LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
March 14/2019

Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani

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Bible Quotations For today
If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness

Second Letter to the Corinthians 11/18.22-30: “Since many boast according to human standards, I will also boast. Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they descendants of Abraham? So am I. Are they ministers of Christ? I am talking like a madman I am a better one: with far greater labours, far more imprisonments, with countless floggings, and often near death. Five times I have received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I received a stoning. Three times I was shipwrecked; for a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from bandits, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers and sisters; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, hungry and thirsty, often without food, cold and naked. And, besides other things, I am under daily pressure because of my anxiety for all the churches. Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to stumble, and I am not indignant? If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.”

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News published on March 13-14/2019
Chances Rise for Jamali in Tripoli By-Elections after Rifi’s Withdrawal
Director General of Higher Education Arrested on 'Fraud' Charges
Gharib: Coordination with Syria Key to Repatriate Refugees
Lebanon Closes Airspace to Boeing 737 MAX, Says Civil Aviation
Tawile: Politics Must Serve the Economy, Not the Opposite
Kataeb leader Samy Gemayel Meets with French Parliamentary Delegation
Beirut Airport Bans Boeing 737 Max From Lebanese Airspace
NGO Unveils Top 20 Most Polluted Cities in Lebanon
Israeli Army (IDF) Hezbollah Head Of Golan Operations Murdered US Troops In Iraq
The IDF’s exposure of Hizballah’s Golan unit ties in with US plans to deal with pro-Iranian militias around Iraqi-Syrian border
Israel says notorious Hezbollah commander building terror unit in Golan Heights
USAID inaugurates CSP to assist Lebanon’s communities

Litles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on March 13-14/2019
Netanyahu hits back at ‘Turkey’s dictator Erdogan’
Turkey's Erdogan Brands Netanyahu 'Tyrant' Who 'Massacred' Children
Sistani tells Rouhani: Arms must be limited to the control of the state
US-backed Syrian forces push on as ISIS extremists fight back
Algerian Teachers, Students Protest against Bouteflika
Guaido Vows to Oust Maduro as Thousands of Venezuelans Protest
British MPs Set to Vote on No-Deal Brexit
Canada is closely following developments in Algeria

Titles For The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on March 13-14/2019
Israeli Army (IDF) Hezbollah Head Of Golan Operations Murdered US Troops In Iraq/Jerusalem Post/March 13/19
The IDF’s exposure of Hizballah’s Golan unit ties in with US plans to deal with pro-Iranian militias around Iraqi-Syrian border/DEBKAfile/March13/19
Israel says notorious Hezbollah commander building terror unit in Golan Heights/AFP, Jerusalem/Wednesday, 13 March 2019
USAID inaugurates CSP to assist Lebanon’s communities/Maria Matar/Annahar/March 13/19
Palestinians: Abbas Stands 'Trial' for Treason/Khaled Abu Toameh/Gatestone Institute/March 13/19
Brexit vote betrays UK’s lack of direction/Cornelia Meyer/Arab News/March 13/19
Was Amazon’s removal of Robinson’s anti-Islam book a mistake?/Peter Welby/Arab News/March 13/19
Israeli election boycott would play into Netanyahu’s hands/Ray Hanania/Arab News/March 13/19

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News published on March 13-14/2019
Chances Rise for Jamali in Tripoli By-Elections after Rifi’s Withdrawal
Naharnet/March 13/19/Following ex-Minister Ashraf Rifi’s withdrawal from waging Tripoli’s by-elections in favor of Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s candidate Dima Jamali, it is still unclear whether her rival Taha Naji of the Association of Islamic Charitable Projects is going to withdraw himself, reports said on Wednesday. Tuesday’s reconciliation between Prime Minister Saad Hariri and ex-minister Ashraf Rifi resulted in the latter’s withdrawal. “We are rising above trivial things because the country is in danger and the priority is for confronting the challenges,” Rifi said. Ex-minister Rashid Derbas and ex-PM Fouad Saniora have exerted efforts to mediate the reconciliation between the two men. Hariri, Rifi, Derbas and Saniora met at the latter’s residence on Tuesday. Derbas told al-Liwaa daily: “It was not difficult to mend ties between the two because of their initial willingness to turn the page on previous disagreements and reconcile.”He added: “It was not difficult to convince Rifi not to wage Tripoli’s by-elections,” in favor of Dima Jamali whose membership was revoked by the Constitutional Council after an appeal submitted by Naji. Derbas explained that discussions about disagreements between the two men over political options that Hariri adopted before, “did not take more than five minutes.”Hariri concluded that it is everyone's right to disagree with politics, but our responsibilities require us to meet and cooperate in the interest of the citizen and the unity of the same class. Derbas noted that Rifi is set to hold a press conference on Thursday “where he is going to announce his intention to withdraw, that will contribute to securing the win for al-Mustaqbal Movement candidate Dima Jamali by acclamation.”On the other hand, sources of the Association of Islamic Charitable Projects of Naji, have not yet determined whether to wage the elections or not.

Director General of Higher Education Arrested on 'Fraud' Charges
Naharnet/March 13/19/Police have arrested Director General of Higher Education in Lebanon Ahmed el-Jammal on suspicion of being involved in issuing fake certificates in return for money, al-Joumhouria daily reported Wednesday. Jammal was arrested at the request of Minister Education and Higher Education Akram Shehayyeb. The daily said that Jammal was suspected of being involved in “issuing fraudelent certificates to a number of students who applied to the military school in return for money which his brother has provided.”Jammal and four other employees in the Education Ministry were reportedly summoned for interrogation on Tuesday.

Gharib: Coordination with Syria Key to Repatriate Refugees
/Naharnet/March 13/19/State Minister for Refugee Affairs Saleh al-Gharib, whose statement about refugees was slammed by the PM, was quoted as saying that coordination with the Syrian government was the “only way to secure the return of the displaced,” al-Joumhouria daily reported on Wednesday. “My main mission is to secure a safe return for the refugees to Syria that can only be attained through cooperation with the Syrian government. This is the only key, let them find another if they can,” Gharib was quoted as saying. "I am not interested in getting money for my ministry, as those seeking to settle the displaced do, and I am not the Red Cross or the High Relief Commission to dwell on the day-to-day affairs of the displaced. My main aim is to secure their return to their homeland under the best possible conditions,” Gharib was quoted. According to the daily, Gharib is in the process of finalizing a paper to address the issue of displaced persons, which he will submit to the Council of Ministers after its completion. On Tuesday, Prime Minister Saad Hariri blasted a statement issued by Gharib over the donor Brussels conference on Syria which Gharib was “excluded” from. Gharib had on Sunday issued a stern statement, lamenting that “some political parties are acting against the desired patriotic approach and there is insistence on returning to the policies of the previous government on the refugee file.”

Lebanon Closes Airspace to Boeing 737 MAX, Says Civil Aviation

Agence France Presse/Naharnet/March 13/19/Lebanon's civil aviation authority said on Wednesday it has banned Boeing 737 MAX passenger jets from the country's airspace after a deadly plane crash in Ethiopia at the weekend. The authority also barred the aircraft from taking off and landing in Lebanon, according to a statement carried by the official National News Agency. On Sunday, a new Ethiopian Airlines 737 MAX 8 went down minutes into a flight from Addis Ababa to Nairobi, killing all 157 people on board. This followed the October crash of a Lion Air jet of the same model in Indonesia, claiming 189 lives. Despite Boeing's assurances that the 737 MAX is safe and reliable, countries including Britain, China and India have grounded the model or banned it from their airspace as they await the results of an investigation into the latest crash. The widening action against the aircraft has put pressure on Boeing -- the world's biggest plane manufacturer -- to prove it is safe, and the company has said it is rolling out flight software updates by April that could address issues with a faulty sensor. There are about 350 MAX 8s currently in service around the world.

Tawile: Politics Must Serve the Economy, Not the Opposite
Kataeb.org/Wednesday 13th March 2019/Head of the Kataeb's Economic and Social Council, Jean Tawile, Wednesday reiterated the party’s opposition to the current government, saying that all national unity cabinet have proved to be a failure because they don't allow accountability. “We hold onto our project as an opposition force; we will carry out the fiercest battles in a constructive manner so that citizens would realize where the problems lie,” Tawile said in an interview with Free Lebanon radio.
“It is rare in Lebanon to see a party that adheres to its political program as well as to see citizens holding their party to account based on the platform it is suggesting,” he added. Tawile stressed that politics should serve the economy, not the other way, saying that political settlements are undermining the country and its people. “Thus, we must create the best environment for the citizens to excel and stay in their country,” he added. “Financial reform, modernization of laws, development of the infrastructure, reform of the educational system, development of technical and vocational education, and the activation of the oil and gas sector are the five pillars on which the country's economic plan is based,” he noted.

/Kataeb leader Samy Gemayel Meets with French Parliamentary Delegation

Kataeb.org/Wednesday 13th March 2019/Kataeb leader Samy Gemayel on Wednesday met with a delegation of French lawmakers from the East Christian Supporters' Group, including members of French President Emmanuel Macron's En Marche party as well as the Republicans Party. Following the meeting held at the Kataeb's headquarter in Saifi, Gemayel called on the French lawmakers to accord more attention to Lebanon, asking the delegation to relay the outcome of their meetings in Lebanon to the French Parliament in order to boost support for the country, and empower local forces to defend its sovereignty and independence. "The Kataeb party will continue to struggle for Lebanon and the values of democracy and human rights that we share with France," Gemayel stressed. For his part, MP Guindal Royar affirmed his country’s support and friendship for Lebanon, saying that France has many common interests with the Kataeb party, notably the establishment of a real state of law in Lebanon.""As much as France encourages dialogue between the various Lebanese parties, it still adheres to the international resolutions, especially those stipulating the disarmament of militias,” he added. The meeting was attended by Kataeb MP Elias Hankache, politburo member Joelle Bou Abboud and International Secretary Marwan Abdallah.

Beirut Airport Bans Boeing 737 Max From Lebanese Airspace

Kataeb.org/Wednesday 13th March 2019/The Director General of Civil Aviation Authority, Mohammad Chehabeddine, issued on Wednesday a circular banning Boeing 737 MAX 8 planes from landing in Beirut or flying in Lebanese airspace. A raft of countries and airlines across the world have moved to ground Boeing 737 MAX aircraft following a deadly plane crash in Ethiopia on Sunday.

NGO Unveils Top 20 Most Polluted Cities in Lebanon
Kataeb.org/Wednesday 13th March 2019/Green Globe organization issued this week the list of the most polluted cities in Lebanon. Green Globe is an independent non-governmental and non-profit organization (NGO). It was founded in 2000.
Below are the top 20 most polluted Lebanese regions:
1. Chekka
2. Bar Elias
3. Beirut
4. Tripoli
5. Choueifat
6. Bourj Hammoud
7. Antelias
8. Zouk Mosbeh
9. Qob Elias
10. Siblin-Jiyyeh-Barja
11. Ain Dara
12. Jounieh
13. Hermel
14. Halba and Akkar villages
15. Qaraoun and villages located nearby the lake
16. Selaata
17. Tyre
18. Zahle
19. Sidon
20. Baalbeck

Israeli Army (IDF) Hezbollah Head Of Golan Operations Murdered US Troops In Iraq
تقرير من الجرازولم بوست: الجيش الإسرائيلي يقول بأن مسؤول حزب الله عن عمليات الجولان علي موسى دقدوق كان قتل جنود أميركيين في العراق
Jerusalem Post/March 13/19
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/72949/jerusalem-post-israeli-army-idf-hezbollah-head-of-golan-operations-murdered-us-troops-in-iraq%d8%aa%d9%82%d8%b1%d9%8a%d8%b1-%d9%85%d9%86-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%ac%d8%b1%d8%a7%d8%b2%d9%88%d9%84%d9%85/

The Hezbollah terrorist organization has begun an attempt to establish and entrench a covert force in the Syrian Golan Heights.
The Lebanese Shi’ite terror group Hezbollah is building a new and dangerous terror network in Syria’s Golan Heights without the knowledge of Syrian President Bashar Assad, the IDF has revealed.
“The Hezbollah terrorist organization has begun an attempt to establish and entrench a covert force in the Syrian Golan Heights that is designed to act against Israel when given the order,” the IDF said on Tuesday.
It is led by senior Hezbollah commander Ali Mussa Daqduq, who spent five years in an Iraqi prison for a 2007 attack that killed five American soldiers in the Karbala Governorate. He was released in 2012, went back to Lebanon and was sent to Syria this past summer to establish the Golan terror network.
Other senior Hezbollah operatives involved in the clandestine project have been identified by the IDF as Bashar and Ismail Mustafa, Talal Hassoun and Fahim Abu Qais.
According to senior intelligence officers in the IDF’s Northern Command, Hezbollah’s Golan Project began in the summer following the reconquering of the Syrian Golan by regime troops.
All actions of operatives are compartmentalized and kept secret from each other and the local population to advance their project without the regime knowing.
“Hezbollah is taking advantage of the fact that Assad is busy in the north of the country and that villagers in the Syrian Golan need the money,” the senior officers said, stressing that “if Assad is serious then he has to have full control and know what is happening in his territory.”
The Hezbollah militants are currently focusing on familiarizing themselves with the Syrian Golan Heights and on gathering intelligence on Israel and the border area. They are also working to establish intelligence gathering capabilities against Israel, operating from civilian observation posts and regime military positions near the border.
The Golan Project has its headquarters in Damascus and the Lebanese capital of Beirut, and there are tens of operatives operating in the Syrian towns of Hader, Quneitra and Erneh who collect intelligence on Israel and military movement on the Israeli Golan Heights.
“The proximity of these communities to Israel is what allows the operatives to conduct observations continuously and without revealing their true goal – to convey information about the regular activities of our forces to Hezbollah and the leaders of the network,” the military said.
According to the senior officers, the operatives have weaponry available from the civil war and if needed, will receive additional weaponry from Lebanon or existing arsenals kept by Hezbollah and Iran in Syria.
While some of the operatives have taken part in attacks against Israel in the past, other local Syrian villagers joined for financial reasons. A portion of the operatives have undergone training by Hezbollah in sabotage, sharpshooting and firing Grad rockets.
“The Northern Command and the 210th Division have identified the enemy’s movements and are acting to strengthen the security response at the border by strengthening intelligence gathering capabilities, fire capabilities and are defending the sector with increased forces,” said Brig.-Gen. Amit Fisher, Commander of the 210th Division.
According to Fisher, IDF troops “are operating overtly and covertly to locate the enemy, force them away from the border and ensure security near the border.”
Last week, Syrian media reported that the IDF shelled Hader, and a similar incident occurred on February 11 with local Syrian media reporting that the IDF shelled a position in the city of Quneitra.
Prime Minister and Defense Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later admitted that the IDF had struck positions in Syria’s Quneitra district in February, stating that Israel is “operating every day, including yesterday, against Iran and its attempts to establish its presence in the area.”
Senior officials later admitted that the shelling targeted Iranian-backed Shi’ite militiamen who were trying to set up a base of operations near the Israeli Golan Heights.
Israel captured the Golan Heights, some 1,200 square kilometers, from Syria during the Six Day War in 1967 and unilaterally annexed it in 1981. The 1974 ceasefire accord signed following the Yom Kippur War the previous year established a buffer zone between the two enemy countries. It was patrolled by UN troops until peacekeepers were abducted by Syrian rebels 2014.
Syrian troops recaptured southern Syria seven years after losing the area to rebel groups and returned to its positions along with Hezbollah operatives. Both UN peacekeepers and Russian military police have been deployed along the Golan Heights border.
“We hold the Syrian Regime as the sovereign its territory and expect it to honor the terms of the 1974 Separation of Forces Agreement,” the military said on Tuesday, adding that “we expect it to prevent any hostile elements, including Hezbollah, from operating out of its territory. The IDF will not allow any attempt by Hezbollah to entrench itself near the border and we will act with all our might to force this terrorist organization out of the Golan Heights and ensure the stability of the region.”

The IDF’s exposure of Hizballah’s Golan unit ties in with US plans to deal with pro-Iranian militias around Iraqi-Syrian border

DEBKAfile/March13/19
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/72949/jerusalem-post-israeli-army-idf-hezbollah-head-of-golan-operations-murdered-us-troops-in-iraq%D8%AA%D9%82%D8%B1%D9%8A%D8%B1-%D9%85%D9%86-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AC%D8%B1%D8%A7%D8%B2%D9%88%D9%84%D9%85/
Israel’s military spokesman Wednesday, March 13, disclosed that Hizballah had planted a terrorist unit on the Syrian Golan for conducting attacks on Israel. The “Golan file” was discovered by the IDF Northern Command intelligence arm. It was so secret that Syria’s President Bashar Assad was not informed, said the statement. The unit under the command of Ali Musa Daqduq is said to defer directly to Hizballah chief Hassan Nasrallah. IDF Col. Amit Fischer, head of the Bashan division and the Golan sector, reported that the Hizballah unit is still getting organized and is meanwhile engaged in intelligence-gathering on Israeli troop deployments and mapping out routes and targets.
DEBKAfile assumes that the IDF high command had its own reasons for making this disclosure at this time since it is not new. Hizballah has never paused in its attempts to establish terrorist structures on the Syrian Golan with a view to opening a second front against Israel if attacked. Its presence has been consistently covered by DEBKAfile for eight months, ever last July, when the IDF allowed Syrian army units to take over rebel-held regions opposite Israel’s Golan border. Our military sources revealed at the time that Hizballah fighters were integrated in the Syrian units, disguised in Syrian army uniforms, and setting up observation posts and terrorist teams opposite IDF positions. It was those Hizballah posts near Quneitra and the Syrian Druze village of Al Khader that Israel tanks shelled in early February.
Our analysts offer some explanation for the IDF’s “revelations” at this time.
March 13 marks two months since Israel wound up its “Operation Northern Shield” for eliminating Hizballah’s cross-border tunnels from Lebanon, an operation which, incidentally, had little effect on the balance of strength between Israel and Hizballah.
Underlining the Hizballah threat from southwestern Syria will no doubt contribute to the campaign launched by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and US Senators Lindsey Graham and Ted Cruz for gaining congressional recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan.
But there is another, military, factor at work: US forces in Syria and Iraq are gearing up for action against the Iraqi-Shiite militia concentrations swarming through western Iraq and eastern Syria. On March 9, this site exclusively reported US reinforcements streaming to the front on both sides of the border.
Those troop movements continue and will be covered and analyzed in detail in the coming issue of DEBKA Weekly (for subscribers) which comes out on Friday, March 15. If you are not already a subscriber, click here to sign on.
Of especial interest are the three elements left out of the IDF disclosure. We list them below:
Background is lacking on Ali Musa Daqduq, commander of the Hizballah’s “Golan file” unit.
The two overseers of the operation, Iran and its Middle East commander, Al Qods Chief Gen. Qassem Soleimani, don’t rate a mention.
3. Neither does the Iraqi Shiite militia, Asaib Ahl al-Haq (the Khazali Network), which is closely allied to the Lebanese Hizballah and on March 7 issued a “call for resistance against the US presence in the region.” Daqduq has close ties with this militia and has a history with its commander Qais al-Khazali.
Daduq himself is a Lebanese Shiite who was employed as a senior Hizballah operational activist in Lebanon from 1983. In May 2006, he was sent to Tehran to assist the Revolutionary Guards Al Qods external terrorist arm train and organize the Iraqi Shiite militias for battle against the US and its coalition allies.
After that, he continued to work closely with Gen. Soleimani in the role of adviser to the Khazali Network. Daqduq took part in the Shiite militia’s operations in southern Iraq under orders from Soleimani. One of them took place on Jan. 20, 2007 against the regional coordination command in Karbala, in which four American soldiers were kidnapped and murdered.
Taking all this information into account, the Golan operation uncovered by the Israeli military on March 13 should be counted as an Iranian-Shiite-Hizballah project with three notorious commanders, Iran’s Qassem Soleimani, Iraq’s Qais al-Khazali and Lebanon’s Hassan Nasrallah.

Israel says notorious Hezbollah commander building terror unit in Golan Heights
AFP, Jerusalem/Wednesday, 13 March 2019
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=72949&action=edit
Israel’s army said Wednesday it had uncovered a unit recently created by Hezbollah across the ceasefire line in the Syrian Golan Heights and led by a commander previously jailed over an attack on US forces.
With President Bashar al-Assad regaining control of southern Syria with the help of Russia and Hezbollah backer Iran, Israel is concerned that a front against it could be established there.Hezbollah, based in neighboring Lebanon, has also been supporting Assad in the war. Israel alleged the new unit, “masterminded” by Hezbollah, was being established “to eventually control teams of Syrian operatives who will launch attacks against Israel”.“We are not going to allow Hezbollah to establish a terror infrastructure on the Golan capable of striking Israeli civilians,” said Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus, Israeli military spokesman. “We hold the Syrian regime responsible for anything that happens inside Syria aimed at Israel.”The army said the unit was in the establishment and recruitment stage and was not yet operational. It said it is led by Hezbollah commander Ali Musa Daqduq. The accusations against Daqduq came as Israel seeks US recognition of its claim of sovereignty over parts of the Golan Heights, a strategic plateau on the Syrian frontier, which it captured in a 1967 war and deems a key security buffer. Israel's acting foreign minister was quoted as saying such US recognition would be "an appropriate" response to what he said was increased Hezbollah activity on the Golan.
Iraqi detention
Daqduq was released from detention in 2012 in Iraq, where he had been accused by the United States of orchestrating a 2007 kidnapping that resulted in the killing of five US military personnel. The United States had handed Daqduq over to Baghdad in 2011 after failing to secure a custody deal ahead of the US military's withdrawal from Iraq. Washington said it had received Baghdad's assurances Daqduq would be prosecuted, but he was later cleared by an Iraqi court and repatriated to Lebanon. There was no immediate response to Israel's allegations on Wednesday from Hezbollah, Syria or the US and Russian embassies in Israel. US diplomats have said they are in talks with Israel about its request to recognize its sovereignty on the Golan, a status that has yet to win any formal endorsement among world powers. Israel's Mako news site quoted acting Foreign Minister Israel Katz of saying that such recognition by the United States would be “an appropriate and required response” to the allegations about Hezbollah's activity on the Syrian Golan. “I hope that this will soon happen, during the prime minister's upcoming visit to Washington,” Katz was quoted as saying. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is due to address the pro-Israel lobby group AIPAC in the US capital in late March. In the past, Russia has spoken in favor of other foreign forces leaving Syria, though it plans to keep a garrison there. Israel has carried out scores of air strikes against suspected Iranian targets on Syrian Golan and further into the country, and threatened to continue such operations as required.

USAID inaugurates CSP to assist Lebanon’s communities
Maria Matar/Annahar/March 13/19
BEIRUT: Le Royal Hotel hosted a conference on March 13, 2019, where USAID Mission Director Dr. Anne Patterson introduced the organization’s newest assistance project in Lebanon, the Community Support Program (CSP).
More than 100 people attended the event including U.S. Embassy officials, a number of governors and mayors, representatives from the Ministries of Interior and Water and Energy, Lebanon’s water establishments, international donors, as well as local and international development groups.
“We are looking forward to seeing the results of our cooperation with the USAID and we hope that the plans we are working on are implemented as soon as possible in order to fulfill immediate needs,” said Latif Al Kuzah, Mayor of Deir Al Ahmar.
CSP, part of the robust $1.3 billion dollars in economic assistance that the U.S. government gave to Lebanon in 2007, is an $80 million five-to-seven-year project designed to enhance the delivery of essential services and improve the livelihoods of underserved and vulnerable communities, primarily in Lebanon’s North, South, and Beqaa regions. The program, in cooperation with local municipalities and communities, plans and implements short and medium-term assistance interventions to address the lack of basic services and resources. It also provides targeted technical expertise and institutional capacity building assistance to local partners to promote maintenance and sustainability.
The project is implemented by Chemonics Beirut in partnership with: Bureau Technique pour le Developpement (BTD), Earth Link and Advanced Resources Development (ELARD), and Quantum Communications International.
In her opening speech, Dr. Patterson noted that CSP represents a qualitative evolution in which USAID delivers development assistance in Lebanon. It combines speed and flexibility with sustainability, which permits the organization to quickly address immediate small-scale needs. At the same time, it supports more complex interventions that address longer-term development issues. “CSP builds on a number of the lessons that USAID has learned from past and ongoing USAID projects, such as the Lebanon Water Project, the Building Alliances for Local Advancement, Development and Investment or BALADI Project, BALADI Capacity Building Project, and prior activities undertaken by USAID’s Office of Transition Initiatives,” she said.
Afterward, Melissa Ghazmi, senior vice president of Chemonics’ Middle East and North Africa region took the stage. “We are thrilled to have the opportunity to work in Lebanon on this critically important program. CSP is Chemonics’ fifth project in partnership with USAID in Lebanon since 2007. Through our implementation experience, we have developed a deep knowledge of Lebanon’s local communities and through CSP, we are now building upon the success of our previous USAID projects to provide a broad range of support to the community,” she indicated.
The event included testimonials from a number of CSP partners, including the mayors of Arsal and Tripoli. Additionally, a short video showcased the program’s material support to two public schools in the Beqaa region, where a large number of Lebanese and Syrian refugee students enrolled this year.
Rhett Gurian, chief of party of the USAID Lebanon noted the importance of the program. “CSP is a combination of the past different assistance projects by USAID that have improved the services and economic opportunities in Lebanon. It’s a program that builds upon them and pulls them together but also gives the organization the flexibility to shift and pivot as new needs emerge. It is a timely activity for the current conditions of Lebanon with the opportunity to do different interventions as needs change,” he told Annahar.

Latest LCCC English Miscellaneous Reports & News published on March 13-14/2019
Netanyahu hits back at ‘Turkey’s dictator Erdogan’

AFP, Jerusalem/Wednesday, 13 March 2019/Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday slammed Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as a “dictator” and “a joke” in the latest exchange of insults between the two leaders.
Turkey on Tuesday denounced Netanyahu’s “blatant racism” after he called Israel the nation-state of “the Jewish people” only, not all its citizens. Netanyahu’s initial comment had come amid an online spat sparked by Israel’s right-wing firebrand culture minister Miri Regev, ahead of April elections and subsequently joined by Israeli Hollywood star Gal Gadot. Regev, a member of Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party, had in a TV interview warned voters not to support its main rival because it would ally with Israeli Arab parties – a highly unlikely scenario. Israeli model and actress Rotem Sela responded on Instagram, asking: “When the hell will someone in this government convey to the public that Israel is a state of all its citizens and that all people were created equal?”Netanyahu reacted with his own Instagram message, telling Sela: “Israel is not a state of all its citizens.”“According to the basic nationality law we passed, Israel is the nation-state of the Jewish people – and only it,” he said, referring to a deeply controversial piece of legislation passed last year. Gadot, star of “Wonder Woman”, jumped to Sela’s defense. “Love your neighbor as yourself,” Gadot wrote on Instagram late Sunday. “This isn’t a matter of right or left. Jew or Arab. Secular or religious,” she wrote. “It’s a matter of dialogue, of dialogue for peace and security and of our tolerance of one towards the other.” On Tuesday, Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin weighed in on Netanyahu’s comments. Writing on Twitter in both Turkish and English, he said: “I strongly condemn this blatant racism and discrimination.”Netanyahu struck back in a statement from his office early Wednesday. “Turkey’s dictator Erdogan attacks Israel’s democracy while Turkish journalists and judges fill his prisons,” it read. “What a joke!” Turkey and Israel have tense relations and Erdogan, who regards himself as a champion of the Palestinian cause, is a vocal critic of Israeli policies. The two countries in 2016 ended a six-year rift triggered by the Israeli storming of a Gaza-bound ship that left 10 Turkish activists dead and led to a downgrading of diplomatic ties. Netanyahu has been accused by critics of demonizing Israeli Arabs, who make up some 17.5 percent of the population, in a bid to boost right-wing turnout for April polls. He is facing a tough challenge from a centrist political alliance led by former military chief of staff Benny Gantz and ex-finance minister Yair Lapid. After the polls, he will also face a hearing to defend himself against corruption allegations, which have dogged his campaign.

Turkey's Erdogan Brands Netanyahu 'Tyrant' Who 'Massacred' Children
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/March 13/19/Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan Wednesday accused Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of being a "tyrant" who "massacred" Palestinian babies, in the latest exchange between the two leaders. "Hey Netanyahu, behave yourself. You are a tyrant, you are a tyrant who massacred seven-year-old Palestinian children," Erdogan told a rally, in response to the Israeli leader branding him a "dictator". Turkey and Israel have tense relations and Erdogan, who sees himself as a champion of the Palestinian cause, is a vocal critic of Israeli policies.

Sistani tells Rouhani: Arms must be limited to the control of the state
Staff writer, Al Arabiya English/Wednesday, 13 March 2019/Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani has issued a statement after meeting with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, in which he said that Iraq hopes to “enhance relations with its neighbors on the basis of respecting the sovereignty of others” while stressing the need to keep arms under the control of the state. The statement released on Wednesday said al-Sistani “expressed his welcome for any step to enhance Iraq’s relations with its neighbors in accordance with the interests of the two parties and on the basis of respecting the sovereignty of states and non-interference in their internal affairs.”Al-Sistani famously called Iraqis to arms against ISIS in 2014, giving rise to the Hashd al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization) paramilitary alliance, which includes Iran-backed Shiite groups. Those forces have since been placed under the command of regular Iraqi forces and several former fighters are now members of the Iraqi parliament. Iran and Iraq fought a devastating eight-year war in the 1980s but their relations shifted drastically with the American-led overthrow of Sunni Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003. The Iraqi Shiite cleric also stressed “the need for regional and international policies in this sensitive region to be balanced and moderate in order to avoid further tragedies and damage.”Al-Sistani, a spiritual leader to most of Iraq’s Shiites and some in Iran, heads the religious establishment of Najaf, a Shiite holy city in Iraq. In 2013, he refused to meet then-president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Rouhani is on his first trip to Iraq since becoming president in 2013.

US-backed Syrian forces push on as ISIS extremists fight back

The Associated Press, Baghouz, Syria/Wednesday, 13 March 2019/US-backed Syrian forces said on Wednesday that ISIS extremists are putting up a desperate fight against their advances and staged a counterattack overnight from the tiny speck of land the extremists still hold in eastern Syria.
The counterattack began from the west of a riverside pocket in the Syrian village of Baghouz where the ISIS group has been making its last stand, said a commander with the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF. Clashes were underway as the Kurdish-led forces tried to repel the ISIS attack, he said, adding they were also fighting to secure an area taken late on Tuesday. Another commander said at least four SDF fighters were killed in the fighting since early in the morning. Both commanders spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media. A third commander, Dilbrin Nargiz, said the ISIS counterattack began just before dawn. ISIS extremists usually operate in daylight as they lack night vision weapons and goggles. The weeks-old push on Baghouz has also taken a toll on the Kurdish forces, some of whom have been battling ISIS for the past six years. “We’ll die long before this war is over,” said Simone Awad, a 22-year-old fighter whose friend was shot in the head next to him in the fighting earlier in the morning. It was not clear if the friend, who was taken to hospital, survived. Battle to retake Baghouz The battle to retake Baghouz and surrounding villages began in September and has since driven the extremists into the tiny sliver of land following intense fighting and major setbacks. For the last few weeks, the extremists remained holed up in the shrinking space along the eastern banks of the Euphrates River. Since early February, more than 10,000 civilians were evacuated from the ISIS-held pocket, most of them family members of ISIS extremists. Men suspected of being ISIS extremist fighters arrive at a screening point run by US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces. (AFP) The capture of Baghouz would be a milestone in the devastating four-year campaign to defeat ISIS’s so-called “caliphate,” which once covered a vast territory straddling both Syria and Iraq. The US-led coalition tweeted on Wednesday it was continuing strikes against ISIS positions “day and night,” allowing the extremists no freedom of movement. “Combined with the SDF ground movement, the final push in (Baghouz) continues,” the coalition said. A spokesman for the US-backed forces, Adnan Afrin, said ISIS extremists were putting up a “fierce resistance,” firing mortar shells and rocket-propelled grenades in clashes that began on Tuesday. Afrin said his forces are advancing slowly, taking some positions on the edge of a tent encampment where thousands of civilians and extremists had been holed up in recent weeks. “In this small area, for you to make a large advance, you will have to have a lot of casualties,” Afrin told The Associated Press late on Tuesday. “So, to preserve the lives of our fighters and to complete this battle while minimizing losses, we are slowing down our advance for the safety and security of our forces.”Even as ISIS’s self-proclaimed caliphate crumbled and the extremists’ territory shrunk, facing a relentless military campaign and hunger, many die-hard ISIS supporters said they still believe in the extremists’ vision of an Islamic land.

Algerian Teachers, Students Protest against Bouteflika
Agence France Presse/Associated Press/Naharnet/March 13/19/Hundreds of school teachers and students protested in the Algerian capital on Wednesday amid fears that President Abdelaziz Bouteflika plans to extend his two-decade rule. In a surprise announcement Monday, the ailing 82-year-old said he would not stand for a fifth term -- but also cancelled next month's presidential election. After initial celebration following Bouteflika's announcement, protesters returned to the streets of the capital Tuesday, accusing the 82-year-old of "tricks". On Wednesday, an AFP correspondent saw middle and high school teachers protesting alongside their students in central Algiers."It's important that we teachers mobilise," said Driss, a teacher at a high school in the Algerian capital. "It's about the future of our children."The protesters carried signs saying: "No to the extension of a fourth term!" Schools in Algeria have been hit by a partial strike in recent days as protests have repeatedly rocked the capital and other major cities.University students have been at the forefront of the movement, in a country where half the population is under the age of 30 and many have never known any president other than Bouteflika. The veteran leader's promise of a "national conference" to carry out reforms and set a date for new elections "before the end of 2019" suggested he may stay in office for another year.

Guaido Vows to Oust Maduro as Thousands of Venezuelans Protest

Agence France Presse/Naharnet/March 13/19/Venezuela's opposition leader Juan Guaido vowed Tuesday to take Nicolas Maduro's place in the presidential palace "very soon," as thousands of people took to the streets of Caracas to protest.
"We need an office to work in, so very soon, and when we have the armed forces totally on our side, we'll go to find my office there in Miraflores. Very soon," Guaido told supporters, who chanted back: "Yes, you can!"Demonstrators banged pots and sounded car horns at the protest in a square in the east of the capital. Many waved large banners calling on Maduro to go. "The situation is very difficult, we are hoping that this government will change. We've had enough of this chaos!" said one of the demonstrators, Miguel Gonzalez. "With courage and strength I asked you to believe in yourselves, that Venezuela would emerge from the darkness, that the end of the usurpation is very close," said Guaido, who is recognized as interim president by more than 50 countries. Venezuela's state prosecutor, Tarek William Saab, told reporters he would place Guaido under investigation for "his alleged involvement in the sabotage of the Venezuelan electric grid."It is the first government move against the US-backed Guaido since his return to Venezuela last week after defying a travel ban to visit several allied South American leaders.
'Electricity war'
Maduro has blamed a devastating multi-day blackout plaguing Venezuela on Washington, and declared "victory" in what he called an "electricity war" triggered by the Pentagon.He also called for support from allies including Russia and China as well as the United Nations in investigating the US "cyber attack" he said was responsible for the blackout. While Maduro pointed the finger at Washington, critics have long blamed the government for failing to maintain the power grid. Guaido, 35, is seeking to capitalize on public anger over the blackout, which has piled misery on a population suffering years of economic crisis and shortages of food and medicine under Maduro. The youthful opposition chief -- locked in a power struggle with Maduro since declaring himself interim president on January 23 -- has branded the socialist leader a "usurper" over his re-election in May, widely dismissed as neither free nor fair. Outlining the case against Guaido, Saab said the opposition leader had disseminated a series of messages that have "stoked violence.""At this moment, he appears as one of the intellectual authors of this electrical sabotage and is practically calling for a civil war in the middle of this blackout," Saab said.
'New sanctions'
The US kept up the pressure, with special envoy Elliott Abrams saying Washington would soon impose "very significant additional sanctions" on institutions doing business with Maduro's government. It has already targeted a growing list of individuals and companies linked to the Maduro government, including state oil company PDVSA.At Guaido's urging, the opposition-dominated National Assembly declared a "state of alarm" on Monday to pave the way for the delivery of international aid, 250 tons of which has been stuck for a month at Venezuela's borders with Colombia and Brazil.
However, with Maduro controlling the military and security services -- which are currently preventing aid from entering the country -- he has no means of enforcing it. Maduro used the military to begin distributing food, water and other assistance in several districts on Tuesday. Marshalled by security forces, crowds formed impatient lines at water trucks in some areas, as they waited to fill containers. But tensions were running high amid the shortages."I saw people lining up for a kilogram (2.2 pounds) of rice, and the shopkeepers had to fire shots in the air to keep the lines under control," Alberto Barboza, 26, told AFP in the oil capital Maracaibo. "I heard a lot of shooting," said Barboza, adding that a local bakery and a tire shop were looted.The blackout has left millions without running water. Many people lined up to buy bottled water in Caracas supermarkets, but most are reduced to desperate means -- besieging fountains in public parks and any available water sources around the capital.
'Active resistance'
Maduro had called for armed grassroots groups known as "colectivos" to hit back against what he called attacks encouraged by the US against the country's electrical grid. The opposition says the colectivos have been armed by the government and act as militia. Power has been restored to some areas since the weekend, but service has been intermittent and often drops out. Businesses and schools remained shuttered on Maduro's orders, as they have been since the blackout began. Luis Carlos Diaz, a well known Venezuelan journalist who was detained Monday, was released Tuesday and will be charged with hacking the electrical grid in connection with the blackout, the national press union said. As the situation worsened, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced Washington is withdrawing all its remaining personnel from the US embassy in Caracas. All non-emergency staff were ordered to leave on January 24.
The State Department said all US citizens residing or traveling in Venezuelan "should depart" the country, citing "crime, civil unrest, poor health infrastructure and arbitrary arrest and detention of US citizens."

British MPs Set to Vote on No-Deal Brexit
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/March 13/19/British MPs will vote Wednesday on whether the country should leave the EU without a deal in just over two weeks, after overwhelmingly rejecting a draft divorce agreement. The House of Commons is expected to vote against a "no deal" Brexit, although this could still happen on March 29 unless it can agree on what should happen instead. MPs on Tuesday rejected for a second time the withdrawal deal negotiated by Prime Minister Theresa May, despite her obtaining last-minute assurances from EU officials. Some eurosceptics are now pressing to leave with no deal, but May warned this scenario could cause "significant economic shock" -- and many MPs agree with her. If the "no-deal" option is voted down, the government is planning another Commons vote on Thursday on whether or not to request a Brexit delay. But May warned: "Voting against leaving without a deal and for an extension does not solve the problems we face." "The EU will want to know what use we mean to make of such an extension. This House will have to answer that question," she said, her voice half-breaking due to a cold. "Does it wish to revoke Article 50?" she said, referring to the Brexit process. "Does it want to hold a second referendum? Or does it want to leave with a deal but not this deal?"British media have reported that May could make a desperate attempt at a third vote on her deal, hoping that Brexit hardliners will fall in line. But Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the main opposition Labour party, said the text was "clearly dead" and urged her to back his own plan for closer economic ties with the EU. A group of lawmakers will on Wednesday put forward an alternative proposal to delay Brexit until May 22 and agree a series of interim agreements with the EU lasting until 2021. But Michel Barnier, the EU's chief Brexit negotiator, said Brussels had nothing more to offer and must now brace for the possibility of a messy divorce. "The EU has done everything it can to help get the withdrawal agreement over the line," he tweeted after Tuesday's result. "The impasse can only be solved in the #UK. Our 'no-deal' preparations are now more important than ever before."
Brexit delay?
After MPs first rejected the 585-page Brexit deal in January, May promised changes to its hated backstop plan, an arrangement intended to keep open the border with Ireland. Weeks of talks failed to make a breakthrough, but May made a late dash to Strasbourg to meet EU leaders on the eve of the vote. She announced she had secured "legally binding changes" to the backstop, which would keep Britain in the EU's customs union if and until a new way was found to avoid frontier checks. Hours later, however, Attorney General Geoffrey Cox said these additions would not completely allay MPs fears of being trapped in the arrangement indefinitely. Brexit-supporting MPs in May's Conservative party, and her allies, Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), swiftly declared they would not support the deal. Some eurosceptics did change their mind, urging their colleagues not to risk everything.
But the margin of Tuesday's defeat was 149 votes, not significantly smaller than the historic 230-vote thumping the plan first suffered on January 15. If MPs vote against a no-deal exit on Wednesday, and want to postpone Brexit, the other 27 EU nations would need to agree. Their leaders will meet in Brussels for a summit on March 21-22. But any postponement may have to be short-lived. European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker on Monday said Brexit "should be complete before the European elections" at the end of May.

Canada is closely following developments in Algeria
March 13, 2019 - Ottawa, Ontario - Global Affairs Canada
Global Affairs Canada today issued the following statement:
“Canada is closely following ongoing developments in Algeria. We note the withdrawal of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s candidacy from the presidential race.
“Canada supports democratic, free and fair elections in Algeria and stands ready to support this effort. We encourage the Algerian government to set a new date for elections without delay.
“We reaffirm our close relationship with Algeria and wish peace, stability and prosperity for its people.
“The governance of Algeria, including the choice of the president, is a decision that belongs to the Algerian people.”

Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on March 13-14/2019
Palestinians: Abbas Stands 'Trial' for Treason
Khaled Abu Toameh/Gatestone Institute/March 13/19
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/13880/mahmoud-abbas-trial-treason
To some, the mock trial in the Gaza Strip of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas may seem trivial or like some sort of bizarre comedy act. The "trial," however, is something else entirely: it is designed to send a signal not only to Abbas, but to any Palestinian who even thinks of making peace with Israel or recognizing its right to exist.
The "trial" is aimed at showing what awaits any Palestinian who dares to work with Israel by conducting security coordination or normalizing ties with it. Verdict: Any Palestinian who accepts a peace plan with Israel will also be found guilty -- and signing his own death warrant.
The mock trial in the Gaza Strip of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas may seem like some sort of bizarre comedy act. The "trial," however, is designed to send a signal not only to Abbas, but to any Palestinian who even thinks of making peace with Israel or recognizing its right to exist. Pictured: Mahmoud Abbas at the UN General Assembly, September 20, 2017. (Photo by Kevin Hagen/Getty Images)
The Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas has made no secret of its desire to see Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas stand trial for betraying the Palestinians for his alleged "collaboration" with Israel and sanctions against the Gaza Strip.
Last year, a senior Hamas official, Ahmed Bahr, called for bringing Abbas to trial for "great treason" -- a crime punishable by death. Abbas is not only refusing to make peace with Hamas, he wants it to hand over its weapons to his government, Bahr said. "For that, he should be brought before a popular and constitutional court on charges of great treason."
Earlier, another Hamas official, Marwan Abu Ras, called for Abbas to be executed by hanging in accordance with Islamic sharia law. Abu Ras, accusing Abbas of "collaboration" with Israel, claimed that the Palestinian president was depriving the Gaza Strip of international financial aid. "Abbas is the biggest traitor the Palestinian cause has known," he said. "He should be put on trial in the center of the Gaza Strip and sentenced to death by hanging in line with sharia law."
Hamas's leaders are angry with Abbas: they say that he recognizes Israel's right to exist and is even prepared to accept US President Donald Trump's upcoming plan for peace in the Middle East, known as the "Deal of the Century."
They also say they want to hang Abbas because his security forces conduct security coordination with Israel in the West Bank and because of the economic sanctions he imposed on the Gaza Strip. The sanctions include cutting salaries to thousands of Palestinian employees there.
Above all, Hamas's leaders say the organization does not -- and will not -- recognize Israel's right to exist.
They seem to think, moreover, that chances of ever seeing Abbas stand trial for his alleged "crimes" is unrealistic to the point of being nearly impossible to achieve. Abbas is sitting in Ramallah, the de facto capital of the Palestinians, where he is protected not only by his security forces, but also by the Israel Defense Forces. Abbas undoubtedly knows that were it not for Israel's presence in the West Bank, Hamas would have overthrown his regime, dragged him to the center of Ramallah and hanged him for his alleged betrayal of the Palestinians.
Hamas's supporters know that Abbas is not going to show up in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip anytime soon, if ever. Abbas is also not about to hand himself over to Hamas and other Palestinians who clearly want to put him on trial for his treachery.
So impatient are Abbas's political foes, however, that they decided to hold their own trial for the "traitor" and "collaborator."
On March 10, a Hamas-affiliated group called the Popular Movement for National Salvation held a mock trial for the 83-year-old Abbas at the Rashad Shawa Cultural Center in Gaza City. Hundreds of Palestinians, including heads of clans, university students, and employees whose salaries have been cut by Abbas, attended the "trial." Many in the audience carried small signs calling on Abbas to "go away."
The court "prosecutor" read out 17 charges against Abbas. They included "usurping authority since 2009" (Abbas's four-year-term in office expired in January 2009), causing the death of dozens of Palestinians by depriving them of medical treatment, cutting welfare payments to orphans and widows, cutting the supply of electricity (to the Gaza Strip), and complicity with Israel in imposing a blockade on the Hamas-ruled coastal enclave to prevent Hamas from importing weapons.
Those who attended the "trial" also charged Abbas with "inciting" Israel to launch military strikes against the Gaza Strip, violating the Palestinian Basic Law, obstructing the work of the Palestinian parliament, committing war crimes against the Palestinian people and perpetrating hundreds of acts of torture against Palestinian detainees. In addition, the charge sheet against Abbas accused him of conducting security coordination and promoting normalization with Israel, as well as abusing his position for personal and family interests.
At the end of the "trial," the "court" announced its verdict: guilty. The court found Abbas guilty of deliberately committing all of the crimes attributed to him and announced that he should be punished with the most severe penalties in accordance with Palestinian Penal Code -- a reference to the death sentence.
To some, the mock trial in the Gaza Strip may seem trivial, or like some sort of bizarre comedy act. The "trial," however, is something else entirely: it is designed to send a signal not only to Abbas, but to any Palestinian who even thinks of making peace with Israel or recognizing its right to exist. The "trial" is aimed at showing what awaits any Palestinian who dares to work with Israel by conducting security coordination or normalizing ties with it. Verdict: Any Palestinian who accepts a peace plan with Israel will also be found guilty -- and signing his own death warrant.
*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.

Brexit vote betrays UK’s lack of direction
Cornelia Meyer/Arab News/March 13/19
Monday night saw a frantic last dash to Strasbourg by British Prime Minister Theresa May. The EU subsequently agreed to a series of compromises and she emerged with three documents modifying the contentious Northern Irish backstop. The backstop had been devised to avoid a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic in case the UK and EU could not reach a trade deal. It was a bone of contention for many, especially the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), whose 10 MPs prop up May’s minority government, because it could potentially have left a permanent border between Northern Ireland and Great Britain.
When May reached the agreement, “uber Brexiteer” and head of the Conservative Party’s European Research Group (ERG) Jacob Rees-Mogg was more conciliatory than usual, stating that his vote would be informed by the verdict of Attorney General Geoffrey Cox and the DUP’s position.
On Tuesday morning, Cox firmly put a nail in the coffin of the PM’s hopes of winning the meaningful vote on her Brexit deal. He proclaimed that, while the amendments made a permanent backstop politically far less likely, it did not eliminate the legal risk entirely — however small that risk was. This swayed the DUP, the ERG and others.
May lost by 149 votes, which throws open all options. On Wednesday evening, the House was scheduled to vote on eliminating no deal. It was widely expected to rule out a no-deal scenario and opt for an extension of Article 50 on Thursday.
The strain showed in May’s croaking voice when she defended her deal for several hours before the vote. Physical feebleness is never good for a leader ahead of a watershed moment — as a side note and comparison, think of President Gerald Ford falling down the steps when getting off Air Force One during an election campaign or President George H.W. Bush fainting at a state dinner in Japan (neither managed to get re-elected afterwards). The poignant moment came when May announced after the defeat that the next day’s vote on no deal was free: She ceded power from the executive to the legislature. This is an age-old fight between governments and Parliament, to which up to now no sitting government yielded of its own free will. The squabble has become an ever more pronounced undercurrent as the Brexit saga unfolded.
So, what now? We know about the votes, but we have no idea what is to follow. Will May stay or will she have to go? Will there be further resignations from her Cabinet? Will there be a second referendum or a general election? How long should the extension of Article 50 last and will the EU’s 27 other member states agree? Will the UK leave without a deal or will it remain after all? It is a mess and the outcome is uncertain. Nobody — except for some of the hard-line Brexiteers — wants a no-deal Brexit. However, if Parliament cannot agree on a way forward or if the EU refuses to grant an extension, we may end up there by default.
The problem is that Brexit has not just been divisive among the electorate; it has also split the main parties. The Conservatives have the ERG, those who want a second referendum and those supporting May’s deal. Labour is torn between MPs from constituencies in the south, which voted to remain, and their colleagues representing a northern electorate that wanted to leave. One observer summed it up by saying: “Theresa May has lost her voice and Labour has nothing to say.” This is a mild assessment of the situation.
Meanwhile, there is the Scottish National Party and the Scots to consider. They voted overwhelmingly to stay in the EU and recently there has been ever more talk about a second Scottish independence referendum. Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon expressed fury, calling the government incompetent and bemoaning the fact that May had never really engaged with Edinburgh in a meaningful way.
As for the EU, the body language of European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker spoke volumes during Monday night’s press conference. He really saw no point in revising agreements if they were all but certain to be voted down the next day. He said that politics sometimes afforded second chances; then it mattered whether one was able to seize them or not. He was unequivocal that there would be no third chance.
An extension will be tricky, mainly because of the elections to the EU Parliament in late May. If the UK wants to delay much beyond that point, the question will be how to handle the situation. Fielding candidates is a legal obligation for every member country. The current EU Parliament also stands behind May’s deal and newly elected MEPs may see things differently, which would put us back to square one. France’s Emmanuel Macron and Lithuania’s Dalia Grybauskaite have already flagged that they would veto an extension if the UK could not come up with a clear road map. An extension requires the unanimous approval of all 27 member governments.
As of Wednesday, there were just 16 days left until Brexit day. This is not enough time to reach a consensus in a deeply divided Parliament, especially when the government’s leader feels uncomfortable reaching across the aisle for consultations, let alone finding a compromise.
The danger of crashing out of the EU without a deal by default rather than by design is clear, present and very real. The government is ill-prepared for a no-deal Brexit, only announcing its new tariff policy on Wednesday morning. Borders, ports and airports are not prepared. Business is in limbo. Supply chains, exports, the NHS and the financial sector, which is a large part of the UK’s economy, are gravely affected by this situation. Nobody in their right mind wants to invest in a country where uncertainty runs amok. The ramifications of a no-deal Brexit will affect everybody across business and the entire population.
Wherever we end up, the last two years have affected Britain’s standing in the world well beyond Europe. Hitherto, the country was widely admired for its diplomatic skills. Indeed, it punched way above its weight on the international stage. The Brexit saga has revealed a country that lacks a sense of direction. Worse, the UK seems incapable of ushering through its domestic agreements, which were negotiated in good faith.
*Cornelia Meyer is a business consultant, macro-economist and energy expert. Twitter: @MeyerResources

Was Amazon’s removal of Robinson’s anti-Islam book a mistake?

Peter Welby/Arab News/March 13/19
Tommy Robinson was banned from Facebook and Instagram, had a book removed from sale on Amazon, and was referred to prosecutors on allegations of contempt of court. (Reuters)
In a flurry of activity over the past few weeks, Tommy Robinson — British alt-right provocateur, adviser to the UK Independence Party (UKIP) and convicted fraudster — was banned from Facebook and Instagram, had a book removed from sale on Amazon, and was referred to prosecutors on allegations of contempt of court.
Jeremy Wright, the culture secretary and former attorney general, said: “We all believe that freedom of speech has limits. Criminal behavior… is beyond the reach of the type of freedom of speech that we believe should be protected.” This is simply a statement of legal fact, and few would dispute that it should be.
I do confess, though, to being baffled as to what Robinson has done in the past few weeks that prompted such concerted action, not least because it isn’t clear that he was barred from these platforms for breaking the law. The contempt allegation relates to a video Robinson posted on Facebook last May and, in any case, the decision to proceed with his prosecution was announced after he was banned from the platform.
Perhaps more interesting than the social media ban, though it attracted less attention, was Amazon’s decision to withdraw Robinson’s anti-Islam book from sale. I very much doubt that it is a riveting read. The book’s blurb is a mixture of conspiracy theory and self-help, promising the reader that they will “understand the Qur’an within minutes instead of months,” and to unveil secrets that Western elites have “had proof of for over 150 years.” It claims to provide “the knowledge to make politicians find some backbone.”
Robinson’s co-author, Peter McLoughlin, says he worked as a postgraduate researcher and teacher in several British universities, before realizing that they were hotbeds of “cultural Marxism” (a phrase that appears several times more in his self-penned biography on Amazon).
I spent some time trawling through McLoughlin’s page on Gab. It is mostly inane for the same reason that most social media is inane: Nobody is a genius if one can read their every passing thought. But he is well within the nexus of the alt-right. Amazon suggests that, if I like his books, then I might like Pamela Geller, Robert Spencer and Milo Yiannopoulos.
It is no surprise that Robinson and McLoughlin ended up writing together, although, given their relative fame, I think McLoughlin got the better end of the bargain.
I don’t believe that Amazon banned this book for commercial reasons. Amazon sells a good number of offensive books and, unlike a social media site, there is no confusion between the platform and the publisher. Amazon is simply too convenient for a boycott to have much effect in the long run, however much people try. And, if the reasoning was that it wouldn’t sell many copies, nor do most of the books sold on the site. But, if it was banned for ideological reasons, then Amazon made a mistake, not least because of the publicity it created.
It is no surprise that Robinson and McLoughlin ended up writing together, although, given their relative fame, I think McLoughlin got the better end of the bargain. Robinson has a long, if inconsistent, track record of concerns about Islam and Muslims. In the late 2000s, he set up the English Defence League, a far-right campaign group-cum-political party apparently populated with football hooligans.
A few years later, he left the group in a shower of publicity, apparently reformed while working on BBC TV programs "The Big Questions" and "When Tommy Met Mo." If this reformation was genuine, it was short-lived, as not long afterwards he was setting up the UK chapter of Pegida, the anti-Muslim protest movement that started in Germany. He currently serves as an adviser to the leader of UKIP, a populist grouping that seems to have lost its meaning since the UK’s Brexit referendum and now hopes to find it again on the far right.
Despite the unease he builds in people like me — brought up in the milieu of the liberal elites — Robinson has hefty international support. When he was briefly imprisoned last year on a contempt of court conviction that was quashed on appeal (and for which he will soon face a retrial), US commentators on the mainstream right wing regarded him as a martyr to freedom of speech. According to a report in the Times of London, he received more than £350,000 ($459,000) in donations in the two weeks after his imprisonment.
The ability of the far right to monetize its views is one of the most interesting features of the social media age. Confected outrage goes both ways: The “woke” Twitterati may be able to launch a witch-hunt against a public figure for something they said a long time ago; but, equally, those who see it and disagree will find their own champions. Robinson’s former assistant told the Times that “your outrage, valid as it is, will be monetized.”
This takes us back to Amazon removing his book. According to McLoughlin’s figures (not quite an independent source), sales rocketed from that moment. I don’t imagine it would have attracted masses of attention otherwise.
Of course, the reaction of the media and political elites to the likes of Robinson doesn’t help. Cries of “Islamophobia” are a waste of breath to those who don’t care, and off-putting to those who think that Robinson might have a point. That latter category can be worked with, if we stop treating them as racist, and start thinking of them as a significant part of our voting population.
*Peter Welby is a consultant on religion and global affairs, specializing in the Arab world. Previously, he was the managing editor of a think tank on religious extremism, the Centre on Religion & Geopolitics, and worked in public affairs in the Gulf. He is based in London, and has lived in Egypt and Yemen. Twitter: @pdcwelby

Israeli election boycott would play into Netanyahu’s hands

Ray Hanania/Arab News/March 13/19
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared in a TV news interview on Sunday that “Israel is not a state of all its citizens.” This wasn’t by accident.
Later, in a social media post, Netanyahu more clearly framed that comment, ensuring that his racist intent was not misunderstood. Netanyahu explained that, on April 9, Israeli voters will have a choice to vote for his Likud-led coalition or for one led by a center-left coalition that is partnering with the country’s Palestinian voters. Electing a coalition that includes Arab parties would, Netanyahu said, “undermine the security of the state and citizens.”
By defining the upcoming election in such terms, Netanyahu is trying to ensure that, if his unstable coalition of religious and secular Jewish and Zionist parties can’t come together on issues of public policy, they will remain together on the basis of racism.
This racist Israeli rhetoric was not a one-time occurrence. Two weeks earlier, a prominent Israeli journalist, Amit Segal, called the Arab party Balad a “terrorist organization” during a political program on Israeli television. Balad officials accused Segal of making the comment intentionally in order to anger Palestinians living in Israel and discourage them from voting in the election. Balad filed a lawsuit against Segal but the public’s decision on April 9 will come much sooner than any decision by the Israeli courts.
As all this was taking place, the Israeli Central Election Commission (CEC) ordered that Balad and its partner the United Arab List — as well as Hadash candidate Ofer Cassif — all be disqualified from running in the election. Ironically, the CEC ruled the same day that a follower of the late Meir Kahane, who was denounced as a terrorist by Palestinians and Israelis alike, could run in the election despite his embrace of violent, anti-Palestinian views.
Netanyahu doesn’t want Palestinians living in Israel to vote on April 9; he knows that would oust him from office.
Of course, not all Israelis agree with this eruption of racist rhetoric and electoral decisions. President Reuven Rivlin called Netanyahu’s comments “unacceptable remarks.” And many expect the Israeli Supreme Court to overturn the CEC ruling, which, if upheld, would prevent half of the Palestinian candidates who ran in previous elections from running in this election.
Only 13 Palestinians running on Arab party slates were elected in 2015. These 13 members of the current Knesset represent only 11 percent of the parliament’s 120 seats. That is far below the number Palestinians living in Israel could elect if they voted to their population strength, which is 20 percent of the country's total. That is precisely what Netanyahu, Segal and the CEC are targeting. Israel’s right-wing fanatics in politics, the media and society want to incite the Palestinians living in Israel to anger, hoping they will boycott the elections. That would guarantee Netanyahu’s re-election and the continuation of Israeli government extremism.
Netanyahu doesn’t want Palestinians living in Israel to vote on April 9; he knows that would oust him from office.
I believe the best way to destroy a racist enterprise is to do it from the inside. In other words, you get involved and you force change. By running away from the problem and not voting — which is what boycotting Israel’s election really means — Palestinians living in Israel would empower the racism they face.
True to our nature, many Arab organizations inside and outside of Israel are urging Palestinians to boycott the elections. Staying home and not voting wouldn’t be the first mistake they will have made. Instead of having 13 members in the Knesset, as they now have, they might only elect six from the Ta’al party headed by Knesset member Ahmad Tibi, who has not been impacted by the CEC ruling. If that happened, 20 percent of the population would only have 5 percent of the representation in the Knesset.
Clearly, Palestinians living in Israel have never flexed their real muscle to impact the Israeli elections. Despite the many laws, rules and decisions that seek to weaken their vote, they could effect real change if they did go to the polls in a massive wave of anger rather than stay at home in failed disengagement.
Standing up to racism takes effort. Rolling over, boycotting and staying home on election day is apparently so much easier.
*Ray Hanania is an award-winning former Chicago City Hall political reporter and columnist. Twitter: @RayHanania