The 2014 War through the Eyes Of Gaza's Youth By Ramzy Baroud: New Age Islam's Selection, 15 September 2017
New Age Islam Edit Bureau
15 September 2017
• The 2014 War through the Eyes of Gaza's Youth
By Ramzy Baroud
• Protecting Al-Azhar Stems From Protecting The Nation
By Abdellatif El-Menawy
• S-400s Indicative of New Mideast Alliances
By Maria Dubovikova
• Macron’s Problematic Assumption on Iran
By Dr. Manuel Almeida
• No, Antifa Is Not the Moral Equivalent of Neo-Nazis
By Andrew Mitrovica
• Saudi Efforts to Combat Terror Financing
By Dr. Ibrahim Al-Othaimin
• Why Qatar’s Agents Should Face the Law
By Mohammed Al Shaikh
• Will Ankara Reopen Its Embassy In Damascus Soon?
By Shehab Al-Makahleh
Compiled By New Age Islam Edit Bureau
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The 2014 War through the Eyes of Gaza's Youth
By Ramzy Baroud
14 September 2017
Last August, Palestinians commemorated the three-year anniversary of the end of Israel's devastating war against the Gaza Strip. The war had killed over 2,200 Palestinians - the vast majority among them civilians - and 71 Israelis, the majority of them soldiers.
The war left Gaza in ruins with over 17,000 homes completely destroyed, and thousands of other buildings, including hospitals, schools and factories, destroyed or severely damaged.
The war fully shattered whatever semblance of an economy the Gaza Strip had. Today, 80 percent of all Palestinians in Gaza live below the poverty line, the majority of whom are dependent on humanitarian aid.
There is a whole generation of Palestinians in Gaza that grew up knowing nothing but war and siege and have never seen the world beyond Gaza's deadly borders.
These are the voices of some of these young Gazans, who shared their tragic personal stories, hoping that the world would heed their calls for freedom and for justice.
Our recurring Nakba
Shahd Abusalama - a Palestinian artist, blogger and a PhD candidate at Sheffield Hallam University
This is not just a commemoration of the catastrophic human, material and emotional costs that Israel inflicted on Gaza in its deadliest attack during the summer of 2014. This is a remembrance of an ongoing Nakba which Palestinians have experienced since 1948.
I am a third-generation refugee, born and raised in one of Palestine's largest refugee camps, Jabalia, originally from Beit-Jerja, my grandparents' evergreen home village which they had to flee under Israeli fire nearly 70 years ago.
I was born a survivor - my mother went into labour during a curfew that Israeli military forces imposed on Jabalia, the place from which the first Intifada erupted a few years before I was born.
While fearing for her life and her yet-to-be-born child, she walked through Jabalia's alleys, leaning on my grandmother who held a white piece of cloth and a lantern, hoping for mercy from the Israeli soldiers who shot at everyone that dared break the curfew.
This is just my birth story in short, and this piece would not be enough to cover the immense trauma that I shared with the population of Gaza ever since. In Gaza, no family could escape the grief of having a relative killed, wounded, detained or exiled - mine is no exception.
This context is necessary to remind everyone of the uninterrupted cycle of violence we endured since Israel's inception. Such stories, as harrowing as they may sound, are Palestinians' daily reality for the past 70 years.
How can a whole population, locked in an inescapable ghetto, be subjected to such brutality for this long, as the whole world looks the other way?
One would expect that such an inhumane reality would encourage world governments to impose sanctions on Israel. Instead, world leaders compete over sponsoring Israel's lethal security apparatus, asserting Israel's right to "self-defence" on every possible occasion.
They accept Israel's misleading media narrative at face value and justify its crimes against my people, who are portrayed as "terrorists", effectively blaming the oppressed for legitimately resisting their colonial oppressor, so that they may attain their right to live in dignity and freedom.
My identity: Defined, fragmented
Sondos Alqutat - a Palestinian social worker; holds a Bachelor's degree in English Literature
The ongoing Israeli occupation and siege made me understand the occupier the way it proudly portrays itself: Israeli, Zionist, Jewish. This has heightened my sense of identity as a Palestinian, Arab, Muslim.
But new factors emerged following the decade-long siege imposed on Gaza. Now, I also feel "Gazan". Like two million other Palestinians, I belong to this coastal enclave which is subjected to daily suffering.
The political division, due to the absence of one unified leadership representing both Gaza and the West Bank, has accentuated the geographical and cultural differences between both locations. The gap gets wider every day, resulting in a separate identity for me, and many other young Gazans, compared with that held by those living in the West Bank.
Gaza is under a tight siege, yet despite all the hardships, there is a collective sense of autonomy. On the other hand, the West Bank has a semblance of freedom, while in reality every aspect of life, there is controlled by Israel. Over the course of years, my sense of national identity has fragmented.
But whether in the West Bank or Gaza, we must not forget, we both struggle against the same military occupier, and will always remain linked through our resistance. Only through resistance to injustice, our identity can, once more, become one.
Gaza women are not a stereotype
Sarah Ali - a teacher working in Gaza; holds a Master's degree in English Literary Studies from Durham University
For years, Palestinian women have been part of the struggle against the Israeli occupation. Yet it remains hard to escape the stereotypical depictions surrounding them, with many commentators incessantly indulging in Orientalist tropes, constantly referring to rooted patriarchy in Palestinian society to score political points, thus justify Israeli aggression.
The Gaza Strip, wrecked by the Israeli siege and repeated wars, is no haven for Palestinian men. But life for women is harder still. In a culture that conforms to traditional gender roles, where females do most of the housework, women in Gaza bear the brunt of the effects of the siege on the household.
Due to daily power-cuts, women frequently have to wake up in the middle of the night to use the sparse hours of electricity to wash clothes, iron, vacuum and bake bread.
Breast cancer patients who are referred to Israeli hospitals have to endure a long and bureaucratic process to get Israeli permits to leave Gaza through the Erez Crossing [known to Palestinians Beit Hanoun]. Israeli authorities frequently delay permits and send patients back to Gaza between therapy sessions. Female patients who can't leave Gaza suffer from the shortage of healthcare equipment and medicine.
During the 2014 Israeli attack on Gaza, when hundreds of families fled their homes for relatives' houses, women would cook for large groups of men and children every day, provide shelter for relatives and strangers alike.
Nowadays, although still underrepresented in the workforce and positions of power, and despite the Israeli blockade that continues to strangle Palestinian education and economy, thousands of Palestinian young women in Gaza go to university. Thousands go on to become teachers, doctors, architects, nurses, housewives, mothers, political activists, educators, and social workers.
"I am from there. I am from here"
Yousef M Aljamal - a Palestinian PhD candidate at the Middle East Institute of the University of Sakarya in Turkey
Being Palestinian means living in a state of worry over the situation in Palestine, whether you are in Palestine or outside.
When I am in my temporary home, my Gaza refugee camp - my home is the village of "Aqir" in historic Palestine - I feel the combined pressures of siege and war, and the constant desire to leave. Many Gazan youth feel the same way.
The people of Gaza live under extremely abnormal conditions where basic services and human rights, such as clean water, electricity and the freedom to travel are a privilege, not a right. Nothing is taken for granted there, even the right to receive life-saving medical treatment.
Many Palestinians in Gaza want to see the world past the confines of that tiny strip, but if they ever do, they become trapped. They want to stay outside Gaza, due to the difficult conditions at home, and the difficulty of adapting to life outside. I too feel stuck between this feeling of entrapment in Gaza and feeling exiled outside it; this heavy feeling of alienation and exile is not unique to me. Most Palestinians feel it, Gazans especially.
This feeling is part of the complexity of the Palestinian identity after nearly 70 years of displacement following the Nakba - our collective "catastrophe", when Israel was established atop the ruins of our homes. This feeling of alienation and exile is passed from one generation to the next, and will continue to get more complicated as the situation in Palestine gets more difficult.
As the Gaza's siege enters its 11th year, and Israel's active apartheid system in the West Bank is becoming more entrenched, the Palestinian identity will get more painful and intricate, where the concept of home and exile will be even harder to define.
I am afraid that this feeling of alienation and exile will continue to shadow Palestinians, wherever they go.
Rafah: My salvation, my curse
Ahmed Salah (not his real name) - a Palestinian student
I am a Palestinian from Gaza. I got a scholarship to do a Master's degree in a European country. I was supposed to travel after the war, but the Egyptian authorities at the Rafah border refused to grant entry to me.
All the devastation death caused by Israel left many young people like me in a state despair and shock. But it also gave us greater determination to oppose the lethal, colonial Zionist enterprise, and those who support it.
For a while, there were talks about opening an airport or a seaport. The idea was quite uplifting for it seemed to offer a way out of the Gazan open-air prison. But the Palestinian Authority, led by Mahmoud Abbas, along with Egypt made that impossible. Instead, they collaborated to tighten the noose around Gaza's neck. Each Palestinian of the two million people living in Gaza is punished for being Palestinian and for resisting occupation and siege.
When I tried to travel through the Rafah border crossing, the Egyptian authorities sent me back without any reason. After months of waiting and long hours of being vetted on the Egyptian side of the border, I was sent back without even an explanation. I was one of about 100 people, mostly students, but there were also some who were gravely ill and others who were wounded in the war.
I was determined to try again, a process that would take at least four months because at that time the border was opened by Egypt merely three days every two or three months. But then, I was advised by a friend that Egyptian officers at the border ban as many Gaza travellers as possible to force them to bribe their way out. And that is precisely what I did. I contacted a border coordinator who told me I am "blacklisted" by the Egyptians because they have a report about me, and that the only way to travel is to pay $2,000 US. And just like that, I paid the money and, miraculously was no longer a "security threat". I left Gaza, and I am yet to go back.
For me and many like me, the Rafah border crossing has become an unbreakable curse. For now, I plan to continue my studies abroad. The decision is painful because it means I will not be able to see my family or my home anytime soon.
Hope through my oud
Mohammed Ahmad Ballour - a Palestinian musician
I am 22-year-old Palestinian refugee from Gaza and I love to play the oud. For me, it is not only an instrument of music, but of hope as well.
Youth in Gaza somehow manage to remain hopeful despite the lack of opportunity and a decade-long siege. We have no other option but to remain empowered. We are the future of this place, and we cannot submit to oppression or defeat.
At times, we take on social media to convey our stories, our hopes and our pain to anyone who cares to listen. For me, I combine both music and social media to send a positive message from Gaza.
Music inspires me. It is a universal language. It is effortless to understand. All it takes is an open heart. And its relatable by everyone regardless of age, gender or background. I play my oud and share my videos online. I want the world to know that in Gaza we live to the fullest every day and we find ways to survive, to live and to grow.
We don't have to accept that pain is our destiny. I feel happy and empowered when I hold on my oud and convey the story of my people through music to the world.
We will survive this and we will fight to challenge and, eventually change our painful reality, no matter the pain or the passing of time.
Yousef Aljamal contributed to this article.
Source: aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2017/09/2014-war-eyes-gaza-youth-170912143258604.html
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Protecting Al-Azhar Stems From Protecting the Nation
By Abdellatif El-Menawy
14 September 2017
One of the most important elements of Egypt’s soft power is an institution that leads the country. Al-Azhar, under the leadership of its open-minded Sheikh Dr. Ahmed Al-Tayeb, stood resolute against the Muslim Brotherhood. Egyptians will never forget the uniting image on July 3, 2013, of his presence at the announcement of the revolution’s success against then-President Mohammed Mursi.
The irrational campaign against Al-Azhar, calling on the sheikh to resign, is not based on a real understanding of the components of Egyptian power. I am not biased toward or affiliated with Al-Azhar as I have criticized it in the past.
For example, I object to parts of its curriculum that involve violence, sectarianism and incitement to hate people from other religions. This goes against logic and the spirit of tolerance that should be the basis of any faith.
But I believe in the importance of state power, so I defend the elements of that power, including Al-Azhar. Only a very limited number of people affiliated with or belonging to Al-Azhar are involved in terrorist operations or incitement.
Blaming it for the rise of terrorist ideology and activity is unfair, but it is partly responsible as it needs to review its curriculum. It believes that criticizing Daesh will lead to catastrophic consequences on society, but Al-Azhar must declare a clear and loud position on the terrorist group.
In the past few years, Al-Tayeb has restored Al-Azhar’s image. During the Brotherhood’s rule, he tried to preserve his enlightening and political role, reminding us of Al-Azhar’s imams who played a national role during various periods in Egypt’s history, including resisting French and English occupation.
Al-Tayeb launched many initiatives to stabilize the country following the revolution of Jan. 25, 2011. He also hindered the Brotherhood’s project to take down Al-Azhar Mosque. He has protected Egypt for years. The easiest thing for him would have been to step down or be silent, but on July 3, 2013, he declared his support for the popular revolution, and said Islam cannot be hijacked by a political faction or an ideology exploited to achieve other goals.
Al-Tayeb is treasured by Egyptians and is seen as a symbol of enlightenment. I have been one of his strongest advocates since he served as mufti of Al-Diyar Al-Misriyah. Back then, we met in his office in Dar Al-Iftaa, and I saw in him a real Egyptian man, deeply rooted in the country’s culture, history, tolerance and diversity. He is a multifaceted, modest, simple man from a poor but well-educated family. Almost all his ancestors were scholars.
He says he inherited his qualities from his grandfather, a great scholar who died in 1956 at the age of 100. Part of Al-Tayeb’s education was at the Sorbonne University in Paris, so besides having the right Muslim ideological roots, he has experienced Western civilization.
Source: arabnews.com/node/1161286
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S-400s Indicative of New Mideast Alliances
By Maria Dubovikova
14 September 2017
While most of the Arab world is preoccupied with the Gulf crisis, the region is undergoing a strategic makeover that may change the rules of war, peace and stability not only in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), but across the world. This shift is being directed by Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Ankara and Moscow have signed an agreement to buy the S-400 surface-to-air missile defence system, valued at $2.5 billion, to establish a strategic alliance. This landmark deal also serves as a prelude to Turkey’s withdrawal from NATO after 55 years of membership. The S-400 has a range of 400 km, and can shoot down up to 80 targets simultaneously.
Vladimir Kozhin, a military adviser to Putin, said the S-400 contract with Turkey is “compatible with our strategic interests. On that score, one can quite understand the reaction of some Western countries that are trying to put pressure on Turkey.” Preparations are underway to receive the first batch of these missiles.
The deal has caused much concern in the West, especially when Erdogan said: “We’re the only ones responsible for taking security measures to defend our country.” Meanwhile, Iran has signed a deal to acquire the less sophisticated S-300 missile system.
Turkey has the second-largest army in NATO, and has been forging closer ties with Russia amid souring relations with the US and EU. The importance of the S-400 deal stems from two main elements. First, Russia refused to sell this system to Israel many times. Second, Israeli officials’ frequent visits failed to convince Moscow not to sell it to Turkey.
Moscow would not have decided to sell the S-400, the crown jewels of its military industry, were it not certain of the strength of its new strategic alliance with Turkey, and the latter’s desire to turn its back on the West and toward Russia and China, which are rising politically, militarily and economically.
A proposed alliance between Russia, Iran and Turkey would help prevent the fall of Syria to US allies, and thwart the establishment of a Kurdish state. In this regard, it seems Erdogan shares the same vision as Putin.
The Astana process, launched at the start of 2017 and sponsored by Russia, Iran and Turkey, has played a major role in reaching a cease-fire in most of Syria. The US is not part of that process, signalling that Moscow, Tehran and Ankara have formed an alliance.
This alliance is likely to consider an attack on the Syrian province of Idlib soon to liberate it from Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham extremists once the Deir Ezzor battle is over. With this Russian-led alliance forming, MENA is fast changing at a time when the fate of many states in the region is at stake.
Source: .arabnews.com/node/1161281
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Macron’s Problematic Assumption on Iran
By Dr. Manuel Almeida
14 September 2017
Last month, in a speech to the annual gathering of the French diplomatic corps at the Elysee Palace in Paris, French President Emmanuel Macron revisited his emerging foreign policy doctrine. Inevitably, much of it revolved around France’s Middle East policy, and key priorities of fighting “Islamist terrorism” and preserving regional stability.
A sentence from Macron’s speech, which stood out in that context, reveals a problematic assumption that seems to underpin Paris’ and Brussels’ attempted rapprochement with Tehran.
“One of the unspoken elements of this crisis is the rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Iran and their respective allies. We will only achieve our objective of fighting terrorism if we don’t enter into these reading grids that would impose a choice between Shiites and Sunnis and, in any case, compel us to lock ourselves in one camp,” he said. “Other great powers made that choice in the past, and I have the conviction that’s an error,” he added, clearly referring to the US.
Since the Trump administration took office, the American and European approaches to Iran seem to represent two extremes. The US president looks ready to stick to his campaign promise to decertify the nuclear deal and ignore advice from all quarters to the contrary, as State Department and Pentagon officials actively seek European allies’ support to prolong restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program beyond 2025. Both the US administration and the Senate moved to impose new sanctions on Iran over its military and regional activities.
In Europe, key states such as France and Germany have tried to make the most out of Iran’s relative economic opening following the nuclear deal, with political and business delegations flocking to Tehran. Standing next to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini recently warned the US: “The nuclear deal doesn’t belong to one country. It belongs to the international community, to the UN system.”
In Berlin, Brussels and Paris, the belief the fast-growing trade ties with Iran following the lifting of international sanctions will lead to major changes in the country, and by extension in its regional policies, continues to hold sway despite all evidence to the contrary. Or at least that is the justification for Europe’s business-driven approach to Iran.
According to some estimates, over 85 percent of the dozens of billion-dollar business deals signed after the nuclear deal (July 2015) involved Iranian state entities, often connected to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Macron’s assertion, in his speech to French ambassadors, that maintaining good relations with Tehran equates to good relations with the “Shiite camp” in the region, is very problematic and stereotypical. It is part of the narrative with which Iran justifies both its imperialistic agenda in the region, and its political and economic monopoly at home.
For starters, Bahrain, Iraq and Lebanon are three Arab countries with Shiite majorities. Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, the UAE and Yemen have Shiite populations that represent 10-40 percent of their overall populations. Plus, millions of Shiites do not identify with Iran’s doctrine of Velayat-E Faqih (guardianship of the jurist).
Lack of pluralism, and the rights of religious and ethnic groups and minorities, is major issues across the region. But Tehran has used this to pursue a destructive imperialist agenda, in the same way that empires that encroached on the region in the past used protection of minorities as justification to expand. Much of Iran’s regional agenda lies in the narrative of Muslim oppression and the need for Arabs to rise against their un-Islamic, pro-West rulers.
The preamble to Iran’s 1979 constitution makes for an illustrative read. It calls for, among other things, its security forces “not only to guard and preserve the frontiers of the country, but also for fulfilling the ideological mission of jihad in God’s way.” It expresses “the hope that this century will witness the establishment of a universal holy government and the downfall of all others.”
While often avoiding playing the Shiite card explicitly — Iran has backed Al-Qaeda and other Sunni extremist groups — the instrumentalisation of religion by Iranian hardliners has become ever-more evident across the region. Starting with Lebanon’s Hezbollah, which has become arguably more powerful than the Lebanese state, Tehran has fathered sectarian militias with transnational loyalties in Syria, Iraq and Yemen.
The direct and indirect effects of three and a half decades of this radical Iranian policy of undermining neighbouring governments, and backing militias, extremists and mass-murderers such as Syrian President Bashar Assad, are all too evident.
In principle, there is nothing wrong with the desire, predominant in major European capitals, to pursue rapprochement with Tehran while maintaining good relations with Riyadh. In the 1970s, for example, the US approach to Gulf security was guided by the “twin pillars” policy. The choice facing America’s or Europe’s regional policy is certainly not between Sunnis and Shiites. It is one between moderates and radicals.
Source: arabnews.com/node/1161241
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No, Antifa Is Not the Moral Equivalent of Neo-Nazis
By Andrew Mitrovica
14 September 2017
Recently, a fresh pathogen, which poses an urgent threat to public safety and discourse, has appeared suddenly on the political landscape. A batch of "liberals", saddled with fragile sensibilities, have warned that liberty and lives are being threatened by ordinary, largely anonymous people seized with the duty to confront the ignorance and hate that Hurricane Donald and his abominable acolytes brandish routinely with impunity.
Predictably, the historically illiterate, ubiquitous members of the right-wing commentariat in America and beyond have attempted to tar the Antifa (anti-fascists) for resisting, and, if need be, defending itself against, the delinquents that march en masse at night with torches and mow down innocents in daylight with automobiles.
It's an old trick: to negate real evil by manufacturing a phantom villain as a convenient foil or facile distraction.
Regrettably, but not surprisingly, this transparent rhetorical slight of hand is magnified repeatedly by an amnesiac establishment media that habitually finds and amplifies moral and intellectual equivalences where none exist.
In their attacks on the Antifa, these "liberals" have joined a pack of conservatives who - apart from accusing anti-fascists of fascism - howl on TV and elsewhere that climate change is a pan-scientific hoax, that Saddam Hussein certainly possessed weapons of mass destruction, that Iraq will eventually be "liberated", and that Trump will indeed make America "great again".
Given their unconscionable record, isn't it about time these charlatans were disqualified permanently from passing judgment on the motives and conduct of others since they forfeited long ago any claim to enjoy any measure of seriousness or subtlety.
Of course, the legion of unrepentant hucksters and their enablers will never recognise, let alone acknowledge, their complicity in trafficking in such calamitous lies and disastrous designs.
So, instead of taking up perpetual residence in pundit purgatory, they have been rewarded with an unfettered licence on "elite" media to continue to defame people who were on the right of history and decency yesterday and are on the right side of history and decency today.
Women like Danuta Danielsson, the Polish-Swedish daughter of a Holocaust survivor who famously swatted her handbag at a gang of neo-Nazi skinheads strutting through a square in Vaxjo, Sweden in 1985.
I challenge the smear merchants to impugn Danielsson and desecrate the memory of the anguish her family endured at the homicidal hands of Nazis by describing her and, in particular, her remembrance-fuelled, spontaneous act, as the personification of fascism.
The same challenge applies to Irmela Mensah-Schramm, a 70-year-old anti-fascist who has devoted the past 31 years to defacing neo-Nazi graffiti and propaganda in public spaces principally across Germany.
Mensah-Schramm's act of resistance landed her in court, where she was fined for "vandalism" and ordered to stop. Her reply: she's not going to stop, nor pay the fine.
These days, it's fashionable among the predominately white, male liberal intelligentsia to join the hysterical assault on the Antifa by insisting that, in effect, Danielsson's and Menash-Schramm's "violent" "law-breaking" must be condemned, rather than applauded, because it mirrors the malignant modus operandi of the fascists they defied.
This is absurd.
Even a cursory understanding of recent history reveals that individual and collective acts of resistance by progressive forces have traditionally been the target of these generic, hyperbolic attacks which are designed to delegitimise legitimate protest and marginalise the protesters.
From the 1960s "freedom riders" through to Occupy Wall Street, and the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) and Black Lives Matter movements, the same tired polemicists have employed the same tired polemics to try to deflect attention and guilt from the oppressors onto the oppressed.
Words and phrases like: "outsiders," "agitators", "provocateurs", "Crypto-Marxists or fascists", "bent on mayhem and violence" are the decades-old, cliched staples of this pedantic lot.
Liberals pining for a bucolic anti-fascist campaign will quibble in vain because while the vast majority of anti-fascists are peaceable, they will always be reduced to an ugly caricature by rabid reactionaries who customarily point an accusatory finger at everyone but themselves.
Still, in a windy, densely worded column dripping with condescension, one prominent liberal writer not only castigated the Antifa for squandering its "moral authority", but claimed - without offering an ounce of empirical evidence in support - that neo-Nazis are "victims" of the exploitative corporate state too, thus requiring our sympathy and consideration.
Intended or not, this astonishing logic - such as it is - resembles Trump's rambling, semi-coherent assertion that "many sides" were responsible for the violence that took Heather Heyer's life in Charlottesville, Virginia in early August and that among the army of tiki-torch wielding anti-Semites were some misunderstood "fine people".
Neo-Nazis are not "fine people", nor are they "victims". They are, aptly put, scum. There must be no equivocation, no obfuscation, no shading on this score from any quarter, at any time, for any reason.
To do otherwise is to provide succour to the philosophical descendants of genocidal murderers, who, given the opportunity, would relish enslaving and, once again, executing, wholesale, Jews, Muslims, Roma, homosexuals, the infirm, other vulnerable minorities and, yes, liberals.
Richard Spencer and his verminous brethren are, no doubt, chortling at the profoundly preposterous but increasingly popular media-propelled construct that the Antifa is as pathological as the fascists it reviles.
These are bizarre and dangerous times.
Source: aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2017/09/antifa-moral-equivalent-neo-nazis-170911083253365.html
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Saudi Efforts to Combat Terror Financing
By Dr. Ibrahim Al-Othaimin
14 September 2017
On Aug. 20, Saudi Arabia took practical steps in the establishment of the US-Gulf Anti-terrorism Financing Centre. This comes as part of the implementation of terms of the joint agreement signed during the 3rd US-Gulf summit held in Riyadh in May 2017.
The Riyadh-based center will monitor, and share information, regarding both outgoing and incoming financial transactions to the Middle East and North Africa.
This highlights the determination of Saudi Arabia and the rest of the Gulf states to curb the sources of terrorism, which has become a global concern, and has impacted on the security and stability of the financial system and the economy.
Saudi Arabia has a long history of combating money laundering and the financing of terrorism, through its efforts and cooperation with various relevant regional and international organizations, including the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the Middle East and North Africa Financial Action Task Force (MENAFATF), and the Egmont Group of Financial Intelligence Units.
In June 2015, at a meeting held in Brisbane, Australia, FATF unanimously adopted a resolution granting Saudi Arabia an observer seat after the task force delegation commended the country’s prominent role in combating money laundering, the financing of terrorism and the proliferation of armament.
Soon after that, Saudi Arabia started preparations for the third assessment scheduled to take place in June 2018, which may grant Saudi Arabia a permanent seat on FATF.
The 40+9 Recommendations
Saudi Arabia was among the leading countries to implement the 40+9 recommendations for combating money laundering and the financing of terrorism initiated by FATF in 1990.
Saudi Arabia attended FATF meetings as a member of the Gulf Cooperation Council, which complies with all international standards in this area and underwent two assessment processes, in 2003-2004 and in 2009-2010, achieving high scores of compliance, and was ranked top among Arab countries and in the top ten of the G20.
Moreover, Saudi Arabia is also a member of the Egmont Group of Financial Intelligence Units (FIUs) having fulfilled membership requirements.
The Egmont Group is an informal body established in 1995, aimed at strengthening international cooperation between FIUs to combat money laundering and the financing of terrorism. The group comprises 127 countries with active FIUs.
Regional Scale
On a regional scale, Saudi Arabia is one of the Arab founding states of MENAFATF, which was established in 2004 according to international standards of combating money laundering and the financing of terrorism issued by FATF.
The Saudi unit is a joint member of the technical assistance and application team as well as the joint assessment team in the group. In the third round of the joint-assessment process, Saudi Arabia was assessed in a joint task between FATF and MENAFATF.
The latter commended the Saudi role in combating money laundering and the financing of terrorism as well as achieving the scores required to comply with applicable measures in this area. Saudi Arabia is undoubtedly the best Middle Eastern example of combating terrorism and curbing its financing.
The establishment of a US-Gulf anti-terrorism financing centre in Riyadh certainly indicates international recognition that Saudi Arabia is an active member capable of participating in international efforts to combat money laundering and the financing of terrorism. Its recent unprecedented achievements have become a model to follow.
Source: english.alarabiya.net/en/views/news/middle-east/2017/09/14/Saudi-efforts-to-combat-terror-financing.html
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Why Qatar’s Agents Should Face the Law
By Mohammed Al Shaikh
14 September 2017
Those following Qatari crisis assert that it will prolong and may further escalate. It is like Doha is telling us: “You must either let us interfere in your affairs and recruit your people to use them against you and shake your stability and security or you are violating our sovereignty.”
This ridiculous fuss will not change anything, and all the money, which Qatar spent to get other countries to support dialogue, will not yield any results.
The exposure of Hamad bin Jassim and Hamad bin Khalifa is nothing new. News reports about their schemes are not based on mere accusations as shameful recordings of them revealing their conspiracies have been made public. So why not let them drown in their problems and pay attention to their Saudi agents who crossed to Qatar back and forth through the Salwa border crossing?
These agents have been to Doha’s Amiri Palace and returned to Saudi Arabia carrying bags full of money. Why aren’t they interrogated? Why not track the funds they have received from Qatar? These agents were not paid for nothing by Hamad bin Khalifa and Hamad bin Jassim as they were hired to execute their destructive agendas, which they actually detailed in the leaked recordings.
Imposters Behind Bars
I am certain that those Islamized Saudi imposters who bid on reforms in the kingdom are now behind bars and that proof of their illegal activity is beyond reasonable doubt. So why doesn’t the public prosecution begin interrogating them and looking into the fortunes they made from collaborating with Qatar?
These traitors’ punishment is a purely national case which giving up on or being tolerant about is viewed as neglecting the country’s security and stability. Punishing them will also be a precedent that will deter opportunists and weak-spirited men from harming the country’s security and working for its enemies. Holding them accountable will thus teach others a lesson.
Saud al-Qahtani, an advisor in the Saudi royal court, recently said on Twitter that a “black list” will be announced to name those who were conspiring with Hamad to implement his destructive agenda. I think the time is now right to publish this list, especially that it includes figures who seize opportunities to make demands that embarrass the state while falsely claiming that these demands aim to support religion.
Meanwhile, they visit Doha and check in at hotels with bars full of alcoholic drinks – as many have confirmed to me. If they are honest as they claim to be, wouldn’t they have use their close ties to Hamad bin Jassim and Hamad bin Khalifa to advise them against such public prohibitions? Well they do not care about this since all that concerns them are the black bags packed with Qatari riyals. The Hamads’ regime has taken some photos of them as they’ve received these payments so it acts as proof against them.
We have greatly suffered from these opportunist deceitful men who use religion to serve suspicious aims. It’s time to scandalize them and hold them accountable. These wrongdoers deserve the most severe forms of punishment as those who conspire with others against their country to harm it and destabilize it are the homeland’s number one enemy.
Source: english.alarabiya.net/en/views/news/middle-east/2017/09/14/Why-Qatar-s-agents-should-face-the-law.html
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Will Ankara Reopen Its Embassy In Damascus Soon?
By Shehab Al-Makahleh
14 September 2017
The question whether Turkey would reopen its embassy in Damascus in the near future has become significant for many analysts due to the multiple messages that such a move would send to various regional and international powers.
It has been confirmed by the Turkish side that a three-day meeting was held between senior security officers from Turkey and Syria on the Lebanese Syrian border at the end of August, 2017.
This goes in line with Turkish President Rejeb Teyyep Erdogan’s statement about Syria when he said in Astana on September 9, 2017 in a joint conference with his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani that the Syrian war showed that issues can be resolved not through military but through diplomatic actions, and that Syria is the cradle of civilizations in the region, and foreign powers should not be allowed to carve up Syria.
This is a sign of rapprochement with the Syrian government and a rejection of any division of Syria. It should be remembered that Putin, Erdogan and Assad rose to prominence as leaders unexpectedly at around the same time. Russian president rose to power in 2000, Erdogan in 2003 and Assad in 2000.
A New Page
It is expected that upon Russian president Vladimir Putin’s demand, Turkish president would open a new page with Bashar Assad with direct involvement of Iran in such talks. The courting statements of both Iranian and Turkish presidents stand for a new era of relations based on the new spheres of cooperation which cannot be achieved without solving the Syrian issue. This is clear from Rouhani’s statement to the media that Iran-Turkey relations have entered a new phase.
What is important about these two statements is that they were issued at a time the Syrian army supported by Russian warplanes target the North Eastern parts of Syria in the so-called: “The Race for Deirez-Zor” as the Kurds have been racing through the desert to attack this town just as they’ve done with Raqqa.
Kurds have tried to impose a policy of fait accompli on Iraq, Syria and Turkey by imposing their control over the sites located west of the Euphrates River. The Kurds have the intention to capture the city of Raqqa and Deirez-Zor to annex them into their self-declared “federation” or in the best scenario to hand these two areas to the Syrian army in exchange for the Syrian government to recognize their autonomy.
Since Erdogan is afraid of an independent Kurdish state by the borders of Turkey, which would pose a threat to the political stability of Ankara, he is currently seeking to bridge the gap with his persona-non-grata, Bashar Assad. Sources inside Turkey confirm that Erdogan and his government have lost the trust and confidence of many European governments as well as the US.
Old Alliances
Thus, Ankara is seeking to replace such old alliances with new ones even if this requires offering concessions to the Syrian president by helping him overcome the military conflict on the northern borders of Syria with Turkey which include Idlib where more than a million people are residing including those members of military opposition.
The Turkish president seeks to go for the “quid pro quo” principle when dealing with Syrian government nowadays to secure his future as he is facing severe internal and external opposition.
Erdogan decoded the Syrian messages in the past few weeks that the “Era after DeirezZor will be different”. He understood that the Russians will increase their support to the Syrian army to liberate the region and annex the new sites liberated by the Syrian army from ISIS to the other governorates.
In other words, the Syrian army has managed so far to stop the Kurdish advance south and beyond the Euphrates and the Syrian government army crossed the river by bridge-heading in order to liberate this territory from ISIS. Thus, the battle for DeirezZor will determine the post-ISIS era in Syria between the Syrian government and the Kurds.
If news leaked from Astana on the sidelines of OIC summit for Science and Technology proved right that there was a meeting held in the capital of Kazakhstan between Assad and Erdogan on Putin’s demand that means the end of conflict in Syria is sooner than expected.
Turkish concoction wanes in Syria except in Idlib; thus, Erdogan started deciphering Russian and Iranian messages to him through frequent visits of Iranian officials and officers to Ankara conveying messages to Turkish officials that rules of the game in Syria have changed on the Syrian chess board with many countries admitting that only political solution is the way out.
Source: english.alarabiya.net/en/views/news/middle-east/2017/09/14/Will-Ankara-reopen-its-embassy-in-Damascus-soon-.html
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URL: https://www.newageislam.com/middle-east-press/the-2014-war-eyes-gaza/d/112528