Uprooted Palestinians are at the heart of the conflict in the M.E Palestinians uprooted by force of arms. Yet faced immense difficulties have survived, kept alive their history and culture, passed keys of family homes in occupied Palestine from one generation to the next.
Speech by Hezbollah Secretary General Sayed Hassan Nasrallah on May 2, 2019, on the occasion of the commemoration of the martyrdom of Commander Mostapha Badreddine, known as ‘Zulfiqar’, who was killed in Syria in May 2016.
[…] The other subject (I want to talk about), my second point, is very important: it is the battlefield where the Sayyed (descendant of the Prophet) Zulfiqar, God have mercy on him, was operating, where he spent the last years of his life, and from where he returned as a victorious martyr, namely Syria. We’ll talk a little about it. Day after day, the validity of our decision and choice to go to Syria is confirmed more and more clearly. (I mention it) because today, we speak of a martyred leader who was killed in this battle. And we are constantly asked for accountability for all the blood (of our fighters we shed for Syria). Every time our friends or enemies write something (about the Syrian war), they ask us about this blood, about our martyrs, a large number of martyrs, a whole constellation of (Hezbollah members) who fought in Syria and got killed or wounded. They ask: who answers for this blood (who bears responsibility for it and justifies it)? We answer for this blood. We answer for these wounds (of war). Moreover, as the days passed, more and more masks have fallen, more and more hideous faces (of conspirators) were brought to light, and more and more documents and evidence (of a foreign plot) as well as confessions and press conferences have multiplied: confessions from former Presidents, Kings, former Prime Ministers, Heads of governments and Foreign Ministers, or former Chiefs of Staff… Day after day, our confidence and certainty is reinforced: what we did was 100% just and absolutely right, and we went to the right place at the right time.
Every day, it becomes clearer that what happened in Syria was very different from what happened in the rest of the Arab world (during the Arab Spring). In Syria, there was a US-Israeli-Saudi plot for which some countries from the Gulf and the region were used (Emirates, Qatar, Turkey…). The Syrian issue had nothing to do with – we have said so repeatedly, but it must be recalled today as we commemorate this martyr. It had nothing to do with elections, democracy, reforms, change, or with any of this nonsense we have heard since 2011. And the proof is that the United States, Saudi Arabia and those countries (who participated in the plot), who did they come up with and push forward for this supposed “humanitarian democratic change” in Syria? This formula should be put in inverted commas, highlighted with two red lines, and, as the Syrians say, followed up with one thousand question marks and a million exclamation marks… Who did they come up with (in this alleged purpose)? Democratic forces? Forces from the popular will? Forces whose culture and ideology tends to shape a (better) future? Where have you seen any such thing?
In order not to talk in theoretical and blurry terms and invoke merely documents or (theoretical) evidence, let us talk about an obvious, visible and undeniable reality, namely Daesh (ISIS). Let us consider the example of Daesh. Today we’ll talk a bit about Daesh. Daesh… How were they able to capture nearly 40% of the territory of Syria? 40 or 45% of Syria, as far as I can remember. That is to say, most of the East of the Euphrates, which is 25% (of Syria) if we add Manbij and (neighboring) regions. Most of the East of the Euphrates, Deir Ezzor, Abu Kamal, Mayadeen, all the Syrian desert, which is 5 times the size of Lebanon, up to Palmyra, the outskirts of Homs, the Yarmouk camp, part of the province of Suweida, East of Homs, East of Hama, East and North of Aleppo… We talk about 40 to 45% of Syria! And at the same time, Daesh controlled half or more than half of Iraq, a whole number of Iraqi provinces: Anbar, Mosul, Salahuddin, etc. They arrived at the gates of Karbala and the gates of Baghdad.Where did they come from? Who brought them here? Who armed them? Who eased up things for them and gave them all the opportunities? Who gave them money? Who opened all the borders for them? Who covered them favorably in the media? All the Arab satellite channels constantly repeated (with praise) “the Islamic State”! Who (did all that)? We must never forget! Neither the Lebanese who have pushed back Daesh in the Jurd of Ersal and in the Bekaa have the right to forget, nor the Syrian people, nor the Iraqi people, nor all the peoples of the region must ever forget (all the atrocities) perpetrated by Daesh, (the Western and regional countries & media that supported them), and everything that Daesh will continue to do, as I’ll mention later.
And what is Daesh? What is its ideology? It is the Wahhabi ideology that is shaped in Saudi Arabia, in the Saudi Universities, in the Saudi religious schools, in Saudi mosques, and that was propagated around the world with Saudi money (originally to thwart Khomeini’s revolutionary Islam), by decision and at the request of the United States, as recognized by both the Americans and the Saudis. Before the confession of Mohammad Bin Salman about this fact, there was a video recording of Hillary Clinton where she acknowledged this, namely that it is the US who asked Saudi Arabia to support, propagate and disseminate the Wahhabi ideology worldwide. Where does the ISIS ideology come from? Saudi Arabia! At the request of whom? The United States! Who facilitated this? The Americans and their allies! Who funded it? Saudi Arabia! And the ISIS fighters, where did they come from? (They were brought) from all around the world! O my brothers and sisters, most of the suicide bombers in Syria and Iraq were Saudi nationals! And there were other nationalities as well. And they were brought to these cities (of Syria and Iraq).The (US and Saudi Arabia) are the ones who supported them, armed them, financed them, have opened all the borders for them and have staked so much on them. Daesh was (initially) required only against Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. And later, against Iran and against whoever was to be submitted, hit and destroyed.
What is the Daesh project? To establish a State in which there will be elections? A democratic State? A State in which the people can express (freely) his will? A State whose inhabitants will elect their MPs, their leaders and rulers? Never! For Daesh, according to the ideology of Daesh, elections are an act of disbelief (deserving of death)! Anyone who participates in elections is a disbeliever (in their eyes)! Whoever stands near a ballot box, his blood shall be shed, he is to be killed! Is it not what Al Qaeda and the Taliban did in Afghanistan? Is it not what happened in Iraq during all the elections that were held? Is Daesh able to shape a (better) future? And by whom were (these monsters) created? By the United States! In the past, an individual named… Anyone can find (this video) over the Internet. I speak of General Wesley Clark – and it was on CNN, my brother, I don’t quote a TV channel of our friends or allies –, who was the Supreme Commander of NATO forces. (Wesley Clark) said on CNN that the Islamic State – they do not speak of Daesh (derogatory term), they keep saying ‘the Islamic State’ (to smear Islam) – : “ISIS got started through funding from our friends and allies to fight to the death against Hezbollah.” He said: “To do this, you don’t put out a recruiting poster and say ‘Let’s go fight Hezbollah’. That is why we and our friends have created ISIS.”
(Daesh was meant to fight) all that (Resistance) Axis, all these forces facing the US and the Israeli project. Syria rejected surrender and submission (to the US, and that’s why it had to be destroyed). There are people who have never done anything against Israel, but who spend their time denigrating Syria, saying that for decades, there has been no resistance in the Golan. It is enough for (the honor of) Syria, and its current and former leaders, to never have surrendered, to have remained steadfast (against Israel), to have held on and protected the (Lebanese and Palestinian) Resistance, not to have submitted to US dictates when the whole world was subject to them, with the exception of Iran and some popular forces (including Hezbollah). What was required was to break up Syria in the interest of the United States and Israel.As for Iraq, it expelled US forces from its territory by popular Resistance, armed Resistance, political Resistance and the intransigence of its position (against US occupation). But the US wanted to resettle there. And about this point, I want to warn my Iraqi brothers. See what Trump is doing: it is clear that he wants to keep all his electoral promises. You may say that… Characterize him as you want: stupid, crazy, arrogant, whatever you like. But you know that my habit is to recognize the facts, even if they somewhat shed a positive light on our enemy. (In his foreign policy), Trump did everything he announced during the election campaign. He retreated from the Iranian nuclear deal, from such and such agreements and treaties – there must no longer remain a single international agreement to which the US is still committed to. He moved the US embassy to Al-Quds (Jerusalem). He acknowledged… The question of the ‘Deal of the Century’ (supposed to liquidate the Palestinian cause) is still ongoing. I do not know if he had spoken of the Syrian Golan (during his election campaign), so I will not include it in the list of broken promises. Everything he announced, he is doing it. And among the things that Trump declared (back then), is that the US should take the Iraqi oil. The United States must seize it, that’s what he said. Of course, he also promised during his election campaign that Saudi Arabia is a milking cow that he’ll milk to the last drop (before getting rid of it). He has indeed milked it, and every day, he milks it even more! Isn’t it true?So he said, among other things, that Iraqi oil is the rightful property of the United States: “We went into Iraq, we sent 150,000 soldiers, we made sacrifices, we paid a high price…” He often reminds the $ 7 trillion dollars spent, claiming (that because of that, this oil is rightfully theirs). He was asked how he would go about it. This happened during the election campaign, on television. I’m not inventing lies against this dude. He said they were to seize the oil fields area, stationing their forces there and isolating it (from the rest of Iraq). From there, they would take Iraqi oil and sell it until they have recovered their money. This is one of the electoral promises of Trump to which our Iraqi brothers should give their full attention. This idea has not left the mind of Mr. Trump. And when our Iraqi brothers follow every situation, every detail, every minor or major thing, they have to be very vigilant on this afterthought of Mr. Trump. Mr. Trump believes that Iraqi oil is rightfully his, and he must keep that promise. Daesh was the means that would allow the US to return to Iraq. And Daesh remains the pretext of maintaining US troops in Iraq.
And all the Daeshites who were East of the Euphrates, where have they gone, O my brothers? Where? Some went to Iraq, some were sent inside Syria, and another part has been transferred to Afghanistan. O my brother, who transferred them to Afghanistan? Who? We can understand the situation ourselves. Who transferred them to Afghanistan? (The US!) I’ll come back to it in a moment. Therefore, Daesh still has a role to play (at the service of the United States).Anyway, Daesh’s goal is to destroy (Arab and Muslim) armies, societies and peoples. Therefore if someone asks me whether Daesh was defeated, I will answer yes, but they did achieve great successes. It’s unfortunate to say but Daesh has done great things for the United States, for Israel and for all the enemies of the (Islamic) Community. Daesh destroyed armies, peoples and entire societies. Daesh poured torrents of blood among the peoples and inhabitants of our region. Daesh erected very high walls of hatred and rancor that will not disappear before decades or centuries. These are achievements that serve the interests of Israel and the United States. We must recognize it. We must recognize this reality in order to remedy it. We mustn’t merely recognize it and do nothing about it, it must be remedied.
What I want to say before concluding this point is that Daesh, my brothers and sisters, and I address all the peoples of the region, Daesh is still a danger. Let no one consider that Daesh is over. Yes, the Daesh caliphate, this false caliphate is no more. Their pseudo-State is no more. The Daesh army who controlled much of the area of Iraq and Syria no longer exists. But Daesh as an ideology, Daesh as the leadership they showed us on TV two days ago (al-Baghdadi)… How (are they still a threat)?… Daesh as lone wolves, Daesh as terrorists and suicide bombers (sleeping) cells, this Daesh still exists, and will be activated and instrumentalized in Syria. It’s not idle talk, but I speak on the basis of data and information. What remains of Daesh will be activated and instrumentalized in Iraq. This is why the current cooperation between Iraq and Syria on their shared border is a duty and a necessity of the utmost importance. For Daesh is a threat for the two peoples, the two armies and the two States.
Daesh today has a role to play in Afghanistan, killing the Afghan people, and spreading more death and chaos in Afghanistan. Afghanistan has become a base for spreading Daesh in Central Asia. And this is what the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Defense Minister denounced yesterday and today. So who transferred Daesh to Afghanistan? (The United States !)
***
And up to Sri Lanka. After the horrific massacre in Sri Lanka, many countries of the world expressed their condemnation: the European Union has condemned it, as did European negotiators, the UN, the US, etc. But has someone asked about the ideology that perpetrated the suicide operations and (atrocious) massacres in Sri Lanka against (innocent) men, women and children in churches and hotels? Where does it come from? Who stands behind this ideology? Who supports it, finances it, revives it, defends it? Is it not the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia? Why do you condemn (only) the instruments, and say nothing about the true and essential reason (of this terrorism, namely Wahhabism)?Daesh is still a security risk, and we must all behave as facing a (permanent) threat. We must face it politically, culturally, in the media, militarily, in terms of security, and on every field. Furthermore, this threat will never be far from Lebanon. It is true that the army and the Resistance, embraced by the people and through a national consensus, liberated our land (Jurd Ersal) from Daesh and its ilk, but this danger is not far from us and is not finished. It is true that we have achieved great victories on all fronts in the fight against Daesh and its ilk, and against the whole (US-Israeli-Saudi) project in the region, but we must consider that the danger persists and act accordingly to remedy it.
And on this issue, we must not forget the identity of those responsible, because it is one of the challenges today: the main culprits are the US and Saudi Arabia. What Daesh perpetrated against the peoples of our region, against Syria, Iraq, and Lebanon, what it still perpetrates in Yemen, in Nigeria, what it has perpetrated in Sri Lanka, all these horrible crimes, this massive destruction, those billions of dollars in economic losses, hundreds of thousands of martyrs and wounded, dishonor (inflicted on women raped and subjected to slavery), the (Christian and Muslim) holy places desecrated and destroyed… All these losses, shall we forget them? Everything is fine? May God forgive past mistakes? How could this be so?
And the United States and some Gulf countries have the impudence to organize conferences against impunity, wanting to prevent that so and so who committed such a thing would escape punishment for his actions (in general African leaders). But as for the invasion of peoples, destruction of whole countries, killing of hundreds of thousands of innocent people… It is not such a big deal. This issue is forgotten with a simple hug. Why? Because those who do this are the United States and Saudi Arabia: this bloody alliance currently at work, frankly, must be fought and condemned, (as) their insistence to continue the war against Yemen.
Yesterday, the United Nations said that the number of deaths in Yemen is probably 250,000 martyrs killed (by the bombing) or victims (of disease, famine…). 250,000 !!! But that is a (minor) information that appears briefly at the bottom of TV screens, and no more. There is nothing at all (neither outrage nor denunciation…). Did we see a movement in the Arab world? In the Muslim world? O my brother, is there any reaction at all in the whole world? It is the UN that gives this number, not the (Yemeni) TV channel Al-Masira, not AnsarAllah, not Sayed Abd-al-Malik (al-Houthi). The UN declares: ‘O people, a massacre unfolds before your eyes, 250,000 Yemenis have been killed so far !!!’ It is the UN that says that! Did a single hair of beard, mustache or head shudder (when people heard this information)? No way. Why? For the butcher is Saudi-American. It is forbidden to condemn them. It is impossible to say anything (against them).
Up to these (37) executions of young people in Saudi Arabia. One of them is a noble scholar. There were ordinary citizens, young men and women, some personalities. Some were under 15 when they were arrested. What is their sin? What is their crime? Having participated in a protest, a sit-in, posting something on a blog or social network… They are executed. Without trial. Their secret trials without appeal (are a travesty of justice). Is it not (an abominable crime)? But we talk about it no more. For an hour or two, some countries have condemned this act, and then, nobody talks about it anymore. And the relations (of all countries with Saudi Arabia) are completely normal because there is (lots of) money involved.
Today, my brothers and sisters, we live in a world… We must realize and understand that it is in such a world we live in. There are neither international law, nor international organizations, nor countries with principles or pride, nor values, nor morality, nor laws. There is none of that. Only power and money (matter). The powerful are respected. The wealthy can do anything they want. They can seize a journalist like Khashoggi in a Consulate, and subject him to what has never been done in History. But nobody has the right to open his mouth because it is Saudi Arabia. The US perpetrates massacres every day, but no one has the right to open his mouth, because it is the United States. And if we dare say something, we will find ourselves condemned. Tomorrow, voices will rise in Lebanon saying that the Sayyed (Nasrallah) wants to create problems for our country, as if we did not have enough problems. Even if that were true, where is our humanity? Where are our moral values? Where are our human emotions (compassion, outrage…)? This situation asks us to stop (and take a stance).And after that, and worse than that, everything that happens in our region is at the service of Israel, its influence and hegemony, in order to complete the ‘Deal of the Century’ (liquidating the Palestinian cause), and at the service of the United States, politically and financially. Who can say otherwise? Someone dare tell us otherwise, and defend Saudi Arabia, claiming that it acts in the interests of the Arab community! This insistence on waging wars and financing of wars, (in whose interest is it)?
Today, there is an ongoing war in Libya. May God preserve us from (chaos) in Sudan. May God preserve us from (chaos) in Algeria. If the peoples of Sudan and Algeria do not behave with awareness and national responsibility, God knows what will happen to those countries. God knows where Libya is heading. God knows in what other countries (the Saudis and US) will interfere (to foment chaos). This insistence to display hostility against Iran, plot against Iran and besiege Iran, up to the announcement of Saudi Arabia and the Emirates that they’ll compensate for the absence of Iranian oil on international markets, where will this lead?“(In the long run) evil in the extreme will be the End of those who do evil.” (Quran, 30, 10). Just see the end (promised by God to evil people). And it is only their fate in this world (their punishment in the hereafter will be much worse).And (despite all that), Mr. Trump mocks (the Saudis) and constantly humiliates them. One would expect him to respect his friends, thank them, express his gratitude, invoke God’s blessings upon them, compliment them, and so on and so forth… But every day, he denigrates them. Every day, he humiliates them. We all saw Trump’s last speech (in Green Bay, Wisconsin, on April 27). He laughed a lot, as well as his audience, (boasting about the ease with which he extorted money from Saudi Arabia). Yesterday, in a meeting with some (Hezbollah) brothers, I told them… I’ll tell you frankly. I do not like King Salman, I hate his guts. I hate him from the bottom of my heart. But listening to the way Trump talked about him, I felt sorry for him. I felt sorry for him. See how Trump insults them, humiliates them, crushes them, degrades them… Where is the Arab pride? Where is Islam? Where are the two holy places (Mecca and Medina)? Where are the clans? Where are the tribes? Where are the… I do not know what to call them… these swords with which they dance? Where is their honor? Not a single word! Not a single word!
Some people in Lebanon, whenever I or some of my brothers speak and say bad things about Saudi Arabia, they meet us on the spot (to defend the Saudis). Show us your courage, O heroes, O proud, dignified and noble knights of Arabism! Go answer him! The Trump insulted your (beloved) King! He insulted your (beloved) King! Where are you? Nobody dares to even breathe (in front of Trump)! Are they (real) men?! No way! They did not open their mouth! Even the inhabitants of the tombs speak more than (the Lebanon’s March 14 coalition, pro-Saud and pro-US)! At least, when we enter a cemetery, there is an inscription on the tombstones. But (as for our Lebanese opponents), their faces are blackened, and there is nothing written on them! Please do not resent me for these colloquial words (spoken in Lebanese dialect). That’s how we speak in our villages.
Trump said (to King Salman), “Oh King! I like you !” Of course he likes him! “You have lots of money! And we spend a lot of money to defend you! So you have to pay!” And he made all kinds of (derogatory and explicit) signs. All his gestures and words were nothing but mockery and humiliation! Mockery and humiliation (from the beginning to end)! And after that, what did Trump say? “They want us to abandon Saudi Arabia? I do not want to lose Saudi Arabia! We have squeezed 450 billion dollars from Saudi Arabia, in arms sales and more!” I have a question: 450 billion dollars from Saudi Arabia? Because I speak only of Saudi Arabia. We have not mentioned (the sums squeezed from) the rest of the Gulf countries. All this money, is it Saud’s money, their personal funds?
First, there is no Saudi Arabia and no Saudi people, it is only the Hijaz, and the people of the Arabian Peninsula (usurped by the Saud family, with the help of Britain, who gave it their own name). This money is the property of the people of this (Islamic) Community. According to Islamic law and jurisprudence, all Muslim scholars will tell you that this money belongs to the public treasury, and is the property of all Muslims. What right do you have to take ownership of 450 billion dollars of Muslims’ money to give to Trump? On what (legal or moral) basis? While there are Muslims starving from Somalia to Indonesia? They are starving! There are famines, earthquakes, poverty, misery, diseases, illiteracy (that this money should relieve)… How to describe this situation?
Let me conclude this point with Pompeo. I’m done talking about the situation in the region, just two more words (before I speak about Lebanon internal politics). Pompeo… Two or three days ago, my (Hezbollah) brothers (who follow the Western media) sent me the speech of Pompeo on a CD in English, informing me of what he said. I asked them to make sure of it, so that the excerpts I’ll read in my speech be strictly accurate. This Pompeo, who is Secretary of State of the United States (equivalent to Minister of Foreign Affairs), is a diplomat who must inspire confidence, political trust, diplomatic trust, because he has to manage global affairs, to ensure peace in the world, give their rights to people, etc. [Laughs] The frankness he has shown is very positive and appreciable (for us).
He talks about his role in the CIA. This comment was also broadcast on US channels. The US Secretary of State acknowledged practicing lies, deception and theft. He confessed to lies, deceit and plunder! All this while he was director of the main US intelligence agency (CIA). He said: “I was the Director of the CIA. We lied, cheated and stole.” He is therefore a liar, a traitor and a thief, a robber. An international brigand, an international raider. Imam Khomeini, God have mercy on him, called them the “plunderers”. In addition to the “tyrants”, the “arrogant,” he called them “Plunderers of the world (resources) and of the peoples.” “We stole”, said Pompeo.
He was asked about the slogan of the military school where he studied (West Point). He was asked the question, or maybe he asked the question to himself, and he replied: “Our slogan was ‘Do not lie, do not cheat, do not steal, nor tolerate those who do.’ But when I was the Director of the CIA, we lied, cheated and stole. We had entire training courses.” When asked about his position with regard to Saudi Arabia, he says it’s different.
Imagine, then, that the leading US diplomat –we do not speak of the CIA or the US military, he is the Foreign Minister of the United States– confesses to be a liar, a cheater and a thief. It’s not me who described him! He described himself in these words! This man who was in Lebanon just a few days ago! And who came to tour the world, Europe, etc.
By mentioning all this, I want to come to this conclusion: whoever trusts and pins his hopes in the United States to settle our problems and concerns for us, and help our causes… May God help us if they were to be the intermediary to solve the problem of our land and maritime borders (with occupied Palestine)! They want to impose their terms, they want to impose themselves in Lebanon (in the interests of Israel). The United States does not negotiate, they just impose their conditions and give ultimatums! Such are Trump and Pompeo! Liars, cheaters, thieves. They support and favour Israel at the expense of the whole world! Not only at the expense of Arabs, Muslims and Christians of the region, but at the expense of the whole world!Regarding the bloody and monstrous Saudi-American alliance, we must be clear and firm. And regarding Daesh, no one should act as if this danger was over: this danger still threatens us, and has new roles in the region. We must always and constantly be ready to face this danger, and not be neglectful in this regard. […]
لم تلقَ الشائعات الإسرائيلية صدى لدى الغزيين الذين أظهروا صموداً وثقة بالمقاومة (أ ف ب )
غزة | لم تقبل المقاومة الفلسطينية فرض معادلات جديدة عليها بعد المماطلة الإسرائيلية في تنفيذ تفاهمات التهدئة، إذ ردّت بقوة كبيرة على الاعتداءات التي بدأت مساء الجمعة الماضي بقنص جيش العدو عدداً من المتظاهرين في «مسيرات العودة»، عبر الرد فوراً بقنص ضابط وجندية، ليغتال العدو عنصرين من المقاومة، وتنطلق في اليومين الماضيين الردود وردود الفعل بين الطرفين. وحتى الساعة الأخيرة من أمس، بدا واضحاً أن التصعيد مستمر، وخاصة أن قيادة المقاومة الموجود جزء كبير منها حالياً في العاصمة المصرية القاهرة، أصرت على تطبيق تفاهمات التهدئة السابقة دون شروط، رافضة مقترحاً إسرائيلياً تحت عنوان «الهدوء مقابل الهدوء» مثل المرات السابقة، دون ضمان لتطبيق التفاهمات، وهو ما سيدفع غالباً نحو يوم جديد من القتال إذا لم يتنازل العدو ويقبل شرط المقاومة حتى الصباح.
وبينما بدا جلياً قدرة المقاومة على التفاوض بالنار، وعلى إحداث إرباك في الساحة الإسرائيلية وجعل خيار الحرب مكلفاً، أشعل العدو حرب شائعات حول عملية عسكرية كبيرة، لكن ذلك لم يلقَ صدى لدى الغزيين، بل اتضحت المعنويات العالية لديهم وثقتهم بالمقاومة بمواصلتهم حياتهم بصورة طبيعية إلى حد ما. وميدانياً، أسفر العدوان عن استشهاد وإصابة عشرات الفلسطينيين، فيما استطاعت المقاومة قتل 5 إسرائيليين وإصابة أكثر من مئة عبر القصف الصاروخي المكثف واستهداف مركبات عسكرية بصواريخ موجهة. وفي الحصيلة أيضاً، دمرت الطائرات الإسرائيلية 15 عمارة سكنية في مناطق مختلفة من قطاع غزة، النقطة التي كانت منطلقاً لتصعيد رد المقاومة. ووفق وزارة الصحة الفلسطينية، ارتفع مساء أمس عدد الشهداء إلى 26، منهم ثلاث سيدات مع جنينين، إضافة إلى رضيعين وطفل، فيما أصيب 154 مواطناً بجراح مختلفة.
وللمرة الأولى منذ 2014، عاد العدو إلى تنفيذ عدد من عمليات الاغتيال بحق عناصر المقاومة في مناطق مختلفة، ما أدى إلى عدد من الشهداء، لكن النسبة الكبرى كانت من المدنيين جراء استهداف المنازل، ومنهم عائلتان شمال القطاع، حيث قصفت الطائرات الإسرائيلية شقة سكنية مأهولة في منطقة الشيخ زايد، ما أدى إلى استشهاد أحد كوادر «سرايا القدس»، الجناح العسكري لحركة «الجهاد الإسلامي» طلال أبو الجديان وزوجته وطفلته الرضيعة، كما استشهد أربعة آخرون، بينهم امرأة وجنينها في استهداف طاول عائلة المدهون في بيت لاهيا (شمال). وبينما نعت «كتائب القسام»، الذراع العسكرية لـ«حماس» اثنين من عناصرها على الأقل، نعت «سرايا القدس» سبعة من عناصرها. ووفق حصيلة شبه رسمية، شنّ الطيران الحربي الإسرائيلي أكثر من 200 غارة، إضافة إلى استهداف المدفعية والبوارج البحرية أكثر من 100 موقع، بينها بنايات سكنية تضم مؤسسات إعلامية، إضافة إلى قصف وتدمير أراضٍ ودفيئات زراعية، علماً بأن الجيش الإسرائيلي أعلن أنه هاجم ما لا يقل عن 320 هدفاً منذ السبت.
في المقابل، كبّدت المقاومة الفلسطينية العدو الإسرائيلي خسائر في الأرواح والممتلكات خلال تصديها للاعتداءات. ورغم فرض الرقابة العسكرية حظراً على المعلومات، أقرّ الإعلام العبري بمقتل 5 مستوطنين منذ صباح السبت الماضي وإصابة أكثر من مئة، فيما نقلت الإذاعة العبرية أن أكثر من 600 صاروخ أطلقت من غزة خلال اليومين الماضيين. وكشف العدو مساء أمس أن صاروخاً أصاب منزل رئيس «لجنة الخارجية والأمن» في الكنيست ورئيس «الشاباك» الأسبق، آفي ديختر، في عسقلان صباحاً، كما نقل مسؤول كبير في سلاح الجو الإسرائيلي أن مستوطنات «غلاف غزة» والجنوب تعرضت لـ«هجوم غير مسبوق» بالصواريخ. وذكرت مصادر طبية إسرائيلية أن الجولة الحالية حصدت حتى الآن حياة 3 إسرائيليين، اثنان منهم في عسقلان، وثالث في استهداف مركبته بصاروخ موجه شمال شرق القطاع، فيما أصيب 131 إسرائيلياً بجراح مختلفة، خمسة منهم في حال الخطر (اثنان في حال الموت السريري) على الأقل، كما تضررت عشرات المباني وخاصة في عسقلان. ولاحقاً، أعلن الإعلام العبري مقتل حاخام متأثراً بإصابته بشظايا صاروخ سقط في أسدود، فيما كشفت المصادر العبرية عن مقتل مستوطنة أخرى بعد استهداف المركبة التي كانت تستقلها بصاروخ «كورنت» موجه بخلاف المستوطن الآخر الذي أعلن مقتله في الاستهداف نفسه.
عدد الشهداء حتى مساء أمس 26، منهم ثلاث سيدات مع جنينَين، ورضيعان وطفل، فيما أصيب 154 مواطناً بجراح مختلفة
وكانت «كتائب القسام» قد نشرت مقطعاً مصوراً يظهر عملية استهداف مركبة عسكرية شمال القطاع بصاروخ موجه، لكن يظهر في المقطع قطار بالإضافة إلى حافلة وكلاهما غير محصن، في إشارة إلى القدرة على إيقاع أعداد كبيرة من القتلى من غير العسكريين. كذلك، أعلنت «غرفة العمليات المشتركة» لفصائل المقاومة إطلاق مئات الصواريخ باتجاه البلدات الإسرائيلية، وبثت فيديو مشتركاً لاستهداف ناقلة جند إسرائيلية بصاروخ «كورنت» شرق القطاع. وفي وقت متأخر، أعلنت السرايا أنها أدخلت صاروخ «بدر 3» في هذه الجولة، وأن رأسه المتفجر يزن 250 كلغ. أمام هذه المعطيات، أمر رئيس حكومة العدو، بنيامين نتنياهو، جيشه بـ«مواصلة هجماته بقوة»، وبتعزيز وحدات من أسلحة المدرعات والمدفعية والمشاة للتعامل مع أي تطور، محملاً «حماس المسؤولية عن هجماتها وعن تلك التي تنفذها الجهاد الإسلامي»، واعداً سكان الجنوب بـ«العمل لاستعادة الهدوء والأمان». وبالتزامن مع الحديث الإسرائيلي عن التحشيد، نقلت القناة العبرية الثانية نبأ يفيد بوجود «وساطات دولية لإعادة الهدوء»، فيما أكدت مصادر في المقاومة أنه لا هدوء دون ضمان تطبيق ما تم الاتفاق عليه أخيراً. وفي هذا الإطار، قال المنسق الخاص للأمم المتحدة لـ«عملية السلام» في الشرق الأوسط، نيكولاي ملادينوف، أمس، إن «الأمم المتحدة تعمل مع جميع الأطراف لتهدئة الوضع في غزة»، مضيفاً: «أدعو إلى وقف التصعيد الفوري والعودة إلى تفاهمات الأشهر القليلة الماضية… أولئك الذين يسعون إلى تدميرها (التفاهمات) سيتحملون مسؤولية الصراع الذي ستكون له عواقب وخيمة على الجميع». كذلك، أدان رئيس السلطة الفلسطينية، محمود عباس، الهجوم الإسرائيلي على غزة، وطالب بوقف العمليات العسكرية.
The Zionist politicians, analysts as well as media outlets reflected clearly the enemy’s disappointment of the outcome of the recent military confrontation with the Palestinian resistance, as Maariv newspaper considered that PM B3enjamin Netanyahu is unable to solve the problem of Gaza and lacks bravery to do that.
The Israeli media outlets highlighted the public dissatisfaction with mass destruction inflicted upon the settlements by the Palestinian missiles, knowing that Member of the Knesset Meir Cohen stressed that “Israel’ surrendered and Netanyahu backed off.
The various Zionist politicians also stressed that the 700 missiles fired from Gaza as well as the dozens of settlers who were killed or wounded obliged ‘Israel’ to surrender to the Palestinian “blackmailing”.
The Palestinian resistance and the Zionist enemy reached Monday a truce after three days of Israeli aggression in the besieged Gaza strip.
Palestinian sources reported reaching a truce between Palestinian resistance and Israeli occupation after three days of Israeli aggression in the besieged Gaza strip.
The sources listed terms of the Egypt-brokered deal as follow:
IOF has to refrain from shooting at Palestinian protesters during Great March of Return rallies at the border with Gaza
‘Israel’ to implement previous understandings which comprise lifting all forms of siege on Gaza
Hostilities to be ceased at 04:45 a.m. on Monday (01:45 GMT)
The deal to be committed to by both sides
‘Israel’ vows not to violate the truce as in previous deals
International organizations to be allowed to offer aid to Palestinians who were harmed by the aggression which started on Friday (May 3, 2019)
‘Israel’ vows not to carry out assassination attempts against military and civilian Palestinian figures
Fishing zone of the coastal enclave to be extended to 12 miles
IOF to refrain from targeting Palestinian farmers east of Gaza
The sources also reported that Palestinian resistance factions informed the Israeli occupation it should not “cross the red lines” and attack Palestinians in Al-Quds and West Bank.
US President Donald Trump’s one-time personal lawyer Michael Cohen entered federal prison to serve a three-year sentence Monday for a crime he said was ordered by the US president, suggesting he still has more to tell about his former boss.
Cohen, 52, was sentenced to prison in December after admitting he paid hush money during the 2016 presidential election -in violation of electoral laws- to two women, committed tax fraud, and lied to Congress.
“There still remains much to be told. And I look forward to the day that I can share the truth,” he told reporters as he left his Manhattan residence for the federal prison in Otisville, New York.
“I hope when I rejoin my family and friends that the country will be in a place without xenophobia, injustice, and lies at the helm of our country,” he said.
Hours later the onetime vice president and key problem-fixer at the Trump Organization arrived at the rural prison north of New York City, becoming the second former top Trump aide serving hefty terms for multiple criminal offenses, after former campaign chairman Paul Manafort.
His lawyer Lanny Davis said Cohen was the victim of “selective prosecution and disproportionate sentencing and will continue to help prosecutors investigating the president.”
“I will continue questioning why Michael is the only person within the Trump organization to be prosecuted for crimes committed at the direction of and for the benefit of Mr. Trump,” Davis said.
Cohen, who worked for the real estate tycoon for a decade, fell out with the president after telling prosecutors and Congress that he was ordered to make the hush payments by Trump himself.
He showed evidence that Trump and his son signed reimbursement checks for the payoffs, which were made to keep two women silent about their accusations against Trump in the weeks before the November 2016 presidential election.
In the days following the ‘Yom Kippur’ war, after the Egyptian president, Anwar Sadat, agreed to a ceasefire and subsequent peace treaty with ‘Israel,’ he faced questions at home about his climb-down. When confronted on his capitulation, he is reported to have said that he was prepared for battle with ‘Israel’ but not with America. On the third day of the war, President Nixon had authorized Operation Nickel Grass, an airlift from the United States with the purpose of replenishing ‘Israel’s’ military losses up to that point. In November of 1973, the New York Times reported that “Western ambassadors in Cairo confirm Egyptian accusations that American Galaxies were landing war equipment in the Sinai.”
There was something of Sadat’s realpolitik in the realization over the past few weeks that Saudi Arabia has no intention of letting Sudan’s revolution achieve its objective of removing the military once and for all and installing a civilian government. In the period preceding the revolution, Saudi Arabia had grown relatively lethargic and jaded about Sudan, a country it saw as good only for providing bodies as battle fodder for its war in Yemen. When Sudan’s then president, Omar al-Bashir, fearful of his demise, took his begging bowl to his allies in the region, Saudi Arabia demurred. But this lack of interest evaporated the moment it became clear that there was real power in Sudan’s streets, and Bashir was deposed.
Long gone are the days when the US was the chief meddler in the region. Saudi Arabia has taken its place as a powerful force for the status quo. Gone also are the days when Saudi Arabia’s idea of extending its sphere of influence was to sloppily funnel funds to religious schools and groups across the Arab world and south Asia. The country has now taken on a more deliberate role: to stymie political change wherever possible.
Within days of the removal of Bashir, Saudi’s purse strings loosened. Along with the UAE, it pledged a $3bn aid package to prop up Sudan’s economy and thus the transitional military government. This shot in the arm has been accompanied by an alarming and unprecedented phenomenon, a propaganda campaign launched in Saudi-owned or Saudi-sympathetic media.
Gulf News ran a profile of the current head of the transitional military council saying that “during the war in southern Sudan and the Darfur region, he served on [sic] important positions, largely due to his civic manners and professional demeanor”. “Civic” and “professionally run” are not words many would use to describe the wars in Darfur and the south of the country.
The editorial started with a panicked homage to Sudan as “one of Africa’s and the Arab world’s most strategic countries”, as if the Saudis had just caught on to the fact that Sudan was not the sleepy, pliant, begging backwater they hoped it was. A senior United Arab Emirates minister last week tried to frame the sudden interest and largesse towards Sudan as a wise precaution after the tumult of the Arab spring. “We have experienced all-out chaos in the region and, sensibly, don’t need more of it,” he lectured. But this newfound affection for oh so strategic Sudan and its civic-mannered military leaders has more to do with the Saudi royal family’s heightened insecurity about its own fate than it does with maintaining stability. The danger of a Sudanese revolution is in its optics, in the sense of possibility that it suggests. If Saudi used to care about extending its soft power across the world in order to call on alliances against regional enemies such as Iran or Qatar, today’s aggressive Saudi foreign policy adventurism can be seen in the light of its one overarching fear: regime change.
Despite its economic troubles at home, the Saudi government still sees its sovereign wealth as a massive war chest to be leveraged to the end of its own survival. Even though the Saudi royal family seems to have a total monopoly on power, executing dissenters on a whim on national or foreign soil, Sudan has demonstrated that regime change is rarely about the technicalities. It is never about the firepower that an opposition can wield against an incumbent: it is about popular will. You can’t execute everyone.
The many failures of the Arab spring have been a boon for establishment regimes across the Middle East. No good will come of change, was the conventional regional wisdom for too long. Sudan is messing with that narrative. The army and the royal family are the only two institutions that can be allowed to rule, the logic goes: when civilians enter the fray they bring with them security lapses, terrorism and incompetence. But civilian governments also threaten other nuisances: real democracy, accountability and free expression. Saudi Arabia must prevent this, under the pretense of seeking stability, with the US absent but tacitly endorsing.
And so the Sudanese protesters, still firm in their standoff with the transitional government as they demand civilian rule, can wage war against Bashir and the remnants of his regime that are still in power. But how can they take on Saudi Arabia and its powerful allies in the region, who airlift support to the government? The burden on the Sudanese revolution is now even heavier – but the reward, if it succeeds, is to shake the thrones of all despots across the Middle East.
US Vice President Mike Pence is set on Tuesday to offer new incentives to Venezuela’s military to turn against President Nicolas Maduro, responding to an attempted uprising that fizzled out last week, a senior administration official told Reuters.
In a speech to the Americas Society at the State Department, scheduled for 3:25 p.m., Pence will also warn that the United States will soon move to sanction 25 additional magistrates on Venezuela’s Supreme Court, the official said on Monday, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Pence will also offer assistance for refugees who have fled the country, and an economic aid package contingent on a political transition, according to the official.
Pence’s speech will be the first look at the Trump administration’s recalibrated strategy following massive street protests last week led by Juan Guaido, the opposition leader backed by the United States and most other Western countries.
Guaido had described the protests as the start of his “final phase” to oust Maduro, but mass military defections failed to come to fruition.
US President Donald Trump has invested considerable political capital in the diplomatic and economic intervention in the Venezuela crisis.
Although Guaido’s attempted uprising failed to immediately dislodge Maduro, it exposed new fissures within the country, the official said.
“A week before last, all the media – including you guys, everybody – was writing about how there’s no way forward, complete stalemate,” the official said.
“Suddenly last week, everyone woke up.”
New Carrots, And a Stick
Guaido, the president of the country’s national assembly, invoked Venezuela’s constitution in January to declare himself interim president of the country, arguing that Maduro’s 2018 re-election was ‘illegitimate.’
Maduro – who has said Guaido is a puppet of Washington – has sought to show that the military remains on his side, but opposition leaders and US officials have said that support is tenuous.
“They sat back in the barracks and they’re there, but they don’t want to be identified as the institutional source of repression,” the official said.
Pence will offer new “carrots” to the Venezuelan military, the senior official told Reuters, declining to provide details of the incentives ahead of the speech.
“He’ll be showing where the opportunities lay if people do the right thing moving forward,” the official said.
Pence is also set to outline new assistance for Venezuelans who have fled the oil-rich OPEC member, which has been plagued by hyperinflation and shortages of food, water, power and medicine – and a “Day One” economic assistance plan for Venezuela contingent on Maduro’s departure, the official added.
The vice president in addition will deliver a “warning shot” to magistrates on Venezuela’s Supreme Court. The Treasury Department sanctioned the court’s president, Maikel Moreno, in 2017 and the seven principal members of its constitutional chamber – and is now preparing to sanction the 25 remaining members of the court, the official said.
“We feel like that’s where the pressure needs to be,” according to the official.
“All 32 magistrates in the TSJ are going to sink or swim together,” the official said, using the acronym for Tribunal Supremo de Justicia.
The court would be responsible for signing off on any warrant for an arrest of Guaido – a move the US official emphasized would have severe consequences.
The United States imposed sweeping sanctions on Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, PDVSA, in January. Oil provides 90 percent of export revenue for Venezuela.
The administration also continues to work on other responses to increase financial pressure on Maduro, including “secondary sanctions” on companies from other countries that do business with Venezuela, and additional shipping sanctions for oil, the official said.
JERUSALEM — “Palestinians are being treated extremely unfairly.” This quote by Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) came to mind as I was watching the documentary film 1948: Creation and Catastrophe. The terms “fair” and “unfair,” and even “extremely unfair,” come to mind when children quarrel on the playground, or maybe in a family feud when parents are treating one of the siblings in a way that is “extremely unfair.” Not so when discussing a national catastrophe.
When we view what Zionists have done to Palestine, when we understand the sheer magnitude of what was done to Palestinians, no term short of “catastrophic” seems appropriate. In the documentary itself, wonderfully directed by Andy Trimlett and Ahlam Muhtaseb, Dr. Farid Abdel-Nur of San Diego State University asks:
Was the establishment of the State of Israel so important, that no matter what price Palestinians had to pay for it, it was worth it? Or was there something fundamentally wrong with a project that can only be realized by displacing hundreds of thousands of people?”
He ends by saying, “If the establishment of the state of Israel was a historic wrong, then the question now arises, how does one redress this wrong.”
No expression of hope
Abu Ramzi was born and raised in Yaffa and he lived the 1948 catastrophe. He remembers Yaffa well. “What is missing in this film,” he said to me a few days after viewing it at in Washington, “it does not show how we used to live together.
Only the conflict and the bombing, but we used to live side by side, the Jews and the Muslims and Christians.” He was unhappy that the movie focused on the tragedy and left no room for hope.
“People from the outside who will see this film,” Abu Ramzi continued, “will not understand that the only solution is one country, one state with all of us living together again without the strife.” This documentary shows us how — as the late Yoram Kaniyuk, a veteran Israeli writer and journalist who is interviewed in the film extensively, put it — “the whole tragedy was there in one moment.” He was describing what he saw as a young soldier who participated in the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian cities of Lydda and Ramle: “Here are the Arabs who used to live there, and here are people who came from Auschwitz and Majdanek, and they won, they took the city.”
Kaniuk ends his description of this immense human drama by saying, “and it’s not that it was right or wrong; it’s just a fact.”
Displacing and replacing
Kaniuk was one of Israel’s leading writers and journalists. Though considered progressive by many, he could not bring himself to say that what was done in Palestine, and particularly in Lydda and Ramle, was categorically wrong. He described what he saw with his own eyes, how survivors of the Holocaust who were brought by the Zionists from Europe were promised a life and a future in a mythical, rather than a historic homeland.
Then these survivors were practically dropped off the trucks and told to move into the empty homes, their rightful owners having been evicted only hours before. The Jewish survivors were given homes of Palestinians who had just gone through an experience that, while perhaps not identical to their own, was similar in the intent of the perpetrators and is certainly tragic and traumatic. We saw over and over how, when the Jews came into the Palestinian homes, “the coffee was still sitting on the table, hot.”
No Remorse
Another Israeli voice in the movie is that of Mordechai Bar-On. Bar-On is a well known Israeli historian and former IDF Chief Education Officer. He is moderate, even progressive by Zionist political standards. He too participated as a young officer in the 1948 crime of ethnic cleansing of Palestine, yet he says clearly that he has no remorse. He recalls an instance where he shot and killed a Palestinian attempting to return to his land and he says, “I have no remorse; I had to do it.”
Bar-On also admits that the plight of the Palestinian refugees is a terrible tragedy but adds he does not want them to return because “Israel cannot afford it.” If the refugees return it will no longer be a country in which “I want to live.” Apparently, that in itself is a good enough reason to keep 5.5 million people in refugee camps — so that Israelis will have a country in which they want to live.
Most of the Israelis who participated in this documentary were on the left of the political scale in Israel. Almost all of them express empathy to the plight of the Palestinians. One even says it reminded him of what he experienced as a Jewish boy in Poland from the Germans during World War II. However, they stop short of condemnation. Israelis by and large — be they on the left, right or center of the political map — refrain from condemning the horrific crimes that began in 1948 and continue to this day.
My friend Abu Ramzi was right when he said the movie presents no hope. It is because under the current conditions, when the Israelis have all the rights and live at the expense of Palestinians, there is no hope.
Hope does exist, but only in a post-Zionist Palestine. When politicians like Bernie Sanders will have the courage to call the ethnic cleansing, genocide and apartheid — all crimes that Israel perpetrated and continues to perpetuate to this day — by their real name and not describe them as merely “extremely unfair.”
Abu Ramzi knows, as many do, that there is hope in a free Palestine, a Palestine where people are equal with one set of laws for all citizens, and where the right of the refugees to return is viewed as a blessing and an opportunity, not an inconvenience.
Increasingly, groups and even foreign governments have pandered to Israel and its supporters in the United States because they have come to understand that success in dealing with Washington can be dependent on Jewish support. Last week, Raed Saleh, the leader of the so-called White Helmets, also referred to as the Syrian Civil Defense, a terrorist-affiliated group, was in the United States to “…receive the Elie Wiesel Award from the Holocaust Memorial Museum for his organization’s work in Syria.” He was also dropping by to pick up a check for $5 million courtesy of the U.S. government “…to help us with acquiring ambulances and help us with search and rescue operations.
During his visit, Saleh was treated to a nauseatingly obsequious interview courtesy of National Public Radio, which, inter alia, described how the Helmets “were the subjects of an Oscar-winning documentary two years ago, which captured images of them carrying broken and bloody Syrians from dust and rubble.”
Saleh claimed that the alleged victory of the Syrian regime in the yet to be completed war is an illusion as President Bashar al-Assad presides over a broken country, yet reports from inside Syria indicate that the return of the government to areas formerly controlled by terrorists has been welcomed and refugees from the fighting are now eager to return home. Saleh also claimed, falsely, that his organization has been “providing services to all Syrians and to providing support to all Syrians. Now after six years of war, we have saved more than 116,000 people from under the rubble. We have not asked any of these 116,000 people who did they belong to? Is he a Kurd? Is he a Christian? Is he a Muslim? Is he with Assad? Is he against Assad? Is he with the Kurds? Is he against the Kurds? We have never asked anyone these questions.”
Saleh, whose group has only operated in terrorist-controlled areas, could not, however, maintain his approved narrative. He fairly quickly abandoned his non-partisan quasi-humanitarian rhetoric when asked about how he sees the Syrian conflict developing, saying “We do not call this a civil war, but we rather call it a revolution against a dictatorship…the revolution still goes on. We have not lost.”
Those who are unfamiliar with the White Helmets should understand that the group has been praised by those who hate the government of President Bashar al-Assad in Syria and want to see it removed, which includes the United States, Israel, Saudi Arabia and the Emirates. The White Helmets have played a leading role in the propaganda campaign that seeks to instigate violence or use fabricated information to depict the Damascus government as guilty of slaughtering its own citizens. The propaganda is intended to terrorize the civilian population, which is part of the definition of terrorism.
Favorable media coverage of the group has largely derived from the documentary The White Helmets, which was produced by the group itself and tells a very convincing tale promoted as “the story of real-life heroes and impossible hope.” It is a very impressive piece of propaganda, so much so that it has won numerous awards including the Oscar for Best Documentary Short two years ago and the White Helmets themselves were even nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. More to the point, however, is the undeniable fact that the documentary has helped shape the public understanding of what is going on in Syria, describing the government in Damascus in purely negative terms.
Nine months ago, with the Syrian Army closing in on the last White Helmet affiliates still operating in the country, the Israeli government, assisted by the United States, staged an emergency “humanitarian” evacuation of the group’s members and their families to Israel and then on to Jordan. It was described in a BBC article that included “The IDF said they had ‘completed a humanitarian effort to rescue members of a Syrian civil organization and their families’, saying there was an ‘immediate threat to their lives.’ The transfer of the displaced Syrians through Israel was an exceptional humanitarian gesture. Although Israel is not directly involved in the Syria conflict, the two countries have been in a state of war for decades. Despite the intervention, the IDF said that ‘Israel continues to maintain a non-intervention policy regarding the Syrian conflict.’”
All of the Israeli assertions are nonsense, including its claimed “humanitarianism” and “non-intervention” in the Syrian war, where it has been bombing almost daily. The carefully edited scenes of heroism under fire that have been filmed and released worldwide conceal the White Helmets’ relationship with the al-Qaeda affiliated group Jabhat al-Nusra and its participation in the torture and execution of “rebel” opponents. Indeed, the White Helmets only operate in terrorist-held territory, which enables them to shape the narrative both regarding who they are and what is occurring on the ground.
The White Helmets were accustomed to traveling to bombing sites with their film crews trailing behind them. Once at the sites, with no independent observers, they are able to arrange or even stage what is filmed to conform to their selected narrative. Exploiting their access to the western media, the White Helmets thereby de facto became a major source of “eyewitness” news regarding what was going on in those many parts of Syria where European and American journalists were quite rightly afraid to go, all part of a broader largely successful “rebel” effort to manufacture fake news that depicts the Damascus government as engaging in war crimes directed against civilians, an effort that has led to several attacks on government forces and facilities by the U.S. military. This is precisely the propaganda that has been supported both by Tel Aviv and Washington.
Perhaps the most serious charge against the White Helmets consists of the evidence that they actively participated in the atrocities, to include torture and murder, carried out by their al-Nusra hosts. There have been numerous photos of the White Helmets operating directly with armed terrorists and also celebrating over the bodies of execution victims and murdered Iraqi soldiers. The group’s jihadi associates regard the White Helmets as fellow “mujahideen” and “soldiers of the revolution.”
For those interested in further details, White Helmet activities have been thoroughly exposed by Maxim Grigoriev of the Russian NGO Foundation for the Study of Democracy. Grigoriev presented his findings at a special meeting of the United Nations just before Christmas 2018. A video prepared based on the U.N. meeting includes interviews with actual witnesses of White Helmet atrocities and participants in the staged chemical attacks that were blamed on the government.
So Raed Saleh was in Washington to pick up his award and his multi-million dollar check on top of the tens of millions that his organization has already received from Congress and the White House. He also met with a number of Congressmen who support his initiatives and was praised by New Jersey’s own seriously corrupt Israel-firster Senator Robert Menendez of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee who observed “that Saleh’s group of about 3,000 volunteers has ‘saved almost 100,000 lives’ doing ‘courageous work on the ground in Syria, while being targeted by Russia.’” Yes, Russiagate is alive and well.
There is considerable irony in the fact that the National Holocaust Museum, which is taxpayer funded, has given an apparently prestigious award to a terrorist group, something which could have been discerned with even a little fact checking. And the museum also might have been sensitive to how the White Helmets have been used in support of Israeli propaganda vis-à-vis Syria. Perhaps, while they are at it, the museum’s board just might also want to check out Elie Wiesel, for whom the award is named. Wiesel, who was a chronicler of Jewish victimhood while persistently refusing to acknowledge what Israel was doing to the Palestinians, notoriously mixed fact and fiction in his best-selling Holocaust memoir Night. Ironically, the award and recipient are well matched in this case as mixing fact and fiction is what both Elie Wiesel and the White Helmets are all about.
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