LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
February 05.2020
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani

The Bulletin's Link on the lccc Site
http://data.eliasbejjaninews.com/eliasnews19/english.february05.20.htm

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

Bible Quotations For today
God is faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it
First Letter to the Corinthians 10/01-13/:”I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ. Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them, and they were struck down in the wilderness. Now these things occurred as examples for us, so that we might not desire evil as they did. Do not become idolaters as some of them did; as it is written, ‘The people sat down to eat and drink, and they rose up to play.’ We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did, and were destroyed by serpents. And do not complain as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer. These things happened to them to serve as an example, and they were written down to instruct us, on whom the ends of the ages have come. So if you think you are standing, watch out that you do not fall. No testing has overtaken you that is not common to everyone. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it.”

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on February 04-05/2020
Lebanese-American who Worked for Israel Charged with Murder
Panel Finalizes Lebanese Govt. Policy Statement, Keeps ‘Resistance’ Item Unchanged
LF, PSP to Withhold Confidence from New Lebanese Govt.
Postponing Formation Electricity Regulatory Authority Contradicts With CEDRE Recommendations
Another Lebanese Daily Suspends Print Edition over Economic Crisis
Cabinet to Meet on Policy Statement Thursday
Hasan Says Far East Ship Crew 'Virus-Free'
Mustaqbal, PSP Emphasize on 'Historic Relation' in 'Coordinative Meeting'
Al-Rahi Says Lebanon Won't Accept Financial Incentives to Naturalize Refugees
Protesters Clash with Aswad Supporters outside Restaurant
EDL Says Minor Oil Spill Contained Off Zouk
Rabih al-Zein Released on Bail as Protesters Block el-Mina Highway
Strong Lebanon Bloc Urges Protection of Citizens' Bank Deposits
Lebanon Crisis Deals Blow to Once-Thriving Press
Qatar Event with Mashrou' Leila Canceled amid Furor
Lebanese Shiite cleric, Sheikh Mohamad Ali El Husseini seeks France asylum after death threats over Auschwitz visit/Jerusalem Post/February 04/2020
For Lebanon’s Shiites, a Dilemma: Stay Loyal to Hezbollah or Keep Protesting?/Vivian Yee and Hwaida Saad/The New York Times/February 04/2020
Rock, Paper, Scissors in the Middle East/Tony Badran/Tablet Magazine/February 04/2020
Europe Cowers in Front of Iran and Hezbollah/Soeren Kern/Gatestone Institute/February 04/2020

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on February 04-05/2020
Israel and Sudan will push to normalize relations: Israeli officials
American Citizen Sues Qatari Bank for Funding Terror/Varsha Koduvayur/FDD/February 04/2020
House Republicans introduce resolution condemning UK's decision to allow Huawei in 5G networks/Maggie Miller/The Hill/February 04/2020
Iran to execute alleged spy who gave nuclear secrets to CIA/Amir Vahdat/AP/February 04/2020
Canada/Peter MacKay's Statement on the Canadian Embassy in Israel
Europe Could Consider U.S.-Style Coronavirus Travel Ban
Erdogan Says Won't Allow Syria to Gain Ground in Idlib
UN: Idlib Offensive Leaves over 500,000 Displaced in 2 MonthsErdogan Says Turkey Will not Allow Syrian Regime to Advance in Idlib
Erdogan Says Turkey Will not Allow Syrian Regime to Advance in Idlib
UN Chief Urges End to Fighting between Turkey and Syrian Regime in Idlib
US General in Iraq to Mend Ties
Sadr’s Mixed Messages Expose Generational Rift Among FollowersPalestinian President: We Want Our Full Rights
Algeria Pardons Thousands of Prisoners
Egypt Quarantines Citizens Repatriated From China

Titles For The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on February 04-05/2020
Israeli Arabs Say No to Palestine/Daniel Pipes/Jerusalem Post/February 04/2020
Beware of Putin's Push for Primacy in Africa/Lawrence A. Franklin/Gatestone Institute/February 04/2020
In Syria, We’re Getting Counter-terrorism All Wrong/Charles Lister/Asharq Al Awsat/February, 04/2020
Corruption, Not Trump, Will Drive Iranian Protest Vote/Bobby Ghosh/Bloomberg/February, 04/2020
The Real Reason Arabs in Israel Do Not Want to Live in 'Palestine'/Khaled Abu Toameh/Gatestone Institute/February 04/2020
How the law has changed on enforcing a debt/Dimah Talal Alsharif/Arab News/February 04/2020
Inclusive negotiations must emerge from one-sided Trump plan/Alistair Burt /Arab News/February 04/2020
Palestinians should be prepared to embrace idea of a binational state/Osama Al-Sharif/Arab News/February 04/2020

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on February 04-05/2020
Lebanese-American who Worked for Israel Charged with Murder
Asharq Al-Awsat/February, 04/2020
A military investigative judge charged a Lebanese-American man with murder and torture of Lebanese citizens on Tuesday, crimes he allegedly committed during Israel's occupation of southern Lebanon, judicial officials said. The accusations could carry a death sentence. Amer Fakhoury is accused of working as a senior warden at Khiyam Prison, which was run by an Israel-backed Lebanese militia. The prison has been described by human rights groups as a center for torture. He was detained in September after he returned to his native Lebanon from the US, and Lebanon's intelligence service says he confessed during questioning to being a warden. However, Fakhoury's lawyer and family in New Hampshire say that, while he was indeed a member of the so-called South Lebanon Army, they insist he had no direct contact with prisoners and was never involved in the interrogation or torture of prisoners.
Fakhoury, 57, is also undergoing cancer treatment, and it remains unclear if he'll be able to stand trial. The restaurant owner from Dover, New Hampshire became a US citizen last year. The Lebanese judicial officials said Tuesday that the judge, Najat Abu Shakra, referred Fakhoury for trial in a military court. No date was set for the tribunal. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. The officials said Abu Shakra charged Fakhoury with "murder and attempted murder of prisoners inside Khiyam Prison as well as kidnapping and torture."
The prison, run by the SLA, was abandoned after Israeli forces pulled out of southern Lebanon in 2000, ending an 18-year occupation. Human rights groups have said in the past that Khiyam Prison was a site of torture and detention without trial. Israel denies the allegations.
However, Fakhoury's lawyer and family have said he was never named when extensive investigations of Khiyam Prison were conducted years ago. His family said that, as a former member of the SLA, he was charged alongside many others with collaborating with Israel. That charge was dropped in 2018, they said. US Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire began drafting sanctions legislation against Lebanese officials last month in order to push for Fakhoury's release. The charges by the investigative judge were separate from a lawsuit against Fakhoury filed by former inmates at Khiyam Prison.
He is being questioned in that case about alleged human rights abuses. The questioning was supposed to take place on Monday, but was postponed until Feb. 17 because Fakhoury is undergoing chemotherapy. Fakhoury’s family said doctors have said his condition is life threatening. In addition to an infection and a bleeding disorder, doctors believe he's developed an aggressive form of lymphoma. Hundreds of former Lebanese members of the SLA militia had fled to Israel, fearing reprisals if they remained in Lebanon. Others stayed and faced trial, receiving lenient sentences. Fakhoury's lawyer and family say he fled Lebanon in 2001 through Israel and eventually to the US.

Panel Finalizes Lebanese Govt. Policy Statement, Keeps ‘Resistance’ Item Unchanged
Beirut - Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 4 February, 2020
The ministerial committee tasked with drafting the government’s policy statement completed its work on Monday, ahead of a cabinet session scheduled for Thursday, to adopt the document and send it to parliament.
In remarks following the meeting, Information Minister Manal Abdel Samad said the statement included “plans for 100 days, one year and three years,” adding that there were no tax amendments, but taxing and monetary reforms.
A draft statement leaked on Monday sparked uproar, as it lacked targeted measures to address the monetary and financial crisis. In this regard, Industry Minister Imad Hebollah stressed that the leaked document “differs from what was agreed upon today.” Tourism and Social Affairs Minister Ramzi Msharrafiyeh revealed that some final touches were added to the draft, saying taxing and inspection measures would target those who were getting exemptions and those who were evading taxes. According to the leaked document, the statement underlined the need for Lebanon to distance itself from external conflicts and to commit to the Arab League Charter, while adopting an independent foreign policy based on the country’s supreme interest and respect for international law to preserve its stability. As for the clause pertaining to the resistance against Israel, the new government used the same wording that was expressed by Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s cabinet. “In the conflict with the Israeli enemy, we will spare no effort and no means of resistance to liberate the remaining Lebanese territories… while emphasizing the right of the Lebanese citizens to resist the occupation and respond to its attacks,” it stated. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Hassan Diab chaired a financial meeting on Monday, ahead of the panel’s discussion session, in the presence of Hebollah, Environment Minister Demianos Kattar, Finance Minister Ghazi Wazni and Economy Minister Raoul Nehmeh. The meeting was also attended by central bank Governor Riad Salameh.

LF, PSP to Withhold Confidence from New Lebanese Govt.
Beirut - Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 4 February, 2020
The Lebanese Forces (LF) and the Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) have announced their intention to withhold confidence from the new government. LF leader Samir Geagea said on Monday that the Strong Republic bloc would participate in the upcoming parliamentary session, but would not give a vote of confidence to the new cabinet, led by Prime Minister Hassan Diab. “The Strong Republic bloc will attend the confidence session out of its keenness on the continuity of the constitutional institutions’ work, but will not grant confidence to the new government,” he declared. “The LF will not attack the government aimlessly,” he noted. “We shall wait and see what it will do.” “We will wait and see whether the ministers will act according to their professional and moral principles, or whether they will follow the dictates of those who nominated to their posts,” he stated. MP Bilal Abdullah said Monday that the PSP’s Democratic Gathering parliamentary bloc would most likely withhold confidence from the new government, adding that its deputies would be part of the opposition. In remarks to Voice of Lebanon radio, the Abdullah said the bloc would convene on Tuesday to determine its final position from the new government’s policy statement. “It is likely that we will participate in the session and withhold confidence,” he remarked. “The Democratic Gathering will be part of a constructive and responsible opposition,” he added. “What’s more important than the ministerial statement is the government’s direct action against tax evaders and public money thieves,” he concluded.

Postponing Formation Electricity Regulatory Authority Contradicts With CEDRE Recommendations
Beirut- Mohammed Shokair/ Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 4 February, 2020 -
The delay of the formation of the Electricity Regulatory Authority until after the amendment of the law regulating this sector, as mentioned in the draft policy statement of the new government, will be met with local and international opposition, former ministers in the governments chaired by Prime Ministers Najib Mikati, Tammam Salam, and Saad Hariri told Asharq Al-Awsat. Countries, who participated in the CEDRE Conference - which was devoted to helping Lebanon recover from its financial and economic crisis – insisted that reforms in the electricity sector must be prioritized and that a regulatory authority must be created regardless of the amendment of the relevant electricity law. The ministers, who spoke to Asharq Al-Awsat, stressed that postponing the birth of this authority, as stipulated in the draft ministerial statement, would mean that the current government agreed without any hesitation to adopt the viewpoint of the head of the Free Patriotic Movement, former minister Gebran Bassil, who was met with strong opposition when he first proposed his idea under the former government. The reform of the electricity sector was a thorny file to which the previous governments could not reach a sustainable solution. The former ministers underscored the importance of a regulatory authority to monitor the reforms and to end of the Energy minister’s monopoly of the decision-making process. In this context, sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that parliamentary blocs, especially those currently against the government, have contacted Speaker Nabih Berri to underline the need to amend the draft policy statement in order to prevent a clash between the deputies and the ministers during the upcoming confidence session.

Another Lebanese Daily Suspends Print Edition over Economic Crisis
Agence France PresseNaharnet/February 04/2020
Lebanon's English-language The Daily Star suspended its print edition Tuesday, the latest casualty in the collapse of the country's once-flourishing press. The newspaper, which is co-owned by the family of former prime minister Saad Hariri, said on its website the temporary halt of the printing presses was a result of the economic downturn. It cited "the financial challenges facing the Lebanese press which have been exacerbated by the deterioration of the economic situation in the country." It said the temporary suspension came after "a drop to virtually no advertising revenue in the last quarter of 2019, as well as in January of this year". In recent months, employees at the newspaper had complained of not being paid, with one departing journalist reporting in December that some were owed up to half a year in wages. A series of prominent dailies in Lebanon have disappeared from print due to funding shortages in recent years. The Daily Star is the latest media outlet linked to the former premier to be struggling. In September last year, Hariri announced the suspension of Future TV, his ailing mouthpiece whose employees had been on strike over unpaid wages. In January 2019, the Hariri family's Al-Mustaqbal newspaper issued its last print version, 20 years after it was established. Saudi Oger, a once-mighty construction firm that was the basis of the Hariri business empire, collapsed in 2017, leaving thousands jobless. Hariri stepped down as prime minister in late October following unprecedented nationwide protests against alleged official corruption and ineptitude. Last year, The Daily Star published a newsless black issue to protest the political and economic crises gripping the country. The economic crisis has since deteriorated, and been compounded by a financial crunch. The Daily Star was founded in 1952 by Kamel Mroue, then owner and editor-in-chief of the pan-Arab Al-Hayat daily newspaper. It closed for more than a decade during the 1975-1990 civil war, returning to news stands in 1996. The newspaper was bought by businessmen close to Hariri in 2010.

Cabinet to Meet on Policy Statement Thursday
Naharnet/February 04/2020
The Cabinet will convene on Thursday at Baabda Palace to discuss and approve the government’s Policy Statement, the National News Agency reported on Tuesday. The ministerial panel drafting the new policy had completed its task on Monday, the information minister had announced yesterday. The new 20-member government of Prime Minister Hassan Diab was announced in late January amid nationwide protests against the political elite and a crumbling economic crisis. The new government still has to discuss the policy statement before it sits for its vote of confidence at the Parliament next week.

Hasan Says Far East Ship Crew 'Virus-Free'
Naharnet/February 04/2020
Health Minister Hamad Hasan assured on Tuesday that the crew of a vessel arriving from the Far East to Lebanon’s territorial waters has been proven free of coronavirus. In a statement issued by his media office, Hasan said: “The vessel coming from the Far East arrived at the territorial waters and was thoroughly checked for viruses before it docked at Beirut Port. Medical tests were run and have shown that the entire crew are in good health and have no symptoms of coronavirus infection. It has been authorized to dock.” General Security teams have also inspected the vessel upon arrival at Beirut Port and found it clear of any contamination, added the statement. Hasan indicated that the ship complied with the international health criteria. On Monday, activists in the northern city of Tripoli staged a sit-in rejecting the vessel docks at the city’s port, the National News Agency reported. They said they “have no trust in the government or its decisions.”The death toll in mainland China from the new type of coronavirus has risen to 425, with the total number of cases now standing at 20,438, officials said Tuesday. Countries have been evacuating and restricting the entry of Chinese or people who have recently traveled in the country. The World Health Organization said the number of cases will keep growing because tests are pending on thousands of suspected cases.

Mustaqbal, PSP Emphasize on 'Historic Relation' in 'Coordinative Meeting'
Naharnet/February 04/2020
Al-Mustaqbal Movement and the Progressive Socialist Party held a “coordinative meeting” Tuesday at the PSP’s headquarters in Beirut. Mustaqbal Secretary General Ahmed Hariri and PSP Secretary Zafer Nasser and several officials from the two parties attended the meeting, which tackled issues of common interest and means to boost coordination in the face of the current challenges. Expressing “pride” in “the common historic struggle for Lebanon’s sovereignty and independence and for building the state of institutions,” Nasser hailed “the historic relation between PSP leader Walid Jumblat and Martyr Premier Rafik Hariri, which was continued with Saad Hariri.” As for the new government, Nasser said the party will practice “constructive opposition.” Ahmed Hariri for his part said the meeting is “a continuation of the meeting that was recently held between ex-PM Saad Hariri and PSP chief Walid Jumblat, which came after an unbalanced period that witnessed a lot of ups and downs.” “It involved mistakes and we have the courage to acknowledge them,” he added. As for the possibility of forming a “unified opposition front,” Hariri said it is “premature” to discuss the issue at the moment, noting that there will be “continuous coordination between the leaderships of the two parties.”

Al-Rahi Says Lebanon Won't Accept Financial Incentives to Naturalize Refugees
Naharnet/February 04/2020
Maronite Patiarch Beshara al-Rahi on Tuesday said the international community cannot offer Lebanon financial incentives with the aim of naturalizing Palestinian and Syrian refugees in the country. “We reject any type of international policy that tries to burden Lebanon with the price of everything that is going on in the region,” al-Rahi said. “The danger lies in a rift among the Lebanese should (naturalization) occur,” the patriarch added, urging citizens to show unity in the face of any foreign pressures.“Lebanon cannot bear the burden of the new policy represented in ‘the deal of the century’ and its negative repercussions,” al-Rahi said, referring to U.S. President Donald Trump’s controversial peace plan for the Middle East.

Protesters Clash with Aswad Supporters outside Restaurant
Naharnet/February 04/2020
A fistfight erupted Tuesday evening between anti-government protesters and supporters of MP Ziad Aswad outside the Diwan Beirut Restaurant in Antelias. The protesters were objecting at Aswad having dinner at a restaurant while the country is going through a dire economic and financial crisis. Such forms of protest have targeted several politicians in recent weeks. MTV said a woman was injured in the altercation before security forces intervened and contained the situation.Al-Jadeed TV later reported the arrival of Free Patriotic Movement supporters and the MPs Eddie Maalouf and Elias Bou Saab to the restaurant to show solidarity with Aswad.

EDL Says Minor Oil Spill Contained Off Zouk
Naharnet/February 04/2020
Civil Defense crews in cooperation with Electricite du Liban and Karadeniz, the Turkish firm that owns the power ship Fatmagül Sultan, have managed to contain a minor oil spill off Zouk’s coast, EDL said on Tuesday.
In a statement, EDL said the spill occurred as a ship was unloading fuel oil into the tanks of the Zouk power plant at 10:40 pm Monday. “The pumping pipeline burst off, which resulted in the leakage of around 100 cubic meters of fuel oil, part of which landed on land and another into the sea and were immediately contained,” EDL added. “Efforts to clean the shore and pull the leaked quantities have been ongoing since 1:00 am,” EDL went on to say.
Karpowership, a subsidiary of Karadeniz Holding, meanwhile announced that the power ship Fatmagül Sultan was “in no way related to the fuel leak,” denying media reports that claimed otherwise. “The aforementioned leak is due to a cracked pipe used to pump fuel into EDL tanks, and is not related in any form to the Powership Fatmgül Sultan. It is worth mentioning that Karpowership’s staff operating Fatmagül Sultan was completely mobilized to assist the Civil Defense units and the workers at EDL to contain the leak,” it added.

Rabih al-Zein Released on Bail as Protesters Block el-Mina Highway
Naharnet/February 04/2020
The Mount Lebanon Prosecuting Authority on Tuesday approved a ruling by Investigative Judge Bassam al-Hajj for the release of the activist Rabih al-Zein on an LBP 500,000 bail, the National News Agency said. Friends of al-Zein meanwhile gathered outside the Justice Palace in Baabda in anticipation of his release, amid strict security measures in the area. In the North, protesters blocked the el-Mina-Chekka highway with burning tires in solidarity with al-Zein as an army unit arrived on the scene. Mount Lebanon Prosecutor Judge Ghada Aoun had earlier on Tuesday dismissed al-Hajj's ruling and remanded al-Zein in custody, referring the file to the Prosecuting Authority. Al-Hajj had on Monday ordered al-Zein’s release on an LBP 100,000 bail, referring the file to Aoun. The activists Charbel Qai and Imad al-Masri were meanwhile questioned by al-Hajj as witnesses and released as arrest warrants were issued for Jihad al-Ali and Joe Challita. Al-Hajj had on Wednesday charged al-Zein with “incitement” over the recent torching of an ATM belonging to the Credit Libanais bank in Zouk and a Molotov attack on the Free Patriotic Movement’s office in Jounieh. Anti-government protesters Georges Azzi and Mohammed Srour had been detained in the same case and remain in custody. Al-Zein has been known for leading a group of road-blocking protesters in the northern city of Tripoli. He has also appeared at other protest sites across the country, raising suspicions about his role. He had been arrested for the first time in December over his controversial presence at the Justice Palace during an altercation between Mount Lebanon Prosecutor Ghada Aoun and MP Hadi Hbeish of al-Mustaqbal Movement.

Strong Lebanon Bloc Urges Protection of Citizens' Bank Deposits
Naharnet/February 04/2020
The Strong Lebanon parliamentary bloc on Tuesday said “the priority should be the protection of the bank deposits of Lebanese citizens.”It accordingly urged the new government to devise “an integrated and clear rescue plan” that would involve “measures binding for the parties concerned, including the central bank and the commercial banks.” “Selectivity and ambiguity in this matter is rejected, especially as to the restrictions imposed on deposits including on urgent withdrawals and transfers, which have not led to any positive results until the moment,” the bloc added. Experts and demonstrators say banking controls amount to a de facto "haircut" on savings because they are forcing dollar depositors to deal in the nosediving Lebanese pound. The currency has plunged against the greenback on the parallel exchange market, though the official peg of 1,507 pounds to the dollar in place since 1997 remains unchanged. Central bank chief Riad Salameh last month said that he agreed with money exchange houses to cap the parallel rate at 2,000 -- but several exchanges continue to charge rates edging towards 2,200. Salameh last month asked for special powers to authorize the banks to set withdrawal limits, which had not formally been backed by the government. The finance ministry, however, has yet to publicly respond to his request.

Lebanon Crisis Deals Blow to Once-Thriving Press
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/February 04/2020
Publications disappearing from newsstands, radio and TV channels struggling to stay on air: Lebanon's once-flourishing media is collapsing under the weight of the worst economic crisis in decades. The Daily Star, Lebanon's only English-language newspaper, which suspended its print edition on Tuesday, is the latest casualty. It comes shortly after the English-language Radio One broadcaster went off air at the weekend after nearly four decades. Due to funding shortages in recent years, a series of prominent dailies and broadcasters in Lebanon have disappeared, undermining the country's regional reputation as a media hub. The situation has become direr in recent months, as Lebanon struggles with a wide-reaching recession and a spiraling financial crunch exacerbated by political turmoil and mass protests. To keep their heads above water, surviving organizations have had to slash salaries and lay off employees. Some have stopped paying salaries all together. "We haven't been paid in five months," said an employee at the country's oldest newspaper, An-Nahar, asking not to be named to protect his job. The Daily Star announced on its website the temporary halt of the printing presses was a result of the economic downturn. It cited "the financial challenges facing the Lebanese press, which have been exacerbated by the deterioration of the economic situation in the country." It said the temporary suspension came after "a drop to virtually no advertising revenue in the last quarter of 2019, as well as in January of this year." In recent months, employees at the newspaper had complained of not being paid, with one departing journalist reporting in December that some were owed up to half a year in wages. The outlet will however continue to publish content on its website and social media.
Crumbling empire
The Daily Star was founded in 1952 by Kamel Mroue, then owner and editor-in-chief of the pan-Arab Al-Hayat daily newspaper. The newspaper was bought by businessmen close to former prime minister Saad Hariri in 2010 and is co-owned by Hariri's family, according to a report on media ownership in Lebanon by the Samir Kassir Foundation and Reporters Without Borders. The Daily Star is just the latest media outlet linked to the former premier to be struggling. In September last year, Hariri announced the suspension of Future TV, his ailing mouthpiece whose employees had been on strike over unpaid wages. In January 2019, the Hariri-linked al-Mustaqbal newspaper issued its last print version, 20 years after it was established, though it too maintains a presence online. Saudi Oger, a once-mighty construction firm that was the basis of the Hariri business empire, collapsed in 2017, leaving thousands jobless. Hariri stepped down as prime minister in late October under pressure from unprecedented nationwide protests against alleged official corruption and ineptitude. Last year, The Daily Star published a newsless black issue to protest the political and economic crises gripping the country.
The economic situation has since deteriorated further.
'Time to rethink'
The economic downturn has left no sector unscathed, starving publications of advertising revenues and traditional sources of funding. L'Hebdo Magazine, a French-language publication established in 1956, printed its final issue in December because of a drop in advertisement revenues, said a former employee. "Our advertisers were mainly banks and insurance companies," she told AFP, asking not to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue. Lebanon's media landscape is rife with privately-owned newspapers affiliated with at least one of the country's many political parties, who are often the primary source of funding. Ayman Mhanna, director of the Samir Kassir Foundation in Beirut, said the economic blow underscored the need for a diverse funding pool. "The problem is primarily structural, but the current crisis has accelerated" closures, he said. He added that Lebanese media is usually funded by political groups and a "limited local advertising market." "It is time for the Lebanese press to rethink its economic model," he said. "This crisis must be an opportunity to do so."

Qatar Event with Mashrou' Leila Canceled amid Furor
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/February 04/2020
Northwestern University in Qatar has canceled a media discussion featuring popular Lebanese band Mashrou’ Leila for "safety reasons," the institution said Tuesday, amid social media furor. The American university said it invited the Lebanese band, one of the most popular music groups in the region, to a talk at its Doha branch about Middle Eastern media revolutions this week but then moved the event to its Evanston, Illinois campus. "The decision to move the discussion to Evanston was made mutually between Northwestern and members of Mashrou' Leila," Jon Yates, director of Northwestern University-Qatar's media relations, told AFP. "The decision was made out of an abundance of caution due to several factors, including safety concerns for the band and our community. "Because Northwestern firmly believes that the band's ideas, their art and their voices are important for the world to hear, the university is working to bring them to our home campus in the US." The band, whose lead singer is openly gay and whose Arabic lyrics tackle a range of taboo topics, faced backlash from conservatives online who objected to the planned event with the Arabic hashtag "We reject Mashrou' Leila's discussion".
One Twitter user said the event would have been acceptable if it were a debate but criticized the band for "vomiting on us their belief in the form of a lecture."This comes as Qatar gears up to host the FIFA World Cup 2022, whose organizers last year said all fans -- including members of the LGBT community -- would be welcome. Qatar, like all other Gulf countries, bans homosexuality. Religiously diverse Lebanon is one of the Middle East's more liberal countries, but its myriad of recognized sects still wield major influence over social and cultural affairs. While Mashrou' Leila has often played in Lebanon, it has attracted controversy across the religiously conservative Middle East. Last year, a top Lebanese music festival canceled a Mashrou' Leila concert for security reasons, after the group was accused of offending Christians. After audience members waved a rainbow flag during a Mashrou' Leila concert in Egypt in 2017, Egyptian authorities launched a crackdown on the country's LGBT community. Its concerts in Jordan were canceled in 2016 and 2017. The group formed in 2008 while its members were students at the American University of Beirut.

Lebanese Shiite cleric, Sheikh Mohamad Ali El Husseini seeks France asylum after death threats over Auschwitz visit
Jerusalem Post/February 04/2020
جيرازولم بوست: رجل الدين الشيعي الشيخ علي الحسيني يطلب اللجؤ من فرنسا بعد تلقيه تهديدات بالموت عقب زياته مع وفد من رابطة العالم الإسلامي لموقع
أوشفيتس.. معسكر إبادة اليهود في بولندا
Sheikh Mohamad Ali El Husseini was one of two dozen Muslim clerics who participated in the visit to Auschwitz, together with representatives from the Muslim World League, organized by the AJC.
A Lebanese Shi’ite cleric who participated in a delegation of Muslim leaders to Auschwitz ahead of the 75th anniversary of its liberation last month is seeking asylum in France due to deaths threats against him.
Sheikh Mohamad Ali El Husseini was one of about two dozen Muslim clerics who participated in the visit to Auschwitz, together with representatives from the Muslim World League, organized by the American Jewish Committee.
During the visit, El Husseini was the subject of death threats on social media, and criminal complaints were filed against him for “meeting with Israeli agents.” He said this was done with the backing of Hezbollah for having violated Lebanese laws banning contact with Israeli officials.
No Israeli officials were on the AJC delegation.
El Husseini is an outspoken critic of Hezbollah and accuses it of advancing Iranian interests at the expense of the Lebanese state and people.
He has called for Muslim-Jewish reconciliation and posted messages in Hebrew on his Facebook page for the marginalization of religious texts endorsing violence.
After the three-day visit to Poland, El Husseini decided not to return to Lebanon, fearing for his life.The AJC and Polish Chief Rabbi Michael Schudrich helped put El Husseini in contact with the French ambassador to Poland. Following the end of the trip, El Husseini flew to France, where he is currently residing.
El Husseini is in the process of requesting asylum in France on the basis of the threats to his life.
The AJC’s Rabbi David Rosen said the organization would do everything it can to help him, including submitting a recommendation to the French authorities on his behalf.
“Mohamad Husseini is an example of courageous integrity, which is actually slowly but surely increasing in the Arab world despite the dangers, as witnessed by the Auschwitz visit,” he said.
“This story also highlights the fact that elements in the Muslim world continue to score their own goals by presenting Islam as hostile to respecting others and to acknowledging abhorrent tragedies, and they do not do the image of Islam or Arab communities any good,” Rosen said.
Picture Enclosed: Muhammad bin Abdul Karim Issa of the Muslim World League visits Auschwitz with David Harris, Rabbi David Rosen, and Harriet Schleifer of the American Jewish Committee. January 23, 2020

For Lebanon’s Shiites, a Dilemma: Stay Loyal to Hezbollah or Keep Protesting?
Vivian Yee and Hwaida Saad/The New York Times/February 04/2020
Lebanon’s protests have drawn protesters from all religious sects. But Hezbollah, the Islamist militia and political party, and its ally, the Amal Movement, have tried to smother demonstrations by Shiites.
KAFR RUMMAN, Lebanon — There is a Lebanese phrase that translates, roughly, to “a slapping.” That seems to be what happened to several antigovernment protesters who were caught on TV denouncing Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the Islamist militia and political party Hezbollah, in the early days of the now monthslong Lebanese uprising.
The smacking they received from a party that brooks little pushback, and wields tremendous influence in Lebanon’s government, might have been physical or it might have been verbal. Either way, the protesters appeared again on TV a few days later, looking subdued — this time, to apologize.
“Sayyid means a lot to me. There are thousands who admire him, but I’m like No. 100 on the list,” one man said, his voice meek, using a respectful honorific for Mr. Nasrallah, whom the protester had previously accused of letting his community starve.
The on-camera apology was a prelude to more violent retributions against protesters from the Shiite Muslim community, the largest of Lebanon’s 18 recognized religious sects, which for decades has drawn on Hezbollah for protection, jobs, social services and, for many, a sense of shared struggle against Israel and other enemies.
As Lebanon hobbles into its fifth month of political and economic meltdown, the countrywide protests continue to include protesters of all religious backgrounds, uniting in scorn for leaders who cannot offer even the basics: 24-hour electricity, a functional economy or trustworthy governance.
But the protests have forced many Lebanese Shiites into a dilemma: How can they square their loyalty to Hezbollah with its support for the status quo? And will Hezbollah keep trying to extinguish the rebellion, or listen to it?
“I support resistance against Israel,” said Ali Ismail, 51, a protester in Kafr Rumman, a mostly Shiite town in south Lebanon that has long been dominated by “the parties,” as residents often refer to Hezbollah and Amal, the other major Shiite party. “But I also support resistance against corruption.”
Mr. Ismail’s recent history sounds like that of many Lebanese protesters. He has gone into debt to pay school fees for his children. His wife, Farah, said she had been shut out of all the teaching jobs she had applied to because she lacked party connections.
Even the man who publicly apologized to Mr. Nasrallah may have renounced his insult, but not his plea. “Please help us,” he begged in the apology video. “Really, we’re starving. We don’t have jobs.”
Among Shiites, the protests spring in part from Hezbollah’s simultaneous military success and neglect of domestic issues, said Randa Slim, a Lebanon analyst at the Middle East Institute.
The security threats that rallied the group’s base, whether Israel or Sunni extremists in neighboring Syria, have receded in urgency. And when Hezbollah entered Lebanese politics in 2005 to protect its status as a shadow army, it propped up the government’s incompetence and corruption rather than delivering on its promises of reform.
American sanctions on Hezbollah and its patron, Iran, have left it less able to offer the subsidies, services and jobs that its supporters used to count on, just as the Lebanese economy was teetering.
As with other liberation movements, Hezbollah has found governance more complicated than guerrilla warfare.
“Hezbollah has never prioritized bread-and-butter issues, but suddenly they’re faced with a community that’s basically saying, bread and butter are a priority,” Ms. Slim said. “It’s now part of a government that’s corrupt, and they can’t blame others for the corruption; they’re part of the corruption equation. So the question is, how are they going to respond?”
The Amal party has fostered loyalty through jobs and patronage, but its leader, Nabih Berri, the speaker of Parliament, is widely viewed as a profoundly corrupt pillar of Lebanon’s much-derided ruling class.
So far, Hezbollah and Amal have mobilized to protect the status quo, and the protests in majority-Shiite areas have visibly shrunk as the parties have moved to smother the uprising. With Hezbollah’s patron and partner, Iran, under growing pressure at home and abroad as tensions with the United States soar, analysts say Hezbollah needs more than ever to preserve its power and influence in Lebanon.
Early on, Mr. Nasrallah, for whom many Shiites feel genuine reverence, criticized the protests that began in October and called on his supporters to go home, prompting some Shiites to leave the streets. Violent scuffles broke out when some protesters included Mr. Nasrallah among the political figures they wanted to sweep from power, chanting, “All of them means all of them — Nasrallah is one of them.”
Even many nonmembers of Hezbollah credit Mr. Nasrallah with ousting Israel from its 18-year occupation of south Lebanon. His charisma and credibility outstrip those of any other Lebanese political figure: Mr. Nasrallah’s son died fighting the Israelis, and,unlike the mansion-dwelling jet-setters who populate much of the government, he is usually considered personally incorruptible.
“We love Sayyid Hassan Nasrallah at home, but here, we love Lebanon,” said Ghazie Atrash, 40, a protester from Baalbek, in the Hezbollah-dominated rural interior, who joined the huge demonstrations in Beirut this fall.When asked whether Mr. Nasrallah bore any responsibility for Lebanon’s dysfunction, however, Ms. Atrash was emphatic. “He’s not part of the government,” she said. “No.”
Though Mr. Nasrallah does not hold office, Hezbollah and its allies dominated the last government, which resigned amid the protests in October, as well as the new cabinet formed in January.
Hezbollah and Amal followers have repeatedly swept into protest sites in Beirut and other cities, thrashing protesters with sticks and fists. Though the parties have not openly encouraged the attacks, the men have shouted party slogans or, simply, “Shia! Shia! Shia!”
In interviews in majority-Shiite areas, protesters reported receiving threatening calls, anonymous WhatsApp audio notes warning of a “negative impact on your life” or visits from Hezbollah or Amal representatives asking them to stop protesting.
Mohamed Dib Othman, 29, who has been helping to organize the small but persistent demonstrations in Baalbek, said his car windows had been smashed after the first day of protests in mid-October. Acquaintances warned him that party affiliates were branding him a traitor in WhatsApp chat rooms.
“The revolution is our only hope. If it gets crushed, we’re finished,” said Mr. Dib Othman, who said he was shut out of all 36 government jobs he had applied to after graduating from university because he lacked party connections.But he was hopeful something had shifted. “When Nasrallah criticized the revolution, the mask fell off for everyone,” he said.
Perhaps Hezbollah’s most effective anti-protest tactic has been to insinuate that the protests are the product of a foreign conspiracy against Shiites, whose ingrained sense of grievance stretches back centuries.
Some Shiites who initially supported the uprising said they were now convinced the United States must be secretly maneuvering to pressure Hezbollah and its Shiite partners in Iran and Iraq: how else to explain the simultaneous uprisings in all three countries?
Such suspicions only hardened after the American killing of Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani, a top military leader in Iran, in early January.
“They’ve been trying to defeat Hezbollah for years,” said Ahmad, a butcher in Beirut who did not want his last name used because he did not want to offend customers of other sects.
But when the protesters are friends, neighbors and relatives, they are not easily labeled foreign tools. They also include former fighters and relatives of those known as martyrs who died fighting with Hezbollah, who are hard to dismiss.
Among them was Rabih Tleiss, a Hezbollah member until 2013, whose cousin and brother-in-law died fighting for Hezbollah in Syria.
Sitting with other protesters in Baalbek, Mr. Tleiss pointed at the other Shiite men in the room, one by one.
“Are you working?” One man shook his head.
“Are you working?” Another headshake.
“I’m not working either,” Mr. Tleiss said. “We’re all jobless.”
Jad Jarjoui, 20, a protester in Tyre who volunteered with Hezbollah in Syria for a few months and is now unemployed, said he had kept protesting despite his family’s opposition and a visit from a local Hezbollah leader. He said he had not been directly threatened, but that an unknown assailant had stabbed him in the arm one night.
“My father asked why I’m getting myself into trouble,” he said, “but I told him I’m doing the right thing.”
Mr. Jarjoui remained loyal to Hezbollah’s cause, he said, just not its domestic politics. “The resistance is above all suspicion, but I’m against members of Parliament in the party.”
Still, the longer the protests go on without substantial political change or economic succor, the more fatigue and fatalism have crept in.
Ihab Hassane, 29, a Shiite from Tyre who had been protesting since Day 1, said he had lost hope for swift change. He was planning to leave the country.
But he believed the protesters had notched at least one accomplishment.
“People used to watch Nasrallah’s speeches without asking questions,” he said. “But now, even though they still support him, they’ve started asking questions.”

Rock, Paper, Scissors in the Middle East
Tony Badran/Tablet Magazine/February 04/2020
طوني بدران/موقع تابليت/ قراءة في صفقة القرن: صخرة وورقة ومقص في الشرق الأوسط
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/82921/%d8%b7%d9%88%d9%86%d9%8a-%d8%a8%d8%af%d8%b1%d8%a7%d9%86-%d9%85%d9%88%d9%82%d8%b9-%d8%aa%d8%a7%d8%a8%d9%84%d9%8a%d8%aa-%d9%82%d8%b1%d8%a7%d8%a1%d8%a9-%d9%81%d9%8a-%d8%b5%d9%81%d9%82%d8%a9-%d8%a7%d9%84/
Trump’s is the latest play in a decadeslong game of trying to counter previous ‘peace process’ moves by each new American administration
President Donald Trump has finally unveiled his 180-page vision for peace between Israel and the Palestinians, which came as a sweet balm to Washington think-tankers and Middle East opinion writers, who had been slumbering like Rip Van Winkle, waiting for a chance to rise and display their dilapidated peace-processing expertise. As if no time had passed between 1995, or 1999, or 2004, or 2007, and the present, they got right busy determining whether the president’s vision was indeed realistic and viable, and whether it measured up to the accumulated history of American peace processing, and whether it was “fair” or “just” to the Palestinians, and whether it might just “bring both sides back to the table,” and on, and on, and on.
After all, the parameters for a “final settlement” between Israelis and Palestinian Arabs have long been clear: The so-called Clinton Parameters—named after former President Bill Clinton, Hillary’s husband, who had the good fortune of serving his two terms during the short, sunny period between the end of the Cold War (1946-1989) and the beginning of the decadeslong Global War on Terror (2001-the present). The Clinton Parameters were the summa of President Clinton’s approach to foreign policy, which, in the absence of any larger dragons to slay, sought to perform important good deeds like making peace between the British and the IRA in Northern Ireland, and Israel and the PLO in the Middle East.
All we needed to achieve peace in the Middle East, the wise peace processors of the Clinton years told us, was the courage to finesse a few small remaining areas of disagreement, which required having the right leadership in Israel and Palestine. They also required trust and confidence-building measures, including a freeze on Israeli settlement activity. Those were the days, my friend. The days of wine and roses, and of heroes like Robert Malley.
Yet, despite the parameters being so simple, obvious, and apparently easy to achieve, the peace process shockingly never went anywhere. Instead, it degenerated into the violence of the second intifada, which wasn’t led by Yasser Arafat; except, of course, that it was. After Arafat died in 2004, elections were duly held among the Palestinians, who elected Hamas, which chose rockets over suicide bombers after the Israelis left Gaza—a move that was supposed to bring about peace, but of course did nothing of the kind. Bill Clinton blamed Arafat. Malley and the New York Review of Books blamed Israel for not conceding enough fast enough to the Palestinians at Camp David, and for passing the baklava from left to right instead of from right to left.
Nearly a decade later, Condoleezza Rice tried her hand at “bringing peace,” and came up empty; a decade after that, so did John Kerry. Apparently, the box containing “peace” was empty.
Architects of the peace process today openly declare the entire enterprise hopeless. In a recent op-ed in The Wall Street Journal, former U.S. Special Envoy for Israeli-Palestinian Negotiations Martin Indyk, a dedicated servant of peace, wrote about his participation, six years ago, in the last direct Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, which were conducted under the wise auspices of John Kerry, who had once promised that solving the core problem of the Middle East would take him nine months. “At the end of that nine-month encounter, the two sides were farther apart on all the core issues than when we started,” Indyk wrote. Showing some degree of late-blooming insight, he finally admitted that the two-state solution was “not a vital American interest.”
As far as the United States is concerned, there are no more disputed territories: The land is Israel’s.
Other peace processors had despaired of the Palestinian track much earlier. Take the Wilson Center’s Aaron David Miller, for instance. In a 2008 Washington Post op-ed, Miller, showing greater wisdom than Indyk, advised then president-elect Barack Obama to set aside Israeli-Palestinian peace. “There’s no deal there,” he wrote.
This being Washington, though, Miller then urged Obama to pursue another fantasy based on one of the peace process industry’s key pillars, the 1967 lines. This fantasy was the Syria track: Instead of brokering negotiations between Israel and the recalcitrant and divided Palestinians, the United States should spend its vast diplomatic energy and capital brokering an agreement between Israel and Syria that would “return” the Golan Heights to Syrian dictator Bashar Assad. This advice would have resulted today in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) controlling the Golan Heights, and probably in a shooting war.
Obama, who was smarter, if not wiser, than Indyk and Miller combined, took zero personal interest in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process per se. Rather, he used the “peace process,” now in quotes, as a form of Kabuki theater, which served to keep the Israelis busy and off-balance while he implemented his broader regional strategy of realigning with Iran and downgrading traditional allies. Demands for a settlement freeze were a useful cudgel to wield against Israel, and so were the threats of a unilateral announcement of new American parameters (which never happened) and unfavorable resolutions at the United Nations (which were threatened for years before finally being delivered).
At the end of December 2016, before he left office, Obama affirmed the 1967 lines—and by extension, the position of Israel’s enemies—by orchestrating the passing of United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334. The resolution called upon all states “to distinguish, in their relevant dealings, between the territory of the State of Israel and the territories occupied since 1967,” and reaffirmed that all Israeli communities established in territory “occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem, have no legal validity.” As with UNSCR 2231, through which Obama sought to lock in his deal with Iran, UNSCR 2334 sought to replace congressional authority with an international “rock” that would tie his successor’s hands and box him in within Obama’s regional preferences.
President Trump is also thinking geopolitically, only from the opposite side. A main purpose of his “Deal of the Century” is to strengthen Israel’s security and also, as the White House noted explicitly, to foster “strong regional partnerships to counter Iran and terrorism,” namely between Israel and the Gulf states. In other words, in the game of rock, paper, scissors that Trump appears to be playing with his predecessor, the peace plan is Trump’s “paper,” which counters the “rock” that Obama tossed through Israel’s window on his way out the door.
To that end, the president has used a series of tools to dismantle Obama’s Middle East framework. Trump withdrew from the Iran deal in May 2018, collapsing the security partnership Obama had assiduously built with the Iranians and their regional militias commanded by the recently departed Iranian general Qassem Soleimani—who met his demise courtesy of a U.S. missile strike last month. This was the “scissors,” which countered the “paper” of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA.
On the Israel front, Trump nullified the 1967 lines, the cornerstone of the Arab rejectionist position that Obama had attempted to enshrine in UNSCR 2334. He did this by moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, and then by recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights. The latter move eliminated the 1967 framework altogether with regard to Syria and Lebanon. As far as the United States is concerned, there are no more disputed territories: The land is Israel’s.
The current plan extends that same approach to the Jordan Valley, in addition to existing settlements. “If the State of Israel withdrew from the Jordan Valley, it would have significant implications for regional security in the Middle East,” the president’s vision states, expressing a positive desire for Israel to remain there. An extension of Israeli sovereignty over the Jordan Valley would therefore serve U.S. regional security interests. Rock, Paper, Scissors.
Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates’ acceptance of the Trump plan as the basis for any future talks between Israel and the Palestinians indicates that the United States’ regional allies have accepted the president’s nullification of the 1967 lines framework. The significance of this is that the Saudis and the Emiratis have accepted that the starting point for any movement going forward is not the so-called Arab Peace Initiative, which the Saudis originally sponsored almost 20 years ago, and which has subsequently been loaded with additional rigid language, especially regarding the so-called right of return for Palestinian refugees, by rejectionists led by the Assad regime. The Trump peace plan is the new starting point.
The truth is, none of these frameworks matter anymore. Trump has made it clear that he is not bound by the fantasies of previous American peace processors—who today show contempt for the president’s plan even as they admit their own decades-long failure. Trump’s deal is designed to underscore Israel’s special relationship with the United States—and it slams shut the rusty gates of the peace processing factory for good. It doesn’t much matter how the Palestinians respond. The American position is not dependent on the outcome of future negotiations.
Israel’s political class now has a clear window in which to determine its own fate. Israel can then live with the consequences of its own choices.
*Tony Badran is a research fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Follow him on Twitter @AcrossTheBay.

Europe Cowers in Front of Iran and Hezbollah
Soeren Kern/Gatestone Institute/February 04/2020
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15510/europe-iran-hezbollah
"Hezbollah itself has publicly denied a distinction between its military and political wings. The group in its entirety is assessed to be concerned in terrorism..." — The British Treasury, January 17, 2020.
Britain joins the Netherlands, Canada, the United States, Israel, the 22-member Arab League, the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council as well as Argentina, Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras and Paraguay in making no distinction between Hezbollah's military and civilian wings. In all, more than 30 countries have banned the group in its entirety.
In Germany, the EU's largest member state, a foreign ministry official, Niels Annen, said that a complete ban of Hezbollah would be counterproductive because "we focus on dialogue." His comment has been understood to mean that the German government does not want to burn bridges with Hezbollah's main patron, the Islamic Republic of Iran, the world's leading sponsor of terrorism.
In other EU member states, government officials appear worried that a total ban of Hezbollah could jeopardize the safety of European troops deployed to the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, or UNIFIL. EU member states contribute more than 3,650 troops to UNIFIL — mostly from France, Italy and Spain.
"Hezbollah is a single large organization, we have no wings that are separate from one another. What's being said in Brussels doesn't exist for us." — Ibrahim Mussawi, Hezbollah spokesman, interview in Der Spiegel, July 22, 2013.
According to Hezbollah's deputy secretary general, Naim Qassem (left), the group is structurally unified: "We don't have a military wing and a political one... Every element of Hezbollah, from commanders to members as well as our various capabilities, is in the service of the resistance, and we have nothing but the resistance as a priority." (Photo by Joseph Eid/AFP via Getty Images)
The British finance ministry has added the entirety of the Iran-backed Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah — Arabic for "The Party of Allah" — to its sanctions list and has ordered a freeze on any assets it may have in the United Kingdom.
The move, aimed at cracking down on Hezbollah's fundraising activities in Britain, adds increased enforcement teeth to the British government's February 2019 decision no longer to distinguish between Hezbollah's military and political wings and to classify the entire organization as a terrorist group.
With the exception of the Netherlands, which outlawed all of Hezbollah in 2004, the UK now has the most comprehensive set of sanctions against the terrorist group in Europe. Being a member of, or providing support for, Hezbollah is a crime in Britain punishable by up to ten years in prison.
In a so-called General Notice of Final Designation dated January 17, 2020, the Office of Financial Sanctions of the British Treasury ordered financial institutions in the UK to check whether they hold any accounts, funds or economic resources for, or provide financial services to, Hezbollah; freeze such accounts, and other funds or economic resources; suspend the provision of any financial services to Hezbollah; and report any findings to the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI), in compliance with the Terrorist Asset-Freezing Act 2010 (TAFA). The British Treasury noted:
"Hezbollah itself has publicly denied a distinction between its military and political wings. The group in its entirety is assessed to be concerned in terrorism and was proscribed as a terrorist organization in the UK in March 2019. This listing includes the Military Wing, the Jihad Council and all units reporting to it, including the External Security Organization."
Britain joins the Netherlands, Canada, the United States, Israel, the 22-member Arab League, the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council as well as Argentina, Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras and Paraguay in making no distinction between Hezbollah's military and civilian wings. In all, more than 30 countries have banned the group in its entirety.
The European Union has resisted pressure to outlaw all of Hezbollah. European officials, who make an artificial distinction between Hezbollah's military and political wing, regularly claim that a total ban might destabilize Lebanon's political system, which is now dominated by the terrorist group. Others are worried that a complete ban of Hezbollah could hinder political and diplomatic efforts to salvage the now-defunct 2015 nuclear accord with Iran.
In Germany, the EU's largest member state, a foreign ministry official, Niels Annen, said that a complete ban of Hezbollah would be counterproductive because "we focus on dialogue." His comment has been understood to mean that the German government does not want to burn bridges with Hezbollah's main patron, the Islamic Republic of Iran, the world's leading sponsor of terrorism.
In other EU member states, government officials appear worried that a total ban of Hezbollah could jeopardize the safety of European troops deployed to the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, or UNIFIL. EU member states contribute more than 3,650 troops to UNIFIL — mostly from France, Italy and Spain. After many years of equivocation, the European Union reluctantly banned Hezbollah's "military wing" in July 2013, after the group was implicated in the July 2012 bombing of a bus carrying Israeli tourists in Burgas, Bulgaria. Five Israelis were killed in the attack.
Hezbollah officials, however, have repeatedly affirmed that the group operates as a single organization with a unified system of command and control. In a July 2013 interview with the German newsmagazine Der Spiegel, conducted immediately after the EU announced its partial ban on Hezbollah, the group's spokesman, Ibrahim Mussawi, said:
"Hezbollah is a single large organization, we have no wings that are separate from one another. What's being said in Brussels doesn't exist for us."
Hezbollah's deputy secretary general, Naim Qassem, repeated that the group is structurally unified:
"We don't have a military wing and a political one; we don't have Hezbollah on one hand and the resistance party on the other.... Every element of Hezbollah, from commanders to members as well as our various capabilities, is in the service of the resistance, and we have nothing but the resistance as a priority."
Qassem, in an interview with the Lebanese newspaper Al-Mustaqbal, said:
"Hezbollah has one single leadership, and its name is the Decision-Making Shura Council. It manages the political activity, the jihad activity, the cultural and the social activities. Hezbollah's Secretary General is the head of the Shura Council and also the head of the Jihad Council, and this means that we have one leadership, with one administration."
Hezbollah official Muhammad Fannish, in an interview with the group's Al-Manar Television, stated:
"I can say that no differentiation is to be made between the military wing and the political wing of Hezbollah."
Hezbollah official Ammar Moussawi, speaking to Lebanon's National News Agency, said:
"Everyone is aware of the fact that Hezbollah is one body and one entity. Its military and political wings are unified."
Five years after the EU announced its partial ban of Hezbollah, counter-terrorism expert Matthew Levitt assessed that it has had no impact at all on the group's operations in Europe:
"Hezbollah's military wing is still active across Europe, carrying out a wide range of criminal enterprises geared toward funding and arming the group's military and terrorist activities and even concocting sporadic terrorist plots. In other words, the EU's partial ban of Hezbollah has not set back the organization in any way."The reluctance of European officials to outlaw all of Hezbollah may stem from a fear of retribution from the group or its patron, Iran, on European soil. Europe's permissive stance has emboldened Hezbollah and Iran to conduct fundraising and logistical activities as well as terrorist acts and assassinations across Europe, often with impunity, for more than three decades. Criminal activities in Europe by Hezbollah since its founding in April 1983, and by Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, include:
Germany. January 20, 2020. The trial began in Koblenz of an Afghan couple accused of spying for Iran. The 51-year-old man, Abdul Hamid S., was a German-Afghan translator and cultural consultant for the German army. He is said to have violated official secrets in 18 cases. He was arrested in the Rhineland on January 15, 2019. His 40-year-old wife remains at large.
Albania. October 23, 2019. Albanian police said that they had thwarted an attack planned by the Iranian Quds Force, a branch of Iran's Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) for operations outside Iran, against opponents of the Iranian regime in Albania.
Germany. June 27, 2019. Germany's BfV domestic intelligence agency reported that more than 1,000 members of Hezbollah are currently living in the country, where they engage in fundraising, recruiting and propaganda activities.
United Kingdom. June 9, 2019. The Sunday Telegraph reported that a Hezbollah operative was caught stockpiling three tons of ammonium nitrate, a chemical used to make homemade bombs, in a secret bomb factory on the outskirts of London. The plot was uncovered by MI5 and the Metropolitan Police, after a tip-off from Israel in the fall of 2015, just months after Britain signed up to the Iran nuclear deal. The UK did not press charges against the operative, who was released from custody. The Telegraph speculated that the incident was kept quiet because the Obama administration had just signed the Iran nuclear deal: "It raises questions about whether senior UK government figures chose not to reveal the plot in part because they were invested in keeping the Iran nuclear deal afloat."
Germany. February 4, 2019. A 47-year-old Iranian dissident in Berlin told German police that he was attacked by three men who called him by name and threatened him in Persian before beating and kicking him.
Albania. December 20, 2018. The Albanian government expelled Iran's Ambassador, Gholamhossein Mohammadnia, and the Iranian intelligence station chief in Albania, Mostafa Roudaki, for planning terrorist activities against Iranian dissidents and members of the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK).
France. November 29, 2018. A court in Paris sentenced Mohamad Noureddine, a 44-year-old Lebanese money launderer, to seven years in prison for leading a crime ring that laundered Colombian drug money and funneled the profits to Hezbollah. Noureddine worked directly with Hezbollah's financial apparatus to transfer Hezbollah funds via his Lebanon-based company and maintained direct ties to Hezbollah commercial and terrorist elements in both Lebanon and Iraq, according to the US Treasury Department.
Denmark. October 30, 2018. Danish police announced the arrest in Sweden of a Norwegian citizen of Iranian origin who was suspected of plotting to assassinate three members of an Iranian opposition group called the Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Ahwaz (ASMLA). The three were living in Ringsted, located 60 km (40 miles) southwest of Copenhagen. Danish Foreign Minister Anders Samuelsen tweeted: "Iran's plotting to assassinate on Danish soil is totally unacceptable. Danish ambassador to Tehran has been recalled for consultations. Denmark will discuss further actions with European partners in the coming days."
The Netherlands. June 7, 2018. Dutch authorities expelled two Iranian embassy staff due to suspicions that Tehran was involved in the assassinations in the Netherlands of two Dutch-Iranian citizens.
Belgium. July 2, 2018. Belgian police, acting on a tipoff from Israel, foiled a terrorist plot against a June 30 gathering of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), an umbrella bloc of opposition groups in exile that seek an end to Shiite Muslim clerical rule in Iran. Assadollah Assadi, a senior Iranian diplomat based in the Iranian embassy in Vienna was arrested in Germany in connection with the plot. A Belgian couple of Iranian origin were also charged as accomplices. About 25,000 people attended the rally in the Paris suburb of Villepinte.
Germany. March 1, 2018. A court in Frankfurt sentenced a 41-year-old Iranian national to seven years in prison for purchasing, on behalf of the Quds Force, printing presses that produce counterfeit currency. The man, with German residency, also set up a series of front companies to purchase and ship to Iran specialized paper and ink. During the trial, it emerged that the presses were used to print more than 50 million Yemeni banknotes, presumably to help the Iran-backed Houthi rebels.
Germany. January 16, 2018. German police in seven federal states arrested ten alleged Iranian spies who were accused of surveilling Israeli and Jewish targets in Germany.
Germany. December 22, 2017. The German Foreign Ministry summoned Iranian Ambassador to Berlin Ali Majedi to warn Tehran against spying on individuals and groups with close ties to Israel.
The Netherlands. November 8, 2017. Iranian agents assassinated Ahmad Mola Nissi, leader of an Iranian separatist group ASMLA, in The Hague.
Germany. March 25, 2017. A court in Berlin sentenced Mustufa Haidar Syed-Naqfi, a 31-year-old Pakistani national, to four years and three months in prison for spying for Iran. He was convicted of gathering intelligence on Reinhold Robbe, a German politician and the former head of the German-Israel Friendship Society, for Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).
Germany. March 22, 2016. Prosecutors in Berlin charged two Iranian men, 31-year-old Maysam P. and 33-year-old Saied R., with spying for Iran. The two men allegedly obtained information on members of the opposition group People's Mujahedin of Iran (PMOI/MEK) and its National Council of Resistance Iran (NCRI) arm in Germany and other European Union countries.
Lithuania. March 21, 2016. A court in Lithuania ruled that Ibrahim Ahmadoun, a 34-year-old Belgian citizen, would be extradited to the United States to face charges of money laundering for Hezbollah.
Czech Republic. February 4, 2016. Ali Taan Fayad, a Lebanese-born Hezbollah operative who holds a Ukrainian passport, was released from custody after Czech officials refused to allow his extradition to the United States to face weapons smuggling charges. Czech Defense Minister Martin Stropnicky said that five Czech military officers who were kidnapped in Lebanon were released by their Hezbollah captors in exchange for a guarantee that Fayad would not be extradited. The officers were put on a Czech Air Force jet that arrived in Prague on the same day that Fayad was released.
The Netherlands. December 15, 2015. Two Iranian agents assassinated Mohammad Reza Kolahi Samadi, an Iranian dissident, outside his home in Almere.
Israel. November 29, 2015. Israel's Central District Court sentenced 55-year-old Hassan Khalil Hizran, a Lebanon-born Swedish national recruited by Hezbollah, to 18 months in prison for spying for the terror group.
Cyprus. June 29, 2015. A court in Cyprus sentenced 26-year-old Hezbollah operative Hussein Bassam Abdallah to six years in prison for plotting against Israeli interests on the island. Abdallah, a Lebanese-Canadian, admitted to stockpiling nearly nine tons of ammonium nitrate, a chemical used to make homemade bombs, at the residence of a Hezbollah operative in Larnaca.
Cyprus. March 21, 2013. A court in Cyprus convicted 24-year-old Hezbollah operative Hossam Taleb Yaacoub for plotting to kill Israeli tourists on the island. Yaacoub, a Swedish-Lebanese dual national, was found guilty on five of eight counts, including that of participating in a criminal organization, agreeing to commit a crime and money laundering. The court said that he had carried out six missions in Cyprus on behalf of Hezbollah, which had paid him a total of $4,800. Yaacoub was arrested in Limassol on July 7, 2012, after he was found to be scouting tourist sites frequented by Israelis. He was subsequently sentenced to four years in prison.
Israel. April 9, 2013. Milad Muhammad Khatib, 26, of Majd al-Krum in Western Galilee, was sentenced in the Haifa District Court to seven years in prison for espionage, contact with a foreign agent and conspiracy to aid an enemy in a time of war. Khatib was arrested in September 2012 and confessed to having conveyed to a Hezbollah agent information about IDF bases, armaments and arms caches, and the facilities of arms manufacturer Rafael. He was recruited by a Hezbollah operative in Denmark in 2009.
Bulgaria. July 18, 2012. A Hezbollah suicide bomber blew up a bus carrying Israeli tourists at the airport in Burgas, a city on the Black Sea coast. The explosion killed the Bulgarian bus driver and five Israelis and injured 32 others. The bus was carrying 42 Israelis from the airport to their hotel after they arrived on a flight from Tel Aviv. Bulgarian prosecutors later identified three Hezbollah operatives, all of Lebanese origin, as responsible for the bombing: Meliad Farah, a 32-year-old Australian-Lebanese dual citizen who fled to Lebanon two days before the attack; Hassan El Hajj Hassan, a 27-year-old Canadian-Lebanese dual citizen who remains at large; and Mohamad Hassan el-Husseini, a French-Lebanese dual citizen who was the suicide bomber.
Curaçao. April 29, 2009. Seventeen people were arrested on the Dutch Caribbean island of Curaçao for alleged involvement in a drug trafficking ring with connections Hezbollah. The traffickers used cargo ships and speed boats to import the drugs from Colombia and Venezuela for shipment to Africa and beyond to Europe. The proceeds, funneled through informal Middle Eastern banks, went toward supporting Hezbollah organization in Lebanon. The smuggling ring also forwarded requests from Hezbollah for arms to be shipped from South America.
Sweden. January 18, 1994. Abubakr Hedayati, a Kurdish-Iranian dissident, died after he opened letter bomb in his apartment in Stockholm. The killing was attributed to Iran.
Germany. September 17, 1992. Iranian operatives assassinated three Kurdish-Iranian opposition leaders at the Mykonos restaurant in Berlin.
Germany. August 7, 1992. Iranian agents assassinated Fereydoun Farrokhzad, an Iranian opposition figure, in his apartment in Bonn.
France. August 6, 1991. Three Iranian agents assassinated Shapour Bakhtiar, who served as the last Prime Minister of Iran under the Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, in his home in Suresnes, near Paris. Bakhtiar's secretary, Soroush Katibeh, was also killed. Two assassins escaped to Iran. A third, was arrested in Switzerland.
Sweden. September 6, 1990. Efat Ghazi, the wife of an Iranian Kurdish leader, was killed outside her home in Västerås by a letter bomb intended for her husband. The attack was attributed to Iranian agents.
Switzerland. April 24, 1990. Iranian agents assassinated Kazem Rajavi, a human rights advocate, in broad daylight while he was driving to his home in Coppet, a town near Geneva.
Sweden. April 1, 1990. An Iranian agent assassinated Karim Mohammedzadeh, a Kurdish dissident, in the town of Nynäshamn. The Swedish Security Service (SÄPO) was accused of having obstructed the criminal investigation carried out by the local Swedish police.
Austria. July 13, 1989. An Iranian agent assassinated Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou, an Iranian politician of Kurdish descent, at an apartment in Vienna. Austrian authorities allowed the three suspected killers to leave Austria without ever being questioned.
Switzerland. July 27, 1987. A Hezbollah operative hijacked an Air Afrique DC-10 jetliner with 163 people on board. He forced it to land at Geneva Airport, where he killed one man before crew members and security forces overpowered him.
Austria. May 19, 1987. An Iranian agent assassinated Hamid Reza Chitgar, an Iranian exile, in Vienna.
France. September 5-17, 1986. Hezbollah-affiliated terrorists carried out five bombings in Paris in two weeks. The targets were 1) a post office in the Hôtel de Ville; 2) a cafeteria at the Casino supermarket at the La Défense shopping center; 3) a fashionable restaurant on the Champs-Élysées called Pub Renault; 4) the Paris Police Prefecture; and 5) a bomb was thrown into a shopping street at rue de Rennes from a passing car, blowing up in several store fronts and cars. In all, 12 people were killed and 198 were injured.
France. March 20, 1986. Hezbollah terrorists bombed the Point Show Gallery on the Champs-Élysées in Paris. Two people died in the attack and 28 were injured. The bombing was attributed to the Hezbollah-affiliated Solidarity Committee for Arab and Middle East Political Prisoners (CSPPA).
France. March 17, 1986. A bomb exploded on a high-speed train between Paris and Marseilles. Nine people were injured in the attack, which was claimed by the Hezbollah-affiliated CSPPA.
France. February 3-5, 1986. Hezbollah-affiliated terrorists carried out three bombings in Paris in three days during which 35 people were injured. The targets were the Claridge Hotel on the Champs-Élysées, the Gibert Jeune bookstore on the Place Saint-Michel and an FNAC store at the Forum des Halles. The bombings were claimed by the Hezbollah-affiliated CSPPA.
France. December 7, 1985. Hezbollah terrorists bombed two Paris department stores: Galeries Lafayette and Printemps Haussmann. More than 40 people were injured in the attacks, which were initially attributed to the Palestinian terrorist group Abu Nidal (aka Fatah) but were later attributed to Islamic Jihad, one of the names used by Hezbollah to dissimulate its operations in Europe.
Denmark. July 22, 1985. Hezbollah terrorists bombed the main synagogue in Copenhagen, as well as the main office of the American airline Northwest Orient. One person was killed in the attacks, and 22 people were injured.
Greece. June 14, 1985. Two Hezbollah terrorists hijacked TWA Flight 847 shortly after takeoff from Athens. They murdered US Navy diver Robert Stethem and dumped his body out of the plane and onto the tarmac. They also took dozens of hostages. German authorities released one of the hijackers, Mohammed Ali Hamadi, after he served 19 years of a life sentence. He returned to Lebanon in December 2005.
Spain. April 12, 1985. Hezbollah terrorists, operating under the name Islamic Jihad Organization, claimed responsibility for bombing the "El Descanso," a restaurant frequented by American servicemen stationed at the nearby Torrejón Air Base, outside of Madrid. Eighteen people were killed in the attack; 82 were wounded. In a statement, Islamic Jihad Organization said that the attack was its first outside of Lebanon. Spanish authorities archived the case in 1987 because they could not identify the perpetrator. A spokesperson for the Association of Victims of Terrorism (AVT) said that the Spanish government did not want to pursue the case: "There are interests that prevent the investigation of the attack. Ten years later, it is not known what really happened."
Spain. August 6, 1984. Hezbollah operatives, using the name Islamic Jihad Organization, attempted to assassinate Khalid Almarzook, owner of the Kuwaiti newspaper Al Anba, in Málaga, where he owned a home. Almarzook was unharmed; his driver, Yousuf Harsan, was killed. Spanish media speculated that the attack was retaliation for Al Anba's pro-Iraqi stance in matters related to the Iran-Iraq war.
France. February 7, 1984. Iranian General Gholam-Ali Oveissi, a major figure in the Shah's attempts to put down the Iranian revolution, was shot and killed, together with his brother, by gunmen that French police described as professional assassins. The Islamic Jihad Organization, one of the names used by Hezbollah to dissimulate its operations in Europe, claimed responsibility for the killings.
France. December 7, 1979. Prince Shahriar Shafiq, a 34-year-old nephew of the Shah of Iran, was assassinated in Paris by an agent of Iran's Islamic Revolution who fired two shots into the back of the prince's head and then coolly walked away.
Soeren Kern is a Senior Fellow at the New York-based Gatestone Institute.
*Follow Soeren Kern on Twitter and Facebook
© 2020 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on February 04-05/2020
Israel and Sudan will push to normalize relations: Israeli officials
Reuters/February 04/2020
Forging normal relations for the first time, Israeli officials said on Monday after the leaders of the two former foes met in Uganda. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had two hours of talks with Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, head of Sudan’s sovereign council, in the city of Entebbe in central Uganda.
“It was agreed to start cooperation leading to normalization of the relationship between the two countries,” an Israeli statement said. Sudan’s information minister and government spokesman, Faisal Salih, told Reuters he had no information about the visit and that the cabinet had not discussed it. Officials would wait for “clarifications” on Burhan’s return, Salih said in a later statement. Burhan is the most senior figure in the first phase of a power-sharing arrangement between the military and civilian parties in Sudan that began last August, following the overthrow of long-time Islamist ruler Omar al-Bashir. Civilian authorities are due to take the lead for the final 18 months of the 39-month transition. Normalising relations with Sudan, where Arab states gathered in 1967 to issue what became known as the “Three No’s” - no recognition of Israel, no peace with Israel and no negotiations with Israel - would allow Netanyahu to burnish his diplomatic credentials a month before Israel’s March 2 election. It could pave the way for the right-wing Israeli leader to pledge the deportation of Sudanese who make up around one fifth of illegal workers in Israel, a move backed by many of his supporters.
These migrants had previously argued that they could not be repatriated as they faced retribution for traveling to Israel, an enemy of Sudan. “Netanyahu believes that Sudan is moving in a new and positive direction,” the Israeli statement said.Sudan’s leader, it added, “is interested in helping his country go through a modernization process by removing it from isolation and placing it on the world map”. Burhan’s visit and any normalization of ties with Israel would likely be controversial with many in Sudan and elsewhere in the Arab world, especially at a time when Netanyahu has been promoting a new U.S. peace plan that Palestinians have flatly rejected. Senior Palestinian official Saeb Erekat called Burhan’s meeting with Netanyahu “a stab in the back of the Palestinian people and a flagrant walkout on the Arab peace initiative”, according to a statement published by the official WAFA news agency. Israel previously considered Sudan a security threat because it suspected Iran used Sudan as a conduit for overland smuggling of munitions to the Gaza Strip. In 2009, regional sources said, Israeli aircraft bombed an arms convoy in Sudan. But since Bashir was ousted last April, Khartoum has distanced itself from Iran and no longer poses such a threat, Israeli officials say. On Sunday, the United States invited Burhan to visit Washington, Sudan’s sovereign council said.Sudan is pushing to be removed from a U.S. list of countries considered state sponsors of terrorism. The listing has impeded badly needed international financial assistance and commercial activity in Sudan. Earlier on Monday, Netanyahu held talks with Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, who said Uganda was studying the possibility of opening an embassy in Jerusalem.
*Reporting by Jeffrey Heller, Dan Williams and Khalid Abdelaziz; Editing by Pravin Char and Grant McCool

American Citizen Sues Qatari Bank for Funding Terror
Varsha Koduvayur/FDD/February 04/2020
An American photojournalist kidnapped and tortured by a Syrian terror group is suing Qatar Islamic Bank for allegedly funding it. The case reinforces Qatar’s ongoing challenges in tackling terror finance in the Middle East.
Matthew Schrier was kidnapped in 2012 by al-Nusra Front, an al-Qaeda-aligned extremist group, while reporting on the Syrian civil war. Al-Nusra kept Schrier hostage for 211 days. During that time, the terrorist group beat and tortured him at least 10 times; forced him to see and hear the torture of other prisoners; and periodically withheld water and food. Briefly, al-Nusra turned Schrier over to another Syrian militant group, Ahrar al-Sham, which also mistreated him. In January, Schrier filed a lawsuit against Qatar Islamic Bank (QIB), the emirate’s largest sharia-compliant bank, claiming that both al-Nusra and Ahrar al-Sham “used an international network of donors and charities” to fund their operations. The lawsuit also claims QIB provided “financial services to those donors and financial support to the charities.”The lawsuit implicates Qatari national Saad al-Kabi as one funder of al-Nusra. Al-Kabi was sanctioned by the United States in 2015 for supporting the terrorist group. The U.S. Treasury Department noted that al-Kabi set up a donation campaign in Qatar to fund al-Nusra, a fact Schrier repeated in his complaint. According to the complaint, al-Kabi instructed individuals to deposit funds into an account he established at QIB under his child’s name. Moreover, the lawsuit alleges that QIB knew what the account was used for – but allowed al-Kabi to use it for more than a year. Schrier’s complaint also alleges that QIB gave donations to Qatar Charity, a non-governmental organization allegedly implicated in other terror finance cases. A federal terrorism case in 2002 alleged that Osama bin Laden used the charity to fund al-Qaeda in 1993. Qatar Charity was also accused of sending money and humanitarian goods to the Syrian Islamic Front, a Syrian Salafist network dominated by Ahrar al-Sham.
QIB donated to Qatar Charity in 2012 and 2013, according to the lawsuit. In addition, Schrier’s complaint charges that QIB allowed Qatar Charity to operate eight accounts at the bank, suggesting that QIB “agreed, expressly or tacitly,” to facilitate terror groups’ activities.
Schrier’s lawsuit once again raises questions about Qatar’s poor record on terror finance. Qatar has funded extremist groups throughout the Middle East, including Hamas in Gaza, radicals in Syria, and militants in Libya. In other instances, Doha has allowed terror financiers to live in Qatar – some under U.S. and UN sanctions. In 2017, Qatar concluded two memoranda of understanding with the United States to boost cooperation on countering terror finance. Yet Doha continues its support for a number of terrorist groups. The Trump administration should pressure Qatar’s Emir Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani to undertake verifiable steps to improve its illicit finance record. And as the Schrier case may underscore, Qatar must also reckon with its past.
*Varsha Koduvayur is a senior research analyst focusing on the Gulf at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), where she also contributes to FDD’s Center on Economic and Financial Power (CEFP). For more analysis from Varsha and CEFP, please subscribe HERE. Follow Varsha on Twitter @varshakoduvayur. Follow FDD on Twitter @FDD and @FDD_CEFP. FDD is a Washington, DC-based, nonpartisan research institute focusing on national security and foreign policy.

House Republicans introduce resolution condemning UK's decision to allow Huawei in 5G networks
Maggie Miller/The Hill/February 04/2020
A group of House Republicans on Monday introduced a resolution condemning the British government’s decision to allow Chinese telecommunications group Huawei limited involvement in its 5G networks despite pressure from the Trump administration to ban the company.
The resolution, which “affirms that all Chinese companies, private and state-owned, are under the effective control of the Chinese Communist Party,” was introduced following the decision by the U.K.’s National Security Council to allow Huawei equipment in “periphery” 5G systems, but not core secure systems. The resolution strongly urges the U.K. to reconsider its decision. The decision went against sustained pressure from the Trump administration to outright ban the company from the U.K.’s networks, with U.S. officials citing espionage concerns due to a Chinese law that requires Chinese companies to help with state intelligence work. Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, is the lead sponsor of the resolution, with Republican Reps. Ted Yoho (Fla.), Michael Turner (Ohio), Liz Cheney (Wyo.) and Mike Gallagher (Wis.) joining him.
The sponsors said in a joint statement that they were “extremely disappointed” in the U.K.’s decision on Huawei. “Huawei equipment is absolute poison – providing them access to any aspect of a 5G network compromises the integrity of the entire system and will result in network data being sent back to Communist Party leaders in Beijing,” the sponsors said. “Investing in Huawei technology only serves to fund the regime’s malign activity at home and across the globe- from their internment of ethnic minorities in western China to spying on and stealing from Americans.”
The Republican members also noted that the U.K.’s decision could have a negative impact on the “special relationship” between the U.S. and the U.K.  “Our special relationship with the UK is built on our shared commitment to freedom and security,” the sponsors said. “We hope the UK will reverse course on this consequential decision and work with us to build a 5G future that will not only protect our mutual interests but will safeguard the values we share.”McCaul told The Hill last week that he planned to introduce the resolution, saying that he was “surprised” by the U.K.’s decision to allow limited use of Huawei equipment in the rollout of their 5G networks, saying that British intelligence agencies have access to information about “security risks” posed by the company. After the U.K.’s decision last week, concerns were raised on both sides of the aisle about continued intelligence sharing between the two countries. A senior White House official told The Hill last week that the U.S. was “disappointed” by the decision, but that the U.S. would “work with the U.K. on a way forward.”Concerns were only underlined when the European Union ruled the day after the U.K.’s decision that member states would be able to decide for themselves whether to allow Huawei equipment in 5G networks. Federal agencies in the U.S. have already taken steps against Huawei, with the Commerce Department adding the company to its “entity list,” effectively blacklisting it, and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voting unanimously to designate the company as a national security risk in November. Huawei has pushed back against allegations that it poses a threat, and is suing the FCC. The company hailed the U.K.’s decision, with Huawei Vice President Victor Zhang saying in a statement that it would allow for “a more advanced, more secure and more cost-effective telecoms infrastructure that is fit for the future.”

Iran to execute alleged spy who gave nuclear secrets to CIA
Amir Vahdat/AP/February 04/2020
TEHRAN, Iran — Iran said Tuesday that its top court confirmed a death sentence for an Iranian man convicted of spying for the CIA, with state media alleging that he had shared details of the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program with the American spy agency. Judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili identified the purported spy as Amir Rahimpour and said he would be executed soon. Esmaili did not elaborate on what Rahimpour was accused of doing, nor on his age or background. A report by the state-run IRNA news agency alleged that Rahimpour received money from the CIA to share details of Iran’s nuclear program. “While being in touch with the spy agency, he earned a lot of money as wages as he tried to deliver some information from Iran’s nuclear program to the American agency,” the IRNA report said. Rahimpour “had been identified and prosecuted and sentenced to death and recently, the country’s National Supreme Court confirmed the sentence and, God willing, he will be punished soon.” The CIA declined to comment. Esmaili said two other alleged spies for the CIA each received 15-year prison sentences — 10 years for spying and five years for acting against national security.
Esmaili did not name those arrested, only saying they worked in the “charitable field,” without elaborating. Iran in the past has sentenced alleged American and Israeli spies to death. The last such spy executed was Shahram Amiri, who defected to the U.S. at the height of Western efforts to thwart Iran’s nuclear program. When he returned in 2010, he was welcomed with flowers by government leaders and even went on the Iranian talk-show circuit. Then he mysteriously disappeared. He was hanged in August 2016, the same week that Tehran executed a group of militants and a year after Iran agreed to a landmark accord to limit uranium enrichment in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions. Tensions remain high between Iran and the U.S. since President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew America from Tehran’s nuclear deal. A U.S. drone strike in January killed Iranian Revolutionary Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad, prompting Tehran to retaliate with a ballistic missile strike on Iraqi bases housing American troops. Before the deal, a computer virus believed to be designed by the U.S. and Israel destroyed Iranian centrifuges. Meanwhile, Iranian nuclear scientists were targeted in a series of assassinations.Associated Press writer Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report. *Copyright 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Canada/Peter MacKay's Statement on the Canadian Embassy in Israel
February 04/2020
Canada's Jewish community knows that the Conservative Party stands shoulder to shoulder with them. When I was Defence Minister, I made it clear, "a threat to Israel is a threat to Canada." I will always stand with one of Canada's closest allies.
As I have stated, it will be important to consult with our diplomatic officials at our embassy in Israel to make the necessary preparations for the move. It has always been my personal view that Jerusalem is the undisputed Capital of the State of Israel and that is where Canada's embassy should be and under my leadership, will be located.

Europe Could Consider U.S.-Style Coronavirus Travel Ban
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/February 04/2020
European governments could consider a U.S.-style ban on foreign visitors who have recently been to China, in a bid to impede the spread of the deadly coronavirus outbreak, the health ministers of France and Germany said Tuesday. "Indeed, there is the question of possible travel restrictions or at least increased examination (of travelers) at the border," Germany's Jens Spahn said at a meeting in Paris with his French counterpart Agnes Buzyn. He was responding to a question about whether Europe would consider a ban similar to that imposed by the United States, which China has accused of spreading "panic"."It makes no sense that a single country takes measures," on a continent with border-free travel between most nations, said Spahn.. The new coronavirus has killed more than 400 people and infected a further 20,000 in China since emerging in December and has now spread to more than 20 other countries. Buzyn agreed that travel restriction "is one of the questions for European ministers. We must have a coherent vision in the (passport-free) Schengen area." "There is no sense in one country taking this type of decision while citizens move around freely." Buzyn said they would ask the Croatian presidency of the EU Council to call a meeting of health ministers within days to discuss further measures needed in the face of the coronavirus crisis. "We would like... closer cooperation so that we have exactly the same measures in all countries in order to be consistent in Europe since there is this free movement of people, and we wish to maintain this free movement."

Erdogan Says Won't Allow Syria to Gain Ground in Idlib
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/February 04/2020
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey will not allow Syrian forces to gain ground in the last opposition stronghold of Idlib, in comments published Tuesday, a day after eight Turks died in regime fire.
"Syria is right now trying to buy time by driving those innocent and grieving people in Idlib toward our borders. We will not allow Syria the opportunity to gain ground there," Erdogan said in quotes published by the Hurriyet newspaper and broadcaster NTV.

UN: Idlib Offensive Leaves over 500,000 Displaced in 2 Months
Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 4 February, 2020
A Russian-backed Syrian regime offensive against the country's last opposition enclave has displaced more than half a million people in two months, the United Nations said Tuesday. "Since 1 December, some 520,000 people have been displaced from their homes, the vast majority -- 80 percent -- of them women and children," David Swanson, spokesman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said, according to AFP. The wave of displacement, which coincides with a biting winter, is one of the largest since the start of the Syrian war nearly nine years ago. "This latest displacement compounds an already dire humanitarian situation on the ground, when over 400,000 people were displaced from the end of April through the end of August, many of them multiple times," Swanson said. He said the UN was alarmed by the plight of more than three million people -- half of them displaced from their homes -- who live in Idlib province and surrounding areas. Regime troops and militia backed by Russian and other allied forces have in recent weeks ramped up the pressure on the last pocket still controlled by the opposition and extremists. They have retaken dozens of villages and some major towns -- including the erstwhile opposition bastion of Maaret al-Numan -- and are pushing northwards, sending displaced populations ever closer to the Turkish border.

Erdogan Says Turkey Will not Allow Syrian Regime to Advance in Idlib
Ankara- Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 4 February, 2020
Turkey will not allow the Syrian government to gain territory in the northwestern region of Idlib, President Tayyip Erdogan was quoted as saying on Tuesday, a day after eight Turkish personnel were killed in an attack Ankara blamed on Syrian troops. Earlier, Turkey urged Russia to rein in Syrian government forces in Idlib, after the attack rattled a fragile cooperation between the two countries, which back opposing sides in the war. Speaking on a flight back from Ukraine, Erdogan said there was no need to be in “serious contradiction” with Russia over developments in Syria for now, adding that Ankara and Moscow will sit down to talk about the issue “without anger”. He also said he may call Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday. An attack by Russian-backed Syrian government forces that killed eight Turkish military personnel on Monday posed the biggest challenge to Russian-Turkish ties since their 2018 deal to stem fighting in Syria's northwest Idlib region. Earlier on Monday, Erdogan told Russian forces there to "stand aside" while Turkey struck dozens of targets in retaliation. Moscow and Ankara then argued about whether Turkey had told Russia it was sending waves of reinforcements into Idlib. "There is no need for us to be engaged in a conflict or a serious contradiction with Russia at this stage," he was quoted as telling reporters on a flight from Ukraine. "We will of course sit down and discuss everything. Not with anger, though. Because those who sit down with anger, get up with losses," Erdogan added.
The Idlib violence has accelerated in recent months despite several ceasefire efforts, including as recently as January. United Nations regional spokesman David Swanson said 520,000 people had been displaced since the beginning of December and the numbers could swell further.

UN Chief Urges End to Fighting between Turkey and Syrian Regime in Idlib
Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 4 February, 2020
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called Tuesday for an end to fighting between Turkey and Syria in Syria's opposition-held province of Idlib on Tuesday. Guterres told reporters it was an "extremely worrying" escalation in the conflict that the Turkish army and the Syrian regime were now "bombing each other" in the restive northwest region. "My strong appeal is for a cessation of hostilities," he said. "We don't believe there is a military solution for the conflict in Syria. We have said time and time again that the solution is political," Guterres added.On Monday, the Turkish and Syrian armies engaged in their deadliest clashes since Ankara sent troops to Syria in 2016. Regime shelling of Turkish positions in Idlib killed at least five Turkish soldiers and three civilians, Ankara said. Retaliatory fire from Turkey killed at least 13 Syrian regime troops, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The incident further tested the uneasy coordination between Russia and Turkey -- the two main foreign brokers in the Syrian conflict. Russian-backed regime forces and militia have retaken dozens of villages in the last opposition enclave in recent weeks, pushing displaced populations ever closer to the Turkish border. On Tuesday, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Ankara would not allow Syrian forces to gain further ground.

US General in Iraq to Mend Ties
Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 4 February, 2020
The top US commander for the Middle East visited Iraq Tuesday, as the Trump administration works to salvage relations with Iraqi leaders and shut down the government's push for an American troop withdrawal. Marine Gen. Frank McKenzie became the most senior US military official to visit since an American drone strike in Baghdad killed a top Iranian general, enraging the Iraqis. McKenzie met with Iraq leaders in Baghdad and then went to see American troops at al Asad Air base, which was bombed by Iran last month in retaliation for the drone attack. His visit comes amid heightened anti-American sentiment that has fueled violent protests, rocket attacks on the embassy and a vote by the Iraqi parliament pushing for withdrawal of US troops from the country. And it raises questions about whether the appearance of a high-profile US military commander could spur compromise, or simply inflame tensions and scuttle ongoing negotiations to put Patriot missile batteries in Iraq to better protect coalition forces. Two reporters traveling with McKenzie for the past two weeks around the Middle East did not go with him into Iraq because the stop was added late and they did not have required visas, reported The Associated Press. Top US leaders have so far flatly dismissed Iraqi demands for US troops to leave, adopting what appears to be a wait-and-see attitude with the hope that the problems will pass. Iraqis, however, were furious over the drone strike at Baghdad's international airport on Jan. 3 that targeted and killed Qassem Soleimani, but also struck down deputy chief of the Popular Mobilization Forces, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, who was with him. In response to what Iraqi leaders called a breach of sovereignty, parliament passed a non-binding resolution urging US troop withdrawal. But after Iran struck back on Jan. 8, launching ballistic missiles at two Iraqi bases where American troops were stationed, the US doubled down and asked to bring the Patriot systems into the country. There were no Patriots or other air defenses in Iraq capable of shooting down ballistic missiles at the time of the Iranian strike. No forces were killed, but at least 64 have been diagnosed with traumatic brain injury. Thus far, the Iraqis have not approved the request. “That is one of the matters we have to work on and work through” with the Baghdad government, Defense Secretary Mark Esper told a recent Pentagon news conference. He and Army Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, have made clear that they want Patriots in Iraq to better protect service members there. The United States has more than 6,000 troops in Iraq to train and advise Iraqi security forces in their fight against extremist groups like the ISIS group and to provide protection for those troops.

Sadr’s Mixed Messages Expose Generational Rift Among Followers
Baghdad- Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 4 February, 2020
Iraq’s Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr enjoys wide popularity among the Shiite poor, especially in the densely populated Sadr City near Baghdad. He was one of the most prominent figures who played an essential role in rebuilding the political system after the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003.
Sadr’s political life kickstarted with fierce battles with American forces at the time. Despite rarely making an appearance, Sadr, 46, almost communicates daily with his followers via Twitter. In October 2019, the cleric successfully mobilized thousands of Sadrists to support ongoing anti-government protests at the time. But late January 2020, Sadr ordered his followers to exit the protests only to change his mind a week later and say they should go back to supporting the demonstrations. Sadr had backed the rallies early on, even though they called for the downfall of a cabinet and PM he had sponsored, and for early elections that may cost him seats in parliament, where he controls the largest bloc. Mind-boggling politicking is par for the course when it comes to Sadr, said Renad Mansour of the London-based Chatham House think-tank. "He's a guy who has multiple sides: an anthropologist who goes with the street, making him inconsistent over the years," said Mansour. But this inconsistency has effected the youth following Sadr as they have become no longer sure of what to do. Many had defied Sadr’s orders when he asked them to leave the anti-government demonstrations.
Hamza, 26, expressed deep regret towards seeing some of his fellow Sadrists packing their tents and leaving the protest sites. This has threatened a rift within the ranks of Sadrists. Ali, 29, a local from Sadr City, had spent the past four months in a tent in Tahrir Square, but he confirmed that he could not blindly follow Sadr's tweets. A source in the Sadrist movement says that “the risk of a split is always present.” “In the end, this is a religious movement, not a democratic movement,” the source said.

Palestinian President: We Want Our Full Rights
Ramallah – Kifah Zboun/ Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 4 February, 2020
Palestine is going to stop security coordination with Israel and insists on rejecting the so-called “deal of the century” peace plan until the United States and Israel retract it, announced President Mahmoud Abbas. Speaking at a Palestinian cabinet meeting in Ramallah on Monday, Abbas said that “either we take our full rights according to the international legitimacy resolutions, or Israel must assume its full responsibilities (in the occupied territories) as an occupying power.” He rejected Washington’s role as mediator in the peace process, saying: “Since Oslo in 1993 and until now, the US has done nothing positive.”Abbas reiterated the Palestinian Authority’s rejection of the new peace proposal, explaining that both Israel and the US dismissed international legitimacy and all the agreements, including the Oslo Accords. “We will continue our steps on all levels to confront the 'deal of the century’. We will present our vision to the Security Council and we will renew our rejection of this deal because it detracts from Palestinian rights and denies all agreements and resolutions of international legitimacy.”He went on to say that the deal only gives Palestine 8 percent of the West Bank and Gaza, and then divides them into six sections, adding there is “no real opportunity in it.”Abbas praised the position of the Arabs from the proposal, saying: “They stood with us as one. They took a unanimous decision on the draft resolution that we submitted. It was not amended and was adopted as is.”“We will not retreat, unless they do,” asserted Abbas. It is clear from Abbas's threats that he wants to pressure Israel to discourage it from annexing the Jordan Valley and settlements, a move that will practically end the dream of a Palestinian state according to the 1967 borders. Meanwhile, member of Fatah’s central committee, Jibril al-Rajoub, warned Israel that implementing US President Donald Trump’s peace plan would lead to an escalation in the West Bank. The PA must act urgently before the Israeli elections on March 2, to prevent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from implementing the peace plan, which means that the political map in Israel must be changed, he urged. “Let's invest in the next four weeks to prevent Netanyahu from accomplishing anything,” he demanded.

Algeria Pardons Thousands of Prisoners
Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 4 February, 2020
Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune on Tuesday pardoned more than 3,000 prisoners serving sentences less than six months as he seeks to win support after months of political turmoil. Tebboune, elected in December in a vote opposed by a huge protest movement seeking the replacement of the entire ruling elite, has said his top priority is to restore confidence. Thousands of people are still protesting every Friday, but the numbers appear to have waned since Tebboune’s election and his offer of talks with the opposition. Last month he also ordered the release of dozens of people who had been detained for taking part in the protests. He has also promised a process to offer constitutional amendments to the public through a referendum in order to give parliament a bigger role and increase political freedoms. A court in Algiers on Monday acquitted Samir Benlarbi, an activist and a leading member of the protest movement who had been detained for over four months for “harming the national unity”. Several other activists are still in detention pending trail in Algiers and other towns, but it was unclear whether the 3,471 people pardoned on Tuesday include those detained for involvement in the recent political unrest.

Egypt Quarantines Citizens Repatriated From China
Cairo- Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 4 February, 2020
Egypt received on Monday its citizens arriving from coronavirus-stricken Wuhan city in China. The repatriated Egyptian nationals were received at al-Alamein International airport, northwestern Cairo, amid strict preventive measures.They will be quarantined for two-weeks, estimated to be virus’ incubation period, at El-Negelah Central Hospital in Marsa Matrouh. Health Minister Dr. Hala Zayed said in a press statement that a preventive measure plan was implemented in accordance with guidelines of the World Health Organization (WHO). It includes self-sterilized ambulances at the airport’s runaways and a quarantine period for all nationals, as well as flight crew members and the accompanying medical team. She pointed out that Cairo International Airport is one of the world’s first three airports to take global preventive measures to confront the virus. “What has been circulated about the transmission of the virus by birds and animals to humans are rumors that have not been confirmed by the WHO so far,” she explained. Zayed affirmed that the WHO has provided Egypt with the equipment to test whether these citizens are carriers of the virus. “Egypt is able to protect its citizens and provide them with all medical care,” Zayed noted, adding that it is also capable of taking all necessary measures to prevent the entry of any epidemic or infectious diseases to Egypt. Spokesman for the country’s health ministry Khalid Mujahid said the minister oversaw all preventive measures since the arrival of the Egyptian nationals to their homeland at the airport runway until their transfer to the quarantines.

The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on February 04-05/2020
Israeli Arabs Say No to Palestine
Daniel Pipes/Jerusalem Post/February 04/2020
The Trump administration's massively detailed "Peace to Prosperity" vision contains many specifics, some of which are currently reverberating in Israel and among the Palestinians.
The shaded part at top makes up the (squished) Galilee Triangle.
One of the most surprising of these deals with an area known as "the Galilee Triangle" (or just "the Triangle"), a region of Israel bordering on the West Bank and predominantly inhabited by some 300,000 Arabs. The Trump plan "contemplates the possibility, subject to agreement of the parties, that the borders of Israel will be redrawn such that the Triangle Communities become part of the State of Palestine."
In other words, no one will be evicted but Israel's border will be moved so as to exclude the Triangle, transferring it to become part of today's Palestinian Authority and (maybe) tomorrow's State of Palestine.
Moving the border is hardly a new suggestion, for several Israeli prime ministers have raised it, including Ariel Sharon in February 2004, Ehud Olmert in October 2007, and Benjamin Netanyahu in January 2014. In addition, Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman raised it in September 2016.
While attractive as an elegant and simple win-win solution to a mutual irritant – Israelis want fewer Palestinians in their country, Palestinians want to live in Palestine – it is in fact fraught with complications. Two problems stand out:
First, an overwhelming majority of Triangle residents prefer to stay in Israel, as shown by massive anecdotal evidence, politicians' statements, and survey research over fifteen years. Some of them emphasize that Israel is their home, others focus on Israel's superior living conditions over that of the poorer, authoritarian PA.
For example, the Islamist mayor of Umm al-Fahm, the largest predominantly Muslim town in Israel, responded negatively to Sharon's proposal: "the democracy and justice in Israel is better than the democracy and justice in Arab and Islamic countries." Ahmed Tibi, a viciously anti-Zionist member of Israel's parliament called PA control "a dangerous, antidemocratic suggestion."
In February 2004, an Arab research center found that Arab respondents preferred by a 10-to-1 ratio to remain Israeli citizens. Two polls in December 2007 agreed on a 4.5-to-1 ratio. A June 2008 poll found that Israeli Arabs preferred Israel to "any other country in the world" by a 3.5-to-1 ratio. A June 2012 poll found a similar ratio to this same question. A January 2015 poll found pride in being Israeli by a 2-to-1 ratio.
No poll has been taken since the Trump plan's release but Ayman Odeh, head of the Joint List party defiantly announced that "No one will deprive us of citizenship in the homeland where we were born." Mayors of three towns mentioned by name in the plan slammed the idea of being included in a future Palestine and demonstrations erupted. Israeli Arab media reactions was, "without exception" opposed to the idea. Israeli Arab views are as unequivocal as they are paradoxical.
Joint List MPs led a protest against the Trump's plan on February 1, 2020, in Baqa al-Gharbiya. Note the eight Palestinian flags and the absence of Israeli flags – even as the participants demand to stay a part of Israel.
Second, if the prospect of a border move becomes real, Israeli Arabs can and will exercise their right as citizens of Israel to remove themselves from the Triangle and live in a region not slated to be turned over to Mahmoud Abbas & Co. This has already happened in Jerusalem where, to avoid finding themselves in Palestine, Arab residents have moved in sizeable numbers to such predominantly Jewish areas as French Hill and Pisgat Ze'ev (areas which the PA considers illegal Israeli settlements, by the way). The distinguished journalist Khaled Abu Toameh, who lives in a "Jewish settlement," humorously calls himself an "Arab settler."
The same movement is happening out of the Triangle: Jalal Bana reports: "almost entirely under the radar we have seen an interesting phenomenon where many Triangle residents have bought property in Jewish cities. ... Some have even moved in. ... This trend could really take off now: young couples ... will prefer to purchase apartments in places like Harish and Netanya and live there."
So, while transferring the Galilee Triangle from Israeli to Palestinian control looks like an elegant and simple win-win solution, it is sadly infeasible. The Israeli government has apparently rejected it
Of course, this topic drips with irony. The same Israeli Arabs who bluster contempt for the Jewish state and praise the murderers of Jewish children (note the extremists who serve as their parliamentary representatives) also desperately hope to stay in it rather than become part of Palestine. Perhaps Trump's suggestion will make them a touch more realistic, sober and loyal to their country.
*Mr. Pipes (DanielPipes.org, @DanielPipes) is president of the Middle East Forum. © 2020 by Daniel Pipes. All rights reserved.

Beware of Putin's Push for Primacy in Africa
Lawrence A. Franklin/Gatestone Institute/February 04/2020
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Moscow largely withdrew from the African continent, until Putin rekindled the flame about two years ago, in an attempt to restore Russia's "glory days" and fill a vacuum wherever one is created by the West.
Between Russia's expansionism in the region, and China's as well, the United States would do well to remain as vigilant as ever.
While the United States and France have been helping the fragile governments of Africa's Sahel region stave off Islamist terrorist attacks and takeovers, Russia has been busy trying to push NATO out of the area and augment its own influence there. Pictured: Russian President Vladimir Putin and African heads of state at the Russia-Africa Summit in Sochi, Russia, on October 24, 2019. (Image source: kremlin.ru)
While the United States and France have been helping the fragile governments of Africa's Sahel region stave off Islamist terrorist attacks and takeovers, Russia has been busy trying to push NATO out of the area and augment its own influence there.
Moscow's strategy rests on three pillars. The first is the cultivation of relationships with African leaders, particularly those attempting to remain in power in spite of constitutional limitations — such as, for instance, Sudan's former dictator, Omar al-Bashir, who was recently ousted by oppositionists. The Kremlin dispatched several hundred paramilitary advisers in late 2018 to train the Sudanese military how to suppress protests.
Ultimately, Moscow's mission to boost al-Bashir failed; he was overthrown in April 2019, a few months later.
The second pillar is the insertion of Russian agents into the inner circle of rising African leaders, such as the young, recently elected president of Madagascar, Andry Rajoelina. This pillar is also likely at work in the Kremlin's penetration of Central African Republic (CAR) President Faustin Touadera's staff by the Russian security adviser, Valery Zakharov.
The third pillar involves arms sales: Moscow is the largest supplier of weapons to African countries. Russia, for instance, has been shipping arms to the weak administration of the CAR, which is trying to maintain a shaky truce between two ethnic groups that are responsible for considerable civil strife in recent years. The Kremlin has also inked arms deals with Nigeria and Sudan -- apparently hoping to develop long-term military relationships on the African continent as it has done with Algeria and Egypt.
These three pillars are reinforced by intelligence-gathering and the dissemination of anti-Western propaganda -- skills Russian President Vladimir Putin acquired and honed during his former career as a KGB officer. One of Moscow's current methods of fomenting anti-Western sentiment, for example, is to establish media sites, such as the Morocco-based web site "Africa Daily Voice" or the French-language news service, "Afrique Panorama," in Madagascar. The Kremlin has also sanctioned the broadcast of anti-French stories in the Comoros denouncing the alleged continued colonial influence in the country. Russian propagandists have used media projects like these to disparage Western presence in the Third World for decades and continue to test ways to spread conspiracy theories about the West's neo-colonial imperialism in Africa.
Putin's point man for the above tactics for influence in Africa is Yevgeny Prigozhin, a Russian oligarch who is a principal donor supporting the activities of Russia's paramilitary organization, "The Wagner Group," whose operatives were deployed as combatants in Crimea and Syria. Prigozhin -- who may be negotiating an arms deal with CAR authorities -- concluded a deal with the Libyan rebel General Khalifa Haftar, who leads a militia in Tobruk and aims to overthrow the internationally recognized government in Tripoli, Libya. Haftar claims that Moscow has sent hundreds of fighters to back his militia. While he may have been spreading disinformation about the presence of 300 Russian mercenaries, the Government of National Accord (GNA) in Tripoli nevertheless asserts that it is collecting evidence confirming the presence of these mercenaries. Putin denies having sent any Russians to Libya, but this does not mean that Russian mercenaries have not been contracted by the Wagner Group to help Haftar, or that Russia is being totally forthcoming.
The Russia-Africa Conference, Putin's high-profile diplomatic extravaganza on October 23-24 in the Black Sea resort of Sochi -- attended by more than 40 African heads of state -- seems a clear public expression of Putin's desire to exert influence on the African continent. During the event, he went as far as to make a point of cancelling all outstanding African debts to Russia, which amount to approximately $20 billion. Putin punctuated the occasion with a military show of force, by dispatching two nuclear-capable long-range bombers, and timing their landing in South Africa just as the conference convened.
Putin's Africa initiative can be viewed in the context of his Soviet past. The Russian president is likely aware of the USSR's potent presence in Africa during the Cold War. During the 1970s, Moscow concluded "treaties of friendship and cooperation" with Third World countries, among them African states, including Ethiopia, Angola and Mozambique. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Moscow largely withdrew from the African continent, until Putin rekindled the flame about two years ago, in an attempt to restore Russia's "glory days" and fill a vacuum wherever one is created by the West.
There is nevertheless cause for cautious optimism. Today's Russia is financially less able than it was in the past to invest in non-military infrastructure projects, and Moscow's prospects for increased trade with Africa, beyond weapons sales, are dim in any case, as Russian-manufactured products cannot compete with those made in the US, Europe and China for quality. Even regarding weapons sales to Africa, Russia is outdone by China: Moscow is selling arms to 14 African states, while Beijing is selling arms to 23. In other words, Russia will not find it as easy to project super-power status, as it did during the Cold War.
Between Russia's expansionism in the region, and China's as well, the United States would do well to remain as vigilant as ever.
Dr. Lawrence A. Franklin was the Iran Desk Officer for Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. He also served on active duty with the U.S. Army and as a Colonel in the Air Force Reserve.
© 2020 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.

In Syria, We’re Getting Counter-terrorism All Wrong
Charles Lister/Asharq Al Awsat/February, 04/2020
Syria has been at the center of the world’s counter-terrorism efforts in recent years. The shocking expansion of ISIS in mid-2014 unified the international community’s attention on Syria in a way that the earlier uprising against the Assad regime had not. In a matter of weeks, the largest multinational coalition in history had been mobilized to launch a counter-attack on ISIS in Iraq and Syria and five years later, the militant's areas had been destroyed. While proclamations of ISIS’s defeat were certainly premature, international policy and attention on countering terrorism in Syria has since declined – as if to suggest that the job is done. In fact, as 2020 sets in, the world seems to be getting counter-terrorism all wrong in Syria, in three interlinked ways.
On the one hand, the threat from ISIS is a long way from over. ISIS retains thousands of militants in Syria and is sustaining a steady pace of insurgent and terrorist attacks east of the Euphrates. More worryingly, ISIS appears to be growing in confidence and ability west of the Euphrates, in Syria’s central desert, where the Assad regime and its militia partners appear largely incapable of containing, let alone defeating ISIS’s activities. Syrian soldiers and militiamen are dying almost daily in ISIS attacks centered along the M20 highway that runs between Palmyra and Deir Ezzor. In recent weeks, ISIS has briefly taken control of a village and several key sections of the M20.
Despite the evidence being clear that ISIS remains alive and well, albeit without a territorial entity under its control, the world appears increasingly uninterested in sustaining a meaningful anti-ISIS campaign in Syria. Defeating the areas under ISIS control was the easy task, but what should follow now is the more difficult and more important challenge. Now is the worst time to lose interest, as doing so merely gifts ISIS with an enhanced opportunity to survive and resurge. Despite the hopes of some, the Assad regime, Russia and Iran do not see ISIS as a priority issue. It is naïve and dangerous to suggest that we should leave ISIS for the pro-Assad coalition to deal with. That isolationist strategy contributed towards the explosive growth of ISIS we were forced to witness in 2014. And it will do so again.
Secondly, and most urgently, the international community’s apathy and inaction towards the situation in Idlib is fueling conditions in which extremists not only thrive but look set to inherit the Syrian revolutionary mantle. Protecting human life and the reinforcing fundamental international norms, as well as humanitarian aid are all critically important components of a long-term strategy against violent extremism. On the other hand, pursuing the opposite – known plainly as inaction – is an effective method of emboldening extremists.
Former al-Qaeda affiliate Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) has positioned itself in an invaluable middle-ground, leading what remains of Syria’s anti-regime effort while simultaneously attempting to represent a sustainable extremist future. The decision by the United States and its allies in the Middle East and Europe to sever all support to Free Syrian Army partners in late-2017 gifted the likes of HTS with an opportunity to achieve dominance. But the world’s silence today – as hundreds of civilians are slaughtered; hospitals destroyed in precision strikes; elderly men shot dead and burned on the street; and hundreds of thousands of people are forced to flee, some on foot – risks gifting HTS with a narrative win on the revolutionary street.
The core of the policy problem here is not just inaction – it is the refusal to acknowledge that violent extremism is principally a socio-political challenge, not solely an ideological one. Thousands of ordinary men, young and old, have joined HTS in the last six months – not because of ideological affinity, but because HTS offered their best chance of effectively resisting the regime’s assault on Idlib. Turkey’s failure – through inability or refusal – to staunch the pro-Assad offensive is slowly undermining the credibility of less extreme opposition factions, granting HTS even more of an advantage. When that happens, the even more extreme al-Qaeda loyalists will gain a durable safehaven from which their more globalist ambitions might be realized. Unless the violence is stopped, or at minimum, more moderate avenues for armed resistance are presented, extremists will inevitably thrive, with or without territory. Our silence virtually guarantees this. Thirdly, the international community’s increasing disengagement from meaningful aspects of the Syria file has given the Assad regime a clear path to continue brutally suppressing its population. Not only will this fan the flames of an increasingly extremist future opposition, it has given Iran and Hezbollah a chance to quietly consolidate their gains made in previous years. Amid the US-led “maximum pressure” campaign on Iran and associated sanctions on Hezbollah, as well as Lebanon’s financial and political crisis, it has been assumed by many that Iran and Hezbollah have stepped back from their Syrian investments.
Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, Iranian Quds Force operatives, Hezbollah militants and an array of Iranian militias have remained on the ground, engaged militarily in central and eastern Syria, and in southern Aleppo. In Syria’s south, Hezbollah has taken the lead in a major recruitment campaign, mobilizing several thousand Syrians into new “resistance” units stationed within four Syrian Army bases in Deraa. In eastern Syria, Iran is building a bespoke military base near al-Bukamal, where thousands of militiamen will be housed and hardened tunnels will store Iranian missiles imported via Iraq. Iran is also engaged in a substantial cultural proselytization campaign, spreading its political and theological values, language and inducing locals to convert to Shiism. Taken together, this is an expensive and expansive effort aimed at irreversibly consolidating Iranian strategic-level influence in Syria.
Terrorism comes in many different shapes and sizes, but if there is one consistent rule that applies to violent extremism, it is that it thrives in intractably unstable environments. There is no scenario imaginable in which Syria stabilizes in the coming years. The root causes of violence are too deep rooted and remain entirely unaddressed – in fact, many have significantly worsened since 2011. Though the international community wants to envision a world in which extremism and terrorism become minor challenges that require localized containment, that is not a scenario on the table for Syria. If the likes of ISIS, HTS, al-Qaeda, Iran and its proxies are left to their own devices, we will live to regret it.
*Charles Lister is a senior fellow and Director of the Countering Terrorism and Extremism Program at the Middle East Institute

Corruption, Not Trump, Will Drive Iranian Protest Vote
Bobby Ghosh/Bloomberg/February, 04/2020
A familiar charade is playing out in Tehran. Ahead of the elections to the Iranian parliament next month, those political factions likely to perform poorly are preemptively blaming the US.
Expectation-management is the recourse of last resort for failing politicians everywhere, and blaming the US is the hoariest political tradition in the Islamic Republic. The most practiced exponents of both skills are the so-called “moderates,” whose standard-bearer is President Hassan Rouhani.
A brief detour on definitions: Rouhani is not really a moderate in any rational understanding of the term. He has always been part of the security-clerical complex that has run Iran since the 1989 death of the Islamic Republic’s founder, Ayatollah Khomeini. He and his coterie are best characterized as the least hardline of the hardliners.
The Iranian political system allows little room for genuine moderates, less still for reformers. The last time that a government came anywhere close to those definitions — the 1997-2005 presidency of Mohammad Khatami — it was unable to make any meaningful reforms stick.
Back to the current election cycle. Rouhani and his fellow least-hardliners are expected to lose ground, and are blaming the Trump administration. The perfidious Americans, Rouhani says, are seeking to “create gaps between the establishment and people,” and Iranians should use the ballot box to demonstrate their unity. But there are many reasons for Rouhani’s faction to fare poorly. Some are purely cyclical: Iranian voters have tended to throw the bums out every eight years. Khatami and his wannabe-reformers were followed by the reactionaries of Mahmoud Ahmedinejad in 2005, who were in turn replaced by Rouhani and his faction in 2013.
Ensuring that the cycle keeps turning smoothly is the man with the real power in Tehran, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, the hardest of hardliners. When there is any sign of a wobble, he intervenes in one of two ways. Before an election, he weakens the prospects of any inconvenient faction by making sure the Guardian Council, which he controls, disqualifies a disproportionate proportion of its candidates. The Council has been true to form in this cycle, but it has had an assist from Rouhani’s administration, which has also disqualified candidates.
If putting his finger on the scale before an election proves insufficient, Khamenei has been willing to put the fix in, as he did in 2009 when Ahmedinejad seemed at risk of missing out on a second term. When Iranians took to the street to protest against this tampering, he ordered a bloody crackdown. The candidates who stood against Ahmedinejad were put under house arrest, and it has suited Rouhani to leave them there.
Khamenei will likely not need a post-hoc fix this time. Rouhani and his faction excite little public enthusiasm, and many Iranians will likely sit this one out — a prospect that alarms both men, since it will inevitably be interpreted as a repudiation of the political system they have nurtured for decades.
Rouhani’s rivals wouldn’t dream of copying an American election slogan, but their message has echoes of Bill Clinton’s 1992 campaign catchphrase, “It’s the economy, stupid.” They know that Iranians are hurting from a severe economic contraction, and are hammering the president for failing to deliver the prosperity he promised in previous election campaigns.
The president’s faction has tried to blame the economic malaise on Trump’s abrogation of the nuclear deal and the subsequent “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran. Rouhani has himself claimed that American sanctions have cost the Iranian economy $200 billion in investment and foreign-exchange income.
But while Iranians are obviously no fans of Trump, and they know the sanctions hurt, they are not buying Rouhani’s excuses. In repeated spasms of anti-government protests, they have tended to focus on the venality of the regime in Tehran, and not the hostility of the government in Washington. Rather than address such grievances, the regime has responded with brute force, killing hundreds.
If the protests are any guide, the public mantra for the election will be, “It’s the corruption, stupid.” Despite the Rouhani government’s cosmetic crackdowns, the country has continued to slide in Transparency International’s Corruption Index, from 130th of 180 countries in 2017, to 138th in 2018 and 146th in 2019. The venality is widespread: Rouhani’s brother was arrested for graft in 2017, only to be released a day later, prompting accusations of favoritism. (He was formally sentenced last fall.) Khamenei oversees a business network worth tens of billions of dollars, and his favorites among the hardliners, such as the powerful Larijani brothers, are obvious beneficiaries of nepotism, and possibly graft. If voters ignore Rouhani’s pleas for a big turnout on February 21, he will have only himself to blame. But there’s a good chance he will try to pin that, too, on the US.

The Real Reason Arabs in Israel Do Not Want to Live in 'Palestine'
Khaled Abu Toameh/Gatestone Institute/February 04/2020
Translations of this item:
German
Why are the 250,000 Arab Israelis living in the Triangle area strongly opposed to the idea of becoming part of a Palestinian state?
Many Arab citizens of Israel see how Palestinians living under the Palestinian Authority (PA) in the West Bank and Hamas in the Gaza Strip are subject to human rights violations on a daily basis.
What the Arab citizens of Israel need now is to elect new leaders who will promote coexistence between Arabs and Jews in Israel, and not engage in anti-Israel rhetoric and actions.
Some of the leaders of the Arab citizens of Israel, particularly a number of Knesset members, have been acting against the interests of their constituents. It is almost as if these purported leaders represent the PA and Hamas instead of the Arab Israelis who voted for them with the hope that they would work to solve problems confronting their communities, such as unemployment.
The Arab citizens of Israel need real leaders who properly represent them in the Knesset and build -- not destroy -- bridges with Jews. Let the protests on the streets of Arab Israeli communities against becoming part of a Palestinian state serve as a fair warning to Israeli Arab leaders: stand by your people, or get out of the way.
Arab citizens of Israel, who number nearly two million, are up in arms about US President Donald Trump's plan for Middle East peace, which proposes including some of their communities in a future Palestinian state. Pictured: Residents of the Arab-Israeli town of Baqa al-Gharbiya protest the Trump peace plan, on February 1, 2020.
Arab citizens of Israel, who number nearly two million, are up in arms about US President Donald Trump's plan for Middle East peace, which proposes including some of their communities in a future Palestinian state. Since the unveiling of the plan, thousands of Arabs have been demonstrating to express their rejection of the idea of placing them under the sovereignty of a Palestinian state.Trump's "Peace to Prosperity" plan proposes land swaps that could include both populated and unpopulated areas. It suggests that the so-called Triangle area in Israel, consisting of several Arab communities "which largely self-identify as Palestinian, become part of the State of Palestine." The plan points out that the Arab communities "were originally designated to fall under Jordanian control during the negotiations of the Armistice Line of 1949, but ultimately were retained by Israel for military reasons that have since been mitigated."
Why are the 250,000 Arab Israelis living in the Triangle area strongly opposed to the idea of becoming part of a Palestinian state?
The main reason Arabs in Israel are afraid of becoming Palestinian citizens is because they know that that that the Palestinian state will be anything but democratic. Many Arab citizens of Israel see how Palestinians living under the Palestinian Authority (PA) in the West Bank and Hamas in the Gaza Strip are subject to human rights violations on a daily basis.
In Israel, Arab citizens participate in the general elections and have their own representatives in the Knesset. In the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, Palestinians have been deprived of free and fair elections since January 2006.
The continued power struggle between the PA and Hamas has denied Palestinians the right to vote for new members of their parliament, the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC). In addition, Palestinians have been denied the right to vote for a new president since January 2005, when Mahmoud Abbas was elected for a four-year term of office. Last month, Abbas entered the 16th year of the same term.
In light of the ongoing dispute between the PA and Hamas, the prospects of holding new presidential or parliamentary elections remain zero.
While Palestinians have not had a functioning parliament since 2007, when Hamas violently seized control of the Gaza Strip after overthrowing Abbas's PA regime, Israel's Arab citizens continue to run in elections for the Knesset. The current Knesset has 14 Arab parliamentarians.
Apart from the issue of elections, though, Arab citizens of Israel are mainly worried about having to live in a Palestinian state that suppresses public freedoms, including freedom of speech and the media.
Hardly a day passes without the Arab citizens of Israel hearing about the harsh conditions the Palestinians face under the PA in the West Bank and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Palestinian journalists, human rights activists, political activists and university students are targeted by the PA and Hamas on a regular basis.
That is what Israel's Arab citizens are afraid of.
A recent report by the West Bank-based Committee of the Families of Political Prisoners revealed that the PA security forces have arrested dozens of university students in the past few months because of their political activities. The report documented at least 619 violations against university students by the PA security forces in the past two years.
Arab students who are citizens of Israel, meanwhile, are free to hold protests on campuses there without having to worry about being arrested or summoned for interrogation. Last week, for example, Arab students at Tel Aviv University demonstrated against the Trump plan, chanting "Palestine is Arab, from the [Jordan] river to the [Mediterranean] sea."
Palestinian Arab university students, however, who are not citizens of Israel, and who live in the Palestinian areas of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, can only envy the Arab Israeli students who are free to hold political activities on campus. Another recently published report revealed that several students arrested by the PA security forces have been brutally tortured. Most of the arrests took place at An-Najah University, the largest university in the West Bank city of Nablus, according to the report.
Palestinian students living in the Gaza Strip under Hamas, where virtually everyone is Arab and not a citizen of Israel, have fared no better. Hamas security forces have been regularly raiding university campuses and arresting students and teachers because of their political activities. One of the campuses that has been frequently targeted by Hamas is Al-Azhar University in Gaza City. In November 2019, Hamas security forces also raided Palestine University in the northern Gaza Strip and arrested several students who were preparing to hold a political rally on campus.
While in Israel, Arab citizens are free to criticize the Israeli government and leaders, Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip who speak out against the PA or Hamas often find themselves behind bars.
In the West Bank, for example, a professor who dares to criticize Abbas could find himself in detention for several days. Professor Abdel Sattar Qassem, an outspoken critic of Abbas, was accused in 2016 of "insulting" Abbas and held in detention for several days. Palestinian journalist Majdoleen Hassouneh was also accused of "insulting" Abbas on Facebook.
In the Gaza Strip, Hamas has arrested hundreds of its political opponents in the past few years. Even Palestinian comedians who make sarcastic remarks about Hamas have become regular targets of Hamas's crackdown on freedom of speech. Recently, Hamas security forces arrested comedian Adel Mashoukhi after he posted a video on social media mocking the electricity crisis in the Gaza Strip.
It is no wonder, then, that Israel's Arab citizens are extremely concerned about the prospect of living under a Palestinian state controlled by the PA and Hamas under some potential land transfer. These Arab citizens of Israel know that once they become citizens of a Palestinian state, they will meet the same fate of the Palestinians living under the PA and Hamas. Some of the leaders of the Arab community in Israel are even calling the idea of having to live under a Palestinian state as a "nightmare that cannot be implemented."
The Arab Israelis' protests are seen as a message to the world that they prefer to continue living in Israel and not under another Arab dictatorship. A survey conducted by The Israel Democracy Institute in 2017 showed that 66% of Arab Israelis see Israel's overall situation as "good" or "very good."
Another poll, conducted by Professor Sami Samuha of the University of Haifa, 68.3% of Israel's Arab citizens said they preferred to live in Israel than in other countries. Samuha said that among the Arab citizens, "there is acknowledgment of convenience, freedom and stability in the State of Israel."
"In Israel, there are a lot of benefits and a modern way of life, as well as economic and political stability. You can't compare the lives of Arabs [in Israel] to that of Arabs in Palestine, Lebanon or Egypt. There is also the element that in Israel there is no concern of an Islamist takeover."
What the Arab citizens of Israel need now is to elect new leaders who will promote coexistence between Arabs and Jews in Israel, and not engage in anti-Israel rhetoric and actions.
Some of the leaders of the Arab citizens of Israel, particularly a number of Knesset members, have been acting against the interests of their constituents. It is almost as if these purported leaders represent the PA and Hamas instead of the Arab Israelis who voted for them with the hope that they would work to solve problems confronting their communities, such as unemployment.
The Arab citizens of Israel need real leaders who properly represent them in the Knesset and build -- not destroy -- bridges with Jews. Let the protests on the streets of Arab Israeli communities against becoming part of a Palestinian state serve as a fair warning to Israeli Arab leaders: stand by your people, or get out of the way.
*Khaled Abu Toameh, an award-winning journalist based in Jerusalem, is a Shillman Journalism Fellow at Gatestone Institute.
© 2020 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.

How the law has changed on enforcing a debt
Dimah Talal Alsharif/Arab News/February 04/2020
The Saudi Ministry of Justice has carried out a regulatory restructuring of the methods used to implement court rulings against debtors, under Article 46 of the Enforcement Law. Much media attention has been focused on the suspension of a debtor’s Absher e-government services as a tool of enforcement, which is a particularly sensitive issue.
Article 46 related to the suspension of services states that if a debtor fails to provide or disclose sufficient assets to repay a debt within five days of notification or publication of an enforcement order, the judge has the power to make several immediate orders. They include a travel ban, banning the debtor from issuing a power of attorney over their property, and disclosing the properties of the debtor’s spouse and relatives.
However, with the new changes, debtors will no longer be automatically denied access to all online government services, with the suspension of e-government access limited to services that involve financial transactions. Previously, it also prevented people in debt from using other online government services, such as renewing a driving license, passport, car license or ID card. Nevertheless, other options remain for the enforcement of a debt order — particularly executive detention, the regulations for which have also been amended, depending on the type of detention.
The first type is mandatory detention, which applies if the debt remains unpaid three months after the court judgment, or if it is SR1 million ($266,527) or more. The debtor may be released only with the consent of the applicant or the plaintiff, or by a court ruling that is subject to appeal.
The other type of detention is permissible detention, which applies in the same way as mandatory detention, but after a period of six months. In this case, a debtor may be released by the court if it is convinced of his determination to settle the debt, and is satisfied with his financial situation in general.
Executive detention is for an initial period of three months. After questioning the debtor, the court may extend the detention for successive three-month periods. However, debtors cannot be imprisoned if they are aged 60 or more, if they have young children, or if they have a deceased or imprisoned spouse.
Issues related to the enforcement of debt are of great importance to everyone involved. These changes take into account the circumstances of debtors. The challenge of the next stage will be to ensure they do not at the same time harm the interests of creditors.
*Dimah Talal Alsharif is a Saudi legal counsel and a member of the International Association of Lawyers. Twitter: @dimah_alsharif

Inclusive negotiations must emerge from one-sided Trump plan
Alistair Burt /Arab News/February 04/2020
There is an old British joke, which I assume has a parallel in many a local idiom, where, in desperation, a puzzled and lost traveler asks a local how to reach a particular destination. After a moment’s reflection, the local says: “Well, if I were you, I wouldn’t start from here.”
I found it hard not to have this running through my mind as I watched US President Donald Trump present the “deal of the century” to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and an invited audience in Washington last week. If the latest instalment of a negotiation was to begin, it was hard to reconcile with what looked like a one-sided affair; offering as an answer to the most difficult and long-running conundrum in world politics a solution that appeared to give virtually everything to one party in the equation.
The Trump administration took on the mantle of its predecessors as the “broker” in the Middle East peace process. Low expectations in Whitehall were initially raised as, unlike others who largely waited until a second term, Trump offered his deal as a first-term opportunity. The legacy of the past is a difficult one, littered with missed opportunities on both sides. It is a wretched, grinding dispute, sapping the energy from any who sought to end it, with a stalemate for some on the ground countered by relentless activity from others, with violence and death never too far away, via bomb, rocket or bullet. Trump’s envoys have worked at their task and, despite much pressure to share key elements of it, resisted until last Tuesday. Would they themselves have chosen this timing?
I had a number of meetings with a courteous and genuinely engaged Jason Greenblatt while he was Trump’s special envoy for Middle East peace. As a UK minister, I offered persistently, from 2017 onwards, three pieces of advice: Do not humiliate the Palestinians, particularly those who recognized the state of Israel and were working with it on security issues; do not assume that economics outweighs all other issues; and, if your ultimate proposal favors Israel in a number of aspects, ensure there is enough for the rest of us to work with, so that it is not dead on arrival.
I was traveling in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza the week before the announcement. When word came through that Netanyahu and Benny Gantz were to go to Washington, the reaction from all sides was the same: That this could only mean something of benefit to Israel, to a prime minister in the middle of an uncertain election process. The timing and content of the announcement confirmed the obvious.
But, like the reality behind the punchline of the old joke, we do now have to start from here. The announcement cannot be undone, or forgotten. It takes its place in the history of the peace process. We are where we are, so what do we do now?
While it is not the solution, the audacity of the proposal, rather than its detail, and its timing give it a momentum of its own and this should not be lost. And if the proposal undoubtedly took Israel’s side, the reaction to it has, to a degree, redressed the balance. It stimulated a meeting between Fatah and Hamas, who must realize that their inability to reconcile their differences and provide a unified leadership, based on the reality of Israel’s existence, is a handicap only they can overcome. Some Arab states attended Washington, making a brutal point that, over the years, other risks had arisen in the region beyond that of this unresolved problem, and not everything could be permanently on hold because of it. The Arab League met quickly, however, to make a strong and unified statement, rejecting the deal as the answer and reminding all that some international parameters could not simply be ignored. The EU did not endorse Trump’s plan, the UK gave a warning against immediate annexation, which had appeared likely, while Benny Gantz and Jared Kushner also recognized the danger of this, not least to a crucial ally like Jordan.
After fears of precipitate action and crisis, perhaps a slight pause allows for reflection on next steps.
If the proposal undoubtedly took Israel’s side, the reaction to it has, to a degree, redressed the balance.
We should not let this chance pass. If this is not the way forward, what is? What is the counter-offer? A unilateral solution, based on facts established on the ground, where international law no longer holds sway, is an uncomfortable precedent, noted carefully by others who would wish to apply similar logic to disputes — another cut in the slow death of multilateralism. For the give and take of real negotiations to triumph, ensuring the all-party acceptance that is the true guarantee of peace, a more inclusive process, with serious Palestinian engagement, must speedily emerge. I suspect many will share UAE Foreign Minister Anwar Gargash’s perception that a “realistic stance” and “positive strategy” was required from Arab states, heeding his balanced warning that support and faith in the Palestinian cause should not be dismissed, while that was not in itself enough to change the balance of influence and power.
The neutral “broker” finally disappeared last week, but the US will remain key. Swift action by others — neighbors and other powers — must work with the central characters, whose acceptance alone has to provide the base of peace. There is no time to lose.
*Alistair Burt is a former UK Member of Parliament who has twice held ministerial positions in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office — as Parliamentary Under Secretary of State from 2010 to 2013 and as Minister of State for the Middle East from 2017 to 2019. Twitter: @AlistairBurtUK

Palestinians should be prepared to embrace idea of a binational state
Osama Al-Sharif/Arab News/February 04/2020
Less than a week after President Donald Trump, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by his side, released his now infamous vision/plan for peace between Israel and the Palestinians at a White House ceremony, the US administration got its answer. It was a resounding “no” from the Palestinian Authority (PA), the Arab League and Muslim nations. The show of unity, particularly by Arab states, is of fundamental importance for the Palestinians. President Mahmoud Abbas was reassured of the support of key regional players, especially Saudi Arabia and Jordan.
But what happens now? The Trump administration has asked Israel to wait until after next month's Knesset elections before taking any unilateral action under the proposed plan. The fact remains that annexation of Israeli settlements and the Jordan Valley — just like the recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital — is a clear violation of international law, the Geneva Conventions and UN resolutions. Such moves, if taken, will neither advance the cause of peace nor bring the Palestinians and Israelis closer to a just and lasting settlement.
That’s why the plan was rebuffed by Russia, France and the UN, among others. Abbas will head for New York next week to plead his case before the UN Security Council. The US will foil his efforts to pass a resolution rejecting the plan. But applying diplomatic pressure is only one way of resisting the one-sided plan, which gives everything to Israel and nothing to the Palestinians, short of a cluttered entity enjoying limited self-rule.
There is more that the Palestinians can and must do. Chief among them is the restoration of unity and ending the conflict between Hamas and Fatah. This is a true test for the Palestinian leadership if it is to foil attempts to change the parameters of the conflict with Israel. Unfortunately, the signs are not encouraging, as the two sides continue to distrust each other and cling to power.
Abbas will also need to restore his own credibility. At the Arab League meeting in Cairo on Saturday, he declared that he had sent letters to Israel and the US informing them of the suspension of contacts, including security coordination. He went further to say that the PA had canceled its commitment to the Oslo Accords. But such threats were made in the past, only to be discredited by Israel itself. Abbas has the legal backing of Palestine Liberation Organization institutions to carry out such threats, but he hesitates from taking the ultimate and decisive move of disbanding the PA and declaring the West Bank an occupied territory. While the Palestinians should continue to back the two-state solution, as reiterated by the Arab League on the basis of the Arab Peace Initiative of 2002, they should also prepare themselves for the fact that Israel might still go ahead and annex its settlements and the Jordan Valley. Such steps, aimed at legitimizing occupation under Trump’s plan, would almost certainly close the chapter on the viability of the two-state solution.
This is why the Palestinians should be ready to change course and adopt a new approach: Demand full legal and civil rights in a binational state in historical Palestine. In fact, the Trump plan has polarized the Israelis. There is a growing fear that the Trump vision will lead to one of two realities: Making Israel a de facto apartheid state ruling over 2.5 million Palestinians; or, even worse for Israel’s far right, forcing an end to the Jewish state and making the only possible alternative a binational state.
Israeli annexation would almost certainly close the chapter on the viability of the two-state solution.
So far, Trump’s plan has failed to help a beleaguered Netanyahu improve his chances at the polls. Fear of the forced transfer of Palestinian citizens will almost certainly result in an unprecedented Arab voter turnout in the March elections. Netanyahu’s rival, Benny Gantz, while welcoming Trump’s vision, said that he would deal with it once he forms a government and only after discussing it with the Palestinians and Jordan. A poll of polls published by Haaretz this week showed Gantz’s Blue and White coalition leading by at least two seats.
Abbas must seize the moment and appeal to the Israelis directly ahead of the crucial March vote. He should stress the point that, once annexation takes place, the PA will disband itself and declare the West Bank as territory under Israeli occupation. The death of the two-state solution would affect Israel as much as the Palestinians. Annexation will be a game changer and a path toward an unwanted outcome that would be anathema for Israel’s right wing. It will polarize Israel for years and turn the country into a supreme ruler of millions of Palestinians living under occupation in Bantustans. Trump’s plan is a disaster for Israel, as well as the Palestinians.
*Osama Al-Sharif is a journalist and political commentator based in Amman. Twitter: @plato010