English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For October 26/2020
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani

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Bible Quotations For today
Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. Let anyone with ears listen
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 13/01-09/:”That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the lake. Such great crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat there, while the whole crowd stood on the beach. And he told them many things in parables, saying: ‘Listen! A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell on the path, and the birds came and ate them up. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and they sprang up quickly, since they had no depth of soil. But when the sun rose, they were scorched; and since they had no root, they withered away. Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. Let anyone with ears listen!’”
 

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on October 25-26/2020

Lebanon’s Rai to Hariri: Avoid 'Secret Deals' in Forming Cabinet
Aoun, Hariri Hold ‘Positive’ Meeting, New Lebanese Govt. Expected in 2 Weeks
'Progress' as Hariri Holds New Meeting with Aoun
Govt. May be Formed within '2 Weeks', Dollar Rate to 'Drop Dramatically'
New Wildfires Break Out in Many Lebanese Regions
Reports: Political Forces to Name Ministers in New Govt.
Hizbullah Rejects 'French Stance Encouraging Insults against Prophet'
Lebanon: Lies that are Impossible to Uncover!ظHazem Saghieh/Asharq Al-Awsat/October, 25/2020
Lebanese TV Director Charbel Khalil: You Can Be As Gay As You Want, But I Oppose Same-Sex Marriages In LebanonظMEMRI/October 25/2020
IDF launches 'Lethal Arrow' drill simulating war with Hezbollah

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on October 25-26/2020

Armenia and Azerbaijan humanitarian ceasefire to take effect on Monday
Sudanese-Israeli Meeting in Coming Weeks
Sudan-Israel Deal Is Another Blow to 'Hamas'
Iraqis Rally to Relaunch Year-Old Anti-Govt Revolt
Iraq Protesters Revive Year-Old Revolt against the System
Syria: Autonomous Administration Calls on Russia, US to Curb Turkish Violations
Turkey Coordinates with Russia to Protect its Forces in Northern Syria
France accuses Turkey of stoking hate and using ‘slanderous propaganda’ in Islam dispute
Erdogan Renews Call for Macron to Undergo 'Mental Checks'
Palestinian Dies During Clashes with Israeli Troops in West Bank
Egyptians Vote in Second Day of Parliamentary Elections
Haftar Mum on Libya Ceasefire Deal, GNA Calls for Mercenaries Pullout
The Chances of a Lybian Breakthrough?
Former Iraqi FM Hoshyar Zebari: Shi'ite Militias In Iraq Are just Like ISIS
Iranian Academic Mahmoud Anousheh: Corruption Should Be Fought from the Top Down; Our People Should Not Be Paying the Price of Bad Economic Policies
Grand Mufti Of Egypt Shawki Allam: According To Our Research, 50% Of Second- And Third-Generation Muslims In Europe Support ISIS
Canada/Statement on 40th anniversary of Hague Convention on child abduction
Trump Team Hit by Covid Again, Lashes Out at 'Failure' Biden
 

Titles For The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on October 25-26/2020

"Why Are You Killing Christians?" Trump Asks Nigeria's PresidentRaymond/ Ibrahim/Gatestone Institute./October 25/ 2020
Palestinians: What Needs to Be Done/Khaled Abu Toameh/Gatestone Institute/October 25/2020
Is Germany Turning Against Russia?/Anna Sauerbrey /The New York Times/October,25/2020
So, what do Arabs want from the next US president?/Faisal J. Abbas/Arab News/October 25/ 2020
Palestinian leaders must listen to their people, who want US help in ending Conflict/Ray Hanania/Arab News/October 25/2020

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on October 25-26/2020

Lebanon’s Rai to Hariri: Avoid 'Secret Deals' in Forming Cabinet
Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 25 October, 2020
Lebanon’s Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rai urged Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri on Sunday to avoid back-door deals and to quickly form a new government that will start lifting the country out of financial crisis.
Veteran politician Hariri was named premier for a fourth time on Thursday, a year after huge protests against the ruling elite pushed him to quit. Hariri promised a cabinet of specialists to enact reforms set out in a French plan to unlock foreign aid. Political rifts, which plagued his last term, have delayed a deal on a new government for weeks. He faces major challenges to navigate Lebanon’s sectarian power-sharing politics to agree a cabinet, which must then tackle a list of woes including a banking crisis and currency crash. In his weekly sermon, Rai congratulated Hariri and urged him to rebuild the devastated capital Beirut after the huge port blast in August that killed nearly 200 people. Rai had criticized leaders for delaying cabinet talks, blaming them for the unprecedented economic collapse which has doomed many Lebanese to poverty. “Overcome the conditions and counter-conditions of the political groups, avoid the quagmire of interests…Beware of secret bilateral deals and promises,” he told Hariri on Sunday. At the same time, Rai said: “Do not put the Christians behind your back.”
Hariri was not nominated for the PM job by Lebanon’s two main Christian blocs: The Free Patriotic Movement, led by President Michel Aoun’s son-in-law MP Gebran Bassil, and the Lebanese Forces led by Aoun’s civil war rival Samir Geagea. Rai also called on Hariri to work with Aoun to ensure the revival of the French plan to help Lebanon and the success of Lebanon’s talks with Israel over their disputed maritime border. The patriarch repeated his calls for the country to be “neutral” from regional conflicts – widely understood as references to the Hezbollah party that is backed by Iran.

Aoun, Hariri Hold ‘Positive’ Meeting, New Lebanese Govt. Expected in 2 Weeks
Beirut - Caroline Akoum/Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 25 October, 2020
Lebanese Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri described as “positive” the meeting he held with President Michel Aoun on Saturday, refusing to go into details. After a meeting that lasted more than an hour, Hariri told reporters: “I will not say much and will not reply to any question. The meeting was long and positive.”Sources close to Aoun reiterated the positive remarks, saying they were optimistic that a new government will be formed in a short time. Some political sources even predicted that the cabinet may be formed in no more than two weeks. Governments notoriously take weeks and months to form in Lebanon as political powers bicker over shares and portfolios, to the detriment of the country. The sources revealed that an agreement has already been reached over the details of the government, including the distribution of portfolios, significantly the sovereign ones. Informed sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that the positive atmosphere that marked the parliamentary consultations earlier this week and Speaker Nabih Berri’s remarks on Aoun’s appointment of Hariri as PM-designate reflect a will from all parties to facilitate his mission. A general agreement has been reached over the formation of a cabinet of no more than 20 ministers, they continued. The lineup is almost complete and it builds on the progress that former PM-designate Mustafa Adib made before he stepped down from his mission, they added. The quick formation of a government will positively impact the situation in Lebanon, especially the dollar exchange rate, “which will collapse dramatically as soon as the cabinet is announced,” predicted the sources.

'Progress' as Hariri Holds New Meeting with Aoun
Naharnett/October, 25/2020
Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri held a meeting Sunday afternoon with President Michel Aoun, their second meeting in the past 48 hours. “Progress was made in the file of the formation of the new government,” the Presidency announced in a tweet after the talks. Hariri had announced after Saturday’s meeting that the discussions were “lengthy” and “positive.”Media reports published Sunday morning had said that the new government would likely be formed within two weeks and that the move would positively affect the situations in Lebanon, including the dollar exchange rate.
Hariri has announced that he intends to form a government of specialists that would implement the French initiative.

Govt. May be Formed within '2 Weeks', Dollar Rate to 'Drop Dramatically'
Naharnet/October, 25/2020
The new government will likely be formed within two weeks and the move will positively affect the situations in Lebanon, including the dollar exchange rate, media reports said. In remarks to Asharq al-Awsat newspaper published Sunday, sources close to President Michel Aoun said that the government “might be announced within two weeks or less,” noting that the parties have agreed that the line-up should not exceed 20 ministers.
“The line-up is almost ready, based on what was accomplished by resigned PM-designate Mustafa Adib,” the sources added. The parties still need to agree on “details, including the distribution of some ministerial portfolios, especially the sovereign ones,” Asharq al-Awsat said. “Should the atmosphere remain unchanged, and should no unexpected development happen, the government will be formed as quick as possible, which will reflect on the general situations in Lebanon, topped by a drop in the dollar exchange rate,” the daily quoted the sources that are close to Aoun as saying. “The dollar will drop dramatically once the government is formed,” the sources added.

New Wildfires Break Out in Many Lebanese Regions
Naharnet/October, 25/2020
Firefighters were on Sunday combating several wildfires that erupted in the southern districts of Sidon and Tyre. “The al-Sharhabil area northeast of the city of Sidon witnessed a blaze from the side of the town of Alman, where the flames gutted an area covered with weeds, and firefighting crews from Sidon Municipality are working on extinguishing it,” the National News Agency reported. Another wildfire meanwhile erupted in a citruses and fruit grove in the Sidon district town of al-Babiliyeh, destroying a large number of trees and the grove’s irrigation system. Firefighters have since brought the fire under control. A large number of trees were also gutted by flames in the Siniq area adjacent to the South highway and firefighters were combating the blaze. Another wildfire meanwhile threatened residential buildings in the northern side of the Sidon town of Bqusta, prompting Sidon Municipality firefighters municipal police to immediately intervene and prevent the spread of flames. In Tyre, Civil Defense crews were battling a major blaze that erupted in Tyre’s national reserve at the city’s southern seaside entrance, gutting vast areas of weeds. Several blazes had erupted overnight in the northern region of Koura, devastating areas containing pine and olive trees and dry weeds and threatening homes in the town of Kifraya, Amioun and Ras Masqa.

Reports: Political Forces to Name Ministers in New Govt.
Naharnet/October, 25/2020
It has become certain that the political forces will name their ministers in the new government and that the principle of the rotation of portfolios has been dropped, media reports said. “There is a near-final agreement on the Shiite share. The finance portfolio will go to Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and the health portfolio will remain with Hizbullah,” informed political sources told the Kuwaiti al-Jarida newspaper in remarks published Sunday. “The health minister will be a specialist and not a party member, which means that he will not have a party membership card,” the sources added. There is also a near-final agreement on the Druze and Sunni shares and an understanding on the Christian share was reached in the meeting between President Michel Aoun and PM-designate Saad Hariri, the sources went on to say. Noting that Hariri has not said that he rejects a techno-political government, mentioning only that he wants specialists, the sources pointed out that “this indicates that he does not reject the presence of five or six techno-political figures in the government.”The sources also said that Aoun and Hariri have discussed the program of the government. “Hariri will seek to obtain from President Aoun a commitment from the political forces to what they had pledged to French President Emmanuel Macron at the Pine Residence,” the sources said. “Hariri has asked Aoun to mediate with Hizbullah so that the party does not make objections that might obstruct the formation process,” the sources added.

Hizbullah Rejects 'French Stance Encouraging Insults against Prophet'
Naharnett/October, 25/2020
Hizbullah said Sunday that it strongly condemns the “intentional insult” against Prophet Mohammed, expressing its “categorical rejection of the official French stance encouraging these dangerous insults.”“What was published in France harms the sentiments of more than two billion Muslims, including the Islamic and Arab expat community that has been living for decades in Europe and France,” Hizbullah said in a statement. “All false claims about freedom of opinion and expression cannot justify the rejected insults against the Prophet of God and religions,” the party added, calling on France to “return to reason, wisdom and frank respect for religions and religious values” to “positively contribute to preventing the creation of further reasons for tension at the international level.”

Lebanon: Lies that are Impossible to Uncover!
Hazem Saghieh/Asharq Al-Awsat/October, 25/2020
Infinite adjectives and expressions of bewilderment and intrigue have ensued from Saad Hariri’s designation to form a new Lebanese government, especially regarding his ability to do so, some addressing it positively and others putting it in a negative context.
“Will he manage to challenge the impossible?”, “It would be a miracle,” “the fateful task,” “unworldly difficulty”… are some of the comments and questions that followed the designation. Hariri himself used the phrase “swallowing poison” when he had previously agreed to a Shiite being appointed finance minister. On that day, everyone recalled that Khomeini is the one who, for the first time, used this phrase when he announced that he accepted to end the war with Iraq that had claimed a million lives. Designating somebody to form a government, then, is more akin to the paranormal and magical than to the political. For arriving at a government pressed with patching up the economic collapse and other suffocating crises has become beyond the capacities of mortals.
On the other hand, just a few weeks ago, the launch of negotiations on demarcating the borders between Lebanon and Israel was a point of exceptional consensus between the influential political-sectarian factions. Some were enthralled, some approved half enthusiastically, and others maintained their silence approvingly, while others expressed their disappointment for the record and then looked past it. The matter seemed to be within the scope of mortal capabilities and among the issues they can agree on. It is as normal and natural as can be.
The comparison between the two developments reflects a state of affairs that is dangerous in its implications for Lebanon: all the weighty sectarian forces are ready to cut a deal with some sort of outside force, even with Israel, whom the battle against is described as existential and sacrosanct. Hezbollah, chief among those who hold this, is no exception. But these same powers are not ready, without doing the undoable, to reach to an internal agreement among the “brethren,” one that would slightly limit, or slightly delay their ability to economically and politically gnaw at what remains of the state and society, as well devouring what the others cannot gulp up.
It was very indicative, for example, that international powers succeeded at making us accept an external settlement, while their attempts at making us agree to an internal one have failed. Even French President Emmanuel Macron, after two consecutive visits, may not be capable of doing so. We recall, regardless of the difference in the details and headlines, that previous settlements had called for a special meeting between Fuad Chehab and Gamal Abdel Nasser (1959), the Riyadh and Cairo Conferences (1976), the Taif Conference (1989) and the Doha Conference (2008).
This comparison teaches us two things: one is common knowledge and openly acknowledged, and the other remains, to some or other extent, obscure and kept somewhat quiet about.
As for the well-known aspect, we can call it the price: the price demanded by every sectarian leader without exception and the governing cabal in all of its components. Haggling’s primacy became far more entrenched with the direction set after the Taif Agreement, and it strengthened further after the crimes of 2005, before settling at its highest peak with Michel Aoun’s election as president in 2016. This doctrine’s contemporary champion might be the minister/son-in-law, Gebran Bassil, but he is not alone in championing it. The relatively concealed aspect is that ideology does not, in the end, mean much to the Lebanese people. Regardless of the sanctity conferred to it, the issue of Israel and Palestine does not deviate from this rule. Sect leaders use ideology as a pretext at their discretion, and sect masses gravitate towards it when it seems to them a suitable clause for their clientelist sectarian “program” and in line with the traditional and inherited ideas of their milieu. When it appears otherwise, they divorce themselves from that ideology.
Thus, the space that remains for ideas and consciousness is always very narrow: it is not ideas that compelled the vast majority of Christians, at one time, to oppose Nasserism and then the Palestinian revolution. Neither did ideas compel the vast majority of Sunnis to pledge their allegiance to Nasserism and then the Palestinian resistance. Nor did ideas compel the majority of Shiites to rally around Hezbollah and Khomeini and Assad’s regime.
In this sense, when Hezbollah talks about “eradicating Israel” and “praying in Jerusalem,” it is merely adding a new segment to the Lebanese lexicon of devious rhetoric. If the party presented itself to the world as a political and organizational tool at the service of a sect among the others, it would have been tenable, despite the difficulty involved, to level the playing field a little. Then, we would all discuss the price and haggle, as had implicitly been the case with the demarcation agreement.
This suffocating duplicity is among the issues that the October 17 revolution, a year ago, tried and failed to do away with. For the thousandth time, it became apparent that taming sects is a task that neither this revolution nor any other is capable of and that the perpetuity of deception and sanctification is a need that no force can overcome: pricing needs sanctity, while sanctity was created to raise the price.
 

Lebanese TV Director Charbel Khalil: You Can Be As Gay As You Want, But I Oppose Same-Sex Marriages In Lebanon
MEMRI/October 25/2020
Source: OTV (Lebanon)
Lebanese TV director Charbel Khalil said in an October 8, 2020 interview on OTV (Lebanon) that he has no personal problem with homosexuality, but that he opposes and will continue to oppose the legalization of same-sex marriage in Lebanon. He said he doesn't want Lebanon to become like Europe, and he argued that homosexuals have otherwise equal rights in Lebanon. For more about Charbel Khalil, see MEMRI TV clip no. 7914.
Charbel Khalil: "There are many homosexual journalists who are good friends of mine and I help them a lot."
Interviewer: "They are very creative homosexuals..."
Khalil: "I have no problem with that. However, I am against legalizing same-sex marriages in Lebanon."
Interviewer: "This is not going to happen in Lebanon. Do you think this is going to happen?"
Khalil: "In the [protest] tent, they presented this issue. They said that one of their ideas was to legalize this. I am against this. That's it. You can be as gay as you want. I don't have a problem with that. I really don't have a personal problem with this, but I am against legalizing same-sex marriage in Lebanon, so we won't be like Europe. They have their rights. Is there a homosexual in Lebanon who does not have his right?"
Interviewer: "What rights do they have?"
Khalil: "Everything except marriage."
Interviewer: "What do you mean 'everything'? Like what?"
Khalil: "Everything. The homosexuals are like us. We are all people and we all live our lives. What do the homosexuals lack that you and I have? Nothing. The only thing is same-sex marriage, which I am against, and I will continue to oppose this for the next 200 years."

IDF launches 'Lethal Arrow' drill simulating war with Hezbollah
Jerusalem Post/October 25/2020
Large-scale, multi-front general staff drill will see thousands of troops take part. The IDF launched a large-scale multi-front exercise on Sunday morning, simulating war with Hezbollah. Dubbed “Lethal Arrow,” the multi-day general staff drill will see the participation of thousands of troops from various branches of the military including the Air Force, Navy and the Ground Forces, as well as from the Intelligence, Technological, Logistics and Cyber Defense directorates. The drill will see activity by IDF fighter jets, attack helicopters and other aircraft and naval vessels, as well as physical maneuvers by ground forces.
“The aim of the exercise is to improve the IDF’s offensive capabilities at all echelons while implementing the Victory concept and generating new procedures between key headquarters,” the military said in a statement.
With more explosive fronts and Hezbollah having significantly increased its arsenals since the last war with Israel, the IDF’s Momentum multi-year plan aims to make the military more lethal in scope and accuracy, and to win any future war as quickly as possible.
Despite the fact that Israel’s enemies are not interested in war, the IDF has “increased its pace of preparations” for confrontation, IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi told journalists when the plan was released last year. “On both the northern and southern fronts, the situation is tense and fragile and can deteriorate into a confrontation,” he said. Israel’s defense establishment has stated that any outbreak of conflict on the northern border will not be confined to just Lebanon or Syria, but will be along the entire northern front. Israel also expects potential rocket fire and other attacks from the Hamas-run Gaza Strip.
Latest articles from Jpost. The IDF expects that in any future conflict, whether it be against Hezbollah in the North or Hamas in the South, soldiers will have to fight their heavily armed enemies entrenched in the middle of built-up civilian areas.
Though the exercise is the largest military drill of the year, it was significantly scaled back due to coronavirus restrictions; a large number of reservists were not called up to take part in the drill. In the statement, the military stressed that the drill “has been adjusted to follow special health regulations and is being held under strict adherence to instructions to maintain the health of the participants.”The military canceled several drills due to the pandemic, including the “Keystone” general staff drill, which was supposed to take place in September. The exercise was canceled in part due to the fact that the army had planned to call up a large number of reservists, but decided against it to avoid a mass infection within its ranks. There are currently 423 service members who are sick with the coronavirus and another 2,992 in quarantine.
 

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on October 25-26/2020

Armenia and Azerbaijan humanitarian ceasefire to take effect on Monday
Nicky Harley/The National/October 26/ 2020
Joint statement released by the US, Armenia and the Republic of Azerbaijan
Armenia and Azerbaijan have again agreed to respect a "humanitarian ceasefire" in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, effective on Monday, the US State Department announced. Deputy secretary of state Stephen Biegun met on Saturday with the two countries' foreign ministers and the co-chairs of the Minsk Group, the department said on Sunday. Washington, along with France and Russia, is part of the Minsk Group, which was formed by the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe to be the main mediator in the conflict. The department said the ceasefire would take effect at 8am local time on Monday after an earlier ceasefire brought a brief lull on Saturday before each side accused the other of breaching it. The conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh, recognised internationally as part of Azerbaijan but inhabited and governed by Armenian separatists, began on September 27. This is not the first time they have committed to a truce, but it has not held so far. The latest agreement came after "intensive negotiation" between Armenian Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan and his Azerbaijani equivalent Jeyhun Bayramov, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tweeted. Mr Pompeo met separately on Friday with Mr Mnatsakanyan and Mr Bayramov, urging them to "end the violence and protect civilians". The State Department said the Minsk co-chairs and the foreign ministers "agreed to meet again in Geneva on October 29" to seek "all steps necessary to achieve a peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict".

Sudanese-Israeli Meeting in Coming Weeks
Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 25 October, 2020
Sudan and Israel will discuss agreements to cooperate on trade and migration issues in the coming weeks, the Sudanese foreign ministry said on Sunday. It said Sudanese and Israeli delegations would meet to negotiate deals for agriculture, aviation, trade and migration. The ministry gave no details or time frame for the talks. Sudan has moved to normalize relations with Israel in a US-brokered accord.

Sudan-Israel Deal Is Another Blow to 'Hamas'
Ramallah - Kifah ZabounAsharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 25 October, 2020
Sudan and Israel's deal to normalize ties has stirred Palestinian anger but also represented a new blow to “Hamas”, which had special political and security ties with Sudan. Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper revealed that the move toward normalization with Sudan stands out because the latter was seen as a “hostile” country. It cooperated with Iran and was a channel to transfer arms to “Hamas”, in addition to cooperating with “al-Qaeda” in the nineties of the last century. "You are free in your internal and external policies, and we do not dictate anything to anyone. However, normalization with Israel is simply a mirage,” said Khaled Meshaal, former chairman of the Hamas Political Bureau, in a letter in May to the Sudanese government. “Khartoum has a special place in the Palestinians’ memory; so, we do not expect you to irritate us with any concessions,” he added. The senior Hamas figure highlighted the eagerness of his group to develop ties with Sudan’s Sovereign Council on the basis of non-interference in the internal affairs of the Northeast African country. Moreover, Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said the agreement was “not compatible with Sudan’s record of supporting the Palestinians.” "This does not suit Sudan's people and history. We call on the heroic people of Sudan to reject the shameful agreement," Hamas said in a statement. For its part, the "Islamic Jihad" militant group said: "This is a dark day in the history of Sudan." "In Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, the three principles of the Arab League were adopted in 1967: No peace with Israel, no recognition of Israel, and no negotiations with Israel. Whereas today Khartoum says - yes to peace with Israel, yes to the recognition of Israel and to normalization with Israel," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated.

Iraqis Rally to Relaunch Year-Old Anti-Govt Revolt
Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 25 October, 2020
Thousands of Iraqis headed Sunday to Baghdad's iconic Tahrir Square and its high-security Green Zone to mark the first anniversary of a protest movement against the country's stagnant political class. "This is an important day, we are here to keep the movement going," student Mohamed Ali said in the square, epicenter of the revolt. The renewed mobilization has retained protesters' key demand of the ouster of the entire ruling class accused of corruption and being beholden to neighboring Iran. Iraq is the second largest oil exporter in the world but has struggled to pay salaries for its bloated public sector. "We have the same demands as last year," Ali told AFP. In a months-long revolt launched in October 2019, hundreds of thousands of demonstrators camped out in Baghdad and southern cities to demand a total overhaul of a political system failing to deliver basic services and salaries. About 600 protesters were killed and 30,000 wounded in clashes with security forces before the movement lost momentum then ground to a halt in the spring due to the coronavirus crisis and rising US-Iran tensions. Since Saturday, military checkpoints and roadblocks have been erected around the square and the Green Zone, which is off-limits to Iraqi citizens. The fortified Green Zone -- site of parliament, government offices and the US embassy -- is separated by a bridge from the square. Riot police stationed around major thoroughfares have barred demonstrators waving Iraqi flags from trying to cross. Other parallel bridges have also been sealed off. With no central leadership behind the protests, activists are divided over whether to stay put in Tahrir or head to the Green Zone at the risk of violence breaking out.

Iraq Protesters Revive Year-Old Revolt against the System
Agence France Presse/Sunday, 25 October, 2020
Iraqi security forces and protesters clashed in Baghdad on Sunday during demonstrations to mark the first anniversary of mass anti-government protests demanding the ouster of the ruling class. Thousands took to the streets in Baghdad, some waving portraits of fallen "martyrs" killed in protests last year, with peaceful demonstrations also taking place in several cities in the south including Basra, Najaf and Nasiriyah. In the capital, protesters hurled rocks as police fired tear gas canisters and used water cannons to block demonstrators from bridges leading to the highly-fortified Green Zone, a no-go zone for ordinary Iraqis where government offices, parliament and the U.S. embassy are based. Some demonstrators managed to scale a towering security barricade erected on the Al-Jumhuriyah bridge across the Tigris River, but were then stopped by concrete walls and security forces, an AFP journalist reported.
Some protesters threw Molotov cocktails, the reporter added. About 50 police and protesters were slightly injured, police and medical sources told AFP. Sunday's demonstrations renewed the cross-sectarian, youth-led protest movement's key demand for the ouster of the entire ruling class accused of corruption, and of being beholden to neighboring Iran.
"It's been a year and we still want our country back," said Batool Hussein, a woman demonstrator in central Baghdad's Tahrir Square, heart of the protests. "We still want to unseat the corrupt from power, and we still want to know who killed the protesters last year."About 600 protesters have been killed and 30,000 wounded in clashes with security forces nationwide since protests erupted in October 2019. Activists have long complained of a campaign of kidnappings and killings to intimidate them into halting demonstrations. The movement eventually lost momentum as tensions between Baghdad's key allies Tehran and Washington spiraled, then ground to a halt due to the coronavirus pandemic. Hussein Mortada, from Amara in the south, said he was determined to take part in the revival of the so-called "October Revolution", despite "threats from political parties and powerful local figures".
- 'Shake up thrones' -
The burgeoning protests helped usher in Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhemi in May, but he has yet to deliver on any major reforms. According to a World Bank report, one in three young people is unemployed in Iraq, OPEC's second-biggest oil producer. Uday Jaberi, an activist in the southern city of Nasiriyah, sent an angry message to politicians. "These young people didn't come out for nothing; they came to shake up the thrones you've been sitting on, you corrupt people!" he said. "Young people who have been wounded and their families lost loved ones all for Iraq," he added. Lawyer and activist Sajjad Salam, from the southern city of Kut, had a list of demands. "We want to dissolve parliament, a transparent electoral law, a new law organizing political parties and for the state to take control of the flow of arms," Salam said.
- 'Respect the uniform' -
On Saturday, Kadhemi gave a flat, technocratic speech, striking a tempered tone between appeasing protesters and warning against an escalation.
The prime minister, who also holds the post of intelligence chief, repeatedly urged security forces not to fire at demonstrators, but also called on protesters to "respect the uniform". In his address to the nation, Kadhemi said parliamentary elections now scheduled for June 2021, brought forward partly in response to protesters' demands, would go ahead. Iraq's parliament is stacked with pro-Iran blocs resistant to tangible political reforms, as debate on a new electoral law is held up. Armed pro-Iran factions have accused protesters of being "agents" of the U.S. "occupier."Tensions have been high since January when a U.S. drone strike near Baghdad airport killed top Iranian general Qasem Soleimani and an Iraqi lieutenant, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis. About 90 rockets have since targeted the U.S. presence in Iraq, with several claimed by pro-Iran armed groups.

Syria: Autonomous Administration Calls on Russia, US to Curb Turkish Violations
Hasaka - Kamal Sheikho/Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 25 October, 2020
The Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria called on the US and Russia to curb Turkey's violations. In an official statement the, Administration said Moscow and Washington should "commit to their responsibilities and contain the Turkish violations".
Also, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said that ten members from the pro-Turkish Syrian factions were killed. "The invading Turkish state has intensified its attacks on the Northern and Eastern Syrian regions in recent days. At the same time, there has been an intense activity of war and reconnaissance aircraft over the Ain Issa area,” the SDF Press Center statement said. The statement continued that “violent clashes erupted in the village of Seyda where ten Turkish mercenaries were killed and many got injured."Meanwhile, the SDF launched a security campaign in the al-Karama area in al-Raqqa eastern countryside, coinciding with an ongoing curfew and the closure of schools and public institutions in the area. The group also stormed Al-Shuhayl town in the eastern countryside of Deir Ezzor and arrested four individuals.

Turkey Coordinates with Russia to Protect its Forces in Northern Syria
Ankara - Saeed Abdulrazek/Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 25 October, 2020
Turkey stressed that it has taken all the necessary measures to protect its forces deployed across its observation posts in the northwestern Syrian province of Idlib. In a statement on Saturday, its defense ministry announced that developments in Idlib are being closely monitored in coordination with Russia in wake of the dismantling of observation points in regime-held areas in Hama and the eastern Idlib countryside. The forces were deployed in southern Idlib. This was the first official remark by Turkey after it withdrew its troops from the military observation point in Morek city towards Zawiya Mountain. The move had sparked speculation that the development may have been a result of pressure from Moscow on Ankara. A delegation from Turkey visited Moscow on Thursday to discuss Syria and the coming days will reveal whether a new Turkish-Russian agreement has been struck on Idlib. Despite the withdrawal, Ankara dispatched military reinforcements to the military base near Qoqfin hill in the southern countryside of Idlib. Three Turkish military columns, including 35 vehicles carrying military and logistic supplies, headed towards military points in the southern Aleppo countryside via the Kafr Lusin border crossing.
Separately, at least 168 armed members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and its affiliated factions have arrived at the de-escalation zone in Idlib, Anadolu Agency reported. Some 75 IRGC members passed through Iraq and entered Syria to join the Syrian army in Idlib, it added.
“The Iranians joined 93 armed elements from the terrorist groups and Syrian militias in Deir Ezzor province in eastern Syria,” it reported.

France accuses Turkey of stoking hate and using ‘slanderous propaganda’ in Islam dispute
The National/October 25/2020
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan questioned Emmanuel Macron’s mental health over his attitude towards Muslims
Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, left and French President Emmanuel Macron stand, during a group photo at a conference on Libya at French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian on Sunday accused Turkey of "trying to whip up hatred" against France, continuing a war of words over Islam between the Nato allies. France said on Saturday that it was recalling its ambassador to Turkey after unacceptable comments by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who questioned Emmanuel Macron’s mental health and his attitude towards Islam. Paris and Ankara were already at odds over issues including maritime rights in the Eastern Mediterranean, conflicts in Libya and Syria, and most recently the fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh. The two sides have now fallen out over domestic policies, and Mr Le Drian described the “insults” against Mr Macron as “unacceptable conduct” from an ally.
Turkey's "hateful, slanderous propaganda against France" revealed a desire to "whip up hate against us and in our midst", he said. Ankara is angered by a campaign championed by Mr Macron to protect France’s secular values against extremism, a campaign given impetus by the beheading of a schoolteacher who showed his class cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed. Mr Macron praised the teacher, Samuel Paty, as a "silent hero" who upheld France's secular values. He pledged that the country would "not give up our cartoons", which incensed Mr Erdogan. "We will always be on the side of human dignity and universal values," Mr Macron said on Twitter late on Sunday. The EU’s foreign affairs commissioner, Josep Borrell, on Sunday criticised Mr Erdogan’s comments. "The remarks by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan regarding President Emmanuel Macron are unacceptable," Mr Borrell tweeted in French. "I call to Turkey to cease this dangerous spiral of confrontation."A French presidential official said on Saturday that “excess and rudeness” should not be used in international relations. Clashes rage in Nagorno-Karabakh despite 'very good' US talks
“President Erdogan’s comments are unacceptable,” the official told AFP.
“We demand that Erdogan change the course of his policy because it is dangerous in every respect.”In an unusual move, the official said the French ambassador to Turkey was being recalled for consultation and would meet Mr Macron to discuss the situation. The Elysee official said France had noted “the absence of messages of condolence and support” from Mr Erdogan after the beheading of Mr Paty near Paris on October 16. Mr Le Drian repeated the complaint on Sunday. Mr Erdogan criticised Mr Macron over his policies towards France’s large Muslim minority, saying that he needed “mental checks”.
“What’s the problem of the individual called Macron with Islam and with the Muslims?” Mr Erdogan asked.
“Macron needs mental treatment."
He indicated that he did not expect Mr Macron to win the 2022 elections. Mr Erdogan has frequently taken aim at Mr Macron, referring to him as “brain dead” last year after the French leader used the term to describe the state of Nato. The Elysee official said Mr Erdogan had two months to reply to the demands for a change in stance, and that it ended its “dangerous adventures” in the Eastern Mediterranean and “irresponsible conduct” over Nagorno-Karabakh, where Ankara is backing Azerbaijan. “Measures need to be taken by the end of the year,” the official said. Turkey showed little sign of backing down on Sunday, with a senior official claiming that offensive caricatures were being used to intimidate Muslims under the guise of freedom of expression. European attitudes demonising Muslims were reminiscent of how the Jews in Europe were treated in the 1920s, said Fahrettin Altun, spokesman for the Turkish presidency. The latest dispute has sparked renewed debates online over boycotting Turkish products and France's counter-extremism policy. Several Saudi companies have announced that they will no longer stock Turkish produce. Hassan Sajwani, a UAE Twitter personality, said that he was sorry that a boycott could gather steam and that Turks would again be affected by their president’s actions. Others criticised France for allowing the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo to run cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.
 

Erdogan Renews Call for Macron to Undergo 'Mental Checks'
Agence France Presse/October 25/2020
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday renewed his call for his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron to undergo mental checks, a day after his comments prompted Paris to recall its envoy to Ankara. The Turkish leader accused Macron of being "obsessed with Erdogan day and night", in a televised speech in the eastern Anatolian city of Malatya.  "(Macron) is a case and therefore he really needs to have (mental) checks," he said. Relations between Macron and Erdogan have become increasingly strained over a number of issues. They include French support for Greece in its dispute with Turkey over maritime rights in the eastern Mediterranean, and French criticism of Turkey's involvement in Libya, Syria and the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh. Macron's policies to defend his country against radical Islam have angered Turkey, which is predominantly Muslim if officially a secular country. The debate over France's policies toward Muslims was given new impetus by the murder this month in France of a teacher who showed his class a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed. On Sunday, Erdogan also took aim at Dutch far-right leader Geert Wilders who shared a defamatory cartoon of the Turkish leader on Twitter. "Know your limits," said Erdogan. "Fascism is not in our book, fascism is in your book."

Palestinian Dies During Clashes with Israeli Troops in West Bank
Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 25 October, 2020
An 18-year-old Palestinian died Sunday after a confrontation with Israeli troops, with the army saying it happened while trying to flee and Palestinian officials saying he had been beaten.  The Palestinian health ministry said that Amer Abdel-Rahim Sanouber from the village of Yatma in the occupied West Bank arrived at hospital after being “severely beaten on the neck.”The head of the Palestine Medical Complex,Ahmed al-Betawi, was quoted in the ministry statement as a identifying Sanouber as a “martyr” who was brought to the hospital at 3:00 a.m. with “signs of violence and beatings on his neck from the back.”Asked about the incident, Israel’s army said troops responded to an incident north of Ramallah after rocks were hurled at an army vehicle. Troops “in the area were dispatched to the scene and searched the area for assailants” the army statement said. “Initial details suggest that upon the arrival of the troops... the two suspects tried to escape by foot,” it said. “While fleeing, one of the suspects apparently lost consciousness, collapsed and hit his head. The suspect was not beaten by the troops,” the army added. It said troops at the scene and army medical teams provided medical attention to the suspect, who was “declared dead” following several “resuscitation attempts.”Details of altercations involving Palestinians and Israel’s army in the West Bank have been harder to access since the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority ended security coordination with Israel in May. Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas said the decision was made in response to Israeli plans to annex parts of the West Bank.

Egyptians Vote in Second Day of Parliamentary Elections
Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 25 October, 2020
Egyptians on Sunday trickled into polling stations on the second day of voting for the country’s parliamentary election amid a slight uptick in daily recorded coronavirus cases. The first stage of the vote for the lower chamber of parliament began a day earlier in 14 of Egypt’s 27 provinces, including Giza and the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria. The second stage the vote is scheduled on Nov. 7-8 in the country’s 13 other provinces, including the capital Cairo and the Sinai Peninsula. The voting concludes with runoff elections. A total of 568 seats in the lower chamber are up for grabs, with more than 4,000 candidates running as individuals competing for half of the seats. The other half of elected seats in the chamber are reserved for the more than 1,100 candidates running on four party lists. The country's president will name 28 seats, or 5%, bringing the total number of seats in the lower chamber to 596. Some 63 million voters are eligible to vote in the Arab world's most population nation, The Associated Press reported. The new chamber is expected to hold its inaugural session shortly after final results are announced in December. The election is taking place as Egypt faces a slight increase in coronavirus cases, with authorities warning that a second wave of the pandemic lies ahead. Face masks are mandatory at polling centers, which were disinfected before and during the vote, authorities said. Authorities urged Egyptians to take part in the vote in order to show a high turnout and lend legitimacy to the election.

Haftar Mum on Libya Ceasefire Deal, GNA Calls for Mercenaries Pullout
Cairo – Khaled Mahmoud/Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 25 October, 2020
Libyan National Army (LNA) commander Khalifa Haftar has yet to comment on the permanent nationwide ceasefire that was brokered by the United Nations earlier this week. The accord, concluded after talks between military representatives of Fayez al-Sarraj's Government of National Accord (GNA) and the LNA in Geneva, will be followed by political discussions in Tunisia next month. Speaking on condition of anonymity, informed Libyan sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that the rival parties are beginning to implement the agreement on the ground. LNA spokesman Ahmed al-Mismari said that Haftar has not commented on the truce and that he was awaiting his official statement. Mismari also denied claims attributed to him that he had apologized for the LNA’s war on Tripoli last year and earlier this year. On the other side of the divide, the GNA Defense Ministry called for the immediate withdrawal of all mercenaries from oil facilities and military positions in Libya in a gesture of goodwill ahead of their pullout from the country. It warned that some mercenary groups deployed at oil fields and the al-Jufra base “may be out of control and will need to be dealt with carefully and firmly.” The High Council of State warned on Friday of the possible violation of the ceasefire by “rebellious” forces – a reference to the LNA – that do not recognize the presence of mercenaries among their ranks. Spokesmen for the GNA’s Volcano of Rage operation, Mohammed Qanunu expressed doubts that the ceasefire would hold. Qanunu, who was present at the Geneva talks, was skeptical over the ceasefire that “does not call for holding to account those involved in the aggression against Tripoli and other cities in western Libya.”Moreover, he questioned the LNA’s ability to have “more than 5,000 Wagner group mercenaries and others from Syria, Sudan and Chad” withdraw from Libya “We don’t believe they have the power to make such a demand, meanwhile the Wagner group continues to set up bases and fortifications and dig up trenches,” he added. He also demanded that the UN dispatch monitors to the central city of Sirte and Jufra, describing them as hotbeds for foreign mercenaries.
 

The Chances of a Lybian Breakthrough?
The New York Times/Sunday, 25 October, 2020
The declaration of truce between the two warring factions and the onset of negotiations under the auspices of the United Nations are of good omen, and might be symptomatic of positive evolutions throughout the regional arc of conflicts. This abrupt turnaround pinpoints the importance of domestic political conversions, readiness to extract the Libyan political scene from external patronage, and put an end to surrogate power rivalries which have twisted the internal political discords and transformed them into regional conflict levers ( Ghassan Salameh, 2020 ). The Qatari, Turkish and Russian interventions have superseded the UN political arbitration as tantamount to the inexplicable retreat of the US and the EC, and the transformation of Lybia into a stamping ground for clashing power rivalries, and a springboard to destabilize North-East and North Africa, target European security, expand the scope of Islamic terrorism throughout the Sahel and the intercontinental strategic divides. The purview of the incoming negotiations portends well, insofar, as the readiness of political factions to negotiate a comprehensive peace agreement which puts an end to the ongoing conflict dynamics, on the very basis of an overall political settlement, that tackles the issues of national cohesion, political reforms and federal governance, management of oil resources and geopolitical stabilization.
This major shift underlines the centrality of Western interventions in the search for sustainable political solutions under UN arbitration, the taming of the destructive Russian, Turkish and Qatari political, military and financial interventions, and the need for a Western geopolitical assessment, insofar as, the gaping strategic voids and security hazards triggered by the unraveling of Lybia, the transformation of the geo-strategic crucible into a vortex of spiraling conflicts, exponential militarization, widening stretches of Islamic terrorism and expanding trans-border criminality ( Human trafficking, arm smuggling, illegal trade, terrorism criminality ... ) and transcontinental strategic and criminal hazards. The echoing effects of a working conflict resolution within Lybia shall inevitably impact the geo-strategic imponderables of the region and its transcontinental ramifications.
This happy event should be immediately seized upon to strengthen the resolve of the conflict actors, and help them restore the dynamics of national reconciliation, incremental demilitarization, State building, reconstruction and development, but it should utmostly invite NATO and the EU to reassert their dissuasive power and united political resolve as the inevitable prelude to any peace process, sustainable geopolitical stabilization and overhaul of State matrices in a region devoid of any sort of moral and political gravity. The success of the Lybian peace process is essential to stymie the tide of unleashed neo-imperialisms ( Russian,Turkish, Iranian, Saudi and Qatari... ), Islamic radicalism, restore the inner dynamics of State-building and democratization at the expense of the destructive Islamic power politics, put an end to the migration caused by State failures, moral and political desperation, socio-economic entropies and climate change, and their detrimental effects on European geo-strategic equilibriums and security.

Former Iraqi FM Hoshyar Zebari: Shi'ite Militias In Iraq Are just Like ISIS
MEMRI/October 25/2020
Source: Dijlah TV (Iraq)
Former Iraqi FM Hoshyar Zebari said in an October 11, 2020 interview on Dijlah TV (Iraq) that the Shi'ite militias in Iraq are comparable to ISIS, and that they are targeting Baghdad and Erbil because they view them to be a part of the Americans' plan in Iraq.
Interviewer:"The shelling and the Katyusha rockets fired in Baghdad, targeting the U.S. Embassy compound and the airports, have served as a constant message to the Americans. Why was Erbil also targeted?"
Hoshyar Zebari: "The [Shi'ite militias] consider Erbil to be part of the American plan. Erbil is a close [ally] of the United States, which maintains a significant military and diplomatic presence there, along with the European Union that keeps consulates in Erbil. These [Shi'ite militia] groups are like ISIS."
Interviewer: "Like ISIS?"
Zebari: "Yes, ISIS also threatened Baghdad and then it threatened Erbil."
Interviewer: "They will be mad at you."
Zebari: "Let them be mad. These are the facts."
Interviewer: "Aren't you afraid that they will target you with their missiles?"
Zebari: "Let them target me. We've been targeted before and have witnessed chemical bombardment, missile attacks, and whatnot. But really, they follow the same logic. When ISIS reached the gates of Samarra in 2014, our people there thought that they would not target us. I was among the people who said to them: 'You will be the first to be targeted by ISIS.' We told them to beware and brace themselves because that is an extremist religious ideology, which is hostile to any progressive, secular, and democratic idea. They are against the tightening of Kurdistan's relations with the U.S. and the West."

Iranian Academic Mahmoud Anousheh: Corruption Should Be Fought from the Top Down; Our People Should Not Be Paying the Price of Bad Economic Policies
MEMRI/October 25/2020
Source: Channel 3 (Iran)
Iranian author, researcher, and university lecturer Mahmoud Anousheh said in a September 29, 2020 interview on Channel 3 (Iran) that the Iranian people should not be the ones paying the price of poor economic policies and that the proper way to fight corruption is from the top down. The host of the show, Peydan Talebi, said that Iran’s officials belong in the toilet if they cannot take care of the people.
Mahmoud Anousheh: “I turn to the s-e-n-i-o-r officials of the Islamic Republic, and to the heads of the three branches (of government). The poverty line is currently at 10 million toman.”
Mr. Talebi: “Well said!”
Mahmoud Anousheh: “There are 3,000 seats and sensitive positions in the country’s three branches. Three thousand, Mr. Talebi!”
Mr. Talebi: “Yes.”
Mahmoud Anousheh: “And they call the shots. We sacrificed 219,000 martyrs (in the Iran-Iraq War), Mr. Talebi. 219,000 martyrs, divided by the 3,000 seats that hold senior positions – that’s 73. Dear Mr. Talebi, for every seat, we sacrificed 73 martyrs.”
Mahmoud Anousheh: “What have we done to make the poverty line 10 million toman?”
Mr. Talebi: “And the salary of the laborer…”
Mahmoud Anousheh: “If you tell me to be patient, I will humbly comply. Making do with less? I will humbly comply. My people have shown the utmost patience, and have made do with less. Is my nation supposed to pay more than that because of wrong economic policies?”
Mr. Talebi: “Well done, sir, for speaking the mind of the public. I have also wanted to say this. The people have had enough of making do with less, like you said. How many times can a person tell his child ‘Don’t wear (new clothes) – make do with these (old) shoes and clothes,” when he had been wearing the same shoes for three years? I’m glad that you addressed this aspect as well. I wanted to voice a small disagreement… As much as the WC system – Winston Churchill’s system – was a good thing… In fact, some of our senior officials, if they couldn’t take care of the public, they themselves belong in the WC (toilet).”
Mahmoud Anousheh: “Mr. Taleb, I respect those who were nominated and who have filled these seats. I respect them, because I think there is reason behind this, but I cannot accept that my people are paying the price of wrong economic policies. How much longer?”

Grand Mufti Of Egypt Shawki Allam: According To Our Research, 50% Of Second- And Third-Generation Muslims In Europe Support ISIS
MEMRI/October 25/2020
Source: Sada Al-Balad (Egypt)
On October 9, 2020, Shawki Allam, the Grand Mufti of Egypt, was interviewed on Sada Al-Balad TV (Egypt). He said that it is a minority of Muslims that carry out terrorist attacks and atrocities. He also argued that since a large proportion of ISIS fighters came from Europe, perhaps there may be something wrong in the way that European Muslims are dealing with Muslim issues and thus causing Muslims to radicalize. He elaborated that many of the European Muslims who joined ISIS were in fact, converts to Islam. He further argued that there may be something wrong with the way European Muslims themselves are behaving, and he mentioned that Islamic centers in Europe, who ultimately give Islam a "bad name" funded by various organizations from within the Muslim world.
Interviewer: "Put yourself in the place of someone who hears about killings, bombings, vehicle-ramming attacks, the capturing of Yazidi women, murders with knives in malls and metro stations, and the attempts to take over theaters and take hostages. Put yourself in such a person's place. Every time, you are told that [the perpetrator] was an Egyptian Muslim, or a Pakistani Muslim, an Algerian Muslim, or a Moroccan Muslim. The point is that it is a Muslim of any nationality. The issue is that the focus is on Islam. This [leads] to Islamophobia.
Shawki Allam: "There are more than 1.8 billion Muslims in the world."
Interviewer: "Right."
Shawki Allam: "How many of them commit such crimes? I am not justifying their crimes. I condemn their crimes. This totally contradicts Islam. But these individual crimes by some Muslims should not be the grounds for judgment in a way that harms Muslims and Islam itself. What should be done is..."
Interviewer: "The phenomenon should be narrowed down."
Allam: "Yes, and the phenomenon should be studied."
Interviewer: "Okay."
Allam: "This is why we studied the issue in 2016, and found that the number of Europeans in ISIS is rising."
Interviewer: "Rising?"
Allam: "Yes, it got to a point where about 50% of second and third-generation Muslims living in Europe [are in ISIS]. This raised a question: Why does a young [Muslim] man go and... I visited France and I met the French Minister of Interior, who is responsible for religious matters. He said that a French young man and a French young woman joined ISIS. One week they were non-Muslims, the following week they became Muslims, and the week after they joined ISIS. You can ask yourself many questions. What drove these two, in a matter of a week..."
Interviewer: "They changed their religion and joined ISIS."
Alam: "Yes."
Interviewer: " — They went into the unknown."
Alam: "Exactly. Why did they do that? No doubt there is something wrong in these countries in the way they deal with Muslim issues, and [there is something wrong] with the Muslims themselves as well. We have to ask ourselves many questions and offer many solutions in this matter. We raised this question, and we answered it through a practical step. We conducted a conference. We studied the roots of the problem. We found that we need to reassess the people in charge of Islamic centers abroad — their scholarly training and their qualification. They are called 'religious leaders' there. A religious leader in any [Islamic] center must be suitable for the task, and he must present the true image of Islam. Unfortunately, when you study the structure of Islamic centers in the world, you find that in most cases — I don't want to make generalizations — they follow certain agendas. I mean various agendas — that of the Muslim Brotherhood, and other agendas. A lot of money is invested in them.
Interviewer: "And also Salafi, Shi'ite, and all kinds of other [agendas]."
Alam: "Why are [Islamic centers] funded in such a generous way? What is the incentive to fund them?"
Interviewer: "So they present a different discourse."
Alam: "So they present a certain discourse that may — as it has actually done in the past — make matters worse creating a negative image of Islam that people are scared of."

Canada/Statement on 40th anniversary of Hague Convention on child abduction
October 25, 2020 - Ottawa, Ontario - Global Affairs Canada
The Honourable François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and the Honourable David Lametti, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, today issued the following statement:
“Today, we mark the 40th anniversary of the Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction.
“Every year, in Canada and abroad, thousands of children are wrongfully taken across international borders by a parent or guardian in violation of rights of custody. This has devastating effects on families, and it is the children who suffer the most. Children must be at the heart of family justice, and mechanisms like the Hague Convention on child abduction are essential in order to assist them in these terrible situations.
“Canada, along with 100 contracting states, continues to support this global effort to protect children from wrongful removal or retention and return them to their country of residence. We continue to call on the global community to join us and to ratify this important convention.
“We are committed to working with our international partners to continue to protect children and to reinforce the operation of the convention.”

Trump Team Hit by Covid Again, Lashes Out at 'Failure' Biden
Agence France Presse./October 25/ 2020
Donald Trump's reelection campaign on Sunday sought to brush off another Covid outbreak in his team by focusing its attacks on Joe Biden's energy levels and accusing him of "47 years of failure" in Washington.
Nine days before the vote, the US has been engulfed by a surge in Covid-19 cases, reaching a record number of daily infections for a second day running on Saturday with nearly 89,000 new cases. Vice President Mike Pence's chief of staff, Marc Short, as well as a number of other aides, tested positive over the weekend, swelling the list of the administration staff to have caught the virus. "The vice president is going to continue his travel schedule," Trump campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh told Fox News. "He takes this very seriously... The folks on his staff are in quarantine, and he relies on the very sound medical advice of the White House medical unit." Murtaugh slammed Biden for his light campaign schedule, saying the Democratic challenger was "feeling the heat" and "took five out of six days off" before the last presidential debate on Thursday. "President Trump has accomplished more in 47 months than Joe Biden has in 47 years of failure," Murtaugh added. The remarks drew a contrast to the furious pace that Trump, 74, has maintained for days -- including planned stops Sunday in New Hampshire and Maine -- while Biden has set a more cautious course, speaking less frequently and to smaller, socially distanced groups.
Contrasting campaigns
Biden, 77, planned on Sunday only to take part in a virtual "I will vote" concert, his campaign said. But his deputy campaign manager vigorously defended him, telling NBC's "Meet the Press," that "we are campaigning incredibly hard." "The difference between what we're doing and what Donald Trump is doing," said Kate Bedingfield, is that "we're doing it safely."
Nearly 225,000 people in the US have died from Covid-19, by far the world's highest toll. Ahead of the November 3 election -- and with more than 57 million Americans having cast early votes -- both campaigns are scrambling to make their closing arguments and win over the few still undecided voters. On Saturday, an energized Biden and former president Barack Obama accused Trump of massively mishandling the pandemic.
"Donald Trump isn't suddenly going to protect all of us. He can't even take the basic steps to protect himself," Obama said, referring to Trump's hospitalization for Covid-19 three weeks ago. But the president has remained ebullient and constantly sought to project confidence despite trailing in national polls. Trump, who has sought to divert attention from the pandemic to his plans for the economy, told supporters in North Carolina, "This election is a choice between a Trump super-recovery and a Biden depression." He even suggested at one point Saturday -- against nearly all predictions -- that Republicans might reclaim control of the House of Representatives.
That drew a blunt rejoinder Sunday from House speaker Nancy Pelosi, who told CNN the president's comment was "just another example of delusional statements he (has) made."
- Grim polls for Trump -
Trump plowed through three campaign rallies in one day on Saturday as he sought to close the gap with Biden by playing down the severity of the coronavirus crisis and complaining that the media was fixated on the problem. Biden's response: Trump himself should be more fixated on the problem. "That's Donald Trump's presidency," Biden said during a drive-in rally Saturday in his native Pennsylvania, a critical swing state. "Donald Trump said, and is still saying, 'we're rounding the corner. It's going away. We're learning how to live with it.'"Biden said: "We're not learning how to live with it. You're asking us to learn how to die with it."Biden has maintained a stable lead of around 10 points in national polls, and narrower leads in battleground states like Florida that typically decide the winner of US presidential elections. But both Republicans and Democrats are wary of polling after the stunning upset Trump pulled off in 2016 when he defeated Hillary Clinton.

Spain Declares Virus Emergency as Global Cases Soar
Agence France Presse
Spain declared a national state of emergency on Sunday to tackle a second coronavirus wave as the World Health Organization reported a third straight day of record new infections across the world. The WHO has warned that some countries are on a "dangerous track", with too many witnessing an exponential increase in cases, and called on countries to take further action to curb the spread of the disease. In total, the U.N. agency's figures showed that 465,319 cases were declared on Saturday alone, half of them in Europe. Covid-19 has now claimed the lives of 1.1 million people -- a fifth of them in the United States -- and infected more than 42 million globally. The WHO has said that the northern hemisphere was at an especially critical juncture with winter looming. As the disease continued its relentless march across Europe, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced the new state of emergency and overnight curfews across the entire country except for the Canary Islands. The move came after Spain became the first EU member state to pass the grim milestone of one million cases.
"The situation we are going through is extreme," Sanchez said.
'It's going to destroy us'
Italy -- the epicenter of the first European outbreak -- also ramped up restrictions on daily life, ordering the closure of theatres, cinemas and gyms and shutting bars and restaurants early. Governments are struggling to balance new restrictions against the need to revive economies already battered by earlier draconian lockdowns after the virus first emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan late last year. But populations weary of social isolation and economic hardship have bristled at the tougher measures. "This is going to destroy us," Augusto D'Alfonsi, who owns the Torricella family-run fish restaurant in Rome, told AFP after the new measures were announced. "We've already lost 50 percent of our customers this year. Without government aid, we're done for." Dozens of far-right protesters in Rome clashed with riot police overnight during a demonstration against a curfew, setting off fireworks, burning bins and throwing projectiles.
Youngsters 'uncontrolled'
There has also been opposition to tighter curbs in Spain, but some said they accepted that there need to be controls. "The curfew is good for those who are drinking in the street a lot lately, because at our age people go out a lot, they are uncontrolled and then what happens, happens," said 17-year-old student Juan Pelayo in the town of Valladolid. "You can infect your parents, then your parents go to work, they infect everybody, you have to keep in mind that there are elderly people, and elderly people might die."
'Screw this thing up'
The United States remains the hardest-hit country on the planet, and on Saturday it set a daily record for new Covid-19 cases for the second straight day, at nearly 89,000, with a further surge expected as cold weather arrives. The virus has become a central issue ahead of the November 3 election, with President Donald Trump sparring over his handling of the pandemic with challenger Joe Biden. And U.S. Vice President Mike Pence's chief of staff tested positive for Covid-19 on Saturday, the latest in a list of figures connected to Trump's administration to do so. "The idea that somehow this White House has done anything but completely screw this thing up is nonsense," said Trump's predecessor Barack Obama, who hit the campaign trail on Saturday to campaign for Biden, his former deputy. The virus has claimed more than 224,000 American lives and a majority of voters say Trump has handled the crisis poorly.
After the U.S., the worst affected countries are Brazil, India, Mexico and Britain, while Colombia is the latest country to record one million confirmed coronavirus cases. The disease is taking its toll on politicians, with Bulgaria's prime minister joining a growing list of leaders who have tested positive for coronavirus.
The disease is also hitting festive events.  In Germany, Frankfurt became the latest city to cancel its traditional Christmas market. It usually attracts more than two million visitors who come to sip mulled wine, nibble on roasted chestnuts and shop for seasonal trinkets among a cluster of wooden chalets. Romania was also forced to curtail a major Orthodox holiday on Sunday. In a typical year, tens of thousands of pilgrims from all over the country would go to Bucharest at the end of October to pray to Saint Dimitrie, the city's patron saint. But this year, only people living in Bucharest were allowed to take part in the pilgrimage to the Patriarchal Cathedral, with identity checks taking place and people told to wear masks and use disinfectant. "These restrictions are not normal, why hinder people's faith?" lamented Doina Stefan, a 64-year-old pensioner. But she said she was praying "for this pandemic that frightens us to end."
 

The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on October 25-26/2020
"Why Are You Killing Christians?" Trump Asks Nigeria's President
Raymond Ibrahim/Gatestone Institute./October 25/ 2020
In just the first four months of 2020, Fulani herdsmen and other terrorists "hacked to death ... no fewer than 620 defenseless Christians," and engaged in the "wanton burning or destruction of their centers of worship and learning."
How have formerly simple and unarmed Fulani herdsmen managed to kill, since 2015, nearly twice as many Christians as the "professional" terrorists of Boko Haram....?
"Since the government and its apologists are claiming the killings have no religious undertones, why are the terrorists and herdsmen targeting the predominantly Christian communities and Christian leaders?" -- The Christian Association of Nigeria, International Centre for Investigative Reporting, January 21, 2020.
"Why are you killing Christians?" US President Donald J. Trump apparently shocked his Nigerian counterpart, Muhammadu Buhari, by asking this question the first time they met in the White House in April 2018. He should not have been shocked. Several international observers characterize what Nigerian Christians experience not just as "persecution" but as a "pure genocide." Pictured: Trump and Buhari on April 30, 2018, in Washington, DC.
"Why are you killing Christians?" US President Donald J. Trump apparently shocked his Nigerian counterpart, Muhammadu Buhari, by asking this question the first time they met in the White House in April 2018. The Nigerian president admitted this, according to a September 8, 2020 report, toward the end of a recent talk with his cabinet members:
"[W]hen I was in his office, only myself and himself, with Allah as my witness, he looked at me in the face and said 'why are you killing Christians?' I wonder, if you were the person how you would react? I hope what I was feeling inside did not betray my emotion..."
He should not have been shocked. Several international observers characterize what Nigerian Christians experience not just as "persecution" but as a "pure genocide."
Since 2009, "not less than 32,000 Christians have been butchered to death by the country's main Jihadists," according to a May 2020 report. Hundreds more have been killed since then. Earlier this year, Christian Solidarity International issued a "Genocide Warning for Christians in Nigeria" in response to the "rising tide of violence directed against Nigerian Christians and others classified as 'infidels' by Islamist militants...."
Under Buhari, who became Nigeria's president in 2015, the carnage of Christians has only accelerated. According to a March 8, 2020 report, titled, "Nigeria: A Killing Field of Defenseless Christians,"
Available statistics have shown that between 11,500 and 12,000 Christian deaths were recorded in the past 57 months or since June 2015 when the present central [Buhari-led] government of Nigeria came on board. Out of this figure, Jihadist Fulani herdsmen accounted for 7,400 Christian deaths, Boko Haram 4,000 and the 'Highway Bandits' 150-200."
In just the first four months of 2020, Fulani herdsmen and other terrorists "hacked to death ... no fewer than 620 defenseless Christians," and engaged in the "wanton burning or destruction of their centers of worship and learning":
"The atrocities against Christians have gone unchecked and risen to alarming apogee with the country's security forces and concerned political actors looking the other way or colluding with the Jihadists. Houses burnt or destroyed during the period are in their hundreds; likewise dozens of Christian worship and learning centers."
How have formerly simple and unarmed Fulani herdsmen managed to kill, since 2015, nearly twice as many Christians as the "professional" terrorists of Boko Haram -- and exponentially more Christians than under Buhari's (Christian) predecessor, President Goodluck Jonathan? "Because," according to numerous Christian leaders in Nigeria, "President Buhari is also of the Fulani ethnic group," to quote Nigerian bishop Matthew Ishaya Audu.
The bishop is only one of a growing chorus of voices accusing the Muslim president not only of turning a blind eye to his clansmen's slaughter of Christians, but actively exacerbating it -- including with fighter jets. A few examples:
The Buhari government is "using the levers of power to secure the supremacy of Islam... The only difference between the government and Boko Haram is that Boko Haram is holding the bomb." — Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah.
Buhari "is openly pursuing an anti-Christian agenda that has resulted in countless murders of Christians all over the nation and destruction of vulnerable Christian communities." — Bosun Emmanuel, secretary of the National Christian Elders Forum.
"Under President Buhari, the murderous Fulani herdsmen enjoyed unprecedented protection and favoritism... Rather than arrest and prosecute the Fulani herdsmen, security forces usually manned by Muslims from the North offer them protection as they unleash terror with impunity on the Nigerian people." — Musa Asake, general secretary of the Christian Association of Nigeria.
In a statement issued earlier this year, the Christian Association of Nigeria, an umbrella group representing most denominations, repeated that "the federal government under President Muhammadu Buhari" is "colluding" with the Islamic terrorists "to exterminate Christians in Nigeria."
Even the average persecuted Christian is aware of Buhari's alleged role. After Muslim Fulani killed five Christians in a mini-store, Ibrahim Agu Iliya, a local Christian, explained why the terrorists were able to shoot for a full ten minutes -- despite the presence of armed security -- before absconding without a trace:
"These Muslim Fulani herdsmen have been attacking our communities because we are Christians. Their desire is to take over our lands, force us to become Muslims, and if we decline, they kill us.... The government's inability to stop these Muslim Fulani herdsmen is because the government is being controlled by Fulani political leaders headed by Muhammadu Buhari, Nigeria's president, who's also a Fulani man."
Some Nigerian leaders blame Buhari's rise to power on "the evil called Barack Obama" -- in the words of Femi Fani-Kayode, Nigeria's former Minister of Culture and Tourism, on February 12:
"What Obama, John Kerry and Hilary Clinton did to Nigeria by funding and supporting Buhari in the 2015 presidential election and helping Boko Haram in 2014/2015 was sheer wickedness and the blood of all those killed by the Buhari administration, his Fulani herdsmen and Boko Haram over the last 5 years are on their hands."
It was doubtless these disturbing statistics and accusations against Buhari that prompted Trump to ask why he was "slaughtering Christians in Nigeria."
How did Buhari respond? He blamed "climate change and population growth."
"I tried and explained to him," continued Buhari, that "this has got nothing to do with ethnicity or religion. It is a cultural thing."
Not only does such an argument ignore that culture often emerges from the blending of ethnicity and religion; it also fails to answer the central question: "Since the government and its apologists are claiming the killings have no religious undertones," the Christian Association of Nigeria asked, "why are the terrorists and herdsmen targeting the predominantly Christian communities and Christian leaders?"
Similarly, as members of the Christian Association of Nigeria evidently wonder:
"How can it be a [secular or economic] clash when one group [Muslims] is persistently attacking, killing, maiming, destroying, and the other group [Christians] is persistently being killed, maimed and their places of worship destroyed?"
As Sister Monica Chikwe once explained, "It's tough to tell Nigerian Christians this isn't a religious conflict since what they see are Fulani fighters clad entirely in black, chanting 'Allahu Akbar!' and screaming 'Death to Christians.'"
*Raymond Ibrahim, author of Crucified Again and Sword and Scimitar, is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Gatestone Institute, a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center, and a Judith Rosen Friedman Fellow at the Middle East Forum.
© 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.

Palestinians: What Needs to Be Done
Khaled Abu Toameh/Gatestone Institute/October 25/2020
The question is: Will Iran step in to influence the Palestinian Authority? Will Iran manage to convince the Palestinian Authority to become part of an axis that includes Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and all the Iranian‑backed militias in Iraq? Where is Mahmoud Abbas taking the Palestinian Authority? No one knows. Most people I speak to they say he doesn't really have a strategy to deal with the with the Middle East conflict. His only strategy, they say, is just to remain in power forever.
The Palestinians.... are further isolating themselves by alienating the entire Arab world by going against countries such as Egypt, Jordan and all these Gulf states that once used to give them a lot of money.... Those who were inciting against Israel all those years are now inciting against the Arab world. Those who were demonizing Israel are now trying to demonize their own Arab and Muslim brothers.... The gap between the Palestinians and the Arab world is growing.
One of the reasons why mainstream media does not want to report about many stories over here, is that these stories do not have an anti‑Israel angle.
This whole conflict, whether we like it or not, is not about a settlement, a checkpoint, a wall, and a fence or a settlement. This conflict is really about Israel's very existence....
They [Palestinian leaders] do not want Arabs and Muslims to be exposed to the wonderful things that are happening in Israel. They do not want them to see that Israel has been a story of success. They do not want these wonderful things to be seen in the Arab and Muslim world because then the Arabs and Muslims might go to their leaders and say, "Excuse me. We want something like what these Jews have. Why can't we have democracy? Why can't we have a functioning parliament?"
The question we need to ask ourselves is not who is going to succeed Mahmoud Abbas. The question is will anyone who succeeds Mahmoud Abbas, will he be different? Will he be able to bring about any changes? I'm sorry to tell you that the answer is no.... We are talking about the same ideology, the same mentality, and the same people running the show.
Do not expect many changes in the post‑Abbas era. What needs to change is the mindset. What needs to stop is the incitement, the daily delegitimization of Israel. It is very bad, and it is very widespread. If you do not change that, then you will not see any changes. In addition, the Palestinians need to change their education system. They need to start preparing their people for peace with Israel.
Will Iran step in to influence the Palestinian Authority? Will Iran manage to convince the Palestinian Authority to become part of an axis that includes Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and all the Iranian‑backed militias in Iraq? Where is Mahmoud Abbas taking the Palestinian Authority? Pictured: Abbas on September 3, 2020, in Ramallah.
There is now an agreement, the Abraham Accords, between Israel and the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, but how do the Palestinians see it? Where do they think it could lead?
The Palestinians were caught by surprise. I remember when it was announced, I was calling Palestinian officials in Ramallah trying to get their reaction to this agreement. They were in disbelief. They were in shock. Many of these officials even asked me if I was sure it was true.
Shortly afterwards, they issued a strongly‑worded statement lashing out at the United Arab Emirates: "Oh, the Gulf States have betrayed us. This is a stab in the back. This is a violation of all agreements."
Now, of course, as time passed, many Palestinian officials made serious allegations against the United Arab Emirates. They even warned other Arab countries not to follow suit or normalize relations with Israel. The Palestinian leaders feel that their Arab brothers have turned their back on the Palestinians, that the Arab world has decided to move forward without them.
There is a very strong belief in Ramallah that many other countries are going to follow the example of the United Arab Emirates and normalize relations with Israel. This sense of isolation, this sense of betrayal by their own Arab brothers has resulted in protests in the West Bank and in Gaza.
Recently, I went to the Old City of Jerusalem where we saw Palestinians burning flags of the United Arab Emirates and pictures of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed. These protests, which have been spreading throughout the West Bank and Gaza, are the direct result of the incitement by the Palestinian Authority, by Hamas, and by other factions, not only against the United Arab Emirates, but also against Saudi Arabia, Oman, Bahrain, Sudan, and other countries whose names have been mentioned in connection with the possibility of establishing relations with Israel.
Last night, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas went even further. He stepped up the protests by holding a meeting in Ramallah ‑‑ it was called an emergency meeting ‑‑ where he invited representatives of Hamas, and Islamic Jihad, and even one of the worst terrorist groups the Palestinians have, the radical Syrian‑based Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - General Command.
It is led by Ahmed Jibril, responsible for the death of many Palestinians in Syria and Lebanon. He has been accused by Palestinians of participating in massacres carried out by the Syrian army against Palestinians in Syria.
For Abbas to invite representatives of a group like that to a meeting in Ramallah is, for many Arab countries, an alarm bell. First of all, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and some Gulf states have outlawed the Muslim Brotherhood, of which Hamas is a branch. Saudi Arabia has been waging war on Hamas for the past three or four years.
What Abbas did is spit in the face of these Arab countries by telling them, "Look, I am now going to join the Muslim Brotherhood. I am going to join Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and even the PFLP‑General Command group led by Ahmed Jibril." Abbas is sending a message to the Arab world that he has decided to align himself with the Iran‑led anti‑peace camp.
The Arab world is watching this. They do not like the condemnations coming from the Palestinians. They do not like all these accusations of treason. They do not like to see pictures of their leaders being burned at Islam's third holiest site, Al‑Aqsa Mosque.
They also do not like to hear the Palestinian Authority Mufti of Jerusalem, Sheikh Muhammad Hussein, issuing a fatwa [religious opinion] banning citizens of the United Arab Emirates or any Arab country that normalizes relations with Israel, from coming to pray at Al‑Aqsa Mosque.
He is telling Palestinians and the rest of the Arab and Muslim world that the United Arab Emirates, the Saudis and all Muslims from there who normalize relations with Israel are infidels, enemies of Islam, traitors to the Prophet Muhammad and that they should not be allowed into one of the holiest sites of the Muslim world.
This is a serious allegation. In light of the response of the Palestinian Authority, Hamas and Islamic Jihad to this step by the United Arab Emirates, relations between the Arab world and the Palestinians are likely to deteriorate even further.
Of course, there are a few Palestinians who do not share the views of the Palestinian Authority and Hamas. I have met some Palestinians who are extremely worried right now at the message the Palestinian Authority is giving to the other Palestinian leaders.
These few Palestinians are saying, "Hey, who are we to challenge these oil‑rich, wealthy countries in the Gulf? We need them. We've already made mistakes in the past. We made a big mistake when we supported Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait in 1990. We made similar mistakes afterwards by coming out in public against some of the Arab leaders, accusing them of treason because of the relations with the Americans or because of their readiness to normalize relations with Israel."
These few Palestinians are extremely worried right now about the fate of Palestinians living in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and other countries. They are afraid these Arab countries will once again expel the Palestinians or take punitive measures against them.
I follow what is being said in the Arab world. It is unimaginable what Arabs in the Gulf are saying about the Palestinians: "You ungrateful people. We've given you billions of dollars in all these years. In the end, you spit in our face and you burn our flag."
There was one prominent Emirati academic who put on Twitter pictures of United Arab Emirates flags in the Israeli city of Netanya. Next to them, pictures of the UAE flag being burned by Palestinians in Ramallah and in Gaza.
The comment there of this Emirati man was, "My flag is being honored in Israel while these Palestinians are burning my flag. I am done with these Palestinians."
That is the message that you hear from not only from people in the United Arab Emirates but also from people in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states.
For the first time ever, the Palestinian leadership are now feeling that they have been left out; that the Arab world is really fed up with them and does not want to wait for them anymore.
Of course, this is good news for Israel and good news for all peace‑loving people in the region. The question is, will Iran step in to influence the Palestinian Authority? Will Iran manage to convince the Palestinian Authority to become part of an axis that includes Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and all the Iranian‑backed militias in Iraq? Where is Mahmoud Abbas taking the Palestinian Authority? Most people I speak to they say he does not really have a strategy to deal with the Middle East conflict.
His only strategy, they say, is just to remain in power forever. He will do anything. He will reach out to Hamas. He will reach out to the Islamic Jihad. To survive, he will reach out to the Iranians or anyone. It does not bode well for the future of the peace talks or any kind of a peace process between Israel and the Palestinians.
The Palestinians have not only been left out by their Arab brothers, they are further isolating themselves by alienating the entire Arab world by going against countries like Egypt, Jordan and all these Gulf states that once used to give them a lot of money.
In the past few months, Mahmoud Abbas was saying, "Oh, Israel has to stop its plan to apply sovereignty to parts of the West Bank." He launched a massive diplomatic campaign. He was successful at rallying the world -- especially the Europeans and other countries -- against the Israeli plan. Now, here comes an Arab country and tells Mahmoud Abbas, "Look, we managed to get the Israelis to suspend their plan. The plan is now off the table."
Instead of saying, "Thank you, United Arab Emirates. You did a good job," Abbas is sending Palestinians to burn the flag of the United Arab Emirates and to burn pictures of their leader.
"What do you want, Mahmoud Abbas?" the other Arabs are saying. "Are you trying to punish an Arab country simply because they want normal relations with Israel? What about you, Abbas? In 1993, didn't you and Yasser Arafat allegedly recognize Israel's right to exist? Haven't you been negotiating with Israel all these years? Haven't you been conducting security coordination with Israel, Mahmoud Abbas?
"Excuse me, Mahmoud Abbas, how many times in the past 13, 14 years, have you said that you support peace, and you are willing to negotiate with Israel, and you support compromise, and you are opposed to violence? Where is the problem, if an Arab country such as the United Arab Emirates wants to make peace with Israel? Why are you standing in the face of the Arab world?
"Why can't you go to the United Arab Emirates and say, 'Listen, thank you very much. You have done a great job, now that you are going to make peace with Israel, I, Mahmoud Abbas, would like to use your good connections with Israel to help me get what I want from Israel.' That would be the right approach but there is no one doing it."
What I am saying is that Abbas is now being criticized because he is not being creative. He is not coming up with any plans or any alternative options. All you hear is condemnation, condemnation, condemnation.
Those who were inciting against Israel all those years are now inciting against the Arab world. Those who were demonizing Israel are now trying to demonize their own Arab and Muslim brothers; this is serious. The gap between the Palestinians and the Arab world is growing.
This change may, by the way, bring something good in the end, because what the Palestinians need is new leadership. They need new thinking. We are talking about the same people, the same leaders who have been around for 40 and 50 years. We are talking about leaders who still think like Gamal Abdel Nasser, Muammar al‑Gaddafi, and all these Arab presidents we had in the past.
Palestinian leaders have failed to bring anything new to the Palestinians. Of course, the biggest losers are always the Palestinian people, whether they are in the West Bank, living under Palestinian Authority, or in Gaza, living under Hamas.
Look at their conditions. It is very bad under the Palestinian Authority because of corruption, and it is very bad under Hamas in Gaza because of repression.
It is even worse than corruption. Palestinians are being held hostage by their own leaders, and they do not see any hope. My concern is that these Palestinian leaders, in order to divert the anger, in order to distract from their own problems, might turn all this anger on the Palestinian street towards Israel.
We have seen in the past where, whenever a Palestinian leader sees that his people are unhappy with his performance, or are unhappy with corruption, or are complaining about the repression, about the absence of freedom of the media, then they tell the people, "Oh, it is all Israel's fault. It is the occupation. Go and revolt against Israel. Go and launch an intifada against Israel," and the Palestinians, possibly also because they are afraid of the Palestinian leader, of their leaders, they direct this heat against Israel.
Also, we have a lot of mainstream journalists in Jerusalem, Ramallah, and even in Gaza, who are deliberately turning a blind eye to many of the important stories over here, especially about Hamas and the Palestinian Authority.
We are actually among the few media outlets that dare to touch on very sensitive topics that the mainstream media would not like to report or that the mainstream media is ignoring. One of the reasons why mainstream media does not want to report about many stories over here, is that these stories do not have an anti‑Israel angle.
Many of the journalists here, they wake up in the morning, and they search for any story that reflects badly on Israel. We have managed, though, to force some of these journalists to cover stories that we publish. They can no longer ignore them.
We have been reporting, for example, about Palestinians protesting in Ramallah about corruption in the past few weeks. We had a number of articles that talked about how the Palestinian Authority is cracking down on its critics and things like that.
The New York Times, recently, after one of our articles, had to report on how the Palestinian Authority is cracking down on its own people because they are demanding reform and democracy. Now, these are the kinds of stories that you read only in Gatestone, and you do not see in many of the mainstream media.
As I said, I'm happy to tell you that we are forcing many of the journalists no longer to ignore these stories over here.
Question & Answer
Question: This whole momentum of the signing of the agreement of relations with the UAE is entirely to the credit of the Trump administration. Please, can you comment on Vice President Biden's claim that the credit goes to the Obama years?
Abu Toameh: As you know, I'm not really an expert on American politics. I can tell you that what worries me is when I hear people in Ramallah and people in Gaza saying, "Oh, we are waiting for Biden. We are waiting for this administration to go away. This administration is very bad for us because this administration supports Israel.
"This administration has recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital. This administration has closed down the PLO office in Washington. This administration has recognized the legality of Israeli settlements. This administration has cut funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, UNRWA," and so on.
When I see that there are people in Ramallah who are waiting and saying, "Oh, in a few months everything is going to be okay. We might have a new president, less supportive of Israel," that really worries me. These people are waiting. They see this administration, because of its support for Israel, as being one of the most hostile administrations to the Palestinians. They would like to see it replaced with another administration. They are saying that "Everything's going to change after November and things will be all right." At the end of the day, they would very much like to see this administration gone.
Question: We have heard speculation about various other Arab countries that might follow in UAE's footsteps, such as Bahrain. Could you please speculate on how far this peace movement might go? Which other Arab states might make peace?
Abu Toameh: I think we shall see some Arab countries follow suit. Everyone here is now talking about Oman being on its way. There is a lot of speculation about Saudi Arabia also joining.
I think what these Arab countries are waiting for is to see the result of the US election, and the reaction on the Arab Street, how it is responding. So far, they have only seen condemnations from a few Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. I think this is encouraging for the Arab countries.
We did not see revolutions on the street. We did not see thousands of Arabs take to the streets of Cairo, Beirut, or Khartoum, or any Arab capital to denounce the United Arab Emirates.
If you ask many Palestinians, they are also very worried about the failure of the Arab Street to strongly condemn or to come out against the United Arab Emirates. This subdued reaction in the Arab world will encourage other Arab countries to continue to do the same thing. This is, of course, very good for the Palestinian people in the long term. Not to mention the economic benefits that we stand to gain from this.
The rapprochement between Israel and the Arab world, it will bring only good for the Palestinians because those Arab countries will normalize relations with Israel. We see that coming from Egypt and Jordan, the only two Arab countries that have peace with Israel.
Egypt is now playing a big role in trying to arrange another ceasefire between Israel and Gaza. Hamas and the Jordanians are also in involved in one way or another with Israel, especially when it comes to the religious sites in Jerusalem, the Al Aqsa Mosque. Jordan is always there. The Palestinians are the ones who go to these two states.
Unfortunately and sadly, the Palestinian leadership is very bad. It is very corrupt. It is acting against the interests of its own people.
At the same time, there is a lot of hope here in Israel about all these Arab countries opening their doors, and this opens a lot of opportunity. If the Palestinians support the United Arab Emirates initiative, it is possible that the United Arab Emirates and other Gulf countries will open their doors and allow hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to come and work and help build the economy. It is a win‑win.
I meet many people here in Israel who are so excited about this agreement, about going to visit the Burj al-Khalifa, about going to Dubai, about doing their shopping in the Gulf states, that they even forget to wear their face masks to protect themselves from the coronavirus. There is a lot of excitement. It comes at a very good time when it is badly needed.
Question: Please describe the political implications of this possible peace scenario, and could you speculate on how far the peace movement might go?
Abu Toameh: I think the political implications will be that it is going to be very good for the moderate Arabs and moderate Muslims. It is very bad for Iran and company, its proxies and allies in the region. This is an Arab/Muslim/Sunni alliance with Israel that will, first of all, embolden the peace camp in the Arab world -- those who want normalization, those who want to some kind of a peace with Israel; and it is a severe blow for all the rejectionists -- for Hamas, for Islamic Jihad. It will weaken them in the long term because the people there are also looking at this agreement.
If something good comes out of it, then you will see more people in the Arab world joining the so‑called Peace Camp. We expect a lot of the good to come out of it. Everyone here is extremely hopeful.
It sends the right message to many Arabs and Muslims that Israel is there to stay. We need to forget about the dream of destroying Israel. Note that the Palestinians are not saying they are opposed to a peace agreement with the Arab countries. They are opposed to normalization with Israel.
Why is that? It is because they are afraid that if you normalize relations with Israel, you are actually recognizing Israel's right to exist as the homeland of the Jewish people in this part of the world. That is what really worries them. It is accepting Israel's existence.
This whole conflict, whether we like it or not, is not about a settlement, a checkpoint, a wall, and a fence or a settlement. This conflict is really about Israel's very existence in the Middle East, in this part of the world.
I am sorry to tell you, but there are still a large number of people in the Arab and Muslim world who continue to see Israel, even though Jews have been here for more than 3,000 years, as a foreign body that was imposed on this region by Western powers. They continue to see Israel as one big settlement that needs to be uprooted.
When you come and say normalization with Israel, you are recognizing Israeli culture, Israeli music, the Israeli political system. You are saying, "I want interaction with these Israeli Jews living there because I respect their culture. I want to be part of it. I want to enjoy it. I want to invite them over. I want to go and visit Tel Aviv and see how these Jews live. I want to go and see how successful this country is." That is what is actually worrying not only the Palestinian leaders, but Iran, Hezbollah, and Hamas.
They do not want Arabs and Muslims to be exposed to the wonderful things that are happening in Israel. They do not want them to see that Israel has been a story of success.
They do not want these wonderful things to be seen in the Arab and Muslim world because then the Arabs and Muslims might go to their leaders and say, "Excuse me. We want something like what these Jews have. Why can't we have democracy? Why can't we have a functioning parliament?"
Question: Who do you see as following on as the head of the PA after Abbas? Do you see Palestinians being sidelined by these various agreements with Israel and other Arab nations?
Abu Toameh: As mentioned, the Palestinians already feel sidelined. They feel that they have been left out of the room, but then, they are the ones who brought it on themselves. The Palestinian strategy in the last three or four years is, "We are boycotting America. We are boycotting Israel. We are boycotting the peace process. We are boycotting anyone who wants to talk to Israel. We are boycotting Arabs who visit Israel. We are boycotting Muslims."
We have even reached a point that they are even boycotting the money that Israel is trying to give them. Israel collects taxes on behalf of the Palestinians every month, and Israel is trying to transfer that money to them.
They are saying "No, we are even boycotting the money that you owe us." If they really want to change, all they have to do is, first stop the incitement against the Arab world. Stop the incitement against your Arab and Muslim brothers.
If you want to criticize them, that is fine. There are diplomatic ways of doing it. Do not insult them. Do not offend them. Do not humiliate them. Do not burn the pictures of their leaders in public squares. The United Arab Emirates has told them, "Look, we want to help you. We're not against you. Making peace with Israel does not mean that you are a traitor."
This is what the Palestinian leadership needs to understand. Now, regarding the issue of succession, look, everyone here is talking about it. The truth is, no one really knows. Why? Because the Palestinian Authority is actually a one‑man show run by Mahmoud Abbas and company in Ramallah. There are a number of scenarios that people are talking about.
Let us say President Abbas steps down tomorrow morning. Scenario number one will be that the Fatah and the PLO leaders will meet in Ramallah and they will elect one of them. They will choose one of these -- an Abu Muhammad or an Abu Allah -- one of those Abu's who is a veteran leader of the PLO there -- and the show will continue. That is scenario number one.
Another possibility is that we will hold a free and democratic election and elect a new president, however that is highly unlikely because of the divisions among the Palestinians. As you know, the West Bank is separated from Gaza because of the power struggle between the Palestinian Authority and Hamas.
The question we need to ask ourselves is not who is going to succeed Mahmoud Abbas. The question is will anyone who succeeds Mahmoud Abbas, will he be different? Will he be able to bring about any changes? I'm sorry to tell you that the answer is no.
I remember when Mahmoud Abbas took over from Yasser Arafat, when he was elected in 2005 to succeed Yasser Arafat, the first thing he said, "I promise to continue in the footsteps of the martyr Yasser Arafat. I promise to abide by all that President Arafat committed himself to."
We see the same thing. President Abbas has been loyal to President Arafat's legacy. He has refused to make any concessions in the last 14 or 15 years while he has been in power: he is keeping his word.
Whoever succeeds Mahmoud Abbas ‑‑ remember my words very well ‑‑ the first thing he will say in his first speech is, "I promised to follow in the footsteps of brother Mahmoud Abbas and to remain loyal to his legacy. I promise you I will not make any concession to Israel."
Do not expect any changes. You look at all these leaders in Ramallah. They are not different. Marwan Barghouti is not better than Mahmoud Abbas, and Mahmoud Abbas is not better than Jibril Rajoub or Mahmoud al‑Aloul. We are talking about the same ideology, the same mentality, and the same people running the show.
Do not really expect anything from the new successor. Will any Palestinian president come to Israel and say, "OK, Israel, I recognize Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people"? If you find me one Palestinian leader who will agree to say that, please let me know. I need to write an article for Gatestone about it.
Do you know of any Palestinian leader who will dare come out in public and say, "Oh, it's time for us to give up the right of return for Palestinian refugees and their descendants to their former homes in Israel"? If you find me one leader, again, please let me know. That will be a good story, too.
Do not expect many changes in the post‑Abbas era. What needs to change is the mindset. What needs to stop is the incitement, the daily delegitimization of Israel. It is very bad, and it is very widespread. If you do not change that, then you will not see any changes. In addition, the Palestinians need to change their education system. They need to start preparing their people for peace with Israel.
Question: What do you think of the role of Turkey in supporting the Palestinians against this agreement between Israel and the Emirates?
Abu Toameh: Again, the funny part is that President Erdogan has come out against the agreement. He is accusing the United Arab Emirates of making peace with Israel. But it's like, "Excuse me, don't you have a Turkish embassy in Tel Aviv? Isn't there an Israeli embassy in Turkey? Don't you have relations with Israel?
"Why are you attacking the United Arab Emirates? What message are you trying to send? What is Turkey's interest in preventing peace between an Arab country and Israel? How does that benefit the Palestinians? Does that really help?" The answer, of course, is no.
Turkey, or President Erdogan, has decided to put himself in the same camp with Hamas, with Islamic Jihad, with Iran, and the axis of evil in the Arab and Muslim world. That is bad. He has a very strong anti‑Israel agenda, which he is trying to spread to the rest of the Arab world. This should be a concern to many people.
Over here, he has been involved with Hamas against the Palestinian Authority. He sees the Palestinian Authority as too moderate. Erdogan's rhetoric against Israel is also bad. We have seen some bad statements come out of him in recent years, even in recent months.
By supporting the despots in the Arab and Muslim world, he is not helping the cause of peace. He is actually trying to sabotage any attempt to legitimize Israel and to establish normal relations between Israel and the Arab world.
Erdogan is playing a dangerous role. I do not know if you saw a report just a few weeks ago that, in addition to hosting several Hamas leaders in Turkey, he has also decided to give them citizenship.
What does that mean? What is he trying to achieve? He is trying to embolden the autocrats in the Arab and Muslim world, the people who are fighting against peace. The Palestinian Authority is extremely worried, even though they use the same rhetoric against Israel as Erdogan does. They are worried that Erdogan is going too far. His incitement and his embrace of Hamas and the autocrats is emboldening the rejectionists in the Arab world and in the Palestinian arena.
I hope that one day we will see pragmatic, good Arab leaders, not only among the Palestinians but also inside Israel. The Arab citizens of Israel are loyal citizens of Israel, but they have leaders who do not have their people's interests at heart. Not all of them are bad, but instead of building bridges between Jews and Arabs inside Israel, they are damaging these bridges. They are inciting Israel's Arab citizens against Israel, sometimes just to get headlines. No one will write, "He installed a new sewer system." That really worries me. We need new leaders for the Arabs inside Israel. I am much more worried about the future relations between Jews and Arabs inside Israel than I am about the future relations between Jews and Palestinians living in the West Bank in Gaza. The Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza do not want to be part of Israel. The Arabs inside Israel, they are fighting for integration.
Their leadership is pulling them in the wrong direction. That is why it is in Israel's interest to embrace its Arab citizens, to treat them better so that these radical extremist Arab members of Knesset who are trying to incite the Arab community inside Israel will be undermined. We do see a lot of hopeful signs coming out of the Israeli government in this regard. I am actually optimistic.
*The above are from a briefing to Gatestone Institute on August 19, 2020.
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Is Germany Turning Against Russia?
Anna Sauerbrey /The New York Times/October,25/2020
Germany is no longer playing nice with Russia.
In the past few weeks, Germany has helped to rescue Russia’s main opposition leader, Aleksei Navalny, and accused Moscow of poisoning him; rolled out the red carpet for Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, the Belarusian opposition leader who tried to topple one of Russia’s satellite regimes; and accused the country of state-orchestrated murder on German territory. And if that wasn’t enough, it’s pushing for sanctions on Russian officials.
It all seems to add up to something close to a confrontation — and a decisive move away from Germany’s decades-old approach, which sought to gently coax Russia into a more productive relationship. Is Germany turning against Russia? Or should the antagonism of the past weeks not be taken too seriously?
That longtime approach, known as “Wandel durch Annäherung” (“change through rapprochement”) and developed in the 1960s to ease Cold War tensions, was straightforward. If Germany helped to improve the economy and civil society in Russia, it would modernize and become more democratic and cooperative. Close economic ties would lessen the risk of armed conflict and give Germany political leverage.
The strategy held for decades. As recently as 2008, the foreign minister — Frank-Walter Steinmeier, today the president of Germany — heralded a “Modernization Partnership” promoting the “great goal” of a “European peace order stretching from the Atlantic to Vladivostok.” It would be, he said, “for the common benefit of the people in Russia, Germany and the whole of Europe.”
But as President Vladimir Putin turned to revisionist nationalism and tightened his authoritarian grip on his country, the policy began to look a lot less effective. Russia’s invasion of Crimea in 2014 and its cyberattack on Germany’s Parliament a year later deeply damaged relations. Russia has since sown disinformation across Europe, intervened in Syria and fueled the conflict in Libya.
With each rogue act, the mantra of “change through rapprochement” sounded increasingly hollow: To many, proponents look naïve or ideological (or worse). And among Germany’s politicians, disillusionment and anger are growing — not least for Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose visit to Navalny’s hospital bed was an uncharacteristically bold demonstration of her feelings.
So Germany’s newly confrontational style should not come as a complete surprise. “Navalny’s poisoning has certainly been a catalyst,” Liana Fix, the program director for international affairs at the Körber-Stiftung Foundation, told me. Far from marking a new departure in Germany’s approach to Russia, Ms. Fix said, the reaction to the poisoning of Navalny simply laid bare how corroded the relationship has become.
But longstanding foreign policy traditions do not end just like that. Change through rapprochement is still sacred in some parts of the Social Democratic Party and in many states in eastern Germany. Many German businesses, not least those who cater to Eastern European and Central Asian markets, are also strongly in favor of maintaining good relations with Russia — as are the more business-focused sections of the Christian Democratic Union.
In truth, Germany is split over how to approach Russia. In the past weeks, more hawkish voices took the lead. But the country is not upending its relationship with Russia — at least not yet.
Nowhere is that clearer than in the debate over the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline. A nearly completed $11 billion project stretching from the Russian coast near St. Petersburg to Germany, the project is a monument to the special relationship between the two countries. Yet internationally, the project is roundly opposed.
For the United States and most European countries, it’s another egregious effort to expand Russian influence. For Ukraine and Germany’s eastern European neighbors, it hands Russia dangerous means to exert control over the region’s energy supply.
In Germany itself, skepticism about the project had been building for some time. When Navalny was poisoned, it came rushing to the surface. Heiko Maas, the foreign minister, appeared to call the project into question, saying he “hoped that Russia doesn’t force us to change our stance toward Nord Stream 2.” It was the first time a cabinet member had spoken out against it. Far from issuing a rebuke, Chancellor Angela Merkel supported the comment.
But that’s as far as it went. The government looks to have backed down, and the project is proceeding. Though Nord Stream 2 could be stopped, the risks would be substantial. First, there’d likely be a retaliatory, and costly, lawsuit. Then there’s the inevitable political fallout. But perhaps most important, stopping Nord Stream 2 would be a clear, unequivocal signal that Germany had turned against Russia.
Instead, for now, Germany is seeking the support of its European partners. On Monday, the European Union’s foreign ministers approved the proposal, put forth by Germany and France, to impose sanctions on Russian officials suspected of poisoning Navalny. Turning the conflict into a European issue is a smart move. It is Putin’s aim to split the European Union; this is a chance for Europe to respond with one voice.
But Germany won’t be able to backpedal all the way. The confrontation may have progressed too far already: Putin is unlikely to forget, or forgive, the actions of the past weeks. And as Russia confronts the coronavirus at home and conflicts among its neighbors, there’s no guessing what might come next. Germany ought to be prepared — and know how it will respond.
*Anna Sauerbrey is the editor of the opinion page of the newspaper Der Tagesspiegel*

So, what do Arabs want from the next US president?
Faisal J. Abbas/Arab News/October 25/ 2020
With a few days to go until the US votes in its new president, the atmosphere is tense and the air — both in America and here in the Middle East — is so thick with expectation and desperation that you can almost cut it with a knife.
Deciding America’s future is obviously a matter for Americans, and US allies in the region look forward to working closely with whoever emerges as the winner: Republican incumbent, Donald Trump, or Democratic contender, Joe Biden.
US regional allies are actually very predictable when it comes to dealing with the transition in the White House. And the same — dare I say — applies to whomever ends up winning the race.
Indeed, people should pay very little attention to the huffing and puffing of some enemies of US allies in the region disguised as scenarios of what might happen in case the Democrats win.
As is the case every election year — or “silly season” as the legendary former Saudi ambassador to the US, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, used to call it — there is much that was and will be said in the run-up to Election Day. After the third of November however, the campaigning stops and reality checks in.
This is, of course, no secret to anyone familiar with how American politics work. Yet, some Middle East pundits still compete in trying to predict who would be better for Saudi Arabia.
I refer these so-called experts to this newspaper’s interview with US State Department spokeswoman, Morgan Ortagus, who pointed out that the Saudi-US relationship “always has been bipartisan.”
Also noteworthy, for those critics with short memories, was her reference to US arms sales to Saudi Arabia, which she says that she worked on herself when she was part of the Obama administration.
Critics should also remember that it was President Obama, a Democrat, who vetoed Congress on acts which were against Saudi Arabia; after all, whatever tactical differences of opinion Riyadh and Washington may have had at the time, he would never have acted against the interests of his own country given that US presidents quickly realize the strategic importance of the Kingdom, religiously, economically and politically.
However, we must acknowledge that in the Middle East, there are the views and policies of those in power; and there are the hearts and minds of the people on the street — and these are not always aligned.
This is why we at Arab News are proud to present our second US elections YouGov poll, where we ask the Arab Street — in this case a sample of more than 3,000 people in 18 countries — what their hopes, aspirations and fears are when it comes to the presidential candidates and their policies.
As the numbers show, it seems some things remain unchanged when compared with our 2016 poll, such as the findings that most respondents are skeptical about US foreign policy, with 84 percent saying that the US has not done enough to support Arab countries in their battles with extremism.
Interestingly though, while Biden has proven more popular than Trump, this does not mean that Arabs are willing to sign him a blank cheque.
In fact, one of the most interesting findings in our “Elections 2020: What do Arabs want?”
Arab News/YouGov poll is that (53 percent) of Arabs think Obama left the region worse off, and also a solid majority of (58 percent) think that Biden should distance himself from Obama-era policies.
Regional allies look forward to working closely with whoever wins the election, but hopes are that the mistakes of the Obama era will not be repeated
This is an interesting change in attitude; as I am sure we all remember just how popular President Obama was in the region following his famous 2009 Cairo speech. However, it seems that we in the Middle East are finally learning the lesson that actions speak louder than words.
Speaking of lessons, a free (albeit very long) one has recently become available: I refer to Hillary Clinton’s declassified emails, which show the disastrous impact some policies of the Obama administration had, and continue to have, on this region. For those who followed the Obama presidency closely, there was little new to discover in the correspondence. However, for less-keen observers who were taken in by the president’s soaring rhetoric, the revelations might have been heartbreaking.
As vice president at the time, Biden would have had only a minimal say in managing Clinton while she was secretary of state. In fact, blame for setting the region ablaze can be almost exclusively distributed among Clinton, Obama and Ben Rhodes, the president’s “boy genius” of a deputy national security adviser.
So what do these emails reveal about Hillary Clinton? Well, many things, in fact, and here are some of the most alarming:
1 — They expose a close relationship with the Muslim Brotherhood, which has been designated a terrorist group by many Muslim-majority countries. Its chief ideologue, the Doha based cleric Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, has repeatedly spewed intolerance and venom against followers of different faiths. In fact, he has called for violent attacks on them. He has issued religious edicts, or fatwas, authorizing attacks on all Jews.
On Al Jazeera Arabic in January 2009, he said: “Oh God, take your enemies, the enemies of Islam . . . Oh God, take the treacherous Jewish aggressors . . . Oh God, count their numbers, slay them one by one and spare none.” He has a similar deep seated hatred of all Europeans. On his TV show in 2013, broadcast from Doha to millions worldwide, Al-Qaradawi lambasted Muslim countries as weak, and called on their citizens to overthrow their governments and launch a war against all who oppose the Brotherhood, describing them as “khawarij,” or enemies of Islam.
2 — The emails reveal how Clinton and her close advisers were hand in glove with the Muslim Brotherhood leadership in Egypt, Libya and elsewhere. They were able to change US policy and to help various organizations attain their sinister objectives by means of the red herring that has come to be known as the “Arab Spring.” Muslim Brotherhood officials were hosted in the US and feted at the World Economic Forum. They were brought together with officials of the International Monetary Fund. Throughout all this, Clinton and her team knew very well that this terrorist organization was the worst possible replacement for the Hosni Mubarak regime in Egypt.
3 — The emails expose the Obama administration’s close relationship with Al Jazeera TV — in contrast with the previous George W. Bush administration, which reportedly wanted the channel’s offices bombed. Al Jazeera was the medium of choice for extremists, especially Al-Qaeda. For years it was the exclusive disseminator of the Bin Laden tapes, and it was Al-Qaeda’s incitement via Al Jazeera that led to a series of deadly attacks on American forces in Afghanistan and later Iraq. Al-Qaeda videos would mysteriously arrive in Al Jazeera offices and then be given space during prime time on Al Jazeera. By supporting the channel, Hillary Clinton stands accused of sleeping with the devil.
4 — On the subject of American lives, another prominent Obama foreign policy failure is exposed in the emails relating to the funding of the so-called
Arab Spring through the Clinton Foundation. Those emails reveal the trigger for the deaths in 2012 of the US ambassador to Libya, John Christopher Stevens, and Sean Smith, a US Foreign Service information management officer. Of course this is in no way an endorsement of Libya’s madman Muammar Qaddafi, but backing Islamist parties has always backfired, and it is astonishing that American officials failed to learn this lesson.
As Dan Kovalik, a contributor to Huffington Post, pointed out, Hillary Clinton and her team knew that “in terms of the alleged goal of promoting regional security, a number of emails reflect the awareness that the bombing campaign, and the toppling of the aggressively anti-Al-Qaeda Qaddafi, might very well open a space for Al-Qaeda and allied forces to take over many parts of Libya, as they actually have.”
Kovalik refers to one particular email (Doc No. C05780521), to Hillary Clinton from her long-time confidant, Sidney Blumenthal, which states that “traditionally, the eastern part of Libya has been a stronghold for radical Islamist groups, including the Al-Qaeda-linked Libyan Islamic Fighting Group. While Qaddafi’s regime has been successful in suppressing the jihadist threat in Libya, the current situation opens the door for jihadist resurgence.”
Kovalik rightly wondered how, in light of this knowledge, Blumenthal could have argued that “winning the war” against Qaddafi was somehow necessary for regional security.
With all the information that the emails contain, one begins to understand why Trump said during his 2016 campaign that Hillary Clinton should go to jail. Of course, that is a decision for due process of law — but in the court of public opinion, there is a clear case against Clinton for responsibility for the loss of American lives and, more importantly for us, for initiating a foreign policy that left this region in flames that we are still struggling to put out.
Good luck to both presidential candidates on Nov. 3. If Biden does win, let us hope that whoever he appoints as secretary of state avoids the mistakes made by the Obama administration — and, of course, remembers not to use their personal email for official business.
• Faisal J. Abbas is the editor in chief of Arab News
Twitter: @FaisalJAbbas

Palestinian leaders must listen to their people, who want US help in ending Conflict
Ray Hanania/Arab News/October 25/2020
The majority of Palestinians in the occupied territories would like the US to play a bigger role in mediating peace between Israel and Palestine, according to a new public opinion poll.
The Arab News/YouGov pan-Arab survey also found that in common with the rest of the Arab world, the same group opposed American recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital along with other policies of President Donald Trump’s administration.
One interpretation of the findings could be that many Palestinians have lost confidence in their existing leadership, which has rejected participation in recent US-led peace efforts.
Palestinian leaders were absent from the “Peace to Prosperity” conference held in 2019 in Bahrain that outlined $50 billion in financial support for Palestinians in a peace deal, and they boycotted the White House unveiling of the so-called “Deal of the Century” peace plan.
They have also been critical of peace initiatives led by the UAE and Bahrain that culminated in their signing, along with the US and Israel, of the Abraham Accords in September.
YouGov is a global internet-based market research and data analytics firm, headquartered in the UK, with operations in Europe, North America, the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific.
The survey revealed significant support among Palestinians in the occupied territories for stronger American involvement in the peace process, with 52 percent wanting the US to play a “bigger role.” The remaining 48 percent thought otherwise.
Some might argue that there is a contradiction in the minds of Palestinians, but I do not see it that way.
It shows that Palestinians do want peace and they believe that the US is the only international power that can bring it about. But at the same time, in the absence of progress in Israel-Palestine conflict resolution, they do not favor one-sided concessions from the Arab corner.
The poll also addressed issues concerning how Arabs viewed the upcoming American presidential election, but the overall view of peace was driven by the belief that regardless of who is the next president, the US needed to remain a leading voice in pushing for Middle East peace and Israeli-Palestinian reconciliation. A poll is not required to show that Palestinians are deeply frustrated by Israel’s continued oppressive policies and with the ineffectiveness of the Palestinian leadership, not only the Palestinian Authority (PA), which takes direction from the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), but also from Hamas, which is aligned with radicals in Iran and Qatar.
The failure of the Palestinian leadership to assert Palestinian rights has been compounded by the absence of a strong and effective public communications strategy to not only advance the fundamentals of those rights but to also counter Israel’s massive propaganda campaigns.
Israel spends millions every year to promote aggressive public relations spin that undermines Palestinian rights, suppresses violence against Palestinians by the Israel Defense Forces and the illegal settler movement, and marginalizes Palestinian rights in the Western mainstream news media.
For most Americans, the news media, including the entertainment media industry, defines their understanding of the Israel-Palestine conflict. With Palestinians absent from the public media education campaign, Israel is free to shape every issue to its advantage.
The mainstream news media often reports on violence against Israeli targets but marginalizes or ignores violence by
the Israeli military and the illegal Israeli settler movement.
Studies have also shown that the mainstream news media often excludes opinions and perspectives written by pro-Palestinian and pro-Arab columnists and presents Arab-Israeli issues in the narrow context of pro-Israel discussion. With better media engagement, the public would have a more accurate understanding of the Israel-Palestine conflict and that would strengthen Palestinian confidence not only in the peace movement but in their own leadership. A skewed mainstream media coverage of the Middle East conflict allows the Palestinian leadership to redirect the Palestinian public’s concerns away from their own failures to other issues driven by emotion and anger.Yet the Palestinian leadership cannot hide behind media bias to cover their failures. They need to step up and listen to their public and define their issues based on the best interests and opinions of the Palestinian population which includes those living in Israel, those under Israeli occupation, and those in the diaspora.
• Ray Hanania is an award-winning former Chicago City Hall political reporter and columnist. He can be reached on his personal website at www.Hanania.com.