LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS
BULLETIN
January 26/17
Compiled
& Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
The
Bulletin's Link on the lccc Site
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Bible Quotations For Today
Jesus said
to them, ‘If you were blind, you would not have sin. But now that you say,
"We see", your sin remains.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint
John 09/26-41/:"‘What did he do to you? How did
he open your eyes?’He answered them, ‘I have told you
already, and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you
also want to become his disciples?’
Then they reviled him, saying, ‘You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses.We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this
man, we do not know where he comes from.’The man
answered, ‘Here is an astonishing thing! You do not know where he comes from,
and yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners, but he
does listen to one who worships him and obeys his will. Never since the world
began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind. If
this man were not from God, he could do nothing.’They
answered him, ‘You were born entirely in sins, and are you trying to teach us?’
And they drove him out. Jesus heard that they had driven him out, and when he
found him, he said, ‘Do you believe in the Son of Man?’ He answered, ‘And who
is he, sir? Tell me, so that I may believe in him.’Jesus
said to him, ‘You have seen him, and the one speaking with you is he.’He said, ‘Lord, I believe.’ And he worshipped him.
Jesus said, ‘I came into this world for judgement so that those who do not see
may see, and those who do see may become blind.’Some
of the Pharisees near him heard this and said to him, ‘Surely we are not blind,
are we?’Jesus said to them, ‘If you were blind, you
would not have sin. But now that you say, "We see", your sin remains.
Do not be mismatched with
unbelievers. For what partnership is there between righteousness and
lawlessness? Or what fellowship is there between light and darkness? What
agreement does Christ have with Beliar? Or what does
a believer share with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God
with idols?
Second Letter to the Corinthians 06/14-18.07,01/:"Do not be mismatched with unbelievers. For what partnership is
there between righteousness and lawlessness? Or what fellowship is there
between light and darkness? What agreement does Christ have with Beliar? Or what does a believer share with an unbeliever?
What agreement has the temple
of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, ‘I will live
in them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my
people.
Therefore come out from them, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and
touch nothing unclean; then I will welcome you, and I will be your father, and
you shall be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.’ Since we have
these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every
defilement of body and of spirit, making holiness perfect in the fear of
God.
Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis
& editorials from miscellaneous sources published on January 25-26/17
After Aleppo victory, what's next for Hezbollah/Mona Alami/Al-Monitor/January
25/17
Jared Kushner Needs a Wingman/By Jonathan Schanzer/PoliticoMagazine/January
25/17
Black Label/Nathan Brown/Michele Dunne/Carnegie/Middle East Centre/ January 25,
2017
The Case for a Kurdish State in the Middle East/Diliman
Abdulkader/Gatestone Institute/January 25/17
Nomination for Nobel Peace Prize: Reverend Gavin Ashenden/Douglas
Murray/Gatestone Institute/January 25/17
The Three-Way Option: Arab States, Israel, Palestinians/Daniel Pipes/Israel Hayom/January 25, 2017
Moving US embassy to Jerusalem may change the course of action/Abdulrahman al-Rashed/Al Arabiya/January 25/17
The demise of human intimacy/Turki Aldakhil/Al Arabiya/January 25/17
Saudi Arabia and the continuing war against terror/Mshari
Al Thaydi/Al Arabiya/January
25/17
Let’s not be surprised by Trump’s ineloquence, no matter how grating it
is/Peter Harrison/Al Arabiya/January 25/17
The Iranian tussle between US and Russia/Radwan al-Sayed/Al Arabiya/January 25/17
Titles For Latest Lebanese Related News
published on January 25-26/17
Aoun Says Favors
'Vacuum' over Extension as Cabinet Postpones Discussing Electoral Commission
Berri Rejects Extension: I Won't Endorse a Law that
Dismays a Certain Sect
Khalil after Baabda
deliberation meeting on election law: We are neither alliance nor front
Aoun Says Kidnappers Will be Tracked Down and
Reprimanded
Democratic Gathering Discusses Election Law with Hizbullah
Bloc
Jumblat Insists, 'Positive Dialogue' Helps Agreement
on Election Law
Pharaon Voices Calls on Approving 'Secret Funds' for
State Security
2 Lebanese, 2 Nepalese and 1 Palestinian Held for Spying for Israel
Hizbullah, Mustaqbal, FPM
and AMAL Hold Electoral Law Meeting in Baabda
Lebanese 'Drug Dealers' Kidnapped in Wadi Khaled, Handed over to Syria
Three Wounded as Two Families Clash in Ain el-Hilweh
Editors' Syndicate Head deplores arrest of Charl Ayoub and wife in UAE
Ad-Diyar Editor Charles Ayoub
Interrogated in UAE
Derian tackles regional, Muslim Affairs with KSA
Ambassador
Hezbollah honors Assafir
Editor in Chief
High Representative of EU Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini arrives in Beirut
Abdul Hakim Amoun arrested over affiliation to Daesh
Army carries out raids in Debaal in search of shooter
Unruly fire ravages wood factory in Dekweneh
Two citizens kidnapped at Wadi Khaled
Mutahida Crossing
After Aleppo victory, what's next for Hezbollah
Titles For Latest
LCCC Bulletin For Miscellaneous Reports And News published on January 25-26/17
Jihadists Used Our Church As A Shooting Range': Iraqi Christians Return
Home To Devastation
Pope forces conservative out in condom battle
State Department reviewing last-minute decision to send Palestinians $221M
Israel Urges Tourists to Leave Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, Citing Immediate Terror
Threat
Palestinian killed by Israeli army after alleged ramming attack
Israel said readying to take in 100 orphaned Syrian refugees
Iran, Kuwait urge better ties between Tehran and Gulf Arabs
British Ministers threaten to replace peers if House of Lords thwarts Brexit
Extremist gunmen storm hotel in Somali capital, 8 killed
Egypt names more than 1,000 citizens as 'terrorists'
To Stop the Export of Terrorism and Islamic Extremism, IRGC Must Be Blacklisted
US Lawmakers: Designate the Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a
Foreign Terrorist Organization
Ahmadinejad reneged on pact with Saudi, recalls
Rafsanjani aide
The Issue of Corruption and Astronomical Embezzlement in Iran
City Council of Tehran's Session Tensed up While Reviewing Plasco
Building Disaster
Overview of Iran's Economy
Iraqi Shia cleric Sadr
condemns Trump, calls to liberate Jerusalem
Trump Signs Order to Start Mexico Border Wall Project
Kuwait Hangs 7 Prisoners, Including Royal, in Mass Execution
Links From Jihad
Watch Site for on January 25-26/17
Child
jihadi arrested in Austria just latest example of
jihad groups’ child abuse
Hamas
top dog says Trump will “entice Israelis to become more radical”
The
wrong kind of Muslim leaders have been gaining inroads into government circles”
NIAC,
a lobbying group for Iran’s Islamic regime, enraged over Trump’s visa ban
New
book tries, fails to show that ISIS’ Islam has no basis in Qur’an and Sunnah
Trump
freezes Obama’s $221,000,000 parting gift to the “Palestinians”
NJ
teacher who performed sex acts on students blames her strict Muslim upbringing
Limo
Leftists torched during anti-Trump protests belonged to Muslim immigrant
Imam
at Trump’s prayer service recited Qur’anic
condemnation of Jews and Christians
UK:
Ex-Queen’s chaplain says Qur’an in cathedral “not bridge building so much as
capitulation
Anne
Marie Waters Moment: Sharia’s Fiefdoms Conquering
Britain
Trump
expected to order ban on immigration from jihadi
hotspots
PA
threatens to cut US ties, turn to UN if US embassy moves to Jerusalem
Obama
hosted former Iranian official, pro-Tehran lobbyist at White House numerous
times
Nigeria:
Muslims use babies in jihad suicide bombings
Women’s
March organizer Linda Sarsour makes Islamic State
signal
Latest Lebanese Related News
published on January 25-26/17
Aoun Says Favors 'Vacuum' over
Extension as Cabinet Postpones Discussing Electoral Commission
Naharnet/January 25/17/The cabinet held a meeting on
Wednesday to tackle a number of issues, mainly Lebanon's security file in light
of the latest threat of a suicide attacker that was foiled by the security
forces over the weekend, as President Michel Aoun
announced that he prefers "vacuum" over another extension of the
parliament's term. “If I'm to choose between the extension
of parliament's term or vacuum, my stance is clear in this regard -- I will
choose vacuum,” TV networks quoted Aoun as saying.
“Where is our potency and credibility should we fail throughout eight years to
pass an electoral law although all politicians have agreed that it should be
approved?” Aoun reportedly told Cabinet. Aoun's stance came after the Cabinet postponed discussing
the formation of an electoral supervisory commission, which was raised by
Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq.
According to OTV, Aoun noted that the approval of a
new electoral law is the government's priority. “Let no one threaten us with
vacuum or extension and the oath of office was clear on the need to reach an
electoral law and we must work on that,” Minister Michel Pharaon
quoted Aoun as saying. The Cabinet meanwhile decided
to re-launch the first call for tenders of the oil and gas sector and agreed to
join the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI). It also approved
a request for funds from the Public Works and Transport Ministry that is aimed
at improving security and services at Beirut's Rafik
Hariri International
Airport. The cabinet had
62 items on its agenda. During a closed-door meeting, normally held before
every cabinet session, discussions between Aoun and
Prime Minister Saad Hariri focused on the security
file and the electoral law issues. At the beginning of the session, Aoun touched on the recurrent incidents of kidnapping,
calling for “the implementation of measures that prevent abductions and totally
control the situation.”Separately, he referred to the
Lebanese-Qatari relations, and assured that they have resumed normalcy. For his
part, Hariri stressed the need to tighten judicial rulings against the
perpetrators of kidnappings. Al-Joumhouria daily had
reported that the LF would demand a “nonnegotiable” security plan to be placed
in order to control what it described as “chaos.”The
LF was also expected to ask the Minister of Finance to move the remaining
financial provision for the implementation of a waste-water treatment in Adma and Keserouan, which form a
vital need for the area, according to the daily. The LF was also supposed to
raise the controversial file of the Costa Brava
landfill by demanding the formation of a committee to follow-up on the
implementation of the file, paving the way for the permanent closure of the
site.
Berri Rejects Extension: I Won't Endorse a Law that Dismays
a Certain Sect
Naharnet/January 25/17/Speaker Nabih
Berri on Wednesday reiterated his “categorical rejection
of extending the parliament's term,” describing it as “the worst” choice. “A
law based on proportional representation is Lebanon's salvation,” Berri told a delegation from the Press Syndicate, as he
criticized the 1960 electoral law “that keeps the situation as it is in
parliament, eliminates independent voices and does not ensure correct representation.”“Until now, no agreement has been reached
over a certain law, but there are intensives discussions and meetings to reach
an agreement over a new electoral law,” Berri added.
And emphasizing that any electoral law “should enjoy the consensus of all
parties,” the speaker vowed that he “will not endorse a law that dismays a
certain sect.”He also warned that “failure to agree
on a law will create a rift in the country.”Hizbullah
has repeatedly called for an electoral law fully based on proportional
representation but other political parties, especially al-Mustaqbal
Movement and the Progressive Socialist Party, have
rejected the proposal, arguing that Hizbullah's
weapons would prevent serious competition in the Iran-backed party's
strongholds. Mustaqbal, the Lebanese Forces and the
PSP had proposed a hybrid electoral law that mixes the proportional
representation and the winner-takes-all systems but the PSP eventually withdrew
its support for the proposal. Berri has also proposed
a hybrid law. The country has not voted for a parliament since 2009, with the
legislature instead twice extending its own mandate. The 2009 polls were held
under an amended version of the 1960 electoral law and the next elections are
scheduled for May 2017.'
Khalil after Baabda deliberation
meeting on election law: We are neither alliance nor front
Wed 25 Jan 2017/NNA - Finance Minister, Ali Hassan Khalil,
ruled out that an alliance or a front has been formed, indicating that today's
meeting at Baabda palace comes to deliberate over the
election law and placing ideas in this regard. "We are also holding
contacts with the other parties," Minister Khalil
said in the wake of the deliberation meeting at Baabda Palace on Wednesday afternoon, saying
that it was premature to talk about a unified or a final vision on this issue.
MP Alan Aoun said that political forces are
discussing amongst each other the new election law. MP Ali Fayyad, for his
part, deemed today's meeting as falling in the framework of deliberations,
saying they are studying the issue with great determination and seriousness.
The Lawmaker also disclosed that there will be consecutive meetings to discuss
several electoral formulas, in a bid to achieve rapprochement in proposed
viewpoints. He also ruled out any alliance nature of today's meeting, saying
that it comes in the framework of maintaining contacts with others.
"Upcoming meeting shall be taking place after tomorrow [Friday],"
Fayyad said. Nader Hariri said on emerging that several formulas were being
under discussion, with a common denominator to avoid marginalizing any side.
Aoun Says Kidnappers Will be Tracked Down and Reprimanded
Naharnet/January 25/17/President Michel Aoun stressed on Wednesday that the Lebanese State will
waste no effort to find the perpetrators behind the kidnapping incidents and
will track them down for punishment. “The State will not relent to find
abductors and punish them,” said Aoun. Aoun's comments came during a meeting with former
ministers, where discussions touched on the situation in Lebanon in general and in the Chouf and Mount Lebanon
areas in particular. Aoun was referring to the latest
kidnapping incidents, one in the Bekaa area of Qab Elias and another in the district of Fetri in Jbeil, which ended with
a tragedy when the abductee was found dead. The
ministers asked Aoun to take the needed measures to
control widespread abductions, a phenomenon that has surfaced again “to harm Lebanon's
security,” they said. Last week, gunmen kidnapped an elderly man, Saad Risha, in Qab Elias as he was closing his wholesale foodstuffs shop.
He was released three days after. On Tuesday, police found the dead body of Majid al-Hashem in the outskirts
of al-Aqoura. He was abducted over the weekend. The
killer was identified as a Syrian national who fled to Syria,
according to reports. Furthermore, discussions between the President and his
visitors touched on the parliamentary election file and the preparations
undergoing to agree on a new law.
Democratic Gathering Discusses Election
Law with Hizbullah Bloc
Naharnet/January 25/17/The Democratic Gathering bloc
continued its meetings with political blocs on Wednesday, to discuss the
controversial issue of a new electoral law that will govern the upcoming
parliamentary polls. The bloc held a meeting with Loyalty to the Resistance
bloc of Hizbullah. After the meeting, the bloc's MP Akram Shehayyeb stressed
willingness to meet with all political parties in order to agree on a new law
that does not exclude anyone. “We are ready to communicate with every political
party in order to reach a new law that does not cancel anyone,” said Shehayyeb. Earlier, the Democratic Gathering held meetings
with senior Lebanese officials including President Michel Aoun,
PM Saad Hariri and Speaker Nabih
Berri. Shehayyeb added:
“The meeting with Loyalty to the Resistance reiterates that an electoral law
can not be reached unless all the Lebanese agree on it.”He
concluded and emphasized the need to hold timely polls.
Jumblat Insists, 'Positive Dialogue' Helps Agreement on
Election Law
Naharnet/January 25/17/Leader of the Democratic
Gathering bloc MP Walid Jumblat
said he insists on “positive dialogue” as for discussions on a new electoral law
for the parliamentary polls, and stressed that endorsing a new law is a
delicate matter that requires “precision, patience and dialogue.”Likening
the electoral process to a medical operation, he said on Twitter: “The
electoral law is a delicate operation. Its successfulness requires precision,
patience, consultations and dialogue.”The Progressive
Socialist Party leader, Jumblat, stressed that all
political parties without any exception must agree on the new law and none
should be excluded out. “By the way, the operation can not be successful if one
of the surgeons was excluded. Therefore we insist on having positive dialogue
away from the atmospheres of torpidity prevailing in the operation room,” he
said. The Democratic Gathering toured senior Lebanese officials recently and
held talks with President Michel Aoun, Prime Minister
Saad Hariri and Speaker Nabih
Berri. The talks focused on the thorny issue of an
election law. Political parties are bickering over amending the current
election law which divides seats among the different religious sects. Hizbullah has repeatedly called for an electoral law fully
based on proportional representation but other political parties, especially
al-Mustaqbal Movement and the Progressive Socialist Party, have rejected the proposal, arguing that Hizbullah's weapons would prevent serious competition in
the Iran-backed party's strongholds. Mustaqbal, the
Lebanese Forces and the PSP had proposed a hybrid electoral law that mixes the
proportional representation and the winner-takes-all systems but the PSP
eventually withdrew its support for the proposal. Berri
has also proposed a hybrid law. The country has not voted for a parliament
since 2009, with the legislature instead twice extending its own mandate. The
2009 polls were held under an amended version of the 1960 electoral law and the
next elections are scheduled for May 2017.
Pharaon Voices Calls on Approving 'Secret Funds' for State
Security
Naharnet/January 25/17/State Minister for Planning
Affairs Michel Pharaon said on Wednesday that
payments of the so-called “secret funds” for the State Security agency must be
approved so the agency is capable of carrying out its duties. “Payments of the
secret funds for the State Security must be made so the agency is capable of
doing its job,” Pharaon told al-Joumhouria
daily. He assured that the process does not need a leadership authority to be
approved, he said: “The financial part does not require a leadership council.
Some are trying to link the two, which is unacceptable.”Pharaon's
comments come before a cabinet session scheduled for Wednesday convenes to
tackle a number of issues. In October 2016, the cabinet approved the payment of
the so-called “secret funds” that the security agencies use in their
clandestine activities. The cabinet approved funds for the army, the Internal
Security Forces and the General Security as a dispute erupted over the funds of
the State Security agency. The State Security agency has been facing a
leadership dispute between its director-general, Maj. Gen. George Qaraa and his deputy Brig. Gen. Mohammed al-Tufaili. In June 2016, Qaraa had
sent the premiership a decree on sending al-Tufaili
to retirement due to the fact that the latter “has reached the retirement age
stipulated by the law.”The dispute between Qaraa and Tufaili has effectively
paralyzed the State Security agency and deprived it of funding. Qaraa is backed by the Christian ministers while Tufaili is reportedly backed by Khalil,
Nouhad al-Mashnouq and the
ministers of the Progressive Socialist Party.
2 Lebanese, 2 Nepalese and 1 Palestinian
Held for Spying for Israel
Naharnet/January 25/17/The General Directorate of
General Security announced Wednesday that it has arrested two Lebanese men, two
Nepalese women and a Palestinian man on charges of “spying for Israeli
embassies abroad.”“During interrogation, the
detainees confessed to the charges, admitting that they had called phone
numbers belonging to the Israeli enemy's embassies in Turkey, Jordan, Britain
and Nepal with the aim of spying and passing on information,” a General
Security statement said. The investigations revealed that the two
aforementioned Nepalese women were actively recruiting Nepalese domestic
workers in Lebanon with the
aim of spying for Israel.
“They gave them the phone number of the Israeli embassy in Nepal so that
they pass on information about their employers to the Mossad
Israeli intelligence agency,” the statement added. “Following interrogation,
they were referred to the relevant judicial authorities on charges of collaborating
with the Israeli enemy and efforts are underway to arrest the rest of the
culprits,” General Security said.
Hizbullah, Mustaqbal, FPM and AMAL
Hold Electoral Law Meeting in Baabda
Naharnet/January 25/17/A four-party meeting was held
Wednesday at the Baabda Palace to discuss the issue
of the stalled electoral law. The meeting was attended by Finance Minister Ali
Hassan Khalil of the AMAL Movement, Free Patriotic
Movement chief and Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil, Hizbullah MP Ali Fayyad
and Prime Minister Saad Hariri's aide Nader Hariri.
“We discussed a number of formats and it has become certain that there won't be
a law that eliminates any of the parties,” Nader Hariri said after the meeting.
Khalil for
his part stressed that the four parties have not formed “an alliance or a front.”“We have contacts
with the other parties and it is too early to discuss a unified vision,” he
added. Fayyad also reassured that the meeting was not aimed at “eliminating
anyone” or forming an alliance. “It is only a framework for follow-up and it
seeks to communicate with others,” Fayyad added, revealing that the second
meeting will be held on Friday. Hizbullah has
repeatedly called for an electoral law fully based on proportional
representation but other political parties, especially Mustaqbal
and the Progressive Socialist Party, have rejected the proposal, arguing that Hizbullah's weapons would prevent serious competition in
the Iran-backed party's strongholds. Mustaqbal, the
Lebanese Forces and the PSP had proposed a hybrid electoral law that mixes the
proportional representation and the winner-takes-all systems but the PSP
eventually withdrew its support for the proposal. Speaker Nabih
Berri has also proposed a hybrid law. The country has
not voted for a parliament since 2009, with the legislature instead twice
extending its own mandate. The 2009 polls were held under an amended version of
the 1960 electoral law and the next elections are scheduled for May 2017.
Lebanese 'Drug Dealers' Kidnapped in Wadi Khaled, Handed over to Syria
Naharnet/January 25/17/Two Lebanese citizens were
kidnapped Wednesday in the northern border region of Wadi
Khaled before being handed over to Syria, Lebanon's
National News Agency reported. “A Syrian young man lured and kidnapped two
Lebanese nationals who hail from the town of Khrab al-Hyat in Wadi Khaled
before handing them over to the Syrian army via the al-Muttaheda
border crossing,” NNA said.The agency noted that the
two Lebanese men were active in drug trade.
Three Wounded as Two Families Clash in Ain
el-Hilweh
Naharnet/January 25/17/Three
people were wounded Wednesday when a dispute between two families escalated
into an armed clash in the Ain el-Hilweh Palestinian
refugee camp. State-run National News Agency said the fighting pitted members
of the al-Bahti and al-Qiblawi
families in the camp's al-Tahtani street. The
violence is linked to old disputes and accusations between the two families,
the agency added.
Editors' Syndicate Head deplores arrest of
Charl Ayoub and wife in UAE
Wed 25 Jan 2017/NNA - Lebanon's Editors' Syndicate Head, Elias Aoun, vehemently condemned on Wednesday the arrest of Addiyar news paper's publisher and editor in chief, Charl Ayoub, and his wife, in the
United Arab Emirates. Aoun duly held all the
necessary contacts to help immediately release Ayoub
and his wife, who lives in Dubai.
"A free and independent journalist should not receive such
treatment," Aoun said in a statement, promising
to summon the editors' syndicate for an extraordinary session to decide on the
necessary steps.
Ad-Diyar Editor
Charles Ayoub Interrogated in UAE
Naharnet/January 25/17/Prominent Lebanese journalist
Charles Ayoub, the owner and editor-in-chief of ad-Diyar newspaper, was being interrogated Wednesday in the
UAE by Dubai Police. Dubai Police, which denied reports that Ayoub was “arrested,” said he was “summoned for a limited
period to testify regarding a libel and threats lawsuit filed by the director
of the Rotana company.”“In
line with legal norms, the case will be referred to the public prosecution
should the two parties fail to reach a reconciliation,” Dubai Police added.
Syndicate of Press Editors chief Elias Aoun meanwhile said Ayoub's
daughter who lives in Dubai
was not summoned with him, denying earlier media reports in this regard. Aoun had earlier condemned what he called an “arrest,”
saying he had launched contacts aimed at securing the "immediate
release" of Ayoub.
Derian tackles regional, Muslim Affairs with KSA Ambassador
Wed 25 Jan 2017/NNA - Mufti of the Lebanese Republic, Sheikh Abdul Latif Derain, met on Wednesday evening with the Secretary
General of the Muslim World League, Dr. Mohammad Abdul Karim
Al-Issa, Head of King Abdul Aziz Dialogue Center, Dr.
Faisal Bin Maamar, who visited the Mufti in the
company of Saudi Ambassador to Lebanon, Walid Al-Bukhari. The meeting had been an occasion to discuss the
best means to strengthen relations with Dar Al-Fatwa to help improve the
activity of its institutions. Talks also touched on an array of regional and
Muslim-related affairs.
Hezbollah honors Assafir
Editor in Chief
Wed 25 Jan 2017/NNA - Hezbollah honored on Wednesday Assafir Daily's Editor in Cheif, Talal Salman, under the patronage
of "Loyalty to the Resistance" Parliamentary bloc leader, MP Mohammad
Raad, in presence of Information Minister, Melhem Riachy, Syrian Ambassador
to Lebanon, Ali Abdul Karim Ali, and a number of MPs,
dignitaries, and media figures. In an address he gave during a lunch banquet at
Bridge Restaurant - Airport Road,
Raad hailed Assafir daily
as a "gigantic national institution that hyped the freedom of press."
"If a free journalist is capable of personally giving his nation, people,
and humanity an added value, then let us imagine what such a huge national
institution would give to its people," Raad said
in praise of Assafir daily. As-Safir
terminated its operations on Dec. 31, after 42 years in the business, due to
financial and funding woes. The paper, which was launched in 1974, ironically
thrived during the Lebanese Civil War (1975-1990), but has struggled immensely
in the last few years. Similarly, Annahar newspaper,
established in 1933, has ended the year with major cuts in budget and staff, laying off more than 60 people according to the Lebanese
media. "Assafir became a landmark for the respectful
and free press in Lebanon
and the Arab world, not to mention an institution from which generations of
journalists have graduated," Raad added.
"Our meeting today is an opportunity to express, on the behalf of
Hezbollah Secretary General, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, and all our brethrens, our great appreciation to
our big brother, Mr. Talal Salman,
a leader in the world of press freedom and the owner of Assafir
daily," Raad said, heaping praise on the
countless achievements of this great media figure. In turn, Salman
said that it was a great honor for Assafir daily and its staff to be receiving such "an
outstanding honorary celebration by an organization that has long endeavored to preserve the sanctity of our land."
"We have always striven to be the voice of those without a voice. We have
always asked the state to be one that equally serves all and not a farm that
serves people on sectarian basis," Salman added.
High Representative of EU Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini arrives in Beirut
Wed 25 Jan 2017/NNA - High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and
Security Policy & Vice-President of the European Commission, Federica Mogherini, has arrived in Beirut, NNA field reporter said
on Wednesday evening, adding that the EU diplomat's official visit to Lebanon
will include meetings with Lebanese President, Michel Aoun,
Speaker of the House, Nabih Barri,
and Prime Minister, Saad Hariri.
Abdul Hakim Amoun
arrested over affiliation to Daesh
Wed 25 Jan 2017/NNA - The Lebanese Army Intelligence arrested on Wednesday
Lebanese national, Abdul Hakim Amoun, over
affiliation to Daesh, NNA field reporter said, adding
that the arrest of Amoun came after he fell for an
army ambush in the outskirts of Arsal.
Army carries out raids in Debaal in search of shooter
Wed 25 Jan 2017/NNA - The army carried out raids in the town of Debaal
in the outskirts of Dinieh, in search of a person who
earlier opened fire (in the air) on a passing school bus on its way from Beit Haweek village to Debaal. Motives behind the shooting were not known. A state
of tension is currently prevailing in Debaal and its neighborhood, with the army working on containing said
incident.
Unruly fire ravages wood factory in Dekweneh
Wed 25 Jan 2017/NNA - A huge fire erupted on Wednesday evening inside a wood
factory located on the fourth floor of a building located in Dekweneh, NNA field reporter said on Wednesday evening.
Civil Defense brigades are currently working on
extinguishing the unruly fire and preventing it from spreading to upper floors,
NNA reporter added.
Two citizens kidnapped at Wadi Khaled
Mutahida Crossing
Wed 25 Jan 2017/NNA - A Syrian young man kidnapped two Lebanese nationals at Wadi Khaled's Mutahida
Crossing and handed them over to the Syrian army, NNA reporter said on
Wednesday. It is worth-mentioning that the two abducted persons are drug
dealers.
After Aleppo
victory, what's next for Hezbollah?
Mona Alami/Al-Monitor/January 25/17
The capture of Aleppo
by forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad,
backed by Russia and
Hezbollah, has given a boost to Hezbollah in Lebanon. The Shiite movement's
deepening involvement in the Syrian war since 2013 had led to a narrowed margin
of maneuver at home, as political and social
pressures increased on it. The battle for and victory in Aleppo
Dec. 22 has reinforced Hezbollah’s “winning” narrative vis-a-vis
its political opponents and among its popular base and will potentially help
justify future battles the organization might wage in Syria.
With recent military victories in the Syrian war, Hezbollah has consolidated
its political power and influence in Lebanon as well as in the greater
region.
“Hezbollah’s capture of Aleppo shows that its
fight alongside the regime of Assad was the right thing to do,” Abdallah Younes, a Shiite
resident of the Bekaa Valley,
told Al-Monitor. Hezbollah’s decision to send thousands of fighters to support
Assad resulted in heavy fallout in the Bekaa and
elsewhere in Lebanon,
for which the Lebanese criticized the organization. The fertile Bekaa, on the border with Syria
in eastern Lebanon,
has been on the front line of the Syrian war since 2013. Syrian rebels have
repeatedly shelled the region, which has also been the target of several terror
attacks. In 2014, Jabhat al-Nusra
carried out suicide attacks in the area. Hezbollah and the Lebanese army have
also clashed with Islamic State (IS) fighters in the mountainous Qalamoun area, east of the Bekaa.
IS was behind several attacks in the Bekaa, including
one on the Christian village
of Qaa
in June 2016.
The intense fighting in the Syrian war has pitted a mostly Sunni insurgency
against pro-Assad regime forces bolstered by Hezbollah and other Shiite forces
in the form or troops from Iran
and Popular Mobilization Units fighters from Iraq. Syrian government forces and
their allies have also received Russian air coverage since Sept. 30, 2015. The
conflict is today increasingly seen as a sectarian proxy war between two axes:
one pro-Shiite (consisting of Iran,
Hezbollah, Syria
and Russia) and the other
Sunni dominated (including Gulf countries and Turkey). Nonetheless, Ankara changed its position after reaching a deal in
September with Russia
that allowed it to launch attacks on its Syrian Kurdish nemeses under the
banner of Operation Euphrates Shield.
Meanwhile on the Lebanese political scene, Hezbollah has been backed by the
Christian Free Patriotic Movement, led by Michel Aoun, and the Shiite Amal movement and pitted against a coalition of the Sunni
Future Movement, headed by Saad Hariri, Christian
Lebanese Forces and the Druze Progressive Party. A clear power shift on the
battlefield in favor of the Iranian, Shiite axis in
Syria in the weeks prior to the fall of Aleppo translated in Lebanon into the
Oct. 31 election of Hezbollah’s preferred presidential candidate, Aoun, and the formation of a government headed by Hariri as
prime minister.
“The Aleppo
victory put an end to the party’s local struggle and helped create a shift in
the political equation,” Brahim Beyram,
a Lebanese journalist and analyst who covers Hezbollah for an-Nahar, told Al-Monitor. Sources close to Hariri who spoke
to Al-Monitor said that the imminent fall of Aleppo
and the tilt in the political outcome in Syria
in favor of the regime were among the factors that
facilitated the political deal in Lebanon. Hariri, already weakened
by the financial scandal of his company Oger being on
the verge of bankruptcy, believed that if Aleppo fell, it would mean a clear
shift in power to Hezbollah and its allies, so he agreed to form a government
when Aoun selected him to do so.
“People are more optimistic. Hezbollah has been able to turn the tide in Syria and in Lebanon. This will definitely
stifle the criticism, though limited, faced by the organization locally,”
Hassan, a Dahieh resident who declined to reveal his
full name, told Al-Monitor.
Hezbollah has lost between 1,500 to 2,000 fighters in Syria,
and 5,000 others have been wounded or injured, according to sources close to
the party with whom Al-Monitor spoke. Hezbollah has lost important symbolic and
military figures in the Syrian war. Jihad Mughniyeh,
son of Hezbollah operations chief Imad Mughniyeh, who was assassinated in 2008 in Damascus, was
killed in an Israeli attack in southern Syria in January 2015. In December
2015, Hezbollah commander Samir Kuntar,
who was working on developing a new brigade in the Golan region, was also
killed. Hezbollah star commander Mustafa Badreddine
was killed in May 2016 in a mysterious explosion in Syria. Hundreds of Hezbollah
fighters were killed in Zabadani and in Homs. More than 200 died
in Aleppo
alone, Beyram said.
“People were starting to complain about the number of martyrs in Syria, as well
as about corruption allegations surrounding some commanders deployed there,” a
source close to Hezbollah's mid-level leadership told Al-Monitor. Hezbollah as
a political party controls a third of the Lebanese parliament and government.
It had been accused of corruption involving the trash scandal that triggered
protests in 2016 and faced allegations of maintaining illegal internet
transmission stations that benefited local political figures. “The war in Syria
has made a lot of people rich through trafficking of all sorts. The Hezbollah
leadership knows about it, but can’t do much,” the source asserted.
Recent victories in Syria
will not only allow Hezbollah to consolidate its popular base in Lebanon, but will also provide it more space to maneuver on the battlefields of Syria. According to a Hezbollah
fighter who spoke to Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, “All opposition
front lines are in a state of weakness and up for grabs.”
The fighter believes, nonetheless, that some areas, such as the Ghouta suburb in Damascus
and southern Syria,
may be handed over after a reconciliation deal is reached with the opposition.
“The next battle will most probably take place in Idlib,”
he remarked.
According to Beyram, Hezbollah will now focus on
areas on the outskirts of Damascus,
such as Wadi Barada, which
sits along the road leading to the Syrian capital, and are considered strategic
by the party. “Wadi Barada
is located on the other side of the Qalamoun Mountains,
a region that Hezbollah wants secured because of its geographical [proximity]
to its Bekaa bastion,” Beyram
explained.
As the main offensive force in Syria,
Hezbollah has become a major player in shaping that country's future. Its
involvement in Syria has
also provided the organization with a platform from which to project regional
influence, such as in Iraq
and Yemen,
where, Hezbollah sources told Al-Monitor, the organization has deployed
experts.
Hezbollah increasingly faces an ideological dichotomy given its evolution from
a pan-Arab resistance movement focused on fighting Israel
to a sectarian militia helping advance Iran’s controversial agenda across
the Arab world. It has become one of the biggest mass parties in the Middle East, boasting thousands of members and hundreds
of thousands of mostly Lebanese Shiite supporters. With Hezbollah's power comes
responsibility, and its Iranian agenda may not necessarily be in the best
interest of its Lebanese popular base, which lives surrounded by Sunnis.
Latest LCCC Bulletin For
Miscellaneous Reports And News published on January 25-26/17
Jihadists Used Our Church
As A Shooting Range': Iraqi Christians Return Home To Devastation
Christian Today/January 25/17/Iraqi Christians are determined to return to
their homelands despite devastation wreaked by ISIS. Qaraqosh,
the largest Christian town on Iraq's
Ninevah Plain, was largely destroyed under the
jihadist occupation. Now back under Iraqi control, local Christian are
insisting on better security as they prepare to go home. Father Sharbil Eeso, a 72-year-old
Catholic priest, has returned to Qaraqosh more than
two years after he fled. "Despite all the damage, I have hope for the
future. If our security is guaranteed, Christians can continue to live in Iraq," he
said. In an appeal for help from fellow Christians outside of the Middle East, he said: "I want to return to Qaraqosh when there is electricity and water again, although
I think that safety is the main condition for returning. Speaking to the
Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need, local salon owner Manal Matti, described how the
militants set fire to the nearby Church of the Immaculate Conception and
beheaded its statues. "The jihadists used the church as a shooting range
and the mannequins as targets. The mannequins are completely riddled [with
bullets]."ACN reports show that Qaraqosh's St George's Syriac Catholic
Church was used by ISIS as an improvised bomb
factory and contained hundreds of bombs and grenades. The extremists also wrote
battle plans on church walls and chemicals were found in the building together
with instructions on how to mix them into explosives.
Pope forces conservative out in condom
battle
By Delia Gallagher and Hada Messia, CNN/Rome (CNN)January 25/17/Pope Francis has forced
the head of an ancient Catholic order to resign in an unusually public rebuke
of conservative leadership within the Catholic Church. The Pope was dragged
into a dispute about condom distribution last year, when a top official of the
Knights of Malta was fired over links between the order and charities that gave
out birth control. Francis refused to back the termination of Knights of Malta
Grand Chancellor Albrecht von Boeselager, and after
the battle simmered for months, the Pope asked von Boeselager's
boss, Knights of Malta Grand Master Matthew Festing,
to resign. Knights of Malta
spokeswoman Marianna Balfour told CNN on Wednesday that Festing,
67, agreed to step down from what would normally be a life-long position. The Vatican said
the two men met Tuesday and the Pope accepted the resignation on Wednesday. The
unusual move by Pope Francis -- forcing out the elected head of a Catholic
sovereign order -- is emblematic of the clash between conservative bastions of
the Church and the progressive Pope.
Condoms in Myanmar
On December 8, Pope Francis ordered an investigation
into the Knights of Malta when it was revealed that Festing
had fired von Boeselager. Festing
claimed that von Boeselager allowed condoms to be
distributed in Myanmar
through the Order's charity branch.
Von Boeselager claimed he shut down the condom
distribution as soon as he had learned about it and appealed his firing to the
Pope.
Public resistance
Festing publicly refused to cooperate with the Pope's
investigation, saying the Knights of Malta are not under the jurisdiction of
the Vatican.
On January 10, the Knights of Malta issued an order calling the investigation
"legally impossible" and "superfluous."
The Order is legally similar to a sovereign country, has its own passports and
maintains diplomatic relations with 106 states, including the Holy See and the
United Nations. Cardinal Raymond Burke, a leading conservative critic of Pope
Francis, is the Cardinal Patron of the Knights of Malta. He supported Festing in the firing of von Boeselager.
In a statement Wednesday, the Vatican
said a pontifical delegate will be nominated to govern the Order. Although the
Pope may not officially have jurisdiction over the Order, Festing
chose to accept the Pope's request to resign, and the papal delegate signals at
least a temporary takeover of the group.
State Department reviewing last-minute
decision to send Palestinians $221M
By Associated Press/January 25, 2017/WASHINGTON
— The State Department is reviewing a last-minute decision by former Secretary
of State John Kerry to send $221 million to the Palestinians late last week
over the objections of congressional Republicans. The department said Tuesday
it would look at the payment and might make adjustments to ensure it comports
with the Trump administration’s priorities. Kerry formally notified Congress
that State would release the money Friday morning, just hours before President
Donald Trump took the oath of office. Congress initially had approved the
Palestinian funding in budget years 2015 and 2016, but at least two GOP
lawmakers — Ed Royce of California, chairman
of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Kay Granger of Texas, who sits on the House Appropriations
Committee — had placed holds on it over moves the Palestinian Authority had
taken to seek membership in international organizations. Congressional holds
generally are respected by the executive branch but are not legally binding
after funds have been allocated. Granger released a statement Tuesday saying,
“I am deeply disappointed that President Obama defied congressional oversight
and released $221 million to the Palestinian territories.”She
added: “I worked to make sure that no American taxpayer dollars would fund the
Palestinian Authority unless very strict conditions were met. While none of
these funds will go to the Palestinian Authority because of those conditions,
they will go to programs in the Palestinian territories that were still under
review by Congress. The Obama Administration’s decision to release these funds
was inappropriate.”The Obama administration had been
pressing for some time for the release of the money, which comes from the US
Agency for International Development and is to be used to fund humanitarian aid
in the West Bank and Gaza, to support political and security reforms and to
help prepare for good governance and the rule of law in a future Palestinian
state, according to the notification sent to Congress.
Israel Urges Tourists to Leave Egypt’s
Sinai Peninsula, Citing Immediate Terror Threat
By Conor Gaffey On 1/25/17
/Newsweek/Israel’s
anti-terrorism agency urged its citizens to leave the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt
on Tuesday, warning of immediate attacks against tourist sites in the region.
The Counter-Terrorism Bureau at the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office upgraded
the risk of attacks to Level 1, its highest level, indicating that there was an
extreme and concrete risk of attacks in the region, The Times of Israel
reported. The warning was focused on January 25, which marks the six-year
anniversary of the Egyptian uprising that toppled former president Hosni Mubarak.Israel’s anti-terrorism agency urged its citizens
to leave the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt on Tuesday, warning of immediate attacks
against tourist sites in the region. The Counter-Terrorism Bureau at the
Israeli Prime Minister’s Office upgraded the risk of attacks to Level 1, its
highest level, indicating that there was an extreme and concrete risk of
attacks in the region, The Times of Israel reported. The warning was focused on
January 25, which marks the six-year anniversary of the Egyptian uprising that
toppled former president Hosni Mubarak. The Sinai
Peninsula is the site of an Islamist insurgency against the
Egyptian government, which has seen attacks targeting foreign tourists. The
Islamic State militant group (ISIS) has an affiliate group—known as the Sinai
Province—that is active in the region and regularly carries out attacks on
police and army outposts.The warning is not new—the
Bureau already had a Level 2 terror risk in place in the Sinai Peninsula,
indicating a high threat of attacks—but reiterated the threat to tourist sites
and urged Israelis to leave the region immediately. Israel
shares a 129-mile land border with Egypt
that runs through the Sinai Peninsula and
militants have previously mounted cross-border attacks. Masked gunmen killed 16
Egyptian soldiers before forcing their way across the border in an armored vehicle and stolen truck in August 2012. The region,
particularly southern Sinai, has been popular with Israeli tourists, although
numbers fell following the 2011 revolution. During the seven-day Jewish
festival of Sukkot in October 2016, around 20,000
Israeli tourists entered the Sinai Peninsula via a border crossing at Taba in southern Sinai, Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported, a 22 percent increase on the same holiday
period in 2015.
Palestinian killed by Israeli army
after alleged ramming attack
The Associated Press, Jerusalem Wednesday, 25
January 2017/Israel’s military says soldiers shot and killed a Palestinian who
allegedly rammed his vehicle into a West Bank
bus stop. It said no Israelis were wounded in Wednesday’s incident, adding that
the attacker had a knife. The Palestinians and rights groups have accused Israel of using
excessive force in some of the confrontations.Israel
has blamed the violence on Palestinian incitement, while the Palestinians say
it stems from frustration over decades of Israeli rule.
Israel
said readying to take in 100 orphaned Syrian refugees
Times of Israel staff January 25, 2017/Israel is to grant refugee status to 100
orphaned Syrian refugee children, in line with a decision by Interior Minister Aryeh Deri on Wednesday.
According to Channel 10, the children will receive temporary resident status
and become permanent residents after four years, and be able to remain in Israel for
their entire lives. Channel 10 said that the children will be integrated into
Arab Israeli families. Furthermore, any of the children’s immediate relatives
will also be considered for refugee status. The government made the final
decision on the future of the refugees and will now liaise with the relevant
international organizations to bring the orphans into the country. Israel has been in open conflict with Syria since its
creation in 1948, fighting three conventional wars against its northern neighbor. For more than half a decade, the Syrian civil war
has raged just across the border from the Jewish state, reportedly claiming the
lives of nearly half a million souls and driving millions more from their
homes. The Israeli government has declared itself neutral in the complex
conflict, but has not avoided the massive humanitarian catastrophe at its own
doorstep. Israel
has treated those wounded in the conflict for the past several years. Over
2,000 Syrians have been treated in Israel,
600 in Safed’s Ziv Medical
Center alone, since
December 2013. Many are women and children. The official line from the Israeli
army is that it will treat any Syrian who requires serious medical assistance,
no matter who they are. Medical assistance to Syrian civil war casualties, the
IDF says, is a humanitarian initiative.
Additionally, non-governmental organizations continue to work to help Syrians.
The Amaliah organization — which in Hebrew means “the
work of God” — offers a number of humanitarian services for Syrians, including
providing food, medical aid, drinking water and educational materials;
coordinating visits to Israeli hospitals; holding women’s empowerment workshops;
and pushing for an internationally backed safe zone in southern Syria. In
September, even when the UN was unable to transfer aid to Syrians during the
Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha
because it was too dangerous, the IDF transferred one ton of meat from Amaliah. Since August, again with coordination of the IDF, Amaliah has brought in three busloads of Syrians — 120 kids
— to be treated in Israeli hospitals.
Another initiative, an online crowdfunding campaign,
“Just Beyond the Border,” has raised over $350,000 in
one month to bring much-needed emergency aid to the children of Syria — more than double its original aim.The campaign’s title reflects the ideology behind it:
that Israelis simply cannot ignore the horrors taking place in neighboring Syria.
Dov Lieber contributed to
this report.
Iran, Kuwait urge better ties between
Tehran and Gulf Arabs
By Associated Press January 25/17/TEHRAN, Iran — Iran’s
president and Kuwait’s foreign minister both appealed on Wednesday for better
relation between the Islamic Republic and Gulf Arab countries, Iranian media
reported. According to President Hassan Rouhani’s
website, he told visiting Kuwaiti top diplomat Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled Al-Sabah that Iran’s foreign policy is aimed at
improving “friendly and brotherly” relations with neighboring
Muslim countries.
Rouhani also said cooperation was needed to fight
terrorism with “unity, integrity and (by) helping” each other.
What's most important from where the world meets Washington
Iranian state TV reported earlier in the day that al-Sabah said Gulf Arab
nations hope ties “with Iran
will normalize” and that Iran
and the Arab countries should be “regional partners.”The
TV said the foreign minister in a meeting with his Iranian counterpart,
Mohammad Javad Zarif,
handed over a message from the Kuwaiti emir, Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah,
for Rouhani about the “necessity of improving relations.”The statements reflect efforts by both sides to
repair ties between Iran and
the Gulf Cooperation Council, which includes Kuwait,
Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain,
United Arab Emirates and Oman. The GCC
was formed in the early 1980s to confront Iran’s growing influence in the
region. Kuwait recalled its Tehran ambassador in January following attacks by
protesters on two Saudi diplomatic posts in Iran, though its embassy is still
operating. The missions were attacked after Saudi Arabia executed a prominent
Shiite cleric in the Sunni kingdom. Riyadh at
the time cut diplomatic relations with Tehran.
Iran and most GCC members
support opposite sides in the wars in Syria
and Yemen.
British Ministers threaten to replace
peers if House of Lords thwarts Brexit
By Benjamin de Wolf/Gatestone Europe/January
25/17/Fearing it would trigger a “constitutional crisis” ministers have said
they will not allow peers ― House of Lord members who are appointed,
rather than elected directly ― to disrupt the Brexit
process by delaying or amending the legislation when they debate Brexit next month. Ministers are even considering
threatening to install so-called “sunset peers” which
would see peers sit for a time limited period while the Article 50 legislation
is debated and voted. The bill, (presumably) called the European Union
Withdrawal Bill will likely be published on Thursday and then passed through
the House of Commons in just two weeks. Simply put: The Brits are going to vote
on Brexit. Some Lords (enough to make the ministers
nervous) want to block the Bill, therefore ministers
threaten to put new people (peers) in the House of Commons who favour the Bill,
to ensure the Bill will pass. After the bill has passed, these peers would
kindly be asked to leave again. One problem with the plan, The Telegraph
states, is that there is no “mechanism to sunset a peer – it depends on the
peers themselves, it is a life peerage”. This could mean these “sunset peers”
have to agree to quit after the Bill has passed through the House of Lords. It
remains uncertain if this manoeuvre is indeed necessary. Former Constitutional
affairs minister John Penrose said: “I would be amazed if the unelected Lords
went against the clear democratic will of the House of Commons. “If they do,
there will inevitably be calls for new Lords to be appointed to bring them into
line with the referendum result.”
Tory Lord Cormack added the constitutional position of the Lords was “inferior”
to the elected Commons and peers should not seek to “frustrate the will” of the
Commons.
Extremist gunmen storm hotel in Somali
capital, 8 killed
MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) January 25/17/ At least eight people were dead and 14
injured Wednesday as Somali security forces ended a siege by extremist fighters
who stormed a hotel in the capital, police said. Four al-Shabab
attackers were also killed in the attack on Dayah
hotel, which is often frequented by government officials, said Col. Mohamoud Abdi, a senior police
officer. Survivors described chaotic scenes in which hotel residents hid under
beds and others jumped out of windows of the four-story building to escape the attackers."They kicked down room doors and at some point
posed themselves as rescue teams by telling those inside to come out (only) to
kill them," said Hassan Nur, a traditional
Somali elder. He said two well-known clan elders were among those killed. The
assault on the hotel started when a suicide car bomb exploded at its gates. A
second explosion soon followed. Dozens of people, including lawmakers, were
thought to have been staying at the hotel at the time of the morning attack,
said Capt. Mohamed Hussein. A nearby shopping center caught fire and dozens of
people helped save goods from the flames. Somalia's homegrown
Islamic extremist group al-Shabab claimed
responsibility for the attack via its online radio, Andalus,
saying its fighters succeeded in entering the hotel. Al-Shabab
frequently targets hotels and other public places often visited by government
officials and foreigners. Al-Qaida's East African affiliate is fighting to
impose a strict version of Islam in this Horn of Africa nation. In June, gunmen
stormed the Nasa-Hablod hotel, killing at least 14
people. Two weeks before that, gunmen killed 15, including two members of
parliament, at the Ambassador hotel. Despite being ousted from most of its key
strongholds, al-Shabab continues to carry out deadly
guerrilla attacks across large parts of south and central Somalia.
Earlier this month, a bomb explosion at a restaurant in Mogadishu killed three, and a suicide bomber
detonated an explosives-laden vehicle at a security checkpoint near the
international airport, killing at least three. That blast occurred a few
hundred meters (yards) from the main base of the African Union peacekeeping
mission. Al-Shabab's assaults have threatened this
nation's attempts to rebuild from decades of chaos. The presidential election,
a key step toward recovery, already has been delayed several times because of
security and other concerns.
**Guled contributed from Hargeisa, Somalia.
Egypt names more than 1,000 citizens as
'terrorists'
The New Arab/25 January, 2017/Egypt has come under fire for its “indiscriminate
use of broad counterterrorism laws” after a criminal court classified around
1,500 citizens as “terrorists” for their alleged assistance to the Muslim
Brotherhood.
Since former president Mohamed Morsi's
overthrow, led by then military chief now President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, authorities have effectively banned protests,
imprisoned tens of thousands – often after unfair trials – and outlawed the
Muslim Brotherhood.
A sweeping counterterrorism law has expanded the authorities’ powers, with
National Security officers committing torture and enforced disappearances.
“Dumping hundreds of people onto a list of alleged terrorists, with serious
ramifications for their freedom and livelihood, and without even telling them,
makes a mockery of due process,” said Joe Stork, deputy Middle
East director at Human Rights Watch [HRW]. The immediate effects
from the January 12 decision include a travel ban, asset freeze, loss of
political rights, and passport cancellation. Among those placed on the list
were former President Mohamed Morsi and his sons,
senior Brotherhood leaders, businessman Safwan Thabet, former footballer Mohammed Aboutrika
and journalist Hisham Gaafar.
The people involved were not able to contest the designation, and most may not
have been informed about it before the court ruled, HRW added. Lawyers for
several of the people told Human Rights Watch that the authorities did not
inform their clients about any related court sessions and that they first knew
about the decision from media outlets that reported it on January 17. “Using
these laws to impose penalties on people without giving them a chance to defend
themselves seriously violates their rights to due process,” Human Rights Watch
said in a statement on Tuesday. The decision can be appealed directly to Egypt’s highest
appeals court. “Terrorism is a real issue in Egypt, but the authorities are
using blunt tools of questionable legality to confront the problem,” Stork
said. “Such an approach disregards facts indiscriminately labels opponents as
terrorists, and makes no effort to sort the guilty from the innocent.”
To Stop the Export of Terrorism and
Islamic Extremism, IRGC Must Be Blacklisted
NCRI Iran News/ Wednesday, 25 January 2017/The Iranian Revolutionary Guard
Corps (IRGC) came about after the 1979 revolution and gained significant power
10 years later when Mullah Ali Khamenei became
Supreme Leader of Iran in 1989. He pushed other clerics to the side in favour
of the IRGC. It has been suggested that the IRGC are now going to have a major
influence in future policy-making in Iran. Ali Akbar Rafsanjani – a
founding father of the Iranian regime – has died and no longer holds any
political weight. Rafsanjani was a member of the Assembly of Experts which
allowed him to oversee, choose or remove the Supreme Leader. So his death
brings much more strength to the IRGC. Iran regime is trying to gain the
trust of more nations worldwide following the Iran Nuclear Deal. In hope of decreasing the scrutiny. The less scrutiny there
is on Iran,
the easier the IRGC can get away with cracking down on its people. Domestic
opposition and religious minorities in Iran are systematically cracked
down upon. Furthermore, because of the Nuclear Deal, more and more foreign
businesses are starting to deal with Iran again, ignoring the fact that
IRGC is a main beneficiary of a lot of the new revenue. On top of this, the
IRGC is being granted a bigger portion of the country’s annual budget.
Lawmakers have given the green light to allocate five per cent of the budget to
the military. The IRGC is actually a terrorist force claiming to fight
extremism by having men on the ground in Iraq , Syria , Yemen and all over the region.
Leaders in the region and further afield have not properly addressed the issue
of Iran’s
military presence which is increasing all the time. Some have decided to ignore
the issue for either geopolitical or economic reasons. And of course some other
nations have been threatened into inaction. The IRGC is the main instrument of
suppression inside Iran and
terrorism outside, and it will continue to export Islamic Extremism and
Terrorism until powers from the West and the Middle East
take action to stop it.
US Lawmakers: Designate the Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a
Foreign Terrorist Organization
NCRI Iran
News/ Wednesday, 25 January 2017/Rep. Rohrabacher: ‘Isn’t It Wonderful To Have
a President Who Can Use The Words Radical Islamic Terrorist?’Rep.
Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) said Tuesday he believed
the Trump administration will stand up to the regime in Iran and praised the
new president for his willingness to use terms shunned by his predecessor when
describing the threat posed by terrorists. Wrote Penny Starr in the CNSNews.com
on January 24, the following is the full text: “Isn’t it wonderful to have a
president that can use the words ‘radical Islamic terrorist?’” Rohrabacher said
at a Capitol Hill briefing by the Organization of Iranian American Communities.
“Isn’t that a wonderful thing? “ “That means we have sent a message to those
radical Islamic terrorists that run Iran, that we have their number. We
know what they are doing and we are not afraid to stand up to their type of
tyranny.”(In his inaugural address, Trump pledged to “unite the civilized world
against radical Islamic terrorism, which we will eradicate completely from the
face of the Earth.”)Rohrabacher and other lawmakers speaking at the briefing –
including Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.), one of 25 House Democrats who voted
against President Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran – called for continued
sanctions against the Iranian regime. They also called on the administration to
designate the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a foreign terrorist
organization. The lawmakers called Iran
the “number one state-sponsor of terror,” citing its ongoing support for the
Assad regime in Syria
where hundreds of thousands of people have been killed in the drawn-out civil
war. Also taking part in the briefing were representatives of the exiled
Iranian opposition movement. Last September, the last group of National Council
of Resistance of Iran (NCRI)/People’s Mujahedeen Organization of Iran (MEK)
dissidents who had been living in Iraq for decades – in Camp Ashraf in Diyala province, and
then from 2012 in Camp Liberty near the Baghdad airport – were relocated to
Europe with the help of the United States. Before the relocation, the residents
had come under attack on a number of occasions. Dissidents at Tuesday’s
briefing thanked lawmakers for their continued support for a free and
democratic Iran.
“We have freed the people of Camp
Ashraf,”
Rohrabacher said. “Now it’s time for us to free the people of Iran.”
Ahmadinejad reneged on pact with Saudi, recalls Rafsanjani aide
Staff Writer, Al Arabiya.net Wednesday, 25 January 2017/Iranian website Jamaran published on Wednesday an interview with Ghoulam-Ali Rajai, former
chairman and advisor to Iran’s
former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who died
two weeks ago at the age of 82. In the interview, Rajai
accused former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad quoting Rafsanjani of obstructing the agreement
with Saudi Arabia.
According to Rajai, Rafsanjani stressed, saying to
him: "I have returned from Saudi
Arabia with my hands full. However, Ahmadinejad gave up on all the agreements.
The Issue of Corruption and Astronomical
Embezzlement in Iran
Wednesday, 25 January 2017/NCRI - The dimensions of corruption and astronomical
embezzlements within the Iranian regime have reached a point that parts of them
are reflected every once in a while in regime’s media. The state-run Javan newspaper has on Monday 23 January raised the issue
of corruption and astronomical embezzlement, maintaining that there’s no hope
to correct the situation. “Iran’s
economy is faced with a real challenge”, writes the newspaper, “the
astronomical figures of embezzlements and corruptions revealed every once in a
while point to a sick economy. If until a few years ago we were optimistic that
a rebuke by the judiciary could save this sick-in-bed economy from the scourge
of embezzlers and keep it alive, today, however, with such large numbers
appearing every day on the front pages of newspapers and ironically being
endorsed by the judiciary in their press conferences, we’re almost running out
of hope”“There was a time when a 300-billion-toman
(US $ 86 million) embezzlement seemed so huge that the least demand shouted by
people was a death sentence for the embezzlers. But when we heard of a
thousand-billion-toman embezzlement for which no
decisive measure was taken, we passed it by with a quick look, so that today
it’s quite normal to speak of $857 million, $2/3 billion and even $3/5 billion
embezzlements”, adds the state-run newspaper. The newspaper then starts
lamenting that “what has become of this country that we’ve grown so indifferent
that we look at all this as if some money has been legitimately transferred
from one pocket to another.”
It then points out that people are fully aware of the depth of
corruption within the regime, saying: “quite sadly, it should be pointed out
that today, it’s more or less being whispered among people. how is it possible
for people to remain optimistic when they see that the clues found during the
inspection process of a person involved in a billion-dollar embezzlement point
to a first-degree relative of an official in the system, turning him into the
talk of the town, and despite all that he still attends all ceremonies and
meetings.”
City Council of Tehran's Session Tensed up While Reviewing Plasco
Building Disaster
Wednesday, 25 January 2017/NCRI - The head of City Council of Tehran’s
Transportation Committee called for the resignation of Bagher
Ghalibaf the mayor of Tehran, following Tehran’s Plasco Building disaster. In his pre-agenda speech at the
City Council of Tehran’s meeting on Tuesday January 23, Mohsen
Sorkhu pointed to a clip released in Sunday’s closed
session of the City Council and reflected in different media, saying that “the
clip has been released in such a way that it seems as if the mayor had warned
the City Council over Plasco Building’s safety issues
and the City Council did nothing about it. Like I said in Sunday’s special
session, the Plasco incident is so huge that it’s
expected of the mayor of Tehran
to resign.” Also in Tuesday’s session, member of the fake City Council of
Tehran ‘Rahmatollah Hafezi’
confessed to the plunders carried out within the council, saying that
“unfortunately, of the 120 billion tomans supposed to
be used for purchasing firefighting equipments, only 54 billion tomans have been funded. So, don’t lie to people that
you’ve fully dedicated the budget for the equipments. It would be much better
if you release the budget details than to tell lies to people.”Also
regarding the Tuesday January 24 session of the fake City Council of Tehran,
the state-run ISNA news agency reported that after a reminder by the Secretary
of the Council, Abbas Jadidi
was going to speak, assuming that it was his turn. He was however protested by Mohsen Pirhadi who told him: “it
is Mrs. Rastgoo’s turn. That’s my job to keep track
of whose turn it is. I’m in a bad mood today, I’m a nervous wreck. Please sit
down.” Abbas Jadidi gets
angry at this moment and tells him:”be careful how
you talk to me. Who do you think you are talking to me like this? You’ve got
carried away? I wonder what’s wrong with this hot seat that anyone sitting on
it gets carried away.” He then said that “we’re living in a minefield.”
Overview of Iran's
Economy
Wednesday, 25 January 2017/NCRI - According to Iran’s Central Bank, the amount of
money that is owed by the Rouhani government has
increased by 170 percent. At the same time, the government’s debt to other
banks shows a 152 percent increase over the past three years and eight months.
The state-run Fars news agency quoting
economic experts on January 14 reported, “A sharp increase in government debts’
has disarrayed banks’ balance sheets, decreasing their capacity to provide bank
facilities even further.”
According to another report by the state-run Khabar
Online news agency on January 14, debts owed to the Central Bank by other
financial institutions have surpassed 100 trillion Tomans
(US $28.572 billion). Meanwhile, private commercial banks have experienced the
highest growth in debt with an 82.5 percent increase. The Central Bank’s
figures show that from 2014 on, the amount of growth in debts has been 1,072
percent for public commercial banks, 30.5 percent for specialized banks and 688
percent for private banks and credit institutions, the state-run Khabar Online news agency reported on January 14. Overall,
the growth in banks’ debts to the Central Bank has changed course from
specialized banks towards public and private commercial banks. The main index
of the Tehran Stock Exchange was down again last week, falling 368 points,
equivalent to a loss of half a percentage point, causing traders to suffer a
two percent loss year to date, according to figures published by the state-run
Asia newspaper on January 17. Also the amount of liquidity was up again,
reaching $332 billion by the end of November 2016. The figure shows a 28
percent increase compared to the same period in the previous year and a 14.2
percent increase compared to March 2016. Meanwhile, a 27 percent decrease in
capital formation in the past four years as well as a negative growth in the
mining sector has raised concerns over the future of Iran’s economy. Despite retired
teachers’ chanting ‘Poverty line four million, our salary one million’ in front
of the regime’s parliament in Tehran
last week, the parliament’s research center announced that the poverty line for
Iranian individuals is 1.8 million Tomans a month.
Meanwhile, the minimum monthly wage in Iran for workers is 812,000 Tomans and government employees generally receive less than
1.8 million Tomans a month. These figures show that
nearly all the workers and most office employees are living below the official
poverty line in Iran.
Iraqi Shia
cleric Sadr condemns Trump, calls to liberate
Jerusalem
Seth J. Frantzman/Jerusalem Post/25 January 2017ظIn a statement on Tuesday Iraqi Shia cleric, politician and militia leader Muqtada al-Sadr called for the
formation of a special force to “liberate Jerusalem,” in response to claims US
President Donald Trump would move the embassy to Israel’s capital. He called
the potential embassy move a “declaration of war on Islam,” and threatened the US embassy in Baghdad. Sadr has a long history of
inflammatory statements against the US. In 2004, shortly after the
US-led invasion overthrew Saddam Hussein and permitted Shia
leaders like Sadr to work openly, he gave an
interview to CBS calling the US
the “great serpent.” Between 2004 and 2008 his militia, the Mahdi
Army, attacked US coalition troops and was a thorn in the side of the newly
elected Iraqi government. He has sought to link the conflict in Iraq to Israel
before, in 2009 he encouraged attacks on US troops in Iraq as a “reprisal” for Israel’s Gaza
offensive that year. “Place Palestinian flags on the roofs of buildings and
mosques,” he told his followers. In 2016 Sadr sent
his followers to stage a sit-in in the heavily fortified Green Zone in Baghdad, taking over government buildings in a show of
force in Baghdad.
In his Tuesday statement Sadr, whose militia has been
accused of atrocities against Sunni Muslims in Iraq,
sounded a unifying pan-Islamic message on Jerusalem.
He told the Arab League and Organization of Islamic Cooperation to take
measures against the US
if the embassy is moved. The cleric, who has opposed the US role in Iraq
and threatened Americans who are taking part in the war against ISIS, said the US embassy in Baghdad
should be shuttered in response to any US
policy change on Jerusalem.
Some on social media were not convinced by Sadr’s
outburst. “Sadr will kill more Sunnis in Iraq and Syria
if Trump moves the embassy to Jerusalem,”
one user wrote on Twitter. Another writer named Bashir
al Raes responded by comparing Sadr’s
protestations on Jerusalem
with Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. Like Nasrallah Sadr seeks to use Jerusalem as a unifying issue but he is seen as a
sectarian leader in a Middle East where Shia militias
are connected to Iran and Syria’s Bashar al-Assad.
There is no evidence Sadr’s call, for a special force
to “liberate” Jerusalem
if the embassy is moved, is anything more than his usual threats. However, it
shows that an embassy move could be used by regional politicians to inflame
tensions and threaten US interests. Sadr would like
to move beyond his Shia Iraqi base of support and
present himself as leader capable of transcending sectarian boundaries in Iraq
and beyond.
Trump Signs Order to Start Mexico Border
Wall Project
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/January
25/17/U.S. President Donald Trump took a first step toward fulfilling his
pledge to "build a wall" on the Mexican border Wednesday, signing two
immigration-related decrees. Trump visited the Department of Homeland Security
to sign an order to begin work to "build a large physical barrier on the
southern border," according to the White House.
Kuwait Hangs 7 Prisoners, Including Royal,
in Mass Execution
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/January
25/17/Kuwait on Wednesday hanged seven people including a member of the ruling
family and a woman who burned dozens of people to death at a wedding party, the
authorities said. The three women and four men are the first to be executed in
the oil-rich Gulf state since mid-2013. They included two Kuwaitis, two
Egyptians and one each from Bangladesh,
the Philippines and Ethiopia, a
statement by the public prosecution office said. Sheikh Faisal Abdullah
Al-Sabah, the first royal to be executed in the emirate, was convicted of
shooting and killing his nephew, another member of the ruling family, in 2010
over a dispute. Nusra al-Enezi,
the other Kuwaiti, set fire to a tent in 2009 during a wedding party in an
apparent act of revenge against her husband for taking a second wife. Many of
the 57 people killed were women and children. Enezi,
who was 23 years old at the time, threw petrol on the tent, where people were
celebrating inside, and burned it down in one of the most devastating crimes in
the history of Kuwait.
The Filipina and Ethiopian women were domestic helpers convicted of murdering
members of their employers' families in two unrelated crimes.
Manila expresses sadness
Philippines
presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella said the
presidential palace was saddened by the execution of Jakatia
Pawa. Abella said the
Philippine government had done everything it could to save Pawa,
including legal assistance to ensure that her rights were respected and all
legal procedures were followed. Manila
"exerted all efforts to preserve her life, including diplomatic means and
appeals for compassion. Execution, however, could no longer be forestalled
under Kuwaiti laws... We pray for her and her bereaved family," he added.
Around 240,000 Filipinos are working and living in Kuwait, some of them domestic
helpers. The two Egyptians were also convicted of premeditated murder while the
Bangladeshi was convicted of abduction and rape. Kuwait resumed executions in 2013
after a moratorium of six years. In April 2013, authorities hanged three men
convicted of murder. Two months later, two Egyptians, convicted of murder and
abduction, were executed. One of them, Hajjaj Saadi was convicted of abducting and raping 17 children
below the age of 10. He denied the charges in court. Following those
executions, human rights organizations strongly condemned the resumption of
hangings in Kuwait.
Kuwait
has executed 74 men and six women since it introduced the death penalty in the
mid-1960. Most of those condemned have been convicted murderers or drug
traffickers.
Around 50 prisoners are on death row. Courts in Kuwait, which has an elected
parliament and an active political scene, have in the past handed down death
sentences to members of the Al-Sabah that has ruled the country for two and a
half centuries. Capital punishment is widespread in the Gulf region,
particularly in Iran and Saudi Arabia.
Every year Tehran and Riyadh execute hundreds of people, mostly for
murder and drug trafficking.
Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis
& editorials from miscellaneous sources published on January 25-26/17
Jared Kushner Needs a
Wingman
By Jonathan Schanzer/PoliticoMagazine/January 25/17
A Middle East peace deal won't succeed until there's peace between the
Palestinians themselves.
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/2017/01/25/jonathan-schanzerpoliticomagazine-jared-kushner-needs-a-wingman/
Donald Trump last week appointed his son-in-law Jared Kushner to “broker
a Middle East peace deal.” Mediating an
agreement between the Palestinians and Israelis is a “yuge”
task, and Trump knows it. But he can make Kushner’s job much easier if he
appoints another envoy, too.
The U.S.
needs someone to first broker a peace deal between the Palestinians themselves.
The Palestinian internecine conflict is a bipartisan blind spot. The last
two presidential administrations labored to achieve a
two-state solution without giving serious thought to solving the current
three-state scenario. Indeed, Israel
is currently sandwiched between two separate Palestinian statelets:
a Palestinian Authority-run West Bank and a Hamas-run Gaza Strip. The West Bank
government is open to making a deal with Israel in theory, but refuses in
practice thus far. The government ruling Gaza
seeks nothing less than Israel’s
destruction based on both religious and nationalist grounds. Both regimes
insist that they speak on behalf of the Palestinians.
The nominally secular Fatah faction, which is the dominant political
party in the Palestinian Authority, and the violent Islamist group Hamas have
vied for power since the first intifada of 1987. In fact, the spate of Hamas
suicide bombings in the 1990s may have been as much an attempt to delegitimize
the Palestinian Authority as they were an attempt to derail the ongoing peace
talks.
The George W. Bush administration, intent on spreading democracy in the
Arab World, encouraged the two factions to square off in elections in 2006.
Hamas won the contest, but the Palestinian Authority refused to allow the
terrorist group to govern. Tensions hit their zenith in 2007 when Hamas
launched a war and successfully wrested control of the Gaza Strip from the
Palestinian Authority. The Palestinian Authority still clings to power in the West Bank while Hamas today controls the Gaza Strip. Both
rule with brutality, for fear that the other may attempt to consolidate power
across the Palestinian divide.
While Washington
has made tepid efforts to empower Fatah at the expense of Hamas over the years,
it has done little to tackle the problem head-on. By contrast, Egypt, Syria,
Yemen, Qatar and Saudi Arabia have all tried to
broker power-sharing agreements between the two Palestinian parties. More
recently, Russia and Switzerland
have gotten into the act. The Russians probably even thought they succeeded
last week when Hamas and Fatah agreed to a “new national council.” But the news
came amidst reports of that Hamas and Fatah were accusing each other of
carrying out “politically motivated” arrests in their respective territories.
As expected, the purported agreement reached in Moscow was yet another false alarm.
But we need to give these governments credit. They understand that the
low-intensity conflict between the two most powerful Palestinian territories
makes a peace agreement with Israel
impossible. Indeed, they understand that the Palestinians lack a legitimate
leader capable of representing both territories or engaging in productive
diplomacy with Israel.
Rather than address the geopolitical split that renders any Palestinian
leader incapable of signing a peace agreement with Israel, the Obama administration
insisted that settlements are the primary obstacle to peace. While there may
come a time and place to address that issue, the focus on settlements was
putting the cart before the horse. Any diplomatic effort to end the conflict
between Palestinians and Israelis to include the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Israel must
first solve the Palestinian internecine conflict. From there, a bilateral
negotiation can ensue between two leaders—one Palestinian and one Israeli—that
legitimately represent their people.
Admittedly, it will be no small task to negotiate peace between the
Palestinians. The two sides harbor an ideological
hatred for one another that is equal to if not greater than what we often see
between Palestinians and Israelis. Their painful memories of the bloody 2007 Gaza conflict are not
soon to be forgotten.
There is also the diplomatic and legal challenge for American officials
of avoiding direct dealings with Hamas. For years, there have been whispers of
occasional track-two diplomacy between U.S. think tanks and the
Palestinian terrorist group. This could be one angle to explore. But even
indirect messages to Hamas should not signal acceptance. The group must disarm,
relinquish its control of the Gaza Strip and allow for a single Palestinian
Authority government to rule.
If Trump is looking for a bold step to take in his first one hundred
days, he should appoint a Special Envoy to Solve the Palestinian Conflict. In
doing so, his message would be clear: The United States is committed to
diplomacy between Palestinians and Israelis, which hinges on a solution to the
longstanding Palestinian internal dispute.
**Jonathan Schanzer is vice president for
research at Foundation for Defense of Democracies and
the author of Hamas vs Fatah: The Struggle for Palestine (Palgrave
Macmillan, 2008).
Black Label
Nathan Brown/Michele Dunne/Carnegie/Middle East Centre/ January 25, 2017
http://carnegie-mec.org/diwan/67771?lang=en
Designating the Muslim Brotherhood a foreign terrorist
organization may actually backfire.
Since 1997, U.S.
law has empowered the secretary of state to designate specific groups as
“foreign terrorist organizations,” bringing down on them—and those who support
them—an imposing range of penalties and sanctions.
Such designations have come through a complex bureaucratic process. Several
times in recent years, members of Congress have introduced legislation asking
the secretary of state to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a foreign
terrorist organization, but those efforts have not made it as far as floor
votes, and would not have been greeted with enthusiasm by the Obama
administration in any case.
Now there are new efforts from the Trump administration, as well as the
Congress, to take up the question of designating the Brotherhood anew. President
Donald Trump reportedly is considering an executive order to instruct the
secretary of state (who has not even taken up his duties yet) to undertake the
process; national security advisor Mike Flynn and secretary of state nominee
Rex Tillerson have already suggested they are
similarly inclined. In addition, recently-introduced bills by Senator Ted Cruz
and Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart call on the secretary of state to report back
to Congress within 60 days on the designation question. Members of Congress and
key parts of the executive branch are being called upon to ask: Is there
something called the Muslim Brotherhood that fits the definition in U.S. law of a
foreign terrorist organization? And would designating it as such be an
effective way of fighting terrorism in the United States and abroad?
REVERSING THE BURDEN OF PROOF
Cruz’s bill is very brief and seems quite clear in its intent and most of its
inclinations. It expresses the sense of Congress that the Muslim Brotherhood is
a foreign terrorist organization and calls on the administration to agree or to
prove otherwise. In that respect it reverses the typical burden of proof.
According to established procedures, a variety of U.S. government agencies consider
whether to apply the foreign terrorist organization designation and then allow
Congress the opportunity to object. Under the bill, Congress would speak first
and force the administration either to agree or, if it did not, to argue the
Muslim Brotherhood’s case in public—something the Trump administration is
unlikely to wish to do. While the bureaucratic agencies would still be
involved, the process would be far more political in nature than past
designations.
But for all its clarity on what should be done, the bill is completely silent
on one question, and that silence is portentous, as it would lead to the most
pernicious effects of the legislation: The bill starkly declares the Muslim
Brotherhood to be a terrorist organization, but it does not define what the
Brotherhood is.
Nor is a definition easy. There is no single thing called the Muslim
Brotherhood, but instead a number of organizations, movements, parties,
associations, and informal groups that take some inspiration, sometimes direct
and sometimes remote, from the original movement founded in Egypt in 1928
and the core texts its founder produced. Brotherhood-inspired movements long
ago concluded that their circumstances were so distinct that each would follow
the path it saw as appropriate in its own society (a point made by Marc Lynch
in a recent paper for Carnegie). And there are many organizations that have
been formed with varying degrees of participation from Brotherhood members, but
their ties to any Brotherhood organization are often informal and vary in
scope. Nor is their use or espousal of violence, a key aspect of the terrorism
designation, a given, even if one branch of the Muslim Brotherhood that has
unarguably used violence in recent years is the Palestinian organization Hamas,
which the United States declared to be a foreign terrorist organization in
1997.
But far beyond Hamas, there are legal political parties in Indonesia, Pakistan,
Morocco, Tunisia, Jordan,
Iraq, Kuwait, Yemen,
and even Israel
that have roots in Muslim Brotherhood organizations. Many of these parties have
cooperated with the United
States in various ways. In Kuwait, a Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated party
has supported the country’s alliance with the United
States; in Iraq,
a Brotherhood-inspired party cooperated with the U.S. occupation of the country. Morocco and Tunisia
have Brotherhood-type parties participating in cabinets that work with the United States
closely—and that strenuously defend their decision to pursue their agendas
through electoral politics. Libya’s
Justice and Construction Party has supported the
UN-sponsored unity government, also endorsed by the United States. There are rebel
groups in Syria that Washington has supported
that have Muslim Brotherhood origins as well. Which of these should now be
considered foreign terrorist organizations?
In addition, there are U.S.
allies, such as Turkey and
the United Kingdom,
that have received refugees belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood. Qatar hosts not only the forward headquarters of
the U.S. Central Command but also some Muslim Brotherhood leaders, notably from
Egypt.
Particularly significant is the fact that leaders of Turkey’s ruling party, the AKP, to
which many of the new Trump administration officials are close, have long
considered their movement an ideological kin to the Brotherhood and have treated
Brotherhood-affiliated parties accordingly for at least the past decade. Should
these allies now be considered state sponsors of terrorism?
PUSHING EGYPT’S
BROTHERHOOD OVER THE EDGE?
There remains the question of Egypt,
whose President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi has been pushing
allies to designate the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization since he
overthrew his predecessor Mohammed Morsi—who hailed
from the Brotherhood—in 2013. As we write, a struggle continues within the
Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood over how to deal with its predicament, which
includes inter alia the imprisonment of thousands of its members including
nearly all of its senior leaders, the death of more than a thousand people
during the forceful breakup of sit-ins that followed the 2013 coup, the
confiscation of assets and businesses owned by its leaders, the dissolution of
more than 500 affiliated non-governmental organizations, and the outlawing of
the group’s political party and media organs. There is indeed a debate,
particularly among younger members, about whether these circumstances call for
abandoning the non-violent approach the group has taken since the early 1960s.
The language coming from those associated with the Muslim Brotherhood has been
steadily escalating for some time, and in recent weeks, some have pushed to
abandon the leadership’s commitment to nonviolence. And there are reports that
some of the small groups that have carried out attacks on Egyptian police
stations and infrastructure may have young Brotherhood members among them.
What there is not, at least so far, is evidence that senior Muslim Brotherhood
leaders have ordered or condoned such violence, or that the Brotherhood has
carried out any of the major terrorist attacks that have wracked the country,
such as the December 2016 church bombing in Cairo, the October 2015 downing of
a Russian jet, and the many military-style assaults on Egyptian soldiers in the
Sinai. Those attacks have been claimed by a group originally known as Ansar Beit al-Maqdis,
which affiliated itself to the Islamic State and considers itself the
Brotherhood’s ideological enemy (the United States declared it a foreign
terrorist organization in 2014). Taking all of this into consideration, would
it be wise to declare the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood to be a terrorist
organization, effectively forcing its leaders in that direction because all
other political and legal avenues will be closed to them?
Thus the sweeping measure to declare the Brotherhood a
foreign terrorist organization now being contemplated not only does not accord
with the facts, but is also more likely to undermine than achieve its
ostensible purpose and could result in collateral damage affecting other U.S.
policy goals. The greatest damage might be in the realm of public
diplomacy, as using a broad brush to paint all Muslim Brotherhood organizations
as terrorists would be understood by many Muslims around the world as a
declaration of war against non-violent political Islamists—and indeed against
Islam itself.
The move could also have underappreciated domestic repercussions. Those
pursuing the foreign terrorist organization designation have made clear that
they regard major American Muslim organizations as Brotherhood-inspired.
Several groups were named by the Department of Justice as unindicted
co-conspirators in the criminal case launched against the Holy Land Foundation
in Texas for
allegedly supporting Hamas. It is clear that for some American Muslim leaders,
and for some of their vociferous critics, the view that they are terrorist
supporters hangs over them and their activities. Many American Muslims fear
that the real targets of the effort to designate the Muslim Brotherhood are
their communal organizations and that the step has as much or more to do with
shutting down nettlesome domestic opposition as with protecting U.S. citizens
from violence.
The Case for a Kurdish State in the Middle East
Diliman Abdulkader/Gatestone
Institute/January 25/17
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/2017/01/25/diliman-abdulkadergatestone-institute-the-case-for-a-kurdish-state-in-the-middle-east/
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9813/case-for-a-kurdish-state
Many of the Kurds affected by these ruling powers did not want to separate, but
simply to be able to live a peaceful and stable life; the push for a state was
the creation of the states themselves, through their oppression of the Kurds.
Kurdistan offers an opportunity for all its
citizens to look towards an inclusive, pluralistic society where religious
freedom is not only tolerated, but encouraged.
Kurds respect both the Sunnis and the Shiites within their territories and have
strong ties with the only Jewish state in the Middle East.
A Kurdish state has the potential to bring amity to an otherwise unstable
region.
Many international bodies including the United Nations, the European Union, and
the Arab League continue to push for a Palestinian state, while ignoring calls
for a Kurdish one. For far too long, the Arab, Turkish and Iranian peoples and
leaderships have used the Israeli-Palestinian issue as justification for their
own problems.
Without acknowledging the "Kurdish question," which spans four major
states -- Iraq, Iran, Syria,
and Turkey -- the Middle East will have trouble achieving stability.
The goal of solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has long been used by
Arabs, Turks and Iranians in the Middle East
as a cover to deflect criticism away from their own indifferent leadership. The
22 existing Arab States, along with Turkey
and Iran,
can easily establish a homeland for the Palestinians, but they are not
interested in doing so. The goal of these states is not to create another Arab
state, but to eradicate an only Jewish state.
Giving the Palestinians a state will not solve the Syrian civil war, the
Sunni-Shiite divisions in Iraq
will remain, the destructive Islamist path of Turkey's
President Erdogan will continue, the world will see
continued Iranian aggression against Israel,
Sunnis, and Kurds, and the hold hat both Iran
and Saudi Arabia
have on Islam will only strengthen.
The Kurds are large in number (an estimated 40-50 million) and have a unique
language, culture, and identity that differs markedly
from their neighbors. The main problems in the region
center around Islam versus Islam (Arab-Arab,
Arab-Iran, Arab-Turk, Iran-Turk) or Islam versus
minorities, including Christians, Yezidis, Chaldeans,
Alevis, Jews, etc.
Kurds embrace Western values such as gender equality, religious freedom and
human rights.
The Kurdish people have continually suffered in the Middle
East.
The Turks, under the Ottomans killed tens of thousands of Kurds in massacres in
Dersim and Zilan. By the
1990s, more than 3,000 Kurdish villages were destroyed. According to Human
Rights Watch, 378,335 Kurdish villagers had been displaced in Turkey.
The Kurds have a distinct language and, although Sunni Muslim, they are
relatively secular. Within areas with majority Kurdish populations live Kurdish
Jews, Shiites, Christians, and Yezidis. This
diversity has shaped a tolerant nature within their society. The Kurds push for
the separation of religion and state, and allow for churches, mosques,
synagogues and temples to be built next to one another -- a respect for the
"other" rarely seen in the Middle East.
Under the dictatorships in Iraq,
Syria, Turkey and Iran, the Kurds are still suffering
from Arabization, Turkification,
and the Iranian tactic of forcible land confiscation.
The Kurds are no strangers to having their historical territories taken over by
such regimes; they therefore understand and respect minority rights. The
Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has embraced its Jewish community, and
rescued over 3,000 Kurdish Yezedis from ISIS when
they were trapped on Mount Shingal in Mosul. Many Christians and minority
communities have even requested they be part of the Kurdistan region after the
state of Iraq
failed them.
Kurds have also taken in 300,000 Syrian refugees and 2.3 million internally
displaced peoples (IDP) from Iraq.
The KRG does not distinguish between them as Sunni-Shiite or Muslim-Christian,
but recognizes them as humans suffering from war. This is far different from
what we see in Arab nations. Many Gulf
states to date have not
taken in any refugees, despite sharing a common religion. Saudi Arabia, home of holy cities of Mecca and Medina,
has quietly squelched the thought of allowing refugees to seek protection
there, even as the Saudi kingdom has hundreds of thousands of empty
air-conditioned tents available while their own Arab brothers are suffering in neighboring states.
A similar situation is seen in Qatar,
UAE, and Kuwait.
Iran, according to Human
Rights Watch, has sent Afghan refugees to fight in Syria by force, under the Islamic
Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), which already has violated countless human
rights agreements. Peter Bouckaert, Emergencies
Director at HRW states that, "Iran
has not just offered Afghan refugees and migrants incentives to fight in Syria, but several said they were threatened
with deportation back to Afghanistan
unless they did."
Iran
imprisons and publicly executes Kurds to this day.
States such as Jordan and Lebanon are forced to take in refugees largely
because they share a border with Iraq
and Syria;
would they if they were not forced?
Turkey
has used the refugee crisis from the Syrian civil war as political leverage
against the European Union to gain accession into the 28-nation bloc, to
receive financial aid ($3 billion a year) and to change the demographics of the
Kurdish regions in the southeast. There are even reports of Erdogan's
regime forcing male refugees in Turkey
to go back into Syria
to fight with the Turkish military in exchange for aid to their families.
Women in Kurdish society were not always free. Kurds are predominantly tribal
and many live in rural mountainous regions. Kurdish women were historically
victims of honor killings and child marriages. The
move away from these practices began when Kurdish resistance groups began to
form in the wake of Turkey's
crackdowns during the 1980's military coups. The founder of the Kurdistan
Workers Party (PKK), Abdullah Ocalan, strongly
believes in women's liberation and even wrote a book titled Liberating Life:
Women's Revolution. Ocalan believed that, "A
country cannot be free unless women are free." Kurdistan
even recently hosted the International Conference on Women and Human Rights,
where it pushed for greater support for women's leadership in the KRG.
The emphasis on gender rights as well as ethnic and national rights is a form
of democracy unseen in the Middle East.
States such as the United Arab Emirates (UAE) appoint women to positions such
as "Minister of Happiness," which not only belittles women but
continues to suppress the potential they can provide to society as a whole.
In Iraq,
Saddam Hussein attacked the Kurds with chemical weapons in 1988. He murdered
5,000 civilians and destroyed 4,000 villages.
Hussein aggressively went after minorities such as the Kurds, despite being
Sunni Muslims. Between 1988-1991, his regime murdered
thousands, effectively committing genocide.
Under Saddam Hussein, thousands of Kurds were forced to leave their homes when
the Iraqi military destroyed villages and towns. According to Human Rights
Watch:
"Arab families were given financial incentives to move north, and the
Iraqi government embarked on housing construction projects to bring more Arab
families north in order to change the demographic make-up of the north."
The Syrian and Turkish regimes have done the same.
In Syria,
Hafez Assad, Bashar Assad's father, cracked down on
Sunni majority and denied Kurds their right to speak Kurdish or open Kurdish
schools. Kurds were considered stateless peoples as they were denied Syrian
citizenship. Ironically, Hafez Assad had ratified the International Covenant on
Civil and Political Rights in 1969, the International Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, the International Covenant
on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights. His son, Bashar,
also agreed to the International Covenant on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination against Women in 2003. So much for that.
Turkey
is virtually at war with its Kurds and continues to deny rights to effectively
all minorities. Greeks, Armenians and Alevis are
oppressed and removed from their historical lands. From the Armenian Genocide
to denying the peoplehood of the Kurds, Turkish
nationalism has been the main cause of instability within the state. Founded
upon the notion of western-secularism by Mustafa Kamal
Ataturk, Turkey's
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan,
has been attempting to reestablish the primacy of
Islam. Erdogan has labeled
the Kurds as separatists and a threat.
Turkey also apparently fears
the success of the Kurds in Syria
in their fight against ISIS, and their
declaration of an autonomous region. Erdogan seems
concerned that his Kurdish population will call for autonomy, as it has.
The Kurds, in 1946, temporarily managed to establish their own independent
state in northwestern Iran,
with the help of the Soviet Union. The Kurdish
struggle for freedom continues in Rojhalat (east) for
the recognition of their identity and political rights. During the Iran-Iraq
war, Kurds were used by both powers against one another as pawns, in order to
irritate the other side. Saddam Hussein pushed the Kurds in Iran to rise up, and Iran
gave arms to the Kurds in Iraq
to fight against the Ba'athist regime, all while
killing their own Kurdish populations. To date, Kurds striving to be recognized
as a legitimate minority within Iran
either disappear, are imprisoned, or are publicly executed.
Many of the Kurds affected by these ruling powers did not want to separate, but
simply to be able to live a peaceful and stable life; the push for a state was
the creation of the states themselves, through their oppression of the Kurds.
Any new state that is established must be willing to live with its neighbor in peace. Kurds will need to establish close
relations with all the states from which they are separating, particularly as Kurdistan will be landlocked.
The creation of a Kurdish state would above all acknowledge that the Kurds
exist as a distinct entity, through their language, respect for equal rights,
and their secular culture.
With the little stability the Kurds have in northern Iraq since the downfall of
Saddam Hussein, and the advancement of the Kurds in Rojava
within two years after pushing back ISIS, they have proven capable of running a
state and respecting all those within it. The Kurdistan Regional Government
(KRG) and the recently-declared autonomous territory in Rojava
(western Syrian-Kurdistan) have been a model for all
states in the region to follow.
As liberal as Kurdistan has become in respect
to social freedoms, it continues to be surrounded by states that lack similar
values. The states surrounding Kurdish territories, including Iran, Iraq,
Syria and Turkey are
currently either failed or under oppressive regimes.
Because Kurds are religiously diverse moderates who prioritize their
ethno-linguistic identity over religion, Kurdistan
offers an opportunity for all its citizens to look towards an inclusive,
pluralistic society where religious freedom is not only tolerated, but
encouraged.
Kurds respect both the Sunnis and the Shiites within their territories and have
strong ties with the only Jewish state in the Middle East.
A Kurdish state has the potential to bring amity to an otherwise unstable
region.
**Diliman Abdulkader is at
the School of International
Service, American University in Washington
DC and a columnist for NRT
English.
© 2017 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The
articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of
Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced,
copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone
Institute.
Nomination for Nobel Peace Prize: Reverend
Gavin Ashenden
Douglas Murray/Gatestone Institute/January 25/17
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9825/gavin-ashenden
The section of the Quran that a Muslim student recited
at the church service points out the Islamic belief that Jesus was not the Son
of God. Even in today's Britain,
this does not seem quite the view that leaders of the national church are
supposed to propagate.
"The justification offered that it engages some kind of reciprocity
founders on the understandable refusal of Islamic communities to read passages
from the Gospel in Muslim prayers announcing the Lordship of Christ. It never
happens.... apologies may be due to the Christians suffering dreadful
persecution at the hands of Muslims in the Middle East
and elsewhere. To have the core of a faith for which they have suffered deeply
treated so casually by senior western clergy such as the Provost of Glasgow is
unlikely to have a positive outcome." — Reverend Gavin Ashenden,
The Times.
"I resigned in order to be able to speak more freely about the struggle
that Christianity is facing in our culture. I had no idea that there were plans
afoot by a Scottish Cathedral to 'reach out to Muslims' by scrapping a Bible
reading from their worship on the Feast of the Epiphany (when Christ's Lordship
is celebrated as the Light of the World) and replacing it with a part of the
Koran that denied Jesus was the Son of God.... it represented one more step
along a road, which if the Church continues to follow, will speed up the destruction
of Christianity in our country." — Reverend Gavin Ashenden,
The Times.
In a nation much in need of heroes, an Anglican Reverend has stepped forward,
putting his sincere and serious beliefs ahead of the unserious and insincere
pieties of our time. Everybody -- secular or religious -- has cause to feel
enormous gratitude.
Very occasionally -- even in contemporary Britain -- some good news arrives.
No single piece of news has been more invigorating than the discovery that a
member of the clergy of the Church of England has found a vertebra.
In recent years, the British public have become used to a steady succession of
bad-news stories from the purveyors of the Good News. This has taken every
imaginable form, from the former Bishop of Oxford suggesting in the House of
Lords that the Quran could be recited at the next coronation service, to the
former Archbishop of Canterbury -- Rowan Williams -- notoriously suggesting
that a place should be found for Islamic sharia in
the law of the land.
So the place in the British national comedy reserved for the type of vicar
unwilling to take the side of his own faith in any argument has darkly morphed.
The failure of the Church of England to defend its own beliefs or its own
followers when they are facing persecution around the world,
has become an unamusing stain on the reputation of
the church. Its representatives increasingly look as though they are willing to
defend anything -- including the most intolerant expressions of the world's
most intolerant religions -- rather than argue for their own faith or the faith
of their own congregants.
One example that emerged earlier this month appeared to epitomise the trend. At
a service in the Cathedral of St Mary in Glasgow
to mark the Feast of the Epiphany, the Cathedral thought it wise to invite a
Muslim student to read from the Quran. The aim -- according to the leader of
the Scottish Anglican church, Bishop David Chillingworth
-- was to try to improve relations between Muslims and Christians in the city.
If that were indeed the intention, it was singularly ill-advised. And as though
the decision were not already poorly enough thought through, the section of the
Quran the Muslim student recited at the service was the section of the Quran
about Jesus. The section in question points out the Islamic belief that Jesus
was not the Son of God. Even in today's Britain, this does not seem quite
the view that leaders of the national church are supposed to propagate.
There was a small rumpus when this story broke. During it, the ray of hope came
in the form of a letter in The Times of London. Written by the Reverend Gavin Ashenden, it pointed out that:
"Sanctioning a key passage from the Koran which denies the divinity of
Jesus to be read in Christian worship has been widely criticised as a rather
serious failure. The justification offered that it engages some kind of
reciprocity founders on the understandable refusal of Islamic communities to
read passages from the Gospel in Muslim prayers announcing the Lordship of
Christ. It never happens.
"Quite apart from the wide distress (some would say blasphemy) caused by
denigrating Jesus in Christian worship, apologies may be due to the Christians
suffering dreadful persecution at the hands of Muslims in the Middle East and
elsewhere. To have the core of a faith for which they have suffered deeply
treated so casually by senior western clergy such as the Provost of Glasgow is
unlikely to have a positive outcome. There are other and considerably better
ways to build "bridges of understanding".
It is not a lie to say that on reading this letter the heart sang. And not just
for the contents and for the fact that the signatory was a Reverend but for
what was listed beneath as his title: "Chaplain to Her Majesty the
Queen." It may be pointed out that there are several dozen people who hold
this title, and so the Revd Ashenden is not the sole
spiritual adviser to Her Majesty. But nevertheless, this made the letter a
statement of considerably more significance. The Queen is the Head of the
Church of England who swore at her coronation that she would be the
"Defender of the Faith." Here was one of her Chaplains standing
against the prevailing trends of the age and actually defending the faith which
his employer swore to uphold. In a struggle this complex, such stands -- even,
or especially when they should be statements of the obvious -- stand for a
great deal.
But good news does not last very long in Britain these days. The Reverend's
letter was published on January 17, and less than a week later, The Times
published the inevitable follow-on story:
"[The Reverend Gavin Ashenden] said yesterday he
had resigned from his duties, after almost a decade with the royal
ecclesiastical household. He admitted that 'conversations had taken place'
after publication of his letter. He said that the decorative role of royal
chaplain required public silence."
The Reverend has now written a fuller explanation of his decision:
I resigned in order to be able to speak more freely about the struggle that
Christianity is facing in our culture.
I had no idea that there were plans afoot by a Scottish Cathedral to
"reach out to Muslims" by scrapping a Bible reading from their
worship on the Feast of the Epiphany (when Christ's Lordship is celebrated as
the Light of the World) and replacing it with a part of the Koran that denied
Jesus was the Son of God.
But when it did happen, it represented such a serious repudiation of allegiance
to Christ and the Gospels, that it could not be left unchallenged.
Leaving aside what kind of Christian would be happy to bring into the Ministry
of the Word a passage from the Koran used to repudiate the claims of the
Gospels, it represented one more step along a road, which if the Church
continues to follow, will speed up the destruction of Christianity in our
country.
Of course, the clergy who lead the Cathedral in Glasgow have not resigned their positions. No
meaningful criticism or pressure has or will be brought upon them for the
decisions they have taken. But the Revd Ashenden has
had to stand down for making his decision.
For the time-being, Revd Ashenden is on the
retreating side. But in the long run he may not be. In a nation much in need of
heroes, an Anglican Reverend has stepped forward, putting his sincere and
serious beliefs ahead of the unserious and insincere pieties of our time.
Everybody -- secular or religious -- has cause to feel enormous gratitude.
**Douglas Murray, British author, commentator and public affairs analyst, is
based in London, England.
© 2017 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The
articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of
Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced,
copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone
Institute.
The Three-Way Option: Arab States, Israel,
Palestinians
Daniel Pipes/Israel Hayom/January 25,
2017
https://outlook.live.com/owa/?path=/mail/inbox/rp
http://www.danielpipes.org/17195/the-three-way-option-arab-states-israel
Foreign Affairs magazines has published a major statement from Israel's former
minister of defense Moshe Ya'alon,
a likely future candidate for prime minister, on his view how to end the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict, titled "How to Build Middle East Peace: Why
Bottom-Up Is Better Than Top-Down" (Jan.-Feb. 2017).
Ya'alon offers an impressive analysis of why decades
of diplomacy failed and its enduring stagnation. His "bottom-up"
solution contains four elements, three of which are somewhat antique bromides
and one of which is an exciting, untried idea – the three-way option that I
will dwell on below.
Stripped to its essentials, Ya'alon's article calls
for (bolding is mine):
1-"the promotion of Palestinian economic growth and infrastructure
development"
2-"improve Palestinian governance, anticorruption efforts, and institution
building in general"
3-"Israeli-Palestinian security cooperation"
4- "a regional initiative that would bring in Arab states interested in
helping to manage and eventually solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict -
whether or not those states have formal relations with Israel"
The first three have been tried repeatedly through the decades and failed to
bring resolution closer:
Shimon Peres in 1993 published The New Middle East, his lovely vision of a
prosperous Palestinian population that's a good neighbor
for Israel. Trouble is, both then and now his hopes
have been shattered by Palestinian rejectionism,
incitement, and death cultism. Surely, no one still seriously believes in 2017
that enrichment will moderate Palestinians.
George W. Bush focused on improved governance in 2002 but fifteen years later
things are more wretched than ever, what with anarchy, corruption, and violent
feuding. Worse, the historical record strongly suggests that good governance
would just lead to a more efficient Palestinian machine for attacking Israel.
Security cooperation is an area – virtually the only one – where Israel and the
Palestinian Authority work together: basically, the Israel Defense
Forces protect the PA and the PA helps the IDF stave off attacks. However mutually useful, this collaboration has shown zero
potential to expand to resolve their larger conflict.
In contrast, the fourth proposal, bringing in the Arab states, is an important
initiative that has yet seriously to be attempted; here, Ya'alon's
plan holds out real hope.
That's because a remarkable symmetry exists between what Palestinians want from
Israel and what Israel wants from the Arab states plus Turkey and Iran, namely recognition and
legitimacy. Noting this parallel, I have proposed in the Wall Street Journal
that both aspirations be addressed in tandem, linking "concessions to Israel by the
Arab states with Israeli concessions to the Palestinians." Everyone
thereby gains: "The Arab states achieve what they say is their main goal,
justice for the Palestinians. Israel
gets peace. Palestinians have their state."
For example, if the Saudis end their economic boycott of Israel,
Israelis increase Palestinian access to international markets. If the Egyptians
warm up relations, Palestinians have more access to the Israeli labor market. When the major Arab states sign peace
treaties with the Jewish state of Israel, the Palestinians get their
state.
The Obama administration made a short but intense feint in this direction in
2009 but the Saudis turned it down and it sputtered to a close. Egypt's
President Sisi raised the idea again in 2016, again
without consequence. In short, the three-way option between the Arab states, Israel, and the
Palestinians has not yet been pursued in a serious or sustained way.
With Sisi and Ya'alon now
on record favoring the three-way option, and with
Arab states shaken awake by the Obama administration's bizarre cooperation with
Tehran, Middle
Eastern leaders may be willing to work with the Jewish state in ways they were
not ready for in 1990 or 2009. It's certainly worth a try by the incoming Trump
administration.
Progress in Arab-Israeli diplomacy will not come from retreading the defunct
ideas of Peres or GWB; nor can security cooperation possibly lead to political
breakthroughs. My first preference remains U.S. support for an Israeli victory;
but if that is too much for now, then involving the Arab states at least offers
a way out of the stale, isolated, and even counterproductive sequence of
Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.
Mr. Pipes (DanielPipes.org, [twitter.com/danielpipes]@DanielPipes) is president of the Middle East Forum. © 2017 by Daniel Pipes. All rights reserved.
Moving US
embassy to Jerusalem may change the course of
action
Abdulrahman al-Rashed/Al Arabiya/January 25/17
The United States’
decision to move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Occupied Jerusalem is not a new
measure. Although the US Congress ordered the move more than a decade ago,
every president since then has kept postponing it as they cannot reject the
order unless by going back to the Congress and issuing another order that
vetoes it. This attempt may not even work. What’s new now is that the new
American president intends to implement it and has promised to do so. I will
discuss three points related to the embassy and moving it and they are related
to the concept of Occupied Jerusalem, its historical dimensions and the recent
situation. Since the establishment of Israel
in 1948, the US
and other superpowers set up their diplomatic missions in Tel Aviv, the first
capital of the Jewish state. Until one year before the 1967 War, the US had opened
its embassy complex in Tel Aviv. This complex is still the official
headquarters. Later on, it built a consulate in Jerusalem and its location changed through
the years. It is now located in the Green Line zone, which separates the two Jerusalems of the holy city. Terms such as “Occupied
Jerusalem” have been used mysteriously as it usually means “Occupied Eastern
Jerusalem” and not the entire city of Jerusalem.
They mean the part which Israel
occupied during the 1967 War and which was under Jordan’s control. Before that, West
Jerusalem was under Israel’s
control and it was not part of any discussions or negotiations. It was a
settled matter that it was under Israel’s authority. Some Arab
politicians use this vague term “Occupied Jerusalem” to avoid getting involved
in any matters related to recognizing Israel. On a historical level, the
Palestinians only had one chance to restore Occupied Eastern Jerusalem and the
negotiating delegation, headed by late President Yasser Arafat, wasted this
opportunity at Camp David in 2000. This has
nothing to do with the other Camp David
negotiations. What we hope from the US
President Donald Trump is that he uses this controversial measure of moving the
embassy in the context of the peaceful solution he promised
Clinton proposal
Back then, former US President Bill Clinton had
decided to finalize the issue and put his entire weight behind the
negotiations. He reached a “reasonable” solution with Arafat and then-Israeli
Prime Minister Ehud Barak – a solution which no one before him reached or
proposed. Clinton’s proposal was based on
returning more than 90 percent of the land in the West
Bank and 100 percent of the Gaza Strip and linking them through a
highway and then putting them under the authority of an independent
demilitarized Palestinian state. A proposal also stipulated returning of Eastern Jerusalem – with its mosque and the dome of the
rock to the Palestinians – and excluding the Jewish Quarter and the Western
Wall and placing them under international supervision. For some unknown reason,
Arafat missed the last meeting and sent a delegation to Washington
informing Clinton
that they reject the deal. The proposal thus collapsed. During that period,
extremist Palestinian groups affiliated to Iran
and the Assad regime, like Hamas and the Islamic Jihad, became active and
carried out armed operations against Israel. The extremist Israeli camp
used these operations to thwart a new attempt of a settlement at negotiations
held in Taba and Yehud Barak
submitted his resignation. Arafat tried to revive the process but it was too
late and until today Eastern Jerusalem and all
occupied territories suffer from stealing of land, altering ground realities
and imposing a Jewish presence on them. This is a summary of developments,
which reflect politicians’ failure to deal with options related to war and
peace.
Opportunistic regimes
Due to the trail of destruction across the Middle East, in Iraq, Syria
and Lebanon,
the Palestinian cause is no longer central. We have not forgotten how
extremists succeeded at exploiting the Palestinian tragedy to serve
opportunistic regimes. Iran
gained nuclear agreement with the US
while Hezbollah practically seized Lebanon under the pretext of the
false resistance. However, Assad and late Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi truly
lost due to their inciting stances. Will moving the American embassy to Jerusalem end the hope of
establishing a Palestinian state? I think moving the American embassy – or any
other embassy – will give legitimacy to occupation. What we hope from the US President
Donald Trump is that he uses this controversial measure of moving the embassy
in the context of the peaceful solution he promised. Trump has said he will
assign his son-in-law to handle that and this shows his concern. Who knows,
this embassy matter may lead to the end of political battles.
**This article was first published in Asharq
Al-Awsat on January 25, 2017.
The demise of human intimacy
Turki Aldakhil/Al Arabiya/January 25/17
Few days ago, my friend Nabil
al-Moajil commented on the machines which people use
to buy food from across the world. He voiced his hatred of this method because
he wants to deal with humans and not with a still machine. It is clear that
discussions related to machines replacing humans have become dominant among
technology experts and professionals who look into humans’ fate and their
relationship with technology. Technology is almost leading to the
disenchantment of the world. However, it plays a significant role in managing
affairs related to our daily lives. This also deserves attention as it
influences education, security, healthcare and even
affects fields related to thinking. Perhaps technology will one day replace
humans. In his article “The brave new world of robots and lost jobs” published
in August of last year, David Ignatius wrote: “The ‘automation bomb’ could
destroy 45 percent of the work activities currently performed in the United
States, representing about $2 trillion in annual wages, according to a study last
year by the consulting firm McKinsey & Co.
“We’ve seen only the beginning of this change, they warned. Currently,
only 5 percent of occupations can be entirely automated, but 60 percent of
occupations could soon see machines doing 30 percent or more of the work. In
manufacturing, 59 percent of activities could be automated, and that includes
‘90 percent of what welders, cutters, solderers and brazers do.’ In food service and accommodations, 73 percent
of the work could be performed by machines.”Americanization
is what transformed technology to its current form. Therefore, the device used
by a physicist in the US
has become available for Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi
Metaphysics of the era
We can wake up one day and realize technology
now handles all our affairs. A century ago, German Philosopher Martin Heidegger
who was preoccupied with the developing technology, said technology may be the
metaphysics of the era adding it will become people’s lives and their daily
occupation and that their lives will revolve around it. And now with the
exceptional and drastic development in technology, the latter competes with
people. Institutions and investment capitalists may not need humans to be
servants of technology and a burden on it. Smart phones now influence people and
control them. Sometimes they even manage one’s tasks through relevant apps.
There are also apps that are programmed to monitor health or to warn of a
certain threat. Technology resulted in the “disenchantment of the world” as Max
Weber puts it. Man replaced man with technology and the latter even became
one’s friend and entertainer. Virtual communication became stronger than
telephone exchange. Out of control? Things developed and reached an extent
where it’s difficult for man to control the situation. Heidegger said
technology is a path of challenge and competition and it may one day defeat man
and backfire. He then gave an example on how weapons and the nuclear bomb were
developed. The European product imposes on you the condition of self-change in
the manner which was manifest in schools and concepts but one is not granted
the product without conditions. Americanization is what transformed technology
to its current form. Therefore, the device used by a physicist in the US has become
available for Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Whatever the
concept and the condemnation are, the expansion of technology and its magic
have begun to change the tools of living. We will not be able to confront
technology which may emerge victorious over humans and result in getting rid of
man’s creative works. A report which was circulated few days ago spoke about
developing a robot that can correct language and edit. This indicates that even
creative jobs which are related to the mind and not to physical activity are
also threatened. This is technology with its never-ending struggles.
**This article was first published in Al-Bayan
on Dec. 14, 2016.
Saudi Arabia and the continuing war
against terror
Mshari Al Thaydi/Al Arabiya/January 25/17
Just as they usually do, Saudi security authorities revealed on Tuesday the
horrid details related to ISIS cells busted in the kingdom recently. Saudi
people witnessed a part of these cells’ activities in the battle of al-Yasmeen neighborhood in Riyadh and during the operations in Al-Harazat
and al-Naseem neighborhoods
in Jeddah, Saudi
Arabia’s gate to the Red Sea.
During these operations, Saudi security forces have arrested 16 extremists.
Three of them are Saudis and the rest are Pakistanis. The two suicide bombers
who blew themselves up in a rest house in the crowded neighborhood
of al-Harazat were identified and it turned out they
were potentially dangerous terrorists. They lived in a rest house which they
used as a factory to make bombs and suicide belts. Their names are Ghazi
Hussein al-Sarwani and Nadi
Marzooq al-Medhiani and
they are both Saudis. According to the details provided by the Interior
Ministry, Sarwani is “one of the most-wanted men
because of his various roles and connections to terrorist elements and
incidents during the past three years”. They have been involved in blowing
up the Special Forces mosque in Abha, south of Saudi Arabia,
attack on al-Mashhad mosque in Najran, and
cooperating with Oqab al-Otaibi,
the mastermind behind assassination of Colonel Kitab Majed al-Hammadi, and other
crimes.
Targeting Saudi Arabia at this increased rate during the past three years
is certainly related to global mobilization of ISIS
Connecting the dots
While explaining the details of the cells to journalists, Saudi Arabia
Interior Ministry General Bassam Attiyah
said all ISIS activities across Saudi Arabia in the past three years have been
connected and at some point we could connect the dots. He said that ISIS member Oqab al-Otaibi, who is under arrest, is an example of the
connection that exists between several cells. What’s noteworthy in Attiyah’s statements is that Saudi security authorities has
noticed and battled against increasing ISIS
activities in the country during the past 28 months. This could be the same in
all countries that have a stake in Syria. I am not suggesting this as
the only reason as there are other reasons related to educational problems and
cultural issues. However, targeting Saudi Arabia
at this increased rate during the past three years is certainly related to
global mobilization of ISIS. The battle
continues and the threat continues to persist, as Attiyah
puts it. Eliminating Islamist terrorism is not an easy task and the Saudi
Interior Ministry is doing what must really be done i.e. remaining vigilant and
cracking down on terror cells. Eradicating the roots of terrorism can only be
achieved through other means of which security is the last.
**This article is also available in Arabic.
Let’s not be surprised by Trump’s
ineloquence, no matter how grating it is
Peter Harrison/Al Arabiya/January 25/17
A lot of commentators have expressed their views about
President Donald Trump, his inauguration speech and his lack of eloquence – but
what were they expecting? Shakespeare? It’s almost as if people were surprised
that the man didn’t suddenly come out with some deep and thoughtful line of
poetry. Of course if he had, the world would be calling him a phony, slamming
him for being a liar in some way – although as I write this it appears we’ve
already reached that stage for different reasons. For what it is worth when I
watched the inauguration speech I was somewhat perplexed. Like many I felt that
I was watching some kind of point scoring exchange, more in keeping with a
group of teenagers. All it seemed to lack was for Trump to turn to the former
presidents and exclaim: “My policies are better than yours - so there…”And yes,
I do believe the reports that the number of people in attendance was
significantly fewer than when Obama gave his first speech in 2009. But no
matter what the size of the crowd, it was a crowd of people who agreed with
what he was saying. They were, after all, the same people who attended his
campaign trail rallies, in which supporters were encouraged to attack those who
dared to speak out against him and his fans. Democracy being what it is, President Trump gets to stay in office for at least four
years, unless he does something terrible enough to get him impeached. If he is
to be removed after just one term in office, then a convincing alternative is
needed. The people who voted for Trump believe that they have gone unheard and
unrepresented for years – that’s despite the well
documented improvement in the US
economy, the fall in unemployment and narrowing in the gap between the haves
and have nots, as well as the fall in crime. The
facts are there and usually would be indisputable – but disputed they are. It
seems the progress made in the US
since 2008, when it was sinking deep into the bowels of one of the worse
recessions in recent history, counts for very little among those who voted
Trump. Those voters were apparently of the belief that the US has fallen
into a state of ruin in which gangsters rule the streets. A
state of ruin where the ordinary people go unheard. It seems the
progress made in the US since 2008, when it was sinking deep into the bowels of
one of the worse recessions in recent history, counts for very little among
those who voted Trump
Learning to relate, or at least listen
Trump’s hardcore supporters will likely remain as such unless a viable alternative
is provided. That alternative will have to be someone they can relate to - or
at least, if not relate, someone they can trust to be considerate when
addressing their needs.
The problem is that right now I don’t see that happening. Right now the
moderates are busy mocking Trump for his ineloquent speeches, mocking his team
for their lies and mocking his supporters for their apparent low intelligence
and tattoos. The moderate middle classes are currently in a state of point
scoring and smug “I told you sos” at every given
gaffe that comes from the presidential camp. It’s important to let people know
why it matters that the press ask difficult questions - it’s
part of the democratic process. It’s also important to highlight the
inconsistencies when we in the media are lied to by the very same people who
accuse us of writing false news. But this group of people – the apparently
disenfranchised – are not going to be convinced by a group of the middle
classes criticizing them and/or Trump for the way they speak. This argument is
not going to be won by patronizing people and making them feel inferior. We’ve
entered uncertain times both in America
and across the wider world. The discussion about environmental issues has taken
a massive blow with climate change deniers now holding office. And poor nations
are likely to be left even further behind as the supposed developed world
argues among itself about who should help more (or less). I don’t believe the
global society is over – but it does seem to be in a state of disarray at
present. The moderates need to regroup, rethink and come up with something that
convinces the voters they are the ones to lead in this new world order. Four
years might seem a long way ahead, but if they are to succeed in overthrowing Trump
at the ballot box they need to start now. And we all need to come to terms with
the fact that deep meaningful speeches from the US president are – at least for now
– a thing of the past. Trump might not be a poet, eloquent, honest, or in the
slightest bit considerate to those who don’t agree with him – but clearly
there’s something people like about him – otherwise I wouldn’t feel the need to
be writing this.
The Iranian tussle between US and Russia
Radwan al-Sayed/Al Arabiya/January 25/17
No Iranian official dares to repeat what Rowhani and Zarif said about the nuclear deal in 2015. They stated that
it is the biggest victory for Islam and Iran since the Revolution. At the
time, the statement was directed at domestic opponents of the agreement. These
were the people who wanted to produce a nuclear weapon the way Pakistan did in
the last century. According to other assessments at the time, including that of
the Revolutionary Guard commanders, by acquiring a nuclear weapon Iran would have
become a fortress that cannot be attacked or threatened. At the same time, it
could pursue wars without fear in Iraq,
Syria, Lebanon and Yemen. Rowhani
and his camp expected two logical possibilities – either a nuclear weapon or
territorial leverage. Nevertheless, territorial acquisitions could not be
achieved without the disintegration of the US
embargo on Tehran.
They needed the $150 billion frozen in the US to revive its army, refurbish
petrochemical industry, and expand export capacity. On the American front,
Obama and his administration believed that the postponement of nuclear weapons
program and end to blockade would take Iran into a new era. Owing to its
growing needs and popular expectations, this will diminish Iran’s
ambitions of investing in the ideals of the Revolution. Jay Solomon, author of Iran wars
(2016), believes that Obama erred in fathoming the Iranian tactics, as he
misinterpreted the ambitions and aspirations of the Iranian rulers. Decision
makers in Iran
minimized the importance of popular aspirations and prosperity. They were still
waiting for the opportunity produced by the US
invasion of Iraq to take
over the Middle East. The difference between
the two sides is that the Rowhani camp believed that
they can fool the US
to obtain two things – nuclear weapons and strategic expansion. So they were
able to convince Khamenei to postpone the nuclear
weapons program in exchange of expansion with the emerging capacity resulting
from the lifting of the siege. What did Iran gain from the wars? If ruin is
a measure of success, they have succeeded in sabotaging at least three Arab
countries
Amman to
Geneva
Solomon argues that the Iranians, the Rowhani
camp and the Revolutionary Guards all stumbled in assessing the challenges they
faced in the expansion areas. During the negotiations on the agreement, from Amman to Geneva, ISIS
appeared in Syria and Iraq, other
opponents of Bashar al-Assad arose. Iran itself
faces a threat that even a nuclear weapon cannot annihilate. Since they no
longer battle against nations, but also against ideological armed organizations
fighting at home Iran
now wants to seize states and wealth, and its opponents want to burn them, in
the early stages at least. Iranians understood that the nuclear deal allows
them an unlimited expansion if they avoided Israel. So a week after the signing
of the agreement, General Soleimani went to Moscow to persuade President Putin to intervene in Syria in order
to save Assad’s regime. The Iranian lobby convinced President Obama, and to the
world, of the danger of ISIS in Iraq,
the Kurds. Thus, in early 2016 the Iranians believed again that they can have
it all, get the embargo lifted, protect Iraq
with the help of the Americans, and secure Syria with the help of the
Russians. And in the beginning of 2017, the Assad regime seemed stronger being
sustained energetically by the Russians while Abadi
triumphed against ISIS with the guidance of
the Americans. Consequently, Iranians had partners, in both Iraq and Syria,
which what was not even envisioned by Rowhani who in
any case preferred the welfare of Tehran
on the welfare of Assad. So what are the prospects for 2017? And
what next for Iran?
Trump and his supporters do not wish to have good relations with Iran, but they want good relations with Russia. With
this in mind, they will seek a political solution in Syria,
with Russian cooperation, the Turkish role (and perhaps Arab) could bolster to
fight ISIS in Iraq, and the
Americans will still be there to fight ISIS and to create a balance between Iran and Turkey. Iran
will remain in control of the ruling elite in Baghdad. And the Kurdish alternation will
continue between Iran, Turkey and the United
States, Russia
and Israel in Syria and Iraq. What did Iran gain from
the wars? If ruin is a measure of success, they have succeeded in sabotaging at
least three Arab countries. But on the scale of nation-building, there is no
doubt that the Israeli occupation of Palestine
is still less bad than the Iranian occupation of Iraq
and Syria.
**This article is also available in Arabic.