LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
ِJUNE 08/2011

Biblical Event Of The Day
Peter's First Letter 2/1- Putting away therefore all wickedness, all deceit, hypocrisies, envies, and all evil speaking,  as newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the Word, that you may grow thereby, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious:  coming to him, a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God, precious.  You also, as living stones, are built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.  Because it is contained in Scripture, “Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, chosen, and precious: He who believes in him will not be disappointed.” For you who believe therefore is the honor, but for those who are disobedient, “The stone which the builders rejected, has become the chief cornerstone,”  and, “a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense.”*

Latest analysis, editorials, studies, reports, letters & Releases from miscellaneous sources
Comment: west cannot ignore Syria brutality/Financial Times/June 07/11
Does the Real Violence in Syria Start Now?/By: Jonathan S. Tobin/June 07/11  
Opinion piece discusses the crisis in Syria/By: Mostapha El Mouloudi/June 07/11
What is Washington’s end-game in Yemen/By: Hussein Ibish/June 07/11

Latest News Reports From Miscellaneous Sources for June 07/11
Report: Egypt legalizes long-banned Muslim Brotherhood/AP
Iran sends submarines to Red Sea in move that could anger Israel/Reuters
Anti-government rebels capture parts of NW Syria, kill 120 security officers/DEBKAfile
Syria Says 120 Police Killed by 'Armed Gangs' in Jisr Shughour/Naharne
US: Syria 'clearly' inciting Israel border protests/Reuters
Syria Says 40 Security Officers Are Killed by 'Gangs/NYT
Syria vows 'decisive' response in Jisr al-Shughour/BBC
Netanyahu: Syria provoking Israel to divert attention from internal bloodshed/Haaretz
Report: 14 Palestinians shot dead in Syrian refugee camp/Haaretz
Iran, Syria—and Seymour Hersh/ESJ
PM points finger at Syria for arranging 'Naksa Day' events/J.Post
Hezbollah chief: Naksa Day protesters sent clear message to Israel/Haaretz
Israel border calm after Syria prevents protesters from reaching fence/Haaretz
Female blogger kidnapped in Syria/ABC
Latest developments in Arab world's unrest/AP
Syria reports 'massacre' of security forcesLAT
Juppe says Assad has lost legitimacy to rule Syria/AP
Mikati vetoes Nahhas in Aoun's Cabinet list/Daily Star
UN warns of heavy price if loss of Lebanon's forests continues/Daily Star
Danish envoy urges UNIFIL to safeguard peacekeepers/Daily Star
Militant group denies attack on UNIFIL, blames Hezbollah/Daily Star
Sidon's 4 slain judges remembered/Daily Star
Sleiman, Mikati hold talks on stalled Cabinet formation/Daily Star
Lebanon's Arabic press digest - June 7, 2011/Daily Star
Berri's call for parliamentary session is unconstitutional, says Fatfat/Now Lebanon
Hoax Bomb Threat Causes Panic at Justice Ministry/Naharnet
March 14 Accuses Berri of Seeking to Widen Dispute with March 8/Naharnet
Aoun Seeks Confirmation that Cabinet Deal is Final before Giving Miqati List of Candidates/Naharnet
Aoun Seeks Confirmation that Cabinet Deal is Final before Giving Miqati List of Candidates/Naharnet
Accused Canadian-Lebanese Bomber can be Extradited to France/Naharnet
March 8 Fears U.S. Sanctions if Cabinet Not Up to Par with its Conditions/Naharnet
Report: Nasrallah and Aoun Discuss Cabinet Formation/Naharnet
Jumblat: I’ve Settled My Choices, No New Shift in My Political Course/Naharnet

Report: Egypt legalizes long-banned Muslim Brotherhood
By The Associated Press
Egypt's long-banned Muslim Brotherhood has been legally recognized as the Freedom and Justice Party, Egypt's official news agency reported on Tuesday. The announcement would allow the group to run in parliamentary elections set for September. A demonstration in Tahrir Square on Friday − without the flags of different political streams. The Brotherhood is considered one of Egypt's best organized blocs following the fall of longtime President Hosni Mubarak in February. It was founded in 1928 but outlawed since 1954. Even so, it has built and maintained a powerful social welfare network. Its candidates, running as independents, won 20 percent of the vote in a 2005 parliamentary election. The group has said it plans to field candidates in about half of Egypt's districts. To qualify as a party under new regulations, the party has declared it will be open to Muslims, Christians and women. The Freedom and Justice Party announced last month that it had almost 9,000 founding members.

Iran sends submarines to Red Sea in move that could anger Israel
Iran says its military ships have entered Red Sea with goal of collecting information and identifying other countries' combat vessels, according to semi-official Fars news agency.
By Reuters  Iran has sent submarines to the Red Sea, the semi-official Fars news agency reported on Tuesday, citing an unidentified source, in a move that could anger Israel.
"Iranian military submarines entered the Red Sea waters with the goal of collecting information and identifying other countries' combat vessels," Fars said. The Iranian navy's replenishment vessel IS Kharg passes through the Suez canal at Ismailia, Egypt on Feb.22, 2011. It did not specify the number or type of vessels involved but said they were sailing alongside warships of the Navy's 14th fleet. State-run Press TV said in May that the 14th fleet, comprised of two vessels, the Bandar Abbas warship and Shahid Naqdi destroyer, had been sent to combat piracy in the Gulf of Aden. "The fleet entered the Gulf of Aden region in May and has now entered the Red Sea in the continuation of its mission," Fars said. Two Iranian warships passed through the Suez Canal in February, the first such move since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, en route to Syria. Tehran said the mission was one of "peace and friendship" but Israel called it a "provocation". Iran announced last August it had expanded its fleet of domestically built 120-ton Ghadir-class submarines to 11 which it said would be used to patrol the Gulf and the Sea of Oman. It has deployed warships further afield, as far as the Red Sea, to combat Somali pirates but has not previously said it sent submarines to those waters.

Anti-government rebels capture parts of NW Syria, kill 120 security officers
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report /June 6, 2011,
Thousands of paramilitary rebels wielding guns and explosives have seized an area of northwestern Syria between the towns of Homs, Hama and Latakiya. Syrian State TV interrupted its broadcasts for the second time Monday, June 6, to announce that "terrorist gangs" had killed at least 120 troops and security officers, most of them in the embattled town of Jisr al-Shughour. In that town, at least 35 protesters were killed by pro-government forces in the last 24 hours. debkafile's military sources disclose that Syrian President Bashar Assad has dispatched Brigade 555, the strategic reserve guarding the regime in Damascus, and the army's 85th brigade, in a desperate bid to snuff out the armed revolt in the Homs-Hama-Restan-Jisr al-Shughour region. Our sources say rebel control of this area is complete. They have torched all the buildings housing government and ruling institutions and no government forces are to be seen there. Monday night, the rebels seized the army's explosive stores near the big dams on the Orontes River. They used a part of the five tons of explosives they gained control of to blow up the river bridges linking central and southern Syria to the northwest so as to block the passage of tanks and commando reinforcements. Our intelligence sources disclose that potential mutiny in the Syrian armed forces was first signaled Sunday, June 5, when Brigadier Manaf Tlas, commander of the 105th Brigade of the elite Republican Guard and deputy of the president's brother Gen. Maher Assad, announced that he and his staff officers were going on strike until Bashar Assad met their demands.
Those demands relate to the honor of the prominent Tlas clan of the city of Restan. But more importantly, that one of Assad's key commanders was willing to lay down arms in the middle of the government's life-or-death struggle against a rapidly advancing revolt attested to the black mood sweeping the military elite in the regime's direst time of need.
Monday night, Syrian TV suddenly interrupted its broadcasts for Interior Minister Gen. Muhammad Sha'er to make an announcement. He said Syria's problem today is not an attempt to overthrow the regime but a deliberate attempt to topple the Syrian state. Syria faces a rebellion staged by armed terrorists, he said. The general was the first Syrian public figure to publicly describe the uprising and demonstrations engulfing the country in terms of a regime fighting for its life. Sunday, debkafile reported that Assad's security machine is creaking badly, a judgment made by Israeli and Western intelligence watchers on the strength of its failure to raise thousands of Palestinian and Syrian volunteers to brave the Israeli troops manning the Golan. The staged protest fizzled out Monday when only dozens of volunteers turned up opposite the Israeli border, only to be turned back by Syrian troops.

Hoax Bomb Threat Causes Panic at Justice Ministry
Naharnet Newsdesk
The Justice Ministry building in Beirut was partially evacuated on Tuesday after a bomb threat that turned out to be a hoax, the state-run National News Agency reported.
The Internal Security Forces searched the building using sniffer dogs but found no bomb. The threat caused panic, however. The ministry’s director-general, Omar al-Natour, said the building wasn’t evacuated. “Some staff left and we didn’t stop them,” he told NNA. Al-Natour said that the caller threatened the ministry to “evacuate the building or else.” During the panic caused by the phone threat, Mohammed Nayef escaped from police custody as he was being taken from the ministry’s detention center to the Justice Palace’s criminal court, NNA said. Police is now searching for the escapee and investigation is underway to know how he ran away. Meanwhile, General Prosecutor Saeed Mirza confirmed a report by MTV that ten judges received threats on their mobile phones on Monday. This is the third time that such threats are made from the same number, he said. Earlier in the month, media reports said that several judges received threats through text messages sent from the same number.

Aoun Seeks Confirmation that Cabinet Deal is Final before Giving Miqati List of Candidates
Naharnet Newsdesk
Caretaker Energy Minister Jebran Bassil stressed that the Change and Reform bloc wants a confirmation from Premier-designate Najib Miqati that a deal on the cabinet makeup was final before giving him a list of names of its candidates for the new cabinet. Bassil, who is Free Patriotic Movement chief Michel Aoun’s son-in-law, told An Nahar daily published Tuesday that the bloc “is waiting for the final confirmation of the agreement reached” between the different parties. “The latest media reports have once again stirred doubts about the seriousness of the deal,” he said. About reports that Aoun and Miqati are bickering over the FPM chief’s conditions, Bassil said: “Since day one of negotiations, PM-designate Miqati wants the names.”
“We have told him that the names would be presented (to him) at the last stage. We want first to make sure that the agreement is final and there is no turning back,” he told An Nahar.
Al-Liwaa newspaper quoted Change and Reform bloc parliamentary sources as saying that if Miqati wants to speed up the formation of the cabinet, he should agree to Aoun’s conditions.
Miqati “doesn’t have the right to put vetoes on certain names and hint that he can’t approve names that MP Aoun wants to keep at the head of their caretaking ministries,” the sources said in reference to the FPM chief’s insistence to keep Telecom Minister Charbel Nahhas in his post. “Aoun is not ready to give up his conditions under any circumstance,” they told al-Liwaa.
Asked about Miqati’s alleged rejection to bring back Nahhas to the telecommunications ministry, FPM sources told al-Akhbar daily that neither Aoun nor mediators were informed about such a stance. Meanwhile, An Nahar said that Miqati held talks with President Michel Suleiman at Baabda palace on Monday.

Jumblat: I’ve Settled My Choices, No New Shift in My Political Course
Naharnet Newsdesk
Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat on Monday stressed that there will be no “new shift” in his political alliances, in response to Tuesday’s remarks by Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun, who said he had “heard that MP Jumblat has started to shift ground.” “I have settled my choices and there will be no new shift in my political course,” Jumblat said in an interview with MTV. Addressing the cabinet formation impasse, Jumblat warned of the “economic threats it poses to the country.”The Druze leader stressed that he is coordinating his stances with Hizbullah, but called on the March 8 forces to “shoulder their responsibilities.” “The economic fate of the country is more important than elections in Keserwan and Byblos,” Jumblat added, clearly hitting out at Aoun. He also noted that his bloc will not take part in a June 8 controversial parliamentary legislative session called by Speaker Nabih Berri “unless it was dedicated for the discussion of a sole item – renewing the mandate of (Central Bank Governor Riad) Salameh.” “The government should not be replaced by the parliament,” Jumblat added, reminding caretaker premier Saad Hariri that he is “the head of a caretaker cabinet, in addition to being the head of a political movement, and he should perform his duties.” Jumblat has called for a “real implementation” of the decree issued recently by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on lifting the decades-old state of emergency in the unrest-hit country. In his weekly column in his party’s mouthpiece al-Anbaa newspaper, Jumblat said “the release of all political prisoners … the abolishment of martial laws and the real implementation of the decree lifting the state of emergency … are apt to correct the course and build a new Syria that takes into account the people’s aspirations and their desire to live freely and with dignity.” Jumblat noted that “holding accountable those behind the practices committed in Daraa and other places prepares the ground for rebuilding confidence and credibility between the state and the Syrian citizen, which have been majorly damaged over the past few months.” Addressing Sunday’s bloodshed in the occupied Golan Heights in which Syrian state television said 23 people were killed and 350 wounded when Israeli troops shot at protesters marking Naksa Day, Jumblat said “what happened on the occupied Golan front proves that the Arab-Israeli conflict has not ended yet.” The PSP leader stressed the need that “Syria be more immune in the face of the Israeli scheme, which wants to drag it along with other Arab states into chaos and sectarian conflicts, and consequently to undermine the defiance and resistance scheme.”  “Out of keenness on Syria and its stability, role and advanced position in the region in the face of Israeli occupation and schemes, we look forward for it to exit its current crisis towards a new era characterized by political, economic and social reform,” Jumblat added.

Syria Says 120 Police Killed by 'Armed Gangs' in Jisr Shughour
Naharnet Newsdesk /Some 120 Syrian police officers taking part in security operations alongside the army in the northwest were killed by "armed gangs" in the town of Jisr Shugour on Monday, state-run news agency SANA quoted a Syrian official as saying.
"The armed groups are committing a veritable massacre. They have mutilated bodies and thrown others into the Assi river," state television reported earlier. "They have burned government buildings.""Armed gangs ambushed police who were on their way to rescue citizens being terrorized" by these gangs, it added. The report said groups are armed with "medium weapons, grenades and are using residents as human shields."Elsewhere, "eight guards at a post office were also killed by armed gangs, who used the building's gas pipes to blow it up," it added.
Two activists who spoke to Agence France Presse disputed the official version of events, saying the town was calm on Monday. They spoke of a mutiny at a local security headquarters, where shooting was heard on Sunday. "I think they executed policemen who refused to open fire on demonstrators. There was a mutiny in the security service," one activist said.
The other told AFP that "shooting followed by an explosion was heard in the military HQ, apparently after a mutiny."
He said regime "snipers" had opened fire on protesters in the town, killing two. Demonstrators then gathered outside the headquarters and "shots and an explosion took place inside" the building, he said. The state television report said: "The police and security agents are confronting hundreds of armed men. They have managed to liberate one district controlled by gunmen" in Jisr Shughour. It said residents of the town, 330 kilometers north of Damascus, had "pleaded for help and the rapid intervention of the army."
Violence across Syria on Sunday left at least 40 people dead, including 35 in Jisr Shughour, Rami Abdul Rahman, head of the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told Agence France Presse on Monday. Thirty-five people -- 27 civilians and eight security agents -- were killed in Jisr Shughour as military and security forces continued operations against anti-regime protesters in northwestern Idlib province. Further north, in the town of Idlib, security forces scattered some 1,500 demonstrators, he said.
Two civilians were also reported killed in the Mediterranean coastal town of Jabla when security forces opened fire to disperse demonstrators calling for the release of a detained sheikh.
In the eastern town of Deir Ezzor, security forces shot at protesters marching in front of a building of the ruling Baath party, killing three of them, Abdul Rahman said.
On Sunday, security forces returned the body of a man kept in custody for a month to his parents in the Damascus suburb of Douma.
Six human rights groups within Syria on Monday issued a joint statement condemning "the excessive use of force to disperse peaceful gatherings of unarmed Syrian citizens."
The groups call on the government to "stop the spiral of violence and assassinations in the streets of Syria." They also demanded an independent and transparent commission of inquiry "to unmask those responsible for the violence." Rights groups say more than 1,100 civilians have been killed and at least 10,000 arrested in Syria since protests against the government of President Bashar al-Assad erupted in mid-March. Damascus insists the unrest is the work of "armed terrorist gangs" backed by Islamists and foreign agitators.
*Source Agence France Presse

What is Washington’s end-game in Yemen?
Hussein Ibish/Now Lebanon
June 7, 2011
Armed Yemeni tribesmen guard a road in the city of Taiz on June 6, 2011 as Yemen's opposition vowed to block the return of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, whose party insists he will be back after surgery in Saudi Arabia. (AFP photo/Mohammed Huwais)  News that Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh has been forced to seek medical treatment in Saudi Arabia will be very welcome in Washington. However, the United States still lacks an effective policy for ensuring long-term stability in that volatile, fractured country.
Since the turmoil in Yemen began, the US has been primarily relying on efforts by the Saudis and their Gulf Cooperation Council partners to secure Saleh’s departure from office as the beginning of a transition toward greater stability. For many weeks, the president refused to finally commit to a GCC proposal in which he would step down in exchange for immunity from prosecution. Now that he’s in Saudi Arabia, there is no doubt that the post-Saleh era in Yemen has begun.
But it's not clear at all that this means an end to the bitter power struggle among Yemen's elites that has divided the government and military, leading to his serious injuries. Saleh’s vice president is now nominally in charge, but his sons and nephews are still in place in their key military and intelligence positions. It’s not yet in the least evident what kind of reconciliation or agreement can be secured between the remaining regime forces and opposition groups such as the powerful Al-Ahmar clan and dissident generals.
For this, the United States is likely to continue to rely primarily on efforts by Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states to heal the rifts and restore a modicum of unity among the country’s elites and military. Washington was angered and alarmed by Saleh’s increasing use of American weaponry and US-trained counterterrorism forces in his internal power struggle with rivals within the elite, and will certainly expect that to stop given his removal.
American interests in Yemen are driven, above all, by concerns about the activities of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the Yemeni affiliate of the loose-knit terrorist network. This organization has proven uniquely interested in and able to launch attacks directed against the American homeland. That includes the failed “Christmas bombing” over Detroit two years ago and an effort to send explosive packages onto American-bound international aircraft.
There has been increasing alarm in Washington in recent weeks that al-Qaeda and other terrorist forces have been exploiting the chaos in Yemen to gain space to operate – possibly even re-creating the kind of area of wide-ranging impunity that other groups used to enjoy in parts of Afghanistan and Pakistan. Washington does not have any major stake in the outcome of power struggles within the Yemeni elite, but it has a strong interest in a stable and united Yemeni government committed to denying terrorists an operating base.
The US has also sought to avoid Yemen turning into a fully-blown failed state, a kind of Somalia on the southwestern tip of the Arabian Peninsula and on the coasts of the Red Sea and Indian Ocean. Like the Saudis, Americans fear that such a failed state could prompt instability in much of the region, especially in Saudi Arabia itself. Therefore, Yemen has been one of the few cases in the “Arab Spring” in which Saudi and US interests have aligned almost entirely. This confluence of interests, along with the very limited options and influence the United States has on its own, has informed Washington’s reliance on Riyadh in trying to come to grips with this serious challenge.
That Saleh has now been forced to flee his country provides the two powers with a fortuitous and unexpected opportunity to move quickly to restore stability in Sanaa and move Yemen away from its seemingly inexorable drift toward failed-state status. It is precisely the kind of fortunate incident – removing a leader who is a clear impediment to progress – that has eluded NATO forces in Libya.  How the regime will fare in his absence and what the prospects for reconciliation among Yemeni elites are remains to be seen. So does the reaction of the thousands of peaceful street protesters seeking change. But it is strongly in the interests of everyone with a stake in Yemen’s future to move quickly to take advantage of the opportunity to reverse the drift toward anarchy and institute both reconciliation and reform measures.
From the beginning of the Arab Spring, it has been clear that, with Syria, Yemen has presented the greatest potential for regional disruption. Along with efforts by groups like al-Qaeda to promote and exploit chaos in the country, Houthi rebels and other insurgents, and a simmering North-South division that could again erupt into civil conflict, the anxiety-inducing factors in Yemen are uniquely alarming. One can therefore expect Washington to give enthusiastic support to Saudi and GCC efforts to stabilize the situation and reverse the drift toward chaos. The chances of success for this exceptionally important but extremely difficult project are difficult to gauge, but the stakes could not be higher for Washington and Riyadh alike.
Hussein Ibish is a senior research fellow at the American Task Force on Palestine and he blogs at www.Ibishblog.com.

Syria Says 80 Security Officers Are Killed by ‘Gangs’
By LIAM STACK and J. DAVID GOODMAN
New York Times
Published: June 6, 2011
CAIRO — Syria’s state news agency reported Monday that “armed gangs” had killed 80 police and security personnel in multiple attacks on security forces in a northwestern town, and that residents were “pleading” for the army to intervene.
The attacks, if confirmed, would be the most lethal anti-government retaliation in Syria since President Bashar al-Assad began a brutal crackdown on protesters three months ago. However, such attacks are difficult to verify, and the state broadcaster showed no images from the town, despite scrolling text on Syrian television that spoke of a “massacre” of security forces.
Protesters could not be immediately reached in the area, but opposition activists repudiated any suggestion that antigovernment protesters had mounted such attack. “I have seen no evidence of organized violence by protesters against the regime,” said Wissam Tarif, a Syrian human rights activist currently outside the country. “Protesters do not have weapons they could even use against tanks and helicopters, which the regime is using.”
The reported number of dead ballooned over the course of the day as state media described escalating violence in the town of Jisr al-Shughour by the unspecified armed fighters, including an ambush of police, the bombing of a post office and gunfire from rooftops.
The reports came a day after demonstrators and rights activists said Syrian military forces using helicopter gunships and armored cars mounted with machine guns had killed at least 25 people in the town over the weekend. At least 13 others died in nearby villages.
Syria has been gripped by a popular uprising against four decades of iron-fisted rule by the Assad family since mid-March, but the government blames the unrest on what it calls Islamic extremists and foreign conspirators bent on destroying the country and its fragile balance of ethnic groups and religious denominations. However, even supporters of the government have said the unrest in Syria is far too widespread to validate the official explanation.
Syrian state media said police officers and security personnel heading to Jisr al-Shughour were ambushed by the “armed gangs.” In what appeared to be a separate attack, eight guards in the town were killed when pipe bombs exploded in a post office. Later, state media reported that at least 37 people were killed in a security station where residents had taken shelter from the gang members, some of whom were firing from rooftops and behind barricades.
The uprising began in the southern town of Dara’a and quickly spread, after residents there rose up against the Assad regime following the arrest and torture of a group of school children accused of spray painting anti-government graffiti on a school house wall. The children, aged eight to fifteen, were badly beaten and had their fingernails pulled out, activists said.
The government has responded to the uprising with a brutal drumbeat of mass arrests and military operations against a number of cities and towns that activists say has killed more than 1,000 people. As the crackdown has continued to grind across the country, fears have grown that some of Syria’s peaceful protesters could begin to respond in kind.
“We live moment to moment, just waiting,” said one activist in Lattakia who declined to be named. “There have been a lot of killings and some people are becoming more extremist. Fear is creating a negative reaction.” Security forces appeared to redeploy from other towns to join the harsh crackdown in the northern province of Idlib in a swift effort to put down the latest flare up in a three-month-old popular uprising against the government of President Bashar al-Assad. The number of protesters in Idlib swelled in recent weeks, said Mr. Tarif,the rights activist. Parts of the province had come to the kind of standstill associated with the besieged southern town of Dara’a, he said, where the arrest and torture of 15 schoolchildren for spraying antigovernment graffiti sparked the wave of uprisings.

Israel Accuses Syria of Inciting Golan Violence
Luis Ramirez | Jerusalem June 06, 2011
VOA/Israel plans to file a complaint at the United Nations accusing Syria of inciting violence along its boundary with the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. On Sunday, Israeli troops fired at pro-Palestinian demonstrators who tried to breach the fence. Syria says at least 23 people were killed.
Israeli soldiers on Monday repaired the parts of the barbed wire that Israel said protesters cut as they tried to enter Israeli-controlled territory in the Golan Heights.
A number of demonstrators continued to camp on the Syrian side of the fence Monday, but reports say Syrian police started blocking any more of them from approaching the barrier.
Dead protesters  Syrian television on Monday showed the funerals of the dead protesters. A relative of one of the dead accused Israel of using disproportionate force.
The mourner says Israeli snipers fired at unarmed demonstrators who used - in the mourner's words - "only stones and flags" to confront Israeli security forces.
The demonstration was part of a larger series of protests Sunday that Palestinians held to mark the anniversary of Israel's 1967 war with Jordan, Egypt, and Syria that resulted in the Israeli capture of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, the Golan Heights, the Gaza Strip, and the Sinai Peninsula. Organizers said their strategy was to use nonviolent means. Some protesters said they hope to gain international support by demonstrating peacefully and letting Israel appear as the aggressor.
Dispute over victims
Israel countered Syrian reports that Israeli soldiers killed protesters during Sunday's violence in the Golan Heights. The Israeli army says 10 people died in the boundary area -- but not as a result of Israeli gunfire. An army official says protesters hurled firebombs that struck old Syrian landmines and caused them to explode - resulting in the deaths.
Israeli officials defended their troops' use of live fire and said soldiers were instructed to shoot only at the feet of those who tried to breach the border fence.
Did Syria incite protests? Speaking on Israeli radio, Defense Minister Ehud Barak accused Syria of inciting the demonstrations along the Golan fence to deflect attention from the Assad leadership's crackdown on Syrian anti-government demonstrators.
He said the responsibility for the violence and loss of life falls on Syria, where he said 1,200 people have been killed in the last three months. Barak said Syria could be encouraging the unrest along the border because it diverts attention from the uprising at home. He said Israel has no choice but to protect its border.
May 15 protest  The Golan Heights boundary had been tense but largely peaceful for decades until May 15 when demonstrators breached the fence and entered Israeli-held territory. In that incident, Israeli forces also opened fire. At least four demonstrators were killed. Palestinian activists say they plan to hold more demonstrations in the months leading up to September, when leaders will seek full membership in the United Nations as an independent Palestinian state.
Palestinian leaders say they are pushing ahead with the plan out of frustration, following the collapse of peace talks with Israel last September.

Does the Real Violence in Syria Start Now?
Jonathan S. Tobin
06.06.2011 -
For months, Bashar Assad has maintained his grip on power in Syria by using brutal force whenever necessary to disrupt protests against his dictatorial rule. Hundreds of dissidents have been killed but the regime has been able to keep order in the main cities of Damascus and Aleppo. The West has been treating this ally of Iran very differently than the dictators of Egypt, Tunisia and Libya. Assad also may think his strategy of attempting to distract the world from his own depredations with exhibitions such as the staged assault on Israel’s borders to commemorate the anniversary of the Six Day War is working.
But Assad did not count on the protestors having this much staying power or that his forces might actually encounter resistance in some places. Last weekend, reports say the army was forced to call in helicopter gunships to mow down demonstrators in the northern town of Jisr al-Shughour. But the news today that approximately 120 police and security personnel were killed in fighting there is a sign of two things.
One is that resistance to the regime may be growing rather than receding as Assad had hoped.
The other is that the blood shed in Syria by the regime so far may be only the prelude to a general massacre of dissidents that will rival the slaughter of at least 10,000 at Hama in 1982 committed by Assad’s father Hafez.
It bears repeating that the situation in Syria is nothing like that of the other countries where the Arab Spring protests have met with some success. The entire government is connected to the Assad clan and the minority Alawite sect. Thus, there is very little chance that the armed forces will restrain the regime or even topple it. Ties of blood and complicity in decades of crimes bind all those connected to the power structure. And unlike some other tyrannies, the leaders of Syria have clearly not lost their taste for spilling blood if that’s what it takes to suppress dissent.
We don’t know exactly what happened today and we can’t be sure of the state of the opposition. But we do know that the Assad clan will do anything to hold onto power in Syria. The full measure of the regime’s capacity for atrocity may not yet be felt. The Obama administration has downplayed the truth about Syria up until now even as it has pledged not to stand by while innocents are slaughtered. As much as Assad may feel his opponents are testing him, the situation in Syria is also a test of Obama’s seriousness about human rights and his support for freedom in the Islamic world.

Opinion piece discusses the crisis in Syria
Arabic News Digest
Jun 7, 2011
Situation in Syria may have limited impact
"The Syrian revolution is evolving," observed Satea Noureddine in a leader article in the Lebanese newspaper Assafir. "Day after day, it is growing larger. It has gradually written off the myth that it is a byproduct of external conspiracies."
Many analysts previously argued that any popular movement in Syria could send shockwaves through the region, and eventually alter its geopolitical map.
Increasingly, the popular protest has taken a form that is reminiscent of the Tunisian and Egyptian uprisings, prompting angry people to organise themselves to counter a violent regime seeking to quell their revolt.
While the revolution is gaining more support, the regime is losing credibility, a situation that is likely to lead the conflict to an abrupt tipping point. Fearing that incidents in Syria will have a wider impact, neighbouring countries have grown concerned, yet there is no sign that they need to declare an alert on the borders.
In the meantime, countries such as Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan, Palestine and Turkey are trying to handle their own problems, which cannot be attributed to events in Syria. However, Lebanon might, in the long term, be affected by any major political changes in Syria.
Lebanese sects are closely monitoring the situation in Syria, which will possibly change the political landscape and may also produce a new pact among different Lebanese political forces.
A step before the final exit in Yemen
"Last week I wrote an article entitled The Yemeni president before the audiotape," wrote Tareq Alhomayed, editor-in-chief of the pan-Arab newspaper Asharq al Awsat. "Today we entered a further phase marked by an attempt to assassinate him. He survived and left for Saudi Arabia for treatment. So is this his final exit?"
This matter is open to all possibilities. His departure for treatment can either be the beginning of a breakthrough in Yemen's crisis or the start of worse scenarios after the situation slid to bloody clashes in Sanaa.
Practically, the rule of Mr Saleh became over as soon as the palace came under attack and many government buildings were occupied. This raises the question of whether the regime has any more legitimacy. Moreover, Mr Saleh's departure to Saudi Arabia may mean Yemen has entered a new but critical phase.
It is expected that the presidential palace will fall into the hands of the protesters, and so mark an end of Mr Saleh's regime, especially since there are divisions among his aides. Violent fighting is expected continue over power. This is the worst that can happen.
The third possibility is that Mr Saleh's departure can be a first step for him before stepping down for health reasons and handing over power to a government figure close to him.
Moment of truth may turn to one of remorse
In a leader article in the UAE newspaper Emarat Al Youm, the editor-in-chief Sami al Ryami criticised Arabs for a lack of innovation in producing television programmes.
"Arabs' failure in innovation is nothing new or strange. But what is most strange is that we are unable to imitate famous shows, because we fail to understand what can be suitable to our communities."
There are significant differences in values between East and West. "In the West, for example, money is the foundation of other values. This is the way it goes. In the West, the game show The Moment of Truth is successful because there are no restrictions on the questions or answers. There is no issue with social values and ethics as long as the money is there to win."
Every answer means more dollars in cash. So it is natural for a participant to acknowledge that she has betrayed her husband to win $1,000. And it is more natural to answer how many times she has done it, because every answer accounts for more thousands.
Trying to copy a version of that show in the Arab world would backfire. What is the added value of revealing to the wider public that a son wishes he had a different kind of father, or a husband confides he has regretted marrying his wife? Next page
That is not a moment of truth, but one of vulnerability to the lure of money,to be followed by a moment of deep remorse."
Arab reforms turned out to be deadly
"Cucumbers look attractive due to their aerodynamic shape and brilliant green colour," remarked Abdullah Iskandar in a commentary for the London-based newspaper Al Hayat.
But cucumbers are now accused of carrying deadly strains of a bacteria that is hard to treat. It was confirmed that the type bacteria has been discovered for the first time.
In the Arab world, a similar discovery dated back to some decades. It was a sort of "cucumber" which, like the real one, has proved harmful.
We are talking about a project that once made the headlines: the Arab reform that came followed the defeat of 1967, the Naksa.
In many Arab countries, governments undertook reforms to overcome the bitterness of the loss in war, but they remained only decorative ones. In the name of reform, many regimes sought to legitimise themselves before their people. This happened in Egypt, Syria, Libya, Tunisia and Yemen.
Like the cucumber strains, the Arab reform was employed as a cover to proceed with unpopular policies that oppressed basic freedoms and sent off thousands to jail.
* Digest compiled by Mostapha El Mouloudi
melmouloudi@thenational.ae