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** Volume 13, Issue 89:
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**
“We are the story we tell about ourselves. There is an intrinsic, perhaps necessary, link between narrative and identity. In the words of the thinker who did more than most to place this idea at the center of contemporary thought, Alasdair MacIntyre, “man is in his actions and practice, as well as in his fictions, essentially a story-telling animal.”[3] ([link removed]) We come to know who we are by discovering of which story or stories we are a part.”
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**
------ Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks
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Wishing our Jewish readers, a very happy and meaningful Passover, and our Christian readers a very happy and meaningful Holy Week.
Jump to: Middle East (#Middle East) Israel (#Israel) Anti-Semitism (#Anti-Semitism)


** Iran Holds Lebanon Hostage as its Economy Collapses
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** By Hussein Aboubakr Mansour / March 26, 2021
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Lebanon is in the midst of economic and political gridlock as its politicians fail to form a government, causing a wide national, regional and international frustration. The situation is a direct result of the alignment between two political wills. Internally, the faction headed by Lebanese President Michel Aoun and politician Gebran Bassil (Aoun’s son-in-law) will not let a government be formed of which they don’t have complete control. Regionally, Iran wishes to keep Lebanon hostage in order to use it for added leverage in its negotiations with the West.

The continuing deterioration of conditions in the country—internal unrest and protests along with the close of stores and businesses with a devalued lira—does not seem to have an end in sight despite the growing popular frustration. Last Sunday, the Maronite Patriarch, Bishara Al-Ra’i, provided a politically charged sermon in which he called on the Lebanese people “to retrieve the identity of Lebanon.” In his sermon, the patriarch said: “The people are a hostage to those who are fighting for power despite all of the national and international pleas … the [Lebanese] Army is the legitimate force responsible for the defense of Lebanon and it is not permissible to legitimate the existence of any other arms besides the Army’s.”

Already in a previous speech, the Maronite Patriarch had made a public call that was described by Sa’ad Elias in the pan-Arab daily, Al-Quds Al-Arabi, as an “exceptional and historic,” akin to when the patriarchy called on Syria to withdraw from Lebanon in 2000, to drive the “second state” out of Lebanon. He was clearly speaking of Hezbollah and Iran.
(For the whole article, please click here ([link removed]) ) ([link removed])


** Upcoming EMET Webinars
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** “Understanding the Labyrinth of Israeli the Israeli Electoral Process”
Featuring Alex Traiman
Managing Director and Jerusalem Bureau Chief of JNS.org
April 5, 2021
12:00 PM EDT | 5:00 PM GMT | 7:00 PM Israel Daylight Time

“Is Israel Heading Towards a Collison Course with the Biden Administration?”
Featuring: Efraim Inbar
President of the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security and Founding Director of the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies
April 7, 2021
12:00 PM EDT | 5:00 PM GMT | 7:00 PM IDT
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** Israel
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** Israel still can't make up its mind about Netanyahu ([link removed]) - JNS
Is Israel on collision course with the Biden administration? ([link removed]) - Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security
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East Jerusalem woman recruited Israelis to Hezbollah ([link removed]) - JPost
Israel Prepares Offer of Emergency Oxygen Supplies to Meet Shortage in Lebanon ([link removed]) - The Algemeiner
Biden administration announces $15 million in covid aid to the West Bank and Gaza ([link removed]) - Haaretz



** Iran
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** Iran fires missile at Israeli owned-tanker in Arabian Sea ([link removed]) - Newsweek
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Failure to stop Iran's terror support might lead to Israel-Hezbollah war ([link removed]) - JPost
Iran must come clean about hidden uranium nuclear deal ([link removed]) - Newsweek
Iran conceals elements of nuclear activities, officials fear - The Telegraph



** Why Iran will not let Arab states join nuclear talks ([link removed]) - Atlantic Council
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** Middle East
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** Africa is a Jihadist playground for the resurgent Islamic State and al-Qaeda ([link removed]) - Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs
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Putin Prioritizes Syria. Biden Should Too. ([link removed])
- Washington Center for Near East Policy



** Dangerous Radioactive Substances Found In Oil Storage In Southern Lebanon ([link removed]) - Urdu Point
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Nobody knows why Syria matters ([link removed]) - Foreign Policy
Iraq wants new round of talks over withdrawal of remaining US combat forces ([link removed]) - Military Times


** Anti-Semitism
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**
Austrian Police File Charges vs. Jewish Students for Anti-BDS Protest ([link removed]) - Jerusalem Post
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**
Mobilized by Yom Kippur Shooting Outrage, German Teenagers in City of Halle Tackle Antisemitism Past and Present ([link removed]) -The Algemeiner
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** Palestinian Affairs
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**
'Money Laundering' for Terrorists ([link removed]) - Newsweek
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** Heard on the Hill
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** U.S. Senators Push for Broader Iran Deal, Not Return to Nuclear Pact ([link removed]) - Reuters
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Founded in 2005, The Endowment for Middle East Truth (EMET) is a Washington, D.C. based think tank and policy center with an unabashedly pro-America and pro-Israel stance. EMET (which means "truth" in Hebrew) prides itself on challenging the falsehoods and misrepresentations that abound in U.S. Middle East policy.


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