LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
ِJUNE 10/2011

Biblical Event Of The Day
Peter's First Letter 2/17-25: "Honor all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king. 2:18 Servants, be in subjection to your masters with all fear; not only to the good and gentle, but also to the wicked. 2:19 For it is commendable if someone endures pain, suffering unjustly, because of conscience toward God. 2:20 For what glory is it if, when you sin, you patiently endure beating? But if, when you do well, you patiently endure suffering, this is commendable with God. 2:21 For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving you an example, that you should follow his steps, 2:22 who did not sin, “neither was deceit found in his mouth.”* 2:23 Who, when he was cursed, didn’t curse back. When he suffered, didn’t threaten, but committed himself to him who judges righteously; 2:24 who his own self bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live to righteousness; by whose stripes you were healed. 2:25 For you were going astray like sheep; but now have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls."

Latest analysis, editorials, studies, reports, letters & Releases from miscellaneous sources
Our omnipatriarch, an early assessment/By Michael Young/June 09/11
Hezbollah tightens security in Beirut suburbs/By: Nicholas Blanford/June 09/11  
Syrian slaughter and Israeli restraint/By Gideon Levy/June 09/11
Israel was harmed by Dagan's outburst on Iran/By: Israel Harel/June 09/11  
Shameful negligence/Now Lebanon/June 09/11

Latest News Reports From Miscellaneous Sources for June 09/11
Pope calls on Syria to respect “dignity” of people/Now Lebanon
UN rights chief urges Syria to halt assault on population/Now Lebanon 
Geagea for Technocrat Cabinet, Says March 8 Rejects to Consolidate the State/Naharnet
Houri: New majority is “temporary”/Now Lebanon
Assad meets with Jumblatt, voices hope Lebanese cabinet is formed “soon”/Now Lebanon
Iran: Israel and U.S. are trying to provoke a regional war/Haaretz
Enrichment transfer to Fordo: Iran's slap in the face for Obama, IAEA and Israel/DEBKAfile
Report: Syrian troops kill Hezbollah men who shot at protesters/Ynetnews
Syria’s crisis begins to go international/Daily Star
Syrian troops converge on restive north, West pushes U.N. resolution vote/Daily Star
UK and France seek UN action on Syria as thousands flee/The Guardian
Protesters in Syria and on Golan border must be heard/Haaretz
International Community Turns Up Pressure on Syria/VOA
Syria's Assad faces new sanctions by UN and European Union/The Guardian
UN mulls resolution condemning Syria for crackdown/USToday
Soldiers who defected speak out, thousands flee Syria unrest/M & C
ANALYSIS-Syria's crisis begins to go international/Reuters
On the Road to Fatima Gate/Strategy Page
In Syria, the death of tourism/WP
New  Lebanese Cabinet awaits 'final touches/Daily Star
Analysis: Syria's Assad seeks Israel diversion/Forbes
Lebanon tweets above its regional weight/Daily Star
Lebanon's legal community remembers judges slain in 1999/Daily Star
Lebanon's Arabic press digest - June 9, 2011/Daily Star
50 Lebanese deported from Sweden /Daily Star
Arslan Insists on Getting a Portfolio/Naharnet
Reports: Eight Lebanese Officials Met in Parliament in ‘Calculated Step’ to Restore Ties with Berri/Naharnet
Miqati and Aoun Agree Not to Impose or Veto Any Name in Cabinet/Naharnet
Berri: We Oppose Monopoly of Power, Govt.’s Resignation Expands Parliament’s Authority/Naharnet 

Pope calls on Syria to respect “dignity” of people
June 9, 2011 /Pope Benedict XVI called on Syria to respect its citizens' "dignity" on Thursday during a meeting with the new Syrian ambassador to the Holy See, Hussan Edin Aala.
"Every nation's path to unity and stability lies in recognizing the inalienable dignity of all people. This recognition should be at the heart of institutions, laws and societies," he said.
"It is essential to give priority to the common good, leaving aside personal or partisan interests," he added. The pontiff said the recent mass demonstrations against the government in Damascus "show the urgent need for real reforms" but called for "respect for truth and human rights" instead of "intolerance, discrimination or conflict". Benedict said Syria had traditionally been "an example of tolerance, of conviviality and of harmonious relations between Christians and Muslims" and acknowledged that "ecumenical and interreligious relations today are good." "Nevertheless, such unity cannot grow in a lasting way other than through the recognition of people's dignity," he said. In May, the pontiff had made an appeal for an end to bloodshed in Syria and had called on authorities to "recognize legitimate aspirations for a future of peace and stability".-AFP/NOW Lebanon

UN rights chief urges Syria to halt assault on population
June 9, 2011 /The UN human rights chief on Thursday urged Syria to halt an assault on its people, saying that it was "deplorable for any government to attempt to bludgeon is population into submission." "We are receiving an increasing number of alarming reports pointing to the Syrian government's continuing efforts to ruthlessly crush civilian protests," said Navi Pillay, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. "I urge the government to halt this assault on its own people's most fundamental human rights," Pillay said. Activists are now reporting that the death toll since March has exceeded 1,100, with up to 10,000 detained, the UN rights chief said. Noting that Damascus has disputed allegations of violations, Pillay urged authorities to allow UN investigators into probe these claims. Since the UN Human Rights Council ordered a probe to be set up on April 29, Pillay has sought access to Damascus, but Syrian authorities have yet to reply. About 1,600 Syrians have fled to Turkey amid the unrest, with the outflow intensifying since Tuesday. Pillay called on Syria's neighbors not to return any refugees to the country in the current situation. "I urge states to keep their borders open for refugees fleeing Syria," she said.-AFP/NOW Lebanon

Geagea for Technocrat Cabinet, Says March 8 Rejects to Consolidate the State
Naharnet Newsdesk /Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea accused the March 8 forces on Thursday of seeking to consolidate Hizbullah rather than forming a strong state.
“Some of them consider their party essential and (use) the rest of the state’s institutions to support the resistance,” Geagea told reporters in Maarab.While stating that some of the coalition’s parties do not recognize the existence of the state, Geagea said: “No one in the other team is looking on how to build the state, that’s why it would be difficult to reach an understanding on how to form the cabinet.” “Lebanon is badly in need of a government and the only solution to our existing problems is (to bring) a technocrat cabinet that deals with the economic and social issues,” he said. Geagea criticized the March 8 forces for looking for a solution elsewhere. “A one-sided cabinet would make things worse.” “There is no doubt there should be political dialogue,” he said in response to a question. “But dialogue should be based on clear foundations.”“Any discussion around the national dialogue table should be based on (the fact that) all of us are (present) in the state,” he told reporters, adding: “The only resistance in Lebanon is the resistance of the Lebanese people, the government and the army.”

Assad meets with Jumblatt, voices hope Lebanese cabinet is formed “soon”
June 9, 2011 /During his meeting with Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblatt on Thursday, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad voiced hope that the Lebanese overcome their disagreements, and that a cabinet is formed soon in Lebanon. Jumblatt and Assad discussed the situation in Lebanon and Syria, the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) also said.
“Their meeting tackled the dangerous events that Syria is witnessing due to armed organizations that are carrying out murders and targeting Syria’s security and people,” the report added.
According to SANA, Jumblatt voiced his confidence that Syria is able to overcome the current crisis. Public Works and Transportation Minister Ghazi Aridi also attended the meeting, SANA added. More than 1,100 civilians, including dozens of children, have been killed in a security crackdown against anti-government protests that erupted in Syria in March.
Earlier this week, Syrian state television said 120 policemen had been killed by "armed gangs" in the northwestern town of Jisr al-Shughur. Activists reported that there had been a mutiny at a local security headquarters. Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati, who was appointed to the premiership in January with the backing of the Hezbollah-led March 8 coalition, has been working since January to form a government.-NOW Lebanon

Houri: New majority is “temporary”
June 9, 2011 /Lebanon First bloc MP Ammar Houri told Future News television on Thursday that the new majority is a temporary one because nothing unites it. “What kind of majority is this when there is no agenda that unites it? This is a fake majority.”Speaker Nabih Berri is trying “to convince others of something that he himself is not convinced about,” Houri also said, in reference to Berri’s defense of his call for a parliament session. The MP also voiced the importance of forming a cabinet to run the citizens’ affairs, and asked whether the decision to form a cabinet has been made or not. On current events in Syria, Houri said it is a must to find a solution to stop “the river of blood in Syria,” because bloodshed complicates matters.
Berri defended on Wednesday his calls to convene parliament and accused the March 14 “Cedar Revolution” of “attempting to thwart parliamentary initiatives” as he adjourned the parliament session for June 15 after the quorum was not reached. The speaker has called for holding a parliamentary session despite some parties’ apprehension of such a move amid a cabinet vacuum. Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati, who was appointed to the premiership in January with the backing of the Hezbollah-led March 8 coalition, has been working since January to form a government. More than 1,100 civilians, including dozens of children, have been killed in a security crackdown against anti-government protests that erupted in Syria in March. -NOW Lebanon

Shameful negligence
June 9, 2011
If Monday night’s lethal explosion at a Beirut petrol station was an accident waiting to happen, it is fitting (if one can use such a word in such tragic circumstances) that it happened when Lebanese support for the country’s so-called political class must surely be at an all-time low. For with the blast came the realization that the Lebanese have been literally left exposed and unprotected by a political class that cares not one jot for their safety.
In the wake of the incident came the usual shifting of blame. Caretaker Energy and Water Minister Gebran Bassil, talking to the local media, claimed the issue was addressed in February 2010 but has been somehow ignored by parliament’s Energy Committee, the body he implied was the one to act on the matter.
Enter MP Mohammad Qabbani, head of the committee, who promptly threw the accusations back at Bassil by claiming that the buck stops at the minister’s office, that there are no inspections, no safety and no accountability. After a license is issued, he said, no one takes the trouble to renew. Damning stuff.
Indeed, on Tuesday, Bassil himself offered some startling figures: Of Lebanon’s 3,250 gas stations, fewer than 45 percent are legal. If these figures are correct (and indeed, given past experience, they are probably conservative) it matters little who is to blame, for it is clear that the very fabric of what is left of Lebanon’s public-sector administrative and regulatory bodies was worn to a thread years ago.
We should not be surprised. Regulation and enforcement are dirty words in Lebanese public administration. Consider the state of many of the cars on our roads. For every Lebanese who buys a new or roadworthy second-hand car because they believe in safety for themselves and others, there is another who drives a car that is nothing short of a death trap. There is a system in place that checks road worthiness every year, but all one has to do is stand on any corner of a Beirut street to see that many people circumvent the system with impunity. That they are criminally negligent appears to matter little to the state.
With petrol stations, the dangers are all the more sinister. It is relatively easier to tell if a car is not safe, but petrol stations are by and large outwardly well maintained. One cannot see the dangers that lurk either beneath the surface or behind the scenes.
In the immediate term, gas station owners must be obliged to display their licenses so that they are clearly visible to customers. Those who have not renewed their licenses should be given a grace period to get their paperwork in order and their stations checked. In the short to medium term, basic safety regulations should be abided by and enforced, and those gas stations that infringe on the regulations will be fined or even shut down.
Meanwhile, funds must be made available for a pan-media campaign (the more graphic the better so that the message sinks in) to educate the public on the dangers of using cell phones or smoking while filling up and encourage them to boycott those gas stations that adopt a cavalier attitude toward safety. In fact, the campaign should be part of a wider public safety campaign that addresses all areas of life.
These suggestions may be quixotic and will in all probability fall on deaf ears, but they need to be tabled nonetheless. The state has ignored the safety of its citizens for too long.
In the meantime, Bassil, who would always like us to believe that he does the honorable thing, should resign from his job. The statistics are just too horrific to contemplate with nearly one out of every two petrol stations operating illegally. Qabbani should also step down from his position as head of the parliamentary committee. They may not have been at fault personally, but their stepping down would highlight attention and set a new standard of ministerial accountability. The buffoonery of our so-called leaders cannot carry on. They should understand the difference between public service and private self-interest. The two cannot co-exist, especially when people are dying from neglect.

Berri: We Oppose Monopoly of Power, Govt.’s Resignation Expands Parliament’s Authority
Naharnet /Speaker Nabih Berri stressed on Wednesday his ongoing respect for the Taef Accord and parliament’s internal system, stating that his call for a parliament session was constitutional. He said during a press conference at parliament: “We oppose the monopoly of power and as parliament speaker, I cannot stand idly by as the constitution is being neglected.”
“My call for a session was aimed at protecting Lebanon’s system, especially its monetary system,” he declared.
He slammed accusations that the session was unconstitutional in light of the governmental vacuum, adding: “No one has facilitated the government formation process more than me, just ask Prime Minister-designate Najib Miqati.” Furthermore, Berri said that a number of March 14 figures and blocs had been questioning his failure so far to hold a legislative session.
“Now that I have held a session, where have all these calls disappeared to?” he asked. The speaker explained that today’s legislative session was aimed at approving draft laws and “preventing the establishment of a masked dictatorship.” Addressing the accusations that he violated the constitution, he said: “As soon as government resigns, parliament becomes in a constant state of session.” “Saying that the session is unconstitutional in light of a caretaker government places parliament in the hands of the prime minister-designate and the political forces that appointed him,” he added. “That means if the March 14 camp wanted us to adopt their approach, Miqati and his camp could take control of the situation in the country and the president can’t do a thing about it,” Berri continued. “The government’s resignation should expand parliament’s privileges,” he stressed.
“I don’t understand how the number of articles and the constitutionality of the session are connected. It is either constitutional or not,” he said.
“This parliament will remain for the whole of Lebanon,” the speaker concluded. Earlier on Wednesday, Berri stressed that he would keep calling for parliamentary sessions to discuss 49 items, among which is the renewal of Central Bank governor Riyad Salameh’s mandate. Berri told his visitors that he would continue to invite to parliamentary sessions until the new government is formed. “I don’t accept any compromise and I reject to practice a dictatorship,” his visitors quoted him as saying. “This has been my way in parliament since 1992.” Berri expressed surprise at the announcement of some parties that they would attend Wednesday’s parliamentary session if it had only the renewal of Salameh’s term on its agenda.
The renewal is item number 36 on the agenda. He reminded his visitors that after the assassination of Premier Rashid Karami, his cabinet was given caretaking tasks and parliament approved 15 laws.

Iran: Israel and U.S. are trying to provoke a regional war
By Haaretz Service /Tags: Iran Iran nuclear Iran threat Iran US Islam Arab Spring Barack Obama UN Security Council
Iran blames Israel and the U.S. for trying to provoke a military conflict in the region, Israel Army radio reported on Wednesday. According to the report, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said that the two countries are conspiring against Iran. "The Americans believe that the immediate result of a military conflict in the area will be saving the Zionist regime," he said, adding that the U.S. and Israel are trying to "weaken the popular uprisings in the area, in order to stop the spread of Islam to their regional allies." The purported launching of a Shahin missile during war games in Iran. "Obama wants to continue the Western hegemony in the Middle East and destroy the Islamic Republic of Iran," he said.
On Monday, Iran announced it had sent submarines to the Red Sea. "Iranian military submarines entered the Red Sea waters with the goal of collecting information and identifying other countries' combat vessels," reported the semi-official news agency Fars. Iran defended the deployment of the submarines, saying "this kind of military presence is support for Islamic countries, especially those with strategic ties with Iran." Iran's nuclear energy chief and Vice President Fereidoun Abbasi was quoted Wednesday as saying Tehran plans to soon set up the more advanced type of centrifuges, suitable for higher-level uranium enrichment, at the Fordo site near the holy city of Qom in central Iran. Meanwhile, state broadcaster IRIB reported that Iran was also shifting its higher grade uranium enrichment work from a site it has used for years to Fordo and aims to triple the production capacity of the nuclear fuel. "This year, under the supervision of the [International Atomic Energy] Agency, we will transfer 20 percent enrichment from the Natanz site to the Fordo site and we will increase the production capacity by three times," the head of Iran's atomic energy agency, Fereydoun Abbasi-Davani, told reporters after a cabinet meeting, IRIB reported.
The statement is another act of defiance by Iran, slammed with international sanctions over its controversial nuclear program. The 27-nation EU, in a statement read out by Hungary's ambassador at a board meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), responded by expressing "grave concern" over Iran's lack of cooperation with the U.N. nuclear watchdog. "We note with particular concern the announcement made only today by Iran that it will increase its capacity to enrich (uranium) to 20 percent, thereby further exacerbating its defiance of the United Nations Security Council," it said in a statement

Enrichment transfer to Fordo: Iran's slap in the face for Obama, IAEA and Israel
DEBKAfile Special Report June 8, 2011,
Iranhas struck another blow in its nuclear offensive against the world. Tuesday, June 7, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad termed Iran's nuclear program "a train with no brakes or reverse gear" after Tehran announced the deployment of submarines in the Red Sea. Wednesday, Iran's vice president and atomic chief Fereydoon Abbasi Davani said Iran's 20-percent uranium enrichment work would be transferred from Natanz to Fordo this summer. Purification capacity would be tripled, he said, by improved centrifuges.
debkafile's military sources report that this move further shortens Iran's road to weapons grade uranium of 90 percent.
Last November, Abbasi Davani escaped an attempt of his life in northern Tehran, for which Iran held Israel responsible.
Fordo is a well-guarded underground facility situated near the military installations surrounding the holy city of Qom and protected by air defense missile batteries. It was burrowed deep into the side of a mountain. These features make the facility all but invulnerable to an American or Israel air strike.
The very name Fordo is a red flag for US President Barack Obama.
In Pittsburgh on Sept. 25, 2009, Obama appeared before the world media, flanked by the British prime minister of the day, George Brown, and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, to reveal the existence of the surreptitious Iranian enrichment facility at Fordo. He gaveTehran two weeks to open up the facility to full International Atomic Energy Agency inspectionand disclose the plans for the site, failing which Washington, London and Paris would pursue joint action against the Islamic Republic.
The answer Iran gave was that the US president's allegations were baseless and the nuclear watchdog inspectors were welcome.
The UN inspectors arrived at the Fordo subterranean facility a month later and returned to Vienna to report they found nothing – neither centrifuges for enrichment nor nuclear materials. Two more UN inspections produced the same result.
Iran's announcement Wednesday demonstrates that in 2009, it made a fool of Western leaders, especially President Obama, and tricked the international atomic agency inspectors.Enrichment uranium to 20 percent meanwhile takes Iran another big step towards attaining the fuel for a nuclear weapon.
Three years ago, Obama accused Tehran of concealment and deceit. Today, the Iranians no longer bother to conceal the true function of the Fordo facility - or even that 3,000 advanced centrifuges will be working there when the plant reaches full capacity.
Iran's rulers feel they can be afford to be barefaced about their activities because they are certain that neither the US nor Israel with take military action against the Fordo plant. They do not find the condemnation of world powers or the nuclear watchdog too burdensome to live with.

Country’s legal community remembers judges slain in 1999
June 09, 2011 By Youssef Diab, Mohammad Zaatari The Daily Star
BEIRUT/SIDON: Lebanon’s legal community and judiciary gathered Wednesday to mark the 12th anniversary of the assassination of four magistrates in Sidon, as government officials admitted that investigations into the crime have seen no progress.
On June 8, 1999, judges Hassan Othman, Walid Harmoush, Assem Bou Daher and Imad Shehab were attending a session of the trial of two Iraqis and a Palestinian at the South Lebanon Criminal Court at the old Justice Palace in Sidon, when two individuals opened fire through the rear window of the courtroom, killing the judges and wounding five others.
Caretaker Justice Minister Ibrahim Najjar, members of the Higher Judicial Council, a number of lawyers and members of the judges’ families attended a ceremony held at the Justice Palace in Beirut Wednesday to commemorate their lives.
Speaking at the ceremony, Najjar said it was time to uncover those behind the crime but added that no progress had been made in investigations of the case.
“There is nothing to mention in regard to this case so far, but this situation cannot continue,” Najjar said.
Despite promises from judicial figures over the years to find those responsible for the crime and bring them to justice, the perpetrators of the crime remain unknown.
State Prosecutor Said Mirza declined to respond to reporters’ inquiries over whether progress was being made in the investigations, arguing that the secrecy of investigations prohibited him from disclosing any information.
For her part, Beirut Bar Association head Amal Haddad urged the authorities to work toward concluding the investigations and trying the criminals, while Tripoli Bar Association head Bassam Dayeh expressed his hope that the assailants would be arrested and held to account for their crimes.
The assailants were believed to have fled to the Ain al-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp to escape arrest, although investigations were unable to prove a firm connection between camp residents and the crime.
The ceremony at Beirut’s Justice Palace coincided with another at Sidon’s new Justice Palace, which was attended by judicial officials from south Lebanon.
The head of the Criminal Court in south Lebanon, Judge Roula Jadayel, said those behind the assassination of the judges had sought to undermine the authority of Lebanon’s judiciary, but failed to accomplish their objective.
Hopes of discovering a lead in the case of the slain judges rose following last year’s arrest by Lebanese Army intelligence of Palestinian Wissam Tehaibesh, who was suspected of being involved in a number of incidents that occurred during the same time as the judges were assassinated.
However, further investigations revealed no link.

Hezbollah tightens security in Beirut suburbs
June 09, 2011
By Nicholas Blanford
The Daily Star
BEIRUT: A recent unprecedented three-day security clampdown by Hezbollah in Beirut’s southern suburbs uncovered at least two car bombs, according to local residents and sources close to the party.
Hezbollah has made no formal announcement of the alleged discovery of the car bombs, apparently choosing to play down the incident. But the unusually tight and visible security measures in Beirut’s southern suburbs over the weekend reflect a general nervousness in the country that the continued stalemate in the cabinet formation and tensions generated by the unrest in Syria will lead to instability.
Hezbollah, as a matter of course, maintains strict security procedures in the southern suburbs, home to much of the party’s leadership. Security personnel conduct routine patrols along the streets of the district in the early hours of the morning, often using sniffer dogs to check for potential explosive devices or car bombs.
But local residents say that at the end of last week, Hezbollah noticeably increased its security efforts by deploying armed personnel accompanied by muzzled sniffer dogs in daylight hours at access points leading into the southern suburbs. Hezbollah cadres very rarely display weapons in public, underlining to local residents the apparent seriousness of the security clampdown.
“The security was scary,” said one resident, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject.
“It’s the first time we have seen this kind of force on the streets here.”
Black SUVs belonging to Hezbollah’s rapid reaction unit were also parked at entrances to the suburbs. Local sources said that two car bombs were discovered.
The security alert came a week after six Italian peacekeepers and two civilians were wounded when a roadside bomb exploded beside a UNIFIL convoy just north of Sidon. The investigation into the May 27 bomb attack, the first against UNIFIL in more than three years, is ongoing. Security sources say that Lebanese investigators are confident that they will determine the identity of the culprits. Investigators are examining whether there is a connection between the UNIFIL bomb ambush and a planned attempt to launch at least one rocket into Israel a few days earlier. That attack was foiled when troops arrested a courier carrying the rocket near Hasbaya. One other suspect, the mastermind of the planned rocket launch, has gone missing. The unidentified individual is said to be a resident of the Iqlim al-Kharroub region north of Sidon, the same area where the UNIFIL bombing occurred.
According to diplomatic sources, at the tripartite session in Naqoura on May 11, a monthly meeting that groups together the UNIFIL commander and senior Lebanese and Israeli army officers, the Israeli representative warned that extremists in the Ain al-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp in Sidon were planning attacks against UNIFIL, the Lebanese Army and Hezbollah. The Israelis occasionally pass on general security threats they have picked up to UNIFIL and the Lebanese Army, while usually keeping the details to themselves so as not to betray the source of the information. But diplomats were surprised that the Israelis chose to include Hezbollah in the warning. Whether Hezbollah’s recent security measures stemmed from the Israeli warning and the UNIFIL attack or were prompted by the party’s own intelligence sources is unclear.
However, it should come as no surprise that Hezbollah is exerting more energy than usual into securing its environs given the worsening violence in Syria and the flaring sectarian tensions between Sunnis and Alawites.
Hezbollah has always championed intra-Muslim unity, believing that the schism between Sunnis and Shiites distracts from the greater goal of confronting Israel. But the party’s leadership will have been dismayed by recent reports of some Syrian opposition supporters chanting anti-Iranian and anti- Hezbollah slogans and burning pictures of Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, the party’s secretary-general, during protests.
The United States has accused Iran of providing material support, including equipment to trace and monitor phone calls and internet traffic, to help the Syrian authorities suppress the uprising. Rumors swirl in Syrian opposition circles of Hezbollah fighters assisting Syrian security forces on the ground. No hard evidence has emerged of direct Hezbollah support and most observers are skeptical that the Syrian regime requires the assistance of Hezbollah personnel. Nonetheless, the rumors have helped inflame anti-Hezbollah sentiment among Sunni opposition supporters in Syria. In the same context, the Al-Qaeda-inspired Abdullah al-Azzam Brigades this week accused Hezbollah, which it described as Syria’s “Shiite agent in Lebanon,” of perpetrating the bomb attack against UNIFIL.Given the hardening sectarian sentiment in Syria and the possibility of a backlash in Lebanon, Hezbollah is checking on all new arrivals in Beirut’s southern suburbs, particularly Syrians moving into the district to live and work. According to local residents, Hezbollah’s security personnel interview newly arrived Syrians to ascertain their background and reasons for moving into the area.

Syrian troops converge on restive north, West pushes U.N. resolution vote
June 09, 2011 /By Bassem Mroue, Daily Star Staff Associated Press
BEIRUT: Thousands of elite troops led by Syrian President Bashar Assad’s brother converged Wednesday on a restive northern area, and neighboring villages warned that the convoys of tanks were approaching, a resident and a Syrian activist said.
Syrian forces have lost control of large areas of the northern province, a pro-government newspaper reported, in a rare acknowledgment of cracks in the regime’s tight grip after weeks of protest calling for an end to its 40-year rule. The separate reports raised the prospect of more bloodshed in Syria’s nationwide crackdown on the 11-week revolt. The region borders Turkey, which said Wednesday it would open the border to Syrians fleeing violence. In Jisr al-Shughour, where the government said “armed groups” had killed 120 security forces and taken over, a resident said nearby villages had opened their mosques, churches and schools to take in people who fled in terror.
Many also crossed into Turkey from Idlib Province, said the man, who would give only a nickname, Abu Nader, because he feared government reprisals.
Witnesses in nearby villages called to tell people in Jisr al-Shughour tanks were approaching, Abu Nader said, adding he feared an attack was imminent.
The pro-government newspaper Al-Watan said gunmen had set up booby traps and ambushes in small villages to thwart incoming troops, and were sheltering in forests and caves.
Mustafa Osso, a human rights worker, said witnesses told him that thousands of troops were moving toward Idlib. He said many of the forces were from the army’s 4th Division, which is commanded by Assad’s younger brother, Maher.
The younger Assad also commands the Republican Guard, which protects the regime and is believed to have played a role in suppressing the protests.
“The number of soldiers is in the thousands,” Osso said. He speculated that the government planned a “decisive battle.”
Al-Watan, the pro-government newspaper, said the Syrian army was launching a “very delicate” operation designed to avoid casualties in Jisr al-Shughour. It added that some people were being held captive by armed groups that control some areas in Jisr al-Shughour and a large area of Idlib. There was no way to independently confirm the reports from Syria, which severely restricts local media and has expelled foreign journalists from the country.
The government routinely blames armed gangs and religious extremists for the recent violence.
Activists had reported fighting in Jisr al-Shughour between loyalist troops and defectors who no longer wanted to continue the crackdown on protesters seeking Assad’s ouster. Activists say more than 1,300 Syrians, most of them civilians, have died since the start of the nationwide uprising.
British Prime Minister David Cameron said Britain and France would offer a resolution at the U.N. condemning the crackdown. “If anyone votes against that resolution or tries to veto it, that should be on their conscience,” Cameron said.
France considers it vital that the U.N. Security Council, so far silent on the deadly repression in Syria, take a stand.
In Washington, State Department spokesman Mark Toner said the U.S. supports the resolution and was trying to secure the backing of other members. “Such a resolution will bring added pressure on Assad’s regime and advance the international community’s efforts to end the brutal repression on the Syrian people,” Toner said.
Turkey’s state-run news agency said Wednesday 122 Syrian refugees who fled the recent fighting had crossed into Turkey. The Anatolia news agency said the group crossed close to the village of Karbeyazi near the border town of Altinozu on Wednesday.
With the new arrivals, the number of Syrian refugees in Turkey has reached around 350. Authorities said more than 30 other Syrians were being treated at Turkish hospitals for wounds they suffered in clashes in northern Syria. They said one had died.
Ankara has said it is prepared to deal with a mass influx of Syrian refugees, though the frontier is relatively quiet for now. “It is out of the question for us to close the border crossings. We are watching the situation with great concern,” Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said.

Our omnipatriarch, an early assessment
June 09, 2011
By Michael Young /The Daily Star
Maronite Patriarch Bishara Rai is not a man of few words. Since being elected to office he has issued myriad statements on the events of the day.
And if those are not sufficient, you can still hear his taped interventions on Tele Lumiere from the period when he was a bishop. The patriarch is ubiquitous, which is not always a good thing.
It’s no secret that Rai very much likes his politics. His spirituality notwithstanding, the patriarch arrived in Bkirki when the Maronite Church desperately needed to depoliticize its clergy. Instead, he has been far more vocal on political matters than his predecessor, Patriarch Nasrallah Butros Sfeir, who was criticized at the end, unfairly, for presiding over a divided Maronite political class. If Rai continues in this vein, he, too, may succumb to the Maronites’ ample contradictions.
To Rai’s credit, he has brought Maronite leaders together in what are early steps in a communal reconciliation effort. This is valuable, and the fact that he twice hosted Samir Geagea and Sleiman Franjieh under the same roof is an achievement. What will emerge from the initiative is unclear, but the patriarch’s role is to act as a shepherd; he can’t be blamed if rivalries among his discordant flock endure.
More generally, Rai has injected dynamism into the Church, which Maronites have welcomed. He is everywhere, an omnipatriarch: one day in Rome, another in Bkirki, a third in Jbeil, making this comment or that, pushing for a new government, taking a stance on the Constitution, presiding over the naming of new bishops, and so on.
How very useful, but where Rai has come up short is in placing his endeavors within a cohesive strategy. Is his priority to reform the Maronite Church, which needs to be cleaned out with a large broom? Is it to be a mentor to or promoter of communal politicians? Is it to act as a bridge to the Muslim communities? We don’t know. Rai is so hyperactive that he risks overreaching, in the end getting little done.
An inexperienced new patriarch is entitled to make mistakes. Rai did so early on when he effectively endorsed Ziyad Baroud’s return to the Cabinet before a congratulatory delegation led by the interior minister. This came at a stage when Baroud’s future was a bone of contention between President Michel Sleiman and Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun in the government formation process. The patriarch was doing Sleiman a favor, but it was tactically unnecessary when one of Rai’s aims, ultimately, should be to rise above Maronite politicians.
Then in March Rai showed poor timing when he declared that he would visit Syria later this year, for religious purposes. The patriarch was hasty. Someone attuned to politics should have better grasped that his visit would be interpreted by the Assad regime as a sign of esteem, one that it had done nothing to earn, just weeks after it had engineered the collapse of the Hariri government, confirming Syrian indifference to a sovereign Lebanon. By so doing, Rai also needlessly dissociated himself from Sfeir, who had, laudably, refused to go to Syria because he disapproved of its behavior on the sovereignty issue.
Rai could not have guessed that at around the same time he announced his plans, the Assad regime would begin its violent repression in Daraa. But it should have been a lesson to him that it’s sometimes better to consolidate one’s position first and wait before wrestling with controversial matters. As Rai surveys the carnage in Syria, he must be wondering why he made a commitment that he cannot possibly want to implement today under Assad rule.
The most egregious of Rai’s assertions has involved Taif. In late May, after meeting with the Aounist parliamentarian Nemetallah Abi Nasr, the patriarch said of Taif that it “is not a holy document that descended from heaven.” He remarked that the accord “has flaws and needs to be reformed,” before adding that the powers of the president had to be expanded. “We are with the equal division of shares between Christians and Muslims but we do not support it when the president has no power to make a decision,” Rai observed.
It’s a pity that even the head of the Maronite Church can still be living under the illusion that Shiites and Sunnis will readily surrender political power to a Maronite president when they spent over a decade of conflict taking that power away, and now consider the Maronites over-represented in Parliament. Taif is not holy, but since Rai is willing to juggle the profane and the divine, he should know that it is reckless to open the door on presidential power from a position of resentment, by boldly doubting the constitutional foundations of our political system. That’s because amending Taif will cut both ways.
What is Rai’s point? If it is to merely return more authority to the president, then what is to prevent the Muslims from responding, quite legitimately, that Taif needs to be implemented fully, which means abolishing political confessionalism? That’s a good idea, but it’s not one the patriarch welcomes. It makes no sense for Rai to selectively focus on Christian interests and shatter the consensus around Taif, then assume that non-Christians will applaud this.
On the other hand, if Rai drew on his disapproval of Taif to gain tactical advantage by currying favor among his coreligionists, then his words were even more embarrassing. Patriarchs are not here to play petty politics, particularly on so essential a matter as constitutional reform. Nothing whatsoever obliged Rai to take a position on Taif at this time. His recommendations were short-sighted and gratuitous.
Lebanon’s bane is that clergymen dream of being politicians and politicians dream of being clergymen. Rai came in at a pivotal moment for Maronites, one of existential importance. The community’s paramount challenges are internal revival and the adoption of a radically new approach in its relations with Muslims. Rai should address these and abandon the more sordid byways of Lebanese politics.
**Michael Young is opinion editor of THE DAILY STAR and author of “The Ghosts of Martyrs Square: An Eyewitness Account of Lebanon’s Life Struggle” (Simon & Schuster), listed as one of the 10 notable books of 2010 by The Wall Street Journal. He tweets @BeirutCalling.

SYRIA: Out of fear and for personal gain, some still cling to regime
June 8, 2011
As some Syrians disseminate what they say is video of uprisings and state brutality in the face of the ongoing protests, others show a continued loyalty to the regime led by President Bashar Assad. Some Western diplomats in Damascus say they sometimes have difficulty explaining how Assad retains popularity among some groups, popularity that was more widespread before protests began. "Syria has a similar demographic to Egypt, with a young population," said one diplomat. "But they have a relatively young president in whom they had a lot of hope for reform, though his reputation is greatly tarnished now. Many people, even without high expectations of reform, still value the secular nature of society, and in recent years, if you were a middle-class person, you have seen life improve." The middle classes are the bedrock of Assad's support now, and as turmoil roils in Dara and in rural and suburban areas, the biggest cities of Damascus and Aleppo, which have gotten richer under the economic policies of the last decade, have remained relatively quiet. Living under heavy surveillance, people do not easily share criticism of the authorities in public. "We in the cities don't have a problem [with the regime] because we understand that democracy and freedom mean chaos," one shop owner in Aleppo said. He equated freedom with anarchy, with uncontrolled building on Syria's ancient citadels or driving through red lights.  "Or would we want democracy, like in Europe, where everything is corruption," he went on. "We would like freedom and democracy, but in the Arab mentality, you must have discipline first."The president's cult of personality -- his picture is everywhere, in a variety of costumes and poses -- is augmented by personal visits. Dozens of shopkeepers, restaurant owners and gallery-owners say they have been visited by Assad and his wife, Asma, and are full of praise for their light personal security detail, their charming comments and willingness to buy things.
The threat of sectarian violence is seen as another reason for standing with a regime that is nominally secular, despite resentment over corruption and violence among the elites and security forces belonging to the president's minority Alawite Muslim sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam.
Diplomats say that many leaders of the Christian community, who make up 10% of the population, are still supportive of the regime, fearful of the power Islamic parties could wield if the president fell. In an Armenian cathedral in Aleppo, as Mass choruses floated out across the churchyard one Sunday morning, a middle-aged woman said that she goes out in the city unveiled, dressed as she chooses. Even among the Muslims, she said, some cover their faces, but others wear bright headscarves and make-up. Without the president, she feared such choices would disappear, she said.
Even among the young liberals -- the educated people who speak English, have foreign friends and are more aware of the freedoms of the world outside Syria -- there are staunch supporters of the government. One man in his 30s, who works in the creative arts in Damascus, said that all his friends are against the government, although most are too afraid of the consequences to go to protests. But he said he is passionately pro-regime.
"As a student, I was totally into anger toward the government as an oppositionist," he said. The autocracy and inefficient, corrupt bureaucracy of the country used to make him angry, he said, but "is it true if we change our government, these problems will disappear? ... I think that the Egyptian people went from blindness to stupidity -- they imagined that by kicking the president away they can have a new country that fulfills their needs and demands."The gulf between opposition movements and urban people, particularly in Damascus, has precedent, said Sadiq Azm, a Syrian philosopher living in Beirut. He recalled the 1982 massacre in the city of Hama after an uprising by Sunni Muslims, which enjoyed little support from Damascus residents. "At the time of the siege of Hama, Damascene merchants got a lot of concessions from [then-leader] Hafez Assad," he said, adding that the city was still built on fear and that he felt that people there would erupt one day. "The fruit in Damascus is not ripe yet," he said, "but when it falls, it will really tip the balance."

Britain and France Circulate New Anti-Syria Resolution at the U.N.
By DAN BILEFSKY/NYT
Published: June 8, 2011
UNITED NATIONS — Britain and France circulated a revised draft resolution at the United Nations Security Council on Wednesday that would condemn the Syrian government for using force against its own civilians, but would scrupulously avoid a call for military action or any sanctions against the Syrian government.
Times Topic: Syria — Protests (2011)A vote on the resolution was expected in the coming days, diplomats said.
An attempt by European members of the Security Council to condemn Syria at the United Nations has been rebuffed in recent weeks as the willingness to intervene in the region has dissipated following the intervention in Libya by NATO, acting on a Security Council resolution condemning the violence against the opposition in Libya to the rule of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi. China and Russia, both veto-wielding permanent members of the 15-member Security Council, have been resistant to support even a press statement condemning Syria, fearing that it could be a prelude to a similarly aggressive intervention. Vitaly Churkin, the Russian ambassador to the UN, said Wednesday that Russia did not support a resolution on Syria. “We are not persuaded it can help establish dialogue and reach a political settlement,” he said. “We’re concerned it will have the opposite effect.” United Nations diplomats said Russia, a powerful ally of Syria, was using the situation in Libya as a justification to oppose action in Syria, arguing that NATO’s risky intervention in Libya, under a United Nations mandate to protect civilians, had gone too far and risked becoming a protracted stalemate. Similar reservations have also been expressed by other members of the council, including South Africa, India and Brazil. Voicing American support for a resolution condemning the violence used by the Syrian government against its own people, Susan E. Rice, the United States ambassador to the United Nations, said Wednesday that some countries on the Security Council were disingenuously using Libya as a pretext not to pass a resolution on Syria. “We will be on the right side of history,” she said. French and British diplomats said Wednesday they had revised the language of the original resolution with the aim of making it politically untenable for Russia or China to block it. The new draft, which diplomats said had only been slightly amended, condemns the Syrian government for using force against its own civilians but falls short of calling for an arms embargo or introducing sanctions. It also calls for an independent investigation of the recent killings by Syrian forces during antigovernment demonstrations. It notes that the “widespread and systematic attacks currently taking place in Syria by the authorities against its people may amount to crimes against humanity” under international law.

Syria’s crisis begins to go international
June 09, 2011 /By Samia Nakhoul Reuters
Daily Star
DUBAI: The increasingly bloody crisis that is engulfing Syria has started to go international.
A French initiative in the U.N. Security Council to secure condemnation of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s repression of protesters is just one symptom of growing world alarm.
Turkey reported Wednesday that 122 Syrians had fled across the border to escape an expected military crackdown in a northwestern Syrian town where the government has accused “armed gangs” of killing more than 120 security personnel.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared that his country would not “close its doors” to Syrian refugees and urged Assad’s government to be more tolerant toward civilians.
Small groups of refugees fled earlier to Lebanon when Syrian security forces were suppressing protests in a border town.
Israel and the United States accuse Damascus of promoting Palestinian rallies at the fence dividing Syria from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights to divert attention from the challenge to four decades of Assad family rule.
The United States, unlike France and Britain, has stopped just short of proclaiming that Assad has lost all legitimacy. But his ability to control Syria is also in question.
“Assad is finished, but we have to see how this regime will crumble,” said Burhan Ghalyoun, a Syrian opposition supporter and academic at the Sorbonne in Paris. “Is it going to crumble from inside, through growing demonstrations, or will the world unite, demand that the killing ends and threaten intervention?”
But no Western leaders – let alone their autocratic Arab partners – have shown any appetite to intervene in Syria, an Iranian ally with a volatile ethnic and religious mix lying in a web of regional conflicts.
Syria’s old Cold War ally Moscow, unhappy about how NATO powers have interpreted a U.N. resolution authorizing military action to protect civilians in Libya, has said it may veto a possible Security Council resolution condemning Damascus.
Turkey, which had sunk huge efforts to foster a new relationship with Syria over the past decade, has publicly chided Assad for failing to heed its urgings that he respond to unrest by leading reform, rather than risk being swept away.
Qatar, a wealthy Gulf state friendly to Syria – as well as to the United States – has also been involved in attempts to persuade Assad to change course, diplomatic sources say.
After contacts between Washington, Ankara and Doha, the Qatari prime minister met Assad twice in Syria last month, the sources say, adding that Qatar offered Assad funds and political support if he embraced reform, but he backed away from the idea.
Despite some vague promises of dialogue and selective prisoner releases, Assad seems locked onto a course of repression to ensure the survival of his 11-year rule.
Threats by the authorities to send the army to restore order in Jisr al-Shughour have stirred memories of a fierce crackdown there in 1980, when the president’s father, the late Hafez Assad, put down a Muslim Brotherhood uprising.
That was the prelude to the 1982 episode in the city of Hama where many thousands were killed and the old town was razed by troops sent to wipe out Brotherhood rebels.
Wael Merza, a Syrian academic and opponent of the Assad administration, said, “Bashar is trying to recreate the 2011 version of his father’s Hama massacre in 1982. He is opting for a city-by-city massacre rather than one mass killing.”
Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party, with its roots in Islamism, is sensitive to the plight of Syrian Sunnis – the majority in a population ruled by an elite that is dominated by Assad’s minority Alawite sect. The Turkish prime minister warned last month that Turkey would “not tolerate another Hama.”
Lebanese analyst Jamil Mroue predicted that Erdogan would likely toughen his line on Assad after Turkey’s election Sunday.
Last weekend, Turkish President Abdullah Gul told visiting Egyptian pro-democracy activists that rulers in the region must respect their own people and accept their legitimate demands.
“I would like to remind rulers in Muslim Arab countries of the necessity of being realistic, of perceiving the world better and of seeing that there is already no place for authoritarian regimes in the Islamic world,” Gul said.
“Everyone is aware that I am speaking about countries such as Syria and Libya,” he added.
Despite its friendship with Syria, Turkey hosted a conference of Syrian opposition figures last week. Turkish officials say Ankara is also prepared for a further influx of Syrian refugees.
Mroue said it was not clear whether Assad was really in charge or complicit in the harsh measures against protesters – a question that has been recurrent since he inherited power in 2000.

50 Lebanese deported from Sweden
June 09, 2011
The Daily Star BEIRUT:
The Swedish Embassy has said a media report claiming 1,500 Lebanese citizens are facing deportation from the country “does not seem to conform with reality,” and only around 50 have been ejected over the past five months.
“During the first five months of this year, some 50 people were deported from Sweden to Lebanon,” the embassy said in a press release.
It said a report in a Lebanese newspaper recently that up to 1,500 Lebanese living in Sweden were facing deportation “does not seem to conform with reality.”
“Over the years, Sweden has received tens of thousands of immigrants from Lebanon. Whether to seek protection during times of hardship in their homeland, to form a family or to study or benefit from work opportunities, they have typically integrated well and contributed to Swedish society and to trade and cultural exchange between our countries,” the statement added.
It said Sweden reserves the right to set the criteria for who has the right to reside in the country.
“Anyone who does not have a valid ground for residence, whether asylum, family reunification, studies or work, will be asked to leave the country,” the embassy statement said.
“Failure to leave voluntarily will ultimately make a person susceptible to deportation,” the statement added.
It said that the obligation of the country of origin to receive its citizens back was both a requirement under international law and an obvious precondition to the smooth functioning of international migration.

Lebanon's Arabic press digest
 June 09, 2011/The Daily Star
Following are summaries of some of the main stories in a selection of Lebanese newspapers Thursday. The Daily Star cannot vouch for the accuracy of these reports.
As-Safir: Berri lashes out at March 14: No to disguised dictatorship and monopoly of power
What happened at Parliament Wednesday: was it a coincidence or was it planned? It is certain that the “summit” held Wednesday at Parliament between March 8 leaders under the patronage of Speaker Nabih Berri created a turning point in the formation of a new government.
Bilateral talks [Wednesday] between Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati and General Michel Aoun – who had not met for a long time, each telling the other he should visit first – destiny allowed them to meet under the dome of the Parliament.
And because the session collapsed due to lack of quorum, Berri turned it into a trial session against March 14 and its “revolution,” offering himself once again as a professional player in the Lebanese political club.
Sources close to Mikati said his meeting with Aoun laid the foundations for an understanding of the sticking points holding up government formation.
The sources ascertained that “names” were no longer the obstacle facing Mikati and Aoun.
An-Nahar: Shock at lack of quorum prompts majority [March 8] mobilization
Will new efforts – launched Wednesday after failure to secure quorum for a legislative session called for by Berri – push the government formation process forward?
The new development materialized in a series of meetings that continued well into the evening on choosing names for various Cabinet portfolios.
What seemed clear is that the shock at the lack of quorum pushed the Hezbollah-led March 8 forces to mobilize at the political level.
Caretaker Energy Minister Jibran Bassil, meanwhile, said that talks on government formation have moved into the final stages.
“We’re done with the distribution of portfolios and we have now entered the final stage – names, that is, with no veto on any name and things are being done in a positive atmosphere," Bassil told An-Nahar.
Al-Mustaqbal: March 14 urges Sleiman to make “everyone responsible”
Speaker Nabih Berri did not have to postpone the legislative session until next Wednesday, but rather it would have been better for him if he had not called for a meeting in the first place.
Despite all the rumors, sources close to Wednesday’s meeting at Parliament urged Lebanese not to be over-optimistic.
Observers believed that news broadcast on Hezbollah’s al-Manar TV that President Michel Sleiman now has the final say in a Cabinet lineup was a “clear maneuver to throw the ball in the President’s court to hold him responsible for hindering government formation, thus stepping up pressure on him to make him bow to Aoun’s demands.”
Ad-Diyar: Global-regional dispute over who controls the executive authority in Lebanon?
It was a long day at Parliament Wednesday, where Berri achieved a half victory and a half defeat after he failed to secure the needed quorum for a legislative session with 46 items on its agenda. Berri, nevertheless, was able to grab the reins of power again when March 8 leaders expressed their solidarity with him.
If Wednesday was a long parliamentary day that witnessed a conflict between the majority and the opposition – behind which was a global and regional tug-of-war, particularly since March 8 believes that the delay in government formation was due to external factors and that local obstacles had been completely removed.
Sources say that the international community, the U.S. at the forefront, had put its weight [behind March 14] in order to torpedo the formation of a new government – one that is controlled by Hezbollah and Amal Movement and that functions under the umbrella of resistance.
Al-Liwaa: 3 details holding up government formation
If MP Suleiman Franjieh had announced the removal of 99 percent of the obstacles facing the formation of a new government, caution has prevailed ahead of results that are expected to come out in the next 48 hours in terms of resolving three things holding up a Cabinet lineup.
Sources close to Mikati quoted the prime minister-designate as saying that obstacles facing government formation had been overcome.
The sources, however, pointed to some “simple” things that still needed to be sorted out.

Israel was harmed by Dagan's outburst on Iran
By Israel Harel /Haaretz
09.06.11
Much of what he said was correct. Anyone with eyes in his head knows that. But former Mossad chief Meir Dagan, like a person obsessed, prattled himself to death and wasted most of his ammunition - his professional and personal prestige - with his unreasonable and unfocused statements. And they have left a question regarding his judgment and the sincerity of his motives.
Amram Mitzna and Danny Yatom (and many others ), dyed-in-the-wool leftists, were forced to reprimand Dagan. His statements, they said, are embarrassing and damaging to the strategic interests of the country. Also strange was the sharp transition from prolonged silence to obsessive and uncontrolled verbosity. Most of the public seems to be of the same opinion.
And while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak emerged almost unharmed (maybe even strengthened ), the country was definitely harmed by his outburst. And so was Meir Dagan himself. People are already begin to treat him forgivingly - the worst punishment for a person like him.
Quite a few ministers agree with his opinion of the Defense Minister. But the damaging way he spoke forced them to side with Barak. Certainly with Benjamin Netanyahu. It is impossible to operate all over the world (in operations attributed to Dagan as well ) against Iran, and afterwards to declare - while the halo of the deeds and the prestige of authority are still fresh and influential - that Israel is exaggerating in its description of the danger Iran poses to Israel and the world.
Even worse: The public fault-finding with the leaders of the government - adventurers who must be restrained - will from now on play into the hands of the Ahmadinejads. The average citizen is saying to himself that Dagan's words really are irresponsible. It is therefore a good thing that Dagan is in a hurry: Given his judgment and sense of responsibility it is just as well that the cat is already out of the bag at this early stage.
A prevailing opinion is that Dagan has a covert interest, as did his patron former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, in positioning himself in the "correct" political place, by bringing the Saudi initiative, for example, back from the dead. If that is true, then the questions regarding his motives and his judgment assume an additional worrisome dimension. Because it is hard to believe that he has changed his stripes and deteriorated to the point of supporting the "right of return," a central aspect of the "initiative" (which even the Saudis, who brought it up as a public relations exercise immediately after the 9/11 terror attack against the United States - since many of the attackers were Saudis - have never promoted. Only Israelis, like Dagan, are currently trying to revive it ).
It is hard to recall when scattered and recycled words condemning the heads of the government caused such media hysteria. But those who created the uproar misjudged the maturity of the public, which understood that this was an artificial tempest, full of political and personal interests. And if there were worrisome elements in Dagan's words - and there were - the subjective, cheap and sensational way they were presented led to suspicious counter-reactions. And not, as those promoting the event (which also had elements of preaching for a putsch ) had hoped: mass chain reactions as in Tunisia and Tahrir Square, which would cause the downfall of the government.
And although Israeli citizens are living in a country whose leaders, as the warnings caution, are dangerous adventurers, the citizens did not stream to Rabin Square, did not join the Spring of the Middle Eastern nations and did not bring down the government. And the campaign, the work of Balaam, only strengthened those against whom the putsch was directed.
Apart from Dagan, Former Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi and former Shin Bet chief Yuval Diskin were also mentioned as saviors. The two, we have to hope, won't be tempted and won't serve as a platform for impure interests as happened in the latest sad case. They don't deserve it. Neither does Dagan.

Syrian slaughter and Israeli restraint
By Gideon Levy/Haaretz
Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime is slaughtering dozens of unarmed Syrian demonstrators every day. In Israel we cluck our tongues in shock and say he is "slaughtering his own people," but when the Israel Defense Forces killed 23 unarmed Syrian demonstrators in one day, we boasted that the IDF "acted with restraint."
Demonstrators in the Syrian city of Hama and protesters on the Golan border are similar not only in their nonlethal means, but also in their aims. Both are trying to change the established order. And the authorities' response in both places - live fire on demonstrators - is amazingly similar.
In Israel people will immediately explain that the IDF makes every effort not to kill the demonstrators, and indeed the number of fatalities in Syria is much higher, but the means are similar - live fire on unarmed demonstrators. And the fatality count might even prove to be comparable if, God forbid, the Golan demonstrators persist in their rebellion - and Israeli public opinion wouldn't have any problem with that, of course. Even if we resemble Syria, we don't appear that way to ourselves.
Along the border fence on the Golan Heights, Israel has set up an additional, even more sturdy security fence to protect itself, particularly to block its own awareness of the demonstrators' presence on the border. Through this fence, we have created our own world, the world of our dreams, the illusory contrarian lie we tell ourselves.
In Hama, they are freedom fighters. On the border with the Golan Heights, they are demonstrators for hire, incited mobs and terrorists. Crossing the border into the Golan Heights involves a threat to Israel's sovereignty, even if not one country in the world recognizes such sovereignty over the Golan. The demonstrators on the Golan border are young people lacking any political consciousness who have been goaded into it, while their counterparts demonstrating against the Syrian regime are educated young people with a sense of democracy, people of the enlightened Facebook and Twitter revolution.
In the Golan Heights, Assad leads them by bus to their deaths, and the fault is entirely their own. The IDF has found a way to prove that most of the victims have been responsible for their own deaths or injuries. The thought that those determined young people in the Golan are risking their lives due to precisely the same political and democratic consciousness, identical to what is motivating their colleagues in the Syrian cities in rebellion against Assad's regime, simply doesn't occur to us.
On our border they're rioters. In the Syrian towns, they're demonstrators. There it's admirable nonviolent protest, while that same battle when it's waged on our border is considered violent, its perpetrators having death coming to them.
We have invented a world for ourselves: Assad has trundled out these young Palestinians to distract attention. But truth be told, we're being distracted to no less an extent, distracted from the aims of those same young people we're not even willing to listen to.
Has anyone here thought about the Israeli heritage tour one Palestinian-Syrian young man took in crossing the border and making it to Jaffa to visit his family's ancestral home? Maybe we can try to remind the Israeli reader that these are children of refugees, some of whose ancestors fled or were expelled from Israel in 1948 and who were not allowed to return. And others were expelled or fled from the Golan Heights in 1967 and have also been deprived of the right to go back.
Maybe it's possible to mention that, to a great extent, Israel conquered the Golan in 1967 as a result of an Israeli initiative. Maybe it's possible to mention that for three generations these families of refugees have been living in inhumane conditions in their refugee camps. It's true that this is the Syrian regime's fault, but Israel, too, bears responsibility for their fate. Maybe it's also possible to say there is a degree of legitimacy in their struggle, just as their counterparts' struggle against the Syrian regime is legitimate. Both want a life of freedom and dignity. Neither has it.
In the new Arab world taking shape in front of our eyes, at some point these young people in both Syria and on the Golan border will have to be heard, and some of their demands will have to be addressed, particularly if they persist in their unarmed struggle.
But we have gotten beyond that. We will hide our heads in the sand. We'll build another border fence, and another. We'll call day night and night day, forever telling ourselves that we're acting with restraint - killing 23 young people who didn't fire a single shot, with live fire. We'll accuse them and their leaders of responsibility for their deaths. The important thing is that our hands are clean, our ears closed and our eyes shut.

Lebanon prosecutor mulls Canadian farmer case
June 09, 2011 /By Rima Aboulmona
The Daily Star /BEIRUT: Nearly seven weeks after his detention, a Lebanese prosecutor is now mulling over the case of a Canadian farmer alleged to have exported rotten potatoes to Algeria. Farmer Henk Tepper, from New Brunswick, Canada, was detained in Lebanon on March 23 after an Interpol “red notice” was issued over charges that some potatoes he exported to Algeria in 2007 were rotten. The Algerian government called for his detainment for the alleged use of a forged document that cleared rotten food fit for human consumption, according to his lawyer. Tepper's lawyer denies the allegation. A judicial source said Thursday that State Prosecutor Saeed Mirza, who had requested access to Tepper’s folder from the Algerian government, only received the official documents four days ago. “Mirza is studying the case and, depending on the offense, he will decide in the coming few days whether to release Tepper or deport him to Algeria,” the source told The Daily Star. The source said the 44-year-old farmer has been living in a jail cell at the Beirut Justice Palace since his arrest in March on an international warrant. Tepper’s family Wednesday appealed to Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper to intervene and bring the farmer home.
According to the Canadian press, Tepper was in Lebanon for an agricultural trade mission. His family-owned Tobique Farms is one of the largest potato producers in New Brunswick, exporting to Cuba, Venezuela, Lebanon and Algeria. His 71-year-old father has taken to tending the potato fields in Tepper’s absence.