LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN

LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
ِApril 20/2010

Bible Of the Day
Psalm 116/from 1-16
116:1 I love Yahweh, because he listens to my voice, and my cries for mercy. 116:2 Because he has turned his ear to me, therefore I will call on him as long as I live. 116:3 The cords of death surrounded me, the pains of Sheol got a hold of me. I found trouble and sorrow. 116:4 Then I called on the name of Yahweh: “Yahweh, I beg you, deliver my soul.” 116:5 Yahweh is Gracious and righteous. Yes, our God is merciful. 116:6 Yahweh preserves the simple. I was brought low, and he saved me. 116:7 Return to your rest, my soul, for Yahweh has dealt bountifully with you. 116:8 For you have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, and my feet from falling. 116:9 I will walk before Yahweh in the land of the living. 116:10 I believed, therefore I said, “I was greatly afflicted.” 116:11 I said in my haste, “All men are liars.” 116:12 What will I give to Yahweh for all his benefits toward me? 116:13 I will take the cup of salvation, and call on the name of Yahweh. 116:14 I will pay my vows to Yahweh, yes, in the presence of all his people. 116:15 Precious in the sight of Yahweh is the death of his saints. 116:16 Yahweh, truly I am your servant. I am your servant, the son of your handmaid. You have freed me from my chains. 116:17 I will offer to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and will call on the name of Yahweh. 116:18 I will pay my vows to Yahweh, yes, in the presence of all his people, 116:19 in the courts of Yahweh’s house, in the midst of you, Jerusalem. Praise Yah!

Free Opinions, Releases, letters, Interviews & Special Reports
But what conspiracy?/Now Lebanon/ April 19, 2010
US Scud allegations rally Israeli attack - Syria, Hizbullah/By Patrick Galey/Daily StarApril 19/10
Obama dismays Egypt's reform advocates/By Stephen McInerney/Daily Star/April 19/10
Quebec's niqab legislation covers more than the face/By Daood Hamdani//Daily Star/April 19/10

Latest News Reports From Miscellaneous Sources for April 19/10
Netanyahu calls for crippling petroleum sanctions on Iran/Now Lebanon
Scud missiles would be odd choice for nimble Hizbullah - analysts/Daily Star
STL determined to bring justice 'despite consequences'/Daily Star
Hezbollah Refuses to Address Scud Missile Claims/Global Security Newswire
The Region: N o longer tough enough?/Jerusalem Post
S CUDs and Syria/National Review Online
Obama Without a Policy to Curb Iran: Who spra ng the leak?/Spero News
Baalbek security calms following clashes between army, local clan/Daily Star
Berri presentation leak aims to correct misleading Dialogue reports - Khalife/Daily Star
LNG viable option for Lebanese energy sector - report/Daily Star
Shami Calls on U.N. to Impose Sanctions on Israel /Naharnet
Air France Flight Heads from Beirut to Nice Despite Volcanic Ash /Naharnet
1 Wounded in Weekend Shootings in Hamra, Bikfaya, Tripoli /Naharnet
Berri Threatens to Join Others in Torpedoing Dialogue if Leaks Continue /Naharnet
Technical Talks in Damascus Exclude Friendship Treaty, Higher Council /Naharnet
Consensus over Jounieh Municipal Elections, Amsheet Alliance Hits Snags /Naharnet
Jumblat for Christian Municipal Chiefs in Mixed Shouf Villages /Naharnet
Israel: Syrian Missiles Can Reach Entire Israel /Naharnet
Army Intelligence Arrests Suspected Israel Spy /Naharnet
Fadlallah: U.S. Concerns Reflection of Israeli Fears /Naharnet
Sheikh Qabalan to Sfeir: No Return of Maronite Politics to Lebanon /Naharnet
Hariri in Italy to Discuss Mideast Peace, Bilateral Ties /Naharnet
Report: Israel Threatened Syria to Return it to 'Stone Age' Over Hizbullah Arms /Naharnet
4 Grenades Found in Batroun, 1 Explodes /Naharnet
Aoun from Spain: Israel refuses peace/Now Lebanon

Israel: Syrian Missiles Can Reach Entire Israel
Naharnet/Deputy Israeli Defense Minister Matan Vilnai said Hizbullah has missiles that are able to reach Beer Sheva, while Syrian missiles have a range that can reach anywhere in Israel.
"In every future war or (military) operation, the Israeli home front will be affected. So would the soldiers on the warfront," Vilnai stressed at a seminar held in the Negev.
"The army knows how to deal with this. But we should simultaneously prepare the citizens," he added. Vilnai expressed Israeli concern over what he called was "another kind of missiles beyond Scud with a range that is able to reach the entire Israeli territory." Beirut, 19 Apr 10, 10:45

Technical Talks in Damascus Exclude Friendship Treaty, Higher Council
Naharnet/A Lebanese delegation of directors general and experts is scheduled to visit Damascus on Monday to discuss with Syrian officials technical issues ahead of Premier Saad Hariri's visit to the Syrian capital. The technical team, headed by State Minister Jean Oghassabian, held talks at the Grand Serail at 8:00 am before traveling to Damascus.
Ministerial sources told An Nahar daily that the visit is the first for a technical delegation that is setting the stage for Hariri's trip at the head of a ministerial delegation which pan-Arab newspaper Asharq al-Awsat said could take place in the next few weeks. The sources said the team will only deal with technical issues that pave way for a "productive and successful" visit for Hariri. The experts, however, will not discuss with their Syrian counterparts the Lebanese-Syrian Friendship Treaty and the issue of the Higher Lebanese-Syrian Council.
Sources from the secretariat-general of the Council told pan-Arab daily al-Hayat that the delegation headed by Oghassabian will include around 30 Lebanese officials representing 18 ministries. The Council's president, Nasri Khoury, told Asharq al-Awsat that the Syrian side is awaiting for the remarks of the Lebanese delegation which hasn't sent any written statement on the issues it wants to discuss or agreements it wishes to revise. A source following up the technical delegation's visit told As Safir daily that Monday's meeting with Syrian officials could not be the last before Hariri's second trip to Damascus. Beirut, 19 Apr 10, 08:25

Shami Calls on U.N. to Impose Sanctions on Israel
Naharnet/Foreign Minister Ali al-Shami on Monday called for pressuring the U.N. Security Council into imposing sanctions on Israel. "Regional and international communities should pressure the Security Council into imposing sanctions against Israel," Shami told reporters upon return home from Iran where he took part at an international nuclear disarmament conference in Tehran. Shami and Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani had said all Muslim states must try to prevent Israel from "implementing its hostile plans," according to Press TV. Their remarks came following talks on the sidelines of the Tehran conference. Syria, Lebanon and Iraq have all backed Iran's "peaceful" atomic program and called on Israel to be stripped off its nuclear arsenal. Press TV said Larijani described Lebanon as 'the symbol of resistance against Israel." He hailed the Lebanese people's "determination to fight the Israeli occupation."
Larijani said all Muslims around the world have "a religious responsibility" to fight Israel."The Muslim ummah must take serious and practical steps against the immeasurable number of atrocities carried out by Israel in various parts of Palestine, especially al-Quds," Larijani said. Shami, for his part, said the Lebanese will "never forget the support the Iranian people and the government" to the Resistance. He slammed Israel's housing expansion policy, saying "Islamic and Arab states in the region and around the world need to take a steadfast stance against Israel's evil policies." Shami also urged Arabs to seek punitive measures against Israel "instead of trying to impose sanctions on Iran." Beirut, 19 Apr 10, 14:02

1 Wounded in Weekend Shootings in Hamra, Bikfaya, Tripoli
Naharnet/Security mishaps moved from Beirut to the mountains all the way up north on Sunday. Local media on Monday said security forces arrested a number of suspects involved in the brawls. On Beirut's main thoroughfare of Hamra, a quarrel among a crowd of young men led to shooting bullets in the air by one of the rivals. The men quickly escaped to an unknown destination. But police in Mina al-Hosn managed to arrest the man who opened fire. A police statement said the perpetrator turned out to be a policeman, adding that he had been arrested for "inappropriate behavior." On Sunday evening, a gunman was arrested by Lebanese troops after opening fire at a Phalange party convoy in Bikfaya, the state-run National News Agency said. It said the convoy was on its way to take part in the opening ceremony of a Phalange party office in Ein Sifsaf. The Phalange party said on its website that a member of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party opened fire on a Kataeb convoy lat Sunday. It identified the gunman as Faisal al-Asheq. SSNP, in a statement published by Beirut dailies on Monday, said the incident had no political overtones, adding that SSNP member al-Asheq is now in the custody the Lebanese army for investigation. Meanwhile, a man was wounded in an armed fight between rival clan members from Tripoli's Qebbeh neighborhood and others from Jabal Mohsen.Lebanese troops stepped in and arrested a number of suspects. Beirut, 19 Apr 10, 08:29

Consensus over Jounieh Municipal Elections, Amsheet Alliance Hits Snags
Naharnet/Consensus has been achieved on municipal elections in Jounieh. Amsheet alliance, however, has reportedly hit snags. Contacts conducted by Efram family in Jounieh have increased chances of consensus among the Christian powers, particualry between the Free Patriotic Movement, the Lebanese Forces and the Phalange Party. The daily An-Nahar on Monday said an agreement "in principle" has been reached that called for the re-nomination of Antoine Efram to head the Jounieh Municipal Council. His nomination has received the support of a number of significant figures in Jounieh as well as the main political parties. In Amsheet, meanwhile, a coalition list between the Free Patriotic Movement and the March 14 forces as well as independent figures hit snags after Amsheet residents objected, citing negligence in the choice of the "historical representation of the family and the absence of a female or a youth." Beirut, 19 Apr 10, 09:27

Berri Threatens to Join Others in Torpedoing Dialogue if Leaks Continue
Naharnet/Speaker Nabih Berri threatened to join Hizbullah and its allies in torpedoing national dialogue if leaks to the media continued. In remarks published by the daily As-Safir on Monday, Berri denied an argument had developed during last Thursday's all-party talks at Baabda Palace, saying: "All were ears" at the meeting. Berri made a presentation at the latest national talks which had been leaked to the media despite appeals by President Michel Suleiman as well as Hizbullah and its allies for media blackout on reporting details discussed during meetings on a national defense strategy. The Speaker said he had decided to circulate excerpts of his speech to the media "in light of the misleading information that had been leaked." "I also wanted to send a clear message to some (political) parties at the negotiating table that national dialogue on a defense strategy would be in real danger if media leaks continue," Berri warned. "I will inform all those whom it may concern that if this act continues in this way there would be no point to carry on dialogue," Berri added. Beirut, 19 Apr 10, 07:52

Army Intelligence Arrests Suspected Israel Spy
Naharnet/The Lebanese army intelligence has reportedly arrested a man hailing from the town of Bawarej in Zahle on suspicion of spying for Israel. As Safir daily said Monday the army seized a computer and several CDs from the suspect's home. He was only identified by his initials A.J. The man was taken to the defense ministry in Yarze for questioning, according to the newspaper. Beirut, 19 Apr 10, 08:45

Scud missiles would be odd choice for nimble Hizbullah - analysts
Monday, April 19, 2010 /Naharnet
Alistair Lyon/Reuters
BEIRUT: Long-range Scud missiles, which Israel has accused Syria of sending to Lebanon’s Hizbullah, seem unlikely weapons of choice for a nimble guerrilla outfit.
“Hizbullah needs to float like butterflies, sting like bees. They don’t need something that lumbers along like an ox,” British defense analyst Charles Heyman said.
For now, US officials say they believe Syria intended to transfer the missiles – which Damascus denies – but that they have no indications that any Scuds have been moved to Lebanon.
US President Barack Obama’s administration said after the Israeli accusations emerged that it was “increasingly concerned” about the transfer of more sophisticated weaponry to Hizbullah.
The Scud scare fits into the wider context of a decades-old conflict pitting Israel against Syria, which seeks the return of the Golan Heights occupied in the 1967 war, argued Joshua Landis, a Syria specialist at the University of Oklahoma.
“This new development could not have been better timed to throw a monkey wrench into Washington’s engagement process with Syria,” he wrote in his Syria Comment blog, noting that Robert Ford, named ambassador to Damascus after a five-year gap, has yet to win confirmation by the full Senate.
“There are many who would like to stop it, not least because Obama seems ready to push forward efforts to resolve the long-festering Arab-Israeli conflict,” Landis added.
Scuds make Israelis nervous because Iraq, under its former leader Saddam Hussein, fired 39 of the missiles at Israel in the 1990-91 Gulf conflict, albeit with conventional warheads, not chemical ones likely to have prompted devastating Israeli retaliation.
“From a military perspective, you question why Hizbullah would have a Scud … but it is amazingly evocative as a name, so in political, psychological terms, it’s an important escalation – if true,” said British defence expert Paul Beaver.
About 11 meters long, a Scud usually is fired from a huge wheeled transporter-erector-launcher, which itself is backed by support vehicles. A launch needs 45 minutes to prepare, Beaver said.
One Israeli official said Hizbullah had received only the missiles to place in “improvised silos,” not the launcher and tow truck. It was not immediately clear how the guerrillas could launch the missile without its companion equipment.
Hizbullah, allied to Iran and Syria, has neither confirmed nor denied adding Scuds to its arsenal, as Israeli President Shimon Peres stated last week, but some experts are sceptical.
Uzi Rubin, a founder of Israel’s Arrow anti-missile program and now a private consultant to the Defense Ministry, voiced surprise at reports of Scuds reaching Hizbullah.
“This is a nonsense move. What do they need Scuds for?” Rubin asked.
“They already have the [Iranian-made] Fateh-110, which has a similar range and, being a solid-fuel rocket, is far less cumbersome. Okay, so Scuds weigh a ton while the Fateh-110 is half a ton. [There’s] nothing to stop them firing two Fateh-110s.”
The guerrillas rained mostly short-range Katyusha rockets on northern Israel during a 2006 war in which nearly 1,200 people, mainly civilians, were killed in Lebanon.
Hizbullah killed 158 Israelis, 43 of them civilians hit by rocket attacks.
Israel failed to stop the Katyusha strikes, but analysts say it swiftly knocked out Hizbullah’s larger missiles.
“Early in the Lebanon campaign, the Israelis were able to target and destroy Hizbullah’s intermediate and medium-range missiles,” Beaver said. “It’s hard to hide a Scud. It requires an erector launcher, refueling trucks, a panoply of equipment,” he said.
Heyman said Scuds would be easy meat for Israel’s military. “Within three or four minutes of a launch, the whole area would be an inferno of high explosives from counter-battery fire.”
Israeli warplanes fly daily into Lebanese airspace, although the border has been mostly quiet since the 2006 war, with UN and Lebanese army troops patrolling an enclave where Hizbullah has no visible armed presence. Israel complains the peacekeepers do too little to prevent the Lebanese Shiite guerrillas from rearming.
Syria has said Israel’s “fabrications” about Scud deliveries were intended to “raise tension further in the region and to create an atmosphere for probably Israeli aggression.”
Even if Scud deliveries were verified, Israel might make no pre-emptive move, unless Syria took the risky step of also supplying Hizbullah with chemical or even biological warheads.
A former Israeli general, who asked not to be identified, said only hard, public evidence would warrant an Israeli attack.
“It would take, for example, a declaration by Hizbullah that this [a non-conventional Scud warhead] is part of its arsenal,” he said. – Additional reporting by Dan Williams in Jerusalem

US Scud allegations rally Israeli attack - Syria, Hizbullah
By Patrick Galey /Daily Star staff
Monday, April 19, 2010
BEIRUT: Hizbullah and Syria warned over the weekend that US allegations of Syria supplying the group with Scud missiles were baseless and encouraged an Israeli attack on Lebanon, as Israeli jets harassed southern residents on Saturday night.
Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem, during a conference on nuclear non-proliferation in Tehran, on Sunday repeated Damascus’ denial of US-Israeli claims.
He said the idea of Hizbullah receiving weapons from Syria was “the creation of Israeli aggression.”
“There is no smuggling of missiles and basically the whole story is fabricated by Israel,” Moallem added.
A Lebanese Army statement on Sunday said that Israeli warplanes had dropped a number of flare-bombs over the village of Adaisseh Saturday evening, where a meeting for the forthcoming municipal elections was being held in the house of the village’s mayor.
“This is construed as further provocation by the enemy who has been pushing the line of attack further and further on Lebanon,” the statement added.
In addition, Israeli warplanes performed maneuvers in the skies above Beirut, Baabda, Naqoura and large parts of the south, the army said.
United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) spokesperson Andrea Tenenti told The Daily Star that local media reports of Israeli ground troops being placed on “high alert” appeared untrue. “We are checking to see if there is anything else that happened,” he said. “We haven’t seen any movement of [Israeli] troops.”
Marjayoun-Hasbaya MP Ali Fayyad, a Hizbullah official who attended the meeting, said it took place in a house 50 meters away from the Blue Line – the de facto border with Israel.
“Cars belonging to the attendants were parked in the street surrounding the house when a flare shell was fired in the sky just above the place, another one on the [Israeli] side of the border fence, and a third one residents said was fired but didn’t explode,” Fayyad said.
Tenenti insisted there was no evidence of flares landing on Lebanese soil.
Fayyad slammed “the Israeli enemy that is going too far with its aggressive and provocative acts,” and called on “the Lebanese government to act and file a complaint amid the rising intensity of Israeli provocations and violations of [UN Security Council] Resolution 1701.”
Fayyad had earlier, in an interview with AFP, slammed the US stance that Syria had been delivering long-range ballistic missiles to Hizbullah.
“With this position, [the Americans] are encouraging Israel to carry out an aggression against Lebanon that they are trying to endorse at the international level,” Fayyad said.
“The US is thus placing itself in a position of complicity in the event of aggressions and it will have to take responsibility,” Fayyad added.
Hizbullah has repeatedly refused to comment on its arsenal, which Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak has said consists of 40,000 rockets.
On Tuesday, Israeli President Shimon Peres accused Damascus of furnishing Hizbullah with Scud missiles.
“We are obviously increasingly concerned about the sophisticated weaponry that is allegedly being transferred,” White House spokesperson Robert Gates said Wednesday.
Fayyad said Hizbullah would not respond to “Israeli inventions on its arsenal, but US and Israeli accusations had made “the situation more tense than before.” He added that the allegations “exacerbate tension and directly threaten the stability in the region.”
Hizbullah MP Hassan Fadlallah Sunday refuted Israeli-US claims over missile transfers.
“The anxiety expressed in the last few days by the US is the anxiety of the Israeli enemy, which is unable to confront facts and [actual incidents],” the National News Agency (NNA) quoted the Bint Jbeil MP as saying.
“We need to see a new policy by the Lebanese government to confront continuing Israeli violations of our sovereignty.”
Damascus rejected US-Israeli accusations on Thursday, with a Foreign Ministry statement accusing Tel Aviv of endangering the region’s fragile stability.
The US has been coy on the specifics of alleged arms transfers and three unidentified US officials said Saturday there was no evidence any missiles had entered Lebanon across the Syrian border.
“We believe a transfer of some kind occurred but it is unclear if the rockets themselves have changed hands,” Reuters quoted an official in Washington as saying. “It is unclear at this point that a transfer has occurred … and the United States has no indications that the rockets have moved across the border,” said another.
The specter of an Israeli attack on either Syrian of Lebanese positions was raised again on Sunday.
The Sunday Times reported that Israel had transmitted a warning to Syria, threatening to take it back “to the Stone Age,” should Hizbullah instigate hostilities on its northern border.
“We will return Syria to the Stone Age by crippling its power stations, ports, fuel storage and every bit of strategic infrastructure if Hizbullah dare to launch ballistic missiles against us,” an Israeli minister, who remained anonymous, was quoted as saying. – Additional reporting by Wassim Mroueh, with agencies

STL determined to bring justice 'despite consequences'
Monday, April 19, 2010
Bassem Mroue /The Associated Press
BEIRUT: A top official at the international tribunal on the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri says the court is determined to bring justice in the case, despite fears that prosecutions could spark violence.
Many in Lebanon worry that if the tribunal accuses the Shiite group Hizbullah of being connected to the 2005 assassination of Hariri, it could lead to bloodshed between Lebanon’s Shiite and Sunni communities.
Last May, Germany’s Der Spiegel magazine said the court had evidence that members of Hizbullah were behind the assassination. Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah denied the accusation, and said any attempt to implicate his group in the killing will be considered a politically motivated “Israeli accusation.”
Last month, the court summoned a dozen Hizbullah members and close supporters for questioning, though Nasrallah said they were only considered witnesses, not suspects.
The acting chief administrator for the Netherlands-based tribunal, Herman von Hebel, acknowledged there may be situations when justice could trigger instability. But he told The Associated Press on Friday he’s convinced that “in the long run stability cannot be guaranteed without justice.”
Von Hebel, who is on a one-week visit to Lebanon, declined to answer any questions regarding the investigation, deferring to prosecutors.
It is not known when the indictment will be ready or who will be charged.
The prosecutor’s office has refused to comment on the progress of the investigation.
The February 14, 2005, suicide bombing killed Hariri and 22 others. Many Lebanese accuse neighboring Syria of being behind the assassination. Damascus denies the claims.
Hariri’s death led to a sharp division among Lebanese, but also prompted the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon and the end of Damascus’ 29-year domination of the country.
That opened the door to a still unresolved struggle for power in Beirut between Syrian-backed Lebanese, led by Hizbullah, and pro-Western factions led by Prime Minister Saad Hariri, Rafik Hariri’s son.
The late Hariri was a prominent Sunni politician with close links to Saudi Arabia.
Von Hebel, who previously served as the tribunal’s deputy chief administrator, took over after David Tolbert stepped down earlier this year to lead a New York human rights group.
During his visit to Lebanon, Von Hebel met with top officials, including the country’s president, and said he was impressed by the Lebanese authorities’ “strong commitment to the mandate of the tribunal to find [the] truth” behind Hariri’s assassination.
The tribunal was set up by the UN Security Council in 2007 and comprises seven foreign and four Lebanese judges. It is based in the Netherlands to ensure the safety of the staff and an impartial trial. It will use Lebanese law, but unlike Lebanese courts cannot impose the death penalty. Unusually for an international tribunal, it can hold trials in absentia.

Quebec's niqab legislation covers more than the face
By Daood Hamdani /Daily Star
Commentary by
Monday, April 19, 2010
Across Europe, discussions are taking place about what local Muslim women wear – specifically the niqab (face veil), the burqa (a garment that covers the body, head and face) and the hijab (headscarf). More recently the debate has been taken up in the Canadian province of Quebec. And, as in Europe, the discussion tends to disregard the diversity within Muslim societies, as well as the strides Muslims have taken to integrate and participate actively in their local communities.
Proposed legislation in Quebec may force some Muslim women to choose between the niqab and access to public services. This proposal, commonly known as Bill 94, reflects a narrow-minded view of integration of religious minorities driven by stereotypes.
Quebec became the destination of choice for Muslim newcomers to Canada after immigration rules were relaxed in the late 1960s. Bilingualism was a blessing for the French-speaking professionals and skilled workers in Africa and Asia who sought opportunities abroad. Thanks to Canada’s bilingualism policy, which designated both English and French as official languages, Europe was no longer the only place for these people to look to as a new home; North America’s doors had also opened to them.
Muslims from North Africa and the Mideast arrived to study or fill vacant positions in universities, hospitals and factories. Coming from former French colonies, they spoke fluent French and eased into the Quebec culture. Other Muslim immigrants who did not know the language learned it as a step toward integration. The 2001 census revealed that for over 50 percent of Quebec’s Muslims French was the most frequently spoken language in their homes, a higher percentage than for many other faith communities in the province.
The 2001 census also found proportionately twice as many Muslim as all Canadians use both official languages – English and French – in the workplace, demonstrating from a language standpoint that whether recent immigrants or long-term citizens, Muslims in Quebec are willing to integrate into the local culture. Yet the niqab, worn by a tiny number of Muslim women, has been seized upon as the symbol of Muslims’ unwillingness to change and respect Quebec’s values.
By forcing them to choose between the niqab and public services, the government of Quebec expects to achieve integration and gender equality. But will it?
If the niqab is a symbol of subordination to men, as Quebec Premier Jean Charest implied by invoking gender equality in defense of Bill 94, the decision to remove it would not be left to women, regardless of access to public services. Most likely, it is their fathers or husbands who would weigh the options and influence, if not make, the decision entirely.
Jeered at in the streets and frequently the subject of media stories, women who wear the niqab would only be subject to further restrictions on their freedoms if the legislation passes.
In dynamic societies, change is a natural process. As in the rest of Canada, Quebec culture has evolved from the intermingling of people of different backgrounds and ideas. The same type of interaction taking place between Muslims and other Canadians, and between Muslims of diverse cultures, is producing change and driving a new Muslim Canadian identity – one that does not sacrifice religion or ethnicity.
Not to be left behind, Muslim women are in fact on the leading edge of this new phenomenon. A recent English translation of the Koran by Laleh Bakhtiar, a Muslim female scholar, challenges some of the traditional interpretations by male translators. Muslim women also forced a public debate on the interpretation of Muslim family law when a group of men tried to obtain legal status for arbitration decisions made by Muslim family tribunals in Ontario.
Sensing the mood for introspection, in 2004 a Toronto imam took the unprecedented step of inviting a female congregant to give the sermon on Eid al-Fitr, one of the two main annual Muslim religious celebrations – and drew surprisingly little public criticism by area imams.
Culture is an evolving norm, especially in a pluralist society. It is the social mechanism by which individuals – comprised of both established members and newcomers – adjust to new situations. Liberal democratic states should facilitate this process, not dictate it by limiting freedoms.
Daood Hamdani is the author of “In the Footsteps of Canadian Muslim Women, 1837-2007.” THE DAILY STAR publishes this commentary in collaboration with the Common Ground News Service. (www.commongroundnews.org).

Peres: We seek peace, but know how to defend ourselves
By JPOST.COM STAFF
18/04/2010 20:34 /Daily Star
http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=173453
Israel plans to establish a national war monument in Jerusalem to honor the memory of the 22,684 soldiers and security personnel who have fallen defending the land of Israel since 1860 – the year the first Jews left Jerusalem’s Old City walls to settle other parts of the country.
On Sunday, Defense Minister Ehud Barak announced plans to erect the new monument, during a ceremony at its future location on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem.
“As a society we owe a great moral debt to bereaved families,” Barak said. “In its 62 years of independence this country has stood before complicated challenges and overcome them due to the generation after generation of talented youth who were, and still are, prepared to defend this country with their lives.”
Under the Defense Ministry plan, the monument will include all of the names of the soldiers and security personnel who have died since 1860, with a memorial light next to the name that will be lit up on the anniversary of the soldier’s death. At the monument, the Defense Ministry will also set up computer consoles, where visitors will be able to look up the stories of the fallen.
Barak said that Mount Herzl was the most appropriate location for the new monument, since it would be located between Yad Vashem and the graves of Israel’s founding fathers, and adjacent to the graves of the IDF’s fallen.
“These soldiers are the silver platter upon which we received the State of Israel, and there is no place more fitting to memorialize them than on this mountain,” Barak said.
President Shimon Peres opened the state ceremony on Sunday evening ushering in the 24 hours of mourning for fallen soldiers, minutes after Israelis stood for a moment of silence during the siren announcing the beginning of Remembrance Day.
“Bereaved families, whose Remembrance Day does not start with the siren that calls for a minute of silence, or end with the kindling of the beacons; you who came to this place, in the nebulous light of dusk, in the chilly Jerusalem evening air, facing the remnants of the Temple, [represent] over 20,000 households in Israel who lost the most precious of all, in the storm of battle, and in the line of duty,” the president said.
“I am aware that nothing can compensate for the sound of the steps of a son you expect to hear on the staircase, which has suddenly turned silent. The son whose uniform you hung on a hanger in the closet, which generates a yearning to smell the smell of his body one last time,” he went on.
“Facing your tormented eyes – there is a loss of words. A testimony of the truth that destiny has inflicted upon you the heaviest of prices – bereavement. And bequeathed to our nation the greatest of achievements – revival,” Peres said.
Consoling the families that their sacrifice was not in vain, Peres said, “In their battle, the fallen prevented the destruction of the new tabernacle of David.”
Speaking of future challenges to the Jewish state’s survival, Peres noted that “there are still those who wish to annihilate us. And at their head, the autocratic Iranian regime that seeks to cast its rule over the Middle East, silence it with lethal weapons, and launch an anti-Israel incitement campaign to deflect Arab concerns.
“On no account must we disregard these threats. Nor should our enemies belittle our capabilities,” he declared.
“A threat to the peace of the Jewish people always carries the danger of turning into a threat to the civilized world as a whole, to its well-being and values,” Peres warned.
He insisted that Israel “does not seek war. We are a nation that yearns for peace” – but he cautioned Israel’s enemies that Israelis “know how to, and will know how to, defend” themselves.
IDF Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, speaking after Peres, reflected on the road he had traveled on his way to the ceremony, from the Kirya military headquarters in Tel Aviv to the Western Wall in Jerusalem.
“As I was making my way from the plains near the beach to the mountain, I gazed upon the changing views of the road leading to Jerusalem, all silent witnesses of the battles and, together, one immense memorial monument to the heroes of the land who gave their lives for Israel’s security,” he said.
“Only minutes pass before I traverse the fortress at Latrun, between the canyon and the mountain, where warriors for Israel’s independence held bloody battles, where sabras fought shoulder-to-shoulder with new immigrants, survivors of the Holocaust fresh off the ships, who did not even speak Hebrew.
“In Sha’ar Hagai, I silently looked at the skeletons of armored vehicles, memorials of those who broke a path to Jerusalem as their ranks were dwindling. I then passed the Harel interchange, named after the brigade commanded by Yitzhak Rabin, a brigade that fought to take hold of the Castel overlooking the routes to the city,” Ashkenazi said.
“And as I reach the gates of Jerusalem, seeing in my mind’s eye the paratroopers fighting on Ammunition Hill and near Augusta Victoria, those who arrived here, to this place for which the Jewish people yearned over generations, I remember the sounds of shofar by Rabbi [Shlomo] Goren and [then-IDF chief of staff] Mota Gur’s eternal call: ‘The Temple Mount is in our hands.’”
He quoted poet Haim Hefer, who “wrote, ‘Only those who lost their finest friends could ever understand us.’ I stand before you today as a warrior and commander with more than 36 years of military service, where I lost my best friends and colleagues, and came back from the killing fields with spaces in our ranks. I understand the feelings of loss and yearning. There does not pass a day where the bitter taste of yearning is absent from my and my fellow commanders’ minds.”
He went on, “In the name of these friends, I stand here today as the Israel Defense Forces’ Chief of General Staff, proudly look to you, and salute them. As a member of the second generation after the Holocaust, who began his path as a warrior on the southern front in the Yom Kippur War and who fought for years in Lebanon, I met, and sadly continue to meet, the tormented gaze of families whose loss darkens their doorstep and know: The existence of the State of Israel is not an obvious thing.
“We must continue to guard it from enemies even as we strive to establish here a just, developing and democratic society, a society that sanctifies the values over which the sons and daughters went on their last missions,” Ashkenazi said. “May their memory be blessed.”

Barak: Peace requires brave decisions
By JPOST.COM STAFF
18/04/2010 18:44
http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=173450
Defense minister speaks at Remembrance Day ceremony in TA Uni.
“On May 14, 1948, our first prime minister, David Ben Gurion, announced the establishment of the State of Israel. The newborn state was immediately cast into the reality of an existential war, a war that has been part of the lives of the people of Israel from that moment until today,” Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Sunday in a ceremony at Tel Aviv University ahead of Israel’s Remembrance Day, which takes place Monday.
“In 62 years of independence, the state withstood difficult challenges and succeeded only through the fact that in every generation the finest of its young were ready and willing to put their lives on the line to defend the state. These were the fallen, your loved ones, dear families,” Barak said.
Barak also referred to the issue of draft dodging, saying that “service in the IDF is a duty but it is also a great privilege. Over the years of our struggle for existence in this land, thousands of young men and young women chose to stay here, take our destiny in our hands and fulfill the privilege of fighting for our liberty and sovereignty. The few who abandon the country or who dodge military service only emphasize the verity and essence of this choice.”
Barak said that as defense minister he was convinced that Israel will achieve peace with the Palestinians, in the framework of the United States’ Road Map and the two-state solution.
Only such an agreement, Barak said, would “ensure a Jewish majority for generations, in clear borders and an end of conflict and claims.” He said this would necessitate “great and brave decisions, cooperation with the international community and close ties with the US.”

Israeli defense minister concerned over US rift
JERUSALEM (Reuters)
http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2010/04/19/106273.html
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak voiced concern on Monday over a deep rift with the United States over settlement policy and said Israel should do more to try to achieve peace with the Palestinians. "The alienation that is developing with the United States is not good for Israel," said Barak, head of the center-left Labor Party in right-wing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's governing coalition. In an interview with Israel Radio on the country's annual memorial day for its soldiers, Barak called for a "far-reaching Israeli diplomatic initiative" on peace, including talks with the Palestinians on core issues of the Middle East conflict.
Long-term friendship, strategic partnership
" We have strong ties with the United States, a bond, long-term friendship and strategic partnership. We receive three billion dollars from them each year, we get the best planes in the world from them "Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak"We have strong ties with the United States, a bond, long-term friendship and strategic partnership. We receive three billion dollars from them each year, we get the best planes in the world from them," he said. "For all these reasons we must act to change things," Barak said, while voicing doubts Netanyahu would soon enjoy the same warm ties with the White House as his predecessors did when President George W. Bush was in office.
In separate remarks at a memorial ceremony, Netanyahu spoke in broad terms of Israel's approach to peacemaking.
"One of our hands is stretched out in peace to all our neighbors who desire peace. The other hand grasps the sword of David to defend our people against those who wish us dead," Netanyahu said, invoking the Biblical warrior king of Israel. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Sunday that the United States "will not waver" in its support and protection of Israel.
Clinton stressed that "the United States will continue to stand with you, sharing your risks and helping shoulder your burdens, as we face the future together."
"I have a deep personal commitment to Israel. And so does President Barck Obama. Our nation will not waver in protecting Israel's security and promoting Israel's future," she said in a statement. "Israel today is confronting some of the greatest challenges in its history, but its promise and potential have never been greater."
Differences with washington
" I have a deep personal commitment to Israel. And so does President Barck Obama. Our nation will not waver in protecting Israel's security and promoting Israel's future "
U.S. State Secretary Hillary ClintonWith Netanyahu and Obama sharply at odds over settlement policy in occupied areas Palestinians want for a state, Barak held out the prospect of reshaping Israel's government so that it could make bold land-for-peace moves.
He gave no specifics but political commentators have raised the possibility of bringing in former Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni's centrist Kadima party to keep Netanyahu's coalition in power if pro-settler factions decide to pull out. "With a broad readiness to go for a (peace) agreement, Israeli governments have overcome many obstacles in the daily discourse with the Americans about building in this or that settlement or a Jerusalem neighborhood," Barak said about long-standing differences with Washington over the issue.
The Obama administration responded angrily last month when Israel announced a project, during a visit by U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, to build 1,600 more homes for Jews in a part of the occupied West Bank that it annexed to Jerusalem.
The Palestinians subsequently cancelled plans to enter into U.S.-mediated, indirect talks with Israel, and Netanyahu has yet to respond to a U.S. list of steps that Washington wants him to take to coax them back to the negotiating table. Political sources in Israel said Washington proposed 11 such "confidence-building" measures that are thought to include freezing Israeli construction in East Jerusalem, captured by Israel along with the West Bank in a 1967 war. The Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of the state they intend to establish in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. They say settlements could deny them a viable state. The political sources said Netanyahu, who has pledged not to place curbs on building homes for Israelis in and around East Jerusalem was unlikely to agree in full to Washington's list. To do so, the sources said, could cause his coalition to disintegrate, and continued friction with Obama could be a price he would be willing to pay to remain at the helm.

Striking Iran "last option": US military chief
"Last option"
NEW YORK (Reuters)
http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2010/04/19/106259.html
United States President Barack Obama's national security advisers are considering a broad range of options to curb Iran's nuclear program, among them military strikes, if diplomacy and sanctions fail, Pentagon officials said early Monday.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates, releasing a statement on Sunday about a secret memorandum he sent to the White House in January, said he identified "next steps in our defense planning process" that would be reviewed by decision makers in the coming weeks and months.
"There should be no confusion by our allies and adversaries that the United States is properly and energetically focused on this question and prepared to act across a broad range of contingencies in support of our interests," Gates said in the statement, issued to refute characterizations of the memo in a New York Times report.
"Last option"
" I think Iran having a nuclear weapon would be incredibly destabilizing. I think attacking them would also create the same kind of outcome "
Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. military\'s Joint Chiefs of StaffAdmiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. military's Joint Chiefs of Staff, said early Monday the military options available to Obama would go "a long way" to delaying Iran's nuclear progress but may not set the country back long-term. He called a military strike his "last option" right now.
The comments underscored the difficult choices facing Obama in trying to keep Iran from getting a nuclear bomb without setting off a broader conflict.
"It's very hard to predict outcomes there," Mullen told reporters after addressing a forum at Columbia University in New York.
Mullen said there was "not much decision space to work in because of both outcomes -- having a weapon and striking generate unintended consequences that are difficult to predict."
"I think Iran having a nuclear weapon would be incredibly destabilizing. I think attacking them would also create the same kind of outcome," he added.
Iranian President Ahmadinejad said that the nuclear rights of his country were not negotiableThe Times reported on Saturday that Gates's memo was meant as a warning to the White House that the United States lacked an effective strategy to curb Iran's steady progress toward nuclear capability.
In his statement, Gates said: "The memo was not intended as a 'wakeup call' or received as such by the president's national security team. Rather, it presented a number of questions and proposals intended to contribute to an orderly and timely decision-making process."
Mullen said Gates was leading policy deliberations within the administration that have had "great focus for years, not months."
"This is as complex a problem as there is in our country and we have expended extraordinary amounts of time and effort to figure that out, to try to get that right," Mullen said.
Supporting diplomacy
" There should be no confusion by our allies and adversaries that the United States is properly and energetically focused on this question and prepared to act across a broad range of contingencies in support of our interests "
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert GatesMullen and Gates both support continuing the diplomatic and pressure track pushed by the United States at the U.N. Security Council, including a new round of U.N. sanctions aimed at persuading Iran to give up its nuclear program without resorting to military force.
A U.S. draft proposal provides for new curbs on Iranian banking, a full arms embargo, tougher measures against Iranian shipping, moves against members of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and firms they control and a ban on new investments in Iran's energy sector.
"We in the Pentagon, we plan for contingencies all the time and so certainly there are (military) options which exist," Mullen said.
He said these military options "would go a long way to delaying" the nuclear program, but said Obama would have to choose how to proceed if diplomacy fails.
"That's not my call. That's going to be the president's call," Mullen said. "But from my perspective ... the last option is to strike right now."
Mullen said that his "worry about Iran achieving a nuclear weapons capability" is that other states in the region will seek nuclear arms of their own.
"There are those that say, 'Come on, Mullen, get over that. They're going to get it. Let's deal with it,'" Mullen said.
"Well, dealing with it has unintended consequences that I don't think we've all thought through. I worry that other countries in the region will then seek to, actually, I know they will, seek nuclear weapons as well. That spiral headed in that direction is a very bad outcome."

Israel Attacks and Obama Backs Down
19/04/2010
By Bilal Hassen
Asharq Al-Awsat
The Israeli announcement about deporting the Palestinian
infiltrators" from Gaza to the Gaza Strip or to Jordan is the beginning of a new stage in the Arab-Israeli conflict.
It is the beginning of a dangerous stage that can be considered tantamount to a declaration of continuous war. It is the beginning of the implementation of the "transfer" policy, the policy of collective deportation until the "Jewishness" of the state is achieved, and then until achieving the imposition of Israeli solutions for the Palestinians and the Palestinian issue. These Israeli solutions could be either the concept of the alternative homeland in Jordan, which the Palestinians and Jordanians reject, or the concept of exchange of territories at a regional level between Israel, the Palestinian Authority [PA], Jordan, and Egypt, according to the plan of Maj-Gen Giora Eiland, who has reemerged at the international level.
The first aspect of the Israeli deportation decision encroaches first of all upon the Oslo Accord. It expresses an Israeli plan that means abolishing the Oslo Accord, as it abolishes the geographical unity stipulated in the accord between Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and Jericho region, because it considers anyone who comes from Gaza Strip to the West Bank as infiltrator.
The second aspect of the deportation decision encroaches upon the PA, which becomes officially prohibited from deciding the fate of its Palestinian citizens. From now on such decision is up to the Israeli military governor, as he is the one to detain, put on trial, and deport the citizens. Despite the fact that the Israeli occupation authority always has had the upper hand in all issues, especially the security ones, now this is assuming a new dimension that abolishes the principle of "cooperation" that has existed between the PA and the occupation authority. The convention between the two sides is that the Palestinian side submits applications to the occupation authority on the basis of which entry and permanent residence permissions are given; now the PA has been set aside, and it no longer has even the role of agent, as the entire issue is under the control of the Israeli military governor.
As this plan has started to be implemented in this direction, the next logical step is to apply it to the sons of the West Bank, who entered "the territories of the State of Israel," resided there according to the Israeli law, sometimes married Palestinian women according to the Israeli law, had children, and these children now are young men and women. These people now could be subject to decisions of deportation to the West Bank, regardless of what that might mean of destruction of the entire structure of the family.
These two steps, the deportation from the West Bank and then the deportation to the West Bank, will not be anything other than an introduction to the Israeli greater and more dangerous decision, namely the continuous application of the transfer policy, i.e. the policy of the comprehensive deportation of the Palestinians from their country to wherever they want or to wherever they are forced to go. This is in implementation of the concept of the "Jewishness" of the state, and in pursuit of changing the demographic balance that worries Israel.
Since the first Herzliya Conference in 2000, which was attended by all the colors of the Israeli elite spectrum, Israel adopted a strategic decision to work toward evicting the Palestinians from the country, Palestine. The number of the evicted Palestinians so far is 1.5 million. Despite the fact that this decision was not implemented at that time, the political debate over it has continued in Israel between those calling for starting the eviction by force and coercion, and those calling for a strange theory called voluntary departure through making the life so difficult for the Palestinian citizen to the extent that he would not find any available solution other than leaving. Between these two sides, plans were drawn up that were called the plans for developing Galilee and Negev, where there is a Palestinian majority, to bring in Israelis to the heart of these regions in order to change the demographic balance.
What is even more dangerous in this issue is that this Israeli policy enters the realm of implementation simultaneously with a retreat in the US political stance toward the political settlement, which has to be given special Palestinian and Arab attention. A few days ago it was reported that the United States intended to present a plan for settlement, i.e. a plan to be implemented, and perhaps a plan to be imposed on both sides if it were not agreed through negotiations. These reports started circulating after President Barack Obama hosted a number of former national security advisers, who advised him to crystallize a US plan based on the Camp David negotiations in 2000 between late President Yasser Arafat and the then Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Baraq, and also based on the settlement plan by former US President Bill Clinton, which he announced 50 days before the end of his term. However, what was announced after that, whether officially or by some of those who attended the consultative meeting at the White House, has diminished the horizons of optimism, and restored the US stance to what it used to be, either as a one that is not serious in sponsoring the settlement, or as one that is biased in favor of Israel and against the interests of the Palestinians and the Arabs.
The official US stance, which ended the optimism that was promoted by the media, came through the US President himself in his statements to the press (Reuters 13 April 2010), and in which the following indications emerged:
First: President Obama has retreated from saying that the political disagreement is between him and Netanyahu, and presented the political dispute as including the Palestinians and also the Arabs. President Obama said: "Perhaps the Israelis and the Palestinians are not ready to settle their conflicts whatever the volume of pressure exerted by Washington."
Second: Obama announced that the solutions proposed by the United States would be for negotiations and not to be imposed. He said: "The United States cannot impose solutions if the sides of the conflicts are not prepared to abandon the old types of hostility."
Third: Obama announced that the settlement to be sponsored by the United States might stumble and grind to a stop. He said: "Progress in issues such as the peace in the Middle East should not be measured by days and weeks, as it will take time, there will be halting of the progress, and there will be frustrations."
We do not think that any US politician has ever announced his retreat from a policy, which he personally launched, in the same way as Obama. We do not believe that any US president has ever retreated in front of Israel after a public dispute between them in the same way as Obama.
Obama has adopted this stance, which abolishes any Arab optimism that his policy might improve, after consulting senior US experts. The most prominent of these experts (Zbigniew Brzezinski - the Washington Post) hastened to announce an advice to Obama, which included an explicit call on the Palestinians to concede the right to return; Brzezinski said: "The Palestinian leaders know that peace cannot be reached without conceding something that much of the Palestinian people consider to be a sacred right, the right to return." Brzezinski prophesied that whoever rejected such a solution would be exposed to international pressure in order to acquiesce and accept it; he said: "If the offer is rejected by one side or by both sides, the United States will try to get the agreement of the UN Security Council to a framework to achieve such peace, and hence there will be international pressure exerted on the objecting side."
Thus, the round of disagreement between Obama and Netanyahu has ended. It has ended in a way that satisfies Israel. What remains for the Arab ruler is to infer the meaning and significance of the new Israeli policy, and the meaning and significance of the new US political tactics. Such policies indicate wars; and whoever sees the indications of war and does not prepare for it is wrong. He should be prepared politically, economically, and militarily.

But what conspiracy?
April 19, 2010
Now Lebanon
PSP leader Walid Jumblatt has surprised few with his recent trips to Damascus and conspiracy-centered rhetoric. (AFP photo/ Joseph Eid)
The good ship Lebanon is being buffeted in a perfect storm. Regional tensions have ratcheted, and Lebanon’s internal priorities are no longer the concern of the international community. The political rhetoric has also shifted. No longer to do we hear talk of consolidating democratic principles, of achieving greater sovereignty of reform and greater freedoms. Instead we hear messages.
Walid Jumblatt, once the darling of the 2005 anti-Syrian Independence Intifada, has returned from his second trip to Damascus in recent weeks full of the language of Arab defiance, calling on all Lebanese to fight what he called the conspiracy that threatens to divide Lebanon like it has divided Iraq and Palestine. One assumes he was calling for Arab solidarity in the face of Western (read Zionist) interference in the region.
Jumblatt’s views are no longer startling to those who were initially nonplussed by his ideological volte face. He forgets that it was “Western interference” that backed Lebanon’s pro-democracy movement in 2005. But he is the supreme survivor, and if any politician can be said to personify the prevailing political winds it is he.
The “conspiracy” of which he talks is the one that has been sold to the Arab street for generations: the American-backed Zionist scheme whose plotters are hell bent on spreading mayhem. Certainly Israel is no friend of Lebanon, and certainly it has Lebanon, Syria and Iran in its crosshairs. The recent media reports that Hezbollah has acquired Syrian-supplied sophisticated weaponry will only have whetted its appetite for confrontation. We should be concerned.
But surely there is also the other side of this coin: We should call it the Iranian conspiracy in which Lebanon has become a strategic weapon in Tehran’s arsenal, a front in a regional standoff. Tensions in the South are at their highest in years, and Israeli planners are very aware that any preemptive strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities would result in Hezbollah attacking its northern border with Lebanon.
If there were anything that would destabilize Lebanese solidarity, this would be it, especially with half the country opposed to the party’s weapons. This was made very clear at the parliamentary ballot box in 2009. But at last week’s national dialogue session, Hezbollah MP Mohammad Raad also made it very clear that his party’s weapons are non-negotiable and are here to stay. The internal response to a war ignited by the presence of these weapons does not bear thinking about. And we all know what war does to solidarity.
And let us not forget the Syrian conspiracy in which Syria wants a “return” to Lebanon. We have seen how Damascus has meddled in Lebanese affairs in the months since the new regional understanding with Saudi Arabia. It has shown how it can control security in Lebanon (this weekend’s spate of shootings were clearly no coincidence) by stalling the unpopular national dialogue (ditto Speaker Nabih Berri’s outburst on alleged leaks from the recent discussions), while over the weekend we heard of claims that parties within the presidential palace tried to convince the international community to stop funding the Special Tribunal for Lebanon because its outcome would cause unrest in the country. It no secret that Damascus would like to put an end to or indefinitely delay the Special Tribunal, the court tasked with investigating the 2005 murder of former PM Rafik Hariri, a crime in which Syria is still a prime suspect. Killing the process would also not be good for Lebanese solidarity, especially if you believe that the STL is important to setting a new judicial precedent in a country where the bullet and bomb have ruled for decades.
Thus it appears Lebanon is a country riddled with conspiracies. It may be naïve to suggest, but the Lebanese solidarity of which Jumblatt speaks can only be achieved if the Lebanese state is allowed to evolve into a fully-functioning entity, free to forge its own foreign policy on its own terms and control all its institutions, including the military as the final arbiter on matters of defense. Its politicians must be accountable to their people and the electorate and not their regional patrons.

Aoun from Spain: Israel refuses peace
April 19, 2010 /Change and Reform bloc leader MP Michel Aoun said during his visit to Madrid on Monday that Israel refuses peace and instead seeks to achieve solutions through wars.
Aoun traveled to Spain on Sunday upon the invitation of the country’s cabinet. The domestic situation in Lebanon is peaceful, he said, adding that all beliefs are respected in the country.
Aoun also called on Spanish people to visit Lebanon. The FPM leader voiced his concern over drug use in Lebanon, saying that he will give the issue special attention.
He also said that he is following up on the status of Christians in the Middle East. Aoun also met with Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos at the Spanish Foreign Ministry in Madrid on Monday.-NOW Lebanon

Mohammad Jawad Khalife
April 19, 2010
On April 18, the Lebanese National News Agency carried the following report:
Health Minister Mohammad Jawad Khalife assured that “what Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri said around the dialogue table immunized this table and showed concern for its continuation against the backdrop of what was circulated in the media in terms of positions regarding it. These leaks carried a clear message for public opinion to immunize dialogue. There are many things which emerged too fast and pushed toward the leaking of Speaker Berri’s speech, namely the great misunderstanding which surrounded the dialogue table, the leaks about Hezbollah’s withdrawal from it and the Israeli threats… Among the most important messages sent by Berri was the fact that the arms of the Resistance have one goal, that of fighting the enemy in full coordination with a miniature committee from the army to give reassurances and contain the fears. Berri’s [speech which was leaked] aimed at reassuring the other team and at putting things in perspective before the public. Despite the circumstances and the tensions, our current status is acceptable in comparison with the one which prevailed in the past. The understandings rendered the divisions political and not sectarian. Therefore, there is no longer a need for tensions or exaggeration when dealing with one’s sect or with the other sects… The Lebanese know that Israel is Lebanon’s enemy. However, those opposing these arms are scared that a certain team might use them in the political equation over the country’s formula. Lebanon cannot exit the Arab reality which Israel created in the region. There is no division among the Lebanese over the withdrawal of the Palestinian arms outside the camps, and the controversy surrounding this issue in the media will not lead us anywhere… The government is carrying out its tasks in light of the political divisions in the cabinet. This work is being conducted without any complications. Certainly, productivity could be higher and more executive decisions could be issued, but this is a national unity government in which the governmental performance cannot be separated from the situation in the country. Saying that the government has died is like saying that the country has died, and this is not true…
“Former Prime Minister Fouad al-Siniora assumed the responsibility during a stage in which we suffered conflicts inside and outside of Lebanon and the problems were contained inside the parliament. The tackling of the security agreement with the United States was made within the context of specific restraints. There is nothing preventing the security forces and the army from receiving aid from whichever side but some articles featured in the agreement prompted reconsideration.
“The visits of general directors to Syria will not lead to drastic changes, rather contribute to breaking the ice between the two countries. The Syrians are more wishful than us not to see the repetition of the flaws which affected the relations in the past…
“It is necessary not to hold unproductive municipal councils under the headline of concord. There are no sectarian considerations for the promotion of any employee at the Health Ministry. When people act selectively, they commit mistakes...
“We are awaiting the outcome of the investigations to define the responsibilities in the Ethiopian Airliner catastrophe. The families of the victims filed lawsuits against the airline company and the Lebanese state embraced these families and offered them all the required facilitations…
“It is a harsh statement to condemn the non-existence of flights to Africa. The Diaspora in the dark continent and all the other countries must be given the proper care. Let us be realistic. A political cover was provided to save the company which was established and was able to achieve gains. It was supervised by the [Central] Bank of Lebanon which is the biggest shareholder. I believe that the chairman proved to be successful, and just like anyone else, he could be under pressure. These things happen in the country. The Middle Airlines Company is a national institution. It is part of the economy, is successful but is also targeted. We heard that its revenues have retreated and we are afraid that it will suffer once again. However, in light of the open [skies] climate, companies are being established to compete with it and this is where the inquiries started. Nonetheless, it was not necessary for all these things to be addressed in the media…
“In regards to the positions, the relevant minister, the Cabinet and the ministries should have been asked to hold a special session to address the issue. At the level of the Health Ministry for example, I entered one of the WCs in the airport and did not find any soap or tissues, knowing that the company takes money from the state and is not performing its tasks. We thus followed the legal procedure and sent employees once again to see whether or not the problem was fixed. However, they informed us that the situation remained unchanged and that when they addressed the person responsible for such issues he refused to be notified. No one can become bigger than the state and its institutions.”