Arabs48.com
"قال مسؤول تركي مساء أمس الجمعة إن أنقرة لا تستبعد تدخلاً دولياً في سوريا بحال لم يتوقف نظام الرئيس بشار الأسد عن استخدام العنف ضد شعبه.
ونقلت صحيفة "حرييت" عن المسؤول قوله "حتى قبل 8 أشهر، كنّا نحاول إقناع الحلفاء الغربيين منح الأسد المزيد من الوقت لتطبيق إصلاحات، وكنا ودودين لعقد اجتماعات حكومية مشتركة ورفع تأشيرات الدخول".
وتابع "ولكن إن كان النظام لا يستمع إلى نصيحة صديقه وجاره ويستمر في فتح النار على مواطنيه، لا يمكن لتركيا أن تبقى صديقة له". وقال إن تركيا لا تستبعد تدخلاً أجنبياً بحال استمر العنف.
وأضاف أن الرسالة التي حملها وزير الخارجية التركي أحمد داوود اوغلو من الرئيس عبد الله غول إلى الأسد كانت "إنذاراً أخيراً" وبحال استمر العنف لن يمكنه الاعتماد على صداقة تركيا.
وذكرت وكالة أنباء الأناضول، أمس الجمعة، أن أوغلو سلم خلال زيارته الأسد الثلاثاء رسالة من غول حذره فيها من التأخر بإجراء إصلاحات ديمقراطية والندم لاحقا.
وقال المسؤول إن من الأسباب الأخرى التي أدت إلى "نفاذ صبر" تركيا هو كما قال رئيس الوزراء رجب طيب أردوغان، الدعم المطلق الذي أعلنت عنه الحكومة الإيرانية لسوريا.
ونقلت "هآرتس" النبأ مشيرة إلى أن تركيا لا تنفي إمكانية مشاركتها في تدخل عسكري دولي في سورية.
واعتبرت الصحيفة أن مذكرة الرئيس التركي عبد الله غول إلى نظيره السوري، بواسطة وزير الخارجية أوغلو، إضافة إلى تسريب مضمونها إلى وسائل الإعلام التركية ما يشير إلى قرار إستراتيجي اتخذته تركيا مفاده أن النظام السوري فقد شرعيته، وأنه من الممكن الآن الانتقال إلى المرحلة الفعالة ضد سورية.
كما أشارت "هآرتس" إلى أن مستشار الرئيس التركي، إرشاد هرمزلي، قد أوضح في مقابلة مع الصحيفة العراقية "زمان" أن تركيا لن تتدخل عسكريا في سورية ولن تسمح لقوات أجنبية بالعمل ضد سورية من أراضيها.
وكتبت "هآرتس" في هذا السياق أن مجرد الجاهزية التركية للانضمام إلى ائتلاف دولي يقرر شن هجوم على سورية هو تحول درامي في موقفها، وأن أقوال هرمزلي تشير إلى أنه قد أجريت مباحثات بشأن التدخل العسكري ووصلت مرحلة اتخاذ القرارات.
وتوقعت أن يتم في المرحلة الأولى سحب السفير التركي من دمشق، وبذلك تنضم إلى الإجراءات التي قامت بها السعودية والكويت والبحرين. كما توقعت في المرحلة القادمة أن تقوم بتجميد مشاريع واستثمارات في سورية. وأنه فقط في حال اتخاذ قرار دولي بالعمل العسكري سوف تنضم تركيا إلى القرار.
وتوقعت "هآرتس" أن السيناريو العسكري قد يؤدي إلى فتح جبهات أخرى إذا قررت إيران الدفاع عن النظام السوري وعدم الاكتفاء بتزويد سورية بالمال والعتاد عن طريق العراق. وتوقعت في هذا السياق أن تقوم إيران بفتح جبهة تكتيكية في الخليج، وإرسال قوات إلى البحرين، أو البدء بمناورات عسكرية واسعة النطاق في الخليج."
Saturday, August 13, 2011
Syrians Call for Assad’s Execution
The Syrian uprising has become a contest of endurance between Assad and the people
by John Glaser, August 12, 2011
Antiwar.com
"Tens of thousands of Syrian protesters shouted for President Bashar Assad’s death Friday in a dramatic escalation of their rage and frustration, defying Syrian forces after months of brutal crackdowns. Eleven protesters were killed during the demonstrations, according to human rights groups.
After Friday prayers, Syrian forces shot and killed another 20 protesters. Yet anti-government demonstrators remained resistant.
The protest movement began in March asking for relatively minor reforms in the Syrian government. Now they are calling for his head, in various cities, chanting “The people want to execute the president!”
The current status of this conflict between the Assad regime and the Syrian people has become a test of endurance. While the Obama administration has imposed sanctions on the Syrian government, with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Friday urging countries to stop buying Syrian oil and gas or selling the regime weapons, they have stopped short of calling for Assad’s ouster.
A U.S. diplomatic official told the New York Times the United States increasingly believed that Assad could not hold out indefinitely and that plans were being made for a post-Assad era, without endorsing any direct intervention......"
by John Glaser, August 12, 2011
Antiwar.com
"Tens of thousands of Syrian protesters shouted for President Bashar Assad’s death Friday in a dramatic escalation of their rage and frustration, defying Syrian forces after months of brutal crackdowns. Eleven protesters were killed during the demonstrations, according to human rights groups.
After Friday prayers, Syrian forces shot and killed another 20 protesters. Yet anti-government demonstrators remained resistant.
The protest movement began in March asking for relatively minor reforms in the Syrian government. Now they are calling for his head, in various cities, chanting “The people want to execute the president!”
The current status of this conflict between the Assad regime and the Syrian people has become a test of endurance. While the Obama administration has imposed sanctions on the Syrian government, with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Friday urging countries to stop buying Syrian oil and gas or selling the regime weapons, they have stopped short of calling for Assad’s ouster.
A U.S. diplomatic official told the New York Times the United States increasingly believed that Assad could not hold out indefinitely and that plans were being made for a post-Assad era, without endorsing any direct intervention......"
The greatest elected body that money can buy (UPDATED)
By Stephen M. Walt
"Just when you think your contempt for Congress could not get any higher, our elected representatives manage to do something to ratchet it up another notch. After congressional shenanigans helped spark a major market sell-off and sparked fears of a double-dip recession, you'd think every single one of them would be heading back to their districts to figure out what their constituents wanted and to try to explain how they were going to help make things better. Or maybe a few of them would even spend the recess taking a crash course in macroeconomics and public finance, so that they could start exercising their public duties more responsibly.
But what did 81 of them decide to do instead? You guessed it: they are off on junkets to Israel, paid for by the American Israel Education Foundation, an AIPAC spinoff that has been funding such trips for years. That's right: during the August recess nearly a fifth of the U.S. Congress will visit a single country whose entire population is less than that of New York City......"
"Just when you think your contempt for Congress could not get any higher, our elected representatives manage to do something to ratchet it up another notch. After congressional shenanigans helped spark a major market sell-off and sparked fears of a double-dip recession, you'd think every single one of them would be heading back to their districts to figure out what their constituents wanted and to try to explain how they were going to help make things better. Or maybe a few of them would even spend the recess taking a crash course in macroeconomics and public finance, so that they could start exercising their public duties more responsibly.
But what did 81 of them decide to do instead? You guessed it: they are off on junkets to Israel, paid for by the American Israel Education Foundation, an AIPAC spinoff that has been funding such trips for years. That's right: during the August recess nearly a fifth of the U.S. Congress will visit a single country whose entire population is less than that of New York City......"
Friday, August 12, 2011
Syria violence spreads to commercial capital Aleppo
Two people killed as government forces launch raid on country's second-largest city
Martin Chulov in Beirut and Nour Ali
guardian.co.uk, Friday 12 August 2011
"Syria's uprising spread into the country's commercial hub of Aleppo today, where two people died during rare government raids, which also saw at least 13 protesters killed in other towns and cities.
The foray into Aleppo, which remains a stronghold of the regime, came as observers outside Syria began to question whether five months of violence and implacable defiance had now reached a tipping point for Bashar al-Assad and the ruling Ba'ath party.
The mood in the country's second-largest city has long been considered a key barometer of the regime's standing inside the country it has ruled with ruthless control for more than four decades.
"If [Aleppo] turns, the Assads have lost Damascus," said one western official. "It is very important to them. It is the only part of the country where the economy has remained relatively resolute."
Across the country, security forces today were widely reported to have opened fire near people as they emerged from mosques and public gathering places, in a bid to deny them a chance to organise after weekly prayers.....
One western official in Beirut said a point of no return for Mr Assad had drawn nearer this week, with the embattled autocrat unable to convince friend or foe that he had a solution for the instability that threatens to end the uncontested four-decade rule of the Assad clan....."
Martin Chulov in Beirut and Nour Ali
guardian.co.uk, Friday 12 August 2011
"Syria's uprising spread into the country's commercial hub of Aleppo today, where two people died during rare government raids, which also saw at least 13 protesters killed in other towns and cities.
The foray into Aleppo, which remains a stronghold of the regime, came as observers outside Syria began to question whether five months of violence and implacable defiance had now reached a tipping point for Bashar al-Assad and the ruling Ba'ath party.
The mood in the country's second-largest city has long been considered a key barometer of the regime's standing inside the country it has ruled with ruthless control for more than four decades.
"If [Aleppo] turns, the Assads have lost Damascus," said one western official. "It is very important to them. It is the only part of the country where the economy has remained relatively resolute."
Across the country, security forces today were widely reported to have opened fire near people as they emerged from mosques and public gathering places, in a bid to deny them a chance to organise after weekly prayers.....
One western official in Beirut said a point of no return for Mr Assad had drawn nearer this week, with the embattled autocrat unable to convince friend or foe that he had a solution for the instability that threatens to end the uncontested four-decade rule of the Assad clan....."
How youth-led revolts shook elites around the world
From Athens to Cairo and Spain to Santiago, old certainties are being challenged after the Arab spring and financial crises
A GOOD PIECE
Jack Shenker
guardian.co.uk, Friday 12 August 2011
"Of all the millions of words expended in the global media on this year's rash of youth-led revolts across the globe, none are more relevant than those penned by Alex Andreou, a Greek-born blogger who now lives in Britain. "You have run out of ideas," he wrote in June, echoing the message of Greek protesters to their country's political and economic elites. "Wherever in the world you are, that statement applies."....
Two other common motifs run through this year's rebellions. First has been the collapse in authority of traditional institutions; from Mubarak's cult of personality to the seemingly incessant scandals engulfing Britain's arbiters of political, financial and cultural control – bankers, MPs, and the Murdoch media empire. The crumpling is contagious, fuelling rebellions in the most of places.....
The second commonality has been the tools used to mobilise dissent. Although the role of online social media in the Arab uprisings has often been overstated, there can be no doubt that platforms such as Twitter and Facebook have enabled diverse groups to quickly garner broad support for acts of resistance – and that this means of communication has coloured the internal organisation of protest movements.
"One of the most unifying aspects between our own organisation and other movements around the world is that we're relatively non-hierarchical and decentralised," says Steve Taylor, a campaigner with UK Uncut.
"Today there may not be a single unifying ideology of change among global youth protests of the sort that united people in 1968, but there is a common ideology embedded within our shared model of organisation – no egos, no celebrities, no one telling anyone else what to do and no one willing to take orders – one that lends itself to online social media and has captured people's imaginations."...."
A GOOD PIECE
Jack Shenker
guardian.co.uk, Friday 12 August 2011
"Of all the millions of words expended in the global media on this year's rash of youth-led revolts across the globe, none are more relevant than those penned by Alex Andreou, a Greek-born blogger who now lives in Britain. "You have run out of ideas," he wrote in June, echoing the message of Greek protesters to their country's political and economic elites. "Wherever in the world you are, that statement applies."....
Two other common motifs run through this year's rebellions. First has been the collapse in authority of traditional institutions; from Mubarak's cult of personality to the seemingly incessant scandals engulfing Britain's arbiters of political, financial and cultural control – bankers, MPs, and the Murdoch media empire. The crumpling is contagious, fuelling rebellions in the most of places.....
The second commonality has been the tools used to mobilise dissent. Although the role of online social media in the Arab uprisings has often been overstated, there can be no doubt that platforms such as Twitter and Facebook have enabled diverse groups to quickly garner broad support for acts of resistance – and that this means of communication has coloured the internal organisation of protest movements.
"One of the most unifying aspects between our own organisation and other movements around the world is that we're relatively non-hierarchical and decentralised," says Steve Taylor, a campaigner with UK Uncut.
"Today there may not be a single unifying ideology of change among global youth protests of the sort that united people in 1968, but there is a common ideology embedded within our shared model of organisation – no egos, no celebrities, no one telling anyone else what to do and no one willing to take orders – one that lends itself to online social media and has captured people's imaginations."...."
Video: Lebanon's female cluster bomb disposal team
Five years after the Israel-Hezbollah war, southern Lebanon is still riddled with thousands of unexploded cluster bombs. A group of extraordinary women is helping to rid the countryside of this deadly legacy - formerly teachers, nurses and housewives, they have been trained by the NGO Norwegian People's Aid to clear unexploded ordnance from the fields
Rachel Stevenson, Richard Sprenger and Mona Mahmood
guardian.co.uk, Friday 12 August 2011
Rachel Stevenson, Richard Sprenger and Mona Mahmood
guardian.co.uk, Friday 12 August 2011
'Corporations are people, my friend...'
Big businesses have long had the same economic rights as citizens, yet few of the moral responsibilities.
Mark LeVine
Al-Jazeera
"....
A green future?
For some reason, hearing Romney speak these words reminded me of Charlton Heston's famous line: "Soylent Green is people!" from the dystopian sci-fi thriller movie, Soylent Green. Heston screamed the line after realising that the remains of dead people - forcibly euthanised in the horribly overpopulated, polluted and poverty stricken world of 2022 - were being converted into food to be fed to the living.
When the book, on which the movie was based, was published in 1966 - and even when the movie itself was released in 1973 - such a future was a nightmare that could only be imagined and dramatised, because it still seemed far off and so fantastical that it couldn't possibly come to pass. At least not by 2022.
Today, with people like Mitt Romney and his corporate friends - real and fictive - running the country and the world, 2022 seems frighteningly close indeed. Let's hope the real people have the brains to put a stop to it before it's too late."
Mark LeVine
Al-Jazeera
"....
A green future?
For some reason, hearing Romney speak these words reminded me of Charlton Heston's famous line: "Soylent Green is people!" from the dystopian sci-fi thriller movie, Soylent Green. Heston screamed the line after realising that the remains of dead people - forcibly euthanised in the horribly overpopulated, polluted and poverty stricken world of 2022 - were being converted into food to be fed to the living.
When the book, on which the movie was based, was published in 1966 - and even when the movie itself was released in 1973 - such a future was a nightmare that could only be imagined and dramatised, because it still seemed far off and so fantastical that it couldn't possibly come to pass. At least not by 2022.
Today, with people like Mitt Romney and his corporate friends - real and fictive - running the country and the world, 2022 seems frighteningly close indeed. Let's hope the real people have the brains to put a stop to it before it's too late."
الحل الاقتصادي الفلسطيني للضفة الغربية
المتوقع في ظل الاحتلال
الحل الاقتصادي الصهيو/أميركي
الحل الفلسطيني
الخلاصة
"...
الذي يريد التحرر من الاحتلال لا يحرص على مستوى استهلاكي رفيع، ولا يحلم بشراء غرفة نوم إيطالية، ولا يُقبل على شراء بضائع عدوه إلا إذا دعته الضرورة الوطنية إلى ذلك
....
الحل الاقتصادي ليس حلا لمشكلة اقتصادية ضمن منظومة فكرية وثقافية قائمة، وإنما ضمن منظومة ثقافية وفكرية وأخلاقية جديدة تحل محل القديم بحيث يتغير جلد الفلسطيني بجلد آخر
....
من المفروض أن يتعلم الإنسان أن عزته وكرامته واستقلاله تتحقق بعرق جبينه وبدمائه، وليس بالاعتماد على الآخرين
....
تطور الإقبال على الاستيراد بشكل مذهل، وبطريقة حرمت العمال الفلسطينيين من الاستمرار في أعمالهم بسبب إغلاق العديد من الورش والمعامل
....
يجب أن يحرص الشعب على الاستمرار في العمل وتحسين إنتاجه حتى لا يبقى معتمدا على غيره، ودون أن ينسى أن الأنظمة العربية يمكن أن تخل بالتزاماتها في كل لحظة
...."
الحل الاقتصادي الصهيو/أميركي
الحل الفلسطيني
الخلاصة
"...
الذي يريد التحرر من الاحتلال لا يحرص على مستوى استهلاكي رفيع، ولا يحلم بشراء غرفة نوم إيطالية، ولا يُقبل على شراء بضائع عدوه إلا إذا دعته الضرورة الوطنية إلى ذلك
....
الحل الاقتصادي ليس حلا لمشكلة اقتصادية ضمن منظومة فكرية وثقافية قائمة، وإنما ضمن منظومة ثقافية وفكرية وأخلاقية جديدة تحل محل القديم بحيث يتغير جلد الفلسطيني بجلد آخر
....
من المفروض أن يتعلم الإنسان أن عزته وكرامته واستقلاله تتحقق بعرق جبينه وبدمائه، وليس بالاعتماد على الآخرين
....
تطور الإقبال على الاستيراد بشكل مذهل، وبطريقة حرمت العمال الفلسطينيين من الاستمرار في أعمالهم بسبب إغلاق العديد من الورش والمعامل
....
يجب أن يحرص الشعب على الاستمرار في العمل وتحسين إنتاجه حتى لا يبقى معتمدا على غيره، ودون أن ينسى أن الأنظمة العربية يمكن أن تخل بالتزاماتها في كل لحظة
...."
Real News Video: Israel and Palestine Impasse
Amb. Pickering and former diplomats send strongly worded letter to Obama
Middle Eastern vultures circle over a wounded Syria
By Rami G. Khouri
"....The most significant of trends is probably the more aggressive or assertive role of regional actors, as international players find that they have very limited means of influencing Syrian government actions. This is linked to the slow transformation of Syria from a leading actor that often defined key political realities around the Middle East, into a more passive player whose domestic troubles have suddenly clipped its regional wings.
The third big change is Syria’s sudden vulnerability at home, causing other regional powers to start working more diligently to either protect their interests or to make sure they are well positioned to take advantage of any forthcoming changes in Syria.
All of this has happened in just over four months. However, it is in fact the delayed and inevitable consequence of four decades of autocratic rule where the extended Assad family, security services and business interests badly gutted and corrupted Syria’s governance institutions. This helped expose the hollowness and weaknesses of the ruling edifice once a domestic challenge erupted. Syria’s ruling establishment remains strong and broadly unified for now, but its end is certain if it uses no other means than military force to respond to the populist national uprising that challenges it.....
For now, the most interesting and historically important aspect of the situation in Syria is less the behavior of the top-heavy, security-based Assad regime – an endangered global species – and more the continued awakening of regional powers intervening in Syrian affairs more openly, as major global powers watch the people and regimes of the Middle East (still two different phenomena in most countries) retake control of their destinies."
"....The most significant of trends is probably the more aggressive or assertive role of regional actors, as international players find that they have very limited means of influencing Syrian government actions. This is linked to the slow transformation of Syria from a leading actor that often defined key political realities around the Middle East, into a more passive player whose domestic troubles have suddenly clipped its regional wings.
The third big change is Syria’s sudden vulnerability at home, causing other regional powers to start working more diligently to either protect their interests or to make sure they are well positioned to take advantage of any forthcoming changes in Syria.
All of this has happened in just over four months. However, it is in fact the delayed and inevitable consequence of four decades of autocratic rule where the extended Assad family, security services and business interests badly gutted and corrupted Syria’s governance institutions. This helped expose the hollowness and weaknesses of the ruling edifice once a domestic challenge erupted. Syria’s ruling establishment remains strong and broadly unified for now, but its end is certain if it uses no other means than military force to respond to the populist national uprising that challenges it.....
For now, the most interesting and historically important aspect of the situation in Syria is less the behavior of the top-heavy, security-based Assad regime – an endangered global species – and more the continued awakening of regional powers intervening in Syrian affairs more openly, as major global powers watch the people and regimes of the Middle East (still two different phenomena in most countries) retake control of their destinies."
Syria: the regime's war of attrition
The Syrian regime responded to protests with violence, but is this tactic leading them to their eventual suicide?
Marwa Daoudy
(Lecturer at the Middle East Centre, St Antony's College, the University of Oxford.)
Al-Jazeera
Marwa Daoudy
(Lecturer at the Middle East Centre, St Antony's College, the University of Oxford.)
Al-Jazeera
"The Syrian regime's response to five months of popular uprising was described by a recent report of the International Crisis Group as "slow motion suicide", resulting from a "mix of uninhibited brutality, sectarian manipulation, crude propaganda and grudging concessions".
The regime opted for a survival strategy: responding by violence and threatening the population with chaos and civil war in the event of its demise. The objective was to launch a war of attrition by playing on time to wear out any internal revolt. It chose, however, the wrong combination of brutal repression and gradual concessions. The result was a crisis of confidence which was too deep to be overcome by mere calls for national dialogue and reform....
Few cards to play
In its struggle for survival, the regime has a few cards to play. Syrians are now extremely worried about the fragility of their country and the dangers that lurk around the corner. Being in a web of strategic networks, the consequences of instability and insecurity in Syria would potentially be far-reaching. Events can turn in any direction and the next month will be crucial.....
Plans to reach out to the second circles of power, beyond the immediate ruling family, are also under consideration. Rumours of growing defections in the army are now reaching the news. Speculations on the recent replacement of the minister of defence, General Ali Habib, evoke his presumed inclinations in favour of the revolution. The regime is again playing the sectarian card by appointing a new Christian minister of defence.
If given guarantees for the post-revolution phase, the 1,200 Alawite officers, with hundreds of men under their command, could be drawn into the transitional phase leading to political pluralism and the rule of law; otherwise, they might resist to the bitter end. Prosecution should be sought against the ones who have perpetrated crimes. But the bulk of the army (with approximately 200,000 soldiers and officers) will need to somehow be integrated. All this presumes that control of military and security affairs is effectively handed over to civilian rule in the transition to democracy.
There is still a long way to go, but the road to Damascus has been taken, and there is no turning back."
Current Al-Jazeera (Arabic) Online Poll
The question is:
Do you support international military intervention in Syria?
With over 400 responding, 57% said no.
I am surprised that only 57% oppose foreign military intervention.
Do you support international military intervention in Syria?
With over 400 responding, 57% said no.
I am surprised that only 57% oppose foreign military intervention.
Thursday, August 11, 2011
Al-Jazeera Video: AJE speaks to a Hama resident in Syria
"Al Jazeera speaks to Saleh Al Hammawi, a resident in Syria's Hama through a translator who gives us an update on what is happening on the ground.
Al Jazeera has banned from reporting from the country and has to rely on eye witness accounts and citizen footage uploaded to social media sites for information on the ongoing crisis that is currently underway."
Israel uses "primitive, racist" policies against Palestinian prisoners
Mel Frykberg
The Electronic Intifada
Ramallah11 August 2011
".......The administrative detention policy is used when Israeli authorities have “secret witnesses” such as Palestinian informants, or has obtained intelligence in a clandestine manner which would not stand up in an Israeli civilian court but are par for the course in Israeli military courts.
No fair trial
“It’s a primitive and racist way to hold a trial and no civilized country in the world uses such methods. Needless to say Israel’s legal system could never do this to an Israeli Jew. Even the Israeli settlers who carry out acts of terror against Palestinians in the West Bank are not treated in this manner,” Qadura Fares, the president of the Palestinian Society Prisoners’ Club in Ramallah, said.
“Administrative detainees are not given a fair trial. Basically the Israeli military prosecutor and the military judge are in agreement. It is very rare for a judge to disagree with the military prosecutor,” Fares says....."
The Electronic Intifada
Ramallah11 August 2011
".......The administrative detention policy is used when Israeli authorities have “secret witnesses” such as Palestinian informants, or has obtained intelligence in a clandestine manner which would not stand up in an Israeli civilian court but are par for the course in Israeli military courts.
No fair trial
“It’s a primitive and racist way to hold a trial and no civilized country in the world uses such methods. Needless to say Israel’s legal system could never do this to an Israeli Jew. Even the Israeli settlers who carry out acts of terror against Palestinians in the West Bank are not treated in this manner,” Qadura Fares, the president of the Palestinian Society Prisoners’ Club in Ramallah, said.
“Administrative detainees are not given a fair trial. Basically the Israeli military prosecutor and the military judge are in agreement. It is very rare for a judge to disagree with the military prosecutor,” Fares says....."
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