LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN

October 02/16

Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani

The Bulletin's Link on the lccc Site

http://www.eliasbejjaninews.com/newsbulletin16/english.october02.16.htm

News Bulletin Achieves Since 2006

Click Here to go to the LCCC Daily English/Arabic News Buletins Archieves Since 2006

Bible Quotations For Today
When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it wanders through waterless regions looking for a resting-place,but it finds none.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 12/43-45/:"‘When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it wanders through waterless regions looking for a resting-place, but it finds none. Then it says, "I will return to my house from which I came." When it comes, it finds it empty, swept, and put in order. Then it goes and brings along seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and live there; and the last state of that person is worse than the first. So will it be also with this evil generation.’"

The great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand
Book of Revelation 06/09-17/:"When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slaughtered for the word of God and for the testimony they had given; they cried out with a loud voice, ‘Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long will it be before you judge and avenge our blood on the inhabitants of the earth?’They were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number would be complete both of their fellow-servants and of their brothers and sisters, who were soon to be killed as they themselves had been killed. When he opened the sixth seal, I looked, and there came a great earthquake; the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood, and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree drops its winter fruit when shaken by a gale. The sky vanished like a scroll rolling itself up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place. Then the kings of the earth and the magnates and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, ‘Fall on us and hide us from the face of the one seated on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?’"

Question: "What does the Bible say about Christian tithing? Should a Christian tithe?"
GotQuestions.org/

http://eliasbejjaninews.com/2016/10/01/question-what-does-the-bible-say-about-christian-tithing-should-a-christian-tithe/
Answer: Many Christians struggle with the issue of tithing. In some churches giving is over-emphasized. At the same time, many Christians refuse to submit to the biblical exhortations about making offerings to the Lord. Tithing/giving is intended to be a joy and a blessing. Sadly, that is sometimes not the case in the church today. Tithing is an Old Testament concept. The tithe was a requirement of the Law in which the Israelites were to give 10 percent of the crops they grew and the livestock they raised to the tabernacle/temple (Leviticus 27:30; Numbers 18:26; Deuteronomy 14:24; 2 Chronicles 31:5). In fact, the Old Testament Law required multiple tithes—one for the Levites, one for the use of the temple and the feasts, and one for the poor of the land—which would have pushed the total to around 23.3 percent. Some understand the Old Testament tithe as a method of taxation to provide for the needs of the priests and Levites in the sacrificial system. After the death of Jesus Christ fulfilled the Law, the New Testament nowhere commands, or even recommends, that Christians submit to a legalistic tithe system. The New Testament nowhere designates a percentage of income a person should set aside, but only says gifts should be “in keeping with income” (1 Corinthians 16:2). Some in the Christian church have taken the 10 percent figure from the Old Testament tithe and applied it as a “recommended minimum” for Christians in their giving. The New Testament talks about the importance and benefits of giving. We are to give as we are able. Sometimes that means giving more than 10 percent; sometimes that may mean giving less. It all depends on the ability of the Christian and the needs of the body of Christ. Every Christian should diligently pray and seek God’s wisdom in the matter of participating in tithing and/or how much to give (James 1:5). Above all, all tithes and offerings should be given with pure motives and an attitude of worship to God and service to the body of Christ. “Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver” (2 Corinthians 9:7).

Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on October 01-02/16
Aoun, Geagea upbeat after consultations with Hariri/Hussein Dakroub/The Daily Star/ October 01/16
Real reason why Aoun is not president/Joseph A. Kechichian/Gulf News/October 01/16
Lebanon’s president, Hezbollah and the Future Movement/Nayla Tueni/Al Arabiya/October 01/16
Europe's New Media Darlings: Terrorists/Giulio Meotti/Gatestone Institute/October 01/16
Why JASTA compresses the US view of Saudi Arabia/Abdullah Hamidaddin/Al Arabiya/October 01/16
That was the American week that was/Hisham Melhem/Al Arabiya/October 01/16
Can Putin’s Palestine peace plan succeed/Dr. Azeem Ibrahim/Al Arabiya/October 01/16
Why I’m Voting for Donald Trump/Lynne Kessler Lechter/Hadassah Magazine/October 01/16
Congress Must Act to Prevent Unilateral Move to Create Palestinian State/Clifford Smith/The American Spectator/October 01/16

Titles For Latest Lebanese Related News published on on October 01-02/16
Phares to Lebanon Debate newspaper on US Debate and the future of Hezbollah in Lebanon
Michigan Mideast leaders for Trump send a nationwide message
Aoun, Geagea upbeat after consultations with Hariri
Real reason why Aoun is not president
Lebanon’s president, Hezbollah and the Future Movement
Telecommunications Minister Boutros Harb warns of negative impact if Aoun elected president
Zahra: Hezbollah wants to run Lebanon like a farm
Clocks Go Back Sunday as Summer Time Ends
Report: Hariri to Kick Off Trip to Ankara, Russia and Saudi Arabia
Hariri Meets Salam in a Show of Support for Government
Apple Farmers Stage New Protests
ISF Arrest Drug Dealer in Nahr el-Mot
Bou Saab during commencement ceremony in Sidon: Election of President key to solution
Rahi from Diman: Economic situation threatens of a catastrophe if officials fail to elect a President
Kanaan: AounHariri meeting carries new developments
One killed, two injured along Airport Road
Reception in honor of Karam at Lebanese Embassy in Ottawa
Hariri: We hope the Hijra New Year carries promises of peace, better future
Army tasks Mallak as caretaker Chief of Staff effective Oct. 1
Ibrahim inaugurates General Security's regional branch in Shebaa
Jumblatt, Moroccan Ambassador meet over major developments

Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin For Miscellaneous Reports And News published on on October 01-02/16

Russia warns against US attack in Syria
Barrel bombs hit largest hospital in rebel-held Aleppo
Kerry Laments Lack of Syria Options in Leaked Audio
Aleppo Hospital Hit as Syria Army Presses Assault
Kerry said he ‘lost argument’ to back Syria diplomacy with force
Kerry Laments Lack of Syria Options in Leaked Audio
Aleppo Hospital Hit as Syria Army Presses Assault
Iran says new attack drone modeled on captured US aircraft
Local Muslims wary of Hungary’s anti-migrant referendum
Yemen rebels claim attack on UAE military vessel
French attack threat: 15-year-old student charged
Nigeria Central Bank chief’s wife kidnapped, freed
Deadly explosion targets residential area in Aden
Saudi: Houthis must disband their militants
Erdogan says Turkey in 'endgame' over EU membership
Pakistan, India Exchange Fresh Fire in Kashmir
Egypt Arrests 3 Reporters Conducting Street Interviews

Links From Jihad Watch Site for on October 01-02/16
Islamic Republic of Iran arrests at least 25 Christians
Islam is not a race? Obama White House wants to change that
Germany: 16-year-old Muslim migrant planned Islamic State jihad massacre
Imam admits Orlando jihad mass murderer prayed in mosque four days before massacre
Muslim who pleaded guilty to plotting to murder US soldiers in Chicago accepted into college, requests early release
Robert Spencer in FrontPage: Obama: ‘There’s No Religious Rationale’ For Jihad Terror
Australia: Muslim stabs his wife to death for converting to Christianity
Iran: children’s theme park markets jihad against America and Israel
Bulgaria bans face veils — and offenders will lose their benefits
A Tale of Two Students: Ahmed the Clock Boy and Levi
Catholic priest have become endangered species” in Nigeria: Muslims kidnap one, shoot two
EU spending over $1,000,000 on “preventing radicalisation leading to violent extremism” through classical music concerts
“Journalist” Sohrab Ahmari now says he left Islam, after excoriating Jihad Watch for saying so
Obama administration strikes Jerusalem from Israel
Canadian Red Cross gives funds to CAIR-linked NCCM for guide for refugees promoting “Islamophobia” agenda
Orlando jihad mass murderer Omar Mateen: “Call me mujahideen”

Links From Christian Today Site for on October 01-02/16
Pope Walks A Diplomatic Tightrope In Orthodox Georgia
Clinton Declares Trump 'Unhinged' After Twitter Attack On Beauty Queen
Russia Sending More Warplanes To Syria As Diplomacy Remains 'On Life Support'
Priest Kidnapped In Nigeria Has Been Released
Iranian Woman Stabbed To Death In Australia After Converting To Christianity
Immensely Significant': Justin Welby And Pope Francis To Mark 50 Years Of Chrisian Unity
Why Christians Should Support The Right To Blaspheme

Latest Lebanese Related News published on on October 01-02/16

Phares to Lebanon Debate newspaper on US Debate and the future of Hezbollah in Lebanon
Walid Phares/Face Book/September 30/16
The Trump Clinton debate results were that both sides maintained their support with their partisans. As for Lebanon, there will be a greater attention from Washington to bring back a direct Lebanon-US relation and partnership without the regional influences. US support won't be limited to the Army but to the civil society. Regarding Hezbollah, a forthcoming US-Russian understanding would create a new security situation in Lebanon, shrinking Hezbollah military expansion but guaranteeing political and communities pluralism

Michigan Mideast leaders for Trump send a nationwide message
Walid Phares/Face Book/October 01/16
The participation by a delegation of Mideast American community leaders, including a Shia Imam, Christian and Muslim groups, in a Trump rally in Detroit is sending a nationwide message to these communities. Arab and Mideast American media is posting about the event widely, with pro Ikhwan and pro Iran regime outlets, including al Jadeed in Beirut, blasting the Imam, as reformist social media and bloggers are supporting al Haj Hassan and his allies. Even inside Detroit and Dearborn, critics and supporters are debating the move. It is noticed that the many supporters of the Imam, are young in age and social media savvy. Also noted by observers that backers of the meeting are strongly arguing that at this point "only Trump can bring a change to an eight years erratic foreign policy in the region." Observers are monitoring several groups across the nation to join the larger Mideast pro Trump coalition.

Aoun, Geagea upbeat after consultations with Hariri
Hussein Dakroub/The Daily Star/ October 01/16

http://eliasbejjaninews.com/2016/10/01/hussein-dakroubthe-daily-star-aoun-geagea-upbeat-after-consultations-with-hariri/
BEIRUT: Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri met separately Friday with MP Michel Aoun and Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea, capping five days of intensive consultations with various political leaders aimed at ending the presidential void that has paralyzed Parliament and crippled the government’s work.
Geagea sounded upbeat about resolving the crisis after his meeting with Hariri, saying that the presidential election has entered a new phase in light of the consultations launched by the head of the Future Movement earlier this week. “The presidential election crisis has entered a new phase and I am optimistic. The results [of Hariri’s consultations] will emerge before the next [Parliament] session [on Oct. 31] to elect a president,” Geagea told reporters after Hariri left the LF leader’s residence in Maarab, north of Beirut, without making a statement. However, Hariri’s flurry of consultations has apparently led to the emergence of new alliances over the presidential deadlock and brought the Future Movement closer to the possibility of endorsing Aoun’s presidential bid at the expense of dropping its support for Marada Movement leader MP Sleiman Frangieh. While Frangieh’s presidential chances appear to be waning in favor of Aoun’s bid, a new alliance grouping Speaker Nabih Berri, MP Walid Jumblatt and Frangieh was reportedly in the making to oppose the possible election of Aoun as president.
But if Hariri, who heads the largest bloc in Parliament with 33 MPs, eventually decided to vote for Aoun, whose candidacy is also backed by the LF, Hezbollah and some of its March 8 allies, this would secure a sufficient parliamentary majority to ensure the election of the founder of the Free Patriotic Movement as the next president, despite opposition by Berri, Frangieh and Jumblatt.
After meeting Geagea in Maarab Friday evening, Hariri drove to Rabieh, north of Beirut, for crucial talks with Aoun, a longtime rival who has been counting on the Future Movement’s support to boost his chances of being elected. As in his talks with other leaders, Hariri did not talk to reporters after his meeting with Aoun, which was also attended by FPM leader and Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil, and Nader Hariri, chief of Hariri’s staff. The OTV television station, an FPM mouthpiece, said the talks were positive and both sides agreed to continue communications. The last meeting between the two leaders was held in February 2015.Hariri’s visits to Rabieh and Maarab are part of his shuttle diplomacy to resolve the presidential crisis, which has entered a third year amid lingering, sharp differences between the political parties. Since his return to Beirut last week, Hariri has met with Frangieh, Jumblatt, Berri, Kataeb Party chief MP Sami Gemayel and former President Amine Gemayel. Media reports said he might also meet with the country’s top spiritual leaders, including Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai who has been pleading with parliamentary blocs and politicians to quickly elect a president.
Parliament Wednesday failed for the 45th time in more than two years to convene to elect a president due to a lack of quorum, prompting Berri to set a new session for Oct. 31.
Geagea, who endorsed Aoun’s presidential bid in January to counter Hariri’s support for Frangieh’s candidacy, said the gap with Hariri was narrowing and hinted that the former premier might be exploring new options. He added that the results of Hariri’s flurry of activity would emerge ahead of the Parliament session on Oct. 31. “Hariri is not adamant on his position. He is open to all options and he will continue his tour of politicians,” Geagea said. “Don’t wait for Hariri’s final stance anytime soon. We are on the road which Hariri is trying to pave to reach the presidential election.
“Differences with [former] Prime Minister Hariri over the presidential issue are narrowing,” he said, reiterating the LF’s support for Aoun. Geagea rejected proposals for the election of a middle-of-the-road candidate for the presidency as well as Berri’s proposal for a full-package deal to end the deadlock.
“We have supported Aoun and we continue to do so. It is unacceptable to put conditions on the presidential candidate. Therefore, for us the principle of [Berri’s proposed] package is out of the question,” he said.
Geagea said that Berri’s tough stance on the presidency issue had been coordinated with Hezbollah. He added that Hezbollah does not want the election of a president, even if it was Aoun.
“Hezbollah must take a clear stance and a frank option, especially since matters are heading today more and more toward what’s called in English the ‘endgame,’” the LF chief said.
Geagea’s remarks came hours after Berri stuck to his position on a “full-package” deal, which includes the election of a president, an agreement on a new voting system and the shape of the government, as the only solution to the deadlock. Berri, in a statement issued by his press office, also denied a personal feud between him and Aoun. The statement said that some media outlets indicated that there is a personal dispute between Berri and a certain candidate, a clear reference to Aoun. “But the truth is that the proposals [Berri] presented and put at the disposal of everyone reflect his adherence to the national dialogue agenda and they do not target any certain candidate,” the statement said. It added that the dialogue agenda, which includes Berri’s package proposal, is the “mandatory path to a stable political situation, preservation of constitutional institutions and a comprehensive solution that begins with the election of a president.” Berri’s statement came apparently in response to an article published Friday in Al-Akhbar newspaper in which its editor-in-chief, Ibrahim al-Amin, claimed that the speaker was blocking Aoun’s presidential bid. Responding to Berri’s statement, Aoun said in a statement issued Friday night: “We also, when we announce our faith in and keenness on the National Charter and the Constitution, we don’t aim to criticize any official, but to rescue the system and preserve the rights of everyone. At any rate, we have adhered to what the Lebanese agree on through their legitimate institutions as well as at the dialogue table.”Referring to reports claiming that Berri was seeking to scuttle an agreement on the election of Aoun as president, the statement said: “Is there anyone who wants a compromise and is searching for the best formula to promote it? Or is there anyone who wants to torpedo the compromise? The answer is in the next few days at the end of Hariri’s tour [of politicians].”Separately, U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon Sigrid Kaag discussed the presidential deadlock and regional developments in separate meetings with Hariri and Ammar Musawi, Hezbollah’s international relations officer.
Hariri is expected to visit Moscow next week for talks with Russian officials on the Lebanese crisis and developments in the region.

Real reason why Aoun is not president
Joseph A. Kechichian/Gulf News/October 01/16

http://eliasbejjaninews.com/2016/10/01/joseph-a-kechichiangulf-news-real-reason-why-aoun-is-not-president/
Beirut: Pro-Syrian Free Patriotic Movement founder and presidential hopeful Michael Aoun was dealt a fresh blow to his candidacy bid when Marada leader Sulaiman Franjieh refused to withdraw from the presidential race by the time parliament convened on September 28, continuing to obstruct Aoun’s path to the presidency. Aoun, who has been vying for the post since Michel Sulaiman’s term ended in May 2014, has yet to realise his dream, despite being backed by the powerful Shiite Hezbollah militia, and also despite his pro-Syrian political stances. He also was backed by his rival, Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea, earlier this year, in a surprise move to push the presidency forward. The inability for Aoun to be elected into office has sparked wide speculation as to what was really happening behind the scenes.
It made little political sense for Damascus to obstruct his candidacy, given his 180 degree shift from opposing the dynasty of Al Assads (Father and Son), to backing it. All indications point to an underlying deep mistrust of Aoun by the Syrian regime. A highly placed Western expert on Lebanese-Syrian affairs told Gulf News that in his assessment, Damascus preferred Franjieh for two specific reasons:

first, his loyalty to the Syrian regime that was nurtured by personal ties to President Bashar Al Assad

and, second, because it perceived Aoun as a volatile man.

“Most FPM followers are too young to remember Aoun’s ‘War of Liberation’ against the Syrians,” he said on the condition of anonymity.“But, senior Syrian officials have not forgotten.”During Lebanon’s civil war, Aoun actively opposed Syrian interference in Lebanon.
In 1989 he declared a “Liberation War” on Syria, which ended after Syrian forces invaded Beirut in 1990 forcing Aoun to flee to Paris, where he lived in exile for 15 years.

Aoun was only able to return to Lebanon on May 7, 2005, after the assassination of Rafik Hariri prompted powerful anti-Syrian protests which led to the withdrawal of Syrian occupation forces in 2005.

He then formally apologised for his anti-Syrian activities, including an appearance in front of the US Congress in September 2003 to urge the adoption of the Syria Accountability Act, which demanded that Syria withdraw its estimated 25,000 troops from Lebanon and allow restoration of Lebanese sovereignty that he deemed was “an absolute necessity if terrorism is to be defeated”.
In words that few Syrian officials forgot, Aoun told Congress: “In the 1970s and 1980s, Lebanon was the first victim of Syrian terrorism. And this was one of the main reasons in 1978 to list Syria as the first terrorist country on the US State Department list of terrorist states.

Back then, Hezbollah and Hamas did not even exist,” he testified. Upon his return, Aoun entered in the March 8 alliance with Hezbollah and other pro-Syrian groups and has since then carried out Damascus’ bidding.

In 2008, he visited Tehran and then Damascus, where he officially declared he was turning the page on his previous anti-Syrian actions.
“The 1990 Liberation War is an old story that is now over,” he told Syrian President Bashar Al Assad. But observers point to Aoun’s inability to become president as proof that Syria has neither forgiven nor forgotten Aoun’s past actions.
Instead, Damascus prefers to string Aoun along as it prefers Lebanon to be a weak state with no president at all.

An independent Lebanon is not in the interests the Al Assad regime.

It is also an especially sensitive time for Damascus, given it has just entered its fifth year of a crippling civil war that has drained the regime’s resources and significantly weakened it.

Lebanon’s president, Hezbollah and the Future Movement
Nayla Tueni/Al Arabiya/October 01/16

http://eliasbejjaninews.com/2016/10/01/nayla-tuenial-arabiya-lebanons-president-hezbollah-and-the-future-movement/
There have been increasing rumors in Lebanon that an agreement is about to be sealed between Saad Hariri and Michel Aoun (who is allied with Hezbollah) to elect the latter as president.

However, the presidency is not a slice of cake that two or more parties can agree to share.

The election of a president must be properly carried out in parliament.

We refuse to be informed of an agreement - be it realistic or impossible - via media leaks reminiscent of the time when late Syrian President Hafez al-Assad said that the Lebanese people had agreed to extend the presidential term of Elias Harawi, despite none of the Lebanese parties having agreed to this.

We refuse to have the presidency turn into an affair to be finalized through an agreement between the Future Movement and Hezbollah where they divide and distribute shares.

It’s necessary that there are clear agreements involving everyone regarding the presidency.

The presidential candidate must have visions for the future and must not be biased toward a certain party.

The elected president must not be appointed as a result of an agreement between two parties as doing so will mean the president will be restrained and he will thus fail to achieve the Lebanese people’s aspirations.

We don’t want a president who will increase our frustration and we don’t want a strong president according to their standards of power.

We want a patriotic and wise president who reunites the ranks and maintains regional and international relations as well as Lebanon’s brotherly relations with Arab countries.
We are not talking about platonic principles here.

We strongly reject that the presidency become the property of Hezbollah and the Future Movement as if they come to disagree in the future, there will be no chance of reaching a solution.

We strongly reject that the presidency become the property of Hezbollah and the Future Movement. The presidency is the property of all factions of Lebanese society.

It’s the property of the Lebanese people.

Therefore, the people’s representatives must go to the parliament and continue to perform their duties and practice their electoral right regardless of any developments otherwise they will be viewed as those who obstruct the election of a president and who obstruct the settlement of Lebanon’s pending issues.
**This article was first published in Annahar on Sept. 26, 2016.

Telecommunications Minister Boutros Harb warns of negative impact if Aoun elected president
The Daily Star/October 01/16/BEIRUT: Telecommunications Minister Boutros Harb Saturday warned that if former Prime Minister Saad Hariri backs MP Michel Aoun for the presidency, it would not be to the benefit the Future Movement leader. "Aoun's [possible] nomination by Hariri is due to the political blackmail exerted by Aoun over the past two years, which is a dangerous precedent in our political system," Harb told a local radio station. He also said that Lebanon would face negative repercussions if Change and Reform leader Aoun became head of state. On Friday night, Hariri met separately with Aoun and Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea, capping five days of intensive consultations with various political leaders aimed at ending the presidential void that has paralyzed Parliament and crippled the government’s work. The Future chief's parliamentary bloc last week staunchly rejected separate calls by Hezbollah and the Lebanese Forces to elect Aoun as president as the only way to end the presidential vacancy. But Hariri’s flurry of consultations has apparently brought the Future Movement closer to the possibility of endorsing Aoun’s presidential bid at the expense of dropping its support for Marada Movement leader MP Sleiman Frangieh. Parliament has not been able to convene to elect a president due to a lack of quorum caused by a boycott by lawmakers from Aoun’s bloc, Hezbollah’s bloc and some of its March 8 allies. Aoun is backed by Hezbollah and the Lebanese Forces. Marada Movement leader Sleiman Frangieh has the support of the Future Movement, Amal Movement and the Progressive Socialist Party.
 

Zahra: Hezbollah wants to run Lebanon like a farm
By News Desk - 01/10/20169/(NNA) Member of the Lebanese Forces Bloc, MP Antoine Zahra, told Future TV on Saturday that Hezbollah wants a president and premier that carry out its agenda, and that time has proven that the only one obstructing presidential elections is in fact Hezbollah. The MP explained that former PM Saad Hariri went through all the options for presidential elections, and he was constantly faced by Hezbollah's commitment towards General Michel Aoun; and now that he was assessing Aoun for candidate, Hezbollah was trying to force numerous conditions on Hariri concerning Cabinet formation and which electoral law to adopt, as though the Constitution "was a joke." He asserted that Hezbollah wanted a president and prime minister that would put into force Hezbollah's agenda in establishing a crescent of authority extending from Iran to Lebanon. "As long as Hezbollah is capable of stopping the rise of an authority that would question it about what it was doing in Syria, it will continue to do so," said Zahra, noting that Hezbollah believed that it could score a conclusive victory and establish its dominance in the region. "We agree with [Aoun] on rebuilding the state and respecting the Constitution, and those placing vetoes do not want a State but a farm that they control," added Zahra as he asserted that his Bloc would never allow it. The MP said that his Bloc supported the mixed electoral law for legislative elections. "The Lebanese Forces and the Free Patriotic Movement will not join a House session unless the electoral law was on top of its agenda."

Clocks Go Back Sunday as Summer Time Ends
Naharnet/October 01/16/The Daylight Saving Time (DST) will end at 12:00 am on October 29, 2016. Standard timing will be adopted as of Sunday and clocks will go back to 11:00 pm. The move will put Beirut 2 hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time. Clocks will have to be turned back to DST at midnight on the last Saturday of March 2017.

Report: Hariri to Kick Off Trip to Ankara, Russia and Saudi Arabia
Naharnet/October 01/Al-Mustaqbal Movement chief ex-PM Saad Hariri is scheduled to leave Beirut and kick off a trip that will include Saudi Arabia, As Safir daily reported on Saturday. Hariri's trip comes after extensive meetings with various political figures in an attempt to find a solution for the over two-year vacuum at the top state Christian post. His trip, that will include Saudi Arabia, is expected to fall in the same context and focus on the thorny file of the presidency.Al-Liwaa daily said that Hariri will visit Saudi Arabia and Ankara and that a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin has been scheduled to take place on Tuesday. Hariri had held on Friday a much-anticipated meeting with Free Patriotic Movement founder MP Michel Aoun in Rabieh, shortly after he held talks in Maarab with Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea. Following talks with Hariri earlier in the day, Geagea had announced that the “the gap has started to narrow” regarding the presidential file. Since Monday, Hariri has met with Marada Movement chief MP Suleiman Franjieh, Kataeb Party leader MP Sami Gemayel, Progressive Socialist Party chief MP Walid Jumblat and Speaker Nabih Berri. The ex-PM's return to Lebanon on Saturday has triggered a flurry of rumors and media reports about a possible presidential settlement and the possibility that he has finally decided to endorse Aoun for the presidency in a bid to break the deadlock. Lebanon has been without a president since the term of Michel Suleiman ended in May 2014 and Hizbullah, Aoun's Change and Reform bloc and some of their allies have been boycotting the parliament's electoral sessions, stripping them of the needed quorum. Hariri, who is close to Saudi Arabia, launched an initiative in late 2015 to nominate Franjieh for the presidency but his proposal was met with reservations from the country's main Christian parties as well as Hizbullah. Hariri's move prompted Geagea to endorse the nomination of Aoun, his long-time Christian rival, after months of political rapprochement talks between their two parties.The supporters of Aoun's presidential bid argue that he is more eligible than Franjieh to become president due to the size of his parliamentary bloc and his bigger influence in the Christian community.

Hariri Meets Salam in a Show of Support for Government
Naharnet/October 01/16/Al-Mustaqbal Movement chief ex-PM Saad Hariri met on Saturdaywith Prime Minister Tammam Salam at the Grand Serail after a series of shuttle presidency meetings over the week. Hariri left the meeting without making a statement, media reports said. The National News Agency said discussions between the two men touched on the latest developments. MTV said that the visit comes in a show of support to the government. On Friday Hariri had held a much-anticipated meeting with Free Patriotic Movement founder MP Michel Aoun in Rabieh, shortly after he held talks in Maarab with Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea. Since Monday, Hariri has met with Marada Movement chief MP Suleiman Franjieh, Kataeb Party leader MP Sami Gemayel, Progressive Socialist Party chief MP Walid Jumblat and Speaker Nabih Berri. The ex-PM's return to Lebanon on Saturday has triggered a flurry of rumors and media reports about a possible presidential settlement and the possibility that the he has finally decided to endorse Aoun for the presidency in a bid to break the deadlock. Lebanon has been without a president since the term of President Michel Suleiman ended in May 2014. Conflicts between the rival political parties have thwarted all efforts that aimed to elect a successor. The parliament held 45 sessions to elect a head of state but it failed to convene over lack of quorum.

Apple Farmers Stage New Protests
Naharnet/October 01/16/Apple farmers held protests in several Lebanese regions on Saturday demanding a government action to help them sell their products inside Lebanon and to foreign markets. Apple farmers in the Chouf district of Barouk blocked the road in a move that will be echoed in several other Lebanese regions on Saturday. In the town of Tarshish in the district of Baabda the farmers chose another way for their protests as they distributed apples to passersby. Early this week, the farmers in the city of Jbeil, north of Beirut, kicked off similar sit-ins. The farmers blocked the Jbeil highway leading to Beirut, and threw their apples on the road blocking the traffic for a couple of hours. After receiving assurances that a meeting with Prime Minister Tammam Salam and Agriculture Minister Akram Shehayyeb will be organized, the farmers reopened the road after a while. Lebanon recorded a slow growth in its agricultural sector and is attributable to the Syrian crisis because a good percentage of the agricultural products were exported to Syria or through Syria to other Arab countries and the Gulf States.

ISF Arrest Drug Dealer in Nahr el-Mot
Naharnet/October 01/16/The Internal Security Forces arrested a man in the Nahr el-Mot area near Beirut, for the possession of drugs and for allegedly planning to smuggle them into a juvenile prison, an ISF statement said on Saturday. “On Friday 29/9/2016 a police patrol in Mount Lebanon busted Lebanese Aa.M., 1995, who was caught with amounts of hashish, two envelopes of Salvia divinorum, one envelope of cocaine, a Samsung mobile, Nokia mobile, LL 2,440,000 and $1600,” an ISF statement said on Saturday. The detainee confessed during investigations that he has obtained the money from selling drugs to clients on Friday. He also said that he planned to smuggle the drugs into a juvenile prison. He was referred to the related judicial authority.

Bou Saab during commencement ceremony in Sidon: Election of President key to solution
Sat 01 Oct 2016/NNA - National Education and Higher Education Minister, Elias Bou Saab, on Saturday, deemed the election of the President of the Republic as "essential and necessary" in light of the current regional events, saying "such election constitutes the key to solution to exit current impasses." "The mission you are carrying out nowadays is not easy.. We stand by your side to extricate the country out of the current deadlock," said Minister Bou Saab, addressing former Prime Minister Saad Hariri.Bou Saab's words came during a commencement ceremony held at the Vocational Sidon Institute, under the patronage of MP Bahiyya Hariri, Head of House Commission for Education and Culture. The ceremony took place in the presence of scores of local educational, municipal and academic dignitaries. Bou Saab categorically underlined the need for a genuine partnership and securing rights to all, branding them as "the nation's salvation.""The key to solution is the conviction of real partnership, cooperation and communication amongst all spectrum of society," Bou Saab said, stressing that neither side can annul the other in the country, whereby each would enjoy its rights in accordance with national accord.

Rahi from Diman: Economic situation threatens of a catastrophe if officials fail to elect a President
Sat 01 Oct 2016/NNA - Maronite Patriarch, Cardinal Bchara Butros al-Rahi, warned on Saturday of the "deteriorating economic conditions in the country, signaling fear of a catastrophe if officials fail to work on electing a new President of the Republic."Al-Rahi's words came during an economic meeting he chaired at al-Diman, ending his summer season stay. The Patriarch returned to Bkirki following the meeting, where he is to preside over Sunday Mass at 10:00a.m. tomorrow.

Kanaan: AounHariri meeting carries new developments
Sat 01 Oct 2016/NNA - Change and Reform Parliamentary Bloc Member, MP Ibrahim Kanaan, described the atmosphere of former PM Saad Hariri's meeting with General Michel Aoun as "good", adding that the encounter "carried developments which would yield a new situation at the Presidential level."Speaking in an interview to "OTV" Channel Station on Saturday, Kanaan said: "We have done all the necessary with our allies, as well as our political opponents," adding that "the hour of truth has arrived and the sustainability of the current political system is at stake."

One killed, two injured along Airport Road
Sat 01 Oct 2016/NNA - A clash occurred nearby Rassoul Azzam Hospital along the Airport Road on Saturday, which developed into shooting, causing the death of a Syrian and the injury of two Lebanese brothers of Al Shkeir family who were rushed to hospital for treatment, NNA correspondent reported. Meanwhile, security forces arrived immediately at the scene to contain the situation.

Reception in honor of Karam at Lebanese Embassy in Ottawa
Sat 01 Oct 2016/NNA - Lebanese Charge d'Affaires at the Lebanese Embassy in Canada, Sami Haddad, held a reception followed by a luncheon banquet, on Saturday, in honor of Lebanese Forces Parliamentary Bloc Member, Deputy Fadi Karam, who is currently visiting the City of Ottawa. In his welcoming word, Haddad praised Karam's role in representing his region at the Lebanese Parliament, as well as his undertaken efforts for the sake of national unity and serving Lebanon's higher interests. In turn, Karam thanked the Lebanese Charge d'Affaires and expatriate community for their warm welcome, commending the role played by the Lebanese Embassy with regards to bringing all expatriates together in Canada.

Hariri: We hope the Hijra New Year carries promises of peace, better future
Sat 01 Oct 2016 /NNA - Former Prime Minister, Saad Hariri, expressed hopes via Twitter on Saturday that "the Hijra New Year would bring by promises of peace and a better future."
"God bless and preserve Lebanon and the Arab and Islamic nation," Hariri concluded.

Army tasks Mallak as caretaker Chief of Staff effective Oct. 1
Sat 01 Oct 2016 /NNA - In accordance with Decree #4068 dated 30/09/2016, Brigadier Hatem Mallak was promoted to the rank of Major General, and was tasked with caretaker chief of staff duties based on the decision of the military command as of 10/01/2016, army command said in a communiqué.

Ibrahim inaugurates General Security's regional branch in Shebaa
Sat 01 Oct 2016/NNA - General Security Chief, Major General Abbas Ibram, inaugurated Saturday afternoon the new General Security regional branch in Shebaa, amidst a crowd of political, military and religious officials who attended the opening ceremony. "The branch is a focal point for unveiling enemy agents and eradicating groups that are seeking to strike the pillars of stability and create strife between the Lebanese," said Ibrahim in his opening word.
"This regional branch also aims at facilitating the completion of citizens' transactions and easing their burdens," Ibrahim went on, adding that "it is our duty to support citizens in adhering to their land and remaining steadfast in the face of occupation."
 

Jumblatt, Moroccan Ambassador meet over major developments
Sat 01 Oct 2016/NNA - Head of the Democratic Gathering, MP Walid Jumblatt, met at his Mukhtara Palace with Moroccan Ambassador to Lebanon, Ali Oumlil, with discussions reportedly focusing on the political situation in Lebanon and regional developments.
 

Latest LCCC Bulletin For Miscellaneous Reports And News published on on October 01-02/16

Russia warns against US attack in Syria
Agencies Saturday, 1 October 2016/“Direct aggression” by the United States towards the Syrian government and armed forces would lead to “frightening, tectonic shifts” in the Middle East, RIA news agency cited Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova as saying on Saturday. Russia and the United States back opposing sides in the Syrian conflict. A US-Russian brokered ceasefire in Syria recently fell apart, and Russian war planes on Saturday struck rebel-held areas north of the Syrian city of Aleppo. Zakharova warned that regime change in Syria would create a vacuum that would be “quickly filled” by “terrorists of all stripes.” US-Russian tensions over Syria have escalated since the breakdown of a cease-fire last month, with each side blaming the other for its failure. Syrian government forces backed by Russian warplanes have launched a major onslaught on rebel-held parts of the northern city of Aleppo.
Russian jets pound Aleppo
Meanwhile, Russian war planes struck rebel held areas north of Aleppo on Saturday as the army shelled the besieged old quarter in a major offensive, rebels and a monitoring group said. Russia was reported on Friday to be sending more warplanes to Syria to ramp up its air campaign as the United States said it had not yet given up on finding a diplomatic resolution. The latest strikes come 10 days into a Russian-backed Syrian government offensive to capture rebel-held eastern Aleppo and crush the last urban stronghold of a revolt against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad that began in 2011. Saturday’s air strikes focused on major supply lines into rebel-held areas - the Castello Road and Malah district - while fighting raged in the Suleiman al-Halabi neighborhood, the front line to the north of Aleppo’s Old City. US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke by telephone for a third day on Friday, with Russia’s top diplomat saying Moscow was ready to consider more ways to normalize the situation in Aleppo. But Lavrov criticized Washington's failure to separate moderate rebel groups from those the Russians call terrorists, which had allowed forces led by the group formerly known as the Nusra front to violate the US-Russian truce agreed on Sept. 9. The United States made clear it would not, at least for now, carry through a threat made on Wednesday to halt the diplomacy if Russia did not take immediate steps to end the violence.
Moscow and Assad spurned the ceasefire to launch the new offensive, potentially the biggest and most decisive battle of the civil war, which is now in its sixth year.

Barrel bombs hit largest hospital in rebel-held Aleppo
AFP Saturday, 1 October 2016/At least two barrel bombs hit the largest hospital in the rebel-held side of Syria’s Aleppo city on Saturday, the medical organisation that supports it said.
The facility, known as M10, had already been hit by heavy bombardment on Wednesday along with the second-largest hospital in the area in what UN chief Ban Ki-moon denounced as “war crimes.”“Two barrel bombs hit the M10 hospital and there were reports of a cluster bomb as well,” Adham Sahloul of the Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS) said of Saturday’s attack. Both facilities were put out of service by Wednesday’s bombardment, leaving only six operational hospitals in the eastern parts of the city, according to SAMS. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based monitoring group, said air strikes also hit a smaller field hospital in the Sakhur neighborhood on Saturday. “One person was killed and the field hospital is out of service,” said Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman. He was not able to immediately confirm if the victim was a patient at the facility or a member of staff. The recent bombardment of Aleppo has been some of the worst in Syria’s five-year civil war, leaving more than 220 people dead and turning residential buildings into heaps of rubble. The World Health Organization has called Syria the most dangerous place in the world for health workers.

Kerry Laments Lack of Syria Options in Leaked Audio
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/October 01/16/Secretary of State John Kerry is frustrated that his diplomatic efforts to end Syria's civil war were not backed up by US military force, according to a recording leaked Friday. In the audio released by the New York Times, Kerry is heard lamenting to a group of Syrian civilians last week in New York that his call for US action against Bashar al-Assad's government fell on deaf ears. "I think you're looking at three people, four people in the administration who have all argued for use of force, and I lost the argument," he tells the group. "I've argued for the use of force ... but things evolved into a different process."State Department spokesman John Kirby did not deny that the recording -- made at a private meeting in a diplomatic mission on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly -- is authentic.  "While we will decline to comment on a private conversation, Secretary Kerry was grateful for the chance to meet with this group of Syrians, to hear their concerns first hand and to express our continued focus on ending this civil war," he said. It has been widely reported that Kerry pushed President Barack Obama to take a more robust path in Syria, to give teeth to international efforts to force Assad aside and end a civil war now heading into its sixth year.But Washington's top diplomat has been careful to present a united front with the White House in public, even as he attempts to work with Moscow to rein in Assad's forces and build space for a political dialogue. In August 2013, after Assad had been accused of firing chemical weapons at civilians, Kerry gave a ferocious speech that was seen as prefiguring a retaliatory US military strike -- only for Obama to back down only hours later. Kerry refers to the speech incident in Friday's leaked recording, but blames the US Congress for refusing to vote to authorize the US military to take action against Assad. At last week's meeting, the Syrians -- sympathizers with the rebellion against Assad -- expressed frustration that US efforts in their country are focused on fighting the Islamic State group and not on Assad or his allies. Instead, on September 9, Kerry agreed with Assad's ally Moscow that there should be a ceasefire between the regime and the US-backed rebels. The truce came into force on September 12 but fell apart after a week. Russia and the United States are now blaming each other for the breakdown and Assad's Russian-backed forces have launched an assault on rebel-held eastern Aleppo. "Look, I get it," Kerry tells the incredulous Syrians. "A lot of us wish there was an enforcement mechanism right now. A lot of us have been fighting for one, but we don't have one right now and that's set," he warned. "We're trying to pursue the diplomacy, and I understand it's frustrating. You have nobody more frustrated than we are."

Aleppo Hospital Hit as Syria Army Presses Assault
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/October 01/16/The largest hospital in rebel-held east Aleppo was bombed on Saturday for the second time in days as Syrian government forces pressed a Russian-backed offensive to retake the entire city. Aleppo, once Syria's vibrant commercial powerhouse, is now at the heart of a major military campaign by President Bashar Assad's fighters and his steadfast ally Moscow. The offensive, announced on September 22, has seen dozens of civilians killed and residential buildings flattened in the east, where an estimated 250,000 people live under government siege. As the situation for civilians grows increasingly dire, the biggest hospital in the rebel-held half of the city was hit by two barrel bombs on Saturday, the medical organisation that supports it said. "Two barrel bombs hit the M10 hospital and there were reports of a cluster bomb as well," said Adham Sahloul of the Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS). Sahloul said a small group of patients and doctors "were inside the hospital for basic triage, bandaging, and cleaning services for emergency cases" when the bombardment began and remain trapped there. SAMS radiologist and hospital administrator Mohammad Abu Rajab made an urgent call for help on Saturday morning from inside M10. "The hospital is being destroyed! SOS, everyone!" he said in an audio message distributed to journalists. M10 had already been hit on Wednesday along with the second-largest hospital in the area, known as M2, in what UN chief Ban Ki-moon denounced as "war crimes."
That bombardment heavily damaged the two facilities and left only six fully-functional hospitals in the city's east, according to SAMS. - Growing civilian casualties -The World Health Organization has called Syria the most dangerous place in the world for health workers, and Aleppo in particular has seen much of its medical infrastructure destroyed or heavily damaged. Since fighting first broke out there in 2012, Aleppo has been divided by a front line between rebel forces in the east and government troops in the west. There have been mounting civilian casualties on both sides of the city. More than 220 people have been killed by bombardment on Aleppo's east since the government launched its offensive to seize the whole city on September 22, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Saturday. Six children were among 20 civilians killed in the rebel-held sector on Friday, the British-based monitor said. In west Aleppo, rebel rocket fire killed 15 civilians and wounded 40 on Friday, state television reported.
The assault has seen government forces seize territory in both the Suleiman al-Halabi neighbourhood in the city centre, as well on the northern edges of Aleppo. On Saturday, regime loyalists backed by heavy raids advanced on the edges of the Bustan al-Basha neighbourhood in Aleppo's north, the Observatory said. An AFP correspondent in the rebel-held eastern districts said clashes and the loud booms of shelling could be heard around the Suleiman al-Halabi and Bustan al-Basha fronts throughout the night. - 'Bombs are raining' -Residents of regime-held areas expressed relief that the rebels were being pushed back but said they feared retaliation.
"We were happy when we heard about the army's advance," said Majed Abboud, a 32-year-old car dealer. "But I'm afraid that with these ferocious clashes, there will be some kind of reaction from the armed groups," he said. The battle for Aleppo has sparked some of the most brutal violence since the March 2011 beginning of Syria's conflict, which has killed more than 300,000 people and displaced over half the population. The Doctors Without Borders (MSF) medical charity has warned that the recent bombardment was provoking a "bloodbath" in the city.
"Bombs are raining from Syria-led coalition planes and the whole of east Aleppo has become a giant kill box," MSF director of operations Xisco Villalonga said in a statement Friday.
But diplomatic efforts to put an end to the fighting across the country have all but collapsed as tensions continue to rise between key outside players. Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Friday accused Washington of protecting the former al-Qaida affiliate Fateh al-Sham Front, once known as Al-Nusra Front, in its effort to overthrow Assad. British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said Russia was in danger of becoming "a pariah nation" and the attacks in Aleppo were "unquestionably a war crime".

Kerry said he ‘lost argument’ to back Syria diplomacy with force
Reuters, Washington Saturday, 1 October 2016/US Secretary of State John Kerry, in a meeting last week with a small number of Syrian civilians and others, said he had lost an argument within the Obama administration to back up diplomatic efforts to end the bloodshed in Syria with the threat of using military force, the New York Times reported on Friday. The newspaper said it had obtained an audio recording of the 40-minute discussion that took place at the Dutch Mission to the United Nations on Sept. 22. The approximately 20 participants included representatives of four Syrian groups that provide education, rescue and medical services in rebel-held areas and diplomats from three or four countries, the Times said. The meeting took place days after a ceasefire Kerry had negotiated with Russia had collapsed and rebel-held areas of the Syrian city of Aleppo were coming under heavy air strikes as Moscow and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government rejected a US plea to halt flights. The Times said Kerry repeatedly complained that his diplomacy had not been backed by a serious threat of military force. “I think you’re looking at three people, four people in the administration who have all argued for use of force, and I lost the argument,” Kerry said in an audio clip posted on the Times website. “We’re trying to pursue the diplomacy, and I understand it’s frustrating. You have nobody more frustrated than we are,” Kerry said. The recording was made by a non-Syrian who attended the session, the newspaper reported, adding that several other participants confirmed its authenticity. Russian forces joined the Syrian war a year ago, tipping the balance of power in favor of Assad, who is also supported by Iranian ground forces and Shiite militia fighters from Lebanon and Iraq. The Times said several people in the meeting pressed Kerry on what they saw as contradictions in US policy. It said one woman, Marcell Shehwaro, asked “how many Syrians” had to be killed to prompt serious action. Kerry responded that “Assad’s indifference to anything” could push the Obama administration to consider new options, the Times said, but he also said that “any further American effort to arm rebels or join the fight could backfire.”The Times said State Department spokesman John Kirby declined to comment on what he described as a private conversation. The State Department did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Kerry Laments Lack of Syria Options in Leaked Audio
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/October 01/16/Secretary of State John Kerry is frustrated that his diplomatic efforts to end Syria's civil war were not backed up by US military force, according to a recording leaked Friday. In the audio released by the New York Times, Kerry is heard lamenting to a group of Syrian civilians last week in New York that his call for US action against Bashar al-Assad's government fell on deaf ears. "I think you're looking at three people, four people in the administration who have all argued for use of force, and I lost the argument," he tells the group. "I've argued for the use of force ... but things evolved into a different process."State Department spokesman John Kirby did not deny that the recording -- made at a private meeting in a diplomatic mission on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly -- is authentic. "While we will decline to comment on a private conversation, Secretary Kerry was grateful for the chance to meet with this group of Syrians, to hear their concerns first hand and to express our continued focus on ending this civil war," he said. It has been widely reported that Kerry pushed President Barack Obama to take a more robust path in Syria, to give teeth to international efforts to force Assad aside and end a civil war now heading into its sixth year.But Washington's top diplomat has been careful to present a united front with the White House in public, even as he attempts to work with Moscow to rein in Assad's forces and build space for a political dialogue.
In August 2013, after Assad had been accused of firing chemical weapons at civilians, Kerry gave a ferocious speech that was seen as prefiguring a retaliatory US military strike -- only for Obama to back down only hours later. Kerry refers to the speech incident in Friday's leaked recording, but blames the US Congress for refusing to vote to authorize the US military to take action against Assad. At last week's meeting, the Syrians -- sympathizers with the rebellion against Assad -- expressed frustration that US efforts in their country are focused on fighting the Islamic State group and not on Assad or his allies. Instead, on September 9, Kerry agreed with Assad's ally Moscow that there should be a ceasefire between the regime and the US-backed rebels. The truce came into force on September 12 but fell apart after a week. Russia and the United States are now blaming each other for the breakdown and Assad's Russian-backed forces have launched an assault on rebel-held eastern Aleppo. "Look, I get it," Kerry tells the incredulous Syrians. "A lot of us wish there was an enforcement mechanism right now. A lot of us have been fighting for one, but we don't have one right now and that's set," he warned. "We're trying to pursue the diplomacy, and I understand it's frustrating. You have nobody more frustrated than we are."

Aleppo Hospital Hit as Syria Army Presses Assault
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/October 01/16/The largest hospital in rebel-held east Aleppo was bombed on Saturday for the second time in days as Syrian government forces pressed a Russian-backed offensive to retake the entire city. Aleppo, once Syria's vibrant commercial powerhouse, is now at the heart of a major military campaign by President Bashar Assad's fighters and his steadfast ally Moscow. The offensive, announced on September 22, has seen dozens of civilians killed and residential buildings flattened in the east, where an estimated 250,000 people live under government siege. As the situation for civilians grows increasingly dire, the biggest hospital in the rebel-held half of the city was hit by two barrel bombs on Saturday, the medical organisation that supports it said. "Two barrel bombs hit the M10 hospital and there were reports of a cluster bomb as well," said Adham Sahloul of the Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS). Sahloul said a small group of patients and doctors "were inside the hospital for basic triage, bandaging, and cleaning services for emergency cases" when the bombardment began and remain trapped there. SAMS radiologist and hospital administrator Mohammad Abu Rajab made an urgent call for help on Saturday morning from inside M10. "The hospital is being destroyed! SOS, everyone!" he said in an audio message distributed to journalists. M10 had already been hit on Wednesday along with the second-largest hospital in the area, known as M2, in what UN chief Ban Ki-moon denounced as "war crimes." That bombardment heavily damaged the two facilities and left only six fully-functional hospitals in the city's east, according to SAMS. - Growing civilian casualties -The World Health Organization has called Syria the most dangerous place in the world for health workers, and Aleppo in particular has seen much of its medical infrastructure destroyed or heavily damaged. Since fighting first broke out there in 2012, Aleppo has been divided by a front line between rebel forces in the east and government troops in the west. There have been mounting civilian casualties on both sides of the city. More than 220 people have been killed by bombardment on Aleppo's east since the government launched its offensive to seize the whole city on September 22, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Saturday. Six children were among 20 civilians killed in the rebel-held sector on Friday, the British-based monitor said. In west Aleppo, rebel rocket fire killed 15 civilians and wounded 40 on Friday, state television reported. The assault has seen government forces seize territory in both the Suleiman al-Halabi neighbourhood in the city centre, as well on the northern edges of Aleppo. On Saturday, regime loyalists backed by heavy raids advanced on the edges of the Bustan al-Basha neighbourhood in Aleppo's north, the Observatory said. An AFP correspondent in the rebel-held eastern districts said clashes and the loud booms of shelling could be heard around the Suleiman al-Halabi and Bustan al-Basha fronts throughout the night. - 'Bombs are raining' -Residents of regime-held areas expressed relief that the rebels were being pushed back but said they feared retaliation. "We were happy when we heard about the army's advance," said Majed Abboud, a 32-year-old car dealer. "But I'm afraid that with these ferocious clashes, there will be some kind of reaction from the armed groups," he said. The battle for Aleppo has sparked some of the most brutal violence since the March 2011 beginning of Syria's conflict, which has killed more than 300,000 people and displaced over half the population. The Doctors Without Borders (MSF) medical charity has warned that the recent bombardment was provoking a "bloodbath" in the city. "Bombs are raining from Syria-led coalition planes and the whole of east Aleppo has become a giant kill box," MSF director of operations Xisco Villalonga said in a statement Friday. But diplomatic efforts to put an end to the fighting across the country have all but collapsed as tensions continue to rise between key outside players. Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Friday accused Washington of protecting the former al-Qaida affiliate Fateh al-Sham Front, once known as Al-Nusra Front, in its effort to overthrow Assad. British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said Russia was in danger of becoming "a pariah nation" and the attacks in Aleppo were "unquestionably a war crime".

Iran says new attack drone modeled on captured US aircraft
Associated Press, Tehran Saturday, 1 October 2016/Iranian media says the Revolutionary Guard has built a new attack drone which is similar to a US drone captured five years ago.
The semi-official Tasnim news agency reported Saturday that the “Saegheh” drone was built by the Guard's aerospace division and is similar to the RQ-170 Sentinel spy drone. The report did not elaborate on the new drone’s range. Iran claimed to have shot down an RQ-170 drone in December 2011 and broadcast footage of the recovered aircraft. It also claims to have captured three ScanEagle drones. Iran said last year that it had successfully tested its replica of the RQ-170.
 

Local Muslims wary of Hungary’s anti-migrant referendum
The Associated Press, Budapest, Hungary Saturday, 1 October 2016/Muslims in Hungary say they are wary of the government’s anti-migrant referendum this weekend, which polls suggest has boosted xenophobic feelings. The government, contending that there is a direct link between migrants and terrorism, is seeking a popular mandate in Sunday’s vote for its opposition to accepting any mandatory European Union quotas for resettling asylum seekers. “I’m starting to feel that my own homeland is repudiating me,” says Timea Nagy, a Hungarian Muslim. Prime Minister Viktor Orban has said Hungarians have “no problems” with the local Muslim community, but he believes any EU quotas to relocate asylum seekers, including many Muslims, would destroy Hungary’s Christian identity and culture. Orban hopes that a rejection of EU quotas in the referendum will be mimicked by others and force Brussels to reconsider the scheme. A poll taken in August by the Publicus Institute for the Vasarnapi Hirek newspaper found 35 percent of the 1,000 people asked said it was obligatory to help refugees, down from 64 percent in September 2015. Some 5,600 Muslims live in Hungary, according to the 2011 census, the latest available.On Friday, about 30 people took part in a “Muslims living among us” walking tour in a Budapest neighborhood, an effort to counter prejudice.
Human face
“In the past year, especially since the migrant crisis is causing tension in Hungarian society, this is one of our most popular walks,” said tour guide Anna Lenard. “We present Hungarian Muslim communities and try to show their human face because people living here get a lot of false information from the media.”The tour in the city’s so-called “New Buda” neighborhood stretching to the Danube River includes stops in several shops and mosques, as well as presentations and chats by community leaders. “We could say that this (referendum) campaign is against the migrants but in reality it is covertly against Islam, that’s how people mostly understood it,” said Tayseer Saleh, imam of the Darusallam Mosque. “We do not support the migrants coming to Europe,” Saleh said. “We support putting an end to the problems there and I guarantee that 90 percent of the people will return to their homeland.” Government billboards and media ads have drawn a direct link between migration and terrorism, warned Hungarians that millions more migrants may soon be headed for Europe and asserted that cases of harassment of women in Europe have risen greatly since the start of the migrant crisis.
Valuable asset
Speaking last September at a meeting of Hungarian diplomats, Orban said the Muslims in Hungary were a “valuable asset” and wanted to avoid causing “awkward situations, even at the verbal level” for them. “We are truly glad that there are kebab shops on our avenues. We like buying lamb from Syrian butchers at Easter,” Orban said. “We are going to honor this Muslim community in Hungary, but we don’t want their proportion to grow suddenly.” Local Muslims said the problems they faced in light of the government’s referendum campaign were far beyond awkward. “I consider myself a good Hungarian and I want to be one, too,” Timea Nagy said. “But if people are surrounded by this kind of propaganda and they are so impressionable, it often makes you wonder.”

Yemen rebels claim attack on UAE military vessel
AFP, Sanaa Saturday, 1 October 2016/Yemeni rebels claimed they hit a vessel on Saturday operated by the UAE military, which is part of a Saudi-led coalition fighting in support of Yemen’s government. The UAE military said a boat under its command was involved in an “incident” in the Bab al-Mandab strait. It said there were no casualties. “Rockets targeted an Emirati warship as it approached the coast of Mokha,” on the Red Sea, the Iran-backed Houthi rebels said in a statement on their sabanews.net website. "It was completely destroyed," they said.
In a statement published by the official WAM news agency, the UAE military said the boat was on a routine trip from Aden, further south, and that it had launched an investigation.
It said the boat was hired, but did not provide more details or say if the vessel was damaged.

French attack threat: 15-year-old student charged
AFP, Paris Saturday, 1 October 2016/A 15-year-old high school student was charged and held Friday on suspicion of wanting to commit a terror attack directed by a notorious Syria-based French militant, a judicial source said. The teenager was charged over criminal associations with a terrorist group, the source said. The minor had been in contact using Telegram - the encrypted messaging app popular among French radicals - with Rachid Kassim, a French jihadist based in the areas of Syria and Iraq held by the ISIS. The adolescent, who was not previously known to intelligence services, was taken in for questioning early Wednesday from his parents house in Domont and held in police custody for 48 hours before appearing before the court Friday morning. “There was a suspicion he was going to commit an act,” said one source close to the investigation, adding that the minor had said while in custody that he had abandoned the plan. In the last few weeks, around ten adolescents have been held as the authorities scramble to tamp down home-grown militant violence that is increasingly drawing in teens. Kassim, a 29-year-old former social worker from the Loire valley who has appeared in several IS propaganda videos, is believed to have been a key influence on many of the youths. The 15-year-old charged Friday was “very active on the Telegram messenger, where he liked two stations that broadcast militant propaganda”, said a source close to the enquiry. He was also in contact, using the encrypted messaging service, with another teenager - himself in touch with Kassim - who was arrested September 14 in Paris on suspicion of wanting to commit a violent attack.Islamic extremists have targeted France repeatedly in the last two years. French Prime Minister Manuel Valls has said the terror threat was at a “maximum” and that the authorities were foiling attacks and smashing jihadist networks “every day”. Valls said that around 15,000 people were known to police in France as having been radicalised, up from a previous estimate of 10,000.

Nigeria Central Bank chief’s wife kidnapped, freed
AFP, Abuja Saturday, 1 October 2016/The wife of Nigeria’s central bank governor was kidnapped and held for some 24 hours, police and security sources said on Saturday, in the latest high-profile abduction in the country’s south. A federal police source in Abuja said Margaret Emefiele was seized on the road from Benin City in Edo state, southern Nigeria, to Agbor, in neighbouring Delta state, on Thursday. “Five other persons were kidnapped along with her,” said the source. “They are her driver and four other women with whom she was travelling.”Security officials secured her release at about 12:30 am on Saturday (2330 GMT Friday) and she was taken to the Delta state police headquarters in Asaba. The other four people were also freed. Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) spokesman Isaac Okoroafor told AFP he did not have more details but confirmed: “She has been released.” Margaret Emefiele’s husband, Godwin, became CBN governor in March 2014, replacing Lamido Sanusi, who was dismissed after claiming the state-run oil firm had not remitted $20 billion in revenue. Governor Emefiele has since had to face the fallout from an oil-dependent economy hit by the global fall in crude prices, which has led Nigeria into recession, weakened its currency and sent inflation spiralling. Other similar cases Kidnapping for ransom is common in Nigeria, particularly in southern states. Wealthy Nigerians and expatriates are often targeted and released after several days. In March 2015, gunmen abducted the younger brother of the then-oil minister Diezani Alison-Madueke in Bayelsa state, which borders Delta state to the south. Six months earlier her sister was seized in Port Harcourt, the capital of next door Rivers state and centre of Nigeria’s oil industry. In early 2014, an elderly uncle of president Goodluck Jonathan was kidnapped in Bayelsa while in 2012, the mother of Jonathan’s finance minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala was abducted. All were later released or rescued.

Deadly explosion targets residential area in Aden
Staff writer, Al Arabiya English, Saturday, 1 October 2016/A suicide bomber targeted a residential area in Yemen's port city of Aden on Saturday, killing at least one civilian and wounding others. Only scant details have emerged about the suicide bombing which took place in the Crater district. However, residents who were close to the site of the explosion said that a speeding car approached the area, where a young man appearing to be in his twenties was thrown out and detonated himself shortly after. According to witnesses, the man was shouting that he was going to explode just before the detonation which happened after less than a minute. The man had shouted “run, run” to bystanders when he left a vehicle in the Crater district of the city, a local government official said. It was unclear whether he had intended to blow himself up and had second thoughts or had been forced to wear an explosives vest which was then detonated by someone else. Security sources have not yet been able to confirm who was behind the attack. An area where the suicide bomber detonated the bomb, killing and injuring civilians in a residential area in Crater. Aden is the headquarters of Yemen’s Saudi-backed government. The capital Sanaa and much of the north of the country are controlled by Shiite rebels and their allies.The southern port city has been hit by frequent bombings claimed by militants of al-Qaeda or the ISIS group. The insecurity prompted the cabinet to move to neighbouring Saudi Arabia last year only returning on September 22. (With AFP)

Saudi: Houthis must disband their militants
Staff writer, Al Arabiya English Saturday, 1 October 2016/Saudi Brigadier General Ahmed Asiri, spokesman of the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen said that any peace deal in Yemen would be rejected, unless it stipulates the disbandment of the Houthi militias and their incorporation into the political life, in accordance with their proportion in the community. This was provided by the UN Resolution 2216. Asiri added that, despite the need to find a political solution to the conflict, the Saudi Kingdom will reject any agreement allowing the Houthi militias to hang onto their fighters.
Friday, a Coalition airstrike has killed an Iran-backed Houthi militia leader along with 10 others after targeting their convoy in the northwestern city of Saada, Al Arabiya News Channel reported citing sources. Without providing any further details, the sources said the leader was killed in Saada’s Razah district located in the Burkan region. Meanwhile, the Yemeni army has made advances in Taiz with about 20 militia members allied to the Houthis and deposed President Ali Abdullah Saleh killed and wounded after Arab Coalition airstrikes targeted their sites in the southwestern city. Spokesman for Yemen’s Military Council Gen. Mansour al-Hassani said that the country’s national army was able to recapture al-Taba al-Sawoda, Tabat al-Khilwa, al-Munim Jabal in al-Dhabab region in Taiz.

Erdogan says Turkey in 'endgame' over EU membership
Agence France Presse/ Oct. 01, 2016/Istanbul: President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday warned that Turkey had reached the "end of the game" over its decades-long EU membership bid, saying it was time for Brussels once and for all to make clear if it wanted Ankara as a member. In a hard-hitting speech marking the opening session of parliament, Erdogan also told Brussels it needed to allow Turks visa-free travel to the bloc by October, as per a previous agreement to decrease migrant flows. Relations between the European Union and Turkey have strained in the wake of the July 15 failed coup, with EU officials among the most vocal critics of the relentless crackdown against the alleged plotters and supporters. "If the EU is going to make Turkey a full member, we are ready. But they should know that we have came to the end of the game," Erdogan said in a televised speech in Ankara. "There is no need to beat around the bush or engage in diplomatic acrobatics. "It's their (the EU's) choice to continue the path with or without Turkey. They should not hold us responsible," he added. Erdogan said that October would be an important month in Turkey's relations with the European Union and that "it is necessary" that visa-free travel for Turks to the Schengen Area comes into force this month. Under a March deal, Turks were to gain visa-free travel in exchange for Ankara helping reduce the flow of migrants to Europe. However the visa plan as stumbled over Turkey's anti-terror laws. Turkey's bid to join the EU dates back to the 1960s with formal talks starting in 2005. So far, only 16 chapters of the 35 chapter accession process have been opened for Turkey. "The fact that our country has been kept waiting at the door for 53 years shows your (the EU's) opinion towards us," Erdogan added. After the attempted coup, Erdogan mulled bringing back capital punishment, a move which would spell an end to the bid. But he did not mention the issue in the speech to parliament.

Pakistan, India Exchange Fresh Fire in Kashmir
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/October 01/16/Pakistan and India exchanged fresh fire across the Kashmir border Saturday, the Pakistani military said, with Indian officials stating there was no damage as tensions rise between the nuclear-armed rivals. "Pakistani troops befittingly responded to Indian unprovoked firing" which started at 4:00 am (2300 GMT) and continued for four hours in Bhimber sector on the Pakistani side of the border, a military statement said. It did not mention casualties. "There was small arms fire and mortar shells fire from across the border in Akhnoor sector which lasted for around two hours (4:00 am to 6:00 am)," Pawan Kotwal, a top civilian official in Jammu and Kashmir state on the Indian side, told AFP. "No damage was caused. We are ready for any eventuality but it is peaceful in Jammu region."The skirmish came two days after India claimed it had carried out "surgical strikes" across the heavily militarised Line of Control (LoC), the de facto border in the disputed territory, on what it called "terrorist" targets several kilometres (miles) inside Pakistan-controlled Kashmir. The rare public admission of such action sparked furious rhetoric from Pakistan and calls for restraint from the US and the UN. Tensions between the two arch rivals have been boiling since the Indian government accused Pakistan-based militants of launching an assault on an army base in Kashmir earlier this month that killed 18 soldiers. "This is a dangerous moment for the region," Pakistan's Ambassador Maleeha Lodhi told AFP after meeting with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon at UN headquarters in New York. Ban Friday offered to act as a mediator between New Delhi and Islamabad to defuse the tensions. In a statement to AFP, India's mission to the United Nations said "India has no desire to aggravate the situation," and that "our response was a measured counter-terrorist strike". On Friday authorities in parts of northern India said they had started evacuating villages within 10 kilometres (six miles) of the border following the raids earlier this week. India and Pakistan have fought three wars since they gained independence from Britain seven decades ago, two of them over the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir.

Egypt Arrests 3 Reporters Conducting Street Interviews
Associated Press/Naharnet/October 01/16/Egyptian officials say police detained three journalists who were conducting street interviews about President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi's request for small donations of spare change to fund development programs. They say the three — Hamdy Mokhtar, Mohammed Hassan, and Osama al-Bishbishi — were arrested Sept. 26 in downtown Cairo and now face charges of publishing false news and belonging to a banned organization, Egyptian parlance for the Muslim Brotherhood group. A fourth journalist, Noura Nasser, was arrested Sept. 27 as she interviewed Egyptians with postgraduate degrees protesting outside the Cabinet's office to demand jobs. Nasser, who was released two days later, reports for an opposition news website. The officials spoke Saturday on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media.

Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on on October 01-02/16

Europe's New Media Darlings: Terrorists
Giulio Meotti/Gatestone Institute/October 01/16

http://eliasbejjaninews.com/2016/10/01/giulio-meottigatestone-institute-europes-new-media-darlings-terrorists/
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/8959/europe-darlings-terrorists
It is such a shame and an irony that terrorists who have killed and ordered the killing of unarmed and innocent Jews, are now being celebrated as Europe's apostles of peace.
Can you imagine Italian or French mayors and members of Parliament naming a street after Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, who murdered at least 84 people in Nice on July 14? Or honoring the brothers Salah and Brahim Abdesalem for their attack at the Bataclan Theater in Paris on November 13, 2015, in which 89 people were murdered?
What would have happened if the city council of Jerusalem had conferred the honorary citizenship on Italy's Mafia leader, Totò Riina, calling him a "political prisoner"? What would have happened if the city council of Tel Aviv had named a street after Giovanni Brusca, the Mafia butcher who kidnapped and tortured the 11-year-old son of another mafioso who had betrayed him, and then dissolved the boy's body in acid? The Italian government would have vehemently protested. With Palestinian terrorists, however, there is another standard, as if in the eyes of many of Italy's city councils, terror against Israeli Jews is actually justified.
In the pro-Palestinian credentials of the mayor of Naples, Luigi de Magistris, the only item missing was giving honorary citizenship to a Palestinian terrorist. Bilal Kayed is anything but a "man of peace." He is a dangerous Palestinian terrorist who spent 14 years in Israeli prisons for two shooting attacks, and for planning and attempting the (unsuccessful) kidnapping of a soldier. Kayed is now a new honorary citizen of Naples.
"[It is] a decision that harms the image of Naples", protested the newly elected president of the Union of Italian Jewish Communities, Noemi Di Segni. Meanwhile, Naples city council has refused to grant honorary citizenship to the Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem.
It is not the first time that Mayor De Magistris embraces anti-Israel militancy. The city of Naples provided a municipal room to show a documentary called, "Israel, The Cancer," which shamefully compares Israeli soldiers to Nazis. Israel's Ambassador to Italy, Naor Gilon, protested against the screening and noted that "the film's title, 'Israel, The Cancer', is reminiscent of dark eras in the Italian and European history, in which Jews were defined as a disease."
De Magistris also received reciprocal "Palestinian citizenship" from the hands of the Palestinian Authority (PA), and the mayor of Naples returned the favor by granting honorary citizenship to PA President Mahmoud Abbas. De Magistris also gave his support to the "Freedom Flotilla," a convoy of ships that tried to bring weapons to the Hamas regime in Gaza. Eleonora De Majo, a candidate on De Magistris' political list, also called the Israelis "pigs."
De Magistris is not the only Italian mayor who apparently prizes Palestinian terrorism. Palermo's mayor, Leoluca Orlando, awarded honorary citizenship to Marwan Barghouti, the Palestinian terrorist who orchestrated attacks that killed several people and who is currently serving five life sentences in an Israeli prison.
Many of Europe's streets are plastered with the names of the Palestinian terrorists. The French town of Valenton named a street for Marwan Barghouti; and a few days after a priest was slaughtered this summer in France, a group of French cities planned to honor Barghouti. Towns such as Pierrefitte-sur-Seine have already awarded him honorary citizenship, and a photograph of the Palestinian terror leader was hung on the front of its city hall.
Barghouti, who masterminded the 2002 attack at the Seafood Market in Tel Aviv and a massacre in Hadera which killed six Israelis, is a man Europe's television stations love to show handcuffed with his arms raised. He is Europe's idol, a hero, an icon. The Guardian even published an op-ed piece by Barghouti, in which he expresses support for the "Third Intifada" of stabbing- and shooting-attacks and car-rammings.
The mayor of Palermo, Italy, Leoluca Orlando (left), awarded honorary citizenship to Marwan Barghouti (right), the Palestinian terrorist who orchestrated attacks that killed several people and who is currently serving five life sentences in an Israeli prison.
The Western press loves Barghouti and even tries to compare him to Nelson Mandela, in articles such as "The Question of Barghouti: Is He a Mandela or an Arafat?" (Time); "A Mideast Mandela" (Newsweek) and "A Nelson Mandela for the Palestinians" (New York Times).
Twenty French cities, such as Vitry-sur-Seine, La Verrière and Montataire, have granted honorary citizenship to this terrorist and plastered their streets with his disgraceful name. The Jeu de Paume National Gallery in Paris hosted an exhibition calling Palestinian suicide bombers "martyrs." The exhibit "Death", by photographer Ahlam Shibli, featured Palestinian suicide bombers with captions that promote the jihadist agenda of glorifying their deaths.
Bezons, an urban conglomerate just 10 kilometers from Paris, was also the first French town officially to include among its honorary citizenship the Palestinian terrorist, Majdi Rimawi, who planned and carried out the assassination of Israel's Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi in 2001. Rimawi, who sits in an Israeli prison, was immortalized in a plaque prepared by the city of Bezons in 2013, which labels the terrorist as a "political prisoner."
The mayor of Bezons, Dominique Lesparre, held a public speech in which he called Rimawi a "victim." In the official document issued by Bezons City Hall, entitled "Prisonnier et citoyen d'honneur," the fact that Rimawi is a murderer was not even mentioned.
It is such a shame and an irony that terrorists who have killed and ordered the killing of unarmed and innocent Jews, are now being celebrated as Europe's apostles of peace. They are now even the new media darlings.
Can you imagine Italian or French mayors and members of Parliament naming a street after Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, who murdered at least 84 people in Nice on July 14? Or honoring the brothers Salah and Brahim Abdesalem for their attack at the Bataclan Theater in Paris on November 13, 2015, in which 89 people were murdered? Or Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, was linked to nearly every al-Qaeda attack between 1993 and 2003?
**Giulio Meotti, Cultural Editor for Il Foglio, is an Italian journalist and author.
© 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.

Why JASTA compresses the US view of Saudi Arabia
Abdullah Hamidaddin/Al Arabiya/October 01/16
Wednesday September 28 will be marked as a key milestone in the downfall of US-Saudi relations. Both the House and the Senate overwhelmingly voted to override President Obama’s veto on Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA). Both voted against the interests of Saudi Arabia.
Most of what’s been written has focused on how the law may reshape international relations, jeopardize the sacred principle of sovereign immunity, threaten the interests of mega US corporations working in Saudi Arabia, jeopardize America’s relations with its allies, or expose the United States to similar suits from other countries. They called those big issues: “unintended consequences”, and decided JASTA was an “imperfect solution” meant to bring justice and give the families of the victims of 9-11 a day in court. The members of Congress cited other laws that make exceptions to the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, and that JASTA is not be the first law that allows US citizens to sue foreign governments. In the debate to support the law they said that if American citizens can sue a foreign government due to a bar fight, then why not sue it for supporting a terrorist attack on US soil. The reaction of Saudis to this law has been mixed. Many snubbed the law stating that since Saudi Arabia had nothing to do with 9-11 then – echoing some Senate members – Saudi has nothing to worry about. Others focused on the financial aspects of the law, some on the complexity of the legal procedures needed to activate the law, or on the damage to the US.
We should have nothing to worry about the conclusion of a trial but about the process. JASTA is indeed a statement about how Congress values Saudi Arabia
But the key question posed by many Saudis was: What does passing JASTA say about what we are to America? What does it say to see that the both houses of Congress almost unanimously supported a law that when put into practice will damage Saudi Arabia’s image in the United States? During the debate on overriding the veto, members of Congress insisted that JASTA does not target a specific country and most avoided mentioning Saudi Arabia. But they also made it clear that the victims of 9-11 must have their day in court and some pointed out that if “Saudi Arabia is innocent” then it “has nothing to fear.”
So what they are saying is that we should not worry about going to a court of law and that dragging another country to courts should not complicate relations with it. While the wording of the law does not mention Saudi Arabia, yet JASTA is associated in the public perception with Saudi Arabia, and the only country that the lawmakers associated with the law was Saudi Arabia. Passing that law is itself a public indictment of Saudi Arabia; one which goes against all the existing evidence.
Public trial?
And imagine a court of law that will be covered by the media and followed by the nation, where expert witnesses will be brought on the issue of 9-11 but also on issues around it. This is probably going to be public trial for Islam, Salafism, Wahhabism and the history of the region. We should have nothing to worry about the conclusion of a trial but about the process. JASTA is indeed a statement about how Congress values Saudi Arabia. Before the passing of JASTA we knew our value before American politicians, but we chose to ignore it focusing on the unique aspects of the relationship and the deep interests between the two countries. We constantly heard from American politicians and experts that Saudi Arabia – to use the words of a House Representative – plants “the seeds of terrorism around the world.” But we chose to ignore that. Last May in a House Committee on Foreign Affairs’ hearing on “The US-Saudi Arabia Counter-Terrorism Relationship”, we heard one of the expert witnesses say: “policymakers would do well to remember that Saudi Arabia is a key partner but not a friend: the United States and Saudi Arabia share many common interests, but they do not share common values or a common worldview.” Yet we also chose to ignore that. After JASTA we can no longer ignore such utterances.

That was the American week that was
Hisham Melhem/Al Arabiya/October 01/16
It was a week of epic suffering and a heroic affirmation of life in Aleppo. It was a week of stunning triumph of gutter politics, lies and non-existent sex tapes in the American presidential race. It was a week when the Senate, supposedly the greatest deliberative body in history, experienced an embarrassing Brexit moment. That was the American week that was; indifference to the blood, sweat and tears of Aleppo, transforming presidential debates into freak shows and turning American public discourse into a form of political debauchery. It was the week when public spaces and social media were swept by excessive indulgence in narcissism and vindictiveness.
A presidential race, to the bottom
Republican candidate Donald Trump strutted into the arena hoping to turn the debate with his rival Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton into a duel in which he would mercilessly use all lethal weapons in his arsenal to dispatch his opponent. Ninety minutes later Trump was bloodied and flailing. The commentariat, and later the opinion polls declared Clinton the clear winner of the duel. But, in Trumpland, where old rules and conventional facts don’t apply, Trump proclaimed himself the winner then he became totally unrestrained and unhinged, the minute the debate was over. Hillary Clinton, a consummate member of the “political establishment,” and known for shaving the truth, succeeded in piercing Trump’s vanity and duped him into admitting that he does not pay Federal taxes, then after she softened him, hit him hard as a vulgar misogynist. Clinton produced exhibit one in her indictment of Trump in the form of Alicia Machondo, a former Miss Universe, that Trump invariably denigrated her when she was 18-years-old, by calling her “Miss Piggy,” “eating machine” and “Miss Housekeeping” because she was Latina. The blindsided Trump lashed out at Clinton and Machondo, smelling a conspiracy to destroy his candidacy. But, instead of putting the controversy behind him, Trump ignoring the advice of his senior staff, plunged into the gutter, waging a quixotic campaign to destroy Machondo’s reputation. In the wee hours of Friday morning, an insomniac Trump unleashed a torrent of tweets against Clinton and Machondo, insinuating that the former beauty queen is a promiscuous woman and worse.
Trump tweeted “Did Crooked Hillary help disgusting (check out sex tape and past) Alicia M become a US citizen so she could use her in the debate?”
The presidential candidate of the Republican Party, was not only accusing his rival of abusing the law; he was also calling on American voters to watch an alleged sex tape. And as usual, Trump could not and would not provide any proof against Clinton or to establish that Machondo had appeared in pornographic films as he and some of his henchmen have suggested. The moral vacuity of the Trump campaign is on full display when he and his senior surrogates claim that he behaved as a “gentleman” when he restrained himself during the debate and did not dredge up former President Bill Clinton’s philandering. No less a figure than the former speaker of the House of Representatives Newt Gingrich was touting this absurdity: “He thought about it, and I am sure he said to himself, ‘a president of the United States shouldn’t attack somebody personally when their daughter is sitting in the audience…And he bit his tongue, and he was a gentleman ...’The mendacities of this political seasons are overwhelming particularly, but not exclusively from Trump and his campaign. The amount of brazen lies, embellishments and exaggerations contained in a speech (and there are people who count them) can be staggering. The lies continue even if there is a video stating the opposite. Trump still claims that he opposed the invasion of Iraq and the military campaign in Libya, despite the existence of tapes showing otherwise. Hillary Clinton denies saying that the Trans-Pacific-Partnership was the “gold standard” of trade deals, when there is a tape showing otherwise.
The amount of brazen lies, embellishments and exaggerations contained in a speech (and there are people who count them) can be staggering. The lies continue even if there is a video stating the opposite.
It was emblematic of the decadence that has engulfed political life in the United States, that a ninety minute Presidential debate circa 2016, at a time the US is being challenged by a belligerent Russia, an increasingly assertive China and by the historic unraveling of parts of the Middle East, that the war in Syria did not merit a fleeting mention and that the horror of Aleppo, caused in part by Russia, was not even mentioned once.
The Senate of our discontent
When the political class and the media were busy following the latest outrages from the campaign trail, Congress was grappling with the issue of overriding the Presidential veto of a legislation called the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, JASTA which was passed overwhelmingly by both chambers of congress. The new legislation allows victims of terrorism on US soil, such as the victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks, to sue foreign governments found responsible for those crimes. The legislation is first and foremost aimed at Saudi Arabia. The vote is considered one of the easiest votes a legislator would sign because of the great sympathy for the victims’ families and because the vote is taking place during the election season. The opponent of the Act, including the Obama administration, warned that it will create a dangerous precedent that could haunt the US if foreign governments enacted similar laws to be used against American interests and personnel overseas. Even the proponent of the Act warned against the many unintended consequences of the Act. Even while voting to override the president’s veto, a number of Senators expressed a sense of buyer’s remorse and pushed for ways to amend or mitigate some of the “unintended ramifications” of the Act as Senator Majority leader Mitch McConnel said.
The Senate found itself experiencing a Brexit like moment when immediately after 97 Senators voted to override the veto, nearly 30 senators sent a letter to Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn and Senator Chuck Schumer asking for cooperation to mitigate those unintended national security implications of the legislation. What was equally shocking was the fact that President Obama and his senior aides did not lobby hard, as expected, against the veto override. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker said he and other senators repeatedly requested meetings with White House officials to work on a potential text, but the White House ignored their requests. Obama was described as “detached” or that he “did not lift a finger” to prevent the override. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said last week the White House did not ask her to oppose the override. So she voted to override the veto, thus giving a cover to all the Democratic representatives wishing to override the veto. It is believed that Obama’s position reflects his ambivalence, and maybe his unfriendly view of Saudi Arabia that he had expressed in the Atlantic Magazine’s interview last spring. The JASTA episode reflects negatively on the dysfunction in Washington and the wobbly leadership of Obama and the leaders of Congress.
Kerry to Syrians: You are on your own
On Friday evening, the New York Times published the minutes (along with the audio) of a meeting between Secretary of State John Kerry and a group of Syrian civilians opposed to the Assad regime in late September in New York City. The exchange is stunning and it confirms the worst fears of those Syrians who are looking for a post-Assad Syria. Kerry oscillated between expressing frustration with the unwillingness of the White House to take a more forceful position against Assad and Russia’s depredation and his feeble attempts to justify a policy he does not embrace. In a stunning move coming after five years of President Obama’s call on Assad to step down, Kerry called on the opposition to participate in elections with Assad remaining in power, claiming that “registered” Syrian refugees anywhere in the world could vote and that Assad really fears the outcome of such a vote. Kerry made it clear that there is no support in the White House, Congress or among the American people for military action in Syria, saying: “I lost the argument” for the use of force against the Assad regime. Listening to Kerry’s words is particularly painful, given the political absurdities of the political establishment in Washington and the abandonment of both political parties of those Syrians still struggling for a modern, open and representative post-Assad Syria, and given the horrific human disaster unfolding in Aleppo. These are the unvarnished confessions of John Kerry. As such they are a case study of the abject failure of imagination of leadership. One would imagine that Syrians and historians will be asking for years to come: What have you wrought Barack Hussein Obama?

Can Putin’s Palestine peace plan succeed?
Dr. Azeem Ibrahim/Al Arabiya/October 01/16
How far will Putin go to annoy the US? News is now emerging that Russia wants to start its own peace process in the Israel-Palestine conflict and Vladimir Putin is making the initial manoeuvres to test the waters with both Mahmoud Abbas and Benjamin Netanyahu via their common friend, Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. What is interesting about this is that Russia cannot possibly think that they can succeed where eight years of diplomacy by the Obama administration has failed. Israel holds most, if not all of the cards. It is militarily supreme in its region, and it is underwritten with a blank cheque by the US Congress. They do not have to do anything they do not want to do - not even when the US president is pressuring them. Let alone Russia. The fundamental problem for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is that both sides see negotiations as a zero-sum game. One party’s gain is the other’s loss. Israel has the upper hand, and has no reason to be generous with concessions to the Palestinians. And it is guaranteed to make no concessions as long as the right-wing Likud party is in power. Even more so now that they are allied with the ultra-Zionist Yisrael Beiteinu party in the Knesset.
The only way to get Israel to move on the issue is to force them to compromise. But the only party who can impose on them in that way is the United States, or, as the events of the past eight years have demonstrated, specifically the US Congress. When the Obama administration came to power, it had grand visions of peace in the Middle East. And despite its catalogue of failures in other areas in the region, they have certainly showed more determination to bring Israel to the negotiating table and impose on them the need to make concessions toward the two-state solution than any other administration before them. But even then they failed. Even the Presidency proved impotent while Congress continues to unconditionally support and fund Israel. So if the Obama administration has failed to move the Israelis on the issue, with the only apparent result an increasingly irritated Netanyahu, what does Putin think he can achieve? As always, it is difficult to double-guess what he might be thinking. But from the outside, it is patently clear that Russia has little to offer to Israel in the form of inducement or constraint.
‘The game plan’
The only reason why Netanyahu might play along with the charade at all is to annoy the Americans – he is happy to take the opportunity to chide Obama, for having the temerity to try and impress Palestinian demands on his government. Putin is known to be much more pro-Palestinian than even Obama, and the chances that any of this will ever go anywhere productive are effectively zero. Putin’s overall game plan for the Middle East seems to be to weave this narrative of American withdrawal and decline and that may well be an accurate description of the situation in the region. But that may not matter. Putin’s overall game plan for the Middle East seems to be to weave this narrative of American withdrawal and decline and that may well be an accurate description of the situation in the region. Putin seeks to insert himself in this power vacuum left by the United States and reassert Russia’s status as a global power willing and able to do those things which the United States is not. Thus, Russia intervened in Syria on behalf of their preferred side when the United States failed to act over the chemical weapons red line. In the same vein, if Russia is seen to be making progress on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict after so many decades of American failures, that would be the crowning achievement of such a strategy. The only snag is that it has a precisely zero chance of succeeding. So is Putin willing to overextend himself diplomatically by tying himself down to a sinking ship on the off-chance that it might make America look bad? As far as some American commentators are concerned, he is more than welcome to it.

Why I’m Voting for Donald Trump
Lynne Kessler Lechter/Hadassah Magazine/October 01/16

http://eliasbejjaninews.com/2016/10/01/lynne-kessler-lechterhadassah-magazine-why-im-voting-for-donald-trump/
http://www.israpundit.org/archives/63618114?utm_source=phplist2989&utm_medium=email&utm_content=HTML&utm_campaign=ISRAPUNDIT+DAILY+DIGEST+OCT+1%2F16
The United Kingdom’s recent decision to leave the European Union was predicated on its citizens’ choice between self-government and the continuation of anonymous rule by bureaucrats in Brussels. The British polls, pundits and politicos didn’t accurately predict the outcome of the vote. Donald Trump did, and he did because sovereignty—the authority of a person, group or state to govern itself—has always been the consistent subtext of his messaging.
We Americans are blessed with a Constitution and jurisprudence (based in large measure on laws set forth in the Torah) that honor individual life, dignity and self-determination. In this system, government’s main purpose is to protect us from internal and external harm. In exchange, we abdicate vigilantism and agree to abide by the government’s laws. Power flows to and from the citizens and the state.
Similar to citizens in the United Kingdom, many Americans feel their power incrementally shifting away from them toward the state. Vast, anonymous, unaccountable and increasingly imperial bureaucratic agencies spit out rules and regulations, wrapping a net around the individual’s autonomy.
Americans are dying in faraway places for a war that has not been ratified against an enemy that shall not be named. At home, veterans are dying due to the United States Department of Veterans Affairs’ inexcusable lag time in tending to their needs. The list goes on. Political correctness, university safe spaces and “victim categories” have made free speech a four-letter word. The illegal flouting of our immigration laws, illustrated by the existence of multiple “sanctuary” cities, is evidence that the rule of law, on which our compact with our government is maintained, is crumbling.
Our foreign policy in the Middle East lies in shambles. ISIS, the brutal self-declared caliphate once deemed a JV team, now controls swaths of at least two countries. The FBI is investigating over 1,000 jihadist cells in the United States, and terror attacks here are escalating. The Arab Spring has morphed into the Arab killing grounds, and the incomprehensible Iran nuclear deal has added to the danger, as Iran now has additional monies to fund terror.
Trump gives the country an alternative to bureaucratic failures and to those who refuse to name the true misogynists, racists and enemy: the radical Islamic terrorists who enslave women and murder gays, Jews and Christians.
I am inspired by his formula to “Make America Great Again,” including his vows to:
• Streamline the bureaucracies and overturn needless regulations that hamper growth;
• Institute programs like the Keystone pipeline, renegotiate trade deals and rebuild the nation’s infrastructure, all of which will provide more job opportunities;
• Overturn and replace Obamacare, which has increased costs, limited doctor access and converted good-paying, full-time jobs into low-paying, part-time ones;
• Reduce corporate and personal taxes and offer a sensible, one-time deal to repatriate billions of dollars currently held off-shore;
•Streamline the Department of Veterans Affairs and offer access to private providers;
• Rebuild our military in order to negotiate foreign policy from a position of strength; and
• Build a wall on our southern border and monitor visa stays to stop illegal immigrants, including the terrorists among them.
Trump deems terror in Israel equivalent to terror in the United States and elsewhere, and he has Israel’s back. The safety of United States’ citizens is paramount and he will fight to ensure our security. Trump has seen the dramatic need for change and is the leader with the bold and comprehensive plans to move us forward.
**Lynne Kessler Lechter is a founding partner of a Philadelphia-area law firm and serves on the President’s Council of the Republican Jewish Coalition.

Congress Must Act to Prevent Unilateral Move to Create Palestinian State
by Clifford Smith/The American Spectator/October 01/16
http://www.meforum.org/6311/congress-must-stop-unilateral-palestinian-statehood
President Obama is rumored to be considering a major reversal of decades-long U.S. policy toward Israel by supporting a UN Security Council resolution that unilaterally recognizes a Palestinian state before a peace agreement is negotiated between Israel and the Palestinians. Congress must act to counter this bold and reckless move that endangers Israel's security and America's strategic interests.
There is much at stake: Israel is a free and democratic ally in a hostile region that has been repeatedly attacked by its neighbors. Before it occupied the West Bank, Gaza, and Golan Heights in 1967, these territories were used as a base of war and terrorism against the Jewish state. Offers to create a Palestinian state in Gaza and most of the West Bank that would allow for a safe and secure Israel have been repaid by intifada after intifada.
Others have argued persuasively that any Palestinian state established in the absence of a peace agreement with Israel will become a virtually ungovernable hotbed of terrorism sure to threaten not just Israel, but also the region and the world. The events in Gaza in the past decade strongly support this position. Ordinary Palestinians will also suffer, forced to endure rule by the same Islamic fanatics and brutal, corrupt autocrats who have destroyed their economy.
Any Palestinian state established absent a peace agreement with Israel will be a hotbed of terrorism.
A White House decision to support unilateral Palestinian statehood would unquestionably be contrary to the will of Congress: 88 senators recently signed a letter opposing such an action, while 388 members of the House have signed a similar letter supporting a veto of all "one-sided" UN resolutions concerning the Israel/Palestine issue.
And these numbers understate congressional opposition: several senators refused to sign the letter because they thought it was insufficiently strong. Furthermore, a White House reversal on unilateral Palestinian statehood would also be contrary to the stated policies of both the Democratic and Republican presidential nominees.
To dissuade a determined White House from this course of action, Congress will have to do more than write letters. Here are some of the legislative options that could throw significant roadblocks in its path.
Congress should make clear it will sanction a unilaterally declared Palestinian state.
First, Congress should make clear its intention to sanction any unilaterally-declared Palestinian state and its new leaders, blocking their access to U.S. banking and markets, similar to sanctions on the Iranian regime. Loss of access to the U.S. financial system would be extremely costly to any Palestinian regime.
Second, Congress should make clear its intention to immediately and completely cut hundreds of millions of dollars in annual U.S. direct aid to the Palestinian Authority (PA) in the event that President Mahmoud Abbas succeeds in his bid to win Palestinian statehood recognition at the UN.
Congress reduced this aid by 22 percent last year in retaliation for the PA's continuing terrorism incitement. It would be a significant blow to a new state to cut all such aid.
PA President Mahmoud Abbas meets with relatives of Palestinian "martyrs" against Israel in a photo published by the official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, March 2, 2016.
Third, Congress should mandate that any newly-created Palestinian state be designated a state sponsor of terrorism. This designation would include restrictions on U.S. foreign assistance; a ban on defense exports and sales; and various other restrictions. The Palestinian Authority (PA) currently uses a shell-game to pay the families of terrorists, something Congress is currently working to stop. Other PA ties to various terrorist activities go back decades.
Finally, Congress should review and update decades-old federal laws prohibiting U.S. funding of any UN organization that "accords the Palestine Liberation Organization the same standing as member states" to ensure that they apply and cannot be skirted if Abbas wins Security Council recognition of Palestinian statehood.
Now would be a good time for Congress to stop shirking its duty to shape foreign policy.
Congress should use its power boldly to exert influence over this vital issue. Large majorities in Congress opposed the Iran nuclear deal and had both the facts and public opinion on their side. But due to the peculiarities of the law and the politics of the situation, they were outmaneuvered. Congress should work to ensure this situation is not repeated.
Though knowledgeable and trusted congressional leaders like Senators Arthur Vandenberg and Henry "Scoop" Jackson once led coalitions in Congress that held great influence in foreign affairs, there is a bipartisan belief that Congress has shirked its duty to shape foreign policy in recent decades. Now would be a good time to start taking it back.
**Clifford Smith is director of the Middle East Forum's Washington Project.