LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
ِMay 18/2011

Biblical Event Of The Day
The Good News According to John 15/12-16: “This is my commandment, that you love one another, even as I have loved you. 15:13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. 15:14 You are my friends, if you do whatever I command you. 15:15 No longer do I call you servants, for the servant doesn’t know what his lord does. But I have called you friends, for everything that I heard from my Father, I have made known to you. 15:16 You didn’t choose me, but I chose you, and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain; that whatever you will ask of the Father in my name, he may give it to you".

Latest analysis, editorials, studies, reports, letters & Releases from miscellaneous sources
Hundreds Slaughtered in Nigeria: The Aftermath/Care2/May 17/11
The Lebanese missile crisis/By Moshe Arens/ Haaretz/May 17/11
Israel should listen to the message being sent from Syria/By Akiva Eldar /Haaretz/May 17/11
Government of Canada Welcomes International Criminal Court Prosecutor’s Request for Warrants for Qadhafi and Members of Libyan Regime/May 17/11

Latest News Reports From Miscellaneous Sources for May 17/11
'Mubarak to apologize to Egyptian people and plead for amnesty'/DPA/Haaretz
Obama to get tough with Assad. Syrian-Israeli flare-up expected/DEBKAfile
Syrian opposition calls for a general strike/Now Lebanon
MTV: Syrian army closes Qubayah border crossing/Now Lebanon
U.S., France Condemn Violence on Lebanon Border, Urge Restraint/Naharnet
Geagea on Nakba Day Clashes: They're Mistaken if They Believe that that is the Way to Reclaim Palestine/Naharnet
Jumblat Holds onto Miqati but Does Not Reject Nomination of Bahia Hariri or Tabbara/Naharnet
Williams Shocked by Number of Deaths, Use of Disproportionate Force by Israel in Maroun al-Ras/Naharnet
The Cable: State Department accuses Syria of fomenting Israel violence/Foreign Policy
Syrian infiltrator: Hezbollah allowed Syria border protest/J.Post
Israeli Army unprepared for Syria border breach, despite intelligence tips/Haaretz
Libyan government asks why ICC isn't also seeking to prosecute Syria/The Guardian
Syrian soldiers who defected to Lebanon are arrested/The Guardian
Syrians dodge bullets as they flee to Lebanon/AFP
Opinion: Repression damaging Syria/CNN
Syria Death Toll Reportedly Up to 850/VOA
US Criticizes Syria for 'Cynical' Golan Heights Incident/VOA
Diversifying Lebanon's economy to agriculture/Daily Star
Syrians find 13 bodies in Deraa mass grave: residents/Reuters
Obama's dilemma: Why Libya and not Syria?/Washington Examinar
Iran, Syria and the Assault on Israel/FrontPage Magazine
Fearful Syrians seek refuge in Lebanon/AFP
For Golan Druse, ties to Syria are nonnegotiable/J.Post
Brotherhood Raises Syria Profile/WSJ
Chronology of key events along the Lebanese-Israeli border/Daily Star
Who or what is delaying the formation of a new Cabinet in Lebanon?/Daily Star
Men commit suicide in Achrafieh and Nabatieh/Daily Star
Mines, an ever-present danger at Lebanon border protest site/Daily Star
Lebanon nurses a serious nursing crisis/Daily Star
Miqati Challenges Wahhab to Find Legal Way to End his Nomination/Naharnet
Public Schools Teachers, Drivers Unions to Go on Strike in Protest against Political Stalemate/Naharnet
Western Diplomatic Sources Warn Syria Sectarian War Could Spill into Lebanon/Naharnet
Berri Threatens to Solve Political Vacuum by Parliamentary Decisions/Naharnet
Cabinet Agreements on Verge of Collapse as Hizbullah Seeks to Mediate/Naharnet
Preparations Underway for inter-Maronite Summit in Bkirki in June/Naharnet
Lebanon to Turn in 3 Syrian Soldiers to their Authorities as Refugees Continue to Flood to North/Naharnet
Anti-Assad Regime Meeting Postponed/Naharnet

U.S., France Condemn Violence on Lebanon Border, Urge Restraint
Naharnet/The White House said Monday it regretted the loss of life on the Lebanese-Israeli border and urged "maximum restraint" among all parties but said the U.S. ally has the right to thwart unauthorized crossings. "We regret the loss of life and our thoughts are with the families and loved ones of those killed and wounded," spokesman Jay Carney told reporters aboard President Barack Obama's official Air Force One airplane. "Israel like all countries has the right to prevent unauthorized crossings at its borders. Its neighbors have a responsibility to prevent such activity. We would urge maximum restraint on all sides," said Carney. Ten protesters were killed and 112 others wounded when a crowd of thousands of Palestinian refugees came under fire from Israeli troops near the Lebanese border town of Maroun al-Ras during a rally to mark the 1948 "nakba," Arabic for catastrophe.
Thousands of bereaved Palestinians in camps across Lebanon on Monday laid to rest the victims of the shooting, as shops and schools in the camps closed for a day of mourning.
Also Monday, French foreign ministry spokesman Bernard Valero voiced his country's condemnation of the acts of violence that took place Sunday "on the Lebanese-Israeli border and in the Golan and Gaza," urging all parties to exercise restraint. "France condemns those events which left several dead and a very large number of people wounded," said Valero, voicing his "deep concern" over the violence. "Light must be shed on these dangerous events in collaboration with the U.N. forces" in Lebanon and the Golan Heights, the spokesman added.
Paris "calls on all sides to exercise restraint and refrain from provocations," Valero went on to say, stressing the need to respect U.N. resolutions, the U.N.-drawn Blue Line between Lebanon and Israel, and the buffer zones between Syria and Israel. Valero also announced that French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe would visit the Middle East soon.(naharnet-AFP) Beirut, 16 May 11, 19:05

Lebanon to Turn in 3 Syrian Soldiers to their Authorities as Refugees Continue to Flood to North
Naharnet/The Lebanese military is about to hand in three Syrian enlisted soldiers to their authorities after they fled Syria's crackdown to northern Lebanon from the village of Tall Kalakh, An Nahar newspaper reported on Tuesday. "One of the enlisted soldiers is being treated for injuries he suffered after being shot at along with the other two soldiers," the daily said.
Human rights organizations began moving against this action saying handing the three soldiers to their authorities "is in violation of the Geneva Convention and doesn't comply with the security agreement between Lebanon and Syria." Al-Jadid television confirmed on Monday that the Lebanese army handed its Syrian counterpart the body of a Syrian soldier and two soldiers who were treated at a hospital in Halba. Thousands of Syrians have poured into north Lebanon this month using illegal border crossings to escape the violence unleashed on protesters by security forces loyal to President Bashar Assad. On Monday alone, more than 1,000 people arrived in Dbabiyeh, a village in the Akkar region of north Lebanon, according to attorney Khaled Issa, who has volunteered to help the refugees. Several people interviewed by Agence France Presse said pro-government gunmen had "massacred" two families in cold blood, including all their children. In the Lebanese village of al-Beereh, where hundreds sought refuge early on Monday, one woman said she had witnessed four of her family members die before deciding to flee. Between 4,000 and 5,000 other Syrians have entered Lebanon this month, Ahmad Khalaf, who heads the ministry of social affair's development bureau in al-Beereh, told AFP. More than 850 people have been killed in the protests in Syria and at least 8,000 arrested, human rights groups say.(Naharnet-AFP) Beirut, 17 May 11, 12:10

Western Diplomatic Sources Warn Syria Sectarian War Could Spill into Lebanon
Naharnet/Western diplomatic sources have expressed fear that the Syrian uprising would lead to a sectarian war, which could alter the local situation in Lebanon.
It is no secret that the regional situation and the Syrian mutiny in particular are playing a negative role in the Lebanese cabinet formation, the diplomatic circles said.
They considered that Syria was keen on helping Premier-designate Najib Miqati in the formation of the government but the uprising against the Assad regime halted such efforts.
Thus, Syria is no longer capable of contributing to the formation of a one-sided government that would give way to Hizbullah to rule. The sources urged all the Lebanese parties to prioritize the national sovereignty and cohesion over personal ties, saying unity would prevent the regional turmoil from spilling into Lebanese territory. The Western circles said that the new majority failed to handle the county's affairs and the idea of forming a technocrat government is rather intricate amid the current turmoil. The government formation chaos came because the Lebanese authorities have underestimated the difficulties that would encounter the cabinet formation, they told An Nahar. They blamed the new majority for the deadlock saying it was incapable of reaching an agreement within its own members, the sources added. Beirut, 17 May 11, 11:47

Geagea on Nakba Day Clashes: They're Mistaken if They Believe that that is the Way to Reclaim Palestine
Naharnet/Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea criticized on Tuesday the Nakba Day clashes that erupted on Sunday, noting the sparse military presence at Maroun al-Ras. He said: "The army and security forces deployed heavily along the entire border, but there were only four or five soldiers at Maroun al-Ras." Such developments are unacceptable, he added. "They are gravely mistaken if they believe that this is the way to reclaim Palestine," he stated. Addressing the government formation process, Geagea said: "The other camp does not have a constructive agenda, but only a plan to assume power and constantly attack us." "Appointing a prime minister who does not enjoy the support of all sides is a crime against the nation," he stressed. The only way to solve the current crisis lies in forming a technocratic government, the LF leader concluded. Beirut, 17 May 11, 14:38

Jumblat Holds onto Miqati but Does Not Reject Nomination of Bahia Hariri or Tabbara
Naharnet/Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat has informed the March 8 forces that he continued to hold onto the nomination of Najib Miqati as premier-designate, informed sources said. The sources told al-Liwaa newspaper that Jumblat told members of the new parliamentary majority that Miqati should remain prime minister-designate because no alternative is ready but stressed that he might accept the nomination of MP Bahia Hariri or former lawmaker Bahij Tabbara. The PSP chief's stance came after Tawhid movement leader Wiam Wahhab said he discussed with Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun legal ways to end Miqati's nomination. Ad-Diyar daily on Tuesday quoted parliamentary majority sources as saying that the withdrawal of the nomination would collide with Jumblat's stance who rejects such a move. In addition to him, Caretaker Minister Mohammed Safadi and MP Ahmed Karami would not approve to end Miqati's nomination, they said.  Meanwhile, Jumblat renewed his call for the swift formation of the cabinet, warning that Lebanon was facing "major dangers" and urging the March 8 forces to break the nearly four-month-long deadlock.  "A new government should be formed as soon as possible in order for it to follow up on the regional developments and Special Tribunal for Lebanon," he stressed. "Forming a new government is one of the best ways to confront the negative repercussions of the STL," Jumblat added. His stance came in an article published in PSP's weekly newspaper al-Anbaa Tuesday. Beirut, 17 May 11, 09:16

March 8, Syria Say 'No Alternative' to Miqati
Naharnet/The March 8 forces and Syria continue to hold onto Prime Minister-designate Najib Miqati despite an announcement by Tawhid movement leader Wiam Wahhab that he was mulling legal ways to end the nomination of the billionaire businessman, high-ranking sources said. The sources from the new parliamentary majority told An Nahar daily in remarks published Tuesday that the March 8 forces continue to back Miqati although the cabinet formation process shook ties between several members of the coalition. They denied that Wahhab's announcement reflected the plans of the March 8 forces. The Tawhid movement chief said after talks with Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun in Rabiyeh on Monday that they were mulling legal means to withdraw their support for Miqati. "There is no alternative to Miqati," a March 8 official told al-Liwaa newspaper. "Even if the crisis drags on, no one from the (new parliamentary) majority would ask him to leave." An Nahar's sources expected Aoun to make an announcement on the issue after the meeting of his Change and Reform bloc on Tuesday. According to a high-ranking Syrian official, Damascus is comfortable with Miqati's performance and rumors about Syrian annoyance were not true. The official told al-Liwaa that the Syrian leadership is aware of Miqati's burden but it encourages the formation of the government and does not interfere in its details. Beirut, 17 May 11, 08:11

Miqati Challenges Wahhab to Find Legal Way to End his Nomination
Naharnet/Prime Minister-designate Najib Miqati's circles have challenged Tawhid movement leader Wiam Wahhab to find legal methods to end the billionaire businessman's nomination.
"Let them inform us when they find the legal way," Miqati's circles told several dailies in response to a question on the statement made by Wahhab on Monday. The Tawhid chief said that he discussed with Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun legal ways to withdraw the nomination of Miqati for allegedly succumbing to U.S. pressure to delay the formation of the new government. Although most involved parties have hinted that consultations aimed at forming the cabinet have reached a standstill, the circles refused to comment on the crisis. There have been no contacts between Miqati and representatives from Hizbullah, the speaker's Amal movement, and the FPM since last Wednesday's meeting failed to end the government formation deadlock. Beirut, 17 May 11, 08:41

Preparations Underway for inter-Maronite Summit in Bkirki in June
Naharnet/A joint committee of Maronite bishops and representatives of Christian parties began setting the stage for a large-scale meeting that will bring together the country's four top Christian leaders and their Maronite lawmakers next month, reported al-Joumhouria daily on Tuesday. According to the newspaper, Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi has set June 2 as a preliminary date for the summit. Invitations haven't yet been sent pending al-Rahi's return from the Vatican on Thursday. Al-Joumhouria said that the meeting will be the first step to implement the agreements reached during the summit in Bkirki between Phalange party leader Amin Gemayel, the chief of the Lebanese Forces Samir Geagea, Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun and Marada chief Suleiman Franjieh last month. During that meeting, the participants agreed to hold additional meetings "whenever the need arises."
Informed sources told the daily that the conferees would discuss the Christian presence in the Lebanese state and the achievements made by organizations to consolidate the role of Christians in ministries and state institutions. The agenda of the talks would also include the issue of ownership of land by foreigners and demographic changes in the country.
Beirut, 17 May 11, 12:50

Government of Canada Welcomes International Criminal Court Prosecutor’s Request for Warrants for Qadhafi and Members of Libyan Regime
(No. 135 – May 16, 2011 – 5 p.m. ET) The Government of Canada today issued the following statement on the International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor’s request for arrest warrants for Muammar Qadhafi, his son Saif il-Islam Qadhafi and his brother-in-law Abdullah Senussi for crimes against humanity:
Canada welcomes the request for arrest warrants by the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Luis Moreno-Ocampo.
Those responsible for planning and ordering widespread and systematic attacks against the civilian population of Libya must be held accountable. Crimes against humanity, directed against civilian populations, remain a grave concern to the entire international community.
Canada continues to urge the Libyan authorities to abide by their obligations under UN Security Council Resolution 1970, including the obligation to cooperate fully with the ICC and the Prosecutor. Canada continues to support the ICC in its efforts to ensure that justice is served and to show the world that crimes perpetrated by the Qadhafi regime will not be tolerated.

State Department accuses Syria of fomenting Israel violence
By Josh Rogin/Foreign Policy
Monday, May 16, 2011 - 
The State Department is publicly blaming Syria for the clashes between Israel Defense Forces soldiers and unarmed protesters that resulted in over a dozen deaths Sunday, but officials didn't offer any direct evidence to support that assertion. "We do think that this is an effort by the Syrian government to play a destabilizing role," State Department spokesman Mark Toner said at Monday's briefing in response to a question from The Cable. "It's clearly an effort by them to take focus off the situation that's happening right now in Syria. And it's a cynical use of the Palestinian cause to encourage violence along its border as it continues to repress its own people within Syria."
Toner's comments follow those of White House spokesman Jay Carney, who said on Monday morning that the United States is "strongly opposed to the Syrian government's involvement in inciting yesterday's protests in the Golan Heights. Such behavior is unacceptable and does not serve as a distraction from the Syrian government's ongoing repression of demonstrators in its own country." Both spokesmen affirmed Israel's right to defend its own borders. Neither offered any direct evidence that the Syrian government was directly involved. The violence along the Golan Heights marked the first clashes on the Syrian-Israeli border in 37 years. A State Department official, speaking on background basis, explained the thinking to The Cable.
"It's a pattern that we've seen. I don't know that we have any direct evidence, but I think we're pretty confident that this is something that Damascus has done in the past and we believe they have had a hand in it," the official said. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met with Jordan's King Abdullah on Monday morning, and officials confirmed that Syria was among the topics they discussed. The persistent anti-government protests there will also be mentioned in President Barack Obama's Thursday speech on the overall U.S. approach to the Arab world.
On Capitol Hill, Syria's involvement is also regarded as a given. "It is not surprising that President Assad is using Palestinian protesters to distract from the democratic uprising that is occurring within Syria's own borders," Rep. Nita Lowey (D-NY) said in a statement. "But it nonetheless displays a shocking level of cynicism to risk provoking war in order to maintain a grasp on power. President Assad must end the violent crackdown in Syria, stop his collaboration with Iran, and respect Israel's right to exist."

Lebanon is sitting on a Hezbollah powder keg
By Moshe Arens
Haaretz/The riots in Syria have focused attention in Israel on our neighbors to the north - Syria and Lebanon - and especially on Hezbollah, which has deployed around 50,000 rockets in Lebanon that can reach every corner of Israel and threaten its entire civilian population. If these rockets are launched they could cause incalculable damage.
This constant threat hanging over Israel's civilian population decisively affects Israel's strategic position; it's a tiebreaker. For many years, a fundamental element of Israel's defense doctrine was that the civilian population's safety would be assured in time of war. With the deployment of these rockets in Lebanon, this has ceased to be the case.
Hezbollah guerrillas preparing Katyusha rockets at their base near the Lebanese-Israeli border in south Lebanon, May 22, 2001.
U.S. President John F. Kennedy faced a similar situation in September 1962, when American U-2 reconnaissance planes discovered that Soviet ballistic missiles had been deployed in Cuba. It was clear to Kennedy that the strategic balance between the United States and Soviet Union would be substantially altered if Soviet missiles were pointed at the United States from Cuba. In what has come to be known as the Cuban missile crisis, U.S. threats to act forcefully resolved the crisis, and Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev ordered the missiles shipped back to the Soviet Union. The Lebanese missile crisis, with missiles continually increasing in number and quality, has developed gradually and has been repeatedly ignored by Israel's leaders. But now this intolerable situation must be faced. It's a threat that will have to be removed. The threat to Israel's civilian population has grown, and the missiles are an escalation of the terror war against Israel. There is a great danger to Israel. This situation should also be of concern to the Lebanese people. Israeli military action to destroy Hezbollah's missiles - something that seems bound to happen sooner or later - would bring considerable destruction to Lebanon. In other words, as long as these rockets are in Hezbollah's hands, all Lebanon is sitting on a powder keg. Hezbollah, while posing as Lebanon's defender, is actually creating a grave danger for that country and its people. Saad Hariri, the Lebanese prime minister who was recently deposed by Hezbollah's political maneuvers, said last week in Beirut that "Hezbollah's weapons have become a national problem that needs a national solution."
Obviously, he was voicing the concern that Hezbollah is using its weapons to bolster its political position in Lebanon and to murder its political opponents. In this way it is subverting the Lebanese political system. But he should realize that the danger of these weapons goes far beyond that. Since the rockets are a danger to Israel's civilian population and must be removed, they create a physical danger for Lebanon and the Lebanese people. It is important that the people of Lebanon understand this and bring about the removal of the rockets deployed by Hezbollah all over Lebanon. To this end, Lebanon needs international political support. One might expect the UN Security Council to pass the necessary resolution to achieve this. But Lebanon, controlled by Hezbollah, is now a member of the Security Council. Hopefully, U.S. President Barack Obama is giving thought to this explosive situation.

Israel should listen to the message being sent from Syria
Dissidents in Damascus are growing increasingly concerned that Jerusalem would prefer the Alawite regime of Bashar Assad to a moderate democratic government.
By Akiva Eldar /Haaretz
The emotion is palpable in the voice of M., an Arab academic who emigrated to the United States many years ago. He phoned on Saturday evening to say, or to warn, that the devil's spawn - aka Syrian President Bashar Assad - would exploit the Palestinian refugees' protest over their bitter fate on Nakba Day in order to distract attention away from the bitter fate of opponents to his regime. The information about the Syrian ruler's plan to set ablaze the line between Israel and Syria, said M., came to him from friends in Syria who have gone underground. They are the same Damascus dissidents who, he said in an earlier phone conversation, asked him to transmit their message to Jerusalem.
Like many in the Arab sphere and the world in general, the Sunni opposition believes in Israel's magical influence on the United States. M.'s friends believe that if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would ask American President Barack Obama, or in fact recommend to him, that he declare Assad a war criminal as a station on the way to deposing him, Obama would not send his Israeli friend away empty-handed. And how would Netanyahu benefit from the fall of Assad's regime, I asked. M. replied with a question: "How can it be that you, the Jews, know what is happening right across the street and are turning your faces away?" He continued without waiting for an answer. "Forget about the Alawite regime ever making peace with Israel. The state of war with Israel," he explained, "enables the Alawites to keep the Sunnis and other minorities down. The continuing conflict with Israel serves as a basis for their strong ties with Iran."
M. relates that Israel's indifference to the slaughter going on in Syria is arousing the suspicions of his acquaintances in the Syrian opposition (as well as his own suspicions ) that the right-wing government in Israel prefers the tyrannical Alawite regime to a moderate democratic regime. However, a government that represents the real interests of the public in Syria might offer Israel a deal for peace and security in return for withdrawal from the Golan Heights to the 1967 lines. This is all Netanyahu needs on the eve of the vote in the United Nations on the establishment of a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders.
A message from Ramallah
It's hard to believe that the message from Syria will find its way to attentive ears in Jerusalem. The message from Ramallah, however, was heard loud and clear. Perhaps this is because on the way to the Prime Minister's Office it passed through Washington. The decision to release the money Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz had stolen from the Palestinian Authority's coffers came after the message saying that if there is no bread for the Palestinian policemen there is no security for Israeli civilians. According to Palestinian and Western sources, the action to rescue the tax income that belongs to the PA is the first harbinger of the possibility of an early wilting of the reconciliation agreement between Fatah and Hamas.
The second part of the action, which is being downplayed for the moment, will be an official announcement by President Mahmoud Abbas declaring his decision to appoint Prime Minister Salam Fayyad as prime minister of the unity government. If Hamas leader Khaled Mashal decides to blow up the reconciliation agreement in the wake of that, Netanyahu will have to give up propaganda ammunition of the highest order. If the Hamas ministers accept Abbas' authority and reconcile themselves with the decision to keep in place the man who won the World Bank's kashrut certificate, Mashal will appear to the world as a Doberman that has been transformed into a poodle.
A legal Nakba
It is not yet clear who shot and killed Palestinian teen Milad Ayyash from Silwan. It is entirely clear that the focus of the tension in the village is Beit Yonatan, which has become a tombstone of the rule of law and its implementation. Testimony to this can be found in the words of none other than Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein.
Last January Weinstein reprimanded Jerusalem mayor Nir Barkat for his illegitimate intervention in the implementation of a judicial order to evacuate and seal the building: "Once it is found the case does not fit the criteria for delaying implementation, it is no longer subject to my judgment as head of the enforcement system," wrote Weinstein, who concluded: "Therefore a date in the near future must be set for carrying out the order." Haaretz directed a question to the attorney general concerning the non-implementation of the order to evacuate and seal the building that went up without a permit. In March 2011 the newspaper was informed on behalf of the attorney general that he had acceded to a request from the executive branch to delay the implementation of orders in East Jerusalem - including the order concerning Beit Yonatan "after he was persuaded that this is the public interest."
It would be interesting to know what public interest cropped up all of a sudden. Weinstein's commitment to the rule of law will be put to the test tomorrow in the Supreme Court. The head of the enforcement system will reply to a petition filed by Yesh Din concerning the Amona outpost, which has been dwelling securely for a number of years on land privately owned by Palestinians. About five years ago, in the wake of a petition filed by Peace Now, nine of the 25 houses at the West Bank outpost were evacuated. At Yesh Din they estimate that another five to 15 families have been born there since. The previous evacuation at Amona, which entailed violent conflict with the settlers, was the first and the last time the state enforced the law with respect to theft of private property in the West Bank. In a sworn statement submitted in October 2010 the State Prosecutors' Office argued that since the evacuation of Amona was "an issue connected to the diplomatic process," there was no scope for the Supreme Court's involvement in the matter. Have we already mentioned a state where there is the rule of law?

Obama's dilemma: Why Libya and not Syria?
Washington Examiner /.The central question President Obama will have to answer this week as he defines his vision for the Middle East is this: Why Libya and not Syria?
Two months after he dispatched U.S. fighter jets to Libya as part of a NATO campaign to aid anti-government rebels bent on ousting President Moammar Gadhafi, the president is being widely criticized for not taking similarly strong action in Syria, Israel's neighbor, which is facing the same kind of destabilizing popular uprising as Libya. "Those who threaten Israel also threaten us," National Security Adviser Tom Donilon said. But that's all the more reason, analysts said, for Obama to act more boldly on Syria. "It has mystified me and others as to why the administration has been so slow-footed [in Syria]," said Steven Cook of the Council on Foreign Relations. "The administration certainly set a precedent in what it did in Libya ... and now [it] seems to be passing up a tremendous strategic opportunity."
Early last year, Obama dispatched a U.S. ambassador to Syria, five years after President George W. Bush recalled American diplomats from that country. Obama also sent senior officials, including Under Secretary of State William Burns, to meet with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in an effort to revive Syrian-Israeli peace talks. While foreign policy experts claim Assad's behavior in Syria is more threatening to U.S. interests than Gadhafi's in Libya, the White House swatted down comparisons between the two countries. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Assad still has an "opportunity still to bring about a reform agenda." "Nobody believed Gadhafi would do that," Clinton said. "People do believe there is a possible path forward with Syria. So we're going to continue joining with all of our allies to keep pressing very hard on that."
Still, Assad has reacted to internal political uprisings with the same kind of violence unleashed in Libya by Gadhafi.
Assad ordered troops to fire on his opposition and, most recently, ignited a bloody firefight on Syria's border with Israel. Instead of intervening in Syria, however, the White House repeatedly condemned the violence there without ever mentioning Assad by name. And when the Obama administration sanctioned a number of top Syrian officials recently, Assad was not among them. The administration's dual approach in the region, analysts said, is contradictory at best and will have to be clarified when Obama lays out his vision for the region Thursday at the State Department. "No matter how hard they try to say Libya doesn't reflect a precedent, there's no doubt that it does," Cook said. "I think [administration officials] are confused and caught by a precedent they hoped they would never have to address." Some experts say the administration's expectation that peace will prevail in the Middle East without deeper U.S. involvement is "delusional." "It's really the triumph of hope over reality," said Tony Badran, an expert with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. "The peace process is dead."
hpeterson@washingtonexaminer.com

Obama to get tough with Assad. Syrian-Israeli flare-up expected
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report May 17, 2011,
debkafile's Washington sources report exclusively that President Barack Obama has finally resolved to stamp down hard on Syrian President Bashar Assad in person as the man responsible for the inhuman Syrian crackdown on protest against his regime and the massacre of hundreds of dissenters. Before his much-awaited speech on US relations with Middle East Muslim nations Thursday, May 19, Obama is preparing to impose sanctions on the Syrian president. The White House is working on the final text of the announcement but has already decided to recall the newly-appointed US Ambassador to Damascus Robert Ford for consultations.
An American ambassador was last recalled from Damascus in 2005. It took five years for Obama to appoint Robert Ford to the post in late 2010.
The administration has also decided to authorize the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna to report to the UN Security Council that Syria was building a plutonium reactor for military purposes at Deir A-Zour, which it was bombed by Israeli in September 2007. Damascus has refused to cooperate with the nuclear watchdog in making the site available for inspection. The IAEA is therefore urged to seek the same Security Council for Syria as those imposed on Iran for its nuclear activities.
Barack Obama was finally convinced that Assad must be stopped without delay by the horrifying discovery of five hastily-dug dug mass graves near the protest center of Daraa in southern Syria. They containing scores of bodies of men, women and children shot in the head. This raised the civilian death told from Assad's savage three-month crackdown on dissent well past 1,000. It is taken into account, debkafile's military sources report that tough American measures targeting Assad will bring forth heightened Syrian-Israeli border tensions, potentially in the form of a limited Syrian military strike into Israel or Lebanon or both. Indeed his cousin Rami Makhlouf threatened that instability in Syria would cause instability in Israel.
The expectation of trouble to come was strengthened by the information reaching Washington that Syrian military intelligence and Ahmed Jibril's PFL-General Command had organized the forcible crossing of the Israeli border on the Palestinian Nakba (Catastrophe) Day, Sunday, May 15, of thousands of Palestinians streaming out of the camps in which they are held near Damascus. The operation was also synchronized with the Lebanese Hizballah.
According to this information, Syria and the PFL-GC are planning another mass incursion in the same format for June 5, the 44th anniversary of the 1967 War, when Syria lost part of the Golan after attacking Israel.
In advance of the event, the Israeli Defense Forces and Lebanese army have reinforced the units guarding their borders and are on a high state of preparedness.
The IDF's engineering corps has embarked on a crash operation for building a proper defense system with physical obstacles along the 220-kilometer Israeli-Syrian border in place of the fragile fence that crowds of Palestinians trampled on May 15.
Washington's impatience with Syria was evident in the harsh tone of the White House rebuke of Syria as "inciting protests on the Golan Heights" and therefore responsible for the clash and loss of life which resulted: "The Jewish state has the right to prevent unauthorized crossing at its borders," said White House spokesman Jay Carney Monday.
The White House's allusion to Israel's borders in the Golan context was deliberate, our Washington sources report.It signposted Barack Obama's intention to emphasize the importance the US attaches to Israeli border security as a matter of policy when he meets Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu at the White House Friday, May 20 and again when he addresses the conference of the US-Israeli lobby AIPAC Sunday, May 22.
According to our sources, too, the US President has no intention of outlining a Middle East peace plan for dictating to Israel in his address to the Muslim world Thursday, May 19.
This suggestion which is the subject of heated debate in Israel did not originate with US administration sources but political opposition elements at home which have an interest in pushing the Netanyahu government to the wall.

MTV: Syrian army closes Qubayah border crossing
May 17, 2011 /The Syrian army has erected barbed wire fences at the Qubayah crossing on the northern border with Lebanon to prevent refugees from the town of Tall Kalakh and the surrounding area from reaching Lebanon’s Wadi Khaled area, MTV reported on Tuesday afternoon. The movement of displaced families across the border has stopped except for “some instances of crossing at illegal crossings,” the report said. Gunfire can be heard on the Syrian side of the border and emergency workers took two critically wounded people to Lebanese hospitals in the morning, the station added. Since last week, hundreds of Syrians fleeing violence in their hometowns have poured into the Wadi Khaled area of northern Lebanon, coming on foot from Syrian villages near the border such as Tall Kalakh. Up to 850 people, including women and children, have been killed and at least 8,000 arrested in the Syrian regime’s crackdown on widespread protests, according to rights groups. -NOW Lebanon

Syrian opposition calls for a general strike
May 17, 2011
Syria's opposition called for a general strike Wednesday in defiance of a government campaign to crush pro-democracy protests, as the army pressed its siege of the restive town of Tall Kalakh, the latest target of its brutal crackdown. "Wednesday will be a day of general strike in Syria," said a statement posted on the Facebook page of the Syrian Revolution 2011, an Internet-based opposition group that has been a motor of protests that erupted two months ago. "It will be a day of punishment for the regime by the revolutionaries and the people of free will," it added. "Let’s transform this Wednesday into a Friday [the regular day for protests], with mass protests, no schools, no universities, no stores or restaurants open and even no taxis."
The strike call came amid reports of corpses and dozens of wounded left lying in the streets of the western town of Tall Kalakh where the army is now concentrating its crackdown.
"It looks like a ghost town here, I can see a corpse lying at the entrance of the town and there are dozens of wounded that we cannot evacuate," said a Sunni Muslim local resident early Tuesday, reached by telephone. "This is a massacre," he added, his voice charged with emotion. "We never expected them to be so brutal.
"They are pushing for sectarian strife." Syria's minority Alawites, an off-shoot of Shia Islam, form the backbone of the regime of President Bashar al-Assad. The majority of the country's 22-million population are Sunni Muslims. Also Tuesday, a resident of the northern city of Homs, which has been besieged by the army, said shelling and shooting was heard late into the night in the city's Deir Baalba neighborhood. "This is all in response to the demonstrations taking place every day and which are quickly put down by security forces," said the resident who spoke on condition of anonymity, fearing for his security. "There are hundreds of tanks deployed in the area and security forces are checking IDs and searching vehicles thoroughly," he added.
His account and that of the Tall Kalakh resident could not be independently verified as journalists are not allowed to travel freely in Syria to report on the unrest.
The official state news agency said two police officers were killed and four wounded on Monday in Deir Baalba when their car came under fire by an "armed terrorist gang".
The agency, quoting the interior ministry, also denied reports that a mass grave had been found in the southern city of Daraa, birthplace of the rebellion threatening the regime.
"Reports of a mass grave in Daraa are completely untrue," the Interior Ministry said. "These reports are part of a campaign of incitement and lies against Syria."
Ammar Qurabi, head of the National Organisation for Human Rights in Syria, told AFP by telephone on Monday that the mass grave was discovered in Daraa after the army allowed residents to venture outside their homes for two hours daily. "They discovered a mass grave in the old part of town but authorities immediately cordoned off the area to prevent residents from recovering the bodies, some of which they promised would be handed over later," Qurabi said. Syrian newspapers carried front-page articles on Tuesday of a meeting between Assad and a delegation from Daraa. "The meeting [Monday] focused on recent events in Daraa and the current positive atmosphere there, which is a result of the cooperation between local residents and the army as well as reform plans underway throughout the country," the ruling party's Al-Baath newspaper said. Assad announced a reform package last month in a bid to quell the unrest but the move failed to stop protesters, emboldened by the revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt. More than 850 people, including women and children, have been killed in the unrest and at least 8,000 arrested, according to rights groups. Syria has blamed the violence on "armed terrorist gangs" backed by Islamists and foreign agitators.
-AFP/NOW Lebanon

'Mubarak to apologize to Egyptian people and plead for amnesty'
By Jack Khoury and DPA
Tags: Israel news Egypt Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak will soon record an "emotional speech" in which he apologizes to the Egyptian people and asks for amnesty for himself, his wife, and his two sons, according to an Egyptian newspaper report released Tuesday. The independent daily al-Shorouk said that Mubarak was in the process of drafting a letter that would be broadcast on television, in which he apologizes to the Egyptian people for any harm done to the nation due to a few individuals and "faulty information given to him."
According to the newspaper report, which sources unnamed Egyptian and Arab officials, Mubarak will say he is willing to give up all of the family's properties in Egypt, which have already been impounded, along with his bank accounts pending corruption investigations. An army officer, borne on the shoulders of anti-government protesters, tearing up a picture of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in downtown Cairo, January 29, 2010. He will urge Egyptians to remember that "he was once a fighting soldier in the army in defense of the nation and never sought the burden of the presidency and that his wife only sought charitable work to help the nation," according to sources in the report.
Mubarak, whose son Gamal was once tapped as a likely successor for the presidency, was toppled from the country's top post in February after 18 days of popular uprising.
He, along with his wife and sons, were ordered in prison while investigations regarding charges of profiteering, misappropriating public funds and the illegal acquisition of wealth are being conducted. The ousted president is also being investigated in the killings of over 840 people during those protests.
However, both he and his wife remain in a hospital in the Red Sea resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh. Gamal and Alaa, another son, are in Cairo's Tora prison.
Investigations are proceeding into how the Mubaraks amassed assets estimated at tens of billions of dollars during Mubarak's nearly 30 years in office.
Swiss authorities said this month they had frozen 410 million francs (463 million dollars) in assets linked to Mubarak.
Military sources told al-Shorouk that it is unlikely his two sons will get amnesty, but that if opinion on the street allows for it, the 82-year-old Mubarak and his wife may be pardoned for past offenses due to their age and health.