LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS
BULLETIN
November 10/16
Compiled
& Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
The
Bulletin's Link on the lccc Site
http://www.eliasbejjaninews.com/newsbulletin16/english.november10.16.htm
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Bible Quotations For Today
I ask not only on behalf of these,
but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that
they may all be one
Holy Gospel
of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 17/20-23/:"‘I ask not only on
behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through
their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in
you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent
me. The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be
one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely
one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even
as you have loved me."
You cheerfully accepted the plundering of
your possessions, knowing that you yourselves possessed something better and
more lasting
Letter to
the Hebrews 10/32-39/:"But recall those earlier days when, after you had
been enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, sometimes being
publicly exposed to abuse and persecution, and sometimes being partners with
those so treated. For you had compassion for those who were in prison, and you
cheerfully accepted the plundering of your possessions, knowing that you
yourselves possessed something better and more lasting. Do not, therefore,
abandon that confidence of yours; it brings a great reward. For you need
endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was
promised. For yet ‘in a very little while, the one who is coming will come and
will not delay; but my righteous one will live by faith. My soul takes no
pleasure in anyone who shrinks back.’But we are not
among those who shrink back and so are lost, but among those who have faith and
so are saved."
Titles For
Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources
published on November 09-10/16
Congratulation to the Brave USA People & To President Donald
Trump/Elias Bejjani/November 09/16
Aoun: Lebanon will not go Backwards, State-Building
Needs Economic Stability/Paula Astih/Asharq Al Awsat/November 09/16
Everyone should allow Aoun to fulfil his agenda/Gulf
News/Compiled by Mohammad Al Jashi/November 9, 2016
Lebanon’s new leadership ought to use this golden opportunity/The
National/November 09/16
An open letter to the 45th president of the US/Abdulkhaleq
Abdulla/Gulf News/November 09/16
Wilders's Plan: Time for Liberation/Geert Wilders/Gatestone
Institute/November 09/16
Turkey Converts Hagia Sophia to Mosque/Robert Jones/Gatestone Institute/November 09/16
Gulf region and the dawn of a new America/Mshari Al Thaydi/Al Arabiya/November 09/16
Trump’s victory isn’t isolated, it’s part of a disenfranchised tsunami/Peter
Harrison/Al Arabiya/November 09/16
Trump presidency: A bad example of leadership/Mohamed Chebarro/Al
Arabiya/November 09/16
Trump Needs a Vision 2020 for the Middle East/Dr. Theodore Karasik/Al
Arabiya/November 09/16
A Trump presidency puts the Iran deal on the rocks/Tovah
Lazaroff/Jerusalem Post/November 09/16
Donald Trump is 45th US President. Clinton
cedes/DEBKAfile Exclusive Analysis November 9, 2016
Titles For Latest Lebanese Related News published on on November 09-10/16
Congratulation to the Brave USA People & To President Donald Trump
Geagea: We Won't Hamper Government Line-up if We
Don't Get Finance Portfolio
Cabinet Formation Awaits 'Demarcation' of Powers
Hariri Urges Trump to 'Advance Peace', Find 'Political Solution to Syrian
Crisis'
Aoun Says Lebanon No Longer an 'Experiments Lab'
FPM Officials Liken Trump's Election to Aoun's as Wahhab Tweets Humor
Bassil after Meeting Cypriot and Greek FMs: To Step Up Investments, Give Priority to Oil File
Army Foils Infiltration Bid in Bekaa
LF Defends Demands to Get Sovereign Portfolios
Military Court of Appeals Approves Release of Tarras
Berri Says Finance Portfolio Obstacle 'Can be
Resolved'
Major General Beary chairs 100th tripartite meeting
with LAF and IDF officials
Hizbullah, Mustaqbal Urge
Fast Govt. Formation in 1st Talks after Aoun Election
Hariri receives Jumblatt
Aoun: Lebanon will not go Backwards, State-Building
Needs Economic Stability
Everyone should allow Aoun to fulfil his agenda
Lebanon’s new leadership ought to use this golden opportunity
Titles For Latest LCCC
Bulletin For Miscellaneous Reports And News published on on
November 09-10/16
42,000 Displaced since Start of Mosul Assault
US-Led Coalition Strike Kills 16 Civilians near Raqa
Israel Targets Syrian Position after Rocket Hits Golan
American voters choose their 45th President
Trump vows to unify a deeply divided nation
World reacts to Donald Trump as US president
Rouhani: Trump cannot reverse nuclear deal
Saudi King congratulates Trump on win
Saudi crown prince, deputy crown prince congratulate Trump
Netanyahu calls Trump ‘true friend’ of Israel
Israel Minister Says Palestinian State over after Trump Win
Palestinian Presidency Urges Trump to Work towards Palestinian State
Turkey urges Trump to extradite Gulen
Mexico reaches out to Trump, but won’t pay for wall
Putin says will try to repair ties with US under Trump
UN report notes minor Iranian violation of nuclear deal
EU, Turkey challenge each other to decide on membership bid
42,000 displaced since start of Mosul assault
Driver arrested after deadly London tram crash
Latest Lebanese Related News published on November 09-10/16
Congratulation
to the Brave USA
People & To President Donald Trump
Elias Bejjani/November
09/16
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/2016/11/09/elias-bejjani-congratulation-to-the-brave-usa-people-to-president-donald-trump/
The great American people hated
and were angered and frustrated by the on going presidential status quo of
stagnation, indecisiveness, hesitation and mere Laissez-faire attitudes locally
and internationally.
They were extremely hungry and
longing for change of the unhealthy status quo and for a strong president who
can be trusted to carry the hard mission of such a change.
They found in Donald Trump what
they were looking for, they believed him and accordingly gave him their votes and
sent him victorious to the White House.
Hopefully this very different new
president, Donald Trump will deliver all the promised that he vowed to honour
and fulfil.
Meanwhile the Middle
East is the most that needs this strong, different and decisive
American president, Donald Trump.
President Trump is badly
needed in the Middle East to draw the
red lines, take the lead, defeat the terrorists and play the role that the
president Obama’s administration totally ignored and abandoned leaving fires
and wars to get worse and worse.
Practically Trump has made history
today by winning the presidential election despite of all the dire challenged,
obstacles and false numerous accusations.
As a Canadian-Lebanese activist I am extremely
relieved and happy that Trump was victorious due to the fact that I strongly
believe that he will fix and straighten
all the devastating messes that Obama administration created in many countries
all over the world in general and in the Middle East in particular. All the
Arab rulers and regimes are immediately required to join forces with Trump’s
administration to strongly deter, contain and stop once and forever the Iranian
Mullahs’ dictatorship regime aggressive, hostile, sectarian,
terrorism and expansionism schemes and bold bloody interferences in their
countries. Special thanks goes for all the American
Lebanese activists who strongly supported Trump and especially Dr. Walid Phares, one of Trumps most
active and intellectual advisers.
Geagea: We Won't Hamper Government Line-up if We Don't Get
Finance Portfolio
Naharnet/November
09/16/Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea
assured on Wednesday that the Christian political parties will not be the ones
who will hamper the formation of the new government, and that civil war will
not erupt if the LF were not given the finance portfolio. “The finance ministry
portfolio is paramount in the government. There is a team in the Lebanese
Forces that has been preparing for it more than any other portfolio, but there
will be no civil war if we do not get it. I don't adhere to anything. The
Christians will not be the ones who make the obstacles,” stressed Geagea in an interview to An Nahar
daily. With regard to the bickering with Speaker Nabih
Berri over the finance portfolio, Geagea
expressed keenness for his friendship with Berri. He
assured that demanding to be given the finance ministry is only based on the
principle of rotation of portfolios which has also been affirmed by the Free
Patriotic Movement. Geagea denied the accusations
fired at the LF accusing it of making beforehand agreements with the FPM on the
distribution of ministries before their understanding on the election of
President Michel Aoun. He assured that “they only
agreed on a set of ideas and principles to work on their application.”On
a set of complaints by some that the LF is “hungry” for ministerial portfolios,
Geagea said: “The Lebanese Forces are at the
forefront of political parties that have not panted behind ministerial
portfolios since the launch of the Taef accord 26
years ago. We did not take part in several governments and have not asked for
shares. Everybody knows the role we played and how we contributed to the birth
of this agreement between the Lebanese.”Geagea
expressed optimism with regard to the formation of the new cabinet, which he
says will achieve much if its representatives played their roles well and
worked in as “one coherent team” to take the country from failure to a
successful efficient state. The LF chief did not set a specific date for
launching the new line-up, as he said that he prefers it to be comprised of 24
ministers rather than 30 as some demand. He told PM-designate Saad Hariri: “If the political parties prefer the second
choice then there is nothing to do. I will not oppose it.”He
went on to explain that “the cabinet can not represent most of the political
parties and sects in the country similar to the parliament. The cabinet must be
productive and coherent.”
Cabinet
Formation Awaits 'Demarcation' of Powers
Naharnet/November
09/16/The most difficult task facing PM-designate Saad
Hariri in forming a new cabinet, is the agreement with
the Lebanese Forces and Speaker Nabih Berri on the portfolios that will be allotted to their
parties, As Safir daily reported on Wednesday.
Prominent Free Patriotic Movement sources told the daily that whenever an
agreement was reached with the LF and Berri on their
share in the government, “and when that happens, the General (President Michel Aoun) will facilitate Hariri's mission to complete the
construction of the government because it is in the interest of the new term to
accelerate the formation so it does not lose the presidential elections glow.”
The sources added that Hariri will hold a meeting with newly elected President Michel
Aoun to display the initial vision of the composition
of the government, after he receives the final outcome from the LF and Speaker Berri. They pointed out that the president can not
determine his final decision on his share in the new cabinet if the
consultations of the PM-designate with related parties were not final. Media
reports said that the Free Patriotic Movement is seeking to grab the finance
portfolio which was allotted to the bloc of Berri in
the former government. Berri adheres to his demand
that the defense ministry remains with his bloc and
was quoted earlier as saying “the Taef Accord
stipulates that it should be part of the Shiite sect's share on the basis that
the finance minister's signature on decrees is the only Shiite signature in the
executive authority.”Aoun's election as president and
Saad Hariri's appointment as premier-designate have
raised hopes that Lebanon
can begin tackling challenges including a stagnant economy, a moribund
political class and the influx of more than a million Syrian refugees. The
process of forming a government could take months, with horsetrading
likely to revolve around the distribution of key posts like the finance, defense and energy ministries.
Hariri
Urges Trump to 'Advance Peace', Find 'Political Solution to Syrian Crisis'
Naharnet/November
09/16/Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri on
Wednesday congratulated Donald Trump on his election as the 45th president of
the United States,
urging him to “advance the cause of peace” and find a “peaceful political
solution to the Syrian crisis.”“Your victory is a
testament to your leadership and reflects the high confidence and hopes you instill in the American people. It is indeed a resounding
victory to American democracy,” Hariri said in a letter to Trump. “The Middle East is facing daunting challenges and your
leadership is indispensable for attaining a stable, secure and peaceful region.
You will find in Lebanon
a committed partner as you 'seek common ground, not hostility, partnership, not
conflict',” Hariri added, using a phrase from Trump's victory speech. Noting that Lebanon
paid a heavy price due to “conflict and war,” the PM-designate pointed out that
the Lebanese “are now working hard to set an example of partnership and
coexistence in the region.”“We count very much on your support to advance the cause of
peace, security, stability and democracy in our beleaguered region, starting
with a peaceful political solution to the Syrian crisis,” Hariri went on to
say. “It is a new era in Lebanon.
It is a new era in the United
States of America. As I look forward to
cooperating with you, I wish you success in all your endeavors,”
he told Trump. Addressing Americans and the world after his stunning victory,
Trump said: “I want to tell the world community that while we will always put America first,
we will deal fairly with everyone – with everyone, all people, all nations.”
“We will seek common ground, not
hostility, partnership, not conflict,” he added.
Aoun Says Lebanon
No Longer an 'Experiments Lab'
Naharnet/November
09/16/President Michel Aoun announced Wednesday that Lebanon
will no longer be “a laboratory for experiments,” nine days after he was
elected as the country's 13th president. “In the past, Lebanon was turned into a laboratory for crises,
but we have got rid of that and we are no longer a laboratory for experiments
and we will more and more overcome the crisis,” Aoun
told an educational delegation at the Baabda Palace. “Everyone now realizes that
victory would be for everyone and defeat would be for everyone,” Aoun added. Analysts have warned that Aoun's
election will not be a "magic wand" for Lebanon,
which has seen longstanding political divisions exacerbated by the war in neighboring Syria
and has struggled to deal with an influx of more than a million Syrian
refugees. In addition to pledges of economic growth and security, Aoun said in his oath of office that Lebanon must
work to ensure Syrian refugees "can return quickly" to their country.
Aoun also pledged to endorse an "independent
foreign policy" and to protect Lebanon from "the fires
burning across the region."
FPM
Officials Liken Trump's Election to Aoun's as Wahhab Tweets Humor
Naharnet/November
09/16/Several Lebanese officials took to Twitter on
Wednesday to comment on Donald Trump's shock win in the U.S. presidential election. “Two
dates America
will never forget: 11/9 & 9/11... Two dates Lebanon will never forget: 13/10
& 31/10,” Free Patriotic Movement chief and caretaker Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil tweeted in English.
He was referring to FPM founder Michel Aoun's
election as Lebanon's
president on October 31 and Aoun's ouster from the Baabda
Palace at the hands of
Syrian forces on October 13, 1990. MP Alain Aoun of
the FPM meanwhile tweeted that “within two weeks, two unconventional presidential
candidates opposed by the traditional political class have won the elections
thanks to popular will.” Aoun eventually deleted the
tweet, saying it was misinterpreted and noting that the two figures and two
political systems cannot be compared. Meanwhile, pro-Damascus Arab Tawhid Party leader ex-minister Wiam
Wahhab took to Twitter to
remind of sanctions that were imposed on him by George W. Bush's
administration. “After Trump's win, we have dropped all the sanctions that were
imposed by the Jahliyeh Municipality during the
tenure of the crazy U.S. president Bush, and we hope he (Trump) will treat us
the same,” Wahhab tweeted, describing Trump as
“honest” and slamming his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton as a “liar.”Jahliyeh is Wahhab's
hometown.
Bassil after Meeting Cypriot and Greek FMs:
To Step Up Investments, Give Priority to Oil File
Naharnet/November
09/16/Caretaker Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil announced, during a joint press conference with his
Cypriot and Greek counterparts on Wednesday, that meetings on education,
tourism, and friendship in Cyprus
and Greece
have been agreed. “We are concerned with finding stable and promising
investment climates," Bassil said following his
meeting with Ministers Ioannis Kasoulides
and Nikos Kotzias. “We hope that with the advent of
the new tenure, the topic of oil would top priorities so that Lebanon should
embark on a real journey in that respect,” he added. “From our location in the
Arab world, we can be a bridge to expand to Europe,”
he underlined. According to a statement by the Foreign Ministry, the European
officials congratulated Bassil and the Lebanese
people on the election of President Michel Aoun.
During their meeting, conferees highlighted the necessity to preserve pluralism
in the region. They also dwelt on the growing crisis of migration and refugee,
calling for comprehensive solutions based upon joint responsibility and
international cooperation. “The Ministers condemned terrorist activities,
voicing concerns over the wide spread of terrorism, with special emphasis on
the obligation to upgrade military and security cooperation. “Preserving Lebanon's
security must constitute an essential cause in the European Union's policy and
that of the international community,” the statement read. Conferees did not
fail to tackle gas and oil sectors, in addition to an array of energy-related
issues.
Army
Foils Infiltration Bid in Bekaa
Naharnet/November
09/16/The army thwarted an infiltration attempt by militants from the Syrian
side into the outskirts of a town close to al-Khraybeh
in the Bekaa region, the state-run National News
Agency reported on Wednesday. The army was able to obstruct a group of
militants after they tried to infiltrate into the outskirts of Jenta, other media reports said. The army engaged in an
exchange of fire with the infiltrators and was able to wound four of them
during the battle. They were taken to Dar al-Amal
hospital in Baalbek.
LF
Defends Demands to Get Sovereign Portfolios
Naharnet/November
09/16/The Lebanese Forces stressed that they are not putting “crippling
demands” on the government formation when they request to be given important
ministerial portfolios, As Safir daily reported on
Wednesday. “Claims to be given essential portfolios in the new government does mean that the Lebanese Forces are setting crippling
conditions and demands,” LF sources told As Safir
daily on Wednesday. Th sources that spoke on
condition of anonymity clarified the statements of the LF leader in that regard
and said, Geagea wishes for
the formation of a coherent government free from the burden of disputes between
the opposition and the pro-government parties in order to secure the right
conditions for a productive cabinet. They added that "it is not logical
for those who rejected the election of President Michel Aoun,
to demand a stake in the government." Media reports said that the Lebanese
Forces is seeking to grab the finance portfolio. Aoun's
election as president and Saad Hariri's appointment
as premier-designate have raised hopes that Lebanon can begin tackling
challenges including a stagnant economy, a moribund political class and the
influx of more than a million Syrian refugees. The process of forming a
government could take months, with horsetrading
likely to revolve around the distribution of key posts like the finance, defense and energy ministries.
Military
Court of Appeals Approves Release of Tarras
Naharnet/November
09/16/The Military Court of Appeals on Wednesday approved the release of Sheikh
Bassam al-Tarras from
prison, state-run National News Agency reported. NNA said the court, under the
chairmanship of Judge Tany Lattouf,
approved a ruling by First Military Examining Magistrate Riad
Abou Ghida on Tarras' release, dismissing an appeal by State Commissioner
to the Military Court Judge Saqr Saqr.
Tarras later arrived at Dar al-Fatwa to thank Grand
Mufti Sheikh Abdul Latif Daryan
for the efforts he exerted to secure his release.
"The file of my client has
nothing to do with the Ksara bombing and today a
ruling on releasing Dr. Tarras on bail was issued and
investigations will continue," Tarras' lawyer
said after the meeting. Saqr had in mid-October
charged Tarras with communicating with the extremist
Islamic State group. The cleric was re-arrested on October 5 after a brief
detention in connection with the August 31 Ksara
bombing. His second arrest was not linked to the bomb attack,
al-Joumhouria newspaper quoted State Prosecutor Samir Hammoud as saying in early
October. On September 15, the General Directorate of General Security said Tarras was briefly held in connection with the August 31
bombing over a meeting he held in Turkey with the attack's mastermind. The
arrest of Tarras, a former mufti of the Rashaya area, created an uproar in
Lebanon's
Sunni community, especially among the ranks of the influential Muslim Scholars
Committee and some Islamic activists. The Ksara bomb
attack left an elderly woman dead and at least ten people wounded. The
explosive device that was placed at a busy roundabout was targeted against AMAL
Movement convoys that were carrying supporters to a rally commemorating Imam Moussa al-Sadr in the southern
city of Tyre,
AMAL leader and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri said a day after the attack. Other vehicles were hit
by the blast shortly after AMAL buses passed by the roundabout, reports said.
Berri Says Finance Portfolio Obstacle 'Can be Resolved'
Naharnet/November
09/16/Speaker Nabih Berri
announced during his weekly meeting with lawmakers on Wednesday that the
dispute over who should get the finance ministerial portfolio "can be
resolved." “The finance portfolio obstacle is still being negotiated but
it can be resolved,” MPs quoted Berri as saying.
According to state-run National News Agency, Berri
hoped the new government will be formed before Lebanon marks Independence Day on
November 22. “There is a serious desire to form it as soon as possible so that
we embark on work, especially in order to approve a new electoral law and
address the vital issues,” Berri added. “The new
(electoral) law must be based on proportional representation, which would
secure a transition from the sectarian approach to the approach of
citizenship,” the speaker went on to say. Berri had
recently noted that the Taef Accord stipulates that
the finance portfolio “should be part of the Shiite sect's share on the basis
that the finance minister's signature on decrees is the only Shiite signature
in the executive authority.”Media reports have said
that the Lebanese Forces and the Free Patriotic Movement are seeking to grab
the finance portfolio, which went to Berri's AMAL
Movement in Tammam Salam's cabinet. President Michel Aoun's election as president and Saad
Hariri's appointment as premier-designate have raised hopes that Lebanon can
begin tackling challenges including a stagnant economy, a moribund political
class and the influx of more than a million Syrian refugees. The process of
forming a government could take months, with horsetrading
likely to revolve around the distribution of key posts like the finance, defense and energy ministries.
Major
General Beary chairs 100th tripartite meeting with
LAF and IDF officials
Wed 09 Nov 2016/NNA - The Head of
Mission and Force Commander of UNIFIL, Major General Michael Beary, today chaired a regular tripartite meeting with
senior officials from the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) at the UN position at Ras Al Naqoura.Today's
discussions focused on issues related to the implementation of UNIFIL's mandate under UN Security Council resolution 1701
(2006), air and ground violations, situation along the Blue Line and its
ongoing visible marking, as well as the issue of withdrawal of Israeli forces
from northern Ghajar. In his remarks, Major General Beary reminded the parties of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's call, as stated in his latest report on the
implementation of the resolution 1701, to not employ rhetoric threatening to
use force, as it undermines the ten years of relative calm between Lebanon and Israel. "I wish to remind all
of us of the importance of continuing to exercise the utmost restraint and to
stress that in all cases the default action must be to immediately use UNIFIL's liaison and coordination channels each time an
incident occurs," Major General Beary told the
parties, adding, "These confidence building measures have been of
paramount importance for making sustainable the calm and stability that haveprevailed since 2006." Major General Beary also informed the parties that the Blue Line marking
process is progressing well and efforts continue to find common ground on a
number of positions for Blue Line barrels. "I would like to commend both
parties for their willingness to accommodate these requests from UNIFIL and the
positive responses that we have been receiving over recent weeks," he added.
The UNIFIL commander also
underlined the need to respect UNIFIL's freedom of
movement while carrying out its responsibilities as mandated by the UN Security
Council and at the invitation of the Government of Lebanon. The meeting was the
100th since it was first started in the wake of the 2006 war. Tripartite
meetings have been held regularly under the auspices of UNIFIL since the end of
the 2006 war. They have become an essential conflict management and confidence
building mechanism between the parties. Such tripartite meetings are the only
forum where Lebanese and Israeli representatives meet.
Hizbullah, Mustaqbal Urge Fast Govt.
Formation in 1st Talks after Aoun Election
Naharnet/November
09/16/Hizbullah and al-Mustaqbal Movement jointly
called Wednesday for a speedy government formation, in a statement issued after
their first dialogue session following the election of Michel Aoun as president. The conferees “evaluated the atmospheres
that prevailed after the presidential vote and the positive impact that they have
left on the domestic situation,” said a joint statement issued by the two
parties after their 36th bilateral dialogue session in Ain el-Tineh. They “stressed the need to benefit from the
atmospheres of openness among the political forces and speed up the formation
of the new government.”Aoun was elected last month as
Lebanon's
13th president after a key endorsement from al-Mustaqbal
Movement leader Saad Hariri and crucial support from Hizbullah. Aoun also received
important support from the Lebanese Forces.
Aoun's
election as president and Hariri's appointment as premier-designate have raised
hopes that Lebanon
can begin tackling challenges including a stagnant economy, a moribund
political class and the influx of more than a million Syrian refugees.
In a sign that Hariri's task of
forming a new cabinet might not be easy, Hizbullah's
MPs declined to endorse him for the prime minister post.Hariri
is likely to struggle with his government's policy statement, which will have
to make reference to Israel, as well as the war in Syria, both potential
flashpoints with Hizbullah. The process of forming a
government could take months, with horsetrading
likely to revolve around the distribution of key posts like the finance, defense and energy ministries.
Hariri
receives Jumblatt
Wed 09 Nov 2016/NNA - Prime
Minister Saad Hariri received this evening at the
"Center House" the head of the Democratic Gathering, MP Walid Jumblatt, accompanied by MP
Marwan Hamade, in the
presence of Hariri’s advisor Ghattas Khoury. The meeting, which continued over dinner, focused
on the latest developments especially the process of formation of the new
government.
Aoun: Lebanon
will not go Backwards, State-Building Needs Economic Stability
Paula Astih/Asharq
Al Awsat/November 09/16
Beirut:
President Michel Aoun said Tuesday “Lebanon will
not go backwards,” and asserted that state-building could not be achieved
without the necessary plans and projects. “The country’s local situation
witnessed a tangible improvement during the last two weeks and there’s no
backward move from now on,” Aoun said during a
meeting with a delegation from the Banks Association at the Baabda
Presidential Palace. On
Tuesday, Aoun also received a letter of
congratulation from Russia’s
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Meanwhile, it seems
Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri would not face
the same obstacles he had faced in 2009 when drafting his government’s
ministerial statement, amid an agreement that the new text would be based on
the inaugural speech delivered by Aoun in Parliament
after his oath.
Since 2005, the weapons of the
so-called Hezbollah have been an obstacle to governments while drafting their
ministerial statements, as the party used to insist to include a clause on
“people, army and resistance” while the party’s opponents rejected this formula
and tried to find a text that pleases both sides. According to informed sources, Aoun and Hariri were sure that drafting the ministerial
statement would be an easy task. “Hezbollah would not be strict vis-à-vis the
statement, but there is no doubt that the party would not accept any formula
that does not mention the word resistance,” the source told Asharq
Al-Awsat. Member of the Change and Reform parliamentary bloc MP Salim Salhab told the newspaper:
“The ministerial statement would be drafted based on a loose formula that will
not discomfort any side.”
During his inaugural speech, the president said: “We shall spare no
effort and no resistance to liberate the remaining occupied Lebanese
territories, and protect our country from an enemy that still covets our land,
water and natural resources.”
Member of the Future Movement parliamentary bloc MP Mohammed Qabbani hoped the ministerial statement would be drafted
swiftly. Speaking
to Asharq Al-Awsat, Qabbani ruled out a Hezbollah objection to the formula of
the president’s inaugural speech, saying: “Resistance against the Israeli enemy
is normal, and we believe in it on condition that it be
based on a defensive policy that relies on the Army as a basic force.”The MP said that in his speech, Aoun
did not specify what kind of resistance Lebanon would use to confront the
enemy. “This is something we accept,” Qabbani said.
‘Everyone
should allow Aoun to fulfil his agenda’
Gulf News/Compiled by Mohammad Al Jashi/November 9, 2016
The Iraqis are making their way towards Mosul, the last city that was stolen by Daesh (the self-proclaimed Islamic State of Iraq and the
Levant) and their allies who supported the previous regime, said Iraq’s New
Sabah. “The Peshmerga are joining the Iraqi forces in
an organised manner that was described by the United States as seamless. In a
single day, the Iraqi forces were able to liberate nine villages and are now
heading towards major Daesh strongholds. Today, the
Iraqis must unite just like they did in Fallujah, Ramadi
and other Iraqi cities that some have claimed were like fortress that cannot be
stormed and will never return to Iraq. Meanwhile, Kurdistan is also
throwing its weight behind the rest of Iraq in a historic battle to
liberate these lands, a battle to which the entire world is a witness.”As the battle for Mosul rages on, now in its third week,
progress is being made on the battlefield but, as expected, at a slow pace,
said the Jordan Times. “Pundits of all sorts predict that while Daesh will lose territory in Iraq,
and even in Syria,
it will regroup in other parts of the world or, at least, activate splinter
cells and followers to spread terror in the dozen or so countries they are
ensconced in now. In Iraq,
the fear is that in the immediate aftermath of the battle, sectarian warfare —
between Shiites and Sunnis — will be rekindled, making peace a remote
possibility. Moreover, freeing Mosul will not
end the bigger war in Iraq,
where ideologically, many downtrodden Sunnis will stay loyal to Daesh. That is a wider problem that has to be seriously
addressed by the government in Iraq.”
Support for Aoun
Recent days have been a period for
people to express their support for Lebanese President Michel Aoun and rejoice on the recovery of the presidency, said Lebanon’s
Daily Star. “Now is the time for hard work. It is the duty of everyone to now
afford Aoun the space, time and support he needs to
fulfil his agenda, since it reflects the aspirations of all Lebanese.
Therefore, tomorrow is not just another day; it is a day for action, planning
and taking the first steps of the 1,000-mile journey to realise what has been
promised. The Lebanese people are pinning great expectations on starting the
engines of governance, especially the declared intention of the president and
the premier to cooperate fully because they acknowledge the needs and pitfalls
that lie ahead.” With recent political developments in Lebanon, one
can say that the country has entered a new phase in which it may overcome the
political, economic and social issues that it is facing, said the UAE’s Al Khaleej. “Lebanon needs
to overcome these challenges amid storms of terrorism and wars raging nearby by
addressing issues at the core of its structure and working hard towards finding
solutions that deal with them. The issue in Lebanon is its sectarian system and
current quotas between its political parties whose existence stems from
sectarian dimensions, which are used as a pretext for their actions and when
dealing with national issues. The first step that needs to be taken by the new
government is to quickly introduce a new law for elections that will pave the
way for a real shift in Lebanese politics, a law that lays the foundation for a
non-sectarian political system.”
Lebanon’s new leadership ought to use this golden opportunity
The National/November 09/16
http://www.thenational.ae/opinion/comment/lebanons-new-leadership-ought-to-use-this-golden-opportunity
On October 31, Michel Aoun assumed the presidency in a deal that saw the return
of Saad Hariri, the leader of the Future Party, as Lebanon’s prime
minister.
Writing in the London-based
pan-Arab daily Asharq Al Awsat,
the Lebanese columnist Bassem Al Jisr
attributed this new constitution of the executive branch to the cooperation
between president Aoun and premier Hariri.
Al Jisr
saw this step as an effort to consolidate national unity, ease tensions,
promote security and stability and boost the economy that has been affected by
internal and external conflicts.
According to the writer, it is not
enough for Mr Aoun and Mr Hariri to agree on the
names of the ministers and on the assignment of the ministerial portfolios.
"It is not just preferable
but necessary that the parties and parliamentary blocs help them to form a
comprehensive national government," Al Jisr
noted.
He added that it should not take
weeks or months to form the government as was the case under the premiership of
Tammam Salam.
He expressed hope that the new
president and prime minister would not allow this to happen, "as any delay
in the government formation would cast a shadow over the future of the
nation."
Al Jisr
said a new chapter is unfolding in Lebanon
and that it is likely to usher in a new era for the country if president Aoun, prime minister Hariri and
parliament speaker Nabih Berri
succeed in implementing all the terms of the Taif
Agreement and in preventing the flames in Syria from reaching the Lebanese
shores.
Writing in the London-based
pan-Arab newspaper Al Hayat, columnist Hassan Nafaa argued that Mr Aoun’s
election was only possible in light of exceptional local, regional and global
circumstances on the one hand and as part of a political bargain that placed Mr
Hariri at the head of the government on the other.
"Lebanon now faces a new situation:
either the crisis will continue and new ways will be developed to manage it, or
the cards will be shuffled to help the country find a real solution to the
crisis.
"The Lebanese system will
continue to lack efficiency in this sensitive phase if Mr Aoun
and Mr Hariri fail to cooperate. That will allow the system to overcome the
numerous challenges it is facing," Nafaa noted.
According to the writer, the
existing institutional formula based on the formal coexistence of a Maronite president and a Sunni premier cannot withstand
these challenges; hence the need for a new formula that would introduce
substantial modifications to the Lebanese system.
"Lebanon’s political system has
always enjoyed a host of freedoms unlike any other Arab country, but it has
never been a democracy owing to its confessional foundations.
"True democracy is based on
citizenship, non-discrimination and total equality before the law, and as such
it is in absolute contradiction with any confessional perspective," he
added.
As such, the writer said that Mr Aoun and Mr Hariri have a golden opportunity to drive Lebanon’s
democratic shift in this exceptional moment.
"In his capacity as president
of Lebanon for the coming
six years, and for his sake, Mr Aoun should invest in
his long-standing coalition with Hizbollah and in his
new relation with Mr Hariri to drive the efforts towards shifting Lebanon’s
current system to one of democracy."
* Translated by Carla Mirza
cmirza@thenational.ae
Latest LCCC Bulletin For Miscellaneous
Reports And News published on November 09-10/16
42,000
Displaced since Start of Mosul
Assault
Agence
France Presse/Naharnet/November 09/16/Nearly 42,000
people have fled their homes since last month's start of the operation to
recapture Mosul
from the Islamic State group, the International Organization for Migration said
Wednesday. Aid organisations have warned that more than a million people could
be displaced in the battle for Mosul,
and while it has not yet reached that scale, the numbers are growing. The IOM
said on its displacement tracking web page that 41,988 people have been
"displaced as a result of the ongoing Mosul operations which began on 17 October
2016." That was an increase of more than 7,000 from the figure the IOM
gave the previous day, but it was unclear when the spike in displacement
occurred. The vast majority of those displaced are from Nineveh
province, of which Mosul is the capital, but the
IOM has also included people from several other provinces in the Mosul operation figures.
While the worst-case scenario has not materialised so far, Iraqi forces have
yet to push deep into the city, and the number of people fleeing the area could
increase dramatically when that occurs. Both Mosul residents and the United Nations have
reported that IS has forcibly gathered civilians for possible use as human
shields. IS overran large areas north and west of Baghdad in 2014, but Iraqi
forces backed by US-led air strikes have since regained significant ground from
the jihadists, and Mosul is now the last IS-held city in the country.
US-Led
Coalition Strike Kills 16 Civilians near Raqa
Naharnet/November
09/16/A US-led coalition air strike killed 16 civilians, including a child,
overnight in a village near the Islamic State group's Syrian stronghold of Raqa, a monitor said Wednesday. The Syrian Observatory for
Human Rights said the strike hit the IS-held village of Al-Heisha, but a spokeswoman for
the US-backed Kurdish-Arab force fighting to capture Raqa
denied the report.
Israel Targets Syrian Position after Rocket Hits Golan
Agence
France Presse/Naharnet/November 09/16/Israeli forces
attacked a Syrian military position on Wednesday, hours after a rocket from
Syria hit the Israeli-held Golan Heights, the army said. "In response to
the projectile which hit Israel
earlier today, the IDF (Israel Defence Forces) targeted an artillery position
of the Syrian regime in the northern Syrian Golan Heights," a statement
said. The rocket was believed to be stray fire from fighting between the Syrian
government forces and rebels. It caused no casualties, the army said, and was
"most likely a result of the internal fighting in Syria." Israel has
sought to avoid being drawn into the conflict, but has attacked Syrian military
targets when fire spills over the demarcation line. The Israeli army holds the
Syrian government accountable for any fire from its territory, regardless of
the source. Israel seized
1,200 square kilometers (460 square miles) of the
Golan from Syria
in the Six-Day War of 1967 and later annexed it in a move never recognized by
the international community.
American
voters choose their 45th President
Al Arabiya
English Wednesday, 9 November 2016/Republican Donald Trump defeated Democrat
Hillary Clinton after clinching Pennsylvania with the remaining states slated
to go Republican in an unprecedented
presidential race.
Reporting from Clinton's
rally in New York City, Al Arabiya's
Talal al-Haj reported Pennsylvania that Democrats'
mood started shifting from its earlier jubilant mood.
"The mood was very jubilant
earlier in the night but has gone somber as the
battleground states of Ohio and Florida started tilting
toward Trump," he said.
The tide of the elections changed
once Trump won the key battleground states of Florida
and Ohio.
The Government of Canada's
immigration website crashed on Tuesday night as the US election results were rolling
in. The site went down about 10:30 p.m. ET on Tuesday, and there was
intermittent accessibility after that. Oil prices also took a tumble as Trump
pulled ahead in the close election.
Electoral Votes
Reporting from Dearborn, Michigan,
Al Arabiya News Channel’s correspondent Muna Shikaki spoke to several
Arab-American candidates who seemed they were divided on both voting for either
candidates, or none at all.
One voter in particular, Zahera Zahreddin said she and her
family members did not check the ballot for the presidential election and
instead, focusing on the local elections of Arab-American candidates at the
state representative and state board levels.
“I actually did not vote for any
of the candidates for president because I do not believe in their foreign
policy agendas regarding the Middle East,” Zahreddin told Al Arabiya.
“Even though Clinton
is considered an established and veteran politician, I have some fears of what
her policies will be like and how it will affect my family members living
across the Middle East,” she added.
Another voter told Al Arabiya she voted for Clinton
over Trump but not out of necessity.
“I’m voted for Clinton but not necessarily because she is
better than Trump as most Arab-Americans usually do not trust established
politicians when it comes to foreign policy. But at the end of the day, Trump
has repeatedly said that he would increase surveillance of Muslims in America,” Nawal Dabasha told Al Arabiya.
American-Pakistani-Bahraini, Shahla Shahnawaz, who has
campaigned for Sanders, also rejects the “lesser than the two evils” narrative.
But the Virginia-based Shahnawaz told Al Arabiya English that she is voting for Trump.
While Shahnawaz
“truly believes” Trump is “incapable of being the president” and that “he will
end up being impeached or leaving by choice,” the 26-year-old mulls her
decision as a possible thunderbolt to “wake up” American Muslims.
Trump
vows to unify a deeply divided nation
The Associated Press, New York Wednesday, 9
November 2016
President-elect Donald Trump vowed
on Wednesday to unify a deeply divided nation, having scored a stunning victory
backed by extraordinary support from working-class America. “I say it is time for us
to come together as one united people,” Trump told supporters gathered in a Manhattan hotel near his Trump Tower
campaign headquarters.
“For those who have chosen not to
support me in the past, of which there were a few people, I’m reaching out to
you for your guidance and your help so we can work together and unify our great
country,” he said, the stage crowded with family and his most loyal allies.Trump addressed the nation after sweeping most of
the nation’s top battlegrounds.He praised Clinton and
urged Americans to “come together as one united people” after a deeply divisive
campaign.
Obama invites Trump to meet
In Washington, conceding his party’s staggering
electoral defeat, President Barack Obama on Wednesday invited President-elect
Donald Trump to meet with him to discuss the handover of power from his
administration to Trump's.
The White House said Obama called
the Republican in the early hours of the morning to congratulate him on his
victory in the presidential campaign, which marked a forceful rebuke by voters
to Obama's eight years in office. The two leaders planned to meet Thursday at
the White House, where Obama was to update Trump about ongoing planning for the
transition.
Obama was to offer his first
reaction to the election later Wednesday in a televised statement that the
White House said would focus on “what steps we can take as a country to come
together after this hard-fought election season.”
“Ensuring a smooth transition of
power is one of the top priorities the president identified at the beginning of
the year and a meeting with the president-elect is the next step,” White House
press secretary Josh Earnest said in a statement.
Trump’s win shocked political
professionals and global financial markets alike. But it created pure joy
inside the hotel ballroom where hundreds of Trump supporters waited for hours
for his celebration speech. They hugged each other, chanted “USA!” and bellowed “God bless America” at the
top of their lungs. House Speaker Paul Ryan called Trump on Tuesday night to
congratulate him on his “incredible victory.”“We are
eager to work hand-in-hand with the new administration to advance an agenda to
improve the lives of the American people,” Ryan, who had a rocky relationship
with Trump at times, said in a statement. “This has been a great night for our
party, and now we must turn our focus to bringing the country together.”A businessman and former reality TV star, he is a
true political outsider in a way that marks a sharp break from past presidents.
Trump’s outsider status ultimately helped him politically far more than it
hurt.
World
reacts to Donald Trump as US
president
Staff writer, Al Arabiya English Wednesday, 9 November 2016
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/2016/11/09/world-reacts-to-donald-trump-as-us-president/
World leaders woke up to Donald
Trump presidency this morning, expressing a range of opinions, from shock to
disbelief, while others called this a positive result.
Marine Le Pen
French far-right leader Marine Le
Pen congratulated Donald Trump on Wednesday as the Republican appeared close to
victory in the US
presidential election. Le Pen, who heads the anti-immigration National Front
(FN), tweeted: “Congratulations to the new president of the United States
Donald Trump and to the free American people”.
Mahmud Abbas
Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas’s office on Wednesday called on US president-elect
Donald Trump to work towards the establishment of a Palestinian state, with
peace efforts with the Israelis long at a standstill. “We are ready to deal
with the elected president on the basis of a two-state solution and to
establish a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders,” spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina told AFP,
referring to the year when Israel occupied the West Bank.
Geert
Wilders
Dutch anti-Islam populist lawmaker
Geert Wilders has tweeted
his congratulations to Donald Trump. Wilders, whose Freedom Party is riding
high in opinion polls ahead of Dutch elections due in March, calls Trump’s win
in the presidential election “A historic victory! A
revolution.” Looking ahead to the Dutch vote, Wilders finished his
tweet: “We also will give our country back to the people of the Netherlands.”
Wilders is known for his strident anti-Islam rhetoric and opposition to the Netherlands’
European Union membership.
Germany
German Defense
Minister Ursula von der Leyen
said on German television on Wednesday that Republican Donald Trump’s move
towards an unexpected victory in the US
presidential election was a “huge shock”.She told
broadcaster ARD: “I think Trump knows that this was not a vote for him but
rather against Washington,
against the establishment.”
South Korea
South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se said on Wednesday
that he believed Donald Trump would maintain the current US policy of pressuring North Korea
over its nuclear and missile tests, if he wins the presidential election.
“Candidate Trump has expressed his clear position by saying after North Korea’s nuclear test that such provocation
by the North is a direct threat to the United States,” Yun
said.
Cuba
Earlier, news of Trump’s widening
lead hit hard in Cuba, which
has spent the last two years negotiating normalization with the United States
after more than 50 years of Cold War hostility. Normalization has set off a
tourism boom in Cuba and
visits by hundreds of executives from the US and dozens of other nations
newly interested in doing business on the island. Trump has promised to reverse
Obama's opening with Cuba
unless President Raul Castro agrees to more political freedom on the island, a
concession considered a virtual impossibility. Speaking of Cuba’s leaders,
Communist Party member and noted economist and political scientist Esteban
Morales told the Telesur network that “they must be
worried because I think this represents a new chapter.”
Indonesia
Indonesians on social media are
questioning why Americans have voted in big numbers for billionaire Donald
Trump, who many in the world's most populous Muslim country perceive as intolerant
and reactionary.
Some people say that under a Trump
administration they fear they'll be prevented from visiting relatives and
friends who live in America
or traveling there as tourists. About 100,000 Indonesians live in the United States.
President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo says on national television that his government will
work with whoever becomes president.
China
China
said it will work with the new US
president to ensure the steady and sound development of bilateral ties. Foreign
Ministry spokesman, Lu Kang, made the remarks at a regular news briefing on
Wednesday as Republican Donald Trump moved to the brink of winning the White
House.
Turkey
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu congratulated
Donald Trump on his victory in the US
presidential election on Wednesday and said Ankara
would strengthen its “trust-based relations and cooperation” with the United States.
He made the comments on his Twitter account.
The Philippines
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte offered “warm congratulations” to US
president-elect Donald Trump and looks forward to working with him to enhance
relations, a Philippine minister said on Wednesday. Duterte,
who has expressed outrage almost daily with the Obama administration and
threatened repeatedly to end one of Washington’s
most important Asian alliances, hailed the success of US democratic
system and the American way of life, Presidential Communications Secretary
Martin Andanar said in a statement.
Russian speaker
The speaker of Russia’s lower
house of parliament said on Wednesday Moscow hoped for more constructive
dialogue with the United States now that a new president had been elected, the
TASS news agency reported. Vyacheslav Volodin, speaker of the State Duma
and a close ally of President Vladimir Putin, said parliament would welcome any
steps in these directions. (With Agencies)
Rouhani: Trump cannot reverse nuclear deal
AFP, Bucharest/Tehran Wednesday, 9
November 2016
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/2016/11/09/rouhani-trump-cannot-reverse-nuclear-deal/
Iran's
President Hassan Rouhani said there was "no
possibility" of its nuclear deal with world powers being overturned by US
president-elect Donald Trump despite his threat to rip it up. "Iran's
understanding in the nuclear deal was that the accord was not concluded with
one country or government but was approved by a resolution of the UN Security
Council and there is no possibility that it can be changed by a single government,"
Rouhani told his cabinet, according to state
television. Last year's accord with world powers saw international sanctions on
Iran
lifted in exchange for guarantees that it would not pursue a nuclear weapons
capability. During the election campaign, Trump described the deal as
"disastrous" and said it would be his "number one priority"
to dismantle it. Rouhani, a moderate who has pushed
for closer ties with the West, said the United States' standing in the
world had been weakened due to its "wrong policies". "The United States no longer has the capacity to
create Iranophobia and to create a consensus against Iran," he
said. "The constructive engagement policies of Iran towards the world, and the
fact that international sanctions have been lifted, have placed the Iranian
economy on a road where there is no possibility of going backwards." Meanwhile,
Iran’s foreign minister
called Wednesday on Trump to stick to international agreements regarding the
nuclear deal with Tehran.
“Every US
president has to understand the realities of today’s world. The most important
thing is that the future US president stick to agreements, to engagements undertaken,”
Mohammad Javad Zarif said
in Romania.
Tehran insists
its nuclear program is peaceful and has so far met its obligations under the
deal, but supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has
said he would happily “burn” the agreement if Trump decides to tear it up. Some
Iranians believe the US
president-elect will not make good on his threat. “The Trump of the campaign is
different to Trump the president,” said Allaeddine Borujerdi, chairman of parliament’s foreign affairs
committee.
“It is natural that the American
president is constrained by international rules and must apply them, notably on
the nuclear deal,” the ISNA news agency quoted him as saying. Iran’s Atomic Energy Organisation
said it was prepared for any eventuality. “We have defined our nuclear programin such a way that we can continue in any
situation,” spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi
told the state broadcaster. The deputy commander of the elite Revolutionary
Guards, Hossein Salami, said it made no difference to
Iran
who was in the White House. “When the Republicans were in power, they
threatened us and showed their hostility... and when the Democrats were in power,
the policies of the United States
were the same,” Salami told the Fars news
agency. Iran says the United States has not stuck to the spirit of the nuclear
deal since it came into force in January, because a raft of unilateral US
sanctions remain in place that have left it frozen out of the international
banking system. The US Congress is due to vote next month on whether to renew
those sanctions, which are linked to Iran’s human rights record and
ballistic missile tests.
Saudi
King congratulates Trump on win
Staff writer, Al Arabiya English Wednesday, 9 November 2016/Saudi King Salman on Wednesday has congratulated the Republican Donald
Trump for winning the US
presidency. King Salman said both Saudi Arabia’s government and its people offer
their best wishes for the new US
leader, who surpassed the necessary 270 votes after clinching Pennsylvania’s 20 electoral votes to win the
presidency. The king also wished more progress for the US government and its people, and more ease for
the new Trump administration to be able to achieve security and stability not
only in the Middle East but all around the
world. The king also praised the “historical deep-rooted close relations
between the two friendly countries for which everyone is looking forward to
developing in all fields for the interests of the two countries.” Trump is now
the 45th United States
president after a bitterly fought election against his Democratic rival Hillary
Clinton.
Saudi
crown prince, deputy crown prince congratulate Trump
Staff writer, Al Arabiya English Wednesday, 9 November 2016/The Saudi crown
prince and the deputy crown prince have sent on Wednesday their warmest wishes
to Donald Trump for winning the US
elections, the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed
bin Nayef, who is also the kingdom’s interior
minister, wished good health and success for its US
ally after Trump became the 45th United States president. Saudi
Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, who is also defense
minister, also sent his congratulation to Trump, who won after a bitter-fought
election against his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.
Netanyahu
calls Trump ‘true friend’ of Israel
Agencies Wednesday, 9 November
2016/Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has congratulated Donald Trump,
calling him a "true friend of the State of Israel." Netanyahu said
Wednesday he believes the two leaders "will continue to strengthen the
unique alliance between our two countries and bring it to ever greater
heights." Earlier, a key ally in Netanyahu's center-right coalition,
Education Minister Naftali Bennett, said Trump's
victory means that "the era of a Palestinian state is over." The
Palestinians want a state in lands Israel captured in 1967.
“Trump’s victory is an opportunity
for Israel to immediately
retract the notion of a Palestinian state in the center of the country, which
would hurt our security and just cause,” Bennett, who heads the hardline Jewish Home party, said in an apparent reference
to the occupied West Bank.
“This is the position of the
president-elect ... The era of a Palestinian state is over.”Justice
Minister Ayelet Shaked,
also of Jewish Home, called on Trump to follow through on his promise to move
the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, in a break with the consistent
policy of successive administrations, Republican as well as Democrat. Deputy
Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely,
from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing Likud party, also called
for the embassy to be moved, as did Jerusalem Mayor Nir
Barkat. There was no immediate reaction from
Netanyahu himself. The prime minister caused controversy when he ruled out a
Palestinian state ahead of a 2015 general election, but later backtracked and
has since expressed support for the two-state solution. The status of Jerusalem is one of the most difficult issues in the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict.The Palestinians see
east Jerusalem
as the capital of their future state, while the Israelis call the entire city
their eternal indivisible capital. Trump has pledged to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
US
traditional stance on Israel
Zvi Bar’el, an Israeli Middle Eastern affairs analyst for Haaretz Newspaper, wrote in a column piece that “Congress
always has been and always will be with us, the Pentagon needs us, and American
Jewry will ensure our welfare.” His views are echoed by The Israeli Project, a
US-based pro-Israel lobby group, who previously told Reuters that the
“traditional” stance of Washington
standing by Tel Aviv will “continue.”“We enjoy and
appreciate the strong bipartisan support we get,” said Lior
Weintraub, vice-president of The Israel Project, and
a former chief of staff at the Israeli embassy in Washington, DC.
“We believe either president will continue the tradition of the many presidents
from both sides of the aisle of fostering the alliance on every front, from
security to culture.”(With AFP, Reuters and the Associated Press)
Israel Minister Says Palestinian State
over after Trump Win
Agence
France Presse/Naharnet/November 09/16/Israeli
Education Minister Naftali Bennett said Wednesday the
idea of a Palestinian state was over after Donald Trump's election as US president, calling for an end to what has been the basis of
years of negotiations. "Trump's victory is an opportunity for Israel to immediately retract the notion of a
Palestinian state in the centre of the country, which would hurt our security
and just cause," Bennett, who heads the hardline
Jewish Home party, said in an apparent reference to the occupied West Bank. "This is the position of the
president-elect ... The era of a Palestinian state is over."
Palestinian
Presidency Urges Trump to Work towards Palestinian State
Agence
France Presse/Naharnet/November 09/16/Palestinian
president Mahmud Abbas's office on Wednesday called
on US president-elect Donald Trump to work towards a Palestinian state, with
peace efforts with Israel
long at a standstill. "We are ready to deal with the elected president on
the basis of a two-state solution and to establish a Palestinian state on the
1967 borders," spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina told AFP, referring to the year when Israel
occupied the West Bank. Abu Rudeina said failure to
resolve the decades-old conflict would mean "the unstable situation will
continue in the region". The Palestinians remain deeply divided, with Abbas's secular Fatah party dominating in the West Bank and Islamist movement Hamas in power in the
Gaza Strip.Reacting to Trump's victory, Hamas said it
did not expect a change in US "bias" against the Palestinians.
"The Palestinian people do not count much on any change in the US presidency because the US policy
towards the Palestinian issue is a consistent policy on the basis of
bias," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri told AFP.
"Nevertheless, we hope that US president Trump will re-evaluate
this policy and rebalance it on the Palestinian issue."Peace
efforts have been at a standstill since a US-led initiative collapsed in April
2014. Much remains unclear about how Trump will
approach the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, however he has already
controversially said that he will move the US
embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
Such a move would break with decades of precedent and put Washington at odds with nearly all UN member
states. The status of Jerusalem
is one of the most difficult issues in the conflict. The Palestinians see east Jerusalem as the capital
of their future state, while the Israelis call the entire city their eternal
indivisible capital.
Turkey
urges Trump to extradite Gulen
Staff writer, Al Arabiya English Wednesday, 9 November 2016/Turkey’s prime
minister has called on Donald Trump on Wednesday to extradite a US-based Muslim
cleric Fethullah Gulen -
blamed by Ankara for the failed coup in July - as soon as he is sworn in.
American authorities are studying the evidence against Gulen
provided by Turkey
before deciding on whether or not to extradite the former Erdogan
ally. US-Turkish relations have worsened since the July 15 coup and the
former's refusal to bow to Turkey's
demands regarding Gulen. He is accused of coordinating
"terrorist" activity in Turkey
from the US state of Pennsylvania through
what Erdogan's government describes as the Fethullah Terror Organisation (FETO). Gulen,
who has lived in the US
since 1999, claims to run a peaceful religious and educational network called
the Gulen Movement. Binali Yildirim also said Wednesday that he hoped that the new
leadership in the United States would take into consideration Turkey’s
“sensitivities concerning the fight against terrorism,” give priority to
policies that would bring peace and stability to the region and advance
traditional friendship between the two countries. Ties between the two allies
have been strained over perceptions in Turkey
that the United States
is reluctant to arrest and extradite Gulen. Turkey’s is also frustrated by Washington’s
backing to Syrian Kurdish militia that are fighting the ISIS group in Syria and which Ankara considers to be a terrorist group.(AP and AFP)
Mexico reaches out to Trump, but won’t pay for wall
AFP, Mexico City Wednesday, 9
November 2016/Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto said Wednesday he was ready
to work with Donald Trump but the country’s foreign minister reiterated the
government’s refusal to pay for his planned border wall. Trump’s victory
shocked Mexicans, who were angered by the Republican billionaire’s description
of migrants as rapists and drug dealers. His defeat of Democrat Hillary Clinton
in Tuesday’s election caused the peso and the Mexican stock market to plunge
due to fears that Trump would upend economic ties with the country. “I
congratulate the US
on its electoral process and reiterate to @realDonaldTrump
my willingness to work together in favor of bilateral
relations,” Pena Nieto said on Twitter. “Mexico
and the US are friends,
partners and allies who must continue collaborating for the competitiveness and
development of North America,” he said. Pena
Nieto had angered Mexicans by inviting Trump to his official residence in Mexico City in August and
not forcefully condemning the Republican candidate’s comments against migrants.
Trump has vowed to make Mexico
pay for a massive border wall -- which is estimated to cost several billions of
dollars -- and to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
He also pledged to deport millions of undocumented immigrants and threatened to
freeze billions in remittances that migrants send to their families back home.
“Paying for a wall is not part of our vision,” Foreign Minister Claudia Ruiz Massieu of Mexico
told the Televisa network. But she said the
government has had a “daily fluid dialogue” with the Trump campaign and that
the two countries were “not starting from zero.”“It’s
an opportunity. The terms of the relationship change,” she said. The national
currency fell 7.81 percent to 20.22 pesos per dollar before day trade opened,
while the Mexican stock market plunged 3.18 percent at the opening bell. But
Finance Minister Jose Antonio Meade said the country’s economy was robust
enough to cope with the market upheaval. “Mexico
has lived through challenges of volatility in the past that we faced with
unity, seizing on our economic strength and taking correct and prudent policy
decisions, and this won’t be an exception,” Meade said at the National Palace.
Meade noted that the election would have no immediate impact on trade,
financial flows or people’s ability to travel. Mexico, he added, has inflation
under control, controls deep international reserves totaling $175.1 billion and enjoys macroeconomic stability.
Meade said the strength of public and private financial institutions allowed
the government to avoid taking “premature actions that move ahead of events
that we don’t know about at the moment.”
Putin
says will try to repair ties with US under Trump
Reuters, Moscow
Wednesday, 9 November 2016/Russia is ready to do its part to fully restore ties
with Washington following the election of
businessman Donald Trump as the next US President, Russian President
Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday. Trump stunned the world by defeating heavily favored rival Hillary Clinton in Tuesday’s presidential
election, ending eight years of Democratic rule and sending the United States
on a new, uncertain path. Among those uncertainties will be the Trump
administration’s future relations with Russia. Ties between Washington and Moscow have
become increasingly strained over the conflicts in Ukraine
and Syria, and allegations
of Russian cyber-attacks featured in the US election campaign. “We heard the
campaign statements of the future US
presidential candidate about the restoration of relations between Russia and the United States,” Putin said on
Wednesday at a ceremony to receive credentials from new foreign ambassadors.
“It is not an easy path, but we are ready to do our part and do everything to
return Russian and American relations to a stable path of development,” he
added. “This would be good for both the Russian and American people and have a
positive impact on the climate of world affairs.”Trump
is widely viewed as friendly to the Kremlin and Putin has said previously his
future counterpart is a talented and colorful
character. The Kremlin said earlier on Wednesday Russia hoped coordination with
the United States over the war in Syria, where the two countries back opposing
sides, would improve under the new US president.
UN
report notes minor Iranian violation of nuclear deal
AP, Vienna
Wednesday, 9 November 2016/The UN agency monitoring the nuclear pact between Iran and six world powers is reporting that Iran’s stockpile of heavy water is marginally
over the allowed limit but Tehran
plans to return to compliance. The deal specifies a heavy water limit of 130
metric tons (143.3 tons.) The confidential report seen by The Associated Press
that was issued Wednesday says that Iran’s stockpile exceeded that
amount by 0.10 metric tons. Heavy water is a potential proliferation concern
because it is used in reactors that produce substantial amounts of plutonium, a
potential path to nuclear weapons. Iran
already overstepped the limit in February when some of the excess was exported
to the US.
The report notes that Tehran
has announced plans to export 5 metric tons to an unspecified country.
EU,
Turkey
challenge each other to decide on membership bid
The Associated Press, Reuters
Ankara, Turkey Wednesday, 9 November 2016/In the face of increasing criticism
and worsening relations, the European Union and Turkey argued Wednesday over
whether Ankara's bid to join the EU should continue. In a high-stakes game of
political chicken, Turkish President Erdogan said the
EU wouldn’t be able to reach the “final point” and end its ties with Turkey out
of fears of jeopardizing a deal to curb the flow of migrants from Africa and
the Middle East to Europe. Hours later, in Brussels, EU Enlargement
Commissioner Johannes Hahn bluntly said that “it is time Ankara tells us what
they really want,” in the wake of a report assessing Turkey's status as a
candidate for membership that highlighted what the EU saw as backsliding on
essential human rights and rule of law standards. The report, issued on Wednesday,
came after Turkey's
clampdown on media freedoms and the arrests of 10 pro-Kurdish legislators.
“These various actions, including considerations of reintroducing the death
penalty, seem to be increasingly incompatible with Turkey's official desire to become
a member of the European Union,” Hahn said. “In its own interest, Turkey urgently
needs to stop moving away from the EU,” Hahn said. In the escalating standoff
on Turkey's
protracted membership bid, Erdogan rose to the
challenge. “They say unabashedly and shamelessly that the EU should review its
negotiations with Turkey,” Erdogan told a business group in Istanbul. “You are late, go and review them
as soon as you can. But don't just review them - go and make your final
decision.” The Turkish leader added: “You know those 3 million refugees in Turkey? They
say there is a problem. What if the negotiations end and they open the gates,
where would we put those 3 million refugees? That is their worry. That is why
they cannot come to the end point.”Turkish Foreign
Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu
said the EU had to stop its “threatening” attitude. “Make a decision, brother!”
Cavusoglu said. “If you want the negotiations to
stop, then stop them. If you want them to continue we are ready. But you have
to treat us as equal partners. We cannot advance as long as you see us as
second-rate country.”
Incentives
In March, Turkey and the EU reached an agreement in which Turkey would stem the flow of migrants to Greece in return for incentives including
fast-tracked membership talks, billions of euros in
aid for Syrian refugees in Turkey
and visa-free travel for Turkish citizens. The deal has hit a hurdle over Turkey's reluctance to change its anti-terrorism
laws - one of the conditions for the lifting of visa restrictions on Turkish
citizens traveling to Europe. On Tuesday,
Jean-Claude Juncker, the president of the European
Commission, warned Turkey
that its crackdown on political opponents and the media goes against EU values.
He too called on Erdogan to immediately say “whether Turkey really
wants to be - yes or no - a member of the European Union.” He added that the
Turkish leader would only have himself to blame if the
EU does not grant visa-free travel in Europe
to Turkish citizens soon. Turkey
has been in talks to join the European Union since October 2005, but progress
has been held up, often by political opposition and particularly due to
resistance from Cyprus,
an EU member. The Mediterranean island has been divided since 1974, when
Turkish troops occupied its northern third following a coup by supporters of a
union with Greece.
Yildirim
congratulates Trump
Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim on Wednesday
congratulated Donald Trump on his victory in the US presidential election, saying it
was an opportunity to further bilateral relations. In a speech in the capital Ankara, Yildirim said a “new
page” would be opened in US-Turkey relations if Washington
extradited the US-based cleric Turkey
blames for orchestrating the July 15 failed coup. “An area of opportunity has
been created for the new president to advance relations with policies taking
into account Turkey's
fight against terror,” Yildirim said.
42,000
displaced since start of Mosul
assault
AFP, Baghdad
Wednesday, 9 November 2016/Nearly 42,000 people have
fled their homes since last month’s start of the operation to recapture Mosul from the Islamic
State group, the International Organization for Migration said Wednesday. Aid
organisations have warned that more than a million people could be displaced in
the battle for Mosul,
and while it has not yet reached that scale, the numbers are growing. The IOM
said on its displacement tracking web page that 41,988 people have been
“displaced as a result of the ongoing Mosul
operations which began on 17 October 2016.” That was an increase of more than
7,000 from the figure the IOM gave the previous day, but it was unclear when
the spike in displacement occurred. The vast majority of those displaced are
from Nineveh province, of which Mosul
is the capital, but the IOM has also included people from several other
provinces in the Mosul
operation figures. While the worst-case scenario has not materialised so far,
Iraqi forces have yet to push deep into the city, and the number of people
fleeing the area could increase dramatically when that occurs. Both Mosul residents and the United Nations have reported that ISIS has forcibly gathered civilians for possible use as
human shields. ISIS overran large areas north and west of Baghdad
in 2014, but Iraqi forces backed by US-led air strikes have since regained
significant ground from the jihadists, and Mosul is now the last ISIS-held city in the
country.
Driver
arrested after deadly London
tram crash
By Reuters, London
Wednesday, 9 November 2016/An unspecified number of
people were killed, more than 50 others were injured and two remained trapped
after a tram overturned early on Wednesday morning in south London, said police who later confirmed
officers had arrested its driver. Emergency services were called at about
6:10am – local time - to reports that a tram had derailed near a stop close to
central Croydon, a large suburb to the south of the British capital and a major
transport hub. “A number of people have been taken to hospital with injuries
and sadly we can say there has been some loss of life,” said Assistant Chief
Constable Robin Smith from British Transport Police (BTP). “It is too early for
us to confirm numbers but we are working hard to assess the ongoing incident
and are continuing to focus on recovery efforts,” he added.
A BTP spokesman later said the
tram’s driver had been arrested. A London Ambulance spokesman said 51 people
had been taken to hospital, some with serious injuries. Eight fire engines,
five specialist rescue units and more than 70 firefighters attended the scene
using heavy cutting equipment to free those trapped. Television pictures showed
the tram lying on its side across the tracks near a junction where the line
divides. Investigations were continuing into the cause of the accident. “My
thoughts and prayers are with all of those who have been affected by this
terrible incident that has taken place on the tram in Croydon,” Prime Minister
Theresa May said. Local residents said they had heard a crash followed by
shouting. “They started bringing up the casualties, some very seriously
injured. People were carried away on stretchers,” Hannah Collier, 23, told Sky
News.
Latest LCCC
Bulletin analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on November
09-10/16
An open letter to the 45th president of the US
Abdulkhaleq Abdulla/Gulf
News/November 09/16
http://gulfnews.com/opinion/thinkers/an-open-letter-to-the-45th-president-of-the-us-1.1927060
The American people have just elected the most unqualified
presidential candidate in US
history. No one prior to you held the infamous title of the least qualified
candidate for the most important political job in the world
Dear Mr President
Trump,
Congratulations on your stunning historical win.
No one argues with success, but in all frankness, I did not
expect you to win and in all honesty, I did not want you to win either. Also,
very frankly, I am not very happy that you have been elected as the 45th
President of the United
States. It is disappointing and
disheartening to me and to millions around the world.
Yet, as depressed as I deeply feel at the shocking outcome
of your election, I have to respect the choice of the American people. They
voted for the unexpected candidate in one of the longest, toughest and most
amazing presidential elections in recent America history. I think they will
regret this choice four years down the road. However, millions of unhappy
Americans and many million astonished people around the world have to live with
this nightmare. They will have to wear winter clothing and dig in, expecting
the worst for the next four winters.
Mr President,
I have always maintained that the last thing the world needs
right now is a US
president who brings in a huge dose of uncertainty into global politics that is
already full of uncertainties and lacks stability. ‘Anybody-but-Trump’ has been
consistently my line of thinking from day one and until the last minute into
this amazing election.
The world needs a confident trust-worthy statesman, not a
bombastic businessman who lives on a reality TV show. I for one do not see the
credible statement in you. Please prove me wrong. The last thing the world
needs right now is a US
president who lacks leadership quality and adds more confusion to the mighty
confused global politics.
Mr President,
The American people have just elected the most unqualified
presidential candidate in US
history. No one prior to you held the infamous title of the least qualified
candidate for the most important political job in the world before you. Your
opponent Hillary Clinton, on the other hand, was probably the most qualified
presidential candidate in recent memory. Candidate Clinton
was certainly more qualified for the job than these previous six presidential candidates:Jimmy Carter, Ronald
Reagan, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush, Barack Obama and indeed Clinton’s husband Bill.
How is it that the democratic system in America ends up
with the least qualified candidate and turns its back on the most qualified
candidate? How is it that the some 80 million Americans voted for a certified
racist candidate? What kind of America
is the America
of 2016? Whatever happened to the open, tolerant friendly people of America? Is
this their gift to the rest of the world, who believe in America as the
land of tolerance? Talk about a rigged system. Maybe you are absolutely right —
it is, afterall, a rigged, corrupt and dysfunctional
system that sends not only the least credible candidate, but a despicable and
deplorable person to the white house.
Mr President,
I am a concerned citizen of the world, but I am also more
concerned as a citizen of the Arab Gulf states and the UAE, one of the closest and most
trusted partners of the US
in the Middle East. I have heard you during
your campaign, talking about the Arab Gulf states as though they are nothing but oil-rich countries
that need to pay America
for its military presence in the region. There is more to the Gulf states than
money and oil. If that is how you view us, then we are in for a bad start. This
talk about forcing Arab Gulf states to pay for American protection has added
more fuel to the mounting anti-Saudi Arabia manifestations running wild in Washington these days.
The US-Gulf Cooperation Council relationship has gone
through a tough eight years of President Barack Obama. With this kind of
nonsense, I see a difficult four years of the relationship between Washington and Arab
Gulf capitals under your
presidency.
However, the Arab Gulf capitals will be watching closely to see if you
deliver on your campaign promise to turn up the Iran nuclear deal on Day One in
office. This, among other things, will be the ultimate test of your credibility
in this part of the world.
Mr President,
I do not want to take back my congratulations to you, but no
matter how I look at it, I frankly see your victory as a political disaster for
America
and the world at large. I cannot help feeling utterly saddened that the mighty
and great country of the USA
now has an angry, white American as its 45th president.
**Dr Abdulkhaleq Abdulla is
professor of Political Science, chairman of the Arab Council for Social
Sciences, theacss.org and a visiting senior fellow at the London School of
Economics. You can follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/Abdulkhaleq_UAE.
Wilders's Plan: Time for Liberation
Geert Wilders/Gatestone
Institute/November 09/16
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9291/geert-wilders-liberation
Pim Fortuyn,
the hero of Rotterdam,
the man who shook the country awake, once said, "Do not aim for what is
possible, but what is imaginable." He wanted to make clear that for us,
the Dutch, nothing is impossible.
Pim Fortuyn
was right. Nothing is impossible for us. We are Dutch.
Look at our country. We have single-handedly created this
unique and beautiful land. We are the only people in the world living in a
country which for the largest part we created ourselves. A
great achievement.
We not only created our own land, but we also explored the
world. We have sailed all the seas. We founded New York
and discovered Australia.
Sometimes, it seems like we have forgotten it all. Forgotten what we are
capable of. What we are capable of when we put our mind to it. And maybe that
is our problem. We must dare to think big again. Because where there is a will,
there is a way.
And yes, I know. Many things are bothering us. There is also
much to be angry about, and rightfully so. This government has destroyed our
country with its austerity policies and has allowed our country to be colonized
by Islam. But let's start aiming for the imaginable. Let us liberate our
country.
Four years ago, Mark Rutte won the
election with a campaign based on false promises. With lies
and deceit. No more money to the Greeks, 1,000 euros
for every Dutch citizen, a strict immigration policy. And the Labour Party was
his enemy, as everyone remembers. He recently apologized, but he didn't draw
his conclusions. On the contrary, he apologized but continues destroying and
giving away our country. Perhaps, he will even govern with Labour again for another
four years. No one can still believe what he says. And my question to you is:
do you want a prime minister like that for the next four years?
At the moment, you are living in the land of Mark Rutte. And for many, that is
no longer a pleasant land. Just walk out your front door and look around.
Chances are that thugs are hanging around at the entrance of your local
convenience store. That you get spit on and robbed there.
That your daughters, your wives, and your parents get
harassed and no longer dare to go out at night. That you are
becoming a stranger in your own country. That must change. Because this is our country. And it is being taken away from
you. And I will take it back for you.
A politician like me, who speaks the truth about a huge
problem many Dutch are confronted with every day -- yes, I am talking about the
terror of Islam and the Moroccan problem -- is dragged to court. Facing trial,
while imams can preach all the hatred they want and the political elites keep
silent. They call themselves leaders, but they do not lead; they mislead.
Mark Rutte's plan can be
summarized in one word: Dereliction of duty.
My plan for the Netherlands is called Liberation.
And liberation begins with stating the facts.
The facts: Six out of every ten inmates in the Netherlands are
immigrants, and of all prisoners, more than 10% are of Moroccan origin.
Moroccan youths are nearly five times more often suspected of a crime than
native youths. The Netherlands
has become a continuous live broadcast of Opsporing Verzocht ["Wanted Criminals", a Dutch television
program]. A politician who keeps silent about this is worthless. I refuse to do
that.
And I will not keep silent about Islam either. Never, ever. Because silence is dangerous.
Last July, Nobel Prize winner and Holocaust survivor Elie
Wiesel passed away. I met him a few years ago in New York. He gave the world a wise lesson:
"When someone says they want to kill you, believe them." Islam says
it wants to kill us. The Koran leaves no doubt about that.
Seven out of ten Dutch Muslims believe that religious rules
are more important than Dutch secular laws. And more than one in ten Muslims in
the Netherlands
find it acceptable to use violence in name of Islam. That is more than 100,000
people. Many refuse to integrate and show no respect for Dutch authority in
areas such as Maassluis or Poelenburg.
They give us the middle finger. Islamic hooligans parade with Islamic State
flags through the streets in The Hague and
occupy bridges with Turkish flags in Rotterdam.
This is our country, but their flags are waving.
Look at their flags. And look at our flag. There is no Koran
verse and no crescent on our flag, but red, white and blue stripes. The red of our identity, the white of our freedom and the blue of
the truth. This is the time that from house to house, from street to
street and from municipality to municipality, we must raise our flag. Everywhere. With pride. Because
this is our country, our Netherlands!
And it cries for liberation.
When I come to power, I will protect our beautiful country.
And this is only possible if we de-Islamize. I want to make it the core of my
policy. Because I refuse to let this wonderful country of ours perish and I
choose our culture and the freedom of our people.
Our values are not Islamic, but are based on the
Judeo-Christian and humanist civilization. We have the right and freedom to
choose how we want to live our lives, and to never give away this right. Twelve
years ago, Theo van Gogh was murdered. He gave his life for the freedom that
lies at the heart of our Dutch identity. And that identity must defend itself.
We must not allow those who want to destroy our freedom to abuse freedom in
order to take ours away. We must stop being naive and defend ourselves. Because this is our country.
The Dutch are fully aware of the fact that while there are
moderate Muslims, there is no moderate Islam. Two out of three Dutch people say
that the Islamic culture does not belong to the Netherlands. Three-quarters of the
Dutch people believe that politicians underestimate the problem of the rising
numbers of Muslims in our country. More than three-quarters believe that Islam
is not an enrichment for the Netherlands. Those people are
right. But nobody listens to them. Only I do.
Mark Rutte spoke about stubborn
optimism, but the Netherlands
do not need laughing donkeys. It needs heroes with firm realism. We cannot
afford to underestimate the seriousness of the threat. Because the threat is
existential: the survival of our country is at stake. Potential terrorists are
already among us in great numbers and are coming to Europe
on a daily basis, also with the influx of asylum seekers. They walk free here.
It is a dereliction of duty to do nothing about it and to leave our borders
open to tens of thousands mainly Islamic fortune-seekers from the Middle East
and Africa.
We must also liberate ourselves from the Europhiles in Brussels who wipe the
floor with our identity, our sovereignty and our prosperity. We are no longer
in control of our own borders, our own money, our own
democracy. If we decide in a referendum that we do not want something, like the
association agreement with Ukraine,
then they force it down our throats anyways. Because the will
of the people is not relevant to the elite. They are laughing at us.
Everything belonging to our culture is being taken away from
us. Even Zwarte Piet (Black Pete) is not allowed
anymore. The elite wants to abolish the word "allochtoon"
(foreigner), but it is the native people who are losing their country. I refuse
to let that happen. This is our country, our culture, our identity. The Netherlands,
this beautiful country, this great nation, this beacon of freedom, it is ours
and will remain ours! This is the time to withstand tyranny.
Today, I appeal to all the Dutch. To everyone who enjoys our
hard-won freedoms, to everyone who wants to safeguard the prosperity and wealth
of this great country for their children and grandchildren: let us show the
world that we are Dutch. Stand up -- democratically and non-violently --
against the elites who are giving away your country. The task that lays ahead of us is immense. But the courage to reclaim our
country is so, too. There are many good things to be preserved and there are
many things that have to be rebuilt.
This is the time for clear language: Dutch money for the
Dutch people! Not a penny to Africa, Turkey,
Greece or Brussels anymore. If we do that, so much will
become possible. Imagine it! Then we will be able to reduce taxes for everyone,
so the purchasing power can rise significantly and the economy can get a
tremendous boost. We will be able give our elderly a decent old day. We will be
able to can lower the retirement age to 65 again, and no pensions will have to
be cut.
I also want to keep our nursing homes open and employ
thousands of extra nurses. In my Netherlands, we remedy the terrible
degradation of healthcare under Rutte II and there
will be many nurses taking care of our elderly with dedication, love and
respect, day and night. In my Netherlands,
we abolish deductibles in healthcare. It is intolerable that Dutch people are
avoiding healthcare because they cannot afford it, while asylum seekers, who on
average have 1,000 euros more healthcare costs a
year, get everything for free. This injustice fills me with disgust.
We will be able to spend more on the police and the army, so
they have more resources to keep our country safe and free and to protect our
property and borders. We must close our borders to asylum seekers and
immigrants from Islamic countries, no longer allow jihadists from Syria return,
and denaturalize and expel criminals with dual citizenship. We must liberate
our country.
I also want to introduce direct democracy in the Netherlands
with binding referendums. Our political system is still that of the 20th
century, ruled by the same arrogant political elites with their false promises
and hypocritical apologies. If the mess created by Mark Rutte
has taught us one thing, it is this: the people should be able to pull the
emergency brake when the political elites violate their will. And not just once every four years.
The past decades, millions of Dutch people have seen how
their country was hijacked before their very eyes. It did not take a genius to
know that this would end badly. The constant transferring of sovereignty to the
EU, the euro that does more harm than good, the endless waste of money spent on
the Greeks, the dangers of Islam, the open borders and mass immigration, the
growing threat of terrorism, the tsunami of asylum seekers, the tax increases,
and last but not least, the budget cuts in healthcare for the elderly and the
disabled that have crushed the weakest in our society.
Unfortunately, those who warned have been proven right. But
there is hope. Together we can take care of that. When a nation awakes and
starts moving, everything is possible. I am not saying that the task will be
easy. But it can be done, and it must be done. Because we
have no choice. A strong and sovereign country where hard work is
rewarded and the weak are protected, where terrorists cannot just cross the
border at Hazeldonk [main border crossing with
Belgium], where women can walk the streets in skirts without being harassed or
sexually assaulted, where care is affordable and pensions are decent, where all
citizens -- including Jews, homosexuals, women, and critics of Islam -- are
safe. Where patriotism is not an insult but a badge of honor. Where Islam is shown the
door.
This beautiful country, our country, is not lost. In fact,
the best years lay ahead of us. If we make the right choices.
And say goodbye to those who look away from the problems and give away the Netherlands. It
is time for liberation! Let us reclaim our country together.
Starting on March 15, 2017!
**Geert Wilders is a member of the
Dutch Parliament and leader of the Party for Freedom (PVV).
© 2016 Gatestone Institute. All
rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views
of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of
the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be
reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.
Turkey Converts Hagia Sophia to
Mosque
Robert Jones/Gatestone
Institute/November 09/16
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/2016/11/09/robert-jonesgatestone-institute-turkey-converts-hagia-sophia-to-mosque/
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9292/hagia-sophia-mosque
This is how the minds of Islamic supremacists seem to work:
If you want churches to remain churches, it means you are "disturbed by
the Koran or Islamic prayers," and you disrespect or "insult"
Islam. According to Islamic scriptures, those who "insult" Islam or
its prophet Muhammad are to be executed.
So if one wants to survive under Islamic rule, one has to
submit to Islam and accept one's own inferior status. There is apparently no
place for diversity or civilized, equal coexistence of Muslims and non-Muslims
in Islamic nations.
"I can only think of one reason [to turn Hagia Sophia into a mosque]. As a shout
of Islamic triumphalism. What a mistake that would be. Christians would
rightly consider it an intentional insult. The international community would
see it as an open rejection of its diversity agenda. Moreover, I think that a
relatively secular Turkey
acting so radically would demonstrate to the world that despite moderate
Muslims' many assurances to the contrary, contemporary Islam is intolerant in
outlook, belligerent toward non-believers, and dangerously hegemonist
in its intentions." — Wesley J. Smith, author.
The West did not protect Anatolian Christians during the
1914-1923 genocide. It does not seem as if the West will protect Europe against what seems to be the current bloodless
Muslim invasion, either.
The process of converting the historic Hagia
Sophia church-then-museum in Istanbul
into a mosque, in the works for the past three years, now seems to have been
finalized.
In 2013, the deputy prime minister of Turkey Bulent Arinc at the time, while
speaking to reporters, signaled that Hagia
Sophia Museum
would be used as a mosque.
"We currently stand next to the Hagia
Sophia Mosque ... we are looking at a sad Hagia Sophia,
but hopefully we will see it smiling again soon," Arinc
said during the opening ceremony of a new Carpet Museum, located next to the
ancient Hagia Sophia, the Turkish newspaper Hurriyet had reported.
The pro-government Turkish newspaper Sabah
ran a story on June 1, 2016 entitled, "Historic Moments at Hagia Sophia. The longing is about to be over!... The mosque of Hagia Sophia
will witness historic moments in the month of Ramadan..."
The Greek Foreign Ministry reacted with a written statement:
"Obsessions, verging on bigotry, with Muslim rituals in a monument of
world cultural heritage are incomprehensible and reveal a lack of respect for
and connection with reality." The ministry added that the practice
contradicted the values of modern, democratic and secular societies.
The Turkish Foreign Ministry Spokesperson, Tanju Bilgic, responded in a
written statement on June 8:
"The Greek Foreign Ministry's statement with regards to
TRT Diyanet TV's suhur
program entitled 'Hagia Sophia at the time of
abundance,' which will be broadcast throughout the month of Ramadan, is
unacceptable".
Pro-government Turkish media interpreted the criticism of
the Greek ministry of foreign ministry as follows: "They have been
disturbed by the reciting of the Koran at Hagia
Sophia."
This is how the minds of Islamic supremacists seem to work:
If you want churches to remain churches, it means you are "disturbed by
the Koran or Islamic prayers", and in so doing, you disrespect or
"insult" Islam -- and according to Islamic scriptures, those who
"insult" Islam or its prophet Muhammad are to be executed.
So if one wants to survive under Islamic rule, one has to
submit to Islam and accept one's own inferior status. There is apparently no
place for diversity or civilized, equal coexistence of Muslims and non-Muslims
in Islamic nations.
In the meantime, the Hellenic American Leadership Council
has begun a campaign to ask the United States Commission on International
Religious Freedom (USCIRF) to issue a statement against the creeping conversion
of Hagia Sophia into a mosque, writing:
In 2014, USCIRF condemned attempts by Turkey's
parliament to change the status of Hagia Sophia from
a museum to a mosque. In its statement at the time, USCIRF
said "...opening Hagia Sophia as a mosque would
clearly be a divisive and provocative move. It would send the message
that the current government sees the sensitivities of Turkey's
religious minority communities, particularly its ancient Christian community,
as being of little or no consequence."
Instead of following USCIRF's
recommendations, Turkey
ignores them, apparently now choosing a path of "creeping conversion"
to alter the status of this historic site.
However, all of the criticisms, calls and campaigns do not
seem to have worked. A few months after a decision by Turkish authorities to
allow readings from the Koran to be broadcast from Hagia
Sophia in Istanbul, Turkey has now decided to appoint a
permanent imam for the site.
According to the state-funded Anadolu
News Agency, Turkey's
Directorate for Religious Affairs (Diyanet), and the
mufti of the Fatih district, have agreed to assign a
permanent imam who will lead five daily Islamic prayers at the Hagia Sophia, instead of the current two.
The Hagia Sophia in Istanbul was the grandest
cathedral in the Christian world, until it was captured and converted to a
mosque by the Muslim Ottoman Turks in 1453. The Turkish
Republic converted the Hagia Sophia to a museum in 1935, and Turkey's
current Islamist government is now converting it into a mosque. (Image source:
Antoine Taveneaux/Wikimedia Commons)
According to the 2015 statistics of Diyanet,
there are 3317 mosques in Istanbul and 86,762 in
Turkey.
There is no shortage of mosques in the country. So why is the Turkish
government converting Hagia Sophia into a mosque?
"I can only think of one reason," writes the
author Wesley J. Smith.
"As
a shout of Islamic triumphalism. What a mistake that would be.
Christians would rightly consider it an intentional insult. The international
community would see it as an open rejection of its diversity agenda. Moreover,
I think that a relatively secular Turkey acting so radically would
demonstrate to the world that despite moderate Muslims' many assurances to the
contrary, contemporary Islam is intolerant in outlook, belligerent toward
non-believers, and dangerously hegemonist in its
intentions."
"Constantine,"
writes the scholar Nikolaos Provatas, "chose as the
location of his new capital the ancient Greek city of Byzantion. In 324 Constantine transformed Byzantion
into 'The New Rome' or 'Constantinopolis', the City
of Constantine.
The people often referred to it simply as 'The City' or, in Greek, 'Hi Polis'.
"Christianity was also to form the strongest cohesive
glue that bound the peoples of the Eastern Roman Empire,
regardless of their language and ethnic origin. To the inhabitants of the Eastern Roman Empire, the words 'Romaios'
-Roman- and 'Christian' were often synonymous."
The Church of the Holy Wisdom, known as Hagia
Sophia, designed to be the major basilica of the Byzantine
Empire and a masterpiece of Byzantine architecture,
was built in the city by Justinian I in 532-537 CE.
When Constantinople was invaded and captured by the Ottoman
Sultan Mehmed II in a bloody military campaign in
1453, it brought an end to the Byzantine Empire.
Steven Runciman, in his book, The
Fall of Constantinople 1453, writes that congregants and refugees became spoils
-- to enslaved, violated or murdered. The church was desecrated and plundered,
the infirm and elderly were slaughtered, women and girls were raped and the
rest sold into slavery.
Mehmed II then converted Hagia Sophia church into a mosque.
The name Constantinople was changed to "Istanbul" in 1930 by republican Turkey, and Hagia Sophia converted to a museum in 1935.
Today, there is no sizeable Christian community in Turkey to
oppose the ongoing oppression and tyranny. From the great Christian Byzantine
Empire, now less than 0.2% of Turkey's
80-million population is Christian.
This is the result of the genocide of Greek Christians by
Ottoman Turks from 1913-1923 -- the annihilation of the majority of Greek
Christians in Constantinople and Anatolia, in
what was the heart of Christendom before the Islamic invasion.
"The decision for the genocide against Greeks,"
wrote the scholar Theofanis Malkidis,
"was taken by the Young Turks (Cemal, Enver and Talat pasha) in 1911,
was put into practice during the World War I and was completed by Mustafa Kemal (1919 – 1923).
"The persecutions were originally appeared in the form
of cases of violence, destruction, deportations and exiles. Soon though, they
became better organized and extensive and turned massively against the Greeks
(and against the Armenians)."
As a result of centuries-long campaigns of violent jihad and
cultural jihad, the Christians of Anatolia and Constantinople
were exterminated. The West did not protect Anatolian Christians during the
1914-1923 genocide. It does not seem as if the West will protect Europe against what seems to be the current bloodless
Muslim invasion, either.
Today, other remaining churches in Turkey are also
targeted and converted to mosques. And the West is still silent, submissive and
bowing to jihadists for its own ill-informed and misguided agenda.
*Robert Jones, an expert on Turkey,
is currently based in the UK.
© 2016 Gatestone Institute. All
rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views
of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of
the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be
reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.
Gulf region and the
dawn of a new America
Mshari Al Thaydi/Al
Arabiya/November 09/16
Regardless of whether Donald Trump won or lost the
presidential elections, he has succeeded in creating a new social and political
“state” in the US
and across the world. Trump, the rich New Yorker, has had an interesting
journey in the elections so far. He defeated some well-known Republican figures
and fiercely competed with veteran Democrat, Hillary Clinton. In all of this he
reflected a white, purely white, American sentiment. By the time this article
is published, the results of the elections will be announced and he may have
won or lost. Either way, he has arrived on the American and global political
scene. Trump may end up like venerable Republican president Richard Nixon who
lost the first time around but succeeded later. As far as age is concerned, he
will be of the same bracket as the Republicans’ “icon” Ronald Reagan. The point
is that the “Trump state” will become a part of the American political scene. On the level of Arab
world, or Gulf countries to be specific, there are deep divisions between
opinion makers. There is public opinion that suggests the American president is
not an internal affair and this hasn’t been the case since the first and second
world wars. Those
who wish Trump wins sees in him the “stubborn” man who will uproot Barack
Obama’s legacy – which is a very bad legacy for the Arab world. If you analyze
his administration, Obama’s reputation is bad in the Arab world as he supports Iran and the
Brotherhood. Moreover, he has allowed the chaos of the Arab Spring and let the
Syrian people down. We
are in for four years of interesting times in the Gulf region. The reasonable
ones are those who have taken the matter in their own hands and expect the
worst before hoping for the best
Trump’s approach
However, will Trump’s approach end the conflicts in the
Middle East or will he eye the Gulf’s resources under the pretext of defending
them as he has repeatedly claimed in his campaign speeches, particularly amid
the US Treasury’s need for liquid money and fiscal deficit that’s worth
trillions? Just thinking about this leads to apprehensions. Meanwhile, Clinton has a political
legacy and experience and she is part of the Obama policy’s products during the
past phase. It’s true that she criticized some of Obama’s policies in Syria and other
countries but in “substance,” she is not that different from him. This is why some believe that Hillary’s
presidential term – if she wins – will be a third term for Obama or perhaps for
her husband, former president Bill Clinton. It’s not only Arabs and citizens of
the Gulf who are keenly watching the American elections. Even America’s neighbors,
such as Mexico,
are closely and worryingly monitoring the situation following Trump’s threats
against them. Is
it time to formulate a Gulf vision that is unified with the American world? With Clinton
or with Trump? We are in for four years of interesting times in the Gulf
region. The reasonable ones are those who have taken the matter in their own
hands and expect the worst before hoping for the best.
**This article was first published in Asharq
al-Awsat on Nov. 09, 2016.
Trump’s victory isn’t isolated, it’s part of a disenfranchised tsunami
Peter Harrison/Al Arabiya/November
09/16
Donald Trump’s victory should probably not come as much of a
surprise as it has, given the tsunami of so-called shock election outcomes and
revolutions around the world in recent years. Globally we have seen uprisings –
not least the Arab Spring - and apparently surprising election results, so much
so that a moderate outcome should perhaps be more of a shock. The Brexit vote was largely - I believe - a reaction by a
disenfranchised section of British society who felt unrepresented, ignored and
dismissed by a middle class political elite who were
used to running things their way.
So arguably - whatever one thinks of the referendum result -
the legal challenge to Brexit is in itself a
dismissive response by the very same middle classes to disregard what these
same disenfranchised people called for when they took part in the referendum
and voted to leave the EU. Meanwhile in the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte’s election as president came on the back of a
string of promises from the controversial politician to turn around years of
corruption and help bring power to the masses. And in 2014 India elected Narendra Modi amid very similar
promises.
Started with the Tea Party
In France
it’s looking increasingly likely that the far right will fare considerably
better than usual in the upcoming presidential elections - with the refugee
crisis fueling concerns among the population that the
heart of French society is somehow under threat.
Trump’s victory today, one might argue, was also a response
from a section of the American population, who also felt they were not being
heard or represented, and I would suggest this feeling can be traced back to
the rebirth of the Tea Party with Sarah Palin in
2008.
Palin might not have won the election
when she ran as the Republican Vice President candidate – but the reaction from
the middle classes to dismiss her and her fellow Tea Party supporters was
probably short sighted, as it sent a message that their views were un important, ill-conceived and ignorant.
If moderate Western politics are to survive in this new
world, then they’re going to have regroup, reassess and more importantly learn
to listen more effectively. A failure to do so could lead to echoes of the
1920s
From the outset of Obama’s presidency there was a movement
of Americans who felt that their work, their contribution to society, was less
important than those they believed to be taking advantage of the system.
Ironically the eight years under President Obama have
arguably seen the country improve – people are better off than they were before
he came to office, unemployment has dropped by more than 5 percent since the
great recession high of 2010, fuel output is at a 43-year high and the price at
the petrol pumps is almost a dollar less than it was in 2007. But – and it’s a
big but – America
has seen a sharp growth in inequality, with a large divide between job and
earning prospects. Obama’s task was never going to be an easy one – he came
into office at the height of a crippling global recession – the disenfranchised
were never going to be easy to keep on side, having suffered the levels of
poverty that they had.
A common theme
In my view, Hillary Clinton’s biggest mistake was to dismiss
Trump and his supporters as ignorant and ill informed, while offering no clear
alternatives to his promised populist policies, so soon after such a flimsy
global recovery which is already showing signs of faltering. The common theme
of the candidates and campaigns (in this case Brexit)
that have won of late, is that they have all promised to listen to the views of
the masses. Trump – most recently has claimed to be a man of the people, while Clinton seemed to take
the view that he and his supporters were somehow ignorant and ill informed. When the Brexit campaign won in the UK, the response of some
‘remain’ supporters was to call them ‘morons’, ‘idiots’ and ‘stupid’ - with
many even questioning their right to vote. Social media will no doubt again
today - as it was after the Brexit win - become
filled with messages of hatred, dismissiveness and
despondency. It’s hardly a winning formula to convince a group of people who
feel they have been let down by years of rule by the middle classes, and have
turned to the likes of Trump, Duterte and called to
exit Europe. If moderate Western politics are
to survive in this new world, then they’re going to have to regroup, reassess
and more importantly learn to listen more effectively. A failure to do so could
lead to echoes of the 1920s and 1930s when the national socialists rose to
power.
Trump presidency: A bad
example of leadership?
Mohamed Chebarro/Al Arabiya/November 09/16
How could the American people elect an
anti-semite, anti-Muslim, anti-latinos, anti-women president?
Why would the Americans choose a president that is
anti-immigration, anti-Nato, anti-Europe, anti-UN
institutions? One that favors building walls, and
throw out nonwhite American convicts, as well as cut
US funding for efforts aimed at saving our planet.
When the US people elect a president that is clearly a
bully, a sexist, a racist and a narcisit; a man happy
to brag about sexual harassment, and one happy to call everyone who disagrees
with him a liar, what message has the electorate sent to society and people in
the wider world?
Above all it seems that they chose an anti-establishment (so
to speak) and anti-system, anti-tolerance secondhand
car salesman to say the least.
By choosing Trump, Americans would like to believe they have used him to
voice their protest at a US
system that needs a review. They seem to have finally had enough of leaders
that say what they don't mean.
They are saying no to empty media rhetoric and media trained politicians
and their brushed up policy ideas vacant of immediate impact on people lives
The electorate, by choosing Trump, chose to say no to
American establishment, no to faith, yes to economic fears, and yes to
populist, short term, spur of the moment bursts. They seem to be questioning
the partnership between States and financial institutions that have reached new
heights and dangerous levels in the past three decades. They seem to have had
enough of a family of elite, enmeshed in interest group agenda that does not
resemble the electorate or it’s concerns. They seem to
have caved into fear, and rejected faith in US leadership, politicians,
economic prowess and faith in the capitalist system in the digitalized, open
bordered globalized world. Trump might not address any of the above problems in
his four-year term or even double that period. Trump himself was the product of
betting on markets, growing his business empire using the shadowy political and
financial system that for 19 months he said he opposed.
Lacking vision and leadership
Trump will lead America in this turbulent and
interconnected world and could surprise according to some isolationist
pro-Trump groups and individuals. Trump in my view - like his predecessor
President Obama - will go down in history as the 45th president of the US that lacked
vision and leadership. He is another one that will fail to control an aging
American distorted American power. It seems that he, like President Obama, will
be unable to fathom a world post the fall of the Berlin Wall's many fault lines
and the speedy globalization that followed. In an increasingly interconnected
world, in a digital age where a reality TV show star can rise to become a
president but doubt he could deliver leadership. The electorate, by choosing
Trump, chose to say no to American establishment, no to faith, yes to economic
fears, and yes to populist, short term, spur of the moment bursts. In rejecting
Clinton also
the electorate once again demonstrated that it is still far from ready to
accept a woman commander in chief. An issue that must have
startled mothers not only in the US but sisters and daughters across
the globe. A victory for Trump is another lost opportunity for the world
and specially women.
Trump Needs a Vision 2020 for the Middle East
Dr. Theodore Karasik/Al Arabiya/November 09/16
With President-elect Donald Trump taking office two months
from now, he and his administration have ample opportunity to take a new,
unique role in MENA by creating a Vision 2020 strategic plan with teeth. Under
President Barack Obama, the US
lacked any strategic vision with an end-game in sight. The Obama administration
embraced the Muslim Brotherhood as a tool to achieve political reform in the
MENA region. That catastrophic policy is now over. Looking forward, the pivotal
year of 2020 is approaching rapidly. 2020 is a marker used by futurists and by
policymakers and stakeholders found in other international capitals except for America where
policy and practice slog along. 2020 is engrained in the human psyche as a key
year to achieve goals and greatness. The Trump administration is going to shake
up America’s
approach to MENA that requires a robust roadmap from 2017 to 2020. We all know
the mistakes and errors well from the Sahel to the Levant
by the Obama administration: The next four years will be critical up until
2020, based on reversing the blunders of the past eight years. The Trump
administration’s 2020 plan is going to affect several key areas. Now is the
time to bring balance to MENA relationships using sticks and carrots, but more
heavily on the sticks. First is Arab transformation. Transformation plans are
now all the rage in the MENA region because of the low price of oil, but also
structural in both economic sectors and social relations by region, religion,
tribe, and secularism. MENA countries are extra serious about their
transformation plans because if there is no social evolution accompanied by the
Fourth Industrial Revolution in these states, these countries will suffer
consequences.
Exploiting weaknesses
The incoming Trump administration knows these MENA
weaknesses and may seek to exploit these local and regional problems as a stick
to get MENA states to be more proactive on their own accord to hand out carrots
to fellow Arabs. Here, the idea of a Marshall Plan II comes into play where
Arab states will need to pay one hundred percent for their regional
restructuring efforts especially in rebuilding destroyed urban areas of the
MENA region. Post-conflict stabilization programs will be left up to local
forces and the Arabs themselves. Second, Trump’s collaborating with Russia against ISIS
and Al-Qaeda is a critical 2020 goal. The Trump administration’s 2020 plan is
not only going to partner with the Kremlin against extremism but also
collaborate on opportunities in the MENA region. This dramatic and necessary
turnaround from the previous administration sets the stage for not only
targeting extremists and crushing not only Daesh
(ISIS) but also Al-Qaeda in a variety of jurisdictions. Some Arab states will
be happy with this approach while others are going to be put in the spotlight.
A GCC official stated “Trump’s presidency will create new divides in the Arab
world that may be favorable to us on this front by
going after extremist groups.”Third, a Trump
administration is going to shake up America’s Countering Violent
Extremism (CVE) approach as the prognosis for the evolution of extremists
groups is not positive. A Trump administration seeks to be more aggressive in
the MENA with Arab partners to give more teeth to interrupting terrorist
recruitment and financing. Unfortunately, the Obama approach created a
community that “talks only”” and conducts no meaningful implementation that
halts these extremists in their tracks and shuts down their ability to
function. Rebooting CVE is key as ISIS
and Al-Qaeda affiliates continue their deadly recruitment and operations
despite operations to tear down their caliphate.
Iranian treasure chest
Fourth, President (Elect) Trump’s potential embrace of Iran sets the
stage for the opening of Washington-Tehran business deals. The next President
of the United States
had been dead set against the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA)
process and its aftermath since last year. In July 2015, Trump stated: “We were
dealing with desperation. We look so desperate, and it’s a disgrace. I think
the deal is absolutely something. I love the idea of a deal. But it’s not a
well negotiated deal. We should have doubled up the sanctions and made a much
better deal.” The republican front runner is still advocating scrapping the
deal. But now the Trump administration has business in mind through 2020. It is
quite likely that President-Elect Trump doesn’t like it that the Europeans and
the Asians are beating him to the Iranian treasure chest based on American
economic patriotism. Perchance for President Trump, Iran is the biggest piece of “real
estate” ever with immense wealth and opportunity for American companies. The
billions of dollars’ worth of business is too good for
the next American president to pass up. This aspect - America as a business partner to Tehran - is going to
upset the Arabs very much. The Trump administration’s plan for 2020 is going to
create friction between America
and the Gulf states.
It’s important for Arab strategic thought to encapsulate the ramifications of
the Trump presidency regarding Washington’s Iran policy. Key
Arab states must continue to act as mediators on the Arab-Iran divide. Oman comes to
mind.
Stuck in a quagmire
Finally, the Trump administration will need to have
contingency plans for any potential implosion of a MENA state thus creating
areas of un governability. MENA states are being
tugged in multiple directions by both state and non-state actors where by the
turn of the decade, the MENA map may be changed significantly. Numerous GCC
officials are worried about North Africa, the Levant, and even the Arabian Peninsula in terms of these upcoming challenges.
The Trump administration’s preparation for this potential outcome of MENA state
fracture is going to not only challenge America but also major regional and
international players to fill security voids. An America that lacks a strategic
vision for 2020 in the MENA region is going to be behind the curve-again-on the
outcome of any change in boundaries or trans-regional influence.
Overall, the US
is stuck in a quagmire of its own making and piecing together a coherent Middle
East foreign policy with a vision towards 2020 is imperative while ongoing air
and urban operations are ongoing in the MENA region (Levant,
Yemen, and Libya).
Clearly, the Trump administration needs to layout a comprehensive strategic plan
for the next four years with a timeline and key goals. Now is the time to bring
balance to MENA relationships using sticks and carrots, but more heavily on the
sticks. For some observers, the Trump administration will be very uncomfortable
but the 45th President of the United
States and his advisors are basing their
approach on a new reality instead of the banana peel slipping and sliding of
the Obama Administration’s negligent foreign policy.
A Trump presidency puts
the Iran
deal on the rocks
Tovah Lazaroff/Jerusalem
Post/November 09/16
If Trump holds true to his campaign promises, his presidency
could likely end the US
conflict with Israel on two
key issues: the Iran deal
and West Bank settlements. Over the last eight
years the disagreement between the two allies over these topics was cannon
fodder for the often acrimonious relationship between Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu and US
President Barack Obama. Netanyahu’s persistent campaign against the agreement
even took him to Washington, where he addressed
a joint session of Congress, in a plea for the US politicians to halt the actions
of their own president. During the election, Trump minced no words in showing
his disdain for the June 15th agreement between Tehran
and the six-world powers, including the US, that was
designed to curb Iran’s
nuclear capacity. (Donald Trump addressing the AIPAC conference)
He promised to tear up the deal, which he said gives the US nothing in return for a contract that will
allow Tehran to
produce nuclear weapons even if it complies with the terms of the agreement.
“It’s the stupidest deal of all time,” Trump said. “It’s a one-sided
transaction where we are giving back $150 billion to a terrorist state,” he
said.
Iran
has already taken Trump at his word. Within hours of his acceptance speech
early Wednesday morning in New York, Iran demanded that the US maintain the deal. “The United States should fulfill its commitments in
the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (the nuclear deal) as a multilateral
international agreement,” Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javed
Zarif was quoted as saying while on a visit to Romania. He was
not the only one who wasted no time in reminding Trump of pre-campaign
promises. Most of the settler leaders issued congratulatory statements to Trump,
expressing their enthusiasm for the new page in US-Israel relations that they
foresaw with his entry into the White House. Under his leadership, the
Republican party changed its platform during the
election to eliminate any mention of the two-state solution. It recognized Jerusalem as the united capital of the Jewish state, and
issued an affirmative statement that Israel
was not an occupier in the West Bank, otherwise known as Judea and Samaria.
Trump has also promised to move the US Embassy to Jerusalem. Since 2009,
Netanyahu has pledged his support to the two-state solution, but has insisted
that Jerusalem would remain Israel’s capital and that Israel has a right to continue to build in Judea
and Samaria.
Some of the settlers said that a Trump presidency would allow them to annex
Area C of the West Bank. Education Minister Naftali Bennett said that this was the time for Israel to
retract the idea of a Palestinian state. In the days leading up to the election
and until its last hour, there were those in the United States and indeed throughout
the world, that expected Wednesday to dawn with a Hillary Clinton presidency.
As a former First Lady, US Senator and Secretary of State,
they were reassured by the notion of someone with so much foreign policy experience
at the helm of one of the world’s super powers. While they might be gasping at
the sudden void of experience at the top, the dramatic turn around of a Trump
presidency has some beneficial aspects for Israel. It places a right-wing
government in charge of the United
States, which could work in conjunction with
a right-wing Israeli leadership.
Unlike Obama, Trump, whose party also controls the House of
Representatives and the Senate, would have more freedom to act on his policy
initiatives than his predecessor, who fought repeatedly with the Republican
Congress. The timing could not be better. It comes as the Palestinian campaign
to force Israel to withdraw
to the pre-1967 lines is gaining steam and as Iran’s
is increasing its activities in the Middle East.
In spite of the anti-Semitic overtones of some of Trump’s campaign choices, his
presence in the White House could end the daylight between Washington
and Jerusalem.
With regard to Iran, it
could help decrease the threat from Tehran,
and stymie Palestinian diplomatic warfare against the Jewish state. For those
on the Israeli Left, who believe that Israel’s
rule of the West Bank is a threat to Israel’s future as a Jewish and
democratic state, a Trump presidency is one more setback in a long list of
defeats it has suffered. But for those on the Right, it falls like a rainstorm
after a long period of drought.
Donald Trump is 45th US President. Clinton cedes
DEBKAfile Exclusive Analysis
November 9, 2016
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/2016/11/09/debkafiledonald-trump-is-45th-us-president-clinton-cedes/
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/2016/11/09/debkafiledonald-trump-is-45th-us-president-clinton-cedes/
For his victory speech, Wednesday, Nov. 9,
President-designate Donald J. Trump, 70.
took the platform at campaign headquarters in the Hilton Hotel in New
York along with Vice President Mike Spence and their families to inform an
audience roaring “USA!” that Hillary Clinton had “congratulated us” on our
victory and “I congratulated her for a hard campaign. We owe her a major debt
of gratitude for her service to this country.”
Trump stressed the motif of unity. “I say to all
Republicans, Democrats and Independents, let us come together as one united
people, I will be president for all Americans. To those who chose not to
support me I am reaching out to you for your guidance and help so that we can
unify this country.” He called on people of all religions, race and background
to work together to build the American nation and use the untapped potential of
every American. He pledged to rebuild national infrastructure and inner cities,
take care of “our great veterans, double our growth
and “get along with all nations who want to get along with us.”
debkafile
reported earlier on this extraordinary day:
Before the votes from all 50 US states were finally tallied, the
Republican candidate Donald Trump had ramped up the 270 electors he needed to
open his path to the White House and defeat his Democratic rival Hillary
Clinton.
This climax marked the end of America’s epic roller-coaster
battle for the presidency that broke all the rules of past US electioneering
campaigns. While the votes were still being counted, the mood swings at the New York headquarters of
the two rivals contrasted starkly. Clinton’s
followers gathered to celebrate certain victory were bewildered and incredulous
and began heading for the exits, while jubilant crowds gathered to hail Trump.
Donald Trump did more than beat a partisan rival. He
confounded the majority of pollsters and pundits and the mainstream media. They
all proclaimed him the worst disaster threatening America and the world, and gave
their undivided support to his rival. He stood up to them all, adhered to his
chosen role as rank outsider and t his
uncouth style of oratory to make war on the ruling establishments and their norms,
including the Republican Party which gave him the nomination.
While long rows of pundits and analysts proclaimed Hillary
Clinton the certain winner throughout this gloves-off campaign, Trump struck an
authentic chord of popular anger and frustration with the system which he
constantly declared rigged. One woman interviewed on the street on voting day
said he had her vote because “He’s not a politician, he’s an American like us.”
This sense packed his rallies to overflowing across the
country. It was the powerful catalyst that brought Trump to victory - even more
than the email and corruption scandals dogging Clinton’s campaign. His indefatigable energy
electrified his audiences and sustained him as he slogged for nearly two years
up to the finish line. Most of the time he fought solo amid contempt for the
vastly expensive campaign machine which served his rival
Trump is projected to start his term in the White House on
Jan. 20 with the huge asset of a Republican majority projected in the Senate
and House or representatives. He is therefore gifted with every advantage for
meeting his pledge to the American people of a revolution for raising up the forgotten sections of society.
While still to come, that revolution has already making
vibes outside the USA
with stocks tumbling on global markets.
There is no point in guessing the nature of his team. Just
as he put together in total privacy a small, tight team of advisers to support
his run for president, so too can he be expected to stick to that mode of
operation in the Oval Office.
He has his work cut out to start “draining the swamp,”
without delay, immediately revoking Barack Obama’s presidential directives on a
host of controversial issues, and convening Congress to repeal and replace Obamacare.
The Obamas backed Clinton’s run to the hilt because they knew
that President Trump would blot out all they had accomplished in their eight
years in office.
He also faces the herculean tasks of rehabilitating US armed
forces, rebuilding the American economy, creating the millions of well-paid
jobs he promised his voters, and showing the world a strong America. He
also pledged to install a fair judge to replace the late Justice Scalia on the
Supreme Court as a high priority. He also committed to devise a solution for
illegal immigrants and renegotiate more beneficial trade deals with foreign
countries.
Strong floodlights will accompany every move he makes after
Jan. 20. If he fails to make good on his mega program, he will risk losing a
second term at the White House.