LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
April 10/2019

Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani

The Bulletin's Link on the lccc Site
http://data.eliasbejjaninews.com/eliasnews19/english.april10.19.htm

News Bulletin Achieves Since 2006
Click Here to enter the LCCC Arabic/English news bulletins Achieves since 2006

Bible Quotations For today
Those who have never been told of him shall see, and those who have never heard of him shall understand.
Letter to the Romans 15/14-21: “I myself feel confident about you, my brothers and sisters, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, and able to instruct one another. Nevertheless, on some points I have written to you rather boldly by way of reminder, because of the grace given me by God to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in the priestly service of the gospel of God, so that the offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. In Christ Jesus, then, I have reason to boast of my work for God. For I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to win obedience from the Gentiles, by word and deed, by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God, so that from Jerusalem and as far around as Illyricum I have fully proclaimed the good news of Christ. Thus I make it my ambition to proclaim the good news, not where Christ has already been named, so that I do not build on someone else’s foundation, but as it is written, ‘Those who have never been told of him shall see, and those who have never heard of him shall understand.’””
’
Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News published on April 09-10/19
Aoun Meets Bulgarian Counterpart: Difficult Conditions Could Drive Refugees to Europe
Mustaqbal Warns against 'Attacks on Security, Judiciary Leading Figures'
Jumblat: Hizbullah Can't Usurp Our Decision Forever, I Don't Agree with Bassil's Strategic Views
Hariri Holds Talks with Geagea at Center House
Bassil Says FPM Not Covering Any Judge, Electricity Plan an FPM Achievement
Hizbullah Minister Jabaq in Visit to Kuwait
Hariri Discusses Situation in the Region with Abu el-Gheit
Top Military Prosecutor Files Charges against ISF Information Branch
Lebanon on Alert amid Reports US May Impose Sanctions on Speaker Berri
UN Looks Forward to Cooperate With Lebanon On Return Of Displaced
Hariri to Spend Weekend in Tripoli Ahead of By-Elections

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on April 09-10/19
Netanyahu claims 'tremendous victory' as results point to his fifth win as prime minister
Netanyahu, Gantz Both Claim Victory in Israeli Polls
Israel Closes off West Bank, Isolates Gaza ahead of Elections
Intra-Israeli Differences on Establishing Ties With Neighboring Countries
Protests as Algeria Lawmakers Elect First New President in 20 Years
Algeria Appoints Bensalah as Interim President Prompting More Protests
Egyptian-US Summit to Tackle Mideast as Sisi Meets Trump
Putin, Erdogan Coordinate on Astana Talks, Syria Constitutional Committee
Libyan National Army Raids Tripoli Airport
UN Postpones Libya National Conference amid Raging Clashes
UN Envoy in Sanaa to Persuade Houthis to Accept Hodeidah Deal
Tripartite Meeting in Amman to Discuss Syria's Rukban Camp
Airstrike Kills Seven ISIS Terrorists South of Kirkuk, Iraq
Tunisia Court Issues 6-10 Years Jail Sentences to Terror Accomplices
Sudanese Protesters Maintain Sit-in outside Army HQ
Trump Praises 'Great Job' by Egypt's Controversial Sisi

Titles For The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on April 09-10/19
Netanyahu claims 'tremendous victory' as results point to his fifth win as prime minister/Ynetnews/April 09/19
A New Wave of Arab Revolutions/Abdulrahman Al-Rashed/Asharq Al Awsat/April 09/19
Haftar Can Unite Libya, End Chaos/Abdulrahman Al-Rashed/Asharq Al Awsat/April 09/19
Just War vs Just Plain-Old Jihad/Raymond Ibrahim/April 09/19
Qatar: 'A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing'/Bankrolling Islamism in Europe/Giulio Meotti/Gatestone Institute/April 09/2019
Palestinian Authority Targets Students/Khaled Abu Toameh/Gatestone Institute/April 09/19

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News published on April 09-10/19
Aoun Meets Bulgarian Counterpart: Difficult Conditions Could Drive Refugees to Europe
Naharnet/April 09/19/President Michel Aoun received at Baabda Palace on Tuesday the Bulgarian President Rumen Radev who arrived in Beirut early today on a two-day official visit. The two held a joint press conference during which Aoun highlighted the strained economic conditions in Lebanon as it hosts around 1.5 million Syrian refugees. “We are concerned if the situation gets more difficult, Palestinian and Syrian refugees could move Europe. Economic conditions are very difficult in Lebanon,” said Aoun. “Confronting the burdens of the displaced Syrians is a common international responsibility. We must work swiftly to end the suffering of the displaced and secure their safe return to their country,” he added. On Israel’s violations of Lebanon’s land and maritime territories, the President urged Bulgaria to support Lebanon’s stance against “Israel’s continuous breaches, and to assert Lebanon’s right to extract its gas and oil within its territories.”The President reiterated Lebanon’s denunciation of the US decision recognizing Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights “it is a flagrant violation of the international community. Not only does it threatens the sovereignty of a sister state but also threatens the sovereignty of the Lebanese state.”Radev is set to meet later with Speaker Nabih Berri, PM Saad Hariri where talks will focus on the Lebanese-Bulgarian relations and the means to develop them in addition to the situation in the region, said NNA.The plane of the Bulgarian President, his wife and the accompanying delegation, landed at the Rafik Hariri International Airport at 9:30 am. He was received by Minister of the Displaced Ghassan Atallah, the Governor of Mount Lebanon Mohammed Makkawi, and several other officials.

Mustaqbal Warns against 'Attacks on Security, Judiciary Leading Figures'
Naharnet/April 09/19/Al-Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc on Tuesday warned against what it called a “suspicious campaign” against “leading figures” in the security and judicial institutions, amid controversy over suspected corruption in the judicial body. “The bloc warns against some parties' continued attacks against leading figures in the security and judicial institutions who have dedicated their lives, efforts and work to serve and protect the Lebanese,” it said in a statement issued after its weekly meeting. It added: “In this regard, the bloc points to the suspicious campaign that is especially targeting, systematically and maliciously, State Prosecutor Samir Hammoud and Internal Security Forces chief Maj. Gen. Imad Othman and behind them the (ISF) Intelligence Branch and its achievements that are known by all Lebanese.”Noting that the “campaign” is aimed at “harming the reputation and image of state institutions,” Mustaqbal slammed statements by “fugitives and outlaws,” in an apparent jab at ex-minister Wiam Wahhab who has renewed his attacks on Hammoud. In an unprecedented move, State Commissioner to the Military Court Judge Peter Germanos has filed a lawsuit against the ISF Intelligence Branch, accusing it of “mutiny” against his authority, manipulation of investigations and “detaining individuals beyond legal timeframes.”The clash reflects a silent war between political leaders, seeing as Germanos is seen as being close to President Michel Aoun's camp whereas the ISF Intelligence Branch is known of being close to Prime Minister Saad Hariri's al-Mustaqbal Movement.

Jumblat: Hizbullah Can't Usurp Our Decision Forever, I Don't Agree with Bassil's Strategic Views
Naharnet/April 09/19/Progressive Socialist Party leader ex-MP Walid Jumblat announced Tuesday that Hizbullah cannot “usurp the decision” of the Lebanese people forever, amid a growing rift with the Iran-backed party. “Hizbullah defended us in 2006 but it can't usurp our decision forever,” Jumblat said in an interview on LBCI television. “Hizbullah must listen to criticism and we have the right to speak,” Jumblat added. Acknowledging that the residents of south Lebanon consider Hizbullah a “guarantee” in the face of Israel's hostility, the PSP leader hoped this “guarantee” will become part of a national defense strategy. “Due to Arab disunity, Hizbullah considers itself the owner of the Palestinian cause, because the Arabs have abandoned it,” Jumblat said. A decision by Industry Minister Wael Abu Faour to revoke the license of a cement factory belonging to Pierre Fattoush in the Ain Dara area has strained relations between Jumblat and Hizbullah, with pro-Hizbullah media outlets reporting that the party has decided to “sever” its ties with the PSP leader. Asked whether Israel might wage a war on Lebanon in the near future, Jumblat told LBCI that he does not believe that the Israelis “want a war to break out.”
Separately, Jumblat criticized a recent visit to Russia by President Michel Aoun and Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil. “When each sect resorts to a certain nation for protection, we will only reach an internal war,” Jumblat warned, apparently referring to remarks by Aoun. “We thank you for your stances that defend the Christian minorities in the Levant and we hope you will continue this help,” Aoun told Russian President Vladimir Putin during the Kremlin meeting. Jumblat added: “We do not agree a lot with Jebran Bassil's strategic views.” Commenting on regional developments, Jumblat said: “I'm Arab but not in the fashion of Bashar al-Assad. Arabism without democracy and humanity has no meaning.”“The Palestinians' right to return will be dropped in Jared Kushner's scheme,” he warned.

Hariri Holds Talks with Geagea at Center House
Naharnet/April 09/19/Prime Minister Saad Hariri held talks with Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea Tuesday evening at the Center House. A statement issued by Hariri's office said the discussions tackled “the political and general situations in the country” and that talks continued over a dinner banquet thrown by Hariri. The meeting was also attended by ex-minister Melhem Riachi of the LF and Hariri's adviser Ghattas Khoury.

Bassil Says FPM Not Covering Any Judge, Electricity Plan an FPM Achievement
Naharnet/April 09/19/Free Patriotic Movement chief MP Jebran Bassil on Tuesday stressed that the FPM is not providing political “cover” for any judge in the latest controversy over suspected corruption in the judicial body. “Despite what is being said in the media, we are not covering anyone and there are no pro-presidency judges and anti-presidency judges,” Bassil said after the weekly meeting of the Strong Lebanon bloc. “The anti-corruption drive will continue,” he stressed. Turning to the long-awaited national electricity plan that was adopted on Monday, Bassil said the FPM's concerns over alleged attempts to obstruct the plan were justified. “They prevented us twice from carrying out tendering processes in the electricity and oil sectors,” he noted. “The issue of merging the temporary and final solutions was proposed by us and the minister (Nada Bustani) included it in her plan, so let them respect our intelligence,” Bassil added, in a jab at rival political parties. As for the failure to form an electricity regulatory commission, Bassil said “the law has been stalled in parliament for seven years now.”“We hope it will be passed,” he added.

Hizbullah Minister Jabaq in Visit to Kuwait
Naharnet/April 09/19/Health Minister Jamil Jabaq arrived Tuesday in Kuwait to take part in the 21st edition of the Arab Healthcare Development Conference, Lebanon's National News Agency reported. The minister was welcomed at the airport by a delegation from the Kuwait health ministry and Lebanese consul in Kuwait Nisrine Bou Karroum. Jabaq is scheduled to meet with Lebanese expats at the embassy's headquarters in the evening. The minister, who was named by Hizbullah for the new government, is not a member of the party but is believed to be close to its chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and was his personal physician at one point. In August 2017, Kuwaiti authorities said they arrested 12 convicted members of a "terrorist cell" with alleged “ties to Iran and Hizbullah.”The supreme court in Sunni-ruled Kuwait, which has a sizable Shiite minority, had earlier overturned an acquittal by an appeals court and convicted 21 Shiites of forming a "terrorist cell with ties to Iran and Hizbullah.”The cell had planned to launch attacks across the Gulf state, according to the court verdict. Kuwait later presented a formal protest letter to Lebanon over Hizbullah's alleged training of the so-called "Abdali Cell".

Hariri Discusses Situation in the Region with Abu el-Gheit
Prime Minister Saad Hariri received on Tuesday the Secretary-General of the Arab League Ahmed Abu el-Gheit and talks highlighted the latest developments in the Arab region, the National News Agency reported. NNA said that Abu el-Gheit was accompanied by the Arab League assistant secretary general Hussam Zaki, Ambassador Abdul Rahman al-Solh.The meeting was held in the presence of ex-Minister Ghattas Khoury.

Top Military Prosecutor Files Charges against ISF Information Branch
Naharnet/April 09/19/An unprecedented judicial-security “challenge” emerged when Lebanon's top military prosecutor, Judge Peter Germanos filed charges against the Information Branch of the Internal Security Forces, accusing it of "disobeying his orders, distorting investigations, and holding suspects beyond the legal detention period," Asharq al-Awsat reported on Tuesday. This confrontation conceals a “silent war between the political authorities. Germanos is considered an ally of President Michel Aoun’s team, while the ISF Information Division is allied to al-Mustaqbal Movement led by PM Saad Hariri,” said the daily. The move of Germanos “shocked the political, judicial and security circles,” said the daily. He accused the ISF Information Branch of "disobeying his orders, leaking and altering information and facts, detention of suspects beyond their legal detention period." He referred the case to Military Judge Fadi Sawan for investigation. Germanos said his move is part of the ongoing fight against corruption, he told the daily: “This is a battle of jurisdictions to prove that we live under the rule of law or the rule of security. All the security services are under my authority and control, starting from the military intelligence,the military police, the Information Branch of the ISF, the Investigation Branch of the General Security, the State Security and the Customs.”Although the security forces refrained from making any comment on Germanos’ remarks, a security source who spoke on condition of anonymity told the daily that “officers and members of the Information Branch should be rewarded for their achievements instead of prosecuting them and distorting their role.” These developments are a “natural result of the dispute between some judges over powers in the files of corruption,” said the daily. A well-informed source said “the battle that Germanos began against the Information Branch is part of his battle with some judges.” “Germanos has asked the Branch to close investigations with suspect (Joe.Aa) and to refer his case to the army Intelligence. But his request was not met because the suspect was arrested by order of Mount Lebanon Prosecutor Judge Ghada Aoun," sources said. "J.A was arrested for issuing checks without credit and falsification of judicial files. This person has no file before the military judiciary,” they added.As part of an ISF crackdown from within on bribery and abuse of power, several ISF officers, policemen and State Security agents have been interrogated and detained in recent weeks.

Lebanon on Alert amid Reports US May Impose Sanctions on Speaker Berri
Beirut - Paula Astih/Asharq Al Awsat/April 09/19/The statements of US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo delivered from the White House Monday gave a new impetus to reports linked to US sanctions that might affect Speaker Nabih Berri and his Amal Movement due to their longstanding ties with Hezbollah and Iran. MP Yassin Jaber, head of the parliament committee on Foreign Affairs told Asharq Al-Awsat on Monday that Lebanon is currently looking at the new information. “Until this hour, there is no decision or official position other than Pompeo’s statements,” he said. On Monday, Pompeo said that during his recent trip to Beirut, he made clear to the Lebanese leadership, including in conversations with Berri, that America was not going to tolerate the continued rise of Hezbollah in the country. “This is about armed forces inside the country of Lebanon. We made very clear that we were going to continue to evaluate sanctions for all those that were connected to (Hezbollah),” Pompeo told reporters. Jaber is currently in Washington as part of a parliamentary delegation attending meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. MP Mohammed Nasrallah from Amal said Monday it has not yet received any official signs that the US was considering sanctions on Berri or any other official from the Movement. But, Nasrallah said that in all cases, one should take the current information into consideration. “Pompeo’s statements kept the door open to all possibilities and it is important during this phase to wait and see how things will unfold,” the MP said. He revealed that the deputies’ presence in Washington was not linked to the new sanctions that might affect Berri. Sources from the Amal Movement also told Asharq Al-Awsat they were not informed about any official decision linked to the US sanctions. “But, we expect anything from the US administration after its recent decisions related to the region, the last of which was a decision to recognize Israel's territorial claim to the occupied Syrian Golan Heights,” the sources said. On Monday, Trump formally announced his administration’s plan to designate Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps, including its Quds Force, as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.

UN Looks Forward to Cooperate With Lebanon On Return Of Displaced
Beirut - Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 9 April, 2019/Lebanese President Michel Aoun told UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed that his country “looks forward to full coordination with the United Nations to face current challenges,” especially in the file of the return of Syrian displaced. Emphasizing UN support for Lebanon's economic and reform plan within the process of economic development, Aoun said several projects were under review to be implemented after the adoption of the state budget, hailing the UN’s cooperation in this regard. He also highlighted the heavy impact of the Syrian displacement on the socio-economic situation in Lebanon, stressing that the international community showed no enthusiasm to facilitate their return to their homeland. Mohammed underlined the UN support for all measures taken by Lebanon to promote stability and achieve the necessary reforms.
She also noted that the United Nations looks forward to working with Lebanon to secure the return of the displaced Syrians to their country. The official also confirmed the UN support of Aoun's proposal at the Arab Economic and Social Development Summit, held in Beirut, to establish a bank for reconstruction and development in the Arab countries, especially those that witnessed military events in the past few years. Also on Monday, the Lebanese president met with UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon, Jan Kubis, with talks touching on the New York consultations about the UN report on the implementation of Security Council Resolution 1701.

Hariri to Spend Weekend in Tripoli Ahead of By-Elections
Beirut- Mohammed Shokair/Asharq Al Awsat/April 09/19/Lebanon’s Prime Minister Saad Hariri will head to Tripoli on Friday, two days before the by-elections scheduled for April 14, to hold consultations with his allies and to sponsor popular meetings aimed at encouraging citizens to participate massively in the elections. The by-elections are set to fill the vacant Sunni legislative seat after Lebanon’s Constitutional Council annulled last month the parliamentary membership of Dima Jamali, of Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s Mustaqbal Movement, as a result of an appeal by unsuccessful candidate Taha Naji, who ran on MP Faisal Karami’s National Dignity list in the May 2018 elections. Leading sources in Al-Mustaqbal told Asharq Al-Awsat that Jamali would likely regain her seat, facing other opponents, mainly those close to MP Faisal Karami and the Association of Islamic Charitable Projects (Al-Ahbash) and the Alawites. In this context, sources in Tripoli stressed that Hariri’s party was deploying “extraordinary efforts” to guarantee the support of voters to its candidate. Other candidates include Yehya Mawloud from the Civil Movement, who had run in the last parliamentary elections in May 2018.
By the expiry of the candidacy period deadline on March 30, eight people were successfully registered for the by-elections. The number of candidates rose to nine on Tuesday when the State Shura Council annulled an Interior Ministry decision to reject the candidacy of Nizar Zakka, a Lebanese citizen detained in Iran. Zakka had submitted his candidacy for the May 2018 parliamentary elections to raise awareness for his detention, but his request was then rejected.

Latest LCCC English Miscellaneous Reports & News published on April 09-10/19
Netanyahu claims 'tremendous victory' as results point to his fifth win as prime minister
Ynetnews/April 09/19
Gantz also claims to have won national elections after exit polls predict a tight race, vowed to form government before partial count indicated that former IDF chief likely to lose out to his rival
A jubilant Benjamin Netanyahu took to the stage at Likud headquarters in Tel Aviv late Tuesday night, flanked by his wife Sara, as final results pointing to his victory in the Knesset elections began to trickle in.
"This is an unimaginable achievement," Netanyahu said, at around 2am. "I am very moved tonight, a night of tremendous victory. I am very excited that the people of Israel once again trusted me for the fifth time, and with greater confidence.""I believe that God and history gave the Jewish people another opportunity to turn their country into a strong nation and that's what I'm working for," Netanyahu said, pausing for shouts of praise for his wife.
"I wish to thank you, the citizens of Israel, for supporting us," he said. "To the Likud activists, you went from city to city, neighborhood to neighborhood, house to house. To the volunteers, the campaign staff, all of you without exception brought heart and soul to a difficult struggle, and each of you played an important part in this tremendous achievement."
He added: "I have already started talks with the leaders of our right-wing parties, and almost all of them have publicly declared that they will recommend me to form the government, and will do so to our president. There will be a right-wing government, but I intend to be the prime minister of all the citizens of Israel, right and left, Jews and non-Jews, I care about everyone, that's how it was and that's how it will be. "By the early hours of Wednesday morning, the Likud Party took the lead with 40 seats in the 120-Knesset, with some 42.1 percent of the votes counted. Gantz's Blue and White was in second place with 35 seats, while the ultra-Orthodox Shas and United Torah Judaism parties each won seven seats. The once mighty Labor party was down to just six seats, the same number as Yisrael Beiteinu.
Moshe Kahlon's Kulanu party was on course to win five seats, while Hadash-Ta'al, Meretz and the Union of Right-Wing Parties were set to claim four seats apiece. The results put the the rightist bloc in the lead with 67 seats, while the leftist bloc stands at 53 seats.Benny Gantz had also claimed victory hours earlier, as the exit polls showed his Blue and White party locked in a tight race with Netanyahu's Likud.
"This is an historic day. Thank you to Netanyahu for his service for the country. Just as he said - the largest party should be the one to form the government," said Gantz, in a speech at his party headquarters just two hours after the release of exit polls that predicted a slight lead for his party over the Likud, but an advantage to the right-wing bloc led by Netanyahu. One of the exit polls was later corrected to show a small lead for Likud. "There are election losers, there are election winners - and we are the winners," Gantz said. "They said we would not win, we won," Gantz said. "We will win in a way that is respectful to everyone, respectful of the past, respectful of the present, and building a joint future that is yet to come."Gantz also vowed to move quickly to form the next government. "We have a responsibility to form a government that will serve the State of Israel and not itself," he said. "The sooner we form a government, the sooner we can lead the State of Israel. We have a lot of work ahead of us."

Netanyahu, Gantz Both Claim Victory in Israeli Polls
Naharnet/April 09/19/Agence France Presse/Naharnet/April 09/19/Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his main challenger Benny Gantz both claimed victory after Israel's general elections on Tuesday as exit polls showed the two were neck and neck. The exit polls from Israel's three main television stations appeared to show Netanyahu better placed to form a coalition with the help of smaller right-wing parties, but the final outcome was far from clear. A combination of Netanyahu's Likud and smaller right-wing parties allied to him had between 60 and 66 seats in the 120-seat parliament, three polls from Israel's main television stations showed. Gantz and his Blue and White alliance along with other smaller parties had between 54 and 60 seats, according to the exit polls. Exit polls have however proven to be unreliable in previous Israeli elections. Final official results were not expected until early Wednesday.

Israel Closes off West Bank, Isolates Gaza ahead of Elections
Ramallah – Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 9 April, 2019/On the eve of Tuesday’s parliamentary elections, Israel cordoned off the West Bank and Gaza, including the Karam Abou Salem crossing used for the passage of goods, gas and fuel into the coastal enclave. The Israeli army spokesman announced the imposition of a security barrier and the closure of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, except for humanitarian cases.“There are quite a few extremist activists who want to take advantage of the situation to carry out hostile attacks,” Israeli security sources said. “The Israeli army, the General Security Service, the Border Police and the Israeli Civil Police are preparing for every possible scenario, including hostile operations carried out by individuals in an attempt to strike security forces or civilians.”“One unusual field incident could ignite an entire region,” the sources added. Hours before the elections, Israeli forces arrested 21 Palestinians from Ramallah, Bethlehem, Hebron, Qalqilya and Tulkarem. As part of the preparations, police announced that they would “reinforce deployment of forces throughout the country to enable all registered voters to safely reach thousands of polling stations and exercise their right to vote.”According to the security plan, 17,000 police and volunteers, as well as thousands of civilian security guards, will be deployed at various polling stations. There will be more than 10,000 ballot boxes in more than 4,000 polling stations throughout Israel. “Public and secret forces will work in polling stations and in the surrounding areas to prevent any illegal activity that would harm the integrity of the election and its proper functioning,” according to the Israeli police.

Intra-Israeli Differences on Establishing Ties With Neighboring Countries
Tel Aviv- Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 9 April, 2019/An internal Israeli report showed that severe disputes spurred between the National Security Council (NSC) and the Mossad on their powers in dealing with issues of Arab and Islamic countries that Israel is seeking to connect with. According to reliable sources, officials of Mossad directed by Yossi Cohen objected over the NSC activity and considered it a violation of its powers. Mossad accused NSC of not cooperating in opening channels with neighboring countries. NSC members are working independently without having the required tools, especially in the field of security supervision because they don’t cooperate with Mossad, they added. Also, there are talks on the activity of National Security Adviser Meir Ben Shabbat who has the full support of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The sources referred to possible revelations of corruption scandals in which the Mossad wouldn't allow the presence of another Yitzhak Molcho-- who was Netanyahu's diplomatic envoy. In a joint statement to the NSC, security bodies and the government spokesman said that the bodies work cooperatively to achieve the goals determined by the prime minister and the political leadership.

Protests as Algeria Lawmakers Elect First New President in 20 Years
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/April 09/19/Bouteflika Ally Named Algeria's First New President in 20 Years. Algerian lawmakers appointed a regime stalwart as the country's first new president in two decades Tuesday, dismaying protesters seeking sweeping change following the resignation of veteran leader Abdelaziz Bouteflika. The election of upper house speaker Abdelkader Bensalah as interim president follows constitutional rules but goes against the demands of demonstrators, who have pushed for him and other top politicians to stand down. "I want to work towards fulfilling the interests of the people," Bensalah, a trusted ally of Bouteflika, told parliament on taking up the 90-day interim presidency. "It's a great responsibility that the constitution demands of me," the 77-year-old added. Opposition parties refused to back the appointment of the seasoned establishment insider and boycotted the session, as thousands of students protested against him in Algiers. "Resign Bensalah!" they chanted, clutching hand-written placards and Algerian flags. For the first time in seven weeks police in the capital fired tear gas to try to disperse the protest by students, who were also hit with water cannon. On Friday -- in the first weekly mass protest since Bouteflika announced his departure after losing the military's support -- Algerians demanded regime insiders be excluded from the political transition. Ahead of the parliamentary session, an editorial in pro-government daily El Moudjahid on Tuesday suggested Bensalah should step aside from the presidential post. He is "not tolerated by the citizen movement, which demands his immediate departure," or by the opposition and various political groups in both houses of parliament, the newspaper said. 'Voice of the people' Three men in particular have drawn demonstrators' ire: Bensalah, the head of the constitutional council Tayeb Belaiz and prime minister Noureddine Bedoui. The protest movement is calling for a new transitional framework that is committed to deep reforms and organizing free elections. Ahead of Bensalah's appointment, calls continued for the speaker to step down. "He has to resign, it's the voice of the people and the people must be right," said 50-year-old Mourad, an entrepreneur who will protest Friday with his two young daughters. "They don't know that there's democracy... I want to teach them what freedom is," he added. Algerians of all ages have rallied since late February against Bouteflika, who resigned a week ago after efforts to appease demonstrators proved fruitless. Although the 82-year-old's resignation was celebrated by protesters, they have remained firm in pushing for a wider overhaul of the political system. Human Rights Watch said Bouteflika's departure is "at most a first step in ending autocratic rule." "During any transitional phase, authorities should fully respect the rights of Algerians to speak, assemble and associate with one another," the watchdog said in a statement.Demonstrators in huge numbers have defied a protest ban in Algiers, and HRW on Tuesday called on authorities to overhaul laws "on association and assembly that stifle rights."

Algeria Appoints Bensalah as Interim President Prompting More Protests
Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 9 April, 2019/The Algerian parliament appointed Tuesday upper house chairman Abdelkader Bensalah as interim president amid an opposition boycott. Out of a total of 604 MPS, only 470 lawmakers attended the meeting. Bensalah will serve as president for the next 90 days following the resignation of Abdelaziz Bouteflika. Bensalah will run the country until new elections are held, according to the North African country's constitution. Protesters, who are demanding sweeping democratic reforms, are opposed to figures like Bensalah, a close associate of Bouteflika and his inner circle who dominated Algeria for decades. As per the Algerian constitution, Bensalah will remain interim president until new elections are held. "We must work to allow the Algerian people elect their president as soon as possible," Bensalah told parliament. Protesters soon took to the street to rally against the appointment. “Appointing Bensalah will fuel anger and it could radicalize the protesters,” said taxi driver Hassen Rahmine as crowds gathered in central Algiers. On Friday -- in the first weekly protest since Bouteflika announced his departure after losing the military's support -- Algerians demanded regime stalwarts be excluded from the political transition. Three men in particular have drawn ire: Bensalah, head of the constitutional council Tayeb Belaiz and prime minister Noureddine Bedoui. Mass protests have led to the disintegration of what has been described as the ruling elite’s “fortress” - veterans of the war of independence against France, ruling party figures, businessmen, the army and labor unions. But Algerians have been pushing for more radical change since Bouteflika’s allies abandoned him in the weeks leading up to his resignation last week. They are unwilling to compromise in their demand for a new generation of leaders in the North African country, which has failed to create jobs and improve living standards despite vast oil and natural gas resources. “You go means you go,” read banners at the protest in central Algiers, which ended in the late afternoon. At one point, police briefly turned water cannon to disperse protesters. The critical question is how Algeria’s military - long seen as a highly effective backstage player in politics - will react to Bensalah’s appointment and any opposition that arises. “I thank the army and all security services for their work,” Bensalah told parliament after his appointment.
Army Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Gaid Salah carefully managed Bouteflika’s exit after declaring him unfit to stay in power and expressed support for protesters, who have put up little resistance to the military. Hours after parliament made its choice, Salah said the military will do more to ensure peace for the Algerian people, the state news agency APS reported. “All in all, the way in which the vacancy of the Presidency of the Republic has been filled does not bring our country closer to the end of the crisis,” said Ali Benflis, leader of the opposition Talae El Houriyet party. “By maintaining the old guard like Bensalah, the system will be responsible for any bad consequences. We will not give in,” said student protester Djilali Chemime, 27.

Egyptian-US Summit to Tackle Mideast as Sisi Meets Trump
Cairo - Mohammed Abdo Hassanein/Asharq Al Awsat/April 09/19/Egyptian President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi will hold talks with his American counterpart Donald Trump at the White House on Tuesday to discuss bilateral relations, counter-terrorism efforts and a number of regional files, mainly peace in the Middle East and the situation in each of Syria, Libya and Yemen. Presidency spokesperson Bassam Rady said Sisi’s visit is part of a series of meetings between the two leaders aimed at bolstering bilateral relations, achieving strategic interests and resuming dialogue on regional issues.
A report prepared by Egypt’s State Information Service revealed that Tuesday’s summit is the sixth since Sisi assumed his position as the president and that it was his second trip to Washington. Sisi first visited the US in September 2014 when he attended the 69th Session of the UN General Assembly in New York. According to the White House, the two presidents are expected to discuss strengthening the strategic partnership between Washington and Cairo and building on their robust military, economic and counter-terrorism cooperation. The two leaders will also tackle developments and shared priorities in the region, and addressing ongoing conflicts, and Egypt’s longstanding role as a lynchpin of regional stability. The Egyptian-US summit will hold great importance because it is taking place after the US decision to recognize Israel's territorial claim to the occupied Syrian Golan Heights, almost a year after Washington also officially recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Egypt categorically opposes both decisions. The visit also comes one day after the US administration’s plan to designate Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps, including its Quds Force, as a Foreign Terrorist Organization. Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said Sisi’s visit and his talks with Trump come as part of the positive atmosphere between Cairo and Washington, especially after the two countries overcame the most disputed issues in their relations.

Putin, Erdogan Coordinate on Astana Talks, Syria Constitutional Committee
Moscow - Raed Jaber/Asharq Al Awsat/April 09/19/Russia and Turkey have sought to develop a common vision for the future in Syria in terms of settling the situation in Idlib amid talks about an imminent military operation to implement the agreement to establish a demilitarized zone around the city. Talks between Presidents of Russia, Vladimir Putin, and Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, on Monday focused on this issue and others on Syria, including the situation in the north, the mechanisms of dealing with US moves and Ankara’s plans to move in the border area between Syria and Turkey. Putin said the two leaders agreed to further strengthen cooperation “in the spirit of advanced, multifaceted partnership.”“I would like to note that Russia and Turkey, as guarantors of the Astana process,” continue to make vigorous efforts for the long-term normalization of the situation in Syria, added Putin. “We are coordinating efforts to revitalize the Syrian political process, including with a view to forming a constitutional committee as soon as possible.”Prior to his departure to Moscow, Erdogan announced he intends to discuss the possibility of a new Turkish military operation in Syria with his Russian counterpart. "Our preparations at the border are completed. Everything is ready for the operation. We can start it at any moment. I will discuss this and other issues during the visit to Moscow,” he indicated. Meanwhile, Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov said that the efforts to launch the Syrian constitutional committee are ongoing as Moscow is holding negotiations with officials from Syria, Iran and Turkey. “There will be a meeting in the coming days,” he revealed. He said that some agreements on the committee may be reached before the next round of Astana talks are held, adding that it was about time that the committee was finalized. An informed source told Russia Novosti state news agency that the guarantors will send out invitations to attend the talks, set for April 25 and 26, the first after the name of the Kazakh capital was changed to Nur-Sultan. Prior to that, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Vershinin said that the next round of talks was planned at the level of deputy foreign ministers, while Kazakh Deputy Foreign Minister Mukhtar Telupid announced that the new UN special envoy to Syria, Geir Pedersen, might participate in the upcoming negotiations.

Libyan National Army Raids Tripoli Airport
Cairo – Khaled Mahmoud and Sawsan Abou Hussein/Asharq Al Awsat/April 09/19/The Libyan National Army’s (LNA) operation against Tripoli entered its fifth day on Monday with Khalifa Haftar’s forces raiding the capital’s Mitiga airport. The development took place only hours after forces loyal to Fayez al-Sarraj’s Government of National Accord (GNA) claimed to have seized control of the facility in southern Tripoli. The civil aviation authority decided "to suspend aerial traffic until further notice" to Mitiga airport, said Mohammed Gniwa, a spokesman for national carrier Libyan Airlines, reported AFP. An airport source, who did want to be named, confirmed the closure. No on was injured in the air strike that targeted a runway. UN special envoy to Libya Ghassan Salame condemned the attack on Tripoli’s only functioning airport, saying the UN was “deeply concerned for the welfare of the civilian population in the ongoing violence.”LNA spokesman Ahmed al-Mismari confirmed later on Monday that his forces were still controlling the airport, revealing that minor skirmishes had taken place in areas south, southeast and west of Tripoli, thereby refuting GNA claims that its forces had made advances on the LNA. Meanwhile, parliament Speaker Aguila Saleh said that the LNA’s march on Tripoli is in line with the constitutional declaration and parliament decision to rid the capital of militias. “We assure you that the LNA will be embraced by the residents of Tripoli. It will protect them, their properties and freedom,” he said after meeting with Arab League Secretary General Ahmed Abul Gheit in Cairo. In Tripoli, Higher Council of State chief Khaled al-Mishri announced his rejection of the LNA’s operation, calling on the GNA to issue a warrant for Haftar’s arrest. The UN mission in Libya later confirmed that it was still operating in Tripoli in spite of the unrest south of the capital. Unofficial reports had claimed that it had evacuated its staff to Tunisia in wake of the military escalation. At least 32 people have been killed and around 50 wounded in fighting, said the GNA. Mismari said that the LNA had lost only two members in the fighting.

UN Postpones Libya National Conference amid Raging Clashes
Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 9 April, 2019/The United Nations announced on Tuesday the postponement of the Libyan national conference as the Libyan National Army (LNA) continued its operation against the capital Tripoli against terrorist and criminal gangs. "We cannot ask people to take part in the conference during gunfire and air strikes," UN envoy Ghassan Salame said. He expressed hope that the meeting, which had been scheduled for next week, would take place "as soon as possible". The move came as the North African country's warring parties faced mounting international pressure to halt violence that has caused thousands to flee and left several dozen people dead. Earlier, the UN’s health body said local facilities had reported 47 people killed and 181 wounded in clashes between Khalifa Haftar’s LNA and militias countering its advance on the capital. The UN agency warned that the renewed fighting could deplete medical supplies. Separately, night flights will resume at the capital’s Mitiga airport following a brief closure prompted Monday by LNA air strikes, said the national carrier, Libyan Airlines. LNA spokesman Ahmed al-Mismari said the strike targeted a MiG-23 military plane and a helicopter. A security source at the airport said the strike hit a runway without causing casualties. A spokesman for national carrier said that the first flights from the facility will fly in passengers who were unable to travel due to Monday’s closure. UN chief Antonio Guterres on Monday appealed for an immediate halt to fighting in Libya, after the air strike on Tripoli's only functioning airport. "I make a very strong appeal to Libyan leaders … to stop all military activities... and to return to the negotiation table", the EU's foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said after talks with EU foreign ministers. Later Tuesday, Mismari accused the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord of Fayez al-Sarraj of allying itself with terrorist groups. “Sarraj disqualified himself from the political scene by supporting extremist groups,” he added.

UN Envoy in Sanaa to Persuade Houthis to Accept Hodeidah Deal
Aden - Ali Rabih/Asharq Al Awsat/April 09/19/United Nations envoy to Yemen Martin Griffiths arrived in the Yemeni capital Sanaa on Monday on a mission to persuade the Iran-backed Houthi militias to accept the truce agreement on Hodeidah that includes the deployment of forces in its three main ports. The deal was reached in Sweden in December 2018 and it has yet to be completely implemented, generating pessimism among the legitimate government. Government member of the Regional Redeployment Committee (RCC) Saghir bin Aziz said: “It is known that the Houthis have always withdrawn from a region they occupied with force. Have you ever heard of them quitting an area in peace?” He said that Griffiths would not have traveled to Sanaa without having had received a pledge by the Houthis to implement the first phase of the redeployment. “Even if they do make vows, they will not respect them,” he tweeted. Griffiths had arrived in Sanaa without making a statement, local sources told Asharq Al-Awsat. He was received at the airport by Houthi officials from their illegitimate foreign ministry. Informed sources said the envoy will meet with a number of Houthi leaders, including their top chief. He is accompanied on his visit by RCC head Michael Lollesgaard. Prior to departing for Sanaa, Griffiths had held talks with a Houthi delegation in the Omani capital, Muscat. He then headed for the Saudi capital, Riyadh, to relay the Houthi stances to legitimate government officials, including Foreign Minister Khaled al-Yemany. Following the Houthis’ failure to respect the Sweden deal, Lollesgaard made amendments to the proposed withdrawal from Hodeidah. The deal would call for the militias to quit the ports of Hodeidah, al-Salif and Ras Issa and head five kilometers east of the area. Mines they planted in the area must also be removed. The Houthis have refused to withdraw from Hodeidah, saying that they are responsible for managing its security and administrative affairs.

Tripartite Meeting in Amman to Discuss Syria's Rukban Camp
London - Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 9 April, 2019/Amman will host next month a tripartite Russian-Jordanian-US meeting to discuss the Rukban camp for displaced Syrians, reported Russia Today. Meeting with Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi in Amman on Sunday, Russian Foreign Sergei Lavrov called for dismantling of the camp. US officials have been refusing to participate so far in consultations with Russia on this issue. Safadi said that the displaced refugees must return to their homes, pointing out that this is a Syrian issue because the camp is located in Syria and its residents are Syrian. He called Sunday for a meeting between American, Russian and Jordanian officials to solve the "major humanitarian issue" of Rukban. "There can be no solution in Syria except through an American-Russian agreement supported by the international community," he said. Nearly 50,000 Syrians live at the camp near the Al-Tanf base used by the US-led coalition fighting the ISIS group. Russian and Syrian military and politician officials had warned that the camp was on the verge of a humanitarian crisis. Conditions inside the settlement are dire, with many surviving on just one simple meal a day, often bread and olive oil or yogurt, according to one resident.

Airstrike Kills Seven ISIS Terrorists South of Kirkuk, Iraq
Baghdad – Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 9 April, 2019/Iraqi police announced on Monday that seven ISIS terrorists were killed in an airstrike staged by the US-led international coalition south of Kirkuk, some 250 km north of Baghdad. International coalition drones targeted the Al-Shay region in the south Kirkuk district of Daquq, an assault that resulted in the death of seven ISIS terrorists, Iraqi police sources told THE German news agency DPA.Sources clarified that the ISIS elements killed have carried out numerous terror attacks against civilians and local security officers. They were tracked back to their hideout and then attacked by a drone, sources added. On par, Iraqi security men neutralized another two ISIS terrorists west of Anbar province. “A unit from the 7th Anbar Emergency Regiment have killed two suicide attackers before they managed arriving to their target,” a security spokesman told the press on Tuesday. The two assailants, according to the spokesman, were targeting a security checkpoint situated in the valley of Ghaida near the village of Saqra, some 30 km west of Anbar’s western city of Haditha.

Tunisia Court Issues 6-10 Years Jail Sentences to Terror Accomplices
Tunisia – Muni Al Saeedani/Asharq Al Awsat/April 09/19/A trial court in the Tunisian capital, Tunis, gave jail terms that varied between six and ten years to 15 suspects accused of providing medical and food aid and shelter to members of a terror cell accused of attacking and killing security and army servicemen. Security investigations showed that the 15 who assisted the terrorist cell did not embrace extremist ideology but sought to obtain money by providing logistical assistance to terrorists holed up in mountainous areas. Apparently, the 15 were paid between 200 and 400 Tunisian dinars ($ 66- $ 133) for aid per operation. At the end of last week, another court of the first instance handed down prison sentences to members of a terror cell known as Al-Kaaf, it is believed to be behind the 2014 attack against a military bus in the Nabar area of the Al-Kaaf province in northwestern Tunisia. Members of the cell received varying sentences. Yassin al-Khazri was sentenced to 30 years in prison, with five years of post-term parole, while Faisal al-Jabali was given a 20-year sentence and will remain under parole for 5 years as well after serving his time. Other jail sentences ranged from 2 to 10 years. The ruling on another case for another three terror suspects was adjourned based on the shortage of valid evidence.

Sudanese Protesters Maintain Sit-in outside Army HQ
Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 9 April, 2019Chanting "freedom, freedom," crowds of men and women spent the night camped outside sprawling the Khartoum complex that also houses the president's residence. It is the largest rally since protests erupted following a three-fold increase in bread prices in December, before mushrooming into nationwide demonstrations demanding that Bashir and his government step down. Early on Tuesday, members of the National Intelligence and Security Service and riot police fired tear gas at the protesters in an abortive bid to disperse their sit-in, protest movement organizers said. "There was heavy firing of tear gas after which army soldiers opened the gates of the compound for protesters to enter," a witness told AFP. "A few minutes later a group of soldiers fired gunshots in the air to push back the security forces who were firing tear gas."A second witness too said soldiers had intervened against the security force agents. Since the protests erupted in December, the armed forces have remained on the sidelines even as security agents and riot police have cracked down. Demonstrators have called on the army to protect them from the deadly crackdown, during their four days camped outside its headquarters.An AFP correspondent, some five kilometers (three miles) away, heard shooting for about four minutes. Later a group of soldiers returned to the complex with a body in their pick-up truck, witnesses said. "What is the price of martyrs?" shouted the demonstrators as the vehicle entered. It was not immediately clear whose body it was. Defense Minister General Awad Ibnouf vowed that the army would prevent any slide into chaos. "Sudan's armed forces understand the reasons for the demonstrations and is not against the demands and aspirations of the citizens, but it will not allow the country to fall into chaos," Ibnouf said on Monday, according to the official SUNA news agency. In a separate statement, army chief of staff Kamal Abdelmarouf said the military was "discharging its responsibility in securing and protecting citizens."
Officials say 38 people have died in protest-related violence since December.
Interior Minister Bushara Juma said seven protesters died and 15 were wounded on Saturday when forces tried to disperse them.
He said 42 security personnel were injured and 2,496 arrests made.
The umbrella group spearheading the protests appealed to the army on Monday for talks on forming a transitional government.
"We call on the Sudanese armed forces to talk directly with the Alliance for Freedom and Change for facilitating the peaceful process of forming a transitional government," said Omar el-Digeir, a senior member of the group.
Digeir said the protest organizers had formed a council to open talks aimed at agreeing a "transitional government that represents the wish of the revolution".
Reading from a statement, he also called on the armed forces "to withdraw their support for a regime that has lost its legitimacy" and to support the "people's alternative for a transition to a civilian democratic government".
The rally outside the army headquarters has been the largest since protests began on December 19 in the central town of Atbara, quickly spreading to the capital and nationwide. The European Union said an "unprecedented" number of people had come out calling for change since Saturday. "The people of Sudan have shown remarkable resilience in the face of extraordinary obstacles over many years," the EU's External Action Service said. "Their trust must be won through concrete action by the government."
The protesters accuse Bashir's administration of economic mismanagement that has led to soaring food prices and chronic shortages of fuel and foreign currency. After a meeting chaired by Bashir on Sunday, Sudan's security council said the demands of the protesters "have to be heard". Bashir took power in a coup in 1989. He has remained defiant, introducing tough measures that have seen protesters, opposition leaders, activists and journalists arrested.

Trump Praises 'Great Job' by Egypt's Controversial Sisi
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/April 09/19/U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday praised the "great job" he said is being done by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, despite widespread criticism over Sisi's human rights record. "I think he is doing a great job," Trump said as he sat down for talks with Sisi in the White House. "We have never had a better relationship between Egypt and United States than we do right now." Egypt is one of the biggest U.S. strategic partners -- an Arab country that made peace with top U.S. ally Israel 40 years ago and a major recipient of U.S. aid.
However, Sisi faces accusations of overseeing the repression of political opponents, women and religious minorities in Egypt. Later this month, Egyptians are expected to take part in a referendum that could see Sisi extend his rule beyond the end of his second term in 2022. Constitutional amendments would also increase the military's political role and bring the judiciary under Sisi's control. Ahead of Sisi's meeting with Trump, Human Rights Watch urged the U.S. Congress to pressure Sisi, saying the referendum could "institutionalize authoritarianism."

Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on April 09-10/19
A New Wave of Arab Revolutions
Abdulrahman Al-Rashed/Asharq Al Awsat/April 09/19
If we assume that what is happening simultaneously in Libya, Algeria and Sudan represents a series of popular uprisings and a collective desire for political change, then we are witnessing the second chapter of the Arab revolutions that erupted in 2011.
The difference, however, between the two chapters is the tepid manner in which Arabs seem to be receiving the second one — with much skepticism and little enthusiasm. How can we identify people’s feelings amid the absence of surveys at a time when the streets of Algiers and Khartoum are packed with hundreds of thousands of protesters?
Indeed, the demand for change aside, there are significant differences between the revolutions of early 2011 and what we see and hear today. There is skepticism about the motives of the new uprisings, being openly expressed by intellectuals. Moreover, there is concern about change despite the popular anger toward the regimes targeted by the protests.
Who can guarantee that these countries will not end up like Syria, where the regime stayed and the country was devastated; or like Yemen, where the revolution was hijacked; or even like the countries that achieved change and established stability — Tunisia and Egypt — but only after having gone through phases of difficult transitional disorder? Perhaps change could have been achieved without having to go through such a difficult labor.
No doubt enthusiasm has faltered regionally because the results of the so-called Arab Spring have been a terrible nightmare. Even in the positive uprising in Sudan, which is growing with time and reflects a long state of unrest, demonstrators have not demanded anything except to change the regime that is stifling the Sudanese people, but there is no sign yet of a better replacement. Leading opposition figure Sadiq Al-Mahdi reflects the current disfavored rule and an old religious and family image with whic
h the Sudanese people are now fed up.
In Libya, change has come from above — from the army, which has decided to refuse to share power with the militias, taking the risk of confronting local, regional and international forces. It has been an armed uprising, not a peaceful one, which has won great support and may, according to opponents, establish a dictatorial regime.
However, eliminating the legacy of the 2011 revolution is a popular demand because it has torn Libya apart and put people’s lives in danger every day. Unlike in Sudan, where people have risen up against the longstanding status quo, in Libya there is a revolution against the revolution.
As for Yemen, there is a war on the coup led by the Houthi militias. The war aims to re-establish the legitimacy of the 2011 revolution and get rid of those who hijacked it, including the Houthis and the insurgents supporting the former regime.
The situation in Algeria looks like a proactive process for a larger popular revolution. The streets and squares have welcomed demonstrators under the army’s protection. This is almost a repetition of the scenario that took place during the 2011 revolution in Cairo, as army forces and tanks filled the Tahrir Square and the streets surrounding it to help protect the demonstrators after the security forces vanished from the streets.
In fact, the military establishment in Algeria has led the ranks of protesters, announced its demand for change, compelled President Abdelaziz Bouteflika to step down and pull out of the presidential election, and then got rid of most pro-regime leaders, either by dismissal or arrest. The popular-military revolution continues to work on new arrangements for change.
Libya, Algeria, and Sudan represent a new wave of change, but it does not have the same spirit and climate as the Arab Spring. Even the international powers that had raced to welcome the earlier revolutions are now silent via-a-vis this wave, except for a few warnings and calls for peace.

Haftar Can Unite Libya, End Chaos
Abdulrahman Al-Rashed/Asharq Al Awsat/April 09/19
It is not surprising that Libyans look forward to the end of the eight-year nightmare of fighting and chaos and wish for a united country with one central government and one army. This dream seems closer to reality today, for the first time, with the rapid advancement of the Libyan National Army (LNA), which has arrived in Tripoli, the capital and militia stronghold, and liberated a number of its districts.
It is not only Libyans who want the end of the nightmare of war, the elimination of militias, and the establishment of one central authority. This is the desire of the world, and specifically most of the regional and international powers. Although all governments have called for a peaceful solution and a cessation of military operations, most of them do not mind a decisive military solution if there is no alternative, albeit under the leadership of army chief Khalifa Haftar. The language of the political statements issued by Paris, Washington, Moscow, and Cairo did not resort to the threat of sanctions, but instead adopted a language calling for a political solution, which is known to be unattainable under the previous balance of power, before the arrival of the vanguard of the LNA in Tripoli. The promised negotiations would have failed as long as the militias insisted on keeping their weapons, oil, and spheres of influence.
Ghassan Salame, the UN envoy to Libya, who had set the table for dialogue, said he would not back down despite the new developments and the solution would be negotiated at a conference next week.
“Having spent a year getting to this stage, I will not cancel it,” he said. In reality, this point seems to be better for negotiations, even if the LNA does not take all of Tripoli. The balance of power has changed in favor of the military leadership against the armed militias, whose neighborhoods are now within range of the army’s artillery fire.
In recent days, the militias have been keen to use the term “legitimacy” in their political propaganda, and claim that they are allies of the “internationally recognized Government of National Accord led by Fayez Al-Sarraj.” They have borrowed legitimacy from the Government of National Accord on the pretext that they support it. Legitimacy is a common word here. The army itself, led by Haftar, is a legitimate institution and enjoys the full support of the Libyan parliament, which is also a legitimate institution.
Most importantly, what about the Libyan people, who have been living in a miserable situation since the 2011 revolution? There is no doubt that they would welcome any central authority that would unite the country, reunite the shattered state, establish security and stability, eliminate the militias, and clear this long darkness.
In light of the eight-year chaos, nothing can unite Libya better than the LNA. Most of the militias are armed to the teeth, and some Al-Qaeda-affiliated groups, which are supported by governments like Qatar and Turkey, are even more dangerous. These same governments supported similar groups in the Syrian civil war. When the Qataris said that Saudi Arabia is supporting the LNA’s campaign to liberate Tripoli, that claim did not go beyond the bickering. Qatar has been publicly supporting Libyan extremist groups since the beginning of the war. As any action that ends the divisions and chaos must be welcome, I wish the accusations on Saudi Arabia supporting Haftar were true, but they are not. Saudi Arabia is moving away from regional events except in the Yemen war, where it is leading the Arab coalition. Most neighboring countries would be happy if the chaos and armed groups threatening Tunisia, Algeria, Chad, and Egypt were eliminated. Supporting the military move in Libya is not in favor of Haftar, nor LNA spokesman Ahmed Al-Mesmari, but rather in the hope of uniting Libyan and bringing salvation to the era of chaos.

Just War vs Just Plain-Old Jihad
ريموند إبراهيم: الحرب المحقة مقابل الجهاد القديم العادي
Raymond Ibrahim/April 09/19
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/73680/raymond-ibrahim-just-war-vs-just-plain-old-jihad/
Wherever one looks, the historic crusades against Islam are demonized and distorted in ways designed to exonerate jihadi terror. “Unless we get on our high horse,” Barak Obama once chided Americans who were overly critical of Islamic terror, “and think this [beheadings, sex-slavery, crucifixion, roasting humans] is unique to some other place, remember that during the Crusades and the Inquisition, people committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ.”
Others, primarily academics and self-professed “experts,” insist that the crusades are one of the main reasons modern day Muslims are still angry. According to Georgetown University’s John Esposito, “Five centuries of peaceful coexistence [between Islam and Christendom] elapsed before political events and an imperial-papal power play led to [a] centuries-long series of so-called holy wars that pitted Christendom against Islam and left an enduring legacy of misunderstanding and distrust.”[1]
Nor is this characterization limited to abstract theorizing; it continues to have a profound impact on the psyche of Westerners everywhere. Thus in 1999 and to mark the nine hundredth anniversary of the crusader conquest of Jerusalem, hundreds of devout Protestants participated in a so-called “reconciliation walk” that began in Germany and ended in Jerusalem. Along the way they wore T-shirts bearing the message “I apologize” in Arabic. Their official statement follows:
Nine hundred years ago, our forefathers carried the name of Jesus Christ in battle across the Middle East. Fueled by fear, greed and hatred… the Crusaders lifted the banner of the Cross above your people… On the anniversary of the first Crusade, we … wish to retrace the footsteps of the Crusaders in apology for their deeds … We deeply regret the atrocities committed in the name of Christ by our predecessors. We renounce greed, hatred and fear, and condemn all violence done in the name of Jesus Christ.[2]
The great irony concerning the mainstream condemnation of the historic crusades is that a closer examination of them—what they meant, what inspired them, how they were justified, who could participate—in comparison to the requisites of jihad, not only exonerates the crusades but exonerates the West of any wrongdoing against Islam, past or present. As outrageous as this may sound, consider some facts:
Just War Theory
First, the crusades were a product of Just War theory, the fundamental criterion of which is that wars “must be defensive or for the recovery of rightful possession,” to quote Crusades historian Christopher Tyerman.[3] “Christian warriors,” elaborates Reconquista historian Joseph O’Callaghan, “were exhorted to regain land, once theirs, but now wrongfully occupied by Muslim intruders who were charged with oppressing Christianity and despoiling churches.” As such, “the Christians, certain that their cause was just and that God was on their side, faced the enemy.”[4]
So sure of the justness of their cause, premodern Europeans never failed to explain it to their Muslim opponents. Before beginning the siege of Lisbon, Archbishop Joao of Braga invited the Muslims to surrender, since they had “unjustly held our cities and lands already for 358 years,” and “to return to the homeland of the Moors whence you came, leaving to us what is ours.”[5] Fifty years earlier and thousands of miles to the east, Peter the Hermit relied on the same logic to explain to a Muslim commander why it was just for the crusaders—and not for the Muslims—to claim the ancient Christian city of Antioch by force: because it had been Christian for six centuries before Islam invaded.
Indeed, because North Africa and the Middle East were part of Christendom centuries before Islam conquered them, not a few Medieval European thinkers harbored hopes of liberating even these. “The oriental church shone in antiquity, explained Jacques [de Vitry, a Frankish theologian, b. 1160/70], spreading its rays to the West, but ‘from the time of the perfidious Muhammad until our own time’ has been in decline” and thus needed liberation.[6] The “idea of proceeding through Spain to Africa and thence to the Holy Land was put forward in the fourteenth century in several treatises on the recovery of the Holy Land.”[7]
As late as the twentieth century, the prolific Anglo-French historian Hilaire Belloc lamented that if the crusades had not failed, “probably we Europeans would have recovered North Africa and Egypt—we should certainly have saved Constantinople—and Mohammedanism would have only survived as an Oriental religion thrust beyond the ancient boundaries of the Roman Empire.”[8] Even the entire colonial era was a byproduct of Just War. As Bernard Lewis explains:
[T]he whole complex process of European expansion and empire in the last five centuries has its roots in the clash of Islam and Christendom. It began with the long and bitter struggle of the conquered peoples of Europe, in east and west, to restore their homelands to Christendom and expel the Muslim peoples who had invaded and subjugated them. It was hardly to be expected that the triumphant Spaniards and Portuguese would stop at the Straits of Gibraltar, or that the Russians would allow the Tatars to retire in peace and regroup in their bases on the upper and lower Volga—the more so since a new and deadly Muslim attack on Christendom was under way, with the Turkish advance from the Bosporus to the Danube and beyond threatening the heart of Europe. The victorious liberators, having reconquered their own territories, pursued their former masters whence they had come.[9]
Just Plain-Old Jihad
Now compare Just War logic—defending one’s lands and its people and defanging one’s enemy—with the jihad. The “Western distinction between just and unjust wars,” writes international relations professor Bassam Tibi, “is unknown in Islam. Any war against unbelievers, whatever its immediate ground, is morally justified. Only in this sense can one distinguish just and unjust wars in Islamic tradition. When Muslims wage war for the dissemination of Islam, it is a just war…. When non-Muslims attack Muslims [including in self-defense], it is an unjust war. The usual Western interpretation of jihad as a ‘just war’ in the Western sense is, therefore, a misreading of this Islamic concept.”[10]
To be sure, a great many Western “experts” on Islam insist that jihad is the Islamic counterpart of Just War, that it is all always defensive and in no way, shape, or form supports offensive warfare. (Most recently, Juan Cole makes this false assertion in his book, Muhammad: Prophet of Peace Amid the Clash of Empires.)
Or consider the words of Islam scholar Clement Huart (b.1854), writing back at the height of Western power and Muslim weakness: “The [Western] international conventions that have limited the exercise of the right to wage war [to purposes of defense] have no influence over the Muslim soul, to which passivism is and always will be for foreign. The state of peace has been imposed on it by force; the Muslim soul tolerates it but does not recognize it, and cannot recognize it as long as there are unbelievers on earth to convert.”[11]
Sin, Sincerity, and Sex
What constitutes casus bellum is only the first of many differences between crusade and jihad. Because the former developed within a Judeo-Christian paradigm, it was surrounded by moral constraints that no other civilization—especially Islam—imposed on itself.
From the very start, at Clermont in 1095, Pope Urban never offered forgiveness of sins (but rather remission of the penances for sins to which crusaders had already confessed).[12] Those who took the cross were required to be sincerely penitent.
This is a far cry from what Muslims were (and are) taught about fighting and dying in jihad: every sin they ever committed is instantly forgiven, and the highest level of paradise is theirs. “Lining up for battle in the path of Allah,” Muhammad had decreed in a canonical hadith, “is worthier than 60 years of worship.” Muhammad also said, “I cannot find anything” as meritorious as jihad, which he further likened to “praying ceaselessly and fasting continuously.”[13] As for the “martyr”—the shahid—he “is special to Allah,” announced the prophet. “He is forgiven from the first drop of blood [he sheds]. He sees his throne in paradise. . . . Fixed atop his head will be a crown of honor, a ruby that is greater than the world and all it contains. And he will copulate with seventy-two Houris.” (The houris are supernatural, celestial women—“wide-eyed” and “big-bosomed,” says the Koran—created by Allah for the express purpose of gratifying his favorites in perpetuity.)
Crusader motives also had to be sincere: “Whoever shall set forth to liberate the church of God at Jerusalem for the sake of devotion alone and not to obtain honor or money will be able to substitute that journey for all penance,” Urban had said. Similarly, Spanish Prince Juan Manuel (d.1348) explained that “all those who go to war against the Moors in true repentance and with a right intention … and die are without any doubt holy and rightful martyrs, and they have no other punishment than the death they suffer.”[14]
In this, Christian war significantly departed from Islamic jihad. Allah and his prophet never asked for or required sincere hearts from those flocking to the jihad; as long as they proclaimed the shahada—thereby pledging allegiance to Islam—and nominally fought for and obeyed the caliph or sultan, men could invade, plunder, rape and enslave infidels to their hearts content.
The cold, businesslike language of the Koran makes this clear. Whoever wages jihad makes a “fine loan to Allah,” which the latter guarantees to pay back “many times over” in booty and bliss either in the here or hereafter (e.g., Koran 2:245, 4:95, 9:111). “I guarantee him [the jihadi] either admission to Paradise,” said Muhammad, “or return to whence he set out with a reward or booty.
In short, fighting in Islam’s service—with the risk of dying—is all the proof of piety needed. Indeed, sometimes fighting has precedence over piety: many dispensations, including not upholding prayers and fasting, are granted those who participate in jihad. Ottoman sultans were actually forbidden from going on pilgrimage to Mecca—an otherwise individual obligation for Muslims, especially those who can afford it, such as the sultan—simply because doing so could jeopardize the prosecution of the jihad.
Little wonder that, whereas there was never a shortage of Muslims willing to participate in a jihad, “85-90 percent of the Frankish knights did not respond to the pope’s call to the Crusade,” explains Tony Stark, and “those [10-15 percent] who went were motivated primarily by pious idealism.”[15]
Little wonder that there are still countless jihadis today but no crusaders.
The crusade’s stringent requirements compared to the jihad’s lax requirements are especially evident in the context of sex. Crusaders were forbidden from owning or raping slaves. During the more than eight month long siege of Antioch, desperate crusaders—whose many deprivations included female companionship—resorted to roaming bands of local prostitutes. These were eventually driven out, “lest they [the crusaders], stained by the defilement of dissipation, displease the Lord.”[16] Contrast this with the Muslim army that came to face them: it contained numerous beautiful women “brought here not to fight, but rather reproduce,” observed one eyewitness.[17]
Inevitable Atrocities vs. Intentional Atrocities
Because Just War demanded the restoration of a particularly important piece of Christian territory, in this case, Jerusalem, the crusaders marched for years over thousands of miles deep into hostile territory, suffering hunger, thirst, disease, and a host of other plagues to reach their goal.
This comes out clearly in the writings of participants and contemporaries of the First Crusade. “So, for the love of God,” explained Fulcher of Chartres, “we suffered … hunger, cold, and excessive rains. Some wanting food ate even horses, asses, and camels. Also, we were very often racked by excessive cold and frequent rainstorms… I saw many, without tents, die from the coldness of the rainstorms…. Often some were killed by Saracens lying in ambush around the narrow passages, or were abducted by them when they were seeking victuals… [But] it is evident that no one can achieve anything great without tremendous effort. [Thus] it was a great event when we came to Jerusalem.” Pregnant women, adds Albert of Aix (b. 1060) “their throats dried up, their wombs withered, all the veins of the body drained by the indescribable heat of the sun and that parched region, gave birth and abandoned their own [probably stillborn] young in the middle of the highway in the view of everyone.”
Unsurprisingly, when they finally breached the walls of those who had initiated the need for them to march (and suffer) in the first place—Muslims—the by then emaciated and half-maddened Europeans often responded with unbridled fury. “As they recalled the sufferings they had endured during the siege” of Antioch, wrote a contemporary, “they thought that the blows that they were giving could not match the starvations, more bitter than death, that they had endured.”[18] Likewise, during the siege of Barra, the crusaders were so “harassed by the madness of excessive hunger”[19] that they devoured the flesh of already dead Muslims; when they finally took the city, “[t]heir [deranged] appearance … terrified the Muslims,” who were ruthlessly massacred.[20]
Conversely, Muslims never had a specific goal that required them to march thousands of miles deep into hostile territory; rather the jihad took place wherever Muslim territories conveniently abutted against infidels (the ribats or border fortresses). Thus jihadis rarely suffered hardships or deprivations and were always a short march away from Muslim territories, whence supplies, recruits, and refreshments of all sorts were easily attainable. Even so, according to the popular view (voiced by academics, politicians, and especially media) the atrocities committed during the crusader sack of Jerusalem—not the countless Muslim atrocities committed in the centuries before and after it that were neither justified nor exacerbated by undue hardships but rather fueled by sadistic hate for “infidels”—is the worst atrocity ever committed in the many centuries of war between Christians and Muslims, and the only one that should be talked about.
Religious Freedom vs Religious Coercion
Finally, because Just War is exclusively concerned with matters of justice (recovering land or repulsing enemies) and, unlike the jihad, is not ideologically driven, so too did it not institutionalize any mechanisms to pressure Muslims into converting to Christianity. (With notable exceptions as when the Spanish crown found conversion to Christianity the only realistic way for half a million Muslims to abandon their ongoing hostilities and subversions; even this failed as the overwhelming majority of Muslims feigned conversion while internalizing the antagonism in keeping with the doctrine of taqiyya, as documented in Sword and Scimitar, pp. 199-203).
As Constantine the Great had explained three centuries before the coming of Islam, “Let those [pagans] who delight in error alike with those who believe [Christians] partake of the advantages of peace and quiet…. Let no one disturb another, let each man hold fast to that which his soul wishes, let him make full use of this… What each man has adopted as his persuasion, let him do no harm with this to another.”[21]
A millennium after Constantine, Spanish prince Juan Manuel (d.1348) agreed: “There is war between Christians and Moors and there will be until the Christians have recovered the lands that the Moors have taken from them by force. There would not be war between them on account of religion or sect, because Jesus Christ never ordered that anyone should be killed or forced to accept his religion.”[22]
“In other words,” concludes crusades professor Riley-Smith, “the Crusades, like all Christian wars, had to be reactive; they could never, for example, be wars of conversion.”[23] Accordingly, whether during the crusades or the colonial era, European (re)conquerors did not behave like their Muslim counterparts and institutionalize discriminatory or humiliating measures designed to pressure the conquered to convert. A ninth century letter from Constantinople to the caliphate argues that, “since … the Arab prisoners could pray in a mosque in Constantinople without anyone obliging them to embrace Christianity, the Caliph should also cease to persecute Christians.”[24]
That Just War is morally superior to just jihad can even be seen in the aftermath of both. Whereas successful jihads almost always culminated in slavery, depopulation, and devastation, Muslims “live in great comfort under the Franks,” wrote Ibn Jubayr around 1180, while passing through the crusader kingdoms on pilgrimage to Mecca. Muslims “are masters of their dwellings,” he added, “and govern themselves as they wish. This is the case in all the territory occupied by the Franks.”
Distinctions Even a Child Understands
Be that as it may; whatever else can be taken from this excursus on the differences between crusade and jihad, between just and unjust wars, the most fundamental point cannot be overstated: because Islam initiated hostilities against the premodern Christian world—invading and conquering the majority of its historic territory without provocation and in the name of jihad, not justice—everything the West did in response was justified. If this assertion strikes some as outrageous, so too does it accord with the most universally held notions of justice, apparent from birth. For when two school boys are chastised for fighting and one indignantly cries out “but he started it!”—what else does he do but appeal to the innate human conviction that whoever starts, not responds to, violence is the guilty party?
(Note: See Ibrahim’s new book Sword and Scimitar: Fourteen Centuries of War between Islam and the West for many examples of just and unjust wars.)
[1] Andrea, 1.
[2] Stark 2009, 5.
[3] Tyerman, 34.
[4] O’Callaghan 2004, 177.
[5] Ibid., 43.
[6] Tolan, 199.
[7] O’Callaghan 2004, 39.
[8] Belloc, 62.
[9] Lewis 1994, 17-18.
[10] Nardin, 128-145.
[11] Bostom, 291.
[12] Rubenstein, 10.
[13] Lindsay 2015, 70, 145.
[14] O’Callaghan 2004, 201.
[15] Stark 2009, 114.
[16] Peters, 54.
[17] Guibert, 93.
[18] Guibert, 84.
[19] Peters, 69.
[20] Gabrieli 1993, 9.
[21] Stark 2012, 179.
[22] O’Callaghan 2004, 211.
[23] Riley-Smith 2008, 15.
[24] Bonner 2004, 230.
https://www.raymondibrahim.com/2019/04/09/just-war-vs-just-plain-old-jihad/

Qatar: 'A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing'/Bankrolling Islamism in Europe
جوليو ميوتي/معهد جيتسون/قطر هي ذئب في ملابس الأغنام وهي التي تمويل الإسلاميين في أوروبا
Giulio Meotti/Gatestone Institute/April 09/2019
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/73687/%D8%AC%D9%88%D9%84%D9%8A%D9%88-%D9%85%D9%8A%D9%88%D8%AA%D9%8A-%D9%85%D8%B9%D9%87%D8%AF-%D8%AC%D9%8A%D8%AA%D8%B3%D9%88%D9%86-%D9%82%D8%B7%D8%B1-%D9%87%D9%8A-%D8%B0%D8%A6%D8%A8-%D9%81%D9%8A-%D9%85%D9%84/
"We have been reporting Doha's ideological and religious penetration for years. In the form of investments and financial operations, Qatar extends its proselytizing network every day, with serious damage to European societies..." — Souad Sbai, the Moroccan-born president of Italy's Averroes Studies Center.
Qatar has been funding mega-mosques across Europe. Qatar's goal is apparently to Islamicize the European diaspora.
"[Qatar's] English-language stations produce slick propaganda against Qatar's enemies, dressed up in Western liberal rhetoric. Al Jazeera's latest venture – its social media channel, AJ+ – is aimed at young, progressive Americans. Its documentaries on the evils of Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the Trump administration are sandwiched between glowing coverage of transgender rights campaigns and emotional appeals for the plight of asylum seekers on America's southern border – seemingly incongruous topics for a broadcaster controlled by a Wahhabi regime... Qatar is now the largest foreign donor to American universities." — Daniel Pipes, president of the Middle East Forum.
According to Souad Sbai (left), the Moroccan-born president of Italy's Averroes Studies Center, "Qatar extends its proselytizing network every day, with serious damage to European societies, including Italy". Daniel Pipes (right) writes that Qatar "works to influence Western policymakers and the public directly... Its English-language stations produce slick propaganda against Qatar's enemies, dressed up in Western liberal rhetoric... Qatar is now the largest foreign donor to American universities."
In October, Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini visited Qatar, the "energy giant", where he praised the emirate for "not sponsoring extremism anymore". Unfortunately, the opposite is true. Qatar, "the other Wahhabi state", apparently is interested not only in its economic relationship with Europe, but also in exporting its brand of political Islam.
According to a new book, Qatar Papers: How the Emirate Finances Islam in France and Europe, by two French journalists, Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot, Qatar has distributed 22 million euros to Islamic projects in Italy alone. This funding has had virtually a single beneficiary: the Union of Islamic Communities and Organizations in Italy (UCOII), accused of closeness to Qatar's pet organization, the Muslim Brotherhood, the mouthpiece of which is Qatar's media outlet, Al Jazeera, located in the capital city of Doha.
"Qatar is today a leading funder of Islam in Europe," Malbrunot said in an interview. His book, an important exposé of the Islamist penetration into Europe, notes that Qatar has funded 140 mosques and Islamic centers in Europe to the tune of €71 million. The country with the most of the projects (50) was Italy, where Rome's Al Houda Centre received €4 million.
A grandson of Muslim Brotherhood founder Hasan al-Banna, Tariq Ramadan, whom several women have accused of rape and sexual abuse, has received €35,000 per month from the Qatar for being a "consultant". The Muslim Cultural Complex of Lausanne, Switzerland, received $1.6 million. Qatar, in 2015, donated a new £11 million building at Oxford's St Antony's College, where Ramadan is a professor.
Qatar has also been extremely active in France. The emirate, according to the book, financed the Islamic Center of Villeneuve-d'Ascq and the Lycée-Collège Averroès, France's first state-funded Muslim faith school. Lycée-Collège Averroès became the center of a scandal when one of its teachers resigned after writing that the school was "a hotbed of anti-Semitism and 'promoting Islamism' to pupils".
Qatar has also financed other mosques in France. The Great Mosque of Poitiers, for instance, sits in the vicinity of the site of the Battle of Tours (also known as the Battle of Poitiers), where Charles Martel, ruler of the Franks, stopped the advancing Muslim army of Abdul al-Rahman in the year 732. The Assalam mosque in Nantes and the Grand Mosque of Paris are other examples.
In their previous book, "Nos très chers émirs" ("Our Very Dear Emirs"), Chesnot and Malbrunot exposed the close relationship that exists between the French political establishment and the Qatari monarchy. Among Qatar's beneficiaries were the European Institute of Human Sciences -- an Islamic facility close to the French branch of the Muslim Brotherhood -- that offers courses in Islamic theology.
Among the Islamists described in the book is the Doha-based cleric, Yusuf al Qaradawi, who condoned suicide bombings during the Second Intifada; endorsed a fatwa for killing Americans in Iraq and encouraged Muslims to travel abroad to fight in civil wars in Syria and Libya. Qaradawi also called for the "conquest of Rome" and announced on Egyptian television in 2013 that without death as a punishment for leaving the religion (apostasy), "Islam wouldn't exist today".
"We have been reporting Doha's ideological and religious penetration for years", said Souad Sbai, the Moroccan-born president of Italy's Averroes Studies Center. "In the form of investments and financial operations, Qatar extends its proselytizing network every day, with serious damage to European societies, including Italy". The newspaper L'Opinione delle Libertà quotes Sbai calling Qatar "a wolf in sheep's clothing".
Elzir Izzedin, the imam of Florence and president of UCOII, admitted three years ago: "25 million euros arrived from Qatar".
Qatar was also behind the founding of an Islamic university for 5,000 students in the small southern Italian town of Lecce.
Also two years ago, with an investment of over 2.3 million euros, Qatar was carrying out important Islamic projects in Italy's southern island, Sicily, where Qatar apparently supports about a quarter of the mosques.
According to the president of the Middle East Forum, Daniel Pipes, "Doha does not rely only on the Islamist diaspora in the West to advance its agenda; it also works to influence Western policymakers and the public directly":
"Its English-language stations produce slick propaganda against Qatar's enemies, dressed up in Western liberal rhetoric. Al Jazeera's latest venture – its social media channel, AJ+ – is aimed at young, progressive Americans. Its documentaries on the evils of Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the Trump administration are sandwiched between glowing coverage of transgender rights campaigns and emotional appeals for the plight of asylum seekers on America's southern border – seemingly incongruous topics for a broadcaster controlled by a Wahhabi regime."
"Doha also seeks to influence Western educational institutions. The regime-controlled Qatar Foundation hands tens of millions of dollars to schools, colleges and other educational institutions across Europe and North America. Indeed, Qatar is now the largest foreign donor to American universities. Its funds pay for the teaching of Arabic and lessons on Middle Eastern culture and their ideological bent is at times unashamedly apparent, as in the lesson plan in American schools titled, 'Express Your Loyalty to Qatar.'"
Italy's largest newspaper, Il Corriere della Sera, described the Qatari activism in the country: "On May 24th, Sheikh Prince Hamad Bin Nasser Al Thani, a member of the Qatari royal family, was in Piacenza, where he inaugurated the new Islamic center alongside the main city authorities; the same day he moved to Brescia, to cut the ribbon of the enlargement of the local mosque. Two days later and a smiling prince Al Thani reappeared in Mirandola, in the province of Modena, for the inauguration of the new Muslim prayer center, damaged by the 2012 earthquake and put up as new, unlike the local parish church. On May 28, the sheikh was immortalized in Vicenza, again for the opening of an Islamic center. On June 5, another ribbon-cutting ceremony, this time of a complex for prayer and a Koranic school in Saronno (Varese), even flanked by the episcopal vicar".
An analyst at the Spanish Institute of Strategic Studies of the Ministry of Defense, Colonel Emilio Sánchez de Rojas, charged both Qatar and Saudi Arabia with "campaigns of influence in the West". Qatar has been funding mega-mosques across Europe. Qatar's goal is apparently to Islamicize the European diaspora.
As the German MP and Middle East expert, Rolf Mützenich, said in 2016:
"For quite some time we've had indications and evidence that German Salafists are getting assistance, which is approved by the governments of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait, in the form of money, the sending of imams and the building of Koran schools and mosques."
The Economist has also focused on Qatar's takeover of Europe's mosques.
In 2014 the US Treasury Department not only singled out Qatar as a source of funds for al-Qaeda; it seems that Doha has also been, with a few suspensions, a primary supporter of Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist organization that is pursuing the destruction of the State of Israel. During the "Arab Spring" in 2011, Qatar, which, through Al Jazeera, has been credited for its role in "participating in creating the environment for the Arab Spring," supported the Islamists, presumably to replace secular dictators in Tunisia, Libya and Egypt.
Qatar has also been accused of funding the Islamic State (ISIS). General Jonathan Shaw, a former Assistant Chief of Defence Staff in Britain, declared that Qatar and Saudi Arabia are responsible for spread of radical Islam. "This is a time bomb that, under the guise of education, Wahhabi Salafism is igniting under the world really. And it is funded by Saudi and Qatari money and that must stop", said Gen Shaw.
As Qatar's ideological spending spree in the West races ahead, many Europeans, still seemingly lost behind a willful blindness, pursue their futile accusations of "hate speech", "racism" and "Islamophobia", while radical Muslims infiltrate their democracies and continue to encircle them.
*Giulio Meotti, Cultural Editor for Il Foglio, is an Italian journalist and author.
© 2019 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.
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14042/qatar-europe-islamism-finance

Palestinian Authority Targets Students
Khaled Abu Toameh/Gatestone Institute/April 09/19
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14041/palestinians-target-students
The Palestinian students are being targeted because of their political affiliations and not because of any crime they committed.
While the Palestinian Authority and Hamas are busy beating up each other's supporters, "pro-Palestinian" activists on US and Canadian university campuses are busy blaming Israel for Palestinian woes.
For these alleged activists -- who are remarkably passive when it comes to truly assisting Palestinians -- their protests seem more about hating Israel than anything else. If they really cared about the Palestinians, they might stop abusing Israel long enough to notice the abuse that the Palestinian "leaders" inflict on the people under them.
Last month, the largest university in the West Bank, An-Najah University in Nablus, issued a directive banning the Islamic Bloc student list from carrying out any activities on campus, without giving any reason for the ban. In the past week, Palestinian Authority security forces arrested two An-Najah University students, apparently as part of an ongoing crackdown to silence and intimidate political opponents.
"Pro-Palestinian" activists at university campuses in the US and other Western countries have long been waging various campaigns to denounce Israel and hold it fully responsible for the continued "suffering" of Palestinians.
These activists, however, seem to care little about violations committed against the Palestinians by the Palestinian Authority (PA) in the West Bank or Hamas in the Gaza Strip -- even when fellow students in the West Bank and Gaza are being targeted.
In recent weeks, the PA has been waging a campaign of arrests and intimidation against Palestinian students at some of the West Bank universities. The students, according to the Palestinian Authority, are being targeted because of their affiliation with opposition groups, including Hamas. The students, in other words, are being targeted because of their political affiliations and not because of any crime they committed.
Last month, the largest university in the West Bank, An-Najah University, issued a directive banning the Islamic Bloc student list from carrying out any activities on campus. The university administration did not offer any reason for the ban. The decision was announced shortly after a student list affiliated with the Palestinian Authority's ruling Fatah faction accused its rivals in the Islamic Bloc of carrying out "political activities" on campus on behalf of Hamas. The Fatah-affiliated students later closed the offices belonging to their rivals on campus.
In response, the Islamic Bloc issued a statement denouncing the university administration's ban as "unfair and unjustified." The statement said that Palestinian university students in the West Bank "were continuing to suffer from harassment, repression, torture and politically motivated arrests."
The university administration defended its decision and said that it also banned the activities of the Fatah-affiliated list on campus. A spokesman for the university pointed out that tensions on campus only escalated after Hamas's recent brutal crackdown on Fatah supporters in the Gaza Strip.
Last month, Hamas security forces used violence to disperse Palestinians protesting economic hardship and increased taxes imposed on residents of the Gaza Strip. Fatah says that Hamas security forces broke the arms and legs of dozens of Fatah protesters, including a senior Fatah official, Atef Abu Seif.
In the past week, the Palestinian Authority security forces arrested two students from An-Najah University, apparently as part of an ongoing crackdown to silence and intimidate political opponents.
A video posted on YouTube showed armed Palestinian security officers in plainclothes beating and arresting student Musa Dweikat at the entrance to An-Najah University in Nablus. The security officers are seen knocking Dweikat to the ground and repeatedly kicking him before he is carried to a police van.
The video sparked a wave of protests among Palestinians, including local human rights activists. The Association of Civil Society Organizations in Nablus condemned the Palestinian security forces for the force used against Dweikat and called for holding those responsible to account. The Association also condemned the "ongoing arrests and violations against the Palestinian Basic Law" against students because of their political affiliations and opinions. Noting that politically motivated arrests were also taking place in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, the organization said that the human rights violations committed by the Palestinian Authority and Hamas were "harmful to the image and reputation of the Palestinians."
Dweikat was the second university student to be arrested by the Palestinian Authority this past week.
The other student, Ibrahim Shalhoub, was arrested by Palestinian security officers at his home in the village of Deir al-Ghusoun in the northern West Bank. Shalhoub's family said that the officers conducted a thorough search of their home and confiscated their son's cellular phone and computer. Shalhoub was arrested after he threatened to appeal the decision by An-Najah University to ban the activities of the Islamic Bloc student list.
Another West Bank university, Al-Quds University, announced last week a similar decision to ban students affiliated with the Islamic Bloc from running in the student council election.
Earlier this month, Palestinian security officers and Fatah activists tore down election banners belonging to the Islamic Bloc at Hebron University in the West Bank. The move came on the eve of elections for the university's student council. The Palestinian security forces also summoned several students for interrogation, apparently as part of an attempt to intimidate them and undermine the chances of the Hamas-affiliated Islamic Bloc from winning the election.
Hamas and other Palestinian groups accused the Palestinian Authority security forces of acting with a mob mentality against university students in the West Bank. "Our people and sons in the West Bank are facing a gang in contradiction of morals, laws and national values," Hamas said in response to the crackdown on university students. The PLO's Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) called on the Palestinian Authority to "stop dealing with a mob mentality toward with Palestinian students."
It is ironic that Hamas is accusing its rivals in Fatah and the Palestinian Authority of acting like gangs.
This is the same Hamas that has repeatedly resorted to repressive measures, including breaking bones and shooting unarmed protesters, to silence its critics in the Gaza Strip. Hamas and the PA have been at war with each other since 2007, when Hamas violently seized control of the Gaza Strip. Since then, hundreds of Palestinians, including political activists, journalists, writers, and university students, have fallen victim to the power struggle between the two groups.
The latest crackdown on university students in the West Bank is the latest sign of the mounting tensions between the two Palestinian parties. While the Palestinian Authority and Hamas are busy beating up each other's supporters, "pro-Palestinian" activists on US and Canadian university campuses are busy blaming Israel for Palestinian woes. For these alleged activists -- who are remarkably passive when it comes to truly assisting Palestinians -- their protests seem more about hating Israel than anything else. If they really cared about the Palestinians, they might stop abusing Israel long enough to notice the abuse that the Palestinian "leaders" inflict on the people under them.
*Khaled Abu Toameh, an award-winning journalist based in Jerusalem, is a Shillman Journalism Fellow at Gatestone Institute.
© 2019 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.