Palestinian Pundit

Monday, January 23, 2017

Supporters rally round Women's March co-chair Linda Sarsour amid online attacks

Right-wing social media users and fake news websites are accusing Sarsour of links to terrorism after Women's March

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Sarsour called herself 'unapologetically Muslim American' at the march on Washington on Saturday (AFP)

Ali Harb

Monday 23 January 2017 23:01 UTC

Last update:

Tuesday 24 January 2017 0:25 UTC

Topics:

Islamophobia

Tags:

Linda Sarsour, Women's March, Trump, Muslim American

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At the Women’s March on Washington DC on Saturday, almost constantly within sight was aposter of a Muslim woman wearing the American flag as a hijab. Just days after the massive protest, however, a Palestinian American woman who co-organised the march is facing Islamophobic backlash.

Despite the appeal of the demonstration and similar marches across the country, which have been described as the largest protest movement in US history, Linda Sarsour is facing attacks by internet users and fake news websites, including false accusations of ties to terrorism.

But her supporters, even some of her political opponents, are voicing solidarity with Sarsour on social media, to counter the campaign against her.

The posts against Sarsour, which included assaults on her character, were featured in many right-wing websites, including popular outlets like the Daily Caller.

The seemingly orchestrated effort centered on falsehoods, Islamophobic and misogynistic slurs.

Headlines included: "DC Women’s March Organizer Is Pro Sharia Law and Found To Have Ties To Terrorists Organization"; "The Anti-Semite Who Organized The Women’s March On Washington"; "Terrorist-tied co-chairman of Women’s March relies on the stupidity of liberal American females to push sharia"; "Women’s March Organizer Recently Met Ex-Hamas Operative, Has Family Ties To Terror Group".

The counter campaign

On Monday, the hashtag #IMarchWithLinda was trending on Facebook. Supporters, major rights groups and even politicians used it to defend Sarsour from the defamation attempts.

Hundreds of social media users denounced the negative focus on Sarsour as Islamophobic and praised her character.

Amnesty International tweeted that Sarsour “embodies the spirit of a true activist”, urging followers to not let fear win.

Imraan Siddiqi, a writer and activist, compared the attacks on Sarsour to the campaign against Muslim US congressman Keith Ellison - a "snippet of what it's like to be Muslim in public life".

"If they're coming for Linda Sarsour, they're coming at all of us. We got u sis," Khaled Beydoun, a law professor at the University of Detroit Mercy, wrote on Facebook.

The Southern Poverty Law Center said it stands with Sarsour against all forms of hate and bigotry.

'Unapologetically Muslim American'

Sarsour, one of the most prominent US Muslim activists, has successfully campaigned to get New York City public schools to close on Muslim holidays.

The community organiser, known as the “Brooklyn Hijabi,” also served as a surrogate for Bernie Sanders during the Democratic presidential primaries last year.

At the Women’s March, Sarsour called herself “unapologetically Muslim American”.

She said she will respect the presidency, but not US President Donald Trump.

"I will not accept an administration that won an election on the backs of Muslims and Black people and undocumented people and Mexicans and people with disabilities and on the backs of women," said Sarsour, who is also the executive director of the Arab-American Association of New York.

She also said the "character assassination attempts" are about her identity.

"I need extra prayers sisters and brothers. The opposition cannot fathom to see a Palestinian Muslim American woman that resonates with the masses," she wrote on Facebook on Monday. "Someone whose track record is clear and has always stood up for the most marginalized.

She added that the "coordinated attack campaign" against her is not unprecedented, but has been more intense this time.

"They will not succeed," she continued in the Facebook status. "I have helped build a movement, I am ready for what's to come so they can spew alternative facts and piece a twisted narrative together if they want - I and we will still rise."

Sarsour added that right-wing activists are scared because while they have always been outnumbered, on the weekend they were also out organised.

NY Daily News columnist Shaun King described Sarsour as "one of the most effective, skilled, passionate organizers in the world".

New York State Senator Gustavo Rivera condemned “online trolls” attacking Sarsour.

"Let's join forces and let these trolls know, loud and clear, that we have her back," he called on his followers on Facebook.

DNA - 23/01/2017 سيادة العراق بين السبهان ومسجدي

Emad Hajjaj's Cartoon: محادثات أستانة

MORE OF THE SAME OLD SHIT!

Saturday, January 21, 2017

ما وراء الخبر-روسيا وإيران جمعتهما سوريا فهل تفرقهما أستانا؟

Friday, January 20, 2017

'No longer realistic': Turkey admits u-turn on policy to rid Syria of Assad

Deputy PM says facts on the ground have changed dramatically, in reverse of long-stated policy on Syrian president

REMEMBER THOSE DAYS??
WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE WHO NEEDS ENEMIES!

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Turkey can no longer insist on a resolution of the conflict in Syria without the involvement of President Bashar al-Assad, as the situation on the ground has changed dramatically, Turkey's deputy prime minister said on Friday.

"As far as our position on Assad is concerned, we think that the suffering of (the) Syrian people and the tragedies, clearly the blame is squarely on Assad. But we have to be pragmatic, realistic," Mehmet Simsek told a panel on Syria and Iraq at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

"The facts on the ground have changed dramatically, so Turkey can no longer insist on a settlement without Assad, it's not realistic," he said.

Denial

But Simsek's office denied that Turkey had made a u-turn in policy towards Assad.

"Deputy PM Simsek’s response to a question was clear and he said that Assad is the cause of the tragedy in Syria; that it would be impossible to buy into a solution that includes Assad; the United States failed to carry out its responsibility and that Iran and Russia changed the reality on the ground.

"The area that now needs to be focused upon is a ceasefire and the protection of peoples’ lives," said a statement by the Simsek's office on Friday.

"However, the Sputnik news agency tried to distort the minister’s remarks by using it out of context and alluded that he said 'Turkey will no longer insist on an Assad-free agreement'," added the statement.

"The minister never made such a comment; this is how Sputnik chose to interpret it."

Turkey has long insisted that Assad must go for sustainable peace to be achieved in Syria. But it has become less insistent on his immediate departure since its recent rapprochement with Russia, which backs the Syrian leader, and ahead of peace talks planned in Kazakhstan next week.

Ceasefire

Ankara has supported various rebel groups fighting Assad in Syria, and is currently leading operations against the Islamic State group in al-Bab, north of Aleppo.

Bassam Jaara, a Syrian opposition activist, tweeted his reaction: "Turkish deputy prime minister: ‘It is not realistic for Ankara to insist on settling the conflict in Syria without Assad!’ With friends like these you don’t need enemies."

President Tayyip Erdogan's spokesman said last week that Turkey still believes a united and peaceful Syria is impossible with Assad, but wants to proceed "step-by-step" and see the outcome of the peace talks in Astana.

Syria expert Charles Lister throws in his two cents

Turkey and Russia brokered a ceasefire in Syria which has largely held in the run-up to the Astana talks, a process which follows the defeat of the Syrian opposition in the northern city of Aleppo last month.

The shift in Turkish policy comes after Erdogan said on 29 November that Turkey was fighting in Syria "to end the rule of the cruel Assad, who has been spreading state terror".

The Kremlin demanded an "explanation" from Erdogan over his comments, resulting in a backtrack by Turkey.

"The aim of the... operation is against terror, not against anyone or any country,” Erdogan said on 1 December.

"No one should have any doubts or take our statements to mean something else."

In September 2015 Erdogan had suggested he was open to Assad being part of a temporary transition process befoe backtracking.

Turkish soldiers killed in Syria

Five Turkish soldiers were killed in an attack in northern Syria blamed on the Islamic State group, local media reported Friday, quoting the Turkish military.

Another nine soldiers were wounded in the bombing in Al-Bab, where Turkish-backed rebels have suffered heavy casualities in a weeks-long bid to retake the town from IS, the private Dogan news agency said.

حلب.. سقوط المذهبية والعسكرة

ميشيل كيلو

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ذاب الثلج وبان المرج، فإذا بواقع الفصائل المذهبية المسلحة هو النقيض المطلق لما كانت تدّعيه حول دفاعها عن الشعب السوري ضد الطغيان الأسدي. ومع أن كثيرين حذّروا الفصائل مراراً وتكراراً من العسكرة ومخاطرها، وفي مقدمها دورها في إضعاف قدرة الثورة على بلورة قيادةٍ سياسيةٍ، يلتزم القطاعان، العسكري والسياسي، بخطّها وقراراتها، فإن تحذيرات هؤلاء لم تحل دون طغيان العسكرة على السياسة، والتمذهب على مشروع الحرية، ونجاحها في إنهاك الحراك وإزالة طابعه المجتمعي والسلمي، فلا عجب إن أفضى وضعٌ هذه سماته إلى هزيمة حلب، وما ترتب عليها من حقائق منها:

أولاً، ارتهان الثورة للتنظيمات والفصائل المذهبية هو سبيل السوريين إلى الهزيمة، لأسباب بينها التناقض البنيوي بين هويتها ومشروعها وهوية الثورة ومشروعها، والقطيعة بين ممارسات فصائلها وما يتطلبه نجاح أي عمل ثوري/ وطني من برامج وخطط تكرّس لخدمة الحرية ومطالب الشعب، إن غابت، صار من المحال أن تلعب الفصائل دوراً يقطع مع بندقيتها المتمذهبة التي أخضعت المجال السياسي لفوضاها، وأسهمت في تهميشه، بدل أن تخضع هي له، وترى في السوريين شعباً واحداً، تستحق مكوناته جميعها الحماية، وليست طوائف ومذاهب وإثنيات مصطرعة مقتتلة.

ثانياً، انفكاك الحاضنة الشعبية المتسارع عن الفصائل المذهبية المتأسلمة الذي نلاحظه، خصوصاً لدى القطاع الشبابي، والذي يوجد ما يشير إلى أنه أخذ يجمع نفسه، ويتلمس سبل استعادة وحدته ورهانه الثوري الأصلي: الحرية للشعب السوري بصفته شعباً واحداً.

ثالثاً، تراجع خطاب التأسلم الفصائلي وواقعه، نتيجة هزائمه المتتابعة التي فضحت زيف وعوده بتحقيق الانتصار، ومقولاته عن الصراع السوري التي ترى فيه حرباً، هدفها انتزاع السلطة من العلويين، وإعطاؤها لأهل السنة، مثلما فضحت تناقض أيديولوجية الفصائل مع الإسلام وقيمه الإنسانية. وكشفت أخيراً ما أفضت إليه علاقاتها من قمع واضطهاد أسدي ضد مواطني المناطق التي تحكمها، وإذا كان لقادتها آذان تسمع، فلا بد أنهم سمعوا سيل الشتائم الذي انصب عليهم بعد حلب، واتهم معظمهم بالخيانة، وبأنهم اختراقات مخابراتية.

لئن كانت الفصائل المتمذهبة قد نجحت في خداع سوريين كثيرين بعض الوقت بشأن حقيقة مواقفها من قضيتهم، وأقنعتهم بأنها تقاتل دفاعاً عن الإسلام، فإن أكاذيبها انهارت تماماً خلال ما سمّته "ملحمة حلب الكبرى" وبعدها، حيث تبيّن أنها ليست إسلامية، ولو كانت كذلك، لما تطابقت نظرتها إلى الشعب وممارساتها ضده مع نظرة النظام الأسدي وممارساته، ولما تصرّف قادتها وأمراؤها، كما يتصرّف ضباط مخابراته الفاسدون والقتلة.

ثم، ماذا يمكن أصلاً أن تحقق للشعب فصائل يدّعي معظم قادتها أن سكاكينهم وسلاحهم ينفّذان إرادة الله ضد الكفرة والمرتدّين، أي الذين يرفضون نهجهم من المسلمين، ويقارنونه بنهج الرسول (ص)، الإنساني والرحماني، ويطالبونهم بالاقتداء به، إن كانوا مسلمين حقا؟ وماذا تستطيع قيادات فصائل تركها بعد حلب عدد كبير من مقاتليها أن تفعل، بعد اليوم، لإقناع الشعب بأهليتها لحمل آماله وتحقيق أهدافه؟ أسقطت حلب ورقة التوت عن عورات هؤلاء، وفضحت التناقض الكبير بين أقوالهم وأفعالهم، حتى صار من المستبعد أن يصدّقهم الآن مَن خُدع بهم البارحة، واعتبرهم المدافع الأمين عنه، فإذا بهم يسلمون حلب للنظام ويستسلمون له، من دون قتال، في عدد كبير من أحيائها، ويصعدون قبل مدنييها العزّل إلى حافلات الأسد الخضراء، ليغادروا المدينة بحماية من كانوا يعلنون، إلى ما قبل سويعات، تصميمهم على "الجهاد" ضده، إلى أن يطردوه من كل شبر في سورية، بينما كانوا يخونون كل من صعد إلى هذه الحافلات قبلهم، بمن في ذلك من تخلوا عنهم، مثل مقاتلي داريا ومواطنيها.

بسبب حلب، فقدت الفصائلية، بوصفها نمطاً من التنظيم العسكري، القليل من الصدقية العسكرية الذي كان لها، وغدت، في نظر أغلبية السوريين، مجرد حواضن للعنف والفوضى. لذلك، لن تبقى الثورة بعد حلب، إذا لم يتخلّ الشعب عن الفصائلية أداةً للصراع، ويستعيدْ، في الوقت نفسه، حراك الحرية المجتمعي والسلمي الذي صار أداتنا لإنقاذ شعبنا وثورته، وإلا كان انهيار العسكرة المتمذهبة في حلب انهياراً للثورة نفسها، وحلّت بنا الكارثة.

تلوح اليوم فرصة لاستئناف مشروع الحرية وحراكه المجتمعي، إن لم نفدْ منها فرّطنا، نحن أيضا بحقوق الشعب وثورته ووطنه. ماذا نحن فاعلون؟

شيمشك: لم يعد بوسع أنقرة الإصرار على تسوية الصراع السوري بدون الأسد

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دافوس – رويترز – قال محمد شيمشك نائب رئيس وزراء تركيا الجمعة، إنه لم يعد بوسع أنقرة أن تصر على تسوية الصراع في سوريا بدون مشاركة الرئيس بشار الأسد إذ أن الحقائق على الأرض تغيرت كثيرا.

وقال شيمشك في جلسة عن سوريا والعراق في المنتدى الاقتصادي العالمي في دافوس “فيما يتعلق بموقفنا من الأسد.. نعتقد أن معاناة الشعب السوري والمآسي يقع اللوم بكل وضوح على الأسد بشكل مباشر. لكن علينا أن نتحلى بالبرجماتية والواقعية.”

وتابع “الحقائق على الأرض تغيرت كثيراً وبالتالي لم يعد بوسع تركيا أن تصر على تسوية بدون الأسد. غير واقعي.”

Thursday, January 19, 2017

لقاء اليوم- برهان غليون

DNA - 19/01/2017 ظريف في كوكب آخر

Obama's true legacy: Trump

A GREAT PIECE

By David Hearst

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Trump is not just America's greatest nightmare, but the result of conditions created by Obama, Clinton, Blair and Cameron

In just 48 hours, the keys to the world’s most powerful off-road vehicle will drop into the lap of one Donald J Trump, a driver with road rage. On the most dangerous roads - the Middle East, global warming, China - he has no idea where he is heading.

As the premiere of this road trip movie draws closer, people have already started to look back on Barack Obama with nostalgia. They should know better.

It is no mean feat for a president-elect to make the fifth series of House of Cards redundant, but this Trump has already achieved

Judging Obama by no less a standard than his own words, his term of office proved, in so many ways, to be a cruel deception. Cruel, because millions allowed themselves to believe in the dreams he spun. Deception, because it was he who set himself the task of becoming nothing less than a transformational figure after eight years of George W Bush. It was he who promised to "heal this nation and repair the world”.

No one put these words into his mouth. He uttered them. It was he who promised the Muslim world a new deal in Cairo. It was he who promised to face down Israeli settlers in the West Bank.

As things turned out, however, Obama was not the agent of change, but its object. He did not transform. He was himself transformed. Confronted by regional bullies, he stepped to one side, observing the action from a new vantage point in the annals of US foreign policy - from the sidelines.

This happened with Benjamin Netanyahu, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Vladimir Putin and Bashar al-Assad. Syria was not a case of "damned if you do intervene" and "damned if you don't". If Obama had learned the lessons of two decades of military misadventure in the Middle East, he should have made sure that neither Russia, nor Iran intervened either. He had the tools to stop both. He never used them.

If Obama had merely been inactive in Syria, that would have been one thing. He, however, actively prevented the rebels from getting the weapons they needed to stop barrel bombs falling on their hospitals, markets and schools. In his last months, Obama attempted to spin this as policy.

Legacy project?

Obama’s work on his own legacy began with an interview with Jeffrey Goldberg in the Atlantic, which ends with following judgement: “George W Bush was also a gambler, not a bluffer. He will be remembered harshly for the things he did in the Middle East. Barack Obama is gambling that he will be judged well for the things he didn’t do.”

That was penned in April last year. In December, East Aleppo fell and how differently those words read now.

Obama was a president on whom accolades were showered before he had even started, and one who persistently fell short of earning his own praise. This may seem harsh on the man, who gave millions of Americans health insurance and who had the right response to the Great Recession.

But America’s first black president was as irrelevant to the lives of Black Americans as Britain’s first woman prime minister was to British feminism.

Cause and effect

Obama’s real legacy is Trump. Centrists like Obama, Bill Clinton, Tony Blair and David Cameron should not duck their responsibility for creating the conditions in which right-wing populists, if not outright fascists, thrive.

Clinton, Bush, Obama are all walk-on parts in the same drama - the decline and fall of Western leadership

The nationalism sweeping through liberal democracy is a direct result of a system failure. Be that failure in the form of embracing the retreat of the state and being supremely relaxed about extreme inequality or in the creation of economies which globalise insecurity and nationalise debt.

Clinton, Bush, Obama are all walk-on parts in the same drama - the decline and fall of Western leadership. Yes, there are outside forces at work, but primarily, we are witnessing an implosion, a weakening of the pillars which support Western hegemony in the post-Cold War world, the EU, the UN, Nato. Michael Moore is not alone in planning the first 100 days of resistance. The CIA is too. That is what makes Trump's insurgency so interesting. With the best of intentions, Obama’s presidency played its part in that collapse.

And so, on to the next actor in this drama, Donald Trump.

A move to the right

For Israel, Trump has appointed David Friedman, an ambassador who supports Israeli settlements, advocates annexation of West Bank territory and questions the citizenship of Palestinian citizens of Israel. Advised by his son-in-law Jared Kushner, Trump has opposed the UN Security Council resolution on settlements and the Paris Peace conference.

Trump has already moved well to the right of Benjamin Netanyahu and is in the territory ofNaftali Bennett, leader of the right-wing Jewish Home party, who believes that the new US president will bury the Palestinian state, a logical consequence of Trump’s wish to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Under Trump then, Israel could well expect to see a green light to annex Area C of the West Bank, and continue the work of cleansing the Jewish state of its non-Jewish citizens. Ethnic cleansing is back in vogue, after what Assad and the Iranians have been allowed to get away with in Daraya and Aleppo. Israel could well feel free to do the same.

Each and every move outlined above would be enough to trigger a third Intifada.

Boon for al-Qaeda

For Syria, Trump’s answer is security zones, for which he intends to get the Gulf states to pay. Whereas Obama at least clung to the rhetoric of human rights and democracy promotion, Trump has no qualms about overt support for dictators such as Sisi. Trump’s administration not only will support dictators, but will listen to them as well.

Evidence for this is contained in the testimony of Rex Tillerson, the former ExxonMobil chief executive who is Trump’s nominee for secretary of state. Tillerson, in his opening statement, warned that the US must be honest about radical Islam, and that once the Islamic State is defeated, the US then should move on to address other “radical” Islamic groups in which he included al-Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood.

Tillerson’s inclusion of the Brotherhood in his list of radical Islamic forces was not a slip of the tongue. Trump’s Middle East adviser, Walid Phares, a Maronite Christian from Lebanon, has already said the incoming president plans to outlaw the group.

Phares has a murky past, for his support of a far-right Lebanese militia which committed war crimes in the Lebanese Civil War, and has himself been denounced by the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee when he joined Trump’s election campaign.

There is already a draft bill in Congress, the Muslim Brotherhood Terrorist Designation Act, outlawing the Brotherhood, which Obama refused to sign. If Trump does, he would be consigning millions of Islamists, who form the largest political party in most Arab countries, into the hands of al-Qaeda. Trump would be giving al-Qaeda the biggest possible eid the group could have ever dreamt of, far bigger than the boost to their ranks provided by Sisi’s military coup.

The Dubai connection

The bill in Congress was the result of heavy lobbying from the Emiratis, for whom the Brotherhood remains an obsession. Trump’s link with the Emirati regime is through businessman Hussain Sajwani, chairman of Damac Properties Dubai Co. The company already has two golf resort development deals with Trump in Dubai. Trump told his first press conference since his election that he was offered $2bn in Dubai with this "very, very amazing man, a great developer from the Middle East”. He turned it down, but as he kept repeating, he did not have to.

It is, therefore, not true to claim that Trump enters the White House as an unknown quantity. His cards in the Middle East have already been marked: by Israel, by Russia, by the Emirates, by Egypt - all the regimes battling to suppress the forces which will eventually bring free elections, democracy and transparency to the governments of the Middle East.

It is no mean feat for a president-elect to make the fifth series of House of Cards redundant, but this Trump has already achieved. Tighten your seats belts. It's going to be a rough ride.

- David Hearst is editor-in-chief of Middle East Eye. He was chief foreign leader writer of The Guardian, former Associate Foreign Editor, European Editor, Moscow Bureau Chief, European Correspondent and Ireland Correspondent. He joined The Guardian from The Scotsman, where he was education correspondent.

المصالحات الفلسطينية

Wednesday, January 18, 2017

DNA - 18/01/2017 غارة القنديل تشعشع تل أبيب

Tuesday, January 17, 2017

DNA - 17/01/2017 إيران ثابتة..والسعودية تتراجع

عزمي بشارة -ندوة فكرية بعنوان ""ست سنوات في مسار الثورة التونسية:

AN EXCELLENT SEMINAR!

Emad Hajjaj's Cartoon

Sunday, January 15, 2017

YET ANOTHER USELESS CONFERENCE!

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المجتمعون حذروا الجانبين الإسرائيلي والفلسطيني من اتخاذ أي خطوات أحادية الجانب (رويترز)

Donald Trump Press Conference Cold Open - SNL

It's the Arab spring for dictators

Ibrahim Fraihat

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The fall of Aleppo on the sixth anniversary of the start of the Arab Spring reminds us how tyranny has triumphed over the hope of 2011

What has been said following the fall of Aleppo into the hands of the Syrian regime ignores the symbolism that goes beyond the battle itself: the fall of a crucial city coinciding with the sixth anniversary of the Arab Spring. This begs the question whether the Arab Spring has turned into the "spring of dictatorships" and who is exactly to blame for the setbacks that Arab revolutions encountered the past six years.

The short answer is that international community has failed the Arab uprisings but heavy blame must also fall on the Arab dictatorships, their international allies in the West and elsewhere, and even the "revolutionaries" themselves. How can an Arab Spring be salvaged, widespread extremism and violence be eliminated, and lasting change prevail?

One answer is for the international community to support democratic transition and put shortsighted security approach to stability in the Middle East to rest.

Ruthless regimes

Many observers of Middle East politics underestimated what the authoritarian state and its regimes were willing and capable of doing. The Syrian regime has shocked the world’s conscious by responding with bloody massacres against the Syrian people when they called for change.

Likewise in Egypt the military establishment crushed democracy in its embryonic phase and has pushed the country into a critical political, economic and security crisis, deeper than the ruling days of former authoritarian president, Hosni Mubarak. The Islamic State (IS) found an outlet for power in the Sinai in a fractured Egypt under the current military leadership.

Reforming Yemen’s Saleh regime has only led to a bloody civil war that crushed a UN-led national dialogue and the wider democratic transformation. Known as the “dancer on snakes’ heads,” longtime ruler of Yemen Ali Abdullah Saleh managed to galvanise the power of his deep-rooted state institutions, particularly the military, and countered the democratic process in Yemen by sparking a bloody civil war that has invited external powers into the conflict to project political power and protect their interests.

Obama's security failure

The sixth anniversary of the Arab Spring highlights the failures of the international community to seize the opportunity to encourage democratic change and long-lasting stability in the Arab region. The Obama administration’s obsession with countering terrorism through the use of drones and security solutions failed, and even contributed to transforming the Arab Spring from demands for freedom, justice and development into a “war on terrorism”, inviting radicals and extremists, and regional and international coalitions, into ongoing conflicts.

The United States, UK, Russia, Iran, and the Assad regime all define their role in Syria’s conflict as fighting a “war on terrorism”. So where did the Syrian revolution go? The most utilised slogan when the Arab Spring began was “Ash-shaʻb yurīd isqāṭ an-niẓām" or "the people want to bring down the regime". Today it is – sadly - an almost forgotten slogan in Arab politics. The “war on terrorism” has become a prosperous business, and regime security for survival, and foreign intervention in Syria, both employ "countering terrorism” as their validation.

Russia and Iran justify their military campaigns as fighting terrorism in Syria before the battle reaches their own turfs in Moscow and Tehran, and Assad ultimately wants to be remembered as the leader who fought to save his country from terrorism. The Obama administration, however, has gone beyond Syria to bomb Arab cities in Yemen, Iraq and Libya so America doesn’t have to fight terrorism on the lawns of Washington.

Revolutionary failure

The revolutionaries who rebelled against despotism did in fact fail the Arab Spring too. The revolutionaries who were victimised under the Gaddafi regime in Libya took a radical approach to state building that ended up polarising their own society and turning the victims to victimisers. In 2012, I wrote in the New York Times, warning of an “ill-advised purge in Libya” as potentially capable of setting the country on a path of civil war – and the need to avoid it.

Revolutionaries in Libya proceeded in a similar manner to the notorious “de-Baathification” approach taken by the US administration took in Iraq, which set Iraq on the path of a brutal sectarian war with no end in sight. Libyan revolutionaries instilled a “political isolation law” which prevented anyone who worked with the former regime from taking public office for ten years, and ended up motivating former regime factions to regroup and fight back. The result ignited brutal civil war and a sharply divided country between East and West Libya.

Unenlightened tyranny

The biggest threat to the Arab Spring six years after its inception remains authoritarianism. The renovation of dictatorships has proved to be the wrong approach towards achieving democracy. European enlightened despotism, as Voltaire argued in the 18th century, does not exist in the Arab world today. What we have instead, according to Arab philosopher Azmi Bishara, is tyranny which “cannot be enlightened”.

Investing in tyranny, as the international community and especially the West did over many years, thinking they could thereby counter terrorism, has been a fatal mistake. Tyranny created the foundation for despair, extremism and outrage, ills that tyranny produced in the first place and can never remedy.

Six years have passed and the setbacks that the Arab Spring experienced – resulting from tyranny - underlines the validity of the uprisings' original message - that democratic transformation is the only viable alternative to the madness that the region is witnessing.

Excerpts of this piece come from the author’s recently released book: Unfinished Revolutions: Yemen, Libya, and Tunisia after the Arab Spring (Yale University Press 2016)

- Ibrahim Fraihat is an international conflict reolution professors at the Doha Institutes's Center for Conflict and Humanitarian Studies. He tweets @i_fraihat

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.

Saturday, January 14, 2017

تحقيقات الجزيرة: اللوبي – ج3 – معاداة السامية

Assad linked to Syrian chemical attacks for first time

Investigators have linked Assad and other high-ranking figures to a series of chlorine bomb attacks in 2014-15

REUTERS

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International investigators have said for the first time that they suspect President Bashar al-Assad and his brother are responsible for the use of chemical weapons in the Syrian conflict, according to a document seen by Reuters.

A joint inquiry for the United Nations and global watchdog the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) had previously identified only military units and did not name any commanders or officials.

Now a list has been produced of individuals whom the investigators have linked to a series of chlorine bomb attacks in 2014-15 - including Assad, his younger brother Maher and other high-ranking figures - indicating the decision to use toxic weapons came from the very top, according to a source familiar with the inquiry.

The Assads could not be reached for comment, but a Syrian government official said accusations that government forces had used chemical weapons had "no basis in truth". The government has repeatedly denied using such weapons during the civil war, which is almost six years old, saying all the attacks highlighted by the inquiry were the work of rebels or the Islamic State militant group.

The list, which has been seen by Reuters but has not been made public, was based on a combination of evidence compiled by the UN-OPCW team in Syria and information from Western and regional intelligence agencies, according to the source, who declined to be identified due to the sensitivity of the issue.

Reuters was unable to independently review the evidence or to verify it.

The UN-OPCW inquiry, known as the Joint Investigative Mechanism (JIM), is led by a panel of three independent experts, supported by a team of technical and administrative staff. It is mandated by the UN Security Council to identify individuals and organizations responsible for chemical attacks in Syria.

Virginia Gamba, the head of the Joint Investigative Mechanism, denied any list of individual suspects had yet been compiled by the inquiry.

"There are no ... identification of individuals being considered at this time," she told Reuters by email.

The use of chemical weapons is banned under international law and could constitute a war crime.

While the inquiry has no judicial powers, any naming of suspects could lead to their prosecution. Syria is not a member of the International Criminal Court (ICC), but alleged war crimes could be referred to the court by the Security Council - although splits among global powers over the war make this a distant prospect at present.

"The ICC is concerned about any country where crimes are reported to be committed," a spokesman for the court said when asked for comment. "Unless Syria accepts the ICC jurisdiction, the only way that [the] ICC would have jurisdiction over the situation would be through a referral by the Security Council."

The list seen by Reuters could form the basis for the inquiry team's investigations this year, according to the source. It is unclear whether the United Nations or OPCW will publish the list separately.

'Highest levels'

The list identifies 15 people "to be scrutinized in relation to use of CW [chemical weapons] by Syrian Arab Republic Armed Forces in 2014 and 2015". It does not specify what role they are suspected of playing but lists their titles.

It is split into three sections. The first, titled "Inner Circle President," lists six people including Assad, his brother, who commands the elite 4th Armoured Division, the defense minister and the head of military intelligence.

The second section names the air force chief as well as four commanders of air force divisions. They include the heads of the 22nd Air Force Division and the 63rd Helicopter Brigade, units that the inquiry has previously said dropped chlorine bombs.

The third part of the list, "Other relevant Senior Mil Personnel," names two colonels and two major-generals.

Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, an independent specialist in biological and chemical weapons who monitors Syria, told Reuters the list reflected the military chain of command.

"The decisions would be made at the highest levels initially and then delegated down. Hence the first use would need to be authorized by Assad," said de Bretton-Gordon, a former commander of British and NATO chemical and biological defense divisions who frequently visits Syria for professional consultancy work.

The Syrian defense ministry and air force could not be reached for comment.

Chlorine barrel bombs

Syria joined the international Chemical Weapons Convention under a US-Russian deal that followed the deaths of hundreds of civilians in a sarin gas attack in Ghouta on the outskirts of Damascus in August 2013.

It was the deadliest use of chemicals in global warfare since the 1988 Halabja massacre at the end of the Iran-Iraq war, which killed at least 5,000 people in Iraqi Kurdistan.

The Syrian government, which denied its forces were behind the Ghouta attack, also agreed to hand over its declared stockpile of 1,300 tonnes of toxic weaponry and dismantle its chemical weapons program under international supervision.

The United Nations and OPCW have been investigating whether Damascus is adhering to its commitments under the agreement, which averted the threat of U.S.-led military intervention.

The bodies appointed the panel of experts to conduct the inquiry, and its mandate runs until November. The panel published a report in October last year which said Syrian government forces used chemical weapons at least three times in 2014-2015 and that Islamic State used mustard gas in 2015.

The October report identified Syria's 22nd Air Force Division and 63rd Helicopter Brigade as having dropped chlorine bombs and said people "with effective control in the military units ... must be held accountable".

The source familiar with the inquiry said the October report had clearly established the institutions responsible and that the next step was to go after the individuals.

Washington on Thursday blacklisted 18 senior Syrian officials based on the UN-OPCW inquiry's October report, some of whom also appear on the list but not Assad or his brother.

The issue of chemical weapons use in Syria has become a deeply political one, and the UN-OPCW inquiry's allegations of chlorine bomb attacks by government forces have split the UN Security Council's veto-wielding members.

The United States, Britain and France have called for sanctions against Syria, while Assad's ally Russia has said the evidence presented is insufficient to justify such measures.

A Security Council resolution would be required to bring Assad and other senior Syrian officials before the International Criminal Court for any possible war crimes prosecution, something Russia would likely block.

In Syria

Monday, January 23, 2017

The counter campaign

'Unapologetically Muslim American'

Sunday, January 22, 2017

Saturday, January 21, 2017

Friday, January 20, 2017

Denial

Ceasefire

Turkish soldiers killed in Syria

Thursday, January 19, 2017

Legacy project?

Cause and effect

A move to the right

Boon for al-Qaeda

The Dubai connection

Wednesday, January 18, 2017

Tuesday, January 17, 2017

Monday, January 16, 2017

Sunday, January 15, 2017

Ruthless regimes

Obama's security failure

Revolutionary failure

Unenlightened tyranny

Saturday, January 14, 2017

'Highest levels'

Chlorine barrel bombs

Friday, January 13, 2017