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Bible Quotation For Today/But I tell you, on the day of judgement it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon than for you
Matthew 11/20-24: "Then Jesus began to reproach the cities in which most of his deeds of power had been done, because they did not repent. ‘Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the deeds of power done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I tell you, on the day of judgement it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon than for you. And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? No, you will be brought down to Hades. For if the deeds of power done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day.But I tell you that on the day of judgement it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom than for you.’"

Bible Quotation For Today/ I have set before you an open door, which no one is able to shut
Book of Revelation 03/07-13: "‘To the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: These are the words of the holy one, the true one, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, who shuts and no one opens: ‘I know your works. Look, I have set before you an open door, which no one is able to shut. I know that you have but little power, and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name. I will make those of the synagogue of Satan who say that they are Jews and are not, but are lying I will make them come and bow down before your feet, and they will learn that I have loved you.
Because you have kept my word of patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world to test the inhabitants of the earth. I am coming soon; hold fast to what you have, so that no one may seize your crown. If you conquer, I will make you a pillar in the temple of my God; you will never go out of it. I will write on you the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem that comes down from my God out of heaven, and my own new name. Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches."

Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on September 29-30/15
I am Voting For The Conservative Party & Encourage all Canadians to do so/Elias Bejjani/September 29/15
How Zabadani shattered Hezbollah’s image/Hanin Ghaddar/Now Lebanon/September 29/15
US and Israel seek 'deconflict mechanisms' with Russia, accepting its new Syria role/MICHAEL WILNER/J.Post/September 29/15
Analysis: On Obama ignoring the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in his UN speech/By TOVAH LAZAROFF/J.Post/September 29/15
Analysis: Sisi presents the Egyptian agenda to an indifferent world/By ZVI MAZEL/J.Post/September 29/15
Putin warns Israel off targeting Iranian targets in Syria/DEBKAfile/September 29/15
UK: Mainstreaming Racism/Douglas Murray/Gatestone Institute/September 29/15
Obama to Iran: ‘Death to America doesn’t create jobs/Camelia Entekhabi-Fard//Al Arabiya/September 29/15
Leaving the door open for Bashar al-Assad/Dr. John C. Hulsman/Al Arabiya/September 29/15
Is the Pope Ending Catholic Anti-Semitism/Susan Warner/Gatestone Institute/September 29, 2015
There's a strong leader around, and his name isn’t Obama/Ben-Dror Yemini/Ynetnews/September 29/15

Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin for Lebanese Related News published on September 29-30/15
I am Voting For The Conservative Party & Encourage all Canadians to do so
How Zabadani shattered Hezbollah’s image
France’s Hollande postpones Lebanon trip
STL Amicus Curiae Prosecutor to Appeal Khayat Verdict
Molotov Cocktail Defused near Nightclub in Zouk
Man Arrested for Fighting with Army in 2013 Abra Battles
Aoun Denies Settlement over Security Appointments: We Won't Attend Dialogue if Situation Persists
Activists, Police Clash Near Energy Ministry
Kuwait Bails Four Suspects in Iran-Linked Cell

Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin For Miscellaneous Reports And News published on September 29-30/15
Turkey's Erdogan Vows No Let-up in Fight against PKK
Moscow Slams U.S.-Led Counter-Terrorism Summit at U.N.
Report: U.S. Lacks Strategy to Stop Americans Joining Jihadists
Obama and Putin Meet on Syria, Remain Divided on Assad's Fate
Syria rebels target airport used by Russia
ISIS withdrawing from east Hama front

Mr. Harper, You Are The Right Man For The PM Post
Elias Bejjani/September 29/15
I can’t but hail your government’s very successful foreign policy and in particular all that has to do with, the Iranian regime, the Hezbollah terrorist organization, and all issues related to terrorists and terrorism locally and globally. Your courage in witnessing for the truth and your honesty and transparency in calling things by their real and actual names without any sort of Dhimmitude or Taqiyya. makes you a strong, descent and trustworthy leader. Because of your very wise, well calculated and effective foreign policies’ stances I am voting for you and strongly encouraging all my fellow Canadian Lebanese citizens as well as all others to do so. Quite frankly we need in this era of world-wide confusion and hesitation leaders from your calibre, devotion and cut to lead the global war on terrorism and all kinds and breeds of terrorists. I am sure the majority of the Canadians appreciate much your efforts, devotion, hard work as well as your patriotic stances, and definitely they will grant you and your party a majority to form the new government

Yes For Revoking the Citizenship for those who are convicted Terrorists
Elias Bejjani 29/09/05
Our PM, Mr. Harper is 100% right. Yes the real threat to Canadians “isn’t CSIS (Canadian Security Intelligence Service) it’s ISIS, and all those terrorists who have no respect for human life, freedom, democracy or any kind of law and order. And a definite big yes that there is no reason why Canada wouldn’t revoke the citizenship of Canadians convicted of terrorism offences. Meanwhile, revoking citizenship is a law applied in many countries, why not in Canada. Fair and square he who does not deserve the citizenship for any legitimate reason it must be taken from him. Yes, I am voting for the Canadian Conservatives. I call on all Canadians of Lebanese descent who long for a safe and prosperous Canada to do so and give Mr. Harper a majority in next month’s parliamentary federal elections. Any one who is shy of saying the truth about Terrorism & terrorists is indirectly supporting their stone age kind of thinking & education

Yes To the Conservative Party
Elias Bejjani/September 28/15
As a proud Canadian citizen of Lebanese descent, I fully and strongly support the Conservative Party and its Leader PM, Mr. Harper in the next month’s parliamentary elections. I, call on all Canadians of Lebanese descent to vote for Conservatives and encourage others to do so. Canada is great country, let us all keep it so and support Mr. Harper in his great leadership.

A Big & Loud No For the Open Door Policy the NDP & the Liberals are Naively advocating for
Elias Bejjani/September 28/15: I quote verbatim and fully adopt what my friend, human rights activist Edmond El Chidac just wrote on his face book page after listening to the debate: “We have seen what the open door policy did to Lebanon security and that is why Lebanese are in Canada. How can we support Parties in Canada that promote an open door policy in dealing with immigration and refugees, do we want to immigrate to another country after what happened to Lebanon happens to Canada, I think Steven Harper represent me as a person who struggled against terrorism for decades.

Yes For Conservative Majority
Elias Bejjani/September 28/15

How Zabadani shattered Hezbollah’s image
Hanin Ghaddar/Now Lebanon/September 29/15
It is fascinating how Hezbollah turns defeat to victory. In every war with Israel, every proclaimed conquest in Syria — no matter how small — losses become meaningless sacrifices made for the greater good: the resistance and the dignity of the “most honorable people.” But in all cases, the losses and the honorable people are Shiites, and this has become more and more obvious in Syria.
However, the Syrian war has taken Hezbollah’s narrative of victory to a new level: victory is no longer sacred or guaranteed. More than 30 years of unfailing propaganda and brainwashing has made it very difficult for Shiites in Lebanon to understand that the Party of God — the sacred, invincible, and fearsome army — would actually accept a negotiated deal with the terrorists. The deal reached in Zabadani shattered Hezbollah’s image, and its context will cause irreversible damage.
A special kind of victory
Last week, Iran and Turkey — representing Jaish el-Fatah (Army of Conquest) — reached a UN-backed deal in both Zabadani and Idlib, which mainly allows the sectarian transfer of thousands of Shiite and Sunni civilians and fighters from one area to another. It offers around 500 Sunni insurgents and their families safe passage out of Zabadani, probably to Idlib. In exchange, 10,000 Shiites, civilians and wounded pro-government fighters from two villages — Fua and Kefraya — in rebel-controlled northern Idlib Province will be relocated to Homs.
Iran and Hezbollah see this as a good deal because it keeps Zabadani, located in the corridor linking the coast to Lebanon, under its control. Sunnis needed to evacuate, whether they are fighters or not. The whole corridor needed to be Sunni-free so that Iran can ensure its supply line to Hezbollah is secure from future sectarian clashes.
However, the Shiites in Lebanon do not seem to have the same perspective when it comes to the deal reached in Zabadani. Hezbollah’s media told them more than once in the past three months that the party had won and were about to force all rebels to leave Zabadani. Every time the party has said this, the rebels have remained and managed to keep Hezbollah’s forces out. For three months, Hezbollah failed to conquer the small town of Zabadani.
Meanwhile, Hezbollah lost at least 150 fighters — this is the number it has acknowledged, with 21 missing and hundreds injured, including at least 76 with permanent injuries. All this and victory was not achieved. The incapacity of Hezbollah to penetrate a small city such as Zabadani raised a lot of questions within the Shiite community in Lebanon, especially the part about negotiating with the rebels.
Iran is a pragmatic state and it has been negotiating with the US — the ‘Great Satan’ — for a while now. This is not a secret and Hezbollah has managed to distance itself from it, but at the same time, Shiites have recently been told that the Sunni terrorists are the worst enemy and that Hezbollah is in Syria to defeat them, not to negotiate with them.
Ignoring the military defeat and trying to turn it into a political victory has not really worked. For the Shiites, Hezbollah is not a political party that negotiates and reaches agreements with the enemy. It is a sacred army that always emerges victorious. When Hezbollah accepted the negotiations, it was an indirect acknowledgement of its defeat.
Russia to the rescue?
The context in Syria did not really help Hezbollah to market this as a victory. Too many events have taken place and and thrown off its constituency. Russian involvement might be good news for Bashar Assad, but to Hezbollah it is another sign of their failure.
Hezbollah was supposed to go to Syria, defeat the terrorists, save Assad and come back to Lebanon more victorious than ever. None of this was accomplished. The terrorists were not defeated and Hezbollah failed to save Assad as Syria’s president. Iran had to move to Plan B: saving the “useful Syria” instead of the whole Syrian territory. And the ‘terrorists’ became more powerful and extreme.
Then the Russians came in, making it more complicated for Iran and Hezbollah to claim control and thereby hold all the negotiating cards. The Russians want a share and they will get it. When it comes to Plan B, Iran will probably use the Russian interference to safeguard its corridor, but in terms of Hezbollah’s image back in Lebanon, this is another disappointment to be added to its recent lists of shortcomings.
At the beginning, the Russian interference was welcomed by many Hezbollah supporters in Lebanon as another ally entering the game to boost chances of victory. However, they forgot that Russia has its own agenda in Syria and the region, and many Hezbollah supporters were alarmed and confused when Vladimir Putin met with Benjamin Netanyahu to discuss Syria.
During the same week, pro-Hezbollah media was reporting that that the party has joined a new counterterror alliance with Moscow and that Russia will take part in military operations alongside the Syrian army and Hezbollah.
So Hezbollah will be fighting alongside Russian troops in Syria while Putin coordinates with the Israeli prime minister. This exceeds anybody’s capacity to rationalize ‘the resistance’ and all its sacred values.
So yes, Hezbollah can ignore the Russian-Israeli cooperation. Nasrallah can tell the Shiites in Lebanon that the resistance is still valid, and that the deal was to protect them and secure Lebanon’s borders. It can tell the Lebanese Shiites that the Syrian Shiites of Fua and Kefraya are safe. But what’s clear is that Hezbollah can no longer win and conquer. The Shiites of Fua and Kefraya are no longer at home in their towns. They had to relocate to Homs because the ‘terrorists’ requested it. Hezbollah is no longer victorious, sacred, invincible and fearsome — irreversibly so.
**Hanin Ghaddar is the managing editor of NOW and a nonresident fellow at the Atlantic Council. She tweets @haningdr

France’s Hollande postpones Lebanon trip
Now Lebanon/September 29/15/BEIRUT– French President Francois Hollande has postponed his visit to Beirut scheduled for October after discussing the political crisis gripping Lebanon with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. Lebanese Premier Tammam Salam told reporters late Monday in New York that the French leader delayed his trip to November to “guarantee the success of his visit.”Hollande—who met with Salam on Monday—was originally slated to make visit Lebanon in October, the first French president to do so since Nicolas Sarkozy came to Lebanon’s capital in June 2008. However, the original timing of his junket was set to run up against Lebanon’s national dialogue sessions set to convene for three-straight days starting October 6 to discuss the political paralysis gripping the country. The first three sessions of the national dialogue held in September have so far failed to yield consensus over electing a new president, a post vacant since May 2014. Meanwhile, the parliament has only met once since then to controversially extend its own term. Salam, who is in the US for the 70th session of the UN General Assembly, stressed that Hollande was keeping up diplomatic contacts regarding the election of a new Lebanese president.
Hollande discusses Lebanon with Rouhani: Lebanese dailies reported Tuesday that Hollande had discussed the political crisis in Lebanon with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani prior to his sit-down with the Lebanese premier, whose own meeting with the Iranian leader was cancelled. “Hollande informed Salam that during his meeting with Rouhani he had [emphasized], ‘in a diplomatic manner,’ the necessity of supporting the… official, constitutional institutions in Lebanon,” members of the Lebanese delegation told As-Safir. A separate report on the meeting by Lebanese daily An-Nahar cited a prominent source in the official Lebanese delegation as saying that Salam’s meeting with Hollande was important because it came after the latter had visited Rouhani. According to the report, the source “understood that Hollande had raised with Rouhani the necessity of helping Lebanon in relation to activating its institutions and electing a president.”An-Nahar noted that Hollande had invited Rouhani to visit Paris in mid-November. “Rouhani answered that the subject of Lebanon needed more discussion and that his visit to Paris would be an opportunity to complete discussion.” The daily’s sources interpreted this as “a tacit push from the Iranian side for more waiting.”

STL Amicus Curiae Prosecutor to Appeal Khayat Verdict
Naharnet/September 29/15/The Amicus Curiae Prosecutor for the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, Kenneth Scott, announced on Tuesday that he will appeal the decisions of the Contempt Judge acquitting Ms. Karma Khayat on Count 1 of Judge David Baragwanath’s Order in Lieu of Indictment and acquitting the company al-Jadeed S.A.L. on both Count 1 and Count 2. “While we are waiting for the Judge's written decision, we anticipate also appealing the sentence,” the Amicus Curiae Prosecutor stated. “We are pleased and encouraged that the Contempt Judge convicted Ms. Khayat on Count 2, concerning egregious misconduct that we believe put purported confidential witnesses at real risk and interfered with the administration of justice,” Scott said. "Contrary to some of the things that have been said and written since the Judgment was issued on 18 September, there is nothing in the Judgment which endorses, approves, or validates the conduct of Ms. Khayat and the company, al-Jadeed,” he said. “Indeed, the Judge stated that the ‘journalistic profession may not be used as an impenetrable shield’ and found that the continued publication of the al-Jadeed broadcasts illegally disclosed information which identified purported confidential, protected witnesses. For her role in this, Ms. Khayat stands convicted of a serious crime,” the Amicus Curiae Prosecutor added. In deciding to appeal, Scott said he hopes the Tribunal’s appellate judges will reverse the Contempt Judge’s decisions acquitting Khayat on Count 1 and the company on both counts. “Our mandate and efforts to protect the Tribunal’s integrity, the administration of justice and actual, purported and potential witnesses continue,” the Amicus Curiae Prosecutor said. Special Tribunal for Lebanon Contempt Judge Nicola Lettieri on Monday sentenced al-Jadeed TV deputy chief editor Karma Khayat to a fine of 10,000 euros on charges of “interfering with the administration of justice” by failing to remove online content on alleged witnesses. After hearing the arguments of the Amicus Curiae Prosecutor, or Friend of the Court, and the Defense lawyer, Lettieri said he sentenced Khayat to “a fine of €10,000 to be paid in full by 30 October, 2015.”The Judge stated that written reasons for his decision were to follow in due course. On September 18, the judge found Khayat guilty and Al-Jadeed S.A.L. not guilty with respect to the charges under Count 2, meaning for failing to remove the information on the alleged witnesses from al-Jadeed TV’s website and YouTube channel despite an order by the STL Pre-Trial Judge to do so. Lettieri found both Khayat and Al-Jadeed S.A.L. “not guilty with respect to the charges under Count 1 of the order in lieu of indictment.”

Molotov Cocktail Defused near Nightclub in Zouk
Naharnet/September 29/15/A military expert defused at dawn Tuesday a Molotov cocktail placed near a nightclub in Zouk Mosbeh, north of Beirut, the state-run National News Agency reported. NNA said a bottle containing gasoline and linked to two big firecrackers were tossed near Sideway nightclub, which lies close to the Holiday Beach resort. An investigation was launched into the case, the agency added. Also at dawn Tuesday, a Molotov cocktail exploded near a cafe in the Beirut neighborhood of Tariq al-Jedideh after it was tossed by assailants riding a motorcycle. Police launched an investigation after receiving information that there was a dispute between the suspects and the cafe owner.

Man Arrested for Fighting with Army in 2013 Abra Battles
Naharnet/September 29/15/The Lebanese army said it has arrested a man suspected of involvement in clashes with the military in a suburb of the southern city of Sidon two years ago. The military said in a communique that an “army unit arrested Firas Abdul Latif Hakawati in Sidon for participating in the fighting with the army during the Abra events in 2013.”The detainee was referred to the appropriate authorities for questioning, it said. The armed supporters of Sheikh Ahmed al-Asir, a firebrand anti-Hizbullah cleric, clashed with the Lebanese army in Abra in June 2013 after they opened fire on a military checkpoint. The fighting killed 18 Lebanese soldiers. Al-Asir, who had been on the run since the battles, was arrested last month at Beirut's Rafik Hariri International Airport while trying to travel to Nigeria via Cairo with a fake Palestinian passport. Earlier this month, the military court postponed his trial to October 20 upon the request of defense lawyers.

Aoun Denies Settlement over Security Appointments: We Won't Attend Dialogue if Situation Persists
Naharnet/September 29/15/Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun denied on Tuesday claims that a settlement was reached over the contentious security appointments file, demanding that the “rights be restored to those concerned in the matter.”He said after the Change and Reform bloc's weekly meeting: “We will no longer attend the national dialogue sessions if the situation persists.”“We have never been the type to accept settlements,” he declared. “We will not accept consolation prizes,” Aoun stressed. Furthermore, he denied allegations that he had made a proposal over the promotion of security officials, reiterating again his rejection of a settlement in the affair. As Safir newspaper had reported on Tuesday that the Mustaqbal Movement had approved a proposal for the government to approve military promotions, which is seen as a step forward to resolve the cabinet crisis over the issue. The daily said that the movement added a condition on the promotions, calling for the appointment of a new director-general and a new command council for the Internal Security Forces. “If a new army commander is not approved, then there will be no new ISF director-general. Those who made pledges and false promises should realize that,” remarked Aoun. Ministers representing Aoun have been boycotting cabinet sessions over their insistence to agree on a working mechanism for the government in the absence of a president and the promotion of army officers. Their boycott has paralyzed the cabinet, adding to the country's woes, which started with the vacuum at Baabda Palace following the end of President Michel Suleiman's six-year tenure in May 2014. Parliament has also been paralyzed. The last time it met was when MPs extended their own term in November. The Change and Reform totally rejects the extension of the terms of top military and security officials, calling for the appointment of new figures instead. It is also backing the promotion of army officers to keep Commando Regiment chief Chamel Roukoz in the military and make him eligible to become army commander because differences among rival parties are hindering new appointments in the absence of a president. Roukoz is Aoun's son-in-law.

Activists, Police Clash Near Energy Ministry
Naharnet/September 29/15/Activists from “We Want Accountability” movement and security forces clashed on Tuesday near the Energy Ministry after the protesters blocked one of the facility's entrances. Ministry employees told them that the ministry is a red line, refusing to remain trapped in their offices in Beirut's Corniche al-Nahr area. But the demonstrators stressed they want accountability, saying their intention is not to ransack the ministry. The clash caused the glass door of the entrance to be broken. “We are not here to break anything,” said one of the protesters, adding that a policeman broke the glass after he tried to block the entrance. “We will hold more protests but we will not say where,” he told MTV. “I am here today to tell Lebanese officials that we will hold them accountable,” said another protester. “We can no longer pay two bills,” she said. The movement later said in a statement at the protest site that “we are still living in the darkness of the Middle Ages despite millions spent on the electricity sector.”“The authorities are stealing public money without being held accountable,” it added. The activists vowed an open-ended confrontation with the authorities to stop squandering in the electricity sector. They also stressed that they refuse to negotiate with any of the relevant parties and vowed to take a similar actions on October 3 near Electricite du Liban (EDL). Lebanon suffers from severe power cuts and the people purchase electricity from private individuals or firms having generators. After the Naameh landfill closed in July, trash piled up in the streets of Beirut and Mount Lebanon leading to mass demonstrations against the country's entire political class and its failure to provide basic services.The protests have been organized by the “You Stink” movement, “We Want Accountability” and other civil society activists.

Kuwait Bails Four Suspects in Iran-Linked Cell
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September 29/15/Kuwait's lower court Tuesday bailed four suspected members of a 26-member cell accused of plotting attacks on the Gulf state in collaboration with Iran and the Shiite group Hezbollah. A judicial source said that in a new hearing held behind closed doors judge Mohammad al-Duaij ordered the four to pay bail of $1,650 each.He also barred them from leaving the country. At a hearing two weeks ago, 23 suspects, all of them Kuwaiti Shiites, denied the charges and claimed their confessions were extracted under extreme physical torture. The remaining three, including the only Iranian, are at large. Iran has officially denied any links to the suspects. Prosecutors had also charged the suspects with smuggling explosives into the country and preparing them, as well as possessing firearms and ammunition. Several were also charged with Hezbollah membership. The interior ministry said in August it had uncovered a large amount of weapons, ammunition and explosives when arresting members of a "terror cell".The main suspect, Hassan Abdulhadi Hassan, had told the court that the weapons dated to the 1990-91 Iraqi invasion and occupation, and that they were handed to him by a senior member of the ruling Al-Sabah family. The judge set the next hearing for October 4.

Turkey's Erdogan Vows No Let-up in Fight against PKK
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September 29/15/Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed Tuesday there would no let-up in operations against Kurdish rebel strongholds, after a cross-border raid this week killed more than 30 militants."We will not stop," Erdogan said in a televised speech in Ankara, adding that operations by Turkey's security forces in the southeast of the country and in northern Iraq would continue "without pause."Erdogan said the military killed more than 30 Kurdish fighters in a cross-border raid overnight in northern Iraq where outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militants are holed up, but the presidency later said in a statement he was referring to an operation on September 25. Turkey has seen a surge of violence between its security forces and Kurdish militants since the collapse of a two-year ceasefire in July, with Ankara launching almost daily air raids on their bases on both sides of the border with Iraq. In response, Kurdish militants have killed dozens of police and soldiers in Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast in almost daily bomb and shooting attacks. "God willing, the terrorist organization will not achieve anything through armed attacks," Erdogan said. Over 40,000 people have been killed since the PKK took up arms in 1984 demanding an independent state for Kurds. Since then the group has narrowed its demands to greater autonomy and cultural rights. "We will keep on fighting relentlessly until the very end and God willing, we will reach the peace we have been longing for."Erdogan also said "more than 2,000 terrorists had been killed so far at home and abroad" -- a figure that cannot be independently confirmed. Erdogan's two-month-old offensive against the PKK, whose fighters have responded with a ferocity unseen since the 1990s, is viewed with suspicion by some critics accusing him of snaring nationalist votes for his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in the November 1 vote. The AKP is seeking to reverse the losses it sustained in June's election -- which stripped it of its overall majority in parliament, forcing the party into coalition talks that ended in failure. The pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) scored a major breakthrough in that election, denting Erdogan's aspirations for broader presidency with full executive powers. Erdogan has accused the HDP of being a front for the PKK -- a charge denied by the party leadership. "You succeeded in (deceiving the people) on June 7 but I believe that you will be unable to so on November 1," he said.

Moscow Slams U.S.-Led Counter-Terrorism Summit at U.N.
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September 29/15/Moscow on Tuesday slammed the holding of a U.S.-led counter-terrorism summit at the United Nations, calling it disrespectful. On Tuesday, President Barack Obama sat down with more than 100 leaders at the U.N. to push ahead with a U.S.-led campaign against the Islamic State group. Russia was invited to the counter-terrorism summit but President Vladimir Putin is pushing a rival plan to create a broad U.N.-led coalition to fight the Islamic State jihadists. "This initiative seriously undermines UN efforts in this direction," Russia's U.N. envoy Vitaly Churkin was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies. "The U.N. has its own anti-terror strategy and everything could easily be done within the U.N. framework.""But Americans would not be Americans if they did not seek to demonstrate their leadership," Churkin said. "It is simply disrespectful towards the organization to conduct these things at the U.N.," he said. Moscow was only sending a low-level diplomat to the talks, he added. On Monday, Putin addressed the U.N. General Assembly for the first time in a decade, calling for a broad U.N.-backed coalition to fight IS jihadists. Russia took the United States and its allies in a coalition bombing Islamic State fighters by surprise by dispatching troops and fighter jets to Syria as Putin seeks to muscle his way back onto the world stage after months of isolation over Ukraine. Putin and Obama agreed to cooperate on fighting the Islamic State group but failed to resolve their dispute over the future role of Syria's Bashar Assad. The Kremlin also said U.S. experts had refused to take part in the work of an intelligence task force Russia is setting up together with Iraq, Iran and Syria.

Report: U.S. Lacks Strategy to Stop Americans Joining Jihadists
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September 29/15/Nearly 30,000 foreigners have traveled to Iraq and Syria to join jihadists since 2011 and the United States is failing to stop Americans from heading overseas to join them, a report warned Tuesday. The document describes a national security infrastructure that is ill-equipped to deal with the myriad ways foreign jihadists contact and recruit Americans. "The U.S. government lacks a national strategy for combating terrorist travel and has not produced one in nearly a decade," states the report, which was compiled by a task force for the U.S. House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee. "The unprecedented speed at which Americans are being radicalized by violent extremists is straining federal law enforcement's ability to monitor and intercept suspects," the report said. Additionally, law enforcement tools haven't kept pace with technological shifts, as jihadist recruiters increasingly use secure websites and apps to communicate with Americans -- making it harder for law enforcement to disrupt plots and terrorist travel.The report states that some of the foreign fighters that flew to Syria initially did so to help oust President Bashar Assad, "but most are now joining the Islamic State (group), inspired to become a part of the group's 'caliphate' and to expand its repressive society." The foreign fighters that have enlisted with Islamist jihadist groups include at least 4,500 Westerners, the report states. Of that number, more that 250 Americans have joined or tried to fight with IS jihadists. The task force report presents dozens of key findings and recommendations, and calls for an overview of the U.S. strategy to combat terrorist travel, as well better intelligence sharing domestically and with other countries. The report also blasts security weaknesses overseas, especially in Europe. "Pervasive overseas security gaps make it easier for aspiring foreign fighters to travel to terrorist hotspots -- and increase the odds that trained jihadists will be able to travel to America undetected," the report states.

Obama and Putin Meet on Syria, Remain Divided on Assad's Fate
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September 29/15/ Russian President Vladimir Putin and his U.S. counterpart Barack Obama met Monday on the crisis in Syria but failed to resolve their dispute over the future role of Bashar Assad. In dueling speeches before the U.N. General Assembly, Obama branded the Syrian leader a child-killing tyrant while Putin said the world should support Assad against the Islamic State group. The Russian leader urged U.N. General Assembly members to unite to fight the jihadist group and warned that he plans to step up support for Assad's forces and has not ruled out air strikes.The U.S. and Russian presidents clinked glasses and shook hands at lunch with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon after their addresses, but nothing could disguise the gulf in their positions. Putin and Obama later met for 90 minutes for talks the Russian leader dubbed "constructive and business-likes" and a senior U.S. official called a "business-like back and forth." Putin appeared pleased that Obama had agreed to Russia having a role in the debate, and said: "In my opinion there is a basis to work on shared problems together." Both leaders agreed there should be a process of political transition in Syria but, the U.S. official added, they "fundamentally disagreed" on the role of Assad."I think the Russians certainly understood the importance of there being a political resolution in Syria and there being a process that pursues a political resolution," the official said. "We have a difference about what the outcome of that process would be," he added. In his first speech to the world body in a decade, Putin warned it was an "enormous mistake to not cooperate with the Syrian group which is fighting the terrorists face-to-face.""We must address the problems that we are all facing and create a broad anti-terror coalition," he declared, proposing a Security Council resolution on a coalition to include Assad and Iran.
'Innocent children'
Obama said Washington was ready to work with Russia and even Iran against the Islamic State jihadists, but warned this must not mean keeping Assad in power in Damascus indefinitely. "The United States is prepared to work with any nation, including Russia and Iran, to resolve the conflict," he said. Rather than a bulwark against jihadist extremism, Obama argued, Assad drives Syrians into the arms of such groups by such acts as dropping "barrel bombs to massacre innocent children."Not to be outdone, the Russian leader blamed the rise of violent extremism on the U.S. military interventions in Iraq and Libya, which he said unleashed chaos in the Middle East. He argued that the IS group now running rampant in Syria and Iraq sprang out of the chaos left behind after U.S.-backed forces ousted Saddam Hussein from Baghdad and Moammar Gadhafi in Libya. After the end of the Cold War, Putin argued, the West emerged as a new "center of domination" of the world and arrogantly took it upon itself to resolve conflicts through force. This power led to the "emergence of areas of anarchy in the Middle East, with extremists and terrorists," he said. Raids against the Islamic State group by the U.S.-led coalition of Western and Arab allies are illegal, he argued, because they were not requested by Syria nor authorized by the UN Security Council. If there were a proper legal basis for air strikes, Russia had not ruled out taking part, he said later at a news conference. "We are thinking about how to additionally help the Syrian army," he said. "We don't rule anything out. But if we are to act it will only be fully respecting international legal norms." France backs U.S. Some European powers are reportedly softening their stance, signaling Assad could stay on in an interim role, but France's President Francois Hollande stuck close to Obama's line. "Russia and Iran say they want to be part of a solution," he said. "So we must work with these countries to explain to them that the route to a solution does not go through Bashar al-Assad." In his speech, Obama did not specifically address Assad's fate in efforts to re-launch a bid to end a war that has left more than 240,000 dead since 2011. But he declared that there could be no return to the pre-war status quo, when Assad held sway. Putin scorned this stance, arguing that only the Syrian people could depose their leader and that Assad had agreed to begin a reform program to bring more people on board. "I relate to my colleagues the American and French presidents with great respect, but they aren't citizens of Syria and so should not be involved in choosing the leadership," he said. Moscow has put Washington on the back foot by dispatching troops and aircraft to the war-torn country and pushing reluctant world leaders to admit that Assad could cling to power. On the ground, Russia has started putting the pieces together by agreeing with Iraq, Syria and Iran that their officers will work together in Baghdad to share intelligence on IS.

Syria rebels target airport used by Russia
Now Lebanon/September 29/15/BEIRUT – Syrian rebels have fired rockets at the Latakia airport where Russia has reportedly been setting up a forward air operating base amid its military buildup in the country. “Two projectiles struck an area in agricultural land close to the Hmeimim airbase,” the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported Monday evening in reference to the military facility located adjacent to Latakia’s civilian international airport. “No information about human losses has emerged,” the monitoring NGO added. Ahrar al-Sham claimed credit for the attack, releasing a video Monday claiming to show its militants firing Grad rockets at the base.
Ahrar al-Sham targeting base
An artillery brigade commander with the Islamist Ahrar al-Sham group operating northeast of Latakia spoke with a pro-rebel outlet about the shelling of the airport. The commander, identified as “Omar,” told Al-Souria Net that his unit has targeted the runway with Russian made Grad rockets that were seized from regime military bases. “These are your goods. They have been returned to you,” he added in reference to the use of Russian rockets to target Russia’s interests in Syria. “Anyone who participates in the shedding of the Syrian people’s blood will be targeted,” the rebel commander warned. He explained that the rocket campaign would continue for several days and that its goal was to show that “any spot or location where warplanes take off to [strike] civilians directly or indirectly will be targeted.”
Russian planes redirected
Another pro-rebel outlet reported that a group of Russian planes was seen arriving at an airbase near Homs and noted that the fleet may have been transferred there due to the lack of sufficient fortifications at the Hmeimim airbase. All4Syria cited a source as saying that the planes had been seen landing at the Shayrat airbase, which lies around 25 km southeast of the central Syrian city. Although the outlet has not been able to confirm the source’s report, it said the lack of bomb-proof hangars at Hmeimim has forced redeployment of incoming aircraft. “There is a large operational deployment plan for Russian planes arriving at Hmeimim airbase that includes several airbases,” the outlet claimed. According to the report, the deployment plan includes Hama airbase, the Dumeir and Nasiriya airbases to the north of Damascus and Bley airbase in Eastern Ghouta. Russia in recent weeks has been conducting a major military buildup in Syria amid a flurry of reports that Moscow is preparing to set up an airbase in the Latakia province to conduct airstrikes on behalf of the Bashar al-Assad regime. Israel’s defense minister told reporters September 10 that Russian troops and technical advisors have been arriving in the country “for operating planes and combat helicopters.”The SOHR, in turn, has said that secretive construction work has been underway in the Latakia airport, with access restricted to Russian personnel. “Around two weeks ago, the SOHR received trusted information that the Russian forces are working to set up a long runway in the Hmeimim area… capable of receiving large aircrafts,” the monitoring NGO’s Monday report said. According to the Observatory’s sources “the Russian parties constructing the runway have forbidden any Syrian civilian or military party from entering the area.”

ISIS withdrawing from east Hama front
The extremist group is reportedly moving its troops toward Raqqa.
Now Lebanon/September 29/15/BEIRUT – ISIS has reportedly been withdrawing its fighters from its frontlines with regime troops east of Hama, where it launched a since-stalled offensive in the spring of 2015. Both pro and anti-regime outlets covered the repositioning of the ISIS troops, which had threatened the Ismaili community in central Syria. Considerable fears had grown in the area after the extremist group massacred dozens of civilians in the east Hama village of Mabuja in March. The regime’s Al-Watan newspaper reported Tuesday that ISIS had withdrawn from the front after the Syrian air force conducted a number of airstrikes in the area. Interestingly, the newspaper claimed that ISIS itself was not hit in the raids and that the group’s retreat was prompted by the strikes on the Islamist Al-Nusra Front, which maintains positions closer to the city of Hama than ISIS.A source in the National Defense Force in the Ismaili center of Salamiyah—30 kilometers southeast of Hama—told the daily that ISIS troops had begun to withdraw toward their de-facto capital of Raqqa far to the east after the strikes. “This is a pre-emptive measure to [ensure] that it remains untouched by Syrian Air Force raids,” the source said.
“As well as changing the residences of many of its leaders in the center of Uqayribat and the two villages of Quleib al-Thour and Qanbar, the group has pulled a large number of its heavy machines out, for fear of the Syrian air force,” Al-Watan also reported in reference to ISIS strongholds outside Hama.
Meanwhile, a military source told Sputnik News—an outlet owned by the Russian government—that ISIS had withdrawn from the village of Uqayribat—45 kilometers east of Salamiyah—toward Raqqa.
Reports regime jets hit ISIS
Contrary to Al-Watan’s report, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Monday that the regime had conducted airstrikes on Uqayribat, adding that there were no reports of casualties. In turn, Lebanese online news outlet Al-Modon ran a report on the ISIS withdrawal; citing opposition supporters from Salamiyah as saying the regime had bombed the extremist group’s positions east of Hama. According to Al-Modon’s sources, “the last three days have seen a big increase in air raids on the eastern area by regime warplanes, especially the village of Qanbar [near] Uqayribat.” The author of the report went on to posit that “the recent maneuvers by ISIS are probably no more than an evacuation of some of its main positions in the eastern region of rural Salamiyah, not a withdrawal from the area.”ISIS’ spring offensive on east Hama. In late March, ISIS launched a large offensive east of Hama and Homs aimed at cutting off supply lines between the regime’s positions in Aleppo, Hama and the town of Salamiyah to the east, an important center for the Ismaili minority community of Syria. Salamiyah hosts the largest population of Ismailis in the Middle East, who make up approximately half the town's population. The remaining inhabitants adhere to Alawite, Shiite and Sunni Islam. On March 31, ISIS briefly stormed the village of Mabuja—25 kilometers northeast of Salamiyah—brutally massacring 46 people by beheading, shooting and burning them to death. Regime forces managed to push the rampaging militants out of the Hama village, however ISIS attacked another four villages outside Salamiyah a week later, but their offensive was again stalled. The ISIS threat over the area has loomed large since, however the group has not launched any substantial offensives, focusing on Palmyra to the east as well as other areas in the Homs province further to the south.

US and Israel seek 'deconflict mechanisms' with Russia, accepting its new Syria role
MICHAEL WILNER/J.Post/09/29/2015
NEW YORK -- In a blistering speech on Monday at the United Nations— his first in a decade— Russian President Vladimir Putin spent nearly twenty minutes attacking the United States for its efforts to export a governing model that, according to Moscow, does not fit the Middle East: Inclusive, authentic democracy, in which the legitimacy of government is derived from the consent of the governed.
Striking a similar tone as Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, who in his speech also blamed the spread of terrorism worldwide on the US and its support for Israel, Putin said Washington had failed to learn the lessons of the late 20th Century, when both the US and the USSR tried to export rival ideologies to disastrous consequences.
"Do you realize what you have done?," Putin charged in the address, shortly before meeting with US President Barack Obama for the first time in two years. Their meeting, which lasted nearly two hours, proceeded an uncomfortable photo opportunity for press and an unfriendly toast over a lunch with world leaders.
In his own speech, Obama repeated a consistent line from American presidents: That democracy makes for stronger nations, that its spread has brought security and wealth to all within its reach. And yet he also said that realism dictated compromise with authoritarian regimes uninterested in the freedom of peoples: Russia, Iran, and perhaps even one day the government in Syria he has long called illegitimate.
Syria's nominal president, Bashar Assad, is the greatest impediment to peace in Syria, according to the United States. It is he who authorized the murder of innocent protesters, sparking an uprising that remained largely peaceful for a year before turning catastrophic.
Yet, Assad has maintained that these protesters were always terrorists agitating for instability in Syria, and Putin has supported this rationale since the very outbreak of the crisis.
Putin's foreign policy is one of obstructionism: He is against a unipolar world, where one power forges the path of all nations. And yet what he stands for— as opposed what he stands against— is a more challenging policy to articulate.
Moscow says it is interested in fighting terrorism worldwide, from the Northern Caucasus to eastern Syria, where Islamic State (ISIL) has concentrated its power. For that reason, he will continue to support Assad, the only figure he says is "truly fighting" the group.
And yet Assad has, for the past two years, declined to target ISIL and has in fact largely avoided the fight. Military experts believe his strategy has been to allow the terrorist organization, based in Raqqa, to lead the battle against moderate rebel militias under assault from all sides. ISIL's success against groups supported by the West would then provide Assad with justification for a simpler, binary war against the internationally-reviled group.
Moscow began supporting Assad long before ISIL took root with a name, a banner and a capital, and began blocking United Nations Security Council resolutions condemning Assad at the very beginning of the conflict in 2011. At that time, rebel groups were only first beginning to splinter, and the majority were considered by Western intelligence agencies to be comprised of moderate forces.
That picture has changed, and now largely fits Moscow's cast of the conflict as one between a leader and a formidable terrorist organization.
Putin's formal entry into Syria— with the construction of new military bases stocked with heavy weaponry and aircraft— has forced the US and neighboring Israel to readjust. Government officials in Washington and Jerusalem now acknowledge that Russia's role in the Syrian conflict is unavoidable and must be accommodated.
Israeli and American officials say they seek to avoid direct conflict with Russian forces, which are now operating on behalf of the Assad government. US forces continue to operate against ISIL targets in Syria and have refused to strike Assad's military assets. But parallel operations between US and Russian forces, both against ISIL, now must work to deconflict with one another.
That is the current focus of discussion: Fashioning deconflict mechanisms that ensure Russian military units do not come into conflict with US-led coalition units fighting ISIL.
Similar deconflict mechanisms are a priority of the Israeli government, and were the primary point of conversation in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's visit to Moscow this month. He and Putin agreed on a deconflict communications channel, according to Israeli officials.
Israel has struck targets within Syria several times over the past year, destroying arms transfers facilitated by Iran and destined for Lebanese Hezbollah. While the strikes will continue on a case-by-case basis, Moscow's sudden presence on the ground— in alliance with Assad and Iran— heightens the risk of unintended conflict between Israeli and Russian forces.
"We respect Israel's interests related to the Syrian civil war," Putin told journalists at the UN on Monday, "but we are concerned about its attacks on Syria."
Russia now hopes to form an anti-ISIL coalition, separate and apart from the coalition formed by the United States, which centers on the legitimacy of Assad and his government.
To that end, an information-sharing center has been set up in Baghdad for Iran, Iraq, Russia and Syria to share intelligence, a Russian official said on Tuesday. One senior American official downplayed the news, noting that Russia had been sharing intelligence with Iran and Syria for years.
"It is no secret that American specialists and American military have been invited to work in the Baghdad center," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists on Tuesday. "Unfortunately, they have not participated in the first meetings and discussions."

Analysis: On Obama ignoring the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in his UN speech
By TOVAH LAZAROFF/J.Post/09/29/2015
For the first time since taking office in 2009, US President Barack Obama failed to mention the Israeli-Palestinian conflict during his annual address to the UN General Assembly in New York. Last year, as he stood at the same podium, Obama assured the international community that as “bleak as the landscape” appeared to be in the Middle East, America would “never give up the pursuit of peace” between Israelis and Palestinians. But on Monday, during his 43 minute speech to the UNGA, the president was suddenly silent on the matter, awakening Israeli fears that his attention will be elsewhere in the last year-and-a-half of his presidency. True, these addresses are not a full-proof blueprint for future US foreign policy. Obama restored US-Cuba ties after 54 years, without ever uttering a word about the island country during any of his last six speeches to the UNGA.
He mentioned Iran only three times during his September 2014 speech, but then devoted a significant amount of his administration's time in the subsequent 11 months to finalizing a deal with Tehran to curb its nuclear program. But when it comes to the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, Obama’s UNGA speeches have more or less mirrored American efforts on the ground to finalize a deal. In 2009, a newly elected and optimistic Obama focused 10% of his UNGA speech, some 536 words out of 5,149 on the subject, as he announced his intention to push the peace process forward.“The time has come to re-launch negotiations without preconditions that address the permanent status issues: security for Israelis and Palestinians, borders, refugees, and Jerusalem,” Obama said.
“And the goal is clear: two states living side by side in peace and security -- a Jewish state of Israel, with true security for all Israelis; and a viable, independent Palestinian state with contiguous territory that ends the occupation that began in 1967, and realizes the potential of the Palestinian people,” he continued. Israel was mentioned 18 times, more than any other people, and the Palestinians, were mentioned 15 times. In contrast, Obama referenced Iraq only 4 times, Iran twice and Syria once. Out of all the global leaders, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, were the only ones he singled out by name.The price of the conflict, Obama said as he waxed poetic, is “paid by the Israeli girl in Sderot who closes her eyes in fear that a rocket will take her life in the middle of the night. It's paid for by the Palestinian boy in Gaza who has no clean water and no country to call his own. These are all God's children. And after all the politics and all the posturing, this is about the right of every human being to live with dignity and security. That is a lesson embedded in the three great faiths that call one small slice of Earth the Holy Land.”
Just two months later, in an effort to help Obama revitalize the peace process, Netanyahu imposed a ten-month moratorium on all building starts in West Bank settlements. It was the most significant crack down on Jewish building in Judea and Samaria in the history of the settlement movement. A year later, in 2010, as the moratorium wound to a close and the peace process appeared to be sputtering back to life, Obama devoted even more time during his UNGA address on the pursuit of a two-state solution. The 1073 words he issued on the matter, amounted to 23% of his 4,076 word speech. Israel was mentioned 22 times, the Palestinians were spoken of 21 times, and again, Netanyahu and Abbas were the only global leaders referenced by name. “This month, I am pleased that we have pursued direct negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians in Washington, Sharm el Sheikh and Jerusalem,” Obama told the UNGA.
“We all have a choice to make. Each of us must choose the path of peace. Of course, that responsibility begins with the parties themselves, who must answer the call of history. Now is the time to build the trust -- and provide the time -- for substantial progress to be made. Now is the time for this opportunity to be seized, so that it does not slip away,” he said. The president spoke strongly in support of Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people. “After 60 years in the community of nations, Israel's existence must not be a subject for debate.
“Israel is a sovereign state, and the historic homeland of the Jewish people. It should be clear to all that efforts to chip away at Israel's legitimacy will only be met by the unshakable opposition of the United States. And efforts to threaten or kill Israelis will do nothing to help the Palestinian people. The slaughter of innocent Israelis is not resistance -- it's injustice,” said Obama. He ended his 2010 UNGA address with a vision of hope, “This time, we should draw upon the teachings of tolerance that lie at the heart of three great religions that see Jerusalem's soil as sacred. This time we should reach for what's best within ourselves. If we do, when we come back here next year, we can have an agreement that will lead to a new member of the United Nations -- an independent, sovereign state of Palestine, living in peace with Israel.”
But the next year, Obama was back at the UN again, with no tangible progress in sight for the peace process, which had been frozen for a year. Obama, however, was still hopeful that the deadlock would soon pass, so the conflict made up 18% of his 2011 UNGA speech, in which he devoted 797 of 4512 words to the topic. “I know, particularly this week, that for many in this hall, there's one issue that stands as a test for these principles and a test for American foreign policy, and that is the conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians.”He mentioned the Israelis and the Palestinians 17 times each, as opposed to Syria which he mentioned nine times, Iraq four and Iran three. This time around, however, he did not name the Israeli or Palestinian leaders as he called on both sides to resume negotiations. “Each side has legitimate aspirations -- and that’s part of what makes peace so hard. And the deadlock will only be broken when each side learns to stand in the other’s shoes; each side can see the world through the other’s eyes. That’s what we should be encouraging. That’s what we should be promoting,” he said.
“This body -- founded, as it was, out of the ashes of war and genocide, dedicated, as it is, to the dignity of every single person -- must recognize the reality that is lived by both the Palestinians and the Israelis. The measure of our actions must always be whether they advance the right of Israeli and Palestinian children to live lives of peace and security and dignity and opportunity,” Obama said.In September 2012, with the peace process in a deep freeze and his battle for re-election in full swing, Obama barely mentioned the Israeli-Palestinian conflict during his UNGA address. He devoted only 86 words, a mere 2% of his 4,036 words speech to the peace process. “Among Israelis and Palestinians, the future must not belong to those who turn their backs on the prospect of peace. Let us leave behind those who thrive on conflict, those who reject the right of Israel to exist.
The road is hard, but the destination is clear: a secure Jewish state of Israel and an independent, prosperous Palestine. “Understanding that such a peace must come through a just agreement between the parties, America will walk alongside all who are prepared to make that journey,” Obama said. His interest in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict spiked in 2013, when his March 2013 visit to Israel was followed by the start of a nine month US brokered peace process at the end of July. Although the president devoted 38% of his 2013 UNGA speech to Iran and Syria, he reserved 10% of it, some 534 words out of 5,582 for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Similarly he mentioned Iran 26 times, Syria 20, Israelis 15 and Palestinian were spoken of 11 times. “Earlier this year, in Jerusalem, I was inspired by young Israelis who stood up for the belief that peace was necessary, just, and possible,” said Obama.
He continued that “On the same trip, I had the opportunity to meet with young Palestinians in Ramallah whose ambition and incredible potential are matched by the pain they feel in having no firm place in the community of nations,” Obama said. “So the time is now ripe for the entire international community to get behind the pursuit of peace. Already, Israeli and Palestinian leaders have demonstrated a willingness to take significant political risks. President Abbas has put aside efforts to short-cut the pursuit of peace and come to the negotiating table. Prime Minister Netanyahu has released Palestinian prisoners and reaffirmed his commitment to a Palestinian state. Current talks are focused on final status issues of borders and security, refugees and Jerusalem.
“So let’s emerge from the familiar corners of blame and prejudice. Let’s support Israeli and Palestinian leaders who are prepared to walk the difficult road to peace,” said Obama. A year later, however, after the nine month peace process ended in April 2014 with no tangible results, Obama made scant mention of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in his 2014 UNGA speech, in which he devoted 176 words out of 4,288 to the topic. Israelis were mentioned only four times and the Palestinians were spoken of three times. A year later, as the peace process remains frozen, the need for a resolution to the conflict will be raised at the UNGA this week by Netanyahu and Abbas. But although US Secretary of State John Kerry plans to meet with Netanyahu and the Quartet intends to explore reviving the talks, Israelis and Palestinians were not even mentioned in the Obama speech, which focused on Syria, Iran, Russia and ISIS. Israelis often worry about the disproportionate way the international community focuses on its conflict with the Palestinians, particularly at a time when hundreds of thousands of people have been killed in neighboring Syria. But now it seems, that the only thing worse than too much attention, is no attention at all.

Analysis: Sisi presents the Egyptian agenda to an indifferent world
By ZVI MAZEL/J.Post/ 09/29/2015
As the 70th session of the UN General Assembly opens, the eyes of the world are focused on Syria and the Russian military presence there; America is looking to implement the nuclear treaty with Iran, in effect making that country the dominant power in the Middle East; and the pope is extolling humanitarian values and ignoring the plight of whole Christian communities eradicated and massacred. Yet the Egyptian president managed to make his voice heard, however briefly. In a lengthy interview to the Associated Press on Friday, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi stressed once more that comprehensive cooperation between Arab states and the West is needed to defeat the growing terrorist menace that has already destroyed a number of countries and is now threatening the land of the Nile.
It was not necessary to belabor the point.
Islamic State is progressing almost unchallenged in Syria and Iraq in spite of the feeble efforts of a ramshackle coalition of Arab and Western countries doing little more than conduct some ineffective air raids. Three semi-autonomous regions and two rival governments are fighting over what used to be Libya, with any number of feuding militias tearing the country apart – and dispatching weapons and terrorists to Egypt and neighboring states; a hapless UN representative is futilely trying to achieve some sort of compromise.In Yemen, pro-Iranian Houthi rebels are defying a coalition of Gulf states led by Saudi Arabia and with the support of Egypt, and there is no end in sight. The much needed comprehensive cooperation that Egypt is calling for will not be forthcoming.
Though all know how dire the situation is, but Middle East countries as well as the great powers are still guided by their own narrow interests. America has abandoned the region to the tender mercies of Iran; and last week, France at long last agreed to send its warplane to bomb Islamic State, but only in Syria, and not in its Iraqi strongholds. Iran is asserting its dominant position, Hezbollah grows stronger, Russia is sending weapons and warplanes to Syria in a move that threatens what’s left of the stability of the region.
The West is scrambling to adjust to the new reality.
Bashar Assad, who is responsible for the death of hundreds of thousands of his own people, is now “part of the solution” and the West which had been clamoring for his departure is ready to engage in talks. Of course, the civil war is driving millions of Syrians to look for a brighter future in Europe...A strong Egypt is vital for Western interests – that was part of the unspoken message of President Sisi. He said that relations with Washington “were improving” and that they were “strategic and stable.” This is a diplomatic way of showing his disappointment with White House policies: Military aid to Egypt was only restored some weeks ago, after having been frozen for many months though it was desperately needed to help the country repulse the onslaught of Islamic terrorists in the Sinai Peninsula who have sworn allegiance to Islamic State. Joint “Bright Star” military exercises with Egypt and other Arab countries haven’t resumed yet. And Egypt is still waiting for special equipment and instructors to train Egyptian troops for anti-guerrilla warfare. Furthermore, the White House still has close links with the Muslim Brothers, Sisi’s bitterest enemies since they were toppled from power by a popular insurrection backed by the army.
The Brotherhood is still relentlessly trying to throw the country into chaos. The Egyptian president made it clear that more should be done to solve the Palestinian issue. Such a solution, he believes, would be a game changer in the region and would lead to the peace treaty with Israel being extended to other countries. This was probably addressed to pragmatic Arab states and Saudi Arabia, to the Gulf states and even to Morocco, Egypt’s traditional allies – and perhaps silent allies of Israel in its fight against a nuclear Iran; Sisi would like them to exert pressure on the Palestinians to renew negotiations with Israel without useless preconditions, with a view to coming to a reasonable compromise. A very positive view, the Israeli prime minister was prompt to say.
In this remarkable interview Sisi put squarely on the table the issues confronting the Middle East as seen by his country. He may have been trying to stress that Egypt was still the greatest and most important Arab state, implying that should it be overrun by radical Islam the results would be a disaster not only for the region but for Europe, which has begun to realize what a flimsy barrier the Mediterranean Sea is, and even for the United States.Is anyone listening to this most serious warning? It is unfortunately doubtful. The so-called great powers will stick to their narrow views and narrow interests, determined not to see the elephant in the room.
The writer, a fellow of The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, is a former ambassador to Romania, Egypt and Sweden.

Putin warns Israel off targeting Iranian targets in Syria
DEBKAfile Exclusive Analysis September 29, 2015
Russian President Vladimir Putin is concerned about Israel’s repeated attacks in Syria, he said, after talking for an hour and-a-half with President Barack Obama early Tuesday, Sept. 29, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York. Putin agreed that Israel’s security concerns must be taken into account in Syria, but he was worried by the IDF’s periodic strikes on positions in the embattled territory.
Sunday night, the IDF hit Syrian military targets with powerful Tamuz artillery rockets after two errant Syrian rockets landed on the Golan.
DEBKAfile’s military sources report that they hit the artillery command post of the Syrian army’s 90th Brigade, which is stationed outside Quneitra. Syrian and Lebanese sources say the Syrian deputy commander was injured.
The message the Russian president issued, straight after his meeting with Obama, was that Moscow would not put up with Israeli strikes in Syria, even in response to an attack.
This comment and the events leading up to it raise four questions:
1. Why did Putin take the trouble to respond in person to a trivial incident like a cross-border exchange of fire on the Golan directly after his highly-important talks with Obama?
2. Why was he so concerned by this incident? It occurred just a week after the Russian president and Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu had agreed in Moscow to set up a coordination mechanism to prevent clashes between IDF and Russian forces. And in any case Russian forces were not involved.
3. What was behind statement issued by Israel’s Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon after the incident, in which he stressed with unusual emphasis Israel’s zero tolerance of Syrian rocket infractions of its sovereignty?
4. The two highly-charged statements were obviously occasioned by much more than errant cross-border fire from the Syrian side of the Golan.
DEBKAfile’s military and intelligence sources report that the answers to these conundrums are embodied in one individual, Brig. Gen. Saeed Azadi, of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, whose presence and operations in Syria are a closely guarded secret.
Or at least they were until Netanyahu let the cat out of the bag at his meeting with Putin last week at the Russian presidential residence outside Moscow. The prime minister disclosed his knowledge that Gen. Azadi had come to replace Gen. Ali Allah Dadi, who died on Jan 18 in an Israeli air strike against a convoy carrying Iranian Guards and Hizballah commanders traveling near Quneitra. They were there to survey a site for mounting a terrorist campaign inside Israel.
The Israeli air strike nipped this plan in the bud. But Iran and Hizballah never gave up, and Gen. Azadi was assigned to finish setting up the terror machine and getting it up and running.
A week ago, Netanyahu gave Putin notice that Israel would not let this happen – even if this meant disposing of another Iranian general.
The Russian leader explained that Israel’s attacks on Iranian military targets presented a problem because they weakened Bashar Assad.
As matter stand therefore, Russia and Israel are on a collision course: While Israel views Gen. Azadi as a menacing adversary, Putin regards him as part of the Russian-Iranian axis in Syria and wants Israel to keep its hands off him. This point is of such paramount importance to the Russian leader’s plans for Syria that he made a big deal of it at the highest international forum - almost as a sequel to his first meeting with President Obama in more than a year.
He was signaling strongly that the arrangement for the Russian and Israeli armies to coordinate their operations in Syria is unworkable and he was losing patience with Israel’s “security concerns” in so far as they impeded his plans with Iran for Syria.
DEBKAfile’s military sources add: The Syrian rocket fire Friday and Saturday was not in fact “errant” as the IDF spokesman maintained. The rockets were fired on the orders of Iranian Brig. Azadi as a demonstration that Israel’s warning to Putin was a waste of time and he meant to go forward with his operation regardless. Netanyahu and Ya’alon conveyed their message of resistance to this operation by instructing the IDF to hit back with the Tamuz rocket, a system powerful enough to give the other side pause and present Putin with an unforeseen complication in his Syrian venture.

UK: Mainstreaming Racism
Douglas Murray/Gatestone Institute/September 29, 2015
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/6597/jeremy-corbyn
Shortly after the IRA had tried to wipe out the British cabinet and assassinate Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in 1984, Jeremy Corbyn invited the Sinn Fein/IRA leaders to Parliament.
Jeremy Corbyn did not spend his time bolstering the crucial moderate forces in Northern Ireland. Instead he pushed forward the most violent and anti-democratic forces in the conflict.
Most sinisterly, he has been a constant champion of Jawad Botmeh and Samar Alami, two men who were convicted of the 1994 bomb attacks against Jewish and Israeli targets in London.
Rather than admit to having spent decades palling up to the worst anti-Semites and Israel-haters worldwide, Corbyn is trying to claim that he has in fact been involved -- deep undercover, away from the eyes of any respectable negotiator -- in a "peace process."
Whatever political angle you come from, the election of Jeremy Corbyn as Labour Party leader is a seismic change in British politics. Political wonks in the UK have become fond of comparing him with Michael Foot, who led Labour to a disastrous election defeat in 1983, and whose party manifesto for that election was famously described as the "longest suicide note in history." The election of Corbyn is principally of interest at home and abroad not because of his far-left wing views on economics, nationalization and the rest, but for the fact that it mainstreams current bigotry and racism.
For the three decades that he has been sitting on the backbenches in Parliament, Jeremy Corbyn's main concerns have included support for the hardest wing of Irish Republicanism and an opposition to Israel that has seen him embrace any and all opponents of the Jewish state. The same mind-set of bolstering the worst and most violent people on (in each case) one specific sectarian side, can be seen in both obsessions.
During the "Troubles" in Northern Ireland, for instance, many people supported the Catholic population of the area and the cause of a united Ireland. There were many mainstream politicians, such as the SDLP's John Hume, whom you could support if that was what you cared about. But Jeremy Corbyn did not spend his time bolstering the crucial moderate forces in Northern Ireland. Instead he pushed forward the most violent and anti-democratic forces in the conflict. Shortly after the IRA had tried to wipe out the British cabinet and assassinate Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in Brighton in 1984, Jeremy Corbyn invited the Sinn Fein/IRA leaders to the House of Commons. In the years that followed, he repeatedly honoured active murderers within in the IRA (for instance, in observing a minute's silence for the IRA cell killed while on "active service" in Loughgall in 1987). Asked on the recent campaign trail whether he would "condemn" the actions of the IRA that led to thousands of bloody deaths and injuries, Jeremy Corbyn repeatedly refused to answer the question.
This matters because Mr. Corbyn brings the same extremism to the other political cause he most cares about in foreign policy. As the general public learned during the Labour leadership campaign, Corbyn's associations in the area of the Israeli-Palestinian context could hardly be more extreme. He is on camera describing both Hamas and Hezbollah as "friends." He has repeatedly attended events organized by "Deir Yassin Remembered," an organization run by Holocaust denier Paul Eisen. Corbyn has honoured the anti-Semitic preacher, Raed Salah, and described him as an "honoured citizen." He has spent years sharing platforms with extremists such as the anti-Semitic Hezbollah-trained Dyab Abu Jahjah. Most sinisterly of all, he has been a constant champion of Jawad Botmeh and Samar Alami, two men who were convicted of the 1994 bomb attacks against Jewish and Israeli targets in London.
In 2009, Jeremy Corbyn (left) said: "It will be my pleasure and my honour to host an event in Parliament where our friends from Hezbollah will be speaking. I also invited friends from Hamas to come and speak as well." Pictured in the middle is Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. Pictured at right is Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.
On his way to becoming Labour party leader, Jeremy Corbyn and his supporters repeatedly attempted to dismiss these extremist links. They most commonly derided them as "smears." But when they were confronted with the facts and still had to come up with some explanation, they most commonly made the claim that Corbyn himself made when confronted with his one-sided support for the IRA during the "Troubles" and of the most fanatical anti-Israel extremists in the Middle East. The claim then was that Corbyn was not in fact shilling for one side in each conflict but that he was engaged in the work of "peace."
On Northern Ireland, he claimed that he was not in fact an obscure backbencher but was intricately involved in the peace process. Precisely the same claim has been made regarding the Middle East. Rather than admit to having spent decades palling up to the worst anti-Semites and Israel-haters worldwide, Corbyn is trying to claim that he has in fact been involved -- deep undercover, away from the eyes of any respectable negotiator – in a "peace process." Why did he meet with Eisen? Peace process. Why did he meet with Hamas? Peace process. Why did he meet with Salah? "Inter-faith issues." You would have to be a child to fall for this. Unfortunately for the Labour party and the country, many of the thousands of people who joined the Labour party to vote for Corbyn are practically children. Or adults who are at the very least radically unbothered about having as a party leader a man who has supported the violent enemies of the United Kingdom and our only democratic ally in the Middle East.
People ask how all this will go; the only possible answer is that it could go in any direction. Perhaps Corbyn will play it carefully, as he has in his first fortnight. There have been serious mis-steps for him. Refusing to sing our national anthem during a service at St Paul's Cathedral to commemorate the Battle of Britain was one such problem. His supporters said it showed principle from a man who does not believe in God and opposes the monarchy. For many voters -- including traditional Labour voters -- his refusal looked more as if it came from a man who did not have pride enough in his own country to sing our national anthem. Footage of him singing the Internationale (Red Flag) a few days earlier did not help. Of course, wiser observers could see this was all just part of a continuum: of course a man who has always supported our country's enemies would not sing our national anthem.
Perhaps Corbyn will indeed lead his party into a general election in 2020, thereby probably wiping out the Labour party as a historic political force. But we live in unpredictable times. This is an era when conspiracy theories abound, and where the internet and information technology have helped to stir up old and dark hatreds. It is just as possible that the arrival of Jeremy Corbyn at the summit of British politics heralds something else: the mainstreaming of perhaps the oldest hatreds of all.

Obama to Iran: ‘Death to America doesn’t create jobs!’
Camelia Entekhabi-Fard//Al Arabiya/September 29/15
Before cutting his trip to New York short, President Hassan Rowhani appeared before the U.N. General Assembly on Monday and told world leaders that his country is ready to fight terrorism. “Our policy is to continue our peace-seeking efforts in the region based on the same win- win principle, and act in a way that would lead to all in the region and world benefitting from these new conditions.” Rowhani said. While it was not made clear what Iran was proposing to the U.N. in order to contribute to Syria peace talks, Western diplomats did not hide their disappointment over the way both Iran and Russia approached the matter.Indeed, this “win-win” policy promoted by Rowhani’s government since becoming president led Iran to settle nuclear disputes with West, but this is no longer a guarantee that this policy will always work. President Rowhani perhaps didn’t acknowledge that it was in the world’s interest to hear something new from Iran after the nuclear agreement. The tragic events in Saudi Arabia which killed scores of Iranian Hajj pilgrims last week also overshadowed Iran’s diplomatic efforts lobbying for Syria and instead increased tension between Tehran and Riyadh.Rowhani said he was cutting his New York trip short and canceled the meetings in order to attend the pilgrims’ funerals, but surprisingly, he didn’t cancel the gala dinner for Iranian Americans that he hosted on Sunday evening.
A failed trip
A few major Iranian hardline newspapers criticized the president for continuing his trip in the U.S. when the nation declared three days of national mourning, rather than returning immediately. Meanwhile, some foreign diplomats believe Rowhani’s “failure of a trip” to the U.S. now will give him the opportunity to criticize Saudi Arabia on other issues further upon his arrival to Tehran. Politicized or radicalized, President Rowhani’s attendance of the 70th General Assembly was supposed to be a turning point in Iran’s relations with the global powers and their foreign policies. It did not turn out as expected. All hopes at this assembly of forming a coalition against ISIS, solving the refugee crisis and finding a solution Syria’s five years of war turned to ashes as Russian President Vladimir Putin and Rowhani refused the idea of Assad’s removal from power. “We should finally acknowledge that no one but President Assad and his forces are truly fighting ISIS in Syria,” Putin said told the General Assembly on Monday. If this is what Iran and Russia are sticking to, than I believe the future does not seem bright for international peace talks on Syria. Only a week ago, many were predicting that President Obama and Rowhani would have an encounter at the U.N. to put decades of dispute behind them, but Iranians showed zero interest in this – an indication as the sign that Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei hasn’t approved such a move yet. And Obama did not forget to respond to Rowhani, whom in an interview with CBS's "60 Minutes” earlier this month said: “Iranian 'Death to America' chants are aimed at U.S. policies, not the American people.” t the U.N., Obama fired back: “Chanting “death to America” doesn’t create jobs or make Iran more secure.” Now, he knows a thing or two about that!

Leaving the door open for Bashar al-Assad
Dr. John C. Hulsman/Al Arabiya/September 29/15
In the foreign policy world, every once in a while a single fact emerges—standing starkly on its own—that completely sums up why some initiative isn’t working, despite all the usual happy talk that so can so obscure reality. One such moment occurred just weeks ago, as General Lloyd Austin, Head of U.S. Central Command, was asked during a routine hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee a specific question he simply could not get out of. When queries were made by the Senators as to how many ‘moderate’ Syrian rebels were now in the field as a result of the new $500 million U.S. training program, the General gulped, shifted uncomfortably in his seat, and devastatingly answered, ‘four or five.’This is the pathetic state of the White House’s strategy on Syria.
But worse news was still to come. At about the same time the general let slip the awful truth on Capitol Hill, more catastrophic news appeared on the horizon. It seems that the 75 fighters with Division 30, a supposedly moderate Syrian rebel formed by the U.S. to take on ISIS in Syria, had all surrendered to Jabhat al-Nusra, the local al-Qaeda affiliate, the moment they returned to the country.
The West wants to feel good about Syria, but it isn’t prepared to make the sacrifices of blood and treasure to do good.
Not hesitating for a second, the division betrayed their American backers and happily handed their U.S.-supplied weapons over—along with a huge amount of ammunition--to the perpetrators of 9/11. This was America’s first attempt, using training camps in southern Turkey, to somehow manufacture moderate Syrian boots on the ground to take the fight to ISIS. When asked why he did it, Division 30’s commander, Anas Ibrahim Obaid, blandly said he needed the weapons.
How many more such incidents do we need to correctly read the tea leaves in Syria? The Obama administration’s half-hearted efforts to concoct an effective policy to deal with the hell that is Syria have utterly failed.
Fruitlessly looking for moderates
The bankruptcy of Western policy in Syria reminds me of the time during the early days of the Cold War when President Truman sent General Marshall off to China, during the height of the civil war there. Marshall was to meet with Mao and Chiang Kai-shek, determining which of them was the moderate, the knight in shining armour that America could wholeheartedly support. The bemused general came back rightly saying no such moderate beast existed, to the perplexity of the White House. Given the hell that is Syria, the desire to both stop the fighting and halt the endless stream of refugees understandably fleeing the Hades that surrounds them, we are once more fruitlessly looking for ‘moderates’ to champion. Evidently America has found four or five.
The Obama administration is cynically going through the motions, half-heartedly advocating a tepid policy it knows has absolutely no chance of success, in order to keep Republican hawks as well as muscular Democratic do-gooders off its back. If it were not under political pressure from both these groups there is little doubt the administration would do even less than they are now.
And frankly, that would lead to a better outcome. For at present American foreign policy regarding Syria is the worst of all worlds. America is doing just enough so that its failure there is tarnishing the country’s credibility. At the same time the White House is not doing nearly enough to remotely have a chance at success on the ground.
Either honestly doing less—saying Syria is not a significant national interest and the blood and treasure expended to put it right are simply not worth it in terms of American interests—or doing more would lead to better outcomes than doing a very little, knowing that tepid response is doomed to absolute failure. We are back in the old moral trap: The West wants to feel good about Syria, but it isn’t prepared to make the sacrifices of blood and treasure to do good.
What the administration is practicing in Syria is not true morality—having an idealistic goal and then being willing to pay the real world price to see that vision realised--but rather the phoney moralism so characteristic of much of American and European thought in these dreary days. Even David Cameron wants to get in on the act, salving his conscience by reportedly obtaining parliamentary approval for bombing someone or other in Syria, as though such a mindless stance on its own will make one jot of difference.
Glimmers on the horizon
But in all this justifiable gloom, there is one spark of light on the horizon. Faced beyond any doubt with the simple but compelling fact that Western policy has utterly failed in Syria, there has at last been some diplomatic movement over the past few days. Both Chancellor Merkel of Germany and Prime Minister Cameron of Britain have made it clear that firstly, the priority in dealing with the carnage in Syria must be taking on ISIS. Secondly, that while they abhor him, President Assad of Syria can be part of a transition process that could emerge from peace talks. This second point is a major move away from the previously held Western view that Assad must be shunned from such talks, having no role to play in any transitional arrangement.
Crucially, Secretary of State John Kerry cautiously echoed this shift, saying Assad could possibly be part of a transitional process. This new Western line tracks very closely with President Putin of Russia’s desire to take the war to ISIS more aggressively while safeguarding Russian interests in eastern Syria, in the guise of bolstering the Assad regime there. Highly significantly, Russian, European, and American differences over Syria seem far more bridgeable than they ever have been.
The two Presidents speaking yesterday at the U.N. General Assembly did not quite destroy the optimism. Putin, scornful and bombastic in tone, did make it clear he was serious about fighting ISIS. While Obama rightly described his disgust in dealing with Assad--a man with more than a little blood on his hands and one that could not stay in power--he did seem to leave the door open to him (at least by not disowning such a suggestion) playing a role in a transition, as long as it ultimately leads to his removal.
It is just possible Putin could live with that, if a succession led to the safeguarding of the Russian naval base at Tartous. With the two Presidents taking privately together in New York late Monday night, there is just an outside chance that the palpable failure of the West’s old policy in Syria may lead to a new one that actually makes things better there.

Is the Pope Ending Catholic Anti-Semitism?
Susan Warner/Gatestone Institute/September 29, 2015
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/6596/pope-francis-antisemitism
"Nostre Aetate," released in 1965, called for friendship and dialogue between Catholics and Jews, instead of the centuries-long repudiation of Jews by Catholics; St Joseph's University became the first to respond by establishing the Institute for Jewish-Catholic Relations. Is Pope Francis picking up where Pope Paul VI left off?
Can Pope Francis' hopes and dreams for reconciliation of Catholics and Jews override some unfortunate but pressing realities, such the Church's desire to placate the Palestinians?
If Pope Francis is serious about a "journey of friendship" with the Jewish people, perhaps he would not be so quick to approve President Obama's Iran nuclear deal in the name of a hoped-for peace that will most certainly ignite an unhoped-for war between Iran and Israel.
By assisting the UN in establishing the "sustainable development platform," the Pope is offering his permission to the UN -- one of the most anti-Semitic, anti-Israel bodies on the face of the earth -- to usurp power on behalf of a shared utopian agenda. Sustainable development notwithstanding, the UN should be encouraged to clean up its own house before it tries to clean up the world.
A lot of water as passed under the bridge between Catholics and Jews in the past 1800 years or so. Most of it has been polluted by the evils of anti-Semitism perpetrated by the Catholic Church against the Jews of Europe, starting with the earliest published Christian writings by the early ante-Nicene Church Fathers, such as Tertullian. His document "Judeos Adversos" has stood for centuries as one of the key church position papers against the Jews.
During those seemingly endless centuries, the Catholic Church continuously demonized the Jews, stripped them of their livelihoods, and frequently their lives.
In the Catholic mindset, the Covenant that God made with the Jews had been replaced by the Church as God's new "chosen people."[1] God no longer had any use for the Jews, and the Church vowed never to let them forget it.
Then in 1965, under the leadership of Pope Paul VI, the document "Nostre Aetate" was presented to the world as part of an overhaul of the Catholic Church known as the Second Vatican Council, or more popularly, Vatican II. "Nostre Aetate" was one of the most significant documents to emerge from the period. Designed to heal the relationship between the Catholics and the Jews, it was to be a total reset of the Catholic-Jewish relationship -- at least on paper.
"Nostra Aetate, the 1965 Declaration on the Church's Relationship to Non-Christian Religions was one of the most influential and celebrated documents issued by the Second Vatican Council, a gathering of the world's Catholic bishops. In particular it made possible a new and positive relationship between Jews and Catholics."[2]
Since the thirteenth century, one prominent symbol pointing to the Catholic animus against the Jews was a sculpture entitled "Ecclesia et Synagoga." The original version of this allegorical stone sculpture was carved for the Gothic Cathedral in Strasbourg, France. It consists of two elegant female figures, one representing a victorious Church, "Ecclesia," and the other representing the defeated Jew, "Synagoga."
Replicated hundreds of times in the famed Gothic cathedrals of Europe, the sculpture presented the figure of Synagoga sometimes blindfolded, representing the Jews as "spiritually blind." Some sculptures and murals depicted Synagoga with a fallen crown and a broken scepter, with a severed goat's head or with a demon -- all allegorically representing the vanquished Jews.
In all of its sordid variations, the image was revered as an honored visual symbol of the understanding of the relationship between triumphant Christianity and defeated Judaism. The two figures symbolized the Catholic Church's theological position, often called "supersessionism" or "replacement theology." According to this theology, the Church has replaced the Jews in God's view and is now to be celebrated as "the New Israel." The same theology exists in the Catholic Church today.[3]
After 1965, "Nostre Aetate" provided Catholics with a new opportunity to rethink the worthiness of an ancient theology that bolstered animosity between the two groups. At last, the Catholic Church acknowledged the biblical role of Jewish thought in human history:
"The Church, therefore, cannot forget that she received the revelation of the Old Testament through the people with whom God in His inexpressible mercy concluded the Ancient Covenant. Nor can she forget that she draws sustenance from the root of that well-cultivated olive tree onto which have been grafted the wild shoots, the Gentiles. Indeed, the Church believes that by His cross Christ, Our Peace, reconciled Jews and Gentiles. making both one in Himself. [4]
Pope Francis this week dedicated a new version of this ancient sculpture, which now installed at St. Joseph's University, in the plaza near the University Chapel.
"Ecclesia et Synagoga": The original 13th century sculptures from the Strasbourg Cathedral (left), and a recent example from St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia (right) that Pope Francis blessed this week.
According to Phillip A. Cunningham, Director of the Institute for Jewish-Catholic Relations at St. Joseph's University:
The new sculpture employs Synagoga and Ecclesia rendered with nobility and grace, to bring to life the words of Pope Francis: "Dialogue and friendship with the Jewish people are part of the life of Jesus' disciples. There exists between us a rich complementarity that allows us to read the texts of the Hebrew Scriptures together and to help one another mine the riches of God's word." The work will depict the figures enjoying studying each other's sacred texts together.
When "Nostre Aetate" was released in 1965, it called for friendship and dialogue between Catholics and Jews, instead of the centuries-long repudiation of Jews by Catholics; St Joseph's University became the first to respond by establishing the Institute for Jewish-Catholic Relations and now, five decades later, commissioning the memorial sculpture by Philadelphia artist Joshua Koffman, and hosting the Pope for this remarkable event.
Hundreds of Jews and Catholics from around the region assembled to hear the Pope speak. Rabbi Abraham Skorka, Pope Francis' close friend, came from Argentina to speak at the dedication ceremony. Event co-sponsors gathered from Philadelphia's Catholic and Jewish organizations: The archdiocese of Philadelphia; the World Meeting of Families; American Jewish Committee; The Greater Philadelphia Board of Rabbis; Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia and the Anti-Defamation League.
The new sculpture "will vividly convey what Pope Francis has called the 'journey of friendship' that Jews and Catholics have experienced in the past five decades," says professor and Institute Assistant Director Adam Gregerman. "We are looking forward to area Jews and Catholics coming together to celebrate the remarkable rapprochement that is occurring."
Are we actually realizing the moment when the end of Catholic anti-Semitism shall finally be realized? Is this reality in line with Pope Paul VI's dream of "Nostre Aetate?" Is Pope Francis picking up where Pope Paul VI left off?
The question lingers: Can Pope Francis' hopes and dreams for reconciliation of Catholics and Jews override some unfortunate but pressing realities, such the Church's desire to placate the Palestinians?
At least four trouble spots need to be addressed before the Pope can complete his sought-after "journey of friendship" between Jews and Catholics:
1. The first squeamish issue is the universality of the current Catholic teaching of supersessionism or "replacement theology." If the Catholic Church is still claiming to be "The New Israel," there is no room on the planet for a Jewish Israel. Under this unfortunate and false teaching, the Jewish people, the Jewish religion and the Jewish nation are only valid if the Jews convert to Catholicism.[5]
2. If Pope Francis is serious about a "journey of friendship" with the Jewish people, perhaps he would not be so quick to approve President Obama's Iran nuclear deal in the name of a hoped-for peace that will most certainly ignite an unhoped-for war between Iranian proxies, Iran and Israel.
3. By prematurely, preemptively and unilaterally recognizing Palestine as a state, he selected some very unfortunate timing -- on the anniversary of Israel's declaration of independence, called Nakba Day ["Catastrophe Day"] by Palestinians -- for his attempt to destroy and supplant the Jewish state.
This was a theft of Israel's hopes for a legitimate negotiated peace settlement and an insult to Israel in the international arena. The Pope robbed Israel of a vital negotiating position. He robbed them of their international standing, and gave the Palestinians another legitimate pathway to act on their vow to destroy Israel. As one of the most prestigious leaders in the world, the Pope's unilateral action was a kick in the teeth for Israel and hardly the "journey of friendship" he claims to desire.
4. By collaborating with -- and even assisting -- the United Nations in establishing the "sustainable development platform," the Pope is freely offering his permission to the UN -- one of the most anti-Semitic, anti-Israel bodies on the face of the earth -- to usurp power on behalf of a shared utopian agenda. "Sustainable development" notwithstanding, the United Nations should be encouraged to clean up its own house before it tries to clean up the world.
Pope Francis has been in his office only since 2013. During this short time, he has managed to straddle both sides of a very dangerous divide -- between the Jews and Israel on one side and on the other, their Islamist neighbor nations that daily vow to annihilate all Jews along with their state.
For an average person, this might seem less like a "journey of friendship" and more like a pathway to war.
Susan Warner is a Distinguished Senior Fellow of Gatestone Institute and co-founder of a Christian group, Olive Tree Ministries in Wilmington, DE, USA. She has been writing and teaching about Israel and the Middle East for over 15 years. Contact her at israelolivetree@yahoo.com.
[1] The actual quote from the conclusion of a teaching from "The Church = The New Israel": "So to sum up, the Catholic Church is the Kingdom of God on earth, the new Israel (Jesus said in Matthew 21:43 that he was taking the Kingdom away from Israel, and giving it to a nation that will produce the fruits of it - namely, the Catholic Church), and is modeled after David's Kingdom, with a huge temple (the Vatican), a prime minister (our Pope), a sacred tabernacle containing the Ark of the Covenant (our tabernacle containing the Eucharist), officers who take care of the kingdom (our Cardinals and bishops), high priests (our priests), a Passover Meal (our Eucharist), and a Queen Mother (The Blessed Virgin Mary)."
[2] This document was published expressly as an education device to the study of the 50th Anniversary of Nostre Aetate by the Council of Centers on Jewish Christian Relations.
[3] This quote is from a current teaching from "The Catholic Knight" but is available from many other sources. "Where does this put the Church in relation to the rest of the Jewish people? Simply put, we (the Church) are Zion! We are Israel! That is what it explicitly says in the New Testament and the Catechism of the Catholic Church. To become complete as a Jew is no different than what it takes to become complete as a Gentile. We all must be "grafted in" to Israel - which is The Catholic Church!"
[4] From the original Nostre Aetate document section 4.
[5] Nostre Aetate was intended to soften the harsh reality of supersessionism or replacement theology in the Catholic Church, which was the cornerstone of Catholic anti-Semitism. However, a simple internet search of today's Catholic teachings brings up numerous resources that perpetuate this false idea that was generated by the early Church fathers and became part of the founding documents under the Emperor Constantine in 325 CE. Sometimes the concept is quite blatant and sometimes it is subtle, but the idea of the Catholic Church as the "New Israel" is ubiquitous.
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There's a strong leader around, and his name isn’t Obama
Ben-Dror Yemini/Ynetnews/Published: 09.29.15
Op-ed: Russian President Putin understands what the free world does not: Whoever won’t fight jihad outside his home will be forced to fight it inside his home. US President Barack Obama delivered an impressive speech at the United Nations General Assembly on Monday. He knows how to talk. Military power alone will not solve the problem in Syria, he said, and presented a vision of peace and comradeship. He asked Iran nicely not to shout "Death to America," because it won’t bring them jobs, and expressed his hope that those who hope for its extinction will maintain the nuclear agreement and turn the world into a safer place. Just like that. There is no doubt that he is a believer.
While Obama talks, Vladimir Putin acts. After the Crimean Peninsula and Ukraine, Russia has reached Syria. The Russian president is creating an axis which includes Iran, the Bashar Assad regime in Syria and Hezbollah, and the free world is standing by. In fact, there are even signs of support for Putin. He may succeed in doing to the Islamic State organization what the free world is not even dreaming of doing.
Russia is a midget compared to the United States. The former world power's national product is $2.1 trillion, compared to Britain's 2.6 and 17.4 in the US. But power means nothing when there is no interest in using it.
This isn’t just about military intervention. When former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, a clear friend of the US, faced a domestic crisis, Obama actually rushed to support the regime's opponents. In the conflict between the current president, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, and the Muslim Brotherhood, Obama stood mainly by the "brothers," in the name of democracy of course. The message to the leaders of the Third World in general and to the Arab world in particular was clear: Don't expect America's support.
Putin is positioning himself in this place in order to signal the opposite to the Third World: I support my allies, no matter what they do. Pedantries of democracy and human rights are appropriate for the European Union and the American administration. I have interests. In other words, a little power being used is worth much more than a lot of power which no one plans to do anything with. What is the neighborhood bully worth if he adopts the role of the neighborhood fool?
The American considerations are understandable. After the entanglements in Iraq and Afghanistan, the US has no interest in entering the Syrian quagmire. Putin is taking advantage of the void, and he has long-term aspirations. The support for Syria doesn’t stem from his love of Assad but because some of Russia's republics, including Rajasthan and Chechnya, provide fighters to ISIS.
Putin understands what the free world is failing to understand: Whoever won’t fight jihad outside his home will be forced to fight it inside his home. He is not going to wait for them. He is going out to face them.
Will Russia succeed where the US failed? Only time will tell. Putin is sending all-embracing signals. The saga in Ukraine is not over yet, and the Baltic countries are in a state of fear. They don’t want to be annexed and be subject to Russian influence. Former NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen has already warned that Russia may attack there. It's a nightmare for the European Union, which is incapable of uniting even in light of the refugee crisis. This weakness may encourage Putin.
As far as Israel is concerned, Iran and ISIS are two sides of the same coin, two equally bad options. So the Russian intervention raises questions. As long as Putin is at the center of the axis, most of the effort will be directed at ISIS. But as far as Iran and Hezbollah are concerned, the obsession was and remains Israel. It would be better if peace and serenity and coexistence prevail in Iraq and Syria, but utopias are a matter for the White House. For now, the war is not ending, all those involved are wearing themselves out, and the Russian power injection will only add fuel to the fire. It is unclear if the "Putin axis" will succeed in overpowering jihad in the long run. It is clear that Putin has clarified to the world's leaders that there is another strong leader around, and his name is not Obama.

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