Saturday 15 December 2018

Israeli settlers attack ambulance, Palestinian vehicles across Hebron

HEBRON (Ma’an) — Israeli settlers attacked a Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) ambulance and several other Palestinian vehicles, on Thursday night, in across the southern occupied West Bank district of Hebron.
PRCS sources confirmed that one of their ambulances, which was transporting a Palestinian patient to a hospital in Hebron City, was attacked by a group of Israeli settlers, who showered the ambulance with rocks.
Due to the attack, the ambulance driver was forced to turn back.
Meanwhile, Israeli settlers also attacked dozens of Palestinian vehicles passing at the Beit Einun junction, east of Hebron, and blocked the road that leads from Hebron to other villages, towns, and cities.
Additionally, Israeli settlers attacked a Palestinian vehicle passing at the Nabi Younis junction, north of Hebron, and caused severe material damages to the vehicle.
The vehicle belongs to Palestinian resident, Yousef Ibrahim Abu Jahisha.While the hundreds of thousands of Israelis living in Jewish-only settlements across occupied the West Bank in violation of international law are permitted to carry guns, and are rarely held accountable for stone throwing or similar attacks, Palestinians face up to 20 years in prison for throwing stones where intent to harm could be proven, and 10 years where it could not.
Israeli authorities served indictments in only 8.2 percent of cases of Israeli settlers committing anti-Palestinian crimes in the occupied West Bank in the past three years, according to Israeli NGO Yesh Din.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian   
The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Blog!

MEDIA IGNORES THE PLIGHT OF KIRILL VYSHINSKY: A RUSSIAN JOURNALIST IMPRISONED WITHOUT TRIAL IN UKRAINE



DuPDbN8WkAAqa6T
The 2018 Person of the Year issue features four covers depicting Philippines-based editor Maria Ressa, jailed Burmese journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, the staff of the Capital Gazette, and the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was killed in October at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. But jailed Ukrainian journalist Kirill Vyshinsky wasn’t included. Share this with those whom are unaware of Kirill’s plight. http://bit.ly/2UCZ0nb
Sign the petition to help release imprisoned journalist Kirill Vyshinsky 👉👉👉http://bit.ly/FreeKirill
Eva Bartlett speaks with journalist Vladimir Rodzianko on the detention of Kirill Vyshinsky by Ukraine since May 2018. Ukrainian authorities accuse Vyshinsky of “treason” and have delayed his trials twice.

Nov 12, 2018, Mint Press News

The case of Russian-Ukranian journalist, Kirill Vyshinsky, imprisoned without fair trail in Ukraine since mid-May is yet another in a long list of attacks on journalists by NATO-aligned countries that never make the headlines.
petition for Vyshinsky’s release reads:
On May 15, 2018, the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) carried out a massive operation against journalists, having forcefully searched the Ukrainian-based RIA Novosti’s central office in Kiev, including its correspondents’ homes, and arrest of it’s editor-in-chief, Kirill Vyshinsky.
On July 11, the court in Kherson, Ukraine extended Kirill’s imprisonment by 60 days without bail, and is currently being held captive, as his health is rapidly deteriorating.
As of November 1, the Kherson city court has extended the arrest of Kirill until December 28, without a legitimate trial and without right to bail.”
The journalist, if finally tried, could face up to 15 years in prison, although he was fulfilling his role as a journalist. While in prison, his health has deteriorated to the point that his lawyer had to request urgent medical treatment, Sputnik reported.
Yet, aside from the rather bland entry on the Reporters Without Borders (RWB) website, expressing “worry” for Vyshinsky, only Russian media seem to be reporting on the prolonged and illegal detention of a journalist. Just imagine the selective outrage corporate media would express in chorus were the journalist imprisoned in Russia. The RWB entry did, at least, note:
“The authorities must either precisely explain how the alleged actions constituted high treason or release Kirill Vyshinsky without delay.”
Supporters of Vyshinsky are asking for a fair trial and fair media coverage.
To learn more, I spoke with American journalist Vladimir Rodzianko, the author of the petition and co-administrator of a Facebook group in support of Kirill Vyshinsky.


Top Photo | Kirill Vyshinsky, surrounded by Ukrainian officials and security in Kiev, Ukraine. Photo | Reuters
…and yet:
Screenshot from 2018-12-13 15-17-40

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian   
The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Blog!

China’s Toughness v. Weak-Kneed Russia in Dealing with the US

By Stephen Lendman
Source
The only language Washington understands is toughness. The US bullies and bludgeons other nations with impunity because most governments fail to challenge its imperial lawlessness – showing weakness, not strength.
Appeasement is counterproductive and self-defeating. Refusing to tolerate hostile US actions is the only effective response. Nothing else can work.
Diplomacy with Washington accomplishes nothing. Republicans and undemocratic Dems don’t negotiate. They demand. 
They can never be trusted, repeatedly and consistently breaching international law, treaties, conventions, and bilateral agreements – how all hegemonic regimes operate, by their own rules, no others.
The US treats Russia, China, and all other sovereign independent countries as enemies or adversaries, not partners.
It rejects mutual cooperation with other nations, seeking dominance over planet earth, its resources and populations.
Russia believing a partnership with Washington exists is pure fantasy. Republicans and Dems want the country transformed into a US vassal state by whatever it takes to achieve their aim, including possible nuclear war.
It may be inevitable if the Kremlin continues to believe improved relations with Washington can be achieved through patience. 
It hasn’t worked out this way for over a century. Russian patience smacks of self-defeating appeasement. Chances of US policymakers turning a new leaf, seeking rapprochement over confrontation with the Kremlin, is virtually zero.
It’s long past high time Russian patience ran out, toughness with Washington replacing it, no longer tolerating its bullying, illegal sanctions, and other hostile actions.
It’s the only way to get the attention of US policymakers, the only language they understand, the only way to show Moscow no longer will tolerate being treated like a punching bag – without punching back.
In response to the lawless arrest, detention, and mistreatment of Huawei Technologies’ chief financial officer Sabrina Meng Wanzhou by Canadian authorities in Vancouver on December 1, acting as a Trump regime proxy, Beijing demanded her immediate release, warning of “grave consequences” otherwise.
Granting her bail under unacceptable conditions after 10 days of harsh detention, placing her under virtual house arrest until the Trump regime’s unlawful extradition demand is resolved one way or the other, preventing her from doing her job, constitute illegal affronts to her fundamental rights.
When Russian nationals are unlawfully arrested and held as political prisoners in America, notably Maria Butina most recently, Russia does little more than protest, an ineffective weak-kneed response achieving nothing.
China responded to Meng’s unlawful arrest and detention with toughness. Former Canadian diplomat Michael Kovrig was arrested and detained – reportedly for not properly registering as an NGO in the country, according to AP News.
Declining to confirm his arrest and detention, China’s Foreign Ministry said his activities in the country are illegal.
According to Xinhua, he’s suspected of engaging in activities detrimental to China’s national security – his arrest and detention likely in response to Canada’s targeting of Meng, a tit-for-tat action, the only way to get Ottawa’s attention.
On Wednesday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau turned truth on its head, claiming his country “always (observes) the rule of law.”
Canada is a US imperial, political, economic, and financial junior partner – notably involved in its wars of aggression.
In deference to Washington, Ottawa is hostile to sovereign independent states the US targets for regime change. Its authorities acted as a US proxy in the lawless arrest and detention of Meng.
China arrested and detained a second Canadian national, entrepreneur Michael Spavor. He’s held on suspicion of endangering the nation’s national security – as convenient a reason as any other in response to Meng’s mistreatment.
Canadian authorities were notified of the arrests and detention of both individuals. What’s going on appears to be Beijing’s response to Meng’s illegal arrest and detention.
Perhaps both Canadian nationals will be held until she’s unconditionally released, free from extradition to America, able to resume her normal activities unobstructed.
Responding to unacceptable made-in-the-USA toughness with similar actions is the only effective way to counter it.
Arresting one or more US nationals, holding them until Meng is unconditionally released, would notify Washington more emphatically that China won’t tolerate unlawful actions against its citizens by the US, Canada, or any other countries.
On Wednesday, Chinese nationals involved in hi-tech work were warned to avoid travel to America.
They were told to remove sensitive work-related information from cell phones and laptops when traveling to the West, notably if have to go to the US. It’s hazardous to their rights and welfare based on what happened to Meng.
In November, the Trump regime’s Beijing embassy revoked 10-year multiple-entry visas issued to certain Chinese researchers specializing in Sino/US relations.
Some of them had their cell phones and computers intrusively checked by US customs officers. Washington wants China marginalized, contained, and isolated.
It wants its aim to become an economic, industrial, and technological powerhouse undermined. Its repeated South China Sea provocations risk military confrontation between both countries.
China’s tough responses to unacceptable US provocations near its territory, along with the arrest and detention of two Canadian nationals, likely in response to what happened to Meng, is the only language these countries understand.
Russia’s failure to respond to unacceptable US toughness the same way shows weakness, not strength.
The only way to get its attention is by responding to its unacceptable actions in kind. Diplomatic outreach and patience with the US are counterproductive and self-defeating.
Following China’s playbook in dealings with Washington is Russia’s only effective strategy. It’s long overdue.
A Final Comment
China’s Global Times said Beijing “will take revenge if Canada does not restore Meng Wanzhou’s freedom.”
Based on its actions so far, it means what it says, and it has lots more tough options to use in dealing with the US and Canada if necessary.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian   
The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Blog!

Mike Pompeo: A Thug Masquerading as a Diplomat

By Stephen Lendman
Source
He represents the worst of what US imperial arrogance is all about, its pure evil agenda, waging war on humanity, supporting some of the world’s worst tinpot despots.
Notably it includes the Saudi regime, run by bandits, hooligans, and cutthroat killers, the Arabian peninsula they control masquerading as a nation-state.
On Wednesday, Pompeo tried defending the indefensible on Fox & Friends. His public remarks always feature a litany of Big Lies. Nothing he says is credible.
He lied about the nonexistent threat of “radicalized” immigrants, posing a “risk to American citizens.” 
The only threats ordinary Americans face are state-sponsored, none from abroad or from alien refugees or asylum seekers. Claims otherwise by Trump, Pompeo, and other regime hardliners are fabricated.
Pompeo supports a colossal boondoggle, wasting billions of dollars on a southern border wall Trump seeks. If built, it’ll be breached, tunneled under, or gone around by water or air to reach America. 
The only conceivable way to keep out unwanted immigrants is by walling-in the entire country and putting an impenetrable roof over it. Even that wouldn’t likely work. Trump’s scheme is hugely ill-conceived. No sensible person supports it.
Jamal Khashoggi’s murder was discussed. Pompeo continued to pretend Saudi crown prince Mohammad bin Salman (MBS) had nothing to do with what happened.
The world community knows otherwise. His responsibility for ordering Khashoggi’s elimination is indisputable.
Pompeo lied claiming the Saudis “provide security for America and for Israel.” The kingdom partners in their wars of aggression throughout the region – unrelated to security concerns.
Pompeo lied saying “it is absolutely America’s intent to hold everyone accountable who was responsible for” Khashoggi’s murder – provided MBS who ordered it is absolved, convenient patsies blamed for the crime.
Pompeo lied claiming “direct evidence (revealing who ordered Khashoggi’s murder) isn’t yet available.” Indisputable evidence exists, he wants suppressed.
He tried changing the subject, falsely accusing Iran of “running rampant throughout the Middle East” – a US, Israeli, Saudi speciality. The Islamic Republic is the region’s leading peace and stability advocate, one of many reasons why Washington wants its government toppled.
Trump, Pompeo, Bolton, Haley, and other regime hardliners never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity to support right over wrong.
They consistently blame nations targeted for regime change for US, NATO, Israeli, Saudi, UAE high crimes against them – or affecting people in countries they attack.
Pompeo blamed Beijing for unacceptable US provocations in the South China Sea. He accused the Xi Jinping government of “espionage and (undefined) influence operations here in the United States.”
Washington notoriously meddles in the internal affairs of virtually all other nations, including scores of elections post-WW II, aiming to install pro-Western puppet regimes.
It’s waging endless wars of aggression against one nation after another – together with NATO, Israel, the Saudis, and other imperial partners.
Russia, China, Iran, and other sovereign independent countries support global peace and stability. They seek cooperative relations abroad, opposing belligerence everywhere.
Pompeo and other US hardliners (Republicans and Dems) rhetorically express support for world peace, a notion they abhor. Systematically smashing one nation after another threatening no one shows what their agenda is really all about.
America’s rage for global dominance risks catastrophic nuclear war. Pompeo is part of the problem – supporting endless US wars of aggression, not responsibly opposing them.
The same goes for all Trump regime officials and vast majority of congressional members – warriors, not peacemakers, hostile to the rights and welfare of ordinary people everywhere.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian   
The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Blog!

In Syria The Entire Nation Mobilized and Won



Global Research, December 14, 2018
Yes, there is rubble, in fact total destruction, in some of the neighborhoods of Homs, Aleppo, in the outskirts of Damascus, and elsewhere.
Yes, there are terrorists and ‘foreign forces’ in Idlib and in several smaller pockets in some parts of the country.
Yes, hundreds of thousands of people lost their lives and millions are either in exile, or internally displaced.
But the country of Syria is standing tall. It did not crumble like Libya or Iraq did. It never surrendered. It never even considered surrender as an option. It went through total agony, through fire and unimaginable pain, but in the end, it won. It almost won. And the victory will, most likely, be final in 2019.
Despite its relatively small size, it did not win like a ‘small nation’, fighting guerilla warfare. It is winning like a big, strong state: it fought proudly, frontally, openly, against all odds. It confronted the invaders with tremendous courage and strength, in the name of justice and freedom.
Syria is winning, because the only alternative would be slavery and subservience, and that is not in the lexicon of the people here. The Syrian people won because they had to win, or face the inevitable demise of their country and collapse of their dream of a Pan-Arab homeland.
Syria is winning, and hopefully, nothing here, in the Middle East, will be the same again. The long decades of humiliation of the Arabs are over. Now everyone ‘in the neighborhood’ is watching. Now everybody knows: The West and its allies can be fought and stopped; they are not invincible. Tremendously brutal and ruthless they are, yes, but not invincible. The most vicious, fundamentalist religious implants can be smashed, too. I said it before, and I repeat it here again: Aleppo has been the Stalingrad of the Middle East. Aleppo and Homs, and other great courageous Syrian cities. Here, fascism was confronted, fought with all might and with great sacrifice, and finally deterred.
I sit in the office of a Syrian General, Akhtan Ahmad. We speak Russian. I ask him about the security situation in Damascus, although I already know. For several evenings and nights, I have been walking through the narrow winding roads of the old city; one of the cradles of human race. Women, even young girls, were walking as well. The city is safe.
“It is safe,” smiles General Akhtan Ahmad, proudly. “You know it is safe, don’t you?”
I nod. He is a top Syrian intelligence commander. I should have asked more, much more. Details, details. But I don’t want to know details; not right now. I want to hear again and again that Damascus is safe, from him, from my friends, from the passers-by.
Situation is now very good. Go out at night…”
I tell him that I have. That I have been doing it since I arrived.
No one is afraid, anymore”, he continues. “Even in the places where terrorist groups used to operate, life is returning to normal… The Syrian government is now providing water, electricity. People are returning to the liberated areas. East Ghouta was liberated only 5 months ago, and now you can see shops opening there, one after another.”
I get several permits signed. I take the General’s photo. I get photographed with him. He has nothing to hide. He is not afraid.
I tell him that at the end of January of 2019, or in February at the latest, I want to travel to Idlib, or at least to the suburbs of that city. That’s fine; I just have to let them know a few days in advance. Palmyra, fine. Aleppo, no problem.
We shake hands. They trust me. I trust them. That’s the only way forward – this is still a war. A terrible, brutal war. Despite the fact that Damascus is now free and safe.
After I leave General’s office, we drive to Jobar, on the outskirts of Damascus. Then to Ein-Tarma.
There, it is total madness.
Jobar used to be a predominantly industrial area, Ein-Tarma a residential neighborhood. Both places had been reduced almost entirely to rubble. In Jobar I am allowed to film inside the tunnels, which used to be used by the terrorists; by the Rahman Brigades and by the other groups with direct connection to Al-Nusrah Front.
The scene is eerie. Formerly these factories offered tens of thousands of jobs to the people of the capital city. Now, nothing moves here. Dead silence, just dust and wreckage.
Lieutenant Ali accompanies me, as I climb over debris. I asked him what took place here. He replies, through my interpreter:
This place was only liberated in April 2018. It was one of the last places that was taken from the terrorists. For 6 years, one part was controlled by the ‘rebels’, while another by the army. The enemies dug tunnels, and it was very difficult to defeat them. They used every structure they could get their hands on, including schools. From here, most of the civilians managed to escape.”
I asked him about the destruction, although I knew the answer, as my Syrian friends used to live in this area, and told me their detailed stories. Lieutenant Ali confirmed:
The West was feeding the world with propaganda, saying that this was destruction caused by the army. In fact, the Syrian army was engaging the rebels only when they were attacking Damascus. Eventually, the rebels retreated from here, after the Russian-sponsored talks with the government.”
A Few kilometers further east, in Ein-Tarma, things are very different. Before the war, this used to be a residential neighborhood. People used to live here, mostly in the multi-story buildings. Here, the terrorists hit hard at the civilians. For months or even years, families had to live in terrible fear and deprivation.
We stopped at the humble shop selling vegetables. Here, I approached an elderly lady, and after she agreed to it, I began filming.
She spoke, and then she shouted, straight into the camera, waving her hands:
We lived here like cattle. The terrorists treated us like animals. We were scared, hungry, humiliated. Women: terrorists would take 4-5 wives, forcing young girls and mature women into so-called marriages. We had nothing; nothing left!”
“And now?” I asked.
Now? Look! We live again. We have a future. Thank you; thank you, Bashir!”
She calls her president by his first name. She points palms at her heart, and after kissing them, she waves her hands again.
There is nothing to ask, really. I just film. She says it all, in two minutes.
As we are leaving, I realize that she is most likely not old; not old at all. But what has happened here broke her in half. Now she is living; she is living and hoping again.
I ask my driver to move slowly, and I begin filming the road, broken and dusty, but full of traffic: people walking, bicycles and cars passing by, negotiating potholes. In the side streets, people are hard at work, rebuilding, cleaning rubble, cutting fallen beams. Electricity is getting restored. Glass panels fitted into the scratched wooden frames. Life. Victory; all this is bittersweet, because so many people died; because so much has been destroyed. But life it is, despite everything; life again. And hope; so much hope.
I sit with my friends, Yamen and Fida, in a classic, old Damascus café, called Havana. It is a real institution; a place where Ba’ath Party members used to meet, during the old and turbulent days. Photographs of President Bashir al-Assad are displayed, prominently.
Yamen, an educator, recalls how he had to move from one apartment to another, on several occasions during the recent years:
My family used to live right next to Jobar. Everything around there was getting destroyed. We had to move. Then, at a new location, I was walking with my little son, and a mortar had landed near us. Once I saw building in flames. My son was crying in horror. A woman next to us was howling, trying to throw herself into flames: ‘My son is inside, I need my son, give me my son!’ In the past, we couldn’t predict from where the danger would arrive, and when. I lost several relatives; family members. We all did.”
Fida, Yamen’s colleague, is taking care of her ageing mother, every day, when she gets back from work. Life is still tough, but my friends are true patriots, and this helps them to cope with the daily challenges.
Over a cup of strong Arabic coffee, Fida explains:
You see us laughing and joking, but deep inside, almost all of us are suffering from deep psychological trauma. What took place here was tough; we all saw terrible things, and we lost our loved ones. All this will stay with us, for many years to come. Syria does not have enough professional psychologists and psychiatrists to cope with the situation. So many lives have been damaged. I am still scared. Every day. Many people have been terribly shaken.”
I feel sorry for my brother’s children. They were born into this crisis. My tiny nephew… Once we were under a mortar attack. He was so scared. Children are really badly affected! Personally, I am not afraid of getting killed. I am frightened of losing my arm, or leg, or not being able to take my mom to the hospital, if she was to be feeling sick. At least my ancestral city, Safita, has always been safe, even during the worst days of the conflict.”
“Not my Salamiyah,” laments Yamen:
Salamiyah used to be just terrible. Many villages had to be evacuated… Many people died there. To the East of the city were the positions of Al-Nusrah, while the west was held by the ISIS”.
Yes, hundreds of thousands of the Syrian people were killed. Millions forced to leave the country, escaping both the terrorists and the conflict as well as poverty that rode on the tail of the fighting. Millions have been internally displaced; the entire nation in motion.
The previous day, after leaving Ein-Tarma, we drove near Zamalka and Harasta. Entire huge neighborhoods were either flattened, or at least terribly damaged.
When you see the Eastern suburbs of Damascus, when you see the ghost buildings without walls and windows, with bullet holes dotting the pillars, you think that you have seen it all. The destruction is so huge; it looks like an entire big city was just blown up to pieces. They say this eerie landscape doesn’t change for at least 15 kilometers. The nightmare goes on and on, without any interruption.
So yes, you tend to think that you have seen it all, but actually you haven’t. It is because you have not visited Aleppo, nor visited Homs, yet.
For several years, I have been fighting for Syria. I was doing it from the peripheries.
I managed to enter the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and to file reports about the brutality and cynicism of the occupation.
For years, I covered life in the refugee camps, and ‘around them’. Some camps were real, but others were actually used as training fortresses for the terrorist, who were later injected into Syrian territory, by NATO. Once I almost disappeared while filming Apayadin, one of such ‘institutions’, erected not far from the Turkish city of Hattay (Atakya).
I ‘almost’ disappeared, but others actually did die. Covering what the West and its allies have been doing to Syria is as dangerous as covering the war inside Syria itself.
I worked in Jordan, writing about the refugees, but also about the cynicism of the Jordanian collaboration with the West. I worked in Iraq where, in a camp near Erbil, the Syrian people were forced by both the NGO and the UN staff, to denounce President Assad, if they wanted to receive at least some basic services. And of course, I worked in Lebanon, where more than one million Syrian people have been staying; often facing unimaginably terrible conditions as well as discrimination (many are now going back)
And now that I was finally inside, it all felt somehow surreal, but it felt right.
Syria appeared to be as I expected it to be: heroic, brave, determined, and unmistakably socialist.
Homs. Before I went there, I thought that nothing could surprise me, anymore. I have worked all over Afghanistan, in Iraq, Sri Lanka, East Timor. But soon I realized that I had seen nothing, before I visited Homs.
The destruction of several parts of the city is so severe that it resembles the surface of another planet, or a fragment from some apocalyptic horror film.
People climbing through the ruins, an elderly couple visiting what once used to be their apartment, a girl’s shoe that I find in the middle of the road, covered by dust. A chair standing in the middle of an intersection, from which all four roads lead towards the horrid ruins.
Homs is where the conflict began.
My friend Yamen explained to me, as we were driving towards the center:
Here, the media ignited hatred; mostly the Western mass media. But also, there were the channels from the Gulf: Al-Jazeera, as well as television and radio stations from Saudi ArabiaSheik Adnan Mohammed al-Aroor was appearing, twice a week, on a television program which was telling people to hit the streets, banging on pots and pans; to fight against the government.”
Homs is where the anti-government rebellion began, in 2011. The anti-Assad propaganda from abroad soon reached a crescendo. The opposition was ideologically supported by the West and by its allies. Rapidly, the support became tangible, and included weapons, ammunition, as well as thousands of jihadi fighters.
A once tolerant and modern city (in a secular country), Homs began changing, getting divided between the religious groups. Division was followed by radicalization.
My good friend, a Syrian who now lives in both Syria and Lebanon, told me his story:
I was very young when the uprising began. Some of us had certain legitimate grievances, and we began protesting, hoping that things could change for better. But many of us soon realized that our protests were literally kidnapped from abroad. We wanted a set of positive changes, while some leaders outside Syria wanted to overthrow our government. Consequently, I left the movement.”
He then shared with me his most painful secret:
In the past, Homs was an extremely tolerant city. I am a moderate Muslim, and my fiancé was a moderate Christian. We were very close. But the situation in the city was changing rapidly, after 2011. Radicalism was on the raise. I repeatedly asked her to cover her hair when she was passing through the Muslim neighborhoods. It was out of concern, because I was beginning to clearly see what was happening around us. She refused. One day, she was shot, in the middle of the street. They killed her. Life was never the same again.”
In the West, they often say that the Syrian government was at least partially responsible for destruction of the city. But the logic of such accusations is absolutely perverse. Imagine Stalingrad. Imagine foreign invasion; an invasion supported by several hostile fascist powers. The city fights back, the government tries to stop the advancement of the troops of the enemy. The fight, terrible, an epic fight for the survival of the nation goes on. Who is to blame? The invaders or the government forces who are defending their own fatherland? Can anyone accuse the Soviet troops for fighting in the streets of their own cities that were attacked by the German Nazis?
Perhaps the Western propaganda is capable of such ‘analyses’, but definitely no rational human being.
The same logic as to Stalingrad, should also apply to Homs, to Aleppo, and to several other Syrian cities. Covering literally dozens of conflicts ignited by the West all over the world (and described in detail in my 840-page long book Exposing Lies Of The Empire”), I have no doubts: the full responsibility for the destruction lies on the shoulders of the invaders.
I face Mrs. Hayat Awad in an ancient restaurant called Julia Palace. This used to be the stronghold of the terrorists. They occupied this beautiful place, located in the heart of the old city of Homs. Now, things are slowly coming back to life here, at least in several areas of the city. The old market is functioning, the university is open, and so are several government buildings and hotels. But Mrs. Hayat lives in both past and the future.
Mrs. Hayat lost her son, Mahmood, during the war. His portrait is always with her, engraved into a pentel she is wearing on her chest.
He was only 21 years old, still a student, when he decided to join the Syrian army. He told me that Syria is like his mother. He loves her, as he loves me. He was fighting against the Al-Nusrah Front, and the battle was very tough. At the end of the day he called me, just to say that the situation was not good. In his last call he just asked me to forgive him. He said: ‘Maybe I am not going to come back. Please forgive me. I love you!’”
Are there many mothers like her, here in Homs, those who lost their sons?
Yes, I know many women who lost their sons; and not just one, sometimes two or three. I know a lady who lost her two only sons. This war took everything from us. Not only our children. I blame the countries which supported the extreme ideologies injected into Syria; countries like the United States and those in Europe.”
After I am done filming, she thanks Russia for their support. She thanks all the countries that have stood by Syria, during those difficult years.
Not far from Julia Palace, reconstruction work is in full swing. And just a few steps away, a renovated mosque is re-opening. People are dancing, celebrating. It is Prophet Mohammed’s birthday. The Governor of Homs marches towards the festivities, with the members of his government. There is almost no security around them.
If the West does not unleash yet another wave of terror against its people, Homs should be just fine. Not right away, perhaps not soon, but it will be, with the resolute help of the Russians, Chinese, Iranian and other comrades. Syria itself is strong and determined. Its allies are mighty.
I want to believe that the most terrible years are over. I want to believe that Syria has already won.
But I know that there is still Idlib, there are also pockets occupied by Turkish and Western forces. It is not over, yet. The terrorists have not been fully defeated. The West will be shooting its missiles. Israel will be sending its air force to brutalize the country. And the mass media outlets from the West and the Gulf, will continue fighting the media war, agitating and confusing certain segments of the Syrian people.
Still, as I leave Homs, I see shops and even boutiques opening in the midst of the rubble. Some people are dressing up, elegantly again, in order to show their strength; their determination to put the past behind them and to live, once again, their normal lives.
Returning to Damascus, the motorway is in perfect condition and the industrial area in Hassia is getting rebuilt and amplified, too. There is a huge power plant, supported by the Iranians, I am told. Despite the war, Syria is still supplying neighboring Lebanon with electricity.
Yamen drives at 120 km/h and we joke that once we get scared of possible speed traps, instead of snipers, we know that the situation in the country is dramatically improving.
A Russian military convoy is parked at a rest area. Soldiers are drinking coffee. There is no fear. Syrians treat them as if they were their own people.
I see the most spectacular sunset, over the desert.
Then, once again, we pass through Harasta. This time at night.
I want to curse. I don’t; cursing is too easy. I need to get to my computer, soon. I have to write; to work. A lot, the best I can.
It is easy to feel at home in Syria. Maybe because Russian is my mother-tongue or perhaps because people here know that I have always stood by their country.
Some bureaucratic hindrances got resolved, quickly.
I met the outgoing Minister of Education, Dr. Hazwan Al-Waz, who is a fellow novelist. We spoke about his writing, about his latest book “Love and War.” He confirmed what I always knew, as a revolutionary novelist:
During the war, everything is political, even love.”
And then something that I will never forget:
My Ministry of Education has been, in fact, the Ministry of Defense”.
Last night in Damascus I walked all over the old city, till early morning. At one point, I arrived near the spectacular Umayyad Mosque, finding, right behind it, the mausoleum of Sultan Saladin.
I could not enter. At this late-night hour it was locked. But I could easily see it through the metal bars of the gate.
This brave commander and leader fought against the huge armies of the Western invaders – the Crusaders – winning almost every single battle, finding his peace and final resting place here, in Damascus.
I paid tribute to this ancient fellow internationalist, and I wondered, over a strong coffee in a nearby stall, in the middle of the night: “Did Saladin participate in this latest epic battle fought by the Syrian nation against the hordes of the foreign barbarians?”
Perhaps his spirit did. Or, more likely, some battles were fought and won with his name on lips.
‘I will be back,’ I uttered, walking back towards my hotel, few minutes after midnight. Two massive furry cats accompanide me, following my steps until the first corner. ‘I will be back very soon’.
Syria is standing. That’s what really matters. It never fell on its knees. And it never will. We will not allow it to fall.
And damned be imperialism
[First published by NEO – New Eastern Outlook]
Andre Vltchek is a philosopher, novelist, filmmaker and investigative journalist. He has covered wars and conflicts in dozens of countries. Three of his latest books areRevolutionary Optimism, Western Nihilism, a revolutionary novel “Aurora” and a bestselling work of political non-fiction: “Exposing Lies Of The Empire”. View his other books here. Watch Rwanda Gambit, his groundbreaking documentary about Rwanda and DRCongo and his film/dialogue with Noam Chomsky “On Western Terrorism”. Vltchek presently resides in East Asia and the Middle East, and continues to work around the world. He can be reached through his website and his Twitter.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian   
The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Blog!

Pentagon Considers Illegally Occupied Syrian Areas US Territory

By Stephen Lendman
Bipartisan hardliners in Washington consider all areas occupied by Pentagon forces virtual US territory, subject to its will under its rules, defying the sovereign rights of nations, fundamental international law, and its own Constitution.
Northern and southern parts of Syrian territory are illegally occupied by US forces, intending to stay indefinitely. More on this below.
Hubris and arrogance, along with contempt for democracy and rule of law principles, define how hegemons operate.
They’re distracted by sports and other entertainment bread and circuses – what Neil Postman explained in his book, titled “Amusing Ourselves to Death,” saying “Americans are the most entertained and least informed people in the world.”
The curse of television may doom us – explained in a June 1950 commencement address by Boston University President Daniel Marsh, saying: 
“If the (television) craze continues…we are destined to have a nation of morons.” Before the age of television, columnist  Walter Lippmann called the public “the bewildered herd,” adding: 
Their function is to be policymaking “spectators (not) “participants…The common interests elude public opinion entirely,” claiming that’s the way it should be.  
Most Americans fail to focus on what’s most important, making it easy for dark forces in Washington to undermine their rights and well-being – notably since the neoliberal 90s under the Clinton crime family co-presidency.
It’s true for the US most of all, the way it’s been since bankers, lawyers, politicians, judges, merchants, planters, and slave owners – a virtual Wall Street crowd – founded the country, installing self-serving leadership. 
Throughout its history, US governance has always been of, by, and for the privileged few alone – truer today than ever before.
Rage by Republicans and undemocratic Dems to rule the world unchallenged is humanity’s greatest threat – what Western media never explain, what most people don’t understand.
What’s ongoing today under Republicans and undemocratic Dems, in cahoots with powerful monied interests, is what America is all about, a fantasy democracy, never the real thing. 
The myth of American exceptionalism, the indispensable state, an illusory moral superiority, and military supremacy persist despite hard evidence debunking these notions. Public ignorance and apathy sustains what’s unsustainable longterm. A day of reckoning awaits.
A warrior state disdaining peace – devoting the vast majority of its discretionary spending to militarism, belligerence and corporate handouts – serving its privileged class exclusively, shows a nation in decline.
Its modus operandi includes pressuring, bullying, bribing, and smashing other countries, trying to maintain global dominance, losing what it aims to sustain by unacceptable, counterproductive policies.
Hypocrisy, not democracy, defines how America is governed – an increasingly totalitarian plutocracy, oligarchy and kleptocracy, a one-party state with two extremist right wings, a nation hostile to ordinary people everywhere, including at home.
It’s heading toward full-blown tyranny on the phony pretext of  protecting national security at a time its only enemies and threats are invented ones.
Ukraine and Syria share the eye of the storm. US armed and trained Kiev forces, mobilized along the border with Donbass, are poised to attack on orders from the Trump regime.
US-installed Ukrainian “president” Petro Poroshenko declared “war” on Russia and his own people. The November 25 Kerch Strait provocation was likely prelude for what’s planned.
Washington controls the puppet regime, using it as a dagger against Russia and the people of Donbass, rejecting illegitimate fascist rule.
Syria is the world’s other key hotspot. The Pentagon declared territory its forces illegally occupy in northern and southern parts of the country off-limits to Damascus.
It’s heading toward full-blown tyranny on the phony pretext of  protecting national security at a time its only enemies and threats are invented ones.
Ukraine and Syria share the eye of the storm. US armed and trained Kiev forces, mobilized along the border with Donbass, are poised to attack on orders from the Trump regime.
US-installed Ukrainian “president” Petro Poroshenko declared “war” on Russia and his own people. The November 25 Kerch Strait provocation was likely prelude for what’s planned.
Washington controls the puppet regime, using it as a dagger against Russia and the people of Donbass, rejecting illegitimate fascist rule.
Syria is the world’s other key hotspot. The Pentagon declared territory its forces illegally occupy in northern and southern parts of the country off-limits to Damascus.
Vladimir Putin, Lavrov, and other Russian officials know the US supports ISIS and other terrorists in Syria, as well as in other countries. There’s no ambiguity about it
Months earlier, Russia’s Defense Ministry released satellite video images showing US-supported troops together with terrorists comprising the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), moving freely in ISIS-controlled parts of Deir Ezzor province.
“Without resistance from ISIS militants, (these forces) are moving along the left bank of the Euphrates river towards the town of Deir Ezzor,” Russia’s Defense Ministry said, adding:
“Despite strongholds of the US armed forces…located where ISIS troops are currently deployed, there are not even signs of organization of a battle outpost.”
“Russian drones and intelligence have not recorded any confrontation between” US forces and ISIS terrorists Washington pretends to be combatting.
Separately, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman General Igor Konashenkov accused US forces in southern Syria of letting ISIS and other terrorists use its illegally established al-Tanf base as a platform for launching attacks on Syrian troops and civilians.
Endless US aggression in Syria continues. Despite years of Geneva, Astana, and Sochi conflict resolution talks, begun in 2012, restoring peace and stability to the country remains unattainable because Washington rejects ending the war it launched for regime change.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian   
The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Blog!

The (Attempted) Silencing of Tim Anderson

By Jeremy Salt
Source
Tim_Anderson_ff309.jpg
To me the Zionists, who want to go back to the Jewish state of AD 70 (destruction of Jerusalem by Titus) are just as offensive as the Nazis. With their nosing after blood, their ancient ‘cultural roots,’ their partly canting, partly obtuse winding back of the world, they are altogether a match for the National Socialists. That is the fantastic thing about the National Socialists, that they simultaneously share in a community of ideas with Soviet Russia and Zion. [1]
The Blumenfelds were here on Friday; I disagreed violently with him about Zionism, which he defends and praises, which I call betrayal and Hitlerism. [2]
The usual conversations for and against Zionism, which I equate with Hitlerism. [3]
These comments are taken not from the diary of Tim Anderson, whose employment at the University of Sydney has been terminated over a graphic he showed his class of a swastika stamped over the Israeli flag, but from the wartime diary, kept from 1933-1945, by Victor Klemperer, cousin of the famous conductor Otto, son of a rabbi, baptised as a Protestant, but suffering from the same cruelty and sadism as all other German Jews because he was regarded as ‘ethnically Jewish.’
The comparisons Klemperer could make in the 1930s cannot be made by a Sydney university lecturer in 2018, following the sacking of Tim Anderson by the Acting Vice-Chancellor of the University of Sydney, Stephen Garton.
For Jews, the swastika was the symbol of unrelenting evil. Palestinians bombed and shelled by Israeli tanks and planes emblazoned with the Star of David may well feel the same about this hijacked Jewish symbol. Who is doing greater damage to this symbol, Tim Anderson or the state of Israel?
Zionism and Nazism are linked at many levels. In the 1930s, through the Ha’avara (Crossing or Transfer) agreement signed between the Nazi government and the Zionist Federation of Germany, Jews could travel to Palestine – and only to Palestine – as long as they purchased German goods that could be exported with them. Through this means, about 60,000 German Jews were able to pay their way out.
Ideologically, an Aryan German state and an exclusive Jewish national state were the mirror images of each other, with German Zionists and not just the Nazis talking about purity of race and the danger of mixed marriages. The Nazi government did not want Jews in Germany and the Zionists did not want them to be there. Palestine was their solution to a common problem.
Adolf Eichmann’s visit to Palestine in 1937, most probably to inspect Zionist colonies, was very short because the British allowed him to stay only one night. The SS officer, Baron von Mildenstein, however, stayed for six months, writing glowing articles about Zionism and the ‘new Jew’ for the Nazi newspaper Der Angriff (The Assault). His visit was commemorated by Goebbels with the striking of a medal showing the swastika on one side and the Star of David on the other.
While Haa’vara was a pragmatic and ideological arrangement that suited both sides, the approaches the ‘extreme’ Irgun group made to the Nazis was purely ideological. The Irgun wanted to establish the same kind of national-racial Jewish state in Palestine as the national-racial Aryan state the Nazis were creating in Germany and they approached the Nazis accordingly.
Lenni Brenner has covered all the details in his two books, Zionism in the Age of the Dictators and 51 Documents: Zionist Collaboration with the Nazis. Francis Nicosia has written on the Zionist-Nazi connection in his 1980s book, The Third Reich and the Palestine Question. In Italy, Mussolini provided the Irgun with training facilities for four years at the Civitavecchia naval base.
In conversation with a rabbi Mussolini once described Vladimir Jabotinsky, the founding father of ‘Revisionist’ Zionism and the guiding light of the Irgun, as ‘your fascist.’ The Zionists also cooperated with the Nazis in occupied Hungary.
These dealings between the Nazis and both mainstream and ‘extreme’ Zionism were initiated at a time of a global Jewish economic boycott of Germany and have since been seen by many non-Zionist Jews as betrayal.
Benzion Netanyahu was for a time Jabotinsky’s personal secretary. Jabotinsky wrote of building an ‘iron wall’ against the Palestinians. Of its nature Zionism is extreme, so Jabotinsky’s ‘revisionism’ was simply more extreme or perhaps, better put, more open and less hypocritical about its aims, intentions and methods than the mainstream.
The Irgun and Stern Gang terrorist organizations were revisionists and two Israeli Prime Ministers, Menachem Begin (1977-1983) and Yitzhak Shamir (1983-4 and 1986-90 and 1990-92), were Irgunists. They came into office as terrorists and had committed even greater crimes by the time they left it. The sly and duplicitous Benyamin Netanyahu, the son of Benzion, has faithfully followed in their violent footsteps.
As human beings we make comparisons all the time. It is natural to look into history for parallels with Zionism. Algeria under French rule and apartheid South Africa quickly spring to mind. In both countries, the atrocities committed against the indigenous people over a long period of time were shocking but still not on the same scale as the massacres and dispossession of the Palestinians.
Historically, ideologically and in the racism and criminality of the Israeli state, Zionism is comparable with Nazism, whether the Zionists like it or not (and of course there is nothing they hate more). Palestinians suffer from institutional, structural, incidental and casual racism and violence at the hands of Israeli soldiers, police and the civilian population. The wellspring of these crimes is an ideology which reduces Palestinians to second-class human beings, and in the minds of some Zionists, not humans at all but insects.
Snipers along the Gaza fence who have killed hundreds of Palestinians, including women and children, and wounded tens of thousands more congratulate each other on their sharp shooting and are congratulated by their politicians. Massacres from the air and the ground evoke not a quiver of conscience in Israel’s leadership, which, along with many if not the majority of Jewish Israelis, regards every Palestinian as the enemy and an actual or potential ‘terrorist’ whose killing is justified whatever the circumstances, whatever the means and whatever the age of the victim.
Violent West Bank settlers are protected by soldiers and police, whatever the crimes they commit. Hebron is one of the most racist patches of earth on the planet. What goes on there was once described by the Israeli journalist Gideon Levy as a Jewish settler pogrom against the Palestinians but whereas pogroms under Russian rule in the Pale of Settlement were short-term attacks, the Hebron pogrom has been a continual process since 1967, just as the Nakba has been continual since 1948.
Two communities in hostage, one to the Nazis and one to the Zionists. A spokesman for the University of Sydney described Tim Anderson’s montage as ‘disrespectful and offensive.’ How much more disrespectful and offensive is the state of Israel?
Tim Anderson is not allowed to say or depict what he thinks. Others are, as long as they belittle him, and as long as they support the packs of terrorists – their ‘rebels’ – who have torn Syria to pieces at the behest of the governments that have armed and financed them and attacked the Syrian military on their behalf.
The Australian media has never reported Palestine truthfully. It repeated the lies told over Iraq and Libya and for the past eight years it has carried on this ignoble tradition by feeding misinformation, disinformation and lies over Syria into the Australian cultural mainstream. Except in its own mind, it is the purveyor not of ‘news’ but propaganda, packaged and presented on behalf of the Australian government and its distant masters.
Tim Anderson has tried to tell the truth, the way he sees it. The more vulpine elements in the media have relished his downfall. They hate him because his truths threaten the false narrative they have been spinning on behalf of the governments, including the Australian government, who are fully complicit in the war on Syria.
Ultimately, though, it was not Anderson’s defense of the right of the Syrian people to defend themselves that led to the termination of his employment, it was his view, shared with Victor Klemperer and many Jews since his time, that Zionism and Nazism have much in common.
Tim Anderson has been under attack for years. Now Stephen Garton has brought down the hatchet. He has no known specialized knowledge of the Middle East. There is not the slightest doubt that he has come under heavy pressure from the Zionist lobby, the defender of a violent, racist, criminal state, to shut Tim Anderson up. Anderson has even been banned from walking into his own campus.
Garton is in no position to judge whether there is any basis for comparing Zionism to Nazi racism yet he has passed arbitrary judgment. Other academics have rallied to Tim Anderson’s defense so this is a battle which the Zionists and Stephen Garton may yet lose.
Even though his life was in danger, Victor Klemperer refused to go to Palestine. He knew what the Zionists were up to. They were going to take Palestine from its people and he wanted no part of it. Zionism was a doctrine, which as a man of conscience even in the most trying conditions, he despised.
Yet what this son of a rabbi wrote in his diaries in the 1930s cannot be said, or implied, by the superimposition of a swastika over the flag of Israel, in an Australian university in 2018.
Endnotes
[1] Victor Klemperer, The Klemperer Diaries 1933-1945 (London: Phoenix Press, London, 2000), June 13, 1934, p.66.
[2] April 22, 1935, p. 113
[3] May 26, 1940, p.326.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian   
The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Blog!