Saturday, 3 May 2014

ISRAEL VS PALESTINE - FEAT. DAM & NORMAN FINKELSTEIN

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 30, 2014 AT 3:57PM GILAD ATZMON

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

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Syrian Army Advances in Aleppo, Eliminates Terrorists in Different Areas - 297 TERRORISTS SURRENDER IN HOMS OLD CITY

Negotiations to Allow Militants Pullout out from Homs near Final Agreement

Negotiations on the evacuation of militant groups from the Old City in central Syria have reached to a final agreement, Homs governor Talal Barazi said on Saturday.

Homs

“A ceasefire agreement in Old City Homs and surrounding areas is starting at 12.30pm (9.30GMT) for over 24 hours. Armed rebels will leave the Old City and head towards northern outskirts and the army will take over the Old City,” Barazi said.

Beibars Tilawi, a Homs-based activist said the first of about 1,000 militants would withdraw from the Old City on Saturday at noon local time (9am GMT) to countryside to the north of the city.

The withdrawal is expected to be supervised by a UN delegation and the government reconciliation committee.

Militants would also withdraw from al-Ghintou, Talbiseh, Dar al-Kabira, and Rastan, all areas of the city still under siege.

The city is strategically important as it connects government strongholds along the western coast with the capital, Damascus.

“The regime is concentrating on retaking strategic territory, it is part of their plan to partition the country,” said Khaled el-Khoja, of the Syrian National Council, an opposition block in exile.


Source: Al-Manar Website	03-05-2014

297 TERRORISTS SURRENDER IN HOMS OLD CITY

Ziad Fadel

HOMS:

Don’t listen to the putrid MSM reports or “opposition” proclamations about “negotiations” continuing. It’s over but for some die-hard suicides. Yesterday and today, 297 terrorists and former members of the Nusra, Jabhat Al-Islam and Ahraar Al-Shaam gave themselves up to the security services in one of the biggest mass surrenders of the conflict. The MSM is giving the impression the terrorists have some bargaining position when all the evidence coming in indicates they have given up in exchange for falaafel sandwiches. The SAA is now moving into all central Homs quarters.

Jabal Al-Shaa’er and Busayra west of Palmyra (Tadmur) close to the Al-Sindiyya Crossing in the direction of Talbeesa: Terrorists attempted an attack on a military outpost. 18 terrorists were killed and 4 wounded. The coordinates for this clash are particularly suspicious.

DAMASCUS:

Al-Maleeha: Continuing the campaign to rid rural Damascus of a terrorist infestation, the SAA today declared the entire Tamiko Pharmaceutical Production facility liberated as a confirmed 56 terrorist carcasses were being processed into Soylent Green.

Zibdeen: Also, the SAA is advancing steadily toward the secure Al-Kaazhem Air Defense Base and Command and Control Center essentially clearing out all Zibdeen of terrorists. Yesterday, Monzer reported over 40 terrorists from the Nusra killed here.

See Wikimapia: http://wikimapia.org/#lang=en&lat=33.490265&lon=36.408348&z=15&m=b

Zibdeen: Another 16 vermin were killed by SAA here in a raid on a nest. I have no names.

‘Ayn Turma: 2 flatbeds with 23mm cannons destroyed by NDF. 8 terrorists killed among whom were 2 Libyans, one called “Al-Zaybaq” which means “mercury or quicksilver”. Also killed was this terrorist:

‘Abu ‘Abduh Al-Doomaani

Syrian Army Advances in Aleppo, Eliminates Terrorists in Different Areas

Local Editor

The Syrian army continued Saturday its national mission

in pursuing the armed terrorist groups, advancing in a number of strategic areas and having successful operations against terrorists' gatherings.

The Army advanced in al-Ramoseh and al-Ameriah neighborhoods in Aleppo Province, a military source told SANA reporter Saturday.

The source said that the army units also confronted armed terrorist groups tried to sneak toward Brakat al-Arman and al-Hamidiah in Aleppo city, leaving the groups' members killed and wounded.

The army units also destroyed a terrorists' hideout in al-Hatab yard in Aleppo and a tunnel was used by terrorists in their movements and criminal acts, killing a number of them and injuring others.

Army units continued the process of removing mines planted by terrorists in al-Breij town which the army recaptured yesterday.

Numbers of terrorists were killed and others were wounded in the neighborhoods of Bani Zeid, al-Ashrafiyeh, al-Lairamoun, Bustan al-Qasr, al-Kastello, al-Sheikh S’eed and al-Mashhad in the city.

Other terrorists were targeted and eliminated in the towns and villages of Handarat, Babis, Andan, the Industrial City, Hreitan, Tall Raf’at, Kweires, Rasm al-Abboud, al-Wdeihi and Jadideh and in the surrounding of Aleppo Central Prison in the countryside.

Heavy machine guns mounted on terrorists’ vehicles were destroyed in the towns and villages of al-Wdeihi, B’edin, Hreitan and al-Mislmiyeh and in the neighborhoods of Hanano and al-Jandoul.

Army units also killed terrorists in Marei’ town and near al-Zarzour hospital in al-Sukkari neighborhood.

Army members killed all members of an armed terrorist group as they were setting up a mortar on Mleihet al-Atash-al-Hrak road in the countryside of Daraa.

Army units held back and armed terrorist group that was trying to infiltrate from northeastern Nawa town in Daraa towards Jdeira Hill in the countryside of Quneitra province, leaving its members dead and wounded.

In Homs, a military source told SANA reporter that the army units confronted terrorist groups tried to attack military checkpoints in Sha'er Mount and Bsira, West of Palmyra, and near the junction of al-Sindieh in Talbeseh in Homs countryside.

The terrorist groups' members were killed and wounded.

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Death and desecration in Syria: Jihadist group ‘crucifies’ bodies to send message

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140501204722-01-syria-crucifixions-horizontal-gallery

May 2, 2014, CNN

It is a scene seared forever into the memory of an eyewitness:

Masked men drag the bloodied body of a man across a public square, and tie it to a make-shift cross on a metal pole.

Green string holds the body’s arms outstretched across a wood plank as blood oozes from the gunshot wound to his head.

Militiamen wrap the body’s black “WhatsApp” shirt with a sign in red letters that reads in Arabic: “This man fought Muslims and detonated an IED here.”

The eyewitness — a man we will call Abu Ibrahim — does more than watch. He steps closer and snaps a picture with his cell phone; the children around him gawk at the horrific spectacle with quiet curiosity.

Abu Ibrahim asked that his identity be kept secret for fear of reprisals. His photographs document the story of a body staged to look like a crucifixion — and to send a message — in the northern Syrian city of Raqqa. An al Qaeda splinter group, Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), says the brutal display serves as a lesson to anyone who dares challenge its rule.

Three days on, the “crucified” body of the man and another victim were reportedly still hanging in Raqqa.

“What they are conveying is those who oppose ISIS rule oppose God’s rule, and those who are enemies of ISIS are enemies of God and deserve the highest form of punishment possible,” says Abbas Barzegar, assistant professor of Islamic studies at Georgia State University.

The jihadist group carried out a total of seven public executions in Raqqa on Tuesday, but only two bodies were displayed afterward, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a London-based monitoring group.

Abu Ibrahim, a member of a recently formed anti-ISIS activist group in Raqqa, says the remaining five victims were children under the age of 18, one of them a seventh-grade student.

The crucifixion displays began in March, when ISIS accused a shepherd of murder and theft, then shot him in the head and tied his lifeless body to a wooden cross. Video on social media showed the body leaning up against a small building painted to bear the group’s flag and name.

“These violent acts are part of a fundamentalist revival campaign, but these forms of ancient punishment were rarely if ever seen in the Muslim world in recent centuries,” Barzegar says. “It has become a standard feature of fringe Islamist groups to revive these outdated practices in an effort to bring back what they believe is authentic.”

There’s been no evidence of actual crucifixion, a painful form of execution in which victims were bound or nailed through the hands and feet to a heavy wooden cross and left to suffer until death.

All three men in Raqqa were shot in the head prior to being affixed to crosses. The displays of their bodies appear to be largely symbolic acts by ISIS followers against members of their own Sunni Muslim sect for perceived acts of treason.

“ISIS needs to attach meaning to their killing. Simply murdering in a state of constant warfare is void of value, so they must attach a message or propaganda to what they are doing,” Barzegar says.

As Syria’s civil war creates a power vacuum, groups like ISIS have stepped in with their own form of radical Sharia law to rule over an exhausted and terrorized civilian population. Edicts often appear overnight on inconspicuous flyers, with dire warnings:

“All shop owners must close their stores immediately upon the announcement of prayer and go to the mosque,” a decree posted this week reportedly reads. “Any violators after the issuance of this announcement will face consequences.”

According to a set of rules issued to Raqqa’s Christian minority, members of the faith must pay a special tax to the militants and may not expose crosses, repair churches, or recite prayers in the presence of Muslims, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported in February.

But while crucifixion holds specific biblical resonance, the bold and brutal displays in Raqqa hold no direct correlation to Christian symbolism, Barzegar says. The ISIS victims whose bodies were strung up on crosses were all Muslim.

After nearly a year under the repression of ISIS, Abu Ibrahim and about 20 other activists formed a campaign in April that they called “Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently” to push the vigilante group out of their hometown.

“After we reached the solid conviction, without the shadow of a doubt, that (Raqqa) served as the stage of a horrific spectacle that deformed the real core of the Syrian revolution,” the campaigns founding document reads, “we decided it was about time we stood against those forces of evil.”

ISIS reacted almost immediately to the campaign, sentencing the activists to death for “non-belief in Islam and their advocacy of secularism,” and offering a large cash prize for any information on their whereabouts, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

“It is our obligation to confront them (ISIS) and if we remain scared of them then they will rule us forever. It is true this is dangerous and we have received more than one death threat, but we are relying on the popularity of our Facebook page as protection,” Abu Ibrahim told CNN via a choppy Skype connection.

On their Facebook page with nearly 12,000 followers, activists post updates on alleged crimes committed against the people of Raqqa and issue calls to action such as proposing a strike by store owners on Saturday to protest an ISIS tax hike.

“Life here is very hard. People are tired and they hate everything. If you don’t close your shop during prayer time you get lashes, if you smoke you get lashed, if you say one wrong thing you can be executed. Just like that. It’s that easy for ISIS,” Abu Ibrahim says.

The United Nations, the Syrian opposition and human rights groups have corroborated the scenes of horror in Raqqa. Earlier this year, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said reported mass executions in Raqqa may amount to war crimes, and in a separate report issued last month, her office documented torture and mistreatment, including repeated beatings, of prisoners at schools and hospitals controlled by ISIS.

“So many families have had people disappear and they have no idea where they are or what happened to them. The worst part is people are too afraid to ask about their husbands or sons,” Abu Ibrahim says.

After nearly every Friday prayer, a few of these prisoners appear in a public roundabout where dozens of onlookers stand by as charges are hurriedly read and the sentences against the accused carried out, ranging from lashes to executions. Images of the harrowing scenes often circulate on social-media sites, sometimes posted by accounts claiming to be linked to the extremist group.

“It is like a waterfall of blood. There are more and more executions and now the children watch like they are used to it. It is a strange and exciting scene and they are not afraid to look,” Abu Ibrahim says.

ISIS’s military offensive against even its former allies and its savage form of justice led the central al Qaeda command to disown its affiliate earlier this year, but the group’s leader, Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, vowed to remain in Syria and fight all who oppose him, even fellow jihadists.

The founders of the peaceful campaign “Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently” say they will succeed where others have failed.

“The word is often more powerful than the bullet, and the will of the people is the most powerful of all,” Abu Ibrahim says

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Eleven children among 18 killed in Syria suicide attacks: state TV

Emergency personnel and civilians inspect the site following a car bomb explosion in the Abbasiyah neighborhood of Syria’s central city of Homs on April 29, 2014. (Photo: AFP / STR)

May 2, 2014, al Akhbar

Eleven children were among 18 people killed in two bombings in central Syria Friday, state media reported.

The deadly attacks, in which suicide bombers blew themselves up in vehicles, targeted two towns in Hama province.

The first bombing, in the town of Jibrin, in the southwest of the province, killed 17 civilians, including the 11 children, state media said.

The second attack hit the town of al-Humairi and killed one person, state news agency SANA reported.

They come after a double car bombing claimed by al-Qaeda’s Syria affiliate al-Nusra Front killed dozens in the central city of Homs.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

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BY WAY OF DECEPTION

FRIDAY, MAY 2, 2014 AT 9:41AM GILAD ATZMON

A Jewish Joke:

Two Jewish businessmen were discussing insurance. "You need fire insurance, burglary insurance and flood insurance."
"The fire and theft and burglary I can understand," said the other, "but the flood insurance?

How in hells name do you start a flood?"

Do I have to elaborate on the meaning of this Jewish joke, its take on Jewish ethics or tribal honesty? As far as the joke can tell, for the Jew to commit a fraud and to rob a Goy insurer is an appropriate activity. It is amusing and even kosher.

-----

Added by Alex

If Jews Are Really Persecuted – Why?

Do most Israelis and many other Jews NEED to feel persecuted? Commented by Uprooted Palestinian

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

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Photos Refute Terrorists’ Claims of Seizing Jaramana, al-Dmeir Airport

Local Editor

The Syrian official news agency (SANA) categorically

denied the news which reported that the armed terrorist groups took control of parts of Jaramana city and al-Dmeir Airport in Damascus countryside.

A source told SANA that such claims aim at raising the faltering morale of terrorists which have collapsed under the Syrian Arab Army's strikes

Head of Jaramana City Council Tamer Qassam told SANA that the situaiton in Jaramana is normal, and that there are no disturbances affecting the locals or the displaced people staying in the city.

SANA's reporter, accompanied by a cameraman, visited al-Dmeir Airport, reporting normal takeoff and landing activity and that work in it is proceeding normally.

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Sleiman: New President Must Be Made in Lebanon

Made by Mubarak and calling for a President made in Lebanon

Local Editor

President of the Republic, Michel Sleiman, on Friday stressed the need to hold the Presidential election on schedule in a bid to avoid vacuum.

Sleiman stressed that the new President should be "made in Lebanon", asserting that the name would not be imposed by outside forces.

"It is not required of foreign countries to nominate a new President, but to encourage the Lebanese to hold the election on time.

Sleiman's remarks came on Friday before noon at Baabda Palace in front of a diplomatic delegation.

Moreover, Sleiman highlighted the need to follow up dialogue, implement decentralization, demarcation of the blue line, disarmament of Palestinian weapons outside the Palestinian camps, defense strategy and the STL.

"A group should be organized to pressure the World Bank to aid Lebanon, as Expatriates Minister Gebran Bassil had suggested before," Sleiman added.

President of the Republic, Michel Sleiman: "Long Live Saudi Arabia"

The President called on the concerned sides to support the Lebanese Army and provide it with arms to control the situation in the country, "this step should be achieved through the approval of the defense strategy and with the help of the International Community."

Sleiman added that there was an international decision [USSC Resolution 1519] to disarm all the armed groups in Lebanon and render weapons at the state's disposal.

On another hand, Sleiman called on the Cabinet to control the Syrian displacement influx, preserve the Lebanese, and take appropriate measures.

"We refuse the Palestinian and Syrian colonization," Sleiman emphasized, stressing attachment to the Arab peace initiative.


Source: NNA	02-05-201

النائب نبيل نقولا _ مع الحدث / المنار 02 05 2014

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سليمان سيغادر القصر الجمهوري من دون أن يأتي اتصال الأسد

وكالة أوقات الشام الإخبارية

لا تزال مواقف رئيس الجمهورية العماد ميشال سليمان، في الفترة الأخيرة، تثير حولها الكثير من علامات الإستفهام، لا سيما أن الرجل يتصرف كما لو أنه مرشحٌ لرئاسة الجمهورية لا رئيس في نهاية عهده، حيث يستمر في إطلاق المشاريع والمبادرات والمواقف الكثيرة، كمشروع اللامركزية الإدارية وإعادة النظر بالإتفاقيات الموقعة بين لبنان وسوريا، من دون أن يكون هناك أي إمكانية لتطبيقها على أرض الواقع، نظراً إلى الإنقسام الكبير حولها بين قوى الثامن والرابع عشر من آذار.
من حيث المبدأ، باتت جميع أوراق سليمان محروقة بالنسبة إلى قوى الثامن من آذار، وهي تنتظر بفارغ الصبر يوم الخامس والعشرين من الشهر الجاري من أجل إغلاق هذه الصفحة التي لم تعد تجد فيها أي أمر إيجابي، لكن ما طرحه على صعيد العلاقات اللبنانية السورية، خلال لقائه وفد السفراء والقناصل اللبنانيين المعتمدين في الخارج والمشاركين في فاعليات مؤتمر الدبلوماسية الفاعلة، أثار حوله الكثير من علامات الإستفهام في صفوفها، خصوصاً أنه يعتبر من خارج المواضيع السياسية المطروحة على بساط البحث في المرحلة الراهنة.
وفي هذا السياق، تعتبر مصادر نيابية في هذه القوى أن رئيس الجمهورية سوف يعمد، في الأيام القليلة المتبقية من ولايته، إلى إستغلال أي مناسبة من أجل التصويب على فريقها السياسي بأي شكل من الأشكال، خصوصاً أنه يحمّلها بشكل رئيسي المسؤولية المباشرة عن عدم التمديد له، في حين هو كان يستميت ويرغب في ذلك بأي ثمن.
وتربط هذه المصادر، في حديث لـ"النشرة"، بين تصويب رئيس الجمهورية على وجود المجلس الأعلى اللبناني السوري والإتفاقيات المعقودة بين البلدين، والإتصال الهاتفي من الرئيس السوري بشار الأسد، الذي تحدث عنه سليمان بعد توقيف الوزير السابق ميشال سماحة على خلفية إتهامه بنقل متفجرات من سوريا إلى لبنان، ولا يزال ينتظره حتى الساعة، وتؤكد أنه سيغادر القصر الجمهوري من دون أن يكون هذا الإتصال قد حصل.
وترى المصادر أن الخطوة التي أقدم عليها سليمان لم تكن مفاجئة إلا من حيث توقيتها، لكنها تسأل عن الأسباب التي منعته من طرح هذا الملف في وقت سابق، لا سيما عندما كانت تجمعه أفضل العلاقات بالرئيس السوري، وكان يعقد معه لقاءات شبه دورية، وتشدّد على أن من غير المقبول أن يكون رئيس الجمهورية يريد التصعيد في المرحلة الراهنة نظراً إلى حساباته الشخصية، وتضيف: "هكذا مواقف تثقل كاهل الرئيس المقبل، لا سيما أن القيادة السورية لم تعد تعير أي إهتمام لأي كلام يصدر عنه بسبب قرب موعد إنتهاء ولايته، وبالتالي هي تنتظر الإنتهاء من الإستحقاق الرئاسي من أجل عودة وصل ما إنقطع بين البلدين".
من ناحية أخرى، تشير هذه المصادر إلى أن رئيس الجمهورية يتصرف كما لو أنه في بداية عهده، وتعتبر أن السبب في ذلك يعود إلى أن سليمان لم يصدق حتى اليوم أنه لم ينجح بالتسويق في الأوساط المحلية والخارجية بأنه الرئيس القادر على جمع اللبنانيين على طاولة حوار، وبالتالي بعد تبدل الكثير من المعطيات الإقليمية والدولية لم يعد من الوارد القبول به، وهو في هذه المرحلة يمارس سياسة التشفّي من الفريق الذي لم يسمح له بتحقيق "حلمه" بهدف حجز موقعٍ له في الحياة السياسية من ضمن قوى الرابع عشر من آذار بعد خروجه من الحكم، وترى أن موافقة فريقها على إنتخابه بعد إتفاق الدوحة كان من الأخطاء الكبيرة التي وقع بها.
وتستغرب المصادر كيف أن سليمان يرى أن تدخل الدول في اختيار رئيس الجمهورية أمر مرفوض، ويطالب برئيس يكون صناعة لبنانية، وتسأل: "هل نسي كيف تم إنتخابه قبل ست سنوات؟"
في المحصلة، تعتبر قوى الثامن من آذار أن لا داعي لحصول أي سجال مع سليمان في هذه المرحلة، بالرغم من قناعتها بأن رئيس الجمهورية يريد ذلك، لكنها ترى أن الأمور "لم تعد محرزة".

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

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Campaigning opens in Egypt's presidential race

Egyptian leftist leader and presidential candidate Hamdeen Sabahi (C) is greeted by supporters during a press conference to unveil his program on April 30, 2014 in Cairo. (Photo: AFP - Khalen Desouki)

Published Saturday, May 3, 2014

Updated 1:09 pm: Campaigning opens Saturday in Egypt for a May election likely to be won by the ex-army chief who deposed the elected president, after deadly bombings underscored tensions ahead of the vote.

The May 26-27 presidential poll, meant to restore elected rule following the July overthrow of Islamist Mohammed Mursi, is widely expected to place former army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in power.

His only rival, Hamdeen Sabahi, came third in the 2012 election which Mursi won, and faces a groundswell of support for Sisi since the ouster of the divisive Islamist leader.

Sabahi says he represents the ideals of the 2011 uprising that overthrew veteran strongman Hosni Mubarak.

"The policies that were present under Mubarak are the same policies present now" under the military-installed regime, Sabahi told a campaign rally in the southern city of Assiut.

"Our goal is to gain the people's trust to change the policies of corruption and tyranny and poverty," he said in remarks broadcast live on television.

Sisi, reviled by Mursi's Islamist supporters, has vowed to stamp out a surge in militant attacks such as the two bombings on Friday that killed a policeman in the capital and a soldier in the Sinai Peninsula.

At least 1,400 people, mostly Islamists, have been killed in street clashes, including hundreds on August 14 alone, while thousands have been jailed and placed on trials.

The crackdown has extended to target secular activist groups that supported Mursi's overthrow but have since turned on the army-installed military as it tightens the clamps on dissent.

Last week, a court banned the April 6 movement, which spearheaded the revolt against Mubarak. Its leader Ahmed Maher is already in prison for participating in an unlicensed protest last year.

Another court that day sentenced to death 683 people, including the Brotherhood's supreme guide Mohamed Badie, for deadly riots in August.

Sisi has not yet unveiled his election program, with campaign officials saying he wanted to wait until campaigning begins. The campaigning period ends on May 23.

He is scheduled to give his first interview in months on Monday to two Egyptian television anchors, their broadcasters announced in a statement.

(AFP)