MUST-READS

• Beirut Bombings
  How Beirut bombers went after civilians – not Hizbollah

  Not long after ISIL-claimed suicide bombings killed more than 40 people on a crowded shopping street in Beirut’s Shiite majority southern suburbs last week, there was strong criticism over the media’s use of the words “Hizbollah stronghold”.

  • USA Today - Syrian refugees overwhelm Lebanon to the breaking point
  • Time - A Letter From Beirut
  • VOA - Squabbling Politicians Find Unity in Wake of Beirut Bombings
• Anti-ISIS Campaign
  Carter ‘Prepared’ To Change Rules of Engagement Against ISIS

  Speaking on the MSNBC program "Morning Joe," Carter was asked directly if the Pentagon was willing to change the rules of engagement, a touchy subject for supporters and critics of the Obama administration's air campaign in Syria and Iraq.

  • Air Force Times - A-10s and C-130s destroy Islamic State fuel trucks
• War
  3 Americans Held Captive in Yemen Freed, Flown to Oman

  Three Americans held captive by Shiite rebels in Yemen's capital have been freed and were flown to neighboring Oman, Oman's state news agency and officials in Yemen said Thursday.

  • Reuters - Islamic State claims Yemen attacks in Islamic State cities
• Tunisia
  The great Arab hope struggles

  There is only one happy story to emerge from the tumult of the Arab spring of 2011. While its neighbours succumbed to chaos, violence and renewed authoritarianism, Tunisia, the first Arab country to oust its dictator, remained on the path to peaceful democracy. There were setbacks along the way, but in 2014 the country held free and fair general and presidential elections, and adopted a relatively liberal constitution. Its reward was the Nobel peace prize, presented in October to four civil-society organisations that helped keep Tunisia on track.

• Saudi - Iran
  Perspective: Iran’s Syrian Power Grab and Saudi Arabia

  The divide between Iran and Saudi Arabia, the Middle East’s most prominent Shia and Sunni powers, respectively, has deep roots. If we are to understand what is really happening in the Middle East today – not just in Syria – one must consider the origins of the Sunni-Shia schism, the Arab-Persian divide, and past struggles over the governance of Islam.

  • Reuters - U.N. committee condemns Iranian intervention in Syria war
• Paris Attacks
  Bus driver who turned Paris attacker skipped police watch

  One of the attackers who blew himself up in Paris's Bataclan concert hall had missed at least three weekly check-ins with French police who were investigating him on suspicion of terrorism-related activity.

  • BBC - Paris attacks: Third body found in flat raided by police
• Military Sales: LCS
  No objections filed against plan to sell LCS to Saudi Arabia

  General contractor Lockheed Martin, which works with Marinette Marine for the LCS program, has said it is working to develop a construction schedule, but no dates have been made public for when work might start.

• Israel-Palestine
  Palestinian attacks in Israel and West Bank kill five

  Five people have been killed in two attacks in Israel and the occupied West Bank, officials say.

• Global Fight against Daesh
  Kremlin sees Hollande’s visit to U.S., Russia as step to anti-terrorist coalition creation

  The Kremlin believes that the forthcoming visit of French President Francois Hollande to Washington and Moscow as a step towards creation of anti-terrorist coalition, Russian Presidential aide, Yuri Ushakov, told reporters on Friday.

• Jonathan Pollard
  After 30 Years in Prison, Jonathan Pollard Is Freed, but Not to Israel

  Jonathan J. Pollard, the American convicted of spying on behalf of Israel, walked out of prison early on Friday after 30 years, the Israeli prime minister said, but the Obama administration had no plans to let him leave the country and move to Israel as he requested.

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