LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
ِDecember 28/2010

Bible Of The Day
Sirach/Chapter 3/1-16/: "
Children, pay heed to a father's right; do so that you may live. For the LORD sets a father in honor over his children; a mother's authority he confirms over her sons. He who honors his father atones for sins; he stores up riches who reveres his mother. He who honors his father is gladdened by children, and when he prays he is heard. He who reveres his father will live a long life; he obeys the LORD who brings comfort to his mother. He who fears the LORD honors his father, and serves his parents as rulers. In word and deed honor your father that his blessing may come upon you; For a father's blessing gives a family firm roots, but a mother's curse uproots the growing plant. Glory not in your father's shame, for his shame is no glory to you! His father's honor is a man's glory; disgrace for her children, a mother's shame. My son, take care of your father when he is old; grieve him not as long as he lives. Even if his mind fail, be considerate with him; revile him not in the fullness of your strength. For kindness to a father will not be forgotten, it will serve as a sin offering--it will take lasting root. In time of tribulation it will be recalled to your advantage, like warmth upon frost it will melt away your sins.  

Free Opinions, Releases, letters, Interviews & Special Reports  
Obama embraces foreign affairs/By:Michael Tomasky/December 27/10
Keeping the faith with tolerance/Daily Star/December 27/10

Latest News Reports From Miscellaneous Sources for December 27/10
Palestinians: Obama no longer backs Palestinian state within 1967 borders/DEBKAfile
'Hariri tribunal ends investigation, makes decision'/J,Post
Report: Tribunal Has Strong Evidence that is Difficult to Appeal/Naharnet
Saudi Arabia, Syria step up bid to end crisis/Daily Star
Sami Gemayel: we won't keep quiet if Christians are offended/iloubnan.info
Beirut – visible and invisible dangers/swissinfo.ch
Buthaina Shaaban: If Tribunal was Impartial, No One Would Have Objected to it/Naharnet
Did Israel sabotage Egyptian internet?/Ynetnews
ISRAEL: Neighbors watchful as Israel demarcates maritime borders with Cyprus/Los Angeles Times
Mufti Jouzo slams Sfeir's statement/Daily Star
Christian clerics use Christmas sermons to warn against domestic strife over Tribunal/Daily Star
Suleiman Says he Alone Decides his Ministers' Votes, Stresses Need to Keep Institutions Away from Bickering/Naharnet
Khalils Meet Iranian Official in Damascus
Assad Phones Suleiman, Discuss Situation at Arab Level/Naharnet
Hariri to New York/Naharnet
Report: European Intelligence Services Hunt for Ain el-Hilweh Fighters/Naharnet
Audi Calls for Legal Debate, Slams March 8 for Obstructing Cabinet Meetings/Naharnet
Qobeisi: Soaid Doesn't Grasp What Berri is Talking About/Naharnet
Harb Accuses Hizbullah, Aoun of Seeking to Change Political System/Naharnet
Soaid Urges Suleiman-Berri-Jumblat Initiative to Protect Nation from 'Assassins'/Naharnet
Hizbullah's Fayyad: S-S Efforts Reached Advanced Stage/Naharnet
Bomb Targets Shop Owned by Palestinian Armed Struggle Official in Ain el-Hilweh/Naharnet


Report: New Espionage Devices Dismantled, Suspected Spies Arrested
Naharnet/The Lebanese army intelligence has reportedly dismantled espionage devices in the area of Tawmat Niha in the Shouf mountains and arrested three suspected spies.
An Nahar daily said Monday that the army dismantled the equipment in cooperation with Hizbullah. However, no official statement was made pending further investigation.
Other media reports said the newly discovered devices allow Israel to monitor the Bekaa valley and coastal areas from Sidon all the way to Jbeil.
Earlier in the month, the army said it dismantled two espionage devices that Israel had placed on top of Mount Sannine, northeast of Beirut, and the Barouk Mountain, east of the capital.
On the suspected Mossad agents, An Nahar said one of those arrested last week was from the Sheikh family and had recently arrived to Lebanon from Canada.
He reportedly visits Lebanon frequently.

Buthaina Shaaban: If Tribunal was Impartial, No One Would Have Objected to it
Naharnet/Syrian President Bashar Assad's advisor Buthaina Shaaban said the track that the international tribunal is taking hints that the court is politicized and aims at dividing Arabs.
"If the court was impartial, no one would have objected to it," Shaaban told the Saudi al-Riyadh newspaper. "But the course of the court hints that it is politicized and falls within the plot aimed at dividing Arabs and hitting their agreements, strength and unity."She said Syria was accused of involvement in ex-Premier Rafik Hariri's assassination immediately after the Feb. 2005 bombing. "Today they talk about accusing Hizbullah and tomorrow they could accuse a third and fourth party," Shaaban said.
The WikiLeaks cables reveal the Western-American plot against justice and the independence of Arab countries, she told al-Riyadh, saying "the democracy and freedom they talk about are hollow words."Turning to ties with Saudi Arabia, Shaaban said relations between the two countries are important for the stability and security of the region and influence positively the situation in Lebanon. "That's why all parties are welcoming the Syrian-Saudi understanding" aimed at solving the Lebanese crisis, she said. Beirut, 27 Dec 10, 10:25

Suleiman Says he Alone Decides his Ministers' Votes, Stresses Need to Keep Institutions Away from Bickering
Naharnet/President Michel Suleiman snapped back at his critics saying he could decide how the five ministers representing him in the cabinet would vote on the false witnesses file if it was subject to voting. "Let it be clear that I can control the votes of the five ministers within my bloc," Suleiman told As Safir newspaper in remarks published Monday. "Honestly, I don't want to embarrass anyone, including those who are demanding voting without assessing its negative consequences," the president said. He reiterated that he still holds onto consensus over the issue inside cabinet to avoid further deterioration in the political situation. Hizbullah and its allies insist that the issue of false witnesses be settled and referred to Lebanon's highest court, the Judicial Council, before cabinet discussions take place on any other topic. Suleiman stressed that he did not object the referral of the file to the Judicial Council on condition that any decision is made through consensus. "It is my duty as president to preserve the national unity cabinet," he said. During a meeting with a delegation from the army and security agencies on Monday, Suleiman stressed the importance of keeping institutions away from political bickering. He hoped Lebanon would overcome the current crisis and urged military and security apparatuses to increase efforts to consolidate political, security and economic stability. Beirut, 27 Dec 10, 09:30

Qobeisi: Soaid Doesn't Grasp What Berri is Talking About
Naharnet/AMAL MP Hani Qobeisi on Sunday hit back at March 14 General-Secretariat Coordinator Fares Soaid, accusing him of failing to understand what Speaker Nabih Berri is talking about."Soaid cannot grasp efforts undertaken by Speaker Berri," Qobeisi said in a statement. Soaid on Sunday urged President Michel Suleiman, Berri and Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat to make a "national initiative" to end the Lebanese crisis. Beirut, 26 Dec 10, 21:16

Khalils Meet Iranian Official in Damascus
Naharnet/Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah's advisor and the political assistant of Speaker Nabih Berri have met with Iran's assistant secretary of the higher national security council for intelligence affairs. Hizbullah's al-Manar TV said Sunday that Hussein Khalil and MP Ali Hassan Khalil held talks with the Iranian official, Ali Baqri, in Damascus.

Assad Phones Suleiman, Discuss Situation at Arab Level
Naharnet/Syrian President Bashar Assad on Sunday telephoned President Michel Suleiman to congratulate him on the holidays. State-run National News Agency said the two leaders also discussed relations between the two countries and the general situation at the Arab level. Earlier Sunday, Suleiman received at his mansion in Amshit former Deputy Prime Minister Maj. Gen. Issam Abu Jamra and ex-MP Mansour Bon as well as municipal delegations and a number of personalities from Jbeil. Beirut, 26 Dec 10,

Report: European Intelligence Services Hunt for Ain el-Hilweh Fighters
Naharnet/Intelligence services throughout the Middle East and Europe are scrambling to track down more than two dozen fighters linked to al-Qaida who have recently left their base in the Palestinian refugee camp of Ain el-Hilweh in southern Lebanon, Britain's The Guardian newspaper reported.
The missing men are thought to have gone to Europe by a newly established route through Syria, Turkey and the Balkans, it said.
Two Lebanese intelligence service officials told The Guardian that Lebanon was cooperating with European intelligence organizations to track down the militants, who are described as "extremely dangerous." One European Union intelligence official confirmed to The Observer that an operation to hunt down Arab fighters recently arrived from Lebanon was under way, but could not link this group to recent concerns about possible holiday attacks by al-Qaida. "We have received warnings of a significant militant plot in Europe during the holidays and we have been warned about these missing fighters from Lebanon," he said. "But we wish we knew if the two threats were related."
Stephen Tankel, of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, has done field research in Ain el-Hilweh and describes the band of militants as potentially dangerous because of their lack of overall control. "They may not have been super-organized, but that does not mean they are not potentially dangerous," he told The Guardian.
"First, a number of them fought in Iraq, where they will have gained combat experience and, perhaps, some explosives expertise. Second, it's safe to assume that many of them are prepared to undertake 'martyrdom' operations," he said. Beirut, 26 Dec 10, 08:50

Will Hezbollah Be Brought to Justice in Lebanon?
Its likely role in Rafik Hariri's death must not be covered up in the name of 'stability.
By FIRAS MAKSAD
Surrounded by joyful children, Lebanon's Prime Minister Saad Hariri recently inaugurated the holiday season in glitzy downtown Beirut. It was a festive scene—but one that ignored the demons currently threatening that country's fragile stability. Tensions in Lebanon are high. The U.N.-backed Special Tribunal, set up in the Hague to prosecute the killers of Rafik Hariri, the former prime minister and Saad's father, is preparing to issue indictments.
All indications point to members of Hezbollah, the Shiite militant group loyal to Iran, as the main culprits in the 2005 murder. If Hezbollah militants are indicted, it could lead to serious unrest between the group's Shiite base and the largely Sunni followers of the assassinated prime minister. Regional actors including Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Israel and the United States all have a stake in the outcome.
Many have called for scuttling the tribunal out of fear of the instability it could create. Lebanon is not prepared for justice, these voices claim. New York Times columnist Roger Cohen has argued that "Lebanese stability is precarious and tenuous: it trumps justice delayed, foreign and flawed." And Lebanese Druze leader Walid Jumblatt has questioned "the use for tribunal justice if it leads to slaughter." True enough, the Middle East does not need another Sunni-Shiite conflict. But rewarding those who engage in assassinations by letting them walk free will only encourage more violence.
Justice is the only path to lasting stability in Lebanon. Without it, Sunni extremists itching to take on their Shiite counterparts will only grow in strength. Sunnis more generally will feel betrayed twice—first for having their leader assassinated and second for being denied justice. Thwarting the tribunal is a guaranteed path to further Sunni-Shiite tensions and a greater sense of anger in the country and the region.
For its part, Hezbollah is attempting to smear the tribunal, labeling it an "American-Israeli project." But no one knows what evidence an indictment will put forward. Judgments about the court's integrity should be withheld until then, and no one should be duped by Hezbollah's misinformation campaign.
Most people in Lebanon already believe that Hezbollah has been exposed for what it truly is, especially after the self-proclaimed "resistance" against Israel turned its weapons against fellow Lebanese in the domestic troubles of 2008. An indictment with solid evidence will only further isolate the group within Lebanon and tarnish its carefully cultivated image in the broader Arab and Muslim worlds.
That said, Hezbollah's overwhelming hold over Lebanon's Shiite community will no doubt remain a key source of its strength. Unraveling this relationship will require a long-term strategy, including engaging with local partners to find alternatives to the extensive social services and patronage networks that the group has employed to capture Shiite loyalty since its 1983 bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut.
As for the assassination of Rafik Hariri, few Lebanese believe that Hezbollah would have acted without direction from—and coordination with—the Syrian forces that controlled their country at the time of the crime in February 2005. Collective Lebanese consciousness has been shaped by a long history of Syrian-inspired political killings, and Syria has long maintained close relations with Hezbollah.
It remains to be seen whether the evidence collected at the Hague will be enough to prosecute not only those who carried out the crime, but those who planned and ordered the killing. International pressure on the tribunal may spare the Syrian regime.
For those of us watching these developments in the relative safety of America, let us remember that what happens in the seemingly distant Middle East often comes to haunt us. As we prepare to usher in the new year, let us think of families who do so with genuine fear. And let us stand by those pursuing justice not only because it's the right thing, but for the sake of our long-term interests and theirs.
**Mr. Maksad, a consultant with the law firm DLA Piper, is an executive director at the Lebanon Renaissance Foundation, which seeks to strengthen U.S.-Lebanon relations and support a free, pluralistic Lebanon.

Saudi Arabia, Syria step up bid to end crisis
Sleiman reassures Lebanese that solution to break political deadlock is on horizon
By Hussein Dakroub
Daily Star staff
Monday, December 27, 2010
BEIRUT: Saudi Arabia and Syria are stepping up their efforts to resolve the Lebanese crisis, a senior March 8 source said Sunday, a day after President Michel Sleiman sought to reassure worried Lebanese that the country’s political stalemate was heading for a solution. “The Saudi-Syrian efforts are in race against time before the release of the indictment. These efforts have received a new boost following the release of Saudi King Abdullah from hospital,” the source told The Daily Star. The source said that the Saudi-Syrian mediation bid has resumed from “an advanced position.” “The Saudi-Syrian steps will be accelerated in the next few days. The situation is now much better following King Abdullah’s recovery,” the source said. He added that Riyadh and Damascus, based on their previous understanding on Lebanon, would now strive to break the Lebanese deadlock over an impending indictment into the 2005 assassination of former Premier Rafik Hariri. The source said that no one in Lebanon has any real information as to when the indictment, which is widely expected to implicate some Hizbullah members in Hariri’s assassination, would be released.
The threat of sectarian strife over the indictment, to be issued by the UN-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL), has prompted regional power-houses Saudi Arabia and Syria to try to broker a solution for the Lebanese crisis acceptable to the March 8 and March 14 factions. The feuding parties are now pinning hopes on the Saudi-Syrian bid to break the deadlock over the indictment. The bid went into limbo last month after King Abdullah underwent back surgeries in the United States. Abdullah, 87, was released from a New York hospital last week, raising hope for accelerating the bid. He is now staying in New York for recuperation and physiotherapy.
Prime Minister Saad Hariri left Beirut Sunday on a private visit to New York, according to a statement issued by his media office. During his US trip, Hariri will visit King Abdullah to inquire about his health.
Sleiman received a phone call Sunday from Syrian President Bashar Assad who congratulated him on the occasions of Christmas and New Year, the state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported. The two presidents also discussed relations between the two countries and the situation in the Arab region, it said.
Amid the threat of instability over the indictment, Sleiman reassured the Lebanese that the political crisis was heading for a solution.
“I reassure the Lebanese that the problems we are facing are heading toward a solution. We hope that 2011 will be a good year for Lebanon, a year of stability, security and strengthening of national unity and economic prosperity,” Sleiman told reporters after meeting with Maronite Patriarch Cardinal Nasrallah Butros Sfeir at Bkirki, north of Beirut, before attending a Christmas mass Saturday. Referring to the state of paralysis within the Cabinet and other state institutions, Sleiman promised that 2011 would be the year of launching work at ministries and state institutions and departments. Sleiman rejected accusations made by Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) leader MP Michel Aoun who said that the president and Hariri were obstructing the Cabinet’s work by refusing a vote on the issue of “false witnesses.”
“The president is responsible for the country’s interest. No one can decide to the president when to vote or not to vote,” Sleiman said.
“The Constitution stresses accord and this is its spirit. The president assesses the situation and he knows when he waits for accord and when he goes to voting,” he said.
“When he [the president] sees that accord is attainable, and it is still attainable, he does not go to voting,” Sleiman said. Responding to a question, Sleiman said a solution would be found soon to the issue of “false witnesses.”
On Saturday, Hariri congratulated the Lebanese on Christmas and the New Year Days, hoping that the occasions would lead to “a new phase” in relations among the Lebanese and reaffirm “the bonds of brotherhood and national unity.”
“Lebanon needs the efforts of all its citizens in order to attain the highest degree of stability and solidarity,” Hariri said. “I have faith that the Lebanese will succeed in reaching this goal and will take a new path toward progress and prosperity.”
Sleiman’s remarks come amid political tension between the March 8 and March 14 factions over the STL’s upcoming indictment, raising fears of sectarian strife and leading to a Cabinet paralysis. A dispute between the two factions over the issue of “false witnesses” linked to the UN probe into Hariri’s killing has crippled the government’s work for more than a month.
Hizbullah has dismissed the STL as an “American-Israeli” tool to incite sectarian strife in Lebanon. Hariri, son of the slain leader, and his allies in the March 14 coalition strongly support the STL as the only means to reveal the truth behind the assassination of his father.
The standoff has thrown Hariri’s national unity Cabinet into paralysis. The Cabinet failed at its latest meeting on December 15 to settle the issue of “false witnesses,” prompting Sleiman to defer the discussions when the March 8 ministers demanded a vote on the issue.
Hizbullah and its allies in the March 8 camp have repeatedly demanded that the Cabinet act on the issue of “false witnesses” either by consensus or by a vote for referring it to the Judicial Council, the country’s highest court. Both Sleiman and Hariri staunchly oppose a Cabinet vote on this issue to avoid a further split among the ministers. The March 14 factions fear that investigating “false witnesses” by the Judicial Council would eventually obstruct the STL’s work.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmad Abu al-Gheit said Egypt was working to prevent violence in Lebanon after the release of the indictment into Hariri’s killing.
“Egypt is keen on achieving stability in Lebanon and preventing external intervention in its affairs,” he said in a speech at a conference of the ruling National Democratic Party in Cairo. “It is also working to prevent an internal clash among the components of the Lebanese society.”
Abu al-Gheit added that while Egypt did not support any militia in Lebanon, “it did not incite for war.”
Two MPs of Hariri’s Future parliamentary bloc voiced support for the Saudi-Syrian efforts, but lashed out at Hizbullah for its campaign against the STL.
“The March 14 camp is cooperating to the utmost to ensure the success of the Arab initiative, which is based in the first place on the Saudi-Syrian efforts. But we were surprised by the negative Iranian position on the international tribunal, which was covered by Hizbullah MPs’ statements,” Dinniyeh MP Ahmad Fatfat told the Saudi newspaper Ash-Sharq al-Awsat.
He was referring to Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who dismissed on December 20 any verdict by the STL in Hariri’s assassination as “null and void.” Khamenei’s position was condemned by the March 14 politicians as interference in Lebanon’s internal affairs.
Tripoli MP Mohammed Kabbara underlined the significance of the Saudi-Syrian bid to reconcile the Lebanese parties’ viewpoints to reach a solution. “But the Lebanese must reach an understanding on the broad lines [of the solution],” Kabbara told Ash-Sharq al-Awsat. He urged Hizbullah to reconsider its policies, saying, “Is there in any state in the world an armed group which is stronger than the army and all security apparatuses?”
Responding to Fatfat and Kabbara, Ghaleb Abu Zeinab, a member of Hizbullah’s political bureau, said the two MPs’ remarks were designed to spread the idea that “the Resistance will lead the country to destruction.”
In Damascus, deputy secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Ali Baqeri, met with MP Ali Hassan Khalil, political adviser to Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, and Hussein Khalil, political aide to Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, media report said. There was no immediate word on what was discussed during the meeting.

Christian clerics use Christmas sermons to warn against domestic strife over Tribunal
By The Daily Star
Monday, December 27, 2010
BEIRUT: Christian religious leaders warned against dangers to Lebanon’s stability amid rising tensions over the tribunal investigating former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri’s assassination during Christmas sermons over the weekend. Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Butros Sfeir said the Lebanese should follow in the footsteps of President Michel Sleiman and stand united to preserve their country as challenges and dangers loom on the horizon. “No one ignores the challenges Lebanon has witnessed in the past and those it is currently enduring as well as difficulties lying ahead,” Sfeir said, adding that Lebanon’s soil has long been blended with the blood of martyrs that have fallen. “You [Sleiman] are giving your best for the nation’s ship to reach the port safely and we pray to God that your efforts succeed despite all difficulties … similarly the Lebanese, under your wise guidance, should unite to save their country.”
Beirut Greek Orthodox Bishop Elias Audi called on Lebanese political parties to calmly await the outcome of investigations carried out by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL), urging them to resort to legal debate to resolve their disputes. “When will stability reign and when will we live in peace and security away from parties trading accusations and warning against strife?” Audi asked. “Doesn’t everyone claim that they want the truth … why then fight to abolish it?” He asked. “Why don’t we wait for the outcome of investigations calmly and patiently and resort to legal debate to resolve our dispute rather than resort to provocations that could spark fire.”
With the STL indictment widely expected to implicate its members in the 2005 Hariri assassination, Hizbullah has condemned the UN-backed tribunal as an “Israeli project” aimed at dealing a blow to the resistance. Many fear that if the STL issues its indictment against Hizbullah members, violence will erupt between supporters of the Future Movement and Hizbullah.
In reference to Hizbullah and its allies, Audi criticized the obstruction of government meetings in an attempt to force a certain political agenda concerning STL-related controversies.
“In civilized countries, political parties bicker ideologically to serve the interest of their country,” said Audi. “But did it ever occur that a case, irrespective of how just and righteous it is, paralyzes the government’s work and that of the country?” the bishop asked.
Hizbullah and its allies insist that the issue of “false witnesses” be settled before ministerial discussions take place on any other topic.
The March 8 coalition demands that “false witnesses,” whom they accuse of misleading the UN probe in 2005, be referred to Lebanon’s highest court, the Judicial Council, but the March 14 coalition say the witnesses ought to be tried by the regular judiciary.
The March 14 alliance fears that the investigation of “false witnesses” by the Judicial Council would eventually block the work of the STL.
“We have heard the Cabinet’s agenda contained 300 topics. Doesn’t this mean the people’s needs are frozen?” Audi said.
Beirut Maronite Bishop Boulos Matar also warned that no substitute to Lebanon’s current model of coexistence would exist if the country collapses.
Matar received Iranian Ambassador Ghazanfar Roknabadi Saturday, who passed on good wishes for Christmas.
Lebanon’s top three officials, lawmakers, ministers and representatives of political parties have conveyed season’s greetings to Christian religious figures during phone calls over the weekend.
Sleiman, who attended the mass celebrated by Sfeir in Bkirki, also held closed-door talks with the patriarch and Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblatt paid a quick visit to Bkirki. Meanwhile, Future Movement parliamentary bloc leader MP Fouad Siniora congratulated Sidon and Deir al-Qamar Greek Melkite Catholic Bishop Elie Haddad and Maronite Bishop Elias Nassar during a visit to the city’s dioceses. Siniora said the Lebanese people’s interests should not be tied to political demands as he called on parties to resume ministerial discussions away from pre-imposed conditions. Siniora added that the foundations of any Arab-brokered solution to the political deadlock should stem from efforts to accomplish justice.
Sidon MP Bahia Hariri and a number of Future Movement officials visited Haddad and Nassar to pass on their good wishes on the occasion of Christmas.
Several Sidon Amal Movement officials offered season’s greetings to the city’s Christian figures on behalf of Speaker Nabih Berri, while Hizbullah officials passed good wishes to a number of Christian figures in Mount Lebanon and south Lebanon. – The Daily Star

Mufti Jouzo slams Sfeir's statement
By The Daily Star
Monday, December 27, 2010
BEIRUT: Mount Lebanon Mufti Sheikh Mohammad-Ali Jouzo criticized Sunday “political Maronism” in the wake of Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Butros Sfeir’s statement that “qualifications were equally important to demographics,” a reference to the decreasing numbers of Lebanese Christians in comparison to Muslims. “The number of Christians is decreasing as they head East or West and most probably to the West,” Sfeir told a visiting delegation of nurses Friday in Bkirki. “But,” added the prelate, “Christ’s disciples were only 12 but they overran the entire world and thus large numbers do not count alone but also qualifications.” Jouzo said such statements harmed the “feelings of the rest of the Lebanese,” adding that qualifications were a shared quality among Christians and Muslims. “Holders of university degrees count more among Muslims than Christians,” he added. Jouzo also seized the opportunity to slam Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun as an example that some Christians lack qualifications. “It is enough that among Christians there is a man like Aoun and the rest of his team who insult everybody including the patriarch. Where is the quality in that behavior?” Jouzo asked. He added that political privileges previously allotted to Maronites and referred to as “Political Maronism” led to the collapse of Lebanon after it dragged the country into cycles of violence and wars. Political Maronism refers to the era of powerful Maronite sway over Lebanese politics from the 1950s until 1975. Jouzo blamed political Maronism for the the rise of “political Shiism,” which he said deprived territories with a Muslim and particularly Shiite majority from progress, leading, according to the mufti, to the rise of “a feeling of hatred” among Shiites against the rest of the Lebanese. Jouzo said the Shiite community’s qualifications lay in their possession of arms. “They feel superior because they hold arms and now their ego has been boosted and cannot be deflated,” he said, alluding to Hizbullah. – The Daily Star

Invisible Dangers
Dec 27, 2010 /swissinfo.ch
The Muslim world has celebrated its New Year and the western Christian New Year is approaching. Journalist Werner Scheurer, who lives in Beirut, looks back at the year.
The past year has been relatively peaceful – and here that is not something that can be taken for granted. It’s true that on the surface nothing in Beirut indicates that war might be about to break out – quite the contrary: the city seems positively optimistic.
Everywhere new restaurants and shops are opening, and the old ones are being given a new look. There is construction work going on everywhere: new apartment blocks are springing up haphazardly in every neighbourhood of the city, towering several storeys above all the buildings around.
The city centre, which was largely destroyed in the 1975-1990 war, and is now known as "downtown“, is where the building boom is particularly striking, and appears to be very well planned. New luxury hotels have opened for business this year, and after a “soft opening” of the lavish commercial district, the upmarket shops have opened their doors just in time for Christmas.
The shopping district is called Aswaq Beirut, “Beirut Markets“, and has been built on the site of a once bustling eastern market – but by now only old Beirutis still remember it. All around more future landmarks of the city are springing up, including projects by world famous architects, full of luxury apartments, shops and offices.
No, no-one would think from all this activity that conflict is brewing, and certainly not the growing number of tourists. Lebanon is becoming a more and more popular travel destination worldwide, whether for its historic sites, its natural beauty or the famous Beirut night life.
International tribunal
But despite all the optimistic activity, no-one totally believes in it. Alongside the construction sites stand the ruins of buildings destroyed in the war or which have simply become derelict, evidence of an earlier boom in a past long gone. However, they are a sight that people have got used to over the years.
More disturbing have been some incidents revealing the country’s latent potential for violence: a shoot-out between the bodyguards of two bank directors in a Beirut night club in March, fighting between police and drug dealers in the Bekaa valley.
Even more unsettling have been the occasional explosions of arms depots in southern Lebanon and then the fatal border incident at the beginning of August, when Israeli soldiers came too close to the ceasefire line when they were felling trees. Another cause for concern has been the political and religious background behind two bloody skirmishes in Beirut neighbourhoods.
But today the main basis for the widespread uncertainty – or for some almost the certainty of an impending outbreak of violence – is the months-long controversy about the international tribunal, which has split the country and in the past few weeks has paralysed government business. This Special Tribunal was established by the United Nations Security Council to investigate the bomb attack of February 2005 which killed Prime Minister Rafiq al-Hariri and 21 others.
Werner Scheurer (zVg)
Stocking up
The first four suspects had to be released without charge after spending years in detention. Now for weeks the whole country has been waiting anxiously for an indictment, which everyone already knows will name members of Hezbollah, the “Party of God”.
The party rejects any such accusation and has launched a broad-based campaign casting doubt on the independence of the tribunal. It is using threats to demand that its political opponents – with whom it sits in a coalition government – should distance themselves from the tribunal.
In May 2008 Hezbollah militiamen demonstrated yet again their ability to paralyse the capital, and thus the whole country, overnight. They occupied entire districts of the city, besieged government institutions, reduced the media of their political opponents to silence and blocked the airport. It is quite possible that they could do the same again one night.
In the face of such a possibility the Swiss resident recalls the snappy Cold War advice from his homeland: "Kluger Rat, Notvorrat!“, meaning: “Stock up on essentials”. Every family was supposed to keep a stock of basic foodstuffs at home, so as to be prepared for shortages that might occur if there were a crisis of any kind.
And in Beirut it is indeed possible that you couldn’t get to the shop just round the corner for several days, or that it wouldn’t have everything in store. So stock up. It doesn’t take long to find on the internet the good advice offered by the Swiss government as to what such emergency supplies should include: they range from basic foodstuffs, to batteries for the radio to loo paper.
Swiss advice
It’s a relief to see right away that the information doesn’t come from the defence ministry but from the Federal National Economic Supply Office, part of the economics ministry. In 2010 the reason for people in Switzerland to hold emergency stocks is no longer because of wars and conflicts, but rather pandemics and natural disasters.
And you suddenly realise that Lebanon is exposed to other dangers, not only the political ones. The country lies at the northern end of the Jordan Rift Valley, the prolongation of Africa’s Great Rift Valley fault. That is why the region has a long history of earthquakes – a particularly strong one devastated Beirut in 1759, causing thousands of casualties. In the Bekaa valley the mighty pillars of the famous Roman temple of Baalbek collapsed.
So that is another reason to stock up for emergencies. But Switzerland does not provide only good advice. It is also participating in a campaign run by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Lebanon to raise people’s awareness of the risk of earthquakes and other natural disasters, and is supporting the training of emergency medical personnel and construction specialists.
After all, emergency provisions only last a few days.
Walter Scheurer in Beirut, swissinfo.ch
(Translated from German by Julia Slater)
Keeping the faith with tolerance

Keeping the faith with tolerance
Daily Star/Monday, December 27, 2010
The violence that marred Christmas celebrations in Nigeria and the Philippines over the weekend has put renewed focus on the problem of sectarian conflict in communities around the world, with many citing the incidents as proof of the increasing persecution of Christians worldwide.
Sectarian attacks left at least 38 people dead in Nigeria, while 10 people were wounded when a bomb exploded during Christmas mass at a chapel on the predominantly Muslim island of Jolo in southwest Philippines. Meanwhile, Iraqi Christians, still reeling from an October assault on a church in Baghdad that killed 52 people, felt forced to either call off or curtail many of their own holiday celebrations because of new Al-Qaeda threats of further attacks on Christmas Day.
These and other attacks on Christians ought to serve as a wakeup call to political leaders, especially those in the Muslim world, where members of the Christian sect constitute an often persecuted minority. Those who attack Christians in the name of Islam do a great disservice to the faith because such incidents serve as ammunition for individuals or nations who seek political gains by portraying Muslims as intolerant or even violent. Benjamin Netanyahu, for example, famously told an audience at Bar Ilan university in 2008 that the September 11, 2001, terror attacks on the United States had been beneficial for Israel in that they “swung American public opinion in our favor.”
Despite the fact that Islam itself is often the foremost victim of terrorist attacks on Christians, too few Muslim leaders treat this issue with the gravity that is required. Such attacks are typically greeted with perfunctory condemnation, but preventing similar incidents in the future would require a concerted effort to enact and enforce laws that protect religious minorities. Considerably more could also be done to promote religious tolerance among general populations.
The problem now is that Muslim political leaders are reluctant to take steps to counter anti-Christian sentiment and bigotry in their own societies. Like their counterparts in the West, they remain idle as their societies become infected by a phobia of the “other.”
But in just about every way – armaments, art, medicine, science, technology, wealth, etc. – the Islamic world has flourished most when it has embraced and improved the advancements of other civilizations. Even and perhaps especially when other societies have eschewed the achievements and discoveries of their best and brightest, Muslims have labored to perfect, preserve and perpetuate the fruit of foreign minds disowned by their own backward elites. This is the spirit that must be revived if the Islamic world is ever to regain its former stature. And a good start would be for leaders to encourage greater tolerance for the “other” who is in reality one of their own.

'Hariri tribunal ends investigation, makes decision'
By JPOST.COM STAFF
12/27/2010 12:32
Prosecutor Daniel Bellemare is the only person who knows results of investigation into 2005 assassination, 'Asharq al-Awsat' reports.
The UN-backed tribunal into the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri has finished its investigation after six years and publishing the indictment is all that remains, London-based newspaper Asharq al-Awsat reported Monday.
According to the report, prosecutor Daniel Bellemare reached a final decision that will be very hard to appeal.
Bellemare is the only person that knows when the verdict will be published, the report claimed.
Last week, it was reported that Lebanese Prime Minister Sa'ad Hariri would ask the UN tribunal to stop its investigation and leave the country.
Lebanese newspaper Al-Diyar had quoted Hariri as saying that he would resist any indictments handed down by the tribunal, saying "I have sacrificed a lot and cannot sacrifice more."
Tension over the tribunal has paralyzed Lebanon in recent weeks amid speculation Bellemare will indict members of Hizbullah for the 2005 assassination

Palestinians: Obama no longer backs Palestinian state within 1967 borders
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report December 27, 2010,
Palestinian leaders in Ramallah, including Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayad, are sunk in gloom over what they perceive as US President Barak Obama repudiation of his promises to them and greater sympathy for the Netanyahu government's side of the Middle East dispute. They also see a spreading push in Europe, the Arab countries and Moscow for them to bite the bullet and reconcile themselves to partial or interim accords, since no feasible solutions are visible on the outstanding core issues of borders, refugees and Jerusalem.
debkafile reports Palestinian dignitaries as going around Washington and the Middle East complaining that the Obama administration has gone back on promises on four issues:
1. It declines to endorse former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's 2007 pledge that borders of a future Palestinian state would be "very close to the 1967 boundaries." US officials have given them to understand at meetings in Washington and Ramallah that their claims on the West Bank must be moderated.
2. The Palestinians say Washington is now reneging on the promises given in late 2009 and early 2010 by Gen. Jim Jones, then National Security Adviser at the White House, for US forces or a combined US-NATO force to be posted on Palestinian borders with Israel and Jordan and other strategic areas after statehood is attained. However, on Dec. 15, when the subject came up in their talks with George Mitchell, the special US Middle East envoy, it Ramallah, this promise appeared to have evaporated. The US view now is that mounting regional dangers make it mandatory for Israeli military elements to be incorporated in the international force. In other words, the IDF would not retain a presence in the Palestinian state.
This development drew forth Abbas' unequivocal statement in Bethlehem Saturday, Dec. 25: "There will be no Israeli presence in the Palestinian state."
3. Washington is leaning heavily on the Palestinian Authority to stop lobbying Latin American capitals for recognition of a unilateral Palestinian state. Uruguay Saturday joined Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil and Paraguay with such declarations. The Palestinians are being advised not to submit any unilateral resolutions to the UN Security Council because they would not be passed.
4. The Palestinians accuse the US government of caving in to Israel on the matter of a settlement construction freeze. Building is proceeding undisturbed at a rapid tempo, they say.
The Palestinian beef is not only with the Americans. In recent weeks, Saudi voices, having criticized the Abbas-Fayyad tactics on peace diplomacy with Israel as inept, have advised them to go for an interim deal as their only realistic option. Moscow too has joined the chorus jarring on Palestinian ears in Ramallah since the senior Russian emissary and lawmaker and close associate of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, Mikhail Margelov held talks with Israeli political and military officials in Tel Aviv last week.
Following those interviews, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman once again declared that the only possible and desirable deal with the Palestinians as things stand to day was an interim accord. He was addressing Israeli envoys from around the world gathered in Jerusalem Sunday, Dec. 26, for a three-day briefing and airing of ideas.
debkafile's sources report the Palestinians believe the tide turned against them in US thinking 10 days earlier on Dec. 15-16 when two senior White House advisers and David Haie arrived for visits to the region.
Most of the Israeli media are still highlighting as comment by Infrastructure Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer Sunday at the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem Sunday. He said he wouldn't be surprised if the United States recognized a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders before the end of the coming year.
According to our sources, Ben Eliezer is not clued in on the state of Palestinian - or even Israeli - relations with Washington.

Obama embraces foreign affairs
Michael Tomasky, December 27, 2010
Now Lebanon
US President Barack Obama might turn to foreign affairs to burnish his presidentiality. (AFP/ Tim Sloan)
It’s an old truism of American politics that a president who has taken a licking at home takes solace in making foreign policy. In the wake of November’s elections, US President Barack Obama actually had a comparatively good month, with the lame-duck session of the still-Democratic controlled Congress passing some items he’d long pushed for. But come January 5, 2011 and the seating of the new Congress, Obama’s domestic agenda will be extremely curtailed.
He will scan the globe for opportunities to look presidential. He got a surprising—actually shocking—boost along those lines just before Christmas, when the lame-duck Senate ratified the New Start treaty with Russia. Very few people expected, when Congress returned to Washington after the elections, that Start would end up on the agenda. That it had the support in the end of 11 Republican senators merely highlighted the ridiculousness of the rules of the United States Senate, where the treaty was bottled up all year largely because of one obstreperous Republican.
Cutting deployed warheads by two-thirds down to around 1,550, New Start isn’t perhaps as major a treaty as Start I, signed by George H.W. Bush and Mikhail Gorbachev back in 1991. But then again, there are fewer warheads to reduce now, and in any case, no treaty with Russia is minor. And for a president with no big foreign policy successes to speak of in two years, it comes at a perfect time.
The question now is whether or not the treaty gives Obama any renewed clout on other global matters, and it’s at best, an open one. While Start got the headlines and generated the happy feelings here in Washington, it would not surprise me if more people around the world, and certainly more people in Lebanon and the Middle East, took greater note of the State Department’s announcement earlier in the month that it was giving up for now on direct talks between Israel and the Palestinians, the Obama administration having failed to persuade the Netanyahu government to stop building West Bank settlements.
Shortly after that admission of failure, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton delivered a “major speech” at the Brookings Institution, Washington’s most prominent center-left think tank. There wasn’t much new in the speech, but on this topic on which feints and gestures and the addition (or deletion) of certain standard adjectives from descriptions of Israelis or Palestinians are accorded great significance, several observers noted in several passages. The speech took something resembling a posture of moral neutrality between the two sides; a subtle signal of Clinton and Obama’s displeasure with the Israeli government.
But what leverage does Washington have? Very little, alas. Netanyahu’s posture is simple: He hopes Obama is a one-term president to be replaced by a Republican who’ll revert to a more Bush-like posture (George W., not his father) of giving Israel basically what it wants.
The new Congress that will be sworn in January 5 should only reinforce Netanyahu’s stance. The House of Representatives is less important to the making of foreign policy than the Senate is, but even so, the reversion of the House Foreign Affairs Committee to Republican control means that there certainly won’t be any scrutiny of Israeli positions there. The incoming chairwoman is Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Cuban exile from South Florida who is as reliably conservative as that profile suggests. She told the Jerusalem Post that “this feeling that [Palestinian President Mahmoud] Abbas and [Palestinian Prime Minister Salam] Fayyad are the good guys, if they’re the good guys, then we should start praying for Israel’s safety right now.”
Obama is going to have to make a direct challenge to Netanyahu at some point. That’ll take guts. More guts than he’s shown so far. Israel’s conservative sympathizers in Washington already don’t trust Obama. Pressure will make that worse. And having a bad relationship with that cohort means, for example, that campaign contributions from many Jewish Americans might dry up. So don’t look for a confrontation with Bibi until a second term, if there is one. But it’s going to have to happen someday.
A more pressing concern, from the perspective of domestic US politics, is Afghanistan. Nearly two-thirds of Americans don’t see the point. And if it’s true, as the Washington Post reported, that the deathbed wish of venerated diplomat Richard Holbrooke, who died earlier this month unexpectedly, is to get us out of Afghanistan, then that’s a sign that nearly everyone has privately given up on success there, even if some won’t say it publicly. Again, domestic politics will dictate: There’s little chance Obama will seek reelection without talking about a firm end-date in 2014, which is for better or worse more important politically now than whether or not we can declare victory.
Iraq? Here’s hoping the line is held, and things don’t get worse. North Korea? Fortunately, we learn from WikiLeaks, the Chinese are sick and tired of them too, which could help if things reach the crisis point. Iran, the biggest problem of all? The Stuxnet computer virus, some observers believe, may have set Iran’s nuclear program back by a year or even two, which, if true, would mean there’s no way for Iran to go nuclear before Obama’s reelection.
So as much as Obama might like to turn to foreign affairs to burnish his presidentiality while his domestic agenda stalls, the unfortunate fact is that it’s a world of many problems but few opportunities. The signing of the New Start treaty at least will present him to Americans cutting that reassuring figure of US head of state making nice with Russian head of state. So Medvedev will help him. Netanyahu and Ahmadinejad are less likely to be so cooperative.
**Michael Tomasky is editor of the Washington-based quarterly Democracy: A Journal of Ideas, and American editor-at-large for The Guardian.