LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
ِApril 27/2011

Biblical Event Of The Day
Trust in Almighty God
The Good News According to Luke 12/22-34: " He said to his disciples, “Therefore I tell you, don’t be anxious for your life, what you will eat, nor yet for your body, what you will wear. 12:23 Life is more than food, and the body is more than clothing. 12:24 Consider the ravens: they don’t sow, they don’t reap, they have no warehouse or barn, and God feeds them. How much more valuable are you than birds! 12:25 Which of you by being anxious can add a cubit to his height? 12:26 If then you aren’t able to do even the least things, why are you anxious about the rest? 12:27 Consider the lilies, how they grow. They don’t toil, neither do they spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 12:28 But if this is how God clothes the grass in the field, which today exists, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith? 12:29 Don’t seek what you will eat or what you will drink; neither be anxious. 12:30 For the nations of the world seek after all of these things, but your Father knows that you need these things. 12:31 But seek God’s Kingdom, and all these things will be added to you. 12:32 Don’t be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom. 12:33 Sell that which you have, and give gifts to the needy. Make for yourselves purses which don’t grow old, a treasure in the heavens that doesn’t fail, where no thief approaches, neither moth destroys. 12:34 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

Latest analysis, editorials, studies, reports, letters & Releases from miscellaneous sources
The villains from Damascus/By: Mordechai Nisan/April 26/11
Obama’s Syria Confusion/By: Stephen Brown/April 26/11
Avoiding a fiasco/By: Hussein Ibish/April 26/11

Latest News Reports From Miscellaneous Sources for April 26/11
Report: CIA chief held secret talks on Syria in Turkey/Ynetnews
Obama dodges action against Syria by turning to Turkish leader/DEBKAfile
HR group: Syria revolt claims 400 lives/Ynetnews
Bahrain claims Hizbollah trained plotters in Lebanon and Iran/The National
Bahrain accuses Hezbollah of meddling/UPI
Sarkozy Says No Intervention in Syria without U.N. Resolution/Naharnet
Syria unrest: UK, France and Italy press for sanctions/BBC
UN Security Council may tackle Syria violence/CNN
US reduces diplomatic corps in Syria, urges Americans to leave/USA Today
Syria's Assad Dispatches Tanks and Snipers: Making an Example of Dara'a/Time
UN Security Council Asked to Condemn Syria Attacks on Protesters/Bloomberg
How the White House Sees Situation in Syria as Different than Libya/Fox News
Deafening Silence Over Syria/Huffington Post
Easter, protesters fired upon in Syria and Yemen/Washington Post
U.S. stepping up pressure against Syria with new sanctions/CNN
After Syria crackdown, calls for international action against Assad/Christian Science Monitor
Four More People Charged with Kidnapping of Estonians/Naharnet
Fears that Illegal Construction Boom was Politically Motivated /Naharnet
WikiLeaks: Miqati Describes Hariri as Naïve; Says July 2006 War Would Weaken Hizbullah Politically and Militarily/Naharnet
Al-Jarrah Vows to File Complaint against Wahhab over 'Silly' Accusations/Naharnet
Pietton: Solving Arms Issue via National Dialogue Key to Lebanon, Region Security /Naharnet
Jumblat Urges Assad to Implement 'Previous Resolutions on Protecting Right to Peaceful Protest'/Naharnet
ISF Quashes Roumieh Prison Riot /Naharnet
Shami Calls on Salam Not to Approve Security Council Statement on Syria/Naharnet
Sleiman calls for respecting constitution when resolving arguments/Now Lebanon

Report: CIA chief held secret talks on Syria in Turkey
Ankara-based newspaper says Leon Panetta spent five days in Turkish capital reviewing recent unrest sweeping through Arab nations, mulling possible regime change in Syria
Ynetnews/ 04.26.11, 16:42 / United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Chief Leon Panetta reportedly held a secret visit to Turkey lately, the Ankara-based Turkish daily Sabah reported. Talks included planning for a possible regime change in Syria and ensuring the safety of the Assad family, the paper said.
Concerns over Syrian security forces' aggressiveness against demonstrators grow as Damascus-based human rights says victims number in the hundreds
Panetta reportedly set up a camp in the Turkish capital for five days in order to discuss the uprisings in Arab countries with top Turkish officials. Panetta is rumored to have met with head of the Turkish Intelligence Organization (MIT), members of the government and officials from the General Staff. MIT chief Hakan Fidan was sent to Syria to meet Syrian President Bashar Assad by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan last month. The talks also touched on the fighting in Libya, Turkish-Israeli relations, intelligence-sharing in Iraq, cooperation in Afghanistan and the fight against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party or PKK, Sabah said. Sabah's claim that Panneta's talks included planning for possible regime change in Syria and ensuring the safety of the Assad family, were not corroborated by any other source.

Obama dodges action against Syria by turning to Turkish leader
DEBKAfile Exclusive Analysis April 26, 2011,
US President Barack Obama continues to avoid direct action against Bashar Assad's increasingly savage crackdown on dissidents by cultivating a partnership with Turkish Prime Minster Recep Tayyip Erdogan. After talking on the phone early Tuesday April 26, the two leaders voiced "deep concern over the unacceptable use of violence" in Syria and went on to say: "The leaders agreed that the Syrian government must end the use of violence now and promptly enact meaningful reforms that respect the democratic aspirations of Syrian citizens."
There was no condemnation of Bashar Assad, his brother Maher Assad or their use of tank artillery and troops to pound entire city blocks, shoot civilians at random or mass arrests. Early Tuesday, Washington recalled nonessential US embassy staff and diplomats' families from Damascus.
These actions, rather than reining in the Syrian ruler, will have told him he has at another 48-72 hours at least to use the army for polishing off his violent purge of protesters in towns where they have swept up entire districts. In the coming hours, those towns will be condemned to the same fate as the southern city of Daraa, the first to rise up against the Assad regime last month, where Monday, tanks and snipers began massacring the population after shutting down its electricity and telephone communications with the outside world.
Obama and Erdogan have therefore given the Assads a precious lease of life for reasserting their grip on power by brute force.
debkafile's Washington sources report that Obama's decision to engage Assad through the Turkish leader did not come out of the blue. He has been in continuous discreet dialogue with Erdogan by phone since the first protesters took the streets of Syria almost six weeks ago. President Obama was well aware that Erdogan was also on the phone almost daily to Bashar Assad to transmit enormously valuable information: The state of affairs in Syrian towns based on data coming in from Turkish National Intelligence (MIT) undercover agents in the field. He also kept Assad abreast of where the White House stood on different Middle East issues, including Syria.
The secret three-way channel linking Washington, Ankara and Damascus was first uncovered by DEBKA-Net-Weekly 488 on April 8. It then came to light without stirring much notice on April 17 when the Turkish MIT chief Hakan Fidan visited Damascus and was received by the Syrian president.
But the Obama-Erdogan bid to keep the Syrian pot under control blew up under twin pressures: the explosion of long pent-up popular resentment of life in a police state and the extremes to which its heads were willing to go to crush any internal threat to their survival. The opposition was not impressed by Assad's show of abolishing the 48-year old emergency laws on April 19 because it was not a genuine concession to demands for reform but a meaningless gesture meant only to get the US and Turkish leaders off his back. The midnight arrests and street shootings of demonstrators went on regardless, with or without the draconian regulations.
After getting away with that charade, Assad felt free Sunday night, April 24 to unleash his tank columns against the populace. And now, the Obama-Erdogan statement gives him more leeway for following through on his bloody crackdown for at least another couple of days until his regime is safe and its opponents crushed.
According to debkafile's intelligence sources President Obama knew the Syrian ruler was about to deploy his entire army against the protest movement. He could have tried to hold his hand with a stern official warning of serious consequences, even without Erdogan. But the US president chose to cement his partnership with the Turkish prime minister rather than try seriously to stem the violence against Syria's pro-democratic movement. The Obama-Erdogan statement on Syria oddly contained two unrelated elements: It called on Muammar Qaddafi to "step down and leave Libya permanently" and expressed a hope for better Turkish-Israeli relations.

HR group: Syria revolt claims 400 lives
Concerns over Syrian security forces' aggressiveness against demonstrators grow as Damascus-based human rights says victims number in the hundreds
News agencies Published: 04.26.11, Ynetnews/Syrian security forces have shot dead at least 400 civilians in their campaign to crush the country's month-long peaceful pro-democracy revolution, the Syrian human rights organization Sawasiah said on Tuesday.
Separately, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said security police arrested prominent rights campaigner Qassem al-Ghazzawi on Tuesday in his home city of Deir al-Zor in Syria's impoverished east after protests intensified in the region last week. British foreign secretary says UK working with international partners to persuade Syrian authorities to stop violence against pro-democracy protestors. Meanwhile, Human rights groups and a growing number of governments are working to prevent Syria from being elected to the UN's top human rights body. Syria's election to the Geneva-based Human Rights Council is all but assured as one of four candidates selected to fill four Asian seats, unless another candidate enters the race or Syria fails to win a majority of votes in the May 20 election in the 192-member General Assembly. Since the 53-member Asian Group endorsed its slate — which also includes India, Indonesia and the Philippines — for the council in January, rights groups and some governments have engaged in a behind-the-scenes effort to keep Syria off the council.
Those efforts have gathered steam since a crackdown on pro-democracy protests since mid-March has left more than 350 dead and hundreds wounded, diplomats said.
One diplomat involved in the process, speaking on condition of anonymity because the consultations are private, said he was confident that another country would be found to contest the election but declined to say which countries were being pursued.
Since 2006, rights groups and governments have successfully opposed the election of several countries including Iran, Venezuela, Belarus and Sri Lanka.
The campaign against Syria's nomination on the human rights council also comes as France, Britain, Germany and Portugal are urging the UN Security Council to strongly condemn the violence against peaceful demonstrators in Syria. The United States is supporting the statement of condemnation, a diplomat said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly. "The Syrian government's aggressive campaign for the Human Rights Council has not slowed down the killing and torture of large numbers of peaceful protesters by its security forces," Human Rights Watch's UN Director Philippe Bolopion said.
"Syria's candidacy should be an embarrassment to its backers, the Asia Group, and particularly the Arab League, which supported military action in Libya to protect civilians, and is now blatantly siding against Syrian victims," he said.
Thirteen human rights groups from the Arab world also issued a statement Thursday urging Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa to publicly denounce Syria's candidacy and call on Arab states not to vote for Syria in the upcoming election.
AP and Reuters contributed to this report

Obama’s Syria Confusion
By: Stephen Brown/FrontPage
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Syrian President Bashar Assad upped the stakes in the bid to save his regime on Monday when he launched an attack on the city of Daraa involving hundreds of troops, backed by tanks and snipers, to crush the anti-government uprising, killing at least 11 people. These latest casualties increased the death toll in the Syrian crisis to about 300 with no end in sight.
The escalating violence in Syria poses a serious dilemma for the White House. As the casualties mount, liberals in America are wondering where their champion of human rights, President Obama, has disappeared to. He was front and center in the Egyptian crisis, and even sent American warplanes to bomb the murderous dictatorship in Libya. But so far in Syria, Obama has only condemned the violence in conjunction with other world leaders, calling the Assad regime’s actions “outrageous.” But why such a milquetoast response to the client regime of the Islamic Republic of Iran, a world sponsor of terror? Why are Egyptian allies (Mubarak) and Libyan gadflies (Gaddafi) treated more aggressively, and more swiftly than a regime, whose fall might actually benefit American interests?
The White House has made no attempt to impose sanctions or an arms embargo, or even sponsor anti-Syria motions in the United Nations Security Council, as it did with Libya, and as human rights organizations are now demanding. The criticism Obama is receiving from administration-friendly publications, like the Washington Post, is causing his inaction on Syria to appear even more perplexing.
“As a moral matter, the stance of the United States is shameful. To stand by passively while hundreds of people seeking freedom are gunned down by their government makes a mockery of the U.S. commitment to human rights,” the Post stated in an editorial.
Although it is deeply confusing, there has been widespread speculation that the Obama administration’s unresponsiveness on Syria is partially owed to its belief that Assad is both an effective and essential partner in the fleeting Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement. “Assad may cling to power, but Syria has vanished as a prospective player in peace negotiations. A comprehensive peace is impossible without Syria, which explains why Washington has not demanded Assad’s ouster along with Libya’s Colonel Muammar Gaddafi,” the Asian Times opined. The aforementioned Washington Post editorial articulated much the same.
However, it is worth remembering that the ousted Mubarak regime of Egypt, unceremoniously abandoned by the Obama administration, was also integral to the ongoing peace accords. This did not deter the president from issuing forceful calls for Mubarak’s deposition, which his administration in fact hastened behind the scenes. This is to say nothing of the president’s relative uninterestedness in salvaging peace negotiations. Thus, the primacy of the Israeli-Palestinian peace accords to Obama’s decision process on Syria is highly questionable.

Al-Rahi: Church Strives to Help Politicians Reach Sainthood
Naharnet/Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi stated Tuesday that the church seeks to help politicians adopt a more honest approach in their practices. He said: "The relationship between the church and politics is based on the former educating politicians to reach sainthood." He also added that a new structure for Bkirki is being studied. Addressing the expected Maronite summit scheduled for May, the patriarch said that the meeting would tackle, among other issues, providing Christians with more work opportunities in the public sector. During his Easter sermon on Sunday, al-Rahi said that Lebanon is in need for the end of the paralysis in its public life and institutions, including the cabinet. "Lebanon is in need to rise from the obstruction to its constitutional institutions, mainly the formation of the cabinet, and be up to par with the current internal, regional and international challenges," he added. Beirut, 26 Apr 11, 13:46

Shami Calls on Salam Not to Approve Security Council Statement on Syria
Naharnet/Caretaker Foreign Minister Ali Shami called on Lebanon's ambassador to the United Nations Nawwaf Salam to reject the Security Council's expected draft statement on the developments on Syria. The U.N. will discuss Syria later Tuesday. Diplomats said Monday that Britain, France, Germany, and Portugal are seeking a Security Council condemnation of the killing of hundreds of demonstrators in Syria and a call for an independent investigation. The United States is supporting the statement of condemnation, a diplomat said.
Beirut, 26 Apr 11, 14:17

ISF Quashes Roumieh Prison Riot
Naharnet/An Internal Security Forces unit raided Roumieh prison at dawn Tuesday to end a riot by inmates in blocs B and D of the facility, said the state-run National News Agency.
The agency said that the riot began around midnight and lasted till 4:00 am. The ISF unit crushed the mutiny and doused fires caused by burning mattresses and covers, NNA said.
Father Marwan Ghanem, who was tasked with negotiating with prisoners during the last riot earlier in the month, said the mutiny began overnight after a misunderstanding between the inmates who later detained a soldier, Ghanem told Voice of Lebanon radio station (93.3) that the riot began at 11:30 pm Monday at the prison's bloc D and then transferred to bloc B at 2:00 am Tuesday. He said power was cut in the prison to prevent inmates from using electricity to break doors or trying to escape from the jail. But Ghanem lamented that during the riot the prisoners set fire that damaged most renovation work carried out after the last unrest. Prison authorities will summon the instigators and those involved in the mutiny to question them about the latest incident, NNA said. Meanwhile, the brother of an inmate set tires on fire at 2:00 am in Hay el-Sellum and removed his clothes threatening to kill himself if his brother wasn't released from Roumieh prison. Beirut, 26 Apr 11, 08:34

Sleiman calls for respecting constitution when resolving arguments
April 26, 2011 /President Michel Sleiman urged the Lebanese people on Tuesday to accurately analyze the current domestic and foreign situation in order to protect Lebanon from any negative repercussions. Sleiman voiced the importance of adopting dialogue and respecting the constitution in order to resolve arguments, a statement issued by the president’s press office said. “Laws are the only guarantee…[to maintain] Lebanon’s interests, and the only means for each [person] to get what is his right.”He also voiced the importance of relevant authorities fulfilling their duties in maintaining order and protecting public and private properties. The statement added that Sleiman discussed the cabinet formation process separately with Culture Minister Salim Waradeh and Minister of State Wael Abu Faour. Interior Minister Ziad Baroud said earlier in April that his ministry insists on the enforcement of law on private and public properties amid clashes between citizens and security forces attempting to stop construction violations. Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati was appointed on January 25 with the Hezbollah-led March 8 coalition’s backing and is working to form his cabinet. March 14 parties have said that they will not participate in his government/-NOW Lebanon

Arab, Lebanese activists condemn suppression of Syrians
April 26, 2011 /Arab and Lebanese activists on Tuesday condemned the suppression of the Syrian people, and signed a petition voicing their solidarity with the Syrians to restore their freedom and dignity. The activists said in a statement that their stance is based “on the moral [principle] to defend Arab people’s rights to attain freedom and justice.”They also called on the Syrian authorities to stop using violence against the Syrian people and try the ones responsible for the “massacres” committed there. The statement also called for ending attempts to engage Lebanon in the Syrian crisis. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime has been rocked by unprecedented protests since March 15 demanding reform and an end to a draconian emergency law. Three suspects testified earlier in April on Syrian state television that they received arms and weapons from abroad to fuel a wave of protests in the country, naming Future bloc MP Jamal al-Jarrah as a funder. The Future Movement has repeatedly denied the charges and labeled them as “fabrications.”
-NOW Lebanon

Cabinet Dispute Not Abating as Interior Ministry Shoves Deadlock into 4th Month
Naharnet/Premier-designate Najib Miqati returned to Beirut from London on Monday night and immediately resumed discussions with March 8 officials to end the cabinet formation impasse that entered its fourth month. Miqati held talks with Speaker Nabih Berri's aide Ali Hassan Khalil, and Hussein Khalil, the assistant of Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, at the prime minister-designate's residence in Beirut on Monday. On Tuesday, he met with Speaker Nabih Berri in Ain el-Tineh in the presence of Ali Hassan Khalil. They discussed the cabinet formation efforts, the National News Agency said. Despite the intense discussions that Miqati is expected to hold with the new parliamentary majority officials this week, informed sources told An Nahar daily in remarks published Tuesday that a solution to the government deadlock might not be imminent. Without mentioning Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun or President Michel Suleiman by name, the newspaper said both men have become more adamant in getting the interior ministry portfolio as part of their share in the new cabinet.
A source involved in the negotiations confirmed to al-Liwaa daily that Aoun was frustrated by the latest statement of Suleiman who said in Bkirki on Sunday that the constitution tasked him and the prime minister-designate with the formation of the government.  "The constitution does not allot shares to anyone," he said. After the president's remarks, Aoun immediately informed mediators that he continues to hold onto the portfolio, the source said. Further complicating the process, al-Liwaa quoted Aoun's son-in-law Jebran Bassil as saying that the cabinet will not be formed except through the FPM's conditions. Aoun argues that his Change and Reform bloc should name the bulk of Christian ministers in the new government because it represents the majority of Christians. Beirut, 26 Apr 11, 08:00

Four More People Charged with Kidnapping of Estonians
Naharnet/Government Commissioner to the Military Tribunal Judge Saqr Saqr on Tuesday charged four people with involvement in the kidnapping of the seven Estonian tourists last month.
The state-run National News Agency said that two of them were charged in absentia. Among the four people, two are Lebanese nationals. The four suspects were charged with the armed abduction of the tourists, and opening fire on a patrol from the Intelligence Bureau of the Internal Security Forces and injuring policeman Mohammed Fawaz in the foot. The number of those charged with the kidnapping rose to 16 on Tuesday, NNA said. The seven tourists were abducted in the eastern Bekaa Valley after entering Lebanon from Syria on their bicycles on March 23. An undated video was uploaded to YouTube last Tuesday and shows the Estonians begging Lebanese, Saudi, Jordanian and French leaders to secure their release.
Beirut, 26 Apr 11, 13:52

WikiLeaks: Miqati Describes Hariri as Naïve; Says July 2006 War Would Weaken Hizbullah Politically and Militarily
Naharnet/Hizbullah doesn't mind cooperating with Saad Hariri because he views him as "naïve and easily deceived" said Najib Miqati at the end of the July 2006 war, revealed a leaked U.S. Embassy cable published exclusively in al-Rai News on Tuesday. Miqati, who was then a former prime minister, stated that the absence of a real leader among Lebanon's Sunnis will empower the "unified and armed Shiite sect," said the WikiLeaks cable dated August 8, 2006, a few days before the ceasefire in the war was put into effect.
The cable spoke of a meeting between then U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Jeffery Feltman, Phalange Party leader Amin Gemayel, Miqati, then Telecommunications Minister Marwan Hamadeh, and Speaker Nabih Berri's advisor Ali Hamdan. The gatherers agreed that a few months after the end of the war, the majority of the Lebanese will blame Hizbullah for destroying the country, which would therefore weaken it politically. Miqati believed that once the ceasefire is implemented the time would be right to demand then President Emile Lahoud to step down from his post, even though he was convinced that he wouldn't leave office until the end of his term in 2007. He also believed that Syria will employ the July 2006 war in order to achieve political gains in Lebanon, especially regarding the Special tribunal for Lebanon. He added that Hizbullah only lost 25 percent of its power in the war and it was willing and capable of continuing the conflict with Israel. The cable said that the then former prime minister supported the party in the conflict, he wanted Hizbullah to eventually lay down its arms.
He noted however that the party will maintain a sizable amount of its arsenal even if the Lebanese army were to deploy in southern Lebanon. "Even though the army is still weak and divided, it would be capable of fulfilling the minimum amount of its duties should it deploy in the South and therefore it is necessary that it receive international support," he said. "Hizbullah will hand over a symbolic number of 500 to 1000 Katyusha rockets to the security forces, return some to Syria, and hide the rest underground," Miqati said. "Regardless of the outcome of the war, Hizbullah will attempt to portray itself as a victor after the war … It would be best to deal with the party on this basis even though the war would have left it weaker politically and militarily," he concluded. Beirut, 26 Apr 11, 11:53

The villains from Damascus
Op-ed: Assads poisoned Mideast’s atmosphere, engaged in multi-front war on Israel
Mordechai Nisan
Published: 04.24.11, 14:08
Ynetnews/Even in our world colored with grays and not only blacks and whites, the fall of the Assad regime in Damascus would be a great blessing for the Middle East and the world. Nonetheless, for some Israelis this would be a hard blow to suffer, because it might signify that Israel will be stuck with the Golan Heights for the long future.
The list of Syria’s misdemeanors and crimes is legion. From belligerent Soviet ally to godfather and patron of Palestinian terrorism, Hafez the father and Bashar the son crafted a policy strategy that demonized Israel, betrayed the Arab world, consolidated the regional hegemony of Iran, and perpetuated an Alawite sectarian regime in defiance of the Sunni Muslim majority in the country. Acting against their countrymen, the Assads persecuted the Kurds, intimidated the Druze, and despoiled the tiny Jewish community.
The quest for power whetted the ambition of the mountain family from Qardaha. They reached for rule in the 1960s, grabbed it in 1970, and held it with a vengeance employing a brutal dictatorship, a regime of fear, while waving tattered Arabist anti-Israeli slogans.
The invasion of Lebanon in 1976 that culminated in a ruthless and bloodthirsty occupation only seemingly ended in 2005; throughout it was a scandalous violation of Lebanese human rights, national identity, and political independence. A series of Syrian assassinations of key Christian Lebanese personalities did not exclude, we shall never doubt, the former Sunni Prime Minister Rafiq al-Hariri. Syrian interventionism also played a destructive role in Iraq to foil America’s goal of fashioning stability in the post-Saddam era on the fractured Baghdadian political landscape.
Israeli woes
Israeli sorrows and sufferings from the Assads’ Syria were far more insidious in comparison to any inflicted upon the Jewish state by any other country. Perhaps this litany of havoc began with the October 1973 Yom Kippur War that continued until May 1974 on the Golan front. Syria’s torturing of Israeli POWs should never be forgotten.
The smashing of Lebanon in the 1970s, as in the Hundred Days War in Beirut in 1978, and supporting Palestinian warfare against the Lebanese, including the barbaric massacre of Christian communities, was designed to deny Israel a free Lebanon that would be a friendly neighbor.
Syria allying with Hezbollah from the 1980s and facilitating its armaments pipeline and fighting doctrine bled Israel, demoralized the Jews, and contributed to the reprehensible and reckless IDF withdrawal in May, 2000. When Syria forged intimate ties with Iran, soon after the Islamic Revolution in 1979, it became clear that Khomeini’s jihad was now comfortably pre-positioned on Israel’s northern border regions.
Syria worked assiduously to strategically isolate Israel in the Middle East in putting together a politically unorthodox alliance system. Israel’s former regional partner, Sunni non-Arab Turkey, was enticed by its own ambitions to adopt an adversarial anti-Israel position.
The Syrian-Turkey connection warmed up, and their joint pro-Palestinian stance emitted a virulent rancor. The Damascene headquarters of Hamas and Islamic Jihad radiated Assad’s centralizing leadership role in the war against Israel. This was no less apparent with Syria’s emerging nuclear program, which Israel confronted in bombing its facility in 2007.
All the while official and non-official Israeli movers and shakers, loyal to their paradigm and disloyal to their people, fantasized that Bashar Assad was really interested in peace with Israel, and but for Jerusalem’s obstinacy a deal would be concluded.
This interpretation was divorced from the glaring strategic data and Syrian political connections that had ripened over the years. The fact that the Golan Heights was a tranquil front since 1974 did not prove the Assads’ inclination toward peace with Israel, but rather indicated that the multi-front war Syria was directing against Israel could be superbly effective as an indirect strategy conducted with impunity.
Future Hopes
When and if the Assad regime falls, the collapse of Iranian hegemony across the region may not be far behind. The Arab Sunni world will rejoice that wayward Syria has been separated from the Tehran Shiite-dominated axis. Losing its strategic hinterland and ideological benefactor, Hezbollah too will suffer a blow which will catalyze re-arranging power relations in the forlorn land of the cedars.
Freedom in Damascus will contribute to the recovery of freedom in Beirut. I believe, in rejecting the fossilized Israeli establishment view, that the end of Syrian domination of Lebanon is absolutely the moral and reasonable political interest for Israel.
A regime change in Damascus opens up the possibility of various domestic options: a Sunni fundamentalist state, a liberal polity, maybe a federated entity based on the geo-ethnic pluralism of the country. Despite turbulence in Syrian streets and politics, Israel’s military might assures her safety as she possesses both deterrent and offensive capabilities that will challenge Syria in the days ahead, regardless of the outcome of the revolutionary changes that now and will confront her.
We can now well appreciate the wisdom in the traditional Israeli stance since 1967 of settlement, development, and territorial retention of the Golan Heights. This obvious strategic resource adorned with manifest values of topography and water, a terrain decked with Jewish history and demographic tranquility, would be abandoned only in a fit of mental infirmity.
And with the Assads gone, the Middle East as a whole will be able to move to transcend the state of terror and tension with which the Syrian regime poisoned the political atmosphere for over four long decades.
**Dr. Mordechai Nisan is a retired teacher of Middle East Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Algerian Christians Arrested for Proselytizing and Blasphemy
Trial Could Lead to Five Year Imprisonment
Washington, D.C. (April 25, 2011) – International Christian Concern (ICC) has learned that two Algerian Christians are scheduled to appear in court on charges of proselytizing and blasphemy, and may face a five year prison sentence. The two men were arrested and briefly imprisoned in Oran on April 14 after sharing their Christian faith with their neighbors.
One of the men, Sofiane, was released a day after their arrest, while Krimo was imprisoned for three days. After the arrest, Algerian police searched Krimo’s home for Bibles and other Christian material. Krimo was known to hold weekly prayer services at his home, which Algerian Christians suspect were being closely monitored by the police.
A court hearing, initially scheduled for April 27, was postponed to a later date. Algerian Christians are fearful that a law introduced in 2006 – requiring religious services to obtain a government permit to worship – will be applied, which may result in a five year imprisonment and a fine of 100,000 Algerian dinars (equivalent to 1,390.00 USD). Church leadership has expressed frustration over the government’s negligence to lay out a set procedure to register a church or to approve a permit quickly.
“The Protestant Church of Algeria (EPA) engaged a lawyer to defend Krimo and Sofiane. We are hopeful that they will be acquitted,” a pastor in Tizi Ouzou told ICC. “Although our constitution says to respect other faiths other than Islam, the government is Islamic, and article two says ‘Islam is the religion of State.’ There is no respect for human rights or religious freedom and the protestant church is suffering.”
The arrests came a day before Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika pledged to his country that he would reform the constitution to allow freedom of press and free elections. Since the current constitution was applied in 1996 to strengthen emergency laws and ban religious-based parties following a war between the military and Islamic militants, the Algerian government has been unable to contain Islamists who have been largely responsible for attacks on Christians.
Aidan Clay, ICC Regional Manager for the Middle East, said, “We urge the Algerian government to expand its pledge to reform the constitution by also offering greater freedoms to Christians and other religious minorities. The first step is to remove the legislation introduced in 2006 that makes it nearly impossible for Christians to worship openly. It is time for the Algerian government to prove that they stand behind article 36 of the constitution, which states that freedom of creed is inviolable, by acquitting Krimo and Sofiane of the charges of blasphemy and proselytizing, and demonstrating to the world that Algeria is steadily making progress to become a country that respects the right to worship freely.”
Call the Algerian embassy in your country to express your concern:
United States: + 1 202 265 2800
Canada: + 1 613 789 8505 or + 1 613 789 0282
United Kingdom: + 44 207 221 7800
Germany: + 49 30 43 73 70
France: + 33 1 53 93 20 20
Australia: + 61 2 6286 7355

Avoiding a fiasco
Hussein Ibish, April 26, 2011
Now Lebanon
US President Barack Obama is being attacked from every possible direction over his policy of limited military engagement in Libya.
Because Muammar Qaddafi's regime in Tripoli has not yet been overthrown and Libya appears to be stuck in a stalemated civil war, the cry of “fiasco” is unfairly ringing across the political spectrum.
Opponents of the no-fly zone say the policy has failed because it was a muted instance of imperial hubris: the US butting in where it isn't needed or wanted. Many who supported it now say Qaddafi's survival demonstrates that the policy was under, rather than over, ambitious.
Some want all action to stop. Others are nudging the West toward an ill-advised ground invasion.
These critics almost always ignore Obama's stated goals for the intervention in Libya. He laid out a set of criteria for military engagement when American security isn't directly threatened: a confluence of “values” with “interests.” Addressing a skeptical public, Obama stressed “values”: The prevention of a probable massacre in Benghazi and saving lives by attacking government heavy weaponry.
But he was also clear that the US had an “interest” in preventing Qaddafi from achieving a clear-cut victory by overrunning Benghazi and consolidating his power.
Critics of Obama's limited engagement policy either suggest it was intended to lead to the rapid overthrow of Qaddafi, or that the US doesn't know what it's doing and essentially has no coherent policy.
Both are wrong.
Obama and his advisers are undoubtedly aware that air power alone has never resolved any conflict, and it is unlikely that they had any abiding faith in the ability of rebels to transform the air intervention into a rapid victory. Obama never spoke in those terms, and there's no indication he was thinking in them either. The limited aim of the no-fly zone is not to produce, in short order or definitively, Qaddafi's defeat and ouster, since air power obviously cannot do that. Its narrow goal is rather to prevent a Qaddafi victory.
As for saving lives, what might have happened in Benghazi without the no-fly zone intervention is speculation, but there's every reason to think that many more people would have been killed in Libya without it, based on Qaddafi's own words and deeds. Denying him a significant percentage of his heavy weaponry and eroding it further on a daily basis has undoubtedly blunted his ability to kill people, as he frankly boasted, “house by house.”
The no-fly zone hasn't saved every life, and Obama never said it would.
But it's hard to argue it hasn't saved many. It might be possible to claim that by preventing a decisive Qaddafi victory a few weeks ago, the no-fly zone helped produce a stalemated civil war that could drag on, thereby leading to many otherwise avoidable deaths. That's plausible, but anyone saying so would have to acknowledge up front that they are advocating allowing Qaddafi to fully retake control of his country, have his way with his rebellious cities and provinces, and reemerge as a menace to the region and possibly the world.
Those who argue for a ground intervention are basically advocating that Obama turn Libya into his own Iraq. They should remember Colin Powell's “Pottery Barn rule," which invasion, but not a no-fly zone, engages: "If you break it, you own it." Among other things, it would deprive Libyans of the ability to shape their own future independently and require the West to play a much larger role in developing it than anyone should be comfortable with. Every indication suggests large majorities of both Libyans and Americans do not want any such engagement. It is unnecessary and would be extremely unwise.
That said, supporters of Obama's limited engagement policy in Libya must acknowledge that it might mean living with, or even enabling, a protracted civil war, a stalemate and possibly a temporary but prolonged de facto division of Libya.
At first glance, that seems a hard position to defend. But it can only be contrasted with the alternatives of having done nothing or an all-out invasion. For all its flaws, the limited policy avoids the likely disasters, or at least major problems, emerging from both of those approaches.
More should be done, and there are ongoing efforts to arm, train and otherwise assist the rebels, including $25 million in US “nonlethal aid” (in wartime, an illusory concept). Such steps are consistent with the logic of Obama's limited engagement.
The policy avoids two obviously unacceptable scenarios – Qaddafi victory or Western invasion – in favor of one that isn't pretty but is preferable to the really-existing alternatives.
That's not a hallmark of a failed or incoherent policy, but a realistic and mature one. Any approach that prudently avoids disasters, and embraces the bad in preference to the worse, when no better options are evident, deserves support.
Hussein Ibish is a senior research fellow at the American Task Force on Palestine and blogs at www.Ibishblog.com.