LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS
BULLETIN
January 16/17
Compiled
& Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
The
Bulletin's Link on the lccc Site
http://www.eliasbejjaninews.com/newsbulletins17/english.january16.17.htm
News Bulletin
Achieves Since 2006
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Bible Quotations For Today
If any want
to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and
follow me.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 16/24-28/:"Then
Jesus told his disciples, ‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny
themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save
their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find
it. For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their
life? Or what will they give in return for their life? ‘For the Son of Man is
to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay
everyone for what has been done.Truly I tell
you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the
Son of Man coming in his kingdom."
God Of mercies and all
consolation, consoles us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to
console those who are in any affliction
Second Letter to the Corinthians 01/03-07/:"Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all consolation,
who consoles us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to console those
who are in any affliction with the consolation with which we ourselves are
consoled by God. For just as the sufferings of Christ are
abundant for us, so also our consolation is abundant through Christ. If
we are being afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation; if we are
being consoled, it is for your consolation, which you experience when you
patiently endure the same sufferings that we are also suffering. Our hope for
you is unshaken; for we know that as you share in our sufferings, so also you
share in our consolation."
Pope Franis admits to
'darkness' in own faithالبابا
فرنسيس يقر
بأننا نمر في
أحيانا أوقات
إيمان ظلامية
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/2017/01/15/pope-francis-admits-to-darkness-in-own-faith%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A8%D8%A7%D8%A8%D8%A7-%D9%81%D8%B1%D9%86%D8%B3%D9%8A%D8%B3-%D9%8A%D9%82%D8%B1-%D8%A8%D8%A3%D9%86%D9%86%D8%A7-%D9%86%D9%85%D8%B1-%D9%81/
Guidonia (Italy) (AFP) - Pope Francis admitted on Sunday to sometimes having
"darkness" cloud his own faith, while warning against "Christian
parrots" who pay lip service to the church without acting on its values.
"At certain times, I have also encountered moments of darkness in my faith
and that faith decreased a lot, but with a little bit of time we rediscover
it," the Pointiff told parishioners after saying
mass in a village near Rome. "Some days we can't see faith, everything is
in darkness. "Yesterday, for example, I
christened 13 children in areas devastated by earthquakes and there was a
father who had lost his wife, and we ask ourselves if this man can have faith.
"We understand that there is darkness, we must respect this darkness of
the soul. We don't study to get faith, we receive it
like a gift."Francis also urged believers to
spend more time talking to their family. "If I say I'm Catholic and every
Sunday I go to mass but then I don't talk to my parents, I don't help my
grandparents, the poor, I don't visit the sick, then there's no point,"
said Francis. "In that way, we're nothing but a Christian parrot: words,
words, words."
Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis
& editorials from miscellaneous sources published on January 15-16/17
Behind Aoun’s visit to Saudi Arabia/Shadi Alaa Eddine/The
Arab Weekly/January 15/17
Israel steps up shadow war with Hezbollah/Ed Blanche/The Arab WeeklyJanuary 15/17
Lebanese hope for new relations with Riyadh/Dalal Saoud/The Arab Weekly//January 15/17
Lebanon moves to oil exploration stage/Walid Khadduri/The Arab Weekly/January 15/17
An exchange on Israel and the “Palestinians” between Fr. Samir
Khalil Samir, S.J. and
Robert Spencer/JRobert Spencer/Jihad Watch/January
15/17
Obama's Mideast Legacy Is One of Tragic Failure/Alan M. Dershowitz/Gatestone
Institute/January /17
The Bigotry against Israel in the UN/Salim Mansur/Gatestone Institute/January 15/17
Anger in Egypt as Red Sea islands’ handover looms/Amr
Emam/The Arab Weekly/January 15/17/
Middle East Christians remain hopeful for the future despite ISIS violence in
2016/Amr Emam/The Arab Weekly/January 15/17
Courting the Copts/Mohamad Abou
el-Fadel/The Arab Weekly/January 15/17
Damascus goes dry as Syria’s grim water wars intensify/Sami Moubayed/The
Arab Weekly/January 15/17
The Middle East in 2017: A chaotic regional order emerging/Nassif
Hitti/The Arab Weekly/January 15/17
The 6 Religious Leaders Who Will Pray At Trump’s Inauguration/Harry
Farley/Christian Today/January 15/17
Titles For Latest Lebanese Related News
published on January 15-16/17
Hamadeh: Lebanon Now Practicing a More
Independent Foreign Policy
Efforts to Reach New Electoral Law Stumble as 1960 Law Chances Surge
Hizbullah Condemns Bahrain's Execution of Three
Shiites
Qaouq Says Govt. a 'Failure' if 1960 Electoral Law
Re-Endorsed
Four Wounded in Fresh Ain el-Hilweh Clash
Mustaqbal 'Besieges' Rifi
as Hariri Throws Support behind Mashnouq
Mufti Deryan concludes visit to KSA
Raad: Full proportional electoral law with single
district ensures equity
Rahi: Changing mentalities helps us develop new
electoral law
Kanaan: LF, FPM understanding strategic
Hariri praises closing statement of Paris ME Peace Conference
Jumblatt sends condolences cable to UAE President
denouncing Afghanistan bombing
Protest by Civil Movements at Beirut Airport: For aviation safety remove
landfill
Zeaiter says Arabs should come together to fight terrorism
Bomb tossed in Ain Helwe Camp, no casualties reported
Teen abducted from Nabatiyeh, $3K demanded in ransom
Behind Aoun’s visit to Saudi Arabia
Israel steps up shadow war with Hezbollah
Lebanese hope for new relations with Riyadh
Lebanon moves to oil exploration stage
Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin For Miscellaneous
Reports And News published on January 15-16/17
Israel: New gov't bill allows for assistance
in registering as Aramean
French FM blasts Trump for embassy move plan
At Paris meeting, major powers to warn Trump over Middle East peace
Bahrain Executions Spark Violent Protests
Trump Unleashes Attack on U.S. Civil Rights Icon
Trump Warned Off Unilateral Mideast Moves at Paris Peace Conference
Clashes in Wadi Barada near
Damascus after Negotiator Killed
German Jet Lands in Kuwait over Hoax Bomb Threat
Yemen Shelling Kills Saudi Soldier on Border
Former Iraqi Vice President: Ghasem Soleimani Told Me Iran Has Relations With Al-Qaida
Iran Regime's State Newspapers: Vienna Meeting, Negotiating With Bare Hands
French Organization Calls for a Boycott of Iran Regime’s Football
Links From Jihad Watch Site for on January 15-16/17
Paris
peace conference: No “acceptable” solution for Israel and “Palestinians” except
two states
French
pol: “Islam is a religion of peace and solidarity”
Hugh
Fitzgerald: The Insubmissive Infidel, Or, Just A Jot
About Jerusalem
Scotland:
Provost of cathedral where Qur’an was read denounces “appeasement” of “those
who are Islamophobic”
An
exchange on Israel and the “Palestinians” between Fr. Samir
Khalil Samir, S.J. and
Robert Spencer
Washington
state: Mosque arsonist arrested, cops say “we haven’t seen any evidence that
this is a hate crime”
Florida:
Iraqi skater claims she was banned from rink for being Iraqi; rink owner says
“it’s extortion”
Austria:
Muslim migrant “Sharia patrol” breaks girl’s jaw
after false claim she pulled off Muslima’s hijab
Washington
state: Man charged with threats at mosque is…Muslim
Islam’s
Litigious Paranoia
San
Diego State University: Hijabbed Muslima
drops claim of assault by two Trump supporters
North
Carolina: “No evidence” for Hamas-linked CAIR’s claim
that teacher assaulted Muslim kindergartener
Israel:
Muslim migrant accused of breaking into home, sexually assaulting 12-year-old
girl while she slept
Latest Lebanese Related News
published on January 15-16/17
Hamadeh: Lebanon Now Practicing a More Independent
Foreign Policy
Naharnet/January 15/17/Education Minister Marwan Hamadeh has expressed
optimism over the outcome of President Michel Aoun's
visit to Saudi Arabia, noting that Lebanon “is now practicing a more
independent foreign policy.”“Aoun's visits to
Efforts to Reach New Electoral Law Stumble
as 1960 Law Chances Surge
Naharnet/January 15/17/Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq's declaration
that it will be difficult to pass a new electoral law before the deadlines
expire has given the impression that the country is headed once again to the
controversial 1960 law. “Mashnouq's remarks and the
continued fruitless debate regarding the electoral law indicate that the
parliamentary elections will likely be held under the 1960 law that was amended
by the Doha Accord in 2008,” al-Joumhouria newspaper
quoted “prominent” parliamentary sources as saying in remarks published Sunday.
“This is a fact that should not be overlooked, even if some try to deny it, and
the truth must be said as it is,” the sources added. Ruling out consensus over
a new electoral law, the sources noted that “each party has its calculations
and no one wants to offer concessions.”“Some parties
want to seize control of the new parliament in order to control political life
in the country,” the sources added. Hizbullah has
repeatedly called for an electoral law fully based on proportional
representation but other political parties, especially the Progressive
Socialist Party and al-Mustaqbal Movement, have
rejected the proposal, arguing 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 Nabih 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.
Hizbullah Condemns
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/January
15/17/Hizbullah on Sunday condemned the execution of three Bahraini men found
guilty of killing three policemen, calling it "a crime" and
"extrajudicial killing" that would undermine any chance for a
political solution in
Qaouq Says Govt. a 'Failure' if 1960 Electoral Law
Re-Endorsed
Naharnet/January 15/17/Senior Hizbullah
official Sheikh Nabil Qaouq
warned Sunday that the new government's performance would be deemed a “failure”
and the new presidential tenure would suffer a major setback should the
controversial 1960 electoral law be re-endorsed.
“Regaining people's confidence is hinging on one thing: the approval of a new
electoral law that ensures correct and fair representation,” Qaouq, who is an official in the party's Central Council,
said. “The thing that is hindering the start of the new presidential tenure is
the 1960 law, which is still 'alive' and which is the perfect recipe for
disappointing the hopes of the Lebanese that were pinned on the new
government,” the Hizbullah official cautioned. “Its
re-endorsement would be the shortest path towards deeming the new government's
performance as a failure,” Qaouq added.
“We insist on a law that guarantees just and correct representation, because a
new law is the normal and obligatory gateway for building a strong and just
state,” the official went on to say. Hizbullah has
repeatedly called for an electoral law fully based on proportional
representation but other political parties, especially the Progressive
Socialist Party and al-Mustaqbal Movement, have
rejected the proposal, arguing 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 Nabih
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.
Four Wounded in Fresh Ain el-Hilweh Clash
Naharnet/January 15/17/Four people were wounded
Sunday in an armed clash in the Ain el-Hilweh
Palestinian refugee camp, media reports said. “Gunshots are still being heard
every now and then,” MTV reported in the evening. It had said that the clash
broke out in the camp's al-Manshiyeh neighborhood over the installation of CCTV security cameras
around a new office for the Joint Palestinian Force, which led to an exchange
of gunfire. The TV network identified two of those wounded in the clash as Khalil George and Ihab al-Maqdah, the son of senior Palestinian official Abu Bassam al-Maqdah.
Mustaqbal 'Besieges' Rifi as Hariri
Throws Support behind Mashnouq
Naharnet/January 15/17/The war of words between
Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq
and former justice minister Ashraf Rifi took a new turn after Prime Minister and al-Mustaqbal Movement leader Saad
Hariri threw his support behind Mashnouq. “A decision
to besiege Rifi has been taken in al-Mustaqbal Movement,” sources following up on the issue told
al-Joumhouria newspaper in remarks published Sunday.
The so-called siege has taken three forms. “The first through a media siege,
whose last episode was canceling a TV interview with Rifi's adviser Asaad Beshara, the second was slashing the size of Rifi's guard platoon, and third is the attempt to regain
Tripoli's popular bases through resuming Mustaqbal's
'services' in the city,” the sources said. Rifi had
lashed out at Mashnouq over the removal of several
policemen from his guard platoon, revealing that Hariri had told U.N.
investigators probing Rafik Hariri's assassination
that Mashnouq might have “leaked” information about
his father prior to the 2005 bomb attack. But Hariri jumped into the exchange
of tirades on Friday, throwing his support behind Mashnouq.
“How mistaken I was when I doubted Nouhad al-Mashnouq and placed my full confidence in some people,”
Hariri tweeted. The Mashnouq-Rifi confrontation had
first erupted over the arrest of Omar Bahr, one of Rifi's
bodyguards, after he allegedly violated Internal Security Forces bylaws. The
move prompted Rifi to accuse Mashnouq
of corruption and of being a Hizbullah crony. The
ex-minister also accused Mashnouq of compromising his
security, holding him responsible for any harm that he might face.
Mufti Deryan
concludes visit to KSA
NNA - Mufti of the Republic, Sheikh Abdel-Latif Deryan, concluded on Sunday his visit to the
Raad: Full proportional electoral law with single district
ensures equity
Sun 15 Jan 2017/NNA - Deputy Mohammad Raad stated on
Sunday that the proportional law was the most equitable law that should be adopted
in the upcoming parliamentary elections. "A full proportional electoral
law with a single district is the most proper law that ensures equity in
representation," Loyalty to the Resistance bloc leader noted during a
funeral ceremony in South of Lebanon. The Deputy added that if the electoral
law was not fixed we would not be able to hold officials accountable.
Rahi: Changing mentalities helps us develop new electoral
law
Sun 15 Jan 2017/NNA - Maronite Patriarch, Cardinal Bechara Boutros Rahi, said on
Sunday that the change in mentalities would help in the elaboration of a new
electoral law. In his homily in Bkerki, Cardinal Rahi stressed the need for changing attitudes in
Kanaan: LF, FPM understanding strategic
Sun 15 Jan 2017/NNA - Deputy Ibrahim Kanaan said on
Sunday that the understanding between the Lebanese Forces (LF) and the Free
Patriotic Movement (FPM) was strategic and consecrated partnership and Charter.
"It has been proven that this understanding was not seasonal but strategic
and allotted a new equation on the Christian level," Change and Reform
secretary Kanaan told Voice of Lebanon radio station.
"On a national level, this agreement also proved to be a true partnership
that the Lebanese lacked," reiterating that the LF-FPM consensus "is
for the sake of national unity and was followed up domestically and
internationally." The Deputy highlighted the results of this agreement
saying that it helped to pave the way for the presidential elections and the
cabinet formation with a greater respect for the principles of partnership and
proper representation.
Hariri praises closing statement of Paris
ME Peace Conference
Sun 15 Jan 2017/NNA - Prime Minister Saad Hariri
praised the closing statement of the "Conference for Peace in the Middle
East" held in Paris, which renewed the commitment to the two-state
solution for the Arab-Israeli conflict. Hariri said on "Twitter":
"We thank
Jumblatt sends condolences cable to UAE President denouncing
Afghanistan bombing
Sun 15 Jan 2017/NNA - Democratic Gathering Head, MP Walid
Jumblatt, cabled on Sunday, United Arab Emirates
President, Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed
Al Nahyan, condemning the "targeting of the
guest house of Kandahar Governor in Afghanistan in a terrorist bombing during
an Emirates diplomatic mission for a humanitarian cause, which led to the
martyrdom of a number of mission relief officials and innocent citizens."In an issued statement by the Progressive
Socialist Party Media Commission, Jumblatt said:
"This incident demonstrates, despite its tragedy, the positive role played
by the UAE on the human level in support of people suffering from major
difficulties at the social, developmental and educational level."
Jumblatt expressed deepest condolences and
sympathy to the families of the fallen martyrs and the people of the UAE.
Protest by Civil Movements at Beirut
Airport: For aviation safety remove landfill
Sun 15 Jan 2017/NNA - Civil activists of "You Stink" Campaign and
other Civil Movements gathered at
Zeaiter says Arabs should come together to fight
terrorism
Sun 15 Jan 2017/NNA - Agriculture Minister, Ghazi Zeaiter,
said on Sunday that the Arab country was facing a very difficult security situation,
and Arabs should stand shoulder to shoulder to counter terrorism because what
is happening today is in Israel’s interest.
Zeaiter’s fresh words came during his meeting in his
residence in
Bomb tossed in Ain Helwe
Camp, no casualties reported
Sun 15 Jan 2017 /NNA - National News Agency Correspondent said on Sunday
that an unidentified person in the
Teen abducted from Nabatiyeh,
$3K demanded in ransom
Sun 15 Jan 2017 /NNA - Marwa Youssef
Makki, aged 15, was abducted from her home town of
Behind Aoun’s
visit to
Shadi Alaa Eddine/The Arab Weekly/January 15/17
The recent visit to
The first thing to note is that the trip came after a
Saudi- French deal regarding the Saudi $3 billion donation to the
Lebanese Army that was contingent on buying French-made weapons. The deal must
have lessened Saudi fears that the new weapons would end up in the hands of the
Hezbollah militia by stipulating that the manufacturing and delivery of the
weaponry be carried out in several lots and phases in accordance with the
immediate needs of the Lebanese Army.
In
It would seem then that direct French economic interests in conjunction
with forthcoming new foreign policies have laid the groundwork for the visit of
a Lebanese president considered in
We must not also overlook Russian interests in the affair. Before being
scrapped in deference to American sensitivities, a project by the Lebanese
Army to purchase $500 million worth of Russian weapons had been in the works.
The Americans were, at the time, providing aid to the Lebanese Army in the form
of weapons and equipment.
US-Russian relations are on the threshold of a new and completely
different era. With Donald Trump in the White House, American reservations on
the armament deal with
Contrary to what many may say, Hezbollah is not
opposed to the return of Gulf tourists to
Among these strategies and projects by
The return of normal Lebanese-Gulf relations is meaningless in the
absence of a clear Arab project for
*Shadi Alaa Eddine is a Lebanese writer.
Ed Blanche/The Arab WeeklyJanuary
15/17
Hezbollah is estimated — largely by
Vast majority of arms supplied to Hezbollah from
Beirut -
It urged
The vast majority of the arms supplied to Hezbollah from
Combined,
Much of that is due to advanced weaponry it amassed in recent years
despite repeated Israeli air strikes against weapons convoys and targeted
assassinations in
Hezbollah is estimated — largely by
In recent weeks, the covert war between
There have been several missiles attacks reported in
On November 30th, at least two missiles, apparently fired by Israeli jets
in Lebanese airspace, hit a convoy of trucks outside
On December 2nd, Israel reportedly conducted two air strikes using
Popeye missiles around Damascus, one against a weapons depot manned by the
Syrian Army’s crack 4th Armoured Division at Sabboura,
north-west of the Syrian capital. The other blasted several
cars near the Damascus-Beirut highway.
In a 3am strike on December 7th, several surface-to-surface missiles hit
installations in the Mezzeh military airbase at
The Jerusalem Post suggested on December 8th that the Israelis’ strikes
the previous day had targeted “the presumed base of the Syrian Army’s
secretive Unit 450, a branch of the Syrian Scientific Studies and Research
Centre that is at the centre of the Assad regime’s chemical weapons programme
north of
If that is true, it suggests that Hezbollah and
This is a finely balanced confrontation short of war in which both sides
observe certain restraints that will prevent hostilities escalating to all-out
conflict. But now
**Ed Blanche has covered
Lebanese hope for new relations with
Dalal Saoud/The Arab
Weekly//January 15/17
Saudi official source in
The January 9th-10th visit represented a Saudi policy shift. It came after
mounting tensions linked to its rivalry with
Ties between the two countries were strained after
The fact that Aoun opted for visiting
Aoun returned to
He said “the direct and indirect results (of his tour) will soon appear”,
announcing “an increased return of the Gulf citizens to
A Saudi official source in Riyadh explained that “nothing official has
been decided” concerning the suspended Saudi military aid to Lebanon but “it
has been agreed to discuss the issue at a later stage between Defence Minister
Mohammed bin Salman [bin Abdulaziz],
who was out of town at the time of Aoun’s visit, and
his Lebanese counterpart and top army commanders”. That, the source
said, would depend on how relations between the two countries develop, taking
into consideration “bilateral and regional issues and the importance to
guarantee that the weapons are not being leaked to any non-official party”.
This was a clear reference to Hezbollah, which
Saudi and Lebanese leaders also agreed to boost “political coordination
over certain issues, increase security cooperation for fighting terrorism and
drug trafficking, appoint a new Saudi ambassador to Lebanon soon, secure the
return of the Saudi tourists and the Saudi airlines in line with Lebanese security
guarantees for their safety and increasing investment opportunities as well as
Lebanese exports to the kingdom”.
Ignoring Hezbollah’s harsh media campaign against
Saudi Arabia, which had adopted a neutral stance until its main Sunni
ally in Lebanon Saad Hariri returned to power as
prime minister in November shortly after he endorsed Aoun
for the presidency, realised the importance of re-engaging with Lebanon. It
was clear that the Saudi policy towards
Dalal Saoud is the
Deputy Editor-in-Chief of The Arab Weekly. She is based in
Walid Khadduri/The Arab
Weekly/January 15/17
Approval of decrees ends more than two years of gridlock among politicians on
how to proceed with
Pre-qualified firms were selected in 2015 to take part in the
first-round bidding. The list includes major IOCs
that showed interest due to the blocks’ potential.
ExxonMobil, Chevron and Anadarko (the United States), Shell
(Britain/Netherlands), Total (France), Inpex (Japan),
Statoil (Norway), Repsol (Spain), Mersk
(Denmark), Petrobras (Brazil), Petronas
(Malaysia) and Eni (Italy) are among the companies
pre-qualified.
The final selection is to take place in the last quarter of this year. It
is not clear how many of the firms are still interested in operating in
The gas process in
Eni discovered a major field, Zohr, last August in northern Egyptian waters, only 5km
south of Cypriot waters. The projections are that the structure could extend
into the southern Cypriot waters, hence the IOCs’
interest in blocks bordering the Zohr discovery.
The second challenge for
The 24-block opening is to assist in further exploration in
Walid Khadduri is an
Iraqi writer on energy affairs based in
Latest LCCC Bulletin For
Miscellaneous Reports And News published on January 15-16/17
Israel: New gov't bill allows for assistance in registering as Aramean
Tova Tzimuki/Ynetnews/January
15/17/A new bill put forth by MK Oded Forer (Yisrael Beytenu) and approved by Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked (Bayit Yehudi) allows
Israeli-Arabs wishing to change their nationality to Aramean
to do so without a fee and complicated paperwork. The government is set to
approve a bill Sunday allowing for assistance to be granted to Arab-Israelis
who request to register as Aramean. This distinction
is for those who wish to differentiate themselves from Arab-Muslim society
and/or draft into the IDF. A similar process began with the tenure of Gideon Sa'ar as Minister of the Interior, who allowed them to
register as a separate nationality. However, those wishing to register as Aramean were required to fill out numerous forms and pay a
fee of
French FM blasts Trump for embassy move
plan
Eichner and Kobi Nachshoni/Ynetnews/January 15/17/As 72 countries convene in
Paris in an effort to reiterate their united support for a two-state solution
as being the only viable premise for peace, and to pressure President-elect
Trump to renege on his campaign pledge to move the US embassy to Jerusalem,
French FM condemns it as a 'provocation' with 'serious repercussions.' The
French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault delivered
harsh criticism Sunday against US President-elect Donald Trump’s pledge to move
the American embassy from Tel Aviv to
At Paris meeting, major powers to warn
Trump over Middle East peace
Ynetnews/Reuters//January 15/17/Despite the absence
of both Israeli and Palestinian representatives, the Paris peace conference is
set to begin Sunday and send a strong message to the incoming Trump
administration that his embassy pledge can derail peace efforts.
Major powers will send a message to US President-elect
Donald Trump on Sunday that a two-state solution between Israelis and
Palestinians is the only way forward, and warn that his plan to move the US
Embassy to
Some 70 countries, including key European and Arab states as well as the
permanent members of the UN Security Council, are due in
Low Point
Diplomats said there could also be an allusion to Trump's plans.Relations
between the United States and Israel have soured during President Barack
Obama's administration, reaching a low point late last month when Washington
declined to veto a UN resolution demanding an end to Israeli settlements in
occupied territory. Obama's secretary of state, John Kerry, said the settlement
program threatened
But with elections coming up this year in
Bahrain Executions Spark Violent Protests
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/January
15/17/Bahrain on Sunday executed three men found guilty of killing three
policemen, sparking violent protests and stoking tensions between the country's
Shiite majority and its Sunni rulers. The three Shiites faced the firing squad,
six days after a court upheld their death sentences over a bomb attack in March
2014, the prosecutor's office said.
It has been rocked by sporadic unrest since March 2011 when security forces
brutally crushed an Arab Spring-inspired uprising. The executions triggered protests
in Shiite villages. Demonstrators blocked roads with burning tires and police
retaliated by firing tear gas, according to posts on social media. Pictures
shared online by activists showed relatives of those executed weeping over
their deaths.
'Black day
Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei,
head of advocacy at the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy, said:
"This is a black day in
Trump Unleashes Attack on U.S. Civil
Rights Icon
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/January
15/17/President-elect Donald Trump lashed out Saturday at a prominent civil
rights icon and lawmaker who said he is skipping next week's inauguration
ceremony because he sees the New York businessman's election as illegitimate.
Trump aimed his latest Twitter blast at longtime
congressman John Lewis and the majority-black district in
Trump fired back at him early on Saturday. "Congressman John Lewis
should spend more time on fixing and helping his district, which is in horrible
shape and falling apart (not to mention crime infested) rather than falsely
complaining about the election results," Trump said on Twitter. "All
talk, talk, talk -- no action or results. Sad!"He followed up later in
the evening with a tweet repeating his campaign theme that African Americans
are living in desperately grim inner-city areas where they lack education and
jobs.
Lewis "should finally focus on the burning and crime infested
inner-cities of the
Inaugural boycott
Known for his decades of work in the civil rights movement, Lewis, 76,
marched with King at the August 1963 rally in Washington at which King gave his
"I Have a Dream" speech. The son of sharecroppers, Lewis took
part in the Freedom Rides -- challenges to segregated facilities at bus
terminals in the South. On March 7, 1965, he led a march in
'A true American hero'
Lewis earned a flood of support from Democratic colleagues -- and a few
Republicans -- on Twitter. "Ahead of #MLKDay2017, let us remember that
many have tried to silence @repjohnlewis over the
years. All have failed," House Democratic minority leader Nancy Pelosi
said. "Rep. John Lewis was beaten, bloodied & arrested 40+ times
marching for civil rights," Senator Chris Coons of
'We won't go back'
Some 2,000 demonstrators, the majority of them black, marched in
Trump Warned Off Unilateral Mideast Moves
at Paris Peace Conference
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/January
15/17/France warned Sunday of "serious consequences" if Donald Trump
moves to recognize
'Could destroy peace hopes'
On Saturday, Abbas warned of a major escalation if
the
'One-state reality'
Israel fears being further isolated by the conference, which comes hot on
the heels of a landmark December U.N. resolution criticizing the expansion of
Israeli settlements in the West Bank. The vote passed after the Obama administration
-- in a parting shot at Netanyahu after years of frustrated mediation efforts
-- took the rare step of abstaining rather than using its veto to protect
Clashes in Wadi Barada near Damascus after Negotiator Killed
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/January
15/17/Heavy clashes erupted overnight between regime and rebel forces near
Damascus after the official who negotiated a deal to restore water to the
Syrian capital was killed, a monitor said Sunday. Government workers had
entered the formerly rebel-held area in the Wadi Barada region near
German Jet Lands in Kuwait over Hoax
Bomb Threat
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/January
15/17/A German plane carrying 299 passengers made an emergency landing in
Kuwait on Sunday over a hoax bomb threat, authorities in the Gulf emirate said.
The aircraft operated by Eurowings, a low-cost
carrier owned by Lufthansa, had been traveling from Salalah
in
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/January
15/17/
Shelling from
Since then, more than 7,400 people have been killed in
Former Iraqi Vice President: Ghasem Soleimani Told Me Iran Has
Relations With Al-Qaida
NCRI/January 15/17/In an interview with Al-Arabiya
TV, Tariq al-Hashimi, Secretary General of the Iraqi
Islamic Party and former Iraqi vice president, revealed details of a meeting he
had a few years back with Ghasem Soleimani,
commander of the terrorist Quds Force. Tariq al-Hashimi was on a trip to
Iran Regime's State Newspapers: Vienna
Meeting, Negotiating With Bare Hands
NCRI/January 15/17/With the joint commission meeting held in Vienna to oversee
Iran’s nuclear deal, Vatan-e Emrooz,
a newspaper close to Khamenei’s band, has written on
January 13 that “the more we refer to this commission, the more
responsibilities we’ll likely have to bear!
French Organization Calls for a Boycott
of
NCRI/January 15/17/ A French organization called for total boycott of Iranian
regime’s football because of the regime carrying out executions in football
stadiums. The request was sent to the International Football Federation (FIFA)
and the FIFA’s secretary general has also supported the call. According to
state-run ISNA news agency, on January 12, French news site SOfoot
wrote that FIFA has recently added an article (provision) to its statutes
emphasizing on human rights according to which the organization will deal with
countries that implement death penalty in sports stadiums. The name of
Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis
& editorials from miscellaneous sources published on January 15-16/17
An exchange on Israel and
the “Palestinians” between Fr. Samir Khalil Samir, S.J. and Robert
Spencer
JRobert Spencer/Jihad Watch/January
15/17
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/2017/01/15/an-exchange-on-israel-and-the-palestinians-between-fr-samir-khalil-samir-s-j-and-robert-spencer/
Father Samir Khalil Samir, SJ is Professor of Islamology
and Middle East Christianity at the Pontifical Oriental Institute. He recently
sent me a lengthy letter in which he wrote: “J’apprécie
beaucoup ce que vous écrivez
sur l’Islam” (I appreciate
very much what you write about Islam). He does not, however, appreciate very
much what I write about Israel and the “Palestinians,” as he made clear in that
letter and has now reiterated in a comment he left at Jihad Watch this morning:
Father Samir Khalil SAMIR,
SJ says
January 15, 2017 at 8:12 am
All the insults that I read in some of the comments are shameful and unworthy
of this site.
1) Pope Francis is a man who seeks to build PEACE among peoples. What he said
about Islam as “a religion of PEACE” was not correct, as I explained to him in
my personal meeting with him for 30 minutes on Monday, 6 June 2016. I also gave
him my book “Violence and non-violence in the Qur’an and Islam” and 3 other
articles from me on the question. Its objective is to restore the dialogue
between the Catholic Church and the Muslim world, interrupted for nearly 6
years, and it has succeeded: the meeting is scheduled for the month of February
in
2) His meeting with President Mahmoud Abbas goes in the same direction: it is about building
together PEACE. The State of Palestine exists, recognized by the United
Nations, just as the State of Israel exists. It is not the
3) Pope Francis — who is neither American, nor Palestinian, nor Israeli — does
not judge with feelings, but according to the INTERNATIONAL LAW. If we want to
live in PEACE –and this is the primary goal of every reasonable citizen –,
INTERNATIONAL decisions must be respected, even if they are questionable. They
could be discussed, but as long as they exist they must be applied. I am
convinced that PEACE is possible between these two States, and that the
majority of Palestinians and Israelis want it. They must be helped to achieve
it by scrupulously respecting INTERNATIONAL decisions, even if it means
reviewing certain points.
4) Finally, it is a serious mistake to mix religion with this question, as a
great many of the citizens of the two States unfortunately do. It is a question
of INTERNATIONAL politics, which can only be resolved by INTERNATIONAL Law. It
is not a matter of sentiment or sensitivity. The problem is POLITICAL,
it is not sentimental or religious.
Father Samir Khalil SAMIR,
SJ (Professor of Islamology and Middle East
Christianity at the Pontifical Oriental Institute)
**
To that I responded:
Robert Spencer says
January 15, 2017 at 12:32 pm
Fr. Samir:
Thank you for your comments.
1. He appears not to have heeded your wise counsel in regard to the nature of
Islam. What good is a “dialogue” with the Muslim world when it is based on
false pretenses?
2. In reality, the Arabs (the “Palestinians” had not yet been invented, as they
would be in the 1960s by the KGB and Yasir Arafat)
rejected a Palestinian Arab state in 1948, and the surrounding Arab states
invaded the State of Israel with the intention of destroying it. By your own
statement that “the invading State (whatever it is) is a terrorist state,”
3. Your claim that the majority of “Palestinians” want peace is belied by
surveys showing that “Palestinians” overwhelmingly favor
the imposition of Sharia (which would deny Christians
basic rights), as well as suicide bombings: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/may/1/pew-poll-palestinians-favor-suicide-bombings-shari/
4. As you no doubt know well from your study of Islam, in Islam the religious
and the political cannot be so easily separated.
Kindest regards,
Robert Spencer
Obama's Mideast Legacy Is One of Tragic
Failure
Alan M. Dershowitz/Gatestone Institute/January /17
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/2017/01/15/alan-m-dershowitzgatestone-institute-obamas-mideast-legacy-is-one-of-tragic-failure/
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9774/obama-mideast-legacy
The Middle East is a more dangerous place after eight years of the Obama
presidency than it was before. The eight disastrous Obama years follow eight
disastrous George W. Bush years, during which that part of the world became
more dangerous as well. So have many other international hot spots.
In sum, the past 16 years have seen major foreign policy blunders all over the
world, and most especially in the area between Libya and Iran — that includes
Israel, Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Turkey and the Gulf.
With regard to the conflict between
Tragically the Palestinian leadership — first under Yasser Arafat and
then under Mahmoud Abbas —
did not accept either offers from Israel Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Clinton
in 2000-2001, nor Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's offer
in 2008. Now they are ignoring current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's open
offer to negotiate with no preconditions.
In his brilliant book chronicling American-Israeli relationship, Doomed
To Succeed, Dennis Ross proves conclusively that whenever the Israeli
government has confidence in America's backing, it has been more willing to
make generous compromise offers than when it has reason to doubt American
support.
Obama did not understand this crucial reality. Instead of having Israel's
back, he repeatedly stabbed Israel in the back, beginning with his one-sided
Cairo speech near the beginning of his tenure, continuing with his failure to
enforce the red line on chemical weapons use by Syria, then allowing a sunset
provision to be included in the Iran deal, and culminating in his refusal to
veto the one-sided UN Security Council resolution, which placed the lion's
share of blame on the Israelis for the current stalemate.
Obama's one-sided
These ill-advised actions — especially the Security Council resolution —
have disincentivized the Palestinian leadership from
accepting Netanyahu's offer to sit down and negotiation a compromise peace.
They have been falsely led to believe that they can achieve statehood through
the United Nations, or by other means that do not require compromise.
The
So the likelihood of an eventual dangerous military confrontation has
been increased, rather than decreased, by the poorly negotiated
Obama's failure to carry out his red-line threat against the Syrian
regime's use of chemical weapons has weakened American credibility among its
allies and adversaries alike. It has created a power vacuum that
America's traditional allies in the Middle East — Israel, Egypt, Saudi
Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan — have all been weakened by Obama's
policies, most especially the Iran deal.
Terrorism has increased and moved northward to
A destabilized
The toppling of Moammar Gadhafi
left
The forced resignation of Hosni Mubarak initially placed
This is the tragic legacy of the Obama administration's failed efforts to
undo the harms caused by the George W. Bush administration. Radical Islamic terrorists
have replaced authoritarian secular tyrants.
Both are bad, but tyrants at least produce a degree of stability and
predictability. They also tend to keep their tyranny domestic, whereas
terrorists tend to export their evil tactics.
We should have learned the lesson from the replacement of the tyrannical
Shah of Iran by the far more tyrannical and dangerous ayatollahs. But we did
not. We insisted on supporting the "democracy" of the Arab spring,
which resulted in the replacement of undemocratic domestic tyrants by
undemocratic international terrorists.
History will look kindly on Obama's domestic successes, but it will judge
his mideast policy harshly.
Alan M. Dershowitz is professor emeritus at the
© 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.
The Bigotry against Israel in the UN
Salim Mansur/Gatestone
Institute/January 15/17
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9772/un-bigotry-israel
"[U]nlike
No "Palestinian" leader has publicly disavowed jihad against Jews.
Instead, every aspect of engagement by "Palestinians" with Jews and
Israelis is considered an obligation for advancing this jihad until its final
expected objective of pushing the Jews out of "
The doublespeak of the Palestinian leadership made no difference within the UN.
Since the June 1967 war, the UN began to tilt away from being fair and balanced
toward
"The long march through the UN has produced many benefits for the PLO. It
has created a people where there was none; an issue where there was none; a
claim where there was none. Now the PLO is seeking to create a state where
there already is one." —
All of this occurred with the complicity of member states of the once-Christian
West in the UN against one single and much maligned Jewish state,
The passage of the UN Security Council Resolution 2334 just before Christmas
2016, with the
The
This is evident in the language of Res. 2334. It exclusively condemns
There was no pretense in Res. 2334 to be fair, and
hold Palestinian Authority (PA) and with Hamas equally responsible for inciting
terrorist violence against civilians within Israel, thus poisoning any
diplomatic effort required for a negotiated settlement between the parties. The
adoption of Res. 2334 was a "gang up" by France, Eurabia,
the
For the past half century, Res. 242 was the keystone in the UN framework for
peace in the
But Res. 2334, instead, categorically states, the UN "will not recognize
any changes to the 4 June 1967 lines, including with regard to Jerusalem, other
than those agreed by the parties through negotiations." In other words,
the demand is on
If
Res. 2334 is then a formula for continued terrorist violence by Palestinians
against Israelis. The adoption of Res. 2334 -- not unintentionally -- has
driven a nail into the promise of the "two-State solution." The
Security Council was warned ahead of the December 23 vote by President-elect
Donald Trump that the
It needs to be asked -- political correctness set aside -- of the other four
permanent members of the Security Council (Britain, China, France, and Russia):
Why, at this time -- when the situation in the Middle East has gone from bad to
worse -- has the Security Council decided to weigh in against Israel, the only
democracy and oasis of sanity in the region that has imploded through an excess
of Arab-Muslim bigotry and fanaticism?
And, why did the Security Council, whose record in the Middle East is one of
abysmal failure in providing "peace and security" to people most in
need -- the beleaguered Christians, Yazidi, and
Kurdish minorities of Iraq and Syria -- decide to revoke the long-standing Res.
242 on the patently false excuse of "salvaging the two-State
solution", when the Palestinian leadership has continually refused to
engage with Israelis in direct negotiations?
These questions require credible answers, but none can be given.
The real story in the adoption of Res. 2334 lies in the persistence of
anti-Semitism within the UN.
Islamists, and Muslim states singly, or together,
cannot advance any anti-Semitic policy in the UN detrimental to the security of
The last act of Obama's presidency, in the grim shadow of
Obama conned a majority of liberal American Jews, throughout his two-terms,
into believing he would keep
The facts about Obama and his politics, however, were contrary to the image
crafted for him and that duped liberal American Jews.
Obama was groomed in the anti-Vietnam War ideological stew of anti-Americanism
blended with a potpourri of new left cultural Marxism of Herbert Marcuse; the
left-wing anarchism and utopianism of Noam Chomsky; the radicalism of the
community organizer Saul Alinsky; the reflexive
anti-imperialism and anti-colonialism of "third world" ideologues,
such as Frantz Fanon and Edward Said; the radical politics of student
activists, such as Tom Hayden and Abbie Hoffman, of
the nineteen-sixties; and the Black "identity" politics of Jesse
Jackson, Al Sharpton, and Obama's mentor Reverend
Jeremiah Wright in Chicago that snugly fit with the filthy anti-Jew politics of
Louis Farrakhan and his "Nation of Islam."
This ideological mixture was apparently a potent, mind-warping, brew. When fed
to young minds in schools and colleges, as it was with Obama, with little
experience of the real world and even less familiarity with world history, it
infected many of them with the politics of grievance to turn resentful against
their own society.
It took an outsider, like Dinesh D'Souza,
an immigrant from
Obama needed support of American Jews as part of his strategy in winning and
retaining the White House in the control of Democrats. The party, however, had
moved so far to the left since the era of Bill Clinton's presidency that for
the rank-and-file members, support for
The leftward drift meant that domestically the Democratic party,
in the name of "Progressivism," embraced "third world"
anti-capitalism and, in the realm of foreign policy, the UN's
"one world" agenda. It also meant adopting "identity"
politics, and mobilizing a coalition of ethnic minorities among whom Muslim
immigrant voters are headed in the near future to outnumber Jewish voters
The party of Truman embracing
The results of the November 2016 election made redundant the charade
surrounding Obama's posturing as a faithful friend of Jews and
Many believe that Obama's refusal to veto a Security Council resolution was
orchestrated by his own administration. But Obama's national-security adviser,
Ben Rhodes, sought to dismiss this betrayal, by blaming
According to Rhodes, as reported by the New York Times, "Absent this
acceleration of settlement activity, absent the type of rhetoric we've seen out
of the current Israeli government, I think the
It did not matter to Obama that his explanation encourages
Palestinian-Arab-Muslim view that their jihad in the long term will prevail
against
The reason it did not matter is that Obama never publicly spoke out against the
idea of
Europeans, led by
Most likely in a fantasy of promoting France by currying favor
with the Muslim states for more low-cost oil and optimistically less terrorism,
De Gaulle turned on Israel.
Europeans increasingly came to view
In Europe, or "Eurabia", it has become an
article of "faith" that Israelis have wronged the
"Palestinian" Arabs and have proceeded systematically, in the words
of Charles de Gaulle, to "oppress," "repress," and
"expropriate" them.[1] In supporting Arabs of Israeli
"occupied" territories, Europeans can also assuage their guilt over
the anti-Semitism of their past, and re-balance their sense of political
morality by embracing Arabs and Muslims as people of the "third
world" to atone for their past sins of colonialism.
But this European consensus on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since the
nineteen-seventies cannot obscure the ugly reality beneath. Europeans have not
expunged anti-Semitism from their midst. As Robin Shepherd writes,
"[U]nlike
The American left finds itself ideologically at home with
Americans in general admire and support
At a deeper level, Obama's animus, exposed over Res. 2334, also revealed his
woeful ignorance of world history. All his foreign policy catastrophe have come
from that: his reset button" with Russia; his courtship of other
dictatorships such as Cuba and Iran; his premature withdrawal from Iraq thereby
creating a vacuum filled by ISIS; his release of hard-core terrorists from
Guantanamo Bay; his indifference to the Iranian people after the fraudulent
elections of 2012; his enabling Iran's nuclear program under the pretense of "preventing it; his murder by default of
America's ambassador to Libya and three other heroes; and his abandonment of
Syria, creating more than half a million deaths to name but a few.
Samantha Power, Permanent Representative of the United States to the UN, at a
Security Council meeting, on February 24, 2016. (Images source: United Nations)
Res. 2334, in falsely declaring Israeli settlements on disputed territories
illegal, has ruled out negotiations by predetermining the outcome.
Israel is now denied control over the most sacred part of Jerusalem -- the
Temple Mount area and the Western Wall -- that is at the heart of Jewish
history, and the longing of Jews since their eviction from the City of David by
the Romans in the first century C.E.
UN machinations also fabricated a previously non-existent identity for a people
-- the so-called "Palestinian" Arabs. In the process, the UN lent
itself to the Arab and Muslim states, or the Organization of Islamic
Cooperation (OIC), to advance their not-so-hidden agenda of undermining
In UN Security Council Res. 242 (1967), there is no mention of
"Palestinian" people. They did not exist. After the dissolution of
the Ottoman Empire in 1923, the area was mandated by the British who called it
Resolution 242 called for a "just settlement of the refugee problem"
without defining the refugees. Leaving "refugee" undefined meant that
parties in conflict when negotiating would need to recognize that the partition
of Palestine and the establishment of Israel led to the making of refugees
among both Arabs and Jews -- Arabs dislocated or evicted due to the partition
and the war that followed, as were Jews from Arab states in the Middle East and
North Africa.
The non-mention of "Palestinian" people, or "Palestinian Arabs,
or "Palestinians" in Res. 242 was consistent with all previous
resolutions, statements, and declarations made by the UN or its predecessor,
the League of Nations.
In all but name, the wish to consummate Hitler's "final solution" for
Jews has animated a substantive segment of Arab and Muslim thinking since the
establishment of Israel.[3] Each of the wars Israel
has had to fight, beginning with the war in May 1948 against the combined Arab
armies, if lost, had the potential of Jews being exterminated by Arabs in
Palestine.
The Mufti Haj Amin al-Husseini escaped from Europe after the Nazi defeat and made
his way into
The Mufti's politics of jihad declared against Jews, beginning with the riots
of 1921, has since then grown in intensity. No "Palestinian" leader
has publicly disavowed jihad against Jews. Instead, every aspect of engagement
by "Palestinians" with Jews and Israelis is considered an obligation
for advancing this jihad until its final expected objective of pushing the Jews
out of "
After the overwhelming defeat suffered by Egypt, Syria, and Jordan in the
six-day war of June 1967, a practical response was needed by the Arab leaders
to quell the seething anger of their people against them and re-direct that
anger against Israel, while buying time to rebuild Arab strength. One response
came in the Arab League Summit in
The other response was to build support for a resistance movement of Arabs both
in
In the UN, after the June 1967 war, the great powers met with renewed energy to
seek a diplomatic resolution in containing the Arab-Israeli conflict that might
be spinning out of control. The result was Resolution 242, carefully crafted
and unanimously adopted by the Security Council.
The resolution's preamble, emphasizing "the inadmissibility of the acquisition
of territory by war" was a pious wish with no basis in history or law, for
if it did then much of the history of Western powers and their acquisitions of
territories as result of wars would need revision. But even more to the point,
Arab and Muslim states have continued to contravene the intent of the clause --
Pakistan has occupied parts of Kashmir, Turkey has occupied parts of Cyprus,
Morocco has occupied the Spanish Sahara, Russia has occupied Georgia, Ukraine
and Crimea, and China has occupied Tibet.
The key point in the English version of Res. 242 with reference to
"The notable omissions in regard to withdrawal, from
According to
Arab states in the years since the adoption of Res. 242 eventually came to
accept it as the framework for peace in the region. The reasoning was, again
Goldberg, "the Arab States came to the conclusion that the language of the
Resolution was the best they could hope for from the United Nations."
Arab leaders also shrewdly sensed the tide of support for
The leading Arab states in the decade and half after the June 1967 war --
It is during this period that the "Palestinian" movement under the
banner of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), and headed by Yasser
Arafat, emerged from the shadows of internal Arab politics into the notice of
the UN. In 1974 the Arab states with support of non-Arab Muslim countries,
nonaligned members of the "third world", and countries of the
(former) Soviet bloc arranged for the UN General Assembly to invite Arafat to
its opening session in New York. The following year the same group of countries
adopted in support of Arab states the General Assembly resolution 3379 (1975)
declaring, "Zionism is a form of racism and racial discrimination."
This resolution was revoked during the 1991 General Assembly session.
The PLO was not constrained by any of the recognized norms of an established
state in waging its asymmetrical terrorist warfare against
The 1979 revolution in
In October 1981 President Anwar Sadat of
The Palestinian leadership spoke in a secular setting about Palestinian movement
in terms of nationalist struggle, and in an Islamic setting in terms of jihad
against Jews and
When Arafat was asked in
The doublespeak of the Palestinian leadership made no difference within the UN.
Since the June 1967 war, the UN began to tilt away from being fair and balanced
toward
After June 1967 war,
Until 1967, opposition to Jews and
But in the years after 1967, Arabs of the territories "occupied" by
Israel, and newly designated as "Palestinians," came to be viewed in
the Muslim world -- enthusiastically backed by Europe, especially France -- as
the vanguard of a jihad against Jews. As Arafat said, agreements to him were
merely hudnas (truces) with the enemy until the goals
of the jihad -- liberation of "al Quds"
(Arabic for
The mention of "Palestinians" as a people with inalienable rights,
and not as refugees, was made for the first time in the UN General Assembly
Resolution 2535 (XXIV), Section B, of December 10, 1969. From then onwards, the
notion of the "Palestinian" people with "the right to
self-determination" pushed by Arab and Muslim countries became a ritual in
the UN. As
"The long march through the UN has produced many benefits for the PLO. It
has created a people where there was none; an issue where there was none; a
claim where there was none. Now the PLO is seeking to create a state where
there already is one."
All of this occurred with the complicity of member states of the once Christian
West, or Christendom, in the UN against one single and much maligned Jewish
state,
The reputation of the UN for efficacy, justice, sense of history, is just about
non-existent. Adam LeBor, a British author, in
"Complicity with Evil": The United Nations in the Age of Modern Genocide, has provided a grim indictment of the UN's repeated failure to stop those who broadcast their genocidal intent to the world, as Hitler did.
When it comes to
Daniel P. Moynihan, who had served as the
"The Security Council resolutions are time bombs. Ticking.
The case has all but been made that
As the new administration of President Donald J. Trump begins, it will take
immense stamina and courage to stare down the "jackals" in the UN
emboldened by Obama's betrayal of
**Salim Mansur is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at
the Gatestone Institute. He teaches in the department
of political science at
[1] See Jean Lacouture, De Gaulle: The Ruler
1945-1970 (London: HarperCollins, 1992), p. 443.
[2] Robin Shepherd, A State Beyond The Pale: Europe's
Problem With
[3] Robert S. Wistrich, Hitler and the Holocaust (
[4] Arthur J. Goldberg, "United Nations Security Council Resolution 242
and the Prospects for Peace in the Middle East," in
© 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.
Anger in
Amr Emam/The Arab
Weekly/January 15/17/
If parliament approves deal, Sisi can circumvent
public anger, which would then be directed at legislators.
Cairo - Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s
move to refer to parliament an agreement that would hand over two uninhabited
Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia jeopardises the country’s stability and goes
against the public’s wishes, critics said.
“By referring the deal to parliament for approval, the government proves its
total disrespect of the will of the people,” rights advocate Khalid Ali said.
“This amounts to voluntary abdication of a piece of our country’s territory.”
Ali and other activists filed a lawsuit to stop the transfer of Tiran and Sanafir islands, which lie at the entrance of the Straits
of Tiran, which connects the
The government referred the deal to parliament on December 29th, almost seven
months after signing the agreement in
It is expected to take parliament weeks at least to act on the deal, Deputy Parliament
Speaker Suleiman Wahdan said.
“Can you face your constituents on the streets after approving this deal?”
lawmaker Ahmed al-Tantawi asked his colleagues during
a recent debate on the private Dream television network. “Approving the deal
will be a betrayal of the confidence of the people.”
Protests against the deal have taken place in
Former presidential candidate and leftist politician Hamdeen
Sabahi said he expected public anger to snowball.
“Egyptians will get out on the streets to protest the deal, even if they all go
to jail,” Sabahi said. “Sisi
does not have the right to give up sovereignty over these islands.”
Sisi has been under pressure from the Saudis to offer
them something tangible in return for the billions of dollars in aid since the
overthrow of Islamist president Muhammad Morsi in
2013.
A former career diplomat, who requested anonymity, warned the island dispute
could cost Sisi his job and spark a new popular
uprising.
If parliament rejects the deal, the diplomat said, Sisi can go to the Saudis and tell them: “Look, I did everything
to give the islands to you but [the lawmakers] are against this.”
If parliament approves the deal, however, the diplomat added, Sisi can circumvent public anger, which would then be
directed at legislators.
Mustafa al-Fiqqi, a former diplomat, said he
expected
Amr Emam is a Cairo-based
journalist. He has contributed to the New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle
and the UN news site IRIN.
Middle East Christians remain hopeful for
the future despite ISIS violence in 2016
Amr Emam/The Arab
Weekly/January 15/17
While Christian exodus from Syria continues, one needs only to look next door
to Lebanon for positive signs of Christian and Muslim coexistence.
Cairo - Christians in the Middle East appear to be clinging to a renewed sense
of hope in the new year as the Islamic State (ISIS) and other militant Islamist
groups lose ground.
“Most Middle East Christians underwent tragic experiences in 2016 as they
continued to escape, especially from restive countries like
“True, there is still fear within Christian circles in the region that the same
suffering will continue in the new year but there is
hope as well,” he added, recalling the December bombing that killed 26 people
in a Coptic church in
Christians, the largest religious minority in
Adding to the Christians’ optimism has been the Egyptian government’s approval
of a long-awaited law to allow them to build churches. The law removes many
hindrances that stymied church construction and renovation in
“The law has had a positive effect on Christians and showed them that they live
in a country that views them as equal to their Muslim compatriots,” said
Christian researcher Ishaq Ibrahim. “Such laws
contribute to the empowerment of this country’s Christians.”
In the occupied Palestinian territories, Muslims and Christians displayed
greater unity against the Israeli occupation last year and inside
Prolific attacks against Christians in restive Arab countries gave rise to
international calls for labelling atrocities committed against them as
genocide. Some Christian charities and Western politicians expressed fear for
the future presence of Christians in war-torn countries
While the Christian exodus from
“Historically, Lebanese Christians have contributed to the Arab renaissance
and proved that they were able to play a (positive) role in modernising this
region,” said Lebanese Christian politician Fares Souaid.
“They have partnered with Muslims, who share with them this common space.”
However, the challenge for regional governments in the new
year will be to protect Christians and other religion minorities against
attacks by ISIS and other radical groups, experts said. It is highly likely
that
To alleviate the potential suffering of the Christians, regional governments
need to initiate school curricula reform so Christians will be viewed as
full-fledged citizens, not as religious minorities, they warned.
“This will be the real challenge for these governments in the new year and in
the years to come,” said the Rev. Poules Halim, the official spokesman of the Egyptian Coptic
Orthodox Church. “School curricula reform will greatly improve the standing of
Christians in the region, even if they continue to be targeted by radical
groups like
Amr Emam is a Cairo-based
journalist. He has contributed to the New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle
and the UN news site IRIN.
Courting the Copts
Mohamad Abou el-Fadel/The Arab Weekly/January 15/17
Above all, Egyptian Copts must avoid falling into trap of blackmailing
authorities, for this would give Islamic extremists opportunity to weaken
government.
The honeymoon between the Egyptian state and the Salafists
is over. Their political clout has waned. Previously, they had been able to
indirectly remain close to the reins of power, giving the impression that they
enjoyed wide acceptance and allowing them to expand their presence on the
public scene through mosques and religious circles but the state has resorted
to a number of measures to stop their political march.
The exclusionary measures adopted by the Egyptian leadership against the Salafists seem similar to those used against the Muslim
Brotherhood, in which the state succeeded rather well in clipping the
Brotherhood’s wings economically, socially and politically.
By contrast, we are witnessing the beginning of a systematic charm operation
towards the Copts. It started with the extreme kindness and friendliness shown
them by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on holidays
and by his anger every time Copts were targeted by violence. It is clear that
the Egyptian regime is keen on preserving the voting favours of the Christian
bloc, a large and united front, at a time when other blocs seem to be deserting
it.
The special attention given by the state apparatus to the Copts is
well-motivated. The Copts are — first and foremost — Egyptian citizens who have
been feeling targeted and they need reassurances that their rights will be
preserved. They also carry economic clout because a large number of Egyptian
business people are of the Christian faith and hold important stakes in the
economy. In times of economic crisis, these citizens deserve deference.
What the Egyptian regime fears most, however, is for the Coptic asset to turn
into a liability as a consequence of the repeated attacks by Islamic extremists
and terrorists on Christian citizens and their churches.
It is imperative that the country’s president show serious concern about the
situation lest things get out of hand with dire consequences both internally
and internationally.
Locally, the security apparatus must at all times be on the alert for acts of
provocation. Confrontations between Muslims and Copts could start with isolated
incidents between individuals and quickly degenerate into riots.
The state must show extreme severity towards anyone who dares attack a Coptic
citizen. It must also show serious intent in preserving those rights perceived
by the Coptic minority as being taken away. It is for that specific purpose
that the Egyptian government speeded up the adoption of the law on building
churches. The government has thus given concrete proof of its good intentions.
The Egyptian regime is purposefully doting on Coptic citizens in the hope of
limiting potential damage to
There also might be hidden political objectives behind this attention. Rich
Coptic citizens might fill social roles previously held by the Muslim
Brotherhood. The latter could easily be sidelined. If the Coptic minority in
Above all, Egyptian Copts must avoid falling into the trap of blackmailing the
authorities, for this would give Islamic extremists the opportunity to weaken
the government by accusing it of supporting Copts to the detriment of Muslims.
In such a scenario, the government will have very limited choices for action.
Thus, the idea of using the Copts as social alternatives for the Muslim
Brotherhood becomes potentially dangerous. It is best, therefore, to promote
policies that place citizenship above every other consideration so that all
Egyptians — Muslims and Christians — become an alternative to the Muslim
Brotherhood.
**Mohamad Abou el-Fadel is an Egyptian writer.
Damascus goes dry as Syria’s grim water
wars intensify
Sami Moubayed/The Arab Weekly/January 15/17
Despite agreement, crisis is far from over as it will take time and money to
repair damaged pumps.Worst humanitarian disaster to
befall Syrian capital in recent years
Beirut - Days before Christmas, Damascus went dry due to an aerial attack on
the Ain al-Fijah spring 18km north-west of the Syrian
capital, which feeds the Barada river that supplies
70% of the water for the city and its environs.
It was initially reported by pro-regime websites on December 22nd that the
rebels who have held Wadi Barada
since mid-2012 had deliberately polluted the waters of Ain al- Fijah, which forced the authorities to cut off the water
supply.
The sabotage story was used as a pretext to launch a major ground offensive
against militants at the spring to seize control of the water supply despite a
nationwide ceasefire proclaimed on December 30th.
Hours later, the armed opposition in Wadi Barada produced a video on social media networks, showing
heavy damage to the water infrastructure at the spring, clearly caused by
exploding missiles.
They explained that damage on that scale could only be caused by air attacks —
and the only planes operating over the
The regime had attacked the spring, they claimed, to force the rebels to
surrender, which they did not.
This fell in line with similar tactics used by the regime since 2011 in a
continuing battle for resources that has become a central aspect of the nearly
6-year-old Syrian war, all part of its starve or surrender strategy in which
it imposes sieges on rebel-held towns and cities.
The water crisis spread panic and anger among the war-swollen population of
about 9 million people in
This is by far the worst humanitarian disaster to befall the Syrian capital in
recent years, given that the ancient city has been relatively immune to the
violence that has swept the country.
Even when the war began in March 2011, when the greater
Private water vendors are selling water at black market prices of 2,500 Syrian
pounds — $5 a barrel — a crippling price because the average Damascus
household consumes about 100-150 barrels of water per month, for drinking,
washing and sanitation. Water costs ordinary Syrians $500-$750 a month,
devastating for a city in which a senior post in the public sector, which
employs millions of Syrians, pays no more than $150 monthly.
The nationwide ceasefire declared by
On January 9th, this deal went into effect but it may be temporary. The regime
insists on retaking Wadi Barada,
regardless of the ceasefire, claiming that the estimated 1,500 fighters there
are members of Jabhat Fateh
al-Sham (JFS), al-Qaeda’s rebranded branch in
Despite the agreement, the crisis is far from over as it will take time and
money to repair the damaged pumps, signalling difficult times ahead for the
people of
Similar crises are emerging elsewhere in
The Euphrates Dam, 40km upstream from Raqqa, de
facto capital of the
ISIS recently shut down a major water flow into the battered city of Aleppo, a
significant battlefield since mid-2016, from the Euphrates — an old tactic used
by Zionist militias that blew up the main water pipelines to the port city of
Haifa before the creation of the state of Israel in 1948.
If Kurdish forces get too close to the Euphrates Dam,
In neighbouring
If the dam collapses, up to 11.11 billion cubic metres of water, known as
The Middle East in 2017: A chaotic regional order emerging
Nassif Hitti/The Arab
Weekly/January 15/17
It looks like that after five years and more of once promising 'Arab spring,'
chaotic regional order is emerging
Beirut - Five years after the burgeoning of the “Arab spring”, the Middle East
has been caught in a long “Arab winter”. Tension, turmoil and all kinds of wars
— civil ones fought under different names, wars by proxy and a bloody regional
civil conflict — have developed from
Looking back at the last five years, one could observe through the hotbeds of
conflicts, which became more and more interdependent because of the grand
strategies of the regional and international powers involved, that non-state actors
— sectarian, ethnic and extremist religious movements, including the Islamic
State (ISIS) and others — are the key players in the transnational fighting.
They yield more power than the countries in which they fight their wars under
different banners with the support always of major powers.
In many cases in the “Arab spring” countries, the regimes proved to be stronger
than the country they have confiscated and privatised to serve their interests.
Meanwhile, society is imploding along primordial identity lines — sectarian,
religious or ethnic — and weak state institutions are breaking down and
collapsing.
The rise of sub-national identities with their transnational
solidarities are threatening, with the exacerbated violent conflicts,
the future of a country itself. One can easily observe the looming danger and
growing number of failed and failing nations
phenomena due to the open-ended wars of all sorts.
Interesting enough from a historical perspective, this is happening at the
centenary of the Sykes-Picot accord and is allowing many observers to predict
the collapse of such an order.
Indeed, the taboo of the sanctity of the country that fell after the Cold War
allowed many to consider a post-Sykes-Picot order: The carving of new states
out of the existing ones amid the absence of any foreseeable solution to many
of the ongoing conflicts and the difficulties if not the impossibilities to
put back together the broken de facto pieces of many of the concerned states.
Thus, a decade ago Joe Biden, then a
Yet, it is worth reminding that states’ divorce or splitting does not necessarily
lead to peace and to settling conflicts. The clash of sub-national identities
in a failing country contributes to and encourages such splitting plans.
Breaking up could be considered by certain sectarian or ethnic groups as the
only way for final salvation from a historical injustice done to them in the
absence of a successful nation-building strategy.
However, the partition of
In the war-torn
— The Sudanisation or the divorce and the
fragmentation of certain states into two or more ones along ethnic or sectarian
lines, a sort of post Sykes-Picot system. Such a scenario is difficult to
envisage because it cannot be limited to one particular country. It cannot be
done à la carte without having a spillover effect
into other countries leading to general chaos and a more complicated
situation.
— The Somalisation scenario, which has been ongoing
for years in many places. It is being looked at as the lively illustration of
failed countries. Such states feature ongoing protracted social conflict that
could be contained or managed with no spillover
effect outside the borders in the absence of any plausible solution due to the
complexities of the conflict. At the same time, they develop the capacity to
live with such kind of conflict that witnesses ups and downs in intensity of
fighting, at an acceptable cost and as the only possible option.
— The Lebanonisation scenario or the establishment of
a political system based on the consociational
democracy model, a consensus over power-sharing among different ethnic, sectarian
or religious communities. To paraphrase what Winston Churchill said about
democracy, such a system is the worst of all systems except for all others.
Yet, as the Lebanese model has proven for years through its different crises,
it is a system that invites interference and interventions and that needs to be
revisited regularly because of its tension- and crisis-provoking nature and
for being vulnerable and attractive to regional tensions and crises.
It looks like that after five years and more of the once promising “Arab
spring”, a chaotic regional order is emerging in the
**Nassif Hitti was head of
the Arab League Mission in
The 6 Religious Leaders Who Will Pray
At Trump’s Inauguration/رجال
الدين ال6
الذين
اختارهم ترامب
للصلاة خلال
حفل تنصيبه
Harry Farley/Christian Today/13 January 2017
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/2017/01/15/christian-today-the-6-religious-leaders-who-will-pray-at-trumps-inauguration%D8%B1%D8%AC%D8%A7%D9%84-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AF%D9%8A%D9%86-%D8%A7%D9%846-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B0%D9%8A%D9%86-%D8%A7%D8%AE%D8%AA/
Donald Trump has chosen the largest group of clergy and religious leaders
to pray and speak at his inauguration next week.
Six pastors and other faith leaders will pray or offer a blessing of some
form – more than have done so at the inauguration of any other
Trump’s list of names is diverse, ranging from the Hispanic evangelical
Samuel Rodriguez to Catholic Cardinal Timothy Dolan and Jewish Rabbi Marvin Hier.
Since 1989 Presidents have chosen just one or two people to pray at their
inaugurations, with Ronald Reagan in 1985 the last to have a Rabbi. The bigger
and more extravagant range of figures is typical of Trump – who tops Richard
Nixon’s choice of five leaders at his inauguration in 1969.
The six names display a variety across different faith traditions. But
they all have one thing in common – all have some form of personal connection
to Trump or have publicly supported him.
Franklin Graham
Franklin Graham has not disguised his support for the Republican,
although he did not officially endorse him.Franklin
Graham/Facebook
The son of famous evangelist Billy Graham, who
prayed at the ceremonies for Richard Nixon, George Bush and Bill Clinton, has
himself already prayed at the ceremony in 2001 for George W Bush.
The younger Graham refrained from publicly endorsing Trump during the
campaign but frequently indicated his strong support for the Republican. After
a video showing lewd comments Trump made about women, Graham said: “The crude
comments made by Donald J Trump more than 11 years ago cannot be defended. But
the godless progressive agenda of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton likewise
cannot be defended… The most important issue of this election is the Supreme
Court.”
He has repeatedly referred to the importance of the Supreme Court, which
Trump has vowed to flood with conservative judges.
The outspoken figure, who has taken over from his father at the Billy
Graham Evangelistic Association and Samaritan’s Purse, has faced calls to step
down from praying over accustions that he has an
“extremist” attitude towards Islam.
Paula White
Pastor Paula White is seen as Trump’s ‘spiritual adviser’ and helped him
meet dozens of other evangelical leaders(Facebook/Paula
White)
White, a preacher from Florida, is known for her teaching on “abundancy” and her own lavish lifestyle.
The televangelist is credited with Trump’s much-heralded “conversion” and
has defended his enormous wealth.
“Every day you’re [living] your destiny, designed by God and discovered
by you,” White said in a recent sermon. “You’re either in a position of
abundance, you’re in a position of prosperity, or you’re in a position of
poverty. Now that’s in every area of your life… You’re living abundant in your
affairs of life – and that includes your financial conditions – or you’re
living in poverty.”
She will be the only woman to pray on January 20 and only the second
woman in history after civil rights campaigner Medgar
Evers’s widow, Myrlie Evers-Williams, was the first
in 2013.
Rabbi Marvin Hier
Dean and Founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center Rabbi Marvin Hier runs the
The first Rabbi to be chosen since Reagan’s second inauguration in 1985, Hier has said it is a “particular honour” to be chosen and
said it “shows the greatness of
Hier’s parents fled
As a result of this role, Hier has also faced
calls to step down because “Trump’s entire presidential campaign encouraged the
opposite”.
Fellow Rabbi Jason Miller wrote in TIME: “He [Trump] denigrated
immigrants, mocked the disabled and disrespected women.”
He added: “By refusing this role, Rabbi Hier
would be making a loud statement in defiance of prejudice and hate. He has the
opportunity to proclaim to the world what his institution stands for.”
Samuel Rodriguez
Rev. Samuel Rodriguez is the first Hispanic pastor to pray at a
presidential inauguration(Facebook/Rev.
Samuel Rodriguez)
Rodriguez, along with Cardinal Dolan, is one of the more surprising
entries to the list.
Born to Puerto Rican parents, he is the President of the National
Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference (NHCLC) and an ordained minister in
the pentecostal Assemblies
of God denomination.
He is the first Hispanic leader to pray at a presidential inauguration.
Unlike Graham and White, Rodriguez was not afraid to publicly criticise
Trump during his campaign.
“I’m actually very opposed to his [Trump's] rhetoric on most issues,” he
said. “At the top of the list, his rhetoric on immigrants, on immigration, is
unacceptable.”.
Rodriguez agreed to pray at the inauguration after “prayerful
deliberation and discussion”, he told NPR, and decided he could not miss the
chance to pray on “the quintessential political platform on the planet”.
Rodriguez hopes through engaging with Trump, he can shift his attitude
towards Hispanic voters, 30 per cent of whom voted for the Republican.
“There was a bit of angst due to the fact that throughout the course of
this campaign, the rhetoric and tone, as it pertained particularly to the
immigrant community, did not line up with the ethos or the values of the
NHCLC,” he said, adding he had heard a “change of tone” in recent weeks.
Cardinal Timothy Dolan
Archbishop of
Cardinal Timothy Dolan is the most prominent Catholic leader in the
In a statement after his invitation he said: “I am honoured to have been
asked to offer a reading from Scripture at the upcoming presidential
inauguration, and look forward to asking Almighty God to inspire and guide our
new President and to continue to bless our great Nation.”
He told critics he would have been just as honoured had Hillary Clinton
won and invited him.
“We pastors and religious leaders are in the sacred enterprise of prayer.
People ask us to pray with them and for them. That doesn’t mean we’re for them
or against them,” he told Catholic News Service.
“That’s our sacred responsibility.”
The arch-conservative and fellow New Yorker has met Trump twice before
and has, like Rodriguez, not been afraid to criticise his attitude towards
immigrants.
“I am not in the business of telling people what candidates they should
support or who deserves their vote,” he wrote in the Washington Post. “But as a
Catholic, I take seriously the Bible’s teaching that we are to welcome the
stranger, one of the most frequently mentioned moral imperatives in both the
Old and New Testament.”
Dolan will read from Wisdom chapter 9, a text in the Catholic Bible where
Solomon asks for wisdom to lead
Bishop Wayne T Jackson
Wayne T Jackson runs Great Faith Ministries in Detroit.Reuters
As leader of Great Faith Ministries in
The African-American pastor, like White, has been accused of being a
prosperity gospel preacher. He lives in a multimillion dollar mansion in
After facing criticism for his endorsement of Trump,
“Donald Trump is an example of someone who has been blessed by God,” said
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/the.6.religious.leaders.who.will.pray.at.trumps.inauguration/103838.htm