Saddam's Death, 101 (sept 2017 - part 2)
attempt to destroy political holism in the middle east

See also: Page 100: september 2017 and Page 102: october 2017
Israel & The Temple Revolution & Unesco & the Temple

Regime Change in Iraq - Overview 2002/2003
Trump & the Two Messiah's - Kennedy Speech 1961 - Eisenhower's Social Gospel
"I Have, I Rule and I will Destroy" - Iran & the dialogue of civilizations
Netanyahu & Infantilization of Israel
Jesus & Pophet Muhammed: "Be a stranger in the world" - Ideological Warfare Center
Jewish fundamentalism in the State of Palestine
Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was born April 28, 1937 and died December 30, 2006. He was the fifth President of Iraq, holding that position from July 16, 1979 until 9 April 2003. He was one of the leading members of the revolutionary Arab Socialist Ba’ath Party, and afterward, the Baghdad-based Ba’ath Party and its regional organization Ba’ath Party, Iraq Region, which advocated ba’athism, an ideological marriage of Arab nationalism with Arab socialism. (Patricia Ramos, july 2013)

"The national security of America and the security of the world could be attained if the American leaders [..] become rational, if America disengages itself from its evil alliance with Zionism, which has been scheming to exploit the world and plunge it in blood and darkness, by using America and some Western countries.
What the American peoples need mostly is someone who tells them the truth, courageously and honestly as it is.
They don’t need fanfares and cheerleaders, if they want to take a lesson from the (sept. 11) event so as to reach a real awakening, in spite of the enormity of the event that hit America.
But the world, including the rulers of America, should say all this to the American peoples, so as to have the courage to tell the truth and act according to what is right and not what to is wrong and unjust, to undertake their responsibilities in fairness and justice, and by recourse to reason..."

Saddam Hussein, INA 15-9-2002

"The despot thinks he is just as God... What a nadir and mean fate!
The despot, as represented in this age, in our day, imagines he can enslave the people..
But they were born free. They were freed by God’s will through prophets and messengers, to be slaves only to Him and not to anyone of the people." Saddam Hussein, Iraq Daily 4-3-2003

A person with a God Complex may refuse to admit the possibility of their error or failure, even in the face of irrefutable evidence, intractable problems or difficult or impossible tasks.
The person is also highly dogmatic in their views, meaning the person speaks of their personal opinions as though they are unquestionably correct.
Someone with a god complex may exhibit no regard for the conventions and demands of society, and may request special consideration or privileges.

"That is the issue that will continue in this country... It is the eternal struggle between these two principles -- right and wrong -- throughout the world. They are the two principles that have stood face to face from the beginning of time, and will ever continue to struggle.
The one is the common right of humanity and the other the divine right of kings." Abraham Lincoln (October 15, 1858 Debate at Alton, Illinois)

"Happy day, when, all appetites controlled, all poisons subdued, all matter subjected, mind, all conquering mind, shall live and move the monarch of the world. Glorious consummation! Hail fall of Fury! Reign of Reason, all hail!" Abraham Lincoln (February 22, 1842 Temperance Address)

"...To be a human being among human beings, and remain one forever, no matter what misfortunes befall, not to become depressed, and not to falter - this is what life is, herein lies its task." Fyodor Dostoevsky (to his brother Mikhail, Dec. 22, 1849)

All mankind is from Adam and Eve. An Arab has no superiority over a non-Arab nor a non-Arab has any superiority over an Arab; also a white has no superiority over black nor a black has any superiority over white except by piety and good action.
Learn that every Muslim is a brother to every Muslim and that the Muslims constitute one brotherhood. Nothing shall be legitimate to a Muslim which belongs to a fellow Muslim unless it was given freely and willingly.
“Do not therefore do injustice to yourselves. Remember one day you will meet Allah and answer your deeds. So beware, do not astray from the path of righteousness after I am gone." Prophet Muhammad, Last Sermon

“Human beings are members of a whole,
In creation of one essence and soul.
If one member is afflicted with pain,
Other members uneasy will remain.
If you have no sympathy for human pain,
The name of human you can not retain.”

Saadi Shirazi
(Persian poet & humanist, born in Shiraz, Iran, c. 1210)










"Holism is the most fundamental discovery of 20th century science. It is a discovery of every science from astrophysics to quantum physics to environmental science to psychology to anthropology.
It is the discovery that the entire universe is an integral whole, and that the basic organizational principle of the universe is the field principle: the universe consists of fields within fields, levels of wholeness and integration that mirror in fundamental ways, and integrate with, the ultimate, cosmic whole...."
"For many thinkers and religious teachers throughout this history, holism was the dominant thought, and the harmony that it implies has most often been understood to encompass cosmic, civilizational, and personal dimensions. Jesus, Mohammed, Buddha, Lord Krishna, Lao Tzu, and Confucius all give us visions of transformative harmony, a transformative harmony that derives from a deep relation to the holism of the cosmos."

About political holism

Political holism is based on the recognition that "we" are all members of a single whole. There's no "they," even though "we" are not all alike. Because "we" are all part of the whole, and therefore interdependent, we benefit from cooperating with each other. Political holism is a way of thinking about human cultures and nations as interdependent.
Political holists search for solutions other than war to settle international disagreements. Their model of the world is one in which cooperation and negotiation, even with the enemy, even with the weak, promotes political stability more than warfare.
In an overpopulated world with planet-wide environmental problems, the development of weapons of mass destruction has rendered war obsolete as an effective means to resolve disputes.

Political dualists consider political holists unpatriotic for questioning the necessity to defeat "them." In times of impending war, political dualists tend to measure patriotism by the intensity of one's hostility to the country's immediate enemy.
Naturally, they would view as disloyalty any suggestion that the enemy is not evil, any call for cooperation with the enemy, any criticism of one's own country.
To political dualists, cooperation with the enemy means capitulation, relinquishment of the nation's position of dominance.
At its extreme, political dualism is essentially tribalism. (Betty Craige, 16-8-1997)


Desmond Tutu & Ubuntu

"A person with Ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, based from a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole and is diminished when others are humiliated or diminished, when others are tortured or oppressed."
"We think of ourselves far too frequently as just individuals, separated from one another, whereas you are connected and what you do affects the whole World.
When you do well, it spreads out; it is for the whole of humanity." (Ubuntu info)

Friends of Syria still after Regime Change
Daily Sabah, 19-9-2017

FSA 2013: 80% Salafists & Muslim Brotherhood Islamists

The 'friends of Syria' will not support the reconstruction of the country until there is a political transition "away from Assad," British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said Monday.
The "Friends of Syria" group met in New York on Monday on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly at a time when the conflict in Syria, now in its seventh year, appears to be less urgent with attention focused on the North Korean nuclear threat and the fate of the Iran nuclear deal.
"We believe that the only way forward is to get a political process going and to make it clear to the Iranians, Russians and Assad regime that we will not support the reconstruction of Syria until there is a transition away from Assad," Johnson said.

Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, David Satterfield, said all those at the meeting agreed that "there has got to be a political process if there is to be any international participation in the reconstruction of Syria."
"The regime and the regime supporters cannot declare a victory solely based on a map and colors of positions on the ground," Satterfield said. "The reconstruction of Syria depends very much on that credible political process..."
"Realism dictates that Assad cannot stay in power...", French foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told reporters in New York.




friends of syria 2013: nato, qatar, saudi-arabia, turkey, muslim brotherhood

President al-Assad: Some Western governments
continue to support terrorist organizations in Syria
SANA, 17 September 2017

Damascus, SANA – President Bashar al-Assad received on Sunday an Italian parliamentary delegation, headed by Member of the Senate, Senator Paolo Romani.
President al-Assad stressed that some western governments are still supporting the terrorist organizations in Syria either directly or indirectly despite the fact that these governments have started to suffer due to the backfiring of this terrorism on their people.
The visits of the European delegations to Syria to get acquainted with the facts on the ground could play a significant role in enhancing the signs of the change in the western public opinion towards what is going on in Syria after it has realized the lies of the western mass media which serve the policies of the governments, but not the interests of the peoples, President al-Assad pointed out.
He added that this could also help in working towards lifting the economic siege that increases the suffering of the Syrians and negatively affects their livelihood.
In a statement to SANA reporters, head of the Italian parliamentary delegation, Paolo Romani, said that the majority of the Italian people do not know the reality of what is taking place in Syria, since they watch news circulated by western media outlets which do not convey the situation as it is on the ground.
He expressed optimism over the Syrian people’s ability and determination to rebuild their country, stressing that the main aim of the visit is to inspect the situation in Aleppo and convey the real image to the Italian people, in addition to reactivating the Syrian-Italian diplomatic relations.

In New York for General Assembly, Rouhani says
Iran seeks extensive interaction with world
Press TV, Sun Sep 17, 2017

Upon arrival at John F Kennedy Airport in New York to attend the 72nd session of the United Nations General Assembly, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has reiterated that Tehran’s strategy is extensive interaction with the world.
Rouhani added that he would hold meetings with heads of countries, senior clerics of Islamic countries, US media, the Iranian elite living in the United States as well as those from other countries. "We will also hold talks with heads of European, Asian, African and Latin American countries."

Rouhani is highly expected to discuss the 2015 nuclear deal his administration signed with the P5+1 group of countries. Washington’s stance on the historic accord is likely to take center stage during his meetings with world leaders. The JCPOA was reached between Iran and the P5+1 group of countries — the US, Russia, China, France, and Britain plus Germany — in July 2015 and took effect in January 2016. Under the deal, Iran undertook to put limitations on its nuclear program in exchange for the termination of all nuclear-related sanctions against Tehran.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has on multiple occasions affirmed Iran's adherence to its commitments under the nuclear agreement

"Religion without wisdom and thought is like a pest to human life."

"I must admit that in the current century religion and religious motivations are the main cause of violence."
"Currently the Middle East is burning in flames that are created by some religious people who are completely ignorant of genuine religious beliefs and thoughts."

Ayatollah Dr. Seyyed Mostafa Mohaghegh-Damad (UN & WAVE seminar)

At a September 2005 speech in the United States he gave as his opinion that there are no irreconcilable differences between the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Islamic jurisprudence, that no compulsion is permissible in religion, that apostasy should be punished only if it involves undertaking actions to destabilize the social order, and that "nothing should be forced on the people by the government, not even daily prayers."

Rouhani: "To settle regional problems we should use political means" IRNA, 19-9-2017

In a meeting with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on the sidelines of 72nd session of the United Nations General Assembly on Monday,
President Hassan Rouhani stressed that the UN and International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) play a pivotal role in safeguarding and bolstering the July 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and the major world powers , known as Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
President Rouhani urged the UN chief to help implement the World Against Violence and Extremism (WAVE) plan approved by the UN General Assembly in 2013.

In December 2013, the United Nations General Assembly overwhelmingly voted to approve Rouhani’s initiative known as WAVE, which called on all nations across the globe to denounce violence and extremism.
The Iranian President described terrorism as a global predicament, urging all countries to foster cooperation among themselves to counter the phenomenon.
Rouhani said Iran has taken significant steps to stand against terrorism, adding that to settle the regional problems we should use political means.

Touching upon the Syria crisis, Rouhani said that Iran is cooperating with Turkey and Russia in the Astana Process to promote peace in Syria.
President Rouhani also urged international bodies, UN in particular, to support Iraq's constitution and territorial integrity.


Efforts to destabilize a sovereign country is terrorism, says Qatari Emir
Daily Sabah (Turkey), 19-9-2017

Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani gave a speech during the United Nations General Assembly in New York, in which he harshly criticized the blockade against the insular Arab state.
"Countries who have imposed an unjust blockade on Qatar are seeking to destabilize a sovereign state, isn't that the definition of terrorism?," he asked.
Speaking from the podium of the 193-member General Assembly, Sheikh Tamim renewed the call "for an unconditional dialogue based on mutual respect for sovereignty" to end the political crisis pitting his country against four Arab states.
He asserted that Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt were inflicting damage on the "war on terror" with this blockade.

The three-month rift in the region began on June 5 when the Gulf countries accused Qatar of supporting terrorism and severed diplomatic and transport ties. The Gulf countries imposed a land, sea and air blockade on Qatar and presented a list of demands to Doha, which included the closure of the Al Jazeera television network and the Turkish base in Doha.
Qatar announced that it would not adhere to the list and added that in order to find a common ground, the states imposing embargo need to leave their hardline policy.




flashback 2011/2012: qatar, mediator between nato and islamist rebels

President Bashar al-Assad: "Let’s be honest: had Qatar not paid money to those terrorists at that time, and had Turkey not supported them logistically, and had not the West supported them politically, things would have been different." (Syrian TV, 4-12-2014)


Netanyahu's Address to UN General Assembly, Haaretz 19-9-2017
"The light of Israel will never be extinguished"

Ladies and gentlemen, here at the UN, we must speak the truth about Iran, as President Trump did so powerfully this morning.
President Trump rightly called the nuclear deal with Iran - he called it "an embarrassment." Well, I couldn't agree with him more. And here's why: Iran vows to destroy my country. Iran is conducting a campaign of conquest across the Middle East, and Iran is developing ballistic missiles to threaten the entire world.

Two years ago, I stood here and explained why the Iranian nuclear deal not only doesn't block Iran's path to the bomb, but actually paves it. Because the restrictions placed on Iran's nuclear program have what's called "a sunset clause."
Now let me explain what that term means. It means that in a few years, those restrictions will be automatically removed, not by a change in Iran's behavior, not by a lessening of its terror or its aggression: they'll just be removed by a mere change in the calendar.
And I warned that when that sunset comes, a dark shadow will be cast over the entire Middle East and the world, because Iran will then be free to enrich uranium on an industrial scale, placing it on the threshold of a massive arsenal of nuclear weapons.
That's why I said two years ago that the greater danger is not that Iran will rush to a single bomb by breaking the deal, but that Iran will be able to build many bombs by keeping the deal...
Imagine the danger of hundreds of nuclear weapons in the hands of a vast Iranian-Islamist empire with the missiles to deliver them anywhere on earth.
I know there are those who still defend the dangerous deal with Iran, arguing that it will block Iran's path to the bomb. Ladies and gentlemen, that's exactly what they said about the nuclear deal with North Korea, and we all know how that turned out.

Unfortunately, if nothing changes, this deal will turn out exactly the same way. That's why Israel's policy regarding the nuclear deal with Iran is very simple: Change it or cancel it. Fix it or nix it.
Nixing the deal means restoring massive pressure on Iran, including crippling sanctions until Iran fully dismantles its nuclear weapons capability.
Fixing the deal requires many things, among them inspecting military and any other site that is a suspect, and penalizing Iran for every violation.
And beyond fixing this bad deal, we must also stop Iran's development of ballistic missiles and roll back its growing aggression in the region.
From the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean, from Tehran to Tartus, an Iranian curtain is descending across the Middle East.
Iran spreads this curtain of tyranny and terror over Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and elsewhere, and it pledges to extinguish the light of Israel.
Today, I have a simple message to Ayatollah Khamenei, the dictator of Iran: The light of Israel will never be extinguished.

Those who threaten us with annihilation put themselves in mortal peril.
We will act to prevent Iran from establishing permanent military bases in Syria for its air, sea and ground forces. We will act to prevent Iran from producing deadly weapons in Syria or in Lebanon for use against us. And we will act to prevent Iran from opening new terror fronts against Israel along our northern border.
As long as Iran's regime seeks the destruction of Israel, Iran will face no fiercer enemy than Israel.

But I also have a message today for the people of Iran: One day, my Iranian friends, you will be free from the evil regime that terrorizes you, hangs gays, jails journalists, tortures political prisoners and shoots innocent women... When your day of liberation finally comes, the friendship between our two ancient peoples will surely flourish once again.

The Lubavitcher Rebbe’s dark side


Israel's strange relationship with the UN
It has desperately sought to be legitimized by the UN,
while it has done its utmost to delegitimize the UN.
Ramzy Baroud, CounterPunch 21-9-2017

There is a great irony in the fact that Israel is seeking a seat at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC).
Since its establishment atop the ruins of Palestinian cities and villages in 1948, Israel has had the most precarious relationship with the world’s largest international body. It has desperately sought to be legitimized by the UN, while it has done its utmost to delegitimize the UN.
Following a resolution at the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) condemning Israel’s human rights abuses in the Occupied Palestinian Territory in March 2014, Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, then accused the UN of being ‘absurd’. He vowed to “continue to denounce and expose” the UN “procession of hypocrisy.”
For many years, Israeli leaders and government officials have made it a habit of undermining the UN and its various bodies and, with unconditional support from Washington, habitually ignored numerous UN resolutions regarding the illegal occupation of Palestine.
To a certain extent, the Israeli strategy – of using and abusing the UN – has worked. With US vetoes, blocking every UN attempt at pressuring Israel to end its military occupation and human rights violations, Israel was in no rush to comply with international law...

Tel Aviv’s aim is to undercut the support of Palestinians at the UN General Assembly, and sabotage the work of UN bodies that exist outside the realm of US power.
Meanwhile, it also wants to secure a seat for itself at the UN Security Council. The assumption is that, with the support of Haley at the UN, such a possibility is not far-fetched.
In addition to the five-permeant veto-wielding UN Security Council members, ten-member countries are elected on a two-year term basis. Israel’s charm offensive in Latin America, Africa and Asia is meant to ensure the needed vote to grant it a seat in the 2019-2020 term. The vote will take place next year, and Israel will stand against Germany and Belgium.
If Israel wins that seat, it is likely to use the new position to strengthen its occupation of Palestine, as opposed to adhering to international law.

Separatism more important than fighting Isis
Moscow warns US any shellings of Russian task force
by Syrian opposition will be thwarted
TASS Russian News Agency, 21-9-2017

Adam Garrie: The Dangers of Kurdish Separatism in Syria, 30-3-2017

Moscow has informed Washington via a special communications channel that any attempts of Syrian opposition fighters to shell Russian task force and Syrian troops will be curbed, Defense Ministry Spokesman Igor Konashenkov said on Thursday.
Servicemen of Russia’s special operations forces and Syrian troops are currently working together to destroy the terrorists near Deir ez-Zor in eastern Syria, Konashenkov said.
Russia warned a representative of the US command in Al Udeid, Qatar, that "any attempts of shelling from the areas where the militants of the Syrian Democratic Forces are based will be immediately curbed." "Firing points in these areas will be immediately suppressed by all means of destruction," the general said.

Fighters of the Syrian Democratic Forces approaching Deir ez-Zor from the north are easily joining IS terrorists, and Russian drones and reconnaissance recorded no clash between the IS and the SDF over the past week, he explained.
However, massive fire from mortars and rocket artillery was opened twice on the Syrian troops from the areas on the eastern shore of Euphrates where the SDF fighters and servicemen of US special forces are based, Konashenkov said.
The spokesman noted that amid the Syrian troops’ success, the US-led international coalition and the SDF have halted the operation on liberating Raqqa
"Central areas of the former IS capital, which amount to around 25% of the city’s territory, remain under full control of terrorists." "SDF militants have been dispatched from Raqqa’s province to the northern areas of the Deir ez-Zor province," Konashenkov said.


Turkey, Iran, Iraq consider counter-measures over Kurdish referendum
Reuters|Ahram online, 21 Sep 2017

Turkey, Iran and Iraq have agreed to consider counter-measures against Kurdish northern Iraq over a planned independence referendum, Turkey's foreign ministry said on Thursday [21-9].
In a joint statement, the foreign ministers of the three countries voiced concerns that the referendum would endanger the gains Iraq has made against Islamic State (IS) militants, and reiterated their fears over the potential for new conflicts in the region.
"In the meeting, the three ministers emphasised that the referendum will not be beneficial for the Kurds and the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG), and agreed, in this regard, to consider taking counter-measures in coordination," the statement said.
The central government in Baghdad, Iraq's neighbours and Western powers fear the vote could divide the country and spark a wider regional conflict, after Arabs and Kurds cooperated to dislodge IS from its stronghold in Mosul.
But the Kurds say they are determined to go ahead with the vote, which could trigger the process of separation in a country already divided along sectarian and ethnic lines.

Flashback: People Are Seeking A Separate Existence
In Nations That Are Of, By And For Themselves Alone.
By Patrick J. Buchanan 26-5-2011

"Right now, socially, we are disintegrating." So says Mohamed ElBaradei, former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency and potential candidate for president of Egypt.
Indeed, post-revolutionary Egypt appears to be coming apart. Since the heady days of Tahrir Square, Salafis have been killing Christians. Churches have been destroyed. Gangs have conducted mass prison breaks. The Muslim Brotherhood brims with confidence.
"People do not feel secure," says ElBaradei, "They are buying guns." ...
Can the Arab revolts cope with "the cacophony of diversity ... the Arab world's variety of clans, sects, ethnicities and religions?" Or will we witness the disintegration of nations like Libya, Syria, Iraq and Yemen, as we did Ethiopia and the Sudan—and of African, Latin American, Asian and European nations, as well?

In the 21st century, the call of one's God and the claims of blood and soil seem more magnetic than the ideologies of the 19th and 20th century: Marxism, socialism or democracy.
People do not seem to seek equality with other cultures, faiths and tribes, but a separate existence in nations that are of, by and for themselves alone.

In 1973, Gaddafi organized the Arab Socialist Union (ACC), which became the sole legal political organization in the country.

In 1977 the General People's Congress, representing numerous national committees, adopted a decree (the "Sabha Declaration") on the establishment of a "regime of people's power" (the so-called 'direct popular democracy') in Libya, and the country was renamed the Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya.

The Revolutionary Command Council was also renamed and transformed into the General Secretariat of the Congress. The people elected into the General Secretariat of the General People's Congress were Gaddafi (General Secretary) and four of his closest associates - Major Abdessalam Jalloud, and generals Abu Bakr Younes Jaber, Mustafa al-Harrubi, and Huveyldi al Hmeydi.
Two years later, the five leaders resigned from public office, yielding them to professional managers.
Since then, Gaddafi has officially held the title of the Leader of the Libyan revolution. (Gaddafi, the populist socialist)


Russia clashes with EU over Syria
Middle East Online, 22-9-2017

UNITED NATIONS - Russia on Thursday clashed with the European Union over Syria, accusing the bloc of politicizing aid by linking reconstruction funds to a political transition that would end the war.
At an EU-organized conference held on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York, Russia's deputy foreign minister said aid was being used as a political tool to build pressure on Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad.
"The politicization of issues related to aid and the statements on the need to wait for the end of the political process are unacceptable," said Gennady Gatilov.

European officials insist that aid will not flow to Syria until a credible political transition is agreed during UN-led negotiations to end the war.
But Gatilov said aid was needed now "to rebuild schools, hospitals and critical infrastructure."
Britain argued that the Assad regime should not be rewarded with aid...


Flashback 2014: France Urges Anti-IS Coalition to Help Aleppo Rebels

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius called Tuesday for the U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State group to help rebels in Syria's second city Aleppo hold out against the Damascus regime. Fabius said that the coalition should not battle IS to the exclusion of supporting rebels fighting President Bashar Assad's regime, "After Kobane, we must save Aleppo," Fabius said... (Page 46-2014)


The United Nations is planning to convene a new round of peace talks next month between Syria's government and the opposition even though past negotiations have failed to yield progress.
With the rebel fighting position weakened, experts say the regime faces no pressure to make concessions at the negotiating table, and especially not over the question of Assad's future.
The war in Syria has dropped off the top of the diplomatic agenda during this year's annual gathering of world leaders at the United Nations, which instead has focused heavily on the nuclear threats from North Korea and Iran.


Russian bombing campaign to completely suppress
the offensive capabilities of all rebel factions in northwest Syria
Al-Masdar News, Andrew Illingworth, 23/09/2017

BEIRUT, LEBANON (1:45 P.M.) – In its ongoing bombardment campaign against militant forces in northern Hama and southern Idlib Governorates, The Russian Aerospace Forces have targeted a command base belonging to Turkish-backed rebels, killing and wounding nearly 100 fighters as a result.
Today, Russian airpower engaged a Faylaq al-Sham headquarters base in the area of Tal Mardiqh in southern Idlib with a number of precision strikes.
In addition to completely destroying the command base, the airstrike also killed fourteen fighters belonging to the militant group and wounded another 50.
With the knowledge that the Russian Aersopace Forces are now also attacking non-Al-Qaeda affiliated militant groups throughout northern Hama and southern Idlib, it can be said that Russian airpower is expanding the parameters of its bombing campaign to completely suppress the offensive capabilities of all rebel factions in northwest Syria.

Flashback: Faylaq al-Sham group descends into
bitter civil war in militant-held Idlib governorate
By Paul Antonopoulos, Al-Masdar News, 02/03/2017

Internal conflict is raging inside divisions of the Faylaq al-Sham terrorist group in Idlib’s countryside.
This is the latest bout of internal conflict in jihadist-held Idlib that has ravaged militant forces since their invasion of the govenorate with Turkish-backing in early 2015.
Faylaq members have split into 3 opposing groups threatening to exterminate each other after a bitter feud.
According to sources, the main reasons behind this conflict is the rejection some of the groups have inside Faylaq to go fight along with Furat Shield, the Turkish-led forces who are engaging the Kurdish YPG in Aleppo countryside.
Some commanders of Faylaq were also stealing salaries of the fighters and not paying them. Some commanders were selling weapons and ammunition belonging to Faylaq, including TOW missiles, to other jihadist groups.
Faylaq was at one point a US-vetted ('moderate' islamist) opposition group and received BGM-71 TOW missiles.

Lavrov warns against partition of Syria
TASS Russian News Agency, September 22, 2017

Moscow believes partition of Syria must not be allowed as a chain reaction will hit the whole Middle East, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told a news conference on Friday.
"First of all, fight against terrorism must be ended, but it is also necessary to start thinking how to restore Syria’s unity," the minister said.
"No division must be allowed, a chain reaction will sweep the Middle East. This is what some would seek to achieve, those for whom it is advantageous to maintain constant chaos, a mess there," he said at the news conference after a week of high-level meetings at the 72nd Session of the UN General Assembly.

"The concept of de-escalation zones was initially declared as temporary," he went on.
"Even within the framework of the six-month period in which the concept will be in effect, it was stated that in parallel with de-escalation zones we want to motivate the process of national reconciliation and creation of mechanisms that will help start nation-wide dialog and prepare ground for a political process in addition to what is being done in Geneva," he added.
Starting from May, four de-escalation zones are being set up in Syria. Military activities in the de-escalation zones are banned.


Syria's Deputy PM Speech At UN General Assembly
No people has suffered at the hands of terrorism more than the Syrian people
ICH - 23 September 2017

The Syrian Government has spared no effort to put an end to the war that has besieged the country for the past six years, but the bloodshed continues owing to the “aggressive policies” by some States, Deputy Prime Minister Walid Al-Moualem told the United Nations General Assembly today.
“No people has suffered at the hands of terrorism more than the Syrian people, who, for six years now, has fought against terrorists pouring from all over the world, supported by parties from the region and beyond,” said Mr. Al-Moualem, who is also the country’s Minister for Foreign Affairs.
Since March 2011, Syria has been in the throes of a conflict that has forced more than half of all Syrians to leave their homes. An estimated 5 million Syrians have fled the country and more than 6 million are internally displaced.
The crisis, described as the worst humanitarian disaster of our time with more than 13 million people in need of assistance, has caused untold suffering for Syrian men, women and children.

Mr. Al-Moualem stated that since day one, the Syrian Government has positively considered all initiatives to put an end to the war. “However, these initiatives eventually failed after States that supported and fueled terrorism decided to persist in their aggressive policies against Syria and its people.”
Certain countries, the Prime Minister said, have boasted about fighting terrorism in Syria and having the interests of Syrians at heart. “They have established ‘coalitions’ and held dozens of conferences under deceiving titles, such as ‘friends of the Syrian people’.

Thierry Meyssan: Armed groups in Syria do not defend democracy
Voltaire Network 24-7-2012

The leaders of the Syrian National Council (SNC) as well as the Free Syrian Army (FSA) commanders are not democratic at all, in the sense that they would be favourable to "a government of the people, by the people, for the people", according to Abraham Lincoln’s formula taken from the French Constitution.
Thus, the first president of the SNC was the Paris academic, Burhan Ghalioun. He was in no way "a Syrian opponent persecuted by the regime" since he circulated freely in and out of his country. Nor was he a "secular intellectual" as he claims, since he was the political advisor to the Algerian Abbassi Madani, President of the Islamic Salvation Front (ISF), now a refugee in Qatar.
His successor, Abdel Basset Syda entered politics only in the last months, and immediately established himself as a mere executor of US wishes. Upon his election as head of the SNC, he pledged not to defend the will of his people, but to implement the "road map" that Washington drew up for Syria: The Day After.
Nor are the Free Syrian Army fighters champions of democracy. They recognize the spiritual authority of sheikh Adnan Al-Arour, a takfirist preacher, who calls for the overthrow and killing of Assad, not for political reasons but simply because Assad is of the Alawite faith, that is to say a heretic in the preacher’s eyes.
All of the identified officers in the FSA are Sunnis and all of the FSA brigades are named after historical Sunni figures. The "revolutionary tribunals" of the FSA sentence their political opponents to death (and not only supporters of Bashar al-Assad) and they slaughter the unbelievers in public.
The FSA program is to end the secular regime installed by the Baath, the SSNP and the Communist Party in favor of a pure religious Sunni regime
.


Mousa al-Omar: There's no such thing called FSA anymore.
They're all Islamist brigades - YouTube, 13-10-2013

Mousa al-Omar, a Syrian opposition newscaster for al-Ghad TV (Tomorrow TV) broadcasting from London, explains briefly how the "Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant" (ISIL) became strong in Syria and shoots down idiotic conspiracy theories made by some in the Syrian opposition that ISIL is connected to Syrian or Iranian intelligence services. He also states that there's no such thing as the "Free Syrian Army" (FSA) in Syria anymore. He confirms that all the fighting rebel forces on the ground are, in fact, Islamist brigades.

"Why did it become strong in our country, Syria? Because, in short, it buys weapons from the "Free Syrian Army" (FSA).
"You have a tank, PK machine gun, a DShk, or anything else, we [ISIIL] are ready to buy. Here you go!"
A tank for 10M, Dhsk for 2M, whatever it is, they [ISIL] can pay! They have plenty of dollars. You can get whatever you want. They have no problem.
The FSA is two types: one that sells because it needs to pay its members a living and another that likes war loot and things like that..., which means it's corrupt, so it sells weapons for financial gain...
The truth of the FSA is a big lie, i.e. the word "Free Syrian Army". There's no such thing called FSA anymore. They're all Islamist brigades. (Source: al-Ghad TV)

Trump has shown a paradoxical and unbalanced personality so far
Tehran Times, September 23, 2017

salafists, backed by 'the friends of syria'
“Unfortunately, the U.S. president has shown a paradoxical and unbalanced personality so far,” ayatollah Seyed Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi said in a meeting of the Expediency Council.
He added Trump accused Iran of supporting terrorism while Tehran has been a victim of terrorism and has been fighting it in the region.
The ayatollah praised President Hassan Rouhani’s speech at the UN on Wednesday, describing it as “firm” and “very appropriate”.
In his speech, Trump accused Iran of engaging in “destabilizing activities” in the region.
Trump claimed that Iran’s “support for terror is in stark contrast to the recent commitments of many of its neighbors to fight terrorism and halt its financing.”
He also said that the 2015 nuclear deal signed by Iran, the European Union, Germany and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council was an “embarrassment” and hinted that he may not recertify the agreement when it comes up for a mid-October deadline.
Hassan Rouhani, in his UN speech, described Trump’s speech as “ignorant, absurd and hateful rhetoric, filled with ridiculously baseless allegations”.
He added that Trump’s comments “was not only unfit to be heard at the United Nations – which was established to promote peace and respect between nations – but indeed contradicted the demands of our nations from this world body to bring governments together to combat war and terror.”


Uri Avnery & Smotrich's plan for the future of Israel
Gush Shalom, 23/09/2017

I OWE many thanks to Bezalel Smotrich Yes, to Smotrich of the extreme right...
Recently Smotrich gave a speech to his followers, which he intended to be a national event, the turning of a page in Jewish history. He was gracious enough to mention me in this monumental message.
He said that after the 1948 war, in which the State of Israel was founded, Uri Avnery and a small band of followers created the ideology of "two states for two peoples", and by patient work over many years succeeded in turning this idea into a national consensus, indeed into an axiom.
Smotrich told his devotees that they, too, had to formulate their ideology, work patiently for many years until it became the national consensus instead of Avnery's.

Smotrich's plan for the future of Israel is based on the demand that Arabs living between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea choose between three alternatives:

* First, they can accept a monetary payment and leave the country.
* Second, they can become subjects of the Jewish State without becoming citizens and without attaining the right to vote [the 'autonomy'-solution].
* Third, they can make war and be defeated.

Let's look into the plan...
* Can an entire people be induced peacefully to leave their motherland for money? I don't think that it has ever happened. Indeed, the very idea shows an abysmal contempt for the Palestinians.
* The second choice would be easier. The Arabs, who already constitute even now a slight majority between the river and the sea, will become a pariah people and serve their Israeli masters. The Arab majority will grow rapidly, owing to the much higher Palestinian birthrate. We would deliberately recreate the South African apartheid situation. History, old and new, shows that such a situation invariably leads to rebellion and eventual liberation.
* So there remains the third solution. It suits the Israeli temperament much better:
War. Not the interminable wars that we have been engaged in since the beginning of Zionism, but a big, decisive war that puts an end to the whole mess. Inevitably, the Arabs will be vanquished and obliterated. End of story.

Smotrich should be taken seriously, not because he is a political genius but because he expresses openly and honestly what many Israelis think secretly. He is 37 years old, good-looking, with a cultivated beard. He was born in the occupied Golan heights, grew up in a West Bank settlement and now lives in a settlement in a house that was built illegally on Arab land. His father was a rabbi, he himself was educated in elite religious yeshivas and is a lawyer. Now he is also a Member of the Knesset.

Betzalel Yoel Smotrich (born 27 February 1980) is an Israeli politician.
A member of the Tkuma, he currently serves as a member of the Knesset for the Jewish Home [a religious-zionist party]. Smotrich is an Orthodox Jew and lives in the Kedumim settlement in the [occupied] West Bank.

The international community considers Israeli settlements a violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention.
Israel disputes that the Fourth Geneva Convention applies to these territories as they had not been legally held by a sovereign prior to Israel taking control of them. This view has been rejected by the International Court of Justice and the International Committee of the Red Cross.
According to B'Tselem, portions of Kedumim were built on privately owned Palestinian land. There are additionally two Israeli outposts adjacent to Kedumim, one of which is also built on privately owned Palestinian land.


Qaradawi meets 'extremist' Indian preacher Sulaiman al-Nadawi
Al Arabiya English, Monday, 25 September 2017

Qatar has opened its doors to extremist Indian preacher Sulaiman al-Nadawi who was pictured at prominent Muslim Brotherhood cleric Yusef al-Qaradawi’s office on Sunday.
Doha still welcomed Nadawi after Oman expelled him for provocative remarks against Gulf states.. During his speech, Nadawi called for an attack on Saudi Arabia and some other Islamic countries, while questioning the Arab quartet’s decision on boycotting Qatar saying: “The State of Qatar has been turned against on, just because it is home to Hamas, Qaradawi and the Muslim Brotherhood.”
The Omani Foreign Ministry immediately took action to clear itself from Nadawi’s claims: “The speech was delivered on Tuesday, September 19, 2017. It strayed from the lecture’s context in a manner inconsistent with the principles, approaches, and policies of the Sultanate,” continued the ministry. “As such, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs affirms that the concerned authorities in the Sultanate of Oman have taken action on the matter and asked him to leave the country,” the ministry added.
The hosting college had a different view to the ministry. In a Twitter post, the college said: “The College of Sharia Sciences wishes to note that it has become used to welcoming preachers, scholars, thinkers and researchers from different backgrounds, like any academic institution.”
“Thus, the college asserts that the views and opinions expressed by those guests are their own, and not necessarily the views of the college,” they added.

Flashback 2014: Syed Salman Hussaini Nadvi & Global Jihad

Letter of Maulana Salman Hussaini Nadvi to Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi
Urdu Daily “Aag”, Lucknow 17 July, 2014

Respected Islamic leader, I had been keeping abreast of news about the Islamic State for a long time and was very excited about it...
Differences among the organisations that were fighting in Syria were a bad omen for us. However, during the same time, and have attained victory over the tyrant Maliki...
You are bravely standing as a rock and have embarked on a path which is filled with thorns and stones. I listened to your speech which you delivered two days ago on Friday in Ramadhan in the Jama Masjid of Mosul.
We are aware that all the Sunni tribes are with you.
Apart from them, the Jihadi organisations do not want to fight against you. All have accepted whatever role you are playing and have accepted you as Ameerul Momineen.

I would like to say that justice should be delivered and oppression should be done away with. All the groups should be seen on one platform. I wish that the Islamic State turns into an Islamic Caliphate.
While I am writing this letter to you in the night of 7th day of the blessed Ramadan after I heard Friday speech that you gave in the mosque of Mosul today via YouTube, I extend a call to all clans, factions and battalions to be on one platform, and fraternize with one another...

Daft and dangerous: plan for a militia to fight global jihad
Hasan Suroor, FirstPost, Jul, 25 2014

Syed Salman Hussaini Nadvi is a big cheese in Islamic circles. An influential theologian and author of numerous scholarly tomes in Urdu and Arabic, Nadvi is Dean of the Faculty of Shariah at Darul Uloom Nadwa, Lucknow... He is also a member of the All-India Muslim Personal Law Board and Aligarh Muslim University’s court, its highest decision-making body.
So, what he says matters and carries weight. It is important to stress this because what he has done has shocked even conservative Muslims.
Nadvi has written a long and passionate letter (in Arabic!) to the Saudi government offering to raise a militia of 500,000 Sunni Muslim Indian youth as his contribution to a "powerful global Islamic army" he has proposed in order to fight Shia militants in Iraq and "help Muslims in need" elsewhere.
The army would become part of a Caliphate that he wants Saudis to set up for the Muslim ummah, the international Muslim community.
He also suggested that terrorists should not be referred to as terrorists as they were engaged in a “noble cause’’ and called for a “confederation’’ of all jihadi organisations so that they could transform themselves into a single “powerful global force”.

Earlier, Nadvi sent fawning greetings to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, leader of the notorious Sunni militant group Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and self-appointed caliph of a sharia administration he has set up along Iraq- Syria border.

Nadvi's action is certain to encourage extremist elements already engaged in brainwashing and radicalising Muslim youth.
It will not be easy to dismiss his behaviour as the act of a mad mullah. Because he is no ordinary clergy but a highly respected figure. And so is the institution he represents.
If Muslims are serious about rescuing whatever remains of moderate Islam from the jihadi mafia which is acquiring ever more menacing teeth with each passing day, they cannot remain passive spectators any longer.

On Sunday, june 29, 2014, the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria released a 34-minute audio recording of a speech by its official spokesman, Abu Muhammad al-Adnani, who said that the insurgency’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was now the world’s caliph and as such had declared all other jihadi organizations void and under his direct control, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors extremists’ online presence. The audio speech was released on an ISIS-linked Twitter feed, the group said.
ISIS’ bombastic announcement of its hegemony over the world’s Islamic extremists was little more than a propaganda ploy, but it was indicative of its growing ambitions.
A caliphate is a Muslim empire that in theory encompasses all Muslims worldwide, and is a term used to describe empires like that of the Ottomans in Turkey in the 15th to 20th centuries, as well as those that did rule much of the civilized world in the early days of Islam.


Founder of Free Syrian Army suggests new strategy to help militants defeat...
By Andrew Illingworth, Al-Masdar News, 26-9-2017

The founder of the Free Syrian Army, Riad al-Asaad, has come forth on social media stating that militants need to start conducting guerrilla warfare in order to regain the strategic initiative in the war against the Syrian Arab Army.
According to Riad al-Asaad, the conventional warfare strategy used by the Free Syrian Army and allied militias for many years is no longer effective in defeating pro-government forces and only a reversion to grass-roots insurgency can assure that rebel groups regain and maintain the military edge.

The Free Syrian Army is the original armed insurgent group to have commenced battles against the Syrian Arab Army in 2011. During his time as the operational commander of the Free Syrian Army from 2011 to 2014, Riad al-Asaad made an open alliance with the Syrian Al-Qaeda affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra, defending it in the face of accusations of genocide and terrorism by war observer groups.
Riad al-Asaad retired from his role as active commander of the Free Syrian Army at some point in 2014.

FSA, Muslim Brotherhood &
The end of secularism

The formation of the 'Free Syrian Army' was announced on 29 July 2011 in a video released on the internet by a uniformed group of deserters from the Syrian military who called upon members of the Syrian army to defect and join them.
Riad al-Asaad, the leader of the group, has stated that the "Free Syrian Army" (FSA) has no political goals except the removal of Bashar Assad as president of Syria. (saleil.blogspot)

By the winter of 2011, the Syrian Brotherhood had greatly expanded its influence. It was not only strong in the SNC — it had won supporters within the ranks of military defectors and the Local Coordination Committees inside Syria.
Before the September conference, around 100 young activists traveled to Turkey, where the Brotherhood gave them media training and provided them with equipment. When the trainees returned to Syria, according to one of the organizers of the opposition meetings, they formed coordinating committees in dozens of small towns and cities to support the movement.
Brotherhood members also met with early defectors from the regime’s army. As one military defector told me, the Brotherhood asked for their loyalty, and in return, the group promised to pressure Turkey to create a buffer zone along its border with Syria.
The effort was unsuccessful, but the Brotherhood won the loyalty of Col. Riad al-Asaad, who formed the Free Syrian Army (FSA), replacing the secular-leaning Free Officers Movement. (Hassan Hassan, Foreign Policy, 13-3-2013)


Muallem Says Damascus Ready to Discuss Autonomy for Kurds
by Naharnet Newsdesk, 26-9-2017

The Syrian government is ready to discuss autonomy for the country's Kurds, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem has said, the first time Damascus has openly accepted such a possibility.
Muallem renewed his opposition however to an independence referendum held by Kurds in neighboring Iraq on Monday. "We support the unity of Iraq," he said.
State news agency SANA quoted Muallem telling Russia Today on Monday night that Syria's Kurds "want a form of autonomy within the framework of the borders of the state."
"This is negotiable and can be the subject of dialogue," he said. "As soon as we have defeated Daesh (IS), we can sit down with our Syrian brothers and agree on a formula for the future," he added,.

Syria's Kurds are a leading force against IS, and are supported in their campaign by the U.S.-led coalition fighting the jihadists.
Syria's Kurds, who made up 10-15 percent of the country's pre-war population, largely stayed out of the uprising that started the conflict in March 2011. Instead they focused on building local government and security forces in Kurdish-majority areas in the north and northeast.


Russian forces build huge tank-carrying bridge
Al-Masdar, 26-9-2017

Russian army engineers have constructed a military-grade assault bridge across the the Euphrates River “in record time” to facilitate the movement of Syrian Arab Army troops, heavy equipment and logistics.
According to Russian reports, the bridge is 210 meters long, having been built several kilometers from Deir Ezzor city, and can handle the crossing of 8,000 vehicles per day.
Russian military sources have placed great emphasis on the fact that the bridge was built in just two days and with no losses to engineering personnel despite coming under constant attack by ISIS armed drones and artillery.
The new bridge is strong enough to facilitate the movement of main battle tanks, infantry fighting vehicles and self-propelled artillery assets to the eastern bank of the Euphrates to maintain Syrian Army operations against ISIS.


Lebanon: political bloc lashes out at FM for meeting with Syrian counterpart
By Leith Fadel - Al-Masdar News, 27/09/2017

BEIRUT, LEBANON – The March 14th political bloc lashed out against the Lebanese Foreign Minister, Gebran Bassil, on Tuesday, accusing the diplomat of ‘damaging’ Lebanon’s image over a meeting with his Syrian counterpart, Walid Mu’allem, on the sidelines of the United Nations (U.N.) last week.
Among those agitated political factions of the March 14th movement were Sa’ad Hariri’s Future Bloc and Sami Gemayel’s Kata’eb Party.

“The Kata’eb party sees in this meeting a dangerous slip towards torpedoing the principles of sovereignty and neutrality, as well as a normalization with the Syrian regime,” the so-called Kata’eb Party said in a statement..
The party also claimed Bassil’s talks with Mu’allem were “damaging Lebanon’s image on the regional and international levels,” and that they proved “the full hegemony of the illegitimate weapons’ reason.”
Meanwhile, Sa’ad Hariri’s Future Bloc also took some shots at Bassil, claiming the Lebanese FM was attempting to drag Lebanon into Syrian-Iranian alliance.
“The bloc sees in this behavior a sheer attempt to drag Lebanon into the Iran-Syrian regime front,” the MPs said in a statement read out by lawmaker Ammar Houri.
The bloc considers this meeting, as well as other unilateral encounters, as a violation of the governmental norms and principles.."

Flashbacks 2012-2016
Hollande, Abdullah, Hariri & Jarba: Assad must go
Arab News, 30 December 2013

Saudi King Abdullah and visiting French President Francois Hollande discussed at length key regional issues, including Syria, Iran and Lebanon, at Khuraim Gardens on Sunday.
Hollande [..] also met with former Lebanese Premier Saad Hariri and Syrian opposition leader Ahmed Jarba in Riyadh.
Renewing his call for an immediate solution to the Syrian crisis, Hollande said there could not be a solution with Assad staying in power. “The participation of the opposition in the proposed peace conference in Switzerland on Jan. 22 is desirable.”
Hollande said: “France and Saudi Arabia share a pledge to work for peace, security and stability in the Middle East.” This pledge is evident from Hollande’s meeting with Hariri, a staunch critic of the Syrian regime.

Ahmad Jarba (born in the city of Qamishli in 1969, is a public opponent of Bashar al-Assad and between 6 July 2013 and 11 July 2014 he was President of the Syrian National Coalition, a coalition of opposition groups in the Syrian Civil War that was founded in Doha, Qatar, in November 2012.
The main aims of the National Coalition were replacing the Bashar al-Assad government and "its symbols and pillars of support", "dismantling the security services", unifying and supporting the Free Syrian Army and refusing dialogue and negotiation with the al-Assad government.

Saad-eddine Rafiq Al-Hariri ( born 18 April 1970) is a Saudi-Lebanese billionaire who served as the Prime Minister of Lebanon from 2009 until 2011. He is the second son of Rafiq Hariri, the former Lebanese Prime Minister who was assassinated in 2005.
Hariri was prime minister from 9 November 2009 until the collapse of his cabinet on 12 January 2011 and has also been the leader of the Movement of the Future party since 2005. He is seen as a "weak figurehead" of the March 14 movement.
Hariri holds dual citizenship, Lebanese and Saudi Arabian. On 12 December 2012, Syria issued an arrest warrants against Hariri, Future bloc deputy Okab Sakr and Free Syrian Army official Louay Meqdad in regard to the allegations of arming and providing financial support for Syrian opposition groups. (Wikipedia info)

2012: Hariri calls Assad ‘monster,’ rejects warrants
By Hussein Dakroub, The Daily Star, 13-12-2012

Lebanon and Syria engaged in a judicial war Wednesday with former Prime Minister Saad Hariri calling Syrian President Bashar Assad a “monster,” a day after Damascus issued arrest warrants for him and a member of his Future parliamentary bloc over allegations of arming and funding Syrian rebels...

Hariri scoffed at the Syrian arrest warrants issued against him, Future bloc MP Oqab Saqr and rebel Free Syrian Army official Louay Meqdad.
“It is ironic for a monster to become a human being who advocates justice and issues sentences. Bashar Assad has all the characteristics of a monster,” Hariri said in a statement released by his office.
He added that Syria’s beleaguered president has lost “his moral, humanitarian and political prerogatives” to rule: “He [Assad] is wanted and he will sooner or later stand to face justice [wanted] by the Syrian people...

Bashar al-Assad: "Why did not the Arabs stand with Syria"
Uruknet, 10-1-2012

"Why did not the Arabs stand with Syria rather than standing against Syria?
I ask a question: when did they stand with Syria?
I will not go back far in the past, but let us just talk about the past few years. Let us start by the war on Iraq, after the invasion, when Syria was threatened with bombing and invasion.
Who stood with Syria in 2005 when they exploited the assassination of Hariri?
Who stood alongside Syria in 2006? Who supported our positions against the Israeli aggression on Lebanon in 2008? Who supported us in the IAEA in relation to the alleged nuclear file?
Arab states vote against us. These facts may be unknown to many citizens. That is why we need to explain everything in these junctures and situations.
Recently, Arab states voted against Syria with regard to the Human Rights issue. In contrast, some non-Arab countries stand with Syria. That is why we should not be surprised. I mean we should not be surprised with the Arab League status because it is just a reflection of the Arab situation...


Hariri: Assad created the Islamic State group and its affiliates
by Naharnet Newsdesk, 7-6-2016

MP Saad Hariri remarked on Tuesday that the Syrian people “will be victorious” against Iran and Hizbullah in the ongoing conflict in their country.
Hariri said via Twitter: “Syrian President Bashar Assad sought to thank his masters Iran and Hizbullah.”
“Assad said he wants to liberate the whole of Syria from terrorism, while he is the greatest terrorist.”
“We will see how terrorism will halt once this criminal leaves Syria because he created the Islamic State group and its affiliates.”
“One thing is certain and it is the Syrian people's victory because they [the rebels] are justified in their fight,” added Hariri

President Bashar al-Assad: "Their scheme was to undermine the constitution
and consequently create absolute chaos", 7-6-2016

It is no longer secret that - since the beginning and throughout the various initiatives - supporting terrorism has been aimed at undermining the presence of any concept of the homeland through hitting its core, which is the constitution..

Through hitting the constitution, two main pillars of the state get hit:
- the first is the institutions, on top being the institution of the army that is the defender of the state and the guarantor of the people’s security, as they started focusing on that greatly since the start and during any talk about Syria’s future and institutions.
- The other pillar is the diverse national, pan-Arab, and religious identity of Syria, which they started to focus on when they realized that it was the underpinning of the homeland’s steadfastness at the beginning of the events.

Their scheme was to undermine the constitution, and consequently create absolute chaos from which the only exit would be a sectarian, ethnic constitution that turns us from people committed to their homeland into conflicting groups that cling to their sects and seek help from strangers against their own...”


Israel celebrates 50 years of occupation
Daily Sabah (Turkey), 27-9-2017

Israel's government hosted a celebration of 50 years of Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank and Golan Heights, angering the Palestinians and triggering a row with the supreme court.

Chairman of the Etzion Bloc regional council Moshe Saville hangs an American flag at the Gush Etzion Junction in the West Bank, ahead of the swearing-in ceremony of incoming US President Donald Trump, on January 19, 2017

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing government considers the commemoration a state occasion, with the premier expected to attend an evening ceremony in the West Bank.
Supreme court president Miriam Naor said that an official invitation to send a representative contained the wording "to celebrate the jubilee of the liberation of Judea, Samaria, the Jordan Valley and the Golan Heights". On her instructions, the court declined the invitation.
The biblical term Judea and Samaria is used by the Israeli government to refer to the West Bank, of which the Jordan Valley is also part.
The territories were occupied by the Israeli army in the 1967 Six-Day War, along with Syria's Golan Heights, which were later annexed in a move never recognized by the international community.
The gala event is to take place in the Gush Etzion settlement bloc, where the leftist Israeli government at the time encouraged the establishment of the first settlement in the occupied West Bank in September 1967.
Gush Etzion has now grown into a large bloc of settlements located outside Jerusalem, and officials expect it will be part of Israel under any future peace deal with the Palestinians.
The event is to be attended by settler leaders, Netanyahu and ministers from his coalition government, seen as the most right-wing in Israel's history.
Leftist and centrist politicians have said they will not attend the event, which Labor MP Eitan Cabel wrote on Facebook is "totally meant to glorify Bibi and his group of extremists who lead us to the abyss..."
"The settler celebrations on our occupied lands are unacceptable and make the atmosphere very tense," Palestinian presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina told AFP. "We ask the American administration to urgently intervene to stop these provocations."
About 430,000 Israeli settlers live in the West Bank among 2.6 million Palestinians.

PM says at jubilee celebration of liberation of Judea and Samaria
that Jews returned to their ancestral homeland, and none will be expelled.
Arutz Sheva Staff, 27/09/2017

The ceremony marking the 50th anniversary of the liberation of Judea, Samaria, eastern Jerusalem, The Jordan Valley and the Golan Heights took place in Gush Etzion Wednesday evening. The event was attended by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Cabinet ministers, Knesset members, council heads, rabbis, and other public figures.
Prime Minister Netanyahu said: "In the miraculous defensive war, 50 years ago, we returned to Gush Etzion, to the Old City of Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, the Jordan Valley and the Golan Heights.
Which meant that we had returned home to our ancestral inheritance, and that we had renewed the historical continuity of our people. Here lies the story of our nation and our history, as well as the promise that that history will never be cut off."
Netanyahu promised in his speech, "There will be no more uprooting of homes in the Land of Israel...."
"Tonight I say - the Etzion Bloc will always be part of the State of Israel."


UN warns to blacklist firms working in lands occupied by Israel: Report
Press TV, Thu Sep 28, 2017

The United Nations human rights office has reportedly threatened to blacklist nearly 150 Israeli and international companies for operating in the Israeli occupied territories, including the West Bank, East Jerusalem al-Quds and Golan Heights.
Israeli daily Haaretz cited anonymous Israeli officials as saying on Wednesday that UN High Commissioner for Human Rights chief Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein notified the companies through letters two weeks ago. In response, several of the companies assured Hussein that they do not plan to renew their current contracts or to enter into new ones.
The letter said that due to the companies’ activities in the occupied Palestinian territories, they may be added to the blacklist being compiled by the UN of companies “that operate in opposition to international law and in opposition of UN resolutions.”
In 2016, the UN Human Rights Council voted, with 32 nations in favor and 15 abstentions, to a proposal by the Palestinian Authority and Arab states to compile a database of all businesses enabling or profiting from development of Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories. The proposal also condemned Israeli settlement construction and urged companies not to do business with Israeli settlements.

In June, US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley slammed the blacklist as “the latest in this long line of shameful actions” adopted by the UNHRC, warning that the US may withdraw from the 47-member UN body unless it is reformed, end condemnation of Israel and cancel the membership of what she called notorious human rights violators from the council.
Since the inauguration of US President Donald Trump in January, the regime in Tel Aviv has stepped up its construction of settler units on occupied Palestinian land in a blatant violation of international law.
Less than a month before Trump took office, the United Nations Security Council had adopted Resolution 2334, calling on Israel to “immediately and completely cease all settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem” al-Quds.



Flashback: Netanyahu calls UN resolution 'an affront to justice, to truth'
Arutz Sheva Staff, 24/12/2016

During a Hanukkah candle-lighting ceremony on Saturday night, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said the UN Security Council's Resolution 2334 was distorted and shameful.
Citizens of Israel," he said, "I want to calm you down. The decision reached yesterday in the UN is distorted and shameful, but we shall overcome it.
"This is a failed attempt to force the conditions of a final agreement on Israel.
Their last attempt to accomplish this was led by President Carter, who was totally hostile to Israel..". "Carter passed anti-Israel resolutions in the UN, similar to these resolutions, but he did not succeed. We opposed his resolutions and nothing happened.
"All the American presidents after Carter have stood by the US promise not to allow the UN to force Israel to do anything. Yesterday, US President Barack Obama violated this promise..." "It is an affront to justice, to truth...."

UN Resolution 2334 states that all building in Judea, Samaria, and eastern Jerusalem is completely illegal, violates international law, and harms potential for a two-state solution.
The resolution requires Israel to immediately cease all building in all areas outside of the pre-1967 borders, and states that the UN will not recognize anything outside the pre-1967 borders unless it has been formally agreed upon by both Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

Iraq strikes Back: Kurds under air travel ban, Turkey blocks Oil
By Juan Cole | Sep. 28, 2017

The Iraqi parliament on Wednesday passed a resolution demanding that the Iraqi army take control of the province of Kirkuk and reclaim the Kirkuk oil fields as a national patrimony. The parliament also demanded that the government arrest and try Kurdistan president Massoud Barzani for treason.

Benjamin Netanyahu: "A breakaway Kurdistan could prove valuable to Israel against Iran" (New York Times 22-9-2017)

In an apparent clash against the international community's support of a united Iraq, the Israeli leader has called to back the de-facto independence of Kurds. Netanyahu’s words followed similar statements by senior Israeli officials. Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman told US Secretary of State John Kerry that he believes “the creation of an independent Kurdish state is a foregone conclusion,” citing Iraq’s “breaking up.”
Meanwhile, Israeli President Shimon Peres told US President Barack Obama that “the Kurds have, de facto, created their own state, which is democratic.” (RT - Russia, 29 Jun, 2014)

Oil-rich Kirkuk, a multi-ethnic province with Arabs, Turkmen and Kurds, was seized in 2014 by the Kurdistan paramilitary, in hopes of adding it to Dohuk, Erbil and Sulaymaniya, the three Iraqi provinces melded into the Kurdistan Regional Government super-province.
Baghdad claims Kirkuk province for itself and wants to reestablish a military presence there now that ISIL is largely defeated.

Meanwhile, the Baghdad government is using its international recognition to impose an air flight ban on Iraqi Kurdistan in the wake of this week’s referendum, in which 92% of the 8 million Iraqi Kurds are said to have voted for independence.
Iraqi prime minister Haydar al-Abadi has given the KRG authorities an ultimatum that they must withdraw their Peshmerga paramilitary from all international airports (i.e. those in Erbil and Sulaymaniya) and must turn over all border checkpoints to the Iraqi army rather than manning them themselves. Iraq is contacting international air carriers and instructing them not to fly to Erbil or Sulaymaniya in the KRG.
Since by international law Iraq is recognized as sovereign over all its territory, airlines have been complying with al-Abadi’s request already. Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Iran and Turkey have all ceased flying to Iraqi Kurdistan.
As isolating as the Iraqi moves are, Turkey can hurt the KRG even more badly. President Tayyip Erdogan is threatening to cut off oil exports from Iraqi Kurdistan through the Cayhan pipeline. Turkey is also ceasing food exports to Iraqi Kurdistan.
Iraqi Kurdistan is landlocked and surrounded by hostile governments who do not want it to secede from Iraq. In going ahead with the referendum, Barzani put his country on a collision course with the whole world.


Abadi: Dialogue must be initiated in the framework of the constitution
by Naharnet Newsdesk, 28-9-2017

Iraq's Kurds faced the threat of growing isolation Thursday after a massive "yes" vote for independence in a referendum that has incensed Baghdad and sparked international concern.
While Iraqi Kurd leader Massud Barzani said the vote would not lead to an immediate declaration of independence but should instead open the door to negotiations, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi rejected the approach.
"The referendum must be annulled and dialogue initiated in the framework of the constitution. We will never hold talks based on the results of the referendum," Abadi told lawmakers on Wednesday.
"We will impose Iraqi law in the entire region of Kurdistan under the constitution," he said.
In a televised address late on Tuesday, Barzani had urged Abadi "not to close the door to dialogue because it is dialogue that will solve problems".
"We assure the international community of our willingness to engage in dialogue with Baghdad," he said, insisting the referendum was not meant "to delimit the border (between Kurdistan and Iraq), nor to impose it de facto."

Iraqi Constitution - Preambule

We the people of Iraq, who have just risen from our stumble, and who are looking with confidence to the future through a republican, federal, democratic, pluralistic system, have resolved with the determination of our men, women, the elderly and youth, to respect the rules of law, to establish justice and equality to cast aside the politics of aggression, and to tend to the concerns of women and their rights, and to the elderly and their concerns, and to children and their affairs and to spread a culture of diversity and defusing terrorism.
We the people of Iraq of all components and shades have taken upon ourselves to decide freely and with our choice to unite our future and to take lessons from yesterday for tomorrow, to draft, through the values and ideals of the heavenly messages and the findings of science and man's civilization, this lasting constitution.

The adherence to this constitution preserves for Iraq its free union, its people, its land and its sovereignty.


Turkey and Russia on same page regarding territorial integrity of Iraq, Syria
Daily Sabah (Turkey), 28-9-2017

Turkey and Russia are on the same page regarding the territorial integrity of both Iraq and Syria, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Thursday in a joint press conference with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.
The two leaders hold a meeting at the presidential complex in capital Ankara, which lasted for about three hours.
Speaking to press representatives after the bilateral meeting, Erdoğan said that regional issues, including latest developments in Syria and the Kurdistan Regional Government's (KRG) controversial independence referendum were discussed.
"We need to protect the Iraqi central government in order to assist them in safeguarding the country's sovereignty," Erdoğan said.
The president also said that Turkey and Russia agreed on the joint will and close cooperation to solve the Syrian crisis through diplomacy, adding that he was happy with the progress made in the Astana process, sponsored by Turkey, Russia and Iran.
Erdoğan stressed that Ankara and Moscow were "committed to the political solution of the Syrian crisis."
Meanwhile, Russian President Putin praised Erdoğan for his efforts and initiative to establish de-escalation zones in Syria, saying they "have de-facto created the necessary conditions for the end of the fratricidal war in Syria and the final defeat of terrorists as well as for the Syrian people's return to normal life."


The Barzani Clan And Kurdish "Independence"
Moon of Alabama, 28-9-2017

“I became a patriotic Kurd,” says Mr. Sagi, now 83 and a retired brigadier general, who worked as an Israeli military adviser to Kurdish fighters. (NYT, 22-9-2017)

In the mid 1960s and 70s Israel cooperated with Iran, then a U.S. ally under the Shah, to fight against its Arab enemies - Iraq, Syria and Egypt.
As part of the cooperation the Mossad sent Lt. Colonel Tzuri Sagi to develop plans for and build up a Kurdish army to fight Iraqi troops in northern Iraq. Tzuri Sagi was also responsible for the Israeli assassination attempts against Saddam Hussein.
His Kurdish cooperation partner was the leader of the Barzani clan, Mullah Mustafa Barzani.
Over the years, Israeli doctors set up a field hospital for the Kurds, its soldiers trained the Kurdish fighters and the Mossad helped arm them.
The story goes that Israeli soldiers and Mossad agents wept when the shah of Iran signed the Algiers Accord with Iraq, a 1975 resolution of border disputes that ended the Kurdish rebellion and forced the Kurds to retreat into Iran.
The Kurdish army the Israelis created is now known as Peshmerga. The son of Mullah Mustafa Barzani, Masoud Barzani, is now the illegitimate president of the Kurdish region of Iraq.

The Barzani's are part of a major Kurdish tribe and a leading clan in the Kurdish region of Iraq. (The other major clan are the Talabani, currently with much less power.)
In 2005 Masoud Barzani was elected President of the Kurdish region in Iraq. His eight year term ended in 2013. The regional parliament extended his presidency by two years. But since 2015 he has ruled without any legal basis. He prevented the parliament from convening and formally ousting him.
Masoud Barzani's son Mazrour Barzani is chancellor of the region's security council. He controls all military and civilian intelligence. Nechirvan Barzani, a nephew of Masoud Barzani, is prime minister of the Kurdish region...
The Iraqi Kurds, under Masoud Barzani, were complicit in the mid 2014 Islamic State takeover of Mosul and the Sinjar region inhabited by Kurdish speaking Yezidis. They saw it as an opportunity to take more oil and declare their own independence from Baghdad.
Only after the Islamic State marched towards the Kurdish "capital" Erbil, where U.S. and Israeli intelligence as well as western oil companies have their regional headquarters, did the Barzani Kurds start to oppose the Islamic State. They then used the fight against the Islamic State to widen the area they controlled by 40%.
In 2014 the Kurds snatched Kirkuk, while the Islamic State marched onto Baghdad. The move on Kirkuk was, allegedly, coordinated with the Islamic State. They now want to annex it. The Iraqi state is naturally vehemently against this and is now sending its army. The Turkish government, which sees itself as defender of all Turkmen, also threatens to intervene.

Syria, Iran and Turkey have all spoken out against Kurdish independence and threatened retribution. Officially the U.S. is also against an independent Kurdish state.
Israel was the only state that supported the referendum. That sympathy (or politically convenience) runs both ways: In Kurdistan's Erbil, the Polling Station Head Shouted Out: 'We Are the Second Israel!'
Chuck Schumer, Democratic Senate leader and a reliable Zionist tool, called on the Trump administration to recognizing an independent Kurdistan. Trump can not do so because it would put the U.S. in opposition to its "allies" in the Turkish and the Iraqi government.

Should Masoud Barzani gain enough external support and prevail with his independence gimmick, the situation in Syria would also change.
The Kurds in Syria are currently led by the PKK/YPG.. Politically they are opposed to Barzani but they have similar interests and attitudes. Though only 8% of the population, they have now occupied some 20% of Syria's land and control 40% of its oil reserves.
Kurdish independence would be the start of another decade of war - either between the Kurdish entities and the nations around them, or within the ever disunited Kurdish tribes themselves.

The Kurds don’t care about Palestine
New York Times, 22-9-2017

“Israel is desperate for friends in the region, the Kurds generally want to be friends, and they don’t care about Palestine,” said Kenneth M. Pollack, a former C.I.A. analyst and National Security Council official who visits Kurdistan frequently. Moreover, Israel stands to gain a potentially valuable ally in its struggle with Iran, he said.
“Iraqi and Iranian Kurds have deep ties,” he said. “And to create trouble for Iran, one way is to encourage independence for Iranian Kurds.
The Iranians are terrified and furious about exactly that: that the Israelis are doing it, and that an independent Kurdistan will be a base for Israeli operations against Iran, via Iran’s Kurdish population.”
While United States policy is to try to preserve Iraq as one entity, the Israelis are more practical, said Peter W. Galbraith, a former diplomat with extensive experience in Kurdistan: “Why lose all of Iraq, when you could save part of it?”


Fighting For The Right Wing War Messiah


Ashrawi: Netanyahu committed to enhancing the extremist settler population
Palestine Chronicle, Sep 28 2017

"Within the Jewish community they have preached an admixture of ultranationalism, religious mysticism, and racial superiority." Albert Einstein, 4-12-1948

Dr. Hanan Ashrawi, executive committee member of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), released a statement on Thursday condemning Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for being “more committed to settlement expansion than to peace.”
The statement came following a speech by Netanyahu at an event “50 Years of Settlement in Judea and Samaria,” using the Israeli term for the occupied West Bank.
“Netanyahu’s speech in which he declared that the illegal settlements will not be removed attests to his intransigence and willful refusal to abide by international law and conventions, standing UN resolutions, and global consensus,” Ashrawi said, calling Netanyahu arrogant and accusing him “turning international norms into a mockery.”
“Israel is more committed to enhancing the extremist Jewish settler population at the expense of the indigenous Palestinians than to abiding by the basic requirements for peace and justice, Ashrawi said.
The Israeli government is working to impose ‘Greater Israel’ on all of historic Palestine, by annexing all of Jerusalem, erasing the history, narrative and physical presence of the Palestinian people, and destroying the territorial and demographic contiguity of the West Bank (including East Jerusalem),” Ashrawi said.

There are some 196 government recognized Israeli settlements scattered across the Palestinian territory, all considered illegal under international law, while hundreds of unauthorized Israeli settler outposts — considered illegal even under Israeli law — also dot the Palestinian landscape.
While Israel considers settler outposts to be illegal, earlier this year, Israel passed the outpost “Regularization law,” which paved the way for the retroactive legalization of dozens of Israeli settler outposts, while loosening restrictions on settlers erecting outposts on private Palestinian land.
Meanwhile, in June, Israeli authorities broke ground on the first official new Israeli settlement in 25 years amid fierce condemnation from the international community and rights groups.


“Not by Might, nor by Power”: The Zionist Betrayal of Judaism
By Moshe Menuhin - Monoweiss review, 29-9-2017

Moshe Menuhin’s “Not by Might, nor by Power”: The Zionist betrayal of Judaism is a riveting, thorough, courageous and ruthless indictment of the Zionist project, written from an alternative Jewish perspective.
In fact, much of this book is rooted in the experiences and observations garnered by Menuhin during his own Aliyah (i.e. immigration) and time in Palestine from 1904-1913.
Menuhin’s account of the birth and rise of Zionism offers much information about its successes, trials and tribulations.
It is conveyed via a thinly disguised anger at Zionists and “the military junta of Israel” (most notably Israeli Prime Minister David Ben Gurion) for coopting and manipulating the ethical tenets of Judaism for the purposes of justifying a redemption of a contrived Jewish “nation” at the expense of other peoples.

Accordingly, his presentation is unabashedly sympathetic to the Arab natives who are cast as victims of the megalomaniacal ambitions of a people driven by an exclusivist and exploitive settler-colonialist ideology.

Menuhin portrays Zionist leaders as obsessed with their goal – Jewish colonization of Palestine – while committing acts of aggression that resulted in tragic consequences for Jewish communities outside Palestine.
By demonstrating that Zionist crimes target Jewish communities as well as Arab ones, Menuhin avoids the trap of critique for the purpose of reform, i.e. transforming Zionism into a friendlier system of oppression, and indicts it as an un-Jewish aberration that should be wholly opposed.

Moshe Menuhiun: "Prophetic Judaism is my religion.
The essence of Prophetic Judaism – universal and ethical Judaism – is: Thou shalt not kill; Thou shalt not steal; Thou shalt not covet … Love thy fellow-man as thyself … What thou dost not like to be done to thee, do not do to thy fellow-man … Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit … In the place where the repentant stands, even the completely righteous man cannot stand."


Prophetic Judaism, Susan Silverman, Jerusalem Post, 18-2-2016

Compassion Is Weakness
Zionism & the decadence of Judaism
Jeremy Salt, Palestine Chronicle, 17-10-2015

The ultimate source of the rage and hatred on full display in Israel is ideology.
Any ideology based on marginalization or discrimination must lead to where Zionism has led. The obverse of ‘this land is ours’ is that ‘this land is not theirs.’
The arguments are built up generation after generation.
‘God gave us this land. It was empty when we came. We made it bloom. We did not drive the Arabs out. They ran away. We did not start the wars. They did. Their infiltrators and terrorists just want to kill us because we are Jews. The problem is not occupation. Anyway, what are they talking about when they speak of ‘occupation’? This is our land. God gave it us …..’
It does not matter to many if not most Jewish Israelis that the rest of the world regards the territories seized in 1967 as occupied and believes that the occupation is the cause of violence...
They endlessly repeat the claim that ‘the Arabs’ want to kill them just because they are Jews...

Zionism remains a state-building ideology. Compassion is a weakness and there can be no possibility of pity for the Palestinians until they have been comprehensively and absolutely defeated.
What Moshe Menuhin, the father of Yehudi, called ‘the decadence of Judaism in our time’ more than half a century ago, continues unabated.

Jeremy Salt is an associate professor of Middle Eastern history and politics at Bilkent University in Ankara, Turkey. He contributed this article to PalestineChronicle.com.

Moshe Menuhin & Jewish Nationalism

Moshe Menuhin was born in Russia in 1893 to a distinguished, religious Jewish family. When the family moved to Palestine, Moshe was sent to Orthodox Jewish schools, first to Yeshivas in Jerusalem, then to the nationalistic Hebrew Gymnasia Herzelia in Jaffa-Tel Aviv.
In 1913 (at age 20), he went to the United States to complete his higher education, attending New York University where he studied mathematics, political science, and education.

Moshe Menuhin: "When we returned to Palestine, the decisive question was, do we want to come there as an ally, as a friend, as a brother, as a member of the coming community of the peoples of the Near East, or as the representative of colonialism and imperialism?

The majority of the Jewish people preferred to learn from Hitler rather than from us...
Hitler showed that history does not go the way of the spirit but the way of power, and if a people is powerful enough, it can kill with impunity...
This is the situation that we had to fight..."

I have always hoped that one day a miraculous reawakening of the Jew in Israel will take place...
Somehow I dream and hope of compunction seizing the hearts of the Jewish people, and that the Jews will become again just Jews, not "Jewish" nationalists.
I still dream to this day of a regenerated Jewish spiritual and moral renaissance and a return to the true God of the people of Israel, away from the ideas of the modern Joshuas: Ben Gurion, Moshe Dayan, Menachem Begin, Golda Meir and company..."

As a conscientious Jew, I feel it necessary to set forth my views on Jewish history after studying and observing for many years the lofty and dignified Judaistic past of pure ethics, philosophy and religion, on the one hand, and the current decadent, tragic and revolting perversion of it into boisterous "Jewish" nationalism (Judaism turned into rampant Israelism) on the other..

I serve nobody's interests, and I am paid by no one... Yet, though I carefully and honestly stick to facts, I know that I am bound to antagonise the fanatical and professional idealists among the "Jewish" nationalists... "

"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones God's messengers! How often I have wanted to gather your children together as a hen protects her chicks beneath her wings, but you wouldn't let me..." Luke 13:34

Trial begins for 2012 Benghazi attack suspect
Middle East Online, 1-10-2017

WASHINGTON - Ahmed Abu Khattala, a Libyan militant accused of leading the September 11, 2012 attack on an American diplomatic compound in Benghazi that left the US ambassador and three others dead goes on trial Monday.


nato-backed ultra-conservative islamists, libya 2011-2012

Ahmed Abu Khattala is charged with 18 counts of murder, supporting terrorists and related charges in the trial in the federal district court in Washington, three years after he was captured in a commando raid and sent by ship to the United States.
Khattala, about 46, was the commander of an Islamist militia in Benghazi, Ansar al-Sharia, which undertook the deadly raid on the US compound in the eastern port city.
According to the indictment, he led a group of about 20 militants storming the compound. They set buildings on fire, including one that contained ambassador Christopher Stevens and a foreign service officers, killing them. Shortly afterward they killed two US security contractors in an attack on a CIA outpost near the mission compound.

Ansar al-Sharia (Libya)


benghazi 2011

Ansar al-Sharia in Libya (ASL, English: Supporters of Islamic Law) was a Salafist Islamist militia group that advocated the implementation of strict Sharia law across Libya.
Ansar al-Sharia came into being in 2011 and rose to prominence after the killing of Muammar Gaddafi. Until January 2015, it was led by its "Amir", Muhammad al-Zahawi.
Made up of former rebels from the Abu Obayda Bin Aljarah Brigade, Malik Brigade and February 17th Martyrs Brigade and several other groups, the Salafist militia initially made their name by posting videos of themselves fighting in the Battle of Sirte, the final battle in the war.
As part of its strategy, the organization targeted specific Libyan and American civilians for death and took part in the 2012 Benghazi attack.
Ansar al-Sharia carried out destruction of Sufi shrines in Benghazi, which they regarded as idolatrous. In November 2011, Libyan Salafis engaged in a series of attacks on Sufi shrines all over the country.
Ansar al-Sharia used its online presence to denounce the 2013 capture and removal from Libya of al-Qaeda operative Abu Anas al-Libi, by American military forces.


benghazi 2017

Following prolonged tensions between Islamists and non-Islamists in Libya, on 16 May 2014 military forces loyal to General Khalifa Belqasim Haftar launched a large scale air and ground offensive codenamed Operation Dignity on Islamist militia groups in Benghazi including Ansar al-Sharia.
On 27 May 2017, the group announced it was formally dissolving itself amid heavy losses that wiped out most of its leadership and decimated its fighters.

Sufism, a mystic flow in Islam,
Kirill Popov, Vestnik-Kavkaza, 23-8-2012

Not only representatives of Christian and other religions, but even branches of Islam are suspicious about Sufism.
Representatives of such a radical Islamic flow as Wahabiism call Sufism a heresy which corrupts the Koran.
From the point of view of European civilization, Sufism is not a part of Islam, as it grew together with it due to historic reasons. And in fact Sufism can be found in all religions, because it represents their true deep essence.

The mysticism of Sufism is that its subject – the way to God – cannot be described in words and is understood by hints and spiritual intuition.
The further person moves in the way of Sufism, the more he leaves himself and his bad features, he overcomes dimness of the world and comes close to God who is the only Reality. ...
Sufis are not focused on “geopolitical” Islamic concepts which differs them from militant fundamentalists.

Benghazi port in Libya open again after 3 years
Daily Mail|AFP, 1-10-2017

Benghazi port in east Libya reopened Sunday for the first time in three years after being forced to cease operations because of clashes in the cradle of the 2011 anti-Gadaffi rebellion.
Commercial operations at the port had ended in 2014 when armed movements, including the Islamic State group, occupied the North African country's second city.
They were expelled in July this year by the forces of Khalifa Haftar who backs a rival administration in the east to the UN-recognised government in Tripoli.
It was the eastern-based government of Abdullah al-Thani that inaugurated the port's reopening, and he arrived on board a cargo vessel accompanied by members of his cabinet.
"We thank God that justice has been victorious over injustice," Thani told AFP, referring to the ouster of the Islamist militias and "all those who claim that Benghazi is not secure".
"The docking of this cargo ship carrying medicines and food supplies... is a major challenge to the obscurantists who used it to bring weapons to the terrorists."
"Benghazi is a peaceful city, not a haven for terrorists from around the world as some people claim," Thani added.

Thani's government" has not been recognised internationally since the government of national unity (GNA) was formed under a UN-sponsored agreement signed in 2015.
After Moamer Kadhafi was ousted and killed in the 2011 revolution, the country descended into both political and military chaos.


Palestinian Authority PM, officials visit Gaza to end division
Press TV, Mon Oct 2, 2017

A delegation from the Palestinian Authority, led by Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah, is visiting Gaza Monday as part of reconciliation efforts to end a decade-long division between rival Fatah and Hamas groups.
Hamdallah and several other government ministers were to head to the coastal sliver on Monday morning and meet with Hamas officials as well as hold a cabinet meeting there on Tuesday.
We are determined to undertake our role in supporting the reconciliation efforts and turning the page of the division so that the homeland becomes reunited,” the premier said during a ministerial meeting in Ramallah on Sunday.
Fatah and Hamas have been at odds ever since the latter scored a landslide victory in Palestinian parliamentary elections in 2006. Hamas governs the Gaza Strip, while Fatah has set up offices in the West Bank.
The two rival Palestinian factions finally agreed on a unity government in April 2014, but it fell apart months later.

Last month, Hamas announced that it had agreed to dissolve its administrative committee in Gaza. It also invited the Palestinian Authority led by President Mahmoud Abbas to return to the territory and hold new elections in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
Fatah has welcomed the announcement and expressed hope that the Palestinian Authority would start taking over Gaza this week.
The visit by the Palestinian Authority government will be monitored by senior Egyptian intelligence officials who arrived in Gaza on Sunday, with Intelligence Minister Khaled Fawzy expected to join them on Monday.

"If now is not the time to put an end to illegal settlements, when is the right time?"
Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah, Al-Monitor, 11-4-2016


"Gaza is an integral part of Palestine, and nothing that the Israelis do will take away this important part of our homeland or succeed in dividing us."

"The Palestinian cause is the heart of the Middle East struggle, and finding a solution to the Palestinian cause is an integral part of any comprehensive solution for the region."

"The US always want us to wait. They have ready excuses and justifications. There are the primaries, then the general elections, then the midterms. They are always wanting us to wait for this or that reason.
We have been under occupation for 49 years, and it is 68 years since the Nakba.
The international community including the US keeps saying that the settlements are illegal and illegitimate. If now is not the time to put an end to illegal settlements, when is the right time?"


Syria, Russia discuss cooperation in Industrial and investment domains
SANA, 2 October 2017


Industry Minister Ahmad al-Hamo has stressed that the friendly countries, which have been backing Syria in its war against terrorism including Russia, will have top priority in the post-war reconstruction stage.
The Minister, during his meeting with Russian Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Georgy Kalamanov and the accompanying delegation on Sunday evening, reviewed fields of cooperation between Syria and Russia in launching industrial and investment projects .
He called upon the Russian businessmen and investors to invest in Syria in all industrial and other sectors and establish their own or joint projects with their Syrian counterparts.
Minister al-Hamo expressed the government’s readiness to exert all efforts to create an appropriate climate for launching investment projects through ensuring the legislative administrational and legal frameworks for them.
For his part, Kalamanov expressed his country’s keenness on developing cooperation with Syria in the industrial domain, asserting that Russia will work on setting a plan for this cooperation.