By Gilad Atzmon
Time Of Israel reports this morning that overnight Israel transported 800 White Helmet workers and their families from southwest Syria to Jordan. The IDF says it acted at the request of the United States and European countries.
The Jordanian government, which has in recent years consistently refused to accept Syrian refugees, said they had made an exception in this case as the United Kingdom, Canada and Germany had agreed to take in the White Helmet rescuers and their families.
Those amongst us who aren’t followers of the various Guardians of Judea outlets have been suspicious of the White Helmet’s humanitarian agenda for a while.
Whitney Webb wrote in July 2017 that “over the past two years, enlightening information has been revealed that thoroughly and unequivocally debunks the ‘humanitarianism’ of the White Helmets in Syria, sometimes referred to as the Syrian Civil Defense.”
The western media has offered enthusiastic support for the White Helmets and the media has somehow failed to report on “the group’s ties to terrorist groups like al-Qaeda, their doctoring of footage, their role in executing civilians and their use of children – both dead and alive – as props for producing pro-intervention propaganda. Also absent from the news is how the White Helmets have received over $123 million from 2013 to 2016 from the U.S. and UK governments, as well as Western NGOs and Gulf state monarchies.”
Webb also reported on the White Helmets’ “shady ties to known terrorist organizations like Syria’s al-Qaeda branch Al-Nusra Front.”
In recent months we have been asked to accept that the so-called ‘gas attack’ in Duoma was the ‘event’ that led to an orchestrated American, British and French missile assault on Syrian government facilities. Reports of the ‘gas attack’ were based on a video propagated by the White Helmets. But here is Dr Rahaibani’s account of the Douma incident, brought to us by Robert Fisk, probably one of the few reliable journalists left among the British press.
“I was with my family in the basement of my home three hundred metres from here on the night but all the doctors know what happened. There was a lot of shelling [by government forces] and aircraft were always over Douma at night – but on this night, there was wind and huge dust clouds began to come into the basements and cellars where people lived. People began to arrive here suffering from hypoxia, oxygen loss. Then someone at the door, a “White Helmet”, shouted “Gas!”, and a panic began. People started throwing water over each other. Yes, the video was filmed here, it is genuine, but what you see are people suffering from hypoxia – not gas poisoning.”
Today’s news from Israeli suggests that the West has supported the White Helmets all along, and so has given refuge to its interventionist allies.
Supporters of the Syrian government have accused the White Helmets of being politically affiliated with the rebel groups. Russia and the Syrian government have repeatedly accused them of staging chemical attacks in opposition areas for propaganda purposes as shown in the video above.
In its defence, the White Helmets, founded in 2013, regards itself as a genuine humanitarian body that rescues the wounded in the aftermath of air strikes, shelling or blasts in rebel-held territory. The White Helmets have rescued thousands of civilians trapped under rubble or caught up in the fighting in battered opposition-held zones in the various fronts of Syria’s conflict.
I have no doubt that many of the White Helmet workers are genuine humanitarians. But if the White Helmets are solely rescue workers, I wonder why hundreds of them are seeking to escape Syria and why Israel, the USA and Britain are instrumental in providing refuge.
The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Blog!
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