LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
ِJUNE 27/2011

Bible Quotation for today
Luke15/11-31: He said, “A certain man had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of your property.’ He divided his livelihood between them. Not many days after, the younger son gathered all of this together and traveled into a far country. There he wasted his property with riotous living. When he had spent all of it, there arose a severe famine in that country, and he began to be in need. He went and joined himself to one of the citizens of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed pigs. He wanted to fill his belly with the husks that the pigs ate, but no one gave him any. But when he came to himself he said, ‘How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough to spare, and I’m dying with hunger! I will get up and go to my father, and will tell him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in your sight. I am no more worthy to be called your son. Make me as one of your hired servants.”’ “He arose, and came to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him, and was moved with compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him. The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in your sight. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ “But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring out the best robe, and put it on him. Put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. Bring the fattened calf, kill it, and let us eat, and celebrate; for this, my son, was dead, and is alive again. He was lost, and is found.’ They began to celebrate. “Now his elder son was in the field. As he came near to the house, he heard music and dancing. He called one of the servants to him, and asked what was going on. He said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf, because he has received him back safe and healthy.’ But he was angry, and would not go in. Therefore his father came out, and begged him. But he answered his father, ‘Behold, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed a commandment of yours, but you never gave me a goat, that I might celebrate with my friends.  But when this, your son, came, who has devoured your living with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him.’ “He said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. But it was appropriate to celebrate and be glad, for this, your brother, was dead, and is alive again. He was lost, and is found.’” .

Latest analysis, editorials, studies, reports, letters & Releases from miscellaneous sources
Who do our television channels think Nasrallah is?/By Tariq Alhomayed/June 26/11
Egyptian Muslims Torch 8 Christian Homes on Rumor of Church Construction/AINA/June 26/11
Walking the opposition road/By: Ana Maria Luca/June 26/11
Lebanon in the Face of the Winds of Change/By: Husam Itani/June 26/11
Lebanese Ironies/By: Walid Choucair/June 16/11
Apologizing to Turkey is in Israel's interest/By Zvi Bar'el/June 26/1
Why Syria’s Christians Should Not Support the Assad Regime/Elie Elhadj, Ph.D/June 26/11

Latest News Reports From Miscellaneous Sources for June 26/11
Head of Security Council: Lebanese Govt. Should Respect International Commitments/Naharnet
Lebanese Authorities Reportedly Handed Indictment as Lebanese Judges Head to The Hague/Naharnet
Turkey loses patience over Syria, weighs options/Reuters
Gaza flotilla to set sail Tuesday/Ynetnews
Syrian troops push toward Lebanese border/Now Lebanon
Iran and Lebanon brand Israel main source of terror in Mideast/Haaretz
Report: Hezbollah moves missiles from Syria to Lebanon, fearing fall of Assad/Haaretz
'Hezbollah may transfer weapons cache if Assad falls'/J.Post
Syria reinforces northern border as Turkey loses patience with Assad/The Guardian
Syria military takes two villages/BBC
Activist: Syria kills 2 protesting after funerals/AP
Chaos feared as Syria crisis nears bloody impasse/AP
Aoun says Hezbollah's alleged breach discovery “grows trust in Resistance”/Now Lebanon
MP Boutros Harb questions “authority” looking into Hezbollah’s alleged breach/Now Lebanon
Lebanese army is UNIFIL’s strategic partner, says UN official/Now Lebanon
Public Works and Transportation Minister Ghazi Aridi says Lebanon is “field for embassy spies/Now Lebanon
Chamoun says Aoun cannot be taken seriously/Now Lebanon
Ad-Diyar: Jumblatt against disagreement with international community/Now Lebanon
Marouni says spies can infiltrate any party/Now Lebanon 
Minister Alaae Terro: Corruption allegations not backed with evidence are void/Ya Libnan
MP Mohammad Kabbara warns Nasrallah preparing “to use arms again/Now Lebanon
MP Fouad Siniora reiterates commitment to March 14’s principles/Now Lebanon
MP Iqab Sakr says “friendly environment” theory not valid/Now Lebanon
Aoun: We Will Build the State on Ethical Basis/Naharnet
Suleiman-Aoun Rapprochement Paves Way for Alliance ahead of 2013 Elections/Naharnet
Lebanon's Arabic press digest - June 26, 2011/The Daily Star

Only Faith protects the Christians in the Awkward Arab countries
By: Elias Bejjani: The Syrian Baathist regime is not by any way protecting the Syrian Christians or other Syrian minority or majority community. This is a big lie and a mere media propaganda that is fed to the west by the Syrian Baathist regime., on the contrary the Christians in Syrian (about two million) have been used there by its Dictatorship Alawite leadership as mere tools. The only protection for Christians in Syria and in other Arab countries will be through freedom, openness, respect of human rights, law, education and democracy. And definitely not through butchering and slaughtering regimes like that of Al Assad.
Sadly the education and cultures of hatred and ignorance are still prevailing all over the Arab world especially in Egypt as one call tell from the unfolding events there. Yesterday a number of churches were put on fire for just a rumor that a church is going to be built. Fanatic regimes like that of Al Assad, Saudi Arabia etc are not the solution at all because their only aim is to hold on to power no matter what.
Sadly for the last 60 years all the Arab regimes, I mean all  without one exception, and especially in Egypt, they have been and still are fostering the hatred and isolation education under the fake tag of fighting Israel and Zionism in a bid to remain in power. Meanwhile all the weapons that these regimes pay billions and billions to own are used only against their own people as is the situation at the present time in Syria, Yemen, Libya, Sudan etc.
As we can obviously see these regimes will continue to so if the Western Free World does topple all and replaced them by free and democratic one. Sadly Egypt is the worst country in the world as far as Christian persecution is concerned and here I am not only pointing the finger to successive regimes, but to the ignorant public who day after day show how fanatic, and how much it lacks tolerance, rejects others and is motivated by hatred and fanaticism. In Lebanon even the Turks during their 450 oppressive years of occupation did not hurt and murder the Christians more than the Syrian regime did during its savage occupation that lasted for thirty years.
In conclusion, There is doubt that dictators do not protect any body, but only their interests. However, the actual deeply rooted problem In the Arab countries lies in the kind of hatred, ignorance, isolation, awkwardness and fanaticism that are integrated in the general educational curriculums. The first step towards liberation and freedom must focus on changing these curriculums.

Lebanese Authorities Reportedly Handed Indictment as Lebanese Judges Head to The Hague
Naharnet /Concerned Lebanese authorities have reportedly been handed the indictment in the investigation into the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri ahead of its announcement, revealed opposition circles to the daily An Nahar Sunday. The authorities do receive the indictment before the Special Tribunal for Lebanon makes the announcement to the public, said the daily. March 14 camp sources explained that Hizbullah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah’s speech on Friday is evidence that the Lebanese authorities have received the indictment seeing as his speech “did not carry a certain message, took place at the last minute, and was not held on a specific occasion.”
They added that he may have been preparing the atmosphere for the release of the indictment and that he may have been planning on making a major announcement, but inexplicably refrained from doing so at the last moment. The sources therefore said: “What he didn’t say was more important than what he did say even though he did announce that he is not concerned with the STL.” In a related development, Justice Ministry sources revealed to the Kuwaiti al-Anbaa newspaper Sunday that the Lebanese judges working for the STL have headed to The Hague.They interpreted this development as a sign that the indictment will be released during the first week of July.

Head of Security Council: Lebanese Govt. Should Respect International Commitments
Naharnet/The President of the United Nations Security Council for the month of July, Peter Wittig, stressed the importance of Lebanon respecting its international commitments.
He told the daily An Nahar in remarks published on Sunday that the government of Prime Minister Najib Miqati should adhere to international agreements.
Wittig also advised the Lebanese to maintain their country’s interests. There is an ongoing debate at the committee drafting the government policy statement over the phrasing of Lebanon’s commitment towards the Special Tribunal for Lebanon with some sides fearing that the country’s abandonment of the clause would lead the country towards a confrontation with the international community. On the developments in Syria, Wittig warned of “severe” repercussions that may impact the region, adding that it is unacceptable that the Security Council remain silent over the unrest.

Who do our television channels think Nasrallah is?
26/06/2011
By Tariq Alhomayed
Asharq Al-Awsat
Who's Hassan Nasrallah for our news channels to interrupt their scheduled programming to broadcast his speeches that are full of inaccuracies and empty propaganda? For he is neither an elected leader nor a monarch, rather he is the chief of an armed militia that is no different than the Taliban. Nasrallah's speech, which lasted about an hour, was full of misdirection, but included three major pieces of information or news.
Firstly, Nasrallah's acknowledgement of the presence of Israeli spies within his group. Secondly, his support for the al-Assad regime that is brutally suppressing the defenseless people of Syria. Thirdly, his attack on Bahrain, which represented a loathsome example of sectarianism. Other than this, there was nothing of any news value in Nasrallah's speech that justified our television channels interrupting their programming and exposing the viewer to such a massive dose of misleading propaganda. If there was a war in Lebanon, for example, such as the 2006 war with Israel that Hezbollah embroiled Lebanon in, then it would be understandable for our television channels to interrupt their programming; however for this to occur every time that Nasrallah reaches for the microphone is incomprehensible and unjustifiable.
All that Nasrallah's speech deserves, with regards to television coverage, is nothing more than a news item containing these three important pieces of information i.e. his acknowledgement of the presence of Israeli spies in his organization, his support for al-Assad, and his attack on Bahrain. In addition to this, the television coverage should include information that scrutinizes and analyzes what Nasrallah said on these three issues. Other than this, there was nothing of any news values that would urge our television channels to broadcast all of the political mistakes and crude propaganda contained in Nasrallah's speech, particularly as this speech began as if it were being issued by one of the Syrian regime's "analysts." This could be seen when Nasrallah called on the public not to focus on the issue of the spies [within Hezbollah] as much as the security achievements made by the organization? Is there anything more belittling than this?
Television is not like print journalism, for no respectable publication would provide a full transcript of Nasrallah's speech, or indeed any other speech, unless this contained real news value. A newspaper might publish the full transcript of a speech on its website for the purposes of documentation or reference however the newspaper itself would only publish the most important pieces of the speech, along with analysis of what was said, including editorials also analyzing the speech.
What is strange is that western news channels, for example US news channels, would broadcast an entire 30-minute speech made by US President Barack Obama, and then spend around one hour analyzing this speech. This is not to mention the [US] publications, magazines, and internet websites that would take apart the speech over the next week. However our news channels interrupt their programming to broadcast Nasrallah's hour-long speech – which is full of propaganda and inaccuracies – and then spend just 5 minutes analyzing it, if they even analyze it in the first place! Our television channels grant Nasrallah legitimacy, and a position that he does not deserve, and in this regard these television channels are no different than those Arab officials who go blind-folded to meet Nasrallah in some unknown cellar in the Beirut suburbs, and this is shameful!
When will our television channels respect the difference between covering the news of militia chiefs and covering the news of statesmen? When will they respect the difference between covering propaganda and reporting the news? When we say that Hezbollah is like the Taliban this is not an exaggeration, for Nasrallah said that he did not have any economic interests in banks in Lebanon due to the Islamic Shariaa law position on this issue; so what is the difference between him and the Taliban in this regard?
Therefore it is wrong for our television channels to contribute to the publication of Nasrallah's misleading propaganda

Lebanon's Arabic press digest - June 26, 2011
The Daily Star
The following are summaries of some of the main stories in a selection of Lebanese newspapers Sunday. The Daily Star cannot vouch for the accuracy of these reports.
Mustaqbal: Representatives of Tripoli in Baabda, Verdun and the “disarmament”
Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah talked about spies within his own party, and the party’s own investigation into the matter. This was followed by Justice Minister Chakib Kortbawi who spoke about the independence of the judiciary as a priority.
Kortbawi backed comments from prosecutor Judge Said Mirza after the information was made public by Nasrallah at his news conference and learning about the existence of spies within the party. He said he had carried out all his duties, and called the prosecutor and asked him to investigate, and he immediately contacted the intelligence.
Mirza said it was unthinkable for one party to follow up on a crime of this scale, and that it should be dealt with at the state level, adding that the state alone has the authority to do this and that Hezbollah is required to hand over those involved.
Sharq al Awsat: Mikati: There’s no reason for non-state arms in Tripoli
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati said that there’s “no real reason to keep weapons [in the hands of civilians in Tripoli] in light of the legitimate security services, which will not accept a substitute or partner.” He added that it was important to “respond to the aspirations of the people of Tripoli and the wishes of everyone to withdraw arms from all neighborhoods of the city. It is the basic right of the people of Tripoli to enjoy security and stability like other Lebanese cities.”
Mikati stressed that "what happened last week was a wakeup call for the people of the city and the deputies and their leaders." He added that they rushed to stop the clashes and restore calm to the neighborhoods of Bab al-Tabbaneh and Jabal Mohsen.
Mikati emphasized that the government will work to achieve its goals through concrete steps, in coordination with everyone, and any security measure should not be interpreted as being directed at any particular party. He said, “We realize that no stability, peace or social justice can be achieved in the absence of balanced development.”
He also noted that the investigation is ongoing into the events that took place last week.
Al Diyar: The International Red Cross and Lebanese discuss Syrian refugee situation
A joint delegation of representatives from the International Red Cross and Lebanese in Akkar discussed the establishment of a camp for displaced Syrians in the area can accommodate 15,000 in accordance with international standards. The delegation will visit the border towns to distribute mattresses and tents, where there are currently 4,300 displaced people, and more have recently entered Lebanon from the Homs area in central Syria.
Meanwhile, as Hezbollah indicates that it is determined to not work with the International Tribunal, some members of the opposition are saying that they want to topple the government.
An-Nahar: Will the experiment of disarming Tripoli work?
As they prepare for the ministerial committee for the new government, the chairman of the committee said that there is a single formula regarding a section of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, adding that "All that talk about several formats on the table to the tribunal is not true."
Observers noted that this formula does not correspond with those adopted in the ministerial statement of the Government of Prime Minister Saad Hariri, which says:
"The government affirms, in its respect for international law, as agreed in the national dialogue, the commitment to cooperate with the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, which has under the U.N. Security Council resolution 1757 to reveal the truth behind the assassination of martyr Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and others..."
Regarding the deadly disarmament of Tripoli, Prime Minister Mikati has demanded that the city become “demilitarized” in order to achieve stability. He emphasized that this was not just a slogan and that the plans would indeed be carried.

Gaza flotilla to set sail Tuesday
Significantly smaller fleet to set sail to Strip from Greece. Jerusalem believes flotilla will include only 10 vessels, 500 people
Ronen Medzini /Ynetnews/06.26.11
Scaled sail? Jerusalem sources said Sunday that the second Gaza flotilla stands to be significantly smaller than originally planned. According to Israel's assessments, only 10 vessels, carrying approximately 500 people, will take part in the Gaza-bound convoy, meant to set sail from Greece on Tuesday.  Jerusalem believes that the reduced scope of the convoy can be attributed to the Foreign Ministry's intensive "anti-flotilla" campaign vis-à-vis its European counterparts. Saturday saw the first vessel – a French ship – leave from Corsica carrying six people. Meanwhile, the organizers of the Gaza flotilla said that the Greek authorities have barred the American ship the "Audacity of Hope" from taking part in the sail. The passengers said the decision followed an anonymous complaint regarding the ship's mechanical state.
Dror Fyler, an Israeli expat who is among the flotilla's organizers, confirmed that the American vessel, which is supposed to carry dozens of activists, has indeed been ordered to stay behind. Passengers on the ship are asking Greek government officials to clarify whether the boat they are leasing is being blocked from leaving Greece because of the anonymous request or whether a political decision has been made by the Greek government in response to US and Israeli government pressure.
"Israel has said openly that it is pressuring governments to try to stop the flotilla, and clearly Greece is a key government since several of the boats plan to leave from Greece. It is unconscionable that Israel would take advantage of the economic hardship the Greek people are experiencing to try to stop our boat or the flotilla," passenger Medea Benajmin said.
"The Americans are worried that a ship carries 60-70 passengers, 30% of them Jewish, would be attacked. They don't know what they would do under such circumstances, so they are trying every trick in the book to stop us. But it won't do them any good – the ship will sail," Fyler added. "We have no doubt that Israel and the US are in cahoots here, and that the Greek government, which is weak, is capitulating to pressure," he added. "In any case, this will not deter us. We'll find a way to fix the problems and be on our way." Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor dismissed the allegations suggesting Israel had something to do with Athens decision: "These are paranoid and crybaby allegations, which goes to demonstrate the organizers infantile viewpoint and just how far detached they are from reality." Organizers of the second flotilla have been under growing pressure to cancel the sail, denounced by the United States, the UN and the EU as unnecessary provocation. The sail suffered a blow when Turkey-based IHH group, considered the driving force behind the Gaza flotilla announced its ship, the Mavi Marmara, will not be taking part in the Strip-bound sail.
*Aviel Magnezi contributed to this report

Turkey loses patience over Syria, weighs options
June 26, 2011
By Ibon Villelabeitia/ Reuters
ANKARA: Turkey faces a growing danger Syrian economic and social disruption could spill onto its soil, with some fearing an influx of refugees could draw its troops into border operations uncomfortably close to Syrian forces.
President Bashar Assad's crackdown on opposition has pushed once-warm ties with Syria close to breaking point. Assad's increasingly bloody repression of protests has driven 12,000 Syrian refugees to move north and take shelter in camps in Turkey, while Syrian troops move up to seal the area.
Ankara has sharpened its rhetoric against Damascus -- publicly nudging Assad to pass reforms and calling his crackdown "savagery" -- but analysts say Turkey is still holding out hope for a change of heart in Assad.
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Friday a speech by Assad contained "positive elements in it as signals of reform", but said it was important that action followed.
"The Turks seem to be quite worried about a lack of alternatives to a stable regime other than a cruel tyrannical succession," said a Western diplomat with knowledge of the Turkish perspective.
"Their last best hope -- although they are not naive -- is that somehow Assad, out of desperation to save his own skin, will undertake meaningful reforms."
Syria, an ally of Iran, sits at the heart of numerous conflicts in the Middle East. An unstable Syria would have repercussions for Turkey, which also borders Iran and Iraq.
"The fear of the unknown is a major factor," said Gareth Jenkins, an Istanbul-based security analyst.
"AK is very conservative. It prefers to deal with the devil it knows and Assad is the devil it knows," Jenkins said, referring to Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's ruling AK Party, which has improved ties with Syria and other Muslim countries.
But Turkey could decide to ditch Assad should Syria descend into a civil war between religious and ethnic groupings.
Though non-Arab, Turkey's demographics have similarities with Syria's. Both have a Sunni majority with Kurdish and Alawite minorities, although Assad's ruling family are Alawites.
"The strategic, political dimension says that the stability of Syria is vital for the fragile stability of the Middle East," Murat Yetkin, editor of the Hurriyet daily, wrote recently.
"But that doesn't mean that the current regime will be supported at any cost, because the Baath rule cannot produce stability anymore, as it insists on the current policies."
BUFFER ZONE
With refugees pouring across the border, media have reported that Turkish political and military leaders are considering setting up a buffer zone inside Syria in case the number of refugees increases sharply.
Officials say they are not aware of such plans.
Turkey's 2nd Army Commander visited the Guvecci border post this week to take stock of Syrian troop deployments near the border and to see the situation of the refugees for himself.
Turkey was caught off guard when 500,000 people flooded across the border from Iraq during the 1991 Gulf War, many of them staying for some time after the war. The years that followed saw small contingents of Turkish troops policing what was an effective 'buffer zone' in the north of Iraq.
Having almost gone to war in the late 1990s because of Turkish Kurdish militants using Syria as a sanctuary, Damascus would not welcome the prospect of Turkish boots on Syrian soil.
Ankara still faces an insurrection by Kurdish militants seeking their own state in the south-east. Turkey is eager to see borders with Syria, Iran and Iraq that, while open to commerce, are well sealed against rebel infiltration.
Jenkins said creating a buffer zone in Syria would carry risks given concerns of Turkish "neo-Ottoman" foreign ambitions in some Arab countries, but said Ankara might be forced to it in the case of a mass influx of refugees.
"If we start seeing a spillover that upsets the internal demographic dynamics of Turkey a buffer zone would be possible. The Kurds are the elephant in the room here," he said.
SHIFT
While Turkey has failed to use its economic leverage to force a change in Damascus -- Turkey is Syria's largest trading partner -- it is manoeuvring to adapt to any fallout.
A few months ago, Turkey and Syria were holding joint cabinet meetings and military exercises and abolished visa requirements. Earlier this month, Turkey hosted a conference of Syrian opposition figures in the city of Antalya, and members of the outlawed Syrian Muslim Brotherhood operate out of Turkey.
Meanwhile, there have also been early signs of a thaw in frosty relations between Turkey and Israel, Syria's enemy.
Turkish-Israeli ties deteriorated sharply when Israeli commandos stormed a Turkish-backed flotilla bound for Gaza last year, killing nine Turkish activists.
"The policy of warming up to Syria has collapsed, but rather than Turkey reaching a point in which its patience with Assad will snap we will see Turkey finding new margins of manoeuvre to whatever situation emerges," said Semih Idiz, a foreign policy expert for Milliyet daily.
The Syrian crisis has also pushed Ankara and Washington into closer cooperation after falling out of step over Iran.
Erdogan, who once vacationed together with Assad, and U.S. President Barack Obama have discussed Syria twice by phone recently and share a need for Damascus to implement reforms.
Assad's repression has triggered a gradual escalation of U.S. and European Union economic sanctions against Syrian leaders, but Turks don't agree on sanctions.
"Turks hate sanctions. Turks suffered greatly under generations of sanctions in Saddam's Iraq and now with Iran. The last thing Turkey wants is a third country on its eastern border under international sanctions," the Western diplomat said.
"They likely would not hesitate to point out to Assad the examples of Saddam and Iran, if he persists in oppressing his own people and defying world opinion."
 

Iran and Lebanon brand Israel main source of terror in Mideast
By Haaretz /Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Lebanese Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour have declared that Israel remains the main threat and a major source of terror and instability in the Middle East, Iran's Press TV reported Sunday. The two officials met late Saturday on the sidelines of Iran's International Conference on the Global Fight against Terrorism in a bid to strengthen bilateral ties between the two countries.The two-day international summit on terrorism opened Saturday in Tehran. The conference is attended by the presidents of Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Sudan and Tajikistan, as well deputy presidents and prime ministers from Lebanon and several other countries. Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad welcomes Lebanon's Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour in Tehran, June 25, 2011. According to Press TV, Ahmadinejad reiterated his interest to implement agreements signed with Lebanon and to support the new government headed by Hezbollah-backed Najib Mikati. The Iranian president addressed the Arab leaders at the two-day summit, saying both the Holocaust and the 2001 terror attacks were pretexts by the U.S. to put down Muslims and at the same time make huge economic benefits by spreading panic in the region. Ahmadinejad has often questioned what he called accepted truths. "If the black box of the 9/11 incident and Holocaust were opened, then some of the truth would be exposed, but the United States does not allow this," Ahmadinejad said. He said the roots of terrorism should be explored before it can be fought effectively, and blamed U.S. militarism for causing security to deteriorate.
Tehran argues that the most effective way to fight terrorism is to allow regional countries to take care of security and force foreign troops to leave the region

Syrian troops push toward Lebanese border
June 26, 2011
Syrian troops pushed towards the Lebanese border on Sunday as they pressed a deadly crackdown on dissent in central towns, where gunfire rattled overnight, activists said.
The latest violence in the town of Kseir, near the flashpoint city of Homs, forced "hundreds" of people to flee over the border into Lebanon, the activists said.
The exodus came as Turkey, where some 12,000 Syrians have already taken refuge in recent weeks, scrambled to build a border tent city to accommodate a possible new influx of refugees. Rami Abdel Rahman, who heads the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told AFP in Nicosia that shots rang out overnight in Kseir ¬—15 kilometers from the border with Lebanon, and in Homs. "Shots were heard overnight Saturday in the town of Kseir," he said quoting residents, adding that, further north, gunfire was heard in several neighborhoods in Homs. "Yesterday [Saturday] hundreds of residents fled from Kseir to Lebanon," Abdel Rahman told AFP in Nicosia.
Four civilians were shot dead by security forces on Saturday, two of them in Kseir and the other two in Kiswah, south of the capital.
Activists say that security forces have bolstered their presence in Kseir since Friday while troops have been controlling areas of Homs for several days, as part of a policy to crush pro-democracy protests. The sweep against the opponents of the autocratic regime of President Bashar al-Assad has also seen troops backed by tanks storm villages near the border with Turkey. On Saturday, tanks rumbled into Al-Najia, after similar operations in Jisr al-Shughur, seized June 12, and Khirbet al-Joz, where troops deployed on Thursday, activists have said.
Al-Najia is on the road linking the northwestern city of Latakia to Jisr al-Shughur— home to 50,000 people, most of whom fled after the army seized the town, with many crossing into Turkey. Anti-government protests swelled on Friday with tens of thousands of people surging onto the streets in response to a call by the Facebook group Syrian Revolution 2011 the driving force behind three months of demonstrations.
Security forces used live ammunition and tear gas against the protesters, killing 18 people and wounding scores more, activists told AFP.
Abdul Karim Rihawi of the Syrian League for Human Rights said funerals were held on Saturday in all three protest centers for Friday's victims.
Friday's protests contested the "legitimacy" of the Syrian regime, dominated by the ruling Baath Party for nearly five decades, despite Assad's offer earlier in the week of a "national dialogue" and a general amnesty. Syria's crackdown has triggered waves of international condemnation.
The European Union imposed fresh sanctions on the regime and its cohorts this week, targeting as well Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards accused of helping the regime to quell the unrest -- a charge denied by Damascus. EU leaders also adopted a declaration in Brussels on Friday denouncing "in the strongest possible terms the ongoing repression and unacceptable and shocking violence the Syrian regime continues to apply against its own people."Meanwhile opposition figures announced they will meet in Damascus on Monday to discuss "how to solve the crisis."
The authorities blame "terrorist armed groups" for the unrest that has gripped Syria since pro-democracy protests broke out in mid-March, and say the military deployments are aimed at rooting them out. The Syrian Observatory says 1,342 civilians have been killed in the government's crackdown and that 342 security force personnel have also lost their lives.
-AFP/NOW Lebanon

Sakr says “friendly environment” theory not valid
June 26, 2011
Lebanon First bloc MP Future bloc Okab Sakr said in an interview published on Sunday that Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah’s statement that three members from his party are spies, “confirms” the Future Movement’s statement that the theory of a “friendly environment” for collaborators on Lebanese territory is not valid. Sakr also told As-Sharq al-Awsat newspaper that a spy is provided with a “friendly environment” when he is defended and protected, voicing fear that Hezbollah has retreated from calling to execute spies after revealing that retired Brigadier General Fayez Karam – also a Free Patriotic Movement official – is a spy. “Is there a protected collaboration?,” he also asked. The MP also said that he is not surprised that Hezbollah did not hand the spies to the Lebanese government, adding that the party is investigating with them and taking the information it needs before handing them to relevant authorities. “We are convinced that these spies will be tried according to the Lebanese security and judicial [laws].” Sakr added that a spy is a spy regardless of which country he spies for. The MP also voiced fear of the Justice Ministry “that now [acts] as a cover for collaborators” after the FPM took over it, adding “we respect [Justice Minister Shakib] Qortbawi, but he will undoubtedly submit to pressures at the end.” Nasrallah said on Friday that two of his party members have confessed to working for the US Central Intelligence Agency, adding that a third is still under interrogation.-NOW Lebanon

Suleiman-Aoun Rapprochement Paves Way for Alliance ahead of 2013 Elections
Naharnet /Opposition sources criticized the ongoing rapprochement between President Michel Suleiman and Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun, saying that it is aimed at paving the way for an alliance between the two sides ahead of the 2013 parliamentary elections. They told the Kuwaiti al-Anbaa newspaper in remarks published on Sunday that Suleiman chose an inappropriate time for this rapprochement given the MP’s recent hostile remarks against the opposition and March 14 camp. “His rapprochement with Aoun will inevitably cause the March 14 camp to distance itself from him,” they added. FPM sources meanwhile denied that the rapprochement was instigated by external pressure, revealing that the President took the initiative and contacted Aoun in order to salvage their relationship after it was marred by disputes during the government formation process. “He probably reached out to Aoun after he sensed that the March 14 camp was no longer in power and he wanted to fortify the Christians in Lebanon at the behest of Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi,” they stressed.

Lebanon in the Face of the Winds of Change
Fri, 24 June 2011/Al Hayat/Husam Itani
The Lebanese should be concerned, and even fearful, over the remaining public freedoms and spaces to express one’s opinion.
This is not directly linked to the formation of the new government or the political and media campaigns launched against it by the new opposition. It is rather linked to a series of phenomena and escalating measures to which public life is being subjected, namely cultural and social life. Indeed, two movies were banned in less than a week. The first is Lebanese called “What Happened” regarding a massacre that took place in the Akkar region during the civil war, and the second is an Iranian movie called “Green Days” about the uprising demanding democracy which followed the Iranian presidential elections in 2009.
On the other hand, the Lebanese authorities reinforced the measures to prevent the entry of the refugees fleeing the oppression of the Syrian regime, but also to arrest those seeking security in Lebanon in a blunt defiance of all the pacts signed by the Lebanese government in regard to the protection of human rights. This behavior was accompanied by warnings from the deputies of the new majority, that each Lebanese citizen who helps a Syrian refugee will be considered a partner in the American-Israeli plot against the state of rejectionism in Syria.
But the relevant phenomena did not stop at this level, as those convened at Dar al-Fatwa issued a statement in which they announced their categorical rejection of a draft law sanctioning domestic violence against women, under the pretext that the draft was submitted by secular women’s associations based on “the savage principles of capitalism, market values and individualism.”
There is something distinguishing the aforementioned measures and events, leading each of them back to a specific political and social context for which the sides in the ruling coalition – regardless of the majority or minority in the government formation – are responsible. Indeed, there is no arguing about Hezbollah’s role and that of the March 8 forces in the prevention of the Syrian refugees from entering the country and the refusal to host international fact-finding committees to learn about the violations committed against the Syrian civilians. On the other hand, there is no doubt that the position of Dar al-Fatwa toward the draft law and before that, the slightly exaggerated position towards a violation committed by some Palestinians on lands affiliated with the Sunni endowments, stem from a feeling of encirclement, domination and threat prevailing over a wide faction of Sunnis. This is being expressed through excessive sensitivity toward anything that might feature a threat to the status and interests of the sect, even if the issue is related to helping poor Palestinian families get set.
It is believed there is one climate that produced all these steps and measures. It is a mixture of puzzlement and terror vis-à-vis the major changes which are being witnessed in the Arab world and are shedding light on the extent of the rottenness on the internal levels, and the expiry of the exploitation of foreign threats to uphold the oppression, tyranny and disregarding of the freedoms.
We could even go a step further and say that what Lebanon is witnessing today - in terms of the deterioration affecting public freedoms and the measures targeting foreign journalists - conveys an attempt by the system of the Lebanese sects to defend itself against the Arab revolutions. In the face of the freedom called for by these revolutions, the Lebanese are returning to repression. And in response to the demands to open up to the world, the Lebanese are pursuing their Syrian brothers among the refugees. Furthermore, in order to stop the massive media communication from which the Arab revolutions are benefitting, the institutions of the sectarian system have nothing to do but prohibit movies revealing the simple facts in regard to what the people of this part of the world have endured in terms of civil wars and the confiscation of opinions.
We believe that the Arab revolution is extending to Lebanon from these doors, and not from ones that were exploited by the leaders of the dominating sects.

Lebanese Ironies
Fri, 24 June 2011
Walid Choucair/Al Hayat
There are many ironies at play in Lebanon, a country of ironies to begin with.
These ironies are becoming more apparent, and this is made easier by the intersection between the crisis in the region, and particularly Syria, and the fluctuations in the domestic situation in Lebanon, between the government and the opposition, which is open to all possibilities.
In the country of ironies, a leading member of the new majority finds no embarrassment in threatening the leading member in the new opposition with putting him and his allies in prison. This coincides with the sponsor of this majority and its regional ally, Syrian President Bashar Assad, issuing a general amnesty as the result of advice from countries that are maintaining a non-hostile position on the Syrian regime. They advised him of the necessity of releasing opposition figures from prisons, while calls are mounting by Arab and non-Arab countries, made openly and implicitly, to halt the crackdown and pull the security forces, the army, and the Shabbiha gangs from the street.
Even if the Syrian opposition considered the amnesty for crimes committed before 20 June 2011 insufficient, or a type of maneuver, as a way of hinting that Damascus was responding to the Western and Arab calls to halt violence and head toward dialogue, the leaders in the coalition making up the government of Najib Miqati in Lebanon see no reason for any maneuvering in their confrontation with their local rivals. They are not interested in giving any consideration to the stance of the international community, or the Arab states, and find no embarrassment in declaring their intention to confront their opponents, to the end.
If Assad is serious and carries out what he has committed himself to, based on what various Syrian officials have said, namely being more lenient with the Syrian opposition, then the hard-line stance by Syria's allies in Beirut against their opponents, and the escalation of the confrontation instead of moving toward dialogue, emphasizes this irony as well. The two developments, in any case, do not go together, but rather contradict each other. If the crisis in Syria and the fear of threats to the country's stability necessitate a cooling-off in Lebanon, in view of the need to reduce the repercussions of this crisis for the domestic situation in Lebanon, what is the interest in seeing the new majority, or some members of it, declare this escalation?
Another irony is the following: How can one reconcile the statement by Syria's foreign minister, Walid al-Moallem, that "we'll forget that Europe is on the map," with the efforts by the Lebanese prime minister, a close friend of the Syrian leadership, to prove his commitment to the best possible relations with the West, and his attempt to find a formula that satisfies the European Union, whose ambassadors asked the other day that "the Special Tribunal for Lebanon continue its work without obstacles, and in cooperation with the Lebanese authorities"?
If the new government must observe the requirements of the Syrian confrontation with Europe, can it forget the 220 million Euros that the EU provides to Lebanon in the form of loans and grants, while Syria suspends political geography, and while Miqati is making efforts to secure the cooperation of Europe and the US, out of a fear that Lebanon will be isolated?
Will the ironies in Lebanon lead to scenarios that resemble what is taking place in several Arab countries, among them Syria, namely seeing demonstrations led by the opposition? Such demonstrations protest what the leader of the Change and Reform Bloc, General Michel Aoun, looks set to obtain, by threatening imprisonment or exclusion, and this would lead to an "uprising," not against the regime, as in Syria and other countries, but against the government and the forces holding power. What would happen if this scenario included the decision, by those who can make such a decision, to adopt a method of bloody confrontations that are taking place in several Arab countries, against protestors? This would be repeated in a country that prides itself on having no need for a revolution for freedom and democracy, as it has a pluralistic regime and already enjoys a considerable degree of freedom.
Logically, the opposition would not stand by idly if it is targeted.
If these ironies and scenarios indicate anything, it is this: It is not necessarily true that Lebanon can rest assured that it is isolated from the repercussions of the ongoing Arab uprisings and the political, security and popular unrest, because it has a different type of regime. This resting assured is opposed by some groups' desire to move backward, by exercising power in a way that is at odds with the country's particular characteristics. In this case, Lebanon's acceptable level of democracy and high level of freedom, compared to its neighbors, expose the country to violations by domestic leaders who are attracted to these neighbors, instead of being a part of Lebanon's fabric.
The Lebanese ironies and scenarios they generate might find an outlet in the new government, as a compensation for scenarios that involve the street, and they might bring down the coalition that causes them, if the same excesses continue.

Apologizing to Turkey is in Israel's interest
In the past year, and with greater intensity in recent weeks, people of goodwill from Israel and Turkey have been trying to rehabilitate relations between the two countries.
By Zvi Bar'el /Haaretz/26 June/11
The Middle Eastern kaleidoscope has once again made a 180-degree turn, revealing a new picture. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's letter to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan congratulating him for his party's sweeping victory in the elections is only one aspect.
In the past year, and with greater intensity in recent weeks, people of goodwill from Israel and Turkey have been trying to rehabilitate relations between the two countries. The events in Syria have helped them out, significantly cooling relations between Turkey and Syria and sparking a reappraisal in the Turkish Foreign Ministry and Erdogan's office of Turkey's policy in the region. Turkey took another significant step when it "recommended" to the IHH, the Turkish humanitarian relief organization, that it cancel its participation in the new aid flotilla to Gaza, mainly to prevent the flotilla from diverting attention from events in Syria. Erdogan has stopped calling Syrian President Bashar Assad "my good friend," and he describes the brutal suppression of demonstrators in Syria as "barbarity." And even if he is not demanding Assad's ouster, he believes that the Syrian regime is finished. "Syria is turning into a threat not only against Turkey," a senior Turkish official told Haaretz. "If Syria decides to attack the Kurdish minority too, we might have a serious problem."
Iran, which has developed extensive economic ties with Turkey in the past two years, is also described in the Turkish media as an active partner in the killing of Syrians, and Turkey is quickly discovering that its desire to implement a policy of "zero problems" with its neighbors has failed. If Turkey wanted to establish a strategic axis with Iran, Iraq and Syria, an axis that could promote a new Middle Eastern policy, it is discovering that these partners are a disappointment. The Iraqi government is on the verge of disintegrating, a political battle in Iran is being waged between the president and his opponents, including Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, Syria has crudely rejected Erdogan's attempts to end the crisis, and on Thursday the Turkish flag was lowered on the Syrian side of the border, from which Syrian citizens are fleeing to Turkey.
All Ankara has left of the great plans for a better Middle East is a bit of the internal Palestinian conflict. On Wednesday Turkey hosted Hamas leader Khaled Meshal and the next day Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, but there is no certainty Turkey will bridge the gap between the groups and help establish a new Palestinian government. Plenty of people in the Israeli Foreign Ministry and Prime Minister's Office are rubbing their hands with glee in light of Turkey's situation. I heard a senior Foreign Ministry official say that "Erdogan may have won the elections, but he has crashed in the world." A real reason for rejoicing.
But Turkey is not a burst bubble. If conducting foreign policy is a test of success, then its failure is no greater than that of the United States, which has been unable to solve crises in the Middle East and is now about to leave chaos behind in Afghanistan as well. Israel, which is being battered against one rock after another on the slope of its deteriorating global status, is certainly the last to judge other countries on how they conduct foreign policy. Turkey at least takes initiatives.
And if not for Israel's unsuccessful policy in Gaza, and its tragic handling of the last flotilla to Gaza, Israel could at least have boasted of good relations with Turkey, even when Turkey is conducting relations with Iran. Turkey, it should be recalled, did not let any country pressure it to sever its relations with Israel. Even now it knows how to read the kaleidoscope and is placing itself on the right side.
This is exactly the right time to initiate a move - not put out feelers - vis-a-vis Turkey, and to pick up the shards. It would not be disastrous for Israel to apologize for killing Turkish citizens. An apology is not an admission of blame - all the more so when even in Israel there are differences of opinion on the wisdom of that military operation.
In about two weeks the joint UN commission for investigating the events of the Mavi Marmara flotilla will publish its report. Turkish representative Ozdem Sanberk and Israeli Yosef Ciechanover are making every effort to put out a fair and flexible report that will enable the two countries to reconnect. It's not necessary to wait for that report. It's possible and advisable to anticipate it with a public Israeli declaration. The blame can be discussed later.

MP Fouad Siniora reiterates commitment to March 14’s principles
June 26, 2011 /Future bloc leader MP Fouad Siniora reiterated commitment to the principles
and the stance that March 14 fought for, and added “we will base [our work] on democracy and parliamentary opposition to maintain the achievements of our society and country.”
“We will work with all our effort so the state spreads its authority on all Lebanon,” Siniora said in a graduation ceremony according to a statement issued by his press office on Sunday.
-NOW Lebanon

MP Mohammad Kabbara warns Nasrallah preparing “to use arms again”
June 26, 2011 /Future bloc MP Mohammad Kabbara warned that Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah “is preparing to use his arms again domestically and in Syria to defend the Syrian regime,” according to a statement issued by the MP’s press office on Sunday. Kabbara also said that he explained to Prime Minister Najib Mikati that there is a “conspiracy to target” Tripoli, adding that Mikati voiced his understanding of the situation. “We requested that Mikati formulate a plan to confiscate heavy weapons in [Tripoli]. Everyone knows that arms are present with Hezbollah’s allies in Jabal Mohsen threatening the city just like Hezbollah threatens all Lebanese areas.”Armed clashes erupted last week in the Jabal Mohsen and Bab al-Tabbaneh neighborhoods of Tripoli following a rally in support of anti-regime protestors in Syria. Seven were killed and several others were injured. Following the clashes, Lebanon First bloc MPs as other as other March 14 figured called for Tripoli to be an arms-free city. -NOW Lebanon

Activist: Syria kills 2 protesting after funerals
BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian forces opened fire at funerals for slain political protesters, a human rights activist said Sunday, leaving two more people dead as Syria tries to subdue weeks of demonstrations against President Bashar Assad. The two were killed Saturday in al-Kaswa, a suburb of the Syrian capital, Damascus, said Rami Abdul-Rahman, the London-based director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Security forces opened fire when the funerals turned into protests, he said. Syrian activists say 20 people were killed in Friday demonstrations across Syria, including two children aged 12 and 13. Most of the Friday deaths occurred in Barzeh and al-Kaswa. Footage posted online by activists showed dozens of people in a Saturday funeral procession for three of the dead in al-Kaswa, shouting "Allahu Akbar!" or "God is great!" and "Bashar, get out!" Abdul-Rahman says one person was also killed Saturday in Damascus' Barzeh neighborhood and two were killed in the village of al-Quseir. The opposition says some 1,400 people have been killed in recent months as the government has cracked down on the movement demanding an end to four decades of autocratic Assad family rule. Hundreds of Syrians, some with gunshot wounds, crossed into neighboring Lebanon late last week fleeing the crackdown. The new arrivals joined thousands of other Syrians who fled to Lebanon in May and early June. The military's recent sweep through northwestern Syria, where armed resistance flared in early June, also has sent more than 11,700 refugees fleeing across the border to refugee camps in Turkey.

Egyptian Muslims Torch 8 Christian Homes on Rumor of Church Construction
6-26-2011 /(AINA) -- A mob of nearly 200 Muslims torched eight Christian homes on Saturday morning in the Upper Egyptian village of Awlad Khalaf. The attack was initiated by a rumor that a house which is being built by Wahib Halim Attia will be turned into a church. Two Christians and one Muslim were injured, no fatalities were reported.
Wahib Halim Attia obtained a license to build a house in the village on a 95 square meter plot. The house grew to an area of 350 square meters but was still on agricultural land that he owns. This gave rise to the rumor that he intended to build a church instead. Father Weesa Azmy, the priest at St. George Church in the neighboring village of Negou Madam East, said that someone went to the City Council in Dar es Salam and told them about the irregularities in the house construction, and Wahib was ordered to remove the excess by June 24. "Instead Wahib carried on with the construction, which angered the Muslims, who decided to play God and take the law into their own hands; they attacked the construction site and other Christian homes."
According to Father Weesa, Muslims broke into the home of Ihab Tamer, who defended himself with a rifle. A Muslim who was there to help Ihab was injured by a bullet in his leg from Tamer's rifle. The matter was explained and resolved with the family of that Muslim. According to eyewitnesses the Muslims, mostly Salafists and some youngsters, looted and torched eight homes belonging to Wahib Halim Attia and his two brothers, his three cousins and two other Copts, including Ihab Tamer. The police arrived three hours after the looting and torching had ended. Father Weesa said Ihab Tamer, who was in hiding after the shooting incident, contacted him and he advised him to give himself up to the police as he was acting in self-defense. "If someone sees people breaking into his home, surely he has to defend his family and himself." The police told father Weesa, who did not witness the incident himself, that most of the attackers were teenagers between the ages of 10 and 14 years old. This was refuted by eyewitnesses. However, he said "if it is true that there were children and teens, then definitely someone else has sent them." He added he will not attend any reconciliation meetings and the rule of law must be upheld, on the Copt if found guilty and the attackers. Most of the teens and children were arrested by the police but no adults were arrested. Police and security are now present in Awlad Khalaf village and the 30 Christian homes are being guarded, the Security Chief said tonight on the Egyptian State TV.
By Mary Abdelmassih


Minister Alaae Terro: Corruption allegations not backed with evidence are void
Ya Libnan/June 25, 2011
Minister of the Displaced Alaaeddine Terro, a member of MP Walid Jumblatt’s parliamentary bloc said on Saturday that corruption allegations need to be backed with evidence, otherwise they will be considered void. Nobody should accuse others of corruption, since everyone has used power for own purposes, he told Free Lebanon radio. Change and Reform bloc leader MP Michel Aoun and other MPs from his bloc have harshly criticized the Finance Ministry and called for an investigation of state accounts as of 1993, during the first term of the slain former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. In 2006 former Prime Minister Fouad Siniora submitted a bill to parliament that would contract global financial companies to audit state accounts since 1989, but Aoun reportedly rejected the proposal and wanted the auditing to take place as 0f 1993. According to observers Aoun rejected Siniora’s proposal because such an investigation would cover the period of his disputed presidency. Aoun reportedly stole $50 million from the Lebanese treasury in 1989. Following his defeat by the Syrian army on 13 October 1990 he went into exile to France.

Marouni says spies can infiltrate any party
June 26, 2011 /Kataeb bloc MP Elie Marouni said in an interview with Kuwaiti newspaper As-Seyassah published on Sunday that spies infiltrate any party, even Hezbollah “as its chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah confessed.”Marouni said that the time in which Nasrallah made his Friday announcement raises a lot of questions. Regarding the Ministerial Statement, the MP said “we all know that this cabinet is Hezbollah’s cabinet. Hezbollah will implement what it wants regardless of what the Ministerial Statement says.”Nasrallah said on Friday that two of his party members have confessed to working for the US Central Intelligence Agency, adding that a third is still under interrogation. The new Lebanese cabinet was formed last week after almost five months of deliberations between the March 8 parties. The March 14 coalition had announced it will not take part in Najib Mikati’s government.-NOW Lebanon

Ad-Diyar: Jumblatt against disagreement with international community
June 26, 2011 /An unnamed source close to Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblatt quoted the latter as saying that Lebanon should not fall into disagreement with the international community, Ad-Diyar newspaper reported on Sunday. Jumblatt also said that if the new cabinet will not be able to control the situation and maintain stability, it will lose, especially as Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun’s statements are “tantamount to a threat to the Sunni sect,” the source added. The source also quoted Jumblatt as saying that he will not go along with any party that “drags [Lebanon] toward strife and [incite] sectarian struggles.”-NOW Lebanon


The Arab revolutions: an end to dogma
Hazem Saghieh, /24 June 2011
Open Democracy
The popular uprisings in the Arab world are a great disaster for a radical camp led by Syria-Iran and long indulged by media such as al-Jazeera. A great opportunity follows, says Hazem Saghieh. About the authorHazem Saghieh is political editor of the London-based Arab newspaper al-Hayat.The radical, pro-Iranian pro-Syrian camp in the middle east is extremely confused nowadays. The Arab revolutions which at first triggered its enthusiasm and energy have turned out to be very different from what it expected and hoped for.
The Tunisian revolution did not release any “anti-imperialist” sentiment; the Egyptian revolution did not burn American flags in the streets of Cairo and Alexandria, nor annul the 1978 treaty with Israel. The whole notion that the Tunisians and Egyptians were imitating the Khomeini revolutionary model, a notion promoted by the Iranian leaders, was proven wrong.
Moreover, the radical prophecy that the west and its influence are going to shrink in the region was also proved wrong. The international intervention in Libya widened the presence of the west and its influence in the Arab world. What is more annoying to the radical camp is that this intervention is welcomed by most Libyans and acceptable to most of the Arabs.
Syria also contradicted them. Bashar al-Assad told the Wall Street Journal that his country is stable because his regime is “very closely linked to the beliefs of the people”. A few weeks later, the uprising started in Syria. Damascus’s “steadfastness” and “confrontational policy” - which led it to support the Lebanese group Hizbollah, the Palestinian group Hamas and the Iraqi terrorists who call themselves the “Iraqi resistance” - did not help much.
Syria’s upheaval might be the most important development of all: not just because of its central location and the influence it can exert on Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, but also because Syria is the bridge through which Iranian influence can reach the Arab middle east.
The demonstrators in the Arab streets did not chant revolutionary slogans; they did not ask for arms or call for “resistance”. They chanted instead: “peaceful, peaceful”. The mood of young Arab people differed entirely from those of previous decades. This might change in the future; but for the moment it is safe to say that peacefulness has the upper hand
The al-Jazeera TV station, seen as the voice of Arab radicals, changed course. Those who believed its revolutionary rhetoric discovered the bitter fact: al-Jazeera had used that rhetoric as an instrument of the Qatari regime and its ambitions. Qatar now is part of the international intervention in Libya; it is part of the conservative and repressive Gulf policy toward Bahrain. The Qatari emir went to the United States to thank President Obama for “supporting democracy in the Arab world”. When Qatar changed, al-Jazeera had to change. This is manifested in its elaborate coverage of the Syrian uprising.
In this context, two further aspects of the Arab revolutions are relevant. First, Osama bin Laden's death came as a mere detail. The uprisings killed Bin Laden politically before he died at the Americans’ hands. Second, Israel has the capacity greatly to help in accelerating the positive transition and curbing radical tendencies in the Arab world. At present, it is doing the contrary under Benjamin Netanyahu and the ultra-right chauvinist coalition he leads.
But the cumulative outcome of these changes is a devastating loss for the radical camp. In their totality, they challenge the dogmas that have long poisoned Arab political culture. It is time for the dogmas to be discarded, and for real understanding and self-awareness to take their place.
http://www.opendemocracy.net/hazem-saghieh/arab-revolutions-end-to-dogma?utm_source=feedblitz&utm_medium=FeedBlitzEmail&utm_content=201210&utm_campaign=Nightly_2011-06-26%2005:30


Walking the opposition road
Ana Maria Luca
June 26, 2011
Now Lebanon
It took five months of negotiations, but two weeks ago Prime Minister Najib Mikati came up with the lineup of the new cabinet, which is to submit its ministerial statement to the parliament and face the vote of confidence on Wednesday, June 29. But with the formation of the new March 8 cabinet, the pro-West March 14 alliance, which holds the majority in parliament, is facing its most difficult political test, analysts say.
March 14 leaders vowed that they would do everything the Lebanese constitution allows them to do in order to topple or discredit the new government. Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea said that the opposition would use all available democratic means to topple the newly-formed cabinet, including street protests. “The opposition’s decision comes from the fact that this cabinet is under Hezbollah and Syria’s [influence],” he told Voice of Lebanon radio station. “The cabinet’s nature and identity are clear; it will bring isolation from the Arab and international [community], which is dangerous to Lebanon,” Geagea added.
Several opposition officials, such as Kataeb party leader Amin Gemayel, MP Marwan Hamadeh and former lawmakers Fares Soueid, Samir Franjieh and Bassem al-Sabaa have traveled to Paris to discuss with former Premier Saad Hariri the approach that the March 14 forces will take after the formation of Mikati’s cabinet. However, most opposition meetings have been kept away from the media spotlight. A March 14 leader told Al-Mustaqbal daily on condition of anonymity that the opposition would launch a national council made up of independents and representatives of political parties and civil society groups.
Analysts say the future will not be smooth for the new Lebanese opposition, but March 14 can succeed in putting pressure on the government if it plays its cards well. Political analysts and constitutional experts agree that the March 14 opposition has three important things in its favor: the impending indictment of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL), the Syrian uprising and, in the longer term, the government not being able to succeed internally.
“With the current situation in the parliament [with March 8 holding 68 seats out of 128] it seems very difficult to topple the government,” lawyer and constitutional expert Marwan Sakr told NOW Lebanon. However, other elements, such as the STL or the Syrian uprising, could favor the March 14 opposition’s goal to discredit the government, he said.
The STL is set to announce its indictment very soon, and it is expected it will indict Hezbollah members, which will coincide with the vote of confidence in the Lebanese parliament, explained Darina Saliba Abi Chedid, professor of International Public Law and International Affairs at the Lebanese American University. “This will certainly influence, if not the vote of confidence, certainly the policies of both the government and the opposition,” she said.
“This coincidence of the STL indictment being issued at the same time as the vote of confidence is the most interesting part of the situation,” Sakr said. “Will it keep the majority intact for March 8? If not, again, all is possible, even inside the parliament. Some of the Progressive Socialist Party members and even some of Mikati’s supporters might withdraw from the majority. But otherwise I don’t see how, with the current majority in the parliament, it can get enough votes to topple the government.”
But even if the government obtains the vote of confidence, the opposition still has the means to make life difficult for Mikati’s cabinet. If it plays by the book, the opposition can attract votes from the majority on certain bills, and they also have all the parliamentary tools to interrogate the ministers, Sakr said. “They can insist on key ministries, such as Telecommunications, Finance or Energy, they can question the administrative reforms, and this way they can attack the credibility of the government, show that it failed economically. This happens in any democracy,” he added.
Experts also agree that March 14 has an important test to pass. With the leader of the opposition, Saad Hariri, out of the country for security reasons, March 14 might lose popular support, Sakr said. Hariri has been abroad for a month already, reportedly spending time with family in France and Canada, while Future Party members say that he received threats to his life while in Lebanon. For Abi Chedid, the greatest test of all will be countering the March 8 alliance’s attempt to cut ties with the STL. “March 8 says that the STL decision is not constitutional, that the agreement [on the tribunal] needed to be negotiated by the president and agreed upon by the parliament, and they will try to abolish the agreement on the STL by submitting this decision to the parliament,” she said. Sakr, however, believes that even though March 14 has good cards up its sleeve, its political team has many players of different orientations that are difficult to coordinate. “March 14 also has to be organized, and its parliamentary groups to coordinate very well in order to use the advantages they have. What they need most right now is a unified strategy, unified tactics within the parliament,” he said.

Report: Hezbollah moves missiles from Syria to Lebanon, fearing fall of Assad regime
By Barak Ravid /Haaretz
In recent weeks, Hezbollah has moved hundreds of missiles from storage sites in Syria to bases in eastern Lebanon, the French newspaper Le Figaro reported on Saturday.
According to the report, Hezbollah moved the missiles due to the concern that the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad will fall and that a new Syrian government will cut off ties with Hezbollah. The report quoted a "Western expert" as saying that intelligence agencies have monitored the movement of trucks from the Syrian border to Lebanon's Bekaa Valley. The trucks contained long-range Iranian-produced Zilzal, Fajr 3 and Fajr 4 missiles. Hezbollah had been storing these missiles in depots in Syria. Some of the depots are secured by Hezbollah personnel while others are located on Syrian military bases. According to the report, the movement of the missiles has been problematic, particularly due to concerns that Israel and other nations are monitoring the trucks with spy satellites. "Hezbollah is afraid that Israel will bomb the convoys," the Le Figaro report said. The report added that Hezbollah has moved the missiles using means of camouflage more sophisticated than it has used before. The report also noted that Syrian intelligence and the Al-Quds force of Iran's Revolutionary Guard recently established a joint operations room at the international airport in Damascus. This step was taken as a result of the lessons learned when an Iranian arms plane was intercepted in Turkey in March. According to the report, the plane, which was on its way from Iran to Syria, was forced to land in Turkey due to a tip American intelligence passed to Turkey. A search of the plane uncovered missiles, mortars and other types of weaponry

Chamoun says Aoun cannot be taken seriously
June 25, 2011 /National Liberal Party leader Dori Chamoun said in an interview published on Saturday that Change and Reform bloc leader MP Michel Aoun is abnormal and cannot be taken seriously. “Aoun used to tell stories about his pressure on the US Congress and his influence on US policies,” Chamoun told Al-Mustaqbal newspaper.
He added that the March 14 coalition will confront any violation made by the newly-formed cabinet. “We will [act] in a legal way and not burn tires; the majority of the Lebanese people will not allow Lebanon to be [stripped of international] legitimacy.” Aoun said on Tuesday that the March 14 alliance “lacks a sense of humor” and that their “opposition is fierce but disrespectful.” The new Lebanese cabinet—headed by Prime Minister Najib Mikati—was formed last week after almost five months of deliberations between the March 8 parties.

Syria reinforces northern border as Turkey loses patience with Assad
The Guardian.
Martin Chulov, Istanbul guardian.co.uk, Saturday 25 June/11
Syrian officials have ordered military units to step up patrolling near the Turkish border in a warning to its increasingly irate northern neighbour not to establish a buffer zone inside Syria.
Diplomats in Ankara and Beirut believe the Syrian advance on the border village of Khirbet al-Jouz, initially portrayed as a sweep against dissidents, was a veiled threat to Turkey, which is steadily turning on President Bashar al-Assad as his regime's crackdown on dissent continues.
In the wake of Assad's speech last week, Turkish officials gave him one week to start reforms and stop the violent suppression of protests, which is estimated to have killed more than 1,400 people in less than four months. At least 18 were killed and dozens more wounded during nationwide protests on Friday – a relatively low toll compared with the past few Fridays. But the pattern of activists being attacked by the security forces remains the same.
British government officials travelled during the week to the south of Turkey to interview Syrian refugees. A Foreign Office official told the Observer that diplomats are compiling accounts of what happened in Jisr al-Shughour and the villages around it during the first two weeks of this month, when the Syrian army mounted a series of raids, followed by an assault that led almost every resident of the 41,000-strong town to flee, first for the nearby hills, then to Turkey.
Among the allegations being investigated are claims that Iranian soldiers operated alongside Syrian units – especially the Fourth Division of the army, which is led by Assad's brother Maher and has a reputation for ruthlessness.
The European Union last week adopted sanctions against three leading officers of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, among them Qassem Suleimani, commander of the elite Al-Quds force, who is widely regarded as the leader of all the Iranian military's clandestine missions abroad.
A senior diplomat in Beirut said on Friday that intelligence agencies had evidence that Iran sent weapons to Syria, but had not yet determined whether there had been an actual Iranian presence at demonstrations.
In a further sign of Turkish unease with Damascus, officials from the country's Red Crescent who run the five refugee camps along the border no longer seem to be banned from talking to reporters. Embarrassment to Syria has clearly become less of a concern.
Refugee accounts are being used to compile a referral to the international criminal court, which will be asked to prosecute Assad and key regime officials for crimes against humanity. The referral is being prepared by several rights groups, including Insan, which is also compiling testimonies from defecting Syrian soldiers.
Turkey's growing diplomatic anger at Syria has made Istanbul an attractive hub for the Syrian opposition movement, which has received scores of defectors in recent weeks. Beirut, which is less than three hours' drive from Damascus and offers easy access to Syrian citizens, is now considered too dangerous for anti-regime dissidents. "It is a clearing house only," said one Syrian activist who directs a network of dissidents across the border. "There are many ways that the regime can get to people here – they don't even have to be here themselves. They just use their proxies."
One Syrian journalist who fled to Beirut has told the rights group Avaaz of his capture by Lebanese military intelligence officers. The journalist says he was seized from a coffee shop in Jounieh, 25km north of Beirut. He said he was first asked by a stranger to step outside for a conversation, then seized and taken to a fetid barracks where he was interrogated for several days. "During the days I spent in Beirut, some other Syrian activists were kidnapped and extradited to the Syrian security police," he said. "The Lebanese authorities have also captured the few fugitive Syrian soldiers who had fled Syria through the borders, and then turned them in to Syria, claiming that it had to because of the security agreement signed between the two countries." At least 1,000 refugees crossed into Lebanon at the Wadi Khalled border point on Friday, including five men with gunshot wounds, after an assault on the Syrian city of Homs, according to Lebanese officials. A resident of the border village told the Observer that Syrian army units had opened fire towards the wounded as they attempted to enter Lebanon.

Syria send more troops to Turkey and Lebanon borders
So far nearly 12,000 people from the area have fled across the border into Turkey Continue reading the main story Syria Crisis Syria refugees tell their stories  Syria's military has moved into a village near the border with Turkey and a town near the boundary with Lebanon, activists say. Hundreds of Syrians, some with gunshot wounds, have fled into Lebanon, according to reports. At least two civilians were shot dead by security forces at funerals held for people killed in protests on Friday, the activists say. Dissidents plan a conference on Monday to discuss how to resolve the crisis. Protests against the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad have gone on for more than three months. Activists say more than 1,300 demonstrators have been killed by security forces and government supporters.The Damascus government says it is tacking armed groups. The village of Najia, near the border with Turkey, is the latest to have Syrian army troops and tanks move in, activists say.  Najia is near the town of Jisr al-Shughour, where the government sent reinforcements earlier this month after saying 120 security personnel had been killed by gunmen.
'Faked film'
The official Syrian news agency said the troops had completed their sweep of border villages without any shots being fired. So far nearly 12,000 people from the region have fled into Turkey.They show no sign of readiness to come back, despite promises from the Syrian authorities that the situation is stable and there will be no retribution.
Further south, near the border with Lebanon, activists said the town of Qusair was attacked by security forces and pro-regime militiamen after a big demonstration there on Friday.
They said tanks had moved in and many local people had been detained. At least two civilians were shot dead during Saturday's funerals for victims killed on Friday in Kiswah, south of Damascus, Rami Abdel Rahman, the head of the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told AFP news agency.
He added that another two civilians were shot dead by security forces in Kassir, near the Lebanese border.
Residents in the Damascus neighbourhood of Barzeh say a number of people have been arrested there and a curfew imposed, following unrest after Friday prayers.
A Syrian with relatives in Barzeh told the BBC that one dead protester had been used for propaganda purposes by the Syrian security forces.
They had put a gun in his hand and filmed him so that he could be depicted as a gunman on state television, he said.
President Assad has blamed gunmen for the violence.Scores of dissidents and intellectuals critical of the regime are planning to hold a conference in Damascus on Monday, for the first time since the uprising began in March. They say the authorities have not banned the one-day gathering. The BBC's Jim Muir in Beirut says that if the meeting goes ahead, it could be a sign of greater tolerance of dissent from a regime that says it is preparing comprehensive reforms. President Assad ordered a general amnesty on Tuesday in a bid to quell the unrest, a day after offering a "national dialogue".

Aoun says Hezbollah’s alleged breach discovery “grows trust in Resistance”
June 25, 2011 /Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun said on Saturday that Hezbollah’s alleged discovery of a security breach among its ranks “grows our trust” in the Shia group, an unnamed source said. According to Hezbollah’s Al-Manar television, the source quoted Aoun as saying that “such achievements increase our confidence in the Resistance.”
The FPM leader –who is Hezbollah’s key Christian ally –voiced gratitude “for the Resistance’s transparency and announcement that [it was] infiltrated.”He also warned against “politically exploiting the issue,” the source added. Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Friday said two members of his Shia movement had confessed to being CIA agents and accused arch-foe Israel of turning to the US spy agency after itself failing to infiltrate his Iran-backed party. It was the first such acknowledgment of infiltration by Hezbollah, which prides itself on the discipline of its members, since its establishment in the 1980s. Washington blacklists Iranian- and Syrian-backed Hezbollah as a terrorist organization.-NOW Lebanon

Lebanese army is UNIFIL’s strategic partner, says UN official
June 25, 2011 /The Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) is a “strategic partner” of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), UNIFIL spokesperson Andrea Tenenti said.
In an interview with the Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) published on Saturday, Tenenti said that UNIFIL “aims at the gradual transfer of its current responsibilities whether on land or in sea to the LAF.” He was quoted as saying that the peacekeeping troops’ goal is to let the army “shoulder the responsibility of security control over the UNIFIL zone between the Blue Line, the barrier separating Lebanon from Israel, Litany River and the Lebanese territorial waters.”The spokesperson also called on the international community “to help LAF and supply them with technical and material resources required for shouldering their respective responsibilities in tandem with UN Security Council Resolution 1701." -NOW Lebanon

MP Boutros Harb questions “authority” looking into Hezbollah’s alleged breach
June 25, 2011 /MP Boutros Harb questioned on Saturday “which authority is investigating” the issue of the alleged security breach in Hezbollah’s ranks. “Which Lebanese authority is investigating the issue of [the alleged] infiltration in Hezbollah’s ranks?” Harb asked during an interview with MTV. “Does Hezbollah have its own judiciary?” the MP questioned. Harb also said that “Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah previously said that his party was not infiltrated, but today, here he is announcing the existence of a security breach.”Nasrallah on Friday said two members of his Shia movement had confessed to being Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) agents and accused arch-foe Israel of turning to the US spy agency after itself failing to infiltrate his Iran-backed party. It was the first such acknowledgment of infiltration by Hezbollah, which prides itself on the discipline of its members, since its establishment in the 1980s. Washington blacklists Iranian- and Syrian-backed Hezbollah as a terrorist organization.
-NOW Lebanon

Public Works and Transportation Minister Ghazi Aridi says Lebanon is “field for embassy spies”
June 25, 2011 /Public Works and Transportation Minister Ghazi Aridi said on Saturday that Lebanon is a “field for spies,” a day after Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah charged the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of infiltrating his group in Lebanon. “Lebanon is a field for [foreign ] embassies’ spies,” Aridi told Al-Manar television, adding that “Hezbollah is a constant target for the US and Israel.” “If the US was [able] to put an end to Hezbollah and its leadership, it would have,” the minister –who represents MP Walid Jumblatt’s Progressive Socialist Party –added. He also said that “Hezbollah made an achievement by uncovering the breach.”Nasrallah on Friday said two members of his Shia movement had confessed to being CIA agents and accused arch-foe Israel of turning to the US spy agency after itself failing to infiltrate his Iran-backed party. It was the first such acknowledgment of infiltration by Hezbollah, which prides itself on the discipline of its members, since its establishment in the 1980s.
Washington blacklists Iranian and Syrian-backed Hezbollah as a terrorist organization.
- NOW Lebanon

Chaos feared as Syria crisis nears bloody impasse
By TIM SULLIVAN, Associated Press –
WADI KHALED, Lebanon (AP) — When the Arab Spring came to Talkalakh, the little Syrian hill town a few minutes walk from this border village, it seemed to last barely a moment. Squads of secret police descended on the town within hours of the first protests. Then the army came with its tanks, and the shadowy pro-government militia called the shabiha.
The May siege killed at least 36 civilians, activists say. Hundreds of people were arrested. Thousands fled. By mid-June, the Sunni Muslim town of 70,000 people had only a few dozen families remaining, according to residents who recently escaped into Lebanon, and those still there are constantly watched by security forces.
But when night falls, the Arab Spring comes back to Talkalakh. Because that is when the young people slip quietly to the rooftops of their concrete homes. And in the darkness they shout out for freedom and for the help of God. Silence returns only when soldiers begin blindly spraying gunfire.
As the early success of the Arab Spring has bogged down in turmoil — civil war in Libya, repression in Bahrain and anarchy in Yemen — Syria has become mired in its own bloody grind of protests and repression. Its stalemate is a reflection of the new and more complicated chapter in the string of Arab uprisings.
If much of the Syrian uprising has been cloaked by an authoritarian Damascus regime that expelled foreign journalists, the stakes could turn out to be far higher there than almost anywhere else in the Arab world.
In the balance are political reform for one of the region's most brutally repressive countries, and fear that the nation of 22 million people could descend into sectarian conflict that would draw in players from across the Middle East.
Residents of protesting towns describe relentless shelling of their neighborhoods. They pass around cell phone videos of young men so badly tortured that their corpses look like butchered meat. More than 1,400 Syrians have been killed in the crackdown, activists say, and 10,000 have been detained.
"Soldiers kick the faces of demonstrators under arrest, when they are handcuffed on the ground. They say: "You want freedom? This is your freedom!" said a bookish 21-year-old from Talkalakh who asked to be identified only by his first name, Zakariya, fearing retribution against relatives. "They think they can stop our protests by abusing us, but that is not going to work."
Like many demonstrators, he was surprised to find himself in the streets at all.
"We couldn't even imagine that we could talk like this, that we could ask for freedom," he said, standing in the shade of a tree on Wadi Khaled's quiet main street. But then satellite TV brought news of demonstrators overthrowing dictators in Tunisia and Egypt, and of political convulsions across the Middle East.
"It gave us the courage to raise our voices," he said.
However, three months after the protests spread to Syria, the country is in a political no-man's-land, with President Bashar Assad's regime unable to crush the tenacious grassroots opposition but unwilling to begin talks with them. Assad's most recent peace offering, a vague promise to consider political reforms, was quickly dismissed by the opposition as a ploy to buy time and hold onto power.
The regime "still believes it can crush the protests," said Rami Nakhla, a Syrian activist now living underground in Beirut who has spent months disseminating news and video clips sent from inside the country. "But it's clear the regime has played all its cards and the protests are not burning out. They're spreading."
At the same time, the activists have not managed so far to draw in Syria's middle class, resulting in protests that hopscotch across the country but seldom touch the largest cities.
The Assad regime has long used sheer brutality to hold together a fragile jigsaw puzzle of Middle Eastern backgrounds — Sunnis, Shiites, Alawites, Christians, Kurds, Druse, Circassians, Armenians and more. Sectarian violence is widely feared, and in the worst-case scenario the country could descend into a Lebanese-style civil war.
At the same time, Syria is an important geopolitical linchpin. It borders five other nations, has close ties to Iran and powerful militant groups, and controls water supplies to Iraq, Jordan and parts of Israel. Meanwhile, though Damascus and Israel are officially at war and Israel has occupied Syria's Golan Heights since 1967, their quiet, behind-the-scenes contact has sometimes been key to preventing the eruption of fighting.
"People are afraid of what could happen if Assad falls from power," said Elias Muhanna, a political analyst at Harvard University. At worst, it could become what he calls "an Iraq scenario," with armed militias carving out ethnic fiefdoms.
It is a fear that Damascus has carefully nurtured in recent months, warning repeatedly that only Assad can keep chaos at bay. And while most analysts say Assad is exaggerating, few deny that such violence is a serious possibility.
That is why many opposition figures are putting their hope on an unlikely player: the Syrian army. Dissidents say they are in touch with many lower-ranking soldiers, and have publicly urged top-ranking officers to oust Assad in a coup d'etat.
"We don't have other options right now," said Radwan Ziadeh, a prominent Syrian exile and a visiting scholar at the Institute for Middle East Studies at George Washington University. "We need the army officers to take the initiative."
Getting to that point, though, would require crossing a deep sectarian chasm.
Syria's deadlock is rooted in the divide between the Sunni Muslim majority and the Alawites, a Shiite offshoot that makes up about 11 percent of the country. The Assad family is Alawite, as are most key leaders in the army, the intelligence services and top businesses.
While Sunnis dominate the military's enlisted ranks, the top commanders are mostly Alawites. They also make up much of the army's feared 4th Division, which is led by Bashar Assad's brother Maher and used to crush the biggest protests, as well as the Republican Guard, which is responsible for protecting the capital, Damascus. Then there is the shabiha, the mafia-style militia the regime uses as enforcers, a network of fearsome young Alawite men known for dressing all in black.
The Alawites rose from economic obscurity after the 1970 coup led by Bashar Assad's father, Hafez, gaining power and financial muscle in exchange for loyalty to the Assads. It is their support that the younger Assad sees as the key to continued power.
Alawites claim they would be oppressed as Muslim heretics if the Sunnis come to power, and Sunnis claim they are unable to get the government jobs essential to reach the lower rungs of the middle class. Analyst Muhanna says the now-privileged Alawites would see majority rule as a nightmare.
"They would see it as the end of Alawite culture," he said. "The Alawites look at Syria the way the Jews look at Israel."
Whether or not the Alawite military commanders turn against Assad may depend on the new middle class.
For now, Assad counts on the support of a small but growing Syrian middle class, a mixture of Sunnis, Alawites and other ethnic groups that live mostly in the cities of Damascus and Aleppo. This newly monied class, mostly traders and small manufacturers, has seen life gradually improve since Hafez Assad died in 2000, and his son began opening up the country's economy. "So far, they continue to think that Assad's regime ensures stability and continuity," said Hilal Khashan, a professor of political science at the American University of Beirut. "If they reach the conclusion that Assad is not their man, and the regime is not one to rely upon, they will join the protest movement."
That, he said, would be the point when the Syrian army would step in — when they believed a coup could keep economic chaos at bay while allowing Alawite military commanders to retain at least some power. "In order to avert the specter of civil war, you would have to include the Alawites in a post-Bashar Assad political order," said Khashan.
While there has been no sign of a split in the military, the protests' momentum has yet to slow.
For every Talkalakh where demonstrations are crushed, others break out. Dozens of protests have erupted across the country. Most recently, the government laid siege to towns along the northern border, sending thousands of refugees streaming into Turkey.
In many ways, Syria's turmoil is not surprising. Across the Middle East, protesters have discovered that creating new governments is far more complicated than driving out old dictators.
The chaos in countries like Libya and Yemen is welcome to the Assad regime, which has carefully mixed vague promises of eventual reform with none-too-subtle warnings that Syria could also spiral into violence.
Government officials blame the protests on mysterious gunmen or Muslim extremists, while warning that Israel or other unnamed foreign powers are stage-managing the demonstrations. The opposition insistently denies any foreign involvement, and the scattered nature of the protests appears to indicate broad grassroots support and little central planning.
Still, dissidents acknowledge they began preparing for protests early this year, when it became clear that calls for democracy were spilling across the Arab world.
According to Ziadeh, an informal exile network smuggled satellite telephones and other communications gear into the country, presuming the government would clamp down on communications if protests began. That equipment has been essential to getting news out through the network of exile-activists.But as for Assad himself, he has been nearly invisible. He has spoken only three times in public since the protests erupted. For the most part, he uses his speeches to talk about dangerous saboteurs and international conspiracies he insists are out to undermine Syria. But he also makes clear that violence may be the ultimate answer. "What is at stake is the homeland," he said in March 30 speech to Parliament. "The Syrian people are peaceful people, loving people, but we have never hesitated in defending our causes, interests and principles, and if we are forced into a battle, so be it."
Copyright © 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved
 

Israel's Vatican envoy backtracks on praise of Pope Pius XII
Haaretz/26 June/11
The Israeli ambassador's comments praising WWII pope for saving Jews were criticized by many Jewish groups, including Holocaust survivors.
The Israeli official who caused a storm in the Jewish world by praising Pope Pius XII for saving Jews during World War II backtracked on Sunday, saying his judgment was "historically premature". The comments made last Thursday by Mordechai Levy, the Israeli ambassador to the Vatican, were some of the warmest ever made by a Jewish official about Pius. Most have been very critical of his record. In an indication of how sensitive the subject of Pius is among Jews, Levy was quickly assailed by some Jewish groups, including Holocaust survivors.
In a statement issued in what appeared to be an attempt to calm the dispute within the world Jewish community, Levy said his comments were "embedded in a larger historical context".
"Given the fact that this context is still under the subject of ongoing and future research, passing my personal historical judgment on it was premature," Levy said.
The question of what Pius did or did not do to help Jews has tormented Catholic-Jewish relations for decades and it is very rare for a leading Jewish or Israeli official to praise Pius.
Many Jews accuse Pius, who reigned from 1939 to 1958, of turning a blind eye to the Holocaust. The Vatican says he worked quietly behind the scenes because speaking out would have led to Nazi reprisals against Catholics and Jews in Europe.
Levy, speaking at a ceremony to honor an Italian priest who helped Jews, had said Catholic convents and monasteries opened their doors to save Jews in the days following a Nazi sweep of Rome's Ghetto on Oct. 16, 1943. In his speech on Thursday night, Levy said: "There is reason to believe that this happened under the supervision of the highest Vatican officials, who were informed about what was going on." "So it would be a mistake to say that the Catholic Church, the Vatican and the pope himself opposed actions to save the Jews. To the contrary, the opposite is true," he said. Elan Steinberg, vice-president of the American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors and their Descendants, called Levy's comments unsustainable.
"For any ambassador to make such specious comments is morally wrong. For the Israeli envoy to do so is particularly hurtful to Holocaust survivors who suffered grievously because of Pius's silence," Steinberg said in a statement. Steinberg said Levy had "disgracefully conflated the praiseworthy actions of elements in the Catholic Church to rescue Jews with the glaring failure of Pope Pius to do so". When Pope Benedict visited Rome's synagogue last year, the president of the capital's Jewish community told him that Pius' "silence before the Holocaust" still hurt Jews because more should have been done. Many Jews responded angrily last year when the pope said in a book that Pius was "one of the great righteous men and that he saved more Jews than anyone else". Jews have asked that a process that could lead to Pius becoming a saint in the Roman Catholic Church be frozen until all the Vatican archives from the period have been opened and studied.

Why Syria’s Christians Should Not Support the Assad Regime
Elie Elhadj, Ph.D. - 6/25/2011
Global Politician
http://globalpolitician.com/26942-syria-christians-assad
At the Dormition of Our Lady Greek Catholic cathedral in Old Damascus, Father Elias Debii raises his hands to heaven and prays for divine protection for embattled Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.[i] Bishop Philoxenos Mattias, a spokesman for the Syriac Orthodox Church said: “We are with the government and against these movements that oppose it”.[ii]
Those among Syria's Christian clerics and civic leaders who publicly support the Assad regime are short sighted. They are courting long-term disaster for themselves and their congregations. Why? Because, the Assad regime will not remain in power forever; it is immoral to support non-representative unjust rule; the Assad clan’s exploitation of Sunni Islam has emboldened Islamism and thwarted the development of secularism in Syria; and because scaremongering for blackmail legitimacy will not work forever. The following explains each reason.
The Assad regime will not remain in power forever
Since the March 8, 1963 military coup d’état against the democratically elected parliament and government of President Nazim al-Qudsi, an unelected minority of the Alawite Assad clan has been ruling Syria with an iron fist; notwithstanding, those seven uncontested referendums for the two Assad presidents.
In addition to impoverishing Syria; despite billion of dollars in oil revenues[iii], the regime has committed horrific atrocities—extra-judicial killings of hundreds of Muslim Brothers detainees in the Palmyra prison in 1980, mass murder in 1982 of between 3,000 citizens, according to the regime’s apologists, and 38,000 [iv] in the city of Hama, let alone the torture of residents at the slightest suspicion and the disappearance of opponents. The killing of more than 1,000 demonstrators during the seven weeks since the March 26, 2011 popular uprising adds to the regime's grim catalogue of human rights violations.[v]
Such a system of governance is unsustainable. It cannot last forever. When the day of reckoning will come, the support that certain priests and civic leaders had given to the regime will place all Christians in danger.
It cannot be predicted when the Assad regime might fall. However, should the demonstrations become larger and spread to downtown Damascus and Aleppo, the demonstrators could overwhelm the security forces; rendering a Hama or a Palmyra type atrocity impossible. If the demonstrations get bigger, more Sunni clerics would join the uprising. Ultimately, even the Sunni palace ulama could turn against their benefactor president.
There is no love lost between Sunnis and Alawites on a religious level. Accommodation between the Asad regime and Sunni palace ulama is a matter of convenience. Orthodox Sunnis regard Alawites as heretics. Ibn Taymiyya (1263-1328), condemned the Alawites as being more dangerous than the Christians, and encouraged Muslims to conduct jihad against them.[vi] Likewise, Alawites despise Sunnis. To Alawites, the howls of jackals that can be heard at night are the souls of Sunni Muslims calling their misguided co-religionists to prayer. [vii]
If parts of the army, which is a conscripted institution, would refuse killing demonstrators or if the army would stand up to the republican guards and the intelligence brigades, then the regime might very well collapse.
It is immoral to support non-representative unjust rule
That leading priests of certain Syrian churches publicly support the Assad dictatorship does not reflect well on the sense of justice, morality, or benevolence of the priests. It is not very Christian for priests to abandon their duty to stand up to oppression, corruption, and injustice.
There might be an argument in favour of tolerating an illegitimate dictatorship if the dictator were benevolent. But, Mr. Asad’s dictatorship is neither legitimate nor benevolent.
For some priests and civic leaders to publicly embrace short-term convenience and abandon long-term security and defense of justice and human rights can be very expensive for the Christian community as a whole. Syria’s Sunni majority will forever remember Christians’ support of Mr. Assad’s misrule. A thousand years later, the memories of Christian and Alawite support of the Crusades are still vivid in the collective consciousness of Sunnis.
The Assad clan’s exploitation of Sunni Islam emboldened Islamism and impeded the development of secularism in Syria
Islamism has been gaining strength over the recent decades, thanks to the Assad clan’s strategy of exploiting Sunni Islam to prolong their hold on power.
That the regime and its apologists and propagandists describe Mr. Assad’s rule as ”secular” is an exaggeration, if not false. The Asad regime is neither secular nor sincere in its promotion of the Sunni creed. Since their seizure of absolute power more than four decades ago, the Asad government did not secularize Syria in the slightest. Syria of 2011 is no less Islamic than Syria of 1963.
Exploiting Sunni Islam, together with the excesses of the ruling elite, corruption, abuse of human rights, poverty, and unemployment have been driving increasing numbers of young men and women to extremism. The longer this situation continues, the more fertile the ground will become for Islamism to grow.
Here is how the Asad dynasty has been impeding the development of secularism in Syria and exploiting Sunni Islam.
Article 3.1 of the Syria constitution makes Islam the necessary religion of the president. Christians are barred from the country’s highest political office. Article 3.2 makes Islam as “a main source” of legislation.
Seventh century Shari’a laws and courts are in force in personal status, family, and inheritance affairs (Christians follow their own archaic religious courts). Shari’a law is the antithesis of the liberal laws of the modern age. It denies women legal rights compared with Muslim men. It impinges on women’s human rights. Shari’a law reduces the status of women to that of chattel—a Muslim man can marry four wives, divorce any one of them without giving reason (with limited child custody rights, housing, or alimony), a Muslim woman is prohibited from marrying a non-Muslim man while the Muslim man is allowed to marry non-Muslim women, a woman cannot pass her nationality on to her foreign husband and children while the man can, “honour killing” of a woman by a male relative results in a light sentence for murder, and two women equal one man in legal testimony, witness, and inheritance. Such maltreatment of one half of Syria’s society is in spite of the regime’s energetic attempts to project an image of secularism, modernity, and equality between the genders.
The Islamic curriculum in Syria’s elementary, middle, and high schools teaches Muslim Sunni Islam regardless of the Islamic sect to which they belong. The textbooks are discriminatory, divisive, and intolerant of non-Muslims.[viii]
More mosques, bigger congregations, and more veiled women than ever before have become the order of the day in Syrian cities. To flaunt his Islamic credentials, President Bashar Asad even ordered a special rain prayer throughout Syria's mosques performed on December 10, 2010 in order for God to send rain.
Following the March 2011 violent demonstrations, Mr. Assad acted to gain support from the Sunni palace ulama and mollify the Sunni street. The popular Sunni cleric Muhammad Saiid al-Bouti praised Mr. Asad’s response to many of the requests submitted by a number of Sunni clerics. In his weekly religious program on April 5, 2011 on Syrian government television, Sheikh al-Bouti applauded Mr. Assad’s permission to allow niqab-wearing (black face cover) female teachers; transferred in July 2010 to desk duties[ix], to return to classrooms. Sheikh al-Bouti had attributed the drought in December 2010 to the transfer from classrooms of the niqab-wearing female teachers. Sheikh al-Bouti also praised Mr. Asad for the formation of the Sham Institute for Advanced Shari’a Studies and Research, and for the establishment of an Islamic satellite television station dedicated to proclaiming the message of true Islam.[x] Also, the first and only casino, which had enraged orthodox clerics when it opened on New Year’s Eve, was closed as well.[xi]
Why exploit Islam and fight secularism?
To rule Sunni dominated Syria, it would be helpful to the Asad clan to uphold the influence of Sunni Islam instead of wading in the muddy waters of Shari’a reform and secularization, even if that meant throwing the Baath Party’s constitution away.
Islam is helpful to Muslim rulers. Not only in Syria, other Arab regimes (except Lebanon and Tunisia) exploit Islam to stay in power.[xii] Islam demands obedience of Muslims to the Muslim ruler.
The Quran, the Prophetic Sunna, and opinions of famous jurists enjoin Muslims to obey the Muslim ruler blindly. In 4:59, the Quran orders: “Obey God and obey God’s messenger and obey those of authority among you.” Answering how a Muslim should react to a ruler who does not follow the true guidance, the Prophet reportedly said, according to Sahih Muslim: “He who obeys me obeys God; he who disobeys me, disobeys God. He who obeys the ruler, obeys me; he who disobeys the ruler, disobeys me.”[xiii] Abi Da’ud (d. 888) and Ibn Maja (d. 886) quote the Prophet as imploring Muslims to hear and obey the ruler, even if he were an Ethiopian slave.[xiv] Al-Bukhari (d. 870) quotes similar traditions.[xv] The palace ulama invoke one thousand year old opinions of famous jurists such as Al-Ghazali (1058-1111), Ibn Jama’a (1241-1333), and Ibn Taymiyya (1263-1328). These men taught that the Muslim ruler must be obeyed blindly because even an unjust ruler is better than societal unrest.
Syria’s palace ulama threaten the Muslim faithful with eternal damnation if they fail to obey Mr. Asad (waliy al-amr). In the hands of the Assad clan, Islam has become a psychological weapon supplementing a brutal security machine.
Scaremongering for Blackmail legitimacy will not work forever
That certain priests and civic leaders subscribe to unsubstantiated scaremongering regarding future Islamist/salafi persecution of Christians is unwise. Those in the Christian community who warn of the slaughter awaiting Christians if the Assad regime collapses fall for the regime’s Machiavellian practice of blackmail legitimacy. Neither historical precedence nor credible evidence today supports such scare tactics. Blackmail legitimacy, like the crying-wolf syndrome, does not work forever.
Islamists/salafis who might harbor violent intentions against Christians are a tiny minority of Syria’s 23-million population. There are no accurate statistics or opinion polls to suggest otherwise. Syria’s Islamists/salafis are not representative of Syria’s Sunnis. The great majority of Syria’s Sunnis, around 75% of the population, are moderate Muslims who have lived rather harmoniously with their fellow Christians for centuries.
During the first 15 years of independence and until the advent of the Assad clan, Syria’s Christians enjoyed peace and shared whatever prosperity was available at that time with the Sunni majority. The suggestion that Syria’s Sunnis would kill Syria’s Christians is malicious misinformation to divide and rule. The regime’s media, apologists, and propagandists who circulate such stories are wicked. Those who believe such tales are naive. Syria’s Christian minority’s best interest could not be separate from the interest of the Sunni majority.
That the options to Syrians today are reduced to either accepting the current poor state of affairs or contend with an Islamist/salafi rule; even civil war, is blackmail used by the regime to perpetuate its monopoly on power and avoid genuine reform. That genuine reform is not an option does not bode well for the country. That President Assad insisted in his address to the parliament on March 30, 2011 that Syria’s protesters had been “duped” into damaging the nation on behalf of its enemies[xvi], and his infamous billionaire cousin, Rami Makhlouf, stated in an interview with The New York Times that, “Syria will fight protests till ‘the end’” spell danger to all Syrians.[xvii] Like a pressure cooker, the longer a dictatorship stays in power the more violent the end will be.
Sunnis, like Christians, are threatened by Islamist/salafi ideology, violence, and seventh century way of life. While systematic long-term persecution of Christians by Sunnis will not happen in Syria, acts of revenge by extremist groups might occur during the chaotic days of a popular revolt against; not only Alawites and Christians, but also against non-Christian supporters of the Assad clan altogether.
To spare Syria a potential catastrophe, Mr. Asad should institute a comprehensive and genuine political reforms, in particular; multi-party parliament and contested presidential elections. Scaremongering priests can help. They must desist from misinformation and hypocrisy. They ought to become honest to the teaching of their churches. They should defend legitimacy, justice, and the rule of law. Wise men and women; Alawites, Christians, and Sunnis must council the president and his immediate family that genuine reform; not cosmetic retouches, not the use of the tank, is the only way forward.
Hafiz Assad and his son, Bashar, have saddled the Alawite community plus the regime’s supporting groups with a terrible burden, a potential disaster. The Assad family must understand that four decades of misrule are enough, kifaya.
Bashar Assad has a rare opportunity today to become the leader who saved Syria from a frightening future. Would he? Or, indeed, can he?
**Elie Elhadj, born in Syria, is a veteran international banker. He was Chief Executive Officer of the Arab National Bank in Saudi Arabia during most of the 1990s. After retiring, he received his Ph.D. from London University's School of Oriental and African Studies.

Many Christians are blind on Assad rule
June 23, 2011 /By Michael Young The Daily Star'
 Last week I happened to catch a program on OTV, the Aounist television channel. The topic was Syria and at one stage the host described how he had seen footage of people recently demonstrating in the city of Hama. A sign held up by a protester read “We will not forget Hama 1982,” or some similar phrase. For the host this illustrated the “vengeful intentions” of the Syrian uprising.
It was revealing that the presenter should have interpreted the perfectly creditable remembrance of an episode of mass murder, one in which tens of thousands of innocent people are estimated to have lost their lives, as something reprehensible. What the Aounists believe, as do quite a few Lebanese Christians with them, is that if the Alawite-dominated Assad regime falls, this will play out to the advantage of the Sunnis, and more specifically of Sunni Islamists.
Throughout his political career, Michel Aoun has been adept at making bad choices. He sided with Saddam Hussein just before the Iraqi leader became an international pariah in 1990. He flirted with Syria and its envoys before returning to Lebanon in 2005, only to see the Syrians withdraw their army in April after the assassination of Rafik Hariri, the former prime minister. In pursuit of the presidency in 2006 and 2007, Aoun allied himself with Hezbollah against the parliamentary majority whose support he needed to win office, on the assumption that the party, along with Syria, would impose his election. They didn’t, and during the 2009 elections Aoun was unable to secure a parliamentary majority with his partners, actually losing Christian votes when compared to the results four years earlier.
Today, Aoun and his followers may be on the verge of making a far more critical mistake: They are wagering that Syrian President Bashar Assad will crush the ever larger demonstrations against his authority. Indeed, they are hopeful that this will happen. However, in the process they are setting themselves up, and Christians in general, for a potentially decisive, long-term rupture with Lebanon’s Sunnis, but also down the road with a post-Assad government in Syria.
Aoun is not alone responsible for this situation. However, he merits the greater blame for allowing his entourage to articulate most forcefully the foolish notion that Christians have an interest in allying themselves with other Middle Eastern minorities, against the Sunnis. It has been alarming to hear a sizable number of Lebanese Christians expressing fear that the Assads’ defeat would spell disaster for their community. They forget that no one has done as much as the Syrian regime to undermine Lebanese Christian power in the past decades.
It should be obvious by now to those watching the unrest in Syria that those hostile to Assad rule have mostly avoided resorting to sectarian symbolism. Rather, sectarian violence has been largely the work of the Assads’ praetorian units and security forces. Not many people, inside Syria or out, believe the regime’s narrative that the protests are the work of armed Sunni Islamists, nor have the Assads’ propaganda outlets provided any convincing evidence. An inept Information Ministry spokeswoman was fired for pointing out that the thousands of refugees flowing into Turkey from Jisr al-Shoughour were merely visiting family members across the border. But her bankruptcy, both professional and moral, only reflected that of the leaders she served.
And yet there are those Lebanese Christians buying into the Syrian government’s fabrications. Aounist spokespersons will pen stories in foreign publications echoing uncritically the disinformation peddled by Damascus. They seem incapable of reading the Syrian unrest in political, as opposed to sectarian, terms. For them it’s about religion, about the Sunni menace, not about a multi-sectarian population striving for emancipation from a despotic clique. In defense of Christian interests, they deem it justifiable to endorse scoundrels.
You would have expected the Christians to learn from their coreligionists in Iraq. The fate of Iraqi Christians is often cited by the Lebanese as an example of the dire future awaiting them and their Syrian brethren if the Assads disappear. How odd, for the real lesson offered up by Iraq’s Christians was that siding with Saddam Hussein against a majority of the Iraqi population was an existential blunder.
The safety and security of minorities cannot possibly reside in taking a stance against their fellow countrymen – especially joining with another minority in stifling the legitimate aspirations of a majority. The wheel of fortune turns. That is why the only solid protection for Arab Christians lies in transcending their minority status by reinforcing links with other communities, and between communities, while preserving their own individuality and ensuring that the rights of all are respected within a consensual, democratic context.
It is difficult to see how Bashar Assad’s regime will survive what is going on in Syria today. His regime may last for awhile, or it may collapse more rapidly than we imagine, but Syria is not going back to where it was three months ago. In the framework of domestic Lebanese communal relations, how should Christians prepare for this eventuality? Praying for the Assads to crush the revolt is morally outrageous and politically shortsighted. By the same token, cynically gambling on a Sunni victory in Syria makes no sense, because the revolt may proudly impose itself as a non-sectarian phenomenon.
A third alternative seems more promising. The Christians of Lebanon may be on the verge of a rare and valuable moment in their modern history, one in which they can contribute to forging a historical reconciliation between a democratic Syria and a democratic Lebanon. Rather than playing religious politics, they should think in terms of values – those of liberty, of pluralism, of representative government – and define their behavior now and in the future by such values.
This may sound terribly naïve. However, Michel Aoun and his supporters conveniently forget that they once portrayed their confrontation with the Assad regime in precisely those terms. The best safeguard for minority rights in the Arab world is democracy and the rule of law, within free societies. It is not, and cannot ever be, a dictatorship that readily exterminates its own people.
**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.