By KHALED ABOU ZAHR -- Arabnews.com -- On June 18, 1940, Gen. Charles de Gaulle made his famous radio appeal from London after the French Army was defeated at the start of the Second World War. It was the beginning of the French Resistance against Nazi occupation. He stood against the French Vichy government, which collaborated with the Nazis and became a client state. Today, any government in Lebanon is a “Vichy government” and the politicians have all become collaborators with the Iranian regime and its “high commissioner” in Lebanon: Hezbollah. As the country is being ravaged by the current occupation by Hezbollah and Iran following decades of Syrian occupation, I cannot help but wonder that shouldn’t it be time for a Lebanese leader to call for true resistance as De Gaulle did? Isn’t it time, as on the ground nothing can change, for a government in exile to be formed and an appeal made for all Lebanese to resist this occupation and its destruction of their country?

It is now clear, with the disappointing failure of the latest French initiative, that Hezbollah will not allow the formation of any government that has the capacity to question its actions — or, more precisely, that it does not completely control. Lebanon will continue to disintegrate into chaos while Iran gambles on a Joe Biden administration to formalize and legitimize its occupation. On the ground, no influential political voice will be left standing if it acts against Hezbollah’s plan. Yet, as we always wonder in election years, how will the next US president impact the Middle East? It is also time to understand that the US looks for strong allies. It cannot save Lebanon unless there are voices ready to fight and to resist. It is also important for the Lebanese not to be a tool or an accessory to any foreign influence. As a small country, it cannot be taken hostage as global powers and Middle Eastern powers fight. Our interests are in our citizens and the prosperity of the country — nothing more and nothing less. In this sense, former French President Jacques Chirac, who loved Lebanon and had pure intentions for the country, misguided Saad Hariri on France’s capacity to impose regional changes and this miscalculation accelerated Hezbollah’s control of the country in 2008. The Lebanese should not make the same mistake twice.

by catholicherald.co.uk -- Thomas Caddick -- Speaking in a dimly lit church, alongside a crucifix and the opening swell of the Allegretto from Beethoven’s 7th Symphony, a Wisconsin priest makes his case for why “you cannot be Catholic and be a Democrat” when voting in the US elections. Fr James Altman says in his video, which has reached many hundreds of thousands, that he has “crunched the numbers” to get an “approximation of how many Catholics voted for Obama in 2008 and 2012. Zero”. He tells “people masquerading as Catholics” who vote for pro-choice Democrats to “repent of your support of that party and its platform or face the fires of hell”, because there “will be 60 million aborted babies standing at the gates of heaven barring your Democrat entrance, and nothing you can ever say will ever excuse you for your direct or indirect support of that diabolical agenda”. He also condemns the Church hierarchy for “ripping on Trump”, the “best pro-life President and his Catholic wife”, and instead offering support to “criminal illegal aliens” and “godless communists”.

Needless to say, the message caused quite a stir. The priest’s local bishop, William Callahan of La Crosse, said he had begun the process of fraternally correcting Fr Altman: “Not in the bright light of the public arena, but as the Gospel dictates, in private.” Bishop Callahan briefly added that, whilst there was some “underlying truth” to Fr Altman’s video, the priest’s tendency towards “generalisation and condemnation” was wrong because Catholics “must never seek to divide, isolate and condemn”. But six days after the video’s release, Bishop Joseph Strickland weighed in with a very different message. “As the Bishop of Tyler I endorse Fr Altman’s statement in this video,” he tweeted. “My shame is that it has taken me so long.”

by rferl.org — Lebanon has asked Interpol to issue arrest warrants for the Russian captain and owner of the vessel that brought …

by cyprus-mail.com -- Jonathan Shkurko -- Cypriot coast guard forces summarily pushed back, abandoned, expelled or returned more than 200 migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers coming from Lebanon during the first week of September 2020 without giving them the opportunity to lodge asylum claims, a Human Rights Watch report released on Wednesday said. People involved reported they were threatened by both Greek and Turkish Cypriot coast guards and claimed that Greek Cypriot coast guard vessels circled them at high speeds, swamping their boats, and in at least one case abandoned them at sea without fuel and food. They also said their asylum claims were ignored and that in some cases Greek Cypriot marine police officers beat them. “Lebanese nationals are now joining Syrian refugees on boats to flee Lebanon and seek asylum in the EU, due to the severity of the crisis facing that country,” said Bill Frelick, refugee and migrant rights director at Human Rights Watch. “Cyprus should consider their claims for protection fully and fairly and treat them safely and with dignity instead of disregarding the obligations to rescue boats in distress, and not to engage in collective expulsions.”

The report saud Human Rights Watch interviewed 15 Lebanese and Syrian nationals who left Lebanon and entered or attempted to enter Cyprus or its territorial waters on one of seven boats between August 29 and September 7. UN peacekeepers in Lebanon rescued them on September 14, after at least 13 people had died or been lost at sea. According to Reuters, Cypriot authorities returned 230 people to Lebanon between September 6 and 8, a claim substantiated by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, who reported that people left Lebanon irregularly on 18 boats between August 29 and September 14, with five of them intercepted by the Lebanese naval forces while in Lebanese territorial waters.