LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
January 24/2018
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani

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Bible Quotations
let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.  Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love
1 John 4/07-21: "Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.  Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.  This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit.  And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.  If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. We love because he first loved us.  Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.  And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister."

Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on January 23-24/18
Washington Chooses Syria as a Battlefield/Abdulrahman Al-Rashed/Asharq Al Awsat/January 23/18
EU Quietly Turning the Heat on Iran/ Amir Taheri/Asharq Al Awsat/January 23/18
The U.S. and Pakistan: Time for a Divorce/Lawrence A. Franklin/Gatestone Institute/January 23/2018
Prison in France: Terrorism and Islamism/Yves Mamou/Gatestone Institute/January 23/2018
The American Stake in the Czech Elections/Jiri Valenta/Gatestone Institute/January 23/2018

Titles For Latest LCCC Lebanese Related News published on January 23-24/18
Aoun in Kuwait on Two-Day Official Visit
STL Thanks Lebanon for 'Ongoing Commitment' to Tribunal
Garbage on the Beach: Flood of Waste Stirs Uproar in Lebanon
Khatib Says Gemayel Trying to 'Gain Popularity'
Hariri Arrives in Davos, Says Lebanon Committed to STL
Cleaning Starts after Garbage Accumulates on Keserewan Beach
Number of Syrians who Died of Cold Fleeing to Lebanon Rises to 17
Aoun Meets U.S. Treasury Official, Says Lebanon Actively Fighting Money Laundering
Lebanese NGO Alarm at Spate of Deadly Domestic Violence
Lebanon: Efforts to Unify Beirut’s First Electoral District
Berri-Jumblatt Unite to Confront 'Violating Taif Accord'

Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin For Miscellaneous Reports And News published on January 23-24/18
Iranian Judiciary Chief Warns against Undermining Protests
Sochi Statement: Syrian Army to Be Brought Under Constitution
France Sanctions Dozens of Individuals, Firms for Syria Chemical Weapons Links
Russia Welcomes Arab Coalition’s Humanitarian Measures in Yemen
7.9 Magnitude Earthquake Strikes off Alaska
Israeli Officer Confesses: We 'Blow' Violence into Palestinians like Poison
Sisi Discusses with Head of French Intelligence Deteriorating Situation in Middle East
British Efforts for Political Solution in Yemen in Cooperation with Saudi-Led Coalition
Tillerson Says Russia 'Bears Responsibility' for Syria Chemical Attacks
Turkey in Deadly Kurdish Militia Clashes in Syria as U.S. Sounds Alarm
Congress Votes to End Shutdown, Trump Claims Victory
Three French Female Jihadists Risk Death Sentence in Iraq
Pence Visits Western Wall after Pro-Israel Speech
Israeli Minister Calls for Banning Author who Praised Palestinian Teen

Latest Lebanese Related News published on January 23-24/18
Aoun in Kuwait on Two-Day Official Visit
Naharnet/January 23/18/President Michel Aoun arrived for an official visit to Kuwait on Tuesday where he was received by Kuwaiti Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmed al-Jaber al-Sabah, the National News Agency reported. The President and the Emir headed to the main palace of the Emir, the Bayan Palace, where Aoun will stay during his two-day visit, NNA added. Talks began shortly after and focused on bilateral relations between the two countries, as the two men agreed to “promote cooperation in all fields.”They agreed on the necessity of “activating joint Arab efforts,” and the need for the “upcoming Arab summit to pave way for the unification of Arab positions and restoring stability.”The two men denounced the US decision that recognized Palestine as the capital of Israel. The Kuwait Emir told Aoun that he has "instructed" the Kuwait Fund for Economic Development "to activate economic aid for Lebanon and to respond to its needs.”Aoun's visit aims to revive relations with the Gulf country where he is scheduled to hold talks with other senior Kuwaiti officials. Aoun led a delegation comprised of Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil, Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq, Minister of Telecommunications Jamal al-Jarrah, Minister of State for Administrative Reforms Inaya Ezzedine, State Minister for Human Rights Ayman Choucair, General Security chief Abbas Ibrahim, Nabil a-Jisr head of the Council of Development and Reconstruction.

STL Thanks Lebanon for 'Ongoing Commitment' to Tribunal
Naharnet/January 23/18/The U.N.-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon confirmed Tuesday that it has received Lebanon's share of the Tribunal’s 2018 budget from the Lebanese government, following an announcement from Prime Minister Saad Hariri's office. “The full sum of 28,827,533 euros, amounting to 49 percent of the Tribunal's budget, was transferred to the Tribunal's bank account yesterday by the Lebanese government,” the STL said in a statement. “The STL thanks the Government of Lebanon for its 2018 contribution and its ongoing commitment and support to the work of the Tribunal,” it added.
Hariri said in a statement before leaving to Davos on Tuesday that Lebanon is “committed to the United Nations Security Council resolution that established the Special Tribunal for Lebanon and looks forward to the day when justice will say its word in the assassination of Martyr Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and his martyr companions.”Rafik Hariri was assassinated in a massive and shocking suicide bombing in 2005 that destabilized the country. Five Hizbullah suspects are being tried in absentia by The Hague-based STL over the attack.

Garbage on the Beach: Flood of Waste Stirs Uproar in Lebanon
Associated Press/Naharnet/January 23/18/Lebanon's festering trash crisis came crashing ashore this week, after residents woke up to find a powerful winter storm had laid a mantle of waste at a beach just a minutes' drive north of the capital, Beirut. The scenes were a national embarrassment for a country that once prided itself on its sparkling Mediterranean coastline but appears unable to wean itself off the convenience of throwing its trash into the sea. "Somebody needs to pay for this," said Paul Abi Rached, a local environmentalist who spearheaded a campaign to overhaul the government's waste policies three years ago. Few issues have driven a wedge between the Lebanese and their leaders like garbage — the most conspicuous of the government's many failings to provide basic services to its constituents. Lebanon has long been plagued by daily water and electricity outages, but it was not until the trash started going uncollected in Beirut that despair erupted into a wave of protests in 2015. Demonstrators rallied under the banner "You Stink" — a reference not only to the stench accompanying the summer heat, but to the corruption and favoritism that has defined politics and paralyzed administrative services in the country.
Civil society groups say officials are making fortunes on shady deals for landfills and incinerators, at the public's expense. They say, too, that the government is using trash to fill in land along the coast — a bonanza for politically connected developers who can cash in on the property that's been raised, quite literally, from the sea. A fleet of heavy machinery has been working the coastline east of Beirut since 2017, pouring trash into the sea at a land reclamation site at Dbayeh. Officials say they are doing nothing untoward, and that the landfills they operate are done to technical specifications. But the stench is impossible to deny. Travelers arriving to Beirut's Rafiq Hariri International Airport are greeted with a waft of odors from an expanding landfill at the end of one of the runways. After years of being unused, officials reopened the Costa Brava landfill to absorb the trash left out in 2015. In December, Prime Minister Saad Hariri ordered officials to close a waste-sorting plant in the city of Tripoli, built with $1.6 million from the European Union, just six months after it was inaugurated. Locals said the odors from the plant and the nearby fill were suffocating. The scandal at Zouq Mosbeh beach led Lebanon's nightly news broadcasts on Monday, but environmentalists say they were not surprised by the scene — a pile of cattle bones, footwear, tires and vast amounts of plastic waste towered over 30 meters (100 feet) high on the beach. "The sea is regurgitating our trash," said Joslin Kehdy, who heads Recycle Lebanon, an NGO that has organized a clean-up of Zouq Mosbeh beach each year since 2015. The country's official waste management plan provides scant support to recycling initiatives. Abi Rached said this time, rough waves broke down a faulty retaining wall around a coastal dump just east of Beirut, spilling the trash into the sea. The garbage saga is likely to spill into campaigns ahead of parliamentary elections in May. Lawmaker Sami Gemayel, who leads the country's Kataeb party, said he would take the government to international court over the pollution. Prime Minister Hariri said he ordered authorities to clean the Zouq Mosbeh beach immediately but those efforts may have to wait for another storm to pass through — and bring even more waste ashore. Meanwhile, Human Rights Watch launched a campaign last Friday against burning waste at over 150 open-air dumps around Lebanon. The New York-based watchdog says the Lebanese government is in violation of international human rights law for failing to deal seriously with the pollution from burning waste.

Khatib Says Gemayel Trying to 'Gain Popularity'
Naharnet/January 23/18/Environment Minister Tarek al-Khatib said he is still “not certain” about the source of the trash that accumulated on Monday at the Keserwan's shore and accused Kataeb Party leader Sami Gemayel of trying to gain popularity for the upcoming parliamentary elections, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Tuesday. “I can not define the source of the trash. A technical team has been dispatched to conduct a detection report after which I can determine the source,” Khatib told the daily. Seawater has invaded a garbage landfill present near the Zouk Mobseh-Nahr el-Kalb shore and pulled piles of trash into the Mediterranean on Monday. Gemayel who inspected the site on Monday blasted the government anew over the waste management crisis, and called on the Environment Minister to resign. Replying to Gemayel's calls that Khatib submits his resignation after the “scandal”, Khatib said: “I heard him. But I will not resign just because he asked me to.”Khatib accused Gemayel of trying to gain popularity in the upcoming parliamentary elections, he said: “I wish he had joined the Free Patriotic Movement ministers who had rejected the government waste plan that approved the Costa Brava and Burj Hammoud landfills, instead of having three Kataeb ministers approve it and then pretend to be fighting it in order to win popularity in the elections.”Gemayel announced that he will take the government to “international courts” for polluting the sea with garbage.
He also said: “The sea has filled with garbage because officials who lack conscience and competency are in charge of the waste file.”

Hariri Arrives in Davos, Says Lebanon Committed to STL
Naharnet/January 23/18/Prime Minister Saad Hariri on Tuesday arrived in Switzerland to participate in the meetings of the World Economic Forum in Davos. Hariri's office said the premier will take part on Tuesday evening in a dinner banquet that will be thrown by Klaus Schwab, the founder and executive chairman of the Forum. On Wednesday, Hariri will hold separate talks on the Forum's sidelines with the leaders of Jordan, Switzerland, Brazil, Italy, Iraq, Belgium, Armenia and Norwar. He will also meet with International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde. Separately, Hariri's press office announced Tuesday that Lebanon’s contribution to the budget of the U.N.-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon for the current year has been transferred. The STL received Lebanon’s contribution, which represents 49 percent of its budget, on Monday morning.
Hariri said in a statement before leaving to Davos that Lebanon is “committed to the United Nations Security Council resolution that established the Special Tribunal for Lebanon and looks forward to the day when justice will say its word in the assassination of Martyr Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and his martyr companions.”Rafik Hariri was assassinated in a massive and shocking suicide bombing in 2005 that destabilized the country. Five Hizbullah suspects are being tried in absentia by The Hague-based STL over the attack.

Cleaning Starts after Garbage Accumulates on Keserewan Beach
Associated Press/Naharnet/January 23/18/Under the supervision of the High Relief Committee and at PM Saad Hariri's orders, trucks have started Tuesday removing the trash that accumulated on the Keserewan shore after rough waves broke down a faulty retaining wall around a coastal dump just east of Beirut, spilling the trash into the sea. Maj. Gen Mohammed Kheir, the head of the High Relief Committee stressed that the cleaning process "will continue despite bad weather conditions and in commitment to Hariri's directions."Lebanon's festering trash crisis came crashing ashore this week, after residents woke up to find a powerful winter storm had laid a mantle of waste at a beach just a minutes' drive north of the capital, Beirut. The scenes were a national embarrassment for a country that once prided itself on its sparkling Mediterranean coastline but appears unable to wean itself off the convenience of throwing its trash into the sea. Kataeb party leader Sami Gemayel blasted the government on Monday over the waste management crisis, announcing that he will take it to “international courts” for polluting the sea with garbage.

Number of Syrians who Died of Cold Fleeing to Lebanon Rises to 17
Naharnet/January 23/18/ At least 17 Syrians trying to flee to Lebanon have died of extreme cold and a snowstorm on the border since last week, a Lebanese security official said Tuesday. Lebanon's National News Agency said that "the body of a Syrian refugee woman who had died of the cold" was retrieved on Tuesday in the border region. The latest find raises the number of such deaths since Friday to 17, the security official told AFP. The army and civil defense services said Friday that two children and six women were among 10 Syrians whose frozen bodies were found, and the death toll rose over the weekend. Lebanon, a country of four million, hosts just under a million Syrians who have sought refuge from the war raging in their neighboring homeland since 2011. Many live in informal tented settlements in the country's east and struggle to stay warm in the winter.  The U.N.'s children's agency UNICEF said on Saturday that it was distributing blankets, warm clothes and heating fuel to refugees. In 2015, Lebanese authorities introduced new restrictions to curb the number of Syrians entering the country, which shares a rocky 330-kilometer border with Syria with no official demarcation at several points.

Aoun Meets U.S. Treasury Official, Says Lebanon Actively Fighting Money Laundering
Naharnet/January 23/18/President Michel Aoun reassured Monday that Lebanon is actively fighting money laundering during talks in Baabda with Marshall Billingslea, the Assistant Secretary for Terrorist Financing at the U.S. Department of the Treasury. “Lebanon is taking part effectively in the global efforts aimed at combating terrorist financing and money laundering, through its central bank and competent financial authorities and according to the applicable international standards and laws,” Aoun told the U.S. official. “Lebanese security institutions are vigilantly pursuing sleeper terrorist cells after the defeat that the army inflicted on the Daesh (Islamic State) organization in Lebanon's outskirts,” the president added, noting that “preemptive security operations have proved effective.”Billingslea for his part lauded the cooperation that the U.S. Treasury received from Lebanon's central bank and financial authorities while stressing that Washington is committed to supporting the Lebanese economy and army, the National News Agency said. The meeting was attended by Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil, Justice Minister Salim Jreissati, Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh, the president's chief adviser Mireille Aoun-Hachem, Presidency director general Antoine Choucair, and U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Elizabeth Richard. Billingslea held separate talks on Monday with Prime Minister Saad Hariri and is scheduled to meet Tuesday with a number of Lebanese ministers and officials.

Lebanese NGO Alarm at Spate of Deadly Domestic Violence
Naharnet/Agence France Presse/January 23/18/A Lebanese man fatally shot his wife in Beirut Monday, the latest in a string of murders a rights group said showed much work remained to eradicate violence against women. A law on domestic violence was passed by Lebanon's parliament in 2014 but watchdogs said many changes were still needed. A man shot his wife in the Ras al-Nabaa neighborhood of Beirut on Monday, the National News Agency reported, adding that the killer was on the run. Also on Monday, another Lebanese man was arrested after stabbing his wife in a village in the South, the same source reported. The woman survived the attack. The latest violence brought to eight the number of deadly cases of violence against women since the start of December, according to Kafa, a watchdog advocating for gender equality in Lebanon. A total of 17 cases were recorded last year in Lebanon, a country of around four million inhabitants, including those of women killed by their husbands but also that of a 15-year-old girl who committed suicide after a forced marriage. In a high-profile case last month, Briton Rebecca Dykes, who worked for the UK Department for International Development at the embassy in Beirut, was killed by an Uber driver who tried to rape her. Kafa's spokesperson Diala Haidar said recent improvements to the legal framework were failing to challenge "a society dominated by a machismo and that justifies violence against women.""Working against this mentality and preventing the justification of violence against women is the hardest thing," she said.

Lebanon: Efforts to Unify Beirut’s First Electoral District
Beirut - Youssef Diab/Asharq Al Awsat/January 23/18/Lebanon’s political forces and parties are preparing to engage in the upcoming electoral battle, amid uncertainty over the elections results in the wake of the adoption of a new electoral law based on the proportional system. Beirut’s first electoral district - which comprises the areas of Ashrafieh, Rmeil, Saifi and Medawar - is one of the most difficult and complex districts, because of the presence of parties and figures opposed to the forces represented in the government, such as the Phalange Party and the National Liberal Party and independent forces. In this regard, Minister of State for Planning Michel Pharaon is seeking to resolve obstacles that make alliances difficult in his constituency (Beirut I) through meetings and contacts with the concerned parties. The minister is trying to reach the broadest understanding to avoid political battle that might have negative repercussions on the post-election phase. In remarks to Asharq Al-Awsat, Pharaon said he “will consult with the forces that form the electoral list of Beirut’s first constituency,” acknowledging that such step “requires much work and cooperation coupled with the availability of sincere intentions.”“I have started a round of consultations about the possibility of weaving an electoral alliance, with the encouragement of President Michel Aoun and Dr. Samir Geagea, head of the Lebanese Forces Party. I will be in contact with Prime Minister Saad Hariri soon,” he stated. Pharaon, however, pointed out that the nature of the election law makes the task difficult to achieve, “contrary to the majority law that facilitates the formation of a balanced list.” Some of the ruling parties have revealed their intention to forge alliances in Beirut. The Future Movement is moving towards an alliance with the Free Patriotic Movement [FPM], the Armenian Tashnag Party and Minister Michel Pharaon, waiting for the results of consultations with the Lebanese Forces.

Berri-Jumblatt Unite to Confront 'Violating Taif Accord'
Beirut - Nazeer Rida/Asharq Al Awsat/January 23/18/Head of the Progressive Socialist Party MP Walid Jumblatt openly joined on Monday the battle of Speaker Nabih Berri to protect the “Taif Accord,” currently fought against the Free Patriotic Movement, in light of a dispute that emerged early this month between President Michel Aoun and Berri over a decree to promote a number of officers without the approval of the Finance Minister. Aoun and Prime Minister Saad Hariri had signed a decree that sees the promotion of officers who graduated from the military school in 1994. Berri insists that the decree should be approved by the Finance Ministry, before going into effect.The Speaker and Jumblatt both believe that the absence of the Finance Ministry’s signature on the decree violates the Taif Accord, a statement denied by the Free Patriotic Movement. On Monday, Berri deplored what he described as the implementation of "unconstitutional and anti-Taif" practices in Lebanon. His worries were echoed by a tweet posted earlier by Jumblatt, who said: “Behind almost every Cabinet decision, deficit is increasing instead of being limited; yet the most dangerous thing is that Taif Accord is being emptied instead of being held onto and developed.” Later on Monday, MP Wael Abou Faour, who is delegated by Jumblatt, visited Berri. "Unfortunately, we are still in the same vortex regarding the 1994 military officers' decree, and it seems that the discussion on this subject has sparked yet another debate on the respect of the text and spirit of the Taif agreement," he said, adding that his party "cannot accept the logic that says that the military officers' decree is a thing of the past.” Sources informed about Berri and Jumblatt’s positions told Asharq Al-Awsat on Monday that cautions against violating the “Taif” were not limited to the latest disputes over the military officers’ decree, but involve files piled from last year, and that shows the presence of “a disputed explanation of the Taif Accord and an attempt to adjust some of its items to fit the interests of a particular political party.”However, parliamentary sources from the “Change and Reform” parliamentary bloc said the FPM was attached to the Taif Accord, adding that the crisis is rather linked to the explanation of the Constitution, which was amended based on the Taif document.

Latest LCCC Bulletin For Miscellaneous Reports And News published on January 23-24/18
Iranian Judiciary Chief Warns against Undermining Protests
London - /Asharq Al Awsat/January 23/18/It has been nearly one month since the rise of popular protests in several parts of Iran, yet senior Iranian officials continue to accuse foreign parties of standing behind these demonstrations in the Iranian streets. The latest of these accusations was from Iranian Judiciary Chief Sadegh Larijani, who did not address the internal reasons behind the protests and said that the United States has invested millions of dollars in order to provoke "unrest and destabilization as it seeks to overthrow the regime." Iran’s former reformist President Mohammad Khatami, for his part, said that the protests were caused by a decline in popular confidence in governors and political movements, including his reformist movement. In an address to a meeting of senior Judiciary officials in Tehran on Monday, Larijani said that during the recent incidents, “some newspapers and people were saying that such events usually occur in every society." "Is there really no problem with chaos, sabotage and extraordinary (anti-regime) attitudes?” Larijani asked. In December 28, protests broke out in the city of Mashhad under the slogan "No for hike in prices," soon after that, 80 Iranian cities witnessed spontaneous protests that turned from slogans calling for improving the living situation to slogans calling for the overthrow of the regime and death of senior officials, most notably the Iranian Supreme leader. Relative calm returned to Iranian cities after 10 days of clashes between security forces and protesters. Revolutionary Guards Commander Mohammad Ali Jaafari said his forces partly intervened in three provinces that witnessed widespread protests. He called on “closing the road of infiltration by learning from various events." "We do not allow some to reduce the cost of unrest and chaos because we believe that reducing the cost of unrest for the anarchists threatens security, competence and popular rights."Contrary to what officials said regarding the release of protesters, Larijani said that "the bad guys and the saboteurs in the recent protests will definitely receive the punishment they deserve."Larijani claimed that the Iranian regime is an alternative to the liberal democratic system, pointing out that the Iranian behavior at the regional and international levels, which is opposed by the United States, is a result of this alternative system. He noted that US has publicly and clearly stated that it seeks regime change in Iran. This, he said, is a sign of its enmity towards Iran. He said that these realities make it necessary for the Iranian officials and nation to remain vigilant about US overt and covert plans to infiltrate and weaken Iran.

Sochi Statement: Syrian Army to Be Brought Under Constitution
London – Ibrahim Hamidi/Asharq Al Awsat/January 23/18/A draft paper to be issued at the end of the Syrian National Dialogue Congress due in Sochi next week stipulates the need to form a “national army brought that operates under the constitution” and that the security apparatus abide by the “human rights law.”The paper also calls on the Syrian regime to stress “national unity” and provide “a just representation of the self-administrated authorities.”Asharq Al-Awsat received on Monday a copy of the declaration written by Moscow. According to how Russia sees a solution in Syria, the Sochi Congress is expected to lead to the establishment of three committees: a presidential committee for the Congress, a special committee for constitutional reforms and a committee for elections and the registration of voters. The meeting is scheduled for January 29 and 30. Moscow was also keen that its draft paper be based on the 12 political principles previously presented by UN envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura in Geneva last November. De Mistura had then published 12 principles for a future Syria that he handed to both regime and opposition delegations. His principles stipulate that the country “shall be democratic and non-sectarian.” A western official said on Monday: “It will be difficult for Damascus to reject the Sochi principles.” He added that Moscow wanted to include the 12-point principles in its Sochi declaration to secure the attendance of de Mistura at the congress after UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres had set a series of conditions for the UN to attend the meeting. According to the draft paper, members attending the Syrian Congress in Sochi could reach 1,600 participants who “represent the entire factions of the Syrian community and the different political, civil, ethnic, religious and social forces.” Meanwhile, talks held between High Negotiations Committee (HNC) leader Naser al- Hariri and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Monday evening, are expected to play a decisive role concerning the group’s participation at the Sochi Congress, particularly in the presence of objections voiced by Syrian armed factions. Before meeting with Lavrov, al-Hariri had avoided receiving an official invitation to the Congress. Earlier, Syrian opposition groups said they would attend the UN-sponsored Vienna talks next Thursday and Friday. The talks are part of the Geneva negotiations and will this time around be held in the Austrian capital. The Vienna meeting will constitute a test for Moscow to text its authorities on Damascus and its capacity to achieve a “constitutional breakthrough” ahead of the Sochi meeting.

France Sanctions Dozens of Individuals, Firms for Syria Chemical Weapons Links
Asharq Al Awsat/January 23/18/France revealed on Tuesday that it was imposing sanctions on 25 individuals and firms for their connection to Syria’s chemical weapons program. The announcement was made as diplomats were set to meet in Paris to push for action against perpetrators of the deadly attacks. The list published in the government's official gazette gave the names and addresses of traders and businesses based mostly in Beirut, Damascus and Paris, as well as a Chinese businessman from the export hub of Guangdong. The other individuals, who will face asset freezes under the French action, were either Syrian, Lebanese or Canadian with companies working in electronics, metal work, logistics or shipping. No member of the Syrian regime was targeted, with an aide in the French foreign ministry explaining: "We don't have enough information to enable us to take this up to the political level in Syria."The latest reported chemical weapons attack in Syria was reported on Monday when rescue workers said that victims of regime bombardment showed signs of suffocation. Some 21 people, including children, suffered breathing difficulties after an alleged chemical attack on the besieged rebel enclave of East Ghouta outside Damascus. The attack prompted a sharp warning from the US to Russia to rein in its ally, Syrian regime head Bashar al-Assad. Diplomats from 29 countries including US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson were set to meet in Paris later on Tuesday pushing for further sanctions and criminal charges against the perpetrators of chemical attacks in Syria. Tillerson and his French counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian will also co-host a meeting of ministers ahead of a new round of peace talks in Vienna later this week and again in Sochi in Russia the week after.
French President Emmanuel Macron said in June that the use of chemical weapons was a "red line" and warned that France, which is part of the US-led coalition fighting extremists with air strikes in Syria, would respond. Macron's words echoed a warning by Barack Obama, who as president had said that any chemical weapons use would trigger a shift in his country's position on Syria. After hundreds were killed in attacks near Damascus in August 2013, a landmark deal with Russia was struck to rid Syria of its chemical weapons stash, staving off US air strikes. Despite the disarmament drive, chemical attacks have continued. United Nations investigators have gathered evidence that Assad’s regime has repeatedly used chemical weapons against rebels and civilians during the war since it erupted in March 2011. France estimates that there have been 130 chemical attacks between 2012 and 2017, but the ISIS extremist group is thought to have used chemical weapons too. Russia and China have blocked Western-backed efforts at the UN to impose sanctions on Damascus over their use. "Today the situation is blocked at the highest international level," an aide to Le Drian said. "The perpetrators of chemical attacks must know that they can be prosecuted and that we won't let this lie."

Russia Welcomes Arab Coalition’s Humanitarian Measures in Yemen
Moscow - Taha Abdul Wahed/Asharq Al Awsat/January 23/18/Moscow welcomed on Monday the humanitarian steps taken by the Arab Coalition in Yemen and underlined the need for a political solution to the crisis in the country.“Russia welcomes the decision of the Arab coalition to ease the blockade of the Yemeni port of Al Hudaidah, the only transport route that connects the country’s main city and northern provinces with the outside world,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said during a joint news conference on Monday with Yemen’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Abdul-Malik Al-Mekhlafi in Moscow. “We believe that the UN should henceforth be able to deliver humanitarian aid to Sanaa without fail. It is important to strive to lift the sea and air blockade, to remove all limitations on the deliveries of food, medicines and other prime necessities to all regions of Yemen with no exceptions,” he added.
Lavrov noted that Moscow would maintain its dialogue with all the Yemeni components and concerned parties, to “contribute to the settlement and the transition from war to a political dialogue to do so as soon as possible.”The two ministers held talks in Moscow on Monday on the situation in Yemen and the prospects of a political settlement. Mekhlafi conveyed a message from Yemeni President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Lavrov emphasized Russia’s stance that there was no alternative to dialogue to end the crisis in Yemen.
“We consider it absolutely necessary to stop the armed standoff in Yemen, as well as the need for the conflict participants to abandon the use of force in resolving the accumulated problems. We believe it necessary to not only continue, but also boost the relevant international efforts with the central role of the UN to create conditions for establishing a sustainable intra-Yemeni dialogue with the participation of all political forces in the country,” he stated. Lavrov went on to say: “Only the Yemeni people themselves can define the fate of their country. Russia, which maintains contacts will all Yemeni groups, is ready to facilitate this process. We see that this approach is accepted and supported by the leadership of the Republic of Yemen.”Mekhlafi, for his part, asked Russia to exert pressure on Iran to stop its military support for Houthi militias. He emphasized that a political solution to the crisis was the only option for the Yemeni government. He noted in this regard that the government “has always approved the initiatives of the international community” to settle the conflict, pointing out that the Houthis were those who always rejected such initiatives, and “they still put a lot of obstacles to the political process.”

7.9 Magnitude Earthquake Strikes off Alaska
Asharq Al Awsat/January 23/18/A tsunami warning was lifted across the western US and Canada coasts after a powerful earthquake struck the US state of Alaska. The warning was originally issued across the south and southeast Alaska and the west coast of Canada and the remainder of the US West Coast came under a watch following the 7.9-magnitude quake. It struck at 0931 GMT in the Gulf of Alaska, 280 kilometers (175 miles) southeast of the town of Kodiak, the US Geological Survey said, revising a preliminary estimate of 8.2 magnitude. The epicenter was 10 kilometers under the seabed. Less-ominous tsunami watches were issued for the US west coast -- the entire coasts of California and Oregon and part of Washington state -- and Hawaii out in the Pacific. Heather Rand, who was 360 miles away in Anchorage, told CNN it felt like the longest earthquake she had ever experienced. "It was a very long, slow build up. Creepy, more than anything. Definitely the longest, and I was born here," Rand said, adding the only damage was cracks in the wall. So far no quake damage or large waves have been reported in Kodiak, which is on an island off the coast, police spokesman Tim Putney told AFP. "We are half an hour beyond the time we were told the first wave might hit. Nothing has happened," he said around 1115 GMT. The earthquake woke Putney up out of a dead sleep, and he estimates it shook for at least 30 seconds. Larry LeDoux, superintendent of the Kodiak Island Borough School District, said schools were open as shelters and estimated there were about 500 people at the high school. He described the atmosphere inside as calm, with people waiting for any updates. He said sirens go off in the community every week, as a test to make sure they are working. He said the sirens were sounded for the early Tuesday tsunami warning.

Israeli Officer Confesses: We 'Blow' Violence into Palestinians like Poison
Tel Aviv – /Asharq Al Awsat/January 23/While right-wing officials in Israel are trying to prevent human rights' seminars for Israeli army, "Breaking the Silence" will publish a new pamphlet containing testimonies of officers and soldiers who admit that during their military service they abused and tortured Palestinians and violated Palestinian human rights. Former officer Ram Cohen admitted in his testimony that violence is an integral part of the daily and humiliating occupation. "Taking control of the other means feeling what I felt during my reserve service when I stopped a Palestinian bus that was returning after a day's work in Israel. They were sleepy, tired and exhausted, and wanted to just go home. I stood there with my M16 rifle in my hand and my ammunition ready ordering them all to step down from the bus. I aligned them in a long queue," he narrated. Cohen went on to say how he ordered the Palestinians to present their IDs, and then he searched their belongings "hoping to find something there.""Finally, I ordered them back to the bus. "Stop!" I shout, "Why did you move?!" They obeyed, went down, walked, stood, came back, and returned to the bus. I felt strong. I have a rifle with a full ammunition of live bullets, my finger ready on the trigger. I thought at the time that Palestinians were not human beings. Enemies. Potential terrorists," he added. The officer felt that Palestinians lacked any human trait that could make him feel sympathetic or like them. "The soldiers feel free and blow violence inside them like poison. This is not only practiced against Palestinians, but also against Ethiopian refugees, even gay and left-wing Jews," he added. Israeli Culture and Sports Minister Miri Regev's official Facebook page: "It is unnecessary to point out to you that Breaking the Silence works to tarnish the image of Israel, presenting it as an immoral state and its army and soldiers as an immoral army." Cohen believes that by writing this, the minister is seeking to defend the country as a Jewish democratic state, but rather the occupied territories. "What should we do with the territories we occupied in 1967?" wondered Cohen, adding: "if we want it, we must include it in accordance with the law and grant equal rights to its two and a half million Palestinian residents. By doing so, we will undermine the entire Zionist project and endanger the identity of Israel as a Jewish state. If we are not willing to pay this price, we must plan for a smart and organized separation of regions and authority that fascinate us." Cohen then concluded: "There is one thing we should not forget: with pikes we can achieve everything, but sit on it. "It is worth mentioning that Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, B'Tselem, organizes several seminars and sessions for the Israeli army, in which legal experts talk about "human rights in the occupied territories".The director-general of B'Tselem, Shai Glick, sent a letter to Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman, warning him not to concede to the demands of the right-wing parties and cancel the sessions.

Sisi Discusses with Head of French Intelligence Deteriorating Situation in Middle East
Cairo - Sawsan Abou Hussein/Asharq Al Awsat/January 23/Egyptian President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi met in Cairo on Monday with French Foreign Intelligence Chief Bernard Emie, in the presence of Acting General Intelligence Chief Major General Abbas Kamel. In a statement issued by Egypt’s presidency, Spokesman Bassam Radi said that the two officials discussed the deteriorating situation in the Middle East and means to boost international efforts to combat terrorism and extremism. He also said that Sisi extended his greetings to French President Emmanuel Macron, while stressing the “exclusiveness, depth and strength of relations” with France. Sisi also underlined his country’s keenness to promote bilateral cooperation in various fields, according to Radi. Emie, for his part, emphasized France’s commitment to continued coordination and consultation with the Egyptian side over different challenges faced by the two countries, especially regional matters. He also praised Egypt’s pivotal role in strengthening security and stability in the region. Meanwhile, diplomatic sources said that France was considering re-launching an initiative to hold an international peace conference for the Middle East to end the stalemate in the Palestinian file, in wake of the Palestinian Authority’s refusal to deal with the United States as a neutral mediator for the establishment of a two-state solution. On a different note, Cairo received an official invitation from Moscow to attend the Sochi conference on Syria, which is scheduled to be held in Russia at the end of this month, Egyptian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ahmed Abu Zeid said. He underlined Egypt’s support for the ongoing negotiations under the auspices of the United Nations in Geneva, which are based on Resolution 2254, while welcoming any other initiatives on the table as long as they seek to strengthen the same peace process.

British Efforts for Political Solution in Yemen in Cooperation with Saudi-Led Coalition
Jeddah - Asmaa al-Ghaberi/Asharq Al Awsat/January 23/18/British Ambassador to Yemen Simon Shercliff stressed that his country is leading diplomatic efforts to reach a political solution in Yemen in cooperation with the Saudi- led coalition to support legitimacy in Yemen. Shercliff said that his country is seeking to attract international players to find solutions to achieve peace and cooperate with the coalition forces, in collaboration with the UN Security Council. He noted that his country continues to provide political support for the military action of the Saudi-led coalition, which was formed at the request of the legitimate Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi to deter the Houthis and restore legitimacy in Yemen. Shercliff also explained that Britain has been contributing to the alleviation of the humanitarian crisis in Yemen as it has provided more than 250 million dollars, making it the second largest supporter of the UN humanitarian appeal in Yemen. “Britain has also been urging all parties to facilitate the entry of humanitarian aids quickly and safely,” Shercliff added. He pointed out that Houthis continue to violate the international law and resolution 2216 through attacking Saudi cities and lands with missiles and threatening the security of maritime navigation in Bab el-Mandeb. Regarding the will to drop sanctions on the family of former President Ali Abdullah Saleh in the Security Council to enable them to engage in the resistance front against Houthis, Shercliff said, “any UN Security Council resolution on individual sanctions requires the consensus of the international community to cooperate with the parties in the region to have an effect, and the current priority is to urge the concerned parties to return to negotiations and implement the clear requirements of the June 15 Security Council presidential statement.”That statement, according to the British ambassador, was prepared in cooperation with Britain and shows the concern about the humanitarian situation in Yemen, particularly with regard to the deteriorating health situation, the demand for a return to the UN-led peace negotiations, the unhindered entry of humanitarian aids and the facilitation of access to basic foodstuffs, fuel and medical supplies from the port of Hodeidah.

Tillerson Says Russia 'Bears Responsibility' for Syria Chemical Attacks
Naharnet/Agence France Presse/January 23/18/U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Tuesday said Russia bore responsibility for recent chemical attacks by the Syrian government, which it backs in the country's civil war. "The recent attacks in East Ghouta raise serious concerns that Bashar al-Assad's Syrian regime may be continuing its use of chemical weapons against its own people," Tillerson told reporters in Paris. "Russia ultimately bears responsibility for the victims in East Ghouta."

Turkey in Deadly Kurdish Militia Clashes in Syria as U.S. Sounds Alarm
Naharnet/Agence France Presse/January 23/18/The Turkish army on Tuesday clashed with Kurdish militia in Syria in an operation that has already left two of its soldiers dead, as the United States voiced alarm the offensive could endanger attempts to end the Syrian civil war. Speaking at the funeral of the first of two Turkish soldiers to be killed so far in the four day cross-border campaign, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed that Ankara would emerge victorious. Turkey on Saturday launched operation "Olive Branch" aimed at rooting out the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) militia, which Ankara sees as a terror group, from its Afrin enclave in northern Syria. The campaign has caused ripples of concern among Turkey's NATO allies, especially the United States which is still working closely with the YPG to defeat Islamic State (IS) jihadists in Syria. In his strongest comments yet on the offensive, U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis called for Turkey to show "restraint" and warned it could harm the fight against the jihadists. He warned the offensive "disrupts what was a relatively stable area in Syria and distracts from the international effort to defeat" IS, on a visit to Indonesia.
'Until the last terrorist'
Turkish artillery on Tuesday pounded targets of the YPG inside Syria, the state-run Anadolu news agency said. Meanwhile, Turkish drones were also carrying out attacks, state television said. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said fighting was "very violent" northeast, northwest and southwest of Afrin. The Observatory said the offensive took control of two villages so far. As well as the artillery and air strikes, Turkish ground troops and Ankara-backed Syrian rebels have punched over the border several kilometers (miles) into Syrian territory, taking several villages, according to state media. After intense exchanges, Turkey's forces took control of the hill of Barsaya, a key strategic point in the Afrin region. The Observatory said 43 Ankara-backed rebels and 38 Kurdish fighters had been killed in the fighting so far. It has also said 28 civilians have been killed on the Syrian side but this is vehemently rejected by Turkey which says it is only targeting militants. Sergeant Musa Ozalkan, 30, the first Turkish military fatality of the operation, was laid to rest with full honors in a ceremony in Ankara attended by the Turkish leadership. "We will win and reach victory in this operation together with our people, together with Free Syrian Army," Erdogan assured mourners, referring to the Ankara-backed rebels. "We have full confidence," he added. A second Turkish soldier was killed in Syria Tuesday in clashes with the YPG, the military said in a statement. He was named as First Lieutenant Oguz Kaan Usta. The campaign -- which Erdogan has made clear has no fixed timetable -- is fraught with risks for Turkey. Two civilians have been killed inside Turkey in border towns in the last two days by rocket fire from Syria blamed on the YPG. "This operation will continue until the last terrorist is eliminated," Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said. The leaders of the YPG-controlled enclave meanwhile announced a "general mobilisation," calling up civilians to defend Afrin against Turkish attack.
Russian green light?
The offensive against the YPG is also fraught with diplomatic sensitivities with Western capitals particularly concerned that it will take the focus away from eliminating IS. France and the European Union have made similar comments to those made by Mattis. But Ankara has expressed impatience with such sentiments, arguing that the YPG is the Syrian offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) which has waged a bloody three-decade insurgency against the Turkish state. The foreign ministry of Qatar -- Turkey's closest Gulf ally -- gave its unequivocal backing to the operation. Critical is the opinion of Russia, which has a military presence in the area and a cordial relationship with the YPG but is also working with Turkey to bring an end to the seven-year Syrian civil war. Erdogan said Monday that the offensive had been agreed with Russia but this has not been confirmed by Moscow. However many analysts argue that Turkey would never have gone ahead with the offensive without the Kremlin's blessing. Turkey's previous incursion into Syria was the Euphrates Shield campaign in August 2016-March 2017, targeting both the YPG and IS in an area east of Afrin. The Turkish security forces have meanwhile imposed a clampdown against anyone suspected of disseminating "terror propaganda" against the operation on social media. Ninety-one people were detained in 13 provinces in Turkey, state media reported on Tuesday, after 24 people had been detained in other cities on Monday.

Congress Votes to End Shutdown, Trump Claims Victory
Naharnet/Agence France Presse/January 23/18/Congress put the US government back in business Monday by voting to end a three-day shutdown, as President Donald Trump claimed victory in his standoff with Democrats in Washington. The House voted 266 to 150 to extend federal funding, hours after Senate Democrats dropped their opposition to the plan after winning Republican assurances of a vote on immigration in the coming weeks. Trump signed the measure into law Monday night, and government operations would essentially return to normal on Tuesday. "I know there's great relief that this episode is coming to an end," House Speaker Paul Ryan told colleagues. "But this is not a moment to pat ourselves on the back. Not even close." The stalemate consumed Washington for the better part of a week, as lawmakers and the White House feuded over immigration policy and the nation's two main political parties exchanged bitter barbs before finally reaching a deal. "I am pleased Democrats in Congress have come to their senses," Trump said in a defiant statement, as lawmakers moved to get hundreds of thousands of federal government employees back to work. Democrats decided to end the three-day shutdown after making progress with ruling Republicans toward securing the fate of hundreds of thousands of so-called "Dreamers" brought to America as children, many of them illegally. With Democratic support, a bill keeping the government funded until February 8 easily passed the Senate, where different versions of the funding had languished for days. Word of the compromise deal struck in Washington sent US stocks surging to new highs. But the White House appeared in no mood for bipartisanship or magnanimity after a shutdown that overshadowed Trump's first anniversary in office. Trump moved to undercut Democrats, saying he would only accept a comprehensive immigration reform -- one that notably addresses his demands for a border wall with Mexico as well as the fate of the "Dreamers.""We will make a long-term deal on immigration if, and only if, it is good for our country," he said. Top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer earlier announced his party would vote with Republicans to end the shutdown, but in a sign of the poisoned politics of Washington he pilloried Trump in the process. "The White House refused to engage in negotiations over the weekend. The great deal-making president sat on the sidelines," Schumer said.
Trump spent the weekend stewing at the White House when he had planned to be among friends and family at his home in Mar-a-Lago, Florida for his anniversary bash. And with the fundamental row on immigration and funding of Trump's border wall unresolved, Republicans and Democrats may very well find themselves back in a similar stalemate come February 9.
- High-profile holdouts -Schumer told Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell that he expected Republicans to make good on a pledge to address Democrats' concerns over the Deferred Action on Child Arrivals (DACA) program that shields immigrants brought to the country as children from deportation, but expires on March 5. There are an estimated 700,000 "Dreamers" whose fates are up in the air. "If he does not, of course, and I expect he will, he will have breached the trust of not only the Democratic senators but members of his own party as well," Schumer said. Trump has staked his political fortunes on taking a hard line on immigrants, painting them as criminals and scroungers. Senator Tim Kaine summed up the view of the more optimistic Democrats: "We got a commitment that I feel very, very good about." But if no progress is made on an immigration bill, Molly Reynolds of the Brookings Institution warned, "Democrats still have the ability to potentially force another shutdown over the issue."The House is under no obligation to pass any Senate bill generated as a result of McConnell's pledge to cooperate with Democrats -- although Speaker Ryan did say his chamber needs to "move forward in good faith" on DACA and immigration. Notably, many of the Senate Democrats who voted against the funding agreement included a litany of potential 2020 presidential candidates, including Kamala Harris, Bernie Sanders, Kirsten Gillibrand and Elizabeth Warren. - Dealmaker on sidelines -Ahead of the deal, Trump had goaded Democrats from the sidelines, accusing them of shutting down the government to win concessions on immigration, in service of "their far left base."There have been four government shutdowns since 1990. During the last one, in October 2013, more than 800,000 government workers were put on temporary leave. Essential federal services and the military were operational on Monday.

Three French Female Jihadists Risk Death Sentence in Iraq
Naharnet/Agence France Presse/January 23/18/Three French women who joined the Islamic State group before being captured by Iraqi forces could be facing the death penalty as they await trial in Baghdad, sources close to their cases told AFP. The women were detained after Iraqi fighters ousted the jihadists from Mosul last July, one source said, confirming a report on RMC radio. One 28-year-old woman left in 2015 for the group's "caliphate" stretching over parts of Syria and Iraq along with her husband, who has reportedly been killed. She is being detained with her daughter, who was born after their arrival. "We don't know what exactly she is accused of, what her detention conditions are like and whether she is being allowed the means to defend herself," said the woman's lawyer, Martin Pradel. He said he had received "no response" from France's foreign ministry on the case, for which the Red Cross has been his only source of information. A second woman, a 27-year-old named as Melina, also left for the region in 2015, and is being held with her baby. Her three older children have been returned to France. "We expect France, if Melina is sentenced to death, to mobilize with the same intensity it has for other French citizens sentenced to death, in particular Serge Atlaoui," said er lawyers, William Bourdon and Vincent Brengarth. French diplomats have waged an intense campaign to free Atlaoui, who is being held in Indonesia and facing the death penalty on drug trafficking charges. But government officials have said French fighters arrested in Syria and Iraq should be tried there if they can be guaranteed a fair trial. Defense minister Florence Parly said Sunday that "we can't be naive" regarding French citizens who left to join IS. "When they are caught by local authorities, as far as possible they should be tried by these local authorities," she told France 3 television.
Children detained
On Sunday, an Iraqi court condemned a German woman to death by hanging after finding her guilty of belonging to IS, the first such sentence in a case involving a European woman. In December, an Iraqi-Swedish man was hanged along with 37 others accused of being IS or al-Qaida members, despite efforts by Sweden to have the prisoner serve a life sentence instead. Iraqi authorities have not disclosed how many jihadists are being held prisoner since the counter-offensive that dislodged IS fighters from the country's urban centers last year. Around 40 French citizens, both men and women, are currently in detention camps or prisons in Syria and Iraq, including about 20 children, a source close to the matter has said. On Monday, Parly reiterated that she had "no qualms" regarding the fate of French jihadists, despite requests by some of them to be repatriated. "These jihadists have never had any qualms about what they're doing, and I don't see why we should have any for them," she said.

Pence Visits Western Wall after Pro-Israel Speech
Naharnet/Agence France Presse/January 23/18/U.S. Vice President Mike Pence visited Jerusalem's Western Wall on Tuesday while Palestinians held a general strike after denouncing his fervently pro-Israel speech the previous day as "messianic."The devout Christian's speech to the Israeli parliament on Monday laden with biblical references was praised by Israelis as perhaps the best they could ever hope for from a U.S. administration, but Palestinians saw it as confirming some of their worst fears. Pence proudly reaffirmed U.S. President Donald Trump's December 6 declaration of Jerusalem as Israel's capital and pledged to move the embassy to the disputed city by the end of 2019. The vice president said "the friendship between our peoples has never been deeper. And I am here to convey a simple message from the heart of the American people: America stands with Israel." On Tuesday, as he wrapped up his trip, Pence, who was boycotted by the Palestinians, visited one of the holiest sites in Judaism, the Western Wall. The site lies in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, the sector the Palestinians want as the capital of their future state, and many Israelis are likely to interpret it as Pence further backing their claim over the entire city. "Very inspiring," Pence said after the visit during which he was not accompanied by Israeli government officials. Pence followed in the footsteps of Trump, who became the first sitting U.S. president to visit the Western Wall in May. In December, a U.S. senior administration official said "we cannot envision any situation under which the Western Wall would not 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." Pence also toured Jerusalem's Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial accompanied by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday and met President Reuven Rivlin. He said the White House believes the Jerusalem declaration "will set the table for the opportunity to move forward in meaningful negotiations to achieve a lasting peace and end the decades-long conflict".
'Gift to extremists'
The Palestinians face a dilemma over how to deal with what they see as a blatantly biased U.S. administration as they seek to salvage hope of a two-state solution.
A top Palestinian official called Pence's parliament speech "messianic" and a "gift to extremists," reiterating the view that the Trump White House is incapable of being an even-handed mediator in peace talks. Pence has issued no criticism of Israel's half-century occupation of the West Bank during his visit. Around a dozen Arab Israeli lawmakers were expelled from the chamber as Pence began his speech after they shouted in protest. On Tuesday, a general strike was observed in the Palestinian territories, but there were expressions of resignation among some."It's useless, the strike. Nothing will happen," Adel Humran, a Palestinian against the strike, said in the West Bank town of Ramallah. "Only the shops will be closed. The people won’t benefit from it at all."A spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, however, said the strike was a "message of rejection of the visit and the American position.""Jerusalem is a red line we cannot compromise on," said Nabil Abu Rudeina. A few hundred Palestinians also protested near an Israeli checkpoint in the West Bank, throwing stones at soldiers who occasionally fired back with tear gas, sound grenades and rubber bullets. The Palestinian leadership has sought to look elsewhere for backing, and Abbas met European Union foreign ministers in Brussels on Monday. The 82-year-old urged them to recognize a Palestinian state, but such a move was not forthcoming from the bloc as a whole. Abbas said he was committed to negotiations, but he has sought an internationally-led process. Netanyahu, bolstered by the unstinting support of the Trump administration, says there is no substitute for U.S. leadership. He has warmly welcomed Pence, calling him a "dear friend" and lauding Trump's Jerusalem declaration.
Deadly unrest
The U.S. move to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital broke with decades of international consensus that the city's status should be settled as part of a two-state peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians. Unrest since the announcement has left 18 Palestinians dead, most of them killed in clashes with Israeli forces. One Israeli has been killed in that time. Israel claims all of Jerusalem as its capital, while the Palestinians see the eastern sector as the capital of their future state. Israelis and Palestinians alike interpreted Trump's move as Washington taking Israel's side in the conflict -- a view reinforced by the White House's recent decision to withhold financing for the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees. In Jerusalem, Pence reiterated Trump's position that the United States will support a two-state solution "if both sides agree." Pence's visit, initially scheduled for December before being postponed after the Jerusalem declaration, was the final leg of a trip that included talks in Egypt and Jordan as well as a stop at a U.S. military base near the Syrian border. Arab outrage over Trump's Jerusalem decision had prompted the cancellation of several meetings planned ahead of the start of Pence's tour.

Israeli Minister Calls for Banning Author who Praised Palestinian Teen
Naharnet/Agence France Presse/January 23/18/Israel's Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Tuesday instructed army radio to censor a prominent author who compared a Palestinian teen facing trial to a Jewish girl murdered in the Holocaust. Ahed Tamimi, 16, was arrested in December for slapping two Israeli soldiers in the occupied West Bank, in an incident caught on video. She has been charged with 12 counts including assault and ordered kept in custody until the end of the legal proceedings. Hailed as a hero by Palestinians who see her as bravely standing up to Israel's occupation, Tamimi has also caught the attention of the Israeli left, including prominent writer and poet Jonathan Geffen, who dedicated an Instagram post to her. "A pretty 17-year-old girl did a terrible thing, and when a proud Israeli officer once again raided her home, she slapped him," he wrote on Monday. "She was born into that, and in that slap there were 50 years of occupation and humiliation," he wrote. "On the day the story of this struggle is told, you, Ahed Tamimi, red-haired like David who slapped Goliath, will be on the same page as Joan of Arc, Hannah Szenes and Anne Frank," Geffen said on Instagram. In posts on his own social media accounts, the outspoken Lieberman lashed out at the writer, whose songs -- for adults and children -- are very popular in Israel.  "I've instructed the commander of army radio to stop playing or interviewing Jonathan Geffen in all the station's broadcasts, and I call on all media in Israel to do the same," the defense minister said. "The State of Israel won't give a platform to a drunkard comparing a child (Frank) who was killed in the Holocaust and a hero warrior (Szenes) who fought the Nazi regime to Ahed Tamimi, the brat who attacked a soldier," he said. "Geffen's pursuit of headlines is sickening and infuriating," Lieberman continued, saying Hizbullah's Al-Manar television channel would be a more suitable venue for Geffen's "nonsense." Israel's military radio station is under the command of the army chief and ultimately the defense minister -- but not on matters relating to content of what is broadcast. The justice ministry issued a statement reiterating that Lieberman "has no legal authority to intervene in the content of the station's broadcasts."

Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on January 23-24/18
Washington Chooses Syria as a Battlefield
Abdulrahman Al-Rashed/Asharq Al Awsat/January 23/18
Despite all the criticism against the current US administration’s policy in the Middle East, we must admit it is clearer and more committed than previous ones. It has chosen Syria as a center for testing its new strategy in fighting ISIS, Russia and Iran. However, we do not know whether or not it will be able to complete the path it had recently planned and announced. Early in the 1990s, the Soviet Union collapsed ending the Cold War and the only US foreign policy left was countering terrorism. This policy became more about reactions to the September 11, 2001 attacks. This saw it confront terrorist groups in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Libya. This stage lasted for a decade and a half. We can now see glimpses of confrontations between Washington and Moscow in countries like Syria, Ukraine, Iran and, to a lesser extent, on the Korean Peninsula. This conflict between the Russian and US powers brings back to mind the Cold War, which was highlighted last week when Secretary of State Rex Tillerson spoke about his country's new strategy and said it generally relies on fighting rival powers, mainly Russia and, to a lesser degree, China.
Washington’s policy in the Middle East in general, and in Syria and Iraq in particular, changed under the Trump administration. It has decided to confront Russia’s presence and that of its ally Iran, in addition to fighting ISIS. The US chose Syria as its battlefield, which became very complicated after several powers became involved in the crisis there.
With Washington’s adoption of a clear policy for the first time, it is likely to produce new issues that never existed before, such as that the US will expect its allies to support its policy and restore old alliances. Stances on the Syrian crisis will be classified and, later on, this will apply to other major regional issues, like dealing with Iran. Turkey, which is a NATO member and historically a US ally, was trying to use the crisis for its own interests, until the battle for Afrin erupted, bringing it into confrontation with Iran, Russia and the Syrian regime. Therefore, Turkey, as well as the rest of the region, will realize their options will narrow down with time. So will Turkey align with Washington or Moscow in Syria? The US abandoned last year’s policy of cooperating with Russia in Syria and adopted a new policy based on confronting Russia through regional proxies and alliances. However, Moscow preceded Washington in adopting such a policy by using Iran and its agents, such as Lebanese, Iraqi, and other militias, to fight their battles. On the other hand, the US is using Kurdish-Syrian militias on the ground, along with remnants of the Free Syrian Army factions east of the Euphrates. The new US approach is based on thwarting the Russian-Iranian project in Syria and foiling ISIS attempts to return after toppling its “caliphate” in Raqqah. Luckily for us in the region, decision-makers in Washington have finally realized the danger of the new transformations in Syria. They also oppose what Iran is doing in Iraq.Even if the situation there does not escalate to the extent of a military confrontation, adopting a hostile policy is enough to raise the cost of war for the Iranian regime and make its ability to control the region an unlikely option at the moment.

EU Quietly Turning the Heat on Iran
London - Amir Taheri/Asharq Al Awsat/January 23/18
Last month when US President Donald Trump called for a renegotiation of the so-called Iran nuclear deal, Tehran, the European Union, Russia and China responded with a chorus of “No! No!” and dismissed Trump’s move as “totally unacceptable.” Trump, however, set the clock ticking by fixing a 120-day delay in which those involved in the “nuke deal” should come up with a clear agenda for renegotiation.  With the clock ticking, the thunderous “no! no!” became a sotto voce “well, maybe!”Last week, EU Commissioner Johannes Hahn surprised everyone by announcing that the Commission, in consultation with Britain, France and Germany, is “closely studying President Trump’s statement and its consequences.”
More importantly, Hahn revealed that the EU had raised the issue of fresh negotiation during a brief visit to Brussels by Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif. Special focus on projected talks would be on “Tensions in the Middle East, Iran’s ballistic missiles projects and end of the year the mass protests in Iran.”It is significant that the EU’s nuanced response to Trump’s statement has come from Commissioner Hahn and not the union’s official foreign policy spokesperson Ms. Federica Mogherini, who is regarded as a passionate advocate of the Islamic Republic. The impression that the EU is moving towards Trump’s position, at least half-way, was reinforced when, according to the Financial Times, German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel telephoned US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to signal the EU’s readiness to engage Iran in talks on Tehran’s missile projects and regional ambitions. Gabriel went further to claim that Iran had expressed its readiness for new talks during Zarif’s visit to Brussels.
Though Iran denied those reports, it did not call in the German Ambassador to Tehran for “explanations”, a routine move in the diplomatic sphere. The reports were given additional weight when the German Foreign Ministry refused to deny them. “The world has three months in which to find a compromise,” says Farid Vashani, an analyst of Iran’s foreign relations. “Trump has said this may be the last time he signs a waiver on the Iran nuclear deal. He could, of course, do a Frank Sinatra and have another last time in three months’ time. But that is unlikely. The Europeans, Russia and China will have to give him something not to throw the whole thing out of the window.”
But, what could the EU, and others, give Trump?
The first item would be the reassertion for the fact that the “deal”, known as the Comprehensive Joint Plan of Action (CJPOA) is an implicit verbal understanding with no legal basis and thus capable of countless reinterpretations. This was pointed out in some detail in an editorial published by the Tehran daily Vatan-e-Emruz. “The totality of sanctions the US has accepted to suspend represents a small portion of sanctions imposed on Iran by the US Congress and presidential decrees,” the paper said. “At the same time there is no commitment not to impose new sanctions.”
Thus the second item on list of concessions that he EU, Russia and China could give to stop Trump from denouncing the CJPOA is to impose new sanctions on Iran related to issues not directly linked to the nuclear project. According to reports broadcast by Manoto, a popular Iranian satellite TV channel, the EU has already decided to ban all flights by Mahan Air, Iran’s second biggest carrier by next March. Mahan Air is charged with transporting thousands of Afghan and Pakistani “volunteers for martyrdom” from Iran to fight in Syria. This violates the International Air Transport Agency (IATA) protocols under which civilian aircraft cannot be sued for military purposes. An end to Mahan Air flights would reduce Iran’s capacity to ferry troops and mercenaries to Syria and to ship arms to the Lebanese branch of “Hezbollah”.
Despite Ms. Mogherini’s lyrical praise of the Islamic Republic, the EU is coming up with other measures against Iran.
Germany has suspended the application of export guarantee rules, known as Hermes, for trade with Iran and France has toughened its trade rules known as COFACE. Under new procedures the so-called “dual use” rule would be applied to all trade with the Islamic Republic. This is supposed to prevent Iran from obtaining know-how, materiel and equipment that could have military use. But its net effect would be to slow down deliveries to Iran and increase the cost. For its part Britain has reneged on an earlier promise to release some $500 million in Iranian frozen assets, citing “technical difficulties.”Last week, the financial control authority in Luxembourg authorized the Clear Stream an investment firm to freeze some $4.9 billion in Iran’s assets until further notice. The firm reports that some $1.9 billion of the sums involved have already been handed over to a US court for payment to families of 241 US Marines killed by “Hezbollah” in a suicide attack in Beirut in 1983.
On a broader scale the EU has all but suspended a number of contracts already signed with Iran in the form of memorandums of understanding. The largest of these is the $5 billion deal with the French oil giant TOTAL to develop an offshore Iranian gas field. The EU Commission wants to reexamine that in detail.
In Austria, the government has refused to provide guarantees for a $1 billion loan negotiated by a private Vienna bank with Iran, making sure that no transfer of money will happen in the near future. A similar deal between Tehran and a consortium of Italian banks is likely to meet the same fate.
A number of EU members have also imposed strict limits on number of visas issued to Iranian citizens for either business or pleasure. Britain has chosen a limit of 2,000 visas a month, including hundreds issued to Islamic Republic officials and their families. Greece has imposed no limit, but is under investigation for reports that its consulate in Tehran was selling Schengen visas, allowing travel to 19 EU countries, for up to $3,000 apiece.
The emerging EU strategy seems to be aimed at persuading Trump to help keep CJPOA in place, at least in name, but make its implementation conditional to a parallel set of talks aimed at stopping Iran’s missile project, ending Iran’s intervention in the Middle East and improving respect for human rights inside Iran. The time-limit fixed by Trump ends in March, which will coincide with date set for a review of the CJPOA by the foreign ministers of all the seven nations involved in it. At that time Tehran would be given the option of either accepting a new set of restrictions on its military, economic and domestic policies or bang the door and walk out in anger, something that might not displease Trump.

The U.S. and Pakistan: Time for a Divorce?
Lawrence A. Franklin/Gatestone Institute/January 23/2018
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/11769/us-pakistan-divorce
"The amount of pain that Pakistan has inflicted upon the United States in the last 12 years is unprecedented." — Amrullah Saleh, Afghanistan's former spy chief.
Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency continues to sponsor, equip, and train several terrorist organizations that directly target American troops in Afghanistan, as well as regional allies of the United States, such as India. The U.S. could direct the Department of State to place Pakistan on the list of state sponsors of terrorism.
It is long past time for the U.S. to choose what type of relationship it wants.
U.S. President Donald Trump's recent denunciation of Pakistan's "lies and deceit" is long overdue. Pakistani Foreign Minister Khawajah Asif's retort -- "We do not have any alliance" with the U.S. -- appears to administer the last rites to a relationship long battered by mistrust. Are there, however, sufficient U.S. interests served by maintaining military cooperation with Pakistan, despite the contentious relationship?
Pakistan's two-faced role in joining the U.S.-led war on terror, while at the same time giving sanctuary and assistance to terrorist groups, was apparent even before the 9/11 attack on America and continues to this day. President Trump's decision to withhold military aid may cause Pakistani intelligence agencies to be even less cooperative than they were in the past in assisting U.S. forces deployed to Afghanistan. Moreover, Pakistan's commercial, economic, and investment interests appear now more closely aligned with China.
It is also in America's interest to end its own double game of attempting to be allied with both India and Pakistan, countries that are mortal enemies; it would be wise to choose India over Pakistan. As the world's most populous democracy, India shares U.S. liberal democratic values. Its power in Asia is exceeded only by that of China, America's principal competitor in the Pacific.
The recent liberation by Pakistani troops of an American family -- kidnapped five years ago in Afghanistan by Pakistan-based terrorists -- should not be seen as a decision to cooperate more fully with the U.S.-led war on Islamic terrorism. U.S. Navy SEALs were ready to liberate the hostages in the event that Pakistan refused to do so. Reports suggest that U.S. intelligence passed to Pakistan the exact location of the hostages, making it difficult for the Pakistanis not to act. Consequently, Pakistan, as an alleged ally of the U.S., had little choice but to assist.
The terrorist group holding the hostages, the Haqqani Network, has close operational planning links to Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). These links between Pakistan and the Haqqani Network and other terrorist groups, such as Lashkar-e-Taiba, underscore the untrustworthy nature of such a professed ally. Ironically, it is arguable that America's greatest enemy in the region is not al-Qaeda, but Pakistan. Afghanistan's former spy chief, Amrullah Saleh, seems to agree. He assessed that "the amount of pain that Pakistan has inflicted upon the United States in the last 12 years is unprecedented." So why should we be surprised that Osama bin Laden's hideaway was in Abbottabad, less than a 30-minute drive from Pakistan's "West Point," the Pakistan Military Academy at Kakul?
U.S. policymakers should not have been surprised -- if they were -- at Pakistan's decision to give refuge to bin Laden. In the years prior to 9/11, Pakistan was one of only three countries to have diplomatic relations with the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. And, as host to al-Qaeda, the Taliban offered the infrastructure to support the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
U.S. policymakers should not have been surprised -- if they were -- at Pakistan's decision to give refuge to Osama bin Laden, whose hideaway (pictured) was in Abbottabad, less than a 30-minute drive from the Pakistan Military Academy at Kakul. (Photo by Getty Images)
Pakistan's ISI continues to sponsor, equip, and train several terrorist organizations that directly target American troops in Afghanistan, as well as regional allies of the United States, such as India. Groups such as the Afghan Taliban and its subsidiary, the Haqqani Network, are considered assets by the ISI to help Pakistan accomplish its goals in Afghanistan, one of which is to create enough instability to prevent its rival, India, from gaining influence there.
The Haqqani Network also continues hostile operations against the U.S. military. Other terrorist groups, such as the Pakistani-supported Lashkar-e-Taiba, too are employed by Pakistan's ISI to commit terrorist acts against Pakistan's regional archrival, India.
Pakistan does cooperate with the U.S., however, when American troops target those terrorist groups that Pakistan's ISI does not control -- those working to overthrow the Pakistani state. Most of these groups operate out of Northwest Pakistan's remote Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), regions that have never been under complete control of the central government.
Pakistan also has a poor record on controlling nuclear proliferation. As is well known, the scientist most responsible for Pakistan's development of nuclear weapons capability, Abdul Qadeer Khan, disseminated technical information that aided the nuclear programs of North Korea and Iran, both of which are long-time adversaries of the United States.
Given the critical nature of his research, Khan could not have acted so freely without protection from high-ranking Pakistani intelligence officers. It matters not whether Khan was motivated by greed or ideology; his deeds dealt a severe blow to the U.S. effort to keep nuclear weapons knowledge from the world's rogue nations, such as Iran and North Korea.
Pakistan is not a democracy, despite its current regularly-scheduled elections. It remains a violent, intolerant society in which religious minorities, such as Shia Muslims and Christians, are under constant threat of persecution. In fact, not a week goes by without a massacre of minorities in some part of the country. There is little doubt, then, that Pakistan is more enemy than ally, and acts more like a rogue state than a responsible member of the family of nations.
So why does the U.S. continue to have normal relations with Pakistan? To what end does the U.S. continue its military cooperation? What U.S. national security interest does this cooperation serve?
In part, the military alliance continues as a Cold War relic; Pakistan once served as a bulwark against Soviet expansionist policies in South Asia. For instance, during the Soviet Union's occupation of Afghanistan (1980-1988), Pakistan served as a staging and training area for anti-Soviet fighters from all over the world. Despite the implosion of the Soviet Union, this military-to-military relationship endures.
It is not, however, in the U.S.'s interest for Pakistan to dissolve as a nation-state no longer sovereign in its territorial space. This would invite Islamic terrorists throughout the world to flock to a newly failed and ungoverned region, jam-packed with nuclear weapons. Nor would such a scenario be in the interest of India, which could become the principal target of a collapsed Pakistan. The collapse of nuclear Pakistan would require action by outside powers, probably including the U.S., to interdict any possible efforts by terrorist groups to seize its nuclear weapons.
Finally, as long as the United States and its allies have troops deployed to Afghanistan, it is prudent to paper over existing tensions. Pakistan and Afghanistan share an approximately 2500-kilometer border, etched with mountainous topography and remote passes that can facilitate terrorist infiltration. Without Pakistan's present limited cooperation, however, American troop casualties in Afghanistan could rise sharply. Pakistan might entirely end its already less-than-ideal assistance to the war effort in Afghanistan.
Several policy initiatives might motivate Pakistan to cooperate more fully in the U.S.-led war on Islamic terrorism. The U.S. could cease all military aid for an extended period. The U.S. could direct the Department of State to place Pakistan on the list of state sponsors of terrorism. The U.S. could use its influence with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank to deny Pakistan loans. The U.S. could cut off all economic assistance. The U.S. could declassify intelligence reports revealing Pakistan's ties to terrorist groups. Such moves would certainly inconvenience the Pakistani leadership. Finally, the U.S. could threaten to support internal separatist movements, such as the ethnic Baloch desire for independence in Pakistan's western province of Balochistan. It is long past time for the U.S. to choose what type of relationship it wants.
**Dr. Lawrence A. Franklin was the Iran Desk Officer for Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld. He also served on active duty with the U.S. Army and as a Colonel in the Air Force Reserve.
© 2018 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.

Prison in France: Terrorism and Islamism
Yves Mamou/Gatestone Institute/January 23/2018
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/11787/france-prison-islam-terrorism
Like its police and the firefighters, France's prison guards say they live in a permanent climate of violence and fear. And their exasperation is growing.
"Before, every morning, I was afraid to discover a guy hanging in his cell. You know what I'm dreading today? To be slaughtered, stripped, stabbed in the back. In the name of Islam and ISIS. Every day, on my way to work, this fear gnaws at my belly." — 'Bernard,' a French prison guard.
"In the old days, aggressive behavior was linked to the difficulties of everyday life. Now hatred and violence are unleashed [by Islamists] against [our] authority, our society and its values." — Joaquim Pueyo, MP, former director of Fleury-Mérogis prison.
Instead of understanding that the famous deradicalization centers have not been useful because deradicalization did not take place, France's policymakers persist in thinking that the solution to the Islamist war is appeasement. Their new experiments all go in the same direction: pursuing the fantasy that "if we are nice with jihadists, they will be nice to us."
French prison guards are on strike. In a period of less than 10 days, a number of guards in various prisons were attacked and wounded, mainly by Islamists incarcerated for terrorist offenses or petty criminals apparently on their way to becoming radical Islamists. In reaction, the guards have blocked the normal functioning of the majority of prisons.
The wave of attacks began on January 11, 2018. Three guards of Vendin-le-Vieil's prison, in the north of France, were lightly wounded in a knife attack committed by the Christian Gantzarski, a German convert to Islam who joined Al Qaeda and masterminded the bombing of a synagogue in Djerba, Tunisia, in 2002.
On January 15, 2018, seven guards were attacked and injured by a "radicalized" inmate at Mont-de-Marsan prison, in the south of France.
France's Mont-de-Marsan prison. (Image source: Jibi44/Wikimedia Commons)
On January 16, a guard at Grenoble-Varces prison almost lost an eye in an attack. Before entering a cell, he looked through the eye-hole in the door, when suddenly an inmate tried to put out his eye by jabbing a pencil through the eye-hole. Luckily, the guard was not injured.
On the same day, a 28-year-old inmate at the Tarascon prison punched a female supervisor in the face. Imprisoned for robbery, this detainee was suspected of being an Islamist undergoing radicalization.
On January 17, a guard at Grenoble-Varces prison was assaulted by an inmate who wanted to go to the prison infirmary without a doctor's appointment. Press reports did not mention if he were an Islamist or not.
On January 19, two guards were attacked by four Islamist inmates at the Borgo jail in Corsica, a French island in the Mediterranean Sea. The guards were taken to hospital in serious condition. According to the prosecutor, "It is not possible to say that it is an Islamist terrorist attack."
On January 21, two guards -- a man and a woman -- at Longuenesse Penitentiary in northern France, were severely beaten by an inmate armed with an iron bar. They were later hospitalized.
On January 21, a total of 123 inmates of Fleury-Mérogis prison, in a suburb of Paris, refused to return to their cells at the end of exercise period. Intervention teams were called in to prevent a riot.
On January 22, guards at Craquelin Penitentiary in Chateauroux (central France), disarmed an inmate shouting "Allahu Akbar" ("Allah is the Greatest") while threatening others with a knife. Before the guards managed to secure him, he managed to throw a chair at the security officers, slightly wounding one of them.
On January 22, according to the Ministry of justice, 27 prisons were totally blocked by guards on strike. According to the unions, between 120 and 130 prisons, out of a total of 188, were half- or totally paralyzed. Also according to the unions, a majority of the 28,000 guards on strike say they will not end the strike until the government provides sufficient resources to ensure their security.
Like its police and the firefighters, France's prison guards say they live in a permanent climate of violence and fear. And their exasperation is growing. 'Bernard,' a prison guard who requested anonymity, says:
"Before, every morning, I was afraid to discover a guy hanging in his cell. You know what I'm dreading today? To be slaughtered, stripped, stabbed in the back. In the name of Islam and ISIS. Every day, while I am on my way to work, this fear gnaws at my belly"
"What the guards are communicating is their feeling of abandonment," writes Le Monde.
Punches in the face, sprains, dislocations: Anthony, a supervisor at the Baumettes prison in Marseille, claims to have suffered four physical attacks in the last three years. Each time, he filed complaints, but all of them, were classified by the prosecutor. "We are asking for manpower, that is true," he said, "but also for judges to do their jobs because physical violence is becoming more and more common."
Terrorism and Islamism have changed the story of prison. According to Joaquim Pueyo, former director of Fleury-Mérogis prison, today a Member of Parliament, the situation is very simple:
"In the old days, aggressive behavior was linked to the difficulties of everyday life. Now, hatred and violence are unleashed [by Islamists] against [our] authority, our society and its values. [It is] not a surprise that guards, who are confronted with inmates' radicalization, become targets".
According official statistics of the Ministry of Justice, on December 1, 2017, slightly fewer than 80,000 people were in jail and prison in France. How many Muslim inmates are there in France? It is difficult to know, because the law prohibits any data based on race, religion or origin. In 2015, an official report from a Member of Senate, Jean-René Lecerf, quoted a study saying that in four of the biggest French prisons, more 50% of prisoners are Muslims. According the Ministry of Justice, 500 Muslims are currently in prison for terrorism and another 1,200 are common criminals that are being tracked as radical Islamists.
The prison guards' strike reveals much about the consequences of inadequate policies that have been pursued so far in criminal and prison matters. Guards are no longer willing to tolerate the violence and risk of death at the hands of Islamists and other radicals who threaten their lives in prisons.
Instead of considering that Islamism has apparently fundamentally changed the issue of criminal policy, the Ministry of Justice appears to continue thinking that the major problems are prison overcrowding and poor prison conditions.
Of course, problems of overcrowding and poor prison conditions are important. But administrative inertia, combined with the permanent political denial that Islamists are at war with France, make the politicians and civil servants blind to the disruptive character of Islamism in prison.
Instead of rethinking all prison policies from the position of Islamist risk -- the risk of guards being murdered, and the risk of Muslim inmates, who are the majority of 70,000 prisoners, being transformed into authentic jihadists -- the government tries to buy peace from the guards with a few salary increases and "experiments" to make Islamists "reintegrate" into a "normal life" in "normal society".
Instead of understanding that the famous deradicalization centers -- often converted medieval castles -- have not been useful because deradicalization did not take place, France's policymakers persist in thinking that the solution to the Islamist war is appeasement. Their new experiments all go in the same direction: pursuing the fantasy that "if we are nice with jihadists, they will be nice to us."
The situation is deadlocked because of a refusal to formulate the problem on factual basis. As long as policymakers do not consider Islamism as the number one problem -- the problem for which prison policy overall must be rethought -- France's prison guards will continue to pay with their suffering, and one day with their lives.
After the prison guards, it will be us. By the end 2020, 60% of convicted jihadists will be released -- that is, in less than three years.
**Yves Mamou, author and journalist, based in France, worked for two decades as a journalist for Le Monde. He is completing a book, "Collaborators and Useful Idiots of Islamism in France," to be published in 2018.
© 2018 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.

The American Stake in the Czech Elections
Jiri Valenta/Gatestone Institute/January 23/2018
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/11786/czech-elections-us-interests
Czech President Milos Zeman adamantly refuses to obey the European Union immigration quotas, even in the face of EU lawsuits.
As for the widely bruited charge that he is pro-Russian: In 1968, this writer, a former classmate of Zeman's in the Prague School of Economics, together defended the Prague reforms before hostile academic audiences in Leningrad and Moscow just weeks before the Soviet invasion. Expelled from the Communist Party, for his opposition to the Soviets, Zeman was also thrice in two decades fired from his job. In contrast, his opponent in the run-off, Jiri Drahos, repeatedly traveled to West under the watchful supervision of the Czech secret police.
Zeman's defeat would deprive Europe of a powerful voice against anti-Semitism and Islamo-fascism. Drahos, an inexperienced leader, is more likely to be malleable to Brussels's demands on accepting quotas on Muslim immigration. The result of the Czech vote will reverberate through Europe. Consequently, Zeman's reelection is in America's national interest.
The significance of the upcoming run-off of the presidential election in Czech Republic is largely underestimated in Washington. But its prevalent view of it as a not too significant event in a small European country is dead wrong.
Contenders include the sitting President, outspoken and politically incorrect Milos Zeman, who garnered 39% of the vote in the first of a two-phase election. His rival is chemist Jiri Drahos, the correct, low key, former president of the Czech Academy of Sciences, who won 27%. A tight race is expected in the January 26-27 vote.
Pictured: Czech President Milos Zeman (left) and Jiri Drahos (right), the two contenders in the January 26-27 run-off vote for the Czech Republic presidency. (Image source: Zeman, OISV/Wikimedia Commons; Drahos, Jindřich Nosek/Wikimedia Commons)
In America, Zeman's foes are led by former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, together with President Barack Obama's State Department holdovers. They yearn for Zeman's defeat at they do for the downfall of President Donald Trump, whom Zeman in some ways resembles.
As with Trump, one of key issues is whether Zeman is pro-Russian as maintained by his foes in U.S and Czech media. Yet even more crucial is Zeman's hard line on Muslim immigration. He adamantly refuses to obey the European Union immigration quotas, even in the face of EU lawsuits.
A bit of Czech history is in order here. Curiously, the Prague events in last century on dates ending in the number 8, have often witnessed developments with major implications. In 1918, the founding of democratic Czechoslovakia by exiled Czech politician Tomas Masaryk intensified the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian empire. In 1938, British and French appeasement of Adolf Hitler at Munich and the Nazi occupation of the Czech Sudetenland adumbrated the outbreak of World War II a year later. In 1948 a Communist coup in still democratic Prague was a key impetus for the creation of NATO a year later.
In 1968 the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia aimed at quelling the infectious Prague Spring, became in the words of my mentor, Josef Korbel (Madeleine Albright's father), "the inextinguishable spark" for future democratic revolutions. That happened in 1989 as playwright Vaclav Havel, "an outstanding dissident," in Zeman's words, became president of a new, democratic Czech Republic.
This is 2018. Is change again in the wind? Hungary's prime minister, Viktor Orbán, opposing Brussels' dictates along with Zeman, thinks so:
"Europeans have a clear will. They don't want to live under the threat of terrorism, they want their borders to be protected ... I believe 2018 will be the year of the restoration of the will of the people of Europe."
As for the widely bruited charge that he is pro-Russian: In 1968, this writer, a former classmate of Zeman's in the Prague School of Economics, together defended the Prague reforms before hostile academic audiences in Leningrad and Moscow just weeks before the Soviet invasion. Expelled from the Communist Party, for his opposition to the Soviets, Zeman was also thrice in two decades fired from his job. In contrast, his opponent in the run-off, Drahos, repeatedly traveled to West under the watchful supervision of the Czech secret police.
Thus, it is comical and disturbing to see the mainstream media cast the Zeman-Drahos struggle as a choice of whether Prague will "lean east or west." A January 14 The New York Times article even cited a political observer's Kafkaesque absurdity that if Zeman is reelected he'll be "flying a Russian flag from Prague Castle."
While Havel used to belittle the concept of national interest, Zeman, an economist, favors good relations with Russia because geo-economics requires this. The Czech Republic still depends on the Kremlin's energy resources and trade, leading Zeman to remain neutral in the Russo-Ukrainian conflict. Yet, he is serious about fulfilling the required Czech contribution to NATO.
Zeman has been vehement in his support of Israel. He compared Arafat to Hitler for supporting terrorism. He launched yearly meetings of the Israeli and Czech cabinets. He supported Trump's decision to move the U.S.to Jerusalem. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu singled him out as "the best friend Israel has in Europe."
Zeman's defeat would deprive Europe of a powerful voice against anti-Semitism and Islamo-fascism. Drahos, an inexperienced leader, is more likely to be malleable to Brussels's demands on accepting quotas on Muslim immigration. The result of the Czech vote will reverberate through Europe.
Consequently, Zeman's reelection is in America's national interest.
*Jiri Valenta is a nonresident senior fellow at the BESA Center for Strategic Studies at Bar Ilan University, Israel and author of "Soviet Intervention in Czechoslovakia, 1968" (Johns Hopkins, 1990).
© 2018 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.