Latest News Reports From Miscellaneous Sources for December 25/12
Thousands flock to Bethlehem for Christmas
Pope Benedict signals inter-religion alliance against gay marriage
Lebanese Army Urges Foreigners to Visit Lebanon: You Will Enjoy Utmost Level of Protection
Guards Reportedly Taken Hostage in Lebanon as Protests Erupt at Roumieh Prison
What happened in Tal Kalakh?
Families of Lebanese Shiites Kidnapped Pilgrims Vow Escalatory Measures against Turkish Interests in Lebanon
Jumblat: March 8, 14 Camps Seeking Electoral Law that Caters to Their Own Interests
Army Urges Foreigners to Visit Lebanon: You Will Enjoy Utmost Level of Protection
March 14 to resume talks on electoral law
Turkey warns against travel to Lebanon after threats
March 14 will respond positively to Berri
Three more fighters repatriated, others yet to be claimed
Siniora: March 14 will respond positively to Berri’s proposal
Bassil’s call for refugees explusion draws fire
North Lebanon devoid of training camps
FPM (Aouns Gung) doesn’t see eye to eye with Hezbollah over electoral law
60 Dead in Strike on Hama Bakery as Warplanes Hit Rebel Bastions
Egypt Opposition Cries 'Fraud' in Referendum
Romney Didn't Want to Run for President, Son Says'
700 Palestinians killed in Syria conflict, PLO says
Turkey resumes NATO ties with Israel - a Netanyahu breakthrough
GCC Summit to focus on Iran
Drone kills two Qaeda militants in south Yemen-officials
UN envoy to meet, press Syria's Assad on peace
Egyptian arrested trying to smuggle 96 snakes on a plane
Syria envoy meets Assad as opposition frustration grows
Egyptian judges review ballot on divisive constitution

Merry Christmas
From the LCCC, I wish you and your families a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. May the New Year with the blessings of Jesus bring justice and tranquility to our beloved Lebanon and peace of mind to our people all over the world.
Yours Truly
Eias Bejjani

Those who Support Al Assad are criminals like him
Elias Bejjani/There is no doubt that all those Lebanese politicians, officials, clergy and parties who support the killer Bachar Al Assad are killers like him. They have no faith, no conscience and no hearts. Today Al Assad's army murdered with cold blood 300 innocent Syrian citizens in front of a bakery. The victims were all in line waiting to buy bread to feed their children. Patriarch Al Raei, Nasrallah, Mikati, Aoun and all those who support him in Lebanon in any way are his full partners in all his crimes. Shame on them they don't fear Almighty God and worship their personal interests. God who sees all that is happening shall deal harshly on the Day Of Judgment with all these merciless evil leaders and clergy. God bless the souls of all the victims

I Asked God For Christmas Gifts, He Said: No !!
By: Elias Bejjani*
What does Christmas mean to believers? Simply it means love, because Almighty God, Our Beloved Father wanted to save us, we, His children, from the slavery of the original sin. For this fundamental fatherhood reason: "He was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried; he descended into hell; the third day he rose again from the dead; He ascended into heaven, and sits on the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead." (The Creed)
Yes, He wanted for us to be free and back to His heavenly mansions that He built specially for us. "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him". (John 03/16-17).
God become a human being in the Person of Jesus Christ because He loves us, we, His children, and decided to save us. One might wonder why God would do all this? The answer, simply is because He is love
itself. "But God demonstrated His own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 05/08).
This year I decided to speak directly to God, as I do each day through my prayers, yet somehow in a very different way. I set down and after saying my regular prayers I started asking Him for certain and very specific gifts and favors for myself and others and at the same vividly contemplate His answers based on all that I have learned all through my 67 years of age and grasped from the Holy Bible.
I asked Almighty God to kill my pride, He said: No, I do not have to do so, you should tame it yourself because I do not have mercy on the wicked and proud. “For, behold, the day comes, it burns as a furnace; and all the proud, and all who work wickedness, will be stubble; and the day that comes will burn them up,” says Yahweh of Armies, “that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. (Malachi 04/1-2).
I asked Almighty God for a cure for a beloved person who is very sick and cannot control what he does. He said: No, his spirit is what matters and his spirit is perfect. Meanwhile, his body is inevitably mortal. "For dust you are and to dust you will return". (Genesis 3:19)
I asked Almighty God to grant me patience in a bid to maintain my faith and solidify my hope in the face of the hardships that I am encountering, He said: No, patience comes from tribulations. Patience is not granted but earned. You have to challenge your instincts and defeat them, especially those of hatred, grudges, envy and selfishness.
I asked Almighty God if the greater love is loving ourselves as the psychologists and therapists teach these days? . He said No, "Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. (John 15/13)
I asked Almighty God to grant me happiness, He said: No, I shall shower you with blessings and graces if you ask and long for them, while happiness is to be made by you and not by any body else.
I asked Almighty God to spare me pain, He said: No, pain keeps you away from earthly concerns and brings you closer to me.
I asked Almighty God to make my soul grow and thrive. He said: No, your soul's growth and prosperity is your own responsibility, but I will pull you towards Me so you might abundantly bear fruits.
I asked Almighty God to make me rich and powerful and at the same time solidify my faith. He said: No, “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money". (Matthew 6:24).
I asked Almighty God to help me lay earthly treasures. He said No, “Don’t lay up treasures for yourselves on the earth, where moth and rust consume, and where thieves break through and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consume, and where thieves don’t break through and steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Matthew 06/19-22)
I asked Almighty God to help me take acts of revenge against those who harmed me badly and inflicted pain, misery and ineradicable hardships on me. He said: No, "Do not take revenge, but leave room for My wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," (Romans 12:19)
I asked Almighty God to allow me hate those who hate me. He said: No," Bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. (Luke 6:28).
I asked Almighty God to spare me from temptation. He said: No, "Let no man say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God,” for God can’t be tempted by evil, and He Himself tempts no one. But each one is tempted, when he is drawn away by his own lust, and enticed. Then the lust, when it has conceived, bears sin; and the sin, when it is full grown, brings forth death. (James 01/13-15)
I asked Almighty God if He forgives those who are evil and cause others to stumble. He said: No, "Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to stumble, it would be better for him that a huge millstone should be hung around his neck, and that he should be sunk in the depths of the sea." (Matthew 18/06)
I asked Almighty God to love me, He said: Yes I do, I have sacrificed My only begotten son so you can live forever, if you believe in Me.
By the end, I found that all these above answers came from within me, from my conscience, which is in fact the sound of God Himself.
Thanks to God for keeping my conscience alive, sensitive, and full with fear of You all the time. Thank You for loving me and enlightening my life modesty, love, faith and hope. Thank you for all the generous graces that You shower continuously on me, on my family, on my country and on all the people and countries. Thank You for the gift of life.
Merry Christmas.

FPM (Aouns Gung) doesn’t see eye to eye with Hezbollah over electoral law
December 24, 2012/The Daily Star /Antoine Ghattas Saab
Centrist ministerial sources said the current government must remain in power, and this is necessary even for March 14 groups, which continue their attack on the Cabinet without knowing that it is acting as little more than a stopgap until the Syrian crisis reaches a conclusion. The sources said that March 14’s campaign against the government comes in the context of their preparations for the upcoming electoral battle and in mobilizing supporters ahead of campaign season. The government will stay as long as it is backed by the international community and by parts of the Arab world, the sources continued. This support, which allows the survival of the Cabinet, comes from the success of the policy of dissociating Lebanon from the repercussions of the Syrian crisis, which has given the country relative protection and prevented major clashes among groups in Lebanese society.
The sources also said that senior Lebanese officials – particularly President Michel Sleiman and Prime Minister Najib Mikati, in coordination with Speaker Nabih Berri, are determined to make a series of civil service appointments. Governors and qaimaqams are the top priority as those appointments must be made before the start of the election season.
Interior Minister Marwan Charbel has said that the final list, including some candidates for these posts, in addition to the board of directors at Tele-Liban and some judicial appointments – which are being thoroughly discussed by the Higher Judicial Council – awaits the final decision of the Cabinet. Meanwhile, March 14 forces are still demanding the resignation of the government as a precondition to the resumption of the National Dialogue with its political rivals. Political sources in the opposition say Mikati has been unsuccessful in his attempts to overcome the obstacles that have been put in his path and to address the political situation. This is especially evident in the continued deterioration of the social and economic conditions of the country.
These conditions, they continued, could bring the situation in the country to a breaking point, especially in light of the government’s failure to find a solution to the issue of the public sector employees’ salary hike and to hold dialogue to confront the country’s economic issues. These sources said that to improve his public imagine, Mikati must curb corruption, the squandering of public funds and favoritism in public administration, especially after the scandals at the Beirut port and of the electricity-generating ships. The priority of this government needs to be the reactivation of the inspection department and the judiciary – so that corrupt officials are held accountable for their actions and the controlling of public spending and reorganization of state finances, the sources added. They also said March 8 was working to adopt a new electoral law based on proportional representation in order to tighten its grip over the country. Hezbollah has informed Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblatt that it is ready to hold elections under the 1960s law, but it must be amended to secure political gains for the party.
The March 14 sources said, however, that these gains may not be viable because they undermine the delicate balance between the country’s political blocs. They also said that these gains could be compensation for what he and his party would lose should the Syrian regime fall. Regardless of which electoral law is adopted, the decision to hold the elections has been made both in Lebanon and internationally. And this decision cannot be reversed except in the case of major security developments, the sources added. An MP who sits on the Bkirki Committee said that the representative of the Free Patriotic Movement on the committee, MP Alain Aoun, had been pushing for the proposal for smaller electoral districts when he unexpectedly threw his support behind the proportional representation proposal of the Cabinet. This switch occurred as other FPM MPs were announcing their support for the Orthodox Gathering’s draft law, the sources said, describing it as proof that FPM disagrees with its allies – notably Hezbollah – over the law.

Three more fighters repatriated, others yet to be claimed
December 24, 2012/By Antoine Amrieh, Wassim Mroueh/The Daily Star
TRIPOLI, Lebanon: Damascus returned over the weekend the bodies of three more Lebanese Salafist fighters killed last month in Syria, as a security source said that a DNA test would be conducted on bodies still in Syria to determine whether a missing Lebanese fighter is among them. Ambulances provided by Dar al-Fatwa returned the bodies of Malek Hajj Deeb, Abdel-Hakim Ibrahim and Hussein Srour to Lebanon through the Arida border crossing Saturday. Relatives of the dead waited on the Lebanese side of the border. Sheikh Mohammad Ibrahim, who represents the families of the killed Salafists, said that, despite the repatriation of the bodies, there were other issues to be addressed. “This handing over process does not end the matter, as there is Hassan Srour in [Syrian] prison and the missing body of Mohammad Rifai,” said Ibrahim who was at the border. He added that Syrian authorities have been holding the bodies of another three people killed in a separate incident for ten months. “We will continue efforts until this matter is over.” Ibrahim said he had called for DNA testing to identify the body of Rifai, but that it hasn’t taken place. In late November, a group of Salafist fighters, all from north Lebanon, were killed in a Syrian army ambush near the Syrian town of Tal Kalakh. Saturday’s repatriation puts the total number of dead fighters returned at 10. One of the fighters returned earlier was Palestinian and the rest Lebanese. A senior General Security source told The Daily Star contacts were ongoing with the Syrian authorities to conduct a DNA test to identify the body of Rifai. He said that Syrian authorities provided 14 photos of bodies and 10 were identified by their families, while Rifai’s family said that one of the remaining four could be him. “No other family came and told us that our sons are missing,” he said. “His [Rifai’s] family said that a body displayed in one of the remaining four photos could be his,” the source said. “But this [the DNA test] requires further coordination; remember that the body is in Syria and not in Lebanon.” The source said Lebanese authorities were working for Hassan Srour’s release, acknowledging, however, that it was not an easy process. “This group was not in Syria for tourism: They were fighters carrying arms.” The source said that the General Security had been informed that Srour was the only detained Lebanese among the group that was ambushed. The Dar al-Fatwa delegation and the families transported the bodies to Tripoli. Once they reached Beddawi, they were received with hail of gunfire and fireworks. In Beddawi, mourners took the bodies from the ambulances and marched carrying them toward Tripoli. They chanted Islamic slogans and others against the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad. The bodies were wrapped in burial shrouds in the Grand Mansouri Mosque of Tripoli and then transported to the homes of their families. Prayers were later held in al-Taqwa Mosque in the Tripoli neighborhood of Bab al-Tabbaneh. Hussein Srour was buried in Bab al-Tabbaneh while Hajj Dib and Ibrahim were laid to rest in the Akkar village of Fnaydeq. General Security said it finalized the third round of the repatriation process, adding it would maintain contact with Syrian authorities to ensure there are “no gaps” in the process.

Siniora: March 14 will respond positively to Berri’s proposal
December 24, 2012/By Hussein Dakroub/The Daily Star
BEIRUT: The March 14 coalition will respond positively to Speaker Nabih Berri’s proposal for resuming discussions on a new electoral law, former Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said Sunday, a move that raised hope for an agreement on a draft law under which the 2013 polls would be held. “The March 14 response to Speaker’s Berri’s proposal will be positive,” Siniora told The Daily Star
However, the former prime minister did not expect the parliamentary subcommittee, which includes MPs from the March 8 and March 14 parties, to meet before the end of the year as Berri had demanded.
“The subcommittee’s meetings will be held early in January as some MPs will be out of the country” for the Christmas and New Year holidays, said Siniora, head of the parliamentary Future bloc.
Formed in early October, the subcommittee was tasked with studying the type of the electoral system and the distribution of electoral districts in the absence of Cabinet members or representatives.
Berri has called on March 8 and March 14 lawmakers to resume discussions on a new electoral legislation before the end of the year, while stressing that elections, scheduled in June next year, be held on time.
The speaker has met with a delegation of March 14 lawmakers to agree on a venue for the subcommittee’s meeting, which has posed a major obstacle after some March 14 MPs, citing threats to their lives, refused to go to Parliament. Berri has proposed to March 14 lawmaker Marwan Hamade that the subcommittee’s March 14 members facing security threats stay at a hotel near Parliament and under Army protection until the body finishes its work. The speaker has been waiting for a final answer from the March 14 MPs to his proposal. Siniora renewed the opposition’s call for the resignation of Prime Minister Najib Mikati’s government and accused the Hezbollah-led March 8 alliance of seeking to prevent the parliamentary elections from being held on time. “Our position has not changed. We want the government’s resignation first before attending any new National Dialogue session,” he said. “While we want the elections to be held on time, the other [March 8] side does not want the elections to be held,” Siniora added.
Since the Oct. 19 assassination of Internal Security Forces official Brig. Gen. Wissam al-Hasan, the March 14 coalition has demanded the government’s resignation and the formation of “a neutral salvation Cabinet” to supervise the 2013 elections before attending any Dialogue session. While rejecting the 1960 legislation as well as the government’s draft law based on a proportional representation system with 13 medium-sized electoral districts, Siniora said that the March 14 parties supported an electoral law that divided the country into small districts. Officials on both sides of the political divide, including the Maronite Church, have rejected the 1960 law, which adopts the qada as an electoral district and is based on a winner-takes-all system. The 1960 legislation was used in the 2009 elections. Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea called for a new law in order to ensure fair Christian representation. “Although the 1960 law gives us a big majority in these [2013] elections, we want to change it and approve a law that achieves equality [in power sharing] because the current law is not fair,” Geagea told LBCI TV Sunday. However, Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblatt accused both the March 8 and March 14 coalitions of being “destructive” politically and economically for the country.
“The March 14 party is working to tailor an electoral suit according to its size and the March 8 party is doing the same thing as if the country is confined to these two parties. No one thinks that there is also a centrist and marginalized party or a certain minority that wants something else,” Jumblatt said in an interview published by An-Nahar newspaper Sunday.
Jumblatt along with President Michel Sleiman and Mikati have taken a middle-of-the road stance on the political dispute between the March 8 and March 14 parties.
The PSP leader said each of the March 8 and March 14 parties thinks that if they win the parliamentary elections, they will be able to control the country and eliminate the other.Reiterating his support for Mikati, Jumblatt said: “I am with Prime Minister Mikati in the same boat. We either drown together or survive together.”Meanwhile, Batroun March 14 MP Butros Harb accused the March 8 parties of seeking to prevent the holding of 2013 elections. Speaking at a news conference at his house in Hazmieh Saturday, Harb said failure to hold the elections would serve Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah, Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun and their allies and ensure their control over the state and its resources. “We affirm that we are committed to holding the parliamentary elections on time. We announce that we want a new electoral law,” Harb said.

Saqr Hits Out at 'Shabiha' Aoun, Bassil over Syrian Refugees
Naharnet /MP Oqab Saqr on Sunday lashed out at Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun and Energy Minister Jebran Bassil over their latest calls for closing the Lebanese-Syrian border to stop the influx of Syrian and Palestinian refugees into Lebanon. “The statements and speeches we have been hearing for days from some Lebanese politicians, topped by Michel Aoun, who have been repeating an outdated discriminatory rhetoric, will become part of the history of racism,” Saqr said in a communique. Slamming Bassil without naming him, the lawmaker added: “One of Aoun's ministers has gone too far and likened them (Syrian refugees) to imported evil ideas and called for expelling them together with the Palestinian refugees – a step that amounts to an extraordinary challenge to the extinct hawks of South Africa's apartheid.”“In short, they are seeking to complete the siege of the Syrian people, with one of the shabiha (pro-regime militia) slaughtering people in Syria and another closing the border” in Lebanon, Saqr added. He described those seeking to close the border as “a bunch of racists who rose to power in Lebanon through a black coup d'etat.” “What's dangerous about this approach is that it is being marketed in some circles as aimed at pleasing Christians ahead of the elections, which represents a great attack against Christians, their values and their sense of humanity,” Saqr added. Addressing the FPM's ally Hizbullah, Saqr asked: “Has your memory betrayed you to forget how much the Syrian people helped your people during (the) July 2006 war” with Israel? On Saturday Aoun warned that “the number of Palestinians in Lebanon is nearing one million.”Commenting on the arrival of refugees from Syria through the border, Aoun said this is a “real danger from which our attention should not be deviated.” “Nations supporting the revolutionaries in Syria with money and arms are obliging Palestinians to flee the war-torn country,” the FPM leader added, wondering why these regimes do not “take responsibility of the refugees instead of blaming us and putting the entire burden on Lebanon". Around 10,000 Palestinians has fled from Syria to Lebanon and since the latest violence at the Yarmuk camp in Damascus another 3,000 have crossed the border or were in the process of crossing, UNRWA deputy chief of staff Lisa Gilliam has announced. On November 20, Aoun cautioned that “the accumulation of refugees on the Lebanese border confirms that they are not all refugees and this poses a threat, especially if they are fighters taking part in the war in Syria.”  “Everyone knows that the issue of asylum starts with individuals asking you for help and ends with them mutineering against you,” he added. The FPM leader cautioned that “this issue has become very dangerous because they are spread across all areas,” calling on the government to “publish the numbers and oversee residency across Lebanon.”“No one knows the numbers and this is unacceptable. It is unacceptable that the director of army intelligence, the Intelligence Bureau, the General Security, the State Security, municipalities and mayors don't know anything about the numbers,” Aoun said.

Families of Lebanese Shiites Kidnapped Pilgrims Vow Escalatory Measures against Turkish Interests in Lebanon
Naharnet /The families of the Lebanese pilgrims held in Syria staged on Sunday a sit-in in front of the Turkish Embassy in Lebanon to protest the failure to resolve the case of their loved ones.
They vowed in a statement to “take escalatory measures against Turkish interests in Lebanon at the beginning of the new year.”
They held Turkey responsible for the ongoing “humanitarian crime” against the pilgrims, without ruling out the possibility of resorting to kidnappings to resolve the problem.
“We will resort to abductions if we deem them appropriate,” they explained. Furthermore, they justified their blaming of Turkey for the ongoing kidnapping, by saying that the Syrian region of Aazaz where the pilgrims are being held is the closest to the Syrian-Turkish border. “Our patience has limits. We have nothing but values. We may be chaotic, but we have values,”they warned. In addition, the families slammed the government's policy of disassociation from regional developments, saying that it should translate its words into actions. The families criticized the state for failing to release the pilgrims, while noting the efforts of Mustaqbal bloc MP Oqab Saqr to release the captives, hoping that he would conduct them in coordination with the state. They therefore called on President Michel Suleiman to coordinate state efforts with those of the lawmaker to ensure the release of the pilgrims. Moreover, they wondered why Interpol would not interfere to release the pilgrims. On May 22, eleven Lebanese pilgrims were kidnapped in Syria's Aleppo district as they were making their way back by land from a pilgrimage in Iran. One was released in late August and another in September, while the rest remain in Aazaz. The families of the pilgrims had frequently staged sit-ins and blocked roads in protest against the ongoing abduction.
Saqr had revealed earlier in December that the abductors of the pilgrims are offering a deal to free the men in exchange for the release of Syrian political prisoners.
The MP said during an interview with al-Jadeed television that the kidnappers are demanding the release of all Syrian political prisoners in Damascus and in Lebanon to free the pilgrims.

Jumblat: March 8, 14 Camps Seeking Electoral Law that Caters to Their Own Interests
Naharnet/Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat refused to be affiliated to any of the rival March 8 and 14 camps, saying that he and Prime Minister Najib Miqati “lie in the same boat,” reported the daily An Nahar Sunday. He told the daily: “The rival camps are seeking to adopt a parliamentary electoral law that caters to their own interests.” “They act as if the country only belongs to them. Neither side is willing to make concessions or consider the possibility that a third party or minority exists in Lebanon and seeks different goals than them,” he said. “Each camp believes that whichever side is victorious in the parliamentary elections will be able to take over the country and eliminate the other,” added Jumblat. Asked about the solution to the current political deadlock, the MP replied: “I don't know. The two camps should realize that I am not affiliated to either of them.”
“A third and centrist opinion exists in Lebanon and this third choice must be represented in the parliamentary elections,” he stressed. On the March 14-led opposition's demand for the resignation of the government, he commented: “Miqati and I are in the same boat. We either sink or swim together.”

Guards Reportedly Taken Hostage as Protests Erupt at Roumieh Prison
Naharnet /Protests erupted on Sunday at Roumieh prison, Lebanon's largest prison facility, “after cellphones were confiscated from some inmates during an inspection of the prison and amid reports saying that some inmates will be transferred” to another location, state-run National News Agency reported. “The situation is tense at the juvenile ward and reports said inmates could be holding some prison guards hostage,” NNA said.
Earlier, LBCI television reported that “protests erupted at the convicts building in Roumieh prison after reports said they will be transferred to another building.” For it part, MTV said “some prisoners have taken hostage a number of guards at the juvenile ward in Roumieh.” On December 8, several Roumieh inmates rioted to protest the treatment they are undergoing at the facility by some security guards, NNA reported. NNA said back then that the offenders were supposed to be referred to the judiciary to take appropriate measures against them.Roumieh, the oldest and largest of Lebanon's overcrowded prisons, has witnessed sporadic prison breaks in recent years and escalating riots over the past months as inmates living in poor conditions demand better treatment.

What happened in Tal Kalakh?
Now Lebanon/The story of the 22 Sunni fighters from Tripoli who were ambushed by Syrian regime troops in the town of Tal Kalakh late last month has shone a light on the reemergence of Lebanese radical Islamists positioning themselves against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his followers, both inside Syria and in North Lebanon.
Jihad Deeb—brother of 19-year-old Malek Deeb, who was killed in Tal Kalakh and whose body has yet to be delivered to his family by Syrian authorities—told NOW that information on the fighters’ whereabouts was given to Syrian loyalist forces by informers from Tripoli’s Jabal Mohsen.
Deeb said his brother Malek, whom family and friends called “Ali,” never showed interest in the crisis inside Syria nor in the battles taking place in Lebanon between residents of mostly Alawite Jabal Mohsen and Sunni Bab al-Tabbaneh. “Ali never held up arms,” said Deeb. “He was a math student at the Lebanese University in Tripoli. He would attend his classes and then join his friends for a game of Counterstrike.” Among these friends, Deeb said, was Bilal al-Ghoul, who also died in the ambush. The young men were inseparable and neither was active politically or religiously.
So far, only seven of the bodies of the Tal Kalakh ambush victims were repatriated, while the rest remain in the custody of Syrian authorities. The men’s families protested Thursday in Bab al-Tabbaneh to demand the handover of the bodies as well as of fighter Hassan Srour, who is apparently alive in regime detention.
Bab al-Tabbaneh-based Salafist Sheikh Bilal al-Masri told NOW that two of the fighters who survived the ambush, Yousef Abou Orayda and Abdel Rahman al-Hassan, had made it back to Lebanon and are now in hiding.
Masri agrees with Deeb that the fighters’ whereabouts were made known to the Assad regime by Jabal Mohsen residents.
“The boys gathered on Abu Arabi Street here in Tabbaneh in broad daylight, and everyone knew that they were heading to Syria,” said Masri. “We have plenty of informants in Bab al-Tabbaneh, some conspiring with Hezbollah and others with state intelligence. Why did our authorities allow [the fighters] to pass into Syria when many others before them had been stopped at that same crossing?”
Many believe that the young men were lured into a trap in an attempt to back the Assad regime’s accusations of Lebanese involvement in the uprising. But Ahmad—a friend of Hussein Srour, Hassan Srour’s brother who died in the ambush—has a different story. Ahmad, who asked that his real name not be disclosed as he fears reprisal, is a Syrian activist working from Lebanon and acts as an intermediary between fighters who wish to enter Syria and those already inside. He told NOW that Hussein Srour, a more radical young man who wanted to do a jihad against Assad’s forces in Syria, was the person who led the others in. He had asked Ahmad to help him find the best route, though he decided to chart a path on his own when Ahmad took too long to get back to him. “I promised to help him, but it was taking me a lot of time, and the boys had begun questioning Srour’s reliability, and so Srour decided to enter through Tal Kalakh.” As he skimmed through the SMS messages Hussein Srour had sent him, Ahmad shook his head in distress, saying it was a hasty decision that cost the young men their lives.
According to another Bab al-Tabbaneh Salafist sheikh who preferred to remain anonymous, the young men took a grave risk by crossing from Tal Kalakh into Tal Sireen and Zawara. These two villages, according to the sheikh, have become strongholds for Assad’s forces, and the mission was bound to end badly. “But these boys,” the sheikh stressed, “were not entering without a guide. There was someone guiding them in.”
The sheikh told NOW that the boys were heading to the al-Hosn Citadel in Qusayr to meet with a man named Khaled Mahmoud, who was supposed to provide them with training and arms. Mahmoud, explained the sheikh, was imprisoned by Lebanese authorities in 2000 for his role in clashes in the Donniyeh area and was released in 2005 following a general amnesty. He was detained again for having ties to the Fatah al-Islam militant group before it fought a months-long battle with the Lebanese army in the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian camp in 2007 and was released in early summer this year.
Both Masri and Ahmad denied the young men’s relation to any organized faction. Both, however, did confirm that Hussein Srour had some ties to Salafists in Tripoli. This was also confirmed by a Bab al-Tabbaneh fighter who went by the name Abu Saleh, and who lived on the same street as the Srours. According to Abu Saleh, Hussein Srour followed influential Salafist Sheikh Salem al-Rafei. He was also known to have some ties with Salafist Sheikh Housam al-Sabbagh, who has fought in the recent rounds of clashes between Bab al-Tabbeneh and Jabal Mohsen. Sabbagh is also believed to have had some previous ties to Fatah al-Islam.
According the Salafist sheikh who asked not to be named, Malek Deeb is the cousin of the late Saddam Ibrahim Haj Deeb, who was killed in the 2007 clashes between the ISF and Fatah al-Islam fighters on Miatayn Street in Tripoli. Fatah al-Islam was led by Shaker al-Abssi, who is believed to be a Syrian operative and whom the Salafist sheikh claims dragged the group into a battle that served the Syrian regime’s interest without the fighters’ knowledge. It remains unclear whether the Tal Kalakh victims were aware of who was overseeing their way into Syria and whether they were also being used as a tool to better serve regime interests.

North Lebanon devoid of training camps
December 24, 2012/By Mirella Hodeib/The Daily Star
TRIPOLI, Lebanon: Entry to Bab al-Tabbaneh’s Saqi area, where citrus orchards, bamboo fields and small manufacturing facilities abound, is not an easy task. The large and mostly deserted stretch of land connects the highway on the Abu Ali roundabout to Tripoli’s Maritime Base.On the highway outside, the Army’s armored personnel carriers are stationed next to each of the narrow entrances to Saqi. Soldiers carry out hourly patrols and perform searches on almost every vehicle heading in. But veteran Bab al-Tabbaneh fighter Abu Ahmad, who considers Saqi a childhood playground and the perfect location to exercise his favorite pastime, hunting birds, is an expert on dodging the military’s tight grip and smuggling fellow hunters and guests inside the thicket. Previously unheard of, Saqi gained notoriety shortly after the unrest in Syria erupted almost two years ago. It rose to fame as the location where the youth of Tripoli are allegedly trained to join the fight against Syrian President Bashar Assad. “How can we carry out training here when the Jabal [Mohsen] is located right above,” Abu Ahmad says, pointing to the hills towering above the Saqi area. “It’s just inconceivable; the Jabal Mohsen guys or the Army can track any activity here.”The killing last month of a group of Lebanese fighters, all from north Lebanon, in a Syrian army ambush in the border area of Tal Kalakh, raised questions over the recruitment and training done across the north of those heading to Syria to join the uprising.
A senior intelligence source did not deny that training and recruitment were happening, confiding that these are taking place but still “very discretely.” In Tripoli, emerging Salafist sheikhs like Salem al-Rafei and Bilal al-Masri, who are highly influential in the city’s underprivileged quarters, do not hide their belief that fighting alongside Syrian rebels is a religious obligation, yet they completely deny the existence of training camps or official recruitment of fighters. “When those youngsters see that Hezbollah are defending the Syrian regime and fighting alongside Assad forces, they feel compelled to travel to Syria to support their oppressed brethren,” says the long-haired sheikh.
But according to Masri, joining the battle in Syria was an “individual” rather than “organized” act.
“All those youth who head to Syria do it on an individual basis. There is nobody convincing them to go or doing the recruitment,” he says. “There is no need to recruit Lebanese fighters to fight in Syria; Syrians are strong men and do not need any help.” Despite rumors that the Al-Qaeda-inspired Nusra Front (Jabhat al-Nusra) is in charge of recruitment and training in north Lebanon, Masri’s argument is repeated everywhere in Islamist circles across Tripoli and among Bab al-Tabbaneh’s residents. Echoing Masri, Salafist official in Bab al-Tabbaneh, Sheikh Chadi Jebara maintains that the group killed in Tal Kalakh were “religious youth” who were “demoralized by what’s happening in Syria.” “The Tal Kalakh youth were all very, very young. The eldest was Hasan Srour and he was 21,” Jebara continues. “They were all enthusiastic and passionate but they don’t have experience in fighting otherwise they would have avoided the ambush or felt a betrayal.”
But the intelligence source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the mere fact that the men traveled in a group demonstrates that some kind of coordination had taken place between concerned parties in Lebanon and Syria. “There are liaison officers in charge of channeling weapons and fighters into Syria,” the source says. “Traveling in groups into a war zone is not an individual act.” Hasan Srour’s body was repatriated to Lebanon over the weekend. According to Jebara and several Bab al-Tabbaneh residents, he was the only one who had traveled back and forth to Syria and took part in battles there and guided the ambushed youth into Syrian territories.
Srour’s family and friends in Bab al-Tabbaneh are eager to show pictures of him in Syria handling AK-47s and rocket-propelled grenade launchers. His younger brother Hassan survived the raid and is currently held in captivity by Syrian government forces. Jebara argues that north Lebanon was clear of training camps due to the heavy presence of security forces across the governorate.
“There are no training camps in Tripoli and in north Lebanon in general,” says Jebara. “But in border villages with Syria, in the province of Akkar, where the frontier is highly porous and lands are entwined, a few camps might exist.” The senior intelligence source also rules out the presence of training camps in north Lebanon, saying that while some kind of theoretical training is happening, full-fledged training camps where fighters are formed are nonexistent. “There are no traditional training camps in Lebanon, where for example shooting exercises are carried out,” the source says. “In addition,” he continues, “north Lebanon’s geography, a plain, makes it very easy to locate any training activities or the establishment of camps.” The source explains stripping and assembling weapons and preparing explosives is the kind of training Lebanese fighters might be receiving. “Unlike shooting exercises or field training, such techniques could be taught in a house or a depot and therefore remain highly covert,” he adds. Fighter Abu Ahmad laments the fact that Tripoli’s youth lack serious training in terms of fighting techniques and the handling of weapons. Abu Ahmad, who retired from the Lebanese Army only a couple of years ago, confides that he spends long hours teaching the youth how to handle an AK-47. “Not all of them get it,” he sighs. The fighter says that old-timers like him, rather than the youth, take the lead during fighting with Jabal Mohsen. “Those kids cannot handle a gun but are eager to go fight in Syria!” he bellows. “No wonder they never return with so little experience.”

Letter to His Excellency President Michel Sleiman
December 19, 2012
His Excellency General Michel Sleiman
President
The Republic of Lebanon
Presidential Palace
Baabdaa, Lebanon
Dear President Sleiman:
As the debate is growing in relation to the right to vote for the Lebanese living abroad, and after listening to a recent MTV debate hosted by Mr. Walid Abboud, I thought to kindly suggest the following:
1. Name a Minister of State for Immigrant Affairs. A dynamic, visionary, creative, effective, decision maker, well-known independent figure from the Lebanese living abroad to lead and establish the proper mechanism
for the Lebanese citizens around the world to vote, from where they live, in the next 2013 parliamentary elections.
2. Establish an office for Immigrant Affairs at the Ministry of Interior for the sole purpose of addressing the immediate needs of all immigrants and expatriates. One of our urgent needs is our Lebanese personal status
"al2ahwal alshakhsiya" and also documentation regarding the purchase of public domain when the local municipalities issue a decree in this regard. Most importantly, to protect immigrants properties from being manipulated
by neighbors and distant relatives in cahoots with local authorities.
3. Establish an office for Immigrant Affairs at the Ministry of Finance for the sole purpose of addressing the immediate needs of all immigrants and expatriates regarding the land they may own, the inheritance of land or
property or registration of land that they may purchase. When opening a new business which requires permits and other needed documentations.
Mr. President, obviously the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and its office of immigrant affairs are doing nothing to help us in those areas: right to vote, land ownership, business opportunities, Lebanese personal status
and many other needs. I know well how much you care about your citizens around the world and you are the first President to pledge to effectively engage them and help their needs in your swearing-in speech on
the 25th of May 2008.
I hope, Mr. President, that my recommendations are helpful to your immigrant action plan and it will, for sure, help fight corruption in the related ministries and in particular in "aldawa2er al3ikariya".
Sincerely yours,
Walid Maalouf
C.C. His Excellency Marwan Charbel, Minister of Interior
His Excellency Mohammad Safadi, Minister of Finance
Latest news from the desk of Walid Maalouf May 7 - December 31, 2012
Mr. Maalouf was interviewed on May 23rd in the Global Voice Hall an internet TV program "Al-Mihak" on the developments of the Syrian uprising. Mr. Maalouf submitted his testimony on Bahrain to the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission (click for speech) which was widely covered by the Arab media including the Lebanese newspaper Aljoumhouria (click for article) He received several letters of support including a letter from the Gulf European
Center for Human Rights (click for letter) Mr. Maalouf was interviewed by ELAPH about Hezbollah's arsenal and what is the best way to turn it over to the Lebanese authorities (click for interview)
Mr. Maalouf was instrumental in launching diplomatic relations between El-Salvador and Lebanon. After a year and eight months, his efforts resulted in appointing Mr. Sarkis Seraydarian the first Honorary Consul of El Salvador in Lebanon who was confirmed by both Governments (click for pictures)
Mr. Maalouf was in Lebanon from September through November. He was interviewed by Mey Sayegh of Aljoumhouria about the US presidential elections (click for interview) he also appeared live twice on Sky News from
downtown Beirut on October 16th and October 21st . He was a guest in Future TV's "Kalam Beirut" with Roula Kassab Haddad on October 29th. On election day, November 6th, he was a guest with Paula Yakoubian on Future TV covering the US election live. Before his return to the US, Mr. Maalouf attended the 6th annual memorial Mass of the late Pierre Amine Gemayel in Jal el dib.
On December 8th, Mr. Maalouf was on a direct chat with more than 100 Lebanese from around the world hosted by Mr. Nicolas Chahoud of the Mideast Observer, where he answered questions about the recent Syrian regimes'use of chemical weapons, the 2013 elections, the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, resolution 1559 and other United Nations' resolutions including the Hariri tribunal (click for interview)
Mr. Maalouf reacted to the Council of Ministers' 2013 election law that they submitted to the Parliament for ratification in referring to the letter of recommendations he submitted to the Minister of Interior, he also refused the quotas recommended for women and for the immigrants, saying:" We are not in Iraq or Egypt to force women quotas on us. We are a more liberal and progressive community and women are already playing a political role in Lebanon.
"As for the 6 expats deputies recommended, he clearly stated that we do not need a number of deputies to represent the expatriates, the Lebanese living abroad shall vote for the representative that is running in his or her ancestral district. As for the number of deputies he said: "we should bring the number of deputies down to 108 as stipulated in Taef, so between the law submitted by the Council of Ministers and the Orthodox recommendations, the March 14 suggestions, comparing them to the 1960 law, I think my letter to Minister Marwan Charbel is a good compromise and a starting point toward a better parliamentary representation." (click for letter)
Thank you,
Office of Walid Maalouf
1747 Pennsylvania Avenue NW - Suite 300
Washington DC 20006
(202) 454-2832 phone
(202) 454-2805 fax

Pope Benedict signals inter-religion alliance against gay marriage
Reuters - Thu, 20 Dec, 2012
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Benedict, indicating the Vatican's desire to forge alliances with other religions against gay marriage, on Friday said the family was threatened "to its foundations" by attempts to change its "true structure".
The pope made his latest denunciation of gay marriage in a Christmas address to Vatican officials in which he blended religion, philosophy, anthropology and sociology to illustrate the position of the Roman Catholic Church.
He threw the full weight of his office behind a study by France's chief rabbi on the effects the legalisation of gay marriage would have on children and society.
"There is no denying the crisis that threatens it to its foundations - especially in the Western world," the pope said, adding it had to be protected because it is "the authentic setting in which to hand on the blueprint of human existence".
The 85-year-old pope, speaking in the frescoed Clementine Hall of the Vatican's Apostolic Palace, said the family was being threatened by "a false understanding of freedom" and a repudiation of life-long commitment in heterosexual marriage.
"When such commitment is repudiated, the key figures of human existence likewise vanish: father, mother, child - essential elements of the experience of being human are lost," the leader of the world's 1.2 billion Catholic said.
The Vatican has gone on the offensive in response to gains for gay marriage in the United States and Europe, using every possible opportunity to denounce it through papal speeches or editorials in its newspaper or on its radio.
RELIGIOUS ALLIANCE
In some countries, the Catholic Church has joined forces at the local level with Jews, Muslims and members of other religions to oppose the legalisation of gay marriage, in some cases presenting arguments based on legal, social and anthropological analyses rather than religious teachings.
Significantly, the pope specifically praised as "profoundly moving" a study by France's chief rabbi, Gilles Bernheim, which has become the subject of heated debate in that country.
Bernheim, also a philosopher, argues that homosexual rights groups "will use gay marriage as a Trojan Horse" in a wider campaign to "deny sexual identity and erase sexual differences" and "undermine the heterosexual fundamentals of our society".
His study, "Gay Marriage, Parenthood and Adoption: What We Often Forget To Say", argues that plans to legalise gay marriage are being made for "the exclusive profit of a tiny minority" and are often supported because of political correctness. In his own speech on Friday, the pope, leader of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics, repeated some of the concepts in the Bernheim study, including an assertion that children raised by gay couples would be more "objects" than individuals. Last month, voters in the U.S. states of Maryland, Maine and Washington state approved same-sex marriage, marking the first time marriage rights have been extended to same-sex couples by popular vote. Same-sex unions have been legalised in six states and the District of Columbia by lawmakers or courts.
Also in November, Spain's highest court upheld a gay marriage law, and in France the socialist government has unveiled a draft law that would allow gay marriage.
(Additional reporting by Tom Heneghen; Editing by Alison Williams)

Lebanese Army Urges Foreigners to Visit Lebanon: You Will Enjoy Utmost Level of Protection
Naharnet/The Army Command stressed on Sunday its keenness on the security of foreigners in Lebanon. It urged in a statement “foreigners and Arabs to visit Lebanon as they will enjoy the utmost level of protection.”
“The army and all security agencies will cater to all your needs,” it said in an address to foreigners. “The security forces are pursuing their duties with complete determination in order to maintain freedom, security, and stability in Lebanon,” it added. The United Arab Emirates called its citizens on Saturday to refrain from traveling to Lebanon except in case of utmost necessity. “We have taken this decision because of the political situation in Lebanon and in surrounding countries,” the Undersecretary of the Foreign Ministry Sheikh Abdullah bin Mohammed bin Butti al-Hamed told Emirates News Agency - WAM , explaining that the ministry is keen on protecting people's safety outside the country.

60 Dead in Strike on Hama Bakery as Warplanes Hit Rebel Bastions
Naharnet/More than 60 civilians were killed on Sunday in a strike by Syrian regime warplanes on people queuing outside a bakery in the rebel-held town of Halfaya in the central province of Hama, a watchdog said, as regime warplanes pounded the capital's suburbs and the northern province of Aleppo. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which had earlier reported "dozens" killed, said the death toll could rise as at least 50 people had also been critically wounded. The Local Coordination Committees activist group denounced "the massacre committed by regime forces," and said Halfaya was going through a humanitarian crisis with food shortages because of the regime's siege of the area. The LCC said dozens of people had been queuing outside the bakery after not having had any bread for several days. “Preliminary reports said around 200 people were martyred while the toll is likely to go higher due to the fact that bodies are still being pulled out from beneath the remains,” the LCC added. "A MiG (jet) has attacked! Look at (President Bashar) Assad's weapons. Look, world, look at the Halfaya massacre," says an unidentified cameraman shooting an amateur video distributed by the Observatory. The footage showed a bombed one-story block, and a crater in the road beside it. Bloodied bodies lay on the road, while others could be seen in the rubble. Men carried victims out on their backs, among them at least one woman, the video showed. On Monday, rebels launched an all-out assault on army positions across Hama, which is home to strong anti-regime sentiment. During the summer, rights groups accused government forces of committing war crimes by dropping bombs and using artillery on or near several bakeries in the northern province of Aleppo. One of the bloodiest attacks was on a bread line in the Qadi Askar district of Aleppo city on August 16 that left 60 people dead, according to local hospital records. Elsewhere, warplanes launched several strikes across Syria, including on rebel-held towns in the northern province of Aleppo and on countryside around the capital, the Observatory said. At least 44,000 people have been killed in violence across Syria since the outbreak of the anti-regime revolt in March last year, the Observatory says. Air strikes on Sunday included a raid on Sfeira in Aleppo province, said the Britain-based Observatory. "At least 13 people were killed in an air raid on the town of Sfeira," said the group, which relies on a network of doctors, activists and lawyers for its information.
Fighter jets also hit the town of Saqba in Damascus province, just north of the road linking the capital to the international airport, the Observatory added. Including those killed in Halfaya, at least 174 people -- 108 of them civilians -- were killed on Sunday across Syria, said the Observatory. The deaths came a day after at least 117 people were killed nationwide. A Palestine Liberation Organization official, meanwhile, told a conference in Cairo that more than 700 Palestinians have been killed in the conflict, including in the Yarmuk refugee camp of southern Damascus. "We have asked the Syrian authorities not to let Palestinians be drawn into the conflict," the PLO's Zakaria al-Agha said. Late on Sunday, several rockets were fired into the camp which has been the scene of deadly clashes between pro- and anti-regime forces over the past week, the Observatory said.
It said two men were killed by the rocket fire and another was shot dead by a sniper.

Egypt Opposition Cries 'Fraud' in Referendum
Naharnet /Egypt's opposition said on Sunday it will appeal a referendum seen as voting in a new constitution backed by ruling Islamists, and vowed to keep up a struggle that has spawned weeks of protests and instability.
Polling "fraud and violations" skewed the results of the two-stage referendum, the final leg of which was held on Saturday, the National Salvation Front charged.
"We are asking the (electoral) commission to investigate the irregularities before announcing official results," a Front member, Amr Hamzawy, told a Cairo news conference.
"The referendum is not the end of the road. It is only one battle," said another member, Abdel Ghaffar Shokr, reading from a Front statement. "We will continue the fight for the Egyptian people."
Germany immediately backed the call for a transparent investigation into the results. Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said: "The new constitution can only meet with acceptance if the process of its adoption is beyond reproach."But Westerwelle said it was "not the power of the street but rather the spirit of compromise and tolerance that should determine the way forward for Egypt."
Egyptian state media and President Mohamed Morsi's supporters in the Muslim Brotherhood said the constitution was passed with the support of nearly two-thirds of voters, based on unofficial tallies.
A member of the national electoral commission, Mohamed el-Tanobly, told Agence France Presse that "no official date has been fixed" for the publication of the final referendum results.
The state news agency MENA had reported they would be released on Monday.
Opposition to the charter has fueled demonstrations for the past month, some of them violent, such as clashes that wounded 62 people in Egypt's second city of Alexandria on Friday, the day before the final round of voting.
The army has deployed troops to reinforce police since December 5 clashes outside the presidential palace in Cairo killed eight people and injured more than 600 others.
Morsi and Islamists backing the charter say it is necessary to restore stability after the early 2011 revolution that toppled president Hosni Mubarak.
But the opposition sees the new constitution as a wedge to usher in creeping Islamic law through a weakening of human rights, particularly women's rights, and undermine the independence of the judiciary.
It accuses Morsi of steamrolling through the referendum without consensus on the charter, and argues that a low voter turnout of around 32 percent undermined the plebiscite's legitimacy.
Approval of the constitution would trigger parliamentary elections in two months' time to replace an Islamist-dominated assembly that was dissolved by Egypt's constitutional court before Morsi's election in June.
In the meantime, all legislative business is being handled by the senate, also under the sway of Islamists.
In a gesture to "national dialogue," Morsi on Saturday appointed 90 additional senators, including eight women and 12 Christians.
The U.S. government, which sees Egypt as a pillar of its Middle East policy and provides Cairo with $1.3 billion annually in military aid, has deliberately avoided public comment on the crisis.
But the Republican chairwoman of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, called the vote "a defeat for the Egyptian people" at the hands of "an Islamic dictatorship."
She said: "We must use our aid as leverage to promote democratic reforms, support freedom of religion, and enshrine the protection of minority communities."
A foreign ministry spokesman in Iran, whose diplomatic ties with Cairo were cut three decades ago, said the new constitution would advance the goals of all Egyptians.
Agence France Presse

Syria Minister Plays Down Sharaa 'No Winner' View
Naharnet/Syria's information minister on Sunday played down Vice President Farouq al-Sharaa's assessment that the country's bloody 21-month conflict could not be resolved by military means.
"It is one opinion among 23 million opinions in Syria, which is a state led by institutions and leaders who will give the final opinion," said Omran al-Zohbi, referring to Syria's population.
Sharaa said in an interview with the Lebanese al-Akhbar newspaper published last Monday that a clear winner was unlikely to emerge in Syria's war and he preferred a negotiated solution, in remarks at odds with President Bashar Assad. "No opposition can end the battle militarily, just as the security forces and army cannot achieve a decisive conclusion," Sharaa said. "Every day that passes, we are moving further away from a military or political solution."But Zohbi insisted that the military was "defending its country" against foreign-backed armed rebel forces. "The final decision will come from what is imposed on the battlefield and by political leaders."
However, the information minister also stressed the need for political action to resolve the conflict and insisted that the government was "the first to propose a political solution through a national dialogue."
Agence France Presse

700 Palestinians killed in Syria conflict, PLO says
More than 700 Palestinians have been killed in Syria since the conflict there erupted more than 21 months ago, a Palestine Liberation Organization official in charge of refugees said on Sunday.
"More than 700 Palestinians have died in Syria since the beginning of the conflict, including in Yarmuk" refugee camp in southern Damascus, the PLO's Zacharia al-Agha told officials of Palestinian refugees in Arab states.
"We have asked the Syrian authorities not to let Palestinians be drawn into the conflict," he told the conference in the Egyptian capital.
Late on Sunday, several rockets were fired into the camp which has been the scene of deadly clashes between pro- and anti-regime forces for several days over the past week, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights watchdog said.
The Britain-based group said two men were killed by the rocket fire and another was shot dead by a sniper.
Syria insisted on Sunday its military had played no role in the fighting.
Information Minister Omran al-Zohbi also called for all Palestinian refugee camps in Syria to be kept out of the conflict that the Observatory estimates has cost at least 44,000 lives.
"The Syrian army did not intervene militarily, in any way, in the camp, neither by land nor by air," he said. "The situation returned to normal inside the camp and the residents expelled the gunmen to restore stability."
The fighting had forced about 100,000 of Yarmuk's 150,000 residents to flee, many taking refuge in the parks and squares of Damascus, said UNRWA, the relief agency for Palestinian refugees.
Arab League Chief Nabil al-Arabi in a statement to the Cairo meeting urged "the Syrian authorities and all fighting parties to assume their responsibilities on... protecting Palestinian refugees... and keeping them out of the conflict."Syria is home to 490,000 Palestinians.

Romney Didn't Want to Run for President, Son Says
Naharnet/No one wanted to be president less than Mitt Romney, his son said in an interview out Sunday that raises new questions about the candidacy of the losing Republican nominee.
In an interview with the Boston Globe examining what went wrong with the Romney campaign, his eldest son Tagg explains that his father had been a reluctant candidate from the start.
After failing to win the 2008 Republican nomination, Romney told his family he would not run again and had to be persuaded to enter the 2012 White House race by his wife Ann and son Tagg.
"He wanted to be president less than anyone I've met in my life. He had no desire... to run," Tagg Romney said. "If he could have found someone else to take his place... he would have been ecstatic to step aside."
Mitt Romney "is a very private person who loves his family deeply and wants to be with them. He loves his country, but he doesn't love the attention," his son said.
Romney, a former Massachusetts governor and multi-billionaire businessman, has been widely criticized for blaming his loss in the November 6 election on President Barack Obama's "gifts" to Latinos, women and the poor.
"What the president's campaign did was focus on certain members of his base coalition, give them extraordinary financial gifts from the government, and then work very aggressively to turn them out to vote," Romney said during a call with campaign donors in mid-November that represented his first public reaction to his election loss.
The Globe story sought to look beyond that narrative and examine what really went wrong.
It focused on the fact that Romney was unhappy that one of his most trusted advisers, Mike Murphy -- the architect of his successful 2002 run for governor of Massachusetts -- did not join the campaign.
Instead, the campaign settled on Stuart Stevens, who had worked on Romney's 2008 presidential bid.
The Globe story also highlights the decision to downplay Romney's biography in favor of going after Obama and the flagging U.S. economy.
Campaign strategists feared that highlighting Romney's biography would open the Mormon candidate up more to personal attacks that he was wealthy, out-of-touch and belonged to a minority faith.
Agence France Presse

Turkey resumes NATO ties with Israel - a Netanyahu breakthrough
DEBKAfile Exclusive Analysis December 24, 2012/Turkey dropped its ban on cooperating with Israel as a third-nation NATO partner at the 28-member alliance meeting in Brussels on Dec. 4, in response to a reprimand from Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen that the ban had "created a lack of confidence among the partners." The same meeting approved the deployment of Patriots on the Turkish border with Syria.
Turkey’s consent to effectively revive its strategic cooperation with Israel represents a major breakthrough for Binyamin Netanyahu. As he runs for reelection on Jan. 22, he is constantly accused by opposition leaders of bringing Israel into deep international isolation. Turkey and NATO have undercut that charge
President Barack Obama has strived hard to restore Turkish ties with Israel – and not only on Israel’s behalf, but as a prop for his burgeoning Sunni Muslim Middle East bloc, headed by Egypt, and a step on the path toward resuscitating the Israel-Palestinian peace process.
The two scenarios are part of a four-point understanding which President Obama and Netanyahu quietly concluded last fall when the US president was campaigning for reelection and which were made known to America’s European allies, as well as Moscow, Tehran and Ramallah.
debkafile outlines those four points:
1. The Israeli Prime Minister promised last fall not to rock the boat of Obama’s reelection campaign by a unilateral attack on Iran’s nuclear program until his inauguration for a second term on Jan. 21, 2013 – the day before the Israeli general election. Netanyahu also agreed to let the direct US-Iranian negotiating track launched in Switzerland on Dec. 1, take its course for three months up to March 1.
2. President Obama counter-pledged that if at the end of those three months, Iran’s ruler Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had not delivered on the seven stipulations for curtailing on Iran’s nuclear program, which administration officials put before Iranian representatives in those secret talks, the military option would move to the top of America’s agenda for Iran.
This was not to say that America would go to war forthwith. However, if Iran approached break-out capacity in 2013, as predicted, the US would find it hard to avoid a preemptive operation.
debkafile’s sources report that the direct US-Iran negotiations launched on Dec. 1 quickly deadlocked.
Obama rewards Netanyahu
3. During Netanyahu’s critical three-month election campaign, Obama promised him a reprieve from outside pressures - on the understanding that Israel and the Palestinians would get together in March to resume peace negotiations under joint US-Muslim sponsorship.
4. The Moslem side of this sponsorship was projected to consist of Egypt, Turkey, Qatar and Jordan. i.e. the Sunni Muslim-led axis which the Obama administration has been working on with Israel ever since its anti-terrorist operation in the Gaza Strip in November.
Sunday, Dec. 23, it was revealed that Turkey had assumed its role in the new pro-US axis by dropping its two-year boycott of military cooperation with Israel within the framework of NATO. Ankara initially cut off ties of cooperation over the IDF raid of the Turkish Mavi Marmara ship which was on a mission to break Israel’s naval blockade of the Gaza Strip.
In recent months, Mossad chief Tamir Pardo and the Turkish MIT intelligence director Fidan Hakan maintained back-channel interchanges and laid the groundwork for the two governments to start working together. December saw the start of a process for healing relations between Ankara and Jerusalem, urged on both sides by the Obama administration. Israel’s input was deemed necessary for US efforts to extinguish the flames in Syria together with its Middle East allies, chiefly Egypt, and other ventures.
Sunday, Dec. 23, Netanyahu said that “far-reaching changes in the Syrian regime are close at hand with implications for the sensitive weaponry [chemical weapons] present there.”
He had obviously been authoritatively briefed on the state of play in the Syrian crisis.
The changing Washington landscape
Obama’s new regional grouping was given its first spurt in mid-November as a product of Israel’s Pillar of Defense operation in the Gaza Strip. debkafile tracked this process from its outset. (See debkafile Special Video of Nov. 28: Less a War than an anti-Iran coup).
It has evolved into the mainspring of the US president’s Middle East policy for his second term.
Netanyahu has taken the four understandings he reached with Obama as the guidelines for his current and post-election policy. However, this week, certain changing circumstances evolving in Washington suggested that the new administration may again be veering away from US military action to curb Iran’s drive for a nuclear weapon.
One such circumstance was Senator John Kerry’s nomination as Hillary Clinton’s successor in the State Department; another, informed speculation that Chuck Hagel is the frontrunner for defense in place of Leon Panetta.
Hagel’s views on war against Iran - and Israel per se - approximate those of Panetta’s predecessor, Robert Gates. Both these appointments would indicate that the US president may be stepping back from - rather than forward to - a military operation against Iran.
Thursday, Dec. 12, two letters addressed to the White House were released in Washington by a group organized by Ambassador Thomas Pickering, the State Department’s No. 3, of former high-ranking US diplomats and generals. One of those letters strongly recommended Hagel’s appointment to defense, while the other just as strongly opposed an American attack on Iran - or even the stiffening of sanctions:
“US military action [against Iran] would have grave consequences for the US and the region and, short of a full-scale occupation, would not stop Iran’s nuclear program,” said that missive.
Is the Obama-Netanyahu accord in jeopardy?
Although there are still more than three months to go before the understandings he reached with Obama on Iran are due to go into effect, Netanyahu is nonetheless getting the feeling that the factions in Washington most adamantly opposed to Jerusalem’s policies and an Israeli role in Obama’s plans are working hard to pull them apart.
Another party keen to sabotage those understandings is Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen). He set out, with the encouragement of some European governments, Western media and Russia, on a campaign for turning up the heat around the Palestinian question. After the UN General Assembly approved his unilateral application for nonstate observer status, he threw out threats to prosecute Israel’s leaders and IDF officers as “war criminals,” gave free rein to Palestinian hotheads acting to destabilize West Bank security, and encouraged rumors that a “third intifada” was impending.
Abu Mazen took those steps to ramp up Palestinian leverage ahead of peace negotiations and give vent to his wounded pride at the decision by Washington, Jerusalem, Cairo and Ankara to exclude him from partnership in the rising Sunni-led bloc.
Netanyahu responded by expanding Jerusalem and settlement expansion. He was visibly unconcerned by the international outcry and by the Palestinian leader’s steps..
Three major issues remain to be settled before the new axis can take off:
1. The Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi is by no means sure to weather the turmoil against his rule and be in a position to meet President Obama’s high expectations – even on the quiet. The US president had hoped Morsi would identify with his Middle East goals and take the lead in such pursuits as the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
2. The Syrian conflict has an endless capacity for growing more savage. The approach of chemical and biological warfare on both sides – the government and the insurgents – may confront the US and Israel with the imperative need for strong intervention.
3. Al Qaeda and its affiliates are building up their assets in Syria, Jordan and Sinai with the solid support of local Muslim Brotherhood branches. Those assets are linking up into a ring of terror, which is coiled to strike at Jordan and Israel and resort to the usual al Qaeda atrocities for thwarting Obama’s designs.

It is "spring" and the weather is "wonderful"
By Hussein Shabokshi/Asharq Alawsat
Some observers and analysts of the political situation in the Arab world in general, and the "Arab Spring" phenomenon in particular, are of the view that this event has almost come to an end and is breathing its last breaths. This is because the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and Tunisia has proven unable to manage the government or the state. Its hands on the steering wheel are shaky, and thus the resulting state of affairs is confusing and inconsistent. This has led to a rise in frustration, bewilderment and sheer astonishment to a degree whereby people are now reconsidering their stances; some even bemoaning the old days that have now changed thanks to the Arab Spring and the Muslim Brotherhood. Yet this manner of thinking somewhat oversimplifies matters and promotes a naïve, superficial view of the situation. The conditions in the Arab world are extremely tense and strained, and there are genuine grievances that need to be addressed. People must have a decent standard of living whereby they enjoy the freedom of expression, a fair and effective judiciary, advanced health and education systems, a service infrastructure, and finally efficient monitoring to promote a culture of transparency and accountability.
The true story of the Arab Spring is too important and profound to be naively depicted as merely a fierce battle between political Islam and civil state currents. The enraged Arab youth still desire a state of law, and are not interested in returning to autocracy under any banner, whether military or religious. The state of the law has conditions, principles and criteria, which the Arab Spring states are quite aware of, so we shouldn’t hear new philosophies or attempts to reinvent the wheel.
A modern state has clear standards and any "virtuous" citizen, aware of his rights and duties, would never renounce these. When these standards are achieved, moving on to the implementation stage is easy. Yet, when some noble civil currents are hijacked by one specific prevailing "trend", and by one voice that imposes its own rules on society in the name of religion, with the aim of thwarting these currents' positive mobility and preoccupying the people with issues that can be judged only by God, this is a move towards extremism. The more divisions and splits increase, the easier it is to control and dominate society. This is a political tactic of a bygone age, and the people have seen it many times before.
The motives of the Arab Spring are still strong, and the talk about those who hijacked or exploited the phenomenon does not mean it has disappeared. The roots of the problem have not been eradicated, and no clear solutions have been put forward. It is true that the scene seems somewhat distorted and confusing now, but rational and wise observers are quite aware that this is something temporary. The objective of the Arab Spring is yet to be accomplished; to establish a state of law that ensures dignified rights for everyone with no one party monopolizing the scene. At present we still see autocracy, tyranny, forgery, intimidation and terrorism committed by those who claim to be adopting the principles of freedom and dignity, and the hope of creating a better future.
The world is still in the "spring", and hope is yet to be dashed, no matter how some people attempt to spread terror, intimidation and panic. Vast generations are awaiting their opportunity to live in dignity, and they will never allow the forces of darkness to deprive them of their dreams.

The constitution won't feed the Egyptians
By Abdul Rahman Al-Rashed/Asharq Alawsat
One of the supporters of the Egyptian constitution said after the referendum that this marks “the end of all battles and problems”. Unfortunately, he is mistaken. This constitution, imposed as it was on the people by President Mohamed Mursi, is just the beginning of a long, thorny path that could have been avoided altogether if the referendum had been postponed for several months until disagreements were resolved.
Now Mursi and his government are facing a unified opposition front made up of previously dispersed political factions that decided to join forces to counter the Muslim Brotherhood project, which aims to monopolize power and seize control of all state institutions: the government, the presidency, legislative councils, the judiciary, and the media.
The problems started with this insistence on imposing the constitution. Then international institutions decided to withdraw their promised aid following the government’s retraction of a decision to raise prices, less than two hours after passing it, for fear that popular anger would affect the results of the referendum. This move deprived the Egyptian government of significant funding it was due to receive from abroad.
The constitution is not going to feed the Egyptian people, nor will it secure work or shelter for them. Those who voted “yes” today will never forgive Mursi when the prices rise tomorrow and when hundreds of thousands of youths find themselves jobless. Because of his intransigence and incompetent political performance, Mursi will end up on his own after alienating all other political factions and turning them, through the constitution fiasco, into enemies. He will have no one to support him in the hard times to come.
The Egyptian pound is losing its value, prices are rising, and more than a million additional citizens now find themselves unemployed because of the chaos and fear in the hotel and tourism market. This is just the start. How will Mursi be able to appease other sectors of the Egyptian society that he deceived into thinking that a “yes” vote would achieve stability?
The drafting of the constitution could have been an excellent opportunity for political powers to unite and work together towards a formula that caters to every party’s needs. Only then would Egyptians feel that the constitution represented them. Any other form of constitution is of no value since it is seen by a sizable portion of Egyptians as illegitimate and enforced by the regime.
Only a third of registered voters went to the polling stations for the referendum, which means that the constitution was not approved by the majority. There have been several resignations from the presidency and the Egyptian people are divided into two camps. The pro-Mursi camp will likely shrink further with the president’s inability to face the harsh reality and the expected economic crises to come. Perhaps Mursi and his government are not to blame for these crises, but they will certainly be blamed for promises they cannot keep.