{"id":8633,"date":"2011-03-18T08:52:22","date_gmt":"2011-03-18T12:52:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/?p=8633"},"modified":"2011-03-18T08:52:22","modified_gmt":"2011-03-18T12:52:22","slug":"demonstrations-in-damascus-challenge-regime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/demonstrations-in-damascus-challenge-regime\/","title":{"rendered":"Demonstrations in Damascus Challenge Regime"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright\" src=\"http:\/\/www.arabstrategyforum.org\/asf2009en\/images\/stories\/media\/img\/almuntada\/SpeakersResized\/tayeb.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"160\" height=\"155\" \/><strong>Tayyib Tazini<\/strong>, my professor at the University of Damascus when I was a Fulbrighter in the early 1980s and one of the leading intellectuals in the Arab World, was arrested for demonstrating for prisoner rights and released on Wednesday with 4 others. 25 or so remain behind bars. There have been three days of small demonstrations, challenging the regime and forcing it to hurt the people and crack down. Popular anger will grow.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Stateless Kurds<\/strong> in the Northeast were ordered by the government to be treated as Syrians by government employees, which means they can hold legal jobs, go to high school and university, and ride on public buses and sleep in hotels. These are things that need a Syrian identity card, which over 200,000 Kurds born in Syria do not possess.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Continuing small demonstrations<\/strong> in Damascus have the opposition promising that momentum is on their side. The Syrian government is trying to get ahead of the demonstrators, but is increasingly caught flat footed. Instead, the government is cracking down more harshly, feeding the outrage of the Twitterati and hardening the determination of the opposition. Dignity, human rights, and jobs are simple concepts that speak to the youth of Syria. Complex ideologies like Marxism, Socialism, and Islamism are out. Dignity and rights are in. They are mobilizing a generation that has been difficult to get interested in politics for the hardened opposition of Syria, much of which live in exile.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Barack Obama&#8217;s cautious role<\/strong> in the Middle East and willingness to reduce US interference in the region is allowing the Arab people to come to the fore. This dignity movement would not have emerged under President Bush. He made it too easy for local governments to argue &#8220;treason&#8221; and foreign intervention. Arab governments were often right in making this argument.<\/p>\n<p><strong>On economic news<\/strong>, one friend writes:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.syria-news.com\/readnews.php?sy_seq=130025\">Yesterday, the government-owned textile company announced big losses<\/a> due to over producing products that no one wanted to buy. Here is  another government-owned  meat packing company. The rumours are that the  company has been cheating consumers with the quality of the meat and  that the &#8220;ameen&#8221; has been stealing from it. 40 years of losses,  stealing, mismanagement and waste. I cannot believe that this nonsense  continues. No national outcry. No national plan to rectify this sad  state of affairs. This is just two of them. There are 240 other similar  stories under the umbrella of the public sector. To keep 2 million  people working the other 21 million and the national treasury end up  footing the bill.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>The Syrian Government Promises to Subsidize New Hires in Private Sector to Create Jobs<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">If a private sector company hires an employee for 5 years, the Syrian  government is promising to pay the employee&#8217;s salary for the first  year. [Many critics claim this may turn out to be a nightmare policy, which will only add a new layer of corruption and tempt Syrians to  sign fake contracts with employers. The real problem, they insist, is to create a business environment that makes starting a business and investing more secure and profitable.\u00a0 Others argue that such job creation incentives are common in the West and should be applauded. They government is stimulating the private sector, helping to train young job seekers, and providing new opportunities.]<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\">?? ????  ????? ??????? ?????? ??? ??? ????? ????????? ????  ???? ??????? ??? ????  ???? ????? ?????? ?????? ??????? ?????? ?????????? ????? ??? ????? ??  ???? ?????? ??????? ?? ??? ??????? ??????? ?????  ?????? ?????? ????????  ?? ??? ??? ?????? ?????? ?????? ????? ?????  ??????? ?????? ?????? ??  ????? ?????? ????? ????? ??? ?? ????????? ????  ??? ?????.??? ??? ??????  ??? ???? ??????? ?????? ???????? ??????? ????? ????????  ?????? ???  ?????? ?????? ????? ???? ??? ????? ????? 50 ??? ???? ??? ???? ?????  ??????? ??????? ???? ????? ??????? ???????? ?????? ??????? ???  ????????  ?? ???? ???????? ??????? ?????? ??????. ??????? ????? ??? ????????  ??  ?????? ???????? ??? ?????? ??????? ??????? ?????? ?????? ?? ???  ???????  ?????????? ??????? ???? ????? ??? ?????? ?????? ??????? ?? ????  ?????.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/honestreporting.com\/israel-navy-seizes-iranian-arms-shipment\/\">Israel Navy Seizes Iranian Arms Shipment<\/a>, Honest reporting, 2011-03-15<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Israel Navy Seizes Iranian Arms Shipment March 15, 2011  14:08 by Pesach Benson Israeli naval commandos intercepted a boat  carrying Iranian weapons bound for Gaza. According to the IDF  Spokesperson blog, the \u201cVictoria\u201d left the Syrian port of &#8230; Netanyahu  Says Weapons Found on Captured Ship Came From Iran&#8230;..<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote><p>Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that  weapons found on a ship that the navy stopped 200 miles from Israel\u2019s  coast came from Iran, which he said was trying to arm the Gaza Strip.  Netanyahu said that the ship was stopped according to international law.  The prime minister\u2019s statement was sent to journalists by text message.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>Netanyahu said he was not surprised that Saudi Arabia had dispatched forces to Bahrain<\/strong> &#8230;&#8221;I think they are concerned with a possible Iranian takeover of  Bahrain, &#8220;Saudi Arabia is working to protect its own interests. But there is a very large global interest in making sure the world&#8217;s oil  wells, that the largest reserves of the world&#8217;s oil supply do not fall  into Iranian or pro-Iranian hands,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.google.com\/hostednews\/afp\/article\/ALeqM5hYtZM0zG6Qq2aulKdPiYx_cywBNw?docId=CNG.af94279f2de063afb3fd0d2db3261792.c31\">32 protesters held for hurting Syria&#8217;s &#8216;image&#8217;: NGO<\/a><br \/>\n(AFP) \u2013 18 hours ago<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">DAMASCUS \u2014 Syria on Thursday charged 32 demonstrators with attacking  the reputation of the state a day after they joined a rally calling for  the release of political prisoners, a rights group said.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">The 32  protesters, including rights activist Suhair Atassi, were detained on  Wednesday at a Damascus rally organised by the relatives of political  prisoners to petition for their release.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">&#8220;The Syrian authorities  on Thursday charged 32 activists who took part in protest outside the  interior ministry with attacking the reputation of the state, provoking  racism and sectarianism and damaging relations between Syrians,&#8221; the  Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">The rights group listed  the names of 25 detained demonstrators, including Atassi and four  relatives of opposition figure Kamal Labwani, who is serving a 12-year  jail sentence.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">It said security services broke up the sit-in &#8220;by force.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">Syrian  rights groups have repeatedly urged the authorities to free prisoners  of conscience and to stop arbitrary detention of political opponents and  civil society activists.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">They have also called for a law on  political parties &#8220;to enable citizens to exercise their right to  participate in managing the affairs of the country.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">On Thursday  five protesters detained at Wednesday&#8217;s rally were freed, a rights group  said amid international calls for more to be released&#8230;..<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">HRW quoted one released activist as saying security services had asked those arrested for their Facebook passwords.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.raceforiran.com\/the-obama-administration-adapts-its-israel-talking-points-for-bahrain-and-saudi-arabia\">THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION ADAPTS ITS ISRAEL TALKING POINTS FOR BAHRAIN AND SAUDI ARABIA, <\/a>Posted on March 16th, 2011, Race for Iran<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Today, the White House confirmed, <a href=\"http:\/\/english.aljazeera.net\/video\/middleeast\/2011\/03\/201131641021897307.html\">see here<\/a>,    that it was \u201caware, obviously, of the invitation\u201d extended to Saudi    Arabia to invade Bahrain.\u00a0 But U.S. government officials continue to    decline to say what Secretary of Defense Gates said or did not say to    his Bahraini interlocutors 36 hours before Saudi Arabia\u2019s military    offensive.\u00a0 And, U.S. government officials have refused to call for the    removal of foreign troops from Bahrain.<\/p>\n<p>For many in Iran, and  indeed for Shia throughout the Persian Gulf,   this is painfully  reminiscent of American silence when Iraq invaded the   Islamic Republic  in 1980. \u00a0And, as it became clear that the United   States was  supporting Saddam Hussein in his war of aggression against   Iran, it  seems increasingly likely that the Obama Administration will be   seen  as supporting the use of armed force against a Shia majority    population in Bahrain.<\/p>\n<p>In this regard, it is telling that the  Obama Administration refuses   to call for democracy in Bahrain.\u00a0  According to the White House   spokesman, President Obama, in phone  conversations with Saudi King   Abdullah and Bahraini King Hamad,  \u201cstressed the importance of a   political process as the only way to  peacefully address the legitimate   grievances of Bahrainis and to lead  to a Bahrain that is stable, just,   more unified and responsive to its  people.\u201d&#8230;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Wikileak:<a href=\"http:\/\/friday-lunch-club.blogspot.com\/2011\/03\/wikileaks-jumblatt-hamadeh-israel-is.html\"> &#8220;Israel is not inflicting enough damages on Hezbollah .. Israel needs to occupy South Lebanon!&#8221;<\/a><br \/>\nDocument Beirut 2403: Excerpts by Friday Lunch Club.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>July 16, 2006\/ ambassador Jeffrey Feltman in a late night meeting with Terje Roed Larsen &amp; Geir Pederson, in Larsen&#8217;s suite at the Phoenicia Hotel. Pederson later left the meeting to join other members of the UN delegation in Beirut and to prevent the interpretation that the US &amp; UN were in cahoots&#8230;.<\/p>\n<p>Larsen said that he had an excellent meeting with Siniora and Berri who was overwhelmed by a inert desire to &#8216;seize the opportunity&#8217; but was held back by the popular mood&#8230; Larsen was adamant to restrict his &#8216;initiative&#8217; to Berri &amp; Siniora, and did not wish the incorporation of the &#8216;naive ones like Michel Aoun and Saad Hariri.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>Walid Jumblatt &amp; Marwan Hamadeh were clearly concerned with Israel&#8217;s MO of &#8216;surgical bombardment&#8217;, and hoped that it continues with it war until they inflict quasi destruction of Hezbollah&#8217;s infrastructure, even if this entailed the occupation of south Lebanon. Jumblatt stressed that publicly he was going to call for a cease fire but that he sees in the continuation of hostilities an opportunity to destro Hezbollah.<\/p>\n<p>In that meeting, over a bottle of wine, 3 bottles of Corona &amp; Vodka (the origin of which led to a long argument between Jumblatt and an overwhelmed room service waiter), the Druze leader went through an encapsulation of March14&#8242; thinking.<\/p>\n<p>Jumblatt was not happy to see that Israel has not destroyed enough of Hezbollah&#8217;s infrastructure and capabilities&#8230; and complsined that a cease fire would give Hezbollah a victory. He frankly conveyed that he prefers the continuation of the hostilities..<\/p>\n<p>Ambassador Feltman asked Jumblatt what does Israel needs to do to inflict maximum damage on Hezbollah: jumblatt replied that Israel is fighting a conventional war &#8230; What is needed is an invasion of south Lebabon, cleaning the area to allow the redeployment of the LAF &#8230; .Jumblatt concluded that there are only two possible outcomes: total victory or total defeat of Hezbollah, no gray zones!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/home.medewerker.uva.nl\/r.e.c.leenders\/bestanden\/Regional%20contagion.pdf\">Reinoud Leenders, &#8220;Regional Contagion in the Middle East: For &#8216;good&#8217; or &#8216;Worse&#8217;<\/a>? &#8211; March 2011<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Although predicted by few, the current upheavals in several Arab countries reinvigorate commonplace perceptions of the countries and peoples in the Arab world and the Middle East at large as constituting a densely intertwined, interconnected and bounded region. Yet it is much less clear under what conditions the region\u2019s \u201csound chamber\u201d resonates loud calls for democratic change, as is the case today, or, in contrast, when it plays the tunes of authoritarianism. Syria may provide some important clues.<br \/>\nread further at: http:\/\/home.medewerker.uva.nl\/r.e.c.leenders\/bestanden\/Regional%20contagion.pdf<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Excerpts: Full document will be available soon on wikileaks&#8217; &amp; Al Akhbar&#8217;s sites simultaneously.<br \/>\nDocument number 2504 &#8211; thanks to Friday Lunch Club<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>July 31, 2006\/ meeting between Ambassador Jeffrey Feltman &amp; Fuad Siniora Siniora says that he &#8216;understands&#8217; Israel&#8217;s conditions that it cannot accept a cease fire until the deployment of verifiable and credible forces in South Lebanon&#8230; Siniora added that the implementation of his &#8216;seven points&#8217; plan &amp; the deployment of a multinational peace force capable of &#8216;enforcing it&#8217;, &#8230; will afford Israel with what it &#8216;always longed for&#8217; &amp; was not capable of achieving: A peacful northern border&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Siniora said that the Lebanese &amp; Israeli governments are getting overly wrapped up in details and are losing sight of their common goals: 1) Peace &amp; Security for Israel, 2)disarming Hezbollah&#8230; Siniora believes that Iran &amp; Syria are the only beneficiaries of prolonged negotiations When asked by Feltman about his assurance that Hezbollah will either surrender its weapons to the LAF or redeploy north of the Litani river, Siniora said that he is not &#8216;100% sure&#8217;, but that through his negotiations with Hezbollah via Shia&#8217; emissaries or via Nabih Berri, he leans towards believing that Hezbollah will do just that [Siniora &amp; his adviser Muhamad Shattah were in high spirits after meeting French official Douste Blazy, certain that France accepted to lead a multinational force in South Lebanon ] As he has done before, Siniora stressed to Feltman the importance of &#8216;breaking Hezbollah&#8217;s monopoly on Shebaa Farms&#8217; and that time has come to replace the US with Iran in the &#8216;guilty box&#8217; facing Arab and Lebanese public opinions. This can be achieved through placing the Farms under temporary UNIFIL custody&#8230;&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.naharnet.com\/domino\/tn\/NewsDesk.nsf\/getstory?openform&amp;7E85F81B0369DEF7C22578570023FA7F\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright\" src=\"http:\/\/www.naharnet.com\/domino\/tn\/NewsDesk.nsf\/0\/7e85f81b0369def7c22578570023fa7f\/Body\/0.82?OpenElement&amp;FieldElemFormat=jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"239\" height=\"160\" \/>U.S. Lawmaker Rejects Aiding Lebanese Army if Hizbullah is &#8216;Calling the Shots&#8217;<\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>A high-ranking Republican legislator has said that the U.S. Congress should cut off funding for the Lebanese army if Hizbullah plays &#8220;even a minor role&#8221; in Premier-designate Najib Miqati&#8217;s government. Representative Steve Chabot of Ohio, chairman of the House of Representatives&#8217; Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia, told The Daily Star in an interview published Friday that Congress should not donate U.S. taxpayer money to Lebanon if the assistance winds up under Hizbullah&#8217;s control<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tayyib Tazini, my professor at the University of Damascus when I was a Fulbrighter in the early 1980s and one of the leading intellectuals in the Arab World, was arrested for demonstrating for prisoner rights and released on Wednesday with 4 others. 25 or so remain behind bars. There have been three days of small [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[21],"tags":[90],"class_list":["post-8633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reform","tag-demonstrations"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.8.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Demonstrations in Damascus Challenge Regime - Syria Comment<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/demonstrations-in-damascus-challenge-regime\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Demonstrations in Damascus Challenge Regime - Syria Comment\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Tayyib Tazini, my professor at the University of Damascus when I was a Fulbrighter in the early 1980s and one of the leading intellectuals in the Arab World, was arrested for demonstrating for prisoner rights and released on Wednesday with 4 others. 25 or so remain behind bars. 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