LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
January 24/2013

Bible Quotation for today/ A Mother's Request
Matthew 20/20-28: "Then the wife of Zebedee came to Jesus with her two sons, bowed before him, and asked him for a favor. “What do you want?” Jesus asked her.
She answered, “Promise me that these two sons of mine will sit at your right and your left when you are King.” “You don't know what you are asking for,” Jesus answered the sons. “Can you drink the cup of suffering that I am about to drink?”“We can,” they answered. “You will indeed drink from my cup,” Jesus told them, “but I do not have the right to choose who will sit at my right and my left. These places belong to those for whom my Father has prepared them.” When the other ten disciples heard about this, they became angry with the two brothers.  So Jesus called them all together and said, “You know that the rulers of the heathen have power over them, and the leaders have complete authority. This, however, is not the way it shall be among you. If one of you wants to be great, you must be the servant of the rest;  and if one of you wants to be first, you must be the slave of the others—  like the Son of Man, who did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life to redeem many people.”
Latest analysis, editorials, studies, reports, letters & Releases from miscellaneous sources
 How will al-Assad leave/By Tariq Alhomayed/Asharq Al-Awsat/January 24/13
I can win if Damascus is destroyed/By Abdul Rahman Al-Rashed/Asharq Alawsat/January 24/13
Jordan's Elections: Incremental Reform amid Regional Turbulence/By: David Schenker/Washington Istitute/January 24/13

Latest News Reports From Miscellaneous Sources for January 24/13
 Elections over, Netanyahu embarks on coalition building
Israeli PM Netanyahu scrambles to keep his job
 To build a viable government, Netanyahu needs Lapid

Russia Urges Iran to Speed up Nuclear Cooperation

 Algerian terror attack latest case of Canadian jihadist involvement
 Asharq Al-Awsat Interview: Mubarak’s attempted assassin
 Jordanians vote for newly empowered parliament
 We will not join the war in Mali- Algerian official
Russia: Rebels must talk to Assad for Syria peace
 Saudi says negotiated Syria settlement "inconceivable"
 Putin Meets Suleiman, Promises International Conference on Syrian Refugees
 Lebanon’s Mufti slams politicians for creating 'fake democracy'
 Kahwagi says Army committed to neutrality
 Mother abducts sons on way to school in Mount Lebanon
 Lebanon seeks Russian help over Syria refugee influx
 Teachers in Lebanon resume protest over delayed pay raise
 Lebanon: Sheikh Ahmad Assir sells real estate to political rivals
 Lebanese Judge questions suspected high-profile Israel collaborator
 French official inspects U.N.’s Blue Line
 Jumblat Ready to Discuss 'Positive' Electoral Proposals, Reiterates Call for Dialogue
 First Russians Evacuated from Syria Via Beirut Land in Moscow
 Ghanem Meets Berri as Electoral Subcommittee to Resume Meetings in the Afternoon
 Mustaqbal Open to Discuss Any Law that Doesn't Harm 'Coexistence', Reiterates Rejection of Orthodox Proposal 

Lebanon’s Mufti slams politicians for creating 'fake democracy'
January 23, 2013/The Daily Star/BEIRUT: The Grand Mufti of Lebanon Sheikh Mohammad Qabbani Wednesday slammed the “dictatorship” of political leaders who have made Lebanese live in a “fake democracy.”
“To this day, we are still looking for reasons behind our disputes, making this another cause for our weakness, and we have even boasted for a long time that we and noone else enjoy democracy in this Levant,” Qabbani said in a statement on the occasion of Prophet Mohammad’s birthday. “We see in the arenas of Arab regions, men who are ahead of us. They fought for and achieved freedom and democracy. “But we remain prisoners of a fake democracy that carries with it the ugliest forms of complex dictatorship, horrible sectarianism practices, and wait-and-see and speculative policies. “Congratulations to us and to Lebanon on this democracy and the dictatorship which we are living in,” he said. Addressing Lebanese of all sects, Qabbani warned that Lebanon cannot move forward toward a just state so long as “dictatorships” of both leaders and parties strengthen divides and disputes among fellow citizens in order to maintain political power and gains “by lying and trading lies.”Turning to the so far fruitless efforts by lawmakers to develop a new electoral law for this summer’s general elections, Qabbani said the only way to rid Lebanon of this “dictatorship system” is to give everyone the right to be represented in Parliament. He accused each religious sect of monopolizing the votes of its congregation and said the rival March 8 and March 14 political camps are both benefiting from each other “in shaping this complex dictatorial system which generates a non-stop conflict and prevents our system from progressing.”
“Parliament is the voice of the people,” he stressed as he called on Lebanese to “wake up ... before strife tears them apart and [they] lose themselves and their homeland Lebanon, and before they regret it.”

Teachers in Lebanon resume protest over delayed pay raise
January 23, 2013/The Daily Star/BEIRUT: Hundreds of teachers and public sector employees went on strike again Wednesday and held a protest over the government’s failure to refer to Parliament a long-awaited salary raise.
Protesters gathered outside the Information Ministry building on Beirut's Hamra’s main road and marched to the Grand Serail in the city center in response to a call by the Union Coordination Committee.
Speaking from outside the Grand Serail, Nehme Mahfoud, who heads the private schools teachers association, slammed Prime Minister Najib Mikati accusing him of being unfair in failing to meet the teachers’ demands.
“You are to blame, Najib Mikati. You and your government,” said Mahfoud. “You can only be fair Mr. President, governments who are unfair will eventually be brought down,” he added.
Mahfoud also threatened an open-ended strike in February if the government continued to ignore its demands. “You have until the end of this month to refer the salary increase to Parliament, or else all teachers will take down the streets early February and won’t leave until their demands are met,” said Mahfoud. The head of the Secondary Schools Teachers Association Hanna Gharib also expressed hope Wednesday that President Michel Sleiman would be part of the solution to the teachers’ problem. “I hope President Sleiman will interfere to refer the wages scale to Parliament in accordance with the deal reached with Mikati and the ministerial committee earlier,” said Gharib. Gharib also held the government responsible for the strikes because it has failed to fulfill its promises to the teachers. “The government is responsible for every day of strike we hold,” said Gharib. “It has been promising the same thing for the past year and a half.” Earlier Wednesday, Gharib told the Voice of Lebanon radio station that the government has failed in its obligations to provide a decent life for citizens, accusing it once again of ignoring the UCC demands. “The policy of the government is to steer itself clear of its obligations to provide a good livelihood to citizens,” said Gharib. The unions have held several strikes this academic year over the same issue and said they are frustrated by the government dragging its feet. The government approved the draft law to increase salaries for public sector employees and teachers at private and public schools in September but did not refer it to Parliament. The Cabinet has said it is trying to secure means to finance the cost of the raise before referring the proposal to Parliament. Mikati has repeatedly said that the increase in salaries will be pending until the Cabinet secures funding for it, arguing that strikes lead nowhere and that the UCC problems can be solved through calm measures and responsible dialogue.

Lebanon seeks Russian help over Syria refugee influx
January 23, 2013/Daily Star /NOVO-OGARYOVO, Russia: Russian President Vladimir Putin offered on Wednesday to host a conference on helping Lebanon and other countries cope with a flood of refugees from Syria.
Putin also said Russia was ready to provide temporary homes, tents, medication and other humanitarian aid during talks with Lebanese President Michel Suleiman outside Moscow. "We will do our utmost to ... sponsor the organisation of an international conference on the refugee problem," Putin said. "We are ready to offer Moscow as a platform for such a meeting." Suleiman said more than 200,000 refugees had fled to Lebanon since the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began nearly two years ago, straining Beirut's budget. The divided Beirut government has officially sought to "dissociate" itself from the conflict in Syria and has resisted calls from humanitarian agencies to set up formal refugee camps like those in Jordan and Turkey. "There are more than 200,000 Syrian refugees in Lebanon alone, and we do not know how many more Syrian refugees will come to our territory," Suleiman said. "Lebanon has no financial... means to house such a number of refugees."

Mother abducts sons on way to school in Mount Lebanon
January 23, 2013/ The Daily Star/BEIRUT: Two young brothers were snatched, apparently at the behest of their mother, as they were being accompanied on their way to school by their paternal grandfather in Mount Lebanon Wednesday. A woman who said she was the boys’ mother called a radio station after the incident to claim responsibility for the abduction, saying she had been denied access to the boys.
Their grandfather told police gunmen threatened him, although the woman, named as Nadine, said no force was involved. "Two gunmen approached me as I walking my grandchildren to school and put a gun to my back, threatening to kill me if I move," Farouq al-Saadi told police immediately after the early morning kidnapping near Iman school, in the Mount Lebanon district of Aley. He said the armed men snatched the boys – Jad, 4, and Omar, 7 – shoved them into a waiting car where a man and a woman were sitting, and sped off. Nadine telephoned a local radio station shortly after the kidnapping, saying she was the boys’ mother and that she had been in the car during the abduction. "I took my children because I haven't seen them in two months," she sobbed.

Lebanon: Sheikh Ahmad Assir sells real estate to political rivals
January 23, 2013/By Mohammed Zaatari/The Daily Star/SIDON, Lebanon: Sheikh Ahmad Assir sold real estate to buyers rumored to be running for Parliament under the Free Patriotic Movement, a party allied with the preacher’s main opponent, Hezbollah, Sidon sources told The Daily Star Tuesday. According to the sources, the sale of a house and a plot of land owned by Assir in the Jezzine village of Shawaliq was finalized Tuesday by notary Jean Farah.The sale of the land, which was bought by Amal Abu Zeid, and the house, purchased by Fadi Romanos, netted $1 million, the sources added. Both Abu Zeid and Romanos, who hail from the Jezzine village of Nabaa, are said to be preparing to run in the parliamentary elections for the FPM. The sale comes despite Assir’s campaign against Hezbollah, a main ally of the FPM. The popular but controversial sheikh has for months led sit-ins and rallies against Hezbollah and its leadership in protest against the party’s arms. Over the summer, Assir led a monthlong sit-in along Sidon’s main road to denounce Hezbollah’s arms, drawing the ire of local business leaders. During a sermon in July, the Salafist sheikh directly attacked FPM head MP Michel Aoun, saying that he would soon be committed to a psychiatric hospital. Assir has also staged rallies in Beirut in support of the Syrian uprising, slamming Hezbollah and its allies in the March 8 coalition over their support for the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad. Late last year, a showdown between Assir bodyguards and supporters of Hezbollah over posters of party chief Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah left three dead, including two bodyguards and an Egyptian bystander. The armed clash came after Assir delivered an ultimatum to Hezbollah to remove all posters of Nasrallah from Sidon. “We call on officials to take down all Hezbollah posters in Sidon within two days,” he told followers at the Bilal Bin Rabah Mosque. “Over my dead body will Hezbollah put posters in Sidon. Over my dead body will there be posters of Hasan Nasrallah or [Speaker] Nabih Berri in Sidon.” The sheikh resumed weekly protests last week, after a roughly monthlong lull. According to security sources, he didn’t hold sit-ins during December “so as not to disrupt people’s celebrations, especially those from the Christian sect during Christmas and New Year’s.”

Lebanese Judge questions suspected high-profile Israel collaborator
January 23, 2013/By Youssef Diab/The Daily Star/BEIRUT: A Lebanese man arrested last week for allegedly spying for Israel for over 20 years is being questioned by Military Investigative Judge Imad Zein, according to a judicial source who also said that the interrogation was expected to be lengthy. Ali Rafik Yaghi, accused of collaborating with Israel since 1992, could face the death penalty if it is proven his actions resulted in the death of people. Yaghi, an engineer, was arrested last week by the Lebanese Army Intelligence. The source said it is likely that the Army uncovered Yaghi in coordination with Hezbollah.
A former member of Baalbek’s municipal council and a retired employee at the Transport and Public Works Ministry, Yaghi is accused of providing Israel with information on the military headquarters of Hezbollah and the Lebanese Army, along with Syrian troops who were stationed in Lebanon until April 2005. He also allegedly provided Israeli intelligence bodies with information on the residence of Sayyed Abbas Musawi, Hezbollah’s former secretary-general who was assassinated by Israel in February 1992; Sheikh Sobhi Tufeili, also a former head of the party; and Sheikh Mohammad Yazbek, a high-ranking Hezbollah official.
Yaghi has allegedly received $600,000 from Israel since he began working for the Jewish state. Yaghi tipped off Israel on private and public institutions that were then targeted by Israel during its summer 2006 war against Lebanon, and held meetings with Israeli officers in a number of countries, according to judicial reports. He is also said to have forged a Palestinian Authority passport that he used to enter occupied Palestinian territories and then to pass into Israel where he met Israeli personnel. Yaghi will face more questioning Wednesday, said the source, and is facing between three years to capital punishment depending on what charges are brought to conviction.
More than 100 collaborators with Israel have been rounded up by the Army and members of the Internal Security Forces Information Branch over the past four years. Hezbollah Secretary-General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah said in 2011 that two members of the group were found to be spying for the Central Intelligence Agency. Nasrallah has urged authorities to hand down death sentences against collaborators with Israel, urging them not to seek a sectarian balance when subjecting spies to capital punishment. Although it is allowed by law, capital punishment has not been implemented in almost a decade.

French official inspects U.N.’s Blue Line
January 23, 2013/The Daily Star/BEIRUT: A senior French Foreign Ministry official toured the U.N.-drawn Blue Line near the border with Israel Tuesday starting from the Fatima Gate crossing in Kfar Kila to the village of Adaysseh following Israeli reports that the Jewish state was nibbling away Lebanese territory, the Central News Agency reported. The Lebanese border village of Adaysseh faces the Israeli kibbutz of Misgav Am. Nicolas de Riviere was accompanied on his tour by senior officers from the Lebanese Army, the U.N. peacekeeping force UNIFIL, and the French Ambassador to Lebanon Patrice Paoli, the agency said, quoting security sources in the south. It added that de Riviere and UNIFIL officers inspected at length Misgav Am, which Israel recently acknowledged is a Lebanese territory. Accompanied by 20 UNIFIL military jeeps and a number of Lebanese Army military vehicles, they also inspected the Lebanese and Israeli sides of the border villages of Ghajar and Wazzani, the agency said. It quoted the sources as saying that the tour was linked to reports by the Israeli newspaper Maariv that Israel was nibbling away Lebanese territory in Adaysseh and Misgav Am.

Jumblat Ready to Discuss 'Positive' Electoral Proposals, Reiterates Call for Dialogue
Naharnet/Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat announced on Wednesday that he was ready to discuss any “positive” proposal on an electoral draft-law that would govern this year's parliamentary polls.
In remarks to As Safir daily, Jumblat said he was ready to discuss any “positive electoral idea” without giving further details.
The Druze leader has refused the so-called Orthodox Gathering proposal which envisages a single district and allows each sect to vote for its own MPs under a system of proportional representation, saying it harms the Lebanese social fabric. He has also criticized a draft-law proposed by the government which calls for 13 districts and proportionality. In his remarks Wednesday, Jumblat reiterated his warning that the region surrounding Lebanon is similar to a volcano, saying “we should avoid its lava.” He also warned the rival March 8 majority and March 14 opposition alliances against believing that they could vanquish the other through an electoral formula that is in the making. A parliamentary subcommittee has been holding daily meetings to find common ground on an electoral draft-law. But each party seems to be holding onto its stance and refusing to make concessions to meet halfway. MP Akram Shehayyeb, who is representing the centrist PSP in the meetings of the subcommittee, reiterated on Monday his party's demand for the formation of a senate and the implementation of administrative decentralization. Describing the elections as “transitory,” Jumblat called for “finding national consensus after the polls.”In an interview with Voice of Russia, Jumblat called for exerting every effort to prevent the spread of Syria's war to Lebanon. “The resumption of dialogue among the different political parties is also necessary,” he said. “Some forces reject dialogue thinking for some reason that they are capable of deciding Lebanon's future alone,” Jumblat said about the March 14 opposition. He described Suleiman as a wise man, lauding his efforts along with Prime Minister Najib Miqati to preserve the country's stability.

I can win if Damascus is destroyed
By Abdul Rahman Al-Rashed/Asharq Alawsat
http://www.asharq-e.com/news.asp?section=2&id=32662
http://www.aawsat.com//leader.asp?section=3&article=714278&issueno=12475
What was discussed in the recent meeting between UN envoy Lakhdar Brahimi and Syrian president Bashar Al-Assad, as reported yesterday by Asharq Al-Awsat, is worthy of our attention. The former told the latter that he could not remain in power. He reasoned that other than the fact that the opposition is capable of victory; the price would be the destruction of Damascus. To this Assad replied, “I can win the war if Damascus is destroyed.”
This, in fact, is Assad’s plan: to destroy Damascus, Syria, and the region. He already tried this in Iraq and Gaza and is still attempting to do so in Lebanon. Here, I will borrow part of the memoirs of former French President Jacques Chirac, entitled “Le Temps Présidentiel”, in which he recounted several events that took place between the late Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri and Syrian president Assad.
In his memoirs, Chirac recounts a dinner he had with the then US President George W. Bush in 2004. He remarks that Bush at the time did not understand Lebanon well, so he decided to explain to him the importance of supporting the country and restoring its independence from Syria and Hezbollah. He told him that presidential elections in Lebanon were scheduled to take place in October, and that this would be an appropriate occasion for a “new start” provided that the new president was not – as usual – imposed by Damascus.
Chirac adds that in the summer of 2004, while France and the US were working on a draft resolution calling for free and fair elections, accompanied by the unconditional withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon, they got what they expected. Assad and his ally, the then Lebanese president Émile Lahoud, had agreed to amend the Lebanese constitution in a manner that would allow the latter to stay in office for another three-year term. Rafik Hariri, the then Lebanese prime minister, condemned this proposal. Assad summoned him to Damascus on 26 August and made it clear to him that Lahoud was his representative in Beirut, and that any affront against Lahoud was an affront against him. The Syrian president threatened to inflict “physical harm” on Hariri and Druze leader Walid Jumblatt if they both insisted on rejecting Lahoud and the new constitution. Assad actually yelled at Hariri and told him that if they wanted him out of Lebanon, “I will break Lebanon on your head”. He threatened to pursue the Lebanese prime minister and his family, wherever they were, if he did not obey his orders.
On the afternoon of 14 February 2005, Chirac recounts that he was holding a meeting in the Élysée Palace when received the news that Hariri had been assassinated in an explosion in Beirut. Chirac claims that he had warned Hariri two weeks before, when he came to Paris. He told him that he did not have any solid information, but that the Lebanese prime minister should be cautious. “They” were criminals who would stop at nothing.
We are dealing with a real criminal who has intentionally killed tens of thousands, not because they were party to the conflict, but rather because he believes that killing and destruction are tools of control. This is what he is doing every day in Syria and what he will seek to do in wider the region if he remains in power for another year or more.

How will al-Assad leave?
By Tariq Alhomayed/Asharq Al-Awsat.
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius has condemned the situation in Syria, describing it as “abominable”, with nearly a hundred Syrians killed on a daily basis at the hands of the tyrant of Damascus. According to Fabius, "The situation is horrific and Bashar must go as fast as possible." These words are important, but what now? These are important words but solving the Syrian crisis and putting an end to Bashar al-Assad's violence cannot be achieved by statements alone, particularly as everyone has said everything about the Syrian crisis. What remains necessary is real action, whether diplomatically or militarily, to end Assad's terrorism. The Security Council is yet to adopt a serious resolution to put an end to the Assad killing machine, which has claimed the lives of over 60,000 Syrians so far, and the international powers are reluctant to support the rebels who have been confronting the tyrant of Damascus’ forces for two years in an unequal war. Assad has well outdone Muammar Qadhafi in terms of killing, destruction, rape, and infanticide. At the beginning of the Libyan revolution it was said that international intervention was necessary for fear of Qadhafi using warplanes against the Libyans, yet now Assad is using them against Syrian civilians on a daily basis.
Therefore, it is true that the French minister's words are important, particularly as the world seems to have forgotten the Syrian revolution, and the magnitude of crimes being committed against the Syrian people, in light of the launch of military operations in Mali and after the terrorist events in Algeria. Yet Fabius’ condemnation is not enough, for they will not put an end to Assad's crimes against the Syrian people.
Assad's ouster is inevitable, but how will it be achieved? What price will be paid by Syria and the entire region? This is the fundamental question and the crux of the matter. If the intention is to let the Syrian people topple Assad by themselves, this represents a real danger for a variety of reasons. The Iranians for example, together with Hezbollah and Iraq's sectarian extremists, are not hesitating to support the Assad regime. The entire country is being torn apart and its social fabric is being ripped in a systematic manner, whether at the hands of the Assad regime or its allies. This is all happening while the Syrian rebels have no one to support them; no one to provide them with ammunition or arms or to adopt strict political stances towards the Damascus regime.
The story here is not about the legitimacy of foreign intervention; the fact is that this was already happening prior to the Syrian revolution when Assad transformed his country into an Iranian stage, not to mention Iran’s current meddling in the Syrian crisis to defend the Syrian president. Here I am calling for military and political action in Syria, represented by Security Council intervention, to stop the Assad killing machine, avert the possible collapse of the state, and prevent post-Assad Syria from transforming into a breeding ground for terrorism in the region, something that would jeopardize the security of the Middle East as a whole.
Thus, the question is how will Assad leave and what will be the price? This is what the West, and first and foremost the Arabs, must consider. The longer the crisis is prolonged, the more dangerous it is for everyone. We need actions not words.

To build a viable government, Netanyahu needs Lapid
DEBKAfile Exclusive Analysis January 23, 2013/Confronted by disappointing election results, outgoing Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu inevitably announced that Israeli needs a government as broadly based as possible and he has embarked on the task of building one. With his Likud-Beitenu bloc in command of only 31 out of 120 Knesset seats, he must build a government from a large number of scrappy parties. But above all, the new landscape Netanyahu faces is dominated by newcomer Yair Lapid, a former journalist and broadcaster, an avowed centrist with no former political or administrative experience. The voter awarded his Future party, an unknown quantity, a brilliant 19 seats.
Lapid has therefore strongly upstaged Labor’s Shelley Yacimovitch, who ran for election as alternative prime minister and ended up with only 15 seats. She now promises to lead a fighting opposition in the 19th Knesset elected Tuesday, Jan. 22. This pledge may not be her last word either. Lapid has been catapulted into position for determining whether Netanyahu commands a majority government or a bloc in deadlock with a left-of-center-plus-Arab bloc, aimed for by the Labor leader.
The official election results to be published Thursday morning may break this deadlock one way or the other.
Still to be counted are the “double envelopes” including the army ballots. The military turnout was 80 percent, much higher than the national figure of 66.6 percent of 5.6 eligible voters.
Lapid’s first comment indicated he was open to joining a Netanyahu government on certain terms – namely, policy changes. Netanyahu, whose combined Likud-Israel Beitenu alliance shed one-third of its parliamentary strength, may well opt for an initial deal with Lapid’s Future on the key issues of budget, security, peace talks, the social gap, national service for Yeshiva seminarists and perks for the middle class, to gain a 50-seat foundation for his new lineup. This foundation and an agreed set of guidelines would arm Netanyahu with a solid starting- point for horse-trading with additional partners for completing the coalition.
Netanyahu’s alternative to this strategy is to call a new election in short order. He hinted that this was on the cards when he first saw his party’s letdown, but by now must realize that there was no guarantee another vote would offer him a better outcome than this one. The Future leader faces the enormous challenge of being jumped into high authority in the face of grim challenges with no experience in government or even parliament. He must at the same time whip his equally inexperienced faction into a functioning ruling party and choose which takes up ministerial posts for working alongside the vastly more experienced Likud ministers. Lapid’s failure to raise his fledging party to maturity and hold it together will shorten its life span and send it the way of so many nascent partisan groups in the past.
Naftali Bennett’s Jewish Home, which would have been Netanyahu’s natural senior partner had the Israeli voter given him the same chance as Lapid instead of only 11 seats, will no doubt soon join the new government lineup. Like Lapid, he too is a tyro in government and politics. On the other hand, Netanyahu, the most experienced Israeli politician of his day, is responsible for innumerable missteps in almost every field in the last two years of his term in office - culminating in his bungled campaign tactics. But for the country, having to get used to new, unknown faces in politics, ready to usher in the next era in Israel’s history, may not be a bad thing. In the natural order of things, they may start the process of easing the old school out.

Israeli PM Netanyahu scrambles to keep his job
January 23, 2013/By Amy Teibel/ REUTERS
JERUSALEM: A badly weakened Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu scrambled Wednesday to keep his job by reaching out to a new centrist party that advocates a more earnest push on peacemaking with the Palestinians after Israel's parliamentary election produced a stunning deadlock. The results defied forecasts that Israel's next government would veer sharply to the right at a time when the country faces mounting international isolation, growing economic problems and regional turbulence. While that opens the door to unexpected movement on peace efforts, a coalition joining parties with dramatically divergent views on peacemaking, the economy and the military draft could just as easily be headed for gridlock - and perhaps a short life. Israeli media said that with 99.8 percent of votes counted, each bloc had 60 of parliament's 120 seats. Commentators said Netanyahu, who called early elections three months ago expecting easy victory, would be tapped to form the next government because the rival camp drew 12 of its 60 seats from Arab parties that traditionally are excluded from coalition building. A surprising strong showing by a political newcomer, the centrist Yesh Atid, or There is a Future, party, in Tuesday's vote turned pre-election forecasts on their heads and dealt a setback to Netanyahu. Yesh Atid's leader, Yair Lapid, has said he would only join a government committed to sweeping economic changes and a serious push to resume peace talks with the Palestinians, which have languished throughout Netanyahu's four-year tenure. The results were not official, and there was a slim chance of a slight shift in the final bloc breakdowns and a possibility that Netanyahu would not form the next government, even though both he and Lapid have called for the creation of a broad coalition. Under Israel's parliamentary system, voters cast ballots for parties, not individual candidates. Because no party throughout Israel's 64-year history has ever won an outright majority of parliamentary seats, the country has always been governed by coalitions. Traditionally, the party that wins the largest number of seats is given the first chance to form a governing alliance in negotiations that center around promising Cabinet posts and policy concessions. If those negotiations are successful, the leader of that party becomes prime minister. If not, the task falls to a smaller faction.
Netanyahu's Likud-Yisrael Beitenu alliance polled strongest in Tuesday's election, winning 31 parliamentary seats. But that is still 11 fewer than the 42 it held in the outgoing parliament and below the forecasts of 32 to 37 in recent polls. Yesh Atid had been forecast to capture about a dozen seats but won 19, making it the second-largest in the legislature.
Addressing his supporters early Wednesday, when an earlier vote count gave his bloc a shaky, one-seat parliamentary margin, Netanyahu vowed to form as broad a coalition as possible. He said the next government would be built on principles that include reforming the contentious system of granting draft exemptions to ultra-Orthodox Jewish men and the "responsible" pursuit of a "genuine peace" with the Palestinians. He did not elaborate, but the message seemed aimed at Lapid.
Netanyahu called Lapid early Wednesday and offered to work together. "We have the opportunity to do great things together," Likud quoted the prime minister as saying. Lapid also called for the formation of a broad government. "I call on the leaders of the political establishment to work with me together, to the best of their ability to form as broad a government as possible that will contain moderate forces from the left and right, the right and the left, so that we will truly be able to bring about real change," he told supporters after initial results were in early Wednesday.
The goal of a broad coalition will not be an easy one, however, and will force Netanyahu to make some difficult decisions. In an interview last week with The Associated Press, Lapid said he would not be a "fig leaf" for a hard-line agenda on peacemaking. A leading party member, Yaakov Peri, said Wednesday that Yesh Atid will not join unless the government pledges to begin drafting the ultra-Orthodox into the military, lowers the country's high cost of living and returns to peace talks.
"We have red lines. We won't cross those red lines, even if it will cost us sitting in the opposition," Peri told Channel 2 TV.
That stance could force Netanyahu to promise overtures - perhaps far more sweeping than he imagined - to get peace negotiations moving again.
But a harder line taken by traditional and future hawkish allies could present formidable obstacles to coalition building.
Experience also shows that promises made during coalition negotiations do not always pan out. Centrist parties have been drawn before into coalitions dominated by hawks, only to bolt later in frustration over impasses in peacemaking. Yesh Atid has not yet spelled out specific conditions it would set down on this issue.
The election results surprised Israelis, given the steady stream of recent opinion polls forecasting a more solid hard-line majority and a weaker showing by centrists. Netanyahu may have suffered because of his close ties to the ultra-Orthodox and perhaps from complacency. Many voters chose smaller parties, believing a Netanyahu victory was assured. Pollster Mina Zemah said support surged for Lapid in the last few days of the campaign, and he drew about 50 percent of his support from the right.
Lapid said the election outcome reflected a longing for unity in a country bedeviled by schisms.
"That is the message that the results of the elections have sent us," he told cheering supporters. "The citizens of Israel today said no to politics of fear and hatred. They said no to the possibility that we might splinter off into sectors, and groups and tribes and narrow interest groups. They said no to extremists, and they said no to anti-democratic behavior."
Tensions with the United States, Israel's most important ally, also may have factored into the shift to Lapid. President Barack Obama was quoted last week as saying that Netanyahu was undermining Israel's own interests by continuing to build Jewish settlements on occupied lands the Palestinians want for a future state.
Netanyahu has won praise at home for drawing the world's attention to Iran's suspect nuclear program and for keeping the economy on solid ground at a time of global turmoil. In his speech, Netanyahu said preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons would remain his top priority.
But he has repeatedly clashed with allies over his handling of the peace process, which has stalled over the issue of Israel construction in Jewish settlements in the war-won West Bank and east Jerusalem.
The Palestinians want Netanyahu to halt all settlement construction, but he says talks must start without preconditions and notes a 10-month slowdown he imposed earlier in his term did not encourage meaningful negotiations.
On Wednesday, the Obama administration said the U.S. approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict would not change, regardless of the Israeli election results.
"We will continue to make clear that only through direct negotiations can the Palestinians and the Israelis ... achieve the peace they both deserve," said White House spokesman Jay Carney.
Netanyahu himself has only grudgingly voiced conditional support for a Palestinian state, and his own party is dominated by hard-liners who oppose even that. A likely future coalition partner, the pro-settler Jewish Home party, which won 11 seats, goes so far to call for the annexation of 60 percent of the West Bank.
While Lapid advocates a softer line toward the Palestinians, his campaign focused on economic issues and it remains unclear how hard he will press Netanyahu on the issue.
Lapid's positions also fall short of Palestinian demands. Most critically, he opposes any division of Jerusalem. The Palestinians seek the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem, territories captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war, for a future state.
The Palestinians viewed the election results grimly.
"If he brings Lapid into his government, this would improve the image of the Netanyahu government in the eyes of the world. But it won't make him stop building settlements, particularly in east Jerusalem," said Mohammed Ishtayeh, a senior adviser to President Mahmoud Abbas.




Asharq Al-Awsat Interview: Mubarak’s attempted assassin
By Abdul Sattar Hatita
Cairo, Asharq Al-Awsat—In 1995, members of the Al-Gama’a al-Islamiya, working together with Egyptian Islamic Jihad, staged an assassination attempt on then president Hosni Mubarak as he arrived in Addis Ababa for a summit of African leaders. Gunmen ambushed the Egyptian president’s motorcade, and although his bulletproof limousine was pocked with gunshots, Mubarak was unhurt and returned to Egypt to oversee a massive crackdown against the Islamist groups that had tried to have him killed.
Hussein Shamit, the self-confessed “engineer of the Mubarak assassination operation”, has lived the last two decades of his life on the run from Egyptian and international forces, whether in Afghanistan or Iran. Shamit returned to Egypt last summer following the revolution that ousted the Egyptian leader he once tried to kill, having received an official pardon for all the terrorist charges made against him. He also attempted to take part in Egypt’s previous parliamentary elections but was barred for running for legal reasons.
In an exclusive interview, Asharq Al-Awsat talks to Shamit about the present situation in Egypt, the motivations for the 1995 attempt on Hosni Mubarak’s life, and his hopes for the future. The following is the full text of the interview:
[Asharq Al-Awsat] Now that you have returned to Egypt, what is your view of the situation in the county two years after the 25 January revolution?
[Shamit] Revolutions must have tremors. I believe that everything that happened following the revolution was expected, even if we were hoping for more openness, particularly as this was a popular uprising against a corrupt regime. We had hoped that everybody would understand the situation and the importance of pushing Egypt forward. Unfortunately, we were surprised by those who are trying to disrupt the democratic process which the current civil opposition used to promote in the past. They always described the Islamists as un-democratic, so we were surprised that those who accused us of this yesterday are failing to abide by the principles of democracy today. They want to participate in a coercive or tyrannical manner. We expected them (the opposition) to understand the reality of the situation that Egypt is passing through, particularly as the Islamists have been able to do so. President Morsi has expressed his complete readiness for dialogue regarding what must be done to get away from these problems that were inherited from the previous era and which Egypt must now confront during this new phase. Concerted effort is required to overcome these problems. Unfortunately, we now find that some people are trying to disrupt the democratic process and this is something that has negative consequences on the efforts to achieve development and rebuild the country.
[Asharq Al-Awsat] Are there any secrets yet to be revealed regarding the assassination attempt on former president Mubarak in Addis Ababa?
[Shamit] I don’t think so, everything is clear. I would prefer not to comment on this issue because . . . we still have brothers imprisoned there in Addis Ababa. However everything has been clear for a long time. Al-Gama’a al-Islamiyya announced its responsibility for the Addis Ababa operation a long time ago, and the details of who did or did not participate in this are immaterial. Therefore I do not think there is anything new. Asharq Al-Awsat was also the first newspaper to publish the details of this operation at the time.
[Asharq Al-Awsat] What about when the detainees in Ethiopia are released?
[Shamit] Perhaps what is missing from the reports of this incident is the situation in Ethiopia itself, which is something that we are not aware of, both in terms of the investigations or what is included within them, in terms of details and accuracy. For myself, I do not think that any more details of this incident will be revealed, except perhaps what may come out in the course of the Ethiopians’ investigations with the brothers in Addis Ababa. I think that everything is clear and the case is closed.
[Asharq Al-Awsat] How many people involved in this operation are being detained in Ethiopia?
[Shamit] There are three brothers, they are all Egyptians and have been sentenced to death . . . all of those who participated in the operation were Egyptian.
[Asharq Al-Awsat] Do you expect this sentence to be carried out against them?
[Shamit] God willing, they will not be executed . . . at the same time as this there are intermediaries and lawyers who are going there (to Ethiopia) to monitor the fate of these brothers and attempt to secure their return to Egypt, particularly as they have now spent more than 17 years in prison.
[Asharq Al-Awsat] What is your view today, following the revolution, of this assassination attempt on then President Mubarak?
[Shamit] Perhaps if those who carried out this operation had been successful, then the people would not have seen the corruption of the ousted president and revolted against him. If the assassination operation had been successful, perhaps the people would have viewed him (Mubarak) as a hero or martyr . . . and he would have been succeeded by somebody from the same party or even by his own son. If the operation had been successful, then what was exposed would have remained hidden. This is God’s will, God always appreciates what is good.
[Asharq Al-Awsat] If President Morsi were to follow the same approach as that of Mubarak, would you contemplate assassinating him in the same way that Al-Gama’a al-Islamiyya attempted to kill the former president?
[Shamit] The decision to kill Mubarak was not the choice of the Al-Gama’a al-Islamiyya . . . there was no choice but to pursue this course after Mubarak sent a lot of people to prison. The number of our brothers in prison stood at around sixty thousand. The former president did not give any opportunity for dialogue or peaceful demonstrations to express opinion or protest. Therefore the decision to rid ourselves of Mubarak was not an approach of the Al-Gama’a al-Islamiyya, rather this was forced by circumstance. As for Dr. Mohamed Morsi, there have been false accusations made against him. He is somebody who has only spent a few months in office, while he was also a prisoner and came to power from (Tahrir) Square. We will not see a repeat from him of what we saw from the ousted president.
[Asharq Al-Awsat] What is the real reason behind your being banned from running in the previous parliamentary elections? Are there obstacles preventing you from taking part in the forthcoming parliamentary elections?
[Shamit] In the previous round of parliamentary elections, I found preventative legal obstacles in my way stating that I could not stand for election since I had not completed my military service. The reason for this is well known, namely that I was being pursued by the security authorities at home, forcing me to flee Egypt. I am dealing with this decision as a sound legal text preventing those who did not complete their military service from competing at the parliamentary elections; however in reality I do not understand the spirit of this law because my failure to perform military service was imposed on me and not of my own volition. Many Islamists were unable to perform their military service. We were prevented from performing our national duty twice; namely being prevented from performing our military service in the previous era, whilst now they are preventing us from political participation under the pretext of not completing military service. We are victims twice-over. However, I think that such a legal obstacle will not be in place this time around after the issue was discussed at the Shura Council. An exception has been made for those who want to stand for election but have not completed their military service owing to circumstances outside of their control, including political detainees and fugitives in the previous era. Therefore, I will take part in the forthcoming parliamentary elections God willing.
[Asharq Al-Awsat] Egypt is currently witnessing operations by Islamist militants targeting the state authorities in Sinai. What is your view of this?
[Shamit] I monitor the news that is being published about this but at the present time I am busy completing my university studies . . . my studies were disrupted for a period of approximately four decades as I was being pursued by the security authorities, whether during my time in Egypt or abroad. I left Egypt during the latter stages of obtaining a Bachelor’s degree in Engineering. I had only two months left to complete my university studies . . . however today, four decades later, I find myself completing these studies. In any case, I have only two weeks left to complete my exams and graduate with a Bachelor’s degree in Engineering.
[Asharq Al-Awsat] Do you believe that the cooperation between the Islamist trends during the previous presidential elections can continue in the future, despite the presence of signs that say otherwise?
[Shamit] Speaking on behalf of the Al-Gama’a al-Islamiyya, which is one of the Islamist trends, we extend our hands to all people. Our political belief and vision for the future of Egypt is that the country should not be ruled by any single trend; one trend is not enough for Egypt. All the Egyptian people should participate, but this participation should be based on their (political) contribution and strength . . . it is not necessary for everybody to participate with the same responsibility and extent. However everybody must participate, because Egypt is an important regional country and no single trend can bear responsibility for ruling it alone, and this includes the Islamist trend. This is the truth and this is something that we are saying transparently within the Al-Gama’a al-Islamiyya. Our brothers have numerous initiatives to reunite with all parties, whether Muslim or non-Muslim. Our hand is outstretched to all parties, provided that their intentions are clear and there is no foreign funding or pressure. Everybody is patriotic, whether Islamist or non-Islamist, and everybody must stand together for the sake of Egypt as a whole. As for the issue of alliances: As an Islamist trend, we—of course—hope that such alliances continue.
[Asharq Al-Awsat] When did you enter Iran? Was this with the knowledge of the Iranian authorities?
[Shamit] I lived in Iran for a number of years following the 11 September 2001 attacks, and this was in order to avoid the situation in Afghanistan. I travelled to Iran from the countries bordering Afghanistan; we were forced to seek refuge in these countries after fleeing our country, it was not our choice to go there. Following this, the general situation (the Afghanistan war) required us to move . . . therefore some of us went to Iran and others to Pakistan. Of course, my entry to Iran was not official, and took place without the knowledge of the Iranian authorities or the Tehran regime. We were always on the run in Iran as our presence there was illegal and undercover. The majority of the brothers there ended up in prison, along with their wives and children . . . whilst some others remain imprisoned until now. The Iranian regime did not give us anything to reside there.
[Asharq Al-Awsat] There is currently talk about potential rapprochement between Egypt and Iran. What’s your view of this?
[Shamit] Protocol requires heads of state to attend routine summits, whether we are talking about the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) or the Non-Aligned Movement, which Egypt and Iran are both members of. As for differences of opinion between Cairo and Tehran, I believe that certain interests may converge at the regional level; however my belief is that the time is not ripe for significant convergence in this regard. We do not want to overlook Iran’s standing behind the Shiite expansion in the region, whether in terms of the Shiite crescent or Iraq or Syria or elsewhere. In reality, we do not want to exacerbate the problems that we are facing . . . however if interests are based on specific economic issues of equal value, then rapprochement is possible, as it would be anywhere in the world. There is Egyptian rapprochement with Israel, with the US, and European states, so it is possible for there to be similar rapprochement with Iran, but no more.
[Asharq Al-Awsat] Do you support the demands made by the Algerian hostage takers for America to release Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman?
[Shamit] Al-Gama’a al-Islamiyya has been crystal clear in this regard for a long period of time. Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman is always on our minds and in our hearts, however the situation has changed and we do not call for any non-peaceful solutions. We support dialogue and diplomacy. He has been imprisoned since 1993 and we are calling on all countries, human rights groups and international organizations to return Omar Abdul Rahman to his homeland in a peaceful and legal manner.

Elections over, Netanyahu embarks on coalition building
By JPOST.COM STAFF, GIL HOFFMAN 01/23/2013 Prime Minister courts big election winner Lapid, as Likud coalition chair Ze'ev Elkin warns he won't be held hostage by smaller parties
Having secured enough votes in Tuesday's elections to head the next government, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu at once embarked on late night outreach to the leaders of the parties he is eyeing as future coalition partners. In a post-midnight flurry, he called Yair Lapid of Yesh Atid, Aryeh Deri and Eli Yishai of Shas, and Yaakov Litzman of United Torah Judaism. The calls came after Netanyahu made a point of mentioning Lapid in his victory speech at the Likud headquarters on Tuesday night. Likud Beytenu performed less well than even the damning opinion polls had suggested, shrinking from 42 seats in the last Knesset to just 31 in the next. Conversely, Yesh Atid exceeded expectations, pulling in 19 seats to become the second largest party. Labor trailed third with 15 seats. Naftali Bennett's Jewish Home (Bayit Yehudi) party also underperformed on Tuesday night, scoring 11 seats as opposed to the 14 or 15 predicted by many polls. Ze'ev Elkin of Likud, coalition chairman in the last Knesset, called Wednesday for a large government to counter any attempts by the smaller parties to make demands of the government in exchange for their support. "The larger the coalition, the more stable and extortion-free it will be," he said, referring to the habit of smaller parties .Meanwhile, the Yesh Atid camp said Wednesday that they would not cooperate with Labor leader Shelly Yacimovich's bid to block another Netanyahu goverment, yet party #2 Rabbi Shai Piron warned the ultra-Orthodox Sephardi party Shas that Yesh Atid would not allow it to engage in blackmail the coalition in return for its support. Even so, Shas joint leader Ariel Attias announced Wednesday that his party would "sit with anyone", but intimated that there would be a price

Jordan's Elections: Incremental Reform amid Regional Turbulence
David Schenker/Washington Istitute
January 22, 2013
On January 18, 2013, David Schenker, David Makovsky, and Robert Satloff addressed a Policy Forum at The Washington Institute to discuss the Jordanian and Israeli elections. Mr. Schenker, the Aufzien fellow and director of the Program on Arab Politics at the Institute, formerly served as the Pentagon's top policy aide on Jordan and its neighbors. The following is a rapporteur's summary of his remarks. Read Mr. Makovsky's observations on the Israeli campaign or Dr. Satloff's prepared remarks on both countries' broader strategic concerns.
The January 23 parliamentary elections will be the first in Jordan since the onset of the Arab uprisings. Despite continuing protests throughout the country since 2011, King Abdullah II has weathered the regional turmoil relatively well. Jordan's protests differ from those elsewhere in the Middle East because they focus less on political change than on ending regime corruption and reversing cuts in food and fuel subsidies. These demands have even worn away at the monarchy's traditionally loyal base of East Bankers; the emergence of al-Hirak, a tribally based opposition movement, is unprecedented and may have a greater impact on the kingdom in the future. In response, the palace has taken care to avoid great violence, sidestepping the cycle of funerals and demonstrations that generated large crowds in other states.
King Abdullah has also been pursuing political reform since 2011, when he set forth real but limited constitutional changes. More recently, the government has addressed calls to update the electoral law. The previous system was established following the 1989 "multiple seat, multiple vote" elections in which Islamist independents won twenty-two of an available eighty parliamentary seats. In 1993, following the implementation of a "one man, one vote" system, Islamists won only seventeen seats, presumably because voters were more likely to vote along tribal rather than ideological lines when given only one vote to cast. Since then, Islamists have periodically boycotted elections while tribal groups have worked hard to maximize their electoral advantage and mobilize voters. As a result, traditionalist East Bank elites -- always a powerful force -- have dominated parliamentary life.
Gerrymandering of legislative districts has also ensured that East Banker loyalists are better represented than Palestinians. For instance, Karak governorate, with a mostly tribal population of around 240,000, currently has ten parliamentary seats while Zarqa, a Palestinian-majority governorate with nearly one million citizens, has only eleven. Given this clear political imbalance, the electoral law has been a contentious issue for decades.
The government has been slowly implementing parliamentary reforms since 2007, when it expanded the number of seats from 80 to 110. In 2010, the total was increased to 120. The latest electoral law, passed in June 2012, established a mixed electoral system with 150 parliamentary seats. For the first time, citizens are now able to vote for a closed national list of 27 seats in addition to the 108 reserved for the kingdom's twelve governorates. And the women's quota, in place since 2003, has been raised from 12 to 15 seats, with the new spots reserved for Bedouin. To oversee the transparency of the process, respected former foreign minister Abdul Ilah Khatib was appointed to head a new Independent Election Commission, and international observers were invited to supervise the voting as they did in 2010. Most significant, the king has pledged that the largest parliamentary bloc will form the next government, a privilege traditionally reserved for the king himself.
Despite these changes, the Islamic Action Front (IAF), the political arm of the Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood, regards the new electoral law (like the previous one) as undemocratic. Specifically, it rejects the limited number of seats allocated to the national list and continues to oppose the "one man, one vote" principle used for the district lists. Perhaps emboldened by Islamist gains elsewhere in the region, the IAF has advocated a mixed law allocating 50 percent of the seats to the national list and 50 percent to the districts. Last July, the group announced that it would again boycott the elections. Awn Khasawneh, the prime minister tasked with formulating the new law, seemingly agreed; he resigned shortly after the changes took effect in June and criticized the palace's commitment to reform. This was highly unusual; although Jordanian prime ministers often step down before their tenure is up, they generally do so after being dismissed by the king.
Even without the IAF's participation, the electoral landscape is vast. Nearly 1,500 candidates are competing for the 135 nonquota seats, with 61 parties comprising 867 candidates for the 27-seat national list alone. Most of these factions, including the likely successful National Current Party, are a mixture of nationalist and socialist candidates running against subsidy cuts and corruption. One of the few Islamist parties still running, al-Wasat al-Islami, may appeal to some constituencies with its heavy focus on Palestine and corruption, but its power to bring voters to the polls remains to be seen given the IAF boycott.
Perhaps the most colorful character to emerge from the campaign is Shibley Haddad, a Christian candidate from Madaba who, among other things, promises to find oil in Jordan, keep gas prices the same, and liberate Palestine. If nothing else, he has kept Jordanians interested in the vote; al-Ghad columnist Fahd Khitan even claimed that Haddad's uniqueness saved the elections from "becoming a failure."
Despite the government's attempts to hold a transparent, credible election, criticism of the electoral law has been nearly universal, and reports of corruption continue. A recent story in al-Hayat discussed the epidemic of vote buying, quoting an undisclosed source warning that Khatib would resign unless steps were taken to curtail the problem; over the past few days, several high-profile arrests have been made. Additionally, a few months ago, Chief of the Royal Court Riyad Abu Karaki met with Jordanian United Front head Amjad Majali and dozens of other members of parliament. The public was scandalized, viewing this as a palace attempt to determine the next government beforehand. Whether or not such stories hold weight, they have not engendered confidence in the reform process. In Karak and other tribal towns, for example, Hirak activists have reportedly burned hundreds of election cards in protest of corruption.
Still, the kingdom has seemingly set the stage for a free and fair election day, at least in procedural terms. The key issue to watch will be voter turnout. The number and variety of candidates could drive Jordanians to the polls despite the IAF boycott. Yet given that only two million of the country's nearly four million eligible voters are registered, even a respectable 50 percent turnout would mean that a mere fraction of the country's voting-age population participated. Higher turnout would assuage concerns about the character of the new parliament, greatly improve domestic perceptions regarding the credibility of the elections, and ease pressure -- at least temporarily -- on the palace.
This rapporteur's summary was prepared by Katie Kiraly.

Algerian terror attack latest case of Canadian jihadist involvement
By Steve Mertl/National Affairs Contributor/Reuters
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/blogs/dailybrew/algerian-terror-attack-latest-case-canadian-jihadist-involvement-220321337.html
Hostages are seen with their hands in the air at the In Amenas gas facility in this still image received January …Should we be shocked by allegations that Canadian jihadists might have been involved in the deadly hostage-taking attack on an Algerian natural gas plant?
The Algerian government claims two Canadians of Arab descent were part of the assault on the Sahara desert facility, which ended with 38 workers dead along with more than two dozen of the hostage takers.
“A Canadian was among the militants. He was co-ordinating the attack,” Algeria Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal said Monday, naming him only as Chedad, a surname common with Arabs in the region, the National Post reported.
The Canadian government is trying to verify the claims, Foreign Minister John Baird told CTV News.
"We can't confirm the accuracy of these reports," Baird said. "But what we are doing, our embassy in Algiers and our team in Ottawa are working to try to verify these informations and get the names of these alleged Canadians. But we can't report anything official at this time."
“Canadian involvement in overseas terrorism has been growing,” John Thompson of the Toronto-based Mackenzie Institute told CTV News.
If the claim of involvement by Canadians is confirmed it's unlikely people here will be very surprised. Canada has had players on both sides of the war on terror from the beginning.
The notorious Khadr family was closely involved with Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda before and after the 9/11 terror attacks. Patriarch Ahmed Said Khadr, a bagman for the terror group, was killed by Pakistani forces near the Afghan border in 2003. His four sons were all involved and second-youngest Omar Khadr spent a decade imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay for murder before being transferred to Canadian custody last September.
[ Related: Omar Khadr returned to Canada but future uncertain ]
A number of Canadian immigrants have been suspected or charged with aiding terror cells but what flummoxes other Canadians is the lure of Islamic jihad for younger Muslims either born here or raised in Canada from infancy.
Canada's not alone in trying to understand why some Muslim youth become radicalized enough to become involved with jihadists in Somalia, Afghanistan, Pakistan and elsewhere. The problem has surfaced almost everywhere that Muslim communities have settled, including Britain, western Europe, the United States and Australia.
The process starts with appealing to the young's sense of injustice and pointing the finger at Western culture and governments as the villains threatening Islam. From there, some are persuaded by savvy recruiters that it's their duty to play an active role.
Some pundits initially observed somewhat smugly that young Muslims here were less susceptible to Islamists' arguments because the country's multicultural policies have done a better job of integrating immigrants into the mainstream than places like France. Events have proven that view naive at best.
About nine years ago, I reported on two young Vancouver-area men against Russian forces in the brutal Chechnyan war. Both are presumed dead, though only one body was identified. They and a friend were ostensibly visiting in the region were regular visitors to a Vancouver Islamic centre whose leader openly advocated "offensive jihad."
[ Related: CSIS notes 'insider threat' in Islamic extremism ]
As recently as last summer, the National Post reported William Plotnikov, a 23-year-old Canadian Muslim convert from Toronto, had been killed by Russian forces battling Islamists in Dagestan, which borders Chechnya.
Canada's Somali community has been concerned that some of its young men have been lured to Somalia to fight with al-Shabab, an al-Qaeda-inspired Islamist group that's controlled large swaths of the dystopian African country and terrorized people in neighbouring Kenya.
Their parents are perplexed, the Globe and Mail reported last summer. They see the fighting in their homeland as a tribal war, not a religious one. But the would-be fighters often come in contact with militant viewpoints at their local mosque or via the Internet.
"Al-Shabab is going to take the bright ones: Usually it's clean cut, conscientious well-educated people," a Somali community leader told the Globe.
"That's why you always hear these kids are from good families. These are middle-class kids. That's why it's so shocking. If they can infiltrate these kids then nobody is safe.
"Today, al-Shabab, al-Qaeda, they're an attraction for the young people. In our day it was socialism and injustice … now it's Islam, and the injustice they see is Americans bombarding the children of Palestine and Afghanistan."
[ More Brew: Former Olympic boss John Furlong faces abuse allegations ]
Of course radicalized Muslim youth don't have to go abroad to try to make their mark. Witness the so-called Toronto 18, a group of young men accused of trying to build a huge fertilizer bomb and of planning to attack high-profile targets such as Parliament Hill, where they reportedly wanted to behead the prime minister and other politicians.
The 2006 plot was infiltrated by an informer and the group, often portrayed as bumbling underachievers, was arrested when they took delivery of three tons of ammonium nitrate fertilizer for their bomb. Eleven members were convicted or pleaded guilty and sentenced to prison terms.

Electoral Law Proposal for Lebanon
By Elias Aoun
Different electoral law ideas are being debated for Lebanon. Each side, rightfully or not, claims that its idea is more proper than its opponents’.
Instead of advocating one idea at the expense of another, the solution could be the application of various ideas into one electoral system such as the following:
The 128 Parliamentarians could be elected under three different scenarios:
Firstly, fifty parliamentarians would be elected based on
(a) fifty electoral districts (10 districts per Mouhafaza);
(b) majority/secular voting
(c ) one candidate elected per district
Secondly, seventy parliamentarians would be elected based on
(a) each Mouhafaza would have seven Christians and seven Muslims;
(b) religious voting -- with Christians voting for Christian candidates and Muslims voting for Muslim candidates;
(c ) Proportional voting
Thirdly, eight parliamentarians would be elected based on
(a) Lebanon being one electoral district
(b) Proportional voting
(c ) closed list -- meaning the people would vote for a political party (not candidates) and the political party leader would appoint their share of the eight parliamentarians(s) based on the percentage of the vote received by that party.
Each voter would make nine choices and cast one ballot that is divided into three parts.
The elected/appointed candidates would form the 128-member parliament and abide by the existing rules and regulations.
Such a proposal would achieve just and fair geographic, religious, and political representations.