Israeli Children Dress Up As Elor Azaria for Purim

Posted on March 9, 2017

by Richard Edmondson

The Jewish holiday of Purim takes place this weekend. Officially it begins Saturday, March 11 and ends Sunday, March 12, although in Israel celebrations are getting under way today and are expected to run through Sunday–and it is reported that this year a number of Israeli children are dressing up as Elor Azaria.

If the name rings a bell, it should. Elor Azaria is the Israeli soldier who last year executed a wounded Palestinian with a bullet to the head.

The man Azaria murdered was Abdel Fattah al-Sharif, who had been shot after an alleged stabbing attack against an Israeli soldier. Al-Sharif, severely wounded, was lying prostrate upon the street when Azaria stepped up and fired a gunshot to his head. The incident, which took place in the West Bank city of Hebron, was captured on video–a video that subsequently went viral around the world and led to Azaria’s arrest.

Azaria clearly carried out a deliberate act of cold-blooded murder, but in Israel he has been elevated to the status of national hero, and according to a report here, children in the Jewish state are adopting costumes designed to look like him as they observe this year’s Purim holiday. There is a special significance to this: Azaria’s execution of al-Sharif took place on Purim of 2016. This is something I noted in a post I put up on March 25 last year, one day after the holiday had ended. At that time, Azaria’s name had not yet been released to the media, but the video had already begun to go viral, and as I noted:

The video shows a group of soldiers and medics standing around Abdul Sharif, lying prone and incapacitated on the street, with one of the soldiers stepping up and pumping a bullet into his head.

That as I say took place on Purim of last year. In the intervening months in Israel we have seen a trial in which Azaria was convicted of manslaughter–not murder–and sentenced to 18 months, as well as large public protests in support of the killer. And now here we are a year later. Here is what is being reported about this year’s Purim celebration:

This year for Purim, many Israeli children are dressing up as Elor Azaria, the IDF soldier convicted of manslaughter for fatally shooting a neutralized terrorist [sic] in Hebron almost a year ago. “I’m not saying that he did the right thing but in my eyes he is a hero,” stated one grandmother of such a child. “He took the initiative. His commanders weren’t around, the scene wasn’t managed properly and he took command.”

During the weekend, a costume competition for Elor Azaria will take place. The creator Ran Karmi Buzaglo has promised the participants prizes such as guitars, tickets to an amusement park and to a safari. “I urge people to dress up like Elor as a statement,” Buzaglo stated. “He’s a fighter and was sent to protect us and I’m proud to see children dressing up like him.

Some of the prizes were donated by citizens who heard about the initiative. One man even volunteered to make 300 face masks of the convicted soldier. “I think that these masks teach our children about the military,” he said.

A very innocuous and politically correct description of what the holiday of Purim is all about is given by Wikipedia:

Purim is a Jewish holiday that commemorates the saving of the Jewish people from Haman, who was planning to kill all the Jews. This took place in the ancient Persian Empire. The story is recorded in the Biblical Book of Esther.

In reality, however, the holiday is a celebration of the slaughter of thousands of Gentiles. Here is what the Book of Esther has to say on the topic:

In the citadel of Susa, the Jews killed and destroyed five hundred men. They also killed Parshandatha, Dalphon, Aspatha, Poratha, Adalia, Aridatha, Parmashta, Arisai, Aridai and Vaizatha, the ten sons of Haman son of Hammedatha, the enemy of the Jews.But they did not lay their hands on the plunder.

The number of those killed in the citadel of Susa was reported to the king that same day. The king said to Queen Esther, “The Jews have killed and destroyed five hundred men and the ten sons of Haman in the citadel of Susa. What have they done in the rest of the king’s provinces? Now what is your petition? It will be given you. What is your request? It will also be granted.”

“If it pleases the king,” Esther answered, “give the Jews in Susa permission to carry out this day’s edict tomorrow also, and let Haman’s ten sons be impaled on poles.”

So the king commanded that this be done. An edict was issued in Susa, and they impaled the ten sons of Haman. The Jews in Susa came together on the fourteenth day of the month of Adar, and they put to death in Susa three hundred men, but they did not lay their hands on the plunder.

Meanwhile, the remainder of the Jews who were in the king’s provinces also assembled to protect themselves and get relief from their enemies. They killed seventy-five thousand of them but did not lay their hands on the plunder. This happened on the thirteenth day of the month of Adar, and on the fourteenth they rested and made it a day of feasting and joy.

So according to the text, more than 75,000 people were killed. And this is what led the Jews to mark it as “a day of feasting and joy.” And that is how it is celebrated today in Israel. Here is what an Israeli tourist site has to say about contemporary Purim celebrations in the Jewish state:

Purim is one of the most widely celebrated festivals in Israel. Purim in Israel is embraced by the whole country, from religious Jews in Jerusalem to secular Tel Avivians, it is a time of festivity and celebrated far beyond its original religious roots. Purim parties take place across Israel, with Purim street parties with carnival atmospheres taking place in almost every city, town and village in the country. Purim is also one of the biggest nights of the year at clubs up and down the country. With so much going on, and so much color in the amazing costumes that can be seen, Purim in Israel is a fascinating time to be in the country.

You can also go here and read a Chabad report about Purim celebrations in 91 other countries around the world, including here in the United States. Here is what it says about a Purim event scheduled for Saturday night in Los Angeles:

Roll out the red carpet and bring on the paparazzi: Rabbi Mendel Simons, director of the Young Jewish Professionals in Los Angeles, is getting ready to host an Oscars-worthy evening on Saturday night. He and his wife, YJP co-director Rachael Simons, plan to welcome a whopping 600 people to the upscale Continental Club for a night of Purim festivities themed around Hollywood of yore. The event is being co-hosted by Moshe and Rivky Greenwald, co-directors of Chabad of Downtown Los Angeles.

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Moscow Sore Loser Summit: Netanyahu Cries About Iran ‘Fighting Israel From Syrian Territory’

Source

After severe weeping, Netanyahu concluded historic Sore Loser Summit in Moscow

Sorry?

As we reported earlier today, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu came to Moscow on Thursday to “express Israel’s vehement opposition to allowing Iranian troops, or satellite groups” to remain in Syria.

Here’s what he told Putin while holding back tears:

“(Iran) is arming itself and its forces against Israel including from Syria territory and is, in fact, gaining a foothold to continue the fight against Israel,” he said in reply to a reporter’s question.“There cannot be peace when they continue the war and therefore they have to be removed.”

You heard it here first: Iran is “continuing the fight against Israel” in Syria. We thought Iran is fighting “moderate” rebels and ISIS in Syria? We were misled. Iran is fighting Israel.

Putin’s response?

I want to take the opportunity to congratulate you on the upcoming Purim holiday and wish everyone in Israel happy holidays.

We’re sure Putin was very moved by Netanyahu’s performance, but it seems like Moscow is in no rush to tell Tehran to leave Syria — especially since Iran was invited to kill terrorists in Syria, while Israel is currently occupying Syrian land.

As the Washington Post reports:

In its official statements, Moscow has been unwilling to make predictions about what would happen with Iran’s military buildup after the end of hostilities in Syria. 

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov, in an interview with the newspaper al-Hayat on Sunday that was quoted by the Interfax news agency, said that any decision on the withdrawal of Iranian forces would rest with Syria’s leaders. 

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The Real Zionist Colonial Project how this led to the murder of baby Ali

ISRAEL – Colonization 101 :

It began in the 1920’s long before the holocaust long before Israel was created. It was the ultimate colonization project to create the Jewish Homeland. The men that met during these first Zionist Congresses knew that there were already people living in Palestine which was owned by the Ottomans. Their plan was simple it was to get enough rich Jews to donate money and buy the land from the Arab owners. To their dismay this didn’t work. Even though they offered exorbitant prices for the land most of the owners wouldn’t sell. They needed another way to get more land and WW2 gave them the opportunity. By making the rest of the world feel guilty for not stopping the Nazis before millions of people were killed, they got Britain to partition Palestine. Of course that meant they still didn’t have enough land, but believing in the power of money they figured they could get the poorer Arabs to leave by removing from them all ways of making a living and paying off the rich landowners who really didn’t care to stay in Palestine but were using its land for investment purposes. All this was done including the first Boycott in the holy land used by the Jews against the Arabs by refusing to hire them to work the land they made their living from and stopping others from buying from Arab stores. It was a planned and well calculated campaign to try to get the Palestinians that were trying to survive packing. Although in their marketing campaign to get more Jews to come to Palestine they told the world that it was a land without a people for a people without a land ,they knew that was a lie. It was very effective though and fooled people all across the world.

In 1895, Herzl, the founder of Zionism, wrote in his diary:

“We must expropriate gently the private property on the state assigned to us. We shall try to spirit the penniless population across the border by procuring employment for it in the transit countries, while denying it employment in our country. The property owners will come over to our side. Both the process of expropriation and the removal of the poor must be carried out discretely and circumspectly. Let the owners of the immoveable property believe that they are cheating us, selling us things for more than they are worth. But we are not going to sell them anything back.” (America And The Founding Of Israel, p. 49, Righteous Victims, p. 21-22)

Sad to say the original Jewish inhabitants of Palestine did try to stop these European usurpers warning them when they realized what they were planning that it would start a war, but the Palestinian Jews that had gotten along with their Arab neighbors for hundreds of years had no power over the Europeans. They watched in horror as the coexistence they had treasured was destroyed and made the Arab was redefined as “the Enemy and the Other” that had to be expelled to fulfill the dream of taking over the holy land. For the Europeans this was no problem because ignoring the fabulous civilization and technology the Arabs had, they saw them as primitives which would make easy pickings to get rid of.

Next step was to get the poor Jewish emigrants to be their army. They took these scared tired people who had just run from the Nazis and put uniforms on them and told them that the evil Arabs were trying to steal the land from them and unless they attacked and killed them the Arab civilians would finish the job the Nazis hadn’t been able to do. These people who didn’t speak Hebrew understood very little, Most were about 18 – 21 years of age and just followed orders. They didn’t even know what they were doing.

It was a gift to them that the Arabs didn’t accept the partition plan (coordinating with the British occupiers, the zionists knew that the Arabs wound agree to split Palestine). It just made it easier to find an excuse to steal more land to create a larger Jewish Homeland. It was obvious from the first the Arabs were disorganized and had no real army to fight and the Jews in comparison had been well trained in Military techniques from the British before they bombed the King David Hotel and got the British to leave.

From then on it was easy. The Arabs had no organization. Scaring them off with an assassination in the center squares of village here and there. Burning the roofs of houses and if they didn’t move fast enough shooting at their feet as they ran as fast as they could. Then to make sure they would have no place to come back to the militants bulldozed the homes and other buildings so all that was left behind was rubble. They saved the nicest homes and moved Jewish immigrants in without even taking out the personal belongings and furniture of the owners.

https://youtu.be/yhfEWqBvav0 as illustrated here in a interview about the Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine .

Although this was the intent from the start by manipulating the historic records they were able to keep this a secret for years. Instead these people who eventually called themselves Israelis told the world that they were a quiet and peaceful people and the big bad Arabs wouldn’t stop attacking them. To the worlds sorrow they fooled us completely and we all believed this until social media revealed all.

http://www.palestineremembered.com/Articles/General/Story2321.html  original article from the San Francisco Chronicle in 2007

Instead of the Arabs attacking them, reality was that in the goal of continued colonization the Israelis never left their Palestinian neighbors alone. It wasn’t good enough chasing them from their own homes in Israel proper, the Zionists wanted more. They chased thousands of people to Gaza and then decided that was a mistake they wanted Gaza for their own. Same happened inthe West Bank.

The war of 67 allowed them to take much of the land there also. Still not enough they bullied taunted and wouldn’t stop until the Palestinians rose up. This might have worked but America had done too good a job making sure the Israelis never had to deal with the consequences of their own actions. Like the children they were America spoiled them. Not only gave them weapons to protect them and use to attack but they let these uncontrollable colonists steal secrets and even create their own nuclear bomb program.

After that these spoiled brats started to think they were made of Teflon and everything they wanted to do they could because no one could stop them. They started to believe they really were the “Chosen” which up until that time was not part of the “Jewish People” but something Christian Zionists had called them. It seemed they thought they were the new royalty and the rest of the world should bow down to them and sacrifice to protect them. The closest way to describe them is they truly believe like the Roman gods and goddesses of the past Jewish Israelis are protected by some sort of Magical powers.

This has led to the Israeli present belief that the expansion of Israeli borders is the ultimate goal. Some even believing every Jew in the world needs to move to Israel so the state has to be big enough to hold them all. The end all of this colonization project is to get as many Arabs out of the holy land and get them to move to Jordan or Egypt. Unfortunately this plan has never worked and instead has made the Palestinians want to resist more. Despite Abbas attempt to mollify the Israelis by working as their puppet, the majority of the Palestinians wont and can’t just give up and let the Israelis have their way.

“Occupation by definition is a criminal and degenerate status that contradicts the principles of human rights, the UN Charter, international law and international morals and ethics. The Israeli occupation is hateful and despicable by nature and it works against the people. It subjects the lives, interests and property of the Palestinians to constant danger. The occupation is oppressive and brutal and innovative in finding new ways to control people and keep them fearful. It always works to spread terror in the hearts of those living under it. In the circumstances, holding the occupation responsible for killing people and confiscating their property is considered to be an attempt to avoid the problem.

“While some supporters of Israel may criticize Israeli security forces for what they perceive as a failure to perform their duties, the bitter truth is that these security forces are part and parcel of the same colonial project that has been expelling, ghettoizing, and killing Palestinians since the inception of the state.

This explains why Israel’s vaunted security apparatus and networks of collaborators have been unable – or perhaps unwilling – to apprehend the suspects in the firebombing. Given the Israeli government’s complicity with the movement that burned baby Ali, any investigation will ring hollow without prosecution of responsible officials at the highest levels.”apprehend the suspects in the firebombing. Given the Israeli government’s complicity with the movement that burned baby Ali, any investigation will ring hollow without prosecution of responsible officials at the highest levels.” https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/articles/middle-east/20212-who-burnt-ali-dawabsheh-to-death#st_refDomain=m.facebook.com&st_refQuery=/

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Who does adopt Feltman's orphans? أيتام فيلتمان مَن يتبنّاهم؟

 Who does adopt Feltman’s orphans?

Written by Nasser Kandil,

The words issued unofficially by the US Ambassador in Lebanon commenting on the official speech of the President of the Republic the General Michael Aoun who sticks to the role of the resistance weapons raised inquiries that are circulated among the political circles affiliated to the forces of the Fourteenth of March especially Al Mustaqbal Movement and the Lebanese Forces  about the possibilities of the US escalation to the extent of talking about banning the US nationals from traveling to Lebanon, enlisting Lebanon in the US travel banning,  and stopping the cooperation with the Lebanese army, depending on the special status afforded by the administration of the US President Donald Trump to the security of Israel and the relationship with it.

To classify Hezbollah on the US lists allocated to the terrorism is not new, to consider it a ruthless opponent according to its vision of the interests in the region is an admission in its place, and to make every effort along with the new administration to exert pressure on the Lebanese country for not covering the resistance weapons within the concept of the US support to Israel, then this is a fact which will continue, and when Washington puts its importance to barter Russia for any cooperation in Syria by not allowing the achievement of Iran of any gains that affects Israel, which means the seek to alienate Hezbollah away from the success of fortifying and strengthening the structure of the resistance for the post stage of the stability of Syria then this is the conflict law.

The question is revolving somewhere else. Will Washington raise the pace of pressures in favor of its hostile vision toward the resistance which is accused vitally with the security of Israel, to the extent of exposing Lebanon to instability due to the position of its President who sticks to the resistance and its weapons?, and were these positions hidden in front of Washington before his election? Does Washington consider the stability of Lebanon a secondary matter and the war on terrorism especially ISIS a secondary matter too? Is it ready to sacrifice with them and to freeze this war and considering it mere a platform for the bargains in the war on Hezbollah which proceeds as a priority? Are Washington and Israel in a state of escalation toward the war? Most importantly, did the President of the Republic the General Michael Aoun raise the ceiling of his position which sticks to the resistance and its weapons, while he could saying that the weapons is a matter that the country is unable to bear outside the comprehensive national dialogue that started and will continue till achieving the results according to the words of the former President Michael Suleiman?, maybe this was meanly intended by the inquirers about the purposes of the words of the US Ambassador.

The Deputy UN Secretary-General Jeffrey Feltman who never stop being the most reflective honestly about the positions of the successive US administrations towards the weapons of Hezbollah and its resisting role simply said that if Washington has an escalation agenda then the first platforms for moving will be the United Nations through the gate of the committees to apply the resolution 1701 and linking it with the resolution 1559. Feltman who is the crucial player who has the passwords in the two issues said that in Lebanon there is a miracle its basis is the presence of weapons at the hands of the counterbalanced group outside the country, which is Hezbollah. Despite the crisis and the war as the size of what is going on in the neighboring Syria, Lebanon was not destabilized. These words are contrary to what is anticipated from Feltman the godfather of the hostile decisions and campaigns against Hezbollah and its weapons. They are contrary to the call of organizing UN campaigns that target and affect Lebanon and through it Hezbollah under the title of the weapons, as long as this weapon has proved its eligibility by not turning into a factor for destabilization. The words of Feltman grant the words of the President of the Republic legitimacy and credibility against the circulated speech by the US Ambassador, because the most prominent of what was said by the President was that Hezbollah’s weapons do not constitute a reason for destabilization.

The words of Feltman disclosed those who inquired “innocently” and made them his foundlings after they were his orphans, after he gave up their fatherhood, so they become Americans more than the Americans themselves if not more.

Translated by Lina Shehadeh,

أيتام فيلتمان مَن يتبنّاهم؟

مارس 8, 2017

ناصر قنديل

– أثار الكلام الصادر عن السفيرة الأميركية في لبنان بشكل غير رسمي تعليقاً على الكلام الرسمي لرئيس الجمهورية العماد ميشال عون المتمسّك بدور سلاح المقاومة، تساؤلات عن احتمالات التصعيد الأميركي تداولتها الأوساط السياسية المنتمية للرابع عشر من آذار، خصوصاً في تيار المستقبل والقوات اللبنانية، وصلت حدّ الحديث عن وقف سفر الرعايا الأميركيين إلى لبنان وإدراج لبنان على لائحة حظر السفر إلى أميركا ووقف التعاون مع الجيش اللبناني، مستندة إلى المكانة الخاصة التي توليها إدارة الرئيس الأميركي دونالد ترامب لأمن «إسرائيل» والعلاقة معها.

– أن تُصنّف أميركا حزب الله على لوائحها الخاصة بالإرهاب ليس جديداً، وأن تعتبره خصماً شرساً في رؤيتها لمصالحها في المنطقة، فهذا اعتراف في مكانه، وأن تبذل مع الإدارة الجديدة كلّ ما تستطيع كي تضغط على الدولة اللبنانية لعدم تغطية سلاح المقاومة ضمن مفهوم الدعم الأميركي لـ«إسرائيل»، فذلك ما كان وما هو كائن وما سيكون، وأن تضع واشنطن ثقلَها لمقايضة روسيا لأيّ تعاون في سورية بعدم السماح بتحقيق إيران لمكاسب تؤذي «إسرائيل» والقصد السعي لإبعاد حزب الله عن النجاح في تمكين وتمتين بنية المقاومة لمرحلة ما بعد استقرار سورية، فذلك هو قانون الصراع.

– السؤال يدور في مكان آخر، وهو هل سترفع واشنطن وتيرة الضغوط لحساب رؤيتها العدائية للمقاومة والمهتمّة بصورة حيوية بأمن «إسرائيل»، لدرجة تعرّض لبنان للاهتزاز بسبب موقف رئيسه المتمسك بالمقاومة وسلاحها؟ وهل كانت هذه المواقف غائبة عن واشنطن قبل انتخابه؟ وهل واشنطن تعتبر استقرار لبنان ثانوياً والحرب على الإرهاب، خصوصاً داعش، شأناً ثانوياً أيضاً، وهي مستعدة للتضحية بهما، وتجميد هذه الحرب واعتبارها مجرد منصة للمساومات في الحرب على حزب الله، التي تتقدّم كأولوية؟ وهل واشنطن وإسرائيل بالتالي، في وضعية التصعيد نحو الحرب؟ والأهم من كل ذلك وبناء عليه، هل غامر رئيس الجمهورية العماد ميشال عون برفع سقف موقفه المتمسك بالمقاومة وسلاحها، وكان بمستطاعه القول إنّ السلاح شأن فوق طاقة الدولة على معالجته خارج حوار وطني شامل بدأ وسيستمر حتى بلوغ نتائج وفقاً للغة الرئيس السابق ميشال سليمان، ولعل هذا ما قصد بلوغه المتسائلون بغير براءة عن مقاصد كلام السفيرة الأميركية؟

– يأتي كلام معاون الأمين للأمم المتحدة جيفري فيلتمان الذي لم يكفّ عن كونه الأشدّ تعبيراً بأمانة عن مواقف الإدارات الأميركية المتعاقبة تجاه سلاح حزب الله ودوره المقاوم، ليقول ببساطة إنه لو كان لدى واشنطن روزنامة تصعيد، فأول منابر التحرّك ستكون الأمم المتحدة عبر بوابة لجان تطبيق القرار 1701 وربطه بالقرار 1559، وفيلتمان هو اللاعب الحاسم الذي يمتلك كلمة السر في العنوانين، فإذ بفيلتمان يخرج ليقول إنّ في لبنان معجزة قوامها أنّ وجود سلاح وازن بيد فئة وازنة خارج الدولة، هو حزب الله، وبجوار وتداخل مع أزمة وحرب بحجم ما يجري في سورية، لم يزعزع استقرار لبنان. وهذا الكلام عكس  ما يُنتظر من فيلتمان عراب القرارات المعادية والحملات المعادية لحزب الله وسلاحه، وهو عكس السير بالدعوة لتنظيم حملات استهداف وتضييق أممية على لبنان ومن خلاله على حزب الله تحت عنوان السلاح، طالما أنّ هذا السلاح أثبت أهليته بعدم تحوّله عاملاً يزعزع الاستقرار، لا بل إن كلام فيلتمان يمنح كلام رئيس الجمهورية مشروعية وصدقية بوجه الكلام المتداول عن لسان السفيرة الأميركية، لأنّ أبرز ما قاله الرئيس كان أنّ هذا السلاح لا يشكل سبباً لزعزعة الاستقرار.

– كلام فيلتمان يفضح المتسائلين بـ«براءة» ويجعلهم لقطاء فيلتمان، بعدما كانوا أيتامه، وتخلّى فيلتمان عن أبوّتهم، وصاروا أميركيين أكثر من الأميركيين كي لا نقول أكثر.

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Bassel Al-A’raj: A Beacon for Intellectuals, Revolutionaries

March 9, 2017

Hezbollah praised the Palestinian martyr Bassel al-A’raj who was killed earlier this week during heroic clash with Israeli occupation forces in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

In a statement released by the Party’s Media Relations Office, Hezbollah congratulated the martyrdom of al-A’raj who “mixed the words with blood and proved that actions speak louder than words in the struggle against the Zionist enemy which has been targeting the Palestinian people in a bid to wipe them off their roots and land.”

“Hezbollah denounces the horrific killing of this hero by occupation soldiers in Bireh town of the West Bank, in which dozens of bullets went into his blessed body,” the statement said, noting that the killing “indicates the level of spite by the Israeli enemy against anyone who raises the banner of resistance.”

Meanwhile, the Lebanese resistance party stressed that al-A’raj’s martyrdom proves that the Palestinian people are sticking to the resistance path, noting that the martyr had contributed to documenting the Israeli crimes against the Palestinians throughout the history.

“As Hezbollah offers its condolences to the martyr’s family and all the Palestinian people as well, it stresses the importance of supporting the resistance in Palestine in all means.”

Source: Hezbollah Media Relations

Bassel Al-A’raj: A Beacon for Intellectuals, Revolutionaries

March 10, 2017

Marwa Haidar

It’s hard to write about martyrs. You can easily see the faith in their eyes, smiles and words. But really, it’s very hard to change this faith into words written by your own.

Bassel al-A’raj, or the “battling intellectual”, as known on social media, has proven that actions speak more than words.

The 31-year-old Palestinian engaged on Monday (March 6, 2017) in an individual battle with Israeli occupation forces in Ramallah. He heroically fought for two hours, ending his life with martyrdom.

Bassel was well-known for defending the Palestinian cause and the oppressed people across the region. He called the intellectuals in the Arab world to engage in battles in behalf of their beliefs.

In a video, Bassel appears during a lecture saying: “If you want to be an intellectual… You have to be a battling intellectual. If you were not so then your intellect is useless. The battling intellectual is the revolutionary intellectual.”

Imam Hussein’s Words Our Slogan

Talking about revolution, it was clear that Bassel was inspired by Prophet Mohammad (pbuh) and Imam Hussein (a.s.).

In a post on his Facebook account, Bassel wrote:

“My mom had taught me to love the battling prophet more than the peaceful prophet, and if (Prophet) Yusuf was her distinct one, that was because “bravery lies in patience.”

In his post, Bassel recalled the words of Imam Hussein as saying:

“May his words remain our slogan in life and death: “Surely, the imposter – a son of an imposter – has [given us a choice] between death and disgrace. Surely, we will never bend to disgrace. God refuses that for us. So do his Messenger (s), the believers, noble ancestors, purified households, zealous souls, and proud spirits. None would prefer obedience to the wicked over a noble death.”

Go Look for the Answer

In his will, too, Bassel was talking about martyrdom with passion and conviction. He said that the wills of martyrs have bewildered him, stressing that there is nothing more eloquent than martyrs’ deeds.

“If you are reading this, it means that I have died and my soul has ascended to its Creator. I pray to Allah that I meet Him with a guiltless heart, willingly, not reluctantly, full of loyalty and free of any whit of hypocrisy.

How hard it is to write your own will. For years, I have been contemplating wills written by martyrs, they have constantly bewildered me. They were fast, short, and lacking eloquence. They did not satisfy our thirst to find answers about martyrdom. Now I am heading towards death satisfied as I have found my answers. Woe unto me, how dumb I am! Is there anything more eloquent than a martyr’s deed! I should have written this months ago, but what kept me from that was this question that you, the living beings, ask. So why should I answer on your behalf? Go look for the answer yourselves, as for us, the dead ones, we only seek Allah’s mercy.”

Sara Taha Moughnieh contributed to this report

Source: Al-Manar Website

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Iraqi Woman worth hundred thousand man exposing war criminal Erdogan

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Israeli Police Beat Relatives of Freed Palestinian Prisoner

Posted on March 8, 2017

by Richard Edmondson

[ Ed. note – While the media are seemingly too busy braying over the latest Wikileaks revelations to give it much thought, the savagery of Israel’s occupation 0f Palestine goes on unabated. Is there any limit to Zionist brutality?  ]

Ma’an News

JERUSALEM (Ma’an) — Five Palestinians said they were pulled from their vehicles, violently assaulted, and detained by Israeli forces at a checkpoint in occupied East Jerusalem, after returning home from southern Israel where they had attempted to welcome home their relative who had just been released from Israeli prison.

Moussa Darwish was set to be released from Ktziot prison in the Negev region on Sunday after completing a 12-year sentence, but the newly freed man found Israeli intelligence officers waiting for him outside the prison, who immediately redetained him.

Israeli forces prevented the group of family and friends from approaching Darwish, after they had traveled from Issawiya in East Jerusalem and arrived to the prison.

They were notified that Darwish had been taken to Israel’s Russian Compound detention center back in West Jerusalem for interrogation. After several hours, Israeli forces again released Darwish.

However, Darwish’s friends and relatives — Ahmad Darwish, 52, Ibrahim Darwish, 42, Mansour Darwish, 28, Muhammad Ubeid, 25, and Saeb Dirbas, 23 — said that upon their return to Jerusalem, their three vehicles were “ambushed” by Israeli forces who had set up a flying checkpoint at the entrance to the city.

In an interview with Ma’an on Wednesday, Mansour Darwish, the former prisoner’s cousin, said that their group encountered a crippling traffic jam caused by the checkpoint.

“When we tried to pass the checkpoint, our cars were stopped one after the other. Without even asking for our IDs or driving licenses, they made us step outside, and officers from the Israeli police special Yasam unit started to beat us violently — and we had no idea why.”

Continued here

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‘The time to invest in Iran is now’

March 08, 2017

by Pepe Escobar for the Asia Times

The shift in the global balance of financing power towards Russia, India and China — especially China — is opening up opportunities for Tehran

It’s a beautiful late winter morning, the snowy Alborz mountains glittering under the sun, and Professor Mohammad Marandi from the faculty of world studies at the University of Tehran is taking me on the road, westbound.

Sprawling west Tehran is a decentralization/connectivity spectacular, with its brand new highways, metro lines, artificial lakes and megamalls. While not on the epic scale of the construction rush in Beijing or Shanghai, it is similar in spirit and comparable to what’s going on in Istanbul.

The professor — arguably Iran’s leading political and cultural analyst —and I had been on a running conversation for days on all aspects of an evolving Russia-China-Iran strategic partnership, the massive Eurasia integration project pushed by China, and its myriad interconnected challenges.

Watching west Tehran go by, it was hard not to connect this new normal to the atmosphere of excitement surrounding the Iran nuclear deal struck in Vienna in the summer of 2015. But this had actually started even before President Hassan Rouhani came to power in 2013, “linked to Iran’s stability and rising regional status,” Marandi said.

Cue to the former head of the Iranian National Security Council’s Foreign Relations Committee and professor at Princeton, Seyed Hosein Mousavian. He has been adamant that “America’s four-decade push for regime change in Iran is a failure.” On the nuclear deal, Mousavian noted, regarding the Trump administration rumble, “it is 170 pages, too much technicalities, they might not have time to go through different resolutions – and therefore they really don’t know what they’re talking about.”

The implementation of the deal should have signaled the acceptance of Iran by the West – hence renewed trade and commerce. Instead, the new normal points towards the China-driven New Silk Roads, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and Shanghai Cooperation Organization, and the Russia-driven Eurasia Economic Union; and towards Iran, alongside other emerging economies, seeking infrastructure finance and foreign investment from BRICS nations, especially the RIC triumvirate. In sum: look east.

Tehran did sign a rash of memorandums of understanding with French industry. But the heart of the trade and investment action is China. When President Xi Jinping visited Tehran in January last year, Rouhani said, “Iran and China have agreed to increase trade to US$600 billion in the next 10 years.”

Most deals, of course, involve oil and gas – but crucially they also span cooperation on nuclear energy and Iran’s positioning as an absolutely crucial hub of One Belt, One Road.

Compared to it, Russia-Iran trade, at almost US$2 billion last year, is not exactly newsworthy, although rising rapidly.

Post-sanctions, Russia-Iran signed almost US$40 billion in MoUs – but projects are mostly still only on paper. The problem is the overwhelming majority of Iranian companies are cash-strapped, so financing should come from Russian sources. “Secret code” exports – as in weapons – are back, as in the US$900 million contract for the S-300 defense missile systems, the first batch delivered to Iran last April.

The real secret though in reference to incipient trade is that Russia and Iran do not have much to exchange at globally competitive rates. Russia exports mainly metals, wood, electrical machines, paper, grain, floating structures, mechanically engineered products and weapons. Iran exports agricultural and seafood products.

With India, the heart of the matter is the development of the port of Chabahar. Here’s where China’s Maritime Silk Road meets India’s drive to connect the Indian Ocean to Afghanistan bypassing Pakistan and the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.

Enter Indian investment on the Chabahar-Zahedan railway, ending in Sistan-Balochistan, close to the Pakistani border, as well as in the still-in-planning Chabahar-Hajigak railway, which translates as a direct connection to Afghanistan. All this spells out Iran blooming as a crucial integration/connectivity hub for China, India and the intersection of South and Central Asia.

On the energy front, the news is also encouraging. According to the head of National Iranian Oil Company, Ali Kardor, by next month Iran will be producing 4 million barrels of oil a day (there was a peak at 4.2 million before sanctions were tightened in 2011).

Iran used to be the second-largest OPEC producer. Sanctions forced it down to 2.5 million barrels a day and exports of just above 1 million. Now it’s back to OPEC’s number three, behind Saudi Arabia (10 million barrels a day) and Iraq (4.5 million).

Natural gas production will reach 1.3 billion cubic meters a day by 2021. For that to happen, NIOC needs to drill at least 500 new offshore wells. The problem is NIOC is deep in US$50 billion of debt; not only because of low oil prices but also bad financial and management decisions. Royal Dutch Shell and Total are keen to strike deals, but nothing has been signed yet.

Once again, I got a similar figure to what NIOC provided me roughly 10 years ago; Iran needs at least US$200 billion to upgrade its energy industry infrastructure, and to really start profiting from an astonishing US$7 trillion in gas reserves. It’s fair to assume substantial funds could be provided, eventually, by the AIIB and other sources from Russia and China. Deputy Oil Minister Amir Hossein Zamaninia expects major developments “in a few months.”

Socially, Iran is not a powder keg. The average standard of living improved roughly 70% since the Islamic revolution. Women accounted for 70% of Iran’s science and engineering students in 2015. The healthcare system, by 2014, was the 30th most efficient in the world, way ahead of the US (in 50th).

Much will depend on the upcoming presidential elections. Former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was politely dissuaded by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, in person, from running again. Marandi confirms President Rouhani, up for re-election, is way less popular than Foreign Minister Zarif, who in turn is less popular than the number one superstar: Major General Qassem Soleimani, the head of the elite Quds Force — who’s not running for office. The reason for Rouhani’s woes; his record on the economy has been far from stellar.

Tehran will soon drop the US dollar in its financial and foreign exchange reports. That will certainly imply more currency swap agreements, and Iran only accepting payment for oil and gas in euros or in a basket of currencies.

Iran trades mostly with China, the EU and the UAE. Trump claimed during his campaign that Iran was handed a US$150 billion gift by the nuclear deal. Not true. The Central Bank’s frozen oil funds repatriated since January 2016 from the UAE, Britain, India, Greece, Italy and Norway amount to less than US$10 billion. And only US$12 billion of blocked assets were released from Japan, South Korea and India, on installments.

Before we arrived back in Tehran, Marandi told me that all in all, “ I believe whoever invests now in Iran will have an amazing return. The time to invest is now.” The RIC in BRICS are doing it. Europeans are doing it – although not much so far. And Americans are not doing it – at their loss. We wrapped it up at a traditional Iranian restaurant downtown, serving first-class food to middle and upper middle class families. The bill: less than US$30 for two. A fabulous return on investment.

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