LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
July 05/15
http://www.eliasbejjaninews.com/newsbulletins05/english.july05.15.htm
Question: "Is it okay to get tattoos if they are of a
Christian nature?"
GotQuestions.org/ July 04/15
Answer: As a background, please read our article on "What does the Bible say
about tattoos and body piercings?". Beyond the general theme of that article,
there is the question of Christian tattoos. Do the same principles apply to
tattoos that are of a Christian nature, such as a cross, a Christian slogan, or
even a Bible verse? Some Christians have found that having tattoos gives them
more credibility, and thereby more possibilities of evangelism, with some groups
of people. So what about Christian tattoos?
Obviously, a tattoo of a cross is “better” than a tattoo of a flaming skull,
naked woman, or demon. Having a tattoo saying “Jesus saves” could indeed be a
conversation starter with some people who would never approach a preacher
wearing a suit and tie. Some refer to Revelation 19:16 as an example of Jesus
possibly having a tattoo on His thigh, “King of kings and Lord of lords.” The
question is not necessarily “is getting a tattoo a sin?” The question is more
“is getting a tattoo a good and necessary thing to do?” First Corinthians 10:23
declares, “Everything is permissible – but not everything is beneficial.
Everything is permissible – but not everything is constructive.” Christian
tattoos may be “permissible,” but are they beneficial and constructive?
In 1 Corinthians 9:22-23, Paul exclaims, “I have become all things to all men so
that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the
gospel.” Becoming all things to save some is perhaps the only good possible
reason for getting a Christian tattoo. If having a tattoo genuinely opens doors
for evangelism that would otherwise be closed, getting Christian tattoos would
likely “qualify” under Paul’s “becoming all things” qualification. At the same
time, it is frankly difficult to envision a scenario in which having a tattoo
would enable a greater possibility of evangelism. If a person will not listen to
you due to a lack of a tattoo, it is highly unlikely that such a person would
genuinely listen due to the presence of a tattoo.
With that said, the biblically based conclusion would seem to be that Christian
tattoos are permissible, but it is highly questionable whether they can be
considered beneficial and constructive. A Christian considering getting a tattoo
should pray for wisdom (James 1:5) and ask the Lord to provide pure motives and
discernment.
*Recommended Resources: Soul Tattoo: A Life and Spirit Bearing the Marks of God
by Samuel Kee and Logos Bible Software.
Bible Quotation For Today/For
so the Lord has commanded us, saying, "I have set you to be a light for the
Gentiles, so that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth." ’
Acts of the
Apostles 13/44-52.: "The next sabbath almost the whole city gathered to hear the
word of the Lord. But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with
jealousy; and blaspheming, they contradicted what was spoken by Paul. Then both
Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly, saying, ‘It was necessary that the word of
God should be spoken first to you. Since you reject it and judge yourselves to
be unworthy of eternal life, we are now turning to the Gentiles. For so the Lord
has commanded us, saying, "I have set you to be a light for the Gentiles, so
that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth." ’When the Gentiles heard
this, they were glad and praised the word of the Lord; and as many as had been
destined for eternal life became believers. Thus the word of the Lord spread
throughout the region. But the Jews incited the devout women of high standing
and the leading men of the city, and stirred up persecution against Paul and
Barnabas, and drove them out of their region. So they shook the dust off their
feet in protest against them, and went to Iconium. And the disciples were filled
with joy and with the Holy Spirit.
Bible Quotation For Today/Whoever
believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever disobeys the Son will not see
life, but must endure God’s wrath.
Holy Gospel
of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 03/31-36: "The one who comes from above
is above all; the one who is of the earth belongs to the earth and speaks about
earthly things. The one who comes from heaven is above all. He testifies to what
he has seen and heard, yet no one accepts his testimony. Whoever has accepted
his testimony has certified this, that God is true. He whom God has sent speaks
the words of God, for he gives the Spirit without measure. The Father loves the
Son and has placed all things in his hands.Whoever believes in the Son has
eternal life; whoever disobeys the Son will not see life, but must endure God’s
wrath."
LCCC
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LCCC Bulletin itles for the
Lebanese Related News published on July 04-05/15
Report:
Lebanese Cabinet Crisis Enters New Turn
Israeli Troops Deploy in Shebaa Outskirts, Position Close to Blue Line
Lebanese Army Deters Infiltration Attempts in al-Qaa, Ras Baalbek and Arsal
Rifi: Hizbullah's Behavior Triggers Sedition, We only Count on the State
Assad forces, Hezbollah launch major assault on Lebanon border city
Lebanese Farmers call for long-term plan to help sector
Geagea: E-government would help stamp out corruption
Lebanon hostage families plead with Qatari emir for help
Man found dead on Tyre coast
Hezbollah, Syrian army tighten siege on city near Lebanon border
Lebanese Army receives shipment of Chinese weapons
Man shot dead in south Lebanon refugee camp
AUB hires US professor fired over anti-Israel tweets
Mount Lebanon teen found dead with head wound
FPM preparing for street protests: Aoun
A macabre, deadly joke
Aoun Says FPM Preparing for Protests as Bassil Vows to Take Partnership by For
Report: Aoun Calls for Meeting in Rabieh, Protests 'Marginalizing Christians'
LCCC Bulletin Miscellaneous Reports And
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Pope says Catholic Church should not have ‘leaders for life’
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Possible breakthrough on implementing Iran sanction relief
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Report: Lebanese Cabinet Crisis Enters New Turn
Naharnet/July 04, 2015/The government crisis is standing now on a new turn in
light of MP Michel Aoun's calls to his supporters to take to the streets and PM
Tammam Salam's call for a cabinet session next week which Aoun sees as a
challenge, al-Joumhouria daily said on Saturday. Aoun has called on his
supporters to be prepared to take to the streets in protest to the decree
approved by the cabinet on Thursday to export agricultural and industrial
products by sea. Salam's call for a session next week to continue the
discussions also angered Aoun, but sources to the PM assured that “he did not
call for a meeting to challenge Aoun or any of his allies, but to carry on with
governmental work” they told al-Joumhouria daily. In a swift response to Salam's
remarks, Change and Reform bloc MP Ibrahim Kanaan said: "We are being challenged
and not the PM."“The last cabinet session encouraged Salam to call for another
one next Thursday because the ministers have shown determination to continue the
work of the government at this stage in particular, which is what Salam wanted,”
the sources added. “We must reach a stage where the government carries on with
its major duties in order to address the daily livelihood matters of
people.”Salam halted the meetings of the cabinet early in June when the FPM
ministers threatened to boycott the sessions if the appointment of high-ranking
military and security officials did not top the agenda. On Thursday, the
government approved the decree to allot 21 million dollars to help export
agricultural and industrial products by sea despite a dispute on the issue
because Free Patriotic Movement, Hizbullah and Tashnag Party ministers stressed
that no issue should be discussed until the appointments were made. Lebanon's
agriculture and industrial sectors plunged in crisis after Jordan closed the
Nassib border crossing with Syria earlier this year, making it impossible for
the products to be transported by land through trucks to Gulf countries.
Israeli Troops Deploy in Shebaa Outskirts, Position Close
to Blue Line
Naharnet//July 04, 2015/Israeli troops deployed in the outskirts of the town of
Shebaa and took combat positions close to Lebanon's Blue Line, the state-run
National News Agency said on Saturday. At 10:00 am, the troops deployed in the
al-Shahel area near the Blue Line that demarcates the border between Lebanon and
Israel, NNA added. Israeli troops regularly cross the electronic border fence
and sometimes enter Lebanese territory through the U.N.-demarcated Blue Line,
which was drawn up following Israel’s withdrawal from south Lebanon in 2000
after a 22-year occupation. The fence runs parallel to the Blue Line.
Lebanese Army Deters Infiltration Attempts in al-Qaa, Ras Baalbek
and Arsal
Naharnet//July 04, 2015/The army targeted militants on Saturday in several areas
in the outskirts of al-Qaa, Ras Baalbek and Arsal after suspicious moves and
attempts to infiltrate its positions, the state-run National News Agency said.
At dawn, the army targeted the militants with heavy artillery in Wadi Rafiq in
the outskirts of al-Qaa, in the outskirts of Ras Baalbek and Arsal area after it
suspicious moves aiming to infiltrate its positions, NNA. The army used flare
bombs to detect the assailants exact positions. Moreover, four Syrian nationals
were arrested on the al-Labweh road for having links with terrorist
organizations, NNA added. The mountainous area has long been a smuggling haven,
with multiple routes into Syria that have been used since the conflict began in
March 2011 to transport weapons and fighters. On the other hand, heavy clashes
erupted between Hizbullah and armed groups on the eastern outskirts of Arsal.
Rifi: Hizbullah's Behavior Triggers Sedition, We only Count
on the State
Naharnet//July 04, 2015/Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi held Hizbullah responsible
for the al-Saadiyat incident, stressing commitment to the state's authority and
urging all related officials to unite efforts and put an end to the party's
behavior, the National News Agency said on Saturday. “Lately we have seen the
criminal act in al-Saadiyat where Hizbullah, under the cover of the so-called
Resistance Brigades, violated the town and terrorized its people through a show
of force repeating the scene of May 7,” said Rifi during an Iftar in the town of
Tripoli. “I hold Hizbullah responsible for that incident and for any other
incident that might take place in other regions.” Stressing the necessity to put
an end to the spread of Hizbullah's arms which he said seeks to impose a
de-facto situation, Rifi said: “We are committed to the state's authority and we
will not accept any illegal arms. We call on all officials at all levels to come
together and put an end to Hizbullah's behavior which triggers sedition, and
violates peace and dignities.”Heavy clashes erupted on Wednesday in al-Saadiyat
between al-Mustaqbal and Resistance Brigades supporters leaving scores of people
injured, including an army personnel. Reports have said that the clashes erupted
when assailants fired at a cafe where a number of youth were having their Suhour.
Assad forces, Hezbollah launch major assault on Lebanon border city
By REUTERS/07/04/2015/BEIRUT - The Syrian army and its allied militia launched a
major assault on the rebel-held Syrian city of Zabadani on Saturday, Lebanese
group Hezbollah's television station said. It said heavy artillery and aerial
bombardment were being deployed to capture Zabadani, located north-west of the
Syrian capital near the frontier with Lebanon. Footage released on the channel
showed large plumes of fire rising from the city. The Syrian army, with its
Shi'ite ally Hezbollah, has long sought to wrest control of Zabadani from Sunni
militants. The city is close to the Beirut-Damascus highway that links the two
countries and capturing it would be a major strategic gain for Syrian President
Bashar al Assad's government. The former popular resort city is one of the
rebels' last strongholds along the border. It was part of a major supply route
for weapons sent by Syria to Hezbollah before the outbreak of the Syrian
conflict in 2011. Violence from the four-year civil war has regularly spilled
over into Lebanon. The Syrian military and pro-government fighters have
regularly clashed with insurgents in the mountainous area north of the capital.
The rebel groups in the area include al-Qaida's Syrian wing, the Nusra
Front.Iranian-backed Hezbollah has stepped up its assault on rebel outposts
along the Qalamoun mountain region straddling the Lebanese Syrian border in
recent months. An announcement of the start of a major military campaign by the
Syrian army and the Lebanese group to capture Zabadani had been expected in
recent days.
The rebels say they have planted mines around the city, which is mostly
deserted, and are well prepared to repel the assault. The Syrian army is
fighting on several other fronts; as well as battling rebels around the southern
city of Deraa and the northern city of Aleppo, it has been fighting Islamic
State as the militant group attempts to seize government-held areas of the
northeastern city of Hasaka.
Lebanese Farmers call for long-term plan to help sector
Dana Halawi/The Daily Star//July 04, 2015/BEIRUT: Farmers praised the
government’s decision to subsidize agricultural exports but insisted that this
step is not sufficient to solve the long-term problems of the sector. “I
consider the initiative taken by the government as a great achievement but it
will only provide a solution for a short period. What we really need is a
long-term solution to our export problem as we don’t really know when the
security situation in the region will stabilize and when land routes will open
again,” said Ramez Osseiran, head of the farmers’ association in south Lebanon.
Lebanon’s exports have suffered tremendously in the past three months following
the closure of Nassib border, which is the only functioning crossing between
Jordan and Syria and is vital for the transportation of goods from Lebanon and
Syria to Jordan and Gulf countries. As a result, Agriculture Minister Akram
Chehayeb proposed subsidizing the additional cost of the maritime export of
locally produced products by allocating $21 million over the coming seven
months.
By adopting this measure, the state would pay for each truck exported by sea the
amount of $1,500, which is the additional cost incurred when using such a mode
of transportation. Agriculture Minister Akram Chehayeb Friday described the
Cabinet’s decision to allocate $21 million to help export agricultural and
industrial products by sea as “positive.” “One-third of the Lebanese people
benefit from the agricultural sector,” he noted. “We should support farmers with
the necessary economic and social factors. ... We are seeking to motivate the
Lebanese people,” the minister added. Ibrahim Tarshishi, head of the farmers’
association in the Bekaa Valley region, also voiced support for Chehayeb’s
initiative by saying: “We are very thankful to the minister for his great
efforts in issuing this new decree, which will allow us to export over 1,000
tons of our products daily.”Chadi Massaad, president of the Lebanese Omani
business council, said that the decision made by the agriculture minister was
necessary to provide a quick solution to the country’s export problem.
However, Massaad said that subsidizing the maritime export of local products is
only a temporary solution. “The government must find a long-term solution to the
exports issue,” he said. “We should be able to export our products by sea on a
continuous basis because we do not know whether land routes will open soon,” he
added. Likewise, Antoine Howayek, president of the farmers’ association, said
the new decree would provide a quick and temporary solution but the government
could have adopted a less expensive and more effective way to export local
produce by sea.
“The government resorted to the more expensive solution because some involved
parties want to generate commissions out of this proposal,” he said. He added
that the government could have adopted a much cheaper way to export Lebanon’s
produce by sea.
Howayek proposed that the government purchase four ferries for $10 million in a
bid to export Lebanese agricultural produce for free to Arab countries. “This
way the government would help export Lebanese agro products while charging fees
on merchants who are willing to import products from Arab countries by sea using
these ferries,” he said. “This solution would help the government raise the
money paid for the price of ferries, while subsidizing Lebanese exports and
avoiding the deterioration of the sector.”
Howayek added that the government could recuperate part of the money it spent on
the ferries if it resells the boats once all the crossing points between Syria
and Jordan are reopened.
Howayek’s proposal was supported by Ramez Osseiran, head of Farmers’ Association
in south Lebanon, who said the ministry should adopt a serious approach toward
the matter. “I don’t understand why the government does not consider such a plan
seriously,” Osseiran said. ment has already decided to subsidize maritime
exports with $21 million, why don’t they take advantage of the coming five or
six months to seriously study the proposition of buying ferries?” he asked.
Apart from farmers, business leaders and industrialists stressed that the
Cabinet’s decision would enable Lebanese products to maintain their competitive
edge and also allow manufacturers to proceed with their industrial projects
while retaining Lebanon’s export markets.
But some trade union leaders were openly skeptical of the true motives behind
this subsidy.
“The decision is obviously in favor of business owners because it does not even
limit their profit margin in the local market or restricted them to hiring
Lebanese laborers only,” said general-secretary of the confederation of Mount
Lebanon Unions Maroun Khouli.
Despite the important measure taken by the Cabinet, farmers say the problems of
the agricultural sector are not only confined to the high cost of maritime
shipping. Among the pressing issues farmers in Lebanon now face is abundant
quantities of crops which caused the prices of many vegetables and fruits to
fall by more than 50 percent. “We estimate our losses to stand at $50 million in
the months of May and June due to the huge drop in prices,” Howayek said.
Osseiran said that the price of citrus products dropped by over 50 percent in
the past four months. “The price of one box of oranges [25 kilos] dropped from
LL30,000 to LL10,000,” he said. He added that the local market in Lebanon
usually consumes up to 30 percent or 40 percent of agro products and the rest is
exported. “But this is not the case anymore.” Farmers also hoped that the new
decree gets implemented really fast to avoid incurring additional losses to the
sector. “This month our exports stand at around 70,000 tons,” Howayek said. “So
we really hope that this new decree gets implemented within a week maximum to
avoid losing more money.”Likewise, Osseiran said that if the government is
really serious about this new decree, then it should implement it as soon as
possible.
Geagea: E-government would help stamp out corruption
The Daily Star/July 04, 2015/BEIRUT: Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea touted
electronic government as an answer to Lebanon’s corruption and bureaucratic red
tape Friday, adding that his party’s lawmakers have already prepared a draft law
to establish an “e-government.”Geagea, who spoke from Maarab at a conference
entitled “Electronic Government: For a Better Society,” said an electronic
government could reduce costs, enhance the productivity of the public sector and
facilitate better, faster services for citizens.
“We all know that finishing administrative paperwork takes all day,” he said,
lamenting the lost time and corruption when citizens go to renew official
documents. In April, Geagea called for the creation of an e-government as an
answer to the country’s notoriously inefficient and corrupt public sector. At
the conference he pressed the point further, alleging that several state
institutions are corrupt, and pointing to Lebanon’s rank of 136 out of 175 on
the global Corruption Perceptions Index. The Index estimates that corruption
costs the state around $800 million a year. “A draft law has been prepared for
an electronic government,” Geagea said. “And our seminar today aims to be a
starting point, with practical steps for when the legislative process gets back
on track.”The legislative branch has largely been paralyzed due to the deadlock
over Lebanon’s presidency, with Parliament unable to exercise its duties.
“Electronic government is a process to simplify and facilitate governmental
proceedings through the Internet in the framework of the state’s general
administration, especially at points of interaction between the administration
and the citizen,” explained Ghassan Hasbani, an adviser to the LF leader.
Lebanon has the human resources to develop an e-government that rivals those of
developed countries, Hasbani explained. “As for infrastructure and digital
services, there’s still a long way to go.”Minister of State for Administrative
Development Nabil de Freij explained that e-government could increase investor
trust in Lebanon, allowing companies to continue their work without
interruption.
MP Mohammad Hajjar, who sits on Parliament’s Information Technology Committee,
said that an e-government draft law had been introduced in 2004 by then-MP
Ghinwa Jalloul. In 2011, former Prime Minister Najib Mikati created a committee
to study it. After making it to the General Assembly, the law was referred to
the Parliament’s joint committees, and a subcommittee was created, according to
Hajjar. “What’s delaying the draft law is technical barriers, not [opposition]
from political parties,” Hajjar said. “Work is currently in process to [ensure
the] protection of personal [information] so that it doesn’t reach parties who
can use it for suspicious aims.”Hasbani read a list of recommendations at the
conference, which included replacing the government’s paper files with
electronic records, implementing electronic bill payment for state fees,
developing informatics and communications infrastructure, and involving the
private sector and civil society in the formation of a new e-government system.
“Electronic government will not succeed if each administration does not [embrace
technology] and have it become the heart of administrative work,” he said.
Lebanon hostage families plead with Qatari emir for help
The Daily Star/July 04, 2015/BEIRUT: The families of captive servicemen being
held hostage by Islamist militants urged Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad
al-Thani Saturday to personally intervene to help secure the release of their
loved ones before the end of Ramadan. “We beg you to return them before the end
of Ramadan so that they would be able to celebrate Eid [al-Fitr] with us,”
spokesperson for the families Hussein Youssef told reporters as the relatives of
the captives rallied near the Qatari Embassy in Beirut’s Ain al-Tineh
neighborhood. Ramadan ends on July 17. Youssef urged Qatar and Turkey to
conclude a prisoner swap deal with the abductors as soon as possible. “You [emir
of Qatar] stood by us through it all... and we thank you for your endeavors and
the appointment of a mediator to resolve the case..., but we call on you to have
mercy on the captives and their families,” he said. Youssef said that “the case
should not be politicized” as the families “are not affiliated to any side.” At
least 25 hostages are being held by ISIS and Nusra Front militants. They were
captured when militants briefly overran the northeastern town of Arsal last
August. Since then, the families have held dozens of protests and blocked roads
across the country to pressure the government into expediting negotiations.
The original number of captives was 37, but the Nusra Front has since released
eight and shot dead two, while ISIS has beheaded two.“We can no longer endure,”
one protester said, vowing to rally across the country. The agonized father
criticized Lebanese officials over their “false promises.” “They have been
promising us for a year now” that they will be free, he said. Children of the
captives also spoke at the protest. “Please bring me back my dad. I am sick and
my father used to sit by my side at the hospital. Now I can’t see him anymore. I
love him a lot,” one young boy told reporters. Another child, who was asked to
say something to his absent father, said: “I miss you. You used to get me
chocolate.” The families of the captives are expected to conduct several rallies
next week, reiterating their warnings of escalatory measures. The rally near the
Qatari embassy was accompanied by heavy deployment of guards belonging to
Speaker Nabih Berri, whose residence is adjacent to the mission. Vehicles were
prevented from entering the premises.
The protest comes two days after the anguished families blocked the Sidon-Beirut
highway and Beirut’s Saifi road simultaneously during a Cabinet session to press
ministers to prioritize their case.
Man found dead on Tyre coast
The Daily Star/July 04, 2015/BEIRUT: A man in his thirties was found dead along
the rocks of a south Lebanon beach Saturday, the state-run National News Agency
reported. A plastic bottle containing poisonous substances was found near the
man’s remains in the southern city of Tyre, according to the report. The report
did not indicate whether the death resulted from ingesting the unknown poisonous
substance. Security forces and forensic experts arrived at the scene to
investigate the death. The body showed signs of corrosion and was transferred to
a local hospital in the city.
Hezbollah,
Syrian army tighten siege on city near Lebanon border
The Daily Star/ July 04,
2015/BEIRUT: Hezbollah fighters and Syrian army troops launched fresh attacks
Saturday on the southern Qalamoun city of Zabadani, near the Lebanese border,
tightening a siege on rebels holed up in the area. A security source told The
Daily Star that ground forces pushed into Zabadani around dawn, accompanied by
intense air raids and shelling. Several casualties were reported on both sides
as Hezbollah attmpted to storm the city from the west, according to the source.
Hezbollah-run Al-Manar and Syrian state media also reported advances on the
city. Al-Manar said the allied forces blocked the main road north of Zabadani to
isolate the area from the Qalamoun towns of Serghaya and Ain Hawr. They also
captured a neighboring position identified as Qalaat al-Tal or Qalaat al-Koko,
located west of Zabadani. Footage aired on Al-Manar showed plumes of white smoke
billowing up from several areas in Zabadani after being hit by Syrian warplanes
and shells. The footage also showed Hezbollah fighters firing mortars at what
the report said were militant positions. Several buildings were shown on fire.
Syrian helicopters dropped around 80 barrel bombs during the last three days to
tighten the noose around rebels and force them to withdraw, a security source
said.While the battles in and around Zabadani have been going on for several
days, Saturday marks the first time Al-Manar reported on the fighting. The
channel had given nearly daily coverage of the Qalamoun offensive since it began
on May 4. Syria’s state-run news agency SANA Saturday also reported the “wide
military operation” in Zabadani, saying that allied forces were tightening their
siege on the city “The allied forces are pushing toward their targets on several
fronts,” the report said, noting that the offensive had inflicted heavy
casualties on the rebels. Hezbollah, according to The Daily Star's security
sources, is mobilizing in northern Bekaa to send more reinforcements to aid its
fighters in the battle. On Friday, Hezbollah and the Syrian army struck militant
posts in Zabadani and the neighboring village of Bloudan in a fresh push to
seize the last militant stronghold along Lebanon’s eastern border. Pro-Syrian
opposition media websites said that Syrian rebels inside Zabadani have launched
a pre-emptive operation they dubbed the “Revolutionary Volcano” to thwart the
Hezbollah and Syrian army offensive. The decision to launch the offensive came
after negotiations with rebels failed to secure the militants’ withdrawal from
the area, which is located 50 kilometers northwest of Damascus and 12 kilometers
northeast of Lebanon’s Masnaa border crossing. Zabadani bears strategic
significance for Hezbollah since it once served as a logistical hub for
supplying Hezbollah with Iranian weapons. It also served as a base for party
fighters and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. The capture of the town would add
to Hezbollah’s major field victories, which saw the party take large swathes of
Qalamoun hills since their offensive, backed by the Syrian army, began in the
region last May.
Lebanese Army receives shipment of Chinese weapons
The Daily Star/ July 04, 2015/BEIRUT: The Lebanese Army received a shipment of
Chinese weapons Friday, the latest in a recent series of international arms
deliveries to help Lebanon contain the militants on its eastern border with
Syria. The Army statement did not specify what types of weapons and ammunition,
or the quantity of the arms, were included in the shipment, which arrived in
Beirut’s port before noon. The Lebanese Army has been shelling militant
positions for months on its northeastern border where ISIS and Nusra Front
fighters are holed up. In recent weeks there has been debate over whether the
Army should enter Arsal's outskirts to oust militants who are holding Lebanon's
25 servicemen hostage. The militants have been based in the mountains
surrounding Arsal since spring 2014, when they were driven by Hezbollah and the
Syrian army from major Qalamoun cities. Lebanon in April received the first
batch of French weapons financed by the $3 billion Saudi arms grant, which
included armored vehicles, helicopters, truck-mounted cannons and Milan
anti-tank missiles. In addition to the $3 billion military aid, Saudi Arabia has
also promised an additional $1 billion grant to purchase arms and equipment to
the Lebanese Army and security forces to help them in the ongoing battle against
militants.
The Army has also received a series of U.S. weapons shipments. Earlier this
month, the Lebanese Army has received a shipment of anti-tank missiles from the
U.S. government. The shipment included an untold number of BGM-71 TOW anti-tank
missiles and their launch pads.
Man shot dead in south Lebanon refugee camp
The Daily Star/ July 04, 2015/TYRE, Lebanon: One man was killed and three others
were wounded during a personal dispute in a south Lebanon Palestinian refugee
camp Saturday, a security source said. Mohammad Yaseen clashed with Ahmad Hamdan
in the Rashidieh camp near Tyre. The dispute escalated into a shootout that left
Hamdan dead and wounded three other camp residents. The Palestinian joint
security force intervened to end the conflict. Contacts are being made to
resolve lingering tensions following the clash.
AUB hires US professor fired over anti-Israel tweets
The Daily Star/ July 04, 2015/BEIRUT: The American University of Beirut has
hired a professor who had a job offer rescinded last year from the University of
Illinois for posting anti-Israel tweets. “I'm thrilled to announce that I will
serve as the Edward W. Said Chair of American Studies at AUB for the 2015-16
academic year,” Steven Salaita announced on Twitter Wednesday. “I've really
missed the classroom. I'll do my very best to honor the legacy of Dr. Said,” he
added. Salaita's one-year term is set to begin in September.
The University of Illinois had offered Salaita a job starting in fall 2014, but
rescinded the offer after he posted a series of tweets denouncing Israel's
summer assault against Gaza. Salaita's supporters have accused wealthy
pro-Israel donors and campus groups of pressuring the administration into
rescinding the offer over his pro-Palestine views. Several hours after revealing
he would be teaching at AUB, Salaita tweeted: “Since announcing my job I've
learned 2 things: 1. love prevails 2. some Zionists get violently mad if a
critic of Israel can earn a living.”
Mount Lebanon teen found dead with head wound
The Daily Star/ July 04, 2015/BEIRUT: A 15-year-old boy was found dead Saturday
in the Mount Lebanon village of Bshamoun after apparently being struck on the
head, a security source told The Daily Star.Mahmoud Mohammad Khodr al-Assi, who
went missing on Friday afternoon, was found one kilometer away from his house.
He died after being struck on the head with a sharp tool, the source said.
Search and rescue teams found the boy in a building under construction. The body
was transferred to the Bshamoun Specialty Hospital. Police later arrested Assi’s
friend, 15, on suspicion of involvement in the killing. “His friend confessed to
killing him over a dispute,” the source added. The Internal Security Forces
confirmed on its official Twitter account the arrest of the suspect, who was
identified by his initials A. A.
FPM preparing for street protests: Aoun
The Daily Star/ July 04, 2015/BEIRUT: The Free Patriotic Movement has commenced
preparations for protests in Mount Lebanon and north Lebanon, party chief Michel
Aoun said Saturday. "The Christians in the Levant are being eliminated by the
sword, and some want to eliminate us in politics, “he told a delegation of
supporters from south Lebanon at his Rabieh residence. “This is why we started
preparing for popular movements and demonstrations in the districts of Mount
Lebanon, Baabda and Koura,” he added. Aoun’s comments come one day after he
threatened to take escalatory measures to prevent the passing of any Cabinet
decree before the issue of military and security appointments is addressed. Aoun
called on his supporters to stage street demonstrations. “What happened during
Thursday’s Cabinet session and what might happen during the next session
requires from us a show of strength. Our dignity and presence are at stake,”
Aoun told an FPM dinner Friday night. “All the Lebanese, particularly the
Christians, are called upon to take to the street. Next week, you will know what
our moves are,” he said. “Next week will be good and there will be a major
turning point in Lebanese politics.” Aoun threatened to take action shortly
after the Cabinet, in its first session Thursday in nearly a month, passed a
proposal allotting $21 million to help export agricultural and industrial
products by sea. Accusing the Cabinet of surpassing the president’s powers, Aoun
warned that the country was heading for an “explosion.”
A macabre, deadly joke
The Daily Star/ July 04, 2015/Bickering, mudslinging and picking fights are
certainly part of politics, but only under certain circumstances. When a
political system is functioning and no major domestic or external crises
threaten a country’s present and future, harsh words might serve a purpose – to
express a strongly held point of view, or even provide a bit of comic relief.
However, as Lebanon faces threats to its security, economy and very existence,
the sight of a politician ranting and raving ceases to be a luxury. It becomes a
macabre joke, one with possibly dangerous repercussions. Thursday’s diatribe by
Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun was such an exercise in empty,
unhealthy rhetoric. Aoun’s anger boils down to a simple premise: He’s the only
person eligible to be elected president, and members of his extended family are
the only people who are eligible to hold certain other public posts. If these
things don’t come to pass, the Christian community is being deprived of its
rights and everything else official should come to a screeching halt.
That joke isn’t funny anymore. After weeks of wrangling over how to convene the
Cabinet in the first place, ordinary folks were waiting for Thursday’s Cabinet
session to produce decisions that could help them deal with the difficult
socio-economic situation and security conditions. Instead, they were treated to
the same old spectacle of petty demands and conditions, selective
interpretations of the law, and threats of “explosive” future action. Aoun’s
constituency, and perhaps his allies, should realize that the former general
appears interested in only one thing: leading Lebanon into uncharted waters, a
journey that is unlikely to achieve what he’s promising himself or his
supporters.
Aoun Says
FPM Preparing for Protests as Bassil Vows to Take Partnership by Force
Naharnet//July 04, 2015/The Free Patriotic Movement's call for street protests
took a new turn on Saturday after its chief Michel Aoun revealed plans to hold
demonstrations in several districts and his son-in-law Foreign Minister Jebran
Bassil vowed to take “partnership by force.”“The Christians of the Orient are
being eliminated by the sword and they want to eliminate us politically,” Aoun
told his supporters in Rabieh. “This is why we started preparing for popular
movements and demonstrations in the districts of Mount Lebanon, Baabda and
Koura,” he said as the delegation from south Lebanon cheered. Aoun, who heads
the Change and Reform parliamentary bloc, has been recently hinting that his
movement is preparing for protests to what he calls attempts by his rivals to
end the role of Christians in Lebanon.
He made the announcement on Saturday a day after he urged Christians to take to
the streets. “We Christians are facing an existential threat because the foxes
of Lebanese politics are usurping all the rights and posts of Christians,” said
Aoun at the annual dinner banquet of FPM's Metn committee. The lawmaker's
warning came as Bassil said the FPM's dispute with its rivals “is not over
appointments but over partnership and dignity.” “We will take partnership by
force if we had no other option,” he said. Bassil, who is a top FPM official,
vowed to keep fighting to defend the authorities of the president. “No one will
put its hand on it as long as we are here,” he warned.
Report:
Aoun Calls for Meeting in Rabieh, Protests 'Marginalizing Christians'
Naharnet//July 04, 2015/MP Michel Aoun has called on ministers of the Free
Patriotic Movement and officials for a meeting in Rabieh to discuss the
procedures to escalate measures in protest to what he describes as
“marginalizing the role of Christians,” An Nahar daily reported on Saturday.
Aoun has called for a meeting to “discuss the situation in the government”, said
the daily “mainly after Thursday's cabinet session” that approved a decree to
export agricultural and industrial products by sea despite the FPM, Hizbullah
and Tashnag Party ministers insistence that no issue should be discussed until
appointments of high-ranking officials were made. Aoun wants his son-in-law
Commando Regiment chief Brig. Gen. Chamel Roukoz to be appointed army
chief.Quoting Aoun's sources, An Nahar said that the meeting aims to “urge the
Lebanese in general and the Christians in particular to take action when needed.
“The step rejects infringing on the post and jurisdictions of the presidency,
similar to what happened during Thursday’s session. The escalation will be taken
to the street, and ministers of the FPM will not resign,” the sources said. Aoun
had said that some parties are working to eliminate him and trying to put
obstacles to the participation of Christians in political decision-making.
ISIS video shows mass execution in ruins of Syria's Palmyra
Agence France Presse/July 04, 2015/BEIRUT: ISIS Saturday released a video
showing several dozen Syrian government soldiers being executed by teenagers in
the ancient amphitheater in the city of Palmyra.The video documented an
execution that reportedly happened shortly after the group captured the city on
May 21, showing 25 soldiers being shot dead on the amphitheater's stage in front
of the group's black and white flag.
Syria rebels take army center in Aleppo: activists
Agence France Presse//July 04, 2015 /BEIRUT: Syrian rebels have seized a
strategic military center in government-held western Aleppo city, as fierce
battles rage between the opposing sides, activists said Saturday. The Syrian
Observatory for Human Rights said a coalition of rebel groups had taken the
Scientific Research Center, which was being used as a military barracks.
Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said that opened potential lines of
attack against several other government-held neighborhoods. The alliance of
rebels is one of at least two coalitions of opposition fighters that have begun
a major operation against government-held districts in Aleppo in recent days. A
second coalition fighting in western Aleppo calls itself Ansar al-Sharia and
includes Al-Qaeda's local affiliate the Nusra Front. Aleppo, once Syria's
economic powerhouse, has been divided between the government in the west and
rebels in the east since shortly after fighting there began in mid-2012. A video
shared online showed the capture of the Scientific Research Center, with
fighters from one of the groups raising the three-starred flag of the Syrian
opposition. The Observatory said government war planes had carried out extensive
raids against the center on Saturday morning, prompting the rebels to evacuate
parts of it. The monitor said government forces had tried to recapture the
center overnight without success. Elsewhere in western Aleppo, clashes continued
between rebels from Ansar al-Sharia and loyalists around the Zahra neighborhood.
The group began an assault against Zahra and several other government-held
districts Thursday night, advancing slightly before being pushed back Friday
night, as government planes carried out around 40 airstrikes. The Observatory
said at least 29 Ansar al-Sharia fighters were killed Friday, but had no details
on deaths among government forces. Also Saturday, the Observatory said the
number of Nusra Front fighters killed a day earlier in an explosion in a mosque
in northwestern Syria had gone up to 31. An initial toll of 25 had been given
for the blast, which hit a mosque during Ramadan prayers in the town of Ariha in
Idlib province. Civilians were among the worshippers, but there was no immediate
confirmation of civilian deaths. The Observatory said the blast appeared to have
been caused by an explosive device placed at the mosque. A coalition including
Nusra pushed government forces out of most of Idlib province earlier this year.
Egypt says 25 militants killed in airstrikes as Sisi inspects troops
Reuters/July 04, 2015 /ISMAILIA, Egypt: Egyptian warplanes killed 25 Islamist
militants in North Sinai Saturday, security sources said, as the Egyptian
president visited the province after a major escalation of the conflict there.
The sources said the airstrikes hit militant targets near the town of Sheikh
Zuweid, destroying weapons and explosives caches. They also said security forces
had found about half a ton of explosives in a tunnel on the border between the
Sinai and Gaza. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi inspected soldiers and
police in El-Arish, the provincial capital, on Saturday, the presidency said in
statement. Sisi, dressed in military garb for the first time since becoming
president just over a year ago, told troops at least 200 militants had been
killed in the fighting in recent days, but added: "For me to say that things are
under control is not enough, things are totally stable. "I tell Egyptians ...
the size of forces here [in Sinai] is one percent of Egypt's army." Militants
launched a coordinated assault on military checkpoints in North Sinai Wednesday,
leading to day-long fighting which left more than 100 militants and 17 soldiers
dead, the army said. Egyptian air strikes killed 23 Islamist militants the next
day, security sources said. North Sinai is the epicenter of an insurgency in
which an ISIS-affiliated group called Sinai Province is most active. The Sinai
Peninsula borders the Gaza Strip, Israel and the Suez Canal. The insurgency,
aimed at toppling the Cairo government, has intensified since the army ousted
Islamist president Mohammad Morsi after mass protests against his rule in 2013.
On Friday, Sinai Province said in a statement posted on Twitter by supporters it
had launched three Grad rockets towards "occupied Palestine." Reuters could not
immediately verify the authenticity of the statement.An Israeli military source
said the rockets landed in Israel without causing any casualties and had been
fired from Sinai.
Syrian child labor a lasting problem: NGO
Elise KnutsenJude Massaad/The Daily Star/July 04, 2015
BEIRUT: On a sweltering summer day, Walid and Ahmad sit on Hamra street with
their blackened shoe shining rags between their legs. With wide eyes, the boys
wait for customers and hope the patrons will treat them decently. “Sometimes,
when you clean their shoes, they hit you,” Ahmad said. “Or they curse you,”
chimed Walid as Ahmad recited a litany of vulgarities. Neither Walid nor Ahmad
is in school. According to a new report published this week by UNICEF and Save
the Children NGO, Walid and Ahmad’s situation is tragically common. As the
Syrian civil war drags on, more and more refugee children in Lebanon and across
the region are being pushed into the workforce, often toiling under mentally and
physically taxing conditions. From field laborers to rose and candy hawkers,
Syrian children now make up a ubiquitous aspect of the Lebanese labor market.
According to the report, refugees as young as 6 have been put to work, and
almost a third of Syrian refugee children in the labor force are under 14.
Some child laborers in the Bekaa Valley make just $4 per day. Moreover, 35
percent of the children working in the same area cannot read or write, the
report also states.
In Beirut, too, the issue is stark: Mohammad Alloush, a 14-year-old refugee in
Hamra, earns about $8.50 per day working at a mankoushe shop to help make ends
meet for his widowed mother and 10 siblings. While school is not an option for
him here in Lebanon, he recalled fondly his Arabic classes in Syria. “It would
be better if I could go back to school.” All of his brothers work, he said. The
issue is no longer limited to strictly humanitarian concerns, said Ian Rodgers,
the director of Save the Children in Lebanon. “Not only do we have children
begging on the street [but they] are taking up jobs actively in the labor
market,” Rodgers told The Daily Star. “We have a situation in Lebanon that needs
to be addressed. ... There’s only so much financial burden that the Lebanese
government can take on.”
Moreover, Syrian child labor is a lasting problem that threatens to affect the
future of Syria, Rodgers explained. Any peace and reconciliation effort is much
more likely to endure if the population is educated. Sadly, child labor often
precludes education. Rodgers urged the international community to contribute
more to help Syrian youths, saying that “an investment today is going to pay out
a lot better than perpetuated, continuous conflict.”
But the risk to individual children is just as distressing. Child beggars with
soiled clothes have become an ever-present sight in Hamra and Gemmayzeh. Some
are involved in organized begging operations that exploit vulnerable children.
According to the report, 43 percent of Syrian children workers in Lebanon are
beggars. Most make between $9 and $11 per day. But Walid and Ahmad say that on
bad days they make less than $7. Sometimes, they say, the police come and take
their money because their work is technically illegal. “We can’t say anything,
because it’s not our country,” Ahmad said. Worse, the report states that some
Syrian girls are being forced into prostitution. “Instances of the commercial
sexual exploitation of children have been reported, including in Lebanon’s Bekaa
Valley where gangs are said to be Syrian girls and women,” the report says. Many
child laborers are subject to both physical and verbal mistreatment, a fact
confirmed by Mohammad, a 17 year old who has worked in a Hamra hotel since he
arrived in Lebanon. Some clients, he says, “tell me that I’m not supposed to be
here. ... I pretend like I don’t hear it.”The situation shows few signs of
improving, Rodgers said. “The problem isn’t going to go away unless there is an
increased level of funding” from the international community. But many countries
are facing “donor fatigue,” he said, and are focused more on combatting
terrorism than aiding its victims. In the meantime, children are forced to fend
for themselves or, at best, one another. Walid and Ahmad say they share the
slings and arrows of insults and long work hours. “We started this together and
we’ll end this together,” Walid said, flashing a grin.
McCain Denounces U.S. Troop Withdrawal Plan in Afghanistan
Naharnet/July 04, 2015/Influential Senator John McCain said Saturday the
complete withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2016 would be
a "serious mistake", as stretched local forces battle a resurgent Taliban. "I
think the most serious mistake the U.S. could make... would be to have a
calendar-based withdrawal," McCain told a press conference at the NATO
headquarters in Kabul. "That would be a tragedy and in my view an opening for
the Taliban to gain great success in Afghanistan," the chairman of the powerful
U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services added. July 4 marks U.S. Independence
Day, and McCain used the visit to meet soldiers stationed in the Afghan capital,
while paying tribute to the 2,200 U.S. troops killed there since the 2001
invasion.
NATO's combat mission formally ended in December after 13 years, but a small
follow-up foreign force named Resolute Support has stayed on. U.S. President
Barack Obama has backpedalled on plans to shrink the U.S. force in Afghanistan
this year by nearly half, agreeing to keep the current level of 9,800 U.S.
troops until the end of 2015. The U.S. troops are mainly involved in training
their Afghan counterparts, and make up the bulk of the 12,500-strong foreign
corps. President Ashraf Ghani thanked the United States for its support after
meeting with McCain, in a statement released by the presidency. But the current
U.S. administration would like to see a total exit for its personnel over the
next 15 months, a decision McCain said required a "reassessment".The Republican
senator added that the current security situation pointed to the need for
"additional U.S. capabilities" as Afghan forces incurred significant casualties
with major cities under threat."There's a long, long way to go," he said.
Fighting on multiple fronts and facing record casualties, Afghan forces totaling
350,000 are struggling to rein in the militants even as the government makes
repeated efforts to jump-start peace negotiations. The Taliban's annual spring
offensive has sent civilian and military casualties soaring.
Bolstered by battle-hardened Central Asian fighters in their ranks, they
recently captured the district headquarters of Chardarah, adjoining Kunduz city,
triggering fears the militants would overrun their first provincial capital
since 2001.
The militants also launched a brazen assault on the Afghan parliament in late
June. And in a sign of the political malaise the government is facing in its
attempts to improve the country's security situation, Afghanistan's parliament
on Saturday rejected Ghani's nominee for defense minister for the second time.
The crucial post has sat vacant for months, reportedly due to differences
between Ghani and his chief executive and former presidential election rival,
Abdullah Abdullah. Agence France Presse
Pope says Catholic Church should not have ‘leaders for
life’
By Reuters | Vatican City/Saturday, 4 July 2015/The Roman Catholic Church should
not have "leaders for life" in its ranks, otherwise it would risk being like a
country under dictatorship, Pope Francis said on Friday. Francis, 78, has said
before that he would be ready to resign instead of ruling for life if he felt he
could not continue running the 1.2 billion-member Church for health or other
reasons. "Let's be clear. The only one who cannot be substituted in the Church
is the Holy Spirit," the Argentinian-born pontiff said in an address to some
30,000 people at an inter-denominational rally of Christians in St. Peter's
Square. "There should be a time limit to positions (in the Church), which in
reality are positions of service," he said in an address that was in part
prepared and in part extemporaneous. Making clear his comments were not confined
to the clergy, Francis added: "It is convenient that all (positions) in the
Church should have a time limit. There are no leaders for life in the Church.
This occurs in some countries where a dictatorship exists." In February 2013,
Francis's predecessor, Pope Benedict, became the first pontiff to resign in 600
years. In an interview with Mexican television last March, Francis said what
Benedict, now known as Pope Emeritus, did "should not be considered an
exception, but an institution."But in the same interview he said he did not like
the idea of an automatic retirement age for popes, for example at 80.
France’s Hollande ready to hold new summit on Boko Haram
By Reuters | Yaounde/Saturday, 4 July 2015
French President Francois Hollande said on Friday he is ready to organize a new
summit of nations fighting Boko Haram, a militant group that has suffered
defeats in recent months in its campaign to forge an Islamist state in
northeastern Nigeria. Hollande was speaking after talks in the capital of
Cameroon with President Paul Biya. Cameroon is part of a regional group of
nations including Nigeria, Niger and Chad that began a campaign against Boko
Haram this year. “Nigeria and Cameroon need to have the best relations ... to
work together. This corresponds well with the spirit we had at our last summit
in Paris to take important decisions about Boko Haram, whose threat is getting
stronger,” Hollande said. “I am ready to gather anew, as soon as the presidents
give me a date, this conference so that we can better act together,” Hollande
said. The Paris summit was in May 2014. Earlier this year, Boko Haram occupied
large parts of northeastern Nigeria and was increasingly mounting attacks on
neighboring states, prompting the regional leaders into action to reverse gains
made by the six-year insurgency. Operations carried out by regional forces have
pushed the militants from most of their positions and Nigerian President
Muhammadu Buhari has vowed to crush what remains of the group. The militants
have hit back and suspected insurgents attacked the outskirts of a state capital
in northeastern Nigeria on Friday, escalating attacks after a week in which more
than 150 people were killed.
Possible breakthrough on implementing Iran sanction relief
Associated Press/Ynetnews
Published: 07.04.15/ Israel News
Issue of sanction relief has been the center of contention between the powers
and Iran; possible breakthrough would represent a major step in the direction of
a final agreement.
World powers and Iran have reached tentative agreement on sanctions relief for
the Islamic Republic, among the most contentious issues in a long-term nuclear
agreement that negotiators hope to clinch over the next several days, diplomats
told The Associated Press on Saturday.The annex, one of five meant to accompany
the agreement, outlines which US and international sanctions will be lifted and
how quickly. Diplomats said senior officials of the seven-nation talks, which
include US Secretary of State John Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad
Javad Zarif, still had to sign off on the package.
Still, the word of significant progress indicated the sides were moving closer
to a comprehensive accord that would set a decade of restrictions on Tehran's
nuclear program in exchange for tens of billions of dollars' in economic
benefits for the Iranians.
Officials had described sanctions relief as one of the thorniest disagreements
between Iran and the United States, which has led the international pressure
campaign against Iran's economy. The US and much of the world fears Iran's
enrichment of uranium and other activity could be designed to make nuclear
weapons; Iran says its program is meant only to generate power and for other
peaceful purposes. The diplomats, who weren't authorized to speak publicly on
this past week's confidential negotiations in Vienna, said the sanctions annex
was completed this week by experts from Iran and the six world powers it is
negotiating with: the United States, Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia.
They did not provide details of the agreement.
A senior US official did not dispute the diplomats' account but said work
remained to be done before the issue could be described as finalized.
Negotiators are striving to wrap up the deal by July 7. Along with inspection
guidelines and rules governing Iran's research and development of advanced
nuclear technology, the sanctions annex of the agreement had been among the
toughest issues remaining to be resolved. Iranian officials, including Supreme
Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, have made repeated demands for economic penalties
to be lifted shortly after a deal is reached. Washington and its partners have
said they'd take action after Iran verifiably complies with restrictions on
enrichment and other elements of the nuclear program.
Much of the negotiation on the matter has concerned sequencing, so that both
sides can legitimately claim to have gotten their way. Several other matters
related to sanctions also had posed problems. The Obama administration cannot
move too quickly to remove economic penalties because of Congress, which will
have a 30-day review period for any agreement during which no sanctions can be
waived. American officials also had been struggling to separate the
"nuclear-related" sanctions it is prepared to suspend from those it wishes to
keep, including measures designed to counteract Iranian ballistic missile
efforts, human rights violations and support for US-designated terrorist
organizations.
And to keep pressure on Iran, world powers had been hoping to finalize a system
for snapping suspended sanctions back into force if Iran cheats on the accord.
Russia has traditionally opposed any plan that would see them lose their UN veto
power and a senior Russian negotiator said only this week that his government
rejected any automatic "snapback" of sanctions.
Liberman:'ISIS, Gaza militants, Iran nuclear negotiators,
do not give Israel a second thought'
By JPOST.COM STAFF/07/04/2015/A day after the Islamic State's Sinai affiliate
claimed responsibility for launching rockets at Israel, Yisrael Beytenu leader
Avigdor Liberman said Israel's ability to deter its enemies has suffered. "It's
not important if the Grad rockets that landed in the South yesterday were
launched by Salafists in Gaza or by ISIS in Sinai," the former foreign minister
said at a cultural event in Beersheba on Saturday. "From the time of Israel's
establishment there were always threats; once it is Hezbollah, once Hamas and
the names of the threats just change every time," Liberman said. "What has
changed for the worse are not the threats but the damage to Israel's ability to
deter that has suffered mainly since the end of Operation Protective Edge,"
Liberman added, referring to last summer's 50 day military campaign with Hamas
and other Islamist groups in Gaza. "The damage to Israel's deterrence means that
Israel is not given a second thought by ISIS, in the negotiations with Iran in
Vienna, and in Gaza," he added. Liberman, whose party decided in May not to join
the ruling government coalition, has criticized Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu in the past for not dealing a strong enough blow to Hamas during
Operation Protective Edge. “It is simply unfathomable that every two years we
need to conduct another military operation,” he said. “If we want to change this
so that we can live here in quiet, we need to alter the balance of terror
vis-à-vis our enemies. We need to make clear to them that whoever acts against
us won’t find themselves in an underground bunker but in an underground grave.
After the Hezbollah attack, we should’ve responded the way the Jordanians did
against Islamic State,” Liberman said in February.
Syria: Opposition says some Assad officials can have role
in future government
Beirut, Asharq Al-Awsat—04/07/15/Syria’s armed opposition has said it is willing
to allow members of President Bashar Al-Assad’s cabinet, who have not taken part
in bloodshed, to participate in any future transitional government.
Rami Dalati, a member of the Free Syrian Army’s (FSA) Military Command Higher
Council, told Asharq Al-Awsat that a Syrian opposition delegation will meet with
the UN Envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura in Istanbul on Friday to inform him
about its willingness to accept some Assad officials, who have no blood on their
hands, into the ranks of any transitional government.
De Mistura’s meeting with the delegation, which represents several armed
opposition factions, comes as part of a series of talks he has held in the past
few weeks with representatives of Syrian political parties, independent figures
and activists to find a political solution to the crisis in Syria.
He said: “[The opposition’s] military factions will emphasize their position of
rejecting the presence of Assad or any of his political and security officials
in any solution on Syria, but at the same time they will announce to the UN
envoy that they will accept the participation of some technocratic figures who
had no role in killing the Syrian people, such as some of the current ministers
in the Syrian government.”
Khaled Khoja, leader of the Syrian National Coalition, met with de Mistura in
Geneva on Thursday to discuss the political and humanitarian situation in Syria.
Khoja told the UN official that forming a transitional government would end the
crisis in Syria.
De Mistura is expected to travel to New York on Monday to inform the UN
Security-General Ban Ki-moon about the outcome of his talks in Geneva.
A sense of optimism prevails among Syria’s opposition groups that a political
solution could be reached, a senior opposition figure has told Asharq Al-Awsat.
Hisham Marwa, the Coalition’s vice-president, said: “There is a conviction that
[Assad’s] government will eventually yield to the military developments on the
ground in the light of the significant progress made by opposition factions.”
Meanwhile, an alliance of Syrian Islamist rebel groups launched a series of
attacks on government-held areas of the northern city of Aleppo on Friday.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said rebels fired hundreds of
rockets at several government-held districts of Aleppo early on Friday. The
shelling left at least nine people dead and dozens injured, said the
Observatory, which gathers information from a network of activists on the
ground. The Syrian military responded by carrying out a series of airstrikes on
rebel positions in Syria’s second-largest city.
The capture of Aleppo, a former commercial and industrial hub, would be a major
blow to government forces who in recent months have suffered a series of
setbacks by rebels in the north and south. The city has been divided between
government forces, who control the western districts, and rebels, who control
the eastern areas, since mid-2012.
More than 230,000 people are believed to have been killed in Syria since the
uprising against Assad’s government began in March 2011.
Kuwait: Sunnis, Shi’ites hold unity prayers
Kuwait City, on July 3, 2015. (Reuters/Jassim Mohammed)/A special forces soldier
stands as Sunni and Shi’ite worshippers, together with Emir Sheikh Sabah
Al-Ahmed Al-Jabir Al-Sabah, pray at the grand mosque of Kuwait, in Kuwait City,
on July 3, 2015. (Reuters/Jassim Mohammed) Kuwait City and Manama, Asharq Al-Awsat—Sunnis
and Shi’ites held a joint prayer in Kuwait on Friday in a gesture of solidarity
one week after an attack on a mosque left dozens killed and injured. Hundreds of
members of both sects have gathered at Kuwait City’s grand mosque to show
national unity in the wake of last week’s attack that killed 27 people and
injured 227 at Imam Al-Sadiq Mosque. Kuwait’s Emir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmed
Al-Jabir Al-Sabah was among those attending the prayer along with other senior
officials. Authorities have identified the attacker as a 23-year-old Saudi
national who flew to Kuwait hours before he carried out the bombing. Islamic
State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has claimed the attack. Sunni and Shi’ite Muslims
also prayed together at a Shi’ite mosque in Bahrain on Friday. “The joint prayer
represents the unifying Islamic spirit of Bahrain,” Sheikh Khalid Bin Ali Al
Khalifa, the Bahraini Minister of Justice and Islamic Affairs, said. “Wherever
they go in Bahrain, extremists will always find themselves in isolation,” he
said. A similar prayer will be held at a Sunni mosque in Bahrain next week.
Meanwhile, Gulf interior ministers on Friday agreed during an emergency meeting
in Kuwait to coordinate efforts to counter attacks on mosques in the region. The
ministers expressed their countries’ solidarity against terrorism and the risks
it poses to security and stability, calling for mores steps to confront “this
serious epidemic.”Additional reporting contributed by Obaid Al-Suhaimi from
Manama.
ISIS militants have fled Libya to Egypt: official
Cairo, Asharq Al-Awsat—04/07/15/Dozens of militants affiliated with the Islamic
State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group have entered Egypt from Libya in recent
months, security and military officials warn. Salaheddin Abdul Kareem, a Libyan
military adviser, told Asharq Al-Awsat that a recent Libyan army crackdown on
the coastal city of Derna, an Islamist stronghold, has forced dozens of ISIS
members to flee to neighboring countries, including Egypt. Derna lies nearly 185
miles (300 kilometers) from Egypt.
The official did not rule out that Libya’s militants may have been involved in
the attacks that shook Egypt last week. At least 50 people were killed on
Wednesday after the Sinai Province, Egypt’s ISIS affiliate, launched a series of
coordinated attacks in North Sinai. The Egyptian military responded by launching
a series of airstrikes on Islamist militants’ positions in the restive
peninsula, killing at least 100 insurgents. Earlier this week, Egypt’s top
judicial official Hisham Barakat was killed by a bomb targeting his motorcade in
central Cairo.
Although claimed by an unknown group, the attack, analysts argue, bears the
fingerprints of ISIS. When asked whether the explosives used in the recent
attacks in Egypt have been smuggled from Libya, the official said: “Everything
is possible. We are facing terrorists who support each other, from Syria to
Libya to Egypt.” “We are facing an integrated system of terrorism [whose member
groups] exchange expertise, weapons and even suicide bombers,” he added.
Islamist groups have established strong presence in Libya since the NATO-backed
removal of former dictator Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. The Egyptian government has
increased security presence in the areas along the border with Libya, Foreign
Ministry spokesman Badr Abdel-Atty told Asharq Al-Awsat. The governor of Matruh,
which borders Libya, said in an earlier interview with Asharq Al-Awsat that
Egypt maintains strict control on its side of the border from land, sea and air.
Egypt’s air force has orders to strike any 4X4 vehicles it spots trying to enter
Egypt in an illegal manner, Alaa Abu Zeid said.
But security sources on both sides of the border have reported recently an
increase in breaches and smuggling activities.
Sisi visits troops in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula
By Staff writer | Al Arabiya News/Saturday, 4 July 2015
President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi visited his troops in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula,
scene of deadly fighting earlier this week, Al Arabiya News Channel reported
Saturday. "President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi is inspecting troops and police in the
North Sinai," his office said without specifying where in the restive province.
"I have come to salute the heroes of the armed forces and to express to them my
recognition," he was quoted by the army's spokesman as saying. State television
broadcast footage of Sisi, dressed in military fatigues, touring an army base
and inspecting captured weapons. Egypt also launched air strikes in North Sinai
on Saturday, killing 12 militants, security sources told Reuters. The air
strikes hit militant targets near Sheikh Zuweid in North Sinai province and
destroyed weapons and explosives caches.
The sources also said that border security forces had found about half a tonne
of explosives in a tunnel on the border between Egypt and Gaza. Militants of the
Sinai Province group -- a branch of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria group
(ISIS) -- launched their biggest assault in years against Egyptian security
forces on Wednesday. Dozens of people have been killed in the past few days of
clashes. Also on Saturday, a woman and two children were killed after a shell
slammed into a house in North Sinai, medical and security sources told Agence
France-Presse. It was not immediately clear which side fired the shell in the
North Sinai town of Sheikh Zuweid. A woman and a teenage girl were also
seriously wounded, the sources said. The government called in air strikes on
Wednesday after a spectacular ISIS attack in Sheikh Zuweid. The army said 17
soldiers and 100 militants had been killed. But medical and security officials
said the death toll was at least 70 people -- mostly soldiers -- as well as
dozens of militants. The violence poses a major test for Sisi, the former army
chief who has pledged to eliminate the militants.(with AFP)
Egyptian Assassinations and Islamist
Escalation
Mohamed Soliman/Fikra Forum/July04/15
Following the latest high-profile assassination, tensions between Islamists and
the state will likely continue to escalate, with the judiciary looming large in
both the government's response and further Islamist plots.
On June 29, Prosecutor-General Hisham Barakat died in an orchestrated blast that
targeted his convoy in the Cairo suburb of Heliopolis. The attack was forceful;
the leader of Barakat's security team also perished while eight others were
injured. This incident raises many questions as to how President Abdul Fattah
al-Sisi will deal with the loss of a main pillar in his regime and a major
representative of the constitutional state. It is also unclear how the
assassination will impact the political struggle and escalation of violence that
began between the state and Islamists after the overthrow of former president
Mohamed Morsi.
Barakat's murder is one of the most successful Islamist political assassinations
in the last several decades, which included the assassinations of former
president Anwar Sadat and former speaker of the People's Assembly, Rifaat al-Mahgoub.
In the aftermath of each attack, Hosni Mubarak's regime tightened its grip
against Islamist groups by cracking down on member activities and speeding
through trials against major Islamist leadership. The escalation continued until
Islamist groups declared a truce in 1997, sixteen years after President Sadat's
assassination.
However, Islamist violence is once again escalating. The Barakat assassination
must be viewed as the most recent incident in a string of judge assassinations
and as part of the Islamists' retribution against the regime's new crackdown on
them. Last month, Ansar Beit al-Maqdis -- an ISIS affiliate -- assassinated
three judges in al-Arish, the provincial capital of Northern Sinai. This attack
targeted a vehicle carrying a number of civilian judges and prosecutors, also
killing the driver and causing several injuries. Ansar Beit al-Maqdis intended
for the attack to serve as reprisal against the Egyptian judiciary's decrees
that Morsi and 104 Muslim Brotherhood members receive the death sentence in
mid-May.
The Islamist community's response to the rulings demonstrates their impact --
150 Muslim scholars and 10 Islamic bodies with close monetary ties to the
Brotherhood issued a joint statement on May 30 titled "Call of Egypt: Muslim
Scholars' Statement on Crimes of the Coup in Egypt and the Stance Towards It."
The statement called for revenge against the judges for their endorsement of the
execution of innocent souls: "Rulers, judges, officers, soldiers, muftis, media
persons, politicians, and any other party proven beyond any doubt to be involved
in the crimes of violating honor, bloodshed, and illegal killing, even if
through inciting such acts, are considered, from Islamic perspective, murderers
to whom all rulings related to the crime of murder are applicable. They must
receive qisas [retribution] within the Islamic Law limits. Allah Almighty says
that 'whoever kills a soul unless for a soul or for corruption [done] in the
land -- it is as if he had slain mankind entirely' (al-Maidah 5:32)."
While Ansar Beit al-Maqdis had already attempted at least one major
assassination targeting former interior minister Muhammad Ibrahim before Morsi's
sentence, the successful assassination of Barakat marks a major shift in
Islamist tactics. The targeting of major state figures, ministers, judges, and
politicians appears to be a key new Islamist strategy. The Muslim scholars'
statement serves as a political, religious, and intellectual cover for these
assassinations and supports the idea that political killings are now within the
repertoire of accepted Islamist actions. Unfortunately, this trend is not likely
to end with this most recent assassination.
And it is clear from Sisi's recent statements that the great concern about the
continuation of political assassinations will tighten state policies against
Islamists. Directly after the prosecutor-general's funeral, Sisi gave a speech
stressing the importance of the judicial process and vowing to enact new laws to
help Egyptian judges obtain quick execution of their decrees. The president
addressed judges directly in his speech, saying, "The way tribunals have been
working over the last two years is 'inefficient'; if a death sentence is issued,
it should be carried out, the same goes for life in prison." Then Sisi
indirectly referenced Morsi by claiming that "some people issue commands to kill
from behind bars," alluding to Morsi's hand gesture during his trial, which is
now perceived to have been a signal to kill Barakat.
There are many indications that tensions between Islamists and the state will
continue to escalate both publicly and behind closed doors. Based on the recent
judicial assassinations, the Muslim scholars' statement of condemnation, and
Sisi's suggestion of free rein for the judiciary, it seems that Egypt's judges
will be key in this new escalation. Mohamed Soliman is an engineer and a member
of the Dostour Party's political bureau. This article originally appeared on the
Fikra Forum website.
Israeli policymakers' alarming
over-reliance on Egypt to grapple with Hamas and ISIS
DEBKAfile Exclusive Analysis July04, 2015
The statements coming from different Israeli spokesmen this week were not just
at dangerous variance with the actual events but with one another, when it came
to Egypt’s massive confrontation this week with ISIS close to Israel’s border, a
fresh round of Palestinian West Bank anti-Israel terror and the ambivalent role
played by Hamas extremists in all these events. Coordinator of Government
Activities in the Territories, Maj. Gen. Yoav Mordechai said in an Al Jazeera
interview Thursday, July 2, that Israel had “clear evidence” of Hamas aiding the
offensive the Islamic State’s Sinai affiliate launched against Egyptian
positions in northern Sinai Wednesday.
The Israeli commander accused Hamas of giving “weapons and logistical support to
the ISIS affiliate.” He added “we have examples of Hamas commanders who actively
participated in this assistance,” and named “Wael Faraj, a brigade commander of
the military wing of Hamas…who smuggled wounded [ISIS fighters] from Sinai into
Gaza,” and “Abdullah Kitshi …who trained operatives belonging to Wilayat Sinai.”
Asked about Israeli-Egyptian cooperation, Mordechai commented: "Egypt is a
strong and independent country."
The Defense Ministry’s strategic adviser Amos Gilead was more specific: He said
Egypt was “a strong country of 90 million people with an army of half a
million.” Gilead was sure that the Egyptians would do everything necessary for a
determined war on ISIS.
Thursday, July 2, the day after the ISIS raid, the Egyptian military said it had
killed 123 Islamic State gunmen in two days, 100 of which were killed on
Wednesday. Egyptian bombers were then described as wiping out ISIS
concentrations around the northern Sinai town of Sheikh Zuwaid. "The situation
in northern Sinai is now under complete control,” said the Egyptian spokesman
All three officials were doing their best to put a good face on the Egyptian
army’s reverses in its largest battle yet with ISIS, say debkafile’s military
sources. No one was ready to admit that the Islamic State’s Sinai branch had won
this confrontation on points.
For two years, the Egyptian army has only chipped away at the edges of the
threatening Islamist presence growing larger in the Sinai Peninsula, even
through Israel suspended the restrictions of the 1979 peace accord and allowed
Egypt to bring large military forces, tanks, artillery and helicopters into
Sinai for a major campaign to expunge that presence. This has not happened
although both the Egyptians and the IDF know the exact whereabouts of the
Islamist terrorists’ bases.
Even while playing down the unwelcome outcome of the Wednesday battle, the IDF
took the precaution of closing to traffic the main Israeli highway running
parallel to the Egyptian border from Nitzana to the southern port of Eilat. The
army in the south was also placed on high alert in case ISIS raiders crossed the
border from Egyptian Sinai.
Then, on Friday afternoon, parts of southern Israel heard a red alert for
rockets which the IDF estimated had come from Sinai, i.e. ISIS, rather than the
Gaza Strip.
Israeli officials are at their most mixed up when they discuss Hamas – even
after crediting that extremist Palestinian group with conducting a fresh surge
of terrorist attacks on the West Bank and Jerusalem. In the past week, they
murdered three Israelis - David Capra, Danny Gonen and Malachi Moshe Rosenfeld.
Yet, according to the mantra the IDF has taught accredited military
correspondents, all Hamas wants is a long-term ceasefire so as to live in peace.
They also trot out the official claims that the deadly attacks were the work of
“lone wolves,” just as the persistent trickle of rocket fire from the Gaza Strip
comes from “rogue” elements.
Israeli officials appear to have lost their way amid vain attempts to let Hamas
off the terrorist hook. Hamas’ own willingness to jump into bed with Egypt,
Hizballah, Iran and ISIS - all at once - undoubtedly creates a confused picture
about its shifting motives. However, Israeli policymakers must beware of falling
into the dangerous trap of ambivalence and loss of focus. President El-Sisi must
realize by now that his army has missed the boat for a resounding one-strike
victory against ISIS, because that enemy is no longer alone. Its association
with Hamas is further bolstered by a secret pact with the Egyptian Muslim
Brotherhood, the deadly foe of the El-Sisi administration.
Hamas, as the Brotherhood’s ideological offspring, in fact hosted Mahmud Izzat
Ibrahim, head of the Brotherhood;s clandestine operational networks, which run
from Libya through to Sinai.
This tripartite ISIS-Muslim Brotherhood-Hamas axis is currently in full
momentum. Egypt is therefore in for a drawn-out bloody war.
Israeli policymakers would be foolish to depend on Cairo pull this red-hot iron
out of the terrorist fire any time soon. They must find ways – the sooner the
better – to grapple with the reality of a rampant Islamic State next door. ISIS
is already in the process of overrunning the Gaza Strip; it is on the way to
seizing expanding sections of the Sinai Peninsula. That territory will serve as
a convenient base for Islamist raids against Israel.
If ISIS leaps further to hijack the coastal areas of Sinai, it may be necessary
to fight a major war to preserve the freedom of navigation in the Suez Canal and
Israel’s southern exit through the Gulf of Aqaba.
The Terrorist Challenge—Understanding
and Misunderstanding
Amir Taheri/Asharq Al Awsat
Friday, 4 Jul, 2015
Faced with the growing threat of terrorism, Western officials and analysts seem
hard put as to how to deal with something they find difficult to understand.
British Prime Minister David Cameron has advised the media not to use the term
“Islamic State” for the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS)—known as “Da’esh”
in Arabic—because, he claims, the “caliphate” based in Raqqa in Syria is not
Islamic. In other words, Cameron is casting himself as an authority on what is
Islamic and what is not. At the other end of the spectrum, French Premier Manuel
Valls speaks of “Islamofascism” and claims that the West is drawn into a “war of
civilizations” with Islam. Cameron continues Tony Blair’s policy in the early
days of Islamist attacks on Britain. Blair would declare that although the
attacks had nothing to do with Islam he had invited “leaders of the Muslim
community” to Downing Street to discuss “what is to be done.”As for Valls, he
seems to forget that Islam, though part of many civilizations including the
European one, is a religion not a civilization on its own. He also forgets that
civilizations, even at the height of rivalry, don’t wage war; political
movements and states do.
While it is important to understand what we are dealing with, it is even more
important not to misunderstand the challenge.To circumvent the hurdle of
labeling the Da’esh-style terror as “Islamic,” something that runs counter to
political correctness and could attract cries of Islamophobia, some Western
officials and commentators build their analysis on the “sectarian” aspect of the
phenomenon. Thus, we are bombarded within seminars, essays and speeches seeking
to explain, and at times explain away, the horrors of ISIS and similar groups as
part of sectarian Sunni–Shi’ite feuds dating back to 15 centuries ago.
However, the “sectarian” analysis is equally defective.
There is no doubt that much of the violence in the Middle East today does have a
sectarian aspect. However, what we have is not a war of Islamic sects but wars
among sectarian groups. Nobody has appointed ISIS as the representative of
Sunnis, some 85 percent of Muslims across the globe. And, in fact, so far ISIS
has massacred more Sunnis than members of any other sect or religion. The
Internet “caliph” and his cohorts have beheaded more of their own comrades than
any kuffar (Infidels). At the other end of the spectrum no one has appointed the
Khomeinist mullahs in Tehran as leaders of the Shi’ites. The Khomeinist regime
has killed many more Shi’ites than members of any other sect or religion. (Human
Rights groups put the number of those executed since Khomeini seized power at
over 150,000.) Equally absurd is to present the Alawite (or Nusayri) community
in Syria as a branch of Shi’ism, something that no Shi’ite theological authority
has ever done. Even then, the Ba’athist regime led by President Bashar Al-Assad
has never claimed religious credentials, boasting about a secular, supposedly
socialist ideology. In Shi’ite theology, the Alawites are classified among the
“ghulat” (extremists) with a host of other heterodox sects.
The Khomeinist regime’s backing for the Houthis in Yemen cannot be explained in
sectarian terms either. The Houthis belong to the Zaydi sect which, though
originally exported from Iran to Yemen, has never been regarded by Twelvers (Ithna-’ashariyah),
who make up the bulk of Shi’ites across the globe, as being part of the Shi’ite
family.
In the 1970s Iran’s Shah bribed a few ayatollahs in Qom to issue declarations in
favor of Zaydis—which they did, without however providing definitive theological
endorsement. In any case, the Houthis, though representing a good chunk of the
Zaydi community, cannot be equated with that faith as a whole. Tehran’s support
for them is politically motivated as it is in the case of Assad in Syria and the
various branches of Hezbollah, notably in Lebanon. (The other night in a
discussion circle in London a self-styled expert was mistaking Zaydis with
Yazidis, insisting that former Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh was a Yazidi!)
There is no doubt that Tehran arms and supports a number of Shi’ite groups,
ranging from Hezbollah in Lebanon to Hazara in Afghanistan. However, it also
supports some Sunni groups, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Tehran also did
all it could to help the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, including the sending of a
high-level mission with offers of billions of dollars in aid provided the
brotherhood agreed to purge the Egyptian army.
In Afghanistan, Iran sheltered and, for years, financed Gulbuddin Hekmatyar’s
Sunni Hizb Islami, although it had massacred quite a few Afghan Shi’ites in the
early 1990s. Since 2004, Tehran has also maintained contact with the Taliban, a
militant anti-Shi’ite Afghan terror group. (At the time of this writing Iran is
preparing to allow the Taliban to open an unofficial embassy in Tehran.)
Iran is also training and arming Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga, almost all of them
Sunnis, to fight ISIS, which casts itself as the standard-bearer of Sunnis. At
the other end of the spectrum, various opponents of the Khomeinist regime, among
them some Sunni powers, have supported anti-regime Shi’ite groups at different
times. Iraqi despot Saddam Hussein protected, financed, and armed the People’s
Mujahedin, an Iranian Shi’ite group, for decades, and at one point sent them to
fight inside Iran itself. Pakistan, a Sunni-majority country, has become a base
for anti-Iran terror groups which, according to Iranian Border Guard, have been
responsible for more than 80 deadly attacks over the past 12 months. At one end
of the spectrum it is not enough to be Shi’ite of any denomination. Unless you
also worship the “Supreme Guide” you are worse than the “infidel.” At another
end, being a Sunni Muslim is not enough to let you live a reasonably human life
in areas controlled by ISIS; you must also pledge fealty to the self-styled
“caliph.”
The Khomeinists, the Taliban, Al-Qaeda, Hezbollah, ISIS, Boko Haram, Hizb Islami,
and a whole host of other outfits may try to market their discourse with a
religious narrative. They may even be sincerely motivated by rival
interpretations of Islam. What they cannot claim is the exclusive representation
of Islam as such or a particular sect. They are part of Islam but Islam is not
part of them. These are political movements using violence and terror in pursuit
of political goals. They pretend to be waging war against the “infidel” and may
even be deviously sincere in that claim. But they are primarily waging war
against Muslims, regardless of schools or sect.
The fight against terrorism is our war
Mshari Al-Zaydi/Asharq Al Awsat
Thursday, 04 Jul, 2015
The United Arab Emirates has given, through law, a practical lesson after its
Federal Supreme Court sentenced to death Alaa Al-Hashemi, the woman known as the
Al-Reem Island ghost, who stabbed to death an American woman at an Abu Dhabi
shopping mall last December. The court rejected claims that Hashemi suffers from
psychological problems, instead providing evidence that she was radicalized
online.
Does anyone still doubt that “all” Arabs and Muslims are involved in an
existential war with armed extremist groups?
We all saw what happened in Egypt on Monday, when the country’s
prosecutor-general was killed by a car bomb. The assassination coincided with
the second anniversary of the revolution that toppled the Muslim Brotherhood.
And now, while you are reading this article, Egypt is fighting a war with
Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militants in North Sinai.
After the criminal attack that targeted Shi’ite citizens at the Imam Al-Sadiq
Mosque, Kuwait decided to follow a new path, declaring an all-out war on armed
extremists—whether belonging to ISIS or not—and taking a series of procedures,
including strict legislations.
Following the criminal beach attack in Sousse, Tunisia has also has entered into
an open war with armed religious groups. President Beji Caid El-Sebsi has said
the country will take strong measures in response to the attack. Even in Britain
Prime Minister David Cameron said in recent days ISIS poses “an existential
threat” to the West.
But we need to see the big picture, not just the minor details. The problem is
in no way limited to a specific country. It goes far beyond country-specific
problems, such as the removal of Egypt’s Islamist former president Mohamed Mursi;
the sectarian behavior of Abdul Hameed Dashti and Walid Al-Tabtabai, two Kuwaiti
MPs; Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali’s time in office; secret plots against Rachid
Ghannouchi’s Ennahda Movement in Tunisia; or the conduct of the British police
as Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) apologists claim.
All these details limit our vision because the problem is much deeper and
bigger. It lies in the “mentality” that dominates the consciousness of ordinary
Muslims, young and old, and the Sunni and Shi’ite sheikhs who instigate sedition
in society.
To put it differently, I acknowledge that each country has its own political
circumstances and that several intelligence agencies are recruiting some
Islamist groups, with or without their knowledge, to target their enemies in the
Arab world, particularly Saudi Arabia and Egypt. Nevertheless, we should not
lose sight of the bigger picture: the fundamental flaw in the culture that
produces the fighters and supporters of Al-Qaeda, ISIS and the Brotherhood. This
flaw is the source of the entire misfortune which has been left uncured.
Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi said during the funeral procession of
prosecutor-general Hisham Barakat that Egypt is fighting a war with a despicable
enemy, and despite a weak legal system. Therefore, he added, Egypt must
introduce legal reforms to cope with the threat of terrorism. Kuwait’s interior
minister said in recent days his country was facing a real war and that it was
seeking to introduce new legislation and policies to enable it to fight
terrorists and those who look up to them.
Declaring war on those groups will reduce a heavy cost that could be caused by
laxity and procrastination. It is a war we have delayed for far too long.
Governmental aid does not substitute the need for charity
work
Abdulrahman al-Rashed/Al Arabiya/Saturday, 4 July 2015/Most of the flour, rice,
dates, water, blankets and tents given to Syrian, Yemeni and other refugees come
from governments. Little is offered by the people. In the past, the source of
charity work was mostly civil, and goods were gathered from mosques, schools and
streets through TV campaigns and newspapers. When terrorist organizations
intervened in charity work, most of the aid was trimmed, but the rest of came
along with questions about how the aid would be delivered and distributed. Now,
suspicions have almost wiped out personal charity work and governments have
undertaken most of the related tasks. What is offered today in matters of aid by
governments exceeds greatly what was gathered by people yesterday. However, this
arrangement doesn’t meet the required needs for two reasons. First, charity work
is a parallel activity and a religious duty that expresses the solidarity of
people and their wish to give a helping hand.
Secondly, the magnitude of the Arab world’s current crises - involving millions
of people - is unprecedented and requires that we join forces to heal the wounds
of our people in many countries in the region and support them everywhere
without discrimination and regardless of their political views. The majority of
them are victims of political violence, whether they are with or against the
government in Syria, Yemen, Iraq and any other country. For example, the
isolated Yemenis in Saada or the Syrians trapped in coastal cities deserve to be
helped like all the rest of the displaced inside and outside Syria and Yemen.
When extending a helping hand, there must be no discrimination.
Taking advantage Stealing the food and funds of the needy is unacceptable.
People who are taking advantage of charity work for terrorist purposes or
unjustified personal benefit must be monitored and stopped.
We want to enter a new phase in which only a certain type of charities is
allowed. In my opinion, the best solution would be to create stronger charity
organizations which are advanced on intellectual, management and industrial
fronts and can be controlled, arbitrated and forced into operating with full
transparency. We are facing a crisis that will last for years. It may even
expand and spawn waves of further crises for these homeless people. Millions in
need are asking for our help. With no one left to support them in this world
full of misery and injustice, it is crucial that we do so. Helping them is a
duty we must fulfill with enthusiasm. We are aware that there are thousands of
people who are willing to engage voluntarily and wholeheartedly in charity work.
The governments’ support of the needy does not run in opposition to the
activities of well-doers. The door is wide open and the charity work needed
exceeds our ability to help.
Advancement
The enormous breakdown of the region and the subsequent appalling tragedies that
have hit millions of people require us to improve charity work and transform it
into an advanced activity aiming to satisfy both the benefactors and those in
need. Gathering material donations, as well as services offered by millions of
people, and delivering it to refugees is indeed an accomplishment that requires
advanced structural skills and sophisticated abilities. We are experiencing a
highly delicate phase where consciences are held accountable before actions.
Thus, any newly established associations and organizations must stay away from
existing associations working in this sector and shift towards building
specialized institutions. These must have the ability to cooperate with
international organizations whose expertise and work mechanisms can be used to
develop delicate charity facilities.
The reasons behind concerned governments stopping or reducing charitable
activities are clear and understandable. They should stand firmly against
dubious groups who want to go back to working in the charity field. I have read
a comment saying that well-known charity workers should resume working given the
charges against charities and charity workers were disproven and dropped by
courts. This invitation is unacceptable as not all charges were dropped nor all
suspects acquitted. Some are still in prison and others had their associations
shut down after being found guilty. We can recall finding donation boxes in the
homes of terrorists. We went through a long phase of exposing these
organizations. Their comeback is now unwelcomed. Investigation and security
services in the region have a lot of information detailing how terrorist
organizations used donation campaigns to support its activities.
We want to enter a new phase in which only a certain type of charities is
allowed: large associations based on systems that facilitate reviews,
accountability and full financial transparency, devoted to doing good only. They
shouldn’t be involved in any political and religious activity and their doors
must be open to volunteers, led by doctors and paramedics who can come to the
aid of others. As we live in such difficult times and experience horrific
tragedies that are likely to linger, charity work must be resumed to support the
governments that are trying to fill the void.
Who lost Iraq?
Saturday, 4 July 2015
Hisham Melhem/Al Arabiya
The victory of communist forces led by Mae Zedong against the American supported
nationalist regime of Chiang Kai-shek in 1949 and the establishment of the
People’s Republic of China, gave rise to the cry of anguish and defeat ‘who lost
China?’ The cry would be repeated intermittently in subsequent decades, only
with the name of the ‘lost’ country changing.
American scholars, historians and politicians would engage in endless debates
both historic and esoteric, apportioning blame, and with a fair amount of
self-flagellation about ‘who lost Vietnam?’ and ‘who lost Iran?’ as if those
countries were America’s to lose. It was inevitable, that the question of ‘who
lost Iraq?’ would be posed with some urgency, since Iraq it seems has been
‘lost’ and ‘regained’ but never redeemed by the United States. The current cover
of Politico Magazine has two photos of President George W. Bush on one side, and
Barack H. Obama on the other. In the middle is the headline: ’Who lost Iraq? Was
it Bush’s fault or Obama’s?’
‘Mistakes were made’…by everybody
The participants – former diplomats and officials, retired generals and
analysts- gave the expected answers (but also some insightful nuggets), ranging
from the usual ‘mistakes were made’ during the early stages of the American
occupation, to the ‘relative inattention’ to Iraq by the Obama administration.
Many criticized the sectarian policies of former Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki,
designed to further marginalize the Sunnis of Iraq, and how the new Shiite
leaders in Baghdad abused their newfound power. Others pointed out that the
decision-making before the invasion of Iraq did not take into consideration the
intense regional competition between Iran and Saudi Arabia with its attendant
Shiite-Sunni dimension, and the machinations of regional powers, particularly
Iran.
There were also the answers that delved into the deeper underlying factors that
led to ‘losing’ Iraq. Brian Katulis, of the Center for American Progress
bemoaned the lack of strategic planning and the absence of an-overarching
political framework to deal with Iraq in a regional context, (you cannot delink
Iraq from Syria, when ISIS does not) and the continuing fixation on the tactical
aspects of the crisis, even at this late hour.
Katulis puts the primary responsibility for the failure in Iraq in the hands of
Maliki and the Iraqi leadership. Former ambassador to Iraq Chris Hill, said that
when he began his tour in 2009 he had the ‘impression the Iraqis were very much
conflicted about the idea of a continuing American role.’ He noted that the
pivot to Asia in Washington created unintended consequences including the sense
that the ‘Middle East was yesterday’s news…a sense that America was moving on’
and away from the region. John McLaughlin former deputy director of the CIA,
after saying that ‘to ask the question “who lost Iraq?” is not a fair question,’
stressed that to understand the predicament of Iraq you have to think of it in
terms of ‘concentric circles,’ and that focusing on the immediate circle (Maliki
and the Status of Forces Agreement and other immediate issues) prevents you from
seeing the wider circles such as the regional context, and going all the way to
the moment when the modern Middle East was created by the Sykes-Picot agreement
between France and Britain in 1916.
Retired General Daniel Bolger, who served in Iraq noted that the United States
‘never got a better grip on the suspicious, beleaguered heartbroken Iraqi
people. They are the real losers of this hard war, and they have been in anguish
for decades.’ He succinctly summarized America’s tragic and quixotic encounter
with Iraq thus: ‘one thing is pretty clear: Social work from the barrel of a gun
is not a winning formula.’
Quixotic madness
The decision by George W. Bush’s administration to invade Iraq, a process that
is still not fully explained or documented, is breathtaking in its immense
hubris and ignorance of history. To think that even a powerful country like the
United States can turn a faraway, harsh and already brittle and unforgiven
country like Iraq that was broken by decades of authoritarianism, and
unspeakable depravities, into a functioning democracy is truly the stuff of
quixotic madness. The United States occupied a truly alien society about which
it knew practically nothing; satellite images and intercepted communications do
not constitute real intelligence. No one in Washington had felt the pulse of
those twenty-something who constituted the majority of Iraqis. Hence the shock
of the political establishment in Washington and the military command in Iraq at
the display of Shiite religiosity such as flagellation rituals which were banned
under Saddam’s regime. What was immutable during America's long, bitter, chaotic
and painful occupation of Iraq was Murphy's Law: Everything that could go wrong
did. And what is still astounding in a great democracy, is the inability or
unwillingness of those who made the fateful decision to invade Iraq, have yet to
own the consequences of their decision, to repent and/or be held responsible for
the desolation and human debris they left behind in Mesopotamia, and the anguish
they wrought in the heart of America.
A trajectory of blood, sweat and tears
It is clear now, that the invasion and the disastrous way the occupation was
administered coupled with the parochialism and sectarianism of Iraqi leaders
(and yes their communities too) and the machinations of the neighbors,
particularly the Iranians, have quickened Iraq’s gradual slide towards sectarian
and ethnic disintegration. But the seeds of Iraq’s unraveling have been sown
decades earlier. It is true that Iraq from its inception was politically,
socially and ethnically fractured, it was not inevitable that its deep fissures
will prove impossible to resolution or mediation by a wiser political class.
King Faisal of Iraq, was incredibly prescient and honest when he observed in
1933, that ‘there is still–and I say this with a heart full of sorrow–no Iraqi
people but unimaginable masses of human beings, devoid of any patriotic idea,
imbued with religious traditions and absurdities, connected by no common tie,
giving ear to evil, prone to anarchy, and perpetually ready to rise against any
government whatever. Out of these masses we want to fashion a people which we
would train, educate, and refine…’ That immense challenge was never met. Iraq
may have had a chance to mold a modern civil state under the monarchy, but the
military officers, and the disgruntled rural masses who invaded Baghdad (and
later Damascus and Cairo,) imbued by resentment of the ruling westernized
elites, and driven by the delusions of Arab nationalism to restore the glorious
Arab past, set it firmly on the road to perdition with its attendant blood,
sweat and tears.
Iraq, it seems, has been ‘lost’ and ‘regained’ but never redeemed by the United
States
Iraq’s unraveling as a unitary state became almost inevitable, with Saddam
Hussein’s decision to invade Iran in 1980. This was the Middle Eastern version
of Napoleon’s and Hitler’s invasion of Russia. Here too Murphy was at work. It
seems that no one would dare whisper in Saddam’s ear what was the fate of those
European powers that blundered into invading revolutionary France and Russia.
The war deepened the Sunni-Shiite divide, wiped out a generation of young Iraqi
and Iranian men, and transformed large swaths of Iranian and Iraqi lands into
scorched earth with chemical and biological weapons. The war bankrupted Iraq,
and Saddam set his lustful invading eyes on Kuwait and the rest is history.
The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars…
In this sad and tragic chronicle the Iraqis, particularly their political and
religious leaders and brittle institutions, lost Iraq. Sure, some of the
neighbors and some powers beyond the seas did contribute, with the conniving of
one Iraqi group or another to the demise of modern Mesopotamia, but if human
agency means anything, we have to say that the Iraqis themselves are responsible
in the main for their grim fate.
The same can said about the Syrian calamity, the unmooring of Egypt, the
heartbreak that is Yemen, and the disaster that is Libya. Petty officers,
deluded Arab nationalists, atavistic religious leaders all intoxicated in their
own versions of the absolute, wreaked havoc in their societies and turned their
once shining and cultured cities, the very repository of the best that Judaism,
Christianity and Islam have taught and created, into wastelands. Where once
stood edifices of Phoenician, Greek, Persian, Roman and Arab civilizations side
by side or on top of each other in layered forms, in Aleppo, Damascus , Baghdad,
Cairo and Alexandrea, there exists today the wreckage of war, or the neglect of
mediocre and hollow men. Where once the word ‘Madrasa’ meant a concept and a
place for learning and where reason is applied, today these schools are breeding
grounds for demagoguery and anti-reason.
A tale of deficits and failures
Long before the wave of Arab discontent that swept the region at the beginning
of the decade, most Arab states were hollowed out politically and culturally by
those who claimed to be the custodians of the past, the present and the future.
In recent years the Arab Human Development Reports, a series of publications
written by Arabs and focusing on the challenges and obstacles preventing the
realization of Arab potentials showed in bold relief a stunted Arab world. There
are scandalous ‘deficits’ in knowledge, freedom, education, scientific research
and gender equality. There are close to 70 million adults who are illiterate,
two-third of them women. A UNICEF report published in April said that one in
every four children in the Middle East and North Africa (more than 21 million)
are either out of school or at risk of cutting their education. There is
practically no science being created in any Arab country. There are no first
rate Arab universities, and those that are still graduating competitive students
including in the fields of science and medicine are foreign owned and
administered. The less than 10,000 books originally written in Arabic every
year, concentrate on religion and tradition and less so on literature and social
sciences. The publishing industry is barely surviving because of censorship, and
low readership. The state of Arab media, particularly print media is not much
better. Most of what is masquerading as political commentary, is essentially
rhetoric or written in a wooden language and bereft of rational analysis. It is
difficult to name more than a handful of serious political columnists worth
reading throughout the Arab world.
These ‘deficits’ were at the heart of the discontent of the Arab uprisings, just
as they were the main reason for their terrible failure. These uprisings failed
to create or develop a single viable secular and democratic political force.
None of the uprisings led to the emergence of a historic figure like Gandhi,
Nelson Mandela or Vaclav Havel, just as no such figure emerged during the quest
for formal independence from European powers in the first half of the twentieth
century. What is it about this arid region that seems to want to remain stuck in
the past and refuses to embrace unconditionally the future, the way the
Vietnamese are willing to put the past behind them and work closely and
productively with the U.S. the same power that killed so many of them in a
brutal war. Gandhi and Mandela had their feet deeply planted in their history
and traditions, but they were decidedly men of the future, so was Havel. My
friend Brian Katulis, himself an astute analyst of the Middle East asked me
recently ‘why is it that the Arab world never produced a Gandhi?’ My immediate
response came in the form of questions. Is it the culture? Is it Islam? Is it
the broken politics of the region? I am still wondering, and wandering in the
recesses of our recent history looking for an answer or answers.
Who lost Iraq? Who lost Syria? Libya? Yemen? And who is losing Egypt? To
paraphrase Shakespeare; The fault, dear reader, is not in our stars, but in
ourselves.
One week after a Bloody Friday in Ramadan
Eyad Abu Shakra/Al Arabiya
Saturday, 4 July 2015
Last Friday (June 26) was indeed a painful and sad day in the month of Ramadan,
yet it is no more sufficient to merely express sorrow and abhorrence and call
for national unity. As targeting mosques and murdering innocent people continue,
all talk may be both useless and meaningless. Some may link the Al-Sadiq Mosque
bombing in Kuwait to the escalating sectarian tensions in the Gulf region—a
direct result of the Khomeinist revolution sowing the seeds of extremism only to
make us all reap Al-Qaeda’s discourse and the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria’s
(ISIS) atrocities.
What happened in Tunisia may, in turn, be attributed to the accumulating
bitterness within the country’s hardline religious communities against the era
of Habib Bourguiba’s secularism. Such a phenomenon is given credence by the
exceptionally high percentage of Tunisian nationals in the ranks of extremist
groups fighting against the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria. In this instance it
is worth mentioning, too, the effects of Libya’s chaos and tentacles of
extremist current in the Sahara and Sahel.
As for the heinous atrocity committed in France, those still trying to defend
it, and interpret crimes like it, may claim that it was a natural negative
outcome of cultural alienation, a reaction against religious and racial
prejudice, and a case of escapism from an ethnically rejectionist society.There
is little doubt that each of the three crimes committed in the same day across
three continents has its own specific traits; however, the common denominator is
much more significant and dangerous. Furthermore, it is the main issue while the
rest are details. It is up to Muslims – particularly, Arabs – either to ignore
the bitter truth and so leave the disease to get worse until it turns fatal, or
to admit its existence as a first step to radically treating it.
The three crimes are nothing but parts of a whole. They are examples of criminal
actions committed in the name of the “true Islam” for years all over the world,
without being firmly encountered, although they are pushing all Muslims in a
real war against the whole world.
What is even worse is that the criminals are either intent on provoking such a
global war against those they label as the people of the “territory of war” (Dar
Al-Harb); or they do not care about how the world would react. With the latter
point in mind, it has to be said that the international community is quite
capable of exterminating its enemies, but will stop short of that because it
follows democratic processes and institutions and respects human rights.
Murdering innocent men and women in Kuwait, Tunisia, and the Isère department in
France must not be treated separately from crimes committed by several groups
like ISIS, Al-Qaeda, its Syrian affiliate Al-Nusra Front, Boko Haram, Iraq’s
Popular Mobilization, Hezbollah, Abu Al-Fadhl Al-Abbas Brigade, Al-Shabaab in
Somalia, Taliban, and all other “Islamist,” Sunni and Shi’ite, militant groups
operating under the “true Islam” slogan.
What sort of logic makes us believe that our extremism is attractive to others
and our insistence on exclusion and elimination may neutralize them? This
reminds me of an article written by my friend and colleague Nadim Koteish in
which he commented on the Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris last January, and the
Muslim voices condemning it as being “not representative of the true Islam”!
Koteish asked in his brilliant comment: “What is this ‘true Islam’ those
condemning crimes committed in the name of Islam are talking about, and where is
the post-condemnation confrontation fought by the pro-‘true Islam’ since the
demise of the Mu’tazilites that marked the defeat of rationalism in Islam, more
than 1100 years ago?”
After giving several examples of crimes committed by extremist Sunnis and
Shi’ites, Koteish said: “All perpetrators belonged to this ‘true Islam’ in its
details, texts and margins. They belong to discourse and broad jurisprudence.
Here is the battleground. The Islamic text itself, whether it is a Quranic text,
Fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence), or Hadeeth (of the Prophet)”“Murderers are not
murdering wantonly, but rather quoting books, religious fatwas (legal opinions)
and a long heritage that is an inseparable part of ‘true Islam,’” Koteish said.
He added: “They [the murderers] are Muslims in as much as they declare the two
attestations, and that no religious authority is courageous enough to update and
categorize the requirements that define what being a Muslim is all about. Those
murderers are us. They are [representatives of our] religion in its extremist
form. They are ‘our true Islam’ taken to its furthest limits. Those [in short]
are not out of context.”
I think here is the gist of the matter. Causality, reaction and counter-reaction
There is a real problem lying at the core of our thinking, and it is engendering
our bad actions, and pushing us from a setback to a defeat, and from a defeat to
a disaster. In one way or another, this problem has also contributed to the
negative international attitude towards our great causes. Why should the
international community agree with our concepts and principles when we disagree
with its concepts and principles? Subsequently, how could we ask it to side with
us – from a standpoint of human rights and protection of civilians – when from
our midst emerge individuals and gangs that monopolize belief, religion, virtue,
legitimacy and patriotism? What right do we have to call upon the countries of
the world to help us and alleviate our suffering when we harm not only our own
interests, but also our own people, killing each other and declaring segments of
our people apostates or traitors? What sort of logic makes us believe that our
extremism is attractive to others and our insistence on exclusion and
elimination may neutralize them?
We simply refuse to understand causality, reaction and counter-reaction! In
Iraq, where ISIS frontline is only 50 km from Baghdad, there are 7,000 Sunni
Muslims facing execution if Parliament abolishes the requirement of presidential
signature; and yet the Iran-backed leadership acts as if there is nothing wrong,
with scant regard to potential sectarian consequences! In Syria, too, where the
regime has become nothing but a tiny cog in Iran’s regional wheel, opposition
groups are in a race against time to control their hardline elements who until
this moment refuse to comprehend that their excesses have extended the life of a
regime that has already lost its legitimacy and loyalty of the majority of the
country’s population. And finally, in Lebanon and Yemen, Iran’s well-armed
henchmen are driving the two countries to the brink of a sectarian abyss, as
Hezbollah and the Houthis are presenting themselves to Washington as the
avant-garde of its war against Sunni “takfirists” in their ISIS and Al-Qaeda
versions. By doing so they seem oblivious to the inevitable bloody reactions
which we have seen and continue to see everywhere, including the Gulf states
that have long been the last bastion of moderation and stability in the Middle
East. The time for excuses and apologies has long gone; and what we need now is
radical solutions.
Kurds tell Jpost: 'Just send us weapons to defeat ISIS'
J.Post/LAURA KELLY, SETH J. FRANTZMAN /07/04/2015
The city of Dohuk in Iraqi Kurdistan lies in a valley surrounded by a
picturesque mountain range. While the intense Iraqi sun is as hot there as in
the low-lying regional capital of Erbil, the mountains provide a distraction, a
beautiful landscape that adds to this northern Kurdish city’s charms. Twenty
years ago, it was a small village with few amenities. Today it is a tourist
attraction for Kurds, other Iraqis and Middle Eastern Arabs, with first-rate
hotels, charming restaurants, open picnic spaces for families and a small theme
park near the Dohuk Dam, complemented by cascading waterfalls at the bottom of
an expansive mountain range. The city has grown by leaps and bounds. So when
Islamic State began its offensive last year, sweeping south from the Syrian
border and gaining footholds in major Iraqi cities, the people of Dohuk became
frightened as the extremists appeared to close in. Many were packing their
belongings and preparing to flee. But Vager Saadullah, a political journalist,
was tired of running. A refugee since the age of two, he fled with his family
from Nerwe, a small village in northern Iraq, to escape Saddam Hussein’s
campaign of genocide against the Kurds. His family spent four years in refugee
housing in Turkey before coming to Dohuk.
Saadullah made the decision that he would stay and fight. He had a rifle from
his father, a veteran Peshmerga fighter on behalf of Iraqi Kurdistan, and
prepared to become a sniper – with little to no training. But that wasn’t all:
He didn’t want anyone to leave, and decided to organize a rally and party in the
streets of Dohuk to increase morale.
“We had thousands of people come,” he recalled – and in the end, Islamic State
never arrived.
FOR MANY Kurds, the current state of autonomy in Iraq is one part in a long
history of struggle for independence.
Today, Kurdish flags flutter throughout the countryside and cities; they adorn
stores and uniforms. But in neighboring Syria, Turkey and Iran, the same flag
has often been banned.
Whereas in Syria and Turkey, Kurds have been fighting just for the right to
speak their language at official events or in school, in the Kurdistan region of
Iraq, the national language and the dream of an independent state are slowly
being realized.
Throughout history, the Kurds suffered a series of betrayals and false hopes.
They often say, “We have no friends but the mountains” – a reference to the
number of times they’ve had to escape from onslaught, abandoned by the
international community.
In the late 1920s, a short-lived republic in eastern Turkey was crushed by the
Turkish army, and 1946-1947 saw the defeat of a Kurdish independence movement
centered in Mahabad, Iran. In the 1960s and ’70s, Kurds in Iraq gained some
autonomy under Saddam, only to find themselves sold out in a 1975 agreement that
Baghdad signed with Tehran in Algiers.
Mullah Mustafa Barzani, the father of the Iraqi Kurdistan’s current president,
Masoud Barzani, sent a letter at the time to US secretary of state Henry
Kissinger asking for help against Iraq.
“Our movement and people are being destroyed in an unbelievable way, with
silence from everyone. We feel that the US has a moral and political
responsibility towards our people, who have committed themselves to your
country’s policy,” he wrote. But they were greeted with silence from Washington,
a fact many blame on Kissinger personally.
Driving in the region of Dohuk, one can see old, square concrete fortresses
constructed during the Saddam era to oversee the suppression of the Kurds. Not
only did Saddam embark on a genocide in the late 1980s that killed 180,000 Kurds
and created a million refugees, he also kept the area poor and underdeveloped.
One of our escorts, cradling a long-barreled Soviet-era Dragunov sniper rifle
with a soft wooden stock, is named for his father, who was killed by Saddam’s
army. “I lost 33 members of my family,” he reveals. “My life is serving in the
Peshmerga.”
Sardar Karim, the deputy-general of the Peshmerga division in Talesskef – a
Christian village north of Mosul – says that most of his commanders are veterans
of the war against Saddam.
“In those days, in the mountains, we were alone,” he recounts.
But they came down from the mountains, and in 1992, they elected the first
parliament in Kurdistan.
Rival politicians Jalal Talabani of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and Masoud
Barzani of the Kurdish Democratic Party are the two most popular leaders.
A former minister in the Kurdish regional government, who asked to remain
anonymous due to the sensitivity of the issues involved, recalls that since the
1990s, Iraqi-Kurds have set their sights on self-determination.
“Our understanding for our assessment in 1992 was to have federal Iraq with a
region of Kurdistan. We followed that. Now, we have a problem with the budget
and recognizing the Peshmerga as part of the defense system in Iraq; we have
disputed areas. We must go to parliament and have a referendum. According to the
result, [we must] then deal with the government and international community.”
The government’s intention now is to hold regional elections in August and to
write a regional constitution that would be completed in September.
The stability afforded to the regional government in Erbil to complete these
tasks may be attributed to an ironic turn of events due to the emergence of
Islamic State. By cutting the Kurds off from the rest of Iraq, which has fallen
into chaos and mass killings, Kurdistan has emerged from the storm stronger than
before.
To understand how it happened, one must go back to the 2003 US invasion, which
empowered the Kurds.
When the Iraqi central government under Nouri al-Maliki, between 2006 and 2014,
became increasingly weakened while suppressing the Sunnis, the Kurds saw that
sectarian violence between the Sunnis and Shi’ites would destabilize Iraq.
“Maliki began misusing his power and tried to stop the Kurdish people [from
realizing our aspirations], which was a major mistake,” recalls the former
minister.
“The government had a responsibility to protect the borders and security; it was
impossible to be loyal to Maliki. So we tried to change the power in Baghdad…
we wanted a country of all its citizens, not dominated by an ethnic group.”
As Iraqi security deteriorated in 2014, only the Kurdish region remained at
peace. Then an unexpected enemy from the north appeared at the gates.
“We went to sleep on June 9, 2014,” the minister says slowly, “and we woke up
with a new neighbor called Daesh [Islamic State]. They had conquered 150 km. of
the border, and only 30 km. remained to us. For us, it was economically and
politically disastrous. We were not prepared for this, and it was embarrassing
for the Peshmerga forces.”
When Islamic State first appeared, there was a dispute in the divided Kurdish
political system over the best course of action. Even today, Peshmerga forces
are divided between the political parties. Some politicians advocated a sort of
peaceful coexistence with Islamic State, allowing the group to conquer Sunni
areas as long as they didn’t bother the Kurds; others demanded action, to strike
the group while it was weak.
But on August 3, Islamic State struck toward the Kurdish areas, overrunning
Mount Sinjar, Mosul, Suman and Kuwayr, and taking the Mosul dam near Dohuk.
Thousands of Yazidi women were kidnapped as their men were slaughtered, and the
group imposed its radical Islamist ideology on the people.
The Peshmerga forces were shocked. Dep.-Gen. Sardar Karim, who now holds the
front at the retaken village of Talesskef, recounts the army’s surprise.
“We had a shortage of weapons against armored vehicles, and we lost many places
– even this place we lost in August and other villages. In those days, [Masoud]
Barzani came to the front, and he became a commander and stood with the men on
the front and reorganized them to fight… he knew the Islamic State tactics and
taught us to stand against them. He told us, ‘Even if I die fighting here, I
will not leave this position,’ and the morale increased.”
Since August 17, the Peshmerga began to push the enemy back.
ON THE front line in the small abandoned Christian village of Talesskef,
Peshmerga fighters peer through a sandbag fortification in the direction of
Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city – which, since August 2014, has been under the
control of Islamic State.
One can see for miles on the flat landscape; it’s a parched day, around 32
degrees centigrade. The Kurds have erected an earthen berm stretching into the
distance and dug their positions into it, with a makeshift area for cooking or
sleeping in some areas. They’ve sandbagged parapets and placed DShK .50-caliber
heavy machine guns, often called “Dushka,” at some locations.
The large gun mounted on a tripod comes up to chest-height and peers menacingly
out in the distance. There is a kind of World War I feel to this front line.
Looking out from their fortifications, the soldiers tune their radios to the
frequency the Islamic State fighters use, and listen in on their broadcasts. The
enemy’s position, about 3 km. south, is obscured by the black smoke of burning
tires. But the Peshmerga are nonplussed. They fire off a round from their
Russian DShK in spite.
The troops mainly deal with sporadic mortar fire; the last significant attack
happened one day in this past April. Two Islamic State fighters clothed in black
were killed on their approach to Peshmerga positions at 4 a.m.; the dead men
were wearing suicide vests, but didn’t have the opportunity to detonate
themselves.
They were carrying a homemade ladder to scale the berm. The man who shot the
extremists proudly shows off his Soviet-era Russian-made AK-47.
Since the Peshmerga retook this position a year ago, this line has not moved.
The entire front stretches nearly 1,000 km., with the heaviest fighting taking
place closer to Kirkuk. Men spend about 20 days at guard posts and have 10 days’
leave. This is just one small unit of over 200,000 Peshmerga currently arrayed
against Islamic State.
The men of today’s Peshmerga are not young teenagers; they are an older fighting
force. Many got their start in the ’90s during the uprising against Saddam, and
even older men come to volunteer at the front, their experience dating from the
’70s and ’80s. Although they are supposed to be paid around $500 a month, some
are not paid for months on end because the Baghdad-based federal government does
not distribute oil revenues to Erbil.
They are here at the front because of a clearly deep brotherly bond among the
men (and it is mostly men; the number of Kurdish female fighters is relatively
low). When they are on leave, if they hear their unit has been attacked, many
say they leave their families immediately to return to the fight. They rush
their limited resources, such as antitank missiles, from location to location
wherever the enemy appears.
A war mantra that is often repeated is that Islamic State fights to die, while
the Peshmerga fight to live.
The irony is that for a force that gives us one of today’s best examples of
cohesion, discipline and honor in the face of what they call “the most brutal
enemy,” the men are forced to buy their own uniforms at military surplus stores
in Erbil, coming back with a smorgasbord of camouflage patterns – including US
Army T-shirts (with US Army and American flag badges worn with pride), and
interchangeable insignia badges attached with velcro. There’s no standardized
footwear, so US Army-issue military boots and Adidas indoor soccer shoes are
equally acceptable.
Some older men prefer the traditional Kurdish baggy pants. One man at a
front-line outpost sports a cowboy hat.
GEN. TARIQ HARNI is the commander of the unit that liberated Talesskef on August
17. A stocky man, his hair is cropped close and graying on the sides. He is a
25- year veteran of the Peshmerga, having joined during Saddam’s genocide
campaign against the Kurds during the Iran-Iraq war in the ’80s and ’90s.
He says the morale of the men is good on this front, and that it needs to be
high so they can try and fight with the weapons they have – rudimentary old
Soviet AKs and any weapons they capture from Islamic State.
Harni makes two main points very clear: One, the Peshmerga need more and
advanced weapon systems, such as the MILAN antitank missile. Second, the Iraqi
army is the worst army in the world.
It is a running joke among the commanders that the US indirectly arms the Kurds.
The Americans give advanced, expensive weaponry and supplies to the Iraqi army.
In several cases, Islamic State has captured depots fully stocked with modern
American military equipment and thousands of Humvees abandoned by the Iraqis.
Then, when the Kurds defeat Islamic State, they “steal them back.”
In the front yard of one of the homes in the abandoned Christian village – where
the Peshmerga have established their military base – sits a rare, black armored
Humvee, the cratered glass of a bullet hole on the rear passenger window. It was
captured in the battle of the Mosul dam. Nearby, an M-4 carbine rifle rests on a
plastic chair.
In Kurdistan, a gun like this costs $8,000, but one of these men got it for
free, retaking it from Islamic State.
Even so, it is a luxury item, since ammo for it is in short supply.
There are rumors that the Americans are directly arming the Peshmerga, but
officially, there is a dearth of advanced weaponry among the Kurds.
“If there is a battle, the men at the front are calling their friends at nearby
fronts, not for extra manpower, but for more ammunition, more weapons,” explains
one fighter.
Harni speaks assuredly and clearly, but maintains a sense of humor. The men have
adjusted to the lack of night-vision goggles, he jokes; they see in the dark
now. His men, chewing on a fruit spread their colleagues have provided, laugh
and concur.
He holds court among a handful of colonels, captains and veteran Peshmerga in
the salon of a Christian family’s home, which the inhabitants fled when Islamic
State came to town.
“The enemy is worse and giving up,” he asserts.
In six months, this section of the front has lost six men, and estimates that
its forces have killed around 40 Islamic State fighters. These estimates are
what they’ve taken from the field. Some of the bodies of the Islamic State men
still lie not far from their earthen perimeter, burned after being killed in
battle as reminders to the young Islamic State zealots – many of them from
abroad – that the Peshmerga are prepared to welcome them to their fate.
The soldiers gather intelligence from the bodies they’ve searched in the
no-man’s-land of fighting, or from undetonated suicide vests.
“They looked like foreigners, but they didn’t have any passports on them,” the
general says, responding to the phenomenon of foreigners coming to fight with
the Islamist group.
There is an extreme contrast here between these opponents – the men from abroad
who come to kill, and these middle-aged men with families back home, fighting to
defend Christians, Yazidis and Kurds.
“We are ready to die for our lands,” pledges one of the officers.
There is a mistaken perception that the Peshmerga need foreign volunteers. While
that might be the case for neighboring Syria’s Kurdish forces, these units have
enough men – though they stress again and again that they lack weapons. The most
important weapons the Kurds need are antitank missiles and armored vehicles, the
Russian DShK and the French MILAN antitank guided missile.
“MILAN… just give us MILAN,” seems to be on the lips of every fighter, as they
cradle their AKs and sip from a seemingly endless supply of rich Kurdish tea.
AT THE established military base in Talesskef, Dep.- Gen. Karim enters an
informal seating area wearing his uniform and sandals. He places his things on a
plastic table set up in front of his chair: a jet-black Walther 9-mm. pistol,
slim cigarettes and his cellphone.
We’re sitting under a makeshift canopy of plastic thatching in a gravel
courtyard. Sandbags are stacked on top of the cement garden wall and sparse
plants still sprout from the earth, planted by the family who used to live here.
The residents of this Christian village fled when Islamic State invaded last
year. Some of the villagers came back to retrieve their belongings, but the
village is empty of civilians now that the Peshmerga use it as a their local
headquarters. A Christian militia called the Nineveh Plains Forces has set up
several houses down, under the tutelage of the Peshmerga, and consists of
residents of the village who have returned to help guard it.
Karim sits down and offers us cigarettes. Sugary tea – a staple in Kurdish
culture – is already on the table.
“Most of our high-ranking commanders today fought against previous regimes,” he
details. “After we came down from the mountains, we developed a new division
within the Peshmerga that include four brigades with more than 1,200 [fighters]
in each.”
Fighting in the mountains was difficult, Karim continues – even more so because
Saddam was supported by Arab and Western countries. He reminisces about the
difficulties his men faced against the advanced weaponry and poison gas. But
Saddam still failed to kill the spirit of the Peshmerga, Karim points out; their
morale stayed strong, and their belief in freedom never waned.
This still applies today. The Kurds face off against Islamic State’s modern
weapons with a paucity of RPG’s and a few decaying DShKs. It is because of the
tens of thousands of volunteers on the front that life in Erbil and Dohuk is
like normal, with glistening malls, theaters showing American Sniper, kids
playing in water parks and men playing local games and smoking nargila.
They may be only 50 km. from Islamic State, the most feared extremists in the
world, but as one American living in Erbil noted, “There is a wall of Peshmerga
between Islamic State and Kurdish civilians.”
Karim emphasizes that Islamic State is not just a Kurdish issue, but one in
which the entire world needs to be involved.
He says that extremists from all over the world are coming to this region,
becoming more radicalized. If the Kurds fall, he warns, the Western countries
will be next.
“It’s not a Kurdish problem,” he stresses, “it’s an international problem.”
RUTH ZELLWEGER speaks rudimentary Kurdish. The 34-year-old Christian nurse from
Germany has been in Dohuk for the last couple of weeks, working with the
Christian-Israeli organization Shevet Achim, which identifies children with
high-risk cardiac diseases and transfers them to Israel for free medical care.
She banters easily with Ramzi Masir, the father of one of Shevet Achim’s
patients, at their comfortable Dohuk home.
“It’s like a father speaking to a child, it’s not proper language, but he
understands what I’m trying to say,” she says.
Zellweger has gotten close with the Masir family since their daughter Shana
started benefiting from the organization. Shana was diagnosed with a severe
heart condition at a young age and required multiple treatments unavailable in
local facilities. Another family, the Mikaeels, are visiting with the Masirs,
having met them in Israel when their son Rayan was heading there for his
treatment.
Both Jibraeel Mikaeel and Masir are Peshmerga. They serve in front-line
positions in some of the worst areas, and have witnessed a lot of fighting.
Like their colleagues near Mosul, they agree, “Just give us better weapons, give
us antitank rounds, and we will make short work of Islamic State.”
Masir fondly recalls the Jewish history of Kurdistan, asserting that his own
family may have Jewish roots.
“We appreciate the help from Israel and these organizations; through them we got
back our children’s lives. When we were in Israel, I remember people treating us
like we were in our home,” remembers Masir.
It is a reminder of the rich cultural history of Jews in Kurdistan, most of whom
fled to the Jewish state in the 1940s and ’50s. But in bookstores in Erbil, you
can find tomes about the history of the country’s Jews.
Unlike most other parts of the Middle East, which are rife with anti-Semitism,
there is a cultural memory of what Kurdistan lost when the Jews left.
In the Peshmerga, many of the older men have fond memories of Israel’s support
for their cause in the 1960s and ’70s. Fighters would fly to Israel for military
training via Iran in the days when Israel had relations with the Persian
country. Many others received similar training from Israelis in the Kurdish
mountains; some even stayed to fight with them.
Saadalah, the political journalist, whose uncle trained in Israel, tells the
story of a Kurdish politician criticized for having a photo on Facebook showing
him with Israelis.
“‘Yes, I put it on my own Facebook account, so what?’” Saadalah quotes him as
saying.
Israeli politicians have been more outspoken. In June of last year, Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated clearly that he supported Kurdish
independence. On June 8, Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked averred, “The Jewish and
Kurdish nations share a history.”
Yet for Kurdish political leaders, it is more difficult.
Privately, they speak of support for Israel or wanting closer economic and
military ties; publicly, they want a resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict. Politicians think Netanyahu is a “harsh man,” while many speak of
former president Shimon Peres with admiration.
When it comes to anti-Semitism or anti-Jewish views; however, they are adamantly
against them. Kurdistan portrays itself as a haven in the region for minorities.
It has taken in 1.7 million refugees, including Arab Christians, Yazidis and
other, smaller minorities. Churches dot the landscape in Erbil and Dohuk, and
beer is openly sold in shops in Christian areas. The call to prayer is reserved
and quiet; religion is a private matter.
But the Jewish history of the region is not well preserved. The tomb of Nabi
Nahum in al-Qush is in ruins.
Jewish quarters of major cities like Erbil or Zakho, where Jews were once a
majority, are in ruins, according to a local professor, and there is no easy way
to find old synagogues or sites.
On the front lines, the fighters admire Israel’s abilities.
“Israelis and Americans are like our cousins,” Gen. Harni says. “Israel is brave
and fought all this time against the enemy. They are in an everyday war, and
they are like us since 1948; we were fighting even before the creation of
Israel.”
Today, the Kurds are still fighting – on one front, against Islamic State, and
on another, toward their hopes and dreams for an independent Kurdistan that will
free them from the chaos of Iraq.
This story first appeared in the Jerusalem Post Magazine.
Senior Western diplomat: No plan to
continue Iran nuclear talks long past July 7
By REUTERS /J.Post/07/03/2015
VIENNA - A year and half of nuclear talks between Iran and major powers were
creeping towards the finish line on Friday as negotiators wrestled with sticking
points including questions about Tehran's past atomic research.
Iran is in talks with the United States and five other powers - Britain, China,
France, Germany and Russia - on an agreement to curtail its nuclear program in
exchange for relief from economic sanctions.
"We are coming to the end," said a senior Western diplomat, who added there was
no plan to carry on for long past next Tuesday. "Either we get an agreement or
we don't," he said, adding that the process "remains quite difficult."
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif told Iranian state television that
"a lot of progress has been made, but still various technical issues remain that
need the other party's political will."
Still, all sides say a deal is within reach. U.S., European and Iranian
officials, including U.S. Under Secretary of State Wendy Sherman and Iranian
deputy foreign ministers Abbas Araqchi and Majid Takhteravanchi, held a six-hour
negotiating session that ended at 3 a.m. on Friday, a senior U.S. official said.
US Secretary of State John Kerry and Zarif were due to hold a bilateral session
on Friday, though that meeting was delayed several times.
Russia's chief negotiator Sergei Ryabkov said the text of the agreement was more
than 90 percent complete. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi voiced confidence
that the parties would reach a mutually acceptable accord.
The negotiators missed a June 30 deadline for a final agreement, but have given
themselves until July 7, and foreign ministers not already in Vienna are due to
return on Sunday for a final push.
A deal, if agreed, would require Iran to severely curtail uranium enrichment
work for more than a decade to ensure it would need at least one year's
"breakout time" to produce enough highly enriched uranium for a single weapon,
compared with current estimates of two to three months.
QUESTIONS ABOUT IRAN'S PAST
Western and Iranian officials said there were signs of a compromise emerging on
one of the major sticking points: access to Iranian sites to monitor compliance
with a future agreement.
A senior Iranian official in Vienna said on Thursday that Iran would sign up to
an IAEA inspection regime called the Additional Protocol, which would be
provisionally implemented at the start of a deal and later ratified by Iran's
parliament.
The Protocol allows IAEA inspectors increased access to sites where they suspect
nuclear activity is taking place, but U.S. officials say it is insufficient
because Iran has in the past stalled by dragging out negotiations over access
requests.
The Iranian official said Iran could also agree to a system of "managed access"
- which is strictly limited to protect legitimate military or industrial secrets
- to relevant military sites.
The issue of Iran's past nuclear research is more difficult.
Yukiya Amano, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), on Thursday
met Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and other officials in Tehran to discuss
the IAEA's unresolved questions.
But on Friday he said in a statement that there had been no breakthrough and
"more work will be needed."
Western diplomats said they were not demanding a public confession that Iran had
conducted research into building a nuclear warhead, but that the IAEA had to be
satisfied it knew the full scope of past Iranian activity to establish a
credible basis for future monitoring.
Officials close to the Vienna talks say the suspension of some sanctions will be
tied to resolving this issue. "It's time to close this chapter," the senior
Western diplomat said.
Other sticking points include the timing of the suspension of sanctions, and
Iranian acceptance of a plan to restore U.S., European Union and United Nations
sanctions if Tehran fails to comply with the terms of the agreement.
Another obstacle is Iran's determination to maintain the ability to continue
research and development involving advanced centrifuges, machines that spin at
supersonic speeds to purify uranium for use in power plants or weapons.
Analysts and diplomats say that if Iran runs many advanced centrifuges, this
could shorten its breakout time to back under a year again.
Global Terror: France’s Islamic
problem
By ZVI MAZEL/J.Post/07/04/2015
With the slaughter at Charlie Hebdo and at the Hyper Cacher supermarket, France
has experienced a heightened level of Islamic terrorism since the beginning of
the year. Yet it is strangely reluctant to tackle the phenomenon, which
threatens the whole of Europe.
In the past Islamic terrorism has mainly, but not exclusively, targeted Jews.
Mohammed Merah had killed two French soldiers and wounded a third before
murdering Jewish children and teachers in Toulouse.
French security services are working round the clock to prevent further attacks,
meeting with little to no success. Only recently they prevented large-scale
attacks on the country’s vulnerable churches.
However, with radical organizations working within the large Muslim communities,
which are to be found everywhere now, and with a Muslim population estimated at
six million, security services have their work cut out.
The French government has chosen a rather circuitous approach to the problem and
set up a framework of dialogue with its Muslim minority – or, more precisely,
with its religious leaders. The first meeting was held in Paris on June 14 –
under the auspices of Prime Minister Manuel Valls and his minister of interior,
Bernard Cazeneuve – with some 150 Muslim dignitaries, led by Dalil Boubakeur,
president of the French Council of the Muslim Faith, whose creation in 2003 was
promoted by then-president Nicolas Sarkozy.
The council has failed dismally to fulfill its intended goals – namely,
promoting dialogue with non-Muslims and addressing Islamic terrorism – and has
lost much of its prestige.
In the course of several seminars, the dignitaries were asked to formulate their
demands, and they asked for more protection for their mosques, a stronger
government response to what they called Islamophobia, the building of more
mosques – 5,000 were mentioned – as well as more mundane subjects such as a
greater supply of halal meat and imposing a special tax on that meat to finance
building and other community needs.
On the latter point the minister of interior stated that France, being a secular
country, could not do so, but would see what could be done regarding the
building of mosques as well as taking steps to ensure greater security for
mosques and other community infrastructures.
One of the participants suggested turning churches into mosques; the outcry was
such that he quickly retreated. Yet the bishop of the city of Évry went on the
record to say that he would rather see a church become a mosque than a
restaurant. This readiness to forgo centuries-old traditions raised quite a few
eyebrows.
Sensitive topics such as the problem of Islam in France, Islamic terrorism, the
radicalization of Islamic youth and the fact that hundreds of them have joined
the ranks of Islamic State were not discussed – in the words of the organizers,
“in order not to insult the Muslim community.”
Worse, there was no mention of anti-Semitism, one of the major problems in
Europe today. The growing number of anti-Semitic incidents in 21st-century
France has led more and more Jews to flee a country where Jews have been living
for over a thousand years, yet France resolutely refuses to recognize Muslim
anti-Semitism as well as renewed Christian anti-Semitism.
A matter of days after the conclusion of the meetings, due to be held again in
2016, one Yassin Salhi contributed his own take on the dialogue. Having
decapitated his employer, he hung the severed head between two flags bearing the
Shahada – the Muslim profession of faith, “There is no god but God and Muhammad
is the prophet of Allah” – on the fence of a factory which, in the nick of time,
he was prevented from blowing up. He had managed to post a selfie of himself
with the severed head of his victim on his WhatsApp account and send it to a
“friend” in Syria.
Interestingly, President François Hollande, rushing to the media after the
macabre discovery, refrained from using the words “Islam” or “Islamic terrorism”
and did not mention that there was an inscription in Arabic on the flags.
It was left to the charismatic Valls to declare boldly to Europe 1 radio that
France was under a strategic threat that would have to be tackled.
“We are in a war of civilizations,” he said.
He was immediately reviled by many members of his own socialist party and
pilloried in the media. Yet, in the wake of the January attacks, Valls had
already said: “We are at war against terrorism and radical Islam” and had
pledged €100 million to the fight against terrorism.
Unfortunately little was done beyond setting up the dialogue framework mentioned
above.
The Left in France still insists in pretending that it is the Muslim community
that is the first victim of Islamic terrorism. And the government still refuses
to see that at the core of the problem is radical Islam and the sympathy it
receives among not only the Muslim population but the extreme Left. Not only the
media but also academic circles proclaim that a small extremist Islamic minority
is responsible for all acts of terrorism, which they believe are “against the
values of Islam.”
At the same time, on the other side of the Mediterranean divide, the highest
religious authorities of Islam know only too well that Islam, as it is taught in
schools and universities throughout the Islamic world and especially at Al-Azhar
University and major Saudi Arabian universities, is at the core of the problem,
and they are trying to address it.
The Shari’a and its sources – Koran, Sunna and traditions based on the way of
life of the disciples of the prophet Muhammad and his warriors – are the true
basis of the attacks on the West, as they are the true basis of the actions of
the self-proclaimed Islamic State.
There is an enormous amount of soul-searching among the greatest scholars of
Islam, who are desperately trying to find a way to eliminate some of the most
extreme texts in a curriculum which has remained unchanged for centuries.
To date, only one man has done something about it. President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi
of Egypt has launched a comprehensive review of school texts to eradicate calls
to jihad and to extremism, a move that France – whose motto is “Freedom,
equality and fraternity” – would do well to ponder, if not to emulate.
**The writer, a fellow of The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, is a former
ambassador to Romania, Egypt and Sweden.
Analysis: Will there be another Gaza
war?
By YOSSI MELMAN/J.Post/07/03/2015
A year ago this week, Israel launched its third war in Gaza in less than seven
years. The first was in December 2008 and the second in November 2012. Simple
calculation shows that the time elapsed between the first and second campaigns
was nearly four years.
While the cease-fire between the second and third wars lasted just 19 months, on
average it can be calculated that every 22 months Israel has found itself facing
the same problem in Gaza. So, with the same calculation, Israel can expect
another round in Gaza in the spring of 2016. But Middle Eastern realities are
not mere products of statistics.They don’t necessarily adhere to the scripts
written by the planners. Sometimes the military battles generate surprising
twists in the drama.
The last war, codenamed by IDF computers “Protective Edge,” could be one of
these unexpected events. It has the potential for a long-term tacit or formal
arrangement between Israel and Hamas, one that could put an end to the rocket
launching, sporadic or systematic, from Gaza and could bring quiet and
tranquility for the residents of southern Israel. In that sense, the last Gaza
war could turn out to be a mirror image of the Second Lebanon War in 2006. That
war exposed many tactical weaknesses of the Israel Defense Forces but, on the
strategic level, empowered Israeli deterrence. The inhabitants of northern
Israel have for nine years since enjoyed and benefited from a peaceful border as
Hezbollah is deterred from attacking Israel. Something similar can emerge in the
South. The situation Israel has witnessed in the last 12 months on the Gaza
front is complex; alongside hopes, it contains risks and danger that another war
is on the horizon.
What were the war’s flaws and weakness? It lasted 50 days and was not only the
longest of all three Gazan campaigns, but also the second- longest war in the
history of the State of Israel after the 1948 War of Independence. During
Protective Edge, Israel was bombarded with nearly 5,000 rockets, more than in
any other of its military clashes, including the two previous Gaza wars and the
Second Lebanon War. For its critics, the war was also too long. But there was a
reason for it. The political echelon led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
and Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon, as well as the IDF leadership, were
concerned about reducing Israeli casualties, which due to the urban and densely
populated terrain could have been higher than the 67 soldiers who died in
battle.It was also said that Israeli intelligence failed to have accurate
information about the number, size and spread of the tunnels Hamas had dug to be
used as a surprise weapon.
But this claim is not true.
Based on military sources, this writer wrote in October 2013 – nine months
before the war – that Hamas had built 20-30 tunnels.Surely, IDF Military
Intelligence and the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) did know that Hamas had
dug 30 tunnels leading in the direction of Israel. And, indeed, during the war
the IDF found and destroyed all of them. The problem, however, was that, even
though the information was conveyed to the government, neither the IDF’s top
generals nor the cabinet ministers fully grasped the full strategic meaning
before the war. Still, the war results, as we analyze them today, are
satisfactory. It was a limited war because the declared goals were limited.
Israel didn’t wish to topple Hamas because that would have meant once again
conquering Gaza, which is a small territorial enclave with a big but very poor
population of 1.8 million inhabitants.
Conquering Gaza – which from a military point of view could have been achieved
within days – would have resulted in many casualties to both IDF troops and
Palestinians. And it would have forced Israel to once again be the occupier and
daily provider of Gaza. Israel did not want to be in this position. Bearing in
mind that Israel had no serious alternatives other than to end the war the way
it did, its achievements were numerous. A growing wedge was created between
Hamas and Egypt, which perceives the Islamist organization as a threat to its
own national security and accuses it of supporting and collaborating with the
terrorists of Islamic State in Sinai. The security cooperation between Jerusalem
and Cairo has reached unprecedented levels. Both countries are partners in the
war against terrorism, which this week in Sinai caused the Egyptian Army heavy
casualties by the hands of Islamic State and showed how painful and formidable a
task it is.
There is no military solution to Gaza.
The third Gaza war will be judged successful only if the southern border is
truly peaceful. This is only possible if a long-term agreement is reached among
Israel, Hamas, the Palestinian Authority and Egypt – with financial support from
Qatar to rebuild and help Gaza normalize the life of its inhabitants.Without a
deal that will politically and economically regulate and administrate life
there, Gaza will never be rehabilitated. Even worse: The situation will
deteriorate and Israel will be confronted with Islamic State, a worse and more
brutal enemy.
Sex Slavery and the Islamic State
Mark Durie/On Line Opinion
July 3, 2015
http://www.meforum.org/5361/islamic-state-sex-slavery
Jamie Walker, Middle East correspondent for The Australian, asked two critical
questions in a recent article that discussed the involvement of two Australian
citizens, Mohamed Elomar and Khaled Sharrouf, in Islamic State sex slavery. In
2014 Elomar purchased sex slaves, of whom four, all Yazidis, later escaped to a
refugee camp, where the ABC caught up with them and interviewed them. Elomar had
also boasted on Twitter that he had “1 of 7 Yehzidi slave girls for sale” at
$2500 each.
Walker’s questions were “why this debased appeal seems to be gaining traction
with Islamic State’s target audience, which increasingly includes women, and why
it’s not challenged more stridently in the public arena.”
The Islamic State has given its own answer to the first question. In the fourth
edition of its magazine Dabiq, it aggressively promoted sex slavery as an
Islamic practice, arguing that the practice conforms to the teaching and example
of Muhammad and his companions.
Many Muslim scholars have upheld the practice of enslaving captives of war.
Does this argument have any wider appeal than among Islamic State recruits?
The reality is that many Muslim scholars have upheld the practice of enslaving
captives of war. For example Islamic revivalist Abul A’la Maududi wrote in his
influential and widely disseminated tract Human Rights in Islam that for Muslims
to enslave their captives was “a more humane and proper way of disposing of
them” than Western approaches. Enslavement by Muslims, he argued, is preferable
to the provisions of the Geneva Convention because of the value of this policy
for fuelling the growth of Islam:
The result of this humane policy was that most of the men who were captured on
foreign battlefields and brought to the Muslim countries as slaves embraced
Islam and their descendants produced great scholars, imams, jurists,
commentators, statesmen and generals of the army.
Islamic revivalist movements that look forward to the restoration of an Islamic
Caliphate have repeatedly endorsed the practice of slavery in the name of their
religious convictions. For example the (now banned) Muhajiroun movement in the
UK announced in an article, “How does Islam Classify Lands?” that once a true
Islamic State is established, no-one living in other nations (which it calls Dar
al Harb, ‘house of war’) will have a right to their life or their wealth:
[H]ence a Muslim in such circumstances can then go into Dar Al Harb and take the
wealth from the people unless there is a treaty with that state. If there is no
treaty individual Muslims can even go to Dar Al Harb and take women to keep as
slaves.
It is a problem that the Qur’an itself endorses having sex with captive women (Sura
4:24). According to a secure tradition (hadith) attributed to one of Muhammad’s
companions, Abu Sa’id al-Khudri, this verse of the Qur’an was revealed to
Muhammad at a time when Muslims had been ‘refraining’ from having sex with their
married female captives. Verse 4:24 relieved them of this restraint by giving
them permission to have sex with captive women, even if the women were already
married.
Abd-al-Hamid Siddiqui, a Fellow of the Islamic Research Academy of Karachi and
the translator into English of the Sahih Muslim, commented on this tradition,
saying:
When women are taken captive their previous marriages are automatically
annulled. It should, however, be remembered that sexual intercourse with these
women is lawful with certain conditions.
There have been many cases reported across the centuries of Islamic armies using
captive women for sex slavery, but is this any different from all wars? It is
different in one important respect — that the mainstream of Islamic
jurisprudence has justified and supported this practice on the basis of Islam’s
canonical sources, including Muhammad’s own example and teaching. Islamic sex
slavery is religiously sanctioned ‘guilt-free sex’.
Islamic sex slavery is religiously sanctioned ‘guilt-free sex’.
This religious teaching is impacting our world today because the global Islamic
community has been deeply affected by a grassroots religious revival, which
seeks to purify Islam and restore it to its foundational principles, which
include rules for war and the treatment of captives.
This leads us to Walker’s second question: why is the Islamic State’s ‘debased
appeal’ not ‘challenged more stridently in the public arena’?
An obstacle that stands in the way of such a challenge is that it would require
a sober evaluation of the Islamic character of sex slavery. However, even
suggesting a link between Islam and ‘terrorism’ has become taboo to those who
are afraid of being judged intolerant. Not only do some impose this taboo upon
themselves, but they are quick to stigmatise those who do not partner with them
in this ill-considered ‘tolerance’.
It is not a sign of tolerance when free people deliberately silence themselves
about the ideological drivers of sex trafficking.
The taboo attached to making any link between Islamic State atrocities and the
religion of Islam was apparent in comments by Greg Bearup on his interview with
South Australian politician Cory Bernardi. During the course of the interview
Senator Bernardi linked the Islamic State with Muhammad’s example, to which the
interviewer wrote “Kaboom!”, and called the comment a ‘hand grenade’,
‘inflammatory’ and ‘divisive’.
While it is a hopeful sign that some Muslims, such as Anooshe Mushtaq, have been
willing to explore the Islamic character of the Islamic State, non-Muslim
opinion-makers should show more backbone by engaging with the issue at hand.
It is not a sign of tolerance when free people deliberately silence themselves
about the ideological drivers of sex trafficking. The same can also be said of
acts of terrorism, such as the world has witnessed over the past week in France,
Tunisia and Kuwait.
Until societies are able and willing to have a frank and free discussion of the
ideological drivers which motivate acts of terror and abuse, they should not
expect to be able to develop effective strategies to contain or wind back such
atrocities.
A state of denial is a state of defeat.
**Mark Durie is the pastor of an Anglican church, a Shillman-Ginsburg Fellow at
the Middle East Forum, and Founder of the Institute for Spiritual Awareness.