechanisms that are in place so that we would know if they were dashing for a bomb." Obama said that future presidents will retain a military option to deal with a nuclear Iran, saying, "They will still be a military power that is far weaker than the United States - and for that matter, will be weaker that Israel."
Obama was asked in the interview with the major Jewish-American publication whether it hurt him personally when people say he's anti-Semitic.
"Oh, of course," Obama said. "And there's not a smidgeon of evidence for it, other than the fact that there have been times when I've disagreed with a particular Israeli government's position on a particular issue."The president added, though, that he's "probably more offended when I hear members of my administration who themselves are Jewish being attacked. You saw this historically sometimes in the African-American community, where there's a difference on policy and somebody starts talking about, 'Well, you're not black enough,' or 'You're selling out.' And that, I think, is always a dangerous place to go." Obama didn't mention any specific critics or targets by name. Asked to whom the president was referring, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest on Monday mentioned former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee's charge that the nuclear deal was like "marching the Israelis to the door of the oven," a reference to the Holocaust. Earnest added: "It's certainly not the only example of the kind of political rhetoric that certainly the president and others find objectionable."
Obama's Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew, who is Jewish, was heckled this summer at a Jewish-themed conference in New York when he defended the nuclear deal and spoke of the administration's support for Israel. Dan Shapiro, the US ambassador to Israel, has received "threatening letters related to the Iran deal," according to a US official, who was not authorized to discuss the issue and spoke only on condition of anonymity.
Obama, in the Forward interview, said that while those who care about Israel have an obligation to be honest about what they think, "you don't win the debate by suggesting that the other person has bad motives. That's, I think, not just consistent with fair play; I think it's consistent with the best of the Jewish tradition." Secretary of State John Kerry, the chief US diplomat in the negotiations with Iran, is to make a speech in Philadelphia on Wednesday on the importance of the agreement to US national security, State Department spokesman Mark Toner said Monday. On a lighter note, Obama was asked about his bagel of choice. He described himself as "always a big poppy seed guy." As for toppings, he added: "lox and capers OK, but generally just your basic schmear," referring to a smear of cream cheese.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.

Letter to undecided senators on the Iran deal
Robert Satloff/Washington Institute/September 01/15
Congratulations, senators. You have fended off both advocates and critics of the Iran nuclear agreement and are among the few remaining “undecideds.” You have built up leverage. How will you use it? Since you are undecided, you don’t consider the deal either brilliant or imbecilic. Rather, you recognize its achievements but also shake your heads at its flaws. You’ve heard the argument that scuttling the deal may ultimately leave America more isolated than Iran, but you also know from your years on foreign relations, intelligence and armed services committees that the agreement carries huge risks for U.S. and allied interests. Deep down, you would like to improve the deal by closing loopholes and strengthening deterrence that has been eroded by the administration’s eagerness to get across the finish line. You have been impressed by suggestions on how to achieve this goal unilaterally by the U.S. government or jointly with our European allies, i.e., without even opening the agreement for renegotiation. These include:
*Repairing a hole in the agreement by reaching detailed understandings with European allies on penalties for Iranian violations short of the last-resort "snapback" of UN sanctions. Since President Obama has said he opposes publicizing these details, you would suffice with having him provide a full accounting to the chairmen of the relevant congressional committees, while issuing a public statement that offers only broad outlines of the U.S.-Euro approach.
*Making Iran think twice about transferring sanctions-relief windfall to its terrorist proxies by reaching understandings now with our partners on sanctions to be imposed on Iran for every marginal dollar sent to Hezbollah et al beyond Tehran’s traditional annual subvention.
*Reducing the impact of the sunset clauses on centrifuges and enrichment by affirming that the United States will use “all means necessary” to prevent Iran's accumulation of highly enriched uranium, whose sole useful purpose is for a nuclear weapon. Such a statement, when endorsed by Congress, would go beyond the "all options are on the table" formulation that, regrettably, has lost effectiveness as a deterrent.
*Complement our own deterrence by bolstering Israel’s independent capability against Iran's potential nuclear weapon via offering to transfer to Israel the 30,000-pound, mountain-busting Massive Ordnance Penetrator and the requisite aircraft to carry it.
*Creating a US-Euro-Israel contact group to track the monitoring and verification of the Iran accord. Unlike South Korea, which was a full participant in the North Korean nuclear talks, Israel was not in the Iran negotiations, although the deal affects its security more than any other country. That lacuna cannot be repaired. But there is no reason Israel shouldn’t participate fully in implementing the deal.
The problem is how to get the president to accept these sensible ideas. So far, he has rejected any suggestion that he needs to improve the deal. The most likely reason for this is simply that doesn’t have to. After all, the bar for political success is very low – just one-third-plus-one of either house of Congress – and the White House believes it is winning.
The question for you is how to use your vote to improve the deal. As you consider this, please beware of falling into the same trap that the president himself fell into with the Iranians.
How did Iran get an agreement that gives it full sanctions-relief within a year, ends ballistic missile and weapons bans, and provides it with a path to near-zero breakout toward a nuclear weapon down the road? It is all about leverage. The moment it was clear that Obama feared the repercussions of U.S. or Israeli military action against Iran more than he feared legitimizing what will ultimately be an industrial-sized nuclear program for Iran, the die was cast.
You are in a similar position. If you want the president to take you seriously, you have to retain the leverage that he frittered away. That means convincing the president your need for a “better deal” trumps your fear of the deal’s collapse. Only your firm demand for a “better deal” will force the president to confront an unpalatable choice: Does he prefer to improve the deal or watch it fail? If the president believes his own argument about the catastrophic implications of voting down the deal, he will choose to improve it.
Maintaining this position isn’t easy. It means threatening to vote ‘yes’ on cloture and, ultimately, threatening to vote to disapprove the agreement. In the end, you may need to follow through on these threats. Along the way, you have to give the president absolutely no reason to think your threat is just a bluff. To paraphrase an old ad, if you have come this far, then leverage is a terrible thing to waste.
**Satloff is the executive director of The Washington Institute.

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