LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
July 10/2018
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani

 

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Bible Quotations
Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself
Luke 24/36-48: "/"While they were talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, ‘Peace be with you.’They were startled and terrified, and thought that they were seeing a ghost. He said to them, ‘Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.’ And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering, he said to them, ‘Have you anything here to eat?’They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate in their presence. Then he said to them, ‘These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.’Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures,and he said to them, ‘Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things."

Titles For The Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on July 09-10/18
The Vatican, Bkirki, and the “Mearab Agreement”/Elie Aoun/July 10/18
Changes at US National Security Council as Bolton shuffles Middle East staff/Joyce Karam/The National/July 09/2018
Syria launches anti-rebel operation in Quneitra ahead of Putin-Netanyahu meeting/DEBKAfile/July 09/18
Syria Strike: On Eve of Moscow Meeting, Netanyahu Sends Putin Strategic Message/Amos Harel/Haaretz/July 09/18
Opinion:  From Nixon to Trump, America Has Always Backed a Nuclear Israel. This Is Why/Dan Sagir/Haaretz/July 09/18
Is Islam "Exceptional"/A. Z. Mohamed/Gatestone Institute/July 09/18
US Immigration Debate’s Ugliness is Nothing New/Stephen Mihm/Bloomberg/July 09/18
World Cup Generals and Not a Drop of Blood Spilled/Ghassan Charbel/Asharq Al Awsat/July 09/18
UK Parliament: Little Interest in Grooming Gangs/Andrew Jones/Gatestone Institute/July 09/18
Institutionalizing ‘fatwas’ and controlling them/Hassan Al Mustafa/Al arabiya/July 09/18
Modern states are those designed for the citizen/Mohammed Al Shaikh/Al arabiya/July 09/18
Présence chrétienne ou présence du Christ/Antoine COURBAN/ OLJ//July 09/18


Titles For The Latest LCCC Lebanese Related News published on July 09-10/18
'Human Trafficking' from Lebanon to Syria a Thriving Business
Lebanon Sees Increased Numbers of European Tourists against Low Gulf Turnout
Hezbollah accused of training, providing equipment to Houthi militia in Yemen
Kaag Meets Aoun, Says Lebanon Can Play Key Role in Region, Syria
Hariri, Kaag Talks Focus on CEDRE Conference Follow-Up
FPM Says Maarab Agreement a ‘Thing of the Past’
Geagea: Maarab Agreement Has not Fallen
Jumblat Says Power Ships to Blame for Deficit, Not Refugees
Mashnouq: Hariri Won’t Allow anyone Encroach on Premier's Powers
Berri Warns Situation Is "More Than Bad"
Former MP Fares Souaid Calls on President Aoun to Step Down 'Before It's Too Late'
Housing Corporation Announces Indefinite Suspension of Loans
Sayegh Calls for Broad National Alliance to Rescue Country
National Geophysical Center Refutes 'Destructive Earthquake' Rumors
The Vatican, Bkirki, and the “Mearab Agreement”

 
Titles For The Latest LCCC Bulletin For Miscellaneous Reports And News published on July 09-10/18
Changes at US National Security Council as Bolton shuffles Middle East staff/
Netanyahu to Discuss with Putin Preventing Syria Regime Forces from Entering Quneitra
Iranians Killed in Air Strikes on Syrian Base
Syria Says Israeli Strikes Target Air Base
Syrian army besiege rebel enclave in southern city of Daraa
Syria launches anti-rebel operation in Quneitra ahead of Putin-Netanyahu meeting
Egypt: Trial of 16 Accused in ‘Foreign Funding’ of Human Rights Organizations Gets Deferred
Israeli Spy Informed Iran of Barak, Olmert, Gantz Security Detail
British Police Scramble to Solve Mystery of Nerve Agent Death
Netanyahu to Discuss with Putin Preventing Syria Regime Forces from Entering Quneitra
British foreign secretary quits in protest over May’s Brexit plan
Eight of 13 young footballers rescued from Thai cave so far
British woman exposed to Novichok nerve agent dies
Hamas Prefers Egyptian Sponsorship for any Deal with Israel
New Iraqi Sunni Alliance Confuses Political Scene
Erdogan Takes on Greater Powers in Turkey's New Era

The Latest LCCC Lebanese Related News published on July 09-10/18
'Human Trafficking' from Lebanon to Syria a Thriving Business
Beirut - Sanaa Al-Jack/Asharq Al Awsat/July 09/18/Human trafficking is currently spread at the Lebanese-Syrian borders as a thriving business due to the presence of some Syrian refugees who wish to return to their country without paying imposed fines. Asharq Al-Awsat witnessed how a group of brokers managed the smuggling of Syrian refugees from a travel agency near the vegetable market in the Sabra area in the Southern Suburbs of Beirut. Those brokers, who operate at “administrative” offices, hunt their clients and bargain their safe and secure penetration through the borders, prettifying the adventure, which in many times could cause their killing. Most clients include Syrian refugees with uncompleted Lebanese residency permits. The Lebanese Security General does not allow them to leave the country before paying fees related to arranging their
papers.Here comes the role of the smuggling. Amal told Asharq Al-Awsat about her experience with one of the brokers responsible for smuggling Syrians. The broker had promised her husband, who works in the construction sector, to secure his safe passage by car through the border to his village in the countryside of Hama in return of $400. The man paid the sum and left with his wife to the Masnaa border crossing in the Bekaa where they spent the night and were asked to remain in complete silence. The brokers had told Amal that crossing the mountains from Lebanon to Syria would take one hour and that a vehicle would wait for them in the Syrian part of the border to take them home. “They lied. We stayed running for more than eight hours in the dark. I lost my shoes and my feet were bleeding,” she said. Even during the periods of tight security measures implemented at the borders by the Lebanese authorities, the illegal smuggling of Syrians does not stop, but only witnesses an increase of fees. A security official told Asharq Al-Awsat that the trafficking of humans and goods is almost as old as the age of the borders between the two countries. “We are exerting all our efforts to contain the smuggling but such mission remains impossible at the eastern borders with Syria which stretches around 145 kilometers,” the official said.

Lebanon Sees Increased Numbers of European Tourists against Low Gulf Turnout

Beirut - Paula Astih/Asharq Al Awsat/July 09/18/With the start of the tourism season in Lebanon, a rise in the number of European tourists was registered against a decline in the number of Gulf visitors, who seem to be waiting for a decision by their countries to lift the ban on travelling to Lebanon, which is apparently linked to the formation of a new government. Cultural and musical festivals in various Lebanese regions kicked off last month and would intensify in July - a key factor that attracts European and American tourists – knowing that the number of festivals has diminished this year and may not reach more than a hundred, according to Tourism Minister in the caretaker government Avedis Guidanian. Despite the presence of some Gulf tourists, who can be mainly seen in Beirut, Guidanian points out that the number of those are still limited and has declined by 30-40 percent compared to last year. Those, who came to Lebanon this year, have ignored travel warnings issued by Gulf countries, according to the minister. “We can see a very positive development in the number of Gulf tourists if the ban is lifted, which might happen after the formation of the government, as ambassadors of the Gulf States told us,” Guidanian noted. “In contrast, we have been able to monitor an increase in the number of European tourists, especially French, Germans and English, in addition to a big rise in the number of Brazilian tourists, which increased by 50 percent compared to last year. We have also recorded an increase in the number of Canadians and Americans,” he added. Over the past two years, the Ministry of Tourism has adopted a new strategy based on four main axes: promoting Lebanon as a tourist destination and marketing it to foreign tour operators; making Lebanon a regional and international conference and business center in cooperation with regional and international tourism companies; encouraging Lebanese expatriates to visit Lebanon; establishing digital tools to keep pace with tourism development with a focus on finding cooperation between various tourism institutions and securing sites dedicated to recreational and commercial tourism.
 
Hezbollah accused of training, providing equipment to Houthi militia in Yemen
Arab News/July 09/18/Houthis militias suffered heavy losses during the Yemeni army operation
Yemeni forces are in the process of combing through the liberated areas to secure them
RIYADH: Arab Coalition spokesman Colonel Turki Al-Maliki said in a press conference on Monday that the coalition recently destroyed a Houthi communications system that had been provided to them by Hezbollah. Al-Maliki said coalition forces destroyed targets in five locations, in the mountains of Musbah, Maran, Razah, Al-Maqal and Al-Noa. Al-Maliki said the coalition also had evidence to suggest "foreign experts" had been carrying out training operations in caves with the Iranian-backed Houthis. He also said the coalition had evidence suggesting Hezbollah had been training elements of the Houthi militia. Al-Maliki reiterated the fact that relief efforts inside Yemen continue after continued efforts by Houthis to prevent humanitarian aid reaching different cities and governorates of Yemen. The Saudi press agency also reported on Monday Yemen’s National Army took control of a vital road in western province of Taiz, south-west of Yemen. “Units of the brigade took control of the road leading to the area of Waza’iyah west of Taiz across the Wadi Al-Aqah area after a successful military operation,” Field commander of Bab Al-Mandab Abu Osama Al-Salhi said, adding that Houthis militias suffered heavy losses. He said in a statement, quoted by the official Yemeni news agency, that the army forces on the fronts launched an attack on militias positions on the road and were able to liberate the sites in which they were stationed. He pointed out that forces were in the process of combing through the liberated areas to secure them.

Kaag Meets Aoun, Says Lebanon Can Play Key Role in Region, Syria
Naharnet/July 09/18/Dutch Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation Sigrid Kaag held talks Monday in Baabda with President Michel Aoun and noted that Lebanon can play a key role in the region and in Syria's rebuilding process. Kaag served as the U.N. special coordinator for Lebanon from January 2015 until October 2017. The Dutch official congratulated Lebanon on the success of the parliamentary elections and the looming formation of a new government, noting that her country wants to boost cooperation with Lebanon in several fields, especially in the economic and agricultural sectors. Aoun for his part told Kaag that the new government will give special care to the economy and will “continue the campaign against corruption.” He also welcomed any cooperation between Lebanon and the Netherlands in all fields, thanking Amsterdam for its participation in international Lebanon support conferences.

Hariri, Kaag Talks Focus on CEDRE Conference Follow-Up

Naharnet/July 09/18/Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri received on Monday at the Center House the Dutch Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation Sigrid Kaag, Hairir’s press office said. After the meeting Kaag said: “I started a round of meetings. We are talking about the follow up to the CEDRE conference. The Netherlands has contributed with 200 million euro of grants with a 100 million euro to follow the reforms the new government will undertake.”Kaag stressed “keenness to explore areas in terms of logistics, investment in agriculture but particularly production in line with the technology that the Netherlands has to offer and continue our assistance to Lebanon’s generous hosting of the Syrian refugees through our assistance programs to the UN. “We had very good discussions starting this morning with president Aoun, Speaker Berri and now Prime Minister Hariri and I look forward to a very fruitful visit,” she added. “The Netherlands is a friend of Lebanon and we look forward to strengthen this partnership even more than before, “she concluded.

FPM Says Maarab Agreement a ‘Thing of the Past’

Naharnet/July 09/18/The Free Patriotic Movement mourned the Maarab Agreement with the Lebanese Forces on Monday assuring that the agreement is a “thing of the past.”“Maarab Agreement has become a thing of the past that we won't return to. We can interact with the LF in the government and according to clear standards, but maybe a new and clearer agreement would be reached,” added the source on condition of anonymity.“In principle, we can not deny the representation of anyone. But the basics of Cabinet formation must be respected mainly the sizes (of parliamentary blocs), the outcome of the elections must be respected,” he added. Meanwhile, LF chief Samir Geagea assured that the agreement with the FPM “has not fallen.”The FPM-LF relations have been strained over Cabinet shares. The LF insists on allocating five ministerial seats in addition to the deputy Prime Minister post which the FPM categorically rejects. The LF leaked the highly confidential agreement to the media in recent days amid bickering with the FPM over the share that each of them should get in the new government.

Geagea: Maarab Agreement Has not Fallen
Naharnet/July 09/18/Despite political bickering between the Lebanese Forces and Free Patriotic Movement over Cabinet shares that has eventually shaken a landmark agreement between the two, LF chief Samir Geagea stressed that his party “adheres” to the agreement and will do everything that can be done to save it, An Nahar daily reported on Monday. “I do not agree with the fall of Maarab agreement although I sense the enormity of what happened in the last four days. It is very unfortunate and reflected negatively not only on the Christian situation, but also on the country which needs efforts be put together instead of dispersing them,” Geagea told An Nahar. The LF leader assured that he will exert all efforts needed to “rearrange” things for the country’s interest. “It is unfortunate. I will exert all my efforts in order to rearrange things as soon as possible because the public interest requires that. But I have two or three remarks to make,” he added. The FPM-LF relations have been strained over Cabinet shares. The LF insists on allocating five ministerial seats in addition to the deputy Prime Minister post which the FPM categorically rejects. The LF leaked the highly confidential agreement to the media in recent days amid bickering with the FPM over the share that each of them should get in the new government. To a question on whether the agreement could be restored, he said: “We are frankly trying each day because we adhere to that agreement and we are ready to discuss each point. We have received some positive indicators from Minister Jebran Bassil’s end, we hope it is translated into action.”

Jumblat Says Power Ships to Blame for Deficit, Not Refugees
Naharnet/July 09/18/Progressive Socialist Party chief Walid Jumblat stressed Monday that the Turkish power ships are “the main reason behind the budget deficit” and not the presence of Syrian refugees. “Enough with the underestimation of people's intelligence by saying that the Lebanese economy could collapse due to the presence of the homeless Syrians,” Jumblat tweeted. “Stop that cheap racist campaign. As if the collapse is needed in order to weaken Lebanon, impoverish it and keep it vulnerable without any immunity after Daraa was handed over to the (Syrian) regime,” he added. “Put an end to the Turkish (power) ships, which are the main reason behind the budget deficit,” Jumblat went on to say.

Mashnouq: Hariri Won’t Allow anyone Encroach on Premier's Powers

Naharnet/July 09/18/Caretaker Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq stressed on Monday that Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri insists on forming a national unity government representing all political factions. After holding talks with Grand Mufti of the Republic in Dar al-Fatwa, Mashnouq stressed that “Hariri will not allow any encroachment on his jurisdictions.” By law, the Premier assumes the negotiations for the formation of the government with parliament. The Free Patriotic Movement rejects the allocation of certain ministerial portfolios for the Lebanese Forces. On the Syrian refugees crisis and their return home, Mashnouq said: “No disagreement on the voluntary return of refugees, and the state is taking its role in that regard” On Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah's remarks about the refugees, Mashnouq said “the international community only recognizes the State.” Nasrallah had earlier said the party “will “prepare lists in cooperation with Lebanon's security agencies and Damascus to return the biggest number of refugees seeking a safe and voluntary return.”His remarks were criticized by many political parties who assured that the State is the side entitled to make such negotiations.

Berri Warns Situation Is "More Than Bad"
Kataeb.org/Monday 09th July 2018/Speaker Nabih Berri warned that the economic situation is Lebanon is bad, saying that things cannot go on as they are today. "The situation is bad, and even more than bad. It must be confronted with anything that it may be required. It is unacceptable to evade responsibility. I say that to everyone without exception," Al-Joumhouria newspaper quoted Berri as telling his visitors. "The government must be swiftly formed," he stressed. Berri said that he would call for a Parliament session to elect new members of parliamentary committees should the government formation stalemate linger on, adding that the legislature's structure must be completed as it must not remain inactive. "If needed, I will also call for a session to discuss the current situation given that its negative repercussions are affecting all the segments of the Lebanese society," he said.

Former MP Fares Souaid Calls on President Aoun to Step Down 'Before It's Too Late'
Kataeb.org/Monday 09th July 2018/Days after he posted a tweet calling on President Michel Aoun to step down, former MP Fares Souaid stressed that the country's top post has become insignificant, adding that the head of state is not the actual decision-maker in Lebanon.
"If Hezbollah was so strong that it claims having liberated the land from Israel, confronting terrorism as well as protecting Lebanon by fighting in Syria, and returning Syrian refugees back to their homeland... If these were the “achievements” of Hezbollah while none was accomplished by the Lebanese state, then let Hezbollah rule,” Souaid told the Kataeb website. The ex-lawmaker said that all of the state institutions are working for Hezbollah, holding the Lebanese responsible for the party's practices and actions. “As a citizen, if I want know what my country’s fate will be in the future, then I have to wait for Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah to hear what he will say about the latest developments." “With all due respect, I call President Michel Aoun to resign. If he does so now, he will still be regarded as the powerful Michel Aoun. Otherwise, if he chooses to wait for the state to be totally eroded, then he will come out with a tarnished image,” he added. “I advise him to leave before it is too late. The State today is like the Titanic ship: whoever jumps off it will survive,” Souaid concluded.

Housing Corporation Announces Indefinite Suspension of Loans

Kataeb.org/Monday 09th July 2018/Lebanon's Public Corporation for Housing (PCH) announced on Sunday that no housing loans applications will be accepted starting July 9."Knowing that banks are facing difficulties in approving all housing loans applications which meet all the conditions stipulated by the agreement protocol between the Corporation and the Banks Association, no applications will be accepted starting Monday, July 9, 2018, until further notice," read a statement issued by Rony Lahoud, director general of the PCH. A few months ago, the Public Corporation for Housing and the Housing Bank stopped processing new applications for subsidized loans due to lack of cash. The Central Bank usually provides funds that allow banks to offer very low interest mortgages to low-income and first-time homebuyers.Private banks are now offering housing loans with an interest rate of around 6 to 7 percent on loans in U.S. dollar, compared to 3 percent for subsidized loans.
 
Sayegh Calls for Broad National Alliance to Rescue Country
Kataeb.org/Monday 09th July 2018/Kataeb's Deputy-President Salim Sayegh on Monday stressed the need for a permanent rapprochement between political factions, saying that any agreement must favor the nation's interest over all else. "There is no problem in having reconciliation agreements based on mutual interests that are linked to public welfare. However, the problem with the Maarab agreement lies in the fact that it prioritized personal interests while overlooking the nation's welfare," Sayegh told Al-Markazia news agency. "Political duos that are based on secret agreements have systematically destroyed Christians over the past years," he added, outlining the importance of laying the groundwork for a real and deep inter-Christian reconciliation so as to reach a common vision on how to manage the country away from partitioning. "There is a systematic abolishment of everything that was built in the country. Therefore, we want the broadest national alliance possible to be formed so as to rescue Lebanon," Sayegh said. He also stressed the need to rearrange internal balance in the country so that any possible differences would be clear, describing the current phase as one that is marred by political imbalance, lack of standards, economic stagnation as well as moral decline.
 
National Geophysical Center Refutes 'Destructive Earthquake' Rumors
Naharnet/July 09/18/Lebanon's state-run National Center for Geophysical Research (NCGR) on Monday dismissed social media rumors about an alleged “destructive earthquake” that might hit Lebanon. “Social media is circulating reports about the inevitability of the occurrence of a destructive earthquake between today and tomorrow,” the Center said in a statement. “The National Council for Scientific Research-affiliated NCGR clarifies that it has not issued a statement in this regard and emphasizes that these rumors have no scientific basis,” the Center added. “Accordingly, the Center reminds that it is impossible to predict any type of seismic fault activity,” it underlined. Several Lebanese regions were jolted Wednesday by a 4.3-magnitude earthquake whose epicenter was identified as Lake Tiberias, or the Sea of Galilee, near Syria's occupied Golan Heights.

The Vatican, Bkirki, and the “Mearab Agreement”
Elie Aoun/July 10/18
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/65916/elie-aoun-the-vatican-bkirki-and-the-mearab-agreement/
Different people have different views regarding the political friction between the Lebanese Forces (LF) and the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM). In reality, there are many true patriots on both sides. The friction is not between theses patriots, who should be wise enough not to take part in it.
Although some blame the LF while others blame the FPM regarding the “betrayal” of the “Mearab Agreement,” the blame should fall on Bkirki and the Vatican. Why?
The rapprochement between the LF and the FPM took place in conjunction with a Vatican envoy’s visit to both General Michel Aoun and LF leader Samir Geagea. Restricting Christian representations to these two political parties (as outlined in the “Mearab Agreement”) should have been evident from the time of the envoy’s visit since it is the Vatican’s historical policy to bring all politics unto itself. Vatican history proves that millions of Christians and others were slaughtered simply because they pursued a path independent of Vatican authority. When Bachir Gemayel said that he did not want a Vaticanist president, he was killed. All the Presidents that came after him were Vaticanists.
The last trip General Michel Aoun made prior to announcing his candidacy to the Presidency was to the Vatican. It was Bkirki (not the Lebanese Parliament) that selected four names as presidential candidates, and it was Saad Hariri who stated that he cannot deviate from these four names. Lebanon’s presidency was not decided by the Mearab Agreement, but by the Vatican. The Mearab Agreement was only a tool or a means to enforce Vatican dictates. What is wrong with the Vatican or Bkirki deciding the names of Christian or Lebanese leaders? Both the Vatican and Bkirki are not what they claim to be. The sooner we wake up from their deception, the better we will be.
Referring to the situation of the Church, Pope Paul VI said that “Satan’s smoke has made its way into the temple of God through some crack.” He also said: “The Church finds herself in an hour … of self-destruction”; “The Church is wounding herself.”
In Europe, the reason behind the dwindling of the number of priests, parishioners, and churches is internal Vatican policies (not Iran, Syria, or Israel). Similarly, in the Arab region, the reason behind the dwindling of Christian “presence” is Vatican policies. Iran, Syria, and Israel are only deceptions we are made to believe to make us chase the wrong “enemy” and deplete our resources in vain. The Arab region has never had 50 years of “peace” from the time of the Crusaders until the present. Why? We better believe what Pope Paul VI said, and take heed. The Vatican is infiltrated and is not on our side. So is Bkirki (which has become a “subsidiary” for the Vatican).
Furthermore, the black-robed clergy (Christian or Muslim) do not believe in a Republican form of government or a free conscience. To prove that statement, all you have to do is read their history. As a result, a viable Republican form of government does not exist in Lebanon – not because of the politicians only, but because of the clergy and secret societies that rule these politicians (who are only stooges and will be “eliminated” if they refuse to obey orders). The difference between a true patriot and a politician is that a true patriot has the courage to speak his conscience. A politician is a coward incapable of speaking the real truth.
Many problems persist in Lebanon because the truth is not publicly spoken. No one says who is responsible for the assassinations or for corruption. Not because the politicians or intelligence networks do not know the truth, but because they are unwilling or incapable of speaking it. Regardless of how many billions they steal, one thing they cannot buy is courage.
Both Geagea and Bassil are ruled by the same forces, and it is a waste of time to support one against another. They are both pursuing the same agenda. It was not one who betrayed the other. Rather, they both betrayed the true patriots within their parties’ ranks. The Vatican and Bkirki are behind all mediocrity on the Christian and Lebanese scene. The last trip Gibran Bassil had before he was “appointed” as FPM president was to the Vatican. Anyone who deciphers the “political” hand-signs of the LF and FPM knows that theses parties’ leaderships are ruled by dark forces. Being as such, there is no Christian hope in them, and all their “political rhetoric” is a diversion from the fact that they are both leading their people to self-destruction.
There is no Maronite, Sunni, Muslim or Druze “leader”. There are no leaders, only patsies enforcing the agenda of black robed clergy and secret societies. To save ourselves, we must look within and deal with the enemy in our midst. If we cannot do that, then it would be best to focus on our own personal lives and forget politics. Stop wasting your time worrying about what this politician said about that. In summary, they are all mini-whores working for the “Great Whore” (Revelation 17).
N.B: The writer of any article, analysis or document published on the LCCC site takes full responsibility for his/her own personal opinion
 
The Latest LCCC Bulletin For Miscellaneous Reports And News published on July 09-10/18
Changes at US National Security Council as Bolton shuffles Middle East staff
Three key US officials who handle regional politics are leaving their positions

Joyce Karam/Updated: July 09/2018
Three months into the job, National Security Adviser John Bolton is making changes to the staff at the National Security Council as key officials who work on the Middle East are expected to leave their positions.
The National has learned that both the senior director for Iran, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon at the White House National Security Council (NSC) Joel Rayburn, and top Middle East adviser Mike Bell are leaving imminently.
Mr Rayburn is expected to move to the State Department where he will be nominated for a high-level position dealing with the Middle East, sources said. Bob Greenway, a former defence official, will be taking over Mr Rayburn's position.
It is unclear if Mr Bell will stay in government. Among those who left is also NSC's Director for Lebanon James Sindle.
These staff members all remained from the tenure of former National Security Adviser General HR McMaster who left the position in March and will be joining the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University as a visiting fellow this September.
“We don’t comment on personnel issues,” a spokesperson at the National Security Council told The National.
Staff changes have happened routinely at the NSC throughout different administrations, especially for non-political appointees who move around government agencies.
Mr Bolton also appointed Mira Ricardel as his deputy and Fred Feitz as his new chief of staff in April.
At the State Department, Secretary Mike Pompeo is hoping to speed up nominations in key posts related to the Middle East. David Schenker is awaiting a Senate confirmation vote to be the next Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs, replacing David Satterfield.
Mr Satterfield will be nominated to be the next US ambassador to Ankara, according to Turkish media reports.
However, Phillip Kosnett, the US chargé d’affaires in Turkey, told reporters this week that “there had been lots of rumours, nothing is official until the White House makes an announcement”.
Paula Dobriansky, a former George W Bush official, was in April expected to be nominated for the position of undersecretary of state for political affairs. But no such nomination was made official yet.
There has also been no replacement for the United States Special Envoy for Syria Michael Ratney who left the position in April.
 
Netanyahu to Discuss with Putin Preventing Syria Regime Forces from Entering Quneitra
Tel Aviv – Nazir Majali/Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 9 July, 2018/Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday he will travel to Moscow later this week to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss Israel’s stance on southern Syria.
Speaking at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting, Netanyahu said Israel "will not tolerate a military deployment of Iran and its proxies in any area of Syria." "We meet from time to time to ensure security coordination and of course discuss developments in the region," he added. “At the meeting, I will reiterate the two basic principles of Israel's policy: First, we will not tolerate the establishment of a military presence by Iran and its proxies anywhere in Syria – not close to the border and not far away from it. Second, we will demand that Syria, and the Syrian military, strictly uphold the 1974 Separation of Forces Agreement,” he stressed. The agreement prevents the Syrian regime forces from being present with heavy weapons in a security belt along the border. This effectively prevents them from entering the region of Quneitra and other border regions, which are currently controlled by the opposition, sources close to Netanyahu explained. "I also maintain constant contact with the US administration. These ties with the two great powers (Russia and the US) are very important for the security of Israel, especially now," added Netanyahu. In its statement on Friday, the Israeli military said that, while not involved in Syria’s war, it would “continue to implement the 1974 Separation of Forces Agreement that includes maintaining the buffer zone.”The UN-monitored 1974 armistice bars or limits military build-ups by either side around the Golan. An Israeli cabinet minister said on Thursday that Israel could fire at any Syrian forces it deems to be violating the truce deal. According to analyses in Tel Aviv, the Syrian regime operation to take control of the areas adjacent to the ceasefire line will take several weeks and will not be as easy to control as Daraa. The regime should not escalate tensions before the end of the Russia-hosted World Cup so as not to anger Moscow.

Iranians Killed in Air Strikes on Syrian Base

Beirut - Caroline Akoum/Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 9 July, 2018/Iranian forces were killed on Sunday in airstrikes that hit the Syrian regime linked T-4 base, located between the cities of Homs and Palmyra. The regime media outlets accused Israel of launching the strike, while Tel Aviv said it does not comment on foreign reports. Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told AFP that the missile bombardment killed an unspecified number of “Iranian and pro-regime fighters” at the T-4 base and was “likely to be Israeli.”The base, where Iranian forces and Lebanese “Hezbollah” fighters are believed to be stationed, was repeatedly targeted in the past few months. However, Syria’s state-controlled SANA news agency quoted on Sunday a military source as saying that Syrian air forces intercepted an Israeli attack and downed a number of missiles which were targeting the base. It added that the air defenses hit one of the “attacking planes and forced the rest to leave” Syrian air space. In February, Israeli fighter jets hit Iranian command units stationed at the base after an Iranian unmanned aircraft violated Israeli airspace. Meanwhile, a ceasefire deal reached between regime ally Russia and opposition factions to end more than two weeks of deadly bombardment in southern Syria was violated on Sunday after both sides exchanged fire. Regime forces advanced in the area, while their warplanes killed four civilians. The air strikes on the Daraa province also postponed an opposition evacuation deal to the province of Idlib in the northwest of Syria. A hundred buses were prepared to arrive in the province to evacuate the opposition, but the operation has been postponed to a later date. Since June 19, the deadly regime bombardment campaign on the province had caused more than 320,000 people to flee their homes, according to the United Nations.

Syria Says Israeli Strikes Target Air Base
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/July 09/18/Syria on Sunday accused Israel of targeting an air base in the central Homs province, saying its defences hit a jet involved in the attack. "Our air defences are responding to an Israeli aggression and intercepting a number of missiles targeting the airport, hitting one of the attacking planes and forcing the rest to leave the airspace," the official SANA news agency quoted a military source as saying. Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told AFP that a missile bombardment killed an unspecified number of "Iranian and pro-regime fighters" at the T-4 base and was "likely to be Israeli". In addition to the Syrian army, Iranian fighters and Lebanese Hezbollah troops are also stationed at the air base, according to the Observatory. The facility has previously been targeted by repeated strikes Damascus blamed on Israel. An Israeli military spokeswoman declined to comment on the latest incident, saying: "We do not comment on reports in the foreign media". Syrian state outlets published a video of a flash in the dark sky, claiming it showed the air defences responding to the bombardment.
- Repeated incidents -Since the start of Syria's civil war in 2011, Israel has repeatedly targeted positions of the Syrian army and Lebanon's Shiite movement Hezbollah backing it inside the country. Israel usually does not claim the strikes, but has long said it will not allow Iran to establish a military presence in Syria. On April 9, missiles targeted the T-4 air base in the central province of Homs, killing up to 14 fighters, including seven Iranians. Moscow, Tehran and Damascus accused Israel of carrying out those raids. The air base was also hit on February 10, after Israel accused Iranian forces at the T-4 base of sending a drone into Israeli territory. After bombing Iranian units in Syria in retaliation, an Israeli F-16 was shot down by Syrian anti-aircraft fire. Israel then carried out what it called "large-scale" raids on Syrian air defence systems and Iranian targets, which reportedly included T-4. Israel seized a large swathe of the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 Six-Day War and later annexed it in 1981, in a move never recognised by the international community. The two countries are technically still at war. In May there was an unprecedented escalation between Israel and Iran in Syria, with the Israeli army claiming it hit dozens of Iranian military targets across the border in response to what it said were rockets fired by Iranians at the occupied Golan Heights. Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu said last month that Israel would "not tolerate the Iranian military entrenchment in Syria". "The consequences are not merely to the Iranian forces there but to the Assad regime as well," he said. Sunday's strikes coincided with regime progress, backed by Russian support, in the nearby southern province of Daraa. After a blistering military operation and a ceasefire deal with rebels, government forces are reestablishing control over the entire southern province on the border with Israel.

Syrian army besiege rebel enclave in southern city of Daraa
Reuters/Arab News/July 09/18
The return of Daraa to Bashar Assad’s complete control would deal a big psychological blow to the opposition
A surrender deal was reached on Friday between Russian officers and rebel representatives to give up Daraa city along with other towns in the southern province that borders Jordan
AMMAN: The Syrian army and allied troops on Monday laid siege to the rebel-held enclave in Daraa and were poised to gain complete control of the city where the uprising against President Bashar Assad’s rule first erupted, rebels said. Abu Shaima, a spokesman for the opposition in the southern Syrian city, said several thousand people were now encircled after the army pushed into a base west of the city without a fight. “The army and its militias have besieged Daraa completely,” the rebel spokesman said. The return of Daraa to Assad’s complete control would deal a big psychological blow to the opposition since the city came to epitomise the early peaceful protests against authoritarian rule that spread across Syria. The protests were violently crushed and paved the way for the bloody civil war. A surrender deal was reached on Friday between Russian officers and rebel representatives to give up Daraa city along with other towns in the southern province that borders Jordan in another victory for Assad and his Russian and Iranian allies. Before the deal, many towns and villages in Daraa province were forced to agree to return to state control after a major Russian aerial bombing campaign on urban centers that led to the largest displacement of civilians in the more than seven-year long conflict. As part of the deal, opposition fighters not ready to make peace with the army must first be allowed to evacuate to opposition-held areas in northern Syria before the handover of weapons and the return of state sovereignty.
“There are fighters who want to go to (opposition-held) Idlib but this was rejected after we were besieged,” said Abu Shaima, referring to a meeting held on Sunday in which he said a go-between with Syrian army had flatly rejected their demands to leave. The rebels say the deal also does not allow the army to  move into their bastions and allows for setting up local forces from ex-rebels under the oversight of Russian military police. “There is a lot of fear about the unknown fate and we do not trust the Russians or regime,” Shaima added saying remaining rebels in Daraa city were still holding their positions on its frontlines. Another opposition negotiator said another round of talks with Russian officers was planned this afternoon over the fate of the rebel-held bastion and security arrangements once it returns to state rule. “We will work with the Russians on setting up a local force from the inhabitants that will prevent the entry of the army to Daraa with Russian guarantees,” Abu Jihad, a negotiator said.

Syria launches anti-rebel operation in Quneitra ahead of Putin-Netanyahu meeting
DEBKAfile/July 09/18
The Syrian army began attacking rebel positions around Quneitra opposite Israel’s Golan border on Monday, July 9, DEBKAfile’s military sources reveal. For some hours, Syrian forces have been pounding rebel positions at Nabi Sakhar east of Quneitra with heavy tank and artillery fire as well as Golan 1000 rocket launchers. For now, the rebels hold superior fire power, but are short of manpower for holding the wider region. It is not clear whether the Syrian forces reached the Quneitra region from Daraa where fighting continues, or from the north. In communiques in the last few hours, the Syrian high command in Damascus claimed the rebels are supported by the IDF. According to the official Syrian news agency SANA, “the jihadist rebels ae currently under the protection of the Israeli Defense Forces” – although no details are offered. There is no official word from Israel.
DEBKAfile’s military sources say that the launching of the Syrian Quneitra offensive should not have come as a surprise to the Netanyahu government or the IDF since there were plenty of signs it was on the way. In Daraa, the first part of Syria’s drive to seize control of the southwest is jumping back and forth, because neither the Assad regime nor the Syrian army accept the ceasefire deal which the Russians negotiated with local rebel leaders. On Sunday, therefore, the Syrian air force renewed its strikes on rebel positions in Daraa and Syrian, Hizballah and pro-Iranian Shiite militias stand ready to go into Daraa City. This would be in repudiation of the Russian-rebel deal which restricted entry to Syrian civilian administrators. The rulers of Damascus suspect the Russians are aiming to broker the same ceasefire deal with the rebels of Queiitra. This would leave the anti-Assad fighters in place and in control of their villages, in return for surrendering their heavy and medium arms. The Syrian allegation of an Israeli air attack on the big Syrian T-4 air base Sunday night clearly pointed to its next target: the Syrian Golan town of Quneitra opposite IDF lines. The giveaway came from the content of the Syrian communique, which was framed to implicate all of Assad’s enemies in the purported attack. The Israeli jets allegedly flew in from Jordan over the US outpost at Al Tanf. By setting up this ploy four days before President Vladimir Putin receives Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in Moscow on Wednesday, Bashar Assad was giving Moscow due warning that he would play the Quneitra offensive by his own rule book not the Russians.’ It remains to be seen how the Syrian army’s Quneitra operation, launched on Monday, plays out – whether it is restricted to small skirmishes or spreads more widely.

Egypt: Trial of 16 Accused in ‘Foreign Funding’ of Human Rights Organizations Gets Deferred
Cairo - Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 9 July, 2018/Egypt’s Criminal Court deferred Monday hearing the retrial of 16 accused, including two Americans and a German national, in the case of "foreign funding" of some human rights organizations in violation of the Egyptian law. The court decided to postpone the trial until November 11. The Court of Cassation ruled in April the annul the imprisonment sentences against the accused, ranging from one year to two years, and it decided to put them on trial again before another criminal court. The Egyptian investigation authorities accused 43 defendants in the case that was opened in 2012, including 14 Egyptians and 29 from other nationalities, of receiving foreign aid worth $60 million through 68 NGOs and civil society organizations, which have been operating in Egypt without a license. Some foreign suspects in the case managed to escape after a controversial decision by the Cairo appeals court to release them and allow them to travel abroad. In June 2013, 43 foreign and Egyptian NGO workers were sentenced to prison terms ranging between one and five years and a series of international NGOs were shut down, including Freedom House and the International Center for Journalists, in relation to “Case 173 Foreign Funding”. Cairo has been facing criticism from international organizations and Western governments about the work of human rights organizations inside Egypt, especially after President Abdel Fattah el Sisi issued a decree in May 2017 regulating the work of associations in his country. A spokeswoman for the US State Department said in August 2017 that the NGO law was among the "reasons to stop paying $100 million and freezing another $195 million in aid to Cairo”.

Israeli Spy Informed Iran of Barak, Olmert, Gantz Security Detail
Tel Aviv - Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 9 July, 2018 /Despite the confidentiality of the trial of former Israeli minister Gonen Segev, who is accused of spying for Iran, leaks to the right-wing Israeli media revealed that he gave his operators in Tehran accurate information about the security detail of several former commanders. Security sources in Tel Aviv said on Sunday that in wake of these revelations, the Shin Bet service tightened security measures over a number of former senior officials. These officials included former prime minister and defense minister Ehud Barak, former prime minister Ehud Olmert, former Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon, former army chiefs of staff Benny Gantz, Gabi Ashkenazi and Dan Halutz. During the first closed hearing, which was held on Thursday, the prosecution pointed out that Segev’s defense was spreading rumors in the media that he had not undermined Israel's security. However, Segev confessed during investigations that he had provided his Iranian operators with very accurate and sensitive information concerning the security detail of these officials and others. This included their guards, means of transport and aliases used abroad. Sources said that coincidence alone prevented the assassination or abduction of one of these figures. Head of the Shin Bet Nadav Argaman met with Barak last week and warned him of an Iranian plot to assassinate him. He also informed him that a new security detail would be provided to him during his many trips abroad.

British Police Scramble to Solve Mystery of Nerve Agent Death
Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 9 July, 2018/British police were scrambling on Monday to solve the mystery surrounding the death of a woman following her exposure to the Novichok nerve agent last week. Prime Minister Theresa May said she was "appalled and shocked" by the death of Dawn Sturgess, a 44-year-old mother of three who had been living in a homeless hostel in the city of Salisbury in southwest England. The death on Sunday occurred four months after the same toxin was used against a former Russian spy in an attack that Britain blamed on Moscow.
Sturgess and Charlie Rowley, 45, fell ill last weekend in the town of Amesbury, near Salisbury, the city where former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were attacked with the Novichok nerve agent in March and have since recovered. Local MP John Glen said the local community was "anxious" after police opened a murder inquiry, although health officials have said the danger to the general public is low. Glen told BBC radio the two may have handled a contaminated object because of their "habit of looking into bins" and police were trying to work out "how they came into contact with this nerve agent and when".Police said they would be led by the evidence but confirmed a link between the Amesbury case and the Salisbury attack was a main line of inquiry. The attack on the Skripals prompted the biggest Western expulsion of Russian diplomats since the Cold War as allies sided with Britain’s view that Moscow was either responsible or had lost control of the nerve agent. Moscow hit back by expelling Western diplomats. Russia has denied any involvement in the Skripal case and suggested the British security services had carried out the attack to stoke anti-Moscow hysteria. Interior minister Sajid Javid last week demanded answers from Moscow, saying he would not accept Britain becoming a "dumping ground for poison".Russia hit back, denouncing Britain for playing "dirty political games".Police said the British couple were believed to have become exposed to Novichok by handling a "contaminated item", with speculation that it could have been the container used to administer the nerve agent to the Skripals. However, police and public health officials insist the risk to the wider public remains low. A police officer was tested for possible exposure to the deadly nerve agent over the weekend but was given the all-clear. Christine Blanshard, medical director at Salisbury District Hospital, where Sturgess and Rowley were being treated and where the Skripals were hospitalized, told the Daily Telegraph that staff had "worked tirelessly to save Dawn"."Our staff are talented, dedicated and professional and I know today they will be hurting today," she said. The prime minister said: "Police and security officials are working urgently to establish the facts of this incident, which is now being investigated as a murder."Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu, the head of Britain's counter-terror police, said Sturgess's death "has only served to strengthen our resolve to identify and bring to justice the person or persons responsible for what I can only describe as an outrageous, reckless and barbaric act".He added that the other victim "remains critically ill in hospital and our thoughts are with him and his family as well". Alastair Hay, a professor of environmental toxicology at Leeds University, said the hospital probably now had more experience than anywhere else in the world with Novichok cases, but there were limits to what doctors could do. “Because the nerve agents compromise nerve and muscle function, their effects are widespread and where deaths occur these are usually due to either respiratory or circulatory failure, or both,” he said. Residents of the homeless hostel in Salisbury where Sturgess lived, which was evacuated after the couple fell ill, expressed their devastation at the news of her death. "It could easily have happened to anyone, to me or my partner," 27-year-old Ben Jordan told AFP late Sunday. "We are really, really sad. I am praying for Charlie." Around 100 counter-terrorism officers are helping in the investigation, which police said Friday could take "weeks and months". So far, there is no evidence that the couple visited any of the sites involved in the Skripal case.

Netanyahu to Discuss with Putin Preventing Syria Regime Forces from Entering Quneitra
Tel Aviv – Nazir Majali/Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 9 July, 2018/Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday he will travel to Moscow later this week to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss Israel’s stance on southern Syria. Speaking at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting, Netanyahu said Israel "will not tolerate a military deployment of Iran and its proxies in any area of Syria.""We meet from time to time to ensure security coordination and of course discuss developments in the region," he added. “At the meeting, I will reiterate the two basic principles of Israel's policy: First, we will not tolerate the establishment of a military presence by Iran and its proxies anywhere in Syria – not close to the border and not far away from it. Second, we will demand that Syria, and the Syrian military, strictly uphold the 1974 Separation of Forces Agreement,” he stressed. The agreement prevents the Syrian regime forces from being present with heavy weapons in a security belt along the border. This effectively prevents them from entering the region of Quneitra and other border regions, which are currently controlled by the opposition, sources close to Netanyahu explained. "I also maintain constant contact with the US administration. These ties with the two great powers (Russia and the US) are very important for the security of Israel, especially now," added Netanyahu. In its statement on Friday, the Israeli military said that, while not involved in Syria’s war, it would “continue to implement the 1974 Separation of Forces Agreement that includes maintaining the buffer zone.”The UN-monitored 1974 armistice bars or limits military build-ups by either side around the Golan. An Israeli cabinet minister said on Thursday that Israel could fire at any Syrian forces it deems to be violating the truce deal. According to analyses in Tel Aviv, the Syrian regime operation to take control of the areas adjacent to the ceasefire line will take several weeks and will not be as easy to control as Daraa. The regime should not escalate tensions before the end of the Russia-hosted World Cup so as not to anger Moscow.
 
British foreign secretary quits in protest over May’s Brexit plan
Reuters/Monday, 9 July 2018/Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson quit on Monday over Prime Minister Theresa May’s plans to leave the European Union, the second resignation in a day leaving the British leader’s Brexit plans all but in tatters.
After a day when the foreign secretary cancelled meetings for crisis talks at his official residence in central London, Johnson decided to walk from his job - just hours after May’s Brexit minister David Davis did the same in protest at her plans. The two resignations leave May badly exposed at the top of a government unable to unite over Britain’s biggest foreign and trading policy shift in almost half a decade. It also puts a question mark over whether the leader will try to weather it and stand firm in her commitment to pursue a “business friendly” Brexit, or will be faced with more resignations and calls to quit herself. “This afternoon, the Prime Minister accepted the resignation of Boris Johnson as Foreign Secretary,” May’s spokesman said in a statement. “His replacement will be announced shortly. The Prime Minister thanks Boris for his work.”The departures raise the stakes for May, who secured a hard-won agreement with her deeply divided cabinet of ministers on Friday to keep the closest possible trading ties with the EU. Many eurosceptics are angry, saying the agreed strategy betrays her promise for a clean break with the EU, raising the prospect that some could try to unseat her.

Eight of 13 young footballers rescued from Thai cave so far
Agencies/Monday, 9 July 2018/Eight of the 13 young footballers who had been trapped deep inside a Thai cave for more than a fortnight have been rescued, the Navy SEALs involved in the operation said Monday. “2 days, 8 Wild Boars. Hooyah,” the Thai Navy SEALs said in a post on their official Facebook page, referring to the boys and their coach by the name of their football team. Thai officials have been tight-lipped about the rescue operation, and would not comment on how many people were removed Monday. On Sunday, teams of divers brought out four of the trapped boys but waited several hours before confirming their safe rescue.

British woman exposed to Novichok nerve agent dies

AFP, London/Monday, 9 July 2018/A woman exposed to the nerve agent Novichok in southwest England, near where a Russian spy was targeted by the same type of chemical in March, has died, police said Sunday. Prime Minister Theresa May said she was “appalled and shocked” by the death of Dawn Sturgess, one of two people who fell ill last weekend in Amesbury, near the town of Salisbury. “Police and security officials are working urgently to establish the facts of this incident, which is now being investigated as a murder,” she said. She offered her condolences to the relatives and loved ones of Sturgess, 44, who had three children. She became ill alongside a man named locally as Charlie Rowley, 45. They were believed to have become exposed to Novichok by handling a container, and a link to the Salisbury attack in March is a main line of investigation. That incident left former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, who was visiting from Russia, in a critical condition although they later recovered. Britain and its allies blamed Moscow for trying to kill the pair, prompting angry denials that led to an international diplomatic crisis. Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu, the head of Britain’s counter-terror police, said Sturgess’ death was “shocking and tragic news”. “The 45-year-old man who fell ill with Dawn remains critically ill in hospital and our thoughts are with him and his family as well,” he said in a statement. “This terrible news has only served to strengthen our resolve to identify and bring to justice the person or persons responsible for what I can only describe as an outrageous, reckless and barbaric act. “Detectives will continue with their painstaking and meticulous work to gather all the available evidence so that we can understand how two citizens came to be exposed with such a deadly substance that tragically cost Dawn her life.”

Hamas Prefers Egyptian Sponsorship for any Deal with Israel
Gaza - Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 9 July, 2018/Hamas asserted that any deal with Israel, whether on the exchange of prisoners or the lifting of the siege of Gaza Strip, including a short-term or long-term truce, would be sponsored by the Egyptian side, according to close sources.
The sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that there are permanent correspondence between Hamas political bureau and those responsible for the Palestinian file in the Egyptian intelligence service on various issues. They noted that Egyptian officials understand the demands of Hamas as a condition for any agreement with Israel.According to the sources, the movement confirmed to the Egyptian side its conditions on any prisoner exchange deal, and that the issue of detained Israeli soldiers can not be linked to any solutions that do not include the release of Palestinian prisoners. No deal can be concluded without the release of all the prisoners who were re-arrested by Israel, after their release as part of the Shalit prisoner exchange. Israel re-arrested more than 86 Palestinians, who have been accused by the Israeli security forces, of setting up cells to carry out armed attacks against Israeli targets in the West Bank, Jerusalem and cities inside the Green Line. According to the sources, Hamas shut the door in the face of any other attempts, but believes Cairo is the only one that is able to reach solutions with Israel, and pressure it on this matter. Hamas delegation might head to Egypt this week and will inform Egyptian officials that it welcomes any Egyptian effort in this context, indicated the sources. They asserted that Hamas is interested in an Egyptian intervention more than any other party. The sources pointed out that Egypt had previously tried to mediate more than once to complete an exchange deal, as well as a truce in the Gaza Strip, which included the lifting of the Israeli blockade. However, Israel was evasive at each time, especially when indirect talks reached a very important point relating to exchange deal. Sources stressed that any contacts or meetings will be indirect and will be conducted on conditions determined by the leadership of Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas. They pointed out that the movement wants to put any issue related to the truce in Gaza and lift the siege of the Strip for discussion among factions, before agreeing with Israel through the Egyptian mediator. Hamas expects the mediator to play an important role during the coming period, noting that the exchange deal will be Hamas’ main concern, but will cooperate with the factions to include the names of prisoners who will be released, in the event of a deal was reached.

New Iraqi Sunni Alliance Confuses Political Scene
Baghdad – Hamza Mustafa /Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 9 July, 2018/A number of prominent Iraqi Sunni leaderships announced a new agreement aimed at appointing a unified negotiations team to attend discussions over the formation of a new government. A statement released by Speaker Salim al-Jabouri’s office on Sunday said that the leaders of several political blocs met at his residence to tackle the current political developments and ways to reach understandings and bolster dialogue to achieve rapprochement between blocs. The meeting reviewed the May parliamentary elections and the ensuing accusations of fraud that led to a decision to hold a manual recount that kicked off on Tuesday. The Sunni figures underlined the importance of the recount to restore trust in the electoral process and the formation of a national government. Positions expressed after the meeting varied on whether a new political alliance was struck or whether an agreement was simply reached over a negotiations team that can hold talks with Shiite and Kurdish partners, especially in wake of the recent rapprochement between those two sides. The rapprochement has stoked fears of the reemergence of the so-called historic Kurdish-Shiite alliance that collapse during Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s second term in office between 2010 and 2014. Mohammed al-Karbouli, who is one of the architects of the new Sunni bloc, told Asharq Al-Awsat: “We agreed on an alliance … that will enjoy a mass leadership.”“This is not a sectarian formation, but an attempt to reach a unified vision for the Sunni blocs to enable them to hold negotiations with partners based on this vision in order to avert a repeat of past tragedies that befell our regions and provinces,” he explained. Prominent Sunni leader Kamel al-Dulaimi said: “Discussions between political blocs clearly indicate that we did not learn from recent bitter past experiences.”“We are repeating the same scenarios but in different forms. We have attractive headlines, but no substance,” he added, accusing officials of placing their own interests above national ones.Iraqi academic Yehya al-Kabisi told Asharq Al-Awsat that the fragmentation in various sects in the country can be blamed on internal rivalries. “Everyone knows that without internal unity, … none of these sectarian houses will be able to achieve their proper representation in wake of the parliamentary elections,” he added.

Erdogan Takes on Greater Powers in Turkey's New Era
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/July 09/18/President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is to be sworn in for his second term as head of state on Monday, taking on greater powers than any Turkish leader for decades under a new system condemned by opponents as a one man regime. Erdogan, who has transformed Turkey in 15 years of rule by allowing Islam a greater role in public life and boosting its international stature, will take his oath almost two years after defeating a bloody attempted coup. The inauguration in parliament after Erdogan's June election victory will be followed by a lavish ceremony at his palace attended by dozens of world leaders marking the transition to the new executive presidency system. Erdogan will face immediate and major challenges posed by an imbalanced if fast-growing economy and foreign policy tensions between the West and Turkey, a NATO member. He has also pledged to end the state of emergency that has been in place since the failed July 2016 coup and which has seen the biggest purge in the history of modern Turkey.
In what appeared to be the final emergency decree issued just one day before the inauguration, 18,632 public sector employees were ordered dismissed including thousands of soldiers and police officers. After the inauguration, Erdogan will immediately turn to foreign policy, visiting northern Cyprus and Azerbaijan followed by more challenging encounters at a NATO summit in Brussels where he will meet US counterpart Donald Trump and other leaders.
'One-man regime' -The new system was agreed in a bitterly fought 2017 referendum narrowly won by the 'Yes' camp. The issue still polarises Turkey. "A partisan one-man regime starts officially today," said the opposition Cumhuriyet newspaper. Its commentator Asli Aydintasbas wrote: "I don't think it would be an exaggeration to say that we entered a 'second republic' era," after the republic set up by Turkey's secular founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. But the pro-government daily Yeni Safak wrote under the headline "historic day": "One page is closing in Turkish history and a new page is opening." The president will sit at the top of a vertical power structure marked by a slimmed-down government with 16 ministries instead of 26 and multiple bodies reporting to him. In one of the most significant changes, the EU affairs ministry, set up in 2011 to oversee Turkey's faltering bid to join the bloc, will be subsumed into the foreign ministry. Prime Minister Binali Yildirim will on Monday go down in history as the 27th and final holder of the post in Turkey. He is expected to become speaker of the new parliament.
- 'Leader of multi-polar world' -The grand transition ceremony, to be attended by some 10,000 guests and marked by dozens of gun salutes, has been overshadowed by a deadly train derailment in northwest Turkey on Sunday that left 24 dead.
Those attending will include Ankara's top allies from Africa, the Middle East and the former Soviet Union but relatively few European figures. Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev will attend, in a new sign of the warm ties between Ankara and Moscow, as will Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, regarded with disdain by Washington but an ally of Erdogan. Tweeting a video apparently showing himself driving to the airport, Maduro hailed Erdogan as a "friend of Venezuela and leader of the new multi-polar world." Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir is on the guest list as is Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani of Qatar, Turkey's closest ally in the Middle East. The only EU leaders are set to be Bulgarian President Rumen Radev and Hungary's strongman Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
- 'Surprise cabinet' -The new cabinet, due to be announced at 1830 GMT, is expected to have a different look, with pro-government Hurriyet daily columnist Abdulkadir Selvi saying that it was set to "surprise" with figures from outside the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).
Current Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu could in theory continue in his job but reports have said Erdogan may choose his spokesman, Ibrahim Kalin, or even spy chief Hakan Fidan to succeed him. The markets will keep a close eye on economic appointments, keen to see a steady hand at the helm in a fast-growing economy dogged by double-digit inflation and a widening current account deficit. Erdogan, who first came to power as premier in 2003, won an outright victory in June 24 polls, defeating his closest rival, Muharrem Ince of the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) which is now locked in internal battles over its future direction. The AKP failed to win a majority in legislative elections and will need support from its allies in the right-wing Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) who could push it into more hardline policies.

The Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published
on July 09-10/18
Syria Strike: On Eve of Moscow Meeting, Netanyahu Sends Putin Strategic Message
عاموس هاريل من الهآررتس: الضربة الجوية الإسرائيلية أمس لمطار تيفور في سوريا الذي تستعمله إيران هي رسالة استراتجية من نيتانياهو لبوتين عشية لقائهما
Amos Harel/Haaretz/July 09/18
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/65921/amos-harel-syria-strike-on-eve-of-moscow-meeting-netanyahu-sends-putin-strategic-message-%d8%b9%d8%a7%d9%85%d9%88%d8%b3-%d9%87%d8%a7%d8%b1%d9%8a%d9%84-%d9%85%d9%86-%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%87%d8%a2%d8%b1/
The attack attributed to Israel on the T4 airbase signals it's willing to defend its interests in Syria, no matter what.
Sunday night's aerial attack on the T4 airbase in Syria, near the city of Homs, was the third to have been ascribed to Israel at that site this year.
In February, the command-and-control center from which Iran sent a drone into Israeli airspace from Syria was bombed, and, in April, an Iranian aerial-defense system was blasted shortly after it arrived in T4. There have been other reports, never verified, of raids on arms supply convoys. In recent weeks, Syrian reports have blamed Israel for additional air raids, including one near the border with Iraq in which dozens of Shi'ite militiamen, funded by Iran, were killed.
Based on experience, Israeli will opt to attack in two possible contexts. The first is tactical: to hit a new arms shipment, or a weapons system that is about to be deployed. Israel has openly expressed concern about efforts by Iran to introduce such systems to protect its future military entrenchment in Syria, and has vowed to thwart such ambitions.
The second context is to send a strategic signal. The latest attack happened during the very week in which the Assad regime, assisted by Russia and Iran, advanced toward regaining its control over southern Syria, and its return to the country’s southwest corner, its Golan Heights.
The fact that the bombing was carried out three days before Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is due to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow sends a message. Israel (assuming it is indeed behind Sunday's attack) is determined to protect its interests and is not afraid of Russian reservations or an Iranian reaction.
In contrast to information leaked from Israel and to Russian insinuations in recent months, there is no new political arrangement in southern Syria. In practice, Israel has come to terms with the return of the Assad regime and insofar as is known, does not intend to intervene on behalf of the local rebel militias operating in the villages not far from the border with Israel's Golan Heights. Israel remains focused on its declared interest: expelling the Iranians and their militias from all Syrian territory – particularly in the south.
Moscow has hinted that it will act to keep the Iranians 80 kilometers away from the border, but the degree of its commitment to doing so remains unclear, even though both Russian officials and Syrian President Bashar Assad seem less keen on collaborating with Tehran than in the past. Evidence of that is the fact that Russia seems to be making peace with attacks that have been attributed to Israel against Iranian targets in Syria (there was yet another exchange of hostilities on May 10 – hours after Netanyahu returned from his last visit to Putin).
Israel's claim, which Netanyahu keeps repeating lately, is that it is not enough to draw an artificial line in the sand dozens of kilometers away from the border with Syria. Iran’s weapons have longer ranges than the distance Russia is prepared to take into consideration. Israel declares that as long as there is any Iranian presence in Syria, even indirect, it feels threatened. Netanyahu is thus presenting a far-reaching demand – and signaling that he means to try to enforce it, despite the not-insignificant risks involved.
In the background is Israel's ongoing failure to handle a similar threat, from Hezbollah, during a period of over 20 years. Hezbollah’s arsenal of rockets and missiles has grown, encouraged and funded by Tehran, from hundreds at the end of the Israel Defense Forces' Grapes of Wrath campaign in 1996, to about 13,000 on the eve of the Second Lebanon War, a decade later, to more than 100,000 today.
In Jerusalem they still think that the new Iranian threat from Syria can be destroyed while it is still emerging.
On the other hand, there are assessments in Israel to the effect that, despite the developing domestic Iranian dialogue, the commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ Quds force, General Qassem Soleimani, is determined to continue the project of Iran’s military entrenchment in Syria. He sees Syria as a jumping-off place for fighting Israel over time. At the same time, Soleimani and his people are assisting Hezbollah in improving the efficacy of its arsenal of guided missiles and rockets in striking infrastructure targets in the Israeli home front.
Jerusalem describes the effort to thwart Iran and Hezbollah, supported by the Trump administration, as a national strategic interest. When Netanyahu returned from Moscow on May 10, Soleimani ordered his forces to fire rockets from Syria at IDF outposts in the Golan Heights. The attacks failed and some of the rockets were intercepted by the Iron Dome batteries. Israel responded by bombing additional Iranian targets.
For a second Soleimani seemed to be blinking, but now it’s become clear that Tehran is persisting. And that is the background to the Israeli intelligence assessment that's taking shape ahead of 2019: The probability of a pre-planned war against Israel seems very remote. On the other hand, the danger of an unanticipated deterioration of the situation, following exchanges of blows in the north, or in the Gaza Strip, is even higher than it has been in the last two years.

Opinion:  From Nixon to Trump, America Has Always Backed a Nuclear Israel. This Is Why
دان سغير من الهآررتس: لهذه الأسباب أميركا من عهد نيكسون وحتى عهد ترامب الحالي ساندت إسرائيل الذرية
Dan Sagir/Haaretz/July 09/18
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/65924/dan-sagir-haaretz-from-nixon-to-trump-america-has-always-backed-a-nuclear-israel-this-is-why%d8%af%d8%a7%d9%86-%d8%b3%d8%ba%d9%8a%d8%b1-%d9%85%d9%86-%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%87%d8%a2%d8%b1%d8%b1%d8%aa%d8%b3/
Israel's nuclear ambiguity, legitimated in secret presidential letters, has proved a top Israeli strategic asset. Inter
Since the early 1990s, Israel has been asking incoming American presidents, including President Donald Trump, to sign off on letters continuing their predecessors’ policy regarding Israel's nuclear status, as the New Yorker recently revealed. the U.S. The secret letters state that the U.S. will not press Israel to give up its nuclear weapons so long as it faces existential threats in the Middle East
These secret understandings were a major enabling factor behind Israel’s unique nuclear strategy. Behind the thin veneer of nuclear ambiguity, Israel, with American support, became, according to foreign sources, regional nuclear power.
Israel’s practice of seeking presidential letters on its nuclear capacities is anachronistic and ludicrous, as Avner Cohen has argued ("Time for Israel to Drop Nuclear Ambiguity"): "...Almost 50 years after the original understandings, Israel’s nuclear capability – declared or not – is a solid fact recognized by all...[Israel no longer needs] a presidential piece of paper to confirm this...The time has come for post-ambiguity."
I agree with Cohen's conclusion, but for entirely different reasons. For many years now ambiguity has not been the most important issue in Israel-U.S. nuclear relations. Israel’s nuclear ambiguity was originally a compromise offered to then-U.S. President Richard Nixon and his national security adviser Henry Kissinger, in order to end clashes with Washington over Israel’s nuclear program.
Paradoxically, however, ambiguity evolved into a diplomatic fiction that also proved to be a top Israeli strategic asset. Israel became a nuclear state, but without having to pay the heavy political price.
It's worth reviewing the milestones over the past half-century that attest to America's full commitment to Israel on the nuclear issue and how Israel's nuclear status has bolstered its relationship with America – a commitment that obviates the need for these official letters of confirmation.
In the late 1960's, Israel’s nuclear status allowed it to abandon its pursuit of an official alliance with the U.S.: Israel’s leadership felt that the country had been left to its fate during the 1967 crisis. The Johnson administration did not meet the 1957 commitment by U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower to ensure that the Straits of Tiran would remain open for shipping, which was a causus belli for Israel. Against this background, Israeli decision-makers set their sights on strategic depth and nuclear capability; official American security guarantees were perceived as a poor substitute.
The consent Israel received from the Nixon administration in 1969 for its status as an alleged undeclared nuclear state effectively obviated the need for official American guarantees for Israel’s survival.
In the early 1970's, Israel's nuclear status triggered the U.S. to supply it advanced conventional weapons: Israel’s alleged nuclear capabilities became, paradoxically, a kind of "incentive" for the U.S. government to supply Israel with state-of-the-art conventional arms, in order to prevent a weakened Israel from being forced to communicate nuclear threats or abandon its ambiguity.
The connection between the American conventional weapons supply and Israel’s alleged nuclear capability came to the fore during and after the Yom Kippur War in 1973.
In the 1990-91 Iraq war, Israel's nuclear status was leverage for the U.S. against Iraq: The U.S.-Iraq crisis that followed Iraq’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait had far-reaching consequences in terms of the U.S. approach to Israel’s nuclear status.
Responding to Saddam Hussein’s threat to launch chemical warheads at Israel – even though Israel was not part of the U.S.-led anti-Iraq coalition – Israel and the U.S. conveyed harsh deterrence signals to Baghdad during the 1990-1991 crisis and war. The most significant incident was a wartime CNN interview given by then-Secretary of Defense Richard Cheney, in which Cheney warned Iraq that Israel might respond with unconventional weapons should Iraq fire chemical weapons at it. Cheney’s statement was a quantum leap in terms of the U.S. government’s attitude toward Israel’s nuclear posture. For the first time in the history of the two nations, the U.S. transmitted an obvious deterrence signal to Iraq based on Israel’s nuclear capability. The U.S. has backed Israel's alleged Mideast nuclear monopoly: Israel’s efforts to ensure that no Arab or Muslim country in the region obtains nuclear weapons, referred to as the Begin Doctrine, were at first supported silently by the U.S., and later largely became joint policy.
The Reagan administration, surprised by Israel’s 1981 strike on Iraq's Osirak nuclear reactor, confined itself to half-hearted protests and a minor delay in supplying arms. Following the 1991 Persian Gulf War, the U.S. led an effort to divest Iraq of its weapons of mass destruction, ultimately toppling Saddam Hussein’s regime.
Another example was the discovery of a nuclear facility in eastern Syria in 2007. Israel shared this surprising and disturbing information with the American government and proposed a military strike. For domestic political reasons the White House preferred that Israel carry out the strike, and it did, as then-Prime Minister Ehud Olmert revealed this year.
In the 1980s, the U.S. backed Israel against campaigns for a denuclearized Mideast: The international effort led by Hosni Mubarak’s Egypt in the 1980s and 1990s to make the Middle East a nuclear-weapon-free zone posed a thorny dilemma for the U.S. and Israel. The campaign, which centered around the demand that Israel sign the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), peaked during the 1995 NPT Review Conference.
The initiative was consistent with U.S. policy favoring nuclear non-proliferation, yet it would mean dismantling Israel’s nuclear arsenal. The U.S., under Clinton, helped Israel withstand pressure to sign the NPT. Against this background Israel began to request letters of commitment from all incoming U.S. presidents to help it maintain its nuclear status.
The campaign to halt Iran’s nuclear program: A variety of efforts to halt the Iranian nuclear program have been underway for the past two decades. Intelligence, security-operational, and political coordination between Israel and the U.S. on the Iranian issue have been maintained at very high levels.
It is clearly in Israel’s interest that the U.S. lead the campaign against Tehran, but under the Obama administration there was fierce disagreement between Israeli and American leaders regarding the policy and strategy by which Iran’s nuclear program should be stopped.
The most striking reflection of the depth of American support for Israel’s nuclear capability was the fact that, even during the bitter discord over the Iran nuclear deal in 2015, neither the Obama nor any administration spokespeople resorted to mentioning longtime U.S. support for Israel’s exclusive nuclear capability. The only ones who publicly called attention to Israeli "hypocrisy" or American double standards were the Iranians.
Israeli nuclear concerns currently revolve around the latter two issues. Israel fears a nuclear Iran, the creation of a regional balance of terror vis-a-vis Tehran, and its regional political ramifications. Israel also harbors concerns about pressure to dismantle its alleged nuclear capability as part of a wider call for Mideast nuclear disarmament.
Israeli decision-makers consider these two issues intertwined. So long as the danger of Iran becoming a nuclear state still exists, it is easy for Israel to reject the idea of a Mideast nuclear weapon-free zone, with support from the U.S., Europe, and even from the Sunni Arab nations.
Given the close Israel-U.S. alignment on Israel’s nuclear status, Israel’s request for a secret letter of commitment from President Trump indeed seems anachronistic and redundant.
Today’s Israel is a responsible Western nation like France and the U.K., who have an independent nuclear deterrence to safeguard their existence.
So long as no change occurs in the nuclear world order that would cause first-generation and second-generation nuclear states – the latter of which according to foreign sources includes Israel - to gradually dismantle their nuclear arsenals, it is hard to imagine Israel doing so in response to international pressure. And that includes pressure from the U.S. itself.
**Dan Sagir wrote his doctoral dissertation, "Israel’s Nuclear Deterrence Posture and its Effects on the Arab-Israeli Conflict Since 1967" at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Is Islam "Exceptional"?
A. Z. Mohamed/Gatestone Institute/July 09/18
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/12635/exceptional-islam
"Western observers... will need to accept Islam's vital and varied role in politics and formulate policies with that in mind, rather than hoping for secularizing outcomes that are unlikely anytime soon, if ever." — Shadi Hamid, author of Islamic Exceptionalism: How the Struggle Over Islam Is Reshaping the World.
"'Islamic exceptionalism' is neither good nor bad. It just is." — Shadi Hamid.
"As the transition from pre-modernity to modernity proceeds with its twists and turns, the Muslim world, over time will progress and develop to the point that eventually there will arise a theology, as occurred in Christendom, consistent with the needs of Muslims and reconciled with modernity." — Salim Mansur, author of The Qur'an Problem and Islamism: Reflections of a Dissident Muslim.
In early May, the Brookings Institution held a lecture and panel discussion in India on the question of whether Islam is "exceptional" and what it means for the future of Western democracy. A main speaker at the event was Shadi Hamid, author of a 2016 book, Islamic Exceptionalism: How the Struggle Over Islam Is Reshaping the World.
Hamid, an American Muslim, repeated the thesis of his book, summarized in an op-ed in Time magazine.
"Because of its outsize role in law and governance, Islam has been — and will continue to be — resistant to secularization," he wrote. He explained:
"Unlike Jesus Christ, the Prophet Muhammad was a theologian, a preacher, a warrior and a politician, all at once. He was also the leader and builder of a new state, capturing, holding and governing new territory. Religious and political functions, at least for the believer, were no accident. They were meant to be intertwined in the leadership of one man.
"Second, more than merely the word of God, for Muslims, the Quran is God's direct and literal speech. It is difficult to overstate the centrality of divine authorship. This does not mean Muslims are literalists; most are not. But it does mean the text cannot easily be dismissed as irrelevant."
This means, he added, that "Western observers... will need to accept Islam's vital and varied role in politics and formulate policies with that in mind, rather than hoping for secularizing outcomes that are unlikely anytime soon, if ever."
To clarify that his position is not necessarily critical, he wrote, "'Islamic exceptionalism' is neither good nor bad. It just is."
Islamists might be likely to welcome Hamid's understanding of Islamic "exceptionalism" more than his value-neutral assertion that it is "neither good nor bad."
Muslims frequently describe Islam as the "religion of truth" -- superior to all others. As it is written in the Quran (3:19):
"Indeed, the religion in the sight of Allah is Islam. And those who were given the Scripture did not differ except after knowledge had come to them -- out of jealous animosity between themselves. And whoever disbelieves in the verses of Allah, then indeed, Allah is swift in [taking] account."
Many of the Western world's politicians, academics and members of the media tend to treat Islam differently from other religions and ideologies. They claim it is a "religion of peace" -- abused by a small minority of radicals to justify terrorism -- and that it is compatible with democratic values.
Hamid, however, appears to do neither.
According to Middle East Institute scholar Hassan Mneimneh:
"Hamid's work can be understood as an invitation to sober the discussion about Islam and politics on two connected fronts: 1) disabusing some Western circles of the reductionist and patronizing notion that Muslim societies will eventually follow the Western template toward liberal democracy, and 2) calling for an acceptance of the depth of the cultural and conceptual differences between Muslim and Western societies."
Mneimneh nevertheless added that, "Hamid seems to accept the Islamist notion of the uncontested primacy of a totalitarizing religion, and that 'universal' values are basically a Western import."
Hassan Mneimneh (left) and Shadi Hamid (right) at a panel discussion for The Middle East Institute, July 27, 2016. (Image source: Middle East Institute video screenshot)
It should be of great concern that even a self-described liberal such as Hamid -- one who said he feels "a bit uncomfortable making this claim, especially now with anti-Muslim bigotry on the rise" -- leaves little room for optimism where the ability of Islam to undergo a reformation is concerned. He does not appear even to think it is necessary.
Salim Mansur, author, among other works, of The Qur'an Problem and Islamism: Reflections of a Dissident Muslim, disagrees. In a recent article, he wrote:
"The Muslim world currently appears trapped within the parameters of the pre-modern world, based on its quasi-nominalist view of God. The Sufi understanding of God as universal love seems not fully to meet the Muslim world's urgent need to figure out how to negotiate modernity without abandoning the God of the Qur'an. "The fury of the internal upheaval inside the Muslim world -- the Muslim rage that is incomprehensible to non-Muslims -- will eventually exhaust itself when a sufficiently large segment of the Muslim population reconciles reason and revelation to discover that God never meant any religion, including Islam, to be a burden preventing man from threading a relationship with Him in harmony with human nature. "As the transition from pre-modernity to modernity proceeds with its twists and turns, the Muslim world, over time will progress and develop to the point that eventually there will arise a theology, as occurred in Christendom, consistent with the needs of Muslims and reconciled with modernity."
*A. Z. Mohamed is a Muslim born and raised in the Middle East.
© 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.

US Immigration Debate’s Ugliness is Nothing New
Stephen Mihm/Bloomberg/July 09/18
The Census Bureau reported this month that the white population in much of the U.S. is dying off more quickly than it is being replaced. By contrast, among Hispanics, births continue to exceed deaths.
The figures for 2017 are further evidence of a profound demographic shift that is predicted to make whites a minority by 2040 or earlier. The data dovetails with President Donald Trump’s increasingly inflamed rhetoric on immigration. As more than one pundit has observed, he has been able to channel a resurgence of xenophobia and a growing anxiety over the future of white America. Americans went down a similar road well over a century ago, when a prominent group of thinkers dominated public discourse over immigration in the U.S. They articulated white anxiety in ways that would ultimately have profound and enduring effects on public policy: quotas that targeted immigrant groups deemed undesirable, even laws against miscegenation.
Then, as now, decades of heavy immigration had started to transform U.S. demography. To native-born whites, the growing influx of Jews, Slavs, Italians and other groups was going to remake the America they knew.
For some whites, this was an intolerable prospect. The sociologist Edward Alsworth Ross gave voice to those anxieties in an essay in 1901. He famously used the phrase “race suicide" to describe the likely fate of the people he called “Anglo-Saxons” — by which he meant the would-be descendants of the group that dominated England from the fifth century until the Norman Conquest, though he also included Scandinavians and Germans.
Ross believed that those peoples constituted a separate “race” far superior to other Europeans, to say nothing of the peoples of other lands. Ross took aim at the immigrants from those lesser places in a book published in 1914: “The blood now being injected into the veins of our people is sub-common.”
He conjured a dire scenario. The working classes gradually delay marriage and restrict the size of the family as the opportunities hitherto reserved for their children are eagerly snapped up by the numerous progeny of the foreigner. The prudent, self-respecting natives first cease to expand, and then, as the struggle for existence grows sterner and the outlook for their children darker, they fail even to recruit their own numbers.
For Ross and others, the solution was simple: Restrict immigration. He was not alone in offering this prescription. A few years earlier, the economist Francis Amasa Walker had portrayed the threat in existential terms. He described the European immigrants from “every foul and stagnant pool of population” as criminals, idiots and paupers. Walker proposed that all immigrants be forced to post a $100 bond upon entering the country. This would effectively keep out the poor from Eastern and Southern Europe, Walker believed, but would not be a deterrent to the arrival of tens of thousands of “thrifty" Swedes, Norwegians and Germans who usually had some savings. But it was Madison Grant, a wealthy New Yorker, dilettante, “scientific” racist and author of the bestselling book “The Passing of the Great Race,” who did more than anyone to guide public opinion along these lines.
His book was a peculiar combination of faux erudition and historical fiction, warning readers that the nation’s “altruistic ideals” and “maudlin sentimentalism that has made America ‘an asylum for the oppressed,’ are sweeping the nation toward a racial abyss.”
Grant’s titular “race” was the Anglo-Saxons, though he was fond of Norwegians and other Scandinavians, Germans, and, of course, the British. But everyone else — Jews, Italians, and other “inferior races among our immigrants” — he despised. Grant counseled sharp restrictions on immigration from anywhere except a small circle of “Nordic” countries.
He also provided the preface for “The Rising Tide of Color: The Threat Against White World Supremacy,” written by Lothrop Stoddard and published in 1920. A journalist and polemicist, Stoddard argued for limiting immigration as a way to preserve the purity of the “Nordic” race in America. Like Grant, he believed that unrestricted immigration of “inferior” races would “sterilize” the white population, suppressing the native birthrate. The two men would successfully lobby for anti-miscegenation laws in the U.S.
Like many scientific racists, Grant and Stoddard were enthusiastic eugenicists. Grant proposed a program of mass sterilization that would target criminals, “the diseased, and the insane,” as well as “weaklings” and “perhaps ultimately to worthless race types.” The book was translated into multiple languages, including German. Adolf Hitler read it, and reportedly wrote Grant an admiring letter, describing the book as his personal “bible.”
Grant influenced the course of history closer to home as well. He served as an adviser to the sponsors of the Immigration Restriction Act of 1924, which shut down immigration from the countries he despised but set aside 6,400 slots a year for immigrants from the tiny country of Norway.
All these thinkers eventually fell out of favor in the 1930s. But judging from the tone of the immigration debate today, 21st-century versions of these ideas may be on the horizon.

World Cup Generals and Not a Drop of Blood Spilled
Ghassan Charbel/Asharq Al Awsat/July 09/18
No meetings have been scheduled. Telephone calls are forbidden. The unease of the guards is understandable. They are hoping for a result that would not ruin the mood of the absolute ruler. The guards confirmed that victory was guaranteed and the listener responded with a quasi-smile. The entourage only says things that it believes will assure him. Based on his orders, they left him alone with the television screens.
The president does not want witnesses to see him during a critical time. He does not want to appear elated, emotional, disappointed or angry. He will not venture out to watch the match at the stadium. It will be difficult for him to suffer defeat on his own soil and before his people and to listen to the clapping of the crowd as if they are attempting to bandage the wounds of his loss. Medvedev went to the stadium. Medvedev can play. He can win and lose. The president cannot. His destiny is to win at any game he plays.
This is a football match, not a confrontation between two countries or two armies. It must end with a victor and a loser. He is trying to convince himself and preparing for the worst.
There is no need for exaggeration. The result of the game will not determine his fate or that of his country. He does not like to lose. The idea of the defeat is stifling to him. His experiences have made him addicted to successes and victories. He has been roaming the field since the beginning of the century. He advances, retreats and makes a maneuver. He has the ball and maneuvers around his enemies. He scores a victory against them and savors humiliating them.
He has been a major goalscorer since the beginning of the century. Forget about Ronaldo, Messi and Neymar.
He is competing on the pages of history. He is competing against Peter the Great, Catherine the Great and Joseph Stalin. The White House changes the names of its players, but he remains to play, maneuver and score.
He smiles as if football matches are a substitute to wars between nations. If Germany and France face off, then the French recall the image of Hitler strolling down the Champs Elysees. If France and England face each other, then British newspapers will recall the Napoleon files and the Battle of Waterloo. It is as if countries are searching for the demons of the past and as if they enjoy rubbing salt in each other’s wounds.
He is supposed to make due with the success of hosting the World Cup. John Bolton, who does not like his country, stated that the United States will later on benefit from Russian expertise.
He is obsessed with the image: his own image and the image of his country in his shadow. How wonderful would it be if the series of wars would end with Russia’s victory on its own soil and for its players to lift the trophy. For this trophy to be placed in his office next to the trophy of Crimea, the trophy of Daraa and many others. How wonderful it would be for him to wake up the next day and head to Helsinki to shake Donald Trump’s hand at another World Cup where he would emerge the victor for the very fact that this meeting was even held.
Football and its ability to spring surprises and make heroes and stars confuses him. Young men occupying the world’s attention and rallying a whole country behind them. They reap massive wealth and enter the history books at an early age. Football becomes the talk of generals. A young player launches a shot and the world holds its breath to see if he scores in the enemy net. Power, fame, bets, tense nerves and rival fans have left their fates at the feet of players, hoping for a victory that has become tied to national dignity. How difficult it must be to be the sole focus of the fans and cameras and for your talent to betray you by missing a shot at goal.
He anxiously follows the stubbornness of the Croatian team against his national team. The first to take the penalty shot appeared to be trained by the KGB to keep his nerve, not show emotion, mislead the enemy and take the golden opportunity to take a shot that cannot be deflected by the goalkeeper. This shot breaks the spirit of the keeper and his team.
Football is a deceptive game. It has disciplined those who were deemed as strong. Germany lost early as if Angela Merkel’s government, embroiled in a migrant dispute, did not have more problems to deal with. Some have tried to find a scapegoat, blaming Mesut Ozil, a Turkish native, especially after he took a photo with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The debate over football and national sentiments was reignited.
Others retorted that if it weren’t for migrant players, teams such as France and Belgium, would not have made it to the World Cups semifinals.
Others left the tournament with their wounded generals. Argentina with Lionel Messi, Portugal with Ronaldo, Brazil with Neymar and Spain lost its way.
The British have forgotten about Brexit and they have turned their attention to a country whose regime is accused of sending a nerve agent to their land. The “three lions” have ended their years-long disappointment and Harry Kane has cemented his status among the greats. His coach Gareth Southgate has earned praise for the team spirit that allowed the group to claim victory. Britons could be forgiven for forgetting the occupant of 10 Downing Street, but not the name of the national team captain and coach.
The match wore down the nerves of the president. He witnesses Croatia celebrate the victory and its president dance near Medvedev. Putin drank the poison. It is important for him to be a skilled goalscorer in Helsinki and shake Trump’s net, who is shaking the NATO, European Union and global trade nets. The World Cup is a time of generals who have earned their medals without spilling a drop of blood. But it is only a fleeting season. Tomorrow, the world will return to the clutches of old generals, who mercilessly manipulate the world’s stability and economy.

UK Parliament: Little Interest in Grooming Gangs

Andrew Jones/Gatestone Institute/July 09/18
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/12662/britain-parliament-grooming-gangs
The approach the British authorities have taken in response to this national disaster appears largely based on countering secondary issues -- most notably, individuals that protest the grooming, including at one point the arrest of parents attempting to rescue their daughter from her abusers.
There also seems to be a tacit alliance with much of the media to silence public discourse and, when all else fails, outright suppression.
In response to Britain's ongoing sexual grooming scandal, a group of 20 MPs signed an open letter to recently appointed Home Secretary, Sajid Javid, urging coordinated action.
As the UK Parliament has 650 MPs, the 20 signatories constitute a mere 3% willing to support the protection of children subjected to gang-rape, trafficking and torture, and at times murder. Such a paltry number of politicians willing to speak out against child sexual slavery seems yet more evidence of the moral bankruptcy of Britain's political elite and how low the country appears to have sunk.
Britain's media elite have ignored the letter. Reporting has been limited to the local press in Oxford and Rochdale -- areas afflicted by grooming -- as well as a few alternative media outlets such as Breitbart London, and indirect reference on Sky News.
Of the British Parliament's 650 MPs, a mere 20 were willing to sign an open letter to support the protection of children subjected to gang-rape, trafficking and torture, and at times murder. Pictured: The Palace of Westminster in London, meeting place of the Houses of Parliament. (Arpingstone/Wikimedia Commons)
A key signatory of the letter, Rotherham MP Sarah Champion, whose constituency was made infamous by grooming, was forced from Jeremy Corbyn's Labour Party front bench in 2017 for speaking openly about the prevalence of "British Pakistani men" in this type of child sexual exploitation. Given that Sajid Javid, then Communities Secretary, spoke in support of Champion, it is perhaps intentional that this letter was addressed to him in his new role as Britain's first Muslim Home Secretary.
Javid's Muslim faith and Pakistani heritage place him in an untouchable position regarding accusations of racism or bigotry, should he continue to address the uncomfortable ethnic and cultural realities of grooming. Prior to becoming Home Secretary he touched on these and could now continue to say what needs to be said and act effectively -- in ways many other politicians could not -- without being pilloried by the UK's largely left-leaning media.
In his new position, there are two principal opportunities Javid could grasp.
First, there is the opportunity for British authorities at least to begin making amends for decades of failing defenceless children. Irreparable harm has been done to countless lives -- and continues to be done. There is also the inestimable harm done to public trust in the police, the media, social services and the government.
In terms of the UK's social fabric, the grooming scandal has been for many the rock on which the ill-conceived multiculturalism of modern Britain shattered. Now, intensified by the current fevered atmosphere in the UK, the approach the British authorities have taken in response to this national disaster appears largely based on countering secondary issues -- most notably, individuals that protest the grooming, including at one point the arrest of parents attempting to rescue their daughter from her abusers.
There also seems to be a tacit alliance with much of the media to silence public discourse and, when all else fails, outright suppression.
This strategy, if it can be called that, doubtless not only makes a bad situation worse; it also bodes ill, as the sleeping giant of Britain's white working class begins to wake up.
The second opportunity Javid could grasp is uprooting what is beginning to look alarmingly like a nationwide organised-crime network. The euphemistic term "grooming gang" has been rejected by many for the earthier term "rape gang"; yet "gang" gives the impression of sporadic and isolated activity, mainly perpetrated by lawless youths. The reality of this nationwide sexual exploitation is that it is evolving towards being a mafia-like "terrorist network". Children are transported (page 7/79) around the country to be abused in pre-arranged locations, and this trade interfaces with illicit drug dealing and other criminal activity. "Grooming" would be better termed the "child sexual-slave trade".
In allowing this criminality to fester for decades, the British authorities have effectively become criminal themselves as accessories after the fact. They could also be accused of breaking not only domestic law but international treaties regarding child protection, such as the Convention on the Rights of the Child and Optional Protocol on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography.
As the abuse is largely perpetrated by "(South) Asian" criminals, UK authorities now find themselves in a bind. To act with concerted government and police action may increase existing community tensions. Alternatively, by not acting, faith in the country's institutions and laws -- and minority communities themselves -- will continue to deteriorate among large sections of the public. As that may not happen immediately on the watch of the current crop of feckless UK politicians, there is most likely the inclination among them to kick this human tragedy down the road.
Let us hope, though, that Sajid Javid remains true to his 2017 support for Sarah Champion and at least tries to put an end to these criminal networks that have long since operated on "an industrial scale".
Thus far, the response to this national disgrace has been painfully slow and low-profile. There have been a few prosecutions of major perpetrators, but many may never be brought to justice. Thousands of the victims have been denied compensation or health and social assistance; and there have been no prosecutions of culpable officials. Police misconduct proceedings have as yet yielded no results -- despite the accusation, reported as far back as 2015, of an officer having sex with abuse victims. The only "punishments" delivered have been the retraining of a single Crown Prosecution lawyer and the stepping-down of some Rotherham city councillors. All this is woefully inadequate for the alleged facilitation of mass child-rape -- a public inquiry is needed.
*Andrew Jones, a journalist, is currently based in Europe.
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Institutionalizing ‘fatwas’ and controlling them
Hassan Al Mustafa/Al arabiya/July 09/18
Fundamentalist groups have often had a field day in interpreting and adapting religious texts to suit their own purposes, review them outside their temporal and objective meanings and employ them in inapplicable contexts — be they events, subjects and eras — as well as use them as weapons against others.
Exploiting religious texts to issue fatwas has been essential for Islamist movements. The assassination of former Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, the attempted murder of novelist Naguib Mahfouz, the massacres committed by the Armed Islamic Group in Algeria, as well as the suicide operations carried out by al-Qaeda and ISIS are all based on fatwas used by terrorists.
This approach of arbitrarily issuing fatwas seeks to find a textual reference that justifies partisan action. It contradicts the foundations of ‘ijtihad,’ the origins of jurisprudential deductive reasoning among Muslim scholars and the concept of the modern state and its civism. This state is based on the principle of institutionalizing work and organizing it according to laws imposed on everyone and that are the state’s supreme reference.
Exploiting religious texts to issue fatwas has been essential for Islamist movements. The assassination of former Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, the attempted murder of novelist Naguib Mahfouz... The suicide operations carried out by al-Qaeda and ISIS are all based on fatwas used by terrorists
As such, many countries are now working on controlling the sway of ‘fatwas’ and trying to institutionalize them, so that violent groups and those that lack religious competency are not able to exploit them.
Avoiding exploitation of fatwas
Last June, the UAE Council of Ministers ratified the formation of the Emirates Fatwa Council under the chairmanship of Sheikh Abdallah bin Bayyah along with a number of experts that include women.
In addition to his religious expertise, Bin Bayyah is known for his strong conscience regarding the importance of the development of Fiqh, and a deep understanding that change in time and place directly impacts judgments. In addition, he is far from extremism and believes in a more tolerant and open-minded religious discourse. He is also the president of the Forum for Promoting Peace in Muslim Societies which focuses on overcoming sectarian divisions and mitigating sectarian tensions.
Before this council was formed, the Muslim Council of Elders, chaired by Al-Azhar Sheikh Dr. Ahmed Al-Tayeb was established. All these institutions aim to transfer Fiqh and religious discourse that was in accordance with the circumstances of earlier times to a level suited for the transition of Arab societies into modern civil states.
Rescuing Islam from the hands of extremists is not an easy task. As such, it necessitates extensive political and diplomatic work.
The UAE’s Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed visited the Vatican and met with Pope Francis where they emphasized the importance of dialogue between religions and the promotion of the values of tolerance and coexistence among peoples. This comes within the UAE’s work to restore the status of an Islam that is open to others, a humanistic Islam that does not distrust those with different doctrines but seeks to create common space for different religions and communities, to undermine the threat of conflict and wars in the world.
In the past decades, the Arab Gulf has been a harmonious place for co-existence among its various components, while ensuring its durability, thus preventing the exploitation of fatwas and their use for creating civil strife and accusing the society of infidelity and immorality. It is a responsibility that necessitates constant action and joint civil and government efforts.

Modern states are those designed for the citizen

Mohammed Al Shaikh/Al arabiya/July 09/18
Life experiences in the modern era have proved that the civil state is the best and ideal model that can achieve security, stability and the desired social welfare. All countries across the world are either a purely civil state or a military state.
There are only two states that are ruled by clerics and they are the Vatican and the mullahs’ republic in Iran. The Vatican is just a formal state, with no army or authority, and it is formally located within the Italian Republic.
The military state is mostly a failed state, on both the medium and long terms, and I will talk about that later in another article. The mullahs’ state in Iran is a purely religious state, which resembles the pattern that had spread in Europe before eventually vanishing.
It is currently facing real challenges, which according to all indicators, they will inevitably topple it. The religious state is only concerned with spreading its ideology, and to achieve this goal, it would sacrifice people, money, economy and services, like what is happening in Tehran.
These countries usually produce opportunists who raise similar slogans but seek to seize opportunities to make illegitimate gains, exactly like what happens in Iran. The religious state and political religious movements strongly believe in suppression and force, and in striking anyone who opposes them or rebels against them with an iron fist.Shedding blood, for example, is one of their most important means of imposing their views. Usually the uprisings and the revolutions against religious states end in civil wars which are marked with “sacred slaughtering” as leaders justify murder to their followers since their goal which they view as sacred is supporting the ideology no matter what the consequences are.Iran is in a real catastrophic crisis as it cannot fulfill the demands of its people within the country and cannot justify its foreign misadventures
Suffocated crisis
People, as history taught us, might be submissive to suppression and endure oppression, but they will not be submissive forever. The mullahs’ state in Iran is going through a suffocating economic crisis, and it does not have the practical tools that would make it capable to meet the demands of revolutionaries and demonstrators. In addition to the fact that the requirements of the goals dictated by Khomeini, their sacred leader, before his death, concerning exporting the revolution, expanding through invasion, recruiting followers, and imposing the Shiite doctrine by the force of weapons, also require huge financial resources which Iran will not be able to provide due to the tight US sanctions. Iran is in a real catastrophic crisis as it cannot fulfill the demands of its people within the country and cannot justify its foreign misadventures, which increases financial expenses by the day.
I believe that the fall of the religious State of Vilayat-e Faqih, would be inevitably followed by the fall of all the political Islam movements and organizations. Not only Shiite political Islam groups like the Lebanese Hezbollah and the Shiite Islamist movements in Iraq will fall but Sunni political Islam movements will also fall.With the collapse of all these movements, terrorism would weaken and shrink, and people would turn away from it thus it will become part of a history that was and ended, just like what happened to the Khawarij movements Islamic history has known.
All what I want to say here is that Iran’s failed Islamic experience which is about to collapse and vanish, in addition to the results of the so-called Arab Spring and the terrible failure of these Islamized revolutions, prove that the inevitable solution is the civil state experience.

Présence chrétienne ou présence du Christ ?
Antoine COURBAN | OLJ/09/07/2018
À Bari, en Italie méridionale, se sont retrouvés samedi 7 juillet, à l’initiative du pape François, la plupart des chefs d’Églises chrétiennes du Proche-Orient, pour une rencontre œcuménique d’échange et de prière en faveur du Levant ensanglanté et de ses populations victimes des conflits entretenus par la volonté de puissance des hommes et leur insatiable appétit du profit.
Cette réunion survient dans la foulée du cinquantième anniversaire de la Réunion des Œuvres d’aide aux Églises orientales (ROACO), comité pontifical créé en 1968 et présidé d’office par le préfet de la Congrégation pour les Églises orientales. Lors de cette célébration à Rome le 22 juin dernier, le pape avait explicitement dénoncé les « deux péchés » qui affaiblissent la présence des chrétiens au Levant. Il y a d’abord la « volonté de puissance » des grands de ce monde dont l’unique préoccupation est de mettre la main sur les richesses de l’Orient, faisant fi des hommes, de leurs traditions et de leur foi, suscitant ainsi des flux migratoires dramatiques vers d’autres cieux, notamment ceux d’Europe. Mais, l’évêque de Rome a également pointé un autre péché, « celui de certains prêtres, certains prélats et certaines congrégations religieuses qui reçoivent le denier de la veuve mais vivent dans l’opulence ». Il a poursuivi en disant qu’il souhaiterait voir ces « épulons chrétiens » se dépouiller un peu plus et mieux partager avec leurs frères et sœurs afin de contribuer à protéger la présence du christianisme au Levant, au travers des traditions chrétiennes vénérables et diverses, ainsi que de l’impact des actions sociales multiples des chrétiens. On rappellera que les « épulons » étaient, dans la Rome antique, un collège sacerdotal dont les prêtres avaient pour fonction d’organiser les festins et de présider les banquets destinés aux divinités. Ce faisant, le pape mit l’accent, au Proche-Orient, sur la « présence du Christ » lui-même, comprise comme expression d’un témoignage spirituel, moral et civilisationnel, plutôt que la « présence chrétienne » comprise comme simple visibilité du poids démographique et sociopolitique d’un ou de plusieurs groupes particuliers. La présence du Christ exige donc la protection de toutes les traditions spirituelles, le respect de toutes les libertés religieuses et des droits de tout membre de la famille humaine.
Une certaine confusion entre politique et religion avait surpris les observateurs, dans la teneur du communiqué, publié le 14 avril dernier, par les patriarches d’Antioche résidant à Damas (grec-orthodoxe, grec-catholique, syriaque-orthodoxe), au lendemain des frappes américaines en Syrie suite à l’utilisation de gaz toxiques contre les civils. Exprimant plutôt la position du régime syrien, le texte du communiqué portait en exergue le verset célèbre du prophète Isaïe parlant du Messie à venir, de cet « Emmanuel/Dieu-avec-Nous » que reprend souvent la liturgie chrétienne : « Écoutez ô nations et tremblez car Dieu est avec nous. » On connaît malheureusement la récupération politique et guerrière que de nombreux royaumes et puissances ont faite de cette notion messianique de l’Emmanuel ; le Gott-mit-Uns des troupes nazies étant un exemple de sinistre mémoire.
En compagnie du patriarche œcuménique de Constantinople et de la plupart des patriarches de l’Orient, le pape François n’a cessé de dénoncer à Bari cette volonté perverse des puissants ainsi que l’insatiable appétit des nantis. Il mit en cause « l’indifférence qui tue… le silence de tant et la complicité de beaucoup ». Il invita les chefs d’Église qui l’entouraient d’être « une voix qui lutte contre l’homicide et l’indifférence ». Certains prélats ne parvenaient pas à se libérer de la confusion, commune en Orient, entre politique et religion. Le patriarche syriaque-orthodoxe Ignace Ephrem II a encore une fois pris fait et cause pour le régime syrien, invitant les réfugiés à rentrer. « Je leur assure que leur retour est sûr », déclara-t-il, reconnaissant que le régime syrien a certes ses défauts, mais qu’il est largement préférable à une domination islamiste.
Mais au même moment au Liban, deux formations politico-confessionnelles, le Courant patriotique libre (CPL) et les Forces libanaises (FL) lavaient leur linge sale, mais « chrétien » tout de même, en public ; s’accusant mutuellement de ne pas respecter l’accord bilatéral de Meerab, qui permit l’élection de Michel Aoun à la présidence de la République. Le public libanais a pu ainsi apprendre que ces deux formations, imitant le modèle milicien Hezbollah-Amal, avaient décidé de prendre la société chrétienne en otage, se réservant exclusivement sa représentativité dans la vie publique. De plus, l’accord en question aliène, semble-t-il, le domaine public puisqu’il réserve la répartition des fonctions publiques, réservées aux chrétiens de diverses obédiences, au bon vouloir de ces deux formations dont la nature et l’identité ne sont ni cléricales, ni morales, ni spirituelles, et qui représentent uniquement leurs propres membres.
Témoigner pour le Christ ? Témoigner pour des chefferies claniques? Être chrétien ou ne pas être : telle est la question shakespearienne insoluble de cette « présence chrétienne » en Orient que tout le monde souhaite instrumentaliser et exploiter.