LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
December 17/17
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani

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Bible Quotations
Because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed
Romans 02/01-16/"You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things. Now we know that God’s judgment against those who do such things is based on truth. So when you, a mere human being, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God’s judgment? Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance? But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed. God “will repay each person according to what they have done.” To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile; but glory, honor and peace for everyone who does good: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For God does not show favoritism. All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law. For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous. (Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts sometimes accusing them and at other times even defending them.) This will take place on the day when God judges people’s secrets through Jesus Christ, as my gospel declares."

Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on December 16-17/17
Accountability Is The Solution/Elias Bejjani/December 16/17
Lebanon's natural resources' luck has become the main obstruction to its own liberation/Dr.Walid Phares DC/Face Book/December 16/17
Multiculturalists Working to Undermine Western Civilization/Philip Carl Salzman/Gatestone Institute/December 16/17
Jerusalem, Israel's Capital: Watch the Masks Fall/Najat AlSaied/Gatestone Institute/December 16/17
Analysis: Putin’s surprise Syria visit aimed at threatening Assad/Ron Ben-YishaiYnetnews/December 16/17
Mr. Mahmoud Abbas, enough is enough/Ramzy Baroud/Al Arabiya/December 16/ 2017
Hamza bin Laden likely groomed for a senior al-Qaeda role/Shehab Al-Makahleh/Al Arabiya/December 16/ 2017
Making the Case against Iranian Sanctions Busting in Yemen/Michael Knights/The Washington Institute/December 16/2017
Mohammed bin Salman Doesn't Want to Talk About Jerusalem/Robert Satloff/The Washington Institute/December 16/2017

Titles For Latest LCCC Lebanese Related News published on December 16-17/17
Accountability Is The Solution
Lebanon's natural resources' luck has become the main obstruction to its own liberation
Lebanon Sets Date of Parliamentary Elections for May 6
Report: Hariri 'Dispatches Khoury' to Meet Geagea
Cabinet Convenes Tuesday in Final Meeting this Year
Qaouq: Hizbullah to Spare No Effort in Support of Palestine
Over Half Syrian Refugees in Lebanon in 'Extreme Poverty,' Says UN
Salameh: Crisis Boosted Confidence in Lebanese Economy
US to Give Lebanese Army $120m
Hariri: Amnesty issue very serious, relationship with Saudi Kingdom historic
Two Secondary Schools in Ashrafieh named after Martyr Gebran Tueni
Lebanese Forces: We regret Energy Minister's pursued accusations against us
Jumblatt, Foucher convene in Moukhtara
Erslan meets Bogdanov, Umakhanov in Russia
Bassil from Mieh Mieh: We do not want settlement in Lebanon, we want it a place for every liberal
Child Marriage' File Resurfaces After Girl Commits Suicide in North Lebanon
Cold Worsens Conditions of Syrian Refugees in Lebanon’s Bekaa

Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin For Miscellaneous Reports And News published on December 16-17/17
Sistani Urges Bringing Arms Under State Control
Legitimacy Closer to Clearing Houthis from Shabwa
Egypt Temporarily Opens Gaza Border
Rapprochement Between Nusra, Moderate Factions Raises Fears of ‘Hardliners’ Categorization
Mattis Emphasizes Diplomacy in Dealing with Iran
White House Signals Western Wall Has to Be Part of Israel
May Wins Brexit Boost, but Bigger Battles Await
Pope to meet Jordan’s King Abdullah
Japan mulls record defense budget to counter North Korea
Rafah crossing with Egypt reopens for four days, students urged to travel to their colleges
Macron to celebrate 40th birthday at luxurious château

Latest Lebanese Related News published on December 16-17/17
Accountability Is The Solution
Elias Bejjani/December 16/17
As long as the Lebanese politicians are not made fully accountable for their acts being good or bad, and as long they have sheep-wise blind followers who see in them Gods, there will be no change in the Lebanese political rotten arena except for the worst
https://www.facebook.com/groups/128479277182033/

Lebanon's natural resources' luck has become the main obstruction to its own liberation
Dr.Walid Phares DC/Face Book/December 16/17
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/?p=61078
Unfortunately we have discovered that not much can be done for Lebanon at this point in time because of the richness under water across from its coasts. The local political establishment, while bickering over administrative distributions, is dead united on preserving access to slices of energy income. They call it “wehdat el balad.” In fact it is unity of repartition of benefits to come. Lebanon’s natural resources’ luck has become the main obstruction to its own liberation. Neither Washington or Brussels can unlock such a financial appetite of the Lebanese elite. The last opportunities were in 2005 and 2008. Would a future generation produce the change? Or is the new generation already building new path? I have no way of knowing from afar.

Lebanon Sets Date of Parliamentary Elections for May 6
Associated Press/Naharnet/December 16/17/Lebanon has set the date for the country's first parliamentary elections in nine years, scheduling the vote for May 6, the National News Agency reported. Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq signed a decree Friday setting the date, NNA said.For the first time, Lebanese nationals living overseas will be able to cast ballots in early voting. The parliament has postponed elections several times over security reasons. Its term was supposed to expire in 2013 but lawmakers approved several extensions since then, the last one in June for another 11 months.Activists accuse politicians of delaying the vote for political reasons. The vote is expected to be a major test for both Prime Minister Saad Hariri and Hizbullah party. Hariri resigned last month but later revoked his resignation.

Report: Hariri 'Dispatches Khoury' to Meet Geagea
Naharnet/December 16/17/Prime Minister Saad Hariri decided to “delay breaking ties” with his longtime allies, mainly the Lebanese Forces, “covertly dispatching” his adviser and former Minister Ghattas Khoury to Maarab to meet LF chief Samir Geagea, al-Akhbar daily reported on Saturday.
Although Hariri wants to “leave the door open to attempts between the two parties to resolve the crisis,” but Khoury's meeting with Geagea did not “reap positive outcome,” said the daily. However, informed sources told al-Akhbar that a meeting between Geagea and the Mustaqbal Movement leader Saad Hariri “will eventually happen.” “Khoury paid Geagea a visit at his residence in Maarab, but the meeting was not positive and failed at resolving conflict issues,” unnamed sources close to the daily said. “Relations between the two men are very sensitive but a meeting between them will sooner or later happen,” they added. Hariri-Geagea ties have been reportedly strained lately. Hariri had sparked a storm of speculation on Monday when he said that certain “political parties” had stabbed him in the back during the political crisis of his surprise resignation announcement from Riyadh. “There are political parties that tried to find a place for them in this crisis by stabbing me in the back and I will deal with these cases, case by case, but I do not hold grudge against anyone,” Hariri had said. But the PM later described his relation with the LF as “good” while noting that it needs “some clarifications.”

Cabinet Convenes Tuesday in Final Meeting this Year
Naharnet/December 16/17/Lebanon's Cabinet will hold the last session this year in a special meeting on Tuesday at the Grand Serail to discuss agenda items pending since its previous meeting Thursday that approved licenses for oil drilling. Ministerial sources said the Cabinet will tackle “noncontroversial” issues and will look into 67 items most of which "not related to administrative appointments at the ministry of information and the state-owned television TeleLiban."As the country hopes to find resources to shore up its indebted economy, the Cabinet on Thursday approved granting licenses for oil exploration and excavation in the offshore blocks 5 and 9. Block 5 lies off Lebanon's northern coast while block 9 lies off Lebanon's southern coast.Earlier this decade, geologists discovered a bonanza of gas reserves off the coasts of Lebanon and Israel, sparking a frenzy of development on the Israeli side to tap into the fields. Lebanon's successive governments, beset by infighting and corruption, made only marginal progress toward that goal. In January, Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil described the government's approval of the executive decrees for offshore oil and gas excavation as the government's “first achievement.”A portion of the reserves lies in territory disputed by the two countries. Hizbullah has repeatedly warned Israel against tapping into Lebanon's gas reserves.

Qaouq: Hizbullah to Spare No Effort in Support of Palestine
Naharnet/December 16/17/Sheikh Nabil Qaouq, deputy head of Hizbullah's Executive Council, said on Saturday that his party will give full support for the resistance in Palestine after a US decision that recognized Jerusalem as capital of Israel. “Hizbullah does not give significance for the American or Saudi anger because it does not suffer from any sense of appeasement or weakness for America and its followers in the region,” said Qaouq at a memorial service. “Saudi normalization and concessions with the Israeli enemy are more painful than the Trump decision. The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques has failed Jerusalem and the sanctity of Muslims," he added in reference to a statement made by Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir about the US decision. In an interview with France 24, Jubeir denied claims that there was Saudi support for the US move and said he “believed the Trump administration still intended to propose a peace plan and that such a plan envisioned a two-state solution.”Trump's declaration to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital and relocate the US embassy from Tel Aviv sparked anger across the Muslim world, and drew expressions of concern and disapproval from US allies.

Over Half Syrian Refugees in Lebanon in 'Extreme Poverty,' Says UN
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/December 16/17/More than half of the Syrian refugees in Lebanon are now living in extreme poverty, and the vast majority live below the poverty line, the UN's refugee agency said Friday. According to the UN, more than a million Syrians have sought refuge in Lebanon since the war in their country erupted after anti-government protests in March 2011. The massive influx has tested Lebanon, a country of just four million citizens that already struggled with overstretched resources before the arrival of Syrian refugees. Over the last six years of the war, the refugee population has sunk further into debt and poverty, UNHCR said, with 58 percent of households now living in extreme poverty, defined as less than $2.87 per person a day. That is an increase of five percent since last year, UNHCR said in an annual survey. The survey found 76 percent of refugees were living below the poverty line, defined as less than $3.84 per person a day, and that nearly 90 percent of refugees were in debt. "Syrian refugees in Lebanon are barely keeping afloat," said UNHCR's Lebanon representative Mireille Girard said."Most families are extremely vulnerable and dependent on aid from the international community." One bright spot in the survey was a large jump in school enrolment of refugee children aged 6-14, with 70 percent now registered at school, up from around just half. But the report found just 12 percent of adolescent refugees had finished their education. More than 340,000 people have been killed in Syria since the conflict began, and over five million people have fled abroad as refugees. Large parts of the country are now under government control after years of fighting, and there have been increasing calls in recent months in Lebanon for refugees to begin returning home, though aid agencies have said it is too early for returns to begin.

Salameh: Crisis Boosted Confidence in Lebanese Economy
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/December 16/17/Lebanon's ability to survive the crisis sparked last month by the premier's now rescinded resignation has increased confidence in its economy, the governor of the country's central bank said Friday. Lebanon, chronically feared to be on the brink of default, was shaken last month by an unprecedented crisis that saw Prime Minister Saad Hariri resign in Saudi Arabia under mysterious circumstances before a Western diplomatic effort and subsequent national consultations saved his job. "The liquidity to fund the economy remained available because we maintained monetary stability during this crisis and even I think that after this crisis there will be more confidence," Riad Salameh told AFP.

US to Give Lebanese Army $120m
BY CLARION PROJECT Thursday, December 14, 2017
The United States will give the Lebanese army $120 million in aid, U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Elizabeth Richard announced December 13. The aid includes “six MD 530G light attack helicopters, six Scan Eagle drones, and communication and night vision equipment,” as reported by Middle East Eye. America has long worried that the Syrian Civil War will spill into Lebanon and destabilize the country. There is also the problem of Hezbollah. Originally an Iranian-backed terrorist group established to fight Israel, Hezbollah is now part of the government of Lebanon as well as a key ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Citing fears over Hezbollah’s influence, Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri resigned last month while in Saudi Arabia, prompting speculation he was forced to resign by the Saudi government. His stated reason for resigning was that Hezbollah had taken over the country and he feared for his life. However, Hariri withdrew his resignation a week ago and will continue to serve as prime minister. There is also the risk of another war between Hezbollah and Israel. Israel’s Intelligence Minister Yisrael Katz warned Israel will “return Lebanon to the stone age” in the event of a war. Since Hezbollah is part of the Lebanese government, Israel views all state institutions as legitimate targets in the event of a war with Hezbollah.

Hariri: Amnesty issue very serious, relationship with Saudi Kingdom historic
Sat 16 Dec 2017/ NNA - Prime Minister Saad Hariri denied any existing problems with Saudi Arabia, stressing that a "historic relationship" connects him with the Saudi Kingdom. "There are those who are trying to suggest that I have problems with Saudi Arabia and the Gulf countries, and that is not true at all....Certain parties are the ones to have issues with the Gulf countries, but Saad Hariri does not have any problem with Saudi Arabia, and the relation with the Kingdom is a distinctive and historic relationship and will continue, God willing, for the better," Hariri asserted. The Prime Minister's words came during a meeting at the "House of Center" with a delegation of Mukhtars from a number of Lebanese regions who visited him on Friday evening. "I am following-up daily on the implementation of the self-dissociation decision adopted by the Council of Ministers, and if all political parties do not respect this decision, their problem will be with me personally," stated Hariri. The Prime Minister stressed on "political cooperation between various Lebanese parties in the country to yield accomplishments, especially in terms of economic growth." He noted that "previous experiences, from 2005 until the election of President Michel Aoun and the formation of the current government, have proved that no side can eliminate the other, and that Lebanon can only rise through genuine national partnership in which each team has its rights and duties."Responding to a question about the anticipated amnesty law, Hariri said: "We are working on issuing said law. The amnesty law is a very serious issue and I am working on the matter with Justice Minister Salim Jreissati, the military court, the discrimination prosecutor, Future Bloc deputies and all concerned." "President Aoun is keen on achieving this law, which will be accomplished, God willing," vowed Hariri.

Two Secondary Schools in Ashrafieh named after Martyr Gebran Tueni
Sat 16 Dec 2017/NNA - In an initiative by the Gebran Tueni Foundation, two high schools in the area of Ashrafieh in Beirut were named after Martyr Gebran Tueni on Saturday afternoon, in an organized event attended by Higher Education Minister Marwan Hamadeh, Information Minister Melhem Riachi and a number of deputies, prominent official figures and family members of the late Martyr Tueni. In his word on the occasion, Minister Hamadeh who patronized the event recalled Martyr Tueni's sacrifices "for the sake of a sovereign, independent, democratic and free Lebanon." "Gebran was a hero of media liberties," added Hamadeh, calling for respecting freedom of speech in a country that has always been an advocate of democracy and free will. "Lebanon is great through you, only you, the young generation, the source of hope...owners of the constant and persistent rebellion called for by Gebran...Do not stop this rebellion and do not make mistakes in a path that might lead you to new and permanent guardianships and irreversible bankruptcy in a country like Lebanon," stressed Hamadeh, addressing the Lebanese youth. In turn, Minister Riachi deemed that "Martyr Tueni lost his life so that Lebanon can survive and live long." "The secondary school that Gebran dreamed of has been realized today, because many of us refuse that the dream would die...and the dream will never die!" he exclaimed. "Gebran was like Kant, believing in diversity...believing that many things that do not resemble each other can come together despite their contradictions," Riachi asserted.

Lebanese Forces: We regret Energy Minister's pursued accusations against us
Sat 16 Dec 2017/NNA - In an issued statement by the Lebanese Forces Media Department on Saturday, it criticized Water and Energy Minister Cesar Abi Khalil's "continued campaign waged against the Party, accusing LF of obstructing the 24/24 electricity provision and portraying its objection to the electricity deal as being part of an electoral campaign." The Party also denounced the Energy Minister's attempt to compare between the electricity deal that ended with one bidder, and the oil tender which closed with one bidder as well, considering that such a comparison denotes an "intended distortion of facts." The statement went on to confirm that "the Lebanese Forces has the courage to commend the Ministry of Energy when it carries out its work according to the stipulated laws, as was the case in granting the oil and gas licenses, and to criticize the Ministry when it violates the laws."

Jumblatt, Foucher convene in Moukhtara
Sat 16 Dec 2017/NNA - Democratic Gathering Head, MP Walid Jumblatt, met Saturday afternoon with French Ambassador to Lebnaon, Bruno Foucher, who visited him at his Moukhtara Palace in the presence of MP Nemeh Tohme and Mrs. Noura Jumblatt. The general political situation in Lebanon and the region topped their discussion, which continued over lunch. The French Ambassador did not make any statement upon emerging, touring with Jumblatt the various historical sections of the ancient Moukhtara Palace.

Erslan meets Bogdanov, Umakhanov in Russia
Sat 16 Dec 2017/NNA - Lebanese Democratic Party Head, Displaced Minister Talal Erslan, currently on a visit to Russia, met Saturday with Deputy Russian Foreign Minister for the Middle East and North Africa, Mikhail Bogdanov, at the Foreign Ministry headquarters in Moscow. Both sides discussed the situation in Lebanon and the region, especially after the recent developments that led to the defeat of Takfiri terrorism in Syria and Lebanon, as a step towards full stability. For his part, Erslan thanked Russia for "its historic role that has changed the balance of power in the Middle East and around the world." He also stressed the need to consolidate the partnership between Lebanon and Russia on different levels. Erslan also met with Russian Deputy Prime Minister Elias Omakhanov, expressing his interest in developing bilateral parliamentary relations and strengthening communication between the Russian and Lebanese people.

Bassil from Mieh Mieh: We do not want settlement in Lebanon, we want it a place for every liberal
Sat 16 Dec 2017/NNA - Foreign Affairs Minister Gebran Bassil rejected Saturday any settlement in Lebanon, stressing the desire for it to be a place for every liberal. "We want no settlement in Lebanon neither for the Palestinians nor the Syrians, for we want them to return to their homeland, because we wish that Lebanon remains a place for every liberal person seeking freedom," said Bassil during his patronage of the Christmas Village inauguration in the town of Mieh Mieh in Sidon today. "We and the Palestinians have paid the price of the international legitimacy's disregard for human rights, allowing the replacement of one people with another amidst the international community's silence," Bassil added. He deemed that this silence has permitted Israel and the United States, and all the silent participants and spectators, to stand idle as human rights are suppressed and people's lawful entitlements are abandoned.
"So when we express the pain of Jerusalem there is solidarity with our brethren people and with a national cause and an identity to which we belong...and there is solidarity with ourselves as well," Bassil underscored.

Child Marriage' File Resurfaces After Girl Commits Suicide in North Lebanon
Asharq Al Awsat/Saturday, 16 December, 2017/The northern Lebanese town of Akkar was shocked by the suicide of a 15-year-old girl, prompting officials to reopen the file “marriage of minors”, although the main motive behind the suicide has not been established yet.In the details, Nazira Tartousi (born in 2003) killed herself with a hunting rifle while returning from a visit to her family in the Beddawi area with her husband, Abdul Hai Ali al-Suyour, to their home in Wadi al-Jamous. One of the village elders told Asharq al-Awsat that the couple had returned to their homes and Nazira started preparing the ‘nargileh’ for her husband and a group of people who had come to visit them, including the husband’s brother. She was laughing and talking to the visitors, according to the witness. “Suddenly she entered a room and took out a hunting rifle owned by the husband and shot herself... the people rushed to the room and saw the blood spread on the wall,” he said. Residents in the town denied any kind of differences between the wife and her husband. When asked if she got married against her will, they say: “Never. She decided to leave school and build a family. You must look at the history of her family and the family of her husband to know that they are the finest people.” Their economic status is “very good and they are among the richest families in the village,” according to the residents. Nazira was transferred to Al-Yousef Hospital and was examined by a forensic doctor. Her case was kept in strict secrecy. Her husband was arrested by members of the Information Division in Halba and handed over to Al-Abdeh station before being investigated. A source told Asharq al-Awsat that the husband revealed that he had no problems with his wife. Her mother, however, revealed that her daughter told her more than once: I will kill myself. She did not remember the reasons, and her mother always deterred her and reminded her of the religious reasons that forbid the killing of the soul. When Asharq al-Awsat asked a relative of the family why she would have killed herself, he replied: “Her head hurts and she does not say more than that.”“Regardless of the circumstances of the killing of the 15-year-old girl, who has married five months ago in Akkar, the final word is for the court’s ruling and the investigations,” Minister of State for Women’s Affairs Jean Ogassapian said on his Twitter account. “What is sure, however, is that this girl had the natural right to enjoy the tenderness of her parents and continue her education,” he added, expressing his rejection to the marriage of minors.

Cold Worsens Conditions of Syrian Refugees in Lebanon’s Bekaa
Bekaa - Hussein Darwish/ Asharq Al Awsat/December 16/2017/Hamida Al-Qassem, a 50-year-old Syrian widow from the town of Jussiyeh, collects papers, cartons and plastic wastes from Lebanese streets and shops to provide heat for her seven children that have taken refuge in the Mousa camp in the center of the northeastern town of Arsal.Al-Qassem is not tired from her daily task but still hopes to get some gas and oil distributed by the United Nations this year. Her case is similar to hundreds of other Syrian refugees who live in eastern Lebanon’s camps, and whose sufferings elevate with the start of each cold wave. The Arsal camps are located 1,500 meters above sea level, with temperatures dropping to -4 Celsius at night. The refugees live in plastic-covered tents that provide no protection from the cold, snow and frost. Maryam Dazzah has been living in similar conditions since her release from the Adra prison in Syria three years ago. She stays in a room with eight members of her family that also includes her 20-year-old daughter with special needs. Dazzah was captured by Syrian regime forces after being accused of collaborating with opposition forces. She said she was hopeless because only three members of her family received a UN red card that allows them to get aid from the organization, while the others, who refused to accompany her to Zahle, were not given a card. “We received information saying that the UN will visit us in Arsal to verify the names of those allowed to receive aid because a large number of refugees are unable to travel to Zahle,” she said. There are 93 camps with more than 120,000 Syrian refugees in Arsal.

Latest LCCC Bulletin For Miscellaneous Reports And News published on December 16-17/17
Sistani Urges Bringing Arms Under State Control
Baghdad- Asharq Al Awsat/December 16/2017/Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani Friday called for maintaining the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) as he stressed that all weapons should be brought under the control of the Iraqi government. Some assumptions that Sistani might abort the jihad fatwa surfaced, one week after Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared victory over ISIS. Yet, the former affirmed during Friday’s sermon that the threats jeopardizing Iraq demand maintaining a military effort equal to efforts of the Iraqi armed forces. Abadi commented that the government has already commenced bringing weapons under state control. He welcomed Sistani’s call to not exploit what was done by the fighters for political or party purposes – in an approach to distant security institutions from the political work. Haidar al-Ghourabi from the Hawza stated to Asharq Al-Awsat that “the religious reference urged the activation of the popular mobilization law to recognize a security force that falls under the ministries of defense and interior. Those enrolled would receive salaries and allocations from the state, which means that their tasks should be limited to the state and not to any political faction.”Whether Sistani's call implied canceling his fatwa on jihad, Ghourabi said that these are two separate topics because when Sistani issued this fatwa it entailed a call for volunteering at the state security institutions. Naeem al-Aboudi, spokesman for the Asaib Ahl al-Haq, added that if Sistani had wished to cancel the jihad fatwa then he would have stated that directly and clearly, that which didn't happen during Friday’s sermon. He underscored that the “fatwa is practically still ongoing.” “As for the PMF, even if Sistani said that the fatwa is over and volunteers should return home, this doesn’t dissociate the Popular Mobilization Forces because they are now a governmental institution,” Aboudi added.

Legitimacy Closer to Clearing Houthis from Shabwa
Jeddah - Taiz- Said Al-Abyad and Asharq Al-Awsat/December 16/2017 /The Yemeni Army and allied fighters on Friday got closer to clearing the province of Shabwa from Houthis insurgents following fierce battles that led to the liberation of the Bayhan directorate and other surrounding areas, forcing militias to flee. A spokesman for pro-government forces, Brigadier Abdo Majli, told Asharq Al-Awsat that Yemeni expert teams have already begun removing mines planted by Houthis in Bayhan and other areas ahead of securing a safe return for the residents. “The victory at the Bayhan-Assaylan front would allow the Army to continue its operation for the full liberation of the province of Shabwa,” Majli said. He added that on Friday, the military coalition fighting the Houthis in Yemen was able to target a boat in Ras Isa in the Lihyah directorate. The boat carried Houthi militias, who were all killed, according to Majli. He did not rule out that those militias were trying to escape from a Yemeni region to another after legitimate forces were advancing in the area.According to the spokesperson, the coalition forces killed a large number of high-ranking Houthi officials. “This development will confuse Houthi members and will paralyze their military moves,” he said, adding that the Yemeni army now controls a large number of important positions at the Bayhan front. Separately, UN special envoy to Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed said on Friday that “the developments in Sana’a are unacceptable and a violation of international law.”In a number of tweets, the UN envoy called for an “immediate” end to the violence that the General People’s Congress leaders are being subject to, such as arbitrary detention and intimidation. Ould Cheikh Ahmad also said he held talks with senior members of the GPC, offering his condolences over the death of its chief former President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

Egypt Temporarily Opens Gaza Border
Asharq Al-Awsat/December 16/2017/Egypt temporarily opened its largely sealed border with Gaza on Saturday for only the second time since the Palestinian Authority took control of the Rafah crossing from Hamas. The Hamas-run interior ministry, which was organizing departures from the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Yunis, said the crossing would stay open for four days but, in the Egypt direction, for humanitarian cases only. Up to 20,000 Gazans have applied to enter Egypt, far more than are able to cross during the brief openings. Some 200 people passed through on Saturday morning, the ministry said. Those include people needing medical treatment unavailable in Gaza as well as students enrolled at Egyptian universities and Gazans with jobs abroad. Rafah is Gaza's only border crossing not controlled by Israel. Hamas handed control of the Gaza side to the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority on November 1 as the first part of an Egyptian-brokered reconciliation deal designed to end a bitter decade-long split. That was supposed to have been followed by the handover of full civil control in Gaza by December 1. But the target date was missed amid differences over the future of tens of thousands of civil servants recruited by Hamas since it seized control of the territory in 2007. Egypt opened the border for three days last month -- the first time it had done so since the reconciliation deal. Prior to that the crossing had been open for just 14 days this year, according to the Hamas-run interior ministry.

Rapprochement Between Nusra, Moderate Factions Raises Fears of ‘Hardliners’ Categorization
Beirut- Nazeer Rida/Asharq Al-Awsat/December 16/2017 /Syrian opposition factions that are classified as "moderate" fear the efforts of rapprochement with Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham, in which “Nusra Front” represents its backbone in north Syria, according to a senior opposition source. They believe that the move makes all factions look like al-Qaeda and paves the way for Russia to attack them under the pretext of fighting terrorism, the senior added. Some of the moderate opposition groups are moving in a step towards rapprochement with Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham in light of battles between the two sides against the forces of the Syrian regime and its allies on the one hand and ISIS on the other hand in the countryside of southern Aleppo, eastern Idlib and northeast Hama. This rapprochement among the parties has reached the point of field engagement in joint operations to repel the attacks that have raged for nearly two months now. A leading source in one of the moderate factions in the north told Asharq Al-Awsat that the move to unite now "represents a very sensitive turn at the level of alliances," pointing out that a similar process "would present these factions as part of al-Qaeda, giving Russia an excuse to bomb Idlib and areas controlled by opposition forces in the vicinity.”The steps to unite have "begun two months ago, with the beginning of the regime operations in the countryside of Hama, where it is trying to expand towards the countryside of Idlib,” the source said. He explained that forces of Nusra Front were able to survive because they are local fighters in that area, but when the battles and the progress of the regime expanded, Nusra Front asked for support. At the beginning, opposition factions did not respond until two factions, Jaysh al-Izza and the Free Army of Idlib, responded at a later stage, and were able to repel the attacks in the village of Rasm al-Hamam, the source added. He said that these developments on ground proved that Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham can not fight the battles alone and without support, forcing its leader Abu Muhammad al-Julani to communicate with the leaders of the factions, and he released leaders of the moderate factions who were arrested in an attempt to get closer to them.

Mattis Emphasizes Diplomacy in Dealing with Iran
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/December 16/17/US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said he does not see the need for a stepped-up military posture against Iran, the day after a top diplomat said evidence shows Tehran is supporting Huthi rebels in Yemen. US ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley on Thursday presented missile fragments and other military gear that she said came from Iran and had been used against US ally Saudi Arabia. When asked if he thought such evidence warranted an emboldened or expanded military response from the US, Mattis said: "Not militarily, no.""It's the reason Ambassador Haley was there and not one of our generals," he told Pentagon reporters. "This is a diplomatically-led effort to expose to the world what Iran is up to."Mattis lambasted Iran for its support of President Bashar al-Assad in Syria, "despite the murder of his own people on the industrial scale," and of its support for Lebanese group Hezbollah. What Iran is "doing right now is illegal, is contributing to the deaths of innocent people," Mattis said. "To expose what they are doing is healthy for the international community for their awareness of what's going on there."Haley on Wednesday said a missile fired on November 4 from Yemen toward Riyadh airport had been made in Iran.

White House Signals Western Wall Has to Be Part of Israel
Associated Press/Naharnet/December 16/17/Senior Trump administration officials outlined their view that Jerusalem's Western Wall ultimately will be declared a part of Israel, in another declaration sure to enflame passions among Palestinians and others in the Middle East. Although they said the ultimate borders of the holy city must be resolved through Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, the officials — speaking ahead of Vice President Mike Pence's trip to the region — essentially ruled out any scenario that didn't maintain Israeli control over the holiest ground in Judaism. The issue is sensitive because the wall is beyond Israel's pre-1967 borders and abuts some of the Islamic world's most revered sites. "We cannot envision any situation under which the Western Wall would not be part of Israel. But as the president said, the specific boundaries of sovereignty of Israel are going to be part of the final status agreement," a senior administration official said. Another official later added by email, "We note that we cannot imagine Israel would sign a peace agreement that didn't include the Western Wall." The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss details of the vice president's upcoming trip.
Nabil Abu Rdeneh, a senior adviser to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, reacted indignantly to the comments. "We will not accept any changes on the borders of east Jerusalem, which was occupied in 1967," Abu Rdeneh told The Associated Press. "This statement proves once again that this American administration is outside the peace process. The continuation of this American policy, whether the recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, or moving the American embassy, or such statements, by which the United States decides unilaterally on the issues of the final status negotiations, are a violation of international law and strengthen the Israeli occupation. For us, this is unacceptable. We totally reject it. And we totally denounce it."
Pence plans to visit the Western Wall next week. The administration officials said he would be accompanied by a rabbi to preserve the spiritual nature of his planned visit to the hallowed wall in Jerusalem's Old City. The officials said Pence's Wednesday visit would be conducted in a similar manner to when President Donald Trump visited in May. Jerusalem's status has been a central issue in the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Trump's announcement last week declaring Jerusalem to be Israel's capital shook up decades of U.S. foreign policy and countered an international consensus that Jerusalem's status should be decided in negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, who claim east Jerusalem as the capital of their future state. Pence plans to depart for the Middle East on Tuesday after presiding over the Senate's vote on a sweeping tax overhaul. The vice president will meet Wednesday with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi in Cairo and then travel to Israel. Pence's two-plus days in Israel will include meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a speech at the Knesset and a visit to the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial. Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital has sparked protests in the Middle East, and Abbas pulled out of a planned meeting with Pence. Abbas had originally been scheduled to host Pence, a devout Christian, in the biblical West Bank town of Bethlehem.
A third senior administration official noted the reaction to the Jerusalem decision and "a lot of the emotions that have been displayed on that." The official said Pence's trip is viewed as part of "the ending of that chapter and the beginning of what I would say the next chapter."
Trump officials said Pence would reinforce Trump's announcement on Jerusalem, but the administration also understands the Palestinians may need a cooling-off period. Israel captured the Old City, home to important Jewish, Christian and Muslim religious sites, along with the rest of east Jerusalem in the 1967 war. The U.S. has never recognized Israeli sovereignty over territory occupied in 1967, including east Jerusalem. For this reason, U.S. officials have refused to say explicitly that the wall is part of Israel. The Western Wall, a retaining wall from the biblical Jewish Temple, is considered the holiest site where Jews can pray. Israel controls the wall and treats it like Israeli territory, routinely holding solemn state ceremonies there. It is widely assumed that Israel would retain control over the site under a potential peace deal. But complicating any deal is the adjacent hilltop site revered by Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary and Jews as the Temple Mount. The compound is home to Al Aqsa Mosque, the third-holiest site in Islam, and is where the Jewish Temple once stood. It is considered the holiest site in Judaism.

May Wins Brexit Boost, but Bigger Battles Await
Agence France Presse//Naharnet/December 16/17/After a turbulent few months when some predicted she could be gone by Christmas, British Prime Minister Theresa May finally has some good news with a deal on Brexit -- but any reprieve will likely be short-lived. The EU's decision Friday to move to the next stage of negotiations with Britain was a much-needed success for May, whose leadership has been dogged by doubts since a disastrous snap election in June. The approval followed an 11th-hour deal struck last week by the prime minister and European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker on the terms of the divorce, including Britain's financial settlement. It drew rare support from across all sections of May's frequently divided Conservative party, and was agreed despite concerns in the Northern Irish party which props up her minority government. But some key issues were left unresolved, while Britain is yet to set out what it wants from the future relationship with the European Union. Cabinet ministers are due to discuss the subject formally next week. A parliamentary defeat on the eve of the EU summit was a timely reminder of the opposition May faces to her Brexit strategy at home, as the negotiations enter what is likely to be the most challenging phase. "The government has to decide what to ask for in phase two, which is going to be very difficult in itself," said Charles Grant of the Centre for European Reform. "The British government is going to find that whatever it asks for, the EU is going to be tough," he told AFP, adding: "I think there's going to be a massive crisis." - 'Formidable operator' -May said the divorce agreement defied the doubters, and described the EU summit as "an important step on the road to delivering a smooth and orderly Brexit". The agreement had almost collapsed following opposition from Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party over the Irish border, sparking warnings about the fragility of May's position and media reports of plots to oust her. May has struggled to assert her authority since losing her parliamentary majority in June, with Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson openly challenging her Brexit strategy at one point. But the deal was made, and despite the splits in her government -- and two ministerial resignations over separate scandals last month -- public support for May is holding firm. A YouGov survey for The Times this week put approval ratings for her party at 42 percent, one point ahead of the main opposition Labour party. She may face more trouble within her own party's ranks.Eleven Tory MPs joined with opposition parties on Wednesday to demand that parliament have the final say on the terms of the divorce, a move that has the potential to bind May's hands. But in a welcome move for her on Friday, Tory backbenchers tabled a new amendment to the draft withdrawal legislation on the exact timing of Brexit, which rebels are expected to support and should avert another House of Commons vote loss next week.
It proposes allowing ministers the flexibility to amend the date and time of Brexit, which the government wants to fix in law as 2300 GMT on March 29, 2019, but the rebels had opposed. European leaders had sought to play down May's parliamentary difficulties and hailed her leadership, with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte calling the prime minister a "formidable political operator". Tim Bale, a politics professor at Queen Mary University of London, said that for both Brussels and the factions in the Conservative party, May provides a balance.
"European leaders recognise that she is their least worst option -- if there were to be leadership contest in Britain they've got no idea who they would get," he said. And at home, as a pragmatic rather than idealistic supporter of leaving the EU, "she is the only alternative for both sides of the Brexit divide in the Conservative Party".
 Hard decisions loom -But Bale warned that May's position might not hold indefinitely as Britain prepares to withdraw by March 29, 2019.
"Decisions are going to have to be made in this phase, and some people are not going to like these decisions," he said. May says Britain will quit the EU's single market and customs union, but forge a new "deep and special partnership" with as few barriers to trade as possible. Options include following the model of a recent EU-Canada trade deal, or Norway's membership of the European Economic Area -- both of which would be controversial to sections of May's Conservative party. Chuka Umunna, a leading pro-European opposition MP, warned: "The clock is ticking, and we are far away from anything resembling a deal."

Pope to meet Jordan’s King Abdullah
Sat 16 Dec 2017/NNA - Pope Francis will meet Jordan’s King Abdullah II at the Vatican next week, the Holy See announced on Friday, as Palestinians continue to clash with Israeli forces over US President Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Demonstrations and violence broke out across the Palestinian territories for the second Friday in a row after the end of weekly Muslim prayers. Two Palestinians were shot and killed by Israeli forces in clashes along the Gaza-Israel border, the Palestinian Health Ministry said. The pope and King Abdullah, the custodian of the Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem’s Old City, are likely to discuss the situation, though the Vatican never indicates topics of discussion for such meetings in advance. On Sunday the pope called for “respect of the status quo” in Jerusalem and warned against “a new spiral of violence.” Abdullah has denounced the Jerusalem announcement as “a violation of international rights.” Jerusalem, which contains sites considered sacred by Muslims, Christians and Jews, is of huge importance to both Israel and the Palestinians. Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as the Israeli capital, and his plans to move the US Embassy there from Tel Aviv, effectively ignores Palestinian claims on the city and has led to widespread criticism and protest, particularly in the Arab world. Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem has never been recognized internationally, and all countries maintain their embassies in Tel Aviv. The UN has long maintained that the only way to forge peace is to have two states — Israel and Palestine — with Jerusalem as the capital of both and the borders returned to their status before the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. East Jerusalem was annexed by Israel after the war, but before Trump’s announcement it had not been internationally recognized as part of Israel.

Japan mulls record defense budget to counter North Korea
Sat 16 Dec 2017/NNA - Japan plans to increase its defense budget to a record high level for the next fiscal year, allocating money to purchase more American weapon systems to counter North Korea. The Japanese government is expected to set aside 5.19 trillion yen (approximately 46 billion US dollars) for defense in the country’s initial budget proposal for the fiscal year starting April 2018, Japan’s largest financial daily the Nikkei reported on Saturday. The amount surpasses the 5.12 trillion yen budget for the current fiscal year and is approximately 70 billion yen more than last year. The business newspaper said the measure would mark the sixth straight year of increases in Japan’s defense outlays, adding that most of the additional costs would go to protecting the country against the perceived threat from North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs. The extra funding will cover the cost of the preliminary design and the subsequent purchase and deployment of the US military’s Aegis Ashore land-based missile interceptor system in Japan, the Nikkei said. Additionally, the Japanese Defense Ministry announced last week that Tokyo intended to begin developing a cruise missile designed to be deployed on fighter-jets and to strike naval ships and ground targets. Called the Japanese Tomahawk, the prototype is designed to defend remote Japanese islands. The United States and its regional allies, including Japan, have been opposed to North Korea’s weapons programs. Tokyo found reason for extreme worry when Pyongyang fired two long-range missiles over Japan in September and also conducted its sixth and most powerful nuclear test. Japan also fears that potential US military action against North Korea could draw reprisal attacks by Pyongyang against Japanese territory. The standoff over North Korea escalated in July when Pyongyang test-fired two intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM). Experts say the entire US mainland is within the range of the missiles, which North Korea says could be equipped with nuclear warheads. North Korea has been under a raft of crippling UN sanctions since 2006 over its nuclear tests as well as multiple rocket and missile launches. Pyongyang has firmly defended its military program as a deterrent against the hostile policies of the US and its regional allies, including Japan and South Korea. Washington has thousands of troops in the region, partially in South Korea and Japan, and routinely threatens the North with military action to stop its weapons programs. ---Press Tv

Rafah crossing with Egypt reopens for four days, students urged to travel to their colleges
Sat 16 Dec 2017/NNA - Egypt reopened on Saturday its border crossing with the Gaza Strip at Rafah, in southern Gaza, as the Ministry of Education urged Gaza students enrolled in colleges abroad to take advantage of the opening and travel to their colleges. The Palestinian border authority said Rafah terminal will be open in both directions for four days, starting Saturday. Nathmi Muhanna, director of the border authority, said Egypt informed them that the crossing will be open for four days to allow humanitarian cases to leave Gaza or return to it. Palestinians anxious to travel for study, medical treatment, or business for holders of residency permits in other countries, have gathered at the terminal awaiting their term on the buses leaving to Egypt, according to WAFA correspondent. The last time the crossing was open for three days was on November 18. Gazans hope that the crossing, their only exit route to the outside world, will remain open around the clock once the Palestinian government takes full control of it as agreed in the October 12 reconciliation agreement between Fatah and Hamas. --- WAFA

Macron to celebrate 40th birthday at luxurious château
Sat 16 Dec 2017/NNA - French President Emmanuel Macron will celebrate his 40th birthday Saturday at the vast and luxurious Château de Chambord south of Paris. Macron, who has been dubbed “president of the rich” by critics, traveled to Chambord with his wife Brigitte and family members on Friday for the celebrations, ahead of his birthday on December 21. The president and his wife paid for the weekend at Chambord out of their own funds, with the Elysée presidential palace ensuring security, French media reported. They will spend the weekend at an inn and will only go to the château on Saturday for a dinner in the president’s honor. But despite their relatively modest choice of accommodation, the couple’s decision to celebrate at Chambord, a vast royal domain with sumptuous galleries and vast grounds, prompted criticism of tone-deafness. “In today’s France, and from a head of state who knows the value of signs and symbols, celebrating his birthday at Chambord doesn’t make any sense,” tweeted Marion Van Renterghem, a journalist and author. --- Politico

Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on December 16-17/17
Multiculturalists Working to Undermine Western Civilization
Philip Carl Salzman/Gatestone Institute/December 16/17
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/11542/multiculturalists
Unlike postmodernism, which sees Western culture as no better than other cultures, postcolonialism considers Western culture inferior to other cultures.
Rather than enhancing Western culture through the enrichment different ethnic and religious groups provide in countries with a Judeo-Christian foundation, multiculturalists have actually been rejecting their own Western culture.
The West, even flawed, has nevertheless afforded more freedoms and prosperity to more people than ever before in history. If Western civilization is to survive this defamation, it would do well to remind people its historical accomplishments: its humanism and morality derived from Judeo-Christian traditions; its Enlightenment thought; its technological revolutions; its political evolution into full democracy; the separation of church from state; its commitment to human rights and most of all its gravely threatened freedom of speech. Much of what is good in the world is thanks only to Western civilization. It is critical not to throw it out or lose it.
For the past decade, many in the West have been honing a historically unprecedented narrative -- one that not only renounces the culture they have inherited but that denies its very existence. A few examples:
During a press conference in Strasbourg in 2009, for instance, then-President Barack Obama began by downplaying the uniqueness of the United States. "I believe in American exceptionalism, just as I suspect that the Brits believe in British exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism."
In addition, in 2010, Mona Ingeborg Sahlin, the leader at that time of the Swedish Social Democratic Party, told a gathering of the Turkish youth organization Euroturk:
"I cannot figure out what Swedish culture is. I think that's what makes many Swedes jealous of immigrant groups. You [immigrants] have a culture, an identity, a history, something that brings you together. And what do we have? We have Midsummer's Eve and such silly things."
In October 2015, Ingrid Lomfors, head of the Swedish governmental "Forum for Living History," later told a group officials, "There is no native Swedish culture."
In November 2015, the newly sworn-in Canadian President, Justin Trudeau, gave an interview to the New York Times, and published a month later, in which he said:
"There is no core identity, no mainstream in Canada. There are shared values -- openness, respect, compassion, willingness to work hard, to be there for each other, to search for equality and justice. Those qualities are what make us the first postnational state."
In 2015, Canadian President Justin Trudeau said, "There is no core identity, no mainstream in Canada. There are shared values -- openness, respect, compassion, willingness to work hard, to be there for each other, to search for equality and justice. Those qualities are what make us the first postnational state." (Image source: Canadian PM's Office)
In December 2015, Former Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, president of the European Council in 2009, gave an interview to TV4 ahead of his departure from the leadership of the Moderate Party, in which he asked rhetorically:
"Is this a country that is owned by those who have lived here for three or four generations or is Sweden what people who come here in mid-life makes it to be?... For me it is obvious that it should be the latter and that it is a stronger and better society if it may be open... Swedes are uninteresting as an ethnic group."Notably, such statements emanated from leaders in the United States, Sweden and Canada -- countries with distinct literature, music, art and cuisine, as well as distinct judicial and governmental systems. What the views of the five leaders have in common, however, are a postmodern ideology and a need for minority and immigrant votes. Postmodernism has two key elements: cultural relativism and postcolonialism. Cultural relativism -- developed by American anthropologist Ruth Benedict, author of the 1934 worldwide best-seller Patterns of Culture, and her mentor, the "father of American anthropology," Franz Boas -- posited that researchers must set aside their own cultural values and biases, and maintain an open mind about those of other peoples' cultures, in order to understand them. In the second half of the 20th century, anthropological theorists extended this to the field of ethics, arguing that judgements arising from one culture could not be applied to others -- thereby rendering all cultures equally good and valuable. This view led the American Anthropological Association in 1947 to reject the Declaration on the Rights of Man, which became the U.N. Universal Declaration of Human Rights, prepared in 1947 by the Commission on Human Rights of the United Nations.
Postcolonialism holds that peoples across the globe all got along with each other comfortably and peacefully until Western imperialists invaded, divided, conquered, exploited and oppressed them. Unlike postmodernism, which sees Western culture as no better than other cultures, postcolonialism considers Western culture inferior to other cultures.
Three factors appear to underlie this repudiation of Western culture: guilt, globalization and demography. Many Western societies -- such as Britain, France, Belgium, Holland, Spain, Portugal and Italy -- had empires in the South and East between the 17th and 20th centuries. Today, however, those past conquests are deemed evil by the very countries that engaged in them, and are also viewed negatively by non-imperial nations, such as Sweden and Canada, itself a Western colony. Germany, a late and marginal imperial power, seems still guilt-ridden over the Holocaust. Ironically, admitting countless newcomers to Europe as if they were the "new Jewish refugees" of this century has caused the second flight of Jews.
The guilt does not end there. Western countries are affluent, with most of their citizens enjoying at least a comfortable standard of living, while vast populations in Africa and Asia live in poverty. Many Westerners thus feel that redemption is required -- in the form of financial aid to ex-colonies, and in the unfettered entry of migrants and refugees from those areas into Western countries.
Meanwhile, economic globalization has led to Western countries having customers and investors around the world, from a wide range of disparate cultures, but Western triumphalism is viewed as ill-suited to productive business relations.
Where demography is concerned, the last decades have seen an increase in the flow of populations, occasioned in part by the low birthrate in the West -- with many far below replacement level. That, in turn, has highlighted the need for labor to sustain, if not grow, economies. The result is that the population in every Western country has become more ethnically, religiously and culturally mixed. To be welcoming to immigrants, and to aid in their integration into, and solidarity with, their new societies, Western countries have encouraged a multicultural openness while downplaying the particularity of their own cultures.
This brings us to elections: Politicians in Western democracies seeking election often downplay their own cultures to garner immigrant and minority votes. The larger the immigrant communities are, the stronger the incentive to curry favor with them. Some growing minority groups, such as Muslims in Europe, are now forming their own political parties to compete with traditional ones.
This marriage of postmodernism and electoral politics is having a terrible effect on societies that pride themselves on openness and diversity. Rather than enhancing Western culture through the enrichment different ethnic and religious groups provide in countries with a Judeo-Christian foundation, multiculturalists have actually been rejecting their own Western culture. While they encourage diversity of race, religion, and heritage, they forbid diversity of opinions, particularly those that do not conform to the postmodern narrative that rejects that the West. They also seem not to want to acknowledge that the West, even flawed, has nevertheless afforded more freedoms and prosperity to more people than ever before in history.
This skewed view of the West is only possible if one stubbornly refuses to see who, historically, the real colonizers were. How do they think virtually all of the Middle East and North Africa and the Middle East became Muslim -- through a democratic referendum? Muslims invaded and transformed the Christian Byzantine Empire, now an increasingly Islamized Turkey; Greece; the Middle East, North Africa, the Balkans; Hungary; northern Cyprus and Spain.
If Western civilization is to survive this defamation, it would do well to remind people of its historical accomplishments: its humanism and morality derived from Judeo-Christian traditions; its Enlightenment thought; its technological revolutions; the agricultural and industrial revolutions of the 18th century, and the digital revolution of the 20th century; its political evolution into full democracy; the separation of church and judiciary from state; its commitment to human rights and most of all its gravely threatened freedom of speech. Around the world, all advanced societies have borrowed many features of Western culture; they could hardly be called advanced if they had not. Much of what is good in the world is thanks only to Western civilization. It is critical not to throw it out or lose it.
**Philip Carl Salzman is professor of anthropology at McGill University, Middle East Forum Fellow, and Frontier Centre Senior Fellow.
© 2017 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.

Jerusalem, Israel's Capital: Watch the Masks Fall
Najat AlSaied/Gatestone Institute/December 16/17
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/11550/jerusalem-israel-masks-fall
When the actual announcement came, nothing happened. Those who were exploiting sensitivities related to Jerusalem -- especially political Islamists, such as Hamas and Hezbollah -- come mainly from the axis of resistance, led by Iran.
While mainstream media shows the oppressor to be Israel and the oppressed to be the Palestinians, the polls tell a different story.
The US Department of State is no less culpable than the mainstream media in failing to play a more vital role in revealing these realities, which could also mitigate the anger and hatred felt towards the US. This Department needs to be reformed from top to bottom to ensure that all diplomats are truly working for US interests. I am sure that it is the Department of State itself that will be the most reluctant to move its embassy to Jerusalem. It is not an exaggeration to say that moving the US Embassy to Jerusalem is the best decision that has been taken by any American President because it lays bare a rotten reality.
Many analysts say that US President Donald Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital is a campaign promise to evangelical Christian and right-wing Jewish voters, but there is another way of looking at it. Trump's recognition might be a golden opportunity for two-faced opportunists to be unmasked -- a shot of reality that might eventually help the peace process and solve this long-lasting conflict.
Since the declaration of Jerusalem as Israel's capital, many Arab observers, intellectuals and academics have started to question the veracity of those jihadists who claim they are sacrificing themselves to defend Jerusalem, because when the actual announcement came -- nothing happened. Those who were exploiting sensitivities related to Jerusalem -- especially political Islamists, such as Hamas and Hezbollah -- come mainly from the axis of resistance, led by Iran.
Other opportunists are the two-faced countries in the region, such as Qatar and Turkey. While publicly hostile towards Israel, behind closed doors they support it. Further opportunists are the Western and Arab media, who for decades have been promoting the idea that the problem is the Israeli occupation, but never mention the Palestinian Authority corruption.
Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital has also revealed the shortcomings of the US Department of State. It has not played any role in clarifying the above-mentioned points and, by this negativity and bureaucracy, only generated further hatred towards the US.
Trump's recognition has exposed the hypocrisy of the armed militia Hezbollah which always claims it will never disarm because of its fight against Israel. Now after the recognition of Jerusalem, many Arabs are questioning Hezbollah's motivations regarding Israel. Lebanese and other Arabs are questioning why Hezbollah has not sent its armed militia to fight in Israel as it did in Syria, Iraq and Yemen. Dr. Hadi El Amine, a Lebanese researcher in political science and governmental studies, tweeted, "The axis of resistance's words are aimed against Israel, but their missiles are pointed at the Arabs."
Adhwan Alahmari, a Saudi journalist based in London for Asharq al-Awsat also tweeted:
"The soldiers, rockets and suicide bombers of Hezbollah are at Israel's borders yet they did not support Jerusalem after Trump's declaration, instead supporting the Wilayat al-Faqih [Iranian Guardianship of the Islamic Jurist] to fight in Syria to displace and annihilate its people to protect the shrine."
Yet another opportunist is Hamas and its supporters who have succeeded in turning Arabs against the Palestinians. This time, the Palestinians' anger was not turned only towards Israel and the US, but mainly at Saudi Arabia. Hamas and its followers attacked the Saudi flag and insulted King Salman of Saudi Arabia. These Palestinians seem to think that Trump did not make this announcement without a wink of approval from Saudi Arabia. Their reaction has angered countless Saudis, who consider this attack a demonstration of ingratitude from the unappreciative Palestinians, to whom they have given billions of dollars.
In response, the Saudis started several hashtags on Twitter such as #hellwithyouand your issue, and #Saudis are angry for their king. Many Saudis behind these hashtags regret every penny that has been given to defend the Palestinians, especially after they saw these Palestinian traitors, as they put it, insulting Saudi Arabia, which has enriched them and channeled exorbitant financing into Palestinian development projects. Salman Al-Ansari, a Saudi writer and political commentator based in Washington DC, tweeted:
"We want to make everyone aware that the salaries of Palestinian diplomats around the world come from Riyadh-Saudi Arabia; salaries which are 30% higher than that of Saudi diplomats. What did Doha and Ankara do for them other than offer empty slogans and stab Jerusalem in the back?"
If you now ask the Saudis, the one of their main supporters and funders, about this conflict, the majority will say, "It is none of our business". The Saudis would rather, it seems, focus on their own internal affairs and save their money rather than pay ungrateful Palestinians.
A large numbers of Saudis additionally seem surprised by the attitude of Palestinians, who support Qatar and Turkey, countries which have diplomatic relationships with Israel. As a result, many Saudis think the Palestinians are not serious about defending their cause.
The President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, after Trump's declaration, tweeted that he will turn the whole Muslim world against Washington. This kind of posturing does not influence the Arab public or intellectuals any more. As Yousef Al Kowaileet, a Saudi deputy editor-in-chief of the newspaper Al Riyadh put it in a tweet, "Most Muslim countries have ties with Israel. People are not stupid and they know that these interests supersede any creed."
Arab people cannot even believe Erdoğan's tweets, when they see that the day after his outburst on Twitter, Turkey, amid political turmoil, signed a deal worth 18.6 million euros with Israel.
Arabs also shared pictures of Turkish Cultural Day celebrations in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Several Saudi intellectuals responded to Erdoğan's rhetoric against Israel by saying, "If you are honest, the Muslim world wants you to cut diplomatic relations and stop military cooperation with Israel."
Qatar is playing the same two-faced role as the Turks, but with more of a focus on attacking Saudi Arabia. Qatar, through its news outlet Al Jazeera, apparently now wants to galvanize the Muslim world into embarrassing Saudi Arabia because of its relationship with Trump since his announcement.
Ostensibly this response is to defend the Palestinian cause, but its real objective seems rather to pressure Saudi Arabia into ending its relationship with the US administration. Qatar will never stop dreaming of Trump's impeachment; the rulers doubtless think that a Democratic President, like Obama, would again support Qatar in its Muslim Brotherhood project. Mohamed Krishan, a news anchor on Al Jazeera, tweeted:
"Jerusalem is the first of the two Qibla [the direction faced during salah prayers] and the third of the two Holy Mosques that is given to the Israelis as their capital by Trump after he got billions from the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques."
Ahmad Al-Faraj, a Saudi academic and researcher, tweeted back to him:
"If you leave your television channel of intelligence #Al Jazeera and go to your house in Doha, you will see on your right the Israeli representative building 600 meters from your house. People there... will tell you about the role of your channel in the betrayals and conspiracies that destroyed the Arab world and they will tell you who sold Jerusalem."
Saudis have also started to tweet interviews with Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani, the former foreign minister of Qatar, and Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, the former Emir of Qatar, about supporting Israel, to reveal their hypocrisy to the wider public. In the interview with Hamad bin Jassim on Qatar's Al Jazeera television on October 25, 2017, he mentioned that close Qatari-Israeli relations were to get closer to America so that Israel could open doors for Qatar in America.
Qatar is also trying to gain favor in the US through Saudi dissidents, such as Jamal Khashoggi. He previously held a number of positions in several newspapers in Saudi Arabia, served as a political adviser, and now, entirely backed by Qatar, is a columnist for The New York Times and based in Washington DC. Nowadays, Khashoggi takes every opportunity to attack Saudi Arabia in different US and European newspapers.
Anyone who can read Arabic can tell you Twitter account of Jamal Khashoggi is full of anti-Semitic tweets and retweets; it looks as if the New York Times allows him to write in its newspaper only because he attacks Saudi Arabia.
Khashoggi tweeted:
"Feel angry and shout out even if you do so among your own people and inside your frightened houses, it's #Jerusalem. Allah suffices me, for He is the best disposer of affairs. I feel distressed."
Saudis recognize that his real intention was not to defend Jerusalem or the Palestinians, but to galvanize people on the streets of Saudi Arabia to rise up against their own government. Ahmad Al-Faraj tweeted:
"If you feel that angry, why do you not leave this damned country of America, whose President is moving its embassy to Jerusalem?"
Other Saudi writers and others simply ridiculed him. "Go and drink a glass of wine to calm down", wrote Hani Al Dahri, a Saudi journalist, inserting Kashoggi's tweet above along a photograph of him celebrating Thanksgiving in the US with bottles of wine on the table:
Even with all this controversy and a complete change in Arab attitudes on social media towards the Palestinian cause, both Western and traditional Arab media still keep regurgitating the same anti-Israel slogans and rhetoric, and pumping out the same Palestinian propaganda. Most comments on social media have come from intellectuals, assuring the general public that the main reason for this never-ending Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a corrupt Palestinian Authority, run by Fatah and Hamas. The Palestinian Authority, they seem to believe, has traded on the Palestinian cause, which has garnered them millions, but none of that is ever discussed in the mainstream media.
While the mainstream media still shows the oppressor to be Israel and the oppressed to be the Palestinians, Palestinian polls tell a different story[1]:
In a June 2015 poll conducted by the Palestinian Center for Public Opinion (based in Beit Sahour, the West Bank), 52% of Palestinians living in Israeli-ruled East Jerusalem said they would prefer to be citizens of Israel with equal rights, compared to just 42% who would choose to be citizens of a Palestinian state.
More Palestinians in Jerusalem seek Israeli citizenship.
According to polls conducted by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PSR) in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip between 14 and 16 September, 2017, the majority of Palestinians are unhappy with President Mahmoud Abbas's performance. 67% of the public want him to resign while 27% want him to remain in office. The demand for Abbas's resignation stands at 60% in the West Bank and 80% in the Gaza Strip.
If new legislative elections were held today, 63% of the Palestinians surveyed said they would vote. Of those who would participate, 29% said they would vote for Hamas; 36% said they would vote for Fatah; 10% would vote for all other parties combined, and 25% were undecided.
Only 38% of the Palestinian public polled said West Bankers could criticize the Palestinian Authority (PA) without fear of reprisal; 59% said that people could not freely criticize the PA. Half of the public (50%) viewed the PA as a burden on the Palestinians. 77% perceived the PA as corrupt.
Most of Hamas leaders, who portray themselves as jihadists against Israel, are millionaires. A senior official in Hamas, for example, Khaled Mashaal, who is worth US $2.6 billion according to global estimates, while Arab commentators put his worth at between US $2 and $5 billion, saying he "invested in Egyptian banks and Gulf countries, some in real estate projects." Next on the list is Ismail Haniyeh, who, until the recent signing of a unity deal between Hamas and Fatah, was the Prime Minister of Gaza. "His fortune is estimated at US $4 million, and most of his assets in the Strip are registered in the name of his son-in-law Nabil, and a dozen children of his and other less well-known Hamas officials. The Palestinian Authority in the West Bank appears no less corrupt than leaders in Gaza. Abbas and other leaders in the PLO have stolen millions of dollars from international funding meant for the Palestinian people. This corruption is the mistake of international donors who never hold these leaders to account.
Why is all this data absent from the mainstream media, which shows images of burning flags and other displays of anger only from the point of view of the Palestinian Authority and its supporters?
The US Department of State is no less culpable than the mainstream media in failing to play a more vital role in revealing these realities. Exposing this corruption would go a long way to mitigating the anger and hatred felt towards the US. The Department of State is always passive and bureaucratic, functioning mostly like a third-world country governmental body.
The Harry S Truman Building in Washington, DC, headquarters of the US Department of State. (Image source: Loren/Wikimedia Commons)
During my time working in the US Consulate in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, I met some diplomats who do not hold the US Government's views. On the contrary, some of them held political views that were totally different to those of their administration, and some were even anti-Semitic. In addition, the expertise of the diplomats was not of the high standard that you would expect from a powerful country such as the US. A lot of these diplomats are sent to Arab countries like Saudi Arabia with no knowledge of the Arabic language and not much more of the region -- in sharp contrast to diplomats in the British Embassy. I was surprised to work with a diplomat who, instead of supporting his country in liberating Iraq from the most brutal dictatorship in history, was calling it "an invasion" to Saudi intellectuals and academics. He was also against the peace process. He insisted on calling Israel an "occupier" and complained that I was reading "right-wing websites" such as the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI). The organization mainly translates material meticulously from the Arabic, but the diplomat calls it pro-Israel.
So, I was hoping that after Trump became President, the Department of State might be reformed to avoid the same mistakes made under George Bush – mainly that he did not confront the US Department of State about its incompetence. President Trump should be firm and alert avoid the same mistake. Currently, it is ineffective.
This Department needs to be reformed from top to bottom to ensure that all diplomats are truly working for US interests. I am sure that it is the Department of State itself that will be the most reluctant to move its embassy to Jerusalem.
The world has followed a course that has gotten this peace process nowhere. The fact that this conflict has been ongoing for 70 years demonstrates that there is something at fault. The main reasons for this stalled progress are a lack of transparency, hypocritical opportunists with hidden personal agendas, a biased mainstream media and ineffective diplomatic missions. It is not an exaggeration to say that moving the US Embassy to Jerusalem is the best decision that has been taken by any American President because it lays bare a rotten reality. This is exactly what is needed to galvanize the peace process toward a two-state solution. It will also put pressure on the corrupt Palestinian Authority either to reform or change its leadership. Who knows, it might even stop opportunists from perpetuating this conflict for their own ends.
Najat AlSaied is a Saudi American academic and the author of "Screens of Influence: Arab Satellite Television & Social Development". She is an Assistant Professor at Zayed University in the College of Communication and Media Sciences in Dubai-UAE.
[1] Polling data were all kindly provided by Dr. Michael Sharnoff, Associate Professor of Middle East Studies at Daniel Morgan Graduate School
© 2017 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.

Analysis: Putin’s surprise Syria visit aimed at threatening Assad
زيارة بوتين المفاجئة لسوريا جاءت لتهديد الأسد
Ron Ben-YishaiYnetnews/December 16/17
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/?p=61085
While Russia is interested in reaching a political agreement that would lead to calm in Syria and reinforce the Russian achievements in the country, the Syrian president is refusing to compromise and demanding exclusive control of Syria without any partners.
The purpose of Vladimir Putin’s surprise visit to the Middle East this week wasn’t to celebrate a victory or a political achievement or to give the Americans the finger, as the Russian president likes to do. Putin needed this visit mainly because his efforts to reach a political agreement that would lead to calm in Syria and reinforce the Russian accomplishments in the country have run into unexpected difficulties.
Putin has found out that although Bashar Assad owes his own survival and his regime’s survival to the Russians, the Syrian president doesn’t see eye-to-eye with Russia on the “day after” the civil war. And it’s not just Assad. The Iranians and Turks too see a completely different political arrangement in Syria than the one Putin wants. Russia is interested in reaching calm and ending the fighting in each area in Syria separately, and under separate conditions. Assad, on the other hand, is refusing to compromise and demanding exclusive control of all of Syria without any partners in the government from the opposition, the Syrian rebels or the Kurds. In the transition period, the Russians are interested in reaching a separate calm agreement or armistice in each region according to its own conditions and letting the rebels and the Syrian opposition—as well as the Kurds—play a part in the civil authority in every region, as well as in the provisional government that will serve under Assad at least until the elections, which will be held in about a year or so.
The Russians also see a situation in which the Assad family and the Alawis are not necessarily Syria's only rulers. Assad and the Iranians won’t even hear of such an arrangement. As far as they’re concerned, Syria is controlled by Assad in its entirety and his family will remain in power until he makes a different decision. And then there are the Turks, who won’t even hear about an autonomous Kurdish district in northern Syria, near the border. The Russians are actually fond of the Kurds and support them, as long as they distance themselves from the American support, but Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is firmly opposed and won’t have his forces pull out of Syria in a way that would allow the Kurds to unite the areas under their control into an autonomous district (like the district that has existed for decades in northern Iraq).
The Russians disagree with the Iranians on other issues as well. They are refusing, for example, to let the Iranians have part of their own seaport, like the Russian naval facility in Tartus, nor do they want to share the reconstruction of Syria and its oil industry with the Iranians. They want the biggest share for themselves.
The forces Putin will actually pull out
All these disagreements led to the failure of the summit organized by Putin in the Russian resort town of Sochi last month. He met with Assad, Erdogan and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and spoke on the phone with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, but to no avail. The Sochi summit ended in disagreement, and as a result, the diplomatic talks the Russians are holding in Astana and the UN-brokered talks in Geneva are currently stuck.
Wanting to move things in the direction he sees as desirable, Putin made a surprise visit to Syria on Monday and said he had ordered his forces to prepare to pull out from Syria. We shouldn’t get carried away: The Russians are planning to hold onto the Hmeymim air base near the Latakia Province and the Tartus port, where they have access to a considerable part of the platforms where Russian warships and merchant vessels dock. Putin is planning, however, to pull out the rest of the forces, including a large part of the antiaircraft batteries, radar devices and ground forces, as well as the military advisors attached to the Syrian forces all over the country.
Putin’s statement, which is seemingly aimed at indicating that Russia plans to leave Syria, is actually a direct threat to Assad. Putin is essentially saying: If you don’t accept our outline for a political arrangement in your country, you’ll have to deal with the rebels and with global jihad on your own. We won’t be there to help you, as we will significantly reduce the number of Russian fighter jets and attack helicopters that intervene every time your forces face difficulties. This is a serious threat to Assad. The Iranians, who know Putin is the only one who prevented a decisive Iranian defeat in the Syrian civil war, will have to take him into consideration as well.
Trump is the bad guy, Putin understands Muslims
From Syria, Putin traveled to Egypt, likely in order to enlist President al-Sisi’s support for the arrangement Russia seeks in Syria, but also to strengthen his relations with Egypt in a way that would establish Russia’s status as the dominant power in the Middle East, instead of the US. There is no doubt that Putin is using US President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital as a leverage to bolster his relations with the Arab world and with the Iranians. Trump is the bad guy, and Putin is the one who understands the Muslims and supports them.
Putin will likely conceal the fact that only several months ago, Russia explicitly announced that it sees west Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. But such minor details shouldn’t stop Putin from further deepening his relations with the Arabs, in a bid to make them purchase weapons and equipment from the Russian security industries. Russia is already selling weapons and military equipment worth billions in the Middle East, and this is a clear economic interest promoted by Putin on his surprise visit to the Middle East. As far as Israel is concerned, this isn’t necessarily bad news. From an Israeli strategic perspective, the Russian outline for an arrangement in Syria is better than the outline Assad and the Iranians envision. At this point, however, it’s still hard to judge the move, which has only just begun, and the war in Syria isn’t going anywhere yet. It will likely continue for many more months, perhaps even more than a year.

Mr. Mahmoud Abbas, enough is enough
Ramzy Baroud/Al Arabiya/December 16/ 2017
Speaking at an emergency summit in Istanbul, Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas attempted to recast his role in a defunct 'peace process'. He declared before the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) conference on December 13 that his authority will no longer accept US mediation in the Middle East peace process.He told attendants representing all Muslim-majority countries that Washington is no longer 'fit' for the task, following US President, Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.Instead, Abbas wishes to seek the mediation of the United Nations Security Council. But why did Abbas wait this long and what is his latest gambit all about?
What ‘Peace Process’?
The fact of the matter is that there has been no 'peace process' since the failed Camp David Summit in July 2000. Hosted by former US President, Bill Clinton, the summit was a trap set by the US and then-Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Barak, to pressure PA leader, Yasser Arafat, to concede on Palestinian rights in Jerusalem. Despite his many political errors, Arafat at least had the sense to reject an unwritten proposal, which denied Palestinians sovereignty in their occupied city. Instead, it granted Palestinians limited autonomous control over disjointed parts of the West Bank.
Soon after Arafat chose to rebel against US-Israel diktats, he was holed in his office in Ramallah and taunted by Israeli soldiers, until he was flown to Paris for treatment where he died, in 2004. Immediately, Abbas took over the PA, resurrecting the futile 'peace process' discourse for many years to follow, feeding his oppressed people with tired slogans and empty promises, and punishing those who dared disagree. Having wasted nearly a quarter of a century in empty talks, Abbas is now trying to rally Palestinians into further uncharted territory, all with the aim of keeping himself and a few other Palestinians at the helm.
In fact, both Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, perfected their role in the American charade - Abbas thrived on donors’ money and kept his Palestinian rivals at bay. Netanyahu expanded illegal Jewish settlements and carried out murderous policies against Palestinian civilians, yet continued to pay lip-service to peace. In the meanwhile, the US sustained a political status quo in the Middle East based on its role in a 'peace process' that evidently served no practical purpose. Even the Europeans must have known at one point that the 'peace process' was prolonged more for the sake of political convenience than as an actual attempt at finding a just peace. Oddly, the EU is now apparently shocked by and dismayed at Trump's decision on Jerusalem which defies international law and torpedo any possibility of a 'two-state solution'.Having wasted nearly a quarter of a century in empty talks, Abbas is now trying to rally Palestinians into further uncharted territory, all with the aim of keeping himself and a few other Palestinians at the helm.
But enough is enough.
Politics of ‘Rage’
Now that the American mask has completely fallen, Palestinians require an urgent rethink regarding their own political priorities, alliances and national liberation strategy. The Fatah movement, which has controlled the PA since its inception in 1994 has pre-empted people’s anger over the US move, by declaring a ‘day of rage.’ Several Palestinians were killed and many wounded in clashes throughout the Occupied Territories in what is understandably justified anger over the unwarranted American decision. But the manipulation of Palestinian emotions by their leadership is contemptable to say the least. The ‘politics of rage’, which has been used by the Palestinian leadership in the past has often worked to deflect popular discontent and criticism.
Without doubt, Israel and the US deserve all the condemnation for their role in sustaining, funding and defending the military occupation and subjugation of the Palestinian people. But this does not deflect any condemnation from the Palestinian leadership as well.
Palestinian leaders and an army of officials, politicians, pundits and contractors made billions of dollars from foreign funds to keep the ‘peace process’ charade afloat for over 25 years, while the general population grew poorer and more despondent than ever.
Those who resisted, outside the acceptable political framework as presented by the Palestinian, leadership were harassed, imprisoned and severely punished. This was the case not only in Gaza, but in the West Bank as well. Many journalists, academicians, artists and activists were treated harshly for questioning the PA’s methods throughout the years.
Currently, the PA is calling on those very Palestinians to rage against Trump’s decision. Hamas is also calling for a new Intifada. Oddly, Palestinian factions never learnt from history. Real, sustainable popular uprisings are never a response to a party’s or a politician’s call. It is a spontaneous, genuine cry for freedom that originates from the masses, not the political elites. While some Palestinian factions are hoping that the people’s anger directed at the Israeli occupation will create a protective buffer so that they may survive another day, other groups are riding the wave for their own political interests.
But this is not a strategy. Nor will polite appeals to the US to reconsider its decision and pressure Trump to rescind his embassy decision make a difference. The final statement presented by the Arab League foreign ministers in Cairo on December 9 was an example of the lackluster language that will prove ineffective. Palestinians need their Arab brethren to articulate a strong, unified position on the issue, without hesitating to explore new political routes and put practical, tangible pressure on the US and Israel to relent. The Palestinian leadership that has downgraded the Palestinian struggle, and wasted precious years chasing after an American mirage, must be held accountable.
Resurrecting the PLO
If the Palestinian leadership had a minimal degree of accountability and self-respect it would issue a heart-felt apology to the people for all the squandered time, energy and blood expended in the fight for liberation over the decades.
It would immediately issue a total overhaul within its ranks and activate all Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) institutions, bring all factions together under the umbrella of the PLO in order to declare a new strategy regarding the increasingly bleak-looking future. None of this has happened yet. Angry statements and calls for Palestinian mobilization without a common strategy will only feed the interests of the factions, but will, eventually prove useless to the Palestinian people and their national aspirations.
In truth, ordinary Palestinians need neither Fatah nor Hamas to call for a ‘day of rage’ or a new Intifada. Their hatred for the occupation and love for their city of Jerusalem requires no official communications. It has always been their fight, one which they have engaged in every single day for the last 50 years.
What Trump has done will have terrible consequences on the region for years to come. But one of the early outcomes is that it exposed the ‘peace process’ as a complete charade and the role of the US for what it is - neither honest nor fair. But it should also expose the Palestinian leadership, for all of its failings and corruption. If Palestinians are to start anew, they have to commence their journey with a new political discourse, with new blood, and a new future outlook that is based on unity, credence and competence. None of this can ever take place with the same old faces, the same tired language and the same dead-end politics. It is time for a new beginning.

Hamza bin Laden likely groomed for a senior al-Qaeda role
Shehab Al-Makahleh/Al Arabiya/December 16/ 2017
Hamza bin Laden, the son of Osama bin Laden, appeared in a video broadcast by al-Qaeda’s ‘al-Sahab’ media channel in which he criticized Saudi Arabia and its alliance with the United States. This video raises many questions about the timing, the motives and future developments, as Hamza may be in the process of being groomed for a senior role.
Hamza bin Laden seems to be emerging in circumstances similar to those in which his father came to prominence, following the invasion of Kuwait in 1990 after he escaped from house arrest in Saudi Arabia and reached Sudan to raise ‘Arab Mujahideen’ for his new terrorist group later known as al-Qaeda.
Hamza bin Laden, who the American security authorities have designated a ‘global terrorist’ in January 2017, would succeed his father and has already become the poster boy for the terror network’s media campaigns and propaganda.
Chip off the old block
He was the closest to his father and to al-Qaeda’s ideology among his other siblings. Hamza followed Osama in many of his tours and movements. Born in 1989, he represents the new generation of al-Qaeda.
The broadcast of Hamza’s video is not for the sake of local consumption among the group’s members, but conveys a message to the world and mainly to the West that al-Qaeda is making a comeback. The young bin Laden is regarded by many experts as the figure who could potentially reunite the global jihadist movement. Hamza bin Laden, who the American security authorities have designated a ‘global terrorist’ in January 2017, would succeed his father and has already become the poster boy for the terror network’s media campaigns and propaganda.
The nature of the ideological concepts adopted by Hamza bin Laden is still not clear, whether it is identical to his father’s convictions and beliefs or not. It is important to note that al-Qaeda does not believe in fomenting sectarian wars but is mainly in war against Muslim regimes ostensibly for the sake of Islam.
As Hamza grew up in Sudan and Afghanistan, where Osama was given refuge by the Taliban, he often appeared in propaganda videos with his father when he was still a child. The recent video sends out the message that al-Qaeda will act harshly against Western targets around the world, mainly in the Middle East, especially after the US President Donald Trump recognized Jerusalem as capital of Israel.
Few years ago, Hamza tried to enter Pakistan to reunite with his father in the battlefield: “What truly makes me sad is that Mujahideen legions have marched and I have not joined them”. This is an indication that the young man was very keen on joining the group and on leading them to achieve what his father sought.
The ‘lone wolf’ threat
In 2015, al-Qaeda aired an audiotape of Hamza in which he lauded the Boston Marathon bombing, and called on supporters to take to the “battlefield from Kabul, Baghdad, and Gaza to Washington, London, Paris, and Tel Aviv”. This time he also called his on followers to take to the battlefield that would serve al-Qaeda’s interests. Since Osama bin Laden’s death in May 2011, al-Qaida has remained in the wilderness. The war against terrorism over the past few years in Iraq and Syria has given al-Qaeda in Afghanistan the chance to rebuild its capacities.
As ISIS’ political project of building an ‘Islamic Caliphate’ and of overthrowing regimes in the Middle East failed, al-Qaeda took the initiative to regroup and may accept erstwhile ISIS members into its ranks. As ISIS adopted some techniques of warfare from al-Qaeda; the latter has also benefited from the mistakes of ISIS’ tactics, which al-Qaeda will avoid in the coming period. The appearance of Hamza bin Laden is not a mere coincidence, but a confirmation of his rise as leader of the group. A new chapter may commence with a new phase in lone wolf attacks in the West especially on occasions like the New Year and Christmas. The new targets of al-Qaeda may also be Arab countries, which it may seek to destabilize and overthrow its governments. How the world would stand up to this new challenge remains to be seen.

Making the Case against Iranian Sanctions Busting in Yemen
Michael Knights/The Washington Institute/December 16/2017
Clear evidence exists of Iranian arms smuggling to the Houthis, but the United States and its allies must get better and faster at sharing intelligence with the UN if they expect to garner more international support for border controls and sanctions.
On December 14, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley unveiled new evidence of Iranian arms deliveries to the Houthi rebels in Yemen. At a military hangar at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling, in Washington DC, Haley and Pentagon officials exhibited missile fragments and photography showing a range of Iran-produced weapons systems discovered in Yemen. Alongside Qasef-1 drones and Toophan antitank guided missiles used by the Houthis—both of which precisely match Iran-produced systems—the briefing focused on two advanced weapons: the Qiam-1 short-range ballistic missile and the "Shark-33" self-guiding explosive drone boat.
Qiam-1 Missile Exports to Yemen
At the center of Haley's presentation were segments of two Iran-produced Qiam-1 missiles that were fired at Saudi Arabia—one toward Yanbu on July 22 and another toward Riyadh on November 4. These were specially modified Qiam-1 variants with a reduced-size warhead and maximized use of aluminum to gain extra range. Called Burkan-2H by the Houthis, the Qiam-1 missiles are significant because they represent a leap forward in the capabilities fielded by the Houthi rebels, allowing strikes at ranges of more than 1,000 kilometers, thereby placing all Saudi Arabia and almost all the Gulf states within striking distance. The new capability was touted by Houthi leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, who claimed on September 14 that the United Arab Emirates was "now within range of our missiles."
As early as November 7, Saudi Arabia provided Haley with compelling evidence to present regarding Iran's provision of Qiam-1 systems. Indeed, identifying markings on the missiles that landed in Saudi Arabia precisely match those on Qiam-1 systems broadcast by Iran's Fars News Agency, displaying a tail section with jet vane nozzles rather than tail fins. The Qiam-1, which is only manufactured and operated by Iran, is unique among missile of its class in not having fins. Yemen's own stocks of Russian SS-1C/North Korean Hwasong-5 (Scud B) and extended-range Russian SS-1D/North Korean Hwasong-6 (Scud C) missiles all have tail fins, indicating that the missiles striking Yanbu and Riyadh were imported Iran-manufactured missiles, not converted Yemeni systems.
Missile components included a number of "smoking gun" connections to Iran's industries. One missile actuator—which controls positioning—was stamped with the logo of the Shahid Bakeri Industrial Group (SBIG), an Iranian defense company targeted by UN, EU, and U.S. sanctions. A circuit board found within the inertial measurement unit of a wrecked missile was stamped as a product of Iran's Shahid Hemmat Industrial Group (SHIG), another UN-, EU-, and U.S.-sanctioned entity. U.S. Department of Defense spokeswoman Laura Seal noted: "The point of this entire display is that only Iran makes this missile. They have not given it to anybody else. We haven't seen this in the hands of anyone else except Iran and the Houthis."
DRONE BOAT LINKED TO IRAN
Haley also provided evidence, gathered by the Saudi-led coalition, of Iranian provision to the Houthis of the self-guiding Shark-33 explosive drone boat, which can be programmed to follow a course or home in on a target using electro-optical television guidance. The Saudi Arabian government claims that such a device was used to strike a Saudi frigate on January 30, 2017, wounding at least five personnel. Although this type of drone boat had been known to exist since February 2017 and was documented by the UK-based Conflict Armament Research company in early December 2017, the U.S. government publicized new details on December 14.
This previously withheld data, from the March 29, 2016, boarding of the Iranian dhow Adris by the USS Sirocco—a patrol ship operating in the waters between Iran and Yemen—shows six fuse plates identical to the one on the Shark-33. (A fuse plate holds firing switches and wiring in place). The U.S. government claims to have paperwork showing that the fuse plates were provided by Shahid Julaie Marine Industries (JMI), Tehran, Iran's main builder of drone boats. (The Adris also carried scores of Iran-made RPG-7-pattern rocket launchers and AK-series rifles). Further, the Shark-33 housed a circuit board and software linked to FHM Electronics, an Iranian manufacturer. More damningly, the computer hard drive inside the Shark-33 held over ninety sets of coordinates for locations in Iran, Yemen, and the Red Sea. One of two Tehran locations corresponds to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Self-Sufficiency Jihad Organization, which is sanctioned by the United States. Camera images on the onboard computer showed a facility with an IRGC hat atop a work surface.
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR U.S. POLICY
Separate UN Security Council resolutions—2216 (April 2015) and 2266 (February 2016)—call on member states to "take the necessary measures" to prevent arms transfers to the Houthis and their local allies. The resolution endorsing the U.S.-led nuclear deal with Iran, UNSCR 2231 (July 2015), calls on states to "take the necessary measures to prevent, except as decided otherwise by the UN Security Council in advance on a case-by-case basis, the supply, sale, or transfer of arms or related materiel from Iran by their nationals or using their flag vessels or aircraft, and whether or not originating in the territory of Iran." The evidence provided by Haley on the Qiam-1 missile compellingly shows that Iran has delivered at least two 16-meter-long, 13,569-pound Iranian missiles have been exported to Yemen. (The Houthis claim to have fired four such missiles).
Despite this evidence, many nations remain deeply skeptical of intelligence materials after historic failures such as the 2003 presentation of evidence of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction at the UN. Some countries have self-serving reasons for placing a very high evidentiary bar on sanctioning Iran, such as their national pursuit of business opportunities in Iran. The UN is itself cautious. A November 24 report from the UN Panel of Experts on Yemen concluded that four missiles fired into Saudi Arabia in 2017 were manufactured by Iran, but that there was "no evidence as to the identity of the broker or supplier." The United States and its partners need to ensure that such evidence is always provided to the UN when it is available and would not compromise sources or methods of intelligence collection. Following Haley's presentation on December 14, Sweden's UN ambassador, Olof Skoog, reflecting international skepticism, said that the United States "may be in possession of evidence I have not seen. The information I have up to now is less clear."
One lesson for the United States and its allies should be that transparency must be maximized and the presentation of intelligence more comprehensively and clearly storyboarded, with extra effort taken to place extraneous information in context, rather than excluding it. Saudi openness in providing the UN panel of experts with direct access to Qiam-1 wreckage was a smart decision. Further, the U.S. release of intelligence gleaned from the Adris is a great step, allowing a new link to be established between an Iranian dhow carrying weapons and the fuse boards used in the Shark-33 drone boat. But whereas UN experts were able to directly view the Qiam-1 wreckage, they had no opportunity to see the Shark-33 vessel and examine its vital hard drive, or view the fuse boards carried by the Adris. Thus, the UN will not consider this important evidence in its assessment of Iran's compliance with UNSCR 2231 next week. Furthermore, while the United States has released some data from the Adris seizure, it has not given the UN access to the GPS systems from the dhow or provided a track of the ship's known coordinates before it was boarded, data that the United States surely retains. Although U.S. and Gulf coalition engagement with credible research companies such as Conflict Armament Research is important, there is no substitute for the UN as a partner in the certification of Iranian sanctions busting. The United States and its partners must also provide evidence as quickly as possible, considering that UN documents pass through a lengthy review and translation process.
A second lesson is that naval interdiction appears to be working, and that it should be extended and complemented with a thorough policing solution for the Oman-Yemen border. Iran has been forced to develop land-based smuggling due to the vulnerability of maritime shipments and the ability by other actors to definitively trace them back to the source. U.S. and UN reports will conclude that the Qiam-1 shows evidence of "field disassembly for illicit transport," meaning that the missiles were broken down into components to be smuggled into Yemen. One Qiam-1 fragment showed evidence of a "field weld" of a fuel oxidizer tank, suggesting strongly that the Qiam-1 was reassembled in Yemen by the Houthis at a local missile-assembly workshop, not in an Iranian facility, where a much neater "factory weld" would have been applied. Evidence from previous missile-related interdictions of Omani imports in Marib, Yemen, indicate that missile fuel oxidizer tanks, fuel cells, rocket casings, and warheads have been landed in Oman and driven into Yemen in packages no larger than three square meters, making them easily loadable into trucks.
The United States and its allies should prioritize the use of diplomatic pressure, economic incentives, intelligence platforms, disclosure of intelligence, and military advisors alongside the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and Oman to interdict the flow of Iranian arms into Oman and onward into Yemen. Focus should also be maintained on preventing smugglers' use of the southeastern Yemeni coastline in the al-Mahra governorate and elsewhere, including the remaining Houthi ports such as Hodeida. Maintaining the blockade will require a solution to the unintended constriction of humanitarian flows. As a result, Washington and its allies should work in concert to push the UN to administer Yemeni ports and deliver civilian supplies in order to avert a greater humanitarian crisis. Similar arrangements at airports—and tight monitoring of air traffic—should precede any reopening of air corridors. Meaningful reduction of Iran's ability to smuggle weapons through Oman is possible: in the much tougher case of Sudan, a Saudi-led effort very effectively weaned Khartoum from Iran's influence in 2014-16.
Finally, Washington should seek to broaden the sanctions outlined in UNSCRs 2216 and 2266 so that they prohibit arms transfers to all Houthi and allied forces, not just to specific leaders. In addition, the administration could consider using its domestic authority under Executive Order 13611—which was signed in May 2012 by former president Barack Obama with the goal of stemming violence in Yemen—to sanction specific individuals within arms agencies like SHIG, SBIG, and other firms involved with transfers. Just as the U.S. Department of the Treasury sanctioned Ali Akbar Tabatabaei—commander of the IRGC Qods Force Africa Corps—on March 27, 2012, the department should impose new Specially Designated Nationals sanctions on Iranian and Lebanese Hezbollah individuals identified in relation to arms smuggling to Yemen.
**Michael Knights is a Lafer Fellow with The Washington Institute who has worked in Yemen and spent time embedded with the country's security forces.

Mohammed bin Salman Doesn't Want to Talk About Jerusalem
Robert Satloff/The Washington Institute/December 16/2017
Saudi Arabia's rulers have lots of worries, but Trump's announcement about the holy city isn't one of them.
Saudi Arabia, the protector of Islam and home to its two holiest sites, is a good place to judge the impact of President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital on U.S. interests in the region. Set aside the reaction of terrorist groups like Hamas and Hezbollah, and their state sponsors in Tehran and Damascus. And the angry responses from the Palestinian Authority and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, with its large and boisterous Palestinian population, were certainly to be expected. The real question is how America’s friends one step removed from the circle of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict would react. If there were a place one might reasonably expect to hear Muslims expressing thunderous outrage at the handing of Jerusalem to the Jews, it would be in the corridors of power in the Saudi capital of Riyadh.
It didn’t happen.
Last week, I was in Riyadh leading a delegation of more than 50 supporters and fellows of the Middle East think tank I direct. On Wednesday, just hours before the president made his Jerusalem announcement, we spent five hours in meetings with three different Saudi ministers, discussing everything from crises with Yemen, Qatar, and Lebanon, to the kingdom’s ambitious “Vision 2030” reform program, to the possible public offering of the state oil company Aramco.
By this time, the White House had delivered numerous background briefings to foreign diplomats and the media, so the essence of the impending declaration was well known. But despite many opportunities, the word “Jerusalem” was never uttered.
Perhaps the Saudis are waiting to unload in our final meeting on the day, I thought, during a conversation with the secretary-general of the Muslim World League (MWL). For decades, this organization has been notorious for propagating an extreme version of Islam—funding schools, mosques, and other religious institutions that have served as incubators for Sunni jihadis. Surely, the head of the MWL would denounce America’s assault on the sanctity of Muslim control of Jerusalem.
To my amazement, the relatively new MWL head, Muhammad al-Issa, had a very different message. Mention of Jerusalem never passed his lips. Instead, he noted with pride the friendships he has built with rabbis in Europe and America, the visit he recently made to a synagogue in Paris, and the interfaith dialogue to which he said he was now committed. This was not your father’s Saudi Arabia.
Then, it dawned on me: Maybe the Saudis are waiting to hear precisely what President Trump says in his statement, hoping that last-minute entreaties would convince him to change course. Since the president didn’t speak until 9 p.m. Riyadh time, I went to bed that night confident we would soon see the fire and brimstone of the “old” Saudi Arabia. When we received confirmation the following morning that we would have an audience with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman—deputy prime minister, minister of defense, president of the council of economic and development affairs, and favorite son of the king—we knew we would get an authoritative answer.
Mohammed bin Salman has promised fast, revolutionary change in a country where, historically, nothing moves fast and “revolutionary” is a dirty word. And he has already shown he is a doer, not just a talker, by successfully concentrating virtually all the kingdom’s political, military, and economic power in his own hands. This is where the buck stops in Saudi Arabia these days.
A word about meeting Mohammed bin Salman: In a country not known for retail politics, he has the natural skills of a born politician. Though dressed in a thawb and sandals, he was very Bill Clintonesque (from the pre-vegan era, that is) in his stature and charisma. He is a large man, yet he bounded into our tight meeting room and immediately pounded the flesh. And when I ended the meeting after 80 minutes so we wouldn’t miss our departing flight, he stuck around to work the room again, shaking hands until there were no hands left to shake.
It is easy to see why all the young people we met in Riyadh—college students, aspiring entrepreneurs, rising technocrats—are smitten with Mohammed bin Salman. I have met quite a few Middle East leaders over the years and only a few, like Jordan’s King Hussein, knew when and how to deploy charm, wit, wisdom, outrage, despair, and hope like a virtuoso. Mohammed bin Salman has that too, coupled with a dynamism that I have rarely ever seen in this part of the world.
Though he clearly speaks and understands English, he chose to address us in Arabic, and after a few sentences, I understood why. When he opened his mouth, words flowed out in a torrent, like water rushing over rapids. Mohammed bin Salman has a lot to say—about jettisoning entrenched but non-Islamic ideas about separating women and men, about containing Iran now or fighting them later, and about a hundred other topics—and doesn’t seem to have a lot of time to say it. Given how many people he has sidelined along his rise to the top, it may be a well-founded fear.
It is not apparent that Jerusalem was one of those topics. If we hadn’t asked him directly about Trump’s announcement, it may never have come up. He certainly didn’t come to the meeting to vent.
But we wanted to leave Riyadh with a clear sense of his view on the issue, so we asked him. To maintain a measure of confidentiality, I won’t quote him directly, but I can say this: He limited himself to a single word of disappointment about the President’s decision—literally—and then quickly turned to where Riyadh and Washington could work together to limit the fallout and restore hope to the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
He didn’t stop there. On a day widely characterized as one of the darkest for U.S. relations with the Arab world in decades, Mohammed bin Salman offered a very different vision for both the Saudi-American relationship and a potential for Saudi-Israeli partnership.
On the former, he repeatedly affirmed the strength of the security partnership, which he proudly noted was the oldest in the region—even older than the one between the United States and Israel. And on Israel itself, he struck an unusually positive note. Unlike what I heard from Saudi leaders on past visits, he said nothing about Israeli expansionism, Israeli arrogance, Israeli unfairness, or Israeli encroachment on Muslim rights in Jerusalem. Instead, he spoke of the promising future that awaited Saudi-Israeli relations once peace was reached and, operationally, he committed himself to bringing that about.
That was it: the official Saudi view. Expecting a stern critique of the United States and a visceral denunciation of Trump, we heard instead a mild rebuke of the President’s Jerusalem shift and a hopeful vision of Saudi-Israeli partnership. We didn’t have the opportunity to press Mohammed bin Salman on precisely what the Saudis would do to urge the Palestinian Authority to reach a deal with the Israelis, but at such a moment, hearing the Saudi crown prince double down on both the current partnership with Washington and, when peace comes, the future one with Jerusalem was more than we expected.
Was Mohammed bin Salman merely delivering what his audience wanted to hear? Perhaps. Our delegation was certainly electrified by his engaging personality and what he had to say. We were especially impressed by his pursuit of a “moderate Islam” and his claim to have dramatically shrunk the number of extremists in Saudi religious institutions. He offered specific percentages of how bad the problem was two years ago and how much smaller he expects it to be three years from now; to my ears, this amounted to a stark admission of Saudi responsibility for religious fanaticism and a powerful sign of their commitment to change.
Admittedly, some of his rhetoric sounded too good to be true. From my vantage point, it doesn’t appear that the Saudis have made as much progress countering Iran’s influence in Iraq or turning the tide in Yemen as they claim. And many of us came away fearful that a leader so ambitious could achieve progress fast enough to maintain the ongoing support of his people—but not so fast as to trigger a violent reaction from those who will lose out as a result of the vast transformation.
But if Mohammed bin Salman did say what we wanted to hear, so what? The opposite could just have easily been the case—namely, that he could have used the occasion to send a piercing message through us to American leaders and to friends of the U.S.-Israel relationship about the high costs of recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. He didn’t, and that matters a great deal. Those who prophesied that the Arab and Muslim response to recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital would be apocalyptic—waves of anti-American demonstrations, mass violence against U.S. citizens, institutions and interests, and the final and irrevocable end of American influence in the region—seem to have been totally wrong. Among the Arabs that count—America’s allies—the reaction has generally been sober, measured, and mature. Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Islam, is the case in point.
*Robert Satloff is executive director of The Washington Institute.