We’ve been warning from day 1 that those Sunnah terrorists Islamists will eradicate all minorities in Syria. Day after day their true skin is showing to the point of no shame or need to hide it.

We said and we’re saying again and again, Assad is the only protector and savior of minorities in Syria.

In Assad we believe.

32. Jassim Ali said:

blah balh blah

By your name I know you’re from Houran ya3ni 7ourani. A typical non sense coming from a Sunnah terrorist supporter.

Are you a refugee in Sweden? or hiding somewhere with the Bedouins?

You’re not welcome here so just piss off for good.

Thawrajiyyeh are in denial, it is not only Nusra, Isis and their cousins that are committing atrocities in Syria, rebels that are called moderate have killed thousands of innocent civilians and I have no doubt that they will use jets and helicopters to bomb civilian areas if they could.
This is what SOHR reported on rebels murderous attacks on Aleppo civilians today;
?????? ??? – ?????? ?????? ????? ???????:: ????? ??? 34 ????? ?? ?? ??? 12 ????? ?5 ??????? ??? ??????? ????? ???? ???? ???? ???? ?? 300 ????? ?????? ???????? ?????? ??????? ????? ?????? ???????? ??? ????? ?? ????? ??????? ??????? ???????? ??????? ?????? ?????? ????????? ????????? ???????????? ????????? ???????? ?????? ???? ?? ???? ????? ????? ?????? ??????? ?????? ???? ?????? ?????? ??? ??? ??? ?????? ???? ??????? ???? ???????? ???? ???? ??? 190 ???? ?? ????? ??????? ??????? ???? ????????? ?????? ?? ???? ????? ?????? ??????? ???????? ?? ????? ???
34 murdered civilians half of them were women and children.
Keep lying by calling it a revolution and do not forget to repeat that in front of a mirror.

After the family clan tried to confront the Tunisian Nusrah leader in his attempt to wall off the property, the Nusrah thug tried to arrest those resisting him, and who were unarmed. A skirmish ensued and weapons were drawn and grabbed, and two Nusrah thugs were killed and also 3 or 4 Druze were killed. Then the Nusrah thugs went on a rampage and killed another 20 unarmed Druze civilians as collective punishment.

These are the death squads that Islamic Erdogan is sending arms and money to, with the approval of Obama, himself a semi-Islamic.

But before the Asshatists gloat on this tragic incident, it should be noted that Assad did the same kind of massacres when people resisted his fascist rule. He set the ground rules for massacring people who disagree. And now the anti-west leftist thugs and hypocrites here who support Assad’s death squads, are gloating and condemning something that has been going on routinely for half a century in Syria.

Once Assad capitulates, Jebhat al Nusrah will join ISIS, become part of it, and with ISIS start fighting the rebels (and not the SAA).

So anyone here classifying Nusrah as part of the FSA or the revolution is wrong. The rebels will boot Nusrah from Idlib and send them to Turkey, just like today where the ISIS terrorists are all fleeing to Turkey in Tel Abyad.

#3 Ghufran you are wrong again.

The rebels have told Assad to stop barrel bombing civilians, or they will strike back proportionately.

Since neither Obama or the UN wants to stop the barrel bombing and shelling, what other thing can the rebels do to stop the indiscriminate massacre of neighborhoods, at about 100 children, women, and men a day by Assad, through aerial bombardment or shelling, or Scuds and Sarin in the past.

How do you suggest to put pressure on Assad to stop his indiscriminate shelling?

Besides, Assad is known to kill his own people when push comes to shove. He experimented his first few Sarin attacks on his own supporters (all west of Aleppo). It is not beyond him to shell his own villages. After all he shells villages and targets civilians whose people have nothing to do with the war.

The Alawites are now blinking. Why did it take them so long? Because they now have to give up parasiting on the rest of Syria and will be treated equally.

Reports consistently indicate that Alawite families are encouraging their children to leave home if they are of conscription age. This was especially obvious as the rebels edged closer to Alawite heartlands in Hama. Multiple sources report that Alawite representatives from several towns in the Ghab plain in Hama have reached out to the rebels and claimed that they are not tied to the regime.

I have never seen the Syria Comment list the names and photos of the Syrian conflict victims… it most likely a phasing tactics by Joshua &company aiming to attack and demonize a group.. I know for fact Joshua &company don’t give a $%# for our Druze brothers. the agendas are clear in this post. another low point being triggered

The Kurds are getting ready to establish
an independent or semi independent state in Syria after they did the same in Iraq. They have US support and they maintain good relations with Israel and they, like most people, realized that Arabs are unable to join the 21st century. News of ethnic cleansing in areas under Kurds control have been coming for some time now.
The Middle East today is a custom made shoe that fits Israel’s feet.
??? ????? ?? ????? ?????

A working group of intelligence officers of NATO top-level materials studied massacre Qalb Lawza, Idlib, and took it to the “asymmetric war” or “low intensity conflict” in the classification of the Pentagon. Another name – “the war on the cheap”, which will be distributed to the world.

West in Syria now solves the problem of dismantling and destruction of cultural and public spaces. Syria is facing now the task to preserve the remaining capacity of Syria, and also want to save the Syrian people do not turn Syria “into the wild field” and the basis for the conduct of irregular warfare.

It is important to stop the further destruction of Syrian geospace, so the first step is important to keep the impact of geopolitical allies, since Syria is “a balancer of Middle East relations,” controlled by the West (or choose it controlled destruction on suitable for itself conditions)

Critically important in the current situation it becomes the ability to quickly adapt to change, to combine the existing policy instruments at the disposal of new and unfamiliar way for the enemy.

#8 — Kurds are not engaged in systematic cleansing. Southern Kurdistan in Iraq has welcomed all the minorities including Arabs who used to persecute the Kurds. At this time, Western Kurdistan is a war zone, and you can expect misdeeds to happen, until they have a chance to establish the rule of law.

It is funny that Arabs are responsible for Islam, responsible for massacres, responsible for ethnic cleansing, responsible for national socialism Baathism, and responsible for the sorry state in all Islamic countries, and then when one Kurd mistreats one Arab, they are all up and condemning others. But they never see the evil that they have brought to this world, in particular Mohammad and his childish religion Islam that lacks theology and lacks justice.

As you say, all people have by now realized that Arabs have no will to establish civil society. They jump from one fascism to another type of fascism or communism. The most unbalanced and unstable people on earth. Kurds have the right to secede and that is the only way they can get a life. And of course now you will see the Islamic rebels turning against the Kurds, and try to get that little piece of desert back (Rojava), out of envy and desire to dominate and parasite.

Tel Abyad, originally a Kurdish city that was destroyed by Hafez Assad, is now back in the hands of the Kurds. The FSA assisted the Kurds in pushing out ISIS terrorists who used to work for Assad (in Iraq) and now cooperate with Assad. After all, a large number of Syrian and Iraqi Baarhists are running ISIS. You never see ISIS fighting Assad or Hezbollah. ISIS only attacks the secular and semi-Islamist rebels – not even Jebhat al Nusra.

The last line of contact with Islamist Erdogan in Turkey east of the Euphrates has fallen, and ISIS has become isolated.

I will now not be surprised if Assad and SAA hand over Deir Ezzor, Hasakah, and Qamishlo to ISIS. That is exactly what they did in Palmyra.

The Kurds have now officially separated from Syria and have established Western Kurdistan. Arab Baathists tried so hard to ethnically cleanse the Kurds. But failed miserably. Now is the payback time.

It is unclear if they want to link Afrin to Kobane.

A well written article by Mr. Al Tamimi. Thank you.

12. KAZEMI

You persian troll, make us all a favor and just disappear. We don’t have time for your empty useless and unresourceful comments.

Thanks for the author for the article, but I wish that the author may includes other facts about what happen here in our village s of jabal-alsommak.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/16/world/middleeast/israeli-helped-inspire-us-russia-weapons-deal-with-assad-memoir-says.html?mabReward=A3&module=WelcomeBackModal&contentCollection=Middle%20East&region=FixedCenter&action=click&src=recg&pgtype=article
Israeli Helped Inspire U.S.-Russia Weapons Deal With Assad, Memoir Says

JERUSALEM — The American-Russian deal that pressured President Bashar al-Assad of Syria to abandon his stockpile of chemical weapons two years ago was encouraged by an Israeli minister, according to a new memoir by a former Israeli ambassador to Washington.

The government minister, Yuval Steinitz, confirmed in an interview Monday night that he had proposed the deal that became a signature diplomatic achievement for the Obama administration and damaged President Obama’s international credibility because he abandoned a promise to strike Syria if Mr. Assad used chemical weapons against civilians. Mr. Steinitz said he and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had not revealed their role for fear “somebody will say it’s an Israeli idea, Israeli conspiracy, maybe it’s a reason to stop it.”
Continue reading the main story
Related Coverage

Traces of Chemicals in Syria Add to Pressure on Obama to Enforce a ‘Red Line’ MAY 13, 2015
Secretary of State John Kerry and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov of Russia, right, shook hands on Saturday after making statements following meetings regarding Syria in Geneva.
U.S. and Russia Reach Deal to Destroy Syria’s Chemical ArmsSEPT. 14, 2013

The story was first reported Monday by Bloomberg View, which related the account by the former ambassador, Michael B. Oren, whose book, “Ally: My Journey Across the American-Israeli Divide,” is scheduled for publication by Random House next week. Mr. Oren wrote that the deal “stunned me in unprecedented ways” because he believed Mr. Obama was “an ideologue” on nonproliferation with an “affinity for the Middle East,” which “should have translated into a one-time lightning strike against vital Syrian facilities.”
Photo
Yuval Steinitz Credit Remy De La Mauviniere/Associated Press

Paternity for the historic disarmament plan has been variously assigned to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia; Secretary of State John Kerry; Lord David Owen, a former member of the British Parliament; and a Polish foreign minister, Radoslaw Sikorski. What appeared to spring out of the blue after a seemingly offhand comment by Mr. Kerry had in fact grown out of a year of conversations between Mr. Putin and Mr. Obama.

Israel, though, has steadfastly tried to stay out of the fray regarding Syria’s four-year civil war. Many Israeli leaders and analysts were deeply disillusioned by Mr. Obama’s turnabout on his promised strike, though Mr. Steinitz said Monday of the disarmament deal, “What was achieved is the best possible result.”

The minister’s account is one of accidental diplomacy. After a radio interview in which Mr. Steinitz said Israel had proof that the Assad government was responsible for the chemical attack near Damascus in August 2013, a Russian diplomat asked to see him. Before entering the meeting, Mr. Steinitz and his ministry director, Yosef Kuperwasser, discussed Mr. Obama’s promised attack on Syria.

“We said to ourselves, ‘What use will it be if 50 or 100 Tomahawks will land on half-empty bases in Syria?’ ” the minister recalled. “And if it will be a one-time strike, it won’t deter use of chemical weapons.

“Then it occurred to us,” he added. “The best thing will be Russia and the United States will collaborate together in order to dismantle the chemical stockpiles.”

It seemed like a win-win-win-win-win. “For the Russians it will be good; all the world mocked them for supporting a brutal dictator who uses chemical weapons,” Mr. Steinitz explained. “For the Americans it will be good because the real aim of Obama is to ensure there will be no further use of chemical weapons; this is much better than just a strike. Assad will not be able to resist because he is so dependent on Russia.”

“The Syrian people will not suffer any more chemical attacks,” he added. “And Israel will get rid of a very serious strategic threat that existed since the 1970s.”

The Russian, whom Mr. Steinitz did not name, asked to see the Israeli intelligence that the minister had mentioned on the radio. Mr. Steinitz demurred and offered his idea instead. The Russian took notes. “He said, ‘This is very serious; I’m going to deliver it today.’ ”

Realizing he did not “ask any permission from the prime minister and we have to inform our American friends,” Mr. Steinitz rushed to Mr. Netanyahu’s office. Within a day or two, he recalled, “the Americans and the Russians began to promote this idea together, and we were sitting aside.”

“They never asked if they can give us credit, and we never asked them to give us credit,” he added. “Until today, it was a secret.”

In fact, Mr. Steinitz had no idea Mr. Oren had included the episode in his book, or that Bloomberg had written about it, until Mr. Oren, a newly elected member of Israel’s Parliament, told him about it during a parliamentary session Monday night. “I was very surprised it was published,” Mr. Steinitz said.

Syria,

What even makes this NYT article by Judy Rodhoren newsworthy?

Israel had a vested interest in making Syria free of chemical weapons. Is that a surprise?

The vast majority of the problems currently facing the United States in various parts of the world, from Egypt to Pakistan, from Brazil to Afghanistan, as a result of their own foolish, adventurist actions, largely related to the implementation of the strategy of “controlled chaos” (which also can be called a “clearing economic Space”). That is Today, huge financial resources and effort spent on the fight against its own mistakes and miscalculations.

Jesus, Alan! Will you give it a rest? By now, anyone on this message board who cares knows you have a hair up your patootie about the Yankees and the Jews! We get it! Now can you please change the channel and talk about something else?

Memo to KAZEMI

The very fact that Jammie despises you makes me think that you’re on to something. Keep posting!

#18 El Chino —

Jamal refuses to follow my advice. Please talk some sense into him. I have advised him to purchase a pair of good quality running shoes so that when they come to pick him up in Saboura, he can make a sprint for the Lebanese border. I would like to also tell Jamal that unlike some unsubstantiated reports circulated by the nefarious world-devouring CIA, there are no mines planted on the border. He can cross the border wherever he chooses, and not be concerned about mines. Finally that he should be kind enough and make sure that his home is well stocked so that when it is confiscated, the new owner will feel at home from the very start. Arab hospitality is world famous.

Jamal, Ali, Wanna-Be, Sick Alawi, Troubled Sunni, Waste of space, Non-sense, http://www.JokeYouNot.bs:

1- Are you trying to impose yourself as the bully boy of this website, and decide who’s allowed to post or not?

You’re definitely not a bully and if back in the days people used to fear you that was not because of you, it was just because of your father’s position (was it in the presidential palace?). You are more of a joke and if you tried to have a walk in any street of Damascus without your tinted car and your dad bodyguards you would have been beaten badly.

2- If you are so patriot why don’t you denounce the Canadian citizenship and go back to join the National Defense Forces?

My view is that all people who whorship a politician should be sent to the psychiatric hospital or lunatic asylum but if that worshipped politician is a dictator then the idiots worshipping him should be sentenced to death penalty after trial. In their gravestone should be written ¨THIS IDIOT BELIEVED IN ASSAD¨.

20. Nadia said: (Fadya)

What the hell? How dare you? who are you to come and lecture me or talk about my life style.

You are a liar and traitor to your cause, you’re one of those cancer cells called “liberal Alawites”. You are joking yourself if you think Sunnah will be nice to you if you were open minded or tolerant to their sh!t. You’re empty like a hollow watermelon and that’s why you’re Fadya not Nadia. If you are brave enough identify yourself and let’s see how the not bully boy will react. I’m really angry now and I’m warning you things get ugly when I’m angry.

21. SANDRO LOEWE said:

(In their gravestone should be written ¨THIS IDIOT BELIEVED IN ASSAD¨.)

In your gravestone will will write “Assad stomped on this terrorist”

Ali-boy why are you loosing it? Do you want us to call your father for some help?

So when will you denounce your dual citizenship and go back to ??? ????? ????? ?????

Akbar,
If this article bothered so much you should contact The nytimes where actually millions of readers can see it,not some blog where even it owner don’t bother to follow it anymore. here is the nytimes address for you.
[email protected]
Although this article raise some questions.
Why the games when John Kerry acted as if it was a spontaneous suggestion from a journalist to eliminate the CW in exchange for not attacking Assad.while it was a done deal all along?

If good guy Sheikh al-Yaqoubi explains al-Nusrah is led by dirty dangerous dogs with no place in the future of Syria, well that’s it. They ARE.

AN’s self-styled leader al-Julani said earlier in that junk Al-Jazeera propaganda piece that they wouldn’t kill Druze:

https://joshualandis.com/blog/sheikh-muhammad-al-yaqoubi-responds-to-al-julanis-al-jazeera-interview/

JAMAL #22, it was your nasty mental furniture, not your lifestyle that NADIA was discussing above.

This is your lifestyle(previously described and never denied: in the basement crouched over a screen, wearing dirty underwear, waist-deep in a litter of junk food packaging and empty soda cans. Avoiding doing your homework, looking for “fun” and cheap entertainment online by mocking what is happening to Syrians.

Gamal Abdul Naser:
The same party that is arming Israel (with weapons) is arming Saudi Arabia, and those weapons will not be used against Israel, they will be used against Arabs !!

But Hezbollah is feeling trapped as a result of the Syrian conflict, and cannot end its involvement without direction from the Supreme Leader in Iran, because according to the wilayat al-faqih (Guardianship of the Jurist) system that Hezbollah is part of, all decisions of engagement in war can only be taken by the wali al-faqih. As long as Iran continues to see value in supporting the Assad regime militarily, Hezbollah will remain on the ground in Syria.

Read more at: http://carnegie-mec.org/2015/06/05/hezbollah-s-ascent-and-descent/i9ko?mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRojvaXPZKXonjHpfsX66%2BssX6Gg38431UFwdcjKPmjr1YYCSsB0aPyQAgobGp5I5FEIQ7XYTLB2t60MWA%3D%3D

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

27. Ghufran said:

(Gamal Abdul Naser:
The same party that is arming Israel)

I totally agree, and thanks for calling me “Gamal Abdul Naser” it’s an honor.

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

ROTFLOL

27. GHUFRAN said:

Gamal Abdul Naser:
The same party that is arming Israel (with weapons) is arming Saudi Arabia, and those weapons will not be used against Israel, they will be used against Arabs !!

Wrong again. Most likely Saudi arms, if ever used, will be against Khamenei and the IRGC.

8. GHUFRAN said:

The Middle East today is a custom made shoe that fits Israel’s feet.

Typical useless backward Arab way of thinking. You think that Arabs have no agency, no will, no existence, nothing. And that their destiny is always in the hand of foreigners. That all of Middle East is reduced to Israel and oil.

You Arabs don’t want freedom and economic and political progress. You have nothing better to do than to uselessly sit at home and cafes and complain about Israel and demand entitlements, and when things dont go your way turn to violence.

You are the laughing stock of the world community.

It is people like you Ghufran that result in Arabs remaining backward. Get a life, and for once point to the mirror, and not Israel.

22. JAMAL said:

If you are brave enough identify yourself and let’s see how the not bully boy will react. I’m really angry now and I’m warning you things get ugly when I’m angry.

Typical reaction of a Shabiha bully and thug – all bluster. Don’t you idiot know that there is nothing you can do to identify a person over the internet?

I hope the Canadian CSIS is intercepting your posts and at some point will come and pick you by your ears and expel you back to Saboura where your family will face justice pretty soon. What does your father do in the Presidential palace? Is he the groundskeeper? The toilet cleaner? Shoe polisher?

Just remember, all national socialists will die like a dog. Milosevic died like a dog in a cage. Ghaddafi, Assad’s best friend, got raped first before slowly dying in the back of a truck. And Karadzic and Mladic are in cages living like dogs. Bashar Assad is next. His wife and children will have the pleasure to see him hanged like a dog.

This incident shows how all minorities will be treated once all of Syra is “liberated”.

Habib, you mean the way the Alwaite treated Hama in 1982 or the way you treated your oppenents in Tadmer prison and the countless dungens of tortuer by your beloved Assads.

Were anyone killed there simply because they were Sunnis?

Were all Sunnis under government control forced to convert?

Was the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood a peaceful organisation?

If not, then please quit your nonsense.

Habib,

“Were anyone killed there simply because they were Sunnis?”

Are you freaking joking?

Yes yes and yes. They were murdered by the Alawis in the most horrendous way. I know that FIRST HAND. Eyes were gauged out. Children in middle and high school ages were killed without mercy. Pupils were reduced from 30 to 2 at times. Sawing machines were used to kill people. Please shut up and excuse my impoliteness here but there us no other way to express my outrage towards your ignorance of Hama massacre

And Habib,

Just as the sunmi’s learn about others sunni ( jihadis) atrocities and admitting it, Alawis need to learn and admit other Alawi’s atrocities if you ever want Syria back . I think acknowleging the Hama massacres and admitting the hatred and the monstrosity that took place in 1982 by the Alawis is the first step.

According to the matrix adjustment of consciousness, sects are used as a laboratory of the future government, which handled the possible courses of action.
People in contact with sects really become an instrument of forced degradation.
The variety of sects, attracting masses of people lead to the fact that these masses of people with such cult-core become bio-robots that are ready to fulfill in missions of the new government

It is a method of mind control, will and feelings of man – three manifestations of the soul, which is completely reproduced in transnational corporations!

JAMAL, your presence at Syriacomment is unifying views. You are showing us the way we do not want to follow and in this we the people DO agree.

39. TARA said:

Just as the sunmi’s learn about others sunni ( jihadis) atrocities and admitting it, Alawis need to learn and admit other Alawi’s atrocities if you ever want Syria back . I think acknowleging the Hama massacres and admitting the hatred and the monstrosity that took place in 1982 by the Alawis is the first step.

So well said, Tara.

40. ALAN said:

It is a method of mind control, will and feelings of man – three manifestations of the soul, which is completely reproduced in transnational corporations!

So deep man — hope you are in Colorado where what you are smoking is legal.

Yeah from what you say, it must be Halliburton. I have it from high authority that since Syria lacks oil and much of any raw materials, Halliburton is eyeing to exploit and steal goat dung from Syria, where it is abundant. The goat dung will be shipped through secret channels to California where there is a HUGE market for organic fertilizers. Blackwater Corporation also intends to exploit and steal sand from Syria to ship to California Silicon Valley to make computer chips. These greedy transnational corporations are re-shaping the Middle East to make a killing. And then they make us fight each other for freedom and tell us to build a real country for what? So they can come in and exploit our goat dung? So that Israel will not face a mighty Arab army and keep Golan heights? Estaqforellah. Gosh if us Arabs were not so smart discovering all these conspiracies by Israel, imagine how bad things would be.

“acknowleging the Hama massacres and admitting the hatred and the monstrosity that took place in 1982 by the Alawis is the first step.”

Hama massacre did not exist as such. There was a military coup which appropriately dealt with at the time. There’s no one tangible single evidence of it.

On the other hand, massacres committed by Sunnah against minorities in Syria are all over the media documented and recorded.

39. Tara said:

(… as the sunmi’s learn about others sunni ( jihadis) atrocities and admitting it ..)

I’m so happy that you started seeing the light and admitting the obvious. Next step is to denounce terrorism and come under the wing of government.

Where is Aymenn Jawad Al- Tammumi to publish the names and the picture ms of the victims of Assad’s latest chemical attack? This site is NOT balance. This is in my honest opinion Joshua and you simply are on the other side of humanity.

http://foreignaffairs.house.gov/hearing/hearing-assad-s-abhorrent-chemical-weapons-attacks

Nevertheless, we, the Syrian people, are reaching long and far to expose the regime for what it is: a despot that is killing his own people. Dr. Tannari did not arrive at the U.S. to witness in front of the congress on his own . It is the effort of tireless some and inshallah we shall prevail.

46. Tara said:

(It is the effort of tireless some and inshallah we shall prevail.)

And inshallah I want to have wings and spit fire like a dragon. Hahahah this inshallah does not do magic, and the time of miracles has gone for good.

In Assad YOU must trust.

Memo to Arab Refugees, Asylum Seekers and Other Assorted Bums Wanting Handouts

When you’re living in another country, safe and sound from barrel bombs and/or mandatory sharia, learn to speak the damn language. It won’t kill you to make the effort >>> http://www.thelocal.dk/20150615/4-out-of-10-refugees-fail-danish-language-test

Second Memo to the Same Damn Group (SDG).

Don’t desecrate the tomb of the host country’s national hero. How would you like it if a Dane urinated on Mohammed’s [PB Whatever] grave? >>> http://www.thelocal.dk/20150607/hans-christian-andersens-grave-defaced-with-graffiti

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

49. Ghufran :

????? ????

48. El Chino said:

(Memo to Arab Refugees, Asylum Seekers and Other Assorted Bums Wanting Handouts)

Deport them, ship them back home. Why do need these leaches to suck tax payers money? They don’t learn the language, they don’t eat your food, they don’t dress like you do, they don’t want to integrate, they’re only there for social welfare and passports.

Far out I walk in the streets and see them everywhere, they dress differently, they look differently, they look differently and most of them uneducated peasants from the Sunnah countrymen.

Kick them out and we will happily accept them back home to Syria. You know we never rejected a deportee.

Screw the refugees, deport the refugees.

38. Tara

So again, what is the proof this happened simply because they were Sunnis?

The Syrian government was and is majority Sunni, so are pro-government supporters. If it was about money, then Qatar would have bought them off long ago.

The government controls the areas with most Sunnis, and millions of Sunni refugees have been welcomed in Lattakia.

How many Syrian minorities are in the opposition again?

Assad is under more military strain than at any point in the four-year Syrian Civil War http://flip.it/o228o

El Chino says:

Don’t desecrate the tomb of the host country’s national hero. How would you like it if a Dane urinated on Mohammed’s [PB Whatever] grave?

How can you even compare a story writer Hans Christian Anderson to a mass murderer paedophile master assassin slave owner Prophet Mohammad (SAW)?

I would object to peeing on the grave of HCA, he was a decent man.

But I encourage peeing on the grave of Prophet Mohammad (SAW) because he killed so many people and then duped and brainwashed billions with greedy promises of heaven and virgins, so they would do his bidding and he would get to rule Arabia. The reasons a billion Muslims live in utter backwardness, poverty, and uncivil society is due to this inhuman megalomaniac charlatan and the bullshit stories he made up talking to an “angel” — There is no proof for angels and unicorns folks — these are simply ideas from primitive pre-enlightenment minds. And Mohammad as expected failed to provide evidence — just dreams he got when he went into epileptic shock. Now get on with your lives and stop killing each other to satisfy your silly god(s) or unicorns.

Just to quibble, 23 is not the full death toll. Comparing this list with another list of 27 names, I get 32-35 named victims, depending if any entries match less clearly (there’s a “son of”, etc.). That fits with the second list source (Ya Libnan)’s claim that the death toll was over 40, no exact number but 27 names. Another person says it’s 50, no source given but maybe. http://acloserlookonsyria.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Talk:Qalb_Lawzah_Massacre#Death_Toll

Otherwise, a great and useful piece, especially fleshing out the conversion claims. Very troubling and a bit confusing. So it’s not a sectarian massacre? Did the villagers have to ask JaN ok, how do we do a proper Sunni funeral now? Etc.

Some very silly comments here.

/”We have enough training sites and so forth. For now, we don’t have enough trainees to fill them,” U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter told a congressional hearing./

Pathetic!
U’ve lost the time because your ally (ISIS) and Al-Qaeda (?Al-Nousra Front) recruited everything possible!
Stop the nonsense

With the countless of massacres that Sunnis have suffered from by the blood soaked hands of the regime the site never dedicated a whole post to expose the crimes and publish the names and photos of the deceased. Should one understand that the lives of minorities are more important than that of Sunnis?

As for the previous post regarding Iran not being “sectarian”.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-33187850

I guess for the author the use of Afghans Shiites as pawns and canon fodder is not considered sectarian, nor the fact that Hizballah and Hashd watani are sectarian tools to further its own interests. Just more willing volunteers for the resistance… Hogwash!

If this article bothered so much you should contact The nytimes…

Syrian,

The article didn’t bother me. I don’t dispute the content. I just wonder why it’s newsworthy. It seems whenever and Israeli drops a pin, someone has to write about it. I’m glad the Israelis tried to get chemical weapons out of Assad’s hands. Aren’t you?

Meanwhile the Assad cheerleaders on this website apologize and excuse the countless murders, torture, violence and destruction from the Assad regime, yet, if an Israeli leader sneezes, rest assured the cheerleaders will beat their chests until they bleed. What gall!

Akbar.
When the NY times write anything about Syria then it is newsworthy,and when it wrote about the biggest and only chemical attack in the 21 century in the world then it’s the more newsworthy.
That broken red line by Obama was a huge turning point for the Syrian revolution it became a lot more radical when it became obvious that Obama is just the talk and no action leader.
Now I’m glad that is Isreal had a hand in getting rid of it because maybe Obama might have settled for less.
Israel has nothing to fear from Assad’s weapon arsenal, the 2 Assads had always intended to use those weapons to secure their rules against the Syrian people,
I’m sure Assad would have used the CW again had he still had it.So here,thank you Israel for accidentally saving Syrian lives.
And in the end this article was more for the regime supporters and one holier than thou commenter who still deny Assad’s use of the CW almost 2 years later still waiting on a UN report.

So much for the glorious holy warriors of the caliphate.

There are numerous reports of them shaving off their beards and melting into the crowds of refugees fleeing across the border into Turkey.

And they are now abandoning their local “wives” taken from the Syrian communities they invaded, leaving behind children they have fathered.

This is how it’s going to be. They won’t fight or stay loyal to their cruel idiotic cult when the real heat is on.

These cowardly sick fantasists are running away back home. There they will lie about ever being involved with ISIS and squeal about their “human rights” if their home governments treat them as terrorists.

A trickle now, watch it become a flood.

No matter how brutal you are and low you sink, the Assad regime lurks below you in a darker, deeper pit.

# Nusra statement on Druze village killings calling it ‘a mistake, perpetrators acted individually & will be punished’

– https://twitter.com/carolmalouf/status/609738898785198080

In contrast,

# Regime to this date has never acknowledged a massacre, apologized for it, or punished the perpetrators – https://twitter.com/augiedamous

A bit forgetful and confused about the number, scale and type of civilian massacres in Syria since 2011?

It’s all clearly laid out here:

http://sn4hr.org/wp-content/pdf/english/The_Societys_Holocaust.pdf

/”We have enough training sites and so forth. For now, we don’t have enough trainees to fill them,” U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter told a congressional hearing./

America’s Missed Opportunity In Syria
http://journal-neo.org/2015/06/19/america-s-missed-opportunity-in-syria/
Is America serving her own interests? How can CIA interests vary from US policy? Are CIA interests American interests?
Will the second round of Middle East wars be a bloated Kurdish super-state against the war-torn remnants of Syria and Iraq for control of nearly a quarter of the world’s oil?

Saudi Arabia has secretly offered Russia a sweeping deal to control the global oil market and safeguard Russia’s gas contracts, if the Kremlin backs away from the Assad regime in Syria.

It also stated, in addition to the offer, there was also an implicit threat:

As-Safir said Prince Bandar pledged to safeguard Russia’s naval base in Syria if the Assad regime is toppled, but he also hinted at Chechen terrorist attacks on Russia’s Winter Olympics in Sochi if there is no accord. “I can give you a guarantee to protect the Winter Olympics next year. The Chechen groups that threaten the security of the games are controlled by us,” he allegedly said.

Prince Bandar went on to say that Chechens operating in Syria were a pressure tool that could be switched on an off. “These groups do not scare us. We use them in the face of the Syrian regime but they will have no role in Syria’s political future.”

Clearly, Saudi Arabia’s lack of reliable allies stands for good reason. Bandar’s gloating about Riyadh’s role in creating and controlling some of the most vicious terrorist organizations on Earth confirms what has been reported elsewhere across both the alternative and even mainstream press. It also confirms that while Washington, London and Brussels disingenuously wring their hands about the threat of “Islamists,” they are allied closest with the very nation responsible for this very threat.

Saudi Arabia’s role as Washington’s proxy in the Middle East and even as a means of leverage on the greater global stage has led it to the edge of a cliff. This is a cliff Washington itself will inevitably fall over, but it will not do so until its proxies have pushed over first.

Israel may do something stupid in the next 24 hours

Jammie may post something stupid in the next 24 hours…

The user that has recently been posting as Jamal/Nadia/Marwan/ameera/Alawi is banned for—big surprise—posting with multiple identities.

3) I pose a question of preference to Syria Comment users regarding the procedure for commenting: If you so desire, we could shift to requiring each user to register for an account (a simple email/password login), which would prevent a user from impersonating other users (which happened to Norman not long ago) and which would reduce cases of multiple-personality. I’m happy to go whichever direction the majority of you (established) users prefer.

People who are paid for that will have no difficulty registering for several user/login accounts

more “legacies” of the Assads that won’t be forgotten.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-33197612

Keep it as is Matthew, the Internet is full of trolls.

You can tell who is genuine and who is not by looking at the style and the content of posts. This site should embrace diversity and freedom of speech, and it does, but also ban people who break the rules.
I support what Matthew did and I hope he will find the time to keep this blog clean.
The Saudi money is again under the microscope, this time the scandal is bigger and more embarrassing after hundreds of thousands of cables from Saudi foreign ministry were leaked and are now available on line. Saudi Arabia was, and still is, feverishly trying to buy influence by paying politicians and media companies, this explains why very few TV stations and newspapers in Lebanon dare to criticize the kingdom.
Saudi Arabia’s ruling regime is worse and more dangerous than any dictatorship the region has known, Al Saud manages to develop a toxic mix of Wahhabiism, Terrorism, Mafia type politics and oil money, the result is total filth !!

According to the UN and other observers and human rights groups, more than 80% of the massacres in Syria are due to regime action.
Every soul and every human is sacred and not to diminish anyone’s sacrifice or death it is high time that the true count of the number of people killed, disappeared, exiled, tortured, maimed for life, and deprived of basic rights and dignity be documented.
I would say that the regime since 63 may very well have caused the death of more than a million people and this latest phase of at least 350 000 if you count the number that are dead in the dungeons of torture.
Repent the end is near

I disagree with Mathew Barber banning Kazemi and Jamal and Nadia. At least Nadia posted exactly what is the mind set of the Alawi community for all to read about: we are going to stay in control and if not will kill and destroy and deprive and exile for otherwise we will be victimized again.

Reading Sami’s link about Tadmour, can stop thinking what a depraved sect!

Habib,

See below. Of course you will read and still ask for evidence for targeting Sunnis because they are Sunnis . And of course I would not expect anything else from an Alawi (minus 1%). The 99% of the sect that supports and cheers the atrocities committed under whatever pretext

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/06/19/a-damning-indictment-of-syrian-president-assad-s-systematic-massacres.shtml

And therefore when I say “what a depraved sect”, I am not passing stereotypical judgement, I am just performing ????? ?????

It is amusing to see that the old wrong lines about this war keep popping up in defiance of facts on the ground.
SOHR which is not pro regime by any stretch of imagination repeatedly dissected the identity of Syrians who were lost in this war and the nature of rebel forces and what those rebels and pro regime forces actually did but denial is a popular sport among Syrians today.
For this war to end Bashar and his inner circle need to move aside and allow an inclusive government to emerge and Syrians need to agree on fighting Nusra and Isis and push all foreign forces out of Syria.
Since those requirements are not attainable today and the big players have not yet decided to allow a compromise ( hope this changes in the fall) it is unlikely to see a cessation of armed confrontations soon, add to that the cancer of Islamist terrorists and the covert and overt support they receive from some Syrians and regional powers and you will see that the optimism about a near solution to the war is not based on hard facts. If this war was between a David and a Goliath it would have ended in 2012 and rebels would have received more support from Syrians but there are no Davids in this war and rebels in Syria are not the freedom fighters some posters here want you to believe.
???? ???? ???? ???? ????? ?? ????? ???????

70. GHUFRAN
Thump UP
http://journal-neo.org/2015/06/19/saudis-to-offer-putin-a-deal-he-cant-refuse/

World on the brink of the hot phase of World War III, “Rockefellers” and “Rothschilds” as the main instigators of the war, on what basis divided the world’s major powers, as the neo-fascist quasi ISIS, which are the main tools in the hands NSC and the US for the war, about the project TISA, of Russia and others.
On June 4 a portion of a report by Army General Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, was declassified, in which he claims that Washington is considering deploying cruise missiles with nuclear warheads in Europe as a response to Russia’s alleged “violations” of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, or INF, which the United States and Soviet Union became party to back in 1987.
It is perfectly obvious that Moscow has to demonstrate its willingness to act in the event of an INF violation by the United States, as well as to promptly and appropriately respond to the Americans’ destructive approach to resolving many other arms-control issues.
TAKE CARE

The regime needs more than to move aside: it needs to be tried in a court of law.

I really don’t get it. I agree with half the statement that Syrians need to fight Daesh and Nusra, but where is the other half statement that says we need to fight the Assad regime and its various militias?

If the argument that we should pick the lessor evil, guess who is factually and statistically more evil. The Assad regime.

Daesh and Nusra might be backwards barbarians, the Assad regime has a PHD in barbarity. And be honest with yourselves, it’s not Assad himself that is lobbing barrel bombs out of helicopters, it is not Assad loading the Sarin bombs that killed Syrians, it was not Assads knife that slit the throats of the children of houla.

There is not justification for the evilly committed by members of the alawite community on behalf of the Assad regime.
It takes a lot more than just Assad and his inner circle to commit over 80% of the massacres in Syria!

78. OBSERVER

You need to demand from the corrupt court: firstly, to clean itself of the corruption.
And secondly to prosecute impartially all western and Israeli rulers, their intelligence and war staff such as criminal George W. Bush, Tony Blair, Benjamin Netanyahu,, and all western war maniacs and so on…

The amount of the crimes committed by the warmonger-staff of the Western countries more than all perception. You need to prefer and demanded the rights of the peoples of the imperialist scourge where you live

Will not be allowed to give one eye

Criminals Israelis and Americans first driven to the court.

/Will the second round of Middle East wars be a bloated Kurdish super-state against the war-torn remnants of Syria and Iraq for control of nearly a quarter of the world’s oil?/
The momentum of SC publications growing about the Kurds.
Any kind of division was planned from that side?

There are no secular opposition, the Opposition is ISIL and AL Nusra, the secular Syrians are all with the government by now,Sunni at the forefront they woke up,and recognized what the opposition is.

The same argument used to demonize alawites can be utilized to accuse Sunnis of being a “terroristophilic” cult, I clearly think the argument on both sides is false and is a sign of frustration and poor judgment. I agree that the main problem in Syria before 2011 was the regime and I still hold it responsible for what happened in Syria after 2011 but if you want Syria to stay in one piece or if you at least want the war to stop, even if that means partition or semi partition, you have to side with people you do not like to defeat the evil of ISIS and Nusra terrorism, as I said before Assad and his cronies have a shelf life but ISIS and Nusra’s ideology can breed criminals and inflict terror for decades if not confronted NOW.
From the early weeks of the war, comments about how evil alawites are started to pop up on TV and the internet, even educated Syrians with Phs degrees declared that alawites should not be allowed in the army or hold office !!
Obviously, there was, and still is, a plan endorsed by many Syrians to punish all alawites for the actions of the regime, and I have no doubt in my mind that massive sectarian cleansing and numerous attacks on alawites will occur if the Syrian army is defeated where it is still in charge, there are virtually NO alawites in any area controlled by rebels, ISIS or Nusra, they are either dead, in prison or have fled !!
An uprising led by sheikhs and financed by the GCC can never bring justice and democracy to Syria, you can not make chicken soup out of chicken poop !!

We should remember that if one want to kill you , you kill him first, the government is fearful for the lives of all Syrians and recognized the Western Gulf cooperation to destroy Syria, anybody with a brain will fight back with all what he has, so did the Syrian army and government.

What threat did Gaith Matar cause? Khayyer? Omar Aziz? Dalilah?

What justification is there for dropping sarin gas on civilians? Barrel Bombs? Barrel bombs full of chlorine? Mass murder and torture?

You don’t institutionalize the murder of civilians, reduce the country to rubble, and gas your own people to counter any outside threat. This argument is bankrupt, ignorant and extremely callous.

Norman

“We should remember that if one want to kill you , you kill him first, ”

So now that the Sunnis realized that the alawites and Christians are going to murder them in masses until complete subjugation, the sunnies should kill them first.

If this to happen in liberated Syria, do not open your mouth and cry the usual minorities BS . Know then that if a massacre of the Christians is to happen , the perpetrators are just following you logic and that you lost any ability to cry wolf.

Applied theory of controlled chaos Steven Mann has been designed to provide the tools for the destruction of the territory and resource bases of potential candidates for the new superpower. In the first years after its introduction theory basically does not extend beyond the State Department and educational institutions of the Ministry of Defense. The situation changed with the arrival of George W. Bush Administration. Political adventurers and the corrupt sawyer of military budgets Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld seriously perceived an amateurish construction of Mann. This is even more surprising that the United States is the complexity of the Institute in Santa Fro, which is one of the world leaders in the study of non-linear, non-equilibrium processes. Moreover, Mann spoke several times there with his concept and was cruelly criticized. As a result of amateurism reigned in Washington in recent decades, advocate, promoter of consistent way to work in some of the key hotspots. The results speak for themselves.
Events of the “Arab Spring” and the war in Syria are the product strategy of controlled chaos, sold by the United States,

Work M.Stefan and E.Chenovez «Why Civil Resistance Works: The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict». The report presents the results of a statistical study of civil conflicts in the world in the years 1985-2013. Following the results of the analysis revealed that the movement of civil resistance have been successful in 55% of cases reported, while the military confrontation between the authorities were successful in only 28%. As a result, it was concluded that “the civilian non-violent campaigns provide a stable transition to democracy were twice as likely than armed confrontation with the government.”
http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/isec.2008.33.1.7

turn of events
It is a policy to accommodate the ill-fated Kingdom!
http://rt.com/news/268642-russian-weapons-al-jubeir/
http://investmentwatchblog.com/new-saudi-king-signs-6-trade-deals-with-russia-forms-russiasaudi-petroleum-alliance/

Sami is drinking Ibn Taymiyah Arak these days…

In one comment he said:

“There is not justification for the evilly committed by members of the alawite community on behalf of the Assad regime.”

Then in the next comment he mentioned al-Khayyer and Dalilah, who are both Alawites anti Assad…What is going on here? contradiction? ????? ???????? ????? ?????

Can we say the Ibn Taymiyah’s Arak ?

Observaaaaar still does not know who are the Alawites on this board and who are the fake ones….tsk tsk tsk…

NORMAN, it feels like you rationalise the Assad regime bombing ordinary Syrians in their homes and bread queues (“getting in first”).

But I’m curious how you explain the regime smashing up archaeological sites (“getting in last”?).

Famed Syria mosaic museum damaged in barrel bombing – http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2015/Jun-20/303048-famed-syria-mosaic-museum-damaged-in-barrel-bombing-ngo.ashx#.VYXB-u-u4mE.twitter

“the government is fearful for the lives of all Syrians” (NORMAN #84)

That’s right. The government still leads as the main source of threat to ALL Syrians and knows how far it and its Iranian controllers are prepared to go in this madness.

What many sitting outside cannot yet imagine and will find almost impossible to comprehend, is the enormous psychological damage and crippling anxiety and depression now permanently etched into the lives of Syrians experiencing this nightmare.

The stupid lies and conspiracy theories, sectarian mudslinging and rationalising of cruelty is scattering oil – from a safe distance – on this raging fire.

Both those Syrians burning the country and those suffering the effects of this “strategy” are now ALL in some way mentally scarred,in many cases destroyed.

The human species has limits to what it can recover from.

Spare me your hypocritical bs Mjabali. What I wrote has nothing to do with sectarianism, and if you’ve read my comments before you are well aware of it. Don’t make up things that are not there.

Don’t deny that members of your community have committed mass murder. I am not saying all are guilty. I know Khayyer and Dalilah are Alawites and I picked them on purpose, because even with the moderates of your community they were jailed, tortured and silenced to keep the filthy Assad clan in its place, by your own community members, not Sunnis.

You want the Sunnis to come to terms with the extremism within our community I agree with you full heartedly, but guess what your community has to do that as well. cause your community is suffering from its own Ibn Tamiyah brainwashed crap fed to you by the Ba’ath and Assad.

The data is there Joshua posted on his Twitter feed. 80% of sectarian and ethnic cleansing is caused by Alawites on Sunnis. is Joshua sectarian, drunk on Ibn T Arak as well when he posted it?

You fear Daesh, so do I. But I fear the shabiha and so called soldiers that are slaughtering Syrians in the name of Assad as well. Again, Bashar is not the one flying the helicopters lobbing barrel bombs, he was not the one who loaded the sarin bombs dropped on Ghouta, torturing civil activists to death in jail, levelling cities and towns to rubble.

From JL own Facebook page: interview with a Sunni pilot who defected

[Do you care to share the story of your defection- more evidence for Habib

On the wake of the protest outbreak, I and most Sunni pilots were immediately stopped from flying on orders from the ‘Jihaz Al Moukhabarat Al Jawiia’ (Air Force Intelligencia). When the protests expanded we were put under house arrest. I realized that we were dead and it was only a matter of time before they came for us so

Interesting dialectic. On one hand by defecting you confirmed the actions of the Intelligence Apparatus. On the other hand their own actions promoted your defection. A classic example of mistrust based on sectarian divisions.
Thank you for taking the time.

i cant recall the last time this blog featured sunni victims of assad, replicating aymenn’s tenderly treatment.

Sami:

1- Those were your words so do not try to disclaim them. The effect of Ibn Taymiyah’s Arak is obvious.

2- Contrary to your claims: I have said it before and I will repeat it for you now: any Alawite war criminal should stand in front of a court.

3- I never denied that Sunnis got the worst of this war. But, according to their size the Alawite are hit very hard too. The Christians got it bad too. Now al-Druze. No one is immune because of the composition of Syria, history, al-Assad, Daesh, Nusra…Qatar, Iran…Saudi…etc…

4- al-Assad does not stand for an Alawite cause. He has many Alawites with him because of a very complicated web of events.

5- Most of the Alawites are with Bashar al-Assad because there is no other alternative. The Sunnis never were able to produce anything to make them forsake al-Assad. al-Assad always made the Alawites weak by destroying their traditional leadership (religious, tribal) and putting any political Alawite dissident in prison. The Alawites do not have a party, independent enough to act. They do not even have a cultural group. Nothing.

6- i stand for democracy and law: equality for all, so please mr. Sami do not claim that al-Baath had affected anything in me. Your logic is side B from al-Baath greatest hits.

7- You are mistaken if you think I want anything to do with you Sunnis. What ever you guys do please do not include us in it. I wish you the best believe me.

hello tara, so good to see you again.

there was another interview with a defector (article surfaced around time when warplane was shot down in idlib) who noted regime pilots actually clamor their commander to be assigned on bombing raids. they aren’t reluctant warriors,* they are eager to kill civilians.

*i note this because there are still too many smart people, in a mistaken notion of being wedded to being “objective,” who continue to give this regime the benefit of the doubt. it’s a mistake to treat this regime with fair-mindedness. barbarians are worse than we can imagine.

in fact, making a show of being objective is an exercise in ego posturing in the face of a mountain of atrocities. you are not a better person because you react dispassionately to carnage.

67. Matthew Barber said…

if you dont mind, can you email majed khaldoun once again to apologize for banning him & to implore his return? he was a fountain of knowledge. his absence is a great loss to this blog. surely his volunteer work as a doctor attending to the displaced earns him latitude and redemption.

thank you in advance.

Who are you to say that this or that person is fake or genuine. I personally do not know and take Nadia at her/his word.

Also I do not need a court of law outside Syria, Syrians are capable of doing it themselves and many lawyers can do it with international supervision including judges from Iran Russia KSA Qatar and what have you. We can teach them a few things about the rule of law.

Only Sunnis will get rid of extremists as the Iraqi Sunnis demonstrated and only the sectarian policies of Maliki drove them back into the extremists fold.

Likewise the Sunnis are fully capable of taking care of the extremists in their midst.

Once again all the minorities want the majority to be secular and national while they remain minorities with sect based privileges.

This is over.

Here is a nice article, in French however

http://www.lorientlejour.com/article/930830/de-combien-de-temps-dispose-encore-assad-.html

Data do not lie. The regime is responsible for the massive population displacement with the concept inherent in its very fiber and core: we will destroy the place if we are not in control

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/06/21/world/map-flow-desperate-migration-refugee-crisis.html?ref=middleeast

If someone has the full article it would be nice if it can be posted here

http://www.haaretz.com/news/middle-east/.premium-1.662292?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

102. Observer said:

Assad’s new policy: Conscripts can defend their villages rather than fight on frontlines

Druze and Christian sources say policy shift has encouraged draft dodgers to rejoin army.

By Jack Khour

Young Druze and Christians in Syria have reported in recent days to their relatives in Israel on what seems to be a new policy on the part of the Syrian regime, which is designed to protect the country’s rural areas. According to the testimony, the Syrian Army has announced that young men who are supposed to be drafted and who live in villages that are under threat will be able to bear arms in order to guard their communities – rather than being sent to join forces on other fronts. They also said that this policy has led many of the young men who evaded the draft or fled to their villages to express a willingness to rejoin the army’s combat forces.

According to testimony from the ground, the battles for control of the Kuneitra area continue, mainly on the hills known as Tulul al Hamul, which are considered a strategic target by both sides. Although the opposition militias control most of the hills, the Syrian is shelling the area with heavy artillery and the battle has yet to be decided.

In a conversation with Haaretz, Druze sources in the Golan estimate that at this point there is no anticipated wave of refugees from Syria, since the opposition forces don’t aspire to take control of the Druze village of Khader, but rather of mountains regions and open areas surrounding it, in order to ensure control of central arteries.

In recent days there has been heavy fighting between the forces of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s army and the rebels in the Syrian Golan. Israel has even warned the Sunni rebel organizations that are fighting the Assad regime not to shell or try to capture Khader on the Syrian side of the shared border on the Golan Heights.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who in the Knesset plenum discussed the situation of the Druze in Syria, said that “We are carefully following everything being done on this matter. I have given instructions to carry out all the necessary activities and I suggest that we make do with that statement.” The Israel Defense Forces relayed that reports of a massacre in the village are incorrect.

The organization that is most active among the rebels is the Free Syrian Army, which is considered less extreme than others and also maintains low-profile contacts with Israel. The Druze mainly fear members of the Nusra Front, which is identified with Al-Qaida but cooperates on the Golan with more moderate Sunni organizations.

Observer,

“Nadia” and the other banned identities were all the product of Dale Anderson.

Israeli officials: Iran and Russia in no rush to abandon Assad

The two countries are continuing to provide Syrian regime with advice, intelligence and weapons, but not boots on the ground.

By Amos Harel | Jun. 22, 2015

Iran and Russia, the two countries that are helping Syrian President Bashar Assad, will continue to prop up his beleaguered regime. That’s the most recent assessment by Israeli defense officials, despite the series of major military failures Assad has incurred in recent months.

In Israel, it’s believed that the two countries will continue to provide the Syrian leader with advice, intelligence and weapons, in order to stabilize him and stop Sunni rebel groups from advancing toward the regions still under the regime’s control.

Over the past few months, Assad’s troops have suffered serious defeats in Idlib Province in northern Syria, the ancient desert city of Palmyra in the southeast, as well as north of the town of Daraa, southern Syria. The Syrian army has had to withdraw troops from some areas, such as Jabal al-Druze near the border with Jordan, and move them toward Damascus and the Alawite enclave in northwestern Syria.

However, it seems that Iran and Russia – each working separately – are both determined to ensure the regime’s survival. In this context, Assad’s army is redeploying, among other ways by establishing a new fortification line east of Damascus in order to stop the rebel advance. The regime is also working to shorten its defense lines and focus on protecting the areas it considers essential, preparing to defend the capital and the Alawite region from continued assaults by the rebels.

At the beginning of the month, reinforcements were sent streaming to the Alawite enclave, out of fear that the Southern Front, which unites the Sunni rebel groups, will manage to score some military victories on the edges of that area. Iran still needs Assad as part of its struggle for regional hegemony, which it is waging against the relatively moderate Sunni countries – chief among them Saudi Arabia and Egypt. For Russia, the port of Tartus, in the heart of the Alawite enclave, is of prime importance; it uses the port to maintain its military presence in the Mediterranean.

Since the civil war began in 2011, the Assad regime has received huge quantities of weapons and ammunition from Iran and Russia. It may be assumed that this trend will continue in coming months. Still, Iran is not prepared to send units from its Revolutionary Guards into the fray, and is making do with advising and guiding behind the scenes, despite Assad’s requests to increase its involvement.

It seems that Tehran fears the direct, outright involvement of Iranian soldiers, which could sabotage ties with the world powers over the emerging nuclear agreement. As a senior Israeli defense official recently put it, the Iranians “are ready to fight to the last drop of Hezbollah volunteers’ blood in Syria,” but not to sacrifice their own men in the war.

The Syrian president is worried by the operational capabilities of the Sunni opposition, which relies particularly on increased weapons shipments from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey, among which are TOW anti-tank missiles that allow the rebels to make relatively precise and deadly strikes on Syrian army tanks and positions in the various cities. In recent months, a sharp decline can be seen in the operational abilities and morale of the Syrian army, whose soldiers are exhausted from the continued fighting. The regime is expected to try to reorganize its units, which are depleted by the deaths, injuries or captivity of many fighters in harsh battles throughout the country.

The past few days have seen no change in the situation in the Druze village of Khader, which was surrounded by Sunni rebel fighters last week. In conversations between senior political and military officials and leaders of the Israeli-Druze community, the Druze were promised that the Israel Defense Forces is prepared to assist the inhabitants of the village if there is a flight of refugees over to the Israeli side of the border. At the same time, severe warnings were sent to the rebels not to enter the village.

Chief of the General Staff of the Syrian army, Ali Abdullah Ayoub (second left), reviewing troops in the Qalamoun region, June 17, 2015. Photo by AFP

The following video of a child being tortured by regime loyalists for criticizing the president was tweeted by @zaidbenjamin.

The region-wide tendency to increasingly embrace Islamism aside, I firmly believe that IS would never have found a foothold in Syria had the regime not bombed and brutalized its own country for several years straight.

https://youtu.be/Da-R_FVu0EI

It is not just the video that is disturbing, the fact that Matthew chose to post it is unfortunate to say the least,this can,and should, put in question whether he is able to be an effective and impartial moderator (or editor) of this blog.
Yes, nobody should try to defend the criminals who were torturing the young man(or teenager)in this video but posting such a video by a moderator of a blog sponsored by UO is unacceptable, there are thousands of torture and killing videos from both sides of this war, the last thing we want is to see somebody in Matthew’s position participate in the You Tube circus about the Syrian war.

“GHUFRAN”,

Do you agree or disagree that the:

“IS would never have found a foothold in Syria had the regime not bombed and brutalized its own country for several years straight.”?

Ghufran, if that was an ISIS video or a moderate opposition video tirtuting Alawi, you would utter no word. To the contrary, you would throw the same temper tantrum as to why the moderator did not post it in the main post .

Yes, nobody should try to defend the criminals who were torturing the young man(or teenager)in this video but posting such a video by a moderator of a blog sponsored by UO is unacceptable, there are thousands of torture and killing videos from both sides of this war, the last thing we want is to see somebody in Matthew’s position participate in the You Tube circus about the Syrian war.

Ghufran,

“…there are thousands of torture and killing videos from both sides of this war…”?

Oh my, one can used to that, no?

I know what happened when the US was found to humiliate the men held at Abu Graib in Iraq. A whole firestorm of hearings, demotions, and mea culpas. Or when female Israeli soldiers posed with captured Palestinians.

Mathew Barber, please get with the program sir!

There is an anti-GWB website call Iraqi Body Count that tries to lay blame on GWB for all the deaths in Iraq since the 2003 invasion.

Where is Syria Body Count?

https://www.iraqbodycount.org/

http://honestreporting.com/wheres-the-syrian-death-count/

Umm Mjabali, please show me where I wrote anything sectarian!

The young “man” is a kid, a kid being tortured for criticizing the president. Just like the kids in Deraa four years ago. Being tortured by the same regime that tortured Hamza Al-Khatib to death, who was a kid that the regime tried to label as a “man”.

Fours years later the regime is more brutal than ever, and yet folks on here want us to think that these same people that brought nothing but calamity on Syria should be trusted with her. It’s not Bashar and his cronies doing the torturing in the video!

We expect the moderators to be impartial and level-headed, not that we believe the moderators are not allowed to express opinions.

Matthew Barber’s standpoint and viewpoints have been consistent and crystal-clear to us, but the latest regime-bashing post is ill-timed, to say the least.

Many people look up to the moderators and their insights, hoping to understand more thoroughly and accurately on the situation of Syria. Currently Sunni rebels are making overarching gains and squeezing other minorities to corner, even openly threatening sectarian cleanse. Instead of providing deep analysis, Matthew Barber provides a view that the rise of ISIS is attributed to the regime, thereby imprecating the regime the greatest evil of all, and thus makes us believe the sole solution to solve the Syria crisis is to take down the regime. Maybe Matthew Barber can tell us whether there will be any alternative to save the minorities and whether all prices are worth the goal of removing the regime.

Keep in mind, Christians have been living in Syria longer than the Prophet and Alawites had been living Syria cities before Sunnis flooded the country and started hundreds of years of massacre.

Matthew Barber’s standpoint and viewpoints have been consistent and crystal-clear to us, but the latest regime-bashing post is ill-timed, to say the least.

Apple_Mini,

Why would anyone engage in “regime-bashing”? Assad has been a stellar leader his whole life. I hope he wins the next election.

i was too hasty at #98 re “they aren’t reluctant warriors”

not all alawite pilots are nazis, some took a brave stand.

Reports that regime executed 3 pilots at Hama airbase for disobeying orders: Colonel Nawfal Diop – Reeve Latakia, Brigadier Ahmed Ghanem – Reeve Latakia, Colonel Sami Rizk Sweida

Reports that the regime executed Pilot Ibrahim Sulaiman for refusing to obey orders in the Hama Military Airport.

a regime short on manpower is executing valuable pilots from their own sect! assad is not the guardian protector of minorities, apple_mini. it’s not even syrians in charge anymore, it is now IRAN who are calling the shots.

pilots made a breathtaking sacrifice. could you do the same? this is what a patriot looks like. dissenters chose country over protecting the chair of one man. the so called “lesser evil” does not serve the greater good.

.

those faces are striking when you scroll down the blog. men already worn down by the stress & hardship of the war only to be cut down. aymenn rightfully holds nusra accountable but neglects to point out the obvious – it is assad who benefits from actions that divide and work to prevent rebels & druze from uniting.

Tantrum on high gears from regime apologists. Impartial in the face of torture…. just remember that the person asking for impartiality is the same person who called al-baida and Banyas’s attrocities “hardly a massacre”.

Akbar
Some how i think that dog-poop next election will be a hanging chad…

Ghufran, with all due respect (I consider you one of the most thoughtful commenters here and you consistently offer useful perspective), it is in no way “impartiality” to present an example of one contender’s brutality in this conflict. In fact, most of the articles that we post do exactly that: present discussions/examples/photos/and occasionally video regarding the behavior of contenders in this conflict. This whole grand discussion we’ve been having since early 2011 is about the behavior of these various players and without material that serves to illustrate that behavior, we would have no evidence for what we’re talking about. The analyst community is required to look at a lot of raw material that would never be placed on regular news sites. Otherwise we would not have a thorough understanding of what is actually happening in this conflict. Dr. Landis, Lund, Tamimi, myself, and everyone else is tweeting these videos every day. In fact, I would consider it less “impartial” NOT to post such material on the blog.

In terms of censorship, keep in mind that I have never censored video content in the comments (that I can remember). I have banned for personal attacks on other users (or spamming / multiple identities), but never for content related to the conflict. The comments section has served as a trove of material, links, and videos documenting many aspects of this war, including violence committed by various parties/groups against various parties/groups. It’s uncomfortable to see, but that’s part of the purpose of this site, and probably not everyone belongs here.

Further to “impartiality,” there is no such thing as an unbiased observer. Every single commentator, analyst, scholar, and journalist brings their particular attitudes and perceptions to their work. While I try to be objective and balanced in my articles, they nevertheless convey aspects of my own assessment and understanding of this conflict. In that sense, my own views have remained highly critical of many contenders in this conflict, and I won’t apologize for criticizing them. In posting this video there is no change in my views from my earliest writings on this blog. I have always sympathized with protesters who wanted to lift the greedy, corrupt, and brutal hand of regime oppression from their necks, while conversely having very little faith in the potential of “revolution” to transform the country—not even because of the Islamist problem but because in Syria when it began I saw how divided people were regarding the uprising.

Apple_Mini, you seem to imply a conspiracy in the timing of me including this video in a comment. The truth is that I simply happened to come across it at this time and thought it was very important to share. Regarding the recent unfolding of events, I am actually deeply concerned about potential rebel victories in minority areas. I unequivocally do not want to see the rebels (as they are currently constituted) taking control of any Druze or Alawite areas. I also think it will be be harmful should any stripe of opposition forces attack any community that does not desire a move from regime control to opposition control. (Remember my attitude on Ma’loula, a town that was trying to stay out of the conflict.) Does that mean we should stop criticizing the brutality of the regime? Of course not. Would I stop criticizing the extreme Islamist ideology (and behavior) of IS if the regime happened to be making victories in Sunni areas with an IS presence? Of course not. You’re thinking like a propagandist; I’m thinking like an observer. Oddly enough, you and Ghufran are taking issue with a single comment that happens to appear below an entire post that showcases a recent Islamist massacre of a minority that verges on ethnic cleansing. Where do you perceive a lack of balance in that? Are we to suddenly suspend our discussion of history? The regime absolutely bears tremendous responsibility in this conflict, and I’m saying that as someone who believes that the country will be worse off if rebels wrest control away from it in minority-populated areas or urban centers where some semblance of secular society remains enjoyed.

When it comes to global interests, IS poses a serious, long-term, international threat. The Asad regime does not. In that sense, the heavy focus on IS is completely understandable and justified. It is about religious narratives that will continue to have reverberations around the world. The focus on IS is about more than Syria, but about its ramifications for everyone. But I definitely believe that the sinister level of its depravity threatens to make people overlook the character of the regime, and that is why that video that I posted is so important. If I was teaching the history of this conflict to a classroom of students, I would show them that video. That is not some kind of isolated incident; it reflects the character of this regime toward the people that it deems as sub-human. Not only has the regime killed more civilians in this war than any player, and often through despicable means, but its selfish behavior in keeping the general population down for many years was key in producing this conflict in the first place. And I say that with full awareness that the Salafi threat has been very real, since the 70s or even 60s. (I am very glad that the US administration has resisted the urging of some to collaborate with the regime or view it as an ally; I believe that this would be highly immoral.)

Apple_Mini, I would never suggest that the regime is “responsible” for IS in the sense of having created it. I have believed all along that this is nonsense, as is the nonsense about Iran creating it. (Despite the fact that its growth has served the regime in that only the FSA was a threat to its political legitimacy, and therefore I have maintained that it played a passive role in allowing IS to grow rather than seriously fighting it.) What I actually said, if you read the comment, is that Syrians themselves never would have turned to IS had they not been brutalized as they have been for these last several years. (Sure, a few would have, but not greater numbers of Sunnis, such as those in Iraq who likewise opted to work with IS against their regime which they saw as the greater evil.) This point is quite different from how you framed my perspective.

“…and thus makes us believe the sole solution to solve the Syria crisis is to take down the regime…”
Nothing could be further from my actual views. After witnessing firsthand the divided reactions of Syrians inside the country, I was skeptical from the revolution’s earliest days as to whether Syria would be better off with the forceful removal of the regime. This is why Syria Comment has all along drawn the ire of so many staunch pro-revolutionaries, despite our antipathy for the regime and sympathy for their aspirations. Now that IS exists, the need is even more vital for some semblance of stability to remain over those parts of the country that have until now escaped most of the warfare. Considering the current make-up of the contenders, I don’t see anything potentially positive following the forceful removal of the regime at present. Even staunch oppositionists like Yaqoubi hold this view. Let me state the paradox thus: Should the regime be taken down, I will in no wise be sad to see it get the fate it deserves, but I will be extremely sad should the rebels take over.

Finally, let’s just all keep in mind now how many photos and videos dealing with Islamists conducting beheadings have been shown here. I never posted the more gory of them, and yet this video of the regime-ite beating the child is less gory than much of what has been posted here on the opposition. This video is more disturbing because of the spirit behind it, which is the same that inhabited the cells and hallways of Tadmur, which is why it needs to be seen. Remember that moron who bit the lung of the guy he had killed? Everybody thought that that was pretty important at the time. Let’s not be “partial” about who we like to see criticized and who we prefer to see ignored.

Hamster,

Dog poop indeed.

Well, just when you think you understand the ME, something happens that you can’t explain.

WTF:

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4671371,00.html

Well, if Matthew wants to post torture videos on this blog he can do it after he
excuses himself from the job of moderation. I do not know why it is so hard for some of you to understand why a moderator should be …a moderator not an agitator or an agent for HRW.

A new low in the Syria saga.
What does it say when Israel has more humanity towered wounded Syrians than a Syrian minority?!.
Today the Druze of Jolan who have been under Isreal occupation for almost 50 without any serious resistance to the occupation, all of a sudden got enraged and grew brass b*alls and attacked Israeli vehicles for the 1st time ever in 50 years,pulled out the defenseless injured,killing one and seriously hurting the other, then they went in the 100s to the town square to celebrate killing a fellow wounded Syrian.!!!

“Israel News Feed ?@IsraelHatzolah
HAPPENING NOW: 100’s of Druze people celebrating ambulance attack in Majdal shams, killing & wounding 1 Syrian. “

Very surprised at you Ghufran. I moderate this blog for discussion, not for ideas. If it is allowable for others to post similar such material, why is it more political when I do so? I am also a contributor to site content in the form of articles which contain analysis and opinion, remember? I took a lot of flack for much of my content that dealt with IS, but not from you, until this one video.

Majedkhaldoun is unbanned.

Hamster,

Dog poop indeed. Where will they find him? A cement drainage pipe? A “spider hole”? The tin pan dictators love to play hide and seek in the dirtiest places.

Syrian,

I’m as confused as you are about the Golan Druze. I think the Druze living on the border with Syria are a little more vocal than the Druze living near Haifa. Not sure why they felt these Syrians were enemies of some sort. They don’t wear uniforms. Who knows how to tell what side these Syrians are on? I’m confused.

Matthew,

Thanks for the clarification you provided a few posts ago. Please post more often. I think it’s important for us to understand where your coming from. You said,

Should the regime be taken down, I will in no wise be sad to see it get the fate it deserves, but I will be extremely sad should the rebels take over.

Why would you be sad if “the rebels take over”? The rebels (FSA) are the most “grass roots” of all the “contenders”. The rest are imports from Iran, Lebanon, and Islamists from around the world.

Most Videos are fabricated, in my humble opinion,

The Druz of Syria are loyal to Syria, they do not act as being Druz but as being Syrians and they are not the same as the Druz of Lebanon or Isreal

AP, I was using “rebels” as a larger label for the majority Islamist fighters, including IS fighters. Perhaps I should have just said “opposition fighters.” Of course, IS aren’t really part of the “Syrian opposition.” Perhaps “jihadists” would suffice.

Crucifixion is back in style, it is what awaits the Christians and others, if the militants win,

http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/586250/Islamic-State-ISIS-crucify-children-Ramadan-fasting

Matthew,

Ok. That makes sense. I see the struggle as Assad first, Islamists (ISIS, Nusra) second, and then, hopefully, political parties and voting. Just my non-Syrian hope/POV.

AP.
I can see why it is confusing to you.
You have no idea how much some Syrian minorities hate the majority and are willing to sacrifice what is most dear to them to try to stop them.
A prime example just happened now on this site,
Look at Dr.Norman,a minority who has been out of Syria and living in the US for ever.
But all his interaction with the civilized world did not make him a real humane doctor who would condemn attacking an ambulance and killing the wounded,because they are from the majority.instead he trampled on his Hippocratic oath, coming to the defense of the murders Druze against the wounded defenseless humans in an ambulance of all places.

It is cute to see how a simple question about what a moderator should or should not do became an excuse to examine my history and political views. I just want the owner of this blog to say whether he would allow torture videos to be posted by the moderator, you guys need to take a deep breath or watch more torture videos if that can help you.
Those videos are now worthless, they may have had some value when people were trying to find out who did what but the naked truth could not be more naked today. We know enough about what armed groups, pro and agsinst regime, did, add to that the video was posted by a moderator with little or no information about when, where and who and you have to admit that the posting was not appropriate, this is not about free speech it is about one simple issue.
Life goes on, I am now ” thrilled” that an ikhwanji thawraji with a sharp tongue ( the reason for him getting banned) and an MD degree is unbanned with a statement in bold fonts written by Matthew, I hope that he, the ex banned, and all others keep this distinguished blog clean.

Apparently the child was tortured to death and we did not see the full video.

Also the video of torture in Lebanese prison is out, similar to all Arab prisons without exception.

However, the closet pro regime is doing to us a Thomas Friedman: start by mildly criticizing the regime/Israel only to bash fully the opposition/Palestinians.

It is like critiquing Bibi to destroy Abbas.

Druze apparently killed an injured Syrian being brought for treatment in Israel: of course they are fully Syrian that is why they attacked an ambulance and killed a fellow Syrian.

Hogwash from beginning to end.

I am optimistic that the people of Syria will get rid of all oppression without exception starting with pencil neck retard iPad playing self absorbed virtual Prethident

This video hit a nerve as it shows that regime and IS are mirror images of each other or perhaps they are both the same: apparently IS recruits are nearly 100% former regime secret service agents.

Ask for forgiveness or change your pen name

“Should the regime be taken down, I will in no wise be sad to see it get the fate it deserves, but I will be extremely sad should the rebels take over.”

Should the regime be taken down, I will be very sad to see it get any less terrible fate than Qaddafi’s. Eye for an eye ??????? ???? and if the rebels took over it will be the ultimate victory for Syria and Syrians.

And for you who think we will allow Alawistan, you can dream as much as you want but it will not happen. And those who don’t like it, please do not come to the west, Go and live under your current masters.

Observer,

I recently heard an interesting argument that the early Muslim Arab conquerers of Syria should have converted every one or displaced them out and not be as merciful as they were in the same exact manner to what spain had done to Muslims and Jews! –

Was Syria better off with the mosaic of Minorities harboring historical hatred against the majority? Wasn’t what happened in Syria over the last 4 years a mere consequence for Arab tolerance? Shouldn’t they be made assimilated or Simply leave ?

I can see why it is confusing to you.
You have no idea how much some Syrian minorities hate the majority and are willing to sacrifice what is most dear to them to try to stop them.

Syrian,

Yes, so these Druze attacked this wounded Syrian because he had a foreign accent? I thought the Druze supported Assad? Did they identify this person as a Nusra jihadi? The article didn’t say.

Norman I know from years ago. A die-hard Assad supporter. Assad should give Norman the Baathist Medal of Freedom or some other trophy. 😉

Anyway, we need some more good news.

112. apple_mini

.

More than 70,000 young Alawite soldiers have been killed and 120,000 others wounded. Another 10,000 are unaccounted for.”

how many more syrians have to be sacrificed for IRAN?

assad remaining is not in alawi’s best interest.

I am sorry to say that You Tube showed more discretion than our moderator when it removed the torture video. I thought that it was only the people of the Middle East who have difficulty admitting their mistakes but I was wrong..again, we did not need a marathonic explanation (#118) for posting the video, a simple apology to the readers, not regime supporters, would have been adequate.

/how many more syrians have to be sacrificed for IRAN?/
How many Syrians, Arabs and foreigners are willing to sacrifice in order to implement the Oded Yinon’s plan? And how much is the estimated amounts allocated to serve the implementation of the perdition plan?
change your glasses.

I’m disappointed Ghufran. I would have hoped you would have responded to the ideas in my long comment. Regarding an “apology,” I think the real crime would have been not posting it. It also seems tame to me in comparison to much of what I’ve viewed throughout this conflict: beheadings, burnings, etc. Perhaps I’ve become unduly numb from it all.

Moderation announcements are always done in bold, as opposed to personal comments like this one in which I post as any other person.

Majedkhaldoun was banned for a long time and I’ve received many requests that he be allowed back, because of the genuine conversation he used to make. I don’t see why that’s unreasonable, considering that he was rarely violated the rules as other banned users of that period did. In terms of keeping the blog “clean,” I believe that it has now remained far cleaner for a long time than it was in the first 2 1/2 years of the conflict. Violations will continue to result in removal from the blog, after appropriate warnings are issued.

Interesting that your dislike for his return is about his political views (as an “ikhwanji thawraji”) rather than any real damage he did to the blog through the content of his posts. As if those with a pro-opposition perspective don’t have the right to voice their views here.

Tara, I find your statements shocking. That “we” will not allow “you” to create “Alawistan” seems to echo the regime-loyalist language about opposing the “Sunni” creation of a state that bears a more Islamic character or whatnot.
“I recently heard an interesting argument that the early Muslim Arab conquerers of Syria should have converted every one or displaced them out and not be as merciful as they were in the same exact manner to what spain had done to Muslims and Jews!”
I’m sure this is a view that IS and Nusra would appreciate.

“so these Druze attacked this wounded Syrian because he had a foreign accent? I thought the Druze supported Assad? Did they identify this person as a Nusra jihadi? The article didn’t say.”

AP.
I doubt they took the time to check their accent,and the Druze have been told many time that Israel does not help Nusra, It is just pure hate for anything Sunni, and it does not matter if it is a farmer in the occupied Golan or a doctor living in the US.
The odd thing though is the Druze were never Hafez Assad’s favorite minority they had a big officers corps before his coup and he disseminated them and later were pushed out never to have their strong presence in the army nor in civilian life in general. The Sweida governance where they most live were completely passed over. That is why there were hope that they would stay neutral at worst case. But I guess some were born to make the wrong decision . They have most likely started a new blood feud with their trible neighbors that they will live to regret.

…

https://twitter.com/Elizrael timeline has a nice breakdown behind the why on the “druze attack ambulance” story.

Matthew Barber on June 22, 2015 at 1:04 am
The following video of a child being tortured by regime loyalists for criticizing the president

http://youtu.be/852uBFkl_Ds

#140 Mathew

Unlike you, I am no longer surprised by reaction of loyalists who do attempt to represent themselves as moderates or reasonable compromisers. I am sad though. On the opposition side, you will always find many of us who always rush to expose and condemn inhuman and violent actions of opposition fighters. You will always find many of us who are willing to reach out and give the benefit of the doubt to regime sympathizes (victims of propaganda, fearful for the aftermath, minorities, etc.). We are always willing to look for a solution as long as it unifies the people of Syria and eliminates both dictatorship and terrorism. But on the regime’s sympathizers side, people who claim to be moderates quickly revert to their typical stand – one we learned over 50 years: you cannot cross the redlines that may lead to the fall of the regime. And they intentionally confuse the “state” and the “regime” – in the same way the rulers of Syria always used the label “not nationalist” on anyone who becomes a threat to the regime itself.

Assadism is like nazism – an ideology that is popular by a large segment of the Syrian society, driven by superiority tendencies and a feeling of victimization (regionally and globally), and backed by strong militarized militias. I am not sure anymore there is a room for compromise with it until it is discredited among its own followers through a very clear military defeat.

This video is particularly disturbing to them because lately they started spreading the story that the torture of the teenagers in Daraa that sparked the revolution was all a big lie started by Aljazeera. So videos like this one make it hard for them to keep spreading lies.

Israeli Druze cannot accept that “their” government helps the so-called rebels, especially after the massacre of qalb lawza.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4671371,00.html
some 150 villagers attacked an ambulance and lynched the wounded rebel who was transported
Netanyahu called it a ‘grave incident’. Strangely enough, the French MSM mentioned it, so that the Nusra-Israel collusion is now evident to all.
They seem to follow the general trend
http://www.newsweek.com/israel-secret-war-syria-nusra-druze-344433
http://www.latimes.com/world/middleeast/la-fg-syria-south-20150621-story.html#page=1

140 Matthew Barber:

I am surprised that you express your shock now of what this double personality character “Tara” writes. For starters she is completely ignorant about religion and history of Syria yet posters on this forum treat her views with respect. Secondly, during a post sometime ago labeled Saudia Arabia “the guided Kingdom”, this supposed guided Kingdom treats women worse than animals yet his character Tara is pretending to be an enlightened Muslim female.

In conclusion, this character is an Islamist pretending to be enlightened.

It is just pure hate for anything Sunni…

Syrian,

Thanks for posting your opinion. It’s a shame. I find it very unfortunate that this war turned sectarian. It started out as an anti-Assad/anti-Baathist dispute and winded up being “US against THEM”.

If anything, I could understand anti-Alawi sentiment because 10% of the population was favored and backed the dictator, but still, one has to “keep their eye on the ball”, namely, to get rid of the dictator and not bring religion or sect into it. Difficult as that may be.

Mina,

The link you provided wouldn’t allow me to read the article.

Can you summerize it for us. How is the GOI aiding Nusra? Arms? Intelligence? Medical treatment? Please provide details and perhaps a more friendly link. I believe Israel is doing a good job of staying out of the dispute/war and only acting when sophisticated weapons are brought in near the border. Providing medical treatment to any wounded person is good PR, and I doubt the GOI cares who the person is one way or the other (unless perhaps it’s a Hezzie or Iranian fighter).

Here are a couple of links I found…

http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/ru/originals/2014/03/israel-hospital-syria-children-care.html#

http://foreignpolicy.com/2014/06/11/exclusive-israel-is-tending-to-wounded-syrian-rebels/

Mina, this article is closer to your POV. Again, just medical treatment…

http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Report-Israel-treating-al-Qaida-fighters-wounded-in-Syria-civil-war-393862

I disagree Tara

The diversity of the region brings immense richness and ideas and traditions that makes all of our lives much better.

I also think that it would have been impossible not to be tolerant in the early days of Islam for at that time living the faith in practicality and after it liberated the mind to think and act outwardly rather than inwardly, to act for the community rather than for the self, was the logical consequence of this early faith.

The minorities feel as minorities and not as Arab or Syrian because they were oppressed at one time or another: oppression erodes loyalty to the common good, destroys the fabric of society, corrupts the soul. stifles modernizing the faith and the ideology, and allows for the emergence of fringe and bizarre cultist like movements.

If the minorities were not oppressed they would not have become pawns of this or that foreign power and would not have used the state apparatus for their own ends.

Now some members of these minorities cannot identify themselves except in hate filled dehumanizing of the majority and no one should give these Nazis of the Arab world a chance to spread their poison.

Matt,

In regard to #135, I am often faced by that POV from ordinary non religious secular sunni Syrians. Instead of dismissing it as a Takfiri’s idea, please argue the point as is. I do not own that POV personally but I can understand what made it come to surface . What richness did the mosaic fabric brought to Syria other than Minorities jubilant celebration, and sweat/candies distributions watching the pile of dead bodies of Sunnis mothers and children as well as their active role in torture and slauhter. What could you tell the fatherof the teenage tortured to death by hate-full Alawi soldiers about tolerance. These were not individual acts. These acts are endorsed by 90 % of minorities. Would the US tolerate a 10% of its population giving material and moral support to Bin Laden Qaeda’s terrorist group. I personally as an American would not and would want them improsoned or deported.

Just noticed your post Darryl…

Good to see you.

Matt,

”
Tara, I find your statements shocking. That “we” will not allow “you” to create “Alawistan” seems to echo the regime-loyalist language about opposing the “Sunni” creation of a state that bears a more Islamic character or whatnot.”

Be shocked not!

We will not allow Alawistan nor will we allow islamic khilafa or the creation of a state that bear a more islamic character. Please change your impression of what the majority of Syrians want. And why would I as a Syria give up on the coast ? I own it as much as anyone else in Syria. Assad and the loyalists among his sect can’t and will not be allowed to form their canton by force.

Matt
I wouldn’t give the cause of creation of ISIS to the Syrian government exclusively,the Wahhabism would claim some credit too,the Saudi dungeon has produced distorted human and with the help of what left of the disfigured Iraquis army after the American invasion have helped great deal with founding this evil which is called ISIS.
The west should claim some credit too,by arming the Gulf and buying cheap oil from them,has contributed a great deal with fueling the sectarian war in the ME,just to keep the Satanic Kingdom of Saudi in its throne,knowing well how they are violating human right of their own citizen,and slaving the foreign laborer.
Once the political prostitution of the west with the gulf will stop,and the financial aid will dry,ISIS would drop its ideology and they may start defending the right of freedom and Democracy(I doubt that).they are bunch of crooks fed by distorted ideology to make sure that the ignorant stay ignorant,there is no room for religion in any kind of advance and development of humanity.

The Jasmine Center for Coordination and Follow Up NewZ

Jasmine,

Thank you for the lesson on “Satanic Kingdom of Saudi…knowing well how they are violating human right of their own citizen”.

I always find it interesting how people on this website like tear apart other countries while excusing their own. Tell us about the Assad family legacy with respect to human rights. How is it any better?

128. Norman: Crucifixion…it is what awaits the Christians

112. apple_mini: tell us whether there will be any alternative to save the minorities

.

you mean you’d only object to this if the boy were christian?

https://youtu.be/852uBFkl_Ds

154. Akbar Palace: I always find it interesting how people on this website like tear apart other countries while excusing their own.

so exclaims mr. israel-can-do-no-wrong.

Observer said

However, the closet pro regime is doing to us a Thomas Friedman: start by mildly criticizing the regime/Israel only to bash fully the opposition/Palestinians.

Well said, and it comes from the text book written by a former moderator of this site. I call that “????” ? “?????”? “??????”

Comment #153 should enter history. It is a first loyalist comment that blames KSA, USA yet is spares Israel.

As usual, it is someone else’s fault. No fault of the oppressive blood thristy hyenas (i.e. assads and their goons) , of the sectarian regime policy, of its destruction of the family structure and morals, and its support of religious schools and of its going to bed with Alqaida to score a couple of broohahas in Iraq… no mention of the failure of the educational system, of the catastrophic incompetence of the regime and its corrupt minions in dealing with severe droughts, in reforming tribal societies, and in ..and in…, an in…. nop, not a word. It is all KSA and USA.

Everyone here is deeply immersed in the dispute and empty chatter. I do not find any scientific, or anything valuable or summary of the analytical study and even any kind of following the tracks of the events, what usually leading to useful conclusions. It seems that this case will continue with useless comments, until after the end of the Syrian crisis.
No praise, no applause, but shame. The reality of matters is a mirror of you

The forces opposing Assad are divided and have no leadership or a strategy, they depend on funding from the GCC and are dominated by Islamists and directed by Turkey, the fact that most syrians are Sunni is not enough to give the claim of a Sunni revolution any credibility unless we expect Sunnis to endorse Nusra or isis directly or indirectly, and such endorsement is a trap that can destroy whatever is left of the opposition credibility. Three major militia leaders have chosen to help the Kurds against isis thinking that their position will earn them points, instead those leaders are now seen as khawarej and an outcast by the people who were posting videos glamorizing the same figures. Kurds have no desire to allow the regime or the rebels to spoil their grand plan to establish a strong state or a semi state in their areas, that is why there are clashes between Kurdish units and the Syrian army in Qamishli, the Kurds realized that Arabs can not be trusted and are unable to protect them and they are pushing isis more effectively than the syrian army and the rebels, indeed Kurds may soon attack isis in raqqa with support from the U.S. which likes the growing friendship between Kurds and Israel.
Rest assured that the pillars of Nato policy in the Middle East have not changed:
Support for Israel, protection of GCC sheikhdoms and animosity towards Iran and Alqaeda.
Groups that endorse Nato pillars will become Nato friends, forget about freedom and democracy.
There are people in the opposition who understood this, so they visited Israel, trashed Iran and pledged allegiance to ksa but are still struggling with the issue of armed Islamist groups affiliated with Nusra and isis, they want to please Nato but they could not build a credible force to fight the regime and its friends and thus are unwilling to divorce Islamists yet.
The core problem is the absence of freedom among Arabs and muslims, they hate dictators but they want the world to accept a new fascist dictatorship fighting under the banner of Islam.
If this piece is too hard to swallow, take some Persian tea and Saudi dates and enjoy the mix !!

so exclaims mr. israel-can-do-no-wrong

C’mon Omen,

I’ve never claimed Israel “can do no wrong”. They’ve made many mistakes, as well as the US and every other country. There are no perfect countries. But I’m happy to discuss any “mistake” that you want.

Also, if you want to chat about freedom of speech, freedom to vote, freedom of religion, freedom to assemble, and the right to live in a country that protects me and my belongings, let me know.

The fact that the opposition is fragmented is both good and bad. It is bad as it will prolong the regime’s life and good because in contrast to the regime and other dictatorships in the region is allows dissent and diversity of opinion and action.

The fact that the people have revolted at all after decades of fear and intimidation and corrupting of the very soul of man/woman is a testimony to the resilience of the people of Syria who continue to make a living in the most horrendous of situations.

No amount of pontification will change the fact that enough is enough and no one is going to accept the return to oppression.

And who is Dale Anderson by the way never hear of him

#161 AP

Well then consider this, the creation of the “Jewish homeland” is the precedent that reinforced sectarianism in the Middle East. The idea that a religion constitutes a nation, aside from being absurd, is in direct contradiction to the so-called Western values of freedom and secularism. (Americans should take note of this, but rarely do).

Freedom in Israel is for the Jews and the minority of original inhabitants who were granted citizenship so long as they remain a minority. Property rights of non-Jews in the “Jewish state” is tenuous at best. A minority can be marginalized.

Furthermore, Israel has spared no effort to promote sectarianism among the formerly Palestinian Druze and the Lebanese Maronite Christians, among others. It’s ironic (and I agree with you very confusing) that the Syrian Druze of the Jolan have attacked an Israeli convoy aiding Syrians. It just shows how convoluted the conflicts of the Levant have become.

I’m also convinced that sectarianism in Syria and Iraq is directly or indirectly promoted by Israel. The more the people of these formerly most vocal opponents of Zionism are divided and fighting each other, the less attention they can pay to the original conflict that ethnically cleansed most Palestinians–or should I say southern Syrians?–from their homes.

So the Asads, probably unwittingly, by placing Alawis in most positions of military or otherwise coercive power have actually aided a sectarian Israel (as it conceives its interests). Sunnis are usually in powerless figurehead positions like prime minister or foreign minister.

So why should you oppose the Asads? They have succeeded in dividing and weakening Syria far beyond anything Israel could have done had it acted in a direct military onslaught.

Well then consider this, the creation of the “Jewish homeland” is the precedent that reinforced sectarianism in the Middle East.

Altair,

With all due respect, please stop blaming Israel for the crimes of your despots, Kings, shiekhs, emirs, and your prethidents. Saddam didn’t gas the Kurds because Israel made him do it. Saddam didn’t invade Kuwait because Israel forced him to do it, and Assad didn’t treat his people like Khara because Israel made him do it. Your statement is preposterous.

The idea that a religion constitutes a nation, aside from being absurd, is in direct contradiction to the so-called Western values of freedom and secularism. (Americans should take note of this, but rarely do).

Altair,

It’s not that complicated. Most jews, in fact, most non-Jews recognize a “people” called “the jews”. They may be jewish, they may believe in G-d, or they may be atheist, or they may be agnostic or they may be ultra-orthodox, but only THEY can say they are part of the “jewish people”. In the end, I don’t have to convince anyone about who I identify with, and you don’t have to convince me who you identify with. Israel is a fact, and the majority considers themselves part of the jewish people. That is why I would never question anyone about their identity, unless they said they were Martian!

Freedom in Israel is for the Jews and the minority of original inhabitants who were granted citizenship so long as they remain a minority. Property rights of non-Jews in the “Jewish state” is tenuous at best. A minority can be marginalized.

Freedom in israel is not for just jews. Go to Israel and find out yourself. Or just read the israeli press. Today, a handful of arab Knesset members want to help with another Gaza flotilla. Tell me, how many jewish parliament members are there in Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Iraq and Iran who publicly want to help Israel?

Furthermore, Israel has spared no effort to promote sectarianism among the formerly Palestinian Druze and the Lebanese Maronite Christians, among others. It’s ironic (and I agree with you very confusing) that the Syrian Druze of the Jolan have attacked an Israeli convoy aiding Syrians. It just shows how convoluted the conflicts of the Levant have become.

Most Israeli Druze serve in the IDF. More Arab – Israelis are joining as well. So please post links showing how Israel “promotes sectarianism”? Thx.

I’m also convinced that sectarianism in Syria and Iraq is directly or indirectly promoted by Israel.

Prove it Altair. Again, you’re failing to confront the failings of your leaders. If you elected Syrian Hamster, you wouldn’t have to blame others for your people’s failings.

So the Asads, probably unwittingly, by placing Alawis in most positions of military or otherwise coercive power have actually aided a sectarian Israel (as it conceives its interests). Sunnis are usually in powerless figurehead positions like prime minister or foreign minister.

When you go to israel, and see the rather large arab – Israeli villas in the beautiful Arab villages, and see that a lot of Israeli jews live in much cheaper and tinier apartments, you will realize that Israeli arabs are PART of Israel and doing relatively well. What Assad does has NOTHING to do with Israel. Thugs do what they want.

So why should you oppose the Asads? They have succeeded in dividing and weakening Syria far beyond anything Israel could have done had it acted in a direct military onslaught

I, speaking for myself and perhaps other jews, believe once arabs have a voice, they will be less likely to start wars.

#165 AP

You asked for links, here is one below, and it speaks volumes as to Israel’s motives in the region. It would require no stretch of the imagination to infer that it is Israeli policy for Syria, Lebanon and Iraq as well, but I will find you proof of that too if you like.

http://www.mintpressnews.com/israel-stokes-sectarianism-palestinian-christians-muslims/191580/

an excerpt:

Israel Stokes Sectarianism Between Palestinian Christians And Muslims

HAIFA, Israel — Ameer Ashqar’s grandparents were driven from Iqrit, a village in northern Galilee, during the 1948 fighting and expulsion of Palestinians that led to the establishment of Israel.

Just months after the country’s founding, Iqrit was captured and occupied by the newly-formed Israeli military. It was then depopulated and eventually demolished, turning its uniformly Christian residents into permanent refugees.

Because of his family’s history and his connection to his Palestinian heritage, Ashqar rejects Israel’s ongoing efforts to target the Palestinian Christian citizens of Israel for military service. “This isn’t a new thing… that they are trying to make us enroll in the army,” Ashqar, 19, told MintPress News. “I made up my mind a long time ago that I am against this plan.”

Ashqar isn’t alone, though, as recruitment efforts have also been roundly rejected by Palestinian groups in Israel.

A group of 18 Palestinian NGOs in Israel released a joint statement earlier this year decrying legislation that differentiates between Christian and Muslim citizens as a “colonial” and “sectarian” tactic…

“Fragment and segregate”

On Feb. 24, Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, passed a law differentiating between Christians and Muslims on a national employment committee. Yariv Levin, a senior Israeli lawmaker and leader of the government parliamentary coalition, sponsored the legislation a month earlier.

“My legislation will grant separate representation and treatment for the Christian public, which will be separated from the Muslim Arabs,” Levin told Israeli media outlets at the time. “This is an important historical move that could balance the State of Israel and connect us and the Christians, and I am careful not to call them Arabs, because they are not Arabs.”

AP,
And by the way, I am in no way excusing the behavior of “Arab leaders” or despots or whatever you want to call them.

You are, however, excusing Israeli sectarianism. Israel is by definition a sectarian state, no matter how you would like to define a Jew.

How could this even be controversial? The fact that one can convert to Judaism and then be entitled to citizenship is proof in and of itself. Name me one other country in the world where you could convert to a national religion and claim citizenship there.

Israel, or more accurately its Zionist establishment, would love nothing better than to have other states in the region based on religious affiliation, which to me would be an unimaginable abomination to be adamantly opposed.

None other than the birthplace (arguably) of secularism, France, tried to create such states in Syria during its occupation and failed. It would be supreme folly to allow such sectarianism to succeed now.

Altair
I did a quick search on mintpressnews.com because it sounded familiar, it turned out they were the source of the fake story about the rebels gassing themselves in the chemical attack on Ghouta and I found this story about the owners who turned out to have been trained in Iran!
http://www.buzzfeed.com/rosiegray/the-inside-story-of-one-websites-defense-of-assad#.wa3z7nB5r

“Observer: And who is Dale Anderson by the way never hear of him”

Go back to the archives, December 29th, 2011, comment# 324. Does it ring a bell?

BADR
You got me curious about that comment
I’ll save Observer the trouble of searching, here is the comment link
https://joshualandis.com/blog/arab-leagueenters-syria-as-violence-rises-syrias-deficit-spending-explodes-but-government-hangs-on/?cp=7#comment-289828

Altair,

You had the chutzpa to blame “the creation of the ‘Jewish homeland’ is the precedent that reinforced sectarianism in the Middle East”.

Now you post a link “proving” this, but the article you posted only pertains to Israel and Palestine. And the thrust of the article is that Israel is trying to get christian arabs to join the IDF, so somehow this is “promoting sectarianism” in Israel. Hogwash! Arabs, for some strange reason, have the option of joining the IDF or not. It is completely THEIR decision. No one is forced, except jews.

The story is an opinion piece by a anti-israel nobody (Patrick O. Strickland?). There are millions of such errant stories. He claimed in his first sentence, “Ameer Ashqar’s grandparents were driven from Iqrit, a village in northern Galilee, during the 1948 fighting and expulsion of Palestinians that led to the establishment of Israel.”. The reality was that MANY arabs fled on their own accord and were told to flee by arab leaders who promised they’d return once the jews were driven to the sea. Moreover, over 100,000 arabs remained in Israel, or perhaps Mr. Strickland didn’t notice.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1948_Arab%E2%80%93Israeli_War

A present to Altair:

http://www.algemeiner.com/2014/07/25/israeli-arab-mother-of-golani-soldier-those-who-dont-accept-this-state-should-move-to-an-arab-country/#

Stop blaming Israel for everything the ME thugs do as well as that fly in your soup. I am willing to admit that Israel isn’t perfect, if you are willing to start questioning the actions of your own “leaders”.

The bottom line is, Palestine needs to be divided between two people: the jewish people and the palestinian people. We’ll get there one day, but this issue isn’t the reason why muslims are killing muslims.

75.Ghufran said: For this war to end Bashar and his inner circle need to move aside and allow an inclusive government to emerge and Syrians need to agree on fighting Nusra and Isis and push all foreign forces out of Syria.

107.ghufran said: Yes, nobody should try to defend the criminals who were torturing the young man(or teenager)in this video but posting such a video by a moderator of a blog sponsored by UO is unacceptable

ghufran has long made “there are no angels in the regime” type acknowledgements but when made to face proof of such – he unreasonably throws a fit.

have these claims recognizing the regime’s evil been merely posturing, a rhetorical device to give his follow up prescriptives railing against the opposition added weight & credibility? tis a pity. i can respect opposing views but dont insult our intelligence by sugar coating your arguments, prefacing them with a fake posture in hopes of being (mis)taken as a moderate when all you really want is for the regime to remain.

stupid me for thinking a group of people who have invested so much time arguing the issue would at least be honest without one another. dont treat us like children who need a spoonful of BS to make the medicine go down. nobody who wants assad gone would balk at showing evidence of regime barbarity.

just goes to show being pro assad is a tough row to hoe. defending the indefensible is an impossible task. it can’t be done honestly.

107. ghufran said: there are thousands of torture and killing videos from both sides of this war, the last thing we want is to see somebody in Matthew’s position participate in the You Tube circus about the Syrian war.

of course not. because if shown and laid out side by side, the discrepancy between the two would damn the regime. cant have that. just to reiterate, isis cannot be counted as opposition when its main occupation is to quell the rebellion. assad is the
godzilla of war crimes. nobody else holds a candle to him.

The God inspired ayatollahs, the God-son Assad followers with the support of the takyia shia muslim Obama are really doing a clean job here. They have destroyed the whole Syria and what remained of Iraq after Saddam, and the US wars and boycotts. The next step is peace with Iran, demographics change of both countries to make them become shia believers or shia mercenaries (tens of thousands of families who are being paid on a monthly basis for changing from sunna ti chiism).

Omen

“ghufran has long made “there are no angels in the regime” type acknowledgements but when made to face proof of such – he unreasonably throws a fit.

have these claims recognizing the regime’s evil been merely posturing, a rhetorical device to give his follow up prescriptives railing against the opposition added weight & credibility? tis a pity. i can respect opposing views but dont insult our intelligence by sugar coating your arguments, prefacing them with a fake posture in hopes of being (mis)taken as a moderate when all you really want is for the regime to remain.”

Brilliantly eloquent ! As usual. Closet supporters are easy to spot . It usually takes most of us reading 2 sentences of their writings to figure them out. Although somehow I have soft spot in my heart for Ghufran . His supporting Batta is based on genuine fear not based on idolatry. And SC is a closet supporter, at least in my view-

Omen
some portray themselves as neutral to gain credibility, but we know better, they can only fool themselves.

I want to thank all the friends who ask for my return to SC
last year was good for the Rebels, and the future is not certain yet, now we have ISIS the worst enemy of this revolution, it is enemy of avery good person , but we all know it would not find fertile land in Syria if it was not for this evil Regime, who is the worst sectarian racial terrorist regime

thank you tara but credit goes to majedkhaldoun. i meant to include he warned long ago not to be fooled by the posturing, that the moderate act was a fraud. but this latest contradiction (ghufran failing to walk his talk) was too glaring to give a pass.

Majedkhaldoun

Welcome back. Nice to read you again.

omg i mention him and he appears! ? welcome back majedkhaldoun!!! i didnt see you first before i posted 😀

No comment on this article. The closet supporter is our Thomas Friedman: critique Bibi a little to blast the Palestinians fully. Likewise for the never repentant closet supporter
Here is the article

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

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

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

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

??????? ???? ????????? ???????? ????? ?? “??????? ??????”? ??? ????? ?????? ??? ?????? ??? ????? ?????? ???? ????????? ????? ????? ???? ??????? ?? ??? 1943 ?? ????? ??? ??? ????? ??? : ???? ?? ????? ???????? ?? ???????? ??????? ?? ?????? ??? ????? ????????? ?? ??? ??????? ????????? ?????? ????? ?????? ???????? ?????? ???? ?????? ??????? ??????? (?????) .

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

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

1. ??? ??????? ??????? (???? ??????? ????????)? ??? ??? ???? ????? ????????? ???????? ? ??????? ???????:

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

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

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

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

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

2. ??? ??????? ?????? (?????? ??????? ??????? ????????) : ???? ???? ????? ???? ?? ????? ?????? ?????. ??? ??? ??????? ??????? ????? ?????? ??? ???? ????? ?? ???? ?????? ?? ?? ???????? ???? ??? ???? ??? ????? ???? ?????? ?? ????. ???? ?????? ??????? ??? ??? ?????? ????? ?????. ???? ?? ?? ????? ????? ?? ????? ??????? ??? ???? ????? ???????? ?? ?????? ??????? ?? ?????? ????? ??? ?????? ???? ???? ?? ??? ??????.

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

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

1. ?????? ??????? ? ?? ???? ???????? ?????????? ????? ?? ???? ???? ??? ????.

2. ?????? ??????? ? ??? ????? ?? ?????? ? ????? ?????? ?????? ????? ?????? ?????? ????? ??? ??????? ??????? ?????????? ???????? ??? ??????? ???????. ?????? ?? ??? ?????? ?????? ??????.

???? ?????? ??????? ?? ???? ??????? ?? ???? ?????? ?? ????? ???? ??? ?? ???? ?? ?? ???? ????? ?????? ? ???????. ??? ???????? ??????? ????? ?????? ???????? ??? ?? ????? ????? ?? ?????? ???????. ?? ??? ???? ?????? ?????? ??? ????? ?????? ???????? ???? ??? ????? ???? ???? ?? ??? ???? ?????? ?? ????? ???? ???? ?????. ??? ???????? ???? ???? ?? ????? ?? ?????? ???????? ?? ????? ?????? ??? ????? ??? ???????? ???? ?????? ??????? ???????. ????? ?? ???? ????? ??? ???? ????? ???? ???? ???? ???? ? ?? ???? ? ???? ???? ??? ???? ???? ?????? ?? ??? ????? ????? ????? ??? ????? ????? ?????? ??????? ???? ????? ???? ?????? ?? ????? ?????? ?? ????? ???? ??? (???? ???? ????? ?????? ???? ??????? ??????? ????? ?? ?????)

3. ??? ??????? ??????? ??????????: ?? ????? ???? ??????????? ?? ??????????? ?? ??? ?????? ??? ????????? ? ???? ??? ??????? ?????? ?? ???? ????? ????? ???????? ???? ??? ?? ??????? ?????? ???????. ??? ??? ?? ?????????? ?? ????? ??????? ?? ????? ?? ???? ????? ?? ???? ??????? ????????? ????? ??? ???? ??????? ???????. ? ???? ???? ???? ?? ???? ?? ???????? ??????? ? ???????? ??? ???? “????? ?????”. ???? ??? ?????? ??? ????? ??? ???????? ????? ?? ???? ?? ???? ???? ???? ???? ???? ??? ?? .

3. ??? ??????? ?????????( ????? ???? ????? ??????? ????????): ???? ???? ?????? ??????? ?? ??? ???????? ??? ??? ????? ?????? ???????? ??? ???????? ?????????? ???????? ???? ???????? ??????? ?? ???? ?? ????? ?? ?????? ??????? ???? ??????? ??? ????? ???????? ???????? .

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

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

#165 Akbar

“I, speaking for myself and perhaps other jews, believe once arabs have a voice, they will be less likely to start wars.”

I agree. It make take time, but it will happen. My only hope is that not much death and destruction happens before we get there, eventually,

Welcome back Dr. Majedkhaldoun.!

Observer,

Can’t agree more. This is what the Alawi Ibn Taimieh prided himself of the regime being secular. A sectarian secularism that put ISIS to shame in its denial of the right of others.

Hopeful,

Thanks. I really believe that.

Mr. Majedkhaldoun, hello. Long time, no see.

Kif halak? We look forward to your posts.

Tara wanted the Muslim conquerers of Syria 1400 years ago to have killed all of the non Muslims, mostly the original population of Syria.

Tara: the Muslims did not kill the rest of the population of Syria because the Syrians were paying money and have skills.

Check history books, how you Muslims treated the local population everywhere you went. The myth of Muslim tolerance is a lie…do you want a history lesson with facts, or you are happy with your lack of information?

tsk tsk tsk…..

Observaaar can not stop quoting the same thing again and again about the al-Alawiyah al-Siyasiyah…his enemy is the Alalwites as obvious…

I would not waste a minute trying to refute Sadeq Jalal al-Azm Alawiphobia “theory” for the simple fact that there never was an Alawite Agenda for al-Assads. There was an Assadi Agenda, and they used anyone for that end

1- When I was growing up in Latakia there were three main Mukhabarat Branches…Askari, Amn Dawlah and Siyasiyah…

The head of the Mukhabarat Askariyah was a Sunni from Latakia who, as I hear from my Sunni friends that he had killed their anti Assad parents in the early 1980’s…

The head of Amn al-Dawlah was always rotating, Alawi, Sunni…etc

The head of al-Amn al-Siyasi was a Sunni from Hama, as I remember and he defected…I saw him on Orient TV speaking…

The mayor of Latakia was always a Sunni when I was growing up also….

The chief of the Military police was alas a Sunni…..

Observaaaarr… al-Assad would not trust that many Alawites in big positions in one city?

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

Assad as I said multiple times was crowned ” president” in 2000 and I vividly remember the intense arguments I had about that unfortunate event, many felt that syria has officially become a kingdom and that hafiz alassad was still alive. Interestingly enough Bashar had the support of ksa and France at that time and the silent approval of usa. Many thawrajiyyeh today were pro Bashar then and that includes people from the merchant class, Arabic tribes, Tlas clan, some wealthy Shami who made peace with the regime, and the list goes on and on.
The Assads were especially hostile against leftists, many were alawites, and the Muslim brotherhood. The early demonstrations in 2011 were met with a mix of anxiety and sympathy from many alawites who knew like most Syrians that the country needs a better government that is not headed by an Assad, the big question was who will lead the new movement and how minirities will be treated and it only took few months to receive the answer.
Before you waste time analyzing my political views look in the mirror and ask yourself what you stand for and what did you do to help people in Syria and advance the cause of justice and democracy. Hatred and vengeance can not build a country, if there was a revolution in Syris it is dead now, send your thanks to the GCC and head cutters and war lords that are now the face of rebel force, Internet and TV thawrajiyyeh, and there are many here, are too ineffective, too helpless and too confused to give an answer or make a difference, most non syrian bloggers here are using you and the site for entertainment, it was the syrians who paid the price not the clowns who pretend to care about Syria.
?? ??? ???? ?? ????? ?????

oh good, michael jackson is here.

187. Ghufran said: it was the syrians who paid the price not the clowns who pretend to care about Syria.

ironic phrasing coming from you. i’m not the one who has the live down the SHAME of having once said this —>

116. SYRIAN HAMSTER: Tantrum on high gears from regime apologists. Impartial in the face of torture…. just remember that the person asking for impartiality is the same person who called al-baida and Banyas’s attrocities

“hardly a massacre“

how do you like your own reflection?

Comment 158
You are free in your interpretation and reaching a conclusion,but one thing I know for sure that Syrian would never send their sons to go and bomb another Arabic country,they would never spend their national fortune on spreading a sick ideology just to gain some recognition in the political Arena.
Syria has accommodated all refugees from Palestine,Iraq and Lebanon at numerous occasion without complains.
The government never claimed to be democratic and mistakes were admitted so often.
You are demanding an exemplary political life from underdeveloped country,while here in the west we are not even sure if Democracy is real.
The fact that there is still a country called Syria in the map is enough for me,the resilience of people and the army is astonishing,and one thing I blame the government with is that they should have hit harder from the beginning,this wasn’t a revolution,it started from a mosque and if anything Islam has proved again to be a failing vehicle to carry any human toward a future.

Mjabali.
It is not why 1400 years ago the Muslim Liberators of Syria did not force the Liberated Syrians to become Muslims, It is why for over 1400 years period that Muslim liberators did not force the local population to convert.
And the answer because forced conversion is not allowed in Islam(?? ?????
?? ?????)
You claim the Muslims needed the local population money and skills. If that was true 1400 years ago, how come over 1400 years period after the Muslims learned their skills and could have taken their money out by force never did that?
Even with all different types of rulers from the wise to the insane no one thought to do that over 1400 years period?
And if you don’t believe history books, why don’t you use numbers and logic? The Muslim liberators were no more than 30000 fighter against the Roman Empire and the local population,how come they never revolted?and the Roman empire unlike the flushed down the drain Persian empire by the same Muslims liberators lasted for another 800 years trying to recapture Syria with no success,even with presence of your so called abused population by the “Muslim conquers”
But one has to be able recognize logic before starting to use it I guess.

Dara’a, was the birth place of the great Syrian revolution,not the mosque.
Dra’a liberation is under way now.

FSA press center for libirating Dara’a, the birth place of the Syrian revolution.
http://youtu.be/f3K7qgjuUu4

173. OMEN said:
…
of course not. because if shown and laid out side by side, the discrepancy between the two would damn the regime. cant have that. just to reiterate, isis cannot be counted as opposition when its main occupation is to quell the rebellion. assad is the godzilla of war crimes. nobody else holds a candle to him.

Well, well our Californian granny who has sent 213,846 I repeat 213,846 twitter messages mainly about the situation in Syria. This is a remarkable achievement of reporting about Syria considering, that Omen is a Christian woman living in California and does not understand Arabic (her personal data was on her twitter profile some time ago). What we can and must wonder is what is the data and what items Omen is spreading and how she validates that what she writes is even close to the truth?

This “assad is the godzilla of war crime” tweet she linked is interesting. The tweet tells that 1.9 % of civilians were killed by Rebels, 2.7 % by ISIS and 95.4% by the Regime. The “data” is produced by VDC and its “30 activists around Syria”. It would be interesting to know who of these “activists” follow ISIS troops and count who they kill.

This “gozilla” tweet was retweeted by 30 persons of whom one is Omen. A really odd coalition of people, mostly western people like Omen, some “independent” Kurds etc but for real Syrians it seems, that these very exact figures are so absurd, that they do not continue spreading so obvious propaganda.

Omen is a gozilla of poorly made propaganda. 214,000 tweets unbelievable …

simo is still a nerd who cant get laid. pathetic.

Sim,

While you’re bashing Omen for living in California, why don’t you explain to us why you participate on this website?

Omen may be of Syrian descent, an arab and/or a muslim. What about you? Does being a Finn count more than being an Arab-American?

We have propaganda from all sides, including those that (for some reason) support the atrocious Syrian President-for-Life.

The terrorist groups of Assad (hezbollahis born in Lebanon and Iran, pakistanis, afghanis, and others) could be driven out of Daraa in the coming weeks.

Well I would like to read that history. Having read Phillip Hitti’s History of the Arabs and ALbert Hourani’s history of the Arabs and the four volumes of Cambridge History of Islam and John Baggit Glub or Glub Pasha’s history of Muhammad I would say that there is a huge amount of imagination going on and no facts on the ground of such a fascist ideology that Mjabali and Geert Wilders in Holland are promoting.

The article I posted is from the atheist and his analysis of exactly the use of the sect for the clan is right on target.

The problem is that the sect as exemplified fully by our own sectarian Ibn T’s history lessons is inherently sectarian defining itself as being a negation of the Sunni faith. If there were no Sunnis there would be no Alawis in the first place. The birth of the sect is the result of Sunni oppression real and/or perceived but the same thinking is going to spread backwards and bite the sect by Sunnis who despite being a majority feel as a persecuted minority. Surely our own Ibn T here can understand that unless he has become so influenced by Ibn T’s thoughts that he is applying his credo in reverse to the full extent of the message.

So far, I have not heard any argument none zilch nada zero about the sect revolting against the Mukhabarat Syasyah or Askariah or Jaoouaiah or Filistinia or anything else this is because behind every prop the regime has there was a ” commander from the sect ” to direct the institution and more so after 1982.

Shame on those that hide behind myths and confabulations.

Once again the truth hurts sorry

http://arabic.rt.com/news/786808-%D9%82%D8%AA%D9%84%D9%89-%D9%88%D8%AC%D8%B1%D8%AD%D9%89-%D8%A8%D8%A7%D9%86%D9%81%D8%AC%D8%A7%D8%B1-%D8%B3%D9%8A%D8%A7%D8%B1%D8%A9-%D9%85%D9%81%D8%AE%D8%AE%D8%A9-%D9%81%D9%8A-%D8%B9%D9%8A%D9%86-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B9%D8%B1%D8%A8-%D9%83%D9%88%D8%A8%D8%A7%D9%86%D9%8A/
???? ????? “? ? ?” ?? ????? ???? ???? ???? ?????? ???? ?? ????? “????” ????? ?????? ??? ??? ????? ???? ?????? ????? ?? ??????? ??????? ?? ???? ???? ??????????? ?????? ???????. ?????? ????? ?? ???? 4 ?????? ??? ??????? ??? ?????? ?? ?????? ??? ??????.
F**K U R.T. Ardogan! Further rounds will be ours. Zindeeq

Dear SIMOHURTTA !
Thank you for your value participation! We are waiting for more of you!

194. simoaner took issue with goDzilla’s numbers. just search for “80%” on the thread and note the people who are citing this stat.

and if that isn’t damning enough, also recall colum lynch discovered the UN was found to have been holding back disclosure the full extent of the regime’s offenses (especially under valerie amos’ brief) in order to soften the blow.

why is the UN aiding in PR damage control for assad?

/We have propaganda from all sides, including those that (for some reason) support the ATROCIOS Syrian President-for-Life./
Who is ATROCIOS?

Today racist principles are stored at the legislative level.
In “Israel” is not the Constitution, and the state apparatus actually submits rabbinate as the main law for this “democratic country” is “sacred Torah”, and rabbinical courts are concerned about not only the preservation of the so-called “Purity of the Jewish people” by means of laws and acts of civil status, but also the right to impose the death penalty on religious grounds – both Jews and “gentiles”. And that the rabbis say laws that receives Knesset.
Moreover, if before the summer 2013, “the Chief Rabbinate of Israel” (“Great Synagogue” Sanhedrin) led by two chief rabbis – Yisrael Lau, from Ashkenazi; and Ovadia Yosef, of Sephardic (which are characterized by the fact that, for example, compared to all the “non-Jews” with donkeys, which, in addition to service to the Jews, there is no sense in existence), that the election of the Sanhedrin “won” their sons, respectively, David Lau and Yitzhak Yosef.

That is, “Israel” – a two-headed hereditary theocracy of Jewish Nazism.

Ok Syrian,

Let us go forth and apply some logic as you recommend, (?? ?????
?? ?????), logically tell us what we are going to do with quranic verses like, 9:29, 5:111, 5:123 and many others including hadiths such as “I have been sent to fight people until they say etc etc (you can finish the rest).

Furthermore while you are contemplating this logical analysis, tell us which verses of the Quran has replaced what? To be sure to be sure. So now we sugar coat invasion and turn it into liberation, logically off course. You are being liberated in the west correct, not in the guided Kingdom?

159. ALAN

your english has improved, alan. i wish i could say the same.

when badr (#168) sent us on a goose chase into archives to find dale andersen, i stumbled upon your delightful quip about “crows cawing.”

by the way, is “badr” also “dale andersen”? and why does badr put quotes around everyone’s name?

now i’m just a guest but it would be nice to know matthew’s admonition against impersonation (#67) also applied to blog administrators. oh nevermind, i guess this is their prerogative.

anyways, alan, i was wondering, are you the son of an oligarch back home?

197. SANDRO LOEWE said: The terrorist groups of Assad (hezbollahis born in Lebanon and Iran, pakistanis, afghanis, and others) could be driven out of Daraa in the coming weeks.

where are the protests from loyalists like ghufran (#187) & apple_mini (#112) about the flood of foreign hordes being shipped in to slaughter fellow syrians?

71. Observer said: Every soul and every human is sacred and not to diminish anyone’s sacrifice or death it is high time that the true count of the number of people killed, disappeared, exiled, tortured, maimed for life, and deprived of basic rights and dignity be documented. I would say that the regime since 63 may very well have caused the death of more than a million people and this latest phase of at least 350 000 if you count the number that are dead in the dungeons of torture.

reminds me of oula’s assertion. someone with an inside track to diplomats, analysts and gov officials.

i hadn’t considered before the number dead being cited might also cover the period before the uprising. someone should ask her for clarification. (i would myself but she blocked me for pointing to a quote noting the decentralized make-up of nusra. i just wanted to know if she agreed.)

Our so called moderator, Matthew Barber, said: “I firmly believe that IS would never have found a foothold in Syria had the regime not bombed and brutalized its own country for several years straight.” How brilliant!

Soon after that unbiased and profound statement, Matthew declared “Majedkhaldoun is unbanned.”

MajedKhaldoun, who apparently has been standing by waiting for this call for a long time, immediately jumped in and said: “…but we all know it (ISIS) would not find fertile land in Syria if it was not for this evil Regime, who is the worst sectarian racial terrorist regime.”

Wow…a concerto between two minds with a happy ending. I just thought this political romance deserve some recognition…

I am amazed with this jumping on Matt’s throat for daring to deviate from the party line. What a bunch of hyenas , lurking in the dark… Readying themselves any second to slash the throat of any dissident voice, afraid their source of fellow Syrians’ blood is going to be depleted by a comment from Mathew Barber on the notorious SC.

Matt, are you fired yet?

Hyenas, enjoy ISIS .,, your own creation!!!! You finally met your match.

Inshallah both Assad and ISIS get tried for crimes against humanities in one place.

IS sells 42 Yazidi women to fighters in Syria: monitor

.
A member of the Yazidi minority searches for clues on February 3, 2015 that might lead her to missing relatives, among the remains of people killed by the Islamic State group (AFP Photo/Safin Hamed)

Beirut (AFP) – The Islamic State group on Thursday sold 42 Iraqi women it had abducted from the Yazidi religious minority to its fighters in eastern Syria, a monitor said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the women were being treated as “slaves” by the jihadists and were sold “for between $500 (447 euros) and $2,000 dollars (1,785 euros)”.

The women were kidnapped last year in the Sinjar region of northern Iraq where IS had launched a wide offensive, the Britain-based monitor said.

Earlier this month they were brought to the IS-held town of Mayadeen in Syria’s eastern Deir Ezzor province.

“Some were abducted with their children but we do not know their fate,” said Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman.

The Yazidis, a religious minority which lives mainly in Iraq’s Sinjar region, are neither Muslims nor Arabs and follow a unique faith. They are considered infidels by the jihadists.

In 2014, the jihadists massacred Yazidis, forced tens of thousands of them to flee, captured thousands of girls and women as spoils of war and used them as sex slaves.

The UN has said the atrocities committed against the small community may amount to genocide.

——–

Really Darryl!
You are asking me the same questions you asked Visitor 2 years ago?
I see you still have the same booklet that has all the questions that in your mind will proof something, you got to wait for another fool to engage you in that subject.
About being conquered verses liberated.
Syria at that time was not a free country it was under the Roman occupation , I feel was liberated, you want to feel you were conquered , be my guest, in fact you were conquered so good that you ancestors did not even revolt even they were the majorty for hundreds of years.
Finally what does the west have to do with me being liberated, I have been a free man all my life, and it does not matter where I live, I guess that comes from feeling liberated and not conquered,
Is that why you had to go to the end of the earth to feel liberated? 1400 years of feeling conquered must have defined you,
Oh the irony!, feeling liberated by having to believe he was conquered….. Logically of course.

A great story to read.

http://www.dagbladet.no/spesial/vatdraktmysteriet/eng/?fb_ref=Default

Observaaar can never come up with any answer to my points then he attacks me personally. What a limited scope on life….tsk tsk tsk….

For someone who is trying to frame the whole Alawite community I expect him to come up with something better that putting my name with a dutch politician and then label me as a fascist.

This is the same “Observaaaaar” who called the Alawites traitors accusing them of helping the crusaders and also asked the alawaites to leave damascus…now he is talking about Geert Fielders….and calling other fascists… ??? ???? ???

Observaaar tries to tell us that he is educated and had read the history of the Arabs and the history of the Middle East But. at the same time does not know who is Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyah…. ?? ?????? ?? ????? ??? ?????? ???????????????

what was he reading I don’t know…he was skipping some pages….looking for pictures may be…

Atheist no atheist, the article Observaar posted reeks of sectarianism again the Alawites and claims they are something they are not…. stop putting these lies in front of our faces..

All the Syria’s Futures

“Syrian”

Calling the Muslims who invaded Syria liberators is not correct. They are conquerers who did not let the local population have a word.

The locals did not count from the moment the Muslims took over Syria…. New realities emerged….

The Muslim invaders did kill tons of local men, took tons of local women as Sabaya….bought and sold many of them…., treated other religions as third or fifth class.did not let the locals breath…killed as many locals whenever they liked…..took land and gave it to the conquerers, tore down the history of the Syrians, …….etc….I can go on for days

The moment the moderator banned some…OMEN took over….

Omen is working overtime……

stumbled across this. gaith matar’s little man, his young son gaith never even got a chance to see.

i keep forgetting how influential this blog is with policy makers who keep up with it. maybe one day, professor landis will invite on an expert to contribute to the blog to shed some light on the plight of hundreds of thousands of detainees rotting away in regime dungeons. many of whom were innocent, who never even challenged the regime.

this blog covers myriad range of topics with an emphasis on minorities. i’ve never seen a blog entry exploring systematic assad torture & the regime’s over 100 extermination camps.

an odd exclusion, perhaps an oversight.

also strange is how the depth & breadth of the establishment class ignores this issue. from politicians to journos to even human rights reps on twitter. tadmor was only acknowledged after isis invaded palmyra & blew up the prison. even then, issue was treated in the past tense.

how likely is it once the iran deal is struck, this conspiracy of silence over assad atrocities will finally be allowed to crumble and a tsunami of awareness will flood thru the gates to be acknowledged, even on CNN?

they cant keep this secret forever, can they?

#169 Syrian
I did not know that. Thanks for posting it.

But does that mean that the article that I posted is discredited? Most mainstream American media got the WMD story in Iraq wrong, especially the episode with Judith Miller of the New York Times. Does that mean everything the New York Times reports is false?

I will reiterate, Israel is THE leading force for sectarianism in the Middle East. Its very definition of itself is sectarian.

And I didn’t see anyone (especially Akbar Palace) negate the fact that in 2014:

“On Feb. 24, Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, passed a law differentiating between Christians and Muslims on a national employment committee.”

Was that law not passed? Is that a false story? Is that not the very essence of sectarian policy?

AP somehow glossed over it because this happened to Palestinians. What could be more relevant than official Israeli policy in the territory it controls?

#171 Akbar Palace

Again, I challenge you to name one country in the world where a person can convert to the national religion and then claim citizenship of that country, other than Israel.

Since you couldn’t answer that, I will: there is no such country.

Akbar Palace,

You challenged me to post links about areas outside of Palestine/Israel where Israel has promoted sectarianism.

I admit, I don’t immediately have links to the sectarianism promoted in Iraq, as such policy is covert and largely hidden, and also obscured by the US/Israeli relationship. It could be that it will take 50 years to uncover the policy papers to prove what is happening now.

However over 60 years ago, in the 1950s, Israel had such a policy in Lebanon, which it continued until the 1980s. Moshe Sharett in his diaries criticized David Ben-Gurion’s plan even back then. The policy was to promote Maronite supremacy in Lebanon in order to turn it into a client state of Israel. This is no secret.

The policy suffered a severe setback with the assassination of Bashir Gemayel in 1983 (by a member of the Syrian Social National Party, a strongly secular organization) and by the undermining and reversal of the May 17, 1983 agreement by Syria under Asad the father.

Another blow was the defeat of the “South Lebanon Army” (remember them?) by none other than Hizbullah, who ran them out of southern Lebanon along with their Israeli masters in 2000, a defeat that Israel tried to reverse in 2006 and is still trying to reverse today.

Now don’t get me wrong, this is not to blame all sectarianism in Lebanon on Israel. That blame belongs to France, which created Lebanon in the first place as a state to be dominated by Maronite Christians beholden to France. Israel simply tried to replace France as the sponsor, which it has until now failed to do.

But that task will be greatly simplified if present-day Syria breaks up, which I believe is also a goal of Israeli policy. I don’t have the policy papers to prove it–I’m pretty sure they are all classified. But Israeli policies of the past make it fairly easy to infer that Israel defines its interest as the weakening all of its neighbors, especially Syria and Iraq, and breaking them up on any basis, sectarian or otherwise.

I have criticized Syria’s leaders-and Iraq’s, as inadvertently falling in line with that policy. As you can see, if you read my posts a bit more carefully, I’m not a big fan of any power in the Middle East right now.

So as much as you’d like to see everything simply in the Middle East, it is not at all simple. It is profoundly complex. And I haven’t even addressed what happened in Iraq!

Akbar Palace,

i am unfamiliar with lebanon but doesn’t this image
look like it could illustrate Altair’s argument?

181. Hopeful said:

#165 Akbar

“I, speaking for myself and perhaps other jews, believe once arabs have a voice, they will be less likely to start wars.”

I agree. It make take time, but it will happen. My only hope is that not much death and destruction happens before we get there, eventually,

akbar takes pains to speak for himself because he knows his preference isn’t endorsed by tel aviv. it’s erroneous to believe israel supports democracy for the region. it’s not in her interest to do so.

this from a former CIA station chief:

It is important to remember that Israel has never wished to see democracy among the Arabs, whether in Palestine or anywhere else.
…Far better to deal with leaders relatively immune from popular pressures, with whom cynical deals could be cut, rather than with genuine politicians who are constrained to be responsive to their constituencies.

#220 Omen

I actually do believe that it is in Isreal’s interest to promote and help establish democracies across the Middle East. As I believe it is in the US’s national interest to do so. I also believe that there are many Israelies – citizens and policy makers – who believe the same. Unfortunately, Israel has many voices and the leading voices today, represented by the extreme right government in office today, does not hold this opinion.

Israel’s best friends/allies in the region are the Palestinians. If Israel helps the Palestinian establish their own fully-democratic state, they will be the best mechanism to better integrate intself within the region. But alas, like the rest of the region, Israel’s politics today is dominated by extremists who use fear to hide their own sectarian and narrow-minded agenda.

221. Hopeful said: As I believe it is in the US’s national interest to do so.

but practice runs counter to theory.

i cant think of one thing the US has done in the region that serves national interest. iran is thee cancer in the region and US keeps allowing it to strengthen and grow at our peril.

as for israel, have extremists been in power obstructing for the last 60 years? they have had decades to allow an independent palestinian state. if it was in their interest to allow it, it would have happened by now.

Syrian,

I have no booklets of any sorts and it was not my intention to bring religion into it if it wasn’t for you who was trying to hide the trueth. As I have said in the past, I always toast my ancestors who resisted the invaders with what ever sacrifices available to be free, that is liberation. It is very easy for you to say you are liberated soaking up freedom in the west as far away from Islam as possible.

A liberated Muslim can only claim that title if he or she were to make sacrifices like rafi’a bedawi, and the many others who sacrificed. You and Tara living in the west and holding a huge microphone to broadcast half baked truths does not count.

147. Darryl said: 140 Matthew Barber: I am surprised that you express your shock now of what this double personality character “Tara” writes. For starters she is completely ignorant about religion and history of Syria yet posters on this forum treat her views with respect.

why are you so jealous of tara?

p.s. so we have both darryl & badr who oddly place quotation marks around people’s names.

Maybe someone’s dog ought to read for him.

Wilders claims that Islam is a fascist ideology. Well I must agree that Wahhabi thought is fascist these days. It is no less fascist than Baathist thought though.

There is no doubt that the sect as exemplified by our historian in residence is defined by its negation of not being of the Sunni creed. It came to being because of Sunni oppression and being based on exclusivist thinking of owning the truth has done an Ibn T’s ideological paint brush of all Sunnis just as the Sunnis did it to others all across history.

As for the history that the inhabitants of the region are imports, this is the greatest hogwash that I have ever read. Similar to the assertion that God has chosen his People this idea that is at the root of all racism after all.

If there is a God that chooses amongst his creation then he has ceased to be Godly.

As for insults I guess that is another imagination and confabulation of the reality.

Someone’s pet is smoking and vapors are clouding the room and hallucinations are running circles and Ibn T is lurking in the shadows.

Well, having a few sunflower seeds is more interesting than this sterile historical confabulation.

al-Shaykh al-Fadel Observer:

I read your comment # 149 and it was amazing to say the least….

I thought it was written by none other that Abu Bakr al-Baghdai, or Abu Mus’ab al-Zarqawi, Abu Qutadah, al-Adnani, al-Hrari, Allouch, Arour, Arifi, Hassan, etc…

Apparently you are drinking lots of that Ibn Taymiyah wine….

Observer said in comment #149:

“I also think that it would have been impossible not to be tolerant in the early days of Islam for at that time living the faith in practicality and after it liberated the mind to think and act outwardly rather than inwardly, to act for the community rather than for the self, was the logical consequence of this early faith.”

?????? “impossible not to be tolerant” LOL….”Living the faith in practicality after it liberated…haahhhaaaa What liberation this “observer” is talking about. The name of the religion is Islam to submit to Allah, liberation is over, you are the slave of Allah. Done. You are thinking backwardly mr. Observar stop..inward …outward…no amigo…backward..

Another gem from that comment #149 Obeserveracion said:

“The minorities feel as minorities and not as Arab or Syrian because they were oppressed at one time or another: oppression erodes loyalty to the common good, destroys the fabric of society, corrupts the soul. stifles modernizing the faith and the ideology, and allows for the emergence of fringe and bizarre cultist like movements.”

Observer here stops short from calling the original inhabitant of the land traitors. Why, what is the “common good” he is talking about here? When you go and erase a minority from an area and prevent them from carrying on with their religious/cultural….etc lives….
This is the same logic the Islamic State is using now.

Observar said that the minorities of Syria have “corrupted souls.” because they were oppressed…. What a twisted way to look at life. Again Ibn Taymiyah would have said the same things, as well as any Salafi theoretician.

Again comment #149 by Observer carry more to it….he said:

“If the minorities were not oppressed they would not have become pawns of this or that foreign power….”

Observer is saying that the minorities are traitors and agents….Man please drink more wine and leave us minorities alone…

The more you talk the more you sound like the Islamic State…

Live under the liberated Khilafa as much as you want mr. Observaaaaaar no one is stopping you…

??? ???? ???

When you play with matches, you’ll get burned.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/israels-dangerous-game-with-syrian-al-nusra-islamists/5458515

Obama
You are a coward person. You will reap a big disappointment in Syria

Obama and his friends in NATO may not want to start a war but they may get one all the same. Of course the president is concerned about his legacy. He ought to be. If he continues as he has done since 2009, his legacy may be that he was head inmate in the asylum when the last war began.

Dear Omen

Cc: Darryl, the Islamophobe (aka for muslim’ hater)

“why are you so jealous of tara?”

Because I am pretty 🙂

196. AKBAR PALACE said:

We have propaganda from all sides, including those that (for some reason) support the atrocious Syrian President-for-Life.

Akbar I do not bash anybody for living in California, Tel Aviv or Helsinki. Omen herself identified on her past twitter profile as a Christian living in California and not understanding Arabic. If she would be an American Arab she would have proudly admitted that long ago, because it would give her some desperately needed credibility. I have several times in the past told to you and SC’s other Jewish commentators that I am a Finn and my religious “clan” is Lutheran Protestant (even in a very less active form). I do not lecture here on SC with idiotic claims about the regime which is no worse or better than numerous other Arab regimes or the neighboring Jewish regime. I do not support the Syrian regime nor the countless extremely blurry rebel forces which have as much political unity and credibility as the warlords of Somalia. I do not repeat like a parrot That Assad, Iran and Russia created ISIS and other Sunni lunatics. ETC. I simply follow this blog and several others because I have been interested in the developments in Middle East.

I simply wonder how a person can alone send almost a quarter million tweets about Syrian civil war without having no real means of validating the information she continuously spreads. Omen picks any piece of information which is negative to Syrian regime or its allies without being able to check is there any truth in the offered information and passes on the information. One with very little knowledge about the culture, societies, religion, tribes etc in Syria can hardly be a real expert about the situation of a very complex and developing civil war especially when the person can not speak or write Arabic.

Omen and those several other western “twitter-machines” like her true role with Syria is simply to work as an amplifier in spreading propaganda. Their “employer” simply calculates that if the claim is repeated X times it somehow changes to a real fact.

Your role Akbar and those others like you in “Israeli Jewish Internet forces” is to work as an muffler in silencing and redirecting critics against Israel and Jews’ role in western world. Despite your occasional naive peace and friendship “offers” your role is to stir hostility towards and among Arabs and Islam, besides offering normal Israel propaganda of that chosen peoples’ wonder land.

I write on the average less than one comment daily to all internet sites including SC. There can pass several weeks that I do not write a single comment. And when I write a comment I try to put some real substance in it, that admit probably also those who do not agree with my opinions. So in total I write at most 350 to 400 comments in a year. In ten years I have written some 3,000 to 4,000 comments to different blogs and to twitter. Omen has written in halve of that time nearly a quarter million tweets and on industrial scale produced comments on SC and most probably on other blogs and media forums. Everybody is free to check the time stamps of Omen’s past days activities here on SC and figuring out what was the clock in California when she did write those messages. Work or hobby or simply a strange mental obsession as the motivator?

“Omen”, you are reading too much into things!

“i keep forgetting how influential this blog is with policy makers who keep up with it.”

Yeah, right! Landis is so influential that he himself just a couple of days ago described the US position on Syria as confused.

by the way, is “badr” also “dale andersen”?

No, I don’t suffer multiple personality disorder in cyberspace.

“why does badr put quotes around everyone’s name?”

Just my preferred personal style, unless the username is a proper noun or an acronym.

Simo,

Please stop obsessing about Omen. This is called harassment and is freaky! It is not your business if omen writes one or million comments. It is really not. We appreciate omen and I personall find him/her brilliant.

Altair said,

Again, I challenge you to name one country in the world where a person can convert to the national religion and then claim citizenship of that country, other than Israel.

Since you couldn’t answer that, I will: there is no such country.

Altair,

Your point was that Israel was the largest contributor to sectarianism in the region (ya’ani “the Middle East”)

I still think that is preposterous, but I am sure that there are many like you who believe this.

Since when do you need to convert to be a citizen of Israel? Again, it is more an issue of “peoplehood” than religion. A Russian can become a citizen of Israel if his mother is Jewish and he is a practicing muslim. Conversely, I could not get citizenship in israel if my father was jewish, but my mother was Christian.

Bottom line: you don’t have to be a practising jew to gain Israeli citizenship, you just have to have a jewish mother or convert. And no one will watch over you to see if you’re practicing the religion or not. Remember King David’s grandmother was Ruth, who was a Moabite:

“Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.” The book is held in esteem by Jews who fall under the category of Jews-by-choice, as is evidenced by the considerable presence of Boaz in rabbinic literature.

Lastly, you can get Irish or Italian citizenship, aotomatically, if your parents are Irish or Italian. Israeli citizenship is very similar except it goes through just the mother.

Omen,

I didn’t see what that demonstration was about (it was all in arabic). Please elaborate.

Israelis, generally, are more negative/realistic than American jews and therefore scoff at the idea of the possibility of a democracy in the ME. I say, prove them wrong! But both Israeli and American jews know that democracy will only help both Israel and the rest of the region.

On another note, seems when an ISIS thug kills an innocent person, people tend to blame wahabbis and the KSA. Why? And what is the difference if a Baathist Syrian, HA or Iranian thug kills an innocent person? I say they are all khara. One thing I can say about the Saudis , is that they are not interested in gobbling up any countries like Iran and Iraq (under Saddam).

Today’s BS statement of the Day goes to Sim:

I do not support the Syrian regime…

Sure. Let’s see if anyone agrees. And, BTW, every participant here has taken a side. Who do YOU support I wonder?

I simply follow this blog and several others because I have been interested in the developments in Middle East.

Yes, you “simply” support Assad and his Iranian “Resistance Pros”. Keep posting and we’ll be happy to put the mirror up to your own comments so you will be able to see for yourself.

omg i am floored. bless you, tara. i only know anything because of you guys. truly.

230. SIMOHURTTA
For me, your comments are classified as comments from the elite, cognitive, scientific, objective and meaningful.
You raise the level of participation in this site
I salute you.

Ghufran, i bared my fangs more than i intended. forgive me. please dont be mad.

Akbar Palace: I didn’t see what that demonstration was about (it was all in arabic). Please elaborate

relying on bing translation:

“Banner carried by Lebanese Shiites in southern Lebanon (1990) written on it”:

Israel + Iran are two sides of the same coin.

232. TARA said:

Please stop obsessing about Omen. This is called harassment and is freaky! It is not your business if omen writes one or million comments. It is really not. We appreciate omen and I personall find him/her brilliant.

I personally do not find you Tara or Omen brilliant. Of course I have the right to say may opinion of Omen’s or your comments and of the quality those comments. You are all the time criticizing others opinions and comments and/or speculating others’ motives.

Yesterday Omen wrote here tens of comments, I did write one single. So who is obsessed? I criticized the quality of the tweet Omen had retweeted and linked here. That was that 1.9 % of civilians were killed by Rebels, 2.7 % by ISIS and 95.4% by the Regime. I have not seen you Sunni-extremists and your Jewish mental henchmen like Akbar denying that “fact”, even everybody with some sense know that it is an absurd exaggeration and as much based on reality as democracy in Israel is from Palestinians’ viewpoint or in Saudi Arabia is from everybody’s except the princes’ viewpoint. Anybody could establish in Sweden an internet-site where the Observers of Democracy Research Group announces that in Syria 38.7% of civilians were killed by Rebels, 21.3% by ISIS, 2.7% by USA bombs, 5.1% by Kurds and 32.2% by the regime. In Sweden because that rather expensive and professionally made internet site of VDC is located in Sweden (62.102.150.141) and the domain (Domain ID: D49590434-LRMS) was registered in Canada. Hmmmm….

…

234 Akbar. When you support and have a such PM like Netanyahy and have such tribe members like those of whom we can daily read I would not speak anything about what others support or of mirrors. The “best” of today was in RT, when an excellent reporter (Jewish by the way) made a story how Palestinian child labor with laughable salaries are used by the Jewish settlers. I almost fell from my chair when I heard the Jewish formal explanation. It is not the Jewish farmers fault. It is the Palestinians fault because the Palestinian middle man had promised skillful legal labor, but had delivered children to work with those lethal insect poisons in inhuman conditions. What kind of people are you Akbar? That kind.

resident 40 year old virgin: In ten years I have written some 3,000 to 4,000 comments to different blogs and to twitter.

yet the little nazi wont tell you his twitter account for verification.

because he’s a coward and a liar.

just ignore his nonsense. he’s obviously overdosed watching sesame street. obsessively counting anything is OCD. they have meds for that now, you freak.

Omen,

Seems that Sim is always arguing with Assad – haters? We still haven’t figured why that is. 😉

Sim,

RT doin’ any articles on pay for arabs outside of Israel?

Animals!!! No difference than the Alawi animals who committed the Houla massacres.

IS kills 164 civilians in assault on Syria’s Kobane
By Rana Moussaoui

.

Beirut (AFP) – The Islamic State group killed 164 civilians in its offensive on the Kurdish town of Kobane, in what a monitor Friday called one of the jihadists’ “worst massacres” in Syria.

The killing spree, which took place mostly inside Kobane itself, was widely seen as vengeance for a series of defeats inflicted on the jihadists by Kurdish militia in recent weeks.

At least 120 civilians were killed in a 24-hour rampage on Kobane, and another 26 were executed in a nearby village, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The bullet-riddled bodies of 18 people — including children — were found Friday in the streets of Kobane, the Britain-based Observatory said, adding that they had been shot “at close range”.

“The body of one child bore the impact of five bullets,” it said.

It is not wise to discuss with anyone who talk out of illusion, hallucination, distortion of history, misinterpretation of words

Southern storm is different from jaish Al Fateh , their ideology and dedication or motive is not the same

Dear Simo

“o in total I write at most 350 to 400 comments in a year. In ten years I have written some 3,000 to 4,000 comment”

I would really like to know how many comments you write per min/ per hour/per wk/ per month/ biweekly / monthly/ every 6 month/ … You told us per year. I want to know how many per 5 years, per decade.

And if you can do the same thing in regard to Omen’s comments too . So we can really comprehend the big picture as the point you are conveying is so much important to comprehend.

I would also like you to give as your analysis in regard to the tweets and comments timing. Find a busy wk and list the comments and their timings. Cover at least 12 wks and tell us your findings in Rabat regard. I would not accept any conclusion though unless it is based on pouring into a year worth of data…

Thanks in advance !

Darryl.
Well, you may not have the booklet that was written by an Egyptian Copt With all the questions to debate a Muslim, because by now it is obviously is available on the net, There is no way you can tell me that you read the Quran and found these 2 specific verses on your own. Then asking about what was nulled that has nothing to do with anything that concern you.
At any case you tried to proof your point that early Syrians were mistreated and were conquered by attacking the Quran, instead of writing the name of one book by any western scholars who back up your claims
. You want to see people who got really conquered, try the native American of south America, the Mayas and Aztecs, who were completely wiped out by Christian Spain under the name of Jesus, converting the local population to complete annihilation.
You guys got it made comparing to Spanish inquisition, so thank your lucky stars you got liberated from the Roman by Muslims.
Finally why do you care what I do in the west and how much freedom I’m soaking? Who ever signed the West title deed to you, and anyone else like Mjabali, who asked Tara and now you to go live in “Guided Kingdom”.
I see your types all the times coming to the west wearing your religion on your neck. in your car, on your pumper sticker in every room in house and shop, wanting to scream we are Christian and then we are the original Christians, we are not Arabs, not Syrians, belieeeeeeve us , we are the good guys not those Muslims,
, and then coming on every website to say go back to Arabia.
You guys are so funny you make me smile every time you say “what are you doing in the west”, because I know it is eating you up inside that no one is listening to you, and you are oblivious to the fact that if they really listened to you, they will not think of you anything less than of a Nazi person.

Southern storm , when successful , will have major blow to HA and the criminal Assad, defeat after defeat will deprive Hassan Nasrallah from braging about victories, lately he has been piling sands ,putting his flag on top, claiming he won top of mountain

Syrian

I came across that booklet Darryl have been using many years ago in NJ by a Christian Syrian doctor, a nephrologist who deceived and stole patients from another fellow Christians Syrian doctor that he initially joined. He invited me to review a Quraan and a Muslim hate site and it matches exactly what christian Darryl has all along spew on SC. His venom came from the same cookbook. They take verses, cite the number, and twist its interpretation out of contexts. He boasts the cross, Jesus and Miriam pictures everywhere. I advised him that instead of showing me pictures of Jesus to to ask Jesus to guide him in not stealing patients from his partner-in -Jesus

Darryl, as Syrian said: you must thank our ancestors for their humanity and tolerance otherwise no one of your kind would have existed now. the Christian were richer than the Muslims in Syria so ?? ??? ????? ???? ??? ?? ??????? ???????. If any thing you did not fate like the native Americans or the Aztec. Thanks to Islam’s tolerance.

Hehe!!!

Maybe I should write to the pet
He would understand better.

How many times do I have to tell the pet dog that oppression breeds resentment?
How many times do I have to write that ultimately it is not the fault of the minorities to ally with foreign powers: it is oppression that drives them there; it is being treated as second rate citizens that does it to them.
Muslims conquered so easily in the early days because the Roman empire was oppressive and many Christian sects were persecuted by the Orthodox Roman church. That is why the minorities relied on France to get rid of the Ottomans and even the Arabs revolted against the Ottomans even though they were fellow muslims when oppression drove them apart.

There is no such thing as Arab or Syrian national identity: there are sects, clans, families, and mafiosi running those countries.

I would say that in contrast to the Alawi sect that showed no real dissent ( because they are afraid that they will be massacred if they do and they will be massacred if they do not ) there is infighting amongst the rebels with groups fighting against each other.

At least some are fighting against IS.

No one is going to get rid of IS except the Sunnis themselves and no one is going to get rid of the regime except the Alawis themselves. As long as they ally with the regime they will unfortunately suffer its fate.

As for interpreting my writings that is actually the ultimate case of Ibn T’s stranglehold on the mind set of our historian in residence. It is through a single prism.

At least I have quoted my readings and references on the history of the region.

Sunflower seeds are far better than attempting to have the pet dog read to his master.

#233 AP

You often argue a point misquoting or misaddressing what I said.

I did not say you NEED to convert to the national religion to become a citizen of Israel. Just because there other ways to become a citizen, what you said does not negate my point.

I said Israel is the only country in the world where you CAN convert to the national religion, Judaism, and then claim citizenship. There is simply no other country in the world you can do this, even sectarian-based countries.

You can’t convert to Catholicism and claim you’re Irish or Italian or whatever country is considered Catholic.

Also, I did not say Israel was “the largest contributor to sectarianism” in the region. What I said was:

The creation of the “Jewish homeland” is the precedent that reinforced sectarianism in the Middle East.

That is something very different. It reinforced sectarianism. It created a precedent, a very dangerous precedent, by which a religion defined the state and the nationality.

What is really absurd is that the “international community” of 1947, presumably feeling guilty about the Nazi massacres, accepted Jewishness as a basis for a state, and since Zionists were already planning the takeover of Palestine, endorsed the
partition plan of Palestine against the wishes of the 2/3 majority of Palestine.

I might add that the UN General Assembly resolution that did so was a violation of the UN principles of self-determination as well.

AP,

By the way, I can’t let go your assertion (in #171) that Palestinians fled because their leaders told them to. There is absolutely not a shred of evidence of that. That was a lie concocted by Zionist leaders to cover up their mass expulsion preplanned by an operation under the name of Plan Dalet.

If you don’t believe the Arab historians who asserted this decades ago (Walid Khalidi comes to mind), read the more recent works of Israeli historians like Ilan Pappe, “The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine”. Pappe explains that many Arabs, even those who cooperated and were friendly with the pre-Israeli Jewish community were expelled, some long after the fighting stopped.

Pappe provides evidence with Hebrew-language Israel and pre-Israeli documents that were finally declassified recently.

Many Palestinian Arabs didn’t know what hit them, not expecting to be simply removed from their homes even if they stayed out of the fighting. Hundreds of villages were literally wiped off the map and an entire society was destroyed.

You can’t change facts by repeating these myths over and over again. They might be believed in the West out of ignorance, but hardly anyone in the region believes them save for some self-deluded Israelis who don’t want to believe that Israel was born as a result of massive war crimes.

231. Badr said: “i keep forgetting how influential this blog is with policy makers”

Yeah, right! Landis is so influential that he himself just a couple of days ago described the US position on Syria as confused.

you can tell the blog is influential because landis goes out of his way to avoid covering assad atrocities.

if he lacked reach, he would have no qualms about pointing to regime war crimes.

The situation in Dara’a is fluid and it is not clear what the outcome will be but as of now the Gazwah by Nusra et al is not going very smoothly, this can change of course but I doubt that the objectives of Islamist rebels and their cheer leaders will be met in dara’a, it is not true that the rebels attacking dara’a are different from other rebels unless you believe that some rotten cheese is less rotten than other rotten cheese, do not laugh this is exactly what rebels supporters are saying: any terrorist who is not a member of isis is a good terrorist. The rebels attacking Dara’a are the same ones who are shelling civilians and dealing with Israel as a brotherly country.
The only difference between them and the regime is that they do not have jets and helicopters to kill more civilians and infidels.
stop this war and ship Assad somewhere if you care about Syria instead of cheering the death of people you do not like or you will end up with a total Libya, something I warned about in 2011 but: “you can not fix stupid”.

231. Badr said: Yeah, right! Landis is so influential that he himself just a couple of days ago described the US position on Syria as confused.

this must be the article you referenced.

US must clarify Syria strategy

Washington’s preference to contain ISIL is also largely linked to its policy in Syria, and its desire to see President Bashar Al Assad removed from power.

remove assad? hardly.

obama foreign policy is not confused, as prof. landis very well knows. US intention telegraphed is clear by word & action.

· obama letter to khamenei promised not to touch assad
· coalition jets have not touched one hair of assad armor
· russia & iran continue to ship heavy ordnance to the regime unimpeded
· US program training rebels stressed none of it will be used to target bashar
· support for rebels making gains on the verge of taking over al-thala airbase got called off by western powers

and if this weren’t enough indication, fred hof gave away the game, pointed to the whitehouse favoring a “let them kill each other” approach:

Some two years ago, a senior White House official told visitors from Capitol Hill that there were no attractive parties in Syria: that there was merit in simply allowing the fire consuming the country to burn itself out.

when shabiha offered a choice between assad or syria burns – obama opted for both – to keep assad AND allow scorched earth policy.

this misleading “confusion” narrative serves as PR cover to camouflage obama having given the green light to prolong genocide.

the professor playing his part refuses to bring clarity and wont acknowledge the above.

link for the whitehouse favoring a “let them kill each other” approach at #254 didn’t take.

here it is: https://twitter.com/DavidKenner/status/601072388349042690

Tara.
I watched Darryl 2 years ago playing Visitor for a fool asking those same questions just for his own amusement
I wanted to warn visitor, but if you remember, he was not the easiest guy to talk to,
Then Asking you and me to leave the West because of our religion, how is he any different from ISIS mentality when it asks the minorities to leave their areas.
He has to proof to himself that he reach the truth by convincing himself that Muslims are wrong.
He remind me of an old story between Ibn Arabi and anther man who told in Arabi “I have a thousand proof about the existence of God” so Ibn Arabi told “then have a thousand doubts about him” So every time he is trying to proof that muslims are wrong is actually that is how much he has doubts in his own belief.

16. Akbar Palace said: What even makes this NYT article by Judy Rodhoren newsworthy? Israel had a vested interest in making Syria free of chemical weapons. Is that a surprise?

58. Akbar Palace said: The article didn’t bother me. I don’t dispute the content. I just wonder why it’s newsworthy. It seems whenever and Israeli drops a pin, someone has to write about it. I’m glad the Israelis tried to get chemical weapons out of Assad’s hands. Aren’t you?

…

akbar, this isn’t about chemical weapons per se, that’s just one corner of the story. this is about israel acting covertly to salvage assad’s butt.

israel offered the blueprint on how to climb down from a US strike long before russia voiced a deal. the kerry “slip” offering russia a way out was scripted theatrics, not a gaffe.

see article from aug 2013:

Putin can prevent US attack on Syria, says ex-Israeli intelligence chief

not only did israel save assad, this potemkin deal that made a big show of assad getting rid of his chemical stockpile – something that got huge play in media – acted as PR to insulated assad, allowing the regime to continue to get away with gassing people.

even the notion regime got rid of their Self Declared stockpile was a charade:

The allegations of chlorine use come as the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons has reported progress in its effort to rid the world of the Syrian regime’s chemical weapons. The organization says just 16 tons of the 1,300-ton Syrian stockpile remain to be destroyed.

this is of a piece. it’s not just the chem deal. netanyahu also lobbied to implement an arms embargo and acted to deny rebels from getting manpads – condemning innocent syrians to be carpet bombed every day.

israeli shenanigans exposed confirmed their already stated agenda.

headline: Israel Says Assad Must Stay

ponder the implication for a minute. bottom line: israel acted to spare an iranian asset. why is netanyahu doing favors for khamenei when israel claims iran is an existential threat??

this is why this story is such a mind blower.

the israeli plot above confirms this former CIA chief’s assertion that was noted at #220 :

It is important to remember that Israel has never wished to see democracy among the Arabs, whether in Palestine or anywhere else.

israeli ruling class prefer to keep bashar Hitler and for arab masses to remain enslaved.

Mr. Sim
You are, absolutely right, Omen stormed the comments section like the overwhelming flood. He posted 35 times on one article here. Seems that the management of the site mean his service in this way specifically.

moderator:
please remove the black hole from my path.

No comment

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?????? ?? ?????? ???? ????? ?????? ?? ???? ???????? ???? ??? ???? ?? ????? ??? ??? ??? ?? ????? ??????? ??????? ??????? ?? ??? ???? ?? ????? ????? ?? ??????? ???? ???? ???????? ?? ??????? ????? ?? ??????. ??? ???? ?????????? ?? ??? ??? ????? ??????? ?? ??? ???? ????? ?????? ?? ????? ??? ????? ??????? ?????? ??????? ?????????? ????????? ??? ??? ??????? ???? ????? «??? ????» ??????????? ???????? ??? ????? 2012 ?????? 2014 ?????? ?????? ?????? ????? ??? ????? ???? ???????. ??? ???? ??????? ???? ???? ???? ??? ?? ????? ??? «???? 1 ?2» ??? ??? ???????? ??????? ?????? ?????? ??????? ?? ????? ?? ???????? ?? ??? ????? ????? ??? ?? ????? ????? ?? ??????? ??? ???????? ??????? ??????? ???? ??????? ??????? – ??????? ???????? ??? ??????? ??????.

??? ??? ?? ?????? ?? ?? ?????? ?? ???? ????? «??????» ???????? ????????. ?????? ??? ????? ???????? ????? ????? ??? ??? ??????? ???? ???? ????? ??????? ?????? ?????? ????. ?????? «????? ?? ?? ???» ?»????? ?? ???? ?????» ?? ????? ?? ??????? «??????» ?????? ?? ?? «????????????» ???? ???? ?????? ???? ??????? ?????. ??? ???? ???? ?? ??? ??????? ??????? «?????» ?????? ??? ????? ???? ??? ?????? ??? ???? ????? ??????? ??? ????? ?? ??? ??????? ?????? ??? ?????? ???? ????? ??????? ?????? ???????? ??????. ???? ??? ???????? ???????? ?????????? ???? ?? ???? ??????? ?? ??????? ??? ?????? ?? «???????? ??????????»? ?? ???? ??????? «???????» ??????? «?????-???? ???????» ??????? ??????? «???????» ????? ??????…

??? ???????? ????????? ????? ?? ???? ?? ?? ????? ?? ???? ?? ??????? ????? ??????? ??? ?? ????? ??? ?? ????? ???????? ??? ?? ??????? ???????? ????????? ???????? ?????????? ?? ???? ?????? ?????? ?????? ???? ???????????? ????? ?? ????? «?? ??? ??????». ??????? ?? ?? ??? ?????? ???? ???????? ?? ??????? ??????? ?? ?????? ???????? ????? ?????? ?????? ?? ??? ?? «??? ????» ?? ???? ?????. ???? ???? ?? ?? ??????? ???? ?? ??????? ???? ????? ??? ????? «????????» ??? ???? ??????? ?? ?????? ?? ????? ???? ?? ?????? ???? ????? ???????? ????????? «????????? ?????? ????? «????????»? ?? ??? ????? ?????? ?????? ?? ???? ??? ????? ???? ??? ?????? ??? ??????? ??????? ???? ??? ???? ???? ?? ????? ??? ???? «????» ?? «???? ??????» ??????? ??????? ?? «?????????? ???????» ???? ??????? ???? ?? ?????.

?? ??? ?? ???? ?? ????? ???? ???? ??? «????? ?????» ?? «?????»? ??? ???????? ???? ???????? ??? ????? ????? ????? ????? ????? ??????? ?????? ??????? ????? ????? ???? ??????: ?? ?????? ??? ?? ?????? ???? ?? ????? ?????? ??????? ?? ??????? ?? ???????? ??????? ???????? ??? ???? ????? ????? ?? ???? ??????? ??? ??? ???? «???? – ??? ??????» ???????? ?? ??????? ??? ??????? ?????? ???? ????? ?????? ???? ?????? ???? ???? ??? ??????? ??? ???? ?????? ??? ???? ????? ??? ??? ???????? ?????? ??? ???????? ??? ????? ????? ??? ???? ???? ?????? ?????? ?????? ????? ??? «??? ?????» ? «????»? ???? ???? ???????? ????? ?? «??? ?????» ??????? ????? ?? «???? ??????» ?? ????? ?????? ?? ??? ????? ?????? ???? ????? ??? ????? «????» ???? ????? ???? ?????? ?? ?????? ???? ??? ????? ??????? ??????? ??????? ??????? ??????? ?? ???? «???? ???????»? ??????? ?? ?? «????» ?????? ????? ?? «????? ??????? ???????» ???? ???? ??? ????? ???? ?????/ ?????? ??????? ??????? ?????? ?????? ??????? ?????? ??????? ???????? ??????? ???????? ??? «??? ???» (??? ???????) ?? ??????? ?????? ?????? ????? ?????? ?????? ????? ?? ????? ?? ???? ???? ?????? ???? ????? ????? ????? ??????? «??? ???» ????????.

??? ???? ?? ?????? ????? ?????? ????????? ??? ?? ??????? ???? ???? ?? «??????» ?????? ?? ?? ???????? ???? ???? ???????? ???????? ???? ???? ????? ?? ??? ???? ?????? ??? ??????? «???????-?????» ??????? ??? ????? ????? ?????? ????? ????? ???????? ???????? ?????? ???? ???? ??????? ?????? ?? ???????? ????? ?? ???? ?? ???? ?? ????? ??? ??? ???? ??? ??????? ?????? ?????? ?????? ??? ?? ?? ????? ???? ????? ?????? ?? ????? ?? ????? ??? ?? ??? ?????? ?? ?? ????? ???? ???? ?? ???? ????? ??????? ?? ??? ?????.

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

???? ???? ????? ????? ?? ???? ????? ???? ???? ????? ???????? ???? ????? ?? ??? ?????? ?????????? ??? ????? ????? ?????? ???? ???? ??? ??? ?? «?????» ??? ?????? ?????? ??????? ?? ???? ??? ????? ?? ????????. ??? ??? ?????? ????? ?? ??? ?????? ????????? ???????? ?? ???? ?????????? ???? ????? ??? ?? ?????? ??? ????? ??? ????? ?????. ?????? ??? ??????? ?? ?????? ?? ??? ????? ??? ?????? ???????? ??? ?????? ?? ??? ?????? ?????? ?? ???????? ????? ????? ???? ?????? ??????? ???? ?? ??? ??? ???????. ??? ???????? ??? ?????? ??????? ????? ??? ???? ?????? ????? ????????? ????? ??? ???? ?????? ??? ??? ?????? ?? ??????? ????. ??? ???? ????????? ???? ?? ????.

The battle of Deraa is an attrition battle to the regime, if he loses Deraa It is expected Bashar will remove ,M Freige, Jamil Al Hassan, and Ali Mamlook, Deraa battle is expected to take ten days,

Erdogan is a psychopat. Blaming the Kurds for demographic changes! What about the Turks in Anatolia pushing away the Greeks in the 20s?
And you wonder why he is best friend with Israel?
http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/2/8/133854/World/Region/Turkey-will-never-allow-Kurdish-state-in-Syria,-wa.aspx

Altair,

Thanks for keeping the discussion respectful. I really walk a fine-line here in discussions about Israel. I feel the need to provide a different POV and clarify myths and misconceptions. However, I don’t want this website, which is dedicated to Syria, to become Israel-centric. Israel is a neighbor of Syria like Iraq, Lebanon, Jordan, Iran and Turkey, so in that sense, discussion of Israel is certainly fair game.

I did not say you NEED to convert to the national religion to become a citizen of Israel. Just because there other ways to become a citizen, what you said does not negate my point.

I said Israel is the only country in the world where you CAN convert to the national religion, Judaism, and then claim citizenship. There is simply no other country in the world you can do this, even sectarian-based countries.

Altair,

I had to read and reread your statements above to make sure I answered your question to your satisfaction. I don’t claim to be the smartest and most articulate poster here!

The answer is (drum roll…), I don’t know if “…Israel is the only country in the world where you CAN convert to the national religion, Judaism, and then claim citizenship.”.

But let’s discuss! All citizens of Saudi Arabia MUST BE muslim. Period. 25% of Israel is gentile (aka “non-jewish”). If I am a Saudi citizen, and I marry a Swedish woman, can she get Saudi citizenship? Does she need to convert to Islam? In Israel, the non-jewish spouse COULD convert to judaism and get citizenship rather quickly, or just wait a longer time to get citizenship under some naturalization process.
Here is an interesting article from Haaretz:

http://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/irf/2005/51609.htm

http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/shavuot/.premium-1.596678

In summary, the fact is you “CAN convert” to gain citizenship, or you just have to be married to an Israeli. What’s the big deal? In any case, Israel’s citizenship laws are much more liberal than those of Islamic states like Saudi Arabia. And you don’t get thrown in jail if you accidentally carry a christian bible down the street!

this is why this story is such a mind blower.

Omen,

I clicked on the link “Assad mut stay”, and I saw a picture of a british newspaper, but had difficulty reading the article in the picture. Also your other link didn’t work.

The GOI, IMHO, is VERY concerned about ANY NBC weapons in Syria no matter who controls them. Here’s an article I found.

I did a google search on “israel assad chemical weapons” and found numerous articles about how israel is alarmed about Syrian cemical weapons. So here is what you can do for me Omen. Please post as many links as possible showing:

a.) Someone currently in the Israeli government wanting Assad to remain in power. Or even better, someone current in the Israeli cabinet stating that.

b.) A link showing that someone in the Israeli government wanted Assad to keep his chemical weapons.

Is that what you are claiming?

http://nypost.com/2015/03/01/israeli-mole-flushed-out-assad-chemical-weapons-plot/

What kind of people are you Akbar?

What kind of people are jews? Well, we’re a small group of crazy people, that’s for sure. Smart, dumb, liberal, conservative, religious, secular, kind, gruff, strict, “stiff-necked”, neurotic, hard-working, lazy, business savy, criminal, law-abiding….just like every one else.

Just 14 to 16 million people who get too much attention.;)

Let me know if you find that RT article about arab wages in Egypt or any other non-jewish country;)

/What kind of people are jews?/

?The main task of Zionist board is to ease the mind of the public by criticism, to wean from the reflections that cause resistance to divert power of the mind to a gunfight empty rhetoric. To take public opinion in hand, it is necessary to put it in bewilderment, by expressing different sides to so many contradictory opinions as Gentiles do not get lost in the maze of them do not realize that it is best not to have any opinion on policy issues that society does not have to be in charge, because that knows them only one who directs the society.

The main task of Zionist board is to ease the mind of the public by criticism…

Alan,

It’s real simple for me. I can swallow criticism of Israel or jews if the person criticizing can also do the same for others or can intelligently place blame on jews or any person who is responsible.

In the case of Syria, since the “Arab Awakening” and the demonstrations in Der’aa, only a handful of Syrians met an early death due to military action by jews (bombing of Syrian weapons stores provided by Iran). The vast majority of deaths have been arab-on-arab and muslim-on-muslim. That is just the facts. If you pick up a gun and kill someone (innocent or guilty), I am not going to blame Israel or joos.

Fortunately, on this website, there are many intelligent posters who understand what I’m saying. You’re not one of them.

If you pick up a gun and kill everyone not in harmony with you, I am not going to blame palestinians, arabs or muslims!
For me I am very happy being outside the scope of your praise.
With regard to Jews, i do not hate anyone. Our jews need to live with us and other jews are not our citizens, so, have to go back where they came from without exception!
free Palestine from foreigner jews.

free Palestine from foreigner jews

Alan,

Thank you for posting the “battle cry” of every red-blooded Resistance Pro™.

Your job is to make sure the Resistance Pros™ aim in the right direction and kill the right “people”. Ooops!

Do you think that all nations can swallow a status fait accompli? otherwise ….. “battle cry”..red-blooded Resistance Pro™… !!!
No not like this. Our territory is not alternative home or refuge for exiles mobs or brainwashed others.

A new study by the Brooking institute about Syria

Deconstructing Syria: Towards a regionalized strategy for a confederal country
“U.S. policy towards Syria since the Arab spring uprisings of 2011 has been a litany of miscalculation, frustration, and tragedy for the people of that ill-fated land. The ascendance of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) as the major element of the opposition to the Bashar al-Assad regime may not amount to an imminent threat to American security; indeed, very few Americans have died to date at the hands of ISIL or affiliates. But ISIL’s rise does place at much greater risk the security of Iraq, the future of Syria itself, and the stability of Lebanon and Jordan. It could jeopardize the safety of American citizens as well, given the possibility of attacks by “lone wolves” inspired in their western home by ISIL propaganda, or by westerners returning from the Syrian jihad to carry out attacks at home. Massacres on a par with the Charlie Hebdo tragedy, or worse, could easily occur in the United States. The potency of the al-Nusra organization, al Qaeda’s loyal affiliate, within the Syrian opposition is also of considerable concern…..”

http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/research/files/papers/2015/06/23-syria-strategy-ohanlon/23syriastrategyohanlon.pdf

???? ????? ????? ?? 17 ???? ?? ???? ???????? ???????? ???????????? ?????? :
?????* ????? .. ?????? ?????????? ??????? ????? ???????????

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

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

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

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

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

One could expect a much more vigorous response to Islamist terrorist attacks on multiple targets on three continents, but that does not happen when most victims are Muslims (Kuwait) or when the attack is small(France)or when it took place in a third world country (Tunisia).
It will take a much larger attack on Western soil for western politicians to understand that you can not appease or have a dialogue with terrorists motivated by a sick religious ideology. Muslims are also in denial, they still can not see that they are being used and abused and that killing other Muslims(or non Muslims)for theological reasons will not give them a ticket to heaven (a promise in every religious book that is mostly used to pacify oppressed and poor people).
The most disturbing aspect of all of this is that there are Muslims who sympathize with ISIS et al and others who hypocritically talk about freedom but endorse groups that still believe in dividing people into believers and non believers (and act of that classification) and insist on keeping women in the cage they call “Fadilah and Ihtisham” (modesty and virtue) but in reality it is a form of religious slavery.
Keep following the mirage of trying to find goodness in the filth of organized and violent militant religious groups, some of you are their best customers and victims: angry and confused educated Muslims with money.

AB Atwan calls out the hypocrites in the GCC and beyond who are pretending to care that dozens of innocent civilians were killed by ISIS yesterday:
?????? ???? ?????? ???? ???? ??????? ????????? ??????? ????????? ???? ????? ???? ?????? ?????? ?????? ?? ??? ??????? ????? ?????? ?? ????? ????? ???? ??????? ??????? ???????? ????? ?? ??? ?????? ?? ??????? ?????? ?????? ??????? ??? ?????? ????? ????? ???????? ?????? ??????? ?????? ?????? ???? ?? ????? ????????? ?????? ?????? ?? ?????? ??????? ?????? ?????? ????? ??????? ????????? ??????? ??????? ????? ??????? ????? ??? ????? ??????????? ??? ?????? ?? ???? ???? ???????.
?????? “????? ?????” ???????? ???????? ???? ?? ?? ?????? ??? ???? ??????? ????????? ?????? ????? ?????? ??????? ??? ?????? ???? ????? ??????? ???????? ????????? ????????????? ????? ??? ?? ????????? ???? ???? ?????? ??????????? ???????? ???????? ???????? ?? ??? ????????? ????? ??? ??????? ????????? ?????? ????? ??????? ?????? ????? ?????? ??????? ??? ???????? ??????? ?????????? ?????????? ?????? ?? ???? ??????? ?????? ??????? ???????? ????? ???? “?????? ?????????” ???? ?? ?????? ?????? ?????? “???? ?????”? ?? ????? ??????? ???????? ??? ???? ???
????????? ?????????? ???? ????????? ?? ?????? ??????
Kuwait is a major source of financial support for Islamist militant groups, it is 40% shia (with little representation in government) and its parliament if heavily influenced by and terrified from islamists.
Tunisia is among the top human donors to ISIS but it also housed the first Arab “spring” and was ruled by Islamists until last year.

So “Omen”, you maintain that if Landis were to post similar things to the following, it would change Obama’s policy on Syria? I doubt it.

The Civil War in Syria Is Invisible—but This Anonymous Film Collective Is Changing That

By Moustafa Bayoumi
The Nation

Q: 203. omen said: anyways, alan, i was wondering, are you the son of an oligarch back home?

A: *crickets*

da, i’ll take that as a “yes.”

so you are here to salvage your inheritance at the expense of a million dead syrians.

259. ALAN said: Mr. Sim You are, absolutely right, Omen stormed the comments section like the overwhelming flood. He posted 35 times on one article here. Seems that the management of the site mean his service in this way specifically. moderator: please remove the black hole from my path.

oh my god what a crybaby. about what i expect from a spoiled rich kid.
you have long monopolized this board, flooding the forum.

263. Akbar Palace

you are purposely being obtuse & refusing to acknowledge ramification. israel plotted to rescue assad from being held accountable. that bashar remains in power today is thanks to tel aviv. you should be outraged. this is tantamount to brits rescuing hitler (under the pretense of removing zyklon b) and prolonging the holocaust.

you would not have stood still for that.

israel plotted to rescue assad

Omen,

I’m on your side. I can’t stand Assad nor his buddies in Lebanon and Iran. Just provide a couple of good links in English showing Israel aided Assad in some way. I would be HAPPY to criticize the GOI if they supported Assad in ANY way.

As I recall, most Israelis and American jews were angry when Obama ignored his own CW red line when Assad started using CW against his own people. Obama was supposed to teach Assad a lesson. Sure.

…this is tantamount to brits rescuing hitler (under the pretense of removing zyklon b) and prolonging the holocaust.

War is an odd/ugly thing. The allies freed the camps to end ww2. But they could have bombed them years earlier. I have no answers.

Omen,

“Israel plotted to rescue assad”

That is one interpretation for them suggesting to disarm assad. pwrsonally I just think Israel acted for its best interests. They wanted CW gone, and having bombed Assad would not have gotten them out of Syria.

Granted Israel did not do that from the kindness of its own heart towards the Syrian people, but rather saw it as the best possible means to get a threat neutralized under the watch of the international community.

did they help pave the way for Obama to back out and prolong Assads life? Yes. That was not their target nor intention. The CW were and they got what they wanted. As long as Syria is divided, weak and its people fighting each other, Israel doesn’t care who call himself president for life of Syria.

I think Sami is on the right track. The Israelis supported the SLA for many years, as they had the infrastructure. Israelis support the grassroots Syrian looking for freedom, but they probably don’t have the infrastructure to supercede Assad and isis.

I had an interesting conversation with an educated Islamist before the war started in 2011. The man did not hide his contempt towards alawites but was smart enough to acknowledge that due to the current composition of Syria’s army and security forces a violent change would not be in Syria’s best interest but rather a long and focused political movement because he felt that a change at the top would lead to a desirable outcome for Syria in his views. What rebels did was exactly the opposite and what they achieved was not something to be proud of. Rebels and their supporters inside and outside Syria managed to inflict a lot of damage on the regime and the army but the damage to Syria and Syrians was much worse and for that I consider this armed rebellion a failure because most Syrians today are worse off after more than four years of war.
Israel did what is best for Israel and realized early on that the best situation is one with continuous internal hostilities with no real chance of one side dominating, as always Arabs and Muslims played along and proved that their reputation as useful idiots is well deserved.

277.

cling to your fairy tales, palace.

Omen said Israel plotted to rescue Assad, this news were all over the internet, however Assad gave up Chemical weapons, knowing that will help Israel and intended to please Israel and USA, so Assad plotted against Arab and to help Israel, this was treason, major treason, yet you see his supporters never got mad of him, and they call themselves resistant , they only resist their people, I do however admire Israel democracy, but Israel is racist country, as they want to call Israel a Jewish state, even that they have over one million Palestinians

Syrian,

Did you notice that Darryl disappeared after we exposed him and his book?

And all that time he did not know that we know exactly where he asks his hate-full questions about the Quraanic verse. He told me once he read the Quraan, understood it and picked the “contentious” verses. I let him… While all along I knew his source. I like to let people live their perceived minute of fame! Hehe. ?? ??? ?????. ???? ??? .??? ?????? ????

Omen said Israel plotted to rescue Assad, this news were all over the internet… I do however admire Israel democracy, but Israel is racist country, as they want to call Israel a Jewish state, even that they have over one million Palestinians

Majedkhaldoun,

I don’t claim to know as much as you, Omen and others on this forum. Can you post a couple of these links that are apparently “all over the internet” showing how the GOI “rescued Assad” ? Thanks.

Can you tell the forum how Israel is a “racist country”? What im looking for is something like, for example, would be before civil rights in the US (1964), blacks (and jews) could not attend some schools, colleges, restaurants or country clubs. Separate bathrooms and water fountains, etc. Again, thanks in advance.

Tara
???? ????? ? ????? ?????
? ?????? ?? ????? ? ??????

Omen said Israel plotted to rescue Assad, this news were all over the internet… I do however admire Israel democracy, but Israel is racist country, as they want to call Israel a Jewish state, even that they have over one million Palestinians

Majedkhaldoun,

I don’t claim to know as much as you, Omen and others on this forum. Can you post a couple of these links that are apparently “all over the internet” showing how the GOI “rescued Assad” ? Thanks.

Can you tell the forum how Israel is a “racist country”? What im looking for is something like, for example, would be before civil rights in the US (1964), blacks (and jews) could not attend some schools, colleges, restaurants or country clubs. Separate bathrooms and water fountains, etc. Again, thanks in advance.

Does anybody have an idea on how to stop this war in Syria,

Majedkhaldoun,

Here’s a neat website you may want to look at to see how racist Israel is today. How are Palestinians doing outside of israel?

http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/p/eoz-posters-for-apartheid-week.html?m=1

Norman,

Yes. Solve the Israel – Palestine conflict.

263. Akbar Palace said: So here is what you can do for me Omen. Please post as many links as possible showing:

b.) A link showing that someone in the Israeli government wanted Assad to keep his chemical weapons. [i never even suggested this]

…

dont treat us like we are stupid, palace. you dont get to set parameters. your lawyerly evasion meant to discredit evidence is transparent. we will cite whomever we please or whatever we find relevant.

some of the best sources are former officials. current ones are hampered from what they are able to disclose because of restrictions inherent to their position. and just because sources are former officials should not disqualify them from being heeded. especially when scenarios play out exactly like how they have called them. judge the outcome, not the pedigree.

Ghufran 278,
When I see that the “Erdogan enthusiasts” here have nothing to say on his declaration, and pretend to be sad for the Yazidis and want freedom for the Kurds, it just remembers me that people in Syria were told to manifest against al-Asad because he was an Israeli spy and now they see as normal that Jabhat al Nusra gets full treatment in Israeli hospitals.

I am not surprised that rebels supporters changed their narrative about Israel and Islamist thugs because to most of them the problem is neither Israel nor nusra ( or Isis until lately).
Think ” tanks” speaking on behalf of rebels kept pumping air in the inflatable toy they invented, the FSA, until it popped, then they came up with jaish alfat’h which is essentially nusra.
The CIA is giving up on finding fighters from ” moderate” rebels who were willing to fight Isis to the point that the program may never see the light. The same rebels who are supposed to fight Isis are the ones who joined nusra and smuggled weapons to Isis and got rich, they see the West as a cash cow and they will be the first to attack USA interests if they find the right opportunity and a better employer. This war should not have started because it was obvious that it will lead to a long and fruitless hostilities that destroys Syria and generates a lot of refugees and brings more misery and internal divisions to Syria.
Rebel leaders were taped praising Islamist thugs calling them ” brothers” and most rebel brigades have clear militant ideology and slogans and many have adopted names reflecting that ideology.
The regime can not rule Syria but the same is true for rebels, and that leaves Syrian with the unfortunate reality that the country for the near future will remain a fractured and dangerous place that is controlled by war lords and foreign powers, and to make things worse, the war made Syria a magnet for terrorists but do not expect western scholars to admit that western intervention in Iraq and their support for GCC emirates was crucial for the emergence of Isis and nusra, those scholars prefer the convenient explanation that the regime is the reason why Isis controls an area in Syria and Iraq the size of the land stretch between Illinois and Virginia.
Read what western scholars say but do not accept it as is, the truth is usually more complex and less sexy than what those scholars are willing to admit especially when it involves Israel, Iran and western policy disasters, at the end of the day we are all Bedouins in the eyes of many if not most ” experts”, that reminds me to check on my goat in the garage !!

loyalists often complain of islamist thugs & GCC head choppers. oppositionists in turn are forced to remind them assad himself let jihadists out of prison in order to implicate the revolution.

but it’s one thing to be told that – yet another to see the history laid out before you.

@iyad_elbaghdadi recently did riff covering this:

The new anti-Syrian-revolution apologism goes: “Assad is bad, I’m not defending him, but come on, he’s surely not as bad as ISIS is he?”

If you truly think that Assad is “against terrorism” and not a “facilitator of terrorism”, please browse the following tweets.

Assad release Jihadists from Seidnaya prison, trained them, and sent them to join the anti-US Iraqi jihad in 2003 bit.ly/1dhkvCO

If Assad facilitated Jihadists in Iraq in 2003, what makes you think he won’t do it in Syria in 2011/2 when faced with popular revolution?

The the same time Assad was arresting Syrian pro-democracy students and activists in 2011/2 why did he release the Jihadists?

Why did Assad release Zahran Alloush, the current leader of Jaysh al Islam, from Seidnaya prison on 5 June 2011?

Why did Assad release Hassan Abboud, the later founder of Ahrar al Sham, from Seidnaya prison in August 2011?

Why did Assad release Abu Malik Al Talli, the later top commander in Jabhat al Nusra in Qalamoun, from Seidnaya prison in 2011?

Why did Assad release Abul Abbas al Shami, the latter top commander in Ahrar al Sham, from Seidnaya prison in July 2011?

Why did Assad release Abu Ali Al Shar’i, the later ISIS judge (who even ISIS thought was too extreme), from Seidnaya prison in 2011?

Why did Assad release Mohammad Hayder Al-Zammar, a 9/11 recruiter and later ISIS commander and ABM funder, from prison in 2013?

Do I need to ask more? Or is it clear that Assad facilitated Jihadism in order to kill the original pro-democratic Syrian revolution?

Rule #1 for summoning demons is that you should be able to make them go away. Assad summoned Jihadism and couldn’t make it go away.

…

hmm…why do loyalists not hold ASSAD accountable for releasing extremists, i wonder. maybe the saudis are to blame for that too.

by the way, this isnt something loyalists already dont know. they just prefer to set up strawmen to knock around to take focus off their support for a genocidal mad man.

284. Norman said:

Does anybody have an idea on how to stop this war in Syria,

285. Akbar Palace said:

Norman, Yes. Solve the Israel – Palestine conflict.

…

ok, i’ll bite. HOW will peace with palestine serve to stop assad’s daily carpet-bombing of civilians?

what assurance do you need to make this stop?

ok, i’ll bite. HOW will peace with palestine serve to stop assad’s daily carpet-bombing of civilians?

Omen,

You bit on my sarcasm. My statement is the typical American and European obsession, namely that if you fix the Arab – Israeli conflict, peace in the ME will follow.

I think we both know, it won’t do anything to stop “assad’s daily carpet-bombing of civilians”.

The Christians, led by the Pope, are taking up fight against climate change as a moral cause, whereas the Sunni keeps up their tradition of fighting the infidels. There has never been a shortage of radicals slaughter other humans in the name of Allah.

The voice of the moderate Muslims is too faint to be heard; the term of silent moderate is an oxymoron. Then there are those Syrian expats who support the rebels in Syria yet do not even dare to set their feet in Allah-liberated land are just plain gutless hypocrites.

Writing at my I pad putting my comments in moderation

The advisors of Bashar believe they have four months of hard time, if they can survive them they will be O.K.
I wonder why! Yes they are doing survival tactic, but what could four months do to this regime? Is the time on their side? Is Iran capable of getting a nuclear bomb, or nuclear deal include Syria, things indicate that Assad will be in worst situation in the next few months, not better

Today we hear that the Iran deal is postponed few more months

Akbar,

Why doesn’t Bebe who seems to hold all the cards present his plan for a solution, it might get accepted, Let him impose his vision for safe Jewish Israel

The US decided to place a number of politicians from the opposition on a watch list where they have to apply for visa and can not be given a decision right away, many may never be issued visas, the reason given is security concerns and potential links to terrorists groups.
The names published by Arabic media include:
???? ?????? ?????? ???????
???? ????? ???? ???????
?. ??? ?????? ???? ???????
????? ???? ???????
???? ???? ??? ???????
??? ????? ??? ?????? ??? ???????
????? ???? ????? ???????
???? ?????? ????????
???? ??????? ????????
??? ????? ???????
?. ???? ???????? ???????
: ?. ???? ???? ????? ???????
????? ???? ???????
?????? ??????? ???????
???? ?????? ???????
???? ???? ???????
???? ???? ???????
???? ???? ???????
???? ????? ???????
?. ???? ??? ??? ???????
I can not verify the accuracy of the list but the news was reported by opposition sites and not only pro regime sites.
Lesson: to them we are all Bedouins !!

“moderate” rebels shelled Damascus, again, killing civilians, again.
This time the attack targeted Saouja market (Souq) and Al-Amara neighborhood. Keep lying to yourselves and the readers by claiming that rebels did not commit war crimes and did not target civilians !!
Furthermore, it is not just regime forces that fire on protestors, rebels did that on a number of occasions, the latest was 2 days ago:
Hundreds of residents living in the rebel-held district of Hamourieh in the Eastern Ghouta took the streets on Friday to voice anger as living conditions became unbearably dire.
Rebels fired at the crowd killing one man and injuring others.

299. GHUFRAN
/Lesson: to them we are all Bedouins !!/
Who are we? the lesson is that those all who are in DC just Pindoses!
Honestly, for US it is a real drop in the ocean of the amount of expendable human material!

So ghufran you keep saying the regime is criminal and needs to go. Please tell us how do you propose doing this:
1. ICC?
2. Syrian Criminal court
3. Fighting till the end and death of the regime in a violent manner
4. Sit and talk and smoke a cigar with the regime
5. Send him an email asking him to leave
6. Arab intervention force
7. UN intervention force
Also what would you ask the opposition to do:
1. Peaceful protest ( we have been doing this one way or another for sixty plus years )
2. Accept the regime as is
3. Accept the regime as is first and then accept their cosmetic reforms?
4. Wait for Russia to put pressure
5. Wait for Iran to put pressure
6. Wait for the insiders to give up their status

You know no one gives a hoot about your postings. You really have nothing new to say and you have no principle to stand by.

Spare us the yawning posts once and for all

Observer,

You won’t get an answer.

Akbar,

Why doesn’t Bebe who seems to hold all the cards present his plan for a solution, it might get accepted, Let him impose his vision for safe Jewish Israel

Norman,

Thanks for asking. Firstly, Israel DOESN’T hold all the cards. Not sure where you got that idea. The Palis have to sign the agreement. And what about Hamas? The best deal was proposed in 2000/2001 with PM Barak. Palis get 1/2 of Jerusalem old city, 95% of WB and small parts of pre-67 Israel + $90 billion for infrastructure. Details on demilitarization, verification, etc TBD. Arafat walked away with no counter offer.

You may want to ask the Palis why they won’t sign an agreement like this. End of conflict. Peace. I think the Palis refuse to end claims against Israel no matter what and are most happy with the status quo.

The Syrian war is a regional and international war which has reached a stalemate, Syrians fighting for or against the regime can not win. For this war to end we need the big players to agree on the price for asking their agents and proxy fighters to lay down their weapons.
I understand why my posts are making some people uneasy, I speak the truth and I criticize both sides which is a sin in the eyes of pro and anti regime bloggers.
Rebels supporters have no intention to see justice served, they just want vengeance, this is why they want a total military victory and the freedom to establish “courts” that will undoubtedly prosecute regime supporters ONLY. If a court is established it needs to be an international court and it should not be dominated by NATO countries.
Arabs are too guilty and too incompetent to do any thing except killing other Arabs, I would not trust them with any thing when it comes to Syria.
What rebels should do is stop attacking the Syrian army, and the Syrian army needs to stop attacking rebel positions. Keep in mind that
I do not consider Nusra and ISIS as rebels, they are terrorists and must be expelled along with shia militias and forces from other sides.
Excluding Iran early on and then for 4 years was a clear sign that NATO and GCC did not want the war to stop, you make peace with your enemies not your friends.
In summary, I do not think Arabs can be trusted to mediate or intervene, they bombed Yemen mostly because they could, they would have bombed Syria a long time ago if they could. A political decision to stop the war can open new windows, this decision is waiting on Iran and the US to reach a deal, if they do not, this war will continue.
The corruption of good minds on this blog is a clear sign of deterioration in the Syrian collective psyche, no political solution can fix this but if the war stops most Syrians may start using their brain again.

Why prostitutes have such a bad reputation? .. Welcome to american mediocracy.

* * * * * * * * *
memo 304. GHUFRAN
German’s Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier in an interview with Welt am Sonntag, published on Sunday, spoke about the role of Russia in settlement of international conflicts
The foreign minister also shared thoughts about the role of Germany.
“We should not overestimate our abilities and should not demonstrate muscles,” he said. “the international community trusts us and is expecting our political and diplomatic steps regarding major conflicts. We should not reject this responsibility.”

Arabs are too guilty and too incompetent to do any thing except killing other Arabs, I would not trust them with any thing when it comes to Syria.

Ghufran,

Now that we have ur opinion, please don’t ask Israelis to be more pro-arab than you are.

Turkey will decide tomorrow how to respond and protect Turkish security

A. p.
You did not answer me do you prefer freedom over democracy, or democracy over freedom
That is important as there would be time Palastinians inside Israel will exceed the number of jews

Twitter whistleblower Fuat Avni wrote in the early hours of Saturday that President Erdo?an is concerned about what the anonymous account alleged to be secret coalition efforts between the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) and the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) and that a Syrian war appears to be the only way to create chaos that will lead to increased support for the AK Party.
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2015/06/the-turkish-military-rejects-erdogans-war-plans-false-flag-needed.html#comments

When did I ask or expect Israel to be pro Arab ?
Arabs are largely responsible for their miserable state of affairs but that does not mean Israel and NATO are innocent, just look at the Middle East recent history and see why I said Arabs were useful idiots while others were playing ball with the region’s stability.

You did not answer me do you prefer freedom over democracy, or democracy over freedom
That is important as there would be time Palastinians inside Israel will exceed the number of jews

Majedkhaldoun,

To me, denrocracy and freedom go hand-in-hand and they cannot exist without the other.

If the number of non-Jews supercedes the number of jews, I’m not concerned. Coalitions will have to be formed. You may be able to ignore 10% of a population, but not 49%.

So if Palastinians are 70% would you accept a man like Abbas becomes Prime minister or president of Israel

Majedkhaldoun,

Yes. He can’t be any worse than Obama!

/be pro Arab /?
AP
Your repeating this point shows that you are looking for an excuse 4 Israel to kill the arabs, right?
Would be good to advised Israelis not to play with our affairs

That is true

One big problem today with the Syrian opposition is that the only factions that are making military advances are Nusra and ISIS (both terrorist organizations)and both groups are not interested in allowing politicians to form a government or rule any parts of Syria.
Keep in mind that the SNC of hired politicians can not openly support parties that are considered unacceptable by NATO countries but at the same time they want to see the regime lose more ground and suffer more casualties. It is crystal clear that the Syrian opposition has no strategy and no leadership, no wonder that their influence is limited to the internet and TV stations, the real influence in Syria on the anti regime camp is for islamist terrorists and their cousins, there is no way to escape this fact in any discussion without losing credibility.

you are looking for an excuse 4 Israel to kill the arabs

Ahlan,

Er, yes. I’m “…looking for an excuse 4 Israel to kill the arabs…”. And I’m thinking it may be the same excuse Assad, Iran and Hezbollah employ. What do you think Ahlan?

Why won’t you let Israel kill arabs like ur Resistance Pro™ friends?

Israel should put the plan out in the open before the EU recognize a Palestinian state with 67 border, without Israel input, The West understands Israel position but they want a move toward two states even if Israel wants a non militarized Palestinian state, The Palestinians do not need heavy weapons if the US can have Military bases in the West bank and Gaza and promise their security

303. Akbar Palace said: Norman, Thanks for asking. Firstly, Israel DOESN’T hold all the cards. Not sure where you got that idea. The Palis have to sign the agreement. And what about Hamas? The best deal was proposed in 2000/2001 with PM Barak. Palis get 1/2 of Jerusalem old city, 95% of WB and small parts of pre-67 Israel + $90 billion for infrastructure. Details on demilitarization, verification, etc TBD. Arafat walked away with no counter offer.

first of all, it’s not a “deal” if barak lacked the decency to even put ephemeral proposals down on paper.

is it considered generous when a thief disingenuously offers back a crumb of the very thing he has stolen?

You may want to ask the Palis why they won’t sign an agreement like this. End of conflict. Peace. I think the Palis refuse to end claims against Israel no matter what and are most happy with the status quo.

of course, like anybody, palestinians are little ants who are thrilled with being eternally stomped on by goliath. status quo.

Asghar.p. you are looking more better without mask.

300. ghufran said: “moderate” rebels shelled Damascus, again, killing civilians, again. This time the attack targeted Saouja market (Souq) and Al-Amara neighborhood. Keep lying to yourselves and the readers by claiming that rebels did not commit war crimes and did not target civilians !! Furthermore, it is not just regime forces that fire on protestors, rebels did that on a number of occasions, the latest was 2 days ago: Hundreds of residents living in the rebel-held district of Hamourieh in the Eastern Ghouta took the streets on Friday to voice anger as living conditions became unbearably dire. Rebels fired at the crowd killing one man and injuring others.

no one is more responsible for starving syrians than bashar al-assad. loyalists have blood on their hands for every child who has starved to death. remember that next time you eat something.

i saw the protest against alloush in e.ghouta. but there were also protests against assad.

there are a lot of questions raised about zahran alloush. like how is he able to traverse through regime territory to end up in jordan or turkey?

and did he play a part in halting the operation before rebels took over al-thala airbase?

http://eaworldview.com/2015/06/syria-feature-joint-operations-room-in-jordan-halted-rebel-assault-on-key-regime-airbase/

alloush was in jordan before the rebel op got called off.

i dont know if this is the case here but loyalist never acknowledge regime practice of injecting moles within islamist ranks. something attested to by western diplomats and confirmed by high ranking defectors.

Rebels fired at the crowd killing one man and injuring others.

where is the evidence for this?

Norman,

I pretty much agree with you, believe it or not. I think the wildcard is Hamas.

294. Akbar Palace said: Omen, You bit on my sarcasm. My statement is the typical American and European obsession, namely that if you fix the Arab – Israeli conflict, peace in the ME will follow.

…

norman raised a question in earnest for a solution to stop a conflict that’s already killed nearly a million – you answer back with a joke reflecting a focus on your own pet peeve. tsk tsk tsk

304. ghufran: I do not consider Nusra and ISIS as rebels, they are terrorists and must be expelled along with shia militias and forces from other sides.

315. ghufran said: One big problem today with the Syrian opposition is that the only factions that are making military advances are Nusra and ISIS (both terrorist organizations)

…

??

Omen
We know very well that Zahran Alloush is not a clean man, we are watching him closely, there is a secret letter from KSA appeared on Wikilis it was exposed two days ago, it says we received a request from US officials that Hassan Aboud and Eesa Al Sheikh must be eliminated, this was sent before they were assassinated , Alloush was aware of it, it was sent from the intelligence of KSA to Alloush,

norman raised a question in earnest for a solution to stop a conflict that’s already killed nearly a million – you answer back with a joke reflecting a focus on your own pet peeve. tsk tsk tsk

Omen,

I am sorry for adding my “pet peeve” to the discussion. I do not consider any war worthy of jokes or levity. My point is that some people really do believe that all the wars in the ME will end if Abbas and BB shake hands. This, sadly, is no joke and quite misguided.

I should have remembered that some people are thick or play thick. There are tens of thousands of armed fighters in Syria that are fighting the Syrian army but not all of them belong to Nusra and Isis and not all of them want to fight til death. The departure of Assad and other conciliatory measures may help those to lay down their arms.

Ghufran you have not really responded in any meaningful way.

1. You equate the regime guilt with that of the rebels. The regime that claims legitimacy needs to protect and provide and uphold the rule of law. The regime for more than sixty years and certainly much more since the current one is in place has acted as a sectarian militia and nothing more
2. You have put the onus on NATO and GCC countries to stop the war and none on Iran and Russia
3. You have put the responsibility on outside powers and yet nearly 90% of the fighters on the ground are Syrian
4. Do you think that the Swiss would allow any foreign powers to divide them? And even if they did don’t you think that a minimum gesture on the part of the regime to declare a unilateral cease fire would have gone a long way to help bring the population to a Syrian based solution? A one month cease fire when it was in a better position than now would have gone a long way to help.
5. If the father were still alive he would have prosecuted and punished the governor of Dera’a whereas this fool made worse by acting as if the clan owns the country.
6. This criminal and his gang and their foolish supporters with their slogan of Assad or we burn Albalad is at the root cause of the ills of Syria. Not NATO not GCC not Russia not HA no Iran.

The reality is that the regime is responsible for more than 90% of massacres and torture and starvation and destruction and sectarianism and even in the creation and support of IS.

I never ever thought that the people would rebel and more so that it would continue for such a long time.

The WSJ by Sam Dagger is telling: today the sect can only survive if it creates a state and even at that it would have to be able to be viable, to be defensible, and to be accepted.

The Christians of Lebanon led by former fanatic leaders in the 70’s sought to consolidate their power and their hold on the country by responding to the Palestinian presence and the changing demographics of Lebanon with force. They were left with being barely surviving and the country is continuing its civil war without bloodshed but by economic and corruption warfare.

The same mentality of being drunk with power and arrogant with a false sense of superiority has pervaded the clan and the sect and now they are flocking to pray and sacrifice at the shrines of their holy men.

All of this while the “married to the mob” spouse is worried about some exoteric bird.

Go figure.

As for making people uncomfortable I think that this delusional; more like the joke on the blog

You did not answer me do you prefer freedom over democracy, or democracy over freedom
That is important as there would be time Palastinians inside Israel will exceed the number of jews

Majedkhaldoun,

To me, denrocracy and freedom go hand-in-hand and they cannot exist without the other.

If the number of non-Jews supercedes the number of jews, I’m not concerned. Coalitions will have to be formed. You may be able to ignore 10% of a population, but not 49%.

Akbar Palace, I wrote a response, but it was late last night , I made mistake , my name , I wrote Maned Khaldoun, it should have been Majedkhaldoun, I apologies for this typing mistake,
AP, in that response I said calling for Israel to be a Jewish state, violate the rights of over million Palastinians living inside Israel, the word Jewish excludes them and this is racist, I do not know your position on that, but Israel called on Palastinians to recognize Israel as Jewish, this is racism, I am not against Israel if it was a friendly state, but I am against Israel to be a hostile state, I like Israel to be part of greater Syria , where we all can go from Damascus to Haifa without stoping at borders, after all we are all Semitic, one of my sons is married to a Jewish woman , my partner at work is Jewish, why do we fight over there I do not like
As your support for democracy in Syria, this is appreciated, my question ,which is more important to you, freedom or democracy, I read Milton Friedman books and I like what I read it is consistent with my thinking, I think freedom is more essential, it implies democracy, but democracy does not imply freedom, democracy means majority dictatorship

US officials are afraid Assad will use chemical weapons again

Its always good to invest into your employees!

Around Assad people are dying like flies… I wonder if General Khayrbik also received a bullet in his head…

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2015/Jun-28/304148-assad-confidante-dies-of-illness-syria-state-media.ashx

330. Majedkhaldoun said: US officials are afraid Assad will use chemical weapons again

thank you, sir.

this seems to be the source.

Assad Chemical Threat Mounts

anyone have a guess as to why this is being brought up now? when obama pointedly failed to give warning last time during the ghouta gassing despite having known days ahead of time it was going to happen.

why raise concern yet fail to give or do anything defensive to prevent it from happening? is raising the issue enough of a deterrent?

another related story:

As AssadButchered His People, This London Firm Helped His Banks Trade
The London office of Reed Business Information sold critical data that helped sanctioned banks funding chemical and nuclear weapons in Syria and Iran make complex international transactions. A BuzzFeed News Investigation unravels the web.

278. I had an interesting conversation with an educated Islamist before the war started in 2011. The man did not hide his contempt towards alawites…

you weren’t torturing him, were you??

304. I understand why my posts are making some people uneasy, I speak the truth and I criticize both sides which is a sin in the eyes of pro and anti regime bloggers.

that’s quite a self portrait. G appointed himself as the Hero of the blog.

328. AKBAR PALACE said:

If the number of non-Jews supercedes the number of jews, I’m not concerned. Coalitions will have to be formed. You may be able to ignore 10% of a population, but not 49%.

Well Akbar it obviously does not bother you Israeli Jews to ignore the >20 % share of Palestinian citizens, in many ways Jews from Middle East, Jews from Ethiopia, non-Jews etc. In a way it is hilarious that a supremacist Jew, who has been for years torturing Palestinian women on roadblocks, as a hobby been cutting olive trees on Palestinian lands and burning Mosques and Churches often moves to Europe and USA beginning there his vocal minority protection demands and seeing anti-Semitism everywhere. It is much like in the past when those “famous” Germans moved to Latin America (and USA) after WW2.

Normal western countries inform their current population amount on the net basis, meaning the real amount of people living in the country at a certain time point. Modern computers etc technologies make it possible to have a near real time census information, especially in high security totalitarian countries like Israel. Israel has a “strange” population calculation system where the amount of Jews is counted on the gross basis (meaning counting all incoming, but “forgetting” the undeniable and large Jewish emigration out of Israel). The Israeli Arabs are counted on the net basis (if a Palestinian is kicked out, he at once vanishes from the population amount). Israeli Jews make much noise of the aliyah, but there is no official data how many of those stay in Israel permanently. Many if not majority return to their original home country in silence, but they are still counted as living in Israel.

It is estimated that 0.5 to 1 million Israeli Jews live permanently abroad, but that number is a real state secret for Israel. Anyway we could easily count the real population shares between the river and the sea on Israeli controlled areas.

Jews 6.2 million
– those Jews living abroad 1 million
“Net” Jews 5.2 million
Palestinians
Israel 1.7 million
Jerusalem,Gaza,West Bank 3.8 million

Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) estimates that in 2014 the Palestinian population on Israeli controlled area was 6.1 million. Plus 5 million Palestinians “waiting” in Arab countries.

Anyway Akbar the reality is that you Jews are already the relative clear and undeniable minority on Israeli controlled areas. And that is even if we forget the one million not in Israel living Israeli Jewish citizens.

If Palestinians in a democratic one state solution decide to treat Jews like Jews treated the Palestinians for 60 years, should we be sorry? We would see Jewish women queuing on roadblocks halve a day under the hot sun, see their Synagogues going in smoke to heaven, see the nationalistic Palestinian mobs celebrating Tel Aviv day by marching through new Jewish ghettos, Palestinian policemen regularly shooting Jews for “having a knife” etc? Well you get what you planted.

Anyway if there is no two state solution and Israel holds the occupied areas what happens Akbar to your hand in hand democracy and freedom? Jews can be the majority only through deporting or killing millions. There is no other option, because millions of new Jews will not move to Israel. Which option do Jews choose? Well in both cases I suppose your excuse will be that it is “not our fault, Arabs kill more Arabs than Jews do”.

I do not have a subscription but this is telling

http://www.wsj.com/articles/assad-chemical-threat-mounts-1435535977

I wanted to add to Ghufran the following questions/comments:
1. Don’t you realize that the use of violence on such a scale including torture and rape has fractured the country beyond repair
2, Don’t you realize that the wounds of such violence may take generations to heal?
3. Observe how the wounds of oppression inflicted on the Alawis have left them scarred for life? Read Mjabali posts and see how deeply hurt and wounded from age old injustice and oppression suffered by the sect to the point that some see nothing but evil from the creed of their oppressors.
4. Don’t you think that the narrative on both sides after so much violence will be the only one that remains and that the extremists will use this narrative of violence to suppress any talk of reconciliation

I have no doubt that the regime will use chemical weapons on a massive scale

Lavrove told Waleed Muallem, we called you to let you know what we agreed with US , not to discuss matters with you
On another news
Syria will be divided
Assad decided to get rid of Farooq Shara
Revealed today that there is agreement and cooperation between Assad and ISIS, I

Assad Chemical Threat Mounts
By Adam Entous
June 28, 2015 8:32 p.m. ET

U.S. intelligence agencies believe there is a strong possibility the Assad regime will use chemical weapons on a large scale as part of a last-ditch effort to protect key Syrian government strongholds if Islamist fighters and other rebels try to overrun them, U.S. officials said.

Analysts and policy makers have been poring over all available intelligence hoping to determine what types of chemical weapons the regime might be able to deploy and what event or events might trigger their use, according to officials briefed on the matter.

Last year, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad let international inspectors oversee the removal of what President Barack Obama called the regime’s most deadly chemical weapons. The deal averted U.S. airstrikes that would have come in retaliation for an Aug. 21, 2013, sarin-gas attack that killed more than 1,400 people.

Since then, the U.S. officials said, the Assad regime has developed and deployed a new type of chemical bomb filled with chlorine, which Mr. Assad could now decide to use on a larger scale in key areas. U.S. officials also suspect the regime may have squirreled away at least a small reserve of the chemical precursors needed to make nerve agents sarin or VX. Use of those chemicals would raise greater international concerns because they are more deadly than chlorine and were supposed to have been eliminated.

The intelligence is “being taken very seriously because he’s getting desperate” and because of doubts within the U.S. intelligence community that Mr. Assad gave up all of his deadliest chemical weapons, a senior U.S. official said.

Syrian officials in Damascus and New York didn’t respond to repeated requests for comment. The Syrian regime has denied using chemical weapons of any kind, disputing allegations made by the U.S. and other Western governments.

Any large-scale use of chemical weapons would exacerbate the dilemma the Syria conflict poses for the Obama administration. Mr. Obama has long called for Mr. Assad to step down, given his crackdown on opposition groups and the brutality of what became an all-encompassing civil war.

But U.S. officials say they don’t want his departure to create a security vacuum in areas controlled by the regime, allowing Sunni militants affiliated with Islamic State or the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front to seize more territory. The U.S. officials are concerned that chemical weapons could fall into militants’ hands.

A new intelligence analysis suggests Mr. Assad could use those chemicals as a weapon of last resort to protect key installations, or if the regime felt it had no other way to defend the core territory of its most reliable supporters, the Alawites.

The analysis underlines what U.S. officials describe as growing signs of the Assad regime’s desperation on the battlefield.

Islamic State militants and competing rebel forces, some aligned with al Qaeda and others backed by the Central Intelligence Agency, have been whittling away at territory controlled by the regime, leaving critical military bases and supply lines vulnerable, particularly in the country’s northeast and south.

The regime’s weakness was apparent during recent defeats in the northwest province of Idlib and the city of Palmyra. Regime forces withdrew quickly rather than fight a prolonged battle, according to rebel commanders and U.S. officials. The regime controls only about one-quarter of the country, with the rest held by Islamic State, various opposition rebels and Kurdish groups, according to monitoring groups and diplomats.

A worst-case scenario, the U.S. officials said, would be open conflict between hard-line Sunni fighters and Alawite-dominated communities near the coast, the traditional home of the religious minority to which Mr. Assad and many of his closest associates belong.

In August 2013, after the big sarin attack, Mr. Obama threatened to launch strikes against the regime, accusing it of crossing a “red line” he set against the use of banned chemical weapons. Instead, Russia brokered a deal under which Mr. Assad was supposed to give up his chemical arsenal, which gave Mr. Obama a diplomatic off-ramp to avoid military action.

U.S. intelligence agencies aren’t sure what types of chemical weapons Mr. Assad could use. Earlier this year, the regime expanded its use of chlorine bombs, according to the U.S. officials. In recent weeks, the number of attacks with chlorine has declined, the officials said.

More worrying, U.S. officials said, would be the possibility that Mr. Assad could tap into a secret supply of sarin and VX. He might also be trying to reconstitute elements of his chemical-weapons program.

Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, a former commanding officer of the British army’s chemical-weapons unit, said: “Even if the regime had only one ton of VX left, that would be enough to kill thousands of people.”

U.S. intelligence agencies have a mixed record of predicting developments in Syria.

When Mr. Obama first called on Mr. Assad to step aside in 2012, U.S. intelligence agencies thought his days were numbered. But Mr. Assad’s forces, aided by regime allies Iran, Hezbollah and Russia, managed to retake lost ground and shore up their hold on key areas.

This time, U.S. intelligence agencies aren’t sure similar assistance would be able to save Mr. Assad, whose forces are encircled and under unprecedented strain.

Write to Adam Entous at [email protected]

AP, in that response I said calling for Israel to be a Jewish state, violate the rights of over million Palastinians living inside Israel, the word Jewish excludes them and this is racist, I do not know your position on that, but Israel called on Palastinians to recognize Israel as Jewish, this is racism, I am not against Israel if it was a friendly state, but I am against Israel to be a hostile state, I like Israel to be part of greater Syria , where we all can go from Damascus to Haifa without stoping at borders, after all we are all Semitic, one of my sons is married to a Jewish woman , my partner at work is Jewish, why do we fight over there I do not like

Majedkhaldoun,

Thanks for the question. I often get this question, so I will be happy to answer it again. To those that already know my position on this, please skip to the next post.

Most jews consider themselves to be part of a people, “The Jewish People”. Many of “us” fall into orthodox, conservative and reform in terms of religion. MANY do not practice the religion, understand the religion, many are atheist and some may practice another religion. The point is, we (and many gentiles) still consider “jews” to be a unique “people” both in terms of religion and race, and the bottom line is, you can’t tell a group of people who they can and can’t identify with. It is a very personal choice.

At one time, people didn’t know who the “Palestinian People” were. Now we know, due to their hard work and perseverance.

Calling Israel a “Jewish State” is not racism Majedkhaldoun. Treating Israelis differently is, and Israel has made excellent progress insuring that all Israelis are treated the same. The link I gave you last week hopefully gave you an idea of how successful many arab-Israelis are. Believe it or not, there are MANY jews in Israel who are poor and have not “succeeded” as well as many arab-Israelis. Arab-Israelis do not shy away from hard work, and it shows.

Click on some of the arab village names in the following link and look at some of the beautiful arab homes Majedkhaldoun. This is progress.

Meanwhile, most jewish israelis live in rather simple small apartments, and many can barely make ends meet. The majority of Americans are Christian, thus the school/business holidays are mostly christian. I do not consider this “racism”, I consider this the will of the majority. If Israel becomes an arab majority, this could change. So what?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_citizens_of_Israel

Palestine was and still requires the land to be shared: a “Jewish State” and an “Arab-State”. This is the “Two State Solution”. The relationship between the two states and the exact borders are still TBD.

As your support for democracy in Syria, this is appreciated, my question ,which is more important to you, freedom or democracy, I read Milton Friedman books and I like what I read it is consistent with my thinking, I think freedom is more essential, it implies democracy, but democracy does not imply freedom, democracy means majority dictatorship

OK. As you can probably tell, I am not much of a book reader. I tend to read lots of short news articles and history. “Majority dictatorship”? Sorry, this doesn’t sound kosher/halal to me. Voting for a dictator who then suspends further elections is not a democracy and is not freedom. I think arabs should expect everything the Declaration of Human Rights set up.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Declaration_of_Human_Rights

Well Akbar it obviously does not bother you Israeli Jews to ignore the >20 % share of Palestinian citizens…

Sim,

Your obsession with Israel is quite remarkable. That is why I think most of the posters here are tired of you. I think they would prefer to see that your “obsession” includes arabs who are getting killed by arabs and not just what arabs are getting paid in jewish settlements.

Meanwhile, Israel has both a higher population and GDP than your lovely country, Finland, so I think that is why arab-Israelis are not demonstrating against Israel as much as they used to. They know they have a good thing Sim. 😉

The war needs to stop and those who spent billions supplying weapons for Syrians to kill each other should spend money on rebuilding Syria, the tragedy is that there will be less enthusiasm to help with rebuilding compared to the feverish support foreign governments gave to their favorite side in Syria. The same thing happened with refugees who received a fraction of what GCC pledged and could have been in a different place if the money spent on weapons and conferences were spent on refugees before they were forced to leave and after.
The wounds are deep but Syrians have no choice but to stop the war, that can happen if Assad is excluded from the new government and foreign fighters are declared unwanted by all. Syrians who carried weapons for whatever reasons and are not members of Nusra and ISIS and their cousins can play a major role in keeping security in their areas.
AS for “uprooting the regime”, that will happen when thawrajiyyeh accepts that they did not mean uprooting alawites who have lived in Syria for hundreds of years and are there to stay, we might as well agree that we do not have to be in love with each other to live in the same neighborhood, Israeli arabs did it, Syrians can do it.
Before you praise on condemn Israel’s treatment of Palestinians (and I am the last person to defend Israel)remember how Israel was founded and how Arab regimes treat their citizens and how arabs themselves treat minorities today especially after the so called Arab Spring.
Oppression is the disease and freedom is the cure, religion is a form of oppression, leave it at home and set yourself free !!

The NEXT to the last Person to Defend Israel NewZ

Before you praise on condemn Israel’s treatment of Palestinians (and I am the last person to defend Israel)remember how Israel was founded and how Arab regimes treat their citizens and how arabs themselves treat minorities today especially after the so called Arab Spring.

Ghufran,

Please. Get with the resistance program! You have disappointed Mr. Sim from far away Finland. Isn’t there something you do to help Sim? He’s busy searching the internet for Israeli crimes, and he needs your help!

Thanks.

Sim, did you find any RT articles about wages in other ME countries yet?

http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2015/05/arab-towns-surrounded-by-jewish.html#.VZFqYkbzOvA

/You have disappointed Mr. Sim from far away Finland/.
Asghar! where are you come from?

/Your obsession with Israel is quite remarkable. That is why I think most of the posters here are tired of you/
How could you know that?

You can find your fishing at those who do not have the faith and knowledge.

337.????
??? ?? ???????? ?????? ?????? ????? ????? ?

????? ???? ???? ???? ??????? ?? ????? ?? “????”
http://arabic.rt.com/news/787116-%D8%B3%D9%88%D8%B1%D9%8A%D8%A7-%D9%84%D8%A7%D9%81%D8%B1%D9%88%D9%81-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D8%B9%D9%84%D9%85/

Democracy is the dictatorship of majority, , point in case is the homosexual marriage approved recently 5 to 4 in the US, I hope I am not going to be punished for saying I do not accept that, it is proven it causes the spread of AIDES and those who has AIDES are susceptible to infectious, bacterial and viral, and they will be the source of spreading such diseases, they will hurt other people, this is not freedom, I do not know if things I touch if they were handled by such people, it impinges on my freedom

They should call Syria Comment…..Omen Comment….

al-Shaykh al-Fadel Observer:

You said in one of your recent comments the following:

” Observe how the wounds of oppression inflicted on the Alawis have left them scarred for life? Read Mjabali posts and see how deeply hurt and wounded from age old injustice and oppression suffered by the sect to the point that some see nothing but evil from the creed of their oppressors.”

Well: please name the good things your Sunni sect had offered the Alawites in the last 1000 years? Just name one good deed the Sunnis did towards the Alawites till the arrival of Hafez al-Assad? NONE…The Alawites entered the army because of the French…You Sunnis would have prevented them.

With rare exceptions, the same Sunni attitude towards the Alawites is still the same from 1000 years till now…

Now it is even worse because of al-Assad and what he did with his followers to the Sunnis…

As for being “hurt and wounded” please Shaykh Observer: If I tell you the truth about your sect thank me and do not try to show me as being upset, crying in the corner, up all night, hurt, wounded, introvert, emotional, …or my hand on a chemical trigger…

Too bad for you, my hands are always on books to show people like you not to lie about the history of the Alawites…Go play somewhere else…I caught you lie about the Alawties many times so far ya Shaykh Observer…

Please do not lose your memory on us Shaykh Observer: I call for no violence like you.

Your comment # 149 in this thread is a pure call to violence.

When you call the minorities “pawns,” for foreigners: what is the next step? put them on trial and kill them? That is exactly what Ibn Taymiyah said…You are repeating his logic Ya Shaykh…

Shaykh Observer, I really will be happy to see you live liberated under the Islamic State…

MAJED
Christianity failed in the mission Jesus left for it. Rather, it tried the impossible–grafting the new vine of Christianity onto the dead, rotten tree which Jesus Himself cursed.

ALAN,

You talking about christianity !!!! What else?

Leave Jesus and Mohammad alone, they do not have anything to do with Christianism and Islam today. Both religions are today a joke of what they were or of what they were created for.

Popes and Ayatollahs and of course a great proportion of Imams are nothing else than fakers who may be considered criminals properly speaking.

Let us celebrate the end of the criminal Khayrbek. Let the syrian people make disapear all his relatives who may have got proffit from his crimes and properties.

339. Akbar Palace said: OK. As you can probably tell, I am not much of a book reader. I tend to read lots of short news articles and history.

he wasn’t showing off his book learnin’. he was paying respect to jewish intellectuals. i too share in his appreciation. it’s been so called neocons who have been vocal above others in calling for a no-fly zone to be implemented over syria which would have spared many civilian lives. politically, im not a conservative but iran/syria is the only issue they get right.

(dont let this go to your head.)

p.s. Click on some of the arab village names in the following link and look at some of the beautiful arab homes Majedkhaldoun. This is progress.

i couldnt find these pics. can you repost them?

348. ALAN said: Christianity failed in the mission Jesus left for it.

speaking of jewish intellectuals, stop disappointing jesus, alan, you’re making him cry.

Omen,

Go to this website. Scroll down, you will see a list of major arab villages in Israel, each with a link showing views of the towns. Beautiful really. Gems. Arabs (like me) do not seem to put up with apartments/flats. They build huge homes and I love them.

The number one responsibility of a leader, is to protect the homeland. Israelis leaders have done that.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_citizens_of_Israel

If you want other similar websites, let me know.

Akbar,

From your own link: how can you defend a state that considered intermarriage between its citizens treason ?

Opposition to intermarriage
Intermarriage is prohibited by the Jewish Halakha.[221] In the case of mixed Arab-Jewish marriages, emotions run especially high. A 2007 opinion survey found that more than half of Israeli Jews believed intermarriage was equivalent to national treason. A group of Jewish men in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Pisgat Ze’ev started patrolling the neighborhood to stop Jewish women from dating Arab men. The municipality of Petah Tikva has also announced an initiative to providing a telephone hotline for friends and family to report Jewish girls who date Arab men as well as psychologists to provide counselling. The city of Kiryat Gat launched a campaign in schools to warn Jewish girls against dating local Bedouin men.[222][223]

Democracy is the dictatorship of majority, , point in case is the homosexual marriage approved recently 5 to 4 in the US, I hope I am not going to be punished for saying I do not accept that, it is proven it causes the spread of AIDES and those who has AIDES are susceptible to infectious, bacterial and viral, and they will be the source of spreading such diseases, they will hurt other people, this is not freedom, I do not know if things I touch if they were handled by such people, it impinges on my freedom

Majedkhaldoun,

Like you, homosexuality is odd to me and certainly forbidden for those who practice the main 3 religions. But homosexuals do not “impinge on MY freedom”, how do they impinge on yours?

You can only get aids if you shares needles or have sex with an infected person. I am not going to throw a homosexual off the top of a building, hold a gun against his head or anything of the kind. They aren’t hurting me in the slightest by living their lifestyle.

There is no such thing as the dictatorship of the majority. In all manner of life, decisions are accepted by a majority while minority rights are preserved.

AP
You did not understand what I wrote, homosexuals with AIDS Cary viral and bacterial infections easily ,thus help spreading diseases more,have you not heared about a dentist with aids several of his patients came with pneumonia?

if we were smurfs:

https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/199128207/Tel_Aviv_Flower.jpg

see what i did? this is proper etiquette for posting photos. it’s impolite to send people on a wild goose chase, clicking on a thousand links just to hunt for the thing you are referencing.

from tara‘s cite upthread:

Hezbollah has also incurred significant material losses in Syria. Because of the Syrian regime’s inability to cope with its various military challenges, the party had to in-crease its level of involvement, sending more troops to fight in Syria, including elite troops as well as young fighters. Hezbollah normally regards using young fighters in battles as a positive development because it gives those fighters valuable experience.

However, this only works when involvement is on a limited scale. In Syria, Hezbollah has incurred losses in lives estimated to be in the thousands, with a quarter being from Hezbollah’s elite troops (the party itself has only admitted to losing few hundred men in Syria, but on the ground reports from other sources estimate the figure to be much higher. No official confirmed figures exist as Hezbollah is careful not to disseminate sensitive information about its military wing).7 This has led it to rely on young fighters out of necessity not strategy, and has weakened its military capacity.

who benefits from obama’s unconscionable inaction resulting in prolonging genocide?

ISRAEL

KSA diplomats’ main activity: spying on their students abroad and promoting Wahhabism
https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news/politics/2015/06/27/secret-australia-saudi-deal-intelligence/14353272002053#.VZI487yfF0w

Why don’t they first spy on their own defense minister’s funny behaviour?
http://youtu.be/Pp4XmGmdu_w

From your own link: how can you defend a state that considered intermarriage between its citizens treason ?

Tara,

Thanks for the question. First of all, I’m not here just to “defend” Israel all the time. That’s not my main purpose here. My main purpose is for me to learn from people who know other areas of the ME and try to build bridges between us.

The State of Israel has very convoluted laws concerning marriage. It’s messy and antiquated. It needs a lot of improvement, so I’m not here to defend it, but I may help to explain it.

First of all intermarriage is not “treason”. That word was used in an “Electronic Intifada” article, so please skip the anti-Israel websites if you’re interested in objectivity!

According to Haaretz, 10% of Israeli marriages are inter-faith marriages, and no one has been thrown in jail because of it. The dumb thing is that all inter-faith marriages have to be performed outside of Israel, and that’s the law for all Israelis whether jewish, muslim or christian.

Of course, the respective communities do what they can to prevent intermarriage, and again, that includes all 3 major religions, where parents and relatives usually try to get their children to marry in the faith.

http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/shavuot/.premium-1.596678

http://www.haaretz.com/misc/iphone-article/.premium-1.596576

http://www.itim.org.il/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/The-real-reason-intermarriage-is-bad-for-the-Jews-Shavuot-2014-Israel-News-_-Haaretz.pdf

On another note, I saw this article this morning. I call it the “rump state” article. I see nothing in the article showing the GOI gives two figs about propping up the ophthalmologist and his gucci wife.

http://news.yahoo.com/israel-says-syrias-assad-may-left-rump-state-090814945.html

Mjabali
your latest post proved my point 100%.

Reading my words is only seen in the prism of the 1000 years of oppression of the Alawis by the Sunnis.

The flight to foreign powers is not exclusive to minorities as today Sunnis have flocked to Turkey and GCC and KSA and what have you. The point is that oppression undermines citizenship and loyalty. As for saying that I call for violence, this is pure hogwash on your part.

Just for the record I am an atheist; I have read the Bible and the New Testament and the Quran and for the life of me I cannot believe. I have no belief. If God exists he is nothing like the God of the Bible or the New Testament or the Quran.

The tragedy is that Hafez gave a say and a hope for the sect but could not move beyond that to a true Syrian National Identity or an Arab one for that matter.

Now the sect is stuck between IS (which is negotiating with the regime by the way) and the regime. In this they are now sharing the fate of millions of Syrians.

What a perfect storm of stupidity and arrogance and haughtiness and sense of superiority brought the country to its knees.

I do think that dividing the country is the solution at this stage.

Ghufran says that the regime has to go: tell us how please.

By the way calling me names and this and that is truly beneath your intellect and your contributions to the post. Grow up

see what i did? this is proper etiquette for posting photos. it’s impolite to send people on a wild goose chase, clicking on a thousand links just to hunt for the thing you are referencing.

Thanks Omen,

It was not a wild goose chase. Just scroll toward the bottom and you’ll see numerous links to all the major arab-israeli cities and towns. There are too many for me to post, and this website makes it EASY for you (or anyone else). You’ll enjoy the pics.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_citizens_of_Israel

Hey this is going to be a good read Mjabali

http://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/I/bo19211851.html

I also think the book by Ziad Hafez is also a good read, forgot the title though

One more book is by Mahmasani that I have to send you the title at one point.

Cheers

It is in French here it is

https://books.google.com/books/about/La_pensée_religieuse_en_islam_contempor.html?id=eX6BMAEACAAJ&hl=en

And here is the other one, I read it recently and I think that he is not very convincing as he premisses the book on being a believer which I am not therefore he could not get all of his points to me fully

http://www.amazon.com/Islam-Retrospect-Recovering-Maher-Mahmassani/dp/1566569222

340. AKBAR PALACE said:

Meanwhile, Israel has both a higher population and GDP than your lovely country, Finland, so I think that is why arab-Israelis are not demonstrating against Israel as much as they used to. They know they have a good thing Sim.

Akbar if I compare the thumbs up votes I get and what you get, I would not not make the conclusion, that the readers are tired to my rather few comments. They seem to be very tired to your numerous comments based on their number of thumbs down votes. If you Akbar and your fellows in IDF’s internet forces enforced with the vocal Sunni Propaganda Center’s “personnel” would not promote Israel with all possible means here, it would reduce also the number of reply comments your extended clan gets. Of course your constant praising of the non-existent democracy and equality in Israel deserves some correcting comments.

Well Akbar Iran has a higher population and GDP than your terrible country Israel has. Normal people in this kind of comparison situation and debate use GDP/person comparison, but not obviously you Israeli Jews. This lack of economic education leads to a fast propaganda disaster and so loosing the debate. The GDP per person in Finland is considerably higher what it is in J-Reich (=Israel). Finland with a 35% percent smaller population managed to produce a GDP which is almost the same as Israel’s. The GDP(nominal)/person in Finland is $49 thousand in Israel $36 thousand.

It equals a hilarious comedy reading your comment (353) of the BIG houses Israeli Arabs have. You poor misguided sole do not obviously know that Israeli Arabs (citizens) rarely get any building permits, not to mention the faith of the Israeli citizens who are Bedouins. Big houses-simply funny. Big house then Jewish Caterpillar and rife men come and hups – no house and a homeless large family.

342. AKBAR PALACE said:
….
Sim, did you find any RT articles about wages in other ME countries yet?

Akbar the Jew-el of Mankind the RT report made by an excellent Jewish reporter was about how Jewish settlers are using on stolen land Palestinian children in inhumane working conditions with laughable salaries on their farms and green houses. In the normal Jewish Israeli style the formal Jewish explanation was that it is not their fault – the Palestinian Middle man is guilty. Using child labor is illegal in Israel, but not on Israeli occupied areas which are fully under Israeli control (Jordan valley for example). These Palestinian families in those regions are driven to total poverty (IDF has often destroyed their buildings and assets) and the settlers have stolen the lands so that Palestinians have no option. The Pal children have to quit school and go to work for the Chosen People. Hmmm….

I can not understand why should the land thieves of Israel be allowed to use Palestinian children in heavy farm work using strong poisons. In your mind obviously you can, because in poor developed countries exists using child labor. Well they do it because they have often no option. You greedy bastards there have an option and you do it simply to get bigger profits.

339. AKBAR PALACE said:
….
Most jews consider themselves to be part of a people, “The Jewish People”. Many of “us” fall into orthodox, conservative and reform in terms of religion. MANY do not practice the religion, understand the religion, many are atheist and some may practice another religion.

Hilarious Akbar. Name some Israeli Jews who are also officially and publicly Muslims in Israel and still have the rights/status of Jews in Israel. May practice indeed – in secret. What Akbar if a Jew marries a Occupied Palestinian – can the Occupied Palestinian spouse move to Israel and get citizenship? To make question even more interesting, can that happen also when the Jewish spouse converts to Islam – officially? the Hmmmm… freedom of religion in Israeli Jewish style.

It is a trick, that they called this site Syria Comment. More appropriately be called Jewish site ( attributed to the large number of articles made by Jews from all over the world even from Jews of Australia) or you can call it the Zionists site or the team of Freemasons etc …

the Kurds need to remember that they are nothing but instruments in the geopolitical calculus of the USA, and have nothing at all to look forward to the hands of the Evil Empire but repeated betrayal.

“Temporarily with us could handle a global coalition of the goyim; but on this side, we provided those deep roots of discord between them, which are already impossible to tear. We are opposed to each other personal and national calculations of the goyim, religious and tribal hatred, we have grown in their hearts for twenty centuries. All this means that none of the countries will not meet nowhere to support its outstretched hand, because everyone has to think that the agreement against us is unprofitable to himself. “

any new hostility that we may see in the next few days, will be opposed by the Assad supporters, it will be directed against the criminal ISIS, and against the Arab Enemy

assad could have been finished off in 2013 after the ghouta gassing. thanks to israel, he remains today continuing to kill the innocent. this rationale that explains why israel plotted to rescue assad. an extraordinary scheme that rebounded in iran’s favor.

Israel still viewed Iran as its natural ally against the Arabs.

My main purpose is for me to learn from people who know other areas of the ME and try to build bridges between us.

israel plotting to keep assad in power is not building bridges. bashar could have been gone in 2013 if it weren’t for netanyahu’s treachery.

israel passed up a chance of a lifetime. helping to remove assad would have revolutionized how the arab world viewed the country. but noo. even you have balked against israel being interventionist. israel had a chance to midwive a new regional ally (syrians would have been indebted for the assistance) but zionists’ anti-arab bigotry blinded them to common sense.

What’s Mrs Assad been up to lately? It seems so quiet on that end. You’d have thought she would have her hands full with non-stop and much publicized meetings with mothers of dead troops/shabeeha, particularly after the beatings the regime has taken in 2015.

I suppose they would rather not publicize such meetings now as it would only highlight the scale of losses.

362. OBSERVER said:

By the way calling me names and this and that is truly beneath your intellect and your contributions to the post. Grow up

Observer,

Beneath one’s intellect assuming there is intellect to have something beneath it. I do not see much of that. I only see Ibn Taimiehs of the 21 century, Alawi version

Akbar

First of all intermarriage is not “treason”. That word was used in an “Electronic Intifada” article, so please skip the anti-Israel websites if you’re interested in objectivity!

The excerpt I posted was from the link you posted to omen. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_citizens_of_Israel not from an electronic intifada article

israel plotting to keep assad in power is not building bridges.

Omen,

With all due respect, the article you posted doesn’t prove anything. The writer is a conspiracy theorist.

Repeat after me, “Israel does not control the world.”

Tara,

My mistake.

In the article I posted the word treason came up once:

A 2007 opinion survey found that more than half of Israeli Jews believed intermarriage was equivalent to national treason.

What Jews “believe” is not law. Religious families and followers of all religions always strongly urge their children to marry in their faith, so that’s not a surprise. As I showed earlier today, about 5 to 10% of all marriages in Israel are intermarriages:

According to various organizations that follow these trends, some five to 10 percent of all Israeli couples today are intermarried.

http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/shavuot/.premium-1.596678

Speaking of “treason”, apparently selling property to Jews is treason. Boy, if the shoe were on the other foot…

http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/129865/death-those-who-sell-homes-jews-arnold-ahlert

The GDP per person in Finland is considerably higher what it is in J-Reich (=Israel).

Sim,

Your obsession and anti-semitism has really gotten the better of you.

Palestinians working in Israel are one of the highest paid arabs in the Middle East.

But we understand the working of anti-semites like yourself. You would rather fault jews than fault the real enemies of the arabs like their despotic leaders. Fine with me. So while arabs are starving all around the Middle East and the Saudis, Assads, Hamas and Iran are investing their billions in stocks, candle sticks, concrete underground tunnels and nuclear weapons, respectively, I am sure you will be crying about Palestinians being mistreated by your joo bogeyman.

http://www.haaretz.com/business/.premium-1.531397

http://www.timesofisrael.com/palestinian-workers-protest-new-minimum-wage-law/

http://unitedwithisrael.org/palestinians-earn-more-working-for-israelis-than-in-pa-survey-shows/

remember, this is the same israeli government who engineered a faux deal that bought assad time and allowed the mofo to remain in power.

360. Akbar Palace said: On another note, I saw this article this morning. I call it the “rump state” article. I see nothing in the article showing the GOI gives two figs about propping up the ophthalmologist and his gucci wife.

excerpt:

TEL AVIV (Reuters) – A senior Israeli defense official said President Bashar al-Assad controlled just a fifth of Syria and may end up in charge of a rump state dominated by his minority Alawite sect.

Israel and its neighbor Syria are long-term enemies, but the remarks by Amos Gilad, strategic adviser to Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon, reflect concerns by states across the region that Syria is undergoing a de facto partition after four years of civil war.

“Syria is gone. Syria is dying. The funeral will be declared in due time. This Bashar Assad, he will be remembered in history textbooks as the one who lost Syria,” Gilad told an intelligence conference organized by the Israel Defense journal on Monday.

“Until now he has lost 75 percent of Syria … He is, practically, governor of 20 percent of Syria. And his future, if I may predict it, is shrinking all of the time. And maybe we will have him as the president of ‘Alawistan’,” Gilad added.

this is what the defense official is saying now – but amos gilad confessed something else in 2011:

We may recall the 16 November 2011 statement of one of the senior most defense advisors of Israeli Government, Amos Gilad, saying thus: “The downfall of Assad will mean the end of Israel; the aftermath of the downfall of Assad will be catastrophic for Israel. It will lead to the end of Israel and will result in the appearance of an Islamic empire in the Middle East “

.

here you have it, the smoking gun:

“The downfall of Assad will mean the end of Israel”

Omen,

OK, you finally made your case, posted your reference and the “smoking gun”.

Yippee!

Now, I am not familiar with this guy Amos Gilad, but how did his opinion about the “…the end of Israel…” translate to Israel “aiding” the Syrian government??

Here’s an article showing Gilad stressing that Israel isn’t doing anything to “topple” Assad, right after Israel bombed Iranian and Hezbollah weapons passing through Syria. Gee, I’m sure assad was relieved!

http://www.timesofisrael.com/assad-is-in-total-control-of-his-weapons-systems-says-top-defense-official/

Then here is a later article showing Gilad saying:

“Al-Qaeda threat not as serious as Syria-Iran-Hezbollah axis”

http://www.bicom.org.uk/news-article/13169/

Omen,

Now that we have the “smoking gun”, what military equipment, weapons and IDF soldiers did the GOI supply Assad to keep him in power?

378. Akbar Palace said: OK, you finally made your case

im not done, im just getting warmed up.

my argument doesn’t hang on one quote. there are separate puzzle pieces when you join together, draw a big picture and solidifies what michael oren testifies to here:

http://www.haaretz.com/news/israel/1.661336

Israel was instrumental in helping United States President Barack Obama climb down from his threat to bomb Syria in 2013 if it violated his “red line” against using chemical weapons, according to a new book by former Israeli ambassador to Washington Michael Oren.

Omen, Now that we have the “smoking gun”, what military equipment, weapons and IDF soldiers did the GOI supply Assad to keep him in power?

i never even suggested this scenario. try not to put words in my mouth.

Here’s an article showing Gilad stressing…

unless he acknowledged having been mistaken, what amos gilad said later on does not undue, cancel out or revoke what he said in 2011:

“The downfall of Assad will mean the end of Israel”

376. Akbar Palace said: Omen, With all due respect, the article you posted doesn’t prove anything. The writer is a conspiracy theorist.

it’s an established fact reported in mainstream sources: israel helped supply iran during iran/iraq war. something covered by israeli media, investigated and confirmed by israeli journos.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_support_for_Iran_during_the_Iran%E2%80%93Iraq_war

if israel & iran were allies before, it shouldnt be so surprising to consider possibility they might resume being allies again. they both share a common enemy, a hatred of all things arab.

israel’s crooked deal that spared assad was a gift to iran.

im not done, im just getting warmed up.

Omen,

That’s fine. I’m not here to put anyone down, I just need hard proof. As you know, I find the ME is shoulder deep in conspiracy theories, so I’ve heard it all. I am willing to believe you if you have sufficient evidence.

Your link above was a good link. This guy Gilad is certainly a high government official. But 1 government official’s opinion usually doesn’t translate into a major policy change. In terms of Syria, there is NO WAY Israel is going to step into the fray and support Assad like say they supported the SLA in Lebanon. No way, shape or form, and if you can prove I’m wrong, I’ll be happy to eat my words.

if israel & iran were allies before, it shouldnt be so surprising to consider possibility they might resume being allies again. they both share a common enemy, a hatred of all things arab.

Omen,

That was 30 years ago. The Iran/Iran War was very localized and there were no al-Queda, ISIS, al-Nusra crazies around at that time gobbling up the ME. Sure anything is possible.

The link above was also a good link. Apparently Israel provided about $500 million worth of military equipment to Iran in the early ’80s.

Meanwhile, relations were still very cool and Iran continued to deny and relationship with Israel. So, basically, Israel made suome money, but that’s about it. Iran today is Israel’s biggest enemy.

israel’s crooked deal that spared assad was a gift to iran.

I’m still fuzzy about this “deal”, so if you have links describing it for me, I’d appreciate it. I mean, if you think about it, why should Israel take out Assad so ISIS and Nusra control the country? Assad was such a reliable protector of Israel’s frontier! So if Israel is guilty of anything, she is guilty of not choosing sides in the Syria civil war. That’s how I see it.

(BTW, let’s carrying this discussion onto the new thread, it’s getting hard to load 400 posts)

/Your obsession and anti-semitism has really gotten the better of you./
/But we understand the working of anti-semites like yourself./
?? !
Not ashamed for anyone to be against the Zionism but not against Semitism
You are linguistic intentional fraud

Alan,

Anyone who doesn’t permit JOOS the right to protect themselves is an anti-semite plain and simple and without “linguistic intentional fraud”.

Furthermore, when people accuse JOOS for perceived “crimes” but do not accuse non-jews for much worse crimes, then again, said people are anti-semites. I can take criticism of Israel from many people (like Omen), because he also can criticize his own people equally (Assad).

See Alan, there’s logic to everything. Just admit it Alan. You wouldn’t be the first anti-semite or the last.

Asghar
From your comments, without a doubt, can be sure that you are Zionist. The Zionists, in their ideology and nature are anti-Semites. Therefore, you Owned prohibited to talk about anti-Semitism.
By the way, you’re here, initially well to educate before you play the role of a lecturer for everyone and on everything.
No need to use a horror of anti-Semitism (especially with us Semites) to distort the correctness of questions.

Ahlan says, “Freedom for me, but not for You” NewZ

From your comments, without a doubt, can be sure that you are Zionist.

Ahlan,

I consider that a compliment. And you’re an anti-semite (both anti-jewish and anti-arab).

And anyone supporting a self-elected President-for-Life who refused for 40+ years to provide basic freedoms can’t be too intelligent.

Glad I live in the US.

345. MAJEDKHALDOUN said:
/point in case is the homosexual marriage/

CJSC “Ilim Pulp Enterprise”
It founded in 1992. Among the co-founders of JSC “Fintsell,” which established the company CJSC “Ilim Pulp Enterprise”, besides Zahar Davidovich Smushkin brothers Zingarevich included DA Medvedev, the third President of the Russian Federation. In the JSC “Fintsell” Medvedev owned 50%, and “Ilim Pulp Enterprise” – 20%.
Today, shares of “Ilim” transferred to the ownership of the Swiss company Ilim Holding, which is owned in equal parts American International Paper and Russian shareholders (including the chairman of the board of directors of Zahar Davidovich Smushkin, members of the Board of Directors Boris and Mikhail Zingarevich, Leonid Erukhimovich).
“The classic combination of Swiss poluoofshora, American roof Davidovich Zingarevich and Erukhimovich and Kremlin officials.”
Thus, it appears that a strange kind of senator caught in a filing with the SF Jewish-American groups that are directly related to the prime minister of Russia Medvedev proposes to legalize the Russian Orthodox sodomy.

100. Once again all the minorities want the majority to be secular and national while they remain minorities with sect based privileges.

so illuminating. you dont see an examination of minority sects’ selfish double standard highlighted in write-ups on syria. part of their fear anticipating a post-assad reality must stem from seeing their future prospects slipping away. this explains their irrational bigotry and their lashing out at imagined slights. which seems to me manifestations of various stages of grief.

loyalists need to work thru their grief in mourning a passing order.

i really admire ob’s sympathy for mj. healing begins by recognizing one another’s pain.

386. ALAN said: directly related to the prime minister of Russia Medvedev proposes to legalize the Russian Orthodox sodomy.

putin already has a monopoly in screwing over the russian masses.

this was an interesting perspective:

Parliament of Lithuania reminds Russia it’s illegitimate after overthrow and murder of king

245. Tara

that made me laugh. i have a fondness for turning-the-table/judo tactics and that was pretty deft. i meant to thank you earlier but didnt want you think i was sucking up. forgive my lacking in social graces.

373. Uzair8

good to see you again, hope you are well. you need to post more often!

350. SANDRO LOEWE

i was hoping you’d show up & you did.

383. Akbar Palace – I can take criticism of Israel from many people (like Omen), because he also can criticize his own people equally (Assad).

god forbid, assad isnt my own people. just for the record, as our resident 40 year old virgin/stalker inexplicably took pains to note, im not arab, muslim nor syrian. im christian/californian, if that matters. neither am i a granny. little brat must need one but dont look in my direction.

[…] Druze villages, it accepted a truce with the advancing Nusra Front. The deal included a rigid “Islamisation” programme setting out rules for religious minorities’ […]