LCCC NEWS BULLETIN
JULY 9/2006
Below News From miscellaneous sources for 09/07/06
Lahoud: Lebanon Will Not Attend Francophonie Summit In Bucharest-Mediafax
Lebanon to extradite Jordanian terror suspect to Australia-Monsters and
Critics.com
End of Illusions-National Review Online Blogs
Suspect says plot was targeting NYC tunnels - Lebanon-Reuters India
The New York Jihad flood starts in Lebanon?Counterterrorism Blog
French Judge Says Paris 'Fully Committed' to Finding Samir
Kassir's Killers-Naharnet
Cooperation between Jordan $& Lebanon-Jordan News Agency (Petra)
Man behind the terror plan-Newsday
Russias Gazprom Bank will open soon in Lebanon-Ya Libnan
Syria and the International Tribunal-Dar Al-Hayat
Arab Governments Discover the Blessing of Silence-Alarab online
The New York Jihad flood starts in Lebanon?
By Walid Phares-7/7/06
More information has transpired about one of the designated participants in the
alleged plot, which according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, was to
bomb the Holland Tunnel, connecting New Jersey with Manhattan, with the
ostensible goal of flooding the financial district of Manhattan. Details of the
plot were published in the New York Daily News today.
Sources in Lebanon revealed that a key figure in the plot was a Lebanese
national, who had been arrested in Lebanon on April 27, 2007 upon the request of
US authorities. His real name is Assem Hammoud, who also used the name of Amir
Andalousi. The sources said he is a computer science professor. He is apparently
the only Lebanese among the eight suspects, who are from six or seven countries.
It is understood that Hammoud was close or part of the Zarqawi group.
This is a translation of today’s communiqué from the general-directorate of
Lebanon Internal Security Forces. (Translation was performed as a direct
transcription of Arabic words into English words)
”After information as a result of constant surveillance of suspected internet
websites, observation took place of “chat rooms” and e-mails on extremist
Islamist websites used to recruit terrorists around the world. The result of
their analysis showed that they were connected with the planning of the
execution of a big terrorist act targeting the tunnels in New York under the
Hudson River. As a result of rapid technical pursuit of what is called the
Internet Protocol, used by hundreds of persons, and in cooperation and
coordination with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and based upon an
indication from relevant judicial authorities, the Information Division of the
Internal Security Forces identified the wanted person, A.H., a Lebanese
nicknamed Amir Andalousi, who was living a life of pleasure, far from
suspicions. His arrest took place on April 27, 2006.
Upon an investigation of him, he confessed that he belonged to an extremist
organization and was currently preparing to execute a big terrorist act in the
United States. For this purpose, he undertook to send detailed maps about the
place and manner of executing this operation to his partners, through the
internet. He was intending to travel to Pakistan in the near future to undertake
a training course to last for four months, provided that the time of the
operation was to be at the end of 2006. It was requested from him not to show
any religious tendencies during his stay in Lebanon and to give the picture of a
frivolous and uncommitted youth. He implemented this expertly. During 2003, he
met a Syrian in Lebanon, who gave him many weapons courses. He headed in the
Syrian’s company to Ain El-Helweh camp and undertook a training session of light
weapons during the tenth month of 2005. He met a foreigner, who asked him to
guarantee apartments to host jihadists, recruit persons, and collect money and
weapons for the organization. He was in communication with in many persons in
foreign countries.
Coordination with security apparati occurred so that they were able to arrest
most of the members of this group.” (End of the communiqué)
As a quick commentary on the Lebanese security release and the sources
information, here are few points to consider:
1. Assem Hammoud’s war name “Amir Andalousi” evidently indicates his personal
ideological interest or connection to Spain, or al Andalous, for Andalusia. The
last name is not the only reference in Jihadi linguistics, but also his first
nom de guerre: Amir. From Arabic, it is also transcribed as Emir. In Jihadi
hierarchy “Emirs” are commanders, high or lower levels. This could be a rank or
an appointment. Hence, for our fertile imagination, his Jihadi personality is an
“Andalou Emir.” But from here on, two tracks are possible. One is that he has
the link to Spain, a past one. But the second track is that he has chosen this
nickname as just that: a code name among Jihadists, to be used in chat rooms and
within correspondence. Keep in mind that the Andalousian fantasy is alive in the
minds of the Salafi Jihadists. As a young student in Lebanon, I do remember
vividly how intense where the fundamentalists about al Andalous. It could also
be both: that he chose that name for Jihadi fervor, but that he also has a link.
Let’s see which scenario will be confirmed. Ironically I just came back a forum
in Spain organized by a national Think Tank, under the auspices of former Prime
Minister Jose Maria Aznar, which one of the central themes was to examine the
“Andalousian” factor in al Qaida’s doctrine.
2. The “extremist organization” he belonged to, in Lebanese legal and
Governmental language is found in the Salafist pool: It ranges from al Qaida-branch
to Asbat al Ansar to Abu Muhjen’s direct unit; but it could be another off shoot
as well. Most likely, he is linked to the al shabaka al jihadiya, which within
Lebanon’s inner Jihadi world, is a web of cells and individuals who have
aggregated together to support the worldwide Jihad since Afghanistan’s Soviet
war, and have grown in numbers through the Iraq war. The shabaka is found in all
visible groups, including the asba and the former Harakat al Tawheed, including
the Hizb al Tahrir. To describe it dramatically as Lebanese analysts have put
it: No one knows where exactly it starts but we know where it ends: al Qaida.
And since the Lebanese battlefield was dedicated by al Qaida’s commanders to
support the general efforts in Iraq, it is then more likely that at the Iraqi
end of the network was Abu Mus’ab al Zarqawi. At the Lebanese end, you have a
web stretching into the main radical Sunni neighborhood from Tripoli to Saida
into the Palestinian camps.
3. The fact –if verified- that he is a “computer science” professor would
heighten my own suspicion of the whole context and would revive some theories
and observations I had developed since the 1990s about the penetration of this
field. But that is another story. A computer science professor means that
“technological know how” was available, that an access to maps, data, and more
was potentially requested, and that other “colleagues” may well be in the
picture. These are just theories of course.
4. If you read this sentence from the Lebanese security report well you’d draw
very important conclusions: “It was requested from him not to show any religious
tendencies during his stay in Lebanon and to give the picture of a frivolous and
uncommitted youth.” First start with the “it”: Who requested this guideline from
him? Obviously a higher level of command, and a sophisticated one. In Jihadi
tactics, Taqiya is just about that: You have the right to play another
personality until you perform your mission. Unfortunately many among us are
still unaware of it. Often media reactions to arrests start with “well, he
didn’t look like he was a fundamentalist.” Well, now you have your answer. The
misinformation is not restrained to the public, but is also present in the
judicial world facing off with Terrorism. At the Detroit Terror case where I
testified as an expert in 2003, I wasn’t even able to give a real example of
Taqiya from an article published in a national daily.
5. When you read this sentence from the report, you raise even more questions:
“He was intending to travel to Pakistan in the near future to undertake a
training course to last for four months”. So inside Pakistan, there are
“training spaces” for Jihadists, including al Qaida. If you link most cases in
the West from London, Toronto, and many groups in the US, you’d conclude that
“going to Pakistan, or into Afghanistan,” is a common trait. Which should begin
to draw some analytical conclusions, not just that there is “something central”
in Pakistan, but that all the Jihadi groups (or most), including the so-called
“homegrown” in different countries are linked or wish to be linked.
6. The report says that “during 2003, he met a Syrian in Lebanon, who gave him
many weapons courses.” Syria withdrew from Lebanon (officially) in April 2005.
So the question is this: Was that Syrian operating under the Syrian Mukhabarat
or as an opposition to them? Articles in the Lebanese press between 2003 and
2005 report that Jihadists were heading into Lebanon from various parts of the
region, and many local Jihadists inside Lebanon were shipped by buses “through”
Syria to Iraq. The buses were not traveling underground and the articles in al
Nahar and al Safir were not secret. Thus we have two theories: First, Jihadists
in Lebanon between 2003 and 2005 were acting under Syrian observation and
tolerance, as long as they were heading towards Iraq to kill Americans,
Coalition soldiers and Iraqis. Many Salafists in Lebanon, who disliked the Baath
ideologically, took advantage of the Assad umbrella to go perform Jihad in Iraq.
Just note that it was precisely for this reason, among others, that Washington
and Paris introduced then voted UNSCR 1559 in September 2004: Assad had refused
to stop the Jihadi activities across the two borders. Note too, that the one of
the main supply lines in warriors for Zarqawi started from Lebanon, and
especially inside the Islamist sectors of the Palestinian camps. Another theory
is that “al Andalousi” operated among a group of Salafists outside Syrian
observation.
7. The report continues: “He headed in the Syrian’s company to Ain El-Helweh
camp and undertook a training session of light weapons during the tenth month of
2005; which again point the finger at the basis of Jihadists inside the armed
camps. And also shows that a “Syrian” (we still need to uncover his affiliation)
escorted a Lebanese Jihadi inside a Palestinian camp for training. Note the
date: “Tenth month of 2005,” that is October, i.e. 6 months after the official
withdrawal of April. This would leave the analyst with the picture that although
the Syrian troop evacuated, yet Syrian operatives are in touch with Jihadis and
have access to the camps.
8. The report goes on to state: “He met a foreigner, who asked him to guarantee
apartments to host jihadists, recruit persons, and collect money and weapons for
the organization. He was in communication with in many persons in foreign
countries.” A foreigner means a non-Lebanese. The information signals that a
plan is designed to establish a vast network of Terrorism in Lebanon and in
foreign countries. From a background expertise on Syrian, Hizbollah and Salafist
operations out of Lebanon, one would project that the “network” Assem Hammoud
has Jihadi business with has cells in various countries, with the very
legitimate assumption that the US isn't obviously one of them.
9. Internet use: over the past few years, many among us, including myself have
insisted that internet and the chat rooms have become “the” new habitat of al
Qaida and other related groups. Evidently this case, especially when clarified
and confirmed, will show that cyber war with Terror is serious and is shifting
the battleground significantly. It is also opening our mind inquiry about the
whole issue of traditional monitoring of the Terrorists with all strategic
implications on the so-called NSC domestic surveillance issue. It just shows us
that the Jihadists are way ahead of us, our legal system and our national
consensus. Fortunately the FBI and their Lebanese counterparts have been able to
catch a “fish” in the murky waters of international cooperation.
But I advise caution, and a lot of it. We don’t know who is that “Syrian,” and
where are his allegiances. We don’t know much about the Lebanese end of the
investigation and its complexities: “Intox” could also be a factor. But the
psychological conditions are very plausible: Such an operation would be as a
revenge for Zarqawi’s elimination. I invite the reader to re-read the speeches
of eulogy by Bin laden and Zawahiri, and see what is common to both: a threat of
massive retaliation inside the US!
But having noted that, the one remaining item for public concern are “the plans”
devised by the cell: Major cataclysm in Amrica. This reinforce the conviction
that the “strategic intentions” of al Qaida, the Jihadists, their direct and
indirect allies, and the would-be Jihadists seem to converge into one pool: They
want the US homeland’s security seriously wounded.
Dr Walid Phares is a Senior Fellow with the Foundation for the Defense of
Democracies and the author of Future Jihad. July 7, 2006 09:40 PM
French Judge Says Paris 'Fully Committed' to Finding Samir Kassir's Killers
French anti-terrorism judge Jean-Louis Bruguiere, heading an inquiry into the
murder of An Nahar journalist Samir Kassir who holds dual Lebanese and French
citizenship, has said that Paris was "fully committed" to finding his assassins.
"Samir Kassir was enormously respected in Lebanon and France," Bruguiere told
reporters Thursday after meeting Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Saniora.
"It was an atrocious crime and it is our duty, the duty of French justice, to do
everything possible to identify the perpetrators and their accomplices in this
attack."
French authorities have also launched a probe into the June 2, 2005 death of
Kassir, a prominent columnist at An-Nahar who wrote many scathing articles
against Syria's domination of Lebanese political life.
Bruguiere declined to provide details of the current status of his investigation
but stressed "what is important is that we are fully committed" and that Paris
and Beirut were "working together to reveal the truth."
The judge, accompanied by a French team of anti-terrorism experts, also held
separate talks with Lebanese Justice Minister Charles Rizk and Prosecutor
General Said Mirza with whom he discussed coordination between the Lebanese and
French inquiries.
Bruguiere is on his first visit to Lebanon since Kassir's widow, Gisele Khoury,
last year requested a French investigation into her husband's murder. The probe
was launched in July 2005.
Khoury, herself a prominent journalist with the Dubai-based al Arabiya
Television network, said in July last year that "the Lebanese-Syrian police
state" was responsible for Kassir's death in a car bomb explosion outside his
home in the Beirut district of Ashrafieh.
Kassir's assassination was among a string of attacks, which started in Oct.
2004, targeting anti-Syrian politicians and journalists. The bombings included
the Feb. 14, 2005 blast that killed ex-Premier Rafik Hariri and 22 others.
Syrian officials and their Lebanese allies have been blamed for the attacks.
Both parties deny the allegations.
Kassir played a major role in organizing the mass protests that followed
Hariri's killing and ended with Syria's withdrawal from Lebanon in April 2005,
after 29 years of political and military domination.(AFP-Naharnet)
Beirut, 07 Jul 06, 08:59
Lebanese Qaida Detainee has Admitted Plotting to Attack New York, Officials Say
A detained al-Qaida operative has confessed to plotting to attack New York City
tunnels later this year and says he was acting on Osama bin Laden's orders,
Lebanese officials said.
Lebanese police, acting on a tip from the FBI, arrested Assem Hammoud who is
also known as Amir Andalousi in Beirut on April 27, authorities said Friday.
"Hammoud is a member of al-Qaida and he confessed to this (plot) information
frankly and without coercion," an official said. The suspect told investigators
he was acting "on a religious order from (al-Qaida leader Osama) bin Laden and
said 'I am proud to carry out his orders'."
U.S. law enforcement officials in Washington said Friday they had disrupted a
plan by "foreign terrorists" to attack New York City tunnels.
The planning was not far advanced, but authorities "take aspirations of that
sort seriously," one U.S. official said. FBI agents had come across the plot
through monitoring Internet chat rooms used by Islamic extremists.
The conspiracy was revealed by the New York Daily News on Friday, the first
anniversary of the attacks in London where four suicide bombers killed 52 people
in the city's underground rail and bus system.
Mark Mershon, Assistant Director of the FBI's New York office, said a year-long
investigation had identified eight "principal players" in the conspiracy to bomb
train links under the Hudson River between Manhattan and New Jersey.
At a press conference in New York, he identified Hammoud as the network's
mastermind and revealed his arrest in Beirut.
A U.S. official said other plotters had been arrested abroad and not all were in
Lebanon. The official would not say how many people were believed to be
involved.
The suspect's family denied any al-Qaida links and his mother, Nabila Qotob,
said Hammoud taught economics at a local university, was an outdoor person who
drank alcohol, had girlfriends and bore none of the hallmarks of an Islamic
extremist belonging to the terror group.
Lebanese police issued a statement Friday saying that Andalousli belonged to "an
extremist group that was in the process of preparing to carry a major terrorist
act in the United States."
The statement -- which identified Andalousli by the initials of his real name,
A.H. -- said he was tracked down through monitoring of a Web site used by
Islamic extremists and "in cooperation and coordination with the FBI," the
statement said.
"It became clear from the analysis that (the Internet communications) related to
the planning of a major terror act in the metro tunnels of New York under the
Hudson River," the statement said.
The statement said Andalousli had been ordered to live a life of fun and
indulgence in Lebanon to hide his Islamic militancy. He was instructed not to
show any religious tendencies while in the country.
He was in contact with other people in several foreign countries and most of
these had been arrested by local security agencies, the statement added.
Under interrogation, Andalousli said he had dispatched detailed maps of the
target via the Internet.
He also said he planned to travel to Pakistan in the near future for four months
of training and "that the date of the operation would be late 2006," the police
said.
Bin Laden and his closest aides are believed to be hiding in the mountains along
the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The suspect told investigators he had already undergone training in light
weapons in Ain el Hilweh, a Palestinian refugee camp in southern Lebanon that is
notorious for lawlessness and violence among rival Palestinian factions.
A U.S. counterterrorism official said investigators believe that the information
they have on the Lebanese detainee is credible, but he had not taken his plans
very far. The official would not confirm that the detainee belonged to al-Qaida,
and indicated the United States was waiting for information from the Lebanese
government on that point.
The presence of al-Qaida in Lebanon was confirmed in January when prosecutors
charged 13 people with planning terrorist attacks and said they were linked to
the group.(AP-Naharnet-AFP) (Outside AP photo shows Hammoud and inside AP photo
shows him with his friends in Canada) Beirut, 08 Jul 06, 09:52
Hammoud's Mother Refutes his Links to Qaida and New York Terror Plot
Assem Hammoud, the Lebanese suspect arrested in the alleged New York City terror
plot, is a university professor of economics who leads an active social life and
is far from being an al-Qaida militant, his mother said.
Lebanese officials have said that the detainee, also known as Amir Andalousi,
has confessed to plotting to attack New York City tunnels on orders from
al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.
But Nabila Qotob, the suspect's mother disputed the accusations, telling The
Associated Press on Friday that her son drinks alcohol, has girlfriends, has
traveled abroad and enjoys social life.
"Do we look like al-Qaida people?" asked Qotob at the family's luxury home in
Beirut's upscale Clemenceau neighborhood.
Since her son's arrest, she has visited him every three days at a police station
where he is being held. "His morale is high because he is confident he is
innocent," she said of her son, who turned 31 on Thursday.
"Don't make up accusations. My son is innocent. What al-Qaida? He never left his
father's side. He loves life and fun."
"I am fully confident that my son has nothing to do with al-Qaida, " she said.
Leafing through photo albums, she pointed out his picture with women she
identified as girlfriends in Canada, Germany and Belgium.
He did not pray regularly at home, but occasionally went to a mosque for prayers
with his father, who passed away last year. Hammoud has two brothers, one is
studying in Canada and another works in the United Arab Emirates.
Hammoud, who is single, studied finance and economics in Canada in the late
1990s. He speaks English, French and German besides his native Arabic and taught
economics at the Lebanese International University.
He had planned to compete in a car rally in Lebanon this summer before he was
arrested April 27 near the university, his mother said.
A doorman in a neighboring building described Hammoud as a very amusing man.
U.S. law enforcement officials in Washington said Friday they had disrupted a
plan by foreign terrorists to attack New York City tunnels. FBI agents
discovered the plot, which was in the early stages, by monitoring Internet chat
rooms used by Islamist extremists.(AP-Naharnet)
Beirut, 08 Jul 06, 10:03
Syria and the International Tribunal
Walid Choucair Al-Hayat - 08/07/06//
Syria's rivals in Lebanon attribute many of the pro-Syrian campaigns (launched
since the Syrian army evacuated Lebanon on April 26, 2005) against the ruling
majority and the government, and the obstacles facing Prime Minister Fouad
Siniora's administration - obstacles aimed at paralyzing it - to Damascus'
apprehension over the planned international tribunal's hearings of those accused
of assassinating former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
The majority of the Lebanese parties believe that Syria will never rest as long
as the UN Resolution 1644 of December 15, 2005, to form an international
tribunal is being continuously followed up and discussed between the UN and the
Lebanese authorities.
There is set of facts to prove that Damascus will not accept such a tribunal,
and that it will diligently try to avoid the ratification of its establishment.
This leads one to conclude that the convictions of the Lebanese majority about
Syria's behavior are close to the truth.
Here are some of the facts, a number of them known, and others not so well
known:
1 - President Bashar Al-Assad told Al-Hayat in an interview on June 26: "How can
they form a tribunal when the investigation is still ongoing and there are no
facts to build anything on? The objective is political and the game is clear."
2 - A number of Damascus' allies, not least former minister Sleiman Frangieh and
Wiam Wahhab, have declared on many occasions, each in his own way, that there is
no need for an international tribunal. The first excuse given is that the
tribunal will cost too much, and the second is that the Lebanese courts are
competent enough to try those accused of the crime. These two figures in Lebanon
today are the most open and most clear in voicing the truth of Damascus' stance,
especially since they repeat what they say about Syria's attitude time and time
again. Perhaps this is why the Lebanese majority believes that the fuss and
incidents these two are responsible for aim to stir up chaos in Lebanon. Among
these incidents are Sleiman Frangieh's criticism of Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah
Sfier and the head of the Future Movement Bloc, MP Sa'ad Hariri; and Wiam
Wahhab's bodyguards' use of firearms on Walid Jumblatt's supporters. These
incidents are meant to stop the government's attempt to seal an agreement with
the UN on the tribunal's system, an agreement that could be reached in less than
two months.
3 - During the deliberations for Resolution 1644 and after, Syria previously
proposed that any Syrian suspects be tried on Syrian territory by Syrian law.
This is what President Bashar Al-Assad expressed in his interview with
'Al-Hayat', when he said that any Syrian implicated in the crime is a traitor
and will be punished by Syrian law, which is very harsh, before he is
extradited. The Syrians also proposed, in the cloistered corridors of the UN,
that a clause be added to the international tribunal system that stipulates that
Syrian law become applicable if a Syrian suspect stands trial. Syria then
proposed that Syrian judges be included in the tribunal, again in the event of
Syrian suspects being tried. These proposals, however, did not meet with a
favorable reaction in December of last year.
4 - Some Syrian officials have informed a number of their visitors, some of whom
are their allies, that there will be problems when setting up the international
tribunal.
With the current situation in the region, the idea of an international tribunal
may fall by the wayside, especially since there are preparations for a
US-Iranian dialogue. Meanwhile, however, the leaders of the Lebanese majority
are certain that there is a definite European-American decision to establish the
international tribunal. Their information is based on what they are told by the
leaders and other high officials of these countries. It seems that both sides
are confident in their own way of the way events are heading.
This confidence could very well be more than enough to explain what is going on.
End of Illusions
The mood from Israel.
By Rich Lowry
Jerusalem — The end of illusions is always clarifying, but not always
comforting. So a grim realism is the mood here in the wake of the unilateral
Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip last year, which was met first by the
election of a Hamas government to run the Palestinian Authority, and now by
rocket attacks into Israel and a crisis over the kidnapping of an Israeli
soldier.
End of Illusions 07/07
Everyone Wants to Be Salvadoran 07/05
Judicial Interference 06/30
Government By and For the New York Times 06/27
Shot Down 06/23
The Wonder of Voodoo Economics 06/20
Zalenski: July 9, 2006
Editors: Window on The Week – 7/7/06
Boyles: Failure of Intelligence
Kucewicz: Finance-Based Growth
Berg: A Step Toward Clarity
Hanson: The Subtexts of War
Goldberg: Truth, Justice, & Arrogant Unilateralism
Santorum: Comprehensive Failure
Lowry: End of Illusions
Sieff: America’s New Best Friend
Robbins: Video Nasty
Hawkins: War on the Border
Israel’s withdrawal itself required the shattering of illusions. The Israeli
Right had to give up its dream of a Greater Israel. The Israeli Left had to
abandon its dream of a negotiated peace with the Palestinians. Both were
fantasies, but anyone who imagined that leaving Gaza would transform Palestinian
politics or Israel’s security for the better has watched those comforting
notions sink as well.
Hence, the low rumble of disenchantment here. (I’m part of a delegation of
visiting journalists sponsored by the pro-Israel American Israel Education
Foundation.) Since the Oslo agreement, one Israeli official notes the
Israeli-Palestinian dynamic has been gripped by “a spirit of confidence
destruction.” If Oslo offered a vista of (false) hope, very little hope of any
kind seems on offer now: “Everything we do today is a fallback plan,” the
official says. “There are no options that don’t have negative fallout.”
The hope was that withdrawing from Gaza and creating a security fence around the
Palestinian territories would basically allow the Israelis to wash their hands
of the Palestinians. The fence has been spectacularly successful where it has
been completed, reducing suicide bombings by 90 percent or more. So why worry
about the intricacies of Palestinian politics? As one Israeli official puts it,
“If they want to create a Taliban-style Islamic government in Gaza, that’s their
problem, not mine.”
Except Palestinian radicals can routinely jump the security fence, in the form
of the Kassam rockets they are pouring into Israel from Gaza. If Israel were to
pull out unilaterally from the West Bank, as Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert
talks about, major Israeli population centers would be within Hamas rocket
range.
What to do? No option is appealing. Seek to collapse the Hamas government? That
might only make Hamas more popular. Re-occupy Gaza? If Israel wanted to occupy
Gaza, it wouldn’t have left. Give the Palestinians some positive inducement?
“What are we going to do for them,” an Israeli official sardonically asks, “pull
out of Gaza?”
The cleanest solution is for the Palestinians to reform themselves. In this
sense, Palestinian politics still very much matters to Israelis. “The question
now is whether the Palestinians have the inclination and the capacity to build a
state,” says Israeli elder statesman Shimon Peres.
Roughly speaking, Palestinian politics is dominated by terrorists — as
represented by Hamas — and corrupt terrorist-enabling incompetents — as
represented by Fatah, the late Yasser Arafat’s organization. Pity the
Palestinians if Fatah is their best hope for rational government. Former Arafat
negotiator and elected Fatah representative Saeb Erekat admits that Fatah needs
to reform. “We’re not doing it,” he says, “and have no excuse for not doing it —
I don’t feel like lying today.”
Something of a model for a way forward is southern Lebanon, where Hezbollah
dominates and has a significant rocket capability that it handles with
restraint. Like Hamas, Hezbollah is a terrorist organization with a role in
government, but Israel has managed to establish a somewhat stable deterrent
relationship with it. Hezbollah knows that if it goes too far, Israel will hit
back hard.
Perhaps it will be possible to establish a similar deterrent relationship with
Hamas. One senior Israeli security source says, for now, that means forcing
Hamas “to choose between their regime and their terror.” It might be that Hamas
can never be made to moderate its behavior. And still looming is yet another
crisis — the approach of a nuclear-armed Iran, whose deterability Israel
obviously can’t determine with trial and error.
It’s a good thing Israel is abandoning illusions. It can’t afford them.
— Rich Lowry is author of Legacy: Paying the Price for the Clinton Years.
(c) 2006 King Features Syndicate.
Cooperation between Jordan $& Lebanon
Amman, July 8(Petra) -- Jordan and Lebanon signed an agreement to cooperate in
conducting joint agricultural research.
The agreement was signed by the director general of the National Center for
Agricultural research & Technology Transfer Abdul Nabi Ferdos and on the
Lebanese side by the general of the agricultural scientific research Michel
Afram.
Dr. Ferdos said that the agreement is on organic agricultural research and
exchanging expertise in the fields of fighting diseases and biodiversity.