LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS
BULLETIN
January 09/17
Compiled
& Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
The
Bulletin's Link on the lccc Site
http://www.eliasbejjaninews.com/newsbulletins17/english.january09.17.htm
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Bible Quotations For Today
I am
sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way; the voice of one
crying out in the wilderness: "Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths
straight
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 01/01-08/:"The
beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. As it is written in
the prophet Isaiah, ‘See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will
prepare your way; the voice of one crying out in the wilderness: "Prepare
the way of the Lord, make his paths straight" ’, John the baptizer
appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the
forgiveness of sins. And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the
people of Jerusalem were going
out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. Now
John was clothed with camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and
he ate locusts and wild honey. He proclaimed, ‘The one who is more powerful
than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of
his sandals. I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the
Holy Spirit."’
When they measure themselves by
one another, and compare themselves with one another, they do not show good
sense
Second Letter to the Corinthians 10/12-18/:"We do not dare to classify or
compare ourselves with some of those who commend themselves. But when they
measure themselves by one another, and compare themselves with one another,
they do not show good sense.
We, however, will not boast beyond limits, but will keep within the field that
God has assigned to us, to reach out even as far as you. For we were not
overstepping our limits when we reached you; we were the first to come all the
way to you with the good news of Christ.
We do not boast beyond limits, that is, in the labours of others; but our hope
is that, as your faith increases, our sphere of action among you may be greatly
enlarged, so that we may proclaim the good news in lands beyond you, without
boasting of work already done in someone else’s sphere of action. ‘Let the one
who boasts, boast in the Lord.’For it is not those
who commend themselves that are approved, but those whom the Lord commends.
Titles For Latest
LCCC Bulletin analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on
January 08-09/17
Killers With The Same Mentality/Antoine Courban/Face
Book/January 08/17
Trends in the new year/Khattar Abou
Diab/The Arab Weekly/January 08/17
Lebanon: Will the momentum be/Rami Rayees/The Arab Weekly/January 08/17
Assad’s ‘ethnic cleansing’ plan unveils a new Syria/Nicholas Blanford/The Arab Weekly/January 08/17
Realpolitik saves Lebanon, for now/Dalal Saoud/The Arab
Weekly/January 08/17
Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner: Israel’s insurance
policy/Amnon Abramovich|/Ynetnews/January
08/17
Syrian opposition figures to make rare public appearance in Israel
Jerusalem Post/January 08/17
Difference between Iraq’s Sahwat and Popular
Mobilization militias/Abdulrahman al-Rashed/Al Arabiya/January 08/17
From Russia with love for Donald Trump/Hisham Melhem/Al Arabiya/January 08/17
Scandals, ideological issues exposed by terrorism/Turki
Aldakhil/Al Arabiya/January
08/17
When "Peace" Means Capitulation to Islam/Giulio
Meotti/Gatestone Institute/January 08,/17
Turkey's Lifestyle Massacre/Burak Bekdil/Gatestone
Institute/January 08/17
Titles For Latest Lebanese Related News
published on January 08-09/17
Killers With The Same Mentality
Lebanon’s Defense Minister to Asharq
Al-Awsat: Aoun’s Visit
Surpasses Arms Issue,Tackles Several Files
Al-Rahi Says Kataeb is
'Protector of Republic, Lebanon'
MP Aoun Says President's Riyadh Trip to Open 'New
Chapter' in Ties with Gulf
Riachi Says Saudi Military Grant on Aoun's Riyadh Agenda
Body of Former Jerusalem Bishop, Activist Capucci in
Lebanon
Civil Movement Observatory calls for reforms in mobile phone sector
Japanese Deputy Foreign Minister begins an official visit to Beirut
Bassil visits Bishop Khodr,
checking on his health: We ask for his prayers to be upto
citizens' aspirations
Lebanese expatriate Hassan Karim released in exchange
for ransom in Mozambique
Vessel flying flag of Togo veers from Tripoli Port towards Syrian territorial
waters
Chinese Vice Foreign Minister tours in Baalbek
Lebanese American FBI Agent who Interrogated Saddam Leads Florida Airport Case
Man Found Killed in His Home in Ketermaya
AMAL Says 1960 Electoral Law Leads to 'Full Victory' of One Camp over Another
Trends in the new year
Lebanon: Will the momentum be
Assad’s ‘ethnic cleansing’ plan unveils a new Syria
Realpolitik saves Lebanon, for now
Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin For
Miscellaneous Reports And News published on January 08-09/17
Canada condemns attack in Jerusalem
Deadly attack as truck rams into Israeli soldiers
SIS suicide car bomb kills 13 in eastern Baghdad
Former Iranian President Rafsanjani dies
ISIS kidnaps 1,200 Yazidis, moves them to Mosul
Iraqi special forces reach Tigris river in Mosul
How the Reina club killer duped Turkish police
Assad Says Syrian Forces on Road to Victory after Retaking Aleppo
Detained IS Suspect Says Tunisian Journalists are Dead
Assad 'Optimistic' on New Peace Talks, Says French MP
Israel Arrests after Protests against Soldier's Conviction
Egyptian TV Host Ibrahim Issa Following Cairo Church
Bombing: The Copts Are Persecuted Both By The Terrorists And By The State
Institutions
US Congress Presented 2 Proposals Against the Iran Regime
Iran: Parasite Signals Harming People
Iran: Ruling Factions Involved in Massive Thefts, Crises Engulfing Senior
Regime Ranks
Links From Jihad Watch Site for on January 08-09/17
Video:
Fort Lauderdale shooter fires first shots
Pakistan:
Muslims accuse Christian of blasphemy, claiming he tore up pages of Qur’an
PA
top dogs threaten that moving US embassy to Jerusalem “declaration of war on
all Muslims”
Czech
government pushing constitutional change to let citizens use guns against
Islamic jihadis
Video
from Jerusalem: Muslim drives truck into crowd, murdering four; Hamas
celebrates
Belgian
police stopped Paris jihad murderer before attack, found jihad booklet on him,
let him go
UK
jihadi freed from Guantanamo flees to Syria to join
al-Qaeda
German
Vice Chancellor: “Salafist mosques must be banned,
communities dissolved, and preachers expelled”
Journalist
quits Charlie Hebdo because it now bows to jihadis’ demand: “Mohammed is no longer depicted”
Ann
Marie Waters Moment: The Islamic Darkness Descends on Europe
Latest Lebanese Related News
published on January 08-09/17
Killers With The Same
Mentality
Antoine Courban/Face Book/January 08/17
There are some psychos who kill to kill
There are some Muslims who kill other Muslims
There are some Muslims who kill Christians, Jews and atheists
There are some Jews who kill Muslims
There are some Buddhists who kill Muslims
There are some Christians who kill Muslims
Hatred is first in man... think the opposite would be a dangerous naivety.
Control the hate, and accept the other one is a long process of education.
Lebanon’s Defense
Minister to Asharq Al-Awsat:
Aoun’s Visit Surpasses Arms Issue,Tackles Several Files
Paula Astih/Asharq Al Awsat/January
08/17/Beirut- Defense Minister Yaacoub
Sarraf said the upcoming visit of Lebanon’s President
Michel Aoun to the Kingdom early next week exceeds
the effort to activate a Saudi arms grant for the Lebanese Army, but rather
lies in the framework of underlining the special relations between both
countries. Sarraf told Asharq
Al-Awsat that narrowing the visit to the issue of the
grants “ill-treats both Lebanon
and the Kingdom, because the meanings and the targets of this trip are bigger
and more important.”The Defense
Minister pointed out to the fact that Aoun chose to
visit Saudi Arabia in his
first trip as president of Lebanon.
“This step constitutes in itself an important development that reflects the
deep relations between both countries,” he said. Sarraf
explained: “There are around 250 thousands Lebanese families living and working
in the Kingdom. Their presence benefits both Lebanon
and Saudi Arabia.
I think this is a basic reason for planning the visit, to show how much the
president is interested in the Lebanese community there.”He
expected that President Aoun’s Gulf tour would
positively reflect on all levels, particularly on the tourism sector and
investments. Aoun kicks off his trips as president
early next week, first by visiting Saudi Arabia,
then Qatar.
According to sources close to Aoun, the president
plans later to visit a number of European countries, still not yet determined.
Separately, Interior Minister Nohad Mashnouq said in a radio interview on Saturday that the
openness of President Aoun would reestablish
strong ties with Arab and international countries after years of being on shaky
grounds. Mashnouq said the President’s visit to Riyadh and Doha, as well as
subsequent visits to other countries, would have a positive outcome for Lebanon. He
even alluded to the possibility of reactivating the Saudi grant to the Lebanese
Army. Before leaving to the Kingdom on an official visit for ten days, Mufti of
the Lebanese Republic Abdulateef Deryan
said: “We pin hopes on President of the Republic’s visit to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in boosting ties between
the two countries and the GCC countries.”
Al-Rahi Says Kataeb is 'Protector of Republic, Lebanon'
Naharnet/January 08/17/Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi told a Kataeb Party delegation on Sunday that “Kataeb
is the protector of the republic and Lebanon,” state-run National News Agency
reported. The delegation, which visited Bkirki to
offer seasons greetings, was comprised of the party's secretary general Rafiq Ghanem and politburo
members Sami Khoueiri, Faraj
Kerbaj, Charbel Yazbek, Pierre
al-Jalakh and Fadwa Yaaqoub. Talks tackled “the current developments in the
local arena and means to enable the State to rise withing the framework of the constitution and the law and
regulations,” NNA said. The Kataeb parliamentary bloc
has withheld confidence from Saad Hariri's new
government, saying its political vision “contradicts” with the party's vision.
Commenting on the new government's line-up, Kataeb
chief MP Sami Gemayel slammed what he called a
“one-sided Cabinet.”“There is no balance in this
Cabinet and there are at least 17 ministers whose vision for sovereignty
contradicts with our vision,” he noted. “A lot of people advised us to bend our
head but there should be free voices in Lebanon and an opposition that
exposes the mistakes and speaks on behalf of large segments of Lebanese
citizens who reject the situation,” Gemayel added.
MP Aoun Says
President's Riyadh Trip to Open 'New Chapter' in Ties with Gulf
Naharnet/January 08/17/MP Alain Aoun
of the Change and Reform bloc has stressed the keenness of President Michel Aoun and the Free Patriotic Movement on restoring normal
ties with the Arab Gulf countries, noting that the president's upcoming visit
to Riyadh will achieve this goal. “President Michel Aoun's
trip to Saudi Arabia will launch a new chapter in the Lebanese-Saudi relations
and will pave the way for a new phase between the two brotherly countries, and
subsequently between Lebanon and the rest of the Gulf states,” Aoun told the Kuwaiti al-Anbaa
newspaper in remarks published Sunday. “This visit is important because it will
return ties to their normal and historic state, which will happen gradually
through ending the Saudi and Gulf boycott of Lebanon
and halting all the negative measures against it, after the relations between Beirut and the Gulf
states deteriorated in
recent years due to the regional conflict,” Aoun
added. The MP also said that he expects that Aoun's
visit to Saudi Arabia
and the other Gulf and Arab countries will revive the historic relations “at
all levels.”
Riachi Says Saudi Military Grant on Aoun's
Riyadh Agenda
Naharnet/January 08/17/Information Minister Melhem Riachi has revealed that
the issue of the suspended Saudi grant to the Lebanese army will be on the
agenda of President Michel Aoun during his visit next
week to Riyadh.
In remarks to the Kuwaiti daily al-Seyassah published
Sunday, Riachi hoped the visit will “reactivate the
grant that is aimed at equipping the army and the Internal Security Forces.”"We are full of hope that the results will
meet our expectations, given the historic ties between Lebanon and Saudi
Arabia, as well as between Lebanon and the rest of the Gulf
Cooperation Council states,” Riachi said. Riachi will be part of the ministerial delegation that will
accompany Aoun to Riyadh on Monday and Tuesday. Aoun's Arab tour will also take him to Qatar and Egypt. Saudi
Arabia halted a $3 billion program of military aid to Lebanon in 2016
to protest what it said was "the stranglehold of Hizbullah
on the state."It also urged its citizens to
leave Lebanon
and avoid travel to the country.
Body of Former Jerusalem Bishop, Activist Capucci in Lebanon
Associated Press/Naharnet/January 08/17/The body of
Monsignor Hilarion Capucci,
the former Greek Melkite Catholic archbishop in Jerusalem who was exiled to the Vatican
for his pro-Palestinian activism, has arrived in Lebanon where he will be buried. A
native of Aleppo, Syria,
Capucci died in Rome
on Jan. 1 at the age of 94. A funeral is expected Monday. Appointed in 1965 as
the Bishop of Jerusalem, Capucci was convicted in
1976 of using his diplomatic status to smuggle weapons from Beirut
to the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Sentenced
to 12 years, Capucci was released and deported after
two years following intervention by the Vatican. He tried to return in 2009
aboard a Lebanese aid ship defying Israel's blockade of the Gaza
Strip. Israeli vessels intercepted the ship and towed it to Israel's Ashdod
port.
Civil Movement Observatory calls for
reforms in mobile phone sector
Sun 08 Jan 2017/NNA - Civil Movement Observatory activists addressed on Sunday
a message to Telecommunications Minister, Jamal Jarrah,
calling for reforms in the mobile phone sector in Lebanon. Noting that the activists
did not attribute the political responsibility of this file to the newly
appointed Minister, nor to his political party, they deplored Lebanese people
sufferings’ in this regard, criticizing the performance of the companies and
the expenses of phone calls, “which are the highest in the world.” In the
framework of the protest campaign against the two mobile phone companies Touch
and Alfa on Sunday, the activists called for the end of injustice against
Lebanese people, calling for several measures to be taken, including the
reduction of charges imposed on customers and the improvement of Internet
services.
Japanese Deputy Foreign Minister begins an
official visit to Beirut
Sun 08 Jan 2017/NNA - Airport - Japanese Deputy Foreign Minister, Kinatro Sonora, arrived Sunday evening at Beirut
International Airport, heading a delegation, on an official visit that will
last until tomorrow. The Japanese official will be meeting with President of
the Republic, General Michel Aoun; House Speaker Nabih Berri, and Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri, congratulating them over the new mandate
and government formation. Talks will also center on issues of mutual interest
to both countries. Sonora
and his accompanying delegation were greeted upon their arrival at the
Airport's VIP Lounge by Deputy Director of Protocol at the Lebanese Foreign
Affairs Ministry, Nadim Sourati,
and Acting Japanese Charge d'Affaires, Keisuke
Yamanaka.
Bassil visits Bishop Khodr,
checking on his health: We ask for his prayers to be upto
citizens' aspirations
Sun 08 Jan 2017/NNA - Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Minister, Free Patriotic
Movement Head, Minister Gebran Basil, visited on
Sunday Bishop of Mount Lebanon, George Khodr, at the
Greek Orthodox Diocese in Broummana, in order to
check on his health condition.
According to a statement by Bassil's press office,
the encounter was "a chance to deliberate over philosophy and religion,
the Christian Levantine conditions, as well as Lebanon's position after the
election of General Michel Aoun as President of the Republic."Bishop Khodr
praised "the improvement that began to be witnessed in the country,"
and commended Minister Bassil for his efforts, adding
that "what interests the people in a politician is his honesty."In
turn, Bassil thanked Bishop Khodr
for his words, asking for his prayers "in order to succeed in meeting the
needs of the people and being upto the responsibility
and hopes of the people by working to improve the country's situation."
Lebanese expatriate Hassan Karim released in exchange for ransom in Mozambique
Sun 08 Jan 2017/NNA - Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Ministry received a short
while ago news of the release of Lebanese expatriate, Hassan Ali Karim, who was kidnapped last Thursday by an armed robbery
gang in Maputo, capital of Mozambique in West Africa, in exchange for a ransom.
The Ministry was following-up on the course of the kidnapping, upon the
instructions of Minister Gebran Bassil,
through the Lebanese Acting Charge d'Affaires in South Africa, Ara Khjatorian.
Vessel flying flag of Togo veers from
Tripoli Port towards Syrian territorial waters
Sun 08 Jan 2017/NNA - Damascus - The Syrian Ports Directorate disclosed in a
statement on Sunday that "a vessel flying the flag of Togo and bearing the
name of Massa, with two sailors on board, lost its moorings in the Port of
Tripoli in northern Lebanon, and thus, veered towards the waters of the Syrian
southern province of Tartous, due to high winds and
sea waves.""Workers at Tripoli Port tried
to rescue the ship, after obtaining the approval of the Syrian Ports'
Administration, but failed because of bad weather," the statement added,
noting that the two sailors on board are in good health and responding to
communication, and will be rescued tomorrow once the storm subsides. It is to
note that the Syrian authorities had closed on Sunday the trade ports of Latakia and Tartous due to the
prevailing bad weather conditions.
Chinese Vice Foreign Minister tours in
Baalbek
Sun 08 Jan 2017/NNA - Chinese Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, Zhang Ming,
visited on Sunday Baalbek city accompanied by Chinese Ambassador to Lebanon,
Wang Kejian, and a delegation from the Embassy. The
delegation was welcomed by Baalbek Municipality head, Hussein Lakkis,
before touring the markets and archaeological citadel of Baalbek. The delegation wrapped up its visit
in the building of the municipality where souvenirs were exchanged.
Lebanese American FBI Agent who Interrogated Saddam Leads Florida Airport Case
Associated Press/Naharnet/January 08/17/The Lebanese
American FBI agent who interrogated Saddam Hussein alone for months after the
former Iraqi leader's capture is now leading the investigation into the Florida
airport shooting rampage blamed on an Iraq war veteran.
George Piro, special agent in charge of the FBI's Miami field office, was
Saddam's sole interrogator beginning in January 2004. In previous interviews, Piro has said Saddam did not know his true identity — the
Iraqi leader called him "Mr. George" — and
that he posed as a high-level envoy who answered directly to then-President
George W. Bush. Now Piro, a native of Beirut, Lebanon,
fluent in Arabic and Assyrian, is in charge of the FBI investigation into the
shooting at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport that left five
people dead and six wounded. Federal prosecutors have charged Esteban Santiago,
26, with airport violence and firearms offenses that could bring the death
penalty if he is convicted.
In announcing the charges filed Saturday, Piro
said his thoughts are with the victims and their families. "I want to
ensure these families that law enforcement is working tirelessly in order to
ensure justice is served," he said. Piro, an FBI
agent since 1999, moved with his family from Lebanon
to California's San Joaquin Valley
as a teenager. After high school he enlisted in the Air Force, then became a
police officer for a decade in Ceres, California, followed by a job as an
investigator in the local prosecutor's office. Once he joined the FBI in Phoenix, Piro was one of only a
handful of Arabic-speaking agents — a group that suddenly was in great demand
after the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks and the subsequent U.S. invasions of Afghanistan
and Iraq.
In 2003, Piro was promoted to the FBI's
Counterterrorism Division at headquarters in Washington, leading to his work as Saddam's
interrogator. In later interviews, including a 2008 appearance on CBS' "60
Minutes" program, Piro said he met daily with
Saddam in a windowless room and worked to gain his trust by becoming his only
provider of necessities and such things as paper for Saddam to write poetry.
Eventually, Piro said Saddam confirmed that Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction
prior to the U.S. invasion
but might seek them in future to deter Iran and other threats. Saddam also
denied any links to al-Qaida and Osama bin Laden, Piro
has said.
Saddam also liked to brag about how he escaped U.S. airstrikes and capture,
according to Piro. "What he wanted to really
illustrate is ... how he was able to outsmart us," Piro
told "60 Minutes." ''He got rid of his normal vehicles. He got rid of
the protective detail that he traveled with, really just to change his
signature."
Saddam was later tried and executed by hanging in December 2006. Santiago, the airport shooting suspect, also served in Iraq in 2010
with the Puerto Rico National Guard as part of an engineering battalion, guard
officials said. Santiago
later served in the Army Reserves and Alaska National Guard. After Iraq, Piro moved on to
top FBI counterterrorism jobs in Washington,
including a White House position involving high-value detainee interrogation
that works with various intelligence agencies. Since taking the top Miami FBI
job, Piro has overseen work in more domestic areas
such as health care fraud, identity theft and tax fraud, Ponzi
schemes and mortgage fraud — all areas where South Florida is among the
nation's leaders. Bank robberies, violent street gangs,
public corruption and smuggling of humans and drugs round out much of the work
for the Miami
office's roughly 1,000 agents and employees. Since Friday's shooting, Piro has been careful to say no evidence linking Santiago to terrorism has
been found but such connections have also not been ruled out. "It's
way too early in the investigation. We're looking over all of his social media,
things like that. It's giving us a picture of the individual, but it's way too
early for us to rule out anything," Piro said
Saturday. "We're pursuing all angles on what prompted him to carry out
this horrific attack."
Man Found Killed in His Home in Ketermaya
Naharnet/January 08/17/A man was found killed Sunday
inside his home in the Chouf district town of Ketermaya,
state-run National News Agency reported. “Lebanese national Sh. Z. A., 47, was
found killed in his home with a gunshot wound to the chest,” NNA said. “The
body was transferred to the central hospital in Mazboud
as Chehim's police station launched a probe into the
incident,” the agency added.
AMAL Says 1960 Electoral Law Leads to
'Full Victory' of One Camp over Another
Naharnet/January 08/17/MP Hani Qobeissi
of Speaker Nabih Berri's
AMAL Movement on Sunday stressed that all political parties must “offer
concessions for the sake of achieving justice for everyone in Lebanon.”“We are in critical need for a new electoral law
that achieves justice, seeing as the 1960 law would lead to a known result,
which is the full victory of one camp over another,” Qobeissi
said. “This law does not achieve justice nor
partnership. Fair representation can only be achieved through a fair electoral
law based on proportional representation and large electoral districts,” the MP
added. Hizbullah has repeatedly called for an
electoral law fully based on proportional representation but other political
parties, especially al-Mustaqbal Movement and the
Progressive Socialist Party, have rejected the proposal and argued that the
party's controversial arsenal of arms would prevent serious competition in
regions where the Iran-backed party has clout. Mustaqbal,
the Lebanese Forces and the PSP have meanwhile proposed a hybrid electoral law
that mixes the proportional representation and the winner-takes-all systems.
Speaker Berri has also proposed a hybrid law. The
country has not voted for a parliament since 2009, with the legislature instead
twice extending its own mandate. The 2009 polls were held under an amended version
of the 1960 electoral law and the next elections are scheduled for May 2017.
Trends in the new year
Khattar Abou Diab/The Arab Weekly/January 08/17
Profound changes taking place since 2010 are indicative of covert strength of
Arab youth to meet challenges.
In all probability, 2017 is going to be a year of transition for the new
directions in the world order within the context of the strategic disorder and
polarisation among the powers.This will be especially
so economically between Washington and Beijing. Transition will
also be the optimal word regarding the rise of Russia,
the future of the European Union after Brexit, the
coming elections in France
and Germany and the shaping
of a new Middle East out of its destructive
chaos.
Amid rising Putinism, loud Trumpism,
a hungry Chinese dragon, an ageing Europe, a generation of nostalgic dreamers
of bygone empires, merchants of religion and fables, globalisation refuseniks and pushers of the clash of civilisations, the
new era in international relations does not look so bright. Regardless of the
achievements of both the digital and technological revolutions in our global
village, history draws us back to the first fall of global capitalism, which
led to the first world war in 1914. Today, with the
growing gap between classes, the shrinking space of freedoms and the rise of
nationalism, we are witnessing conditions like those that led to the Bolshevik
revolution of 1917. Of course, we will not see the unfolding of the same
scenario but we will need to seriously review our thinking patterns and
approaches.
With the withdrawals from the International Court of Justice, the use of brute
force to settle international disputes (Russia resorted to the card of
sanctioned wars to rejoin the circle of big players) and the spread of
terrorism, we have come to the end of the Westernised era of international
relations. Today, it seems that ethics or human considerations no longer have
any role to play in international relations nor can international law and
concerted multilateral diplomacy stand in the face of narrow national
interests.
We can see the decline in the limited gains of the previous world order
reflected in the ascension of Putinism, not just in
relation to military successes in the Syrian theatre but also in the rise in
Europe of nationalistic or right-wing leaders close to Moscow. In case the accusations levelled by Washington regarding
Putin’s team hacking US elections turn out to be true, we can conclude that
these digital wars are preliminary tests for new forms of confrontation in a
feverish race to control decision makers worldwide during the coming decades.
Donald Trump’s election under the slogan “America First” clearly indicates the
return of nationalistic discourse to the detriment of globalisation and
international cooperation.
Future trends in international relations will be decided by Trump
administration policies towards China
and China’s
reactions to them. During the new era, China
will focus on increasing its benefits from the new Silk Road while the United States will focus on the South China Sea
and countering China’s game
in Asia and the Pacific.
In the wider Middle East, everybody is waiting for the Trump administration’s
positions regarding Iran, Saudi Arabia and Turkey. It will be interesting to
find out the extent to which this administration is willing to concede Russia’s rising role in the eastern Mediterranean.
In many places, 2017 is shrouded in mystery. It is difficult to predict the
global effects of a strong US dollar and the fluctuations of the oil markets.
In France, Iran, Germany,
the Netherlands and Nigeria, the coming elections are a waiting game
and we cannot clearly read the aftermath of the Islamic State’s defeats in Mosul and Syria.
The future of the Kurdish issue remains uncertain. Some observers are quick to
dismiss any potential changes in the Arab world for 2017.
Nevertheless, and despite the continuous destructive chaos in more than one
Arab country, the profound changes taking place since 2010 in many are
indicative of the covert strength of Arab youth to meet challenges head-on and
move forward with reforms while strongly opposing any form of colonisation.
Lebanon: Will the momentum be
Rami Rayees/The Arab
Weekly/January 08/17
Even though there are high expectations from Hariri for six-month transitory
phase, political discussion concentrates on electoral law amid severe divisions.
After two-and-a-half years of presidential vacuum, the Lebanese parliament
succeeded in electing a new president, former army commander
Michel Aoun, who was practically refused by all
parliamentary blocs only weeks before going to the ballot.
Regardless of the reasons or circumstances that stand behind this election, the
new president attempted to send positive signals in all directions. His
inaugural address was meticulously written and applauded by almost all parties
in the long-divided political society.
He received envoys from Syria,
Iran, Saudi Arabia, Qatar
and Egypt and promised to
pay his first visit as president to Riyadh.
Aoun said Lebanese-Arab relations would return to
their previous status of friendliness, expecting come back of Gulf citizens to Beirut after lifting the
ban imposed last year in an unprecedented deterioration of mutual relations in
contemporary history. However, questions arise as to whether the momentum
gained after the presidential election, nominating long-exiled Saad Hariri as prime minister and creating a 30-member
cabinet that represented almost all the political parties and gaining
parliamentary confidence in less than 48 hours; yet, this momentum is under
scrutiny.
Information leaked that Hezbollah would not accept the return of Hariri to the
premiership after parliamentary elections was never refuted. Talk about
sacrificing to accept his comeback when the regional axis of resistance, with
enormous Russian support, is achieving victory, most recently in Aleppo, could
not be disregarded, either.This highly undermines
the possibility of accomplishing the long-awaited solutions for accumulating
problems, especially in the economy, the ever-growing public debt or the
rising challenges in the social demands, health care or otherwise. Even though
there are high expectations from Hariri for the six-month transitory phase,
political discussion concentrates on the electoral law amid severe divisions
regarding the issue.
Leader of the Democratic Gathering, Walid Jumblatt, warned that he would refuse any attempt to adopt
laws that aim at marginalising or shrinking his parliamentary presence, a
stance positively met by public and private statements from several leaders,
including Hariri, Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah
and parliament Speaker Nabih Berri.
Whether this discussion will be sufficient to reach a new electoral law or have
elections based on the 1960 law is not clear. However, there is a lot of talk
in Beirut that
most political forces refuse that law in public and support it in private.
Though there are increased requests that the proportional representation law be
applied, political confessionalism stands in the way
of making such an ideal electoral system plausible. The debate over the
electoral law might hinder significant development in other fields because it
might emerge as a source of tension, deviating attention from secondary issues.
Two-and-a-half years of political paralysis drastically aggravated the economic
situation because the former cabinet barely functioned under the pressure from
the Free Patriotic Movement and Hezbollah under different titles. Therefore, a
lot of work is expected to alleviate public services and regain confidence that
has been squandered because of political differences and institutional decay
with high rates of corruption in the bureaucracy and public administration.
Whether this is feasible, the coming days are to judge.
**Rami Rayess is
editor-in-chief of Lebanese Al Anbaa Electronic
Newspaper
Assad’s ‘ethnic cleansing’ plan unveils
a new Syria
Nicholas Blanford/The Arab Weekly/January 08/17
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/2017/01/08/nicholas-blanfordthe-arab-weekly-assads-ethnic-cleansing-plan-unveils-a-new-syria/
As food, medicine, water and fuel supplies dwindle, pressure mounts on
civilians and fighters to surrender.
Beirut - A hallmark of the Syrian regime’s
policy to recover territory held by rebel groups is the surrender-or-starve
tactic, a brutal binary choice for the defenders of opposition-held towns and
neighbourhoods across western Syria
that has paid dividends for President Bashar Assad
and his multinational allies. Access points in and out of the targeted area
are sealed by regime forces and the population is subjected to intense aerial
and artillery bombardment. As food, medicine, water and fuel supplies dwindle, pressure mounts on civilians and fighters to
surrender. The recent six-month siege and relentless bombardment of eastern Aleppo, with a population
of 200,000 people, was the acme of this uncompromising tactic.
These deals — known in regime-speak as “reconciliation agreements” to disguise
a tactic that many consider to be a war crime — are more commonplace than is
generally appreciated. The Russian Defence Ministry’s Centre for
Reconciliation of Opposing Sides in the Syrian
Arab Republic
said that, as of mid-December, the number of “reconciliation agreements”
secured across Syria
stood at 1,057, with another 94 ceasefire deals. As the world looked on while Aleppo, once Syria’s
economic hub, was battered into rubble, the Assad regime was pursuing the same
policy elsewhere, notably on Damascus’s
periphery.
In October, Assad’s forces launched an offensive against rebel-held Khan
al-Sheikh, a town in Western Ghouta that sits on the
key highway linking Damascus
to Daraa in the south. By the end of the month, the
town was surrounded and had been hammered by dozens of barrel-bomb assaults and
rocket barrages.On November 19th, an agreement was
reached in which the population would be allowed to go to Idlib
province in the north, a rebel stronghold. Rebels also could leave after
surrendering their heavy weapons. About 3,000 people, half of them militants,
left Khan al-Sheikh in late November. Rebels in four nearby villages also cut
deals with the regime and departed for Idlib, leaving
the area firmly in Assad’s grip for the first time since the uprising against
his rule began in March 2011.
In mid-November, before the eastern Aleppo
evacuation deal had been brokered, dozens of Hezbollah fighters were mobilised
in the Sarafand area of southern Lebanon and deployed to Syria to lead
an assault to break the rebel siege of Kefraya and Fouaa, two Shia villages in Idlib, sources close to the party said. Kefraya
and Fouaa are already part of a ceasefire deal with Zabadani and Madaya, rebel towns
near the Lebanese border that are besieged by Hezbollah. If the assault to relieve
Kefraya and Fouaa had been
successful, Hezbollah intended to storm Zabadani and Madaya, the sources said. Zabadani
lies close to Shia-populated villages and sensitive
Hezbollah-controlled locations on the Lebanese side of the border. That makes
its return to Syrian state control imperative for the Iranian-backed movement.
However, the planned assault was apparently overtaken by events in Aleppo when a deal was struck by Turkey and Russia to allow the population in
the eastern sector to leave for Idlib.
Iran
and Hezbollah objected, demanding that Zabadani, Madaya, Fouaa and Kefraya be included in the deal. It is unclear whether the
expanded deal will be implemented but the surrender-or-starve policy and
subsequent evacuations of besieged populations raises the question what will
happen to the towns, villages and neighbourhoods in the future. Will their
people be allowed to return if the war ends? A pointer may lie in what happened
in Qusayr, a mainly Sunni town in Homs province 8km from the Lebanese border.
In June 2013, Hezbollah seized the town. The Sunnis and rebel fighters fled. Qusayr is now an important Hezbollah military base and
staging point for deployments deeper into Syria. Recruits use the ruins to
train for urban warfare.
Several villages west of the town have been populated by Lebanese Shias for decades. To all intents and purposes, Qusayr and nearby villages have
effectively become an extension of Lebanon’s northern Bekaa valley, Hezbollah’s heartland. As things stand, it is
doubtful whether the Sunni residents will ever fully return to Qusayr. The same could hold for Zabadani
and Madaya if a deal is reached that allows for
their evacuation along the well-trodden path to Idlib,
which is fast becoming a refuge for Sunnis from across Syria. Even
some Damascus
neighbourhoods have seen effective population transfers, such as Daraya, where 10,000 people left in August, and Moadamiyeh ash-Sham, both of which surrendered after
four-year sieges.
The Syrian opposition has long accused the Damascus
regime of seeking to reduce the Sunni presence in western Syria to strengthen Assad’s grip on the routes
linking Damascus
to Latakia on the northern coast. Nevertheless,
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on December 23rd
said the Assad regime does not seek to impose “demographic changes” in Syria. “Armed
groups were behind the demographic changes that happened,” he claimed, adding
that people driven out of Aleppo
and Daraya would eventually return to their homes.
Whether those displaced Sunnis are indeed allowed to return to their
homes remains to be seen — as does whether they would wish to if Assad remained
in power.
**Nicholas Blanford is the author of Warriors
of God: Inside Hezbollah’s Thirty-Year Struggle Against
Israel (Random House 2011). He lives in Beirut.
Realpolitik saves Lebanon,
for now
Dalal Saoud/The Arab
Weekly/January 08/17
Fears remain that elections would be postponed if major parties do not agree on
new law that would secure right representation.
Beirut - Realpolitik
was a landmark shift in Lebanon’s
politics at the end of 2016 — putting at rest more than a decade of acute
political disputes during which prominent anti-Syria and anti-Iran/Hezbollah
figures were assassinated. After a 30-month presidential vacuum that almost
brought the country to collapse, a new president was elected on October 31st,
a new prime minister named shortly afterwards and a new cabinet formed in
record time. A so-called made-in-Lebanon settlement under which Sunni leader Saad Hariri agreed to endorse Michel Aoun
— Hezbollah’s ally and a strong Christian leader — for the presidency had a
domino effect. Hariri received enough backing and — most importantly —
Hezbollah’s blessing to assume the post of prime minister, form a cabinet and
win an overwhelming confidence vote in parliament. All that happened in less
than one month, a clear contrast to the fierce political rivalries that
dominated Lebanon since the
2005 assassination of former prime minister Rafik Hariri, Saad’s father, and Syria’s abrupt withdrawal from Lebanon a few months later.
Normalising political life in the multi-confessional country and reviving
state institutions was necessary to protect Lebanon from regional fires and
keep Sunni-Shia animosity under check. However, what
made the internally brokered settlement possible was
major regional powers refraining from obstructing it. “The regional factor
was decisive. The Iranians, who have the upper hand in maintaining the existing
balance inside Lebanon,
benefit from such a settlement and have interests to see their (proxy) war
with Saudi Arabia
coming to an end,” said Michel Nawfal, an expert in
Iranian affairs. “The Syrian regime has become so weak, depending on Russia and Iran
for its survival, that it can no longer dictate policies or impose its
conditions as it used to do in Lebanon.”
Saudi Arabia
maintained a neutral stance until Hariri, its main Sunni ally in the country,
returned to power.As for Hezbollah, its main concern
was to protect its back while fighting in Syria alongside the forces of
Syrian President Bashar Assad. The militant group
reportedly received guarantees from Aoun that no one
was to touch its huge arsenal, question its military involvement in Syria or block its movement through the
Lebanese- Syria border up to Lebanon’s
southern borders with Israel.
“A new phase has started in Lebanon,”
Nawfal noted, adding, however, that the recent
settlement was “a transitional one, an attempt to prevent the collapse of the
country”.
The first test for the new cabinet will be to draft a new electoral law
in time to have the long-overdue parliamentary elections, which are scheduled
for May. They would be the first such general elections in eight years. Fears
remain that the elections would be postponed if the major parties do not agree
on a new law that would secure proportional and right representation. The new
government on January 4th approved two long-awaited and crucial decrees that
specified conditions for oil and gas extraction off Lebanon’s coast. The move, which
brings Lebanon
closer to becoming an energy-producer, was delayed for more than two years
because of political disputes and corruption.
It is yet to be seen whether Hariri’s government will be able to fight
the widespread corruption at state institutions, as repeatedly promised by Aoun. Government corruption is costing the Lebanese
treasury $3.3 million annually, said Nicolas Tueni,
the first to assume the newly created post of minister of state for Combating
Corruption. With war raging in neighbouring Syria
and the Islamic State (ISIS) and other radical groups losing ground there and
in Iraq, the threat of
terrorism remains high in Lebanon.
The army and various security services have dismantled dormant and active
terrorist cells, arresting key terror figures and foiling numerous planned
terrorist attacks targeting commercial malls, Casino du Liban
and other key tourist and shopping areas.
The latest catch was an 11-member terror network linked to Jabhat Fateh al-Sham — formerly
the al-Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Front — which was
instructed to blow up booby-trapped cars in Hezbollah strongholds in Beirut’s
southern suburbs and kill civilians as well as current and former army
officers.
“But it doesn’t mean that we are out of danger,” said a senior security
source. “It is very likely that ISIS and other radical jihadists would try to
sneak into Lebanon as they
lose more territory in Syria
and Iraq.”
The spillover from the Syria war will continue to affect Lebanon
despite the battlefield successes of the Syrian regime and its
Russian, Iranian and Hezbollah allies. Hezbollah is too engaged in the Syria battles to consider the withdrawal of its
fighters from there or to provoke another battle with Israel on the
southern Lebanese borders. However, a military operation initiated by Israel cannot
be excluded whether in Lebanese or Syrian territories.
The election of Aoun has put Lebanon back on
the political regional and international map but the country’s fate will be
determined when regional settlements are achieved.
**Dalal Saoud is the
Deputy Editor-in-Chief of The Arab Weekly. She is based in Beirut.
Latest LCCC Bulletin For
Miscellaneous Reports And News published on January 08-09/17
Canada condemns attack in
Jerusalem
January 8, 2017 - Ottawa, Ontario - Global Affairs Canada
The Honourable Stéphane Dion, Minister of
Foreign Affairs, today made the following statement:
“Canada strongly condemns today’s horrifying terrorist attack that killed
four young Israel Defense Forces soldiers as they
were on a cultural tour of Jerusalem. We are deeply saddened by the loss of
life and hope for a speedy recovery for those injured.
“Canada
also condemns the glorification of terrorist attacks. Such craven efforts to
incite violence can never be justified.
“As a partner, friend and ally of Israel, Canada fully supports the right
of Israelis to live in peace and security, free from the threat of terrorism
and incitement to violence.”
Deadly attack as truck rams
into Israeli soldiers
Reuters, Jerusalem Sunday, 8 January 2017/A Palestinian rammed his truck into a
group of Israeli soldiers in Jerusalem on Sunday, killing four people and
wounding 15 others, Israeli police and rescue services said, in one of the
deadliest attacks of a more than yearlong campaign of violence. Security camera
footage showed the truck barreling at a high speed
off the road and into the crowd of people in the Armon
Hanatziv neighborhood. The
truck is seen backing up quickly, apparently trying to crush more people,
before the driver was shot dead. "There was no sense in
that reverse," Leah Schreiber, a witness, told reporters. "He
drove backward to crush more people. That was really clear."Moment
the truck driver rams through a Jerusalem
crowd. An Israeli bus driver who witnessed the incident said on the radio the
truck ploughed into a group of soldiers, and that they fired on the driver, who
reversed direction and ran over them again.“They shot
him, until they neutralized him,” said the bus driver, who gave his name only
as Moshe. Israeli TV stations said the driver was killed, and footage showed
bullet holes in the truck’s windscreen.
SIS suicide car bomb kills 13 in eastern
Baghdad
Reuters, Baghdad Sunday, 8 January 2017/A suicide car bomb blast claimed by
ISIS killed at least 13 people and wounded more than 50 others at a vegetable
market in eastern Baghdad on Sunday, police and medical sources said. The attacker
drove the car through a gate to the market in the mainly Shiite district of Jamila, and detonated the bomb after security forces opened
fire on the vehicle, a police source said. ISIS
claimed the attack in an online statement, saying the bomber had targeted “a
gathering of Shiites” in the area. A series of attacks in the Iraqi capital and
other cities in the country have killed dozens of people in just over a week.
Several have been claimed by ISIS, which is coming under increasing pressure
from a US-backed offensive in Mosul, its last
major stronghold in Iraq.
Iraqi forces advanced to within several hundred meters of the Tigris river than runs through Mosul on Saturday, as their operation against
the ultra-hardline group gathers pace. ISIS is likely
to resort to bomb attacks and similar tactics elsewhere in Iraq as it is driven out of its Mosul stronghold.
Former Iranian President Rafsanjani dies
Staff writer, Al Arabiya English Sunday, 8 January
2017/Former Iranian president Akbar Hashemi
Rafsanjani has died in hospital on Sunday after suffering a heart attack, Iran’s ISNA and Fars
news agencies reported. Rafsanjani, who was 82, served as Iran’s
president twice and was a pivotal figure in the revolution that led to an
Islamic republic in 1979. In his political career, he also headed the
Expediency Council, a body which is intended to resolve disputes between the
parliament and the Guardian Council, garnering him the unofficial title of “Iran’s broker”.
He was also a member of the Assembly of Experts, the clerical body that selects
the supreme leader. Rafsanjani is survived by five children, including a son
named Mehdi currently serving a 10-year prison term
for financial and security crimes.
ISIS kidnaps 1,200 Yazidis, moves them to Mosul
Staff writer, Al Arabiya English Sunday, 8 January
2017/At least 1,200 Yazidis have been kidnapped by
ISIS militants and moved to central Mosul,
according to the acting governor of Sinjar district
in Iraq’s Nineveh. Mahma Khalil also added that there were other Yazidis
from the districts of Tal Afar and Al-Baaj who were
kidnapped and being held hostage inside Mosul.
At least four Yazidis were able to be freed from ISIS last week by Iraqi armed forces, according to the
same source. Pashmerga forces have been able to free
nearly 2,700 Yazidis over the past year from ISIS.
Iraqi special forces reach Tigris river in
Mosul
Reuters, Baghdad Sunday, 8 January 2017/Iraqi special forces reached the
eastern bank of the Tigris river in Mosul on Sunday for the first time in a
US-backed assault on ISIS, and clashed with militants near a historic site in
the city, military officials said. Elite counter-terrorism service (CTS) units
fought their way to a bridge over the Tigris which has been damaged in
fighting, CTS spokesman Sabah al-Numan said. It was the first time Iraqi forces have reached
the river in the city itself since the operation to drive IS out of Mosul began in October.
Iraqi forces have so far only penetrated eastern districts of Mosul, which is bisected by the river. The
city is ISIS's last major stronghold in Iraq. CTS
forces backed by US-led air raids meanwhile clashed with ISIS
militants near a historic site a short distance away, an officer said, as they
tried to drive the militants out of more districts in the city. "This
morning CTS troops advanced in two directions towards the Baladiyat
and Sukkar districts," Lt.General
Abdelwahab al-Saadi said.
"During the advance, Daesh (ISIS) tried to
confront us from the historic hill," he said, apparently referring to a
hill located near the ruins of the ancient Assyrian city of Nineveh, east of
the Tigris river and inside Mosul. Saadi said Iraqi
forces and warplanes from the US-led coalition "dealt with" ISIS fighters who had gone up the hill to use it as a
firing position. Dozens of the militants were killed, he added. The CTS has
spearheaded advances into eastern Mosul
in the nearly 12-week campaign. Forces including the CTS and army units have
advanced further into Mosul
in recent days, helped by new tactics and better coordination to gain fresh
momentum after getting bogged down inside the city towards the end of the year.
How the Reina club killer duped Turkish
police
Staff writer, Al Arabiya English Sunday, 8 January
2017/Turkish police officially announced on Saturday the identity of the bomber
who targeted Istanbul's
Reina nightclub on New Year's Eve, killing 39 people and injuring 65. According
to Turkish news service Haberturk, the attacker was
named as Abdel Kader Mcharipov is from East Turkestan
in China.
A Turkish reporter from the Kanal D TV channel said a
police patrol had stopped Mcharipov after the
shooting, but he was able to deceive them into thinking he was a victim, as
shown in a video broadcasted by the channel. The reporter was able to gain
access into the nightclub, in which about 20 Arabs were killed, after police
had blocked access because of the ongoing investigation. The images aired by
the channel revealed the devastation caused by the attack, including the
belongings of the victims, which varied between shoes and clothes left in place
as they tried to escape. According to the reporter, the killer was able to
bypass the checkpoint after telling police he was suffering from a hand injury,
as the video showed. Turkish newspaper Hurriyet said
during the "Ask Hurriyet" program aired by
the newspaper via Facebook, the bomber deliberately
injured himself.
Assad Says Syrian Forces on Road to
Victory after Retaking Aleppo
Syrian President Bashar Assad said in an interview
with French media to be aired on Monday that his forces are on the road to
victory after recapturing the key city of Aleppo
last month. "We do not consider that (retaking Aleppo
from the rebels) as a victory because victory will be when we have eliminated
all the terrorists," Assad said, according to a French translation of his
remarks provided by France's
RTL television. "But it is a critical moment in this war because we are on
the path to victory." Earlier Sunday in Damascus,
Assad told visiting French lawmakers that he was "optimistic" about new
peace talks planned for later this month in Kazakhstan. Lawmaker Thierry Mariani said the Syrian president also declared himself willing to negotiate with nearly 100 rebel groups
fighting against his government, excluding jihadist organizations. The talks in
Astana are being organized by regime allies Russia
and Iran and rebel backer Turkey, following a fragile nationwide ceasefire
currently in effect in Syria.
Detained IS Suspect Says Tunisian
Journalists are Dead
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/January
08/17/A suspected jihadist held in eastern Libya told a local television
channel late Saturday that two Tunisian journalists who went missing in 2014
were killed by the Islamic State group. IS had claimed in January 2015 to have
executed blogger Sofiene Chourabi
and photographer Nadhir Ktari
but later the same year the Tunisian government said it had evidence the pair
were still alive. The prisoner, identified as Libyan Abderrazek
Nassef Abderrazek Ali, told
the Al-Hadath al-Libya channel that he had witnessed
the pair being executed in a forest outside the eastern town of Derna, which was then under IS control. He said the two
journalists had been captured at an IS roadblock between the towns of Ajdabiya and Labraq and then
taken to Derna. He said an IS court had ordered them
killed on the basis of testimony from Tunisian jihadists. Some 3,000 Tunisians
have joined the ranks of jihadist groups fighting in Libya,
as well as in Syria and Iraq, according
to Tunisian officials. The United Nations puts the figure at 5,000.Al-Hadath
al-Libya is close to eastern Libya's
military strongman Marshal Khalifa Haftar. The channel said that the suspect, who was shown
shaven-headed and wearing an orange jumpsuit, was being held by Haftar's forces. Relatives of the two journalists conducted
a long campaign for information from the Tunisian government on the fate of
their loved ones.
Assad 'Optimistic' on New Peace Talks,
Says French MP
Syria's President Bashar Assad told visiting French
lawmakers on Sunday that he was "optimistic" about new peace talks
planned for later this month, a member of the delegation told AFP. Lawmaker
Thierry Mariani said the Syrian president also
declared himself willing to negotiate with nearly 100
rebel groups fighting against his government, excluding jihadist organizations.
Assad received the three French lawmakers in the capital Damascus
on Sunday, a day after the delegation visited second city Aleppo, recently recaptured by the
government. Assad told the delegation he was "counting a lot" on the
new peace talks expected to be convened later this month in the Kazakh capital
Astana. They are being organized by regime ally Russia
and rebel backer Turkey, who
jointly brokered a fragile nationwide ceasefire currently in effect in Syria. Regime
ally Iran is also helping to
organize the talks, which Turkey
suggested could be convened around the last week of January. Mariani said Assad told the delegation he was "ready
to talk" with some 91 rebel groups, not including the Islamic State group
or former al-Qaida affiliate Fateh al-Sham Front.
Assad said he was "optimistic" and "ready for reconciliation
with them on the condition that they lay down their arms," Mariani said. Mariani added that
Assad criticized Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, accusing him of
jailing "more political prisoners than all the Arab countries put together."And he said the Syrian leader dismissed
accusations of war crimes by his forces by saying that no wars were clean.
"There were probably mistakes on the part of the government" that
Assad said he would "condemn" and "regret," Mariani said. More than 310,000 people have been killed in Syria since the
conflict began in March 2011 with anti-government protests. The violence has
displaced more than half the country's population and caused massive
destruction.
Israel Arrests after Protests against Soldier's Conviction
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/January
08/17/Israeli police made seven arrests overnight following an unruly protest
against the manslaughter conviction of a soldier for shooting dead a wounded
Palestinian assailant, police said on Sunday. Those detained are accused of
public order offenses during a demonstration outside the Jerusalem residence of President Reuven Rivlin following a
reconciliation rally in Tel Aviv. An eighth person was arrested on charges of
seeking to disrupt Saturday's rally in the commercial capital. Another was
detained on suspicion of taking part in a hate campaign against armed forces
chief of staff Lieutenant General Gadi Eisenkot, who ordered the prosecution of Sergeant Elor Azaria that angered many on
the Israeli right. "During the night dozens of demonstrators arrived
opposite the president's residence where they wanted to carry out an illegal
protest in support of the soldier Elor Azaria," a police statement said. "Some of them
blocked the road and refused to obey police instructions. Seven demonstrators
were arrested for breach of public order." Since a military court found Azaria guilty on Wednesday, there has been a wave of public
protest and threats against officials involved in the prosecution of the
20-year-old French-Israeli infantryman. After the verdict was read out,
protesters scuffled with police outside military headquarters in Tel Aviv.
Radio and television channels broadcast recordings of the demonstrators
chanting that the chief of staff should beware unless he wanted to share the
fate of prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, who was
assassinated by a Jewish extremist in 1995. "Gadi,
Gadi be careful, Rabin is looking for a friend,"
they shouted. Saturday's unity rally, convened after a moving Facebook appeal by reserve Captain Ziv
Shilon, was held in Tel Aviv's Rabin Square. Azaria's
conviction has deeply divided Israeli public opinion between those who believe
he was wrongly tried and those who say the conviction was the right and proper
consequence of his actions. Right-wing politicians -- including Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu -- have already called for Azaria
to be pardoned, even though he has yet to be sentenced and his lawyers say he
may appeal. He faces up to 20 years in prison. Public radio said about 1,500
people gathered in Rabin Square
following the appeal by Shilon, who was seriously
wounded in 2012 by a Palestinian roadside bomb as he patrolled Israel's border with Gaza.
Unity rally marred
Shilon said he was appalled at the wave of hate
unleashed in the wake of the verdict against Azaria,
caught on video delivering a shot to the head of a Palestinian attacker as he
lay wounded on the ground. But even the attempt at reconciliation was marred by
a small but vocal group of Azaria supporters who
screamed abuse at other participants they perceived as being insufficiently
sympathetic. "You are the cancer of the country," they were heard
shouting in radio reports. "You have no right to exist." Earlier in
the week, police arrested two people in connection with online death threats
against a military judge and other officials. Another two, both minors, were
arrested on suspicion of daubing graffiti, including calls to kill Arabs and police
officers. Israel's
military has assigned bodyguards to all three judges who convicted Azaria. "I feel that our people are divided, hurting,
hating, disappointed, desperate," Shilon posted
on Thursday. "I -- who did not cry at moments that were so hard that I
would not wish them on anyone -- today I just cried," he said. "I
cried for the hands I left behind in Gaza
and I asked myself, perhaps for the first time, was it worth fighting for a
people that hates itself?"
Egyptian TV Host Ibrahim Issa Following Cairo Church Bombing: The Copts Are
Persecuted Both By The Terrorists And By The State Institutions
MEMRI/January 08/17/Egyptian TV host and journalist Ibrahim Issa
rejected the view that terrorism does not draw a distinction between Christians
and Muslims, saying that not only were Christians targeted by terrorism more
than Muslims, but they were "persecuted by the state institutions as
well." In his show on Al-Kahera Wal-Nas TV following the December 11 bomb attack on a
Coptic church in Cairo, Issa said that the Wahhabi Salafis, who are firmly
ensconced within its educational, governmental, religious, and security
institutions, "persecute the Copts in Egypt, using takfir
and hatred… amid a shameful, strange, alarming, and despicable silence and
acquiescence on the part of the state institutions."Ibrahim
Issa: "The [Coptic] church, which lived in
safety all those years, is no longer safe. The churches are not safe today.
Nobody should hurl empty slogans at me, saying that terrorism makes no
distinction between Muslims and Christians. Terrorism does distinguish between
Muslims and Christians. Who are you trying to fool?! Christians are targeted by
terrorism and are persecuted more [than Muslims]. It is churches that are
bombed. The terrorists target the Christians more than they target Muslims,
just as they target Shi'ites more than they target
Sunnis. "The Wahhabi Salafis,
who run Egypt and who are
ensconced in its curricula, its universities, is mosques, its ministries, its
institutions, and even in its security agencies, persecute the Copts in Egypt, using takfir and hatred. This is happening amid a shameful,
strange, alarming, and despicable silence and acquiescence on the part of the
state institutions. The Copts are persecuted by the terrorists, who target the
Copts and their churches, killing Copts, slaughtering Copts and planting bombs
in their midst. But the Copts in Egypt are persecuted by the state
institutions as well. "Are you trying to intimidate the terrorists
with death?! If one or two suicide bombers were to blow themselves up today –
could they be intimidated with death? How naïve can you be?
Sayyid Qutb was executed…
Khalid Islambouli was executed… Muhammad Abd Al-Salam Faraj was executed…
So what? Did it change anything? Last year, you killed 2,000 terrorists. Was
that the end of the terrorists?"
US Congress Presented 2 Proposals Against the Iran
Regime
NCRI/ Sunday, 08 January 2017/NCRI- The members of the US House of
Representatives brought forward two proposals against the Iranian regime. The
member of Foreign Affairs Committee of the US House of Representatives, Alcee
Hastings put forward one of the proposals that allows using arm forces to
confront the Iranian regime. The proposal entitled "the authorization to
use US armed forces to prevent Iran
from acquiring nuclear weapons" was presented to the Foreign Affairs
Committee of US House of Representatives on 3rd of January 2017. The other
proposal calls for imposing sanctions on the Iranian regime since it has
expanded ballistic missile plans. This proposal has also been presented to the
relevant committees on 3rd of January 2017.The proposals were made
simultaneously with the start of the US Congress. The 115 round of US congress was
started with the presence of the majority of the Republicans on 3rd of January
2017. As Trump takes office on 20th January 2017, the Republicans will hold the
control of the White House as well as the two US Congresses for the first time
after 2007. Arman Newspaper: the people have power on
social media. They have been aware of happenings. On 5th of January 2017, Arman newspaper affiliated with Rafsanjani and Rouhani, expressed concern about the critical economic and
social conditions and talked about the necessity to preserve peace in the
community. The article reads:"the citizens are
dealing with inflation, unemployment, social disorders and harms. The people
need honesty and practical actions in development. The recent financial
corruption is a major blow to the people's trust and mentality." The
article adds:"there is nothing worse than
corruption and embezzlement for the honorable people
of Iran
who suffered severely from problems. As a matter of fact, the people complain
about the existing conflict among authorities. They are tired of all sorts of embezzlements."This state-run newspaper warned about
public awareness in regard to social network:"today
nothing is hidden from the people. The people holds power on social media and
the media has raised people's awareness."
Iran: Parasite Signals Harming People
NCRI/Sunday, 08 January 2017 /The media affiliated
with the Iranian regime in recent days published a report about parasite
signals as well as its impacts on people's health in Shiraz (South of Iran). According to the
media, the strength of parasite signals is to an extent that even Internal
networks of the regime encountered serious problems and there is not enough
access to the network systems. Some media affiliated with the regime adduce
from the studies of the Department of Physics-Tehran University and believe
that the parasite emissions in Shiraz are 4
times more than Tehran.
One of the MPs from Shiraz
stated in the open session of Parliament that the prevalence of headache,
especially in the West of Shiraz, has made people worried and this issue will jeopardize
people's health.
This MP discussed government's negligence towards parasite emissions and
its danger for people. He stated:"nobody is
responsible for the predicament of parasite in Shiraz. The ministers of Interior,
Information and Communication Technology, Health and Medical Education do not
give a clear answer regarding the issue. These parasites incur the prevalence
of headache, disturbance in mobile networks and television and environmental
problems."(ISNA News, 3rd of January)Parasite does not only endanger
people's health and interactions in Shiraz.
According to the reports, some parts of Hormozgan Province have encountered problems as
well. A representative of the Mullahs' regime sent a letter to the Ministries
of Intelligence, Information and Communication Technology, Health and Medical
education complaining about the parasite emissions from an unknown source and
questioning the ministers of the regime. In his letter, he wrote:"the
question is where does the parasite emit from and who is responsible to answer
people? What are the advantages of endangering people's health and their mental
stability in the society? (Ayenejam Website
affiliated with the regime, 3rd of January 2017)
The Iranian regime annually spends a huge amount of money on sending
parasite signals on anti-regime satellite channels, especially on the Iranian
Resistance TV ( Simaye Azadi)
so that the voice of liberty do not ring ears.
Iran:
Ruling Factions Involved in Massive Thefts, Crises Engulfing Senior Regime
Ranks
NCRI/Sunday, 08 January 2017 /Rouhani, Larijani unveil role of conflicting factions in Babak Zanjani’s $2.8bn theft. The
internal disputes between ruling factions in Iran over massive thefts and
plundering the Iranian People’s God-given wealth has reached a new phase of
revelations and counter-revelations. The recent row is over both factions’
collaborations with former oil tycoon Babak Zanjani who was arrested in 2013 and sentenced to death for
stealing $2.8 billion through selling oil in the black market. Zanjani, however, claims to have returned the money.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani delivered a speech
on December 28th in this regard saying, “With all the supervising systems
across the country… can one single person steal three billion dollars? Where
was he linked to? Who supported him? Who were his partners?” and where has the
money gone, being the main issue at hand. Rouhani
went on to accuse the cabinet of former Iranian president Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad of having a role in this theft, and the
current judiciary, known to act based on orders directly from Iranian Supreme
Leader Ali Khamenei, to have issued a death sentence
for Zanjani in order to cover up all remaining traces
and those involved behind the scene. “From the first day of this case I
suggested this individual be handed over to the Ministry of Intelligence to
have all the information in this regard come to light,
for the case to be worked on properly, and then handed over to the judiciary.
For some reason this was not agreed with,” Rouhani
said. (State-run IRIB TV – December 28, 2016)
Judiciary chief Sadegh Larijani
made his own remarks in response on January 2, raising allegations against Rouhani and his cabinet of collaborating with Zanjani.
“Many of the claims raised by Zanjani have not
been made public ‘to maintain certain people’s respect’ and … he has provided
millions to the presidential elections (Hassan Rouhani),”
he said.
“Now you are saying let’s look deep into this matter, fine, we have no
objections!” he said in threatening Rouhani.
“Traces of the money provided can easily be found at the Central Bank and
the Foreign Ministry; the cabinet must be held accountable; we are the
complainants… we must see where and to what country these currencies have been
sent to by the Niku Company, acting under the
authority of the (state) oil company?... it has been three years since we have
been telling this to the cabinet, yet they are not listening,” Larijani added, accusing Rouhani’s
cabinet of failing to cooperate with the case investigation. (Pars News,
affiliated to Khamenei’s faction – January 2, 2017)
Mullah Mohseni Ejei,
spokesman and first deputy of Iran’s
judiciary, held a press conference two days later on January 4, accusing Rouhani’s cabinet of covering up the truth.
In his remarks he shed light on the apprehension of “senior figures,
their relatives, and those in high places,” in debt ranging from “six to ten
trillion rials (around $170 million to $285
million).” He said it is unfortunate that he cannot reveal their names, adding,
“These individuals seek to place pressure on the judiciary to force us to end
our struggle against senior figures.”
43-year old Babak Zanjani
is a novice businessman who reaped billions of dollars in personal wealth
through the course of a decade of dealing with senior Iranian regime officials.
Revelations and counter-revelations by rival factions clearly show he was the
regime’s middleman for smuggling oil, money-laundering and bypassing sanctions.
He also facilitated massive thefts by the regime’s ruling factions. He received
“top entrepreneur” awards from former Iranian presidents Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Mohammad Khatami.
In 2013 the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned Zanjani
for his role in facilitating the regime in bypassing sanctions. The UK Treasury
and European Union also followed suit and sanctioned Zanjani
in 2014.
It is worth noting that the Zanjani case is
only one example of the billions stolen by the mafia factions ruling Iran.
Rafsanjani revealed $800 billion of Iran’s wealth were plundered during
the Ahmadinejad’s tenure.
“Rampant systematic corruption has engulfed the entire system, entering
all the country’s ranks and files like termites,” said Iranian First Vice
President Es’haq Jahangiri.
(State-run media – November 7, 2016)
This significant plundering is taking place at a time when these days
images and reports of thousands of ‘grave sleepers’ and other homeless Iranians
sleeping in the streets, or parents unable to make ends meet and provide food
for their children being forced to literally sell their newborn infants, have
raised widespread anger amongst the Iranian people, and reactions in social
media and media outlets have terrified the entire regime.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis
& editorials from miscellaneous sources published on January 08-09/17
Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner: Israel’s insurance policy
Amnon Abramovich|/Ynetnews/January
08/17
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/2017/01/08/amnon-abramovichynetnews-ivanka-trump-and-jared-kushner-israels-insurance-policy%d8%b6%d9%85%d8%a7%d9%86%d8%a9-%d8%a5%d8%b3%d8%b1%d8%a7%d8%a6%d9%8a%d9%84-%d9%81%d9%8a-%d8%b9%d9%87%d8%af/
Op-ed: For the first time in its history, instead of leaning on a world power,
Israel is leaning on the marital relationship between the US president-elect’s
daughter and her Jewish husband. We should hope and pray, therefore, that this
marriage lasts many years, or at least until the end
of the president’s term. Since the State of Israel’s establishment, a key
condition for its survival has been leaning on a global world power to
guarantee military support, financial aid and international cover. This was a
necessary rule in the existence rules that were set and fixed by Israel’s
first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion. Now, for the
first time in its history, instead of leaning on a world power, Israel is
leaning on a marital relationship: The relationship between a businesswoman and
model named Ivanka Trump and her Jewish husband, a
real estate investor named Jared Kushner. Their family has become the insurance
policy of the State of Israel and its policy.
Ivanka, a
convert whose Hebrew name is Yael, is the daughter of US President-elect Donald
Trump. The young high society couple has three small children. This
family, Israelis believe, is an insurance policy for the new American
administration’s commitment to the State of Israel and its policy.
We should hope and pray, therefore, that Ivanka and
Jared’s marriage lasts many good years, or at least
until the end of the president’s term. Because if it doesn’t, Heaven forbid, if
the relationship starts going downhill, we will see plenty of slurs and
financial lawsuits flying around. Then the president, or his associates, will
say that the Jewish real estate investor was only interested in money. From the
very beginning, all he wanted was money.
General Evelyn Hugh Barker was the commander of the British forces in the Land of Israel before the state’s establishment.
He was known for opposing our independence and doing everything in his power to
prevent the development of Zionist development in Israel. Barker ordered the British
army to boycott the Jews and their businesses and produce. He entered the
anti-Semitic lexicon and the Land
of Israel mythology when
he said that the Jews should be punished “in a way the race dislikes as much as
any, by striking at their pockets.” For years, right-wing leaders, and mostly
the late Menachem Begin, used to condemn this
statement and present it as a laughing stock of ancient anti-Semitism and hatred.
At the beginning of the Republican presidential campaign, Trump turned to America’s Jews
and teased them: “You’re not going to support me because I don’t want your
money!” Such a comment about Jews and money had not been made for many years,
particularly not by an American president. He also said that Israel, like
any other country, would have to pay for the aid it received. If he is a man of
his word—and let’s hope that he isn’t—we are in deep
trouble. Where are we going to get $38 billion from? Even if we stop funneling money to the settlers and to the Haredim and even if we cancel the Public Broadcasting
Corporation, we will still be tens of billions of shekels short.
Before the last strait, Trump changed his tone and declared his great love for Israel since
the day he was born. It’s true that he was born in 1946, two years before the
state’s establishment, but let’s ignore mathematical
errors for now.
Investigators from the Israel Police’s National Fraud Investigation Unit met
Sunday night with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the man who had already
overcome four previous police investigations. The man who
managed to outsmart the Book of Proverbs and King Solomon by disproving the old
saying, “he who hates bribes will live.” I don’t know about you, but I
hope he will overcome his fifth investigation as well. We have already had a
president, a prime minister, senior ministers, mayors, police and army officers
who ended their public service in court, and that’s really quite enough.
Netanyahu “has lost it,” as former Prime Minister Ehud Barak tweeted. He is
leading to the state’s deterioration to bi-nationality or apartheid abyss. He
is unstitching the thin seams of Israeli coexistence between Jews and Arabs,
the right wing and the left, religious Jews and secular Jews. He is
demonstrating rude ingratitude towards US President Barack Obama and Secretary
of State John Kerry. He has miserably failed in handling the cost of living and
the housing crisis. He is making an effort to downsize the law and legal
system, human rights organizations and the free press. He has brought about a
disgraceful defeat at the United Nations. (Ben-Gurion is often quoted as saying
“Um Shmum” to show contempt for the UN, but he was
deeply afraid of the world powers and obeyed them, as did Begin).
In short, this may be an exaggerated, hypocritical and self-righteous demand,
but it’s important that Netanyahu end his political career for the right
reasons, not for the criminal one.
**Amnon Abramovich is a
Channel 2 News commentator.
Syrian opposition figures to make
rare public appearance in Israel
Jerusalem Post/January 08/17
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/2017/01/08/jerusalem-post-syrian-opposition-figures-to-make-rare-public-appearance-in-israel/
Six years into the civil war, a minority within the opposition is arguing
that the taboo on Israel
is no longer relevant.
Members of the Syrian opposition will make a rare public appearance in Israel
next week at the invitation of the Truman Institute at the Hebrew University of
Jerusalem.
“Representatives from the Syrian opposition speak directly to the Israeli
audience on life in the shadow of death, on the refugees and Israel, on the
massacre against the population, on the silence of the world,” says the
invitation to the event. The gathering will also feature a live video broadcast
with opposition commanders and fighters in combat areas of Syria. The
event is open to the public but requires advance registration.
The Truman Institute declined to provide the names of those who will
appear.
The event comes with the opposition on the defensive following the
regime’s victory last month in Aleppo,
seen as a turning point in the six-year-old war that has taken the lives of
more than 450,000 people.
Opposition figure Issam Zeitoun
visited Israel
seven months ago to participate in the Herzliya
Conference, a large annual gathering devoted largely to security issues. In an
interview on the Zaman al-Wasl
website, Zeitoun defended himself against criticism
of his visit, saying “I work with a group of academics and experts in strategic
research centers, Americans and Jews, whom I found to be friends to the Syrian
people and who are searching for a solution for the situation we are suffering.
My efforts were and still are centered on establishing a safe zone for
civilians. Israel
is working to provide routes for it, and I work in collaboration with humanitarian
organizations alongside academics in the hope of gaining official coverage to
establish this area.”
He said his first-hand experience of Israel was very different from the
picture the Assad regime paints of it.
“Personally I discovered in Israel
the falseness of the propaganda that the regime has filled our heads with, that
there is no enemy except Israel,
the brute usurper and expansionist racist that will consume the Arabs,” said Zeitoun. “This talk is completely incorrect since the
Israeli people, based on my observations, are very sympathetic to us, as are
academics. As for politicians, they have their lines which they cannot cross
and other considerations.”
Next week’s event can be expected to be used by the Assad regime to
discredit the opposition, which has been depicted in official Syrian media
discourse since the beginning of the civil war as being instruments of Israeli
and US machinations to dismember Syria.
“Opposition leaders in Syria
have generally been very careful to avoid official open contacts with Israel for reasons including that the regime has
been trying to portray the opposition as being paid by Israel and the US,”
says Benedetta Berti, a Syria
specialist at the Institute for National Security Studies. “By having open
relations with Israel,
that perception could be fostered. So it’s very sensitive.”
However, she added, “a few people in opposition have made the case that
the taboo on Israel
is no longer that relevant because of the sheer tragedy of the war and the
brutality of the regime. They say ‘we should get support wherever we can get
it.’ “I don’t believe anyone really believes at this point that Israel will
intervene,” said Berti. “They want to make their
voices heard, to foster political relationships, to talk to Israeli civil
society. I don’t think they are really hoping to get weapons.”
Israeli decision makers have been split over how to handle the civil war,
Berti says, with some arguing that Assad is “the
devil you know,” and others more concerned about his ties to Iran and
Hezbollah. While Israel has
humanitarian aid programs for southern Syria,
including providing medical assistance at Ziv Medical
Center in Safed, their scope does not amount to a clear intervention
on behalf of the opposition, Berti says. However, with
the regime’s military successes since Russia intervened on its behalf in
2015, the threat of a strong Assad-Iran-Hezbollah axis is becoming more
pronounced in Israeli eyes.
Former Mossad chief Efraim
Halevy said it is no simple matter to decide whether to support opposition
elements.
“The opposition is not of one creed or color,” he said. “There are
various groups and patrons. It depends who they are, who their patrons are, how
much support they have in the field, and what prospects they have of becoming a
serious component of any future government in Syria.
“At this stage of the game, what is incumbent on Israel is to
try and establish a clear data bank concerning the various components of the
opposition,” said Halevy. “I think it’s important for Israel to try
and get a deeper understanding of where all these groups and splinter groups
stand on major issues. The initiative of the Truman Institute is very welcome
and could be a contributory to Israel
getting a better feel of what the opposition is.”
Difference between Iraq’s Sahwat and Popular Mobilization militias
Abdulrahman al-Rashed/Al
Arabiya/January 08/17
International organizations’ warnings of the Popular Mobilization militias have
brought the latter into the picture again depicting it as a dangerous
organization. There is also a distortion campaign that aims to mislead the
world about the Popular Mobilization militias’ legitimacy by comparing it with
other groups, such as the Sahwat and Peshmerga. During the last few years the Americans spent in
Iraq,
the military command formed a group of Sunni tribes consisting of Anbar citizens. The aim was to get rid of the terrorist
al-Qaeda organization after the Americans failed. At the time, CIA officials
were quoted in the New York Times as saying that Anbar
was a hopeless situation as the situation in west of Iraq has completely gone out of
control. A force called ‘Sahwat’ was formed and it
was ridiculed considering that all people in the governorate were suspects and
that al-Qaeda - particularly the most dangerous branch which Abu Musab al-Zarqawi formed and which we call ISIS today - has
reached the peak of its influence. This al-Qaeda branch killed the Sahwat leader and fierce battles erupted and ended two
years later after eliminating the terrorists. Back then, Nouri
al-Maliki’s government objected to forming a
sectarian tribal power because the Sahwat were Sunni
and they feared they will turn into an armed force that opposes the central
authority.
Disbanded
In the end, the Sahwat were
disbanded by suspending financial appropriations and integrating a small number
of them within the armed forces. Theoretically, worry of a parallel force was
justified in a country that was still suffering from a disturbed situation.
However, on ground, the tribal Sahwat were eliminated
and were not replaced by an armed governmental force to protect the west of Iraq. The
result was that al-Qaeda returned and it controlled several areas, displaced
thousands and murdered many. Maliki’s failure to
compensate for the Sahwat brought back the cancer of
terrorist groups which besieged Baghdad’s
surroundings and seized Mosul,
Baiji and other areas. This is a summary of the Sahwat.
Other parallel force
The other parallel force is the Peshmerga,
an armed Kurdish force which operates in its areas following a consensus, with
the state not deploying its armed forces there. As long as the Kurds have their
special status in a semi-autonomous region, the Peshmerga
will continue to protect its areas. The story of the Popular Mobilization
militias is different than that of the Sahwat and Peshmerga. They were composed of a group of Shiite
sectarian militias that existed before and enjoys the
support of the authority as a part of quotas among rival Shiite religious
powers.
After Mosul fell into ISIS’ control and military
commands fled the city, Iran
intervened “to help” and directed influential political forces to weaken the
system of governance which the Americans established. This includes weakening
the army which they considered as part of the remains of Saddam Hussein’s
regime. However, this is not true because ever since the fall of Saddam Hussein
and after the army was disbanded in 2003, thousands of armed forces’ personnel
were killed or expelled.
Iran
and sectarian leaders desire to establish a sectarian military power that’s
parallel to the army and that follows them. It wants the state to bear the
costs of arming this power and paying its forces’ wages. The idea is similar to
what Ayatollah Khomeini’s followers did after the revolution against the Shah
as they established the Revolutionary Guards to enable themselves in power and
eliminate the other Iranian groups which were also part of the revolution.
However, Iran
and sectarian leaders desire to establish a sectarian military power that’s
parallel to the army and that follows them. It wants the state to bear the
costs of arming this power and paying its forces’ wages. The idea is similar to
what Ayatollah Khomeini’s followers did after the revolution against the Shah
as they established the Revolutionary Guards to enable themselves in power and
eliminate the other Iranian groups which were also part of the revolution.
The Popular Mobilization is a huge militia that formally follows the state.
However, we will see later how it will crystallize to enable one Shiite party
in governance and marginalize other Shiite and Iraqi groups. Iran will thus
dominate over the political group that controls the Popular Mobilization
militias. The difference between the Sunni Sahwat and
the Popular Mobilization militias is that the former was established to fight
Sunni extremists in Sunni areas while the latter is a Shiite militia that is
being exploited to govern Iraq
in general. The Sahwat was disbanded and they are no
more while the Popular Mobilization militias are still expanding and its work
has not been limited to liberating Mosul or
pursuing ISIS. Although Iraqi authorities
tried to assure those who oppose and suspect the Popular Mobilization militias
by adding a few Sunni units to them, the Popular Mobilization militias is still
mostly a dangerous and sectarian project that serves as a weapon for Iran to
threaten all of the Iraqis.
Saving Iraq
The last question is: Is it possible to save Iraq
from all these dangerous changes?
As long as the elected central authority is weak and as long as Iran is gradually taking over Iraqi
institutions, it will not be easy to end this Popular Mobilization project as
it’s similar to Hezbollah’s militia in Lebanon. Hezbollah has practically
controlled Lebanon
without having to cancel the institutions of political governance as it has
weakened the presidency, the cabinet and parliament and made them incapable of
governance. The solution to stop sabotaging the state is primarily in the hands
of the Iraqis.
Then there’s the role of international organizations which must be urged to
hold them accountable on the international level as it must besiege them by
prohibiting arming them and blacklisting their leaders. The US must be held
accountable and must be urged to intervene to correct the situation. All the
Iraqis will lose their modern state - which thousands have died for - if they
do not stand against establishing militias and against sectarian blocs and Iran’s
domination over the government.
**This article was first published in Asharq Al-Awsat on Jan 8, 2017.
From Russia with love for Donald Trump
Hisham Melhem/Al Arabiya/January 08/17
It is the stuff of fiction. The plot is extensive, if
outlandish. The theatre on which the protagonists play is as huge as the egos
of some of them. By now we know most of the characters, but we have no idea
where the narrator is leading us. This is a Russian novel, but certainly it is
not in the tradition of Tolstoy or Dostoyevsky, for while there are many
scheming, one-dimensional and diabolical characters, one cannot encounter a
single sympathetic hero. The protagonists roam in the underworld but work
mostly in the virtual world. Most of the protagonists are driven by deceit, and
hubris; their world is one of ceaseless quest for self-aggrandizement, raw
power and material riches. The main American protagonist is a Septuagenarian Vulgarian narcissist, more than willing to enter into
Faustian deals, who through sheer guile, lies, and thuggery
reached the pinnacle of power in his country. The main Russian protagonists is
a strong believer and practitioner of hard power, a cold man with boundless
ambition, who possesses the kind of brutal cunning that one can only gain by
spending long years as a spy lurking in the underground, manipulating people
and exploiting their foibles.
The main protagonists play high stakes in New York,
Moscow and Washington. Their relationship is partially
symbiotic, since it seems the American Protagonist cannot survive without his
Russian counterpart. Our man in Moscow plays a
complex shadow game of deception; spying and the planting of fake stories to
help his counterpart in the United
States win a tough contest against an
experienced but deeply flawed and uninspiring female opponent. This is in part
a spy novel, and a fast paced action thriller, in which enemies are watched,
trapped, and their secrets are stolen then leaked for the purpose of defaming
them, before the coups de grâce is delivered when
their characters are virtually assassinated. The novel explore a new not so
brave world, in which a post-truth reality is manufactured, where
anti-intellectualism is celebrated as the will of the multitudes, where
humanist values are replaced by identity politics and where reason, moderation,
and self-control are seen as the values of the weak.
Reality as fiction
Except that this synopsis is the reality of America
today. The least that one could say about the current political landscape in
the United States
is that it is a surreal tapestry, animated by almost fictional characters
capable of dragging the country into nihilistic times. What can one say about a
president-elect who is deeply flawed morally and bereft of political maturity
and experience, who is being celebrated not only by his disgruntled supporters
who want to disrupt the domestic status quo, but also by the leaders of Russia,
America’s main and mean adversary, which is bent on changing America’s status
quo as the strongest democracy in the world? Mr. Trump’s affection for Russia and his
praise of President Putin has been consistent. Mr. Trump, who is not known for
his erudition praised Russia
as “hot stuff” and described president Putin’s annexation of Crimea
in 2014 as “so smart”
This week was by any measure, a pivotal week in the post Cold War life
of the Republic. The nation’s top intelligence agencies issued a remarkably
detailed report asserting that Russian president Vladimir Putin has directed a
comprehensive campaign of cyberattacks, overt
propaganda to spread fake news and lies, the creation of online Guccifer2.0
“persona” and a website, DCLeaks.com to release the hacked emails of the
Democratic National Committee (DNC), and other covert means aimed at enhancing
the chances of Donald J. Trump of winning the presidency and vanquishing his
opponent Hillary Clinton. The classified version of the report was presented to
the president-elect on Friday. It was the first time that Mr. Trump who has
been denigrating and mocking the competence of America’s intelligence agencies for
months, had the chance to face their leaders. But few hours before he met them,
Mr. Trump claimed that the focus on Russian hacking is “a political witch hunt”
carried out by his mostly Democratic adversaries.
After the two hour meeting with the most senior intelligence officials in the
land, the president-elect appeared to soften his position, conceding in a
statement that : “Russia, China, other countries, outside groups and people are
consistently trying to break through the cyberinfrastructure
of our governmental institutions, business and organization, including the
Democratic National Committee,” but that “ there was absolutely no effect on
the outcome of the election including the fact that there was no tampering
whatsoever with voting machines.” However, the report which reflected the
unanimous assessment of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) the Federal
Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the National Security Agency (NSA) stopped
short of supporting Mr. Trump’s claim that the Russian hacking activities had
no effect on the election. The report was clear in stating that “we did not
make an assessment of the impact that Russian activities had on the outcome of
the 2016 election”, and concluding that it was beyond the mandate of the
intelligence agencies to analyze the “political processes” in the country or
the views of public opinion.
To leak or to tweet, that is the question
The report confirmed the cooperative relationship
between Russia and WikiLeaks and its founder Julian Assange
who lamely denied that Russia
was the source of the DNC emails. The report concluded “with high confidence”
that Russia’s
military intelligence unit known as the GRU “relayed material it acquired from
the DNC and senior Democratic leaders to WikiLeaks.
The report described how Russian intelligence deployed online “trolls” who
spread fabricated and damaging news stories to the media particularly through Russia’s propaganda arm RT its English-language
news organization which operates in the United States, and to conspiracy
theory sites online. The role of RT resurrect the old embarrassing questions
about General Michael T. Flynn, Mr. Trump’s national security advisor, who was
a regular guest on RT’s news programs, and who gave a
paid speech in Moscow at RT’s anniversary party, and
sat near president Putin.
Hours after his meeting with the intelligence leaders, Mr. Trump went back to
true form, and sought to put the blame for the hacking on the Democrats. He
posted a twitter message late in the evening claiming that “Gross negligence by
the Democratic National Committee allowed hacking to take place.”. Yet despite the overwhelming evidence that the Russian
state was waging a cyber campaign against American institutions, Mr. Trump
refuses to criticize Russia and continues to act as the aggrieved party, saying
in another tweet that the “only reason the hacking of the poorly defended DNC
is discussed is that the loss by the Dems was so big
that they are totally embarrassed!”.
A day after the release of the intelligence report establishing president
Putin’s culpability in the cyber campaign against his country, the Russophile
Mr. Trump took to twitter to tout the virtues of Mother Russia as a potential
ally to solve the world’s problems. “Having a good relationship with Russia is a
good thing, not a bad thing. Only "stupid" people, or fools, would
think that it is bad!”
The Russian Romance
Mr. Trump’s affection for Russia
and his praise of President Putin has been consistent. Mr. Trump, who is not
known for his erudition praised Russia
as “hot stuff” and described president Putin’s annexation of Crimea
in 2014 as “so smart”. This was long before his race to the White House, during
which he welcomed the release of the hacked emails and had the audacity to call
on Russia
publicly to hack the emails of his Democratic opponent. But why is it that in
the face of Russia’s
egregious violations of American institutions, Mr. Trump continues to insist
that we should ignore these violations and to just “move on”? Some argued that
the reasons may be found in Mr. Trump’s admiration of ruthless autocrats like
Putin, a man he would like to emulate. Another charitable explanation excuses
his views on the grounds of lack of political experience and sophistication.
But these explanations are groundless. Mr. Trump’s consistent defense of Russia’s
depredations in the Ukraine
and Syria, his praise of
Putin’s suppression of political dissent inside Russia, and the jubilation of the Duma after Trump’s victory cry out for another
interpretation for this strange and sordid love affair. And as the Washington
Post said in a recent editorial “darker suspicions persist”.
There are persistent reports in the U.S media that Mr. Trump, who visited the
Soviet Union in 1987, has established in the following years relations with
Russian oligarchs some of them are close to president Putin, who came to rescue
Mr. Trump’s business empire when it was on the verge of collapse on a number of
occasions and after U.S. banks refused to provide him with loans. We know that
Mr. Trump’s eldest son and namesake has stated on the
record that a substantial amount of the family’s business is conducted with
Russian entities. We know very little about the nature of the Trump family
businesses in Russia,
because Mr. Trump still refuses to release his tax returns. According to the
New York Times Mr. Trump owes hundreds of millions of dollars to foreign banks.
Another dimension of the Russian enigma is the fact that Mr. Trump surrounded
himself with advisors and aides who have questionable dealings with Russia and its
allies, from General Michael Flynn, to Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and other lesser known aides. One of the
president-elect most senior appointees is Rex Tillerson, Trump’s
designated secretary of State, who developed a friendship with president Putin
during his long tenure as the chairman of Exxon-Mobil, which had extensive
business investments in Russia.
Mr. Tillerson has opposed economic sanctions on Russia and the
president- elect has hinted that he is open to lifting them. President Putin
knows that both the President elect and his designated secretary of state will
not wax sanctimoniously about the preservation of human rights in Russia or the
sanctity of civil society. Mr. Trump’s support for the Brexit
initiative in Britain
and his criticism of the NATO alliance can only deepen Putin’s appreciation of
the president-elect.
The questions and doubts about the president-elect strange attachment to Russia and its
president will persist and become more urgent with the passage of time. As the
Washington Post asked: are there loans and deals with Russian businesses? Are
there hidden communications with Mr. Putin or his representatives? The Post’s
editorial concluded “we would be thrilled to see all the doubts dispelled, but
Mr. Trump’s odd behavior in the face of a clear
threat from Russia,
matched by Mr. Putin’s enthusiasm for the president-elect, cannot be easily
explained.”
Mr. Trump came, saw and conquered by unorthodox means. There is no reason to
believe that he will rule according to established customs and traditions. He
will remain faithful to Putin and Russia will continue to shower him
with love, at least for the foreseeable future. He will address Americans and
the world through twitter storms, and he will not give the Democrats or their
leader in the Senate Chuck Schumer whom he called a “clown” the olive branch.
We know all that for certain. We also know that Americans and the rest of the
world are beginning a season of migration into unknown geography fraught with
uncertainty, fear and loathing and that no one knows how long the journey will
last.
Scandals, ideological issues exposed by
terrorism
Turki Aldakhil/Al Arabiya/January 08/17
Terrorism continuously contributes to exposing ideological problems and reveals
gaps in arguments and speeches and it has also helped shed light on the moral
aspect. The purpose of sharia Islamic law is
civilization. In his book al-Mustasfa, Abi Hamed al-Ghazali
said the aim of sharia is to protect people, their
religion, mind, children and money. This is the core of the five necessities
which Sharia scholars from al-Shatibi
to Ibn Ashur focused on.This is the pillar of
legislation and religion and the core of its necessities. Meanwhile, there are
people who think they defend religion by distorting the reputation of others.
We have seen how some social media users fiercely criticized the victims of the
recent Istanbul
attack on New Year's eve and voiced their joy of
attacking innocent people. They worship God through reflecting bad morals and
making rude statements and blatant libel. We have seen how some social media
users fiercely criticized the victims of the recent Istanbul attack on New Year's eve and voiced their joy of attacking innocent people. They
worship God through reflecting bad morals and making rude statements and
blatant libel. This phenomenon shows the domination of habits over worship and
the domination of individual acts over worship allegations. It exposes moral
decline and personal deviations, and it is being falsely categorized as defending
religion. Terrorism is exposing many diseases in societies. Since we have not
reformed ourselves, we are about to destroy one another. And God is our helper.
**This article was first published in Okaz on Jan 8,
2017.
When "Peace" Means
Capitulation to Islam
Giulio Meotti/Gatestone
Institute/January 08,/17
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9726/peace-capitulation-islam
"We will win because Americans don't realize... we do not need to defeat
you militarily; we only need to fight long enough for you to defeat yourself by
quitting." — Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, one of the al-Qaeda planners of the
9/11 attacks.
"This Spanish retreat [in 2004] will be perceived as a huge political triumph
for Al Qaeda and like-minded Islamic radicals -- probably their most important
achievement since September 11, 2001." — James Phillips, Heritage
Foundation.
ISIS's henchmen butchered 90 people at the Bataclan
Theater. What did the French government do to avenge
them and to destroy the Islamists responsible? Absolutely
nothing. The day after an Islamist killed Westerners at a Christmas
market in Berlin, no German military flight
took off to bomb ISIS.
The next "peace conference" in Paris, on January 15, is where 70
nations will probably agree to another UN Security Council vote, to establish a
Palestinian State, presumably with the Old City of Jerusalem, the heart of the
Jewish people and sacred to the Christian people, as its capital. It is another
terrible sign of the West's soft capitulation to terror.
Like Israel
today, the Czechs in the 1930s were accused of being "disturbers of the
peace". "Peace," as in the inversions of George Orwell --
sometimes means capitulation to Islam.
What inspired al-Qaeda to attack the United States, according to one of the
terrorists, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM), who helped plan 9/11?
The American psychologist, James E. Mitchell, who crafted the interrogation
program that helped stop terrorist attacks and saved countless lives after
9/11, just published a book, Enhanced Interrogation.
In it, KSM is quoted as saying that al-Qaeda expected the United States to respond to 9/11 as it had to
the 1983 bombing of the US Marine barracks in Beirut
-- the United States
"turned tail and ran." In the end, KSM told Mitchell:
"We will win because Americans don't realize... we do not need to defeat
you militarily; we only need to fight long enough for you to defeat yourself by
quitting. ... Eventually, America
will expose her neck for us to slaughter."
That is exactly why Islamists are trying to hit the West's soft underbelly: the
office of the magazine, Charlie Hebdo, restaurants
and theaters in Paris,
a café in Copenhagen, a promenade in Nice, a
church in Normandy and a Christmas market in Berlin. Islamists
perfectly understand that the West's most exposed flank is its home front. The
same lifestyle that we defend by words is the main obstacle to the initiative
of the defense against Islamists. Islamists have told
us in every way, "we love death more than
life", while we in the West love the expectation of life more than life
itself.
Anyone who has listened to statements of Osama bin Laden and ISIS's Abu Bakr al Baghdadi knows
that they showed a deep understanding of Europe's
situation by offering "a truce" to any country that would distance
itself from the war on terror -- or in other words, surrender. Through terror
attacks, many jihadists are already proving able to decide the fate of many
governments.
Compare what happened in two different countries after the 9/11 attacks.
November 2001: Within two months after the terror attacks in New
York, Pennsylvania and Washington, the U.S.
overthrew the Taliban in Afghanistan.
March 2004: Within a month after the terror attacks in Madrid,
the Spanish public toppled its conservative government, elected a Socialist one
and abandoned the Western military coalition in Iraq. A few days after taking
office, Zapatero's Socialist government withdrew the
1,300 Spanish troops that were deployed to Iraq by the previous conservative
government of José Maria Aznar. As
James Phillips at the Heritage Foundation explained:
"This Spanish retreat will be perceived as a huge political triumph for Al
Qaeda and like-minded Islamic radicals -- probably their most important
achievement since September 11, 2001."
In an interview with Time magazine a few months after Iraq's
withdrawal, Zapatero declared that "sexual
equality is a lot more effective against terrorism than military
strength." He then promoted the "Alliance of Civilizations," an
initiative calling on the West to negotiate a truce with Islamic terrorists.
The Spanish result was understood in al-Qaeda circles as a monumental victory,
and prompted the Islamists' networks to invest in seeking to influence the
outcome of elections elsewhere in the West.
The public relations department of al-Qaeda and ISIS
have learned how to talk in a language the soft West can understand.
After Spain, jihadists have
been able to determine the fate of another election, in France: President
François Hollande, in fact, just announced that he
will not stand for re-election in 2017. His presidency was mortally defeated by
a campaign of multiple terror attacks that demoralized Hollande's
government and destroyed his political credibility. ISIS's
henchmen butchered 90 people at the Bataclan Theater in Paris.
What did the French government do to avenge them and to destroy the Islamists
responsible for that carnage? Absolutely nothing -- or Raqqa
would have been dust.
In December 2016, a new Islamist terror attack may have ordained the future of
another European political leader: Angela Merkel. But beyond Merkel's electoral
chances, jihad had already destined the course of Europe's most important
nation when its Chancellor, after 12 people were
murdered at a Christmas market in Berlin, said
that Germany
"is stronger than terrorism." Merkel refused, however, to show how
Germans are stronger than Islamists, such as through changing their policy on
migration and multiculturalism. The day after an Islamist killed Westerners at
a Christmas market in Berlin, no German
military flight took off to bomb ISIS.
ISIS's henchmen butchered 90 people at the Bataclan
Theater. What did the French government do to avenge
them and to destroy the Islamists responsible? Absolutely
nothing. The day after an Islamist killed Westerners at a Christmas
market in Berlin, no German military flight
took off to bomb ISIS. Pictured
above: French President François Hollande and German
Chancellor Angela Merkel chat during a "unity march" of world leaders
held in Paris on January 11, 2015, days after
Islamist terrorists murdered 17 people in the Paris area. (Image source: AFP video
screenshot)
"Many Westerners have accepted the normality of the most sordid
attacks," said the Canadian philosopher, Mathieu Bock-Côté.
"We have internalized the presence in our lives of the Islamist violence.
We do not know what this war against radical Islam would mean."
The fate of another European country, Denmark, was decided by Islamists
in 2005, when Danish appeasement and impotence dominated the cartoon crisis.
Beyond the electoral map, jihad is already changing the face of Europe's soft
underbelly in different ways: freedom of expression is retreating everywhere
from Berlin to Amsterdam, Islamic veils are proliferating, sharia courts work at full speed in many EU capitals, and
Jewish communities are fleeing. Muslim reformers are silenced, the assimilation
of Muslims is failing, and the Western intelligentsia is already signing
letters of capitulation. The latest have been such as the fraudulent resolution
at the UN, and UNESCO declaring Jewish holy sites and even the Old City of
Jerusalem -- the heart of Judaism for nearly 4,000 years and the seat of
Christianity for 2000 years -- Islamic, despite Islam not even existing
historically until in the seventh century, hundreds of years later.
The next "peace conference" in Paris, on January 15, is where 70
nations will probably agree to another UN Security Council vote to establish a
Palestinian State, presumably (according to UNSC Resolution 2334) with the Old
City of Jerusalem, the heart of the Jewish people and sacred to the Christian
people, as its capital. It is another terrible sign of the West's soft
capitulation to terror. It is also reminiscent of another "peace
conference," in 1938, when in Munich
the Western democracies bowed to Hitler and the Czechoslovak state was
mutilated and deprived of defensible borders. Six months later, abandoned by
its French and British allies, and bullied by the Nazis, Czechoslovakia was overrun by Germany. Like Israel today,
the Czechs in the 1930s were accused of being "disturbers of the
peace". "Peace," as in the inversions of George Orwell,
sometimes means capitulation to Islam.
*Giulio Meotti, Cultural
Editor for Il Foglio, is an Italian journalist and
author.
© 2017 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The
articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of
Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced,
copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone
Institute.
Turkey's Lifestyle Massacre
Burak Bekdil/Gatestone
Institute/January 08/17
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9731/turkey-lifestyle-massacre
These numbers put the total death toll in Turkey
at 13,056, in a span of fewer than 17 months.
Actually, ISIS's terror attack was no more than a
violent expression of the dominant Islamist ideology ruling in Turkey.
Elsewhere in Turkey,
banners were unfurled, showing a bearded man punching Santa Claus; another
banner showed a group pointing guns in the face of another Santa. On December
31, a headline in an Islamist newspaper read, "This is our last warning,
DO NOT celebrate".
Where, you might ask, are the Turkish authorities? They are busy. The Turkish
police, unable to prevent ISIS's attack, instead
detained a woman in Istanbul
who called for secularism in a speech protesting jihadist groups.
Last year was no doubt an annus horribilis
for Turkey.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that 1,178 people were killed between July
2015 and December 2016 in Turkey's
fight with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). Bomb attacks by the Islamic
State (ISIS) claimed another 330 lives. Those numbers exclude 248 people who
died during the bloody coup attempt of July 15, as well as 9,500 apparent PKK
members who were killed by Turkish security forces. Turkey
also claims that it killed 1,800 ISIS members
since July 2015. These numbers put the total death toll in Turkey at
13,056, in a span of fewer than 17 months.
Just when most people thought that would be the final death toll for 2016, on
December 10, a twin bombing in Istanbul
outside a soccer stadium killed at least 38 people, and injured another 136. A
week later, a suicide car-bomb in central Turkey killed 13 off-duty soldiers
aboard a bus and wounded 56 more.
After so much bloodshed, Turks thought they could now enjoy New Year's
festivities in peace. They were wrong.
About an hour into the New Year, a mysterious man, later identified as a Kyrgyz
ISIS terrorist, walked into Reina, a posh nightclub on the Bosporus, took out an
assault rifle and started to shoot at the hundreds of guests celebrating the
New Year. The assailant killed 39 people and injured 65, changed his clothes,
and, pretending to be a customer, walked out of the club. As of January 8, the
killer was still on the run.
A video still from a security camera shows the moment when an ISIS terrorist
entered the Reina nightclub in Istanbul,
where he murdered 39 people, in the early morning of January 1.
The attack at Reina was ISIS's 15th major act of
violence in Turkey
since 2014, but its first targeting a nightclub. There was, in fact, a
"sociology" behind the jihadists' choice of target. ISIS
clearly wanted to send various messages at many wavelengths. One was to tell
"infidel" Turks that they should not celebrate the New Year; another
was to tell conservative Muslim Turks that ISIS
was on their side. Actually, ISIS's terror attack was
no more than a violent expression of the dominant Islamist ideology ruling in Turkey.
About 10 days before ISIS's attack, Turkish
authorities banned teachers and pupils at Istanbul Lisesi,
an elite school in Istanbul that is partly
funded by Germany,
from singing carols or celebrating Christmas in any way. German teachers at the
school received an email from the headmaster early in December, informing them
of the new rules.
Around the same time, a soap opera broadcast on Samanyolu
TV, a conservative Muslim station, featured Santa
Claus as a "terrorist". Meanwhile, Turkey's top religious authority,
the prime ministry's General Directorate of Religious Affairs (Diyanet), declared at Friday prayer sermons that New Year
celebrations were religiously "illegitimate".
Elsewhere in Turkey,
banners were unfurled, showing a bearded man punching Santa Claus; another
banner showed a group pointing guns in the face of another Santa. On December
31, a headline in an Islamist newspaper read, "This is our last warning,
DO NOT celebrate".
Taha Akyol, a prominent
Turkish columnist, calls ISIS's latest attack "a lifestyle massacre." He
wrote: "Innocent people who were having fun were massacred because of
their lifestyle". He reminds that about 8% of Turks sympathize with ISIS. That makes nearly 6.5 million people. ISIS's attack on Reina was a salute to those millions of
Turks who admit their sympathy for ISIS, and
millions of others who hide their sympathy.
With its increasing vulnerability to jihadist terror and with a homegrown jihadist ideology that provides a safe haven for
terror, Turkey is becoming
like Iraq,
where violence takes lives almost daily. ISIS's first
act of terror targeting Christmas celebrations took place on December 25, 2013,
when the radical group killed 38 Christians in Baghdad. Three years later, ISIS visited New
Year's celebrations in Istanbul.
Where, you might ask, are the Turkish authorities? They are busy. The Turkish
police, unable to prevent ISIS's attack, instead
detained a woman in Istanbul
who called for secularism in a speech protesting jihadist groups. Aysegul Basar, a leftist, was
detained after her speech, given at an Istanbul
teahouse, emerged on social media. "We say 'enough!' From now on we won't
allow ISIL or any reactionary jihadist group into our neighborhoods,"
Basar had said.
From a law enforcement point of view, Istanbul
is safer for an ISIS gunman than for someone
who pledges to fight jihadists.
*Burak Bekdil, one of
Turkey's leading journalists, was recently fired from one of Turkey's
preeminent newspapers after 29 years for writing what was actually taking place
in Turkey for Gatestone.
© 2017 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The
articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of
Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced,
copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone
Institute.