LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS
BULLETIN
November 06/08
Bible Reading of the day.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to
Saint Luke 14,25-33. Great crowds were traveling with him, and he turned and
addressed them, If any one comes to me without hating his father and mother,
wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my
disciple. Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me cannot be my
disciple. Which of you wishing to construct a tower does not first sit down and
calculate the cost to see if there is enough for its completion? Otherwise,
after laying the foundation and finding himself unable to finish the work the
onlookers should laugh at him and say, 'This one began to build but did not have
the resources to finish.' Or what king marching into battle would not first sit
down and decide whether with ten thousand troops he can successfully oppose
another king advancing upon him with twenty thousand troops? But if not, while
he is still far away, he will send a delegation to ask for peace terms. In the
same way, everyone of you who does not renounce all his possessions cannot be my
disciple.
Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus
(1873-1897), Carmelite, Doctor of the Church
Letter 197 of 17/09/1896 (©ICS publications)
"Everyone of you who does not renounce all his possessions cannot be my
disciple"
Dear Sister, how can you ask me if it is
possible for you to love God as I love Him? ... My desires of martyrdom are
nothing; they are not what give me the unlimited confidence that I feel in my
heart. They are, to tell the truth, the spiritual riches that render one unjust,
when one rests in them with complacence and when one believes they are something
great... Ah! I really feel that... what pleases Him is that He sees me loving my
littleness and my poverty, the blind hope that I have in His mercy .... That is
my only treasure... Oh, dear Sister, I beg you... understand that to love
Jesus... the weaker one is, without desires or virtues, the more suited one is
for the workings of this consuming and transforming Love. The desire alone to be
a victim suffices, but we must consent to remain always poor and without
strength, and this is the difficulty, for: "The truly poor in spirit, where do
we find him? You must look for him from afar," said the psalmist. He does not
say that you must look for him among great souls, but "from afar," that is to
say in lowliness, in nothingness. Ah! let us remain then very far from all that
sparkles, let us love our littleness, let us love to feel nothing, then we shall
be poor in spirit, and Jesus will come to look for us, and however far we may
be, He will transform us in flames of love. Oh! How I would like to be able to
make you understand what I feel! It is confidence, and nothing but confidence
that must lead us to Love. Does not fear lead to Justice? (To the severe justice
that people show to sinners but not the justice Jesus will have for those who
love him.) Since we see the way, let us run together. Yes, I feel it, Jesus
wills to give us the same graces; he wills to give us his Heaven gratuitously.
Free Opinions,
Releases, letters & Special Reports
Lebanon's deal with Turkey sets a useful example
for the Arab League-Daily Star
05/11/08
Technology could change Lebanese politics, too.By
Marc J. Sirois 05/11/08
Latest News Reports From
Miscellaneous Sources for November
05/08
After historic win, Obama looks
to future.Reuters
McCain
Concedes-By:
Frontpagemag.com
History in
the Making .By:
Jacob Laksin
Mideast welcomes
Obama, but serious challenges remain-CNN
Belgium cuts down its UNIFIL troops in
South Lebanon-Xinhua
Even
UN admits Blue Line is not a border - Hizbullah-Daily Star
'We
don't have to accept the Blue Line'-Jerusalem Post
Swedish judge bails Arab singer-BBC
News
Swedish
court releases Wassouf - for now-(AFP)
Ban hopes for 'quick progress' on controlling
border with Syria-Daily Star
Vicious subtext to Syria raid-GulfNews
Bahrain may reopen Israel Boycott
Office-Jersusalem
Post
Police to probe Balad official for lauding
Hezbollah's swap 'victory'-Ha'aretz
National dialogue set to begin with debate over who gets to have a say-Daily
Star
Fatfat vows to take on issue of Islamist detainees-Daily
Star
Sfeir
says current situation 'not so good'-Daily
Star
Both
Obama, McCain will harm Lebanon - Nader-Daily
Star
Tripoli terror cell linked to murder of Gemayel in 2007-Daily
Star
Expectations low as national dialogue sessions set to resume at Baabda-(AFP)
Ban
hopes for 'quick progress' on controlling border with Syria
after Beirut.-Daily
Star
Salameh offers help for small, medium enterprises-Daily
Star
Lebanese laws for juveniles 'good' on paper but 'poor' in practice-Daily
Star
Beirut resident keeps pair of young crocodiles at his home-Daily
Star
Into
the olive groves and off the beaten tourism path-Daily
Star
'We don't have to accept the Blue Line'
By BRENDA GAZZAR -Jerusalem Post
A Hizbullah official rejected the UN-demarcated Blue Line between Lebanon and
Israel this week and laid claim to seven villages in northern Israel and
"millions of square meters" that it says belongs to Lebanon.
Slideshow: Pictures of the week Hizbullah's international relations official
Nawaf Moussawi said Monday that "we don't have to accept the Blue Line" as the
border, claiming that it only symbolized the "line of withdrawal" by the Israeli
army from south Lebanon in 2000.
The senior Hizbullah official also warned against considering the Blue Line
valid as "Lebanon would lose millions of square meters of her national soil."
The UN published the border demarcation known as the Blue Line in June 2000 to
determine whether Israel had fully withdrawn from Lebanon.
Moussawi made the comments as he was receiving foreign ambassadors in Lebanon,
according to the NOW Lebanon news site.
While similar claims have been made by senior Hizbullah officials in the past,
experts say it's interesting the statements were made in an international rather
than domestic context. In addition, Moussawi also said that "Zionist terrorist
organizations moved the border line from the 1920 line to a new line in 1923,
and Lebanon lost its seven villages and 20 farms."
Moussawi is referring to seven Shi'ite villages in the area of the Upper Galilee
that were included within Mandatory Palestine in a border demarcation treaty
signed by France and Britain in 1923. While the first stage of demarcation
included the seven villages in Lebanon, the final agreement between the two
colonial powers shifted the boundary and excluded these seven Shi'ite villages,
as well as about 20 others.
In 1948, the inhabitants of these seven villages were deported and became
refugees in Lebanon. In 1994, following pressure from Hizbullah, they received
Lebanese citizenship.
The international community recognizes these villages as a part of Israel.
"What is interesting for me, is that it's an international audience and [Mussawi]
may have wanted to get some message across to this sort of audience," says Asher
Kaufman, an Israeli scholar and a history professor at the University of Notre
Dame. "It needs to be seen within the context as the exchange of inflammatory
statements between Israel and Hizbullah, which has been going on now for some
time."
Hizbullah's comments demonstrate its desire to find new avenues and modes of
confrontation to replenish its bargaining power and its political relevance
inside Lebanon, other experts say.
"They are playing with petty issues that no one in mainstream Lebanon cares
about," said Magnus Ranstorp, a Hizbullah expert at the Swedish National Defense
College. "They are creating an issue that is relatively insignificant, even if
Israel withdrew from the Shaba Farms area, there would be the seven villages...
There is always something else that they would manufacture."
Bahrain may reopen Israel Boycott Office
By MICHAEL FREUND -Jersusalem Post
Bahrain's parliament is pressing the Gulf Arab emirate's government to reopen
the country's Israel Boycott Office, which was closed two years ago under
pressure from Washington. Prior to its closure, the boycott office had overseen
government efforts to bar entry to Israeli-made goods in accordance with the
Arab League's economic and trade embargo against the Jewish state. At a meeting
held late last week, the legislature's committee on foreign affairs, defense and
national security also called for an end to all formal contacts with the Jewish
state. "Now that the committee has agreed on reopening the office, we request
the Foreign Ministry to support the decisions by the representatives of the
people and to put an end to all forms of contact between Bahrain and the Zionist
entity," committee chairman Adel al-Mouawda said, according to Gulf News.
"The authorities should also allow the re-opening of the Israel boycott office
and ban any form of communication with the Zionist entity," he added, following
a meeting with Bahraini Foreign Minister Sheikh Khalid Bin Ahmad al-Khalifa.
The US and Bahrain signed a free trade agreement in September 2004. It was
ratified by Congress in December 2005 and went into effect the following year
once the Bahraini government finalized various changes to its trade legislation.
The US conditioned the deal on Bahrain's removal of restrictions on trade with
the Jewish state, and Bahraini officials assured Washington that they would
cancel the anti-Israel embargo and close down the Israel Boycott Office. But the
move sparked opposition among Bahraini legislators, particularly among the
sizable Islamist bloc in parliament, which has been outspoken in its criticism
of any moves to normalize relations with Israel.
Speaking with The Jerusalem Post by phone from Manama, Bahraini MP Muhammad
Yousef Yacoub al-Moz'il expressed support for the committee's efforts to clamp
down on ties with the Jewish state. "The committee's decision is very welcome by
us. The Zionist state should not have any access whatsoever to the world of the
Arabs and Muslims, because any ties with them are helping them to kill the
Palestinians," he said.
"The people of Bahrain do not welcome any ties with the Zionists," Moz'il added,
before suddenly growing angry that he was speaking to an Israeli journalist. His
voice rising perceptibly, Moz'il said, "I don't want to give any statement to
any Israeli newspaper, because if you are from an Israeli newspaper then you
share the responsibility for spilling the blood of Palestinians," he said before
hanging up. Despite Bahrain's pledge to stop applying the boycott, there are
indications that Manama continues to enforce it. According to a recent report
issued by the US Congressional Research Service, US companies received 24
boycott-related requests from Bahrain in fiscal year 2007.
After historic win, Obama looks to future
By John Whitesides, Political Correspondent
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Barack Obama pivoted on Wednesday from the glow of a
historic White House victory to the daunting challenge of leading a country
mired in a deep economic crisis and two lingering wars.
The day after a sweeping election triumph that will make him the first black
president in U.S. history, Obama faced the task of quickly building a new
administration and defining his priorities for the formal takeover on January
20.
"The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in
one year or even one term, but America -- I have never been more hopeful than I
am tonight that we will get there," Obama told more than 200,000 jubilant
supporters in Chicago's Grant Park late on Tuesday.
Obama led Democrats to a decisive victory that expanded their majorities in both
houses of Congress, as Americans emphatically rejected Republican President
George W. Bush's eight years of leadership.
Raucous street celebrations erupted across the country, but Obama has little
time to enjoy the triumph. Once in office, he will face immediate pressure to
deliver on his campaign promises and resolve a long list of lingering problems.
Obama has vowed to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq in the first 16 months of his
term and to bolster U.S. troop levels in Afghanistan, but his first task will be
tackling the U.S. financial crisis, the worst since the Great Depression.
World leaders will gather in Washington on November 15 for a summit on the
global financial meltdown. The White House has said it does not expect the
president-elect to attend, but Obama has not yet stated his plans.
Reports released on Wednesday showed the U.S. private sector jobs market
deteriorated rapidly in October and the service sector contracted sharply,
highlighting the economic challenges for Obama.
Appearing in the White House Rose Garden, Bush said he had spoken with Obama and
congratulated him on an "impressive victory" that represented a "dream
fulfilled" for civil rights. He pledged his cooperation in the transition."During this time of transition, I will keep the president-elect fully informed
on important decisions," Bush said.
Obama's planning for the takeover has been under way for weeks and he is
expected to move quickly to fill positions such as Treasury Secretary and
Secretary of State.
Obama has reportedly asked Rahm Emanuel, a Democratic congressman from Illinois
who served in former President Bill Clinton's administration, to lead his White
House as chief of staff.
A QUIET MORNING
Obama's first morning as president-elect was spent in more prosaic duties. He
had breakfast at home in Chicago with his two daughters, then headed to the gym
for a workout. He planned a stop at campaign headquarters later to thank his
staff.
The son of a black father from Kenya and white mother from Kansas, Obama's
triumph over Republican rival John McCain on Tuesday was a milestone that could
help the United States move beyond its long struggle with racism.
Many world leaders welcomed his victory. Some hailed it as an opportunity to
restore a tarnished U.S. image; others urged him to help forge a new economic
order. "Your election has raised enormous hope in France, in Europe and beyond,"
French President Nicolas Sarkozy said.
Initial market reaction was muted. Analysts said Obama's victory had been
largely priced in and concerns about the global economy were paramount. The
dollar moved higher, recovering some of the previous session's heavy losses.
Obama won at least 349 Electoral College votes, based on state voting, far more
than the 270 he needed. With 96 percent of the popular vote counted, he led
McCain by 52 percent to 46 percent.
Democrats gained at least five Senate seats and about 25 in the House of
Representatives, giving them a commanding majority in Congress and strengthening
Obama's hand. Four Senate seats remained undecided.
Americans celebrated in front of the White House to mark Obama's win and Bush's
imminent departure. Cars jammed downtown Washington streets, with drivers
honking their horns and leaning out their windows to cheer.
Thousands more joined street celebrations in New York's Times Square and in
cities and towns across the country.
"This is a great night. This is an unbelievable night," U.S. Rep. John Lewis of
Georgia, who was brutally beaten by police in Alabama during a civil rights
march in the 1960s, said at an Atlanta celebration.
Allied governments said they hoped for closer cooperation with Washington, while
critics of the United States called for changes.
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev spoke of hopes for stronger U.S.-Russian
relations, but at the same time vowed retaliation for a U.S. missile-defense
plan.
(Additional reporting by Randall Mikkelsen and Ross Colvin)
(Editing by Kristin Roberts and Alan Elsner)
History in the Making
By Jacob Laksin
FrontPageMagazine.com | Wednesday, November 05, 2008
THE MEDIA HOSANNAS went up long before Barack Obama, a.k.a. “the chosen one,”
went through the formality of being chosen as the country’s 44th president. For
months prior to Obama’s victory last night, Americans were told that this was a
“historic election.” Swooning headlines celebrated Obama’s “flawless campaign”
and his “epic march to the White House,” as if that destination had already been
made official.
Those who thought election night might restore some semblance of sobriety to the
national media would have been in for a disappointment. In preparation for the
big night, MSNBC, increasingly a caricature of pro-Obama excess, unveiled a new
motto – “Watch MSNBC, and experience the power of change” – eerily reminiscent
of the Obama campaign’s stump slogans. All that was missing, Mark Finkelstein of
NewsBusters observed, was a voiceover from the nominee confirming, “I’m Barack
Obama, and I approve this message.”
Something similar might have been said of the election-night coverage, whose
tenor was unmistakably triumphalist. CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, unafraid of
hyperbole, likened Obama’s election to Nelson Mandela’s 1994 victory in
post-apartheid South Africa, the first democratic elections in Iraq and
Afghanistan, and even Iran’s election in 1997. (Which country the United States
was supposed to represent Amanpour never made quite clear.) On Fox News, a
tearful and overcome Juan Williams declared that this was not only a victory for
Obama and the nation but also for “our children.” That the election of a new
president might demand something more reflective than cheerleading and melodrama
was a view with no sizable constituency among commentators.
To be fair, only the most hardened cynic would have been completely immune to
the significance of the moment. The election of America’s first black president
is indeed a “historic” occasion and a proper source of national pride. That fact
is all the more impressive given that, 20 years after Jesse Jackson’s failed bid
for the presidency, Obama ran a campaign largely free of racial demagoguery. And
whatever one’s personal views of Obama, one couldn’t help but marvel at the
prodigious political skills of a candidate who began as a newcomer and ended up
as a symbol of inevitability itself – all within the span of a year.
It takes nothing away from Obama’s dizzying ascent to note that he benefited
from a confluence of luck and good fortune unprecedented in recent political
history. Defeats served him well. It was fortunate, in retrospect, that Obama
lost a 2000 congressional primary race to Black Panther Bobby Rush. That setback
allowed him to seek a Senate seat and thereby to rise to national fame as a
speaker at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. It was fortunate, too, that
so much of his bitterly contested primary battle with Hillary Clinton turned on
Obama’s friendship with Rev. Jeremiah Wright, among other unsavory associations.
By the time the McCain campaign belatedly decided to make them an issue in the
election’s closing weeks, much of their impact had been blunted by Democrats.
National disasters were anything but for the Obama campaign. Amid the meltdown
of the markets this fall, Obama was only too happy to stand back and let an
unnervingly erratic John McCain shake the public’s confidence in his capacity to
lead. All this, moreover, occurred against the background of a political climate
deeply unfavorable for Republican political prospects. Even the sole piece of
truly bad luck for Obama – the tragic passing of his 86-year-old grandmother,
Madelyn Dunham, on the eve of the election – somehow seemed to conform to the
transcendent, quasi-mythical narrative that the Obama campaign had become. For
all the idol-worship of his infatuated fan base, there truly were moments in the
campaign when it seemed that the Illinois senator could do no wrong.
Now reality must intervene. With the longest campaign in memory finally over, it
is only fair to ask: Who have Americans elected? Is it the candidate who vowed
to meet “without preconditions” with the world’s dictators, suggesting that it
was “ridiculous” to oppose such presidential-level diplomacy, or is it the cool
exponent of realpolitik who insisted that all talks with America’s enemies must
be carefully orchestrated by advisors? Is it the candidate who declared himself
a supporter of “clean coal” technology, or the candidate who pledged to
“bankrupt” coal companies with carbon taxes?
And how will a President Obama govern? Will he be the candidate who refuses to
admit his error on the surge of troops in Iraq, and who promises to “end the
war” on a political timeline, or will he become a foreign policy pragmatist who
will heed the advice of commanders on the ground? Will he act like the candidate
who calls the national debt a “domestic enemy” and promises tax relief for the
middle class, or the candidate who would swell the debt by $3.5 trillion and
redistribute wealth to the 40 percent of households that pay no income taxes at
all? Will he live up to his billing as the “post-racial” candidate, or is the
country in store for a painful four years in which to disagree with the new
president is to be suspected of the oldest hatred? Nothing in Obama’s record
suggests an obvious answer.
This is not entirely the president elect’s fault. No small measure of the blame
must go to a media that too often acted as a de facto amplifier for the Obama
campaign, raking John McCain over the coals for every perceived slight to its
preferred candidate and abandoning any pretence to objectivity. If, on the
morning after, voters know little about Obama other than the “historic” nature
of his triumph, the media’s embarrassingly slanted coverage surely is one reason
why. Barack Obama has made history. But the most pressing question remains:
Where will he go from here?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jacob Laksin is a senior editor for FrontPage Magazine. His e-mail is jlaksin
[@] gmail.com.