English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For August 09/2020
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news

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Bible Quotations For today
Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart
Matthew 11/25-30: “‘I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. ‘Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.’”

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on August 08-09/2021
Our first hostage benefit concert held in Dover NH/Guila Fakhoury/Amer Fakhoury Foundation/08 August/2021
Health Ministry: 1552 new Corona cases, 5 deaths
Al-Rahi Says Southern Front Ignited to Deviate Attention from Port Anniversary
Israel PM: Lebanon Responsible for Attacks, Hizbullah or Not
Report: U.S. Presses Israel on Lebanon to Preserve Status Quo before Vienna Talks
LF Hits Back at Bassil after Electricity Remarks
Firefighting, civil defense teams succeed in extinguishing Darb El-Sim fire
Hospital Owners’ Syndicate demands diesel to be secured immediately to avoid closure
Huge fire breaks out in Darb El-Sim, civil defense & firefighting teams are working to extinguish it
Army Chief bound for Qatar
Grand Mufti Derian: No place for sedition among the Lebanese, country’s rescues lies in changing those who maintain silent consciences towards people’s misery
Amal delegation holds series of meetings before the inauguration of Iranian president
Cabinet formation stalled by rifts over key ministries, other portfolios/Hussein Dakroub/The Daily Star/August 08/2021
Hezbollah is no longer deterred by the IDF - analysis/Anna Ahronheim/Jerusalem Post/August 08/2021
Bennett: Israel won’t accept rocket attacks from Lebanon
Lessons from the Beirut Blast: Lebanon Will Continue to Collapse/Alexander Langlois/The National Interest/August 08/2021

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on August 08-09/2021
Top Bahraini official arrives to deepen Israel relations
Iran deal instigated violence, says senior Bahraini official in Jerusalem
Regime Shelling Kills Four Children in Northwest Syria
Floods in Sudan Damage Thousands of Homes
Hundreds Flee, Homes Destroyed as Forest Fires Ravage Greek Island
Ongoing forest fires in Greece force hundreds to flee
Taliban Seize Two More Provincial Capitals in Northern Blitz

Titles For The Latest The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on August 08-09/2021
One year into Abraham Accords, Israel's trade with UAE tops $570m./Zev Stub/Jerusalem Post/August 08/2021
“Their Goal Is Really to Eradicate Christianity”: Persecution of Christians, June 2021/Raymond Ibrahim/Gatestone Institute/August 08/2021

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on August 08-09/2021
Our first hostage benefit concert held in Dover NH
Guila Fakhoury/Amer Fakhoury Foundation/08 August/2021
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/101238/amer-fakhoury-foundation-our-first-hostage-benefit-concert-held-in-dover-nh-%d9%81%d9%8a%d8%af%d9%8a%d9%88-%d8%a8%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%84%d8%ba%d8%a9-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%a5%d9%86%d9%83%d9%84%d9%8a%d8%b2%d9%8a/
Our first hostage benefit concert held in Dover NH. The concert is in memory of Amer Fakhoury’s death as well as the Beirut blast. Both of these tragic events happened because of the corrupt Hezbollah regime in Lebanon. Zoya Fakhoury in her speech explains how Amer was kidnapped by the Lebanese General Security. He was tortured, beaten and forced to sign false documents. The same government also put more than 2000 tons of ammonium nitrate between civilians in Lebanon, and killed 200 people and injured 7000. Both Amer’s death and the victims of the Beirut blast have yet to get justice. The Amer Fakhoury Foundation want to spread awareness about the control of Hezbollah in Lebanon in every sector of the Lebanese government. The goal of the foundation is to help other hostages worldwide as well as help innocent victims suffering under corrupt regimes.

Health Ministry: 1552 new Corona cases, 5 deaths
NNA/August 08/2021
The Ministry of Public Health announced on Sunday, in its daily report on COVID-19 developments, the registration of 1,552 new Coronavirus infections, which raised the cumulative number of confirmed cases to-date to 571,650. The report added that 5 deaths were recorded during the past 24 hours.

Al-Rahi Says Southern Front Ignited to Deviate Attention from Port Anniversary
Naharnet/August 08/2021
Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Sunday said that the southern front with Israel has been ignited in order to “deviate attention” from the anniversary of the catastrophic Beirut port explosion. Apparently referring to residents’ interception of the Hizbullah truck that was carrying a multiple rocket launcher in the Hasbaya town of Shwayya, al-Rahi said: "We stand by our people in the South to condemn the tense security situation." "They have grown tired, and they are right, of war, killing, displacement and destruction. And as we condemn the frequent Israeli violations in south Lebanon and the breach of U.N. resolution 1701, we also deplore the ignition of the situation in the border areas from the vicinity of residential villages," the patriarch added. "We also cannot accept that a party take the peace and war decisions outside the decision of the state and the national decision that is entrusted to two thirds of the cabinet members according to Article 65 of the constitution," al-Rahi went on to say, referring to Hizbullah. He added: "It is true that Lebanon has not signed a peace treaty with Israel, but it is also true that it has not decided war with it. It is rather officially committed to the 1949 truce and it is currently in border demarcation negotiations while searching for security and for overcoming its crises.”Lebanon does not want to be “implicated in military acts that draw destructive Israeli responses,” al-Rahi said, calling on the army to “prevent the firing of rockets from Lebanese territory, not out of keenness on Israel’s safety but rather on Lebanon’s safety.”“We want to put an end to the military approach and war and to endorse the approach of peace and the interest of Lebanon and all Lebanese,” the patriarch urged.

Israel PM: Lebanon Responsible for Attacks, Hizbullah or Not
Associated Press/August 08/2021
Israel's prime minister said Sunday he holds the Lebanese government responsible for rocket fire launched from its territory, whether Hizbullah launched the weapons or not.
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett's comments came days after one of the heaviest flareups in violence between Israel and Hizbullah in several years and indicated Israel could expand its response if the rocket fire continues. "The country of Lebanon and the army of Lebanon have to take responsibility (for) what happens in its backyard," Bennett told his Cabinet. Over several days last week, militants in Lebanon launched a barrage of rockets into Israel, drawing rare Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon. On Friday, Hizbullah fired additional rockets toward Israel, and Israel responded with heavy artillery shelling.
"It is less important to us if it's a Palestinian organization that fired, independent rebels, the state of Israel won't accept shooting on its land," Bennett said. He spoke a day after Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said he'd retaliate against any future Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon and added it would be wrong to assume Hizbullah would be constrained by internal divisions in Lebanon or the country's harsh economic crisis. "Don't miscalculate by saying that Hizbullah is busy with Lebanon's problems," Nasrallah said, adding that the firing of rockets was a "clear message." Israel and Hizbullah are bitter enemies who fought to a stalemate in a monthlong war in 2006. Lebanon is experiencing its worst economic and financial crisis in its modern history, which the World Bank describes as among the worst the world has witnessed since the mid 1800s. Israel estimates Hizbullah possesses over 130,000 rockets and missiles capable of striking anywhere in Israel. In recent years, Israel also has expressed concerns that the group is trying to import or develop an arsenal of precision-guided missiles.

Report: U.S. Presses Israel on Lebanon to Preserve Status Quo before Vienna Talks
Naharnet/August 08/2021
Washington and Paris quickly communicated with Lebanon and Israel to contain the latest flare-up between Hizbullah and Israel, a media report said on Sunday. The U.S. and France were keen on preventing an additional burden on Lebanon’s “political, security and economic problems which are still delaying the government’s formation,” Asharq al-Awsat newspaper reported. They believe that “any deterioration in the South will lead to further collapse” in Lebanon, whereas they are “working on halting it,” the daily added. Moreover, a Western diplomatic source told Asharq al-Awsat that during the military standoff, President Michel Aoun dispatched an envoy to Hizbullah’s leadership, as the army sought to contain the domestic reactions that accompanied the interception of Hizbullah’s rocket launcher by some villagers. “But the other factor that restored the situation in the South was that Washington exerted pressures on its ally, Israel’s prime minister, convincing him not to tamper with the rules of engagement, at least for the foreseeable future,” the source added. “The U.S. administration is not in favor of a change to the status quo in the South ahead of the resumption of the Vienna negotiations (with Iran) in September,” the source went on to say.

LF Hits Back at Bassil after Electricity Remarks
Naharnet/August 08/2021
Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil lamented Sunday that “every hour of power rationing by the power plants costs the dollar reserves 32% more,” seeing as the power supply deficit is being covered by privately-owned neighborhood generators. “And every private generator hour costs the citizen 20 times more than an hour of state-provided power supply,” Bassil added, in a tweet. “Every moment of darkness and every additional penny paid by the Lebanese people is to be blamed on the MPs who lied to people and deprived Electricite du Liban of buying fuel for the operation of the power plants that require maintenance,” the FPM chief went on to say. He also blasted the central bank for “refusing to provide dollars from EDL’s funds to purchase replacement parts.”“The Lebanese should know who is making them live in darkness,” Bassil added. Several Lebanese Forces officials and MPs snapped back swiftly at the FPM chief. “What is this insolence? The Energy and Water Ministry was in your hands for 12 years and more than $40 billion were spent,” MP Imad Wakim said. “You did not listen to international advices and the International Monetary Fund and its plans and the diesel cartel that you run has established a local black market, and on top of this all you want to use the central bank’s reserves,” Wakim added, addressing Bassil. “You are accusing those who oppose this of being behind the power cuts,” Wakim went on to say, adding that the FPM chief should be “ashamed” of what he did.

Firefighting, civil defense teams succeed in extinguishing Darb El-Sim fire
NNA/August 08/2021
The Maghdouche Municipality fire brigade, with the help of Saida Al-Zahrani Municipalities Union fire trucks and the Lebanese and Palestinian Civil Defense units, succeeded in putting out the fire that broke out in the Darb El-Sim area and spread to the town of Maghdouche.Mayor Raif Younan thanked everyone who helped prevent a catastrophe from befalling the shrine of “Our Lady of Mantara” in the region.

Hospital Owners’ Syndicate demands diesel to be secured immediately to avoid closure
NNA/August 08/2021
The Syndicate of Hospital Owners in Lebanon announced, in an issued statement on Sunday that "a number of hospitals, including university hospitals, are threatened with their generators being stopped within hours due to diesel shortage."
Despite its warning about the situation several days ago, the Syndicate expressed its surprise at how this substance is delivered in small amounts to hospitals while it is being sold in the black market in a blatant and uncontrollable manner. As this issue remains unresolved, the Syndicate cautioned that this would seriously threaten the lives of patients, particularly with the wave of Corona that we are witnessing once again.
It called on the President of the Republic and the Caretaker Prime Minister to "intervene immediately, as it is not permissible for diesel to be cut off from hospitals at a time when we are witnessing an almost complete electricity power outage."
"Who can bear the responsibility for the inevitable death that may afflict some patients?" the Syndicate questioned. "We have not heard of a country in the world in which this shameful matter occurs without all officials rushing to find a solution. The Zahrani and Tripoli refineries and warehouses of private companies must be opened today, and diesel oil must be delivered immediately to hospitals in an urgent manner, without giving any holiday pretexts…The matter cannot be postponed for any reason, and it is a shame that we have reached this level of backwardness!” the statement concluded regretfully.

Huge fire breaks out in Darb El-Sim, civil defense & firefighting teams are working to extinguish it
NNA/August 08/2021 
A large fire broke out in the Darb El-Sim area, south of Sidon, which quickly spread to Maghdouche, nearby Our Lady's Church, and the Civil Defense is working to put it out with the support of the fire brigade in the town's municipality, NNA correspondent reported this afternoon. The Mayor of Maghdouche, Engineer Raif Younan, appealed to the Sidon Municipal Union to help extinguish the fire. He said: "The fires began approaching the forests of Maghdouche and the shrine of Our Lady of Mantara, and the Civil Defense is unable to put it out."

Army Chief bound for Qatar
NNA/August 08/2021 
The Lebanese Army announced via Twitter today that “the Armed Forces Commander, General Joseph Aoun, has left Beirut heading to the State of Qatar, at the invitation of his counterpart, Chief of Staff of the Qatari Armed Forces, Lieutenant-General Pilot Ghanem bin Shaheen Al-Ghanim.”

Grand Mufti Derian: No place for sedition among the Lebanese, country’s rescues lies in changing those who maintain silent consciences towards people’s misery
NNA/August 08/2021 
Grand Mufti of the Republic, Sheikh Abdul-Latif Derian, addressed the Lebanese on the eve of the Islamic Hijra New Year, regretting that the occasion returns this year while the country is burdened with calamities and ordeals at various levels.
Derian said that the Lebanese find themselves today besieged as the dire and crippling economic conditions are weighing heavily on their shoulders, from the shortage of fuel to medicine to food, in addition to the emerging pandemic, and most prominently the stalled government formation. “It is forbidden for us to have a government that can manage our affairs, and save us from scarcity, and from the horrors of hunger and loss,” he said, adding that the Lebanese are being forced to move away from their country, society, coexistence, and the great meaning of Lebanon's message.
Derian regretted that the vast majority of the Lebanese people are under mortal suffering, stressing that an entire people cannot migrate. “We will not leave our homes that we love, and our coexistence that we desire, and to which we are accustomed…The young people demonstrating in the port a few days ago, renewed our hope for survival, for the sake of salvation, for change, and for replacement,” he affirmed, adding that change depends on the Lebanese themselves.
“If we want to save the homeland and the state, then we must not emigrate, but rather change those who turn deaf ears, blind eyes and numb consciences to the misery of the Lebanese people,” the Mufti underlined.
He also reminded that “the formation of the government, the rescue government that the Lebanese and the Arab and international community demand, is a prelude to addressing the citizens’ pain and suffering.” He, thus, urged politicians to cast their differences and narrow interests aside and to assume their responsibilities towards their people and salvage their nation.
Meanwhile, the Mufti asserted that “there is no place for strife among Muslims in Lebanon, just as there is no place for strife among the Lebanese, despite their political and intellectual diversity,” adding that the recent events in the country require a lot of wisdom and having true statesmen, and an actual state that is aware of the dangers that threaten its existence and entity, emphasizing that “the spiteful Zionist enemy does not distinguish between the Lebanese or their regions.”

Amal delegation holds series of meetings before the inauguration of Iranian president
NNA/August 08/2021
"Development and Liberation" bloc member, MP Ayoub Hmayed, and the accompanying kinetic delegation participating in the inauguration ceremony of the new Iranian president in Tehran met with the Speaker of the Iranian Islamic Consultative Assembly, Muhammad Baqer Qalibaf, at the council's headquarters, where he presented with the Speaker of the Iranian Shura Council the situation in Lebanon and the region and the challenges it faces due to the Israeli aggression . Hmayed conveyed the greetings of Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and his congratulations on “achieving the merit of electing the President of the Iranian Republic and the trust that the Iranian people placed in President Ibrahim Raisi, which is added to the great successes embodied in the work of the Iranian leadership under the directives of His Eminence Leader Ali Khamenei,” stressing the depth of the relationship between Lebanon and Iran since the Imam Khomeini, Imam Sayyid Musa al-Sadr and Dr. Mustafa Shamran, were the roots of cooperation and insistence on resisting injustice and aggression and confronting Zionist schemes are deeply-rooted. In turn, Qalibaf pointed out that "it is important for his country to help lift the burdens on the brotherly Lebanese people, and to be by their side in difficult times," conveying the delegation's special greetings to "the old and dear friend, Speaker Nabih Berri, saying: I would like to extend to him an official invitation to visit Iran."
Then, the special assistant delegation of the Iranian Islamic Consultative Assembly met with Mr. Hossein Amir Abdollahian, who considered that "the participation of the Amal Movement delegation in the swearing-in ceremony of Mr. Ibrahim Raisi has a special symbolism and great meaning for Iran.
After that, there was a lengthy meeting with the Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee for National Security and Defense, Dr. Wahid Jalalzadeh, where Hmayed presented realistically the image of the political scene in the region, stressing "the necessity of activating the work of parliament diplomacy that represents the voice of the people and launched by Speaker Nabih Berri to strengthen parliamentary relations and increase communication." In turn, Zadeh considered that Speaker Berri is "capable of activating this parliamentary dynamic," conveying the delegation's greetings to Speaker Berri and to the Lebanese parliament.

Cabinet formation stalled by rifts over key ministries, other portfolios
Hussein Dakroub/The Daily Star/August 08/2021
BEIRUT: Two weeks after his appointment as Lebanon’s new premier, Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati’s attempts to form a new government appeared Sunday to have been stalled by a dispute over President Michel Aoun’s proposal for a rotation of four key ministries, as well as the distribution of other portfolios. “The Cabinet formation process is blocked and obstacles are cropping up as a result of President Aoun’s insistence on a comprehensive rotation of the four ‘sovereign’ ministries: Interior, Finance, Defense and Foreign Affairs,” Al-Jadeed TV quoted sources close to Mikati as saying Saturday night.
Officials close to Mikati could not be reached to comment on Al-Jadeed’s report. An official source said Sunday that no date has so far been set for a new meeting between Aoun and Mikati since the two leaders last met Friday, a development reflecting the widening rift over the distribution of portfolios among sects, as well as the proposed rotation of the four key ministries. s Mikati’s sixth meeting with Aoun since his designation on July 26 to form a new government but it apparently failed to make any major progress in his endeavor to quickly form a Cabinet of 24 nonpartisan specialists to deliver reforms and salvage the crises-hit country from total economic collapse.
Mikati declined to give details on his discussions with Aoun, saying that “silence is sharper than talking and what matters is how things will end, God willing.”The official source declined to comment on Al-Jadeed’s report, but said there are “pending points”, in addition to the rift over the rotation of key ministries that are hindering the Cabinet formation. “There are pending points over some ministries that have not been solved. Walid Joumblatt insists on the Social Affairs Ministry being assigned to the Druze sect, while the Shiites refuse to abandon Youssef Khalil as finance minister,” the source familiar with the matter told The Daily Star. Praising Khalil as a “good person,” the source said the problem with Khalil, currently the head of financial operations at the Central Bank who is said to be vetoed by Aoun, is that his name is included in the forensic audit which the auditing firm, Alvarez & Marsal, is supposed to conduct in the BDL’s accounts at Lebanon’s request. A forensic audit of the accounts of the Central Bank and all ministries is a key demand of international donors. “One cannot be appointed a minister when he is facing questions over a forensic audit of the Central Bank’s accounts,” the source said.
Denying tensions between Aoun and Mikati over the Cabinet formation process, the source said: “Cooperation and consultation between the two leaders are very good. But demands for ministerial seats from political parties are hindering the Cabinet formation. The two leaders are working as much as they can to meet these demands.”In an implicit rejection of Aoun’s proposal for a rotation of the four ministries, Mikati has called for maintaining the same sectarian and confessional distribution of these ministries adopted in the previous government. In caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab’s Cabinet, the Interior Ministry is held by a Sunni, the Finance portfolio is held by a Shiite, while the Defense and Foreign Affairs ministries are held by Christians.
As in previous Cabinet formation bids, Aoun’s rotation proposal is apparently targeting Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, who has staunchly insisted that the Finance Ministry be allotted to the Shiite sect, refusing to budge on this position.
ati, backed by former premiers Saad Hariri, Tammam Salam and Fouad Siniora, was reportedly insisting on assigning the Interior and Justice portfolios to the Sunni sect, while Aoun and the Free Patriotic Movement, headed by MP Gebran Bassil, want them to be allocated to Christians loyal to their team.
The Interior and Justice ministries will have key roles mainly in supervising next year’s parliamentary elections. The Justice Ministry will also have an important role in the government’s promised fight against rampant corruption and the waste of public funds, largely blamed for the crippling economic and financial crisis.
Faced with differences over key ministries, as well as the distribution of public services-related ministries, such as the Energy, Public Works, Social Affairs, the official source said Aoun and Mikati are seeking to reach a “package” deal involving all the ministries.
“A package deal on the Cabinet formation will overcome last-minute demands by the political parties. It will also come amid external pressure on Lebanon to accelerate the formation of a new government as clearly manifested in the international donors’ conference held in Paris and the statement issued by leaders attending it,” the source said. He added that foreign ambassadors in their meetings with Lebanese officials have been calling on Lebanon’s political leaders to expedite the government formation because the deteriorating situation at all levels required a fully functioning government.
France Wednesday hosted the international donors’ conference in which 33 countries and 10 international organizations participated. The conference held by video raised $370 million in support of the Lebanese people on the first anniversary of the deadly Beirut Port explosion. French President Emmanuel Macron and other leaders that participated in the conference called for the speedy formation of a new government that is capable of implementing the required reforms and supervising parliamentary elections. The official source dismissed as “nonsense” politicians who link the Cabinet formation to the ongoing negotiations between the United States and Iran over Tehran’s nuclear program. “The Cabinet formation is an internal issue and foreign powers have nothing to do with it. On the contrary, foreign powers are urging the Lebanese to speed up the Cabinet formation,” the source said.
Maronite Patriarch Bechara al-Rai decried the failure to form a new government to cope with the country’s worsening economic and social problems and new tensions in south Lebanon following the exchange of gunfire between Hezbollah and Israel. He lambasted politicians for bickering over ministerial seats while the Lebanese are reeling from unprecedented economic depression that is threatening them with poverty and hunger amid a crashing Lebanese pound that has lost more than 90 percent of its value since late 2019. “The biggest and main question is: Why has no government been formed after all these? Is it a dispute over the distribution of ministerial portfolios? This is shameful in normal circumstances and outrageous in the tragic circumstances in which the Lebanese are living which you [politicians] don’t feel until now. You are fighting for ministries but you are fighting for something you don’t possess because [ministries] are the people’s property,” Rai said in a sermon Sunday at the Maronite patriarch’s summer residence in the northern town of Diman. Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah touched briefly on the Cabinet formation crisis during a 90-minute televised speech Saturday night marking the 15th anniversary of the 33-day war between Hezbollah and Israel in 2006.
“We cannot prejudge [Cabinet formation] matters that are [being tackled] between the president of the republic and the premier-designate,” said Nasrallah, whose Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc was among blocs that supported Mikati’s designation for the premiership after Hariri stepped down on July 15 after nearly nine months of designation. Hariri stepped aside following the president’s rejection of his proposed Cabinet lineup of 24 nonpartisan specialists to implement a reform program contained in the French initiative designed to steer Lebanon out of its crippling economic and financial crunch, the worst since the 1975-90 Civil War. Lebanon has been left without a fully functioning government since the resignation of Diab’s Cabinet on Aug. 10 in the aftermath of last year’s massive explosion that devastated Beirut Port, killed 210 people, wounded thousands and damaged entire neighborhoods in the capital.
In addition to implementing essential reforms, the new government would be tasked with restarting negotiations with the International Monetary Fund on a bailout package and supervising parliamentary elections.

Hezbollah is no longer deterred by the IDF - analysis
Anna Ahronheim/Jerusalem Post/August 08/2021
"We are not seeking a war but we are ready for it and we do not fear it,” Nasrallah threatened.
As Hezbollah fired its largest rocket salvo toward Israel in 15 years last week, it became clear that the border with Lebanon has turned into another front where days, if not weeks, of conflict can erupt at any moment.
The rocket fire on Friday morning surprised the thousands of Israeli tourists who were enjoying a summer vacation by kayaking on the Jordan River or hiking the dozens of trails through the hills of the Galilee and the Golan Heights.
The clear blue skies were interrupted by rockets raining down and the Iron Dome missile-defense system intercepting them before they could do any harm.
The rocket fire came just days after three rockets were fired by unnamed Palestinian terrorists toward Kiryat Shmona. The IDF retaliated with three heavy rounds of artillery fire and then by airstrikes targeting the launch site and the road on which the terrorists had traveled.
Hezbollah was able to sit back and take more than100 artillery shells fired by the IDF in response to the rocket fire, the fifth such incident since May.
But striking the road was too much for Hezbollah.
Many of Hezbollah’s capabilities and infrastructure are intertwined with the civilian infrastructure of Lebanon. And though Israel refrained from striking Lebanese infrastructure during the Second Lebanon War, Israeli officials have warned repeatedly that civilian infrastructure is now a legitimate target for IAF strikes. “What happened days ago was very dangerous and a development that did not happen for 15 years,” Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah said in a speech on Saturday night, referring to the Israeli airstrikes. “It was necessary for the response to the Israeli airstrike to be quick or else it would have lost its value.” The rocket barrage “was aimed at consolidating the equation of deterrence,” he said.
According to Nasrallah, that equation meant targeting areas without civilians, just like the IAF did with its airstrikes. The group did not target empty fields because Nasrallah did not want to escalate the situation with Israel, IDF Spokesman Brig.-Gen. Ran Kochav told reporters following the rocket fire.
The rocket attack “shows Hezbollah’s deterrence as it fired at open areas,” he said. But that’s not how Nasrallah sees it. “We are not seeking a war,” he said. “But we are ready for it, and we do not fear it.”
Neither Israel nor Hezbollah, and definitely not Lebanon, are itching for war any time soon. No one wants it, and no one can afford it.
Israel is experiencing a new wave of coronavirus, and Lebanon is going through the most devastating economic and social collapse in more than a century. And despite what Nasrallah says, Hezbollah is not immune to that collapse.
The IDF long believed that any outbreak of violence with the Shi’ite terrorist army would lead to an all-out war. But a military intelligence assessment released in February said more limited rounds of violence, like with the Gaza Strip, could be expected.
But those limited rounds of violence always have the possibility of causing an all-out war should civilians, or even soldiers, get killed.
And in the 15 years since the Second Lebanon War, both Israel and Hezbollah have significantly increased their capabilities, which would cause untold damage and significant casualties to both sides.
With the help of Iran, Hezbollah has rebuilt its arsenal since 2006, and it is now believed to have between 130,000 and 150,000 rockets and missiles. Many of them can reach deep into Israel, including ballistic missiles with a range of 700 kilometers.
It is believed that in the next war, Hezbollah will try to fire 1,500 to 3,000 rockets per day until the last day of the conflict. To compare it with Gaza, the last round of fighting with Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad in May saw 4,400 rockets in 11 days.
But any short conflict with Hezbollah would be much deadlier than with terrorist groups in the Gaza Strip.
And just like fighting in the South now sends residents of Tel Aviv, and sometimes even Jerusalem, running to shelters, so would fighting with Hezbollah.
Israelis across the country need to be ready for that, because Hezbollah has made it clear it will continue to challenge Israel, despite the real risk of it deteriorating into a full-blown war.

Bennett: Israel won’t accept rocket attacks from Lebanon
Jerusalem Post/August 08/2021
“Israel will not accept shooting into its territory,” Prime Minister Naftali Bennett warned.
Lebanon must rein in the terrorists shooting rockets at Israel, regardless of who they are, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said at the start of Sunday’s cabinet meeting.
“The State of Lebanon and the Lebanese Army must take responsibility for what is happening in their backyard,” he said, adding that it “is less important to us whether it’s a Palestinian group or independent rebels.”
“Israel will not accept shooting into its territory,” Bennett said.
His remarks came two days after Hezbollah fired about 20 rockets toward Israel. The Iron Dome intercepted 10 of them, six fell in open areas, and the others fell in Lebanon. This was the sixth such attack on Israel in recent months and the first time Hezbollah took responsibility.
The IDF responded by shooting 40 artillery shells at open areas in southern Lebanon.
Iran and Hezbollah were trying to entangle Israel in Lebanon’s economic and political crisis, Bennett said. He praised the “very important awakening” of Lebanese citizens against Hezbollah and Iranian influence in their country.
Marking the 15th anniversary of the Second Lebanon War on Saturday, Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah called the exchange of fire with Israel a “very dangerous development” and the greatest escalation since the war ended.
Hezbollah, the terrorist group he leads, “did not mean to create new rules of engagement,” he said. Israel was scared to continue attacking Lebanon, Nasrallah said.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres called on all parties involved in the violence near the northern border to “exercise utmost restraint” and to “avoid actions that can further heighten tensions and lead to miscalculation.”
Israeli Ambassador to the US and UN Gilad Erdan called Gutteres's remarks "unfortunate," in that he "chooses to draw a moral equivalency between attacks perpetuated by designated terrorist organizations and the law-abiding, democratic State of Israel, which is a member of the UN."
Hezbollah, Erdan pointed out, commits war crimes by targeting Israeli civilians from within Lebanese civilian areas.
Nabila Massrali, the EU’s spokeswoman for foreign affairs, condemned “the firing of rockets from southern Lebanon toward northern Israel and occupied [sic] Golan Heights” and said the EU was following developments, including Israel’s response.
“It is crucial for all parties to exercise utmost restraint and work toward a quick resolution of the current tensions,” Massrali added.
The US State Department condemned the Hezbollah rocket attack the day it took place and “call[ed] upon the Lebanese government urgently to prevent such attacks and bring the area under its control.”
When asked in a press briefing to comment on the Israeli air raid, State Department Press Secretary Ned Price said: “We have made the point that Israel has the right to defend itself.”
Israeli Ambassador to the US and UN Gilad Erdan wrote a letter to the UN Security Council and secretary-general condemning the attacks by Hezbollah, which violate UN Security Council Resolution 1701, passed at the end of the Second Lebanon War.
“The recent attacks and growing tensions in the region, exacerbated by Iran’s activities and arming of its proxies, especially Hezbollah, demonstrate once again the urgent need to actively enforce UN Security Council Resolution 1701 (2006),” Erdan wrote. “While Israel is not interested in escalation, we will not allow attacks on Israeli civilians to go unanswered. If these attacks continue, Israel will have no choice but to respond and dismantle Hezbollah’s terrorist infrastructure that threatens Israel’s security and the lives of its citizens.”
At the cabinet meeting, Bennett praised the Group of Seven for condemning Iran over its attack on the Mercer Street ship. He said he was pleased to hear US Central Command’s report on the attack had found, among other things, that components of suicide drones used to attack the ship matched previously found Iranian UAVs.
“Now, the test is in actions, not just declarations,” he said.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi – who oversaw the executions of thousands in 1988, earning him the nickname “the hangman of Tehran” – is “a cruel and extremist person even by Iranian standards,” Bennett said. “We see a rise in Iranian aggression throughout the Middle East, on land, in the air and at sea… Iran is a clear danger to regional stability and world peace, and the world cannot accept it. The Iranians must understand they cannot go crazy without paying a price.”
Regarding the Gaza Strip, Bennett said IDF strikes on the Hamas-controlled enclave were meant to send a message that the terrorist group must stop those who launch incendiary balloons into Israel.
“It doesn’t matter if they’re rebels, or people who are bored or any other excuses,” he said. “The responsibility is on Hamas.”
Meretz MK Ghaida Rinawie Zoabi said there would not be a military escalation on either front.
“Bennett knows that if he goes to a military conflict, the coalition will fall apart because Meretz and Ra’am [United Arab List] won’t agree to it,” she told KAN’s Arabic-language radio station. Their “presence limits the sharpness of any military decision; the moment the government makes a decision about something military, there will be a danger to the coalition.”
Israeli fighter jets struck Hamas targets on Saturday in response to the launching of incendiary balloons a day earlier, the IDF said.
The military said it struck a Hamas military camp and a rocket-launching position in Jabalya refugee camp in northern Gaza, adding that it would “continue to respond with strikes to attempted terrorist attacks from Gaza.”
At least four fires broke out in the Eshkol Regional Council on Friday after incendiary balloons were launched from Gaza. Three of the fires were in the Kissufim forest, while the other broke out near the community of Be’eri, according to Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael-Jewish National Fund.
*Tzvi Joffre, Anna Ahronheim and Tovah Lazaroff contributed to this report.

Lessons from the Beirut Blast: Lebanon Will Continue to Collapse
Alexander Langlois/The National Interest/August 08/2021
Lebanon’s terrible governance and the resulting economic nightmare are fueling social unrest and destroying the country.
Following the one-year anniversary of the explosion at the Port of Beirut on August 4, 2020, Lebanon’s ruling elite have driven the country into the ground. Contrary to what many hoped, the explosion in Beirut did not produce the reforms necessary to save the country and instead highlighted Lebanon’s political culture of corruption, alongside the economic and political nightmare currently ripping the country apart. Still, there is an opportunity to learn from the lessons of the disaster and institute positive change in Lebanon, should world leaders increase their engagement and Lebanese continue to demand change in the coming months.
Unfortunately, world leaders missed an opportunity to support the Lebanese people and the societal unity that followed the Beirut blast. The impact of the blast is widely known, was certainly avoidable, and produced massive social upheaval and calls for revolution. The incident left a serious mark on Lebanon that would not be easily washed away. Yet, while Lebanese rallied around lost loved ones, homes, and their beloved city, their leaders and the world largely looked on with indifference.
Lebanese across the country beckoned for reform and revolution as the details emerged—including the fact that 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate had been stored in a warehouse at the port for years. Lebanon’s leaders responded by blaming everyone but themselves while clinging to power—sacrificing Prime Minister Hassan Diab’s government while citing immunity. The resulting investigations have been hobbled as it has been impossible to question anyone with political power.
Instead, Lebanon’s elites chose to rename Saad Hariri as prime minister in October 2020 under the promise of reforms—a sickening joke to many Lebanese who had forced his resignation one year earlier. Hariri, who epitomizes the political elite, went on to battle with President Michel Aoun and Lebanon’s main political parties over the makeup of the cabinet for nearly ten months before resigning after failing to reach a deal. In his place, billionaire Najib Mikati was chosen to fill the role facing the same challenges—a symbol that not much has changed. As usual, the struggle for power as a means of survival outweighed the country and people.
Meanwhile, the Lebanese economy continued its slow implosion. As the World Bank recently reported, every major economic metric indicates disaster. The Lebanese lira’s black-market value sits at 1USD/18,325LBP. The unemployment rate is 40 percent. Half the population lives under the poverty line. Nearly 77 percent of households, as well as 99 percent of Syrian refugee families, cannot afford food. The import-heavy country has witnessed a 45 percent decrease in imports—partially a result of the Port of Beirut’s destruction.
This has produced follow-on crises. The government recently shut down two major power plants on July 9 due to a lack of hard currency, causing sweeping cuts to energy services and worsening already daily blackouts. Additionally, most water pumping will cease in the coming weeks, leaving over four million people without safe water. Ultimately, the government has ceased to provide basic services, leaving ordinary citizens in the dark.
In response, Lebanese of all sects—particularly youth—have taken to the streets to protest ineffective governance, unemployment, and corruption, calling for a revolution and rejecting outdated power structures. Protests have even targeted Hassan Nasrallah, the Hezbollah leader once considered a beacon of resistance and opposition but now rightly equated with the political establishment. Unfortunately, such protests have been met with violence—from both the state and Hezbollah—in major cities like Tripoli and Beirut. Even a recent memorial-turned-protest, led by families who lost loved ones in the August 2020 blast, was met with batons and tear gas—a striking but unsurprising response against grieving families and their calls for truth, justice, and accountability. A similar outcome occurred on the one-year anniversary as water cannons and tear gas were deployed against protestors.
This recent incident perfectly encapsulates the sweeping crisis facing Lebanon today. The government is largely disinterested in accountability because sclerotic political groups understand reform would hobble their cronyism and power. Yet, realistically, this is the source of Lebanon’s terrible governance and the resulting economic nightmare that is fueling social unrest and destroying the country.
International and regional actors have contributed to the problem while failing to properly engage the issue. The United States appears to lack a clear Lebanon policy. Further, the Gulf has largely stepped away from the country in recent years while Iran continues to back Hezbollah. France appears most interested in stabilizing the country today, although its efforts have been limited to donor conferences and rhetorical calls for reform that have largely been ignored. That said, some efforts are underway to sanction corrupt politicians inside Lebanon and freeze elicit funds in Switzerland and the European Union. Still, this is not enough. The bottom can and will fall out, with devastating consequences.
To be sure, this is not inevitable. By providing aid to Lebanese communities in the form of services like medical care, sanitation, and food, the international community can assist the bulk of the country while undermining the deep sectarian patronage networks underpinning Lebanon’s political groups. World leaders should work with the United Nations and humanitarian sector, alongside local civil society organizations conducting mutual aid operations, to immediately streamline such services, but should avoid direct cash assistance that would ultimately end up bolstering the patronage networks. The goal here is simple: support the people, not the system.
In parallel, influential states in the region, as well as internationally, need to use diplomatic tools to pressure Lebanon’s leaders. These efforts need to focus on financial sector reform, government transparency and anti-corruption initiatives, and the rampant patronage system preventing hundreds of thousands of Lebanese youths from obtaining decent jobs. This will be difficult, especially as world leaders have unsuccessfully incentivized similar reform initiatives in the past. Further, care must be taken to avoid sanctions regimes that harm average citizens and advantage Hezbollah and Iran—just as similar efforts unintentionally empowered the Houthis by harming other actors in Yemen.
While imperfect, this approach can prevent catastrophe in Lebanon. True reform can only be achieved by disconnecting Lebanese from the patronage networks they are forced to rely on to survive. This diminishes the power of the dominant political groups from the bottom and can bolster the street, calls for reform, and support those in need. Until such efforts are focused, and the lessons of the Beirut blast realized, Lebanon will continue to collapse.
Alexander Langlois is a foreign policy analyst focused on the Middle East and North Africa. He holds an M.A. in International Affairs from American University’s School of International Service. Follow him at @langloisajl.
https://nationalinterest.org/feature/lessons-beirut-blast-lebanon-will-continue-collapse-191319

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on August 08-09/2021
Top Bahraini official arrives to deepen Israel relations
Jerusalem Post/August 08/2021
Official diplomatic relations between Israel and Bahrain were announced on September 11, 2020, and have continued to develop. Bahrain's Undersecretary for International Relations at the Foreign Ministry Dr. Shaikh Abdulla bin Ahmed Al Khalifa landed in Israel on Sunday, for a four-day trip aimed at deepening relations between the countries. Al Khalifa is expected to meet with Foreign Minister Yair Lapid and President Isaac Herzog. In addition, Al Khalifa and Foreign Ministry Director-General Alon Ushpiz will prepare for an eventual meeting between Lapid and Bahraini Foreign Minister Abdullatif Al Zayani, under the auspices of a high steering committee for relations between Bahrain and Israel which they lead and will meet this week. The Bahraini official is also expected to meet with the Foreign Ministry’s Cadets Course, to discuss Israel-Bahrain relations, and to visit Israeli civil society organizations and think tanks as part of his goal to strengthen ties between the countries. Official diplomatic relations between Israel and Bahrain were announced on September 11, 2020, in the framework of the Abraham Accords, after years of mostly behind-the-scenes ties. Al Khalifa also holds the positions of deputy secretary-general of the Supreme Defense Council and undersecretary for political affairs at the Foreign Ministry in Bahrain and is in charge of the Israel portfolio at the ministry. He paid two visits to Israel in December 2020, once with Bahrain's Foreign Minister and once with the Minister of Economy and Tourism.
The undersecretary's official biography says that he is "a fierce advocate for Bahrain's historical tradition of tolerance, especially for Bahrain's indigenous Jewish and Christian communities."

Iran deal instigated violence, says senior Bahraini official in Jerusalem
Jerusalem Post/August 08/2021
“The JCPOA [nuclear deal] has caused more instigation and extremism in many different regions across the Middle East.”
The 2015 nuclear agreement between world powers and Iran led to greater violence and extremism in the Middle East, Bahrain Undersecretary for International Relations at the Foreign Ministry Dr. Shaikh Abdulla bin Ahmed Al Khalifa said in Jerusalem on Sunday, the first day of a four-day trip aimed at deepening relations between Bahrain and Israel. “The JCPOA [nuclear deal] has caused more instigation and extremism in many different regions across the Middle East,” Al Khalifa warned. “Was there any good result that we have come out with? On the contrary. The JCPOA fueled crises across the Middle East.” The Bahraini official spoke at the signing of a cooperation agreement between the Bahrain Center for Strategic, International and Energy Studies (Derasat), which Al Khalifa heads, and the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. JCPA president Dore Gold said the goal of this partnership and his think tank’s work with a research institute in the United Arab Emirates is “to create an array of cooperation agreements with the countries of the Abraham Accords and to convey a message to the US, Europe and other countries, of a realistic understanding of the challenges that we share – the danger of Iran’s policies in the region and the world.” Al Khalifa met with Foreign Minister Yair Lapid and is expected to meet President Isaac Herzog.In addition, Al Khalifa and Foreign Ministry Director-General Alon Ushpiz will prepare for an eventual meeting between Lapid and Bahraini Foreign Minister Abdullatif Al Zayani, under the auspices of a high steering committee for relations between Bahrain and Israel, which they lead and will meet this week. The Bahraini official is also expected to meet with the Foreign Ministry’s Cadets Course, to discuss Israel-Bahrain relations, and to visit Israeli civil society organizations and think tanks as part of his goal to strengthen ties between the countries. Official diplomatic relations between Israel and Bahrain were announced on September 11, 2020, in the framework of the Abraham Accords, after years of mostly behind-the-scenes ties. Al Khalifa also holds the positions of deputy secretary-general of the Supreme Defense Council and undersecretary for political affairs at the Foreign Ministry in Bahrain, and is in charge of the Israel portfolio at the ministry. He visited Israel twice previously in December 2020, with Bahrain’s foreign minister and minister of economy.
The undersecretary’s official biography says that he is “a fierce advocate for Bahrain’s historical tradition of tolerance, especially for Bahrain’s indigenous Jewish and Christian communities.”

Regime Shelling Kills Four Children in Northwest Syria
Agence France Presse/August 08/2021
Regime shelling has killed four children in Syria's last major rebel bastion in the northwest of the country, a Britain-based war monitor said Sunday. The artillery fire late Saturday hit a residential area in the south of the jihadist-dominated bastion of Idlib, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The victims in the village of Qastoun in the Hama province were from the same family, it said. The Idlib region is home to nearly three million people, two-thirds of them displaced from other parts of the country during the decade-long civil war. It is dominated by Syria's former Al-Qaeda affiliate, but rebels and other jihadists are also present. A ceasefire deal brokered by regime ally Russia and rebel backer Turkey has largely protected the region from a new government offensive since March 2020. But regime forces have stepped up their shelling on the south of the bastion since June. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad took the oath of office for a new term last month, vowing to make "liberating those parts of the homeland that still need to be" one of his top priorities. Syria's war has killed around half a million people since starting in 2011 with a brutal crackdown on anti-government protests.

Floods in Sudan Damage Thousands of Homes
Agence France Presse/August 08/2021
Thousands of homes have been damaged in Sudan after torrential rains caused heavy flooding, with many streets in the capital Khartoum deep in water, AFP correspondents said Sunday. Heavy rains usually fall in Sudan from June to October, and the country faces severe flooding every year, wrecking properties, infrastructure, and crops. In Atbara, a city in Sudan's north-east, the official news agency SUNA reported that a number of houses had "collapsed" due to the heavy rains.On Thursday, the U.N.'s humanitarian agency OCHA said some 12,000 people in eight out of the country's 18 states had been affected.
"Over 800 homes have reportedly been destroyed and over 4,400 homes damaged," the U.N. said. Last year, heavy rains forced Sudan to declare a three-month state of emergency, after flooding affected at least 650,000 people, with over 110,000 homes damaged or destroyed. In 2020, the Blue Nile -- which joins the White Nile in the Sudanese capital Khartoum -- floodwater swelled the river to its highest level since records began over a century ago.

Hundreds Flee, Homes Destroyed as Forest Fires Ravage Greek Island
Agence France Presse/August 08/2021
Hundreds of Greek firefighters fought desperately Sunday to control wildfires on the island of Evia that have charred vast areas of pine forest, destroyed homes and forced tourists and locals to flee. Blazes also raged in the Peloponnese region in the southwest, but fires in a northern suburb of Athens have subsided. Greece and Turkey have been battling devastating fires for nearly two weeks as the region suffers its worst heatwave in decades. Officials and experts have linked such intense weather events to climate change.So far, they have killed two people in Greece and eight in neighboring Turkey, with dozens more hospitalized. But while rains brought some respite from the blazes in Turkey over the weekend, Greece continued to suffer amid soaring temperatures.The rugged landscape and thick pine forests on Evia which made it appealing to tourists have turned in into a nightmare for firefighters.
The inferno on the Greece's second largest island, which lies east of the capital, has turned thousands of hectares into ashes and destroyed homes.Thousands have been evacuated, and hundreds of locals and tourists have fled on ferry boats. Some 260 Greek firefighters with 66 vehicles were battling the blazes on Evia, helped by 200 more from Ukraine and Romania with 23 vehicles and seven aircraft. One fire service official told the Eleftheros Typos newspaper that the heat from the fires on Evia and elsewhere was so intense that "the water from the hoses and the water-dropping aircraft was evaporating" before reaching the blazes.Flames were devouring houses in the villages of Ellinika, Vasilika and Psaropouli. Nine people were evacuated from a beach surrounded by flames by the coastal village of Psaropouli, the ANA news agency reported on Saturday. Ferry boats and navy war ships were on alert off the coast to evacuate people.
- 'Living dead' -
Local officials were critical of the efforts to control the fires, which erupted on the island on August 3. "With what we have seen so far the fire won't be under control any time soon. I have no more voice left to ask for more aircraft. I can't stand this situation", Giorgos Tsapourniotis, mayor of Mantoudi in Evia told Skai TV on Saturday. He added that many villages were saved because young people stayed there despite the evacuation order and kept the fires away from their homes. "40,000 people will be living dead in the next years because of the destruction in the area", Iraklis, a man from Istiaia town in northern Evia told Open TV on Sunday, as people's homes and livelihoods were wiped out. Greek deputy minister for civil protection Nikos Hardalias said late Saturday that provisional shelter was provided to 2,000 people who have been evacuated. Meanwhile, in the Peloponnese region in the southwest, fire fronts in the towns of East Mani, Ilia and in Messinia remained active with many villages and settlements evacuated. In a northern suburb of Athens, where blazes have raged for several days, there was no longer any active front though firefighters were tackling flare-ups. In the previous 10 days, 56,655 hectares (140,000 acres) have been burnt in Greece, according to the European Forest Fire Information System. The average number of hectares burnt over the same period between 2008 and 2020 was 1,700 hectares. Because of this situation deemed the worst in decades, Greece requested help through the European emergency support system, and reinforcement were sent from several countries.

Ongoing forest fires in Greece force hundreds to flee
NNA/August 08/2021
Hundreds of firefighters struggled today to control fires on the Greek island of Evia that destroyed large areas of pine forests and forced tourists and residents to flee, AFP reported. Fires also raged in the Peloponnese region, southwest of the country, but the intensity of the fires raging in the northern suburb of Athens has subsided. Greece and Turkey have been facing devastating fires for nearly two weeks, while the region is experiencing the worst heat wave in decades. Officials and experts have pointed to a link between such unusual weather events and climate change.

Taliban Seize Two More Provincial Capitals in Northern Blitz
Agence France Presse/August 08/2021
The Taliban captured two more provincial capitals Sunday as they gained ground in their fight to take over Afghanistan's cities after seizing much of the countryside in recent months. The insurgents have snatched up four provincial capitals since Friday in a rapid offensive that appears to have overwhelmed government forces. Kunduz and Sar-e-Pul in the north fell within hours of each other Sunday, lawmakers and residents in the cities confirmed, but not without fierce fighting. A Kunduz resident described the city as being enveloped in "total chaos". "After some fierce fighting, the mujahideen, with the grace of God, captured the capital of Kunduz," the Taliban said in a statement. "The mujahideen also captured Sar-e-Pul city, the government buildings and all the installations there." Parwina Azimi, a women's rights activist in Sar-e-Pul, told AFP by phone that government officials and the remaining forces had retreated to a barracks about three kilometers (two miles) from the city. "A plane came... but could not (land)," she said. Kunduz, however, is the most significant Taliban gain since the insurgents launched an offensive in May as foreign forces began the final stages of their withdrawal. It has been a perennial target for the Taliban, who briefly overran the city in 2015 and again in 2016 but never managed to hold it for long. The ministry of defense said government forces were fighting to retake key installations. "The commando forces have launched a clearing operation. Some areas, including the national radio and TV buildings, have been cleared of the terrorist Taliban," it said in a statement.Kabul's inability to hold the north may prove crucial to the government's long-term survival. Northern Afghanistan has long been considered an anti-Taliban stronghold that saw some of the stiffest resistance to militant rule in the 1990s. The region continues to be home to several militias and is also a fertile recruiting ground for the country’s armed forces.
U.S. air strikes -
On Friday the Taliban seized their first provincial capital, Zaranj in southwestern Nimroz on the border with Iran, and followed it up a day later by taking Sheberghan in northern Jawzjan province the following day. Fighting was also reported on the outskirts of Herat in the west, and Lashkar Gah and Kandahar in the south. The pace of Taliban advances has caught government forces flatfooted, but they had some respite late Saturday after US warplanes bombed Taliban positions in Sheberghan. "US forces have conducted several air strikes in defense of our Afghan partners in recent days," Major Nicole Ferrara, a Central Command spokesperson, told AFP in Washington. Sheberghan is the stronghold of notorious Afghan warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum, whose militiamen and government forces were reported to have retreated to the airport. Dostum has overseen one of the largest militias in the north and garnered a fearsome reputation fighting the Taliban in the 1990s -- along with accusations his forces massacred thousands of insurgent prisoners of war. Any retreat of his fighters would dent the government's recent hopes that militia groups could help bolster the country's overstretched military.
The government has said little about the fall of the provincial capitals, other than vowing they would be retaken. That has been a familiar response to most Taliban gains of recent weeks, although government forces have largely failed to make good on promises to retake dozens of districts and border posts. The withdrawal of foreign forces is due to be complete at the end of this month, ahead of the 20th anniversary of the September 11 attacks on the United States that sparked the invasion which toppled the Taliban.

The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials published on August 08-09/2021
One year into Abraham Accords, Israel's trade with UAE tops $570m.
Zev Stub/Jerusalem Post/August 08/2021
Trade could reach $1 billion for the whole of 2021, and could exceed $3 billion within three years.
A year into the Abraham Accords, some $570 million in business has been done between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, according to data from the Central Bureau of Statistics.
During 2020 and the first six months of 2021, Israel exported $197 million of goods and services to the UAE, and imported about $372 million.
Trade could reach $1 billion for the whole of 2021, and could exceed $3 billion within three years, according to the UAE-Israel Business Council, an organization connecting businesses in the two countries.
On August 13, then-US President Donald Trump announced that Israel and the United Arab Emirates had agreed to normalize relations. What has followed has been a whirlwind of follow-on peace deals with Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan that continues to reshape political alliances in the Middle East.
Since then, Israeli companies are starting to recognize the potential offered by the UAE’s economic ecosystem, said Dorian Barak, an investor and co-founder of the UAE-Israel Business Council.
“The Emirates are a place where people from all over the world come to engage in commerce, with unique advantages compared with other jurisdictions that make it a unique platform to reach the entire world,” Barak said.
“It is comparable to Hong Kong and Singapore in that they are not just markets to sell to, they are marketplaces for the entire world. That’s why the UAE is the business capital of the entire region. Every country has a presence there.”
The United Arab Emirates has more than 35 free-trade zones offering tax exemptions, world-class technology infrastructures, and shipping and trade systems designed to made business as simple as possible, Ramy Jallad, CEO of the Ras Al Khaimah Economic Zone, noted at the Global Investment Forum in June, sponsored by The Jerusalem Post and the Khaleej Times.
“Israelis are always looking for ways to do business in South Asia, East Africa, India and Bangladesh,” Barak said. “These are markets with two billion people, and you can’t work with them from Tel Aviv. The UAE is the place where everyone congregates to do business, and Israel has finally been admitted to that club.”The first year of normalization with the UAE has been very successful, despite many challenges, said Fleur Hassan-Nahoum, co-founder of the UAE-Israel Business Council and Deputy mayor of Jerusalem.
“We faced a worldwide pandemic, and that hampered tourism, but we still had about 230,000 Israelis visit the UAE,” Hassan-Nahoum said. which has tourism. “Imagine what could have been done if there was no pandemic.”
“We also went through a conflict with the Palestinians in May, and that wasn’t easy, but both sides came out with determination to keep the relationship going. Normalization did not make the press there more neutral, and they still demonized Israel a lot. Our friends were reaching out to us with a lot of questions. So we did a number of seminars and briefings to give over the facts. We encouraged them to ask us anything, and said that no question was too uncomfortable to be asked. That’s how a relationship becomes stronger, and we are a stronger group because of it.”
“One can’t underestimate the power of a mutual desire for peace,” Hassan-Nahoum said. “Business is one of the best forums to create a warm peace, by learning to trust each other and learn each side’s cultural sensitivities. There are cultural differences. I don’t like to generalize, but Israelis often tend to be more transactional, while Emiratis are more relationship-oriented. The first year was mainly about getting to know each other and build those relationships.”
That’s not all that was done, though. More than half a billion dollars in business was done between the two countries, and that doesn’t include tourism or investments between the countries. The largest commercial agreement so far between the two countries was Delek Drilling’s sale of its 22% share in the offshore Tamar natural-gas field to Abu Dhabi’s Mubdala Petroleum Company for $1.1 billion in April.
“There are many important private equity investors in the UAE, and it is just a matter of time before we see more Emirati companies taking large stakes in Israeli companies,” Barak said.
The UAE-Israel Business Council now has 4,000 members, evenly split between Israelis and Emiratis, Hassan-Nahoum said. She also co-founded the Gulf-Israel Women’s Forum, which includes an equal split of Israeli and Gulf country nationals, including some whose countries don’t yet have relationships with Israel. “What we did is we created the infrastructure for people to be able to create encounters in business together,” Hassan-Nahoum said.
Hassan-Nahoum offered a list of business collaborations that were facilitated through her councils, in fields like technology, green energy, banking, and more. “But beyond that, every area of society has reached out for cooperation. I’m involved with a project to bring Israeli and American best practices for people with special needs. There are projects being set up for art, football, culture. Even the Israeli little league for baseball came and played in a tournament in Dubai.”
As part of her work with the Jerusalem Municipality, Hassan-Nahoum is currently working on a project to bring R&D jobs from Emirati businesses to east Jerusalem for the local Arab population. “things are growing very quickly,” Hassan-Nahoum said. “No one imagined anything like this.”

قائمة بالإعتداءات الإضطهادية التي تعرض لها المسيحيون في العالم خلال شهر حزيران/2021
“Their Goal Is Really to Eradicate Christianity”: Persecution of Christians, June 2021
Raymond Ibrahim/Gatestone Institute/August 08/2021
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/101223/their-goal-is-really-to-eradicate-christianity-persecution-of-christians-june-2021-%d9%82%d8%a7%d8%a6%d9%85%d8%a9-%d8%a8%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%a5%d8%b9%d8%aa%d8%af%d8%a7%d8%a1%d8%a7%d8%aa-%d8%a7%d9%84/
A Muslim father of four abducted a 13-year-old Christian girl, forced her to convert to Islam, and then “married” her…. He had also promised to pay the girl Rs.10,000 (US $63) per month for her services, but stopped paying her after a couple of months…. She told her grandmother that she wanted to go home and was willing to sign anything to do so…. The following day, a visibly battered Nayab appeared before court and reaffirmed that she was 19 years old and had converted to Islam of her own free will. — Pakistan.
[N]early a million people have been displaced since 2017 and thousands slaughtered…. “They say their goal is to set up a caliphate similar to ISIS in Iraq and Syria…. They ask, ‘Are you a Christian? Or are you a Muslim?’ If you’re a Christian, you’re killed. If you’re a Muslim, then you get the opportunity to quote some Quranic verses. And if you can quote them sufficiently, you save your life. Otherwise, you also get killed [sometimes by crucifixion].” — Todd Nettleton, The Voice of the Martyrs USA, Mission Network News, June 28, 2021, Mozambique.
Five Muslims entered the hospital he worked in, seized and left with him, and then killed him and left his body in the bush… “His killers, who are herdsmen, came to the hospital, specifically asked for [the Christian doctor] …. collected his money, took him away, and killed him without asking for ransom. What did he do wrong?…. Everyone loved him, always smiling, and he was one of the most hard-working persons I have ever known. His hospital boomed because he was saving lives. If you had any problems, Emeka would be there to help.” — Morning Star News, June 21, 2021, Nigeria.
“Armed groups are destroying schools and hospitals. Teachers and pupils are being killed. They are even killing the sick as they lie in their hospital beds. Not a day goes by without people being killed… Many people are traumatized… A large-scale project is underway to Islamize or expel the indigenous populations. Anyone who has been kidnapped by these terrorist groups and managed to escape from them alive has told the same story. They were given the choice between death and converting to Islam.” — Bishop Paluku, Catholic World Report, July 28, 2021, Democratic Republic of Congo
Picture Enclosed/On May 30, Egyptian authorities seized land belonging to the ancient Coptic Monastery of Saint Macarius (pictured), originally founded in 360 CE — nearly 300 years before Islam invaded and conquered Egypt in the seventh century. Authorities arrived with bulldozers and police at the monastery in the deserts of Wadi al-Rayan in Fayum and demolished a fence of the annex-farm and other structures — including a church — that had been erected by the monks living there. Several monks who protested, or who tried to prevent this state-sanctioned destruction, were arrested. (Image source: Faris knight/Wikimedia Commons)
The following are among the abuses inflicted on Christians by Muslims throughout the month of June 2021:
Pakistan
The Rape, Forced Conversion, and Child Marriage of Christians
A Muslim father of four abducted a 13-year-old Christian girl, forced her to convert to Islam, and then “married” her. According to the father of Nayab Gill, when the beauty school she was attending shut down due to the Covid-19 lockdown, Saddam Hayat, a local Muslim who ran his own beauty shop, “told me that rather than wasting time, Nayab should learn salon skills to help her in supporting the family financially. He even offered to pick her up from home and drop her off after work, assuring us that she was just like his daughter.”
Hayat had also promised to pay the girl Rs.10,000 (US $63) per month for her services, but stopped paying her after a couple of months. When the girl went missing on May 20, her frantic parents turned to Hayat, who claimed not to know where she was, and kindly offered to help them find her. He even instructed Nayab’s simple and trusting mother to fill out the missing person’s report in a way that did not implicate him.
“On May 26, we were informed by the police that Nayab was in the Darul Aman [women’s shelter] since May 21,” her father continued. “In an application submitted to a magistrate’s court, Nayab claimed she had willfully converted to Islam a month ago …”
According to this application, Nayab also claimed to be 19-years-old, and on May 20 an Islamic marriage certificate had been registered claiming she had married Hayat. The same day, the family managed to meet with Nayab at the women’s shelter. She told her grandmother that she wanted to go home and was willing to sign anything to do so. At that point, her “husband” and the police — having been notified by a shelter staffer that Nayab was in direct contact with her family — barged in and forcibly separated them. The following day, a visibly battered Nayab appeared before court and reaffirmed that she was 19 years old and had converted to Islam of her own free will. “Our lawyer did not show up at the hearing, so my wife and I directly approached the judge and presented all official documents to prove that my daughter was born on Oct. 16, 2007, which makes her 13 years and seven months old,” her father said.
“We told the judge that she was lying about her age under duress. She had bruises on her face, and her eyes were also red, which should have caught the judge’s attention, but he ignored it…. [In the end] Judge Jameel relied solely on Nayab’s statements made under obvious threat, rather than official documents, and failed to order an ossification test to determine her age…. My mother [the girl’s grandmother] collapsed in the courtroom as soon as the judge gave his order, and while we were attending to her, the police quietly spirited Nayab away.”
In a separate incident, a group of Muslims abducted a Christian teenager, drugged, held him captive for five days, and repeatedly raped and tortured him before dumping him in a desolate region. Danish Masih, 17, vanished on June 6. Although his father immediately reported his son’s disappearance to police, they showed no interest and failed to look for him. Discussing this incident, a local human rights activist said, “As Christians we are a minority and we are alone. For us there is no justice and no equal rights.” No one has been arrested. According to the report, “Danish’s is not an isolated case. Violence against Christians in Pakistan is commonplace,” and includes a “rising number of abductions, child sexual abuses, forced conversions and forced marriages.”
In another incident, a young Christian woman was beaten and raped in her home for refusing to convert to Islam and marry her rapist. Neelam Masih shared her experiences in a June 7 report. She was home alone when Faisal Basra “entered my home at gunpoint.”
“[He] dragged me to my bedroom and began to punch and kick me. He threw me on the bed and started to rape me. He demanded I marry him and convert to Islam. I refused. I am not willing to deny Jesus and he said that if I would not agree he would kill me. He hit me on the face with his pistol and I shouted and screamed and tried to escape but he kept pulling me back, dragging me by my hair.”
Eventually Neelam’s neighbor heard her cries and came rushing to the house, at which point the rapist fled into the night. Neelam, who is studying for a Master of Philosophy degree, said that as the only educated Christian woman in her village, she is committed to speaking out against oppression and abuse, despite “reports that friends and family” of the Muslim rapist “are trying to hunt her down and kill her for standing up to him.”
“I want the world to know what happened to me… I am determined to struggle for my faith, my life and my community…. My family is very poor. My mother has two jobs as a sweeper and has done everything she can for my education and it is very important that I stand up for my community.”
“Neelam is a very brave woman,” said her lawyer, adding that it is “very unusual” for rape victims to go public in Pakistan.
“Struggling against this man has taken great courage…. Most girls feel ashamed and submit to the demands of the attacker. They don’t want to tell anyone. They are usually easily threatened. But Neelam remains faithful to Jesus and is determined to tell her story to bring an end to attacks on Christian girls and young women.”
In still another incident, a group of Muslim men led by one Muhammad Akbar — a man known to have kidnapped Christian women before — abducted a Christian mother of five. She spent more than 20 days in captivity, drugged, raped, and beaten. Discussing her ordeal, her husband said during an interview between tears:
“We are poor and Christian therefore the police are not taking any action against the abductor, and because he has heavily bribed the police. But I want justice for my wife. I want all the kidnappers arrested and punished for their crimes so they can stop kidnapping more Christian women.”
Finally, according to a June 24 report, a “Muslim doctor forcefully converted a 13-year-old Christian girl to Islam,” so she could “work in their family kitchen.” The doctor was initially looking to employ two girls in his house. An impoverished Christian family with eight children sent two of their daughters, aged 13 and 11, to work there. The agreement was that they would be paid Rs.10,000 per month (US $63); and although this was a live-in job, the girls’ family could visit them. At the end of the month, however, Dr. Altaf only paid them Rs.3,000 (US $19). The poor family had no choice but to accept it, but matters soon worsened. According to the report:
“Neha and Sneha worked there for four years, during this time they started complaining about mistreatment by the family, who would swear at them and even physically assault them. The girls were being treated like slaves and were hardly allowed to meet their parents. They told the family that they wanted to go back home and live with their family, but Dr Altaf did not allow them to leave.
“Both girls were missing their family. Sneha [aged 11] fell ill and wasn’t any help to Dr Altaf’s family therefore they agreed to send her back to her parents, but they were not willing to return Neha [aged 13].
“Masih requested that Dr Altaf return his oldest daughter too as he was not willing to leave his daughter behind, but Dr Altaf told him that Neha had embraced Islam therefore she could not live with him.
“It was a shocking revelation for Masih and [he] refused to accept it. Dr Altaf explained that since they were Muslims, it was not possible for them to allow any non-Muslim to enter the kitchen and touch their food items and kitchen utensils.
“Dr Altaf dropped another bombshell on Masih, telling him they had mistakenly overpaid him, 275,000 (US $1,750) and until you pay it back, he won’t be able to get his daughter back.”
“Perhaps Pakistan is the only country where such crimes are happening on a daily basis under the cover of Islam,” said one human rights activist while discussing this incident.
“It cannot be justified at any cost that a young girl was converted to Islam against her will and without her parents’ knowledge and now she cannot be returned to her parents because her parents are Christians.”
Uganda: Death and Destruction for Christians
On June 11, a Muslim imam slaughtered a 70-year-old Christian pastor. Pentecostal bishop Francis Obo was killed after a group of Muslims stopped him and his wife as they were returning home in the evening after grocery shopping. The slain man’s wife, Christine, said the men had accused him of being an “infidel” who causes Muslims to leave Islam and that, accordingly, “Today Allah has judged you.” One of the assailants told her to go away because “Today, it is a day for your husband,” she said. “As I moved a few meters in a hurry trying to save my life, I heard a little noise and wailing from my husband and realized that his life was in danger.” She ran home, “trembling and unable to speak, and her children took her to a hospital where she was treated for shock.” In the early morning, when she told her eldest son what had happened, he and other siblings went to search for their father where she had last seen him. “Reaching there, they were shocked and fearful as they found a big number of Christians and relatives gathered around the dead body mourning their bishop after being murdered by Muslims,” she said.
Police arrested suspect Imam Uthman Olingha, for having blood splattered on his clothes, as well as another Muslim. An officer later told the family that “Olingha openly confessed that he can’t regret that he killed the bishop because he did it in the cause of Allah’s word to kill all infidels who mislead Muslims.” The murderer added that “Allah will be with him in jail, but the kafiri [infidels] deserved the killing.” Bishop Francis is survived by his wife Christine and 13 children. He oversaw 17 churches in the area and was active is spreading the Gospel among Muslims — the reason he was targeted.
In a separate incident, the Muslim employer of Fred Isiko, a Christian evangelist, had him killed by assassins. Earlier, Isiko had recorded his boss, Ashirafu Kasenyi, a Muslim sheikh who was pressuring him to convert: “You need to convert to Islam if you are to remain as my employee,” Kasenyi said in a May 7 recording. Isiko replied, “I am not going to leave Jesus Christ; better to resign than leave Christianity.” On the day he was killed, Kasenyi had sent Isiko to fetch supplies from the local market. Isiko’s Christian friend, Francis, explained what happened next:
“As we were about to reach the trading center, three people stopped us. They said that they have some information for Fred. So I moved at a distance, and immediately one of them removed a long knife and cut his neck as I fled for my life and reported the incident at Kagumu police post.”
Police later confirmed that their suspect confessed that the Muslim employer had hired him for the killing.
In yet a further occurrence, the Muslim relatives of a recent convert to Christianity burned down his family home. After Louis Levi Baula, 46, had taken his 3-year-old son, who suffered from seizures, to the local imam several times, and paid him for prayers of healing, nothing had changed. So he took him to a nearby Christian church where, Baula and his wife Sifah Ainekisha said, prayers, healed their son. Ainekisha said:
“We went back home but did not tell anyone, except I shared with my mother-in-law about the prayers in church that made my child well, and that we were planning to go back to the church the following Sunday. She kept quiet.”
The next Sunday, after the family had attended the religious service and thanked the church for the prayers that healed their son, when they returned home, they found more than 20 Muslim relatives gathered there. When the family began questioning them, one got extremely animated and began crying “Allahu Akbar.” “We thought that they were going to kill us,” Baula said, “but they only warned us not to attend the church, and the meeting ended.”
The family at first stopped going to church, but then attended again. On returning home that Sunday, they found three of their goats missing. “A [Muslim] relative named Hamisi told me that Allah had taken the goats,” Baula said. “I was scared by that statement and came back and told my wife.” She insisted that they and their three children, ages 3, 6, and 10, relocate.
“As we were thinking of where to go, at around 9 p.m. we heard hens making a lot of noise in the kitchen, and when I came out, I saw smoke and flames going up the roof, and I went back and told my wife that we are dying. We picked up our children and went out very fast, and within a short period my brothers, sisters and Muslim neighbors together with an imam arrived. The imam recited the Koran, and then later told my brothers to start destroying the house.”
They watched helplessly as their Muslim relatives and the fire destroyed their home, property, and livestock. According to Baula:
“The imam told us that from today we were no longer one of the family members, that we were kafir [infidels] and that we should leave the homestead immediately to go and look for other infidels. He added that had it not been the law of our state, we would face death, but ‘go out of here since you have disobeyed Allah and his messenger.'”
The family fled with nothing and, as of the last report, took refuge in another Christian’s home.
More Christian Slaughter in Africa
Mozambique: As the southeastern African nation continues to fight off the Islamic State and other terrorists — nearly a million people have been displaced since 2017 and thousands slaughtered — in a June 28 report, Todd Nettleton of The Voice of the Martyrs USA explained how the terrorists mostly target Christians:
“They say their goal is to set up a caliphate similar to ISIS in Iraq and Syria. And they are in some cases, literally going door to door. They ask, ‘Are you a Christian? Or are you a Muslim?’ If you’re a Christian, you’re killed. If you’re a Muslim, then you get the opportunity to quote some Quranic verses. And if you can quote them sufficiently, you save your life. Otherwise, you also get killed [sometimes by crucifixion].”
In another report on Mozambique from June 23, Amy Lamb of Open Doors said,
“Because of [the rise in Christianity], we’re seeing jihadist groups including those who are affiliated with the Islamic state, with al Shabab, with Boko Haram, al Qaeda…. [They are] organizing together in order to expand their territories throughout the African continent, and their goal is really to eradicate Christianity from this territory and, unfortunately, in some ways, it’s working. Even specifically from this northern part of Mozambique, an estimated 800,000 people have fled the region, and those who remain, including women, children, families, are facing starvation even if they’re spared from … violence.”
Nigeria: Among several lethal attacks on Christians, which claimed at least 17 Christian lives, Muslim Fulani herdsmen shot to death Precious Emeka Chinedu, a Christian doctor, on June 17 in Niger State. Five Muslims entered the hospital he worked in, seized and left with him, and then killed him and left his body in the bush. Discussing this incident, the doctor’s colleague, Baridueh Badon, said:
“His killers, who are herdsmen, came to the hospital, specifically asked for him, didn’t harm anybody, collected his money, took him away, and killed him without asking for ransom. What did he do wrong? Your blood will keep crying until justice is done…. Everyone loved him, always smiling, and he was one of the most hard-working persons I have ever known. His hospital boomed because he was saving lives. If you had any problems, Emeka would be there to help.”
Attacks on Churches
Democratic Republic of Congo: On Sunday, June 27, a makeshift bomb placed in the first row behind the altar exploded inside a Catholic church in Beni, leaving at least two injured. One of the injured women, Antoinette Kavira, said from her hospital bed:
“I had just entered the church, I hadn’t even managed to sit down, I heard ‘Boom’… Blood started flowing from my mouth. I lost four teeth and was injured in the arms.”
The blast occurred shortly before the start of a confirmation ceremony. “They were targeting a large crowd because the ceremony would bring together children, their parents and the faithful,” said a church official. The Allied Democratic Forces, a terrorist group connected to the Islamic State, is believed to be responsible for the attack. While discussing this latest attack, local Bishop Paluku shed light on the devastation committed by the Islamic terrorists:
“Armed groups are destroying schools and hospitals. Teachers and pupils are being killed. They are even killing the sick as they lie in their hospital beds. Not a day goes by without people being killed… We need centers where people can go for therapy. Many people are traumatized… A large-scale project is underway to Islamize or expel the indigenous populations. Anyone who has been kidnapped by these terrorist groups and managed to escape from them alive has told the same story. They were given the choice between death and converting to Islam.”
Indonesia: In the early morning hours of Sunday, June 27, a Protestant church was vandalized and then set on fire in the world’s most populous Muslim nation. The blaze was put out before it could do extensive damage. Although evidence indicates that the arsonist acted purposefully — he first broke the church’s windows, vandalized the interior, and then torched the exterior, all under the helpful cover of darkness — police concluded that the suspect was mentally disabled. The description prompted some critics to say that the incident was being “played down.”
Separately, police arrested “11 suspected Islamic militants accused of plotting attacks at several Christian churches in easternmost Papua province.” According to a May 31 report:
“The arrests led police to another suspect who was detained Sunday, and led them to seize items from various locations including chemicals for explosives, modified air guns able to fire real bullets, jihadist books and documents on planned attacks.”
Those arrested are members of Jemaah Anshorut Daulah, which has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State and has carried out a series of suicide bombings in Indonesia, including the bombing of a cathedral during Palm Sunday mass in March 2021 in Makassar, in which 20 were seriously wounded.
Finally, on June 19, ten Muslim schoolchildren, between the ages of 5 and 12, vandalized and desecrated a Christian cemetery by breaking the crosses off a dozen gravestones. After inspecting the damage done, the mayor of Solo laid the blame on the Islamic madrasa the children attend, and its teachers, “because they are teaching intolerance to their students.” He even urged police to prosecute the teachers and punish the students despite their being children. “Their actions were a gross act of intolerance.”
Pakistan: According to a June 22 report, a group of armed Muslim men attacked Harvest Church in the Punjab province. They broke in, shooting their guns in the air and severely beating the watchman. Several other Christians, men and women participating in evening prayers, were also hurt and hospitalized.
Egypt: Authorities seized land belonging to an ancient Coptic monastery, originally founded in 360 CE — nearly 300 years before Islam invaded and conquered Egypt in the seventh century. On May 30, authorities arrived with bulldozers and police at the Monastery of Saint Macarius in the deserts of Wadi al-Rayan in Fayum and demolished a fence of the annex-farm and other structures — including a church — that had been erected by the monks living there. Several monks who protested, or who tried to prevent this state-sanctioned destruction, were arrested but shortly thereafter released. The reason given for this takeover was that the monastery had been unable to pay the exorbitant levies that the government imposed on it a few years ago, in large measure due to the many government-enforced Covid-19 restrictions, such as on tourism, which would have helped keep the ancient monastery afloat. Christian Solidarity Worldwide, a human rights organization, said:
“Whilst we recognise the right of the government to collect the agreed taxes, we also recognise that this monastery has been on this site for centuries and that the rental levies are a relatively recent expense in its historic existence. We encourage … a just settlement in this matter, including a reappraisal of the rent that the monastery is required to pay, which is a considerable financial burden even outside the unusual circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has negatively impacted livelihoods in Egypt and across the world.”
It is not the first time that the Egyptian government has harassed the ancient Christian monasteries scattered in the deserts of Egypt — including St. Macarius. In 2015, the government initiated a project in Fayum to build a road that threatened to destroy ancient heritage sites connected to the Monastery of St. Macarius.
In the end, the monks had no choice but to lay their bodies down before the path of the bulldozers, which arrived to the accompaniment of triumphant cries of “Allahu Akbar” from the drivers and workers (pictures here). The monks were again arrested, although later released, and the road construction begun, against their will.
*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.
About this Series
While not all, or even most, Muslims are involved, persecution of Christians by extremists is growing. The report posits that such persecution is not random but rather systematic, and takes place irrespective of language, ethnicity, or location. It includes incidents that take place during, or are reported on, any given month.
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