LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN

LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
ِMay 24/2010

Bible Of the Day
The Good News According to John14/9-21: "Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you such a long time, and do you not know me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father. How do you say, ‘Show us the Father?’ 14:10 Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? The words that I tell you, I speak not from myself; but the Father who lives in me does his works. 14:11 Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me; or else believe me for the very works’ sake. 14:12 Most certainly I tell you, he who believes in me, the works that I do, he will do also; and he will do greater works than these, because I am going to my Father. 14:13 Whatever you will ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14:14 If you will ask anything in my name, I will do it. 14:15 If you love me, keep my commandments. 14:16 I will pray to the Father, and he will give you another Counselor, that he may be with you forever,— 14:17 the Spirit of truth, whom the world can’t receive; for it doesn’t see him, neither knows him. You know him, for he lives with you, and will be in you. 14:18 I will not leave you orphans. I will come to you. 14:19 Yet a little while, and the world will see me no more; but you will see me. Because I live, you will live also. 14:20 In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. 14:21 One who has my commandments, and keeps them, that person is one who loves me. One who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him, and will reveal myself to him"

Free Opinions, Releases, letters, Interviews & Special Reports
US national security is targeted by al Qaeda and Iran's strategic/By: Dr. Walid Phares/May 23/10
Little in store for Hariri in Washington/By: Hussain Abdul-Hussain/Now Lebanon/May 23/10

Latest News Reports From Miscellaneous Sources for May 23/10
Kouchner Meets Suleiman, Hariri; Expresses Concern to Assad Over Hizbullah Arms/Naharnet
Netanyahu: Home front drill preplanned/Ynetnews
Israel Kicks Off Defense Drill, Southerners Hear Explosions from Inside Jewish State/Naharnet
Israel holds defense drill amid regional tension/The Associated Press
No real threat of war despite Hezbollah's threats/Ha'aretz
Hezbollah promotes itself through 'jihadi tourism'/The Associated Press
No policy change on Hizbulla h, US official states/Jerusalem Post
Troops guard tense local voting in south Lebanon/Ynetnews
Lebanese PM slams Israeli defence drill/Gulf Times
IDF launches homefront drill amid rising tensions on Lebanon border/Ha'aretz
Local elections in south Lebanon, Israeli army drills nearby/Earthtimes (press release)
US Senator Kerry meets Syrian President Assad/Ynetnews
Nawaf Salam: U.S. Didn't Ask for Session to Discuss Iran Sanctions/Naharnet
Israel Kicks Off Defense Drill, Southerners Hear Explosions from Inside Jewish State /Naharnet
Nawaf Salam: U.S. Didn't Ask for Session to Discuss Iran Sanctions/Naharnet
Hariri in Turkey after Egypt to Shore Up Support in Face of Mounting Israeli Threats/Naharnet
Police Asked to be Neutral during Elections/Naharnet
Head of the Editors Syndicate Melhem Karam Dies/Naharnet
Jumblat: Timing of Israeli Offensive on Lebanon Depends on West, U.S/Naharnet
Jumblat Urges to Put Sensitivities Aside and Look Together towards Future/Naharnet
Suleiman Holds Talks with Westerwelle on Re-launching Palestinian-Israeli Negotiations/Naharnet
4 Lebanese Kidnapped in Nigeria Released/Naharnet
Security Incidents Shake Sidon Amid Accusations of Electoral Violations/Naharnet
Good riddance, Lebanon/Ynetnews

Israel holds defense drill amid regional tension/Naharnet
By AMY TEIBEL (AP) – JERUSALEM — Israel held a dress rehearsal for disaster Sunday, beginning a defense drill to test the response of soldiers, emergency crews and civilians to simulated missile barrages, terrorist attacks and chemical strikes.
Israel embarked on its fourth annual home front drill at a time when Iranian-backed militants are rearming to Israel's north and south, and Iran itself is suspected of developing nuclear arms, despite its denials. The five-day exercise, the biggest in Israel's history, has raised allegations by the country's enemies that it is preparing for war — a concern Israel has sought to allay.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the drill is a "routine exercise that was scheduled long ago."
"I want to emphasize that this is not a result of any abnormal security development," he told his Cabinet on Sunday. "On the contrary, Israel wants quiet, stability and peace, but it is no secret that we live in a region that is under threat of missiles and rockets." Israel began carrying out the annual exercise, code-named Turning Point, after its 2006 war with Hezbollah militants in Lebanon showed the country's bomb shelters, air raid sirens and civil defense authorities were unprepared. The exercise also incorporates lessons from Israel's 2009 war against Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip. Tensions have risen in recent weeks after Israel accused Syria of smuggling Scuds and other missiles to Hezbollah. Syria denied the charge.
Israeli media reported that Hezbollah heightened its alert status ahead of what it branded Israel's "war game." And they quoted Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri as saying the Israeli exercise defies peacemaking efforts. Israel has tried to allay regional concerns with assurances through diplomatic channels that the drill is not a cover for a military strike, defense officials said. Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved

Israel Kicks Off Defense Drill, Southerners Hear Explosions from Inside Jewish State
Naharnet/Israel on Sunday launched a five-day nationwide defence drill to prepare the public for emergencies and test the response of soldiers and emergency crews, according to the military. The fourth annual drill, codenamed "Turning Point 4," will include a series of alerts as part of field training exercises in different areas and a 90-second siren throughout the country on Wednesday. Schools will take part in the siren drills, with teachers leading students to designated safe areas where they will wait for 10 minutes. The exercises will also test mobile phone warning systems, and citizens in certain areas will receive text messages reading "Have a nice day" signed by the Home Front Command, the military said. Local authorities will also practice distributing protective kits on Wednesday at several centers in different parts of the country. This fourth annual home front drill is the biggest Israel has ever conducted. Lebanese media reports said residents of several south Lebanon towns heard explosions and gunfire inside Israel on Saturday night, an indication of the beginning of the drill. Israeli officials said the exercise was planned in advance and not related to any specific threat, but the move has already been criticized by Lebanon. Defense Minister Ehud Barak said the drill was an annual event aimed at learning lessons from the 2006 war with Hizbullah. "We have no intention of starting a war in the north," Barak told reporters ahead of a weekly cabinet meeting. Prime Minister Saad Hariri on Saturday said the exercises "ran counter to peace efforts," while Hizbullah mobilized thousands of fighters in the south in response to the drill. Israeli Deputy Defence Minister Matan Vilnai, meanwhile, stressed that Israel had communicated with its neighbors, including Syria, through intermediaries to reassure them of its peaceful intentions.(AFP-AP-Naharnet)
Beirut, 23 May 10, 10:16

Kouchner Meets Suleiman, Hariri; Expresses Concern to Assad Over Hizbullah Arms
Naharnet/French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner arrived in Beirut from Damascus on Sunday for talks with President Michel Suleiman and Premier Saad Hariri.
Kouchner met with Hariri first. They discussed at Center House latest efforts to limit tension in the region and push the peace process forward, the National News Agency said.
The two officials also discussed bilateral ties, it said. Kouchner later headed to Baabda palace for talks with Suleiman. In Damascus, Kouchner expressed concern over Hizbullah's weaponry, to which Syrian President Bashar Assad gave assurances it was not in the interests of Damascus, Tehran or the Shiite group to trigger a new conflict, a French diplomatic source told Agence France Presse. The source, asking not to be named, said that France as a peace broker also wanted to encourage Syria to ease tensions in the region and not to facilitate the delivery of arms to Hizbullah. An Nahar daily said Kouchner will inform the Lebanese leaders about French concern over the track of Lebanese-Syrian ties and will urge them for self-restraint to prevent any tension in the region. The French foreign minister will reiterate his country's support for full commitment for U.N. Security Council resolution 1701 and the control of the border between Lebanon and Syria to prevent any arms smuggling, An Nahar reported. Kouchner will also urge Lebanese officials to give the army a more efficient role in southern Lebanon, the newspaper added. Beirut, 23 May 10, 08:12

Little in store for Hariri in Washington
Hussain Abdul-Hussain,
Now Lebanon
May 23, 2010
Lebanese PM Saad Hariri is not powerful enough in his own country to do much to gain support abroad.
Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s visit to the United States, where, on Monday, he will meet President Barak Obama, will in all probability turn out to be a non-event. Apart from the photo op, the two men will probably issue redundant statements: Obama on Washington’s support of Lebanon, Hariri on peace for Palestinians and Lebanon’s right of self-defense against Israel. The Hariri camp will highlight the fact that this is the first time Hariri goes to Washington, where he will meet with Obama in the Oval Office. He will also preside over the Security Council in New York, a ceremonial honor conferred upon only a very few of Lebanon’s statesmen.
His opponents – mainly pro-Iran and Syria politicians and pundits – will reiterate their demands that Hariri, like President Michel Sleiman when he visited Washington last year, stay away from the United States. If anyone is to engage Washington, they say, it should be Tehran. If any other country is to befriend America, it should be Syria.
Lebanon has no nuclear issues to resolve with the US, Lebanon has no role in Arab peace talks with Israel (Syria handles these on Lebanon’s behalf) and even when it sits on the Security Council, Lebanon is expected to abide by Syrian and Iranian diktats as part of the Syrian-Saudi reconciliation. So if Iran talks to America, and Syria negotiates with Israel, what is Lebanon good for? The answer, according to Tehran, Damascus and their Lebanese protégés, is war.
And since Hariri is prohibited from talking peace like the Iranians or the Syrians, and since he is – like his father before him – a man opposed to war, then his visit will count for little.
The historic value of Hariri’s meeting with Barak Obama is proportional to the sovereignty that Hariri can practice in Beirut. The more Hariri can govern, the more his meeting with the world’s most-influential president wins significance. But can Hariri really lead Lebanon? The answer is no. Even though his coalition won parliamentary elections in 2009, he was unable to form a cabinet until he conceded to the Hezbollah-led March 8 opposition bloc.
Since then, Hezbollah’s iron grip on Lebanon has not allowed Hariri to practice any significant form of governance. Whether it is passing the budget or fixing the endless potholes in Lebanese roads, Hariri has been obstructed.
In fact, so weakened has he become that he can hardly do anything without being constantly attacked by the supporters of Syria in Lebanon, an offensive that started when his father first came to power in the early 1990s.
A weakened Hariri was forced to compromise. So much so that he had to visit half a dozen Middle Eastern capitals before making his trip to Washington.
The inconsequentiality of the Hariri trip to Washington is not the work of the United States. It is rather the making of the relentless offensive by his Syrian and Iranian-backed opponents in Lebanon.
Since May 2008, Hariri and his allies, formerly known as March 14, have used a policy of concessions, hoping that by doing so Damascus and Tehran would save them a shred of self-autonomy in Lebanon. What March 14 didn’t realize was that their rivals have never been interested in a compromise. Iran and Syria’s allies in Lebanon want total control of the country, and they feel they can get what they want. In Washington, it is no secret that Obama has never been genuinely interested in Lebanon or its affairs. American support for Lebanese democracy and full sovereignty is one thing; going the extra yard to see it happen is another. But while Obama – now emerging as a president who is restoring his country’s superpower reputation – is not interested in Lebanon, he certainly values its friendship and does not mind offering Lebanon support, provided there is someone in Beirut to receive such backing.
But in Beirut, there is Hezbollah, which has found a profitable business in keeping Lebanon on the edge, often in the interest of its regional patrons. The party also forced Hariri and his allies, at gunpoint, to relinquish their right to govern. The vision that Tehran and Damascus have for the role Hariri plays has been outlined by Hezbollah’s Hassan Nasrallah: Iran, Syria and Hezbollah handle matters of foreign policy and defense, while Hariri, like his father, sticks to construction. Even authority over construction will not be granted to Hariri unless he openly denounces the Special Tribunal for Lebanon and UN Resolution 1559, a blueprint that even former March 14 leader Walid Jumblatt has cheerfully endorsed.
This means that when Hariri meets Obama, there might be nothing extraordinary for journalists to report. The visit, like that of Sleiman before him, will prove to be nothing more than a ceremonial function, something that is increasingly becoming a staple of the Lebanese state.
*Hussain Abdul-Hussain is a visiting fellow at Chatham House and a correspondent for Al-Rai newspaper.

Nawaf Salam: U.S. Didn't Ask for Session to Discuss Iran Sanctions
Naharnet/Lebanon's Special Envoy to the U.N., Nawaf Salam, has denied that Washington had asked the Security Council to discuss a draft resolution on new sanctions on Iran.
In a phone interview with pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat, Ambassador Salam said information that Lebanon had officially received a draft resolution on new sanctions was "completely false." He said the U.S. ambassador submitted plans for a draft resolution to Security Council departments and distributed the text to Council members. "However, he hasn't asked for a session to discuss it." Salam also ruled out discussion of the draft law in the near future or during Lebanon's presidency of the Council which expires midnight May 31.
The ambassador told the newspaper that the agenda of a session scheduled for Monday does not include Iran's nuclear program.
About Lebanon's stance from the possible sanctions, Salam said: "Lebanon believes that the Turkish-Brazilian initiative guarantees an opportunity and urges all Security Council members to deal with it positively." A deal brokered this week by Brazil and Turkey to ship half of Iran's low enriched uranium (LEU) to Turkey for a swap with reactor fuel recognizes Tehran's right to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes, according to a joint declaration carried by Iranian media. Beirut, 23 May 10, 09:50

Arabs must understand US threatened by al Qaeda and Iran
US national security is targeted by al Qaeda and Iran’s strategic threats
By Dr. Walid Phares Saturday, May 22, 2010
In an article published in the weekly review al Watan al al Arabi I outlined what I believe are America’s permanent strategic positions in the Middle East related to US national Security.
Based on my work with members of Congress sitting on relevant defense and national security committees and on my interaction with many strategic and tactical analysts across the Government and private sector fields for many years, the consensus reached so far is that the two main (and active) threats against US national security in the post Cold War era are and continue to be the Salafi-Jihadi global networks including al Qaeda and a plethora of webs and organizations all marching in the same direction on the one hand; and on the other hand what I coin as the “Iranian-led axis” which incorporates the Tehran Khomeinist regime, Hezbollah, the radical pro-Iranians in Iraq and in other Arab countries and the Syrian regime’s Mukhabarat.
During my continuous interventions in Arab (and international) media I am frequently asked about America’s perception of the threat against its own national security. Arab Governments, intellectuals, legislators and opinion makers are divided as to their readings of US strategic perception. Unfortunately American messaging in Arabic has been confusing over the years. Thus when US-based researchers and commentators have an opportunity to help Arab audiences understand what are the fundamental threats that determines US perception, they must engage in educating Arab readers and viewers.
In this last article in al Watan al Arabi I argued that US Administrations may develop various and different policies regarding the region of the Greater Middle East, but the strategic threat against America remains clear and identified by national security and defense parameters. Under the Bush Administration there was a different narrative than under the Obama Administration, but al Qaeda and Iran still constitute a threat to the United States and as long as the threat continues American strategies must cope with the challenge. It is the attitude of the foes that determines how the US must perceive them.
A clear and unequivocal US reading would help allies and friends in the region align themselves strategically to deter their own threats. For example it is useful for the Gulf States, North African countries, and Iraq to understand that until further notice Washington perceives al Qaeda’s Jihadi nebulous and the Iranian led web as a global threat to the region. Short of clarity, the region’s Governments would sink in confusion. Thus a reminder of American strategic priorities must be communicated in Arabic to the region’s audiences.
Regarding Iran, the US must gather an alliance to stop the nuclear weapon development. Regarding Lebanon, there should be a disarming of Hezbollah. In Iraq and Afghanistan, the armed local forces should be empowered and trained to fight the Terrorists both Salafists and Khomeinists. To solve the Arab Israeli conflict the US is seeking the establishment of a two states solution with a Palestinian viable state and a secure and recognized Israel. America stands by the Gulf countries versus Iran’s menacing build up. It should remain committed to aid Darfur against the Genocidal regime in Khartoum. Syria’s regime is invited to disengage from supporting Terrorism against its neighbors and Turkey’s AKP Government must be reminded its country is a member of NATO.
But Arab readers and viewers should also be advised that the United States is committed to human rights and democratic principles and that engagement with Governments, including authoritarian regimes must work for these principles and values.
I my article in al watan al arabi, I argued that Administrations can change foreign policies but that national security perception can only change with the transformation of the threat, its reduction or its faltering. It is indispensable that the peoples of the Greater Middle East are kept informed about the long term strategic directions of the United States so that the foes are not miscalculating and that the seekers of freedom are not discouraged from struggling.
Read the article in al Watan al Arabi here: [ Visit Website ]
http://www.cedarsrevolution.net/docs/Arabic/May-2010-watan-arabi.pdf

Iranian finances: From Washington, via Tehran, to Gaza
Avi Jorisch, former senior official in US Treasury Department, follows ayatollahs' efforts to obtain foreign currency, discovers that Iranian tentacles spread throughout world, even receive support from large banks in West. Money, as expected, even makes its way to nuclear program
Yitzhak Benhorin Published: 05.23.10, 13:09 / Israel News
WASHINGTON – While the international sanctions regime prohibits contact with banks in Iran, 18 US banks have indirect financial connections with the Islamic Republic. In this manner, Tehran succeeds in getting its hands on the money needed to finance its nuclear program and to provide aid to terrorist organizations, including Hezbollah and Hamas.
Avi Jorisch, a former US Treasury Department analyst in charge of fighting money laundering for criminal and terrorist purposes, scans in his new book Iran's Dirty Banking the Islamic Republic's method of evading international sanctions.
Sanctions Breach
Credit Suisse to pay $536M fine for violating Iran sanctions / Yitzhak Benhorin
Switzerland's second-largest bank to pay New York authorities multi-million dollar fine for breaching international business sanctions imposed on Iran
In an interview with Ynet, he reveals the extensive financial web spun by Iran in order to obtain dollars, euros, and credit from 59 banks throughout the world.
Jorisch's main claim is that no less than 18 American banks have an indirect relationship with three Iranian banks on the US' black list and another one subjected to UN sanctions. By using various banks around the world as intermediaries, Tehran carries out its finances unhindered, even though three of the prohibited banks funnel money into the nuclear program, the ballistic missile program, and the terrorism network.
Prior to the publication of his book, Jorisch said it's all quite simple – it's all connected to money. He noted that without hard currency, Iran would have a difficult time financing terror networks throughout the world, inciting toward violence, and obtaining nuclear weapons.
Even though the US and the UN have taken measures to isolate Iranian banks, as of today, dozens of banks, including well-known banks in Europe, directly supply Iranian banks with dollars, euros, Japanese yen, and British pounds, claims Jorisch.
What about sanctions?
In 2007, sanctions were imposed by the UN on Iran's Bank Sepah, and a recommendation was issued not to trade with two additional Iranian banks. According to US law, American banks are prohibited from doing business with 14 Iranian banks, which Jorisch researched for his book. However, the law apparently is not tightly enforced.
Bank Sepah is a major player in developing ballistic missiles for the country. Bank Sederat funnels money to Hezbollah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. In the five years leading up to the Second Lebanon War, Bank Sederat alone transferred some $50 million to Hezbollah.
Following the money trail. US banks' Iranian connections (chart for Jorisch's book)
Bank Melli is the largest bank in Iran and provides banking services to banks and companies involved in Iran's nuclear and missile programs. Alongside its financial activities, it also transfers more than $100 million to terrorist organizations throughout the world, some of which take direct action against Israel.
Research on Bank Sepah revealed that in the last four years since being black-listed by the international community, the dangerous financial institution has gone about business as usual, unhindered by the West. Bank Sepah has dozens of active branches in Frankfurt, Athens, Paris, Rome, and London, in addition to branches in the Middle East and Asia. Jorisch also learned that Bank Melli and Bank Sederat also have physical operations in these very same cities.
The very existence of these branches is a violation of the UN directives and is in blatant disregard of the sanctions imposed by the US on these three banks.
Not a lost cause
This means that some of the US' closest allies are allowing the Iranian regime free access to the international financial system and hard currency. An even more worrisome implication is that these are not only countries friendly with Iran, but include countries like France and Britain, which support sanctions against Iran and sit as permanent members in the UN Security Council.
In an interview with Ynet last year, Jorisch revealed that Iran makes broad use of the Asian Clearing Union, which was established by the UN in 1974 in order to grant poor states access to dollars. Six months after that interview, Jorisch mapped out ways to put the stops on the ayatollahs' financial activities. The question is why the US is not doing the same.
Could it be that the US administration is turning the other cheek? Jorisch claims no. According to him, Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Terrorism in the Treasury Department Stuart Levey has been traveling the world for five years asking banks to cut off ties with Iran. He gave an example in which Levey met with the managers of Deutsche Bank and showed them how they transfer currency to Iran. However, they continue to supply euros and other currencies.
Deutsche Bank is not alone. According to Jorisch, the banks that allow Iran to put its hands on the money needed for its nuclear program and terrorism support are numerous, and include some of the largest financial institutions in the world: J. P. Morgan, Bank of America, CitiBank, Societe Generale, Bank Tokyo Mitsubishi UFJ, and VTB.
Jorisch emphasized that the US administration possesses the means to cripple Iranian financial activities around the world.
The picture painted by Jorisch's book is one in which Iran is evading sanctions through a number of channels around the world. Jorisch said that existing US laws, as well as the legislation being drawn up currently in Congress can put a stop to this worrisome phenomenon.
Jorisch said that this piece of legislation could confront world financial institutions with a decision – either cut off ties with Iran or stop doing business with the US. Forcing them to choose, he said, is the solution.

Netanyahu: Home front drill preplanned
Netanyahu sends calming message to Lebanon, after Hezbollah declares heightened state of alert ahead of Israeli exercise. He denies report about Palestinian land swap offer
Attila Somfalvi Published: 05.23.10, 11:16 / Israel News
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the home front drill which begins Sunday is "a routine exercise which was scheduled a long time ago, and is not the result of an unusual security-related development."
The Hezbollah organization declared a heightened state of alert over the weekend and mobilized thousands of fighters to southern Lebanon ahead of the Israeli drill.
Wide-Scale Exercise
Defense official: Home front drill may determine outcome of next war / Hanan Greenberg
Largest ever home front exercise begins Sunday to evaluate preparedness for various scenarios, including rocket attacks, planting of dirty bomb and hazardous material incident. 'Our enemies consider home front to be Israel's soft spot,' IDF source says
Speaking at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting, the prime minister said that the exercise, which is being held for the fourth year in a row, will "include air raid sirens across the country, at workplaces, in schools, in hospitals, in the local authorities and in government offices."
According to Netanyahu, "Israel seeks calm, stability and peace, but it's no secret that we live in a region threatened by rockets and missiles."
The prime minister added that "the best defense is developing a deterrence and defense system, and we are investing large budgets for this purpose."
Defense Minister Ehud Barak addressed the drill as well, saying that it was aimed at "drawing lessons." We have no plans to launch a war and we seek calm and peace, he said, but "a state like Israel must be prepared – and we are prepared."
Netanyahu also addressed a Wall Street Journal report that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is considering increasing his offer for a land swap with Israel – a report which has already been denied by the Palestinian Authority. "There is no such offer and we are not discussing it," the prime minister said.

Eisenkot: IDF prepared for all-out war within hours
Council heads north to meet with Northern Command chief on backdrop of Hezbollah alert and home front drill, ask him to convey calming message to public. 'Countries and organizations cannot be deterred from growing stronger,' Eisenkot responds
Hagai Einav Published: 05.23.10, 13:41 / Israel News
Northern council heads met Sunday with Northern Command Chief Gadi Eisenkot on the backdrop of this week's wide-scale home front command drill and the heightened state of alert declared by Hezbollah, and asked the Israel Defense Forces to convey a clear and calming message to the public during the days of the exercise.
"I hope this summer will be hot only in terms of its weather, and not in terms of war," said Hatzor Haglilit Mayor Shimon Swisa. Eisenkot, on his part, said that the IDF was prepared for an all-out war within hours.
Netanyahu sends calming message to Lebanon, after Hezbollah declares heightened state of alert ahead of Israeli exercise. He denies report about Palestinian land swap offer
Swisa added, "I feel the fear increasing among my public, so it's important to convey a calming message."
Aharon Valenci, head of the Upper Galilee Regional Council, said that "in order to prevent stress among residents living near the border who have developed very sharp instincts over the years, the IDF must update the residents and public figures in the area on a regular basis."
Major-General Eisenkot holds regular periodical meetings with the northern council heads. This time, he used the meeting for a detailed briefing on the home front command drill.
He told the council heads that "the Galilee has not seen such a calm period for many years, and we will continue to maintain this calm. Our greatest fear stems from Hezbollah's patterns of operation, which slightly resemble the cold war in Europe.
"The mutual deterrence pattern creates a lot of tension, and the question when the next incident will break out does not depend on one element, but on a variety of elements which don't all depend on us."
He added that he believed none of the parties had an interest to launch another conflict these days. "However," he said, "the IDF knows how to deal with a front in Syria and Lebanon and at the same time in Gaza. The question is how we will deal with it as a people, as a public, and as a supportive home front.
"We can deter countries and organizations from operating, but we can't deter countries and organizations from growing stronger, and therefore we are prepared for an all-out war within several hours."

Jumblat: Timing of Israeli Offensive on Lebanon Depends on West, U.S.
Naharnet/Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat accused Israel of looking for pretexts to launch a new offensive on Lebanon but said the Jewish state was waiting for the green light from Washington before making any move.
"Israel can't survive without expansion and war. Israel won't accept the results of the war in 2006 and consequently it will look for any Lebanese or regional pretext to ignite a new war," Jumblat told the Saudi al-Watan newspaper in an interview published Sunday.
Asked if he believed that war was looming on the horizon, the Druze leader said: "This is the general analysis. As for the timing is concerned, it is a different issue because it is linked to the West, the U.S. and Israel. I don't think Israel would be capable of launching war without the consent of the U.S."
Jumblat urged the Lebanese unity government to consolidate the Lebanese army to face Israeli threats. He said during his visit to Washington on Monday, Premier Saad Hariri would ask the Obama administration for specific arms and would urge it to pressure Israel into stopping violations of Lebanese airspace and returning the Shabaa farms area and Ghajar to Lebanon.
Turning to Lebanon's ties with Syria, the PSP leader said: "There is no longer such thing called the regime of tutelage. But there is a common framework that regulates relations between the two countries; it is the Taef accord."
He said the Lebanese and Syrian governments should agree on the implementation of the friendship treaty and other economic agreements reached between them in the past.
"There isn't a minimum level of economic ties between Lebanon and Syria," he lamented.
Jumblat also described Syrian President Bashar Assad as an honest man, saying the Syrian leader told him during their meeting in Damascus on the need to turn the page of the past.
Jumblat also denied that national dialogue sessions on the country's defense strategy won't achieve results. "Any dialogue would have consequences and results."
He reiterated that he was now a centrist after he fell out of the March 14 forces, urging the government to solve electricity and water problems now that the tense political situation has abated.
Asked what role Lebanon would play as president of the U.N. Security Council for the month of May in case a draft resolution on new sanctions on Iran was adopted, Jumblat told al-Watan: "The best thing for Lebanon in this regard is to abstain from voting."
He said, however, that new sanctions won't be able to "subjugate" Tehran. Beirut, 23 May 10, 09:18

South Lebanon will be liberated from Hezbollah
Written by Charbel Barakat
Sunday, 23 May 2010
Today, is the 10th anniversary of Israel’s withdrawal from what used to be known as the “security zone.” On May 23, 2000 – on the instructions of then Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak – all Israeli units operating north of the border inside Lebanese territory were pulled back inside Israeli territory.
According to Barak it was in implementation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 425 issued in 1978 after an Israeli incursion into Lebanon (in response to PLO attacks across the border).
So, 23 years after it had entered the country to fight its enemies, Israel’s government decided to pull its troops back from Lebanon abruptly. Barak at the time said he was complying with UN resolutions and that he believed Lebanon was no longer a threat. That was the Israeli version of the Labor Government then.
But as IDF forces were pulling back, Iranian-backed Hezbollah militias were entering every single village and town evacuated by the Israelis. According to Hassan Nasrallah, the commander of Hezbollah, Israel withdrew because of the strikes by the so-called “resistance,” which in fact was the Iranian-backed militia. The Hezbollah story is that southern Lebanon was occupied by the Israelis, who had a proxy militia known as South Lebanon Army. And that Hezbollah struggled to liberate the land from its “Zionist occupiers.”
But there is a third version rejecting the first two and claiming it represents the struggle of the people of southern Lebanon who struggled against terror and were removed from their ancestral lands because of Barak’s policies on the one hand and the abandonment of western Lebanon last resisting free people against the hordes of Hezbollah and their Iranian and Syrian backers on the other hand.
Unfortunately, the third story has no tellers these days. Barak has Israel’s media at his service, so he can boast about his betrayal of southern Lebanon and his own Israeli people; and Nasrallah has his Iranian-funded media to claim his victories against the population that resisted him in southern Lebanon.
On this 10th anniversary of the betrayal of the people of south Lebanon, the truth is going to be blanched. It will take time for the witnesses of that drama to share the facts with the world, but it will happen no matter what.
The people within the so-called “security zone” are Lebanese citizens who have suffered at the hands of Palestinian terrorist groups since the 1970s and at the hands of Hezbollah since the 1980s. They are the sons and daughters of the land for centuries. The PLO then and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards today are foreign occupation forces. Israel entered Lebanon twice, first in 1978 and again in 1982, to strike back against terror forces shelling its territory from inside Lebanon.
The Lebanese citizens living in the border towns wanted the Lebanese Army only, neither the Israelis and certainly not the terrorist forces. But Lebanon’s government collapsed in 1975, and by 1990 it was controlled by Syria. The people of the south had no choice but to accept aid and support from Israel’s occupation forces. To be clear between the terrorists and barbarians who were slaughtering civilians and aiming at establishing a Jihadi regime and the forces of the state of Israel, an ally to the United States and at Peace with Egypt and Jordan, the choice was made against Hezbollah and the Syrian-Iranian axis.
The South Lebanon Army, under control of Israel, was by far better than ending up in the detention camps of the Iranian Pasdaran or in the torture facilities of Hezbollah and Syria. Hence, a large segment of the population of south Lebanon, Christian, Druse, Shia and Sunnis adhered to the SLA and stood by Israel’s forces as a common front against the terrorists. Israel’s successive governments stood in solidarity with the people of south Lebanon. A brotherhood between the IDF and the SLA was the cornerstone of the common defense against Hezbollah and Syria.
South Lebanon’s civil society would have preferred to be under the direct protection of the UNIFIL, a UN force dispatched to protect the Peace and the local population as of 1978. But UNIFIL’s bureaucrats refused to take the southern Lebanese under their auspices leaving them to strive for themselves. The SLA and the local population did the right thing by defending themselves and they did so under international law which grants them the right to fight for survival, hoping that when the Israelis wanted to leave, they would allow them to defend themselves and seek UN protection.
In 2000, then Israeli Prime Minister and Labor Party leader Ehud Barak betrayed an Israeli tradition of solidarity with the SLA and an Israeli natural friendship with the southern Lebanese. He not only ordered the abrupt withdrawal of IDF from the security zone but also a dismantlement of the SLA.
All that the southern Lebanese people wanted – as villagers living on their ancestral lands – was to defend it until they were free or die trying. Barak took away their most sacred right, the right to resist. He ordered his forces to shut off the borders as south Lebanon’s border populations were disarmed and about to be overwhelmed by the Jihadi barbarians. We know that a majority of the Israeli people were frustrated by that move, and we know that many in the IDF resented Barak’s stab in the back of the only population in the Middle East that actually stood by the Jewish people of Israel.
The southern Lebanese were forced to march during the night in a dishonorable exodus into Israel. In one night, Barak and his political allies in the government and abroad killed the last free enclave in Lebanon. In one night, he invited Hezbollah to the international borders. In on night, he terminated the only fighting force that was shedding blood shoulder-to-shoulder with the IDF in defending that part of the Middle East against the Jihadi terrorists. He took out the only friendship that could have told the world that Israel itself should not be betrayed or abandoned because it had not betrayed its own allies. Unfortunately, Barak’s reckless stab in the back of Israel’s only allies in the Middle East opened the path for the Jihadist forces to surround Israel further from the north and from the south. A few months later, the Aqsa intifada was shattering the myth of invincibility in Israel and from then on Israel was alone in a region filled with hatred. Barak took away the southern Lebanese people’s own ability to testify that Israel was doing good in the region, it was protecting its small and weak neighbors in southern Lebanon.
Today when Israel’s image is assaulted by the lethal propaganda machine of the Iranian petrodollars worldwide and in the United States, and when anti-semitism is running high in Western capitals, the only underdogs who would have told the world that Israel had been defending Christians, Druse, Shia and Sunni in that free enclave of Lebanon; those underdogs uprooted from their homes and lands because of the arrogance of a few politicians who thought they had it figured out, cannot testify to save the honor of their former allies. Blame Barak and his elitist friends in Israel and the United States for that.
This had to be said and it will be repeated as long as needed until some courageous leaders in Israel and the United States will apologize to the population of southern Lebanon for what has been done to them. History is unique in the ways it sends its messages. Three months after abandoning the people of south Lebanon, Israel was hit by a Jihadi war that has not stopped since, neither across the Lebanese border nor across the frontier of Gaza. And one year after that, America was hit by the beast of terror on 9/11. Offering the small villages of southern Lebanon to the Jihadists didn’t appease them. Just the opposite, it emboldened them. We hope the free world learned the lesson.
However, we do know that the majority of Israelis do not believe in Barak’s pragmatic miscalculations and they do want a friendship with their neighbors from the north. Naturally, it would have been better to have the SLA fending off the Iranian assault waves than having the enemy roaming the borders. Now they have to deal with Hassan Nasrallah’s 40,000 missiles to the north, Assad’s chemical forces, Hamas terror from the south and Ahmedinijad’s forthcoming nukes. Had Israel not dismantled the southern Lebanese resistance against terror, Hezbollah would have been dealing with a strong indigenous force to reckon with. Let’s see if Israel’s basic instincts correct the mistakes of its own leaders.
Meanwhile, we the people of southern Lebanon haven’t lost hope. We continue to struggle politically around the world for the liberation of Lebanon. We are now part of a vast Diaspora that stands firmly with the United States and the international community including Europe, Russia and the Arab moderates, in a campaign to defeat the terror forces. Our commitment to freeing Lebanon persists from generation to generation. We are still committed not only to peace with Israel but also to a friendship with the Jewish people in the Holy Land. Despite the betrayal by some of its politicians, Israel has a full right to exist in the region and all nations have right to freedom and democracy. We hope that the democratic forces among Arabs and other nations of the Middle East would soon rise against dictatorship and fascism and we will return to our occupied land and live in Peace.
May 23, 2000 was a hard benchmark in our history, but it is certainly not the end of it. We will return and we will live all in peace.
– Col. Charbel Barakat, Lebanese Army (Ret.) is an historian and a former civil society leader in south Lebanon. He is now a counterterrorism expert in Canada.

Good riddance, Lebanon
On 10th withdrawal anniversary, Eitan Haber says leaving Lebanon the right decision
Eitan Haber Published: 05.23.10, 18:37 / Israel Opinion
On Monday we shall mark 10 years to the IDF’s departure from southern Lebanon, yet at this time we already hear talk of all the disadvantages of that “rash,” “urgent” and “foolish” withdrawal from that bloody strip of land.
Hezbollah can go ahead and set up 10 museums, but it will make no difference. The decision to leave Lebanon was Israel’s only, and the group’s attempt to attack our retreating forces failed completely.
On that day, village became like 'army base'. UN suggested dividing village between Israel, Lebanon but villages insist: Ghajar will remain united
While the Second Lebanon War marked partial success for Hezbollah, the withdrawal decision 10 years ago was the proper call, and no wise person regrets it.
Only (only?) 10 years have passed, and we already forgot the thousands of people whose heart missed a beat with every news update on the radio. We forgot the fatalities and the wounded, the ambushes and explosive devices and landmines, and mostly the bothersome question – what the hell are we doing in southern Lebanon?
The first and major error was made by Shimon Peres, Yitzhak Rabin, and Yitzhak Shamir, upon the IDF’s withdrawal from the Chouf Mountains in 1985. Why did they not order the army to withdraw to the international border? Why did we need the “security zone”? Today, 25 years later, we can only guess: The State of Israel and the IDF were unwilling to give up the appearance of victory.
A withdrawal to the international border at the time would have been interpreted as a hurried withdrawal and a Lebanese victory. Well, we just couldn’t afford it, apparently.
18 needless years
So we made do with the “security zone.” I remember Rabin visiting the border area in that strip a day or two after the IDF withdrew from the Awali River. We made our way through an unpaved road through the rocky landscape, finally reaching six soldiers on a mountaintop overlooking a hostile Lebanese village. They had no guard posts, no food, and no water. They had nothing.
“You’ll see,” Rabin said at the time. “The situation will force us to pave a road here, build outposts, and send in logistical convoys.” So why didn’t Rabin prevent it? This is the way of politicians, and now it’s too late to ask him.
Ten years have passed since the departure from Lebanon. For 18 needless years we averaged 25 fatalities and dozens of wounded per year, along with questions upon questions: What are we still doing in Lebanon? Who is the IDF protecting? Our northern communities? At the end of the day, the soldiers only protected themselves, and many of them – too many – paid with their lives.
We were right to leave Lebanon (just like we were right to leave Gaza and Gush Katif, but that’s a whole other story) and it’s a good thing that eventually we had someone who – too late, as always – took this brave decision. One can hate and curse at Ehud Barak for a thousand reasons. Yet not over the decision to get out of Lebanon. Oh Lebanon, Lebanon – good riddance.

Well-Bred Muslim Urges More Fort Hood-Style Murders
by Hillel Fendel/Arutz Sheva
A U.S.-born Muslim cleric urges Muslims in the United States Army to kill their comrades in arms before they take part in military actions in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Anwar al-Awlaki, wanted in Yemen “dead or alive” by the U.S., released a videotape of an interview with him on Sunday, including the incendiary comments. He is a leader in the Yemeni wing of Al-Qaeda, and is wanted by both Yemeni and U.S. authorities.
Awlaki, born in New Mexico in 1971, praised the actions of Nidal Malik Hasan, a U.S. Army psychiatrist who murdered 13 people at the Fort Hood army base in Texas six months ago. "What Nidal Hassan did was heroic... and I call on all Muslims serving in the US army to follow his path," Awlaqi said in Al Qaeda-released footage carried by the US monitoring group SITE.
"Nidal was my student,” Awlaki said. “I'm proud of Nidal Hasan and this was a heroic act… Who can object to what he did? He killed soldiers on their way to Iraq and Afghanistan… If the situation remains, we will see new Nidal Hasans appearing.”
“These American soldiers on their way to Afghanistan and Iraq, we will kill them,” Awlaki exhorted.
When the interviewer asked if killing American soldiers might negatively affect Muslims in the United States, Awlaki responded abruptly: "Is protecting the reputation of Muslims in America more important than bombs dropping on millions of Muslims elsewhere?”
Awlaki is suspected of having been in email contact with Hasan, as well as involvement in the December attempt to blow up an American jetliner bound for Detroit.Ignorance and Poverty? Not Here
Contrary to the school that says terrorism is born of poverty and ignorance, Awlaki’s father Nasser earned a master's degree in agricultural economics at New Mexico State University in 1971, received a doctorate at the University of Nebraska, and worked at the University of Minnesota from 1975 to 1977. The family returned to Yemen in 1978, where Nasser served as Agriculture Minister and as president of Sanaa University.

Obama Advisor: Warm Words for Saudi Arabia, Hizbullah, Al-Quds
by Hillel Fendel/Arutz Sheva
John Brennan, Deputy National Security Adviser for Homeland Security, called Jerusalem “Al-Quds,” praised Saudi Arabian religious tolerance, and is encouraging of Hizbullah.
The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) has drawn attention to the above three instances of recent remarks by one of U.S. President Barack Obama’s top terrorism-issues advisors, calling them “outrageous” and “disgraceful.”
Speaking to an apparently Muslim audience at New York University in February, at a forum co-hosted by the White House and the Islamic Center at New York University." Brennan first told a story in Arabic, evoking laughter and concluding with, “Don’t tell the folks who don’t speak Arabic what I said.” He then said that his favorite city in the Middle East is “Al Quds, Jerusalem.”
In the same speech, Brennan also spoke of his time at the American University in Cairo in the 1970s, referring to the common aspirations of his former Egyptian, Jordanian and Palestinian classmates, including the freedom “to practice our faith freely … In Saudi Arabia, I saw how our Saudi partners fulfilled their duty as custodians of the two holy mosques at Mecca and Medina.”
In another speech before Lebanese leaders who visited Washington recently, Brennan told them, “Hizbullah is a very interesting organization,” and said that it had evolved from “purely a terrorist organization” to a militia and now to an organization that has members within the parliament and the cabinet. “There is certainly the elements of Hizbullah that are truly a concern to us, what they’re doing,” Brennan said. “And what we need to do is to find ways to diminish their influence within the organization and to try to build up the more moderate elements.”
The ZOA noted that Hizbullah is actually a Lebanese-Iranian proxy terrorist group that has called continually for the elimination of Israel.
“These comments by John Brennan are as outrageous as they are deeply troubling,” ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said, “No one refers to Jerusalem in the English language as Al-Quds, unless they have a specific political, anti-Israel agenda - in this case, pandering to Israel’s enemies, who will draw comfort from the use of the term Al-Quds by a senior U.S. government official.”
Klein termed “disgraceful” the fact that “Mr. Brennan’s pandering is taken so far that he speaks of some supposed shared goal of freedom of religious practice, and then immediately refers in complimentary words to Saudi Arabia - a country that is notorious for its harsh denial of freedom of religion, in which even non-Wahhabi Muslim mosques are prohibited, let alone churches and synagogues.”
Regarding Brennan’s comments about Hizbullah, Klein said, “Worse, Brennan give unwarranted legitimacy to the recognized terrorist group Hizbullah, thereby undercutting past U.S. efforts to isolate this murderous outfit.”
Klein sums up: “John Brennan is yet another hand-picked Obama adviser who shows a distinct animus against Israel and partiality for its enemies. It is unsurprising that, when Barack Obama is advised by people like these, quite apart from the President’s own troubling history of friendships with vicious critics of Israel and having belonged for two decades to an anti-Israel, anti-American black supremacist church, the Obama Administration has ignited major tensions in its relations with Israel while not holding accountable and penalizing the Palestinian Authority for continuing terrorism and incitement to hatred and murder.”

Hizbullah Charges Massive Israeli Defense Drill a Plan for War
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu/Arutz Sheva
Israel’s fourth annual massive self-defense drill against an attack from the north this week is a camouflage for war plans and an obstacle to peace with the PA, Hizbullah and Lebanon charge.
The National Home Front and the National Emergency Authority's “Turning Point 4” exercise begins Sunday and includes search and rescue forces, local Israeli authorities, government offices, security organizations and the education system. The exercise is aimed at improving national preparedness and responses of the home front to emergencies, and tests cooperation between the various organizations and institutions in the event of an attack on the country’s electronic, communications and Internet infrastructure.
A 90-second siren will be heard throughout the country Wednesday morning, and the public will practice entering designated secured areas and staying there for approximately 10 minutes. The exercise will also examine warning systems on cellular phones and civilians in certain areas may therefore receive text messages that read "Have a nice day" signed by the Home Front Command.
During the exercise, all essential services, including hospitals, public transportation, conventions and public events will continue to work as usual.
The self-defense drill is viewed as an aggressive act by Lebanon and Hizbullah. Lebanon’s Prime Minister Sa'ad Hariri said in Egypt on Sunday that that the annual drill “runs counter to peace efforts. “How can you launch peace negotiations with the Palestinians while holding military maneuvers?” he asked on the eve of his departure for his first meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama.
Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai tried to assure Israel’s northern enemies that the drills are not related to relations with Lebanon and Syria. However, Hizbullah, an increasingly dominant force in the Lebanese army and government, said it has placed its terrorists on high alert for an Israeli attack. The head of the IDF's Northern Command, Gadi Eisenkot, told northern leaders Sunday, "We are prepared for an all-out war within several hours."
A Hizbullah spokesman said, "The Hizbullah fighters [are] completely ready to confront Israeli maneuvers on Sunday,” . “In the event of any new attack on Lebanon, the Israelis will not find anywhere in Palestine to hide.”