Articles

Mother of convicted IsraHell serial rapist brings him porn
May 7, 2011
ZIO-NAZI
NOVANEWS   Mother of Benny Sela, in jail for raping 13 women, hands him file in court later found to ...Read more
For 1st time since 2006: Gestapo holds logistics drill in Preparation for war with Lebanon
May 7, 2011
ZIO-NAZI
NOVANEWS   Army deploys all logistic equipment needed for battle on northern front, establishes stationary logistics center For the first ...Read more
Anger as playwright is denied award over his views on IsraHell
May 7, 2011
ZIO-NAZI
NOVANEWS     A New York university has withdrawn its offer of an honorary degree to the award-winning playwright Tony ...Read more
Hamas leader in Gaza urges militant groups to keep cease-fire with IsraHll el
May 7, 2011
Gaza
NOVANEWS   Ismail Haniyeh calls on militants to give incoming Hamas-Fatah unity government a chance by maintaining the cease-fire deal ...Read more
Pakistani officer’s photos show blood, but not bin Laden
May 7, 2011
Pakistan & Kashmir
NOVANEWS By Saeed Shah | McClatchy Newspapers ABBOTTABAD, Pakistan — Photos taken by a Pakistani security official inside Osama bin ...Read more
Shameless Miss Yakov: We Will Support Labour
May 7, 2011
Campaigns
Friday, 6 May 2011 Compulsive liar Yakov say: Voters want Labour to step up anti-cuts fight Birmingham voters delivered a ...Read more
Gestapo's ordnance injures 3 Gaza children
May 7, 2011
Gaza
NOVANEWS   According to a UN special report, IsraHell has killed up to 1,300 Palestinian children since the year 2000. ...Read more
SYRIA: Who is Behind The Protest Movement? Fabricating a Pretext for a US-NATO “Humanitarian Intervention”
May 7, 2011
Syria
NOVANEWS   by Prof. Michel Chossudovsky There is evidence of gross media manipulation and falsification from the outset of the ...Read more
"Zionists Out of the Peace Movement"
May 7, 2011
ZIO-NAZI
NOVANEWS   Not Far Enough: Fact-Checking Finkelstein More Recent Articles Search Zionists Out of the Peace Movement Prior Mailing Archive ...Read more
The Kabbalah Centre in Los Angeles is the focus of an IRS investigation into tax evasion
May 7, 2011
USA
NOVANEWS     Two charities linked to Madonna are also being scrutinized. The center has attracted A-list celebrities such as ...Read more
Ohio hotel: Half-staff U.S. flag not mourning bin Laden
May 6, 2011
USA
NOVANEWS   ‘It started getting out of hand. One person said we needed to be run out of town’ Ed ...Read more
Obama Pressed by Neocons to Take Stronger Action Against Assad
May 6, 2011
USA
NOVANEWS   by Jim Lobe Amid a continuing crackdown against opposition forces, U.S. President Barack Obama is coming under growing pressure ...Read more

Mother of convicted IsraHell serial rapist brings him porn

NOVANEWS
 

Mother of Benny Sela, in jail for raping 13 women, hands him file in court later found to contain pornographic videos

The mother of convicted serial rapist Benny Sela is suspected of attempting to sneak him pornographic materials. Sela is serving a 35-year prison sentence for raping 13 women.

Police suspect that the attempt was made during a court hearing at Petah Tikva Magistrates’ Court, where Sela met with her son and requested permission to hand him court documents.

The judge granted the permission and the mother handed a file to Sela’s attorney, who in turn passed it on to the prison guard watching over the rapist.

But the file was closely scrutinized by the prison guards, whose suspicions were aroused by a cardboard filler to which aluminum foil had been taped. Upon unwrapping the foil they discovered two CDs which, when played, were found to contain porn films.

The Prison Service immediately confiscated the materials and filed a complaint with the police against Sela’s mother. Sela, for his part, is to be subject to disciplinary measures for attempting to smuggle forbidden materials into prison. Visits and phone call privileges may be revoked in consequence.

For 1st time since 2006: Gestapo holds logistics drill in Preparation for war with Lebanon

NOVANEWS
 

Army deploys all logistic equipment needed for battle on northern front, establishes stationary logistics center

For the first time since the 2006 Second Lebanon War, the IDF has deployed all the logistic equipment needed for battle on the northern front. Within the framework of an extensive military exercise, it established a stationary logistics center which is supposed to supply troops with all the equipment necessary – from food to ammunition.

The logistics center which was first used in battle during Operation Cast Lead is meant to prevent delays in transportation of equipment to combat regiments. The soldiers will be able to take equipment from the center to the front while the General Staff will be able to keep an eye on the inventory.

The goal is to enable the soldiers to do their duty at the front continuously without their ever lacking in anything,” Lieutenant Colonel Ronen Cohen deputy commander of the Northern Command logistics support unit told Ynet.

During the Second Lebanon War there was harsh criticism of the lack in logistical supplies. Food, ammunition, fuel and medical equipment failed to reach the troops in time if at all. In addition, various IDF units had to go through the different storage facilities throughout the country in order to get the necessary supplies.

Establishing the stationary logistics center in wartime allows the military to gather all the equipment in one place and shortens the transfer time from home front to battlefield.

“Over the past few days we have carried out extensive exercises meant to give our reserve forces the tools to establish stationary logistics centers, operate it efficiently and even deal with the possibility that the center itself can come under threat,” Lieutenant Colonel Cohen said.

According to Cohen, in battle the regiment transfers an equipment list to the supervising headquarters and after receiving approval, representatives make their way to the center and take the necessary equipment straight to the troops at the front.

This is also the first time that the logistics center has operated a computerized system which keeps tabs on the inventory and registers information about the amount of equipment taken and those requesting it. Until now, all the information was saved in documents.

“Over the past few months we have developed a unique system that significantly shortens the waiting time for the units at the center,” said Lieutenant Colonel Aner Gottlieb, head of the Technological and Logistics Directorate.

“Logistics has a critical role in warfare and the stationary logistics center is a key stage in emergency situations,” Chief Logistics Officer Brigadier General Mofid Ganem noted.

“We have undergone logistics training programs on the subject, including the deployment of the stationary logistics centers in their final configuration and we all understand the importance of the situation.”

Anger as playwright is denied award over his views on IsraHell

NOVANEWS

 

 

A New York university has withdrawn its offer of an honorary degree to the award-winning playwright Tony Kushner after a row over his views on Israel descended into accusations of slander.

Faculty and staff members at the City University of New York (CUNY) have protested against the decision, which exposed the faultline that exists within the city’s academic and artistic communities over public criticism of Israel.

Kushner, a Pulitzer Prize winner for his AIDS drama Angels In America, had been nominated for an honorary degree by the University’s Criminal Justice College.

But trustees voted to block the degree after one board member, who had been campaigning to remove the playwright’s name from the list of honorees, raised Kushner’s criticisms of Israel.

Jeffrey Wiesenfeld, an investment banker and former Republican Party aide, said that Kushner had described the removal of Palestinians in order to create Israel as an act of ethnic cleansing and supported a boycott of the state.

Wiesenfeld urged colleagues to consider these things “especially when Israel sits in the neighbourhood which is almost universally dominated by administrations which are almost universally misogynist, anti-gay, anti-Christian”.

Wiesenfeld succeeded in getting Kushner’s name removed in a vote of trustees. The Jewish playwright was furious over the accusations, which were made public in a podcast of the board meeting.

Kushner accused Wiesenfeld of a “grotesque caricature” of his views. The playwright said he was proud to be Jewish and accused the board of slandering him in his absence. He said he wouldn’t accept the degree now, even if the board changed its mind. In a letter to the board, Kushner wrote: “My opinion about the wisdom of the creation of a Jewish state has never been expressed in any form without a strong statement of support for Israel’s right to exist. I believe in the absolute good of public debate, and I feel that silence on the part of Jews who have questions is injurious to the life of the Jewish people.”

Kushner was a member of the advisory board for Jewish Voice for Peace, an organisation which “defends activists’ right to use the full range of boycott, divestments and sanctions tactics” against Israel. But he denied personally supporting an Israel boycott.

Kushner added: “That a great public university would make a decision based on slanderous mischaracterisations without giving the person in question a chance to be heard. I’m sickened that this is happening in New York City.”

Staff and faculty members called upon CUNY to reverse its decision. Jay Hershenson, CUNY’s senior vice-chancellor, said: “The CUNY board of trustees acted independently and exercised its authority.”

The New York-born Kushner, 54, won Pulitzer and Tony awards for Angels In America, his 1993 seven-hour play which depicted the impact of AIDS on the gay community in Reagan-era America.

The Zionist Organisation of America unsuccessfully lobbied against the award of an honorary doctorate to Kushner by a Massachusetts university in 2006, in protest at his criticism of Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians.

Hamas leader in Gaza urges militant groups to keep cease-fire with IsraHll el

NOVANEWS
 

Ismail Haniyeh calls on militants to give incoming Hamas-Fatah unity government a chance by maintaining the cease-fire deal with IsraHell.

Reuters

Hamas’s leader in Gaza urged militant groups on Thursday to stick with a de facto truce with Israel announced after a spate of cross-border fire last month, in a bid to give the reconciliation deal with Fatah rivals “a chance.”

“I call for giving the coming government a chance by maintaining the cease-fire deal,” Ismail Haniyeh said in a speech, a day after Hamas and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah movement signed a unity pact in Cairo.

Haniyeh’s statement follows a day after exiled Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal challenged Israel to peace on Wednesday, offering to work with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Egypt on a new strategy to solve the Arab-Israeli conflict.

But Meshaal, addressing a meeting in Cairo to announce a reconciliation agreement between his Islamist group and its secular Fatah rival, said he did not believe Israel was ready for peace with any Palestinians.

“We have given peace since Madrid till now 20 years, and I say we are ready to agree among us Palestinians and with Arab support to give an additional chance,” Meshaal said, referring to the 1991 international Middle East peace conference that launched Israeli-Arab peace talks.

“But, dear brothers, because Israel does not respect us, and because Israel has rejected all our initiatives and because Israel deliberately rejects Palestinian rights, rejects Fatah members as well as Hamas…it wants the land, security and claims to want peace,” he said.

Israel regards Hamas, whose founding charter calls for its destruction of the Jewish state, as a terrorist organization. Hamas has opposed Abbas’ peace efforts with Israel.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the new unity pact between Hamas and Fatah as a “mortal blow to peace and a great victory for terrorism”.

Meshaal said that Egypt, the Arab League and the Muslim World’s largest body, the Islamic Organisation Conference, must work together to search for a new strategy.

“We don’t want to declare war on any one,” Meshaal said.

“We want to wrench our rights and draft a new strategy for ourselves, to master all forms of power that will force Netanyahu to withdraw from our lands and to recognize our rights,” he added.

“We are telling the world: stand with us.”

Pakistani officer’s photos show blood, but not bin Laden

NOVANEWS

By Saeed Shah |

McClatchy Newspapers

ABBOTTABAD, Pakistan — Photos taken by a Pakistani security official inside Osama bin Laden’s hideout provide the most graphic images — and perhaps the only ones that will ever be made public — of the chaos that engulfed the three-story house in the moments before a U.S. special forces team killed the leader with automatic weapons fire to the head.

The photos don’t include images of bin Laden, whose body had been hauled from the house and carried off by a U.S. helicopter perhaps as much as half hour before Pakistani troops arrived on the scene.

But they do show the bodies of three other men sprawled on a blood-soaked floor and hint at the grisly nature of bin Laden’s own wounds — one of the reasons the White House announced Wednesday that it wouldn’t release photos taken of the dead bin Laden.

In the Pakistani security official’s images, blood oozes from the dead men’s noses, ears and mouths. The pictures show no weapons, though what appears to be a plastic toy gun can be seen underneath one of the men, who’s lying near what seem to be computer cords. The U.S. team reportedly carried off a computer, hard drives and other electronic equipment from the house.

One of the men, a thin man with a short beard, looks as if he could be Arab. The other two, who are bulkier and have mustaches, appear more likely to be Pakistani. Time stamps on two of the photos indicate they were taken at around 2:30 a.m. Monday, about an hour after the raid, which began at 12:45 a.m., had ended.

The Pakistani security official sold the photographs to the Reuters news agency, which distributed them to its clients.

U.S. officials have said that three men, in addition to bin Laden, were killed in the early morning raid — two men who likely were al Qaida couriers and one of bin Laden’s sons. Locals have said they were aware only of two men at the house, who identified themselves as Tariq and Arshad Khan.

New clues also emerged about how bin Laden might have escaped detection during his stay at the house, which U.S. officials said was built specifically to house him six years ago.

According to a Pakistani television channel, Express News, the house has 10 bedrooms, each with a kitchen and a bathroom. That arrangement would have allowed residents and guests in the house to live independently of one another, without having to congregate even for meals. Around 20 people lived in the house, including seven or more children, reports indicate.

Pakistani officials have refused to allow reporters to enter the compound where bin Laden died. Express News said it had gained entry and offered a detailed description of the layout.

There were three bedrooms on the first floor, four bedrooms on the second floor and three more bedrooms on the third floor — where U.S. officials say bin Laden was shot and killed.

On the first floor, Express News said, a bathroom of one of the bedrooms had a chair with a big hole cut out of the middle, which seemed to be designed for someone who could not bend easily to sit on the toilet. The program speculated that this seat was for bin Laden, who was long rumored to have been ill with kidney trouble.

A bedroom on the second floor had a whiteboard on the wall, with some writing in Arabic. None of the children living at the house went to school, say the neighbors. The whiteboard could have been used to teach the children. All the books and letters found in the house were in Arabic, the program said.

Outside, there were around 100 chickens in cages and two cows. Vegetables were being grown in the garden. A garage contained a Suzuki Potohar jeep and a small Suzuki van — both popular, inexpensive, vehicles in Pakistan. Tracking the movement of the van is thought to have originally led U.S. intelligence to the house.

Unusually for Pakistan, the house had a central heating system, according to the television channel. That would be considered a big luxury in Abbottabad, which is set in the foothills of the Himalayas and gets cold in winter.

Still, local real estate professional said U.S. officials wildly overestimated the value of the property when they described it as a $1 million mansion. The rather shabby home, with peeling paint and sitting on a little under an acre, has a value of probably no more than 20 million rupees, or about $235,000 in U.S. currency.

“It’s not an impressive house. The build quality doesn’t look top grade, and it isn’t in the best part of town,” said Mohammad Anwar, who runs the Property Point agency in Abbottabad. “We’re assessing it on the ground, not from a satellite.”

Reports say the house, in the Bilal Town suburb of Abbottabad, is around 3,000 square feet.

Anwar said that the notoriety that the house had brought to the area could mean that land prices in Bilal Town will plummet, by as much as 50 percent. Normally sleepy Abbottabad is known chiefly for housing the Pakistan Military Academy and also the headquarters of two army regiments.

It’s unclear what Pakistani officials will do with the house, which could become a pilgrimage site for extremists. For now, the home has become an instant local tourist attraction.

Wednesday afternoon, when Pakistani security officials lifted a cordon around the house, people swarmed forward, creating a festive scene. Young men came to leer at the foreign female journalists — uncovered women in public are uncommon in this conservative part of Pakistan. Families came with their children. One enterprising man was selling snacks. Everyone clambered for the best vantage point, on the roofs of surrounding houses.

“It’s such a big deal. They claim bin Laden was living here for five years, so we wanted to see,” said Bilal Khan, 42, who had come with his sister and five children. “It’s so strange that he would leave the mountains of Afghanistan and choose to live in the lap of the Pakistan military.”

There was also plenty of skepticism.

“No one believes that Osama bin Laden could have lived here. Show us the proof,” said Saifoor Khan, 51. “It is all just a Hollywood picture.”

Shameless Miss Yakov: We Will Support Labour

Friday, 6 May 2011

Compulsive liar Yakov say:


Voters want Labour to step up anti-cuts fight

Birmingham voters delivered a strong message of opposition to the cuts last night, clearly rejecting the Tory-Lib Dem coalition that runs the city. Across the city, voters turned back to the Labour Party, which saw a massive gain of 14 seats. 
Unfortunately one of those gains was in my own Sparkbrook ward. Mohammed Ishtiaq, who had held the seat for Respect since 2007, lost out to Labour.
We were well aware that there would be a big swing back to Labour once the Tories were in power, but it was still a very disappointing result.
That said, Ishtiaq’s vote still held up very strongly. With 3,413 votes he was only 100 short of the total that saw him elected in 2007.  In the context of the national Labour landslide, he really should be proud of the support he received.
Labour will take back control of the council in a year’s time. In opposition, they would only abstain on Tory budget proposals, while Respect councillors were the only ones to vote against. Many thousands of people voted Labour because they want them to step up the fight against Tory cuts. I hope they rise to this challenge, and we will support them if they do.
It was a long night, and any more analysis will have to wait. This morning, all I want to do is pay tribute to Mohammed Ishtiaq. He was an excellent councillor, hardworking and genuinely respected in the area for his commitment.  There will be many people in the ward who will be as sorry as we are that he was not re-elected. ”IM NOT”
 
Election Results: 2011


SPARKBROOK
Green                  192
Con                      243
Respect               3,413
Labour               4,382
Leb Dam            569
SPRINFIELD
Lib Dam              2,029
Green                       239
Respect                1,209
Con                       516
Labour                4,791

Gestapo's ordnance injures 3 Gaza children

NOVANEWS
 

According to a UN special report, IsraHell has killed up to 1,300 Palestinian children since the year 2000.

At least three Palestinian children have been injured by a piece of unexploded IsraHell ordnance that has gone off in the besieged Gaza Strip.

The blast occurred late on Tuesday, a Press TV correspondent reported.

One of the victims has reportedly lost two of his fingers and is in serious condition.

The incident marks yet another ordeal where the detritus from previous battles and wars continues to harm the most vulnerable members of society.

Gaza is currently riddled with plenty of unexploded ordnance, left after Israel’s war on the blockaded coastal enclave at the turn of 2009.

IsraHell has killed 1,300 Palestinian children since the year 2000, according to Richard Falk, the United Nations special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967.

Falk made the remarks during a press conference in the Jordanian capital Amman late on Monday, the Palestinian News Network reported.

SYRIA: Who is Behind The Protest Movement? Fabricating a Pretext for a US-NATO “Humanitarian Intervention”

NOVANEWS
 
Supporters and members of Islamist party ''Hizb Ut-Tahrir'' wave their party's flags and chant slogans during a protest in Tripoli, northern Lebanon, to express solidarity with Syria's protesters, April 22, 2011. REUTERS/ Mohamed Azakir

by Prof. Michel Chossudovsky

There is evidence of gross media manipulation and falsification from the outset of the protest movement in southern Syria on March 17th.

The Western media has presented the events in Syria as part of the broader Arab pro-democracy protest movement, spreading spontaneously from Tunisia, to Egypt, and from Libya to Syria.

Media coverage has focussed on the Syrian police and armed forces, which are accused of indiscriminately shooting and killing unarmed “pro-democracy” demonstrators. While these police shootings did indeed occur, what the media failed to mention is that among the demonstrators there were armed gunmen as well as snipers who were shooting at both the security forces and the protesters.

The death figures presented in the reports are often unsubstantiated. Many of the reports are “according to witnesses”. The images and video footages aired on Al Jazeera and CNN do not always correspond to the events which are being covered by the news reports.

There is certainly cause for social unrest and mass protest in Syria: unemployment has increased in recent year, social conditions have deteriorated, particularly since the adoption in 2006 of sweeping economic reforms under IMF guidance. The IMF’s “economic medicine” includes austerity measures, a freeze on wages, the deregulation of the financial system, trade reform and privatization. (See IMF  Syrian Arab Republic — IMF Article IV Consultation Mission’s Concluding Statement,http://www.imf.org/external/np/ms/2006/051406.htm, 2006)

With a government dominated by the minority Alawite (an offshoot of Shia Islam), Syria is no “model society” with regard to civil rights and freedom of expression. It nonetheless constitutes the only (remaining) independent secular state in the Arab world. Its populist, anti-Imperialist and secular base is inherited from the dominant Baath party, which integrates Muslims, Christians and Druze.

Moreover, in contrast to Egypt and Tunisia, in Syria there is considerable popular support for President Bashar Al Assad. The large rally in Damascus on March 29, “with tens of thousands of supporters” (Reuters) of President Al Assad is barely mentioned. Yet in an unusual twist, the images and video footage of several pro-government events were used by the Western media to convince international public opinion that the President was being confronted by mass anti-government rallies.

The “Epicenter” of the Protest Movement. Daraa: A Small Border Town in southern Syria

What is the nature of the protest movement? From what sectors of Syrian society does it emanate? What triggered the violence?

What is the cause of the deaths?

The existence of an organized insurrection composed of armed gangs involved in acts of killing and arson has been dismissed by the Western media, despite evidence to the contrary.

The demonstrations  did not start in Damascus, the nation’s capital. At the outset, the protests were not integrated by a mass movement of citizens in Syria’s capital.

The demonstrations started in Daraa, a small border town of 75,000 inhabitants, on the Syrian Jordanian border, rather than in Damascus or Aleppo, where the mainstay of organized political opposition and social movements are located. (Daraa is a small border town comparable e.g. to Plattsburgh, NY on the US-Canadian border).

The Associated Press report (quoting unnamed “witnesses” and “activists”) describes the early protests in Daraa as follows:

The violence in Daraa, a city of about 300,000 near the border with Jordan, was fast becoming a major challenge for President Bashar Assad, …. Syrian police launched a relentless assault Wednesday on a neighborhood sheltering anti-government protesters [Daraa], fatally shooting at least 15 in an operation that began before dawn, witnesses said.

At least six were killed in the early morning attack on the al-Omari mosque in the southern agricultural city of Daraa, where protesters have taken to the streets in calls for reforms and political freedoms, witnesses said. An activist in contact with people in Daraa said police shot another three people protesting in its Roman-era city center after dusk. Six more bodies were found later in the day, the activist said.

As the casualties mounted, people from the nearby villages of Inkhil, Jasim, Khirbet Ghazaleh and al-Harrah tried to march on Daraa Wednesday night but security forces opened fire as they approached, the activist said. It was not immediately clear if there were more deaths or injuries. (AP, March 23, 2011, emphasis added)

The AP report inflates the numbers: Daraa is presented as a city of 300,000 when in fact its population is 75,000;  “protesters gathered by the thousands”, “casualties mounted”.

The report is silent on the death of policemen which in the West invariably makes the front page of the tabloids.

The deaths of the policemen are important in assessing what actually happened. When there are police casualties, this means that there is an exchange of gunfire between opposing sides, between policemen and “demonstrators”.

Who are these “demonstrators” including roof top snipers who were targeting the police.

Israeli and Lebanese news reports (which acknowledge the police deaths) provide a clearer picture of what happened in Daraa on March 17-18. The Israel National News Report (which cannot be accused of being biased in favor of Damascus) reviews these same events as follows:

Seven police officers and at least four demonstrators in Syria have been killed in continuing violent clashes that erupted in the southern town of Daraa last Thursday.

…. On Friday police opened fire on armed protesters killing four and injuring as many as 100 others. According to one witness, who spoke to the press on condition of anonymity, “They used live ammunition immediately — no tear gas or anything else.”

…. In an uncharacteristic gesture intended to ease tensions the government offered to release the detained students, but seven police officers were killed, and the Baath Party Headquarters and courthouse were torched, in renewed violence on Sunday. (Gavriel Queenann, Syria: Seven Police Killed, Buildings Torched in Protests, Israel National News, Arutz Sheva, March 21, 2011, emphasis added)

The Lebanese news report, quoting various sources, also acknowledges the killings of seven policemen in Daraa: They were killed  “during clashes between the security forces and protesters… They got killed trying to drive away protesters during demonstration in Dara’a”

The Lebanese Ya Libnan report quoting Al Jazeera also acknowledged that protesters had “burned the headquarters of the Baath Party and the court house in Dara’a”  (emphasis added)

These news reports of the events in Daraa confirm the following:

1. This was not a “peaceful protest” as claimed by the Western media. Several of the “demonstrators” had fire arms and were using them against the police:  “The police opened fire on armed protesters killing four”.

2. From the initial casualty figures (Israel News), there were more policemen than demonstrators who were killed:  7 policemen killed versus 4 demonstrators. This is significant because it suggests that the police force might have been initially outnumbered by a well organized armed gang. According to Syrian media sources, there were also snipers on rooftops which were shooting at both the police and the protesters.

What is clear from these initial reports is that many of the demonstrators were not demonstrators but terrorists involved in premeditated acts of killing and arson. The title of the Israeli news report summarizes what happened:  Syria: Seven Police Killed, Buildings Torched in Protests.

The Daraa “protest movement” on March 18 had all the appearances of a staged event involving, in all likelihood, covert support to Islamic terrorists by Mossad and/or Western intelligence. Government sources point to the role of radical Salafist groups (supported by Israel)

Other reports have pointed to the role of Saudi Arabia in financing the protest movement.

What has unfolded in Daraa in the weeks following the initial violent clashes on 17-18 March, is the confrontation between the police and the armed forces on the one hand and armed units of terrorists and snipers on the other which have infiltrated the protest movement.

Reports suggest that these terrorists are integrated by Islamists. There is no concrete evidence as to which Islamic organizations are behind the terrorists and the government has not released corroborating information as to who these groups are.

Both the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood (whose leadership is in exile in the UK) and the banned Hizb ut-Tahrir (the Party of Liberation), among others have paid lip service to the protest movement. Hizb ut Tahir (led in the 1980s by Syrian born Omar Bakri Muhammad) tends to “dominate the British Islamist scene” according to Foreign Affairs. Hizb ut Tahir is also considered to be of strategic importance to Britain’s Secret Service MI6. in the pursuit of Anglo-American interests in the Middle East and Central Asia. (Is Hizb-ut-Tahrir another project of British MI6? | State of Pakistan).

Syria is a secular Arab country, a society of religious tolerance, where Muslims and Christians have for several centuries lived in peace. Hizb ut-Tahrir (the Party of Liberation) is a radical political movement committed to the creation of an Islamic caliphate. In Syria, its avowed objective is to destabilize the secular state.

Since the Soviet-Afghan war, Western intelligence agencies as well as Israel’s Mossad have consistently used various Islamic terrorist organizations as “intelligence assets”. Both Washington and its indefectible British ally have provided covert support to “Islamic terrorists” in Afghanistan, Bosnia, Kosovo and Libya, etc. as a means to triggering ethnic strife, sectarian violence and political instability.

The staged protest movement in Syria is modelled on Libya. The insurrection in Eastern Libya is integrated by the Libya Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) which is supported by MI6 and the CIA. The ultimate objective of the Syria protest movement, through media lies and fabrications, is to create divisions within Syrian society as well as justify an eventual “humanitarian intervention”.

Armed Insurrection in Syria

An armed insurrection integrated by Islamists and supported covertly by Western intelligence is central to an understanding of what is occurring on the ground.

The existence of an armed insurrection is not mentioned by the Western media. If it were to be acknowledged and analysed, our understanding of unfolding events would be entirely different.

What is mentioned profusely is that the armed forces and the police are involved in the indiscriminate killing of protesters.

The deployment of the armed forces including tanks in Daraa is directed against an organized armed insurrection, which has been active in the border city since March 17-18.

Casualties are being reported which also include the death of policemen and soldiers.

In a bitter irony, the Western media acknowledges the police/soldier deaths while denying the existence of an armed insurrection.

The key question is how does the media explain these deaths of soldiers and police?

Without evidence, the reports suggest authoritatively that the police is shooting at the soldiers and vice versa the soldiers are shooting on the police. In a April 29 Al Jazeera report, Daraa is described as “a city under siege”.

“Tanks and troops control all roads in and out. Inside the city, shops are shuttered and nobody dare walk the once bustling market streets, today transformed into the kill zone of rooftop snipers.

Unable to crush the people who first dared rise up against him – neither with the secret police,  paid thugs or the special forces of his brother’s military division – President Bashar al-Assad has sent thousands of Syrian soldiers and their heavy weaponry into Deraa for an operation the regime wants nobody in the world to see.

Though almost all communication channels with Deraa have been cut, including the Jordanian mobile service that reaches into the city from just across the border, Al Jazeera has gathered firsthand accounts of life inside the city from residents who just left or from eyewitnesses inside who were able to get outside the blackout area.

The picture that emerges is of a dark and deadly security arena, one driven by the actions of the secret police and their rooftop snipers, in which soldiers and protestors alike are being killed or wounded, in which cracks are emerging in the military itself, and in which is created the very chaos which the regime uses to justify its escalating crackdown. (Daraa, a City under Siege, IPS / Al Jazeera, April 29, 2011)

The Al Jazeera report borders on the absurd. Read carefully.

“Tanks and troops control all roads in and out”,  “thousands of Syrian soldiers and their heavy weaponry into Daraa”

This situation has prevailed for several weeks. This means that bona fide protesters who are not already inside Daraa cannot enter Daraa.

People who live in the city are in their homes: “nobody dares walk … the streets”. If nobody dares walk the streets where are the protesters?

Who is in the streets? According to Al Jazeera, the protesters are in the streets together with the soldiers, and both the protesters and the soldiers are being shot at by “plain clothes secret police”, by “paid thugs” and government sponsored snipers.

The impression conveyed in the report is that these casualties are attributed to infighting between the police and the military.

But the report also says that the soldiers (in the “thousands”) control all roads in and out of the city, but they are being shot upon by the plain clothed secret police.

The purpose of this web of media deceit, namely outright fabrications  –where soldiers are being killed by police and  “government snipers”– is to deny the existence of armed terrorist groups. The later are integrated by snipers and “plain clothed terrorists” who are shooting at the police, the Syrian armed forces and local residents.

These are not spontaneous acts of terror; they are carefully planned and coordinated attacks. In recent developments, according to a Xinhua report (April 30, 2011), armed “terrorist groups” “attacked the housing areas for servicemen” in Daraa province, “killing a sergeant and wounding two”.

While the government bears heavy responsibility for its mishandling of the military-police operation, including the deaths of civilians, the reports confirm that the armed terrorist groups had also opened fire on protesters and local residents. The casualties are then blamed on the armed forces and the police and the Bashar Al Assad government is portrayed by “the international community” as having ordered countless atrocities.

The fact of the matter is that foreign journalists are banned from reporting inside Syria, to the extent that much of the information including the number of casualties is obtained from the unverified accounts of “witnesses”.

It is in the interest of the US-NATO alliance to portray the events in Syria as a peaceful protest movement which is being brutally repressed by a “dictatorial regime”.

The Syrian government may be autocratic. It is certainly not a model of democracy but neither is the US administration, which is characterized by rampant corruption, the derogation of civil liberties under the Patriot legislation, the legalisation of torture, not to mention its “bloodless” “humanitarian wars”:

“The U.S. and its NATO allies have, in addition to U.S. Sixth Fleet and NATO Active Endeavor military assets permanently deployed in the Mediterranean, warplanes, warships and submarines engaged in the assault against Libya that can be used against Syria at a moment’s notice.

On April 27 Russia and China evidently prevented the U.S. and its NATO allies from pushing through an equivalent of Resolution 1973 against Syria in the Security Council, with Russian deputy ambassador to the UN Alexander Pankin stating that the current situation in Syria “does not present a threat to international peace and security.” Syria is Russia’s last true partner in the Mediterranean and the Arab world and hosts one of only two Russian overseas naval bases, that at Tartus. (The other being in Ukraine’s Crimea.)” (Rick Rozoff,   Libyan Scenario For Syria: Towards A US-NATO “Humanitarian Intervention” directed against Syria? Global Research, April 30, 2011)

The ultimate purpose is to trigger sectarian violence and political chaos within Syria by covertly supporting Islamic terrorist organizations.

What lies ahead?

The longer term US foreign policy perspective is “regime change” and the destabilization of Syria as an independent nation-state, through a covert process of “democratization” or through military means.

Syria is on the list of “rogue states”, which are targeted for a US military intervention. As confirmed by former NATO commander General Wesley Clark the “[The] Five-year campaign plan [includes]… a total of seven countries, beginning with Iraq, then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Iran, Somalia and Sudan” (Pentagon official quoted by General Wesley Clark).

The objective is to weaken the structures of the secular State while justifying an eventual  UN sponsored “humanitarian intervention”. The latter, in the first instance, could take the form of a reinforced embargo on the country (including sanctions) as well as the freezing of Syrian bank assets in overseas foreign financial institutions.

While a US-NATO military intervention in the immediate future seems highly unlikely, Syria is nonetheless on the Pentagon’s military roadmap, namely an eventual war on Syria has been contemplated both by Washington and Tel Aviv.

If it were to occur, at some future date, it would lead to escalation. Israel would inevitably be involved. The entire Middle East Central Asian region from the Eastern Mediterranean to the Chinese-Afghan border would flare up.

"Zionists Out of the Peace Movement"

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  1. Not Far Enough: Fact-Checking Finkelstein

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Not Far Enough: Fact-Checking Finkelstein

I’ve been reading This Time We Went Too Far: Truth & Consequences of the Gaza

Invasion by Norman G. Finkelstein (OR Books, 2010). Even though Finkelstein is

“functionally a Zionist of the Left-liberal persuasion” there is no denying his passionate

and often principled argumentation in support of positions that are generally helpful to

those unemcumbered by Finkelstein’s tribal loyalties.

 
The “Gaza Invasion” of Finkelstein’s subtitle was the 22-day Hanukkah Massacre in
the winter of 2008-2009 wherein forces of the Jewish state
killed 1,417 Palestinians and wounded 5,303 in Gaza. I can’t say I made a thorough
examination of Finkelstein’s book but I did flag two pages in chapter six, “Ever Fewer
Hosannas,” in the hardcover edition for follow-up.
At the top of page 110 there appears the last sentence of a lengthy quote from
“Poll: Attachment of U.S. Jews To Israel Falls in Past 2 Years” by Steven M. Cohen
in the Jewish Daily Forward (March 04, 2005). It says: “Just 57% affirmed that ‘caring
about Israel is a very important part of my being Jewish,’ compared with 73% in a similar
survey in 1989.” In chapter six Finkelstein is making the case that American Jewish
support for Israel is declining.
Finkelstein, apparently, didn’t go far enough in reading the article. When read in its
entirety a more complex picture of the attitudes of Americans Jews towards Israel
emerges. For example, there’s the finding that 95% of Americans Jews feel some degree
of pride in Israel with fully two-thirds saying they “always” or “often” “feel proud of Israel”;
only 5% said “never”. Then, too, “Only 13% said they are ‘sometimes uncomfortable
identifying as a supporter of Israel,’ with an additional 14% ‘not sure’ “;
73% disagreed with the statement.
Concerning the attitudes of American Jews regarding Palestinians, Cohen writes:

When offered sharply critical characterizations of Israel’s treatment

of the Palestinians, more respondents disagreed than agreed. However,

substantial numbers were unsure. Thus, by 60% to 11% the sample rejected

the assertion that “Israel persecutes a minority population,” with 29% not

sure. Similarly, by a 65% to 13% margin, they rejected the notion that “Israel

occupies lands that belong to another people,” with 22% not sure.

To restate that, only 11% of Americans Jews recognize that Palestinians are oppressed

by Israel and only 13% admit that Israel occupies Palestinian territory. Curiously,

only 17% of American Jews answered “Yes” when asked, “Are you a Zionist?”

Regarding a poll more closely related to the subject of his book, Finkelstein spins the

results of J Street’s March 2009 “National Survey of American Jews”. On pages 118-119,

Finkelstein writes, “a poll of American Jews found that 47% strongly approved of the

Israeli assault, but—in a sharp break with the usual wall-to-wall solidarity—53 per cent

were either ambivalent (44 per cent ‘somewhat’ approved or ‘somewhat’ disapproved)

or strongly disapproved (9 per cent).”

Now, before I tell you what Finkelstein didn’t tell his readers about that poll, I want to

emphasize two points: First, these are American, not Israeli, Jews. Second, the poll was

conducted from February 28, 2009 through March 9, 2009. The Hanukkah Massacre

ended on January 18, 2009.

So, these American Jews were expressing their attitudes more than a month after the

fog of war and Israeli gov’t. propaganda had begun to clear. The one-sidedness of the

‘conflict’ was well-known by then, graphic images of Palestinian suffering had circulated

widely, and respected international human rights groups had already begun to weigh-in

against Israel.

What did American Jews tell J Street pollsters? Fully

75% said they “strongly approved” or “somewhat approved” “of the recent military

action that Israel took in Gaza”; a plurality (47%) of American Jews “strongly approved”.

This despite the fact that 59% “felt that the military action had no impact on Israel’s

security (41 percent) or made Israel less secure (18 percent)”. This is not quite the

picture Finkelstein paints.

The Kabbalah Centre in Los Angeles is the focus of an IRS investigation into tax evasion

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Two charities linked to Madonna are also being scrutinized. The center has attracted A-list celebrities such as Ashton Kutcher and Gwyneth Paltrow.

The Kabbalah Centre, the Los Angeles-based spiritual organization that mingles ancient Jewish mysticism with the glamour of its celebrity devotees, is the focus of a federal tax evasion investigation probing, among other things, the finances of two charities connected to Madonna, the center’s most famous adherent.

Sources familiar with the investigation said the criminal division of the IRS is looking into whether nonprofit funds were used for the personal enrichment of the Berg family, which has controlled the Kabbalah Centre for more than four decades, a period in which it expanded from one school of a little-known strain of Judaism to a global brand with A-list followers like Ashton Kutcher and Gwyneth Paltrow and assets that may top $260 million.

Those cooperating with the IRS include representatives of one of Madonna’s charities, Raising Malawi. The nonprofit is named in subpoenas as a subject of the grand jury probe alongside the Bergs and Kabbalah Centre organizations despite having cut its ties with the center this spring.

“We have tried to provide as much information as we can as quickly as possible to the people who are investigating and are very actively cooperating in every way we can,” said Trevor Neilson of Global Philanthropy Group, a consulting firm now managing Raising Malawi.

In a statement in response to questions about the probe, the Kabbalah Centre acknowledged that it and one of its charities, Spirituality for Kids, “have received subpoenas from the government concerning tax-related issues.”

“The Centre and SFK intend to work closely with the IRS and the government, and are in the process of providing responsive information to the subpoenas,” according to the statement.

The IRS and the U.S. Attorney’s office in New York declined to comment. People with knowledge of the investigation said it began last year and is playing out on two coasts. A federal grand jury in Manhattan, where the Kabbalah Centre has a large branch and real estate holdings, is gathering evidence there, according to the subpoenas. Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, where the center is headquartered on Robertson Boulevard, a team of IRS agents dispatched from the agency’s New York criminal division is interviewing people connected to the organization, said individuals familiar with the agents’ activities.

Among the items that investigators have reviewed, according to one source, is an August 2010 email in which a former chief financial officer of the center complained that he had been fired for pointing out financial improprieties and warned that the center was in danger of “committing suicide.”

“I recently uncovered instances of income tax fraud at the Kabbalah Centre — instances which could bankrupt several of the directors involved … this is very serious business,” the former CFO, Nicholas Vakkur, wrote in an email that circulated among high-level officials at the center. “I have little choice but to cooperate with the IRS and bring down the entire Kabbalah Centre,” Vakkur wrote, adding a plea that “someone in authority” try to “reason” with center Chief Executive Karen Berg.

Berg’s husband, Philip, 81, was appointed the head rabbi or rav in 1969, but since he suffered a debilitating stroke in 2004, his wife, 68, has run the Kabbalah Centre with the help of the couple’s two sons, Michael, 37, and Yehuda, 38. The family has close ties with Madonna, whose decision to study at the center in 1996 put kabbalah and its distinctive red-string bracelets on the pop culture map and led to a period of enormous growth. In addition to individual members of the Berg family, subpoenas reviewed by The Times list various charities and for-profit businesses overseen by them as subjects of the investigation. The subpoenas do not indicate that Madonna personally is being investigated but do name two nonprofits she has championed: Spirituality for Kids and Raising Malawi.

The singer served as chairwoman of the board for Spirituality for Kids, an educational program founded by Karen Berg, and donated more than $600,000 to the cause, according to tax filings. Raising Malawi was an outgrowth of Spirituality for Kids that the singer cofounded with Michael Berg. The charity announced this spring that it was scrapping its plan to build a girls’ school in Malawi, a venture in which it had already invested $3.8 million, according to Neilson. The decision received wide media coverage and criticism in Malawi. Madonna, who Global Philanthropy Group said put about $11 million of her own money into the charity, replaced Michael Berg as CEO and moved Raising Malawi’s offices out of the Kabbalah Centre in March.

Madonna’s publicist did not return messages seeking comment. Neilson said Raising Malawi had retained legal counsel separate from the Kabbalah Centre to represent the organization in the IRS investigation.

The Kabbalah Centre is far and away the most well-known proponent of kabbalah, an esoteric Jewish movement that traces its roots to the Zohar, a holy book followers believe was written by a rabbi 2,000 years ago to explain the mysteries of the universe. The center, according to its literature, began in Jerusalem in 1922 and now has outlets in 31 countries and claims 4,000 regular participants in its services and programs globally. Mainstream Jewish leaders have criticized the center on a number of fronts, including its de-emphasis of the religion in courting new members, an approach the center touts in its literature: “One of the nice things about studying Kabbalah is that it doesn’t require you to leave your current faith or religious path.”

Investigators looking into the center’s finances face a complex organizational structure involving more than a dozen separate nonprofits and business entities with connections to the Bergs, according to public business records and sources familiar with the workings of Kabbalah. The total assets of the center are unclear because the parent organization, Kabbalah Centre International, has tax-exempt status as a church and is not required to make public its tax filings. A former CFO, Nicholas Boord Jr., who left the center in 2009, wrote in a resume posted online that the center had annual revenue of $60 million and assets that included a $200-million real estate portfolio and a $60-million investment fund.

According to a 1993 filing seeking tax-exempt status for the center, neither Karen nor Philip Berg receive salaries for their leadership roles. In those documents, signed by Karen Berg, the center said that she and her husband as well as other clerical staff “derive their subsistence from the meals and lodging and care provided to them by the organization’s facilities.” The Bergs live in Beverly Hills, in homes a few blocks from the headquarters that were purchased for them and owned by the Kabbalah Centre, according to property records and court documents.

The investigation comes as a handful of lawsuits are raising other questions about the Kabbalah Centre’s financial dealings. In a New York bankruptcy court, a trustee sorting out a $68-million Ponzi scheme has alleged that the center, an investor, was paid $2.9 million in “fictitious profits” and demanded the money be returned. Settlement talks in that case are ongoing, according to court filings.

In two other suits filed earlier this year, an heiress accused the Bergs and others connected to the Kabbalah Centre of defrauding her of about $1.3 million. Courtenay Geddes, a former member of the center, alleged that staff members pushed her to invest with an official at the Orange County branch who absconded with more than $800,000 and was later revealed to be a convicted felon. In a second suit, she claimed that a homeschooling program she funded with a half-million-dollar donation never came to fruition despite assurances from Yehuda Berg and others that it was under development.

In a stinging February filing that referred to the Bergs as “charlatans,” her attorney, Alain Bonavida, wrote that the center and its related organizations “exist primarily to enrich” the Bergs and their associates and predicted that any IRS review “will result in a revocation of said nonprofit status as well as various penalties, fines and likely criminal prosecution” of the family.

In a statement, the Kabbalah Centre called the allegations in the suit “meritless” and said it “intends to defend the case vigorously.”

Ohio hotel: Half-staff U.S. flag not mourning bin Laden

NOVANEWS
 

‘It started getting out of hand. One person said we needed to be run out of town’

Ed note–if a few dozen people like this can get out of hand over something TOTALLY INNOCENT  and without being propagandized by the JMSM, imagine what can be done when someone with an agenda to push, with an unlimited amount of money and technological sophistication can do. Why, you never know, in a situation like that, an entire nation such as America could be talked into going to war and killing millions of innocent people over NOTHING.

An Ohio hotel has been fending off angry phone calls because a broken rope on its flagpole led some to think the business was mourning the death of Osama bin Laden.

The rope left the U.S. flag stuck at half-staff outside a Hampton Inn in Springfield in western Ohio two days before bin Laden was killed, its assistant general manager Connie Smith told msnbc.com.

However, people started noticing the flag and assuming its position was in honor of bin Laden on Tuesday.

The hotel and its company received dozens of calls from people who were either upset or angry. One threatened to run the hoteliers out of town.

Smith, speaking by phone after the Springfield News-Sun first reported the story, said the flag had become frayed and the maintenance man was trying to replace it.

“He was trying to lower it down and it got stuck … and it got stuck at half mast,” Smith said. “It was raining, we’ve had non-stop rain for the past two or three weeks. The rope was slippery, it was so rainy, so windy, we just couldn’t mess with it.”

“Next thing I know we start getting calls like left and right, a couple of dozen at least,” she added.

One prospective guest on Tuesday night said he wasn’t going to stay at the hotel because of the flag, but relented when told it was a maintenance issue, rather than in honor of bin Laden.

‘Disgraceful’
Smith said the first call was polite with the caller saying “Did you realize your flag is half-mast?”

But the real deluge began Wednesday morning. “My first call was from a woman whose son was a sergeant in the army. She thought it was disgraceful,” Smith said.

“It was all over Facebook. I got a call from a man who said his boss told him about it at a meeting of 20 to 30 people,” she added.

Smith said she was shocked by the volume of calls.

“It started getting out of hand. One person said we needed to be run out of town,” she said, adding that another said the flag had to be fixed or he would “come out and chop that flagpole down.”

It was fixed by 9 a.m. Wednesday, Smith said, but the calls continued until 9:30 p.m.

The hotel is part of the Hilton hotel group — its flag flies below Old Glory — and Smith said it also received “a ton of calls.”

“They had one woman who was so distraught because she lost a friend in 9/11,” Smith said, adding that the caller ended up in tears.

“The whole town thought we were supporting bin Laden. So many people really had a fit about it. They were calling the local newspaper, they were calling the police. I didn’t realize how patriotic our city is,” she added.

For the record, Smith said that while she didn’t “want to see anybody die” she felt relieved when she heard bin Laden was dead. “A little justice was done for those people (his victims). He cannot hurt anybody any more.”

 

Obama Pressed by Neocons to Take Stronger Action Against Assad

NOVANEWS
 

Amid a continuing crackdown against opposition forces, U.S. President Barack Obama is coming under growing pressure to impose tougher sanctions against the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Two key lawmakers with close ties to the powerful “Israel Lobby” on Capitol Hill called Thursday for Obama to fully enforce existing sanctions, which would deny Damascus access to a range of technologies, and step up assistance to opposition activists both in Syria and abroad.
“Syria is not only hosting the world’s worst terrorist groups and developing weapons of mass destruction,” said New York Democratic Rep. Eliot Engel in releasing a letter[pdf] co-signed by the Republican chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. “Now it’s murdering its own people.”
“It’s long past time to impose the full range of sanctions on Syria and to work with our allies to tighten the screws on the Assad regime,” he added.
The letter followed the suggestion earlier this week by Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak that Assad’s crackdown had so alienated the Syrian population that it was unlikely that he could fully restore his authority over the country, even if he halted the repression now.
“I don’t think Israel should be alarmed by the possibility of Assad being replaced,” Barak told a television interviewer in an unprecedented comment on the crisis by a top Israeli official.
The statement was particularly notable because Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had reportedly told his ministers not to discuss the situation in public due in part to strong disagreements within the national-security establishment over whether Assad’s demise would serve or disserve Israel’s interests.
Barak’s assessment regarding the likely trajectory of the upheaval that has wracked its northern neighbor, however, also reflects the views of a growing number of analysts here who believe that popular discontent – if not outrage – with the government’s repression has become significantly more widespread over the past ten days, particularly since security forces besieged and occupied the southern city of Dera’a where the protests were first launched seven weeks ago.
The Damascus Center for Human Rights Studies (DCHRS) reported Thursday that several hundred people, including women and children, had been killed during a two-day period in Dera’a – among them some 81 soldiers and officers who, according to sources cited by the Center, are believed to have been shot for refusing orders to fire on civilians. Assad was quoted Wednesday as saying that military operations in the city would end “very soon”.
International human rights groups have reported that well over 500 people have been killed by security forces since protests began in March, but that figure is regarded by many as a conservative estimate.
Hundreds – and possibly thousands – more have reportedly been arrested in round-ups that have continued this week in Syria’s two largest cities – Damascus and Aleppo – which have until now remained relatively quiet, as well as in other key towns, notably Homs, Latakia, Saqba, Qamishly, and Dera’a.
Amnesty International reported Tuesday that it had received first- hand accounts of torture and other ill-treatment from detainees who have been released. There have also been reports that those who have been released have been told to tell others of the harsh treatment they received to discourage further protests.
“These disturbing new accounts of detainees being tortured further underscore the need for President Bashar al-Assad to put an end to his security forces’ violent onslaught against his own people,” said Philip Luther, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa.
Neo-conservatives, who, as in neighboring Iraq, have long favored actions designed to oust the ruling Baath Party, and their allies in Congress have urged Obama to take stronger action against the regime since the outset of the protests.
Elliott Abrams, who served as a top Middle East aide to former President George W. Bush and reportedly urged Israel to include Syria on its target list at the outset of its 2006 war on Hezbollah, has repeatedly urged the administration to pursue a diplomatic and economic strategy designed to isolate and ultimately bring down the regime.
“The demise of this murderous clan [the Assads] is in America’s interest,” he wrote on his blog the day after the first protests in Dera’a were met with a violent response by Damascus’ security forces in late March.
In late April, three influential senators, Republicans John McCain and Lindsay Graham and Independent Democrat Joseph Lieberman, called on Obama to impose tough sanctions and publicly demand that Assad resign, as he did with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.
Several days later, on Apr. 29, Obama announced a freeze on the assets of three senior government officials, including Assad’s brother, implicated in human rights abuses. At the same time, the administration helped gain passage of a resolution before the U.N. Human Rights Council condemning the violence.
But the administration has so far rejected appeals to impose sanctions directly on Assad or call for his resignation, urging him instead to stop the repression and implement far-reaching political reforms as he has repeatedly promised he would.
It has also sought to coordinate its position with the European Union, which is itself deeply divided on the best course and is currently considering targeted sanctions against 15 officials, including Assad himself.
Washington’s hesitation reflects the widespread belief that Assad’s ouster could usher in a period of chaos and possible sectarian civil war that could easily spill over into neighboring Iraq, Jordan, and Lebanon and threaten the de facto peace that has prevailed along the armistice lines between Israel and Syria in the disputed Golan Heights since 1973.
On other hand, a growing number of analysts here believe that the repression is steadily reducing Assad’s base of support, diminishing the possibility – if it still exists – that he can ever regain the confidence of key sectors of the population, particularly the youth.
That calculation appears to be leading some to take a more-hawkish position, although military intervention, as in Libya, enjoys virtually no support at all.
In one notable shift, Steven Cook, a well-respected Middle East analyst at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), wrote on his CFR blog this week that while there was a risk that a “new, nastier dictatorship or generalized instability” would follow Assad’s demise, the risk was worth taking in light of the “strategic opportunity” of breaking the Syrian-Iranian alliance that the Assad dynasty has fostered.
Urging Obama to publicly back the opposition and call for Assad’s departure, as well as increase sanctions, Cook wrote that the “potential for isolating Iran – a primary policy goal of the United States since the 1980s – is worth the risk.”