Monday, May 13, 2013

دم وكلمات

AS USUAL, A GREAT COMMENT!


الياس خوري

يهدرون الدم والكلمات، هذه هي سورية اليوم في عُرف النظام الاستبدادي وحلفائه. فبعد الغارة الاسرائيلية انفجر الرد الكلامي، وبدأ مسلسل اهدار الكلمات. صارت الكلمات جثثا، بينما تحولت اجساد ضحايا البيضا وبانياس، الى كلمات تقول صمت الضحايا وترسم الألم الإنساني الذي جعل من سورية اليوم ارض الوجع والتضحية والألم.
من الصعب ان نلجأ الى تحليل سياسي لهذا الهذر الكلامي الذي ينمو كالطحالب على ضفاف اجساد الضحايا، لأن المطلوب هو تحليل انعدام السياسة، التي تلخص اللحظة السورية الراهنة، جاعلة من سورية ساحة لصراعات القوى الاقليمية والدولية.
قصف قاسيون الذي أشعل سماء دمشق )لم يصدر حتى الآن اي توضيح سوري عن حجم الخسائر او المواقع التي استهدفها(، ليس حدثا استثنائيا، بل هو جزء من سياق اسرائيلي بدأ قبل اندلاع الثورة السورية، واستمر خلالها، وكان جواب النظام كلاماً عاماً عن اختيار زمان الرد ومكانه. لكن قصف ضاحية دمشق تميز هذه المرة بعنفه، وبالكلام السري الذي صاحبه، ما استدعى رداً كلامياً مختلفاً تولاه هذه المرة السيد حسن نصرالله نيابة عن حلفاء النظام السوري في طهران.
بالطبع لم يحظَ ردّ وزير الاعلام السوري السيد عمران الزعبي بأي اهتمام، كما لم يلتفت احد بشكل جدي الى الخبر الذي بثه التلفزيون الرسمي السوري عن قرار فتح جبهة الجولان امام المقاومة الفلسطينية! فهذا النوع من الكلام لا يجدي، لأن لا احد مستعد لتصديق بشار الأسد الذي وصفه افرايم هاليفي، الرئيس السابق للموساد الاسرائيلي بأنه ‘رجل تل ابيب في دمشق، لأن هذا الرجل ووالده تمكنا من الحفاظ على الهدوء في جبهة الجولان طوال اربعين عاما’. كما ان التسريبات التي نشرتها الصحف الإسرائيلية عن رسالة وجهها نتنياهو الى الأسد بأن الضربة لا تستهدف النظام، ولا تسعى الى احداث خلل في توازنات القوى في سورية، وضعت النقاط على الحروف، بحيث تابع النظام وميليشياته الحرب بضراوة ومن دون اي تردد.
لكن تصريحات السيد نصرالله، وقراره بتحويل سورية الى دولة مقاومة مسألة مختلفة. فالرجل الذي قاد مقاومة مديدة ضد اسرائيل، وجد نفسه محشورا في زاوية الصراع في سورية، خصوصا وان تدخل ميليشيا حزبه ومقاتلين عراقيين وايرانيين، زادا من تفاقم المشاعر الطائفية في سورية، كما ان مذبحتي بانياس والبيضا اللتين سبقتا الضربة الاسرائيلية، كي لا نقول تزامنتا معها، حملتا مؤشرات تطهير طائفي عرقي على الطريقة الصربية. وهذا التطهير هو من دون اي شك محل ترحيب اسرائيلي.
أمين عام حزب الله، على غير عادته، استبدل الأفعال بالكلام عن الأفعال. يعلم السيد نصرالله بالطبع ان ثقوب الخطاب الداعم لنظام الاستبداد لا يمكن سترها. كيف يكتشف الآن، وبعد اربعين سنة على احتلال الجولان ان سورية يجب ان تتحول الى دولة مقاومة؟ ماذا كانت سورية قبل خطاب السيد الأمين العام؟ التحالف مع المستبد كان بحجة انه نظام مقاوم ممانع، فإذا بنا نكتشف اليوم انه لم يكن كذلك، وان على حزب الله لعب دور كبير كي يحصل هذا التحول.
طيب اذا لم تكن سورية دولة مقاومة فماذا كانت؟ ام كان على الشعب السوري ان ينتظر اربعين عاما كي يستكمل آل مخلوف نهب ثروات سورية، قبل اتخاذ القرار بالتحول الى دولة مقاومة!
يبدو الكلام عبثيا واهدارا للكلام. المسألة لا علاقة لها بالمقاومة على الاطلاق، وعلى حزب الله، بدل ان يتكلم عن قرارات لن تُنفذ سحب مقاتليه من القصير والسيدة زينب وريف دمشق، ونشرهم على جبهة الجولان، عندها يصير الكلام فعلا، وعندها لا يستطيع احد ان يشكك في ان مقاومة الاحتلال هي الهدف، وان من يريد مقاومة العدو الاسرائيلي المحتل، لا يمكن ان يقبل بأن تتلوث يداه بالدم الطائفي، ويساهم في تلويث سورية بالجريمة.
لقد علمتنا تجربة الحرب الأهلية اللبنانية المريرة ان من يقاوم العدو لا يتلوث بالدم الطائفي، وهذا ما قام به حزب الله لحظة تحرير الجنوب. فكيف تصير الممارسات الطائفية واعمال التطهير المتوحشة التي يقوم بها النظام مدخلا الى المقاومة؟ وكيف يمكن للمرء ان يقبض هذا الكلام المليء بالثقوب، والعاجز عن قول الحقيقة؟
يقولون ان هناك مؤامرة في سورية، وهذا صحيح، يكفي ان نتابع مفاوضات كيري- لافروف كي نكتشف ان علامة المؤامرة الكبرى هي اخراج السوريين والسوريات من المعادلة، كي تستمر حرب تدمير سورية الى ما لا نهاية.
يقولون ان دول الخليج النفطية ضالعة في هذه المؤامرة، وان ايران شريك مضارب فيها، وهذا صحيح ايضا. فدول الخليج تريد وأد الديموقراطية في العالم العربي قبل ولادتها، وتسليم السلطة لقوى متأسلمة تعيد الزمن قرونا الى الوراء، كما ان ايران لا ترى في سورية الا نافذة تتسلل منها الى المشرق العربي بهدف توسيع نفوذها ونشر دعوتها الايديولوجية.
لكن ما لا يقال هو ان ستة أشهر من المظاهرات السلمية الصاخبة في مدن سورية واريافها التي رد عليها النظام بالقتل والذبح والدوس على الأجساد، ستة أشهر لم تحرّك نخوة حزب المقاومة في لبنان، وقوبلت بخبرات ايرانية كي تتحول الثورة الى ركام، مثلما حصل خلال الثورة الخضراء في ايران.
ستة أشهر من الكذب والقتل اوصلت الناس الى اليأس، وتفاقم اليأس مع قيادة سياسية للمعارضة، تميزت بالجهل والخفة وعدم الجدية والاتكال على الدعم الخارجي، والاستسلام للمال القطري، اوصلت الى فراغ سمح للقوى العظمى بتحويل سورية الى ساحة للدمار.
نعم الذي استجلب التدخل الخارجي هو بشار الأسد، والذي سمح لنفسه بالقتال ضد الشعب السوري هو ايران ومعها حزب الله، والذي اضاع الفرص هو المعارضة السورية التي لم تستطع ان تواجه هذا العسف المتوحش بعقلانية صارمة ورؤية جديدة.
كل هذا اوصلنا الى حقيقة سورية لها اسمان:
اسمها الاول هو الدم السوري الذي يغطّي العيون، وينتشر شهادة على الحرية التي يدفع السوريات والسوريون ثمنها مضاعفاً.
واسمها الثاني هو الكلام السياسي المهدور، الذي جعل من الكلمة ممسحة، ومن اللغة لغوا.
ليس بكلام خفيف عن تحويل سورية الى دولة مقاومة يمكن استعادة الموضوع. الموضوع يبدأ حين تكون مقاومة الاحتلال جزءا من بل طليعة مقاومة الاستبداد، ومتحررة من اي اعتبار مذهبي او طائفي.
لكن للأسف، فنحن امام فرصة جديدة ضائعة ثمنها اجساد الضحايا في سورية التي هي الشاهد والشهيد في آن معا. 

Real News Video: Hawking and the Growing Israel Boycott Movement

BDS activists in Gaza (Boycott, Divestment and Sanction) consider renowned physicist Stephen Hawking's decision to cancel his participation in an upcoming conference in Israel as part of an academic boycott "a huge victory for the BDS movement"


More at The Real News

Real News Video: Drums Beat for US Military Intervention in Syria but Israel finds a Weakened Assad "Convenient"

Phyllis Bennis: The humanitarian disaster in Syria is mostly ignored as external powers vie for position to control outcome of civil war  


More at The Real News

Sunday, May 12, 2013

April 6 founder decries political climate as 'worse than under Mubarak'


After being arrested at Cairo airport, April 6 Movement founder Ahmed Maher says that the only difference between Mohamed Morsi and deposed Hosni Mubarak is the 'religious tint'

Ahram Online , Sunday 12 May 2013

"Egypt’s April 6 Youth Movement founder Ahmed Maher stated late Saturday: "What is taking place now is worse than what was being experienced during Mubarak’s time."


"The only difference between Mohamed Morsi and Hosni Mubarak is the religious tint," asserted Maher during his phone-in to the channel.Maher’s comments on the private Al-Nahar channel’s Akher Al-Nahar programme came a day after being arrested when he landed at the Cairo International Airport from Austria en route from the United States.
He reflected on his place of detention, the Aqrab Prison, which he said is in exactly the same state as it was during the Mubarak era.
Maher decried that all those who decided to put their differences aside and support Morsi in the 2012 presidential elections against Mubarak-era minister Ahmed Shafiq (including Maher himself) have been viciously deceived.     
Police arrested Maher on Friday for "inciting protests" outside the interior minister’s Cairo residence in March.
More than simply calling for protests, Maher was arrested for the nature of the protest on 29 March at the home of Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim in the capital's New Cairo district.
Protesters held up banners – along with women's undergarments – accusing the ministry of "prostituting" itself to President Mohamed Morsi's administration.
Four other April 6 members were arrested and charged with rioting and resisting police after security forces dispersed the protest.
Maher was, however, ordered released from prison on Saturday, pending investigations by the Prosecutor-General, as the charges against him remain in place.
On Saturday, political analyst and member of the Egyptian Social Democratic Party, Emad Gad, and veteran leftist writer, Amina Shafiq, were stopped at the Cairo International Airport because their names allegedly resemble those of listed terrorists.
Gad told Ahram Arabic news gate Saturday that this was a clear message to him and Shafiq, as they had both travelled in an out of Egypt for many years and this was the first time they had been subjected to such treatment.    
Gad, who is also a member of the opposition umbrella group the National Salvation Front, condemned what he claimed to be flagrant violations by the authorities targeting the youth and public figures."

Saturday, May 11, 2013

43 Dead in Turkey Car Bombings Near Syria



Comment:[Reyhanli is a town with a sunni majority]

In one of the deadliest attacks in Turkey in recent years, two car bombs exploded near the border with Syria on Saturday, killing 43 and wounding 140 others. Turkish officials blamed the attack on a group linked to Syria, and one called the neighboring country's intelligence service and military "the usual suspects."
The blasts, which were 15 minutes apart and hit the town of Reyhanli's busiest street, raised fears that Turkey could increasingly be drawn into Syria's brutal civil war.
Turkey already hosts Syria's political opposition and rebel commanders, has given shelter to hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees and in the past retaliated against Syrian shells that landed in Turkey.
Deputy Prime Minister Besir Atalay said the assailants were from Turkey, but were linked to Syria's intelligence service.
"We have to a great extent completed our work toward identifying the assailants," he told reporters. "We have established that the organization and assailants have links to the pro-regime mukhabarat (intelligence) organization."
He did not name the group.

Al-Jazeera Video: Talk to Al Jazeera - Moaz al-Khatib: The priority is to save Syria

Al-Jazeera Video: حديث الثورة/ الأسد والغارات الإسرائيلية

Israel’s Samson Complex

Netanyahu Again Rebuffs Peace with the Arab World

By Jonathan Cook
CounterPunch

"......Kerry, meanwhile, has proffered his own warning: there is a two-year deadline to finding a solution to the conflict. Then the Obama administration’s lame-duck period begins.
What follows next is left unstated. But presumably once the US formally abandons the peace process, the current status quo intensifies: a single state ruled over apartheid-style by Israel, with a Palestinian Authority consigned to irrelevance or oblivion.
Whatever his protestations, none of this will overly worry Mr Netanyahu. After all, this is a government that last week found grounds for complaint in Google’s decision to confer the status of “Palestine” on a search engine designation.
The reality is that another round of failed peacemaking will do far more damage to the Palestinians and Washington’s reputation than to an Israel that never intended to pick up the phone in the first place."

Carlos Latuff's Cartoon: Stephen Hawking boycotts Israel academic conference


Friday, May 10, 2013

With Father and Sister Imprisoned, Exiled Bahraini Activist Maryam Alkhawaja Condemns Ongoing Abuses

Democracy Now!


"The Bahraini government is continues its crackdown on opposition protesters, with demonstrations repressed and scores of dissidents held behind bars. We’re joined by Maryam Alkhawaja, a leading Bahraini human rights activist. Her family has been highly critical of the U.S.-backed monarchy and they have paid a heavy price. Maryam’s father, human rights attorney Abdulhadi Alkhawaja, is serving a life sentence in prison. He has already spent two years in jail. Her sister, Zainab Alkhawaja, is also imprisoned. A close friend of the family, Nabeel Rajab, is also in jail. Rajab had been the head of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights. “There has hardly been any real accountability of the Bahraini government of the human rights violations that have been going on in Bahrain for more than two years now,” says Alkhawaja, who is now the acting president of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights....."

Al-Jazeera Video: Inside Story: Boycotting Israel


"Stephen Hawking has become the latest high-profile figure to support an academic boycott of Israel. The world-renowned physicist has pulled out of a conference hosted by Israeli President Shimon Peres."

Stephen Hawking's support for the boycott of Israel is a turning point

Boycotting Israel as a stance for justice is going mainstream – Israelis can no longer pretend theirs is in an enlightened country


The Guardian,

".....The Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS) aims to change this dynamic. It puts the initiative back in the hands of Palestinians. The goal is to build pressure on Israel to respect the rights of all Palestinians by ending its occupation and blockade of the West Bank and Gaza Strip; respecting the rights of Palestinian refugees who are currently excluded from returning to their homes just because they are not Jews; and abolishing all forms of discrimination against Palestinian citizens of Israel.
These demands are in line with universal human rights principles and would be unremarkable and uncontroversial in any other context, which is precisely why support for them is growing.
BDS builds on a long tradition of popular resistance around the world: from within Palestine itself to the Montgomery bus boycott in Alabama to the struggle against apartheid in South Africa. Historically, boycotts work.
During the 1980s opponents of sanctions against apartheid South Africa – including, notoriously, the late Margaret Thatcher – argued instead for "constructive engagement". They were on the wrong side of history. Today, Palestinians are lectured to drop BDS and return to empty talks that are the present-day equivalent of constructive engagement.
But there can be no going back to the days when Palestinians were silenced and only the strong were given a voice. There can be no going back to endless "dialogue" and fuzzy and toothless talk about "peace" that provides a cover for Israel to entrench its colonisation.
When we look back in a few years, Hawking's decision to respect BDS may be seen as a turning point – the moment when boycotting Israel as a stance for justice went mainstream.
What is clear today is that his action has forced Israelis – and the rest of the world – to understand that the status quo has a price. Israel cannot continue to pretend that it is a country of culture, technology and enlightenment while millions of Palestinians live invisibly under the brutal rule of bullets, bulldozers and armed settlers."

Thursday, May 9, 2013

Real News Video: Stephen Hawking Confirms Support of Israel Boycott

Phyllis Bennis: Hawking's boycott of Israel will shake Israeli public the way sports boycott affected South Africa  

More at The Real News

Former Syrian Rebel Chief: Islamists Should Be Included


Recently Resigned President Pushed for Nusra to Attend Meetings

COMMENT

The US plan, as was predicted on this blog months ago, is becoming clear. It is to keep a weakened Assad who is easy to control and poses no threat to Israel. Another objective is to draw in the Islamists (to later destroy them) and then to form the Syrian version of the Iraqi Sahwa mercenaries to fight the Islamists (not the regime). These mercenaries are now being trained in Jordan.

The illusions of all those who were naive enough to think that the US would intervene to topple Assad, should now be dispelled.

I hope that the Syrian opposition is wise enough to avoid being split up and to continue a united front against the despot's regime. 

"Former Syrian National Coalition (SNC) President Moaz al-Khatib, who resigned in March, is critical of efforts to split the rebels into two camps, a moderate and an Islamist camp, and insists the Islamists should be included in the rebellion.
“We refuse any radical thinking but this does not mean we can exclude them,” insisted Khatib. Aides to the former president added that he had invited Jabhat al-Nusra, the al-Qaeda linked rebel faction, to attend SNC meetings and coordinate militarily with them.
Efforts by Khatib to invite Nusra to establish formal contacts were eventually vetoed by other SNC officials, and may well have played a role in Khatib’s sudden resignation, which he attributed to growing infighting and lack of international support.
The US has reportedly been pushing the secular rebels to focus primarily on fighting Jabhat al-Nusra, and the host for US trainers, Jordan, has cited undermining the Islamist rebels as a primary goal for hosting the training program. In the long run, however, the secular rebels don’t seem to be anywhere near capable of winning the war on their own, nor do they seem inclined to ditch the Islamists for promises of more Western aid."

ALSO, READ THIS:

US Asked Moderate Syrian Rebels to Fight Al-Nusra

"Much has been made of the Obama administration’s decision to set up shop in Jordan under the pretense of containing the Syrian conflict and of training so-called moderate elements in the Syrian rebel opposition. That is the pretense that has so far been publicized in the news media and is thus the pretense that critics have denounced as a matter of policy.
The popular refrain among those who oppose US intervention in Syria has been that the Obama administration is siding with Sunni jihadists to unseat the Assad regime. I’ve argued that is not what is happening, or at least that it is grossly oversimplified.
Another piece of the puzzle has been made public with a report from journalist Phil Sands who interviewed one of the Syrian rebel commanders that met with US officials in Jordan. According to him, “the Americans were more interested in talking about Jabhat Al Nusra, the Al Qaeda-affiliated group waging war on the Syrian regime, than they were in helping the rebels advance on Damascus.”
The Americans began discussing the possibility of drone strikes on Al Nusra camps inside Syria and tried to enlist the rebels to fight their fellow insurgents.
“The US intelligence officer said, ‘We can train 30 of your fighters a month, and we want you to fight Al Nusra’,” the rebel commander recalled.
Opposition forces should be uniting against Mr Al Assad’s more powerful and better-equipped army, not waging war among themselves, the rebel commander replied. The response from a senior US intelligence officer was blunt.
“I’m not going to lie to you. We’d prefer you fight Al Nusra now, and then fight Assad’s army. You should kill these Nusra people. We’ll do it if you don’t,” the rebel leader quoted the officer as saying.
What the commander says transpired in Jordan illustrates a dilemma that has preoccupied, even paralysed, Syria’s opposition and their international supporters – how to deal with the expanding role of Islamic extremists in the anti-Assad insurgency.
Other meetings with Western and Arab intelligence services have shown a similar obsession with Al Nusra, the commander said.
“All anyone wants is hard information about Al Nusra, it seems to be all they are really interested in. It’s the most valuable commodity you can have when dealing with these intelligence agencies,” he said.
According to this rebel commander, his goal of overthrowing the Assad regime was sidelined in favor of American plans to have the rebels fight among themselves. This falls in line with several other publicly available accounts of the US approach.
In describing Jordan’s role serving as a conduit for arms going to a select group of Syrian rebels, the Guardian reported last month that the US and its allies “have sharply increased their backing of some rebels to try to stop the advances of al-Qaeda-linked groups among them.”
“A push to defeat al-Qaeda, rather than an outright bid to oust Syria’s leader, Bashar al-Assad, is Jordan’s driving force,” the Guardian added.
In addition to the clandestine effort in Jordan to fight the Nusra Front, the Obama administration has also sent the CIA back into Iraq to support Iraqi state militias (the Shiite regime in Baghdad is an ally of Assad, nominally at least) to fight al-Qaeda affiliates pouring into Syria to join the rebellion. The Obama administration even considered a request from the Iraqi government to use drones to bomb Islamist rebel forces along the Iraq-Syria border.
It’s true that Obama has sent non-lethal and (indirectly) lethal aid to the rebels, despite the fact that the great bulk of the fighters who actually matter are jihadists. But the truth is, Obama has ruled out sending decisive aid, lethal or non-lethal, to Syria’s rebels. He reportedly overruled the suggestions of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Martin Dempsey – all of whom advocated arming the rebels. Instead, Obama made policy moves like designating the al-Qaeda in Iraq offshoot in Syria a terrorist organization and pressuring Saudi Arabia not to send heavier arms like anti-aircraft weapons.
As the State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said back in January, even as the US supports the Syrian opposition in some abstract way, it is of utmost importance to “maintain the functions of the state.” Syria may have been floated as a target for regime change by the Bush administration’s most fanciful neoconservatives, but Obama sees the chaos of Sunni jihadists taking control of Syria as a much worse outcome than Assad sticking around a while longer.
That said, this policy shift comes far too late. The Syrian war is now early in its third year and weapons from Washington’s Wahabi zealots in Saudi Arabia and in places like Qatar have undoubtedly made their way into the hands of jihadists. The protracted conflict, as Peter Harling and Sarah Birke write at The Middle East Research and Information Project, “never would have reached such cataclysmic proportions were it not for more than a little help from abroad.”
“The opposition would have thought twice about taking up arms had it not been convinced by shallow shows of Western outrage that it would not be left to face the consequences alone,” they argue.
US foreign policy is constantly remedying the catastrophes it has previously wrought. Bush’s war for regime change in Iraq gave rise to al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI). Obama’s meddling (and that of his allies in the Gulf) in Syria’s civil conflict prompted AQI to move to Syria and fight Assad as Jabhat al-Nusra. Now the meddling continues to try and eliminate al-Nusra, which has quickly become the foremost element in Syria’s rebellion. It is an endless trail of failures, leading to more interventions, which lead to more failures."

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Guardian Poll: Is Stephen Hawking right to join the academic boycott of Israel?

Stephen Hawking has pulled out of a conference hosted by the Israeli president, Shimon Peres, in Jerusalem as a protest at Israel's treatment of Palestinians. Is he right to do so?
Stephen Hawking

So far, 61% of the respondents said Yes!

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

The Rabbit is Planning His (No) Response to Repeated Israeli Attacks on His Regime's Forces.......

Any Decade Now!

Stephen Hawking joins academic boycott of Israel

Physicist pulls out of conference hosted by president Shimon Peres in protest at treatment of Palestinians

Matthew Kalman in Jerusalem
The Guardian,

"Professor Stephen Hawking is backing the academic boycott of Israel by pulling out of a conference hosted by Israeli president Shimon Peres in Jerusalem as a protest at Israel's treatment of Palestinians.
Hawking, 71, the world-renowned theoretical physicist and Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge, had accepted an invitation to headline the fifth annual president's conference, Facing Tomorrow, in June, which features major international personalities, attracts thousands of participants and this year will celebrate Peres's 90th birthday.
Hawking is in very poor health, but last week he wrote a brief letter to the Israeli president to say he had changed his mind. He has not announced his decision publicly, but a statement published by the British Committee for the Universities of Palestine with Hawking's approval described it as "his independent decision to respect the boycott, based upon his knowledge of Palestine, and on the unanimous advice of his own academic contacts there".
Hawking's decision marks another victory in the campaign for boycott, divestment and sanctions targeting Israeli academic institutions.
In April the Teachers' Union of Ireland became the first lecturers' association in Europe to call for an academic boycott of Israel, and in the United States members of the Association for Asian American Studies voted to support a boycott, the first national academic group to do so......."

Real News Video: Israel's Syria Strategy to Weaken Hezbollah and Profit from Chaos

Shir Hever: Israel can take advantage of weakened Syrian state to attack arms shipments headed to Lebanon; long grinding civil war in Syria said to be in Israel's interests  

More at The Real News

Al-Jazeera Video: ما وراء الخبر- أثر الغارات على العلاقات السورية الإسرا

A GOOD VIDEO; WELL WORTH WATCHING!


"تستعرض الحلقة العلاقات السورية الإسرائيلية على ضوء الغارات على أهداف في دمشق والتي بررتها إسرائيل بأنها موجه لحزب الله وليس لنظام الأسد.فما المسارات المستقبلية لهذه العلاقة في ظل التطورات الميدانية على الساحة السورية."

The Syrian Regime's Response to Israeli Raids on it? More Slaughter of the Syrian People, of course!

by Emad Hajjaj

The Syrian Regime's Response to Israeli Raids on it? More Slaughter of the Syrian People, of course!

Monday, May 6, 2013

بشأن تكرار الاعتداءات الاسرائيلية الخطيرة ضد سورية


6 مايو 2013
عزمي بشارة
1. ثبت للمرة الألف أن إسرائيل تعمل من أجل إسرائيل، وليس من أجل أحد، لا نظام ولا ثورة. (نقول هذا لمن يهلل للقصف بعدمية وطنية وانحلال سياسي وأخلاقي، ولمن يوجه أصبع الاتهام للثورة ويمنح اسرائيل هدايا بسحب فرقه من حدودها ويعدها بأنه لن يستخدم الكيماوي ضدها في المستقبل أيضا).
2. اسرائيل تعمل لمنع وصول أسلحة لحزب الله، أو لتنظيمات جهادية عاملة في سورية. ولكن القصف الأخير على قاسيون يشير إلى أنها تعتبر الفوضى الحالية في المشرق العربي عموما مناسبةً للتخلص من أي قوة استراتيجية في سورية، بغض النظر عمن سوف يحكم هذا البلد مستقبلا.
3. نفذت اسرائيل عمليات قصف في سورية قبل الثورة، ولم ترد سورية على القصف؛ لا جديد من حيث المبدأ، ولكنها توسع حاليا قائمة الأهداف ضد كل ما تعتبره يشكل خطرا عليها حاليا أو مستقبلا، بغض النظر عن طبيعة النظام. وهذا خطير.
4. اسرائيل لا تريد ان تكون في سورية الحالية أو المستقبلية قوة عسكرية استراتيجية من اي نوع. وهي تعتبر الفرصة الحالية سانحة لتطبيق ذلك.

5. بعد أن سحب الجيش السوري فرقتين من مناطق حدودية مع إسرائيل، ووظّفها ضد الثورة، وبعد أن أعلن وزير الإعلام ان السلاح الكيماوي لن يستخدم حتى ضد إسرائيل، قام سلاح الجو الصهيوني بقصف تدميري لأهداف سورية مرتين. أهدى النظام السوري تنازلا للكيان الصهيوني والغرب بأن ما يخشاه وهو استخدام أسلحة كيماوية ضد إسرائيل لن يحصل، وأن عدوه الحقيقي هو عدو الغرب، وهو "الإرهاب الإسلامي".
6. قامت إسرائيل بهذا العدوان بعد أن أعلنت إيران رسميا عن وجودها في سورية، وأن هذا الوجود لمنع سقوط دمشق بأيدي اسرائيل وواشنطن، ولا يبدو أن هنالك رد إيراني على إسرائيل التي تعتدي مباشرة على الحلقة المهددة من قبل إسرائيل والني يفترض أن يحميها التحالف المعلن. ولكننا نشهد ردود متواصلة ومثابرة وعنيفة ضد الشعب السوري والعراقي... هذا هو كما يبدو الصراع الحقيقي بالنسبة لإيران في المرحلة الراهنة.
7. في سورية دولة فاشية أمنية تحكمها عصابات مافيوزية لا ترتدع عن ارتكاب أفظع المجازر، وفي المقابل ثمة مظاهر نشوء أمراء حرب في الثورة إلى جانب اختراقات إقليمية ودولية لا يجابهها اي حاجز سيادي ثوري، ويرافقها غياب المسؤولية المركزية لدى الواجهة السياسة للثورة. وهذه ظواهر سوف تمنع إعادة إنتاج كيان سياسي سوري منظم، فضلا عن جيش ودولة. هذا وضع خطير يحتاج إلى تفكير معمق وفعل حازم.
8. إذا لم يتم تدارك الأوضاع السياسية بحلول سياسية حقيقة تضمن انتقال السلطة في سورية بشكل منظم يحافظ على الدولة، يدخل المشرق العربي في وضع جديد، سوف يكون التناقض الرئيس فيه هو التناقض الطائفي. وتعلن إسرائيل بوقاحة أنها عازمة على الاستفادة من هذا الوضع عبر الاستفراد بالمنطقة كقوة عسكرية وحيدة في المشرق العربي تضرب من تشاء متى تشاء، وعبر تكريس الاستيطان بشكل لا يمكن بعده التعرف على القدس والمناطق المحتلة عام 1967. وتظهر التنازلات الفلسطينية الرسمية المعبر عنها عربيا، والتي تقابلها إسرائيل ببرود، مجرد تفاصيل باهتة في هذه الصورة.

تشييع عراقي في البصرة قتل اثناء الدفاع عن مقام السيدة زينب بدمشق

"البصرة- (ا ف ب): شيع العشرات في مدينة البصرة الجنوبية العراقية الاثنين جثمان عراقي قتل في سوريا اثناء “الدفاع″ عن مقام السيدة زينب قرب دمشق.

وفي مناسبة نادرة، سار نحو مئتي شخص يحملون اعلام العراق وصورة ضياء مطشر كاطع العيساوي وقد كتب عليها “قالت السيدة زينب عليها السلام: اللهم تقبل منها هذا القربان”.

وكتب على الصورة ايضا “استشهد في حرم السيدة زينب” الاحد، وفقا لمراسل وكالة فرانس برس.

وقال حيدر شقيق ضياء لفرانس برس ان “اخي ذهب للدفاع عن مقدساتنا ونتمنى من كل عراقي شهم وبطل ان يحذو حذوه للدفاع عن مرقد السيدة زينب”.

ومن النادر ان تقام في العراق مراسم دفن وتشييع علنية لاشخاص يقاتلون في سوريا.

وبحسب مصادر محلية، فان العيساوي (29 عاما) ينتمي الى مجموعة تطلق على نفسها اسم “كتائب سيد الشهداء” تاسست قبل عام في البصرة بهدف “حماية المقدسات الشيعية في سوريا”.

ولم تتبن اي جماعة عراقية ارسال مقاتلين الى سوريا التي تملك حدودا مشتركة مع العراق بطول نحو 600 كلم.

وينقسم العراق بين منتقدين لبشار الاسد جراء النزاع الدموي الدائر في سوريا منذ اذار/ مارس 2011 والذي قتل فيه عشرات الآلاف، ومسؤولين اخرين بينهم المالكي يؤكدون على اهمية “الحل السياسي” للازمة هناك."


Real News Video: Religious Fundamentalism Growing in Gaza

Hamas is under extreme pressure from small Salafi extremist groups to impose Islamic and Sharia law  

More at The Real News

Al-Jazeera Video: Inside Story - Syria - exploding beyond its borders

Al-Jazeera Video:ما وراء الخبر - الغارات الإسرائيلية على سوريا

Sunday, May 5, 2013

The Usual Lies of the Syrian Regime



Earlier, the Syrian regime claimed that it downed an Israeli jet and that it had captured two Israeli pilots! Al-Manar (of Hizbullah) repeated that.

Israeli jet shot down over Damascus: Hezbollah TV

Later, when the lie became too transparent, the Syrian regime started backtracking, as seen below:

مصادر امنية للمنار: الدفاع الجوي السوري يصيب طائرة حربية اسرائيلية خلال اغارتها على دمشق

وزير الإعلام السوري بعد الإجتماع الطارئ لمجلس الوزراء السوري : ليس لدينا أدلة حول ما يقال عن سقوط طائرة حربية اسرائيلية في سوريا

Al Jazeera discusses the potential fall out from the Israeli airstrikes on Syria

Al-Jazeera Video: إسرائيل تغير على أهداف داخل سوريا

RT Video: New massive Israeli attack rocks Damascus army research site

Russian sources: Syria set for war with Israel. Iron Domes at Haifa and Safed

DEBKAfile Special Report May 5, 2013

"Russian and Iranian media Sunday, May 5, predicted full-scale Middle East hostilities involving Israel erupting in the coming hours, in the wake of Israel’s renewed strikes against Iranian missiles bound for Hizballah and other targets around Damascus. Russian sources reported rumors that President Bashar Assad was on the point of declaring war on Israel.
Russia Today claimed that an Israeli rocket strike Sunday caused heavy Syrian casualties – according to rumors, at least 300 members of the Syrian Army’s 501st Unit dead and hundreds filling four Damascus hospitals. debkafile: If this is confirmed, then the unit which operates the chemical weapon facility at the Barzeh district north of Damascus at the foot of Mt. Qassioun was hit.
 The same Russian source reported that Syrian security forces cordoned off the sites of the explosions against entry. Residents reported after the blasts that the ground moved with the force of a 4 magnitude earthquake.
Shortly after the Israel attacks in the Damascus area Sunday, the IDF posted additional Iron Dome anti-missile batteries in Haifa and Safed to defend those northern towns against incoming Syrian and Hizballah rockets.
Low-ranking Syrian and Iranian officials responded to the Israeli attacks on Syria: Deputy Information minister His Al-Yiftah commented by saying that “a new foreign element had entered the Syrian conflict overnight and this would cause war.”
 In Tehran, an Iranian foreign ministry official condemned “Israeli aggression on Syria and accused Israel of fomenting instability and ethnic discord in the region. The commander of the ground forces asked if the war was not about to burst out of Syria’s borders, without answering the question.
An Israeli official confirmed to AFP that Israeli had Sunday conducted a second round of strikes in three days on advanced weapons including Iranian F-110 weapons bound for Hizballah in transit at Damascus international airport. Syrian TV reported only an attack on the Jamraya military research center just north of Damascus. This was the same facility which Israeli planes attacked in January."

Might does not make Right


Maysaloon

"......Last night's Israeli attack against an Assad regime research facility in Damascus has brought out of the wood work all sorts of individuals who, silent in the face of the massacre in the coastal city of Banyas for the past three days, have suddenly found their voices. The similarity in the pictures we saw coming out of Banyas this past few days were truly horrific, and reminiscent of the images we saw from the Sabra and Chatilla massacres during the Lebanese civil war. Yet these self-styled anti-imperialists did not retweet and angrily condemn these murders. They chose silence and wilful ignorance instead.

Today they are trying to portray the Israeli air raids last night as an attack on Syrian sovereignty, as if that is not what Assad has been doing to Syrians for the past two and a half years. Apart from the evident hypocrisy of this position, there are also two fallacies underlying their argument. Firstly that the Syrian regime represents Syria, and that an attack on it is an attack on the country and its people, and the second is that Israel did this in support of the Syrian revolution.

With regards to the second point most Syrians, including those who support the revolution, are missing the fact that Israel hasn't got the slightest concern about the Syrian revolution or the Syrians who are dying. It is focused first and foremost in its battle with Iran and Hezbullah, and has consistently stated that it will not let the more advanced weaponry in Syria's arsenal falling into Hezbullah's arms. When it attacks Assad's bases and arsenals, it is doing so with a clear strategy.

Syrians supporting the revolution should neither cheer nor lament the involvement of Israel's attacks on Assad's arsenal. From a practical point of view it is very much an advantage to the revolution (armed as well as peaceful), as it is far better for the regime's arsenal and advanced divisions to be obliterated than that they be used against Syrian towns and villages. We have seen the piles of bodies in Banyas and countless Syrian villages and cities, on a week so close to the anniversary of the Houla massacre perpetrated by Assad regime thugs, and these images will forever be engraved in the collective memory of Syrians. Never again must we allow ourselves to be in such a position, that Syrians be slaughtered like sheep in an abattoir......."

محلل عسكري اسرائيلي: تفجير الصواريخ في دمشق يثبت قدرة على اختراق الملاجئ المحصنة

عرب48 +وكالات

"رجح المحلل العسكري في صحيفة "يديعوت احرونوت"، روني بن يشاي، ان الضربات الاسرائيلية لمخزون الصواريخ السورية ووقود هذه الصواريخ التي نفذت على دفعتين خلال اليومين الماضيين كانت منسقة مع الولايات المتحدة الأمريكية.

وأضاف بن يشاي، ان الضربات لا تستهدف منع ايصال هذه الصواريخ الى ايدي حزب الله فقط، مع ما يمثله ذلك من تهديد لاسرائيل، بل ان اسرائيل تستغل اللحظة المناسبة لضرب مخزون الصواريخ السورية، مشيرا الى أن مثل هذه الضربات يحتاج تنفيذها الى اعداد ومعلومات استخبارية وقدرات هجومية يحتاج توفيرها اسابيع عديدة وصولا الى اللحظة المناسبة لتنفيذ الضربات.


وقال بن يشاي، ان هذه الضربات تشير الى امتلاك اسرائيل لصواريخ وقنابل قادرة على اختراف الملاجئ الواقعة تحت الأرض، حيث اثبتت قوة الانفجارات المرافقة للضربة أن الأهداف اصيبت بشكل مباشر ما يدل على قدرة لاختراق هذه الملاجئ المحصنة

....
....."

Israel launches more 'airstrikes' in Syria


Syria state media reports of Israeli airstrikes targeting several military positions.

"Israeli warplanes struck areas in and around the Syrian capital, setting off a series of explosions as they targeted a shipment of highly accurate, Iranian-made guided missiles believed to be on their way to Lebanon's Hezbollah group, officials and activists said.
Syria's state media on Sunday reported that Israeli missiles struck a military and scientific research centre near the Syrian capital and caused casualties.
The attack, the second in three days, signaled a sharp escalation of Israel's involvement in Syria's civil war......"

Saturday, May 4, 2013

THE WAR AGAINST IRAN MAY HAVE ALREADY STARTED

COMMENT
By Tony Sayegh

The Israeli attacks on Damascus and on missiles destined for Hizbullah, as well as bellicose pronouncements by Nasrallah in support of the war criminal Assad, taken together with large mobilization of Israeli reservists and massive "maneuvers" by Western nations in the Persian Gulf, all seem to strongly indicate that the war against Iran/Syria/Hizbullah has already started. American and British troops are already massing in Jordan, which has permitted Israeli jets to use its airspace (to bomb Iran and/or Syria).

Before Iran is struck, Hizbullah's missiles will have to be neutralized. The Israeli attacks in the past couple of days may be designed to bait Hizbullah to respond. Obama has already declared, "Israel has the right to defend itself!"

There is a new moon next Friday and that makes for ideal conditions to launch cruise missiles against Iranian targets at night.

This is my speculation. Tighten your seat belts, it is going to be a very hot May/June.


قدسيا 5-5-2013 قصف مجهول المصدر على جبال قاسيون

Al-Jazeera Video: العثور على عشرات الجثث في بانياس




Syrians flee coastal town after 'massacre'

Al-Jazeera Video: طائرات إسرائيلية تقصف أسلحة متجهة لحزب الله

Video: خطير وهام جداً جداً أقوى انفجار تشهده دمشق على جبل قاسيون



Israel Launches Another Attack On Syria
Explosions shake Damascus; Syria blames Israel

Syria: massacres of Sunni families reported in Assad's heartland


President inaugurates 'martyrs' statue as fresh violence explodes in Alawite zone


The Observer,

Syrian massacre

"The pictures appear to tell a familiar story. In one a pile of bodies lies on a street corner, shot down, apparently where they were gathered. Among them is a girl in a red blouse, perhaps five years old, spreadeagled among a dozen other family members, some covered in sheets. A baby's legs are visible and a crumpled man has apparently been shot through the spine.
According to Syrian opposition activists, these killings happened in the coastal city of Banias, a Sunni family gunned down in the midst of the Alawite heartland, the Shia minority sect largely loyal to the regime of President Bashar al-Assad. Although the pictures could not immediately be verified, video and other pictures appeared to confirm reports of whole families being killed in two massacres by a pro-government militia in the past two days, prompting thousands to attempt to flee the area. In a statement, the US State Department said it was "appalled" by the latest reports.
According to reports, the first incident is alleged to have taken place in the village of Bayda on Thursday, while overnight fresh killings were reported by activists inside Banias itself, blamed on gangs of pro-regime loyalists. Images claimed to have been taken in Bayda on Thursday showed the bodies of several men, some apparently blindfolded, lying in the street......" 


بعد البيضا: العثور على 62 جثة على الأقل في بانياس 

"عثر اليوم، السبت، على 62 جثة على الأقل في أحد أحياء مدينة بانياس الساحلية في شمال غرب سورية.
وقال المرصد السوري لحقوق الإنسان إنه "عثر على جثامين عشرات المواطنين الذين استشهدوا خلال اقتحام القوات النظامية يرافقها عناصر من جيش الدفاع الوطني لحي رأس النبع في مدينة بانياس". وأن عدد المواطنين الذين توثق استشهادهم بالأسماء أو الصور أو الأشرطة المصورة بلغ 62 شخصا.
وبحسب المرصد فإن من بين الضحايا 14 طفلا، مشيرا إلى أن العدد "مرشح للارتفاع بسبب وجود عشرات المواطنين الذين فقد الاتصال بهم".
واعتبر الائتلاف الوطني لقوى الثورة والمعارضة السورية، في بيان، أن "عمليات القتل العشوائي في قرى الساحل السوري تأخذ بالتدريج طابع عمليات تطهير عرقي شبيهة بتلك التي قامت بها القوات الصربية في البوسنة قبل عقدين".
ودعا الائتلاف، مجلس الأمن الدولي "إلى الانعقاد فوراً، لإصدار قرار ملزم يدين بشدة مجازر النظام هذه، ويعتبرها جرائم إبادة جماعية".
وكان المرصد، أفاد في وقت سابق اليوم، عن فرار مئات العائلات من الأحياء الجنوبية لبانياس، تخوفا من "مجزرة جديدة" تلي تلك التي ارتكبت في قرية البيضا القريبة من بانياس الخميس الماضي، والتي قتل فيها ما لا يقل عن 50 شخصا.
 "

Al-Jazeera Video: حديث الثورة/ تصاعد المجازر في سوريا والموقف الدولي وال

Al-Jazeera Video: ما وراء الخبر/ واقع الحريات الصحفية بدول الربيع

M is for Mosque: How Egypt's Copts were sidelined


Post-revolution Egypt has suffered from rising sectarian violence, Ahram Online investigates the history of troubles between the country's Muslim and Christian communities

Yasmine Fathi , Saturday 4 May 2013


".....S for sectarianism

In recent decades, Copts had to battle with generations of state-led prejudice in an education system that many feel demeans their religion. This system often exacerbates the divisions between Muslims and Christians.
“The main role of education is to spread the idea of equal citizenship between Egypt’s different factions,” explains Mougheeth......


Starting from the late 70s, the school curriculum has included an increasingly anti-Christian rhetoric.
The Islamists began trying to gain control of the education system. According to Mougheeth, they opened private Islamic schools and encouraged their children to study teaching in order to take positions in schools across the nation.
“These Islamist teachers then climbed up the career ladder until they reached decision-making positions,” he said.
By the mid-80s sectarian ideas began spreading through the schoolbooks.
“In the mid-1980s, I remember a school book that taught students in middle school that the Bible is fabricated,” says Mougheeth. “I asked myself, how could the education minister pass this?”
The Islamic faith also dominated much of the schoolbooks. One book researched by Mougheeth had 68 per cent Islamic content......


No rule of law

The lack of legislation to protect Christians only intensifies the crisis.
For years, activists and human rights campaigners have been calling for the introduction of an anti-discrimination law to help decrease the mistreatment of Christians. Before the revolution, a proposal was written, but ended up gathering dust in parliament.
Shortly after the Maspero massacre in October 2011, where more than 25 Copts died after clashes with the army, the then -ruling military council added two articles in Egypt’s penal code to criminalise discrimination. But no law was issued.
The Morsi regime has also followed in the footsteps of Mubarak by allowing reconciliation sessions between Muslims and Christians after every attack.
“These reconciliation sessions usually pressure the victim to give up their rights,” says Megahed. “So the criminals feel that they can do this as many times as they want. What we need is the rule of law.”......"


Hamas ‘Talibanising’ Gaza

By Mel Frykberg

"RAMALLAH, Occupied West Bank, May 3 2013 (IPS) - The Islamist resistance group Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, is being accused by its Palestinian Authority (PA) rivals in the West Bank of Talibanising Gaza and turning the coastal territory into a new Muslim Brotherhood neighbourhood.
Earlier in the year Hamas launched a “virtue campaign” aimed at spreading Islamic Sharia and fighting against “Western dress and behavior.”
Following a recent law passed by Hamas, when the new school year begins from September this year, it will now be illegal for male school teachers to teach Palestinian girls in Gaza’s schools. Furthermore, girls and boys from the age of nine upwards will be forcibly segregated throughout the Gaza Strip, including those in private and Christian schools where co-education exists to a certain degree.
The law will affect the seven percent of schools in Gaza that are private, including Christian schools......


This latest crackdown on civil liberties follows earlier campaigns which have seen women banned from riding on the back of motorcycles, a common form of transport in the territory where fuel is scarce. Women have also been banned from smoking water pipes in public, and couples on the streets have been subjected to interrogations by Hamas security members.
Male hair stylists are forbidden from styling women’s hair while female runners were banned from taking part in a marathon organised by the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in Gaza, leading  UNRWA to cancel the event.  The marathon went ahead in the West Bank, attracting international competitors and Palestinian women.........


But choice is an issue for many Palestinians, and Hamas legislation on “how to be a good Muslim” is seen as enforcement of the Hamas political agenda.
“This is ridiculous. What is wrong with boys and girls learning together? As a Muslim and a parent I want the choice as to whether I send my children to a mixed school or a gender segregated one,” says Rana Atta from the Women’s Affairs Technical Committee (WATC) in Ramallah in the West Bank.
Atta, who wears a head scarf, says that the new legislation introduced by the Hamas authorities not only violates human rights but is contrary to the spirit of education which should be promoting gender equality and an inclusive society representative of all......


When Hamas took over full control of the Gaza Strip it promised to respect the civil liberties of Palestinians, a promise that the Islamic movement has increasingly broken with growing militancy.
“Hamas is slowly engaging in a process of the Islamisation of Gaza. A process which is not constitutional on the one hand and neither is it popular with Gazans on the other,” says Dr Samir Awad, a political analyst from Birzeit University, near Ramallah......"


Friday, May 3, 2013

The Muslim Brotherhood’s ‘right-wing’ politics game


Last updated: Thursday, May 02, 2013 1:17 PM

Bassem Youssef
Al Arabiya


"......With the absence of a clear separation between religion and politics like in the American Constitution, there is no ceiling for religious outbidding in Egypt.

If you open the door for religious outbidding in the country, someone who is more religious than you will appear. Someone who pretends to be more devout and pious will appear and say that you are not implementing texts (regardless of the texts’ interpretations) or that you are against Shariah (despite the flexibility of Shariah.) The result is that outbidding will not stop because there is always someone telling people they are not religious or Muslim enough.

The Brotherhood has outbid us, the Salafists outbid the Brotherhood and then the jihadists outbid both. The average citizen may ask, “Where is Islam amid this nonsense?”

You ruined religion through politics, and you ruined politics under the name of religion. You spread hatred among people. And so there is no more ceiling for extremism, racism and stupidity.

You may win the elections and the seats, control Egypt’s street by playing the religion card and hide behind the obnoxious game of sectarianism. But you have lost yourselves and pitted people against one another when you used sacred religion in the unsacred game of politicians.

God will not leave you unpunished and will not forgive you for what you have done to this country and religion. When civil war rages in this country, history will mark in which era it erupted and because of whom. And there is no power or strength except through God."

لا تنخدعوا من تردد امريكا


عبد الباري عطوان

عندما يعلن السيد حسن نصر الله زعيم حزب الله ان النظام السوري لن يسقط لأن هناك أناسا يدعمونه، وعندما يعلن الاخضر الابراهيمي المبعوث الاممي حاليا، والعربي سابقا، انه سيقدم استقالته في غضون ايام يأسا وقرفا، وعندما تكشف الولايات المتحدة عن مناورات تحت مياه الخليج العربي لمنع نشر الغام او اغلاق مضيق هرمز حيث تمر 20′ من الصادرات النفطية الى العالم، فماذا يعني كل هذا؟
الاجابة، وباختصار شديد، ان الحلول السياسية للملفين الايراني والسوري قد تبخرت، وان الحلول العسكرية تتقدم وبسرعة اكبر مما نتصورها، فمجلس الحرب الذي انعقد في واشنطن بالتقسيط بمشاركة امراء ووزراء من الخليج، وملك الاردن، ورئيس وزراء تركيا، اتخذ القرار فيما يبدو، وساعة الصفر تحددت، ونحن في انتظار التنفيذ.
فليس صدفة ان تعلن الادارة الامريكية، وبعد تلكؤ اغضب حلفاءها في المنطقة، انها تعيد النظر في قرارها بعدم تسليح المعارضة السورية بأسلحة حديثة ومتطورة. وليس صدفة ايضا ان ينضم جنود بريطانيون الى قواتها في الاردن تحت اسم خبراء لتوفير التدريب على جمع الأدلة عن انتهاكات حقوق الانسان، والعنف الجنسي ضد النساء بالذات.
الولايات المتحدة الامريكية حصلت على مكافأة ضخمة من جامعة الدول العربية، ووفد ما يسمى بلجنة متابعة مبادرة السلام المنبثقة عنها، الذي زار عاصمتها الاسبوع الماضي، تمثلت في دعم مبادرة ميتة ومتحللة اصلا، والقبول لأول مرة بمبدأ تبادل الاراضي بين الفلسطينيين والاسرائيليين، اي مبادلة اراض فلسطينية بأخرى فلسطينية، والمستفيد الاحتلال الاسرائيلي ومستوطنوه، في اي اتفاق سلام يتم التوصل اليه، مما يعني وللمرة الاولى تشريع تعديل حدود عام 1967، رضوخا لسياسة فرض الامر الواقع الاسرائيلية.
ما يثير الريبة فينا، ويجعلنا نشعر بالقلق اكثر، ان التنازلات العربية تأتي دائما على حساب الحقوق الفلسطينية، فكل من يريد ارضاء امريكا واسرائيل يلجأ الى تقديمها، او التطبيع مع اسرائيل تحت مسميات الاعتدال والرغبة في السلام.
والأخطر من ذلك كله ان التنازلات العربية للإدارة الامريكية، وبشكل آلي لاسرائيل، لا يجري تقديمها للولايات المتحدة الا قبل حروبها الكبرى في المنطقة، او من اجل تجنب غضبها، او الاثنين معا، فأول مبادرة سلام عربية تعرض التطبيع والاعتراف الكامل بإسرائيل قدمتها المملكة العربية السعودية لامتصاص الغضب الامريكي من مشاركة 17 سعوديا في احداث الحادي عشر من ايلول (سبتمبر) عام 2001، وجرى استخدام المكانة السعودية المالية والسياسية والدينية لاعتمادها من مؤتمر قمة بيروت عام 2002 لتصبح مبادرة السلام العربية.
ومن المفارقة ان المبادرة هذه جرى تبنيها عربيا قبل العدوان الامريكي على العراق بعام فقط، وتلقفها الرئيس جورج بوش الابن لتبرير هذا العدوان، والادعاء بعزمه على اقامة دولة فلسطينية قبل انتهاء ولايته الاولى.
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المنطقة تقف على اعتاب الحرب، وتسليح امريكا للمعارضة ‘المعتدلة’ لمحاربة النظام والمعارضة ‘المتشددة’ معا، او كل على انفراد، حسب الأولويات الامريكية والاسرائيلية، مؤشر مهم في هذا الصدد. اما المؤشران الآخران، غير المناورة البحرية التي تبدأ اليوم وتشارك فيها اربعون دولة، فهما الاعلان عن تطوير قنبلة امريكية خارقة للتحصينات العميقة، في اشارة مباشرة للمنشآت النووية الايرانية المبنية في حضن جبل قريب من قمّ، والمؤشر الثاني تزويد اسرائيل بطائرات تمويل وقود امريكية في الجو، وتسريب انباء عن سماح الاردن للطائرات الاسرائيلية باختراق اجوائه.
السؤال الافتراضي الذي يطرح نفسه بقوة هو اذا ثبت، وبعد انتهاء هذه الحرب، ان الخطط العسكرية الامريكية والبريطانية للتعاطي مع الملفين الايراني والسوري لم يحققا النجاح المطلوب، فكيف سيكون حال المنطقة وانظمتها في دول الخليج خاصة؟
نحن كعرب ومسلمين، نندفع بقوة نحو تقسيم عرقي وتطهير وتهجير على اسس طائفية، فبالأمس بدأت حرب تدمير الأضرحة في سورية، وتبادل الاتهامات والتهديدات، وقبلها تدمير المساجد التاريخية في العراق، ولا نعرف ما هي المصيبة المقبلة التي ستوسع نار الفتنة المذهبية.
اهل السنة في العراق احتكموا للعقل، وليس الى السلاح، واختاروا شيخا فاضلا من بينهم (عبد الملك السعدي) للتفاوض مع الحكومة العراقية ورئيسها من اجل التوصل الى حلول ومخارج سلمية للأزمة، وبما يحفظ وحدة العراق، ويحقن دماء اهله، وهم الذين كانوا يشترطون خروج نوري المالكي، فلماذا لا يحتكم السوريون حكومة قبل المعارضة، الى العقل ايضا، ويحاولون التوصل الى حل سياسي ينقذ ما تبقى من البلاد وشعبها من الدمار والقتل؟
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مسؤول خليجي كبير قال لي في لقاء عابر معه في لندن قبل شهر، ان اطلاق صاروخ ايراني واحد على عاصمة بلاده سيؤدي الى كارثة كبرى لن تفوق منها لعقود قادمة، فيكفي ان اساطيل دول الخليج من الطائرات التي تزيد عن 500 طائرة مدنية ستربض في اراضي مطاراتها، هذا اذا لم تدمر كليا، ناهيك عن نسف معامل التحلية او احراق آبار النفط ومقتل وهروب الملايين من العمال الاجانب قبل اهل البلاد.
امريكا لا يهمها دمار المنطقة، والا لهمها مقتل او استشهاد مئة الف انسان سوري من الجانبين، وخوفها من الاسلحة الكيماوية ناجم عن خوفها من استخدامها ضد الاسرائيليين، والا لماذا لم تذرف دمعة واحدة على مقتل مئات الفلسطينيين بقنابل الفوسفور الابيض التي القاها الجيش الاسرائيلي على اطفال غزة؟ حيث لم نسمع عن خطوط حمراء او صفراء او بنفسجية.
من السهل علينا ان نلوم النظام السوري وحلوله الامنية الدموية، وان نذكّر بفشله في التعاطي بحكمة مع عاطف نجيب رئيس فرع الامن السياسي في درعا الذي اهان الاطفال واهاليهم وقتل الكثيرين منهم، ومن السهل اكثر ان نتجاوب مع طلبات ‘ما يطلبه المستمعون’ ونقول ان هذا النظام مجرم ودموي، ولكن ما يهمنا هو ما يجري حاليا وبعد عامين من قتل ودمار وتهجير وكيفية وقفه، وبما يحول دون مقتل مئات الآلاف وربما الملايين في سورية والعراق والاردن ومنطقة الخليج.
العد التنازلي للحرب بدأ، ومصر قد تلعب دورا كبيرا في منعها او حتى تأجيلها، خاصة في سورية، لما لها من ثقل سياسي وتاريخي وبشري، واعادة القائم بالاعمال المصري الى سفارة بلاده في دمشق، واستئناف العلاقات الدبلوماسية مع ايران اسوة بالسعودية ودول الخليج، ربما يمكنها من تكون وسيطا مقبولا من جميع الاطراف.
نعلم جيدا ان الفرص تضيق، واحتمالات الحرب تتزايد، ولكن لا بدّ من تدخل اللحظة الاخيرة لانقاذ ما يمكن انقاذه.

Al-Jazeera Video: Lebanon refuses designated Syrian camps

Al-Jazeera Video: حديث الثورة.. التطورات الميدانية بسوريا و التدخل الأجن

Real News Video: US Syria Policy Promotes Endless Civil War


Omar Dahi: Daniel Pipes, neo-con and ultra Zionist, spells out US policy towards Syria - let both sides destroy each other  

A MUST WATCH!

More at The Real News

Journalists targeted in ongoing conflict in Syria


"Scores of journalists reporting on human rights abuses in Syria have been killed, arbitrarily arrested, detained, subjected to enforced disappearances and tortured over the last two years, Amnesty International said in a report released today, World Press Freedom Day.

These abuses have been carried out by the Syrian authorities and armed opposition groups, turning Syria into a highly dangerous country for journalists to work in.

The Amnesty International report, Shooting the Messenger: Journalists targeted by all sides in Syria, details dozens of cases of journalists and media workers attacked or held since the 2011 uprising began, in an attempt to prevent them from reporting on the situation in Syria, including human rights abuses.

It also details the crucial role played by citizen journalists, many of whom risk their lives to make sure information about what’s going on inside the country is released to the outside world. Like their professional colleagues, this group has faced reprisals to prevent them carrying out their work.

Journalists are not the only civilians under threat in Syria, but so far at least 36 have died in what are believed to be targeted attacks......."


DOWNLOAD REPORT

The Syrian revolution has changed me as a writer

Samar Yazbek on how the relationship between her life and writing is now informed by reality, not fiction

Samar Yazbek
The Guardian,
Samar Yazbek
"......Earlier this year, I visited the caves in Reef Idlib where Syrian civilians have fled to escape the shelling. There, I came to a muddy hovel and made my way down into a damp, dark cave. My guide was a woman carrying her young baby, with four other children clinging to her side. They were naked and hungry. At the side of another cave nearby was a girl of 16 who had lost a leg in a bomb attack. She was sitting on the dirty ground. The cave was not fit even for animals. The woman who had brought me there told me how her house had been destroyed; that they had moved to the caves to escape the bombardments, but the aircraft had followed and attacked them there. The people were hungry and sick, and the children lost and confused.

Two years after the revolution began I am touring the alleyways of Saraqeb with a group of young men counting their dead. Mig helicopters bombarded the town for two days straight. Yet, despite all of the pain and suffering, I say the same now as before: my heart is broken and I'll never be at peace again, but I will not stop fighting Assad's regime, no matter what the post-Assad future holds. Assad is a tyrant, a murderer and a sadist. Whatever is to come, it cannot be worse."

Thursday, May 2, 2013

As U.S. Moves to Arm Syrian Rebels, Questions Raised About Reports of Chemical Weapons Attack

Democracy Now!

"The Obama administration is reportedly close to begin arming Syrian rebels with "lethal weaponry" in their fight against President Bashar al-Assad. The Washington Post reports President Obama will make a final decision in the coming weeks on what one official described as "assistance that has a direct military purpose." Syrian rebels have already asked Western backers for anti-tank weapons and surface-to-air missiles. This comes as Israel and U.S. sources have accused the Syrian government of using chemical weapons. On Tuesday, President Obama said chemical-weapon use in Syria would be a "game-changer." We speak to Tracey Shelton, a GlobalPost senior correspondent covering Syria. Her most recent article is "Syria: The Horrific Chemical Weapons Attack that Probably Wasn’t a Chemical Weapons Attack." Last month, Shelton won a George Polk award for "communicating the human tragedy of the conflict in Syria in a way that is impossible to ignore or forget."....."

Al-Jazeera Video:Gauging Hezbollah's role in Syria


"Saying it has "real friends in the region", Hassan Nasrallah, secretary general of the Lebanese-Shia group Hezbollah, has promised not to let the government of neighbouring Syria fall.

Nasrallah's televised address on Wednesday angered the Syrian opposition who have accused his group of supplying assistance to the forces of Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president.

In his speech, which came after two bomb attacks in the Syrian capital, Nasrallah called the armed opposition too weak to succeed in its two-year-long fight against Assad.

In an already volatile region, what does the admission of Hezbollah - Lebanon's most powerful political and military organisation - assistance to Assad's forces mean for the neighbouring nations?

As the conflict in Syria rages past its second year, how important is Hezbollah's involvement?

Joining Stephen Cole on this Inside Story, to discuss the report are guests: Kamel Waznee, founder and director of the Centre for American Strategic Studies in Beirut; Louay Safee, from the political office of the Syrian National Coalition; and Nicholas Noe, Mid-EastWire.com founder."

Al-Jazeera Video: ما وراء الخبر- مبدأ تبادل الأرض مع إسرائيل


"تناقش الحلقة الجدل بشأن إعلان الوفد الوزاري العربي في واشنطن قبول مبدأ تبادل الأرض مع إسرائيل.
تقديم: عبد القادر عياض
الضيوف: صائب عريقات، أسامة حمدان"

Al-Jazeera Video: استنكار لتصريحات نصر الله حول القتال بسوريا

Current Al-Jazeera (Arabic) Online Poll


Do you agree with the principle of land exchange in the negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians? 

With over 300 responding so far, 83% said no.

Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Guardian Video: Jewish settlers attack Palestinians in the West Bank







"A group of masked Jewish settlers set fire to a house and fields across villages in the West Bank before attacking Palestinians. Palestinian villagers clash with the settlers on a hill overlooking the village of Orif. Israeli soldiers arrive to disperse the crowd with stun grenades. The attack was in retaliation to the killing of Israeli settler Eviatar Borovsky."