English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For October 15/2020
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani

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Bible Quotations For today
Brothers and sisters, do not be weary in doing what is right. Take note of those who do not obey what we say in this letter; have nothing to do with them, so that they may be ashamed.
Second Letter to the Thessalonians 03/06-14: “We command you, beloved, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to keep away from believers who are living in idleness and not according to the tradition that they received from us. For you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us; we were not idle when we were with you, and we did not eat anyone’s bread without paying for it; but with toil and labour we worked night and day, so that we might not burden any of you. This was not because we do not have that right, but in order to give you an example to imitate. For even when we were with you, we gave you this command: Anyone unwilling to work should not eat. For we hear that some of you are living in idleness, mere busybodies, not doing any work. Now such persons we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living. Brothers and sisters, do not be weary in doing what is right. Take note of those who do not obey what we say in this letter; have nothing to do with them, so that they may be ashamed.

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on October 14-15/2020
Aoun Postpones PM Consultations, Berri and Bassil React
Lebanon president postpones consultations ahead of Hariri’s expected PM nomination
U.S. and U.N. Say Lebanon and Israel Held 'Productive Talks'
Next Round of Lebanon-Israel Border Talks Set for Oct. 28
US, UN call Lebanon-Israel border talks ‘productive’
Israel Says Has 'No Illusions' on Border Talks with Lebanon
Lebanon, Israel Begin Indirect Talks over Maritime Border
Lebanon, Israel hold first round of talks/Najia Houssari/Arab News/October 14/2020
Lebanon Hopes for Border Deal with Israel in 'Reasonable Time'
Hizbullah, Amal Object to Composition of Lebanese Border Talks Team
Mixed Reaction in Lebanon as Indirect Talks with Israel Begin
Charity Reports Surge in Deadly Crossings from Crisis-Hit Lebanon
Geagea Says LF Won't Nominate Hariri despite 'Friendship'
Lebanese Forces party threatens to sue pro-Hezbollah newspaper
Mustaqbal Delegation Meets Hizbullah, FPM Blocs
Bassil, Jumblatt attack Hariri for premiership candidacy
Lebanon is doomed if its best people keep fleeing the country/Rami Rayess/Al Arabiya/October 14/ 2020

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on October 14-15/2020

Iranian activists claim regime has hidden nuclear facility
IDF Special Forces carry out covert operation, destroy two Syrian outposts
Israel approves first West Bank settler homes since deals with UAE, Bahrain
‘New era’ begins in US-Saudi relationship, Pompeo tells Saudi Arabian FM
Saudi Arabia Fails in Bid to Join U.N. Rights Council
Turkey trains 120 fighters in Libya, again denies sending troops to battle Armenia
Turkey Vows to Give Greece 'Answer It Deserves' over East Med Dispute
Turkish survey ship begins operations in east Mediterranean
Turkish court and ministry spar over lighting tweet
Jordanian boy suffers horrific injuries in revenge attack
Mahmoud Yassin, one of Egypt’s most celebrated actors dies at age 79

Titles For The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on October 14-15/2020

Was America Discovered by an “Islamophobe”?/Raymond Ibrahim/October 14/2020
Iranian economy on verge of collapse due to American sanctions, pandemic/Mohammad Al-Kassim/Media Line/October 14/2020
The End of Appeasement in Britain?/Richard Kemp/Gatestone Institute/October 14, 2020
Why Palestinians Will Not Accept Advice from Arabs/Khaled Abu Toameh/Gatestone Institute/October 14, 2020
How Turkey pushed for Azerbaijan’s war on Armenia/Seth J. Frantman/Jerusalem Post/October 14/2020
Anti-establishment support could lead Trump to victory/Andrew Hammond/Arab News/October 14/2020
Palestinian leadership needs to get its act together/Ray Hanania/Arab News/October 14/2020

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on October 14-15/2020

Aoun Postpones PM Consultations, Berri and Bassil React
Naharnet/October 14/2020
President Michel Aoun on Wednesday postponed the binding parliamentary consultations to name a new premier to October 22. A statement issued by the Presidency said Aoun took his decision “at the request of some parliamentary blocs, after difficulties emerged.” These difficulties “require working on solutions,” the statement added. The consultations had been initially scheduled for Thursday, October 15. Speaker Nabih Berri reacted swiftly to the move, saying that he is “against the postponement of consultations, even for a single day.”Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil for his part tweeted that the decision “will not change the FPM’s “stance,” in an apparent reference to the movement’s refusal to endorse ex-PM Saad Hariri’s nomination. “To all those philosophizing, speculating and making bets: Despite our respect for the President’s decision to postpone the parliamentary consultations, it will not change our stance,” he said.

Lebanon president postpones consultations ahead of Hariri’s expected PM nomination
Joseph Haboush, Al Arabiya English/Wednesday 14 October 2020
Parliamentary consultations to appoint a new prime minister in Lebanon were postponed late Wednesday after former PM Saad Hariri was expected to be nominated. “President Aoun decided to postpone the parliamentary consultations scheduled for tomorrow until next Thursday,” a tweet from the presidency said. The decision to postpone the binding consultations came after the country’s two largest Christian blocs said they would not nominate Hariri. Despite opposition from the Lebanese Forces and Free Patriotic Movement, Hariri was anticipated to get a majority of the votes, which would have seen him tasked with forming a new government. The Shia duo, Hezbollah and Amal Movement, have advocated for and pressed Hariri to return to the premiership after he stepped down almost one year ago due to nationwide anti-government protests.
Hariri, initially refusing to be a candidate, reversed course last week and announced that he was a “natural candidate.” Hariri met with the president and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri earlier this week while he dispatched a delegation to meet with the country’s leading political parties in an effort to garner support. But FPM leader Gebran Bassil hit out at the former PM on Tuesday, saying, “Whoever wants to head a government of technocrats has to be a technocrat himself.” Bassil’s political rival, LF leader Samir Geagea, also said his party’s bloc would not name anyone before Aoun’s announcement.
Hariri has said that one of his conditions for heading a new government would be for it to be made up of independent experts, not affiliated with political parties.

U.S. and U.N. Say Lebanon and Israel Held 'Productive Talks'
Naharnet/October 14/2020
Representatives from the governments of Israel, Lebanon, and the United States met on October 14 to launch discussions aimed at “reaching consensus on a common Israel-Lebanon maritime boundary,” the U.S. and the U.N. said on Wednesday.  “During this initial meeting, the representatives held productive talks and reaffirmed their commitment to continue negotiations later this month,” a joint statement issued by the Government of the United States and the Office of the U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon said. The negotiations were mediated and facilitated by the U.S. team, led by Assistant Secretary David Schenker and Ambassador John Desrocher, and hosted by U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon Jan Kubis.  The Israeli delegation was headed by Udi Adiri, Director General of the Ministry of Energy. The Lebanese delegation was meanwhile headed by Brigadier General Bassam Yassine, the Lebanese Army’s Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations.

Next Round of Lebanon-Israel Border Talks Set for Oct. 28
Agence France Presse/October 14/2020
A second round of maritime border talks with Israel will be held in two weeks under U.S. and U.N. auspices, a Lebanese army source said Wednesday. "The date of the second session is set for October 28," the military source told AFP as Lebanese and Israeli delegations sat for a first round of negotiations in the Lebanese border town of Naqura on Wednesday.

US, UN call Lebanon-Israel border talks ‘productive’
The Arab Weekly/October 14/2020
BEIRUT--The United States and United Nations expressed their satisfaction with the first round of talks over the Lebanese-Israeli maritime border dispute held at a UN peacekeeping base in the Lebanese border town of Naqura. “During this initial meeting, the representatives held productive talks and reaffirmed their commitment to continue negotiations later this month,” a joint US and UN statement said after the one-hour meeting. The next meeting is planned for October 28. Lebanon expressed hope it could resolve the maritime border dispute with Israel within a “reasonable time.”
The unprecedented talks mark a “first step in the thousand-mile march towards the demarcation” of the maritime frontier, Lebanese Brigadier General Bassam Yassin said during the inaugural session, according to an army statement. “Based on the higher interests of our country, we are looking to achieve a pace of negotiations that would allow us to conclude this dossier within reasonable time.”Wednesday’s talks, which lasted for around one hour, came at a sensitive time as Lebanon, battered by multiple crises, hopes to continue exploring for oil and gas in a part of the Mediterranean also claimed by Israel.
Desrocher, and US ambassador in Lebanon Dorothy Shea, who played a mediation role in the first round of Israeli-Lebanese border talks in the southern  The session was held under the auspices of the United Nations and the United States. Yassin praised US efforts to “help establish a positive and constructive atmosphere” during the talks. He also lauded the United Nations, saying he hopes it will exert “a fundamental and effective effort to organise the mechanism of talks and (secure) a smooth negotiation process.”Israel said it would continue to negotiate with Lebanon on their maritime border after a brief, initial meeting earlier in the day. Israeli Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz said in a statement he agreed that the Israeli delegation would push ahead with the talks “to give the process a chance.”In Lebanon, the makeup of the Lebanese delegation has been assailed by the two Shia parties who seemed to be trying to dispel suspicions of normalisation intent that could be lying behind the talks. Iran-backed Hezbollah and its political ally Amal criticised Wednesday the delegation which represented Lebanon, hours before the first meeting.
The statement said the negotiating team should include only military officials, without any civilians or politicians. “This harms Lebanon’s position and interests… and amounts to giving in to the Israeli logic that seeks some form of normalisation,” the statement said.
Formally still at war after decades of conflict, Lebanon and Israel agreed this month to negotiate over a long-running row relating to a sea border running through potentially gas-rich Mediterranean waters. The talks come after the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain agreed to establish full relations with Israel, under US-brokered deals which realign some of Washington’s closest Middle East allies against Iran. This has prompted suspicions that the flurry of US-sponsored diplomacy relating to Israel is linked to US President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign. Wednesday’s meeting was hosted by the United Nations, which has monitored the land boundary since Israel withdrew from south Lebanon in 2000 and ended a 22-year occupation. The next talks will be held on October 28.
The talks on Wednesday exclusively focused on the disputed sea frontier.
Security was tight, with roads in the area blocked by UN peacekeepers and Lebanese troops, and helicopters flying overhead. US envoy David Schenker facilitated the opening session along with US Ambassador to Algeria John Desrocher, who was the mediator in the talks.
Israel said there would be “direct negotiations,” something Lebanese officials have denied. Israel sent a six-member team, including the director general of its energy ministry, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s foreign policy adviser and the head of the army’s strategic division.
Lebanon’s four-member delegation comprised two army officers, an official and a maritime border law expert. Israel and Lebanon have no diplomatic relations and Wednesday’s talks were a rare official interaction.
Lebanon insists that the negotiations were purely technical and did not involve any soft political normalisation with Israel. Lebanon, mired in its worst economic crisis since the 1975-1990 civil war, is looking to settle the maritime border dispute so it can press its offshore quest for oil and gas. In February 2018, Lebanon signed its first contract for drilling in two blocks in the Mediterranean with a consortium comprising energy giants Total, ENI and Novatek. Exploration of one of the blocks is more controversial as part of it is located in an 860-square-kilometre (330-square-mile) area claimed by both Israel and Lebanon. A senior source at Israel’s energy ministry said that the border dispute “can be concluded hopefully in a few months time.”“This is a limited effort to resolve a well-defined, limited problem,” he said.
“We have no illusions. Our aim is not to create here some kind of normalisation or peace process.”Hilal Khashan, a political science professor at the American University of Beirut, said that an agreement between the two sides is the “best option for Lebanon so that it could start work in Block 9.”
Reactions to the talks have been mixed in Lebanon, still reeling from a huge August 4 explosion at Beirut port that killed more than 190 people and dealt another crippling blow to Lebanon’s economy. The pro-Hezbollah Al-Akhbar daily on Monday called the talks “a moment of unprecedented political weakness for Lebanon,” arguing that Israel is the real “beneficiary.”Map of Lebanon Israel maritime borders. Hezbollah is both an armed group that has fought several wars against Israel and a major force in Lebanese politics, with seats in parliament. Last Thursday, its parliamentary bloc stressed that demarcating Lebanon’s disputed maritime border with Israel does not signify “reconciliation” or “normalisation.”

Israel Says Has 'No Illusions' on Border Talks with Lebanon
Agence France Presse/Associated Press/October 14/2020
Israel does not have “illusions” about the border talks with Lebanon that kicked off Wednesday under U.S. and U.N. auspices, an Israeli official said. "We have no illusions. Our aim is not to create here some kind of normalization or some kind of peace process," a senior official with Israel's energy ministry said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. "Our aim is very strict and limited and therefore hopefully achievable," he added. He also hoped that the border dispute "can be concluded hopefully in a few months time." "This is a limited effort to resolve a well-defined, limited problem," he said.

Lebanon, Israel Begin Indirect Talks over Maritime Border
Associated Press/October 14/2020
Lebanon and Israel began indirect talks Wednesday over their disputed maritime border, with American officials mediating the talks that both sides insist are purely technical and not a sign of any normalization of ties. The U.S. has been mediating the issue for about a decade, but only earlier this month a breakthrough was reached on an agreement on a framework for U.S.-mediated talks. The development comes against the backdrop of Lebanon's spiraling economic crisis, the worst in its modern history, and following a wave of U.S. sanctions that recently included two influential former Cabinet ministers allied with Hizbullah. Israel, the United States, as well as some other Western and Arab countries consider the Iran-allied Hizbullah a "terrorist" organization. Lebanon hopes that oil and gas discoveries in its territorial waters will help it overcome the crisis and pay back its massive debt that stands at 170% of the GDP, making it one of the highest in the world. The U.S.-mediated talks began at a U.N. post along the border known as Ras Naqoura on the edge of the Lebanese border town of Naqoura. The Lebanese delegation will speak through U.N. and U.S. officials to the Israelis.
The meeting took place in an outdoor camp setting because of the coronavirus. Lebanon and Israel have been hit hard by the virus, and both have reported thousands of new cases in recent days.
Israel and Lebanon have no diplomatic relations and are technically in a state of war. They each claim about 860 square kilometers of the Mediterranean Sea as being within their own exclusive economic zones. "We have no illusions. Our aim is not to create here some kind of normalization or some kind of peace process," a senior official with Israel's energy ministry said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. "Our aim is very strict and limited and therefore hopefully achievable," he added. Lebanon's outgoing Foreign Minister Charbel Wehbi said Lebanese negotiators will be "more fierce than they expect because we have nothing to lose." He added that if Lebanon's economy collapses, "there is no interest in making concessions." It is unclear how long the talks will last but Lebanon began offshore drilling earlier this year and hopes to start drilling for gas in the disputed area in the coming months. Lebanon has divided its expanse of waters into 10 blocs, of which three are in the area under dispute with Israel.
Israel already has developed a natural gas industry elsewhere in its economic waters, producing enough gas for domestic consumption and to export to neighboring Egypt and Jordan. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs David Schenker, the top American diplomat for the Middle East, arrived in Lebanon on Tuesday afternoon to attend the opening session of the talks. Schenker was joined by American Ambassador John Desrocher, who will serve as the U.S. mediator for these negotiations. The Israeli delegation will be led by the director-general of the Energy Ministry, Udi Adiri, while the Lebanese four-member team will be led by Brig. Gen. Bassam Yassin, the army's deputy chief of staff. The Lebanese team met President Michel Aoun on Tuesday who stressed the talks "are technical negotiations that only deal with marking the maritime border." Hizbullah said last week the talks do not indicate a reconciliation with Israel. The Hizbullah bloc in parliament said that defining the border of "national sovereignty" is the job of the Lebanese state. Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said in a speech two years ago that if asked by the government, his group is ready to use its arsenal, consisting of tens of thousands of rockets and missiles, to defend Lebanon's economic rights. Early Wednesday, Hizbullah and its Shiite ally, the Amal group of Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, released a joint statement expressing reservations that the Lebanese team includes civilians, and called for the delegation to be reformed so that it only includes members of the military. Former Lebanese army general and military expert Elias Farhat wrote this week that the Lebanese team is heading to the talks "armed with the support of the political leadership, the people, and the power of the resistance that guarantees deterring the enemy from carrying any act that infringes on Lebanon's sovereignty." The town of Naqoura already hosts monthly tripartite, indirect Israel-Lebanon meetings over violations along the land border. Israel and Lebanon also held indirect negotiations in the 1990s, when Arab states and Israel worked on peace agreements. The Palestinians and Jordan signed agreements with Israel at the time but Lebanon and Syria did not.

Lebanon, Israel hold first round of talks
Najia Houssari/Arab News/October 14/2020
BEIRUT: The first round of Lebanese-Israeli talks was held on Wednesday at the headquarters of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) in the border town of Naqoura, and concluded by agreeing on Oct. 28 as the date for a second round. The first round, described as exploratory, lasted an hour, and focused on demarcating the maritime border. The US is mediating the talks, which include the UN. Journalists were prevented from attending the first round, and the Lebanese delegation refused to be photographed with the Israeli one. The head of the Lebanese delegation, Brig. Gen. Bassam Yassine, thanked the US for mediating the talks and declaring its intention to do its utmost to help establish and maintain a positive and constructive atmosphere. He expressed hope that the UN will “make a fundamental and effective effort in terms of organizing the negotiations’ mechanisms and ensuring a smooth negotiation process.” What is happening is “indirect technical negotiations and a first step in the 1,000-mile road to demarcating the southern borders,” Yassine said. “We look forward to the running of the negotiations at a pace that enables us to conclude this file within a reasonable time,” he added. “We also look forward to the other parties fulfilling their obligations based on meeting the requirements of international law and maintaining the confidentiality of deliberations.” The US government and the office of the UN special coordinator for Lebanon released a joint statement saying: “During this initial meeting, the representatives held productive talks and reaffirmed their commitment to continue negotiations later this month.”Upon the return of the Lebanese delegation to Beirut, President Michel Aoun was informed of the details of the session. Hezbollah and the Amal Movement announced on Wednesday morning that they objected to the Lebanese delegation “for including civilian figures.” Meanwhile, the General Confederation of Lebanese Workers (CGTL) led street protests to reject any decision to remove subsidies on basic goods, medicine and fuel. CGTL chief Bechara Asmar, who joined the protesters, warned that the removal of subsidies would cause a social catastrophe. “The security situation will not be stable because the poor will take to the streets and reality will become dire,” he said. He called for “the formation of a government capable of dealing with the difficult economic situation,” and warned: “No official, even in his home, will be safe from the revolt of the hungry.”Aoun is scheduled to hold binding parliamentary consultations on Thursday to assign a figure to form the next government.

Lebanon Hopes for Border Deal with Israel in 'Reasonable Time'
Agence France Presse/Associated Press/October 14/2020
Lebanon hopes to resolve a maritime border dispute with Israel within a "reasonable time," its delegation head said at a first round of talks on Wednesday. The unprecedented talks, which were held at a U.N. peacekeeping base in the Lebanese border town of Naqoura, mark a "first step in the thousand-mile march towards the demarcation" of the maritime frontier, Brigadier General Bassam Yassin was quoted as saying in a statement issued by the army after the session. "Based on the higher interests of our country, we are looking to achieve a pace of negotiations that would allow us to conclude this dossier within reasonable time," he said. He added that the negotiations will be based on international law, the 1949 Lebanon Israel Armistice Agreement, and the 1923 Paulet-Newcombe Agreement between France and Britain that drew the boundaries between the British mandate of Palestine and the French mandate of Lebanon. The session was held under the auspices of the United Nations and the United States. Yassin praised U.S. efforts to "help establish a positive and constructive atmosphere" during the talks. He also lauded the United Nations, saying he hopes it will exert "a fundamental and effective effort to organize the mechanism of talks and (secure) a smooth negotiation process." Following years of U.S. shuttle diplomacy, Lebanon and Israel this month said they had agreed to begin U.N.-brokered negotiations, in what Washington hailed a "historic" agreement. The talks lasted for around one hour and came weeks after Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates became the first Arab states to establish relations with Israel since Egypt in 1979 and Jordan in 1994. This has prompted suspicions that the flurry of U.S.-sponsored diplomacy relating to Israel is linked to President Donald Trump's re-election campaign.
A second round of negotiations will be held on October 28, a Lebanese military source and the official National News Agency (NNA) said. The Naqoura talks, which focused exclusively on the disputed sea frontier, came at a sensitive time as Lebanon, battered by multiple crises, hopes to continue exploring for oil and gas in a part of the Mediterranean also claimed by Israel. Security was tight, with roads in the area blocked by U.N. peacekeepers and Lebanese troops, and helicopters flying overhead. U.S. envoy David Schenker facilitated the opening session along with U.S. ambassador to Algeria John Desrocher, who was the mediator in the talks. Israel said there would be "direct negotiations," something Lebanese officials have denied. Israel sent a six-member team, including the director general of its energy ministry, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's foreign policy adviser and the head of the army's strategic division.
A statement by the Israeli delegation said the sides discussed Wednesday the "processes for continuing the discussions and set the agenda for future talks." The team members reported back to Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz, who approved they continue with the talks in the coming weeks. Lebanon's four-member delegation comprised two army officers, an energy official and a maritime border law expert. Lebanon, mired in its worst economic crisis since the 1975-1990 civil war, is looking to settle the maritime border dispute so it can press its offshore quest for oil and gas.
In February 2018, Lebanon signed its first contract for drilling in two blocks in the Mediterranean with a consortium comprising energy giants Total, ENI and Novatek. Exploration of one of the blocks is more controversial as part of it is located in an 860-square-kilometer area claimed by both Israel and Lebanon.

Hizbullah, Amal Object to Composition of Lebanese Border Talks Team
Agence France Presse/Associated Press/October 14/2020
Hizbullah and the Amal Movement of Speaker Nabih Berri released a joint statement early Wednesday expressing reservations that the Lebanese team to the border talks with Israel includes civilians, calling for the delegation to be reformed so that it only includes members of the military.
"This harms Lebanon's position and interests... and amounts to giving in to the Israeli logic that seeks some form of normalization," they said. The same delegation that the two groups objected to later concluded the first round of indirect negotiations with the Israeli side at UNIFIL’s headquarters in Naqoura. American officials are mediating the talks that both sides insist are purely technical and not a sign of any normalization of ties. The U.S. has been mediating the issue for about a decade, but only earlier this month a breakthrough was reached on an agreement on a framework for U.S.-mediated talks. The development comes against the backdrop of Lebanon's spiraling economic crisis, the worst in its modern history, and following a wave of U.S. sanctions that recently included two influential former Cabinet ministers allied with Hizbullah group. The Israeli delegation was led by the director-general of the Energy Ministry, Udi Adiri, while the Lebanese four-member team was led by Brig. Gen. Bassam Yassin, the army's deputy chief of staff. The Lebanese team met President Michel Aoun on Tuesday who stressed the talks "are technical negotiations that only deal with marking the maritime border." Hizbullah said last week the talks do not indicate a reconciliation with Israel. The Hizbullah bloc in parliament said that defining the border of "national sovereignty" is the job of the Lebanese state.

Mixed Reaction in Lebanon as Indirect Talks with Israel Begin
Agence France Presse/October 14/2020
Hilal Khashan, a political science professor at the American University of Beirut, has said that a Lebanese-Israeli agreement on maritime border demarcation is the "best option for Lebanon so that it could start work in Block 9." But he questioned the timing, saying it was likely scheduled by the Trump administration ahead of presidential elections so it can chalk up a "new foreign policy accomplishment."Reactions to the talks have been mixed in Lebanon, still reeling from a huge August 4 explosion at Beirut port that killed more than 190 people and dealt another crippling blow to Lebanon's economy.
Hizbullah critics on social media have described the talks as contrasting with the powerful Iran-backed movement's anti-Israel stance. The pro-Hizbullah Al-Akhbar daily on Monday called them "a moment of unprecedented political weakness for Lebanon," arguing that Israel is the real "beneficiary." Hizbullah is both an armed group that has fought several wars against Israel and a major force in Lebanese politics, with seats in parliament. On Thursday, its parliamentary bloc stressed that demarcating Lebanon's disputed maritime border with Israel does not signify "reconciliation" or "normalization." Hizbullah and its ally the Amal Movement issued a statement overnight objecting to the composition of the Lebanese delegation to the negotiations. They expressed reservations that the team to includes civilians, calling for the delegation to be reformed so that it only includes members of the military. "This harms Lebanon's position and interests... and amounts to giving in to the Israeli logic that seeks some form of normalization," they said. The same delegation that the two groups objected to later concluded the first round of indirect negotiations with the Israeli side at UNIFIL’s headquarters in Naqoura. Following a 2006 war, regular talks between Israeli and Lebanese army officers were reestablished under UNIFIL's auspices. As well as the discussions on the maritime border to be facilitated by the U.S., a UNIFIL-brokered track is also due to address outstanding land border disputes.Khashan of AUB said these negotiations would be more complex as they would undoubtedly raise the issue of the formidable arsenal held by Hizbullah, the only Lebanese group not to have disarmed after the civil war.
"Hizbullah will not agree to give up its arsenal," he said.

Charity Reports Surge in Deadly Crossings from Crisis-Hit Lebanon
Agence France Presse/October 14/2020
The number of people attempting to make the deadly sea crossing to Cyprus from Lebanon has surged this year, Save the Children said Wednesday. "September saw a significant uptick in crossings with 230 people traveling on five boats pushed back to Lebanon after attempting the journey to Cyprus by sea," it said. Save the Children said 21 crossings had been attempted to Cyprus between July and September, more than the 17 reported for the whole of 2019. Most of the attempted crossings usually depart from Lebanon's northern coast, in the Tripoli area. The Republic of Cyprus lies just 160 kilometers away.
According to the army and aid groups, several people have drowned or died of health complications while drifting at sea in recent weeks. Most of the would-be migrants are already refugees who fled the war in neighboring Syria but an increasing number of Lebanese nationals are attempting the perilous journey. Lebanon, which hosts nearly 1.5 million Syrian refugees, was struggling from a severe economic crisis and political instability even before the coronavirus pandemic struck. That was exacerbated by the massive August 4 explosion at Beirut's port, which laid waste to entire neighborhoods and killed close to 200 people.

Geagea Says LF Won't Nominate Hariri despite 'Friendship'
Naharnet/October 14/2020
Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea announced Wednesday that the LF-led Strong Republic bloc will not vote for ex-PM Saad Hariri in the binding parliamentary consultations that will be held Thursday to name a new premier. “Despite our friendship with Saad Hariri, we will not name him for the premiership, and we will not nominate anyone, because no one enjoys the needed characteristics,” Geagea said at a press conference that followed a meeting for his bloc. “We have proposed a salvation government and therefore there should be a government of independent technocrats, and this was at the heart of the French initiative,” the LF leader added. “We fully support the initiative, because we are in dire need for a salvation government and a government with a specific mission. It can only have one shape and we will only accept a real salvation government,” Geagea went on to say.

Lebanese Forces party threatens to sue pro-Hezbollah newspaper
Jacob Boswall, Al Arabiya English/Wednesday 14 October 2020
A Christian political party in Lebanon has threatened to sue a major newspaper, long affiliated with Hezbollah, claiming it misconstrued the words of its leader. The Lebanese Forces, led by Samir Geagea, strongly rejected Al-Akhbar newspaper’s claims that it was preparing for a military confrontation inside Lebanon. In an article published Tuesday, Al-Akhbar alleged that Geagea boasted of having 15,000 fighters armed and ready to fight against Hezbollah. The conversation allegedly took place during a dinner with Druze leader Walid Joumblatt. “I have 15,000 fighters, and we are able to confront [Hezbollah], which is suffering from great weakness due to the situation in Lebanon and the region,” said Geagea, according to the article. A similar article appeared on the online news platform 180post, attributing the following war-mongering quotation to the Lebanese Forces leader.
“The Lebanese Forces are now stronger than they were under [former leader] Bachir Gemayel … As for Hezbollah, it has become weaker than the Palestine Liberation Organization, led by Yasser Arafat, on the eve of the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in June 1982.”
The Lebanese Forces were quick to deny the allegations. In a statement, the party described the Geagea’s alleged comments as “a malicious attempt to demonize and corrupt the Lebanese Forces by spreading malicious rumors and fabricating false news about armaments, fighting, confrontations and wars.”According to the statement, the articles had deliberately misconstrued Geagea’s words and that the party leader was merely boasting of his political power and not military strength. The statement added that the articles attempted to damage relations between the Lebanese Forces and Joumblatt’s Progressive Socialist Party. The Lebanese Forces will take legal action against both Al-Akhbar and 180post, the statement concluded.

Mustaqbal Delegation Meets Hizbullah, FPM Blocs
Naharnet/October 14/2020
A Mustaqbal bloc delegation led by MP Bahia Hariri on Wednesday held separate meetings with Hizbullah’s Loyalty to Resistance bloc and the Strong Lebanon bloc of the Free Patriotic Movement. Speaking after talks with Hizbullah’s bloc in a Beirut southern suburb, Hariri stressed “the importance of dialogue in all the junctures we go through.”She also underlined the need “not to exclude any component of the country.” The Mustaqbal delegation had earlier met with Strong Lebanon bloc members Ibrahim Kanaan, Cesar Abi Khalil, George Atallah and Mansour Bteish at the FPM’s headquarters in Sin el-Fil.
“What we sensed today in our discussion is that the FPM aspires for more than the (French) paper and we consider that the paper represents a start that the country greatly needs,” Hariri said after the talks. “So far we have sensed clear commitment to the paper from all the parties we have met with, and we hope for positive developments with the start of tomorrow’s consultations,” the MP added. Asked about ex-PM Saad Hariri’s stance on the demands of the blocs, the lawmaker said the Mustaqbal bloc will convene to evaluate the meetings that have been held and take the appropriate stance.
Kanaan for his part described reforms as essential, calling for the formation of a new government and for cooperation among the various parties. “Reform is a national issue and should come before disputes and bickering,” he said. He added that his bloc endorses the French initiative and its reform paper as a work program for the coming government.

Bassil, Jumblatt attack Hariri for premiership candidacy
The Arab Weekly/October 14/2020
“This is a self-nomination,” Jumblatt told local television network Al Jadeed, accusing Hariri of behaving like French monarch Louis XIV who famously said: “I am the state.”
BEIRUT –Lebanese Christian politician Gebran Bassil criticised Sunni former Prime Minister Saad Hariri on Tuesday for putting himself forward to lead a government that would champion a French initiative to resolve the country’s deep economic crisis. Earlier on Monday, Lebanese Druze leader Walid Jumblatt used even harsher words to criticise Hariri. Hariri has begun consultations with the president, parliament speaker and political blocs about forming a government that would implement French President Emmanuel Macron’s roadmap for reforms and unlock international aid. He has said his mission is to form a six-month technocratic government to rapidly carry out the reform plan set out in Macron’s initiative. “We were not aware, and nobody informed us, that President Macron had appointed a high commissioner… to Lebanon, and made a prefect for us to oversee his initiative and the extent of its implementation,” Bassil said in a speech to supporters. “Whoever wants to head a government of technocrats has to be a technocrat himself,” said Bassil, who heads Lebanon’s biggest Christian bloc, the Free Patriotic Movement. A former foreign minister, Bassil is also President Michel Aoun’s son-in-law. Earlier on Monday, Jumblatt also criticised Hariri during a live TV interview. “This is a self-nomination,” Jumblatt told local television network Al Jadeed, accusing Hariri of behaving like French monarch Louis XIV who famously said: “I am the state.”
Jumblatt, a close ally of Hariri despite several falling-outs over the past years, said that the former premier’s announcement naming himself as a candidate to lead the government was a violation of the Lebanese constitution.
“According to the constitution, if there still is a constitution, parliamentary blocs go to [the Presidential Palace] Baabda and choose” a new prime minister, Jumblatt said, adding only “then, depending on the votes, there is a nomination.”
The Druze leader said that his party, the Progressive Socialist Party, would refuse to meet Hariri’s representatives ahead of consultations between political parties and Aoun set to begin on Thursday.
“He named himself and there is no need for us to go to Baabda, and it is possible that a deal will be struck with [Free Patriotic Movement head Gebran] Bassil and the Shia duo [Hezbollah and the Amal Movement],” said Jumblatt, quoted by local newspaper The Daily Star.
Aoun will hold formal consultations on Thursday about nominating a prime minister to form a new government to replace Hassan Diab’s cabinet, which resigned two months ago after a powerful explosion damaged much of Beirut and killed 200 people. Diab’s nominated replacement has been unable to form a government after the powerful Shia group Hezbollah and its political allies insisted on nominating the finance minister.
Lebanon is suffering its worst financial collapse since a 1975-1990 civil war. Foreign donors have made clear there will be no fresh aid unless Lebanese leaders launch reforms to tackle graft and improve governance, and engage in IMF negotiations.

Lebanon is doomed if its best people keep fleeing the country
Rami Rayess/Al Arabiya/October 14/ 2020
Reports that Lebanese people are fleeing the country en masse reflect the country’s slide into a failed state. The government should be concerned.
Since the devastating August 4 Beirut explosion compounded Lebanon’s ongoing economic crisis, reports of people fleeing across the Mediterranean have increased. On September 20, more than 30 people were intercepted on a boat about 20 kilometers off the southern coast of Cyprus. The boat was one of many to leave the country over the last two months, with some Lebanese so desperate that they had sold all their property to pay to be smuggled to Cyprus or southern Europe.
Several of the vessels were not safely equipped for the voyage; in a televised interview after returning to Lebanon from a failed trip, one survivor said families had been trapped for seven consecutive days and nights. Other journeys ended tragically. One couple had to throw the bodies of their dead children who could not survive the trip into the deep sea. Others had to swim back to the coast seeking aid. There are no official records on the final number of deaths from this illegal emigration.
Despite these shocking reports, the official response has been underwhelming. The Lebanese President chaired a security meeting in response to these dramatic reports, and several decisions were taken to try to control this phenomenon: a pledge to increase coordination with Cypriot maritime authorities to secure the return of Lebanese citizens, to intensify investigations into the smuggling networks, and to coordinate with UNIFIL to make surveillance in the sea more effective. However, these decisions are unlikely to stem the flow of people, which stems from much deeper causes.
Yet perhaps a greater threat to the country is the less dramatic, but more widespread wave of emigration. Thousands of Lebanese citizens are searching for a way out, applying through embassies to flee the country. Canada has its open door policy for Lebanese immigrants, Australia and other European nations follow suit each according to its criteria and policies. These host nations will incorporate Lebanon’s rich human resources into their markets and economies. In turn, Lebanon will lose many of its best and brightest skilled workers, further compounding its economic woes. For example, the President of Physicians Order Sharaf Abou Sharaf has warned from the immigration of competent doctors which will negatively affect the health sector.
Lebanon’s brain drain is not new or unprecedented, however. The country witnessed a similar wave of immigration back in the final stage of the Lebanese Civil War in 1989-1990. General Michel Aoun (now the incumbent President) launched two wars, the first supported by Iraq’s Saddam Hussein against Syria in the aim of ousting the Syrian army from Lebanon, and the second against his fellow Christian party the Lebanese Forces. The first ended up with a total failure as the Syrian Army only left the country in April 2006 after the assassination of former prime minister Rafic Hariri and under enormous international pressure led by the US and France. The second cleaved divisions among the Christian community, which continues to be split along party political lines. In the end, both resulted in a massive wave of immigration from the country.
In 2020, it is even worse. Though there is no armed conflict in the country, the economy continues its free fall. Hyperinflation looms as the national currency has lost most of its purchasing power. Employment is on the rise and poverty rates have reached unprecedented levels. The ailing economy has suffered further due to partial lockdown, with COVID-19 cases rising every day. Hospitals risk being overwhelmed.
The country is devastated at all levels with no hope in the horizon. Measures taken by the Central Bank are not sufficient to stop the rise of the dollar rate vis-à-vis the Lebanese lira. Unless a trustworthy cabinet is created soon to launch the long awaited reforms that would eventually lead to pumping money again to the economy; no measures will be capable to divert the course. Downfall is inevitable.
As the opportunity of the French political initiative has been squandered, expectations are again low. The Lebanese people are paying the price once more.
*Rami Rayess is a Lebanese writer and journalist. He is also a University Instructor and translator. He holds a Masters degree in Political Science from the American University of Beirut. He writes regularly to several newspapers and websites in both Arabic and English. He tweets @RamiRayess
 

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on October 14-15/2020

Iranian activists claim regime has hidden nuclear facility
Ray Hanania/Arab News/October 14/2020
DETROIT: Ali Safavi, a member of Iran’s parliament in exile, said on Wednesday that Iran has built a nuclear weapons site that it has been hiding from the rest of the world in violation of international law. Safavi, who said the details of the nuclear site would be revealed at a press conference on Friday by the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), added that the world needed to act not only to block Iran’s production of nuclear weapons but to stop the regime’s repression and brutality against its people.
Appearing on Detroit-based radio program “The Ray Hanania Show,” which is sponsored by Arab News newspaper and the US Arab Radio Network, Safavi said Europe especially had failed to act to stop the massacres from taking place.“The European countries out of economic interests, their shortsighted interests, they are basically losing the strategic game. They should instead side with the people of Iran,” Safavi said. “This regime is on its way out. For the Europeans to continue to deal with this regime commercially, politically, and lend it legitimacy, they are betting on a losing horse. And, of course, come liberation day, the Iranian people will remember all of this.” Safavi added that “no amount of political concession, economic concession, saved the Shah from being overthrown,” referring to the late Shah Reza Pahlavi who was ousted in February 1979 after 38 years in power.“The mullahs of Iran are a thousand times more rotten, decadent, repressive and illegitimate,” Safavi said. “It’s high time from our perspective that the Europeans abandon this policy and join the policy of maximum pressure and hold the regime to maximum pressure and hold the regime to account.” Following Safavi’s radio appearance, NCRI officials announced that they would host a press conference on Friday, October 16, to unveil details of the secret nuclear facility in Iran and provide satellite imagery and the names of the key Iranian regime officials involved. Safavi and NCRI officials said that information on the nuclear center and the Iranian regime’s nuclear bomb-making efforts had been provided by the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) network within Iran.
“Over the past two decades, the NCRI has exposed some of the most important sites and centers of Tehran’s nuclear weapons program,” they said. They listed them as the Natanz uranium enrichment and Arak heavy water sites in August 2002; the Kalaye electric centrifuge assembly and testing facility in February 2003; the Lavizan-Shian sites in May 2003; the Fordo underground enrichment site in December 2005; the Organization of Defensive Innovation and Research, SPND (in July 2011) and METFAZ’s Pazhouheshkadeh at Plan 6 in Parchin in April 2017.
Safavi blamed the failure of European nations to rally against supporting the Iranian regime, a pattern he said was reflected in the failed policies of President Donald Trump’s predecessor Barack Obama.
“You have seen for example the Obama administration and the so-called Iran nuclear deal which has provided hundreds of millions of dollars to Iran including $1.8 billion in cash. What did that do?’ Safavi asked.
“First of all it didn’t stop Iran from continuing its nuclear weapons war. It didn’t stop the regime from expanding and advancing its ballistic missile program. Nor did it stop the regime from spreading its nefarious activities to the rest of the Middle East.”More must be done, he said.
“The question in my mind and in the minds of millions of Iranians, is why is Europe doing this? Back in 2009 when millions were in the streets of Iran calling for the overthrow of the mullahs chanting death to the dictators,” Safavi said. “They were also chanting in the same breath Obama are you with us or are you with the mullahs? Of course, everyone knows that the Obama administration was silent about that and of course the mullahs prevailed by the use of force.” Safavi said the Europeans must do more and that even President Trump, who had done a great deal, could also do more.
“I think the (Trump) administration can do more, certainly. I think it should work to provide Iranians with the kind of technology that they could have access to the Internet at the times of protests and uprising so that the mullahs cannot cut them off from the rest of the world,” he said, noting the Iranian resistance was staying out of the American general elections. “They can totally cut off the regime from the world and national system. They can maybe present a resolution at the UN Security Council calling for the Iranian regimes’ human rights dossier to be addressed and those responsible to be held accountable,” he said.

IDF Special Forces carry out covert operation, destroy two Syrian outposts
Jerusalem Post/October 14/2020/افيخاي ادرعي
@AvichayAdraee:كشف النقاب: قبل أسابيع (تحديدًا ليل ٢١ من سبتمبر) قامت قوات جيش الدفاع باقتحام موقعيْن متقدميْن تابعيْن للجيش السوري في منطقة فض الاشتباك شرق السياج الأمني شمال هضبة #الجولان وتدميرها. وكان #الجيش_السوري يستخدم المواقع المدمّرة بهدف الاستطلاع والأمن الروتيني (فيديو من العملية)
The operation was carried out following Syria's continued violation of the disengagement agreement with Israel since 1974. "We won't allow southern Syria to become southern Lebanon."
In a secret operation that took place last week and was made known to the public on Tuesday, IDF Special Forces crossed the border into the demilitarized zone between Israel and Syria and destroyed two outposts belonging to the Syrian army.
The operation was carried out following Syria’s continued violation of the disengagement agreement between Israel and Syria from 1974, which determines that a designated buffer zone between the borders would only be occupied by a special UN force called the Disengagement Observer Force
Recently, however, the Syrian military returned to the buffer zone in the Golan Heights and spread its forces across the border, leading the IDF to take action and launch the unusual operation.
The operation included combat soldiers from the Nachal Brigade and commando soldiers from Yahalom – a special unit that specializes in combat engineering – crossing the border and destroying two Syrian outposts without being detected.
“You’re facing the enemy, you’re about 500 meters away,” Cap. Michael Zilberg from the Nachal Brigade told news outlet N12. “A mission like this requires you to be very focused.”
A team commander from Yahalom described the operation and said it included “making our way in a silent and covert manner to the targets, placing a system of explosives on both outposts and blowing them up simultaneously.”
Lt.-Col. Tal Goritzki from the brigade explained the broader purpose of the mission, other than “punishing” the Syrians for violating the agreement.
“We know about the collaboration between the Syrian military and Hezbollah,” Goritzki told N12. “Every Syrian military establishment has the potential to become a dual military establishment. We won’t allow southern Syria to become southern Lebanon.”
The IDF has been focused in recent years on preventing Hezbollah and Iran from establishing terrorist positions on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights, including launching attacks from the air against their positions.

Israel approves first West Bank settler homes since deals with UAE, Bahrain
AFP/Wednesday 14 October 2020
Israel approved 2,166 new homes in settlements across the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, official figures sent to AFP showed, ending an eight-month lull in settlement expansion. The approvals came less than a month after the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain signed agreements to normalize relations with Israel, which in return pledged to freeze its plans to annex swathes of the West Bank. NGO Peace Now says the settlement uptick signals Israel’s rejection of Palestinian statehood and deals a blow to hopes of a wider Israeli-Arab peace. It said that around 2,000 more homes were expected to be approved on Thursday. “Netanyahu is moving ahead at full steam toward solidifying the de facto annexation of the West Bank,” it said in a statement ahead of Wednesday’s decisions. US President Donald Trump sees the Gulf accords as part of his broader initiative for Middle East peace.
But a controversial plan he unveiled in January gave US blessing to Israeli annexation of large chunks of the West Bank, including the settlements, communities considered illegal under international law. Israel agreed to delay those plans under its normalization deal with the UAE, something Emirati officials have cited in response to Arab and Muslim criticism. The two Gulf countries were only the third and fourth Arab states to normalize relations with Israel, following Egypt in 1979 and Jordan in 1994, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he sees others following.
 

‘New era’ begins in US-Saudi relationship, Pompeo tells Saudi Arabian FM
Joseph Haboush and Tamara Abueish, Al Arabiya English/Wednesday 14 October 2020
The US-Saudi Strategic Dialogue that kicked off Wednesday in Washington marks a new era in ties between the United States and Saudi Arabia, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said. “This Strategic Dialogue between the United States and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia that Prince Faisal and I launched today marks a new era in our relationship,” the US diplomat said during a joint news conference with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan. Both diplomats were speaking after the first meeting between US and Saudi officials at the inaugural dialogue. “Our conversations this morning reflected a mutual willingness to grow not only our security and economic ties, but our whole partnership,” Pompeo said. He revealed that the US was in talks to acquire 26 acres in Riyadh for a new US embassy. Discussions also touched on regional security, including Iran’s malign behaviour, which Pompeo said was threatening the Kingdom’s security and was disrupting global commerce. “Today we reaffirmed our mutual commitment to countering Iranian malign activity, and the threat it poses to regional security and prosperity,” Pompeo said. He added that the US supported “a robust program of arm sales to Saudi Arabia, a line of effort that helps the Kingdom protect its citizens and sustains American jobs.”For his part, Prince Faisal condemned Iran’s “continuing destabilizing behaviour,” citing its financial and material support to terrorist groups, including the Houthis in Yemen.
He cited the more than 300 Iranian-made ballistic missiles and drones fired by the Houthis towards the Kingdom. “Their development of their nuclear program, ballistic missiles, and their malign activities represent a grave danger to the region and the world,” Prince Faisal said.
The Saudi FM reiterated the Kingdom’s support for a “comprehensive political solution in Yemen.”Prince Faisal warned of an environment catastrophe that “will irreparably damage Yemen’s coastline and marine life in the region.” He was referring to the FSO Safer, an aging oil tanker, on the Red Sea which the Houthis have repeatedly refused full access to. Meanwhile, Pompeo urged Saudi Arabia to consider normalizing relations with Israel, while thanking the Kingdom for “assistance they’ve had in the success of the Abraham Accords so far.”The United Arab Emirates and Bahrain signed peace deals with Israel last month in a US-brokered deal at the White House. For his part, Prince Faisal said the Strategic Dialogues comes at “a very important time.” “Our strong partnership is vital in confronting the forces of extremism and terrorism that threaten our security and prosperity,” he said.

Saudi Arabia Fails in Bid to Join U.N. Rights Council
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/October 14/2020
Saudi Arabia has failed in its bid to become a member of the United Nations Human Rights Council as China and Russia were elected to three-year terms. Human rights groups hailed the snub to Riyadh, which deals a blow to the kingdom's attempts to improve its image in the international community.
"The #HRC elections today delivered a stunning rebuke to #SaudiArabia under Mohammed bin Salman," tweeted Bruno Stagno, a deputy executive director at Human Rights Watch, referring to the country's crown prince. "Only country not elected, shunned by a majority of the UN. The kingdom reaped what it deserves for its serious violations of human rights and war crimes abroad," he added. Fifteen positions were up for grabs on the 47-seat body that has been criticized by rights organizations and the United States for electing countries accused of human rights violations.
However, only four of the 15 spots were contested -- all in Asia-Pacific. Chian received 139 votes in the secret ballot, a dramatic fall from the 180 votes that it received when they were last elected in 2016. "Shows more states are disturbed by China's abysmal rights record," tweeted Louis Charbonneau, U.N. director at Human Rights Watch. Pakistan and Uzbekistan were elected with 169 votes while Nepal was also elected with 150 votes. Saudi Arabia was the only country up for election that failed to be elected, mustering only 90 votes. "Unless Saudi Arabia undertakes dramatic reforms to release political prisoners, end its disastrous war in Yemen and allow its citizens meaningful political participation, it will remain a global pariah," said Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of Democracy for the Arab World Now, which hailed the result. The organization she represents was founded by Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was killed by Saudi agents at country's Istanbul consulate two years ago. Russia and Cuba were among 11 countries elected unopposed. All 193 U.N. members were able to vote in each region. The controversial voting system sees countries strike bargains to agree on who will stand, often unopposed. President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of the council in 2018. "Today the U.N. General Assembly once again elected countries with abhorrent human rights records," Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement.
He slammed the body's membership rules, saying they "allow the election of the world's worst human rights abusers to seats on the council."

Turkey trains 120 fighters in Libya, again denies sending troops to battle Armenia
Emily Judd, Al Arabiya English/Wednesday 14 October 2020
Turkey has started training 120 Libyan fighters to help its ally in Libya while continuing to deny reports it is sending Syrian troops to battle Armenia.
Under Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Ankara has been accused of pursuing an aggressive foreign policy in several neighboring countries, including by using its position in Syria to channel Syrian fighters to both Libya and the Caucuses.This week Ankara appeared to publicize its involvement in Libya, while continuing to deny any military role against Armenia.
The training is part of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on military collaboration signed by Ankara and the GNA last year, which was paired with another MoU that controversially awarded Turkey vast swathes of the gas-rich eastern Mediterranean Sea for gas exploration. The training of Libyan cadets shows the “extent of military cooperation between Ankara and Tripoli,” at a time when internal rifts have weakened the position of GNA Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj, according to expert Umberto Profazio.
“Widespread protests in Tripoli and the disputes about the agreement that allowed for oil production to resume highlighted an internal rift in the GNA…and raising doubts about Ankara's real hold on western Libyan authorities,” Profazio, an analyst at the NATO Foundation, told Al Arabiya English.
Profazio added that the training of Libyan navy personnel by Turkish instructors also began this week.
Turkey denies sending troops to fight Armenia
While Ankara publicizes its military involvement in Libya, it continues to deny its alleged military involvement in the ongoing conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan. On Wednesday Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan rejected accusations that pro-Turkey Syrians were fighting alongside Azerbaijani troops in Nagorno-Karabakh, the ethnic Armenian province that is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan. Turkey has publicly expressed support for Azerbaijan in the recent flare-up of a decades-long conflict with Armenia over the area. But Ankara is going beyond moral support, according to world leaders including French President Emmanuel Macron, who said there is clear evidence Syrian extremist fighters are being sent through Turkey to fight against Armenia in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Britain-based war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported last week that at least 64 pro-Turkey Syrian fighters have been killed in the clashes.Turkey’s denial of the use of foreign mercenaries is part of “hybrid warfare,” according to Profazio, in which world powers use proxies to covertly fight in different theaters. “Turkey has reportedly enrolled and deployed Syrian fighters coming from the same armed groups both in Libya and Nagorno-Karabakh, with reports referring to the Sultan Murad [Brigades] as one of the main sources of foreign fighters in both theaters,” Profazio said.
Ankara’s dual approach - in publicizing its military involvement in Libya and downplaying it in Nagorno-Karabakh - stems from the MoU signed with the GNA, according to Profazio.
In addition, Turkey has to “be careful” about openly admitting military support against Armenia due to global reactions, according to expert Henri Barkey.
“They cannot be seen as openly fighting Armenians…. here in the US especially and in Europe, because it conjures the Armenian Genocide,” Barkey, a fellow for Middle East studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, told Al Arabiya English. The systemic genocide of Armenians at the hands of the Ottoman Turks during World War I is denied by Turkish authorities to this day.
Turkey has a well-established tradition of training militaries in Asian and African countries, but the government under Erdogan has “overhauled this policy since the Syrian civil war by equipping and training mercenaries,” according to former Turkish parliament member Aykan Erdemir.
“Ankara has seen military-to-military relations as an important means to gain political access and expand diplomatic influence,” Erdemir, now senior director at the Turkey Program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told Al Arabiya English.

Turkey Vows to Give Greece 'Answer It Deserves' over East Med Dispute
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/October 14/2020
Turkey on Wednesday vowed to give its NATO ally Greece the "answer it deserves" over their energy dispute in the contested waters in the eastern Mediterranean. "We will continue to give Greece and the Greek Cypriot administration -- who fail to keep their promises at the EU and NATO platforms -- the answer they deserve on the ground," President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a speech to parliament.

Turkish survey ship begins operations in east Mediterranean
Agencis/Arab News/October 14/2020
ISTANBUL: A Turkish seismic survey ship has reached the location in the eastern Mediterranean where it will operate and was beginning to take readings on Wednesday, Turkey’s Energy Minister Fatih Donmez said. In a move reviving tensions with Greece, Ankara sent the Oruc Reis vessel to a disputed area near the Greek island of Kastellorizo off Turkey’s coast on Monday. Greece said it was a “major escalation” of their dispute over maritime rights and claims to hydrocarbon resources in the region. “Oruc Reis has reached the area in the eastern Mediterranean where it will carry out its activities. Tests began yesterday and we are beginning to receive the first seismic readings today,” Donmez told a conference by video link. Turkey had withdrawn the vessel from contested waters in the region last month to “allow diplomacy” before a European Union summit at which sanctions against Turkey were discussed.
On Tuesday, the United States slammed Turkey’s decision to send the vessel back, accusing Ankara of unilaterally stoking tensions and “deliberately” complicating the resumption of talks with Greece.

Turkish court and ministry spar over lighting tweet

Agencis/Arab News/October 14/2020
ANKARA: A dispute between Turkish state apparatus heated up on Tuesday night after a Twitter spat about who worked harder at night. The fresh debate was triggered after a tweet from a Constitutional Court member, Engin Yildirim, who shared a photograph of the building and said: “The lights are on.”The tweet quickly came to the attention of pro-government media and government authorities, who accused the judge of “implying a coup attempt,” a reference to a failed putsch from July 2016. Not to be outdone, the Ministry of Interior tweeted a photograph of its building with the caption: “Our lights never go off.” “Those who assumed the duty of those who greeted putschists in the past by saying ‘the lights of the General Staff are on’ should not wait even for a second to resign!” the deputy interior minister tweeted, suggesting that journalists had always previously checked the General Staff building’s lights at night for signs that a coup was being prepared. The judge later deleted his tweet. The Constitutional Court held an unscheduled meeting on Wednesday, releasing a statement afterwards saying that it opposed all kinds of anti-democratic interventions that undermined constitutional order.
Berk Esen, a political scientist from Sabanci University in Istanbul, said the row between the court and the ministry was worrying and that he was concerned about the possible negative ramifications in the weeks ahead. “For many, the lights don’t matter if justice and the rule of law are already under darkness for a longtime,” he told Arab News. “The decisions of Turkey’s top court were long annoying the government and its nationalistic alliance partner which was even urging for reshaping the court ‘in line with the presidential system.’” A series of Constitutional Court actions have upset the ministry which, in turn, has pushed back and tried to cut the institution down to size. Esen said that if the top court’s decisions were no longer recognized, there would be no legal body left to stop an arbitrary interpretation of Turkey’s constitution. “In the past, the Constitutional Court did not take the necessary steps to prevent autocratization in the country and ratified many articles that undermined the democratic regime, including some presidential decrees. It failed to serve as a check on the presidency’s growing control over the political system, so they share some blame for Turkey’s democratic backsliding,” he added.

Jordanian boy suffers horrific injuries in revenge attack
AFP/Agencis/Arab News/October 14/2020
King Abdullah II orders that the boy be treated at top hospital, calls on police to pursue the perpetrators
AMMAN: A 16-year-old Jordanian boy has lost both of his hands and an eye in a revenge attack by a criminal gang that targeted his father in the industrial city of Zarqa in Jordan. A video of the victim has gone viral, causing public outrage. King Abdullah II has taken a personal interest in the case and requested that the boy be treated at the King Hussein Medical Center. He also called on police to pursue the perpetrators. Queen Rania has also tweeted about the case. “How do we replace for you what the criminals took away? How do we reunite your mother’s heart and those of your family? How do we protect our children from those who are not being deterred? This is a heinous crime. Our hearts are with you. I add my voice for the perpetrators facing the most severe punishment,” she said. Amer Sartawi, spokesman of the Jordanian police, told Arab News that the attacker and five members of his gang were apprehended and will be tried in the state security court. “A special unit worked on the case and was able to arrest the lead attacker and five of his cohorts. Two pieces of weapons and sharp objects that were used in the crime were confiscated. Further investigation will determine if there are other accomplices,” he said.
Mahmmoud Zawahreh, director of Naya Community Center in Zarqa, told Arab News that the filming and distribution of the video was as ugly as the crime itself. “This crime reflects a moral low of humanity and a sign of the increase of the culture of violence in recent years in our society.”
Zawahreh, a youth activist, said that while financial losses can be replenished, moral losses will be long-lasting. “We are suffering from a moral loss that will not be easily replaced. We need to have a thorough study of how to deter such morally reprehensible crimes in the future.”
Jordan’s police force also arrested a person charged with filming and distributing the video of the victim’s injuries.  He is being held in violation of Article 11 of the Cybercrime law, which prohibits violating the privacy of children.
Taghrid Doghmi, director of the Wae’e Center for Human Rights Training, told Arab News that the usual punishment in civil courts for kidnapping and causing permanent harm is a 10 year prison sentence. Public anger expressed on social media has led to calls for capital punishment and life imprisonment for the attackers. Sartawi said that the state security court will charge the accused with terrorizing the public. He added that, if convicted, the penalty for the charged crimes will be a lifetime in jail for the perpetrators. The lead criminal has 172 prior convictions, police said.
Doghmi supported the arrest of the person who took the video, saying that the distribution of the clip is a clear crime according to Jordanian law. “Even if the victim or his family agreed to the filming, this is still a crime because of the age of the victim.”Muath Momani, director of Lawyers Without Borders, told Arab News that the entire penal code must be revised. “We must think long and hard about how to deal with cases like this with a mix of direct incarceration and social rehabilitation taken into consideration, to ensure that such crimes are not repeated.”

Mahmoud Yassin, one of Egypt’s most celebrated actors dies at age 79
The Associated Press/Wednesday 14 October 2020
Mahmoud Yassin, an Egyptian actor and pillar of the country’s film industry during the second half of the 20th century, has died. He was 79. Yassin had suffered age-related health problems in recent years and was pronounced dead in Cairo early on Wednesday, according to his family. His son Amr Mahmoud Yassin, also an actor, said his father’s funeral would take place on Thursday. “He was not only a great star, but also a great father,” Amr Mahmoud wrote in an Instagram post. Mahmoud Yassin worked with some of Egypt’s most lauded movie stars and filmmakers during a career that first took off in the 1960s, including Faten Hamama, Shadia and Soad Hosni.
He went on to play leading roles 1970s and 1980s, decades when critics say some of Egypt’s best movies were produced. Yassin had over 150 films to his name, with diverse roles ranging from romantic to serious, and from emotionally disturbed to upbeat and patriotic. His films included several based on stories by renowned Egyptian novelists, such as Nobel Prize laureate Naguib Mahfouz and Ihsan Abdel Quddous. Egypt’s Culture Minister Inas Abdel-Dayem mourned Yassin’s passing and expressed his condolences to his family and fans.
“The creative field has lost one of its icons and a golden star who sincerely expressed the issues of society in his works, which have left enduring marks in the history of acting,” she said in a statement.
Born in 1941 in the Mediterranean province of Port Said, Yassin studied law at Cairo’s Ain Shams University. He embarked on an acting career on the stage when he joined the country’s national theater in 1963.
He starred in several films during what was regarded as the “golden age” of Egyptian cinema — a time roughly stretching from the 1940s to the 1970s. He is widely known for his patriotic roles in films portraying the 1967 and 1973 Middle East wars, such as “The Bullet is Still in My Pocket,” and “Ascent to the Abyss,” a film that portrayed Heba Selim, who worked for the Mossad in 1960s and was arrested and executed by Egypt. His famous roles included films like “Where Is My Mind” with Soad Hosni, “We Do Not Sow Thorns” with Shadia, and “Mouths and Rabbits” with Faten Hamama. He also starred in a handful of TV dramas. In the past two decades, he appeared in the 2007 action film “The Island,” and the 2012 comedy “Grandpa, My Darling.” He was also an Ambassador Against Hunger for the UN World Food Program, visiting war-torn areas like Sudan’s Darfur region. Yassin is survived by his wife, the actress Shahira, their daughter Rania and son Amr.

The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on October 14-15/2020

Was America Discovered by an “Islamophobe”?
Raymond Ibrahim/October 14/2020
Christopher Columbus—that “genocidal madman and racist,” as he’s better known among the “woke” crowd, some of whom have vandalized his monuments—is back in the news, this time for his alleged “Islamophobia.”
In “Was Columbus’ Voyage to the ‘New World’ Driven by Islamophobia?,” an article published on Columbus Day (yesterday, Oct. 12) by Slate, Rebecca Onion asked author Alan Mikhail, “Is it possible to use the word Islamophobia to describe the way Columbus, Isabella, Ferdinand, and other Christian Europeans felt at this time?”
Mikhail’s response was somewhat equivocal:
It’s very tricky, the answer to this question. The idea is that there’s a thread of anti-Muslim sentiment from this period, and maybe even before, to today. In some ways you can draw a throughline. But I don’t want to buy into a story about some kind of eternal “clash of civilizations,” because there are plenty of examples of Christian Europeans and Muslims having quite positive interactions at the same time I’m talking about: the sharing of ideas, the exchange of goods, diplomatic relationships, fighting on the same side of wars against other enemies. And that’s part of the book, too—to point out that the Ottoman Empire has been part of “our history.”
So, what’s the real story of Christopher Columbus and the Islam question? First, some context: In 1453, when Columbus was 2-years-old, the Turks captured Constantinople, an event that rocked Christendom. Less than 40 years later, Ferdinand and Isabella captured the last bastion of Islam in Spain, Granada, an event that “produced an extraordinary effect throughout the Christian world and was viewed as a fitting revenge for the fall of Constantinople thirty-nine years earlier,” to quote an earlier historian. Even so, and although “what Constantinople was to the Ottoman sultan, Granada was to Ferdinand and Isabella,” the war with Islam was hardly over from Spain’s perspective.
No sooner was Granada conquered when the two monarchs funded the ambitious voyage of Columbus in an effort to launch “a final and definite Crusade against Islam by way of the Indies” (which culminated in the incidental founding of the New World). Many Europeans were convinced that if only they could reach the peoples east of Islam—who if not Christian were at least “not as yet infected by the Mahometan plague,” to quote Pope Nicholas V—together they could crush Islam between them. (The plan was centuries old and connected to the legend of Prester John, a supposedly great Christian monarch reigning in the East who would one day march westward and avenge Christendom by destroying Islam.)
All this comes out clearly in Columbus’s own letters: in one he refers to Ferdinand and Isabella as “enemies of the wretched sect of Mohammet” who are “resolve[d] to send me to the regions of the Indies, to see” how the people thereof can help in the war effort; in another written to the monarchs after he reached the New World Columbus offers to raise an army “for the war and conquest of Jerusalem.”
Nor were Spain and Columbus the first to implement this strategy; once Portugal was cleared of Islam in 1249, its military orders launched into Muslim Africa. “The great and overriding motivation behind [Prince] Henry the Navigator’s [b. 1394] explosive energy and expansive intellect was the simple desire to take the cross—to carry the crusading sword over to Africa and thus to open a new chapter in Christendom’s holy war against Islam.” He launched all those discovery voyages because “he sought to know if there were in those parts any Christian princes,” who “would aid him against the enemies of the faith.”
Does all this make Columbus and by extension Ferdinand and Isabella—not to mention the whole of Christendom—“Islamophobes,” as Slate seems intent on publishing?
The answer is yes—but not in the way that word is used today. While the Greek word phobos has always meant “fear,” its usage today implies “irrational fear.” However, considering that, for nearly a thousand years before Columbus, Islam had repeatedly attacked Christendom to the point of swallowing up three-quarters of its original territory, including for centuries Spain; that Islam’s latest iteration, in the guise of the Ottoman Turks, was during Columbus’s era devastating the Balkans and Mediterranean; and that, even centuries after Columbus, Islam was still terrorizing the West—marching onto Vienna with 200,000 jihadis in 1683 and provoking America into its first war as a nation—the very suggestion that historic Christian fears of Islam were “irrational” is itself the height of irrationalism.
Note: The above account on Columbus was excerpted from and is documented in the author’s, Sword and Scimitar: Fourteen Centuries of War between Islam and the West. Raymond Ibrahim is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center, a Judith Rosen Friedman Fellow at the Middle East Forum, and a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Gatestone Institute.

Iranian economy on verge of collapse due to American sanctions, pandemic
Mohammad Al-Kassim/Media Line/October 14/2020
COVID-19 deaths continue to climb as Tehran accuses US of trying to starve it into surrender
The Islamic Republic has seen a surge in coronavirus infections; its Health Ministry puts the death toll at more than 29,000, making Iran the hardest-hit country in the Middle East.
Even before the health crisis, the Iranian economy had been battered by low oil prices and crippling US sanctions reimposed by Washington after President Donald Trump withdrew in 2018 from the nuclear deal with major powers.
Iran’s unemployment rate has skyrocketed in 2020, and on Monday, its rial currency plunged to its lowest point ever against the US dollar, having losing more than 60% of its value in two years. Consumer prices have risen by 37% in 2020.
The fragile economy has also been battered by a temporary shutdown designed to contain the pandemic, border closures and a halt in non-oil exports.
Prof. Mohammad Marandi, head of American studies at Tehran University, told The Media Line that the government does not have the “luxury” of imposing a broader closure. “Iran is having a difficult time because shutting down the economy is very difficult due to the sanctions.”
Maysam Behravesh, intelligence analyst and policy adviser on Iran, told The Media Line that the regime’s “massive failure to rein in the pandemic is mainly due to the government’s general disregard for scientific warnings in the early stages of its spread, its prioritization of geopolitical interests over public health, and systemic mismanagement and corruption.” But he also blames the Trump Administration’s punitive measures for adding to the misery of Iranians. “US sanctions have denied the Iranian healthcare community the essential resources it desperately needs to confront the crisis.”
And last week, the US administration imposed sweeping new sanctions on the Islamic Republic’s banking sector.
“Our sanctions are directed at the regime and its corrupt officials that have used the wealth of the Iranian people to fuel a radical, revolutionary cause that has brought untold suffering across the Middle East and beyond,” US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said.
He said the Iranian leadership was to blame for devoting funds to the military when there was a health crisis.
“Our maximum economic pressure campaign will continue until Iran is willing to conclude a comprehensive negotiation that addresses the regime’s malign behavior,” he said.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif accused the US of trying to “blow up our remaining channels to pay for food and medicine.
“Iranians WILL survive this latest of cruelties. But conspiring to starve a population is a crime against humanity,” Zarif wrote on Twitter. “Culprits & enablers − who block our money − WILL face justice.”
Last week, Trump issued a stern warning. “Iran knows that, and they’ve been put on notice: If you f*** around with us, if you do something bad to us, we are gonna do things to you that have never been done before,” the president told conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh.
Marandi said the US is trying to “impose hunger, starvation, death and despair on ordinary Iranians.”Tehran accuses Washington of blocking its request for a $5 billion emergency loan from the International Monetary Fund, meant to fight the virus.
Marandi accuses the US and its allies of war crimes.
“The Americans want to prevent the Iranians from obtaining medicine to fight cancer; it’s clear as day what the Americans are doing. The sanctions are a war crime, a crime against humanity, and western countries are all complicit in this.”
Sina Azodi, a nonresident fellow at the Atlantic Council, told The Media Line that the government in Tehran bears part of the blame for the rise in infections. “The government mismanagement in the initial stages of the pandemic increased the vulnerability of the country.”
He acknowledges the role the US sanctions have played in devastating the economy in the country of 80 million people. “I cannot deny the critical role of economic sanctions in the severity of the pandemic. The US government is arguing that food and medicine are not sanctioned. But [international] financial institutions are very hesitant to process transactions related to Iran and tend to stay away from them. This increases the price of medicine in Iran, which under the current economic circumstances is making them less affordable for people,” Azodi said.
He argues that the latest round of sanctions is meant to “completely cut off Iran’s financial system from the rest of the world.”
Tehran has always been able to maneuver around sanctions, but with the strict closure measures imposed due to the coronavirus pandemic, Behravesh said this time Tehran will have a hard time keeping its economy afloat.
“In order to revive its economy, the Islamic Republic needs to fundamentally reconfigure and reform its methods of governance at home, as well as the way it is conducting foreign policy.”
Getting the Iranian economy back on track is important not only for the country’s financial stability but also for the regime’s survival.
“It [the US] aims to crush the Iranian economy so that the people go out to the streets. If you pay attention to recent protests, they are no longer politically motivated, they are mostly because of economic conditions with workers demanding their wages and protesting deterioration of their living standards,” said Azodi. “Whether this leads to street protests, that’s irrelevant,” Marandi said. “The point is that the Americans and their allies are attempting to make Iran suffer and to make people go out to the streets out of desperation. This is cruel, crude and inhumane as well as barbaric, and the silence of the Democrats and the mainstream media [in the US] makes them just as complicit.” Azodi believes that Tehran will eventually have to come to terms with Washington.
“Tehran had an opportunity to quickly make a deal with Trump Administration, and I believe that Trump is genuinely interested in some sort of ‘Trump Comprehensive Plan of Action TCPOA!!’ but the problem is people around him. Secretary Pompeo’s 12 demands are in fact a demand for the total capitulation of Iran, which is not going to happen. The best way to revive its economy is to reach a deal with Washington,” Azodi said.
Behravesh on the other hand argues that “any such change” to Iran's policy “is highly unlikely as long as the US ‘maximum pressure campaign’ threatens the government, compelling it to prioritize its survival by any means and at the expense of Iranian people.”
The leadership in Tehran is playing for time, hoping the US presidential election will lead to Trump’s replacement and that “the next US administration will adopt a more reasonable policy on Iran,” Behravesh said.

The End of Appeasement in Britain?
Richard Kemp/Gatestone Institute/October 14, 2020
For many decades, British society has been subjected to an almost continuous assault on our history, our way of life and our national institutions by the hard left.... the very policy Churchill warned against so frequently.
Forced to confront the so-far largely unopposed aggression against the West by the Chinese Communist Party and Vladimir Putin's Russia, we are on the brink of not just one but two cold wars.
Standing up to their hostility will have to become the linchpin of a new grand strategy, comparable to the successful struggle against global communist encroachment over several decades.... If that is to succeed, we must see no more appeasement.
For many decades, British society has been subjected to an almost continuous assault on our history, our way of life and our national institutions by the hard left. The centre and right became so demoralised by this highly successful campaign that for years their response was appeasement, the very policy Churchill warned against so frequently. Pictured: British PM Winston Churchill speaks in London on April 19, 1940.
"This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning." Winston Churchill's words following the British victory over Germany in the Battle of Egypt in November 1942 might also describe recent political developments in Britain's modern-day culture wars. For many decades, British society has been subjected to an almost continuous assault on our history, our way of life and our national institutions by the hard left.
The centre and right became so demoralised by this highly successful campaign that for years their response was appeasement, the very policy Churchill warned against so frequently when the fascist mirror image of this ideology threatened us in the 1930s. Now there are the glimmering signs of a fightback against the progressive liberal consensus that resulted, engulfing many mainstream politicians, the judiciary, civil service, much of the media, big business and education.
The inspiration for this fightback came when the voice of the no-longer-silent majority, exasperated by the progressive erosion of national sovereignty and the very fabric of democracy by the European Union, finally made itself heard in the Brexit referendum of 2016. The victory was narrow, but it should be remembered that the referendum was dominated by a campaign of fear and disinformation by every mainstream political party, virtually all national and international institutions and much of the media. Even the President of the United States, Barack Obama, came to London threatening to send us to "the back of the queue" on trade if we dared cast off the EU. As planned, this onslaught intimidated huge numbers into voting remain. In reality, therefore, far more than the 51.9% who had the courage to vote leave were in favour of rejecting the plot to turn our country into a mere province of the putative European superstate.
Implementation of the referendum result faltered under Prime Minister Theresa May's government, which seemed intent on ignoring the democratic will through BRINO — "Brexit in name only". But last year, the peoples' voice again thundered in her successor Boris Johnson's landslide general election victory. It saw the collapse of the "red wall" in northern England, with numerous long-held Labour constituencies defecting to the Conservative vote.
Despite the immense damage being inflicted by the Coronavirus pandemic, these developments seem to have begun to restore confidence among the centre and right. In recent days, the government announced plans to appoint conservative figures to two roles: the chairman of the BBC and the head of the broadcasting watchdog Ofcom. Why do these seemingly trivial nominations matter? British broadcast media has long been virtually the exclusive preserve of the left. This is particularly true of the BBC, a taxpayer-funded body with political neutrality enshrined in its charter, and by far the most influential of all British media. The widely recognised institutional bias of the corporation was re-affirmed when news of the potential appointments was greeted by outraged BBC employees warning of shattered morale and mass exodus of staff. The very idea that their fellow travellers might be supplanted by people with divergent views was enough to trigger left-wing elites everywhere, apparently not quite the champions of the diversity they constantly trumpet.
Following the well-trodden revolutionary precept that to take over a country you must first seize the radio and TV stations, the media has been the top priority for domination and control in the long march through the institutions by the left in Britain. Education has also been at the forefront. A recent survey for the think tank Policy Exchange showed that 75% of British university academics voted for left-wing parties, leading to a "structural discriminatory effect" against the minority of academics who identify as being on the right. This extends into high schools as well. Many university students and school pupils to whom I have spoken in recent years confirm that political indoctrination often reaches into the classroom, where they are obliged to keep any politically incorrect views to themselves. This goes back decades; I have similar recollections from my own schooldays, now more than 40 years past.
The left's stranglehold on education is potentially even more far-reaching than its grip on the media. This seems to be playing out today in the products of that education, an increasingly politicised and vocal civil service, once considered a beacon of professional impartiality. According to Nick Busvine, a former diplomat, "the vast majority of serving and retired civil servants I have spoken to have told me that the [Brexit] referendum was a misconceived exercise — and that the result was wrong". My own extensive experience of working in government supports that finding, as does a glance at the medium of Twitter which throws open a window onto the hitherto more opaque political views of so many in the civil service, media, education and the other institutions.
The struggle against an overbearing progressive liberal consensus that opposes the interests of the mass of the people has perhaps been galvanised by the recent orgy of self-hate inspired by a revolutionary movement thinly-disguised, inaccurately, as anti-racist, imported from across the Atlantic into one of the least racist countries in the world. Efforts to create and widen division in Britain, destroy our history and denigrate our culture have spread from schools, universities and media to the National Trust, the British Library, museums and art galleries. As part of the fightback against this vandalism, a new political party — comparatively rare in Britain — is being established by Laurence Fox, an actor who was himself cancelled as a result of insufficient wokeness. A TV channel is also being set up that promises to challenge the biased consensus enveloping the broadcast media.
The importance of this fightback goes beyond battling the culture wars that have ravaged British society in recent years. Forced to confront the so-far largely unopposed aggression against the West by the Chinese Communist Party and Vladimir Putin's Russia, we are on the brink of not just one but two cold wars. Standing up to their hostility will have to become the linchpin of a new grand strategy, comparable to the successful struggle against global communist encroachment over several decades. Building alliances alongside the US and mustering the resolution to confront these threats will require the restoration of Britain's patriotic spirit and national self-confidence that have been so gravely and deliberately undermined. If that is to succeed, we must see no more appeasement. This week's media nominations, important though they are, can only be the end of the beginning, with much more to come.
*Colonel Richard Kemp is a former British Army Commander. He was also head of the international terrorism team in the U.K. Cabinet Office and is now a writer and speaker on international and military affairs.
© 2020 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.

Why Palestinians Will Not Accept Advice from Arabs
Khaled Abu Toameh/Gatestone Institute/October 14, 2020
Palestinian leaders are continuing to act not only against the advice of [former Egyptian President Hosni] Mubarak and other Arabs, but also against the interests of their own people.
"The Palestinian leadership has lost its credibility in the eyes of the new Arab generation, which is a generation of technology...." — Abdullah Al-Ghathami, professor of criticism and theory at King Saud University, Twitter, September 25, 2020.
Pointedly,.... the Fatah delegation in Istanbul last week met with officials from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, as well as Turkish and Qatari intelligence officers.... and discussed... ways of "coordinating positions to direct blows to the interests of the Arab countries, especially the Arab Gulf states and Egypt."
The report added that "analysts specializing in the Palestinian issue commented that Qatar and Turkey will use Abbas to harm the interests of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the UAE, Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Sudan, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia."
The report also revealed that Qatar recently gave Abbas and some of his aides more than $50 million for their personal bank accounts inside banks in Israel and the Palestinian Authority areas."
Shortly after Mahmoud Abbas was elected president of the Palestinian Authority in 2005, Egypt's then President Hosni Mubarak was asked what advice he would give Palestinian leaders. He said: "... They have rejected everything... In my view, the Palestinian leadership now needs to give peace a chance. They need to sit at the negotiating table." Fifteen years later, it is evident that Abbas and the Palestinian leadership never took Mubarak's advice seriously. Pictured: Abbas (left) meets with Mubarak on August 8, 2007 in Alexandria, Egypt.
Shortly after Mahmoud Abbas was elected president of the Palestinian Authority in January 2005, Egypt's then President Hosni Mubarak was asked what advice he would give Palestinian leaders.
Mubarak, in an interview with the Al-Arabiya television network, replied: "There has to be a new thinking about the Palestinian issue. Otherwise, we [Arabs] will continue to say no. We have been saying no for the past 50 years, and that is why we missed many opportunities. We said no to the [UN's 1947] Partition Plan, and in 1967 we said no to recognizing Israel in return for a withdrawal [to the 1949 armistice lines]. At the time, we said that what was taken by force can only be restored by force.
"They have rejected everything. Now we are in a swamp. The Palestinian people are suffering due to the economic crisis. In my view, the Palestinian leadership now needs to give peace a chance. They need to sit at the negotiating table. This will send a message to the people that there is hope for peace."
Fifteen years later, it is evident that Abbas and the Palestinian leadership never took Mubarak's advice seriously. On the contrary, the Palestinian leaders are continuing to act not only against the advice of Mubarak and other Arabs, but also against the interests of their own people.
For the past three years, Abbas has cut off all ties with the US administration to protest President Donald Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Since the beginning of this year, Abbas has rejected Trump's vision for peace in the Middle East, known as "Peace to Prosperity," and suspended all ties with Israel, including security coordination.
What Abbas has done is to reject peace with Israel and prosperity for Palestinians to appease Hamas, Turkey and Qatar.
Abbas and the Palestinian leadership have, in the past few weeks, strongly come out against the peace deals signed between Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. This position has placed the Palestinians on a collision course with several Arab countries, especially the Gulf states. Many Arabs are reportedly furious with the Palestinian leadership for accusing the UAE and Bahrain of "betraying the Palestinian issue, the Al-Aqsa Mosque and Jerusalem."
Instead of talking to the Americans, the Israelis and Arabs who support the idea of making peace with Israel, Abbas is now talking to Hamas, Turkey and Qatar. Last week, he sent a senior delegation of his ruling Fatah faction to Istanbul to discuss with Hamas leaders the possibility of holding long overdue elections for the PA presidency and Palestinian parliament, the Palestine Legislative Council. The two parties said they have agreed to hold new elections within six months. Previous agreements between Fatah and Hamas, however, were never implemented as the two sides continue to engage in a power struggle over money and power. The latest Fatah-Hamas discussions were held under the auspices of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is also opposed to the peace accords between Israel and the two Gulf states. After the meeting, the Fatah delegation, headed by Jibril Rajoub, flew to Qatar in a bid to win its backing for any agreement reached with Hamas. The Qataris have long been leading supporters of Hamas, an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood organization.
Erdogan has also fully embraced Hamas, whose charter openly calls for the annihilation of Israel. Last month, Erdogan met with a large delegation from Hamas, including Ismail Haniyeh and Saleh Arouri, both of whom have been designated by the US State Department as Specially Designated Global Terrorists because of their involvement in terrorist attacks against citizens of Israel and the US.
Last week, Abbas talked on the telephone with Erdogan and Haniyeh about the prospects of achieving Palestinian "national unity" and foiling US and Israeli "conspiracies" against the Palestinians.
Mubarak advised Abbas and the Palestinian leadership to give peace a chance, to stop saying no to all peace plans and initiatives and to return to the negotiating table with Israel. By associating himself with Erdogan and Hamas, however, Abbas is demonstrating that he would rather give Muslim extremists a chance, evidently to advance their anti-Israel and anti-Western goals and ambitions.Pointedly, a report in a Palestinian media outlet belonging to Abbas's arch-rival, Mohammed Dahlan, revealed that that the Fatah delegation in Istanbul last week met with officials from Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), as well as Turkish and Qatari intelligence officers. According to the report, Abbas discussed over the telephone with the representatives of the IRGC, Turkey and Qatar ways of "coordinating positions to direct blows to the interests of the Arab countries, especially the Arab Gulf states and Egypt."
According to the report, sources in Abbas's office revealed that, during last week's call with Erdogan, the Palestinian leaders bad-mouthed Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi and Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz. The report added that "analysts specializing in the Palestinian issue commented that Qatar and Turkey will use Abbas to harm the interests of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the UAE, Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Sudan, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia."
The report also revealed that Qatar recently gave Abbas and some of his aides "more than $50 million for their personal bank accounts inside banks in Israel and the Palestinian Authority areas."
Some Arabs are now trying to advise the Palestinian leadership in the same way that, already 15 years ago, Mubarak did. The voices of these Arabs, nonetheless, do not seem to be making any more of an impression on Abbas or anyone in the top echelon of the Palestinian leadership than Mubarak's did. Palestinian leaders continue to say no to the constructive voices in the Arab world, while saying yes to terrorist-promoting Turkey, Qatar and Hamas. That stance may explain why so many Arabs are frustrated with the Palestinian leadership.
"The Palestinian leadership has lost its symbolism, even among the Palestinians," remarked Abdullah Al-Ghathami, a respected professor of criticism and theory at King Saud University.
"The Palestinian leadership has lost its credibility in the eyes of the new Arab generation, which is a generation of technology. Once, for us the homeland was the whole Arab world. We were all an army of freedom fighters for the Palestinians. We used to accept their mistakes, even their insults because the Palestinian issue was Number 1 for us. Today the new generation thinks differently. The Palestinian leadership is irrelevant. Palestinians needs a young leadership that would be able to address the young Arab generation."
Echoing the same sense of disillusionment with the Palestinian leadership in the Arab word, a Syrian journalist based in the United Arab Emirates, who calls herself Shukran, posted the following advice to the Palestinians:
"This is a message directed to the Palestinians who are focusing their efforts on offending the UAE. I just want to say a few words, my dear Palestinians: Your real enemy is in front of you; it is the corrupt Palestinian Authority. Open the files of the corrupt Palestinian Authority. Check where did the sons of the leaders of the Palestinian Authority study? What kind of life are they living? How did they get their education? They live in peace, stability, prosperity and luxury. Take a look at your own children. Your children who are instilled with hatred. What has the Palestinian Authority given you? We are no longer the generation of revolution and rage; we are a generation that aspires to achieve peace and love. We want to live and raise our children in peace and security. We tried wars, now we want to try peace."
Abdullah Al-Hakeem, a Saudi political analyst and former director of the Middle East Center for Strategic and Legal Studies, concurred:
"The real enemy of the Palestinians is the corrupt Palestinian Authority. When I visited Israel, I attended an event for a member of the Palestinian Authority, and I saw people queuing up to enter to eat. How much I suffered watching this scene. One of the members of the Palestinian Authority asked me why I left the event. I answered him that we must make peace with Israel to create a better reality for the Palestinians. He got angry with me and stopped talking to me."
Al-Hakeem was apparently referring to poor people who had come to the event to beg for food.
Dr. Khaled Al-Qasimi wrote in a Yemeni website that the uproar Abbas and the PLO caused over the UAE normalization accord with Israel is unacceptable. Palestinian leaders, Al-Qasimi said, "do not want to solve the Palestinian issue because resolving the issue means losing their personal benefits."
"There is no doubt that the wealth that the Palestinian leaders have accumulated during more than half a century is more important [to them] than the Palestinian people and their issue. Wars that have brought us nothing but destruction..."
Noura Al-Moteari, an Emirati author and political researcher, advised the Palestinians:
"The only solution available to the Palestinian people is to move immediately to remove the dilapidated Palestinian leaders. Palestinians need to nominate a transitional council, as in Sudan, and to work hard to find a Palestinian leadership that can take advantage of peace processes."
As in the past, the Palestinians are continuing to ignore the advice of their Arab brothers to try peace and replace their corrupt and incompetent leaders. This refusal seems to be the main reason many Arabs today feel that the Palestinian issue is no longer central to all Arabs and Muslims.
**Khaled Abu Toameh, an award-winning journalist based in Jerusalem, is a Shillman Journalism Fellow at Gatestone Institute.
© 2020 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.

How Turkey pushed for Azerbaijan’s war on Armenia
Seth J. Frantman/Jerusalem Post/October 14/2020
It is possible to see hints of the planning in Ankara behind the war through a look back at how the war developed.
Evidence of Turkey’s role in pushing Azerbaijan to war against Armenia is growing. As more videos emerge of Syrian mercenaries sent by Ankara to fight against Armenians emerges, it becomes clear that the logistical effort to send these fighters would have had a tail stretching back months.
In addition, Turkey’s media and government have hyped the use of the Bayraktar TB2 drones against Armenian armored columns, illustrating that for Turkey, this is profitable for its arms industry. The media-industrial complex in Ankara also mobilized false news stories as the war began to try to link it to “terrorism” against Turkey.It is possible to see hints of the planning in Ankara behind the war through a look back at how the war developed and how it was pushed prior to the outbreak of fighting on September 27.
The first piece of evidence is that Turkey’s ruling AK Party and its regime media has a habit of inventing stories about the “PKK” prior to launching invasions of other countries. Turkey claimed the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) was threatening it from Afrin in northwest Syria before invading the area in 2018.
In reality, there were never attacks on Turkey from Afrin, and the area was controlled by the Syrian People’s Protection Units (YPG), a group that Ankara alleges is the same as the PKK. However, the same Ankara allowed ISIS members and other extremists to transit areas it controls, so the idea that Turkey’s motivation was actual threats from the YPG is not borne out by evidence.
As part of Ankara’s pattern of inventing “PKK” threats to justify military operations, it has invented new threats every few months, despite no attacks, to justify attacking Syria in October 2019 and bombing Iraq in the spring and summer of 2018. Around 300,000 Kurds have had to flee their homes, and many Yazidi villages have been destroyed and women assassinated and kidnapped during Ankara’s invasions, where it uses Syrian mercenaries to carry out war crimes. The country, claiming a “terrorist threat,” thus ethnically cleansed and depopulated much of northern Syria without one terror attack on Turkey.
ON SEPTEMBER 25 Ankara ordered its pro-government media to produce stories of “PKK” threats in Armenia. Daily Sabah, one of many pro-government newspapers, ran a headline claiming, “Armenia transfers YPG/PKK terrorists from Syria and Iraq to the occupied Nagorna-Karabakh to train militias.” Turkey is the largest jailer of journalists, so there was no critical media that could push back against this government narrative. Now, on September 25, Ankara had its casus belli to support the war it had planned.
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Ankara’s attempt to push Azerbaijan to war with Armenia over the disputed area of Nagorna-Karabakh goes back to July, when there were clashes. A key to backing Azerbaijan was arms sales. Azerbaijan indicated it would buy Turkey’s Bayraktar drones in June 2020. Between July 12 and 16 there was fighting. On July 17, Turkey’s Defense Industries president Ismail Demir said that the industry would back Azerbaijan. UAVs were one aspect; however, articles also noted ammunition, missiles, electronic warfare systems and even vehicles.
Turkey has a modern and successful arms industry. Azerbaijan, wealthy from energy exports, would help Turkey’s economy as its currency declined. The Turkish president’s son-in-law also runs the company that makes the Bayraktar drones. So Ankara and the country’s leader would benefit.
In July, Demir met with Azerbaijan’s deputy defense minister Ramiz Tahirov. Turkey’s state-run TRT noted at the end of September that “Azerbaijan’s military has significantly expanded its drone fleet, most recently with Turkey’s increasingly sought-after Bayraktar TB2 unmanned drone.” The report noted it has “already seen action, destroying a number of Armenian mobile surface-to-air sites and tanks.”
In fact, Azerbaijan’s drone arm was historically made up of Israeli drones. Turkey was clearly using the war to showcase its weapons. According to Nordic Monitor, which is critical of Turkey’s current policies, Baku and Ankara had deepened defense ties in recent years with some $2 billion in sales in 2019.
PRIOR TO the war, Turkey and Azerbaijan held joint military training between July 29 and August 5. On August 13, Turkish defense minister Hulusi Akar journeyed to Baku. The training and visit underlined the close coordination.
The clashes in July had been very small compared to the massive conflict that would erupt on September 27, in which hundreds of military vehicles would be destroyed on both sides, thousands of casualties would be suffered and cities on both sides would be shelled. In short, a real war was brewing and Ankara was pushing for it in August and early September. Turkey’s Akar said that Ankara would continue to support Azerbaijan in its struggle ‘for liberation of the occupied lands.” He emphasized that Turkey had a population of 83 million. The message was clear: With only three million Armenians, the Armenian army was no match. The military drills and drone purchases helped set the stage for war.
In September, Turkey began to explore the possibility of using Syrians to fight in Azerbaijan. This would give Ankara some role in the upcoming conflict. It would also give it cover as Turkey, a member of NATO, could claim that these were “volunteers” who simply want to support their friends. Turkey would focus on recruiting Turkmen from Syria who had already joined the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army or were affiliated with units that were once linked to the Syrian rebels. It had already recruited thousands of these men to fight in Libya.
On September 23, the first reports emerged of Syrians being sent to Azerbaijan. They had been recruited in mid-September or earlier. In September, Turkey was busy pushing a crisis in the Eastern Mediterranean. It had sent its navy with a research vessel called Orus Reis to harass Greek islands. It was stoking tensions with Greece, Cyprus and France.
In late August, Turkey sent F-16s to harass the Greek air force and reportedly used the Russian S-400 to track the Greek planes on August 27. In mid-September, the Oruc Reis paused its mission. On September 22, the EastMed gas forum received further support as Israel, Egypt, Cyprus, Greece and Jordan began working more closely. The US Secretary of State also visited Greece and Cyprus in September, arriving in Cyprus on September 12 and Greece on September 27, the same day that the war broke out.
THE TIMING of Pompeo’s visit and Azerbaijan’s moves now appears to have been fueled by Ankara. Syrian sources sent me details on the deployment of Syrians to Azerbaijan on September 23. These included video and photos of the volunteers.
According to the Syrian source, the men were part of the Sultan Murad unit and they were transported via Afrin to Turkey and then to Azerbaijan. They would be paid between $500 and $1,200 dollars a month, they said. Ankara had put out statements on September 21 after an Azerbaijani soldier was killed.
Four days later, the Turkish government coordinated statements supporting Azerbaijan. The clashes broke out early in the morning and Baku said its forces had retaliated after coming under attack. However, within days, Azerbaijan said its goal was to “liberate” all of Nagorna-Karabakh. That showed that the conflict was not likely sparked by mistake. Turkey also indicated it would support Baku and even support it militarily if asked. Turkey’s president and foreign minister both expressed support for Azerbaijan early on September 27, indicating that Ankara was either extremely quick to put out prepared statements, having expected fighting, or had been in coordination. Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu held conversations with his counterparts the same day. The coordination of the military sales, recruitment of mercenaries and prepared statements, as well as Ankara’s shift from pushing a crisis with Greece in August and early September, to pushing Baku toward war, illustrate that at least part of the war effort was determined by Ankara. Now the tempo of conflict has been reduced, since Russia sought to mediate – and Ankara has renewed is focus on threatening Greece.

Anti-establishment support could lead Trump to victory
Andrew Hammond/Arab News/October 14/2020
Donald Trump holds a campaign rally at John Murtha Johnstown-Cambria County Airport in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, U.S., October 13, 2020. (Reuters)
The scene is now set for the last big occasion of the US presidential campaign: Next week’s final debate. While Joe Biden retains a sizable poll lead and is clear favorite, Donald Trump’s chances of winning remain more significant than many suppose.
This is because, despite Biden’s large national poll leads — and the likelihood of him winning the popular vote on Nov. 3 — Trump may yet win the Electoral College. Whereas this outcome was a rarity in the 19th and 20th centuries, there have already been two examples since the turn of the millennium of Democrats winning the popular vote but losing the election: Al Gore in 2000 and Hillary Clinton in 2016. One factor that could help the president here may be any large backing of so-called “shy Trump” voters that would not show up in the polls.
The scene is now set for a close contest in a divided nation some have called the “United States of Anger” in recent years. These schisms were most recently showcased in this year’s Black Lives Matter demonstrations. The changing political mood of the country was shown as early as February 2016, when Trump and socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders easily won their respective New Hampshire primaries. The size of their victories, which would have seemed implausible to many only a year before, showcased the appeal of both perceived “outsider” candidates.
It was one of the first indications of the febrile US mood following the uneven economic recovery following the 2008-09 financial crisis. The intensity of the anti-establishment impulse since then has contributed to the “United States of Anger,” and it should not be forgotten that the early primaries of 2020 also saw Sanders (and Trump) do very well, whereas Biden had a more faltering start.
While this may seem so long ago as to be irrelevant to next month’s election, others have a different view. Take the example of Stony Brook University Professor Helmut Norpoth, one of a handful of people who predicted Trump’s 2016 win. He forecasts elections based on a model that emphasizes the importance of early presidential primaries. So, given Biden’s poor start to the campaign, he forecasts a 90 percent chance of a Trump re-election.
While that seems implausible based on current polls, Norpoth’s model would have correctly predicted 25 of the last 27 presidential contests. The anomalies were 2000, in which George W. Bush defeated Gore, and 1960, when John F. Kennedy defeated Richard Nixon — two extremely close elections that were marred by allegations of voting inaccuracies.
While the popularity of both Trump and Sanders has been remarkable, it is by no means unprecedented — US history underlines that income and status differences can be significant sources of political change. Trump and Sanders appeal to many of the groups that have lost income and job security, including unskilled and semi-skilled persons working in manufacturing industries that previously operated with high levels of unionization under the pressure of international competition. Such disaffected groups have significant claims upon federal and state government support. These claims are potentially open to mobilization by anti-establishment politicians, as both Trump and Sanders have demonstrated, but as others have shown dating back to at least the 19th century.
The discontent of much of the current electorate is not only driving distrust of government and politicians who are seen as part of the Washington establishment, it is one of the key factors contributing to sky-high rates of political polarization.
While polarization reflects voter discontent, including growing divides over wealth and educational attainment that Trump and Sanders are proving skilled at tapping into, it is also driven by longer-term demographic and generational change. Thus, one of the most notable features of the contemporary political environment is the Republicans’ heavy dependence on white, older, Southern voters, while Democrats have a more disparate coalition of African-Americans, younger whites, and new immigrants across the country, including the South, along the west coast and in the northeast.
Recent presidential ballots have highlighted these stark divides. For instance, Republican Mitt Romney in 2012 won almost 90 percent of his support from non-Hispanic whites. However, he still only lost relatively narrowly to Barack Obama, who had the backing of 95 percent of African-Americans, more than 70 percent of Hispanics, and about two-thirds of Asian-Americans.
Discontent among the electorate is driving distrust of politicians who are seen as part of the Washington establishment.
The stark demographic, ideological and cultural cleavages in the electorate appear to be intensifying at the moment when the US population has become more diverse than ever before. Approximately one in every three eligible voters this year will be Hispanic, Asian or another racial minority.
What this profound demographic shift underlines is that the US is on a trajectory to become — likely around the middle of this century — a majority non-white nation. At the same time, there is a rapid aging of the electorate. While these overall trends probably will not help Trump in this year’s election, given his anti-immigrant rhetoric, it nonetheless cannot be ruled out that his energized base of anti-establishment supporters carries him to a second term in the White House.
*Andrew Hammond is an Associate at LSE IDEAS at the London School of Economics.

Palestinian leadership needs to get its act together
Ray Hanania/Arab News/October 14/2020
World Jewish Congress President Ronald Lauder’s visit to Ramallah this week to meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was a significant event that underscored the reality that there are many Jews and Israelis who genuinely wish to achieve peace with the Palestinians.
Lauder, who I interviewed last month following the signing of the historic Abraham Accords between the UAE, Bahrain and Israel, is the perfect person to help bring the Palestinians and Israelis together. During the Arab News interview, Lauder said he believed the Abraham Accords would open the door to peace. The Palestinians should build on the Lauder visit and reconstruct their relations with Israel, which reached a pinnacle in 1993 before rapidly declining following the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin in 1995. They have descended on a frightening trajectory into an abyss of violence, fear and uncertainty.
It was not just what Lauder said that impressed me as we spoke for 30 minutes, it was also his demeanor and genuine feelings for peace. Everyone speaks about Lauder’s visit being an opportunity for Abbas and the Palestinians to step out of the box they have been forced into.
Last week, Saeb Erekat, the chief negotiator for the Palestinian Liberation Organization, complained about those who have criticized Abbas’ rejection of the current peace efforts. He stated on Twitter (in Arabic): “The Palestinian leadership is a failure and must be changed, and the Palestinian people are ungrateful and hateful. Why: Because it refused to have the Al-Aqsa Mosque and Jerusalem under Israeli sovereignty, because it refused settlement and annexation, and because it defends the Arabness of its land and sanctities, a people who offered hundreds of thousands of martyrs and wounded and a million prisoners, then it is accused of treason.”
First of all, Twitter may be a good place to promote things, but it is a horrible place to express any opinion. The limitation on the length of posts causes people to edit thoughts down to the basics, meaning they often convey the wrong message or impression.
I know Erekat. We met in Jericho in 1995, when I led a delegation as national president of the Palestinian American Congress. We found ourselves being berated, lectured and scolded for “interfering” in Palestinian affairs. Erekat scoffed that Palestinian Americans should “stay out” of the fight for Palestinian justice, brushing aside the diaspora and a powerful alliance that could have strengthened his weak and ineffective leadership.
It is clear from last week’s tweet that Erekat is expressing the frustrations shared by many in the Abbas administration that their actions have been judged unfairly. Well, with all due respect, the Palestinian leadership is not a failure because of the suffering the Palestinians have been forced to endure during 72 years of an oppressive and brutal occupation: It is a failure because Erekat and other leaders rely on emotion and rejectionism to respond to Israel’s many media lies.
Mr. Erekat, you should be everywhere the issue of Palestine is discussed, whether you like the discussions and plans or not. You can’t hide behind our Palestinian suffering because the diaspora has suffered just as much as you.
You should have been in Bahrain. You should have been in Washington. You should have spoken forcefully about the unfairness of Donald Trump’s peace deal and US foreign policies that, by the way, are not just Republican but Democratic too.
You ran from the media at the opening of the UN General Assembly last year. I was there as officials representing nearly every member state stopped to speak to advance their views, while you rushed past, brushing us aside with your hand, frightened of the news media, like a deer in the headlights.
As government leaders, you deserve criticism not just for failed policies but also for failing to convey conviction. You are not an inspiration to the Palestinian people at all, despite your suffering and ours.
This is not just about having new elections or changing government leaders. Hamas, which has partnered with the most extreme elements like Hezbollah, Iran, Qatar and Islamic Jihad, has been far worse than the Palestinian Authority in pursuing salvation for the Palestinian people. Elections won’t bring change. The problem is deeper than that.
The government is a failure because Erekat and other leaders rely on emotion and rejectionism.
Achieving Palestinian-Israeli peace is not an easy task, but it deserves your 100 percent effort and engagement, not your personal emotions. It deserves your strategic thinking, not your knee-jerk anger.
You need to do a better job of bringing the diaspora together. You should reach out for support from all Palestinians, including those who serve in the Israeli Knesset. Most of all, you need to do a better job of strategic communications. I have previously written about the need to provide your most eloquent spokesperson, Hanan Ashrawi, with an effective communications budget. She has achieved so much on a wing and a prayer; imagine what she could do with a professional PR budget and staff?
You need to do a better job of conveying to the world the truth, the facts and the deep desire of the Palestinian people for a fair and just peace. You haven’t done any of that. Your administration needs a radical change in policies and strategy, not a further radicalization of the Palestinian movement.
Abbas and Erekat either need to get their act together to achieve a lasting peace or get out of the way.
*Ray Hanania is an award-winning former Chicago City Hall political reporter and columnist. He can be reached on his personal website at www.Hanania.com. Twitter: @RayHanania