LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN

August 17/16

Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani

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http://www.eliasbejjaninews.com/newsbulletin16/english.august17.16.htm

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Bible Quotations For Today

I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 15/08-10/:"‘What woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? When she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbours, saying, "Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost." Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.’".

‘I love God’, and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen
First Letter of John 04/07-21/:"Let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and do testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Saviour of the world. God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God. So we have known and believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them. Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgement, because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. We love because he first loved us. Those who say, ‘I love God’, and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also".

Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on August 16-17/16

Lebanese Journalist, Hanin Ghaddar: Fiery Anti-Israel Rhetoric by Hezbollah Chiefs Aimed at Shiite Base/The Algemeiner/August 16/16
Shin Bet catches Hezbollah recruitment cell in the West Bank/Ynetnews/Yoav Zitun/ August 16/16
Walid Phares: Trump Operating 'Almost Like a President' With Policy Experts/By Sandy Fitzgerald/Newsmax/August 16/16
Better to be leopards than goats/Gilad Sharon|/Ynetnews/August 16/16
Obama and Assad: The ‘golden exit’ from the Syrian calamity/Chibli Mallat/The Arab Weekly/August 16/16/
Putin’s miscalculations in the battle for Aleppo/Khairallah Khairallah/The Arab Weekly/August 16/16/
Christian Summer Conferences Offer Israel Blessings and Curses/Susan Warner/Gatestone Institute/August 16/16
Turkey-EU clash is now just a matter of time/Kadri Gursel/Al-Monitor/August 16/16
Sweden: The Silence of the Jews/Ingrid Carlqvist/Gatestone Institute/August 16/16
Iraq, the graveyard of the Iranian regime/Abdulrahman al-Rashed/Al Arabiya/August 16/16
The return of the entertainment industry/Turki Aldakhil/Al Arabiya/August 16/16
When Hezbollah channels Donald Trump/Joyce Karam/Al Arabiya/August 16/16
Iran and Turkey, a rollercoaster of a relationship/Camelia Entekhabi-Fard/Al Arabiya/August 16/16
The Case for Keeping Sanctions against Russia's Defense Sector/Anna Borshchevskaya/Forbes/The Washington Institute/August 16/16
Iranian military official: We will 'uproot' Jabhat al-Nusra/Ali Hashem//Al-Monitor/August 16/16
Three Years Into Al-Sisi's Rule: Difficult Challenges At Home And Abroad/C. Meital/MEMRI/August

Titles For Latest Lebanese Related News published on on  August 16-17/16

Lebanese Journalist, Hanin Ghaddar: Fiery Anti-Israel Rhetoric by Hezbollah Chiefs Aimed at Shiite Base
Shin Bet catches Hezbollah recruitment cell in the West Bank

Hezbollah, Amal supporters clash in south Lebanon
Shoukry Meets Officials: Egypt Ready to Help Lebanon overcome Presidential Impasse
Report: Egyptian Diplomacy to Help Lebanon Solve Presidential Impasse
Mustaqbal Says Nasrallah Has No Right to 'Impose Aoun as Sole Candidate'
Protesters Block Road to Bourj Hammoud Landfill
Israel Arrests Palestinians 'Recruited by Hizbullah' via Facebook
Report: Hariri in Saudi Arabia to Tackle Saudi Oger File
Hizbullah and Mustaqbal Stress Need to Expedite Drafting of Electoral Law
Israeli Troops Injured in Shebaa Farms Vehicle Collision
U.S. Authorities Say Dearborn Man Lied about Dental Visit to Join Hizbullah
Protesters Block Road to Bourj Hammoud Landfill
Report: Hariri in Saudi Arabia to Tackle Saudi Oger File
Sister of Lebanese-American murdered by neighbor speaks out
Israeli soldiers wounded as troop carrier crashes into bulldozer in Shebaa
Pharaon says Akkar top priority for Ministry of Tourism
Mashnouq welcomes Australian Ambassador

Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin For Miscellaneous Reports And News published on on  August 16-17/16

Walid Phares: Trump Operating 'Almost Like a President' With Policy Experts
Tensions build in Egypt over Friday prayer sermons
Russia, Syria in 'Disgraceful' Use of Incendiary Arms
Suspected New York Imam Killer Charged with Murder
UN chief says he’d like a woman to be next secretary-general
Iran detains dual national linked to British intelligence
Russian jets take off from Iran to target ISIS in Syria
Austria: knife attack on train wounds 2
China seeks closer military ties with Syria
Saudi Deputy Crown Prince discusses with US envoy fighting ISIS
Libyan forces close to capture of Sirte from ISIS
Palestinians wounded in clashes with Israel army
Turkey requests 8 officers return from Greece
Turkish prosecutors seek 2 life sentences for Gulen

Links From Jihad Watch Site for on  August 16-17/16
Trump: “We must take on the ideology of radical Islam”
Trump calls for “extreme vetting” of those who believe “sharia law should supplant American law”
Must Catholics believe that Islam is peaceful?
Muslim migrant sex assaults on children in Greek refugee camps
Palestinian Authority teaches kids: “Don’t be afraid to die martyrs’ death”
UK Muslim cleric Anjem Choudary found guilty of supporting the Islamic State
Milo: Donald Trump just overtook the Democrats on gay rights
Twin Falls pro-refugee pol savages family of girl raped by Muslim migrants
Robert Spencer: Muslims videoing in Ohio church “suspicious in the extreme”
Russia: Muslim leader defends FGM after it’s discovered in Dagestan
Soros gave $500,000 to group doing “opposition research” on foes of jihad terror

Latest Lebanese Related News published on on  August 16-17/16

Lebanese Journalist, Hanin Ghaddar: Fiery Anti-Israel Rhetoric by Hezbollah Chiefs Aimed at Shiite Base (INTERVIEW)
The Algemeiner/August 16/16
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah’s bellicose anti-Israel speech over the weekend was meant to bolster his organization’s standing among Lebanon’s “disillusioned” Shiite community, rather than signal an impending war with the Jewish state, a Lebanese journalist told The Algemeiner on Monday.
Hanin Ghaddar — the Friedmann Visiting Fellow at the think tank the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and managing editor of Lebanon’s NOW news website — said that there is great dismay among Lebanese Shiites about the ongoing civil war in Syria, where Hezbollah has lost more than 1,000 fighters in its effort to prop up the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad. That effort has suffered a “drastic” setback with the recent success of rebel forces in Aleppo, Ghaddar said.
By reminding Lebanese Shiites of Hezbollah’s “great victory” in its 2006 war with Israel, the 10th anniversary of which was marked over the past month, Nasrallah was seeking to restore the terrorist group’s image as a “resistance” organization, Ghaddar said. That image, she said, has taken a hit in the last several years, as more and more Lebanese Shiites have begun to question Hezbollah’s deep involvement in the fighting in Syria.
Lebanese Shiites have long viewed Hezbollah as their “protector,” and they still see no alternative to it, Ghaddar said. But they “are not happy” about the group’s activities in Syria, Ghaddar said, “where they are losing lots of their kids, with no victory or end in sight.”
Also, Ghaddar noted, Hezbollah’s social services budget has been drained due to the expenses of the group’s military operations in Syria, further harming its standing among its support base.
As things stand now, Hezbollah’s interest is to avoid a new war with Israel “at all costs,” Ghaddar said, to explain why the group has avoided large-scale responses to Israeli military strikes in Syria in recent years that have targeted the group’s assets.
“Hezbollah cannot afford a war with Israel,” Ghaddar said. “They know they might not win this time.”
Ghaddar also said that though Hezbollah does possess the weapons needed to fight such a war — and while the quantity of Hezbollah’s manpower has increased — the quality is not what it used to be. “Hezbollah fighters were once elite,” she said. “Now the organization recruits anyone and everyone.”
Ghaddar further said that Hezbollah has lost numerous experienced field commanders in Syria whom “it would not be easy” to replace.
In a recent television interview translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute, Hashem Safieddine, the head of the Hezbollah Executive Council, warned that Hezbollah fighters would be capable of entering the Galilee region or “even further” during a future conflict with Israel. Ghaddar dismissed such threats as bluster. “[Hezbollah officials] say a lot of things,” she concluded. “Maybe [Hezbollah fighters] can go [into northern Israel], but they won’t come back.”

Hezbollah, Amal supporters clash in south Lebanon
BEIRUT – Supporters of Lebanon’s two largest Shiite parties, Hezbollah and the Amal Movement, have fought each other in the southern town of Sarafand, according to local Lebanese media. Al-Jadeed television reported Monday that Sarafand “witnessed a major problem” due to a dispute involving the hanging and tearing of political posters in the seaside town, which is located five kilometers south of Sidon. However, the network stressed that the exact cause of the fighting—which started as a fistfight but degenerated into heavy gunfire—remains unknown, saying there were two stories circulating in the town, which is considered a stronghold for the Amal Movement.
Ripped up poster
An image circulating social media purports to show a ripped up Amal poster in Sarafand. One version of the fighting claimed that “young supporters of the Amal Movement shredded up a picture of Hezbollah martyrs,” prompting followers of the party to tear up posters of Moussa al-Sadr, a highly influential Shiite cleric who founded the Amal Movement before his disappearance in 1978, and Nabih Berri, the current leader of Hezbollah’s main Shiite ally. However, another story posited that Hezbollah supporters ignited the clash by tearing up posters, leading Amal supporters to respond in kind.
Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) troops deployed into the small town to calm the situation, while pictures uploaded by a Facebook page based in the town showed a large contingent of soldiers deployed through Sarafand’s streets.
Lebanese army
Lebanon Debate—a local online outlet—published a similar account of the clash, citing eyewitnesses in Sarafand as saying that sharp verbal disputes between both parties’ supporters resulted in the angry men brandishing their arms, before the LAF deployed reinforcements to break up the clashes.
The report added, however, that the clash was not sparked by a dispute Monday, but instead a series of ongoing “old scores” that boiled over that day with Hezbollah and Amal supporters ripping up each others’ political posters. “The true identity of the perpetrators [is unknown], creating confusion in the region.”
An-Nahar newspaper on Tuesday, in turn, reported that disputes were ongoing in Sarafand for the past three days, leading to a “state of [tension] and the outbreak of fights and the emergence of gunmen in the town.” The leading Lebanese newspaper said that during a ceremony Sunday marking the anniversary of the death of a young Hezbollah member in Syria, an unknown gunmen opened fire on an Amal office, sparking a wave of anger that saw Hezbollah and Amal supporters “tear up pictures of the leaders of both parties.”“High-level meetings were held between the leaders of Amal Movement and Hezbollah to [quell] the clashes,” the report said, adding that calm was restores after calls from both parties to abide by the instructions of their leaders. NOW's English news desk editor Albin Szakola (@AlbinSzakola) wrote this report. Amin Nasr translated Arabic-language material.
 

Shin Bet catches Hezbollah recruitment cell in the West Bank
Ynetnews/Yoav Zitun/ August 16/16
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/2016/08/16/ynetnewsyoav-zitun-shin-bet-catches-hezbollah-recruitment-cell-in-the-west-bank/

A Hezbollah recruitment ring in the West Bank and Gaza has been found and dismantled by the Shin Bet security services in partnership with the IDF and Israel Police.
The Shin Bet announced that it has broken up a Hezbollah recruitment ring aimed at recruiting operatives in the West Bank. Eight people have been arrested.
Assisted by the Israel Police and the IDF, the Shin Bet found that Hezbollah operatives in Gaza and in Lebanon were using Facebook to try and recruit the operatives. The arrest of these agents has prevented the Shiite terror group from mobilizing to attack targets inside of Israel.
The suspects were arrested at the beginning of June 2016 before they were able to carry out their attack. They have been indicted by the Judean Military Court.
Hezbollah has been working tirelessly to recruit agents in Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza with the goal of carrying out terror attacks against Israeli targets. Along with sending information on how to commit effective shooting attacks or suicide bombings against Israelis, the Hezbollah agents were also instructed to recruit others to Hezbollah as well.
An investigation revealed that Hezbollah attempted to recruit Israeli-Arabs and West Bank Palestinians via several different pro-Palestinian Facebook pages which were recognized by Israeli security services.
After speaking with potential candidates via Facebook messenger, the Hezbollah recruiters would ask the candidates if they were willing to work for the terror group and assist them.
The first cell was found in Qalqilya. They were instructed to carry out an attack against an IDF patrol in the area. The head of the cell was Mustafa Kamal Hindi, 18, who was recruited by Hezbollah in 2015 via the Facebook group "Filasteen al-Hura." The page is virulently anti-Israel, and expresses support for Islamic Jihad.
Hindi then recruited several others from Qalqilya: Hamas member Mohammad Daoud, 22; Taher Nofel, 22, who supplied explosive material to be used in the creation of IEDs; Islam Sha'ib, 21, who surveiled and collected information on Israeli patrols in the Qalqilya area; and Bara'a Hamed, 19, who assisted in constructing the IEDs.
In addition to collecting intelligence on Israeli patrols, they also practiced shooting with hunting rifles, and practiced building IEDs.
Investigations revealed that the cell was in contact with a Hezbollah operative code named "Bilal" via Facebook, and later via direct emails. "Bilal" also sent the cell encryption software so that the cell could secretly communicate with Hezbollah.
The recruiter: A member of Hezbollah from Gaza
Meanwhile, more West Bank Palestinians were arrested after being recruited by Gaza based Hezbollah recruiter Mohammad abu J'dian, who guided them in carrying out both suicide bombing attacks and shooting attacks. After getting recruited on Facebook, the West Bankers opened up secret encrypted email accounts to continue to be in touch with Hezbollah.
One of those who was recruited by the Gaza based Hezbollah member was Osama Najm, 36, from Kafr Qablan, and one of the student founders of the Popular Front for the Libration of Palestine (PFLP). He reportedly received $900 from Hezbollah to be used for the purpose of carrying out an attack, recruit people to Hezbollah, and to orchestrate a suicide bombing attack on an Israeli bus.
It was discovered during Najm's investigation that he, together with a Gaza resident named Louie Salame, was in contact with a PFLP operative in Syria named Yousef Hajarah. Together, they began to set up a PFLP terror cell in the Sumeria region of the West Bank. Najm was arrested in March 2016 before his cell was able to carry out their attack.
Najm and the other members of his cell are accused of membership and activity in an unlawful association, contact with the enemy, and receiving finances from the enemy.
Another suspect who was recruited by the Gaza based Hezbollah agent is Ma'aman Nosrati, 22, a resident of the Jenin refugee camp. He was allegedly told that Hezbollah would give him $30,000 to carry out an attack.
He was instructed to get an M-16 and carry out a shooting attack against IDF forces stationed next to Jenin. Nosrati was also recruited by abu J'dian, and was even in contact with him via telephone.
Abu J'dian instructed Nosrati to remove his pictures from Facebook to make it harder for security services to identify him. Nosrati was arrested on May 31.
The third suspect who was recruited by Hezbollah by abu J'dian was Mustafa Basharat, 49, from the village of Tamun. Formerly imprisoned for activities with the PFLP, he proved willing to assist Hezbollah with anything they wanted. Basharat has 30 years of terror experience according to Shin Bet estimates. He was arrested on July 2, 2016, and is accused of being a member of and performing activities for an illegal organization.
Hezbollah also contacted Israeli-Arabs via Facebook, but this was caught and stopped by the Shin Bet. The Shin Bet presented a document for the Israeli-Arabs to sign saying that they understand that continuing to be in contact with the group is illegal, and that legal action will be taken if contact continues. First published: 16.08.16, 14:25

Shoukry Meets Officials: Egypt Ready to Help Lebanon overcome Presidential Impasse
Naharnet/August 16/16/Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry stressed on Tuesday that his country will provide the needed ground to help Lebanon overcome its political crisis, as he assured that Egypt only seeks stability and peace in the world and region. “We will provide the needed ground to help Lebanon out of its political crisis,” Shoukry said. His comments came after separate meetings he held with Speaker Nabih Berri, Prime Minister Tammam Salam and his Lebanese counterpart Jebran Bassil. He reiterated his country's keenness for constant contacts with all Lebanese factions. “We are keen on continuous communication with all the Lebanese factions. Our goal is stability and peace in the world and the region,” said the diplomat after meeting Speaker Nabih Berri in Ain el-Tineh. After meeting Bassil, he said: “We look forward to closer bilateral ties in all areas between Egypt and Lebanon. We must meet the challenges facing the Arab nation through boosting joint action between our countries.” “We feel with Lebanon and what it's enduring as a result of the presidential vacuum. Egypt is ready to provide any support that contributes to reaching a solution,” said Shoukry. The Minister arrived in Beirut late Monday and was scheduled to hold meetings with several officials in an attempt to help Lebanon overcome the impasse of electing a head of state. Media reports had said that observers pin hopes on the Egyptian minister's visit as they anticipate that it could help overcome the presidential election impasse. Earlier, Egyptian Ambassador to Lebanon Mohammed Badreddine Zayed had stressed after a meeting with Foreign Minster Jebran Bassil that Shoukry will propose “new ideas” regarding Lebanon's presidential crisis during his visit to the country. He had stressed that “Egypt is keen to offer all support to Lebanon in the current period and we all understand the challenges that the region is going through and how critical is the regional situation. This is the reason behind Egypt's keenness on the current Egyptian-Lebanese interaction.”

Report: Egyptian Diplomacy to Help Lebanon Solve Presidential Impasse
Naharnet/August 16/16/Lebanese officials and political parties anxiously await for what the visit of Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry will carry during his three-day visit to Lebanon, where he is set to kick start meetings with several Lebanese officials and political leaders in a bid to solve the presidential deadlock, An Nahar daily reported on Tuesday. Shourky arrived in Beirut late on Monday amid hopes that his visit would convey new ideas that would help Lebanon overcome its political crisis. However, involved circles seem prudent not to pin prior expectations on the outcome of the visit as they prefer to see the ideas and orientations that the visit would convey, to help Lebanon overcome its presidential crisis, said the daily. But the same circles do not overlook the significance of the Egyptian move towards Lebanon at this timing when the Arab, international and regional parties seem encumbered in their own priorities where Lebanon seems to have no place. The circles said they expect the Egyptian move to focus primarily on conveying President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi's viewpoint on Egypt's readiness to play a supporting role in helping political factions reach a compromise with regard to the presidential impasse, with an emphasis on the necessity to end this crisis to preserve Lebanon's stability, it added. Last week, Egyptian Ambassador to Lebanon Mohammed Badreddine Zayed said after a meeting with Foeign Minster Jebran Bassil that Shoukry will propose “new ideas” regarding Lebanon's presidential crisis during his visit to the country. He had stressed that “Egypt is keen to offer all support to Lebanon in the current period and we all understand the challenges that the region is going through and how critical is the regional situation. This is the reason behind Egypt's keenness on the current Egyptian-Lebanese interaction.”Lebanon has been without a president since the term of Michel Suleiman ended in May 2014 and Hizbullah, MP Michel Aoun's Change and Reform bloc and some of their allies have been boycotting the parliament's electoral sessions, stripping them of the needed quorum. Al-Mustaqbal Movement leader ex-PM Saad Hariri, who is close to Saudi Arabia, launched an initiative in late 2015 to nominate Marada Movement chief MP Suleiman Franjieh for the presidency but his proposal was met with reservations from the country's main Christian parties as well as Hizbullah. The supporters of Aoun's presidential bid argue that he is more eligible than Franjieh to become president due to the size of his parliamentary bloc and his bigger influence in the Christian community.

Mustaqbal Says Nasrallah Has No Right to 'Impose Aoun as Sole Candidate'
Naharnet/August 16/16/Al-Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc stressed Tuesday that Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah does not have the right to “impose” his ally Free Patriotic Movement founder MP Michel Aoun as a “sole presidential candidate.”“Sayyed Nasrallah has the right to cling to General Michel Aoun's nomination but this right does not entitle him to impose him as a sole presidential candidate,” said the bloc in a statement issued after its weekly meeting. “Sayyed Nasrallah is once again bypassing the Constitution and its stipulations regarding the election of the president, the election of the parliament speaker and the designation of the prime minister,” it added. Nasrallah had on Saturday hinted that Hizbullah does not mind the re-designation of al-Mustaqbal Movement leader ex-PM Saad Hariri as premier in return for the election of Aoun as president and Speaker Nabih Berri as head of parliament. “The issues of electing a president, electing a speaker and naming a prime minister are national issues par excellence and not issues for each religious community or sect to monopolize,” Mustaqbal said in its statement. “The Constitution clearly stipulates this and the conferees have reaffirmed it during the latest national dialogue sessions,” it noted. “Those obstructing the (presidential) electoral process are well-known – Hizbullah, the Free Patriotic Movement and their allies – and it is an underestimation of people's intelligence to think that anyone inside or outside the country believes the arbitrary accusations against al-Mustaqbal Movement and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia” in this regard, the bloc added. Lebanon has been without a president since the term of Michel Suleiman ended in May 2014 and Hizbullah, Aoun's Change and Reform bloc and some of their allies have been boycotting the parliament's electoral sessions, stripping them of the needed quorum. Hariri, who is close to Saudi Arabia, launched an initiative in late 2015 to nominate Marada Movement chief MP Suleiman Franjieh for the presidency but his proposal was met with reservations from the country's main Christian parties as well as Hizbullah. Hariri's move prompted Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea to endorse the nomination of Aoun, his long-time Christian rival. The supporters of Aoun's presidential bid argue that he is more eligible than Franjieh to become president due to the size of his parliamentary bloc and his bigger influence in the Christian community.

Protesters Block Road to Bourj Hammoud Landfill
Naharnet/August 16/16/Protesters blocked on Tuesday the entrance to the Bourj Hammoud landfill to prevent dump trucks from entering the site, the National News Agency said on Tuesday. Several youth blocked the road near the landfill in protest, said NNA. Security forces deployed in the area and tried to convince them in vain to open the road. Last week, Kataeb party students forced the work to a halt at the landfill after a scuffle with the security forces. They demanded the halt to what they alleged “the project of land-filling the sea with garbage on Metn's coast.”The government's handling of the waste management file was one of the reasons that Kataeb cited when it asked its ministers to resign from Prime Minister Tammam Salam's cabinet earlier this year. Kataeb Party chief MP Sami Gemayel has accused the government of taking a decision to “fill the Mediterranean Sea with garbage without conducting an environmental impact study and without sorting or treating the waste.” Lebanon's unprecedented trash management crisis erupted in July 2015 after the closure of the central Naameh landfill which was receiving the waste of Beirut and Mount Lebanon. The months-long crisis, which sparked protests against the entire political class, saw streets, forests and riverbanks overflowing with waste and the air filled with the smell of rotting and burning garbage. The cabinet eventually decided to establish two landfills in Costa Brava and Bourj Hammoud and to reactivate the Naameh landfill for two months as part of a four-year plan despite the rejection of many residents and civil society activists. A landfill’s location in the Chouf and Aley areas would be determined later following consultations with the local municipalities, the cabinet said at the time.

Israel Arrests Palestinians 'Recruited by Hizbullah' via Facebook
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/August 16/16/Israel's Shin Bet security service announced Tuesday it has arrested a network of Palestinians allegedly recruited via Facebook by Hizbullah to attack Israelis. "Along with the orders to carry out shooting attacks and suicide bombings against Israeli targets, the agents were ordered to help recruit more (Palestinians) for the organization’s activities," a Shin Bet statement read. In one case, an alleged Hizbullah agent had used Facebook to recruit a resident of Qalqilya who in turn recruited four others from his city in the north of the occupied West Bank, it said. The five allegedly began gathering intelligence on Israeli army activities in the area and to conduct weapons training, before being arrested in June. Shin Bet also said a Gazan recruited by Hizbullah through Facebook recruited three Palestinians from the West Bank who had started to train and plan attacks. The four were also arrested before carrying out any action. The nine Palestinians have been charged in a military court in the West Bank, the agency said, without giving a date. The Shin Bet claimed Hizbullah was also reaching out to Arab Israelis through Facebook in an attempt "to recruit them to carry out terror attacks.""Hizbullah is determined to continue encouraging the recent terror events from a distance and in an attempt to not let its involvement be seen," the Shin Bet said. A wave of deadly unrest has rocked Israel and the Palestinian territories since last October. The violence has killed 219 Palestinians, 34 Israelis, two Americans, an Eritrean and a Sudanese, according to an AFP tally. Most of the Palestinians killed were carrying out knife, gun or car-ramming attacks, Israeli authorities say. In January, Israel announced the arrest of a five-member cell based in Tulkarem in the West Bank, allegedly recruited online by Jawad Nasrallah, son of Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah. Israel fought a devastating month-long war in 2006 against Hizbullah that killed more than 1,200 people in Lebanon, mostly civilians, and 160 Israelis, most of them soldiers. Hizbullah has targeted Israeli army patrols along the border in southern Lebanon in response to strikes against its members in Syria, most recently on January 4.

Report: Hariri in Saudi Arabia to Tackle Saudi Oger File
Naharnet/August 16/16/Ex-Prime Minister MP Saad Hariri's visit to Saudi Arabia is reportedly confined to tackle the file of Saudi Oger Ltd. and to complete a deal to sell the company to Saudi Arabia where he is set to devote his efforts afterwards to political issues. Sources in March said that delayed receipts from the government, whose oil revenues have dropped significantly in the past two years, left construction workers at several companies struggling while they wait for salaries. Saudi Oger, the once-mighty construction giant led by Hariri, is among the affected companies. It employs around 50,000 people of various nationalities, from managers to laborers. Saudi Oger has built some of the most grandiose complexes in Riyadh, including the palatial Ritz-Carlton hotel.
 

Hizbullah and Mustaqbal Stress Need to Expedite Drafting of Electoral Law
Naharnet/August 16/16/Hizbullah and al-Mustaqbal Movement on Tuesday stressed the need to speed up the drafting of the new electoral law under which the country's next parliamentary elections will be held. In a statement issued after their 30th dialogue session in Ain el-Tineh, the two parties said they discussed “the political developments, the constitutional junctures and the parliamentary electoral law.” The conferees “emphasized the need to expedite” the drafting of the electoral law, they added. Speaker Nabih Berri has revealed that he has been secretly communicating with al-Mustaqbal for around a month now over a hybrid electoral law under which 64 MPs would be elected under the winner-takes-all system and the other 64 under the proportional representation system, a media report said on Monday. In remarks published by An Nahar newspaper, Berri said he has been informed by Mustaqbal that an internal debate is taking place among the movement's members and that there is an inclination to endorse the hybrid law that has been proposed by the speaker. “I have told Mustaqbal that I'm willing to be utterly responsive, if necessary, to any suggestion on any article in the draft law that might be perceived as vague or unfair, especially that the main goal behind this suggestion is balance and consistency,” Berri added. The speaker also disclosed that he has discussed the issue with the Free Patriotic Movement, noting that “contacts are positive with both parties and will be completed on September 5” during the scheduled national dialogue session. “Should we finalize the electoral law, we would be completing 90% of the package deal,” Berri pointed out. But sources informed on the drafting of the new electoral law told An Nahar that “there are indications suggesting that it is not possible to reach a consensual format before the beginning of the parliament's regular session in mid-October, despite the efforts that are being currently exerted by the FPM and the Lebanese Forces.” 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.

Israeli Troops Injured in Shebaa Farms Vehicle Collision
Naharnet/August 16/16/Several Israeli soldiers were injured Tuesday evening when their vehicle skidded and collided with a military bulldozer in the occupied Shebaa Farms, Lebanon's National News Agency reported. The accident occurred on the road that the Israeli forces are building in the al-Shahel area south of the town of Shebaa, NNA said.The wounded were evacuated by an Israeli military helicopter, it added.

U.S. Authorities Say Dearborn Man Lied about Dental Visit to Join Hizbullah
Naharnet/August 16/16/A Dearborn man has pleaded guilty to lying about his plans to travel to Lebanon, which included intentions to fight for Hizbullah, which Washington designates as a “terrorist group,” U.S. media reports said. Mohammad Hassan Hamdan, 24, admitted he initially lied in March 2014 when he told federal agents he was going to Lebanon to “get his teeth fixed,” The Detroit News website quoted the U.S. Attorney’s Office as saying. “Hamdan was arrested prior to boarding a flight at Detroit Metropolitan Airport. On Monday, he admitted telling an FBI confidential source that he was going to Lebanon to join Hizbullah and fight in Syria,” The Detroit News quoted prosecutors as saying. Before trying to board the flight, Hamdan packed up all of his possessions, gave his car to a relative and sold his house, prosecutors said. Hamdan will be sentenced Nov. 14 and could face up to eight years in federal prison. “It is illegal to lie to federal agents because false statements undermine their ability to investigate crime,” U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade said in a statement. The case was investigated by the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force in Detroit. “This investigation demonstrates the real threat of individuals residing in the United States who want to travel to Syria to fight on behalf of Hizbullah, a designated terrorist organization and threat to our national security,” said David Gelios, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Detroit office, in a statement.

Protesters Block Road to Bourj Hammoud Landfill
Naharnet/August 16/16/Protesters blocked on Tuesday the entrance to the Bourj Hammoud landfill to prevent dump trucks from entering the site, the National News Agency said on Tuesday. Several youth blocked the road near the landfill in protest, said NNA. Security forces deployed in the area and tried to convince them in vain to open the road. Last week, Kataeb party students forced the work to a halt at the landfill after a scuffle with the security forces. They demanded the halt to what they alleged “the project of land-filling the sea with garbage on Metn's coast.”The government's handling of the waste management file was one of the reasons that Kataeb cited when it asked its ministers to resign from Prime Minister Tammam Salam's cabinet earlier this year. Kataeb Party chief MP Sami Gemayel has accused the government of taking a decision to “fill the Mediterranean Sea with garbage without conducting an environmental impact study and without sorting or treating the waste.”Lebanon's unprecedented trash management crisis erupted in July 2015 after the closure of the central Naameh landfill which was receiving the waste of Beirut and Mount Lebanon. The months-long crisis, which sparked protests against the entire political class, saw streets, forests and riverbanks overflowing with waste and the air filled with the smell of rotting and burning garbage. The cabinet eventually decided to establish two landfills in Costa Brava and Bourj Hammoud and to reactivate the Naameh landfill for two months as part of a four-year plan despite the rejection of many residents and civil society activists.A landfill’s location in the Chouf and Aley areas would be determined later following consultations with the local municipalities, the cabinet said at the time.
 

Report: Hariri in Saudi Arabia to Tackle Saudi Oger File
Naharnet/August 16/16/Ex-Prime Minister MP Saad Hariri's visit to Saudi Arabia is reportedly confined to tackle the file of Saudi Oger Ltd. and to complete a deal to sell the company to Saudi Arabia where he is set to devote his efforts afterwards to political issues. Sources in March said that delayed receipts from the government, whose oil revenues have dropped significantly in the past two years, left construction workers at several companies struggling while they wait for salaries. Saudi Oger, the once-mighty construction giant led by Hariri, is among the affected companies. It employs around 50,000 people of various nationalities, from managers to laborers.Saudi Oger has built some of the most grandiose complexes in Riyadh, including the palatial Ritz-Carlton hotel.

Sister of Lebanese-American murdered by neighbor speaks out
Staff writer, Al Arabiya English Tuesday, 16 August 2016/The sister of Khalid Jabara, who was killed at his home in Tulsa, United States, on Friday took to Facebook to lament the brutal hate crime against her brother, her Facebook post has revealed. Jabara, who was of Lebanese-Christian descent, was shot and killed by Stanley Vernon Majors, 61. Khalid called the police when it came to his attention that Majors had gotten his hands on a gun and feared that he could be harmed. Shortly after, Jabara was found shot and killed by Majors. Khalid’s sister reports on her Facebook post that Jabara was shot dead 30 minutes after the call. According to other reports, majors was forbidden from owning a gun and is being charged with first-degree murder and firearm possession. According to the report, the murderer had demonstrated a disturbing cycle of racial abuse and violence against the Jabara family. “He often called us “dirty Arabs,” “filthy Lebanese,” “Aye-rabs,” and “Mooslems”—a fact highlighted by the Tulsa Police Department who also heard these comments from the suspect,” the post read. Khalid’s sister also commented on her post that Majors had previously harmed their mother, he had “ran over her with his car”. People paid their tributes on Twitter, trending the hashtag “Justice4Khalid”, on the night of August 1

Israeli soldiers wounded as troop carrier crashes into bulldozer in Shebaa
Tue 16 Aug 2016/NNA - A number of Israeli soldiers were injured as a troop-carrier slid and crashed into a military bulldozer, in the prefecture where the enemy is undertaking road works southern Shebaa, National News Agency correspondent reported on Tuesday. A military chopper is working on evacuating the wounded.

Pharaon says Akkar top priority for Ministry of Tourism
Tue 16 Aug 2016/NNA - Minister of Tourism, Michel Pharaon, underlined on Tuesday that the northern region of Akkar was among the top priorities of his Ministry that has ventured into reviving environmental tourism, highlighting the necessity to rediscover Lebanon's natural and archeological treasures. The Minister made these remarks during a visit to Akkar, meeting the invitation of businessman Mahmoud Hadara.Speaking from his host's residence, Pharaon indicated that work was still underway, by his Ministry, to complete the promised natural park project in Akkar hills.
"We are working on this vital project in tandem with the rural tourist project that we are executing nationwide," he said. "The key part of our project of activating environmental tourism aims to rediscover all natural, traditional, and archeological wealth and features in the various Lebanese regions," he explained. On a different note, Pharaon said he was upbeat on the summer festivals nationwide, reiterating his Ministry's will to contribute to any project.

Mashnouq welcomes Australian Ambassador
Tue 16 Aug 2016/NNA - Minister of Interior and Municipalities, Nohad Mashnouq, welcomed, at his office in the Ministry on Tuesday, Australian Ambassador to Lebanon, Glenn Miles. The pair reportedly discussed bilateral cooperation, especially on the level of security. Speaking to reporters following the meeting, the diplomat stressed on the cooperation between the security authorities in both countries, hailing "the efforts made by the Lebanese military and security forces in terms of preserving stability and security."For his part, Mashnouq called the Lebanese government to bolster ties with Australia "that is hosting a large number of Lebanese."

Latest LCCC Bulletin For Miscellaneous Reports And News published on on  August 16-17/16

Walid Phares: Trump Operating 'Almost Like a President' With Policy Experts
By Sandy Fitzgerald/Newsmax/August 16/16
GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump is already operating "almost like a president" by listening to policy experts in several fields, campaign foreign policy adviser Walid Phares said Tuesday, while praising the candidate's "evolution" on Muslim immigration. "He actually operates now almost like a president, listening to advisers, people in the intelligence or who worked in the intelligence, defense, diplomacy [sectors]," Phares told Fox News' "Fox & Friends" program. Trump, during a speech Monday in Youngstown, Ohio, expanded on his call for a temporary ban on Muslims, telling the audience he would use "extreme vetting" and develop a new screening test to try to catch people who intend to do harm to the United States. He continued that as president, he plans to ask the State Department and Department of Homeland Security to identify regions of the world that remain hostile to the United States and point out places where normal screening might not be sufficient to catch those who pose a threat. Special: 68 Year Old Looks 31: You Will Not Believe Her Simple Trick. Phares said the comments don't show a change in policy from Trump's original call to ban Muslim immigration, but the "evolution" of his first position. "That exactly shows the evolution, a mature evolution, based on input, on information," said Phares. "He made the initial statement because we didn't know. We didn't know a part. Now that we know better, the response is extreme vetting." The response also shows an "alliance with Arab moderates and most of the moderates around the world," Phares commented. "So that shows that basically there is a strategy, not just a static position." Last month, Trump told NBC's Chuck Todd that his plan to ban foreigners coming into the United states from countries "compromised by terrorism" is an expansion of his call to ban Muslims, and could also include people coming to the United States from countries such as France and Germany. "I'm looking now at territory," he told moderator Chuck Todd at the time. "People were so upset when I used the word Muslim. Oh, you can't use the word Muslim. Remember this. And I'm OK with that, because I'm talking territory instead of Muslim."

Tensions build in Egypt over Friday prayer sermons
The Arab Weekly/August 16/16/CAIRO - Tensions between Egypt’s Ministry of Religious Endowments and al-Azhar, the country’s most respected religious authority, have risen over the government’s plan to make Friday prayer leaders deliver the same sermon across the country each week. The ministry, which is responsible for regulating Egypt’s estimated 108,000 mosques and houses of worship, launched the standardised sermon initiative in July as part of a government plan to promote religious reform, filter out extremist rhetoric and the discussion of politics in mosques. The initiative has yet to be implemented but Minister of Religious Endowments Mokhtar Gomaa on July 15th gave a sermon that was based on text that had previously been posted on the ministry’s website. The move was meant to set an example to other mosques. Gomaa said that mosque imams would be free to choose from reading the whole text or merely adopting the theme prescribed by the ministry, stressing the sermons will not be imposed by force. At a time when the Islamic State (ISIS) is attempting to establish itself in Egypt’s Sinai peninsula and the fight against terrorism remains a government priority, Egypt’s Ministry of Religious Endowments must do everything in its power to combat the spread of extremist ideology, Gomaa said. “We will not let the Friday sermon be a tool of division among Muslims,” he told imams. Al-Azhar criticised the plan, arguing that it would “freeze” and “superficialise” religious discourse. Instead, al-Azhar’s Council of Senior Scholars said it would provide preachers with intensive training with a view to helping them avoid “radical ideas” in their sermons. Supporters of the ministry’s plan argue that the absence of a uniform sermon has led to “chaos” as well as the insertion of political discourse in matters of worship. Egyptian authorities have sought to clamp down on unsanctioned religious speech, shutting down unregulated, so-called “corner” mosques that had been used to spread extremism and enacting legislation to ensure that all mosque imams are graduates of alAzhar University. Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi in January 2015 called on Egypt’s religious authorities — both the Ministry of Religious Endowments and al-Azhar — to lead a “renewal” in religious discourse. He specifically asked al-Azhar’s senior scholars to combat radicalisation and promote a more tolerant vision of Islam. “Religious discourse is the greatest battle and challenge facing the Egyptian people. There is an urgent need for a new vision and a modern, comprehensive understanding of the religion of Islam, rather than relying on a discourse that has not changed for 800 years,” Sisi said at the time, calling it a “religious revolution”. Sisi repeated the call for a new kind of religious discourse in June and said Egypt’s religious authorities had not done enough to combat extremism. “I fear that we have not until now found the real path to confronting fanaticism and extremism… We are on a mission, during one of the most difficult periods, not only for Egypt, but for all Arab and Muslims states,” he said in the televised speech. Some observers have attributed the row between the Ministry of Religious Endowments and alAzhar to competition for the religious leadership of the country. Member of parliament Amna Naseer warned the rivalry between the Ministry of Religious Endow
ments and al-Azhar had allowed extremists to exploit the situation. Instead of focusing on the sermons, the ministry should make sure that there are no imams with extremist views on its payroll, she argued, adding that religious reform starts with choosing the right preachers before dealing with texts. Her views were echoed by Mohamed Ibrahim, founder of the Imams for Renewal coalition. Ibrahim said that both the ministry and al-Azhar are competing to show they are the real leaders of religious reform called for by Sisi.

Russia, Syria in 'Disgraceful' Use of Incendiary Arms
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/August 16/16/Syrian and Russian warplanes have repeatedly used incendiary weapons in "disgraceful" attacks on civilians in northern Syria, Human Rights Watch charged Tuesday. The rights group said it had documented the use of incendiary weapons at least 18 times since June that had resulted in more than a dozen injuries. There was "compelling evidence" that Russia was supporting Syrian government planes in those attacks, the New York-based watchdog said. "The Syrian government and Russia should immediately stop attacking civilian areas with incendiary weapons," said HRW arms director Steve Goose. "The disgraceful incendiary weapon attacks in Syria show an abject failure to adhere to international law restricting incendiary weapons," he said. When dropped from aircraft, incendiary weapons leave distinctive trails of explosives in the sky and trigger small, intense fires upon contact. They were used widely during the Vietnam war and are banned by the UN Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons. HRW documented attacks with such weapons since early June, including two cases on August 7 that hit opposition-controlled parts of the cities of Aleppo and Idlib. "I could clearly see the flames bursting," said Idlib resident Mohammad Taj Al-Din Othman, who supplied HRW with photos of the attack. "Within 10 minutes, there were more strikes. The fire was unbelievable, it turned night into day." A civil defence volunteer told HRW: "The fire took over everything, houses, cars, oil tanks, and even grass." The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said it too had documented the use of thermite -- a type of incendiary substance -- by Russian planes in Idlib, Aleppo and Deir Ezzor provinces, and Raqa. And earlier this month, activists in Daraya, a besieged rebel-held town near Damascus, accused the regime of using banned chemical agent napalm against residents there. All sides of Syria's complex war have exchanged accusations of attacks against civilians and use of unconventional weapons including chlorine and mustard gas. HRW said the use of incendiary weapons in Syria had "increased significantly" since Russia began its air war in support of Damascus on September 30, 2015. In a letter to HRW in November, Russia acknowledged that "improper use" of incendiary weapons had resulted in "significant humanitarian damage" in Syria. Since 2012, HRW has documented the use of four different incendiary weapons in Syria, all manufactured by the former Soviet Union. More than 290,000 people have been killed and millions forced to flee their homes since Syria's conflict erupted in March 2011.

Suspected New York Imam Killer Charged with Murder
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/August 16/16/New York police charged a suspect Monday with the double murder of a New York imam and his friend, in a brutal slaying that sent shock waves through U.S. Muslim communities. Oscar Morel, a 35-year-old Brooklyn man,was charged with two counts of murder and two counts of criminal possession of a weapon, NYPD detective Hubert Reyes told Agence France Presse. Fearful Muslim New Yorkers have demanded stepped-up security and justice as hundreds of mourners attended the two men's funeral service in the borough of Queens.
Maulama Akonjee, 55, who migrated to the United States from Bangladesh, and his friend, 64-year-old Thara Uddin, were shot dead in broad daylight on Saturday afternoon in the Ozone Park neighborhood. Morel was taken into custody on Sunday, the NYPD told AFP. Following his detention, he was charged with a hit-and-run that took place three miles (about five kilometers) away from the double murder and the assault of a police officer, Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce told a news conference. The murder charges were added later Monday after police recovered a gun and clothing from his house that were similar to those believed used by the shooter, U.S. media reported. Morel was known to have been in the area of the double murder eight minutes before the homicide and took off directly afterward, Boyce said. Police said Morel was from East New York, a troubled area of Brooklyn, and was believed to have a job in a warehouse. Authorities had earlier said hate crime was being investigated as a possible motive -- as demanded by Muslim elders -- but did not provide any information on the suspect's motives Monday evening. The New York Daily News quoted police sources as saying the killer may have been settling a score in a feud between Muslims and Hispanics, suggestions that have been dismissed by members of the Muslim community. "We want justice, we want justice, we want justice," chanted Muslim elders at a chaotic news conference before Monday's funeral. - Xenophobic statements -The Council on American-Islamic Relations had offered a $10,000 reward for any information that could lead to an arrest or conviction. Community leaders, clearly rattled by rising Islamophobia, slammed "xenophobic statements" made against Muslims in speeches by "politicians and candidates seeking the highest office in the land" -- a clear reference to Donald Trump. Trump, the New York billionaire and Republican nominee, used a keynote address Monday to demand ideological screening tests for immigrants, saying immigrants and their children had been responsible for a string of extremist attacks in America.
One speaker at the pre-funeral conference demanded security cameras be erected outside mosques and for the street where the two men were shot to be renamed in their honor. Mayor Bill de Blasio, who paid his respects with other elected officials, promised extra police would protect mosques and Muslim communities, saying the entire city stood shoulder-to-shoulder with those in mourning. "We know there are voices all over this country who are spewing hate, trying to create division, trying to turn one American against another," de Blasio said. "We're not going to let them continue to encourage acts of hatred." The working class area where the victims were killed, on the border between Queens and Brooklyn, is home to many Muslim families from Bangladesh. Akonjee had been carrying more than $1,000, but the attacker did not take the money, police said.

UN chief says he’d like a woman to be next secretary-general
The Associated Press, United Nations Tuesday, 16 August 2016/Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says he would personally like to see a woman lead the United Nations for the first time since it was established more than 70 years ago. As he nears the end of his second five-year term on Dec. 31, Ban said that “it’s high time now” for a female secretary-general after eight men at the helm of the world organization. There are currently 11 candidates vying to succeed Ban — six men and five women. But he stressed that the decision is not up to him — it’s up to the 15-member Security Council which must recommend a candidate to the 193-member General Assembly for its approval. The UN chief was asked about the possibility of a female secretary-general during a trip to California last week. Sitting onstage in Los Angeles last Wednesday with US Rep. Ed Royce, a California Republican who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Ban stressed that women comprise half the world’s population and should be empowered and “given equal opportunities.” “We have many distinguished and eminent women leaders in national governments or other organizations or even business communities, political communities, and cultural and every aspect of our life,” he said a day later in an Associated Press interview. “There’s no reason why not in the United Nations.”Without giving any names, he said, there are “many distinguished, motivated women leaders who can really change this world, who can actively engage with the other leaders of the world.”“So that’s my humble suggestion, but that’s up to member states,” Ban said in the AP interview last Thursday during a visit to the home of 99-year-old Libba Patterson in Novato where he spent his first days in the United States as an 18-year-old student from South Korea. He praised the General Assembly for holding the first-ever public hearings for all the candidates seeking to succeed him.
By tradition, the job of secretary-general has rotated among regions of the world. Officials from Asia, Africa, Latin America and Western Europe have all held the world’s top diplomatic post. East European nations, including Russia, argue that they have never had a secretary-general and it is their turn. A group of 56 nations are campaigning for the first female UN chief. The Security Council has held two informal polls in which 12 candidates participated, and in each the highest-ranked woman was in third place, a disappointment to many. Former Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Guterres, a former UN refugee chief, topped both polls. In the first “straw” poll Irina Bokova of Bulgaria, who heads the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, came in third but in the second she dropped to fifth. In the second poll Argentina’s Foreign Minister Susana Malcorra, who was Ban’s former chief of staff, moved up to third. Former Croatian Foreign Minister Vesna Pusic, who placed last in the first poll, dropped out of the race. The three other women candidates are New Zealand’s former prime minister Helen Clark, who heads the UN Development Program; Christiana Figueres of Costa Rica, the U.N. official who played a key role in shaping last December’s historic agreement to fight climate change; and former Moldovan Foreign Minister Natalia Gherman, The Security Council has scheduled another “straw” poll on Aug. 29 and at least one, and possibly two, are expected to be held in September. There is no deadline for nominations and two women mentioned as long-shot late entries are German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Kristalina Georgieva, another Bulgarian who is the European Commission’s budget chief and a former top World Bank official. Ban spoke of the qualities he thinks are important for “any secretary-general, he or she.”The prospective secretary-general should have “a clear vision for the world of the future” and “strong integrity and commitment” to make progress toward peace and promote development and human rights, he said, and the ability to tackle seemingly intractable issues through inclusive dialogue and with flexibility. His successor should also have “strong compassionate and visionary leadership” and be able to articulate the importance of human dignity for vulnerable groups including women and girls, the disabled and “people in homosexual orientations and minority groups,” Ban said. “If not the United Nations, who will take care of those people?” he asked.

Iran detains dual national linked to British intelligence
Reuters, Dubai Tuesday, 16 August 2016/Iran said on Tuesday it had arrested a dual national last week in Tehran linked to Britain’s intelligence service, the latest in a string of arrests of dual nationals over the past year. “The accused was working in an economic sector related to Iran,” Tehran prosecutor general, Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi, was quoted as saying by the state news agency IRNA. Dolatabadi did not identify the accused person nor the second nationality. The prosecutor said the arrest was part of a crackdown against what officials have portrayed as “Western infiltration”. Iran's potential opening up to the West after last year's nuclear deal has alarmed Iranian hardliners. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have arrested at least six other dual-nationality citizens, or expatriates, upon their return to visit Iran in the last year, the highest number of Iranians with dual-nationality detained in recent years to have been acknowledged. The government has confirmed most of the detentions, without giving details of any charges. Iran does not recognize dual nationality, which prevents relevant Western embassies from seeing individuals who have been detained.

Russian jets take off from Iran to target ISIS in Syria
The Associated Press, Moscow Tuesday, 16 August 2016/Russian warplanes took off on Tuesday from a base in Iran to target ISIS fighters and other militants in Syria, Russia’s Defense Ministry said, marking a major development in the country’s civil war, now in its sixth year. Russia has never used the territory of another country in the Middle East for its operations inside Syria, where it has been carrying out an aerial campaign in support of President Bashar Assad’s government for nearly a year. The announcement suggests cooperation on the highest levels between Moscow and Tehran, both key allies of the embattled president. It comes a day after Russia’s defense minister said Moscow and Washington are edging closer to an agreement on Syria that would help defuse the situation in the besieged northern city of Aleppo. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said the agreement would “allow us to find common ground and start fighting together for bringing peace to that territory,” adding that Russian representatives are “in a very active stage of talks with our American colleagues.”A US official said, however, that discussions with the Russians are still ongoing and no agreement is close. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the talks. Russia and the United States have been discussing greater coordination for striking extremists in Syria, but they have been unable to reach agreement on which militant groups could be targeted. Russia has criticized what it describes as US reluctance to persuade the Syrian opposition groups it supports to withdraw from areas controlled by al-Qaeda’s branch in Syria. The Russian ministry’s statement issued said Su-34 and Tu-22M3 bombers took off earlier in the day to target ISIS and the Nusra Front militants in Aleppo, as well as in Deir al-Zor and Idlib, destroying five major ammunition depots, training camps and three command posts. Nusra Front is al-Qaeda’s branch in Syria. However, the group recently announced it was changing its name to Fath al-Sham and severing ties with the global terror network in an apparent attempt to evade Russian and US-led airstrikes. Russia and the US have dismissed the name change as window-dressing. The Russian Defense Ministry released a video showing a Russian Tu-22M3 long-range bomber dropping bombs in strikes described as “terrorist objects in Syria.” Russia and Iran have been expanding their ties in the past months after most of the sanctions against Iran were lifted following the nuclear deal with world powers that put restricted Iran’s nuclear program from weapons-grade capability.

Austria: knife attack on train wounds 2
The Associated Press, Vienna Tuesday, 16 August 2016/A knife-wielding man attacked passengers early Tuesday on a train in western Austria, seriously wounding two, police said. The suspect was arrested. The assault occurred near the village of Sulz, in westernmost Vorarlberg province. A police statement said that a 19-year old man suffered wounds to the stomach and back. The other victim, a 17-year old male, had a throat injury. Both were hospitalized. The assault came three days after a man attacked passengers on a crowded Swiss train with a knife and burning liquid Saturday, in an assault that left him and one of his victims dead. In Austria, Vorarlberg police spokeswoman Elisabeth Engelhardt said police were searching for a motive as they questioned the man but “at this point there is no knowledge” of a copycat attack. “We assume that the perpetrator is mentally confused,” she said in an email. St. Gallen canton (state) police in Switzerland said Tuesday said that three victims of Saturday’s attack remained in hospital, including a 17-year-old girl still in life-threatening condition. The Austrian police statement said the 19-year old was the first victim in Tuesday’s incident, with the perpetrator lunging at him from a facing seat. He then attacked the 17-year old as the train slowed to a halt at Sulz, about 10 kilometers (6 miles) east of the Swiss border. The attacker was apprehended at the stop by two police officers who used pepper spray to subdue him, police said. A 22-year old passenger who helped police suffered minor cut wounds to a hand. Such attacks reflect the difficulties of policing Europe’s labyrinthine transport system, particularly against individuals with unsophisticated weapons. Last month in neighboring Germany, a 17-year-old refugee from Afghanistan with an ax and a knife wounded four tourists on a train, and stabbed a woman as he fled. The attacker was shot and killed by police. All his victims survived. In May at a train station in the German state of Bavaria, a 27-year-old German man who had been in psychiatric care stabbed commuters, killing one and wounding three others before being apprehended by police. Last year, a heavily armed gunman opened fire on a high-speed Amsterdam to Paris train but was overpowered by two young American servicemen and their companion.

China seeks closer military ties with Syria
Reuters, Beijing Tuesday, 16 August 2016/China wants to have closer military ties with Syria, state media on Tuesday cited a senior Chinese officer as saying during a rare visit to the war-torn Middle Eastern country. While relying on the region for oil supplies, China tends to leave Middle Eastern diplomacy to the other permanent members of the UN Security Council, namely the United States, Britain, France and Russia. But China has been trying to get more involved, including sending envoys to help push for a diplomatic resolution to the violence there and hosting Syrian government and opposition figures. Guan Youfei, director of the Office for International Military Cooperation of China’s Central Military Commission, met Syrian Defense Minister Fahad Jassim al-Freij in Damascus, China’s Xinhua state news agency said. Guan said China had consistently played a positive role in pushing for a political resolution in Syria. “China and Syria’s militaries have a traditionally friendly relationship, and China’s military is willing to keep strengthening exchanges and cooperation with Syria’s military,” the news agency paraphrased Guan as saying. Both also talked about personnel training and “reached a consensus” on the Chinese military providing humanitarian aid, Xinhua added, without elaborating. Guan also met a Russian general in Damascus, the news agency said, without giving details. While China has shown no interest in getting involved militarily in Syria, China’s special envoy for the crisis there in April praised Russia’s military role in the war. China has its own security concerns about violence in the region. China is worried that Uighurs, a mostly Muslim people from western China’s Xinjiang region, have ended up in Syria and Iraq fighting for militant groups there, having travelled illegally via Southeast Asia and Turkey.

Saudi Deputy Crown Prince discusses with US envoy fighting ISIS
By Staff writer Al Arabiya News Channel Tuesday, 16 August 2016/Saudi Deputy Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman met Tuesday with the US Presidential envoy for combatting ISIS, Bert McFord. The meeting - which took place in Jeddah - focused on developments in the Middle East. It also touched on the coordination between Saudi Arabia and US within the international coalition to combat ISIS.

Libyan forces close to capture of Sirte from ISIS
By Reuters, Sirte, Libya Tuesday, 16 August 2016/Libyan forces said on Tuesday they had taken one of the last districts in central Sirte held by ISIS, battling snipers and car bombs in their campaign to recapture the entire city. Forces aligned with Libya’s UN-backed government in Tripoli are three months into a campaign to oust ISIS from their former North African stronghold and have encircled the militants in a shrinking section of the city center. Since Aug. 1, their progress has been aided by US air strikes on ISIS vehicles, weapons and fighting positions. The US Africa Command said it had carried out a total of 48 strikes as of Sunday. The Libyan forces are composed mainly of brigades from the western city of Misrata. After they secured key sites south of central Sirte last week, fighting shifted into neighborhood Number 2, which the brigades said they had now captured. “On Tuesday morning clashes erupted... that led successfully to the recapture of neighborhood Number 2 with the cooperation of a tank unit to confront ISIS snipers,” said Rida Issa, a spokesman. “The neighborhood is now completely under control of our forces,” he said, adding that his side had also made incursions into neighborhood Number 1, situated in the heart of Sirte, the hometown of late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi. The Misrata-led forces had faced four vehicle-borne bombs, two of which they had destroyed on the ground before they could reach their targets, Issa said. “One unfortunately exploded near our forces but there are no casualty figures, and the fourth one was bombed by a warplane. We do not know whether it was US air strike or our air defense.”The government-backed forces have been carrying out their own, regular air strikes over the Mediterranean coastal city with a fleet of ageing fighter jets. At least three combatants from those forces had been killed and 30 wounded in Tuesday’s clashes, according to Akram Gliwan, a spokesman at Misrata’s central hospital. ISIS seized control of Sirte last year, turning it into a base for Libyan and foreign jihadists and extending its control over about 250 km (155 miles) of Libya’s Mediterranean coastline. But it has struggled to win broad support or retain territory in Libya, and losing Sirte will be a major setback for the ultra-hardline Islamist group, which has already lost ground to US-backed military campaigns in Iraq and Syria. Almost all Sirte’s estimated population of 80,000 fled as ISIS imposed its rule on the city or during the fighting of the past three months.

Palestinians wounded in clashes with Israel army
By AFP, Al-Fawwar, Palestinian Territories Tuesday, 16 August 2016/Twenty-five Palestinians were wounded in clashes with Israeli soldiers conducting searches in a refugee camp in the southern West Bank on Tuesday, Red Crescent medics said. Some of the wounded had been hit by live ammunition, others by rubber bullets, the medics said. The clashes erupted when a large convoy of Israeli military vehicles entered Al-Fawwar camp, near the flashpoint city of Hebron, witnesses said. Troops conducted searches and destroyed the wall of a house in the camp, which is home to some 10,000 people. An Israeli army spokeswoman said the troops were conducting “activity to uncover weaponry” in the camp, when “dozens of Palestinians hurled IEDs (improvised explosive devices), blocks and rocks” at them. The troops “responded with riot dispersal means and fired 0.22 calibre bullets towards main instigators,” the spokeswoman said, adding that the troops had found “two improvised handguns, other weapons and ammunition.” The clashes continued until around noon (0900 GMT), an AFP photographer reported. The army closed off the Fawwar camp for 26 days last month after a gunman fired on an Israeli car on a nearby road causing a crash that killed the driver. The Israeli army has been clamping down on Palestinian workshops manufacturing arms. The Hebron area has been one of the main focuses of a wave of deadly unrest that has rocked Israel and the Palestinian territories since last October. The violence has killed 219 Palestinians, 34 Israelis, two Americans, an Eritrean and a Sudanese, according to an AFP tally. Most of the Palestinians killed were carrying out knife, gun or car-ramming attacks, Israeli authorities say.

Turkey requests 8 officers return from Greece
By AP, Ankara, Turkey. Tuesday, 16 August 2016/Turkey’s state-run news agency says officials have made a formal request to Greece for the extradition of eight Turkish officers who fled to the neighboring country after last month’s attempted coup. Anadolu Agency said Tuesday a Justice Ministry file for the officers’ return has been delivered to Greece. The six pilots and two engineers fled to Greece in a military helicopter, and Turkey wants them returned to stand trial for participating in the attempt. The eight deny involvement and have applied for asylum, saying they fear for their safety amid widespread purges in the aftermath of the attempted overthrow of the government.

Turkish prosecutors seek 2 life sentences for Gulen
By AP, Ankara, Turkey Tuesday, 16 August 2016/Prosecutors in western Turkey have demanded a life sentence for US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom Turkey accuses of masterminding the failed coup, the state-run news agency reported Tuesday. Concluding a yearlong investigation into his movement’s financial dealings, prosecutors in the city of Usak demanded that Gulen be punished with two life sentences plus 1,900 years in prison, the Anadolu Agency reported. In the more than 2,500-page indictment accepted by the court in Usak on Tuesday, Gulen and 111 other suspects are accused of transferring funds obtained through charities or donations to the United States via “front” companies, Anadolu said. It said the indictment also makes reference to Gulen’s alleged role in the July 15 coup.Gulen, a former Erdogan ally who lives in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania, is already on trial in absentia in Turkish courts, facing life terms over accusations of plotting to overthrow the government and leading an armed group. He has also been indicted on a charge of leading a terror organization and faces another trial in absentia in November. On Tuesday, police in Istanbul launched simultaneous raids on 44 companies suspected of providing financial support to Gulen’s movement while authorities issued warrants to detain 120 company executives, Anadolu reported. The private Dogan news agency said the companies searched included a supermarket chain. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has refused to rule out bringing back the death penalty in order to punish the coup plotters - a move that would further jeopardize Turkey’s faltering European Union membership bid. But on Tuesday, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim appeared to move away from reinstating capital punishment. “Anyone who spilled the blood of our martyrs will be held to account. But, my valuable citizens, we won’t act in the spirit of vengeance,” Yildirim said during his weekly address to his ruling party’s legislators. “Death penalty is death for one time. But there are worse ways of dying. This is through an objective and fair trial.”Meanwhile, Turkey made a formal request to Greece for the extradition of eight Turkish officers who fled to the neighboring country after last month’s attempted coup, the state-run news agency reported Tuesday. A Justice Ministry file had been delivered to Greece requesting the officers’ return over charges that include breaching the Constitution through the use of force, plotting to kill the president and crimes against the parliament and government, Anadolu reported. The six pilots and two engineers fled to Greece aboard a military helicopter after the July 15 attempt. Turkey wants them returned to stand trial on charges of participating in the violent attempt by renegade officers within the Turkish military that resulted in at least 270 deaths. Parliament was bombed, while Erdogan escaped an attack on his hotel at a seaside resort.
The eight deny involvement in the coup and have applied for asylum, saying they fear for their safety amid widespread purges in the aftermath of the attempted overthrow of the government.
The government says the coup was the work of followers of Gulen’s religious movement, who allegedly have infiltrated the military over the years. The government declared a state of emergency and launched a massive crackdown on Gulen’s supporters in the aftermath of the coup, raising concerns among European nations and human rights organizations who have urged restraint.
Some 35,000 people have been detained for questioning and more than 17,000 of them have been formally arrested to face trial, including soldiers, police, judges and journalists. Tens of thousands more people with suspected links to Gulen have been suspended or dismissed from their jobs in the judiciary, media, education, health care, military and local government. Gulen has denied any prior knowledge or involvement in the coup.
 

Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on on  August 16-17/16

Better to be leopards than goats
Gilad Sharon|/Ynetnews/August 16/16
Op-ed: A significant portion of our Middle East enemies are not interested in peaceful solutions to the Arab-Israeli conflict. They want us gone. If we want peace, we have to be strong enough to instill fear in them.A few days ago, from his mouse-like layer in the ground, Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah threatened us with an array of rockets that could cover all of Israel. What can we do to appease him? Nothing. Nothing but our deaths will please him and his ilk.  Sometimes people are like animals. There are animals that smell fear and weakness. A horse, for instance, immediately senses the attitude of its rider; a timid person won't last long on a fierce horse's back. Dogs sense this as well: In the military, dogs come towards those who fear them. Those who aren't afraid only experience their barks from afar. In this aspect of identifying fear and weakness – individuals, tribes, and people are akin to animals. Smell fear, then attack. In our region of the world - which is still quite wild and tribal - honor and revenge are not just words describing abstract emotions. They are a squeezed trigger, a downward-pushed gas pedal. And one gang travels on to kill the other.
In this reality, even if the leopard will eventually lie down with the goat, it's better that we be the leopard just in case. Politeness, an eagerness for peace and acceptance, are seen here as weakness. In this neighborhood, those who want peace should prepare for war.
Our neighbors' peaceful ambitions will not prevent a war here. They prefer a war, at the end of which we will be gone, rather than a peace which involves us staying. That's why the temptations of peace will not be enough to convince them, but only their fear of defeat. We have no way of buying peace from Hamas, Hezbollah, and other terrorist groups – neither with territory nor any other kind of generous concession. They want our heads, and these are not for sale.
A lot of good people, who accept this analysis but have a hard time accepting its implications, tend to ask: So, will there never be peace, then?  Well, what kind of peace? A peace like the one shared between Italy and France? We won't have anything of that sort for the foreseeable future. But that doesn't mean we can't achieve a kind of quiet. That can be achieved. We'll be strong, successful, and good, and we'll respond forcefully to every blow. Not proportionally, but with such force that they'll think we've gone off the rails.  In conclusion, turning back to the animals. I've lived my whole life in the vicinity of flocks. There are shepherds who place lion feces around a farm. Lower-level predators smell the waste of an upper-level predator and walk away. A lion's waste is enough to chase away a pack of Jackals. And what of the lion itself? Everyone knows well that even a lazy lion that desires nothing more than to spend its days sleeping in the shade can be deadly when awakened.

Obama and Assad: The ‘golden exit’ from the Syrian calamity
Chibli Mallat/The Arab Weekly/August 16/16/
http://www.thearabweekly.com/Opinion/6058/Obama-and-Assad%3A-The-%E2%80%98golden-exit%E2%80%99-from-the-Syrian-calamity
There are photographs on the internet of US President Barack Obama looking happy with his daughters next to pictures of child victims of the Syrian tragedy. The viewer is crudely asked to believe the US president as having responsibility for the misery that has befallen Syria under his watch.
Also recurrent in social media is a picture of Syrian President Bashar Assad smiling at a little girl, probably his daughter, next to a frame showing another little Syrian girl disfigured and maimed.
In the case of the US president, international law has not reached a maturity that allows punishment for crimes of omission. This is hard enough to establish in domestic law and is far-fetched on the international scene.
The so-called good Samaritan responsibility, what the French criminal code describes as the crime of non-assistance à personne en danger, remains alien to common law. Still, it is legitimate to ask how the grey hair that Obama complained was caused by his “meetings on Syria” squares morally with the famous Atlantic interview where he expressed his “pride” over “(my) Syria policy”.
Does this grey hair not entail some criminal responsibility for the tens of thousands of dead Syrian civilians he turned his back on by rejecting any form of protection, let alone a safe haven for them in Syria despite the insistent advocacy by top aides since 2011?
The question may be legitimate in the sphere of morals. In the present state of international criminal law, responsibility by omission remains elusive.
The case of Assad, in contrast, is hardly one of omission. Documentation of the crimes perpetrated under his rule is massive.
Since 2011, there appear time and again long investigative articles on the scale of the crimes perpetrated by his forces and their allies in Syria, in addition to detailed reports issued by think-tanks and human rights organisations, even protests and requests for accountability by various agencies and officials at the United Nations.
While dampened by the horrors of the Islamic State (ISIS) and other Islamic and oppositional groups, the reason we hear less about the criminal consequences inherent to these crimes lies chiefly in the silence of the diplomats, especially Staffan de Mistura, the UN envoy on Syria. Diplomats are busy pushing unworkable ceasefires and roundtable meetings featuring Assad in the middle. They wrongly think that the chances of success require muting any sort of criminal responsibility for a man they need at the negotiating table.
The schizophrenia is not new. Whether in Yemen, where former president Ali Abdullah Saleh ensured that an immunity clause for him was expressly built into the November 2011 accord, or in other instances the world over, the golden exit for dictators is carefully preserved by diplomats.
The argument goes like this: If we want an end to the civil war, we need to preserve the dictator’s future against prosecution; otherwise he will never agree to exit, let alone come to the round table.
There have been exceptions. In the Dayton agreement, the late Richard Holbrooke refused to include a golden exit for Slobodan Milosevic and history proved him right.
In contrast, the mistake of the UN special envoy to Yemen, my friend Jamal Benomar, was to allow the immunity clause to remain active. Saleh spoiled all his efforts to bring together Yemen on a democratic path. Instead of Saleh being arrested and tried, he was allowed to ally with the Houthis (whose leaders he had assassinated over the years) to take over Sana’a in the summer of 2014 by force, triggering the Saudi military intervention and the bottomless miseries since.
Golden exits and immunity pacts are a bad idea. Their deformation of basic morals in the course of history far outweighs their benefits.
How to read the tea leaves on the respective responsibility of the US and Syrian presidents five, ten, 20 years from now? Unless Obama reverses course dramatically, and even if he does it at this late stage, the stigma of Syria will outweigh his foreign legacy forever but it is unlikely to entail criminal consequences. As for Assad, his criminal responsibility under international law has been established beyond doubt. The question is whether it will hound his family. Saddam Hussein and Muammar Qaddafi do not provide good precedents.
**Chibli Mallat is an international human rights lawyer and a law professor. His latest book, Philosophy of Nonviolence, was published at Oxford University Press.

Putin’s miscalculations in the battle for Aleppo
Khairallah Khairallah/The Arab Weekly/August 16/16/
The balance of power in the Middle East and beyond has been changed by the Syrian civil war, particularly following the internationalisation of this crisis and the increasing presence of Russia and Iran in the conflict.
With the Syrian rebels on the front foot, now is the perfect time to ask just what Russia’s ongoing, and evidently failing, military intervention has achieved in the country and why Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov pursued this dangerous course.
Aleppo is simply not a city that can be easily occupied and quelled, whether by the Syrian Army, Russian air strikes or Iran-backed militias such as Hezbollah, which are participating in the war against the Syrian people.
Moscow had hoped its air power would be enough to tip the scales in Aleppo but the besieged Syrian rebels in the city have endured. The destruction and civilian casualties caused by the siege have failed to demoralise the people of Aleppo and have strengthened their resolve.
Following news that the rebels’ advance could be traced to outside help, particularly arms and equipment from Turkey, it is clear that Moscow underestimated the geo-strategic importance that Aleppo — less than 50km from the Turkish border — holds for Ankara.
This is a political reality, regardless of who is in power in Turkey or the balance of power in the region. If Turkey finds itself under threat from Syrian territory, and particularly Aleppo, it has no choice but to respond.
The other important factor that Putin overlooked is that, after more than five years of war, the Syrian people and particularly those remaining in the besieged city of Aleppo are more prepared than before to make sacrifices and suffer to the last man, woman or child. After all this death and destruction, they know that they cannot simply yield. Prior to the failed coup in Turkey, relations were strained between Turkey and Russia. Ankara and Moscow now appear on the road to rapprochement following a meeting between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Putin in St Petersburg. It remains unclear how this will affect Syria and the battle for Aleppo, if at all.
Whatever the case, Moscow made a mistake in believing that it could prove the decisive factor in the battle for Aleppo. The thousands of armed rebels in Aleppo are prepared to fight to the death. Russia and Iran failed to understand that after all this death the people of Aleppo will never bow their heads to the Assad regime, which has carried out a series of massacres against them since the 1970s. They know that they have no choice but to hold on.
Russia will not succeed in its mission through air power alone. Iran will not succeed with its militias where the regime failed with its army and thugs. The battle for Aleppo has been raging virtually since the start of the Syrian revolution in March 2011 and the people of Aleppo have learnt from the experiences.
Why did Moscow make this dangerous gamble? The answer is simple: Putin was suckered into playing a stronger role than he otherwise might have, seeking to make gains on US President Barack Obama’s more hands-off approach to the region. This is a foreign policy that has seen Iraq fall under almost complete Iranian influence thanks to a resurgent Tehran following the controversial Iran nuclear deal.
Obama, set to leave office in January 2017, acknowledged that many of his grey hairs have been caused by the Syrian crisis that has spiralled out of control on his watch. As for Putin, his grey hairs might be less obvious but the Syrian conflict remains a key part of his foreign policy towards the region.
One question remains: What will the Russian president do when Obama leaves office and the next president, whether Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump, takes a markedly different approach on Syria?

Christian Summer Conferences Offer Israel Blessings and Curses
Susan Warner/Gatestone Institute/August 16/16
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/8700/christian-conferences-israel

A segment of Christians is actually trying to delude the world into thinking the absurd: that the ancient Jews of Canaan and Judea are "colonialists" who are "illegally occupying" their own native land.
Seemingly undeterred by their 2016 defeats, the Christian anti-Israel coalitions are regrouping for their next attacks, while pro-Israel Christian Zionist organizations -- including Christians United for Israel (CUFI), Friends of Israel (FOI), International Christian Embassy of Jerusalem (ICEJ) and Bridges for Peace, among others, continue to speak out and teach the facts and the truth about Israel to Christians throughout the U.S. and Europe.
Still, the Bible gives us hope and assurance that there is a future day when Israel will be able to bask in the elusive peace it demonstrably continues to offer those who are trying to destroy it.
In breaking news yesterday, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America approved a resolution calling on the U.S. government to end all aid to Israel if Israel does not stop building settlements and "enable an independent Palestinian state."
Several international Christian policy conferences this summer have produced a mixed bag of both blessings and curses -- all aimed at Israel. The United Methodists, The Southern Baptists, The Presbyterian Church (USA) and the Unitarian Universalists are worth noting here.
United Methodists
From the quadrennial United Methodist General Conference (UMGC), the good news is that the four major divestment and boycott proposals were defeated in committee before ever reaching a floor vote. The primary targets of the defeated boycott campaign were Caterpillar and Motorola, the corporate giants alleged -- in a totally fictitious plot -- to be co-conspirators with Israel supposedly to disable and destroy the Palestinian people.
The General Conference, not surprisingly, also voted to reaffirm (759-24) the United Methodist resolution #60229 -- Guiding Principles for Christian-Jewish Relations. This is a resolution that has been reinforced and amended for many years. It reflects the UMC's interest in establishing and maintaining relationships with the Jewish community.
However, mention of Israel in the UMC resolution is a trailing number nine out of nine points with a hesitant tone that reveals a distinct lack of understanding of the critical role of Israel in worldwide Jewish affairs.
Because of their apparent lack of factual information on the topic of Israel, the resolution appears to have caused some confusion. According to their document, they are "searching, wrestling, and struggling with complexities and painfulness of the controversies surrounding these Middle East issues." (extrapolated from petition #60229)
The UMC story however, does not end there. There are two nagging unresolved elements: first is the United Methodist Kairos Response Committee, which some people say is openly anti-Semitic, and second is the misguided United Methodist membership in the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation.
Reinforcing and undergirding the campaign to destroy Israel economically, is the extreme anti-Israel United Methodist Kairos Response (UMKR) committee, currently reorganizing their menu of fraudulent attacks on Israel in the aftermath of their defeat at the General Conference.
The defeat of the UMKR effort at the General Conference a "cautious victory," according to an NGO Monitor article. It cites the UM Global Ministries Committee, which calls on the Church to withdraw its membership from the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation (USCEIO) another anti-Israel group to which the Methodist Church sadly remains a signatory.
While resolution #60229 is one positive step toward reconciliation, it unfortunately omits mention of Israel as the one and only sanctuary state for Jews.
This glaring omission leaves room for extremists, such as the United Methodist Kairos Response (UMKR) group, to advance its aggressive agenda against Israel as so-called "colonialist occupiers". It is exactly this position that reverberates throughout a segment of Christians who are actually trying to delude the world into thinking the absurd: that the ancient Jews of Canaan and Judea are "colonialists" who are "illegally occupying" their own native land.
It is distressing to watch the members of the Methodist Church at their General Conference trying to sidestep the malevolent embrace of anti-Semitism that seems to have overwhelmed so many Christian groups in recent years.
The United Methodist Church (UMC) represents seven million members in the United States. Since 1996, the UMC has adopted one resolution after another providing guiding principles for creating positive relationships with the Jewish people -- yet seems weak and self-defeating in response to toxic anti-Israel attacks from within.
Southern Baptists
In an even more comprehensive and positive move, the Southern Baptist Convention in its June gathering passed an anti-divestment resolution in support of Israel. The resolution declared "that the BDS movement seeks to isolate only the nation of Israel economically and socially."
The Southern Baptists resolved to "support the right of Israel to exist as a sovereign state and reject any activities that attack that right by promoting economic, cultural, and academic boycotts against Israel." They added that "at this critical time when dangerous forces are mounting up against the nation of Israel, we recommit ourselves to pray for God's peace to rule in Jerusalem and for the salvation of Israel."
According to Baptist News Global, the lone opponent of the resolution was Pastor Jamal Bishara, who is leader of First Arabic Baptist Church in Phoenix, Arizona. He argued unsuccessfully that parts the resolution "on prayer and support for Israel" are both biblically and factually incorrect.
Bishara, who was born and raised in Nazareth, Israel, reflects, according to critics, a pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel bias deeply embedded within Israel's Christian communities. He has said that Palestinians have "the right to live peaceably in their land. ... Among the Palestinians you have brothers and sisters who are Christians also." However, no Israeli leader has ever suggested denying the Palestinians the right to live in peace. Bishara's comment appears to attest more to an anti-Israel narrative on the part of many Israeli Christian groups, including: Eastern and Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholic and evangelical Protestant groups, particularly Bethlehem Bible College, which sponsors the infamous biennial, Christ at the Checkpoint Conferences.
Fortunately, Bishara's opinion represents a fringe minority within the largely pro-Israel Southern Baptist denomination.
Presbyterian Church (USA)
The Presbyterian Church USA (PCUSA) General Conference, after lengthy debate, approved (429-129) a report entitled Israel-Palestine For Human Values in the Absence of a Just Peace. The report, originally issued in February, declared the denomination's intention of reevaluating its support for a two-state solution.
At first glance, the reviews of the report suggested that the PCUSA might be planning to moderate its formerly hate-filled attitudes toward Israel. But a thorough reading of the report reveals that its foundational premise is weighted with incorrect and bogus "facts," typically laying blame for the intractable problems in the region solely at Israel's feet, while invoking the name of God as a guide and inspiration.
According to a report in Religion News Service:
The votes by Presbyterian Church USA delegates angered mainstream Jewish groups, who said the measures unfairly 'demonize' Israel, give a pass to Palestinian violence and question the Jewish state's right to exist. But Some Jewish leaders noted that delegates amended resolutions to temper action and stances against Israel.
The American Jewish Committee (AJC) criticized the General Assembly (GA) for endorsing a report that was 'one-sided;' and 'filled with inaccuracies.'
"For those who seek an enduring Israeli-Palestinian peace it is deeply disappointing that a major Protestant denomination in the U.S. with deep roots in the Middle East, has chosen to be a cheerleader for those whose vision of peace does not include the State of Israel," said Emily Soloff, AJC associate director of interreligious and intergroup relations."
The PCUSA conference also seemed to disassociate itself from any official affiliation with Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which has been running an aggressive but unsuccessful global campaign to try to destroy Israel through economic boycotts of products, businesses and academic institutions.
At the same time, PCUSA proposed to approve a resolution to urge the realty company RE/MAX to stop sales of property within Jewish settlements in the "occupied territories."
"The denomination's irresponsible approach to peace and human rights in the Middle East is reprehensible," declared noted Christian affairs analyst Dexter Van Zile.
"The Presbyterian Church (PCUSA) sunk to a new low last week—the GA's noisy obsession with attacking Israel was only matched by their deafening silence towards the plight of thousands of Christians suffering under Islamic totalitarian regimes. The PCUSA's General Assembly chose to ignore so many human rights abuses happening in the rest of the Middle East and yet claimed to stand as social witness to the world."
PCUSA represents roughly 1.6 million members.
Unitarian Universalists
The Unitarian Universalist (UUA) General Assembly, at its June meeting in Ohio, defeated this year's divestment proposals which required a two-thirds majority to pass. The divestment proposals, similar to those proposed by both the Methodists and the Presbyterian USA denominations, target Caterpillar, Motorola and other US companies doing business in Judea and Samaria.
The Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) -- considered among the most liberal of the Christian denominations -- stands at the forefront of the "peace and social justice" movement, which is typically used as an excuse to blame Israel for the ills of the Palestinians.
The committee leading the charge against Israel is called Unitarian Universalists for Justice in the Middle East (UUJME). On the surface, the UUJME, along with partners in "peace and social justice," proclaim their intentions to offer support and compassion for suffering, poor and oppressed people groups, in this case Palestinians.
The reality, however, reveals a seriously flawed agenda based upon twisted "facts" and innuendo laying all blame for the Middle East conflict at Israel's feet.
While the Unitarian Universalists alone, with only 200,000 members, do not represent a significant influence on public opinion against Israel, their alliances with Israel's other Christian foes of Israel such as Quakers, members of the World Council of Churches and Presbyterian Church (USA), the Kairos Palestine group and the BDS movement, represent an unmistakably loud collective voice against the only pluralistic, tolerant democracy in the Middle East.
Seemingly undeterred by their 2016 defeats, the Christian anti-Israel coalitions are regrouping for their next attacks, while pro-Israel Christian Zionist organizations -- including Christians United for Israel (CUFI), Friends of Israel (FOI), International Christian Embassy of Jerusalem (ICEJ) and Bridges for Peace, among others, continue to speak out and teach the facts and the truth about Israel to Christians throughout the United States and Europe.
Christian actions both for and against Israel during the summer of 2016 are constant reminders that Israel can never stop being alert to seen and unseen enemies. For Israel, hostility from Christians, Muslims and government-funded NGOs unfortunately means complacency is not an option.
 summer of 2016 reminds us that Christian foes of Israel, after 2000 years of persecution, stand ready to strike yet again. Still, the Bible gives us hope and assurance that there is a future day when Israel will be able to bask in the elusive peace it demonstrably continues to offer those who are trying to destroy it.
**Susan Warner is a Distinguished Senior Fellow of Gatestone Institute and co-founder of a Christian group, Olive Tree Ministries in Wilmington, DE, USA. She has been writing and teaching about Israel and the Middle East for over 15 years. Contact her at israelolivetree@yahoo.com.
© 2016 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.

Turkey-EU clash is now just a matter of time
Kadri Gursel/Al-Monitor/August 16/16
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s warnings that Turkey’s refugee deal with the European Union will collapse if it fails to waive visa restrictions for Turks have become more frequent, almost routine in recent days, signaling a looming and serious crisis in Turkish-EU ties.
The emergency rule Erdogan declared after surviving the failed July 15 coup has meant the suspension of a series of basic rights and freedoms in Turkey, making the planned visa waiver even more difficult and hastening the course toward collision. The row was aggravated by a psychological factor as Erdogan feels anger and mistrust toward EU leaders who, according to him, failed to extend him adequate support after the putsch.
Since the beginning of August, Erdogan has grown markedly tougher on the issue, warning every five days on average that Turkey will stop readmitting refugees if the EU fails to introduce visa-free travel for Turks, with the Turkish press calling his warnings a “showdown.”
In his most recent challenge Aug. 12, Erdogan told Germany’s RTL television, “The visa liberalization and readmission are very important. The process is currently ongoing. Unfortunately, Europe has failed to keep its promise on the issue. We want to take steps simultaneously. If [the visa waiver] happens, fine. If not, I’m sorry but we’ll stop the readmissions.” He had made similar remarks on Aug. 2 and Aug. 8 as well.
Erdogan’s warnings are based on the March 18 deal between Turkey and the EU, under which Ankara pledged to take back all refugees who cross illegally from Turkey to Greece after March 20. Visa-free travel for Turkish nationals was part of the agreement — hence the reciprocity link Erdogan draws between the two. The introduction of the visa waiver was slated for June, but that target was missed, and all signs now indicate it is not forthcoming anytime this year.
Originally, the EU had planned to lift visa requirements for Turks in October 2016 if everything went smoothly under a visa liberalization agreement the two sides signed on Dec. 16, 2013, more than two years before the refugee deal. The plan was brought forward to June and incorporated into the refugee deal as a result of personal efforts by Turkey’s then-Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu. The EU agreed because the new timing changed nothing about the 72 criteria Turkey was supposed to fulfill for the visa waiver, something that Ankara was perfectly aware of.
So far, Turkey has met 67 of the said criteria. Erdogan is reluctant to fulfill the remaining five, but wants the visa waiver to go ahead all the same — a demand that lies at the core of the dispute. The most important part of the homework Ankara refuses to do requires amendments in Turkey’s anti-terror law in line with EU norms. The EU’s objective here is pretty clear: to strip Turkish security and judicial authorities of a legal framework that allows for violations of basic rights and freedoms and thus make sure that visa-free travel does not encourage victimized Turks to seek political asylum in EU countries. So, the EU’s rationale is to protect itself against a possible new wave of migration, facilitated by visa-free travel while oppressive and restrictive laws remain in place.
Of note, two of the four other criteria at which Erdogan balks require legal amendments to align with EU norms on fighting corruption and the protection of personal data.
It’s worth recalling, however, that Erdogan’s threats to abolish the refugee deal did not begin after the July 15 putsch. The 2013 agreement, with all its 72 conditions, had been signed in Erdogan’s presence in Ankara, yet in May he was able to say, “They have put forward 72 points, saying we should do this and that. This story is something new. These [conditions] didn’t exist before. Where did they come from?”
In the days before the putsch, Erdogan’s pretext for rejecting the five outstanding criteria was the all-out war Ankara had launched on the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in July 2015. He argued that amending anti-terror laws while the fight against the PKK was in full swing would play into the hands of the militants. Now, he has an even stronger reason to dig in his heels: to sustain unhindered the massive, merciless purges and clampdowns targeting the Gulen community — officially branded by Turkey the Fethullah Gulen Terror Organization — whose military network has emerged as the planner and perpetrator of the putsch.
Under the state of emergency, Turkey has become a country run through legislative decrees exempt from constitutional checks, with freedoms further suppressed and the European Convention on Human Rights put on hold. Thus, it has drifted further away from the EU and can in no way be expected to fulfill the pending conditions for a visa waiver.
Meanwhile, tens of thousands of people have landed in police custody or in jail, lost their jobs and seen their properties confiscated as the draconian onslaught on Gulenists rages both at state institutions and public life in general, threatening an exodus of political refugees to Europe.
In sum, the post-putsch conditions have reinforced the EU’s reasons to maintain the visa restrictions, while Erdogan has become tougher in demanding their removal. As long as these conditions prevail, the eruption of a severe crisis between Turkey and the EU is only a matter of time.

Sweden: The Silence of the Jews
Part IV of a Series: The Islamization of Sweden
Ingrid Carlqvist/Gatestone Institute/August 16/16
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/8695/sweden-jews-islamization
"It pains me to have to admit this but anti-Semitism is not just tolerated in some sections of the British Muslim community; it is routine and commonplace. Any Muslims reading this article – if they are honest with themselves – will know instantly what I am referring to. It is our dirty little secret. You could call it the banality of Muslim anti-Semitism." — Mehdi Hasan, The New Statesman.
There isn't much of a desire to do anything about it [the problem of antisemitism]. It should also be said that the so-called interfaith outreach work... achieves almost nothing. A couple of old bearded men get together and agree on some dietary thing they've got in common, but it doesn't solve the fact that anti-Semitism mainly comes from Muslim communities these days. ... that that's taught in many mosques and many Muslim schools..." — Douglas Murray, British commentator.
The question that arises is, are the elites of Sweden in general suffering from a case of Stockholm syndrome? Are we encouraging our adversaries to Islamize Sweden, which in the long run, might result in the abolition of freedom of religion, forcing Jews and Christians to live as dhimmis [subjugated citizens] in humiliation?
If by allowing hundreds of thousands of Muslims to settle here -- people much more hateful of Jews than the average German during the Nazi era -- are we not in fact paving the way for another Holocaust?
One of the most visible effects of Muslim mass immigration into Sweden is that anti-Semitism is very much on the rise in the country. Swedish Jews are being harassed and threatened, mainly in the Muslim-dense city of Malmö, where in January 2009, the friction deepened during a peaceful pro-Israel demonstration. Demonstrators were attacked by pro-Palestinian counter demonstrators, who threw eggs and bottles at the supporters of Israel. The mayor of Malmö at the time, Ilmar Reepalu, failed to take a clear stance against the violence, and was accused of preferring the approval of the city's large Muslim population to protecting Jews. He remarked, among other things, that "of course the conflict in Gaza has spilled over into Malmö."
In January 2009, an Arab mob in Malmö pelted a peaceful Jewish demonstration with bottles, eggs and smoke bombs. The police pushed the Jews, who had a permit for their gathering, into an alley.
The situation in Malmö has twice been deemed so alarming that U.S. President Barack Obama sent Special Representatives to the city: Hanna Rosenthal visited in 2012, and Ira Forman came in 2015. "We are keeping an eye on Malmö," Forman told the media.
The harassment of Malmö's Jews was, for a long time, a mystery to the general public; Were neo-Nazis really walking the streets of Sweden's third largest city? Many believed that to be the case, until the local daily paper Skånska Dagbladet published a series of articles, in which the Jewish community finally pointed out the elephant in the room: Malmö's growing Muslim population.
Fredrik Sieradzki of Malmö's Jewish community explained that when he grew up, Jews could still wear a kippa (skullcap) without anyone bothering them: "Nobody dares do that now," he said.
Malmö Rabbi Shneur Kesselman, one of very few Orthodox Jews in Sweden who wears a traditional Hassidic black hat and frock-coat, has, in the last few years, filed more than 50 complaints with the police about various kinds of harassment. On May 31, 2016, an 18-year-old Muslim by the name of Amir Ali Mohammed was finally convicted of shouting "Jewish bastard" at Kesselman. The media, however, chose not to publish any information about Mohammed's name or religion.
In June 2016, a report with a special focus on Sweden was published, entitled "Different Antisemitisms: On three distinct forms of antisemitism in contemporary Europe." Its authors, Swedish researchers Lars Dencik and Karl Marosi, based the report on two studies, conducted by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and the EU's Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA).
The report states that the Swedish anti-Semitism, leading mostly to verbal attacks on Jews, comes from Muslims. The ADL study, encompassing eight European countries (Belgium, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Sweden and Britain), showed that Sweden has the least anti-Semitic population. Only 4% of Swedes are classified as anti-Semites, compared to 41% of Hungarians. Sweden, in fact, came in number 100 out of 102 countries studied, followed only by Laos and the Philippines.
The FRA study asked Jews in various countries what group of people had attacked or threatened them: Far-right extremists, far-left extremists, Christian extremists or Muslim extremists. In Sweden, out of 81 Jews asked, 51 stated they had been attacked by Muslims, 25 by far-left extremists, 5 by far-right extremists, and none by Christian extremists.
There can be little doubt, therefore, that ethnic Swedes do not have a problem with Jews, and that the rampant anti-Semitism in Sweden is apparently due to Muslims from the Middle East, who now make up 10% of the population.
The British current events analyst and commentator, Douglas Murray, said in a recent interview, that Muslims in Europe have big problems with anti-Semitism. He referred to an article in the New Statesman, in which Muslim Mehdi Hasan wrote:
"It pains me to have to admit this but anti-Semitism is not just tolerated in some sections of the British Muslim community; it is routine and commonplace. Any Muslims reading this article -- if they are honest with themselves -- will know instantly what I am referring to. It is our dirty little secret. You could call it the banality of Muslim anti-Semitism."
Murray points out that anti-Semitism is a widespread sentiment among Muslims, even among those who have lived for decades in Europe. When asked what the West can do about the problem, Murray said:
"We may not be able to [do anything]. I wouldn't have thought France would be able to, I cannot see any particular long-term future for Jews in France. ... There will be some countries, when Muslim anti-Semitism grows, say it is not the Jews who should leave, but the people who would make the Jews leave. There are some countries where that may happen, but other countries where it will fail.
"There isn't much of a desire to do anything about it. ... it should also be said that the so-called interfaith outreach work, which the Jewish community places a lot of hope in, achieves almost nothing... A couple of old bearded men get together and agree on some dietary thing they've got in common, but it doesn't solve the fact that anti-Semitism mainly comes from Muslim communities these days; it doesn't solve the problem, the fact that that's taught in many mosques and many Muslim schools, and it doesn't address the fact that now, if you go to, if Israel does anything anywhere in the world, anywhere in its region, there will immediately be a protest of very angry young Muslims in the center of London and other British cities. You can have an old rabbi and an old mullah, you know, sitting around having tea, agreeing on dietary stuff, but that doesn't solve why the hatred is being taught. And that's something the rabbi and the Jewish leadership in this country, among other places, just don't want to admit to. Perhaps it's too bad to confront?"
The question that arises is, are the elites of Sweden in general suffering from a case of Stockholm syndrome? Are we encouraging our adversaries to Islamize Sweden, which in the long run, might result in the abolition of freedom of religion, forcing Jews and Christians to live as dhimmis [subjugated citizens] in humiliation?
Many of the Swedish elite seem to feel that it is the duty of the Swedes to take in anyone and everyone claiming to be a refugee, regardless of that person's attitude towards democracy, freedom of speech and the right of non-Muslims to live in this country.
That a majority of Swedes welcome mass immigration is actually a myth, cultivated over the last few years, mainly because critics of immigration are sometimes branded "racists". In 1993, the general mood was quite different: the daily newspaper, Expressen, published an opinion poll which showed that 63% of Swedes wanted immigrants to return home. The poll, which caused quite a stir, was presented under the headline, "THROW THEM OUT". The editor-in-chief, Erik Månsson, wrote:
"How long are we Swedes going to pretend that we welcome immigrants and refugees? Because we do not. The Swedish people have a firm opinion on immigration and refugee policies. Those in power have the opposite opinion. It does not add up. It is an opinion bomb about to go off. That is why we are writing about this, starting today. Telling it just like it is. In black and white. Before the bomb goes off."
Instead of listening to the people, the paper's owners fired their editor-in-chief, and journalists and politicians started raising the Swedes not to speak their minds on immigration.
To their credit, many Swedes certainly do not want to repeat the mistake we made in the 1930s, when Sweden only allowed about 3,000 German Jews, fleeing from the Nazis, into the country. Once World War II broke out, Sweden changed its course, and saved, for example, almost all of Denmark's Jews. In a huge rescue operation, orchestrated by the Danish resistance, 7,000 Jews crossed the Öresund sea in fishing boats, bound for the Swedish coast, where they received a warm welcome and avoided deportation to the Nazi death camps.
Swedish Jews are a small community. About 20,000 Jews live here, while the number of Muslims, according to some calculations, is approaching one million and rising fast. The other looming question is: If by allowing hundreds of thousands of Muslims to settle here -- people much more hateful of Jews than the average German during the Nazi era -- are we not in fact paving the way for another Holocaust?
The historian Ingrid Lomfors, head of the Swedish public authority The Living History Forum (created for the very purpose of informing about the Holocaust), caused a stir last fall, when she gave a speech at the event "Sweden Together" (Sverige tillsammans), arranged by the government in support of unlimited asylum immigration. (Two months later, the government completely reversed this policy and implemented border controls.) Virtually the whole Swedish establishment was present, even the King and Queen.
Lomfors stated that:
Immigration [to Sweden] is nothing new;
We are all products of immigration;
There is no such thing as a native Swedish culture.
Despite many politicians and historians attempting to change the narrative on Swedish history in recent years, most Swedes are aware that the country was one of the most ethnically homogenous in the world, until the late 1960s.
Moreover, in general, Swedes are extremely proud of Swedish culture. Thus, many quickly realized that what Lomfors said was simply not true. Swedes expressed their fury on social media, and Conservative (Moderaterna) Member of Parliament Hanif Bali (who is himself of Iranian descent) thought it an "absurd claim" that there is no Swedish culture. Bali told the online newspaper, Nyheter Idag that there seemed to be a contradiction in saying we will integrate people who come here, while claiming there is nothing Swedish to integrate them into.
Lomfors was forced to recant her assertion that there is no Swedish culture:
"Of course there is a Swedish culture. Right now, I am writing in the language that is Swedish and a part of this culture. A culture I value and appreciate very much, it is a part of me, and I of it."
Sadly, Lomfors's original statement is not unique. Many in Sweden seem reluctant to acknowledge the vast differences between Swedish and Muslim cultures, and completely deny that Muslim anti-Semitism exists, or that it is particularly prevalent in Muslim-dominated cities such as Malmö.
In February 2016, for example, the Danish-Jewish actor, Kim Bodnia, said in an interview with Israeli television, that the real reason he left the international hit television show, The Bridge (Bron), was the rampant anti-Semitism in Malmö, where much of the show is filmed.
Daniel Jonas, Administrative Director of the Jewish Congregation in Gothenburg, when asked the same question Gatestone asked Swedish politicians and the clergy, if Islam is compatible with democracy, replied:
"Absolutely! But then, that depends on what era you are talking about. One of Judaism's periods of great prosperity was under the Muslim rule of Spain, the Moor era. While the rest of Europe was trapped in the dark ages, in Spain there was a rule that wholly accepted everybody – not because of who you were, but based on how capable you were."
Many in Sweden also seem to believe that the best period in world history for Jews was Al-Andalus, that is, the Muslim occupation of Spain 750-1492.
This statement makes Andrew G. Bostom, a physician and author of The Legacy of Jihad, explode in anger:
"What Daniel Jonas said is idiotic rubbish. Muslim Spain was a rigid Sharia state. Period. The devastating Muslim jihad conquest of Spain during the 8th century imposed a rigorous system of Islamic Law -- the Sharia -- on those non-Muslim Christians and Jews who survived the mass murder and pillage. Brutal enslavement -- agricultural, construction, military, harem, and eunuch (forced human castration), with over a 90% mortality rate -- took place on an enormous scale. Those indigenous, vanquished Christians and Jews who were not enslaved, were subjected to the humiliating discrimination inherent in the Sharia, and always at risk for collective punishment, and renewed full-blown jihad campaigns waged against them, if they failed to accept these discriminatory Sharia mandates.
"Jews suffered from both the chronic, grinding Jew-hatred intrinsic to Islamic theology, and paroxysms of mass killings in the 11th and 12th centuries, in particular. The 1066 C.E. Jew-hating pogrom in Granada -- 'inspired' by popular Muslim preachers exhorting Jew-hating themes from the Koran -- Jews as apes, or apes and pigs (Koran 2;65, 5:60, and 7:166), meriting permanent contempt and humiliation (Koran 2:61, 3:112), and "dhimmi" status (Koran 9:29), only -- resulted in the slaughter of some 4,000 Jews, more than the entire sum of Jews killed in the Crusader ravages of the Rhineland villages some 30 years later, and fully liquidated Granadan Jewry."
Bostom's The Legacy of Jihad is a historical look back at global Islamic jihad during the last 1,400 years. It clearly shows how non-Muslims have time and again been persecuted and oppressed by Muslim rulers.
In the book, Bostom describes the dress code imposed on Jews and Christians in the marketplaces of ninth-century Muslim Spain. Non-Muslims had to wear a visible label on their clothing -- a monkey for Jews, a pig for the Christians. To be sure, this is reminiscent of how the Nazis forced the Jews to wear visible Stars of David on their clothing, making Daniel Jonas's praise of Muslim Spain difficult to accept.
Being forced to wear a label on your clothing, however, was not the worst part for non-Muslims during this period. Bostom relates how the Muslim legal scholar Ahmed ibn Said ibn Hazm wrote about the freedom of the "unbelievers" being always in peril. The dhimmi (inferior, non-Muslim) who refused or was unable to the pay special tax, the jizya, could be sold off as a slave or executed. If one or more dhimmis in a village refused or were unable to pay the jizya tax, the Muslim authorities had the right to repeal the village's autonomy. From one day to the next, Christians and Jews in a city could lose their status as protected "People of the Book," because one person had done something wrong. Another crime that was considered very serious, was "public outrage against the Islamic faith," for example, displaying objects such as crosses, wine or pigs in public so that Muslims could see them.
If a person chose to convert to Islam, full amnesty was immediately given, even if he had been sentenced to death. Bostom writes:
"A legal opinion given by a mufti from al-Andalus in the ninth century is very instructive: a Christian dhimmi kidnapped and violated a Moslem woman; when he was arrested and condemned to death, he immediately converted to Islam; he was automatically pardoned, while being constrained to marry the woman and to provide for her a dowry in keeping with her status. The mufti who was consulted about the affair, perhaps by a brother of the woman, found that the court decision was perfectly legal, but specified that if that convert did not become a Moslem in good faith and secretly remained a Christian, he should be flogged, slaughtered and crucified..."
Thomas Wolff, of the magazine Jewish Chronicle (Judisk krönika), commented on fear and how it makes many Jews stay silent: "We live behind locked gates with armed guards. Because of this, we lay low," Wolff told us. " You cannot tar all of Islam with the same brush. People do not flee because it amuses them, but because they are in danger."
Kent Ekeroth, a Jewish Member of Parliament for the Sweden Democrats, has long been aware of the reluctance among Swedish Jews to criticize the country's Islamization -- even though it might be their own undoing.
"It is very difficult to understand," Ekeroth told Gatestone. "In part, it has to do with Jews seeing themselves as a minority, thus thinking they have to side with other minorities, a naïve liberalism that does not serve them."
"I am sure they too will wake up one day, but as usual, by then it will be too late. They will realize what they have done, but it will be too late. Here we have all these nationalist movements in Europe who have realized what Islam is doing to our communities, and are friends of Israel...This is really the same mechanism that is at work among all Swedes who want mass immigration. I do not know why they do it and I cannot explain it. There is no logic to it and nothing to suggest it will do anybody any good."Many Swedish Jews who have realized the dangers of Islamization have emigrated -- or are planning to emigrate -- to Israel.
The final question is, when Sweden has been completely Islamized, where will the non-Jewish Swedes go? We do not have another homeland to run to.
**Ingrid Carlqvist is a journalist and author based in Sweden, and a Distinguished Senior Fellow of Gatestone Institute.
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Iraq, the graveyard of the Iranian regime
Abdulrahman al-Rashed/Al Arabiya/August 16/16
When Iraq’s late President Saddam Hussein invaded Iran in 1980, he naively thought the chaos that accompanied the arrival of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to power would enable an Iraqi victory. Saddam rejected all regional and international calls to stop the war, as he was confident he would win.
Less than three years after the war erupted, the Iranians succeeded in expelling the Iraqis from western Iran. International mediations urged both parties to stop the war, but at that point it was Tehran that rejected this. Over the next five years, the war escalated. Iran suffered heavy material and human losses.
Despite that, the religious command rejected calls for reconciliation, as they believed victory required more human sacrifice – they even sent children to the frontlines. However, in wars military superiority is more important than readiness to die. The Iraqi Air Force confronted Iranian ground forces, so Khomeini in 1988 was forced to accept an end to the war.
Pretexts
Today, Iraq is living the second chapter of the war with Iran, which seeks to dominate its rich neighbor using the same strategy that the regime of Syria’s late President Hafez al-Assad used to dominate neighboring Lebanon, where it intervened under the excuse of saving it from civil war and then under the excuse of confronting Israel. Then, as now, it was about influence and exploitation. Some may think that Iraq’s Shiite majority does not mind a strong Iranian presence in Iraq during the current instability, but this is untrue. Under the excuse of saving Iraq from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), Qassem Soleimani, commander of Iran’s Quds Force, entered Iraq and is interfering in its internal affairs. Iraqi powers are aware of the threats posed by Tehran’s intervention to dominate the state’s decision-making process. However, like Lebanese leaders, they are distracted by their own disputes.
There are other political leaders, such as former Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who are involved in deliberately weakening the central authority, and want to regain power at any cost. Haidar al-Abadi became prime minister two years ago, but has been unable to do his job because men such as Maliki and parties such as Iran have drowned Iraq in chaos via protests, threats and obstructing governmental work.
Power struggles
The most dangerous thing Tehran did is establish a militia called the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), which mostly consists of extremist religious groups, including the Forces of God’s Promise, the League of the Righteous, Saraya al-Jihad (Jihad Brigades), Saraya Ashura (Ashura Brigades), the Abbas Forces and others. They are as extreme as Sunni groups in Iraq such as al-Qaeda and ISIS, committing sectarian crimes such as burning down Sunni towns and executing homeless people. Iran uses these militias to marginalize the Iraqi army. Iraqi Defense Minister Khaled al-Obaidi, a Sunni from Mosul, is occupied with struggles with other Sunni leaders. His presence is limited to TV appearances as he is a minister with no real jurisdiction. Some may think that Iraq’s Shiite majority does not mind a strong Iranian presence in Iraq during the current instability, but this is untrue. This majority runs the state, and does not need a foreign power because it is the dominant power. Why do Iraqi leaders such as Muqtada al-Sadr, Ammar al-Hakim or Abadi need Tehran? To confront ISIS? Most intelligence and logistical support is provided to them by the Americans, and most of the fighting is carried out by Iraqis. Is Iran providing financial support? Despite all the chaos, Iraq’s financial situation is better than Iran’s, and Iraq exports more oil. Given the increase in Iranian intelligence activity, the number of Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) members entering Iraq, and Iranian intervention in Baghdad’s affairs, Iraq is heading toward a clash with Tehran.
The appetite of Iran’s military and religious leaders is limitless, and is expanding beyond its borders. They have given up on the old policy of depending on proxies to manage their battles, becoming directly involved in fighting in Syria and Iraq, and indirectly involved in Lebanon and Yemen. This situation cannot go on. In Iraq, the biggest loser from Iranian domination is the Shiites, because Sunni powers are already outside the game.
**This article was first published in Asharq al-Awsat on Aug. 16, 2016.

The return of the entertainment industry
Turki Aldakhil/Al Arabiya/August 16/16
It is wrong when people link entertainment and prosperity, because societies can entertain themselves even during wars, and entertainment is present in poor societies such as in Africa and Asia. It is a complete industry that helps establish social righteousness and supports political stability. A society that lacks recreation becomes a place where crime spreads, and where life is distorted, disturbed and devoid of generosity, art, laughter and joy. In Saudi Arabia, we have all the capabilities to establish creative entertainment that leads to yearning for life and enjoying it. The return of singing concerts to the kingdom reminds us that there is an interest in developing recreation via Vision 2030 and the establishment of a committee for recreation. There is no point postponing entertainment until there is absolute stability and no war. This objective is impossible and unjustified. Entertainment helps societies overcome crises and disturbances. A society that cooperates in entertainment is more able to confront difficulties, as it achieves an integrated contractual obligation regarding the legitimacy of entertainment via theaters, concerts, comedy shows, painting and other forms. The role of the committee for recreation is to provide a systematic, economic and human infrastructure to create recreation and turn it into a daily and natural practice. It is impossible to force these projects on everyone, but no one has the right to deprive another of his or her right to entertainment. Legally, one has the right to entertainment just as he or she has the right to life, work and a homeland. Legally, one has the right to entertainment just as he or she has the right to life, work and a homeland
State role
It is states’ responsibility to sponsor entertainment, and the Saudi leadership has become aware of that. Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s statement that lack of recreation in Saudi society is “unreasonable” was spontaneous. This is true as there are very few entertainment programs available to society. There are few humble plays during feasts, and there have not been singing concerts for 11 years, for no reason. The conceptual flaw is linking entertainment to prosperity. We can sing and be joyous even during the most difficult circumstances. Man has always danced during wars for motivation, and after wars to celebrate victory. Man has entertained himself no matter what the circumstances. Fortunately, a culture of joy will be restored with official support. This will increase people’s love of their country, lessen the burden of travel for the purpose of watching a play or concert, and encourage spending inside the country rather than abroad. Entertainment enhances social stability, which is politically important amid the spread of extremism and violence, and the dominance of crime-related news. These are the true cultural and intellectual bases for turning entertainment into an integrated industry. Saudis are capable of that, as they are a community with a sense of humor, and a history full of music, dance and colors. *This article was first published in Asharq al-Awsat on Aug. 16, 2016.

When Hezbollah channels Donald Trump
Joyce Karam/Al Arabiya/August 16/16
My two worlds of covering the US Presidential election and the Middle East came colliding this week in an absurd political twist, as Hezbollah, a designated terrorist organization, used the words of the Republican nominee Donald Trump to attack the United States. In his speech on Saturday, Hezbollah’s Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah went straight for the jugular, quoting Trump’s latest outlandish assertion that US President Barack Obama and Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton “founded ISIS”. While Trump said later he was only being “sarcastic”, for Nasrallah and many in the Middle East it was a validation for an acute rallying slogan that America (aka the “Big Satan”) created the monster ISIS. “This is not a simple speech,” Nasrallah said of Trump’s statements, adding “this is an American presidential candidate. This was spoken on behalf of the American Republican Party. He has data and documents.”
Yes, politics makes strange bedfellows, but for an organization like Hezbollah, that has American blood on its hands since 1983, to be echoing Trump, should be a wakeup call for the Republican Party on the reckless and dangerous nature of its nominee. For an organization like Hezbollah, that has American blood on its hands since 1983, to be echoing Trump, should be a wakeup call for the Republican Party on the reckless and dangerous nature of its nominee
Fodder for conspiracy theorists
In theory, Hezbollah’s convergence with Trump on the issue of branding Obama and Clinton as founders of ISIS is not a political departure for either. In fact, it is hard to tell if Trump was referencing pro-Hezbollah media when he first made his assertion last week, before getting recycled again by Nasrallah.
Conspiracies of the like floated by Donald Trump that the American President founded ISIS run amuck in the Middle East. In August 2014, while Trump was still hosting his show The Apprentice, a more skilled pro-Iranian media operation ran a fraud story that Clinton confessed in her memoirs “Hard Choices” to creating ISIS.
The story had fake dates, imaginary meetings for the former Secretary of State, and went viral in the Arab world as the evidence that America is behind ISIS. Conveniently, the same circles of, autocratic sympathizers, extremists propagandists and anti-American zealots are enthusiastically today circulating Trump’s claim as the US acknowledging it created ISIS. On Twitter, versions of “I told you so” were the answer from many Arab Tweeps to Trump’s claim. For Hezbollah, Trump’s narrative serves three purposes, one in validating that America is the root of all evil in the Middle East, two that the party is fighting both Uncle Sam and ISIS, and three it lays the ground to attack Clinton if she were to win the Presidency.
Tool for anti-Americanism
For Trump and an American audience that is now used to his inflammatory and non-fact based rhetoric on Muslims, ISIS and taking Iraq’s oil, this has become a casual occurrence followed by media outrage, a slip in the polls, and sometimes a mild retraction in the form of “sarcasm”. But for those on the receiving end in the Middle East, Trump’s statements have triggered anti-American reactions, and are often taken as a reflection on the United States as a whole, not on an erratic nominee of a major party. From the very early days of his campaign, Trump’s trash talking of Muslims was seen by some in the region already suspicious of the United States, as a mirror of true America. Cartoonist Alaa al-Lakta, a political cartoonist with al-Araby al-Jadeed, drew Trump as the face of America “with no embellishment”. Others saw in him after the Humayun Khan controversy, a KKK zealot attacking Muslims. ISIS, hungry itself for a emphasizing the notion of clash of civilization, has repeatedly used the vile rhetoric against refugees as proof that the West is against Muslims, while al-Qaeda’s branch al-Shabab featured the Republican nominee in one of its videos. Now that Trump receives classified briefings, what he says in public carries even more weight on the global stage. Nasrallah wittingly used the word “data, facts, and documents” while quoting the Republican nominee. It is rather ironic for the 2016 Presidential nominee of the Party of Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan to become a point of reference for a US designated terrorist organization.
Trump may never realize this, but sarcasm, and erratic behavior are not in the playbook of how the Middle East interprets the United States. A long history of grievances, unfair blame by some of the autocratic regimes has shaped the negative portrayal of the US in the region.
Trump’s claims that the US created ISIS will only enforce this negativity, undermine US interests long after one election.

Iran and Turkey, a rollercoaster of a relationship
Camelia Entekhabi-Fard/Al Arabiya/August 16/16
Prior to the escalation of the Syrian conflict, Iran and Turkey had excellent relations. The Turks supported Iran’s economy when the Islamic Republic’s relations with the West were fraught and marred by sanctions. Turkey stood with Iran and did its best to mediate between its neighbor and the Western world, even going so far as to host some Iranian nuclear talks. However, as the civil war in Syria raged on, it became more evident that both Iran and Turkey were taking different paths. Iran decided to support Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Turkey decided to support Assad’s opposition and any group willing to topple the regime in Damascus. Turkey’s recent security issues, the damaged relations with Russia (which now seem to be, at least publically, on the mend) and bitter relations with Tehran all coalesced to make the recent failed coup even more problematic for Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. This has led to a reshuffling of his foreign relations priorities.
A relationship with Russia
Russia seems to be of high importance as it plays a major role in Syria and has been crucial to Turkey’s tourism industry for decades. Souring relations between Ankara and Moscow, sparked by Turkey’s downing of a Russian jet in November 2015, were patched over when Erdogan publically apologized and traveled to Moscow in August. It was, in fact, his first foreign visit since the failed coup attempt in July. Cementing Iranian-Turkish relations seems to be a high priority for Erdogan. Erdogan met President Vladimir Putin on August 9 and despite the differences the two leaders have over Syria, they have promised to narrow diplomatic gaps and find a way to cooperate. In an interview with Russian TV, Erdogan talked about the possibility of a coalition to fight terrorism in Syria and included Russia, Iran, several Gulf states and the US in his suggestion.
Turning to Tehran
Cementing Iranian-Turkish relations also seems to be a high priority for Erdogan – in fact, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif’s August 12 visit to Ankara was the first by a foreign delegate since the failed coup. Perhaps the Iranian establishment is fearful of a similar coup and the Turkish situation gave them hope that such a scenario can indeed be turned in favor of the government, especially if they strengthen their foreign relations. Iranian President Hassan Rowhani has his own headaches related to the nuclear deal and its opponents within government. Staunch hardliners, who do not see the deal as beneficial, are yet to greenlight Rowhani’s regional engagement plans. Various factions of the Iranian establishment, especially those who are actively involved in Syria, oppose the idea of Rowhani seeking engagement with countries who are against Assad. However, a window of opportunity was opened up due to Erdogan’s recent fraught relationship with the West. It has allowed for more diplomatic engagement between Iran and Turkey regarding the Syrian crisis. Cooperation is also based on the fact that Turkey’s security is important for Iran’s own security and the desire to protect national borders and maintain internal peace trumps Iran’s desire to support Assad in Syria. The only way Iranian anti-terror efforts can be effective is by partnering with regional actors or the international community. As Iranian Foreign Minister Zarif noted last week, differences and disputes will be resolved through dialogue.

The Case for Keeping Sanctions against Russia's Defense Sector
Anna Borshchevskaya/Forbes/The Washington Institute/August 16/16
Lifting EU sanctions would undermine the effectiveness of U.S. sanctions and confirm to Putin that intransigence and defiance reap rewards.
September 12 will mark the two-year anniversary of the European Union's sanctions against Russia for its military aggression in eastern Ukraine, an augmentation of what it had already applied six months earlier following Russian President Vladimir Putin's annexation of Crimea.
The September 2014 sanctions targeted Russia's military. For instance, the sanctions set up export-control provisions that deny military and certain dual-use technologies to any Russian company engaged in defense work. They also prevented certain Russian defense industry companies from buying EU-made technologies or accessing EU-based financial services.
Russia is the EU's third largest trading partner, but despite losses in certain sectors, the European Parliament concluded in October 2015 that the "overall impact on the EU economy has been rather limited." And while much talk about the sanctions tends to focus on the damage to the European economy, too often lost in the discussion is that sanctions against Russia's defense sector have been effective. But in order for them to continue to be effective, both EU and U.S. sanctions have to remain in place.
Why Dual-Use Imports Matter
Commercially available technologies such as microelectronics and quantum have increasingly important modern military applications. Certain dual-use high-technology exports are particularly important for Russia. For example, according to Russia's deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, "all the chipsets and receiving modules for GLONASS [Russia's version of GPS] are produced outside of Russia."
The Russian military declined sharply upon the break-up of the Soviet Union: successor states inherited production facilities hampering supply chain problems. Following the 2008 invasion of Georgia, the Russian military embarked on major reforms to remedy difficulties encountered even against a much smaller opponent. Russia began to purchase military items it could not produce independently, which, in hindsight, made Russia vulnerable to sanctions. An October 2015 NATO report noted the effectiveness of focusing on dual-use technologies. "The Russian electronics industry imports 25 to 30% of its components," it observed. "Unlike the purchase of arms, Russia's efforts to modernize its defence industrial plants will likely be significantly affected by sanctions, since the domestic machine-tool industry is largely unable to produce the advanced equipment these plants require for production."
Response to Sanctions: Ineffective Import Substitution
In response to the Western sanctions package, Russian officials have said that the sanctions will only encourage Russia to augment its own high-tech military technology. They also announced a turn to Asia for some electronics. Still, top-level Russian officials also talked openly about the damaging effects of the sanctions.
Thus, Rogozin complained in July 2016 that sanctions hinder developing technology trade with China. Putin himself said in September 2015 at a meeting in Novoye Ogoryovo on microelectronics development, "Some of our foreign partners in recent years threaten the reliability of the supply of components and equipment from abroad."
Domestically, Russia resorted to import substitution but has so far been unable to create a viable alternative to Western technology. A recent IHS Jane's report noted a number of problems with the Mikoyan MiG-29K/KUB aircraft Russia sold to India, first and foremost of which has been Russia's inability to deliver complete aircraft due to sanctions.
According to a report by the Carnegie Moscow Center, Russia showcased an MC-21 plane at the Farnborough air show in July of this year, but the planes are not selling abroad. "European and American sanctions have been a nightmare for the MC-21 project," it explained, largely because the project has more than 20 foreign partners.
In February 2016, four Russian satellites turned out to be too heavy for launch vehicles due to import substitution in electronics, according to Interfax.
One Russian analyst wrote for Russia's Voyenno-Promyshlenny Kurier (Military-Industrial Courier) in March 2016 that hopes for China to substitute Western technologies have not borne fruit, as their sample products have proved of lower quality. "Two exits are left out of the crisis situation," he wrote, "wait for the earliest lifting of sanctions or re-create microelectronic production." But while Russia has taken certain steps toward the latter, the near future at least, he concludes, remains bleak, as a number of large projects have died out. The problem, he explains, is "neither the state nor private sector can ensure the demand for ECB [electronic component base] to such an extent that serious production would be run in Russia. Roscosmos enterprises will buy dozens, perhaps hundreds of microchips, to the development of which billions of rubles can be spent, and then there would be no one to offer them to."
Sanctions Could Indirectly Help in Syria
For Putin, Ukraine and Syria are in some respects part of the same theater. Putin has consistently dangled the prospect of Syria cooperation to entice Western leaders to lift the sanctions, never mind that the Russian military has not actually targeted the Islamic State with any consistency and may actually have strengthened it by bombing its rivals in the opposition.
In private, some Western officials express doubt that the EU will renew sanctions in January 2017. To lift EU sanctions will be to undermine the effectiveness of U.S. sanctions and confirm to Putin that intransigence and defiance reap rewards.
The implications of lifting EU sanctions go deeper, however. Much equipment Russia deployed to Syria -- Italian Iveco vehicles, for example -- it acquired before the imposition of sanctions. To lift sanctions might enable Russia to upgrade its forces not only in Syria, but also those pitted against vulnerable NATO allies in Eastern Europe. It's time to recognize that Putin cares more about dividing and defeating the West than cooperating with it.
**Anna Borshchevskaya is the Ira Weiner Fellow at The Washington Institute.

Iranian military official: We will 'uproot' Jabhat al-Nusra
Ali Hashem//Al-Monitor/August 16/16
When Abu Mohammed al-Golani, leader of what used to be the al-Qaeda-affiliated Jabhat al-Nusra, on July 28 announced the rebranding of his group, there were few reactions in Tehran. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi made a brief statement describing the rebranding as a game “aimed at delisting the group as a terrorist organization,” adding that “the ugly image of extremism and terrorism cannot be purified though such moves.” Qassemi added that the move indicates the “political bankruptcy of the extremists' regional sponsors, led by Saudi Arabia as the founder and principal supporter of al-Qaeda, the Taliban, Daesh [Islamic State], Jabhat al-Nusra and many other terrorist groups in the region, and particularly in Syria.” Moreover, Qassemi called on the international community to pay serious attention to the root causes of terrorism and its repercussions, and to pressure the founders and supporters of terrorist groups to end extremism.Even among Iran’s allies, there was no direct reaction to the rebranding of Jabhat al-Nusra — which was the talk of the region for days — reflecting the view of the “Resistance Axis,” which brings together Iran, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement. This was strange given the fact that the Iranian-led coalition is the main — if not only — ground force in direct war with Jabhat al-Nusra in Syria, and that implications related to the group’s rebranding could affect the course of the war, which has been stuck between two edges of an abyss.
“Nothing really happened,” an Iranian military source told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity. “What does it really mean in the field? … It's only a public relations move that makes it easier for backers of the terrorist group to pay money and send arms [to it] without being criticized. So rather than paying in secret, they'll do it openly.”
To Iran, Jabhat al-Nusra, Jaish al-Fatah and Ahrar al-Sham are much more dangerous than the Islamic State, the Iranian military source told Al-Monitor. “International and regional backers are doing whatever possible to tell the world that these groups are moderate Islamists, while they know that they are all — like Daesh — of the same origin, which is al-Qaeda.” The Iranian military source said, “Today, the central command of al-Qaeda is weak. The killing of Osama bin Laden left the group with nothing but some heritage that’s being exploited every now and then by its leaders to preserve influence, but now that even this heritage is gone, the [al-Qaeda-linked] groups are giving up their ‘mother’ because of her enemies. But this means that one day, when they are stronger, they [al-Qaeda affiliates] won’t mind giving up their new allies for whoever will preserve their existence. That’s why we are going to rid the world of them.”
The source added, “For years now, we’ve been doing our duty without looking at names and without giving attention to whoever is backing and supporting [these groups]. We’ll continue to do what we have to do, wherever we need to be, and whether it’s [Jabhat al-] Nusra, al-Qaeda, Daesh — or the new name it [Jabhat al-Nusra, now Jabhat Fatah al-Sham] was given — our mandate is to uproot it and rid the region of such a terrorist group. But it’s not us who should be on alert; it’s their backers who will be the first to be hit. Those who carried out the Sept. 11 attacks were one day sweethearts of the United States in Afghanistan, and there’s no doubt that those in Syria, when strong enough, will want to do 10 times what happened in New York in 2001. We know our enemy well, but others — despite their advanced techniques in foreseeing dangers — are still supporting their real enemies.”
Alaeddin Boroujerdi, the head of Iran’s parliamentary national security and foreign policy commission, said Aug. 4, “Dividing terrorists between good ones and bad ones doesn’t change anything.” Following a meeting with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Syria, Boroujerdi said, “Changing the names of terrorist groups doesn’t change the fact that they are terrorists. This won’t change the nature of such groups, and Jabhat al-Nusra continues to embrace the same radical, terrorist mentality despite the name change.”
Since the beginning of the crisis in Syria, Iran has stood by the defiant Assad and viewed any armed group fighting to topple him as terrorists. This included IS, al-Qaeda affiliated groups and the Free Syrian Army even when Iran was only defending Assad politically. From the day that Iran decided to send senior officers to help the Syrian army with their expertise, the Iranian encounter with anti-regime militant groups became physical, with reports indicating that the number of Iranian casualties since 2012 has jumped to over 300, including members of the elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the Iranian army and the paramilitary Basij militia. Of note, Golani’s announcement of Jabhat al-Nusra’s rebranding July 28 came only a few days before opposition factions, including his group, launched a fierce attack on Aleppo in northern Syria to end the government force’s siege on opposition-held areas. A senior Iranian official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, suggested in a phone call with Al-Monitor that the rebranding of Jabhat al-Nusra was related to this attack. In his telling, “The attempt to rebrand was the prelude to open cooperation during the recent Aleppo operation,” suggesting that the latter move was made with the blessing of regional and international backers of the opposition in Syria.

Three Years Into Al-Sisi's Rule: Difficult Challenges At Home And Abroad
By: C. Meital/MEMRI/August 16/16
Introduction
Three years after the deposing of Muhammad Mursi and the rise to power of Egyptian President 'Abd Al-Fattah Al-Sisi, it seems that the latter is gradually losing the sweeping popular support he enjoyed in the early days of his presidency. Al-Sisi is facing many difficult challenges on both the domestic and diplomatic fronts, as numerous crises stemming from the domestic and foreign policy of his government are piling up and undermining the popular support for him. On the diplomatic front, Egypt-U.S. ties have grown lukewarm and U.S. aid to Egypt has decreased, though in official statements both sides emphasize the warm relations between them;[1] relations with Italy are also strained due to the incident of Italian student Giulio Regeni, who was murdered in Egypt.[2] Currently, a crisis also seems to be brewing between Egypt and Britain, despite the warm official relations between them, due to Britain's decision to consider granting political asylum to members of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB). In fact, Egypt has incurred much criticism from Western countries that accuse it of persecuting the MB, an allegation which Egypt denies.[3]
These crises join the ongoing crisis in Egypt's relations with Turkey and Qatar due to the latter's support for the MB and their position that the Al-Sisi's regime is illegitimate and staged a coup against the legitimate Mursi regime.[4]
The problems on the domestic front include criticism that Al-Sisi's regime persecutes its opponents no less than the former Egyptian regimes; the deepening economic crisis and the collapse of Egypt's tourist industry, which arouse public rage; an intense conflict between the regime and Al-Azhar, Egypt's supreme religious authority, as well as clashes between Muslims and Copts in the country.
This report reviews the challenges facing the Al-Sisi regime and the internal criticism in Egypt against him and his administration.
Egyptian President 'Abd Al-Fattah Al-Sisi (Image: Al-Quds Al-Arabi, London, May 20, 2016)
Complaints About Regime Oppression, Lack Of Transparency
Disappointment with Al-Sisi's regime among broad sectors in Egypt has been prominently reflected in the Egyptian press in the last few months. The criticism comes from liberal politicians and media figures who supported Al-Sisi's deposing of the MB regime in 2013, and some of whom also supported him for president. These figures, who pinned high hopes on Al-Sisi, now loudly protest the tyrannical and oppressive policies of the regime and its security apparatuses, and police brutality against regime opponents, professional unions and others. For example, political analyst Dr. 'Amr Hashem Rabi' wrote in Al-Masri Al-Yawm that "following the removal of the MB, it was hoped that the [regime's] legitimacy would be based on support for the values of democracy and freedom of thought and speech," but these hopes were soon dashed when Egyptians discovered that the Al-Sisi regime infringed on freedom of expression, oppressed civil society and persecuted journalists. He added that today "there are more regime supporters than MB supporters in prison."[5]
Egyptian journalist Suleiman Gouda wrote in the same daily that Egyptians were disappointed with the regime and felt that Al-Sisi was not fulfilling the promises he had made before becoming president. "This is the feeling of many people I meet everywhere," he said, and added: "If things continue as they do now, then [the president], and the country, face political danger..."[6] Renowned Egyptian writer Alaa Al-Aswany, who initially supported Al-Sisi, now accuses him of heading a regime that is no less corrupt, oppressive and tyrannical than Mubarak's.[7]
Moreover, Egyptian and international human rights organizations increasingly report that, despite hopes for improvement on the human rights front in Egypt, the Al-Sisi regime is practicing the same repressive policies as its predecessors, involving an iron fist against regime opponents, forced disappearances, and prisoner abuse in Egyptian jails, which prompts criticism of the government and the security apparatuses.[8] According to an Amnesty International report, for example, "Egypt's National Security Agency (NSA) is abducting, torturing and forcibly disappearing people in an effort to intimidate opponents and wipe out peaceful dissent…"[9]
The annual report of the Egyptian National Council for Human Rights also addressed the phenomena of "illegal detentions", "forced disappearances of several detainees," and "political detentions and detentions based on religion."[10]
Three cases are noteworthy in this context: First, the expulsion of British-Lebanese journalist Liliane Daoud from Egypt to Beirut, under the pretext that her residency visa in Egypt had expired.[11] According to some reports, the real reason for her expulsion was her coverage of Egyptian affairs and her forthright criticism of how the country is managed.[12] Daoud herself claimed that her popular show on the Egyptian ONTV channel was canceled after the channel was purchased by Egyptian businessman Ahmad Abu Hashima, who is close to the Al-Sisi regime. She claimed that even in the period of MB rule there had not been such a deterioration of civil liberties.[13]
A second noteworthy case was the internal security forces' raid on the offices of the journalists' union to arrest two journalists, 'Amr Badr and Mahmoud Al-Saqqa, who had taken refuge there.[14] This sparked fierce protests and demonstrations by journalists, especially since, following the raid, union chairman Yahya Qalash and two of his colleagues were also arrested and indicted. These measures sparked an intense public debate on the degree of press freedom in Egyptian and the regime's gagging of the media. The journalists' union demanded the dismissal of the interior minister, and some journalists even demanded that Al-Sisi personably intervene in the affair.[15]
A third case involving the suppression of criticism against the regime was the affair of the "Street Children," a group of six young activists who posted satirical videos on YouTube criticizing the Al-Sisi regime's policies and calling it 'cowardly.'[16] The six were arrested on May 7, 2016 on charges of calling for a demonstration and inciting against the president.[17]
The "Street Children" (Image: Albedaiah.com, August 1, 2016)
Broad circles in Egypt condemned what they called the regime's lack of transparency on matters of supreme national importance, such as the deal transferring sovereignty of two strategic Red Sea islands, Tiran and Sanafir, to Saudi Arabia. This move enraged many Egyptians, some of whom claimed that the issue should have been brought to a referendum.[18] Another issue that sparked criticism was the surprise visit by Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shukry to Israel on July 10, 2016, and his meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu in Jerusalem. Elements in the Egyptian media complained that the Egyptian public had learn about the substance and content of the visit from foreign sources, instead of being informed by official government bodies, and warned of a further decline in the popularity of the president who chose not to include the public in decisions on such weighty matters as normalization with Israel.[19]
Criticism Of Worsening Economic Crisis
Another burning issue that concerns the Egyptian public, and is a source of great apprehension for the regime, is the deep economic crisis, manifested in a sharp drop in the Egyptian pound against the dollar and a steep rise in the prices of basic foods and electricity. This has encouraged profiteering and black market trading, which in turn deepen the crisis. There has also been a significant rise in unemployment, with 1.35 million people joining the ranks of the unemployed in the recent year alone. As part of its efforts to combat the crisis the government has urged the citizenry to prefer local products and to avoid trading dollars on the black market.[20] Also in a bid for economic stability, the government appealed to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a $12 billion loan,[21] in return for which it promised to severely cut its expenses. Al-Sisi said in this context that he "would not hesitate to take measures that were avoided for years," and urged Egyptians, in particular Egyptian women, to cut down on consumption and expenses.[22]
The IMF deal drew criticism from Egyptians who expressed concern that the loan would only worsen the economic crisis. Makram Muhammad Ahmad, a senior columnist for the government daily Al-Ahram, wrote: "We are repeating the same broken record... although everyone knows that what the [International Monetary] Fund proposes is not the correct solution for the economic crisis in Egypt, which requires bold decisions..." [23] Renowned Egyptian feminist writer and activist Nawal Al-Sa'dawi also addressed the economic crisis, saying that Egyptians have become "slaves of the dollar" and criticizing the government's dealings with the IMF.[24]
Reports in recent days that the government plans to raise the price of gas and electricity have also enraged Egyptians. The Revolutionary Socialists movement urged the citizens to protest by refusing to pay their electricity bills.[25] The government responded to the public outcry by reassuring that it would not raise prices for the needy.[26]
It should be mentioned that the economic crisis currently afflicting Egypt is only a worsening of the harsh economic situation it has been experiencing for years. Egypt's population is over 90 million, and its economy has relied in recent years on massive loans from Saudi Arabia and the UAE.[27] According to the Central Bank of Egypt, the country's foreign debt already amounts to $53.4 billion.[28]
Another indication of the depth of Egypt's economic difficulties may be the agreement it signed this April during the visit of the Saudi king in Cairo, in which it transferred sovereignty of the two islands to Saudi Arabia. The regime's claim that the islands had always belonged to Saudi Arabia failed to convince many Egyptians, who decried the agreement as an insult to Egyptian sovereignty. Many opponents of the agreement, some of them opponents of the regime, claimed that Al-Sisi had traded the islands for Saudi financial aid.[29] The Al-Masri Al-Yawm daily came out with the headline "Two Islands and a Doctorate for [Saudi King] Salman – [in Return for] Billions for Egypt." After the authorities stopped the presses to prevent circulation of the issue, the headline was changed to "Outcome of Salman Visit: Agreements Worth $25 Billion" (copies with the original headline were circulated on social media).[30]
The severe economic crisis provoked increased criticism of the government from Egyptian MPs and prominent public figures, some of whom even warned against the outbreak of a "revolution of the hungry."[31] Already in April, following demonstrations against the islands deal with Saudi Arabia, prominent businessman Ahmad Abu Hashima, who is close to the regime, said that if a third revolution takes place in Egypt it will be a revolution of the hungry.[32] Two months later, on June 27, Egyptian MP Ihab 'Abd Al-'Azim, member of the parliament's National Defense Committee, warned in a budgetary session that a revolution of the hungry may break out in Upper Egypt if the government continues to marginalize that region. This provoked a rebuke from Parliament Speaker 'Ali 'Abd Al-'Aal, who ordered to strike the expression "revolution of the hungry" from the record.[33]
Egyptian MP Mustafa Bakri also addressed the economic crisis in Upper Egypt and the volatility of the situation, writing: "The Egyptian government should examine its policy regarding Upper Egypt and its problems, which have become chronic, for the silence over what is happening, the rise in poverty rates, and the decline in services constitute a threat of a potentially great disaster, because hunger leads to a loss of confidence, and a sense of marginalization leads to accumulated rage and stress..."[34]
Egyptian "economic team" ministers cannot deal with the rising dollar (Al-Yawm Al-Sabi', Egypt, July 29, 2016)
Many Egyptian writers also criticized the impotence of Prime Minister Sherif Isma'il and his cabinet in the face of the worsening economic crisis, and called on them to act swiftly to stop the situation from deteriorating further. Dr. Gamal 'Abd Al-Nasser wrote in the government daily Al-Ahram: "From the Al-Ahram platform, I call on the prime minister and on the ministers of electricity, oil, water, and irrigation, as well as on MPs, to examine this insane rise in prices and put a stop to this matter..."[35]
Al-Yawm Al-Sabi' columnist Karam Gaber wrote: "It is a bad omen that the current government is remaining in place. There is a wall between it and the problems of the people, and it has no [clear] approach regarding how to deal with genuine crises..."[36]
Emad Al-Din Hussein, editor-in-chief of the independent Egyptian daily Al-Shurouq, also expressed outrage at the government's impotence, and warned: "The government should act quickly before it is surprised by yet another rise in the dollar rate, which would lead to disastrous consequences that only Allah knows..."[37]
Al-Sisi and his government fear the outbreak of another revolution driven by economic crisis, like the one that brought down the Mubarak regime in 2011. As a result, they have been trying to douse the flames of protest, and Al-Sisi has held frequent meetings with relevant ministers and various elements to discuss the situation. Thus, for example, at a meeting with the ministerial economic committee, Al-Sisi stressed the importance of creating the required balance between economic reforms and their impact on the needy, and spoke of social support programs and maintaining the price level of basic food products.[38] The claim that economic reforms would not negatively impact the needy recurs frequently in statements by the prime minister and cabinet members, as well as in editorials published by the government daily Al-Ahram.
The wretched Egyptian citizen and the Egyptian currency hanging in "the government slaughterhouse" (Rosaeveryday.com, July 26, 2016)
Terror Attacks And The Collapse Of Egyptian Tourism
Another issue that weighs heavily on the Egyptian economy is the blow dealt to the tourism industry by the October 2015 downing of the Russian Metrojet Flight 9268 over Sharm Al-Sheikh, and the May 2016 crash of EgyptAir Flight 804 en route from Paris to Cairo. These two incidents led both the UK and Russia to suspend all flights to Egypt, and the suspension remains in place today.[39]
Russian tourism had brought in substantial revenue for Egypt; its loss has had a severe impact on the Egyptian economy, and is of great concern to government officials. In recent months, the Egyptian government has been devoting major efforts to reviving the Russian tourism market. For example, Egyptian Civil Aviation Minister Sherif Fathy visited Moscow twice in July 2016 to discuss renewing Russian tourism to Egypt.[40]
These efforts are also evident in statements by Egyptian officials, who reiterate that intensive contacts are underway to revive this tourism. Thus, for example, Egyptian Ambassador to Russia Dr. Mohamed Al-Badry said that there is also pressure from Russian tourism companies to revive tourism to Egypt. He added that a committee of Russian experts visited airports in Sharm Al-Sheikh and Al-Ghardaqa and afterwards met with Russia's transportation minister to give him a positive report on this issue.[41] Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ahmed Abu Zeid confirmed that Russian technical teams are visiting Egyptian airports in preparation for a return of Russian tourists.[42] Additionally, on August 8, 2016, a delegation of Russian businessmen and representatives of Russian security firms arrived in Egypt to examine collaborating with Egypt in maintaining security in Egyptian airports.[43]
Further evidence of apprehension regarding the collapse of the tourism industry can also be seen in statements by Egyptian Tourism Minister Yehia Rashed, who called on countries worldwide not to issue warnings about travel to Egypt unless absolutely necessary.[44] Another step in the efforts to mitigate the tourism crisis was Al-Sisi's decision to establish a supreme tourism council, to be headed by him personally.[45]
Many writers in Egypt called for action to revive Russian tourism, while others criticized the UK's and Russia's "boycott" of tourism to Egypt, calling it discriminatory in comparison with other countries also impacted by terror such as Turkey, to which Russia had already renewed flights, that had been suspended following the downing of the Russian jet in November 2015.[46] For example, Supreme Press Council member Salah Montasser wrote: "Seven months have passed since Russian tourism to Egypt was halted due to the airliner crash in Sinai, and it has shown no signs of revival... Russia is considered a friend of Egypt, but is this a bond of friendship?... Instead of standing with Egypt... [Russia's] halting of tourism means that it has chosen to stand with and support terrorism..."[47]
The Egyptian Civil Aviation Minister meeting with the Russian Transportation Minister (Image: Akhbarelyom.com, July 19, 2016)
Muslim-Copt Clashes And Criticism Of Stagnation In "Renewal Of Religious Discourse"
The Al-Sisi regime has also been criticized on the religious and sectarian levels, most prominently over the fact that, despite the president's statements and promises to reform the religious discourse in the country, no progress has been made on this front. The term "renewal of religious discourse" was coined by Adly Mansour, former chief justice of Egypt's Supreme Constitutional Court, who was appointed as interim president after the ouster of Muhammad Mursi's MB regime in July 2013. Mansour explained that the goal was "the renewal of religious discourse – a conscious and responsible renewal... that deals with the problem of extremism and the mistaken or flawed understanding of Islam..."[48] President Al-Sisi adopted this call for "renewal of religious discourse" and even took it one step forward during a speech in Al-Azhar in December 2014, in which he called for a "religious revolution."[49] Over the past year, Al-Sisi has repeatedly called on Al-Azhar to promote the renewal of religious discourse as well.[50]
However, many politicians and journalists in Egypt claim that despite the talk, no progress has been made on this front. Many of them blame Al-Azhar, claiming that it does not desire a renewal of the discourse but rather its stagnation.[51] Some also said that the president was displeased that Al-Azhar did not heed his calls.[52]
Former culture minister Gaber 'Asfour addressed this issue, saying: "Al-Azhar, for the most part, aside from a small minority, has become Salafi in its attitude. Do not believe that they will do something they don't believe in. They work against development. How can they renew the religious discourse when they are the ones who caused it to stagnate?" 'Asfour even argued that Al-Azhar's educational system was "atrophied and backwards" and that it produces terrorists.[53]
Egyptian journalist Ahmad 'Abd Al-Tawab published two articles arguing that, despite ostensibly welcoming Al-Sisi's call to revolutionize the religious discourse, Al-Azhar has done nothing to implement it. On the contrary, according to him, "for over two years [Al-Azhar's] activity has been in the opposite direction: it has mercilessly attacked anyone with a differing opinion without hesitating to use the weapon of accusations of heresy."[54]
Al-Masri Al-Yawm columnist Ahmed Al-Shami wrote in a similar vein: "Al-Azhar has forgotten that, when the president charged it... [to enact] a revolution for the renewal of religious discourse so that it matches the [current] time... it was the first to abandon this task. The question now is whether Al-Azhar has lifted a finger to rescue the religious discourse from extremism? And the answer is simply 'no'..."[55]
Nevertheless, despite Al-Sisi's many challenges and crises, at this stage he is apparently uninterested – and unable – to confront Al-Azhar, as it is considered one of his bases of support. Evidence of this can be seen in the crisis that erupted in recent weeks between the ministry of religious endowments and Al-Azhar on the topic of uniform Friday sermons. The ministry attempted to require mosque preachers to read uniform sermons provided by the ministry, an initiative which was met with complete opposition by Al-Azhar, on the grounds that it would harm the religious discourse and the abilities of the imams.[56] Al-Sisi, who fears a confrontation with Al-Azhar and requires its support, decided to side with Al-Azhar, and in a meeting with Al-Azhar Sheikh Ahmed Al-Tayeb he stressed the state's full support for the institution.[57]
Another widening religious rift in Egypt, which has escalated to violent clashes, is the one between Muslims and Copts, especially in the rural governorates of Minya and Beni Suef, which in recent weeks have seen repeated cases of assault on Copts and arson of their homes, usually based on rumors that the homes are used as churches. In one particularly severe case, an elderly woman was dragged naked through village streets following suspicions that her son was having an affair with a Muslim woman.[58] In another case, one person was killed and several others injured following rumors that a home was being used as a church.[59] This wave of anti-Copt violence has led to increased media criticism of Al-Sisi and his government due to their inability to defend the Copts, who had supported them during the June 30 revolution, and in promoting laws such as the Church Construction law, to help cement their religious rights.[60]
In an attempt to alleviate Coptic protests, Al-Sisi met with Coptic Patriarch Tawadros and stressed the need for national unity.[61] Concurrently, the Egyptian parliament began working to promote a law regulating the construction of churches in Egypt.[62]
Al-Sisi meeting with a Coptic church delegation headed by Tawadros (Image: Al-Watan, Egypt, July 28, 2016)
* C. Meital is a research fellow at MEMRI.
Endnotes:
[1] Al-Ahram (Egypt), April 20, August 8, 2016.
[2] Italian dissatisfaction with the investigation into Regeni's death led to a decision by the Italian parliament to halt the supply of spare parts for Egyptian jets. This sparked rage in Egypt, which formed a parliamentary committee to handle the affair and sent representatives to Italy to discuss the relations between the two countries. Al-Ahram (Egypt), July 1, 11, 2016; Al-Masri Al-Yawm (Egypt), July 11, 2016.
[3] Egypt's foreign minister denied that Egypt is holding political trials for MB members. See Al-Watan (Egypt), August 9, 2016.
[4] See MEMRI Special Dispatch No. 6122, Articles In Egypt: Turkey, Qatar Fund Terror, Are Responsible For Bloodshed In Arab World, August 3, 2015; Special Dispatch No. 6496, Mounting Tension Between Egypt, Qatar Following Sentencing Of Former President Muhammad Mursi, June 29, 2016; Special Dispatch No. 6459, Conspiracy Theories In Egypt Surrounding Crash Of EgyptAir Flight 804: Accusations Against U.S., U.K., Israel, Turkey; Claims Of Western Plot Against Egypt, June 6, 2016.
[5] Al-Masri Al-Yawm (Egypt), May 8, 2016. See MEMRI Special Dispatch No.6549, Three Years Later: Egyptian President Al-Sisi's Supporters Express Disappointment, Call His Regime Tyrannical, July 29, 2016.
[6] Al-Masri Al-Yawm (Egypt), October 13, 2015.
[7] Al-Shurouq (Egypt), January 27, 2015.
[8] Al-Ahram (Egypt), July 4, 2016; Al-Watan (Egypt), July 13, 2016.
[9] Amnesty.org, July 13, 2016.
[10] Al-Ahram (Egypt), July 4, 2016
[11] Al-Masri Al-Yawm (Egypt) June 27, 2016.
[12] Aljazeera.net, June 29, 2016; Al-Misriyoun (Egypt), June 29, 2016; Rassd.com, June 27, 2016.
[13] Rassd.com, June 28, 2016; Al-Masri Al-Yawm (Egypt) June 29, 2016.
[14] An arrest warrant had been issued against the two for "membership in outlawed organizations, attempting to overthrow the regime, and calling for an April 25 demonstration to protest the surrender of the Red Sea islands Tiran and Sanafir." Yanair.net, July 27, 2016.
[15] Al-Masri Al-Yawm (Egypt), May 1, 2, 30, 2016; Al-Watan (Egypt), May 2, 7, 2016, 2016; Al-Yawm Al-Sabi' (Egypt), May 2, 2016; Al-Wafd (Egypt), May 2, 2016; Al-Ahram (Egypt), May 5, 2016.
[16] Huffpostarabi.com, May 8, 2016.
[17] Rassd.com May 10, 2016; Al-Quds Al-Arabi (London), August 2, 2016.
[18] Al-Masri Al-Yawm (Egypt), June 22, 2016; Rassd.com June 21, 2016.
[19] Al-Masri Al-Yawm (Egypt), July 11, 12, 2016.
[20] Al-Ahram (Egypt), July 28, 2016.
[21] Al-Ahram (Egypt), August 12, 2016.
[22] Ara.reuters.com, August 13, 2016; Al-Ahram (Egypt), August 14, 2016.
[23] Al-Ahram (Egypt), August 10, 2016.
[24] Al-Shurouq (Egypt), August 8, 2016.
[25] Al-Shurouq (Egypt), Rassd.com, August 10, 2016.
[26] Al-Masri Al-Yawm (Egypt), August 1, 2016.
[27] Al-Shurouq (Egypt), April 8, August 9, 2016.
[28] Al-Yawm Al-Sabi' (Egypt), June 9, 2016.
[29] Al-Wafd (Egypt), April 9, 2016; ikhwanonline.info, April 8, 2016.
[30] Rassd.com, April 12, 2016.
[31] Al-Watan (Egypt), Al-Quds Al-Arabi (London), June 27, 2016; rassd.com, July 30, 2016; Al-Ahram, Al-Watan (Egypt), July 28, 2016; Al-Masri Al-Yawm (Egypt), July 29, 2016.
[32] Klmty.net, April 25, 2016.
[33] Al-Watan (Egypt), June 27, 2016.
[34] Al-Watan (Egypt), July 25, 2016.
[35] Al-Ahram (Egypt), July 10, 2016.
[36] Al-Yawm Al-Sabi' (Egypt), July 26, 2016.
[37] Al-Shurouq (Egypt), July 26, 2016.
[38] Al-Ahram (Egypt), July 28, 31, 2016.
[39] Al-Watan (Egypt), November 6, 2015; Arabic.rt.com, November 6, 2015. Al-Watan (Egypt), May 19, 2016.
[40] Al-Ahram (Egypt), July 18, 27, 2016. It should be mentioned in this context that a delegation of British security officials visited Egypt to review security procedures at airports, and that Russia has set various conditions for Egypt on this matter. Al-Masri Al-Yawm (Egypt), July 19, 2016; Al-Ahram (Egypt), July 23, 2016.
[41] Al-Masri Al-Yawm (Egypt), July 5, 2016.
[42] Al-Ahram (Egypt), June 9, 2016.
[43] Rassd.com, August 9, 2016.
[44] Al-Ahram (Egypt), July 23, 2016.
[45] Al-Ahram (Egypt), August 10, 2016.
[46] Al-Shurouq (Egypt), July 4, 2016; Al-Masri Al-Yawm (Egypt), July 9, 2016.
[47] Al-Ahram (Egypt), May 29, 2016.
[48] Albawwabnews.com, January 12, 2014.
[49] See MEMRI Special Dispatch No. 6114, Egyptian Columnists On Al-Sisi Regime's Campaign For 'Renewal Of Religious Discourse' As A Way Of Fighting Terrorism, July 23, 2015.
[50] The most recent instance was a speech delivered by Al-Sisi at the ministry of religious endowments for Laylat Al-Qadr, in which he asked to fight the spread of extremism and the besmirching of Islam. Al-Ahram (Egypt), June 30, 2016.
[51] Al-Hayat (London), June 25, 2016.
[52] It should be mentioned that Al-Azhar intended to publish a comprehensive paper on the renewal of religious discourse written by Dr. Salah Fadl, but has not yet done so, triggering more criticism. See Al-Masri Al-Yawm (Egypt), June 22, 2016; Al-Ahram (Egypt), July 4, 2016.
[53] Al-Akhbar (Egypt), July 10, 2016.
[54] Al-Ahram (Egypt), July 25, August 6, 2016.
[55] Al-Masri Al-Yawm (Egypt), August 8, 2016.
[56] Al-Ahram (Egypt), July 27, 2016.
[57] See MEMRI Special Dispatch No. 6556, Egypt's Al-Azhar Opposes Ministry Of Religious Endowments Plan For Uniform Friday Sermon, August 4, 2016.
[58] Al-Wafd (Egypt), May 26, 2016.
[59] Al-Masri Al-Yawm (Egypt), July 18, 2016, moheet.com, July 18, 2016.
[60] Al-Watan (Egypt), July 9, 2016.
[61] Al-Ahram (Egypt), July 29, 2016.
[62] Al-Yawm Al-Sabi' (Egypt), August 2, 2016.