Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was born April 28, 1937 and died December 30, 2006. He was the fifth President of Iraq, holding that position from July 16, 1979 until 9 April 2003. He was one of the leading members of the revolutionary Arab Socialist Ba’ath Party, and afterward, the Baghdad-based Ba’ath Party and its regional organization Ba’ath Party, Iraq Region, which advocated ba’athism, an ideological marriage of Arab nationalism with Arab socialism. (Patricia Ramos, july 2013)
"The national security of America and the security of the world could be attained if the American leaders [..] become rational, if America disengages itself from its evil alliance with Zionism, which has been scheming to exploit the world and plunge it in blood and darkness, by using America and some Western countries. What the American peoples need mostly is someone who tells them the truth, courageously and honestly as it is.
They don’t need fanfares and cheerleaders, if they want to take a lesson from the (sept. 11) event so as to reach a real awakening, in spite of the enormity of the event that hit America.
But the world, including the rulers of America, should say all this to the American peoples, so as to have the courage to tell the truth and act according to what is right and not what to is wrong and unjust, to undertake their responsibilities in fairness and justice, and by recourse to reason..."
Saddam Hussein, INA 15-9-2002
"No petit bourgeois politics"
Saddam Hussein and his ideologists sought to fuse a connection between the ancient Babylonian and Assyrian civilizations in Iraq to Arab nationalism by claiming that the Babylonians and ancient Assyrians are the ancestors of the Arabs. Thus, Saddam Hussein and his supporters claim that there is no conflict between Mesopotamian heritage and Arab nationalism. Saddam Hussein based his political views and ideology upon the views of Michel Aflaq, Ba'athism's key founder. Saddam was also an avid reader of topics on moral and material forces in international politics. His government was critical of orthodox Marxism, opposing the orthodox Marxist concepts of class conflict, the dictatorship of the proletariat and atheism; it opposed Marxism–Leninism's claim that non-Marxist–Leninist parties are automatically bourgeois in nature, claiming that the Ba'ath Party was a popular revolutionary movement and the people rejected petit bourgeois politics. (Wikipedia info)
"The despot thinks he is just as God... What a nadir and mean fate!
The despot, as represented in this age, in our day, imagines he can enslave the people..
But they were born free. They were freed by God’s will through prophets and messengers, to be slaves only to Him and not to anyone of the people." Saddam Hussein, Iraq Daily 4-3-2003
A person with a God Complex may refuse to admit the possibility of their error or failure, even in the face of irrefutable evidence, intractable problems or difficult or impossible tasks.
The person is also highly dogmatic in their views, meaning the person speaks of their personal opinions as though they are unquestionably correct.
Someone with a god complex may exhibit no regard for the conventions and demands of society, and may request special consideration or privileges.
"...To be a human being among human beings, and remain one forever, no matter what misfortunes befall, not to become depressed, and not to falter - this is what life is, herein lies its task." Fyodor Dostoevsky (to his brother Mikhail, Dec. 22, 1849)
“All mankind is from Adam and Eve. An Arab has no superiority over a non-Arab nor a non-Arab has any superiority over an Arab; also a white has no superiority over black nor a black has any superiority over white except by piety and good action. Learn that every Muslim is a brother to every Muslim and that the Muslims constitute one brotherhood. Nothing shall be legitimate to a Muslim which belongs to a fellow Muslim unless it was given freely and willingly.
“Do not therefore do injustice to yourselves. Remember one day you will meet Allah and answer your deeds. So beware, do not astray from the path of righteousness after I am gone." Prophet Muhammad, Last Sermon
“Human beings are members of a whole,
In creation of one essence and soul.
If one member is afflicted with pain,
Other members uneasy will remain.
If you have no sympathy for human pain,
The name of human you can not retain.”
Saadi Shirazi
(Persian poet & humanist, born in Shiraz, Iran, c. 1210)
Israel needs to stop being an ideology and start being a nation. A nation of all of its citizens, all with equal national, civil and religious rights.
After 70 years, only partial justice and restoration is possible for the Palestinian people. Whatever constitutional arrangements are arrived at, equality should be the guiding principle at work.
As for Zionism let’s ditch it and move on. 'It’s time to place it in a glass cabinet and put it in a museum in a room marked: ‘Dead Ends & False Messiahs’.
There is no “Judaeo-Christian heritage.”
"The practices under which Jesus was raised in Galilee were anathema to Judaic orthodoxy. One might discern the seedbed of Christianity and the teachings of Jesus within “Galilee of the Gentiles” and why his teachings were regarded with outrage by the Pharisaic priesthood. One can also discern why there has been such a hatred of Christianity and Jesus in the rabbinical teachings of the Talmud and elsewhere.
The phenomenon of such an oddity as “Christian Zionism” is for Zionists and the Orthodox rabbinate (which should not be confounded with Reform Judaism) nothing more than the equivalent of a “shabbez goy,” a Gentile hired by Orthodox Jews to undertake menial tasks on the Sabbath. “Judaeo-Christianity” only exists in the minds of craven Gentiles who embrace delusional creeds, or who wish to further their careers by making the correct noises to the right people.
(Kerry R Bolton, Foreign Policy Journal, May 29, 2018)
Choseness is what binds Zionists together.
To be chosen is to see oneself as an exceptional creation. It entails blindness to otherness. It is a form of impunity. To be chosen often involves a near or total lack of empathy. Such lack is often defined in terms of acute narcissism and psychopathy....
I know well that Zionism was born to emancipate Diaspora Jews from their exceptionalist cultural traits and to make them ‘people like all other people.’
Like an early Zionist, I would have liked to see Jews liberate themselves from the choseness prison, but I accept that such a shift can not occur in the form of a collective or political movement. The escape from choseness to the ordinary must be an individual struggle, a surrender to self-contempt that eventually matures into a genuine search for peace and harmony with the universe, with the soil and with one’s neighbours. (Gilad Atzmon, 24-6-2019)
Eva Illouz, 53, was born in Morocco and grew up in Sarcelles, near Paris. She is a professor of sociology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She researches the relationship between emotions, economy and communication and has written several books including "Why Love Hurts:
Illouz: Where you see human beings, Israelis see enemies. In front of enemies, you close ranks, you unite in fear for your life, and you do not ponder about the fragility of the other. It is difficult to have compassion for a population seen as as threatening the heart of your society.
Israel has a split, schizophrenic self-awareness: It cultivates its strength and yet cannot stop seeing itself as weak and threatened.
Illouz: I think Israelis have lost what we can call a "humanitarian sensibility," the capacity to identify with the suffering of a distant other. In Israel, there has been a change in perception of the "Palestinian other." The Palestinian has become a true enemy in the perception of Israelis, in the sense that "they are there" and "we are here." They ceased having a face and even a name.
Illouz: Israel is a colonial military power, a militarized society and a democracy all folded into one. The army, for example, controls the Palestinians through a wide network of colonial tools, such as checkpoints, military courts (governed by a legal system different from the Israeli system), the arbitrary granting of work permits, house demolitions and economic sanctions.
It is a militarized civil society because almost every family has a father, son or brother in the army and because the military plays an enormous role in the ordinary mentality of ordinary Israelis and is crucial in both political decisions and in the public sphere.
Illouz: The nature of Israeli leadership has changed. The messianic right has progressively gained power in Israel. It used to be marginal and illegitimate; it is now increasingly mainstream. This radical right sits in Parliament, controls budgets and has changed the nature of discourse. Many Israelis do not understand the radical nature of the right in Israel. It successfully disguises itself as "patriotic" or "Jewish."
Illouz: Entire generations have been raised with the territories, with Israel being a colonial power. They do not know anything else. You have the settlements which are highly ideological. They expanded and entered Israeli mainstream political life. Settlements were strengthened by systematic government policies... There are entire segments of the population that have never met a secular person and have been educated religiously...
The reality we are faced with in Israel is that we must choose between liberalism and Jewishness, and if we choose Jewishness, we are condemned to become a religious Sparta which will not be sustainable.
Illouz: Israel started as a modern nation. It derived its legitimacy from the fact that it had democratic institutions. But it was also building highly anti-modern institutions in wanting to create a Jewish democracy by giving power to rabbis, in creating deep ethnic inequalities between different ethnic groups such Jews of Arab countries vs. Jews of European descent; Arabs vs. Jews; Jews vs. non-Jews. It thus blocked universalist thinking... We are at the point where it has become clear that Jewishness has hijacked democracy and its contents.
Illouz: The right-left divide is no longer important. There is something more urgent right now: the defense of democracy. The voice of the extreme right is much louder and clearer than it was before. That's what's new: a racist right that is not ashamed of itself, that persecutes dissenters and even people who dare express compassion for the other side. The real danger to Israel and its sustainability comes from within.
Illouz: We don't know how it feels to live in a peaceful society, devoted exclusively to culture, education and improving the living conditions of everyone. People don't make a connection between the bad living conditions they have and the amount of resources invested in the settlements and in the army. In psychology, they call it dissociation. Israeli society has become very insensitive. Not only to the suffering of others, but also to its own suffering.
"Holism is the most fundamental discovery of 20th century science. It is a discovery of every science from astrophysics to quantum physics to environmental science to psychology to anthropology.
It is the discovery that the entire universe is an integral whole, and that the basic organizational principle of the universe is the field principle: the universe consists of fields within fields, levels of wholeness and integration that mirror in fundamental ways, and integrate with, the ultimate, cosmic whole...." "For many thinkers and religious teachers throughout this history, holism was the dominant thought, and the harmony that it implies has most often been understood to encompass cosmic, civilizational, and personal dimensions. Jesus, Mohammed, Buddha, Lord Krishna, Lao Tzu, and Confucius all give us visions of transformative harmony, a transformative harmony that derives from a deep relation to the holism of the cosmos."
About political holism
Political holism is based on the recognition that "we" are all members of a single whole. There's no "they," even though "we" are not all alike. Because "we" are all part of the whole, and therefore interdependent, we benefit from cooperating with each other. Political holism is a way of thinking about human cultures and nations as interdependent. Political holists search for solutions other than war to settle international disagreements. Their model of the world is one in which cooperation and negotiation, even with the enemy, even with the weak, promotes political stability more than warfare.
In an overpopulated world with planet-wide environmental problems, the development of weapons of mass destruction has rendered war obsolete as an effective means to resolve disputes.
Political dualists consider political holists unpatriotic for questioning the necessity to defeat "them." In times of impending war, political dualists tend to measure patriotism by the intensity of one's hostility to the country's immediate enemy. Naturally, they would view as disloyalty any suggestion that the enemy is not evil, any call for cooperation with the enemy, any criticism of one's own country.
To political dualists, cooperation with the enemy means capitulation, relinquishment of the nation's position of dominance. At its extreme, political dualism is essentially tribalism. (Betty Craige, 16-8-1997)
Desmond Tutu & Ubuntu
"A person with Ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, based from a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole and is diminished when others are humiliated or diminished, when others are tortured or oppressed."
"We think of ourselves far too frequently as just individuals, separated from one another, whereas you are connected and what you do affects the whole World.
When you do well, it spreads out; it is for the whole of humanity." (Ubuntu info)
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu meets with President of the Libyan Supreme Council of State Khalid Al-Mishri (R) during his official visit, on 17 June 2020 in Tripoli, Libya.
Chairman of the (Turkey backed) Libyan High Council of State, Khalid Al-Mishri, said on Tuesday that his country is facing same counter-revolution that killed freely-elected Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi.
In a statement sent to Arabi21, Al-Mishri said: “Morsi has become a symbol of the popular and libertarian struggle in the Arabic region, including Libya, which insists on achieving the goals of 17 February Revolution.”
He also said that his country insists on “get[ting] rid of the remnants of the putschists.”
Al-Mishri added: “We are speaking to you from Libya, where we decided not to retreat even one single step.”
He continued: “Our people, who revolted against the Gaddafi regime and uprooted it through one of the greatest modern history revolutions, have decided to uproot the gang of putschists who are being paid by foreign powers and being supported by mercenaries to oust the legitimate power.”
Morsi, Egypt’s first civilian president, was ousted in a military coup in 2013. He was subsequently jailed and his party outlawed by defence minister turned President, Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi. Morsi died in detention one year ago...
The Libyan Government of National Accord (GNA) recently announced that it had regained strategic areas of the capital and oil fields which had fallen into the hands of UAE-backed renegade General Khalifa Haftar. The UAE also backed Al-Sisi in his efforts to overthrow the Morsi government.
US Special Representative for Syria Engagement James Jeffrey has signalled that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) could soon be hit with sanctions if it pushes ahead with normalisation efforts with the Syrian regime, under the recently passed Caesar Act.
Jeffrey told a press conference on the Caesar Act on Wednesday that the UAE "knows" that the US is "absolutely opposed" to countries reopening their embassies in Damascus, a step that Abu Dhabi took in December 2018.
"They’re sovereign countries; they can make these decisions. But we have made it clear that we think this is a bad idea," Jeffrey said.
"It is not going to be conducive to a carrying out of the UN Security Council resolution and the ending of a conflict that is very troubling for the entire region."
Jeffrey went on to say that any Emirati individual or company which violates the Caesar Act will be sanctioned.
On top of reopening its Damascus embassy, the UAE has also sent trade delegations to Syria and is believed to be operating in the country. Upon the reopening of the embassy, it confirmed it was ready to normalise relations with Damascus...
Turkey and the U.S. will cooperate in Libya in the upcoming period, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said Thursday.
Speaking at a webinar with the US-based Turkish American National Steering Committee, Çavuşoğlu said that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump have similar perspectives on the war-torn country.
“We've received instructions to work together” with our U.S. counterparts. This will be “important for regional stability and Libya's future,” added the minister. “We would like to further expand our fields of cooperation,” he said.
His statement comes following a Wednesday visit to the Libyan capital Tripoli, where a Turkish delegation held a series of meetings with the country's Government of National Accord (GNA).
Last November, Turkey and Libya signed two landmark pacts on military cooperation and maritime boundaries in the Mediterranean. As part of the deal, Turkey has sent advisers to Libya.
Dr. Aref Ali Nayed, head of the Ihya Libya (Reviving Libya) movement, said in a comprehensive interview with Al-Youm7 that “some voices in the US may encourage Turkish intervention on the pretext that it balances Russian presence in favour of the LNA. However, they make a grave mistake because Turkish intervention will lead to the creation of military bases for dangerous terrorist groups that will threaten the security of the entire region and coalesce with the rest of the terrorist groups in the Sahel, Sahara, Somalia, and others.”
- What should be done to prevent Turkey from creating a de facto sustainable military in Libya?
- Firstly, the Arab countries should be aware that Turkish invasion of Libya is an invasion of all of them. If they allow Turkey to establish military bases in Libya, this will result in a domino-like impact that will cause the collapse of them all, one after another, beginning with the Libyan neighboring countries...
Secondly, the Arab countries must meet urgently and activate the joint Arab defense agreements, without hesitation or delay, because these agreements do not need new approvals; they were originally concluded to confront such an existential threat to the Arab nation.
- How do you see the Libyan initiative announced by the Egyptian President in Cairo?
- The Cairo Declaration builds on the initiative of the Speaker of the Libyan House of Representatives (HOR), Chancellor Aguila Saleh, which originally stemmed from Libyan community dialogue...
This renders it a Libyan initiative par excellence. It also has the personal support from President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and the sisterly Egyptian neighbor with its distinguished diplomacy.
I had the honor to support it at the media level and through community groups, such as the Sons of Libya and the National Movement for Libya, whose presidency represents the notable sheikhs of the Libyan tribes.
- Who can resolve the Libyan crisis at this critical juncture? The key to reaching common understanding between the Libyans is for them to avoid arrogance, thick pride, and trivial joy over transient victories.
We all need to understand that Libya needs dialogue and political solution, not military might and invincibility.
The wise in Tripoli and Misrata know that the tactical withdrawal of the Libyan National Army (LNA) from the Libyan West should not be construed as a final defeat. Persistent attacks on Sirte and al-Jufra will entail disastrous consequences and a reversal of military advances.
- How do you assess the position of Tunisia and Algeria?
- Tunisia and Algeria have been neighbors and a source of solidarity. Algeria’s support for the Cairo Initiative and its solemn reception of Chancellor Aguila Saleh, Speaker of the Libyan Parliament, is respected and appreciated. In Tunisia, the Speaker of the Parliament, who truly represents the Muslim Brotherhood’s Ennahdha Party, tries to spoil the ties between the two brotherly peoples.
We are confident that the Tunisian people and their MPs will rein the recklessness of the Muslim Brotherhood.
- How do you assess the US position in light of the rivalry with Russia over the latter’s involvement in supporting the Libyan National Army (LNA)?
- Some voices in the US may encourage Turkish intervention on the pretext that it balances Russian presence in favour of the LNA. However, they make a grave mistake because Turkish intervention will lead to the creation of military bases for dangerous terrorist groups that will threaten the security of the entire region and coalesce with the rest of the terrorist groups in the Sahel, Sahara, Somalia, and others.
- Has the expanding influence of militias diminished the role of the Libyan tribes?
- Libyan tribes are the social fabric of the Libyan people, even in the largest cities. Therefore, their role cannot be diminished in favour of anyone.
The initiative launched by Chancellor Aguila Saleh, Speaker of the Libyan HOR, relied on the Libyan social norms and provided an important role for the heads of the Libyan tribes. The Cairo Declaration also respects the Libyan social fabric.
But for the Libyan tribes to be truly active in international negotiation, they must urgently set up international communication committees to be part of any dialogue on the Libyan issue and future.
- During a 2017 interview you announced your candidacy for the presidency in Libya. Do you still have the intention to run in the first presidential elections?
- I have the belief that only direct presidential elections can unite Libya and its leadership.
As for my intention to run for the presidency, the team at the Libyan Institute for Advanced Studies (LIAS), including myself, have never stopped renewing the Ihya Libya plan. We will re-launch the candidacy campaign as soon as the presidential elections are announced...
The ongoing campaigns of slander and marginalization will never deter us from the honest competition in the upcoming presidential, parliamentary, and municipal elections through young women and men supporting the vision of Ihya Libya (Reviving Libya).
Turkey achieved a strategic success in breaking the year-long siege on the Libyan capital, Tripoli...
The recent events in Libya are undoubtedly a result of Turkey’s parliament agreeing at the start of the year to send troops in support of the GNA, despite the reluctance of the main opposition party.
Significantly, Turkish support on the ground has largely come in the form of up to 10,000 Syrian mercenaries brought in from Idlib.
Yet it has been the use of armed drones that has been so fundamental to the strategic gains made by the GNA, which successfully destroyed numerous UAE-supplied Russian Pantsir S-1 systems. This game-changing modern warfare has also served Turkey with some degree of tactical success in Syria’s Idlib province.
Most of the attention that Turkey’s military interventions are attracting tend to be focussed on Libya, Syria and the occasional air strike in the Iraqi Kurdistan region against terrorist PKK targets. What has gone largely unnoticed is Turkey’s growing involvement in Yemen, although it is still debatable what it entails and whether it is in its national interests and can yield strategic results in the long term.
According to Turkey’s Foreign Ministry website, the country has “deeply rooted historical and cultural ties with Yemen”, which was once a province of the Ottoman Caliphate, although it fought fiercely and successfully for its independence well before the decline of the empire.
The Emirati-financed Arab Weekly, meanwhile, accused Turkey of building up its presence in Yemen, specifically in support of the Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated Al-Islah Party.
The allegations against Ankara include Egypt’s growing concerns such as Turkish “interference” under the guise of humanitarian aid operating in three southern coastal regions and a joint “Qatar-Turkish plot” to establish a militia recruitment camp in the Shabwa province.
In the paradoxical world of Middle East alliances, Saudi Arabia is hostile to the Brotherhood and yet actively supports Al-Islah militia which function as Hadi’s main fighting force on the ground against the Houthi-aligned Yemeni army...
Nevertheless, the Saudis appear to take Turkey’s involvement seriously. Reports last week said that the coalition prevented a Turkish cargo plane carrying aid from landing in the southern port city of Aden.
Flashback 2011-2012
Ebtisam Al Ketbi: "No country would accept
such an organisation operating within it." The National: 5-10-2012
ABU DHABI - Members of the FNC, local analysts and a Minister of State say Islamists in the UAE do not represent the country's interests... Al Islah, the branch of the Muslim Brotherhood in the UAE, violated the constitution and posed a threat to the nation by paying allegiance to outside powers, they said.
"The problem with Islah is foreign funding, which makes their goals not in the interests of the country, but of their organisation," said Dr Ebtisam Al Ketbi, professor of political science at UAE University.
The Government has approached members of Al Islah several times to cut its foreign ties but they have refused to do so, Dr Al Ketbi said.
Who is al-Islah? Yemen Post 12-10-2011
Al-Islah is essentially the gathering of 3 Islamist groups, the Muslim Brotherhood under the leadership of Mohamed Qahtan, the now spokesperson for the Opposition, the Hasheed tribe under the leadership of sheikh Sadeeq al-Ahmar and the Salafists, a more radical branch of the Muslim Brotherhood which advocates Jihad against unbelievers.
The former Mufti of the General National Congress (GNC) Sadiq al-Gharyani commented on the visit of the Turkish delegation to Libya..
He appreciated the Government of National Accord (GNA) for receiving the Turkish delegation because this action supports a “friendly” country, which faces a fierce campaign by the international community because it stands with the GNA, as he put it.
He also issued a controversial fatwa authorising the killing of LNA prisoners, contravening the Geneva Conventions and Islamic Law.
The radical Islamist cleric, who resides in Turkey, pointed out that what he described as the “enemies of the revolution” are numerous, including “Haftar’s mercenaries” who are fighting for money and have no principles and ethics that prevent them from committing any crime, and “supporters and agents of Gaddafi” whose interests overlapped with the first group, as he claimed.
Hosted at Islam and Life show aired on the Islamist Al-Tanasuh channel yesterday, al-Gharyani claimed that Turkey bears a lot for Libya... Al-Gharyani considered the members of the Libyan National Army as kafirs (not Muslims) saying: “People must realize that what happened in Libya started when Haftar killed the people of Benghazi and Derna and seized oil and the cities of the south and Tripoli. Scholars must consider this an unprecedented calamity and thus they cannot apply the provisions mentioned in the old fiqh (jurisprudence) books on the treatment of aggressors...
These enemies are not disbelievers due to a wrong interpretation or so; they are outside the Sharia. They triumph over us by the help of the enemies of God and fight on behalf of a Zionist agenda. There must be a special ijtihad (independent reasoning) to deal with them and their spoils...
He added: “They are in a feverish race with one demand: ceasefire because they felt terrified at what happened to Haftar.
They would spare no effort to rescue him from his darkest days. They say that the alliance with Tobruk Parliament and Aguila differs from negotiating with Haftar. This is a weird fallacy to mislead people. Aguila was the person who installed Haftar.”
“We should direct our efforts to complete the victory in Sirte, which is hampered by the atheist Russians... If the Russians leave Sirte, it will not stand for a day or two..."
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi ordered his army to be ready to carry out any mission inside or outside the country amid tensions over regional rival Turkey's intervention in neighbouring Libya, Reuters reported. He also warned forces loyal to the GNA not to cross the current frontlines west of Sirte.
Sisi was touring an air base near Egypt's 1,200km-long (750-mile) western border with Libya...
"Be prepared to carry out any mission, here inside our borders - or if necessary, outside our borders," he told several air force pilots and special forces personnel at the base.
Sisi said that Egypt did not want to intervene in Libya and generally favoured a political solution, but added that "the situation now is different". "If some people think that they can cross the Sirte-Jufra frontline, this is a red line for us", he said before an audience that included some Libyan tribal leaders.
"If the Libyan people moved through you and asked us to intervene, this would be a signal to the world that Egypt and Libya are one country, one interest," he added.
He also said Egypt could provide tribes with training and arms to fight the "terrorist militias", a term it uses for some armed groups loyal to the GNA.
Still, Ibrahim Kalin, the Turkish presidential spokesman, said a ceasefire in Libya would be possible if everybody went back to their positions of 2015, referring to a political agreement reached that year in Morocco. That would mean Haftar withdrawing from Sirte and Al-Jufra.
"This is the position of the GNA and we support it because right now the Haftar forces are using these strategic locations as their launching pad," he said. Kalin accused the UAE of "financing this war" in Libya and said its attempts to attack Turkey and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for their role in the Arab-Muslim world were “foolish”.
Asked about Turkey's future in Libya, Kalin said: "We will be there as long as we are requested by the Libyan government to be there."
Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi said on Saturday that any direct Egyptian intervention in Libya would have international legitimacy at this point.
El-Sisi explained that any intervention in Libya by Egyptian forces "would be led by the Libyan tribes," and stressed that "we only aspire for stability in Libya."
He emphasised that Egypt has no ambitions in Libya, and only wishes to restore security and stability in the country. "We will not be invaders… we only want a stable, safe and developed Libya." The president said that Egypt has called for a comprehensive settlement in Libya that involves the elimination of terrorist militias...
El-Sisi warned against illegal foreign interference in Libya... "These external parties are working to violate the sovereignty of Arab countries, do not want stability in the region, and contribute to the movement of terrorists," the president said.
Aref Nayed Says Arab-Egyptian Response
is Firm Against Neo-Ottoman Colonisers Al-Marsad, 20-6-2020
Dr. Aref Ali Nayed, head of the Ihya Libya (Reviving Libya) movement, said in statements to Al-Youm7 that the Arab-Egyptian response to the delusional Ottoman sultan who pointed at the map of Libya with arrogance, audacity, and provocation has been firm and momentous.
“President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi spoke out and the honorable Libyan tribes spoke out welcoming his full and comprehensive speech...”, he said.
“Let all Libyans be humble to God and the homeland, stick to the current lines under an immediate ceasefire, and sit together as reconciled and united brothers to remove all foreign powers from Libya, without exception.
Let them dismantle all militias in favor of one army and one police and prepare for direct presidential and parliamentary elections to renew legitimacy and regain Libyan sovereignty for the dignified Libyan people,” added Nayed.
“Long live Libya, long live Egypt, and long live the Arab nation in solidarity and unity before the insatiable greed of the neo-Ottomans and other colonists,” stated Nayed.
Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Sunday supported Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi's statements on Libya.
"Saudi Arabia stands by and supports Egypt on the right to protect its borders and people," Saudi Arabia official news agency said in a statement.
Additionally, the Foreign Ministry of the UAE said it supports all actions by Egypt to ensure its stability and security.
Al-Sisi alluded Saturday to the possibility of sending "external military missions if required..."
"Sirte and Jufra are a red line," he said.
Al-Sisi stressed that "any direct interference from Egypt [in Libya] has now acquired the international legitimacy, either with the right to self-defense, or at the request of the only legitimate elected authority in Libya, which is the House of Representatives [Tobruk]."
The House of Representatives (HoR) is the unicameral parliament of Libya.
Islamists were defeated at the 2014 Libyan parliamentary election and rejected the results.
In late 2014, following the occupation of Tripoli by armed islamist groups during the Libyan Civil War, the House of Representatives relocated to Tobruk in the far east of the country.
As of 2014, the chairman was Aguila Saleh Issa.
In late 2014, a rival (Muslim Brotherhood dominated) parliament in Tripoli was restored, the General National Congress (GNC). The House of Representatives did not recognize the new GNC,
On 17 December 2015 members of the House of Representatives and the General National Congress signed a political agreement, generally known as the "Libyan Political Agreement".
Under the terms of the agreement, a nine-member Presidency Council and a seventeen-member interim Government of National Accord would have been formed, with a view to holding new elections within two years.
A new round of talks that started in October 2017 in Tunis broke down a month later without a deal. On 17 December 2017, general Khalifa Haftar declared the LPA void. (Wikipedia info)
The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Chancellor Aguila Saleh, in his capacity as Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, issued a statement on the Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s comments on the necessity of a ceasefire and commitment to the Cairo Declaration and protecting Libya’s unity and Egyptian national security from armed militias and mercenaries loyal to Turkey...
The heartfelt and courageous speech of H.E. President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, President of the Arab Republic of Egypt, has recalled a long history of fraternity and struggle of the two brotherly peoples.
One day, the colonizer decided to build a wall of barbed wire to prevent the arrival of Egyptian support to the Libyan freedom fighters and impede their movement between the two countries—but it failed to do so.
Egypt has contributed to building the first Libyan army, the Senussi army, in 1940. Nearly half a century later, it has contributed to building professional Libyan armed forces to defend Libya’s sovereignty, its borders, and the dignity of its people.
These armed forces stand today as an impenetrable wall through their fight against the invaders and aggressors with full ability. The Libyan social extension in Egypt and the constant fraternal relations over time have confirmed that we are one people in two countries: what afflicts us afflicts Egypt and vice versa...
France will not tolerate Turkey's military intervention in Libya, President Emmanuel Macron said on Monday...
"I have already had the opportunity to say very clearly to President (Tayyip) Erdogan, I consider that Turkey is playing a dangerous game in Libya today and going against all of its commitments made at the Berlin conference," Macron said alongside his Tunisian counterpart Kais Saied, referring to a peace meeting earlier this year. When asked about Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi suggesting he had a right to intervene in Libya, Macron said the Egyptian leader had reason to be worried.
"This is a Mediterranean subject that affects us because today from Libya each day men and women are fleeing misery to come to Europe. Do you think we can let Turkey for a long time import Syrian fighters to Libya given everything we know?"
U.S. Ambassador to Libya, Richard Norland, and Commander of U.S. Africa Command, General Stephen Townsend, met Prime Minister of the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA), Fayez Al-Sarraj, on Monday to discuss the current situation in Libya.
The meeting, which was held in Zuwara, focused on the escalating foreign interference in Libya and “current opportunities for a strategic pause in military operations by all parties to the conflict,” according to a statement by the U.S. Embassy in Libya.
Ambassador Norland outlined U.S. support for the diplomacy underway through UN auspices to promote a ceasefire and political dialogue, while General Townsend presented his military perspective on the risk of escalation, according to the U.S. statement. “We emphasized to the Libyan delegation that all sides need to return to UN-led ceasefire and political negotiations because this tragic conflict is robbing all Libyans of their future,” said General Townsend.
A rare Arab consensus on Libya was on display yesterday at the League of Arab States (LAS) meeting on its Resolution No. 8524 on the developments in Libya, welcoming the Cairo Declaration, reaching a ceasefire, and freezing the fronts.
Only three Arab countries lodged reservations to some paragraphs in this resolution, namely Qatar, Tunisia, and Somalia, thus breaking the Arab consensus.
This shows that the Government of National Accord (GNA) has only three Arab countries left to support it out of twenty-one countries, including Syria, which, despite its frozen seat and critical situation, declared its position in a separate statement consistent with that of almost all Arab states.
Qatar’s reservation related to operative paragraphs 7 and 8, which stresses the need for all foreign forces present on Libyan territory and its waters to withdraw...
Somalia has also entered a reservation to the same operative paragraphs 7 and 8, and also the operative paragraph 11...
One may understand the position of the Federal Republic of Somalia, which manages the security of its capital, Mogadishu, from a Turkish base established by Turkey under the pretext of training Somali forces.
The same reason is also applicable for the State of Qatar, the ally of Turkey and Iran, especially now that the latter [Iran] has announced its support to the GNA. We should also not forget the Turkish base in Doha established after the boycott by GCC countries...
However, Tunisia’s position is difficult to explain. This position clearly contradicts the statements of President Kais Saied declaring his refusal for the continuation of fighting in Libya.
Speaker of the Libyan House of Representatives Aguila Saleh said his country will need the backing of the Egyptian Armed Forces in the war against terrorists and mercenaries.
Saleh praised the stance of the Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El Sisi and the recent warning on the war in Libya.
He said that the Libyan people nationwide support all efforts exerted by Sisi for reaching a ceasefire in Libya and preserving Libyan national security.
The Libyan people are officially asking Egypt to intervene, when necessary, with armed forces in Libya to preserve the Libyan national security and the Egyptian national security,
he pointed out. He added that the Libyan House of Representatives is the only elected authority that is representing the Libyan people.
Answering a question on the Libyan army's movement in Tripoli, he noted that the army [LNA] moved after Turkey had sent more than 15,000 mercenaries into the Libyan capital.
Therefore the army moved in response to international calls for a ceasefire and according to international initiatives including the Cairo Declaration Initiative that was announced on June 6 under the auspices of President Sisi.
As for the international arms embargo on Libya, he said that this embargo is imposed only on the Libyan national army while arms are flowing to the militiamen.
The GNA government in Tripoli wants
to continue to push Hafter out of Sirte Libya Herald, 25-6-2020
Emboldened by their military success, the GNA government in Tripoli wants to continue to push Hafter out of Sirte, the strategically important Jufra airbase and out of the financially imperative eastern crescent oilfields that produce two-thirds of Libya oil. They may even have designs of pushing beyond the oilfields deep into eastern Libya.
However, Egypt, which shares a 1000 km-plus border with Libya, has warned that Sirte and Jufra are a ‘red line’ and that Turkey should not support Tripoli’s forces further east. It has threatened direct and overt (as opposed to its previously covert) military intervention as it cites security interests. Both Turkey and Tripoli have rejected Egypt’s ‘red line’ concept. Turkey views its military intervention as legal and legitimate – at the invitation of the [GNA] government in Tripoli.
Egypt says the internationally recognized Libyan parliament in Tobruk (the House of Representatives – HoR) has not endorsed the Tripoli government and therefore it has no legitimacy to invite foreign intervention.
The Ministry of Defence of the Libyan Government of National Accord (GNA) said it will continue in its moves to recapture the eastern city of Sirte from the forces of General Khalifa Haftar despite the warning of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi that the city represents a “red line” for his country.
“No red lines can hinder the progress of our forces’ advancing towards Sirte,” said Salah Al-Din Al–Namroush, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Defence, in an interview published by the Anadolu Agency yesterday.
Al–Namroush stressed that the GNA’s objective is to defeat Haftar’s Libyan National Army and take control of the entire city located 450 kilometres east of the capital Tripoli.... “We still insist on pursuing the political and military path.”
He accused the UAE of interfering in Libyan affairs and providing military support to Haftar’s forces, while condemning Russia’s use of mercenaries to support the LNA.
Turkey on Tuesday blasted France’s “destructive” approach to the conflict in Libya and accused it of seeking to increase Russian presence there.
“France, which Macron governs or rather which he can’t manage to govern at the moment, has been in Libya only for its own interests and ambitions with a destructive approach just like it pushed Africa to instability in the past with a colonialist approach, and like it bombed and quit Libya in 2011,” Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told reporters in Ankara.
Libya 2011 - a NATO victory?
Cavusoglu also said France was working against NATO and in favor of Russia in Libya. “On one side, NATO sees Russia as a threat but on the other side NATO ally France is working to increase Russia’s presence there,” he said. Macron on Monday accused Turkey of “criminal responsibility” over its involvement in the Libyan conflict.
Oil-rich Libya was thrown into chaos after Muammar Qaddafi was ousted in a 2011 NATO-backed uprising.
Rival administrations and militias have been vying for power ever since, increasingly drawing in foreign countries and threatening the region’s stability.
Tensions have been building over the last year between Macron and his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, notably when the French leader said the lack of NATO response to a unilateral Turkish operation in northern Syria showed the alliance was undergoing “brain death.”
Some analysts suspect France is backing Haftar alongside Egypt, Russia and the United Arab Emirates, but Paris insists it is neutral in the conflict.
Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu met recently with [Resilience Party chairman] Benny Gantz to discuss the application of sovereignty to various areas in Judea and Samaria, as part of the "Deal of the Century."
The Israel Resilience Party is a political party in Israel founded in December 2018 by Benny Gantz, former Chief of the General Staff of the Israel Defense Forces. The party first ran in the April 2019 Knesset elections, as part of the Blue and White alliance.
Gantz has expressed his opposition to the plan, and conditioned his agreement on various budgets, Israel Hayom reported.
However, according to Israel Hayom, Netanyahu emphasized to Gantz that if the move to apply sovereignty does not pass, there will be no unity government, and Israel will hold new elections.
It is not clear if the US will demand Gantz's agreement as a condition for sovereignty.
According to the coalition agreement between the two parties, the Resilience Party does not have the right to veto the application of sovereignty.
In January, during his visit to Washington, Gantz said he supported the Deal of the Century and promised to work to implement it following the March 2020 elections.
Meanwhile, Shas chairman and Interior Minister Aryeh Deri has said that the current opportunity for sovereignty is "historic" and "must not be missed".
A Fatah-organized mass rally against Israel’s planned annexation of parts of the West Bank drew thousands to the Jordan Valley on Monday, despite coronavirus concerns and Israeli forces turning away buses carrying protesters to the event.
It was the largest rally of its kind since Trump in January unveiled his controversial plan for Israeli-Palestinian peace, which gives Israel a green light to annex West Bank settlements and the strategic Jordan Valley, amounting to some 30 percent of the territory.
In a speech at the rally, UN Special Envoy to the Middle East Nikolay Mladenov told Palestinians never to give up on their dream of a state.
Mladenov repeated the UN position that Israeli annexation would violate international law, adding that it might “kill the very idea that peace and statehood for the Palestinians are achievable through negotiations.” “You’re not renting a house here, this is your home. You do not throw away the keys to something that you have been building for 25 years. You protect it and you invest in the future, a future that is built on shared values of democracy, accountability and prosperity for everyone,” he said.
“People of Palestine, do not despair — do not give up, do not give up, never give up,” Mladenov said, “because peace is what we’re all here for.”
The rally was something of a diplomatic achievement for Palestinians. Rarely have so many prominent international representatives gathered together in the Palestinian territories using the same language to affirm their opposition to Israeli policies.
In addition to the UN’s Mladenov, European Union representative Sven Kühn von Burgsdorff, as well as the ambassadors of Russia, China, Japan, and Jordan also spoke at the event.
The Palestinian’s chief negotiator, Saeb Erekat, said the event was “unprecedented,” adding, “I’ve never seen anything like it.” “Today, the world came to us, they spoke to us, and they told us we’re not alone. They’re with us in the battle for freedom and dignity and justice. They told Netanyahu and Trump, you are on one side, and facing you is international law,” Erekat said in a speech at the rally.
A jihadist civil war is ongoing in the Idlib Governorate this week, as two of the strongest factions are in a struggle for power.
A new report from the Idlib countryside confirmed that violent clashes broke out yesterday afternoon between the Hurras Al-Deen and Ansar Al-Tawhid groups on the one hand, and Hay’at Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) on the other.
These clashes were heavily concentrated on the western outskirts of Idlib city, which has recently witnessed increased tensions between the jihadist groups over the last few days.
The reports indicated that the Hurras Al-Deen and Ansar Al-Tawhid groups brought a large number of reinforcements to western Idlib in order to expel Hay’at Tahrir Al-Sham from the administrative capital.
According to reports, the two jihadist groups, which are linked to Al-Qaeda, managed to capture the Idlib Central Prison, the Al-Kansarwah factory, and a number of housing blocs in the western side of the city.
The Hurras Al-Deen group consists of extremist fighters who announced in 2016 the establishment of their own organization to maintain their loyalty to the leader of Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, Ayman al-Zawahiri.
Hay’at Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) was formed in 2018 after the collapse of Jaysh Al-Fateh, a jihadist coalition comprised of several groups, including Jabhat Al-Nusra, HTS’ predecessor.
Several al-Qaida-aligned militant groups in the northwestern Syrian province of Idlib have announced the formation of a joint military operations room aimed at coordinating efforts to fight Syrian government troops and its allied forces.
The new operations center, dubbed as “Be Steadfast”, consists of five jihadist groups that operate in parts of the restive Idlib province, according to a statement published Friday on jihadist blogs and local media outlets.
“In order to repel the attacks of the aggressors and to break the conspiracies of the occupiers, the following factions mentioned announce the formation of the ‘Be Steadfast Operations Room’,” the statement said.
These factions include Hurras al-Din, Jamaat Ansar al-Islam and Jabhat Ansar al-Din, all of which are affiliated with the al-Qaida terror group. The other two groups, al-Jihad Coordination and the al-Muqatileen al-Ansar Brigade, are recent splinters from the powerful Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which was al-Qaida’s Syria branch until 2016 when it formally severed ties with the global jihadist group. Idlib is the last major stronghold for anti-government rebels and jihadist groups in Syria.
The new so-called operations room “is an attempt by the jihadist critics of HTS to bolster their efforts, continue to launch raids against the enemy and in their view work to sabotage the international agreements over Idlib that they view as a conspiracy,” said Aymenn Jawad al-Tamimi, a Syria researcher at Swansea University in the UK.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo blasted the Palestinians today for their refusal to negotiate over a looming Israeli annexation of the West Bank — one day after Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz made similar comments, seemingly bringing him closer to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s position. Pompeo touted President Donald Trump’s peace plan, which greenlights the annexation of Israeli settlements in the West Bank as well as the entire Jordan Valley.
“Decisions about Israel and extending sovereignty to other places are decisions for the Israelis to make,” Pompeo told reporters at a press conference today. “I regret only that the Palestinian Authority has refused to participate in that. They have simply rejected this out of hand. We simply ask that they come to the negotiating table based on what’s outlined in the vision for peace, and they have chosen not to. They have chosen to threaten, to bluster....”
Pompeo’s remarks came after Gantz told Israeli reporters Tuesday, “The Palestinians continue to reject dialogue and to remain in their deep shit.”
The defense minister went on to say that “we will have to move forward without the Palestinians” if they refuse to negotiate on annexation.
gantz-pompeo: 'they refuse to negotiate'
Gulf support? Pompeo also noted that the United States is “talking to all of the countries in the region about how it is we can manage this process for our end-state objective. The Gulf states have all indicated that they are hopeful that we can put them in place,” said Pompeo.
However, the United Arab Emirates envoy to Washington, Yousef Al-Otaiba, warned that annexation would harm Israeli efforts to normalize relations with the Emirates and other Arab states.
A "watershed moment" that will constitute a "most serious violation of international law" - that is how United Nations chief Antonio Guterres has described Israel's plans to annex parts of the occupied West Bank and Jordan Valley.
Addressing a virtual meeting of the UN Security Council on Wednesday, Guterres repeated a call for Israel to drop its United States-backed plans, which could be put in motion as soon as next week.
If implemented, the UN secretary-general said, annexation would "grievously harm the prospect of a two-state solution and undercut the possibilities of a renewal of negotiations". "I call on the Israeli government to abandon its annexation plans."
Guterres's call was echoed by other leaders and foreign ministers addressing the virtual meeting...
"For three decades, real peace and the creation of an independent Palestinian state, remain elusive ... Despair is dominating the Palestinian mood and scene," Arab League chief Ahmed Aboul Gheit said.
Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Malki warned any annexation would be a "crime" and lead to immediate and tangible repercussions. He said Israel's objective has for decades been to grab "maximum Palestinian land, with minimum Palestinians".
"Israel is testing the resolve of the international community, thinking that its colonial apartheid will prevail … We must prove it wrong," al-Malki told the council, calling on the international community to impose sanctions against Israel to deter its plans.
Al Jazeera's senior political analyst, Marwan Bishara, dismissed as lip service speeches by Arab and Western leaders addressing the Security Council, pointing to the lack of recommended actions.
"We all know who was the elephant in the room, we all know who is behind instigating this annexation ... did anyone point fingers at the United States?" Bishara asked. "You would expect UNSC members and Arab League members to be taking a more firm stance."
The Belgian parliament on Friday morning passed with an overwhelming majority a resolution urging the government to act to prevent Israel from unilaterally annexing parts of the West Bank and to actively advocate for European-wide punitive measures against Jerusalem if it proceeds with its controversial plan. The resolution “concerning Israel’s annexation of occupied territories in Palestine,” proposed by three politicians from the Greens, passed with 101 ‘yes’ votes and 39 abstentions. No one voted against.
The motion urges the government of Prime Minister Sophie Wilmès “to take the initiative with third countries, at European and multilateral levels, to prevent the annexation [by] Israel of the Palestinian territories, or parts of them.” The resolution further calls on Brussels to play a leading role in formulating a “list of efficient counter-measures geared at responding in a proportional manner to any Israeli annexation of occupied Palestinian territory.”
The European Union and many of its member states vehemently oppose Israel’s declared goal to annex up to 30 percent of the West Bank as early as July 1, but have not yet formulated any punitive measures against Jerusalem if it were to implement its plan.
Israel’s Ambassador to Belgium Emmanuel Nahshon told The Times of Israel on Friday that, “Instead of applying undue pressure on Israel, Belgium should encourage the Palestinians to cease with their persistent refusal...”
In a landmark ruling, Israeli regulatory authorities announced on Sunday that they are shutting down an evangelical Christian television station for not disclosing in its license application that its true agenda was missionizing Jews. Shelanu (Hebrew for “Ours,” as in “Jesus is all of ours”), a new channel set up by God TV – one of the largest Christian broadcasting networks in the world – in partnership with the Israeli Messianic community, had been broadcasting on cable television since the end of April.
It is very rare for the council to take a channel off the air, and it is the first time a Christian channel broadcast in Israel is being shut down.
Council Chairman Asher Biton noted in a letter that Christian programming aimed at Jews is a “complicated and sensitive matter” and, therefore, the broadcasters should have been more upfront about the nature of the new channel.
It is not necessarily against the law to broadcast Christian programs to a Jewish audience in Israel. It is, however, against the law to proselytize to individuals under age 18 without the consent of their parents.
Overnight, the video message that had caused the storm was taken down and God TV issued a clarification: The network had no intention of trying to convert Jews to Christianity.., it merely wanted them to accept Jesus as their messiah.
God TV was founded in the United Kingdom 25 years ago by two South African expats – Rory and Wendy Alec. In 2002, the network moved its broadcast uplink to Israel, and from there began to expand around the world. Today, it broadcasts in 200 countries and claims to reach 250 million homes around the world.
Ideologies are pre-set forms of thinking that shape people’s worldviews and, supposedly, help to order and simplify reality.
Ideologies can be very seductive. In part this is because they free their adherents from the hard work of critical thinking.
Because ideologies distort reality, they are particularly unsuited for those aspiring to power as well as their devoted supporters. History is full of examples of politically powerful ideologies that underscore this fact: fascism, communism, various military cults and even the ideology of democracy as manipulated by corrupt elites, who play the Pied Piper to the masses.
Yet there is still one more ideology out there which, even now, wreaks havoc... That ideology is religion in its various institutional manifestations.
I want to emphasize that I am not referring to personal religious convictions, by which life is made to appear understandable and meaningful.
What I am referring to are religious ideologies that are institutionalized in bureaucracies that can project power much as do secular institutions of authority.
Religious ideologies so institutionalized see themselves as possessed of God-given truth while playing the game of power amidst human competitors.... Since 1948 Judaism has succumbed to the same fate as other world religions entangling themselves in politics.
Despite all the rationalizations, propaganda and self-deception, it is clear that institutional Judaism is now firmly melded to the deeply discriminatory and particularly brutal political ideology of Zionism. The fate of Judaism and an Israeli “national home” are thoroughly intertwined..
As long as Judaism persists in identifying itself in terms of the Israeli state and Zionist ideology, the ethical underpinnings of the religion are left behind in the wreckage of an evolving “Jewish empire.”
Anarchism & anti-clericalism in the Holy Books
They (Jews and Christians) took their rabbis and their monks to be their lords besides Allah (by obeying them in things which they made lawful or unlawful according to their own desires without being ordered by Allah), and (they also took as their Lord) Messiah, son of Maryam (Mary), while they (Jews and Christians) were commanded [in the Taurat (Torah) and the Injeel (Gospel)) to worship none but One Ilah (God - Allah). Exalted is He above whatever they associate with Him. (Quran, Al-Tawba 31)
"But do not be called Rabbi; for One is your Teacher, and you are all brothers.
"Do not call anyone on earth your father; for One is your Father, He who is in heaven. (Matthew 23:9)
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"The national security of America and the security of the world could be attained if the American leaders [..] become rational, if America disengages itself from its evil alliance with Zionism, which has been scheming to exploit the world and plunge it in blood and darkness, by using America and some Western countries.
Saddam Hussein and his ideologists sought to fuse a connection between the ancient Babylonian and Assyrian civilizations in Iraq to Arab nationalism by claiming that the Babylonians and ancient Assyrians are the ancestors of the Arabs. Thus, Saddam Hussein and his supporters claim that there is no conflict between Mesopotamian heritage and Arab nationalism.
A person with a God Complex may refuse to admit the possibility of their error or failure, even in the face of irrefutable evidence, intractable problems or difficult or impossible tasks.
Illouz: Where you see human beings, Israelis see enemies. In front of enemies, you close ranks, you unite in fear for your life, and you do not ponder about the fragility of the other. It is difficult to have compassion for a population seen as as threatening the heart of your society.
Israel has a split, schizophrenic self-awareness: It cultivates its strength and yet cannot stop seeing itself as weak and threatened.
Political holism is based on the recognition that "we" are all members of a single whole. There's no "they," even though "we" are not all alike. Because "we" are all part of the whole, and therefore interdependent, we benefit from cooperating with each other. Political holism is a way of thinking about human cultures and nations as interdependent. 
Turkey and the U.S. will cooperate in Libya in the upcoming period, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said Thursday.
- Firstly, the Arab countries should be aware that Turkish invasion of Libya is an invasion of all of them. If they allow Turkey to establish military bases in Libya, this will result in a domino-like impact that will cause the collapse of them all, one after another, beginning with the Libyan neighboring countries...
- During a 2017 interview you announced your candidacy for the presidency in Libya. Do you still have the intention to run in the first presidential elections?
ABU DHABI - Members of the FNC, local analysts and a Minister of State say Islamists in the UAE do not represent the country's interests...
Islamists were defeated at the 2014 Libyan parliamentary election and rejected the results. 
The heartfelt and courageous speech of H.E. President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, President of the Arab Republic of Egypt, has recalled a long history of fraternity and struggle of the two brotherly peoples. 
U.S. Ambassador to Libya, Richard Norland, and Commander of U.S. Africa Command, General Stephen Townsend, met Prime Minister of the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA), Fayez Al-Sarraj, on Monday to discuss the current situation in Libya.
Speaker of the Libyan House of Representatives Aguila Saleh said his country will need the backing of the Egyptian Armed Forces in the war against terrorists and mercenaries.
Gantz has expressed his opposition to the plan, and conditioned his agreement on various budgets, Israel Hayom reported.
It was the largest rally of its kind since Trump in January unveiled his controversial plan for Israeli-Palestinian peace, which gives Israel a green light to annex West Bank settlements and the strategic Jordan Valley, amounting to some 30 percent of the territory.
Several al-Qaida-aligned militant groups in the northwestern Syrian province of Idlib have announced the formation of a joint military operations room aimed at coordinating efforts to fight Syrian government troops and its allied forces. 
The Belgian parliament on Friday morning passed with an overwhelming majority a resolution urging the government to act to prevent Israel from unilaterally annexing parts of the West Bank and to actively advocate for European-wide punitive measures against Jerusalem if it proceeds with its controversial plan.
In a landmark ruling, Israeli regulatory authorities announced on Sunday that they are shutting down an evangelical Christian television station for not disclosing in its license application that its true agenda was missionizing Jews. 
Ideologies are pre-set forms of thinking that shape people’s worldviews and, supposedly, help to order and simplify reality. 
They (Jews and Christians) took their rabbis and their monks to be their lords besides Allah (by obeying them in things which they made lawful or unlawful according to their own desires without being ordered by Allah), and (they also took as their Lord) Messiah, son of Maryam (Mary), while they (Jews and Christians) were commanded [in the Taurat (Torah) and the Injeel (Gospel)) to worship none but One Ilah (God - Allah).