From Angry Arab
"A Lebanese comrade who works in Syria sent me this (I cite with his permission): "I spent the day...first the road to there was normal, nothing special, on the way back there were two checkpoints before Damascus. Intelligence guys, young with their dirty looks and clothes, you would think the regime is smarter than that even in PR. I mainly spoke to 3 colleagues who are from Dar3a and surroundings. They know me so they are comfortable to talk and share details. The main point the 3 confirmed separately is Aljazeera coverage is not even 10 % of the truth !! they confirmed the story of the mass grave found, the media spoke of 1 but they are 4-5 so far. People even saw when the bodies were being disposed. All these stories about confessions is bullshit, they know some of the guys who appeared on TV. They were put in prison and forced to say what they said Even the images of people throwing rice on the army as it left Dar3a were staged, they can confirm from the people's accent (not from Dar3a) and even the location of these images, close to govt headquarters. The 4th division (Maher Asad) is in Dar3a as it was reported. The big and somehow strange story is the 4 and 5 division fought each other ! but not cause of dissent but because how the 4 division treats the other army divisions. Apparently they bombed each other with tanks !! and literally hundreds of them were killed. People saw how they came with trucks and bulldozers to take the bodies. The stories about army being killed is either army killing army or security killing army.One guy said, the point of no return was crossed like 2 weeks ago. They are hopeful that it will pick up soon in Allepo where students on campus there are the ones who are trying at the moment. Two of them criticized a bit the people in Damascus and Allepo (one called them cowards) Three of the arrested in Da3ra in the mosque were christian doctors. The Sunni families fleeing Dar3a were taking cover at christian families around the city, so the stories of Salafis and religious fantaticism is so untrue in that region. The regime is playing this card in Homs and Banias where they are arming the A3lawee areas surrounding the Sunni centers. There are thousands of prisoners in Dar3a, and a security officer at each door, that is why it has calmed down a bit lately.The events at the Golan border last Sunday... Initially they wanted the Palestinians (7000-8000) to carry Bashar pics and Syrian flags but they refused and only carried Syrian flags.
One of the guys had to take out his family ouf of Dar3a because they were literally eating old stale bread at the end after 2 weeks of heavy curfew. They all confirmed that there was no party leading the events, no muslim brotherhood, no Khadam, nothing. They are all weak. it is just a popular revolt where in each area, people are calling the shots. We drove back yesterday night, all seemed fine on the surface but I had the feeling that it is all brewing and there is much more to come soon. it cannot go on like this. that is all I remember now, but they will be giving me more info from now on."
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Before Obama's Speech, A Few Thoughts on a New Middle East Policy
President Obama has the chance to completely retool U.S. policy in the Middle East in the context of the Arab Spring - but it doesn't look likely that he will.
By Phyllis Bennis
"The Obama administration faces a huge contradiction in trying to craft a new policy for the Middle East in the midst of the Arab Spring.
They are trying to position the U.S. as a friend of the newly democratizing forces, while at the same time refusing to give up the policy of support for those on top, who imposed dictatorships and occupations across the Middle East, to protect U.S. interests in oil, Israel, and strategic stability. Now it is the people of the region who are creating new democracies from below – and it is long past time to change how the U.S. relates to them...."
By Phyllis Bennis
"The Obama administration faces a huge contradiction in trying to craft a new policy for the Middle East in the midst of the Arab Spring.
They are trying to position the U.S. as a friend of the newly democratizing forces, while at the same time refusing to give up the policy of support for those on top, who imposed dictatorships and occupations across the Middle East, to protect U.S. interests in oil, Israel, and strategic stability. Now it is the people of the region who are creating new democracies from below – and it is long past time to change how the U.S. relates to them...."
Real News Video: What Obama Should Say About Middle East Policy
Ilan Pappe: President Obama should announce he will break with US unconditional support for Israel
Video: Syria protests against Bashar al-Assad continue
In the wake of US-imposed sanctions, Syrians take to the streets across the country shouting anti-government slogans
The Guardian
The Guardian
Video: Egypt 100 days after the revolution: 'A mini-Mubarak in every institution'
One hundred days after the fall of Hosni Mubarak, Egypt's prospects are clouded by insecurity, economic worries and sectarian violence. Four Egyptians [One of them is Hossam El-Hamalawy] outline their views of their post-revolutionary country
Mustafa Khalili, Richard Sprenger and Simon Hanna
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 19 May 2011
Mustafa Khalili, Richard Sprenger and Simon Hanna
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 19 May 2011
The old bear of the Assad regime is falling
Syria's people no longer fear the state violence machine. The only legitimacy they will accept now is from the ballot box
Ali al-Hajj
(Ali al-Hajj is a blogger based in Syria writing under a pen name.)
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 19 May 2011
"These days wherever you go on the streets of old Damascus you can hear whispers anticipating the fall of the Assad regime. No one knows how. No one asks how....
Syria's people face that most violent and bloodthirsty of Middle Eastern regimes, yet take to the streets every Friday with bare hands and chests, affording tanks and snipers a simple chance to shoot to kill. The people defy all the complex and carefully organised regulations put in place by the Assad regime to prevent demonstrators from reaching squares, and to forestall the emergence of an equivalent to Cairo's Tahrir Square.
The Syrian people think the time for change has come, and they cannot go back. They do not fear the state violence machine. They will not accept reforms promised by a regime in broad daylight, then disregarded come nightfall. All credibility and legitimacy has been lost.....
[A Good Comment, Until You Read This Last Sentence:]
...but also Israel, which no longer trusts a regime that subjects its people to all forms of violence and lawlessness.[WTF??]"
Ali al-Hajj
(Ali al-Hajj is a blogger based in Syria writing under a pen name.)
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 19 May 2011
"These days wherever you go on the streets of old Damascus you can hear whispers anticipating the fall of the Assad regime. No one knows how. No one asks how....
Syria's people face that most violent and bloodthirsty of Middle Eastern regimes, yet take to the streets every Friday with bare hands and chests, affording tanks and snipers a simple chance to shoot to kill. The people defy all the complex and carefully organised regulations put in place by the Assad regime to prevent demonstrators from reaching squares, and to forestall the emergence of an equivalent to Cairo's Tahrir Square.
The Syrian people think the time for change has come, and they cannot go back. They do not fear the state violence machine. They will not accept reforms promised by a regime in broad daylight, then disregarded come nightfall. All credibility and legitimacy has been lost.....
[A Good Comment, Until You Read This Last Sentence:]
...but also Israel, which no longer trusts a regime that subjects its people to all forms of violence and lawlessness.[WTF??]"
Hidden Hands Stoke Sectarian Strife
By Adam Morrow and Khaled Moussa al-Omrani
"CAIRO, May 19, 2011 (IPS) - Recent Muslim-Christian clashes have renewed fears of sectarian conflict in Egypt. But many local analysts - along with wide swathes of the public - believe sectarian tensions are being stoked by elements loyal to the ousted Hosni Mubarak regime in possible coordination with Israel.
"Whoever is fanning the flames of sectarian conflict has two objectives: to distract attention from the ongoing prosecution of Mubarak and his henchmen, and to derail what's being described as the Third Intifadah," political activist Mugahid Sherara told IPS....
While the twin incidents were initially attributed to local Muslim-Christian rivalries, it later emerged that the violence had been largely instigated by outsiders.
"Initial investigations confirm that the events in Imbaba were planned and instigated by hired ruffians, not religious zealots," Justice Minister Mohamed Abdelaziz al-Gindi announced on May 11. He went on to blame the incidents on an ongoing "counter-revolution aimed at destroying national unity."....
"The men who torched the church looked like professional thugs, not religious extremists. They weren't from around here. It looked pre-planned," one Coptic eyewitness, preferring anonymity, told IPS. The eyewitness added that frictions between the neighbourhood's Muslims and Christians had been "previously unheard of."
The May 11 edition of state daily Al-Missa quoted local Coptic clergymen who described the events as "a conspiracy."....
Numerous local commentators blame the mounting sectarian tension on "remnants of the former regime," which, they say, have a vested interest in derailing post-revolutionary Egypt's transition to democracy. A number of commentators, including prominent political figures, have also alluded to a possible Israeli role in the recent sectarian flare-ups.
On Mar. 15, Deputy Prime Minister Yehia al-Gamal, appointed by the ruling SCAF following Mubarak's ouster, warned of a "counter-revolution directed by elements of the former regime and Israel, which… is currently working against Egypt's interests."....
On the following day, prominent political commentator Fahmi Howeidi asserted that "the possibility of Israeli involvement (in the ongoing sectarian strife) cannot be ruled out." Israel, he wrote in independent daily Al-Shorouk, "was badly frustrated by the ouster of Mubarak, who Israel officials had publicly described as a 'strategic treasure'."
Notably, last November, former head of Israeli military intelligence Amos Yadlin openly bragged about Israel's success in "promoting sectarian tension" in Egypt. "We have succeeded in promoting sectarian and social tension there so as to create a permanent atmosphere of turmoil," Yadlin was quoted as saying in the Hebrew- and Arabic-language press....."
"CAIRO, May 19, 2011 (IPS) - Recent Muslim-Christian clashes have renewed fears of sectarian conflict in Egypt. But many local analysts - along with wide swathes of the public - believe sectarian tensions are being stoked by elements loyal to the ousted Hosni Mubarak regime in possible coordination with Israel.
"Whoever is fanning the flames of sectarian conflict has two objectives: to distract attention from the ongoing prosecution of Mubarak and his henchmen, and to derail what's being described as the Third Intifadah," political activist Mugahid Sherara told IPS....
While the twin incidents were initially attributed to local Muslim-Christian rivalries, it later emerged that the violence had been largely instigated by outsiders.
"Initial investigations confirm that the events in Imbaba were planned and instigated by hired ruffians, not religious zealots," Justice Minister Mohamed Abdelaziz al-Gindi announced on May 11. He went on to blame the incidents on an ongoing "counter-revolution aimed at destroying national unity."....
"The men who torched the church looked like professional thugs, not religious extremists. They weren't from around here. It looked pre-planned," one Coptic eyewitness, preferring anonymity, told IPS. The eyewitness added that frictions between the neighbourhood's Muslims and Christians had been "previously unheard of."
The May 11 edition of state daily Al-Missa quoted local Coptic clergymen who described the events as "a conspiracy."....
Numerous local commentators blame the mounting sectarian tension on "remnants of the former regime," which, they say, have a vested interest in derailing post-revolutionary Egypt's transition to democracy. A number of commentators, including prominent political figures, have also alluded to a possible Israeli role in the recent sectarian flare-ups.
On Mar. 15, Deputy Prime Minister Yehia al-Gamal, appointed by the ruling SCAF following Mubarak's ouster, warned of a "counter-revolution directed by elements of the former regime and Israel, which… is currently working against Egypt's interests."....
On the following day, prominent political commentator Fahmi Howeidi asserted that "the possibility of Israeli involvement (in the ongoing sectarian strife) cannot be ruled out." Israel, he wrote in independent daily Al-Shorouk, "was badly frustrated by the ouster of Mubarak, who Israel officials had publicly described as a 'strategic treasure'."
Notably, last November, former head of Israeli military intelligence Amos Yadlin openly bragged about Israel's success in "promoting sectarian tension" in Egypt. "We have succeeded in promoting sectarian and social tension there so as to create a permanent atmosphere of turmoil," Yadlin was quoted as saying in the Hebrew- and Arabic-language press....."
Egypt: Victims of protest violence deserve justice
19 May 2011
"The Egyptian authorities must provide justice to all of the victims of violent repression that took place during mass anti-government protests earlier this year, Amnesty International said in a comprehensive report into abuses that led to at least 840 deaths.
The release of Egypt rises: killings, detentions and torture in the '25 January Revolution' comes two days before former Interior Minister Habib El Adly goes on trial on charges arising from the killings of protesters.
The organization said that while the Egyptian authorities have begun holding accountable some of those accused of responsibility for serious human rights violations, many victims of security forces' brutality are at risk of being excluded from efforts to deal with the legacy of the violence.
"The trial of the senior figures suspected of being responsible for the outrageous use of excessive force against peaceful protesters is an essential first step," said Amnesty International. "But the authorities' response to victims must go much further than this."
"Families of those who were killed, as well as all those who were seriously injured or subjected to arbitrary detention or torture, including at the hands of the military, should expect that the authorities will prioritize their needs."
"That means giving them the truth about what happened, providing them with appropriate reparation, and making sure that all those responsible are brought to justice."
Amnesty International’s report provides damning evidence of excessive force by security forces to try to disperse and suppress protests against former President Hosni Mubarak, showing flagrant disregard for life. Many protesters died as a result of shots to the upper body, including the head or chest, pointing to deliberate targeting of protesters posing no threat, or at the very least to reckless use of firearms.
Over 6,000 people were also injured in protests, some of them permanently...."
"The Egyptian authorities must provide justice to all of the victims of violent repression that took place during mass anti-government protests earlier this year, Amnesty International said in a comprehensive report into abuses that led to at least 840 deaths.
The release of Egypt rises: killings, detentions and torture in the '25 January Revolution' comes two days before former Interior Minister Habib El Adly goes on trial on charges arising from the killings of protesters.
The organization said that while the Egyptian authorities have begun holding accountable some of those accused of responsibility for serious human rights violations, many victims of security forces' brutality are at risk of being excluded from efforts to deal with the legacy of the violence.
"The trial of the senior figures suspected of being responsible for the outrageous use of excessive force against peaceful protesters is an essential first step," said Amnesty International. "But the authorities' response to victims must go much further than this."
"Families of those who were killed, as well as all those who were seriously injured or subjected to arbitrary detention or torture, including at the hands of the military, should expect that the authorities will prioritize their needs."
"That means giving them the truth about what happened, providing them with appropriate reparation, and making sure that all those responsible are brought to justice."
Amnesty International’s report provides damning evidence of excessive force by security forces to try to disperse and suppress protests against former President Hosni Mubarak, showing flagrant disregard for life. Many protesters died as a result of shots to the upper body, including the head or chest, pointing to deliberate targeting of protesters posing no threat, or at the very least to reckless use of firearms.
Over 6,000 people were also injured in protests, some of them permanently...."
Download Report (pdf, 120 pages)
President's fine words may not address the Middle East's real needs
In a keynote speech today, Barack Obama will try to redefine America's relationship with the Arab world. Our writer is sceptical
A GREAT COMMENT (posted in full)
A GREAT COMMENT (posted in full)
By Robert Fisk
"OK, so here's what President Barack Obama should say today about the Middle East. We will leave Afghanistan tomorrow. We will leave Iraq tomorrow. We will stop giving unconditional, craven support to Israel. Americans will force the Israelis – and the European Union – to end their siege of Gaza. We will withhold all future funding for Israel unless it ends, totally and unconditionally, its building of colonies on Arab land that does not belong to it. We will cease all co-operation and business deals with the vicious dictators of the Arab world – whether they be Saudi or Syrian or Libyan – and we will support democracy even in those countries where we have massive business interests. Oh yes, and we will talk to Hamas.
Of course, President Barack Obama will not say this. A vain and cowardly man, he will talk about the West's "friends" in the Middle East, about the security of Israel – security not being a word he has ever devoted to Palestinians – and he will waffle on and on about the Arab Spring as if he ever supported it (until, of course, the dictators were on the run), as if – when they desperately needed his support – he had given his moral authority to the people of Egypt; and, no doubt, we will hear him say what a great religion Islam is (but not too great, or Republicans will start recalling the Barack Hussein Obama birth certificate again) and we will be asked – oh, I fear we will – to turn our backs on the Bin Laden past, to seek "closure" and "move on" (which I'm afraid the Taliban don't quite agree with).
Mr Obama and his equally gutless Secretary of State have no idea what they are facing in the Middle East. The Arabs are no longer afraid. They are tired of our "friends" and sick of our enemies. Very soon, the Palestinians of Gaza will march to the border of Israel and demand to "go home".
We got a signal of this on the Syrian and Lebanese borders on Sunday. What will the Israelis do? Kill the Palestinians in their thousands? And what will Mr Obama say then? (He will, of course, "call for restraint on both sides", a phrase he inherited from his torturing predecessor).
I rather think that the Americans suffer from what the Israelis suffer from: self-delusional arguments. The Americans keep referring to the goodness of Islam, the Israelis to how they understand the "Arab mind". But they do not. Islam as a religion has nothing to do with it, any more than Christianity (a word I don't hear much of these days) or Judaism. It's about dignity, honour, courage, human rights – qualities which, in other circumstances, the United States always praises – which Arabs believe they are owed. And they are right. It is time for Americans to free themselves from their fear of Israel's lobbyists – in fact the Likud Party's lobbyists – and their repulsive slurs of anti-Semitism against anyone who dares to criticise Israel. It is time for them to take heart from the immensely brave members of the American-Jewish community who speak out about the injustices that Israel as well as the Arab leaders commit.
But will our favourite President say anything like this today? Forget it. This is a mealy-mouthed President who should – why have we forgotten this? – have turned down his Nobel Peace Prize because he can't even close Guantanamo, let alone bring us peace. And what did he say in his Nobel speech? That he, Barack Obama, had to live in the real world, that he was not Gandhi, as if – and all praise to The Irish Times for spotting this – Gandhi didn't have to fight the British empire. So we will be treated to all the usual analysts in the States, saying how fine the President's words are, praising this wretched man's speechifying.
And then comes the weekend when Mr Obama has to address the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the biggest, most powerful lobbyist "friend" of Israel in America. Then it will be all back to the start, security, security, security, little – if any mention – of the Israeli colonies in the West Bank and, I feel sure of this, much mention of terrorism, terrorism, terrorism, terrorism, terrorism, terrorism, terrorism. And no doubt a mention of the killing (let us not use the word execution) of Osama bin Laden.
What Mr Obama doesn't understand however – and, of course, Mrs Clinton has not the slightest idea – is that, in the new Arab world, there can be no more reliance on dictator-toadies, no more flattery. The CIA may have its cash funds to hand but I suspect few Arabs will want to touch them. The Egyptians will not tolerate the siege of Gaza. Nor, I think, will the Palestinians. Nor the Lebanese, for that matter; and nor the Syrians when they have got rid of the clansmen who rule them. The Europeans will work that out quicker than the Americans – we are, after all, rather closer to the Arab world – and we will not forever let our lives be guided by America's fawning indifference to Israeli theft of property.
It is, of course, going to be a huge shift of tectonic plates for Israelis – who should be congratulating their Arab neighbours, and the Palestinians for unifying their cause, and who should be showing friendship rather than fear. My own crystal ball long ago broke. But I am reminded of what Winston Churchill said in 1940, that "what General Weygand called the battle for France is over. The battle of Britain... is about to begin."
Well, the old Middle East is over. The new Middle East is about to begin. And we better wake up."
"OK, so here's what President Barack Obama should say today about the Middle East. We will leave Afghanistan tomorrow. We will leave Iraq tomorrow. We will stop giving unconditional, craven support to Israel. Americans will force the Israelis – and the European Union – to end their siege of Gaza. We will withhold all future funding for Israel unless it ends, totally and unconditionally, its building of colonies on Arab land that does not belong to it. We will cease all co-operation and business deals with the vicious dictators of the Arab world – whether they be Saudi or Syrian or Libyan – and we will support democracy even in those countries where we have massive business interests. Oh yes, and we will talk to Hamas.
Of course, President Barack Obama will not say this. A vain and cowardly man, he will talk about the West's "friends" in the Middle East, about the security of Israel – security not being a word he has ever devoted to Palestinians – and he will waffle on and on about the Arab Spring as if he ever supported it (until, of course, the dictators were on the run), as if – when they desperately needed his support – he had given his moral authority to the people of Egypt; and, no doubt, we will hear him say what a great religion Islam is (but not too great, or Republicans will start recalling the Barack Hussein Obama birth certificate again) and we will be asked – oh, I fear we will – to turn our backs on the Bin Laden past, to seek "closure" and "move on" (which I'm afraid the Taliban don't quite agree with).
Mr Obama and his equally gutless Secretary of State have no idea what they are facing in the Middle East. The Arabs are no longer afraid. They are tired of our "friends" and sick of our enemies. Very soon, the Palestinians of Gaza will march to the border of Israel and demand to "go home".
We got a signal of this on the Syrian and Lebanese borders on Sunday. What will the Israelis do? Kill the Palestinians in their thousands? And what will Mr Obama say then? (He will, of course, "call for restraint on both sides", a phrase he inherited from his torturing predecessor).
I rather think that the Americans suffer from what the Israelis suffer from: self-delusional arguments. The Americans keep referring to the goodness of Islam, the Israelis to how they understand the "Arab mind". But they do not. Islam as a religion has nothing to do with it, any more than Christianity (a word I don't hear much of these days) or Judaism. It's about dignity, honour, courage, human rights – qualities which, in other circumstances, the United States always praises – which Arabs believe they are owed. And they are right. It is time for Americans to free themselves from their fear of Israel's lobbyists – in fact the Likud Party's lobbyists – and their repulsive slurs of anti-Semitism against anyone who dares to criticise Israel. It is time for them to take heart from the immensely brave members of the American-Jewish community who speak out about the injustices that Israel as well as the Arab leaders commit.
But will our favourite President say anything like this today? Forget it. This is a mealy-mouthed President who should – why have we forgotten this? – have turned down his Nobel Peace Prize because he can't even close Guantanamo, let alone bring us peace. And what did he say in his Nobel speech? That he, Barack Obama, had to live in the real world, that he was not Gandhi, as if – and all praise to The Irish Times for spotting this – Gandhi didn't have to fight the British empire. So we will be treated to all the usual analysts in the States, saying how fine the President's words are, praising this wretched man's speechifying.
And then comes the weekend when Mr Obama has to address the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the biggest, most powerful lobbyist "friend" of Israel in America. Then it will be all back to the start, security, security, security, little – if any mention – of the Israeli colonies in the West Bank and, I feel sure of this, much mention of terrorism, terrorism, terrorism, terrorism, terrorism, terrorism, terrorism. And no doubt a mention of the killing (let us not use the word execution) of Osama bin Laden.
What Mr Obama doesn't understand however – and, of course, Mrs Clinton has not the slightest idea – is that, in the new Arab world, there can be no more reliance on dictator-toadies, no more flattery. The CIA may have its cash funds to hand but I suspect few Arabs will want to touch them. The Egyptians will not tolerate the siege of Gaza. Nor, I think, will the Palestinians. Nor the Lebanese, for that matter; and nor the Syrians when they have got rid of the clansmen who rule them. The Europeans will work that out quicker than the Americans – we are, after all, rather closer to the Arab world – and we will not forever let our lives be guided by America's fawning indifference to Israeli theft of property.
It is, of course, going to be a huge shift of tectonic plates for Israelis – who should be congratulating their Arab neighbours, and the Palestinians for unifying their cause, and who should be showing friendship rather than fear. My own crystal ball long ago broke. But I am reminded of what Winston Churchill said in 1940, that "what General Weygand called the battle for France is over. The battle of Britain... is about to begin."
Well, the old Middle East is over. The new Middle East is about to begin. And we better wake up."
Nakba day: we waited 63 years for this
The remarkable bravery of refugees on Nakba day was the first act of a Palestinian summer
AN EXCELLENT COMMENT (posted in full)
Karma Nabulsi
The Guardian, Thursday 19 May 2011
"It was the moment for which we had all been holding our breath for decades – for 63 years to be precise. Palestinians everywhere watched the unfolding scene transfixed and awed. The camera followed the movements of a small group of people advancing from the mass of protesters. They were carefully making their way down a hill towards the high fence that closed off the mined field separating Syria from its own occupied territory of the Golan that borders historic Palestine, now Israel.
They were mostly young Palestinians, drawn from the 470,000-plus refugee community in Syria: from Yarmouk refugee camp inside Damascus, from Khan el-Sheikh camp outside it, from Deraa and Homs refugee camps in the south, from Palestinian gatherings all over the country.
Slowly, and in spite of the shouted warnings from the villagers from Majdal Shams about the lethal landmines installed by the Israeli military right up to the fence, these remarkable ordinary young people – Palestinian refugees – began to both climb and push at the fence. We were going home.
It was a profoundly revolutionary moment, for these hundreds of young people entering Majdal Shams last Sunday made public the private heart of every Palestinian citizen, who has lived each day since 1948 in the emergency crisis of a catastrophe. Waiting, and struggling, and organising for only two things: liberation and return.
What made this moment and others like it across the region so radical in gesture, democratic in purpose, and universal in intent? It brought the entire world suddenly face to face with the intimate and immediate in the very human struggle for freedom of each Palestinian, whether refugee or not. Sixty-three years ago the entire body politic of the people of Palestine was violently destroyed and dispersed. All Palestinians, whether refugee or not, share that terrible history – it is what unites us.
This is the shared experience we commemorate every year on Nakba Day: the year-long expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians that began in 1947 and continued straight through 1948 into the terrible snowstorm winters of 1949, creating what is now the world's largest refugee population.
On Sunday, this moment of return was enacted simultaneously in Haifa and among Palestinians displaced inside Israel, on the borders of Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan, and Gaza, in the West Bank near the Qalandia refugee camp – wherever the more than 7 million stateless Palestinian refugees now live, very near their original villages and towns. Just out of sight, over the hill, across the border.
This basic injustice has yet to be addressed by any of the schemes currently on the table to solve the Palestinian issue. For this is not about the reconciliation of political parties, the search for a state or the establishment of two, negotiations or the lack of them, the enfranchisement of a third of our people over the disenfranchisement of the rest.
Indeed, what happened on Sunday was not the plan of Salam Fayyad, the Palestinian Authority prime minister, nor that of Fatah or Hamas; it most certainly wasn't the American, European or Israeli plan for dealing with the Palestinian people. Like the rest of the Arab people who have taken their fate into their own hands – and in doing so provided lessons and models in the meaning of democracy and citizenship to the rest of the world for years to come – the Palestinians have demonstrated, quite perfectly and with great courage, what it is to be fully human, and how to hold on to one's humanity in spite of more than six decades of violent oppression.
Activists living in Majdal Shams had not been expecting them, and were completely surprised to see the dozens of buses pull up on the other side of the valley. Organised largely on the phone and internet, many of these young Palestinian refugees, mostly university students, didn't even know each other.
They certainly didn't know what was about to happen to them. Israeli soldiers fired live ammunition at the protesters, who were armed only with the deeds to their property, or ageing photographs of their parents' farms. One young man carried his grandmother in his arms.
Qais Abu Alheija (from Houd, Haifa district), Bashar Ali Shahabi (from Lubya, Tiberias district), Samer Khartabeel (from the town of Tiberias), Abadah Zaghmout (from the village of Safsaf, Haifa district – an effort to save his life at the clinic of Golan for Development in Majdal Shams failed): all died on Sunday in the Golan, walking home. The Palestinian spring has certainly arrived: this is just the beginning, and summer is on its way."
AN EXCELLENT COMMENT (posted in full)
Karma Nabulsi
The Guardian, Thursday 19 May 2011
"It was the moment for which we had all been holding our breath for decades – for 63 years to be precise. Palestinians everywhere watched the unfolding scene transfixed and awed. The camera followed the movements of a small group of people advancing from the mass of protesters. They were carefully making their way down a hill towards the high fence that closed off the mined field separating Syria from its own occupied territory of the Golan that borders historic Palestine, now Israel.
They were mostly young Palestinians, drawn from the 470,000-plus refugee community in Syria: from Yarmouk refugee camp inside Damascus, from Khan el-Sheikh camp outside it, from Deraa and Homs refugee camps in the south, from Palestinian gatherings all over the country.
Slowly, and in spite of the shouted warnings from the villagers from Majdal Shams about the lethal landmines installed by the Israeli military right up to the fence, these remarkable ordinary young people – Palestinian refugees – began to both climb and push at the fence. We were going home.
It was a profoundly revolutionary moment, for these hundreds of young people entering Majdal Shams last Sunday made public the private heart of every Palestinian citizen, who has lived each day since 1948 in the emergency crisis of a catastrophe. Waiting, and struggling, and organising for only two things: liberation and return.
What made this moment and others like it across the region so radical in gesture, democratic in purpose, and universal in intent? It brought the entire world suddenly face to face with the intimate and immediate in the very human struggle for freedom of each Palestinian, whether refugee or not. Sixty-three years ago the entire body politic of the people of Palestine was violently destroyed and dispersed. All Palestinians, whether refugee or not, share that terrible history – it is what unites us.
This is the shared experience we commemorate every year on Nakba Day: the year-long expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians that began in 1947 and continued straight through 1948 into the terrible snowstorm winters of 1949, creating what is now the world's largest refugee population.
On Sunday, this moment of return was enacted simultaneously in Haifa and among Palestinians displaced inside Israel, on the borders of Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan, and Gaza, in the West Bank near the Qalandia refugee camp – wherever the more than 7 million stateless Palestinian refugees now live, very near their original villages and towns. Just out of sight, over the hill, across the border.
This basic injustice has yet to be addressed by any of the schemes currently on the table to solve the Palestinian issue. For this is not about the reconciliation of political parties, the search for a state or the establishment of two, negotiations or the lack of them, the enfranchisement of a third of our people over the disenfranchisement of the rest.
Indeed, what happened on Sunday was not the plan of Salam Fayyad, the Palestinian Authority prime minister, nor that of Fatah or Hamas; it most certainly wasn't the American, European or Israeli plan for dealing with the Palestinian people. Like the rest of the Arab people who have taken their fate into their own hands – and in doing so provided lessons and models in the meaning of democracy and citizenship to the rest of the world for years to come – the Palestinians have demonstrated, quite perfectly and with great courage, what it is to be fully human, and how to hold on to one's humanity in spite of more than six decades of violent oppression.
Activists living in Majdal Shams had not been expecting them, and were completely surprised to see the dozens of buses pull up on the other side of the valley. Organised largely on the phone and internet, many of these young Palestinian refugees, mostly university students, didn't even know each other.
They certainly didn't know what was about to happen to them. Israeli soldiers fired live ammunition at the protesters, who were armed only with the deeds to their property, or ageing photographs of their parents' farms. One young man carried his grandmother in his arms.
Qais Abu Alheija (from Houd, Haifa district), Bashar Ali Shahabi (from Lubya, Tiberias district), Samer Khartabeel (from the town of Tiberias), Abadah Zaghmout (from the village of Safsaf, Haifa district – an effort to save his life at the clinic of Golan for Development in Majdal Shams failed): all died on Sunday in the Golan, walking home. The Palestinian spring has certainly arrived: this is just the beginning, and summer is on its way."
Egyptian uprising's reporter: 'Two Egypts have emerged'
Ayman Mohyeldin was the face of al-Jazeera's coverage. Time magazine named him one of the most influential people of 2011
Ayman Mohyeldin
The Guardian, Thursday 19 May 2011
"In the past 100 days, two Egypts have emerged. One is revolutionary Egypt, driven by ideals and demanding reform and institutional change. And then there is the other Egypt, in which the military tries to maintain law and order. In certain areas, those two Egypts conflict; in other areas, they converge. Right now, they are torn apart and heading in very different directions.
When you look at something like the Israeli embassy clashes the other day [in which 350 people were injured when security forces fired teargas and rubber bullets at protesters], from the demonstrators' perspective it's seen as exercising one's right to protest and one's right to demand a re-evaluation of Egypt's relationship with Israel. But from the army's perspective, it's about maintaining security and protecting foreign embassies – specifically, the embassy of a Israel, which, were it to be overrun by protesters, would have broader implications for the country and the military.
The one thing that has definitely changed is the dialogue. The fact that there is an ongoing discussion now that really knows very few red lines is a step in the right direction. There's a wider political pluralism on display, what with the Muslim Brotherhood moving out of the shadows and the emergence of new youth leaders, and so on. But the country is taking two steps forward, one step back.....
I don't think elections in September will be free and fair, but they will be freer and fairer than the sort of thing we've seen in the past. It would help if Egyptians could swallow their national pride and allow foreign observers to monitor the polls, but I doubt that will happen....."
Ayman Mohyeldin
The Guardian, Thursday 19 May 2011
"In the past 100 days, two Egypts have emerged. One is revolutionary Egypt, driven by ideals and demanding reform and institutional change. And then there is the other Egypt, in which the military tries to maintain law and order. In certain areas, those two Egypts conflict; in other areas, they converge. Right now, they are torn apart and heading in very different directions.
When you look at something like the Israeli embassy clashes the other day [in which 350 people were injured when security forces fired teargas and rubber bullets at protesters], from the demonstrators' perspective it's seen as exercising one's right to protest and one's right to demand a re-evaluation of Egypt's relationship with Israel. But from the army's perspective, it's about maintaining security and protecting foreign embassies – specifically, the embassy of a Israel, which, were it to be overrun by protesters, would have broader implications for the country and the military.
The one thing that has definitely changed is the dialogue. The fact that there is an ongoing discussion now that really knows very few red lines is a step in the right direction. There's a wider political pluralism on display, what with the Muslim Brotherhood moving out of the shadows and the emergence of new youth leaders, and so on. But the country is taking two steps forward, one step back.....
I don't think elections in September will be free and fair, but they will be freer and fairer than the sort of thing we've seen in the past. It would help if Egyptians could swallow their national pride and allow foreign observers to monitor the polls, but I doubt that will happen....."
Egypt's uprising brings DIY spirit out on to the streets
In the hundred days since Hosni Mubarak was toppled, there has been an explosion of creative energy in the alternative arts.
Jack Shenker in Cairo
The Guardian, Thursday 19 May 2011
(An image in Midan Falaki created by Egyptian artist Ganzeer as part of his Martyr Murals project has since been painted over by government officials.)
"...In the 100 days since one of the world's most entrenched dictatorships was toppled, Egypt has borne witness to an explosion of creative energy seeking to memorialise, critique and carry forward the country's moment of revolutionary fervour, a process which has itself revolutionised the country's long-stagnant cultural landscape; buskers can perform without police permits.
"There's a discernible DIY spirit on the street at the moment," says Prof Elliott Colla, an Egyptian expert at Georgetown University. "People feel they can look after themselves following a revolution. They police their own blocks, they pick up their own trash, and they can paint on walls. They don't need permission from anyone.
"It's a fundamental shift. bBefore, the initial assumption regarding anyone doing anything on the street was always 'who let you do that?' Now the initial assumption is 'I can do that.'"
Crucial to this change has been the emergence of a counter-culture arts scene on the mainstream radar, a process Ganzeer likens to the growing popularity of Bob Dylan and other "indie" musicians in 1960s America....
....the most popular music to emerge from Tahrir was independently produced and distributed, such as the hugely successful Sout Al-Horeya (The Sound of Freedom) which has garnered more than 1.5m hits on YouTube.
But with Egypt's ruling generals vowing to shield the country from "chaos" and "disruptive influences" during the fraught post-Mubarak transition, there is no guarantee that the creative arts will secure themselves extra space to flourish in the long term.
In the past few weeks a row has erupted over the rights of theatre directors to censor productions, while a novel lamenting the deterioration of Egypt's culture by Ibrahim Farghali has been officially banned from sale.
"The real test will be many months on from now, when we'll see if the performing arts – those seeking to produce cultural expressions collaboratively and without state support – have found a viable model which enables them to do so," argues Colla.
"Graffiti is important because it signifies a changing dynamic over who commands public streets, but how do young playwrights and film-makers carve out an independent space for themselves in the new Egypt? It's going to take more than a can of spray paint to do that."....
"But culturally what we're seeing now is people, for the first time in their lives, taking control of the space around them and expressing themselves publicly in every way. There's a conversation going on in Egypt right now, and it's almost impossible for anyone to mute it.""
Jack Shenker in Cairo
The Guardian, Thursday 19 May 2011
(An image in Midan Falaki created by Egyptian artist Ganzeer as part of his Martyr Murals project has since been painted over by government officials.)
"...In the 100 days since one of the world's most entrenched dictatorships was toppled, Egypt has borne witness to an explosion of creative energy seeking to memorialise, critique and carry forward the country's moment of revolutionary fervour, a process which has itself revolutionised the country's long-stagnant cultural landscape; buskers can perform without police permits.
"There's a discernible DIY spirit on the street at the moment," says Prof Elliott Colla, an Egyptian expert at Georgetown University. "People feel they can look after themselves following a revolution. They police their own blocks, they pick up their own trash, and they can paint on walls. They don't need permission from anyone.
"It's a fundamental shift. bBefore, the initial assumption regarding anyone doing anything on the street was always 'who let you do that?' Now the initial assumption is 'I can do that.'"
Crucial to this change has been the emergence of a counter-culture arts scene on the mainstream radar, a process Ganzeer likens to the growing popularity of Bob Dylan and other "indie" musicians in 1960s America....
....the most popular music to emerge from Tahrir was independently produced and distributed, such as the hugely successful Sout Al-Horeya (The Sound of Freedom) which has garnered more than 1.5m hits on YouTube.
But with Egypt's ruling generals vowing to shield the country from "chaos" and "disruptive influences" during the fraught post-Mubarak transition, there is no guarantee that the creative arts will secure themselves extra space to flourish in the long term.
In the past few weeks a row has erupted over the rights of theatre directors to censor productions, while a novel lamenting the deterioration of Egypt's culture by Ibrahim Farghali has been officially banned from sale.
"The real test will be many months on from now, when we'll see if the performing arts – those seeking to produce cultural expressions collaboratively and without state support – have found a viable model which enables them to do so," argues Colla.
"Graffiti is important because it signifies a changing dynamic over who commands public streets, but how do young playwrights and film-makers carve out an independent space for themselves in the new Egypt? It's going to take more than a can of spray paint to do that."....
"But culturally what we're seeing now is people, for the first time in their lives, taking control of the space around them and expressing themselves publicly in every way. There's a conversation going on in Egypt right now, and it's almost impossible for anyone to mute it.""
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
The future of the Arab uprisings
The US, with its allies, has already begun plans to subvert the Arab Spring to save its own regional hegemony.
By Joseph Massad
Al-Jazeera
"A specter is haunting the Arab world - the specter of democratic revolution. All the powers of the old Arab world have entered into a holy alliance with each other and the United States to exorcise this specter: king and sultan, emir and president, neoliberals and zionists.....
Part of the US-Saudi strategy has been to strengthen religious sectarianism, especially hostility to shiism, in the hope of stemming the tide of the uprisings.
This sectarianism targets not only Iran but also Arab shias in Bahrain, Iraq, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and even in Oman and Syria, while simultaneously encouraging anti-Christian zealotry in Egypt. The Sadat and Mubarak regimes encouraged anti-Christian zealots for decades. Part of the ongoing counter-revolutionary efforts is to resuscitate these sectarian forces to break Egyptian unity and bring about chaos....
The hijacking of the Libyan uprising and the defection of Gaddafi's governing elite of politicians overnight to the side of the "revolutionaries" not only casts more than one shadow of suspicion on those claiming to lead the Libyan uprising against Gaddafi's horrific dictatorship, but also on the Western powers who were Gaddafi's major allies in the last decade until their recent defection.
The situation today is one of a struggle between the formidable US-Saudi axis, which is the main anti-democratic force in the region, and the pro-democracy uprisings.
The US-Saudi strategy is two-fold: massive repression of those Arab uprisings that can be defeated, and co-optation of those that could not be. How successful the second part will be depends on how co-optable the pro-democracy forces prove to be.
While it is true that revolutionaries make their own history, as Karl Marx famously put it, "they do not make it just as they please; they do not make it under circumstances chosen by themselves, but under circumstances directly encountered, given and transmitted from the past."
Guarding against the co-optation of the Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions is the hope of all Arabs today.
The US-Saudi axis will use every mechanism at its disposal to do so, not least of which will be the forthcoming elections in Egypt and Tunisia. The great Arab hope is that Tunisia and Egypt will write a new Revolutionary and Democratic Manifesto for the Arab peoples....."
By Joseph Massad
Al-Jazeera
"A specter is haunting the Arab world - the specter of democratic revolution. All the powers of the old Arab world have entered into a holy alliance with each other and the United States to exorcise this specter: king and sultan, emir and president, neoliberals and zionists.....
Part of the US-Saudi strategy has been to strengthen religious sectarianism, especially hostility to shiism, in the hope of stemming the tide of the uprisings.
This sectarianism targets not only Iran but also Arab shias in Bahrain, Iraq, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and even in Oman and Syria, while simultaneously encouraging anti-Christian zealotry in Egypt. The Sadat and Mubarak regimes encouraged anti-Christian zealots for decades. Part of the ongoing counter-revolutionary efforts is to resuscitate these sectarian forces to break Egyptian unity and bring about chaos....
The hijacking of the Libyan uprising and the defection of Gaddafi's governing elite of politicians overnight to the side of the "revolutionaries" not only casts more than one shadow of suspicion on those claiming to lead the Libyan uprising against Gaddafi's horrific dictatorship, but also on the Western powers who were Gaddafi's major allies in the last decade until their recent defection.
The situation today is one of a struggle between the formidable US-Saudi axis, which is the main anti-democratic force in the region, and the pro-democracy uprisings.
The US-Saudi strategy is two-fold: massive repression of those Arab uprisings that can be defeated, and co-optation of those that could not be. How successful the second part will be depends on how co-optable the pro-democracy forces prove to be.
While it is true that revolutionaries make their own history, as Karl Marx famously put it, "they do not make it just as they please; they do not make it under circumstances chosen by themselves, but under circumstances directly encountered, given and transmitted from the past."
Guarding against the co-optation of the Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions is the hope of all Arabs today.
The US-Saudi axis will use every mechanism at its disposal to do so, not least of which will be the forthcoming elections in Egypt and Tunisia. The great Arab hope is that Tunisia and Egypt will write a new Revolutionary and Democratic Manifesto for the Arab peoples....."
Dorothy Parvaz: Inside Syria's secret prisons
A MUST READ
I was standing in two fist-sized pools of smeared, sticky blood, trying to sort out why there were seven angry Syrians yelling at me. Only one of them - who I came to know as Mr Shut Up during my three days in a detention center, where so many Syrians 'disappeared' are being kept - spoke English.
Watching them searching my bags, and observing the set of handcuffs hanging from the bunk bed wedged behind the desk in the middle of the room, I guessed that I was being arrested - or, at the very least, processed for detention.
"Why are doing this?" I asked.
"Shut up! SHUT UP!" said Mr Shut Up.
I'd arrived there moments before, dragged by a handful of hair from a car where I'd been wedged between two armed men. They'd tried to convince me that they were taking me to my hotel, but, of course, I knew that there was no way plain-clothed security personnel would be kind enough to escort me to my accommodation.
I did, however, manage to resist being forced to wear a blindfold, figuring that if they were going to shoot me, they really didn't need a reason to do so.
After about 20 minutes, we pulled off the highway and through two checkpoints. By this point, the rather handsy security guard to my left had pulled my scarf over my eyes.
Armed guards opened a gate to what seemed like a military compound, filled with dozens of men, all plain-clothed, lurking in an atmosphere suited only to cracking skulls - so heightened was the sense of impending violence.
Welcome to mini-Guantanamo; perhaps one of many in Syria where protesters and bystanders alike have been swept up in the wide net cast by an increasingly paranoid government since the start of anti-government protests several weeks ago.
I'd ended up there because a scan of my luggage had revealed that I had a satellite phone and an internet hub with me - the commercially available type, nothing special, and just the sort of thing one might need while travelling in a country with spotty communications.
Still, if that was deemed suspicious, then my American passport, complete with its Al Jazeera-sponsored visa, sealed the deal. The agents couldn't seem to agree what I was, or which was worse: an American spy for Israel, or an Al Jazeera reporter – both were pretty much on a par.
Blindfolded, I was led to the first of my three cells - a tiny, sparse room, roughly three paces across and five length-wise. On the floor, on a ratty brown blanket, sat a young woman whose face was puffy from crying. She said she was 25 and from Damascus and indicated that she had been there for four days. She didn't know why she'd been picked up by the Mukhabarat, the Syrian intelligence service.
She said she was a shop assistant in a clothes store, and the designer stilettos that sat in the corner of the cell seemed to belie any suggestion that this was a girl who had left her house in order to participate in protests. She said she'd been speaking on her phone when she was hauled into a car, blindfolded and driven away.
She had no idea where she was, or how long she was to stay there. She had not been allowed to contact her family.
Our eyes moved to the month-long calendar etched on the wall, likely the artwork of a previous dweller. With unspoken glances, we each wondered how long she would remain there.
A man came to the door a couple of times before he took me from the cell, handcuffed and blindfolded me, and led me to what seemed like a courtyard.
He pushed me up against a wall and told me to stand there. As I did so, I heard two sets of interrogations and beatings taking place, about 10 meters away from me in either direction.
The beatings were savage, the words uttered by those beaten only hoarse cries – "Wallahi! Wahalli!" ("I swear to God! I swear to God!") or simply, "La! La!" ("No! No!").
I stood there for what seemed like an eternity, before someone approached me.
"Who do you work for?" he hissed.
"Al Jazeera. Online."
"Are you alone?"
"So alone."
I was taken to a second cell, this one, with smears of blood on the wall. I found what looked like a bloodless corner and perched until called upon again – at around midnight.
I was again handcuffed, but this time, before the blindfolds went on, I caught sight of a young man, no more than 20, chained to a radiator outside the hallway. He had a legal pad on his knees, was blindfolded, and was quivering so fiercely he could hardly hold the pen with which he was probably meant to ink some sort of confession.
Meanwhile, the beatings and cries outside continued.
I was taken through a labyrinth of stairs, before entering an office where my interrogator awaited me. I managed to talk him into allowing the blindfolds to be removed.
The man - let's call him 'Firass' - was slightly portly and could be affable when he wanted to be (he seemed concerned that there were women being kept at the facility, and tried to make things comfortable for me).
Firass even apologised for the fact that our "formal interview" was taking place in a room containing a bed, crates of potatoes and a refrigerator.
"It's just that we’re so busy these days," he said.
I wanted to ask why the Mukhabarat would be so busy if such a tiny minority was causing problems, but it didn't seem like a prudent moment.
Firass spoke very good English and, at first, seemed convinced that I was a spy.
Then he focused on Al Jazeera, putting the network on the same level as Human Rights Watch. The network had been making a "big problem" for Syria with the UN Security Council, he said.
After four hours of questioning, he sent me to a different room, this one a long-disused office where a terrified teenage girl was sleeping on the couch.
The next morning, my new roommate and I tried to get acquainted, without sharing too many details, as we had been forbidden to do so. She too had been plucked from the streets of a Damascus suburb for reasons she couldn’t understand.
She'd been there for eight days when I met her, and she looked ill. The food we were given three times a day - fetid, random and at times, rotting - mostly had the effect of making her vomit, but she was too hungry to stop eating all together.
There was a doctor on site, parked next to a sign that read "Assad is Boss", but the girl seemed too frightened to see the doctor - no wonder.
Most of the our days were spent listening to the sounds of young men being brutally interrogated – sometimes tied up in stress positions until it sounded like their bones were cracking, as we saw from our bathroom window (a bathroom with no running water, except for one tap in a sink filled with roughly 10 cm of sewage).
One afternoon, the beating we heard was so severe that we could clearly hear the interrogator pummelling his boots and fists into his subject, almost in a trance, yelling questions or accusations rhythmically as the blows landed in what sounded like the prisoner's midriff.
My roommate shook and wept, reminding me (or perhaps herself) that they didn't beat women here.
There was a brief break before the beating resumed, and my first impulse was to cover my ears, but then I thought, "If this man is crying, shouldn’t someone hear him?"
After all, judging from the sound of passing traffic and from what I could see through our window, there were no homes nearby – just a highway, a sprawling old security compound, and what appeared to be an old prison; a few official buildings that had seen better days. That's all I could see from our cell.
When one of the Mukhabarat agents came in, my teenage cellmate proceeded to beg him to allow her to use her mobile phone to call her parents, which, of course, was not going to happen.
She asked about the beatings we'd heard outside, and was told that the men being punished were murderers who had shot people in Deraa.
Later, Mr Shut Up came and took my roommate away for interrogation, which made me worry. She returned an hour later, with no apparent resolution to her problem. She still looked out the window and cried, worrying about her parents, wondering if or when she'd see them again.
I couldn't help but wonder: what sort of threat does this girl pose to the Syrian state that they have to keep her in this rotting room? What are they so afraid of?
After three days, Firass told me I was free to return to Qatar – something for which I was very grateful.
He even took me to his boss's office – again, remember, no one has any names here – where I was given a lecture on Al Jazeera’s coverage of the troubles in Syria, mostly focusing on how a tiny, tiny minority was causing a problem for an essentially happy majority.
On my way out of the compound, I was finally allowed to see it for what it was – a shabby set of offices and cellblocks with pictures of Bashar al-Assad, Syria's president, framed in the sort of metallic stands that might promote two-for-one-drinks offers at the theatre, placed every few metres. The effect was farcical.
I was taken to the airport, but I was certainly not allowed to return to Qatar. Instead, I was dragged, kicking and screaming, onto a flight bound for Tehran (I'd entered Syria with an Iranian passport). Call it a strange brand of extraordinary rendition, if you will.
The Syrian authorities had alleged to the Iranians that I was a spy – a charge that can carry a death penalty in Iran.
Fortunately, in my case, the facts were borne out. After a couple of weeks of interrogations, the investigator charged with my case determined that I was not a spy, but a journalist.
On Wednesday, without drama or incident, I was released and put on a dawn flight from Tehran to Doha – it was a simple matter of a judge's approval.
Although I have written critically of some of Iran's policies, I was treated with respect, courtesy and care thoughout my detention there.
My room was spotless, my interrogator flawlessly polite, and the women who looked after me at the Evin Prison Women's Detention Centre saw to it that my every need was met – especially the sleeping pills I required, because every night, without fail, I would hear the cries of men screaming "Wallahi! Wallahi!" and wonder how their wounds will every heal.
I was standing in two fist-sized pools of smeared, sticky blood, trying to sort out why there were seven angry Syrians yelling at me. Only one of them - who I came to know as Mr Shut Up during my three days in a detention center, where so many Syrians 'disappeared' are being kept - spoke English.
Watching them searching my bags, and observing the set of handcuffs hanging from the bunk bed wedged behind the desk in the middle of the room, I guessed that I was being arrested - or, at the very least, processed for detention.
"Why are doing this?" I asked.
"Shut up! SHUT UP!" said Mr Shut Up.
I'd arrived there moments before, dragged by a handful of hair from a car where I'd been wedged between two armed men. They'd tried to convince me that they were taking me to my hotel, but, of course, I knew that there was no way plain-clothed security personnel would be kind enough to escort me to my accommodation.
I did, however, manage to resist being forced to wear a blindfold, figuring that if they were going to shoot me, they really didn't need a reason to do so.
After about 20 minutes, we pulled off the highway and through two checkpoints. By this point, the rather handsy security guard to my left had pulled my scarf over my eyes.
Armed guards opened a gate to what seemed like a military compound, filled with dozens of men, all plain-clothed, lurking in an atmosphere suited only to cracking skulls - so heightened was the sense of impending violence.
Welcome to mini-Guantanamo; perhaps one of many in Syria where protesters and bystanders alike have been swept up in the wide net cast by an increasingly paranoid government since the start of anti-government protests several weeks ago.
I'd ended up there because a scan of my luggage had revealed that I had a satellite phone and an internet hub with me - the commercially available type, nothing special, and just the sort of thing one might need while travelling in a country with spotty communications.
Still, if that was deemed suspicious, then my American passport, complete with its Al Jazeera-sponsored visa, sealed the deal. The agents couldn't seem to agree what I was, or which was worse: an American spy for Israel, or an Al Jazeera reporter – both were pretty much on a par.
Blindfolded, I was led to the first of my three cells - a tiny, sparse room, roughly three paces across and five length-wise. On the floor, on a ratty brown blanket, sat a young woman whose face was puffy from crying. She said she was 25 and from Damascus and indicated that she had been there for four days. She didn't know why she'd been picked up by the Mukhabarat, the Syrian intelligence service.
She said she was a shop assistant in a clothes store, and the designer stilettos that sat in the corner of the cell seemed to belie any suggestion that this was a girl who had left her house in order to participate in protests. She said she'd been speaking on her phone when she was hauled into a car, blindfolded and driven away.
She had no idea where she was, or how long she was to stay there. She had not been allowed to contact her family.
Our eyes moved to the month-long calendar etched on the wall, likely the artwork of a previous dweller. With unspoken glances, we each wondered how long she would remain there.
A man came to the door a couple of times before he took me from the cell, handcuffed and blindfolded me, and led me to what seemed like a courtyard.
He pushed me up against a wall and told me to stand there. As I did so, I heard two sets of interrogations and beatings taking place, about 10 meters away from me in either direction.
The beatings were savage, the words uttered by those beaten only hoarse cries – "Wallahi! Wahalli!" ("I swear to God! I swear to God!") or simply, "La! La!" ("No! No!").
I stood there for what seemed like an eternity, before someone approached me.
"Who do you work for?" he hissed.
"Al Jazeera. Online."
"Are you alone?"
"So alone."
I was taken to a second cell, this one, with smears of blood on the wall. I found what looked like a bloodless corner and perched until called upon again – at around midnight.
I was again handcuffed, but this time, before the blindfolds went on, I caught sight of a young man, no more than 20, chained to a radiator outside the hallway. He had a legal pad on his knees, was blindfolded, and was quivering so fiercely he could hardly hold the pen with which he was probably meant to ink some sort of confession.
Meanwhile, the beatings and cries outside continued.
I was taken through a labyrinth of stairs, before entering an office where my interrogator awaited me. I managed to talk him into allowing the blindfolds to be removed.
The man - let's call him 'Firass' - was slightly portly and could be affable when he wanted to be (he seemed concerned that there were women being kept at the facility, and tried to make things comfortable for me).
Firass even apologised for the fact that our "formal interview" was taking place in a room containing a bed, crates of potatoes and a refrigerator.
"It's just that we’re so busy these days," he said.
I wanted to ask why the Mukhabarat would be so busy if such a tiny minority was causing problems, but it didn't seem like a prudent moment.
Firass spoke very good English and, at first, seemed convinced that I was a spy.
Then he focused on Al Jazeera, putting the network on the same level as Human Rights Watch. The network had been making a "big problem" for Syria with the UN Security Council, he said.
After four hours of questioning, he sent me to a different room, this one a long-disused office where a terrified teenage girl was sleeping on the couch.
The next morning, my new roommate and I tried to get acquainted, without sharing too many details, as we had been forbidden to do so. She too had been plucked from the streets of a Damascus suburb for reasons she couldn’t understand.
She'd been there for eight days when I met her, and she looked ill. The food we were given three times a day - fetid, random and at times, rotting - mostly had the effect of making her vomit, but she was too hungry to stop eating all together.
There was a doctor on site, parked next to a sign that read "Assad is Boss", but the girl seemed too frightened to see the doctor - no wonder.
Most of the our days were spent listening to the sounds of young men being brutally interrogated – sometimes tied up in stress positions until it sounded like their bones were cracking, as we saw from our bathroom window (a bathroom with no running water, except for one tap in a sink filled with roughly 10 cm of sewage).
One afternoon, the beating we heard was so severe that we could clearly hear the interrogator pummelling his boots and fists into his subject, almost in a trance, yelling questions or accusations rhythmically as the blows landed in what sounded like the prisoner's midriff.
My roommate shook and wept, reminding me (or perhaps herself) that they didn't beat women here.
There was a brief break before the beating resumed, and my first impulse was to cover my ears, but then I thought, "If this man is crying, shouldn’t someone hear him?"
After all, judging from the sound of passing traffic and from what I could see through our window, there were no homes nearby – just a highway, a sprawling old security compound, and what appeared to be an old prison; a few official buildings that had seen better days. That's all I could see from our cell.
When one of the Mukhabarat agents came in, my teenage cellmate proceeded to beg him to allow her to use her mobile phone to call her parents, which, of course, was not going to happen.
She asked about the beatings we'd heard outside, and was told that the men being punished were murderers who had shot people in Deraa.
Later, Mr Shut Up came and took my roommate away for interrogation, which made me worry. She returned an hour later, with no apparent resolution to her problem. She still looked out the window and cried, worrying about her parents, wondering if or when she'd see them again.
I couldn't help but wonder: what sort of threat does this girl pose to the Syrian state that they have to keep her in this rotting room? What are they so afraid of?
After three days, Firass told me I was free to return to Qatar – something for which I was very grateful.
He even took me to his boss's office – again, remember, no one has any names here – where I was given a lecture on Al Jazeera’s coverage of the troubles in Syria, mostly focusing on how a tiny, tiny minority was causing a problem for an essentially happy majority.
On my way out of the compound, I was finally allowed to see it for what it was – a shabby set of offices and cellblocks with pictures of Bashar al-Assad, Syria's president, framed in the sort of metallic stands that might promote two-for-one-drinks offers at the theatre, placed every few metres. The effect was farcical.
I was taken to the airport, but I was certainly not allowed to return to Qatar. Instead, I was dragged, kicking and screaming, onto a flight bound for Tehran (I'd entered Syria with an Iranian passport). Call it a strange brand of extraordinary rendition, if you will.
The Syrian authorities had alleged to the Iranians that I was a spy – a charge that can carry a death penalty in Iran.
Fortunately, in my case, the facts were borne out. After a couple of weeks of interrogations, the investigator charged with my case determined that I was not a spy, but a journalist.
On Wednesday, without drama or incident, I was released and put on a dawn flight from Tehran to Doha – it was a simple matter of a judge's approval.
Although I have written critically of some of Iran's policies, I was treated with respect, courtesy and care thoughout my detention there.
My room was spotless, my interrogator flawlessly polite, and the women who looked after me at the Evin Prison Women's Detention Centre saw to it that my every need was met – especially the sleeping pills I required, because every night, without fail, I would hear the cries of men screaming "Wallahi! Wallahi!" and wonder how their wounds will every heal.
Western media fraud in the Middle East
Too many journalists report official narratives of the powerful, missing the stories of working class people.
By Nir Rosen
Al-Jazeera
"....American reporting is problematic throughout the third world, but because the American military/industrial/financial/academic/media complex is so directly implicated in the Middle East, the consequences of such bad reporting are more significant. Journalists end up serving as propagandists justify the killing of innocent people instead of a voice for those innocent people. Our job should not be about speaking truth to power. Those in power know the truth, they just don't care. It's about speaking truth to the people, to those not in power, in order to empower them."
By Nir Rosen
Al-Jazeera
"....American reporting is problematic throughout the third world, but because the American military/industrial/financial/academic/media complex is so directly implicated in the Middle East, the consequences of such bad reporting are more significant. Journalists end up serving as propagandists justify the killing of innocent people instead of a voice for those innocent people. Our job should not be about speaking truth to power. Those in power know the truth, they just don't care. It's about speaking truth to the people, to those not in power, in order to empower them."
Jeremy Scahill on Blackwater Founder Erik Prince’s Private Army of “Christian Crusaders” In the UAE
"The United Arab Emirates has confirmed hiring a company headed by Erik Prince, the billionaire founder of the military firm, Blackwater. According to The New York Times, the UAE secretly signed a $529 million contract with Prince’s new company, Reflex Responses, to put together an 800-member battalion of foreign mercenaries. The troops could be deployed if foreign guest workers stage revolts in labor camps, or if the UAE regime were challenged by pro-democracy protests like those sweeping the Arab world. Prince has one rule about the new force: no Muslims. We speak to investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill and Samer Muscati of Human Rights Watch....."
Multinational companies mining occupied Palestinian land
Adri Nieuwhof
The Electronic Intifada
17 May 2011
"HeidelbergCement and Cemex, two building materials industries from Germany and Mexico, respectively, are involved in the operation of quarries in the occupied West Bank. The Electronic Intifada has obtained documentation showing loaded trucks leaving the illegal quarries and traveling into Israel.
International law prohibits Israel’s exploitation of natural resources in the occupied West Bank, Gaza Strip and Syrian Golan Heights for its own benefit.
Meanwhile, Israeli run-quarries in the West Bank — including Nahal Raba and Yatir quarries, which are operated by subsidiaries of HeidelbergCement and Cemex — supply almost a quarter of Israel’s construction material....."
The Electronic Intifada
17 May 2011
"HeidelbergCement and Cemex, two building materials industries from Germany and Mexico, respectively, are involved in the operation of quarries in the occupied West Bank. The Electronic Intifada has obtained documentation showing loaded trucks leaving the illegal quarries and traveling into Israel.
International law prohibits Israel’s exploitation of natural resources in the occupied West Bank, Gaza Strip and Syrian Golan Heights for its own benefit.
Meanwhile, Israeli run-quarries in the West Bank — including Nahal Raba and Yatir quarries, which are operated by subsidiaries of HeidelbergCement and Cemex — supply almost a quarter of Israel’s construction material....."
Nakba Protests: A Taste of the Future
A VERY GOOD PIECE
By Jonathan Cook
Palestine Chronicle
Nazareth
"They are extraordinary scenes. Film shot on mobile phones captured the moment on Sunday when at least 1,000 Palestinian refugees marched across no-man's land to one of the most heavily protected borders in the world, the one separating Syria from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
Waving Palestinian flags, the marchers braved a minefield, then tore down a series of fences, allowing more than 100 to run into Israeli-controlled territory. As they embraced Druze villagers on the other side, voices could be heard saying: "This is what liberation looks like.".....
The Palestinian "Arab Spring" is arriving and Israel has no diplomatic or political strategy to deal with it. Instead on Sunday, Israel used the only weapon in its current arsenal -- brute force -- against unarmed demonstrators.....
And inside Israel, the country's Palestinian minority took their own Nakba march for the first time into the heart of Israel, waving Palestinian flags in Jaffa, the once-famous Palestinian city that has been transformed since 1948 into a minor suburb of Tel Aviv......
Following in the footsteps of Egyptian and Tunisian demonstrators, ordinary Palestinians used the new social media to organise and coordinate their defiance - in their case challenging the walls, fences and checkpoints Israel has erected everywhere to separate them. Twitter, not Tehran, was the guiding hand behind these demonstrations.....
Although the protests are not yet a third intifada, they hint at what may be coming...
There are several lessons, none of them comfortable, for Israel to draw from the weekend's clashes....
Just as the post-Mubarak government in Egypt is now easing rather than enforcing the blockade on Gaza, the Syrian regime's precarious position makes it far less able or willing to restrain, let alone shoot at, Palestinian demonstrators massing on Israel's borders....
But the question is whether Israel has the manpower to deal with coordinated and sustained Palestinian revolts on multiple fronts. Can it withstand such pressure without the resort to mass slaughter of unarmed Palestinian protesters?....
The protesters in Syria and Lebanon showed that they will not be pushed to the margins of the Palestinian Arab Spring. That message will not be lost on either Hamas or Fatah as they begin negotiations to develop a shared strategy over the next few months....
And the fifth lesson is that the scenes of Palestinian defiance on Israel's borders will fuel the imaginations of Palestinians everywhere to start thinking the impossible - just as the Tahrir Square protests galvanised Egyptians into believing they could remove their dictator.
Israel is in a diplomatic and strategic dead-end. Last weekend it may have got its first taste of the likely future."
Palestine Chronicle
Nazareth
"They are extraordinary scenes. Film shot on mobile phones captured the moment on Sunday when at least 1,000 Palestinian refugees marched across no-man's land to one of the most heavily protected borders in the world, the one separating Syria from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
Waving Palestinian flags, the marchers braved a minefield, then tore down a series of fences, allowing more than 100 to run into Israeli-controlled territory. As they embraced Druze villagers on the other side, voices could be heard saying: "This is what liberation looks like.".....
The Palestinian "Arab Spring" is arriving and Israel has no diplomatic or political strategy to deal with it. Instead on Sunday, Israel used the only weapon in its current arsenal -- brute force -- against unarmed demonstrators.....
And inside Israel, the country's Palestinian minority took their own Nakba march for the first time into the heart of Israel, waving Palestinian flags in Jaffa, the once-famous Palestinian city that has been transformed since 1948 into a minor suburb of Tel Aviv......
Following in the footsteps of Egyptian and Tunisian demonstrators, ordinary Palestinians used the new social media to organise and coordinate their defiance - in their case challenging the walls, fences and checkpoints Israel has erected everywhere to separate them. Twitter, not Tehran, was the guiding hand behind these demonstrations.....
Although the protests are not yet a third intifada, they hint at what may be coming...
There are several lessons, none of them comfortable, for Israel to draw from the weekend's clashes....
Just as the post-Mubarak government in Egypt is now easing rather than enforcing the blockade on Gaza, the Syrian regime's precarious position makes it far less able or willing to restrain, let alone shoot at, Palestinian demonstrators massing on Israel's borders....
But the question is whether Israel has the manpower to deal with coordinated and sustained Palestinian revolts on multiple fronts. Can it withstand such pressure without the resort to mass slaughter of unarmed Palestinian protesters?....
The protesters in Syria and Lebanon showed that they will not be pushed to the margins of the Palestinian Arab Spring. That message will not be lost on either Hamas or Fatah as they begin negotiations to develop a shared strategy over the next few months....
And the fifth lesson is that the scenes of Palestinian defiance on Israel's borders will fuel the imaginations of Palestinians everywhere to start thinking the impossible - just as the Tahrir Square protests galvanised Egyptians into believing they could remove their dictator.
Israel is in a diplomatic and strategic dead-end. Last weekend it may have got its first taste of the likely future."
Obama Faces Mounting Arab Disillusionment
By David Elkins
"WASHINGTON, May 17, 2011 (IPS) - On the eve of a much-anticipated address by President Barack Obama on U.S. policy in the Middle East, a new survey suggests that disillusionment with both Obama and Washington's approaches to the region are once again on the rise throughout the Muslim world.
The survey by the Pew Research Center's Global Attitudes Project (GAP) found that Washington's image, which had largely improved after Obama's inauguration in 2009, is now approaching the very low levels that predominated during the last years of the administration of President George W. Bush.
The poll, which was carried out between Mar. 21 and Apr. 26, covered six predominantly Muslim nations - Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan, Lebanon, Pakistan and Turkey - as well as Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories....
It found that favourable views of the United States have fallen particularly sharply over the past year in Jordan, Pakistan and Turkey. In Jordan, the percentage of respondents who said they had a generally favourable view of the U.S. fell from 21 percent last year to 13 percent this year – the lowest level since 2003 after the U.S. invasion of neighbouring Iraq.
In Pakistan, the favourable percentage fell from 17 to 11 percent – the lowest percentage since 2002 after the U.S. invasion of neighbouring Afghanistan. And in Turkey, it fell from 17 percent to 10 percent – the lowest percentage since 2007......"
I guess the view of the Empire is that, "We don't care if you love us, as long as you fear us!"
"WASHINGTON, May 17, 2011 (IPS) - On the eve of a much-anticipated address by President Barack Obama on U.S. policy in the Middle East, a new survey suggests that disillusionment with both Obama and Washington's approaches to the region are once again on the rise throughout the Muslim world.
The survey by the Pew Research Center's Global Attitudes Project (GAP) found that Washington's image, which had largely improved after Obama's inauguration in 2009, is now approaching the very low levels that predominated during the last years of the administration of President George W. Bush.
The poll, which was carried out between Mar. 21 and Apr. 26, covered six predominantly Muslim nations - Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan, Lebanon, Pakistan and Turkey - as well as Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories....
It found that favourable views of the United States have fallen particularly sharply over the past year in Jordan, Pakistan and Turkey. In Jordan, the percentage of respondents who said they had a generally favourable view of the U.S. fell from 21 percent last year to 13 percent this year – the lowest level since 2003 after the U.S. invasion of neighbouring Iraq.
In Pakistan, the favourable percentage fell from 17 to 11 percent – the lowest percentage since 2002 after the U.S. invasion of neighbouring Afghanistan. And in Turkey, it fell from 17 percent to 10 percent – the lowest percentage since 2007......"
I guess the view of the Empire is that, "We don't care if you love us, as long as you fear us!"
Obama’s Thursday Israel Speech a Major Retreat
On Eve of Netanyahu's Visit, Obama to Issue Demands to Palestinians
Antiwar.com
"....Two years later, President Obama is planning to give another speech Thursday night, on the eve of a state visit by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The new speech is said to be a significant retreat, with the president openly condemning the Palestinian bid for statehood and issuing new demands to the Palestinian Authority.
The two year interim between the two policy positions has been a rocky one, with the US starting a mostly unproductive indirect negotiation system that was replaced by an extremely brief direct negotiation. This too collapsed in September when Israel began expanding its settlements again, and the process had been dead ever since.
President Obama is expected once again to call on Israel to “cease settlement expansion,” even though Netanyahu and other top Israeli officials have ruled out ever allowing another freeze. Though the State Department denied being “pessimistic” about the peace process, the speech seems to be mostly an admission of failure, backing off the positions that would have ended with a two-state solution and replacing it with, primarily, demands that the Palestinian Authority recognize Israel as a “Jewish” state."
Antiwar.com
"....Two years later, President Obama is planning to give another speech Thursday night, on the eve of a state visit by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The new speech is said to be a significant retreat, with the president openly condemning the Palestinian bid for statehood and issuing new demands to the Palestinian Authority.
The two year interim between the two policy positions has been a rocky one, with the US starting a mostly unproductive indirect negotiation system that was replaced by an extremely brief direct negotiation. This too collapsed in September when Israel began expanding its settlements again, and the process had been dead ever since.
President Obama is expected once again to call on Israel to “cease settlement expansion,” even though Netanyahu and other top Israeli officials have ruled out ever allowing another freeze. Though the State Department denied being “pessimistic” about the peace process, the speech seems to be mostly an admission of failure, backing off the positions that would have ended with a two-state solution and replacing it with, primarily, demands that the Palestinian Authority recognize Israel as a “Jewish” state."
Security forces target Bahrain medics
Part two of our exclusive report on Bahrain looks at the abuse of medical workers as part of the government's crackdown.
Al-Jazeera
"An Al Jazeera investigation has found evidence that Bahrain's security forces are torturing medical workers to force criminal confessions.
Since pro-democracy protests erupted in the Gulf kingdom in February, doctors and nurses have been targeted, with hundreds facing arrest, Charles Stratford reports in this Al Jazeera exclusive.... "
Al-Jazeera
"An Al Jazeera investigation has found evidence that Bahrain's security forces are torturing medical workers to force criminal confessions.
Since pro-democracy protests erupted in the Gulf kingdom in February, doctors and nurses have been targeted, with hundreds facing arrest, Charles Stratford reports in this Al Jazeera exclusive.... "
Violence hurting Palestinians in Syria
Contributed by Molly
"NAIROBI, 11 May 2011 (IRIN) - Continuing violence in Syria has affected the delivery of aid to Palestinian refugees, raising concerns about the impact on 30,000 people in Dera’a and surrounding areas, including 120 patients who receive insulin, a spokesman for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) said.
"UNRWA has attempted to send urgent medical supplies to Dera’a but this has not yet been possible," said Christopher Guinness. "UNRWA has expressed its concerns to the government of Syria and hopes the resumption of normal operations will be possible soon." The agency has 118 schools across Syria teaching 66,000 pupils; 23 primary health centres, six community rehabilitation centres and 15 women’s centres.
UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Valerie Amos said: "I am concerned about the lack of humanitarian access to parts of Syria, including Dera’a, and cities on the coast including Latakia, Jablah, Baniyas, and Douma," in a statement. A proposed assessment mission to Dera’a scheduled for 8 May did not go ahead.
On 9 May, the EU imposed an embargo on arms and equipment that may be used for internal repression, an asset freeze and a travel ban targeting 13 individuals. "
"NAIROBI, 11 May 2011 (IRIN) - Continuing violence in Syria has affected the delivery of aid to Palestinian refugees, raising concerns about the impact on 30,000 people in Dera’a and surrounding areas, including 120 patients who receive insulin, a spokesman for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) said.
"UNRWA has attempted to send urgent medical supplies to Dera’a but this has not yet been possible," said Christopher Guinness. "UNRWA has expressed its concerns to the government of Syria and hopes the resumption of normal operations will be possible soon." The agency has 118 schools across Syria teaching 66,000 pupils; 23 primary health centres, six community rehabilitation centres and 15 women’s centres.
UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Valerie Amos said: "I am concerned about the lack of humanitarian access to parts of Syria, including Dera’a, and cities on the coast including Latakia, Jablah, Baniyas, and Douma," in a statement. A proposed assessment mission to Dera’a scheduled for 8 May did not go ahead.
On 9 May, the EU imposed an embargo on arms and equipment that may be used for internal repression, an asset freeze and a travel ban targeting 13 individuals. "
النظام السوري و"عسكرة" الانتفاضة الشعبية
A SUPERB ARTICLE (Arabic)
NOTE:
The writer is considered to be close to Hamas, hence his position in support of the Syrian revolution and his denunciation of the lies of the Syrian regime are quite noteworthy. He also chides Hizbullah for its position of backing the bloody Syrian regime and not standing with the Syrian people.
He takes note of the changed Turkish position, expressed by the strong language Erdogan used in warning the regime against repeating the massacres of Hama.
He thinks that the regime, just as Gaddafi did, is trying to militarize the uprising to justify even more massive military crackdown. However, the Syrian people have learned the lesson from Libya and are keeping it peaceful.
Finally he draws the correct conclusions from the interview of Assad's cousin (Makhlouf) with the N Y Times, namely that the stability of the regime is good for Israel and that the regime is a mafia that will fight to the end.
Overall, an excellent piece, posted here in full.
"لم يكن بوسعنا أن نتورط في مستنقع الازدواجية في المحطة السورية، ولن نقول مثلما قال الأمين العام حسن نصر الله في معرض تعليقه على الحراك الشعبي البحريني إن الموقف في حالة دول المقاومة والممانعة قد يختلف عما عداه (لم يتحدث للأمانة عن تجاهل المطالب الشعبية، بل عن البحث عن مقاربة سياسية معقولة، مع أن تعاطي الحزب مع الأحداث لا يعبر عن هذا التوجه).
وعموما لم نقتنع يوما بأن بالمقاومة والممانعة تقف حائلا دون منح الناس حريتهم، ومن يعتقد أنه يلبي بالفعل أشواق الناس في العزة والكرامة ومواجهة الأعداء لن يخشى الاحتكام إلى صناديق الاقتراع إلا إذا كان دكتاتورا في الداخل، بل إن مسار المقاومة والممانعة يغدو أكثر قوة حين يكون المقاومون والممانعون أحرارا وليسوا عبيدا لفرد أو نخبة معينة.
كنا ندافع عن النظام السوري تبعا لمواقفه المتميزة في دعم المقاومة في فلسطين ولبنان، وموقفه من العراق ودعمه للمقاومة وصولا إلى إفشال المشروع الأميركي الذي كان يخطط لإعادة تشكيل المنطقة.
ولعلنا نشير هنا إلى ما كنّا نلاقيه من صعوبة في إقناع السوريين بحقيقة مواقف نظامهم المشار إليها، الأمر الذي يبدو مفهوما إلى حد ما، لأن من الصعب على المظلوم أن يرى خيرا في من يدوس على حريته وكرامته.
من هذا المنطلق تحدثنا في البداية عن الإصلاح، وليس عن التغيير الجذري، وهو ما تردد أيضا في الساحة الشعبية السورية، لكن الرئيس لم يقابل مطالب الإصلاح السورية الشعبية إلا بالسخرية كما في خطابه أمام مجلس الشعب، مع أن السخرية لم تعهد عنه، ولا نتجاوز الحق إذا قلنا إن خطابات المديح لسيادته التي سمعناها تتردد في المجلس قد أشعرتنا بالخجل كعرب ومسلمين.
دعك من الأسباب التي قادت إلى انفجار مدينة درعا، وهي أسباب لا داعي للتفصيل فيها، لكنها تعبر عن العقلية الأمنية التي تحكم البلد، بدءًا باعتقال طبيبتين والإمعان في إهانتهما، لمجرد قول إحداهما لصديقتها "عقبال عنا" في التعبير عن فرحتها بما جرى في مصر، وليس انتهاء بموقف المحافظ من توسط وجهاء المدينة من أجل الإفراج عن الأطفال الذين اعتقلوا بسبب كتابتهم على الحيطان ضد النظام احتجاجا على ما وقع للطبيبتين، وهو موقف طاعن في الازدراء كما روى القوم.
عندما خرج الناس يطالبون بالإصلاح والحرية، ردّ عليهم الرئيس بالخطاب الساخر إياه، ثم رد تاليا بالرصاص الحي، وعندما انتفضت المدن الأخرى وتواصلت عمليات القتل خرج بإصلاحات شكلية مثل إلغاء قانون الطوارئ ومحكمة أمن الدولة، وذلك بدل الحديث عن إصلاحات دستورية ذات معنى.
ومع تواصل مسلسل القتل، ومعه التشويه الإعلامي للانتفاضة الشعبية والحديث عن مندسين وإرهابيين، تطورت المطالب الشعبية من إصلاح النظام إلى إسقاط النظام، الأمر الذي كان طبيعيا من دون شك، ولو اختلفت الاستجابة وتقدم النظام بإصلاحات حقيقية لاختلف الموقف برمته.
بعد اتساع نطاق الاحتجاجات وتوحد مطالب الناس في شعار إسقاط النظام، تفتق ذهن النظام عن خطة لعسكرة الانتفاضة، وذلك بأن يجري تحويلها من انتفاضة سلمية إلى تمرد مسلح، وبالطبع من خلال فبركات أمنية من جهة، ومن خلال مجموعات سلفية جهادية مخترقة من جهة أخرى، ونعلم أن للنظام خبرته الطويلة في التعامل مع هذه المجموعات اكتسبها خلال عمله معها في السياق العراقي، مع أنه ما لبث أن انقلب عليها بعد الضغوط الأميركية ووضوح فشل مشروع الاحتلال لحساب الحضور الإيراني، مع إعلان النوايا الأميركية بالانسحاب.
ونعيد التأكيد على أننا نتحدث عن اختراق، إذ لا يعتقد أن التيار المذكور يمكن أن يفكر بمثل هذا المسار، وقد ذهب أحد أهم منظري هذا التيار (أبو محمد المقدسي) إلى الاحتفال بالثورة الشعبية للسوريين.
الطرف الآخر المتهم بحمل السلاح من قبل النظام هو الإخوان، وهنا لا تنطلي اللعبة على أحد أيضا، ليس فقط لأن الإخوان هم الأكثر حرصا على سلمية الثورة بعدما رأوا ثمارها في تونس ومصر (دعك من مرارة تجربتهم الماضية)، بل لأنهم لا يملكون القدرة أيضا، من دون أن يقلل ذلك من دورهم وحضورهم كجزء من الشعب السوري، هم الذي دفعوا أثمانا باهظة في مواجهته طوال العقود الثلاثة الماضية.
يخطئ الرئيس السوري إن اعتقد أن هذه اللعبة (لعبة عسكرة الانتفاضة) ستكون مجدية في مواجهة الانتفاضة الشعبية، في استعادة للمواجهة التي خاضها نظام والده مع الإخوان المسلمين مطلع الثمانينيات، والتي انتهت بمجزرة حماة الشهيرة التي راح ضحيتها عشرات الآلاف من الناس الأبرياء.
يخطئ في هذا التقدير لجملة من الأسباب، أولها أن ما جرى في مواجهة نظام الأب كان تمردا مسلحا بالفعل، وكان يتلقى دعما ما من بعض الدول العربية، بل كان يُسمح له بجمع التبرعات حتى في أميركا والدول الغربية، وإن تم ذلك لأغراض ابتزاز النظام وإضعافه وليس إسقاطه واستبداله بإسلاميين راديكاليين، أما اليوم فهناك إصرار على نبذ العنف، حيث يهتف الناس في الشوارع "سلمية سلمية"، أما قصص السلاح فلا يبدو أنها تمر على الناس، بما في ذلك تمثيليات الجنائز التي تبث كل يوم على تلفزيون السوري (يذهب سوريون إلى أن بعضها لعناصر من الجيش والأمن رفضت إطلاق النار على المتظاهرين).
هناك ثانيا ما يتعلق بالوضع الدولي، ففي الحالة السابقة كانت هناك الثنائية القطبية، أما اليوم فالمشهد مختلف كما يعرف الجميع، ولن يكون بوسع روسيا أو الصين الدفاع عن قتل الناس الأبرياء في الشوارع، بدليل موقفهما في السياق الليبي حيال قرار مجلس الأمن رقم 1973.
هناك ثالثا ما يتعلق بالوضع الإعلامي، وهذه نقطة بالغة الأهمية، إذ إن ثورة المعلومات والاتصالات لم تعد تسمح لأحد بقتل الناس في السر، وزمن الهواتف المحمولة ذات الكاميرات وزمن اليوتيوب يفضح كل شيء، وبالتالي يستثير الرأي العام دولا وجماهير.
الأهم من ذلك كله هو ما يتعلق بالموقف الشعبي، ففي مطلع الثمانينيات لم يكن ثمة إجماع على الثورة على النظام، أما اليوم فالإجماع شبه متحقق إلى حد كبير، وحتى الحديث عن انحياز الطائفة العلوية للنظام لا يبدو محقا، لأن جزءا كبيرا منها ليس مع النظام، مع أن جرّ الكثير من أبنائها في معركة الدفاع عن النظام لا يبدو مستبعدا، وقد رأينا كيف تم تسليح الأقلية العلوية في مدينة بانياس التي كانت الأكثر تعرضا للقمع بعد درعا، ولا قيمة للقول إن أعداد المتظاهرين ليست كبيرة مثل مصر واليمن، لأن الخوف من دولة أمنية قمعية هو السبب، وينطبق ذلك على تردد بعض المناطق عن المشاركة، الأمر الذي لن يلبث أن ينتهي لينخرط الجميع في الثورة.
في هذه الأثناء برزت مفاجأة في منتهى الإثارة تمثلت في التصريحات التي أدلى بها رامي مخلوف، المليادرير (ابن خال الرئيس)، لصحيفة نيويورك تايمز، والتي قال فيها "إذا لم يكن هناك استقرار داخلي هنا (في سوريا)، فمن المستحيل أن يكون هناك استقرار في إسرائيل"، ما يذكرنا بتصريحات مشابهة للقذافي.
كل ذلك يؤكد أن النظام لم يكن مخلصا في مقاومته وممانعته بقدر ما كان يعبر عن مصالح نخبته الحاكمة التي رأت أن كلفة المقاومة والممانعة أقل من كلفة الاستسلام كما كان يردد الرئيس السوري نفسه، الأمر الذي كنا ندركه بالطبع، من دون أن يدفعنا إلى التردد في مديح تلك المواقف قياسا بمواقف أنظمة أخرى كانت تذهب في الاتجاه الآخر، ومن أجل مصالح نخبها الحاكمة أيضا.
اليوم تبدو تصريحات رامي مخلوف محرجة إلى حد كبير للتيارات التي تدافع عن النظام وتقف معه في معركته مع شعبه، وفي مقدمتها حزب الله ومن يدور في فلكه، فضلا عن جحافل من القوميين واليساريين الذين لا يستحون من دفاعهم عن قتل النظام لأبناء شعبه، فضلا عن ترديد حكاية المؤامرة الخارجية، لكأن النظام هو وحده عنوان الوطنية والقومية، بينما السوريون مجرد جحافل من العملاء والمأجورين.
إنه منطق النخب الحاكمة التي تعلن استعدادها لحرق الأخضر واليابس من أجل مصلحتها بعد أن جمعت الثروة مع السلطة، وفي هذا الصدد يقول مخلوف في ذات المقابلة إن النخبة الحاكمة في سوريا قد تكاتفت أكثر بعد الأزمة (لا يريد الاعتراف بأنها ثورة مع أن كلامه يعكس ذلك)، مضيفا القول "نؤمن بأنه لا استمرارية من دون وحدة، وكل شخص منا يعرف أننا لا يمكن أن نستمر من دون أن نكون موحدين. لن نخرج ولن نترك مركبنا ونقامر. سنجلس هنا، نعتبرها معركة حتى النهاية". وفي النهاية يعود إلى الدولة العبرية ليقول للغرب "يجب أن يعلموا أننا حين نعاني، فلن نعاني وحدنا".
في ضوء هذه المعادلة، يمكن القول إن النظام قد قرر الذهاب بعيدا في منظومة القمع، كما يؤكد من جهة أخرى أن الانتفاضة الشعبية في سوريا قد تجاوزت فكرة الإصلاح، الأمر الذي يدركه النظام الذي أخذ يهرب إلى الأمام بتعزيز منظومة القمع والقتل، بدليل الدبابات التي أدخلها إلى مدينة درعا وبانياس وحمص ومدن أخرى، ويتوقع أن يدخلها إلى سائر المدن المنتفضة بالتدريج.
في هذا السياق جاء تحذير رئيس الوزراء التركي (أردوغان) من مغبة تكرار "حماة" أخرى، مع أن الأمر لن يكون بهذه السهولة، لكن أنقرة التي خاب أملها بسلوك النظام لم تجد غير هذا الكلام المتشدد لكي تعبر من خلاله عن مخاوفها مما يجري، وهي التي اتهمت طوال أسابيع بمحاباة النظام تبعا للعلاقة المتميزة معه، ويبدو أنها أدركت أن الشعب هو الأبقى، وأن النظام في طريقه إلى الزوال ولا يواجه أزمة محدودة النطاق وحسب.
من الصعب الحديث عن مآلات الانتفاضة الشعبية السورية بعد دخول العامل الدولي على الخط، ولا شك أن التدخل الغربي لا يمكن استبعاده، لكن الشعب السوري لن يقبل على الأرجح تكرار السيناريو الليبي، حتى لو سكت على عقوبات تطال رموز النظام.
لكن تعويل النظام على تحويل الانتفاضة الشعبية إلى تمرد مسلح، ومن ثم إصراره على هذا المسار على نحو غير مقنع للداخل والخارج، مع تصعيد آلة القمع قد يسهل لعبة التدخل، لا سيما أن أطرافا في المعارضة السورية في الخارج قد لا تجد في الأمر غضاضة بسبب قناعاتها الخاصة، ومواقفها من النظام.
هل فات أوان الإصلاح؟ من الصعب حسم جواب السؤال، وسيعتمد الموقف على ماهية الإصلاح المطروح وتطور الموقف الشعبي، إذ إن إعلان النظام عن خطوات إصلاحية حقيقية تفكك النظام الأمني، وتشمل تعديلات دستورية تطال المادة الثامنة من الدستور، وصولا إلى دستور جديد يؤسس لديمقراطية حقيقية وليس ديكورية على النمط السائد في مصر وتونس واليمن قبل الثورات، هذا الأمر قد يفضي إلى توقف الثورة في انتظار انجلاء الموقف.
لكن هامشية هذا الاحتمال، بل استحالته في واقع الحال، معطوفا على الإسراف في سفك الدماء كما وقع إلى الآن ويتوقع أن يتواصل خلال الأيام والأسابيع المقبلة، سيجعل هدف إسقاط النظام هو الوحيد المتاح.
ويبدو أن لدى الشعب ما يكفي من الجاهزية والإصرار على هذه المعركة، وهو مستعد لدفع أثمانها الباهظة. ويبقى موقف الجيش الذي نتوقع منه أن لا يقل انحيازا للشعب من موقف الجيش التونسي والجيش المصري.
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NOTE:
The writer is considered to be close to Hamas, hence his position in support of the Syrian revolution and his denunciation of the lies of the Syrian regime are quite noteworthy. He also chides Hizbullah for its position of backing the bloody Syrian regime and not standing with the Syrian people.
He takes note of the changed Turkish position, expressed by the strong language Erdogan used in warning the regime against repeating the massacres of Hama.
He thinks that the regime, just as Gaddafi did, is trying to militarize the uprising to justify even more massive military crackdown. However, the Syrian people have learned the lesson from Libya and are keeping it peaceful.
Finally he draws the correct conclusions from the interview of Assad's cousin (Makhlouf) with the N Y Times, namely that the stability of the regime is good for Israel and that the regime is a mafia that will fight to the end.
Overall, an excellent piece, posted here in full.
"لم يكن بوسعنا أن نتورط في مستنقع الازدواجية في المحطة السورية، ولن نقول مثلما قال الأمين العام حسن نصر الله في معرض تعليقه على الحراك الشعبي البحريني إن الموقف في حالة دول المقاومة والممانعة قد يختلف عما عداه (لم يتحدث للأمانة عن تجاهل المطالب الشعبية، بل عن البحث عن مقاربة سياسية معقولة، مع أن تعاطي الحزب مع الأحداث لا يعبر عن هذا التوجه).
وعموما لم نقتنع يوما بأن بالمقاومة والممانعة تقف حائلا دون منح الناس حريتهم، ومن يعتقد أنه يلبي بالفعل أشواق الناس في العزة والكرامة ومواجهة الأعداء لن يخشى الاحتكام إلى صناديق الاقتراع إلا إذا كان دكتاتورا في الداخل، بل إن مسار المقاومة والممانعة يغدو أكثر قوة حين يكون المقاومون والممانعون أحرارا وليسوا عبيدا لفرد أو نخبة معينة.
كنا ندافع عن النظام السوري تبعا لمواقفه المتميزة في دعم المقاومة في فلسطين ولبنان، وموقفه من العراق ودعمه للمقاومة وصولا إلى إفشال المشروع الأميركي الذي كان يخطط لإعادة تشكيل المنطقة.
ولعلنا نشير هنا إلى ما كنّا نلاقيه من صعوبة في إقناع السوريين بحقيقة مواقف نظامهم المشار إليها، الأمر الذي يبدو مفهوما إلى حد ما، لأن من الصعب على المظلوم أن يرى خيرا في من يدوس على حريته وكرامته.
من هذا المنطلق تحدثنا في البداية عن الإصلاح، وليس عن التغيير الجذري، وهو ما تردد أيضا في الساحة الشعبية السورية، لكن الرئيس لم يقابل مطالب الإصلاح السورية الشعبية إلا بالسخرية كما في خطابه أمام مجلس الشعب، مع أن السخرية لم تعهد عنه، ولا نتجاوز الحق إذا قلنا إن خطابات المديح لسيادته التي سمعناها تتردد في المجلس قد أشعرتنا بالخجل كعرب ومسلمين.
دعك من الأسباب التي قادت إلى انفجار مدينة درعا، وهي أسباب لا داعي للتفصيل فيها، لكنها تعبر عن العقلية الأمنية التي تحكم البلد، بدءًا باعتقال طبيبتين والإمعان في إهانتهما، لمجرد قول إحداهما لصديقتها "عقبال عنا" في التعبير عن فرحتها بما جرى في مصر، وليس انتهاء بموقف المحافظ من توسط وجهاء المدينة من أجل الإفراج عن الأطفال الذين اعتقلوا بسبب كتابتهم على الحيطان ضد النظام احتجاجا على ما وقع للطبيبتين، وهو موقف طاعن في الازدراء كما روى القوم.
عندما خرج الناس يطالبون بالإصلاح والحرية، ردّ عليهم الرئيس بالخطاب الساخر إياه، ثم رد تاليا بالرصاص الحي، وعندما انتفضت المدن الأخرى وتواصلت عمليات القتل خرج بإصلاحات شكلية مثل إلغاء قانون الطوارئ ومحكمة أمن الدولة، وذلك بدل الحديث عن إصلاحات دستورية ذات معنى.
ومع تواصل مسلسل القتل، ومعه التشويه الإعلامي للانتفاضة الشعبية والحديث عن مندسين وإرهابيين، تطورت المطالب الشعبية من إصلاح النظام إلى إسقاط النظام، الأمر الذي كان طبيعيا من دون شك، ولو اختلفت الاستجابة وتقدم النظام بإصلاحات حقيقية لاختلف الموقف برمته.
بعد اتساع نطاق الاحتجاجات وتوحد مطالب الناس في شعار إسقاط النظام، تفتق ذهن النظام عن خطة لعسكرة الانتفاضة، وذلك بأن يجري تحويلها من انتفاضة سلمية إلى تمرد مسلح، وبالطبع من خلال فبركات أمنية من جهة، ومن خلال مجموعات سلفية جهادية مخترقة من جهة أخرى، ونعلم أن للنظام خبرته الطويلة في التعامل مع هذه المجموعات اكتسبها خلال عمله معها في السياق العراقي، مع أنه ما لبث أن انقلب عليها بعد الضغوط الأميركية ووضوح فشل مشروع الاحتلال لحساب الحضور الإيراني، مع إعلان النوايا الأميركية بالانسحاب.
ونعيد التأكيد على أننا نتحدث عن اختراق، إذ لا يعتقد أن التيار المذكور يمكن أن يفكر بمثل هذا المسار، وقد ذهب أحد أهم منظري هذا التيار (أبو محمد المقدسي) إلى الاحتفال بالثورة الشعبية للسوريين.
الطرف الآخر المتهم بحمل السلاح من قبل النظام هو الإخوان، وهنا لا تنطلي اللعبة على أحد أيضا، ليس فقط لأن الإخوان هم الأكثر حرصا على سلمية الثورة بعدما رأوا ثمارها في تونس ومصر (دعك من مرارة تجربتهم الماضية)، بل لأنهم لا يملكون القدرة أيضا، من دون أن يقلل ذلك من دورهم وحضورهم كجزء من الشعب السوري، هم الذي دفعوا أثمانا باهظة في مواجهته طوال العقود الثلاثة الماضية.
يخطئ الرئيس السوري إن اعتقد أن هذه اللعبة (لعبة عسكرة الانتفاضة) ستكون مجدية في مواجهة الانتفاضة الشعبية، في استعادة للمواجهة التي خاضها نظام والده مع الإخوان المسلمين مطلع الثمانينيات، والتي انتهت بمجزرة حماة الشهيرة التي راح ضحيتها عشرات الآلاف من الناس الأبرياء.
يخطئ في هذا التقدير لجملة من الأسباب، أولها أن ما جرى في مواجهة نظام الأب كان تمردا مسلحا بالفعل، وكان يتلقى دعما ما من بعض الدول العربية، بل كان يُسمح له بجمع التبرعات حتى في أميركا والدول الغربية، وإن تم ذلك لأغراض ابتزاز النظام وإضعافه وليس إسقاطه واستبداله بإسلاميين راديكاليين، أما اليوم فهناك إصرار على نبذ العنف، حيث يهتف الناس في الشوارع "سلمية سلمية"، أما قصص السلاح فلا يبدو أنها تمر على الناس، بما في ذلك تمثيليات الجنائز التي تبث كل يوم على تلفزيون السوري (يذهب سوريون إلى أن بعضها لعناصر من الجيش والأمن رفضت إطلاق النار على المتظاهرين).
هناك ثانيا ما يتعلق بالوضع الدولي، ففي الحالة السابقة كانت هناك الثنائية القطبية، أما اليوم فالمشهد مختلف كما يعرف الجميع، ولن يكون بوسع روسيا أو الصين الدفاع عن قتل الناس الأبرياء في الشوارع، بدليل موقفهما في السياق الليبي حيال قرار مجلس الأمن رقم 1973.
هناك ثالثا ما يتعلق بالوضع الإعلامي، وهذه نقطة بالغة الأهمية، إذ إن ثورة المعلومات والاتصالات لم تعد تسمح لأحد بقتل الناس في السر، وزمن الهواتف المحمولة ذات الكاميرات وزمن اليوتيوب يفضح كل شيء، وبالتالي يستثير الرأي العام دولا وجماهير.
الأهم من ذلك كله هو ما يتعلق بالموقف الشعبي، ففي مطلع الثمانينيات لم يكن ثمة إجماع على الثورة على النظام، أما اليوم فالإجماع شبه متحقق إلى حد كبير، وحتى الحديث عن انحياز الطائفة العلوية للنظام لا يبدو محقا، لأن جزءا كبيرا منها ليس مع النظام، مع أن جرّ الكثير من أبنائها في معركة الدفاع عن النظام لا يبدو مستبعدا، وقد رأينا كيف تم تسليح الأقلية العلوية في مدينة بانياس التي كانت الأكثر تعرضا للقمع بعد درعا، ولا قيمة للقول إن أعداد المتظاهرين ليست كبيرة مثل مصر واليمن، لأن الخوف من دولة أمنية قمعية هو السبب، وينطبق ذلك على تردد بعض المناطق عن المشاركة، الأمر الذي لن يلبث أن ينتهي لينخرط الجميع في الثورة.
في هذه الأثناء برزت مفاجأة في منتهى الإثارة تمثلت في التصريحات التي أدلى بها رامي مخلوف، المليادرير (ابن خال الرئيس)، لصحيفة نيويورك تايمز، والتي قال فيها "إذا لم يكن هناك استقرار داخلي هنا (في سوريا)، فمن المستحيل أن يكون هناك استقرار في إسرائيل"، ما يذكرنا بتصريحات مشابهة للقذافي.
كل ذلك يؤكد أن النظام لم يكن مخلصا في مقاومته وممانعته بقدر ما كان يعبر عن مصالح نخبته الحاكمة التي رأت أن كلفة المقاومة والممانعة أقل من كلفة الاستسلام كما كان يردد الرئيس السوري نفسه، الأمر الذي كنا ندركه بالطبع، من دون أن يدفعنا إلى التردد في مديح تلك المواقف قياسا بمواقف أنظمة أخرى كانت تذهب في الاتجاه الآخر، ومن أجل مصالح نخبها الحاكمة أيضا.
اليوم تبدو تصريحات رامي مخلوف محرجة إلى حد كبير للتيارات التي تدافع عن النظام وتقف معه في معركته مع شعبه، وفي مقدمتها حزب الله ومن يدور في فلكه، فضلا عن جحافل من القوميين واليساريين الذين لا يستحون من دفاعهم عن قتل النظام لأبناء شعبه، فضلا عن ترديد حكاية المؤامرة الخارجية، لكأن النظام هو وحده عنوان الوطنية والقومية، بينما السوريون مجرد جحافل من العملاء والمأجورين.
إنه منطق النخب الحاكمة التي تعلن استعدادها لحرق الأخضر واليابس من أجل مصلحتها بعد أن جمعت الثروة مع السلطة، وفي هذا الصدد يقول مخلوف في ذات المقابلة إن النخبة الحاكمة في سوريا قد تكاتفت أكثر بعد الأزمة (لا يريد الاعتراف بأنها ثورة مع أن كلامه يعكس ذلك)، مضيفا القول "نؤمن بأنه لا استمرارية من دون وحدة، وكل شخص منا يعرف أننا لا يمكن أن نستمر من دون أن نكون موحدين. لن نخرج ولن نترك مركبنا ونقامر. سنجلس هنا، نعتبرها معركة حتى النهاية". وفي النهاية يعود إلى الدولة العبرية ليقول للغرب "يجب أن يعلموا أننا حين نعاني، فلن نعاني وحدنا".
في ضوء هذه المعادلة، يمكن القول إن النظام قد قرر الذهاب بعيدا في منظومة القمع، كما يؤكد من جهة أخرى أن الانتفاضة الشعبية في سوريا قد تجاوزت فكرة الإصلاح، الأمر الذي يدركه النظام الذي أخذ يهرب إلى الأمام بتعزيز منظومة القمع والقتل، بدليل الدبابات التي أدخلها إلى مدينة درعا وبانياس وحمص ومدن أخرى، ويتوقع أن يدخلها إلى سائر المدن المنتفضة بالتدريج.
في هذا السياق جاء تحذير رئيس الوزراء التركي (أردوغان) من مغبة تكرار "حماة" أخرى، مع أن الأمر لن يكون بهذه السهولة، لكن أنقرة التي خاب أملها بسلوك النظام لم تجد غير هذا الكلام المتشدد لكي تعبر من خلاله عن مخاوفها مما يجري، وهي التي اتهمت طوال أسابيع بمحاباة النظام تبعا للعلاقة المتميزة معه، ويبدو أنها أدركت أن الشعب هو الأبقى، وأن النظام في طريقه إلى الزوال ولا يواجه أزمة محدودة النطاق وحسب.
من الصعب الحديث عن مآلات الانتفاضة الشعبية السورية بعد دخول العامل الدولي على الخط، ولا شك أن التدخل الغربي لا يمكن استبعاده، لكن الشعب السوري لن يقبل على الأرجح تكرار السيناريو الليبي، حتى لو سكت على عقوبات تطال رموز النظام.
لكن تعويل النظام على تحويل الانتفاضة الشعبية إلى تمرد مسلح، ومن ثم إصراره على هذا المسار على نحو غير مقنع للداخل والخارج، مع تصعيد آلة القمع قد يسهل لعبة التدخل، لا سيما أن أطرافا في المعارضة السورية في الخارج قد لا تجد في الأمر غضاضة بسبب قناعاتها الخاصة، ومواقفها من النظام.
هل فات أوان الإصلاح؟ من الصعب حسم جواب السؤال، وسيعتمد الموقف على ماهية الإصلاح المطروح وتطور الموقف الشعبي، إذ إن إعلان النظام عن خطوات إصلاحية حقيقية تفكك النظام الأمني، وتشمل تعديلات دستورية تطال المادة الثامنة من الدستور، وصولا إلى دستور جديد يؤسس لديمقراطية حقيقية وليس ديكورية على النمط السائد في مصر وتونس واليمن قبل الثورات، هذا الأمر قد يفضي إلى توقف الثورة في انتظار انجلاء الموقف.
لكن هامشية هذا الاحتمال، بل استحالته في واقع الحال، معطوفا على الإسراف في سفك الدماء كما وقع إلى الآن ويتوقع أن يتواصل خلال الأيام والأسابيع المقبلة، سيجعل هدف إسقاط النظام هو الوحيد المتاح.
ويبدو أن لدى الشعب ما يكفي من الجاهزية والإصرار على هذه المعركة، وهو مستعد لدفع أثمانها الباهظة. ويبقى موقف الجيش الذي نتوقع منه أن لا يقل انحيازا للشعب من موقف الجيش التونسي والجيش المصري.
"
Historian writes of 'pleasure' at murder of pro-Palestinian activist
Author of op-ed article in Jewish Chronicle tells me he 'rejoiced' at death of Vittorio Arrigoni
The Guardian
"I was sent a link this week to a piece published in the Jewish Chronicle by historian Geoffrey Alderman, the opening sentence of which I found pretty shocking.
Under the headline This Was No Peace Activist, Alderman wrote:
"Few events - not even the execution of Osama bin Laden - have caused me greater pleasure in recent weeks than news of the death of the Italian so-called 'peace activist' Vittorio Arrigoni."
Arrigoni, an activist with the International Solidarity Movement, was murdered in Gaza last month after being abducted by Islamic extremists. He was strangled with a plastic cord. Hamas subsequently killed those responsible for Arrigoni's death.
His murder, wrote Alderman, "was immediately pounced upon by the western media as an affront to the civilised world". This is indeed the case; many newspapers - including the Guardian - ran stories and profiles describing Arrigoni's commitment to the Palestinian cause and the extremist stance of those who killed him.
But, wrote Alderman, "the truth is very different. Vittorio Arrigoni, a disciple of the International Solidarity Movement, had travelled to Gaza to assist in the breaking of the Israeli naval blockade. As a supporter of Hamas he was a consummate Jew-hater."......"
The Guardian
"I was sent a link this week to a piece published in the Jewish Chronicle by historian Geoffrey Alderman, the opening sentence of which I found pretty shocking.
Under the headline This Was No Peace Activist, Alderman wrote:
"Few events - not even the execution of Osama bin Laden - have caused me greater pleasure in recent weeks than news of the death of the Italian so-called 'peace activist' Vittorio Arrigoni."
Arrigoni, an activist with the International Solidarity Movement, was murdered in Gaza last month after being abducted by Islamic extremists. He was strangled with a plastic cord. Hamas subsequently killed those responsible for Arrigoni's death.
His murder, wrote Alderman, "was immediately pounced upon by the western media as an affront to the civilised world". This is indeed the case; many newspapers - including the Guardian - ran stories and profiles describing Arrigoni's commitment to the Palestinian cause and the extremist stance of those who killed him.
But, wrote Alderman, "the truth is very different. Vittorio Arrigoni, a disciple of the International Solidarity Movement, had travelled to Gaza to assist in the breaking of the Israeli naval blockade. As a supporter of Hamas he was a consummate Jew-hater."......"
Investigation urged into Syrian mass grave reports
17 May 2011
"The Syrian authorities must carry out a prompt, impartial investigation into reports that a number of bodies were unearthed near the city of Dera’a and into how those deaths occurred, Amnesty International said today.
Sources have told Amnesty International that local residents on the outskirts of the southern city of Dera’a yesterday found a shallow, unmarked grave containing the bodies of at least five people – said to be 'Abd al-Razaq Abazaid and his four sons, Samer, Samir, Suliman and Mohamed Abazaid.
The circumstances of the deaths and the total number of corpses remain unclear – some reports allege more than two dozen bodies have been found.
“If true, these reports of multiple corpses buried in a makeshift grave show an appalling disregard for humanity,”[That perfectly describes the bloody Syrian regime.] said Malcolm Smart, Amnesty International's Middle East and North Africa Director.
“The Syrian authorities must immediately carry out independent and impartial investigations into these reports and other killings related to the recent pro-reform protests.”
“Anyone found to be responsible for unlawful killings, torture and other human rights violations must be brought to justice in fair trials.”
Amnesty International has compiled a list of at least 622 people killed by Syrian security forces around the country since pro-reform protests began in mid-March....."
"The Syrian authorities must carry out a prompt, impartial investigation into reports that a number of bodies were unearthed near the city of Dera’a and into how those deaths occurred, Amnesty International said today.
Sources have told Amnesty International that local residents on the outskirts of the southern city of Dera’a yesterday found a shallow, unmarked grave containing the bodies of at least five people – said to be 'Abd al-Razaq Abazaid and his four sons, Samer, Samir, Suliman and Mohamed Abazaid.
The circumstances of the deaths and the total number of corpses remain unclear – some reports allege more than two dozen bodies have been found.
“If true, these reports of multiple corpses buried in a makeshift grave show an appalling disregard for humanity,”[That perfectly describes the bloody Syrian regime.] said Malcolm Smart, Amnesty International's Middle East and North Africa Director.
“The Syrian authorities must immediately carry out independent and impartial investigations into these reports and other killings related to the recent pro-reform protests.”
“Anyone found to be responsible for unlawful killings, torture and other human rights violations must be brought to justice in fair trials.”
Amnesty International has compiled a list of at least 622 people killed by Syrian security forces around the country since pro-reform protests began in mid-March....."
Also see this:
Woman and child among 26 bodies 'found in mass graves' near Syrian city
Pressure Works: Al Jazeera journalist released from detention
Dorothy Parvaz, who disappeared on assignment in Syria 19 days ago, was sent back to Doha by Iranian authorities.
"Al Jazeera has confirmed the release of its journalist, Dorothy Parvaz, who was detained in Syria upon her arrival in Damascus nineteen days ago, while on assignment.
During that time she was not allowed any contact with the outside world. She landed in Doha, Qatar on May 18 on a flight from Iran.
An Al Jazeera spokesman said: "I'm delighted to let you know that Dorothy Parvaz has been released and is safe and well and back with us in Doha. She has been in contact with her family, and we are with her now to find out more about her ordeal over the last nineteen days."...."
"Al Jazeera has confirmed the release of its journalist, Dorothy Parvaz, who was detained in Syria upon her arrival in Damascus nineteen days ago, while on assignment.
During that time she was not allowed any contact with the outside world. She landed in Doha, Qatar on May 18 on a flight from Iran.
An Al Jazeera spokesman said: "I'm delighted to let you know that Dorothy Parvaz has been released and is safe and well and back with us in Doha. She has been in contact with her family, and we are with her now to find out more about her ordeal over the last nineteen days."...."
Here comes your non-violent resistance
The Economist
FOR many years now, we've heard American commentators bemoan the violence of the Palestinian national movement. If only Palestinians had learned the lessons of Gandhi and Martin Luther King, we hear, they'd have had their state long ago. Surely no Israeli government would have violently suppressed a non-violent Palestinian movement of national liberation seeking only the universally recognised right of self-determination.
Palestinian commentators and organisers, including Fadi Elsalameen and Moustafa Barghouthi, have spent the last couple of years pointing out that these complaints resolutely ignore the actual and growing Palestinian non-violent resistance movement. For that matter, they elide the fact that the first intifada, which broke out in 1987, was initially as close to non-violent as could be reasonably expected. For the most part, it consisted of general strikes and protest marches. In addition, there was a fair amount of kids throwing rocks, as well as the continuing threat of low-level terrorism, mainly from organisations based abroad; the Israelis conflated the autochthonous protest movement with the terrorism and responded brutally, and the intifada quickly lost its non-violent character. That's not that different from what has happened over the past couple of months in Libya; it shows that it's very hard to keep a non-violent movement non-violent when the government you're demonstrating against subjects you to gunfire for a sustained period of time.
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Who Speaks for That Inept Organization? The Supremo Misha'al? Apparently Not. What a Farce!
الزهار يرفض "مهلة المفاوضات"
"اعتبر عضو المكتب السياسي في حركة المقاومة الإسلامية (حماس) محمود الزهار أن التصريحات التي أطلقها رئيس المكتب السياسي للحركة خالد مشعل خلال اتفاق توقيع المصالحة، بخصوص إعطاء مهلة للتفاوض مع إسرائيل، "لا تمثل موقف الحركة الرسمي الذي يعتمد المقاومة برنامجا أساسيا وليس التفاوض".
وقال الزهار في مقابلة مع جريدة القدس الفلسطينية "لم نعط أبو مازن (الرئيس الفلسطيني محمود عباس) فرصة للتفاوض، ولم نوافق على تفاوض ولم نشجعه عليه، بل على العكس أحرجناه في قضية التفاوض ليل نهار".
وأضاف أن "تصريح مشعل لم نتفق عليه وفوجئنا به، ولم يحدث تغير في موقف الحركة في ما يتعلق بقضية المقاومة كخيار أوحد".
وشدد على أن موقف الحركة في موضوع التفاوض والمقاومة لم يتغير، وقال "نحن برنامج مقاومة، وبرنامج التفاوض كان ولا يزال برنامجا متناقضا مع قناعات غالبية الشعب الفلسطيني الذي صوت لحماس في 2006".
وأكد الزهار أن رئيس الحكومة المقبلة يجب أن يأتي بالتوافق ثم يمتلك الخبرة والقدرة على حمل الأعباء، مشدداً على ضرورة ألا يتولى الأمن من وصفه بالرجل الدموي
...."
Please see this:
مشعل: "من أجل عيون" الثورة المصرية والمصالحة، سنعطي إسرائيل فرصة سنة
So, Now Hamas Needs a "Reconciliation" of its Own Ranks, Before it Decides on a Position. Then it Will "Reconcile" That Position with the Traitor Abbas, Who is Continuing the Same Sellout of the Past 20 Years.
When Are the Palestinians Going to Dump All of These Losers, From Both Hamas and Fatah? Or Are They Going to?
The Palestinian Position Has Never Been More Pathetic Than it is Now. But Never Mind, Go Celebrate the "Unity" Now!
"اعتبر عضو المكتب السياسي في حركة المقاومة الإسلامية (حماس) محمود الزهار أن التصريحات التي أطلقها رئيس المكتب السياسي للحركة خالد مشعل خلال اتفاق توقيع المصالحة، بخصوص إعطاء مهلة للتفاوض مع إسرائيل، "لا تمثل موقف الحركة الرسمي الذي يعتمد المقاومة برنامجا أساسيا وليس التفاوض".
وقال الزهار في مقابلة مع جريدة القدس الفلسطينية "لم نعط أبو مازن (الرئيس الفلسطيني محمود عباس) فرصة للتفاوض، ولم نوافق على تفاوض ولم نشجعه عليه، بل على العكس أحرجناه في قضية التفاوض ليل نهار".
وأضاف أن "تصريح مشعل لم نتفق عليه وفوجئنا به، ولم يحدث تغير في موقف الحركة في ما يتعلق بقضية المقاومة كخيار أوحد".
وشدد على أن موقف الحركة في موضوع التفاوض والمقاومة لم يتغير، وقال "نحن برنامج مقاومة، وبرنامج التفاوض كان ولا يزال برنامجا متناقضا مع قناعات غالبية الشعب الفلسطيني الذي صوت لحماس في 2006".
وأكد الزهار أن رئيس الحكومة المقبلة يجب أن يأتي بالتوافق ثم يمتلك الخبرة والقدرة على حمل الأعباء، مشدداً على ضرورة ألا يتولى الأمن من وصفه بالرجل الدموي
...."
Please see this:
مشعل: "من أجل عيون" الثورة المصرية والمصالحة، سنعطي إسرائيل فرصة سنة
So, Now Hamas Needs a "Reconciliation" of its Own Ranks, Before it Decides on a Position. Then it Will "Reconcile" That Position with the Traitor Abbas, Who is Continuing the Same Sellout of the Past 20 Years.
When Are the Palestinians Going to Dump All of These Losers, From Both Hamas and Fatah? Or Are They Going to?
The Palestinian Position Has Never Been More Pathetic Than it is Now. But Never Mind, Go Celebrate the "Unity" Now!
KSA Defies Mideast Upheaval as Guardian of Status Quo
Saudi Arabia is leading a counter- revolution against the sweeping political changes in the Middle East by using money, force and God.
As popular movements for democracy toppled leaders in Egypt and Tunisia and began threatening neighboring Bahrain and Yemen, Saudi Arabia's Al Saud royal family strengthened control over the Arab world's biggest economy. Once restrictive of the Muslim clerics, King Abdullah offered money and new censorship powers for their loyalty as he doled out 500 billion riyals ($130 billion) nationally in housing grants and other sweeteners.
Saudi Arabia arrested more than 160 dissidents since February as part of the government's crackdown on protests, Human Rights Watch said in April.
Earlier in the year, Tunisia's President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and Egypt's Hosni Mubarak were toppled, the first leaders to go as uprisings spread. Demonstrators and security forces are still facing off in Syria and Yemen. In Libya, NATO forces are two months into a bombing campaign against Muammar Qaddafi as he battles with rebels.
The allegiance from King Abdullah's 110,000-man National Guard and the Interior Ministry, controlled by Prince Nayef, wasn't challenged during the unrest.
Abdullah, who is 87 this year, dispatched soldiers to help the fellow Sunni Muslim monarchy in Bahrain crush protests led mainly by Shiites, who make up the majority of the island's population.
Where is the Syrian Army and Why is it Killing Only Syrians??
(Click on cartoon by Ali Ferzat to enlarge)
Israeli Troops Shoot U.S. Student in Head with High-Velocity Tear Gas Canister
""I was shot at close range with a high-velocity metal tear gas canister... When it hit me, it tore off a part of my scalp," says Christopher Whitman, a 25-year-old American student and activist who was seriously injured when he was shot by Israeli forces while attending a West Bank protest on Friday. At the time of the shooting, Whitman was recording video of the weekly nonviolent protest against the Israeli separation wall in the West Bank. Several Palestinians were also injured during the protest...."
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