News Round Up (15 May 2011)

Anthony Shadid and Joshua Landis in 10 minute radio clip on Syria – NPR

Syrian Sources say there was no shelling in Homs by tanks or anything else, as was reported in the press.

From a trusted friend in Syria:

Was in Homs again yesterday. We saw no evidence of shelling anywhere and most of the town was normal. One neighborhood, Bab Amr was blocked off and deserted. Was also in Aleppo and I think the story of thousands of students at the university was also exagerrated. More like 100. People there told me Aleppo is really normal and very few demonstrations have happened.

Golan: http://youtu.be/ekgkuAaTjPg – Syrians crossing into the Golan – Mundasiin?

From NYTimes: In the Golan Heights, about 100 Palestinians living in Syria breached a border fence and crowded into the village of Majdal Shams, waving Palestinian flags. Troops fired on the crowd, killing four people. The border unrest could represent a new phase in the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad of Syria.

LA Times [Reg]: SYRIA: Videos show large student protest in Aleppo, the second largest city, 2011-05-12

Anthony Shadid in NYTimes – in Homs, and residents reported that… after a day of shelling and gunfire, and sporadic shots heard before dawn, the area was relatively quiet, a resident there, Abu Haydar, said by telephone.

One of the few Western journalists who has been able to get in to Syria to see the protests there and the crackdown by the regime of President Bashar Assad says he was “surprised at how much support President Assad himself still has.”

Martin Fletcher, associate editor at The Times of London, spoke with All Things Considered host Robert Siegel earlier today.

Fletcher just left Syria after six days there (during which he posed as a tourist; more on that below) and says that while the outside world has gotten the impression that most Syrians are rising up against Assad, he came away thinking things are more complicated.

“People hate the people around [Assad],” Fletcher said, “for their corruption; for their brutality.” But many of the Syrians he met, still believe that the president is something of a reformer and they “like the way he stands up to the United States and Israel.”

Others, Fletcher added, buy into the idea that if Assad were to step down then sectarian violence might flare. That’s a theory that Syrian writer Yassin Haj Saleh told Robert earlier this week is nothing more than “blackmail” coming from the Assad regime.

As for how he was able to do his work while in Syria, Fletcher said he left behind many of journalism’s modern tools — particularly his laptop. He took a new cellphone with no phone numbers programmed into it so that authorities couldn’t search it for contacts. And he wrote his reports in long-hand, before dictating them over the phone to his newsroom back in London….

Authorities and protesters split on whether Syrian rebellion is over
Phil Sands in Syria reports for the National

…….. Many Syrians – arguably the overwhelming majority, although reliably canvassing public opinion is impossible – believe Mr Assad should be given time and space to deliver on his promises.

His opponents insist, however, that the president is either unwilling or unable to bring about real political change to the autocratic system of government established four decades ago by his father and predecessor as president, Hafez al Assad.

Mr Amin, the former government official, insisted that the younger Assad can still be an agent of reform and that the outbreak of demonstrations had shown Syria’s elite they can no longer do business as they have done for the past 40 years. “After this crisis, the authorities understand that now they need to be serious about reforms, political and economic, that they must do it and do it now,” he said. “There will be big changes. The leadership understands the problems on the ground.”

That view, however, was brushed aside by an adviser to the government who said he saw little sign the increased freedoms and equality of opportunity demanded by Syrians would materialise .

“They are still living from Friday to Friday. It’s crisis management. There is no long-term strategy,” he said. “I don’t see them having the map that shows the way out of this.”

While anecdotally there is protest fatigue among many Syrians, the young activists playing a key role in the uprising have not been deterred by arrests, beatings and other acts of intimidation.

One dissident released by the security services after being arrested for the first time and jailed for more than two weeks said: “They made me sign a promise that I would not go to another protest, but of course I will.”

He said he had been beaten by his interrogators every day and had shared a cell with dozens of other activists and ordinary people gobbled up in mass arbitrary arrests.

“After that, I’m less afraid than before,” he said. “There is still fear, but not so much as there was. The protests are not finished, the military solution hasn’t stopped this.

“It will stop when we can walk freely in the street without the security coming and arresting us for no reason. It will stop when I’m allowed to live my life.”

[email protected]

Khaddam to Israeli Channel2: “NATO & Turkish forces will finish off the Assad regime in weeks!”

Residents fleeing Syrian town tell of arrests, terror Washington Post

WSJ [Reg]: Syria’s Sluggish Economy Adds to Regime’s Troubles, 2011-05-16

DAMASCUS—The Syrian government, stuck in a stalemate with protesters, also is facing the longer-term challenge of keeping the country’s already creaky economy from collapsing. As in Egypt and Tunisia, economic woes played a part in the protests …

Erdogan on Charlie Rose: A friend writes:

Watching Erdogan on Charlie Rose now. He said: “I’ve sat beside Bashar in the passenger seat several times while he drove his car in Damascus and around Syria. We used to get out of the car often in the streets and I know for a fact that the Syrian people love him. I saw this first hand”.. “we are talking to the Syrian government and to the Syrian opposition”… “I asked president Bashar to deliver the reforms he his doing today a year ago. Syria was late”…”I wish Syria stability and safety but this is in the hands of the Syrian people”

Inside Story – Turkey’s changing tunes on Syria

U.S., EU prod nuclear agency over Syria, 2011-05-15

WASHINGTON, May 15 (UPI) — The secretive nuclear program in violence-wracked Syria should be investigated further by international regulators, the United States and European Union say.

The allies have been lobbying the International Atomic Energy Agency to step up pressure on Damascus to disclose its nuclear history and plans, The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday.

The renewed push would place more pressure on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who has been battling anti-government protesters for three months and is resisting calls to step down.

“We’re looking to increasingly isolate Assad,” said a European official who asked not to be identified…..

Syria: Britain Pushes for Sanctions for Bashar Al-Assad
2011-05-12, Bruno Waterfield

May 12 (Telegraph) — Britain has proposed that President Bashar al-Assad and four of his inner circle be added to a Brussels travel ban and asset freeze list as EU warned the “net was tightening” around the Syrian leader. Britain and France were angered last week after EU divisions prevented the Syrian president being added to a list of 13 officials targeted with sanctions, but such differences now appear to have been overcome. “It will only be a matter of days until he is added,” one official said.

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Syria Press Release:

Today Dr Sami Khiyami, Syria’s Ambassador to the United Kingdom, issued the following statement:
“Her Excellency Mrs Al-Assad and her three children are not in the UK. The First Lady is in Damascus, focusing on internal issues including her programme of empowerment of the Syrian people. Her children are also in Damascus and, contrary to these ill-intended rumours, only hold a Syrian passport.”

Clinton: “The US to increase the pressure on Syria”

(Reuters)- “… “We are going to hold the Syrian government accountable,” she said after meeting the Danish foreign minister. “The United States along with Denmark and other colleagues are going to look for ways to increase the pressure.”…”

Germany, European Partners Summon Syrian Ambassadors, Threaten More Sanctions
By Associated Press

May 11 (Washington Post) — BERLIN Germany says several European countries are summoning Syrian ambassadors and threatening new sanctions targeting the countrys leadership if it doesnt halt the repression of protesters.

What Regime Change in Syria Would Mean
Paul R. Pillar, March 29, 2011

Accelerating unrest in Syria, with the regime scrambling to find some combination of concession and repression to stay in power, has regime change juices in the United States flowing. The Washington Post editorial page says “it is time to recognize that Syria’s ruler is an unredeemable thug—and that the incipient domestic uprising offers a potentially precious opportunity.” Elliott Abrams declares that with regimes “falling like dominoes” in the Middle East, “Syria is next.” He issues a clarion call to rid the world of the “murderous clan” and “bloody regime” of Bashar al-Assad…..

The talking up of the idea of toppling Assad exhibits some of the same shortcomings, however, as earlier agitation for changes of regime elsewhere. There is underestimation of how much worthwhile business could be conducted with the incumbent regime, however distasteful it may be. There is overestimation of how much the policies of the country in question are specific to the incumbent regime, and thus overestimation as well of how much change in those policies would ensue from a change of regime. There is also a general failure to think much about who or what would replace the current regime. ….

BBC: Inside Syria’s ‘windowless basements’, 2011-05-11

Syria authorities have banned foreign journalists from entering the country, but Times’ chief foreign correspondent Martin Fletcher attempted to enter the country as a tourist. He was arrested by the authorities, taken to a windowless basement …

Time.com – No Sectarian Rifts

The activists insist that theirs is not a sectarian agenda, despite the regime’s attempts to portray them as Islamists. There is real cross-sectarian support for the protests, they say. They have a good case: represented among the activists working in the flat is the full cross-section of Syrian society — Sunni Muslim, Alawite, Druze, and Christian. The group even helped to disseminate a popular chant that has helped to minimize sectarian rifts: “One, One, The Syrian People, We are One.”

Hassan, a younger activist hailing from Lattakia, is unimpressed at suggestions the Alawite minority is on the regime’s side just because they are tied by religion to the ruling Assad family. “In the end, we are all Syrian. This regime is not Alawite, it’s Al-Assad’s regime, his private club and mafia. Even Alawites don’t like it”. And so he finds himself, an Alawite, fighting an uprising against an Alawite regime.

Note from Kenan MD MRCS MSc ORTH – Syrian in England:

I do not believe that there is no alternative for Assad rule, Syria is stronger than one person and it will endure this hardship but I do not think he will. in the eyes of so many people the regime which killed so many (more than 800) has lost its legitimacy. Syria is just like any other country have structural issues, and I compare the problem of jihadist fundamentalist with the west problem of racism and fascism which grew under dictatorships but is kept in check in real democracy which-for the first time ever- we have a realistic chance it will emerge. Do not be taken yourself by the regime tactics of scaremongering well illustrated by Rami Makhlouf interview with the New York Times. After more than 50 years Rule of Baathist we have more sectarianism and fundamentalism than we ever had and letting this squashed with no legitimate answer to the blood spilled will only seed the sectarian war we are all worried about. We should not give the Syrian regime any comfort that his siege and counter misinformation is working, because it will not work in this new information age. The issue of killed military personnel is interesting, there have been many credible reports about soldiers being killed for refusing to fire on protestors or joining them. There are many Videos confirming this including one showing people in Deraa giving medical support to wounded soldiers. I have not seen a single credible evidence produced by the government of the alleged Salafis they are fighting.

Report: Syrian Troops Shelling Residential Areas
By ZEINA KARAM 2011-05-11

BEIRUT (AP) — The Syrian army shelled residential areas in central Syria on Wednesday, a sharp escalation in the government’s attempts to crush a popular revolt against President Bashar Assad’s rule, according to activists and witnesses.

Heavy gunfire was heard as at least three residential neighborhoods were hit by tank fire in the besieged city of Homs, which has experienced some of the largest anti-government demonstrations in recent weeks. “There were loud explosions and gunfire from automatic rifles throughout the night and until this morning,” a frightened resident told The Associated Press by telephone. “The area is totally besieged. We are being shelled.”

Activists in Damascus who were in touch with residents also reported shelling in Homs, Syria’s third-largest city and home to one of its two oil refineries. The witnesses and activists, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they feared reprisals, said the shelling was targeting the Bab Sbaa, Bab Amr and Jouret el Aris neighborhoods. The eyewitness said several people who fled Bab Sbaa through fields told him the area was badly damaged and that the shelling seemed indiscriminate. Syrian authorities are determined to crush the uprising,…

AlexRodriguez writes:

Khaled Meshaal, exiled Hamas leader based from Damascus, calls the Arab spring beautiful (9:00) and that freedom and democracy is needed in Syria (10:35) during his interview with France 24 in Cairo at the sidelines of the recent reconciliation ceremony with Fatah.

Syria’s regional role offers a way out
By Sami Moubayed

DAMASCUS – There are two views about how to deal with the snowballing crisis that is emerging between Damascus and the international community. One says that strained relations with both the United States and Europe are not as bad as they seems – claiming that Syria has been here before. Another argument goes that Damascus cannot live in isolation, having worked very hard at repairing damaged relations with Paris and Washington.

Yassin Haj Saleh’s last article, in al-Hayat, in Arabic

Kilo’s, here and here

KURDS

The Syrian Studies Association announces the publication of the latest issue of the Syrian Studies Association Newsletter, XVI: 1 (Spring 2011) at: https://ojcs.siue.edu/ojs/index.php/ssa/index

Click on TABLE OF CONTENTS to access the issue and/or individual articles.

This thematic focus of this issue is on the Kurds of Syria. A “state of the art” article by

  • Prof. Jordi Tejel is the definitive word as of now on the study of the Kurds in Syria including a review of the history of the scholarship since the beginning of the French mandate and a 6-page bibliography.
  • Dr. Robert Lowe offers insights on the challenges and opportunities facing scholars of the Kurds of Syria;
  • Eva Savelsberg and Siamend Hajo provide an assessment of Bashar al-Asad’s reign for relations between Kurds and the Syrian state; and
  • Prof. Paolo Pinto explains the social, political, and cultural significance of Sufism among Kurds in Syria.

Two book reviews, one of

  • Prof. Tejel’s *Syria’s Kurds: History, Politics, and Society* (2009) and one of a book in Turkish on Syria’s undocumented Kurds, round out coverage of this topic.

In addition, there are reviews of books on Syrian Jewry during the Tanzimat period; European images of Damascus from the mid-19th and early 20th centuries; Syrian migrant workers in Lebanon; the economics of the early Islamic period in Syria; and on Syrian-Iranian relations during the 1980s as well as a letter from the Association’s president and news of the association.

The SSA is an international association organized to encourage and promote research and scholarly understanding of Syria in all periods and in all academic disciplines.

Geoffrey Robertson, a former U.N. judge and author of Crimes Against Humanity – How to prosecute Syria for Crimes

Document reveals Israel stripped 140,000 Palestinians of residency rights.

(Reuters) – Turkish security forces killed at least 12 Kurdish militants

after they were spotted crossing the border from Iraq, the military said on Saturday, while a soldier was killed by a mine blast.

The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) guerrillas were killed during operations Friday and early Saturday in the southeast province of Sirnak, the military statement said.

The soldier died in Hakkari, another insurgency-plagued province bordering both Iran and Iraq, state-run Antaolian news agency said. Some PKK fighters operate from bases in the Qandil Mountains of northern Iraq.

The PKK ended a six-month ceasefire in February and there have been fears of rising violence before a parliamentary election on June 12 that is expected to result in a comfortable third successive victory for Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan’s AK Party.

<b>Jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan has threatened “war” unless the government enters talks after the election to end a separatist conflict that has dragged on for 27 years, killing more than 40,000 people.</b>

The PKK last week claimed responsibility for an ambush that killed a police officer and wounded another in the northern Black Sea province of Kastamonu after an election rally by Erdogan, and two more police were killed this week.

The PKK says police have been attacked in retaliation for operations and arrests in the southeast. Erdogan has accused the militants of being behind several petrol bomb attacks on the offices of his AK Party.

Erdogan Says Assad Must Take Immediate Steps to Democracy
2011-05-12  By Benjamin Harvey

May 12 (Bloomberg) — Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Syrian leader Bashar Al-Assad can’t deny his people’s “indispensible requests for peace and democracy.”

Assad should take immediate democratic steps as the momentum toward democracy in the Middle East is “irreversible,” Erdogan said in an interview with PBS’s Charlie Rose in Ankara aired today. Turkey views the situation in Syria as almost “like a domestic affair” because of the 800-kilometer (500-mile) border and close relations between the two countries, Erdogan said.

Assad is “a good friend of mine,” and the two have had “long conversations” about changing the election system, permitting the formation of political parties and releasing political prisoners in Syria, Erdogan said.

Marwan writes:

Mr JOSHUA LANDIS About two months later I sent you email and the days proved what I said. I read your essay  What Will a Post Assad Syria Look Like?  and I have some notes:

The first note about Syrian army , I want to tell you about some thing until now Syria Special Forces and Syrian elite units  never have interfered  or entered in the cities and if it happened it occurred into limited range, so when you speak  about split this is very unlikely  because if these units didn’t split I thing special forces and elite units won’t be split and this idea made by Media and there isn’t  real reasons to this splite because I know Syrian army  and how the army discipline.

I think  you know our army ideological army and our army not army for parades. Second  note. our economy very stable and strong so I  astonished when you speak about  the government won’t be able to pay wages. Third note . in my opinion  Syria and Syrian people  have passed the critical situation “civil  war”  and this is the most important  issue in this  crisis. With my best regards

Abraham

I found your article uncharacteristically pessimistic. Despite my own apprehensions I am cautiously optimistic that events in Syria will not spiral out of control nor descend into chaos or civil war. You might be most pessimistic when the news is at its worst as am I. We need to step back and look at the whole flawed picture.

The Assad regime is certainly responsible for much of the deterioration, especially with the restriction of outside news media, ruthless tactics of suppression (even with the existence of armed elements bent on vitiating the nature flow of the a small but genuine populist movement) and poor PR, especially with the disastrous Rami Makkhlouf interview. However, when take the macro view, there seem to be fewer and fewer protesters as time passes. This is directly opposite what happened in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya, even though this is an not apples to apples comparison.

Syrians, as you know, instinctively eschew chaos and pandemonium. I think this will allow Bashar more time in which if he is realistic and serious about meeting the people’s legitimate demands and not just trying to preserve the family dynasty, we may have a much better outcome than any of us could have imagined. If that is wishful thinking, than I am still an idealist and the scenario you laid out will prove me wrong.

Susan D.

Dear Joshua,

The emails from Syria Comment with the headlines you run are shocking me these days. You seem to have taken a “line” in the choice of headlines and in your comments, which is quite contrary to everyone I spoke to in Damascus over Easter (Sunnis, Alawis), and people I have spoken to in Australia from the Lebanese and Syrian community….

I fear for the future of Syria and its people but you seem to be blase about it and trust the protesters as if you could equate them with the protesters in Cairo, or those anti-war protesters in Europe pre-Iraq war.

What about the resignations of Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya reporters? What about the call from Qaradawi, what about the Salafists, what about the weapons and money found, what about the soldiers killed, what about Khadam, Bandar bin-Sultan, Hariri, and their hand in things. What about the US long-term plan to destabilize Syria? What about Israel’s use of agents in Syria and Lebanon and its plans? What about the collapse of a country and the possible killings of tens of thousands of people?? What about secular Syria??….

Robert B. Zoellick, World Bank:

Jobs, Jobs, and More Jobs

Legitimate institutions and empowered citizens can make a big difference. But citizens still need jobs.

In the Middle East, regimes have tried to keep a lid on rising unemployment with a mix of political repression, public sector jobs, and subsidies on food, fuel and other necessities.

These measures bought time, but little else.

Expensive and inefficient, they have fed nepotism not need; cronyism not competitiveness; corruption not capitalism.

The International Labor Organization estimates that the unemployment rate for 15 to 24 year olds in the Middle East is 25 percent. Our survey of 1,500 youth found that the self declared or perceived jobless rate was even higher, at 35 to 40 percent. Young women in Egypt and Jordan confront unemployment of 40 percent.

The direct opportunity cost of youth unemployment in the Arab world is estimated at up to $50 billion a year.

Governments in the Middle East now face huge expectations from their young populations – they want jobs now. Inaction poses risks. So will the wrong actions.

Policy reform will be as important as money.

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Comments (310)


Abughassan said:

The more khaddam talks the more the regime laughs. Outsiders,for the most part, played a negative role in this uprising. They are not the ones who got killed or arrested and they are not the ones who are poor and unemployed. Syria will be better off if Syrians inside Syria figures a way out of this mess. The talk by khaddam and others about using force or internationalizing this crisis is insane and going nowhere. What about providing material help to those who need money to survive instead of begging foreign nations to send their troops?
Another way to help is boycotting the likes of Makhlouf and corrupt officials and making sure that you send clear messages to the Syrian government demanding reform and the end of police state?
This uprising has to move to a more civil and peaceful phase. You do not need to carry a gun to change a government.

May 15th, 2011, 11:55 pm

 

Syria no kandahar said:

Turning Syria from secular nation to islamic nation is the best way to secur that it will go backward hundred years and be stock with nonsense goals for many years to come . Look at Egypt run by the beards these days the government didt have the balls to place on single christian mayor and the whole army leadership chickened out in front mad angry Iceland mentality ages salafi.The issue of one person religion became a national problem ending up in 16 deaths and burning a church.who cares if she decides to be Muslim or Christian or budhist or hendo. Why would salafi and wahabi care about somebodies else personal decision what is there reaction if a Muslim woman decides to become Christian ?are the going to help here with here decision then or are they going to burn mosques.why do need to import this carbage to Syria .it is not too late.Syria is one of the few nations in the world where people lived in real harmony together.don’t destroy our beautiful nation.if you don’t like the regime don’t let people who don’t like the light take away the goodness you have in it.

May 16th, 2011, 12:30 am

 

Syria no kandahar said:

NK
I didt have time to finish the discussion with you earlier so don’t feel you won.
So the occlusion I get from the answer to my question as per your answer :is no there is not even one single example on the face of the earth that applying the Sunna and Quran in modern societies -which is the core of MB program-has been successful in producing one good example for the syrians to look forward to. right?.then you give different reasons why this is the case.right?.then you try the Syrian mokabarat way to draw a conclusion from my question that I am saying somthing I never said.right?
Open your eyes and your ears if there is not even one single example that this is going to be a working formula why do insest that Syrians should swallow it.the holly Quran ,the bible etc are all ways to organize your relationship with good they are ment to make us all better people.what is going to be your feeling if you walk up tomorrow and say you live in France and you learned that they have decided to apply the bible to the society .you will as Muslim have to show respect and fast in public 50 days before Easter in addition to your Ramadan days.you will also have to drink alcohol and eat pork.this is much modified copmarasion because we are not talking about cutting hands stonning or all the other stuff if you flip things around.but just to give you an idia in case you were enjoying a secular cultur not infected by a disease which you are trying to introduce to Syria.
So I have to tell you again:
Syria+MB=MB=-0

May 16th, 2011, 4:02 am

 

Aboud said:

“Was in Homs again yesterday. We saw no evidence of shelling anywhere and most of the town was normal One neighborhood, Bab Amr was blocked off and deserted”

*facepalm* Seriously, how dumb does Landis think his readers are? What a completely misleading sentence. See how it leads with “no evidence of shelling anywhere”, and then goes on to say that “Bab Amr is blocked off”.

It was in Bab Amr that the shelling took place. If Landis’ “trusted source” couldn’t be bothered to go to Bab Amr and see the destruction for himself, then fine, but he has NO BUSINESS saying that there was no shelling. Half of Homs heard the shelling for God’s sake, it went on for three hours!

May 16th, 2011, 5:13 am

 

Aboud said:

Also, the article “Authorities and protesters split on whether Syrian rebellion is over” is from a newspaper in the UAE, which has a vested interest in Bashar’s survival.

“Anecdotal” evidence on the ground suggests nothing of the sort, and in fact it is the security forces that are getting fed up and worn down. For example, why is it necessary to keep the entire 4th Division down in the south? Because the regular army units have proven unwilling or unable to carry out the same role. It is taking a massive investment of manpower to deal with a small town like Telkelakh.

May 16th, 2011, 5:19 am

 

NK said:

Syria no Kandahar

The reason I asked those questions is kinda explained in my last post in response to Mina in the previous entry. I’m in no way asking Syrians to swallow anything, certainly not asking them to allow the MB or any religious group to turn Syria in a theocracy, my comments to you were not in defense of the MB but in protest of your subtle attack on Islam under the cover of attacking the MB. Which you’re doing again in your last comment.

By the way, cutting hands among other extreme punishments was in the bible long before Islam, so if France is to adapt “Christian law” they will start to chop limbs for far lesser sins, just so you know.

May 16th, 2011, 5:39 am

 

Majhool said:

Shame Shame.

Dr. Landis,

Norman would testify that the street in the video below is Bab Sba’ in Homs.

As you can see there is a tank firing. Not shells but high caliber weapon ..

May 16th, 2011, 5:47 am

 

John Khouri said:

Aboud & majhool,

homsi life is back to normal . Shops are open and everyone is back to living the normal life. I live 5 minutes from bab sba. everything is normal their. No tanks and no security forces. The only problem area I’n Homs is bab omr and that is closed off by the military. Majhool – the street I’n the video is I’n bab omr. i have yet to see any videos showing damage done to buildings anywhere I’n Syria from tank shellings. University life is as normal and my cousins continue to work I’n their jobs I’n Homs as normal. We no longer live I’n fear of these thugs and diesel smugglers who tried to tear our lives apart. Every Single homsi knows who and what the people of Tal kalakh and bab Omr and khaldieh have in mind when they protest. Come to Syria and ask 95% of it’s citizens, how much praise we have for the army deployment. Get away from ur computer and visit Homs and see first hand how life is back to normal . Stop with the gossip and fetni

May 16th, 2011, 6:07 am

 

John khouri said:

Aboud & majhool,

homsi life is back to normal . Shops are open and everyone is back to living the normal life. I live 5 minutes from bab sba. everything is normal their. No tanks and no security forces. The only problem area I\’n Homs is bab omr and that is closed off by the military. Majhool – the street I\’n the video is I\’n bab omr. i have yet to see any videos showing damage done to buildings anywhere I\’n Syria from tank shellings. University life is as normal and my cousins continue to work I\’n their jobs I\’n Homs as normal. We no longer live I\’n fear of these thugs and diesel smugglers who tried to tear our lives apart. Every Single homsi knows who and what the people of Tal kalakh and bab Omr and khaldieh have in mind when they protest. Come to Syria and ask 95% of it\’s citizens, how much praise we have for the army deployment. Get away from ur computer and visit Homs and see first hand how life is back to normal . Stop with the gossip and fetni

May 16th, 2011, 6:11 am

 

Aboud said:

Shameful. And I suppose next week Landis will say there was no shelling in Telkelakh either.

And the reason there is no army in Homs is because they all went to Telkelakh, which proves that the regime has a very limited number of units they think they can rely on to carry out such atrocities.

May 16th, 2011, 6:33 am

 

Souri333 (formerly Souri) said:

6. NK,

“cutting hands among other extreme punishments was in the bible long before Islam”

Did you get that from a Wahhabi fatwa? It is not true.

May 16th, 2011, 6:47 am

 

Souri333 (formerly Souri) said:

Many keep repeating the term “theocracy.” Syria and the Muslim world rarely had a theocracy if ever. The Islamic republic of modern Iran is an exception in Islamic history.

Nobody was ever concerned about a “theocracy” emerging in Syria. What we are concerned about is the emergence of a non-national sectarianist regime like the one that rules Iraq and Lebanon (American-Wahhabi dream) or an Islamist regime (MB dream).

May 16th, 2011, 6:57 am

 

Syria no kandahar said:

NK
Cutting hands was in the bible!!! I gave up . You won.

May 16th, 2011, 7:17 am

 

John khouri said:

Aboud –

The Syrian army left Homs because it has returned to calm. Stop repeating urself. Did u forget to mention that the Syrian army has captured Lebanese members of “Hezb a tahrir” I’n talkalekh? A Islamic extremist terrorist organization . They chased these animals all the way back into Lebanon . All this rumour and rubbish that the syrian army will split. No chance that will happen.

NK –

Can u find me the verse and chapter I’n the bible where it mentions cutting off the hands? U sound like one of those uneducated brainwashed Wahhabi’s

May 16th, 2011, 7:23 am

 

Syria no kandahar said:

John khouri
I remembered the chapterNK was pointing to:
Jesus said whoever hits you on your right cheek turn your lift cheek for him,then turn around and chop off his hands. NK has forever enlightened me.

May 16th, 2011, 7:43 am

 

Aboud said:

John Khouri, every night there are demonstrations in Homs, even in Baba Amr. Apparently the best tactic the regime can come up with is “Declare victory and get the hell out of there”.

Syria Comment sources: “There has been no shelling”

Syria Comment sources: “Asma Assad is NOT in London with her kids”

Syria Comment sources: “Demonstrations? What demonstrations?”

Syria Comment sources: “Bashar is loved by 99.99999999999999999999% of the country! We even count fetuses!”

May 16th, 2011, 8:24 am

 

qunfuz said:

Dear me, Susan. Do you also believe Netanyahu is too soft on Palestinians, that Hitler was too pro-Jewish? You won’t find an English-language website so eager to slander the protestors or to propagandise on behalf of the incompetent gangsters doing the killing than this one.

May 16th, 2011, 8:35 am

 

Syria no kandahar said:

Another mile stone in Syrian revolution : 15 min ago Asala nasri has joined the revolution.eyewitness told Aljazera that Asala was seen going handcuffed to the Syrian embassy in Cairo.Ammar qurabi has demanded here immediate release because he has bought a ticket for upcoming pary for here.Eyewittnesses told Aljazera that they are expecting Haifa Wahbi to join the revolution soon and that saad jr is pushing here to join Hezb altahreer and go to telkalk with here high heels.Eyewittnesses told Aljazera that they expect here to sing (shofo alwawa)to the revolutionists in telkalak.Aljazeera couldnt verify that independently.toon to aljazera for more updates

May 16th, 2011, 8:37 am

 

why-discuss said:

Abboud

Do you live in Homs? Also why would the army leave Homs, if there are still problems there? Stretched? what’s more important, Homs or Tal Kalkh?

May 16th, 2011, 8:48 am

 

Revlon said:

Jr has distanced himself from R. Makhloof statements twice in one week!

?????? ???? ???? ?????? ?? ??? ???? ????? ????????? ??? ?????? ?? ???????? ????????
??????
2011/05/14??? ??: ??? ????

– In the first statement, he declared himself a joint decision maker with Jr. and Bro. The content of his statements was not refuted, yet described by Ambassador Mustapha as Coz’s own opinion.
– In the second statement, he declared himself the saviour of the state economy. This statement was refuted by an eminent member of the chamber of commerce”, most probably by direct communication from Jr. himself.

How R. Makhloof reacts to a double blow to his credibility, from his cousin and closest friend will have profound consequences on the viability of their alliance, and hence the regime itself.

Jr. knows that R Makhloof knows too much and is potentially too dangerous to be given time to react.

R. Makhloof knows better than to procrastinate.
His influence on the Syrian government and business probably parallels that of the late Hariri in Lebanon.
Hundreds of high ranked security and military officers, Baath party members, and highly trained Para-militia are on his payroll.
Besides, Makhloof family hold key positions in the high security and military commands as well as in security branches around the country.

Cracks in the Makhloof-Assad clan syndicate portend a gloomy prospect for the integrity of the regime.

May 16th, 2011, 8:51 am

 

Revlon said:

Nightly demonstrations never stopped in Syrian cities. they are merely under-reported.

http://www.facebook.com/Syrian.Revolution

The Syrian Revolution 2011 ?????? ??????? ?? ???? ?????
????? ???? ??????? ??????? .. 15.5.2011 .. ????? ??? .. ???????? ??????????? ??????? ?? ????? ?? ????? ??? ??????? .. ???? ???? ????? ?????? ?? ???????
..
6 minutes ago

May 16th, 2011, 8:59 am

 

Syria no kandahar said:

Cont Aljazera coverage:
10min ago.Eyewittnesses have told Aljazera that Asala and Hiafa are seen fighting in Telkalak.Eywittnesses have told aljazera that the die hard revolutionists are protesting to there Amir that fighting next to Hiafa is going to miss up there going to heaven plan because of the way they dress.Eyewittnesses have told aljazera that Amir have ordered theme to wear niqab which also can be used to hide some packs of sigarettes during there next trip to Syria from Lebanon.Azmi Bashara is seen on aljazera crying emotionally on aljazera with a pack of hundreds of dollars sticking from his pocket stating that he Is holding almojrm bashar personally responsible for there safety.eywittnesses told aldonia tv that azmi was seen in his shaleh wearing swimming clothes with his belly sticking out and listening to Haifa and Asala.

May 16th, 2011, 9:48 am

 

Revlon said:

Mass grave of a family of five was uncovered in Dar3a. It included bodies of father 60 and 4 sons 25 to 35 years of age. Each body had more than 20 bullet entry wounds.

AlFati7a upon their soul,
May God bless their surviving families with solace and empower them with patience.
45 minutes ago

The Syrian Revolution 2011 ?????? ??????? ?? ???? ?????
?????? ??????? || ??? ??? ?????? ?? ?????? ??? ?? ????? ???? ????? ??????
?? ?????? ????? ?????? ?? ???? ?????? ???? ??????? ?????? ?? ????? ???????? ??? ?? ?????? ????? ?????? ?? ??? ????? ????? ?? ???? (???? ?????) ??? ???? ??? ?? ?? ????? ?????? ??? ???? ?? ????? ???? ??? ?? ????.
???? ?????? ??? ????? ???? ???? ???? ?????? ????? ?…? ?? ?????? ???? ?? ??? 25 ?35??? ??? ?? ???? ????? ?? ?????? ??? ???? ????? ?? ?????? ??????. ????? ??????? ?? ???????:
????: ??? ?????? ?????? 65 ????
???? ??? ?????? ??????
?????? ??? ?????? ??????
???? ??? ?????? ??????
???? ??? ?????? ??????
????? ???? ????? ?????? ?? ??????? ?? ??? ???? ?????? ???? ????See ..

May 16th, 2011, 10:01 am

 

Revlon said:

The army is besieging southern Dar3a cemetary upon circulation of news of discovery of mass grave
3 hours ago
???? ????? ???? ?? ??? ?????? Youth Syria For Freedom
????|| ?????|| ????? ?????? ???? ??????? ??????? ???????? ?? ???? ??? ?? ????? ??????? ????? ?????? ?????? ???????? ???? ???? ????? ?????? ?? ??? ?? ???????
..

May 16th, 2011, 10:05 am

 

democracynow said:

I second Aboud.

I mean, Josh’s source could only be sure there was no shelling in Homs if all areas were accessible to him/her.

May 16th, 2011, 10:08 am

 

democracynow said:

As the regime reforms continue in earnest in Tal Kalakh, the people of Daraa are beginning to feel the impact of the reforms that were perpetrated against them earlier this month…

‘Mass grave found’ in Syrian protest hub

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hIbu47YEqxzX6FOe_v8ORUny812g?docId=CNG.4f8ccccd2e38de074f4c1305131c47e4.8a1

May 16th, 2011, 10:12 am

 

SANDRO LOEWE said:

Some analysts compared the Syrian regime with the large American banks during the recent financial crisis: it is bankrupt and it is run by criminals, but dropping him could lead to a collapse of the system. Other analysts didn´t.

May 16th, 2011, 10:28 am

 

atassi said:

Syria playing dangerous game
17 May 2011
The Australian
AUSTLN

English
Copyright 2011 News Ltd. All Rights Reserved

Israel protects its borders as Assad creates deadly diversion

ONLY the naive believe the deadly clashes along Israel’s borders on so-called Nakba Day (in the Palestinian lexicon Catastrophe Day, the day Israel was founded) are a signal that the spirit of defiance and confrontation that has challenged regimes across the Arab world is now inspiring Palestinians to greater militancy. There is some of that, to be sure. Palestinians desperate to advance their cause could hardly remain untouched by the images of demonstrators boldly rising up to achieve change in Egypt, Tunisia and elsewhere. But the choreography of what happened on Sunday suggests a more complex dimension to the clashes that occurred as Israeli soldiers opened fire on thousands of Palestinians marching from Syria, Lebanon, Gaza and the West Bank.

Central to that choreography is Syria and the Baathist regime of President Bashar al-Assad, which is seriously under threat from demonstrators, together with its close ally Iran and Hezbollah, the catspaw they jointly created to control South Lebanon. For 37 years, the truce between Israel and Syria, where about 500,000 Palestinians live, has kept the border between the two countries remarkably quiet. The Syrian army has placed the border off limits to outsiders. Similarly, nothing in South Lebanon — where there are another 500,000 Palestinian refugees — moves without the permission of Hezbollah. That these two borders should suddenly be the scene of the co-ordinated demonstrations and violence witnessed on Sunday suggests Mr Assad, as he brutally seeks to survive, is now playing his long-anticipated Israeli card. He is cynically telling countries pressuring him to reform his odious regime that if they persist in trying to force change, he can cause serious problems for Israel.

The extent of his manipulation is shown by the fact there were no demonstrations across the border with Jordan, where two million Palestinians live. Jordanian authorities intervened to stop marches towards the border.

Mr Assad is playing a dangerous game. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu understandably has made it clear he will do whatever it takes to protect the country’s borders.

The Syrian dictator should be left in no doubt that his diversionary tactics will not work. There is no alternative for him but to negotiate with those seeking change in Syria. The sooner he realises that and stops his nefarious activities, the better.

May 16th, 2011, 10:47 am

 
 

Jad said:

Mass graves will start to emerge as I wrote couple weeks ago because of collecting the bodies of the victims and bury them together by the domestics.
Does anybody remember the refrigerator container where people I’m Daraa claimed that the authority stole it and bring it back empty? Mass grave was the plan to be used later, NOW, is the best timing when bloody images are not out as much to be used for encouraging people to go on the streets, therefore mass grave is the best tactic to be used.
Will read about as many mass grave as the body count of that refregerator was couple weeks ago.

May 16th, 2011, 10:57 am

 

Syria no kandahar said:

Sandro low
Another way to compare the american financial system to the Syrian peudorevolution is this:
Victims=stocks
Blood=mutual funds

The more victims and the more blood the better is the pseudorevolution Dow jones.
NB:you may be able to steel stocks :you have to use red ink or flying kafans.Disclaimer:Hamad and Moza will share the stocks with you ,50% from the real stocks 90% from the stolen ones.
NB:investment has risks.

May 16th, 2011, 11:04 am

 

Ayaman said:

The army is splitting in Tal Kalakh.

——————————————————————- Battle on Lebanese border illustrates broader implications of Syrian revolt
By Liz Sly, Published: May 15
ARIDA, Lebanon — The gunfire ricocheted deafeningly across the sloping fields of strawberries, tomatoes, cucumbers and wheat that span the Lebanese-Syrian border along this remote corner of northern Lebanon.

On the Lebanese side of the border, hundreds of people, most of them Syrians who had fled the fighting at home, took cover behind farmhouses and peeked over walls to watch the battle raging just a few hundred yards away, between Syrian troops and unspecified assailants who, the Syrians said, represented “the people” they had left behind.

“The people,” the Syrians said, were attacking a Syrian army post, and in this instance the people seemed to win. Two rocket-propelled grenades exploded near the post with whooshes and ground-shaking blasts, a Syrian army truck burst into flames, and the gunfire temporarily subsided.

Exactly who the people were and how they had acquired arms weren’t made clear, but many of the Syrians watching the fight said Sunni Syrian soldiers had defected that morning and turned against the minority Alawite regime.

“It’s war,” said Mohammed, 19, a student and protester who escaped into Lebanon on Sunday. “Now this is a fight between Sunnis and Alawites.”

On a day when Israeli soldiers killed at least 12 people who had joined protests along Israel’s borders with Lebanon, Syria, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, this barely noticed firefight, far to the north on the Lebanese-Syrian border, threw into sharp relief the danger that the unrest in Syria will escalate into an armed conflict that could engulf the wider region.

Three Lebanese civilians and a soldier were wounded by bullets that strayed into Lebanon during the fighting, and the Lebanese army rushed reinforcements to the border area. Whether there were casualties on the Syrian side of the border was not known.

Hundreds of Syrians have flooded into Lebanon over the past two days, fleeing the latest onslaught aimed at crushing the revolt against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, this one in the town of Tal Kalakh, 1.5 miles from Lebanon.

They came with witness accounts of killings, destruction of homes and mass detention of citizens since Syrian tanks rolled into the town before dawn Saturday. In the distance, the steady crump of Syrian tank fire could be heard. Human rights groups reported seven deaths Sunday, but the refugees described seeing bodies piled up in the streets as they fled, suggesting the toll may be higher.

The refugees also offered insights into the complexities of the battle underway for control of Syria between the Assad regime and the largely leaderless and the mostly unarmed popular protest movement.

How much longer it will remain unarmed is in question, however. Many of the protesters who escaped Sunday said the Syrian army was in the process of splitting along sectarian lines, with Sunni troops joining the opposition against soldiers from the Alawite Shiite sect to which Assad and most members of his regime belong.

“There are two armies now, the army of Maher al-Assad and the army of the people,” said Tal Kalakh resident Radwan, who like others interviewed for this article asked to be identified only by his first name. He was referring to Assad’s brother, who is in charge of the army units that have spearheaded the military crackdown.

The attack on the Syrian army post was waged with the help of the defected soldiers, he said. “We only have the weapons we own for our personal protection,” he said.

The reports of a split in the Syrian army could not be independently confirmed, and they are not the first to emerge during the two-month-old revolt. But none appears to have added up to a significant breach of loyalties that would threaten the regime.

Wardah, 22, a Syrian soldier who deserted and escaped to Lebanon a week ago, said many troops are unhappy with their shoot-to-kill orders. But he seemed doubtful that the army would break with the regime, as it did during the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt.

“God willing, the army will split,” he said. “But the officers won’t. The officers are loyal to the regime, and they shoot the soldiers if we refuse to shoot the people.”

Shortly after he spoke, a van driven by regime opponents hurtled across the border carrying two Syrian soldiers who the protesters said they had captured. The soldiers, a Sunni and an Alawite, insisted that they had deserted to avoid having to fire on civilians. They were handed over to the Lebanese army.

But even though the protesters insist they don’t carry arms, they live alongside Lebanon, where almost all citizens are armed and where the Sunni-Shiite divide closely mirrors the one in Syria. The mountainous border is loosely guarded, and there have been numerous reports that weapons have been smuggled across in recent weeks.

The Syrians from Tal Kalakh cast the conflict in stark Sunni-Alawite terms, saying the regime has armed Alawite citizens to fight their mostly Sunni townspeople. They said Shiite Iranians, wearing black face masks to disguise their identities, and snipers from the Shiite Lebanese Hezbollah movement are helping the regime.

Although that assertion seems highly unlikely, it points to the broader implications of the Syrian revolt, unfolding in a country that lies at the intersection of most of the region’s conflicts and largely out of view of the world.

© The Washington Post Company

May 16th, 2011, 11:09 am

 

jad said:

??? ???? ??????? ???????? ?????? -????? ??? -???? ????? ???????? ?????????? ?????? …????:0113119151- ????: 0113143250-0113112850
?? ??? ?????? ?????????? http://www.jpic.gov.sy
??? ???? ?????? ????????? ?? ????????? ?????? ?????? ????? ?????????
http://www.jpic.gov.sy/

May 16th, 2011, 11:34 am

 

edward said:

footage of mass graves in Daraa. If true, this would mean a U.N investigation which would almost certainly indict the Syrian regime and security forces of genocide and crimes against humanity:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOGBYn4nHo4

May 16th, 2011, 11:34 am

 

jad said:

???? ????????? ????????? ??????? ???????? ?????? ?????? ?? ??????? ??????

“????????? ????????? ???? ????????? ?????????? ??????? ?? ??????? ??? ??????? ????????? ???????? ??????? ?????? ???????? ????????”
????? ????? ???????? ??? ?????? ????????? ????????? ??????? ???????? ??????? ?????? ?? ??????? ??????? ??? ???? ????????? 15 ????? ????? ?????? ???? ??? ??? ?????? ???????? ???????? ??????? ???? ???????? ??? ????? ????????? ????? ?????? ????? ?????? ??????? ??????.

http://www.syria-news.com/readnews.php?sy_seq=132683

May 16th, 2011, 11:40 am

 

Syria no kandahar said:

Edward
And soon NATO will attack Syria .NATO ground forces will help the jihadists and Syria will be no fly zoon.Kurdistan will redeem eastern Kurdistan which was occupied by Syria .Rajab will liberate alleppo from alawie criminals.druz in sweda will join isreal.get up it is morning your dream is over.

May 16th, 2011, 11:45 am

 

edward said:

#35 or we will liberate our country from the murderous thugs and thieves of the Assad clan, and build a prosperous democratic society for all sects and religions to participate in, free from the oppression and tyranny that has plagued us for 40 years. The glass is half full my friend.

May 16th, 2011, 12:00 pm

 

Syria no kandahar said:

Edward
You will liberate Syria from syrians the Iraqi way.the glass will not be half full it will be shattered.don’t fool yourself.

May 16th, 2011, 12:06 pm

 

edward said:

I will liberate Syria from those Syrians who have no problem in massacring hundreds of fellow Syrians in order to hold on to their power money and privilege. The same ones who systematically destroyed Syria for 40 years, and turned it into the cynical humiliated cult of Assad personality worship that it is today.

May 16th, 2011, 12:20 pm

 

Syria no kandahar said:

Edward
Look at yourself ,I told you the glass will be shattered if it goes your way.the only thing missing while you are declaring your clinsing plan is to show is your swords and your training with nodal janood killers fellows.god protect Syria from your evil mind.

May 16th, 2011, 12:35 pm

 

jad said:

?«??????» ?? ????? ????? ????? ???????
??????? ???? ??? ???? ??? ??????? ???????

???? ????
?????:
???? ????? ???? ???? ???? ?????? ??????? ???? ???? ????? ???????. «????? ?? ??? ??? ???? ??????» ???? ??? ??????? ?? ???? ??????? ??????? ?????? ????? ????????? ???? ???? ???????? ????????? ??? ???? ?????? ???? ????? ?????? ??????? ?? ????? ????? ???????? ???? ??? ??????? ??????? ?? ????? ??????? ???????? ??? ?? ???? ????? ?????? ??? ?????? ??? ???? ????? ?? ?? ????? ?? ???????? ??? ????? ?????? ??? ??????? ??????? ?? ????? ???????? ?????.
«????? ????? ?????»? ???? ?????? ??? ?? ?????? «????????? ?? ?? ?????? ?????». ?? ???? ??? ???? «????» ????? ??? ?? ????? ??? ??? ????? ?? ?????? ?? ????? ?????? « ?? ?????? ??? ?? ?????? ?? ????? ?? ??? ?????? ????? ??????? ??? ???? ?????? ???????? ?? ???? ??????». ?? ???? ?????? ???? ??? ??? ???? ??? ????? ??? ???? ??????? ?????? ????? ?????? ????????? ???? ??????. ????? ?????? ??? ???? ????? ???? ???? ??????. ????? ????? ??????????? ????? ??? ?????. ?? ?????? ???????? ???? ???? ????? ???? ????? ?????? ??«??? ??????» . ?? ???? ????? ???????? ????? ??? ???? ???? ?????? ?? ???????? ??? ???? ??? ???? 27 ????. ?? ?? ???? ?? ??? ????? ???? «???? ???????? ???? ????» – ?? ???? – ??? ??? ???? ?????? ????. ??? ???? ??? ??? ??? ?????? ????? ?? ??? ???? ????? ?? ?????? ??? ???? ????????? ????? ?????? ??? ????? ???? ?? ??? ???? ???? ?? «?????» ?? ???? ???? ?????? ?? ?????.
???? ?????? ??? ?? ????? ?????? ?? ??? ?? ???? ????? ?? ?????? ?????? ?????? ????? ?????? ?? ????????? ????? ??? ?? ??? ???????? ???? ???? «?????» ?? ??? ??????. ????? ?????? ??? ?? ????? 1979 ?? ??? ????? ???? ?? ?? ???? ?? ????? ????? ?????? ??? ???????? ???? ?? ??? ???? ?? ????? 1982? ????? ???? ???? ???? ?? ????????? ???????? ????? ?????? ????????. ????? ?? ?? ??????? ???????? ???? ???? ????????? ?? ????? ????? ???? ?????? ???? ?? ?? ???? ?? «??????? ?????? ??? ???? ???» ?????? ????? ??????? ???? ???? ??????? ?????? ???? ????? ?????? ?????? ????? ?????? ?? ??????? ???? ???? ???? «??????? ?????» ??? ?????? ?????? ?? ??? ???????? ????? ?????? ??????? ?? ??? ??????? ???? ??? ???????? ??? ???? ????? ??? ?? ??????? ?????? ?????? ??????? ???? ?? ???? ?????? ???? ?? ???? ????? ????????? ???? ?? ??????? ??? ???? ???????? ????? ????? ???? ???? «??????? ???????» ??? ??????? ???????? ????? ??? ?? ??? ?????? ?? «?????? ??????????» ???? ??????? ?? ??????? ?????? ??? ?????? ??? ???? ??? ?????? «??? ????? ??? ???????» ????? ???? ?? ???? ?????? ?????????? ???????.
???? ?????? ?? «????? ????? ????? ???? ??? ??? ??????? ????? ??? ?? ?????? ????? ?????? ???? ??? ?? ????????»? ????? ??? ?? ??? ??? ??????? ??? ?????? ??? ?? ???? ?? ??? ???????. ??????? ?????? ?????? ?? ??? ????? ?? «??????? « ????? ??????? ??? «????? ?????? ???????» ???? ???????? ?????? ?? ??????? ??? ????? ?????? ?????? ???? ?????? ????????? «????? ????????»? ??? ???? ???? ????? ?????? ????? ??? ???? ??????? ??? ????? ??????? ?? ??????? ?? ??????? ?????? ????? ??? ?? «???????? ?????? ???? ????? ?? ??????? « ???? ???? ?????? ??????? ?????? 4 ?? ????? ?? ???? ?????? ??????? 2 ?? ????? ?? ???????. ?????? ???????? ???? ???? ???? ?????? ???? ?????? ????? ??????? ???????? ???? ???? ???? ??? ??? ?????? ??????? ???? ????? ??????? ??? ??????? ??? ???? ?????? ?? ????? ?????. ????? ????? ????? ?? ???? ?????? ?????? ?? ??? ?????? ??? ????? ??? ?????? ??? ????? ???????? ?????? ???? ???? ????? ???? ????? ????? ??????? ?????? ?????? ??????? ??? ?????? ????????? ???? ???? ????? ?? ????? ?? ?? ??? ????? ????? ????? ?? ???????.
???? ???? ?? ????? ???? ?????? ??? ???? ????? ???????? ????? ?? ????? ????? ???? ?? ??????? ???????? ?? ????? ???????. ??? ???? ??? ??? ????? ?????? ???? ?? «???? ?????» ???? ???? ???? ???????? ????????? ??????? ???? ?????? ?? ?????? ???????? ???. ???? ?? «??????» ???? ??? ???? ???????? ??? ?????? ????? ??? ?? ???? ??? ???? ??? ??? ?????? ?????? ???? ????? ?? ????? ?? ????? ??????? ????????? ?? ????? ????? ??? ??????? ?? ???? ?? ???? ?? ????? ?????? ?? ??? ????? ????????. ??? ???? ?????? ?? ?? ??? ?????? ?? «????» ??? ???????? ????? ?????? ???? ??? ?? ??? ???? ??????? ????? «????? ???? ?????? ????? ?? ?? ???? ??????? ?????». ?????? ?????? ??? ??? ???????? ?? ????? ??? ????? ??? ????? ?????? ??? ?????? ??????? ??? ????? ?????? ?? ???????? ???? ????? ??????? ?????? ????????. ???? ???? ????? ?? «?????? ??????? ??? ????? ??????» ????? ??? ?? ???? ???? ????? ???? 96 ???????? ?? ??????? ??? ??? ??????? ????? ??? ???????? ????? ???? ???? ??? ???? ?? ?????? ?? ???????? ??? «????? ????? ???? ???????? ???? ???? ??? ???? ???????».

May 16th, 2011, 12:41 pm

 

why-discuss said:

Atassi

Instead of buying the laughable ‘cliché’ that Bashar al Assad (Makhlouf threats…) is responsible for the Nakba remembrance ‘diversion’, you better read this. Good old Facebook is now uniting Palestinians and arabs and turning the heat against Israel…

Palestinian Border Protests: The Arab Spring Model for Confronting Israeli
http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20110516/wl_time/08599207167300

…After more than 100 Palestinians breached Israel’s border with Syria on Sunday, knocking down a fence and striding into a village in the Golan Heights, overmatched Israeli security forces scrambled to glean what they could from the protesters who had just, without so much as a sidearm, penetrated farther into the country than any army in a generation.

Under close questioning, the infiltrators closed the intelligence gap with a shrug and one word: Facebook. The operation that had caught Israel’s vaunted military and intelligence complex flat-footed was announced, nursed and triggered on the social networking site that has figured in every uprising around the Arab World – and is helping young Palestinians change the terms of their fight against Israel,,,

May 16th, 2011, 12:41 pm

 

SANDRO LOEWE said:

According to some loyalists to the dictatoriship most of syrian people is pro-regime because of the histerical fear they feel when they think about something different. There is no need to ask any one in any election. Most of the people agree that there is no need to organize elections. They are afraid to discover that people is not happy in this status. Even loyalists could feel the temptation of voting against. Let´s keep on believing our lies and saying that we all love the president and we prefer security and tradition to any occidental idea like democracy or human rights. It does not matter if one day two to three thousand years ago Syria was one of the intelectual leading countries under hellenistic democratic philosophy and politheism rule.

May 16th, 2011, 1:00 pm

 

jad said:

WD, here you go another piece blaming Syria, it’s funny that no one mention that the Palestinian 3rd uprising was called for way before the Syrians even start to read FB, and the same page was closed by FB administration at the request of Israel twice.
——

Israeli shootings widen Middle East unrest
Israel accuses Syria of provoking deadly confrontations with pro-Palestinian protesters to divert attention from internal unrest

Potential new flashpoints in the Middle East unrest have opened after Israel shot at pro-Palestinian protesters on its borders with Syria and Lebanon, killing at least 13 people and drawing furious condemnation from the Syrian regime.

Protests erupted in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem as well as on Israel’s geopolitically sensitive northern borders, as Palestinians clashed with Israeli troops and police and hundreds were injured.

Demonstrators commemorating Nakba day, marking the 1948 war in which hundreds of thousands of people became refugees after being forced out of their homes, were met with live gunfire, rubber bullets, stun grenades and teargas.

Israel accused Syria of provoking the confrontations to divert attention from internal unrest, and said attempts to breach its borders were a provocation intended to exploit Palestinian nationalism in the wake of regional unrest. An Israeli military spokesman said the protests bore “Iran’s fingerprints”.

“We hope the calm and quiet will quickly return,” said the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu. “But let nobody be misled: we are determined to defend our borders and sovereignty.”

The defence minister, Ehud Barak, warned “we are just at the start of this matter and it could be that we’ll face far more complex challenges”.

Syria condemned Israel’s “criminal activities”. The foreign ministry called on the international community to hold Israel responsible for the deadly confrontation, Syria’s state news agency, Sana, said.

Although Israel had been braced for violent protests, the clashes on its borders were largely unexpected. Israeli politicians, already deeply alarmed about uprisings in neighbouring Arab countries, now face heightened tensions with Syria and Lebanon.

Thousands of Palestinian refugees from Syria marched towards the village of Majdal Shams in the Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria in 1967.

According to the Israeli military, “hundreds of Syrian rioters infiltrated the Israeli-Syrian border … and violently rioted against [Israeli] forces”. It said its troops “fired selectively towards rioters”. Two people were confirmed killed, but there were reports of up to 10 deaths.

“The Israeli army warned [the protesters] not to cross but they didn’t listen,” Shefa Abu Jabal, 25, a resident of Majdal Shams, said. “When the crowd started to come over … soldiers started shooting.

“Around 200 have managed to get across. I’ve heard there are four people dead on this side and there are many more injured. People in the village are really scared. The Israel soldiers looked shocked. No one thought there would be trouble at this border.”

Another resident, Hamad Awidat, said: “There are thousands and thousands of people on the Syrian border who are trying to cross. There has been a lot of fighting, and of course people are scared.”

At Maroun al-Ras, on the border with Lebanon, witnesses said Israeli troops had fired at protesters throwing stones from within Lebanon, a move that could have serious repercussions and prompt further cross-border incidents.

At least two people were killed after hundreds of protesters broke through Lebanese army barricades to throw rocks across the border. One man, apparently shot in the chest, was doused with water as protesters tried to revive him but shouts of “Allah Akhbar” broke out as his dead body was lifted over the crowd. One protester, his clothes soaked in blood, screamed: “Murderers, cowards, is a rock any match for a bullet?”

Hezbollah, which controls Lebanon’s southern villages, had given tacit support for the protest but the crowd was dispersed by Lebanese troops firing into the air.

Yassir Ali, one of the protest organisers, said the deaths were not unexpected. “Palestinian people are used to paying with their lives. It’s a big price, but one we are prepared to pay to prove our right to return to the motherland.”

Brigadier General Yoav Mordechai, an Israeli military spokesman, said soldiers fired when demonstrators began vandalising the border fence. The army was aware of casualties, he said.

Confrontations were reported after about 600 people marched from the West Bank’s principal city, Ramallah, towards the Qalandia checkpoint into Jerusalem. There were clashes in other areas of the West Bank.

In Gaza, at least 80 people were injured when Israeli troops opened fire on demonstrators approaching the Erez border crossing, Palestinian medical sources said. The Israeli military said it shot dead a man trying to plant a bomb near the border.

In Tel Aviv, an Israeli man was killed and 17 people were injured when a truck ran into vehicles and pedestrians. It was not clear whether it was an accident or a deliberate attack. The truck’s 22-year-old Israeli-Arab driver said he lost control of the vehicle due to faulty brakes.

The Israeli authorities had expected trouble on the first Nakba day following the Middle East uprisings and had deployed 10,000 soldiers and police.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/16/israeli-shootings-middle-east-unrest

May 16th, 2011, 1:17 pm

 

Syria no kandahar said:

Sandro low
I don’t think the upcoming democracy we are talking about is the Hellinistic or Hamorabi’s democracy.I think we are talking about:

1-sheik alfetna democracy(watch his vidio which will make your Hellenistic ancestors spit on you)
2-Anas Artooz democracy(listen to his demands before he went to Hawai)
3-Nida janood democracy(put his wife screaming in your car it will relax you)
4-officer Tallawy and his kids bodies democracy(hang there pictures in your living room)
5-100 killed soldiers democracy (killed by there fellow soldiers)
6-flying koffins democracy

Don’t fool syrians they are very smart. We can tell the letter from it’s address(almaktoob min Enwano)

May 16th, 2011, 1:28 pm

 

SANDRO LOEWE said:

Sorry to observe that most syrian politics insiders are blinded by garbage and trash concepts, hate, revenge, fears and ghosts from the past. Specially those who consider themselves experts and defenders of realpolitiks. No one in the regime believes in the logo: Al-Ray wa al ray al-oukhra (although we could critize this expression that seems to determine that AL-RAY is the good one, our opinion, and AL-RAY AL-OUKHRA is the ohter, the strange, and the wrong one). I this best expression to define the idea of the regime is that their logo is actually: AL-RAY WA AL-RAY AL-AKHRA

May 16th, 2011, 1:41 pm

 

Sophia said:

“Mr. Ziadeh, citing informants in Damascus, said at least four buses were seen Saturday leaving two camps where factions most loyal to Syria exert control.”

So the Syrian opposition based outside Syria believes that Palestinian refugees are pawns!

I think what probably happened is that Palestinians are boiling, they have been prevented from doing this and that by their corrupt leaders and while Mash’aal is busy with Palestinian unity they broke free. I have not seen one positive statement from palestinian officials concerning what happened on May 15th despite the fact that this was a historic moment!

May 16th, 2011, 1:42 pm

 

jad said:

🙂
????? ???? ??? ?????? ??? ?????? ????? ??????
http://youtu.be/Ozh4qZU2qec

May 16th, 2011, 1:50 pm

 

Ayman said:

The army is splitting in Tal Kalakh.

——————————————————————- Battle on Lebanese border illustrates broader implications of Syrian revolt
By Liz Sly, Published: May 15
ARIDA, Lebanon — The gunfire ricocheted deafeningly across the sloping fields of strawberries, tomatoes, cucumbers and wheat that span the Lebanese-Syrian border along this remote corner of northern Lebanon.

On the Lebanese side of the border, hundreds of people, most of them Syrians who had fled the fighting at home, took cover behind farmhouses and peeked over walls to watch the battle raging just a few hundred yards away, between Syrian troops and unspecified assailants who, the Syrians said, represented “the people” they had left behind.

“The people,” the Syrians said, were attacking a Syrian army post, and in this instance the people seemed to win. Two rocket-propelled grenades exploded near the post with whooshes and ground-shaking blasts, a Syrian army truck burst into flames, and the gunfire temporarily subsided.

Exactly who the people were and how they had acquired arms weren’t made clear, but many of the Syrians watching the fight said Sunni Syrian soldiers had defected that morning and turned against the minority Alawite regime.

“It’s war,” said Mohammed, 19, a student and protester who escaped into Lebanon on Sunday. “Now this is a fight between Sunnis and Alawites.”

On a day when Israeli soldiers killed at least 12 people who had joined protests along Israel’s borders with Lebanon, Syria, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, this barely noticed firefight, far to the north on the Lebanese-Syrian border, threw into sharp relief the danger that the unrest in Syria will escalate into an armed conflict that could engulf the wider region.

Three Lebanese civilians and a soldier were wounded by bullets that strayed into Lebanon during the fighting, and the Lebanese army rushed reinforcements to the border area. Whether there were casualties on the Syrian side of the border was not known.

Hundreds of Syrians have flooded into Lebanon over the past two days, fleeing the latest onslaught aimed at crushing the revolt against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, this one in the town of Tal Kalakh, 1.5 miles from Lebanon.

They came with witness accounts of killings, destruction of homes and mass detention of citizens since Syrian tanks rolled into the town before dawn Saturday. In the distance, the steady crump of Syrian tank fire could be heard. Human rights groups reported seven deaths Sunday, but the refugees described seeing bodies piled up in the streets as they fled, suggesting the toll may be higher.

The refugees also offered insights into the complexities of the battle underway for control of Syria between the Assad regime and the largely leaderless and the mostly unarmed popular protest movement.

How much longer it will remain unarmed is in question, however. Many of the protesters who escaped Sunday said the Syrian army was in the process of splitting along sectarian lines, with Sunni troops joining the opposition against soldiers from the Alawite Shiite sect to which Assad and most members of his regime belong.

“There are two armies now, the army of Maher al-Assad and the army of the people,” said Tal Kalakh resident Radwan, who like others interviewed for this article asked to be identified only by his first name. He was referring to Assad’s brother, who is in charge of the army units that have spearheaded the military crackdown.

The attack on the Syrian army post was waged with the help of the defected soldiers, he said. “We only have the weapons we own for our personal protection,” he said.

The reports of a split in the Syrian army could not be independently confirmed, and they are not the first to emerge during the two-month-old revolt. But none appears to have added up to a significant breach of loyalties that would threaten the regime.

Wardah, 22, a Syrian soldier who deserted and escaped to Lebanon a week ago, said many troops are unhappy with their shoot-to-kill orders. But he seemed doubtful that the army would break with the regime, as it did during the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt.

“God willing, the army will split,” he said. “But the officers won’t. The officers are loyal to the regime, and they shoot the soldiers if we refuse to shoot the people.”

Shortly after he spoke, a van driven by regime opponents hurtled across the border carrying two Syrian soldiers who the protesters said they had captured. The soldiers, a Sunni and an Alawite, insisted that they had deserted to avoid having to fire on civilians. They were handed over to the Lebanese army.

But even though the protesters insist they don’t carry arms, they live alongside Lebanon, where almost all citizens are armed and where the Sunni-Shiite divide closely mirrors the one in Syria. The mountainous border is loosely guarded, and there have been numerous reports that weapons have been smuggled across in recent weeks.

The Syrians from Tal Kalakh cast the conflict in stark Sunni-Alawite terms, saying the regime has armed Alawite citizens to fight their mostly Sunni townspeople. They said Shiite Iranians, wearing black face masks to disguise their identities, and snipers from the Shiite Lebanese Hezbollah movement are helping the regime.

Although that assertion seems highly unlikely, it points to the broader implications of the Syrian revolt, unfolding in a country that lies at the intersection of most of the region’s conflicts and largely out of view of the world.

© The Washington Post Company

May 16th, 2011, 1:58 pm

 

Syria no kandahar said:

Sandro low
Your words in last comment represent you and your coming democracy(I wouldt go that low)

May 16th, 2011, 1:58 pm

 

SANDRO LOEWE said:

SYRIA NO1 TALIBAN,

This is your way of understanding democracy and prisons are full of people due to the way your fellows understand this satrap democracy.

May 16th, 2011, 2:13 pm

 

why-discuss said:

Jad

The western world is in shock and denial, they just can’t accept the fact that Palestinians are also part of the arab spring. They try to find all kind of explanations including blaming Syria, the usual suspect. ( soon Iran.. be sure)
Facebook, mobile cameras and Youtube have opened a pandora box.
Now that the Palestinians know they have much more support coming from Egyptian youth, hopefully they will not stop harassing the zionist entity with demonstrations until September.

May 16th, 2011, 2:15 pm

 

jad said:

Sophia,
“I have not seen one positive statement from palestinian officials concerning what happened on May 15th despite the fact that this was a historic moment!”
You wont see or read anything about that from the Palestinians officials; PA officials are nothing but puppets and Hamas is busy forcing their ‘Godly’ law in Gaza, they have no time for anything else.

May 16th, 2011, 2:15 pm

 

Aldendeshe said:

“It’s war,” said Mohammed, 19, a student and protester who escaped into Lebanon on Sunday. “Now this is a fight between Sunnis and Alawites.”

IN HARIRI/MB/KHADDAM/MOSLEM BEDOUINS/ BLOND HAIRED BEDOUINS OPIUM DEALERS WILDEST DREAM. KEEP ON DREAMING LOOOOOOOSERS. lOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSERS

And it goes on to say…”The reports of a split in the Syrian army could not be independently confirmed,”

Of course not, it is all made up by a virtual webpage Revolution.

It is the human tendency to deny the reality of “conspiracy”, even though all of human interaction is by definition a “conspiracy”. Conspirators rely on this habit of denial, because it makes their conspiracies possible. As long as people are denying that conspiring is possible, then conspiring is guaranteed to be successful.

May 16th, 2011, 2:18 pm

 

jad said:

WD,
I just read that many Palestinian refugees in Syria want to try the same thing again and again and again and Ehud Barak is going crazy and want to kill this trend immediately.

May 16th, 2011, 2:18 pm

 

jad said:

Palestinian Border Protests: The Arab Spring Model for Confronting Israel

After more than 100 Palestinians breached Israel’s border with Syria on Sunday, knocking down a fence and striding into a village in the Golan Heights, overmatched Israeli security forces scrambled to glean what they could from the protesters who had just, without so much as a sidearm, penetrated farther into the country than any army in a generation.
Under close questioning, the infiltrators closed the intelligence gap with a shrug and one word: Facebook. The operation that had caught Israel’s vaunted military and intelligence complex flat-footed was announced, nursed and triggered on the social networking site that has figured in every uprising around the Arab World — and is helping young Palestinians change the terms of their fight against Israel.
The headlines Sunday were all about the violence of the day: at least four people were shot dead by Israeli forces on the Syrian fence line, and as many as 10 were killed either by Israeli or Lebanese army gunfire at a similar demonstration on the nearby frontier with southern Lebanon. The death toll, along with the accounts of stone-throwing and tear gas, comport with the familiar narrative of the conflict, one constructed over years of Israel describing efforts to defend itself. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu encouraged that narrative on Sunday, arguing that the protesters were undermining the very existence of the State of Israel.
But those closer to events found in the day the makings of a new narrative. The Palestinians in Syria, Lebanon and the occupied Palestinian enclaves of Gaza and the West Bank approached Israeli gun positions on Sunday without arms of their own. If some teenagers threw rocks, a protest leader said they had apparently failed to attend the workshops on nonviolence the organizers arranged in what they call a new paradigm for the conflict. The aim, which appears to be building support, aims to re-cast the Palestinian-Israel conflict on the same terms that brought down dictatorships in Egypt and Tunisia.
Massive non-violent protests are aimed at winning international sympathy for the Palestinian perspective, and as a result, forcing Israel to pull out of territories its army has occupied since 1967. As the dust settled Sunday, senior Israeli officers acknowledged their vulnerability to the approach, which dovetails with the strategy of Palestinian leaders to ask the UN General Assembly to recognize a Palestininian state in September.
(See “A New Palestinian Movement: Young, Networked, Nonviolent.”)
“What we saw today was the promo for what we might see in September on the day the United Nations declares a state: Thousands of Palestinians marching toward Israeli checkpoints, Israeli settlements and the fence along the West Bank and Gaza Palestinians coming with their bare hands to demonstrate,” a senior Israeli officer tells TIME. “This is a huge problem. Well have to study what happened today to do better.”

“Less clear was how the protesters navigated the Syrian security which usually maintains strict control over the border area. Israeli officials interpreted protesters’ apparent ease of access to a military zone as evidence of sponsorship by the battered government of President Bashar al-Assad. With street protests threatening his regime in cities across Syria, the reasoning goes, al-Assad found in the Nakba protests a perfect opportunity to shift the focus to Israel.
But Fadi Quran, a Ramallah organizer in the Palestinian youth movement that promoted the marches, says his contacts in Syria were actually terrified of the Bashar government, which took steps to prevent some from traveling to the protests from refugee camps near Damascus where they have lived since fleeing their homes in what is now northern Israel.”

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2071673,00.html#ixzz1MXe4AK11

May 16th, 2011, 2:32 pm

 

Amir in Tel Aviv said:

Not only that this junta is the worst of all Arab juntas, the most murderous, but they are not the smartest if they think that they can hide their crimes underground, in mass graves.
.

May 16th, 2011, 2:33 pm

 

atassi said:

Syria no kardaha..

2????? ?????? ???? ????? ????? ??? ?????? ??????? ? ????? ????? ???? ????? ????? ?? ?????? ??: ???? ????? ?? ????? ? ???? ???????? ? ???? ???????? ???????? ??? ??? ???? ?? ??????? ??????? ???? ???????.
—————————————-?

May 16th, 2011, 2:35 pm

 

NK said:

S.N.K, John Khouri and Souri

“If two men are fighting and the wife of one of them comes to rescue her husband from his assailant, and she reaches out and seizes him by his private parts, you shall cut off her hand. Show her no pity.” (Deuteronomy 25:11-12 NIV)

“If your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire. 9And if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell. Matthew 18:7-9

Mark 9:43 If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell, where the fire never goes out

Other punishments in the bible

Deuteronomy 22:22 “If a man is found sleeping with another man’s wife, both the man who slept with her and the woman must die.”

Leviticus 20:10 “If a man commits adultery with another man’s wife–with the wife of his neighbor–both the adulterer and the adulteress must be put to death.”

Deuteronomy 22:21 she shall be brought to the door of her father’s house and there the men of her town shall stone her to death. She has done a disgraceful thing in Israel by being promiscuous while still in her father’s house. You must purge the evil from among you.

Leviticus 21:9 (King James Version)
And the daughter of any priest, if she profane herself by playing the whore, she profaneth her father: she shall be burnt with fire.

Exodus 22:3
A thief who is caught must pay in full for everything he stole. If he cannot pay, he must be sold as a slave to pay for his theft.

Matthew 18:25 Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt

May 16th, 2011, 2:41 pm

 

Syria no kandahar said:

Junta in tel aviv

I told you to see the dr for this junta virus you have.it is treatable.
By the way the tsunami was hitting your way yesterday. Did you climbe on a tree? Make sure it is not junta tree. You will fall and break your neck.

May 16th, 2011, 2:44 pm

 
 

Aldendeshe said:

“……..2????? ?????? ???? ????? ????? ??? ?????? ??????? ? ????? ????? ???? ????? ????? ?? ?????? ??: ???? ????? ?? ????? ? ???? ???????? ? ???? ???????? ???????? ??? ??? ???? ?? ??????? ??????? ???? ???????.

Way to go Bashar, thank you for cleaning up Tel Kalakh. Better you do it than me LOL.. You must learned all that from Khadem Alharamin- Moslem protector Abdullah, his Bedouins did a HELLOFAJOB destroying Bahrini Mosques and burning Qurans. Sorry for the honesty. Now I can start drafting plans of my new home in Arida. I was going to have it in Kadesh. Well, I will just design and build two of them.

May 16th, 2011, 2:46 pm

 

why-discuss said:

Jad

I hope all arabs, like the young Egyptians who are waking up from 40 years coma, will join this wave despite the censorship of their goverment. I also encourage MB in their aim to confront Israel instead of confronting a country who has always supported the Resistance
I also encourage Turkey to do the same

May 16th, 2011, 2:49 pm

 

why-discuss said:

N.K

Nice gathering of Jewish laws..

The advice you refer to is very specific: “YOU cut your own hand” not someone punished you by cutting it for you, as it is done in the 21th century in some rich and famous countries you seem to want to emulate
Anyway in the christian religion, sins are not punished by a law, but by God and God forgives the repentant. In Islam (and Jewish religion), sins are punished by the religious law: no forgiveness, repentant or not!

May 16th, 2011, 3:00 pm

 

Aldendeshe said:

“……….Anyway in the christian religion, sins are not punished by a law, but by God and God forgives the repentant. In Islam (and Jewish religion), sins are punished by the religious law: no forgiveness, repentant or not!……”

Which prove the MUNAFIKIN ????????? ???????? . In the Quran there are few hundred pages written by Allah and promising that he will bring judgment on evil doers. So why do Moslems judge among themselves. Why not leave it to Allah to carry out his judgment. Would not that be interference in Allah job and double punishment for evil doer? How a Moslem can judge a human when Allah said judgment if for him alone. What if Allah is the one using a person to do evil. The fact is. Moslems are ????????? ???????? .They don’t believe in Allah, so they carry own human judgment.

May 16th, 2011, 3:14 pm

 

Usama said:

Interesting. Shelling in Homs reportedly all a lie. How shocking!!!

#62, WD
You think the MB wants to confront Israel? What articles have you been reading? The Egyptian MB leadership have been advocating business as usual with Israel in most of their interviews so far. Read the Angry Arab blog from the past week. You’ll find many examples there. I would never trust the MB, ever.

May 16th, 2011, 3:17 pm

 

Sophia said:

“Massive non-violent protests are aimed at winning international sympathy for the Palestinian perspective, and as a result, forcing Israel to pull out of territories its army has occupied since 1967. As the dust settled Sunday, senior Israeli officers acknowledged their vulnerability to the approach, which dovetails with the strategy of Palestinian leaders to ask the UN General Assembly to recognize a Palestininian state in September.”

I was saying it in the beginning and I am still saying this: Syrian protesters have resorted to violence because they have not been able to draw big masses in the protests. In fact the Tunisian and Egyptian uprisings were so successful because of the non violence of the protesters. Would the Syrian protesters dare do this? No, because they are not drawing crowds. The Syrian revolution is resorting to violence but this violence, even if it topples the regime, which I doubt, is not a good premise for a truly democratic Syria, just as the violence in Iraq and Lybia will not deliver democracy and security for a long time to come.

May 16th, 2011, 3:18 pm

 

why-discuss said:

Jad

Israel accusing the usual culprits! No, it’s Facebook, stupid!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110516/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_palestinians_new_tactic

“Some in Israel suspected that allies of arch-foe Iran, including the Lebanese Hezbollah militia, had a hand in the border breaches or that Syria helped instigate them to divert attention from its brutal crackdown on domestic unrest. In Lebanon’s border area, Hezbollah activists with walkie-talkies directed buses and handed out Palestinian flags.

However, the Palestinians say it was purely their initiative, launched on Facebook several months ago, with heavy involvement by expatriates. “No one expected it to work, and it did work,” said Hazem Abu Hilal, a Palestinian organizer.”

May 16th, 2011, 3:22 pm

 

Amir in Tel Aviv said:

What was it exactly? I’m puzzled.

It wasn’t Syrians storming occupied Syrian land. Those who stormed were Palestinians.
It wasn’t Palestinians storming Palestine, The Golan is not Palestinian. Right?

So not-Syrians storming Syrian land, or Palestinians storming not-Palestinian land?

What was it exactly?
.

May 16th, 2011, 3:24 pm

 

SF94123 said:

‘Libya is US, China’s battleground’
Monday, 16 May 2011 22:00
The US seeks control of Libyan oil facilities in order to push China and Russia out of the Mediterranean in its quest for world hegemony, says an analyst.

In an interview with Press TV, Dr. Paul Craig Roberts, former assistant secretary to the US Treasury, elaborates on US strategy to control Chinese and Russian stakes in the Mediterranean in order to regain economic dominance.

PRESS TV May 15, 2011

Press TV: I’d like to get your reaction to a statement by the head of Britain’s armed forces that he’s said that we need to increase the pressure for more intense military action. What further action is he talking about? Is this a prelude to, perhaps, ask for another UN resolution which may go for the famous “boots on the ground” scenario that many analysts said they have feared for Libya?

Roberts: I don’t think the Chinese and Russians would permit that. They went along with the UN resolution because it was only a no-fly resolution; it doesn’t allow the United States and NATO to intervene in the way that they are intervening.

I think this has angered the Russians, and no doubt the Chinese, because this whole enterprise is directed against China. China has very large energy investments in Libyan oil which is in the eastern part of the country, largely.

The Americans were very much disturbed when the International Monetary Fund announced that the Chinese economy would surpass the American economy within five years. So, the Americans are using the fact that they still are the top dog to try to evict China from its African energy resources in order to deny the energy it needs for the continual development of their economy.

This is what the British and the Americans did to Japan in the 1930’s and it’s why World War II in the Pacific began.

So what Libya is about is Washington using the so-called Arab protests to evict China from the Mediterranean, North Africa, where we have oil investments.

That’s why I think that what will happen is Libya will be petitioned. They don’t really care about Gaddafi or any of that; there’s certainly no humanitarian concern.

They do want to deny energy to China. So I think that since the CIA is very active in the eastern rebellion, probably behind it, what Libya faces is some kind of separation from its oil in order to evict China from the Mediterranean. In my opinion, this is what it’s all about.

Press TV: When you talk about the push that the United States has, and one of the motives it has is to further alienate China in terms of the areas resources – as you’ve mentioned, China is vested in Libya – are you saying that there are other countries? We talk about Russia or the Brits, that they can have no say in this? Because, as it stands, we’re looking at, basically, NATO and five partner nations that are implementing this no-fly zone, that includes the United States.

Roberts: I think China and Russia made a mistake because they thought that Washington would respect the meaning of the UN resolution which was simply a “no-fly”; in other words, it was intended to stop Gaddafi from using his air force against the rebels.

But, immediately, the air force was used to attack Gaddafi’s forces from the air, and to try to kill him. They attacked him several times and managed to kill his son and several grandsons by air attacks.

Washington will always put the most expansive possible interpretation on any UN resolution. I’m surprised that China and Russia trusted Washington. But if Washington and the British go back to the UN, I think this time China and Russia will veto it in the Security Council. But, maybe not because neither country is yet ready for a direct confrontation with the United States. It’s not certain that they would veto it.

All of this is directed against China and Russia. That’s what the activity in Syria is about. We know for a fact the United States government has announced and admitted that it supports the opposition in Syria. Why?

Because the Russians have a massive naval base in Syria, it’s undergoing restoration and renovation, but by next year it’s supposed to be completed. The Russians have announced that they’ll be keeping aircraft carriers and guided missile cruisers. That’s not what NATO and Washington wants in the Mediterranean. They do not want a Russian naval presence.

The protests in Syria and Libya, unlike the ones in Egypt and Bahrain, are supported by the United States government because they are directed against China and Russia, and they want them evicted from the Mediterranean. That’s really what this is about.

Press TV: When you talk about how Libya’s oil in the east is being controlled by the revolutionaries, and most likely we have the West in there, I know the transactions of the US Treasury Department is involved in terms of some of the oil transactions as reported. However, based on the scenario that you’ve pointed out, if Libya gets divided at some point, how much of a timeline do you give for the NATO operation?

At the same time, once it divided Libya, what’s going to happen to the West? What plans would the US have for that and, of course, its coalition partners?

Roberts: Western Europe is nothing but American puppet states. The governments don’t serve their own people, they serve Washington.

Washington wants to remain number one; therefore, it’s going to deny China access to oil not just in Libya but also in Nigeria and Angola where the Chinese also have oil investments.

Washington formed what they call the African Command, they call it AFRICOM. And this became effective in 2008, about two and half years ago. It’s a military alliance and it’s directed against China’s economic penetration of Africa. They’ve got all but five African countries to join.

Of course, Gaddafi would not. He said this is the Americans parting an entire continent, and he wouldn’t join it. This is another reason, of course, why he is marked for losing the revenue part of his country. They may leave him with Tripoli but they’re going to take away from him the oil revenues.

Press TV: Can you tell us based on this game plan what is going to stop it from going as smoothly based on the details you’ve provided us?

Roberts: The only thing that will stop the American drive for hegemony is the economic collapse of the United States. This could happen from the abuse of the United States dollar by the United States government and the Federal Reserve because they’re printing dollars now like a third-world banana republic in order to finance the large government deficit.

So, it’s entirely possible that the United States will commit financial suicide and not be able to complete its plans for world hegemony.

Last Updated on Monday, 16 May 2011 22:13

May 16th, 2011, 3:28 pm

 

why-discuss said:

Usama

Muslim Brotherhood: ‘Prepare Egyptians for war with Israel’
http://www.jpost.com/Headlines/Article.aspx?id=206130

Muslim Brotherhood seeks end to Israel treaty
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/feb/3/muslim-brotherhood-seeks-end-to-israel-treaty/

I don’t trust either, they are trying to appear moderates to appease the Arab youth and the western countries but their true nature is well defined in their teachings:

“While the Ikhwan say that they support democratic principles, one of their stated aims is to create a state ruled by Islamic law, or Sharia. Their most famous slogan, used worldwide, is: “Islam is the solution”.”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12313405

May 16th, 2011, 3:31 pm

 

AIG said:

Jad and Why-Discuss,

If you want the Golan back why are you sending Palestinians to die in your place? It seems only cowards act this way.

May 16th, 2011, 3:36 pm

 

Souri333 (formerly Souri) said:

Yesterday’s Golan demonstration was just a warm up. The anniversary of June 6 (Golan occupation) is approaching and I think millions of Syrians should gather in the Golan to condemn the American-backed Israeli occupation of Golan. We will see if the Western media will care about the lives of those Syrian demonstrators as much as it does about the Wahhabi vandals’.

Near-border peaceful demonstrations will never stop until the end of occupation. The Palestinians are considering making them every week. These demonstrations will keep growing until they include millions of people (real demonstrations, not like the fake American-Wahhabi demonstrations).

????? ???? ????? ???????
????? ???? ????? ??????
???? ???? ????… ??????? ??????? ????
?????? ?????? ????? ?????????

May 16th, 2011, 3:39 pm

 

atassi said:

Aldendeshe

Pass the smoke dude..Pufff…

????? ??????
??????? ???? ?? ????? ????? ????? ? ????? ??? ????? ?? ??????? ??? ?????? ????? ?? ???? ????? ?????? ?????? ??????? ????? ???? ??? ?????? ???: ? ???????? ?? ????? ????? ? ????? ??????

Amir in Tel Aviv
it was part of a message Mkhlouf tried to relay to the Israeli ….”this what the area will look if we forced to leave” talk to your friend in Washington

May 16th, 2011, 3:40 pm

 

Souri333 (formerly Souri) said:

69. AIG,

Nobody “sent” those Palestinians. It is their own revolution. All that Syria did was that it did not prevent them from organizing a peaceful legal demonstration. I thought the US did not like it when the Syrian government quelled revolutions? Yesterday’s Golan demonstrators were angels compared to the Wahhabi demonstrators that the West has been hailing as brave peaceful demonstrators.

May 16th, 2011, 3:47 pm

 

ZIAD said:

Has any of the human rights organizations say anything about Israelis killing unarmed protesters?

May 16th, 2011, 3:49 pm

 

atassi said:

World News
U.S. Condemns Syrian Involvement in Israel
By Jared A. Favole
16 May 2011
14:50
The Wall Street Journal Online
English
Copyright 2011 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

WASHINGTON—The White House on Monday condemned Syria’s involvement in protests along Israel’s border over the weekend that led to the death of at least 13 people and urged the countries to show restraint.

“We are also strongly opposed to the Syrian government’s involvement in inciting yesterday’s protests in the Golan Heights,” White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said Monday. “Such behavior is unacceptable and does not serve as a distraction from the Syrian government’s ongoing repression of demonstrators in its own country.”

Israeli leaders blamed the Syrian and Iranian governments for orchestrating Sunday’s protests, and the U.S. accused Syria of inciting the violence to distract from its own bloody crackdown. “It seems apparent to us that is an effort to distract attention from the legitimate expression of protest by the Syrian people,” Mr. Carney said.

The clashes on Sunday along Israel’s border came on the anniversary of the country’s founding and marked the most dramatic escalations of violence in the Israel-Palestinian conflict in years. Israeli soldiers opened fire on demonstrators attempting to cross the border into Israel from Lebanon, Syria and the Gaza Strip on Sunday. Israel claimed responsibility for three of the deaths.

Mr. Carney said the White House regrets the loss of life but urged restraint. Israel “like all countries, has the right to prevent unauthorized crossings at its borders. Its neighbors have the responsibility to prevent such activity,” he said.

President Barack Obama is scheduled to meet Friday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

May 16th, 2011, 3:54 pm

 

Souri333 (formerly Souri) said:

68. Amir in Tel Aviv,

This was the shortest way to Palestine for them. I think it was obvious. You don’t need to be very smart to figure that out yourself.

May 16th, 2011, 4:01 pm

 

Amir in Tel Aviv said:

I have to acknowledge and pay a compliment to my Palestinian cousins.

For their choice of non-violent protest. This (relative) non-violence, brings them lots more gains than the violent tactics, that brought then endless stream of defeats.

Obviously, Israel is losing in this propaganda battle. But for the long run, The gains of non-violence vs. the defeats that result from violence and militarism, will have an effect on how struggles are being “fought” in the region. This makes me more optimistic about the future of our, at odds, Middle East.
.

May 16th, 2011, 4:03 pm

 

Jad said:

????? ?????? ??????? ??????? ?? ????? ????? ???????? ????? ????? ??????? ????? ?? ????? ????? ??? ??????? ?? ????? ???? ????? ????

???????-????

???? ??????? ????? ???? ????? ???? ????? ?????? ????? ????? ?? ????? ???????? ????? ????? ??????? ????? ?????? ??????? ?????? ?? ????? ????? ???? ??? ??? ?????? ??????.

??? ?????? ????? ??? ????? ???? ?????? ??????? ?????? ????? ?????? ?????? ???? ???? ???????? ??????? ???????? ?????? ?? ???? ????? ??? ???? ??? ??? ????? ??? ????? ?????? ?????? ?????? ???? ???? ?? ???? ?????? ???? ???? ?????? ???? ??? ????? ???????? ?????? ??? ?????? ??????.

??? ??? ???? ?????? ??? ???? ??? ?????? ??? ???? ???? ??????? ???????? ???? ???? ?????? ?????? ?????? ????? ????? ???? ?????? ????????? ???? ???? ?????? ??????.

???? ???? ?????? ???? ????????: ????? ???? ??? ???? ??????? ??? ???? ??? ???? ????? ???? ????? ?????? ?? ???? ???? ?? ??? ??????? ????? ???? ???? ?????? ???? ????? ???? ???? ??????? ??? ???? ? ?????? ??? ??? ???????.. ??? ??? ?????? ???? ???? ????? ????? ???? ?? ???? ????? ????? ?? ???????? ????????.

????? ??? ???????? ????? ?????? ???? ?? ????? ?????? ?? ????? ?????? ????? ???? ??? ????? ???? ?? ??? ?????.. ????? ????? ?? ???? ?? ?????? ?? ???? ????? ???? ???? ??? ???? ????? ???? ???? ????? ?????? ????? ?? ????? ??????? ?????? ??? ???? ????? ?????????? ?????? ??????.

??? ??? ????? ??? ????? ???? ????? ?????? ?????? ???? ???? ?????? ?? ???? ????? ?? ?????? ??????? ???? ????? ??????? ??? ???? ?? ??? ?????? ?????? ????? ???????? ??????.

???? ???? ?????? ?? ???? ?????? ???? ????? ??????? ??? ??? ???????? ????? ?????? ??? ?????? ??????? ???? ?????.

???? ???? ???? ???? ?????? ??? ?????? ?? ???? ???? ???? ?? ??????? ???? ????? ????? ??????? ????? ????? ????? ???? ?? ???? ????? ?????.

??? ?????? ??? ??? ?????? ?? ????? ???? ??? ?????? ??????? ??? ?? ???? ???? ???? ????? ?????? ?????? ???? ???? ??????.

??????? ?????? ?? ????? ????? ??????? ??? ?????? ????? ?????? ??? ???? ??? ???? ?????? ?????? ??? ?????? ?????? ?????? ????? ????? ????? ??? ??????? ??? ???? ?????? ??? ???????? ??????? ???? ???? ??????? ???????.

???? ??? ???? ?????? ???? ?????? ?? ???? ????? ???? ????? ????? ???? ????? ??? ????? ???? ????? ??? ??? ???? ?????? ?????? ??? ????? ????? ????? ???? ????????? ???????.

?????? ???? ????? ??????: ??? ???? ???? ???? ??? ????? ??? ???? ???? ?????? ???? ????? ????? ????? ?????? ????? ??? ???? ?? ????? ??????? ?????? ????? ?????? ?? ???????? ????? ????? ????? ?????? ??????.

????? ????? ??? ?????? ????? ?? ?????? ?? ???? ??? ???? ????? ????? ??? ?????? ??? ????? ???? ?????? ???? ?????? ?????? ????? ????? ?????? ????? ??????.

????? ????? ???? ??????? ??? ???? ???? ??? ????? ?????? ????? ???? ???? ???? ?????? ????? ????? ?? ????? ?????.

???? ??? ?? ?????? ???? ?? ??????? ???? ?? ??? ????? ???? ????? ????????? ???? ???? ??? ??? ??????.

???? ?? ?????? ???? ?? ?????? ???? ??? 1991 ??? ???? ???? ??? ??????? ???? ??? ??? ????? ?????????.

http://sana.sy/ara/336/2011/05/16/347164.htm

May 16th, 2011, 4:04 pm

 

Souri333 (formerly Souri) said:

I think that we should also organize huge demonstrations near the occupied Iskandaron province. If the regime is serious about allowing people to demonstrate freely, it must allow us to demonstrate for this important cause. This used to be a national day in Syria but sadly now you can’t even commemorate it. This is extremely weird. How can a government ban its citizens from demanding back an occupied national territory?

May 16th, 2011, 4:05 pm

 

AIG said:

SOURI333,

We all know. Assad can fire rockets, send Palestinians, etc. etc.
Do you worst. The Syrian people deserve freedom like any other people, and your immoral blackmail will not work.

If you think the pressure on Syrian regime is high now, wait till the nuclear file gets rolling and wait for the STL indictments. Syria is going to be a complete pariah state unless Assad agrees to real democratic reforms.

May 16th, 2011, 4:07 pm

 

Souri333 (formerly Souri) said:

Netanyahu’s speech yesterday was pathetic. I don’t think that there is anybody who buys this “destroying Israel” scarecrow anymore. Those were peaceful demonstrators who just wanted to return to their homes. No one wants to destroy anything. It is shameful and disgraceful that the US still propagates these fascist Israeli claims and supports them. When will the US ever have an ethical standing on this issue?

May 16th, 2011, 4:10 pm

 

Jad said:

They don’t look like smugglers at all 🙂

???? ?????? ??????? ?? ?????

May 16th, 2011, 4:11 pm

 

Jad said:

Souri333,
The march of yesterday did put Bibi in the hot seat. He is now under pressure to come up with a peace plan before his next visit to Washington, which is hell for him and his junta you see on here.

May 16th, 2011, 4:17 pm

 

NK said:

why-discuss

I was merely pointing out that extreme punishments are not something exclusive to Islam or invented by profit Mohammad.

I don’t want Sharia law in Syria because I believe a secular law is a better choice (less prone to the misinterpretations/whims of twisted-minded “scholars” ), and not because I believe Islam is an evil religion, there’s a big difference.

Aldendeshe

Following your logic, rapists, murderers and thieves should not be punished because Allah will punish them in the afterlife!.

May 16th, 2011, 4:21 pm

 

AIG said:

SOURI333,

Since when did you ever consider ethics in your thoughts? You are the one advocating war to get the heat of Assad. You are the one supporting one of the most oppressive regimes on earth, a regime that has no qualms about killing its own people and dumping them in mass graves.

May 16th, 2011, 4:22 pm

 

Souri333 (formerly Souri) said:

82. AIG,

The STL does not scare anybody anymore. It is something from the past. Also I think its mandate ends this year. I can’t see Russia or China agreeing to extend the mandate of this scandalous court for three more years. This tribunal has become a real circus and it is a disgrace to international law. I can’t imagine that Russia will extend its mandate.

As for the “nuclear file,” this is a real joke. The US has been trying extremely hard to make a “nuclear file” for Syria, but they were unsuccessful despite all their intense political pressure. The only country that has a “nuclear file” in the region is the Zionist entity. I think the Arab League countries should collectively suspend their commitment to the NPT until Israel signs it. I can’t understand why they have not done that until now. Perhaps now, in the age of Arab democracy, we will see this step taken.

May 16th, 2011, 4:24 pm

 

Akbar Palace said:

The Scarecrow called 9-11

I don’t think that there is anybody who buys this “destroying Israel” scarecrow anymore.

Souri333,

There are two types of people:

1.) Those that “pray for the end of Israel” and do everything to ensure this comes to fruition, while at the same time, calls this a “scarecrow”.

2.) Those that take the statements and actions of 1.) at their word.

http://gatewaypundit.rightnetwork.com/2011/05/hamas-leader-haniyeh-pray-for-the-end-of-israel/

May 16th, 2011, 4:25 pm

 

why-discuss said:

Atasi

#77

This declaration by the White House sounds like a bad joke!
I guess they are confused and don’t know how to react.

Peaceful protests against occupation is “unacceptable’? and the illegal occupation of the Golan is ‘acceptable’?

Or is it a blackmail to Bashar al Assad about his possible inclusion in the next sanctions in he continues encouraging protests against Israel?

“We are also strongly opposed to the Syrian government’s involvement in inciting yesterday’s protests in the Golan Heights,” White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said Monday. “Such behavior is unacceptable and does not serve as a distraction from the Syrian government’s ongoing repression of demonstrators in its own country.”

May 16th, 2011, 4:39 pm

 

ziadsoury said:

Where did we read about the idea of letting Palestinians loose on the Jolan?

https://joshualandis.com/blog/?p=8501#comment-242861

The Asad clan can’t implement the full idea because the peole are not with them. They can control the behaviour of a couple of hundreds but not the free people.

BTW, AIG, I am still waiting for an answer.

May 16th, 2011, 4:47 pm

 

Off the Wall said:

Why Discuss
The western world is in shock and denial, they just can’t accept the fact that Palestinians are also part of the arab spring.

Bashar lovers are in shock and denial, they just can’t accept the fact the Syrians are also part of the Arab spring

I am rather comfortable accepting both as equally parts of the Arab Spring.

Amir
Remember Shai, your countryman who was chided by AIG and Akbar for suggesting this same peaceful idea more than two years ago.

May 16th, 2011, 4:50 pm

 

Amir in Tel Aviv said:

Mr. Hejazi managed to catch a ride from the Golan to Tel Aviv
(in this video) http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-4069666,00.html
Now he demands his “right of return”. I recommend to grant him with a right of return to the Hejaz, his true origin.

OTW,

I wonder where Shai and Yossi are. They disappeared just when the best part of the action started!
.

May 16th, 2011, 5:04 pm

 

jad said:

????? ??????: ???? ????? ???? ?????? ??? ?? ?????? ?? ????? ??????? ???? ?????? 6 ????? ????? ???? ????? ?????
2 minutes ago

May 16th, 2011, 5:04 pm

 

Off the Wall said:

Off course with full credit for originality to ZIADSOURY as well.

ZIADSOURY:
The difference is between cynical and sincere. Sincere can implement a full idea, a cynical will only use others or what they do for his own purposes. But I really do not think that the Dynasty will be able to use this one. Their attempt to use it and direct it to their favor is already backfiring on them in the wider Arab public opinion, which by now thinks squat of them and their fake resistance. The reason I also tend to think that the Palestinians descent was genuine is because today, there were several arrests in Jordan in the Zarga camps, which goes to show that the idea was a genuine idea and that it was part of the Arab spring. That said, I find it odd that the descenders (a name which i think really fits those heroes) from Syria into the Jolan were all Palestinians, where were the Jolani Syrians, who still yearn for their land. This is also noticed by many other Arabs.

BTW: Good to see you posting again, even a short one.

May 16th, 2011, 5:09 pm

 

why-discuss said:

OTW

Syrians are part of the Arab spring, no one ever denied it. It has manifested itself in very different forms, the award for ‘Best Arab Spring’ goes to Tunisia and Egypt because the leaders were ripe and fell at the first shake of the united peaceful demonstrators. The problem is that the coming ‘summer’ is getting polluted by foreign elements and more violent.
In other countries, Syria, Bahrain, Libya, Yemen, the leaders were less ripe, the demonstrators less united and the pollution and violence started much earlier.
Let’s see which one will get the ‘Best Arab Summer’ award.

May 16th, 2011, 5:12 pm

 

Syria no kandahar said:

Another mile stone in Syrian delurevolution
20 min ago.Syrian students in Pakistan(9.5students)have resigned from Syria students union.they have decided to join Pakistani Taliban .this is in addition to Asala nasri(which had surgery done by Assad sr account) joining the delurevolution earlier.Allah Akbar.Artooz prayers in the work.
NB:Asala will not join Pakistani Taliban for now she likes Cairo .she is 95%egyption and was born in Syria by mistake.

May 16th, 2011, 5:13 pm

 

Off the Wall said:

Jad
Please find another name for bibi’s gang. Junta is reserved for those surrounding the Assads Dynasty.

Amir
I really think they do not want to interfere in internal Syrian issue. Their position, I would think, would be off course to support the freedom for Syrians and Palestinians. And they have said it often enough and probably do not want to re-iterate it countless times to those who are incapable of hearing it. Don’t you think they are the wiser?

Another possibility is that they are Saudi agents recruiting Syrian bloggers into Bandar-Israel-Qatar-US-Asala Nasri-Hariri-Yemeni-Egyptian-NeoCon-Communist-Taliban-Hindu plans and the have SUCCEEDED.. And there is no need for their services anymore.

May 16th, 2011, 5:19 pm

 

AIG said:

ZIADSOURY,

I wish you success in your plan. It it were at all possible it would have been done by Hamas in Gaza. Instead of asking hypothetical questions about situations that are never going to arise, I suggest you do something pragmatic.

May 16th, 2011, 5:26 pm

 

why-discuss said:

Israel hunts Syria infiltrators after day of bloodshed

Is it Syria’s strategy to try to send some of the 500,000 palestinians back to their home in Israel?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110516/wl_afp/israelpalestiniansconflictnakba
….Israeli media identified the fourth Palestinian as Hassan Hijazi, 28, an employee of the Syrian education ministry.

Interviewed by Israel’s privately owned Channel 10 television, Hijazi spoke of his pride at making it to Jaffa, his ancestral hometown, now a mixed Arab-Jewish district of greater Tel Aviv.

“This isn’t Israel, this is my country,” he said. “I don’t want to go back to Syria. I want to stay here where my father and my great-grandfather were born and bring my family here.”

May 16th, 2011, 5:31 pm

 

jad said:

Dearest OTW,
Nobody give the credit to the Syrian Junta* regarding the Palestinian 3rd Intifada but the Americans, the Israelis and those who keep posting about this lie and believe it.

* ‘Junta is reserved for those surrounding the Assads Dynasty.’
** after your permission may I call Bibi’s gangs ‘Trash’ (?????)

May 16th, 2011, 5:42 pm

 

Ali K said:

re “… Was in Homs again yesterday. We saw no evidence of shelling anywhere …”

Seriously? Did that person canvass what must be a decent size city street by street? I lived in Beirut during the civil war, and most streets didn’t show evidence of shelling.

I hope the good people of Syria can find a way out of this dangerous situation.

May 16th, 2011, 6:26 pm

 

Maryam said:

Is anyone else having the same problem where a couple of links go to the OU website? Particularly the Washington Post article of residents fleeing town, telling of terror and the one where Turkey is changing its tune on Syria?

May 16th, 2011, 6:53 pm

 

Syria no kandahar said:

Cont candidate for Syrian doll prs position:

2- Cont:needs to start dementia medicines befor his job
3-lives in Sweden needs to loose 100kg,constantly angry.given citizenship by people he considers koffar.
4-x socialist his name is 1000gm.he needs to say the shahada before he can be considered for the position.likes tarneeb and politically impotent discussions.
5-has been calling for dialogu for many years when it became possible his owners refused to let him do it.has had friendship with x killers and massacr organizers but suddenly became ????

May 16th, 2011, 7:03 pm

 

edward said:

seriously how stupid is this regime? a “delegation” from Daraa meets Bashar and asks for military education to be reinstated into the school curriculum?????

http://www.syria-news.com/readnews.php?sy_seq=132708

May 16th, 2011, 7:26 pm

 

Meee said:

The regime does not have enough thugs to beat on the demonstrators. One of my second shift workers is a gardener that works for the City (Muhafaza) in the morning. He, along other government employees, are taken on Fridays and sometimes Saturdays to stand outside mosques and beat on demonstrators. They are given a wrist band to be recognized. If they don’t show up, they get fined a 1000 sp (the first time), 2000 sp (the second absence) and 3000 sp the third absence. I don’t know what happens next. I didn’t ask.

May 16th, 2011, 7:51 pm

 

edward said:

the clearer and more conclusive videos of the mass graves found in Daraa, see the license plate in the second vid at 3:35:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luPO5Nr34hI

May 16th, 2011, 7:54 pm

 

jad said:

??? ???? ????? ?? ?????? ???? ??? ?????? 15-5-2011 ?? ??????? ?? ??? ??? ?? ????? ?????? ????? ?????.
????? ?????? ?? ??????? ????? ????? ???? ???????? ??? ?????? ??????? ???? ????? ???? ???????? ?? ??????? ?????? ??????? ??? ???? ????? ??? ????? ???????? ??? ?? ?????.
????? ????? ?????? ?? ??? ????? ??? ??? ????? ?????? ??????? ????? ?? ???? ???? ??????? ??????? ???????? ????? ?? ?? ??? ??????? ????? ?? ????? ?? ????? ??????? ?? ????? ???? ??? ??? ??? ??? ?????? ?????? ??????
?? ????? ??? ???? ???????? ???????? ?? ?? ????? ????? ?? ??? ?? ??????? ?? ???? ??????? ??????? ????????
? ?? ?? ?????? ?? ??? ????? ?? ?? ????? ? ???? ??????? ?? ?????? ???? ??????? ?? ???? ??? ? ?? ?? ??????? ?? ????? ?????? ???? ?????? ??? ??????? ? ?????? ?????? ???

May 16th, 2011, 8:13 pm

 

jad said:

S.N.K.
I only guessed #3, but didn’t guess the other 3, please help 🙂

May 16th, 2011, 8:21 pm

 

edward said:

it’s disgusting the depths some loyalists will stoop to in order to defend their Assad mass murder masters. Mass graves in Daraa were dugout by city municipal workers, they belonged to the Aba Zied family. Let me show you what a family member wrote:

@PRPsyria
So it turns out that my great uncle and his four children I was tweeting about were found today dead, may they rest in peace. They were detained almost 2 weeks ago by gov forces for absolutely no reason, they were driving in daraa before there 7 o clock curfew. They were stopped and arrested and no1 had any clue where the gov forces had taken them leaving family members extremely worried. Than today a farmer near the border had smelled something, the smell lead him to all five of there bodies hidden under some dirt. The boy he calls for basil is the only son who wasn’t arrested, I pray for him

May 16th, 2011, 8:31 pm

 

jad said:

Alex,
The Lebanese army deliver the two Syrian soldiers kidnapped yesterday to Syria:

????? ???????? ??? ????? ?????? ?????? ???? ?????? .. ?????? ????? ???????? ???? ?? ?? ?????? ??????? ?????? ??? ?????? ?? ?????:

??? ????? ???????? ????? ??????? ?? ?? ?????? ??????? ?????? ?? ??????? ???????? ????????? – ??????? ?? ????? ???? ???? ????? .

???? ????? ?? ???? ??? ????? ????????? ???????? ???? ???? ???? ?????? ??????? ??? ?????? ????????? ??????? ?? ????? ??????? ???? ????? ????? ???????? ???????? ??? ?????? ??? ??????? ??? ????? ???? ????? ????? ???????? ????? ?????? ????? ???? ????? ?????? ??????????.

????? ????? ????? “?? ?? ?????? ??????? ???????? ??? ??????? ( ???????? ???????? ) ?????? ???? ????????? ??? ????? ?????? ?????” ???? ?????? ???????? ?????? ???? ?? ????? ???????? ??????? ????? ???? ?????? ?? ????? ?????? ????? ?????? ?? ???? ??????? ??????? , ??? ???? ??? ????????? ??????? ??? ??? ?? ????? “?????” ???????? ??????? ???????? ?? ?????? ?????? ??? ????? ???? ???? ????? ???? ?? ??????? ?? ?????? ?????? ??? ????? ??? ???????? .

May 16th, 2011, 8:33 pm

 

why-discuss said:

Syrian Border Violence May Hold Message for Israel

By ANTHONY SHADID
Published: May 15, 2011

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/16/world/middleeast/16golan.html?_r=1&src=recg

May 16th, 2011, 8:44 pm

 

syau said:

Jad #108,

I’m assuming #2 appeared recently on Israeli tv?

May 16th, 2011, 8:58 pm

 

Amir in Tel Aviv said:

Ya Tribal,

2- Khaddam
5- Bayanouni
4- I have no idea
and he forgot Pony-Tail 🙂
.

May 16th, 2011, 8:59 pm

 

Jad said:

Thank you SYAU for the hint.
Thank you Prince!, I guess ponytail has no choice but to get a new hair cut 🙂

May 16th, 2011, 9:13 pm

 

Sophia said:

Saudi Arabia guest of honor at book fair with but one civil servant ‘writer’ present at the fair.

“The Syrian writer Robin Yassin-Kassab said it was “terrible that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was guest of honour, this year of all years”. Citing the Saudi Arabian regime’s “appalling record” on censorship and its controversial intervention in Bahrain, he suggested that Saudi Arabia is “at the heart of the Arab counter-revolution”, and suggested there was a contradiction in the Prague book fair receiving funds from “a book-banning state”.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/may/16/book-fair-welcome-saudi-arabia

May 16th, 2011, 9:53 pm

 

majedkhaldoon said:

A friend ,african american, went to study arabic in Syria,she left three months ago, two days ago she came back,she could not finish her course, she said they started 20, now there were only three,the class was canceled.she said things in Damascus are quiet,but there are a lot of inspection points,three on the road to the airport, and she lived in Siti Zainab, there was also inspections three time everyday,prices are cheaper, but she said I loved the food there.

May 16th, 2011, 9:55 pm

 

syau said:

Jad, #108

Could #5 be Quaradawi or Bandar bin Sultan?

May 16th, 2011, 9:59 pm

 

Syria no kandahar said:

4 is killo
1 is the son of famous Syrian actor

May 16th, 2011, 10:04 pm

 

aleyna said:

“Was in Homs again yesterday. We saw no evidence of shelling anywhere and most of the town was normal. One neighborhood, Bab Amr was blocked off and deserted. Was also in Aleppo and I think the story of thousands of students at the university was also exagerrated. More like 100. People there told me Aleppo is really normal and very few demonstrations have happened.”

Is this the same person that was “not worried” a month ago? Seriously, why do you keep posting this garbage?

May 16th, 2011, 10:09 pm

 

Norman said:

I want to ask the Syrians living in Syria, do Syrians these days stand in line at the Movie theater or during getting thier papers or still fight for their turn?,

May 16th, 2011, 10:11 pm

 

why-discuss said:

Norman

Banks and telephone companies (dear Makhlouf) have a system whereby you take a number and sit and wait for your turn appearing on a board.
There are never crowds at the cinemas, but at Cinema city , the only hi-tech cinema in Damascus, people stand in line.

May 16th, 2011, 10:25 pm

 

Revlon said:

My worst fears were realised,
Every time Aunty makes a reassuring statement the Jr gave the most emphatioc of orders not to fire at demonstrators, the exact opposit happens.

Since friday several dozens of civilians have fallen martyrs to Asad forces crackdown!

AlFati7a upon their souls,
May God bless their families with solace and empower them with patience.

Dar3a, like the rest of Syria, is not back to normal!

May 16th, 2011, 10:27 pm

 

Norman said:

WD,

Thank you, things seem to have improved.They might be ready for Democracy.

May 16th, 2011, 11:01 pm

 

why-discuss said:

Syria frees prominent dissident on bail:

Riad Seif and rights activist Catherine Tall,
Malak Al-Shanawani, a journalist detained April 11, author Ammar Dayoub as well as Jalal Nawfal, a doctor, and activist Ammar Aayrouti.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gE19P334SDaOKcmSvqodyPtn9r4w?docId=CNG.4432ee42b7b95abed5c3f576194fd62f.bd1

Syrian blogger is out of jail, but remains on trial

Syrian Kurdish blogger Kamal Hussein Sheikho was released yesterday from jail but remains on trial for publishing reports allegedly harmful for the country, a rights group said.
Sheikho, who is also a human rights activist, was released on bail of 500 Syrian pounds ($10) at the request of his lawyer, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said in a statement.

http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=421675&version=1&template_id=37

May 16th, 2011, 11:10 pm

 

Aldendeshe said:

So disappointing, Sunni Moslems are in the bottomless pit. I can only imagine if it were not for the Hafez Assad, how low they will get. Hafez gave them more respect than they will ever deserve, traitors. I have followed ??? ??????? for more than a decade, thinking, they can be empowered to take over the Sunni Islamic World, thought they can be the next Islamic revolutionaries to bring some sort of dignity to Sunni Moslems in Pakistan, Egypt and all of Arabia, the way Iran revolution brought dignity to the Shia Moslems the worlds over. Turns out they are just another Western Intelligence front, an early version of ALCIADA. All these pretty and balanced websites they ran back in the 90’s from Sweden and Denmark to Pakistan were so convincing, they even fooled me a bit. Nice cover MI6.

May 16th, 2011, 11:13 pm

 

jad said:

WD,
Very good news regarding the release of activists. I wonder how long Mr. Sheikho can stay out of jail for, since he has the reputation to go out of jail and come back in the next day after participating in the next protest 🙂
How can anybody not to respect Syrians like Shiekho, he is doing the right peaceful protesting on ground without the help of anybody outside Syria or the need of gun and violence to prove his cause, those guys are the only ones that deserve to represent the Syrian oppositions and anybody else using gun and calling for outsider’s help is nothing but a terrorist and a traitor.

——-
Interesting move:
?? ???? ???? ????, ??? ???? ????? ??? ??????? ?? ????? ?????? ???? ???????? ?? ??????? ?????? ???????
?????? ?? ???? ??????? ?? ????????? ??????? ?? ??? ??????? ???????? ?? ??????? ????? ?????? ????? ?????? ?????? ??????? ??????? ?????? ???? ????? ???? 150 ??? ?????? ????? ??? ????????? ???? ???????? ???????? ?? ??? 2012 ? ???? ?? ????? ????? ?? ??? ?????? ???? ??? ???? ????? ????????? ???? ?????? ?????

May 16th, 2011, 11:28 pm

 

jad said:

??????? ?????? – ??????? ????????
http://youtu.be/sLqN4Mg2v2A

Some explanation regarding a clip linked couple days ago showing couple Syrians slapping a man in the face represented as Shabiha and the video just happened, ends up being a 9 months old movie and the guy who was slapped in it is not more than a pervert who was caught trying to attack a young girl related to one of the guys showed in that clip, please check at min. 8:00.

May 16th, 2011, 11:39 pm

 

syau said:

Jad, #126,

Thanks for the link, yet another fake clip being exposed. Although that paedophile deserved more than couple of slaps for his actions.

May 16th, 2011, 11:53 pm

 

jad said:

Sophia,
Al waseem al Tareef in one of his usual work with the Guardian:
Syrian soldiers who defected to Lebanon are arrested

“Wissam Tarif, of human rights organisation Insan, told the Guardian: “The Lebanese military intelligence has detained those soldiers and they run the risk of being deported back to Syria.

“If those soldiers are deported to Syria then there is a serious risk of torture and execution,” he said, adding that sending them back to Syria would send the wrong message to other soldiers who may be tempted to defect because they don’t want to kill civilians. The human rights group Avaaz called on Lebanon to grant refugee status to the soldiers.”

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/16/syrian-soldiers-defected-lebanon-arrested

I love the arrogance west God’s language, it’s so gracious:
Assad 10 years on
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/17/assad-10-years-on

“As such, he is not worthy of our tolerance and has forfeited any entitlement to our goodwill.”

SYAU, ???? ????

May 16th, 2011, 11:57 pm

 

Revlon said:

Protest ion AlWa3r, Homs, last night

May 17th, 2011, 12:06 am

 

Syria no kandahar said:

I have a question to the opposition thinkers:haw will your government deal with an armed upprizing or an attempt of independs by any part of the country if you were in power?haw would you deal with a situation similar to Dara?suppose you have a similar senario say in kamishli and your 21st century top of the line brand new government and senators and congressmen and ministers are being challenged by PKK type of organized armed uprising ?will you say invite them to the four season hotel in Damascus and give theme massage and souna?that is only one realistic example and I can give so many other ones.
NB:if you answer this question please obstain from aljazera trash that these are peaceful demonstrations.

May 17th, 2011, 12:15 am

 

Revlon said:

Fifth floor of AlMuwasat academic hospital has been assigned to host severely injured or dying, victims of torture. “Information leaked from security agent”

Doctors and nurses have been forced, under threat to life to signa pledge not to divulge any information, phots, or videos of the patients.

Since no history is provided by the guards, Doctos sometime resort to laparotomy to arrive at diagnosis.

He cited several cases of torture by eye enucleation!

??? ???? ???????? ?? ??? ????? ??????? ??????? ?? ???? ???????? ???????::

?? ???? ???????? ??????? ?? ?????? ?????? ? ??? ?? ?? ????? ??? ?????? ??? ???? ???? ????? ????????? ????? ?? ??? ????? ????? ?? ??? ??????? ? ????? ??? ???? ????? ?????? ?? ?????? ?? ????? ?????? ?????? ??????? ??????? ??? ????? ???????? ??????? ??????? ?
???????? :: “???? ??????? ???? ????? ????? ????? ????? ?????? ? ??? ???? ?????? ?? ????? ???? ??? ???? ?? ???? ??? ???? ?? ???? ?? ??? ????? ??? ???? ?? ????? ??? ???? ??? ???? ?? ??? “.

????? ??? ???? ????? ?????? ??????? ??????? ????????? ????? ?? ??? ????? ????? ?? ??? ??????? ? ????? ???? ?? ?????? ?? ?? ??? ?????? ????? ?????? ?? ?????? ???? ??? ???????? ?????? ?? ?? ?????? ??? ?????? , ??? ???? ??????? ????? ???? ?? ??? ?????? ?? ??? ??? ???????? / ??????? ?????? : ??? ??????? ???? ?? ???? ??? ?? ????? ????? ????? ??????? ? ,????? ??? ???? ????? ???? ????? ?????? ????? ???? ????? ?????? ????? ???? …..

??? ???? ??? : ?? ??? ??? ??? ??? ????? ……..

May 17th, 2011, 12:17 am

 

Aldendeshe said:

??? ???? ??? : ?? ??? ??? ??? ??? ?????

Leave Allah out of your Virtual Revolution and the dead end problem it is facing. Address your complaint, admonition and prayer to the culprits: Khaddam, Moslem Brotherhood, ALCIDA, Hariri and the Bedouins of Arabia, as well as Turkmen.

WE TOLD YOU IT DOES NOT WORK THAT WAY IN SYRIA. IN FACT THEY HAVE TAKIN IT EASY THIS TIME, WAY EASY. IT COULD HAVE BEEN A LOT, LOT WORSE.

May 17th, 2011, 12:29 am

 

jad said:

#131
I have no doubt about the brutality of the Syrian Security service, but this story is over the top fiction, it’s like Stephan King meets Leigh Whannell in the corridor and they start talking about a new collaboration story, pocking eyes is a nice touch at the end by the way.
I want to ask Mr. King how an ‘honored’ security personnel who we all know that most of them didn’t even finish the 6th grade in the elementary school knew about the terminology of a ‘unique’ and ‘dangerous’ procedure of ‘Exploratory laparotomy’? It seems that Ammar abd alhameed (AKA Ponytail) is busy promoting Ugarit news channel but forgetting to put some rules on the size of lies allowed by his producers.

May 17th, 2011, 12:42 am

 

Revlon said:

130. Dear Syria No Kandahar, good question!
I would invite them for negotiation.
I would listen to their representatives.
I would give them the chance to present their case to the Syrian nation, in any medium they may choose.
I would allow foreign media free access to their views.
I would not attack their civilian, unarmed elements.
I would not tell false fables.
I would not stereotype their representatives or their cause.
However,

When all elements of the Syrian society are included, accommodated, and allowed peaceful activism, there will be no need for armed movements.

Arab revolutions, including the Syrian have set bright examples of peaceful activism.
They have shown more discipline, clarity and unity of purpose, and maturity in speech than Asad-Makhloof clan Syndicate, and their government entourage.

May 17th, 2011, 12:49 am

 

Syria no kandahar said:

So let us talk common sense and respect each other brains:
-Revlon news up has 0%evidence
-it is similar to telling us something he heard from ????? ?? ????
-he is becoming so desperate that his only Eyewittnesses on SC is ?? ????
-that is so cheap and it can be labeled as ????
-so I can tell him that Fantazia news agency is reporting that Aleppo is all rising up and there is one million people in ???? ??? ???? ??????? which is his dream would’t that fall in his trash category.
-so like it says:
??? ????? ????
And Revlon ??? has been torn a while ago.

May 17th, 2011, 12:51 am

 

Syria no kandahar said:

Dear Revlon
Your answer to my question shows that our nation will be so safe under your PERFECTO government .all syrians should???? ????? ??? ?????
Do you know that PKK agenda is Kurdistan and only Kurdistan .All this ?????? you are going to give them they will chew it and then spit it in your face if you don’t give theme there Kurdistan .so sorry you failed and your score is 0/10

May 17th, 2011, 1:04 am

 

jad said:

I changed my mind, I support the revolution since Zingo and Ringo assure us that nothing but peace, rainbow, and true democracy will happen in Syria after the ‘Familial Corrupted Police State’
I like optimistic hippies living in lala land!

???? ??????? ?????? ??????? ?????? ??????? ??????? ?? ????? ??”????? ???????” ?????? ???? ?????? ???? ????? ??? ??? “???????” ???? ??????? ?? ?? ?????????? ???????? ?? ??????.

?????? ??? ?????? ?????? ?????? ???? ???? ????? ????? ???? ???15 ????/???? ??????????? ?????? ??? ?????? ?????? ?? ??????? “??????? ??????? ???????” ???? ????? ????.

????? -????? ????? ???? ????? ?? ??????? ???????? ?????- ?? ?????? ???? ????? ?? ???? ??? ??? ?????? ?? ????? ??? ??? ????? ??????? ?? ????? ??????. ????? ??? ?? “????? ?????? ???????” -???? ?????? ???? ???????? ???????- ???? ??? “????? ???? ???????? ????? ??? ????? ????? ??????? ???????? ??????” ?????? ?? ?????? ??? 1970.

http://aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/1D3CD5B2-53A4-4091-B6EE-338389D3EB7F.htm

S.N.K
🙂 ????? ?? ????

May 17th, 2011, 1:07 am

 

Aldendeshe said:

Every seditious plot has plotter/s, what I really wants to know, is who are the f****g idiots that masterminded this rediculesley naive plot to destabilize Syria, thinking this will ends up in revolution and regime change. Whoever came up with this silly plot, is the dimmest F*****R in the world. The idiotic stupidity of this planning and plotting has outdone the Iraq War Special Office at the Pentagon planning. Although, one can feel the similarity which is loudly evident.

May 17th, 2011, 1:21 am

 

syau said:

Revlon, #134

I have a few questions,

Would you invite them for negotiations with or without their weapons?

“Listen to their representatives”, which ones, the ones that were faceless in the beginning of the revolution, or the ones that are committing the murders and mutilations, maybe the ones shooting at the protesters and police or would you possibly listen to their die hard Imams that are calling for Jihad.

How do you suggest they present their case to the nation when they call for violent uprisings with the ugly hint of sectarianism via FB- maybe you would you prefer an internet presentation

“Civilian unarmed elements”, that has been proven to be false; there were definitely armed elements in the protests, so we wont even go there.

You “would not tell false fables” – False fables are compliments of the Syrian revolution and the entities affiliated with them.

Being stereotyped is the result of the revolutions own pr.
In this circus which you call a revolution, armed movements were not a last resort; they were evident from the beginning.

Fida Alsayed and is entourage couldn’t even lead a revolution properly, they would run a country into the ground.

May 17th, 2011, 1:28 am

 

Revlon said:

Dorothy Parves: Will she face the fate of Mousa AlSadr; Qiddafi’s style?
Syria and Iran will be accountable by the international community for her well being.

May 17th, 2011, 1:36 am

 

Revlon said:

Talbeeseh last night!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20oVEwKgxTs&feature=player_embedded#at=12

AlBukamal, last night
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0wdhhJPhpU&feature=player_embedded

Aleppo, yesterday
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUvAzqI2xdw&feature=player_embedded

The revolution is on, 24/7!
Day and night protests are wearing the rgime’s forces thin!

May 17th, 2011, 1:42 am

 

Syria no kandahar said:

I gues Revlon is so worried about parves and has no response to SYAU
Questions.or may be will give him time until he can ask ?? ???? for some help

May 17th, 2011, 1:47 am

 

syau said:

SNK, #142,

Unforutnately, Om Mohamad, Abu Mohamad and their son Mohamad are too busy with their eyewitness accounts to Al Jazeera and are unable to help, especially if the revolution is on “24/7”.

May 17th, 2011, 1:59 am

 

Aldendeshe said:

URGENT- TO ALL DANDASHI’S IN TEL KALAKH SYRIA
FROM METAZ K M ALDENDESHE
Chief Strategist-Syrian Nationalist Party

Pack up and leave immediately- go to SAFITA or MARMARITA is a safe haven among the Christians. Do not take any part in Hariri MENTALLY INSANE operation being planned now. Do not provide any support to his clowns. He will lose big and so as Lebanon soon. Set up a delegation and go meet with President Bashar Assad, The President of SYRIA.

Remain neutral party. The Syrian Revolution is a fraud, perpetrated by those who impoverished you and seized your land. They are attempting to gain control back – Do not trust the deceivers and con-men.

May 17th, 2011, 2:01 am

 

AlexRodriguez said:

Time and time again, pro-Assad apologists and pro-goverment individuals use the tired excuse that Assad and his clan are merely battling Islamists and Salafis. But as this video shows, they are battling ‘freedom’ as it clearly shows the individuals doing the beating screaming ‘do you want freedom you son of a ****?’ and not screaming such vulgarities as ‘Where is your God now?’ as such was the case in Hama in 1982. And as this isn’t the first video of such a violation of human rights (the first being in a village outside Tartous), any Syrian who finds any reason to still support this crooked regime is in fact a traitor to Syria. Sometimes, the individuals doing the killing and violations have more of an accurtate reading as to what is truly policy rather than the failed advisors who speak to the media.

*Disclaimer: this video is not a forgery, has not been staged somewhere in Hollywood and is filmed entirely by an individual who took part in this operation. Pray do tell, apologists, what do you have to say that human rights violations are not sactioned by the government? It doesn’t matter what religion you are, any defender of this behavior, is a defender of evil.

http://blogs.news.sky.com/middleeastblog/Post:88d30a47-9645-4843-9868-8516ab974d69

May 17th, 2011, 4:15 am

 

AlexRodriguez said:

Three Syrian soldiers who defected to Lebanon have been arrested by Lebanese authorities and are of risk of deportion, torture and execution.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/16/syrian-soldiers-defected-lebanon-arrested

May 17th, 2011, 4:36 am

 

Louai said:

dose it mean anything to anyone that the Syrian revolution’s page on the facebook is 178000 member most of them Arabs when Bashar Alassad’s page 176000 members all of them Syrians?

dose it mean anything that Bashar Alasad the only Arab president who’s people going out in support of him on the streets and in front of the Syrian embassies all over the world -including Cairo excluding Saudi- ?

the reason media do not mention the supporters who went out in millions is that no one of them burned any town hall or cars next time they should do so maybe they will appear in the news .

May 17th, 2011, 4:38 am

 

Sophia said:

#131 Revlon,

Laparotomy is performed when the cause of the disease is unknown. Torture is not a disease. On the other hand, you don’t need medical history when you are treating people who have traumatic injuries and you don’t need laparotomy because you can do x rays and routine medical examination to determine which organs are injured.

I think you are reading too much wikipedia.

As for the eyes story, I think Syrian revolutionaries have to decide which propaganda is better because on one hand you say that the regime is detaining, torturing and releasing in order to deter and frighten people from going to the protests, and on the other hand you are propagating horror stories and by the way helping the regime frighten and deter people from protesting.

Your stories are making me sick. I don’t know when the moment of truth for the Syrian ‘revolution’ will come but there will be one and then you will have to face up to your lies. I hope this moment comes sooner no later. Stop deceiving!

May 17th, 2011, 5:02 am

 

Off The Wall said:

I post articles from Alquds Alarabi because it is not available in Syria, as far as I know.

?????? ??????????
????? ????
2011-05-16

?? ??? ?? ???? ??? ??????? ????? ???? ????? ??? ????? ‘??????? ?????’? ?? ???? ?? ????????? ?? ????? ????? ??????? ??? ??? ??????? ?? ????? ?????? ?????????? ???? ??? ?????? ??????? ??? ????? ????.
??????? ??????? ??? ???????????? ???? ?????? ?? ?? ???? ????? ????? ??? ????? ????? ????. ?? ????? ?? ???? ?? ??????????? ?? ??????? ??????? ??? ??????? ?? ???? ?????? ?????? ?? ?????? ???? ?? ????????? ???????? ??????? ?????? ??? ???????? ???? ???????? ??? ???? ???? ???? ????????? ?????? ?????? ???????? ???????? ???????? ??? ????? ????? ??????? ????????? ??????? ??????????.
??? ???? ????? ??? ?????? ??????? ??? ???? ?????? ?????? ???????? ?????? ???? ???? ????? ??????? ??? ??????? ??????? ???? ?????? ????????? ????? ????????. ???? ??? ?????? ???? ?????? ??? ?????? ???????? ???????? ???? ???????? ?? ?????? ??? ???? ???? ????????? ???????.
?? ????(??????) ??? ????? ?????? ????????? ?????? ????? ?????? ????? ??????? ??????? ????? ‘??????????? ??????? ?? ????? ??????’? ????? ?? ???? ???? ?? ????? ????????? ???????.
?? ???? ??? ???? ????? ??? ??????? ?????? ????? ??????? ??? ????????? ????????? ?????????? ??? ???????? ????????? ??? ?? ??????? ??????????? ?? ??? ??????? ?????????.
??? ?? ???????? ???? ??? ????? ?????? ?? ????? ?????? ?????? ???? ?????? ???? ????????? ?????? ???????? ????. ??? ?? ?? ??? ?????????? ?????? ???? ??? ???? ????? ??????? ?? ?? ??????? ?? ??? ????? ??? ????? ??????? ???????? ?? ?????????? ????? ????? ?????? ?????????? ?? ??? ????? ???? ?????????? ?????? ????. ????? ??? ?????? ??????? ???? ??? ??????? ????? ????.
?? ???? ????? ???? ????? ??????. ???? ??? ?? ???? ?? ????? ?? ????? ?? ?????? ?? ?? ????? ??? ????????? ???? ????… ?? ???? ?? ???? ??? ?? ?? ????? ???? ??????? ??????? ??? ????? ????? ???? ?? ????? ????? ???? ?? ???? ?????? ???? ??? ?? ??? ????? ????? ?? ???? ?? ?? ??? ?????? ????? ????????? ??? ???? ????? ?????? ????.
??? ???????? ?? ??? ????? ?????? ???????? ?? ???????? ?? ??????? ???????. ?????? ??????? ?? ???? ???????? ?? ????? ??? ???????? ????? ???? ????? ???? ?? ?????. ???? ???? ???? ?? ???? ?????? ???? ????? ???? ?? ????? ????? ???? ??????? ???????? ???? ?? ?????? ????? ?????? ?????? ??????? ????? ?? ?????.
??? ????? ????? ???? ??? ????? ????? ?? ???? ????? ???? ??? ?????? ??????? ??????? ???? ????? ???????? ??????? ??? ?????? ??? ?? ???? ??? ???? ?? ????? ?????? ????? ?????????? ?? ?????.
??? ?? ????? ?????? ??? ??????? ??? ??????. ???? ???? ??????? ?????? ??? ????? ??? ??? ???????? ???????? ???? ?? ????? ?? ????????? ??? ?????? ?? ??????? ??? ??????? ???? ??? ???? ???? ?? ??? ??????? ??? ?? ???????????? ??????? ?? ????????? ???? ?? ????? ??? ?? ?? ?????? ??????? ?? ??????.
????? ??????? ??????? ???? ?????? ??? ?????? ??????? ??? ??????? ???????? ?? ?????? ?? ???? ???????? ??? ???? ?? ?????? ??? ???? ??????? ?? ????? ????????? ?? ????????? ?? ??? ???????? ????????? ??????? ?? ?????. ??? ??????????? ???? ??? ?????? ??? ????? ????? ?????? ???? ?????? ???? ?? ????? ????? ????? ?????? ??? ?????? ????????? ?? ???? ‘???????’ ??????? ?? ????? ??????? ??? ???? ?????? ??? ????? ???? ????? ????? ?? ??????? ??????? ??????????? ???????.
‘ ‘ ‘
?? ?????? ??????? ??????? ??????? ???? ??????? ??????? ????? ?? ????. ??????? ??????? ???? ????? ??????? ?? ??? ?????? ??? ?? ?????? ?????? ???????? ?????????? ????????? ???? ???????? ?????? ???? ??? ??? ?? ?????? ?? ??? ????? ??? ??????? ?? ?????? ??????? ??? ???? ??? ????? ???????? ????? ???????????? ?? ????? ?? ????????? ??????? ??????? ?????????? ???????????? ???? ????? ??????? ??????? ??? ???? ?? ???? ??? ??????? ?? ???? ???? ???? ???? ?????.
?? ??? ??? ??????????? ?????? ??? ????? ?????????? ?????? ????????? ??? ?????? ?? ???? ????? ????? ?????? ???? ???? ??????. ?????? ???? ??? ???? ?? ?????? ??????? ???? ??????? ?????? ?? ??? ???? ??????? ??? ?????? ??????? ???? ????? ??? ???? ????? ??????? ??? ????? ?? ???? ??? ???? ??????? ??????? ?? ??????.
?? ?????? ??????????? ?? ?????? ???? ??????? ???????? ??????? ??? ????? ??????? ??????? ???? ???? ???? ?????? ?????? ?? ?? ???? ?????? ?????? ?????.
????? ???? ????? ?? ?????? ?????? ??????????? ?? ?????? ??????? ??? ????? ?????? ???????? ?? ??? ??????? ?????? ???????? ????? ??????? ?????????.
‘ ‘ ‘
???? ???? ?????? ?????? ?? ????? ????? ????? ??? ?????? ???? ???? ??????????? ??? ??????? ???????? ???????? ??? ????? ??? ??? ?????? ????????? ????? ?????.
?? ??? ???????? ????? ???? ?????? ??????? ???????? ??? ?????? ?? ???? ?? ????? ?????? ???????? ??????? ?? ??? ??? ??????? ????????? ????? ?? ??? ?? ??????? ???????? ?????????? ????????? ????????? ????????? ?? ??? ?????? ?? ?????????.

May 17th, 2011, 5:20 am

 

Revlon said:

#146, Dear Sophia, It feels good to be spoken to with with a teacher tone. I thank you for making me feel young again.

I am going to assume that you are a doctor. Notwithstanding, here is my reponse to your comment:
– laparotomy is cutting / incising the abominal wall.
– When the disease is unknown, the procedure is called Exploratory lapatrotmy!
– When managing conscious people, who do not need CPR, you definitely need a medical history, and a very good one.

– I have not worked or been to a ward for victims of torture! Have you? However, I had a close encounter with a prisoner in one of the Hospitals in Syria.
I was walking down the corridor! The victim was laboring while walking with His feet and hands tied in chains, being escorted by two heavy weight security agents. I glanced a look at his face, and I have never stoped remebering the silent plea in his eyes!

Victims of torture are under strict orders not to speak to a soul, except to their prison doctor, who is part of the torture system.
They are brought to the hospital so their death can be witnessed and a convenient a medical certificate be issued.

Minimum, or no radiological or laboratory investigations are allowed.

It is really up to you to save yourself the horrors of my posts!
Stop buying Revlon!

May 17th, 2011, 5:36 am

 

Sophia said:

# 148 Dear Revlon,

I wonder who is being the teacher here. Thank you for reminding us of the horrors of torture, not only in Syrian prisons, but also in Jordanian prisons, Lebanese prisons, Saudi prisons, Bahraini prisons, Abu Ghraib, and Guantanamo…

May 17th, 2011, 6:21 am

 

Souri333 (formerly Souri) said:

#100,

I think it is illegal for Syria to take someone out of his home country against his wish. Israel cannot force that brave man out of Jaffa because this is his home and he is defined as a native of this place by international law. He is a Palestinian refugee in Syria. He does not hold Syrian citizenship or any other citizenship.

This story must be an inspiration for every Palestinian refugee. To return to your home is not impossible. Syria and other Arab countries must help those refugees to return to their home country in all possible ways. Israel has no right to ban them out of their country.

May 17th, 2011, 6:36 am

 

Souri333 (formerly Souri) said:

Looks at this:

A peaceful man who only wants to be in his country. He is not going to destroy anything or kill anybody. He just rejects the notion of a racist state (Israel) like the rest of his compatriot Palestinians. It is not wrong to reject a racist state to be set up on your land. What is wrong is to support or defend such a state like the shameless US does.

May 17th, 2011, 7:24 am

 

Revlon said:

7ama Youth have issued a manifesto
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4I7XEIm_JVw&feature=player_embedded

The people want to down the system
No negotiations with Merchants or Sheikhs
Blood of Martyrs is not for sale.
Army must withdraw from all cities
Friday demonstration is sacred; security forces are not allowed in 7ama.
Official media do not represent the Syrian people

May 17th, 2011, 8:26 am

 

syau said:

Revlon,

I’m interested in knowing who will not allow any security forces from entering any province to uphold the law or regain stability.

Would a representative of the Syrian revolution stand at the forefront and prevent them from entering, or is the Syrian revolution only good at calling for violent clashes from a distance?

On another note, you’re confusing me here, I thought Friday prayers were sacred, why are you adamant that the demonstrations are?

May 17th, 2011, 8:50 am

 

Souri333 (formerly Souri) said:

The Nakba Day demonstration was just an experiment. The real event will be on Naksa Day (June 5). The Nakba demonstrators were mostly Palestinian. Most Syrians had not heard about the event when it happened. The next event will be different. I expect millions of people to gather in the Golan because this time many Syrians will join.

The demonstrators should send a clear message to the US to make it know that we hold it responsible for the occupation of Golan and Palestine and for every victim who will fall in the peaceful demonstrations.

I have a feeling that this thing will keep escalating until it becomes a real war on the front. Alongside the regular Syrian army, the Syrian government must seriously consider arming the angry crowds to make use of them in the war. We saw on Nakba day how hundreds of brave unarmed men were advancing under Israeli fire even though they were told that the field in front of them contained mines. We should make use of those brave people. They must be conscripted and used in the war. I am sure many of them would like to perform suicidal attacks. The Syrian military should establish a sort of kamikaze force. I believe the Iranians already have such a force in their army. We must also send everyone of those stupid Wahhabi rebels to the front. Let them die there instead of killing Syrians and destroying their own country. Let them learn how to be responsible. Watching American movies and Wahhabi shows does not make you a true national. Fighting in a war against the enemy does.

The US thought that they were going to destroy the country from inside by using a bunch of Wahhabi maniacs. Let us attack and show them the real Syrians.

May 17th, 2011, 9:08 am

 

atassi said:

Syria denies existence of mass grave at Daraa
17 May 2011
09:35
Agence France Presse
AFPR
English
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2011 All reproduction and presentation rights reserved.

Syrian authorities on Tuesday denied the existence of a mass grave in the southern town of Daraa, which the army had raided to put down anti-regime protests, while acknowledging that the bodies of five people had been found in the flashpoint town.

“This information is totally false,” an interior ministry official told the state news agency, referring to reports about the mass grave.

“These reports are part of a campaign of incitement and lies against Syria,” the official added.

The SANA agency, quoting a local official in Daraa, said five bodies had been discovered in the town on Sunday and that the local attorney general had launched a probe.

It did not specify how the bodies were found or how the victims died.

But rights activist Ammar Qurabi maintained his account of the existence of a mass grave in Daraa, at the heart of protests roiling the country for two months and virtually shut off from the outside world.

Qurabi, head of the National Organisation for Human Rights in Syria, said the mass grave he spoke about on Monday had nothing to do with the five bodies discovered by authorities.

“Two mass graves were found on Sunday in close proximity of each other,” Qurabi told AFP by telephone. “One contained 24 corpses and the other seven corpses, including the five mentioned by authorities as well as an unidentified woman and her child.”

He identified the five victims as Abdel Razzaq Abazid and his four sons, in their 20s and 40s.

Qurabi said his organisation was not accusing any party for the killings and urged authorities to launch a probe.

Rami Abdel Rahman, of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, challenged Qurabi’s account and insisted that only one mass grave existed, containing the bodies of Abazid and his sons.

“The five went missing from Daraa on April 25, as they were fleeing the army assault on the town for fear of arrest,” Rahman said by telephone.

“Family members were informed last Sunday by local residents of a foul smell emanating from a hilltop some 150 metres (yards) from his home,” he added. “They discovered the bodies and alerted authorities.”

Rahman also urged authorities to set up an investigative commission.

Syria has been roiled by unprecedented protests for two months that have threatened the authoritarian regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

More than 850 people, including women and children, have been killed in the unrest and at least 8,000 arrested, according to rights groups.

The authoritarian regime has blamed the violence on “armed terrorist gangs” backed by Islamists and foreign agitators.

May 17th, 2011, 10:23 am

 

Souri333 (formerly Souri) said:

Many people expected Assad to play his Lebanese, Iraqi, Palestinian, or even Turkish cards, but no one expected such a bold move as the Golan move. It must have caused serious trouble in the West.

By choosing to play his strongest card, Assad proved to be very serious. He is not playing games with anyone. If you want a war, you will get a full war.

I do not know if Syria has anything to do with it, but the wording of Ocalan’s recent statement was interesting:

http://www.todayszaman.com/news-244050-pkks-jailed-leader-ocalan-threatens-government-with-war.html

This statement comes after sudden Kurdish escalation in Turkey and a failed attempt at Erdogan’s life by Kurdish freedom fighters. The wording of the statement is very interesting. It mentions a civil war that will lead to the fall of the Turkish regime if it does not respond to Kurdish demands by June 15. If I were to let my imagination loose, I could imagine that this statement is a literal response to Erdogan’s statements about Syria. Maybe it is just a coincidence, but it is ironic. (Ocalan is an old friend of the Syrian regime and he used to live in Syria/Lebanon. Maybe they patched things up? There is a strong motive for the Syrian regime to mend up its relations with the Kurdish freedom fighters in Turkey. This is just speculation.)

Hizbullah and Syria can take over Lebanon easily if they want. They can eradicate the pro-American political faction in Lebanon at no cost. This is the easiest Syrian card that can be played at any time when necessary.

What about the pro-Iranian Shia militias and the pro-Syrian Baathists in Iraq? Iran and Syria can greatly destabilize Iraq if they feel it necessary.

If a war breaks out in the Golan and southern Lebanon, it will definitely lead to wiping out the pro-American political faction in Lebanon and destabilizing Iraq greatly. Also the war may spread to the Gulf if Iran attacks there. It will become a huge regional war; very costly to the US.

May 17th, 2011, 10:26 am

 

atassi said:

Brotherhood Raises Syria Profile; Islamist Group Tries to Organize Opposition to Assad Regime, as Protests Waver
By Nour Malas

17 May 2011
The Wall Street Journal Online

The Wall Street Journal – Print and Online
English
Copyright 2011 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

The exiled Muslim Brotherhood of Syria, the only antiretime group to ever seriously challenge the Assad government, said it was trying to take a larger role in organizing the disparate opposition as Syria’s street protests appear to wane.

The move from the banned and exiled group could capitalize on an apparent deadlock between protesters and President Bashar al-Assad’s government, as opposition activists fail to coalesce into a solid front.

Despite years of shifting alliances and a recent internal struggle for leadership, the Syria Brotherhood’s role as one of the oldest organized antigovernment movements could prove effective amid the power void of Syria’s opposition.

“We have a desire to coordinate the position of the opposition,” said Zuhair Salim, a spokesman for Syria’s Brotherhood based in London, which is loosely affiliated with other Arab Muslim Brotherhood movements. “We are supporters, and not creators. The voice of the street is a spokesperson for itself.”

His comments reflect a cautious position calibrated to avoid claiming leadership of a protest movement Mr. Assad’s government has characterized as run by armed, extremist Islamist groups. The Brotherhood poses a particular problem for some of the antiregime activists trying to forge secular coalitions more in line with the street movement.

Mr. Salim has become increasingly vocal since the Brotherhood in late April backed the protest movement, appearing on Arabic-language television programs to support what the group has called a “peaceful, popular intifada,” or resistance.

On Sunday, two days after Syria’s government said it would start a “national dialogue”—and on a day of protests in which at least six people were killed— the Brotherhood slammed the initiative and said it would “deploy our full energy to back and support” protesters. Mr. Salim said on Monday the group wasn’t taking a stronger line, and will not call people onto the streets.

“We have caution, understandably and justifiably so, not to call on the street to protest—we have just announced our cohesion with a movement that has its own momentum,” he said.

On Monday, the White House blamed the Syrian government for inciting deadly protests along the Israeli border to distract from its own bloody crackdown on demonstrations, which have tapered off in recent days.

Once part of Syria’s legal opposition, the Muslim Brotherhood led an uprising against Mr. Assad’s father, Hafez, in the late 1970s that was put down in attacks in 1982 that killed at least 10,000 people. Membership in the Brotherhood has been a capital offense since 1980, sending its leaders scattered into exile. Some 17,000 party members are missing or detained inside Syria, the group says.

Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, which was outlawed under former President Hosni Mubarak, has expressed increased political aspirations since protests ousted the Egyptian president in February. Mostly suppressed under the region’s authoritarian rulers, the potential resurgence of Islamist political parties has become a central question in the Arab Spring uprisings.

Last summer, Muhammad Riad al-Shakfa succeeded Ali Bayanouni as the Syrian Brotherhood’s leader, raising concerns that gains made under Mr. Bayanouni to shift the movement to the center would be reversed. The party under Mr. Shakfa, seen as taking a harder line, found itself “sitting on the sidelines of history” as the Arab Spring swept into Syria, one opposition member described. “It found a chance to reinvent itself in the street movement,” the person said.

Mr. Shafka has gathered a group of younger Turkey-based activists that are now trying to help activists inside Syria to coordinate, people close to the party said.

Mr. Salim said the group has engaged in talks with a group of activists—minus a handful of figures who the Brotherhood had broke alliances with in the past— who have tried, but failed, for two months to form a broad enough coalition to represent Syria’s opposition abroad.

“Our efforts are ongoing and we hope that in no more than a month you will hear of an organized front,” he said.

The Brotherhood continues to communicate, indirectly, with members of its earlier alliance, the Damascus Declaration, including veteran dissident Michel Kilo, who met with Assad advisor, Bouthaina Shaaban, last week. But Syria’s opposition has rejected outreach attempts by the government, calling any initiative including the “national dialogue,” a nonstarter before tanks withdraw from the street and security forces stop shooting protesters.

The Brotherhood would consider dialogue with the Assad government, under certain conditions, if the violence against protesters were to stop, Mr. Salim said.

Syria’s protests have been largely free of Islamist overtones. Protesters gather in public squares outside of mosques on Fridays, the day of the Islamic prayer. But over recent years, Islam has grown its profile in Syrian society, even under Mr. Assad’s staunchly secular rule. Mr. Salim said the group is in touch with religious leaders, mosque imams, and their students in and outside Syria.

“Religion is the most important aspect in my life,” said one conservative, Sunni landowner in Damascus. “But we do not like Salafism—we all want to live in a moderate community in peace,” he said, addressing the government line that the hard-line Islamist movement has stoked the protests.

The 1982 incident in Hama continues to echo for protesters, as the 700 person death toll of the current two month-old movement continues to grow. That earlier crackdown against the Brotherhood has also made other anti-government figures wary of political Islam, and unsure of how to engage a group that has been for decades without an operational base inside Syria.

Failed alliances, including abandoning in 2009 a coalition with former vice president Abdul Halim Khaddam after he turned against the regime and brief overtures to the regime itself cast doubt over the Brotherhood’s ability to command leadership of even the anti-regime movement abroad.

“Those 30 years destroyed their organization, and they lost their legitimacy because they changed positions so much without explanation over the past five years,” said Burhan Ghalioun, an opposition member who is a scholar of contemporary oriental studies at the Sorbonne in Paris.

But the longer the protesters’ stalemate with tanks and troops stretches out, the more appealing the group’s organizational advantage will likely appear.

“People on the street are getting tired, they’re running out of resources, and they don’t have that much experience,” said one protest coordinator outside Syria. “They recognize, and we have to recognize, that the Brothers are better organized and better funded.”

The Brotherhood, in the meantime, will continue to walk a cautious line. “The plan for now is, we say we are in cohesion with the protesters, and that means we will monitor the movement of the Syrian street,” Mr. Salim said. “We’re not in a position to approach them with something that they can’t take on, and yet we can’t abandon them so they feel they’re on their own.”

Jared A. Favole in Washington and a Wall Street Journal reporter in Damascus contributed to this article.

May 17th, 2011, 10:27 am

 

atassi said:

so called Souri

If a war breaks out in the Golan and southern Lebanon, it will definitely lead to wiping out the ” your Assad regime in one day”, Assad will never do it

May 17th, 2011, 10:37 am

 

Sophia said:

The Syrian Muslim Brotherhood has the “desire to coordinate the opposition”

“People on the street are getting tired, they’re running out of resources, and they don’t have that much experience,” said one protest coordinator outside Syria. “They recognize, and we have to recognize, that the Brothers are better organized and better funded.”

“Religion is the most important aspect in my life,” said one conservative, Sunni landowner in Damascus. “But we do not like Salafism—we all want to live in a moderate community in peace,” he said, addressing the government line that the hard-line Islamist movement has stoked the protests.”

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703509104576327212414590134.html#printMode

May 17th, 2011, 10:53 am

 

edward said:

Funny how all the pro-regime trolls have kept silent about the mass graves in Daraa as the interior ministry denies they exist and are just a media ploy, even after conclusive footage and identification of a number of those killed. Which must lead us to the inevitable conclusion that those found in the mass graves were actually salafist gangs who committed suicide by 6 shots to the head, and then buried themselves in shallow graves in order to ruin the impeccable reputation of the Syrian regime and it’s fine standing amongst the other free nations of the world (Libya and Zimbabwe are the only ones that come to mind)

May 17th, 2011, 11:11 am

 

Souri333 (formerly Souri) said:

If you see things getting loose in Iraq, and if you see Hizbullah takes over Lebanon and Syrian forces start doing operations inside Lebanon, you must know at that point that the Syrian regime has decided to go to war in the Golan. Cleaning Lebanon of Wahhabis and pro-Americans and destabilizing American-controlled Iraq are essential preparations for a war in the Golan. Possibly also destabilizing Turkey.

PS. many people will say that Assad cannot risk destabilizing Turkey by supporting Kurdish rebels because that will lead to a Turkish invasion of Syria. This argument is only true when Syria is not at war with Israel. If Syria and Israel are at war together, Turkey won’t be able to attack the Syrian army or any Syrian government or infrastructure targets. The maximum they will be able to do is to invade the Kurdish areas of Syria, and Syria won’t resist such an invasion. Syria will most likely withdraw all its forces to the Golan front and let the Turks do what they want with the Kurds.

May 17th, 2011, 11:19 am

 

edward said:

U.N close to a resolution condemning Syria, opposition groups call for a general strike and civil disobedience tomorrow.

May 17th, 2011, 11:37 am

 

norman said:

updated 6 minutes ago

WASHINGTON— The United States and the
European Union will take new steps to
respond to Syria’s crackdown in coming days
if the government does not change course,
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and European
Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton
said on Tuesday.

Ashton told reporters ahead of a meeting with
Clinton that she had spoken recently to Syria’s
foreign minister to convey the message that it
was time to stop the violence.

“This is extremely urgent,” Ashton said. “If the
government really does … want to see some
kind of change, it’s got to be now.”

“(We are) now in a situation where we need to
consider all of the options. So I think there will
be a number of moves in the coming hours
and days that you will see,” she added.

Clinton said she agreed and that both the EU
and theUnitedStates — which have already slapped targeted
sanctions on a number of senior Syrian
officials but not on President Bashar al-Assad
himself — were planning new moves.

“We will be taking additional steps in the days
ahead,” Clinton said.

Syria has been widely criticized for its
crackdown on the two-month wave of
protests against the government. Syrian rights
activists say at least 700 civilians have been
killed by security forces.

Villagers near Syria’s southern city of Deraa
said they had found two separate mass graves,
containing up to 26 bodies. The government
denied the existence of any mass graves,
saying the reports were part of a “campaign of
incitement” against authorities.

The government blames most of the violence
on armed groups backed by Islamists and
outside powers, saying they have killed more
than 120 soldiers and police.

Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

advertisementadvertisement

May 17th, 2011, 11:41 am

 

Aldendeshe said:

@MAX FACTOR

Why do I have the feeling that these slogans and demands are not made by Arabic speaking or even thinking person. Whoever behinds it has been sitting too long on Xbox machine, drinking Buds and watching over his Omaha home front door with a shot gun. When will Syrians see a real SYRIAN human being having a real recognizable name, some dignity, and is respected, making these demands on camera for the world to see? They are always purported and reported to have been made by Internet User ID only, names like ISUK, REVLON, RAMALOT and BRINGITON.

May 17th, 2011, 11:42 am

 
 

Souri333 (formerly Souri) said:

Syria now is still busy finishing up its operations against the Wahhabis. Soon the operations will end and the army units will be amassed again near the Golan front. At that time, we will see what the West will say. Are they ready for a full-scale regional war? Syria definitely has the intention to escalate the situation on the front. They are keeping it peaceful right now because the army is still busy, but I don’t think they will keep watching their civilians butchered on the front without responding.

Our next event is the Naxa demonstration on June 5.

May 17th, 2011, 12:18 pm

 

Aldendeshe said:

@Mahmood

You may have a message regarding Al Dajjal, the Mahdi and Planet X but it is all lost in the crappy video.

May 17th, 2011, 12:28 pm

 

????? said:

??? ????? ?? ??????? ???????? ?? ?????? ?? ??????? ????? ??????? ?????? ??? ??????? ??????? ?????? ?? ??? ???????? ?? ??????? ????? ??? ?????? ??? ????? ??? ???? ????? ?? ????? ????? ?? ???? ???? ?????? ?? ???? ?? ??? ???.
??????? ??????????? ?? ??? ???? ????? ????? ?????? ?????? ??? ???? ????? ??????? ??? ?????? ?? ??????? ????? ?????? ??????? ?? ????? ????? ???? ??????? ?????? ????? ???? ?? ????? ??? ???? ??????? ????? ?? ???? ????? ????? ??? ????? ??? ???? ???????.

May 17th, 2011, 12:35 pm

 

JAD said:

???? ???? ???????? ??????? ???? ????? ??? ???????? 17 ????/???? ?? ????? ????????? ??????? ?? ??? ????? ???? ????? ????? ???? ????? ?? ???? ????? ??????.

????? ????? ??? ?? ????? ?????? ?????? ???????? ?? ????? “??????”.

???? ????? ???? ???????? ??????? ?? “????? ???? ?? ????? ?????? ?? ???? ???? ?????… ??? ????? ?? ???????? ??????????? ?????? ??? ?????.”

????? ????? ????? “?? ???? ??????? ????? ???? ????? ??? ???? ?? ?????? ?? ???? ????? ????? ???? ????? ????.”

???????: ???? ??? ????? ??????? ?? ????? ?????? ?????? ?? ?????? ???????

?? ????? ???? ????? ???????? ????????? ?????? ??????? ?? ???????? ??????? ???? ??? ????? ??????? ?? ????? ?????? ?????? ?? ?????? ??????? ?? ?? ???? ??????? ??????.

????? ??????? ???? ????? ?? ?????? ??????? ???????? ?? ??????? ???????? ?????? ????? ??? ???.

?? ?????? ???? ????? ?? ??? ??????? ?? ????? ?? ???.
————————————————–

‘World’s Policeman’ ramps up pressure on Syria
http://youtu.be/BGBSSv8k9Wo

May 17th, 2011, 12:41 pm

 

JAD said:

Obama’s draft speech to urge ’67 borders, negate PA’s state bid
US president’s coming speech about Washington’s Mideast policy to demand PA recognize Israel, drop unilateral UN bid for statehood, while urging Israel to return to ’67 lines, cease settlement expansion

WASHINGTON – US President Barack Obama is set to give his next political speech at 6pm Thursday, just hours before Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu leaves for Washington and according to a draft of the speech, obtained by Yedioth Ahronoth, the American president’s Middle East policy, though unwavering, may not be as discordant as some have feared.

Obama is expected to urge Israel to return to the 1967 lines while negating the Palestinian Authority’s planned unilateral bid for statehood in September.

According to the draft – which may change again by Thursday – Obama will call on Jerusalem and Ramallah to reignite the stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace process, saying it is the only way to achieve viable peace.

Obama stands to demand the Palestinian Authority recognize Israel as the Jewish state, and that the Palestinians unequivocally abandon terror.

He is also likely to stress Israel must cease any settlement expansion in the West Bank and further avoid any act which could be construed as changing the status quo on the ground.

The subject of Jerusalem also stands to be included in the American president’s speech: Washington sees the city as the capital of both Israel and the Palestinian state, with its east Jerusalem neighborhoods – which are largely populated by Palestinians – under the PA’s sovereignty, and its Jewish neighborhoods under Israeli sovereignty.

Following Netanyahu’s vehement speech before the Knesset plenum Sunday, it seems Washington has decided to lower its expectations of Netanyahu.

Still, State Department Spokesman Mark Toner said that the White House was not “as pessimistic” as reported, adding that the peace process “faces immense challenges.”

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4069775,00.html

May 17th, 2011, 12:43 pm

 

ZIAD said:

REVLON is a trend setter.

Israeli officer on BBC: “Lebanese Army killed the demonstrators!”

http://friday-lunch-club.blogspot.com/2011/05/israeli-officer-on-bbc-lebanese-army.html

May 17th, 2011, 12:46 pm

 

????? said:

It is impossible to change meeting place!
?? ???????? ????? ???? ??????
????? ??????? ???????? ?????? !
No es posible cambiar el lugar de encuentro!
Den Treffpunkt darf man nicht ändern!
On ne peut pas changer la place de la rencontre!
exactly at Parallel 33 As you know from the Jewish book!!!

http://youtu.be/3bCu8JE7cKw

May 17th, 2011, 1:03 pm

 
 

why-discuss said:

Atasi

Do you rejoice of the growing role of the Moslem brotherhood who may come out the winners of the confrontations in Egypt, Syria and Palestine and become a servile sunni block serving the US battle against shia Iran.
Even Turkey is condoning the new role of the Moslem brotherhood in the Arab countries. Are we moving soon to the Moslem Republic of Syria?
As I said before, for the moslem countries, the political and social system can only be either a
“Dictatorship of a secular group or the dictatorship of a religious group”
Democracy is far far away…

May 17th, 2011, 1:26 pm

 

????? said:

TO 168.

???? ???? ???????? ??????? ???? ????? ??? ???????? 17 ????/???? ?? ????? ????????? ??????? ?? ??? ????? ???? ????? ????? ???? ????? ?? ???? ????? ??????.
????? ????? ??? ?? ????? ?????? ?????? ???????? ?? ????? “??????”.
???? ????? ???? ???????? ??????? ?? “????? ???? ?? ????? ?????? ?? ???? ???? ?????… ??? ????? ?? ???????? ??????????? ?????? ??? ?????.”

????? ????? ????? “?? ???? ??????? ????? ???? ????? ??? ???? ?? ?????? ?? ???? ????? ????? ???? ????? ????.”

???????: ???? ??? ????? ??????? ?? ????? ?????? ?????? ?? ?????? ???????
?? ????? ???? ????? ???????? ????????? ?????? ??????? ?? ???????? ??????? ???? ??? ????? ??????? ?? ????? ?????? ?????? ?? ?????? ??????? ?? ?? ???? ??????? ??????.
????? ??????? ???? ????? ?? ?????? ??????? ???????? ?? ??????? ???????? ?????? ????? ??? ???.
?? ?????? ???? ????? ?? ??? ??????? ?? ????? ?? ???.

????? ?????????? ????? ??? ! ???? ??????? ????? ????? ????????? ! ????? ??????? ???? ??? ????? ??????? ? ??????? ? ??????? ????? ???? ????? !

May 17th, 2011, 1:29 pm

 

Louai said:

The head of Security in Homs colonel Muhammad Abdullah with four other security members has been assassinated!!

stil no armed groups? still peaceful demonstrations? or again the Amn and Shabiha killed them? or is it the Army this time?

As expected They couldn’t gather mass demonstrations now they increased the mass killing and terror attacks as it’s the only genuine thing about this ‘revolution’.

http://www.syria-news.com/readnews.php?sy_seq=132751

May 17th, 2011, 1:43 pm

 

Syria no kandahar said:

ASAHWA ALSOURIA ONLINE:
Feb 2012
Main Page:
-Pres Alshafka meets prime min Natanyaho to discus bilateral relationships.
-87 killed 200 wounded with car bomb at kaled ben alwalid mosq in homs ,Revlon interior minister blames remanent of Assad regime and alqaida,??? ???declares responsibility.
-suicide bombers in Latakia mosque kills 75 people and wounds 200 ???? ???declares responsibility.Revlon blames Assad and alqaeda and promise transparent investigation.
-The body of bishop Bolus Zaka was found in Deralzor suburb without his head 3 days after taken hostage with torture marks on his body.government spokesman Attassi blamed alqaeda and promised to find the bishop head soon.
-The pres of Kurdistan providence Karkor Zibari announced that his providence will make there own trade agreement and that they don’t have to involve central government.vice pres Najeeb Alghadban announced that this is radiculous.he will study the matter in his political science ref and respond accordingly.
-Pres Rajab Taeb Ordogan visited a Syria refugee camp outside Mardin(mainly Christians)and announced that turkey will do all it can to help.Mr ordoghan announced that turkey have saved 2 million Christians 100 years ago and it will do the same now.
-Gen Grand Mufti Alaroor wants to introduce ???????as capital punishment .his hollines concern is that assad is tall and hanging him might not be successful.
-Shiek Alkaradawi met with transportation minister Michel Killo.Alkaradawi was able to have killo declare his Islam.killo announced after the meeting that he changed his name to Mohammad kaled.he also announced that there is a big project sponsored by sheik Hamad and sheik Moza to build tow highways between Damascus and Aleppo one for believers(Sunni)and one for none believers.he stated that allawi would be allowed to ride bikes and motorcycles and Christians will have to ride donkeys).killo was in rush because he had to go and pray.
-Gen Grand Mufti Alaroor has certified the order to behead all the actors of the movie?????? ???????he is also considering using ???????for theme.This godwilling will produce more rain together.

Together we build our beautiful democratic country.

May 17th, 2011, 1:52 pm

 

Souri333 (formerly Souri) said:

Description of Lebanese Sunnis by a Christian Lebanese politician. It applies perfectly to Syrian Sunnis as well, who are even worse:

http://www.tayyar.org/Tayyar/News/PoliticalNews/ar-LB/elias-skaff-wikileaks-pb-42485183.htm

?? ?????? ???? ??? ????????? ??? ???????? ??? ???? (????? ?????? ?? ????? ?????? ????? ???????? ????)? ???? ???? ?? ?????? ????? ???? ?? ??????? ?????? ??? ???? ???????? ?????? ????? ?????? ??? ?? ????????? ?? ????????? ?????? ????? ???? ?? ??????? ??? ??????? ??????? ?????? ??????. ??? ??? ?????? ??? ???? ????? ???? ???? ????? ????? ???? ?????? ????? ???????? ????? ????????? ????? ?? ????? ??? ???? ????? 95% ?? ????? ?? ????? ???????? ?? ??? ????? ???? ???? ???? ???????? ?????? ???? ???? ?? ???? ???? ???????? ???? ???? ??? ???? 50 ?? ????? ?? ???????? ??? ????? ?????? ??? ???? ????? ????? ??????? ?????? ??????? ???????? ??? ???? ?? ??? ???? ??? ???? 3 ?? ????? ?? ???????.

???? ?? ?????? ??? ?????? ??? “???????? ?????????” ????? ????????? ??? ???? ” ?????” ??????? ???? ????????? ??????? ?????? ????? ???? ?????? ????. ???? ???? ?? ????????? ????? ??????? ???? ????? ???????? ????? ?? ?????????? ???? ???? ??? ??? ????? ??????? ?? ?????? ??????? ???? ?? ??? ??? ???? ??? ???? ?????? ????? ?????? ?? ???????? ????? ????? ?? ????? ????? ?? ???????? ????????? ?????? ?? ?????.

??? ???????? ???? ???? ?? ?????? “??????” ?????? ?? ?????? ?”????? ????”? ???? ??? ????? ???????? ?? ???? ?????????? ????? ???? ??? ?????? ??? ???????? ????? ?? ??????? ???????? ??? ??? ???? ?? ???? ???? ?? ????? ??????? ??? ???? ????? ????????? ??? ?? ???? ?? ???? ????? ????? ?? ???????? ??????? ????????? ?????? ???????? ?? ??? ?? ??? ?????. ???? ??? ?????? ?? ?????? ?????? ???? ?????? ?? ????? ???? ????? ???????? ????? ?? ?? ????? ?????? ?? ????????? ?? ??? ????? ????? ?????? ????? ?? ??????? ?? ????????? ????????.

May 17th, 2011, 1:54 pm

 

atassi said:

why-discuss,
No I dont support the Moslem Republic of Syria…
I support an orderly and peaceful transition
I DO NOT support a sudden uprooting of the regime and the prospect of a Civil War.
I support all syrian in seeking reforms, Freedom, and Democracy.
…..

May 17th, 2011, 1:56 pm

 

Atassi said:

Syria NOT kardah..
Are you a devoted sectarian? do you need medical help to overcome your sickness~~~ I am not kidding ..

May 17th, 2011, 2:04 pm

 

Mina said:

The great voices of (Western)-Freedom (a brand of chips in the 20th century) do not report today of the arrestation of several activists by the Egyptian army.
http://topsy.com/s?type=tweet&q=%23freetarekshalaby

I start to be glad the internet is killing newspapers. They were not doing a better job than the usual Mid-East mukhabaraat. Wikileaks will be enough to read.

May 17th, 2011, 2:05 pm

 

Aldendeshe said:

@Mahmood,

Do you read English text? Another crappy video with probably important clues lost in the production. How do you expect people to analyze and comprehend information scrolled at flicks speed, this is called subliminal messages and content, designed to condition the mind subliminally. Intelligent people don’t watch this crap. Type the information on and let people use their awake mind to sort it out intelligently.

Yes there is a Planet X and there is Amen, the hidden one, who will appear as savior Mahdi and false messiah. There may be a WWIII in the next 5 years (it is avoidable). Starts out in Syria and immediately all oil and gas resources are wiped out. Oil will be over $1000 pbl, if you can find it, and commodity prices will skyrocket. Aviation and Transportation, so as None Hydro Electric Generation, will be out for years. And that all the man-made problems, not including the geo-atmospheric ones. There are a lot of knowledgeable people in the world and are in no need of brainwashing videos. Those that do not have knowledge now, it is too late anyway. Save Yourself.

May 17th, 2011, 2:10 pm

 

Syria no kandahar said:

Attassi
You have a problem with freedom of speech.common I made you government spokesman.this is being realistic.when you label others with diseases most of the times you have it.remember I can always fire you.

May 17th, 2011, 2:13 pm

 
 

Nour said:

???? ?????? ?????? ???? ??????? ??????? … ???? ??? ????? ???? ???? ?? ?? ???? ???? ???? ????? ????? ?? ??????? ??? ???? ?? ???? ???? ?????? ???? ( ?????? ) ??? ??????? … ??? ?? ?????? ???? ???? ?????? ????? ???? ???? ?????? ?????? ( ?????? ??????? ??????? ) ????? ????? ?? ?????? ?? ??????? ????????? ??? ???? ????? ??? ??? ???? ?? ??????? ??????? ????? ?? ???? ????? ????? ????? ????? ??? ???? ?????? ??? ???? ???????

May 17th, 2011, 2:26 pm

 

why-discuss said:

Atassi

If the Moslem brotherhood takes over the organization of the opposition in Syria, that will please Turkey, the US, and Saudi Arabia as well as most Sunnis in Syria and Lebanon ( why not the brotherhood, at least they are like us, sunnis, not like the Bashar “heretics” gang), then why would there be a civil war?

The minorities, as promised by the MB will be protected. Of course the Sharia law will ‘not’ be applied but an edulcorated version and the economy will boom with the help of Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the western countries happy to have a ‘moderate’ not a anti-israeli ‘regime’. Who needs a transition? let the MB take over and give freedom and democracy to the frustrated and unhappy Syrians!

May 17th, 2011, 2:29 pm

 

JAD said:

????? -???? ?????? ?? ???? ????-???? ???????
http://youtu.be/ceBUhov9qns

???: ????? ?????? ??????? ?????? ??????????
http://youtu.be/_AV5-E3ZTuc

May 17th, 2011, 2:44 pm

 

JAD said:

«????????» ????? ?????? … ?????? ????
???? ???? ?????? ???????? ????????

??? ?????? ???????:
???? ?????? ?? ?? ????? ?????????? ???? ??? ????? ??????? ??? ????? ??? ???????? ????? ?????? ???? ???? ?????? ?????? ?? ????? ?????.
???? ?????? ?? ????? ?????????? ???????? ?? ???? ???????? ???????? ??? ???????? ??????? ?????? ????????.
???? ???????????? ????? ???????? ??????? ???????? ??????? ??????? ?? ?????? ?????? ??? ?? ???? ????? ???? ??????? ??? ?? ??????? ?????????? ???? ??????? ??? ?? ????? ???? ????? ??? ?????????? ????? ??? ????? ?????? ??? ????? ????????.. ??? ??? ???? ????? ?? ?????? ????? ?? ?????? ????? ??? ???? ??? ??????? ??? ???? ???? ??????? ??????????.. ??? ?? «?????»? ??????? ??? ??? ?????.. ??? ????? ????? ?????.
???? ??? ??? ?????? ??????? ???? ????? ??? ?????? ??? ?????? ???????? ?? ?????? ??????? ?? ???? «????? ??????» ???? ????? ??? ??? ??? ??????? ???? ?? ?????? ???????? ?? ?????? ???? ?????? ?????? ??? ????? ??????????? ?? ??????? ??????? ?? ???? ???? ?????? ??????? ?? ??????? ???????? ????????? ????????.
?????? ??? «???? ????????» ??? ????? ?? ????? ????? ?? ?????? ????????? ???? ????? ?????? ????? ?????? ??????? ?? ?????? ??????? ??????? ???? «??????» ??????? ??????? ???? ??? ???? ???? ???????? ?????? ???? ????? ????? ???? ??? «??????? ??? ??? ?? ??????? ????? ????????? ?? ?????? ????? ????? ?????? ???? ????? ??????? ??????? ??????»? ?????? ????? ??? ???? ???? ?? ????? «?????? ??????» ?? ??? ??? ?????? ???????? ???????? ?? ??? ?????? ????????? ??????? ??? ???? ????????? ?????? ??????? ??? ????? ???? ???? ???? ????? ????? «????? ??????» ????????? ?? ???? ???????? ???????? ???? ?????? ?? ???? ?????? ?????? ?????? ??? ?????? ???? ????? ???? ?? ??????? ??????? ?? ????????? ??????????.
????? ???????? ?? ???? ???? ???????? ??????? ???? ?????? ???? «???????» ?? ???? ????? 2005? ?? ???? ?? ????? ????? ???? ???? ??????? ?? ??????? ?? ?? ???????? ?????? ??????? ??? ?????.
??? ?? ??????? ?? ?????? ??????? ???? ????? ????? ?????? ?? ???? ????? ?????? ???? ???? ???? ???????? ?? ????? ????? ????? ?? ????? ?????? ?? ??? ????. ???? ???????? ???????? ????? ???? ???????? ?????? ???? ???? ?? ??? ?? ????? ???? ??? ????? ??????? ?? ????? ?? ?????? ????? ?????? ?????? ???? ?????? ??? ???? ?????? ?????? «???? ?? ???? ??? ???? ?????? ?? ?????? ???????? ???????? ???? ????? ?? ????? ??? ?????? ???? ?? ??? ????? «???? ??????????» ????» ??? ?????? ?????.
??? ?????? ?????? ????? ?????? ????? ?????? ?????? ?? ?????? ??????? ???????? «??? ???? ????? ?? ???? ???????? ?????? ???????? ?? ????? ??? ???? ?????? ???? ?? ????? ?? ??????»(?).
????? ??? ?????? ??????? ?? ????? ???? ?? ???? ???? ??? ????? ???? ???????? ?????? ?? ???? ?? ?????? ??????? ???????? ???????? ????????
??? ?? ?? ??? ?? ???? ???????? ?????? ??? ??????? ??????? ???????? ??? ??? ???????? ????? ???? ???? ?????? ?? ????? ??? ???? ???? ???? ?????? ?????? ???? ?????? ?????????? ?????? ??????? ????????? ??? ??? ???????:
?????? ?? ?? ???? ????? ??? ??????? ?? ?????? ?? ?????? ??? ????? ??? ??????? ????? ?? ?????? ??? ???? ?????? ???? ???? ??? ?? ??? ?????? ?????????
??????? ?? ???? ?? ????? ????? ?????? ??? ????? ????? ????? ?? ?????? ????? ?????? ???????? ??? ?? ??? ?????? ??? ???? ??? ??? ?? ???? ????? ?????? ?? ??????? ??????? ????? ???????? ????? ???? ???????? ??????? ??? ????????
??????? ?? ???? ?? ????? ???????? ????????? ??????? ??? ???????? ???????? ?? ????? ??? ??????? ??????? ??? ??????? ??? ???? ????? ????? ????? ????????? ?? ??? ?????? ????? ??? ????? ????? ???? ?? ???? ??????? ????? ??????? ??? ???? ??? ??? ????? ????????? ????? ?? ???? ????? ????? ?????? ???? ??? ?????? ??????? ??? ????????? ??????? ???? ???? ?? ?????? ??????? ??? ?????? ???????? ????? ????? ?????? ?????? ???? ???? ??????? ??????? ????????? ?????? ???????? ???? ????? ?????? ??????????? ???? ?????? ???? ?????? ?? ??????? ???? ????? ?? ??? ?????? ??????? ???????? ??? ??????? ?????? ???? ????????? ??? ????? ?????? ??????
??????? ?????? ??? ????????? ?? ???????? ????? ????? ????? ??????? ??????? ?? ????? ?????? ??? ???? ???? ???? ?????? ??????? ??? ??? ????? ??????? ????????
??????? ?? ??? ??? ???????? ????? ?? ???? ???? ?????? ? ????? ???????? ???????? ?? ?????? ???????? ??? ????? ??? ???? ?????? ?? ???? ????? ????? ?? ???? ?????? ????? ??? ??? ?????? ?????? ?? ?????? ???????? ????? ????? ???????
??????? ?? ??????? ??? ????? ?????? ???????? ???? ??????? ??? ?????? ??????? ???? ??? ???? ?? ????????? ???? ???? ?????? ?????? ???????? ??????? ?? ??????? ????????? ???? ?????? «????? ???? ????? ??????»? ???? ???? ??? ????? ??????? ??? ?????? ????????? ???? ????? ??????? ?????? ?????? ???????
??????? ???? ???? ????? ???? ????????? ??? ????? ???? ??????? ??? ?????? ????????? ?? ?? ????? ?? ??????? ?? ?? ????? ????? ??? ??????? ???? ?????? ????? ????? ???? ?? ???? ??? ?? ??? ?????? ?????? ???? ?????? ????? ?????? ??? ???? ????? ?????? ????????
??????? ??? ??? ????? ???????? ????????? ???? ??? ???? ????? ??????? ????? ??? ??????? ???? ????? ?? ?????????
??????? ?? ???? ??? ???? ?? ????? ?????? ??????? ??? ?? ??? ??? ?? ?????? ?? ?????? ??????? ???? ?? ???? ?? ?????? ??? ??? ????? ??? ????? ??????? ???????? ?? ?????? ????? ??????
??????? ?? ????? ????? ??? ??????? ??????? ???? ???? ????? ??? ??? ??????? ????????? ??????? ?? ????? ?? ??????? ?? ?? ?????? ??? ?? ?????? ??? ?? ????????? ?? ????? ????? ????? ???????? ???????? ????? ????? ?? ???? ????? ?????? ?????? ????? ??????? ????????? ???? ????? ??????? ????? ????? ??????? ??? ???? ?????? ??? ????? ?????? ??????? ??????? ???? ??? ????? ??? ?????? ?????
??? ???? ???????? ???? ????? ?????? ????? ????? ????????? ?? ??????? ???????? ??? ?????? ??????? ??? ???? ?????. ?? ??? ???? ???????? ??? ?? ?? ??? «???????»? ???????? ?? ??????? ??????? ????? ???? ??????? ?????? ?? ?????? ??? ???????

http://www.assafir.com/Article.aspx?EditionId=1847&articleId=1667&ChannelId=43475
———————————————————

????: ????? ?????? ???? ?????? ?????
http://youtu.be/kAvmLQAxdjs

????: ??????? ?????? ??? ??? ????? ?? ??????? ?????
http://youtu.be/JKIzd5tQBDo

May 17th, 2011, 2:57 pm

 

atassi said:

Syria NO Kardhah
NO comment.. get lost

why-discuss Yea why-discuss …Shooooo Fee ma Feeee
No MB.. They can be part of the solution but they can’t rule Syria… my own personal belief only

May 17th, 2011, 3:10 pm

 

Aldendeshe said:

Khaddam, Hariri, Moslem Brotherhood, Israel, Saadine Arabiye, Zionists and One Worlders are theeeeeeeeee problem. Bashar Assad is theeeeeeeeeeeee Solution and he CAN RULE.

May 17th, 2011, 3:49 pm

 

Mina said:

You should expect it: even the scientologists have a share in what is going on:
http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/jaffa-gang-suspected-of-plotting-to-kill-sheikh-blame-rightists-for-crime-1.362301

Neocons look desperate!

May 17th, 2011, 3:53 pm

 

abughassan said:

I never believed the MB when they said they had nothing to do with the killings and the violence in Syria in the 80s and I do not believe them now. I have a lot of respect for religious people who keep religion away from politics and prefer to express their religious views through good behavior and positive citizenship. there is not a single successful example of marriage between religion and politics,and this marriage should not be allowed in Syria.This uprising caused a lot of damage to Syria’s ailing economy, and insisting on violent demonstrations and tolerating the destruction of properties is unacceptable,and that behavior must be met with firm measures from the army because people need to go to work and kids need to go to school and we all need to feel safe in our own country. there will be plenty of time for civil protest and peaceful opposition,but we first need a secure and peaceful country.

May 17th, 2011, 3:54 pm

 

Nour said:

?????? ???? ????? ?????? ?????? ????????? ??? ???? “??????”

May 17th, 2011, 4:19 pm

 

solitarius said:

hmm head of political intelligence of Homs shot dead by sniper in talkalakh. other 4 security officers killed. confirmed someone who knew his famiky. sad.

May 17th, 2011, 4:45 pm

 

atassi said:

Syrian opposition calls general strike, crackdown continues
17 May 2011
15:28
Agence France Presse

The United States and the European Union said on Tuesday the international community was planning further sanctions against Syria over its brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protests, as the opposition called for a general strike.

At the same time, France said the UN Security Council is close to achieving a majority for a resolution to condemn the crackdown.

“We will be taking additional steps in the days ahead,” US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told reporters in Washington, when asked if recent events raised the bar for taking Syria to the international court or the UN Security Council.

European Union diplomacy chief Catherine Ashton said the situation was “extremely alarming.”

She was referring to the mounting death toll in Syria where more than 850 people, including women and children, have been killed in the unrest and at least 8,000 arrested, according to rights groups.

Standing next to Clinton, Ashton said: “If the (Syrian) government really does — as it keeps telling us it does — want to see some kind of change, it’s got to be now.”

Both the United States and the European Union have imposed sanctions on members of President Bashar al-Assad’s inner circle but they have stopped short of targeting him personally.

European Union ambassadors on Tuesday discussed possible sanctions against Assad but a decision will not be made until a meeting next week, diplomats in Brussels said.

In Paris, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said it appeared that a majority of nine of the UN Security Council’s 15 members were being assembled to vote for a resolution condemning Syria.

“There is still the threat of a veto by Moscow and Beijing,” two of the five permanent members who have the power to block resolutions, he added.

The prospect of further sanctions on the authoritarian regime com0e amid calls by the opposition for a general strike on Wednesday and as conflicting reports emerged on the existence of a mass grave in the flashpoint southern town of Daraa.

“Wednesday will be a day of punishment for the regime by the revolutionaries and the people of free will,” said a statement posted on the Facebook page of the Syrian Revolution 2011, an Internet-based opposition group that has been a motor of the protests that erupted two months ago.

“Let’s transform this Wednesday into a Friday (the regular day for protests), with mass protests, no schools, no universities, no stores or restaurants open and even no taxis.”

The strike call came as authorities denied reports that a mass grave had been found in Daraa, while acknowledging that five bodies were discovered there on Sunday.

“This information is totally false,” an interior ministry official told state news agency SANA, referring to the alleged mass grave.

“These reports are part of a campaign of incitement and lies against Syria,” the official added.

SANA, quoting a local official in Daraa, said five bodies had been discovered in the town on Sunday. It did not say how the bodies were found or how the victims died.

But rights activist Ammar Qurabi maintained his earlier account of a mass grave containing 24 bodies discovered at the weekend in Daraa.

He said that grave was different than the one where the five bodies — a man and his five sons — were recovered by authorities.

“Two mass graves were found on Sunday on two hilltops in close proximity of each other,” Qurabi told AFP by telephone. “One contained 24 corpses and the other seven corpses, including the five mentioned by authorities as well as an unidentified woman and her child.”

Amnesty International called for “a prompt, impartial investigation into reports that a number of bodies were unearthed … and into how those deaths occurred.”

Journalists have been prevented from traveling in the country to verify such reports or to cover the protests.

The regime has blamed the violence on “armed terrorist gangs” backed by Islamists and foreign agitators.

Security forces in recent days have focused their crackdown on the western town of Tall Kalakh, where residents were reporting corpses and dozens of wounded in the streets.

“It looks like a ghost town here, I can see a corpse lying at the entrance of the town and there are dozens of wounded that we cannot evacuate,” said a Sunni Muslim resident Tuesday, reached by telephone.

“This is a massacre,” he added, his voice charged with emotion. “We never expected them to be so brutal.

Also Tuesday, an activist told AFP that a leading opposition figure, Anas al-Shughri, had been arrested in the coastal city of Banias.

“Anas al-Shughri was arrested at dawn on Sunday by security forces who raided his hiding place in the suburbs of Banias,” said Rami Abdel Rahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Security forces have been hunting down opposition figures and activists in their bid to quell the unrest posing the greatest challenge to nearly five decades of rule by the Baath party.

Agence France-Presse

May 17th, 2011, 4:52 pm

 

Aldendeshe said:

@194

???? ?????

May 17th, 2011, 5:02 pm

 

why-discuss said:

THE DAY OF PUNISHMENT: Said Facebook SR 2011 from Sweden

One of the protesters’ main Facebook pages, The Syrian Revolution 2011, had a picture of a child saying “father, your participation in the strike is a guarantee for my future”.

“Wednesday will be a day of punishment for the regime by the revolutionaries and the people of free will,” said a statement posted on the Facebook page of the Syrian Revolution 2011, an Internet-based opposition group that has been a motor of the protests that erupted two months ago.

May 17th, 2011, 5:59 pm

 

Aldendeshe said:

President Assad needs to leave the fighting to the security and army, they can effectively handle it, direct his energy and focus with his civil government toward reforming Syria antiquated system. The enemies of Syria strategy is to keep him preoccupied with successive security situation awhile the country deteriorates and his good will evaporate. Start the reform now.

This is a Prototype Model for future Syria (next month), Drop the Baathist Committee and hire a Nationalist one. The numbers below in the table needs to be adjusted to actual registered voter numbers.

It assume voting age in Syria as that of sisterly and powerful real Moslem State of Iran, 15 years of age- Youth of Syria must have a say in the future of the nation.

Its assumption based on the nearest statistics available, that Syria eligible voters are 15,000,000 voters, divided according to the latest numbers of census for the Muhafazat.

ONLY SYRIAN CITIZENSHIP HOLDER CAN HOLD OFFICE. DUAL OR MULTIPLE CITIZENSHIP HOLDERS AR ENOT PERMITTED TO HOLD OFFICE IN THE SENATE OR CONGRESS/PARLIAMENT

For parliament of the Lower House:
Each Muhafaza will be divided unto election prescient consisting of 20,000 voters per prescient. For each prescient there is one parliamentary to be elected. Total of 746 representatives as of the numbers assumed.

For the Syrian Senate, or upper chamber:
Each Muhafaza has a fixed number of 10 Senators, all constant and equal, divided as such: 1 senator from Agrarians, 1 senator from trade/merchants, 1 senator from Industries, 1 senator from Social Services (Education, Health, Welfare etc), 1 senator from the Military, The remaining 5 senators are political affiliates.

A position can be held by an Independent or with Political Party affiliation, trade Union or Civil Societies.
A 2/3 majority in lower chamber and 51% in higher chamber or Senate, Resolutions will be debated and bargained to get to pass them in both chambers and become law.

The concept is to move Syria from One Party rule into Multi-Party rule, from exclusive and discriminate representation to narrow segment of society into mass and equal representation. Yet as seen by these numbers, for example in the Senate, 50% of seats are allocated to special interests segments that are normally represented by Socialists, or in this case Baath party constituents.

In the Parliament there is one representative for each block of 20,000 voters. The rationale behind this is because Syria is small and segmented with distinct societal, religious and other demographic way that almost any small village or minority, or smaller community is represented by at least one representative.

A New Parliament building needs to be erected and one that maintain a distinct Modern but astatically Syrian ( Not Islamic Bedouin crap) More post-modern Greek or Roman styled, designed by a nationwide competition and built by various craft and teams representing the Syrian Society. Programs for citizens from various provinces should be able to participate in construction. Donation and contributions from Syrians and Syrian Businesses should be accepted and an area for plaques and names should be reserved.

Damascus 1,110,000 7.4% 55 R 10 S 1AGRI /1IND/1TRD/1MIL/1SS/5POL
Rural Damascus 1,155,000 7.7 % 57R 10 S 1AGRI /1IND/1TRD/1MIL/1SS/5POL
Aleppo 3,600,000 24.0 % 180R 10 S 1AGRI /1IND/1TRD/1MIL/1SS/5POL
Homs 1,320,000 8.8 % 66R 10 S 1AGRI /1IND/1TRD/1MIL/1SS/5POL
Hama 1,305,000 8.7 % 65R 10 S 1AGRI /1IND/1TRD/1MIL/1SS/5POL
Lattakia 765,000 5.1 % 38R 10 S 1AGRI /1IND/1TRD/1MIL/1SS/5POL
Deir-ez-zor 1,020,000 6.8 % 51R 10 S 1AGRI /1IND/1TRD/1MIL/1SS/5POL
Idleb 1,260,000 8.4 % 63R 10 S 1AGRI /1IND/1TRD/1MIL/1SS/5POL
Al-Hasakeh 975,000 6.5 % 48R 10 S 1AGRI /1IND/1TRD/1MIL/1SS/5POL
Al-Rakka 615,000 4.1 % 30R 10 S 1AGRI /1IND/1TRD/1MIL/1SS/5POL
Al-Sweida 300,000 2.0 % 15R 10 S 1AGRI /1IND/1TRD/1MIL/1SS/5POL
Daraa 690,000 4.6 % 34R 10 S 1AGRI /1IND/1TRD/1MIL/1SS/5POL
Tartous 585,000 3.9 % 29R 10 S 1AGRI /1IND/1TRD/1MIL/1SS/5POL
Quneitra 300,000 2.0 % 15R 10 S 1AGRI /1IND/1TRD/1MIL/1SS/5POL
TOTAL 15,000,000 100 746rep 140 S 1AGRI /1IND/1TRD/1MIL/1SS/5POL

Syria must always be Macro Managed, That is how Assad managed to rule it. 3 senators per Muhafaza not enough for representing the diverse citizens living in that huge area. Although, you would think that Syrians are as diverse religiously and ethnically in similar ways to U.S., Americans don’t have the strong attachment Syrians do to their particulars, they see themselves as Americans and are united by-toward the flag. Unfortunately, Syrians are still not at that stage, so expanding Senatorial Seats and enlarging representation by reducing election prescient unit will resolve a problem when a one particular seat will have to represent wide ranging diversity in an area.

May 17th, 2011, 6:17 pm

 

SF94123 said:

Post # 202
I second that motion.

The Washington Post 5/17/2011 “White House Tuesday appeared to be weighing whether to make one last attempt at brokering the kind of reforms that Assad has said for years he wanted but has never implemented”

May 17th, 2011, 6:45 pm

 

JAD said:

Aldendeshe,
As I wrote before, it sounds like a very good model, is there any discussion with the government/regime regarding this model and how to implement it and if there is any, what is the reaction?
Shouldn’t be some kind of round table for all the Syrian elements to engage in forming this model to make it reality?

May 17th, 2011, 7:13 pm

 

why-discuss said:

On PBS today and this week, a thorough account of the crackdown in Bahrain, documented by PBS reporter Margaret Warner.
I wonder what Obama would say On Thursday about Bahrain

May 17th, 2011, 7:39 pm

 

Syria no kandahar said:

Alsahwa Alsoria Online
March2012
(Together we build beautiful democratic Syria)

-eyewitnesses stated that Israeli ambasodor to Syria (Amer in TelAviv)was seen celebrating the revolution success with prince Binder bin Sultan.Shiek Alkaradawi was with them but spent most of the time in the bathroom.Aljazera Eyewittnesses thinks that he was so excited that his colon acted up.

-president of Kurdistan providence(Karkor Zibari)met with Israeli ambassador (Amer).Amer congratulated Karkor for getting red from junta.Karkor invited Bibi to visit his providence.Mr Zibari told Amer that he feels mor attached to him than to syrians.

-???? ???????fida alseed met with ??? ??????discussions were about ways to liberate Alaksa.joined the meeting also was Amer.Eyewittnesses told Aljazera that the meeting took place in ???? ??? ?????? it was reported that fida finished4humbergers.also fida assigned sheik alfetna to design the new uniforms for the ministry of higher education.Amer informed them that he will get back to them about his suggestions on the best ways to liberate Alaksa.at the end of the meeting fida became sleepy witness told aljazera that he was seen in his car snoring after the meeting.

Together we will destroy our beautiful Syria for ever.

May 17th, 2011, 8:07 pm

 

Louai said:

Syria no kandahar

???? ???????fida ? what about Aroor?

Feda el sayed should be the Imara spokesman not Attasi ,is it only because you know Attasi? that is favouritism and it’s not accepted in Beladoshsham.

what about sisana and Khadam?

May 17th, 2011, 8:13 pm

 

Syria no kandahar said:

Louai
Sorry I will change the positions in April 2012 edition. Thanks.

May 17th, 2011, 8:21 pm

 

Louai said:

«??????? ?? ????? ??????» ???? ?? ????
????? ?????? ???? ??? ???? ?????? ?? ??? 14 ???? ???? ??????? ?? ????? ??????. ??? ??? ????? ????? ????? ?? 8 ???? ?? ?????? ??????? ?????? ??? ???? ?????????… ??? ?????? ????? ???????

http://www.al-akhbar.com/node/12374

May 17th, 2011, 8:29 pm

 

daleandersen said:

It’s over. Bashar has his version of the Iranian basij militia to keep the opposition off-balance and ducking for cover.

The protestors will eventually be relegated to Twitter and Facebook. People with time on their hands will post comments. The rest of us will move on, make our peace with the dictator and get on with our lives.

http://playwrighter.blogspot.com/2011/04/arab-news-fox-news-style.html

May 17th, 2011, 8:55 pm

 

why-discuss said:

Goodbye Qatar…
Bachar Al Assad menace de confisquer les investissements du Qatar en Syrie

http://syrie.blog.lemonde.fr/2011/05/14/bachar-al-assad-menace-de-confisquer-les-investissements-du-qatar-en-syrie/

….Au cours des 5 dernières années, le Qatar, meilleur et parfois unique allié arabe du régime syrien, a bénéficié de toutes les facilités pour développer en Syrie plusieurs projets, dans le secteur immédiatement rentable de l’immobilier. N’entre pas dans ce lot, l’attribution au cheykh Hamad bin Khalifa, d’un terrain situé sur une position stratégique imprenable que l’armée syrienne a été priée d’évacuer, et sur lequel a été édifié un palais d’où la vue s’étend à 360°, de Damas au Mont Hermon, et des chaînes de l’Anti-Liban aux contreforts du Hauran. Confiés à la société qatarie Al Diyar, les projets qataris comprennent la réalisation d’un ensemble d’immeubles d’habitation et de galeries marchandes de prestige sur une superficie de 25 hectares, dans le secteur privilégié de la Direction des Douanes, au centre de Damas, et la création, sur le golfe de Ibn Hani, au nord de Lattaquié, d’une cité balnéaire complète composée d’hôtels, de villas, d’un port et de toutes les commodités.

May 17th, 2011, 9:04 pm

 

Norman said:

Dandashi,

I agree with you on the numbers, i just do not agree on the quotas and allocations for the workers, farmers, socialists and so on, if we want to have a real secular state then anybody should be able to be a representative or a senator, there is no need to secure more than 50% for the Baath party as that will get us back where we are today with opportunists who join the Baath party, The Baath party will be the majority party for what it stands for.

Decentralization and registration where people live not where they come from is essential in adition to anti discrimination laws in housing and employment.

May 17th, 2011, 9:13 pm

 

why-discuss said:

Syria ‘offended’ by Turkish PM’s statement, envoy says

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=syria-offended-turkish-leaders-comparison-with-halepche–envoy-says-2011-05-17

….The envoy suggested that the upcoming elections (12 June) in Turkey might have impacted Turkey’s attitude on the uprisings in Syria, which turned from support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad at first to criticism of the regime’s bloody crackdown on protesters.

“We understand there has been a change [in Turkey’s approach to the Syrian turmoil] mainly for some local considerations. The elections are a key factor and it is putting everybody in an awkward position,” he said…..

….Kabalan said.

“For us, the Muslim Brotherhood is like the PKK is for Turkey,” he said, referring to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK. “The Muslim Brotherhood has been attacking the army. You have to understand that sensitivity.”

Kabalan said the political wing of Muslim Brotherhood had been engaged in dialogue with the Syrian government, but added that he was talking about the military wing of the group.

May 17th, 2011, 9:17 pm

 

Amir in Tel Aviv said:

I’m worried about the outcome of tomorrow’s general strike. It might be premature. It would have been much better if the opposition kept doing what appears to be successful: steady, low intensity pressure (with Friday peeks). If the strike is not complete, the regime will present it as a proof that the uprise is being suppressed.

KANDAHAR,
I’m keeping the post of the Cultural and Entertainment Attaché in our new embassy, for you.
.

May 17th, 2011, 9:31 pm

 

Aldendeshe said:

@JAD

Of course it is open for discussion, feedback and evaluation. It is circulating so it can be evaluated. There will be other version suppose to be ready in 2 weeks by the Election Committee President Assad appointed and he has set 2 weeks time for it to complete its work. The head of the commission, a Baathist, talking to the media about an obsolete version. The President promised to present the final commission version to debate and modification before signing.

Norman, a long time poster here, insist on keeping the Baath party 51% intact, and the commission think keeping 51% for what he called “Peasant and Worker”. Both perpetuating Baathist monopoly. Our version does not stipulate that, but it does guarantee, by design, specific number of seats that is usually and traditionally are held by Baathist and or Socialist supporters. SNP version, allows for total representation and yet unlike U.S. Model, it will guarantee there will be seats not just for the rich and well supported financially. It will also give the Baathist comfort in knowing that they will not just be out-casted with their supporters in any new free election model. As you see, even the army interest is represented and given a seat in the Senate. I am sure the benefits of this model will not be lost on those knowing how to run Syria and Macro manages it.

May 17th, 2011, 9:33 pm

 

why-discuss said:

Amir

I think this a smart reality check as the opposition is stuck. They can’t count anymore on protesters who are either frightened, hesitant or disappointed. They chose wednesday because of Obama’s speech on thursday that will talk about Syria.
If they get a very limited strike and no sufficient condemnation on thursday by Obama, then they will accept to dialog.
If they get a sizeable strike and Obama’s condemnation of Bashar al Assad, then they’ll get a boost and start again full force on friday.

May 17th, 2011, 9:42 pm

 

Norman said:

Dandashi,
It is not a democratic system if there are seat set aside for special interest group, If i were in the opposition , i will not accept a system which sets limit to the power that the people want to give me, The Baath party should not accept a certain percentage they can have , all seats should be open and the Baath party does not need to be protected, it has to earn the people trust from it’s deeds and the deed of it’s members.

May 17th, 2011, 9:49 pm

 

Norman said:

WD,

The question is , what kind of gamble the opposition is taking and whether president Obama will condemn president Assad and Syria if the opposition do not get a good sizable strike numbers.

May 17th, 2011, 9:55 pm

 

jo6pac said:

I don’t care what he says. he will sell you out in the end, just like he has in Amerika. Good Luck and may the Force be with You.

May 17th, 2011, 10:06 pm

 

Aldendeshe said:

@ Norman

As said before, agree to that. But the reason I am not discussing it or agreeing to it is because of the things I know and keeping those cards close to my chest. Right now, we need to compete with the Baathist version. It is much more democratic and effective to separate the seats allocation, than simply granting 50% for Baathist. You want to be assured that the party is leader of the State, I understand, coming from a Baathist. What we doing, is diverging those 50 percents on others who traditionally will vote Socialist, left wing, Baath or Arab Socialist and not necessarily belongs to the Baath party. Rather than focusing on the “Party exclusivity” we are focusing the voting bloc. Remember, there exist no allocation in the Lower Chamber and 50% of the upper one is open, so Baathist technically can run for those as well. The chance for privilege is less under this model because if a Baath member is not performing, he can be outvoted by others, but remains within the collectivism, so they have to perform serve constituent and compete.

#203.
Geeeeeeh I am not sure if that is acceptable to the President, kinda weaken his hand now, I would not stick my neck out and ask for such help or recommended it, kind of a belated move after so much blood shedding and mayhem. My feeling is the U.S. will use this in the front as a bargaining chip to look good and in the back bargain own, Hariri and Saudi interests, now they reached a dead end using force and humiliation.

May 17th, 2011, 10:14 pm

 

daleandersen said:

“Wednesday will be a day of general strike in Syria,” said a statement posted on the Facebook page of the Syrian Revolution 2011.

This from a guy living in Sweden who runs a facebook page. He has the credibility of a sea slug…

http://playwrighter.blogspot.com/2011/04/arab-news-fox-news-style.html

May 17th, 2011, 10:20 pm

 

why-discuss said:

Norman

I don’t think the outcome of strike will affect much Obama’s statement. His mind is set by much more complex considerations. Yet if there is a sizeable strike, he will certainly use it within his statement about Syria to pressure even more Bashar Al Assad. If there is a low strike, he will just ignore it.
For the opposition, Obama’s statement is the key. If they get a tough statement then the success or failure of the strike will dictate the long term strategy for the next move: More strikes, or escalation in the street as soon as friday.

May 17th, 2011, 10:31 pm

 

Norman said:

Dandashi,

Actually i think that you misunderstood me , I do not want the Baath party to have a leadership rule guaranteed, even if the Baath party losses the first election, I think the Baath party will win later on after people see how bad the opposition is as long as the opposition accepts defeat . I just do not want Syria to be like Lebanon with set a side and quotas.

May 17th, 2011, 10:34 pm

 

jad said:

???? ??? ?? ??????

?? ???? ??? ?????

???? ???????

?? ??????? ?????? ??????? ??? ????? ?????? ??? ?????? ?????? ????? ?? ?????? ?? ??????? ??????? ??? ?????? ??? ??? ????? ??? ?? ?????? ?? ???? ???? ???? ??? ????? ??? ?????? ?????? ?? ????? ??????? ???????? ???? ?? ???? ??? ???? ?? ??? ???????? ???????? ????? ?? ????. ???? ????? ??????? ?? ????? ????? ??? ????? ?????? ??????? ???????? ??????.

??? ???? ?????? ???? ?? ????? ??? ??????? ?????? ??????? ?????? ?? ???? ??? ?? ?? ???? ???? ??? ??? ?? ??? ?????? ??????? ?? ??? ???????. ??? ??? ??? ??? ??????? ???? ????? ?????? ??? ????? ?????? ??? ?? ?????? ?? ??????. ???? ?? ????? ??? ????? ????? ?? ?? ????? ?? ???? ??? ?????? ?? ??? ???? ??????? ????? ????.

??????? ?????? ??? ??? ?? ????? ?????? ??? ?? ?? ?? ???? ???????? ???????? ?? ?? ???? ????????. ??? ???????? ??????? ??? ???? ?????? ???? ???? ??? ????? ??? ?? ????? ??????? ???????? ????? ?????? ????? ??? ???? ??? ??? ?????. ???? ???? ?????? ?????????? ?? ????? ??? ???? ????? ?? ?????? ?????? ?? ???????? ???????? ?????? ??? ??????? ????? ??? ????? ??????? ???? ??? ?? ?????? ????? ?? 8???? 1963 ???? ????????? ?? ???? ???? ???????? ???? ???? ?????? ?????????? ??? ????? ?? ???????? ??? ?? ???? ???????? ???. ??? ??? ?? ??? ?????? ??? ???????? ?????? ???????? ?? ?????. ?? ?????? ????????? ??????? ??? ??? ??? ?????? ?????????. ???? ????? ????? ?????? ??????? ??? ????? ????????.

???? ??????? ?????? ???? ??? ??? ????? ?????? ?? ??????? ??? ?????? ?? ??? ??????. ???? ???? ?? ?????? ?? ???? ????? ?????? ???????? ??????? ??? ??? ????. ???? ????? ?? ???? ???? ??????? ??????? ??????? ??? ?? ??? ??? ????????? ????????? ??? ?? ???? ???????? ?????? ??? ????? ??????? ?????? ??? ???? ??? ????? ???????. ???? ??? ?? ????? ??????? ?? ???? ?????? ??? ??????? ????? ???? ?? ???? ?? ??????? ???? ?????? ?? ???? ?????? ??? ??? ??? ???????. ??? ??? ??? ????? ??? ?????? ??????? ?????? ?? ???????? ?? ????????? ??? ?? ???? ?????? ?????? ??????. ???? ?? ???? ??? ?? ???? ????????? ??? ?? ???????.

???? ?? ??? ?????? ???? ????? ????? ??? ???. ???? ????? ????? ??????? ??? ????? ?? ???? ??? ????? ?? ???????? ??????? ???? ????? ????? ?? ???? ??? ????? ?? ??? ???????? ???? ????. ??? ?? ?????? ??????? ?? ????? ????? ????????? ??? ????? ?????? ??? ??? ????? ????? ??? ??????. ?? ?????? ??????? ??? ?????? ???? ?? ????? ?????, ???? ???? ??????? ?????? ??????? ???? ??? ??? ????? ????.

???? ?? ?? ??? ?????? ??????? ?????? ?? ?? ???? ??? ???? ??? ?????? ?????? ?????????? ??? ????????? ??? ????? ??? ?????? ?????? ?????? ??? ?????????? ???? ?? ???? ?????? ?? ???? ?????? ?? ??? ??????? ??? ??????? ??? ?????? ??? ?? ????? ?? ???? ????

May 17th, 2011, 10:38 pm

 

Aldendeshe said:

@Norman,

You are right in term of Neo-Baathist recovering in second term, but you live in the west and have keen understanding of how this issue evolved in Post-Soviet countries. It is going to take some bargaining in Damascus. Ultimately it is up to the President and perhaps to lesser extent his Political Baathist security team to have a meaningful outcome.

May 17th, 2011, 10:46 pm

 

Norman said:

My dear friend, Dandashi,

no matter how much i prefer your plan, Any system that will not threaten the Baath party of losing it’s majority will not be acceptable to the opposition or the world opinion,

May 17th, 2011, 11:03 pm

 

daleandersen said:

I think Edward was toilet-trained too early…

http://playwrighter.blogspot.com/2011/04/arab-news-fox-news-style.html

May 17th, 2011, 11:14 pm

 

Louai said:

how Al-Jazeera reported the kidnapped Syrian boarder solders ?

????? ???? ????? ?????? ??????

http://www.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/8CFB292E-92FE-42D8-98CD-D7A4D4DB8AB5.html

how BBC reported it ?

?? ?? ?? ????? ????? ?? ?????? ???????? ?????????

http://www.bbc.co.uk/arabic/multimedia/2011/05/110515_hs_bbc_kidnapped_soldiers.shtml

how Al-Akhbar did

???? ??????? ??? ?????? ??????? ?? ??????? ???? ?? ????? ??? ???? ????. ?? ????? ????? ???? ?? ?? ?????? ??????? ????? ???????? ?????. ?????? ?? ?????? ????? ?????? ????? ?? ??? ?????? ???????? ????? ?? ?????? ??? ?????? ???? ?????? ????? ?? ?????? ???????? ???????? ????? ??????? ????. ?????? ?? ??????? ??? ???? ????? ??? ????? ??????? ?????? ?????? ??????? ???? ????? ??????? ???????? ??? ????????? ?????».

http://www.al-akhbar.com/node/12296

The winner is? ………

May 17th, 2011, 11:28 pm

 

Aldendeshe said:

They all (conspirators) becoming unhinged, frustration going to get much worse if tomorrow call for general strike fails.

May 17th, 2011, 11:50 pm

 

Louai said:

Syria No Kandhar

happy now?? EDWARD is sad ,why you didn’t give him any position in your 2012 prophecy?

You could have giving him ???? ????? ???? ???????? or something like that !
this newsletter will be a better place and its all your fault .

May 17th, 2011, 11:58 pm

 

syau said:

Revlon,

This is just for you. A news flash from Daara, its not doom and gloom, so I dont know if you will enjoy it, but anyway, happy watching.

May 18th, 2011, 12:25 am

 

jad said:

I’m not sure why people are over thinking the strike call this much, well, even if couple villages closed their shops it doesn’t mean much.
We all know how layback many Syrians are and how many of them don’t show up to work or open their shops for the least issue even during the good times, we also know how many Syrian parents are scared to send their kids to school during these times, so measuring a strike scale knowing those two facts is inaccurate.
Only a strike the size of the one the Syrians did against the French occupation or the strike the size of the Palestinians did in their first intifada can count other than that it is considered as bunch of guys didn’t show to work or didn’t go to school for one day.
Besides, with 25% of unemployment and fighting in different areas in Syria it wont be that difficult to show pictures of closed commercial areas in any small city.
I’m expecting to see closed shops in some area in Daraa and the villages surround it, some suburbs of Damascsu (Douma, Harasta, Mouaddamiya), a street in Homs, a street in Hama, some street in the Kurdish area and probably one street in Banyas.
In Aleppo and Damascus I don’t expect it to happen since in big cities even if some shops did close it wont be presentable comparing to the majority of the the open shops.

What the next step is what count, the organizers used almost all their cards and nothing els left for them to use but the intervention of the west and it seems that some element of the opposition are pushing the regime really hard to commit a big mistake so they can legitimizes the foreign intervention, other than that the situation will continue going this way (like in Iran) for a while and no real solution.

May 18th, 2011, 12:36 am

 

Abughassan said:

Syrians who oppose the regime have the right to strike and hold peaceful demonstrations but those who use violence or destroy property should be arrested and taken to court. Even a third grader can tell by now that the regime in Syria can not be changed by violent means unless you want to sign on khaddam’s plan to invite the NATO. Meaningful reform is the only way out. Some believe that the regime is unable and unwilling to change but we must give Syria another chance for a peaceful revolution that does not celebrate violence or thrive on blood. Blaming one side for the violence is in defiance of the facts on the ground but I agree that the government deserves most of the blame for a number of reasons. The burden of proof lies on the shoulder of the regime which must show by actions not words that the old days of oppression and corruption are over,nothing less will be acceptable.

May 18th, 2011, 12:54 am

 

syau said:

Jad,

The little elements in the opposition can push all they want, they won’t get anywhere. Syria is not a toy for anybody to play with.

The US led “war on terror” has lasted years and is global. But the hypocrites have a hard time with Syria fighting the terrorists emerging inside the country.

Osama Bin Laden – Obama and Biden, the only difference here is the B & S…BS

May 18th, 2011, 12:56 am

 

Syria no kandahar said:

Jad
Just one small note.I don’t agree with the term (Kurdish area).This is a propaganda of some Kurds which were able to get to have some high positions in Aljazera and in Alarabia and have been repeating that terminology over and over.Alarabia even uses some Kurdish names for the cities no body has heard of.this is an area which originally was Assyrian.and even today there is a mosaic of ehtnecities in it with some degree of balance(40%Kurds.40%Arabs.20%Assyrians ,Armenians and others).even the term (the area with Kurdish majority)I think is wrong.

May 18th, 2011, 1:06 am

 

Louai said:

i don’t expect the strike will be a success , but its the only peaceful move they took so far ,if they represent as much as they claim of the population so let it be and let them show how big in number they are.

My only fair is that if they fail they will get even more violent and do any thing to stop people to open their shops as they did in Homs

It’s indeed the last card for them so let sit and watch.

May 18th, 2011, 1:14 am

 

jad said:

S.N.K
I stand corrected, You are right, I was wrong to call part of Syria a ‘Kurdish area’, I should’ve write the name of the province I meant.

In Alhasaka I expect to see images of closed street not sure about the structure of Hasaka’s commercial area.

Louai,
I share your fear, however, they can’t threat anybody outside their limited areas.

May 18th, 2011, 1:14 am

 

Louai said:

FRANKLIN LAMB: Has Tide Turned in Favor of Assad Government?

What I continue to find in Syria and what I saw during my first 24 hours in Damascus shocked me. It was not at all what one expected to find having read a fair bit of the Western and some of the Arab media reports, and arriving from the Syria-Lebanon border at Maznaa.

One expected to see fear, tension, and people hiding in homes, ubiquitous police and partially hidden and disguised security personnel in the shadows, watching from behind tinted glassed cars, curtained windows and from roof tops. I expected to see military vehicles, empty streets after dusk, reticence to discuss politics, tense faces on the streets.

None of this was to seen in Syria’s capital and villages to the west.

more… http://www.intifada-palestine.com/2011/05/franklin-lamb-has-tide-turned-in-favor-of-assad-government/

May 18th, 2011, 2:00 am

 

Maryam said:

I agree with Jad in terms of the effectiveness of the strike. The opposition should have planned the strike on Friday. That way they can claim that more stores are striking than actually are! Strike, fear, or bad business, who would be able to figure it out?

Also, as for Franklin Lamb, I have met him personally, and he’s a little bit off his rocker. I wouldn’t consider him a reliable source. Anyone who claims that there isn’t fear is clearly blind. Only a few months ago downtown Damascus was full of life especially on Thursday night. Now it’s a ghost town at that time. I cannot speak for other Syrian cities though.

May 18th, 2011, 2:37 am

 

syau said:

Reports from the Interior Ministry have emerged of an armed terrorist group opening fire on an internal security forces patrol in Tal Kalakh, killing an officer and four of the patrol members.

May 18th, 2011, 3:27 am

 

John khouri said:

Christian man I’n his mid 20’s shot dead by thugs I’n bab omr bayada neighborhood . upon news of his murder the thugs I’n the Neighbourhood threatened his family and told them to accuse the Syrian army of carrying out his murder . Everyone knows who murdered this innocent civilian. God willing the army will hunt them down one by one. His funeral was held I’n the hammadiyeh area of homs attended by thousands from all sects. I will post videos soon.

May 18th, 2011, 5:49 am

 

syau said:

John Khouri,

That’s sad to hear. May God rest his soul in peace. I hope his murderer and others alike are captured and face the full force of the law. These terrorists are vile creatures and need to be stopped.

May 18th, 2011, 7:55 am

 

Revlon said:

General M. Ra7moun, head of air force security branch of Tall, Damascus, received death threats upon releasing some detainees.

Some of those detainees stated that nearly 200 security agents were detained and undergoing torture for refusing to fire at civilians.

10 hours ago

???? ????? ???? ?? ??? ?????? Youth Syria For Freedom
??????? || ????? :: ??? ???? ?????? ???? ????? ???? ??? ????????? ?????? ??? ????? ???????? ?? ??? ??? ???????? ?? ????? ?????? ????? ??? ????? ??? ????????? ?? ????? ??? ???? .

?????? ????? : ?? ???? ??? ????????? ?????? ???? ?? ??? ????????? ?????? ?????? ???? ???? ???? ????? 200 ???? ? ???? ?? ?????? ????? ??????? ?? ????? ?????? ????? ????? ??? ?????????? ? ???? ????????? ???? ??? ??????? ????? ???? ? ????? ??? ????? ?? ????? ? ?? ???? ???? ????? ???? ??????? .

May 18th, 2011, 8:04 am

 

Revlon said:

General strike in Homs, today

May 18th, 2011, 8:09 am

 

Revlon said:

Doctors in white coats join protestors in Da3el, Dar3a, Yesterday

May 18th, 2011, 8:12 am

 

Souri333 (formerly Souri) said:

Syria passed the internal part of the conflict long ago. The statement by Buthaina Shaaban was an official declaration of victory by the Syrian regime on the internal front.

Makhlouf’s statement was the overture to the external war. The Nakba demonstration on 15 May (and possibly also the Ocalan statement) were the first Syrian moves on the external front. The conflict from now on is an external conflict. What we are going to see in the next period is an extreme finger-biting game between Assad and the West.

Until June 5, Assad will have amassed enough troops on the Golan front for a possible exchange of fire with Israeli troops. There are preparations in Syria for a huge demonstration on June 5 or June 4. This demonstration will include hundreds of thousands of Syrians and Palestinians and it will be much larger than the Nakba day demonstration. Bloodshed is almost certain. The demonstrators are bent on crossing the front into the Golan. There will be many deaths. In my opinion, an involvement of the Syrian army and an exchange of fire is expected; even if it does not happen on June 5, it is going to happen at some point.

What is certain is that the June 5 demonstration will raise regional tension to a very high level. The exact degree of that level will depend on what the West does from now until June 5. If the West imposes more sanctions on Syria and declares Assad’s rule to be illegitimate (there are rumors saying that Obama will declare this tomorrow), then we can expect big escalation on June 5, possibly with Syrian army involvement and exchange of fire with the Israelis.

Assad will not back until he wins the external battle. Makhlouf’s statement was clear. There are no concessions. They will use all their cards and they are ready to go in the battle to the end. I have been hearing demands in the Syrian media for the Golan front to be opened for popular resistance. This is a very significant development. Few months ago, anybody who would talk about opening the Golan front for resistance would have been taken to prison. Now we are hearing these demands in the Syrian media. It is very possible that the regime will open the front for resistance like it was in the 1960’s. As long as the West keeps pressing, Assad will keep escalating even if this leads to a full-scale regional war. The situation now is very different from 2005. Unlike in 2005, Syria now is ready for war.

May 18th, 2011, 8:19 am

 

norman said:

????? ?????? ????? ?? ??? ????? ?????? ??????? ?? ?????? ??????? ????

??? ?? ???? ?????? ??? ?????? ???? ??????? ???? ????? ?????? ????? ?? ??? ????? ?????? ??????? ???????? ????? ????? ??????? ????? ?? ????? ????? ??? ???.

May 18th, 2011, 8:21 am

 

why-discuss said:

Missing Journalist (Dorothy Parvaz) Reportedly Freed By Iran

http://www.npr.org/2011/05/18/136420637/missing-journalist-reportedly-freed-by-iran?ft=1&f=1001

…Missing journalist Dorothy Parvaz has been released by Iranian authorities and was back at her residence in Doha, Qatar, her fiance said Wednesday…

…Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman, Ramin Mehmanparast, told reporters Tuesday that Parvaz had committed “violations” by trying to enter Syria with an expired Iranian passport and “planned to work without a press permit and had several passports on her.” He offered no details on what had happened to her in Iran.

May 18th, 2011, 8:32 am

 

why-discuss said:

Souri

I don’t think Syria is ready for war. Yet, Bashar is certainly sending a powerful message to the US and the Western community that Syria, ironically, can use the wave of the “arab spring’ to turn it into a ‘palestinian spring”.
While all westerm countries and media were rejoicing of the ‘arab spring’, I doubt such unanimity will prevail for a ‘palestinian spring’!
Makklouf gave a first warning, the Nakba demonstrations in the Golan was a second. Now if the US is looking for confrontation, they’ll get it on 5th june and it will be from all Arab countries neighboring Israel.
Through “good old Facebook”, there is a coordination among the palestinians in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria to prepare the new Intifada.
On thursday, if Obama gives a mild warning to Bashar to accelerate the reforms ( as suggested by Erdogan) then Syria will refrain from inciting new attacks on the border. If he is tough, then be ready for a roller coaster on the borders of Israel
The ball is in the hand of the US.

May 18th, 2011, 8:52 am

 

why-discuss said:

Revlon

Please pick a better video from Youtube to show Homs ‘strike’. I thought Homs was a large city, in the video, it looks like a small souk in a small suburb and just less than a hundred demonstrators. Not very convincing…

May 18th, 2011, 8:58 am

 

Sophia said:

Israeli official to meet members of Syrian opposition on post-Assad Syria under Austrian conservatives’ sponsorship

http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/12336.aspx

Info from FLC at:http://friday-lunch-club.blogspot.com/

Please note that the Austrian ‘conservatives’ are in fact the far right. And please note that the Austrian far right is on the extreme right of every european far right party and has some scary history.

May 18th, 2011, 9:11 am

 

Souri333 (formerly Souri) said:

Some people speculate that the June 5 demonstration will not be limited to a certain point on the frontline. Syrian refugees from the Golan are going to participate in large numbers. This can mean that those refugees will seek their home villages in the Golan (which are now mostly destroyed and deserted). It will be a full front advance. I heard that the Israelis are digging up water-filled ditches on the frontline. I don’t think they will manage to dig up and fortify the whole front in time. It is going to be a tough day.

If the demonstrators manage to break into the occupied territory again, it will be a disaster for Israel. The Israelis will be very fierce in defending the fence, and the demonstrators will be very determined to cross it. It will be a bloodbath, and many videos will emerge showing Israeli soldiers brutally shooting at unarmed civilians.

If the number of victims becomes of a massacre-scale, an exchange of fire between both sides may ensue.

May 18th, 2011, 9:12 am

 

Souri333 (formerly Souri) said:

WD,

The finger-biting game means that neither of the contesters knows how far the other contester will go in escalation. Syria can go to war; the Americans and Israelis know that very well and they know that Syria has been seriously preparing for a war since 2006.

May 18th, 2011, 9:23 am

 

why-discuss said:

Souri

I am not sure Syria needs to go to war. It can use all the anger of the Palestinans to push for huge peaceful demonstrations on the borders that will be more spectacular than some violent attacks on the border.

May 18th, 2011, 9:36 am

 

Souri333 (formerly Souri) said:

Basically, Syria controls not only the Golan card but also the Third Intifada card. The Palestinian Authority and pro-American Arabs cannot prevent a new intifada if Palestinians keep doing on the northern Israeli front what they did on Nakba Day. If Syria and Lebanon keep sending Palestinians to demonstrate on the front, a new intifada will definitely erupt in Palestine. This is a lethal card that is separate from the Golan card. Syria is threatening with both cards.

May 18th, 2011, 9:40 am

 

norman said:

By Mariam Karouny

updated 1 hour 9 minutes ago

BEIRUT— Syria’s minority Christians are
watching the protests sweeping their country
with trepidation, fearing their religious
freedom could be threatened if President
Bashar al-Assad’s autocratic but secular rule
is overthrown.

Sunni Muslims form a majority in Syria, but
under four decades of rule by Assad’s
minority Alawites the country’s varied
religious groups have enjoyed the right to
practice their faith.

Calls for Muslim prayers ring out alongside
church bells in Damascus, where the apostle
Paul started his ministry and Christians have
worshipped for two millennia.

But for many Syrian Christians, the flight of
their brethren from sectarian conflict in
neighboring Iraq and recent attacks on
Christians in Egypt have highlighted the
dangers they fear they will face if Assad
succumbs to the wave of uprisings sweeping
the Arab world.

“Definitely the Christians in Syria support
Bashar al-Assad. They hope that this storm
will not spread,” Yohana Ibrahim, the Syriac
Orthodox Archbishop of Aleppo, told Reuters.

Protests erupted in Syria two months ago,
triggered by anger and frustration at
widespread corruption and lack of freedom in
the country ruled with an iron fist by the
Assad family for nearly half a century.

Although some Christians may be participating
in the protests, church institutions have not
supported them.

Christians contacted by Reuters said they
backed calls for reform but not the demands
for “regime change,” which they said could
fragment Syria and give the upper hand
possibly to Islamist groups that would deny
them religious freedom.

“The Christians in Syria — whether Orthodox,
Armenians, Maronites, Anglicans, Assyrians or C
atholics — consider themselves first (Syrian)
citizens, the sons of the land,” said Habib
Afram, president of the Syriac League.

“The general atmosphere from the churches’
positions and from Christian figures is fixed
on stability and security because religious
freedom is absolutely guaranteed in Syria,” he
said.

“RULED BY THE MILITARY OR THE TURBAN”

advertisement Syria Christians fear for religious freedom

Syria’s Christian community is believed to
make up around six percent of the population,
down from 10 percent at the middle of the last
century.

Christians have equal rights — and the same
restriction on political freedom — as Muslims,
apart from a constitutional stipulation that the
president must be a Muslim.

“Our ethnicity or language may not be
recognized and we are not allowed to form a
party, but this is the case of all Syrians,” a
church source said, adding that the choice for
minorities in the Middle East was “to be ruled
by the military or the turban of a cleric.”

In a region where minorities face growing
challenges, and where tensions between Sunni
Muslims and Shi’ite Muslims are on the rise,
Syria still feels like a refuge to many
Christians.

Iraqi Christians have frequently been targeted
in violence which followed the U.S. invasion in
2003. Fifty two people were killed in an assault
on a Baghdad cathedral last October.

In Egypt, where a popular uprising overthrew
strongman Hosni Mubarak in February, 12
people died in a Cairo suburb last week in
fighting sparked by rumors that Christians
had abducted a woman who converted to
Islam.

“The change that came at the hand of the
American army in Iraq did not protect the
Christians and the change that came from the
people in Egypt could not protect the
Christians,” the source said.

“Minorities are paying the price in these
revolutions.”

Some Christians detect the same sectarianism
in chants at recent Syrian protests.

Samer Lahham, who runs ecumenical relations
at the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate in
Damascus, said the fact that protests have
broken out mainly after weekly Muslim
prayers — which offer a rare chance for
Syrians to gather legally — had lent a “religious
identity” to the demonstrations.

“Christians cannot be part of such action,
although they support tangible reformations at
different levels, slowly but steadily,” he said.
“They fear the hidden plan is to transform
Syria into a religious system governed by
those who… do not have the culture of
accepting the other,” said Lahham.

Assad’s father, Hafez, crushed an armed
uprising by Islamists belonging to the Muslim
Brotherhood group in the early 1980s. Islamic
influence has spread in society since then, as
elsewhere in the Middle East, with the
government seeking to co-opt moderate
Muslim leaders.

Ibrahim said that the churches are not
encouraging people to take part in
demonstrations nor to be involved in acts
seen hostile to Assad’s rule.

“In every speech we talk about awareness and
that we should be vigilant to stay away from
what could affect our presence.”

“We have the same views (as protesters)
against corruption and bribery, and with
reforms but all of these demands should not
lead me to participate in ruining my home and
destroying my country,” Ibrahim said.

“I can guarantee that 80 percent of the people
come to the church to hear what the church

say about (protests), and they commit (to its
position),” the archbishop added.

Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

Sponsored links

May 18th, 2011, 9:48 am

 

Souri333 (formerly Souri) said:

WD,

Sorry man but you don’t sound like you know how to play cards. The “regional war” card is Syria’s strongest and most scary card. It is not wise at all to throw this card away when the game is just starting. This is the complete opposite of wise.

Syria can go to a regional war if they have to. Be sure of that. All options are on the table.

May 18th, 2011, 9:51 am

 

trustquest said:

SYRIA – A declaration from Houran and the villages of Houran

May 18th, 2011, 9:53 am

 

norman said:

The strike failed,

Print Back to story

Syria’s Assad confident unrest over, admits mistakes
1 hr 1 min ago

DAMASCUS (AFP) – Syria’s embattled President Bashar al-Assad says he believes the unrest roiling the country is coming to an end while acknowledging that security services had made mistakes in trying to tame a two-month revolt threatening his regime.

Assad made the assertions in a meeting with a delegation of dignitaries from the Medan district of Damascus, a commercial zone, according to Wednesday’s edition of the Arabic-language daily Al-Watan, close to the government.

“President Assad gave assurances that Syria had overcome the crisis it went through and that events (shaking the country) were coming to an end,” the private daily quoted him as saying, without specifying when the meeting took place.

Assad also acknowledged wrongdoing on the part of security services, attributing it to lack of training for such circumstances which, he said, are usually handled by police, according to the paper.

It quoted him as telling members of the delegation that 4,000 police officers were currently undergoing training in order to avoid further mistakes.

“The role of the security services is to gather information, analyse it and hand it over to the proper authorities,” a member of the delegation quoted the president as saying.

Assad’s authoritarian regime has sought to crush the greatest challenge to nearly five decades of rule by his Baath party with a brutal crackdown that has left more than 850 people dead and at least 8,000 arrested, according to rights groups.

Although the opposition has the odds stacked against it, it has pushed forth with pro-democracy protests and, in a defiant move, called for a general nationwide strike on Wednesday that largely went unheeded.

Schools, shops and transport were operating normally in Damascus and other cities but an activist told AFP that a popular district of Aleppo, the second largest city, was affected as was the university campus.

“Only students and staff are being allowed on the campus,” activist Moustapha Suleiman told AFP.

He said 2,000 people were also demonstrating in early afternoon in the town of Ifrin, north of Aleppo.

His account could not be independently verified as journalists are not allowed to travel freely in the country to cover the unrest.

The Syrian Revolution 2011, an Internet-based opposition group, had called for the strike in the hope of piling further pressure on the regime.

But several people interviewed in the capital Damascus, which has largely been spared the unrest so far, said no one would dare answer the call.

“Who would dare go on strike and risk losing their business or be targeted by authorities?” said one businessman who requested anonymity.

“If anyone pulls down their store shutters they would immediately be spotted and risk losing their livelihood.”

Another merchant said the strike was of little use given that customers had all but dried up since the security forces began violently putting down the protests that broke out two months ago.

The United States and European Union, which have slapped sanctions on members of Assad’s inner circle, warned Tuesday that further measures were being considered against the regime.

But Syrian authorities so far have appeared impervious to outside pressure, pushing ahead with a campaign that has consisted of laying siege to restive town by restive town while arresting thousands of protesters and opposition figures.

Some of those released have said they were tortured and others have been forced to sign pledges not to take part in further protests.

Copyright © 2011 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved.Questions or CommentsPrivacy PolicyAbout Our AdsTerms of ServiceCopyright/IP Policy

May 18th, 2011, 9:56 am

 

atassi said:

Norman.. It did not fail….
Homs Syria… Peaceful general strike …READ IT “peaceful”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRhRz_0hn_I

??? ??????? 18-5-2011 ???????

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEDMcxZVDUM

??????? ?????? ?? ??? ???????? 18 ???? 20
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhpTCMEpxf4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8-9QScg6yE

May 18th, 2011, 9:56 am

 

Abughassan said:

All indications point to a hard lining of the regime after realizing that Syria in reality does not have many friends especially with its current good relations with Iran. Another reason for this position is the lack of support from large cities for the uprising. Ordinary citizens are eager to see calm and security returning to the streets but most also want more details about foreign fighters and foreign money being allegedly used to undermine Syria’s security.,until now,Syrians and the international community as a whole are at best unsure of how extensive that foreign involvement is. The miserable performance of official media and PR people in the regime is shocking and almost criminal.those people do not understand the significance of PR and the effect of visual media,they mostly speak to Syrian citizens, most of whom are not exactly proud of Syrian TV,instead of targetting undecided observers and world public opinion,a PR campaign will not solve Syria’s problems but it can reduce pressure on Syria if it comes with a series of reform measures that infuse trust and provide hope that Syria is not ruled by a group of corrupt officials and mafia-like business class. Start with the release of all non violent protestors,and do it NOW for the sake of the country,take a number of corrupt officials and security chiefs to court and keep Rami busy with counting his money instead of allowing him to steal more and give dumb interviews to foreign press.

May 18th, 2011, 10:06 am

 

atassi said:

Switzerland Imposes Sanctions on Syria
Associated Press
18 May 2011
09:56
The Wall Street Journal Online

GENEVA—The Swiss government said it is imposing sanctions against Syria because of the country’s continued violent repression of protesters.

The cabinet has passed a measure restricting arms sales to Syria, and freezing the assets and banning the travel to Switzerland of 13 senior Syrian officials. Swiss banks that hold assets belonging to any of the 13 officials, including Syrian President Bashar Assad’s brother Maher Assad, will have to declare them to the government immediately.

The government said the arms embargo won’t have any immediate effect as Switzerland hasn’t exported weapons to Syria in over a decade. The measures bring Switzerland in line with sanctions imposed by the European Union on May 9.

In Berlin, Germany pushed for a second round of European Union sanctions against Syria that would target Mr. Assad directly. German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle called for EU foreign ministers to strengthen the sanctions at a meeting next Monday. Mr. Westerwelle said it’s “necessary and unavoidable” for Mr. Assad to be targeted directly this time. He said the president could be targeted with an asset freeze or travel restrictions

May 18th, 2011, 10:14 am

 

why-discuss said:

Atassi

Do you believe there was a country wide strike as called by the Facebook? Wasn’t limited to the traditional hot spots: Homs and some small towns anmd suburbs?

May 18th, 2011, 10:17 am

 

N.Z. said:

Why are they still killing protesters?
He, the head of the Assad Mafia claims that his people were not trained for such an uprising!

What a silly excuse, stop the killing, and let the protesters roam the street of their country.

He was quick to call those who stood against Hizbullah as half men.

Same apply to him. Look in the mirror Junior and ask yourself:

Killing my people makes me a man or half a man ?

We need men, not half-men to take over, brave and decisive.

Brave in NOT killing their countrymen and decisive in putting a stop to this senseless massacres.

Until he brings reform, with or without him, he must stop.

The other uprising are vivid and alive, he must learn from them, not replicate his likes.

I cannot trust them, I never did, wishful thinking was what defined the last decade of ” Syrians”, I was one of them, many are still hopeful, I call them dreamers.

To those who are giving excuses are as criminal as this mafia.

May 18th, 2011, 10:18 am

 

atassi said:

Syrian president says security forces made mistakes during crackdown on uprising
By ZEINA KARAM
Associated Press
18 May 2011
09:42
Associated Press Newswires

BEIRUT (AP) – Syria’s president said the country’s security forces have made mistakes during the uprising against his regime, blaming poorly trained police officers at least in part for a crackdown that has killed more than 850 people over the past two months.

President Bashar Assad’s comments, carried Wednesday in the private Al-Watan newspaper, came even as a human rights activist said Wednesday that Syrian troops have used heavy machine guns to attack a neighborhood in the central city of Homs.

Still, his remarks were a rare acknowledgment of shortcomings within Syria’s powerful security agencies. Assad said thousands of police officers were receiving new training.

The brutal crackdown across Syria has sparked international condemnation, and the United States and European Union are planning new sanctions against the Syrian leadership. More than 850 people have been killed in the crackdown on protests that erupted in mid-March, according to Syria’s top rights organization.

The Swiss government on Wednesday passed a measure restricting arms sales to Syria and freezing the assets and banning the travel to Switzerland of 13 senior Syrian officials. The arms embargo is largely theoretical because Switzerland hasn’t exported weapons to Syria in over a decade, but any Swiss banks holding assets of the 13 officials will have to declare them immediately to the government.

But Assad got a boost from an old ally Wednesday, with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev saying Moscow will not support any United Nations resolutions that would open the way for interference in Syria’s internal affairs.

Medvedev said Assad must be given a chance to fulfill his reform promises and warned against foreign interference in the country.

The Syrian opposition called for a general strike Wednesday to protest the regime but the appeal seemed to go largely unheeded. Schools, shops and other businesses were open in the capital, Damascus, and other Syrian cities amid a tight security presence.

The call for a strike was an attempt by opposition forces to hit at Assad’s regime from new angles: its economic underpinnings and ability to keep the country running during two months of widening battles.

But the fact that it apparently fell flat suggests that Assad still has support in the business community and that a sweeping campaign of intimidation was working.

“Everything is open,” said a resident of the central city of Homs, which has seen daily anti-government protests in the past weeks. He said residents would not dare comply with the strike in light of the heavy security presence in the city.

The latest place to witness a harsh crackdown has been the western town of Talkalakh, where 27 people have been killed since last week, according to activists.

Syrians fleeing to Lebanon in recent days have described horrific scenes of execution-style slayings and bodies in the streets in Talkalakh, which has been reportedly encircled by security forces.

More than 5,000 people have crossed from Talkalakh across a shallow river into Wadi Khaled on the Lebanese side of the border. The flow, however, appeared to be slowing Wednesday, with very few people seen crossing into Lebanon.

Assad “is not a president,” said Mohammad, a Syrian who fled Talkalakh three days earlier and was taking shelter along with others in a mosque in Wadi Khaled. “We elected him to protect us and shelter us, not to displace us,” he told Associated Press Television News.

At least one family of women was seen returning to Syria with bread and other groceries they had bought in Lebanon.

Press Association, Inc.

May 18th, 2011, 10:18 am

 

jad said:

Russia wont support a resolution similar to the one against Libya, for me it translate that the Russian will only support a condemnation by the UN without any threat (the latest British version)

????????: ????? ?? ???? ????? ???? ????? ?????? ??? ????? ???? ??? ????? ??? ???? ?????? 1973 ????? ??????
15:29 | 2011 / 05 / 18

???????? (?????? ?????)? 18 ???? (????). ???????. ???? ?????? ?????? ?????? ???????? ?? ????? ???? ???? ????? ?? ????? ?? ???? ????? ???? ????? ?????? ??? ????? ???? ??? ????? ????? ?????? 1973 ???? ?????.

???? ????????: “?? ???? ???? ???? ??? ????? ??? ??? ??? ??????? ??? ???”.

WD,
I’m sure Aljazeera is furious over the release, there is not much action there to go crazy about.

May 18th, 2011, 10:20 am

 

Syria no kandahar said:

Revlon
Congradulaions Parves is home.you were so worried.may be you can call here and tell here in here next visit to bring red ink,few????phones.she can give theme to your friend Edward who is on the streets fighting with your salafi friends,before coming back to finish every one who disagree with him(the mafia way)

May 18th, 2011, 10:40 am

 

Souri333 (formerly Souri) said:

Are there pro-Assad demonstrations in Syria tomorrow? It looks that Assad is responding to Obama’s anticipated position tomorrow by amassing millions of his supporters again.

I don’t think this will change anything. The media will ignore the demonstrations or say that “thousands” of Assad’s supporters gathered.

May 18th, 2011, 10:41 am

 

jad said:

Medvedev statement actually sounded more general than the news, he want to give the Syrian regime time to do the reforms and he doesn’t support ANY RESOLUTION by the UN against Syria
http://youtu.be/qwoH0Ou-OH8?t=2m20s

?????-????

???? ?????? ?????? ?????? ???????? ?? ????? ?? ???? ?? ???? ????? ???? ????? ?????? ?? ?????.

???? ???????? ???? ????? ???? ???? ?? ????? ?????.. ??? ????? ??????? ??????? ????? ?????? ?????? ????????? ???? ????? ???? ?? ?? ???? ??? ????? ?????? ?????? ????.

????? ?????? ?????? ??? ?? ???? ???? ????? ???? ????? ???? ????? ????? ?? ??????? ?? ?? ??? ??? ?? ????? ??????.. ??? ???? ???? ??????? ?? ??? ??? ???????? ???? ??????? ???????? ???????? ????? ?? ???? ????? ???????.

???? ???? ???????? ?????? ????? ?????? ??? ?? ??????? ????? ??? ????? ??????? ??? ???? ????? ?? ??????? ??????? ???? ?? ????? ???? ????? ????? ????? ????? ?? ???? ?? ???????.

??? ??? ???? ?? ???????? ??????? ?? ????? ?? ???? ?????? ?? ???? ????? ?????? ??? ????? ?? ????? ??? ???? ???????? ???? ??? ?????.
——-

The strike today (until 5:30pm Syrian time) is a failed one, you can’t call taking clips for one area in one city and couple villages the general strike they called for as punishment:
“????? ?????? ?????? ?? ????? ??? ?????? ??? ????? ??? ?????? ??? ????? ??? ?????”.

The other side of the strike in Homs according to FB:

???? ????? ??? H.N.N
????? ???? ?? ???? ?????? ??????? ?? ??? ????? : ??? ???? ?????? ?? ????? ??? ??????? ?? ??? ?????? ?????? ????? ??????? ??? ????? ??????? ?? ??? ?????? ? ???? ???????? ?????? ??????? ????? ??? ???? ???? ??? ??? ????? ?????? ??????? , ???? ??? ???? ??? ????? ??????? ?????? ?????? ?????? ????? ?????? ? ??? ????? ? ???? ??? ?????? ..? ??????? ????? ?? ????? ???? ??? ???????

???? ????? ??? H.N.N
????? ?? ????????? ??????? 😕 ???? ??? ?????? ?????? /18/ ??? ????? ??? ????? ??????? ?? ????? ????? ???? ???????? ?????? ??????? ??? ???? (????? ???????) ????? ?????? ??? ????? ?????? ?????? ???? ?? ?????? ??????? /9/ ????

??? ????????? ?? ???? ?? ???? ??????? ?????? ? ?? ??????
((?????? ?????? ????? ????? ??? ????? ??? ??????? ????? ? ?? ?? ???? )) …… ?????? ???? ????? ??? ?? ???? ???? ??? ? ???? ???? ??? ??? ???? ??? ????? ????? ????? ?????

May 18th, 2011, 10:44 am

 

Abughassan said:

I do not know who advised the Facebook ,Syrian opposition page admin, to declare a general strike,it was obvious that the mood was not ripe for such a move. Reports from Syria clearly indicate that the response was muted in most areas and non-existent in large cities.
Syrians need to go to work and rebuild their country while pressuring the regime. It is increasingly evident that economic corruption is a bigger threat to Syrians than the dominance of security forces despite the fact that these two threats are somewhat linked.
More opposition leaders are calling for dialogue and Turkey advised the US against rushing to try to topple the regime. This may give Bashar few weeks or few months to improve the national mood but that requires calm in the streets which can help to sideline hardliners who were instrumental in creating the unrest and what follows. It is premature to declare victory but there is an opportunity to push ahead with real reform,and that opportunity shouldn’t be missed. Cosmetic surgery may beautify the regime but a radical cure is what is needed without toppling Bashar,which is not the answer and it never was regardless if you support him or not.

May 18th, 2011, 11:02 am

 

vlad-the-syrian said:

to false ATASSI #277

HOMS IS NOT ON STRIKE
Edited for insults – please stop personal name calling. JL

May 18th, 2011, 11:40 am

 

Syria no kandahar said:

Alsahwa Alsoria Online
April 2012
Together we build our democratic Islamic republic of Syria.
Main Page:

-President Obama and pres Alshafka meet in the green area in Damascus,pres Obama congratulate Alshafka for getting rid from the tyrant.during the meeting an attempt of using a donkey pilled up with explosives caused death of 10 civilians outside the green area.foreign minister???? ???? declared that FBI evidence is that the donkey was from Kardaha (DNA),pointing fingers at Assad responsibility.

-Thousands of salafi demonstrators are outside ??????church demanding the release of 17 years old Christian sister who have joint Islam and was being held hostage by the church.sources told aljazera that ????was in love with ????and was planning to Mary him.salafi were caring swords and started to burn the church.Mr??? ?????came to the seen and met with ????.she insisted on changing here religion but changed here mind and now wants to mary ????(feda).16peope got killed.salafi were so happy and carried Fedaa on there shoulders .the person carrying Fedaa got ruptured disc and was taken by ambulance.Primeminister ????? ?????declared that all 16 are ???? he gave the ruptured disc person and Soso the national freedom medal.The chief of the army col ????? ???? stated that he will subject all church worshippers to military trials for burning there church.???? ??????? Alaroor decided to build a mosque at the place of the church.

May 18th, 2011, 11:52 am

 

Atassi said:

The areas re-opened now are the Dabaln and Gota .. due to the fact the security apparatus are threatening them and taking names. I clearly remember in 1980 when the security forced the shop owners to reopen , otherwise, they broke the locks and opened the stores for them .. very bad memories indeed “ Gahzi Kannan was the boss at that time”…

May 18th, 2011, 11:54 am

 

Joshua said:

I am sorry about the insults that have been cropping up among commentators. I will erase them and will ban Aldendeshe, but do hope that we can return to proper discourse about such important matters as the future of Syria. Thanks, Joshua

May 18th, 2011, 12:09 pm

 

atassi said:

????? ?????? ???? ???????? ?????? ?????? ?????? ????????? ??????:
1- ?????? ??????? ????? ?????
2- ??????? ???? ??????
3-??????? ???? ????
4-??????? ???????? ???? ?????
5-??????? ???? ???? ???? ??????
6-?????? ????????? ???????? ???? ?????
7-?????? ??????? ??? ?????? ???
8-???????? ???? ????????
9- ?????? ???????? ??? ?????? ???
10-??????? ??????? ???? ???
11- ??????? ????? ??????
12-??????? ????? ?????
13- ??????? ???? ????
14-?????? ??????? ???? ??????
15-?????? ??? ??????
16- ????? ???? ????????
17-??????? ???? ?????
18-?????? ??????? ????? ??????
19-??????? ???????? ???????? ???? ??????
20-??????? ??? ??? ??????
21-??????? ???? ??????
22-??????? ???? ????????
23- ??????? ???? ?????
24-??????? ???? ??????
25-????? ???? ???? ??????
26- ?????? ??????? ??????? ????? ????
27-????? ????? ???????
28-???????? ???? ??????
29-??????? ????? ??????
30-?????? ??????? ???? ????? ?????? ?????
31-?????? ??????? ???? ??? ????? ????
32-??????? ???? ??????
33-??????? ????? ????? ??????
34- ????? ???? ??????
35-?????? ??????? ???? ????? ?????
36-?????? ???? ???
37-?????? ??????? ???? ????
38-?????? ??????? ????? ????? ????
39-?????? ??????? ???? ???????
40-?????? ??????? ??? ??????
41-???????? ???? ?????
42-?????? ??????? ??????? ???? ???? ?????
43-?????? ??????? ???? ???? ?????
44-??????? ??? ???? ????
45-????? ??? ????? ???? ??????
46-????? ??????? ??????? ???? ???????
47-???????? ? ?????? ????? ??????
48-?????? ??????? ???? ????
49-?????? ??????? ???? ????
50-??????? ????? ????
51-??????? ???? ??????
52- ?????? ??????? ???? ????
53-???????? ? ??????? ???? ????????
54-??????? ??????? ????? ??????
55-?????? ? ?????? ??????? ???? ?????
56- ??????? ????? ????
57-??????? ??? ?????? ??????

I don’t See any names with ASSAD references !! my guess~~^& not good for the job and he got fired by the people

May 18th, 2011, 12:05 pm

 

why-discuss said:

Atassi

Are you saying that the syrians in Homs are not courageous enough to stand united to the threats? I though they were all risking their life under the bullet of the security officers.
There is always an excuse to low turnout, low strike etc.. The fear factor.. etc… Come on, the Syrians in majority are not following the opposition aim, they want better living conditions first and the young want jobs!
By the way do you know that 45% of young under 25 are out of work in Spain… Demonstrations are starting. I think Syria is better!

May 18th, 2011, 12:12 pm

 

Syrian Knight said:

Joshua Landis banning a pro-government user while ignoring the radical Islamists. How… expected.

May 18th, 2011, 12:15 pm

 

Joshua said:

All I ask is that comments stay away from insults and incitement or boring repetition. Adding content is the key to a good comment section. I am happy to have people pro and anti-gov arguments. Unlike most of the facebook pages, SC does not censure based on opinion or content. JL

May 18th, 2011, 12:28 pm

 

JAD said:

Dear Attassi,
“That what the Syrians need, a peaceful actions, and a peaceful reactions”
I totally agree.

Dear Abughassan,
I also agree with you regarding the dialog, I was calling for a national dialog many weeks ago, however, the most important base needed to start the dialog is (UNITY), the regime is already united but the oppositions, the individuals and any other political party out there in the street are not and this is one of the deadly mistake for them.
They need to get organized first, they need to have some control on their people in the street so they can come to the table ready and protected with those who support them.
That needs time, at least couple months to be ready to come out as one with a respectable and representable figure, (Kilo, Sara…ets) they are very respected individuals but they only represent themselves and the mistake is that until today, they are not seriously looking on organizing anything real. Calling for protests and strikes when you don;t have anyone to represent you is doomed to fail, they heavily depend on religion but religion as your only resource to depend on is also bound to fail when you don’t fortify it with rational and modern political ideas and visions that suits our ear and suites the whole society not small part of it.
I second your call for people to stay out of the street at least until they get organized and unify their demands either through forming a political party that speaks about them or through an open organized meeting and round tables in public or even on FB until they bring a whitepaper about their demands and their plans for the future of Syria.
Other than that, it seems that the Regime and the MB are going to share the prize that came out of this movement and we all lose any chance of a new, democratic and strong Syria.

May 18th, 2011, 12:15 pm

 

Abughassan said:

The list has some good names but otherwise I will personally consider it a joke for a number of reasons.I am not trying to ridicule the idea but I do not want to daydream and lie to myself.I am particularly amused by the inclusion of seven sheikhs and few more sheikhs in disguise. The mix of religion and politics is toxic and must be rejected.religious people have the same right as secular syrians to run for office but not under the name of MB or any other religious party.

May 18th, 2011, 12:16 pm

 

Aldendeshe said:

Landis, shove it, and your kids blog, I told you …Lack of horses what the Eskimos did. I said all that want to say and it is over. LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSERS- I can use fake name but I am getting busy with other matters, so shove it.

May 18th, 2011, 12:20 pm

 

JAD said:

Attassi,
It seems that you didn’t see 27-????? ????? ???????.
Seriously!! You want 3r3our to be there next to Kilo, Sara and Haj Saleh.

May 18th, 2011, 12:27 pm

 
 

Souri333 (formerly Souri) said:

Obama is going to escalate against Assad tomorrow, and Assad is escalating too. We are heading to an open conflict. Everything can happen, especially if the US starts de-legitimizing Assad. Is the US ready for a war in the region? De-legitimizing Assad is a quick way to regional war.

May 18th, 2011, 12:28 pm

 

JAD said:

Souri333
No demonstration for any reason is permitted tomo:

????? ???????? :
???? ???????? ??? ?? ?????? ????? ?????? ????? ??? ????????? ?????? ?? ??? ?? ???????? ??? ?? ?????

Where did you read that Obama will escalate?
There is nothing new on the ground happened in Syria today for ‘GOD’ to escalate, besides, if he ‘GOD’ de-legitimized Asad, how are they going to do any future negotiation with him when the stuck, besides, don’t they need out of safety reasons to withdraw their ambassador first?
In anyway, Obama is known for being a political coward, he bend over for Israel before and he will bend for the neocon again, nothing new

May 18th, 2011, 12:30 pm

 

JAD said:

It sounds that ‘GOD’ has more issues to deal with at home than Syria:

America to occupy Pakistan next?

GOP 2012 hopeful Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) thinks U.S. troops will soon be on the ground for an occupation of Pakistan — and he said so on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” Wednesday morning.

Paul called America’s relationship with Pakistan “an impossible situation,” where the U.S. hailed both its friendship with and suspicion of the country.

“I think we are going to be in Pakistan, I think that’s going to be our next occupation, and I fear it,” Paul said. “It’s ridiculous. I think our foreign policy is such we don’t need to be doing this.”

Paul said he had no inside information on Congress authorizing or ordering troops to invade Pakistan. He simply said based on U.S. history, he wouldn’t be surprised to see further U.S. involvement there.

“Right now, Pakistan is a big problem,” he said. “We have created a civil war there, and the fact that we go over there and we violate their security and the people rebel against the government because they see their government as being a puppet of the American government, so it’s total chaos and I’m afraid, and I hope I’m absolutely wrong, but I’m afraid we’ll be in Pakistan trying to occupy that country, and it will probably be very unsuccessful.”

In the weeks since President Barack Obama announced that Navy SEALs had killed al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, Paul has said that he would not have given the go-ahead for the mission.

“I think the real tragedy of this is that we didn’t get him 10 years ago when we could have and should have,” he said.

Earlier this month, Paul supported an ultimately failed resolution to bring the troops home from Afghanistan beginning in July.

Data from a new Gallup poll released Tuesday night shows that while Paul enjoys high name recognition — 76 percent among Republicans, trailing only former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. However, despite his name recognition and popularity with the tea party, the poll shows Paul is not viewed favorably by Republican voters.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/05/18/ron-paul-u-s-may-try-to-occupy-pakistan/

May 18th, 2011, 12:45 pm

 

Souri333 (formerly Souri) said:

First, the US cannot occupy Pakistan because it has nukes as far as I know.

Second, there is news by an unnamed American official that Obama is going to sanction Assad personally. There are also rumors that Obama is going to withdraw the ambassador.

May 18th, 2011, 12:58 pm

 

American said:

If Syria tries to go to war it will be defeated quicker than Saddam. Apparently Israel can cross into Syria at any moment undetected and blow stuff up like it did to Syria’s secret nuclear reactor. Trust me the last thing the Syrian regime needs is another war where they are defeated…again. Any talk of war is crazy for Syria.

May 18th, 2011, 1:07 pm

 

norman said:

Sanctions from the US on president Assad and six others,

May 18th, 2011, 1:12 pm

 

Nour said:

Norman,

Big deal. Everyone knows the US government is hypocritical and these sanctions won’t have much effect on Assad anyway.

May 18th, 2011, 1:17 pm

 

Aboud said:

I’ve never seen the family name spelled that way (ALDENDESHE). It’s either Dandachi or Dandashi or even Dandashy, but I’ve never seen ALDENDESHE. Do a Facebook search and see if you can come up with one Syrian or Lebanese called DENDESHE.

More than half of Homs was closed today. No one dared close in the main Dublan area, but Jorat al Shayah and the area around the old clock were shut down. The strike was called on very short notice and people responded.

For the past month regime supporters have been claiming that the revolution has winded down. And yet every week, more and more army units are deployed to more and more towns and cities. Wishful thinking, just like the comments daydreaming about a Syrian military reconquest of the Golan Heights. When the regime and its supporters start living in the real world, only then can they be engaged in a dialogue, national or otherwise.

May 18th, 2011, 1:20 pm

 

atassi said:

Abughassan

Thank you for your thought …I agree, They should not mix the religion and politics and must be rejected in any future reconciliations talk, They should be included to unite the people only

May 18th, 2011, 1:26 pm

 

Amir in Tel Aviv said:

Kandahar,

Your news from the future are great!! Keep it coming!!
.

May 18th, 2011, 1:27 pm

 

JAD said:

Souri333,
Sanctioning the President is not a news anymore, Europeans are planning to do that on Monday.
I personally don’t think withdrawing the ambassador will look good for ‘GOD’ after he sent him back against the majority of republicans and it will defiantly be used against him, I think he is stuck and limited in his actions, even if he did withdraw the ambassador that wont be as far as de-legitimizing Assad but I might be also wrong since I’m no politician It’s nothing but speculations from my side.

May 18th, 2011, 1:29 pm

 

Amir in Tel Aviv said:

The uprise is alive and kicking asses. Now on Google Maps –
Yesterday’s events. It’s perhaps small gatherings, but it’s all over.
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps/ms?hl=en&gl=uk&ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=212070240894988529972.0004a376beea2977889c7&source=embed
.

May 18th, 2011, 1:33 pm

 

Souri333 (formerly Souri) said:

I think “DENDESHE” is a phonetic spelling. The name is indeed pronounced this way in Homsi.

May 18th, 2011, 1:52 pm

 

Souri333 (formerly Souri) said:

Khaled Mashaal was coordinating with the leadership in Damascus today. Prepare for the heat in Palestine and the Golan.

May 18th, 2011, 1:56 pm

 

Abughassan said:

Many of the names on the list share a common philosophy and may serve as a nucleus for a future party. I meant no disrespect to religious figures but for the sake of the country they should not be allowed to form parties or campaign using religious slogans.
US as expected is increasing pressure on Bashar but stopped short of asking him to leave,the message was reform now or leave,however, I still think it should be up to Syrians inside Syria,not the expats or Facebook dudes,to decide who leads the country and what type of government they want.Bashar,in my humble opinion,should not seek a third term but I am against removing him by force and against the use of violence by any Syrian against fellow Syrians.

May 18th, 2011, 2:05 pm

 

majedkhaldoon said:

Medvedev Statement ,clearly left the door open for change of position in the future,and the american decision to sanction Assad himself and Farooq AlShar3,and Prime minister, is important ,it represents ultimatum,the next step is for president Obama to say, Bashar must leave.leaving him with no future,it is hard to overcome such step.

May 18th, 2011, 2:10 pm

 

Mina said:

The sanctions and the different diktats on Turkey (see their position on Libya which also changed more than once) are part of a containmnent policy towards Iran. It’s not completely untrue that a peaceful Iraq would help everyone’s economy in the region.
I believe these sanctions are meant to help the regime buying time while pretending to the public that strong words have been pronounced. The only real message is containment.
Apart from Robert Gates who was against the Libyan intervention and will quit on June 30th, we have Mitchell who may have resigned because of the Israeli influence in the administration.
http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/12322.aspx

Is Obama left with hawks only?

May 18th, 2011, 2:21 pm

 

Souri333 (formerly Souri) said:

The way Qatar and its emir are being attacked on Rami Makhlouf’s TV is really stupid and unwise.

May 18th, 2011, 2:22 pm

 

JAD said:

Adding Adel Safar and Farouq Alshar’ is stupid, what did they do to be sanctioned?

Who are the other three guys on ‘GOD’s list and how influential are they?
??? ???? ?????
??? ?????? ?????
???? ??? ?????

May 18th, 2011, 2:38 pm

 

Souri333 (formerly Souri) said:

#299,

Excuse me, but this analysis that we keep reading in Western articles is nonsense. Assad is not going to accept to be “contained” like Saddam was. He is not going to accept to be weakened or isolated. He is going to set the region on fire. He can do it.

A third intifada will be a good start. This will greatly disrupt American plans in the region. America’s allies will become much weaker in fornt of Iran and Syria.

May 18th, 2011, 2:42 pm

 

atassi said:

??? : ???? ???? ??? ??? ??? ?????? ?? ????
New Homsi slogan ?

May 18th, 2011, 2:53 pm

 

Shai said:

Just putting in a quick comment…

It is wishful thinking to expect any state in the region to become a democracy overnight (even the only true democratic elections that have taken place, amongst the Palestinians, didn’t lead to a democracy.)

While no legitimacy can be given to killing demonstrators, pushing the Assad regime too far into a corner could lead to even less-desired consequences, such as war. If Assad feels that he is now attacked also from the outside, he may try to regain popular support by “proving” that America (and Israel) are now trying to humiliate the Syrian nation, and that Syria and the Syrian people must fight to regain the respect they deserve.

Assad could claim that it is now no longer about freedom and reform, but also about Syria’s place amongst the nations. And if The West is not only NOT helping Syria regain its territory back, but now aims to humiliate it, that the only option left is for Syria to take the initiative and force a new reality. “Even if ‘we’ (all Syrians) cannot win this war, we will prove that we are worthy of respect. And we will fight for it…”

It might be Assad’s last avenue – to force Syrians to rally behind him. Only war against Israel (and the expected Israeli retribution upon Syria and its chief allies) could unite all Syrians.

The U.S. should carefully consider the potential consequences of a “small” regional war, that could quickly deteriorate into something far worse. An all-out war that includes Israel, Syria, Iran, HA, Hamas, and perhaps others, could easily lead to a new global energy crisis, and may plunge world economies into long depression. We do not have a proven record in our ability to “control” or “localize” conflict in our region.

Even though it isn’t easy, the Obama Administration should try to play out some of these scenarios, and make sure that it doesn’t push Assad too far against the wall. Syria is not Libya.

May 18th, 2011, 2:54 pm

 

Akbar Palace said:

When 40 Years becomes “overnight” NewZ

It is wishful thinking to expect any state in the region to become a democracy overnight (even the only true democratic elections that have taken place, amongst the Palestinians, didn’t lead to a democracy.)*

Shai,

You forgot the asterisk:

*except Israel

May 18th, 2011, 3:06 pm

 

Shai said:

Akbar,

The keyword you missed is “become”.

Israel did not “become” a democracy, it was born that way. And if you consider that Jews have an automatic Right-of-Return, while non-Jews do not, then you must admit it is an “interesting democracy”.

May 18th, 2011, 3:11 pm

 

Souri333 (formerly Souri) said:

Israel is an aggressive expansionist racist-segregation state. It is much worse than the former apartheid.

Syria is greatly more democratic than Israel. There is very little discrimination against minorities in Syria. I don’t know how a sane person can even compare Israel to Syria. Israel has cleansed Palestine of many of its native inhabitants and enslaved the rest. What a democracy.

Israel CAN become a democracy if every native Palestinian is given exactly the same rights as the Jewish settlers, including of course the right of return.

May 18th, 2011, 3:22 pm

 

Souri333 (formerly Souri) said:

Great news:

http://www.tayyar.org/Tayyar/News/PoliticalNews/ar-LB/russia-israel-ed-722635433.htm

It is sad that Syria won’t be able to capitalize on it to buy some advanced weapons because of the current crisis.

May 18th, 2011, 3:39 pm

 

Mina said:

Sury 302,
I was speaking of the containment of Iran. And for Iraq, it is the same bargain as offered by the neocons ten years ago: let us do whatever we want in Iraq (including Scientologists, Protestant sects, oil, …) and we will deliver the Palestinian state.
Maybe the same guys are still working in the same offices? What a democracy!

May 18th, 2011, 4:19 pm