LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
ِJUNE 07/2011

Biblical Event Of The Day
Peter 1/13-25: " Therefore prepare your minds for action, be sober and set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ— 1:14 as children of obedience, not conforming yourselves according to your former lusts as in your ignorance, 1:15 but just as he who called you is holy, you yourselves also be holy in all of your behavior; 1:16 because it is written, “You shall be holy; for I am holy.”* 1:17 If you call on him as Father, who without respect of persons judges according to each man’s work, pass the time of your living as foreigners here in reverent fear: 1:18 knowing that you were redeemed, not with corruptible things, with silver or gold, from the useless way of life handed down from your fathers, 1:19 but with precious blood, as of a faultless and pure lamb, the blood of Christ; 1:20 who was foreknown indeed before the foundation of the world, but was revealed at the end of times for your sake, 1:21 who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead, and gave him glory; so that your faith and hope might be in God. 1:22 Seeing you have purified your souls in your obedience to the truth through the Spirit in sincere brotherly affection, love one another from the heart fervently: 1:23 having been born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, through the word of God, which lives and remains forever. 1:24 For, “All flesh is like grass, and all of man’s glory like the flower in the grass. The grass withers, and its flower falls; 1:25 but the Lord’s word endures forever.” This is the word of Good News which was preached to you"

Latest analysis, editorials, studies, reports, letters & Releases from miscellaneous sources
Diplomats hint of impending Israeli war/By: Antoine Ghattas Saab/June 06/11
The consequences of an Israeli attack on Iran/By Amir Oren/June 06/11
The Naksa does not belong to the Palestinians/By Zvi Bar'el /June 06/11
I rule you or I kill you/By Tariq Alhomayed/June 06/11
UN Nails Iran and Syria/By: Ryan Mauro/Jun 6/11

Latest News Reports From Miscellaneous Sources for June 06/11
35 reported killed during crackdown in northern Syria/Agencies/Daily Star
Ban Expresses ‘Deep Concern’, Calls for Restraint after Golan Clashes/Naharnet
Diplomats hint of impending Israeli war/Daily Star
Assad paid Golan demonstrators $1,000 apiece, but turnout scanty/DEBKAfile
Israel to complain to UN over Syria incitement of border violence/By DPA and Haaretz Service
IDF: Protesters caused their own deaths/Ynetnews
Death Toll from Violence in Northwest Syria Rises to 35/VOA
IDF fears continued Palestinian infiltration on Syria border/Haaretz
Foreign Office confirms Iranian support for Syria/Telegraph
Israel Fires on Protesters at While Syria Attacks Villagers/Bloomberg
Israeli troops kill 20 protesters on Syrian border/News Com.AU
Naksa violence averted as protests remain calm/Daily Star
Syrian opposition: Anti-Israel rioters paid $1000/Ynetnews
YouTube videos show mangled bodies of Syrian civilians/CNN
SYRIA: Big cities remain ambivalent as regime brutality takes its toll/LAT
UN atomic watchdog meets on Syria, Iran/AFP
Latest developments in Arab world's unrest/AP
Lebanon's Arabic press digest - June 6, 2011/Daily Star
Hezbollah says major Cabinet hurdles overcome, Mikati cautious/Daily Star
Sleiman emphasizes importance of objective reporting/Daily Star
Hezbollah: Develop Constitution to prevent future crises/Daily Star
War of words between Future and Amal over June 8 session/Daily Star
Nasrallah: Sunday’s Bloodshed New Evidence of U.S. Efforts to Steal Our Wealth/Naharnet
Berri Insists on Holding Parliamentary Session ‘until Day of Resurrection’/Naharnet
Berri to Follow Up Cabinet Formation Indirectly, Denies Dispute with Miqati/Naharnet
Suleiman Prepares ‘All Necessary Steps’ to Renew Salameh’s Term/Naharnet
U.N. Atomic Watchdog Meets on Syria, Iran over ‘Nuclear Activity/Naharnet

Assad paid Golan demonstrators $1,000 apiece, but turnout scanty
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report June 5, 2011,
Syrian President Bashar Assad's security machine is creaking judging by its failure to raise thousands of Palestinian and Syrian volunteers to brave the Israeli troops manning the Golan Sunday, June 5 - three weeks after his success in staging the first mass border incursion. debkafile's intelligence sources reveal that even the few hundred willing to turn out demanded a fee: $1,000 for every demonstrator who managed to cut a piece of razor wire from the Israeli border fence – and exorbitant fee in Syrian terms - and $10,000 for the families of volunteers shot by Israeli troops before they reached their goal. Syrian state TV reported 20 killed and 277 injured in clashes with Israeli border troops - figures which are not reliably confirmed.
Assad's home front is sinking fast, which was why he tried to stage a piece of nation-cementing drama on the Israeli border. He hoped the Golan dead would outnumber the many hundreds killed in his three-month crackdown on the protest movement against his regime and is therefore likely to keep on trying. Sunday alone, scores died in Syrian tank-backed attacks on protesters in northwest Syria who are now using live fire against his troops. debkafile' sources report that Syrian security agents captured by protesters were hanged in broad daylight from electricity poles on city high streets Sunday, June 5, causing troops and police to flee in panic. "We are deeply troubled by events that took place earlier today in the Golan Heights resulting in injuries and the loss of life," the State Department said in a statement. "We call for all sides to exercise restraint. Provocative actions like this should be avoided. Israel, like any sovereign nation, has a right to defend itself," the US statement added.

Ban Expresses ‘Deep Concern’, Calls for Restraint after Golan Clashes
Naharnet Newsdesk
U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon called Monday on all parties in the Arab-Israeli conflict to exercise "maximum restraint" and expressed "deep concern" about the shooting on the Golan Heights.
"The secretary-general regrets the loss of life, and extends his condolences to the families of the victims," said statement by Ban's spokesman. "He condemns the use of violence and all actions intended to provoke violence." The remarks came after Israeli troops opened fire on Sunday as protesters from Syria stormed a ceasefire line in the occupied Golan Heights, with Damascus saying 23 demonstrators were killed. Hundreds of protesters rushed the ceasefire line, cutting through barbed wire as they tried to enter the territory in a repeat of demonstrations last month that saw thousands mass along Israel's north. Similar protests were held in the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip. In Majdal Shams, on the Golan, Israeli troops opened fire as demonstrators sought to push through the mined ceasefire line, which had been reinforced with several rows of barbed wire blocking access to a fence. The U.N. spokesman said the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) on the Golan was seeking to confirm facts and help calm the volatile situation in the area. Ban has been following the events "with deep concern," the spokesman added. "The events of today and of 15 May on the Golan put the long-held cease-fire in jeopardy," the statement warned. "The Secretary-General calls for maximum restraint on all sides and strict observance of international humanitarian law to ensure protection of civilians." On May 15, thousands of protesters massed on Israel's borders with Syria, Lebanon and Gaza, trying to force their way across on the anniversary of Israel's creation. Israeli fire left six demonstrators dead on the Lebanese side of the border and four dead on Syria's side. Ban also reminded Syrian authorities of their obligation to protect UNDOF personnel and facilities, according to the statement. The Golan was captured by Israel during the 1967 war and was later annexed by the Jewish state in a move that has not been recognized internationally.Source Agence France Press

Nasrallah: Sunday’s Bloodshed New Evidence of U.S. Efforts to Steal Our Wealth
oHizbullah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah stated on Monday that Sunday’s Naksa Day clashes at the Golan Heights are further evidence of the American administration’s agenda to “steal Arab wealth.” He said during the opening of a conference on Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei: “Yesterday’s actions confirm Washington’s absolute commitment to Israel’s security.” “This is the same Washington that talks to us about human rights and liberties,” he continued. Clashes broke out at the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on Sunday when Israeli troops fired at protestors seeking to return to their Palestinian homeland. “Imam Khamenei believes that Israel will be destroyed and that this will happen soon,” Nasrallah stressed. “The developments in Palestine assert the people’s strong will and this generation of youth demonstrates a powerful motivation to return to its homeland,” the Hizbullah chief declared. The Resistance’s victory against Israel in the July 2006 war confirms Khamenei’s prediction, “which is a sign of the courage of this leader,” said Nasrallah. “The decision to launch the July 2006 war was an international one, which enjoyed Arab support and was executed by Israel. I received a message from Khamenei saying that by leaving our fate in God’s hands, we will inevitably be victorious,” he added

Berri to Follow Up Cabinet Formation Indirectly, Denies Dispute with Miqati
Naharnet Newsdesk /Speaker Nabih Berri has decided not to directly follow up on the cabinet formation process, tasking his advisor MP Ali Hasan Khalil to carry out the mission, An Nahar reported on Monday. “I am waiting to reach the stage of decision and formation,” Berri said. The speaker denied that there are any disagreements between him and premier-designate Najib Miqati, saying that the meeting that was supposed to take place (between the two of them) “was cancelled because he had to head to the South”.  Berri pointed out that Miqati held a meeting Friday night with Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah’s advisor Hussein Khalil and MP Ali Hassan Khalil at his residence in Verdun.
Concerning the issue of handing Miqati the candidates’ names for portfolios, Berri reiterated to the newspaper that they won’t argue over names.
“I’ve already told the premier-designate that I have no problem regarding this issue … and this is Hizbullah’s stance also,” he said.
On Wednesday’s expected parliamentary session, the speaker stressed: “The session stands until the day of resurrection; if it lacked the quorum on June 8 we will call for another session the next week and so on.”Addressing the March 14 camp and other blocs’ statements that the session is unconstitutional, Berri said: “If a hundred MPs attended the session and the Sunni MPs were absent I will not hold a session as opposed to when former PM Fouad Saniora held Cabinet sessions when all of its Shiite ministers had resigned.”

Suleiman Prepares ‘All Necessary Steps’ to Renew Salameh’s Term
Naharnet Newsdesk/President Michel Suleiman has prepared all the necessary steps to renew the term of the Central Bank governor Riyad Salameh “at the right time”, An Nahar daily reported on Monday. The newspaper said that Suleiman is still giving the new cabinet the priority to renew Salameh’s term once it’s formed.  In case the formation is delayed, he will call for an extraordinary session for the caretaking government with the single article of the renewal on its agenda, An Nahar remarked. Information obtained by the newspaper assured that there is a “general consent” on this step that the president suggested after consulting different references.  Concerning the adoption of “mobile draft-laws,” the pan-Arab daily al-Hayat quoted on Monday sources as saying that “if the draft-law requires the signature of 20 or 21 ministers to become effective-- which is two-thirds of the ministers -- why don’t we hold a ministerial session where the central bank’s governor term is extended?”

U.N. Atomic Watchdog Meets on Syria, Iran over ‘Nuclear Activity
Naharnet Newsdesk
The U.N. atomic watchdog opens a week-long meeting here Monday, with the United States and its western allies looking to pass a resolution against Syria over its alleged illicit nuclear activity. The traditional June session of the International Atomic Energy Agency's 35-member board of governors has a heavy agenda, ranging from the upcoming two-year budget to the nuclear disaster in Japan. But it will once again be the long-running investigations into illicit nuclear programs in both Iran and Syria that will be the main focus of attention.
While Iran has tended to be the dominant issue at board meetings in the past, Syria looks set to take the hot seat this time round after IAEA chief Yukiya Amano stated unequivocally for the first time his conviction that a remote desert site that was flattened by Israeli bombs in September 2007 was "very likely" to have been an undeclared covert nuclear reactor.
The IAEA has been investigating the allegations for three years now, but Syria has so far refused to allow U.N. inspectors access to locations, data or individuals who could throw some light on the matter. Amano's unprecedented remarks are aimed at turning up the heat on Syria which is increasingly frustrating the IAEA with its point-blank refusal to cooperate.
The United States, in particular, has seized on his comments as an opportunity to find Syria in "non-compliance" with its international obligations and refer it to the U.N. Security Council in New York. Damascus has always insisted that the site, known as Dair Alzour, was a non-nuclear military installation but it has provided no evidence so far to back this up.
Aside from a one-off visit in June 2008, Syria has refused to allow IAEA inspectors access. Western diplomats believe there is sufficient support on the 35-member board for the resolution to be passed, although it would be "naive" to expect it to be carried unanimously, a number of them said. A corresponding resolution looks certain to win western backing, but diplomats believe it would "naive" to expect unanimous support from the 35-member board. Iran, too, will be in the spotlight after Amano, in his latest report, complained that the Islamic republic is continuing to stockpile low-enriched uranium, in defiance of multiple U.N. sanctions, and refusing to answer allegations of possible military dimensions to its contested nuclear program. Iran responded at the end of last month, but diplomats who said they have seen the six-page reply said it contained nothing substantively new and, in the view of one diplomat, only confirmed that Tehran is "unwilling to change course from its policy of non-cooperation."
Source Agence France Presse

IDF: Protesters caused their own deaths
Probe of 'Naksa Day' events reveals
Hanan Greenberg Latest Update: 06.06.11, 11:54 /Ynetnews
The IDF said Monday morning that many of the Syrian protesters who stormed the border fence and Quneitra crossing in honor of 'Naksa Day' were responsible for their own deaths by igniting mine fields on the border. Meanwhile the army also announced at around 11:30 am that although the border demonstration had ended by late Sunday night, many were gathering once again in an area nearby. No violence was reported. Military sources said the protesters who ignited minefields Sunday did not bring fire extinguishers with them and thus posed a danger to themselves and others by behaving irresponsibly. Others threw firebombs near Quneitra crossing to the same effect, they said.
Protestors at northern border promised $1,000 reward by Assad's regime, Reform Party of Syria claims; Israeli officials: Damascus encouraged rioters. Syria says IDF killed 23 people, wounded 350; army says figures inflated  The sources are also assuming that many protesters were hurt or killed as a result of the Red Cross's inability to reach them, due to protesters' refusal to cease violence in order to allow for medical evacuations. IDF officials say commanders ordered three ceasefires, each of which were taken advantage of by the protesters in order to gain ground. Many protesters remained on the border throughout the night but most had dispersed by morning, an IDF source said, stressing that soldiers were still on high alert for additional breaches of the fence. Dolan Abu Salah, the mayor of Majdal Shams, was unconvinced that the protesters had dispersed, claiming that they had probably gathered on a hill known to be unobservable from Israel. Police still surround the Druze village and the IDF has declared the village a closed military zone, though residents continue to move around at will and daily life continues normally, aside from a school strike. Checkpoints have been set up around the village in order to prevent residents from reaching the border and joining protests.
Meanwhile, the IDF continues to investigate Sunday's events. Syria claims 23 protesters were killed on the border and 350 injured, but the army says that number is a gross overestimate.
Hundreds of Syrians, most of them Palestinian refugees, stormed the border near Majdal Shams and the Quneitra crossing in honor of 'Naksa Day', which marks the "Arab downfall" of the Six Day War. They were prevented from crossing by IDF troops, who were prepared due to a similar border breach on 'Nakba Day' last month. Sources from the Syrian Opposition claim that President Bashar Assad's regime, under fire from civilians vying for overhauling reform recently, offered to pay demonstrators who join in the border protests $1,000 for participating, or give their families $10,000 in the event of their deaths.
***Ahiya Raved contributed to this report

Israel to complain to UN over Syria incitement of border violence
By DPA and Haaretz Service
Israel said on Monday that it will complain to the United Nations over what it said was Syria's use of demonstrators to challenge Israel's sovereignty, following violent clashes Sunday along the border between Syria and Israel in the Golan Heights. The complaint would focus on Syria's "manipulation of its own citizens to generate violent incidents at the border," Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said.  Syria said on Monday that 23 people were killed in Sunday's "Naksa Day" rally, commemorating 44 years since the 1967 Six-Day War. Israel captured Syria's Golan Heights in that conflict, as well as the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Syrian protesters throw stones at IDF forces near Quneitra on June 5, 2011.
Official Syrian news agency SANA quoted Health Minister Wael al-Halki as saying the death toll included a woman and a child, adding that another 350 people suffered gunshot wounds.
The IDF said that since all the casualties were on the Syrian side of the border it was unable to provide an exact count, but it expressed great skepticism about the Syrian figures. Soldiers fired "with precision" at the bottom half of the bodies of the protesters, the army said. Channel 10 reported that an initial IDF inquiry into Sunday's events found that up to ten Syrian protesters had been killed when Molotov cocktails which the protesters had been throwing set off an anti-tank minefield. The army accused the Syrian government of creating a deliberate provocation in an effort to divert world attention from its ongoing bloody repression of pro-democracy protests at home. Senior officials in Jerusalem placed the responsibility for Sunday's violence on the Syrian police. "Syria is trying to divert attention from the massacre that [Syria] is carrying out against its citizens with the provocation on the border," a senior official said. "We sent messages in recent days to both Syria and Lebanon. Lebanon prevented the protests, but Syria decided to carry out a provocation."

The consequences of an Israeli attack on Iran
Haaretz/06.06.11
By Amir Oren
The state commission for investigating the disaster of the first Iran war (2011 ) convened yesterday in preliminary session in the office of Supreme Court President Dorit Beinisch, with former District Court President Uri Goren, former Mossad and National Security Council head Ephraim Halevy, Maj. Gen. (res. ) Eitan Ben Eliyahu and Prof. Emmanuel Sivan in attendance.
The commission's deliberations will focus on issues of substance and of procedure: how and why the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu went to war with Iran despite warnings by senior military and intelligence figures and in contradiction of law and precedent governing the decision-making process. Witnesses who have been ordered to appear include, in addition to Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak, also President Shimon Peres, Chief of Staff Benny Gantz and his predecessor Gabi Ashkenazi, Mossad chief Tamir Pardo and his predecessor Meir Dagan, Maj. Gen. Gadi Eizenkot, former Shin Bet security service head Yuval Diskin and Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein.
The commission will examine the possible connection between events that were slated to take place at certain times in 2010 and that were thwarted by opposition from Ashkenazi, Dagan and Diskin, with intervention by Peres, and actions taken by Netanyahu and Barak to push Ashkenazi into premature retirement and replace him with Maj. Gen. Yoav Galant. It will also try to determine who was responsible for blocking the emergency appointment of Eizenkot, after completing his term as GOC Northern Command in June, as advisor to the chief of staff - putting him in a position of influence during his leave of absence for studies. Eizenkot is considered an ideological colleague of Ashkenazi, Dagan and Pardo.
Weinstein will be consulted, in accordance with the Basic Law on The Government, on the propriety of convening the cabinet - most of whose members were hearing for the first time, and incompletely, about the various options and their costs - to vote on a military operation that in effect means going to war. The attorney general will be asked whether he had indeed been warned by Ashkenazi, Dagan and Diskin, while in office and after their respective retirement, about Netanyahu's "hasty and frenzied" drive toward war, and whether this warning led to improvement in Netanyahu's conduct or whether it was the failure of the discreet warning that led Dagan to express it publicly.
The commission will examine the implementation of the warning sounded by the Winograd commission, regarding the Second Lebanon War - "the manner in which Israel went to war is unacceptable and must not be repeated itself, without advance preparation of a plan including achievable goals, ways of achieving them, mechanisms of control over the extent of the action and the preparedness of the army and the home front for the fighting."
Senior military and intelligence officials will testify that in opposing the actions of Netanyahu and Barak they followed the Winograd panel's determination that "the supreme obligation of the loyalty of professionals is to their profession and their position and not to their commanders or the organization in which they serve," and that a move toward war by the political leadership demands "leadership, responsibility, strategic vision, good judgment and the willingness and ability to use the knowledge and insights of the professionals. Ideology alone does not dictate decisions." The Beinisch commission will discuss the authority of the cabinet to order the army to carry out an operation of dubious constitutionality, as well as the duty of the senior command to object to such an order, also in light of the precedent of winter 1973, when deputy chief of staff and GOC Southern Command Maj. Gen. Yisrael Tal protested the constitutionality of Defense Minister Moshe Dayan's order to resume the war against Egypt, leading to the withdrawal of Dayan's order.
In this context there will be an examination of Barak's appointment, following Gantz's recommendation, of the military advocate general, whose position also involves advising the chief of staff on the legality of military commands. The commission has been informed that Ashkenazi, outgoing MAG Maj. Gen. Avichai Mendelblit and his predecessor Menachem Finkelstein all advocated the appointment of an expert in international law, such as Deputy MAG Col. Sharon Ofek. Barak refused, on the grounds that it is better to have a military jurist whose specialty is criminal law, such as Brig. Gen. Avi Levi of the Military Court. Barak also relied on the advice of four of Finkelstein's predecessors - Ben-Zion Farhi, Amnon Straschnov, Ilan Schiff and Uri Shoham. At the height of the deliberations the members of the commission of inquiry were asked to move to a bomb shelter, in the wake of the air raid siren and the echoes of Shihab missiles falling throughout Jerusalem.

The Naksa does not belong to the Palestinians
By Zvi Bar'el /Haaretz
06.06.11
"Don't read about our defeated generation, children / We have disappointed hope / Marginal as a watermelon rind / Worn and beaten as soles." Renowned Syrian poet Nizar Qabbani wrote these words in 1967, following the Six-Day War defeat, the "Naksa," the 44th anniversary of which the Palestinians marked yesterday.
If the Nakba "belongs" to the Palestinians, the Naksa belongs to the Arab countries, especially those against whom Israel fought - Egypt, Jordan and Syria. If the Nakba uprooted Palestinians, "the Naksa took from us the most precious thing of all. Not our land, our homes and our childrens' cradles. That June took from us our self-confidence for a few decades," Jordanian columnist Khairy Mansour lamented yesterday.
Why then, are Syrian, Jordanian, Lebanese or Egyptian citizens not marching toward the border with Israel?
Apparently, it is a matter of historical convenience. Summing up the struggle between Israel and the Arabs in a local conflict between Israel and the Palestinians is the last drawing card. After Egypt got back all of its conquered territory, Jordan gave up the West Bank and Syria cannot get the Golan back by itself, what remains is to revamp the memory of the defeat.
And there is nothing like Palestinians to represent victims. The Arab Naksa will neither add nor detract from the burden of the Palestinian Nakba. It will only lift the burden of commemoration from those who are truly responsible for the disaster. Then comes a Syrian killjoy and turns this claim upside down. "We must freely admit, there is no such thing as the Naksa. It is, very simply, a battle we lost during a long war... June 5 was the logical defeat for the opinions and policies that were cut off from reality," wrote Ahmed Hassan in the Syrian government newspaper, Al Baath. True, he can write this because according to the Syrian narrative, it was not Hafez Assad who was responsible for the defeat, but rather Syria's president at the time, Nureddin Atassi, and strongman Salah Jadid. Both were imprisoned after the war by Assad. These remarks are not new; acknowledgment of the defeat began during the war itself, and it became leverage to increase the magnitude of the victory in the Yom Kippur War. What is new is the writer's unwillingness to let others, that is, the Palestinians, co-opt this memory. "This is not the 'Middle East conflict;' it is the Israeli-Arab conflict. It is not a border conflict... it is a struggle for survival... Neither we nor the entire region has a natural future in the shadow of Israeli existence, and there is no place for Israel in our natural future or that of the region." Thus, there is no place for the Palestinians in this Naksa; it's an Arab matter, particularly Syrian, the last country to wave the banner of Arabism. And how is this vision to be realized? "Under the current circumstances the balance of power is not in our favor, and therefore our job now is to maintain the flame of the torch of the conflict." So what are the Palestinians doing once again on the fence?

I rule you or I kill you
04/06/2011
By Tariq Alhomayed/Asharq Al-Awsat
Now the region is witnessing the bloodshed of its own people, in Yemen, Syria and Libya, at the hands of rulers supposed to be governing republics, whereby the President rules for his term and then leaves, as the definition of a republic dictates, but the reality says otherwise.
The reality of our region shows that the republics which have plagued their people are headed by rulers of the type found in Syria, Yemen and Libya, who govern according to the principle of "I rule you or I kill you". There are other examples of this rule, which is bad for the fortunes of the country, but good for the leader of course, most notably the Sudanese President, who divided his country and still remained in power! Therefore, what has been described as the "Arab Spring" in our region is merely an exaggeration. Our region is still far from a democratic transition, but this should not be considered wholly negative. It is positive that our region today is witnessing the end of an era of counterfeit and false slogans often traded by regimes over the decades. Thus today in Syria, Yemen and Libya, we are witnessing a genuine crisis of credibility between the people and the regime, as whatever promises those regimes declare, they are subsequently rejected by the people.
The reason is simple, everyone in those countries knows the extent to which their regimes have lied, and maneuvered, for decades in the name of resistance, or in the name of the Palestinian cause. How right was my colleague Suleiman Gouda when he said in one of his articles that whenever he contemplates the Palestinian case, or cause, he is quick to read the Fatiha [an Islamic eulogy] for the spirit of the late Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, who regained the Sinai region and did not wager with it. In our region the lies and excuses are endless. In Yemen, President Ali Abdullah Saleh continues to trade on the issues of al-Qaeda and the Huthis, in order to undermine the tribes and strengthen his power bequeathal project. The reason behind using al-Qaeda here is that Saleh must ally with the devil in order to crush the tribal leaders, and bequeath power to his son, and here the devil is al-Qaeda. On one occasion, President Saleh told a prominent guest that there was no value to the tribes in Yemen today, only for the guest to respond immediately, in a manner which stunned the audience: "If it was not for the tribes you would not still be in power"! We are witnessing the truth of that today, and perhaps Saleh has learned the lesson, but only after the destruction of Sana'a.
In Libya, the situation is no better. Gaddafi always talked about imperialism and colonialism, yet here are the colonialists of old coming back to save the Libyan people from Gaddafi himself, and after four decades of slogans of the Libyan revolution against imperialism!
In Syria, the situation provides more cause for grief. The regime which has long championed Arabism yet it has never adopted this ideology with regards to Iran, in any stance or issue. Now the Iranian experts are supporting the Syrian regime in its process of suppressing its own people. The Syrian regime adopted the "resistance" cause, yet it has not resisted anything except the ideas of development, reform and change. It has not provided armed resistance against anything except its own people. The valiant Syrian army did not fight anyone over the last three decades except the Lebanese and Syrian people! Therefore, I would say that this is not the Arab Spring, but rather the Arab uprising against the regimes of [false] slogans, lies and political blackmail, regimes that govern according to the principle: I rule you or I kill you.

35 reported killed during crackdown in northern Syria
June 06, 2011 /Agencies/Daily Star
BEIRUT: The death toll in a government security crackdown in two northern Syrian towns rose to 35 Sunday, human rights groups said. Exiled opposition figures said any dialogue now with President Bashar Assad’s regime would be a joke. Rami Abdul-Rahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the deaths in the town of Jisr al-Shughour and nearby Khan Sheikhoun included six policemen. The operation is part of a crackdown that began Saturday.
Human rights groups say more than 1,200 people have died in the brutal crackdown against anti-government protesters since March. Assad has coupled military operations with symbolic overtures toward the opposition, including an amnesty for many prisoners and a call for national dialogue.
The activists’ reports could not be independently confirmed. The Syrian government has severely restricted the media and expelled foreign reporters, making it nearly impossible to independently verify events there.
Details of the operations in Jisr al-Shughour were also sketchy and attempts to reach residents of the town were unsuccessful, indicating that communications have been cut.
State-run news agency SANA said Sunday four policemen were killed and more than 20 wounded in the area when “armed terrorist” groups attacked government buildings and police stations.
At a meeting of Syria’s mostly expatriate opposition in Brussels Sunday, leaders said talks with the regime would be “a joke” as long as the violent crackdown continues.
Obeda Nahas, one of the representatives chosen at a two-day Conference of the National Coalition Support the Syrian Revolution, said any opposition figures who talked to the regime now would not be taken seriously by the Syrian people.
“We can’t sit at the table and have some killers with us at the table,” he said at a news conference.
Nahas and other representatives renewed calls on foreign governments and the United Nations to increase political and legal steps against Assad’s government.
“We want more pressure on this regime, because it doesn’t seem to be listening to its own people,” he told reporters.
Ausama Monajed, another participant, said opposition figures were working to put together legal cases against the Assad regime in federal courts in the U.S., several European courts and the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
Activist Abdul-Rahman and other activists said the Syrian military pulled back tanks from the outskirts of the tense central city of Hama and in southern villages.
A resident of the city, where least 65 anti-government protesters were killed Friday, said the tanks retreated from the outskirts of Hama overnight.
He said the situation in Hama remained “very tense.” Residents were conducting a general strike in memory of those previously killed when security forces opened fire on anti-government protesters Friday.
Also Sunday, Syrian security forces shot dead two protesters in the eastern city of Deir al-Zor after mourners angered by the killing of a 14-year old set fire to two Baath Party buildings, residents said.
They said doctors contacted at Noor hospital identified the dead as 16-year-old Mohammad Rateb al-Sabah, and Khaled al-Jassem, 17.
The protesters, who numbered in the thousands, had earlier attended the funeral of a 14-year old youth killed during a pro-democracy demonstration Friday.
Activists also said the army withdrew Sunday from the villages of Dael and Hirak near the city of Daraa where the uprising against President Bashar Assad’s regime began in mid-March.

Diplomats hint of impending Israeli war J
By Antoine Ghattas Saab /The Daily Star
06, 2011/Western diplomats are talking about the possibility of a large-scale Israeli war against Lebanon in the coming months, saying that Israel had finalized military, logistic and intelligence preparations for such an aggression.
These diplomats add that the political crisis in Lebanon could be exploited by some influential regional forces to achieve their own ends, highlighting the decline of Syria’s role in Lebanon due to the anti-regime protests which have been sweeping Syria since mid-March.
This recalls the saying, “Lebanon’s security is Syria’s security,” and there is increasing talk that Lebanon and Syria could be witness to events that recreate the image of the Middle East based on new rules set by the major world powers.
Amid this gloom, a European diplomat, who is closely following developments in the Arab region including the Syria regime’s crackdown on the opposition, which received additional support during their conference in Antalya last week, said that the reforms promised by Syrian President Bashar Assad remain only in the realm of possibilities, without serious attempts at their implementation.
According to the diplomat, these promised reforms are considered strategic maneuvers by the Syrian regime in the eyes of the international community, which is calling for the serious implementation of reform and for an end to the regime’s brutal crackdown against protesters across Syria.
“Assad has good intentions and is ready to serve his people who love and respect him, but his problem lies in his lack of initiative, which might be due to his entourage’s desire to clamp down on all the dissidents of the brutal regime with an iron fist” the diplomat said, summarizing his view on the matter.
The diplomat then described three conditions set by Western states, mainly European ones, that the Syrian regime must meet in order to resume dialogue and open the door for political and economic cooperation, if Western states are not embark on a military intervention, which could jeopardize the stability of the entire region.
The first condition is to implement a comprehensive reform policy, which should include granting the people all freedoms, permitting opposition parties to operate politically, and allowing room for the transition of power through free elections, monitored by a specialized European mission, whose winners would be subject to the term limits set by the Syrian constitution.
The reforms should also include the effective and not only symbolic repeal of the state’s emergency law, as the heavy-handed pursuit of protesters in some Syrian cities suggests that the regime has become imprisoned by its fear of future internal and external developments.
The second condition is a gradual distancing of Syria from the Islamic Republic of Iran, which has benefited from its alliance with Syria to support resistance movements in Lebanon, Palestine, and even Iraq.
The condition also demands that Syria ceases supplying these movements, Hezbollah and Hamas in particular, with money and arms and pushes it to become involved in the peace project desired by the West, whose goal is a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine based on 1967 borders.
As for the third condition, it calls for Syria to contribute to resolving the Lebanese Cabinet crisis by instructing its allies to retreat from their hard-line positions and prohibitive conditions, even if it means returning to Saudi-Syrian negotiations, which have proven capable of helping rival political parties reach agreements when the two states wished it.
The Syrian leadership has begun to realize the magnitude of the growing international pressures against it, the diplomat said.
He added, quoting Lebanese and Arab observers who visited the Syrian capital in the last few weeks, that some officers are protesting before the leadership against the repressive methods being used in the regime’s crackdown and are refusing to obey the orders of political and military officials on the pretext that they have family members participating in the uprising.