Netflix’s first Middle East production will bring the laughs with Adel Karam

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By Christine Persaud  - digitaltrends.com Netflix will be launching its first original production in the Middle East, and it will be a stand-up special with Lebanese comedian and actor Adel Karam. The still-to-be-named comedy special will be produced by Creative Arab Talent and will see Karam deliver his comedy stylings, which cover everything from relationships to social issues that Arabs often face. It will showcase Karam’s “distinctly Arab blend of smart, sarcastic humor,” Netflix said in a statement. The event will be filmed in Karam’s hometown of Beirut, at the Casino du Liban, which will mark the comedian’s first appearance there. The special is expected to launch to Netflix users around the world sometime in 2018.“I am very happy and excited to be a part of Netflix’s first original production to be produced in the Middle East,” Karam said in a statement. “It is a great honor and privilege and I can’t wait to embark on this new adventure.”

Netflix’s Vice President of International Originals Erik Barmack calls Karam “a very strong voice in comedy. We are extremely excited to collaborate with him, and can’t wait for the local audience, who have a deep appreciation of comedy, to watch the show, as well as to introduce him to our global audience.” In addition to appearing on many late night talk shows, Karam has also acted in a handful of Lebanese movies like the 2007 romantic-comedy film Caramel, and, most recently, as the lead character Tony in the 2017 drama The Insult, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival, and follows the media circus surrounding a Lebanese Christian (Karam) and Palestinian refugee in court.

Karam is the latest among a number of international comedians that are offering specials on Netflix, including Gad Elmaleh, a Moroccan French stand-up comedian; English comedian Jack Whitehall; and Beppe Grillo, who hails from Italy. Netflix currently offers a large roster of stand-up specials, including many from high-profile American comedians as well, like Jerry Seinfeld, Dave Chappelle, and Dana Carvey — we’ve rounded up some of the best stand-up routines on Netflix to help get you started. Other comedians will also mark their returns to stand-up, using Netflix as the preferred medium for their via specials, including Ellen DeGeneres and Chris Rock. Netflix has been giving comedy serious attention with some of its latest acquisitions and originals, including not only traditional sitcom-like series, such as Grace and Frankie and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, as well as stand-up routines like those mentioned above, but in other formats as well. Iconic comedian and actor Carol Burnett, for example, will mark her return to television with a child-oriented talk show called A Little Help With Carol Burnett that will launch in 2018.

U.S. steps up pressure on Hezbollah, offers reward for two operatives

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by Jonathan Landay WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States on Tuesday offered multimillion-dollar rewards for two officials of the Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah as the Trump administration prepared to unveil a strategy to counter Tehran’s growing regional influence. Washington will pay up to $7 million for information leading to the arrest of Talal Hamiyah, head of Hezbollah’s foreign operations, and up to $5 million for Fuad Shukr, a top Hezbollah military operative, the State Department said. The rewards are the first offered by the United States for Hezbollah operatives in a decade, Nathan Sales, the U.S. counterterrorism coordinator, told reporters. “Today’s rewards are another step to increase the pressure on them and their organization,” said Sales.

Other extremists for whom the United States is offering rewards include Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the head of Islamic State, and Mohammad Jolani, the commander of al Qaeda’s Syrian branch. Hamiyah has been on the department’s foreign terrorist list since 2015 and Shukr was added in 2013. The United States named Hezbollah as a foreign terrorist organization in 1997. Nicholas Rasmussen, the head of the National CounterTerrorism Center, blamed the group for a litany of attacks around the world, and said it maintains a presence in “nearly every corner of the globe.” Pointing to the arrests of two men in the United States in June for alleged activities on Hezbollah’s behalf, Rasmussen said that U.S. intelligence agencies assess that the group is seeking an ability to strike inside “the homeland.”

Sales signaled that as part of U.S. President Donald Trump’s soon-to-be unveiled Iran strategy, Washington would press countries that have yet to designate Hezbollah as an international terrorist group to do so. “Additionally, some countries have chosen to designate only Hezbollah’s military wing, leaving its so-called political wing untouched,” he said, apparently referring to the 28-member European Union. “But that is a false distinction. Make no mistake. Hezbollah has no political wing. It is a single organization, a terrorist organization, and it is rotten to its core.” Designating the group as a terrorist organization is “not merely symbolic,” he continued. By not doing so, he said, countries “limit other governments’ ability to freeze Hezbollah’s assets, to shut down its front companies, to eliminate its fund-raising and recruiting capabilities and to prosecute Hezbolah associated networks. The United States will need allies in this fight.” But winning support for an intensified campaign against Hezbollah could prove difficult for the administration. The powerful Iran-backed organization is part of Lebanon’s fragile coalition government and commands enormous support for the social services it provides. Reporting by Jonathan Landay, writing by David Alexander; editing by Eric Beech and Jonathan Oatis

US Donates Super Tucano Aircrafts to Lebanese Army

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by Daily Star.com.lb Citing a senior military source, Al-Hayat newspaper said that in the coming week Lebanon would receive two of six Super Tucanos that the Army is set to obtain from United States’ support programs for the military. Lebanese pilots and support crew have been training in the U.S. for months. The source told Al-Hayat that the planes will travel to Lebanon from the U.S. by air, and will have to stop en route to refuel. It also added that “negotiations to strengthen the Army’s capabilities are in accordance with the plan prepared by the leadership.” It also noted that “Many countries have offered to provide assistance to the Army on several levels.” “The meeting held Friday with U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Elizabeth Richard and Britain’s Ambassador Hugo Shorter was excellent and promising,” the source said, adding that “military command presented the Army’s needs [in terms of] weapons, ammunition, equipment and expertise to the ambassadors.”

“[The request] received a positive response and willingness to approve it,” the source noted, reiterating that “Shorter assured the Army head Gen. Joseph Aoun that London had decided to increase its assistance to the army, stressing that his country is serious in enabling the Army to carry out its tasks, especially the preservation of borders.” Although there has been no official confirmation, the paper said Gen. Aoun was set to undertake his delayed visit to Washington “in the last week of this month” to meet with officials overseeing the development of military grants. The Lebanese Army was unavailable for comment on the reported trip Sunday. It was reported in April 2017 that Lebanese pilots in the U.S. had begun their first in-flight training on A-29 Super Tucanos. The planes will be the latest additions to the military’s small air force. Currently, the Army only operates a handful of armed fixed-wing planes – though those aircraft have seen heavy use. “It was [the pilot’s] first flight in the aircraft so it was a great opportunity for him to get oriented in the A-29 and how it flies,” an American trainer at Moody Air Force Base in Georgia, where the squadron is based, said in a statement provided by the U.S. military at the time.

Sources close to the Lebanese security forces confirmed that the training happened as part of a routine workshop that takes place between Lebanon and the U.S. The current program aims to train 12 pilots and 20 maintenance workers to independently operate the aircraft. “These guys will be fully trained, operational combat pilots in the A-29 aircraft,” the American trainer said. Training began March 2017 and once the program is complete, the Lebanese Army will receive six aircraft, each armed with a pair of .50-caliber machine guns. The original deal struck with the United States also includes 2,000 “Advanced Precision Kill Weapon Systems” – laser-guided missiles that can be added to the A-29. The Super Tucano was originally designed for close air support missions, light attack missions, and reconnaissance.

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Lebanese Central Bank Official Highlights Financial Impact of Syrian Crisis

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By Amol Rajesh -- As the humanitarian crisis of the Syrian Civil War claims thousands of lives in the Middle East, it has also costed the economies of neighboring countries billions of dollars, including Lebanon, said Raed H. Charafeddine, first vice-governor at Lebanon’s central bank, Banque du Liban. “Taking into account an extended political deadlock, global financial volatility, the conflict has cost Lebanon more than $14.4 billion so far, equivalent to a cumulative loss of almost 30 percent of our GDP,” Charafeddine said. A large of the cost was driven by Syrian families who escaped deadly violence at home and found safety in Lebanon, he said. “The displaced Syrians have accounted for 40 percent of total primary health care visits. This has made it harder for Lebanese nationals to get access to health care,” Charafeddine said. Refugees have put a strain on the Lebanese health sector, with the number of displaced individuals now constituting a third of the Lebanese population, according to Charafeddine. “The majority of the displaced Syrians live in 225 of the poorest localities in Lebanon, which has exacerbated the suffering of the Lebanese people,” he said.

Since the Syrian war, the Lebanese tourism, banking and real estate industries were hit by the crisis itself, not by the refugee population, Al Jazeera reported in July. Consumption and investment among refugees have reportedly helped alleviate some of the costs associated with the influx. Syrian refugees pay more than $1 million in daily rent across Lebanon and spend more than $22 million every month on food, the report said. While the refugee influx has placed a burden on Lebanese public services and infrastructure, the report said that Syrians have “bolstered” Lebanon’s economy by working in local businesses and contributing to rental property owners and the real estate market. Charafeddine said in his lecture that Lebanese officials outlined a comprehensive proposal in 2015 which incorporated actors from the international community. From the central bank’s perspective, Charafeddine said the magnitude of the impact of the war on its assets has been colossal.

“The conflict has put pressure on the reserves of the Central Bank because every year $2 billion of our reserves are depleted and are going out of Lebanon,” he said. In response to the extensive economic effects of the Syrian crisis, Charafeddine called on other nations to be more responsive to Lebanon’s requests for aid. “Lebanon is in a difficult situation. It faces the substantial cost of hosting displaced Syrians, but without the ability to sufficiently acquire the global support needed to manage this burden successfully,” he said. “The plan covers the refugees needs from 2016-20 and requires over $11 billion in support from donor countries, ranging from grants, to loans for development projects,” Charafeddine said. The plan was drafted to improve refugee conditions by making investments in education, infrastructure and employment programs, he said. With regards to international donors, Charafeddine discussed the gap between what is being said and what is being done. “Between the pledged amounts and the dispersed amounts, the gap is 50 percent,” he said. Charafeddine talked about investments which would yield long-term benefits to the refugees and the Lebanese people. “Funding for infrastructure, would not only provide job opportunities for Lebanese and Syrians, it would also lay the foundation for all inclusive improvements in productivity, growth, employment and development,” he said.

Lebanese Shiites form front against Hezbollah

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By  Arab News -  A recent meeting of around 60 public Shiite figures in Beirut, including university professors, writers, journalists and business people, has triggered a series of negative responses on social media.
The group said: “We are a group of democratic Lebanese citizens from the Shiite community, and our main concern is the establishment of a just and capable state, and the Shiite community is but a part of our work and activity, especially as parliamentary elections approach with an electoral law which still requires candidates to have sectarian affiliation.” The response on social media — accusations of “treason” and cries of “embassy’s Shiites,” a derisory term used by Hezbollah to discredit its opponents by implying they are in the pay of foreign governments — was expected, according to Dr. Harith Sulaiman, an academic and one of the prominent group members.

“We face offensive rumors if we take an independent stand against the Shiite duo of Hezbollah and Amal. We know we’ll pay for it,” he said. “I have been a political activist and patriot for the last 40 years; I studied in France and I might have had certain ambitions, but I did not try to achieve my goals through either of the two Shiite powers. I’ve now decided to retire because I do not want to follow either of them.”
The group stated that their meeting was “evidence we don’t plan on establishing a political party or a Shiite organization, but that we are keen on finding a political climate that is convenient for all Lebanese people and through which they can perform their duties and receive their rights. Our meeting today is not a fleeting one, but the beginning of establishing a national opposition front that will correct the division of Lebanese politics.
“During the meeting, it was agreed that the quota policy has disrupted and paralyzed government agencies and changed Lebanon’s direction toward serving regional agendas, which, if continued, will eventually lead to the fragmentation and demise of Lebanon,” the group’s statement continued. “From here, we call for searching for ways out after the country was brought to a state of intransigence. It is time for a Lebanese civil state to be established, and it should start with the parliamentary elections.”

Media worker and civil activist Ali Al-Amin pointed out that the meeting brought together left-wingers, conservatives and civil activists from South Lebanon, Bekaa and Beirut. They do not share the same ideology but they do share a desire for a civil state. “The appeal we made is a founding statement for this common space,” he said. “There exists a Shiite dilemma in Lebanon: We can’t dream of being able to break Hezbollah’s dominance. Hezbollah is a regional armed force that uses its power to practice sectarian mobilization, and it is troubled by the existence of Shiites who declare that they oppose its policies and ideologies. We are paying for our stances against the campaigns that accused us of treachery, and we have been oppressed on several occasions. Any Shiite who opposes Hezbollah is accused of treason.” Shiite figures in the meeting agreed that Hezbollah’s sectarian mobilization had begun to escalate in 2006 after Israel’s war on Lebanon, and continued during its fight alongside Syria “when they switched from calling for a fight against Israel to calling for a holy war — jihad.”

However, the group believes the upcoming parliamentary elections, based on the new law that adopts proportional representation, are an opportunity for achieving a ballot-box breakthrough.
“In the last quarter-century, we haven’t seen any breakthroughs in electoral lists in which the Shiite duo is allied — neither in the south nor in Baalbek-Hermel,” Al-Amin said. “This is an indication to any observer that there are no elections in these areas, but rather the use of the organs of state to exert influence over them. Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah once said, ‘We are headed to a referendum, not an election.’ For us, sovereignty is a matter of vital importance and we have the right to tell them they’re committing forgery and violating the law.”

The independent Shiite figures believe the outcome of last year’s municipal elections, in which some individuals overcame the traditional Shiite alliance, offers cause for optimism. They do not believe there is a contradiction between their call for a civil state and using a unified Shiite front to achieve it. “The Lebanese regime divided us into sects and regions, so what (are we) supposed to do? There is a Shiite problem and if certain figures are not replaced, nothing will change,” businessman Kareem Marwa said. “Lebanon is governed by the balance of powers. We know this, but we wish to say that we are Lebanese and Arabs, and the new election law may either allow for a seat or not, but it’s our duty to provide the people of Lebanon — especially Shiites — with options if we wish the state to come first.”

Journalist Kassem Kassir, a close associate of Hezbollah, doubts that these figures will remain united when it comes to their electoral project because he believes “they have nothing in common — on the contrary, actually; there are conflicts between them. Moreover, they have already attempted to form groups but were marginalized by the electoral alliances between the March 14 Forces and the Shiite duo.”
Kassir said he believes “these figures are trying to seize the opportunity and take advantage of a regional event to unite as opposition to Hezbollah. However, these figures form an elite group that does not constitute a popular cause, so how will it survive the parliamentary elections without powerful electoral support?”

But Dr. Sulaiman’s vision goes beyond the parliamentary elections. “In the light of Hezbollah’s involvement in the Syrian mess, what we’re doing is protecting our people from death,” he said. “Every day I go to the university and see the walls filled with photos of students I’ve known being mourned by Hezbollah; I find it quite painful. When they fought Israel, we used to say ‘May they rest in peace,’ but the tragedy is greater today because those young people are fighting in defense of Bashar Assad. Those young men are dying thrice: Once because they died, once because they fought the wrong battle, and once because they are supporting a tyrannical ruler. The reason why we’re here is that we appeal for the truth and want to say ‘Enough is enough’ and defend our youth.”

“We cannot despise our students, relatives or neighbors — what we do is because we love them and wish to protect them from death,” he continued. “Those who are responsible for their harm are the ones who said ‘We will be wherever we must be.’ It is the responsibility of Qasem Soleimani because it means we must be whatever Iran wishes us to be, and this is unacceptable. We are more concerned about the Hezbollah youth than about Iran and Hezbollah’s leadership.”