LCCC
ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
ِJune
03/2010
Bible Of
the Day
The Good News According to Mark 16/14-20
16:14 Afterward he was revealed to the eleven themselves as they sat at the
table, and he rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because
they didn’t believe those who had seen him after he had risen. 16:15 He said to
them, “Go into all the world, and preach the Good News to the whole creation.
16:16 He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who disbelieves will
be condemned. 16:17 These signs will accompany those who believe: in my name
they will cast out demons; they will speak with new languages; 16:18 they will
take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it will in no way hurt
them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.” 16:19 So then the
Lord*, after he had spoken to them, was received up into heaven, and sat down at
the right hand of God. 16:20 They went out, and preached everywhere, the Lord
working with them, and confirming the word by the signs that followed. Amen.
Free Opinions, Releases,
letters, Interviews & Special Reports
The Gaza Flotilla Decoy for Iranian Missiles to
Hezbollah/By: Dr. Walid Phares/June
02/10
Assad may be cruising for a
bruising/By:Tony Badran/June 2, 10
Obama's Top Counterterror Adviser's
Inability to Think Outside the Box Bodes Disaster/By: Raymond Ibrahim/June
02/10
IDF: Global Jihad on
flotilla/By: Yaakov Katz/Jerusalem Post/June 02/10
Latest News Reports From Miscellaneous Sources for June 02/10
Israel Says All Detained Activists
En Route Home/Naharnet
Turkish Parliament Seeks
'Effective' Measures against Israel/Naharnet
U.N. Human Rights Council Approves
Probe into Israel's Ship Raid/Naharnet
British PM says Israeli raid
“completely unacceptable/Now Lebanon
Sleiman addresses Israeli
raid with Assad/Now Lebanon
Pope: Freedom Fleet Violence Left
Me with 'Heavy Heart/Naharnet
Analysis: Israeli raid puts Obama on the spot/AP
Support Israel in its struggle for existence/Washington
Times
LAF fires at Israeli warplanes in
south/Daily
Star
Hariri meets Iranian envoy on
bilateral ties/Daily Star
Ministry launches complaints office
for migrant workers/Daily
Star
Baroud: Polls demonstrate need for
'radical' reform of electoral laws/Daily
Star
Lebanon's Cabinet again fails to
endorse 2010 budget/Daily
Star
Lebanese flotilla activists to be
released/Daily Star & AFP
Activists on board last flotilla
ship now 'more determined/By
Richard Hall and Agence France Presse (AFP)
IMF sees Lebanon's real GDP growth
at 6 percent in 2010/Daily
Star
Budget deficit falls by $535 ml in
first 4 months of 2010/Daily
Star
Construction firms upbeat on Lebanon/Daily Star
Spanish envoy visits women's center
in Dora/Daily
Star
Sayegh urges donors to help meet
Lebanon's needs/Daily
Star
Skaff meets with Sfeir, calls for unity in Zahleh/Daily
Star
Khalife announces drop in prices of
medicines/Daily
Star
Israeli troops kidnap shepherd's
11-year-old son/Daily Star
Aridi
Discusses Transportation Deals with Syrian Counterpart/Naharnet
Loyalty to Resistance:
Israel's Attack Will Drop the Mask that Used to Hide its Ugly Face/Naharnet
March 14: National
Dialogue Must Take into Account Arab and International Stands from Israel's
Crime/Naharnet
Lebanese Technical Team in
Syria in 10 Days/Naharnet
Endorsement of 2010 Budget
Postponed Again/Naharnet
Lebanon Consoles Victims
of Israeli Aid Raid, Calls it 'Terrorist' Act/Naharnet
Aoun: Division between
Mustaqbal and its Allies over Resistance's Arms Exposes Lebanon to Israel/Naharnet
Murr in Paris this Month
for Military Cooperation Talks/Naharnet
Army Fires on Israeli
Warplanes over S. Lebanon/Naharnet
Thousands Rally in Lebanon
against Israeli Flotilla Raid/Naharnet
Baroud: Polls Ended in
Best Possible Atmosphere, Electoral Law Needs to be Changed/Naharnet
Berri: Municipal Elections
were a Mess Except for Baroud's Work/Naharnet
Iran's Ambassador Meets
Hariri: We Affirmed the Continuation of Martyr Hariri's Legacy/Naharnet
Israel Says All Detained
Activists En Route Home
Naharnet/The hundreds of activists detained in a deadly raid on a Gaza-bound
flotilla have all been released from prison to be deported, a prisons authority
spokesman said on Wednesday. "There are no longer any detainees in prison," Yron
Zamir told Agence France Presse when asked about the people detained after
Monday's commando raid in international waters that killed nine activists. He
said they were all taken to Ben Gurion international airport near Tel Aviv or to
the Jordanian border. More than 120 people were deported to Jordan on Wednesday
morning, others were put on flights out and more were awaiting deportation at
the airport. Authorities said 682 people from 42 countries had been aboard the
six ships that tried to bust the Gaza blockade. There was very little official
information about the condition of the injured passengers being treated in
Israeli hospitals. Physicians for Human Rights put the number of wounded
activists at 52.(AFP) Beirut, 02 Jun 10,
Berri from Baabda: Arab FMs Should Unite Against Gaza Siege
Naharnet/Speaker Nabih Berri on Wednesday urged Arab foreign ministers to take a
united stance against the Israeli siege of Gaza and support Turkey over the
attack on the Freedom Fleet."I hope Arabs wouldn't rescue Israel this time. The
least they could do is to … have a united stance to break the siege," Berri said
following 45 minutes of talks with President Michel Suleiman at Baabda palace.
Such a move should support the Turkish stance which called for punishing Israel
for its "bloody massacre" on aid ships bound for Gaza, he told reporters. Arab
foreign ministers will hold crisis talks in Cairo on Wednesday to come up with a
response to the Israeli raid. Beirut, 02 Jun 10, 13:13
Aridi Discusses Transportation Deals with Syrian Counterpart
Naharnet/Public Works and Transport Minister Ghazi Aridi discussed with his
Syrian counterpart Yorob Suleiman Badr on Wednesday transportation agreements
signed between the two countries. Aridi went to the Syrian capital at the head
of a delegation from his ministry. The agreements are part of a series of deals
that Beirut and Damascus have agreed to amend or improve. Beirut, 02 Jun 10,
09:16
Lebanese Technical Team in Syria in 10 Days
Naharnet/The Lebanese technical team tasked with negotiating with Syria
amendments of treaties signed between the two countries will visit Damascus in
10 days, State Minister Jean Oghassabian said Wednesday. Syria handed over to
Lebanese authorities its response to suggestions made by the team, he said in a
statement. The Lebanese side suggested the possibility of holding another round
of talks in Syria June 12-13, Oghassabian said, adding "the Syrian side welcomed
the timing." The meetings are aimed at reaching a final formula on necessary
amendments or new agreements and set the agenda of talks that will be held "soon
between the prime ministers of the two countries," Oghassabian, who heads the
technical team, said. The team, made up of ministry director-generals and other
experts, first went to Damascus last month. Beirut, 02 Jun 10, 14:58
IDF: Global Jihad on flotilla/By:
Yaakov Katz/Jerusalem Post/June 02/10
IDF: Global Jihad on flotilla
By YAAKOV KATZ
Jerusalem Post/June 02/10/
Israel concerned next flotilla will be accompanied by Turkish Navy.
Dozens of passengers who were aboard the Mavi Marmara Turkish passenger ship are
suspected of having connections with Global Jihad-affiliated terrorist
organizations, defense officials said Tuesday, amid growing concerns that Turkey
will dispatch Navy warships to accompany a future flotilla to the Gaza Strip.
According to the defense officials, the IDF identified a group of about 100
passengers on the ship that could have terrorist connections with Global Jihad
affiliated groups.
During its searches of the Mavi Marmara on Tuesday, the military also discovered
a cache of bulletproof vests, night-vision goggles as well as gas masks. On
Monday morning, nine international activists were killed during the Navy’s
takeover of the Mavi Marmara which was trying to break the Israel-imposed sea
blockade on the Gaza Strip.
The group of over 50 passengers with possible terror connections have refused to
identify themselves and were not carrying passports. Many of them were however
carrying envelopes packed with thousands of dollars in cash.
The military is working to identify the passengers and is looking into the
possibility that some of them have ties with Global Jihad-affiliated terror
organizations and that some were involved in past global terror attacks. Some of
them are apparently known Islamic extremists.
“This is the group that was behind the violent lynch against the naval
commandos,” a defense official said. “They came on board the ship prepared and
after they had trained for the expected Navy takeover
Just recently, John Brennan, Deputy National Security Advisor, announced that we
may no longer describe our enemy as ‘Jihadists’ or ‘Islamists’ because Jihad is
a holy struggle, a legitimate tenet of Islam.
I have news for Mr. Brennan: it is not Americans who invented the word “Jihad”;
it is Muslims who have used that word for 1400 years. Brennan is right in that
Jihad is a major tenet of Islam, but he is wrong in calling it legitimate
because it is a declaration of war and violence against non-Muslim individuals,
governments and nations.
The Obama administration refuses to understand that the doctrine of Jihad
challenges the sovereignty of any non-Muslim country and denies it exercising
its right to remain non-Muslim. But after standing against the Arizona law, the
current administration seems to care little about protecting the sovereignty of
the United States.
If John Brennan is interested, this is the definition of Jihad given in
mainstream Shafii law: “to war against non-Muslims, derived from the word
mujahada, signifying warfare, to establish the religion” (Shafii law # o9.0 p.
599).
To ensure that all Muslims perform or at least support Jihad, there is also a
law that states that not performing Jihad or fleeing from combat with
“unbelievers” is considered an enormous crime (Shafii law 377 p. 987). Not only
is Jihad the duty of every Muslim, but of every Muslim head of state. Sharia
says: “The caliph fights all other peoples until they become Muslim” (o9.9 p.
603).
This Muslim notion of Jihad is being taught today across the Muslim world and
producing thousands of young men and women who are committed to killing us.
Jihadi commandments to kill and engage in aggressive wars against non-Muslims
are all over Muslim scriptures and preached from mosques across the Middle East
and even in the West. Such violent Jihadi commandments have never been amended,
annulled or denied by any Muslim group with authority in the Middle East.
Here is another Sharia law: “The Caliph makes war upon Jews, Christians and
Zoroastrians until they become Muslim or else pay the non-Muslim poll tax while
being belittled.” (Law o9.8 p. 602).
The following might also be of interest to Mr. Brennan: “When the caliph (Muslim
Head of State) appoints a ruler on a region, (his duty includes) if the area has
a border adjacent to enemy lands, (he will) undertake Jihad against enemies,
dividing the spoils of battle among combatants and deserving recipients.” (Law
o25.8 and 9 (8) p. 647).
When it comes to the interpretation of Islam, many Muslim groups in the US say
they abide by the interpretations of Al Azhar University in Cairo. Well, Al
Azhar University in Cairo approved and signed the above Sharia laws and also
teaches that Jihad is a permanent war institution against Jews Christians and
pagans.
John Brennan’s statements are, of course, part of the Left’s relentless campaign
to dumb down Americans. There is daily massive, merciless pressure on the
ordinary American citizen to conform to an unbearable state of giving up his
culture, dignity and pride. Those in charge in New York have approved the
building of a huge mosque at Ground Zero, which will be financed by the same
people who financed the terror attack on 9/11. It will be considered by the
Muslim world as yet another holy site for the triumph of Islam. Like the holy
mosque built on top of the Jewish second temple, in a few decades Islam will
claim this area of New York as Muslim holy grounds. American victims of 9/11 are
buried next to a holy mosque of triumph and Muslims will come to visit from all
over the world. Who knows, perhaps our great-grand children will have an eternal
war with Muslims over ground zero as a disputed area between Americans and
Muslims.
To teach Americans another one of its lessons, the Obama administration recently
even brought a foreign leader, the President of Mexico, to come to our Congress
and teach the American people a lesson about what is right and wrong.
The administration teaches us that we must never feel insulted when it rubs our
noses in the ground. You see, a good American must be sensitive to Muslim
wishes, but asking Muslims to reciprocate would be insensitive and racist.
Thanks to how the Left has molded our culture, a good American now can no longer
be patriotic, but he must respect the patriotism of others. He must be tolerant,
but must tolerate the intolerance of others. He must blame himself first, second
and third, but never dare blame those who wish to oppress him. A good American
must welcome Islamic penetration and the agenda of Jihad and never suspect any
ill will from those who call themselves Jihadists and blow themselves up
alongside fellow US citizens. He must never demand equal access in Muslim
countries. He must resist feelings of pride in his culture, but celebrate the
cultures of everyone else, even those who cut the clitorises off of young girls
and forcibly cover their entire bodies and faces. He must celebrate the
diversity and division of America into little tribes even if some of those
tribes are hell-bent on imposing their religion, language and culture by any
means necessary. A good American must abandon any reference in public to God,
Christ, or Christmas. But he must celebrate other religions, especially Islam,
while denying that Islam had anything to do with 9/11.
The present administration and its supporters are following a policy of divide
and conquer. They are gambling with our future. They are playing word games,
telling Muslims that they are not at war with America, when even the children in
the Arab streets know that Islamic Jihad is at war with America.
Mr. Brennan and those who agree with him have ignored 1400 years of Islamic
Jihad history. Only those cultures that fought the Jihadists, survived and
preserved their language and religion, know what Jihad really is and what its
roots are. Wars at the gates of Vienna stopped the Jihadists in their tracks,
but with appeasement, political correctness and Muslim immigration, America
might wake up one day asking “how did we lose Europe?”
The present administration is selling America cheap, very cheap, for votes, for
approval from Saudi Arabia and from radical Islamists. I wish to tell them: You
are rewarding the enemies of America who will never love you. Our politicians
are at least engaged in gross negligence and at worst playing with fire.
Is this a great country for Islam to conquer or what?
**Nonie Darwish is the author of “Cruel and Usual Punishment; The Terrifying
Global Implications of Islamic Law.”
http://frontpagemag.com/2010/06/01/brennans-lessons-on-jihad/
The Gaza
Flotilla Decoy for Iranian Missiles to Hezbollah
By Dr. Walid Phares
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
At first glance, the takeover by the Israeli Navy of the “humanitarian flotilla”
heading towards Gaza is just one more of the disputed crises between Israel and
its foes. As in all previous incidents, the spiral of accusations will
eventually reach bottom.
While media attention will highlight the tactical events - seizure of the ships,
rules of engagement, who fired first, the legal location of the incident and the
other dramatic details - the rapidly expanding debate will soon reach the
strategic intent of the “flotilla.” After all the governments involved issue
their condemnations and warnings in all directions, after the UN conferences and
issues a statement and international forums mobilize to indict their predictably
targeted foe - in this case Israel - the question unavoidably will be: why is
there a flotilla heading towards a military zone, and what is the ultimate goal
of the operation?
According to the organizers of the “Free Gaza” network which enjoys the support
of Hamas and its backers in Damascus and Tehran but also of governments
considered in the West as “mainstream” such as the AKP of Turkey and the oil
rich Qatar, this vast coalition of regimes and organizations assert that the aim
of the 700 militants and activists was to pierce the encirclement of Gaza and
lift the naval blockade of the enclave. Hence the actual goal of the
humanitarian effort is to relieve Hamas, not to ensure aid to the civilians
trapped in the strip. For if aid and comfort was the sole objective of the
operation, the material would have been calmly handed to the United Nations’
agencies which would have forwarded it to the network of humanitarian
associations and NGOs inside the afflicted zone. Either Egypt or Israel would
have checked it and would have, under international obligation, sent it across
the cease fire lines.
But the organizers of the flotilla, a vast coalition supporting the Jihadist
organization based in Gaza, aimed clearly at a geopolitical gain: open a
maritime path for Hamas to receive strategic support from the outside and
solidify its grip over the enclave. Spokespersons for the “flotilla” would
obviously deny the long term goal and focus on the humanitarian stated agenda.
But had the architects of the initiative added a global plan to solve the crisis
in Gaza, one would have given credit to the humanitarian version of the story.
From Ankara to Doha, from Damascus to Tehran, policy planners are aiming at
reaching “their piece” of Palestine, ironically at the expense of the
Palestinian national authority.
Indeed, beyond the evaluation on tactical or legal grounds and who should be
blamed, the picture on the strategic level is much more ominous. The launching
of the “flotilla” timed up with two major developments, one by the moderates in
the region backed by the United States and the international community and the
other by the radicals in the region led by Iran and Syria. After repeated
attempts to bring Israelis and Palestinians back to the table of negotiations
over the past few months, Washington was close to achieving that goal with the
help of moderate Arab governments and the European Union. The Palestinian
Authority and the Israeli government were on their way to a sit down – direct or
indirect - to proceed at an advanced stage in the process. Saudi Arabia, Egypt,
Jordan and other players were blessing the move cautiously. But this process was
moving outside the control of Iran and Syria and their protégés in Gaza.
Hence sending activists via high seas to break the encirclement of Hamas was
part of collapsing US and international efforts to resume the peace talks.
Indeed as we all know, once the radicals trigger (and organize) a wave of
“Jihadism” in the media and streets, no moderate will show up for discussions.
And that’s what is happening as of today: a spiraling crumbling of the latest
chance for peace talks.
This is not new: It is a modified repeat of previous manipulated incidents: The
Hezbollah War in 2006, the Hamas coup of 2007, the Gaza war in 2008 and many
similar successful maneuvers in the 1990s: obstructing the peace process by
using militants wearing peace jackets. But the more ominous development this
flotilla is camouflaging is a real land fleet bringing missiles and advanced
weapons to Hezbollah from Syria to the Bekaa Valley.
Over the past weeks reports have abounded about Iranian long-range missiles
shipped via Syria to Hezbollah and satellite images have shown terror bases in
the vicinity of Damascus growing under Baathist protection. As soon as the
attention of the international community began to focus on the flow of strategic
weapons to Hezbollah, the “brotherhood of regimes” unleashed the Gaza flotilla
across the Mediterranean. Seasoned geopolitical experts would rationally link
the move to create an incident off the coasts of Gaza with the move to equipping
Hezbollah with lethal missiles.
In the end we’re looking at two flotillas, the maritime one in the south being
only a decoy for the land fleet to achieve its goal of war preparations, in the
north.
Obama's Top Counterterror
Adviser's Inability to Think Outside the Box Bodes Disaster
by Raymond Ibrahim
Pajamas Media
May 29, 2010
http://www.meforum.org/2662/brennan-counterterror-adviser-disaster
"The greatest hurdle Americans need to get over in order to properly respond to
the growing threat of radical Islam is purely intellectual in nature;
specifically, it is epistemological, and revolves around the abstract realm of
'knowledge.' Before attempting to formulate a long-term strategy to counter
radical Islam, Americans must first and foremost understand Islam, particularly
its laws and doctrines, the same way Muslims understand it—without giving it
undue Western (liberal) interpretations. This is apparently not as simple as
expected: all peoples of whatever civilizations and religions tend to assume
that other peoples more or less share in their worldview, which they assume is
objective, including notions of right and wrong, good and bad. …. [T]he secular,
Western experience has been such that people respond with violence primarily
when they feel they are politically, economically, or socially oppressed. While
true that many non-Western peoples may fit into this paradigm, the fact is, the
ideologies of radical Islam have the intrinsic capacity to prompt Muslims to
violence and intolerance vis-à-vis the 'other,' irrespective of grievances….
Being able to understand all this, being able to appreciate it without any
conceptual or intellectual constraints is paramount for Americans to truly
understand the nature of the enemy and his ultimate goals."
Such were the words that opened my testimony to Congress. One year later, none
other than President Obama's top counter-terror adviser, John Brennan, has come
to to personify the approach I warned against, that is, the misguided phenomenon
of westernizing Islamic concepts.
A Fox New's report, titled "Counterterror Adviser Defends Jihad as 'Legitimate
Tenet of Islam,'" has the details:
During a speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, John
Brennan described violent extremists as victims of "political, economic and
social forces," but said that those plotting attacks on the United States should
not be described in "religious terms."
In other words, despite the fact that Islamists describe all their goals in
"religious terms," Brennan sees them—you know, people like Osama bin Laden who
murdered 3,000 Americans—as naught more than victims of the system. And why is
that? Because Brennan believes that "political, economic and social forces"—the
three I specifically stressed in my excerpt above—are the only precipitators to
violence. So jihadists can openly articulate their violent bloodlust through
religious terms all they want, it matters not: Brennan and his ilk have their
intellectual blinders shut tight and refuse to venture outside the box.
Next, our counter-terror adviser evokes the perverse logic behind the
administration's recent decision to censor words offensive to Muslims (which I
closely explored here):
Nor do we describe our enemy as "jihadists" or "Islamists" because jihad is a
holy struggle, a legitimate tenet of Islam, meaning to purify oneself or one's
community, and there is nothing holy or legitimate or Islamic about murdering
innocent men, women and children.
Inasmuch as he is correct in the first clause of that sentence—"jihad is a holy
struggle, a legitimate tenet of Islam, meaning to purify oneself or one's
community"—he greatly errs in the latter clause, by projecting his own notions
of what constitutes "holy," "legitimate," and "innocent" onto Islam. In Islam,
such terms are often antithetical to the Judeo-Christian/Western understanding.
Indeed, the institution of jihad, according to every authoritative Muslim book
on Islamic jurisprudence, is nothing less than offensive warfare to spread
Sharia law, a cause seen as both "legitimate" and "holy" in Islam. As for
"innocence," by simply being a non-Muslim infidel, one is already guilty in
Islam. Brennan understands the definition of jihad; he just has no clue of its
application. So he is left fumbling about with a square peg that simply refuses
to pass through a round hole.
Fox News continues:
Brennan defined the enemy as members of bin Laden's Al Qaeda network and "its
terrorist affiliates." But Brennan argued that it would be "counterproductive"
for the United States to use the term, as it would "play into the false
perception" that the "murderers" leading war against the West are doing so in
the name of a "holy cause."
Fine, do define the enemy as members of bin Laden's Al Qaeda network and "its
terrorist affiliates," but do also define the cause that binds these "terrorist
affiliates" together in the first place. Of course, one need only read their
writings to know that they adhere to one and the same cause: the establishment
of a hegemonic caliphate that governs the world according to Sharia. As for
Brennan calling the terrorist affiliates "murderers," would he also be willing
to apply that epithet to their prophet Muhammad, who was wont to send assassins
to, well, murder his critics, including poets and one old woman whose body was
dismembered by her Muslim assailants—assailants who were no less convinced that
they were involved in a "holy cause" than were the 9/11 hijackers?
It should be further noted that this tendency to project one's own cultural
norms and priorities onto others is the height of arrogance and
ethnocentrism—precisely what liberals constantly warn against. Yet the irony is
that "open-minded" proponents of cultural relativism are also the ones most
prone to westernizing Islam. When Brennan insists that jihadists are really not
motivated by religion but rather are products of "political, economic and social
forces," is this total dismissal of the "other" and his peculiar motivations (in
favor of Western paradigms) not arrogant?
In the end, Brennan is not all to blame. After all, though he and I were both
born and raised in North Bergen, New Jersey, perhaps my dual Middle-East/Western
background gives me the advantage to understand both the Islamicate and American
mindsets equally. No, seems the greater blame lies with the president whose
campaign denounced ignorance and arrogance as leading us astray—only to hire a
counter-terror adviser who epitomizes both.
Raymond Ibrahim is associate director of the Middle East Forum, author of The Al
Qaeda Reader, and guest lecturer at the National Defense Intelligence College.
Assad may
be cruising for a bruising
Tony Badran, June 2, 2010
Now Lebanon/Syrian President Bashar al-
If Damascus continues to arm Hezbollah, would the Israelis strike against Syria?
Despite Israel’s past track record of overlooking Syrian malfeasance, there is
reason to think the equation may have changed. Bashar al-Assad’s gamble that he
would be immune, therefore, may be misreading Israeli and American thinking. He
may in fact be inevitably placing himself in the path of an Israeli strike
against Syria.
The Israelis have already indicated that they may be conceptualizing Syria’s
role differently than in the past. The head of intelligence research in the
Israel Defense Forces, Yossi Baidatz, for instance, has characterized the arms
transfers to Hezbollah as an organized, officially-sanctioned process, not mere
“smuggling.” Thus, arming Hezbollah has become an integral part of the Syrian
regime’s military strategy, offering the proper context for understanding Bashar
al-Assad’s recent dubbing of Syria as a “resistance state.”
The adjustment in framing Syria’s position in this equation comes in the midst
of recent media reports that once again shined the spotlight on Damascus’s
growing military integration with Hezbollah.
The first report appeared on May 27 in an exclusive story in the Syrian daily
Al-Watan (owned by Assad’s cousin, Rami Makhlouf), immediately following the
“Liberation Day” speech by Hezbollah’s Secretary General, Hassan Nasrallah. In
the speech, Nasrallah threatened that, in the next war, Israel’s ports on the
Mediterranean and possibly on the Red Sea would be targeted.
Al-Watan, citing “reliable information” it received, claimed that Nasrallah was
hinting at a new surface-to-sea missile, with a 300-km range capable of reaching
“all of Israel’s ports.” Leaving aside that Eilat would be outside this range
(though, within the range of a Scud-D missile), the fact that this specific
detail was reported first and exclusively in Al-Watan is in itself noteworthy.
Normally, these types of claims are floated in Gulf papers (usually the Kuwaiti
press), and then recycled in the Arab and Israeli media. It’s as though the
Syrians wanted to be the ones to announce Hezbollah’s newly-claimed capability.
No sooner did the Syrian story appear than another report surfaced in the London
Times, both reaffirming older claims and adding new details. The Times, citing
unnamed security sources, maintains that the Syrians have afforded Hezbollah a
military site in the town of Adra that functions as an arms depot and living
quarters for Hezbollah cadres, who “operate the site freely.”
Israel’s Channel 2 News followed this by reporting that Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu told his Italian counterpart that Hezbollah was operating Scuds from
bases inside Syria. Some initial reports about the Scuds had also maintained
that the Syrians did train Hezbollah on using them, and did pass them along to
the group, but kept them on Syrian soil and not across the border (even as they
passed along the Syrian-made and WMD-capable M-600 missiles into Lebanon).
What emerges, then, is that not only is Syria transferring strategic weapons,
but also allowing its territory to be used as a base of operations and
logistical coordination. As one Gulf-based security analyst put it , this is
“more than Syrian assistance; [it is] Syrian complicity.”
This then raises the question of what the repercussions of this policy will be
for Syria. It is one thing for small rockets to be launched from Gaza and
Lebanon. These are the rockets of so-called “non-state actors.” But
heavy-payload, guided rockets are “state” rockets, so to speak.
It is reasonable to assume that Bashar al-Assad is betting that the impulse of
the Obama administration is to avoid conflict by deterring Israel. Even should
hostilities break out, Assad, a consummate gambler, might be calculating that
the default US position would be to deescalate, call for resumed talks, and
perhaps even barter over new security arrangements in Lebanon.
Moreover, Assad could be observing the strained US-Israel relations and figuring
that it would imply even more stringent constraints on Israeli maneuverability.
But there are reasons to suspect that this is an erroneous reading of the
situation. For one, the Times report repeated the claim that the US stopped
Israel from striking arms convoys and even the Adra base in Syria.
However, there’s a flipside to this equation. If the US stopped Israel this
time, it may not do so (or may not be able to) during conflict. And one can
speculate that this too could be part of the message being relayed to Assad
through emissaries such as Senator John Kerry. In fact, the Israelis have sent
messages of their own through the Russians and the French.
Moreover, there is one relevant Israeli precedent. Back in 2003, following a
suicide operation in Haifa that killed 19 civilians, then-Israeli Prime Minister
Ariel Sharon ordered a strike against an Islamic Jihad camp inside Syria. One
can speculate that a missile attack against a major Israeli city could result in
a similar course of action.
More to the point, there is chatter in Washington that some in the Obama
administration are in fact discussing allowing such an Israeli preemptive
strike. This is also starting to come out among establishment policy wonks,
suggesting perhaps that the discussion is growing.
Either way, the Israelis, as evident in their defensive drill last week, are
preparing for a chemical attack, which likely indicates preparation for a
possible Syrian involvement – either as a result of friction due to an IDF
incursion into the Bekaa Valley, or as retaliation for an Israel Air Force
strike inside Syria.
Lastly, the US-Israel rift might have the opposite result for Syria, as the US
then will have less leverage to curtail the Israelis.
In the end, Israel will not allow an Iranian, WMD-capable ballistic base on its
northern border, regardless of whether it ends up taking action against Iran or
not. The default position so far has been to woo Syria through talks. However,
given the increasingly provocative Syrian role, even if talks remain the
preferred policy, a strike against a Syrian target is emerging as a growing
probability.
**Tony Badran is a research fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
Michel Aoun
June 2, 2010
On June 1, the Lebanese National News Agency carried the following report:
The Change and Reform bloc held its weekly meeting in Rabieh headed by Deputy
General Michel Aoun. Following the meeting, General Aoun said: “The first and
most important event was witnessed on the regional level. We repeat what we
previously said in regard to the fact that this act is an organized crime. We
fear leniency at the international level to humor Israel. Now, we have seen the
opening of the Rafah crossing and this is a good sign, but with God’s will, the
blood of the martyrs who fell will ensure the lifting of the blockade imposed on
Gaza.”
We discussed the municipal and mayors elections. There were certain flaws and
misplaced statements which we hoped would be made in public since no official is
allowed to handle the elections secretly and using his influence. He has the
right to stand up, issue announcements and make demands to the people, no more
and no less. Any person who addresses the people in a threatening way based on
his position in power is violating the law and exceeding his prerogatives, and
is therefore not fit to assume public office. This is what I have to say in
general. I will not tackle the details because that will lead us to the point of
no return at a time when we wish to maintain the minimum level of political
stability in the country.
The acts of violence are being repeated. People were killed in Dahr al-Ayn and
others were beaten with chains, knives and broken glass in other places. We
corroborate what was said by Deputy Sleiman Franjieh regarding the fact that
there is always an element from the Lebanese Forces [involved in fighting] with
another element who maybe peaceful and non partisan. This is what I talked about
yesterday and what I reiterate today so that everyone can hear it: bringing up a
person on hatred, spite and violence will kill that person. There will be a
follow up on this issue later on because this is an important political matter
for the country. The position of the Lebanese Forces and some affiliates, i.e.
the position of the vast majority of the Future Movement bloc and its allies, is
contradictory. Indeed, some are against the resistance while others are with it
and this cannot be tolerated within the government because the issue is related
to the country’s security and the unity of the Lebanese people.
Doubts should not be present during the confrontation or over sensitive issues
such as this one. In general, those questioning [the resistance] do not have any
solution for the Israeli problem except through surrender, thus exposing the
Lebanese arena to the Israeli threat. Is this position a maneuver to humor all
the foreign and internal sides?... This cannot be tolerated at the level of an
issue related to the defense of the country or when the country is threatened.
We consequently ask Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri to voice a clear position in
this regard and put an end to all this talk. Each time we reach an electoral
stage, they go back to the issue of the arms and the resistance to mobilize some
simple-minded people and get them to vote for them. They are mobilizing them
based on instincts, emotion, fear and intimidation. This is not a policy to be
adopted on the international and national levels and this double rhetoric
between the “with” and “against” is creating confusion and generating concerns
on the Lebanese arena... For its part, the enemy wants these doubts and concerns
to prevail over the community, in order to prevent it from reaching concord and
from standing in one rank.
You know that following the Beirut incident with Tony Al-Sehnawi and his
companions in La Maison Blanche, the issue was transferred to the judiciary and
an announcement for the show OVRIRA on OTV featured a sketch about the societe
anti-generale. Within hours, the judiciary interfered to stop the show as though
a crime had happened or as though an atomic bomb was about to hit Beirut. First
of all, we say that this prompt interference to stop the show was made upon
instructions to the judiciary. Second of all, the judge which ordered the
discontinuation of the show does not have the prerogative to do so since he is a
judge in Beirut and OTV is located in Mount Lebanon. Despite that, the channel
respected the decision out of respect for the judiciary. Nonetheless, this must
stop because the lawsuit is null in form… We do not wish to attack the judiciary
but when it becomes a pressure tool, it is offending itself…, and the
collaboration between the security men and the investigation is encouraging the
violations seen in the community.
We do not want people to continue using violence against each other due to the
shortcomings of the security forces at times and the investigators at others.
Let all the records be opened and let them tell us how many people have been
sentenced so far. We may not find one person who has been tried in court until
now. A Free Patriotic Movement member was shot at on January 23, 2007 and the
shooter was released on bail and prevented from leaving Lebanese soil. Let us
check his passport to see how many times he left Lebanon for leisure purposes
since then… There are many problems but they never reach the judiciary and are
never settled.
We learned that the budget currently being studied inside the cabinet features
massive violations and that there are funds being spent from outside of it. We
want to know how they are being spent although the law prevents it. I ask our
ministers not to allow the passage of any article that goes against the law and
we will hold them accountable before public opinion if they allow such a thing.
Even if they have to leave the ministries and the meetings, it is prohibited to
ratify an article that is in violation of the laws and the constitution.
Billions are not spent that way and each dime that is allocated should be from
the budget and should be justified…
I said it before and I say it again: The country is pillaged not broke. We are
about to expose major corruption, not that which is seen in the form of “tips”
given to a “small” employee at the ministry’s door, rather the one seen as big
funds are spent from outside the budget and outside the laws and constitution.
Let this be known to all.