LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
April 11/2019
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
The Bulletin's Link on the lccc Site
http://data.eliasbejjaninews.com/eliasnews19/english.april11.19.htm
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Take note of those who do not obey what we say in this
letter; have nothing to do with them, so that they may be ashamed
Second Letter to the Thessalonians 03/06-14: “We command you, beloved, in the
name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to keep away from believers who are living in
idleness and not according to the tradition that they received from us. For you
yourselves know how you ought to imitate us; we were not idle when we were with
you, and we did not eat anyone’s bread without paying for it; but with toil and
labour we worked night and day, so that we might not burden any of you. This was
not because we do not have that right, but in order to give you an example to
imitate. For even when we were with you, we gave you this command: Anyone
unwilling to work should not eat. For we hear that some of you are living in
idleness, mere busybodies, not doing any work. Now such persons we command and
exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own
living. Brothers and sisters, do not be weary in doing what is right. Take note
of those who do not obey what we say in this letter; have nothing to do with
them, so that they may be ashamed.”
’
Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News published on
April 10-11/19
Lebanon is an occupied, failed and rogue state
Washington to Host Meeting May to Confirm Lebanon’s Commitment to CEDRE Reforms
Trilateral Meeting between Foreign Ministers of Lebanon, Greece, Cyprus
Aoun Meets Cypriot FM, Requests Support to Return Refugees
Nasrallah Says U.S. Steps Won't Remain without Response, Calls Berri Reports
'Mere Intimidation'
Samy Gemayel: Syrian Refugees Pose Existential Threat
Parliament Holds Accountability Session
Report: Parliament Holds Q&A Session, State Budget on Front Burner
Lebanon Fears for Future of Disputed Territory with Israel
Ghosn's Lawyers Appeal Detention to Japan Supreme Court
How President Aoun is pulling Lebanon into the Iran-Maduro axis
Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on
April 10-11/19
Trump congratulates Netanyahu on apparent reelection, saying it will help peace
Netanyahu Claims Victory in Israel National Elections
Abbas: Ready to Sit with Any Israeli Govt. that Believes in Peace
Arab Countries Hold Off Further UN Action Over US Golan Move
Palestine: Egypt Mediates to End Prisoners’ Strike
Tehran Warns of 'Reciprocal Move' If US Blacklists IRGC
US Terror Designation of Iran's Revolutionary Guards Leaves Iraq with No Room to
Maneuver
Iran Retaliates against US Terrorist Classification of IRGC
Trump Hails Sisi’s Role in Combating Terrorism
Donald Trump discusses Iran threat to Middle East with Saudi Crown Prince
Family of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi say no settlement has been discussed
Turkey’s Election Board Rejects Ruling Party Request for Istanbul Recount
Saudi Arabia, UAE, Yemen Urge Security Council to Pressure Houthis, Iran
Children Death Toll at Syria's al-Hol Camp Rises to 235
New Blackout Hits Large Parts of Venezuela
Pence Asks U.N. to Recognize Guaido as Venezuela's Leader
AC Milan Risk European Ban as UEFA Order Another Financial Fair Pay Probe
Iraq Offers to Try Foreign IS Suspects, for a Price
Macron Urges Rouhani to Prevent More Tension in Wake of IRGC Blacklisting
Hariri Acknowledges 'Mistakes' in Public Sector Hires
Hakim Blasts Officials' Irresponsibility, Warns It Is Jeopardizing Lebanon
Samy Gemayel Meets with Top EPP Officials in Brussels
Titles For The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous
sources published on April 10-11/19
Lebanon is an occupied, failed and rogue state/Elias Bejjani.April 10/19
Nasrallah Says U.S. Steps Won't Remain without Response, Calls Berri Reports
'Mere Intimidation'/Naharnet/April 10/19
How President Aoun is pulling Lebanon into the Iran-Maduro axis/Makram Rabah/Al
Arabiya/April 10/19
Trump congratulates Netanyahu on apparent reelection, saying it will help
peace/Anne Gearan/The Washington Post/April 10/ 19
The Nation of Islam and Women's "Social Justice"/Denis MacEoin/Gatestone
Institute/April 10/19
China Rising in the Caribbean/by Gordon G. Chang/Gatestone Institute/April 10/19
Bringing down IRGC’s terrorist networks tricky but necessary/Dr. Theodore
Karasik/Arab News/April 10/19
The Islamization of Europe and the European Caliphate/Rami Dabbas/Jihad
Watch/April 10/19
After tight race, Netanyahu to lead rightist bloc to center stage for a long
haul/Debka File/April 10/19
Netanyahu's short-lived victory/Sima Kadmon/Ynetnews/April 10/19
Saudi Aramco reveals its financials — and more secrets/Simon Henderson/The
Hill/April 10/19
The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese
Related News published on April 10-11/19
Lebanon is an occupied, failed and rogue state
Elias Bejjani.April 10/19
The option of pursuing the declaration of the United Nations Lebanon as an
occupied failed, and rogue state that is unable to govern itself should be on
the table by the free and sovereign Lebanese in case the status quo
remains unchanged or deteriorates more.
Washington to Host Meeting May to Confirm Lebanon’s
Commitment to CEDRE Reforms
Beirut - Khalil Fleihan/Asharq Al-Awsat/Wednesday, 10 April, 2019/The Lebanese
cabinet’s decision earlier this week to approve a new electricity plan, set to
reform the country’s electricity sector, left positive echoes in the French
capital and a number of European countries that participated in the 2018 Paris
CEDRE conference to support Lebanon's infrastructure and economy. A European
ambassador told Asharq Al-Awsat on Tuesday that the electricity plan was the
first step in the roadmap to reform the sector. “Things after the approval of
the plan would not be the same as before it,” he said. The ambassador noted that
the electricity sector was the biggest burden on the state, costing it $40
billion of its budget, or about 46 percent of the public debt deficit. A report
published by the American consulting firm McKinsey said the quality of Lebanon's
electricity supply in 2017-2018 was the fourth worst in the world after Haiti,
Nigeria and Yemen. A European source in Beirut told Asharq Al-Awsat that the
CEDRE conference requested from the Lebanese government and the private sector
to reform 72 items. It also demanded that Beirut show a certain capacity of
absorbing funds and how they are spent through CEDRE mechanisms and the World
Bank. The CEDRE conference held in April 2018 pledged aid worth $11
billion, promising to stave off an economic crisis. A Lebanese ministerial
source told Asharq Al-Awsat a meeting would be held next month in Washington to
assess what Lebanon has reformed in the past year, adding that until few weeks
ago, the country had still failed to implement any of the requested reforms. The
source explained that if implemented, the CEDRE reforms should benefit the whole
of Lebanon. “Lebanon should abandon politics, and address development projects
and what people need,” the source said.
Trilateral Meeting between Foreign Ministers of Lebanon,
Greece, Cyprus
Naharnet/April 10/19A trilateral meeting was held on Wednesday at Lebanon’s
foreign ministry between Foreign Ministers of Lebanon, Greece and Cyprus.
Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil met with his Cypriot counterpart Nikos
Christodoulides and Greek minister Giorgos Katrougalos where discussions focused
on “laying the foundation for improving cooperation in the sectors of tourism,
education, economy, trade and energy.”A joint press conference was held after
the meeting during which Bassil said an agreement was reached between the three
in said sectors. Bassil said that the “international community must shoulder its
responsibilities regarding the displaced people crisis. Lebanon cannot afford
the solution alone. We have heard a very advanced stance from Cyprus and Greece
on the subject of the displaced,” he said. He said both Ministers, of Cyprus and
Greece, have “vowed to work at the European level to resolve this matter.
Efforts must be exerted for their safe a definite return to their country. “For
his part, Cypriot Minister said: “Joint cooperation is necessary in order to lay
the fundamentals that enhance ties between Cyprus, Greece and Lebanon. Our main
concern is to enhance communication and dialogue in the Mediterranean
region.”The Greek Minister said: “Today is a historic visit where discussions
focused actively working for development. Our main concern is to strengthen the
process of communication and dialogue in the region.”
Aoun Meets Cypriot FM, Requests Support to Return Refugees
Naharnet/April 10/19/President Michel Aoun expressed his hope that the
tripartite meeting held on Wednesday between foreign ministers of Lebanon,
Cyprus and Greece constitutes a “positive beginning for cooperation between the
three countries for the benefit of their people and economy,” the National News
Agency reported. Aoun’s remarks came during a meeting at Baabda Palace with
Cypriot Foreign Minister Nikos Christodoulides who extended an invitation to
Aoun from the Cypriot President to visit Cyprus for a summit along with the
President of Greece. “Cooperation between Lebanon, Cyprus and Greece brings
joint benefit at various levels mainly in supporting Lebanon’s bid to return
displaced Syrians to safe zones in Syria,” said Aoun, stressing a European Union
role in that regard. The President noted the need for “security coordination
between Lebanon and Cyprus to control maritime route that terrorists can use to
transport after their defeat in Syria.”For his part, the Cypriot Minister said:
“Cyprus looks forward towards cooperation and coordination with Lebanon at
various levels. During the EU meetings, Cyprus voiced calls for helping Lebanon
meet the current challenges, especially with regard to the crisis of the Syrian
displaced people.”He pointed to the importance of the "expected tripartite
summit to enhance cooperation in the tourism sector and the joint agreements at
various levels.”
Nasrallah Says U.S. Steps Won't Remain without Response,
Calls Berri Reports 'Mere Intimidation'
Naharnet/April 10/19
Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Wednesday warned that the U.S.
sanctions and measures against Iran and its allies in the region “will not
remain without a response,” as he dismissed reports about possible sanctions
against Speaker Nabih Berri and other Hizbullah allies as “mere
intimidation.”“Our choices are open but we will act calmly, with a cool head and
at the right time, in all battlefields and arenas,” Nasrallah said in a
televised address marking Hizbullah's 'Day of the Wounded'.
“When any faction of the resistance movements senses that there is a dangerous
situation, who said that we will settle for condemnation? It is our natural
right and ethical, religious and humanitarian duty to confront all those who
might threaten our country, resistance and achievements through their measures,”
Nasrallah cautioned. Noting that “the resistance camp possesses a lot of
strength cards and elements,” Nasrallah hinted that the U.S. actions may not
“remain without a response.”He added: “So far, we are settling for condemnation,
patience and austerity in the face of sanctions and terror lists, but this does
not mean that we do not have essential tools of strength, and I'm speaking on
behalf of the entire resistance axis and not only Hizbullah.”Commenting on the
U.S. administration's decision to label Iran's Revolutionary Guards as a
terrorist group, Nasrallah said the Guards are in a “central position” in the
region's equations. “They are the most influential and supportive,” he
added.Addressing the Lebanese people, Nasrallah said: “When you hear (US
President Donald) Trump or any Israeli official talking, recall and remember the
cities, villages and towns that have been destroyed by U.S. and Israeli
interference, that have been devastated by U.S. conspiracies and some Gulf
money. Remember the millions of refugees, displaced and afflicted.”He added:
“The interest of the Lebanese lies in cooperation and communication and
remaining alert over the U.S. incitement which has destroyed the region around
us.”Nasrallah also noted that media reports about placing Speaker Berri and
other Hizbullah allies on U.S. sanction lists are “mere intimidation.”“There is
not a single indication about an intention to place Speaker Nabih Berri and
other Hizbullah allies on the terror list and we sense that there are Lebanese
in Washington who are working in this direction, but so far this remains an
intimidation campaign. When the matter reaches our allies, this means that they
are targeting all our people,” Hizbullah's leader said. Referring to U.S.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's recent visit to Lebanon and his anti-Hizbullah
remarks on Monday, Nasrallah added: “In the face of the new developments and
after Pompeo's visit to Lebanon, we believe that the inciteful U.S. policy will
continue, although his visit did not yield any results.”“He said yesterday that
he will not remain silent over Hizbullah's rise in Lebanon and he is seeking to
scare and incite the Lebanese,” Nasrallah warned. As for Lebanese concerns that
Trump's decision on the Golan Heights might affect the status of the Shebaa
Farms and the Kfarshouba Hills, Nasrallah said: “Our territorial border is
linked to our national will and not to Trump's decision.”Cautioning the
Lebanese, he added: “(Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu will likely
form a new right-wing Zionist government and we are before a new stage of
unprecedented cooperation between America and Israel represented in Netanyahu
and Trump, and we are before a major juncture related to our territorial
border.”“We stress the importance of the current spirit of cooperation among the
political forces in addressing the current junctures. We must stress the
importance of this spirit regardless of any tensions here or there,” Nasrallah
urged. Slamming Pompeo's visit, Hizbullah's leader added: “Killers do not have
the right to come to Lebanon and take credit for stability and security. If the
enemy does not dare to attack, it is because of our resilience and
steadfastness, not because of your red lines.”“America is the source of
terrorism and we are standing in the face of its terrorism,” he emphasized. “We
were killed and wounded and massacres were committed in our villages and cities
through Israel's aggression and the U.S. support, weapons and cover. Our peace,
security and achievements were made by our people, martyrs and wounded,”
Nasrallah went on to say. He added: “The achievements that have been made in
Lebanon are not from the blessings of America.”
Samy Gemayel: Syrian Refugees Pose Existential Threat
Naharnet/April 10/19/Kataeb Party chief MP Sami Gemayel warned Wednesday that
the Syrian refugees have started to pose an “existential threat” to Lebanon.
“Syrian refugees in Lebanon now represent around half the country's population
after their numbers surpassed 1.5 million, which poses an existential threat to
Lebanon in addition to the social and economic threats,” Gemayel cautioned in a
speech before the general assembly of the European People's Party in Brussels.
“The EU and the U.S. must take practical steps that confirm that they are
seriously seeking to return the refugees to their country,” Gemayel added. He
also urged the EU to send a delegation to Beirut to “discuss the issue with
Lebanese officials” and to “lead serious attempts to find real solutions for the
file with the main players in the region.”
Parliament Holds Accountability Session
Naharnet/April 10/19/An accountability session chaired by Speaker Nabih Berri
and in the presence of PM Saad Hariri and ministers was held at the Parliament
on Wednesday with 13 questions listed on the agenda. At the beginning of the
session, Berri called lawmakers for a legislative session on Wednesday, April
17. The file of illegal hiring in state institutions was first raised in the Q&A
session, and Hariri said: “This was not an employment for electoral or political
ends. All the political parties were part of it and have hired employees mainly
in (state-run telecommunications company) Ogero.”The government was set to
answer questions posed by several deputies about Lebanon’s environmental
challenges mainly the garbage management file and the landfills of Costa Brava
and Bourj Hammoud. Before the session, Minister Alain Aoun said: “If I get the
chance, I will ask questions about the state budget and the means to reduce the
deficit .” The issue of displaced Syrians in Lebanon, and the government's
measures to help their repatriation will also stand as one of the major
questions highlighted. The government will be asked about Lebanon’s problematic
traffic congestion mainly in the capital Beirut, pollution in the area of
Jounieh and illegal hiring.
Report: Parliament Holds Q&A Session, State Budget on Front
Burner
Naharnet/April 10/19/A question and answer session will be held at the
parliament on Wednesday to question the government performance, and the
country’s 2019 State Budget will be discussed by Cabinet before passing it to
Parliament for approval, media reports said. The Q&A session can become an
“interrogation if the government’s answers turn unconvincing,” said the reports.
On the other hand, the focus has also been brought to the approval of the state
budget, “it will likely take the final shape within days,” ministerial sources
told al-Joumhouria daily. Prime Minister Saad Hariri reportedly plans to call
for an urgent meeting to discuss the budget draft. It will be attended by
representatives of the parliamentary blocs to include Finance Minister Ali
Hassan Khalil of the Development and Liberation bloc, Foreign Minister Jebran
Bassil of the Strong Lebanon bloc, Hizbullah official Hajj Hussein Khalil and MP
George Adwan of the Strong Republic bloc. Lebanon’s 2019 state budget has still
not been passed although the government was formed at the end of January. The
government is expected to discuss the budget and approve it before passing it to
Parliament for endorsement. Moreover, the government is scheduled to meet on
Thursday afternoon at the Grand Serail to discuss several items listed on its
agenda after an earlier session on Monday that saw the approval of a long
awaited electricity plan.
Lebanon Fears for Future of Disputed Territory with Israel
Associated Press/Naharnet/April 10/19/Lebanon has voiced fears that the U.S.
recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the occupied Golan Heights undermines
Lebanon’s claim to disputed territory also annexed by Israel. President Michel
Aoun raised those fears on Tuesday during a press conference with visiting
Bulgarian President Rumen Radev. Arab countries unanimously rejected the recent
U.S. recognition of Israeli control over the Golan, seized from Syria in 1967
and annexed in 1981, calling the Trump administration's policies unfairly biased
toward Israel. But for Lebanon, there are fears over its claim to the Shebaa
Farms and adjacent Kfar Shouba hills, which Israel occupied alongside Golan in
1967. Israel had occupied south Lebanon, but despite withdrawing in 2000,
remained in these strategic areas. The U.N., which doesn't recognize Israel's
sovereignty over Golan, has said Lebanon's claim is to be settled with the
Golan's fate.
Ghosn's Lawyers Appeal Detention to Japan
Supreme Court
Asharq Al-Awsat/Wednesday, 10 April, 2019/Lawyers for former Nissan chief Carlos
Ghosn on Wednesday appealed his ongoing detention to Japan's Supreme Court,
after the auto tycoon was re-arrested last week while out on bail. Ghosn's lead
lawyer Junichiro Hironaka had already signaled plans to file the appeal a day
earlier, at a press conference where he played a video recorded by the former
Nissan head before his re-arrest. In the video, Ghosn said he was the victim of
a "conspiracy" by "backstabbing" executives at Nissan who had engineered his
arrest to prevent a merger between the Japanese automaker and its alliance
partner Renault. At the press conference, Hironaka slammed prosecutors for
rearresting Ghosn, who had been out on bail in Tokyo while facing three charges
of financial misconduct. Hironaka said the arrest was intended to "apply unjust
pressure on him (Ghosn) to force him into submission."
The court filing is the first time lawyers for Ghosn have sought relief from
Japan's highest court. There were no immediate details on the arguments they are
advancing. Prosecutors rearrested Ghosn on April 4, saying they were
investigating transfers of Nissan funds totaling $15 million between late 2014
and the middle of 2018 to a dealership in Oman. They suspect around $5 million
of these funds were siphoned off for Ghosn's personal use, including the
purchase of a yacht. A court has already granted a request from prosecutors to
extend Ghosn's detention to April 14. They can then request an additional 10-day
detention period after which they will have to release Ghosn unless they either
charge him or level new allegations. Hironaka has said he will challenge any
extension of the detention if the appeal to the Supreme Court is rejected. Ghosn
already faces three formal charges: two of deferring his salary and concealing
that in official shareholders' documents, and a further charge of seeking to
shift investment losses to the firm. He has denied any wrongdoing and said in
the video played Tuesday he was "innocent of all the charges that have been
brought against me.""This is about a plot, this is about conspiracy, this is
about backstabbing," he said.He spent 108 days in detention before being
released on bail on March 6 after agreeing to strict conditions and paying
nearly $9 million.
How President Aoun is pulling Lebanon into the Iran-Maduro axis
مكرم رباح/ الرئيس عون يج لبنان إلى محور إيران-مادورو
Makram Rabah/Al Arabiya/April 10/19
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/73703/makram-rabah-how-president-aoun-is-pulling-lebanon-into-the-iran-maduro-axis-%D9%85%D9%83%D8%B1%D9%85-%D8%B1%D8%A8%D8%A7%D8%AD-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B1%D8%A6%D9%8A%D8%B3-%D8%B9%D9%88%D9%86-%D9%8A%D8%AC/
The Lebanese ruling establishment’s actions during Venezuelan Foreign Minister
Jorge Arreaza’s recent trip to Lebanon have once again proven its disregard for
the crumbling economy. President Michel Aoun seems to be on a campaign to invite
US sanctions on the country. Over the last few years, he has acquired a knack
for stepping in the path of danger while praying for the best.
Arreaza met with Aoun and his son-in-law Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil. His
Beirut stop, part of an international tour which included Turkey, primarily aims
to muster international support for the ailing regime of Venezuelan President
Nicolas Maduro, whose corrupt rule and years of western sanctions have led one
of the richest Latin American countries to poverty and starvation.
Arreaza, who is married to the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s daughter,
seemed unfazed by the fact that over 90 percent of his countrymen live in
poverty or that over two-thirds are suffering from food shortage. He checked
into an upscale Beirut hotel and used his two-day trip to whitewash his regime's
image.Venezuela’s top diplomats declared that the purpose of the visit was to
discuss bilateral relations between the two countries as well as the conditions
back home. However, Arreaza’s real intention was to deliver a message to the
international community, and specifically to US President Donald Trump’s
administration, that Lebanon falls within the sphere of Iran-Maduro axis.
Arreaza’s visit was also an occasion for some archaic anti-western Lebanese
factions – who front for Hezbollah and Syria – to show solidarity with “the
Venezuelan people.”
Iran-Venezuela ties date back to the presidency of Maduro’s predecessor Hugo
Chávez, and the two countries have since developed common ill feelings toward
the US. Iran has continued its support for Venezuela since power passed from
Chávez to Maduro in 2013.
So it is not surprising that Iran and Maduro are making this desperate attempt
to flex their muscles. Yet what remains ambiguous is why Aoun, who says he has
Lebanon’s interests in mind, would partake in this instigation of the
international community. The reason could be his claim that Hezbollah, whom he
repeatedly defends, comprises the majority of the Lebanese Shiites, and that the
sanctions against Iran are not consensual as many European countries refuse to
implement them.
But the fact is that the Trump administration has imposed economic sanctions
against Maduro’s allies for blocking humanitarian aid, with the full backing of
over 65 countries. These include dozens of European Union nations, which have
recognized speaker of parliament Juan Guaido, who leads a popular opposition, as
interim president. So however Aoun and his allies wish to spin it, Lebanon has
little to profit from allowing this anti-western charade to take place. On the
other hand, Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s refusal to meet with Arreaza
showed sound judgment on his part, as such a meeting would have placed more
pressure on Lebanon from its Arab neighbors and suggested that Hariri’s
commitment to Lebanon’s disassociation policy is a farce.If Aoun were the
dedicated leader he claims to be, he would avoid further implicating Lebanon in
the US-Iran fistfight – one in which the Lebanese and their economy will be
collateral damage. Arreaza could have been given audience with only his Lebanese
counterpart Bassil. Alternatively, since Aoun insisted on meeting him, he could
have issued a statement highlighting Lebanon’s continued commitment to its
disassociation policy. Clearly, Aoun and his allies are fully aware of the
implications of their continued lobbying for the Iran axis, a policy that
alienates Lebanon and makes the possibility of its economic resurgence virtually
impossible.As long as the Lebanese allow for this reckless policy to persist,
they have nothing to look forward to except a full economic collapse. Instead of
the Cedre Conference economic stimulus, they will be left with the “Aoun Diet,”
which like its Venezuelan equivalent, is both unhealthy and above all fatal.
Latest LCCC English Miscellaneous Reports & News published
on April 10-11/19
Trump congratulates Netanyahu on apparent
reelection, saying it will help peace
Anne Gearan/The Washington Post/April 10/ 19
President Trump congratulated Benjamin Netanyahu for what Trump called the
long-serving Israeli prime minister’s probable victory in a close reelection
contest, saying Wednesday that a Netanyahu victory increases the chances for a
peace agreement.“He’s been a great ally, and he’s a friend,” Trump said of
Netanyahu, who campaigned for a fourth consecutive and fifth overall term on the
strength of his bond with the U.S. leader. “I’d like to congratulate him. That
was a well-thought-out race, I can tell you,” Trump told reporters as he left
the White House for a trip to Texas. Netanyahu and centrist challenger Benny
Gantz are virtually tied in unofficial results from Tuesday’s voting, but
Netanyahu appears to have the far stronger chance of forming a government in
Israel’s parliamentary system. The Trump administration delayed release of a
long-expected package of proposals to settle the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
until after the Israeli election, but no specific date has been set. “The fact
that Bibi won, I think we’ll see some pretty good action in terms of peace,”
Trump said Wednesday, using Netanyahu’s nickname. “Everybody said, and I never
made it a promise, ‘you can’t have peace in the Middle East with Israel and the
Palestinians.’ But I think we have a chance, and I think now we have a better
chance with Bibi having won.”President Trump has praised Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu since the early days of his presidency, and has stood by him
amid a corruption scandal. Trump did not elaborate, but an election victory is
likely to strengthen Netanyahu’s hand in any negotiations, or in making new
moves toward greater Israeli control in the occupied West Bank. Netanyahu made
an 11th-hour campaign promise to annex portions of the West Bank, a move that
would be broadly opposed around the world. It is unlikely that Netanyahu would
have made such a pledge unless he were confident that he would be backed by the
Trump administration. Trump appeared to help Netanyahu during the campaign by
endorsing Israeli control over the Golan Heights, which Israel seized from Syria
in the 1967 Six-Day War, and by announcing Monday that the United States will
take new action against an elite Iranian military unit that threatens Israel.
Netanyahu told voters that he was responsible for both decisions and for Trump’s
internationally controversial recognition of Jerusalem as the Israeli capital.
Netanyahu was also a bitter opponent of the international Iran nuclear deal,
from which Trump withdrew last year. As he flew to Texas on Wednesday, Trump
tweeted a photo of Israelis celebrating after Netanyahu’s apparent victory.
“Trump flags being waived at the Bibi @netanyahu VICTORY celebration last
night,” Trump wrote, misspelling “waved.”
Netanyahu Claims Victory in Israel National
Elections
Asharq Al-Awsat/Wednesday, 10 April, 2019/Prime Minister Benjamin Netanayhu
secured on Wednesday a record fifth term in office after claiming victory in a
national election, reported TV Channel 12. With 96 percent of the votes counted,
Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud won 37 of Knesset seats, against 36 for centrist
Blue and White, headed by Netanyahu’s rival, former general Benny Gantz. Though
neither party captured a ruling majority in the 120-member Knesset, the results,
published eight hours after voting ended on Tuesday, put Netanyahu in a strong
position to form a coalition government with right-wing factions. Results showed
Likud and other rightwing parties allied to him with some 65 seats in
parliament, media reports said. The victory, despite corruption allegations
against the 69-year-old premier, puts him on a path to become Israel's
longest-serving prime minister later this year. The close race between the two
main parties had led to uncertainty after polls closed on Tuesday night and exit
surveys were released. Both Netanyahu and Gantz claimed victory after the
initial exit surveys that gave Blue and White the most seats. But even then
Netanyahu appeared best placed to form a coalition, with both parties in any
case falling far short of an outright majority. Netanyahu spoke in the early
hours of Wednesday at Likud's post-election party in Tel Aviv and called it a
"magnificent victory."
As he walked onto the stage to chanting crowds, he planted a kiss on the lips of
his wife Sara before dramatically wiping lipstick from his face.
"It will be a rightwing government, but I will be prime minister for all," he
said. Earlier while addressing cheering supporters who waived Israeli flags at
an event hall in Tel Aviv, Gantz called it an "historic day." "The president
must give us the task of forming the next government since we are the biggest
party," he said after initial exit polls. The vote had long been expected to be
close and lead to frantic negotiations to form a coalition, even with Netanyahu
facing potential corruption charges. Gantz, a newcomer to politics, mounted a
strong challenge to the veteran prime minister by brandishing his security
credentials while pledging to undo damage he says Netanyahu has inflicted on the
country with divisive politics. The election was in many ways a referendum on
the 69-year-old premier who has built a reputation as guarantor of the country's
security and economic growth, but whose populism and alleged corruption have
left many ready for change. He engaged in populist rhetoric that critics said
amounted to the demonization of Arab Israelis and others.
Netanyahu faced further criticism on election day when members of his Likud
party brought small cameras into polling stations in Arab areas.
Arab politicians called it an attempt at intimidation, while Netanyahu said
cameras would prevent fraud. True to form, Netanyahu issued a deeply
controversial pledge only three days before the election, saying he planned to
annex Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank should he win.
Extending Israeli sovereignty on a large-scale in the West Bank could be the
death knell to already fading hopes for a two-state solution with the
Palestinians. It is a move long-sought by Israel's far-right. Netanyahu sought
to portray himself as Israel's essential statesman in the run-up to the vote and
highlighted his bond with US President Donald Trump. He spoke of Trump's
recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital and of Israel's claim of
sovereignty over the annexed Golan Heights. He also used Trump-like tactics,
calling the corruption investigations a "witch hunt" and denouncing journalists
covering them.
On Tuesday, he continually warned Likud was at risk of losing over what he said
was low turnout among supporters, claims widely seen as a bid to motivate
rightwing voters. By 8:00pm (1700 GMT), overall turnout was 61.3 percent
compared to 62.4 percent at the same time in 2015 elections.
Gantz, a 59-year-old former paratrooper, invoked the corruption allegations
against the premier to make his case that it is time for him to go. He called
Netanyahu's annexation pledge an "irresponsible" bid for votes. Gantz said he
favored a "globally backed peace agreement" with Israel holding on to the large
West Bank settlement blocs, adding that he opposed unilateral moves. He sought
to overcome Netanyahu's experience by allying with two other former military
chiefs and ex-finance minister Yair Lapid to form his alliance. Netanyahu has
been premier for a total of more than 13 years. But "King Bibi," as some have
called him, now faces the prospect of becoming the first sitting prime minister
to be indicted.The attorney general has announced he intends to indict Netanyahu
for bribery, fraud and breach of trust pending an upcoming hearing.
Abbas: Ready to Sit with Any Israeli Govt. that Believes in
Peace
Ramallah - Kifah Zboun/Asharq Al-Awsat/Wednesday, 10 April, 2019/Palestinian
President Mahmoud Abbas said he would not accept the so-called Deal of the
Century peace proposal, which the US administration is planning to present soon.
“We rejected it, because it bypasses our rights that have been approved by
international legitimacy,” Abbas said at the opening of the Department of
Hematology and Oncology at the Arab Advisory Hospital in Ramallah. “If they
accept that we follow international legitimacy, our hands will remain extended
to peace. Otherwise, we are here to stay. We are steadfast in our demands. We
are here to call for our rights until we get them,” he added.He made his
comments ahead of Washington’s plans to uncover its deal after the end of the
Israeli parliamentary elections that were held Tuesday. “We are monitoring
everything that is going on in the world, especially what is happening with our
neighbors; and we hope they will follow the right path to reach peace,” he said.
The Palestinian president said he was ready to sit with any Israeli government
if it believed in peace. Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts have been stalled
since 2014, with the failure of former US President Barack Obama’s
administration to resolve Israel’s refusal to halt settlement constructions.
Earlier this week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged that he
would not expel any settler from the West Bank under the new US plan. The
Palestinian presidency responded by stressing that the Palestinian territories
occupied in 1967 in Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, were part
of the State of Palestine, in accordance with the resolutions of international
legitimacy, the latest of which is Resolution 2334, which affirmed the unity of
the Palestinian land and the illegality of occupation and settlement.
Arab Countries Hold Off Further UN Action Over US Golan
Move
New York- Asharq Al-Awsat/Wednesday, 10 April, 2019 /Arab countries met at the
United Nations to discuss US President Donald Trump’s decision to recognize the
Israeli annexation of the occupied Golan Heights, but no decision was made about
proposing a UN resolution condemning the US move, diplomats said. Tunisian
Foreign Minister Khemaies Jhinaoui said there is currently no need to pressure
for further action to reaffirm the UN resolution calling on Israel to withdraw
from the Golan. “The Security Council has already adopted a resolution,”
Jhinaoui told reporters, citing Resolution 497, which declared Israel’s
annexation claims null and void. “That resolution saying this is a territory
occupied by Israel and has to be liberated is very clear, so there is no need to
take action, I think, no need now,” he said when asked about a possible new
resolution. Arab League Ambassador Maged Abdelaziz said the US decision would be
discussed at a meeting between Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Arab
ministers in Moscow next week. At an Arab League summit in Tunis last month,
leaders slammed Trump’s decision in December 2017 to recognize Jerusalem as
Israel’s capital. Notably, Syria didn’t attend the meeting because its
membership was still suspended by the AL. At a Security Council meeting last
month held at Syria’s request, Trump’s decision was denounced as a violation of
international law as enshrined in UN resolutions. The four other permanent
council members — Britain, China, France, and Russia — said they would continue
to view the Golan as Israeli-occupied territory. Trump was widely criticized
when he signed a declaration last month, in which the United States recognized
Israel's annexation of the Syrian Golan Heights it had occupied in 1967.
Palestine: Egypt Mediates to End Prisoners’ Strike
Ramallah- Kifah Zboun/Asharq Al-Awsat/Wednesday, 10 April, 2019/Egypt is
exerting efforts to reach an agreement that prevents the expansion of the
Palestinian prisoners’ hunger strike and the aggravation of tension in prisons,
chairman of the Prisoners Affairs Commission Qadri Abu Bakr announced, adding
that Egyptian mediators are making efforts with Israel to implement what has
been agreed upon between the prisoners and the Israeli Prisons Services (IPS).
Abu Bakr said the Egyptian efforts "are conducted directly with the Israelis
side on one hand and with Hamas movement on the other within a truce
understanding between Palestinian factions and Israel in the Gaza Strip."He also
pointed out that the prisoners are watching what result could come out from the
Egyptian efforts in order to decide whether to proceed with the strike or
suspend it. Hamas top officials inside the prison announced Monday an open
hunger strike, warning that more will join them if Israel did not respond to
their demands. Abu Bakr said that 150 prisoners went on hunger strike in what
became known as “Battle of Dignity 2”.The prisoners went into strike after two
days of negotiations during which limited progress was achieved, and no
agreement was reached on the most important issue: the removal of jamming
devices from the prisoners' sections. However, the decision to go on strike was
surprising given the previous Palestinian and Israeli reports about achieving
progress. Both parties agreed to install public phones in cell blocks, in
exchange for prisoners handing over their smuggled cell phones, while they did
not agree on the fate of the jamming devices.The prisoners were demanding the
removal of all jamming devices recently installed in some prisons due to their
impact on the health of the prisoners, allowing family visits, installing public
phones in the prisons, ending the solitary confinement of prisoners who were
punished following the recent conflict in the prisons, ending raids on cells and
assaults and improving medical service, among others. But the request to remove
jamming devices is the most prominent and most important demand that the
prisoners insist on. IPS responded to the open strike by isolating striking
Palestinian prisoners and transferring them to other prisons. It began
relocating them from the Naqab and Ramon prisons in the south of the country to
other prisons in an attempt to end their hunger strike. Abu Bakr told WAFA that
more prisoners are expected to join their fellow striking prisoners today, while
a larger number of prisoners will join the strike on April 17 and on May 1,
noting that the Israeli authorities are expected to intensify their repressive
measures against the striking prisoners in the coming days, especially
force-feeding them. Abu Bakr condemned the attack carried out by the Israeli
occupation authorities against the prisoners, which comes in accordance with the
orders and instructions of the extreme right-wing government and its military
agencies. Abu Bakr held Netanyahu and all far-right extremists the full
responsibility for the safety of the prisoners, warning that this could lead to
an escalation on the streets. He called on all local and international
institutions and agencies to exert efforts to meet the demands of the families
and pressure the Israeli government to respond to them.While the prisoners
currently refuse food, they are expected to also refuse water in one week, which
could lead to serious consequences on their health, according to sources from
the detention centers.
Tehran Warns of 'Reciprocal Move' If US Blacklists IRGC
London - Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 8 April, 2019/Tehran Warned on Sunday the US of
blacklisting the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), and its commander
threatened that today’s calm in the Middle East would be lost. Iran will take
reciprocal action against the United States if Washington designates the IRGC as
terrorists, a majority of Iranian parliamentarians said on Sunday, according to
state news agencies, Reuters reported. The United States is expected to
designate the IRGC a foreign terrorist organization, three US officials said,
marking the first time Washington has formally labeled another country’s
military a terrorist group. “We will answer any action taken against this force
with a reciprocal action,” a statement issued by 255 out of the 290 Iranian
lawmakers said, according to state news agency IRNA. “So the leaders of America,
who themselves are the creators and supporters of terrorists in the Middle East
region, will regret this inappropriate and idiotic action.” The US decision,
which critics warn could open US military and intelligence officials to similar
actions by unfriendly governments abroad, is expected to be announced by the
State Department perhaps as early as Monday, the US officials said last
week.Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif said on Sunday US officials
aiming to designate the IRGC as terrorist wanted to “drag the US into a
quagmire” on behalf of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “ -NetanyahuFirsters-
who have long agitated for FTO (Foreign Terrorist Organisation) of the IRGC
fully understand its consequences for US forces in the region. In fact, they
seek to drag the US into a quagmire on his behalf,” Zarif said on his Twitter
account. Zarif appeared to be implying that classifying the Guards as terrorists
would draw them into conflict with US forces in the region. Netanyahu has
described the Tehran government as a “terrorist regime” that threatens the world
and promotes attacks worldwide.IRGC commander Mohammad Ali Jafari also chimed in
Sunday over the pending US designation, warning the US military would lose all
the security it enjoyed in west Asia. “The American army and security forces
will no longer have today’s calm in the Middle East.”
US Terror Designation of Iran's Revolutionary Guards Leaves
Iraq with No Room to Maneuver
Baghdad - Hamza Mustafa/Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 8 April, 2019/ No sooner had the
United States announced its terrorist designation of the Iranian Revolutionary
Guards Corps (IRGC) on Monday that Tehran retaliated by blacklisting the United
States Central Command (CENTCOM) in the Middle-East and all its affiliates. Iraq
took no such swift measures. It instead opted to wait and see the repercussions
of Washington’s move given its complex ties with both the US and its neighbor.
Iraqi Foreign Minister Mohammed Ali al-Hakim said that Baghdad will “study” the
development, adding that it rejects “unilateral sanctions.”His remarks were
interpreted as a sign that Iraq wanted to keep an equal distance from Washington
and Tehran in their escalating conflict, most notably when it comes to US
waivers on sanctions it imposed against Iran last year over its contentious
nuclear program and malign foreign policies. On the unofficial level, Iraq’s
allies, especially armed factions, did not comment on the US designation.
Strategic expert Dr. Hisham al-Hashemi told Asharq Al-Awsat that Washington’s
move against Tehran was non-binding against Iraq, which has kept a neutral
stance on the issue. Baghdad will, however, face economic and diplomatic
complications in the future. He acknowledged that the US move has put Iraq in a
difficult position as it may face military retaliation by pro-Iran factions
against American interests on its territories. Iraqi politician Haidar al-Malla
told Asharq Al-Awsat that from a legal perspective, Iraq is part of the
international coalition to combat terrorism, “so when the IRGC is designated as
terrorist, it has a responsibility towards this alliance.”On whether Baghdad
will respect the designation, he said that it must given that it is a member of
the coalition. Moreover, he added that the US “no longer needs Iraq’s
permission to carry out any coalition operation,” meaning it will deal with the
IRGC in the same way it deals with terrorist threats. “The American decision has
effectively ended the lenient policy that Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi
had adopted in standing at an equal distance from both Iran and the US,” he
continued. “It has ended the possibilities of striking a balanced policy” and
confronted the government with either committing to the international coalition
or quitting the alliance and siding with Iran, Malla stated. The terrorist
designation has left Iraq with no room to maneuver between Washington and
Tehran, he stressed. Political science professor at the Nahrain University Dr.
Amer Hassan Fayyad said the designation will not be played out in either Iran or
the US, but in countries were Tehran boasts proxies, such as Yemen, Iraq, Syria
and Lebanon.
“Ultimately, these four countries will incur the greatest harm from the American
move,” he told Asharq Al-Awsat.
Iran Retaliates against US Terrorist Classification of IRGC
London - Asharq Al-Awsat/Wednesday, 10 April, 2019/Supreme leader, Ali Khamenei,
dismissed the United States’ classification of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards
Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist group, stressing that he remains at the forefront of
the battle with the “enemies”. Speaking before a group of IRGC staff and their
families on the eve of the National Day of Guards, Khamenei said that US
officials wishfully plot against the Corps and the Iranian revolution.
“Undoubtedly, such ferocities won’t get them anywhere. Their vice and deceit
will return boomerang on them, leading the enemies of the republic such as
Donald Trump and those around him at the US ruling apparatus to go down the
drain.”IRGC is comprised of an estimated 125,000-strong military with army, navy
and air units. It also commands the Basij, controls Iran’s ballistic missile
programs and overseas al-Quds forces that have fought Iran’s proxy wars in the
region.The US move prompted Tehran to blacklist the United States Central
Command (CENTCOM) in the Middle-East and all its affiliates. Consequently, the
IRGC advised US President Donald Trump Tuesday to steer his warships clear from
Iranian vessels in the Gulf, adding that the Guards will increase their
defensive and offensive capabilities in the coming year. “This US move was quite
laughable since the Revolutionary Guards are in people’s hearts ... The
Revolutionary Guards will increase their defensive and offensive capabilities in
the coming year,” said IRGC commander Mohammad Ali Jafari according to Reuters.
Earlier in July, Tehran has also threatened to disrupt oil shipments through the
Strait of Hormuz in the Gulf if the United States tries to strangle Iran’s
economy by halting its oil exports. Meanwhile, President Hassan Rouhani defended
the Guards describing its men as Iran's protectors, a few months after he
described them as “the government carrying a gun.”Rouhani believed the US move
will unite Iranians and increase the IRGC’s’ popularity in Iran and in the
region. He said that Washington was “grudgingly” against the IRGC, which
“sacrificed its life to protect our people and our revolution.”“If you want to
limit Iran’s military power, you know that we have developed missiles since last
year that you wouldn’t even imagine”, Rouhani warned, referring to Iran's
insistence on expanding its missile program despite mounting US pressure to curb
it. “You were afraid of IR1 centrifuges, today we unveiled IR6, and if you
continue to walk down this road, you will see IR8 in the near future.”The
long-tense relations between Tehran and Washington took a turn for the worse
last May when Trump pulled out of a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and six world
powers, reached before he took office, and reimposed sanctions. Resolution 2231
of the Security Council, according to the nuclear agreement, prevents Iran from
acquiring advanced centrifuges. Germany, France and Britain, signatories to the
nuclear deal, are trying to salvage the deal and set up a mechanism in January
to circumvent US sanctions. Ambassadors from the three countries sent a letter
to Secretary-General Antonio Guterres that Iran’s latest development and
launching of ballistic missiles is having a destabilizing effect in the Middle
East and increasing existing tensions. They also said Iran’s activities are
“inconsistent” with a 2015 UN resolution calling on Iran not to undertake any
activity involving such missiles. In show of support, and before the start of
the morning session on Tuesday, members of the Iranian parliament wore the IRGC
dark green fatigues in defiance to the US move. They also chanted “Death to
America” and “Death to Israel” in the public session. “US decision to label the
Guards as a terrorist group was the peak of stupidity and ignorance of the US
leadership,” Fars quoted parliament speaker Ali Larijani as saying. The Iranian
parliament passed a "double-urgency motion" on Tuesday to "strengthen the
military force.” It also branded the US forces based in West Asia as a
"terrorist" entity. "All legal and real persons and troops of the United States
and its allies operating in the West Asian region are recognized as terrorist by
Iran, as well as any financial, technical and other aid extended to them is
regarded a terrorist act," maintained the motion.
Trump Hails Sisi’s Role in Combating Terrorism
Washington - Heba El Koudsy/Wednesday, 10 April, 2019/US President Donald Trump
hailed on Tuesday the “great work” exerted by Egyptian President Abdul Fattah
al-Sisi in his country. Speaking during a meeting with the Egyptian leader at
the White House, Trump praised Egypt's efforts to confront terrorism, saying: "A
lot of progress had been made in a lot of different ways in terms of
terrorism."“I think he’s doing a great job... I can just tell you he is doing a
great job ... great president.”“We’ve never had a better relationship, Egypt and
the United States, than we do right now,” he added as the two men spoke to
reporters before meeting in the White House Oval Office. He said strong
strategic ties have bound Cairo and Washington together for several years,
stressing that it was honor for him to welcome Sisi at the White House. “All the
credit goes to you, Mister President,” Sisi responded through an interpreter.
“Thank you very much for your support on all fronts.”He said that his visit to
the US is aimed at tackling political, economic, military and cultural issues. A
senior White House official said that the Trump administration had expressed
concern over the treatment of religious minorities in Egypt in wake of attacks
against Coptic Christians there. It also expressed its concern over Russia’s
growing influence in the region, most notably after Cairo signed a deal worth $2
billion with Moscow to purchase over 20 Sukhoi 35 fighter jets. The official
said that there was not much benefit to gain from contacting the Russians, as
demonstrated in Syria and Venezuela. He therefore, said that Cairo was better
off obtaining support and investment from the US. Speaking to the press at the
White House, the official did not clarify if the Trump administration supported
the constitutional amendments in Egypt that would extend Sisi’s term in office.
The administration "encourages the Egyptian government to preserve space for
civil society and to protect human rights. Political circles predicted that the
Sisi-Trump talks would focus on the situation in the Palestinian Gaza Strip and
the growing tensions with Israel. They also were set to discuss Libya and
Iranian meddling in the Arab Gulf region. Sisi had held talks in Washington on
Monday with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Trump’s advisor Jared Kushner.
Pompeo and Sisi reaffirmed the strength and importance of the US-Egypt bilateral
relationship, said a State Department statement. He thanked Sisi for his
leadership in advancing Egypt’s and the region’s security and stability,
including through counter-terrorism efforts and countering the Iranian regime’s
malign influence. They also discussed cases concerning US citizens in Egypt.
Donald Trump discusses Iran threat to Middle East with
Saudi Crown Prince
Arab News/April 10/19/WASHINGTON: Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin
Salman and US President Donald Trump have discussed ways to combat Iran-backed
terrorism in the Middle East. During a phone call on Tuesday, the two leaders
lso spoke about maintaining pressure on Iran and the importance of the Kingdom's
role in the region's stability, the White House said. On Tuesday, the Saudi
cabinet welcomed the US administration's decision to classify Iran’s Islamic
Republican Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organization. In a statement to
Saudi Press Agency, Minister of Information Turki bin Abdullah Al-Shabana said
that the council viewed it as a “serious and practical step” in countering
terrorism and the threat of the Iranian regime on international peace and
security.
Family of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi say no
settlement has been discussed
In a statement posted on Twitter by Salah Khashoggi, Jamal’s son, the family
condemned “recent attempts to smear his legacy and draw friction are ill and
immoral” The statement praised King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman
as the “guardians to all Saudis.”
/Arab News/April 10/19/JEDDAH: The family of murdered Saudi journalist Jamal
Khashoggi said on Wednesday they have not discussed a settlement in relation to
his killing. In a statement posted on Twitter by Salah Khashoggi, Jamal’s son,
the family condemned “recent attempts to smear his legacy and draw friction are
ill and immoral.”US media recently reported that the family had received
compensation for the murder from the Saudi government. “The trial is taking
place and no settlement discussion had been or is discussed. The people who
committed and were involved in this crime will all be brought to justice and
face punishment.”The statement praised King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin
Salman as the “guardians to all Saudis.”“Acts of generosity and humanity come
from the high moral grounds they possess, not admission of guilt or
scandal.”Saudi Arabia late last year indicted 11 people for the killing at the
Kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul in October. Prosecutors are seeking the death
penalty against five of them.
Turkey’s Election Board Rejects Ruling Party Request for
Istanbul Recount
Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 9 April, 2019/Turkey’s High Election Board rejected on
Tuesday a request by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s AK Party to recount all
votes in 31 Istanbul districts. This prompted the party to declare that it will
seek a re-run of the March 31 mayoral election in Istanbul, citing alleged
irregularities. Erdogan said on Monday the local elections were marred by
“organized crime” at ballot boxes in Istanbul. The AK Party narrowly lost the
vote to the main opposition party. Erdogan’s comments, his strongest challenge
yet to the election process in Turkey’s largest city, briefly drove the lira
down and also weighed on Turkish stocks. After the latest decision, the lira
firmed to 5.6500 to the dollar. The AKP’s High Election Board (YSK)
representative Recep Ozel told reporters the board had only agreed to a recount
of 51 ballot boxes, spread across 21 of the city’s total 39 districts. A total
of 350 voters are assigned to each ballot box. AK Party Deputy Chairman Ali
Ihsan Yavuz subsequently said his party would challenge the decision to reject a
recount. “It is unfathomable that such a decision should be made when there are
so many irregularities. We will go once more to the YSK using the method of an
extraordinary challenge,” he wrote on Twitter. The AK Party had also called for
the annulment of the election in Istanbul’s Buyukcekmece district, but the board
has not yet ruled on that request, Ozel said. Recounts were ongoing in the
city’s remaining districts. Police in Istanbul were conducting checks on Tuesday
morning on whether some voters registered at addresses in Buyukcekmece were
actually resident there, a police spokesman said. He said there was no criminal
investigation. To justify its call for the election to be annulled in the
district, the AK Party has said 11,186 people were improperly registered to vote
in Buyukcekmece. Erdogan’s AK Party has already lost the mayoralty in the
capital Ankara to the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), and has
appealed several stages of the count in Istanbul which showed a narrow CHP
victory. The opposition has accused the party of being a "bad loser" and has
repeatedly called on Erdogan to concede that his party lost. The AKP is reeling
from the potential loss of both cities, which the party and its predecessors
have governed for a quarter of a century. Erdogan himself rose to prominence as
Istanbul mayor in the 1990s before emerging as national leader. Erdogan said the
scale of electoral irregularities his party had uncovered meant the margin of
votes between Istanbul’s top two candidates, currently at less than 15,000 in a
city of 10 million voters, was too narrow for the opposition to claim victory.
The AKP had also sought recounts across Ankara, where initial results showed CHP
candidate Mansur Yavas winning by four percentage points. But the YSK upheld the
result and on Monday Yavas formally received his mandate as new mayor.
Saudi Arabia, UAE, Yemen Urge Security Council to Pressure
Houthis, Iran
New York - Ali Barada/Asharq Al-Awsat/Wednesday, 10 April, 2019/The governments
of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen have sent a joint letter to
the UN Security Council urging it to pressure the Houthi militias and their
backers, Iran, to stop hindering the implementation of the UN-brokered Stockholm
peace agreement.They also demanded allowing the delivery of humanitarian aid to
millions of starving Yemenis and respecting the ceasefire that was signed with
the Yemeni government and Saudi-led coalition to restore legitimacy in the
war-torn country. In a joint letter by permanent representatives to the UN,
Saudi Arabia’s Abdullah bin Yahya al-Mualimi, UAE’s Lana Nusseibeh and Yemen’s
Abdullah al-Saad, delivered Security Council President Christoph Heusgen for
April, the three countries stressed their commitment to a political solution and
provision of humanitarian aid for Yemenis. They stressed their continued support
to UN special envoy to Yemen Martin Griffiths’ mission, especially his mandate
to work towards the full implementation of the Stockholm agreement, which was
reached in December 2018. They also recalled that more than 100 days have passed
since the end of the Swedish talks, but “despite the continuing setbacks caused
by the Houthis and their Iranian supporters, our governments still believe that
if the Stockholm agreement is fully implemented, this will improve the
humanitarian situation of millions of Yemenis.”“Further UN-led negotiations
could also lead to achieving a political solution, which is urgently needed to
end Yemen’s conflict,” they stressed, noting that the Security Council must
continue to pressure Houthis and Iran to end their obstruction of the Stockholm
agreement’s implementation process. The three countries also warned of the
enormous profits gained by the Houthis from controlling the flow of goods into
areas they illegally occupy. “This provides them with a perverse incentive to
prevent aid from reaching starving people ــ a practice strongly condemned by
aid organizations, such as the World Food Program.” Looting aid and obstructing
their delivery undermines the effectiveness of the humanitarian assistance
provided by the Saudi-led coalition, which amounts to about $20 billion. They
pointed out that on Monday, Saudi Arabia and the UAE dedicated $200 million in
aid to UN organizations in Yemen. The funding is allocated to UN partners: $140
million to the WFP, $40 million to UNICEF to address sanitation issues and
malnutrition among children and mothers and $20 million to the World Health
Organization (WHO) to tackle cholera and provide intravenous feeding fluids.
Children Death Toll at Syria's al-Hol Camp Rises to 235
London - Asharq Al-Awsat/Wednesday, 10 April, 2019/Seven children were killed in
a Syrian camp for displaced people, mainly ISIS relatives, due to poor health
and living conditions in the camp. Known as the al-Hol “statelet”, the camp was
originally set up to accommodate a maximum of 20,000 people, yet it has seen a
significant influx reaching 73,000 since the December 2015 campaign against ISIS
by the Syrian Democratic Forces. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights
reported that seven children have died inside the camp, which is located in al-Hasaka
province, because of poor health and living conditions, lack of medicines and
food, and acute shortage of medical care. It noted that international
organizations are doing nothing to help ease the suffering and catastrophe in
the camp, which has become one of the largest in the areas east of the Euphrates
and throughout Syria. With that, the number of deaths in the camp rose to 235.
Reliable sources told the Observatory that if patients cannot be treated in al-Hol
camp, “they are transferred to al-Shaab and al-Hikmah hospitals in al-Hasaka and
Farman Hospital in Qamishli.”Sources from inside the camp confirmed to the
Observatory that the people are suffering mainly from a lack of medical
supplies, healthcare and support by international organizations and decrease in
food supplies. The Observatory reported that the residents of al-Hol are
civilians and family members of ISIS fighters and leaders. Among them are 12,200
Iraqi families that comprise 32,200 children, women and some males, as well as
thousands of families of different nationalities from western, European, Asian,
north African and other nationalities. The rest are Syrian. On Monday, France’s
Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian recently announced that Paris will allocate
humanitarian aid worth one million euros to refugee camps in northeastern Syria,
especially al-Hol. The camp has been described by residents and international
organizations as a humanitarian hell-scape, lacking basic accommodation and
medical facilities, said AFP. According to Save the Children, some 30 percent of
children under the age of five screened at the camp since early February suffer
acute malnutrition. The World Food Program says it has recorded several cases of
dehydration and diarrhea.
New Blackout Hits Large Parts of Venezuela
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/April 10/19/A new blackout across large parts of
Venezuela, including the capital Caracas, forced many to spend another night in
the dark Tuesday, AFP and accounts published on social media said. The
electricity shortage -- the biggest in a week -- hit a large section of the
capital as well as significant areas in 18 of the 23 states of Venezuela,
according to the same sources.
Pence Asks U.N. to Recognize Guaido as Venezuela's Leader
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/April 10/19/U.S. Vice President Mike Pence on
Wednesday asked the United Nations to recognize Juan Guaido as the legitimate
leader of Venezuela, telling the Security Council: "Nicolas Maduro must
go."Washington will present a draft resolution to the Security Council aimed at
recognizing Guaido and appointing his representative as the ambassador to the
world body, Pence told the council. "The time has come for the United Nations to
recognize interim president Juan Guaido as the legitimate president of Venezuela
and seek his representative in this body," Pence said. The United States is
among some 50 countries that recognize Guaido, the opposition leader who
declared himself interim president in January, and consider Maduro to have lost
legitimacy. Maduro has maintained control with support from the military, Russia
and China. Russia last month sent troops to Caracas, raising tensions between
Washington and Moscow. A draft resolution recognizing Guaido is certain to be
vetoed by Russia. A bid by the United States to win support for elections failed
at the Security Council in February, with Russia and China vetoing a
U.S.-drafted resolution. After appealing for U.N. recognition for Guaido, Pence
turned to Venezuela's Ambassador Samuel Moncada, who was seated in the council
chamber, and said: "With all due respect Mister Ambassador, you shouldn't be
here."He advised him to return to Caracas and convey the message to Maduro that
"his time is up. It's time for him to go."
The United States called the council meeting after a UN report detailed the
heavy toll of the crisis from the collapse of Venezuela's oil economy. Seven
million people -- 25 percent of Venezuela's population -- are in need of
humanitarian aid, lacking basic access to food and medical care, U.N. aid chief
Mark Lowcock told the council. Malnutrition rates have trebled over the past
five years, particularly affecting children under five, and power outages are
worsening access to clean water, threatening a major spread of disease. More
than 3.4 million people have left the country -- triggering a migrant crisis in
neighboring countries, and that figure is expected to reach five million by the
end of the year. "There is a very real humanitarian problem in Venezuela," said
Lowcock, who asked the council to support a ramping up of the international aid
response.
AC Milan Risk European Ban as UEFA Order Another Financial Fair Pay Probe
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/April 10/19/AC Milan risk being excluded from
European competition next season after UEFA on Thursday ordered another probe be
carried out into the Italian club for breaches of Financial Fair Play (FFP)
regulations. European football's governing body said in a statement that UEFA's
Club Financial Control Body (CFCB) investigatory chamber had decided "to refer
the case of AC Milan to the CFCB adjudicatory chamber as the club has failed to
comply with the break-even requirement."The period relates to the 2018/19 season
and covering 2016, 2017 and 2018, the statement continued. "This referral is not
related to the decision that was made by the CFCB adjudicatory in December 2018
and was covering the 2014-15, 2015-16 and 2016-17 seasons," it added. The Serie
A giants are one of several clubs to have been investigated for breaching UEFA's
rules, whereby clubs cannot spend more than they generate by their own means. AC
Milan have fallen foul of UEFA's financial rules since they spent 200 million
euros ($225 million) on transfers in the summer of 2017. The 18-time Italian
champions won an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) last year,
following a UEFA ban from the Europa League. The club persuaded sport's highest
court that their finances would improve under American hedge fund Elliott
Management Corporation, who took control last summer when former Chinese owner
Li Yonghong forfeited on the loan he had taken to buy the club in 2017 from
former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi. AC Milan were assessed by UEFA
in December, when they were told to break even by 2021 or have their European
ban restored. The club are currently on target to qualify for next season's
Champions League as they sit fourth in Serie A, with seven games to play. They
failed to progress to the Europa League's knockout rounds but have managed to
reach the semi-finals of the Italian Cup.
Iraq Offers to Try Foreign IS Suspects, for a Price
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/April 10/19/Iraq has offered to put on trial
hundreds of accused foreign jihadists in Baghdad in exchange for millions of
dollars, potentially solving a legal conundrum for Western governments but
sparking rights concerns.
Western countries have been rocked by fierce public debate over whether to
repatriate citizens who joined the Islamic State group, which held swathes of
Iraq and Syria for years before losing its last speck of land last month. Around
1,000 suspected foreign IS fighters are in detention in northeast Syria, in
addition to around 9,000 foreign women and children in Kurdish-run camps there.
Iraq has submitted a proposal to the U.S.-led coalition that fought the
jihadists, offering to try and sentence foreign IS suspects in exchange for
operational costs, three Iraqi officials told AFP.
"These countries have a problem, here's a solution," one said, speaking
anonymously because he was not authorized to give details to the press.
The source said Iraq had proposed a rate of $2 million per suspect per year, a
calculation based on the estimated per-capital detention costs in the U.S.-run
Guantanamo Bay prison.
"We made the proposal last week but have not gotten a response yet," the source
added. A second official said Iraq had requested $2 billion to try the suspects
as "one of several options", and could ask for "more money to cover the costs of
their detention."
- 'Special tribunal'? -
Iraq has already tried several hundred IS foreign jihadists and handed down
death sentences to around 100, none of which has been carried out.
Other IS suspects have been condemned to life in Iraqi prison, including
58-year-old Frenchman Lahcen Ammar Gueboudj and two other French nationals. At
least 12 French nationals are in Iraqi custody awaiting trial after being
transferred from Syria in February. Detainees from as many as 52 countries could
be tried by Baghdad under the arrangement, a third Iraqi official told AFP.
"Iraq proposed to the coalition setting up a special tribunal to try foreigners.
There's been a constructive beginning to those discussions," the source said.
But establishing the court could be complicated, the official said, with
questions over whether international funding for it would preclude
implementation of death sentences. The source added that Iraq proposed the
arrangement to the U.S.-led coalition as a whole because it was simpler than
negotiating with individual countries. The U.S.-led coalition did not
immediately respond to AFP's request for comment. Transferring foreign fighters
to Iraq for trial appears to resolve a thorny legal debate for Western powers.
On the one hand, the Kurdish-run administration in northern Syria has said it
does not have the capacity to try all foreigners, calling for an international
tribunal to be established there. But it is not an internationally recognized
government, so jurisdiction is dubious. On the other hand, repatriation is a
politically-fraught issue, and governments fear they may not have enough
evidence to convict IS members who claim they did not fight.
'Real risk of torture'
Enter Baghdad, which has claimed legal jurisdiction over any individual who
joined extremist groups that has committed crimes in Iraq, even if that person
did not pick up arms. And last month, Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi
hinted Baghdad could have jurisdiction over jihadists who were in Syria but
never entered Iraq, "because as you know the battlefields became one."But Human
Rights Watch has warned that transferring suspects to Iraq could be "problematic.""Our
first and main concern with these transfers are the reality of Iraqi
proceedings, which in summary provide no clear right to a fair trial and a real
risk of torture," said HRW's Iraq researcher Belkis Wille. Instead, Wille said
countries whose nationals may have joined IS should be investigating and trying
them at home. She cited the case of a 27-year-old German woman who went on trial
this week in Munich for letting a five-year-old Yazidi girl die of thirst under
IS. And other foreign IS suspects have been transferred via Iraq to their home
countries for detention. Otherwise, Wille added, "if countries want their
nationals to be tried in Iraq, they should be much more heavily invested in
improving the judicial system so that people have a fair trial and the risk of
torture isn't as significant."
Macron Urges Rouhani to Prevent More Tension in Wake of
IRGC Blacklisting
Kataeb.org/Wednesday 10th April 2019/French President Emmanuel Macron called on
his Iranian counterpart Hassan Roubani to prevent more tensions in the wake of
the U.S. blacklisting of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. According to a
statement issued by the French presidency, Macron urged the Iranian president to
“avoid any escalation or destabilization of the region" during a phone call on
Tuesday. For his part, Rouhani described the terror designation as “very
provocative, dangerous and unprecedented in international relations”. A
statement issued by Rouhani's office noted that the latter had asked Macron to
help speed up a European trade initiative that would facilitate business
dealings between Iran and European Union countries.
Hariri Acknowledges 'Mistakes' in Public Sector Hires
Kataeb.org/Wednesday 10th April 2019/The Parliament convened on Wednesday for a
Q&A session during which members of the government answered 13 questions
addressed by lawmakers regarding several issues.One of the tackled issues was
the illegal hires that were exposed recently in the public sector. A recent
probe found that around 5000 civil servants were hired during a job freeze that
came into effect in August 2017; the illegal employment was mostly done ahead of
the parliamentary elections in May 2018. Prime Minister Saad Hariri admitted
that there were "certainly" mistakes in the public sector employment, assuring
that hiring will be completely halted as per the State budget to be endorsed
soon. Hariri also claimed that all political parties got involved in the OGERO
hires, noting that there are suggestions to reshuffle employees within public
administrations. "Everyone, all the political forces sought to make hires inside
OGERO," Hariri said. Commenting on the premier's statement, MP Elias Hankache
said that the latter should have completed his sentence by saying that "all
factions, except the Kataeb party."
Speaker of the Parliament Nabih Berri told Hariri that the Parliament will keep
on examining the government's commitment to the hire freeze decision. Following
a meeting with Berri after the session, Hariri said that "hard" measures will be
taken to revive the economy, adding that the budget will consist of a series of
steps aimed at serving the people's interest. “I am in talks with the different
political forces so that there would be a consensus on the budget. We must not
face the same fate as Greece did. We must rather make difficult decisions to
save the country,” he stated. “We must stop political outbidding and seek what
is in the best interest of the country’s economic and monetary welfare, and to
focus on the economic development while setting hard measures for a year or two
to save Lebanon,” Hariri added.
Hakim Blasts Officials' Irresponsibility, Warns It Is
Jeopardizing Lebanon
Kataeb.org/Wednesday 10th April 2019/Kataeb politburo member Alain Hakim pointed
out that the current political rhetoric lacks any sort of social responsibility,
warning that it is affecting the country's finances and jeopardizing its entity.
In an op-ed published in Annahar newspaper on Wednesday, Hakim condemned the
campaign being waged against Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh, saying that the
mounting criticism puts financial and economic stability at stake. “What we have
been expecting from political officials is a public discourse on the new social
responsibility arising from the presence of risks on the Lebanese entity due to
corruption and its repercussions on the public treasury," Hakim wrote.
"Unfortunately, we see that the prevailing rhetoric is different from what is
required, and even more it leads to the further deterioration of the current
situation."“Irresponsible statements go against all that Plato said about the
characteristics of the ruling elite and the social responsibility it ought to
have,” the former minister explained. “Wouldn’t it be better for this elite
group, entrusted with the State management, to care more about the people’s
interests by working on speeding up the approval of a new budget and making sure
that the necessary reforms are conducted to ensure the continuity of the State?”
Hakim concluded.
Samy Gemayel Meets with Top EPP Officials in Brussels
Kataeb.org/Wednesday 10th April 2019/Kataeb leader Samy Gemayel met in Brussels
with the President of the European People's Party (EPP), Joseph Daul, with talks
focusing on the latest developments in Lebanon and Europe. Gemayel also met with
the EPP's Secretary General, Antonio López-Istúriz, and the Vice-Chair
responsible for Enlargement and Mediterranean Policy, Andrey Kovatchev. Gemayel
is on a visit to Brussels to attend the EPP's political assembly as well as the
executive meeting of the Centrist Democrat International (IDC-CDI). The Lebanese
Kataeb party was unanimously elected in 2016 by the political assembly of the
European People's Party to join a new partnership platform for parties from the
MENA region. Founded in 1976, the European People's Party, pan-European party of
the centre-right, is the largest political organization in Europe with 80
parties and partners from 42 countries, 13 heads of state and government (both,
EU and non-EU), 14 European Commissioners and the largest Group in the European
Parliament.
Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published
on April 09-10/19
Dumping Diesel Is Bad for the Planet
Leonid Bershidsky/Asharq Al Awsat/April 10/19
File this under “unintended consequences.” The anti-diesel campaign that
followed the 2016 discovery that Volkswagen AG used software cheats to
understate its cars’ nitrogen oxide emissions has led to a rise in carbon
dioxide, which has a greater impact on the climate.
In 2017, CO2 emissions from new cars were higher than the previous year for the
first time since 2010, the European Environment Agency reported this week. There
is a simple explanation: Diesel-gate broke in 2016. Environmental groups started
attacking the fuel, and cities considered banning vehicles that use it from
their streets. The market took fright. In 2017, European consumers bought more
gasoline than diesel cars for the first time since 2009. The problem: the
vehicles emit 10 percent to 40 percent more CO2 than their diesel counterparts.
The trade-off between diesel’s NOx emissions and gasoline’s CO2 isn’t a
straightforward matter of calculating the damage from both and picking the
lesser evil. The former causes more local and immediate damage to human health
in the form of respiratory diseases and cancer. The latter is more dangerous
because of its contribution to climate change. Reducing the number of diesel
vehicles on the road and replacing them with gasoline-powered ones is a policy
that has immediate health benefits – at the expense of future generations, which
will have to deal with the ever-increasing effects of climate change. The hype
cycle set off by the Volkswagen scandal effectively imposed this policy on
governments whether they welcomed it, as France did, or resisted it, as Germany
tried by fighting the diesel vehicle bans. Consumers have reacted dramatically.
In Germany in 2018, diesel vehicle registrations fell 16.9 percent after a 13.2
percent drop the previous year. Residual values have plummeted and gasoline is
king – because, for all the talk of the industry pivoting to electric
powertrains, the choice between gas and diesel is still binary.Last year, only
3.8 percent of newly registered vehicles in Germany had a hybrid powertrain and
1 percent were fully electric. These vehicles’ combined share of the country’s
advanced and affluent car market isn’t rising fast enough to make up for the
steep decrease in diesel registrations. On Friday, the European Automobile
Manufacturing Association responded to the EEA’s findings by calling for
increased government and European Union investment in the charging
infrastructure for electrical vehicles. It said the network would need to expand
20-fold in the next 12 years to accommodate the move to electric power. Though
there have been a few private initiatives to roll out such networks, a
chicken-and-egg problem hampers their development: People won’t buy more EVs
until they can be conveniently charged. That appears to be a clear-cut case for
government investment. Instead European governments have preferred to set
ambitious sales targets for electric vehicles. But a report by Transport &
Environment, an environmental lobby group, said France, Germany, and Austria are
likely to sell about half the number of EVs they targeted by 2020 because of the
deficiencies in the charging infrastructure. Fixing the charging infrastructure
is still unlikely to persuade consumers to ditch their gasoline cars immediately
in favor of EVs. The vehicles’ short range, long charging times and high prices
make them suitable only for early adopters rather than most drivers. Until these
obstacles are overcome, campaigns against one type of hydrocarbon fuel can only
favor another type of hydrocarbon fuel. The hype only leads to senseless
environmental trade-offs. What policymakers need to do is leave diesel and
gasoline alone – the current emissions standards are stringent enough for now –
and prioritize the development of both the charging infrastructure and EVs’
batteries. That will require more spending than regulatory tweaks, but the
effect will be less ambiguous.
The Nation of Islam and Women's "Social Justice"
Denis MacEoin/Gatestone Institute/April 10/19
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14046/nation-of-islam-womens-march
Louis Farrakhan, the Nation of Islam leader, stands for almost everything the
Women's March principles claim to deplore. He is a misogynist who wants to keep
women in their traditional roles, he hates all LGBT people in an exceptionally
vicious way, he is a black separatist, unlike the marchers, who call for unity
between races, and has shown close support for a number of dictators, notably
the late Libyan president Mu'ammar Ghadhafi, Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe, and
Cuba's Commadante Fidel Castro -- even though the Women's March progressives
seek reform through democratic means achieved through working hand-in-hand as
free people.
Given that most of the values are those on which most liberals and conservatives
agree, one might ask how three of the four board members of the Women's March
came to embrace Louis Farrakhan, praise him, and even attend his 2018 Saviors'
Day rally. These three were Linda Sarsour, Tamika Mallory, and Carmen Perez.
"Rank, vile, open, gutter-level anti-Semitism is apparently a pleasure that the
progressive left is unwilling or unable to abstain from. Why?" — James Kirchick,
Tablet, March 19, 2019.
Louis Farrakhan, the Nation of Islam leader, stands for almost everything the
Women's March principles claim to deplore. How then did three of the four board
members of the Women's March come to embrace Farrakhan and praise him? (Photo by
Scott Olson/Getty Images)
It is well-known by some and wholly ignored by others that Islam has a long, sad
history of antisemitism, a bigotry that originated in the seventh century CE
(the first Islamic century) and has grown more vicious in the 21st. Combined
with an almost universal anti-Zionism and bolstered by many on the political
"left", it is today the most ubiquitous and deadliest form of Jew-hatred. It
takes the form, not just of insults, boycotts, and lawfare, but of wars,
terrorist attacks, and calls for the destruction of the Jewish state and the
genocide of the Jews.
There are many forms of Islam, although its two great branches are Sunnism and
Shi'ism, with numerous mystical Sufi orders that are mainly Sunni. Modern forms
of Muslim extremism and terrorist outfits adhere closely to shari'a, the Qur'an,
the Hadith and other norms of Islamic faith and practice. The Muslim
Brotherhood, the Taliban, al-Qa'eda, al-Shabaab, Hamas and countless others
regard themselves as regular Muslims of an orthodox variety, albeit with
variations.[1]
There is, however, one curious case of a movement that pledges allegiance to
Islam, obeys the five pillars of the religion -- faith, prayer, fasting,
charity, and the pilgrimage to Mecca -- while holding to some un-Islamic
beliefs. It also happens to be the most anti-Semitic of all, if that is
possible.
According to the Southern Poverty Law Center:
Since its founding in 1930, the Nation of Islam (NOI) has grown into one of the
wealthiest and best-known organizations in black America, offering numerous
programs and events designed to uplift African Americans. Nonetheless, its
bizarre theology of innate black superiority over whites — a belief system
vehemently and consistently rejected by mainstream Muslims — and the deeply
racist, antisemitic and anti-LGBT rhetoric of its leaders, including top
minister Louis Farrakhan, have earned the NOI a prominent position in the ranks
of organized hate.
If there were space, it would be fascinating to write a lengthy article about
the Nation of Islam: its strange history, the sudden appearance in Detroit of
its founder Warith D. Fard Muhammad (a man of uncertain identity) in 1930, his
abrupt and never-explained disappearance in 1934; the control of the movement by
Elijah Muhammad (d. 1975); the takeover in 1977 by Louis Farrakhan, still the
leader today; the movement's cultish and, in Islamic terms, utterly heretical
beliefs; its current involvement with the Church of Scientology via the study of
Dianetics; its development of the idea of black supremacism; and more.
Despite its claim to be an Islamic sect, its belief that black people are God's
chosen race is in utter contradiction to genuine Islamic principles, namely that
it is belief, not ethnicity that matters to God, bringing all Muslims, white,
black, brown or yellow together in a single world community, the umma.
Our interest here, however, lies in NOI's stunning antisemitism and its
implications for some, but by no means all, on the political left. And alongside
that its rabid hatred for LGBTQ people, in utter contradiction of left-wing and
liberal values.
According to the Anti-Defamation League:
The Nation of Islam (NOI), the oldest Black nationalist organization in the
U.S., has maintained a consistent record of anti-Semitism and racism since its
founding in the 1930s.
Under Farrakhan, who has espoused and promoted anti-Semitism and racism
throughout his 30-year tenure as NOI leader, the organization has used its
programs, institutions, and media to disseminate its message of hate.
While Farrakhan often speaks about serious issues affecting the African-American
community, including racism, police brutality, and economic disparities, he
often blames Jews for these societal problems.
Regarding Louis Farrakhan, the Anti-Defamation League writes:
More than any other NOI leader, Louis Farrakhan has built a legacy of
divisiveness as the leading anti-Semite in America....
In recent years, Farrakhan has embarked on a wide-ranging anti-Jewish campaign,
which has featured some of the most hateful speeches of his career. He has
repeatedly alleged that the Jewish people were responsible for the slave trade
as well as the 9/11 attacks, and that they continue conspire to control the
government, the media, Hollywood, and various Black individuals and
organizations.
Farrakhan also frequently denies that Jews have a legitimate claim to their
religion and to the land of Israel, claiming that Judaism is nothing more than a
"deceptive lie" and a "theological error" promoted by Jews to further their
control over America's economy and foreign and domestic policy.
The peerless Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) has recorded numerous
videos of antisemitic speeches made by Farrakhan and other NOI officials. Also
speaking at the well-attended annual Saviors' Day Convention in Chicago on
February 17, 2019, Farrakhan's "scholarly aide", Wesley Muhammad also made
bizarre allegations. MEMRI summed them up as follows:
He said that it is Jewish genius that is responsible for the "scientific
production of homosexuality and transgenderism among black people" and the "weaponizing"
of marijuana to "feminize" the black American male. Muhammad said that Louis
Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam are preventing the total "demasculinization"
of black men in the United States. He added that the "true Semites" are "black
Semites" and that a certain party from among the Jews are the real anti-Semites.
This deluded combination of unrelated bigotries, ethnic distortion (black people
are not Semites), and a gratuitous nastiness about Jews amounts to a level of
antisemitic hate speech of impressive immorality. But in the Nation of Islam, it
was not hard to surpass even that.
On the same day, at the same convention, NOI leader Farrakhan went even further
than his aide. Again MEMRI provided a transcript and précis of his four-hour
speech:
Farrakhan said that certain people who call themselves Jews to hide their true
identity are the "synagogue of Satan." He claimed that Jews don't let blacks use
the term "holocaust" to describe the slave trade and he criticized Jews for
believing that "the suffering of six million Jews is worth 7 billion human
beings." He explained that Moses taught the Jews "tricknology," that the Jewish
scholars came up with the Talmud, and that "Talmudic Jews" are culprits who see
themselves as gods. He claimed that sharecropping and the enslavement of blacks
are justified by the Talmud and that the Jews have exploited the American people
through predatory lending practices because the Talmud permits Jews to cheat
non-Jews. In addition, Farrakhan said that the Federal Reserve is a "family of
rich Jewish people" and that things such as pedophilia, sexual perversion, rape
culture, casting couches, gay marriage, abortion, sex trafficking, prostitution,
anal sex, and certain sexual practices that he said are common in Hollywood can
all be traced to the satanic influence of the Talmudic Jews. He added: "The
Talmud [and its] influence on the Supreme Court and the laws of this land must
ultimately be challenged."
Ironically, this association of Jews with mastery of the Transatlantic slave
trade (Jewish participation in it was, in fact, "negligible") ignores the fact
that the Arab Muslim slave trade from Africa across the Sahara desert was far
wider and longer-lasting than the European trade. It was, in fact, white
Europeans who abolished all slave trading.
Farrakhan's vacuous attempt to blame all the things he despises, including major
crimes, on Jews echoes the continuing accusation from the political left and the
United Nations that Israel is the worst country in the world -- the only country
to be singled out for repeated condemnation without evidence, despite the
existence of so many other countries with appalling human rights and military
abuses (for instance, here, here and here).
This partisan hatred of Israel possibly explains a bizarre alliance between some
liberals and the Nation of Islam. The Women's Marches of January 21, 2017 were
strongly left-wing, aimed, it seemed, at protesting the new US administration
under President Donald J. Trump. However, many of policies they embraced were
very much part of broad American values, matters already legislated for and
accepted in many instances by a majority of US citizens. Under the movement's
Unity Principles, for example, the founders stated:
We must create a society in which women - including Black women, Indigenous
women, poor women, immigrant women, disabled women, Jewish women, Muslim women,
Latinx women, Asian and Pacific Islander women, lesbian, bi, queer, and trans
women - are free and able to care for and nurture their families, however they
are formed, in safe and healthy environments free from structural impediments.
The United States has always been in the forefront of social movements, notably
reforms for the rights of women. The other elements of the March's principles
include other American values: an end to violence against women, reproductive
rights, civil rights, disability rights, immigrant rights (for what has always
been a nation of immigrants), LGBT and similar rights (as enshrined in the 2015
Supreme Court ruling permitting same-sex marriage).
Given that most of the values are those on which most liberals and conservatives
agree, one might ask how three of the four board members of the Women's March
came to embrace Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, praise him, and even
attend his 2018 Saviors' Day rally. These three were Linda Sarsour, Tamika
Mallory, and Carmen Perez. The fourth board member and co-president, Bob Bland,
took a very different position and strongly condemned Farrakhan.
Mallory, who is black, tried to justify her relationship with Farrakhan by
saying:
"As a leader, as a black leader in a country that is still dealing with some
very serious unresolved issues as it relates to the black experience in this
country, I go into a lot of difficult spaces," Mallory told "The View."
"Wherever my people are, there that's where I must also be."
Mallory did not stint in her praise of Farrakhan. She posted on Instagram a
picture of herself with him after a rally, calling him the "GOAT" -- the
"greatest of all time".
She has been severely criticized for this relationship. Adam Serwer in a 2018
article for The Atlantic, argued that "To those outside the black community, the
Nation of Islam's persistent appeal, despite its bigotry, can seem
incomprehensible."
Teresa Shook, the Founder of the Woman's March, demanded that all four of the
board members stand down, "for allowing 'anti-Semitism, anti- LBGTQIA sentiment
and hateful, racist rhetoric' to become a part of the platform."
This echoed a Twitter comment by Bland:
"Throughout the years, Minister Louis Farrakhan has made statements that are
anti-semitic, misogynistic, homophobic and transphobic that I don't support or
condone."
Bland may have condemned Farrakhan, but has herself re-tweeted anti-Israel
statements.
In truth, Farrakhan stands for almost everything the Women's March Principles
claim to deplore. He is a misogynist who wants to keep women in their
traditional roles, he hates all LGBT people in an exceptionally vicious way, he
is a black separatist, unlike the marchers, who call for unity between races,
and he has shown close support for a number of dictators, notably the late
Libyan president Mu'ammar Ghadhafi, Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe, and Cuba's
Commadante Fidel Castro (and here) -- even though the Women's March progressives
seek reform through democratic means achieved through working hand-in-hand as
free people.
In an important article published on March 19 this year in the magazine Tablet,
James Kirchick, a fellow of the Brookings Institution, explores the bizarre link
between the Nation of Islam and the Women's March and expands on how
antisemitism on the left has morphed into something denatured. For all the other
perplexing compromises made by the March leaders, the antisemitism seems the
worst.
Kirchick writes:
Even as Women's March chapters throughout the country rejected what they saw as
the clear anti-Semitism of the movement's leadership—canceling marches,
condemning the group's ties with Farrakhan, and otherwise dissociating
themselves from the national organization — the phrase "white Jews" quickly
passed into common usage among those on the left eager to exculpate Mallory,
Perez, and Sarsour.
He goes further to discuss the way Jewish "whiteness" undermines legitimate
claims as an oppressed minority:
Echoing Mallory's charge that Jews, as a group, are implicated in the oppression
of nonwhites, contributors to a recent online symposium asserted that "white
Jews benefit from and participate in white supremacy" and that anti-Semitism is
not an "exceptional form of oppression, but part of a larger framework that uses
various forms of oppression to reinforce one another." Women's March deputy head
of communications, Sophie Ellman-Golan, insisted that "white Jews, like all
white people, uphold white supremacy." A writer named Malcolm Harris demanded
that critics of such notions "show me statistics where the situation of white
Jews can be meaningfully distinguished from other white Americans."
Lest the meaning of this be lost, he continues:
Last year in New York City, there were four times as many bias crimes against
Jews then there were against blacks — though there are twice as many blacks than
Jews living in the city — and 20 times as many bias crimes against Jews as
against transgender people. The main targets of these crimes were not Jews with
dark skin but Jews of any race who were readily identifiable as Jews.
A few paragraphs later, he doubles down on this argument:
After the 2017 Charlottesville riot, where a group of white supremacists and
Nazis chanting "Jews will not replace us" unleashed terror against a multiracial
assortment of counterprotesters, the Israeli-American writer Gershom Gorenberg
observed that, "Because race is the most pervasive reason that some Americans
believe they can discriminate against and despise others, a reflexive response
to hatred of Jews is to try to fit it into the categories of race." But this is
an historically inaccurate impulse. As Gorenberg put it elsewhere: "When it's
good to be white, we're not. When it's bad to be white, we are. When it's good
to be European, we're Levantines. When Europeans are colonialists, we're
colonialists. When they hate immigration, we brought immigrants. When they hate
capitalists, we're capitalists."
Readers should consult Kirchick's piece; but let me end with one short quotation
from it: "Rank, vile, open, gutter-level anti-Semitism is apparently a pleasure
that the progressive left is unwilling or unable to abstain from. Why?"
*Dr. Denis MacEoin is a non-Jewish scholar of Middle Eastern affairs, the chair
of North-East Friends of Israel in the UK, and a Distinguished Senior Fellow at
the Gatestone Institute.
[1] For a useful description of these variations and their adherence to Islamic
orthodoxy, see here.
© 2019 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do
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part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied
or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.
China Rising in the Caribbean
by Gordon G. Chang/Gatestone Institute/April 10/19
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14050/china-caribbean-sea
About 55 miles east of Palm Beach, Florida on Grand Bahama Island, a Hong
Kong-based business is spending about $3 billion on a deep-water container
facility, the Freeport Container Port.
The concern is that the port will become another debt-trap, like the port of
Hambantota in Sri Lanka. There are concerns that Hambantota will eventually
become a Chinese naval base. Will the Pentagon have to contend with Chinese
warships at Freeport?
The Chinese military is already in the Caribbean, in Cuba, apparently to collect
signals intelligence from the U.S. Washington splashes plenty of cash around the
Middle East, for instance, but American policymakers need also to be concerned,
urgently, about critical needy locations closer to home.
US President Donald Trump recently met with the Caribbean leaders, signaling
Washington's intensified engagement with the region. But American programs need
cash to back them up, as they are inadequate to meet Chinese challenges in the
Caribbean, where trade and investment have made Beijing a power. Pictured:
President Trump and Melania Trump welcome Caribbean leaders to Mar-a-Lago in
Palm Beach, Florida on March 22, 2019. (Official White House Photo by Tia Dufour)
There's a "Red Storm Rising" just miles from America's shores. "In point of
fact, the entire hemisphere is on fire," said Lou Dobbs on his widely watched
Fox Business Network show on April 4. "China and Russia are engaging us in
almost every quarter in this hemisphere. Russia and China in Venezuela, but
China throughout the hemisphere and throughout the Caribbean."
Throughout the Caribbean, China's influence is growing fast. Trade and
investment have made Beijing a power. Chinese motives are not solely commercial,
however, and do not appear benign.
We begin on the island of New Providence, in the Bahamas. The Export-Import Bank
of China in 2011 extended a $2.45 billion construction loan for the Baha Mar
resort, near the capital of Nassau. The project, troubled from the start, is the
largest and most expensive in the Caribbean.
The project's size is a curiosity, and China's large commitment to the Caribbean
is, from an economic viewpoint, intriguing. As Evan Ellis of the U.S. Army War
College points out, China, on a per capita basis, has more equity invested in
the Caribbean than in the rest of Latin America. This is noteworthy in that the
Caribbean has, in comparison to the rest of that region, far fewer natural
resources and only a tiny market for Chinese goods. As Ellis told Roll Call, "It
really isn't about the market or the materials if you look at the amount that
they are investing."
So, what is China's motivation? Another large Bahamian investment provides a
clue.
About 55 miles east of Palm Beach, on Grand Bahama Island, a Hong Kong-based
business is spending about $3 billion on a deep-water container facility, the
Freeport Container Port.
The commercial rationale is that Freeport will be able to take advantage of
traffic from the recently expanded Panama Canal, but the concern is that the
port will become another debt-trap, like Hambantota in Sri Lanka. China in
December 2017 took control of the port Hambantota, by grabbing 70% of the equity
and signing a 99-year lease after that project could not repay high-interest
loans extended by China. China's takeover was inevitable because Hambantota was
misconceived from the get-go.
There are concerns that Hambantota will eventually become a Chinese naval base.
China's admirals have long eyed Sri Lanka for its strategic location. In both
September and October 2014, the Sri Lankan government allowed a Chinese
submarine to dock at the Chinese-funded Colombo International Container
Terminal. Will the Pentagon have to contend with Chinese warships at Freeport?
The Chinese military is already in the Caribbean, in Cuba. According to an
October 2018 staff report of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review
Commission, China maintains physical presences at Soviet-era intelligence
facilities at Lourdes, Bejucal, and Santiago de Cuba, apparently to collect
signals intelligence from the U.S.
Of these locations, Bejucal, south of Havana, is of special concern. Satellite
imagery shows a new radome protecting the radar there, and the installation
could well be China's. China, after all, has been at Bejucal for some time.
Marco Rubio, the Republican senator from Florida, in 2016 referred publicly to
"this Chinese listening station in Bejucal."
Ellis, in a podcast with Bonnie Glaser of the Center for Strategic and
International Studies, noted that Beijing views the Caribbean Sea in much the
same way it perceives the South China Sea. This assessment goes a long way
toward explaining China's otherwise unusual focus on the 13 island states and 17
"dependent territories" — what once were known as "colonies" — in the region.
That focus also goes some way to understanding the tirade of Haigang Yin,
China's chargé d'affaires in the Bahamas, last month. Days before U.S. President
Donald Trump's March 22 meeting with five Caribbean leaders — including the
Bahamas' — at Mar-a-Lago, Yin accused the U.S. of attempting to "disintegrate
solidarity and cooperation between China and other developing countries."
Chinese arrogance has now become breathtaking. Despite Beijing's efforts, Trump
met with the Caribbean leaders. Yet Washington's intensified engagement with the
region is still inadequate to meet Chinese challenges. As Fox Business anchor
Trish Regan said on her prime-time show on April 5, "Not since the Cuban Missile
Crisis in 1962 had we had such an enemy present in our own hemisphere."
Up to now, America has mostly left the Caribbean alone. As is often said, the
Caribbean is "too democratic and not poor enough" to get U.S. attention. It is,
however, correctly called America's "third border" and "soft underbelly."
This underbelly is now being remade with Chinese cash. For instance, five
countries there — Trinidad and Tobago, Grenada, Dominica, Antigua and Barbuda,
and the Dominican Republic — have joined Beijing's ambitious Belt and Road
Initiative, an infrastructure plan meant to tie global trade routes to China.
As Beijing pushes the initiative in the region, there are concerns that more
countries will be "debt trapped," like Sri Lanka. USAID Administrator Mark Green
is right to label Beijing's loans to Caribbean borrowers "predatory financing."
American warnings, however, do not mean much if the U.S. is not offering
alternatives, as Margaret Myers of the Inter-American Dialogue told Roll Call.
After Trump's Mar-a-Lago meeting with Caribbean leaders, the U.S. promised to
send a delegation to the region. Moreover, the State Department has its own
plan, labeled "Caribbean 2020." Despite catchy names, American programs need
cash to back them up.
Washington splashes plenty of cash around the Middle East, for instance, but
American policymakers need also to be concerned, urgently, about critical, needy
locations closer to home.
*Gordon G. Chang is the author of The Coming Collapse of China and a Gatestone
Institute Distinguished Senior Fellow.
© 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.
Bringing down IRGC’s terrorist networks tricky but
necessary
د. ثيودور كراسيك/اسقاط شبكات الحرس الثوري الإيراني الإرهابية صعبة ولكنها ضرورية
Dr. Theodore Karasik/Arab News/April 10/19
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/73713/dr-theodore-karasik-bringing-down-irgcs-terrorist-networks-tricky-but-necessary%D8%AF-%D8%AB%D9%8A%D9%88%D8%AF%D9%88%D8%B1-%D9%83%D8%B1%D8%A7%D8%B3%D9%8A%D9%83-%D8%A7%D8%B3%D9%82%D8%A7/
By order of President Donald Trump, the US State Department is designating the
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the military arm of the Islamic
Republic of Iran, as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) in its entirety,
including the Quds Force. The administration sees this as a necessary step to
counter Iran-backed terrorism around the world. Criminal prosecutions are now
easier but still complicated.
Many are divided on the designation, arguing that such a move means that the
IRGC will quickly engage American troops or attack US targets anywhere in the
world, but more specifically in the lands that Iran occupies or influences in
the Middle East. Also, the US will pursue criminal cases against anybody who
interacts with the IRGC or any of its octopus-like tentacles in Asia, Europe and
Latin America.
It is important to understand that the driver of this policy is to end the
ability of the IRGC to intervene or interfere in other states’ internal affairs,
which has been happening for decades. It was only about 12 years ago that the
IRGC first became designated and under sanction by the US Treasury, followed by
the EU a few years later. In addition, the IRGC is also currently designated
thanks to various executive orders, including sanctions designations in 2007 for
its support to Iran’s ballistic missile and nuclear programs, and in 2011 and
2012 in connection with Iran’s human rights abuses.
In other words, the IRGC has been under sanctions for at least a decade and has
only increased its aggression, with no retreat yet seen. More than 900
Iran-related individuals, entities, aircraft and vessels have been sanctioned by
the US for human rights abuses, censorship, the ballistic missile program,
malign cyber-activities, support for terrorism, or associations with the
government of Iran.
In fact, the IRGC has become more aggressive in a number of different Middle
Eastern theaters, specifically the Levant and Yemen, with a technologically
savvy ability to enhance the power of other terror groups. This type of activity
must stop.
Looking through the FTO lens, the IRGC continues to provide financial and other
material support, training, technology transfer, advanced conventional weapons,
guidance, and direction to a broad range of terrorist organizations, including
Hezbollah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Palestine, Kata’ib Hezbollah in Iraq, Al-Ashtar
Brigades in Bahrain, and other terrorist groups in Syria and around the Gulf.
IRGC assistance also goes further afield in terms of recruiting and training in
jurisdictions away from southwest Asia.
The IRGC has been under sanctions for at least a decade and has only increased
its aggression, with no retreat yet seen.
The IRGC FTO designation is built on a desire to correct historical wrongs, such
as the 444-day hostage crisis and the parading of US Navy personnel captured in
the Gulf in 2016. To be sure, the IRGC is responsible for the deaths of at least
603 American service members in Iraq since 2003. This accounts for 17 percent of
all deaths of US personnel in Iraq from 2003 to 2011, and is in addition to the
many thousands of Iraqis and others killed around the world by Iran’s terror
strikes.
The Quds Force’s terrorist planning has been uncovered and disrupted in many
countries, including Bahrain, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Germany, Kenya and Turkey. In
2011, the Quds Force plotted a brazen terrorist attack against the Saudi
ambassador to the US on American territory. In January 2018, Germany uncovered
10 IRGC operatives involved in a terrorist plot and convicted another IRGC
operative for surveilling a German-Israeli group. In September, a US federal
court found Iran and the IRGC liable for the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing, which
killed 19 Americans.
On the one hand, the trail of terror is comprehensive, but in some of the plots
the efforts were comical because the IRGC had to rely on hiring local criminals
to conduct their “sophisticated” operations. Thus there is a question mark over
its capability and reach, given the global dragnet that has been ongoing
regarding its activity in recent years. Arab allies of the US are assisting
Washington in this effort by helping to identify individuals outside of Iran who
are tied to the IRGC network.
Let’s be clear about the IRGC: This 40-year-old elite military organization is
expert at using front companies, transit, and economic exchanges across the
world. The IRGC is able to use these networks to move personnel, monies or
equipment as they see fit. The IRGC’s global web exists alongside many other
terrorist networks and pathways. In theory, this FTO move is necessary to
achieve key goals in cutting off these networks. It is notable that the first
countries to support the Trump administration’s designation were key Gulf
states, who have been saying to Washington for years that the IRGC is a
terrorist organization.
Overall, the IRGC FTO designation is a significant step forward in the maximum
pressure campaign against the Iranian government, with the aim of getting the
IRGC back within its borders and bankrupt. The road ahead is mapped out in the
sense that IRGC activity is known and can now be pursued and prosecuted in a
sharp way. Although the Iranian government and Quds Force commander Qassem
Soleimani are clever, this step by the US administration is a further move
toward achieving its goal of forcing a change in Iran’s terrorist behavior,
which threatens so many states. Nobody said it would be easy or safe, but it is
necessary.
*Dr. Theodore Karasik is a non-resident senior fellow at the Lexington Institute
and a national security expert, specializing in Europe, Eurasia and the Middle
East. He worked for the RAND Corporation and publishes widely in the US and
international media. Twitter: @tkarasik
The Islamization of Europe and the European Caliphate
Rami Dabbas/Jihad Watch/April 10/19
In the 20th century, the world’s population increased four times and exceeded
6.5 billion people. the demographic change in the recent decades has seen a
rapid growth in the number of Muslims. Since 1990, the number of Muslims in the
world has increased from 880 million to 1 billion people. Islam became the
fastest growing world religion in terms of the number of adherents, and
according to current forecasts, by 2030 there will be at least two billion
Muslims on earth out of a total population of 8 billion.
Currently, Islam is already the second largest religion in terms of followers
(after Christianity). More than two thirds of Muslims live in Asia, where they
constitute over 20% of the population, and almost 30% in Africa (half of the
continent’s population). Muslim communities exist in more than 120 countries of
the world, in 35 of them they constitute over 80% of the population (most of
them are in the countries of North Africa and West Asia). The largest absolute
Muslim communities reside in Indonesia, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Sociologists predict that by 2025 in the US, the Islamic community will become
the second largest after Christians, overtaking the Jewish one.
Especially rapidly increasing is the number of Muslims in Europe. The largest
Muslim community is in France: from 5 to 7 million (up to 10% of the total
population), Islam became the second largest religion in the country after
Catholicism. Numerous communities of followers of Islam were formed in Germany
(4 million), Great Britain (1.7 million), Italy and Holland (1 million each).
Significant Muslim communities are scattered throughout all Western European
countries.
It should be noted that no one knows the real number of Muslims in Western
Europe, since along with the legal immigrants and their descendants, there are
many millions of illegal immigrants who are absent in official statistics.
According to various estimates, between 15 and 24 million Muslims now live in
Western Europe. Demographers predict that by 2025 the number of Muslims in
Europe will double due to the high birth rate and mass immigration from North
Africa and the Middle East.
Islam came to Western Europe just a few decades ago. Until the end of the 1940s,
there were very few Muslims. (most in France – 120 thousand in the mid-1920s).
The first mass migration was associated with the war in Algeria (1954-1962).
After the forced consent of France to the declaration of independence of this
North African states, hundreds of thousands of local Muslims took advantage of
the opportunity to move to their former metropolis.
As a result of mass migrations from developing countries, the level of ethnic
and denominational fragmentation of the population of those European states that
were quite homogeneous a few decades ago is constantly increasing. It is
fundamentally important that, unlike in past years, a significant part of Muslim
migrants and their descendants now do not show a desire to integrate into a new
environment for themselves.
The former European model of building a single civic nation within the framework
of a national state (like the “melting pot” in the USA) in modern conditions
ceases to work. Consequences of this are the concepts of building multicultural,
multi-religious, and more recently, multilingual communities within individual
states of Western Europe. For adherents of liberalism, these concepts seem to be
a logical development of democracy, where minority rights are guaranteed and
protected by the state. At the same time, no distinction is made between the
“old” and the “new” population: their rights to an original existence are
equally protected by a democratic state.
Muslim areas and suburbs appeared in Paris, Berlin, London and many other major
European cities. Most modern French Muslims are descendants of the Arab Maghreb
(Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco). In Germany, Netherlands, Austria and Denmark, the
Muslim community is mainly represented by descendants of Turkish immigrants.
British Muslims – most descendants of immigrants from British India (Pakistan
and Bangladesh).
The increase in the number of European Muslims is promoted by the high fertility
rate encouraged by state social programs. In Muslim families, the average number
of children is usually not less than four. Large Muslim families contrasts with
the small families and the crisis of traditional family values among the
indigenous Europeans. The most important democratic achievement of modern
Western civilization proclaimed freedom of homosexual relations, and in a number
of countries (Holland, Belgium, Canada, Spain and Switzerland, as well as a
number of US states) same-sex marriages were legally allowed.
Along with the increase in the number of sexual minorities, the reduction of the
indigenous (atheistic or nominally Christian) population of Western Europe is
promoted by the conscious rejection of the birth of children, as many Europeans
believe that children will interfere with their careers or simply interfere with
their usual and comfortable life. Families that have one child, rarely decide on
the birth of the second. For simple reproduction of the population, the average
birth rate should be 2.1 children. But women in Western Europe, on average, give
birth to only 1.4 children. And in the conditions of a progressive decline in
the indigenous population of Europe, Muslims successfully fill the demographic
vacuum that has formed.
This plays into the feminist propaganda, which asserts that children prevent
women from occupying a worthy place in society. The rejection of traditional
family values and the moral crisis of society contribute to the growth of the
popularity of Islam, even among the indigenous people of Europe. In France, the
number of white French Muslims already exceeds 50 thousand, and this far
exceeds, for example, the number of Russian Muslims in Russia.
For several decades, the difficulties of a demographic and economic nature have
forced the EU countries to legalize and even promote immigration from Muslim
countries. European politicians considered it indecent even to ask the question,
is modern Europe and Islam compatible in principle? Both did not preached the
ideas of tolerance and multiculturalism as for Islam for example unlike what
Islam Claims, incompatible with the views of Samuel Huntington, who in his
sensational book “The Clash of Civilizations” claimed that Europe and Islam are
two antipodes, two initially hostile antagonistic civilizations. On the
contrary, the prevailing view was that the integration of the Muslim diaspora
into European society would contribute to the rapprochement of Christian and
Islamic civilizations.
The rationale for such optimistic ideas were examples when yesterday’s
illiterate migrant workers or their descendants successfully fit into European
reality, made a successful career, and even became members of the European
Parliament. But widely propagated examples of this kind were sporadic; they did
not reflect the real picture and only disoriented society, and indeed the
political elite of Western Europe.
It is characteristic that, unlike the first wave of immigrants, the rejection of
the surrounding reality among Muslims of the second and third generation
constantly increased and acquired more and more radical forms. Already in the
second half of the 1990s, young Muslims in Europe began to become increasingly
intolerant of such European values as sexual equality, freedom of religion,
freedom of speech, ensuring the rights of sexual minorities, etc. In schools
that were attended by young Muslims, it became increasingly difficult to teach
certain subjects. Over the years, in many schools it has become impossible to
teach the history of the Holocaust, the theory of the origin of life, the
development of species and humanity, as well as a number of other subjects that
seemed completely unacceptable for young Muslims and their parents.
Gradually, in schools with Muslim students, sexual segregation was established:
the boys sat down in one part of the class, and the girls – in the other, in
hospitals the refusals of treatment by a male doctor or a man – by women became
more frequent. Only ten years ago, only old women wore Muslim headscarves. Now
they are worn by half of the female Muslim population of France, and in some
municipalities of France this figure reaches 80%. Hijabs are increasingly common
in other European countries.
Young Muslims in Europe no longer limit themselves to living under the laws of
the land. In most cases, Muslim girls and women were not free to choose: many
were forced to wear hijabs under the pressure of relatives or the community.
According to special studies conducted by the French authorities, in some
European cities, a Muslim girl who refuses to wear a headscarf “risks exposure
to insults, physical aggression, sexual abuse and even collective rape.” In
France, such acts of aggression against dissenters within the Muslim community
occur regularly. The growth of Islamic fundamentalism among European Muslims
created favorable conditions for the politicization of Islam in Europe.
Until the late 1990s Islamist political parties did not exist in Europe. Now
they have appeared in France and Belgium. While these parties are not numerous
and are not represented in parliament, they already have their first successes:
in Belgium in May 2003, “Parti de la Citoyennete et Prosperite” (PCP,
Citizenship and Prosperity Party), which preaches radical Islam, gained more
than 8 thousand votes in the Brussels elections.
Over the past four years, hundreds of acts of aggression by Muslim youth have
been witnessed in European cities, and the number of anti-Semitic demonstrations
is constantly growing. According to sociologists, European Muslims do not show
tolerance for their fellow citizens in precisely those countries that are most
tolerant.
As shown by a sociological study conducted by the pew Washington Research Center
in 13 western states, in the UK, while there is the most tolerant attitude of
indigenous people towards Muslim immigrants in Europe, there is the most open
dislike of Muslims towards Europeans.
In most countries, suspicion and contempt for each other, Muslims and
non-Muslims are mostly mutual. But in the UK there is a huge gap in this regard.
63% of Britons treat Muslims positively, this figure has only slightly decreased
since 2004 due to explosions in the London Underground. In France, such an
attitude can be seen among approximately 60% of citizens, while in the USA,
Germany and Spain this figure does not exceed 29%.
Only a third of Britons consider Muslims as cruel and hostile, whereas in Spain
about 60% of indigenous people hold this opinion, in Germany – 52%, in the US –
45%, in France – 41%. At the same time, it is in Great Britain that the most
negative attitude of local Muslims towards European values is noted in the
West. Most of the representatives of the British Ummah consider the people of
the Western world to be selfish, arrogant, greedy and immoral. In the rest of
the countries, the majority of Muslims share the respect for Europeans towards
women, but in the UK, less than half of Muslim citizens agree with this.
In the UK, only 32% of Muslims are tolerant towards the Jewish community,
whereas, for example, in France this figure is 71%. Finally, it is British
Muslims who less than others believe in the possibility of their existence in
Western society while maintaining the traditional way of life and adherence to
conservative values.
At the same time, citizens of Great Britain showed the greatest sympathy, in
contrast to other states, for Muslims in the context of a “caricature” scandal.
Only 9% of the British respondents believe that the conflicts between Islam and
the West that arose on this ground were the result of “Muslim intolerance
towards Western freedom”, but about three-quarters of the respondents blamed
“disrespect of the West towards Muslims” The same is believed in Muslim
countries. 55% of Americans and 2/3 of Germans and French believe that relations
between people of the West and Muslims in general leave much to be desired. Some
optimism can be had only by the fact that, as studies have shown, in the Muslim
communities of Europe, Muslim attitude to the Europeans are still better than in
Muslim countries.
At the beginning of the third millennium, European Muslims became an active
political force. In the spring and summer of 2001, mass rallies were held by
British Muslims in the factory cities of central England. In 2002, during the
parliamentary elections in France, mass demonstrations of French Muslims greatly
paralyzed the activity of right-wing Populist National Front. European Muslims
in many respects contributed to the development by Europe of an independent
position on the issue of the war in Iraq in 2003. In the winter of 2003/2004.
large-scale actions of European Muslims were held, which were directed against
the ban by the French Ministry of Education on wearing the hijab in schools. In
European cities, mass marches are constantly taking place in support of the
Palestinian people, against the policies of the United States and Israel.
Some Islamic leaders demanded autonomy for European Muslims. Thus, the director
of the Muslim Institute Kaleem Siddiqi (one of the leaders of Islamic radicals
in the UK) in his “Muslim manifesto” demanded that British Muslims be given the
status of an “autonomous community”.
Europe has become an arena for the activities of Islamic terrorists who
organized the bombings in Madrid and London, as well as the murder of the Dutch
director Theo Van Gogh in Amsterdam. At the same time, terrorism is generated
not only by internal causes, but also by the processes that occur within the
Muslim communities of Europe. Many Muslims who participated in the terrorist
attack on the USA on September 11, 2001, were Muslims from European countries.
Their worldview was shaped in Europe, where favorable conditions were
established for the dissemination of the ideas of radical Islam, which rejects
liberal and democratic values.
The majority of those who committed the terrorist attacks on March 11, 2004 in
Madrid were also young Muslims belonging to the second or third generation of
immigrants. They were not associated with foreign terrorist organizations,
although they claimed to be al Qaeda followers. The group included residents of
Madrid and full-fledged citizens of Spain (mostly of Moroccan origin), who were
inspired by the ideas of jihad, influenced by the information they gathered on
the Internet on radical Islamic websites. The same picture was observed in the
UK, where the London attacks of July 7, 2005 were also carried out by young
Muslims – full-fledged British citizens.
Islam has become a major factor in European public life. Without taking this
factor into account, no serious forecast of the future development of Europe, or
of the entire modern world, is possible. A significant part of the Muslims of
Europe did not integrate into European reality and consciously refuses to accept
the Western European way of life, morality and values. Refusing European
identity, they make a choice in favor of “pure” Islam in its Arabian variety and
feel themselves primarily as part of the global Muslim community.
The current demographic situation strengthens Muslims in the belief that sooner
or later Western Europe will become part of the Islamic world. Among them there
is the conviction that the womb of a Muslim woman has become the most effective
means of Islamizing Europe and the whole world. Some analysts claim that in the
very near future, France will become the first Islamic country in Western
Europe, from which Islam will begin its triumphal march through the rest of the
continent.
European states have achieved great and unconditional success in defending the
democratic rights and freedoms of their citizens. This fully applies to the
rights of minorities living in them: religious, ethnic, sexual. The result of
this liberal policy was the growing ethno-confessional fragmentation of Europe.
But after all, such ethno-confessional fragmentation has always been one of the
main features of developing countries. In most of them, such a mosaic caused a
heightened conflict in society. The internal political instability caused by it
still remains the most important cause of socio-economic stagnation, even social
degradation, which are observed in many developing countries.
An increasing number of Muslims prefer to live within their own community,
solely by their own laws, and not even speak the languages of their countries
of residence. It is precisely this behavior of Muslims that is fundamentally
different from the behavior of other minorities (Chinese, Indian, Eastern
European, etc.), who, while preserving their cultural traditions and identity,
still strive to adapt and integrate into the society where they now live.
Obviously, the more numerous the Islamic segments that are not integrated into
the local society, the higher the potential for conflict of the society and the
more favorable the ground appears for the activities of radical Islamist groups.
It must be emphasized that Islam, like any other religion, does not in itself
pose a threat to the world and society. The threat arises only when Islam ceases
to be a religion and begins to be used as a political ideology that is designed
to seize power in individual countries, regions or on a planetary scale by the
name of creating the future World Caliphate.
In the conditions of the development of a special policy towards Muslims built
on the liberal values of European society, their very isolation from the
number of other minorities seems to be an absolutely unacceptable violation of
democracy. The persistent desire to ignore the specifics of Muslim problems led
to the fact that such extremists as Egyptian Abu Hamza, without any problems,
received British citizenship and for many years lived quietly in the UK,
engaging in terrorist activities.
For European liberalism, it would be unthinkable to enact legislation similar
to, for example, the recently adopted Australian decree on Arab-Muslim
immigrants, from which “the government feels threatened by terrorist attacks.”
This decree states that “Muslims who want to live in Australia under Sharia law
will have to leave this country.” In Europe, the statements that Islam is a
threat to society entail accusations of racism and prosecution.
Catholic priest pere Samuel, popular in Belgium, the rector of the church of St.
Anthony of Padua in Charleroi, was accused by the authorities of racism for
pointing out the threat of Islamic expansion in Europe in his sermon. “There is
no such thing as a moderate Muslim,” said this priest, who was born in the
family of Syrian Christians in Turkish Kurdistan. In his speech on local
television, he called every Muslim child born in Europe “a time bomb for
children of European culture who will soon become a minority here.”
It is noteworthy that the initiators of the prosecution of pere Samuel were not
Islamic organizations, but the Belgian government human rights organization
Center for Equal Opportunities and Resistance to Racism, which qualified his
statements as “incitement to racial hatred” and even recommended that Father
Samuel be detained until a court verdict was rendered.
Will the growth of the Muslim population lead to the Islamization of Europe?
Many radical Islamic leaders no longer doubt this. As one of them said after the
death of Pope John Paul II, “Islam will return to Europe as a conqueror and
winner after he was twice expelled from the continent.” After that, “only one
choice will be presented to Christians – to accept Islam or pay jizya (i.e., a
tax levied on non-Muslims for the right to reside in an Islamic country).
European politicians may continue to pretend that Muslims are no different from
other minorities. But further mechanical following along the path of liberalism
cannot solve the problem, the existence of which is obvious. It leads only to
the further isolation of local Muslims, the growth of the influence of radical
political Islam in their midst, which may soon become a real threat to domestic
political stability and the very existence of modern European civilization. And
the longer the local authorities turn a blind eye to the Islamic problem, the
more difficult it will be to find adequate methods for the solution.
The future prospects of Europe will primarily depend on whether European states
are able to develop an adequate policy in relation to the growing and less and
less integrated society of Muslim communities. Such a policy should not only
guarantee all rights, preserve the religious and cultural identity of European
Muslims, but also harmonize their relations with society and ensure the
integration of Muslims into modern European civilization.
If a still prosperous Europe does not find an adequate way out of this difficult
situation, then its development can be reversed and take the path of
degradation. In this case, it is not at all the current developing countries
that will catch up with the developed ones, but, on the contrary, Europe will be
at the level of developing states. At present, such a development is still not
fatally inevitable, and one would like to hope that Europe (like all humanity)
will not be discarded during the darkest Middle Ages and religious wars.
:https://www.jihadwatch.org/2019/04/the-islamization-of-europe-and-the-european-caliphate?fbclid=IwAR1LFJv0pxhQrIkgsCRh6s5TKt9I9kIp2Cb99yL6IBzLSNJhOlvTIFWsa_I
After tight race, Netanyahu to lead rightist bloc to center
stage for a long haul
موقع دبيكا/بعد منافسة انتخابية شديدو ، نجح نتنياهو وهو سيقود كتلة يمينية لفترة
طويلة
Debka File/April 10/19
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/73720/%D8%B3%D9%8A%D9%85%D8%A7-%D9%83%D8%AF%D9%85%D9%88%D9%86-%D9%8A%D8%AF%D9%8A%D8%B9%D9%88%D8%AA-%D8%A3%D8%AD%D8%B1%D9%88%D9%86%D9%88%D8%AA-%D9%81%D9%88%D8%B2-%D9%82%D8%B5%D9%8A%D8%B1-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A3/
Blue-Right party leader Benny Gantz commented on Wednesday, April 10: “The skies
are bleak, but this is not yet final.” This comment was a far cry from the
joyous victory celebration he celebrated the night before as “Israel’s next
prime minister” amid hugs and linked arms with his three partners, Yair Lapid,
Moshe Ya’alon and Gaby Ashkenazi.
Blue-White, which tied with Likud at 35 seats apiece, still appeas to believe
that the government coalition, for which Binyamin Netanyahu can count on a
majority of 65 right-wing and religious support (according to 97.3pc of the
vote), will be a flash in the pan. Its leaders are sure of Netanyahu being
trampled under the wheels of the three bribery cases pending against him. They
are deluding themselves. Netanyahu has stated that his next administration will
be long-lasing. He is relying on the law which holds any citizen innocent until
ruled guilty by a court of law. Due process in his case still has a way to go.
In July, the Attorney General holds a hearing for his defense arguments against
indictment.
But can he carry on his onerous duties as prime minister – and possibly also
defense minister – while weighed down by a court battle if the cases against him
get that far? Netanyahu answered that question implicitly by the campaign he
waged against a fierce legal, political, personal and media blitz against him
and his family, month after month, at the end of which he was able to expand his
Likud’s Knesset representation from 27 to 35 seats. His government will
therefore have all the makings of a long-term, stable administration, which
together with its coalition partners will have more freedom of maneuver than the
outgoing Netanyahu cabinet.
One of its targets will be the High Court’s role at the head of a judicial
system. Likud and its partners hold that the judges encroach too far on
government and parliamentary prerogatives. Ayelet Shaked who, as outgoing
justice minister, oversaw the introduction of the first conservative judges,
will see her work continued by a successor, since the New Right which she
founded with Education Minister Naftali Bennett has fallen short of the
threshold for entering the Knesset, unless the last 3pc including the uncounted
military vote comes to their rescue.
Netanyahu may not be too bothered by his lowered international image as a result
of his partnership with right wing and religious elements, since similar trends
are prevalent in many other democracies. However, the exact nature of
Netanyahu’s fourth consecutive, and fifth overall government will emerge when
Likud and its junior partners finish horse trading for portfolios and benefits.
In his victory speech, Netanyahu called the right-wing parties his “natural
partners,” but pledged to be “the prime minister of all the citizens of Israel.”
He will be encouraged to modify some of his partners’ extreme demands by
President Donald Trump, who has shown his support for Netanyahu by the
recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and the Golan as sovereign Israeli
territory as well as other gestures.
Netanyahu's short-lived victory
سيما كدمون/يديعوت أحرونوت/فوز قصير الأجل لنتنياهو
Sima Kadmon/Ynetnews/April 10/19
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/73720/%D8%B3%D9%8A%D9%85%D8%A7-%D9%83%D8%AF%D9%85%D9%88%D9%86-%D9%8A%D8%AF%D9%8A%D8%B9%D9%88%D8%AA-%D8%A3%D8%AD%D8%B1%D9%88%D9%86%D9%88%D8%AA-%D9%81%D9%88%D8%B2-%D9%82%D8%B5%D9%8A%D8%B1-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A3/
Analysis: The prime minister might have secured a fifth term, but it appears he
will not be able to put together a coalition sufficiently obsequious to pass
legislation to shield him from his legal woes.
As soon as the exit polls were released on Tuesday night, Benjamin Netanyahu was
quick to announce a Likud victory. A win it may have been, a victory it is not.
Certainly it was no victory for the person who bragged about winning a number of
seats significantly greater than that of his rival. His second objective – his
pick of coalition partners - did not materialize either.
As it appears at the time of writing, Netanyahu does not have an
indictment-proof coalition. Even when he does form the next government, he will
not receive the greatest prize - coalition partners who will help him enact
legislation to shield him from the long arm of the law.
Moshe Kahlon and Avigdor Lieberman, whose parties apparently passed the
threshold by the skin of their teeth, and Naftali Bennett, who is still waiting
to see whether his new New Right party has even made it into the Knesset, had
already pledged that even if the legislation against prosecuting a sitting prime
minister passes, it will not be implemented retroactively.
We do not agree with personalized legislation, Kahlon promised again and again,
referring to the so-called French law. So if Netanyahu called early elections in
an effort to escape prosecution for his alleged bribery, fraud and breach of
trust, he failed in his mission.
On the other hand, Ganz's achievement is certainly impressive. For a party that
was established less than two months ago to pull in the same number of seats as
the ruling party is a success that cannot be overstated. It turns out that the
Likud's campaign of lies and slander against Gantz failed completely.
A large section of the public found the former chief of staff worthy of being
prime minister. And even if the election results clearly show that the nation
has moved to the right, the support for Netanyahu is weaker than expected.
Both big parties claimed victory on Tuesday night. Both are right. The
difference is that even if Netanyahu does form the next government, it will be a
short-lived victory. In six or seven months, Netanyahu will face his fate in
court. Despite his attempts to turn himself and the Likud into an indivisible
entity, he will find himself sitting alone on the defendant's bench.
The speed with which Likud ministers will cast Netanyahu aside will surprise us
still. The silence of the lambs that we have seen in recent years when it comes
to their leader, who is steeped in corruption from his toenails to the tips of
his hair, will ultimately end very vocally. It is quite possible that in this
term, the Likud, sans Netanyahu, will find themselves in a unity government with
Benny Gantz and his crew of Yair Lapid, Moshe Ya'alon and Gabi Ashkenazi.
But despite the good showing by the Blue and White Party, the leftist camp has
nothing to be happy about. The Labor Party suffered a severe blow on Tuesday. If
it in recent weeks it seemed to have been making gains, both because of its
impressive list of candidates and because of a high-quality campaign, on Tuesday
it turned out that the strategy adopted by Ganz's party had worked.
The desire to replace Netanyahu at any price has caused many who previously
voted for Labor to lend their support to Blue and White. They will have done so
with a heavy heart, however, for it is no simple thing to go from an ideological
vote to a strategic vote. But the one who has paid the price is party leader Avi
Gabbay. Labor MK and former party secretary general Eitan Cabel has already
dealt the first blow, blaming Gabbay for the dismal electoral performance.
It's impossible not to appreciate Gabbay's courageous appearance before party
members on Tuesday night, to thank his faction and the activists and to admit
failure. It seems to me that in the course of this campaign, both the public and
Labor members learned to appreciate the man whose life they had made miserable
for a year and a half.
Either way, the collapse of the Labor Party will make it very difficult for
Gantz to form a government. Even Blue and White, whose leaders committed not to
sit in any Netanyahu government, knows this. In his speech on Tuesday night,
Gantz spoke as if he were the next prime minister. This can be attributed to his
inexperience.
Another party that was hit hard was the New Right. Even if when every single
vote is counted it has actually managed to pass the threshold, its leaders'
plans were definitely shelved. Naftali Bennett will not be the next defense
minister, and not will Ayelet Shaked get to implement her overhaul of the
courts. And surely that would have made Mrs. Netanyahu happy enough to crack
open a bottle of her favorite pink champagne.
Saudi Aramco reveals its financials — and more secrets
Simon Henderson/The Hill/April 10/19
Another day, another Saudi headline — but one far different from the usual riff
about the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, the war in Yemen, the crown
prince known as MbS, or the kingdom’s imprisoned women activists: The
state-owned oil company Saudi Aramco made more profit last year than any other
company in the world.
According to the Wall Street Journal, its net income (profit to you and me) was
$111 billion. Before taxes and other expenses it made $212 billion.
Reaching for comparisons, the Journal said the revenue figure was similar to the
combined military budgets of the 28 members of the European Union. The Financial
Times reported that the profit was almost double that of Apple and five times
that of rival oil company Royal Dutch Shell.
The mind boggles, but the one-line explanation is simple: It is very easy
(therefore, cheap) to find oil in Saudi Arabia, costing around $3 to $5 per
barrel, so when you are producing around 10 million barrels per day and can sell
it for $60-plus per barrel, you earn a lot of money.
We didn’t know the profit figure before because Saudi Aramco was secretive. What
is different now? Saudi Aramco wants to borrow money. Unless you work in Wall
Street or otherwise are financially savvy, your jaw is probably dropping. But
the explanation has logic and is also revealing.
The oil company needs the money to buy a chunk of the state-owned petrochemical
giant, Sabic (the Saudi Basic Industries Corporation). Currently, Sabic is owned
by the state-owned Public Investment Fund (PIF) but Saudi Aramco has announced
that it is going to buy 70 percent for around $69 billion. To help pay for it,
the oil company wants to issue $10 billion worth of bonds, which it hopes that
foreign investors will buy. Such investors like to know what they are paying
for; hence, the publication of financial details.
Another way of looking at the development is that Saudi Arabia needs to raise
money to fund its ambitious infrastructure programs, including the Red Sea Neom
project and making central Riyadh into a giant green area, multiples the size of
Central Park. It had hoped to sell off a portion of Saudi Aramco to create the
cash but couldn’t do it because the world wasn’t interested in paying the asking
price of $100 billion. So Saudi Aramco is buying a bit of Sabic and wants the
world to help by giving it $10 billion. Meanwhile, the PIF nets $69 billion. In
accounting terms, it is very much an internal book transaction. In lay person’s
language, it is mainly taking money out of one pocket and putting it into the
pocket on the other side.
People with good memories may recall that two years ago when Crown Prince
Mohammad bin Salman (MbS) announced his Vision 2030, the underlying logic was
shifting the Saudi economy from its reliance on oil, the fuel of the past. That
is less emphasized these days, to the point of not being mentioned. People picky
with details may note the proposed debt issue is for a 30-year bond. That’s not
to say that the kingdom has radically reassessed its view of its oil future, but
it does add nuance.
While foreign companies previously attracted by investment possibilities in
MbS’s reshaping are cautious, at least in reputational terms, post-Khashoggi’s
murder, financial types are less sniffy. But, as the Financial Times puts it,
the exercise “will provide a test of fund managers’ willingness to back a
company intrinsically connected to the development of the Saudi state.” The PIF
is expected to use its $69 billion, in the words of the Wall Street Journal, “to
drive Prince Mohammad’s agenda.”
The Saudi Aramco headline was rivaled in the Washington Post by the news story
about Khashoggi’s children being paid money by the Saudi government to stop them
(apparently successfully) from talking about their father’s demise six months
ago. The Post wrote that more money is in prospect once the trials of those
accused of his murder and dismemberment are over. The world moves on — or, does
it?
*Simon Henderson is the Baker Fellow and director of the Bernstein Program on
Gulf and Energy Policy at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Follow
him on Twitter @shendersongulf.