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Bible Quotations For Today
Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever disobeys the Son will not see life, but must endure God’s wrath
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 03/31-36: "The one who comes from above is above all; the one who is of the earth belongs to the earth and speaks about earthly things. The one who comes from heaven is above all. He testifies to what he has seen and heard, yet no one accepts his testimony. Whoever has accepted his testimony has certified this, that God is true. He whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for he gives the Spirit without measure. The Father loves the Son and has placed all things in his hands. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever disobeys the Son will not see life, but must endure God’s wrath."

If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness
Second Letter to the Corinthians 11/18.22-30: "Since many boast according to human standards, I will also boast. Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they descendants of Abraham? So am I. Are they ministers of Christ? I am talking like a madman I am a better one: with far greater labours, far more imprisonments, with countless floggings, and often near death. Five times I have received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I received a stoning. Three times I was shipwrecked; for a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from bandits, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers and sisters; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, hungry and thirsty, often without food, cold and naked. And, besides other things, I am under daily pressure because of my anxiety for all the churches. Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to stumble, and I am not indignant? If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness."

Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on january 13-14.16.htm
Why a Nigerian cleric, Sheikh Ibrahim al-Zakzaky is Hezbollah’s new cause célèbre/Alex Rowell/Now Lebanon 13 January/16
The potential alliance of Christian rivals/Myra Abdallah/Now Lebanon/January 13/16
Syria Druze movement forming autonomous security force/Now Lebanon/January 13/16
President Obama still has unfinished business/Andrew Bowen/Al Arabiya/January 13/16
What’s in store for Egypt-Russia relations in 2016/Maria DubovikovaAl Arabiya/January 13/16
Arab Israelis are citizens, not punching bags/Yossi Mekelberg/Al Arabiya/January 13/16

Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin for Lebanese Related News published on january 13-14.16.htm
Why a Nigerian cleric, Sheikh Ibrahim al-Zakzaky is Hezbollah’s new cause célèbre.
The potential alliance of Christian rivals.
Shehayyeb: Politicians Should Keep their Disputes Away from Trash File.
Geagea Says he's Not Maneuvering in Endorsing Aoun Candidacy.
Salam Says Political Problems should be Resolved Outside Cabinet as Fate of Session Un.
General Security Arrests Suspected Syrian Terrorist.
Lebanon Accused of Turning Back Syrian Refugees, General Security Denies.
France, Britain Warn their Airlines Would Stop Services to Beirut.
U.N. Gets $250 Million to Educate Syrian Children, Brown Hails Lebanon Success Story.
2 Lebanese Abducted in Libya, Conflicting Reports on Motive.

Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin For Miscellaneous Reports And News published on january 13-14.16.htm
U.N. reveals nightmares inside starved Madaya.
Iranian guards release 10 American sailors.
One suspect detained over Istanbul attack.
Turkey detains three Russians in anti-ISIS raid after bombing.
With One-Candidate Vote, Netanyahu Seeks to Stand Alone.
Israeli Prosecutors Call for Life Sentences for Killers of Palestinian Teen.
Israel joins condemnation of North Korea nuclear test.
Israeli Air Raid in Gaza Strip Kills One, Wounds Three.
Palestinian hospital officials said a 26-year-old man was killed.
U.N. appeals for nearly $8 bln for Syria aid.
U.S. says two Navy boats in Iranian custody.
U.N. envoy on Syria to meet major powers on Wednesday.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef on Wednesday hailed King .
Security officer for Aden’s airport killed in front of his home.
Kuwaiti Shiite Lawmakers Boycott Parliament.
Sister of Jailed Saudi Blogger Released.

Why a Nigerian cleric, Sheikh Ibrahim al-Zakzaky is Hezbollah’s new cause célèbre
Alex Rowell/Now Lebanon 13 January/16
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/2016/01/13/alex-rowell-why-a-nigerian-cleric-sheikh-ibrahim-al-zakzaky-is-hezbollahs-new-cause-celebre/
Sheikh Ibrahim al-Zakzaky single-handedly brought Shiite Islamism to Nigeria. His arrest last month has analysts worried about a potential new insurgency
A Lebanese woman holds a banner during a protest in Beirut on 19 December, 2015, against the arrest of Sheikh Ibrahim al-Zakzaky
It is by no means unusual for Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah, in his periodic televised speeches, to address events taking place outside the confines of Lebanon’s borders. On the contrary, developments across the Arab world, especially in conflict zones such as Syria and Palestine, often take center stage in the elaborate communiqués watched by die-hard supporters and mortal foes alike.
Rarely, however – if ever – does the West Africa region consume the leader’s attention, which was why his digression along an unexpected tangent in his speech of 21 December was pointedly, if subtly, significant.
“Before I go into the most prominent event” – which was the assassination by Israel two days earlier of Hezbollah commander Samir al-Quntar in Damascus – “I want also to mention […] a bloody incident that happened in Nigeria a few days ago,” Nasrallah told the camera. This was the “appalling massacre” in the city of Zaria, 260km north of Abuja, of “hundreds of followers of the Islamic Movement” by the Nigerian army, along with the arrest of the Movement’s leader, “His Eminence, the Learned, the Mujahid, the Sheikh Ibrahim al-Zakzaky.” Condemning the killings, as well as “the silence of the international community,” Nasrallah “implored” the Nigerian government to release Zakzaky and “hold those responsible to account,” and then spoke for several further minutes about the virtues of the Nigerian cleric – “three of whose sons were killed a year ago during the Quds Day march, reviving the cause of Jerusalem and Palestine” – concluding that “the thing we most fear is there may be American or Israeli or takfiri hands standing behind this abominable action committed by soldiers in the Nigerian army, to place Nigeria and its government and army and people in destructive and appalling fitna [religious strife], as is occurring in many countries of the region.”
Nor was Nasrallah the only Middle Eastern politician to have suddenly voiced an unprecedented interest in Nigerian affairs. The Iraqi populist Muqtada al-Sadr released a statement calling on Abuja to release Zakzaky, and “the people of Iraq” to demonstrate in his honor. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani went as far as to personally telephone his Nigerian counterpart, Muhammadu Buhari, to complain, while Tehran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif made his displeasure known to the Nigerian foreign ministry. The Supreme Leader himself, Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, tweeted a photo juxtaposing Quntar; the late Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmad Yassin; the recently executed Saudi cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr; and Zakzaky under the headline, “Awakening is not suppressible.”
What exactly had happened in Nigeria to get such disparate figures so exercised? And what connects a largely-unknown cleric in Nigeria with major militia leaders in Lebanon and Iraq, and the Iranian head of state? Below, NOW tackles these two questions in turn.
“Substantial loss of life”
There is no disputing that a large number of Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN) members – perhaps more than 300 – were killed by the Nigerian army in Zaria between 12-14 December 2015, according to international human rights organizations. While the army claims it was forced to open fire on a crowd of IMN supporters who were attempting to assassinate the chief of staff, Lieutenant General Tukur Buratai, as he passed through the city, Human Rights Watch (HRW) – which published a detailed report based on video evidence and eyewitness testimonies – says this “version of events does not stack up.” Instead, the army shot live rounds “without any provocation” at people exiting an IMN religious center – the Movement’s members are Shiite Muslims – drawing an angry crowd of IMN supporters wielding sticks and stones to the street outside in protest, said HRW. The army subsequently opened fire on the crowd, killing many, and then advanced to Zakzaky’s residence, where a second group of IMN members gathered to prevent the army’s approach. These, too, were fired upon, and a wounded Zakzaky was eventually arrested along with his wife, Zeenat.
“At best it was a brutal overreaction and at worst it was a planned attack on the minority Shia group,” said HRW’s Africa director, Daniel Bekele. In a press release, Amnesty International’s Nigeria Director M.K. Ibrahim said, “Whilst the final death toll is unclear, there is no doubt that there has been a substantial loss of life at the hands of the military.”
Zakzaky and his wife remain in custody; “healthy and alive,” according to a police spokesperson. Speaking to NOW Monday, IMN spokesperson Ibrahim Musa complained Zakzaky had been denied access to all visitors, including lawyers and doctors – this despite witness reports he was shot four times in the course of the army operation.
“Nobody has seen him or heard from him,” said Musa. “We believe he’s in a terrible condition that demands medical attention.”
Asked whether he expected Zakzaky to be released soon, Musa replied in the negative, citing a barrage of criticism from officials and local media portraying the IMN as an unruly “state within a state” that threatened national security.
“We think the government has already made up its mind on the followers of Sheikh Ibrahim al-Zakzaky and the Islamic Movement,” Musa told NOW. “And we believe that what is happening now is not just done by the government per se, but it is the Wahhabist Zionist [conspiracy] against the Movement.”
“Follow the teaching of Imam Khomeini”
If Musa’s latter remark carried echoes of Nasrallah’s comment about “Israeli or takfiri hands,” it was not by coincidence. For what binds the IMN with several fellow Shiite groups across Lebanon, Iraq, and beyond are firm political and ideological – and, many analysts believe, organizational and financial – ties to the ruling regime in Tehran. How citizens of Nigeria – a country where Shiite Islam was virtually unknown 40 years ago – came to be part of Iran’s transnational body politic is a story inseparable from the life of a single man: Sheikh Ibrahim al-Zakzaky.
Now 63 years old, Zakzaky has been involved in Islamist activism since his teens in the early 1970s. Born a Sunni Muslim, he began his political life as a devotee of the Muslim Brotherhood, and reportedly maintained relatively amicable relations with the group – whose ranks included Muhammad Yusuf, founder of the jihadist outfit now known as Boko Haram – until the late 1990s. As early as 1980, however, Zakzaky had paid a transformative visit to Iran, where Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini had just seized power, after which he would convert to Shiite Islam.
From the mid-80s onwards, Zakzaky’s persistent calls for an emulation of the Iranian Revolution in Nigeria earned him repeated jail sentences, but the momentum behind his Islamic Movement (which split from the Brotherhood following his conversion) only accumulated further with every incarceration. Inspired by Zakzaky, conversions to Shiism have been substantial enough to turn a once-negligible Shiite population into a following estimated anywhere between “tens of thousands” and “3 million.”
Potentially as many as three million Nigerians, that is to say, ostensibly seek to replace their existing republican democracy with wilayat al-faqih; the Iranian model of theocratic government developed by Khomeini and explicitly endorsed on the IMN’s website (adorned with photos of Khomeini and his successor, Khamenei, alongside Zakzaky). In a 2009 address to the Imam Khomeini Conference in London, Zakzaky expounded on his enduring admiration for the late imam:
“The world needs the thoughts of Imam Khomeini […] what remains for the world is to follow the teaching of Imam Khomeini. We cannot talk of Imam Khomeini being a former leader, or an older leader, he’s still the leader, and, praise be to God, he has got a successor in the person of Sayyid Ali Khamenei, may God protect him, where the teaching of the Imam continues as if the Imam himself is [still] alive.”
Beyond commitment to wilayat al-faqih, Zakzaky’s politics might be described as fervently anti-American and anti-Israeli, infused with conspiracy theorism and anti-Semitism. A treatise of his on the subject of “terrorism” posted on the IMN website claims, inter alia, that the US government carried out the 9/11 attacks; the Spanish government carried out the 2004 Madrid train bombings; and the CIA assassinated President John F. Kennedy. It also asserts that “nobody denies the fact” that “not a single Jew was killed” on 9/11 (the “beneficiary” of the Iraq war, he once told an interviewer, was “international Jewry”). As for Israel, “all the citizens, 100% of them are terrorists.”
No great surprise then, perhaps, that besides London Zakzaky’s recent travel destinations include Lebanon, which he visited last year; touring Hezbollah-operated sites (including the Martyrs of the Resistance Graveyard, the former Khiam prison, and the Resistance Museum in Mleeta); attending the ‘International Union of Resistance’ conference; and sitting down for a lengthy interview with Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV (in which, seeking to link events in Africa with those in the Middle East, he said ISIS, Jabhat al-Nusra, Boko Haram, and the Al-Shabaab jihadists of Somalia were all “hired” by “the West and Israel”).
A Nigerian Hezbollah?
This history of contacts with Hezbollah (an IMN delegation also met Party officials in Beirut in 2012) raises questions about potential militarization of their clash with the Nigerian state. Musa, the IMN spokesperson, insisted to NOW that their relations with Hezbollah were purely a matter of “common views;” nothing at all “financial or military or something like that.”
Yet in 2013, the Nigerian army uncovered a weapons storage facility owned by a Lebanese national, Talal Ahmad Roda, in the city of Kano, around 160km northeast of Zaria. According to Nigerian court papers, Roda and two other Lebanese nationals arrested with him confessed to being part of a Hezbollah cell in the country. Roda was given a life sentence for illegal arms possession (only to be released in January 2015), but the others were cleared of terrorism charges on the grounds that Hezbollah is not deemed a terrorist organization under Nigerian law. Nonetheless, in February 2015 the US Treasury Department sanctioned two of the three – Mustapha Fawaz and Abdallah Tahini – along with Fawaz’ brother, Fouzi, for alleged paramilitary and fundraising activities on behalf of Hezbollah in Nigeria.
Musa told NOW the IMN “doesn’t have any connection” with the sizeable Lebanese community in Nigeria. Security analysts in the country, however, said the very opposite.
“The Nigerian State has a trove of information linking the IMN with hundreds of Lebanese who are resident in Nigeria, especially Lebanese based in Kano,” Cheta Nwanze, head of research at SBM Intelligence, told NOW. “They strongly believe that this is a basis for coordination with the Hezbollah in Lebanon.”
As such, in the wake of last month’s Zaria killings, fears are on the rise in Nigeria that the IMN could – with the help of Hezbollah – soon develop a full-fledged military wing. The Movement has already, in fact, been accused of sporadic, low-level militancy for several years; mostly directed against Sunni rivals. A leaked US embassy cable dated February 2008 claimed “IMN training camps exist in the North,” though the author, then-ambassador Robin Sanders, did not at the time believe there was a “significant threat of Shia-inspired militancy.” Today, facing attacks from both the state and Boko Haram jihadists – who killed 22 IMN members marching in Kano on the Shiite religious occasion of Ashura in November 2015 with a suicide bombing – analysts worry an IMN insurgency is no longer so remote a prospect.
“Further actions against Zakzaky and his supporters, particularly if they fall outside of the ambit of the law, could see the IMN, as was the case with Boko Haram, express their grievances against the Nigerian state in the most violent of manners,” Ryan Cummings, chief Africa analyst at red24, wrote last week.
Needless to say, with an all-out insurrection by Boko Haram – which renamed itself Wilayat Gharb Ifriqiya (“West Africa Province”) following its March 2015 pledge of allegiance to ISIS – already ravaging Nigeria’s northeast, the possibility of the IMN launching its own rebellion in adjacent territory is one analysts dread considerably.
“The Nigerian military is already stretched fighting Boko Haram, there is violence in the North Central and there is a possibility of an insurgency resurfacing in the Niger Delta when the Presidential Amnesty Programme ends in a matter of a fortnight,” wrote Nwanze on the SBM Intelligence website. “Adding a die-hard Shi’a insurgency with millions of adherents in the heart of Nigeria is a recipe for disaster that Nigeria can ill afford.”
All eyes on Iran
Ultimately, analysts say, the decisive variable in the equation is Iran, the state that backs Hezbollah, and, whatever IMN’s protestations to the contrary, has backed the Movement in one way or another since Zakzaky’s conversion in the early ‘80s. If Iran wants the situation to deteriorate – for “a small matter [to] degenerate into a bigger one,” in President Rouhani’s rather forthright phrasing – then, the argument goes, it will do so.
However, Nwanze, among others, told NOW he didn’t believe the point of armed rebellion had yet been reached. Instead, for the moment, Iran may content itself with exploiting Zakzaky’s case politically as yet another means of undermining a Western-friendly government, presenting itself as a worldwide defender of Islamic interests (especially, but not only, Shiite ones), while also expanding the geographical and cultural reach of its power, both soft and hard.
“Iran is most certainly trying to play a much larger public role with its proxies to demonstrate a pan-Shia unity under Iran's leadership,” Phillip Smyth, a researcher at the University of Maryland and specialist in Shiite Islamist affairs, told NOW. “It's most certainly attempting to present itself as a global representative of Shi'ism. One only need to look at the situation in Syria, Iraq, and most recently with the Saudi execution of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr.”
Nigeria may not suffer the levels of horror seen in Syria or Iraq, but with Sunni-Shiite hostilities blazing at historic temperatures worldwide, it unfortunately appears to have all the tinder necessary for its own combustion.

The potential alliance of Christian rivals
Myra Abdallah/Now Lebanon/January 13/16
In January 2015, after nearly 30 years of conflict and communication breakdowns, the two main Christian political parties exchanged proposals after they concluded that dialogue has become a necessity. The dialogue that took place between the two Christian rivals came in parallel with the Sunni-Shiite dialogue that was taking place between Lebanese Forces’ ally – Future Movement, and Free Patriotic Movement’s ally – Hezbollah. The dialogue, which was not taken seriously by a large number of Lebanese people, had an unexpected outcome a year later: head of Lebanese Forces, Samir Geagea might nominate the head of the Free Patriotic Movement Michel Aoun for presidency. Last month, Samir Geagea said in a statement that the idea of nominating Aoun will become a serious option if the Future Movement insisted on nominating Suleiman Frangieh. “It is not confirmed yet that [Samir] Geagea will nominate Michel Aoun for presidency,” a source from the Lebanese Forces, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told NOW. “If he did, it won’t be a reaction to Frangieh’s nomination that shifted the presidential game to a different level. The presidential candidatures are now restricted between Aoun and Frangieh; that means any third candidate has no chances of winning the presidential elections.” The possibility of this nomination came a few weeks after the nomination of Suleiman Frangieh, Syria’s core ally, by head of the Future Movement Saad Hariri. During a recent meeting in Beit al-Wassat, Lebanese Forces MP Georges Adwan reportedly also said that the nomination of Aoun by Geagea is not a reaction to Hariri’s nomination of Frangieh.
However, analysts who spoke to NOW said that Geagea’s nomination of Aoun is a powerful maneuver in order to obstruct Frangieh’s nomination, and that Geagea is now ready to give the possibility of nominating Aoun a very high level of seriousness. “There are a lot of answers Geagea needs to find answers to,” said AnNahar analyst Rosanna Bou Mounsef. “The first one is the reason that pushed him to nominate Aoun today when he refused this suggestion when [Saad] Hariri tried to convince him of it almost 18 months earlier. Also, Geagea should take into consideration the repercussions of the nomination on the March 14 coalition that is currently suffering, and on the Lebanese Forces’ relation with Saad Hariri and the Future Movement from one side and with Saudi Arabia from the other side, especially since Saudi Arabia supported Frangieh’s nomination.”
Hezbollah does not have a clear statement regarding the presidential crisis. Theoretically, Hezbollah is still supporting the candidature of its March 8 ally Michel Aoun. However, the Shiite party cannot object to the candidature of Suleiman Frangieh, since he is Syria’s core ally and consequently Hezbollah’s ally. “Currently, we are the most silent,” said Hezbollah MP Ali Mokdad. “We are not discussing [the presidential crisis] in the meantime.” Mokdad also told NOW that Hezbollah might make a clear and detailed statement about the presidential candidates, but not now. It is not surprising that the presidential vacuum is not a Hezbollah priority. In fact, the Shiite party has long been accused by political analysts of benefiting from the vacuum and working to sabotage the presidential elections. Furthermore, the recent Iranian-Saudi disagreements might have negative repercussions on Lebanon, the presidential elections in particular. “It is very important that the presidential issue is being discussed,” said Bou Mounsef. “However, the Iranian-Saudi struggle is definitely affecting Lebanon; [politicians] used it as a pretext to postpone discussing the presidential crisis for at least a few additional months. This pretext helped Lebanese politicians to play the cards they can in the meantime.” Analysts who have been commenting on Geagea’s potential nomination of Aoun said that Geagea won’t nominate his rival unless he was sure that Aoun will never become president, but at the same time, he can use this nomination to sabotage Frangieh’s candidacy. “Geagea’s nomination of Aoun will empower Aoun, and it is a positive step towards Hezbollah. But, this does not mean that this nomination will lead to the election of Michel Aoun as a Lebanese president,” Bou Mounsef told NOW.

Shehayyeb: Politicians Should Keep their Disputes Away from Trash File
Naharnet/January 13/16/Agriculture Minister Akram Shehayyeb declared on Wednesday that the export of Lebanon's trash is not the only solution to the country's months-long problem, but said that it is the most feasible one at the moment. He said after a meeting of parliament's environment committee: “Politicians should concern themselves with politics and keep their disputes away from this file.” “All political forces advocated reaching a solution to this dispute, but few of them committed to their statements,” he lamented during a press conference from parliament. “We have no alternative at the moment to exporting the waste, which is a product of months of discussions,” he stressed. “This is the hardest solution, but it is a solution that is close to insanity in a country that has rejected all sound ones,” explained Shehayyeb. “The stalling in this file does not serve anyone,” he stated, while highlighting the ongoing hazards of prolonging the implementation of the solution. “Theories that are difficult to implement at the moment should be put on hold and we should address feasible solutions,” he stated. “The harm caused by the problem is much greater than the cost of exporting the trash,” he remarked. “The government alone is not responsible for this issue, but everyone is,” he noted. The minister said that cabinet has taken its decision to export the garbage and preparations are ongoing to implement it. Discussions over this issue will remain open however, he told reporters, while saying: “The media and some environmentalists should give us a break.”“We are seeking the decentralization of the waste file in order to allow municipalities to take over this issue,” Shehayyeb added. Lebanon was plunged in a waste management crisis following the closure in July of the Naameh landfill. Officials have for months failed to find an alternative to the dump, resulting in the accumulation of trash on the streets throughout the country. The cabinet in December approved the export of the waste despite reservations of the Kataeb and Change and Reform blocs.

Geagea Says he's Not Maneuvering in Endorsing Aoun Candidacy
Naharnet/January 13/16/Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea denied that the LF was maneuvering on its possible backing for Change and Reform bloc leader MP Michel Aoun for the presidency. “We are not maneuvering on our choice to back Aoun as a candidate,” al-Joumhouria daily on Wednesday quoted Geagea as saying. “We have many reasons for taking such a decision.”According to the newspaper, Geagea told LF officials that endorsing Aoun's candidacy for the presidency would contribute to limiting tension among Christian parties. The LF chief began mulling to support Aoun after his ally al-Mustaqbal movement leader Saad Hariri stood firm on his support for Marada Movement chief MP Suleiman Franjieh. Franjieh is Aoun's ally but relations between them reached an all-time low after Hariri met with the Marada chief in Paris late last year to strike a deal with him on the presidency. The deal lied in bringing Franjieh as president in return for allowing Hariri, a former prime minister, to lead the government. Lebanon's top Christian post has been vacant since the term of former President Michel Suleiman ended in May 2014. The rivalry between Aoun and Geagea is partly to be blamed for the vacuum at Baabda Palace. Asked whether he thought that the Change and Reform chief would re-consider the LF as its rival after his possible election as president, Geagea said: “Who can guarantee the other?” “We are engaging in dialogue with Aoun on all controversial issues … Our official decision to back his candidacy would not be made without a final and clear agreement.”“The coming days will reveal more deals,” Geagea added.

Salam Says Political Problems should be Resolved Outside Cabinet as Fate of Session Unclear
Naharnet/January 13/16/Prime Minister Tammam Salam urged Lebanon’s bickering leaders to resolve their problems outside the cabinet after the Free Patriotic Movement insisted to resolve the crisis on the appointments of top security and military officials as a condition for attending a government session.
Salam has told officials who have lately contacted him that he does not reject the FPM's demands on the appointments. But he stressed that ministers “should head to the cabinet and resolve their political and sectarian problems outside the council of ministers.”“The government belongs to the state and the people and not political parties and confessions,” Salam said, according to An Nahar daily published on Wednesday. The FPM has been demanding the appointment of three officers – a Shiite, an Orthodox and a Catholic – in the military council. Its request has left the cabinet paralyzed, which convened in December for the first time since its last session in September. By Wednesday, it was not clear if the FPM's two ministers would attend the cabinet session the next day. According to Speaker Nabih Berri, the session will be held. But Berri hinted to his visitors that the appointments, which are not on the cabinet's agenda, are most likely not to take place on Thursday.

General Security Arrests Suspected Syrian Terrorist
Naharnet/January 13/16/General Security has arrested a Syrian who admitted to participating in the fighting between extremists and the Lebanese army in the northeastern border town of Arsal. The general-directorate of General Security said A.A. was arrested for having ties with terrorist groups. The man admitted to investigators that he has participated in the Arsal battles that took place in August 2014, said the General Security communique. It added that the Syrian admitted to transporting cash for the Islamic State extremist group upon the request of his brother B.A., who heads a militant group affiliated with the IS in Arsal's outskirts. The suspect has been referred to the judiciary.

Lebanon Accused of Turning Back Syrian Refugees, General Security Denies
Associated Press/Naharnet/January 13/16/After taking in more than a million Syrian refugees, Lebanon has quietly changed course in recent months, forcing refugees to return to Syria — where they are at risk of persecution or death — or stay illegally, leaving them vulnerable to exploitation and abuse, human rights groups say. The situation is drawing attention at a time when Turkey and Jordan have also tightened their admission policies. A Human Rights Watch report published Tuesday warned that Lebanon's new regulations have "set the stage for a potentially explosive situation." Even as conditions in Syria deteriorate in a fifth year of war, Lebanon last week forcibly repatriated 407 Syrians who were stranded at Beirut's Rafik Hariri International Airport after Turkey tightened its visa restrictions with little notice. It was by far the largest such forced repatriation to date. Amnesty International called the action "an outrageous breach of Lebanon's international obligations," which require that it not return vulnerable people to a conflict zone. "Syrians have no value here. They've closed the door on us," said a 34-year-old refugee from Raqqa, the Islamic State group's de facto capital in northeastern Syria, who is now living and working as a doorman in Beirut. He refused to be named for fear of expulsion.
Lebanon in 2015 reversed a longstanding open-door policy for Syrians that allowed them to enter the country and reside here relatively unencumbered. At a minimum, they must now pay $200 per adult for a permit that lasts between six and 12 months, to say nothing of the onerous bureaucratic process that accompanies each application. Nadim Houry, deputy Middle East director for Human Rights Watch, said most of refugees have lost their legal status over the past year because of the new regulations. "That's not just an abstract notion. If you don't have legal status, you basically cannot cross any checkpoints. So men cannot leave the house," said Houry. Security checkpoints dot the country's Bekaa Valley and the north, where most Syrians are living. "That means you have to send the kids to work, because they aren't usually stopped. It also means if a woman gets sexually harassed, she cannot complain to the police, because she will be arrested," Houry said. The situation is similar in Turkey, which has over two million refugees. Ankara began implementing visa restrictions for Syrians entering the country as part of its efforts to stem the flow of migrants into Europe. That decision reversed a long-standing agreement that allowed visa-free entry to Syrians. Jordan insists it has kept its borders open to Syrian refugees since the start of the conflict in 2011. However, it has increasingly tightened its admissions policy.
A remote stretch of desert between Syria and Jordan has been the only land access route for Syrian refugees since mid-2013. In recent months, growing numbers of refugees have amassed in an area near a berm, awaiting entry. Government spokesman Mohammed Momani said earlier this week that about 16,000 refugees are gathered there. He said 50 to 100 are allowed in each day, with priority given to women, children, the elderly and the ill, adding that "security is the first priority." The U.N. refugee agency warned in December that conditions at the berm are deteriorating and that a majority of those waiting for admission, often for months, are women and children. The U.N. refugee agency says Jordan hosts about 630,000 refugees. In recent months, thousands have left by plane to Turkey and from there to Europe, while others have gone back to Syria. The exodus was sparked, in part, by further cuts in assistance to refugees by cash-strapped aid agencies. Syrians now have two avenues to stay in Lebanon, either by relying on their precarious status as a United Nations-registered refugee, or by finding a Lebanese citizen to sponsor them. Human Rights Watch said obstacles on the U.N. route were increasingly pushing Syrians into the murky sponsorship trade. "The sponsorship requirement is a recipe for abuse," said Houry. Of the 40 refugees interviewed for the report, only four have been able to renew their residency since January 2015. Over a million Syrians are registered as refugees with the UNHCR in Lebanon — equivalent to one-quarter of the resident population — though the number has declined over the past year as families find their conditions untenable. They are thought either to have returned to Syria or attempted a perilous escape to Turkey or Europe. There are many more Syrians who are not registered with the UNHCR,. Over 90 percent of the refugees are trapped in debt, and 70 percent live below the poverty line, according to a recent United Nations study.
Anti-refugee sentiment has crept into the fragile Lebanese political order as the war in Syria drags on. In October 2014, months before the new residency regulations came into effect, the government voted to stop receiving refugees, and in January, it prohibited the UNHCR from registering any more. The U.N. estimates around half of Syria's population has been displaced, perhaps the starkest indicator of the ruthlessness of the war. Another Syrian refugee in Beirut, who identified himself by his nickname Abu Ali to remain anonymous to Lebanese authorities, said he came to Lebanon in 2012 and this year lost his residency because of the new regulations.
"I can't put my daughter in school because we are now illegally residing in the country," he said, speaking at the sandwich shop he works at in Beirut.
Short of options in Lebanon, some families have pooled resources to send a husband or son to Turkey, where they can then set off for Europe, seeking asylum. An official at Lebanon's General Security bureau, in charge of immigration and border control, denied that the new restrictions are aimed at forcing Syrians to return. "There was a lot of pressure at our border, and we had to organize our criteria for entry," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations. "It is not to force people to leave."

France, Britain Warn their Airlines Would Stop Services to Beirut
Naharnet/January 13/16/France and Britain have hinted that they would stop their carriers from landing in Beirut's Rafik Hariri International Airport for failing to abide by international standards. The issue has been lately discussed by Speaker Nabih Berri and the French Ambassador. A similar meeting was also held between Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq and the British Ambassador, said As Safir daily on Wednesday. According to the report, the airport suffers from major problems such as weak inspection of luggage and the failure to implement a plan to equip the facility with more lighting and security cameras. Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq confirmed to the newspaper that “the airport is suffering from major problems.” He also confirmed that both Britain and France hinted they would stop their carriers from using the airport. “This warning is serious but not final,” he said, adding that London and Paris are waiting for action from the Lebanese authorities to resolve the problems. Al-Mashnouq hailed Speaker Nabih Berri for being the only official who is exerting efforts for the airport to meet the required standards. Public Works Minister Ghazi Zoaiter also told As Safir that “the security of the airport and the safety of passengers are a red line.” He said he has prioritized the issue out of his keenness for Lebanon to abide by international agreements and safety rules. Zoaiter stressed that efforts are exerted to meet all the standards required by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and the European Union.
The minister said he will ask the cabinet to approve the required funding to continue with the implementation of planned projects and tackle the flaws at the airport. The U.N.'s Montreal-based ICAO sets safety standards for international flights. Its audits evaluate countries' ability to oversee their airlines, including how well they conform to those standards. In 2013, ICAO identified a significant safety concern with respect to Lebanon's ability to properly oversee its air operators under its jurisdiction.

U.N. Gets $250 Million to Educate Syrian Children, Brown Hails Lebanon Success Story
Associated Press/Naharnet/January 13/16/Donors have pledged $250 million to educate over one million Syrian children this year but an additional $500 million is urgently needed to fund the program in Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan, the U.N. envoy for global education said Tuesday. Gordon Brown warned that "death voyages to Europe" will soar in 2016 as long as Syria's two million refugee children and millions more displaced inside the country are exploited and don't have the opportunity for education. The organization Girls Not Brides recently reported that the child marriage rate among Syrian refugee girls has doubled from 12 percent to 26 percent, he said, and a recent survey estimates that one in three refugee boys and girls have become child laborers. "It's urgent that we provide them education and avoid this exploitation and give these children hope for the future," Brown told a news conference by audio link from Europe. When he was Britain's prime minister in 2009 and head of the Group of 20 leading economies, Brown recalled that a trillion dollars had to be raised to support the world economy, so "it ought to be possible to raise $500 million for what is an excellent cause."He pledged to try to raise the money at the World Economic Forum in Davos and an international pledging conference for Syria in London, on Feb. 4, among other places. Brown said Lebanon's introduction of double-shift classes in school has been the greatest success story, educating over 200,000 refugee children from Syria right now "from a negligible number a few months ago." The refugee youngsters go to school in late afternoon and evening, after Lebanese children are finished, he said. The goal, he said, is to double the 200,000 Syrian refugee children now in school in Turkey to over 400,000, increase the number in Jordan from 130,000 to 200,000 in the next few months, and reach one million in 2016. "And by next year every single child refugee would be offered a place in school whether they be in Lebanon, Jordan or Turkey," Brown said.

2 Lebanese Abducted in Libya, Conflicting Reports on Motive
Naharnet/January 13/16/Lebanon's foreign ministry announced Wednesday evening that the kidnap of two Lebanese men in Libya is not related to Hannibal Gadhafi's arrest in Lebanon but rather to a “financial dispute.”“Lebanese citizens Mohammed Mustafa Nazha and Khaled Mustafa Nazha were abducted in Benghazi around a month ago over a financial dispute between them and their partners in the carpentry business,” the ministry quoted Lebanon's ambassador to Libya Mohammed Skaineh as saying. The incident “has nothing to do with” Hannibal's case “seeing as the kidnap occurred prior to his arrest,” the ministry added in its statement. It noted that the issue “is being addressed by the embassy and by the abductees' family away from the media spotlight.”“The ambassador fears that the story was posted on Facebook by a party seeking to fish in troubled waters and achieve financial gains,” the ministry added. A video featuring still pictures of the two men and the voice of an unknown man had surfaced earlier in the day on Facebook and YouTube. The video shows the two men holding banners carrying their names, ages and Lebanese addresses. The banners also carried an appeal to Prime Minister Tammam Salam saying the abductees' fate is now linked to that of Hannibal Gadhafi. “Release him in return for our freedom,” says the appeal. “This is a response to the unethical operation that was carried out by Lebanese elements who abducted Captain Hannibal Moammar Gadhafi,” says a man identifying himself as a member of the so-called special missions unit of the Martyr Mutassem Billah Moammar Gadhafi Brigade. According to the banners that appear in the video, the two men used to live in the northern Lebanese areas of Tripoli and Minieh.“We hold you responsible for anything that might happen to them if you procrastinate to release Captain Hannibal Moammar Gadhafi,” says the alleged pro-Gadhafi man in the video, apparently addressing Lebanese authorities. In remarks to Voice of Lebanon radio (93.3), an uncle of the two men confirmed that "the names that were mentioned in the video are correct," noting that the family does not have further information. Hannibal Gadhafi was kidnapped in a Syrian area near the Lebanese border on December 11 before being smuggled into Lebanon's Bekaa region. He was handed over hours later to Lebanese security forces. Lebanese authorities have charged Hannibal with withholding information about the disappearance of revered Shiite cleric and founder of the AMAL Movement Moussa al-Sadr, who vanished in Libya in 1978 along with two companions. A security source has told AFP that investigators discovered that ex-MP Hassan Yaaqoub had orchestrated an elaborate scheme to seize Gadhafi from Syria and bring him to Lebanon. Yaaqoub was arrested after several days on charges of involvement in Hannibal's abduction. Yaaqoub is the son of Sheikh Mohammed Yaaqoub – one of the two companions who disappeared with al-Sadr in Libya in 1978.
Al-Sadr's Libya visit was paid upon the invitation of then Libyan ruler Moammar Gadhafi – Hannibal's father. The three were seen lastly on August 31.They were never heard from again.The Lebanese judiciary had indicted Moammar Gadhafi in 2008 over al-Sadr's disappearance, although Libya had consistently denied responsibility, claiming that the imam and his companions had left Libya for Italy.

U.N. reveals nightmares inside starved Madaya
The Associated Press, Beirut Wednesday, 13 January 2016/Siege and starvation have left the rebel-held Syrian town of Madaya in a nightmarish state not seen elsewhere in the country, a U.N. official who traveled there said Tuesday, as some 300 residents fled and desperately needed humanitarian aid arrived. The former mountain resort, besieged since last summer by forces loyal to President Bashar Assad, came to international attention in recent weeks as reports of starvation emerged and activists shared images of emaciated children and old men widely on social media. Sajjad Malik, the U.N. refugee agency's chief in Damascus, told journalists that the "very grim" picture was the result of a blockade of food, medicine and other supplies that left the town in a "desperate situation.""There is no comparison to what we saw in Madaya," he said from Damascus by telephone to Geneva. "It is a place where you could see there are people, but there is no life... What we saw is something that was pretty horrible." Residents who say they have received permission from the Syrian government to leave the besieged town depart after an aid convoy entered Madaya. (Reuters) Malik described seeing shivering, malnourished children and young adults, saying "most of them had not had bread or rice or vegetables or fruit for months." He said a kilogram of rice would sell there for $300, and noted one account of one person selling a motorcycle to buy 5 kilos of rice.
A day earlier, the U.N. said that about 400 people in the town's hospital needed to be evacuated immediately for medical treatment as starvation and other factors had left them on the brink of death. Syrian authorities, rebels and aid groups have yet to respond. The U.N. goal was to obtain safe passage to evacuate the 400 later on Tuesday.
U.N. officials said it was too early to determine whether anyone had died of hunger. But the aid group Doctors Without Borders has said that 23 people died of starvation at a health center it supports in Madaya since Dec. 1, including six infants and five adults over 60. Various U.N. officials have described how locals had been forced to forage for food, such as risking walks in minefields to collect grass or cooking up "leaf soup," and were burning cardboard to stay warm in their homes. Madaya is not the only place in Syria suffering from siege, an age-old tactic of war that belligerents continue to use despite international laws banning it. The U.N. says some 15 municipalities across Syria are currently blockaded, with no one able to get in or out.
Two Shiite villages in the north, under siege by rebels, face similar circumstances, with food and medicine scarce. Residents are said to be eating grass to survive and undergoing surgery without anesthesia.
On Monday, convoys carrying food, medical and other supplies reached Madaya around the same time as another convoy arrived in the twin Shiite villages — called Foua and Kfarya — which are far more remote and difficult for media to access. The operation marked a small, positive development in a bitter conflict now in its fifth year that has killed a quarter of a million people, displaced millions of others and left the country in ruins. Another tiny improvement in Madaya came with the evacuation of some 300 civilians, mostly women and children, who left the town near the Lebanese border on foot and were then transported to government-run temporary shelters.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition group that tracks both sides of the conflict, said the civilians had separately arranged with government forces to leave the city, with some heading to shelters set up in schools and similar places in the area and nearby capital, Damascus.
The harshness of the recent starvation reports have underscored the urgency for new Syria peace talks that the U.N. is hoping to host in Geneva on Jan. 25.
The U.N. says 4.5 million Syrians are living in besieged or hard-to-reach areas and desperately need humanitarian aid, with civilians prevented from leaving and aid workers blocked from bringing in food, medicine, fuel and other supplies.
Elsewhere in Syria, the official state news agency SANA said the army has seized "full control" of a strategic rebel-held town in the northwestern province of Latakia, a stronghold of Assad's minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam.
SANA said army units backed by pro-government militiamen from the National Defense Forces captured Salma on Tuesday. Salma is in the mountains of Latakia province and is predominantly inhabited by Alawites.
The SANA report, which would mark a significant military victory, could not be immediately confirmed. Opposition activists earlier reported fierce clashes between Syrian pro-government troops and insurgents in and around Salma.
The situation for over 1 million refugees in neighboring Lebanon meanwhile appears to be worsening because of new residency laws.
Human Rights Watch said the Lebanese laws are putting the refugees in danger by preventing them from renewing their residency, arguing that the policies "set the stage for a potentially explosive situation."
The regulations, adopted a year ago, have forced refugees to either return to Syria, where they are at risk of persecution, torture or death, or to stay in Lebanon illegally, leaving them vulnerable to exploitation and abuse, the New York-based rights group said in a report published Tuesday.
Of the 40 refugees interviewed for the report, only two have been able to renew their residencies since January 2015.
Last week, Lebanon forcefully repatriated 407 Syrians after they were left stranded at Beirut airport. Amnesty International called the action "an outrageous breach of Lebanon's international obligations."

Iranian guards release 10 American sailors
Staff writer, Al Arabiya News Wednesday, 13 January 2016/Iran's Revolutionary Guards said on Wednesday it has released 10 American sailors who it had detained a day earlier, according to the Guards' statement broadcast on state television. Iran detained the sailors aboard two U.S. Navy patrol boats in the Gulf on Tuesday in an incident that rattled nerves days ahead of the expected implementation of a landmark nuclear accord between Tehran and world powers. Iran's Revolutionary Guards said on Wednesday that Tehran had asked the U.S. for an apology for "violating" Iran’s territorial waters, after the American sailors were arrested. An Iranian naval commander said the U.S. aircraft carrier with the sailors on board had acted "provocatively and unprofessionally" for 40 minutes by carrying out maneuvers in the Gulf. This is yet to be confirmed. Separately, a spokesman for the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) said the U.S. sailors were being interrogated, according to the Tasnim news agency. Late on Tuesday, a U.S. defense official said plans were in place for Iran to return the sailors to the U.S. Navy vessel in international waters early on Wednesday. White House spokesman Josh Earnest told CNN that "We have received assurances from the Iranians that our sailors are safe and that they will be allowed to continue their journey promptly."News of the incident came hours before President Barack Obama made his final State of the Union address to the U.S. Congress prior to leaving office in January 2017. Obama did not mention the crew's detention in the hour-long speech, but he did tout the nuclear deal with Tehran, saying "the world has avoided another war."

One suspect detained over Istanbul attack
Staff writer, Al Arabiya News Wednesday, 13 January 2016/While Turkey has detained 68 suspected members of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group in raids across the country, the country’s authorities have detained one person over the suicide attack in Istanbul that killed 10 mainly German tourists, Interior Minister Efkan Ala said on Wednesday. “One person was detained in operations carried out yesterday (Tuesday) evening. The investigation is continuing in a very intensive way,” he told a news conference alongside German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere. Three Russians were also detained in the Mediterranean coastal city of Antalya, a popular destination for tourists, but it was not clear if the arrests were directly linked to the Istanbul bombing. The state-run Anadolu Agency said the suspects were allegedly in contact with Islamic State fighters in conflict zones and had provided logistical support to the group. Ala, meanwhile, said the suicide bomber behind the attack in Istanbul’s historic tourist district a day earlier was not on any wanted list but had registered with Turkey’s immigration authorities. The minister said the man’s fingerprints were on record with the Turkish authorities, when asked about a report in the Turkish media that the man had registered at an immigration office in Istanbul a week ago. “Your assessment that his fingerprints were taken and there is a record of him is correct. But he was not on the wanted individuals list. And neither is he on the target individuals list sent to us by other countries,” Ala told a news conference. Currently, there are two German citizens who are still in a serious condition in hospital after the attack, Ala said. Eight Germans were among the 10 dead. “There are at the moment 11 wounded at the hospital ... of these 11 people, 9 hold German nationality, while one is Norwegian and the other is from Peru,” he said. In the same time, German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said there was no indication that Tuesday’s suicide attack specifically targeted Germans, adding there was no need for nationals to cancel travel plans. “In the current stage of the investigation, there is no indication that the attack was targeted against Germans. I see no reason to refrain from trips to Turkey,” de Maiziere told a news conference in Istanbul Ala. State media on Wednesday said Turkey has detained 68 suspected members of ISIS group in raids across the country. But the reports did not make clear if there was any connection to Tuesday’s blast. Sixty-five people were detained on Tuesday in raids in Ankara; Izmir on the Aegean; the Syrian border town of Kilis; Sanliurfa close to Syria; Mersin on the Mediterranean; and the southern city of Adana, the Anatolia news agency said. In Ankara, the authorities detained 16 people who were suspected of planning a major attack in the capital, the report said. The 21 people detained in Sanliurfa were also planning an attack at an unspecified location in Turkey, it added. The reports did not make clear if there was any link to Tuesday’s suicide bombing in Sultanahmet Square in central Istanbul, which the authorities said was carried out by an ISIS member who came from Syria. (With agencies)

Turkey detains three Russians in anti-ISIS raid after bombing
The Associated Press, Istanbul Wednesday, 13 January 2016/Turkish police on Wednesday arrested 13 suspected Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militants, including three Russian nationals, a day after a suicide bomber killed 10 foreigners - most of them German tourists - in Istanbul's historic Sultanahmet district. The attack, which also wounded 15 other people, including Germans, a Norwegian man and a Peruvian woman, was the latest in a string of attacks by Islamic extremists targeting Westerners. Turkish authorities identified the bomber as a Syrian born in 1988, who had recently entered Turkey and was not among a list of potential bombers wanted by Turkey. Turkish media, including newspapers close to the government, identified him as Nabil Fadli, and said he was born in Saudi Arabia. Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said Wednesday that authorities were working to identify people connected to the attacker. He would not provide details on the investigation, saying it would compromise those efforts. The Russians were detained in the Mediterranean coastal city of Antalya, a popular destination for tourists, but it was not clear if the arrests were directly linked to the Istanbul bombing. The state-run Anadolu Agency said the suspects were allegedly in contact with ISIS fighters in conflict zones and had provided logistical support to the group. Ten other people were detained in Turkey's third largest city, Izmir, and in the central city of Konya. The Russian Foreign Ministry in November said the number of Russians that left for Syria to fight for the Islamic State group at 2719. Of these, 160 have been killed, 73 have returned and been tried and 36 have been arrested. Tuesday's blast, just steps from the historic Blue Mosque in the city's storied Sultanahmet district, was the first by ISIS to target Turkey's vital tourism sector, although the militants have struck with deadly effect elsewhere in the country. Eight Germans were among the dead and nine others were wounded, some seriously, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier told reporters in Berlin. The nationalities of the two others killed in the blast were not immediately released, but both were foreigners. German Interior Minister Thomas de Maziere was scheduled to arrive in Istanbul for talks with his Turkish counterpart and other Turkish officials to discuss the attack. It was not clear if the attacker had specifically targeted Germans. Germany committed Tornado reconnaissance jets to the military effort against the Islamic State group in Syria following the November attacks in Paris, and started flying missions from the Incirlik air base in Turkey last week. It also sent a tanker aircraft, as well as a frigate to help protect a French aircraft carrier in the eastern Mediterranean. It hasn't taken a direct combat role, however. Germany already was helping supply and train Kurdish forces fighting the ISIS group in northern Iraq. The impact of Tuesday's attack, while not as deadly as two others last year, was particularly far-reaching because it struck at Turkey's $30 billion tourism industry, which has already suffered from a steep decline in Russian visitors since Turkey shot down a Russian warplane near the Syrian border in November.

With One-Candidate Vote, Netanyahu Seeks to Stand Alone
Naharnet/Agence France Presse/January 13/16/Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has found himself in a bitter election fight to decide the leader of his party -- even though he is the only candidate. Netanyahu has pushed for an early primary vote for his Likud party, less than a year after general elections, in what analysts say is a maneuver to clear out potential rivals. But since he is the only contender, opponents have harshly criticized the plan to hold the costly primary for the right-wing party's 100,000 members, calling it essentially a coronation for the politically savvy premier. "He made sure that he is the only candidate," said Gayil Talshir, a political scientist at Hebrew University. "He wanted to make sure that he is the only one -- that he is going to be the head of the Likud ahead of the next elections." The early primary is the result of political gamesmanship within the Likud and reflects Netanyahu's strategy as he looks ahead to the next general election, due in 2019 at the latest, analysts say.
The 66-year-old leader has shown himself to be a shrewd political operator. He has been in the prime minister's office for a total of nearly a decade -- fast approaching revered founding father David Ben-Gurion's 13 years. But the U.S.-educated Netanyahu can also be divisive, and he is not without potential challengers from within his party. Welfare Minister Haim Katz, who has been aligned with Netanyahu rivals, won a vote to become chairman of Likud's powerful central committee in late December. Netanyahu at the same time pushed for approval of a February 23 primary -- less than a year after general elections held in March 2015. Analysts called it a move by Netanyahu to prevent the committee undermining his bid for another term. The winner of the primary will in theory be locked in as the Likud's candidate for prime minister in the next general elections. The tight timeframe before the primary vote meant it was unlikely challengers would be able to mount a credible campaign against him. When the dateline for candidates arrived Sunday, Netanyahu was confirmed as the only person in the race. There have since been questions over whether the party should push ahead with the vote at an estimated cost of about four million shekels ($1 million, 935,000 euros) or simply declare Netanyahu the winner, particularly when turnout is likely to be low. "This is one of the most ludicrous ways to spend four million shekels from the state coffers," columnist Ben Caspit wrote in Israeli newspaper Maariv. But there have also been reports that Netanyahu prefers a vote be held to ensure his legitimacy cannot be challenged. "If he's nominated and not elected, then two years from now some contenders can say: 'Well, you were nominated; you were not elected. Let's have primaries,'" said Bar-Ilan University political scientist Shmuel Sandler.
Caspit and others argued that voters should at least be allowed to cast ballots "for" or "against" Netanyahu, rather than turning in blank ones that count for nothing if they oppose him.
Such critics in Israel's rough-and-tumble political scene have even gone as far as to compare his moves to that of a tin-pot dictator. A spokesman for the prime minister referred questions on the primary to the Likud, which did not respond to requests for comment. Netanyahu has previously said the party must be prepared for all possibilities, with the premier heading a coalition with only a one-seat majority in parliament. But some analysts say it fits into a longer-term strategy of keeping rivals at bay and possibly luring others who have left the party back into the fold to broaden the Likud. It comes at a time when opinion polls have not been particularly kind to Netanyahu, who has faced criticism over his government's failure to halt a wave of Palestinian knife, gun and car-ramming attacks that began in October. His wife Sara has also been questioned in an investigation into allegations that the couple used public funds on purchases and repairs for their private home. They have dismissed the probe as a smear campaign. In a poll released in recent days, around 32 percent said they were satisfied with Netanyahu's job performance. But the Likud finished firmly ahead of its left-wing rivals from the Zionist Union in March elections, and Netanyahu holds a nationwide stature that opponents would have trouble overcoming for now, analysts say. "They have a brand name," Sandler said of the Likud and its leader.

Israeli Prosecutors Call for Life Sentences for Killers of Palestinian Teen
Naharnet/Agence France Presse/January 13/16/Israeli prosecutors on Wednesday called for life sentences for two young Jews convicted last year of burning alive a Palestinian teen, part of an upsurge in violence ahead of the 2014 Gaza war. Prosecutors made the request at a sentencing hearing in a Jerusalem court for the two, who were minors at the time of the chilling attack in which they and a third man snatched Mohammed Abu Khdeir, 16, from an east Jerusalem street and subsequently killed him. Israeli settler Yosef Haim Ben-David, 31, is said to have led the attack on Abu Khdeir but his lawyers say he suffers from a mental illness and was not responsible for his actions at the time. The court has found that he committed the crime but is yet to rule if he is mentally competent. The two others were 16 when they were charged in 2014 but are now adults. The court's actions are being closely watched at a time of renewed Israeli-Palestinian tensions. A wave of Palestinian knife, gun and car-ramming attacks targeting Israelis began in October.

Israel joins condemnation of North Korea nuclear test
AFP, Jerusalem Wednesday, 13 January 2016/Israel, the Middle East’s sole but undeclared nuclear power, joined international condemnation of last week’s North Korean nuclear test on Tuesday. “Israel condemns North Korea’s nuclear test and joins the international community in expressing concern of the danger that this act poses regional stability and international peace and security,” a foreign ministry statement said. “A clear message must be sent (to North Korea) and to other countries that such activities are unacceptable and cannot be tolerated.”Israel refuses to confirm or deny it has such weapons or to sign up to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) but foreign military sources say it has between 100 and 200 warheads and missiles capable of delivering them. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tried in vain to block a July deal with world powers on scaling down Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief, arguing it would not stop Tehran from developing an atomic weapon. Israel reserves the right to use force to stop the Islamic republic from getting nuclear arms if it deems that as necessary.

Israeli Air Raid in Gaza Strip Kills One, Wounds Three
Naharnet/Agence France Presse/January 13/16/An Israeli air raid on Wednesday in the northern Gaza Strip targeting alleged militants killed one Palestinian and wounded three others, the Israeli army and a Palestinian official said. Israeli aircraft "targeted a terror cell plotting to detonate an explosive device against (military) forces stationed along the border of the northern Gaza Strip," the Israeli army said. It declined to provide further details on the raid. A Gaza health ministry spokesman said one person was killed and three wounded on a beach in the area of Beit Lahiya, located near the Palestinian enclave's northern border with Israel. The spokesman, Ashraf al-Qudra, identified the person killed as Musa Abu Zuaiter, 31, and said the casualties were the result of Israeli rocket fire. The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed offshoot of Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas's Fatah party, said he was one of its members and vowed revenge. Gun-wielding masked militants from the group were seen attending his funeral in the Jabalia refugee camp. The air raid marks a departure from recent Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip, which have usually followed rocket fire from Palestinian militants and have rarely led to casualties. There was no reported rocket fire from Gaza before Wednesday's strike, but there have been a number of recent incidents along the Gaza border, including explosions and gunfire targeting Israeli soldiers. "Forces guarding the border with Gaza face a growing threat from hostile terror groups attempting to destabilize the situation on the ground," Israeli military spokesman Peter Lerner said in a statement following Wednesday's strike. Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza, ruled by Islamist movement Hamas, have fought three wars since 2008, including a devastating 50-day conflict in 2014. The enclave remains under an Israeli blockade. Senior Hamas official Salah al-Bardawil warned Israel after the strike that "targeting citizens in Beit Lahiya this morning is playing with fire."- Devastated by war -The raid comes amid a wave of Palestinian knife, gun and car-ramming attacks in Israel and the occupied West Bank that began in October. The Gaza Strip has remained largely calm, though violent protests have broken out along the heavily guarded border and a number of Palestinians have been killed during clashes with Israeli forces. Israeli media reports have quoted military officials as saying they believe Hamas elements have sought to further inflame the violence in hopes of sparking a fully fledged uprising. The Islamist movement also has a presence in the West Bank, which is geographically separated from the Gaza Strip and where the Palestinian Authority, dominated by Abbas's Fatah, is based. Hamas in Gaza has however faced pressure over the slow rebuilding process following the 2014 war that left more than 100,000 people homeless and killed more than 2,200. Israel's blockade as well as a lack of donor contributions and coordination between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority have been blamed for the delays. Hamas also faces a limited but significant challenge from Salafist jihadists in the enclave who sympathize with the Islamic State group. Salafists have claimed responsibility for much of the recent rocket fire from Gaza toward Israel. At the same time, Hamas has also reportedly rebuilt tunnels destroyed by Israel in 2014 that Israeli officials say could be used to carry out attacks. In October a pregnant Palestinian mother and her toddler were killed in an Israeli air raid in the Gaza Strip. Israel said at the time it had targeted "two Hamas weapon manufacturing facilities" in response to rocket launches at Israel, as well as a number of attempts by Palestinians to violently break into Israel from Gaza.

Palestinian hospital officials said a 26-year-old man was killed.
Over the past few months, the focus of Israeli-Palestinian violence has largely shifted from the Gaza Strip to the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Israel, where Palestinians have carried out stabbings, car rammings and shootings that have killed 24 Israelis and one U.S. citizen. Since Oct. 1 Israeli forces or armed civilians have killed at least 143 Palestinians, 91 of whom authorities described as assailants. Most others have been killed in clashes with security forces. After Wednesday's air strike, Israeli farmers were cautioned by the military to keep away from the Gaza border fence and of possible retaliatory fire from the enclave, local residents told Israel Radio.Israel and Palestinians in Gaza fought a seven-week war in 2014.

U.N. appeals for nearly $8 bln for Syria aid
AFP, United Nations Wednesday, 13 January 2016/With the war in Syria headed for a sixth year, U.N. agencies on Tuesday appealed for $7.73 billion in funding to help 22.5 million people affected by the conflict. The appeal for funds from U.N. member-states covers help for 13.5 million Syrians displaced inside the war-wracked country and 4.7 million who have fled across the border to neighboring countries. The aid will also reach some four million people in Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon who are hosting millions of Syrian refugees, said a U.N. statement. International donors will be asked to come forward with large pledges at a conference on Syria’s humanitarian crisis in London on February 4. “After nearly six years of brutal conflict and political paralysis, the Syrian people need our help more than ever,” said U.N. aid chief Stephen O’Brien. U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi stressed that Syria’s neighbors were shouldering the biggest burden from the refugee crisis and said funding must be directed at them. More than a million refugees, many from Syria, crossed into Europe last year after conditions in camps deteriorated, with cuts to food rations and other aid. Last year, U.N. agencies asked for $8.4 billion from governments worldwide to fund the Syrian aid effort, but received only $3.3 billion of that amount. The appeal for Syria is part of a part of a wider 2016 humanitarian appeal, asking for $20.1 billion to reach 87 million people in need of aid around the world.

U.S. says two Navy boats in Iranian custody
Staff writer, Al Arabiya News Wednesday, 13 January 2016/The Pentagon said it had briefly lost contact with two small Navy boats in the Arabian Gulf but has received assurances from Iran that the crew and vessels will be returned safely and promptly. Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif gave an assurance to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry that U.S. sailors would be allowed to continue their journey promptly. A Pentagon spokesman told The Associated Press that the boats were moving between Kuwait and Bahrain when the U.S. lost contact with them. “We have been in contact with Iran and have received assurances that the crew and the vessels will be returned promptly,” said the spokesman. The White House meanwhile said it is working to resolve the situation with the seized navy boats, and wants the U.S. personnel to be returned to normal deployment. A U.S. defense official quoted by Reuters said that the U.S. had received assurances that its sailors will promptly be allowed to continue their journey. U.S. news channel Fox reported that the U.S. sailors had drifted into Iranian territorial waters. U.S. officials said 10 sailors on the boats were in Iranian custody. The circumstances surrounding the seizure of the boats – and the current status of the two vessels and their crew – are still unclear.

U.N. envoy on Syria to meet major powers on Wednesday
Reuters, Geneva Wednesday, 13 January 2016/The United Nations Special Envoy for Syria will meet ambassadors from major powers in Geneva on Wednesday, ahead of planned peace talks set for Jan. 25. Staffan de Mistura was already expected to meet senior U.S. and Russian envoys in the Swiss city on Wednesday. A brief statement issued by his office said that he would also then meet the ambassadors from all five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council - Britain, China and France as well as those of Russia and the United States. Earlier, Syrian opposition coordinator Riad Hijab, speaking in Paris, said the United States had softened its stance on Syria, including the future of President Bashar al-Assad, to accommodate Russia. Hijab also said the opposition would face a hard choice on whether to attend the Jan. 25 peace talks.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef on Wednesday hailed King
Staff writer, Al Arabiya News Wednesday, 13 January 2016/Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef on Wednesday hailed King Salman’s “achievements” after completing one year on the throne, the state-owned Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported. “The Kingdom and its people celebrate the first anniversary of pledging allegiance to King Salman, which was a year full of achievements exceeding all expectations,” said the crown prince, who is also the minister of interior. Applauding King Salman’s “farsighted vision” and “wise policy,” the crown prince said Saudi Arabia has turned “into a global destination for leaders, presidents of the world, decision-makers and businessmen from different countries.” He said these high-level figures have “confidence” in King Salman’s “wisdom and vision” as “a skillful and experienced leader.”“[They are] looking forward to an important role for a country occupying the most important strategic location on the world map,” he added. The crown prince also said King Salman has asserted a “proactive and effective confrontation” against terrorism, and “its perpetrators and supporters,” whose doings are “contrary to the teachings of our Islamic religion and genuine values.” These values “necessitate that we all stand firmly against the extremist ideology, blatant intervention in the affairs of our countries and infringement on the stability, security and development of our people,” he concluded. King Salman led the establishment of an Arab coalition that has bombed Iranian-backed Houthi militias and forces allied to deposed leader Ali Abdullah Saleh, in a bid to put the government of internationally recognized President Abdrabbu Mansour Hadi back in power.

Security officer for Aden’s airport killed in front of his home
Staff writer, Al Arabiya News Wednesday, 13 January 2016/An investigative officer working for Aden’s airport was killed by unknown gunmen late Tuesday in front of his house in the war-torn country’s second city, Al Arabiya News Channel reported on Wednesday. Two other policemen were also killed by gunmen in the al-Mansour neighborhood, where Col. Amin Shayif, who was responsible for investigation in Aden airport, was assassinated. No further details were available. In a separate story, a child was killed on Wednesday and three civilians were wounded after Iran-backed Houthi militias and their allied forces fired Katyusha rockets on a village west of the southwestern city of Taez. Meanwhile, the Saudi-led coalition has launched attacks at Houthi sites in Al-Dhabab and Al-Masrakh areas in Taez, leaving several killed and wounded. The coalition also targeted arms depots in Bani Hashish directorate in Sanaa province while the pro-government resistance captured large parts of the Naham directorate east of the province.

Kuwaiti Shiite Lawmakers Boycott Parliament
Naharnet/Agence France Presse/January 13/16/Kuwait's Shiite lawmakers boycotted parliament Wednesday, a day after a mass sentencing of members of the minority to prison or death for belonging to an Iran-linked cell. All nine Shiite lawmakers stayed away from the national assembly, which held a secret debate on the impact of regional conflicts on Kuwait, following attacks on Sunni-ruled ally Saudi Arabia's diplomatic missions in Iran. One of them, Saleh Ashour, said: "The anger of Kuwaiti Shiites has reached its peak in recent days with followers of a complete sect" being accused of acting as "agents for Iran and being members of (Lebanon's) Hizbullah." At the same time, authorities are failing to take action against people taking part in fighting in Iraq and Syria, Ashour said on Twitter, a reference to members of Sunni jihadist groups. Abdulhameed Dashti, another Shiite legislator, wrote on Twitter that he was boycotting the 50-seat parliament for the day, although like the others he did not give an explicit reason. It comes after a lower court on Tuesday sentenced 22 people, all but one of them Kuwaiti Shiites, who were charged with spying for Iran and plotting attacks in the Gulf country.
Two defendants, including an Iranian tried in absentia, were sentenced to death while 19 were handed jail terms ranging from five years to life. Another was fined 5,000 dinars ($16,500) while three were acquitted. The court said the cell members had links with Hizbullah and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.
Shiites form around 30 percent of Kuwait's native population of 1.3 million. The oil-rich emirate has witnessed a rise in sectarian tensions due to regional strife. Kuwait recalled its ambassador from Iran to protest the attacks on the Saudi missions, and summoned Tehran's ambassador to express its disapproval.
The attacks, carried out by protesters angry at Saudi Arabia's execution of prominent Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr, prompted Riyadh to cut diplomatic ties with Tehran.

Sister of Jailed Saudi Blogger Released
Naharnet/Agence France Presse/January 13/16/The activist sister of prominent jailed Saudi blogger Raif Badawi was released on Wednesday after being detained in the kingdom, Human Rights Watch said. Amnesty International said earlier that Samar Badawi was arrested on Tuesday in the Saudi city of Jeddah with her two-year-old daughter and questioned by police for four hours before being transferred to prison. "She's OK," HRW's Adam Coogle told AFP. "Technically she was bailed out in the morning. Then she had to go for mandatory questioning," he said, adding she had since been released. Badawi could not immediately be reached for comment. She is the sister of Raif Badawi, the blogger arrested in 2012 and later sentenced to 1,000 lashes and 10 years in prison for insulting Islam, a decision which generated worldwide outrage. Only the first 50 lashes of the punishment have been administered, in January last year. Samar Badawi is also the ex-wife of her brother's lawyer, Waleed Abu al-Khair, a rights activist who himself is serving a 15-year prison sentence. She has campaigned tirelessly for his release. A source familiar with her case told AFP that "they suspect she was running Waleed's account" on Twitter. She remains under investigation. HRW said she was questioned on Tuesday "about her human rights activism generally and whether she controls al-Khair's Twitter account. Badawi denied that she controls the account." Raif Badawi's wife, Ensaf Haidar, earlier posted on Twitter that her sister-in-law was detained for allegedly managing Khair's account. A source with knowledge of Samar Badawi's activities said she had stopped tweeting from her own account about a month ago. Philip Luther, director of Amnesty's Middle East and North Africa program, said her arrest "demonstrates the extreme lengths to which the authorities are prepared to go in their relentless campaign to harass and intimidate human rights defenders into silent submission."Rights groups say she has been under a travel ban since December 2014. "The arrest... is the latest example of Saudi Arabia's utter contempt for its human rights obligations and provides further damning proof of the authorities' intent to suppress all signs of peaceful dissent," London-based Amnesty said. Raif Badawi co-founded the Saudi Liberal Network Internet discussion group, which promoted free speech and sought an end to the influence of religious leaders on public life in one of the world's most conservative countries.

Syria Druze movement forming autonomous security force
Now Lebanon/January 13/16
BEIRUT – A Syrian Druze movement has moved to form a security apparatus to police the Suweida province independently of the regime forces in control of the region. The Men of Dignity—which considers itself independent of both the Bashar al-Assad regime and the opposition—announced Wednesday that its members were taking measures to "protect our internal security in most areas" of the mountainous Druze-populated province.
In a statement posted on Facebook, the group said it was conducting patrols and establishing impromptu checkpoints "after the clear failure of certain state apparatuses concerned with protecting the people… from gangs of thieves and highway robbers."
The Men of Dignity—which the regime's Suweida security chief said he wanted to destroy in a leaked video—also implied it was creating its own de-facto intelligence network, calling on Suweida residents to inform them of criminal activity.
The statement comes as Suweida has been beset by increased levels of not only petty crime, but also kidnappings for ransom and other offenses. The group said the increased lawlessness was "in the interests of certain actors," in a veiled reference to regime figures.
However, the Druze group stressed that not all regime officials in Suweida were corrupt, saying that "certain state officials have deeply patriotic intentions that serve the interests of the people and the homeland."
Men of Dignity challenge regime in Suweida
The announcement of the new security force is the latest challenge to regime authority by the Men of Dignity, which follows the Sheikhs of Dignity Druze clerical movement that was led by Sheikh Waheed al-Balaous until he was killed in a September 2014 car bombing that his group blamed on Damascus.
Prior to his death, Balaous had taken an increasingly strident tone against the Syrian regime and its intelligence chief in the Suweida, who the cleric accused of attempting to eliminate Assad's enemies in the province.
Only weeks before Balaous's assassination, the Sheikhs of Dignity announced the formation of its own fighting force, Bayrak al-Fahd (Banner of the Leopard), an umbrella organization to oversee smaller militia formations throughout the province affiliated with the independent Druze movement.
The Sheikhs of Dignity as well as its affiliates have kept up their anti-regime position following the death of Balaous, who his brother Rafaat replaced as leader of the movement.
On November 4, the Sheikhs of Dignity angrily accused the Syrian regime of "declaring war" against it after state media ran a report linking Rafaat Balaous to the killing of a top Baath Party official in Suweida.
Less than a week later, the Syrian regime's top security official in Suweida province appeared in a video with official religious representatives of the country's Druze sect announcing a crackdown on the Men of Dignity.
"The words 'Balaous's group,' that phrase must be killed," Suweida province's Political Security Branch chief Wafiq Nasser said in a video published that circulated social media.
"It must be killed on the ground as an armed aggressing force and it must be killed as a term."

President Obama still has unfinished business
Andrew Bowen/Al Arabiya/January 13/16
Last night, in his final State of the Union address, President Barack Obama sought to reassure the American people that the U.S. was on the right course and that he was leaving to his successor a stronger America than when he entered office. On challenges abroad ranging from the North Korea to Syria, Obama expressed confidence that his administration has handled these crises responsibly and he exercised responsible American leadership that avoided the pitfalls of his predecessor. In his remarks to both chambers of Congress, the President tried to sell to the American public that he has put the U.S. on better footing to address global challenges than the country was on when he entered office. He highlighted his core foreign policy achievements: the Paris climate agreement, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, and his diplomatic opening with Cuba. While Obama hailed the success of the Iran nuclear agreement, the President sought in light of events (including a ballistic missile test and the detainment of U.S. naval vessels in the Gulf by Iran) to assure the American public that he would stand firm against Iran’s destructive regional behavior. Seeking to ensure his nuclear deal wouldn’t be derailed by further sanctions, Obama stressed to Congress that the deal was sound and that his administration was committed to enforcing the agreement. So far, the President’s response has been flat footed.
Final year of presidency
The President sought to assure the public (despite low approval rating on his handling of terrorism) that his administration is taking the best steps to combat ISIS. He outlined his plans to close Guantanamo Bay before he leaves office despite the push back he has faced so far from Congress. This rosy rhetoric notwithstanding, the President failed though to deliver a convincing case for how he would substantively address ISIS (a global challenge that he’s consistently misjudged). The next President will not only have to address growing challenges but also alliances that have been weakened at a time when partnerships with such states are essential to addressing these challenges. Obama faces wider challenges as well, ranging from Afghanistan to Iraq that his remarks last night either underestimated or glossed over in attempt to paint a positive image of his legacy. These crises could potentially derail his final year priorities and equally overshadow the positive legacy he hopes to leave.
A less secure global position
Obama leaves to his successor a number of global challenges, which he failed to pro-actively address. Despite his optimistic outlook, the U.S. is in a less secure global position than when he took office. His inaction, critically on Syria and Iraq, leaves the U.S. and its regional partners decades of challenges. A direct consequence of this has been Russia’s intervention. As evidenced by recent domestic terrorist incidents, the American homeland isn’t immune to these challenges either. His successor will be forced to weigh the use of committing American military force globally to confront ISIS. Equally, his naively optimistic assessment about his relations with Iran has already begun to backfire. The Iranian leadership has shown little interest in improving relations with the U.S. and has already tried to test the deal. Iran continues to threaten the security of American allies in the region and its interests (as noted recently by the assault on the Saudi embassy and consulate in Iran). His successor faces a less constrained Iran with fewer tools to respond and the prospects of Iran achieving a nuclear weapon within a decade. The President’s lack of follow through on his commitment to his allies in the Gulf after Camp David underscores how he leaves his successor deeply strained relations in the region. The next President will not only have to address growing challenges but also alliances that have been weakened at a time when partnerships with such states are essential to addressing these challenges. While the President tried to optimistically assure the American public that the U.S. is stronger globally due to his leadership, his handling of crises underscore how he is leaving the country in a weaker position globally when he leaves office in 2017. American leadership frankly isn’t what it used to be. It’s this dark legacy that he sought to gloss over in his final State of the Union.

What’s in store for Egypt-Russia relations in 2016?
Maria DubovikovaAl Arabiya/January 13/16
A 10-day New Year holiday break has just come to an end in Russia even as Egyptian Parliament starts work for the first time in three years. The two powerful strategic partners have been weakened by major internal problems. Some challenges are common such as corruption, sluggish political systems, and deep economic crisis. They are, however, caused mostly by different factors. Year 2015 appeared to be very different for their bilateral relations. They seemed to be on the rise following the visit of Egyptian leader to Moscow, third such visit in two years. Important agreements were signed such as the one related to construction of Egypt’s nuclear plant in the Dabaa province by Russia’s RosAtom. Russia also extended a $25 billion loan to Egypt for the construction of the nuclear plant, which the country vitally needs to meet its growing demand for electricity. Kremlin continues military cooperation with Egypt, supplying the country with weapons. Following the deterioration of Russia’s relations with Turkey, Egypt proposed its services to supply Turkish products, primarily fruits and vegetables, to Russian markets. At the same time ban on flights between Russia and Egypt – imposed by Russia in the wake of A-321 crash over Sinai – triggered rumors that Russia has betrayed Egypt and that the ban is a sign of worsening bilateral ties. The current situation is not as bad as some describe it and is not as positive as others make it out to be. Russia needs Egypt as a partner in the Middle East. The country is located at a strategic crossroad and, despite weaknesses, remains critical to the region and the Mediterranean. On the other hand, despite suffering from a severe crisis, Russia continues to be one of the key powers at the global stage. Egypt needs Russia as a stable partner to diversify its foreign relations and reduce dependence on particular players.
Economic crises and interdependence
Egypt needs Russia’s nuclear assistance for its energy sector and to maintain its military supplies. But will it be enough for a country that needs investments, social welfare, development assistance and advanced technology to bring it to a new level of development and improve the quality of life of its citizens? What Russia can propose is not even enough to keep the country stable under current circumstances. Russia has no money to invest in Egypt and its infrastructure. Most of the projects and investments discussed at bilateral levels are likely to remain stuck due to strong economic crisis Russia faces.
Russia cannot afford to risk the lives of their tourists, as a consequence of its policies in the Middle East, and lay responsibility on the often corrupt and careless Egyptian authorities. Russia also worries about the stability of the Egyptian regime. The year gone by has been tough for President Abdelfateh el-Sisi. Cairo faces complex problems ranging from terrorist activities in Sinai to the socio-economic issues. The crisis in the country has been dramatically aggravated by ban on flights imposed by Russia. The crisis deepened following the recent attacks on tourists in Cairo and on hotel in Hurghada.
Terrorist threats to tourist destinations has dampened the prospect of flight resumption in the immediate future. Flights aren’t likely to resume before February and most likely not before spring. Even after resumption, they are likely to remain limited to tourist destinations. The threat of terrorism, however, is no longer limited to airport zones. Securing all tourist destinations and hotels is extremely difficult and needs time. The deepening of the tourism crisis makes the situation more explosive in Egypt.
Russia cannot afford to risk the lives of their tourists, as a consequence of its policies in the Middle East, and lay the responsibility on the often corrupt and careless Egyptian authorities. The country is likely to assess situation inside Egypt after January 25. There is no political motive in steps being taken by Russia as it needs a stable and prosperous Egypt. But stakes are too high for Russia in Syria and it cannot allow ISIS to attack its tourists thus pushing Kremlin to change its course in the region.Another problem in bilateral ties is that the Egyptian proposal to become an alternative to Turkey in terms of food supplies is unrealistic. Food export will lead to soaring prices in the domestic markets and it can hardly survive this under the current circumstances. The current volume of agricultural production in Egypt is not quite enough even to satisfy the demands of the local market. Moreover, it has nothing else to propose to Russia.
The problem with both Russia and Egypt is that they need each other. They also understand each other but for bilateral cooperation this appears insufficient. The deepening of the crisis between the two countries does not make the prospects of their cooperation brighter. A lot depends on the stability of the Egyptian regime and on how Russia will tackle the crisis this year. Year 2016 won’t be a year of breakthrough in the bilateral relations. Even in the best case scenario they will remain at the same level.

Arab Israelis are citizens, not punching bags!
Yossi Mekelberg/Al Arabiya/January 13/16
It may be naïve to expect a politician to refrain from scoring political points, even the very trivial ones. When it comes to Arab-Israeli/Palestinian citizens, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu doesn’t miss any opportunity to pander to his constituency by using the Arab minority as a punching bag.
The most recent opportunity was presented to him by a lone gunman, Neshat Melhem, an Arab Israeli. In a callous attack Melhem claimed the lives of three Israelis, two in a bar in Tel Aviv and of a taxi driver as he escaped. With a terrorist still at large, the need of the hour was a message of national unity. Instead Netanyahu chose to deliver one of his most chilling and divisive messages. His speech pointed fingers at one fifth of the Israeli population though their only ‘crime’ was being Arab. To create maximum impact, Netanyahu chose the site of the Tel Aviv shooting to cast doubt on Arab-Israelis’ loyalty. In his customary hollow demagogue, he said: “whoever wants to be Israeli must be Israeli all the way.” This can be said about any citizen anywhere in the world. However, this was only the beginning. His speech turned more venomous as he suggested that Arabs in Israel are running a state within a state, which is lawless and plagued with Islamist propaganda, weapons and criminal elements. Not only was this a very unflattering description of nearly 1.8 million people but also viciously incorrect. Isn’t he their prime minister as well? If there are such serious issues, is it not his duty to protect the vast majority that is not involved in criminal and extremist activities among the Arab-Israelis? It is obvious that his populism is aimed at garnering support of his supporters and covering up his failed premiership.
Taking responsibility
Mr. Netanyahu cannot escape the fact that if his false depiction of the Arab community in Israel was correct he must bear at least some responsibility. He has been the prime minister of Israel for a total of 10 years and continuously since 2009. How come he has this revelation only when an Arab-Israeli, for still unclear reasons, commits a crime which most Arab-Israelis condemned? One of its victims was an Arab himself. I cannot recall Netanyahu, or any other member of his government, trying to implicate, and rightly so, all half a million illegal settlers in the West Bank when an individual or a small group among them burnt an entire Palestinian family alive. Incidentally, this took place in a week in which the Israeli government admitted that many of the issues among Arab communities in Israel, including higher levels of criminality and radicalization, derived from decades of neglect by Israeli governments and society. Only three days before Netanyahu’s attempt to further delegitimize Arab-Israelis, his government approved a proposal to allocate 15 billion shekels ($3.86 billion) in funding to Arab communities in addition to what was already in the state budget.
Mr. Netanyahu cannot escape the fact that if his false depiction of the Arab community in Israel was correct he must bear at least some responsibility.
Additional funds invested in the development of housing, transportation, industry, education and healthcare are desperately needed to close gaps between the amount invested in the Jewish communities versus the Arab ones. Prime Minister Netanyahu, Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon and Social Equality Minister Gila Gamliel deserve credit for pushing for this long overdue plan and for accepting and internalizing that much of the maligned problems among Arabs in Israel are the result of ongoing neglect. They made this move despite vociferous opposition from within their government.
This is the tale of two Netanyahus exposed to the public within a few days. The first Netanyahu has good insight into what is necessary for the good of the country, derived from years of experience in top political job in the country. Sadly the dark side of Netanyahu, which is exposed way too often, is the populist petty politician. He would jump on to any opportunity, as tragic as it might be, to gain favor with a section of the Israeli-Jewish electorate. Statistics support claims that there is a higher level of criminal offence among the Arab population in Israel than the Jewish one. However, this racist view distorts the causality of it and blames it on their ethnicity. A more empirical approach would surmise that criminality and political-religious-ideological extremism are closely correlated with years of neglect, discrimination and institutional racism. Acts such as killing in Tel Aviv bar deserve utter condemnation. Nevertheless, ignoring their root causes and conditions where they emerge would be either naïve or worse criminal negligence. The inequality of the Palestinian citizens of Israel is entrenched and results in the loss of opportunity, higher levels of unemployment, lower standard of living and shorter life expectancy.
Admittedly, some changes and reforms need to take place from within the Arab community. Radical elements do exist and are related to the lack of a peaceful solution between the Israelis and the Palestinians, not to mention political, social and ideological developments across the region. Nevertheless, much of the malaise among the Palestinians in Israel can be resolved through a change in approach by the Jewish establishment and the society. There is need for an approach which recognizes Arab-Israelis as equal citizens and their welfare, concerns and sensitivities taken seriously into account. This would be beneficial for the country as a whole. Netanyahu’s populist opportunism where blood was spilled can only lead to more discord and division and deserves condemnation.

http://www.eliasbejjaninews.com/newsbulletin16/english.january14.16.htm

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