LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
June 13/2019
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani

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Bible Quotations For today
I exhort the elders among you to tend the flock of God that is in your charge, exercising the oversight, not under compulsion but willingly, as God would have you do it not for sordid gain but eagerly
“First Letter of Peter 05/01-14:”Now as an elder myself and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as one who shares in the glory to be revealed, I exhort the elders among you to tend the flock of God that is in your charge, exercising the oversight, not under compulsion but willingly, as God would have you do it not for sordid gain but eagerly. Do not lord it over those in your charge, but be examples to the flock. And when the chief shepherd appears, you will win the crown of glory that never fades away. In the same way, you who are younger must accept the authority of the elders. And all of you must clothe yourselves with humility in your dealings with one another, for ‘God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.’ Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you. Discipline yourselves; keep alert. Like a roaring lion your adversary the devil prowls around, looking for someone to devour. Resist him, steadfast in your faith, for you know that your brothers and sisters throughout the world are undergoing the same kinds of suffering.And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, support, strengthen, and establish you. To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen. Through Silvanus, whom I consider a faithful brother, I have written this short letter to encourage you, and to testify that this is the true grace of God. Stand fast in it.Your sister church in Babylon, chosen together with you, sends you greetings; and so does my son Mark. Greet one another with a kiss of love. Peace to all of you who are in Christ.”

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News published on June 12-13/2019
Israel Says Drone Penetrates Its Airspace from Lebanon
IDF: Lebanon drone penetrates Israeli air space
Hizbullah Positions Hit by Israeli Missiles on Syria
Aoun at Court of Cassation Anniversary: Basic Principle of Justice is Independence
Hariri Meets Aoun, Agrees with Him on Speeding Up Govt. Work
Report: FPM Says Ties ‘Shaken’ with Mustaqbal but Still Stand ‘Firm’
Satterfield Back in Beirut for Border Talks
Italy renews support for Lebanese institutions
Syrian Refugees in Lebanon Camp Forced to Destroy Homes
Hundreds of Brevet Students Without Exam Cards Stage Protest
Samy Gemayel Meets with Army Veterans Delegation
Complex’ deal to release Lebanese businessman after 4 years in Iran jail
Hezbollah's Most Devastating Threat to Israel? Not Its Missiles
Head of Israeli's Northern Command Maj.-Gen. Amir Baram: Lebanon to pay heavy price in next Israel-Hezbollah war

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on June 12-13/2019
Iran-backed Houthis Attack Saudi Airport With Cruise Missile – Injure 26
Israeli missile attack claimed by Syria hit Iranian-held Tel Al Harrah radar overlooking Golan
Syria Says Air Defense Downs Israeli Missiles
Egypt, Jordan, Morocco to Attend U.S. Mideast Peace Conference
Japan PM strongly hopes Iran continues to observe nuclear deal
Iran says platform caught fire at South Pars gas field, no fatalities: SHANA
US sanctions Iraq-based company, says it backs Iran’s IRGC
U.S. Blacklists Iraq Firm as Revolutionary Guard Guns Front
Turkey says Shanahan letter on F-35s not in line with spirit of alliance
Palestinian Girl Dies Lonely Death as Israel Blocks Parents
Plea Deal Confirmed for Israel PM's Wife in Delivery Meals Case
Despite Risks, Gazans Dream of Life Away
Ethiopian envoy says Sudan talks to resume as strike suspended
Hong Kong Police Use Tear Gas on Protesters

Titles For The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on June 12-13/2019
IDF: Lebanon drone penetrates Israeli air space/Ahiya Raved and Yoav Zitun/Ynetnews/June 12/2019
Complex’ deal to release Lebanese businessman after 4 years in Iran jail/Najia Houssari/Arab News/June 12/2019
Opinion/Hezbollah's Most Devastating Threat to Israel? Not Its Missiles/David Daoud/Haaretz/June 12/2019
Head of Israeli's Northern Command Maj.-Gen. Amir Baram: Lebanon to pay heavy price in next Israel-Hezbollah war/Jerusalem Post/June 12/2019
Iran-backed Houthis Attack Saudi Airport With Cruise Missile – Injure 26/The Associated Press and Reuters/June 12/ 2019
Arabs' Nightmare: Absorbing Palestinians/Khaled Abu Toameh/Gatestone Institute/June 12/2019
Turkey: Attacks on Journalists Turn More Violent/Uzay Bulut/Gatestone Institute/June 12/2019
The cries of Iranian women and my little sister Farah/Princess Noor Pahlavi/The first child of Iran’s former Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi./Al Arabiya/June 12/2019
Israel gladly fills void left by disengaged Palestinians/Dr. Hanan Ashrawi//Arab News/June 12/2019
Central Africa’s deadly hot zone of disease and insurgency/Dr. Theodore Karasik/Arab News/June 12/2019
Island nations need all global energy investments to be clean/Mike Eman/Arab News/June 12/2019

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News published on June 12-13/2019
Israel Says Drone Penetrates Its Airspace from Lebanon
Associated Press/Naharnet/June 12/2019/The Israeli military said Wednesday it has observed a drone entering Israeli airspace from Lebanon. In a brief announcement, the Israeli army said that the aircraft returned to Lebanon. It gave no further details. On several occasions, Israel has accused Iran of flying drones into Israeli airspace from neighboring Syria. In February 2018, it shot down what it said was an armed Iranian drone.

IDF: Lebanon drone penetrates Israeli air space
Ahiya Raved and Yoav Zitun/Ynetnews/June 12/2019
Israel Air Force scrambles jets as UAV briefly crosses from Lebanon and flies over Western Galilee town; Israeli army says unmanned vehicle was observing troop movements
A drone from Lebanon crossed into Israeli airspace on Wednesday before turning back across the border. The IDF Spokesperson's Unit said the drone was observing Israeli troop movements. The incident occurred at around midday, when the unmanned aerial vehicle crossed over the western sector of the border, over the town of Shlomi in Western Galilee. The IDF said the incident was being investigated using Israeli surveillance information. IAF jets were scrambled to the area to follow the drone's flight path, although it was not shot down. The incident comes the day after a senior IDF officer speculated that Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah appeared to be under enormous stress in his last public appearance earlier this month. Speaking at a ceremony to mark 13 years since the start of the 2006 Second Lebanon War, GOC Northern Command Amir Baram said that Lebanon could pay dearly in any further conflict with Israel. Baram told the families of IDF soldiers killed in the war that Nasrallah's loyalties lay with Iran and not Lebanon. He added that Israel will never allow Hezbollah to build infrastructure for terror attacks on Israelis from southern Lebanon, including missile launching capabilities that contravene UN resolutions, or threaten Israel with fighters trained in offensive operations.

Hizbullah Positions Hit by Israeli Missiles on Syria
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/June 12/2019/Syrian air defence shot down Israeli missiles targeting the south of the country Wednesday, state media said, as a monitor reported positions of the regime's Lebanese ally Hizbullah had been hit. The attack was launched in the early hours of the morning against the Tall al-Hara sector near the Golan Heights, according to official news agency SANA, which said there had been no casualties. It did not specify what had been targeted. SANA also accused Israel of conducting an "electronic war" and "jamming" Syrian radar. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, said the strikes had targeted positions of the Hizbullah movement in two locations, but without causing any casualties. "All the positions hit had the Lebanese Hizbullah there," Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said. The missiles targeted Tall al-Hara, a hill in the southern province of Daraa where Hizbullah has radars and the regime has air defence batteries, said the Observatory, which relies on sources inside Syria for its information. It also targeted barracks for the Lebanese fighters in the abandoned town of Quneitra on the Syrian-controlled side of a demilitarised zone between both countries in the Golan. The town has been largely in ruins for over four decades since it was razed by Israeli forces before they withdrew under a 1974 United Nations agreement. Israel has carried out hundreds of air strikes in Syria since the beginning of the conflict in 2011, targeting forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad and the regime's allies Iran and Hizbullah. Israel and Hizbullah have fought several wars, the latest in 2006.

Aoun at Court of Cassation Anniversary: Basic Principle of Justice is Independence
Naharnet/June 12/2019/President Michel Aoun, Speaker Nabih Berri and PM Saad Hariri attended a ceremony on Wednesday marking the 100th foundation ceremony of the Court of Cassation. In a speech he made at the ceremony, President Michel Aoun stressed that the basic principles of justice is “independence,” and that justice is the basis on which a state is built. He emphasized that independent judicial authority is the most important principle that judges should exercise. “Independent authority is a responsibility that you ought to exercise through hard strenuous work,” said Aoun addressing the judges of the Court.The President added that “justice provides reassurance and prevents chaos, injustice and violence,” stressing that “every litigant must receive a fair trial.”

Hariri Meets Aoun, Agrees with Him on Speeding Up Govt. Work
Naharnet/June 12/2019/Prime Minister Saad Hariri on Wednesday visited the Baabda Palace where he met with President Michel Aoun, a day after he held a sharp-toned press conference. “The meeting was positive and we agreed on the need to speed up the government's work to reach the needed achievements,” Hariri said after the talks. “We must rein in the exchange of tirades through the media,” Hariri added. Describing the draft state budget recently approved by the government as “historic,” the premier said the Cabinet will convene next week. “I talked with Speaker Nabih Berri about expediting the approval of the state budget in Parliament,” Hariri added. Noting that his relation with Aoun is “cordial,” the prime minister underlined that “there is on dispute over administrative appointments.” “We must return to calm and resume our work instead of resorting to disputes,” he said. Hariri had on Tuesday criticized several parties over the political tensions that the country witnessed during his vacation abroad but noted that he is still keen on the political settlement with the other camp. “One cannot remain silent over mistakes or over any unacceptable remarks that breach the red lines and norms and the country can't be run through gaffes,” Hariri said in an apparent reference to Free Patriotic Movement chief and Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil. “We cannot disregard the anger in the Sunni community, which is real and has resulted from the political stances of some political partners,” Hariri added.

Report: FPM Says Ties ‘Shaken’ with Mustaqbal but Still Stand ‘Firm’
Naharnet/June 12/2019/The Free Patriotic Movement affirmed that the political settlement with Prime Minister Saad Hariri “did not fall,” as they praised the latest meeting between FPM State Minister for Presidency Affairs Salim Jreissati with Grand Mufti of the Republic Sheikh Abdul Latif Daryan, the Saudi Asharq al-Awsat newspaper reported on Wednesday. Senior FPM sources told the daily “the settlement has been shaken a little bit but it has not fallen. The settlement is based on strategic, uncontroversial issues, and Jreissati has reflected the position of President Aoun during his meeting with Daryan,” they stressed. The sources denied claims that ties between Hariri and the FPM have reached a point of “no return.”On Monday, Jreissati met with Daryan after which he announced that Aoun is keen on Hariri's constitutional powers. “President Aoun is keen on jurisdiction, especially that of the premiership,” Jreissati said. Lately, the political settlement between Aoun and Hariri, that brought Aoun to the post of presidency, was said to be in jeopardy after a wave of tirades between Hariri’s al-Mustaqbal Movement and the FPM (founded by Aoun and run by his son-in-law Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil). Bassil has launched a series of “unpopular” positions that drew the ire of Hariri’s al-Mustaqbal public. He accused Sunni politicians of assuming key government positions and “dominating the Chritians’ rights.”

Satterfield Back in Beirut for Border Talks
Naharnet/June 12/2019/U.S. Assistant Secretary of State David Satterfield arrived in Beirut Tuesday evening reportedly carrying the Israeli response to the proposals on the demarcation of the border between Lebanon and Israel, amid information that his mission has recorded a “progress,” media reports said on Wednesday. Satterfield on Wednesday held separate meetings with Speaker Nabih Berri and Energy Minister Nada al-Bustani. He later met with PM Saad Hariri. Discussions focused on Satterfield’s mission and continued over lunch, Hariri's press office said. Al-Joumhouria daily said that Satterfield, accompanied by US Ambassador Elizabeth Richard, held a meeting directly after his arrival on Tuesday with Director of Political Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Ghadi Khoury and briefed him on the latest developments regarding the border demarcation. Said meeting was held at that level on the instructions of Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil who happens to be in London, said the daily. Although the visit has not been set yet, the US envoy is expected to visit the Baabda Palace to meet with President Michel Aoun. Satterfield is reportedly conveying an Israeli response to Lebanon's proposal not to set a time frame for talks between the two sides which are held under the UN flag at UNIFIL headquarters in Naqoura.

Italy renews support for Lebanese institutions
Annahar/June 12/2019/BEIRUT: Italy called on the Lebanese government to implement reforms to boost the private sector while reiterating its support to advance the economy and strengthen stability. In remarks commemorating the Italian National Day, its Ambassador to Lebanon Massimo Marotti said Monday that his country would stand by the side of its ally as it confronts its many challenges. "International cooperation is here to help and is eager to work with Lebanon to assist the government plans to advance the economy, to strengthen stability, to improve the governance, to facilitate the private sector and the industrial activity, and to help protect the environment, the fundamental challenge for the people and the governments in the entire world," he said. Investments from Italy have already made their way to Lebanon, he said, after a group of Italian businessmen launched a joint venture called META. Italy PM-designate focuses on savings lost in bank failures. "In September their new factory in Zahle will start its production of electric components following European quality standard," he said. Italy's cooperation is active in Lebanon since 1983, Marotti highlighted, with their assistance funds totaling $600 million. Most importantly, Italy's navy has cooperated with its Lebanese counterpart over the past 12 months to strengthen its capacities and better conduct operations at sea. This was done "to implement its important responsibilities to secure and stabilize Lebanon’s maritime space, to protect sea lines, the maritime environment, and its resources," Marotti said. In September 2018, both navies took part in a six-week training program executed by the Italian Military Bilateral Mission in Lebanon (MIBIL). The training program was approved during the Rome II Conference, which took place last March in Italy in support of Lebanon's security institutions.

Syrian Refugees in Lebanon Camp Forced to Destroy Homes
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/June 12/2019/Abu Mohamed lost his house in Syria early in the civil war. Six years on, it's happening again -- only this time in Lebanon and he has to destroy it himself. His family and thousands of others crammed in this remote mountainous region of northeastern Lebanon have been ordered to demolish hard shelters, which the authorities consider illegal construction. With a government ultimatum looming, the men in the sprawling Al-Nour camp this week took to the roofs of their own cinderblock homes to remove sheets of corrugated iron and start hacking away with sledgehammers. A few dozen of these tiny shelters have already been knocked down and rubble has started to fill the narrow alleyways of the crowded camp. Keen not to encourage Syrian refugees to settle permanently, the Lebanese government had given Arsal refugees until June 9 to demolish shelters made of other materials than timber and plastic sheeting. On Monday, the deadline was extended to the end of the month, but Abu Mohamed was already busy tearing down the single room he and his family called home for several years. "We lived in this room, we were content. We told ourselves that some people dream of having a shelter like this one," said the 37-year-old with a short coarse beard. He and his wife and their five children have already moved into a friend's nearby tent, together with other refugees. "The tent is tiny, barely big enough for them. Now we're four families in there, with a total of 16 children," said Abu Mohamed, a red and white headscarf protecting him from the sun.
'Chickens in a better home'
But going home to the central city of Homs in neighboring Syria is not an option. "We no longer have a home in Syria. It was destroyed," he said. Abu Mohamed waved towards what remained of his family's tiny cinderblock home. In Syria, "the chickens lived in a better home than this one. At least they never got rained on in winter," he said. The single-room structures being destroyed were boiling in summer and rain trickled in during the colder months, their inhabitants say. But they were infinitely better than being battered by wind or completely flooded in a flimsy tent. Lebanon, a country of some four million people, hosts between 1.5 and two million Syrians on its soil after they fled the eight-year civil war next door. Nearly a million of these are registered as refugees with the United Nations High Commission for Refugees. Around 35,000 Syrian refugees are affected by the demolition order, including 15,000 people in the Arsal region, UNHCR says. The order will affect 4,000 structures in the region, municipality head Bassel al-Hujeiri said. "The aim of this decision is to prevent Syrians from staying permanently in Lebanon," he told AFP. "As the municipality, we are applying the state's decision." Lebanese politicians and part of the population have called for Syrian refugees to go home, blaming them for a string of economic woes in the country.Rights groups, including Amnesty International, have warned that Lebanon is using restrictive measures such as evictions, curfews and raids to encourage repatriation.
'Here's my stable'
In an alley of the Al-Nour camp, women carry cushions and a mattress out of a cinderblock home, loading them onto a truck already packed with travel bags, a fan, and a cooking gas canister. After emptying the room where she and her toddler daughter used to live, 39-year-old widow Leila Abdel Qader now needs to pay a man to take a sledgehammer to it. And she is not looking forward to returning to life in a tent. "When it rained, the water came in," said the veiled mother, who lived under canvas for a year and a half before finally sleeping between four concrete walls. "The neighbors could hear everything, and children would rip the tarpaulin," Abdel Qader said, dressed in a long black robe embroidered with black beads. Aid groups have warned the demolition order could make at least 15,000 children homeless. "This situation also adds to the financial burden of refugees, at a time when we know most of them live in poverty," UNHCR spokeswoman Lisa Abou Khaled said. The U.N. agency has started providing those affected with new building material such as tarpaulin and wood, she said. In Al-Nour, Abu Naeem sits in front of his cinderblock home, sipping tea with friends one last time before they help him tear it down. "Here's my stable," said the 35-year-old, gesturing to the concrete room and provoking laughter all around. "This is what's bothering the Lebanese government so much?" he asked. "We're on the border. This isn't Beirut or a touristic area," he said.

Hundreds of Brevet Students Without Exam Cards Stage Protest
Naharnet/June 12/2019/Some “six hundred” middle school students staged a sit-in on Wednesday outside the Education Ministry premises protesting a failure to get the required examination cards, a move initiated as thousands of other students sat for the official Brevet exams. The angry students and their parents briefly blocked the road near the ministry in the area of ESCWA but the security forces reopened it later. The students complained that they were unable to sit for the exams because the education ministry made an error in registering the names of their schools, which prevented them from obtaining their examination cards. Students who did not receive their cards, their parents and the principals of related schools have all gathered outside the ministry and tried to storm into the premises, blaming the ministry for the mishap. Education Minister Akram Shehayyeb has appeased the fears saying the matter will be settled and that a special official exam round will be scheduled specifically for said students to sit for the exams.

Samy Gemayel Meets with Army Veterans Delegation
Kataeb.org/June 12/2019/Kataeb leader Samy Gemayel on Tuesday met with a delegation from the committee tasked with following up on the demands put forth by the retired military officers, with talks featuring high on the detrimental effects that the 2019 draft budget is inflicting on them.
During the meeting held at the Kataeb's headquarter in Saifi, Gemayel stressed the party's support to their demands, outlining the importance of putting an end to squandering and corruption in order to reduce the treasury’s deficit, instead of cutting the veterans' end-of-service benefits.
Gemayel also emphasized the importance of safeguarding the military which represents the guarantor of safety to the Lebanese.

Complex’ deal to release Lebanese businessman after 4 years in Iran jail
Najia Houssari/Arab News/June 12/2019
BEIRUT: The release of a Lebanese businessman on Tuesday after nearly four years in an Iranian prison may be linked to “complex” talks over two Lebanese prisoners being held in the US, analysts have told Arab News.
Nizar Zakka, an information technology specialist who holds US residency, was detained in Tehran in 2015. Iranian media described him as a US spy and he was sentenced to 10 years in jail and fined $4.2 million.Zakka arrived in Beirut on Tuesday after Lebanon’s government secured his freedom. The circumstances of Zakka’s release were “complex,” Asaad Haidar, a Lebanese expert on Iran, told Arab News. “This is a declaration of Iranian goodwill toward the Americans,” he said. “Zakka’s release is aimed at exchanging his freedom for the release of people who are being held by the US, including two Lebanese, Ali Kourani and Kassim Tajideen, who are important to Iran.”Kourani, 34, a Lebanese American, is being prosecuted in a New York court on charges of supporting terrorism. If convicted, he faces life imprisonment.
BACKGROUND
• Nizar Zakka, an information technology specialist who holds US residency, was detained in Tehran in 2015.
• Iranian media described him as a US spy and he was sentenced to 10 years in jail and fined $4.2 million.
Tajideen, 63, a Lebanese businessman from the southern town of Hanaouay, built a global network of food and property companies with his brothers. He was accused by Washington of financing terrorism, and arrested in Morocco in March 2017.
“Tajideen is essential to Iran and they want to move reopen his case because no one has mentioned him since his arrest,” Haidar said. “It is important to monitor the outcome of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe’s visit to Tehran on Wednesday, and his meeting with Iranian officials. These are real negotiations whose results will emerge later.” Nevertheless, officials in Lebanon and Zakka himself denied on Tuesday that his release was linked to a swap deal. “This was an initiative that began and ended in Lebanon, a national job. The results were positive and stopped many actions that would have affected the region,” Zakka said. Sources at the presidential palace told Arab News Zakka’s release was the result of “an intervention by President Michel Aoun with the Iranian authorities. “He … summoned the Iranian ambassador and asked him to refer his request to President Hassan Rouhani, and he responded positively. Everything said and written outside this context is absolutely unfounded.”Zakka arrived in Beirut on a private jet, along with Lebanon’s national security chief, Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim.  “I do not make deals,” Ibrahim said. “But Tajideen is on my mind. I met him in prison in 2017 and this matter is not up.”

Opinion/Hezbollah's Most Devastating Threat to Israel? Not Its Missiles
ديفيد داود/الهآرتس: تهديد حزب الله الأكثر تدميراً لإسرائيل لا يكمن في صواريخه، بل بحربه الإعلامية والنفسية على الجيش الإسرائيلي
David Daoud/Haaretz/June 12/2019
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/75724/%d8%af%d9%8a%d9%81%d9%8a%d8%af-%d8%af%d8%a7%d9%88%d8%af-%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%87%d8%a2%d8%b1%d8%aa%d8%b3-%d8%aa%d9%87%d8%af%d9%8a%d8%af-%d8%ad%d8%b2%d8%a8-%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%84%d9%87-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%a3%d9%83/
Fear is Hezbollah's lethal weapon. And its propaganda war is working: Hassan Nasrallah's extravagant threats, endlessly amplified by the Israeli media, now constrains IDF action against the Iranian proxy group.
Israel's ground troops are physically and operationally capable of defeating Hezbollah, but the Iranian-backed militia has waged a psychological war of such effectiveness that the IDF soldiers feel deterred from believing in their capacities against them.
That's the view expressed recently by former IDF Deputy Chief of Staff Yair Golan, and his observation has far-reaching consequences for the next ground and aerial war between Israel and Hezbollah.
Indeed, fear is Hezbollah’s most potent weapon. For 37 years, the group has used fear to deter Israel from ever fully attempting to uproot the group.
Hezbollah’s skillful use of propaganda has allowed it to remain a relatively small group that wages war effectively, but cheaply. The organization has learned to adeptly amplify its threats in such a manner that they become military "achievements" in and of themselves.
In fact, in a future conflict, Hezbollah will leverage the deterrence effect of its nightmarish threats - such organization to achieve the results of nightmarish threats beyond its current capabilities – like conquering the Galilee, showering Israel with precision missiles, or striking Haifa’s ammonia tanks or Dimona’s nuclear reactor - without even carrying them out, or carrying them out only partially.
More than its rockets or fighting prowess, propaganda and theatricality will once again guarantee Hezbollah victory and continued growth.
Hezbollah’s exaggerated threats are meant to prevent Israel from exploiting the group's overextension in Syria to deal it a fatal blow. That way, the group can initiate a future conflict on its own terms, at a time of its choosing, when it is stronger and can take the initiative. Hezbollah's key interest is to terrify Israeli society about the costs and consequences of war, in order to build public opposition to lifting the restraints on IDF measures against the group.
And Israel's media, military, and political figures are playing into this - by uncritically repeating the group’s threats. Hezbollah’s Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah himself once called this an Israel's "fatal error" in the realm of psychological warfare: Israel has created an echo chamber for Hezbollah's rhetoric which, Nasrallah said, "does all our work for us."
Hezbollah similarly exploited the Israeli fear of casualties to survive the 1985-2000 war of attrition with Israel in southern Lebanon. During those 15 years, the group killed a relatively small number of Israeli soldiers - 235 dead in 6,058 operations. However, it amplified their impact by broadcasting edited videos of its attacks exaggerating its successes, which Israeli media then replayed.
Hezbollah thus convinced Israeli society that south Lebanon was the IDF’s graveyard, with a constant trickle of casualties. This, in turn, prevented the IDF from ever taking the necessary, albeit costly, steps to uproot the group.
That constraining fear of casualties - not Hezbollah’s overblown fighting abilities - was the most important factor that led to Israel’s defeat in the South Lebanon Conflict, and, together with the fear of getting bogged down in an endless occupation in Lebanon, deterred it from conducting a massive ground invasion in the 2006 war.
However, Hezbollah isn’t completely bluffing. If a future war erupts, the group will likely carry out more modest versions of its threats, to erode Israeli morale and prompt a premature ceasefire. Hezbollah has repeatedly used minimal effort and half-successes tailored for maximum psychological impact to make Israelis feel like they were losing the war – like its 1994 attack on the IDF’s Pumpkin outpost in south Lebanon, its 2006 strike on the INS Hanit or its lone M-302 missile strike on Hadera the same year.
Rather than precision missiles, Hezbollah will once shower northern Israel with the short-range, low-impact, and highly inaccurate Katyusha rockets. As weapons, they’re relatively ineffective. But Hezbollah can put them to devastating psychological use.
Hezbollah has acquired sufficient quantities of these cheap rockets to overwhelm Israel's anti-missile system, Iron Dome, designed to protect the home front. Their mobility will again allow the group to fire them into Israel until the last day of a war, as the IDF hunts down their elusive launch sites.
Between the 1,500 daily Katyushas Hezbollah is projected to fire, and Iron Dome’s 86-92 percent interception rate, approximately 120-210 rockets will land in northern Israel daily, recreating the Second Lebanon War’s chaos and disruption to civilian life. Now, it would have the added psychological impact of breaking through the protective canopy of the Iron Dome system.
Hezbollah is likely also only planning a limited incursion into the Galilee. Anything beyond that is beyond its capabilities, and the six tunnels barely penetrating Israeli territory that have been recently unearthed can’t transport a conquering force into Israel. However, the group only needs to seize several Israeli border military positions or small towns, kidnap or kill hostages, and broadcast its flag being planted on Israeli soil.
Hezbollah wants Israelis to believe that only a ceasefire - not the concrete barrier on the Lebanese-Israeli frontier, or a multi-billion-dollar and multi-tiered missile defense system, or a massive Israeli invasion of Lebanon - will make them safe again. It will succeed in doing so if it pulls off enough of these attacks.
Moreover, IDF soldiers will also be demoralized, feeling their war-effort is useless to protect Israeli civilians. Dispirited and shaken, they’ll call on their government to end the war. And even if Israelis society once again proves resilient during a war, the memory of these attacks will serve as a deterrent against a future conflict with an undefeated Hezbollah.
But Hezbollah’s propaganda places the bar for Israeli victory impossibly high. If the IDF isn’t decisively victorious, and obviously so to Israelis and Lebanese alike, then the group will claim victory. And that victorious image is essential for Hezbollah to recoup its losses and continue growing.
If the group can’t defend Lebanon against Israel – which is how Hezbollah justifies its private army and its de facto sovereignty in south Lebanon to the Lebanese – then the number of Lebanese questioning its need for arms and its territorial writ will grow, including within its Shiite base.
But by appearing victorious against Israel - which it will be able to do by successfully executing its threats against the Jewish state in some form - Hezbollah will be able to maintain Lebanese support, or at least acquiescence, for its unchecked military and social growth.
Understanding Hezbollah’s use of psychological warfare begins with understanding that, despite its fiery rhetoric, the group is neither capable of destroying Israel, nor currently seeking to do so. It doesn’t see its war with the Jewish state as being limited to a single cataclysmic battle. Instead, Hezbollah is opting for the long-game.
Hezbollah wants to gradually grow its strength until it and the rest of the Iran-led "Resistance Axis" can change the regional balance of power, and collectively engage Israel in a slow war of attrition towards its destruction, blow by blow eroding its national will. In the meantime, it is seeking to survive to continue that trajectory.
By projecting outsized power to restrain Israel, Hezbollah is gradually moving towards its annihilationalist goal - with minimal resistance from Israelis.
*David Daoud is a research analyst on Lebanon and Hezbollah at United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI). Twitter: @DavidADaoud

Head of Israeli's Northern Command Maj.-Gen. Amir Baram: Lebanon to pay heavy price in next Israel-Hezbollah war
قائد المنطقة الشمالية الجنرال الإسرائيلي امير برام: لبنان سيدفع ثمناً مرتفاً في الحرب المقبلة بين إسرائيل وحزب الله
Jerusalem Post/June 12/2019
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Head of IDF's Northern Command Maj.-Gen. Amir Baram says Beirut "cooperating" with Shi'ite terror group.
A few hours before a drone infiltrated Israeli airspace from Lebanon, the Head of the Northern Command Maj.-Gen. Amir Baram warned of overt action against Hezbollah if it continues to build up terror infrastructure along the border, and that Lebanon risks paying a heavy price for its cooperation with the Shi'ite terror group. "We will continue to act to thwart its efforts to threaten our security covertly and overtly as required – and if war is imposed upon us, we will exact a heavy price from this organization and those who give it backing, wherever necessary,” he said Tuesday night at a memorial commemorating the 13th anniversary of the Second Lebanon War. "Hezbollah's loyalty was and remains to the supreme leader in Iran, not to the citizens of Lebanon," he continued. "As a direct result, the Lebanese state is liable to pay a heavy price for its cooperation with Shi'ite terror in the next campaign."
Baram accused Hezbollah of violating United Nations resolution 1701, which set the terms to end the 34-day war fought between Israel and Hezbollah in the summer of 2006.
“The 13 years that have passed since the Second Lebanon War and the security stability that it brought to the region are the best evidence of the deterrence created by the war,” Baram said. But, he warned, "Hezbollah continues to consolidate power in southern Lebanon, contrary to UN resolution, and is building infrastructure of terror and rockets in the villages right here opposite us, and intends to try to threaten us with offensive forces as well. Hezbollah must understand – we will not allow it to realize its plans and destructive ambitions and those of its patrons in Iran.”
On Wednesday afternoon, a small drone infiltrated into northern Israel from Lebanon and flew over the town of Shlomi in the Western Galilee before it crossed back into Lebanon.
The IDF said that the drone, which was observing Israeli troop movements in the area, was under surveillance the entire time that it was in Israel. IAF jets were also scrambled to the area following the drone’s flight path. Last week, Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah said that the group has missiles that could "change the face of the region." In a speech marking Quds Day, he denied that the group has facilities to build precision missiles in Lebanon, saying that if it had such facilities he would declare it openly, "because we have a right to defend ourselves, and the forces of the resistance have a right to have rockets and missiles."
Nasrallah also warned that a war between the United States and Iran "would mean the whole region will be set ablaze. All U.S. forces and interests in the region will be exterminated and those who conspired [with them] will pay the price: first Israel, then al-Saud.”
In April, Hezbollah leader Nasrallah said that while Israel boasts about their missile defense system, it cannot defend the country’s citizens against the threat posed by the group’s rocket arsenal. Since the end of the last war, hostilities between the two foes have been limited to occasional firing across the border and air strikes by Israel against Hezbollah and Iranian positions and military equipment in Syria, where the group continues to fight in support of President Bashar Assad.
But due to their fighting in Syria, the group has grown significantly in terms of technological advances along with battlefield experience. It is considered Israel’s most dangerous enemy and has morphed from a guerrilla group to an army with a set hierarchy and procedures.
With the help of Iran, it has rebuilt its arsenal since 2006 and has hundreds of thousands of short-range rockets and several thousand more missiles that can reach deeper into Israel’s home front. In addition to their massive arsenal, Hezbollah also has the ability to mobilize close to 30,000 battle-hardened fighters, some of whom are expected to try to infiltrate into Israeli communities on the border to kill or kidnap civilians and soldiers. In December, Israel launched Operation Northern Shield to discover and destroy tunnels dug by the Lebanese Shi'ite terror group into northern Israel. The IDF declared the end of the operation in mid-January after finding six cross-border tunnels, saying that it had “deprived Hezbollah of the unique offensive abilities it had built for years as part of its planned attack on Israeli territory” and strengthened security along the northern border.
The Israeli military has repeatedly warned that the Lebanese government is responsible for the digging of the tunnels, which they say were part of a Hezbollah plan to attack communities in northern Israel.

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on June 12-13/2019
Iran-backed Houthis Attack Saudi Airport With Cruise Missile – Injure 26
The Associated Press and Reuters/June 12/ 2019
Saudi Arabia has been at war against the Iranian-allied Houthis in Yemen since 2015. The kingdom accuses Iran of arming the rebels, which Iran denies.
The Saudi-led coalition confirmed that Yemen's Houthi group has attacked Saudi Arabia's Abha airport, adding that 26 people were injured, the state-run Saudi Press Agency reported on Wednesday.
The attack comes as Japan's prime minister is expected in Iran to mediate between Tehran and Washington amid escalating tensions in the Persian Gulf regions.
Coalition spokesman Turki al-Malki says a projectile struck the arrival hall of Abha's airport in the southern part of the kingdom near its border with Yemen. That's according to Saudi Arabia's state-run Al-Ekhabriya news channel. The Saudi-led military coalition vowed to respond firmly to the missile attack.
Al-Malki says three women and two children are among the 26 hurt in the attack. Eight have been hospitalized and the rest sustained minor injuries. The Houthis earlier on Wednesday claimed they'd launched a cruise missile at the Abha airport. Saudi Arabia has been at war against the Iranian-allied Houthis in Yemen since 2015. The kingdom accuses Iran of arming the rebels, which Iran denies. In May, Houthi rebels launched a drone attack on Saudi Arabia's Najran airport. It said it targeted hangars containing war planes. There were no immediate reports of damage or casualties. There was also no immediate comment from Saudi Arabia or the Saudi-led coalition.
Houthi rebels said they targeted the airport in Najranwith a Qasef-2K drone, striking an "arms depot." Najran, 840 kilometers (525 miles) southwest of Riyadh, lies on the Saudi-Yemen border and has repeatedly been targeted by the Iran-allied Houthis. The attacks come as Iran quadrupled its uranium-enrichment production capacity amid tensions with the U.S. over Tehran's atomic program, just after President Donald Trump and Iran's foreign minister traded threats and taunts on Twitter. The New York Times last year reported that American intelligence analysts were based in Najran, assisting the Saudis and a U.S. Army Green Berets deployment on the border. The Pentagon and the U.S. military's Central Command did not immediately respond to requests for comment.Earlier in May, the Houthis launched a coordinated drone attack on a Saudi oil pipeline amid heightened tensions between Iran and the U.S. Earlier this month, officials in the United Arab Emirates alleged that four oil tankers were sabotaged and U.S. diplomats relayed a warning that commercial airlines could be misidentified by Iran and attacked, something dismissed by Tehran.

Israeli missile attack claimed by Syria hit Iranian-held Tel Al Harrah radar overlooking Golan
DEBKAfileThe Israel missile strike that Syrian military sources claimed took place early Wednesday, June 12, struck Iranian radars situated at Tel Al-Harrah, a hill overlooking the Golan, Galilee and the Sea of Galilee, DEBKAfile reports. Hizballah also maintains an observation post in the same Quneitra region some 15km from the Israeli border. The Syrians claimed to have thwarted an Israeli electronic attack for interfering with its radars which it thwarted by shooting the missiles down.
DEBKAfile’s sources report that Tel Al-Harrah is the southernmost point in Syria at which Russian forces have permitted Iran to maintain a military presence in the vicinity of the Israeli border. In other parts of the border region, especially the Daraa district, Russian “military police” prevented Iran and its proxies from establishing military posts, allowing only temporary positions holding no more than 15-20 Iranian or Hizballah military personnel. Neither are allowed to enter the southern Syrian towns of Daraa and Quneitra. Moscow and Tehran are at loggerheads on this issue.
According to our military sources, the IDF’s Tel Al-Harrah strike was mounted to prepare the way for a high-powered meeting planned to take place in Jerusalem later this month of the American, Russian and Israeli national security advisers – John Bolton, Nikolai Patrushev and Meir Ben-Shabbat – for an airing of the situation in Syria and Iran’s military presence there.

Syria Says Air Defense Downs Israeli Missiles
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/June 12/2019/Syrian air defence shot down Israeli missiles targeting the south of the country Wednesday, state media said, as a monitor reported positions of the regime's Lebanese ally Hezbollah had been hit. The attack was launched in the early hours of the morning against the Tall al-Hara sector near the Golan Heights, according to official news agency SANA, which said there had been no casualties. It did not specify what had been targeted. SANA also accused Israel of conducting an "electronic war" and "jamming" Syrian radar.The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, said the strikes had targeted positions of the Hezbollah Shiite movement in two locations, but without causing any casualties."All the positions hit had the Lebanese Hezbollah there," Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said. The missiles targeted Tall al-Hara, a hill in the southern province of Daraa where Hezbollah has radars and the regime has air defence batteries, said the Observatory, which relies on sources inside Syria for its information. It also targeted barracks for the Lebanese fighters in the abandoned town of Quneitra on the Syrian-controlled side of a demilitarised zone between both countries in the Golan. The town has been largely in ruins for over four decades since it was razed by Israeli forces before they withdrew under a 1974 United Nations agreement. Israel has carried out hundreds of air strikes in Syria since the beginning of the conflict in 2011, targeting forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad and the regime's allies Iran and Hezbollah. Earlier this month, Israel struck multiple positions held by regime forces over a period of 24 hours, killing 15 combatants according to the Observatory. In January, it targeted Iranian positions in Syria in what it said was a response to an Iranian missile strike from inside the country. That attack killed 21, mostly Iranians. Israel says it is determined to prevent its arch foe Iran from entrenching itself militarily in Syria, where Tehran backs Assad in the country's eight-year war, which has left more than 370,000 people dead and displaced millions. Israel and Hizbullah have fought several wars, the latest in 2006.

Egypt, Jordan, Morocco to Attend U.S. Mideast Peace Conference
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/June 12/2019/Egypt, Morocco and Jordan have agreed to attend the unveiling the economic component of a new U.S. peace plan to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the White House said on Wednesday. The three Arab countries allied with Washington "informed us that they will be attending the workshop," a senior White House official told AFP on condition of anonymity. Spearheaded by President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, the long-awaited plan's economic component is set to be unveiled on June 25 and 26 at a conference in Bahrain. The idea is to entice the Palestinians with the economic benefits of the plan if they accept the United State's political proposals, which will be detailed at a later date that has yet to be announced. But the Palestinians have already rejected the plan and the United Nations says it also won't send a representative to the conference. The Palestinian Authority, which cut ties with the Trump administration after it recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital in late 2017, also won't attend. The support of countries in the region is seen as crucial for the proposal's success, but the U.S. media reported recently that the Palestinians had asked Egypt, Morocco and Jordan not to participate in the summit. Trump is attempting to forge a lasting peace agreement between the Israelis and Palestinians, a task at which all who have tried before him have failed. But Palestinians believe his administration's proposal will be partial to Israel.

Japan PM strongly hopes Iran continues to observe nuclear deal
Staff writer, Al Arabiya English/Wednesday, 12 June 2019/Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Wednesday that he discussed with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani ways to avoid instability in the region, adding he strongly hopes Iran continues to observe the nuclear deal, in a joint press conference in Tehran. The Japanese leader stressed that an armed clash in the Middle East needs to be prevented at all costs. Rouhani, who also spoke at the press conference, described the meeting as successful and said that he welcomes improving ties with japan, adding that Tokyo is interested in continuing to buy Iran’s oil, which has been sanctioned by the United States.The two leaders discussed economic ties and Iran's commitment to the 2015 nuclear deal. “Iran will remain committed to the deal, which is important for security of the region and the world. Tehran and Tokyo both oppose nuclear weapons ... Iran will never initiate a war but will give a crushing response to any egression,” Rouhani told a joint news conference with Abe. Abe, the first Japanese leader to visit Iran since its 1979 Islamic Revolution, landed in Tehran as a brewing confrontation between Iran and the United States stokes fear of another military conflict in the crisis-ridden Middle East.

Iran says platform caught fire at South Pars gas field, no fatalities: SHANA
Reuters, DubaiWednesday, 12 June 2019/A platform of the South Pars gas field in the Arabian Gulf, the world’s largest, caught fire on Wednesday, Iran’s Oil Ministry Website said, but no fatalities were reported. “No one was reportedly killed by the fire at platform SPG9 ... as all the staff had evacuated the platform before the fire broke out,” the head of the Pars Oil and Gas Company (POGC) Mohammad Meshkinfam told SHANA. He said that several fireboats were now trying to extinguish the fire in the platform.

US sanctions Iraq-based company, says it backs Iran’s IRGC
Reuters, Washington Wednesday, 12 June 2019/The United States on Wednesday sanctioned an Iraqi company and two of its associates, which it said had helped Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)-Quds force evade sanctions by smuggling hundreds of millions of dollars worth of weapons. “Treasury is taking action to shut down Iranian weapons smuggling networks that have been used to arm regional proxies of the IRGC Quds Force in Iraq, while personally enriching regime insiders,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement. “The Iraqi financial sector and the broader international financial system must harden their defenses against the continued deceptive tactics emanating from Tehran in order to avoid complicity in the IRGC’s ongoing sanctions evasion schemes and other malign activities,” Mnuchin added. Wednesday’s sanctions targeted Baghdad-based South Wealth Resources Company, the statement said. Two of the entity’s associates, who the statement said helped facilitate weapons shipments and the company’s financial operations, were also sanctioned, it said. US officials said the company’s operation also benefited Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, a previously sanctioned Iraqi adviser to IRGC-Quds force commander Qassem Soleimani. Washington previously sanctioned Iran’s elite IRGC in April, designating it a terrorist organization in an unprecedented move.

U.S. Blacklists Iraq Firm as Revolutionary Guard Guns Front
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/June 12/2019/The U.S. Treasury placed Iraq-based South Wealth Resources on its sanctions blacklist Wednesday, saying the company is an important weapons trafficking and financial front for Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The Treasury said the company, Manabea Tharwat al-Janoob General Trading Company, was used by the IRGC to smuggle "hundreds of millions of dollars' worth" of weapons to IRGC allies in Iraq. South Wealth Resources has also helped move millions of dollars to Iraq "for illicit financial activity benefitting" the IRGC and Iraq militias it supports. The company and two Iraqis who worked with it were placed on the U.S. sanctions blacklist, which seeks to lock them out of the international financial system by forbidding Americans and companies with US units, particularly banks, from doing business with them. The company and the two Iraqis, Makki Kazim Abd Al Hamid Al Asadi and Muhammed Husayn Salih al-Hasani, were also placed on the U.S. State Department's list of "Specially Designated Global Terrorists." "Treasury is taking action to shut down Iranian weapons smuggling networks that have been used to arm regional proxies of the IRGC Qods Force in Iraq, while personally enriching regime insiders," Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement. "The Iraqi financial sector and the broader international financial system must harden their defenses against the continued deceptive tactics emanating from Tehran in order to avoid complicity in the IRGC's ongoing sanctions evasion schemes and other malign activities," he said.

Turkey says Shanahan letter on F-35s not in line with spirit of alliance
Reuters, Istanbul/Wednesday, 12 June 2019/The language used in a letter sent from Washington to Ankara regarding Turkey’s removal from the F-35 fighter jet program does not suit the spirit of alliance, Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said on Wednesday. US Acting Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan’s letter to his counterpart, seen by Reuters, had outlined how Turkey would be pulled out of the F-35 fighter jet program unless Ankara changes course from its plans to purchase a Russian missile defense system. Akar, cited by the defense ministry in a statement, also said Turkey is preparing a response to the letter and that it would be sent to the US in the coming days. He added that he would hold a phone call with Shanahan on Thursday.

Palestinian Girl Dies Lonely Death as Israel Blocks Parents
Associated Press/Naharnet/June 12/2019/When Palestinian preschooler Aisha a-Lulu came out of brain surgery in a strange Jerusalem hospital room, she called out for her mother and father. She repeated the cry over and over, but her parents never came. Instead of a family member, Israeli authorities had approved a stranger to escort Aisha from the blockaded Gaza Strip to the east Jerusalem hospital. As her condition deteriorated, the child was returned to Gaza unconscious. One week later, she was dead. A photo of Aisha smiling softly in her hospital bed, brown curls swaddled in bandages, drew an outpouring on social media. The wrenching details of her last days have shined a light on Israel's vastly complex and stringent system for issuing Gaza exit permits. It is a bureaucracy that has Israeli and Palestinian authorities blaming each other for its shortfalls, while inflicting a heavy toll on Gaza's sick children and their parents. "The most difficult thing is to leave your child in the unknown," said Waseem a-Lulu, Aisha's father. "Jerusalem is just an hour away, but it feels as though it is another planet." So far this year, roughly half of applications for patient companion permits were rejected or left unanswered by Israel, according to the World Health Organization. That has forced over 600 patients, including some dozen children under 18, to make the trek out of the territory alone or without close family by their side. The system stems from the Hamas militant group's takeover of Gaza in 2007, when it violently ousted the Western-backed Palestinian Authority. Israel and Egypt responded by imposing a blockade that tightly restricted movement in and out of Gaza. The blockade, which Israel says is necessary to prevent Hamas from arming, has precipitated a financial and humanitarian crisis in the enclave. For years, Gaza's 2 million residents have endured rising poverty and unemployment, undrinkable groundwater and frequent electricity outages. Public hospitals wrestle with chronic shortages of drugs and basic medical equipment. Israel blames Hamas, which it considers a terrorist group, for the crisis.
In what it portrays as a humanitarian gesture to help Gaza's civilians, Israel permits Palestinian patients to seek medical treatment at hospitals in Israel and the West Bank once they pass a series of bureaucratic hurdles. COGAT, the Israeli defense body that issues the permits, says it insists that all patients cross with an escort, usually a close relative, unless they wish to go alone or require immediate treatment that doesn't allow time for security screening.
In order to get a permit, patients must first submit a diagnosis to the West Bank-based Palestinian Health Ministry, proving that their treatment isn't available in Gaza. Then a Palestinian liaison requests exit permits from COGAT, which reviews the applications and passes them to Israel's Shin Bet security agency for background checks. According to WHO, the approval rate has plummeted in recent years. It said that in 2012, Israel allowed in 93% of patients and 83% of their companions for treatment. For the month of April 2019, the figure stands at just 65% of patients and 52% of their companions. A COGAT official disputed the figures, saying they don't take into account that the number of permit applications has grown as Gaza's health care system deteriorates, and that Israel has started issuing permits less regularly but for prolonged stays. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity under agency rules, said COGAT is working to ease restrictions by designating a permit specifically for parents of child patients. After being diagnosed with brain cancer, Aisha received immediate approval to get out of Gaza for what was hoped to be life-saving surgery. But when her parents approached the Palestinian Civil Affairs Commission for escort permits, their process ground to a halt. To their bewilderment, Palestinian officials told them not to apply, saying it was too risky. At 37, Waseem is below the age that Israel deems acceptable for swift entry on security grounds. Today, all men under 55 require extra screening, which means waiting, usually for months, according to Mor Efrat, the Gaza and West Bank director for Physicians for Human Rights Israel. As for Aisha's mother, Muna, a quirk of her upbringing in Egypt left her without an official Israeli-issued ID card required to receive a permit.
"We tell families to find a companion that won't give Israel any reason to refuse," said Osama Najar, spokesman for the Palestinian Health Ministry. "We want to save the child and, yes, that can mean sending them alone." In this sense, the Palestinian Authority "acts as a subcontractor for Israel," said Efrat, forcing parents to make a difficult choice: delay their child's urgent care, or search for someone else that Israel would be more likely to let cross. Aisha's parents said they scoured for alternatives, applying for an aunt and her 75-year-old grandmother, but Israel rejected both.
The girl's only remaining hope, the Palestinian office told them, was to apply for as many older women as possible from their extended social network. A permit for Halima al-Ades, a remote family acquaintance whom Aisha had never met, was approved.
Muna said she had no choice but to sign COGAT's consent form and whisk her daughter out of Gaza for immediate treatment. She said the frustration of the sprawling bureaucracy, and the painful memory of her 5-year-old daughter crying for her on the phone during her last days, haunts her. "It was the hardest time of my life," she said. "My heart was being ripped out every day and every hour."The Shin Bet declined to comment on the case. But in a statement, it emphasized Israel's security concerns about Gaza patients and their companions. "The terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip, headed by Hamas, are working tirelessly to cynically exploit the humanitarian and medical assistance provided by Israel," it said. This means that Palestinians are often turned down without explanation or for reasons out of their control. "I feel confident telling you that most of these rejections are arbitrary," said Efrat, of Physicians for Human Rights Israel. Israel denies any official change in policy. Alon Eviatar, a former high-ranking official with COGAT, said the goal remains the same. "On the ground, this means to make daily life as difficult as possible for Hamas, without crossing the red line to humanitarian disaster," he said. Eviatar acknowledged that the Israeli permit system was ineffective, inefficient and overburdened. "We are desperate for an alternative, to get Gaza to take care of itself and stop relying on Israel," he said. Aisha's doctor in Jerusalem, Ahmad Khandaqji, said he has treated countless lone patients from Gaza over the past year, but that Aisha's story stuck with him. "She felt abandoned and betrayed," he said. "We saw how that directly impacted her recovery."

Plea Deal Confirmed for Israel PM's Wife in Delivery Meals Case
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/June 12/2019/Israeli prosecutors confirmed Wednesday a plea bargain has been reached with the wife of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over accusations she used state funds to fraudulently pay for hundreds of meals. Under the deal in the case that has received intense media coverage, Sara Netanyahu would plead guilty to a lesser charge of exploiting the mistake of another person as well as pay a fine and compensation. A statement from Israeli prosecutors said Netanyahu would be fined 10,000 shekels ($2,800, 2,500 euros) and have to reimburse the state another 45,000 shekels. The agreement must be approved by the court, with a June 16 hearing set. Unconfirmed reports of the deal had emerged in late May. As part of the deal, Netanyahu admitted she illegally ordered meals at a cost of some 175,000 shekels, the statement said. Netanyahu was initially charged in June 2018 with fraud and breach of trust for allegedly misusing state funds to pay for catered meals costing $100,000 by falsely declaring there were no cooks available at the prime minister's official residence. According to the indictment, between 2010 and 2013, Netanyahu, her family and guests "fraudulently (received) from the state hundreds of prepared meals" ordered from a variety of Jerusalem businesses. Netanyahu, 60, has been a high-profile presence at her husband's side throughout his long tenure in office. She has also faced accusations of mistreating staff, and in 2016 a court awarded some $47,000 in damages to a former housekeeper who accused the couple of repeated workplace abuse. Separately, Benjamin Netanyahu is facing possible indictment for bribery, fraud and breach of trust in the months ahead and is reportedly seeking legislation that would result in him being granted immunity.He is up for re-election again in September 17 polls, the second to be held this year after Netanyahu was unable to form a coalition following an April vote.

Despite Risks, Gazans Dream of Life Away
At a modest dwelling open to the winds next to a landfill in the Gaza Strip, only the women, children and an old man remain. Angham Zorab's two brothers along with her husband fled the blockaded Palestinian enclave in June 2014 -- like many others who see no hope in remaining.
"He sold the house and left with the $5,000," the frail 23-year-old woman said of her husband. "They passed through tunnels" to reach Egypt, she added from the house where she now lives in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip. Gaza's two million residents have lived under Israeli blockade for more than a decade, and humanitarian conditions have worsened by the year. Gaza's Islamist rulers Hamas and Israel have fought three wars since 2008 and the strip has an unemployment rate of more than 50 percent -- while around two-thirds of young people are jobless. Eighty percent of the population are dependent on international aid. There are no official figures on the number of Palestinians leaving the Gaza Strip permanently, said Samir Zaqout of the Palestinian human rights group Al-Mezan. According to data compiled by the United Nations, around 61,000 Palestinians left Gaza for Egypt last year, while only around 37,000 entered -- a deficit of 24,000, though more could eventually return. Israel grants limited numbers of exit permits, mainly for merchants and medical patients, according to Gisha, an NGO which monitors the Gaza blockade. Zaqout says the reasons young people seek to leave include unemployment and poverty, low pay, lack of freedom of expression under Hamas and the impossibility of free travel under Israel's blockade. "In the past, the idea of emigrating was considered a betrayal (of the Palestinian cause)," he said at his office in central Gaza City. "Today it is a source of pride. Even those who are engaged in politics, in the resistance (to Israel), are preparing to emigrate." The will to leave crosses all social classes, from the rich to the poor, he said.
'For my family'
For years, tunnels under the Gaza border with Egypt provided Palestinians with a way out of the enclave. Some would then take a dangerous route into Europe, often involving a journey by sea.
Egypt has since destroyed the tunnels, but it reopened its crossing with Gaza in 2018 after having kept it largely closed for years. Zorab's brother-in-law, the last of the family to emigrate, left Gaza last summer through the Rafah crossing with Egypt. As for her husband, she said he left "for the same reasons as all the others: for work. He said 'I'm going to build a future for my daughter, for my family." Her two brothers eventually reached Sweden and have established themselves there. She has however lost contact with her husband and has asked for a divorce. She and her six-year-old daughter now live with her parents. She thinks the acne-like bumps across her daughter's body are due to the landfill next door. "I would like to leave too," Zorab said. In front of her on a small wooden shelf sits the most precious object in their spartan home: a modem connected to a battery for when the Gaza Strip's frequent electricity cuts plunge the neighbourhood into darkness. "I speak with my sons everyday now," said the mother of the family, Chamaa. "The first two years, my eyes were always filled with tears." The money that her sons send keeps the house running. Nine people live in a handful of rooms that are nearly empty, furnished with mattresses on the floor and kitchen utensils. In the extended family, at least 20 men have left the Gaza Strip and some died in the process.Zaqout of Al-Mezan said the reopening of the Rafah crossing has made emigrating easier.
'How many have died?' -
The mother of 27-year-old Abdallah Masri tells of how he wanted to start a new life by leaving Khan Yunis. At the end of a long journey, he reached Algeria, where he planned to leave for Europe by crossing the Mediterranean. "He called me on a Wednesday. He told me, 'I'm going tomorrow,'" said his mother Samar al-Masri, seated in her living room decorated with pictures of her oldest son. But his first attempt failed. "He seemed relaxed, but not normal" when he said he would try again, the 43-year-old woman recalled. "I warned him -- 'If you're scared, don't go!'" After having no word from him following his departure, she eventually received a call from a foreign number. "The person just told me 'Abdallah is dead.' I still don't know who was on the other end of the line," she said. Numerous Gazans know someone who died trying to make their way into exile. "I am angry with the government, with Israel and everybody who locks us in here," Samar al-Masri said, wiping tears from her eyes. "They are taking our young people away from us. How many have died?"

Ethiopian envoy says Sudan talks to resume as strike suspended
Reuters, Khartoum/Wednesday, 12 June 2019/Sudan’s military and opposition groups have agreed to resume talks on the formation of a transitional council, an Ethiopian envoy said on Tuesday, as an opposition alliance said it was suspending its campaign of civil disobedience and strikes. Sudan’s Transitional Military Council also agreed to release political prisoners as a confidence-building measure, special envoy Mahmoud Dirir told reporters in Khartoum. The steps appeared to show a softening of positions after talks between the two sides collapsed following the violent dispersal of a protest sit-in on June 3. The crackdown, in which dozens of people were killed, dealt a big setback to hopes of a transition towards democratic elections following the overthrow of veteran leader Omar al-Bashir in April. The Declaration of Freedom and Change Forces (DFCF) alliance on Sunday began an open-ended strike that brought much activity in Khartoum to a standstill. The alliance said in a statement it would suspend the strike from Wednesday until further notice, though it encouraged people to remain mobilized for possible further action. Opposition leader Khaled Omar struck a cautious note, saying in comments to Al Hadath TV that the suspension of the campaign was “not tied to any specific political developments”. In a statement on Tuesday, the United Nations Security Council called on all parties “to continue working together towards a consensual solution to the current crisis.”

Hong Kong Police Use Tear Gas on Protesters
Associated Press/Naharnet/June 12/2019/Hong Kong police have used tear gas, pepper spray and high-pressure water hoses against protesters who have laid siege to government buildings to oppose a contentious extradition bill. Thousands of protesters blocked entry to Hong Kong's government headquarters Wednesday, delaying a legislative session on a proposed extradition bill that has become a lightning rod for concerns over greater Chinese control and erosion of civil liberties in the territory. The protesters overflowed onto a major downtown road as they overturned barriers and tussled with police outside the building that also houses the chambers where the legislature was to discuss the bill, which would allow criminal suspects in Hong Kong to be sent for trial in mainland China. A statement from a Hong Kong administrator earlier said, "I would also like to ask the people in this gathering to stay calm and leave the scene as soon as possible and not to commit any crime." Cheung gave no indication of when the delayed legislative debate would begin.
3:30 p.m.
Hong Kong officials are calling on protesters to leave the area where huge crowds are blocking streets to government headquarters and have delayed debate over a highly contentious extradition bill. The second reading of the bill that would allow suspects to face trials in mainland China was due Wednesday. Protesters and police clashed intermittently, with protesters hurling traffic cones and other objects and police responding with pepper spray. In a statement read to reporters, Chief Secretary for Administration Mathew Cheung said, "The Hong Kong government calls on people who are blocking roads to ... go back to the pavement as soon as possible."He added, "I would also like to ask the people in this gathering to stay calm and leave the scene as soon as possible and not to commit any crime."Cheung gave no indication of when the legislative debate would begin.
2 p.m.
Dozens of people are protesting outside the Hong Kong Consulate in Taiwan to denounce proposed amendments to Hong Kong's extradition laws. Hong Kong students sitting outside the consulate in Taipei held posters reading "No extradition to China" and chanting "Hong Kong government, Shame on you." Ho Wing Tung, a Hong Kong student in Taiwan, said the rule of law won't exist if the legislation passes and she is afraid the "one country, two systems" principle would become a joke. Dissident Hong Kong bookseller Lam Wing-kee, who left Hong Kong for Taiwan over extradition fears, said the extradition law amendments go against human rights. In Hong Kong, thousands of protesters were blocking entry to Hong Kong's government headquarters. A legislative session to debate the bill has been delayed.
11 a.m.
The secretariat of Hong Kong's Legislative Council says it has delayed the start of a legislative session on a contentious extradition bill as protesters massed outside to block entry to the chamber and government headquarters.
A statement from the government's press service said the session scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. Wednesday would be "changed to a later time to be determined" by the secretariat. Council members would be notified of the time of the meeting later, the statement said. An overwhelmingly young crowd of demonstrators filled roads in the Wan Chai district to block access to the government offices. Many took the day off from work and classes to press their case that the amendments to the extradition bill would erode the semi-autonomous Chinese territory's civil liberties.
10:30 a.m.
Hundreds of protesters have blocked access to Hong Kong's legislature and government headquarters in a bid to block debate on a highly controversial extradition bill that would allow accused people to be sent to China for trial.
The overwhelmingly young crowd of demonstrators filled roads in the Wan Chai district. Many had taken the day off from work and classes Wednesday to press their case that the amendments to the extradition bill would erode the semi-autonomous Chinese territory's civil liberties. Under its "one country, two systems" framework, Hong Kong was guaranteed its own social, legal and political systems for 50 years following its handover from British rule in 1997. However, China's ruling Communist Party has been seen as increasingly reneging on that agreement by forcing through unpopular legal changes.
8:50 a.m.
Hundreds of protesters have surrounded government headquarters in Hong Kong as the territory's legislature prepare to open discussion on a highly controversial extradition law that would allow residents accused of wrongdoing to be sent to China for trial. The overwhelmingly young crowd of demonstrators overturned barriers and tussled with police Wednesday morning as they sought to enter government headquarters and offices of the Legislative Council.
Under its "one country, two systems" framework, Hong Kong was guaranteed the right to retain its own social, legal and political systems for 50 years following its handover from British rule in 1997. However, China's ruling Communist Party has been seen as increasingly reneging on that agreement by forcing through unpopular legal changes.
A vote on the amended laws is scheduled for June 20.

The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on June 12-13/2019
Arabs' Nightmare: Absorbing Palestinians
Khaled Abu Toameh/Gatestone Institute/June 12/2019
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14366/arabs-nightmare-absorbing-palestinians
Lebanon says it fully supports the Palestinians in their fight against Israel -- but would like to see them leave the country as soon as possible.
This is the modern-day version of Arab "solidarity" with their Palestinian brothers: discrimination and apartheid -- no jobs, no citizenship, no health care and no social services.
Nor do Palestinian leaders give a damn about the welfare of their people. If they did, it would be hard to justify their impressive efforts to foil an economic conference whose main goal is to lift their people out of the economic hell these very leaders created and vigorously maintain.
The Lebanese are worried that a new law for the management of Palestinian refugee camps will pave the way for the "resettlement" of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in Lebanon. The prospect of "resettling" Palestinians is a nightmare that has been haunting the Lebanese for decades.
Like most Arab countries, Lebanon has long treated Palestinians as second-class citizens. It has been depriving them of basic rights, including citizenship, employment, heath care, education, social services and property ownership. The vast majority of the 450,000 Palestinians living in Lebanon do not have Lebanese citizenship.
In 2001, the Lebanese Parliament passed a law prohibiting Palestinians from owning property, and Lebanese law also restricts their ability to work in as many as 20 professions. Lebanon continues to ignore calls by various human rights groups to the Lebanese authorities to end discrimination against Palestinians.
A 2007 report by Amnesty International noted:
"We urge the Lebanese to take immediate measures to eliminate all forms of discrimination against Palestinian refugees in order to enable them to exercise their economic, social and cultural rights on the same basis as the rest of the population of Lebanon. Continuing restrictions which deny Palestinian refugees access to their rights to work, education and adequate housing and health are wholly unjustified and should be lifted without further procrastination or delay."
Instead of improving the living conditions of the Palestinians, the Lebanese seem to be brainstorming on how to rid themselves of their unwelcome Arab brothers.
Some Lebanese are even concerned about a new law which, they believe, could pave the way for the "resettlement" of Palestinians in Lebanon. The reason for their concern: a report in a Lebanese newspaper about a new law to "administer" Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon.
The proposed law, drafted by the Lebanese-Palestinian Dialogue Committee, aims to ease tensions between the two sides and improve the living conditions of Palestinians in refugee camps in Lebanon.
Article One of the law states that its goal is to "regulate the management of the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon while preserving their Palestinian national identity and affirming the sovereignty of the Lebanese state as a host country in these camps."
The law will allow a Lebanese "national commission" to determine the geographic scope of each camp, conduct a comprehensive population survey of its residents and manage public services, including water, electricity, sanitation and infrastructure.
The law comes amid continued tensions between the Lebanese authorities and Palestinians, particularly in the aftermath of armed clashes between rival Palestinian factions in Lebanon's 12 refugee camps. The Lebanese security forces do not operate inside the camps, which have long been the scene of armed clashes between Palestinian groups, including Hamas, Fatah and Islamic State (ISIS) terrorists.
Last month, the Palestinians reached an agreement with the Lebanese authorities to "demilitarize" the Mieh Mieh refugee camp in southern Lebanon, which was the scene of armed clashes between rival Palestinian groups in the past two years. The agreement allows the Lebanese army to operate inside the camp, home to some 5,000 Palestinians.
Yet not all Lebanese seem to be satisfied with the way their government is handling the issue of the Palestinians in Lebanon. The Lebanese fear that the new law to manage the Palestinian refugee camp is nothing but a disguise to "resettle" the Palestinians in Lebanon, thus tampering with the country's demographics.
Lebanon's Maronite League, a private and apolitical organization of Lebanese Christian notables dedicated mainly to defending the independence and sovereignty of Lebanon, expressed concern that the Lebanese authorities were about to replace the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) in managing the affairs of the Palestinians.
Evidently concerned that the proposed law would result in the "resettlement" of Palestinians in Lebanon, the Maronite League said that it "coincides with the talk about [US President Donald Trump's yet-to-be-announced] Deal of the Century, which seeks to deprive the Palestinians of their right to return" to their former homes inside Israel.
In an attempt to refute the charges of "resettlement," the Lebanese-Palestinian Dialogue Committee, which initiated the controversial law, denied any connection to Trump's peace plan.
"The Lebanese and Palestinians are unanimous in rejecting the resettlement [of Palestinians] and confronting the Deal of the Century," the committee said in a statement. "Any discussion that is based on facts rather than assumptions and fragile scenarios, is a sound and welcome debate."
The new law may be a sincere attempt to improve the living conditions of the Palestinians living in refugee camps in Lebanon. However, each time a plan is presented to improve the living conditions of Palestinians, whether in any Arab country or the West Bank and Gaza Strip, conspiracy theorists immediately do their best to derail these efforts.
The Palestinian Authority (PA) leadership has called on Palestinians and Arabs to boycott the US-led economic conference scheduled to take place in Bahrain later this month. The planned conference, as part of the Deal of the Century, is aimed at achieving economic prosperity for the Palestinians.
Palestinian leaders, however, claim that the Bahrain economic workshop is part of an American-Israeli conspiracy to bribe the Palestinians into surrendering their "national rights".
The Arab states, for their part, hardly seem to care about the Palestinians. Otherwise, they would not have kept them in squalor in refugee camps, decade after decade. Lebanon says it fully supports the Palestinians in their fight against Israel -- but would like to see them leave the country as soon as possible. Here is the message Lebanon and other Arab countries are sending to the Palestinians: "We love you and we support you -- and stay far, far away from us."
This is the modern-day version of Arab "solidarity" with their Palestinian brothers: discrimination and apartheid -- no jobs, no citizenship, no health care and no social services.
Nor do Palestinian leaders give a damn about the welfare of their people. If they did, it would be hard to justify their impressive efforts to foil an economic conference whose main goal is to lift their people out of the economic hell these very leaders created and vigorously maintain.
*Khaled Abu Toameh, an award-winning journalist based in Jerusalem, is a Shillman Journalism Fellow at Gatestone Institute.
© 2019 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.

Turkey: Attacks on Journalists Turn More Violent
Uzay Bulut/Gatestone Institute/June 12/2019
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14359/turkey-attacks-journalists
"We sincerely hope that, in the coming weeks... journalists across the country will be able to disseminate news and information without fear of retaliation.... Attacks like those against Demirağ and Özyol, if left unpunished, will have a serious chilling effect on the country's journalists and further strengthen a climate of fear, which seriously hinders Turkey's credibility as a democracy..." — Letter sent by The International Press Institute along with 20 other press freedom and freedom of expression organizations, to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, May 16, 2019.
Less than a week after that letter was sent, Ergin Çevik, the editor-in chief of the Güney Haberci news site, was badly beaten in Antalya by three assailants. Those detained in relation with the attack were released on probation.
On May 24, Hakan Denizli, founder of the Adana-based daily, Egemen, was the victim of an armed assault, which landed him in intensive care. On May 26, Sabahattin Önkibar, a columnist for the Odatv news site, was beaten while on his way home from work. Önkibar filed a complaint, yet the four suspects who were detained by police were subsequently released.
Journalists also face the risk of losing their jobs if the government does not approve of their reporting.
A new trend of physically attacking journalists has been emerging in Turkey. The country has already incarcerated of at least 146 members of the media, who are in prison serving sentences or are in pre-trial detention. A number of recent assaults not only illustrate this trend, but suggest approval for it on the part of Turkish authorities.
The first victim of this type of violence was Yavuz Selim Demirağ, a columnist for the Yeni Çağ daily, who was attacked in front of his house in Ankara on May 10 by a group of assailants with baseball bats.
Turkey's Journalists' Association (TGC) immediately issued a statement calling for the perpetrators to be brought to justice, and laying blame for the attack on the atmosphere created by the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
"The constant targeting of newspapers and journalists by politicians having difficulty embracing freedom of the press, thought and expression plays a major role in such attacks," the TGC statement read.
As if to vindicate the statement, the six suspects arrested and taken into custody for the assault on Demirağ were shortly released on the grounds that "Demirağ had not been at risk of death."
According to Faik Öztrak -- a spokesperson for the opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) -- the suspects' swift release was a clear indication that they were being protected by Turkish authorities.
On May 15, five days after the attack on Demirağ, İdris Özyol -- a columnist for Akdeniz'de Yeni Yüzyıl -- was beaten outside the newspaper's office in Antalya. One of the attackers reportedly served as Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) chairman Talu Bilgili's driver. According to Turkey's Contemporary Journalists' Association (ÇGD) Bilgili, a close ally of Erdoğan's, had previously threatened Özyol.
The day after the attack on Özyol, the International Press Institute (IPI), along with 20 other international organizations working on behalf of freedom of expression, sent a joint letter to Erdoğan. It read, in part:
"[W]e would like to request Your Excellency to condemn these attacks in the strongest possible terms and call for the police and justice system to ensure that the perpetrators of these attacks are brought to justice.
"As Turkey is preparing for a much-contested re-run of Istanbul's mayoral elections, the coming weeks will represent an important test for the country's democracy, already greatly challenged by the imprisonment of journalists across the country and the restrictions imposed on the country's news media, which greatly limit journalists' ability to report freely on issues of public interest. We sincerely hope that, in the coming weeks ahead of the June 23 elections, journalists across the country will be able to disseminate news and information without fear of retaliation. The fairness and credibility of the upcoming elections will greatly depend on voters' ability to access diverse sources of news and so take an informed decision when casting their ballots. Attacks like those against Demirağ and Özyol, if left unpunished, will have a serious chilling effect on the country's journalists and further strengthen a climate of fear, which seriously hinders Turkey's credibility as a democracy..."
On May 21, less than a week after that letter was sent, Ergin Çevik, the editor-in chief of the Güney Haberci news site, was badly beaten in Antalya by three assailants. Those detained in relation with the attack were released on probation.
On May 24, Hakan Denizli, founder of the Adana-based daily, Egemen, was the victim of an armed assault, which landed him in intensive care.
On May 26, Sabahattin Önkibar, a columnist for the Odatv news site, was beaten while on his way home from work. Önkibar filed a complaint, yet the four suspects who were detained by police were subsequently released.
In a letter of solidarity with the brutalized journalists, Turkey's Press Council wrote, in part:
"As the despicable assault against you has also shown, these incidents targeting the lives of our colleagues doing critical journalism occur in a systematic and pre-planned manner. The methods of assaulters make the impression that they are directed from the same source.
"It is clear that these unacceptable attacks aim to disregard people's right to obtain information and to frighten, threaten and intimidate those engaging in critical journalism. Although the ones targeting journalists whose duty is to obtain the news and publish them for the public good have to be penalized, those criminals are being released, which is causing an outrage among the press community and the public.
"Our media that has been brought to the point of suffocating due to censorship is subjected to systematic attacks by groups directed from similar sources, which cannot be accepted in any democratic state of law.
"These attacks have targeted journalists, but they also aim to punish people who want to learn the truth."
The repression of journalists has become routine in Turkey. According to the 2018 Media Monitoring Report by the Bianet News Agency:
"In the last two years, 7 journalists were sentenced to five life sentences and 45 years in prison in total for 'attempting coup' and 'targeting the security of the state'; 64 journalists were sentenced to 480 years and 2 months in prison in total for 'managing a terrorist organization', 'being a member of a terrorist organization' and 'aiding a terrorist organization'; 52 journalists were sentenced to prison for 122 years, 6 months and 3 days according to the Anti-Terror Law.
"123 journalists were behind bars due to professional and political activities. 47 journalists were taken into custody, 19 reporters and one media organization were assaulted, 20 journalists, reporters and columnists were convicted of 'insulting the President' because of their news stories and criticism. At least 2,950 news stories on the internet were blocked upon the rulings of the Penal Courts of Peace."
Journalists also face the risk of losing their jobs if the government does not approve of their reporting. According to Bianet, since 2016, hundreds of journalists have been "fired, forced to resign or left unemployed after the programs they prepare, or host were canceled."
*Uzay Bulut, a Turkish journalist, is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at Gatestone Institute.
© 2019 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.

The cries of Iranian women and my little sister Farah
الأميرة نور تكشف الحياة البئيسة للمرأة الإيرانية بعد الثورة وسيطرة رجال الدين..
By: Princess Noor Pahlavi/The first child of Iran’s former Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi.
Al Arabiya/June 12/2019
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/75728/%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%a3%d9%85%d9%8a%d8%b1%d8%a9-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%a5%d9%8a%d8%b1%d8%a7%d9%86%d9%8a%d8%a9-%d9%81%d8%b1%d8%ad-%d8%a8%d9%87%d9%84%d9%81%d9%8a-%d9%86%d9%88%d8%b1-%d8%aa%d9%83%d8%b4%d9%81-%d8%a7/
Public floggings, economic disempowerment, social stigmatization: These are daily reminders to the women of my country, Iran, that in the eyes of their government they are lesser.
Every day, this reality is reinforced by untold abuses, restrictions, and insults – perhaps none of which is more appalling than the travesty of girls, as young as nine, who are forced to marry men decades their senior.
When I hear of these sickening acts, I can’t help but think of my little sister, Farah.
Farah is fifteen. She’s smart, athletic, beautiful, and free, although she would argue against that last part. Like all young women, she is engaged in a constant battle with our mother to challenge every limit she can.
Farah is a force to be reckoned with, like her namesake, our grandmother. I know she has the potential to channel that into great things. So it’s painful to imagine all of her potential, her life, stolen from her by a regime that despises her.
It is difficult to imagine her in an early marriage when she still has so much maturing, emotionally and physically, left to do.
Farah is accepted by friends, encouraged by teachers, and offered every opportunity to succeed. But who would she have been if society hadn’t propelled her forward, but had instead forcibly veiled her and violated her most fundamental rights?
Farah is growing up at a time when the women of the west are removing the remaining roadblocks in their path to full equality. While that progress continues, it is imperative that the stories be told of the heroic women of Iran who are fighting back against the threats to their rights and their very existence.
These strong and proud women are beaten down by legal discrimination, economic injustice, and social prohibitions. The World Economic Forum’s 2018 Global Gender Gap report, which ranks countries on “their progress towards gender parity,” ranks Iran 142nd out of 149 nations.
Iranian women are prohibited from the rights of divorce and equal inheritance, barred from travel without their husbands’ permission, and systematically discriminated against in the job market. There are also limitations on the subjects that Iranian women, who make up more than 60 percent of university students, can study.
Farah is bonded to my mother in a different way than my sister, Iman, and I are. We had each other growing up, but my mother calls Farah her little soulmate. Had Farah grown up in Iran, she might have lost our mother this year, because of the lack of attention to women’s medical care there. The issue of women’s health in Iran became even clearer after my mother’s recent cancer diagnosis and her subsequent campaign to raise awareness about the disease.
Everyone has a story – and those of the women of Iran are truly harrowing. Through social media, they tell me of the limits they face and the abuses they endure, which are heartbreaking. Women are harassed by “morality” police and denied jobs, which might insult their husbands’ dignity.
But Iran was not always like this. These restrictions are not holdovers from a bygone era or unenforced, vestigial statutes yet to be ameliorated by reformers.
Prior to the Islamic Revolution, my grandfather and great-grandfather instituted widespread reforms granting extensive rights and protections to women. Their vision supported the progress of a generation of women. Many of those same women were instrumental in passing the Family Protection Laws of 1967 and 1975, which took massive steps to establish equality.
These laws banned polygamy, granted women the right to divorce, and raised the age of marriage for women to 18.
After 1979, each of these was annulled. In December 2018, a motion to partially limit the practice of forced child marriage and raise the age of marriage for girls to 13 was defeated.
These systematic violations of the basic rights of women in Iran are calculated limitations on their independence and attempts to suffocate their natural strength and courage, and they must not prevail.
Iranian women, like Farah, are independent and strong-willed, so they will continue to fight their oppressors every day, but they need support. The present wave of demand for greater women’s equality can’t just be for western women. It has to be for all women.
The encouragement, validation, and freedom Farah has had are exactly what the women of Iran deserve. If you pay attention, you will hear millions of Iranian women shouting, not to be saved, but to be heard. Will you listen?
*Princess Noor Pahlavi is the first child of Iran’s former Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi. She’s an MBA student at Columbia University and works as an advisor to the non-profit impact investment fund Acumen.
**This article was published in Persian by the Independent Persian on June 7, 2019.

Israel gladly fills void left by disengaged Palestinians
Dr. Hanan Ashrawi//Arab News/June 12/2019
Palestinians are absolutely correct that US President Donald Trump’s efforts on the Arab-Israeli conflict have been extremely pro-Israel. But is it a smart strategy for the Palestinians to disengage from the process completely and remain absent from what Trump is doing?
The Israeli government has obviously welcomed the imbalanced diplomatic impasse, engaging the extremely pro-Israel actions and representatives Trump has sent to shepherd his Middle East efforts.
How Palestinians have removed themselves from this bad situation, only to make it worse by not directly pushing back with Trump, is a course they have pursued from day one. It is a pattern the Israelis have exploited since even before the creation of their state.
Rejection is not a strategy. In fact, it is symptomatic of the absence of a strategy. Rejection is the act of taking protest way too far, beyond the productivity of a boycott, for example, which has highlighted the powerful push made by the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel’s oppressive and illegal violations of international law.
Palestinians forget that, unlike in the Arab world, American leaders are only in influential public offices for relatively short periods of time. Trump has been serving as president for two years and will serve a maximum of six more before his influence will come to an end and he is replaced. Four or eight years, depending on election results, may seem like a long time, but the Palestinian tragedy has been ongoing for more than 71 years already. Why step back from engagement, even in a negative environment, and rely solely on empty words of anger, protest and even name-calling? Israel’s actions have always been based on one fundamental strategy: Take whatever you can and build on it by remaining engaged. It doesn’t matter whether the circumstances are positive or negative, just stay engaged. The Israelis address every diplomatic turn with a new strategy that builds on their goals.
Why step back from engagement, even in a negative environment, and rely solely on empty words of anger, protest and even name-calling? However, remaining politically engaged might not work for Palestinians because they have failed miserably on another front: The engaging of public perceptions and understanding through effective strategy and public relations. Palestinians, like many Arab countries, lack any professional public relations strategy when it comes to politics.
But Palestinians do have a discerning voice in Dr. Hanan Ashrawi, a strong woman from Ramallah who is both articulate and measured in her public comments. She doesn’t lose her temper and get emotional, as many Palestinian and Arab spokespeople and activists invariably do when confronted by negative developments.
Ashrawi is currently the spokesperson for the Palestine Liberation Organization, which is fast superseding the powerless Palestinian Authority government of Mahmoud Abbas because of the latter’s disengagement. She is definitely Palestine’s most articulate champion, but one champion without enough budget to fund a single significant media campaign is certainly not enough to counter and confront Israel’s massive propaganda machine and its ties to the Trump administration. Of course, Ashrawi’s skills at exposing Israel’s lies and America’s bias are one reason why pro-Israeli activists successfully lobbied the Trump administration to block her planned public appearances in the US by denying her a tourist visa last month. I know Ashrawi is smart. I’ve met her and interviewed her many times. She even enjoys my standup comedy performances, which tells me she has a broad understanding of the power of communications.
I think that, with the right financial backing, Ashrawi could create an effective communications strategy to neutralize Israel’s stranglehold on American politics, the US Congress, Trump, and the confused minds of a majority of Americans, who wrongly believe that Israel’s government is a victim, rather than the purveyor of violence and terrorism that it is.
With financial contribution from the region and a strategic communications strategy that places her views on the influential op-ed pages of America’s top-20 newspapers, as well as a strong marketing campaign, she could easily reverse the absence of an accurate understanding of the Israel-Palestine conflict in the minds of many Americans. Even without a penny of support and an effective PR strategy, Ashrawi should be everywhere Israel goes — including the US-led Bahrain economic workshop later this month — to champion the Palestinian cause. Why would Palestinians not be in Manama to at least use the event as a platform? The rest of the world will be there watching and listening. But, without a Palestinian presence, the world will not hear the voice of the Palestinian cause.
*Ray Hanania is an award-winning former Chicago City Hall political reporter and columnist. He can be reached at his personal website at www.Hanania.com. Twitter: @RayHanania

Central Africa’s deadly hot zone of disease and insurgency
Dr. Theodore Karasik/Arab News/June 12/2019
Events in southern Central Africa are beginning to make this region inflamed with violence and disease. The prevalence of increasingly destabilizing events, including the further spread of Ebola and the insurgency and violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Mozambique are turning this part of Africa into a hot zone. Now Ebola is in Uganda too. Hot zone usually refers to a contagion and quarantine until conditions on the ground are stabilized. The phrase is also used to describe a violent scene under investigation. Here, hot zone refers to the nexus of disease and insurgency that can be so destabilizing for the continent. This toxic mix is extremely unhealthy and demands attention. The Ebola outbreak in DRC last week broke through the 2,000 cases barrier, including almost 1,400 deaths, as population movements, conflict and poor governance are combining to create a perfect storm for disease outbreak and spread. To make matters worse, thieves are now targeting Ebola labs. The disease is being spread — maliciously — by the militias that are rampaging through infected zones.
The fact that Ebola is now truly mixing with the country’s violent landscape is a complicating factor, as international health care officials are developing an inoculation ring in Rwanda, Uganda and South Sudan that began in mid-January. In effect, a program of spatial containment is being instituted.
The DRC security situation is most problematic in the east of the country, where dozens of armed militias struggle over resources such as gold, diamonds, copper and coltan for profit and power. The region is home to the vast majority of the country’s 70 armed groups, all pursuing shifting local and national agendas. Most of them are small, numbering less than 200 fighters, but the havoc they have caused over decades, especially in the North and South Kivu provinces, have made eastern DRC the epicenter of deadly violence and humanitarian crises. This mix makes treating Ebola problematic, as this is the first time that an outbreak has occurred in an area with daily violence.
Meanwhile, in Mozambique, the threat of a similar situation is growing.
There, Daesh appears to have infected the extremist insurgency in Cabo Delgado province that has already claimed 200 lives. The group is increasingly engaging the Mozambican army, specifically during Ramadan and into Eid. Cabo Delgado is a gas-rich Muslim-majority province, with the Rovuma Basin gas fields adding an extra dimension to the insurgency, as international exploration companies have been caught up in the violence. Next to the Tanzanian border, the attacks by insurgents have been ongoing for a number of years and have been tied to the gas development projects and their impact on the country’s north. The unrest has caused hundreds of people to flee villages for the relative safety of islands and larger towns.
The fact that Ebola is now truly mixing with the DRC’s violent landscape is a complicating factor.
The unrest is also a concern to companies such as Eni and the others working in the Coral South field. February’s fatal attack on contractors working at the development site of Anadarko’s liquefied natural gas export facility on the Afungi Peninsula was believed to be the first extremist attack on foreign oil workers in Mozambique. Origins are important. In Mozambique, the insurgency’s origins go back to the 2000s and the Islamic Council of Mozambique. In Cabo Delgado, they created a sub-organization within the Islamic Council called Ansar Al-Sunna and built new mosques, but a sect broke off and this is what has become known locally as “Al-Shabaab.” This group attempted to impose its view of Shariah in various towns and police had to intervene several times in 2015. In 2016, government forces began arresting group leaders and this set off the current round of violence.
The state’s actions against Al-Shabaab’s leaders seem to have been the tipping point toward their passing into armed action. In October 2017, this group attacked the port town of Mocimboa da Praia and the surrounding communities. It now seems to have become more organized and its attacks and activities have focused on a coastal belt about 150 kilometers wide, from Pemba, the provincial capital, to the Tanzanian border.
There are reports that the group’s international connections played into the group’s birth. Links to Somalia, the DRC and Uganda are mentioned, but a serious relationship with Mozambique’s Al-Shabaab has yet to be proven. It is known that Mozambican clerics have trained in Tanzania for more than a century and exchanges have taken place among religious communities on both sides of the border for even longer. So it would be unsurprising if the Mozambican so-called Al-Shabaab had connected with like-minded Muslims in Tanzania in the 2010s. Tanzanian extremists faced their own threats from state forces and some fled into Mozambique, taking refuge with Al-Shabaab. This has reinforced and partially internationalized the insurgency.
Overall, the combination of the above represents an emerging hot zone of insurgency, militia activity, extremism and disease, with poor governmental capabilities for dealing with a widening geopolitical contagion.
*Dr. Theodore Karasik is a non-resident senior fellow at the Lexington Institute and a national security expert, specializing in Europe, Eurasia and the Middle East. He worked for the RAND Corporation and publishes widely in the US and international media. Twitter: @tkarasik

Island nations need all global energy investments to be clean
Mike Eman/Arab News/June 12/2019
To live in a small island state today is to reckon regularly with the cruelest irony of climate change. Islands contribute little to global warming, but they are the first to suffer from its devastating effects and the least equipped to manage them.
As carbon dioxide emissions from larger, wealthier industrialized countries continue to warm the planet, rising sea levels claim these islands’ territory. Furthermore, massive hurricanes like Maria and Irma, strengthened beyond historic norms by unnaturally warm waters, destroy homes and power systems, leaving death, destruction and illness in their wake. As these threats become the new normal, small island states are finding solidarity in common vulnerabilities. We are also sharing a newfound spirit of resilience, and are committed to working together to help the world combat climate change. More specifically, our islands can serve as ideal laboratories for testing innovative clean energy technologies.
In Aruba, during my tenure as prime minister, we established a goal of generating 100 percent of our electricity with clean energy by 2020. We landed this initiative by working with key partners — universities such as Harvard and TU Delft and think tanks such as the Rocky Mountain Institute. We were also supported by Sir Richard Branson, Al Gore, Wubbo Ockels, Daan Roosegaarde, and Jose Maria Figueres, all leaders in the climate and sustainability movement. Most islands still rely heavily on imported fossil fuels for their relatively small energy needs, putting them at the mercy of global markets. As a result, islanders must endure unpredictable price shocks and supply disruptions, especially in times of crisis. By contrast, locally generated renewable energy, such as wind and solar power — supported by high-storage batteries — makes islands more resilient and stabilizes their electricity supplies.
Small island states want clean energy now, for our own well-being and for the good of all humankind. We are eager to show the world how practical and affordable it is to shift away from fossil fuels while expanding the economy, ensuring reliable access to energy for all, and creating good jobs for local populations.
Small island states want clean energy now, for our own well-being and for the good of all humankind.
Many of our Caribbean neighbors have already set ambitious targets for deep decarbonization and the development of renewable energy. Jamaica’s prime minister, for example, wants his country to generate 50 percent of its energy from renewables by 2030. Barbados intends to go even further, achieving carbon neutrality and 100 percent renewable energy by that date. Unfortunately, foreign investors often continue to support carbon energy infrastructure projects in small island states and other developing countries. For example, China has committed more than $20 billion in funding for coal plants around the world. Japan continues to fund new coal projects domestically and abroad — the only G7 country to do so. Such investments threaten to keep vulnerable regions anchored to fossil fuels for decades, while worsening long-term climate risks. Numerous large, developed countries have pledged to help small, vulnerable nation states adapt to climate change. Yet these donors and lenders sometimes undermine their own commitment by also funding new fossil fuel projects.
Richer countries should focus on climate-smart investments aimed at reducing the future burden of global warming. According to one estimate, the average cost of adapting to climate change for nine of the world’s most vulnerable countries could reach $15 billion per year between 2015 and 2030.
China provides a good example of the current inconsistency regarding clean energy. At home, the country is showing how a rapidly industrializing economy can shutter coal plants and increase access to energy with clean renewables. Yet, under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) — China’s massive transnational infrastructure investment program — most of the energy projects in developing countries are focused on oil, gas and coal.
It doesn’t have to be this way. China can easily export its clean energy and climate-smart technology when borrowers request it. In Argentina, for example, the Export-Import Bank of China is lending nearly $400 million to finance the construction of South America’s largest solar farm.
In addition to the BRI, other countries, such as Japan, are also ramping up investment in island states and throughout the developing world. Countries receiving these funds must think carefully about how such projects will serve their citizens and local communities in the long term, and how new brown coal-fired power plants will add to their already heavy climate change burden. Meanwhile, donor countries must consider how their foreign investments align with their pledges under the 2015 Paris climate agreement. The only possible way to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial temperatures — a truly existential threshold for many small island states — is to immediately stop new construction of fossil fuel plants. If an energy project is not compatible with this 1.5 C limit, can a self-proclaimed “climate leader” such as China or Japan justify funding it?
The Paris agreement ushered in a new era of international cooperation, as world leaders agreed to work together to combat the threat of global warming. Vulnerable islands like mine welcome foreign investment in our energy future; provided that projects are clean and carbon-free, and help our citizens achieve true energy security.Small island states are disproportionately affected by climate change. But, with help from our lenders, we can also punch above our weight in helping to mitigate its worst effects.
*Mike Eman was Prime Minister of Aruba from 2009-2017. Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2019. www.project-syndicate.org