عام الفيل السوري أو الخراب الثالث لهيكل "الثورة"

من رأى ربيعا فليغيره بيده .. انه عام الفيل في الشام ...‏

 

بقلم: نارام سرجون‏

 

  لم تعد الثورة المجنونة تخيفني .. ولا الربيع الأخرق ..لأنني حرثت أرضهما حرثا بالقلم .. وبذرت أرضهما بملح اللغة.. وسقيت تربتهما الفاسدة بالنار والقطران .. ولأنني جرفت بجرافات البيان كل الرمل الثوري .. وحرقت كل الأدغال الكثيفة للمتثاقفين بأعواد الكبريت حتى أحالتها الحرائق الى رماد ..

كيف للربيع بعد اليوم ان يلقي بذوره في أرضنا؟؟ .. وكيف للثورات الغبية بعد اليوم أن تمد رأسها تحت مقاصل الفكر والقلم؟؟ ..

عامان تعب فيهما الكلام من مبارزة الكلام ولم أتعب .. عامان وكلامي يحفر وجه الزمن .. ويحفر وجه الخيانة .. وأزرع الزيتون وأقطع الصبار .. تعبت المعاول والفؤوس من رحلة المهاوي نحو الجذوع .. ولم يتعب ساعداي اللذان يحملان الفؤوس ويهويان على الجذوع المنخورة..

بعض الكلام بدا وقد ضاق ذرعا وأنا أحمله من مواطنه في القواميس على متن الخواطر والمقالات كل ليلة ليقوم بنوبات الحراسة على العقول والأعصاب .. وأستدعيه على عجل ليقوم بالغارات وأعمال الكوماندوس على الثورة والثوار .. ضج الكلام وأنا أرمي بمفرداته في عمليات استشهادية .. بعض الكلمات التي تفجرت لم تعد الي الا أشلاؤها ووصاياها بأن أستمر .. بعض الكلام تبرم من أنني لم امنح اجازة لأية كلمة .. ومنعته عامين كاملين من السفر والاستجمام وأن يمضي عطلته على شواطئ القواميس الكبرى ..وبين تراث الكلام .. وأعمدة الرخام ... فكيف أعتذر من الكلام؟؟

 

عذرا أيها الكلام .. عذرا ايها الكلام ..

واغفر لي أيها الكلام ان أخذتك من جديد في رحلة الرفض وبيانات العصيان والتمرد .. واغفر لي أنني سأكرر بأنني لم أستح يوما من المجاهرة بعدم اعجابي بالربيع العربي واحتقاري للبيت الوضيع الذي نشأ فيه والمرضعة التي أرضعته .. وتقززي من الماء الذي شربه والوعاء الذي أكل فيه .. ولن أتهيب من القول أنه لم يعجبني أبناء عمومته ولاأخواله .. ولم تعجبني صلاته ولازكاته ولابيته الذي حج اليه المؤمنون في استانبول وايباك .. لم تعجبني أخته ولاأخوه ..ولاأمه ولاأبوه..

كل مافي هذا الربيع مشبوه ووجوه القادمين عبره بلا ملامح .. وأصواتهم كأنها أصداء في دهاليز كهوف عميقة .. ولم تعجبني حتى نشأته الغامضة الملفوفة بالأسرار والخفايا .. ولاتعاويذه وحجاباته التي كتبها اتحاد علماء المسلمين .. وعاظ السلاطين ..

لن تحرجني شهقات الأحرار وعشاق الديمقراطية وهي تستغرب ازدرائي لأهل الربيع .. ولن أعير تلك العيون المندهشة من تجرؤي على الثوار أي اعتبار وسأسير في طريقي لاألوي على شيء .. وأنا أقول في سري: صدق من قال "من رأى باطلا فليغيره بيده" .. فماذا عمن رأى ربيعا؟؟وهذا الربيع جيش من الباطل؟؟ هل هناك باطل فوق باطل الربيع؟؟


انني سأقول منذ اليوم: من رأى ربيعا فليغيره بيده .. وليخفقه بسيفه خفقا .. ومن رأى ثورجيا فليغيره بيده .. ومن رأى حكم عدالة وتنمية فليغيره بيده .. ومن رأى حكما اخوانيا فليغيره بيده .. فكلها باطل في باطل .. بل هي جذور الباطل بذوره..

هذا الباطل يتغير في بلاد الشام .. وهذا العام يجب أن يكون عام الفيل في قواميسنا!!.. ففي كل مرة يقع الثورجيون السوريون في حيرة انتقاء أسماء لانفعالاتهم واندفاعاتهم ومعارك الهواء .. يسعفهم مكتب الحريري الاعلامي عبر عقاب صقر بانتقاء الأسماء الطنانة التي تلقي الرعب في القلوب .. فانتقي اسم ساعة الصفر .. ثم البركان .. ووصل آخر المواليد العنترية الينا وهو "ملحمة دمشق الكبرى" .. ولكن المواجهة مع الجيش العربي السوري أعادت للحقائق احترامها وللمعارك عقلها .. فلم تكن نتيجة ساعة الصفر الا صفرا ثوريا مكعبا .. وأما البراكين الثورية فقد تم اغلاق فوهاتها وكتمت أنفاسها وجشاءاتها وعطاسها .. واليوم يتكرر المشهد في ماسمي ملحمة دمشق الكبرى ..والتي تستحق اسم الخراب الثالث لهيكل الثورة .. وربما اسم "معركة عام الفيل" ..

أذكر هنا ماروجه الورعون المجانين من الغاوين في حرب عاصفة الصحراء عندما اشتبك الأمريكيون بقوات الجيش العراقي ايام الراحل صدام حسين .. اذ ذكرونا بسورة الفيل (ألم تر كيف فعل ربك بأصحاب الفيل؟؟) .. وكانوا يقصدون الحزب الجمهوري الأمريكي والرئيس بوش الأب حيث أن شعار الحزب الجمهوري هو الفيل .. وبشرونا بأنها تقصد هذا الزمان .. وأن الله تنبأ بهزيمة اصحاب الفيل على يد الرئيس صدام حسين الذي كلفه الله بتنفيذ الآية.. !!
ولكننا لن نقع في التخرصات والأمنيات ولن نتبع الغاوين .. ولكن أصحاب الحمار سيكونون اضافة جميلة الى تراثنا اللغوي اذا عرفنا أن الحمار هو شعار الحزب الديمقراطي الأميريكي والرئيس أوباما .. وقد وجدت لزاما علي أن أنقل لكم ماذا فعل جيشنا بأصحاب الحمار ..وأقصد بالطبع الثورجيين ..

من يرى ماذا فعل الجيش العربي السوري بأصحاب الثورات والملاحم الكبرى وكيف "جعل كيدهم في تضليل" فانه لن يحتار في انتقاء اسم لهذه المعركة ولهذا العام بالذات .. ولو بحثت شخصيا عن اسم يناسب معركة ملحمة دمشق التي أرادتها المعارضة بداية الاستيلاء على دمشق لما احترت .. فلقد تجولت بين صفوف الكلام وبين نخب الأوصاف فلم أعثر الا على وصف (معركة الفيل) ولن يكون هذا العام الا (عام الفيل) .. لأن مانقلته تقارير لاتحصى عن دمار لحق بمقاتلي المعارضة يستحق ان تكتب فيه مرثاة انسانية.. وما رأيته من صور الفتك بالمعارضين ومن تقارير عديدة يذكرني بعبارة "العصف المأكول" في سورة الفيل .. عندما هاجم أبرهة الأشرم مكة ليهدم الكعبة في عام عرف بعام الفيل .. فتحول جيشه الى عصف مأكول .. ان هذا العام سيكون عام الفيل الذي ينتهي فيه حلم أبرهة التركي والاسرائيلي والسعودي .. وفي هذا العام ربما ستدفن أباء الرغال ..في الدوحة ..و أمهاتهم..واخوانهم .. وأبناؤهم .. رغال في اثر رغال ..

ان هذه الثورة الحمقاء تجبرني دون حرج على أن أتعاطف مع مقاتليها وضحاياها وأن أوجه نداء صادقا الى قياداتها العابثة بأن توقف هذه المجزرة التي تفرم هؤلاء الشباب والصغار الذين ترمي بهم المعارضة الى هلاك حقيقي .. ان المناظر وصور الموت السخي التي نقلت لي لم أرها في أية معركة .. مقاتلون مبعثرون بدمائهم على امتدادات الطرق وعلى كل الأرصفة .. بلا نهاية .. متكومون فوق بعضهم وكأنهم في مهرجان للموت أو موسم حصاد وجني تكدس فيه المواسم والسلال فوق بعضها .. ان كراهيتي للمعارضة واحتقاري لقادتها ازداد لأنها جعلتني أتمنى أن تقف هذه المعركة رحمة بمقاتليها .. انني لاأستطيع ان أتحمل رؤية هذه المجزرة المجانية .. فلاشيء في العالم يستحق أن يدفع بهؤلاء الشبان من البلاد العربية ومن أبناء السوريين الى هذا الموت السريع والتهلكة الرخيصة..

لايوجد منطق في الأرض يبرر دفع هؤلاء الشباب الى مثل حقول الهلاك المجاني أمام جيش مدرب خصيصا لمواجهة أعتى جيوش العالم .. بل ان الناتو وتركيا نفسها قرروا تجنب المواجهة وترك الأمر لهؤلاء المجانين من المعارضين الذين يتبرعون بأجساد هؤلاء الشباب بلا حساب ..معارضة غبية وأنانية وصلفة وحمقاء متعجرفة ومجرمة بحق أبنائها قبل اجرامها الوطني..

سأقول ناصحا من كل قلبي بأن على المعارضة أن تشفق على كوادرها ومقاتليها وأن تتخلى عن حلم اقتحام دمشق .. ولو كنت في صفوف قيادات الثورة الميدانية لما طلبت من قيادتي التريث في اقتحام دمشق بل الغاء الفكرة نهائيا لاستحالتها .. لأسباب جوهرية يجب أن يدركها كل عاقل وحصيف .. فتطاول الثورة تسبب في اختراقها كثيرا وهذا لم يعد سرا وبعض الأسماء المتعاملة مع الأمن السوري ستكون مذهلة ومفاجئة عندما تنشرها المذكرات والوثائق .. كما أنه لايمكن القيام بعمل عسكري ولامناقشة أية خطة اقتحام لدمشق الا وتكون المخابرات السورية حاضرة عبر عملائها الذين يشاركون الكتائب في الاعداد والتحضيرات التنفيذية حيث تصل جميع النسخ الى الأجهزة الأمنية السورية قبل كل تحرك كبير .. والأهم أن تأخر محاولة اقتحام دمشق على مدى سنتين تقريبا أعطى الجيش السوري والدولة الوطنية السورية وقتا ثمينا جدا لدراسة خارطة الدفاعات المحيطة بالمدينة ونقاط الضعف .. لأن الدفاع عن دمشق سابقا كان مصمما للدفاع عن مدينة معرضة لسيناريو اقتحام بغداد بكتل عسكرية غربية ضخمة وقصف جوي عنيف وليس من قبل موجات بشرية بلا غطاء جوي وتعتمد على الاندماج مع السكان المحليين .. كما أن الطوق المحيط بدمشق من قبل الدولة السورية يزداد قوة وخبرة ويجب بعد الفشل الثالث للمعارضة في الوصول الى قلب دمشق أن تفكر جديا في الاقلاع عن هذا الجنون .. فلا يوجد قائد عسكري فذ يعيد محاولة اجتياح منفذ أو بؤرة فشل فيها ثلاث مرات متتالية بنفس الطريقة وكانت الأولى محرقة والثانية حفلة صيد للأسماك والثالثة أشبه بالابادة الشاملة للقوات المهاجمة حتى صار اسم العصف المأكول هو الاسم الأنسب لكتل الاجساد المحطمة على مداخل دمشق ..انه الخراب الثالث لكتلة المقاتلين..

والغريب أن بعض القنوات العربية لاتزال تصور عملية اقتحام دمشق على أنها ستثمر وتغوي الباقين بانتظار النصر.. وتجند هذه القنوات أسماء عسكريين فاشلين مثل صفوت الزيات وغيره .. وانضم الى هذه الجوقة صديقي العزيز وفيق السامرائي نائب رئيس الاستخبارات العسكرية العراقية أيام حكم الرئيس صدام حسين .. الذي فر الى سورية كما يفعل كل الملهوفين الذين يمرون في دمشق التي تأويهم من خوف ..وكان من استقبله ضابط سوري عزيز حدثني عن لحظة وصول السامرائي الهارب اليه عبر الحدود العراقية ..حيث آوته دمشق كما آوت خالد مشعل .. ثم عض السامرائي يدها .. كما عضها خالد مشعل..

كنت أستمع الى وفيق السامرائي وهو يشيد بالثوار الداخلين لاحتلال دمشق .. وتبسمت اذ عرفت أن ثورة تنتظر عبقرية السامرائي لن يكتب لها النجاح .. ذلك لأنني حكمت على السامرائي بأنه شخص فارغ بلا مستقبل منذ التقيته مع صديقين في دمشق في فندق الشام حيث وصل للقائي بسيارة مرسيدس زرقاء قدمتها له المخابرات السورية .. وجعل يحدثنا عن صدام حسين وعن أنه ليس به مرض كما يشاع الا ارتفاع الكولسترول والمناقير في فقرات الرقبة .. وحدثنا كيف وصفه الرئيس صدام بالجبان لأنه كان خائفا من المعركة مع الغرب وكتب له بالحرف في ذيل تقريره (لماذا كل هذا الجبن ياوفيق؟؟) .. وأذكر أن وفيق يومها ردد عدة مرات وبشكل ملفت للنظر أمله في التواصل مع الأمريكان ونيل مساعدتهم للمعارضة العراقية في مشروعها التحرري من الديكتاتورية ..

وعندما نهضنا مد السامرائي يده لمصافحتنا لكن صديقي تجاهل المصافحة وبقيت يد السامرائي ممدودة في الهواء ولكن صديقي أدار ظهره وغادر .. ولما خرجنا سألت صديقي عن سبب تجاهله الواضح للمصافحة فقال: مصافحة مع شخص هارب ومنشق عن بلده لاتشرفني؟ لو كان فيه خير لحارب في بلده؟ ومصافحة مع ثائر يحلم بمساعدة أميريكا لاتشرفني؟؟ واعتقد أن صدام حسين محظوظ بهروب هذه العينات ..

ثم اضاف: أنا متأكد ان السامرائي لن يطيب له المقام في دمشق لأنه يريد بيع نفسه ويسوق نفسه للغرب .. ولذلك يرتاح السامرائي عندما يقال له بأنه قد يكون الرئيس العراقي القادم برعاية الغرب .. وهذا الميل والرهان على الأمريكيين لن يروق للقادة السوريين حتى وان خاصم غريمهم صدام حسين ..

وبالفعل فبعد أشهر قليلة فوجئت بالسامرائي يتحدث من لندن .. ولم يعد منذ ذلك اليوم الى دمشق .. وهاهو اليوم يريد ادخال فلسفته العسكرية الفاشلة الى دمشق ويبارك للثوار معارك التهلكة..

هناك من الثورجيين من يصدق السامرائي البائس الذي يبحث عن أي دور ويعتقد بغباء أن سيناريو اقتحام حلب يمكن تكراره في دمشق .. لكن التسلل الى حلب كان بسبب المؤازرة الكبيرة واللوجستية التركية والغربية وسهولة اقامة غرف عمليات على الحدود التركية للاشراف على معركة حلب التي ستنتهي ان عاجلا أو آجلا لصالح الجيش السوري .. لكن اقتحام دمشق وحسب ما يتناقله خبراء عسكريون محنكون من قلب معسكر الناتو لايمكن حتى للناتو نفسه قبل أن يحضر له قصف جوي عنيف بخمسمئة طائرة ولمدة ستة أسابيع لتذويب كتلة الدفاعات الرئيسية الرصاصية .. وتحتاج دفاعات الجيش السوري حول وداخل دمشق الى القيام ب 18 ألف غارة جوية حتى تصمت القدرة الدفاعية لدمشق حسب معظم الخبراء ..

والغارة الاسرائيلية على جمرايا صارت تقرأ من قبل عسكريين محايدين على أنها رسالة أمل للمعارضة بأن الناتو يحاول تجريب منظومات الصواريخ السورية وقراءة شيفراتها الالكترونية .. ولكن الاسرائيليين غالبا لايزالون غير قادرين على معرفة شيء عن شيفرة الصواريخ والدفاعات الجوية وقدراتها بعد .. وأقل مايقال هو أن الطائرات الاسرائيلية لاتعرف حتى الآن ان كان عدم اسقاطها بسبب تردي الدفاع الجوي أم بسبب قرار بابقاء الشفرة مغلقة أمام خرق جوي لثوان حتى موعد حرب لاحق تكون واسعة النطاق ..ان القيادة الاسرائيلية لاتزال في هذا الشأن تسبح في الظلام وتخشى أن تكون في حالة خداع للنفس .. ولاتقدر على اعطاء جواب يقيني.. وهي لاتثق بالمعلومات التي تصلها من المعارضة السورية بشأن الشيفرات وتوزع القوات وتحركاتها وقدراتها لأنها تعرف أن بعض هذه المعلومات يسربه عملاء غير موثوقين .. ويرجح البعض أن تلجأ اسرائيل الى غارة أكبر وأعنف لاخراج الشيفرات وارغام السوريين على اطلاق الصواريخ وانطاقها بالشيفرات.. الا أن هذا صار ليس بالسيناريو السهل الهضم خاصة بسبب ما يقال بأن بوتين طلب من الأسد عدم الرد ببعض الصواريخ وتعهد بأن أية غارة قادمة ستعتبرها موسكو عليها .. وهذه الرسالة وصلت الى نتنياهو .. بحذافيرها..

لم تعد الثورة تخيفني ولا الربيع .. فهاهو الربيع يترنح وهاهي الثورات ترتجف .. وهاهو قلبي يذكّرني بما قاله منذ ولادة الربيع .. بأن لاتخشوا هذا الربيع بعد اليوم .. فكلما شرب الربيع من الدم أصيبت الثورة بالشيخوخة السريعة ... هذا ربيع يشرب الدم حتى الادمان .. ومن يدمن شرب الدم لايتوقف حتى يموت من كرع الدم ... وكلما جندلت الثورة وردة للحرية طلعت من جرح الوردة شجيرة للحرية ...



الربيع يتآكل حول دمشق .. والثورة متعبة .. والحيوان الجريح لم يعد قادرا على لعق جراحه لكثرتها .. وصوته متحشرج .. وحال الربيع لايسرّ..فالربيع العربي وأهله مشغولون في صراعهم من أجل البقاء في تونس ومصر ..



ففي مصر تبدو ثورة مرسي محاصرة بالأعاصير والنيران .. ومرسي الغريق الذي كان يهدد السوريين الذين يقفون على اليابسة باغراقهم في بحاره .. صار يبلع نصف الكلام ونصف التهديد مع ماء البحر الذي يشربه .. تهديد الغريق للواقفين على الصخور والشواطئ صار يستحق الرثاء ..

ومن لايصدق أن الربيع يتآكل بسرعة فلينظر الى أصابع الثورة التي ترتجف في تونس وهي تسدد بنادقها ومسدساتها على كل عين تنظر من خلال ثقوب الربيع التي تتسع .. العيون الناظرة من ثقوب الثورة والربيع ترى مالايجب أن يرى ويجب أن تفقأ ... وعينا الراحل "شكري بالعيد" رأتا مالاعين رأت في تونس ولاأذن سمعت ولاخطر على قلب ثائر وحر .. فقد رأى أصابع المخابرات تصنع عجين الثورة وتخبزه في قطر والسعودية ورأى أن أبناء تونس يرمى بهم في تنور الموت السوري ليستمر حريق الربيع ويخبز الخبازون خبز الحرية المسموم لشعوب الشرق..

ومن لايصدق أن الربيع يتأرجح بعنف فلينظر الى نظرة الرعب في عين الغنوشي وهو حائر .. لأن صوت "شكري بالعيد" يهز فصل الربيع في تونس ومفاصله وركبه .. ثورة بكاملها يهزها هدير رجل واحد اسمه شكري بالعيد .. وكل ديالكتيك حزب "النهضة" والديالكتيك الاسلامي لايقدر بعد اليوم أن يمنع دم "شكري بالعيد" من الصراخ في آذان أهل تونس كما لو كان صوت والد هاملت .. وهاملت التونسي سيسمع صوت أبيه كل يوم الى أن يثأر من قاتله .. وستنهض من دمه كل تونس .. ولاتوجد قوة تحول بينه وبين أن يصفع وجه الثورة .. .. ولن تقدر كل مساجد حزب النهضة أن تمسح دم "بالعيد" عن حيطانها ومآذنها وأذانها لأن قرار اغتياله قد نسجته الخطب والمواعظ الدينية المنفلتة على الناس كثيران المصارعة ونسجته ثقافة العنف الديني الذي جاء راكبا أعلى سنام لناقة الثورة .. مآذن القيروان تتحول الى أنصال خناجر مشرعة تقطر دما .. والمآذن التي تتخضب بالدم لن ترفع أذانا كالأذان بل سترفع مستوى الجريمة والعنف كما هي مساجد الوهابية ومساجد الاخوان المسلمين وصاحب الفتاوى الدموية يوسف القرضاوي ..

ولايقال لشعب تونس وشعوب الربيع الا وصية واحدة: من رأى باطلا فليغيره بيده .. ومن رأى ربيعا فليغيره بيده ..ولن أعتذر من الكلام .. انه عام الفيل ..عام نهاية الربيع .. ونهاية جيش أبرهة .. في الشمال حيث مكة بلاد الشام .. فللبيت رب يحميه .. وللشام رب يحميها ..

ديوك المعارضة بدأت بنتف ريش بعضها
أردوغـــان وطابور الحمقـــى

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US backs-down on ‘regime change in Damascus’

 

Posted on February 10, 2013 |

John Kerry, in his first conference after taking-over Israel-Firster Hillary Clinton as US Secretary of State said that Obama administration is not going to arm the rebel groups fighting Assad regime. He said that the White House is exploring other ways to end Syria’s increasingly bloody conflict. Kerry’s statement poured cold water over Muslim-hating Zionist lawmakers, who have been pushing Obama during his first term to arm al-Qaeda and pro-USrael jihadis to tip the military balance on the ground against Syrian Army.

It was revealed this week that the White House has rejected secret plans drawn up by Hillary Clinton and the disgraced Gen. David Petraeus to arm the Syrian rebels.

“It’s a very complicated and very dangerous situation,” said Kerry in the conference (reported by AFP).

James (Jay) Carney (married to Jewish anchorwoman Claire Shipman), White House spokesperson has defended Obama’s decision not to arm the rebels. “The US priority was to ensure that weapons provided by the US did not fall into wrong hands and create problem for the US or Israel in the future“.

Last year, Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Martin Dempsey speaking to journalist in London rejected French-Turkish call for enforcing a ’no-fly-zone’ inside Syria by NATO. He warned the implications of establishing a no-fly-zone inside Syria, saying: “Syria is not Libya“.

Iraqi prime minister Nuri al-Maliki during his meeting with Hillary Clinton and vice-president Joe Biden – told them Bashar al-Assad could easily hold-on to power for another two year.
Last week, the Zionist regime in a desperate move to draw US-NATO forces into the Syrian conflict, attacked a scientific research facility near Damascus, killing two civilians.

It’s a common knowledge that the US, Israel, Britain, Turkey, France, Saudi Arabia and Qatar are funding, arming, training and providing logistic information to various foreign groups of armed insurgents to replace Bashar al-Assad regime with a pro-USrael regime which will distance itself from Iran, Hamas and Hizballah. Turkey has even asked NATO’s help to defeat Syrian Army. Both Turkey and Israel are planning to create “buffer zone” on their borders a few miles inside Syrian territory – which is considered a “declaration of war” under international law. Syria, Iran, Russia and China have warned both Turkey and Israel against their evil intentions.

Interestingly, America’s Middle Eastern allies (Israel, Turkey, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain and UAE), want to promote democracy in the Muslim world – but only outside their own borders and fiercely put down even a semblance of dissent or protest. And for Washington, such actions by its allies are regarded “kosher”.

Only time will tell how the Zionist regime screws John Kerry for refusing to topple Assad regime by military option. How critical is fall of Assad for the Zionist entity – can be judged by February 2012 New York Times Op-Ed by Efraim Halevy, former head of Israeli Mossad.

“Ensuring the Iran is evicted from its regional hub in Damascus would cut off Iran’s access to its proxies (Hizballh, Hamas and Islamic Jihad) and visibly dent its domestic and international prestige, possibly forcing a hemorrehaging regime in Tehran to suspend its nuclear policies,” Halevy argued. “This would be a safer and more rewarding option than the military one“.

I’m glad to know that Halvey do remember Israel’s failed military options against Hizballah (Summer 2006) and Hamas/Islamic Jihad (November 2012). Iran’s international prestige is result of Tehran’s independent foreign policy based on peaceful co-existence and Islamic moral ethics. As far Tehran’s nuclear program is concerned, it has nothing to do with Syria, Hamas or Hizballah. It’s a deterrent for country’s defense.
 

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More holes in White House denial of arms to jihadists

JERUSALEM – The White House denial of supplying arms to the al-Qaida-saturated Syrian rebels may be somewhat more difficult for some to swallow now that it has been revealed the arms-to-rebels plan had been endorsed by the leaders of the CIA, Pentagon and State Department.

If, indeed, President Obama rejected the arms plan, as reported earlier by the New York Times, it would mean the White House went against the recommendations of outgoing Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and then-CIA Director David Petraeus.

Read more 

The plan was said to have been generated by Petraeus and Clinton.

During Senate hearings on Benghazi yesterday, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., asked Panetta and Dempsey whether they had supported a plan “that we provide weapons to the resistance in Syria.”
“We do,” Panetta replied.

“You did support that?” McCain asked again.

“We did,” added Dempsey, who was sitting next to Panetta.

Neither Dempsey nor Panetta elaborated on their positions.

This past weekend, the New York Times reported the White House rebuffed the Clinton-Petraeus plan developed last summer to arm and train Syrian rebels.

The Times, citing unnamed Obama administration officials, reported the White House rejected the Clinton-Petraeus proposal over concerns it could draw the U.S. into the Syrian conflict and the arms could fall into the wrong hands.

The plan reportedly called for vetting rebels and arming a group of fighters with the assistance of Arab countries.

According to informed Middle Eastern security officials speaking to WND, the U.S. has been coordinating arms shipments for months now to the Syrian rebels. At issue is that the rebels consist in large part of al-Qaida-linked jihadists, according to scores of news reports.

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Tunisia Assassination Puts Country at Crossroads

By: Noureddine Hlaoui Translated from Business News (Tunisia).

Lire l'original en français

Tunisians are still reeling from the assassination of the activist and great political leader of the opposition Chokri Belaid, who was shot on his way to the headquarters of the Tunisian General Labour Union (UGTT) to meet with its secretary general and to discuss ways to establish a national debate.

The assassination of Belaid came as a shock. It was so strong that all of the politicians, civil society sectors and citizens believe that things will never go back to the way they were before.

The energetic and quick positions taken by the opposition, which is more united than ever, alongside the spontaneous mobilization of tens of thousands of Tunisians across the country, seem to have convinced Hamadi Jebali, the head of the government, to make decisions that correspond to the severity of the circumstances and the situation. Unfortunately, the Ennahda movement is clinging to power, disregarding the fact that this may tear the country apart.

Thus, on the same day, and shortly after the firm and logical decisions taken by the various democratic parties, Jebali addressed the nation to announce his decision, "which he took independently and without the approval of any political parties," to form a new small government composed of independent and competent technocrats who commit themselves not to run for the upcoming elections to be held as soon as possible.

Jebali said it will be a government tasked with managing the daily affairs during the remainder of the transitional period.

While the opposition welcomed this initiative and called for additional consultations with the political class, the Ennahda movement, however, rejected it through its spokesman, saying the troika is still capable of running the affairs of the country.

Logically speaking, Jebali, being the head of the government, is the best placed to conclude that his team failed in its mission to lead the country in a safe way during the second transitional stage; a conclusion reached by the different democratic, political and civil society forces on the eve of Oct. 23, 2012.

Many raised their voices to say that electoral legitimacy was over and that we must give way to consensual and functional legitimacy, an approach that had worked well and succeeded in the first provisional phase under the government of Beji Caid Essebsi.

Thus, Jebali seems to have realized — albeit late, as some say — the seriousness of the situation and the need to take exceptional measures under exceptional circumstances, hence the decision he took, away from any complications that might result from compliance with constitutional apparatus.

Rachid Ghannouchi (R), leader of the Islamist Ennahda movement, arrives for a presentation of his program with Hamadi Jebali, then-secretary general of Ennahda, in Tunis, Sept. 14, 2011. (photo by REUTERS/Zoubeir Souissi)

According to the latest data, the head of the government will receive the support of the democratic bloc in the National Constituent Assembly (ANC), as his Ennahda party continues to intransigently require compliance with the so-called "small constitution" on the provisional organization of powers.
Thus, the Islamist party’s MPs have gone as far as to disgrace Jebali, demanding that the president appoint a new figure from Ennahda, obviously, to form a new government.

Given this new development, several points should be made. Ennahda advocates seem to forget that the constitutional texts have been finalized and voted on by the majority of the Troika, at the time.
They seem to forget that the Constituent Assembly has so far failed to implement any of the missions it has been entrusted with, namely the drafting of the constitution, the establishment of the main authorities (elections, judiciary and information), and the adaptation of a political system and an electoral law.

Ennahda has been clinging to power believing that it can impose illusions on Tunisia in the name of the dictatorship of the majority. The Islamist party appears unaware of the dangers threatening the country, against which all the country’s political parties have been warning. This is especially true for all parties, expect for Ennahda and the Congress for the Republic (CPR), who pretend not to perceive any of these threats.

It seems that for Ennahda, or at least the wing obeying the orders of its leader, Rachid Ghannouchi, the assassination of Belaid is insignificant news and things will be back to normal after a few days!

It seems that the Islamist party led by Ghannouchi has forgotten that World War I was triggered by the assassination of a political figure; this is not to mention many civil wars in Lebanon and Algeria among other countries.

Ennahda seems to run headlong into its political trajectory, with its pompous behavior, truly believing that it is the winning majority in Tunisia — a lie it continues to believe despite the spontaneous popular demonstrations against it.

Jebali has finally understood what he must do to unify Tunisians, putting his future with Ennahda at stake. He has proved his ability to rise to the challenges of this exceptional situation and to be a true statesman, which is why he gained the support of the opposition forces and wider civil society.

Ennahda, however, has once again revealed its true colors. It continued to cling to power, taking the bigger share of the pie (to plagiarize Moncef Marzouki’s term). Indeed, the Islamist party is trying hard to enhance its chances of winning the next election. In fact, Marzouki has been using the presidency mechanisms and inner workings for electoral purposes.

It is imperative that each party assumes the responsibilities of their positions. History will show that Ennahda and Ghannouchi will suffer the consequences of their conceit that threatens to plunge the country into chaos and emptiness.

Jebali has understood this game and therefore acted responsibly. It remains to be seen whether Ghannouchi and his band, and opportunistic government ministers who cling to their seats, will see the light or not.

Read more:
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BDS Better Learn from its Mistakes

Saturday, February 9, 2013 at 9:26AM Gilad Atzmon

By Gilad Atzmon

It’s almost funny to read the BDS’ leadership’s outraged reactions to top ethnic-cleansing advocate Alan Dershowitz when he tried to stop a discussion with Judith Butler and Omar Barghouti discussing BDS at NYC Brooklyn College.

It’s funny because the BDS leadership unfortunately is drowning in the exact same Talmudic herem culture as is Dershowitz. Just like Dershowitz, BDS is itself engaged in a relentless assault on fundamental and elementary rights such as freedom of speech and freedom of expression. So often, we learn about BDS embarking on yet another assault on dedicated humanists and intellectuals - in many cases, leading supporters of Palestine – as we watch Palestinian solidarity transformed itself into just another zone of occupation.

BDS could easily become a positive development if it could only tell the difference between an academic and an avocado. If BDS is really interested in the ‘day after’, it must immediately remove itself from Talmudic herem culture and engage in open discourse driven by principles of ethics, tolerance and pluralism.

I believe in freedom of speech and I also believe that the current herem culture has transformed Palestinian solidarity into a an intellectual desert. No intellectual, ideological or ethical matter may be discussed without the looming threat of excommunication - a devastating state of affairs which has already reduced some of Palestine’s potential young leaders into mere accessories of Jewish Power – in effect, Sabbath Goyim.

This week’s power struggle between Dershowitz and BDS should be a wake-up call. BDS should learn from its mistakes. First, it must become an advocate of freedom of speech. This alone would signify a shift from the tribal to the universal and from Zion to Athens where the Palestinian discourse truly belongs.
 

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Activists death fuels anti-Muslim Brotherhood sentiment in Tanta

Khaled Abdul-Razeq helps Tanta protesters to put their chants on paper. He makes sure to do so in Islamic attire. (Photo: Sarah El Sirgany)

 

By Sarah El Sirgany - Sat, 2013-02-09 19:11- Labyrinth

 

Tanta - Every Friday, Khaled Abdul-Razeq takes his paint and brushes down to the site of demonstrations. Stationed at a small table near the Gharbya governorate building in Tanta, he is surrounded by kids and adults brandishing blank paper and cardboard waiting for their turn. In beautiful calligraphy he pens their preferred slogans, which they have carefully thought through.
“This is a revolution and we should participate with what we can,” he says, waving his paint-covered hands. He does it for free.

At a protest with loud chants against the Muslim Brotherhood and the interior ministry, Abdul-Razeq stands out. He wears a thinly striped dark blue galabiya, and sports a bushy beard – a look associated with the Islamist supporters of the MB President Mohammed Mursi.

“I make sure to come here in my traditional Islamic attire to tell people that [the MB] are not what Islam is,” says Abdul-Razeq, who makes a living through calligraphy and other Islamic advertising-related activities. He wants to make a point against the political polarization that has divided the country along religious fault lines. His opposition to Mursi, he explains, stems from being an Islamist.

“The Brotherhood’s corrupt rule made people hate anyone who represents Islam,” he explains. “They wrongfully spoke in the name of religion… now people think every bearded man is a liar.”
Kids holding their freshly painting banners listen. Most of the requests to Abdul-Razeq that day include the word “retribution,” with a specific focus on Mohamed al-Guindy, whose family says he was tortured to death by the police.

A few streets away, protesters march through the city stopping under the home of al-Guindy’s mother. “We are all your children,” they chant as the tearful mother addresses the crowd.
“Don’t let anyone tell you that we are weak. We are not weak,” she says.

“I’m proud of Mohammed. I’m very proud of my son. He loved Egypt. Egypt is dear to us all. I want you all to love Egypt and preserve it,” she adds, reminding the protesters filling the street to use their brains, not to burn anything or get anyone killed in the process of seeking justice for her son’s death.

Al-Guindy’s death fueled clashes and demonstrations in the Delta town. Over 30 were injured in clashes that followed al-Guindy’s burial last Monday. On Friday, over 200 were injured in clashes throughout Egypt, many of them in towns across the Gharbiya province.

 

On Friday, the march in Tanta only attracts a couple of hundred at the beginning. The numbers increase as the protesters march across the city. “People are frustrated. They protest and nothing happens. My father told me there will be no one today and that I shouldn’t bother going,” one protester tells me.

There’s also fear. The teargas that seeps through the streets further away from the regular confrontation sites and the threat of physical harm deter and confuse people.

Compared to clashes between security and protesters in the capital, Friday is relatively tame in Tanta. Clashes spread across the small city, with concentrations near the two police stations, the security directorate and the governorate building. After chasing protesters through the side streets, police stands at the corners on main streets firing teargas intermittently. A video aired by al-Hayat TV showed a policeman firing shotgun pellets, and an unidentified man next to him firing a gun in the air.

Away from the sites of clashes, where many citizens go out as if nothing is happening, the old grievances that spurred the uprising in 2011 mix with opposition to the MB rule. This opposition camp comprises the young men and women that lead chants, many of whom knew al-Guindy and participated alongside him in protests over the past two years, and another conservative group that has consistently opposed the MB but is not necessarily supportive of the uprising.

Others like Abdul-Razeq, who initially said people should give Mursi and the Islamists a chance, are now regulars at marches. Mohammed has been taking his gear to protests for four consecutive Fridays in Tanta. “I didn’t participate after the parliamentary and presidential election, and I thought Mursi will be a president for all Egyptians. But he doesn’t listen to the opposition or the sound of reason,” he says. The crowd cheers him on as he criticizes Mursi’s rule with fiery statements.

 

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How long has Israel been claiming Iran nuke imminent?

ISRAEL OF COURSE REALLY DOES HAVE THEM BUT THE UN & IAEA DOES NOTHING
Source

 The US media is once again reporting Israeli speculation on Iranian attempts to build a nuclear weapon.
Now, I do think the current Iranian government would like to have nuclear weapons capability.
But here’s a timeline of Israeli warnings on Iranian nukes (via Opinio Juris)

1984: West German intelligence sources claim that Iran’s production of a bomb “is entering its final stages.” US Senator Alan Cranston claims Iran is seven years away from making a weapon.
1992: Israeli parliamentarian Benjamin Netanyahu tells his colleagues that Iran is 3 to 5 years from being able to produce a nuclear weapon.
1995: The New York Times reports that US and Israeli officials fear “Iran is much closer to producing nuclear weapons than previously thought” – less than five years away. Netanyahu claims the time frame is three to five years.
1996: Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres claims Iran will have nuclear weapons in four years.
1998: Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld claims Iran could build an ICBM capable of reaching the US within five years.
1999: An Israeli military official claims that Iran will have a nuclear weapon within five years.
2001: The Israeli Minister of Defence claims that Iran will be ready to launch a nuclear weapon in less than four years.
2002: The CIA warns that the danger of nuclear weapons from Iran is higher than during the Cold War, because its missile capability has grown more quickly than expected since 2000 – putting it on par with North Korea.
2003: A high-ranking Israeli military officer tells the Knesset that Iran will have the bomb by 2005 — 17 months away.
2006: A State Department official claims that Iran may be capable of building a nuclear weapon in 16 days.
2008: An Israeli general tells the Cabinet that Iran is “half-way” to enriching enough uranium to build a nuclear weapon and will have a working weapon no later than the end of 2010.
2009: Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak estimates that Iran is 6-18 months away from building an operative nuclear weapon.
2010: Israeli decision-makers believe that Iran is at most 1-3 years away from being able to assemble a nuclear weapon.
2011: IAEA report indicates that Iran could build a nuclear weapon within months.
2013: Israeli intelligence officials claim that Iran could have the bomb by 2015 or 2016.

There shouldn’t be any doubt that it is entirely foolish to rely on Israeli intelligence on the matter.
 

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From Tel Aviv to the Beirut Duty Free: Israeli Products Spotted at Airport

Lighters spotted in Beirut's Airport bore the logo of James Richardson, the company that has operated the principal duty free license at Ben Gurion Airport in Israel since the 1980s. (Photo: Marwan Tahtah)

By: Ayman Fadel

Published Saturday, February 9, 2013

 

Phoenicia-Aer Rianta Management Company (PAM), the operator of the Beirut Duty Free at Beirut International Airport, seems to have imported goods from an Israeli company.
The items in question are lighters. The operator put them on display in the duty free area, after removing all evidence that pointed to their Israeli origin, including Hebrew script on their packaging.
Earlier, when PAM’s management moved the items to its warehouses, the company told its employees that the script was Hindi rather than Hebrew.

The company’s claims notwithstanding, the writing on the packaging was indeed Hebrew. In addition, the lighters bore the logo of James Richardson, the company that has operated the principal duty free license at Ben Gurion Airport in Israel since the 1980s.

 

In a report aired on Thursday, 7 February 2013, al-Mayadeen TV translated the Hebrew text, revealing that the items were being sold at an airport in Negev, Israel. So how did they make their way to PAM’s stores at the Beirut airport?

 

Al-Akhbar tried to contact the company a couple of times, only to be met with prevarication and empty promises to return our call.

This matter raises a number of questions: Is this the first time that Israeli goods have entered Lebanon? Did the customs authorities, who are entrusted with verifying the country of origin, do their job properly?

Indeed, a quick examination of the paperwork attached to the boxes reveals that the primary destination was Tel Aviv-Milan. Upon the goods’ arrival in Milan, another form was affixed over the Israeli one, stating that the items were being shipped from Milan to Beirut.

According to these documents, 41 boxes were sent from Milan to Beirut, out of 70 that came out of Israel.

According to Ahmad Merhi, a lawyer who lobbies against economic normalization with Israel, the value of these goods is not what’s important. Merhi stressed that the danger of marketing Israeli goods in Lebanon did not lie in the enemy achieving financial profits, as much as in promoting the acceptance of the idea of having Israeli goods in Lebanon, in preparation for normalization.

It is worth noting that Lebanese law makes dealing with Israeli companies, whether directly or otherwise, an offense punishable by imprisonment for three to 10 years.

This article is an edited translation from the Arabic Edition.
 

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ISLAMIC HISTORY BEING DESTROYED BY ISRAEL

Occupation Bulldozers Demolish Ancient Islamic Facades in Jerusalem

PNN

The Al-Aqsa Foundation for Endowments and Heritage said that the Occupation bulldozers continue, for the second day, their demolition of the facades and arches of a historic building on the North side of Buraq Square, about 50 meters from al-Aqsa Mosque by the Western Wall. The Foundation reported that most of the demolition is now complete.

The Foundation added in a statement that the Occupation is planning to build a new complex known as "Strauss" for numerous purposes, including a synagogue, reception hall, observation post, police station, museum, dozens of new bathroom units, and a new entrance to the Western Wall.

The statement continued by saying that these ancient buildings are known as Islamic Endowments of the Morroccan Quarter of Jerusalem, and have been an integral part of that neighborhood.

Sheikh Ikrima Sabri, head of the Supreme Islamic Council in Jerusalem, stressed in an interview with PNN that “this work is a Judaicization of the city” and an attempt “to clear out everything that has to do with Islamic monuments.”*

Source
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Israel rejects US report on Israel-PA education

 

 

Posted on February 9, 2013 |

 

The Zionist Education Ministry has rejected the findings of a US State Department funded study, which has claimed that the textbooks taught in Gaza and the West Bank don’t teach hatred toward Jews. The Ministry has called the report “profoundly unobjective”. The American Jewish advocacy group, ADL, has called the report “distortion of facts”. The rest of the Israel Hasbara Committee members (Jewish Week, JTA, algemeiner, HuffingtonPost, JPost, NPR, The Beast, etc.), claimed the report, from “one sided” to “antisemitic”.

In fact, the report, titled ‘Victims of Our Own Narratives’ has tried to cover-up the fact that Israeli school textbooks do teach hatred toward Arabs, Muslims, Christians and all the other non-Jewish people based on Jewish holy book Talmud. This fact was admitted in 2007 by Professor Daniel Bar-Tal of Tel Aviv University, after studying 124 elementary, middle- and high school textbooks on grammar and Hebrew literature, history, geography and citizenship. He wrote: “The early textbooks tended to describe acts of Arabs as hostile, deviant, cruel, immoral, unfair, with the intention to hurt Jews and to annihilate the State of Israel. Within this frame of reference, Arabs were delegitimized by the use of such labels as ‘robbers,’ ‘bloodthirsty,’ and ‘killers”. Another Israeli professor Nurit Peled-Elhanan, daughter of Israel’s 1967 War hero, Gen. Peled, had come to the same conclusion.

The report in question is based on a study of Israeli and Palestinian textbooks conducted by a team of Israeli and Palestinian researchers and led by professor Bruce Wexler, a Jewish psychiatrist at the Yale School of Medicine. Dr. Wexler and the panel of 19 academics, who surveyed over 3,100 excerpts from 168 Israeli and Palestinian textbooks – have blasted the Zionist regime and the Jewish lobby for rejecting the report “of being politically motivated”.

The report has exposed decades of Israel’s anti-Palestinian propaganda lies that Palestinian kids are brought-up on hatred toward Jews. Successive Zionist regimes have used this lie as trump card in underminding the claim that an independent Palestinian state is overdue. This is also a “biblical truth” among majority of US lawmakers.

“Both the Israeli and Palestinian communities should be commended for this important positive aspect of their books. Extreme negative characterizations of the other of his sort are present in textbooks elsewhere in the world,” claimed the report.

The study was launched in 2009 by the Council of Religious Institutions of the Holy Land, a multifaith body that aims “to prevent religion from being used as a source of conflict, and to promote mutual respect,” according to its website. It is comprised of the Israeli Chief Rabbinate, the Palestinian Islamic Waqf, and the heads of Christian churches in Israel and the West Bank.
The Zionist regime had boycotted the study, while Palestinian Authority officials cooperated with the study group.
 

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US officials confess to targeting Iran’s civilian population

Condemned by every syllable they utter…..

Franklin Lamb

Tehran
Al-Manar
Graphics by Alex
 

 

February 8, 2013

Tehran -- Azadeh, a graduate law student from Tehran University, on the sidelines of Iran’s Third Annual Hollywoodis (www.hollywoodism.orghttp) reminded her interlocutors, of the obvious damming admissions last week by two US politicians:
 

“It would be a defense lawyer’s worst nightmare wouldn’t it?

 

I mean to have one's clients, in this case the Vice-President of the United States and the outgoing Secretary of state confess so publicly to serial international crimes against a civilian population?”

The confessions and the crimes, she correctly enumerated to her audience, were those admitted to by US Vice-President Joe Biden and outgoing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton this past week.

Both of the US officials, in discussing US relations with the Islamic Republic, openly admitted that the US-led sanctions against Iran (and Syria) are politically motivated and constitute a "soft-war" against the nearly 80
million people of Iran (23 million people in Syria) in order to achieve regime change.

Mrs. Clinton, was the first of the dynamic duo to be heard from. She acknowledged that the harsh US sanctions were intended to target and send the people of Iran a message. “So we hope that the Iranian people will ake known their concerns… so my message to Iranians is do something about this.”

 

Some listening concluded she meant food riots and inflation riots to overthrow the Iranian government. An Australian Broadcasting Company interviewer asked Clinton on January 31 of last year: “If you have issues with the government of Iran, why destroy the Iranian people with the current sanctions in place? It's very difficult to find certain medicines in Iran. Where is your sense of humanity?”

What the Clinton interrogator had in mind, she explained later, were the US-led sanctions reducing Iran’s GDP growth (-1.1% GDP) resulting in an inflation of 21.0% that is being felt mostly by the civilian population. As well as periodic food shortages in the supermarkets of such staples such as rice, there are price rises on everything. For example, per page printing for students is up as much as 400% and the cost of a used car up 300%. In general, supermarket items have risen 100 to 300 percent or higher over the past twenty-four months and, devastating for many, certain lifesaving medicines are no longer available.

Clinton: “Well, first, let me say on the medicine and on food and other necessities, there are no sanctions.” This statement is utter nonsense and Mrs. Clinton knows it.

The targeting process by the US Treasury Department is well entrenched in Washington. When dear reader is next in Washington, DC, perhaps on a tour bus riding down NW Pennsylvania Avenue following a visit to the US Capitol, consider getting off the bus at 15th and Pennsylvania at the US Department of the Treasury. Walk around the main building and you will see an Annex building. This building, as Clinton knows well, and like Biden, has visited more than once, houses the Office of Financial Assets Control (OFAC). The well-funded agency’s work includes precisely targeting “food and medicines and other necessities” in order to force the civilian population of
Iran to achieve regime change.

For more than two hundred years, since the War of 1812, when OFAC was founded to sanction the British, the office has become expert at imposing sanctions and it has done so more than 2000 times. OFAC currently uses a
large team of specialists and computers to think-up, design, test, and send to AIPAC and certain pro-Zionist officials and members of congress their work-product topped off by recommendations.

OFAC and its Treasury Department associates have had a hand in virtually every US sanction applied to Iran since President Jimmy Carter issued Executive Order 12170 in November 1979 freezing about $12 billion in Iranian assets, including bank deposits, gold and other properties. From the State Sponsor of Terrorism Designation Act in 1979 to the Syria Accountability Act of 2004, more than a dozen Presidential Executive Orders including the 2011-2012 Executive orders which froze the US property of high-rankling Syrian and Iranian officials and more broadly E.O. 13582 which froze all governmental assets of the Syrian government and prohibited Americans from doing business with the Syrian government and banned all US import of Syrian petroleum products.

What OFAC does with its data base is science not art. It can calculate quite precisely the economic effect on the civilian population of a single action designating one company, bank, government entity or infrastructure system of a country. OFAC, on behalf of its government, electronically wages a cold war against its civilian targets.

This week OFAC and the Treasury Department blacklisted Iran’s state broadcasting authority, Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, responsible for broadcast policy in Iran and overseas production at Iranian television and radio channels, potentially limiting viewing and listening opportunities for Iran’s civilian population. Its director, Ezzatollah Zarghami, was included in the action. Additionally sanctioned are Iran’s Internet-policing agencies and a major electronics producer. David S. Cohen, the pro-Zionist Treasury undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, who oversees the OFAC sanctions effort, reportedly following meetings with Israeli officials, said last week's actions were meant to “tighten the screws and intensify the economic pressure against the Iranian regime.”

In reality, the sanctions target the civilian population and the “Iranian regime” won’t be much affected. The same applies to Syria. Despite the public relations language that “food and medicine are exempted form the brutal US-led sancitons, as OFAC well knows, the reality is something else. They know well the chilling effects of the sanctions on international suppliers of medicines and food stuffs with respect to a targeted country. The US Treasury department has thousands of gigabytes of data confirming that the boards of directors of international business do not, and will not allow their companies to risk millions of dollars in profits by technically violating any of the thousands of details in the sanctions -- many of which are subject to interpretation -- for the sake of doing business with Iran or Syria. This is why there are severe shortages of medicines and certain foodstuffs in these sanctioned countries and to state otherwise is Orwellian News-Speak.

OFAC does not operate in a vacuum. It works closely with other US agencies including the 16 intelligence agencies that together make up the UN Intelligence Community. Together they have applied sanctions of great breadth and severity against the civilian populations of Syria and Iran. These sanctions have been bolstered on occasion by several direct and/or green-lighted Israeli assassinations and cyber-assaults, hoping to foment civil unrest to achieve regime change and other political goals.

A few days after Mrs. Clinton's somewhat inadvertent confession that the US government intentionally targets the civilian population of Iran, Vice President Joe Biden chimed in on the 4th of February that the US was ready
to hold direct negotiations with Iran but added the caveat, "We have also made clear that Iran's leaders need not sentence their people to economic deprivation,” acknowledging as did Hillary that the US sanctions are intended to target and harm the Iranian and Syrian people. A senior Obama administration official described the latest step as “a significant turning of the screw,” meaning that the people of Iran face a “stark choice” between bowing to US demands and reviving their oil revenue, the country’s economic lifeblood or more and more sanctions will follow until they do.

This targeting of Iran’s and Syria’s civilian population by US-led sanctions is a massive violation of the principles, standards and rules of international law and their most fundamental underpinnings which is the protection of
civilians.

Some examples:

The 1977 Additional Protocols to the 1949 Geneva Conventions prohibit any measure that has the effect of depriving a civilian population of objects indispensable to its survival. Article 70 of Protocol I mandates relief operations to aid a civilian population that is “not adequately provided” with supplies and Article 18 of Protocol II requires relief operations for a civilian population that suffers “undue hardship owing to a lack of supplies
essential for its survival, such as foodstuffs and medical supplies.”

Prohibition on Starvation as a Method of Warfare
• Under international humanitarian law, civilians enjoy a right to humanitarian assistance during armed conflicts.

• Art. 23 of the Fourth Geneva Convention obligates states to facilitate the free passage and distribution of relief goods including medicines, foodstuffs, clothing and tonics intended for children under 15, expectant mothers, and
maternity cases.

• Art. 70 of Additional Protocol I prohibits interfering with delivery of relief goods to all members of the civilian population.

• US-led sanctions are prohibited by the principle of proportionality found in Arts. 51 and 57 of Additional Protocol I.

• Under the terms of Art. 3 common to the 1949 Geneva Conventions, humanitarian and relief actions must be taken. Pursuant to Art. 18(2) of Additional Protocol II, relief societies must be allowed to offer their services
to provide humanitarian relief

• The US-led sanctions violate the Rule of Distinction between civilians and combatants

The Right to life
The US-led sanctions violate the right to life incorporated in numerous international human rights instruments including Art. 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, 1966; Art. 2 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, 1950; and Art. 4 of the African Charter of Human Rights, 1981.

The Rights of the Child
One of the groups most vulnerable to US-led sanctions in Syria and Iran are children. The rights of children are laid down in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1989, which currently stands as the most widely ratified international agreement. Most relevant in the context of the US-led sanctions are Arts. 6 and 24 of the Convention, according to which every child has the inherent right to life and the right to the highest attainable standard of health and access to medical services.

If "terrorism" means, as the United States government defines it as the targeting of civilians in order to induce political change from their government, what is it called when the American government itself applies intense economic suffering on a civilian population, causing malnutrition, illnesses, starvation and death in order to induce regime change?

The US-led sanctions against Iran and Syria are illegal, inhumane, ineffective, immoral and outrageous. They must be resisted every day by every person of good will, everywhere, until they are withdrawn.

Franklin Lamb is doing research in Syria and can be reached c/o fplamb@gmail.com

He is the author of The Price We Pay: A Quarter-Century of Israel’s Use of American Weapons Against Civilians in Lebanon. He contribute to Uprooted Palestinians Blog
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Israeli Jews hate Black people

Posted on February 9, 2013 |

 

In Israel, hatred toward Black people is based on the color of skin and not on being non-Jewish. Take for example, Ethiopian Falasha Jews, who were flown into Israel from Ethiopia and Sudan over 20 years ago with great fanfare – as a ”Jewish humanitarian” gesture, are now being treated like untouchable in the Zionist entity.

Last year, Israeli daily Ha’aretz reported that as soon as Ethiopian Jewish black women arrive in Israel, the government had them injected with a birth control shot without their knowledge or consent. On January 27, 2013, Ha’aretz reported that Israeli government acknowledged for the first time that its Health Department was involved in the practice of injecting women of Ethiopian origin with long-acting contraceptive Depo-Provera. There are more than 80,000 Ethiopian Israeli citizens.
On April 15, 2012, speaking at the Ramle conference, Zionist interior minister Eli Yishai, called for the expulsion of all Africans – claiming they’re “a criminal element in Israeli society ”.
In March 2012, Miri Regev, a member of Israeli Knesset (parliament) called for the expulsion of all Sudanese refugees – as they got their independent country of South Sudan. He called them “cancer” in Israeli society.

Jewish racism against Blacks in Israeli sports is no secret either. Shlomi Eldar quoted former coach of the Maccabi Tel Aviv basketball team, Pini Gershon in Jewish Al-Monitor Israel Pulse (January 29, 2013), telling a group of managers: “The Blacks have different colors too. There’s dark Black and there’s mocha. The ones who are mochas are smarters. I means the ones who are little more mixed, like Andrew Kennedy, for example. You can see it in the way he holds himself, in his personality. He checks you out, and he’s smart too. The other Blacks are really idiots. They’ll do whatever you tell them to, just like slaves. Tell them to to do something, and they will do exactly“.

Last year, Dov Lior, Chief Rabbi of West Bank, called Barack Obama, “Kushi of the West”, which in Hebrew means “Nig*er of the West”.

In 2009, American Jewish writer and blogger, Max Blumenthal, visited the Zionist entity after Barack Obama’s so-called “historic speech” in Cairo in which he blasted Palestinian groups which carry armed resistance against the Zionist regime. Max was surprised by the Jewish hatred toward Barack Obama. He documented it in a video, Feeling the Hate in Israel, which was later removed from U-Tube and Huffington Post.

In Israel, racial slurs, insults, and discrimination against African Jews in housing rentals are commonplace. This treatment has reached such an unbearable level that recently Ethiopan Jews have taken to the streets to protest. In response, Sofa Landver, the Israeli Immigrant Absorption Minister, smugly replied that they should be grateful for all that state of Israel has done for them. This is reminiscent of white supremacist rhetoric in the America, which claims that Africans should be grateful their ancestors were brought to America. Israel was clearly created under the premise of future safety for all Jews, not just white European Jews. Therefore, black African Jews should have the same rights and entitlements to Israel as any other Jews.

In America, the relations between the Jews and Blacks are not much different either. The Jewish elites played a major role in the African slave trade and are still exploiting them to this day. In December 2012, a team of researchers at the Nation of Islam, posted a invetigative report exposing Jewish involvement in African slavery, which is available here.

Abraham Foxman, head of pro-Israeli Jewish advocacy organization, Anti-Defamation League, considers Minister Louis Farakhan, leader of Nation of Islam, the greatest enemy of Israel and the (Zionist) Jews.

Malcolm X, a product of Judeo-Christian hatred toward Afro-Americans – wrote in his letter from Makkah in April 1964: “I have been blessed to visit the Holy City of Makkah. There were tens of thousands of pilgrims, from all over the world. They were of all colors, from blue-eyed blonds to black-skinned Africans. But we were all participating in the same ritual, displaying a spirit of unity and brotherhood that my experience in America had led to believe never could exist between the White and non-White“.
 

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The Splintered History of the Tunisian Left

A protester gestures to police during a demonstration near the Interior Ministry in Tunis on 8 February 2013. Tens of thousands of mourners chanted anti-Islamist slogans on Friday at the Tunis funeral of secular opposition leader Chokri Belaid. (Photo: Zoubeir Souissi - Reuters)

 

By: Noureddine Baltayeb

Published Saturday, February 9, 2013

 

The assassination of Chokri Belaid, a leader of Tunisia’s leftist Movement of Patriotic Democrats (MPD), raises many questions about not just Belaid’s party, but the Tunisian left as a whole.

 

The roots of the Tunisian leftist movement in all its variations go back to the Tunisian Communist Party, founded by the French in 1920.

With independence, the faction was gradually transformed into a Tunisian party, but despite its old roots, “the party did not spread in society for two central reasons,” according to Abdul-Jalil Bouqara, a historian specializing in the Tunisian left.

“The first was its position on independence following World War II. It rejected calls for independence, adopting the idea of coalition and unity between Tunisia and France under the leadership of the French Communist Party,” Bouqara explained. “This stance led Tunisians to abandon the party.”

“The second reason was its agreement on the partition of Palestine following the creation of the state of Israel,” he continued.

Despite attempts in the 1950s to “Tunisify” the party and adopt independence, it remained isolated until the beginning of the 1960s. Back then, a group of Tunisian students decided to establish a new leftist movement in France named “Afaq,” or “Prospects,” which adopted socialism and democracy.
In 1967, the new movement began aligning with the Maoist tradition, which was gaining ground worldwide. This new direction caused a split inside Afaq, prompting the creation of a splinter group called the “Patriotic Democrats,” which is where Belaid got his start.

Its activities were launched with the 1969 publication of al-Shola, or The Flame. One of its key figures in France and founder was Khaled al-Faleh.

Afaq’s leadership branded the group Stalinist, but this was a label that the Patriotic Democrats did not try to hide. Despite its leanings, the group called for abandoning socialism to concentrate on what it called back then, resistance against imperialist hegemony over Tunisia and the need for agrarian reform, due to MPD’s belief that a feudal class still owned most of the land.
The current became popular with students and began spreading in the Tunisian university scene. It was known for its radical positions and suffered from various splits. It ended up as a number of small groups whose influence was limited to some colleges and trade unions, especially teacher’s associations.

Attempts at Unification

When former Tunisian president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali fled the country on 14 January 2011, several leftist parties began to practice their work in the open after years spent underground.

The most important of these groups was the Workers Party, which inherited the Afaq movement; its splinter, the Socialist Party; Belaid’s MPD who had led the Patriotic Democratic Current in universities; the Party for Patriotic Democratic Action; the New Left Party; the Progressive Struggle Party; the Radical Left Current (Trotskyist); and the Patriotic Democratic Party.

Despite this multitude of leftist groups, the left could only reap 5 of the 217 seats in the post-Ben Ali parliamentary elections.

The meager results in the elections prompted Belaid to commit to the unification of the Tunisian left, especially the patriotic-democratic family. Thus came Belaid’s initiative to unite the patriotic democrats in the Unified Democratic Nationalist Party.

The failure of this initiative convinced Belaid of the need to expand it to include all leftists, including the heirs of Afaq, namely the Workers Party, which was formerly accused by the Patriotic Democrats of being reformist.

This led to the Popular Front, which even included the Baath party’s two factions, the Syrian Baath and the Iraqi Baath.

Today, after the assassination of Belaid, the Tunisian left lost a leader who had resolutely strived to unite it, but the bullets put an end to his dreams.

This article is an edited translation from the Arabic Edition.


 Al-Nahda calls for rally after Tunisian opposition figure's funeral
 

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What if Hezbollah Was Defeated? Ep 17 (Last) added

Local Editor

“What if Hezbollah Was Defeated” is a 17 episodes documentary broadcast on Al-Manar TV channel every Tuesday and Wednesday, and started this week.



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