English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For October 23/2020
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani

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Bible Quotations For today
The Parable of the Sower
Luke 08/from04-15/And when a great crowd was gathering and people from town after town came to him, he said in a parable: “A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell along the path and was trampled underfoot, and the birds of the air devoured it. And some fell on the rock, and as it grew up, it withered away, because it had no moisture. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up with it and choked it. And some fell into good soil and grew and yielded a hundredfold.” As he said these things, he called out, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”And his disciples put questions to him about the point of the story. And he said, To you is given knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of God; but to the others, they are given in stories, so that seeing, they may not see, and though they give hearing, the sense will not be clear to them. Now this is the point of the story: The seed is the word of God. Those by the side of the road are those who have given hearing; then the Evil One comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not have faith and get salvation. And those on the rock are those who with joy give hearing to the word; but having no root, they have faith for a time, and when the test comes they give up. And those which went among thorns are those who have given hearing, and go on their way, but they are overcome by cares and wealth and the pleasures of life, and they give no fruit. And those in the good earth are those who, having given ear to the word, keep it with a good and true heart, and in quiet strength give fruit
 

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on October 22-23/2020

US sanctions Iranian ambassador to Iraq, Iraj Masjedi and two senior Hezbollah officials, Nabil Qaouk & Hassan Baghdadi
US places sanctions on Iran's ambassador to Iraq
Lebanon: Hariri secures parliamentary support to become Prime Minister
For 4th Time, Hariri is Back as PM in Crisis-Hit Lebanon
Berri Voices 'Optimism' on Ties between Aoun and Hariri
Hariri Vows Cabinet of Experts Committed to French Plan
Hariri Holds Phone Consultations with ex-PMs, to Meet Blocs Friday
'Do Not Count on Miracles', Says Kubis after Hariri's Designation
US stance on Lebanon remains unchanged despite Hariri’s appointment
EU Urges 'Credible Govt.' in Lebanon, Schenker Calls for Reforms
Hariri Says to Cooperate with Everyone for Country's Interest
Lebanese criticize Saad Hariri as new Prime Minister-designate amid low vote-count
UNIFIL Head Reaffirms Commitment to Cessation of Hostilities
Celebratory Gunfire Wounds 3 in Tripoli after Hariri's Designation
Watchdog Says Lebanon Probe into Port Blast Flawed
Saad Hariri, Lebanon's In-and-Out Prime Minister
Lebanese Journalist Nadim Koteich: The Palestinians Are Foolishly Continuing Their Resistance Instead Of Following The UAE's Example And Building A Prosperous And United State
Hezbollah’s role near Golan in spotlight after reported airstrike/Seth J.Frantzman/Jerusalem Post/October 22/2020
Same Old Hariri, Newly Traumatized Lebanon/Anchal Vohra/Foreign Policy/October 22/2020
Lebanese Lady of Liberty' looms over the site of the Beirut explosion/Razmig Bedirian/The National/October 22/2020
Lebanon Needs Transformation, Not Another Corrupt Unity Government/Hanin Ghadar/Foreign Policy/August 11/2020

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on October 22-23/2020

Pompeo applauds Sudan’s efforts to improve ties with Israel
Sudan agrees to normalize relations with Israel - report
Israeli delegation travels to Sudan to discuss normalization in rare visit
UAE citizens can now travel to Israel without a visa, stay for 90 days
Bomb Kills Mufti of Damascus Province
Palestinians Sue Britain for 1917 Balfour Declaration
Turkey rejects ‘groundless’ claims denouncing Ankara’s drills in eastern Med
US allegations of Iranian interference is ‘nothing but a scenario’: Iran UN mission
IRGC, five other Iran groups sanctioned for US election interference
Iranian dissident Mehdi Amin found murdered at his residence in Canada
Iran summons Swiss envoy over 2020 US election interference claim
 

Titles For The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on October 22-23/2020

Israel-UAE-Bahrain deals awaken hope for additional peace deals - opinion/Gerdhow Baskin/Jerusalem Post/October 22/2020
Palestinians: What Failure Looks Like/Khaled Abu Toameh/Gatestone Institute/October 22/2020
FBI Director Wray is Worse than Comey/Chris Farrell/Gatestone Institute/October 22/2020
Lebanese Writer, Khairallah Khairallah: Iran Seeks To Intimidate Iraq's Sunnis, Kurds, Embarrass Iraqi Security Forces To Keep Iraq Under Its Hegemony/MEMRI/October 22, 2020
Beheaded Infidels Vs. Fear of Islamophobia/Raymond Ibrahim/October 22/2020
Samuel Paty’s murder shows need for free speech, combating radicalization in mosques/Heba YosryAl Arabiya/Thursday 22 October 2020
Hassan Rouhani wants the US to surrender, but the pressure is on Tehran/Behnam Ben Taleblu and Erielle Davidson/Al Arabiya/Thursday 22 October 202
The terror threat in Europe remains as potent as ever/Con Coughlin/The National/October/ 22/ 2020

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on October 22-23/2020

US sanctions Iranian ambassador to Iraq, Iraj Masjedi and two senior Hezbollah officials, Nabil Qaouk & Hassan Baghdadi
Joseph Haboush, Al Arabiya English/Thursday 22 October 2020
The United States Thursday sanctioned Iranian Ambassador to Iraq Iraj Masjedi and two senior Hezbollah officials, the Department of Treasury announced. “A close adviser to former IRGC-QF Commander Qassem Soleimani, Masjedi played a formative role in the IRGC-QF’s Iraq policy,” a statement from the Treasury Department said. According to the statement, Masjedi has “overseen a program of training and support to Iraqi militia groups, and he has directed or supported groups that are responsible for attacks that have killed and wounded US and coalition forces in Iraq.”As ambassador, the Iranian diplomat conducted financial transfers to benefit the IRGC-QF, the US said. In a separate statement, the Treasury Department said two members of Iran-backed Hezbollah’s Central Council were also sanctioned.
“The Central Council is responsible for identifying and electing the group’s highest decision-making body, the Shura Council, which formulates policy and asserts control over all aspects of Hezbollah’s activities, including its military activities,” Treasury said.
Secretary of Treasury Steve Mnuchin said that the group needed to continue to be held accountable for its “horrific actions as we approach the 37th anniversary of Hezbollah’s bombing of the US Marine Barracks in Beirut, Lebanon.”“Hezbollah’s senior leaders are responsible for creating and implementing the terrorist organization’s destabilizing and violent agenda against US interests and those of our partners around the world,” the US official said. Protecting the Iraqi people and restricting Hezbollah’s activities.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo defended the move to sanction Masjedi. “Today, the United States is taking another step to protect the Iraqi people from malign IRGC-QF influence by designating Iraj Masjedi, a senior IRGC-QF general in Iraq who also serves as Iran’s ambassador to Iraq,” he said in a statement. Pompeo said the Iranian diplomat and IRGC general previously admitted to training militias in Iraq and Syria.On the designations of the two Hezbollah officials, Pompeo said the group remains a terrorist threat to the US, its allies and its interests in the Middle East and globally. Pompeo reaffirmed Washington’s commitment to “take action to disrupt Hezbollah’s operations and promote accountability for its terrorist acts.”“All responsible nations must take appropriate steps to restrict Hezbollah’s activities and constrain its influence,” he said, hours after Saad Hariri was designated to form a new government in Lebanon where the group exerts significant power over the political scene.

US places sanctions on Iran's ambassador to Iraq
The National/23 October/2020
Envoy to Baghdad is also a general in the IRGC overseas operations branch
The Trump administration on Thursday imposed sanctions on Iraj Masjedi, a general in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' overseas operations branch and Iran’s ambassador to Iraq. The US Treasury Department accused Gen Masjedi, a leader in the IRGC's Quds Force, of having direct ties with Iraqi militias. Washington also imposed sanctions on Hezbollah figures and Iranian bodies. “Masjedi has overseen a programme of training and support to Iraqi militia groups, and he has directed or supported groups that are responsible for attacks that have killed and wounded US and coalition forces in Iraq,” the department said. It also accused him of enabling financial transfers on behalf of the IRGC from the time it was under the leadership of Qassem Suleimani, who was killed by a US drone strike in Baghdad in January, until now.
The department said Gen Masjedi organised the transfers with the help of the Quds Force's finance manager Hushang Allahdad, under the directions of Suleimani and his successor, Esmail Ghaani.
It said that most recently, Gen Masjedi provided direct assistance in obtaining tens of billions of dinars on behalf of the Revolutionary Guard in Iraq. US Secretary of Treasury Steven Mnuchin accused Iran of threatening Iraq’s security. “The Iranian regime threatens Iraq’s security and sovereignty by appointing IRGC-QF officials as ambassadors in the region to carry out their destabilising foreign agenda,” Mr Mnuchin said.
The US also sanctioned two members of the central council of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. They were Nabil Qaouk and Hassan Al Baghdadi. “The central council is responsible for identifying and electing the group’s highest decision-making body, the Shura Council, which formulates policy and asserts control over all aspects of Hezbollah’s activities, including its military activities,” Mr Mnuchin said. “We must continue to hold Hezbollah accountable for its horrific actions as we approach the 37th anniversary of Hezbollah bombing of the US Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon."
The anniversary is on October 23 and Hezbollah has not claimed responsibility for the bombing but is regarded by the US as the culprit. Iranian attempts to influence elections punished. The US also placed sanctions on “five Iranian entities for attempting to influence elections in the US". They are the IRGC, the Quds Force, Bayan Rasaneh Gostar Institute, the Iranian Islamic Radio and Television Union and International Union of Virtual Media. “This administration is committed to ensuring the integrity of the US election system and will continue to counter efforts from any foreign actor that threatens our electoral processes,” Mr Mnuchin said.

Lebanon: Hariri secures parliamentary support to become Prime Minister
The National/October 22/2020
Saad Hariri was the only candidate for the role and has been backed by 65 MPs
Lebanese former prime minister Saad Hariri has been chosen to try to form a government to tackle the country's worst crises since the 1975-1990 civil war. Mr Hariri, whose last coalition government was toppled about a year ago after mass protests broke out, secured enough support to return during parliamentary talks on Thursday. He was backed by 65 MPs, while 53 did not vote for anyone and there were two absentees. Mr Hariri, 50, received the majority of votes by early afternoon, Lebanese political analyst Sami Nader said. “I think he will have a short win which will put his legitimacy into question. But the President [Michel Aoun] has no choice but to nominate him because these consultations are compulsory," he told The National. The number of MPs was reduced to 120 when eight resigned after the devastating explosion at Beirut port on August 4 that killed at least 190 people. Hassan Diab stepped down as prime minister on August 11. Parliamentary consultations started on Wednesday at 9am at Mr Aoun’s official residence – Baabda Palace outside Beirut. Mr Hariri, a Sunni, must navigate Lebanon's power-sharing system to agree a Cabinet, which must address a mounting list of woes that includes a banking crisis, currency crash, rising poverty and crippling state debts. A new government will also have to contend with a surge in Covid-19 cases, as well as the effects of the port explosion that caused billions of dollars of damage. Mr Hariri resigned a year ago as protests against the ruling elite gripped the country.

For 4th Time, Hariri is Back as PM in Crisis-Hit Lebanon
Associated Press/October 22/2020
Saad Hariri was tasked with forming a new government Thursday, a year after he was toppled amid nationwide protests against widespread corruption and a flunking economy. President Michel Aoun designated Hariri to form the next government after a slight majority of votes from lawmakers, securing the return of an old name to lead the country desperate for change.
Hariri now faces a more impoverished Lebanon, devastated by a massive August explosion that defaced Beirut, but also a more determined opposition. The 50-year-old politician takes the helm with a sense of urgency and more involvement by international leaders who have warned Lebanon is on the verge of collapse. Hariri pledged to quickly form a new government -- his fourth in the last decade -- to halt the economic collapse, calling it the "last and only" opportunity. The task is enormous, amid an unprecedented economic crisis and stiff opposition, including from former political allies and protesters who had been demanding change. "Saad, don't dream of it," read posters raised by protesters, who see him as a symbol of an entrenched political class they blame for the country's woes.
In the past year, Lebanon's currency has collapsed, losing nearly 80% of its value, while prices, unemployment and inflation soared. Lebanese have been unable to access their savings, as banks imposed informal capital controls, fearing a run on deposits. The gigantic August explosion in Beirut's port, caused by thousands of tons of highly explosive chemicals stored in a warehouse, compounded the crises. The blast killed nearly 200 people, and injured over 6,000. It was seen as further proof of an incompetent political class in charge of governing the small country since the end of its 15-year civil war in 1990.
"As if nothing happened at all this whole year. Hariri is back and the (political class) is pleased," said Hayat Nazer, a protester and artist. "It is clear they have ignored the public's outcry." Hariri vowed to stop the economic, social and security meltdown and rebuild after the port explosion. "I say to Lebanese who are suffering hardship to the point of despair, I am determined to keep my promise," he said. Human Rights Watch said Lebanon's domestic probe into the blast has been marred by political meddling and lack of judicial independence. The group called Thursday for a U.N.-led inquiry to determine responsibility.
Hariri's successor last year -- a university professor who led a government supported by Hizbullah and its allies -- stepped down after the Aug. 4 blast.
The explosion prompted France, a longtime ally and former colonial ruler, to push for a new political order in Lebanon. Paris launched what came to be known as the French initiative, designed to pressure rival politicians to agree on a government empowered to introduce wide-ranging economic reforms. The international community has said it will not help Lebanon financially before reforms are implemented. Hariri pledged a government of non-partisan specialists tasked with implementing reforms according to the French initiative, endorsed by mainstream Lebanese politicians. Its priority is to resume talks with the IMF for a desperately needed bailout, amid rapidly shrinking foreign currency reserves.
But Lebanon's complex sectarian-based political system makes reaching major decisions a significant challenge. Power, including government posts, is distributed among the country's Shiites, Sunnis and Christians who often get bogged down in horse trading because of fears of losing their calibrated clout. The French initiative first resulted in the naming of Mustafa Adib, a technocrat backed by Hariri, as prime minister-designate. But Adib stepped down a month later, after failing to form a government of specialists because Shiite political groups insisted on naming the sect's ministers.
Hariri later re-emerged as the only contender. The son of assassinated former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, he took over his slain father's mantle in 2005 and enjoys good relations with the West. He secured 65 votes out of 120 lawmakers polled on Thursday by Aoun amid sharp divisions over the shape of the future Cabinet.
With Hariri, as leader of Lebanon's largest Sunni political party, at the helm, rivals have argued his Cabinet should include a mix of experts and politicians. A former ally, the Free Patriotic Movement, Aoun's party and the largest largest Christian party, withheld support to Hariri. Another major Christian party and former ally of Hariri, the Lebanese Forces, also withheld support. The powerful Shiite militant group Hizbullah supports Hariri's designation but refrained from voting for him to avoid appearing to be breaking ranks with its ally, Aoun's party. Hariri got backing from the other Shiite group, Amal, as well as a small Christian party -- the Marada Movement -- and independents. "This designation will be marred with weakness and insufficient representation," said Jebran Bassil, the head of Aoun's party. He said his bloc expected Hariri to form a government that represents political parties, even if it included technocrats. In a speech on the eve of the consultations, Aoun signaled he would not stop Hariri from being named prime minister but indicated he wants a bigger role in government formation. Most observers expect a rocky process. "Today, I am required to designate (a prime minister) and then participate in the formation of a government," Aoun said. "Will the one who is nominated commit to addressing corruption and launching reform?"Portending tensions ahead, protesters who took to the streets Wednesday rejecting Hariri's nomination were heckled by his supporters amid heavy security deployment. Hariri's supporters also set fire to a large depiction of a fist that symbolizes the uprising against the old political class. A new fist was raised on Thursday.

Berri Voices 'Optimism' on Ties between Aoun and Hariri
Naharnet/October 22/2020
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri on Thursday expressed “optimism” about cooperation between President Michel Aoun and Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri in the coming period. “The atmosphere is optimistic between President Michel Aoun and PM-designate Saad Hariri,” Berri told reporters while leaving the Baabda Palace. “There will be rapprochement between al-Mustaqbal Movement and the Free Patriotic Movement,” Berri added. He voiced his remarks after a meeting with the president and the PM-designate and after Hariri was designated to from a new government following binding parliamentary consultations at the Baabda Palace.

Hariri Vows Cabinet of Experts Committed to French Plan
Agence France Presse/October 22/2020
Three-time Lebanese prime minister Saad Hariri was renamed to the post Thursday to create a reform-orientated cabinet that can lift the country out of its worst economic crisis in decades. Hariri, 50, made his comeback to take on the difficult task almost a year after stepping down under pressure from an unprecedented protest movement demanding a complete overhaul of Lebanon's political system. The country is under huge international pressure to form a crisis cabinet of independents to address a plummeting economy made worse by the coronavirus pandemic and the devastating blast at the Beirut port on August 4. Immediately after President Michel Aoun named him, the returning premier vowed to form a cabinet of experts, in line with conditions set by French President Emmanuel Macron to help rescue the corruption-ridden country from crisis. Hariri said he would "form a cabinet of non politically aligned experts with the mission of economic, financial and administrative reforms contained in the French initiative roadmap." "I will work on forming a government quickly because time is running out," he said, calling it the country's "only and last chance."
Cabinet formation is often a drawn-out process in Lebanon, where a complex governing system seeks to maintain a precarious balance between its various political and religious communities. Hariri himself took eight months to hammer out his last cabinet after 2018 parliamentary elections. His nomination was backed by a majority of 65 lawmakers, while 53 abstained from naming anyone during consultations with the president. The parliamentary bloc of Hizbullah did not give the president a name of a preferred candidate, its representative said, but its main ally the Amal Movement supported Hariri's nomination. Aoun warned Wednesday that Lebanon's third prime minister in a year would have to spearhead reforms and battle corruption. He also accused unnamed officials of blocking reforms long demanded by international donors, including power-sector reform and a forensic audit of the central bank. French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves le Drian on Wednesday warned: "The more we wait, the more the boat sinks." "If Lebanon does not carry out the reforms it needs, it's the country itself that risks breaking up," he said.

Hariri Holds Phone Consultations with ex-PMs, to Meet Blocs Friday
Naharnet/October 22/2020
After his designation to form the new government on Thursday, Premier-designate Saad Hariri held protocol consultations with ex-PMs Salim Hoss, Najib Miqati, Fouad Saniora, Tammam Salam and Hassan Diab.
A statement issued by Hariri’s press office said the consultations were held over the phone for security reasons. “They wished him success in his duties to form a government to stop the collapse and rebuild what the Beirut port explosion destroyed,” the statement said. Parliament’s general-secretariat meanwhile announced that Hariri’s non-binding consultations with parliamentary blocs over the shape and program of the new government will be held Friday at parliament. After his designation, the returning premier vowed to form a cabinet of experts, in line with conditions set by French President Emmanuel Macron to help rescue the corruption-ridden country from crisis. Hariri said he would "form a cabinet of non politically aligned experts with the mission of economic, financial and administrative reforms contained in the French initiative roadmap.""I will work on forming a government quickly because time is running out," he said, calling it the country's "only and last chance." Cabinet formation is often a drawn-out process in Lebanon, where a complex governing system seeks to maintain a precarious balance between its various political and religious communities.

'Do Not Count on Miracles', Says Kubis after Hariri's Designation
Naharnet/October 22/2020
Do not count on “miracles, foreign elections or external donors – the rescue must start in Lebanon, by Lebanon,” U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon Jan Kubis said Thursday, shortly after ex-PM Saad Hariri was named to form a new government. “No country, moreover #Lebanon in catastrophic freefall can survive endlessly without an effective pro-reform government as the only way to start rescuing the country and its people from further collapse, from chaos and extremism,” Kubis tweeted. “It is the traditional political forces that have again put on themselves to choose the way forward, regardless their numerous failures in the past and deep skepticism about the future. It is up to them to help the designated PM rapidly create an empowered, action-oriented government, to start delivering the well-known reforms,” the U.N. official urged.

US stance on Lebanon remains unchanged despite Hariri’s appointment
Joseph Haboush, Al Arabiya English/Thursday 22 October 2020
The US stance toward Lebanon remains unchanged despite the appointment of Saad Hariri to form a new government, a senior US diplomat said Thursday. “We are engaged in Lebanon ... our position has not changed,” Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs David Schenker told journalists. Schenker said he would “reserve judgement” and refrained from commenting on why there should be reason to believe that Hariri would be able to implement badly needed reforms. Hariri has been prime minister three different times in Lebanon. “Who should lead the government and who will serve in it? That’s for the Lebanese people to decide,” he said. Schenker reiterated previous calls that any new government must ensure transparency and work towards ending corruption. “Business as usual,” is no longer acceptable, he added.

EU Urges 'Credible Govt.' in Lebanon, Schenker Calls for Reforms
Agence France Presse/October 22/2020
The European Union stressed Thursday the "need for the swift formation of a credible and accountable government" in Lebanon, after ex-PM Saad Hariri was designated to form a new government.U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs David Schenker meanwhile said that any new government must implement reforms, and that Washington would carry on targeting Hizbullah and its allies with sanctions regardless."The United States will continue to pursue sanctions against Hizbullah and its Lebanese allies," he said, including over corruption. Washington has long designated Hizbullah as "terrorist" but the Iran-backed movement is also a key player in Lebanese politics with seats in parliament.

Hariri Says to Cooperate with Everyone for Country's Interest
Naharnet/October 22/2020
Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri hinted Thursday that he intends to cooperate with all parties in the coming period. “If the country’s interest requires an understanding with everyone, then the country’s interest should come first,” Hariri told reporters. Asked about the “positivity” he showed today, Hariri said “it’s the beginning.”Hariri was earlier in the day designated by President Michel Aoun to form a new government after securing slim support from members of parliament. He vowed to stop the economic, social and security meltdown and rebuild after the port explosion. "I say to Lebanese who are suffering hardship to the point of despair, I am determined to keep my promise," he said.

Lebanese criticize Saad Hariri as new Prime Minister-designate amid low vote-count
Rawad Taha, Al Arabiya English/Thursday 22 October 2020
Saad Hariri was appointed on Thursday as Lebanon’s prime minister-designate just a year after his resignation from office during the October 17 uprising. Hariri received the lowest number of votes approving his appointment in comparison to his former nominations. Neither of the two main Christian parties of the country, Samir Geagea’s Lebanese Forces and their rivals President Aoun’s Free Patriotic Movement (FPM), nominated Hariri. Hariri received 64 number of votes for his nomination while 55 members of parliament did not name anyone at the consultations that took place in the presidential palace in Baabda. Hariri's nomination was primary pushed for by his own party Future Movement, the speaker of the parliaments’ Amal Movement, and Sleiman Frangieh’s parliamentary bloc. In a brief statement following the consultations, Lebanese Forces clarified that they called for the formation of a totally independent government in September 2019 during a national dialogue table in the presidential palace. This was before nationwide protests began in October 2019, as well as before French President Emmanuel Macron’s initiative this September.
FPM’s Gibran Bassil also clarified in a short statement that the French initiative explicitly called for the formation of an independent government of experts, and Hariri being the head of a political party debunks that condition, and for that reason the party decided to not nominate him.
Resigned parliamentary member and member of the Kataeb party Elias Hankash re-emphasized his belief that Lebanon’s establishment is merely engaging in a “lousy” cover up, despite the deep reforms needed to deal with the country’s economic collapse and the Beirut port explosion.
“We need an independent government of experts which can deal with the crisis and lead the country towards transparent early elections, after which we resolve other issues such as illegal weapons, and finally we navigate to building a new political model,” Hankash told Al Arabiya English.
“Hariri was toppled down by the uprising just a year ago. As if nothing happened, he wants to return. This will only lead to more cumulative failure, even after his designation, he will not be able to form a government, he has to wait for the US elections and for the new status quo, sadly this is what establishment did, they made Lebanon a struggle square for Iran and the US,” Hankash added.
Multiple factions of the October 17 uprising – the name given to the nationwide protests that have gripped Lebanon sporadically since October 2019 – united to give a statement in which they stressed their commitment to the anti-government uprising.
“We renew our absolute rejection of reconfiguring this illegitimate power that deserves to be described as an occupation, and we stress that the only resolution is the formation of a transitional independent government with exceptional powers, a government of independent figures that enjoy the legitimacy of the people, a government capable of saving the country from inevitable collapse, [that will] recover the stolen money and lay down the criminals are all the criminals against the people from the war until the Beirut explosion in the face of accountability and justice,” said Beirut Madinati, ReLebanon, Li Haqi, Marsad, and Minteshreen in a joint statement. The statement pledged that the groups will continue to oppose the government and work collectively for a new, civil, democratic social contract to build the state of right and law. Political activist and law graduate Leen Mneimneh said that probably the only “good” thing about Hariri if they let him form a government, will be the fact that he has good relations with the international community, which Lebanon desperately needs in its current crisis. “Yet no trust, zero trust to Hariri who showed his continuous failure of leading a country over the years”, she added.

UNIFIL Head Reaffirms Commitment to Cessation of Hostilities
Naharnet/October 22/2020
UNIFIL on Thursday observed United Nations Day at its headquarters in south Lebanon, with its head reaffirming the U.N. Mission's "commitment to maintain the cessation of hostilities between Lebanon and Israel while allowing space for a long-term solution of the conflict between the two countries," the U.N. force said. “In reaffirming UNIFIL’s commitment to maintain and solidify the cessation of hostilities, I urge all of you to keep working with the utmost dedication and towards sustained peace for south Lebanon,” said the UNIFIL Head of Mission and Force Commander Major General Stefano Del Col, during the U.N. Day ceremony attended by UNIFIL personnel and local dignitaries. “In UNIFIL, we all work together towards our goal to maintain an environment conducive to a lasting peace and stability. We need to cherish the last 14 years of unprecedented stability in the south of Lebanon and build on it, with the commitment and the will of the parties,” he continued. “I do hope that new developments in the south of Lebanon will allow us to move forward in the implementation of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701 and in relation to the Blue Line contentions issues.” During this worldwide observance of U.N. Day, the UNIFIL Head of Mission also presented certificates of recognition to 10 Lebanese staff members who have completed 35 to 40 years of service with the U.N.

Celebratory Gunfire Wounds 3 in Tripoli after Hariri's Designation
Agence France Presse/Associated Press
Saad Hariri's supporters fired celebratory gunfire in the northern city of Tripoli on Thursday after he was named as prime minister-designate.
A medical source told AFP the shooting wounded three including an elderly man and someone cleaning in front of his shop. There was no immediate reaction in the streets from the protest movement, which had however long said it did not want the return of the political old guard it accuses of ineptitude and corruption. The protest movement had organized a march against Hariri’s return on Wednesday evening. "As if nothing happened at all this whole year. Hariri is back and the (political class) is pleased," Hayat Nazer, a protester and artist, said on Thursday. "It is clear they have ignored the public's outcry," Nazer added. Portending tensions ahead, protesters who took to the streets Wednesday rejecting Hariri's nomination were heckled by his supporters amid heavy security deployment. Hariri's supporters also set fire to a large depiction of a fist that symbolizes the uprising against the old political class. A new fist was raised on Thursday.

Watchdog Says Lebanon Probe into Port Blast Flawed
Associated Press/October 22/2020
A leading international human rights group on Thursday said a Lebanon-led probe into the devastating port explosion in Beirut this summer has been marred by political meddling and lack of judicial independence, resulting in failure to yield credible results two months later. Human Rights Watch called for a United Nations-led inquiry into the causes of the blast to determine responsibility. The New York-based rights watchdog called on international supporters of Lebanon, led by France, meeting next week to press the Lebanese authorities to accept an independent probe. The massive Aug. 4 blast killed nearly 200 people and injured more than 6,000 when some 3,000 tons of ammonium nitrate, a highly explosive chemical, exploded at Beirut's port. It also devastated several neighborhoods, shattering thousands of residential, historic and health structures. "Everyone in Beirut has had their life turned upside down by the catastrophic explosion that devastated half the city, and they deserve justice for the disaster inflicted on them," said Aya Majzoub, Lebanon researcher at HRW. "The Lebanese authorities' failings over the past two months have shown that an international investigation is the only avenue for the people of Lebanon to get the answers and the justice that they deserve. " It is still not known what ignited the chemicals, which were stored at the facility for six years. Local media reported that 25 people were detained and 30 charged in the explosion, most of them port and customs officials.
Majzoub said the Lebanese authorities are pretending to carry out a credible investigation -- pointing to fundamental weakness and flaws in the process she called "opaque." The probe began with political wrangling over the naming of the lead investigator, included military threats to jail leakers and raised concerns over whether the panel appointed along sectarian lines could be fully impartial. HRW said the role of foreign investigators was unclear, calling on France and the United States to clarify their mandate and "make public any attempts to obstruct justice."
Earlier this month, the judge investigating the explosion received a report from the FBI about the bureau's own probe, but no details emerged. The French and British have yet to present their own findings. Majzoub said there was no transparency in sharing evidence or charges, while no senior official was named in the probe. Reports showed government officials at the highest level were informed of the dangerous chemicals in the port. HRW said the focus on administrative port and customs officials raises concerns that politicians suspected of implication in the blast may escape accountability.
There were also concerns of possible tampering with the crime scene, following the eruption of two fires at the port since the explosion in September. Families of the dead and survivors of the blast called on the U.N. Security Council for an international investigation, but Lebanese officials rejected such calls, some calling them a "waste of time."Even though explosions have marked a grim timeline in Lebanon's modern history, almost none of the perpetrators were ever arrested or tried for the killing of senior officials, activists and journalists.

Saad Hariri, Lebanon's In-and-Out Prime Minister
Agence France Presse/October 22/2020
Saad Hariri, who was renamed Lebanon's premier Thursday, is a businessman who was propelled into politics by his billionaire father's assassination.He returns to the post almost a year after stepping down in October 2019, just days into unprecedented cross-sectarian protests demanding an overhaul of Lebanon's entire political system. The 50-year-old, who sports trademark slicked-back hair and a closely cropped beard, was thrust onto the political stage after his father Rafik, himself an ex-premier, was assassinated in a February 2005 car bomb attack. But he has struggled to fill his father's shoes, last year grappling to address nationwide protests demanding the removal of a political elite viewed as incompetent and corrupt. Hariri had cast himself as a champion of economic reform held hostage by unwilling coalition partners, but protesters categorised him as a product of Lebanon's hereditary politics. His image was further tarnished when reports surfaced last year that he had sent $16 million dollars to a South African model, while his family business's employees were being laid off or left unpaid. When protests erupted last autumn, Hariri's face emerged on flyers urging him to "Leave!", as demonstrators accused the ruling class of bringing the country to its knees. In his year away since resigning, Lebanon's economy continued to crumble. His successor resigned after a massive explosion at the Beirut port that killed more than 200 people.
- Two resignations -
In a rare televised interview earlier this month, he said he was "definitely" a candidate to take on the difficult task of forming a cabinet of independents to lift the country out of crisis. "People say all parties are responsible, myself included. Yes, we are responsible," he said, in an apparent response to protesters. Hariri sent shockwaves across the region in 2017 by resigning from office while in Saudi Arabia and accusing the Iran-backed Shiite movement Hezbollah of destabilising the region.
The announcement triggered a flurry of international interventions that eventually saw Hariri return to his post, adopting a more conciliatory tone towards the group which he blames for his father's killing.
He has had little success in reining in Hezbollah, the only faction to have retained its arsenal after Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war.
Hariri's Future Movement lost a third of its seats in parliamentary elections in 2018, when Lebanon held its first legislative election in nine years and voters reinforced the Shiite movement's parliamentary weight.
It then took him more than eight months to form a new government, which was then in office less than a year before his resignation last autumn.
Hariri launched his political career at the urging of his family, after his father's death. He left his post in Saudi Arabia running the Oger construction firm that was the basis of his family's business empire, and back in Beirut played a key role in mass demonstrations that ended a 30-year Syrian military presence in Lebanon.
Beirut bike rides -
Saudi Oger collapsed in 2017, leaving thousands jobless. In September last year, Hariri announced the suspension of Future TV, his ailing mouthpiece whose employees had been on strike over unpaid wages.
Forbes in 2018 estimated Hariri's net worth at $1.5 bn, but he has since claimed to now own much less. "I don't even have a billion left," he said in this month's interview. Hariri is generally soft-spoken in his public pronouncements, making jokes with reporters. His close friends say he enjoys cooking and exercising, and would make appearances at Beirut bike rides and the city's annual marathon. Hariri is regarded as de-facto leader of Lebanon's Sunni Muslim community, and as a man able to reach compromise. But his political career has been something of a rollercoaster ride. Hariri began his first term as prime minister in November 2009, forming a unity government with Hezbollah and its allies after marathon negotiations. He stayed on as premier until January 2011, when Hezbollah and its allies abruptly withdrew their ministers from the cabinet and the government collapsed. He stayed in self-imposed exile in France and Saudi Arabia for several years, but in 2016 decided to back a presidential bid by Hezbollah ally Michel Aoun. The move ended more than two years of political stalemate, and saw Hariri return to head a unity government that again included Hezbollah. Hariri's wife Lama Bashir-Azm, who is of Syrian origin, and their three children live in Saudi Arabia and remained there during his tenures as prime minister.
 

Lebanese Journalist Nadim Koteich: The Palestinians Are Foolishly Continuing Their Resistance Instead Of Following The UAE's Example And Building A Prosperous And United State
Sky News Arabia (UAE)/MEMRI/October 22/2020
Lebanese journalist Nadim Koteich mocked a statement by Palestinian ambassador to France in an October 14, 2020 show on Sky News Arabia (UAE). The ambassador had said that the Palestinian resistance has gone on for 100 years, and it will go on for 100 years more. He said that the ambassador is free to pledge another 100 years of resistance because he doesn't actually have to live in Palestine. Koteich added that the Palestinians received an opportunity to establish a prosperous state in Gaza, after Israel withdrew from the Strip in 2005, however, they destroyed it. Koteich said that the UAE succeeded in turning warring tribes and chiefdoms into a prosperous union, while the Palestinians have done the exact opposite, creating warring factions upon factions. He said that the Palestinians could stand to learn from the UAE, and should not criticize it.
Nadim Koteich: "Mahmoud Abbas' ambassador [to France, Salman El-Herfi,] said: 'Our resistance has lasted for a century, and we are ready to continue our resistance for 100 years more.' He lives in Paris and all his children work for the embassy and the foreign ministry. You idiot! You idiot! That is what the entire conflict boils down to.
"For 100 years, you have been going from one defeat to another, and from a foolish gamble to an even more foolish one. Now someone is telling you: Stop, take a deep breath, and think about things in a different way. You regained Gaza in 2005. What did you do with it? You immediately and automatically turned the liberation into a civil war. You have turned the two-state plan into the following two states: One in Gaza and one in the West Bank. You signed an agreement that put you on the track toward a state. You had an airport in Gaza where world leaders landed.
"Today, thanks to the resistance, sheep graze at your Gaza airport. All of its buildings are ruined. Who would help you regain territories, if Gaza is your model project? Who? According to the peace agreements, the Palestinians are supposed to get a state. The size of that sate would be five times the size of Singapore, and three times the size of Hong Kong. The GDP of both countries is $340 and $350 billion respectively, whereas the Palestinians GDP does not exceed $15 billion.
"This is what you have lost because of the idiotic slogan: 'Our resistance lasted for a century and we are ready to continue 100 years more.' From where will you continue the resistance for another 100 years? From Paris?
"Abbas' ambassador hurled personal insults at the UAE leaders. That's no big deal. What's important is that he should focus on his country's interests, to his cause and to his people. In 1971 – that's 50 years or half a century ago – the leaders of the UAE united a group of warring chiefdoms and tribes. They were united into a prosperous and powerful country, which may be seen as a role model in the Middle East.
"At the same time, the Arabs placed the Palestinians on the track for statehood, but the latter turned this potential state into a bunch of warring chiefdoms and tribes. The tribes of Gaza fight the tribes of the West Bank. The tribes of Hamas fight the tribes of Fatah, and within both of them, there are smaller tribes. The national Palestinian movement can learn a lot from the Emirati one, but I do not think that the Palestinian national movement has any lesson to teach anyone in the world, and certainly not to the UAE."
"All this is about Iran wanting to reinforce the role of the PMU as an integral part of the composition of the new Iraqi regime, which emerged in 2003. Baghdad is not allowed to be the capital of all Iraqis, including the Kurds. On the contrary, Baghdad has to be a city under the control of Iranian militias, i.e. the PMU, just as Tehran is under the control of the Revolutionary Guard and the Basij forces of the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who uses the Revolutionary Guard to control every aspect of the Islamic Republic, no matter how big or small.
"In the Salahuddin governorate, a massacre was committed by one of the Popular Mobilization militias. It was meant to convey a message to the Arab Sunnis – that they are not safe in any part of Iraq. Moreover, Iran wants to prove, through its militias, that the life of every Iraqi depends on Iran; that Iraq and its security forces cannot ensure the safety of the average Iraqi citizen. Iran wants to embarrass the remaining institutions of the Iraqi state, the very same institutions that Mustafa Al-Kadhimi is seeking to restore.
"The two incidents in Baghdad and Salahuddin did not stop Mustafa Al-Kadhimi from embarking on his European tour, which included Paris, Berlin, and London. The tour began in the French capital, where he met with senior officials, headed by President Emmanuel Macron, who visited Baghdad a short while ago. There are historical ties between France and Iraq. French companies know Iraq well and have previously invested in Iraq across various sectors, including oil.
"Surely the Iraqi Prime Minister is in an unpleasant position. It is also certain that there are those who criticized his European tour, saying this is a time for him to focus his attention on dealing with the repercussions of what the PMU committed in Baghdad and Salahuddin. Undoubtedly, he must continue to resist and not surrender to the PMU.
"Iran is acting through its sectarian militias in order to prove that Iraq can no longer be an independent state that makes sovereign decisions, and to try to make Iraq's Prime Minister eventually seek Tehran's advice on every matter, like former Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki did.
"Mustafa Al-Kadhimi's European tour is part of his resistance, and comes during a very complicated situation in Iraq and the region.
"The Americans, who threatened to close their embassy in Baghdad, are clearly exerting pressure on the Iraqi Prime Minister, who was hesitant, at least until now, to go too far in his confrontation with the PMU.
"Al-Kadhimi remains hesitant despite that fact that a certain militia in the PMU, which he knows by name, is threatening to target diplomatic missions in Baghdad, to prove that state authorities are powerless.
"Should Iraq's Prime Minister have embarked on his tour of Europe, or should it have been postponed? This question will be a subject of a long debate, but things are often judged by their outcome. While waiting to know whether Mustafa Al-Kadhimi was wrong or right [in embarking on the trip as planned,] one thing remains certain, and it is largely related to whether Iran is willing to deal with Iraq's reality with a minimum level of good faith, or if it will continue to view Iraq as a sphere orbiting around Iran, as if it were only an Iranian colony.
"There is a very important factor that Tehran is ignoring. The growing inclination among most Iraqis is to be independent from Iran, including among the Arab Shi'ites, who were at the forefront of the uprising against Iranian influence, whether in Baghdad or in southern Iraq, specifically in Najaf, Karbala, Al-Nasiriyah, and Basra. From this standpoint, the position of Mustafa Al-Kadhimi, who is not hostile to Iran, enjoys popular support from Iraqi Shi'ites, Sunnis, and Kurds alike.
"The picture is not rosy, but the situation in Iraq is not hopeless. This is due to at least one factor, an Iranian one. Iran, is trying to use Iraq as a card, one without an independent model it can export, especially since Iran's economy has become unsteady, considering the U.S. sanctions. Iran no longer has anything to bet on, except for the U.S. presidential elections on November 3. Who told Tehran that a deal with Joe Biden is guaranteed, and that America is ready to hand over the [Middle East] region, including Iraq, on a silver platter?"
[1] See MEMRI JTTM report, New Shi'ite Group In Iraq Claims Responsibility For Recent Arsons On Local Media Outlets and Political Parties, October 18, 2020.
[2] Alarab.co.uk, October 20, 2020.
https://www.memri.org/tv/lebanese-journalist-koteich-palestinians-foolishly-continuing-resistance-learn-something-from-uae

Hezbollah’s role near Golan in spotlight after reported airstrike
Seth J.Frantzman/Jerusalem Post/October 22/2020
Multiple incidents appear to point to a rising tempo of tensions. Foreign media reports indicate that the Hezbollah and pro-Iranian presence has grown.
On Wednesday morning, the media in Iran and the Gulf highlighted a story claiming that Israel carried out an airstrike near the Golan Heights in a village called Hurriya near Quneitra. The incident comes in the context of growing tensions along the Syrian border, which have become part of a cycle dating back more than a year. Let’s review first what the regional Arabic media are saying. Most quote the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights or Syrian state news agency SANA. RT in Russia asserts that the airstrike hit an apparently empty school. It says that recent strikes also targeted “military points in the governorate” and that Israeli “helicopters launched missiles at points on the border near Quneitra on August 4.” In addition, the report says Israel used anti-tank missiles in July fired from helicopters to “target three points on the border.” In the August incident vehicles were damaged, and in July, two Syria soldiers were wounded.
Al-Ain media in the Gulf noted that groups “loyal” to Hezbollah and Iran were present in the area. “The countryside of Quneitra is witnessing a large presence of militias loyal to Hezbollah and Iran, and the region has witnessed repeated attacks on them over the years.” SANA in Damascus accused Israel of striking a “school.”
Details of the strike were not clear on Wednesday morning but it is the latest rise in tensions in the area. Iran’s Tasnim News Agency also reported the strike without much elaboration.
The incident comes in the wake of a year of tensions. In August 2019, Israel says, it struck a “killer drone” team near the Golan. In January 2019 Israel’s former chief of staff also said Israel had hit 1,000 Iranian targets in Syria. The August 2019 airstrike led to major tensions with Hezbollah and an attempted retaliation by the group. In February a Hezbollah member was killed near Al-Khader, not far from the Golan. In April 2020 Hezbollah cut holes in the fence along the Lebanese border in retaliation for what it says was a drone strike against one of its vehicles in Syria. In July a Hezbollah member was killed in an airstrike in Syria, and the group once again vowed retaliation. An incident then occurred near Mount Dov on July 27. The Hezbollah member Mashour Zidan who was killed in southern Syria in July was a member of a Golan-based Hezbollah cell, according to reports.
Four terrorists planting bombs in Syria near the Golan were killed on August 3. Syrian army outposts were struck in that incident also, as well as on July 24. A vehicle was also struck in March after cross-border fire, and in May helicopters struck an Iranian-linked target, according to foreign reports. A drone was also shot down over the Golan on August 7.Most recently the IDF released footage on October 14 of an operation inside the border zone near the Golan. Special forces entered the demilitarized zone and destroyed two “enemy outposts.”
All of these incidents appear to point to a rising tempo of tensions. Foreign media reports indicate that the Hezbollah and pro-Iranian presence has grown. Whether the incident on the night of October 20-21 is linked to this is unclear, and the reports only hint that Hezbollah or pro-Iranian elements were affected.
The incident comes as the Assad regime continues to demand the return of the Golan in exchange for peace, and as Washington is in discussions with Syria that involve the US wanting Austin Tice released. Syria wants the US to leave the Tanf base in Syria near Jordan.

Same Old Hariri, Newly Traumatized Lebanon

Anchal Vohra/Foreign Policy/October 22/2020
أنشال فوهرا/فورين بوليسي: نفس الحريري القديم هو جديد الصدمة للبنان

http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/91571/anchal-vohra-foreign-policy-same-old-hariri-newly-traumatized-lebanon-%d8%a3%d9%86%d8%b4%d8%a7%d9%84-%d9%81%d9%88%d9%87%d8%b1%d8%a7-%d9%81%d9%88%d8%b1%d9%8a%d9%86-%d8%a8%d9%88%d9%84%d9%8a%d8%b3%d9%8a/
After a year of chaos, a familiar face is returning to the top of a country that desperately wants change.
Lebanon has come full circle. A year ago, a million Lebanese thronged the streets and demanded the removal of the entire political class, as they chanted “Killon yani Killon”—“All of them, we mean all.” Now, Saad Hariri, the prime minister who resigned soon after the uprising engulfed the country, is staging a comeback. A decision about whether he is to become Lebanon’s next prime minister is expected to be made this week.
Other politicians from the old guard who previously ran the country under its sectarian constitutional system are also deploying familiar pressure tactics to retain control over ministries. Some, like Gebran Bassil—a former foreign minister and the son-in-law of President Michel Aoun who was much criticized by last year’s crowds and ultimately forced to resign—will back Hariri’s return if it paves the way for his return as well, senior political sources told Foreign Policy.
Hariri will ostensibly bring in a government made of technocrats—other than, of course, himself as the man in charge—to solve the nation’s deepening economic crisis. But even before he is sworn in he has had to compromise with Hezbollah and its Shiite ally the Amal Movement on the post of the finance minister. Hariri has agreed that a Shiite will head the crucial ministry. It was already implicit that it would be a name satisfactory to Hezbollah and Amal, but Yassine Jaber, an independent member of parliament affiliated with the Amal Movement, said it clearly. “Hariri has given his consent that he will pick from the names suggested,” Jaber said.
The finance minister’s signature is needed on every decree passed by the government, which grants him and his backers a veto over government decisions. Moreover, he has access to official documents that are needed to prove past graft and wasteful expenses. A puppet finance minister will ensure immunity for Hezbollah and its allies. Electricity supply comes under the Ministry of Energy and Water, and for decades it has been run, or rather run into the ground, by Bassil and Aoun’s party, the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM). It guzzles state revenue while nevertheless failing to provide people 24-hour-a-day electricity. Reforming electricity supply is a leading commitment agreed on by all political parties in accordance with the French initiative to bail out the country that Hariri has said he intends to implement. But political sources told Foreign Policy that he is under pressure to choose a candidate for the ministry who is to FPM’s liking.
Such politicking indicates that Lebanon’s political class is unruffled by the crises swallowing the country and is still busy plotting how to pull the strings of any future government. If it was ever in doubt, it is now clear that Lebanon’s ruling elite never intended to relinquish power and were just playing for time.
However, Lebanon has run out of time. Over the last year, decades of corruption and financial mismanagement culminated in a steep and unimpeded economic deterioration, further exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic. The local currency plummeted by nearly 80 percent and made salaries earned in Lebanese pounds almost worthless. In parallel, prices of basic commodities skyrocketed. Capital controls imposed by banks denied people their hard-earned savings, and thousands more plunged into joblessness as the coronavirus necessitated a string of lockdowns.
Just when you thought things couldn’t get worse, thousands of tons of unsafely stored ammonium nitrate exploded at Beirut’s port. Despite repeated warnings about the danger the explosive presented to neighborhoods nearby, multiple government agencies turned a blind eye and are now held responsible for the catastrophe in public opinion. The explosion left many parts of the city destroyed and uninhabitable. Billions of dollars are needed to resurrect the city, on top of the $10 billion bailout Lebanon has sought from the International Monetary Fund to revive the economy and pay its bills.
In April, an estimated 75 percent of Lebanese were in need of aid, and many relied on charity as well as on historic government subsidies on flour and fuel. However, those subsidies may soon be withdrawn. According to the central bank director Riad Salame, the man accused of playing a key role in causing the monetary crisis, the reserves cannot guarantee subsidies for much longer. That is a dark picture by any standards, and yet there is little apparent remorse or a sense of urgency among the political elite.
Even if, after making all the compromises and assuaging bruised egos, Hariri is sworn in and is pushed by the French to usher in reforms, they will be minimal, according to over a dozen civil society members, experts, and politicians who spoke to Foreign Policy.
Last week, on Oct. 17, a few hundred Lebanese gathered at Martyrs’ Square, the epicenter of the protests in downtown Beirut, to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the uprising. Again they demanded the political class be gotten rid of, and again they unfurled the Lebanese flag as they chanted “thawra,” “revolution.” Some, however, conceded defeat and admitted they had achieved nothing, outmaneuvered by the ruling elite. Amani Saleh was marching with her compatriots and filming the demonstration on her phone. Her eyes, ringed with maroon and golden eyeshadow, drooped with shame and disappointment as she said, “Nothing, nothing has changed so far.” But while she thought Hariri would not deal with the endemic corruption, inefficiency, and sectarian politics, the genesis of Lebanon’s multitude of crises, she thought he might convince Europe to shell out some money. “He has contacts with Europeans, maybe he can bring in dollars or euros,” she said.
Others were even more pessimistic. Norma G., who asked not to give her full name as she feared she might be identified and tracked by the authorities, said the Lebanese had tried Hariri “many times,” but that every time he had been taken for a ride by Hezbollah and its Christian allies. “He is talking to the same politicians again, like Hezbollah,” she said. “He is one of them, he won’t change anything.”
Gilbert Doumit, who contested the last election in 2018 on a civil society, anti-establishment ticket, but lost, dismissed Hariri by citing an aphorism often attributed to Albert Einstein. “He cannot change anything because no problem can be solved from the same consciousness that created it,” Doumit said. However, the former candidate did not take any responsibility for the protest movement’s own failings, namely the absence of a united front to fill in the vacuum left by the failure of the old guard and to offer a new generation of leaders. He said fielding a singular leadership from the protest movement would have divided the people and broken its momentum. Despite his caution, that warning has come true in any case: The movement is split among many citizens’ groups and is leaderless.
Sami Nader, a Lebanese political analyst, said that expecting politicians to reform a system that has benefited them for so many years is like asking patients to cut off their own oxygen supply. He gave the now-familiar explanation of the workings of Lebanon’s confessional system: The political elite have been using the public sector as personal fiefdoms, handing out jobs to coreligionists to buy their loyalty and make them dependent on their sectarian overlords-cum-party chiefs. For decades the same political parties have been in charge of the same ministries, which has allowed them to engineer enough loopholes to ensure that public money runs the operations of their political parties. “When they distributed the economic sectors among each other they ensured their way of financing themselves,” Nader said. “For instance: Hariri’s al-Mustaqbal or Future Movement controls telecom, so they got the advantage. Bassil’s FPM controls electricity, so they are getting an advantage. That is why, I repeat, they cannot reform. It is suicide for them.”
Hariri’s strategy seems to be to use the French backing to cobble together a cabinet and then wait for the results of U.S. elections and, he would hope, a Joe Biden presidency. If Biden wins next month, and if he is softer on Iran than his predecessor, then he might make it easier for Hariri to procure an IMF bailout. But that would depend on what sort of agreement Biden would arrive at with Iran to assuage concerns of regional allies Saudi Arabia and Israel. Hezbollah is Iran’s most effective proxy and a self-professed enemy of Israel. Containing the group’s growing strength in Lebanon and the wider Levant will be an important part of any U.S. government’s foreign policy.
Hanin Ghaddar, a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said there was no reason for Biden to give in to Iran. “When Obama made a deal with Iran he was in his second term and he was in a hurry, the Iranians were not in a hurry. This time the Iranians are in a hurry but Biden is not,” Ghaddar said. “He has other priorities so Iran and Hezbollah will be forced to make concessions unless they want to live with the status quo and don’t feel the pressure of the economies in their countries collapsing.”
Hariri’s political backers also hope that the dire economic situation may force other political parties to allow him both to form a government and to push through at least enough reforms to compel the West to loosen its purse strings. But the Lebanese who demonstrated on the streets to warn about the crisis their leaders were driving them into now find themselves engulfed in it. That is the Catch-22 they face. Lebanon cannot sign a deal with the IMF without a government—but as long as the political elite is still in a position to infiltrate any future government with their own people, the revolution of the past year will have been rendered pointless.
*Anchal Vohra is a Beirut-based columnist for Foreign Policy and a freelance correspondent for Voice of America and Al Jazeera English. She is also a TV commentator on the Middle East. Twitter: @anchalvohra

Lebanese Lady of Liberty' looms over the site of the Beirut explosion
Razmig Bedirian/The National/October 22/2020
وضع ثمثال سيدة حرية لبنان في مكان تفجير مرفأ بيروت
Dubbed Bride of the Revolution, the glass and metal statue is made out of the debris from the August 4 blast
A statue now looms over the port in Beirut, 11 weeks after the Lebanese capital was devastated by a blast at the site that killed at least 190 people on August 4.
Dubbed Bride of the Revolution, the glass and metal statue is made out of the debris from the explosion. With jagged glass legs, a dress made out of sheet metal and hair made of sinewy steel wires, the statue – which has also been called Lady Liberty – holds up a torch in the same fashion as her namesake in New York City. The statue, which was made by a group of Lebanese activists, also stands on a platform of glass spikes and bears a clock stopped at 6.08pm, the exact time of the explosion.
The monument was unveiled on Saturday, October 17, coinciding with the anniversary of the October Revolution, a series of civil protests that led to the resignation of Saad Hariri’s government.
Lebanese superstar Elissa shared a picture of the statue on her Twitter account, writing, "Our very own Lebanese Lady of Freedom, made of shattered glass from the devastating explosion in Beirut Port, she is smaller than the one who welcomed the world in New York Harbour, but this is only appropriate, she has a lot to do.”This isn’t the first time that a statue has been erected as a symbol of the power and resilience of the Lebanese people. In November, a giant phoenix was put up in Beirut’s Martyrs’ Square, right next to the renowned bronze statue built in honour of Lebanese nationalists executed by the Ottomans in 1916. In an interview with The National, Hayat Nazer, the artist behind the sculpture, said the phoenix was meant to show that “we [the Lebanese people] will not burn, we will not break, we will be victorious” as a symbol of something born again from the ashes of its predecessor.
Another statue that was erected around the same time was Revolution is a Woman, which features a figure of a woman waving a Lebanese flag made out of rubbish collected from the protest sites in the area, including water bottles, cans and even the plastic tips used to smoke shisha.
How Naji Bakhti masterfully captures the anguish and indomitable spirit of Beirut in debut novel
Pierre Abboud – the Dubai artist behind the work – told The National that he flew back to his native country to build the statue after being inspired by the strength of the Lebanese women who took part in the protests in October 2019. The recycled materials, he said, were a nod to a few of the central themes of the protests, namely recycling and the environment. The activists behind the Bride of the Revolution have yet to come forward to delineate its symbolism. But maybe they don’t need to. Its message is apparent. Made out of the glass and debris left behind by the disastrous port explosion, the statue could be seen as an emblem of the hardiness of the Lebanese people and their ability to emerge from tragedy stronger and more resilient.

Lebanon Needs Transformation, Not Another Corrupt Unity Government
Hanin Ghadar/Foreign Policy/August 11/2020
If the United States lets France take the lead, the Lebanese people will get more political paralysis, cosmetic reforms, and Hezbollah control of state institutions.
The massive explosion in Beirut last Tuesday, killing at least 160 people and leaving hundreds of thousands homeless, triggered a political moment as another explosion did 15 years ago: the targeted blast that killed then-Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
Then, as now, grief quickly turned to anger. In 2005, the outraged Lebanese rose up to demand fundamental political change, not cosmetic reforms, and they are taking to the streets once again today. But there is a key difference. In 2005, the White House was willing and able to play a nimble and ultimately effective role helping local activists translate raw emotion into new elections and a new government. Yet today Washington is content with taking a back seat to an energetic but ambivalent French president—an arrangement that will almost certainly not produce the change most Lebanese yearn for.
The French are pushing for a reconciliation among all parties, with some kind of national unity government that would only maintain the status quo and offer a scapegoat—such as Hassan Diab’s government, which resigned en masse yesterday—to calm the streets. Yet the Lebanese need a more drastic solution. The government’s resignation will not change the system as long as the same political elites maintain their power and control over other institutions.
Lebanon was already in the middle of an unprecedented economic and political crisis when the twin blasts hit. It’s a crisis so severe that it has already begun to trigger hyperinflation and hunger in country that weathered 15 years of civil war without experiencing such economic devastation. And it is being kept alive by the greed of a political class that refuses even the most modest reforms demanded by an International Monetary Fund that actually wants to give the country money.
France seems to be taking the lead for now, as illustrated by French President Emmanuel Macron’s symbolic visit to Beirut last week followed by his quick move to kick off Sunday’s international donor meeting. Countries have already pledged over 250 million euros (approximately $300 million).
As much as humanitarian aid is vital to help the Lebanese stand back on their feet, accountability is much more significant in the long term.
As other countries follow in France’s footsteps, it is worth keeping two things in mind: First, the Beirut port explosion was not a natural disaster, and it should not be treated as such. Therefore, as much as humanitarian aid is vital to help the Lebanese stand back on their feet, accountability is much more significant in the long term, and this is exactly what Lebanese protesters in the streets are calling for.
Second, the Lebanese people no longer trust their government, whose incompetence was one of the possible causes of the explosion. Therefore, assistance should not by any means go through government institutions or political organizations and charities.
Lebanon’s Government Has Resigned. That’s Not Nearly Enough.
The Lebanese public wants answers and accountability for last week’s port explosion—not scapegoats.
Lebanon Has Suffered From Sectarianism for Too Long
Mass protests could put an end to the ethnic clientelism that has empowered corrupt leaders. But demonstrators must stand their ground or risk being co-opted like those who rose up in 2005.
The deeply corrupt political system will prevent aid from reaching the people who need it.The deeply corrupt political system will prevent aid from reaching the people who need it. A number of local and international nongovernment organizations—such as the Lebanese Red Cross—have already been offering relief and assistance on the ground from day one. They were the first responders and have a good infrastructure and knowledge of the situation on the ground. If aid goes through these organizations, the likelihood that it will reach the right beneficiaries is much higher.
If Lebanon’s government is asking for international assistance, then it should accept an international investigation. The United States could take the lead on these two policy questions while coordinating with the French on a humanitarian initiative.
France has been trying to strike a difficult balance: mobilize the international community to support Lebanon while exerting pressure on Lebanese political leaders to implement reforms to allow more aid to be sent.
But Macron made clear in his press statement at the end of his Beirut visit that he would not craft a political solution for Lebanon and that it was up to the Lebanese to construct it, giving an opportunity for both the political elite to compromise and for the protest movement to reorganize and prepare for the next elections.
But the Lebanese elite won’t budge without pressure, and the authorities won’t hesitate to use violence to suppress the protests. For many Lebanese, this is a Catch-22 situation that can only be overcome if the authorities are pressured as they were in 2005—by a robust U.S. presence in the region and a very clear message from the United States to the Lebanese authorities—when the government was forced to resign and early elections were organized. Unfortunately, there’s no sign of an international initiative in this direction.
Only an international investigation would achieve real accountability and justice. Lebanese President Michel Aoun has already refused this suggestion, as expected. Not only could an international investigative team hold many in the political establishment accountable, but it could also reveal Hezbollah’s control, presence, and storage facilities at the city’s port—even if the group had nothing to do with the 2,750 metric tons of ammonium nitrate stockpiled at the port.
Although it is early to tell if the ammonium nitrate belonged to Hezbollah, there are many factors suggesting the group is responsible. It has control over a major part of the port, including the area where the explosion took place and where Hezbollah had temporarily stored its missiles since approximately 2008.
Not much has changed in the last four decades. According to a 1987 CIA report on Lebanon’s ports, “most operations in Lebanon’s ports are illegal and beyond the reach of the government.” Although the report was focused on Palestinian factions during the Lebanese Civil War and the role of the Syrian regime, the dynamics of control have benefitted Hezbollah, which seems to have inherited both the Syrian regime’s and the Palestinian factions’ control of Lebanon’s ports.
It’s not a secret that Hezbollah has access and control over all of Lebanon’s points of entryIt’s not a secret that Hezbollah has access and control over all of Lebanon’s points of entry: the Syrian-Lebanese borders, the airport, and the port. Nor is it a secret that Hezbollah has been smuggling weapons through the port to store in Lebanon and transfer to Syria.
And it’s no secret that Hezbollah and its allies have put their people in many of the port’s sensitive positions. Indeed, in July 2019, the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned Hezbollah security official Wafiq Safa for acting on behalf of the group. The Treasury said Safa, as the head of Hezbollah’s security apparatus, “has exploited Lebanon’s ports and border crossings to smuggle contraband and facilitate travel” on behalf of the group. According to the report, Hezbollah “leveraged Safa to facilitate the passage of items, including illegal drugs and weapons, into the port of Beirut, Lebanon” and “specifically routed certain shipments through Safa to avoid scrutiny.”
There are many questions an impartial investigation could answer: Why were Dutch and French rescue teams kept away from the port for hours the second day after the explosion? Why was the ammonium nitrate stored at the port? Who left it there for six years, despite warnings of the risk? What exactly caused the explosion? The Lebanese authorities will not be able to answer these questions on their own.
In 2005, many Lebanese opposition parties rushed to accuse the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad and Hezbollah for Hariri’s assassination. Back then, Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah accused Israel and didn’t hesitate to thank the Syrian regime after its army withdrew from Lebanon, in a gesture that was understood as an act of defiance against the international community and local opposition.
Fifteen years later, the Special Tribunal for Lebanon is ready to announce its verdict on Aug. 18 against four Hezbollah members. Hariri’s accused killers will almost certainly be convicted in a few days, and that was only possible because the international community pushed for an international investigation and helped establish the Special Tribunal for Lebanon. As the events in Beirut develop, a similar opportunity presents itself today.
Hezbollah is clearly worried. The party has accused state institutions and state employees rather than Israel this time. Accordingly, Hezbollah and the Hezbollah-affiliated Lebanese government appear to have decided that to survive this, some employees will have to be sacrificedHezbollah and the Hezbollah-affiliated Lebanese government appear to have decided that to survive this, some employees will have to be sacrificed, including the country’s customs chief, Badri Daher, who was appointed by Gebran Bassil, Hezbollah’s main ally in Parliament.
The Trump administration should take advantage of this situation. Washington has lately been focused on applying maximum pressure on Iran; therefore, it would make sense to recognize that the horror and tragedy of the Beirut blast presents an opportunity to trim the sails of Iran’s most effective regional proxy, Hezbollah. There are many hard-power reasons for Washington to get more deeply involved in Lebanon right now: to burnish its regional leadership credentials, to beat the Chinese and Russians to it, and to ensure supply lines into Syria. But taking advantage of the moment to give the Lebanese a chance to create a new political system in which Hezbollah is cut down to size is certainly high on the list.
There are several things the U.S. government can do to achieve that objective.
First, it must grasp that this is a 2005 moment. The old anti-Hezbollah March 14 coalition is not an alternative because corruption exists across both coalitions and the Lebanese protesters’ demands—with their main slogan, “All of you means all of you”—target every sectarian and corrupt politician no matter their political position on Hezbollah.
Lebanon’s people are demanding a total replacement of the system—a new kind of Taif Agreement—the accord negotiated in Saudi Arabia in September 1989 to provide “the basis for the ending of the civil war and the return to political normalcy in Lebanon.” Today, the tragedy in Lebanon requires a new agreement that would lead to real change and an end of the sectarian system.
Second, Washington should make sure that humanitarian aid does not go through any state institutions, including the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF).Washington should make sure that humanitarian aid does not go through any state institutions, including the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF). The United States has been assisting the LAF since 2006 for clear security objectives, but the LAF in turn has used brutal force against protesters during the recent demonstrations. Security assistance could continue, as long as the LAF does not use it to suppress protesters, but humanitarian assistance should go through local and international NGOs that are doing a much better job at relief efforts.
Third, the United States and its allies must push for an independent and transparent investigation of Lebanon’s port explosion. If the U.S. policy is to contain Iran and its proxies, then this is a golden opportunity. Holding Hezbollah accountable for perhaps killing hundreds of Lebanese and injuring thousands could push the Lebanese people—and Western public opinion in general—to reject Hezbollah’s grip on the country.
Fourth, there must be an investigation into the LAF’s use of violence against protesters. The 2005 Cedar Revolution happened because the army’s leadership took a decision to protect the protesters, who were peaceful. The army today seems to have decided to protect the authorities and punish the victims. The U.S. government needs to send a clear message to the LAF that if it does not protect the protesters as they did in 2005, assistance will stop.
The U.S. government should take the lead in pushing for genuine change rather than following Macron’s lead.Finally, the U.S. government should take the lead in pushing for genuine change rather than following Macron’s lead. The French president might be satisfied with a national unity government. However, this idea reminds the Lebanese people of the first national unity government that was forced on the Lebanese after the events of May 2008.
At the time, Hezbollah took over Beirut and the Druze mountains and used its weapons against the Lebanese people and pushed the March 14 coalition to effectively give up power to Hezbollah through the national unity government—launching a process that allowed the group to take over most political, military, and security institutions. Another national unity government today would maintain Hezbollah’s power over state institutions.
What Lebanon needs instead is a new beginning—a new political and social contract that eliminates sectarianism and establishes accountability through judicial reforms. This can only happen through a new electoral law that entails proper representation and an end to the confessional system, as well as early elections, which would produce a new parliament, a new government, and a new president.
Lebanon also needs the truth—and the accountability that follows—to overcome this tragedy.
*Hanin Ghaddar is the Friedmann fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy’s Geduld Program on Arab Politics. Twitter: @haningdr
 

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on October 22-23/2020

Pompeo applauds Sudan’s efforts to improve ties with Israel
Joseph Haboush, Al Arabiya English/Thursday 22 October 2020
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo Thursday “applauded” Sudanese PM Abdalla Hamdok’s efforts to improve Sudan’s relationship with Israel, amid reports that a breakthrough between Khartoum and Tel Aviv is imminent.
“Secretary Pompeo applauded Prime Minister Hamdok’s efforts-to-date to improve Sudan’s relationship with Israel and expressed hope that they would continue, and underscored continuing US support for Sudan’s ongoing democratic transition,” State Department Spokesperson Morgan Ortagus said. In a phone call between Pompeo and Hamdok, the two discussed US President Donald Trump’s recent decision to remove Sudan from the State Sponsors of Terrorism list. “The Secretary and the Prime Minister agreed on the importance of rapid passage of legal peace legislation by Congress,” Ortagus said. Earlier Thursday, Reuters quoted two Sudanese government sources as saying Hamdok was ready to proceed with normalization after a transitional parliament was formed.“The prime minister will proceed in the steps taken by Transitional Council Head Abdel Fattah al-Burhan to establish ties with Israel if the legislative council, after it is formed, approves the decision to normalize ties,” a senior source told Reuters.

Sudan agrees to normalize relations with Israel - report
Jerusalem Post/October 22/2020
The report indicated that the formal and public announcement on the normalization of relations is expected to take place in the next few days. Sudan has reportedly agreed to fully normalize relations with Israel, an initial report by Israel Hayom stated late Wednesday night.  According to the newspaper, the only mainstream outlet to publish the report so far, a political source involved in the diplomatic talks between Israel and Sudan confirmed that the countries will be normalizing relations very soon.  The report indicated that the formal and public announcement on the normalization of relations is expected to take place in the next few days, following an expected phone call between US President Donald Trump and chairman of the Sovereignty Council of Sudan Abdel Fattah al-Burhan.  Earlier on Wednesday, both Regional Cooperation Minister Ofir Akunis and Intelligence Minister Eli Cohen said that they believed Israel was close to normalizing ties with Sudan.  "I have a reasonable basis to believe that the announcement will come before November 3 - that, if you'll permit me, is what I understand from my sources," Akunis told Israel's Army Radio. Akunis said several countries were candidates to normalize relations with Israel but did not name them, saying that it was customary to let the first official word come from Washington. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Wednesday that the US had begun the process of removing Sudan from its list of state sponsors of terrorism, although he could not yet specify an exact timing for completing the move.When asked whether the decision was tied to a possible normalization of ties between Sudan and Israel, Pompeo replied: “We also are continuing to work to get every nation to recognize Israel, the rightful Jewish homeland, and to acknowledge their basic, fundamental right to exist as a country – and that certainly includes Sudan. While Pompeo avoided connecting the removal of Sudan from the terror list with the issue of reaching normalization with Israel, several officials have stated that normalization was indeed considered a condition for the US agreeing to remove the North-East African Muslim country from the list.  Also on Wednesday, a private jet reportedly made its way from Ben-Gurion Airport to Khartoum, the second time that such a flight has ever taken place, the first being a medical aid flight from Israel to Sudan.
Reuters and Omri Nahmias contributed to this report.

Israeli delegation travels to Sudan to discuss normalization in rare visit
Reuters/Thursday 22 October 2020
An Israeli delegation made a rare visit to Sudan on Wednesday to discuss normalizing ties, Israeli public broadcaster Kan radio said, as a minister predicted a possible diplomatic breakthrough between the two countries. Israeli Intelligence Minister Eli Cohen told Israel's Channel 13 News that he believed Israel was "very close to normalizing ties with Sudan". Kan radio gave no further details about the discussions held in Khartoum. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office and the Israeli Foreign Ministry declined to comment when asked about prospects for a breakthrough with Sudan. In a foreign-policy flourish ahead of his re-election bid, top aides to US President Donald Trump this week escorted Israeli delegates to Bahrain and UAE delegates to Israel, cementing Israel's new, US-brokered relations with the Gulf states. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Wednesday that the United States had begun the process of removing Sudan from its list of state sponsors of terrorism and was also working "diligently" to get Khartoum to recognize Israel. Pompeo stopped short of saying Sudan's removal would be linked to whether it would agree to normalize relations with Israel. Sudanese sources have not indicated so far that normalization talks were far advanced. Israeli Regional Cooperation Minister Ofir Akunis said that the United States would announce another deal establishing ties between Israel and an Arab or Muslim country before the US election. "I have a reasonable basis to believe that the announcement will come before Nov. 3 - that, if you'll permit me, is what I understand from my sources," Akunis told Israel's Army Radio. Akunis said several countries were candidates to normalize relations with Israel. He did not name these, saying that it was "customary" to let the first official word come from Washington. But US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman did not indicate any imminent diplomatic breakthrough. "More nations that are in the Arab League will normalize and make peace with Israel, I have no doubt, it is a certainty. How many, in what order, I think everyone is just going to have to wait and see," he told a conference hosted by Israel Hayom newspaper and the Kohelet Policy Forum think-tank.

UAE citizens can now travel to Israel without a visa, stay for 90 days
Tamara Abueish, Al Arabiya English/Thursday 22 October 2020
Citizens of the United Arab Emirates can now travel to Israel without a visa for up to 90 days, the Emirates News Agency (WAM) cited the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as saying on Thursday. The visa waiver is line with the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that was signed by both countries on Tuesday. The decision was signed by the UAE’s Assistant Minister for Culture and Public Diplomacy Omar Saif Ghobash and Israel’s Director-General of the Population and Immigration Authority of the Ministry of Interior. The exemption “reflects both countries’ desire to strengthen promising relations and opportunities for cooperation” and “open up new horizons for cooperation in the region,” WAM reported. The first ever passenger flight from the UAE to Israel landed near Tel Aviv on Monday, a month after the countries signed an agreement normalizing ties. In August, Israel and the UAE announced that they had reached a US-brokered deal to normalize ties, following years of discreet economic and security cooperation. Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, ratified the UAE deal last week. The UAE and Israel on Tuesday signed an agreement to have 28 weekly commercial flights between the countries, a transportation ministry official said.

Bomb Kills Mufti of Damascus Province
Agence France Presse/October 22/2020
A prominent Syrian Muslim cleric in charge of the Damascus region was killed Thursday when a bomb planted in his car exploded outside the capital, state news agency SANA said. Adnan al-Afiyuni, the Sunni Muslim mufti for Damascus province, was considered to be close to President Bashar al-Assad. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said he played a key role in reaching reconciliation deals with rebel fighters on the capital's outskirts during the country's nine-year war.

Palestinians Sue Britain for 1917 Balfour Declaration
Agence France Presse/October 22/2020
Palestinian lawyers on Thursday filed a complaint to sue the British government for the 1917 declaration setting out London's support for a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine.
The lawyers filed a complaint in the occupied West Bank town of Nablus that claimed "the suffering of the Palestinians" stemmed from this document. The Balfour Declaration, signed by the then British foreign secretary Arthur James Balfour, is seen as a precursor to Israel's creation in 1948. "The British mandate is at the root of the suffering of the Palestinian people and has paved the way for the violation of their rights and the plunder of their land," Munib al-Masri, head of the Federation of Independent and Democratic Trade Unions, told a news conference in Ramallah. As well as the trade unions group, the complaint was filed on behalf of the International Commission to Support Palestinian People's Rights and the Palestinian Journalists' Syndicate. The Balfour Declaration was published on November 2, 1917, a year before the end of World War I. In one sentence it announced the British government's backing for the establishment within Palestine, then a region of the Ottoman Empire, of "a national home for the Jewish people". It was a shock to the Arab world, which had not been consulted and had received vague promises of independence of its own in the post-war break up of the defeated Ottoman Empire. The Palestinians have always condemned the declaration, which they refer to as the "Balfour promise", saying Britain was giving away land it did not own. With the Balfour Declaration, London was seeking Jewish support for its war efforts, and the Zionist push for a homeland for Jews was an emerging political force. The British Mandate for Palestine was later set up in the wake of World War I, and ran until Israel's declaration of statehood in 1948.
 

Turkey rejects ‘groundless’ claims denouncing Ankara’s drills in eastern Med
AFP, Istanbul/Thursday 22 October 2020
Turkey on Thursday rejected as “groundless” claims made by Greece, Cyprus and Egypt denouncing Ankara’s “unilateral provocations” over energy exploration in the eastern Mediterranean. Greece’s Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis accused Turkey of “imperialist fantasies” during a meeting on Wednesday with the leaders of Cyprus and Egypt. The three countries hold regular summits as part of their closer energy cooperation as they seek to create a regional energy hub, along with Israel, supplying gas to Europe. They denounced Turkey’s “unilateral provocations” over energy exploration in disputed waters of the eastern Mediterranean and its role in war-torn Libya and Syria. The Turkish foreign ministry said there would be no solution to problems in the region unless the countries involved changed their “maximalist and hostile policies”.“We reject the statement which contains groundless accusations and allegations against our country as a whole,” the foreign ministry said in a statement. In defiance of warnings from Western countries, Turkey extended a gas exploration mission by its Oruc Reis research vessel in the eastern Mediterranean until October 27. The Oruc Reis escorted by military navy ships has become the symbol of Ankara’s appetite for natural gas in the eastern Mediterranean, where recent discoveries have triggered a rush for the resource. Athens says Ankara is breaking international law by prospecting in Greek waters, including near the Greek island of Kastellorizo. Turkey insists that it is within its rights in the energy-rich Mediterranean region, saying that the tiny island of Kastellorizo should not count for imposing Greek sovereignty

US allegations of Iranian interference is ‘nothing but a scenario’: Iran UN mission
Al Arabiya English and Reuters/Thursday 22 October 2020
The United States’ allegations of Iran’s interference in its presidential elections are “nothing but a scenario aimed at undermining voters’ confidence,” the Iranian mission to the United Nations said on Thursday, according to the IRNA news agency. US Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe had on Wednesday accused both Russia and Iran of attempting to interfere with the 2020 presidential election. Just two weeks ahead of the election, the announcement showed the level of alarm among top US officials that foreign actors were seeking to undermine Americans’ confidence in the integrity of the vote and spread misinformation in an attempt to sway its outcome. “We have confirmed that some voter registration information has been obtained by Iran, and separately, by Russia,” Ratcliffe said during the news conference. Most of that voter registration is public. But Ratcliffe said that government officials “have already seen Iran sending spoofed emails designed to intimidate voters, incite social unrest and damage President Trump.”Ratcliffe was referring to emails sent Wednesday and designed to look like they came from the pro-Trump Proud Boys group, according to government.

IRGC, five other Iran groups sanctioned for US election interference
AFP/Thursday 22 October 2020
The US Treasury on Thursday slapped new sanctions on five Iranian entities, including the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, for what it called “brazen attempts” to interfere with the US election and US voters.
The groups have worked to “sow discord among the voting populace by spreading disinformation online and executing malign influence operations aimed at misleading US voters,” the Treasury said.
On Wednesday, US officials announced that Iran and Russia had obtained voter registration information. “Some voter registration information has been obtained by Iran” and Russia, US Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe said. He added that Iran was sending “spoofed emails designed to intimidate voters, incite social unrest and damage President Trump.”

Iranian dissident Mehdi Amin found murdered at his residence in Canada
Yaghoub Fazeli, Al Arabiya English/Friday 23 October 2020
A man who was found murdered on Wednesday at his residence in southern Ontario has been identified as Mehdi Amin, an Iranian dissident, a friend of the victim told Al Arabiya English. Canadian media reported citing the police that a man in his fifties was found dead Wednesday afternoon at his home in Markham, Ontario, 30 km (18.6 miles) north of Toronto. York Regional Police (YRP) are treating the man’s death as a homicide and will not release his identity until after a post-mortem examination is complete, the reports said. Reports then emerged on social media platforms that the victim is Iranian dissident Mehdi Amin. Ari, a friend of Amin who had known him for around six years, confirmed the reports to Al Arabiya English. “The Iranian-Canadian community in Toronto is in total shock. And I ask Markham residents or anyone who knows more to come forward and help YRP. Justice needs to be served,” Ari, who asked to be identified only by his first name, said. “[Amin] was one of the kindest individuals that I had the pleasure of knowing. He was always willing to help those in need and cared deeply about the future of Iran,” he added. Ari said he had spoken to Amin last week. “He was in good spirits like he always was.” While the motives behind Amin’s murder are not yet clear, Iran’s long history of targeting dissidents abroad has given rise to suspicions that it may be behind the killing. In June, an Iranian Kurdish activist survived an assassination attempt after he was stabbed multiple times in the Dutch city of Leeuwarden. In March, Turkish officials concluded that the Iranian consulate in Istanbul was behind the killing of Iranian dissident Masoud Molavi Vardanjani who was shot dead in the city in November 2019. “It is too early to say what the motive was, but I have the utmost respect for the YRP and I am confident that they will investigate this horrendous murder and catch those involved,” said Ari. He added that he was not aware of any threats Amin may have received. “[Amin] was a staunch defender of human rights in his home country and his only wish was to see a secular and democratic state in Iran. He would always tell me that his biggest wish was to go back to Iran before he dies,” Ari said. “[Amin] was fairly active in Toronto's anti Iranian regime circles,” Iranian-Canadian lawyer and human rights activist Kaveh Shahrooz wrote on Twitter. Some Iranians on social media platforms have paid tribute to Amin by sharing images of him at anti-regime protests. “I last saw him at a protest in Toronto in support of Navid Afkari,” one Twitter user said. Afkari was an Iranian athlete who was executed by the Islamic republic in September.

Iran summons Swiss envoy over 2020 US election interference claim
Reuters, Dubai/Thursday 22 October 2020
Iran summoned the Swiss envoy on Thursday to protest against what it called “baseless” US claims that Tehran has tried to interfere with the 2020 presidential election in November. “Iran’s strong rejection of American officials’ repetitive, baseless and false claims was conveyed to the Swiss ambassador.. As we have said before, it makes no difference for Iran who wins the US election,” Foreign. Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh told state TV. Switzerland represents US interests in Iran because Washington and Tehran have no diplomatic ties. US Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe said on Wednesday that Russia and Iran have both tried to interfere with the presidential election taking place on November 3 have risen between longtime foes Tehran and Washington since 2018, when US President Donald Trump exited Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal and stepped up sanctions on Tehran.

The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on October 22-23/2020

Israel-UAE-Bahrain deals awaken hope for additional peace deals - opinion
Gerdhow Baskin/Jerusalem Post/October 22/2020
Encountering Peace: I believe that a majority of the Israeli and Palestinian people want to live in peace.
I know as a hard-core leftist I am supposed to oppose the peace deals between Israel, the UAE and Bahrain. I am not supposed to hope that additional Arab states will join the “peace train.” But I do. These Arab countries that are normalizing relations with Israel have abandoned the Palestinians and the Arab Peace Initiative while the occupation continues and even deepens. This is true – normalization now taking place is above board and not being done under the table as it had been – and the Palestinian people and their struggle for freedom is no longer on the Middle East agenda (for the time being at least). The Arab Peace Initiative is no longer valid as the incentive that will pressure Israel to end the occupation. Eighteen years have passed since its formal inception in March 2002. It was a great idea and the Palestinians themselves were part of its design. Israel never took the bait and never even formally related to it.
If we are going to be brutally honest with ourselves, we must admit that there is no leadership for Israeli-Palestinian peace: not in Israel, not in Palestine, not in the US, nor anywhere else. However, the voices of peace are loud and clear in Israel and in the UAE and Bahrain with each passing day bringing new agreements, contacts, visits, and plans that change the face of the region.
It is true that there was no genuine conflict between those countries and Israel and that what prevented peace agreements until now was the continuation of Israel’s occupation over the Palestinian people. But in the absence of any progress or even hope for progress on the Israel-Palestine front, other common issues and interests have overtaken. Standing by the Palestinians for those Arab countries is no longer the priority when threats from Iran are so clear and present and common economic and security issues interests materialize.
I believe that a majority of the Israeli and Palestinian people want to live in peace. The repeated failures of the peace process, the inability to even negotiate, the continued violence between both sides and the lack of effective peace-seeking leadership on both sides has killed the hope that peace is possible for the time being, or for any time in the foreseeable future. It does not seem that the current or even next leaders of Israel and Palestine will be advocating negotiations as part of their platform. We have seen repeated elections in Israel where the only relationship to the Palestinians has been a contest of who is more hard-line towards them. As the leadership contest unfolds in Palestine, we are also likely to see those competing for leadership taking more hard-line positions against Israel. “Peace speak” towards each other is not the language of Israeli nor Palestinian politicians at this time. “Peace speak” in the Israeli-Palestinian context amongst citizens of both sides is not what we hear at all.
WHAT IS so remarkable about the unfolding peaceful relations between Israel and the UAE and Bahrain is the prevalence of “peace speak.” There is a clear atmosphere of a warm peace developing.
I have already participated in about a dozen online zoom conferences between Israel, the UAE and Bahrain. Business people, politicians, officials, civil society leaders, artists and academics have joined in expressing hopes of real peace and putting concrete plans on the agenda for developing the peace.
Israelis and Emiratis and Bahrainis are excited about making peace. The media in these countries is filled with “peace speak.” I have traveled in the past to Bahrain, the UAE and even Qatar, but I had to hide my Israeli identity.
That is not the case now. Soon planes loaded with citizens from Israel, the UAE and Bahrain will be flying in both directions, opening doors for opportunities and building bridges of contacts. This is something totally new for Israelis and for Arabs. The peace between Israel and Egypt and Israel and Jordan never thawed from the freezing state into a warm peace between the peoples.
That is clearly because of the occupation. Now we will have the possibility of experiencing something completely new. Will it be possible to have some of the warmth of this peace rub off on the horrible state of Israeli-Palestinian relations? How do we even begin to renew a peace process between Israel and Palestine that could lead to the end of the occupation and perhaps genuine peace? The language that Israelis and Palestinian speak to each other is “hate speak.” Just listen to the voices that have come out against the Israeli decision to allow PLO leader Saeb Arekat be treated in Hadassah-University Medical Center, in Jerusalem’s Ein Kerem neighborhood for complications from the novel coronavirus. There are Israeli protesters outside of the hospital with signs that say “let him die.” Saeb Arekat is not very popular in Palestine for a lot of reasons. But when they see Israelis calling for his death, how can they not support him and pray for him while hating Israelis at the same time? The chances of future peace will not suddenly materialize. It will take a concerted effort to regenerate the belief in peace among Israelis and Palestinians. I have very little confidence that governments and leaders in Israel and Palestine will play a positive role in the effort. It will take Israeli and Palestinian citizens to learn the language of “peace speak” to create an enabling environment that will change hearts and minds among both peoples. Maybe we can all learn something from the new peace agreements. The writer is a political and social entrepreneur who has dedicated his life to the State of Israel and to peace between Israel and her neighbors. His latest book In Pursuit of Peace in Israel and Palestine was published by Vanderbilt University Press. It will soon appear in Arabic in Amman and Beirut.
 

Palestinians: What Failure Looks Like
Khaled Abu Toameh/Gatestone Institute/October 22, 2020
The leaders did not travel to Syria to find ways to help the Palestinians living there.
It is one thing to fail your people by stealing the money that the international community sends to them. But it is another level of unacceptable indifference to turn a blind eye to atrocities committed against your own people by an Arab country.
By praising the Syrian government for "achieving security and stability," the Fatah leaders are actually sending the message to Assad that he can continue to kill, imprison and torture Palestinians by the thousands.
By holding meetings in Damascus without discussing how to help their beleaguered people in Syria, Palestinian leaders are sending the message that thwarting peace plans and condemning Arabs for making peace with Israel take precedence over the safety of their people. In short, this visit marks another star "failure" of the Palestinian leadership.
A delegation was dispatched to Syria this month by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas as part of his effort to unify the Palestinians against Israel and the US. The delegation, headed by Jibril Rajoub, Secretary-General of the Fatah Central Committee, completely ignored the plight of Palestinians in Syria during its stay in Damascus. Pictured: Rajoub on July 2, 2020, in Ramallah.
When Arabs such as Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan bin Abdul Aziz denounce Palestinian leaders as "failures," they are specifically referring to financial corruption, divisions among the Palestinians, ingratitude toward Arab countries that supported them financially and politically, and the many missed opportunities to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Recently, however, Palestinian leaders displayed another of their ongoing "failures" when they visited Syria, where, for the past nine years, thousands of Palestinians have been killed, wounded, displaced, arrested and forced out of their homes. The leaders did not travel to Syria to find ways to help the Palestinians living there.
This time, the Palestinian leaders, representing the ruling Fatah faction, arrived in Damascus during the first week of October for talks with leaders of Syria-based Palestinian factions on ways of achieving "national unity," holding new elections for the Palestinian Authority (PA) presidency and parliament (Palestine Legislative Council) and "confronting Israeli-American conspiracies" against the Palestinian people.
The Fatah delegation was dispatched to Syria by PA President Mahmoud Abbas as part of his effort to unify the Palestinians against Israel and the US, and hold long-overdue elections for the PA presidency and PLC.
The delegation, headed by Jibril Rajoub, Secretary-General of the Fatah Central Committee, completely ignored the plight of Palestinians in Syria during its stay in Damascus.
Rajoub and his delegation did not even raise the subject with Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad when they met with him on October 6. Instead, Rajoub reportedly praised the Syrian government for its success in "achieving security and stability" and expressed hope that the Syrians would be able to "eradicate terrorism in all parts of Syria."
Again, the Palestinian delegation had nothing to say about the suffering of Palestinians in Syria when its members met with leaders of the Iran-backed Palestinian Islamic Jihad and other Palestinian radical groups such as As-Saiqa, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) and Popular Front-General Command.
It is worth noting that these Syria-based factions are totally opposed to any peace process with Israel, do not recognize Israel's right to exist and are committed to the "armed struggle" to destroy Israel. Some of these factions, especially Popular Front-General Command, headed by Ahmed Jibril, have been involved in the Syrian authorities' atrocities against Palestinians in Syria since the beginning of the civil war in that country in 2011.
The Syria-based groups belong to the Palestinian "rejectionist" camp, which has rejected the Oslo Accords signed between Israel and the PLO in 1993 and 1995. Is Abbas so naïve to assume that the "rejectionist" camp would agree to participate in Palestinian elections under the Oslo Accords it so vehemently opposes? These factions do not care about elections. They do not care about peace plans. They do not care about "unity" between Abbas's Fatah faction and Hamas. They are driven by one goal: perpetrating terror attacks against Israel and killing as many Jews as possible.
If the Palestinian factions do not care about the suffering of their own people in Syria, what makes Abbas think that they would care about the well-being of Palestinians in the West Bank or Gaza Strip?
During their discussions in Damascus, the leaders of the Palestinian factions did not utter a word about the 4,048 Palestinians killed during the civil war in Syria. They did not mention the 1,800 Palestinians languishing in Syrian government prisons and detention facilities for many years. The Palestinian faction leaders had nothing to say about the 620 Palestinians who have died as a result of torture while in Syrian detention. Of course, they also chose to ignore the appeals of the families and relatives of 333 Palestinians who have gone missing in Syria during the civil war.
Needless to say, the leaders of the Palestinian factions did not hear about the case of Shadi Amareen, a Palestinian from the town of the Syrian town of Duma, who died under torture on October 11 while in Syrian custody. Amareen, according to his family, was arrested by Syrian security forces four years ago for unknown reasons.
Some may argue that the Palestinian faction leaders are frightened that raising the issue of the atrocities against their people would bring retribution by the regime of Bashar Assad. They know that the moment they speak out against the crimes of the Syrians against Palestinians they would be signing their own death warrants. The Palestinian faction leaders also know that if they alienate the Assad regime, they would be fortunate if they were only thrown into prison together with the hundreds of Palestinians already being held by the Syrians. If they were unfortunate, these leaders would be added to the statistic of more than 4,000 Palestinians killed in Syria during the past nine years.
It is one thing to fail your people by stealing the money that the international community sends to them. But it is another level of unacceptable indifference to turn a blind eye to atrocities committed against your own people by an Arab country.
For the families of the Palestinians killed in Syria, holding new elections is not going to compensate or console them for the loss of their beloved ones. Similarly, the 1,800 Palestinians held in Syrian prisons could not care less about elections or rejecting US President Donald Trump's plan for peace in the Middle East, which has been strongly condemned by Abbas and all Palestinian faction leaders.
By praising the Syrian government for "achieving security and stability," the Fatah leaders are actually sending the message to Assad that he can continue to kill, imprison and torture Palestinians by the thousands.
By holding meetings in Damascus without discussing how to help their beleaguered people in Syria, Palestinian leaders are sending the message that thwarting peace plans and condemning Arabs for making peace with Israel take precedence over the safety of their people. In short, this visit marks another star "failure" of the Palestinian leadership.
*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.

FBI Director Wray is Worse than Comey
Chris Farrell/Gatestone Institute/October 22/2020
We must now come to grips with the likelihood that Wray is worse for the country than Comey.
Wray has an affirmative obligation to come forward with credible derogatory information and conduct appropriate investigations when presented with evidence. Even Comey did that. It now appears he stood on the sidelines and watched President Trump go through impeachment unjustly, while having credible reason to believe that Vice President Biden had actually done all of the very things Trump was falsely accused of doing. Wray had a legal obligation to tell the Attorney General, the President and the Congress. He had a moral obligation to tell the American people.
Wray's record of non-performance was bad enough. Wray could not see the gross political bias in the FBI. He does not see voter fraud. Wray covers-up for corrupt FBI agents. He claims the violent domestic terrorist group Antifa is more of an ideology. These are astounding denials of documented facts.
Here is the bigger question concerning FBI Director Wray: What is going on within the FBI about which we have no idea? One is left to imagine the once vaunted Bureau as nothing but a rat's nest of corruption populated by either political schemers or careerist ostriches obsessed with their pensions and post-retirement, FBI-referred jobs.
Christopher Wray assumed office as the eighth director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation on August 2, 2017. He was preceded by the odious coup-plotter James Comey. We must now come to grips with the likelihood that Wray is worse for the country than Comey.
The old adage that "the cover-up is worse than the crime" is applicable here. Comey's plot was seditious. Wray's conspiracy runs deeper. He adopted the wrongdoing of Comey and talked it away in Washingtonian passive voice: "mistakes were made." Wray engaged in a program of damage control and institutional preservation for the disgraced FBI. He did not clean house and reform. Wray is acting as a legal obstructionist, fighting tooth and nail to keep the full story of the corrupt "Crossfire Hurricane" investigation of President Trump and his associates from the American people. FISA warrants are phonied-up and courts lied to repeatedly? Oh, that's a "training" problem.
In the past few days, the New York Post broke stunning news (actively suppressed by social media) that former Vice President Joe Biden's son, Hunter, left three water-damaged laptops with a Delaware computer repair company that contained a wealth of damning information concerning the Democratic presidential nominee. Information on Ukraine and Bursima (the corrupt energy company). Not just embarrassing or awkward information -- no, this is the sort of information that results in criminal indictments. Hunter appears to have explicitly leveraged his father's position as Vice President -- and that there was "consideration" planned for the "Big Guy." It seems as if Joe Biden knew or should have known what was going on.
The NY Post reported that Hunter Biden introduced his father, the sitting vice president, to a top Burisma executive (Vadym Pozharskyi) who appears to have sent an email of thanks to Hunter Biden for the "opportunity" to meet his father. The email was dated April 17, 2015.
Here is how President Trump describes it:
"Hunter Biden's laptop is a disaster for the entire Biden family, but especially for his father, Joe. It is now a proven fact, and cannot be denied, that all of that info is the REAL DEAL."
Additional reporting reveals that the FBI had copies of the Hunter Biden laptops hard drives in November 2019 and then took physical custody of the devices in December 2019.
November and December 2019? That was when President Trump was being impeached. What did Director Wray know and when did he know it? Did Wray allow the impeachment charade to go on while knowing that the exact opposite of what was being claimed against President Trump was, in fact, the truth?
On November 13, 2019, public impeachment hearings began in the U.S. House Intelligence Committee. President Trump was impeached on two counts on December 18, 2019. All of this phony "whistleblower" Ukraine hysteria is going on and Wray does nothing? To the "fair of heart and mind," we can assure you that the FBI director would have been personally briefed on developments in a case involving the former VP.
Let us be very clear: Wray has an affirmative obligation to come forward with credible derogatory information and conduct appropriate investigations when presented with evidence. Even Comey did that. It now appears he stood on the sidelines and watched President Trump go through impeachment unjustly, while having credible reason to believe that Vice President Biden had actually done all of the very things Trump was falsely accused of doing. Wray had a legal obligation to tell the Attorney General, the President and the Congress. He had a moral obligation to tell the American people.
Comey told the American public about Anthony Weiner's laptop. Where is Wray's announcement about the Hunter Biden laptops? Where is AG Barr's appointment of a Special Counsel?
Wray's record of non-performance was bad enough. Wray could not see the gross political bias in the FBI. He does not see voter fraud. Wray covers-up for corrupt FBI agents. He claims the violent domestic terrorist group Antifa is more of an ideology. These are astounding denials of documented facts.
Here is the bigger question concerning FBI Director Wray: What is going on within the FBI about which we have no idea? One is left to imagine the once vaunted Bureau as nothing but a rat's nest of corruption populated by either political schemers or careerist ostriches obsessed with their pensions and post-retirement, FBI-referred jobs.
You can bet "official Washington" has fought tooth and nail to keep all of the incidents discussed in this column under wraps. Lawsuits, congressional hearings, inspector general reports, and special prosecutors have not successfully unearthed all the details. The press reports are good, but there are still some murky details and imprecision concerning the basic interrogatives.
People such as Comey and Wray are toxic to the republic. They destroy what is left of the constitution. They poison the American body politic. The only way to arrest the malignant cancer they represent is through criminal prosecutions. This, of course, is another reason why this election is so important. The choice for the future (and any semblance of restored justice) is very clear.
*Chris Farrell is a former counterintelligence case officer. For the past 20 years, he has served as the Director of Investigations & Research for Judicial Watch. The views expressed are the author's alone, and not necessarily those of Judicial Watch.
© 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.

Lebanese Writer, Khairallah Khairallah: Iran Seeks To Intimidate Iraq's Sunnis, Kurds, Embarrass Iraqi Security Forces To Keep Iraq Under Its Hegemony
MEMRI/October 22, 2020
Iran, Iraq, Lebanon | Special Dispatch No. 8984
On October 20, 2020, the daily Al-Arab, which is UAE-affiliated and based in London, published an op-ed by Lebanese writer Khairallah Khairallah in which he discussed Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi's ongoing series of visits to some of Europe's capitals in relation to the recent security challenges his government is facing.Al-Kahdimi set out on his tour just two days after reports of the abduction and murder of a group of Sunnis in Iraq's Salahuddin province, and the vandalization of the Baghdad offices of a Kurdish political party. On October 17, ten bodies were discovered near the village of Farahat in Balad. The bodies belonged to a group of Sunni villagers, including some minors, who were abducted a week earlier. The area is controlled by Asa'ib Ahal Al-Haq, an Iran-backed militia.
Also on October 17, pro-Iran groups attacked the headquarters of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) in Baghdad after senior KDP member and former Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari accused Shi'ite militias of operating outside the law, implying that they are responsible for the attacks on foreign diplomatic missions in Iraq.[1]
Commenting on these two incidents, the writer suggested that the deteriorating security situation in Iraq is being orchestrated by Iran in order to intimidate Iraqi Sunnis and Kurds, embarrass the Iraqi security forces, and foil the efforts of Iraq's Prime Minister to restore his nation's sovereignty. The writer argued that Tehran is nevertheless failing to notice the growing tendency among Iraqis, including Shi'ites, to resist Iranian influences, as evidenced in the ongoing protests calling for reform. He further stresses that Iran's declining economy under U.S. sanctions haa left Tehran with little space to maneuver, adding that the outcome of the upcoming U.S. presidential election is Iran's last bid to help its economy.
The following are translated excerpts from Khairallah's article:[2]
"What Iraq is currently experiencing is part of an Iranian assault that clearly aims to prove that Iraq is a card to be played by the Islamic Republic [Iran], one which it will not easily abandon. The Iranian goal is to provoke the Kurds and convey to them that they are not welcome in the capital [Baghdad], as well as to protest the Sinjar agreement, which Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi recently signed with them [the Kurds].
"Iran seeks to make it clear to everyone concerned, including America, that it has the final say in Iraq, and that the Prime Minister has no right to make agreements with any of Iraq's populations, i.e. the Kurds, without its permission.
"Most importantly, Iran is responding directly to Hoshyar Zebari, former Foreign Minister and one of the Kurdish leaders, who called for the removal of the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) from Baghdad, which he suggested should be protected by security forces, the army and other state agencies instead.

Beheaded Infidels Vs. Fear of Islamophobia
Raymond Ibrahim/October 22/2020
ريموند إبراهيم: قطع رؤوس الكفار مقابل الإسلاموفوفيا
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/91574/raymond-ibrahim-beheaded-infidels-vs-fear-of-islamophobia-%d8%b1%d9%8a%d9%85%d9%88%d9%86%d8%af-%d8%a5%d8%a8%d8%b1%d8%a7%d9%87%d9%8a%d9%85-%d9%82%d8%b7%d8%b9-%d8%b1%d8%a4%d9%88%d8%b3-%d8%a7%d9%84/

An 18-year-old Muslim man beheaded a school teacher in France last Friday for showing cartoons of Islam’s prophet Muhammad to his students, in the context of discussing free speech and expression.
Some weeks earlier, another Muslim teenager killed an American citizen in Pakistan for also committing “blasphemy.” The murdered man, Tahir Naseem, was actually being tried for blasphemy—which carries a maximum death penalty—in a courtroom when Faisal Khan, 15, walked in and opened fire on him.
It’s worth noting that, while Khan “broke the law” by essentially jumping the gun, Pakistani law itself is sympathetic to the vigilante’s view that blasphemy is a crime, punishable by death. Conversely, there (currently) is no blasphemy law in France. In this sense, then, the government of France, unlike the government of Pakistan, would obviously not hold Samuel Paty, the beheaded teacher, guilty of any blasphemy.
And yet the effective differences between France and Pakistan, within the context of these two crimes, seem to end there: While Pakistan and many other Muslim nations uphold Islam’s blasphemy laws, France and other Western nations pretend that Islam has no blasphemy laws. After all, to acknowledge that Islam does indeed call for the punishment and death of those who blaspheme against Muhammad—to say nothing of any number of other “problematic” sharia stipulations, such as death for apostates—is to be “Islamophobic.”
In other words, whereas Muslim nations like Pakistan actively affirm Islam’s blasphemy codes, Western nations like France passively acquiesce to them by pretending they don’t exist and therefore need no addressing.
The result is the same: Muslims—whether in Islamic or Western nations—continue to learn and spread the unadulterated teachings of Islam, unhampered.
One difference, of course, is that, whereas Muslims can feel free to wear their supremacism on their sleeves in the Islamic world—the 15-year-old Khan is all but a national hero in Pakistan for killing Naseem—in the West they learn to conceal it and “play the game,” inasmuch as they need to; and Western authorities are usually only too happy to reciprocate—until such time that a Muslim goes off the rail, at which point the authorities pretend to be shocked and talk of “mental health problems,” “grievances,” or “extremism.”
Thus, and despite the fact that, past and present, Muslims killing “blasphemers” is a well-documented fact of life, French officials said that “there are still questions about whether the killer was radicalised or whether there might have been another motive.” Not only is the notion that there might be “another motive” beyond silly, the only other alternative, that he was “radicalised,” also implies that killing blasphemers is somehow strange or “extreme” for Islam, when it is and always has been standard.
Or consider the contradictory messaging of the French president. While discussing the beheading of Paty, Emmanuel Macron said:
It was no coincidence that the terrorist killed a teacher because he wanted to kill the Republic and its values. The Enlightenment, (is) the possibility to make our children, wherever they come from, whatever they believe in, whether they believe or not, whatever their religion, to turn them into free citizens.
Consider how utterly oblivious to the reality of Islam—which revolves around a notoriously draconian set of laws, sharia—the claim that “children, wherever they come from, whatever they believe in …, whatever their religion,” are simply supposed to evolve into “free citizens,” even when what they believe in and their religion teach the exact opposite?
Continues Macron: “They will not divide us. That’s what they seek and we must stand together.”
Who are they? The official answer is that “they” are generic “terrorists,” who are “distorting” the otherwise peaceful teachings of Islam.
In reality, it is not “they” who seek to “divide us,” but rather the core teachings of their religion, which, far from requiring Muslims to “stand together” with non-Muslims, actually calls on them to stand apart (via the highly divisive Koranic doctrine of “Loving and Hating” for Islam).
Until such time that such simple truisms are accepted—and acted upon—infidel heads will continue to roll, politicians will continue to spout meaningless platitudes, and the jihadist imperative will continue to proliferate in the West no less than in the Islamic world.
*Raymond Ibrahim, author most recently of Sword and Scimitar, 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.
 

Samuel Paty’s murder shows need for free speech, combating radicalization in mosques
Heba YosryAl Arabiya/Thursday 22 October 2020
The world watched with horror the recent terrorist attack that claimed the life of a beloved high school teacher, Samuel Paty. Saudi Arabia led other Muslim nations in condemning the attack. In Egypt, Dar Al Efta, the highest religious authority in the country, condemned the senseless violence that undermines Islam’s priority of maintaining the sanctity of human life. And protesters filled French streets in uproar over the attack on teachers and what they see as French values.
Paty’s murder can be better understood by examining two intertwining concepts: the contested role of the teacher as promoting free speech, and the role of a minority of mosques in radicalizing young men. Firstly, historically teachers have always had a contentious status among their societies. Teachers are supposed to be trusted agents for the betterment of our children. Parents send their children to schools and universities to learn about the realities of the world and about themselves.
Nevertheless, when parents feel that teachers are leading their children to question their core beliefs, the initial trust morphs into anger and condemnation. As a teacher, I always find myself trying to strike the delicate balance between offering my students controversial material in an attempt to foster critical thinking, without causing offence or going too far. Socrates is an example of this tension; he was charged with corrupting the youth by his fellow Athenians, and was killed for it. While teachers have a position of great influence in society, historically they are also vulnerable to violence and persecution if the court of public opinion decides against the direction in which they are influencing the young.
Secondly, the killer was an 18-year-old who was born in Russia and lived in France. He was young enough not to be perceived as a threat when he asked the other students to point out the teacher before he committed his heinous crime. He had no previously known affiliations with terrorist organizations and was not identified as a potential terrorist. This leads to the conclusion that he was probably radicalized in France.
The sad reality is that the indoctrination and radicalization of European youth inside European cities is not a single and isolated incident but an alarming trend, as seen in the large numbers of Europeans who joined ISIS. According to a report published by the World Bank under the title “Transnational Terrorist Recruitment: Evidence from Daesh Personnel Records,” 148 fighters resided in France before joining ISIS. The radicalization of young men is the result of a range of causes. Whether for extremist groups such as ISIS or white supremacist groups, it increasingly occurs online with local encouragement through inciting an hateful rhetoric that is articulated by influential figures at home, where young men are groomed by slick propaganda videos and online recruiters.
However, in this case, French authorities arrested an imam known for his inciting and violent speeches in connection with the crime and recently closed a mosque in an effort to curb hate speech. Some mosques in Europe have become hubs for the radicalization of young Muslims because there is no government regulation regarding religious discourse. It is important to note that the majority of mosques promote Islam’s message of peace, but that does not mean that there are a minority of mosques where imams have cultivated an atmosphere that could radicalize young men. European governments steer clear from intervening in what happens inside mosques out of the fear that they might be charged with Islamophobia.
The logic is that whatever happens inside the mosque is secluded within the confines of its structure and protected by freedom of expression. However, as we have seen in this incident and other terrorist incidents, hateful rhetoric inside the confines of the mosque can be translated into violence by young and gullible children. Governments’ failure to act on fear being branded Islamophobic can allow attacks on peaceful Muslims who just want to lead a normal life. European governments should therefore halt efforts to maintain political correctness and not hesitate to address hateful and violent rhetoric.
In Egypt, “Revising Religious Discourse” is an initiative that aimed to revise some antiquated notions of Islam, and also to regulate religious discourse in an effort to counter religious extremism at home. European countries should learn the lesson. Preventive measures that are misidentified as Islamophobic prevent the rise of Islamophobia. The overall culture of passive complicity that allows for young Europeans to be radicalized at home needs to stop.
We are witnessing a war of ideas and competing narratives that are demanding our children’s attention. At schools, teachers try to instill the basic concepts of critical thinking and free speech, even if they use materials that we might not condone as Muslims. In the mosque, some imams try to instill hatred and violence as the only way that Muslims can protect themselves against the perceived attacks on Islam. Children who attend school come home to ask their parents about what they heard. Children who attend those mosques where imams are preaching hate come home to plan how to take revenge against supposed “infidels.” In both the school and the mosque, words have inspired actions; one to engage in dialogue, and another to silence. For the sake of our children, and for the sake of Islam, dialogue must prevail.

Hassan Rouhani wants the US to surrender, but the pressure is on Tehran
Behnam Ben Taleblu and Erielle Davidson/Al Arabiya/Thursday 22 October 2020
“Surrender.” That’s the only option Iranian President Hassan Rouhani offered America during his (now forgotten) virtual address to the 75th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) last month. Based on his bombastic rhetoric, Rouhani clearly expects Washington to play the part of supplicant no matter who wins next month’s US presidential election. Candidates Donald Trump and Joe Biden should take note.
Styled the “diplomat sheikh” years ago by his supporters and as a “moderate” by a sympathetic Western press, Rouhani’s last speech to the UNGA was neither temperate nor tactful. However, it did contain useful insights that can disabuse foreign policy experts on both sides of the isle that Rouhani represents the best chance for an agreement with Tehran.
Building on his 2019 address where he used the podium to issue threats against the international community, Rouhani again proved in 2020 that he can dabble in falsehoods and invectives just as easily as his bombastic predecessor.
With the possible exception of Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, there is no other Iranian political figure whose legacy is so intertwined with that of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), as Rouhani.
Due to increased domestic expectations, an overselling of the JCPOA, and the effectiveness of renewed American sanctions, Rouhani’s political stock has fallen considerably. As such, any attack on the deal has become attack on Rouhani’s brand.
This attachment to the JCPOA is precisely why Rouhani used his UNGA address to thank members of the international community who rejected Washington’s call to “snapback” sanctions on Iran.
A pawn of Russia and China
Not only did Rouhani chalk this rejection up as a win at home, but he specifically acknowledged the role of “Russia and China” in delivering the Trump administration a diplomatic defeat in New York.
Rouhani’s invocation of America’s rivals amid the era of “great power competition” cannot be understated. It is a measure of Tehran’s increasing comfortability with being Moscow and Beijing’s pawn so long as the target remains Washington.
In his speech, Rouhani championed Iran as a pillar of “democracy,” alleging that the term represents the “sovereign right of a nation.” But it’s hard to reconcile this statement with the fact that the Islamic Republic has brutally repressed protests at home for years. In November 2019, Iran’s Supreme Leader reportedly ordered security officials to “do whatever it takes” to put down protests beginning earlier that month. According to Reuters, 1,500 people were killed. Rouhani did not dissent.
Elsewhere in his address, Rouhani’s schadenfreude was on full display as he made the gross analogy between Iran under sanctions to the suffering of George Floyd, which had touched-off the Black Lives Matter movement. “We instantly recognize the feet kneeling on the neck as the feet of arrogance on the neck of independent nations,” proclaimed Rouhani.
But Rouhani’s alleged indignation is a lesson in hypocrisy and selective outrage. It is also testament to a well-established tactic by authoritarians to deflect pressure.
Days before Rouhani gave his virtual address, the clerical regime brutally executed Iranian wrestler Navid Afkari after accusing him of murdering a security guard during an anti-government protest. Afkari’s family insists that he had been tortured into delivering a “false confession” – something all too common in the Islamic Republic. Despite spurious claims by the regime, there was no proof of the murder.
Foreign policy
Further indicative of Iranian attention to US domestic debates, Rouhani invoked the 1953 coup against former Iranian Prime Minster Dr. Mohammad Mossadegh as evidence that America is a “terrorist and interventionist outsider.”
The increased references to 1953 in US foreign policy debates about Iran has actually spurred the talking point in Tehran. Oddly enough, it has not come from Iranian leftists or nationalists – both of whom were purged from politics after the 1979 Revolution – but rather the hardline establishment including Iran’s Supreme Leader. While academic debates continue over archival material and the net impact of American involvement, one fact cannot be ignored. Prominent members of the clergy actually supported the monarchy and some were involved in the coup, a fact that certainly complicates the talking points of Iran’s anti-American clerics today.
But perhaps one of the greatest mistruths paraded by Rouhani came in the form of projection, where he insisted it was the US committing “occupation, war and aggression” in various outposts throughout the Middle East. Ironically, almost all the places Rouhani cited were areas Iran had been engaging in destructive proxy wars in its attempt to “export” its Islamic Revolution.
Rouhani characterizes such intervention as mere backing for resistance movements, citing Iranian support of the “people of Iraq” and more generally, of the “democratic achievements of the Iraqi people.”
But such a portrayal is fatuous charade. Iran is the world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism, responsible for much of the bloodshed and chaos that Rouhani attempts to pin on the United States. There is a reason the people of Lebanon have so heavily criticized Lebanese Hezbollah following the Beirut explosion – they thoroughly understand the metastasizing of Iran’s violent ambitions beyond Tehran and have seen the political poison that Iran routinely injects into the Lebanese government.
Rouhani also extolled the former Commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds-Force (IRGC-QF), Qassem Soleimani, referring to him as “our assassinated hero” who “was the champion of the fight against violent extremism.” Rouhani’s revisionist account of the IRGC-QF leader is a poor attempt to mask the heinous crimes and bloodshed for which Soleimani was responsible as the chief mastermind behind Iran’s overreach in the Middle East.
While there is much more fiction from Rouhani’s final UNGA address to debunk, the above sampling should be sufficient to shed light on how Rouhani sees America. Whichever administration assumes control over US foreign policy next year let it be known that the notion of a “good faith” or “moderate” partner in the Islamic Republic’s political apparatus is entirely illusory. This premise was incorrect when the JCPOA was first agreed to in 2015, and remains incorrect today.
History has shown that the Islamic Republic will negotiate over key national security objectives only when there is no alternative. In this regard, despite Rouhani calling on America to take the knee, if Washington’s maximum pressure policy intensifies, Tehran will need to contemplate capitulation.
*Behnam Ben Taleblu is a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) where he focuses on Iranian political and security issues. Erielle Davidson (@politicalelle) is a senior policy analyst at the Jewish Institute for National Security of America (JINSA) where she covers Iran and Israel.

The terror threat in Europe remains as potent as ever
Con Coughlin/The National/October/ 22/ 2020
The brutal murder of a French schoolteacher by an 18-year-old Chechen refugee has demonstrated that, despite all the setbacks Islamist extremists have suffered in recent years, the threat of terrorism remains as potent as ever.
After the US-led coalition’s success in destroying the self-styled caliphate established by ISIS in Syria and Iraq, there were hopes that the extremist threat would diminish, particularly in Europe, which had been the target of a number of high-profile attacks.
There has been a reduction in the type of mass casualty attacks witnessed in cities such as Nice and Manchester, the majority of which were later found to have links with groups linked to ISIS. Yet the murder of Samuel Paty, beheaded outside his school in the Paris suburb of Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, shows that their ability to carry out so-called “lone wolf” attacks has not diminished.
Paty was murdered by Abdulakh Anzorov after the schoolteacher showed caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed in a class discussion about freedom of expression. Anzorov, heard shouting “Allahu akbar” as he murdered the 47-year-old teacher, was later shot dead by police.
French President Emmanuel Macron leaves after paying his respects by the coffin of slain teacher Samuel Paty in the courtyard of the Sorbonne university during a national memorial event, in Paris, France October 21,
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The caricatures that are said to have provoked the killing first appeared in the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, which was itself the target of a high-profile attack by extremists five years ago, in which 12 people were killed and 11 others injured. The two gunmen who carried out the attack identified themselves as belonging to Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
The trial of 14 alleged accomplices of the Charlie Hebdo attackers, who were killed in a shoot-out with French police, is under way in Paris, and the murder of Paty is the second extremist-linked attack to have taken place in France since the trial began.
The nationwide clampdown on extremist activity by the French security authorities in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo attack has limited the ability of militants to conduct large-scale attacks. But the circumstances surrounding Paty’s murder shows that ISIS and other groups continue to maintain a global network of supporters.
In the wake of the killing, French investigators have discovered that Anzorov had links with ISIS. A video and images of the gruesome murder recorded by the killer were sent to fellow Russian-speaking ISIS supporters and have been shared by Chechen pro-ISIS accounts on the Telegram messaging service. It has also emerged that Anzorov’s half-sister travelled to Syria in 2014 to join ISIS, deepening suspicions of his ties to the terror group. In addition, Anzorov’s uncle has told French television that he suspected his nephew had been radicalised by online ISIS propaganda.
Indeed, the role of social media in the events leading up to the schoolteacher’s murder has shed fresh light on the ease with which ISIS and other extremist groups are able to exploit these platforms to maintain links with their supporters.
In this instance, the parent of a Muslim girl who had attended the class in which Paty had shown the offending cartoon took to social media to criticise the teacher’s conduct, accusing him of Islamophobia. And it was in response to this that Anzorov decided to act.
Nor is this the only recent example where extremists have been found using social media platforms to promote violence. Earlier this week, an ISIS supporter was convicted by a British court of encouraging terrorism by posting a video on social media urging like-minded associates to attack one of London’s most famous arts venues.
Shehroz Iqbal, 29, posted the footage on a 22-strong WhatsApp group named “From Dark to Light” that featured the Southbank Centre, a complex of theatres and arts venues in central London. In another internet-related incident, British authorities have charged Florian Flegel, a 22-year-old German citizen, with terrorism offences after he allegedly shared ISIS propaganda videos – including beheadings – online.
The ease with which extremist groups and their supporters continue to exploit the internet remains a major cause of concern for European security officials, who are coming under increasing pressure to impose more effective restrictions on social media platforms.
The tech giants Google and Apple, for example, are being called upon to remove a Muslim Brotherhood-sponsored app that has consistently ranked in the top 100 download charts in their stores across multiple European countries. This follows warnings that the Euro Fatwa app, which claims to advise European Muslims on how to adhere to the regulations and manners of Islam, has the potential to act as a gateway for extremism.
The internet is not the only area where European security officials need to improve their vigilance.
The fact that French President Emmanuel Macron has now found it necessary to ban a pro-Hamas group that has been implicated in Paty’s murder, as well as closing a Paris mosque that denounced the schoolteacher, shows that extremists are still maintaining their operations in Europe in spite of the tougher measures security officials have imposed over the past two decades.
And so long as they are able to maintain a presence in Europe, their ability to carry out atrocities similar to the brutal murder of Paty will remain undiminished.
*Con Coughlin is a defence and foreign affairs columnist for The National