LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
May 19/2018
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani

 

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Bible Quotations
Whoever teaches otherwise and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that is in accordance with godliness, is conceited, understanding nothing, and has a morbid craving for controversy and for disputes about words.
First Letter to Timothy 05/24-25//06/01-05: "The sins of some people are conspicuous and precede them to judgement, while the sins of others follow them there. So also good works are conspicuous; and even when they are not, they cannot remain hidden. Let all who are under the yoke of slavery regard their masters as worthy of all honour, so that the name of God and the teaching may not be blasphemed. Those who have believing masters must not be disrespectful to them on the ground that they are members of the church; rather they must serve them all the more, since those who benefit by their service are believers and beloved. Teach and urge these duties. Whoever teaches otherwise and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that is in accordance with godliness, is conceited, understanding nothing, and has a morbid craving for controversy and for disputes about words. From these come envy, dissension, slander, base suspicions, and wrangling among those who are depraved in mind and bereft of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain.

Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on May 18-19/18
New US Sanctions Target Major ‘Hezbollah’ Financier/Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday, 18 May, 2018/
Boosted by Lebanon vote, Geagea eyes Hezbollah and reform/Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday, 18 May, 2018
The Lists of 'Hezbollah'/Abdulrahman Al-Rashed/Asharq Al-Awsat/May 18/2018
Gaza Riots: Really About the Embassy/Bassam Tawil/Gatestone Institute/May 18/2018
America's Missile Defense Programs - Part I/Peter Huessy/Gatestone Institute/May 18/2018
Iraqi Election Opens New Chapter/Amir Taheri/Asharq Al-Awsat/May 18/2018
Nothing Says ‘Peace’ Like 58 Dead Palestinians/Dana Milbank/The Washington Post/May 18/2018
The three noble tasks of the Saudi-Emirati axis/Mamdouh AlMuhaini//Al Arabiya/May 18/18
Islam and the new anti-Semitism manifesto/Idriss Jazairy/Al Arabiya/May 18/18
Can Ramadan ‘ceasefire’ boost prospects of peace in Indian Kashmir/Chitrapu Uday Bhaskar/Al Arabiya/May 18/18
The Real Palestinian Catastrophe/Elliott Abrams/Weekly Standard/May 18, 2018

Titles For Latest LCCC Lebanese Related News published 
on May 18-19/18
New US Sanctions Target Major ‘Hezbollah’ Financier/Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday, 18 May, 2018/
Boosted by Lebanon vote, Geagea eyes Hezbollah and reform/Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday, 18 May, 2018
The Lists of 'Hezbollah'/Abdulrahman Al-Rashed/Asharq Al-Awsat/May 18/2018
Gaza Riots: Really About the Embassy/Bassam Tawil/Gatestone Institute/May 18/2018
America's Missile Defense Programs - Part I/Peter Huessy/Gatestone Institute/May 18/2018
Iraqi Election Opens New Chapter/Amir Taheri/Asharq Al-Awsat/May 18/2018
Nothing Says ‘Peace’ Like 58 Dead Palestinians/Dana Milbank/The Washington Post/May 18/2018
The three noble tasks of the Saudi-Emirati axis/Mamdouh AlMuhaini//Al Arabiya/May 18/18
Islam and the new anti-Semitism manifesto/Idriss Jazairy/Al Arabiya/May 18/18
Can Ramadan ‘ceasefire’ boost prospects of peace in Indian Kashmir/Chitrapu Uday Bhaskar/Al Arabiya/May 18/18
The Real Palestinian Catastrophe/Elliott Abrams/Weekly Standard/May 18, 2018

 
Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin For Miscellaneous Reports And News published on May 18-19/18
At least eight dead, explosives found in Texas school shooting: sheriff
Man Arrested after Opening Fire at Trump Golf Resort near Miami
Russian Foreign, Defence Ministers Keep Posts in New Govt
Putin Meets Assad in Sochi, Calls for 'Political Process' on Syria
Erdogan Stages Islamic Summit to Back Palestinians
Growing Tensions Between Syrians and Turks in 'Little Syria'
Israel Accuses Turkey of Selling Electronic Equipment to Iran
UN Rights Chief: Israel's Gaza Response 'Wholly Disproportionate':
UN Mulls Sending International War Crimes Probe to Gaza
US Encourages Countries to Move their Embassies to Jerusalem
France Freezes Assets of 9 Firms Over Syria Chemical Weapons
Sadr, Hakim Keen to Form Largest Iraqi Parliamentary Bloc to Fend off Rivals
2 Brothers Arrested as France Foils Possible Ricin Attack
Discontent in Damascus due to Russian Police-Regime Forces Tension
Sarraj Deepens Rift with Haftar by Announcing Military Operation in Southern Libya
UAE: 16 Human Trafficking Cases Reported Last Year
Turkey: Central Bank Vows Necessary Steps to Calm Lira
Egypt: Best Economic Growth Rate in 7 Years
Sisi Orders Opening of Rafah Border Crossing with Gaza throughout Ramadan
Amsterdam Determined to Curb Number of Tourists
 
Latest LCCC Lebanese Related News published on May 18-19/18
New US Sanctions Target Major ‘Hezbollah’ Financier
Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday, 18 May, 2018/
The United States announced on Thursday new sanctions against the Lebanese “Hezbollah” party targeting its representative to Iran and one of its major financiers. The US Treasury said Mohammed Ibrahim Bazzi was a “Hezbollah” financier operating through Belgium, Lebanon and Iraq, and was a close associate of Gambia’s former President Yahya Jammeh, who is accused of acquiring vast wealth during his decades-long rule. The Treasury also imposed sanctions on “Hezbollah’s” representative to Iran, Abdullah Safieddine, who it said served as an interlocutor between “Hezbollah” and Iran on financial issues. Safieddine is “Hezbollah” Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah’s cousin. The department said it had blacklisted Belgian energy services conglomerate Global Trading Group; Gambia-based petroleum company Euro African Group; and Lebanon-based Africa Middle East Investment Holding, Premier Investment Group SAL Offshore and import-export group Car Escort Services. All were designated because they are owned or controlled by Bazzi, the Treasury said. “This action highlights the duplicity and disgraceful conduct of ‘Hezbollah’ and its Iranian backers. Despite Nasrallah’s claims, ‘Hezbollah’ uses financiers like Bazzi who are tied to drug dealers, and who launder money to fund terrorism,” said Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin in a statement carried on the department’s website. “The savage and depraved acts of one of ‘Hezbollah’s’ most prominent financiers cannot be tolerated,” he added. “This administration will expose and disrupt ‘Hezbollah’ and Iranian terror networks at every turn, including those with ties to the Central Bank of Iran,” he stated. As a result of Thursday’s action, all property and interests in property of these persons that are in the United States or in the possession or control of US persons must be blocked and reported to the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). Thursday’s sanctions are the latest in a series of others announced earlier this week against the Iran-backed “Hezbollah”. In one of the biggest moves this week aimed at clamping down on Iran’s overseas operations, the Treasury sanctioned Iran’s central bank governor, Valiollah Seif. On Wednesday, the United States, backed by Gulf States, imposed additional sanctions on “Hezbollah’s” top two leaders, Nasrallah and his deputy Naim Qassem. The sanctions are among a slew of fresh measures aimed at Iran and “Hezbollah” since US President Donald Trump withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal last week. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is set to outline in a speech in Washington on Monday plans by the United States to build a coalition to look closer at what it sees as Iran’s “destabilizing activities,” spokeswoman Heather Nauert told reporters at the State Department. Observers have expressed concern that the sanctions against “Hezbollah” will complicate the formation of a new Lebanese government in wake of recent parliamentary elections in the country. The polls saw “Hezbollah” and its allies achieve a majority in parliament. Observers noted to Asharq Al-Awsat that this was the first time that sanctions targeted the party’s political and military wings, adding that “Hezbollah’s” inclusion in the cabinet may lead to wider sanctions against the whole of Lebanon.

US and Gulf Sanctions: A Message to Lebanon, Iran, Europe
Beirut - Nazeer Rida/Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday, 18 May, 2018/Sanctions imposed by Saudi Arabia and other GCC members, in partnership with the United States, on Lebanon’s “Hezbollah,” have targeted senior officials and did not distinguish between the party’s political and military wings. Researchers opposed to the Iranian-backed group said that the latest sanctions “carried important messages to Tehran, Beirut and the Europeans on the seriousness” in dealing with the party. For the first time in Hezbollah’s history, all the group’s political leaders have been included in the sanctions list, which was issued by Saudi Arabia and its partners from the Terrorist Financing Targeting Center (TFTC). Among the sanctions is the freezing of the assets of the leaders, mainly Hassan Nasrallah, Mohammad Yazbeck, Hussein al-Khalil, Ibrahim al-Amin al-Sayyed and Talal Hamiyah. Director of Umam Research and Documentation Center Luqman Salim said the new list of sanctions was “highly symbolic” as it carries several messages. First, it systematically confirms that the US-Gulf alliance on counterterrorism and against Hezbollah was steadfast for the years to come, Salim told Asharq Al-Awsat. The second is a clear message to Tehran that no senior official is immune, meaning “targeting Nasrallah means that the sanctions may also target the heads of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, and reach the structure of the Quds Brigade.” “The third message is addressed to the Europeans, who are still trying to take a moderate stance with regards to the Iranian nuclear file and the issue of separating between Hezbollah’s political and military wings,” Salim said, adding that the message “is of some importance to the Lebanese, as Hezbollah’s victory in the parliamentary elections, “does not mean that dealing with [Hezbollah] is ‘halal’ and permissible.” The announcement by the GCC came shortly after the US Treasury imposed additional sanctions on Nasrallah and Qassem.

Aoun: Intl. Community Called Forth to Respect Lebanon’s Will

Naharnet/May 18/18/President Michel Aoun on Friday said that the international community must respect the Lebanese will to stay distant from the turmoil and developments around it in the region. “The international community is called forth to support the Lebanese will to distance Lebanon from the developments around it,” Aoun said. His remarks came during his meeting with French Foreign Ministry Chief of the Middle East and North Africa Jerome Bonnafon. On the parliamentary elections the President said: “Post-elections stage will witness the formation of a national unity government that will kick start reforms, combat corruption and implement an economic plan to help advancement.”

Report: Hizbullah Says U.S. Sanctions against Party ‘Valueless’
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/May 18/18/Hizbullah described the latest U.S. sanctions against the party’s leadership as “worthless,” saying they will have no impact on the upcoming political entitlements in Lebanon including the election of a parliament speaker and the government formation, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Friday. “The U.S. sanctions will have no impact on the mechanism of the political process of electing a speaker, deputy speaker and the parliament bureau, nor do they have an impact on the parliamentary consultations or the government formation,” a Hizbullah source told the daily on condition of anonymity. “These decisions have no value or political effect. They will not resonate with the peoples and free countries in the region and the world,” he added.The U.S. Treasury on Thursday slapped sanctions on two alleged Hizbullah financiers and five companies allegedly linked to the Iran-backed Lebanese group. “We have been accused in the past and listed as terrorists because of our commitment to resist the Israeli enemy, and for liberating our land. Today we are again accused because of our serious resistance against Takfiri terrorism,” he said.

France Freezes Company Assets in Lebanon, Syria, China over Chemical Weapons
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/May 18/18/France on Friday froze the assets for six months of companies based in Syria, Lebanon and China after they were linked to an alleged chemical weapons programme in Syria. The businesses include Sigmatec and the Al Mahrous Group, both based in Damascus; Technolab in Lebanon; and a trading company in Guangzhou in China, according to a list published in the government's official gazette. Two Syrian nationals will also face asset freezes, as well as a person born in Lebanon in 1977 whose nationality was not given.
The asset freezes were signed by French Finance minister Bruno Le Maire.In a statement, Le Maire and Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said the individuals and businesses were working for the Syrian Scientific Studies and Research Centre, widely known by its French initials CERS.
"The CERS is the main Syrian laboratory in charge of developing and producing unconventional chemical weapons and ballistic launchers," the ministers said. In January, France sanctioned 25 people and companies based in Syria, and also French, Lebanese and Chinese citizens, over suspicions of fuelling the development of chemical weapons in the war-ravaged country. The companies targeted included importers and distributors of metals, electronics, logistics and shipping.
Some thirty countries meet in Paris on Friday to put in place mechanisms to better identify and punish those responsible for using nerve agents such as Sarin and chlorine in attacks. After hundreds of people were killed in chemical attacks near Damascus in August 2013, a landmark deal with Russia was struck to rid Syria of its chemical weapons stash, staving off US air strikes. Despite the deal, a suspected chlorine and sarin attack in the Syrian town of Douma on April 7 triggered a wave of punitive missile strikes against alleged chemical weapons facilities in Syria by the United States, Britain and France. The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons is due to soon release a fact-finding report into the suspected Douma attack. The poisoning of a former Russian double agent and his daughter in Britain last March has also sparked a diplomatic stand-off between Russia and Western powers, which see the hand of Moscow behind the attack. "After disappearing for nearly 20 years, the return of chemical weapons in the hands of both state and non-state actors in Irak, Syria, Asia or Europe demands the resolute mobilisation of the international community," the French ministers said in their statement.

France Says Foiled Suspected Terror Attack

Agence France Presse/Naharnet/May 18/18/Police in France have foiled a suspected terror attack and arrested two brothers of Egyptian origin, French Interior Minister Gerard Collomb said on Friday. "There were two young people of Egyptian origin who were preparing to commit an attack, with either explosives or ricin, this very powerful poison," the minister said on BFMTV. "They had tutorials that showed how to make ricin-based poisons," Collomb said, adding that they had communicated via the Telecom encrypted messaging app. The revelation came after a 29-year-old man was killed and five other people injured in a deadly knife attack in Paris last Saturday night. Collomb did not indicate when they were arrested, but a source close to the inquiry said they were detained in the northern 18th Arrondissement of Paris on May 11, the day before Khamzat Azimov carried out his knife rampage.
One of the men "admitted having wanted to stage an attack," the source told AFP. Azimov also lived in the 18th Arrondissement, parts of which are packed with low-income high-rises and a mix of French and immigrant communities. In late March, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe had indicated that a total of 51 attacks had been thwarted by French security services since January 2015, the beginning of a wave of strikes on French soil, many claimed by the Islamic State group. A total of 246 people have been killed in attacks since then.

Abi Khalil Says Govt Incurred Huge 'Losses' because of Mistaken Decisions
Naharnet/May 18/18/Energy Minister Cesar Abi Khalil presented at a press conference on Friday the technical terms of conditions for the project of importing liquefied natural gas to Lebanon. Abi Khalil said the plan to import LNG vessels to Lebanon “has been delayed since 2010, resulting in government losses of around $27 billion due to the “agendas” of some, and previous mistaken decisions.”He added saying that “96 companies have withdrawn the books of conditions, while 13 international coalitions have qualified to bid.”He concluded saying: “We bear the project to build the State and implement the law.”

Boosted by Lebanon vote, Geagea eyes Hezbollah and reform
Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday, 18 May, 2018
The Lebanese Forces (LF), which made big gains in Lebanon's parliamentary elections earlier this month, said it will use its stronger position to press for “Hezbollah's” weapons to be brought under government control and to root out corruption in the heavily indebted state.
The LF, which almost doubled its number of MPs in the May 6 election, expects to convert those gains into more power in a new coalition government that Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri is expected to lead, LF chief Samir Geagea told Reuters in an interview published on Friday.
Geagea said it would "no doubt" be difficult to form the new government which - like the outgoing one - will share out ministries among Lebanon's rival parties, including the Iran-backed “Hezbollah”.
But citing intentions expressed by Lebanese leaders and the pressing need for economic reform, Geagea held out hope the cabinet formation would not take too long. He confirmed his party was moving towards nominating Hariri as premier again.
The formation process may have, however, hit a glitch with the United States announcing on Wednesday sanctions against “Hezbollah” Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah and his deputy, Naim Qassem. Other sanctions also targeted one of its major financiers.
Lebanon was in dire need of a "truly new" government to tackle corruption, Geagea said.
"I believe everyone has realized now that the ship might sink with everyone aboard," he added, referring to the economic risks facing the state with the world's third highest debt as a share of output. "I believe we are in a new phase."
The LF is the second biggest Christian party after the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) established by President Michel Aoun, a “Hezbollah” ally who became head of state in 2016.
While Aoun has expressed support for “Hezbollah's” possession of weapons as a deterrent to Israel, Geagea is the Shiite group's most significant Christian adversary in Lebanon and an opponent of its allies in Damascus and Tehran, reported Reuters.
“Hezbollah” and its allies also emerged with the parliamentary majority in the recent elections.
Including the FPM, Hezbollah and factions that back its possession of arms won more than 70 of parliament's 128 seats.
Hariri was always expected to lose out under a new proportional system, but he remains the leading Sunni figure in Lebanon's sectarian system.
Geagea, however, disputed that “Hezbollah” had come out stronger, saying the FPM was no real ally of the group and its backing for its weapons was "just verbal".
The LF, which won 15 seats, emerged from a Christian militia led by Geagea through the final phase of the 1975-90 civil war.
"Hezbollah", set up by Iran's Revolutionary Guards, was the only Lebanese group to keep its weapons at the end of the war.
It used them to fight Israeli troops occupying southern Lebanon.
Since Israel withdrew in 2000, the arms have been a point of contention and the group has been deemed a terrorist organization by the United States.
Noting that “Hezbollah” was part of the cabinet, Geagea said his party would propose - as a temporary measure - that its arsenal be put at the command of the government.
"If we accept, for the sake of argument, that ‘Hezbollah's’ weapons stay where they are temporarily ... why shouldn't the decision on their use be the Lebanese government's?" he said, according to Reuters.
"We will push with all our strength (towards this goal) though at the same time I see little hope in achieving anything because ‘Hezbollah's’ position on this issue is almost ideological," he continued.
He said the issue must be addressed through negotiations, adding: "No escalation, stability is a red line."
Geagea expressed concern about tensions in the wider region, where “Hezbollah” has been involved in fighting alongside the Syrian regime against the country’s uprising.
"The least I can say is that the region is going towards more escalation and complication. Will it reach a comprehensive war, or remain as it is at present? I don't know," Geagea said.
Lebanon has been spared the worst of the instability that has swept through the Arab world since 2011, though the Syrian war has exacerbated long-standing rivalries and contributed to years of paralysis in government. This has weighed on the economy of a country hosting some 1 million Syrian refugees, or one in four of its population.
Growth has stagnated while levels of government debt have climbed, moving above 150 percent of GDP at the end of 2017. The IMF in February said fiscal policy must be "immediately anchored" in a plan to stabilize and reduce debt levels.
Geagea said wiping out corruption in government was the most important step towards fixing Lebanon's finances. Reforming the heavily subsidized power sector alone would save the treasury $1.5 billion a year, he said. Another $1 billion could be saved through tackling waste and corruption elsewhere in the state.
"I fear that if the situation continues as it is - financially and economically - matters will worsen," he said.

The Lists of 'Hezbollah'
Abdulrahman Al-Rashed/Asharq Al-Awsat/May 18/2018
Six Hezbollah leaders are now on the terror lists of six Gulf countries and the United States. The importance of this issue lies also in its background.
In this month last year, the International Center for the Targeting of Terrorist Financing was inaugurated following the memorandum of understanding signed between the Gulf states and the United States in Riyadh during the visit of President Donald Trump.
Last May during US President Donald Trump's visit to Riyadh, the Terrorist Financing Targeting Center was inaugurated after a memorandum of understanding was signed between Gulf states and the US.
It is true that these six people listed do not have Saudi or Gulf bank accounts and do not visit these countries, not even the US, but blacklisting them is part of a confrontation policy that aims at curbing Iran and its proxies in the region.
Before this announcement was made, the activity of financial institutions detected in the UAE was halted because they were transferring money to Iran. A few days before that, the al-Bilad Islamic Bank in Iraq was blacklisted according to a statement issued by the US Treasury which is a member of the International Center.
Listing six Hezbollah leaders can be seen as a move that distinguishes between Lebanon and Hezbollah although the latter always seeks to combine these two entities and make the six million hostages in the country pay the price for any punishment imposed on it.
The coordination between the seven countries against Iran’s activities is relatively old but it has become stronger after the US withdrawal from the nuclear deal as Washington has actually engaged in the economic sanctions that were suspended in the last three years.
Iran has arms and militias and it is involved in fighting in a number of countries in the region and outside of it. However, we do not want opposing countries to pursue this same approach of spreading violence.
The weapons that these opposing countries and their allies use are economic, technical and informational. After Washington announced reimposing economic sanctions, the Iranian currency dropped to a point of collapse. Between these two weapons and war tactics, the Iranian government’s crisis will be more dangerous than that of opposing countries.
Those who criticize what they view as failure of the countries of the region of not confronting Iran through violence and war may not realize that facing it through economy and boycotts in partnership with major countries is more beneficial. Iran mainly relies on its oil revenues to fund its wars in Syria and Yemen and it funds Hezbollah with around $700 million a year.
It pays most of the budgets of the Hamas Movement in Gaza and the Houthi Movement in Yemen. Except for Syria, the Iranian army and Revolutionary Guards do not directly engage in fighting but they send money, arms and recruiters. Therefore, we are on the brink of a different war.
 
Aoun calls for national unity cabinet
Annahar Staff/May 18/2018 /BEIRUT: President Michel Aoun said Friday that he will seek the formation of a new national unity Cabinet, which will focus on combating corruption and prop up the economy. “Lebanon is determined to reach swift solutions for the challenges the country faces; thus a change in our approach will be a part of our actions, which will be highlighted in the Cabinet’s first agenda,” Aoun said following a meeting with the director of North African and Middle East Affairs at the French Foreign Ministry, Jerome Bonnafon. Aoun later reaffirmed his commitment to the UN Security Council’s 1701 resolution, which brought to an end the devastating 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel,“This resolution has been breached multiple times by Israel on all land, sea, and air, signifying the country’s disrespect of the international community’s will to maintain peace on Lebanon’s southern border,” he added. Following his meeting with Bonnafon, Aoun held talks with Prime Minister Saad Hariri, before chairing a meeting of the higher defense council. Hariri is expected to be nominated once again as prime minister after the newly elected parliament elects a speaker next week following the end of the tenure of the current legislature on May 21. Negotiations over the elections of a new Cabinet are expected to stall as no party has won a clear majority in parliament. The Lebanese Forces (LF) party, which almost doubled its number of MPs in the May 6 election, expects to convert those gains into more power in a new coalition government under Hariri, LF leader Samir Geagea told Reuters in an interview on Friday. Geagea said it would “no doubt” be difficult to form the new government which will include the heavily armed, Iranian-backed group Hezbollah. The LF is a staunch opponent of Hezbollah, the Shiite group that has propelled Aoun to the presidency. Along with Aoun's Free Patriotic Movement and other allies, Hezbollah secured a majority in Lebanon's new parliament, a reversal from 2009 when the anti-Hezbollah March 14-led coalition controlled the legislature.
 
Latest LCCC Bulletin For Miscellaneous Reports And News published on May 18-19/18
At least eight dead, explosives found in Texas school shooting: sheriff
Reuters/May 18/18 /SANTA FE, Texas (Reuters) - At least eight people died in a shooting at a Santa Fe, Texas, high school on Friday and police searching the building said they had taken into custody a student suspected of the attack and found explosives in the school building. The sound of gunshots tore through the air at Santa Fe High School shortly before 8 a.m. CT (1300 GMT) on Friday, witnesses told local media, and live TV images showed lines of students evacuating the building while heavily armed police responded to the scene. The incident was the latest in a long series of deadly shootings at U.S. schools. Seventeen teens and educators were shot dead at a Parkland, Florida, high school in February, a massacre that stirred the nation's long-running debate over gun ownership. Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said that eight to 10 people, both students and adults, died in the incident at the school about 30 miles (48 km) southeast of Houston."There is one person, a suspect, in custody and a second possible person of interest that is detained and being questioned," Gonzalez said at a news conference. Explosive devices had also been found at the school and off campus, Gonzalez tweeted. "Law enforcement is in the process of rendering them safe. School has been evacuated." The suspect is a 17-year-old male, a law enforcement source who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to publicly discuss the investigation, told Reuters. At least nine people were taken to area hospitals for treatment, hospital officials said. The conditions of those people was not immediately clear. Gonzalez said a police officer was also being treated for injuries. Sophomore Leila Butler told the local ABC affiliate that fire alarms went off at about 7:45 a.m. local time (1245 GMT) and students left their classrooms. She said some students believe they heard shots fired, and that she was sheltering with other students and teachers near campus.
'WE ALL TOOK OFF'
A male student, who did not identify himself, described fleeing the scene in an interview with CBS affiliate KHOU. "Three shots that I heard, so we all took off in the back and I tried to get into the trees, I didn't want to be in sight. I heard four more shots, and then we jumped the fence to somebody's house," the student said. Another sophomore, Dakota Shrader, told Fox 26 TV her 17-year-old girlfriend told her by phone that she was wounded but was recovering in a hospital. "My friend got injured," said an emotional Shrader. "Her leg, she got shot in the leg."Dr. David Marshall, chief nursing officer at the University of Texas Medical Branch, said that the hospital was treating at least three patients - two adults and one person under 18. He said it was not immediately clear if that child was a student. U.S. President Donald Trump called the latest school massacre heartbreaking.
"My administration is determined to do everything in our power to protect our students, secure our schools and to keep weapons out of the hands of those who pose a threat to themselves and to others," Trump said at the White House.
Days after the Parkland shooting, Trump said that elected officials should be ready to "fight" the powerful National Rifle Association lobby group. Early this month he embraced that group, telling its annual meeting in Dallas "your Second Amendment rights are under siege." The Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution protects the right to bear arms. No major federal gun controls have been imposed since Parkland, though the administration is pursuing a proposed regulatory ban on "bump stocks," which enable a semi-automatic rifle to fire a steady stream of bullets. The devices were used in an October 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas that killed 59 people but have not played a role in other major U.S. mass shootings. (Additional reporting by Ernest Scheyder and Liz Hampton in Houston, Gina Cherelus and Peter Szekely in New York and Mark Hosenball and Ian Simpson in Washington; Writing by Daniel Wallis and Scott Malone; Editing by Bernadette Baum and Susan Thomas)
 
Man Arrested after Opening Fire at Trump Golf Resort near Miami
Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday, 18 May, 2018/A man was arrested on Friday after he fired shots at the Trump National Doral Golf Club, a Miami-area resort owned by US President Donald Trump. South Florida authorities said the man was arrested after a shootout with police at the club lobby. Officers responded to a call about shots being fired, and they shot a man there, the Miami-Dade Police Department said on Twitter. One officer was injured in the incident. Miami-Dade Police Director Juan Perez said the man was shouting about Trump, and draped an American flag over the counter. He said the man was "actively shooting."The man, who was not identified, was taken to a local hospital and it was unclear what condition he was in, the department said on Twitter. Trump National Doral Golf Club, an 800-acre resort outside of Miami, is home to four championship golf courses, including the Blue Monster, which plays host to a PGA Tour event each year. Trump bought the property for $150 million in 2012.
 
Russian Foreign, Defence Ministers Keep Posts in New Govt
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/May 18/18/Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday approved a new government with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu retaining their posts.Finance Minister Anton Siluanov held onto his post and was promoted to the position of first deputy prime minister in the government for Putin's fourth Kremlin term, the government announced in a televised meeting.

Putin Meets Assad in Sochi, Calls for 'Political Process' on Syria
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/May 18/18/Russian President Vladimir Putin held a rare meeting with Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad on Thursday and said the "military success" in Syria allowed for a large-scale "political process" leading to the withdrawal of foreign forces and the reconstruction of the country. A day after UN special envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura warned a regime assault on the rebel-held area of Idlib could affect 2.3 million people, Putin met Assad in the southern Russian city of Sochi. "After the success of the Syrian government army in the fight against the terrorists" the condition are in place for "the start of a political process on a major scale," Putin said in a statement released by the Kremlin following the meeting. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that "there were detailed discussions" between the two leaders, who last met in December at a Russian military air base in Syria's coastal province of Latakia.  "With the start of the political process in its most active phase, foreign armed forces will withdraw from Syrian territory," Putin said, without specifying which foreign forces. Russia has been involved in Syria's civil war since September 2015. Its military support not only ensured the survival of Assad's regime but also changed the course of the war. Putin also congratulated Assad on the "successes of the Syrian government's army in the fight against terrorist groups"."The next task, of course, is the economic recovery and humanitarian aid for those people in a difficult situation," Putin added.
- 'Stability is improving' -The latest round of Syria peace talks in the Kazakh capital Astana wrapped up on Tuesday, but did not however make any concrete progress towards ending the seven-year conflict that has cost 350,000 lives. Russia, Iran and Turkey have been attempting to resolve the conflict in the talks that started last year in Astana in competition with a US and UN-backed Geneva initiative. In a statement from the Syrian presidency, Assad added on Thursday "we have evaluated the political process" and will select candidates for a constitutional committee, a suggestion proposed in January at a summit in Sochi, that will work with the United Nations.
According to the Kremlin statement, Assad said "stability is improving" in Syria, "opening the door to the political process we started some time ago". "We know it will not be easy because some countries do not want stability to return to Syria. But with you and other partners and friends, we will continue to make strong progress in the peace process," Assad was quoted as saying in the statement. "Thanks to military successes, we are managing to normalise the situation in the country, opening the way for the return of many of our compatriots." Russian television broadcast short clips from the two men's discussion.  Regime forces recaptured Ghouta from rebels last month after a ferocious offensive that displaced tens of thousands, both to government-controlled zones around Damascus and to opposition-held parts of northern Syria. De Mistura, speaking Wednesday to the UN Security Council's monthly meeting on the Syria conflict, described what he called the classic Syrian regime tactic of a bombardment of a rebel territory followed by negotiations and then mass evacuations from the defeated area. But the special envoy noted that half of the people in the northern rebel province of Idlib had already fled from other parts of Syria, "and will have nowhere else to go because there is no other place to go."Putin and Assad met on the eve of a meeting in Sochi between Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the first face-to-face talk of the year between the veteran leaders.
 
Erdogan Stages Islamic Summit to Back Palestinians
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/May 18/18/Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday hosts for the second time in half a year a summit of the main pan-Islamic bloc to show solidarity with the Palestinians and condemn Israel after the killing of dozens of Gaza protesters. Erdogan has reacted with unbridled fury to the killing by Israeli forces on Monday of 60 Palestinians on the Gaza border, accusing Israel of "genocide" and being run as an "apartheid state".
He has also called a mass demonstration in Istanbul expected to rally hundreds of thousands from 1300 GMT ahead of the summit's start at 1600 GMT. Erdogan has already staged an extraordinary meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in December last year to denounce US President Donald Trump's decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. "We must give the toughest response ... to the crime against humanity committed by Israel," Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told a meeting of OIC foreign ministers ahead of the summit.
Speaking in Geneva, UN human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein slammed Israel's reaction to the Gaza protests as "wholly disproportionate", backing calls for an international investigation. - 'OIC disunity upsetting'. However, as in 2017, disputes between the OIC's key players -- notably between Sunni kingpin Saudi Arabia and Shiite Iran -- may prevent the adoption of any measures going beyond harsh rhetoric. Riyadh -- which appears to have softened its stance on Israel as the influence of powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has grown -- and its allies fear alienating the United States with tough measures against Tel Aviv.
Saudi's chief foreign policy preoccupation, shared with Israel, is ensuring US backing to contain Iran which both Riyadh and the Jewish state see as the main threat to regional peace. Egypt and Saudi Arabia distrust Turkey's support for Islamist movements like the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas, complicating any effort to take concrete measures against Israel. Cavusoglu also said some OIC member states' failure to show enough support for the Palestinian cause "upsets us".- 'Dragged into chaos' -After declaring his intention to hold the event only on Monday, Erdogan has managed to build up an impressive guest list at short notice. Jordanian King Abdullah II will be present although the Palestinians will be represented by prime minister Rami Hamdallah and not president Mahmud Abbas who this week had surgery on his ear. From the Gulf, Kuwait's Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad Al-Sabah is expected as is Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani of Qatar, Turkey's main regional ally. Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry and Saudi counterpart Adel al-Jubeir will be at the Istanbul summit. The Saudi level of representation is higher than at the November meeting.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani will attend, state media said, and overcoming the enmity between Tehran and Riyadh will be crucial for the Turkish hosts. As in the November 2017 meeting, a controversial guest will be Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, who is wanted on charges of genocide and war crimes by the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Erdogan has long craved a role as a Muslim leader within the entire Islamic world, rarely holding back with tirades against Israel even though Ankara has diplomatic relations with the Jewish state. "If the silence on Israel's tyranny continues, the world will rapidly be dragged into a chaos where banditry prevails," Erdogan said Wednesday.- 'Curse the oppression' -Tensions with Israel and hosting such a meeting also does Erdogan no harm with his core supporters as Turkey heads to presidential and parliamentary polls on June 24. In a diplomatic crisis threatening a 2016 deal that allowed the resumption of full ties, Turkey has ordered the Israeli ambassador to leave for an unspecified period of time over the killings. Turkey had already withdrawn its Tel Aviv ambassador for consultations while Israel ordered the Turkish consul in Jerusalem to leave, also for an unspecified period of time. The rally expected just before the summit is set to take place at the Yenikapi meeting area favoured by Erdogan for election rallies and which has capacity for a million people. Erdogan is himself expected to address the rally organised under the slogan "curse the oppression, support Jerusalem".

Growing Tensions Between Syrians and Turks in 'Little Syria'
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/May 18/18/Some call it "little Syria" since it is impossible to walk down the main shopping streets in the southern Turkish city of Gaziantep without hearing traders and passers-by speaking Arabic. The city of two million lies close to the Syrian border and has welcomed nearly 500,000 of the 3.5 million Syrian refugees who have fled to Turkey since the civil war broke out in 2011. But it is a cohabitation that is not without tensions, despite reassurances by the authorities. "Here, we can consider that it is the capital of Syria, because there is more of them than us," says Turkish shopkeeper Adil Bayraz. Bayraz who has run a grocery store for 30 years, estimates that 80 percent of traders on the street where he is now are Syrian, though another trader a little down the road says the number is 90 percent.
In any case, Arabic resonates louder than Turkish in this shopping street.
Spice shops, hookah waterpipe sellers and Syrian bakeries as well as restaurants with Arabic-only menus follow one another along the street. "Our customers from Gaziantep no longer come here to shop. It has mostly become the market for Syrians," Bayraz adds, emphasising he gets along well with his neighbours, eats Syrian food and has even learned a smattering of Arabic. According to Hasan Amanakh, a grocer down the road from Bayraz, shop rents have increased while his revenues have declined. "Since you let them come, do not let them open a shop, they come shop at ours," he says angrily, addressing the authorities.
Gaziantep mayor Fatma Sahin says the city is a model of integrating the Syrian refugees into Turkish life without causing social tensions. "We have managed to be one of the cities that has managed these difficult times successfully with the least damage for those people who live here," she tells AFP. - Ransacked Syrian shops -Many Syrians in Gaziantep are grateful to their "Turkish brothers" and say they feel welcome here. It is the case for Mohammad Al-Hamaoui, owner of a small coffee and spice house. "It has been seven years since I am here so I am known on the street," he says. "Relations are normal and there is no problem... We go about our business with the Turks and Syrians without any stress."But others, who asked not to be named, tell a different story: Syrian shops ransacked, homeowners refusing to rent apartments to Syrians, difficulties obtaining loans or even simply to open a bank account as well as daily anti-Syrian comments. In a January 2018 report entitled "Turkey's Syrian Refugees: Defusing Metropolitan Tensions", the International Crisis Group said incidents of intercommunal violence increased threefold in the second half of 2017 compared to the same period in 2016.
"At least 35 people died in these incidents during 2017, including 24 Syrians," the report authors said, adding the potential for anti-refugee violence was highest in Turkey's three big cities: Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir. Officials and pro-government media reports usually "downplay tensions", the authors said, adding that this "stifles potentially salutary public debate".
 Return to Syria? -Seeking to address this discontent, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan often offers Turks reassurances that Syrian refugees are expected to return home. Since 2016, Turkey has launched two military operations in northern Syria to fight Kurdish militia and the Islamic State extremist group but also to create "safe zones" for the return of refugees. According to Erdogan, over 160,000 Syrians have already returned to these areas. "Ultimately when the security conditions are fulfilled, each will return home, to his own territory," says Sahin. Asked about the tensions, Sahin replies: "We tell (residents) to be patient, we tell them that Syrians are beginning to leave and we are making big investments to meet their needs so that their quality of life does not deteriorate. And they understand us." Yet this is not enough to convince everyone. "It's impossible for them to leave because Syria, it's finished, there is nothing left... it's a ruin," says Sinem, a housewife. She says she will "inevitably" have this question in mind when voting in the parliamentary and presidential polls on June 24. Amanakh also says this will influence his vote. "There is a feeling of despair against the government," he says. "Even those who supported them feel this revulsion."

Israel Accuses Turkey of Selling Electronic Equipment to Iran
Tel Aviv - Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday, 18 May, 2018 - 12:15Political circles in Israel leaked a confidential intelligence report accusing Turkey of selling electronic equipment to Iran, by the time efforts are being made behind the scenes to identify the diplomatic crisis between Turkey and Israel and to prevent its expansion. The report is a letter sent by Israeli government to the United Nations, lately, requesting an investigation into "the arrival of sophisticated electronic products in Iran, contrary to UN Security Council resolutions that imposed restrictions on Iranian armament."The letter said that suspicions revolve around Turkey for allegedly selling electronic equipment to Iran that appears on the list of banned materials for export to the Iran under UN Security Council Resolution 2231 of 2015, prohibiting transfer to Iran of nuclear-related products and technologies. The UN also contacted Israel seeking it open its own inquiry into the matter after it discovered the equipment sold by Turkey to Iran was manufactured by a Jerusalem-based Israeli company, considered a major manufacturer of electronic capacitors. The government of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) led to the investigation being opened after it intercepted a shipment of electronics sent by Turkey to Iran in July, 2017, according to sources. The UAE's security apparatus noticed the shipment contained the aforementioned capacitors. In the written missive sent to Israel, the UN's Secretariat noted that the electronic items were made by an Israeli company called Celem Power Capacitors, headquartered in Jerusalem. The contraband shipment contained CSP 180/300 model capacitors manufactured by the Israeli company. "We'll be grateful if your government can provide pertinent information on the matter forthwith," the Secretariat's letter said. The company further maintained that it had no notion of the capacitors being sent on to Iran. "We will cooperate with any inquiry," Celem's statement said. "We'll prove we sold them to an orderly Turkish company. We don't do business with enemy states.""While most of our sales are to Europe and the US, Turkey is not an enemy state and there's no reason not to trade with it. In any event, if the shipment did find its way to Iran, the Turkish buyer misled us," the statement concluded.
 
UN Rights Chief: Israel's Gaza Response 'Wholly Disproportionate':
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/May 18/18/The UN human rights chief on Friday slammed Israel's deadly reaction to protests along the Gaza border as "wholly disproportionate", backing calls for an international investigation. Addressing a special session of the UN Human Rights Council on the violence which has claimed more than 100 Gazan lives in six weeks, Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein warned that "killing resulting from the unlawful use of force by an occupying power may also constitute wilful killings, a grave breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention". Violations of the Geneva Conventions adopted in 1949 following World War II are commonly called "war crimes" although Zeid did not explicitly use that word.  He pointed out though that while 60 Palestinians were killed and thousands injured in a single day of protests that coincided with Monday's move of the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, "on the Israeli side, one soldier was reportedly wounded, slightly, by a stone." "The stark contrast in casualties on both sides is ... suggestive of a wholly disproportionate response," he told the council. "Nobody has been made safer by the horrific events of the past week," he said.
- 'Establish the facts' -The special UN session comes after six weeks of mass protests and clashes along the Gaza border with Palestinian refugees demanding the right to return to their homes inside what is now Israel. Israel has justified its actions, arguing it was necessary to stop mass infiltrations from the blockaded Palestinian enclave which is run by the Islamist Hamas movement. The council is due to consider a draft resolution calling for the urgent dispatch of "an independent, international commission of inquiry" -- the UN rights council's highest-level of investigation.
The draft resolution, which was presented by Pakistan on behalf of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and backed by 47 UN member states, said investigators should probe "all violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law ... in the context of the military assaults on large-scale civilian protests that began on 30 March 2018".
It said the aim should be to "establish the facts and circumstances" around "alleged violations and abuses including those that may amount to war crimes and to identify those responsible".  Israel, US slam UN -Zeid said he supported the call for an investigation "that is international, independent and impartial, in the hope the truth regarding these matters will lead to justice."Israeli ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Aviva Raz Shechter, meanwhile slammed the special session Friday, saying it was "politically motivated and won’t improve the situation on the ground by even one iota."
"The unfortunate outcome of Monday's riots can only be attributed to Hamas's cynical exploitation of its own population, in a violent campaign against Israel," she said. The council session would only serve to "empower Hamas and reward its terror strategy and its use of civilians as human shields to advance its terror activities against the citizens of Israel." US representative Theodore Allegra also charged that the UN session was "blatantly taking sides and ignoring the real culprit for the recent outbreak of violence, the terrorist organisation Hamas."But Zeid insisted that many of those injured and killed on Monday "were completely unarmed, (and) were shot in the back, in the chest, in the head and limbs with live ammunition," he said, saying there was "little evidence of any (Israeli) attempt to minimise casualties."He said, "some of the demonstrators threw Molotov cocktails, used slingshots to throw stones, flew burning kites into Israel and attempted to use wire-cutters against the two fences between Gaza and Israel." But he added: "these actions alone do not appear to constitute the imminent threat to life or deadly injury which could justify the use of lethal force."

UN Mulls Sending International War Crimes Probe to Gaza
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/May 18/18/The UN Human Rights Council will meet Friday to decide whether to send international war crimes investigators to probe the deadly shootings of Gaza protesters by Israeli forces.The special session of the UN's top rights body will consider a draft resolution calling for the council to "urgently dispatch an independent, international commission of inquiry", the UN's highest level investigation. The special session comes after a month and a half of mass protests and clashes along the Gaza border, calling for Palestinian refugees to be able to return to their homes now inside Israel.
The largest demonstrations coincided with the move of the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem on Monday, which saw Israeli forces kill some 60 Palestinians, pushing the overall toll well over 100. Israel has justified its actions, saying they are necessary to stop mass infiltrations from the blockaded Palestinian enclave run by Islamist movement Hamas. The draft resolution discussed Friday, presented by Pakistan on behalf of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and backed by 47 UN member states, said the investigators should look into "all violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law ... in the context of the military assaults on large scale civilian protests that began on 30 March 2018". It said the aim should be to "establish the facts and circumstances" around "alleged violations and abuses including those that may amount to war crimes and to identify those responsible". The special session of the council came at the request of Palestine and the United Arab Emirates, on behalf of Arab countries in the council, the UN said earlier this week. In addition to the Arab countries, China, France, Brazil, Sweden, and Switzerland were among the 51 countries who supported the special session. The UN human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein is expected to speak at the opening of the session, as is the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian Territory.

US Encourages Countries to Move their Embassies to Jerusalem
Ramallah - Kifah Ziboun/Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday, 18 May, 2018/A US State Department official said the US administration is encouraging and urging other countries to consider relocating their embassies to Jerusalem. The official told Israel’s Kan radio that US President Donald Trump and other officials in his administration are following this matter and are in contact with officials in different countries. Washington moved its embassy to Jerusalem on Monday despite the outraged objection of Palestinians, Arabs and the international community, sparking protests on the Gaza border that left 63 Palestinians dead from Israeli gunfire. Two days after the US move, Guatemala opened its embassy in Jerusalem. The inauguration ceremony was attended by Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The Palestinian Authority described Guatemala’s move as "begging and political humiliation through aggression against our people and our Palestinian cause." In addition to the United States and Guatemala, Honduras, Romania and the Czech Republic are studying relocating heir embassies to Jerusalem. Israeli Minister of Jerusalem Affairs and Environmental Protection Zeev Elkin confirmed that these countries are considering the move, saying contacts are underway over the issue. Israel's Ambassador to Honduras Mati Cohen confirmed that Tegucigalpa was considering moving its embassy to Jerusalem, but saying: “It has not yet taken a formal decision on the issue. But the Israeli representative in the country is in constant contact with the president, the parliament and the foreign minister.”The relocation to Jerusalem is likely to happen despite Palestinian warnings against following the US move. The PA threatened to cut relations with any country that decides to move its embassy and, at a later stage, prosecute it. The Palestinian foreign ministry summoned its ambassadors to Austria, Czech Republic, Romania and Hungary over their country’s participation in Monday’s inauguration of the US embassy in Jerusalem in order to discuss the future of relations with these nations.


France Freezes Assets of 9 Firms Over Syria Chemical Weapons
Paris- Asharq Al Awsat/Friday, 18 May, 2018/France froze on Friday the assets of three people and nine companies based in Syria, Lebanon and China after they were suspected of involvement in the development of chemical weapons in Syria. In a joint statement, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire and Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said the move was aimed at cracking down on networks suspected of helping Syria’s Scientific Studies and Research Center, widely known by its French initials CERS. The businesses include Sigmatec and the Al Mahrous Group, both based in Damascus; Technolab in Lebanon; and a trading company in Guangzhou in China, according to a list published in the government's official gazette. Two Syrian nationals will also face asset freezes, as well as a person born in Lebanon in 1977 whose nationality was not given. The asset freezes were signed by Le Maire. "The CERS is the main Syrian laboratory in charge of developing and producing unconventional chemical weapons and ballistic launchers," the ministers said. In January, France sanctioned 25 people and companies based in Syria, and also French, Lebanese and Chinese citizens, over suspicions of fueling the development of chemical weapons in the war-ravaged country. The companies targeted included importers and distributors of metals, electronics, logistics and shipping. Some thirty countries meet in Paris on Friday to put in place mechanisms to better identify and punish those responsible for using nerve agents such as Sarin and chlorine in attacks. After hundreds of people were killed in chemical attacks near Damascus in August 2013, a landmark deal with Russia was struck to rid Syria of its chemical weapons stash, staving off US air strikes. Despite the deal, a suspected chlorine and sarin attack in the Syrian town of Douma on April 7 triggered a wave of punitive missile strikes against alleged chemical weapons facilities in Syria by the United States, Britain and France. The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons is due to soon release a fact-finding report into the suspected Douma attack. The poisoning of a former Russian double agent and his daughter in Britain last March has also sparked a diplomatic stand-off between Russia and Western powers, which see the hand of Moscow behind the attack. "After disappearing for nearly 20 years, the return of chemical weapons in the hands of both state and non-state actors in Iraq, Syria, Asia or Europe demands the resolute mobilization of the international community," the French ministers said in their statement.

Sadr, Hakim Keen to Form Largest Iraqi Parliamentary Bloc to Fend off Rivals
Baghdad - Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday, 18 May, 2018/In what was seen as a surprise move by many observers, prominent Shiite Iraqi leaders Moqtada al-Sadr and Ammar al-Hakim announced that they will join forces to form the largest bloc in the country’s parliament. Sadr, head of the Sairoun bloc, emerged as the shock winner in the weekend’s Iraqi parliamentary elections. Preliminary results showed that Hakim, head of the Hikma movement, won 22 seats. By forging an alliance, Sadr and Hakim will propose that a new prime minister be appointed from their new bloc. Political powers need 165 seats out of 329 to form the largest bloc in parliament, which will allow them to form a new government. During a joint press conference in the city of Najaf on Thursday, Sadr and Hakim said that they will launch efforts to establish such a bloc and fend off rivals, most notably former PM Nouri al-Maliki and Iran-backed Hadi al-Ameri’s Fatah alliance. Hakim stressed that the alliance with Sadr will form a national unity government that will serve the Iraqi people. Sadr, for his part, announced: “We are heading towards a new phase to reconstruct Iraq and form a technocratic government.”Preliminary elections results showed that Sadr’s bloc won 55 seats, Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi won 51, Ameri won 49, Hakim 22 and Maliki 25. The Kurdish Democratic Party of Masoud Barzani won 28 seats, Kosrat Rasoul of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan won 15 and former Iraqi Vice President Iyad Allawi 21.
An alliance between Sadr, Hakim, Abadi and Sunni and Kurdish parties could obtain a comfortable majority to form a new government. Political observers already believe that Sadr and Hakim’s announcement will be supported by Sunnis and some Kurdish forces.

2 Brothers Arrested as France Foils Possible Ricin Attack
Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday, 18 May, 2018 /Police in France have foiled a suspected terror attack using ricin or explosives, and arrested two Egyptian-born brothers, French Interior Minister Gerard Collomb said on Friday. "There were two young people of Egyptian origin who were preparing to commit an attack, with either explosives or ricin, this very powerful poison," the minister said on BFM television. "They possessed instructions on how to make ricin-based poisons," Collomb said, adding that they had communicated via the Telegram encrypted messaging app. The revelation came after a 29-year-old man was killed and five other people injured in a deadly knife attack in Paris last Saturday night. Collomb did not indicate when they were arrested, but a source close to the inquiry said they were detained in the northern 18th Arrondissement of Paris on May 11, the day before Khamzat Azimov carried out his knife rampage. One of the men "admitted having wanted to stage an attack," the source told AFP. Azimov also lived in the 18th Arrondissement, parts of which are packed with low-income high-rises and a mix of French and immigrant communities. A close friend of his was arrested and given preliminary terrorism charges Thursday night. In late March, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe had indicated that a total of 51 attacks had been thwarted by French security services since January 2015, the beginning of a wave of strikes on French soil, many claimed by ISIS. More than 240 people have been killed in attacks since then.

Discontent in Damascus due to Russian Police-Regime Forces Tension

London - Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday, 18 May, 2018/The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) revealed Thursday that there is rage and discontent among the regime supporters due to a tension between the Russian and Syrian forces by which its consequences haven’t ended yet. The reason behind the tension is that members of the Russian military police attacked an officer in the regime forces and other members in Babbila. Meanwhile, the southern part of the capital Damascus is witnessing continued violent clashes between terrorist ISIS members and regime forces who are supported by militiamen loyal to them from Syrian and non-Syrian nationalities. This is taking place in areas of Yarmouk Camp and the areas between it and Al-Hajar al-Aswad and in Al-Tadamon neighborhood, where the fighting between both parties is accompanied by intensive shelling from the regime forces on ISIS controlled areas, which caused further destruction amid raids by warplanes on the same areas, in an attempt by each party to further advance at the expense of the other side. This ongoing fighting in south of Damascus left a lot of human casualties on both sides, where SOHR monitored the rise of human losses in the ranks of the both parties. Since Thursday the 19th of April 2018 the number of losses reached up to 227 persons from regime forces and militiamen loyal to them, while at least 212 ISIS members have been also killed in the shelling and clashes that further left tens of wounded in the ranks of the both parties.
The death toll is expected to rise because of the continued combat operations and the presence of injured cases who are in critical situation. The Syrian Observatory published Thursday that it monitored the regime forces being able to advance with the support of their allies, and forcing the organization to withdraw from the remaining areas it used to control in al-Hajar al-Aswad neighborhood, where the regime forces imposed their control over the entire neighborhood of al-Hajar al-Aswad.

Sarraj Deepens Rift with Haftar by Announcing Military Operation in Southern Libya
Cairo - Khaled Mahmoud/Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday, 18 May, 2018 /In a move that will deepen differences with Libyan National Army commander Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, National Accord Government Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj announced his opposition to the LNA’s military operation in the eastern city of Derna and ordered the formation of a military force to protect the South. Sarraj ordered on Thursday the commanders of the military of Tripoli, the western and central regions to prepare, within ten days, their forces to form a unit tasked with protecting and securing the South.
Violent intermittent clashes had erupted in Sabha on Saturday after al-Tabou clan members seized control of the southwestern city’s military zone. Clashes between al-Tabou and Awlad Suleiman clans have been ongoing there since February 25. Various Libyan powers have accused African migrants from Chad, Niger and Sudan of fighting for the Tabou clan. Sources close to Haftar predicted the Sarraj’s military intervention in the South will deepen the political and military disputes with the LNA. They warned to Asharq Al-Awsat that the move may deter Haftar from holding talks with Sarraj in a meeting that is being planned by France, similar to the one it hosted between the two leaders in 2017. The move may also impede holding a Cairo meeting between Haftar and Sarraj’s respective military officers, they added. Egypt has been mediating efforts to unite the Libyan army. Head of the elders council in the Wadi al-Shate area, Ali Hammouda rejected Sarraj’s decision, saying it is a precursor to legitimizing militias. He therefore called on the residents of the South to confront it “with all force.”“We will confront the decision to avert transforming the South into a civil war zone. The people there need projects, services and reconstruction, not criminal militias,” he declared. In declaring his operation in the South, Sarraj had expressed his concern over the news of airstrikes targeting Derna and demanded that the stifling siege be lifted off the city. He said that the opportunity was available for retreat “otherwise the consequences will be severe and the war will go beyond Derna to other regions.” Prominent Muslim Brotherhood official Khaled al-Mashry condemned the Derna offensive, deeming the shelling of the city as a crime and violation of human rights and all international treaties. The United Nations mission in Libya called on all sides of the armed conflict in Derna to respect International Humanitarian Law and take all necessary measures to protect civilians. Haftar’s forces have meanwhile seized the al-Dhar al-Hamr, al-Hila and Martouba near Derna. This was the first time that the LNA announces its gains on the ground in the Derna operation that it launched in early May.

UAE: 16 Human Trafficking Cases Reported Last Year
Abu Dhabi - Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday, 18 May, 2018/The annual report of the UAE’s National Committee to Combat Human Trafficking has said that there were 16 cases of human trafficking, involving 28 victims, last year. Ten of the 16 cases included “sexual exploitation,” said the report.
Courts have issued sentences in seven of the cases, while nine more verdicts are expected this year, said the committee. Two suspects out of the seven found guilty of human trafficking in 2017 were given life sentences, it added. “The UAE is committed to the promotion and protection of human rights and to continue to combat the crime of human trafficking,” Dr. Anwar Gargash, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, who is also chairman of the committee, said in a press conference in Abu Dhabi Thursday. In September 2017, the UAE declared, during a high-level meeting organized by the United Nations General Assembly in New York, that it will provide US$100,000 to the United Nations Voluntary Trust Fund for Victims of Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children. Gargash told the conference that the UAE has launched an official campaign to combat human trafficking by issuing Federal Law No. 51 of 2006 as amended under Federal Law No. 01 of 2015 to provide better guarantees for victims. He stressed that the committee’s strategy is based on five pillars - prevention, legal action, punishment, protecting victims and promoting international cooperation. Gargash said it was important to raise awareness among those who are most vulnerable to human trafficking by educating them about their rights and how to approach official authorities. Over 71 programs, which have benefited more than 5,939 people, have been implemented in the UAE, he added.

Turkey: Central Bank Vows Necessary Steps to Calm Lira
Ankara - Saeed Abdelrazek/Asharq Al-Awsat/May 18/2018/Turkey's Central Bank announced that it will be watching closely unhealthy prices in the market, saying it will take the necessary steps to limit the repercussions of these developments on inflation.
The announcement of Turkey’s Central Bank came as an attempt to reduce the tension arising from the collapse of the Turkish lira and against the backdrop of a meeting between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Central Bank governor Murat Cetinkaya on Wednesday.
They discussed economic developments in the country and the continuous relapse of the Turkish Lira against the American dollar, to a record and unprecedented rate, as well as rising inflation that reached 11 percent in April. Erdogan is putting pressure on the central bank to reduce the interest rate. The Turkish lira dropped to its lowest levels in 8 years on Wednesday, reaching TRY4.5 against one dollar before it dropped to TRY4.41 at the end of the transactions. Yet, it rose again to approximately TRY4.44. Erdogan has said he intends to take greater control over monetary policy after presidential elections on June 24.The bank said Wednesday that it “is closely monitoring the unhealthy price formations in the markets.”“Necessary steps will be taken, also considering the impact of these developments on the inflation outlook,” it added in a statement.

Egypt: Best Economic Growth Rate in 7 Years
Cairo - Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday, 18 May, 2018/The Ministry of Planning Monitoring and Administrative Reform (MPMAR) in Egypt announced that the GDP growth for the third quarter of the 2017/18 fiscal year rose to 5.4 percent from 5.3 percent in the first nine months of that year.
Planning Minister Hala al-Saeed said in the statement that the achieved results during the third quarter of 2017-2018 are the best since seven years. "The Egyptian economy is currently reaping the fruits of the bold economic reform program implemented by the government," Saeed said, adding that this is the "best growth rate in seven years."Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) announced this week a notable relapse in unemployment rate which reflects the economic momentum in the country in which unemployment dropped to 10.6 percent during the first three months in 2018 from 12 percent in the same period of 2017, knowing that the rate was 11.3 percent in the final quarter of 2017. Regarding the sectors most contributing to operating levels, Saeed said that five sectors managed to achieve 68 percent of the total operating rate, on top of them the agriculture sector (20.5 percent), wholesale and retail sector (14.1 percent), transformational sector (12.9 percent) construction sector (12.6 percent) and transportation sector (7.5 percent).She ensured that the global and local economic condition will continue to improve, knowing that its enhancement has reflected on a growth in the Egyptian exports. Non-oil exports reached 12 percent during the first nine months of the current fiscal year and 14.5 percent during the third quarter. In a related matter, Amr El Garhy, the minister of finance, said that he presented on Thursday infront of the cabinet the results of Standard & Poor's that raised Egypt’s rating from B- to B. Garhy added that the progress in rating on the medium-term and long-term grants greater confidence to the Egyptian economy and reflects the confidence in positive and structural economic reforms. The progress reinforces opportunities of increasing economic growth to reach 3.5 percent.

Sisi Orders Opening of Rafah Border Crossing with Gaza throughout Ramadan
Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday, 18 May, 2018/Egyptian President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi announced late on Thursday that the Rafah border crossing with the Gaza Strip will be opening throughout the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. Sisi wrote on his official Twitter account that the opening would "alleviate the burdens of the brothers in the Gaza Strip." The last extended opening lasted three weeks in 2013, while usually Palestinians are able to cross for a few dozen days a year. Previous openings of Rafah have been cut short by violence in the Sinai peninsula or with authorities giving other reasons.
On Thursday, 541 people crossed from Egypt into Gaza along with dozens of trucks carrying cement, steel, power engines and medical and food aid from the Red Crescent, the officials said. Sisi’s announcement comes just days after Israeli forces shot and killed 60 Palestinians and injured more than 2,700 during mass protests along the Gaza border. The high number of wounded has overwhelmed the Gaza health system. A total of 114 Gazans have been killed in border protests and clashes since March 30, in the run-up to the controversial opening Monday of the US embassy in Jerusalem. The crossing has been open since Saturday so Sisi’s announcement is technically an extension of the opening and Egyptian authorities said 510 people crossed on Wednesday, the majority coming from Gaza into Egypt. The Rafah crossing is Gaza's main gate to the outside world but has only had sporadic openings since the 2013 ouster of Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi, of the Muslim Brotherhood. For more than a decade Israel has imposed a crippling blockade on Gaza which it says is necessary to isolate the Palestinian Hamas movement that controls the coastal strip.
But critics argue it amounts to collective punishment of the enclave's residents, with 47 percent suffering from food insecurity according to United Nations figures.
 
Amsterdam Determined to Curb Number of Tourists
Amsterdam - Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday, 18 May, 2018/Amsterdam revealed plans on Wednesday to rein in tourism, reflecting the dissatisfaction of many residents who feel the city’s historic center has been overrun. The leading Green-Left and other parties negotiating a new municipal government after March elections vowed to return “Balance to the City”, in a document of that name seen by Reuters. “The positive sides of tourism such as employment and city revenues are being more and more overshadowed by the negative consequences” including trash and noise pollution, the document said. Changes the document outlines include curtailing “amusement transportation” such as multi-person “beer bikes”; cracking down on alcohol use in boats on the canals; further restricting AirBnB and other home rentals; and a large tax hike. With a population of around 800,000, the city expects 18 million tourists in 2018, an increase of 20 percent from 2016 levels, according to Reuters. Anti-tourist and anti-expatriate sentiment have been steadily on the rise in Amsterdam, as both are blamed in part for helping drive housing prices increasingly out of the reach of ordinary Dutch people. The average apartment in Amsterdam cost 407,000 euros ($475,000) in 2017, an increase of around 12 percent from 2016 levels, according to national real estate association NVM.


Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on May 18-19/18
Gaza Riots: Really About the Embassy?
Bassam Tawil/Gatestone Institute/May 18/2018
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/12329/gaza-riots-jerusalem-embassy
Throughout history, the excuses to attack Israel keep changing.
For 8 years under the Obama administration, the Palestinians had portrayed themselves, and been treated as, the deserving underdog -- the "good guys." Now, a foreign government is actually holding the Palestinians accountable and calling them out for activities they had taken for granted, such as incitement to riot and murder, or funding terrorists and their families. The Palestinians do not like it one bit.
The Palestinians hate the Trump administration not because of the decision to move the US embassy to Jerusalem, but because it speaks truth to them and exposes their perfidy and malice. They hate the Trump administration because they see it as an obstacle on their way to eliminating Israel.
What happened at the border between Israel and the Gaza Strip was an act of aggression by Hamas on Israeli sovereignty. It was an act of war. Even the terrorists did not say that they were protesting the embassy relocation. The terrorists and the rest of the Palestinian demonstrators were chanting "Death to Israel" and "Death to America." They were chanting that their goal is to replace Israel with an Islamic state.
The idea that Hamas is concerned about the US embassy move is a sick joke. All one needs to do is to listen carefully to what Hamas is saying, namely that its struggle is to "liberate all of Palestine, from the Mediterranean Sea to the Jordan River." Hamas is saying that the protests it has been orchestrating are aimed at enabling millions of Palestinians to flood Israel and turn it into an Islamic state.
Much of the world is convinced that the Palestinian protests that took place on May 14 and 15 were directly connected to the inauguration of the US embassy in Jerusalem.
This misapprehension can be traced directly to the international media, which helped create the impression that the clashes that took place between Palestinians and the Israel Defense Forces along the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel came in response to US President Donald Trump's decision to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
Instead, what we have witnessed in the past few days is part of the ongoing Palestinian struggle against Israel. This is a struggle that began with the establishment of Israel 70 years ago and is continuing to this day. It is a struggle that every now and then finds a new excuse to launch terror attacks against Israel and kill as many Jews as possible.
Most notably, throughout history, the excuses to attack Israel keep changing.
Once, it was that Ariel Sharon, then Israel's opposition leader, had "invaded the Al-Aqsa Mosque." This was in September 2000, and Palestinians used that lie to launch the Second Intifada: a massive wave of suicide bombings and drive-by shootings and other forms of terrorism that left thousands of Israelis maimed or dead. At that time, Palestinian leaders told their people to take to the streets to defend their holy sites because Sharon and other Jews were planning to destroy them.
About three years ago, Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas and his Ramallah-based associates lied to their people again. This time, they told Palestinians that permitted visits by Jews to the Temple Mount, also known to Muslims as Haram Al-Sharif, were designed to destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
Abbas even went as far as vowing that the Palestinians would not allow Jews to "defile with their filthy feet our holy sites." Abbas's well-known speech ignited another uprising -- this time known as the "Knife Intifada."
It is no secret that the Palestinians were never happy with the election of President Trump. It is no secret that the Palestinians were never happy that President Trump had surrounded himself with a number of Jewish senior advisors: Jason Greenblatt, Jared Kushner and US Ambassador David Friedman.
From the moment Trump took office, the Palestinians saw that the good old days of the Barack Obama administration were gone. The Palestinians had gotten used to hearing the White House and State Department scapegoat Israel for the crimes of the Palestinians. The Palestinians noticed a rather dismaying change in tone between the two administrations.
Suddenly, the Palestinians woke up to see criticism being fired in their direction. This came as quite a shock to them. For 8 years under the Obama administration, they had portrayed themselves, and been treated, as the deserving underdog – the "good guys." Now, a foreign government was actually holding the Palestinians accountable and calling them out for activities they had taken for granted, such as incitement to riot and murder, or funding terrorists and their families. The Palestinians do not like it one bit.
The Palestinians hate the Trump administration not because of the decision to move the US embassy to Jerusalem. They hate the Trump administration because they see it as being pro-Israel. They hate the Trump administration because it speaks truth to them and exposes their perfidy and malice. They hate the Trump administration because they see it as an obstacle on their way to eliminating Israel.
Does anyone seriously think that a young Palestinian living in the Gaza Strip and who has never been outside the coastal enclave really cares whether the US embassy is located in Jerusalem? This Palestinian has never been to Jerusalem or the West Bank; in most instances, young Palestinians have not even been out of the Gaza Strip.
Why should a young Palestinian living in the Gaza Strip care about the embassy relocation from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem when the vast majority of the Arab residents of Jerusalem and Arab countries do not seem to be bothered by Trump's decision?
Proving this week that the last thing on their mind is the issue of the US embassy, the Arabs of Jerusalem did not stage any protests or even go on strike (only a few Arab citizens of Israel and a handful of political activists from east Jerusalem showed up for a planned protest near the site of the new US embassy). Moreover, we did not see millions of Arabs and Muslims take to the streets in their countries to express outrage over the embassy move.
It is true that the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip demonstrated along the border with the Gaza Strip on May 14, the day when the inauguration ceremony for the US embassy took place in Jerusalem.
However, the demonstrations were in the context of the so-called Great March of Return, a six-week campaign launched by Hamas and other Palestinian groups. The organizers said that the march had three main goals: to achieve the "right of return" for Palestinian refugees and their descendants so that they would be able to move to Israel, to thwart Trump's yet-to-be-announced plan for peace in the Middle East, and to return the Palestinian issue to the top of the world's agenda.
The "Great March of Return" demonstrations began in late March and reached their peak on May 14, one day before the Gregorian day marking Israel's 70th anniversary, which the Palestinians call Nakba Day (Catastrophe Day). So the demonstrations that took place on the day of the inauguration of the US embassy in Jerusalem were in the context of the "Great March of Return," and not specifically planned for the embassy move.
The demonstrations that took place that day were no different from the previous weekly protests orchestrated by Hamas and its allies in the Gaza Strip. On May 14, thousands of Palestinians again tried to breach the border with Israel, but were repelled by Israeli troops. They did not try to breach the border to protest against the embassy relocation.
Rather, they sought to infiltrate Israel to wreak havoc and kill Jews. Jerusalem is about 97 km (62 miles) away from the Gaza border, and they knew that they would never be able to reach that city.
What happened at the border between Israel and the Gaza Strip was an act of aggression by Hamas on Israeli sovereignty. It was an act of war. It was an attempt by a terror group to use tens of thousands of civilians as a cover to infiltrate the border. ِEighty percent of those killed by the Israeli army on that day were Hamas members. Even Hamas has admitted this; senior Hamas official and spokesmen Salah Al-Bardaweel revealed in a television interview that 50 of the 62 Palestinians killed by Israeli gunfire were Hamas members.
Pictured: A group of young Gazan men drag away of section of razor wire that was cut away from Israel's security fence, as part of Hamas' attempt to breach the border and cross into Israel, May 14, 2018. (Image source: VOA News video sreenshot)
If the protests in the Gaza Strip were against the US embassy inauguration ceremony, what were 50 Hamas members doing trying to infiltrate the border with Israel? Were they on their way to holding a peaceful protest against the Trump administration? Were they on their way to stage a peaceful sit-in strike outside the offices of the United Nations in Jerusalem?
No: the Hamas terrorists were on their way to kill Jews. They were on their way to infiltrate Israeli communities near the border with the Gaza Strip. Even the terrorists did not say that they were protesting the embassy relocation.
The terrorists and the rest of the Palestinian demonstrators were chanting "Death to Israel" and "Death to America." They were chanting that their goal is to replace Israel with an Islamic state. They were chanting that there is no room for Jews in this region. They were chanting slogans against the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, whom they accuse of being too friendly with Israel and the Trump administration.
The Palestinians are using the issue of the US embassy as yet another excuse to pursue their war on Israel. Abbas and his cronies are using the embassy as an excuse to step up their campaign to delegitimize and demonise Jews. Their goal is to isolate Israel in the international community.
Does anyone seriously think that Abbas really cares about the precise location of the US embassy? Why has he never protested against the fact that the US Consulate General is already in Jerusalem? Why has he never protested that the Knesset and the Prime Minister's Office and the Israeli Supreme Court are already based in Jerusalem? Why should Abbas or any Palestinian be upset if the US embassy is located in west Jerusalem and not in an Arab neighbourhood in east Jerusalem? Abbas is not objecting to the embassy; Abbas is objecting to the Israeli state, which he has repeatedly described as a "colonialist project" imposed on Arabs by Western powers.
If he really cared about the US embassy inauguration, he would not have spent the days prior to the ceremony in Chile, Venezuela and Cuba.
The idea that Hamas is concerned about the US embassy move is a sick joke. All one needs to do is to listen very carefully to what Hamas is saying, namely that its struggle is to "liberate all of Palestine, from the Mediterranean Sea to the Jordan River." Hamas is saying that the protests it has been orchestrating are aimed at enabling millions of Palestinians to flood Israel and turn it into an Islamic state with a Jewish minority. Hamas could not care less about the location of the embassy. Hamas wants "Palestine" and "Palestine" in its entirety.
Abbas and Hamas are using the US embassy move to wage another blood libel against Israel, by accusing it of killing innocent and unarmed civilians -- a charge that is wholly counterfactual in the wake of Hamas's own admission that most of the victims were Hamas terrorists. The Palestinians have once again found an excuse to wage war on Israel and Jews, this time in the form of the embassy move.
They are trying to create the false impression that the conflict with Israel began -- and is now focused on -- Trump's decision to move the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem -- as if before the decision, Palestinians had recognized Israel's right to exist as the homeland of the Jewish people. As if before the decision, Palestinians had not been engaged in semi-daily killings of Jews. As if before the decision, Palestinians had not been inciting and promoting violence against Jews.
Sadly, there are many in the international media who are helping the Palestinians promote the lie that this moment in the Israeli Arab conflict is all about the decision to move the US embassy to Jerusalem. In reality, this moment – and all others – in the Israeli-Arab conflict is about some Arabs rejecting that Israel exists at all, within any borders, in the Middle East.
*Bassam Tawil is a Muslim Arab based 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.

America's Missile Defense Programs - Part I
Peter Huessy/Gatestone Institute/May 18/2018
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/12323/missile-defense-programs
This missile defense capability gives the President of United States, for the first time, the strength needed to defend the country from ballistic missile threats. — Lt. Gen. (ret.) Trey Obering, former Director of the Missile Defense Agency, 2004-2008.
With the American withdrawal from the Iran nuclear "deal" and the President's on-again-off-again forthcoming summit with the leader of North Korea, missile threats to the United States and its allies are very much a concern.
Iran last week for the first time launched rockets from Syria aimed at Israel, which used Iron Dome defenses to shoot them down.
And as part of any nuclear deal with North Korea, the US and its allies are seeking to eliminate not just North Korean nuclear weapons, but also strictly limit the North Korean missile arsenal.
What, then, is the status of America's missile defense programs, particularly the system of interceptor missiles and radars that now protect the American people -- irrespective of the outcomes of the summit in Singapore between the President and the head of North Korea or possible future negotiations with Iran?
A frequent refrain of U.S. missile defense critics has been that America's ground-based interceptors (GBI's) in Alaska and California are so limited to be of little use in protecting against rogue state missile threats such as from North Korea and Iran. On the other hand, these same critics simultaneously claimed the U.S. missile defenses were potentially so effective against China and Russia as to dangerously undermine deterrence and international stability.
Of course, U.S. missile defenses cannot be both ineffective against small threats but effective against large threats. This confusion was addressed by retired Lt. Gen. Trey Obering, the former Director of the Missile Defense Agency from 2004-2008 in a recent speech.
Obering said the reason the US initially provided a "limited missile defense" is because "that was all we were able to do."
Obering noted that the 1972 ABM Treaty was in effect from Reagan's 1983 SDI speech through 2002. No US missile defense system protecting the American people was legally possible. Missile defense critics accepted this, and bafflingly repeated that keeping the American people 100% vulnerable to enemy ballistic missiles was the "cornerstone to strategic stability".
Just think: for a significant number of "expert analysts", giving Iran and North Korea the ability to blow us all to kingdom come was considered acceptable. In short, the thinking was that mutual vulnerability would give rise to mutual deterrence, as it is meant to do with Russia and China.
Fifteen years ago, prior to the deployment of the Ground Based Interceptor (GBI), system in California and Alaska, the U.S. had no defense against long-range missiles. U.S. sea-based interceptors were also not deployed on ships because testing had not been completed. And the PAC-3 Patriot missile defenses had never been deployed operationally.
In summary, said Obering, in late 2003 and early 2004, the U.S. had no missile defense except a very small number of old Patriot missiles, not even initially designed for missile defense.
Again, as General Obering recalled, "There were people in this country that were very, very happy with that. They thought missile defense was destabilizing. They thought it was too technically hard to do. And they thought that it would be political Armageddon" if missile defenses were deployed.
Despite the strong opposition to missile defense in the Senate, however, the Congress, along with the administration pf George W. Bush, the Missile Defense Agency, the aerospace industrial partners, and the American Combat Commanders, have been responsible for a remarkable production and deployment of missile defense capabilities beginning in the summer of 2004.
"When we began to deploy these capabilities, were they perfect?" Obering continued. "No, they were not, and we knew they weren't perfect. But the critics kept saying they should not be deployed unless they were perfect."
Even when the tests proved that the defenses worked, critics alleged that the tests were rigged.
The important thing was to get some military utility into the hands of the war fighters and then improve the material going forward. "That's why," Obering explained, "the GBI interceptors in Alaska and California in the ground today are not the same ones the United States put out there before." In fact, using these upgraded interceptors, the United States has intercepted five of the past six targets, an 80% success rate.
Now says General Obering, the U.S. has built upgraded early warning radars and new X-band radars. These new technologies are in Alaska, California, the United Kingdom, Greenland, Massachusetts, Japan, and Israel. There is, in addition, an extremely powerful sea-based X-band radar that sits in Hawaii. All help identify and track attacking missiles.
The United States also has hundreds of mobile land-based interceptors and sea-based Standard Missile 3s on Aegis BMD-capable ships, including interceptors at the Aegis Ashore site in Romania, with another site coming in Poland.
The THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) system, now deployed in Korea, could not hit anything when it was first tested, according to General Obering. The United States had failure after failure. But then the U.S. figured out the missile technology; now the THAAD has the most successful test record of any ballistic missile in the U.S. inventory.
Surprisingly, even when an American missile defense system had no successful test record upon which to rely, the United States was able to use it in real combat. For example, said Obering, during Operation Iraqi Freedom, despite having no certified missile defense available, when Army Major General Stan Green said he needed help, General Obering, with just a handshake, got Patriot-3 sent to the theater anyway. It was successful in three intercepts of Iraqi missiles.
Now, some 14 years after the first deployment of missile defense interceptors, the United States and its allies -- particularly Israel, a number of Gulf states, Japan, and the Republic of Korea -- have deployed world-wide thousands of interceptors of all kinds. These interceptors include a GBI system in Alaska and California. The system is slated to grow from 44 to 64 and then 100 interceptors.
Today, unlike the pre-2004 days, should an enemy of United States launch an ICBM at Los Angeles, the U.S. military will swing into action. A National Guard unit in Alaska will track, find and destroy whatever warhead is coming by firing the necessary GBI at the incoming missile.
A Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) interceptor is launched from the Pacific Spaceport Complex Alaska on July 30, 2017. (Image source: U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff)
According to Obering, this missile defense capability gives the President of United States, for the first time, the strength needed to defend the country from ballistic missile threats. It took the United States many years to get where it is now, but the U.S. finally took that important step with an initial deployment of missile defenses in 2004. In January 2018, emergency supplemental funding was added to the defense budget to upgrade and improve the Alaska missile defense system.
*Dr. Peter Huessy is President of GeoStrategic Analysis, a defense consulting firm he founded in 1981, as well as Director of Strategic Deterrent Studies at the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies.
© 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.


Iraqi Election Opens New Chapter
Amir Taheri/Asharq Al-Awsat/May 18/2018
During the British House of Commons’ stormy debate on 29 August 2013 on whether or not to intervene in Syria to stop further chemical weapon massacres by President Bashar al-Assad, the then leader of the opposition Ed Miliband boasted that he could prove intervention wrong by just one word: Iraq!
For almost two decades that four-letter word has been used by people with many different shades of politics to describe the futility, not to mention “the criminality”, of intervention by democratic powers against even exceptionally tyrannical regimes.
As Iraqis went to the polls the other day to elect a new parliament, and thus their next government, I realized that the four-letter word mouthed with scorn by people like Barack Obama and Miliband, was now replaced by a five-letter word: Syria!
If “Iraq” is a symbol of what intervention could produce, the word “Syria” illustrates what non-assistance to a nation in danger could lead to.
As Iraq is emerging from a tempestuous phase of history, having coped with collapse of state structures, sectarian war, ethnic secessionism and pariah-hood imposed by do-gooders of all ilk in the West, Syria remains a giant-size slaughterhouse not only for Assad’s death-machine but also for Russian air forces, Iranian “shrine defenders" and their Lebanese, Afghan and Pakistani mercenaries, not to mention Turkey’s neo-Ottoman “ghazis”.
Just a year after Iraq shook off the yoke of tyranny it was on its way to a new life with a not always coherent strategy of democratization. Since 2003, Iraq has had many ups and downs, has made many mistakes, and, needless to say, has suffered a great deal.
However, the overwhelming majority of its people have remained committed to two principles: preventing the recreation of a new machinery of repression, and power-sharing through the mechanism of elections. I think they have been successful on both counts. Attempts at fabricating a new “strongman” and under him a new repressive machine, having reached their peak in Premier Nuri al-Maliki’s final phase in office, failed convincingly.
Attempts at grabbing power by circumventing the political process also failed when the Hakim family’s Badr brigade and Muqtada Sadr’s Mahdi Army militia failed to disrupt the democratic process by force. An attempt by Massoud Barzani to do “do his own thing” through an illegal independence referendum in the Kurdish Autonomous Region also failed. The most vicious challenge to the newly began democratic process in Iraq came from the so-called Islamic State. That challenge, too, was met and defeated, albeit at a heavy price in blood and treasure.
Right now Iraq, where intervention happened, is on its way to a better future, albeit not necessarily on a straight line. Syria, where non-intervention was imposed by Obama and Europeans who mimicked him, is going nowhere, unless deeper into tragedy.
The good news is that the Iraqi election did take place without violence and with a minimum of hanky-panky. I would have preferred the election to be postponed for a few more months to allow an estimated 2.3 million “internally displaced” people to be put on the electoral register. That the turnout, around 45 per cent, was at least 17 per cent lower than the previous general election is partly due to the inability of many “displaced persons” to be readmitted to the legal process.
Another reason for the low turnout was the decision by some voters in the predominantly Shiite provinces to stay home.
The two “lists” backed by Iran, that of al-Maliki and the former militia commander Hadi al-Ameri, spent vast sums of money, much of its brought from Tehran in cash, but end up with 92 seats, out of 329, in the next Council of Representatives (parliament). And this despite the fact they stood on openly sectarian platforms.
Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi’s “Victory” list also failed to impress, partly because it tried to build a cult of personality around its leader as the “conqueror” who defeated ISIS.
This election also highlighted the limits of influence that the mullahs of Najaf could exert. The principal figure among them, Grand Ayatollah Ali-Muhammad Sistani, refused to endorse any “list” and only called on voters to chase away “corrupt and selfish politicians.” (He couldn’t vote because he is an Iranian citizen.) Most other mullahs also stayed in the side-lines, conscious hat most Iraqis look to mullah-dominates system in Iran as a warning not as a model.
Despite higher voter turnout, the political landscape in the Kurdish Autonomous region has also changed with parties backed by Iran losing support while, paradoxically, those with closer ties to Turkey maintaining their position. Overall, however, Iraqi Kurds still represent a reservoir of support for the United States, provided Washington wishes to play a leading role in Iraq.
Despite attempts by sections of Western media to invent a new imaginary victory for the Islamic Republic in Iran, the Iraqi election showed that a majority of Iraqis resent Tehran’s attempts at intervening in their affairs. More than two-thirds of the newly elected members of the next parliament are either openly hostile to Iranian “meddling” or insist that relations with Iran should not go beyond good-neighbourly behaviour.
Last Tuesday, General Qassem Soleimani, head of the “Jerusalem Corps” and in charge of “exporting revolution” flew to Baghdad in a forlorn attempt at stitching together a coalition subservient to Tehran. However, he may have just added to his string of his political failures in Lebanon and Syria. This does not mean that Iran is scripted out of Iraqi politics. That is some away off, although the process could be accelerated by the Khomeinist regime’s own crisis. Thus, the next prime minister, and hence Cabinet, may still need a wink and a nod from Iran and the United States following a pattern set by both the George W Bush and Barack Obama administrations.
President Donald Trump may want to change that pattern, as he has done with some other policies inherited from his predecessors. He could aim at excluding Iran. But that would require a genuine and strong American commitment of the kind that helped Federal Germany, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, among others, transform themselves into modern democracies.
The chief lesson of this election is that a majority of Iraqis wish to focus on their national identity rather than ethnic and sectarian divisions. Before the end of term for the newly elected parliament, Iraq would mark the centenary of its re-emergence as a nation-state after the fall of the Ottoman Empire. My hope is that Iraqis will start preparing for that great occasion to prove wrong those who opposed their liberation.

Nothing Says ‘Peace’ Like 58 Dead Palestinians

Dana Milbank/The Washington Post/May 18/2018
Here’s a split-screen for our times: While Israeli troops were killing dozens of Palestinian protesters in Gaza on Monday, Trump administration representatives were 50 miles away in Jerusalem, celebrating with Israeli officials the opening of the US Embassy there and praising their mutual devotion to peace.
“Moving the US embassy,” Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan declared, is “a step toward advancing peace.”President Trump himself, in a video message, pledged his commitment to a “lasting peace agreement.”
His son-in-law, Jared Kushner, said “peace is within reach.”And Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared it “a great day for peace.”Because nothing says “peace” like 58 Palestinians killed, 2,700 wounded, renewed hostilities between Iran and Israel, the entire region aflame and US allies reeling.
Kushner, who reminded the audience that he’s in charge of Trump’s “efforts to bring peace,” used his remarks to denounce the Palestinians. “As we have seen from the protests of the last month and even today, those provoking violence are part of the problem and not part of the solution,” he said. Back in Washington, a White House spokesman declined to join allies urging Israel to exercise restraint. The move of the US Embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv could have been a moment of unity and brotherhood. Instead, as with most everything Trump touches, it became a symbol of division and bitterness. It could have been the capstone of a peace deal, as Republican and Democratic administrations alike had hoped. Instead, it all but dashed hope for a two-state solution. Most European allies skipped the event. And only 14 members of Congress were on hand for the celebration — all Republican and only one Jewish. Republicans scolded Democrats for their absence; Democrats said they weren’t invited. “I would have loved to have participated in this historic and moving embassy dedication,” Rep. Ted Deutch (D-Fla.), who supported the embassy move, said in a statement. “Despite reaching out to the administration, I was not invited to be a part of the official American delegation.” Given the lineup present at the opening, it was less a diplomatic ceremony than a campaign event. David Friedman, the US ambassador to Israel, praised “the vision, the courage and the moral clarity of one person to whom we owe an enormous and eternal debt of gratitude, President Donald J. Trump.”Moral clarity! And that’s not all: “I think President Lincoln is smiling today as another great Republican, Donald J. Trump, opens our embassy.”Netanyahu dutifully declared that Trump “made history,” Hagee thanked God “for President Donald Trump’s courage,” and Pastor Robert Jeffress praised Trump’s leadership, determination, resolve and courage and offered his view to God that Trump “stands on the right side of You.”Kushner got applause for reminding the crowd of Trump’s decision to “exit the dangerous, flawed and one-sided Iran deal.”The bipartisan unity toward Israel had begun to break down even before Trump, as Netanyahu, and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, clashed with President Barack Obama. Trump has further driven the partisan wedge over Israel, and it’s splitting not just Democrats from Republicans but American Jews from Netanyahu’s government. A poll last year by the American Jewish Committee found that American Jews, only 21 percent of whom view Trump favorably, were overwhelmingly (68 percent) opposed to an immediate move of the embassy. Perhaps American Jews recognize that Trump, and the messianic Christians driving his policy, are leading Israel away from democracy and security. And perhaps they don’t trust claims of “peace” when their own eyes see the opposite.


The three noble tasks of the Saudi-Emirati axis

Mamdouh AlMuhaini//Al Arabiya/May 18/18
The Iranian-Qatari-Muslim Brotherhood campaigns on the Saudi-Emirati axis are never-ending. They’ve done everything they can to undermine it. They resorted to hacking, spreading rumors, live coverage, fake news and an army of flies on Twitter. Millions were paid for this purpose but the opposite result was achieved as these campaigns deepened ties instead of shaking them. It’s easy to realize that you’re right when all the bad players including Iran, Qatar, Hezbollah, ISIS, the Brotherhood, the Houthis, al-Qaeda and the Popular Mobilization hate you; however, it’s important to know what the three noble tasks this axis is carrying out on behalf of everyone are exactly. Imagine the map without Saudi Arabia and the UAE for just few seconds and you will see a terrifying map in which black and yellow flags are fluttering and in which borders and a good livelihood has disappeared into dust
The illusion of stability
The first task is international. Many think they live a stable and prosperous life and do not confront the threats of wars and conflicts. They go shopping, enroll their children in the best schools and enjoy the aspects of modern life. They think this is all a foregone conclusion. This is because they were born and raised in these stable circumstances so they never doubted for a minute that there might come a day when they lose it all. This is, however, a wrong and deceitful view. In order to enjoy stability, there must be political powers that form a strong security umbrella that deters all parties that seek to shake stability and plant chaos. This is the noble task that the Saudi-Emirati alliance is performing. They are launching a strong war on terror groups, confronting the Iran, Houthi and Hezbollah threats and fighting terror groups that are reproducing like cancer.
Imagine the map without Saudi Arabia and the UAE for just few seconds and you will see a terrifying map in which black and yellow flags are fluttering and in which borders and a good livelihood has disappeared into dust. There will be destruction and failed countries that are drowned in backwardness.
Children would be sent to join militias instead of being sent to school and they’d be loyal to the clerics of terrorism. This axis is the steel wall against Iran and al-Qaeda as it maintains the stability of the world order for this region, and without it, we will all fall down to the abyss.
Spreading an intellectual rhetoric
The second task is intellectual and cultural. The Saudi-Emirati alliance does not only fight these parties on the security and military levels, but also fights them on the intellectual level. This alliance has launched a noble war on the ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood, al-Qaeda, ISIS and all terror groups and is fighting it by providing the rhetoric of the moderate and enlightening Islam. The easiest thing a government can do is humor extremists and gain their amiability for political ambitions or out of fear or to be spared from their insults, attacks and threats to destroy their countries. We’ve seen this before and we know the painful results well. The result will be sick ideas, instigators whose hands are stained with blood and armies of teenage terrorists who do not hesitate to murder their relatives. Schools would turn into Muslim Brotherhood barricades to graduate cadres that learn hatred instead of learning thinking methods. Mosques will no longer be worshipping places but will turn into factories that produce fanatics.
These are terrifying results. This is what Doha is doing as it has turned into a dustbin for extremists and their obnoxious doctrines. Doha has utilized its media outlets to air their dangerous propaganda and glorify suicide attacks, and it has paid millions for it.
To confront this role, which was one of the reasons that led to boycotting Qatar, the Saudi-Emirati axis chose to play the opposite role, the humanitarian, moral and unpopular one, while bearing the lies and insults of extremists and mobs. It chose to empty the reservoir of extremism that is filled with explosive ideas. This alliance knows that this is the only way to present Islam in the best image as an enlightening civilized religion that’s open to cultures and serves all humanity with no exceptions. This is our only hope. Imagine if this alliance had not performed this task, then who would? Definitely not the trembling or colluding governments. We will thus fall once again in the darkness without a glimpse of hope in the horizon.
Hope for the future
The third task is developmental and futuristic. While this alliance fights the dangerous players that threaten the region’s stability, combats extremism and spreads a moderate religious and cultural rhetoric, it’s also presenting the most significant economic and developmental model in the region. In this Arab world that is frustrated and ravaged by conflicts, wars and merchants of slogans, this axis is well-aware that this solution it provides will be the hope which enhances the life of millions. This is what we are witnessing as this axis is attracting successful and ambitious people, and it has become a destination for investments and new projects. Economic success is the highway to join the modern world, which is competing over inventions, artificial intelligence and the most modern applications. This developmental role can positively ‘infect’ others and turn the region into a new East Asia. Ideological chants will thus dim and the sounds of operating factories and laboratories will rise. As Tehran, Hezbollah and al-Qaeda spread their projects of death, the alliance is establishing a project of life and this is the only way towards modernization and catching up with the developing world.
This axis is thus fighting on three fronts and it is carrying out these major tasks on behalf of everyone. It is good to have a reminder of these tasks amid this fuss of lies and attacks of terrorist flies.

Islam and the new anti-Semitism manifesto
Idriss Jazairy/Al Arabiya/May 18/18
The manifesto signed by some 300 figures including former French President Sarkozy and Prime Minister Manuel Valls published on 21 April 2018 in the Le Parisien claiming that the Qur’an incites Muslims to violence against Christians, Jews and unbelievers and that it ignites anti-Semitism is another example of the troubled relationship between France and Islam. Put differently, or more precisely, it reflects a hostile and unaccommodating attitude adopted by a trend in France towards Islam and the sizable French Muslim community. Significantly, this statement and the saga of the veil in France are cases in point of a tension that does not exist or at least has not reached this pitch in other Western countries. This troubled relationship should be addressed wisely before it leads to a wave of xenophobia and Islamophobia that will impact adversely on the integration of Muslim communities in the Western societies.
For centuries, Orientalists have portrayed Islam as inferior to the West, its culture and religions, and jihad (often mistranslated as holy war) as a creed that incites violence against non-Muslims. Apart from the media, libraries of the top universities in the West contain hate literature about Islam and specifically a stereotypical caricature of jihad that is being taught now in classes.
Over the last decade, such literature is increasingly reminiscent of “weapons of mass destruction”, because it leads to misinformed and hostile policies of current and future Western leaders. This is one of the reasons for the radicalization of young Western Muslims who find their religion attacked and the cultural heritage of their family not welcomed, let alone respected in the societies they are born and brought up in.
Anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and bigotry, in general, are the products of ignorance and ethnic supremacism and if we want to rid our world of these crimes/illnesses, we have to educate ourselves about others
Freedom of religion
However, the fact remains that Muslims still do enjoy freedom of religion and expression in the West. Despite the popular and hate literature, the positive developments are that, first, following Edward Said’s Orientalism published in 1978, generations of Western scholars were prompted to re-examine the old Orientalist literature. Second, many prominent Western professors of Islam and jihad, such as James Turner Johnson, explain that the doctrine of jihad is the most poorly understood topic in the Western study of Islam because of what he describes as “lack of researchers with the necessary training and language skills” which resulted in what Fred McGraw Donner calls lack of “preliminary work on a vast subject,” i.e., jihad.
This is not the place to adequately explain how the claim of this manifesto is a major error and to engage in a scholarly discussion of such a complex and highly specialized area, but scriptures and laws can be interpreted differently and can be used and abused depending among other considerations on how they are misinterpreted.
But the claim that the Qur’an urges Muslims to commit violence against non-Muslims, especially Jews, because of anti-Semitic crimes committed by a number of Muslims in France is irrational, simply because if this claim were true, then Muslims would have been killing those who are not Muslims everywhere.
We have not heard that such crimes are committed by Muslims against the Jews in Muslim countries such as Iran, Yemen, Morocco, Tunisia or other Muslim or Western countries. First of all, anti-Semitism is originally a European problem, not an Islamic one.
Second, Arabs are Semites and in Islam Jews and Christians are part of the same family of ahl al-kitāb (people of the book, i.e., Divine religions), while the followers of other non-Divine religions are brothers in humanity, as Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib explains.
Third, the specific texts in the Qur’an referring to a number of fighting incidents that took place between the nascent Muslim society and their enemies between 624 and 630 A.D. were defensive battles.
Religious affiliations
The reference to the Muslims’ enemies in these specific incidents of fighting by their religious affiliations does not justify hostility to non-belligerents from among followers of these religions, as misrepresented by some Islamist radicals and misunderstood by some non-Muslims alike and as others would like us to believe. Therefore, the psychological and social factors as well as motives behind these crimes must be investigated and analysed if such crimes are to be stopped. The demand to delete some verses from the Qur’an is not only naïve but certainly dangerous and will further escalate the tension in such an already troubled relation. This demand resembles, for example, asking Christians to change or delete the doctrine of the crucifixion because it can lead to anti-Semitism or violence against those who do not believe in this doctrine. It is unfortunate that we have invented weapons that can annihilate human existence on this planet, but we are still in the twenty-first century unable to understand others!
Anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and bigotry, in general, are the products of ignorance and ethnic supremacism and if we want to rid our world of these crimes/illnesses, we have to educate ourselves about others so that we can understand and respect them as long as they do not commit crimes and violate the law.
In short, prosperity will be the bounty of peoples that celebrate diversity; and adversity of the fearmongerers of “the Other.”

Can Ramadan ‘ceasefire’ boost prospects of peace in Indian Kashmir?
Chitrapu Uday Bhaskar/Al Arabiya/May 18/18
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to visit Srinagar, the capital of the troubled state of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) on Saturday (May 19) against the backdrop of what is being (incorrectly) referred to as a “ceasefire” by the security forces, announced by the central government in Delhi.
This “ceasefire” is more accurately a cessation of counter-terrorism operations by the police and army for a 30-day period beginning May 17 to mark the fasting month of Ramadan. The caveat of responding if attacked by terror groups is part of the protocol.
This recommendation to cease combat operations temporarily against the terrorist groups was made by the Chief Minister of the state Mehbooba Mufti and to the surprise of most observers, the Modi government agreed to extend the olive branch, though there are many voices that have warned against such a cessation of operations.
Skeptics point to a similar initiative in J&K by then prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 2000-2001 and the limited success it had at the time. It has been argued by the skeptics that offering such a window of cessation of operations by the security forces is ill-advised, for it allows terror groups and their handlers to regroup, when they are under pressure; and that past experience has shown that such magnanimity by the state is misplaced.
If the cluster among the Kashmiri youth, that takes recourse to violence, has to be prevailed upon to give up the gun, they need to be given a more inspiring narrative of what lies ahead
Prospects of peace
What does the current initiative and the Modi visit to Srinagar mean for the prospects of peace in the troubled state of J&K – and the Kashmir valley in particular? Developments over the last few days do not inspire confidence, for the local ‘separatist’ leaders have termed this Mufti led initiative as “cosmetic measures” and the terror group, Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LeT) has rejected the cessation of combat operations as a “drama”.
To add to the bleakness, on Thursday (May 17) terrorists killed a 23-year-old local youth on the first day of Ramadan in the Bandipora area of north Kashmir.
Kashmir watchers aver that the mood in the valley is very dark and that many of the local youth feel despondent and are devoid of any hope, having lived under the trauma of terrorism and the steady inroads made by Islamist group who preach violence and bloodshed.
Certain red lines have been crossed and the deliberate targeting of a tourist who was killed on May 8 by stone-pelting is indicative of the wanton violence being indulged in by the local youth. Older Kashmiris this analyst spoke to were anguished at this turn of events and conceded that the younger generation has little respect for the indigenous “Kashmiriyat” ethos that once defined the local populace.
Violence in Kashmir has been steadily increasing and in 2018 security forces have neutralized 270 militants/terrorists, while losing 139 of their own personnel. Concurrently the civilian death toll is 145 and cumulatively this works out to 4 deaths per day in 2018, as of mid-May.
The number of local youth who are now taking up arms against the state is also increasing and this is cause for deep concern and a muscular security approach when dealing with one’s own citizens can only be a means to a larger end – a consensual socio-political accommodation of local sentiment, aspiration and anger.
Testing troubled waters
Thus Delhi and Srinagar have to test the troubled waters and the Modi-Mufti initiative must be welcomed despite the many misgivings. In August 2016, PM Modi reached out to the people of J&K and recalling his predecessor, Vajpayee, he advocated a political approach of a sustained empathetic “dialogue” that would combine insaaniyat (humanity), jamhuriyat (democracy) and Kashmiriyat. If the cluster among the Kashmiri youth, that takes recourse to violence, has to be prevailed upon to give up the gun, they need to be given a more inspiring narrative of what lies ahead – such that equitable peace is given a chance to take root. This narrative must also persuasively question and discredit the distortions of religion – particularly one that accords theological legitimacy to bloodshed in the name of Islam. Ramadan is an opportune moment to encourage deep introspection on such matters.
Civil society, religious leaders and the family have to be part of the enabling eco-system and this author has long advocated a greater role for the women of Kashmir. Who better than a mother, aunt or teacher to counsel the angry young youth about the path to be avoided?
Many tracks have to be pursued and PM Modi, who is a skillful orator, could use his Srinagar visit to reach out to one part of India that remains tenaciously alienated and create the necessary conditions for the local political leadership to close ranks and accord this Ramadan cessation of operations an earnest chance. Given how tenuous it is, this peace initiative will have to be monitored a day at a time.
 
The Real Palestinian Catastrophe
Elliott Abrams/Weekly Standard/May 18, 2018
A debased national movement at 70.
As Israel celebrated the 70th anniversary of its independ­ence and the move of the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, Palestinians last week commemorated their 70th “Nakba Day.” The Nakba, or catastrophe, in question is meant to be the founding of the state of Israel, but this year Palestinians had a real Nakba to occupy them: the degeneration of their national movement into dictatorship, corruption, violence, and extremism.
There were two signal manifestations of this decline in the past week. The first was staged by Hamas, the largest of the Palestinian Islamist terrorist groups, which has ruled Gaza since 2007. Last week Hamas organ­ized masses of protesters (and according to Israel sent dozens of operatives armed with pipe bombs and grenades) to storm the border fences with Israel. Hamas has failed in governing Gaza, which is mired in poverty and suffers shortages of water, electricity, and employment opportunities for its 1.8 million people, two-thirds of them under the age of 25. The unemployment rate in Gaza is 44 percent and even higher among youth. Hamas and those it rules are caught in a trap the terrorist group has created: Its ideology prevents peace with Israel but its circumstances have apparently persuaded its leaders that another major conflict would lead only to more devastation. So instead it sacrifices Palestinian lives in border attacks that produce no benefit whatsoever for the people of Gaza.
In fact the main achievement of those border attacks is to remind Israelis—who left Gaza in 2005, abandoning their military bases and settlements there—that Hamas considers all of Israel’s borders illegitimate. The dispute with Hamas isn’t over settlements or the “occupation” or Gaza itself. It is over Israel’s existence. In Gaza, the Islamist part of the Palestinian national movement does nothing to advance Palestinian interests, instead isolating its people from Egypt, Israel, the West Bank, and the rest of the world.
Hamas offers violence and nihilism, funded by Iran and dedicated to the fantasy of “return” to Israel across those border fences. But even using all the pressure it could muster, it could not gather more than 40,000 at the fences, significantly under its goal of 100,000. Nor was the reaction in the West Bank (which saw demonstrations of fewer than 2,000 people spread over a dozen or more sites) and in the Arab world as great as Hamas might have anticipated. The month of Ramadan began May 16 and may see a continuation of violence, and even perhaps expansion into another round of war between Israel and Hamas. But the underlying situation will not change: Hamas has turned Gaza into a prison for those it rules. It cannot achieve peace, or decent and normal lives for the people of Gaza, through violent confrontation with Israel.
The second manifestation was staged by the secular part of the Palestinian national movement, which is dominated by Yasser Arafat’s Fatah party. Fatah rules in the West Bank and controls both the Palestinian Authority and the PLO. Over the decades, Fatah has morphed from a terrorist group fighting to destroy Israel, into a terrorist group fighting for Palestinian statehood, then after Arafat’s death in 2004 into a political group struggling against Hamas and other terrorist organizations, and more recently into a plain dictatorship whose only goal seems to be protecting the privileges of its own ruling elites.
The event that demonstrated Fatah’s decline most clearly occurred on April 30, when Palestinian Authority president and PLO chairman Mahmoud Abbas called a meeting of the Palestine National Council (PNC), the PLO’s legislative body. There he delivered himself of a three-hour speech replete with explanations that the Jews have no real historical tie to the Middle East and that European anti-Semitism was caused by the Jews’ “social behavior, [charging] interest, and financial matters.” The speech was reminiscent of his January 14 tirade, in which he explained that Zionism “did not begin 100 years ago. It did not begin with the Balfour Declaration. . . . It began in 1653 when Cromwell ruled Britain. . . . He came up with the idea of transferring the Jews from Europe to the Middle East.”
At this PNC gathering Abbas had himself reelected by acclamation; there was no voting. The entire scene—the length of his speech, the sometimes bizarre and sometimes plainly anti-Semitic content, the election by applause—was a throwback to Castro or Ceausescu and left many Palestinian observers in despair. Israel is celebrating 70 years in freedom, prosperity, and strength, the U.S. embassy is moving, the “occupation” that began in 1967 shows no sign of ending, there are no peace negotiations—and the leader of the Palestinians is crushing dissent, elevating cronies, and discussing Oliver Cromwell.
Repression in the West Bank is growing steadily. Judicial independ­ence has been reduced. Civil society organizations that violate “national unity” or threaten the “social fabric” face closure, and their leaders face jail. The Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, led by Khalil Shikaki, the best-known Palestinian pollster, may go out of business this year. In just this fashion Abbas worked in 2015 to close down an NGO founded by former prime minister Salam Fayyad, seizing its funds and closing its bank accounts. Like Hamas in Gaza, the Palestinian Authority arrests and detains journalists who criticize Fatah and its leaders. Corruption is rife. At the PNC meeting, election or exclusion depended not on service to the Palestinian cause or integrity but on fealty to Abbas.
Under the Oslo Accords in the 1990s, what were supposed to be embryonic democratic institutions were created. After Arafat’s death these hollow shells were briefly filled; free elections were held for president in 2005 and for parliament in 2006 (the latter won by Hamas). But there has been no election in the Palestinian territories since January 2006, and the legitimacy of the leadership is in very steady decline. The one-party rule by Hamas in Gaza and Fatah in the West Bank reflects the worst of Arab political culture.
Nor does either organization, Fatah or Hamas, offer Palestinians a practical program for national independence. The alignment of Israel and most Sunni states against Iran means those states are less likely to fund Hamas, whose violent rhetoric and conduct and whose absolute rejection of Israel’s existence reflect instead Iranian policy. In December, Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar boasted of his contact with Qassem Suleimani, head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard’s Quds Force, and of Suleimani’s pledges of support.
On the West Bank side, since the first Oslo agreement a quarter-century ago, the Fatah/PLO program has ostensibly been a negotiated deal with Israel that would lead to true independence—the “two-state solution.” But there has been no progress in a decade: Abbas rejected a peace offer from Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert in 2008 and refused all of the Obama administration’s efforts to get him back to the negotiating table.
Israelis debate how much Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could offer in a real negotiation, because he presides over a right-of-center coalition that might be split by any compromises. But Bibi won’t be put to the test, because Abbas is past the point of considering serious negotiations and serious compromises. He lacks the legitimacy to do so, and his recent fulminations and crackdowns suggest a man who, at 83, is long past the ability to lead to peace. He is in no mood to undertake a debate with Hamas and others who will call him a traitor for any deal he makes. He appears to have decided what his legacy must be: “steadfastness,” meaning that, like Arafat, he said no to everything. He would rather be seen as a stalwart leader who held high the banner of Palestinian nationalism and refused to bargain with the Zionists than undertake the undoubtedly painful compromises that peace would entail. In 2003 (when the United States and E.U. forced Arafat to accept him as prime minister) Abbas looked like an alternative to Arafat and a potential Israeli peace partner. Fifteen years later those hopes are long gone, which helps explain why the Trump administration has not yet released its peace plan: Abbas would reject it instantly.
All this leaves Palestinians high and dry, with no way forward at all. Whatever the criticism of the “occupation,” Israelis will certainly not abandon the West Bank to chaos or to a possible Hamas takeover. Today the establishment of a sovereign Palestinian state is simply too dangerous to Israel and to Jordan to be contemplated. With Hamas in control of Gaza, and Iran and its proxies seizing large parts of Syria and dominating Lebanon, who would control such a state in the West Bank? How likely is it that Israel, now battling against Iranian control of southern Syria, will open up opportunities for further Iranian incursions? And how can such matters be discussed seriously between Israelis and Palestinians (and for that matter, with Americans and Jordanians) when the leader of the PA and PLO will not return to the table and instead indulges in bizarre rants about Jewish and British history?
The great likelihood is that five years from today, that situation will be fundamentally unchanged. Perhaps Abbas will be gone, but his successors will be Fatah stalwarts and in any event will need years to consolidate power sufficiently even to contemplate leading Palestinians into the difficult compromises of a peace settlement. There is growing desperation among Palestinians that neither Fatah nor Hamas represents their hopes—or can fulfill them. There are only two other options. The first is the “one state solution,” meaning union with Israel, but that is a nonstarter Israel will reject no matter who is its prime minister. The other option is some kind of eventual link to Jordan.
In polite diplomatic society, and in Palestinian public discourse, such a link cannot be mentioned. But younger people who visit there, Palestinians have explained to me, can see a society that is half Palestinian and functions as an independent nation with a working system of law and order. Jordanians travel freely, rarely suffer from terrorism, and have an Islamist (Muslim Brotherhood) party, the Islamic Action Front, that participates in the political system and sits in parliament. There are elections, even if power is ultimately concentrated in the royal palace. The kingdom has close relations with all the Sunni states and the West, and is at peace with Israel.
The fundamental question all this raises is what, in 2018, the nature and objective of Palestinian nationalism is. Is the goal sovereignty at all costs, no matter how long it takes and even if it is increasingly divorced from peace, prosperity, and personal freedom? Is “steadfastness” the greatest Palestinian virtue now and forever? These questions cannot be debated in either Gaza or the West Bank. But as Israel celebrates 70 years and the “occupation” is now more than a half-century old, how much longer can they be delayed?
Today’s desperate Palestinian situation is largely the work of Fatah, the party that led it down a dozen blind alleys, embraced terror, lost an election to Hamas, and at least twice (2000 and 2008) rejected offers of peace from Israel. It may well be that the window for a sovereign Palestinian state was open from 1991 to 2008 but has now closed. Certainly there is no prospect of an early deal with Israel, and in Arab capitals, enthusiasm for the Palestinian cause is clearly declining. At the conferences in the Arab world that I attend, the “centrality” of the Palestinian issue continues to be argued—but more and more often it is raised only by people who are 70 or 80 years old.
The catastrophic mishandling of Palestinian affairs by generations of leaders from Haj Amin al-Husseini (the pro-Nazi mufti of the British Mandate period) to Yasser Arafat and now to Mahmoud Abbas has been the true Palestinian Nakba.
//Elliott Abrams is a senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations.
https://www.weeklystandard.com/elliott-abrams/the-real-palestinian-catastrophe

جديد اليوم على موقعنا ال سي سي عدد 17 مقالة وتقرير باللغتين العربية والإنكليزية/اضغط في اسفل على رابط الموقع

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“حزب الله” يختطف الطائفة ولبنان.. ويزعزع دولاً عربية
الشارقة: «الخليج»/18 أيار/18
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أوهام عودة نفوذ النظام السوري إلى لبنان
أكرم البني/الشرق الأوسط/18 أيار/18
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السعودية المشتومة على مسمع المستقبل تحشر الحريري
علي سبيتي/لبنان الجديد/18 أيّار 2018
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الخزانة الأميركية: خارطة طريق لاستهداف تمويل حزب
سكاي نيوز/18 أيار 2018
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لبنان يتحسّب للأسوأ بعد العقوبات على “حزب الله”
الشرق الاوسط/18 أيار/18/
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حزب الله أمام خيارات عدّة.. والوضع إلى تعقيد
“السياسة الكويتية” – 18 أيار 2018/
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الحكومة القادمة.. في مهبّ الريح
“السياسة الكويتية” – 18 أيار 2018/
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ممول حزب الله الأبرز وقريب نصرالله الذي شملته العقوبات
العربية/18 أيار/18
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/64743/%d8%a8%d8%b9%d8%af-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%b9%d9%82%d9%88%d8%a8%d8%a7%d8%aa-%d9%85%d8%b5%d8%a7%d8%af%d8%b1-%d8%aa%d9%88%d8%b2%d9%8a%d8%b1-%d8%a3%d8%b5%d8%af%d9%82%d8%a7%d8%a1-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%ad%d8%b2%d8%a8/


بعد العقوبات.. مصادر: توزير “أصدقاء الحزب” أو إبعاده عن الحقائب السيادية
الأنباء الكويتية/18 أيار/18/
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/64743/%d8%a8%d8%b9%d8%af-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%b9%d9%82%d9%88%d8%a8%d8%a7%d8%aa-%d9%85%d8%b5%d8%a7%d8%af%d8%b1-%d8%aa%d9%88%d8%b2%d9%8a%d8%b1-%d8%a3%d8%b5%d8%af%d9%82%d8%a7%d8%a1-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%ad%d8%b2%d8%a8/

New US Sanctions Target Major ‘Hezbollah’ Financier
Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday, 18 May, 2018/
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/64743/%d8%a8%d8%b9%d8%af-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%b9%d9%82%d9%88%d8%a8%d8%a7%d8%aa-%d9%85%d8%b5%d8%a7%d8%af%d8%b1-%d8%aa%d9%88%d8%b2%d9%8a%d8%b1-%d8%a3%d8%b5%d8%af%d9%82%d8%a7%d8%a1-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%ad%d8%b2%d8%a8/

US and Gulf Sanctions: A Message to Lebanon, Iran, Europe
Beirut – Nazeer Rida/Asharq Al-Awsat
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/64743/%d8%a8%d8%b9%d8%af-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%b9%d9%82%d9%88%d8%a8%d8%a7%d8%aa-%d9%85%d8%b5%d8%a7%d8%af%d8%b1-%d8%aa%d9%88%d8%b2%d9%8a%d8%b1-%d8%a3%d8%b5%d8%af%d9%82%d8%a7%d8%a1-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%ad%d8%b2%d8%a8/

الانتخابات العراقية والأفق الجديد
أمير طاهري/الشرق الأوسط/18 أيار/18
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/64754/%d8%a3%d9%85%d9%8a%d8%b1-%d8%b7%d8%a7%d9%87%d8%b1%d9%8a-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%a7%d9%86%d8%aa%d8%ae%d8%a7%d8%a8%d8%a7%d8%aa-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%b9%d8%b1%d8%a7%d9%82%d9%8a%d8%a9-%d9%88%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%a3%d9%81/

Iraqi Election Opens New Chapter
Amir Taheri/Asharq Al-Awsat/May 18/2018
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/64754/%d8%a3%d9%85%d9%8a%d8%b1-%d8%b7%d8%a7%d9%87%d8%b1%d9%8a-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%a7%d9%86%d8%aa%d8%ae%d8%a7%d8%a8%d8%a7%d8%aa-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%b9%d8%b1%d8%a7%d9%82%d9%8a%d8%a9-%d9%88%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%a3%d9%81/

هل يضم الحريري وزراء «حزب الله» للحكومة؟
مشاري الذايدي/الشرق الأوسط/18 أيار/18
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/64759/%d9%85%d8%b4%d8%a7%d8%b1%d9%8a-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%b0%d8%a7%d9%8a%d8%af%d9%8a-%d9%87%d9%84-%d9%8a%d8%b6%d9%85-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%ad%d8%b1%d9%8a%d8%b1%d9%8a-%d9%88%d8%b2%d8%b1%d8%a7%d8%a1-%d8%ad%d8%b2%d8%a8/

أوروبا تفعّل قانوناً يمنع شركاتها من تنفيذ العقوبات الأميركية ضد طهران وفرنسا وألمانيا وبريطانيا تطالب إيران بمواصلة الوفاء بالتزاماتها بموجب الاتفاق
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/64759/%d9%85%d8%b4%d8%a7%d8%b1%d9%8a-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%b0%d8%a7%d9%8a%d8%af%d9%8a-%d9%87%d9%84-%d9%8a%d8%b6%d9%85-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%ad%d8%b1%d9%8a%d8%b1%d9%8a-%d9%88%d8%b2%d8%b1%d8%a7%d8%a1-%d8%ad%d8%b2%d8%a8/