English LCCC Newsbulletin For
Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For December 18/2024
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news
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https://eliasbejjaninews.com/aaaanewsfor2024/english.December18.24.htm
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Bible Quotations For today
If the part of the dough offered as first fruits is holy, then the whole batch
is holy; and if the root is holy, then the branches also are holy
Letter to the Romans 11/13-24: “Now I am speaking to you Gentiles.
Inasmuch then as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I glorify my ministry. in
order to make my own people jealous, and thus save some of them. For if their
rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but
life from the dead! If the part of the dough offered as first fruits is holy,
then the whole batch is holy; and if the root is holy, then the branches also
are holy. But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, a wild olive
shoot, were grafted in their place to share the rich root of the olive tree, do
not vaunt yourselves over the branches. If you do vaunt yourselves, remember
that it is not you that support the root, but the root that supports you. You
will say, ‘Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.’That is true.
They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand only through
faith. So do not become proud, but stand in awe. For if God did not spare the
natural branches, perhaps he will not spare you. Note then the kindness and the
severity of God: severity towards those who have fallen, but God’s kindness
towards you, provided you continue in his kindness; otherwise you also will be
cut off. And even those of Israel, if they do not persist in unbelief, will be
grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again. For if you have been
cut from what is by nature a wild olive tree and grafted, contrary to nature,
into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these natural branches be
grafted back into their own olive tree.”
Titles For The Latest English LCCC
Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published
on December
17-18/2024
Elias Bejjani/Text and Video:
Why the Disgraceful Silence on Hezbollah’s Prisons After the Horrors of Assad’s
Human Slaughterhouses and Human Presses?
From the Archives: Dozens of Reports Exposing Hezbollah’s Prisons/December 17,
2024
Officially:
Switzerland Bans Hezbollah!
Israel ignores truce as bulldozers enter Lebanon border towns
Mikati says violations to be stopped 'soon' as Israel strikes Majdalzoun
Berri and Carret Discuss Post-War Reconstruction
Several Homes Destroyed in Israeli Operations in Naqoura and Kfar Kila
Berri says no 'trap' in Jan. 9 session
Cabinet Session Reiterates the Need to Stop 'Unacceptable Israeli Violations'
New Legal Complaint Against Al-Qard Al-Hassan
Joumblatt and Abi Al-Muna’s Take on the New Syrian Regime
Jumblat to reportedly meet Jolani as nations reach out to new Syria
UN special coordinator for Lebanon meets religious and community Leaders in
Tripoli
Khamenei says Israel delusional to think it is besieging Hezbollah
MP urges state to step in, protect Lebanon, without Hezbollah's help
Patriarch Rai Says Lebanon Will Elect a President in the New Year
Videos/Christian Council for Coordination Launches to Empower Lebanon's
Christians/Rayan Chami/Chelsea Al Arif/This Is Beirut/December 17/2024
Detained ‘Islamists:’ Towards a Solution or a New Problem?/Michael al-Andary/This
Is Beirut/December 17/2024
Will the Lebanese frog jump out of the pot?/Nadim Shehadi/Arab News/December 17,
2024
Will Post-War Debris End Up in the Sea?/Paul Guillot/This Is Beirut/December
17/2024
Presidential Election: Between Haste and Procrastination/Philippe Abi-Akl/This
Is Beirut/December 17/2024
Op-edThose Who Bear Arms Are Not the New Faces of Revolution/Johnny Kortbawi/This
Is Beirut/December 17/2024
Hezbollah Orchestrates an
Intimidation Display, Mousawi Insults a Security Officer
Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published
on December
17-18/2024
At first
Security Council meeting since Assad’s fall, UN envoy calls for end to Syria
sanctions/Ephrem Kossaify/Arab News/December 17, 2024
Turkish rescuers end search of Syria’s Saydnaya prison
France to 'stand with Syrians' as world engages with new rulers
Ceasefire between Turkey and US-backed rebels extended, State Dept says
After Assad's fall, the task of unearthing the dead from Syria's mass graves is
just beginning
Freed prisoner who said he was a victim of the Assad regime was an intelligence
officer, locals say
Hamas says Gaza truce 'possible', talks in Doha 'positive'
Palestinian families sue State Department over US support for Israeli military
Israeli airstrikes kill families in two Gaza homes; tanks bear down on Mawasi
Jerusalem resident detained for suspected Iranian spy plot
Netanyahu: Israeli troops will occupy Syria buffer zone for ‘foreseeable future’
UN pushes for Iran nuclear deal talks, says 'time of the essence'
Titles For The Latest English LCCC analysis & editorials from miscellaneous
sources
on December
17-18/2024
The Real Threat From Damascus/Amb. Alberto M. Fernandez/MEMRI/December
17, 2024
Media Employs Fake History to Demonize ‘Crusader Fanboy’ Pete Hegseth/Raymond
Ibrahim/The Stream/December 17, 2024
Countdown to Chaos? Dangerous Weeks Before Inauguration/Frank J. Gaffney/Gatestone
Institute/December 17, 2024
Understanding Syria’s pleasantly surprising new ruler Sharaa/Hussain Abdul-Hussain/Asia
Times/December 17/2024
Syria Needs to Overcome Its History/Sefa Secen/ Made by History/Time/December
17, 2024
Will Golani ‘Damascanize’?/Nadim KoteichAsharq Al Awsat/December 17/2024
Syria’s Future Will Be Decided by a Correct Reading of Developments/Eyad Abu
Shakra/Asharq Al Awsat/December 17/2024
What Do We Do with These ‘Strong’ Armies?/Hazem SaghiehAsharq Al Awsat/December
17/2024
on December
17-18/2024
Elias Bejjani/Text and Video: Why the Disgraceful Silence on Hezbollah’s Prisons
After the Horrors of Assad’s Human Slaughterhouses and Human Presses?
From the
Archives: Dozens of Reports Exposing Hezbollah’s Prisons
December 17, 2024
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2024/12/138103/
Despite all the disgraceful, inhumane, and
unprecedented crimes in modern history that were revealed regarding prisons and
detention centers in Syria after the fall of the tyrant Assad regime, and
despite exposing the bloody practices suffered by both the Lebanese and Syrian
people for 61 years under Baathist rule, 54 of which were under the reign of
Assad’s father and son... Despite these resounding scandals that shook the world
and shocked the consciences of decent human beings, silence still dominates
regarding Hezbollah’s Persian, Jihadist, terrorist, and criminal prisons in
Lebanon.
These are terrifying and illegal detention centers and prisons that many
journalists and politicians have written about, covered by local, Arab, and
international media, with some of their secrets revealed by detainees who
managed to escape after enduring the most horrific types of torture (many such
reports are attached below).
Among those who bravely exposed the reality of Hezbollah’s prisons are Arab,
international, and local television stations, as well as many Lebanese sovereign
journalists and activists, most notably researcher Lokman Slim, whom Hezbollah
assassinated and continues to prevent investigations into his murder.
In previous articles, most dating back to 2015 (attached below), we focused on
the file of Hezbollah’s prisons and the testimonies of those lucky enough to
have escaped without being killed. It is worth noting that most of these
individuals were from the Shiite community, rejecting Hezbollah’s terrorism,
Persian influence, and the fundamentalist lifestyle it imposed on their areas
and families.
Hezbollah, the terrorist group that has assassinated hundreds of Lebanese
opposed to its occupation, continues to fraudulently market what it falsely
calls the "suffering of the detainees of Khiam Prison," which, before 2000,
operated in the Southern border strip area under the supervision of the South
Lebanon Army (SLA) and Israeli security forces. This prison adhered to all
international prison standards; the International Red Cross regularly inspected
it, and detainees’ families visited them. Compared to Assad’s prisons, most
Lebanese prisons, and Hezbollah’s detention centers, it was practically a
paradise—a hotel with hundreds of stars. Nevertheless, Hezbollah attacked,
assassinated, and fabricated charges against many Lebanese, creating false
judicial files to persecute those who worked in that prison among them the
USA/Lebanese victim, Amer Fakhoury.
Today, after the fall of Assad’s regime and the exposure of the atrocities in
its prisons, and after Hezbollah’s terrorist group was defeated and caused its
reckless and senseless war on Israel, resulting in the deaths of more than 5,000
Lebanese, injuries and disabilities to over 30,000 others, and the destruction
of most towns and villages in the South, the Bekaa, and the southern suburbs of
Beirut—what is required, without fear or hesitation and in accordance with local
and international law, is to uncover Hezbollah’s prisons, do justice to those
imprisoned, and reveal the identities of those who killed and tortured them.
Furthermore, the international community and human rights organizations,
particularly the International Red Cross, Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty
International, must act immediately to conduct transparent investigations,
uncover the locations of Hezbollah’s prisons, and document the crimes committed
within them. The Lebanese government also bears responsibility for launching a
serious investigation to reveal the full facts about these illegal and secret
detention centers and to hold those responsible accountable before justice.
Hezbollah, which has forcibly imposed itself as an Iranian occupying authority
in Lebanon since 2005 through its weapons, bears full responsibility for all the
criminal practices inside and outside its prisons in Lebanon, as well as in
Syria, where it fought alongside the Assad regime against the Syrian people.
In fairness and in accordance with the rule of law, the current media blackout
and prevailing fear surrounding the exposure of Hezbollah’s prisons and
detention centers must come to an end. Accordingly, anyone who overlooks or
justifies Hezbollah’s prisons, detention centers, or crimes under the pretexts
of "resistance" or "liberation" is complicit in cementing Iran’s occupation of
Lebanon and displacing its people.
History will not forgive the collaborators and cowards, and the time has come to
raise the voice of truth, expose the atrocities of this terrorist group,
prosecute its leaders, dissolve it, and prevent it from playing any role in
Lebanon under any name or justification.
Officially: Switzerland
Bans Hezbollah!
Janoubia/December 17, 2024
The Swiss Parliament today approved a ban on Hezbollah, a rare move for the
neutral country that has traditionally pursued a policy of promoting
international dialogue and mediation. Proponents of the ban, which was passed by
the National Council after approval by the Council of States last week, argued
that "Hezbollah poses a threat to international security and that Switzerland
needs to ban it in order to take a stand against "terrorism." The Swiss
government opposed the ban. Justice Minister Beat Jans said during parliamentary
discussions: "If Switzerland now moves to ban such organizations with specific
laws, we must ask ourselves where and how controls are being set." The National
Council approved the ban on Hezbollah by a vote of 126 to 20, with 41
abstentions. The security policy committee, which proposed the ban, said that
Switzerland's mediation role would remain thanks to a specific clause relating
to peace talks and humanitarian aid. Last week, the Swiss Parliament banned the
Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) due to the attacks it launched
on October 7, 2023, against Israel. Switzerland had previously banned only the
al-Qaeda and Islamic State organizations, which are listed on the UN list of
terrorist organizations.
Israel ignores truce as
bulldozers enter Lebanon border towns
NAJIA HOUSSARI/Arab News/December 17, 2024
BEIRUT: Israeli forces bulldozed roads and destroyed houses early on Tuesday in
the village of Naqoura, near the southern Lebanese border. Troops continued to
violate the ceasefire agreement, firing bursts of machine-gun fire inside the
coastal town, while bulldozing local landmarks. Remaining houses in the border
village of Kfarkila were also bulldozed. Israeli forces invaded the Lebanese
southern border region on Oct. 1 as part of their expanded war against
Hezbollah. Troops are slowly withdrawing from the area, taking advantage of the
60 days agreed in the ceasefire deal for their complete withdrawal. The
agreement took effect three weeks ago. Israeli artillery on Monday targeted the
outskirts of Halta, Kfarshouba, and Shebaa, while reconnaissance planes
continued around-the-clock flights over the south and Beirut, mainly the
southern suburbs. The Lebanese army in coordination with UNIFIL is set to
retrieve the bodies of 37 Hezbollah fighters killed in confrontations in the
border villages of Odaisseh and Taybeh.Hezbollah-affiliated Al-Manar TV said
that the army is waiting on communications from UNIFIL before entering the
towns. No implementation date has been set, it added. The network also said
Israel’s slow withdrawal from Al-Hamames Hill is delaying the Lebanese army’s
entry into Khiam. The withdrawal was part of the first phase of the agreement
with UNIFIL.Maj. Gen. Patrick Gauchat, head of the UN Truce Supervision
Organization, held talks with Lebanese officials, including caretaker Foreign
Minister Abdullah Bou Habib, in a bid to solve disputes over the withdrawal.
Habib emphasized the importance of clearly establishing the borders between
Lebanon and Israel. Six sections of the 120 km border between the two countries
are still disputed. Meanwhile, Jean-Christophe Carret, World Bank country
director for the Middle East, met with Lebanese officials to discuss
reconstruction programs, and the rebuilding and repair of infrastructure. Carret
said the bank wanted to ensure the “effective operation, implementation, and
sustainability of the work.”Lebanon’s government is still discussing possible
disposal sites for debris from Israeli attacks on residential buildings and
facilities. Environment Minister Nasser Yassin said that the rubble is likely to
be taken to quarries around the country. Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi told
governors in southern Lebanon and Nabatieh, Bekaa, Baalbek-Hermel, and other
municipalities to ensure the Litani River and its tributaries area protected
during reconstruction work. Debris must not be dumped in the river or left on
open land overlooking the waterway, he said. On Monday, two Lebanese lawyers,
Majd Harb and Eli Kirolos, submitted a complaint to the judiciary accusing the
Al-Qard Al-Hassan Association, affiliated with Hezbollah, of violating monetary
and credit laws. Al-Qard Al-Hassan Association offices in various locations
around Lebanon were hit by Israeli attacks during the final two weeks of the
conflict. Hezbollah announced the resumption of operations in some of the
offices following the ceasefire.
Mikati says violations to be
stopped 'soon' as Israel strikes Majdalzoun
Naharnet/December 17/2024
Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati vowed Tuesday that Israel's ceasefire
violations will soon be stopped, as Israel targeted a car in the southern town
of Majdalzoun. Israel has launched near-daily strikes, mostly in southern
Lebanon, that have killed at least 29 people and wounded 27 others since the
ceasefire took effect on Nov. 27. Still, the shaky truce appears to be holding.
It says a truce deal with Lebanon gives it the right to use military force
against perceived ceasefire violations. An Israeli drone targeted Tuesday a car
in the southern town of Majdalzoun in the Tyre district, as the Israeli army
shelled the outskirts of Halta, Kfarshouba and Shebaa, and detonated and
bulldozed houses in the southern border towns of Yaroun, Kfarkila, and Naqoura,
where its troops are still present. "We have turned the page on the war," Mikati
said, adding that "there are some Israeli violations but we will soon stop
them." As part of the ceasefire deal, Israeli troops have 60 days to withdraw
from Lebanon, while Hezbollah will have to pull its heavy weapons away from the
border area to north of the Litani river. Hezbollah MP Hassan Fadlallah said
Monday that the state's efforts to stop Israel's violations are not giving the
desired result, urging the government to step in.
Berri and Carret Discuss Post-War Reconstruction
This is Beirut/December 17/2024
Speaker Nabih Berri received Jean-Christophe Carret, the Director of the Middle
East and North Africa Department at the World Bank, at Ain al-Tineh for a
meeting focused on the post-war reconstruction of regions devastated by Israeli
airstrikes.
The discussions particularly addressed projects and programs planned within this
framework, including the clearing of destroyed areas, as well as the
rehabilitation of infrastructure, hospitals and schools. The World Bank is
expected to play a pivotal role, which Berri and Carret reviewed. Carret shared
with his host the World Bank's desire to engage alongside the Lebanese
government in this project to “ensure the smooth progress, implementation and
sustainability of the work.”In turn, Speaker Berri, who inquired about the
details of the plan proposed by the World Bank, stated that it should include
“the rehabilitation of agricultural lands devastated by the conflict, as well as
providing loans to farmers, industrialists and SMEs to help them recover before
the end of the year.”
Several Homes Destroyed in Israeli Operations in Naqoura
and Kfar Kila
This is Beirut/December 17/2024
In their most recent operations in southern Lebanon, Israeli forces conducted
excavation operations using bulldozers in Naqoura early on Tuesday, demolishing
several homes. In Kfar Kila, numerous houses were destroyed while drones flew at
low altitudes over Tyre. The Israeli Army also fired machine guns toward Naqoura,
a town it infiltrated after the ceasefire declaration on November 27. In Beirut,
drones were also reported flying over the southern suburb. In a message posted
on X on Monday, the Israeli Army’s Arabic spokesperson, Avichay Adraee, reported
that Israeli forces had discovered several weapon depots and a heavy mortar
launch platform used to target areas in the Upper Galilee. He added that the
769th Brigade had also uncovered around ten mortar shells, anti-tank missiles,
rocket launchers and explosive devices.
Lebanese Army Announcement
The Lebanese Army announced on Tuesday that it would detonate unexploded
ordnance in Rachaya between 11 AM and 4 PM, as well as in areas surrounding Ras
Baalbeck and Wata al-Joz in Keserwan.
Berri says no 'trap' in Jan. 9 session
Naharnet/December 17/2024
Speaker Nabih Berri has said that he is still optimistic regarding the
presidential file, noting that he had called for the Jan. 9 electoral session
more than a month prior to its date to give everyone several weeks to conduct
discussions and reach agreements.
"On the session day, we will go to parliament and the session will be fruitful,
as I have already said," Berri told al-Joumhouria newspaper. Berri also rejected
the opposition's suggestion that there might be a trap in the session.
Cabinet Session Reiterates the Need to Stop 'Unacceptable
Israeli Violations'
This is Beirut/December 17/2024
Caretaker Minister Najib Mikati chaired a Cabinet session on Tuesday afternoon
at the Grand Serail. At the end of the session, caretaker Information Minister
Ziad Makary cited Mikati reiterating “drawing the attention of the Monitoring
Committee and the ambassadors we meet with to the need to stop the unacceptable
Israeli violations,” adding, “The measures are being aimed to secure long-term
stability in southern Lebanon.” “We continuously emphasize the necessity of
fully implementing the provisions of Resolution 1701 under the auspices of the
Monitoring Committee and the countries that have guaranteed the implementation
of these measures, based on the comprehensive application of all its clauses,”
he stated. He announced a meeting of the Monitoring Committee, which will be
held tomorrow in Naqoura to discuss all these matters and address the
violations. Mikati noted that the “Cabinet session held in the city of Tyre had
a positive impact both locally and internationally, as it demonstrated
confidence in the seriousness of the measures taken by the army, particularly
with the start of its deployment and the Israeli withdrawal, albeit slow, from
Lebanese territories.”Regarding the missing and kidnapped Lebanese detained in
Syrian prisons, Mikati emphasized, “The government is attentively addressing the
issue of those who are forcibly disappeared or imprisoned in Syria, and we will
spare no effort in providing all possible support and assistance in this
humanitarian and national cause, alongside the relevant ministers, hoping to
reach a resolution that puts an end to this severe suffering.” He added, “the
information received so far is not encouraging. Naturally, two Lebanese
committees are tasked with following up on this file.”Concerning the
presidential elections, Mikati expressed his appreciation to “Speaker of
Parliament Nabih Berri’s decision to set the ninth of next month as the date for
the presidential election, hoping this will lead to the completion of the
constitutional institutions and the commencement of a collective rescue process
for the many crises the country continues to endure.”In response to a question,
Makary noted that “Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham met with Lebanese General Security to
discuss the necessary procedures.”
New Legal Complaint Against Al-Qard Al-Hassan
This is Beirut/December 17/2024
Lawyers Majd Harb and Elie Kyrillos filed a legal complaint once again on
Tuesday against Al-Qard Al-Hassan, Hezbollah's illicit financial institution.
Harb announced on his X account that he had “filed this complaint for the second
time against Hezbollah, addressed to the Acting Public Prosecutor at the Court
of Cassation, Jamal Hajjar.” He expressed hope that judgments in Lebanon would
finally be issued “in the name of the Lebanese people.”The lawyer emphasized
that “building the state begins with a strong judiciary that bows to no one.” In
the judicial document published, the two lawyers recalled that an initial
complaint had been filed in April 2021 with the Court of Appeal in Mount
Lebanon. According to the document, Mount Lebanon Public Prosecutor Ghada Aoun
referred the case to the General Directorate of State Security “to conduct the
necessary investigations.” Needless to say, neither State Security nor Ghada
Aoun, known for her “justice” and selective prosecutions, followed up on the
case, despite Hezbollah's blatant violation of the law by establishing its own
“bank.” This point was also highlighted by Majd Harb. “Three years have passed
without any investigation being conducted or any judicial decision issued
against an association engaged in banking activities without legal
authorization,” the legal complaint states.
Joumblatt and Abi Al-Muna’s Take on the New Syrian Regime
This is Beirut/December 17/2024
Walid Joumblatt: "Today, Kamal Joumblatt and the Syrian people have
triumphed."Former Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Joumblatt considered
that “we can only engage positively with the new Syrian regime.” He remarked, “I
am not concerned about an Islamic fundamentalist rule and do not agree with this
notion. Let us give the Syrian people, who have emerged from 61 years of a great
prison, the opportunity to breathe.” Joumblatt stated that “we want a
democratic, pluralistic and diverse Syria where its people decide their future.
We will assist from afar or up close, when necessary,” he added. He emphasized
that “today, Kamal Joumblatt and the Syrian people have triumphed.”For his part,
Sheikh Sami Abi Al-Muna, the spiritual leader of the Druze community, pointed
out that “Syria requires cooperation from everyone, especially the leadership of
the revolution, to capitalize on this achievement in a way that serves Syria’s
unity.” “The Druze in Syria are a steadfast pillar of the nation, and today they
are capable of interacting with the new reality with shared responsibility.
Their distinctiveness must be respected by the countries involved in shaping
this new reality,” he said. On the Lebanese front, Abi Al-Muna called on
“foreign nations and the United Nations to pressure Israel not to violate the
ceasefire agreement, and for the Lebanese state to adhere to it and elect a
president.” He emphasized that “the Mukhtara (Joumblatt’s historic stronghold)
has always been a safety valve. We draw national positions from its leader as we
face challenges, reconcile and safeguard coexistence.”
Jumblat to reportedly meet Jolani as nations reach out to new Syria
Agence France Presse/December 17/2024
Caretaker Prime Mikati Najib Mikati will visit Turkey on Wednesday to discuss
the land demarcation between Lebanon and Syria after Bashar al-Assad's ouster by
Islamist-led rebels in Syria, a local media outlet said. Al-Jadeed TV channel
said that former Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat will also
visit Turkey and then will travel to Syria to meet with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham
leader Abu Mohammed al-Jolani who now prefers to be called Ahmad al-Sharaa.
Jumblat had called al-Jolani over the weekend following al-Assad's ouster. Assad
fled Syria just over a week ago, as his forces abandoned tanks and other
equipment in the face of a lightning offensive spearheaded by the Islamist Hayat
Tahrir al-Sham. The collapse of Assad's rule on December 8 stunned the world and
sparked celebrations around Syria and beyond, after his crackdown on democracy
protests in 2011 led to one of the deadliest wars of the century. Across
Lebanon, the Middle East, and beyond, the fall of Syria’s authoritarian
government set off waves of jubilation, trepidation and alarm. Many Lebanese
exulted at the overthrow of the Syrian leader while others worried about more
instability rocking a region in turmoil. Jumblat, for his part, celebrated
Assad's ouster "after a lengthy wait." He told former PM Saad Hariri that by
Assad's fall "justice was achieved" for his slain father Prime Minister Rafik
Hariri and other March 14 figures.
Syria rebels' past in Lebanon
Rooted in Syria's branch of Al-Qaeda, HTS is proscribed by several Western
governments as a terrorist organization, though it has sought to moderate its
rhetoric and pledged to protect the country's religious minorities. IS militants
and Al-Nusra, which later became HTS when al-Jolani broke ranks with al-Qaeda,
attacked and executed in 2014, during Syria's civil war, Lebanese security
forces in the Lebanese border town of Arsal. Lebanon got involved in Syria's
civil war, as Hezbollah fought alongside Assad's troops in Syria against the
rebels who carried out in return bomb attacks inside Lebanon in Tripoli and in
Hezbollah's southern Beirut stronghold.
Jumblat declares support for Syrians
Jumblat declared Tuesday his support for Syrians. "We cannot but deal positively
with the new Syrian regime," he said, adding that he is not worried about an
Islamic rule in Syria. "Give the Syrian people a chance to breathe. They've just
been freed after 61 years in prison."Jumblat went on to say that some mistakes
made in the past must be fixed and that a "diverse and democratic Syria" is now
needed. "Let's support Syrians as much as we can," he said. Lebanon 'shouldn't
fear' new Syria -The Lebanese "should not have fears," Syria's new government
spokesman Obaida Arnaout, told Lebanon’s LBCI television last week. He said "the
goal of the Syrian revolution was the ouster of Bashar al-Assad" and that "Syria
will be a civil state" and will "respect Lebanon's sovereignty."
HTS steps up world engagement -
Syria's new rulers have stepped up engagement with countries that deemed al-Assad
a pariah, with the French flag raised Tuesday at the embassy for the first time
in over a decade. The EU will reopen its mission in Syria following
"constructive" talks with its new leadership, the bloc's foreign policy chief
Kaja Kallas said, describing it as a "very important step". Turkey and Qatar,
which backed the anti-Assad opposition, have reopened embassies in Damascus,
while U.S. and British officials have launched communications with Syria's new
leaders. France, an early backer of the uprising, sent a delegation to Damascus
on Tuesday, with special envoy Jean-Francois Guillaume saying his country was
preparing to stand with Syrians during the transitional period. An AFP
journalist saw the French flag raised in the embassy's entrance hall for the
first time since the mission was shuttered in 2012. After meeting Syria's new
leaders, the United Nations humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher said on Tuesday he
was "encouraged", and that there was a "basis for ambitious scaling-up of vital
humanitarian support". German diplomats were also in Damascus on Tuesday, while
Italian Prime Minister Georgia Meloni said her country was ready to engage with
the new leadership. Syria came under international sanctions over Assad's
crackdown on protests, which sparked a war that killed more than 500,000 people
and forced half of the population to flee their homes. Assad left behind a
country scarred by decades of torture, disappearances and summary executions, as
well as economic mismanagement that has left 70 percent of the population in
need of aid. The EU's Kallas said the lifting of sanctions and removing HTS from
its blacklist would depend on "when we see positive steps, not the words, but
actual steps and deeds from the new leadership". The United Nations expects one
million people to return to Syria in the first half of 2025, after the war
pushed six million people to seek refuge abroad.
UN special coordinator for Lebanon meets religious and community Leaders in
Tripoli
Naharnet/December 17/2024
United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert
visited Tuesday Tripoli in north Lebanon. At the Maronite Archdiocese in
Tripoli, the Special Coordinator met with the Archbishop of the Maronite
Archdiocese of Tripoli Bishop Youssef Soueif, the Mufti of Tripoli and the North
Sheikh Mohammad Imam, the Greek Orthodox Metropolitan of Tripoli Archbishop
Aphram Kyriacos, the President the Islamic Alawite Council in Lebanon Sheikh Ali
Mahmoud Qaddour, MP Ashraf Rifi, MP Elias Khoury, MP Jamil Aboud and security
officials.
Given recent developments in Lebanon, alongside seismic changes taking place in
Syria, they discussed the importance of preserving Lebanon’s tradition of
peaceful coexistence, which is key to the country’s stability. "The role of a
functioning, effective and empowered State that embraces and unites all its
citizens was highlighted," the Office of the United Nations Special Coordinator
for Lebanon (UNSCOL) said in a statement. While acknowledging the impact of
accumulating political, socioeconomic and security crises seen across the
country, including Tripoli, the participants agreed that the time had come for
Lebanon to turn towards a more sustainable future in which tolerance, openness
and equal opportunities allow all people and communities to flourish. An
inclusive recovery process would also help to rebuild people’s trust, they
noted. The Special Coordinator reiterated the readiness and commitment of the
United Nations to continue supporting all efforts aimed at consolidating
Lebanon’s security and stability and advancing its long-term recovery.
Khamenei says Israel delusional to think it is besieging
Hezbollah
Naharnet/December 17/2024
Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei said Tuesday that the impression of the U.S.,
Israel and some of their allies about "the end of the resistance" is "a totally
wrong impression." Israel is "delusional to think that it is besieging Hezbollah
through Syria to eradicate it. Israel is who will truly be eradicated," Khamenei
added. "The spirit of (slain Hezbollah chief) Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah is alive
and the spirit of (slain Hamas leader) Yahya al-Sinwar is alive, and their
martyrdom did not take them out of the arena. It only removed their bodies but
their souls, thought and path shall continue," the Iranian leader added. "Gaza
is facing daily attacks and offering martyrs, but it is still resilient and
resisting and also Lebanon is resisting," Khamenei said.
MP urges state to step in, protect Lebanon, without Hezbollah's help
Naharnet/December 17/2024
As Israel kept violating a U.S.-French brokered ceasefire, weeks after it was
reached, Hezbollah accused it of taking advantage of a 60-days time limit,
describing the Lebanese state's efforts to stop Israel's violations as
unsuccessful. As part of the ceasefire deal, Israeli troops have 60 days to
withdraw from Lebanon, while Hezbollah will have to pull its heavy weapons away
from the border area to north of the Litani river. "There are efforts (to stop
Israel's violations), but they are not giving the desired result," Hezbollah MP
Hassan Fadlallah said Monday. Israel says the truce deal gives it the right to
use military force against perceived ceasefire violations. It has launched
near-daily strikes, mostly in southern Lebanon, that have killed at least 29
people and wounded 27 others since the ceasefire took effect on Nov. 27. Still,
the shaky truce appears to be holding. Fadlallah said that Hezbollah is
following up with the Lebanese government, urging it to fulfill its duties and
protect Lebanon through institutions, the Lebanese army, the UNIFIL, and the
monitoring committee. The U.S.-led committee tasked to monitor the ceasefire
between Lebanon and Israel also includes France, the U.N. peacekeeping mission
in southern Lebanon (UNIFIL), Lebanon, and Israel. "Only our resistance can
protect us," Fadlallah said, referring to Hezbollah, but went on to say that the
state has a chance today to show if it can protect Lebanon without the
resistance. "Go ahead, try your luck," he said. On Monday, Israel raided a
valley on the outskirts of al-Najjariyeh south of Sidon, wounding three people.
Israel has carried out at least three airstrikes in the Sidon district since the
ceasefire took effect. It claims its strikes target Hezbollah rockets and
movements.
Patriarch Rai Says Lebanon Will Elect a President in the New Year
This is Beirut/December 17/2024
Maronite Patriarch Bechara Rai expressed optimism on Tuesday about resolving
Lebanon’s two-year presidential vacuum. During a meeting with presidential
candidate and MP Neemat Frem in Bkerke, the Patriarch stated, “We are all
looking forward to January 9, and we have no doubt that a president will be
elected in the new year, 2025, which His Holiness the Pope has declared a Holy
Year.”Patriarch Rai stressed Lebanon’s resilience despite prolonged crises,
stating, “Lebanon does not die. We have endured difficult circumstances, and all
indications show that we are at the end of the road leading to salvation under
the care of Our Lady of Lebanon.”The Patriarch emphasized the need for unity and
courage as Lebanon moves forward.
Videos/Christian Council for
Coordination Launches to Empower Lebanon's Christians
Rayan Chami/Chelsea Al Arif/This Is Beirut/December 17/2024
https://youtu.be/pQnYzfmvgBY
Under the patronage of Maronite Patriarch Bechara Rai, the Christian Council for
Coordination (C3) held its launching ceremony on Tuesday.Committed to
strengthening the role of Christians in Lebanon, C3 aims to foster hope and
resilience through innovative social and economic initiatives, transforming
challenges into opportunities for future generations.
Comments
Detained ‘Islamists:’ Towards a Solution or a New Problem?
Michael al-Andary/This Is Beirut/December 17/2024
“Islamist” detainees in Lebanon who were arrested following the “Arab Spring”
movement in 2011 represent a dormant case that is being readdressed today after
the collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s rule on December 8, 2024. Mediator and head of
a sectarian conflict resolution group Lea Baroudi raised the concern, revealing
that “there are cases where people will become more radicalized while in prison,
because Lebanon’s prisons lack rehabilitation centers.”In an interview with This
is Beirut, Baroudi underscored that many of these detainees are from northern
Lebanon and Saida and “are not confined to a specific place where there was a
political conflict.”“There are those who committed crimes and those who didn’t,”
she added, indicating that “we cannot deal with this file in an indiscriminate
manner as the state must be responsible and expedite this issue because most of
them have not yet been tried.” To demand the release of all Islamists and the
enactment of a nationwide amnesty law, dozens of families of Islamists
incarcerated in Lebanese jails from northern Lebanon, southern Lebanon and the
Bekaa marched to the entrance of Roumieh Central Prison on Tuesday, December 10,
2024. Participants in the sit-in argued that the reasons for prosecuting
Islamists no longer exist after the fall of the Assad regime, as they attribute
their imprisonment to their “support for the Syrian revolution.”In their
statements, participants expressed their belief that there is a “higher chance
than ever” for Islamist convicts to be released from prison now. The Islamist
inmates’ building is located at Roumieh Central Prison’s Building B. It includes
482 Lebanese, Syrian and Palestinian inmates, according to security sources. Of
these, 25 have been given death sentences, and 75 were sentenced to life
imprisonment, the others are still being held for trial.
The arrests of prisoners were related to bombs in Ruwais, Burj al-Barajneh,
Haret Hreik and other parts of Lebanon between 2003 and 2020, including the
incidents in Nahr al-Bared, Jabal Mohsen, Bab al-Tabbaneh, Abra and Arsal.
Others were charged with being members of terrorist cells associated with ISIS
and Jabhat al-Nusra, including those who fought alongside different groups in
Syria before traveling to Lebanon, where they were detained and put on trial by
the Permanent Military Court in Beirut. According to Baroudi, “many came out
innocent after 5 and 6 years of imprisonment, so many look at this issue as
discretion in judicial handling, and this is a problem because there should be a
state of law.”Furthermore, she believes that the main issue is “not applying the
law in a fair manner,” and this requires a careful case-by-case review.“If we
don’t build a sound social contract based on recognizing the mistakes of the
past, there is an issue, and there must be a review to achieve equality in
Lebanon,” Baroudi disclosed. By definition, a person who fervently adheres to
Islamic principles and regulations is known as an Islamist. This is not against
any Lebanese law, provided that they do not offend any other religion. Hence,
expediting this file now comes as a priority since there will be less political
pressure on the work of the judiciary, and rulings should be issued to determine
innocent from guilty.
Lea Baroudi highlighted one additional fact: if detainees become more radical,
they will jeopardize civil peace in the future, and this represents the main
reason why imprisoned Islamists should be classified, and each case should be
tackled according to evidence. As she puts it, “We must distinguish between a
prisoner who has committed crimes and a political prisoner, and this should be
the starting point to correctly address this matter and seek a successful
solution, not a new problem.”
Will the Lebanese frog jump out of the
pot?
Nadim Shehadi/Arab News/December 17,
2024
Ceasefire or no ceasefire, flights to Beirut are full. The diaspora is heading
back for Christmas, like every holiday, as if nothing happened and while we are
still technically in a war zone. It was also thus during the summer, when the
country was obviously on the edge of an abyss but the partying continued. We all
know it cannot go on like this forever, but as long as we can find a way to live
with it, we will. There must be some law to describe the phenomenon: the more
hardship you can take, the more hardship you will get, until you cannot take it
anymore. Some call it the resilience of Lebanese society. The Lebanese seem to
have the ability to accommodate and move on — a sign of strength. As someone on
X put it, as soon as the fighting stops, we go back to abnormal. But it is also
a sign of resignation, of acceptance that nothing can change or that change
takes too much effort and is risky. It is a form of powerlessness as things go
from bad to worse — a downward spiral from which it is impossible to emerge. The
problem is precisely that the Lebanese can adapt to anything and this can
continue for a long time. The longer it lasts, the less reversible it is.
Dr. Mohammed Chatah observed this in 2012, the year before he was assassinated,
and wrote about it in his blog. On Beirut’s corniche, people looked happy and
oblivious to the steady and regular degradation their country was experiencing,
while he could see the coming danger. It reminded him of the “boiling frog”
phenomenon, where if you put a frog in a pot of water and let the temperature
rise slowly, then the frog will not react to the gradual heating of the water.
The frog even appears to enjoy it until it reaches a deadly level. But by then
the frog is incapable of jumping out of the pot. This time, what is needed is a
long-term solution that will save the country and the region from another
war.You cannot really blame the frog, nor can you blame the Lebanese. According
to Chatah: “It is those who can turn off the switch before it is too late who
deserve the blame.” That was more than 12 years ago, when, in retrospect, we had
seen nothing. Since then, we have seen the paralysis of government, economic
decline, financial collapse and the coronavirus, plus a nuclear-scale blast that
destroyed half of Beirut.
The lesson for today is that accommodating the crisis with temporary measures
and continuing as though nothing has happened is no longer an option. We have
reached the proverbial boiling point, beyond which there can be no return.
The solution proposed is a temporary ceasefire to allow the implementation of a
temporary solution based on another temporary ceasefire reached in August 2006.
The message from Chatah is that we cannot afford to do this again. This time,
what is needed is a long-term solution that will save the country and the region
from another war. The Syrian regime cloned itself in Lebanon between 1990 and
2005. It penetrated every institution and political party, including ministries,
the army, the security services and even religious organizations. Syria also
facilitated the creation of Hezbollah, sponsored by its ally Iran, and balanced
it out with Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, who was close to Saudi Arabia.
The root of the problem may be in a system built on endless compromise and the
contradictions of coexistence. It is almost immune to any reform or radical
change. In fact, Lebanese politicians are underrated and have a unique
capability for engaging in a balancing act under the most difficult
circumstances.
The root of the problem may be in a system built on endless compromise and the
contradictions of coexistence
The argument goes like this: If the system is in crisis, then change is resisted
because it should not happen under pressure. Once a compromise is reached, then
change is also resisted because it could upset the balance and, since there is
no crisis, there is no more urgency, as the system is working and there is no
need for change. Temporary solutions tend to become permanent, like UN Security
Council Resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 war with Israel. A compromise was
reached that brought about stability and the country went back to “normal.” This
was a false stability Lebanon was eager to maintain and reluctant to upset by
pursuing more radical reforms, such as the disarmament of Hezbollah. An attempt
in May 2008 to curb Hezbollah’s communications infrastructure and its control of
Beirut airport ended up with a violent attack on the city by the group’s “black
shirts” and the threat of another civil war, so the government retracted.
Another crisis in January 2011 collapsed the government of Saad Hariri, which
lost its majority under the threat of violence. A group of MPs was pressured to
switch sides again to avert another civil war. The risk is exactly that with
today’s ceasefire and the return to apparent normality: internal tension between
Hezbollah and its critics could result in violence, which could bring back the
spirit of compromise, meaning Hezbollah will be allowed to keep its arms north
of the Litani river — the line that the Israelis specified. Meanwhile, the can
of long-term disarmament is kicked ever further down the road. The Assad regime
has collapsed in Syria, but its clone implanted in Lebanon is now part of the
system of compromise, which at the same time protects it. In a country where a
coup or a revolution is impossible and where we are addicted to half measures,
will we allow the frog to boil or will we find responsible leaders who will turn
off the switch before it is too late?
**Nadim Shehadi is an economist and political adviser. X: @Confusezeus
Will Post-War Debris End Up in the Sea?
Paul Guillot/This Is Beirut/December 17/2024
On Tuesday, December 17, the pressing matter of managing post-war debris will be
discussed at the Council of Ministers. Among the key agenda items is the
monumental task of handling millions of tons of rubble, and the unclear stance
of the Caretaker Minister of Public Works, Ali Hamiyeh. Despite a request for
clarification from his media advisor, it was stated that the minister was
unavailable for comment, leaving his intentions uncertain. Recent Israeli
airstrikes have caused unprecedented destruction across Lebanon, affecting
regions such as Beirut’s southern suburb, southern Lebanon, the Beqaa (Baalbeck-Hermel)
and Nabatiyeh. Although exact figures are still uncertain, estimates suggest
that 50 to 100 million tons need to be managed. The urgency of addressing this
issue is compounded by Lebanon's past failures in debris management. In 2006,
rubble from the war with Israel was recklessly dumped into the sea, resulting in
severe ecological damage and irreversible harm to coastal ecosystems.
Recycling or Landfilling?
This time, the Ministry of Environment has issued clear guidelines early on to
prevent past mistakes from being repeated. It emphasizes the need for systematic
sorting, treatment and recycling before the final disposal of materials at
designated sites. The goals are multiple: protecting marine environments,
preserving soil quality, limiting pollutant spread and, most importantly,
establishing a circular economy with recovered materials. In fact, concrete,
steel, stone and even glass from rubble can be reused in road construction,
cinder block production or the manufacturing of everyday items. However, despite
these clearly articulated environmental and economic guidelines, Hamiyeh’s
statement before a previous Council of Ministers meeting — suggesting that “the
southern suburb’s rubble should be disposed of at a site near the Costa Brava
coastal dump” — raises concerns about a repeat of the 2006 marine landfilling,
which caused severe ecological repercussions. Should this approach be adopted,
it would directly contradict the Ministry of Environment’s stance and the
opinions of many experts, engineers, ecologists and civil society organizations.
Nevertheless, viable solutions abound. Researchers from the American University
of Beirut (AUB), led by Professor Issam Srour, are already working on tangible
plans to recycle rubble, transforming waste into valuable resources, reducing
the need for new quarries and protecting the environment. Lebanese engineers
interviewed by This is Beirut emphasize the technical feasibility of sorting and
recycling. The steps are straightforward: manually or mechanically separate
materials (concrete, steel, glass), crush and reprocess the concrete into
aggregates for construction, sell the steel to recycling companies or reuse
glass and other recyclable materials. The outcome of the Council of Ministers’
meeting is eagerly awaited, despite prevailing uncertainties. A sustainable
approach aligned with the Ministry of Environment’s guidelines and insights from
local and international experts could steer Lebanon away from repeating past
errors. A purposive approach to this rubble would not only mitigate the
ecological impact of reconstruction but also create a new economic sector,
generating jobs and valuable resources. If, however, the easier solution of
marine landfilling were chosen, the country would not only risk further
jeopardizing its coastline and biodiversity but would also send a strong signal
to international observers that it is capable of repeating the same mistake.
This would underscore that Lebanon’s governance remains unchanged, despite years
of repeated calls for structural reforms to address the country’s multifaceted
crises.
Presidential Election: Between Haste and Procrastination
Philippe Abi-Akl/This Is Beirut/December 17/2024
The recent moves of Egypt’s ambassador to Lebanon, Alaa Moussa, have sparked
optimism about the 13th presidential election session scheduled for January 9.
While this optimism is partly linked to House Speaker Nabih Berri's position, it
is also driven by several key factors including, information gathered by Moussa
from the Quintet Group’s discussions (comprising France, the US, Saudi Arabia,
Qatar and Egypt), the outcome of the group’s communications with political
forces, the visit of Qatari envoy Abu Fahd Jassim al-Thani, and ongoing
diplomatic engagement from the US, France, and Saudi Arabia. Will 2025 see the
election of Lebanon’s 14th president? Berri assured his visitors that Lebanon
will have a president on January 9. He invited the ambassadors of the Quintet
Group to attend the session, stressing the importance of closely monitoring the
proceedings. MP Neemat Frem was the first to officially announce his candidacy
for the presidency, presenting his political program. Opposition sources suggest
that Berri is keen on advancing the election of a president and that he may be
using this move as a leverage to pressure them into electing a president now—one
over whom the Shiite Amal-Hezbollah duo would have significant influence.
Moreover, political observers believe that Hezbollah has a significant stake in
electing a president now, driven by concerns over the potential fallout from the
upcoming phase and the shifting balance of power. Prior to Israel’s devastating
war, the pro-Iranian faction had obstructed the election process in an effort to
secure its own candidate. However, following the war, Hezbollah is now pushing
for the swift election of a president. Its goal is to strike a deal that would
ensure its weapons remain outside the scope of UN Resolution 1701 in the south,
while safeguarding the gains and privileges it has secured as a resistance
movement. Moreover, Hezbollah is seeking greater influence within Lebanon’s
establishment, particularly in financial and military institutions. The
pro-Iranian faction’s demands include a comprehensive package that encompasses
the presidency and other key posts. Opposition sources argue that Hezbollah is
determined to have a president in place before US president-elect Donald Trump
returns to the White House. The opposition camp, however, is no longer rushing
to elect a president and prefers to exercise caution, awaiting a clearer
understanding of the situation and a better grasp of the shifting power dynamics
in the region. They argue that developments in Syria dictate a delay in their
decision, unless the Axis of Resistance agrees on a candidate who meets the
Quintet’s criteria, including the capacity to protect the state’s sovereignty
and interests, and one who does not pose any threat to any party and embodies
integrity. According to reports, communication between Ain al-Tineh (Berri) and
Maarab (the Lebanese Forces) is established through intermediaries to develop a
formula that would finalize the election process. One intermediary noted,
"Progress has been made, but more time is needed. We are awaiting Walid
Joumblatt’s return from overseas and the insights he will bring, as well as the
outcome of his visit to Maarab upon his return." LF leader Samir Geagea, who is
in consultations with opposition forces and relevant external stakeholders, is
expected to make his final decision on the presidency before the end of the
month, according to his inner circle. He will either announce his candidacy for
the presidency or withdraw and endorse Army Chief Joseph Aoun. In fact, Aoun is
widely regarded as the leading candidate, despite opposition from the Free
Patriotic Movement (FPM) and reservations from the Shiite duo. Sources within
these political groups argue that Aoun’s candidacy would require a
constitutional amendment, and that the current circumstances are not favorable
for such a step. In this context, informed sources reveal that Berri is
determined to maintain his political alliance with FPM leader Gebran Bassil and
Marada leader Sleiman Frangieh to secure Christian support for his positions and
ensure enough votes for his preferred candidate. Meanwhile, Hezbollah has firmly
rejected the opposition's demand to surrender its weapons to the state and
engage in politics without its arsenal, a stance that was reinforced by the
collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s regime and the rise of Sunni extremism in Syria,
which has only strengthened Hezbollah's resolve to preserve its military power.
The events in Syria have further complicated Lebanon’s presidential dossier. The
dynamics that existed prior to the fall of Assad’s regime have shifted, altering
the balance of power and prompting changes in the positioning of political
forces, particularly within the Hezbollah-led ‘Axis of Resistance’, which now
seeks to expedite the presidential election, while the opposition camp takes a
more cautious approach. According to a former official, "The presidential issue
will remain unresolved until the situation in Syria stabilizes and the post-Assad
phase is clarified. A single candidate must be agreed upon for the January 9th
session—one who is neither imposed nor rejected."
Op-edThose Who Bear Arms Are Not the New
Faces of Revolution
Johnny Kortbawi/This Is Beirut/December 17/2024
The concept of counter-revolutions is far from novel. Throughout history, each
revolution has been met with an opposing force determined to challenge the
revolutionaries and regain lost ground. As political movements evolved alongside
society, the nature of revolutions changed, increasingly relying on military
coups, shifts in power dynamics and realignments in alliances.
Lebanon’s contemporary history offers many similar examples.
Following the French withdrawal from Lebanon, a series of retaliatory actions
occurred — including bombings, arrests and kidnappings — allegedly carried out
by individuals with ties to the French regime. However, these operations swiftly
ceased as the French acknowledged that their role in the region had concluded,
and that the post-World War II era marked a fundamental shift. A similar pattern
unfolded after Syria's departure from Lebanon. Operatives orchestrated bombings
and security disturbances to destabilize the country, suggesting that chaos
would ensue without Syria's role as a "regulating force."
The underlying message was clear: Lebanon could not maintain security on its
own. Naturally, the Syrian backlash was more significant than the French one,
given Syria’s complex and intelligence-driven role in Lebanon, which contrasted
with the French mandate. At the national level, no side was able to overpower
the other, largely due to these counter-revolutions, particularly in 1959,
following the famous declaration about reaping the rewards of the 1958
revolution. At that time, the Christians regained the upper hand, making it
clear that they would not accept any attempts to weaken their position. Thus,
every revolution brings its own consequences, reactions and lessons to be
learned. What is unfolding in the region today, especially since September 27 —
the day of Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah’s assassination — along with its security,
political and military consequences for the region, indicates that the current
unrest is taking the opposite course.
After Hezbollah's defeat on the battlefield and the signing of the humiliating
agreement imposed on the pro-Iranian group, former allies and resistance figures
began to reveal a new political identity. This transformation is significant, as
they now present themselves as proponents of freedom, coexistence and dialogue
with the "other," despite years of authoritarian rule. The former axis now
advocates for consensus and unity, asserting that Lebanon cannot move forward
without the participation of all its people, without exception.
The same pattern emerged after Assad’s downfall. Artists came forward, admitting
that they had been oppressed and despised Assad, yet had been compelled to
publicly express their loyalty to him. Even those allies, who had been groomed
by Assad’s regime and placed on Lebanese platforms and screens to defend Syria,
its Arab identity and Assad’s rule, began to expose scandals and level
accusations against him, acknowledging that his era was over.
Those same people realized that his time had come to an end and that they were
now seeking to secure a place for themselves in the new political order, much
like some of those who were loyal to the Syrian regime after the 2005 withdrawal
from Lebanon. These counter-revolutions should not be embraced by the Lebanese
people. The Lebanese people should not embrace these counter-revolutions, as
they do not represent genuine revolutions but rather acts of denial — efforts to
distort reality to secure positions in the evolving political landscape.
Don’t let them deceive you. Don’t buy into their hypocrisy, as they are driven
by a desire for power or to justify their vile actions. Don’t buy into their
so-called revolution — it is nothing more than a disguised counter-revolution,
meant to regain control and secure positions under a new guise. That will not
happen, because we are fully aware of what you’re doing.
Hezbollah Orchestrates an Intimidation Display, Mousawi Insults a
Security Officer
Karin Al-Qassis/Nida al-Watan/December 18, 2024
Having previously waged wars for the "liberation of Lebanon, support for Gaza,
and the liberation of Jerusalem from the treacherous enemy," Hezbollah has once
again turned its sights on the judiciary, much like it did in the case of the
Beirut port explosion. This new confrontation stems from the backlash against
the party's campaign against MTV, a Lebanese television station, under the guise
of targeting "fame-seeking girls" or, as they put it, "freedom of speech."
MTV, represented by its lawyer Mark Habbak, filed a lawsuit against
dozens of individuals who crossed the line in their attacks against the station,
including social media influencers Ghina Ghannour and Sahr Ghaddaar, and Al-Murtada
Movement journalist Evalina Mahaws, along with 34 others.
After the defendants were taken to the Information Bureau, the Public
Prosecutor, Judge Jamal Hajj, attempted to release them. However, this decision
was rejected by the Public Prosecutor of Appeal in Beirut, Judge Raja Hamoush,
who told them, "Freedom of expression and opinion is a right, but incitement to
kill and violating people's dignity is not permitted." He asked them to sign a
pledge not to violate anyone's dignity and to remove their offensive tweets
against the channel. Some complied and were released. However, the
aforementioned "three musketeers" refused to sign.
Hajj immediately intervened and overruled Hamoush.
The "three musketeers" persisted in their stance after dozens of supporters of
the "Resistance Axis" gathered around the Martyr Joseph Daher Barracks in
Gallery Semaan. Among the leading figures were Hezbollah MPs Hassan Fadlallah
and Ibrahim Mousawi, who engaged in a verbal altercation with security forces
after being prevented from entering to follow the investigation of the "three
musketeers." Mousawi's audacity reached a new low when he insulted the officers
guarding the area, telling one of them, "Open up, you animal." The Hezbollah
MP's insult was captured on audio and video and widely circulated on social
media. The matter did not end there. According to Nida
al-Watan, the head of Hezbollah's so-called "Liaison and Coordination Unit,"
Wafiq Safa, following his usual practice of threatening Judge Tarek Bitar, the
judicial investigator in the Beirut port explosion case, by claiming he could
"remove" him from his position, once again exerted his influence over the
judiciary and intervened to "immediately release the musketeers" by threatening
Judge Hajj. His demands were met. After the "girls of Safa" were released amid
cheering crowds of supporters, chants of threats and intimidation erupted,
including the slogan "It is impossible for us to be humiliated."In a
conversation with Nida al-Watan, MTV's legal counsel, Attorney Habbak, confirmed
that the "girls" were still under investigation and had not been released as
some had claimed, emphasizing that they would be interrogated again.
Attorney Antonio Farah also told Nida al-Watan, "This is a political
issue and has nothing to do with the law. This was evident in Judge Hamoush's
retreat under political pressure."
He added, "There is a huge difference between personal freedoms and shedding the
blood of Lebanese citizens," and stressed that "the battle is not about freedoms
but rather a challenge to impose the will of forces that believe their strength
and ability to impose their will by force have passed and that, in this way,
they are trying to reproduce themselves once again domestically."
George Hayek, head of the cultural department of the Lebanese Forces,
wrote on X: "The arrogance of the resistance knows no bounds. They want to shed
the blood of free Lebanese media outlets, and if the latter resort to the
judiciary, they start threatening and intimidating! Enough is enough."
The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published
on December
17-18/2024
At first Security Council meeting since Assad’s fall, UN envoy calls for
end to Syria sanctions
Ephrem Kossaify/Arab News/December
17, 2024
NEW YORK CITY: The UN’s special envoy for Syria has called for “broad support”
from the international community for Syria and an end to crippling economic
sanctions, to aid the reconstruction of the country after almost 14 years of
civil war. Speaking from Damascus on Tuesday, Geir Pedersen briefed members of
the UN Security Council on the current situation in Syria. It was the council’s
first open meeting about the country since the fall of dictator Bashar Assad’s
regime on Dec. 8. The UN’s humanitarian chief, Tom Fletcher, also appealed to
all states to ensure “sanctions and counterterrorism measures do not impede” aid
operations in Syria, which continues to suffer the effects of a humanitarian
crisis that is one of the most dire in the world.US, UK, EU and other
international authorities imposed severe sanctions on Syria after President
Assad’s crackdown on pro-democracy protests in 2011 spiraled into civil war.
They also slapped sanctions on Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham — the militant group that
spearheaded the takeover of Damascus this month that ousted Assad — more than a
decade ago. At the time, HTS was Al-Qaeda’s official affiliate in Syria but it
broke ties with the terrorist group in 2016. However, it remains on the UN
Security Council’s sanctions list, subject to a global assets freeze and arms
embargo. Western countries are now grappling with the question of how best to
respond to the evolving situation in Syria now that HTS is in power. Though the
group has softened its rhetoric, it is still widely labeled a “terrorist”
organization by authorities in the West. Pedersen said: “Concrete movement on an
inclusive political transition will be key in ensuring Syria receives the
economic support it needs.” He noted the steps that are being made to achieve a
peaceful and orderly transition of power in the country, including efforts to
ensure the former government’s ministers remain safe, and calls for state
employees to continue their work. “This provides a strong first basis but it is
not, in itself, enough,” Pedersen told council members. The transition must also
be “credible and inclusive, including the broadest spectrum of Syrian society
and Syrian parties, so that it inspires public confidence,” he added. He also
stressed the need to draft a new constitution, and for free and fair elections.
Although events this month have sparked hopes of a real opportunity for peace,
economic stability, accountability and justice in Syria, Pedersen warned that
many people remain apprehensive about the “enormous” challenges that lie ahead.
“I worry that if this is not handled right, by both the Syrians and the
international community, a turn for the worse again is possible,” he said. Even
though Assad is no longer in power, the “conflict has not ended yet,” Pedersen
continued, highlighting as a particular concern the clashes between
Turkish-backed and Kurdish groups in the north of the country. “Although there
is stability in many parts, and law and order improved, such stability can be
fragile, with many front lines and open hostilities still ongoing in northeast,
where civilians are being killed, injured and displaced. Such an escalation
could be catastrophic,” he said. Meanwhile, Israeli forces have carried out more
than 350 strikes against military facilities, equipment and supplies across
Syria since the fall of the Assad regime and the attacks continue, including a
major assault on Tartus. “Such attacks place a battered civilian population at
further risk and undermine the prospects of an orderly political transition,”
Pedersen said as he called on Israeli authorities to halt all “illegal”
settlement activity in the occupied Syrian Golan. “Attacks on Syria’s
sovereignty and territorial integrity must stop,” he added. Pedersen said he has
held talks with Syria’s new de facto leadership. He also visited the “dungeons”
and “torture and execution chambers” of Sednaya prison, which he described as “a
testament to the barbarity of the fallen regime towards its own people.”He said
that seeing this firsthand served as a stark reminder of the importance of
transitional justice, of clarification of the fates and whereabouts of all those
still missing or who were disappeared, and of ensuring due process is followed
in criminal prosecutions as a necessary safeguard against acts of revenge.
“Without this, Syria and Syrians will not be able to heal,” Pedersen added.
As an urgent first step, he called for the preservation and protection of all
evidence and materials related to alleged crimes, and of the sites of mass
graves. Fletcher, the UN humanitarian chief, told the Security Council that the
humanitarian crisis in Syria remains one of the worst in the world, with 17
million people in need of support, more than 7 million displaced across the
country, and millions more living as refugees. Nearly 13 million people already
face acute food insecurity, he added, and recent events have “only added to
these needs.” More than a million people were displaced in less than two weeks
during the events that culminated in the fall of the Assad regime, he said, and
hundreds of civilians were killed or injured, at least 80 of them
children.Health services and water supplies have been interrupted and more than
12,000 schools temporarily closed, affecting millions of students. As borders
and commercial routes remain closed, there are shortages of bread and fuel,
Fletcher added. “The flow of humanitarian support was severely disrupted, with
most organizations temporarily suspending operations. Several warehouses have
been looted. Multiple aid workers lost their lives,” he said. He lamented the
fact that the effort to fund aid for Syria, “the largest country appeal in the
world,” is one of the most poorly supported. “With just two weeks left in 2024,
it is less than a third funded, the largest-ever funding gap for the Syria
response,” Fletcher said. “Now is the time to invest in the Syrian people.”
Russia’s ambassador to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, said Syria’s future is
“currently quite uncertain given the internal lack of stability and the palpable
threats to Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.”He warned that there
is “a real risk of Syria becoming a number of cantons, broken down by ethnic and
religious characteristics,” and called on the Syrian people to make every effort
to ensure that an inclusive national dialogue takes place, without separating
people into “losers and winners.”Slovenia’s deputy permanent representative to
the UN, Ondina Blokar Drobic, told the council that a prosperous future for
Syria will depend on a credible and inclusive political transition, and an
inclusive Syrian-led and Syrian-owned political process. She emphasized the
necessity of participation by women in this process. Drobic also underscored the
obligation on all parties to take a stand against terrorism, as she stressed the
importance of preventing Daesh and other terrorist groups from reestablishing
their capabilities, and of denying them safe haven. Syria’s caretaker
authorities “must also respect Syria’s other international obligations,
including the Chemical Weapons Convention,” she added.
Turkish rescuers
end search of Syria’s Saydnaya prison
AFP/December 18, 2024
ISTANBUL: Turkish rescue workers have ended their search for survivors in
Syria’s notorious Saydnaya prison, their leader said Tuesday, after finding no
detainees languishing in any hidden cells. Located just north of Damascus, the
prison became a symbol of rights abuses under president Bashar Assad, who was
ousted by Islamist-led rebels on December 8. The search by a 120-member team was
conducted at the request of Syria’s new authorities, according to Okay Memis,
director of Turkiye’s AFAD disaster relief agency. “The entire building was
searched and analyzed with a scanner, and no living person was found,” Memis
told journalists at the site. Prisoners held inside the complex, which was the
site of extrajudicial executions, torture and forced disappearances, were freed
early last week by the Islamist-led rebels. But the complex is thought to
descend several levels underground, fueling suspicions that more prisoners could
be held in undiscovered hidden cells. The Association of Detainees and Missing
Persons of Saydnaya Prison (ADMSP), however, believes the rumors about hidden
cells are unfounded. The prison complex was thoroughly searched by Syria’s White
Helmets emergency workers but they wrapped up their operations on Tuesday,
saying they were unable to find any more prisoners. According to the Syrian
Observatory for Human Rights, more than 100,000 people have died in Syria’s
jails and detention centers since 2011, when Syria’s civil war erupted.
France to 'stand with Syrians' as world
engages with new rulers
Agence France Presse/Associated
Press/December 17/2024
A French delegation arrived Tuesday at the country's embassy in Damascus, the
first visit of diplomats from France since Bashar al-Assad's ouster by
Islamist-led rebels.
Visiting French special envoy for Syria Jean-Francois Guillaume said his country
was preparing to stand with Syrians during the transitional period. "France is
preparing to be with Syrians" during the transitional period "which we hope will
be peaceful", Guillaume told journalists, adding that his delegation had come to
"make contact with the de facto authorities in Damascus", while an AFP
journalist saw the French flag raised in the embassy's entrance hall for the
first time since the mission was shuttered in 2012. France's foreign ministry
said that France urged Syria's new rulers to press on with the fight against
Islamic State (IS) extremists who had controlled swathes of the country during
one phase of its civil war. The French diplomats made clear that Paris would
closely watch security in Syria "including continuing the fight against Daesh
(IS) and other terrorist groups, and preventing the proliferation of the Syrian
regime's chemical weapons," the foreign ministry said.
EU to engage with new Syria -
European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen said Tuesday Brussels would
intensify its "direct engagement" with Syria's new rulers. "Now we have to step
up and continue our direct engagement with HTS and other factions," she told a
news conference in Ankara, adding that "the risk of a Daesh (Islamic State)
resurgence... is real. We cannot let this happen." - German diplomats to hold
first talks with new Syrian govt - Germany says its diplomats will hold their
first talks on Tuesday with the new Syrian government installed by the Hayat
Tahrir al-Sham group.
The Foreign Ministry in Berlin said the talks will center on an "inclusive
transition process" in Syria and the protection of minorities. The German
delegation also plans to sound out the possibility of a German diplomatic
presence in Damascus, and will meet representatives of Christian communities
among others. The ministry said in a statement that "we know where HTS comes
from and know its origins in al-Qaida ideology," and said that Germany is
watching the activities of the group and the interim government closely. "As far
as can be said at all at this point, they are acting prudently so far," it
added. "Like our international partners, we will measure them by their actions.
Any cooperation requires that ethnic and religious minorities be protected and
women’s rights respected." The U.S. has already said that its officials have
been in direct contact with HTS.Germany has been a leading destination for
Syrian refugees over the past decade.
British diplomats meet Jolani -
British diplomats had met Monday with al-Jolani. Photographs posted by the group
on social media showed senior officials, including the U.K. special
representative for Syria, Ann Snow, meeting Hayat Tahrir al-Sham leader Ahmad
al-Sharaa, in Damascus on Monday. Foreign Secretary David Lammy confirmed Monday
that Britain had sent "a delegation of senior U.K. officials to Damascus this
week for meetings with the new Syrian authorities and members of civil society
groups." Britain, along with the U.S. and other countries, classifies HTS, a
former al-Qaida affiliate, as a terrorist organization. U.K. officials have
suggested they may reconsider that designation, but have not given a timeline.
They say British officials can still talk to HST in the meantime. In an
interview with the Times of London newspaper, Al-Sharaa urged the West to lift
sanctions and said Israel should stop its strikes on Syria. "We do not want any
conflict whether with Israel or anyone else and we will not let Syria be used as
a launchpad for attacks," he was quoted as saying. "The Syrian people need a
break, and the strikes must end and Israel has to pull back to its previous
positions." The United Nations humanitarian chief also met Monday in Damascus
with Syria's new leaders, saying there was a "basis for ambitious scaling-up of
vital humanitarian support". "Moment of cautious hope in Syria," Tom Fletcher
said on X after meeting Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, who now uses his real name Ahmed
al-Sharaa and who heads Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which led the
lightning offensive that ousted president Bashar al-Assad.
Ceasefire between Turkey and US-backed
rebels extended, State Dept says
Reuters/December 17, 2024
A ceasefire between Turkey and the U.S.-backed Kurdish Syrian forces (SDF)
around the northern Syrian city of Manbij has been extended until the end of
this week, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Tuesday.
Washington brokered an initial ceasefire last week after fighting that broke out
earlier this month as rebel groups advanced on Damascus and overthrew the rule
of Bashar al-Assad. "We continue to engage with the SDF, with Turkey about a
path forward," Miller said at a regular press briefing, adding that the U.S.
would like the ceasefire to be extended for as long as possible. "We don't want
to see any party take advantage of the current unstable situation to advance
their own narrow interests at the expense of the broader Syrian national
interest," he added. The SDF is the main ally in a U.S. coalition against
Islamic State militants in Syria. It is spearheaded by YPG militia, a group that
Ankara sees as an extension of Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants that it
outlaws and who have fought the Turkish state for 40 years. NATO allies
Washington and Ankara supported Syrian rebels during Syria's 13-year civil war,
but their interests clashed when it came to the SDF faction. Washington has been
closely watching any moves by Turkey or Turkish-backed forces on the
Kurdish-controlled town of Kobani, but Miller said the U.S. understands Turkish
concerns over the PKK, which both Washington and Ankara call a terrorist group.
"We understand the very legitimate concerns that Turkey has about the presence
of foreign fighters inside Syria, and so we're talking to them about those
concerns and trying to find a path forward," Miller said.
SDF commander Mazloum Abdi expressed on Tuesday the group's readiness to present
a proposal that establishes a demilitarized zone in the northern city of Kobani
with the redeployment of security forces under U.S. supervision and presence.
He said in a statement on X that the proposal aims to address Turkey's security
concerns and ensure permanent stability in the area. However, fighting between
the two sides has been ongoing, the latest of which saw Turkish-backed forces
firing at areas south of Kobani with heavy arms on Tuesday, according to a
separate statement by the SDF.
After Assad's fall, the task of unearthing the dead from
Syria's mass graves is just beginning
Sarah El Deeb/NAJHA, Syria (AP)/December 17, 2024
Bones are visible here and there among the mounds of earth in a field south of
Damascus, one of the mass graves around Syria believed to hold the bodies of
tens of thousands of people killed under Bashar Assad’s rule. With his ouster,
residents, forensic teams and international groups face what could be a
yearslong task of unearthing the dead. In this site alone, by the town of Najha,
several tens of thousands of bodies could have been buried, said Stephen Rapp, a
former U.S. ambassador-at-large for war crimes issues who was visiting the site
Tuesday. Some are believed buried under already existing graves of a regular
cemetery nearby, he said. It's too soon to start digging, and it's unknown how
many bodies remain there or if some were moved over the years. But here and
there, bones were visible, including some vertebrae from a human spine and
fragments of a femur. Rapp is working with two organizations that aim to help
document mass graves and identify officials implicated in war crimes — the
Commission for International Justice and Accountability and the Syria Emergency
Task Force. They and other groups have for years been remotely gathering witness
testimonies and satellite imagery to track and estimate the size of mass graves
that swelled from crackdowns by Assad's feared security agencies, particularly
in the early years of Syria's civil war that began in 2011.
With Assad's fall 10 days ago, they are now able to see them firsthand. That
gives the chance to "really corroborate what we already know about the machinery
of death that was maintained and operated by the Assad regime,” Rapp said.
“It is all so unthinkable that this is happening in the 21st Century.”
More than 150,000 Syrians remain unaccounted for after disappearing into Assad's
prisons and most are believed to be in mass graves around the country, said
Mounir al-Mustafa, deputy director of the White Helmets, a Syrian search and
rescue team.
An array of prisons run by the military, intelligence and security agencies were
notorious for systematic torture, mass executions and brutal conditions that
killed other inmates from disease and starvation, according to human rights
groups, whistle-blowers, and former detainees. The White Helmets have received
reports of at least 13 mass grave sites around the country, eight of them near
Damascus, including Najha, al-Mustafa said. “We can’t open these mass graves
yet. That is a massive task to document and take samples and give codes to the
corpses before we can identify those people,” he said. The priority is to take
stock of the unidentified bodies above ground, those in hospital morgues and in
clashes, al-Mustafa said.
Rapp, who arrived in Syria on Monday, visited another suspected grave site, in
al-Qutayfah, 37 kilometers (23 miles) north of the capital. He plans to meet
with officials from the new transitional government installed since the
lightning offensive on Damascus on Dec. 8 that forced Assad to flee the country.
He intends to discuss ways to secure and eventually excavate the sites, gather
samples from remains for identification and preserve thousands of documents
discovered in many security branches and prisons.
“There needs to be a process. That is what I will be engaging with government
representatives about,” Rapp said. He said he will also see what the
international community can do to assist the government in criminal prosecutions
and in ensuring they meet international standards.
On Monday, residents and medical teams began on their own digging up a mass
grave in the village of Izraa in southern Daraa province. The remains of over 30
corpses were uncovered, and the teams estimated the total number could reach 70.
Moussa Al-Zouebi, the head of the village’s health directorate, said some of the
people whose remains were uncovered were executed by “shooting in the head, in
the eye, or by burning.” A local forensic team and rebel fighters handled bags
of human remains as an excavator rumbled in the background, while relatives
stood by. Relatives said they initially had hopes that they would find their
loved ones in a prison. “But we didn’t find anyone and it broke our hearts. They
were burned alive here after being doused in fuel,” Mohammad Ghazaleh said at
the mass grave site.The new authorities in Damascus have designated a hotline
for people and ex-prisoners to identify locations and secret prisons used by
Assad’s government to find any trace of missing persons. The insurgents have
freed thousands of prisoners in Damascus and other cities, including Aleppo,
Homs and Hama. “It is understandable that the desperate family members will try
to go to a site hoping that they find some sign of their relatives, some
information,” Rapp said. He said the same is happening with documents found at
sites. “Although that is understandable, it can be damaging to an
investigation," he said. Rapp said the process of securing and cataloguing
documents could take up to three months but identifying those buried in mass
graves could take more than two years.
*Sarah El Deeb, The Associated Press
Freed prisoner who said he was a victim of the Assad regime was an intelligence
officer, locals say
Tim Lister and Eyad Kourdi,
CNN/December 17/2024
A man who was filmed by CNN being released by rebels from a Damascus jail was a
former intelligence officer with the deposed Syrian regime, according to local
residents, and not an ordinary citizen who had been imprisoned, as he had
claimed. CNN initially found the man while pursuing leads on the missing US
journalist Austin Tice. In a video report, chief international correspondent
Clarissa Ward and her team, accompanied by a rebel guard, came across a cell in
a Damascus jail that was padlocked from the outside. The guard blew off the lock
with a gun, and the man was found alone inside the cell, under a blanket. When
he emerged into the open air, the man appeared bewildered. Questioned by the
rebel fighter who freed him, the man identified himself as Adel Ghurbal from the
central Syrian city of Homs.
He claimed that he had been kept in a cell for three months, adding that it was
the third prison where he had been confined. The man also said he was not aware
that the Assad regime had fallen. He was being held in a jail that had been run
by the Syrian air force’s intelligence services until the Assad regime
collapsed. An image obtained by CNN on Monday now points to the man’s real
identity – said to be a lieutenant in the Assad regime’s Air Force Intelligence
Directorate, Salama Mohammad Salama.
A resident of the Bayada neighborhood in Homs gave CNN a photograph said to be
of the same man while he was on duty, in what appears to be a government office.
Facial recognition software provided a match of more than 99 percent with the
man CNN met in the Damascus prison cell. The photograph shows him sitting at a
desk, apparently in military clothing. CNN is not publishing the photo to
protect the source’s anonymity. As CNN continued to pursue information about the
freed prisoner after the original report, multiple residents of Homs said that
the man was Salama, also known as Abu Hamza. They told CNN that he was known for
running the Air Force Intelligence Directorate’s checkpoints in the city and
accused him of having a reputation for extortion and harassment. It’s unclear
how or why Salama ended up in the Damascus jail, and CNN has not been able to
reestablish contact with him. Over the weekend, Verify-Sy, which says it is a
Syrian fact-checking website, was the first to identify the man as Salama. It
said that he had been jailed for less than a month because of a dispute over
“profit-sharing from extorted funds with a higher-ranking officer.” CNN cannot
independently verify this claim. Rebel guards handed him over to the Syrian Red
Crescent. The medical relief organization later posted a picture of him on
social media, saying they had returned a freed prisoner to relatives in
Damascus. Salama’s current whereabouts are unknown.
Hamas says Gaza truce 'possible',
talks in Doha 'positive'
Agence France Presse
Hamas said talks in Qatar on Tuesday aimed at a truce and hostage-prisoner
exchange in Gaza were "serious and positive", a day after an Israeli delegation
arrived in Doha to meet with mediators. "Hamas affirms that, in light of the
serious and positive discussions taking place today in Doha under the auspices
of our Qatari and Egyptian brothers, reaching an agreement for a ceasefire and a
prisoner exchange is possible if the occupation ceases to impose new
conditions," the Palestinian Islamist group said in a statement.
Palestinian families sue State Department over US support for Israeli military
Kanishka Singh/WASHINGTON (Reuters)/December 17, 2024
Palestinian families sued the U.S. State Department on Tuesday over Washington's
support for Israel's military amid its war in Gaza that has killed tens of
thousands and caused a humanitarian crisis, a court filing showed.
The lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia
alleged that the State Department under Secretary of State Antony Blinken has
deliberately circumvented a U.S. human rights law to continue funding and
supporting Israeli military units accused of atrocities in Gaza and the
Israeli-occupied West Bank. The Leahy Laws prohibit providing U.S. military
assistance to individuals or security force units that commit gross violations
of human rights and have not been brought to justice. Both South Africa at the
World Court and Amnesty International have accused Israel of committing genocide
and war crimes. Israel has denied the charges. Washington faces criticism from
human rights groups for maintaining its support for Israel with no major policy
changes. "The State Department's calculated failure to apply the Leahy Law is
particularly shocking in the face of the unprecedented escalation of Israeli
gross violations of human rights since the Gaza War erupted on October 7, 2023,"
the lawsuit said. Israel's war in Gaza has killed over 45,000 people, according
to the local health ministry. Israel's assault has also displaced nearly Gaza's
entire 2.3 million population and caused a hunger crisis. The latest bloodshed
in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered on Oct. 7, 2023,
when Palestinian Hamas militants attacked Israel, killing 1,200 and taking about
250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. The lawsuit was filed by five
Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank and the United States. The lead plaintiff
was a Gaza teacher who has been displaced seven times in the current war and
lost 20 family members, the lawsuit says. The State Department declined to
comment and referred reporters to the Justice Department, which had no immediate
comment.
Israeli airstrikes kill families in two Gaza homes; tanks
bear down on Mawasi
Nidal al-Mughrabi/CAIRO (Reuters)/December 17, 2024
Huge Israeli airstrikes killed extended families in homes in two parts of the
northern Gaza Strip on Tuesday, Gaza medics said, with Israel's military saying
it had taken out a Hamas weapons storage facility. In the south of the enclave,
meanwhile, residents said Israeli tanks were pushing towards a humanitarian zone
on the Mediterranean coast, forcing displaced families to take flight again.
Medics said at least 10 people were confirmed killed in an airstrike on a house
in the Daraj suburb of Gaza City that destroyed the building and damaged nearby
houses. Further north, in the town of Beit Lahiya, which has been under Israeli
siege since early October, at least 15 people were believed to be dead or
missing under the rubble of a house hit by an airstrike around dawn, said
medics. Rescuers were unable to reach the site to confirm the toll.
At least 10 other Palestinians were killed in separate strikes elsewhere in Gaza
City and Beit Lahiya, medics said. The Israeli military said in a statement that
it struck a Hamas weapons storage facility that served as a sniper post which
posed an immediate threat to troops operating in the area. The military said
that steps had been taken to mitigate civilian casualties "including the use of
precise munitions, aerial surveillance, and additional intelligence."In Beit
Lahiya, Israel has been operating since October in what it calls an offensive to
prevent Hamas fighters from regrouping. Palestinians say the army aims to
depopulate a buffer zone on the enclave's northern edge, which Israel denies. In
the southern part of the enclave, in Rafah near the border with Egypt, Israeli
tanks pushed deeper towards the western area of Mawasi, forcing dozens of
families to flee northwards towards Khan Younis, residents said.
Hours later, residents said the army blew up several houses in the area and set
several tents ablaze. Israel has previously designated Mawasi, along the
Mediterranean coast, as a humanitarian area. Thousands of Palestinians have
lived there in tents for months, having obeyed Israeli orders to move there from
other areas for safety. Footage circulating on social media showed lines of
thick black and grey smoke rising from the area beside the tent encampment.
Reuters could not immediately verify the time or exact location of the images.
Contacted by Reuters, the Israeli military said it had no information
corresponding to the reports of tanks advancing towards Mawasi. After months
during which ceasefire talks had stalled, efforts to reach a truce in the
14-month-long war, brokered by the United States, Egypt and Qatar, have resumed
in recent weeks, though with no breakthrough yet. On Monday, an official with
knowledge of the talks told Reuters an Israeli technical team was in Doha for
working-level talks with Qatari mediators on "remaining issues" in a deal for a
ceasefire and release of hostages. The talks are focused on bridging gaps on a
deal that U.S. President Joe Biden outlined more than six months ago, the
official said. Egypt's state-affiliated Al-Qahera news said on Tuesday there
were "extensive" Egyptian-Qatari efforts with all parties to reach a ceasefire
deal.
The war began when the Palestinian militant group Hamas stormed into Israel on
Oct. 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking more than 250
hostages back to Gaza, according to Israeli authorities. Israel then launched an
air and land offensive that has killed more than 45,000 people, mostly
civilians, according to authorities in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip. The campaign
has displaced nearly the entire population and left much of the enclave in
ruins.
Jerusalem resident detained for suspected Iranian spy plot
Reuters/Tue, December 17, 2024
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - An Israeli resident of Jerusalem has been arrested on
suspicion of being in contact with Iranian intelligence agents as part of a plot
to carry out an attack in Israel in return for payment, Israeli security forces
said on Tuesday.
The 23-year-old man was activated by an Iranian agent known as "John" in October
and arrested in November on suspicion of committing security offences, said a
joint statement from spokeswomen for the Shin Bet security service and Israel
police.
It said their investigation showed he had proposed cutting off the power to the
Jerusalem light rail system and sent a video to his Iranian operator in an
attempt to locate the power supply. It said he searched social networks to
purchase a gun, a silencer and materials to produce explosives for the purpose
of carrying out an attack in Israel. The suspect had been detained and an
indictment was expected in coming days, the statement read. Reuters reported
last week on the arrest of almost 30 mostly Jewish citizens who allegedly spied
for Iran in nine covert cells in what four Israeli security sources said was
Tehran's biggest effort in decades to infiltrate its arch foe. The arrests
followed repeated Iranian intelligence efforts over the last two years to
recruit ordinary Israelis to gather intelligence and carry out attacks in
exchange for money, the four officials said.
Netanyahu: Israeli troops will
occupy Syria buffer zone for ‘foreseeable future’
AP/December 17, 2024
JERUSALEM: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that Israeli forces
will stay in a buffer zone on the Syrian border, and specifically on the summit
of Mount Hermon, “until another arrangement is found that will ensure Israel’s
security.”
Netanyahu made the comments from the mountain’s summit — the highest peak in the
area — which is inside Syria, about 10 kilometers (6 miles) from the border with
the Israel-held Golan Heights.This was apparently the first time a sitting
Israeli leader had set foot this far into Syria. Netanyahu said he had been on
the summit of Mount Hermon 53 years ago as a soldier, but the summit’s
importance to Israel’s security has only increased given recent events. Israel
seized a swath of southern Syria along the border with the Israeli-annexed Golan
Heights in the days after Syrian President Bashar Assad was ousted by rebels.
Israel’s capture of the buffer zone, a roughly 400-square-kilometer
(155-square-mile) demilitarized area in Syrian territory, has sparked
condemnation, with critics accusing Israel of violating a 1974 ceasefire and
possibly exploiting the chaos in Syria in the wake of Assad’s ouster to make a
land grab. Netanyahu traveled to the buffer zone with Defense Minister Israel
Katz, who said he instructed the Israeli military to quickly establish a
presence including fortifications, in anticipation of what could be an extended
stay in the area. “The summit of the Hermon is the eyes of the state of Israel
to identify our enemies who are nearby and far away,” Katz said. An Israeli
military official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with military
regulations, said there is no plan to evacuate the Syrians living in villages
within the buffer zone. The buffer zone between Syria and the Israeli-controlled
Golan Heights was created by the UN after the 1973 Mideast war. A UN force of
about 1,100 troops had patrolled the area since then. A UN spokesman said
Tuesday that the advance of Israeli troops, however long it lasts, violates the
1974 deal that set up the buffer zone. That agreement “needs to be respected,
and occupation is occupation, whether it lasts a week, a month or a year, it
remains occupation,” spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.
There was no immediate comment from Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, the insurgent group
that led the ouster of Assad, or from Arab states. Israel still controls the
Golan Heights, which it captured from Syria during the 1967 Mideast war and
later annexed — a move not recognized by most of the international community.
Mount Hermon’s summit is divided between the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights,
Lebanon, and Syria. Only the United States recognizes Israel’s control of the
Golan Heights. With Assad now banished, bodies of more than 30 Syrians who
vanished under his rule were uncovered in a mass grave on Monday. Forensic teams
and rebels worked together to unearth the remains in the village of Izraa, north
of the city of Daraa, as families of the missing stood by. The relatives said
they had initially hoped to find their loved ones in prison.
“But we didn’t find anyone and it broke our hearts. They were burned alive here
after being doused in fuel,” said Mohammad Ghazaleh, who was waiting at the mass
grave site. Some of the bodies recovered showed evidence that they had been shot
in the head or burned, said Moussa Al-Zouebi, head of Izraa’s health
directorate. Syria’s new authorities have set up a hotline for reporting missing
persons and secret detention sites. In the Syrian capital of Damascus, Qatar
officially reopened its embassy on Tuesday — nearly 13 years after it severed
diplomatic relations with Assad’s government. Qatar had reaffirmed its
“categorical rejection of the regime’s repressive policies against the Syrian
people” in a statement earlier. Most foreign embassies in Syria have been shut
down since after the country’s civil war erupted in 2011.
The French Embassy in Damascus raised its flag Tuesday in a “symbolic gesture”
to show support for the Syrian people during the transition. It’s reopening is
pending ongoing evaluation of political and security conditions, French Foreign
Minister French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said.
The Turkish Embassy in Damascus also recently reopened.
UN pushes for Iran nuclear
deal talks, says 'time of the essence'
Michelle Nichols/UNITED NATIONS/Reuters/Tue, December 17, 2024
A top U.N. official on Tuesday pushed world powers and Iran to urgently work to
restore a 2015 deal that lifted sanctions on Tehran in return for restrictions
on its nuclear program, warning that its "success or failure matters to all of
us."Iran's deal with Britain, Germany, France, the United States, Russia and
China is known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). The U.S. quit
the agreement in 2018, during Donald Trump's first term as president, and Iran
began moving away from its nuclear-related commitments under the deal. "Though
diplomacy is the best option, the United States has also been clear a nuclear
Iran can never be an option. We are prepared to use all elements of national
power to ensure that outcome," deputy U.S. Ambassador Robert Wood told the
council. European and Iranian diplomats met late last month to discuss whether
they can work to defuse regional tensions, including over Tehran's nuclear
program, before Trump's return to the White House in January for a second
four-year term. "Time is of the essence," U.N. political affairs chief Rosemary
DiCarlo told the Security Council, which enshrined the deal in a 2015
resolution. "While the onus is on the JCPOA participants and the U.S., their
success or failure matters to all of us. The region cannot afford further
instability."Britain, France and Germany told the Security Council in a letter
earlier this month that they are ready - if needed - to trigger a so-called
"snap back" of all international sanctions on Iran to prevent the country from
acquiring a nuclear weapon. They will lose the ability to take such action on
Oct. 18 next year when the 2015 U.N. resolution on the deal expires.
"We will take every diplomatic diplomatic step to prevent Iran from requiring a
nuclear weapon, including the triggering of snap back if necessary," Britain's
deputy U.N. Ambassador James Kariuki told the council on Tuesday. Iran's U.N.
Ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani told the council that invoking the "snap back" of
sanctions on Tehran would be "unlawful and counterproductive." "The so-called
snap back is not a tool in your hand to be abused for threatening Iran. Iran has
made it very clear that such a provocative move will be reciprocated by a firm
and proportionate response," he said. The U.N. nuclear watchdog - the
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) - said this month that Iran is
"dramatically" accelerating enrichment of uranium to up to 60% purity, close to
the roughly 90% level that is weapons grade.
Western states say there is no need to enrich uranium to such a high level under
any civilian program and that no other country has done so without producing
nuclear bombs. Iran denies pursuing nuclear weapons and says its program is
peaceful.
DiCarlo told the Security Council that the IAEA was "unable to assure the
international community of the peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear programme."
The Latest English LCCC analysis & editorials from miscellaneous
sources
on December
17-18/2024
The Real
Threat From Damascus
Amb. Alberto M. Fernandez/MEMRI/December
17, 2024
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2024/12/138094/
Cities gripped by tyranny and poverty. A fractured country ruled by warlords and
factions. A hollowed out middle class and threatened minorities fleeing.
Jihadists in the countryside and a low-grade insurgency. Despair and crushed
hopes. A safe haven for regional and global terrorism.
This was the reality of Syria in the last few years of the Assad regime and it
is entirely possible that all of these conditions could also apply to a new
Syria emerging under new management after the fall of Assad on December 8, 2024.
War and tyranny are certainly possibilities for Syria's future. But some of the
criticism by pundits seems off, as if almost wanting Syria to fail. Many warn of
the danger of an Islamic dictatorship ruling in Damascus but, of course, all
Arab regimes are dictatorships or authoritarian states of some sort and several
of them have had Islamist rulers.
Sunni Islamists have ruled Gaza (Hamas technically still does, amid the rubble
of Yahya Sinwar's war), Egypt, and Sudan in recent years. All three regimes have
ended in tears. In Gaza, Hamas won an election but then launched a bloody coup
in 2007 against its Palestinian rivals and ruled with an iron hand while waging
intermittent war against Israel. In Egypt, the Islamists won an election, ruled
disastrously and were overthrown in a military coup in 2013 by an anti-Islamist
army. In Sudan, the Islamists penetrated the army, launched a coup in 1989 and
ruled disastrously for 30 years. They are trying to come back into power there.
But if anything concerns Arab rulers it is not so much Syria reverting to being
a dictatorship – again – as it has been for most of the country's history since
independence in 1946 and continuously from 1963 until 2024. Nor is it that it
becomes another Arab "failed state." There are several of those already today –
Sudan and Yemen come to mind, Lebanon also, perhaps. Assad's Syria was pretty
disastrous and other states – current day Libya and Iraq – seem to have avoided
becoming fully fledged failed states because of their oil wealth.
The greatest fear is not so much Syria reverting to type but actually the
appearance of a new type of governance – that long-desired, oft-derided
emergence of successful (or relatively successful) Sunni Islamist rule in one of
the core countries of the Arab world. While the appearance of such a phenomenon
in Syria is not at all assured, there is a distinct possibility of its emergence
in Damascus in the near future.
The emergence of the Islamist Syria model, under someone like HTS leader Ahmed
Al-Shar'a (Abu Muhammad Al-Joulani), has two powerful patrons: Turkey and Qatar.
I am no admirer of either regime, as I have written repeatedly, but both bring
invaluable expertise and clout to the potential success of an Islamist political
project in Syria. Qatar brings cold, hard cash. Whatever Assad stole, Qatar can
make up in hard currency deposits to the Syrian Central Bank. Turkey brings
abilities as important as Qatar's contributions. They are raw military power and
technical expertise and years of experience of (electorally successful) Islamist
politics. Both Qatar and Turkey also know – and have been relatively successful
at playing the West. They know what buttons to push and which to avoid.
The scenario would be something like this:
The interim period produces some sort of constitutional document guaranteeing
certain freedoms and setting up UN-supervised democratic elections in 2025. The
dynamic and modest 42-year-old Ahmed Al-Shar'a wins them easily and becomes
Syria's first Sunni Muslim, non-Baathist President in 60-plus years.
He rules as a democratically-elected illiberal authoritarian but with a
relatively light hand. He already controls the country's new military, which
were the former Syrian Islamist rebels. There are already inklings that this
sort of "Islamist Light" model would be his preferred path to follow. In a
discussion from April 2023, Al-Shar'a discussed the drawbacks of following a
Saudi or Afghan model of enforcing Islamic norms that he saw as unsuitable for
Syria. The idea is to avoid a coercive society where people are hypocritically
pretending to follow Islamic norms, instead relying on moral suasion rather than
violent compulsion.[1]
A December 11, 2024 meeting between Islamist rebel officials and Damascus
Christian clergy
In such a scenario, all non-Sunni Muslims are in an inferior position but that
is also true in places like Turkey and Qatar. Ironically, Syrian Christians may
be in the least bad position among non-Muslims given their utter political
weakness inside Syria coupled with their relative importance to the West as a
symbol of tolerance. Heterodox groups or pseudo-Muslims (Druze and Alawites) and
Muslim secularists and free-thinkers would probably be in a far less favorable
position.[2] Those are also groups of less significance in the West. Some
observers expect that UNSC Resolution 2254 on Syria from 2015 would serve as
some sort of constraint to either a victorious HTS or to a democratically
elected Islamist government but that seems unlikely.[3]
There may not be a need for too much Islamist coercion anyway. In volatile
revolutionary situations, there is often a critical mass of public opinion that
wants even more radical steps to be taken as an opposite reaction to the
previous regime. Islamism will now become fashionable in Syria, at least in the
short run, and public demonstrations of Sunni Islamism will replace the space
previously occupied by Assad regime idolatry. This revolutionary fervor will be
less something ordered from above and more bubbling up from below.
We have a sense of how all of this could play out because we have the historical
record of a decade of Islamist rule of rebel-held Idlib since 2015, especially
since the Al-Shar'a-led HTS took all of Idlib city in July 2017. This is rule
that was first more radical and disorganized but became more orderly and
systematic over time but not without some degree of public dissatisfaction.[4]
Many of the civilian officials put in place by Al-Shar'a in Idlib then are now
in new positions of authority, as interim ministers, in Damascus. The
combination of Al-Shar'a political savvy, Qatar's money and Turkey's security
umbrella could actually succeed in delivering a better situation on the ground
for most Syrians than the late-stage Assad regime. The new regime would be
fortunate indeed that Assad has set the bar so low.
Such an outcome would be a threat to other countries. Not by failure but by
success. Jordan, an authoritarian ally of the West with a restive, unhappy
Sunni-majority population would be directly influenced by such events.
Non-Islamist authoritarians in the region will be very unhappy at the success of
such a provocative model.
This is one way the situation on the ground in Syria could possibly play out.
But there are many unknowns. How firm is Al-Shar'a grip on his own forces? How
essential is the man himself (I would think he is an extremely important part of
this picture)? What if he is assassinated? Is the country too broken or chaotic
beyond immediate repair? What happens if the country faces more war, either in
the face of a growing ISIS insurgency or a neo-Baathist uprising (or both)? Can
he find some sort of compromise with the heavily armed Syrian Kurds that
satisfies them and is acceptable to his Turkish patrons?
One thing that seems likely is the new regime's stance toward Israel and even
towards the United States. It will probably be relatively hostile but pragmatic,
very much in the manner that both Turkey and Qatar are hostile toward those two
countries – indirect, rhetorical, aspirational. There could even be short-term
areas of congruence and indirect collaboration. Syria is in such bad shape that
the regime needs peace in the short term even if it is to be resolutely
anti-Israel. Some may want to see an HTS regime become a sort of aggressive
Syrian Hamas and that is possible, but not immediately. The new Syrian regime
will likely have relations with former Assad stalwarts Iran and Russia (just
like Ankara and Doha do).
Some in the West are already calling for Syria's new rulers to jump through
various "liberal, pluralistic" hoops as a precondition to Western recognition
but it is not at all clear that Syria needs to do that. But it is possible that
the new authorities in Damascus may want to at least go through the motions in
order to satisfy an easily distracted international community already
overburdened by multiple global, regional, and internal crises.
*Alberto M. Fernandez is Vice President of MEMRI.
[1] X.com/shijazi_tweets/status/1866755332581859713, December 11, 2024.
[2] Middleeasteye.net/news/syria-north-druze-murder-uyghur-militants-suspicion,
August 24, 2022.
[3] Press.un.org/en/2015/sc12171.doc.htm, December 18, 2015.
[4] Meforum.org/behind-the-idlib-protests, May 29, 2024.
Media Employs Fake History to Demonize
‘Crusader Fanboy’ Pete Hegseth
Raymond Ibrahim/The Stream/December
17, 2024
Yet another example of the ill effects of Fake History is manifesting itself.
Because Pete Hegseth, Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Defense in his
incoming administration, is a “crusader fanboy,” the media alleges that once in
office, he may, like his heroes, usher in an age of religious violence. One of
the media outlets suggesting this is The New York Times, which recently
published a hit piece titled, “Pete Hegseth and His ‘Battle Cry’ for a New
Christian Crusade.” It begins:
Before Donald J. Trump picked him to lead the Department of Defense, Pete
Hegseth spoke often about a medieval military campaign that he saw as a model
for today: the Crusades, in which Christian warriors from Western Europe
embarked on ruthless missions to wrest control of Jerusalem and other areas
under Muslim rule. The NYT piece never correctly defines the Crusades; it leaves
readers thinking that the Christians of Europe, for no reason whatsoever,
invaded and tried to conquer the otherwise peaceful Muslims in the Holy Land. In
other words, it invokes the popular version of the Crusades, well summarized by
Georgetown University academic, John Esposito: Five centuries of peaceful
coexistence [between Islam and Europe] elapsed before political events and an
imperial-papal power play led to centuries-long series of so-called holy wars
that pitted Christendom against Islam and left an enduring legacy of
misunderstanding and distrust (Islam: The Straight Path, 58).
Building on this, the NYT article defines the Crusades as “campaigns that
featured so many atrocities” and “a shameful stain on the religion’s history.”
The NYT is hardly the only one to attack Hegseth in the context of the Crusades.
According to New Lines Magazine, Hegseth’s Crusader tattoos, including the Latin
phrase Deus Vult (“God wills it”) are “a call to religious violence, expressly
linked to a pretty horrific episode in history [the Crusades]. There isn’t
another way of reading it other than that.” That article also defines the
Crusades as “one of the bloodiest periods of Christian history” — and
“explicitly Islamophobic” — without once providing context or background.
The Real Crusades
The truth, of course, is very different from the Fake History being peddled by
the NYT and friends. The Crusades were a militant response to more than four
centuries of jihadist aggression that saw three-quarters of the Christian world
swallowed up by Islam. The particular Muslim invasions (between 1071 and 1095)
that occasioned the First Crusade were actually motivated by noble — indeed,
altruistic — sentiments. During that period and in the decades before it,
hundreds of thousands of Eastern Christians (Armenians, Greeks, Syrians, etc.)
were killed or enslaved, and tens of thousands of churches were ritually
desecrated, torched, and/or turned into mosques. Think what “ISIS” did to
Christians and other minorities in Iraq and Syria in the 2010s, but times a
hundred, and for decades.
Nor were atrocities limited to Asia Minor or its indigenous Christians: “As the
Turks were ruling the lands of Syria and Palestine, they inflicted injuries on
[European] Christians who went to pray in Jerusalem, beat them, pillaged them,
[and] levied the poll tax [jizya],” writes Michael the Syrian, a contemporary.
Moreover, “every time they saw a caravan of Christians, particularly of those
from Rome and the lands of Italy, they made every effort to cause their death in
diverse ways.” Such was the fate of one German pilgrimage to Jerusalem.
According to one of the pilgrims: Accompanying this journey was a noble abbess
of graceful body and of a religious outlook. Setting aside the cares of the
sisters committed to her and against the advice of the wise, she undertook this
great and dangerous pilgrimage. The pagans captured her, and in the sight of
all, these shameless men raped her until she breathed her last, to the dishonor
of all Christians. Christ’s enemies performed such abuses and others like them
on the Christians.
Cause and Effect
It was due to all these horrors that Pope Urban II made his famous appeal to the
knights of Christendom during the Council of Clermont, November 27, 1095:
They [Muslim Turks] have completely destroyed some of God’s churches and they
have converted others to the uses of their own cult [mosques]. They ruin the
altars with filth and defilement. They circumcise Christians and smear the blood
from the circumcision over the altars or throw it into the baptismal fonts. They
are pleased to kill others by cutting open their bellies, extracting the end of
their intestines, and tying it to a stake. Then, with flogging, they drive their
victims around the stake until, when their viscera have spilled out, they fall
dead on the ground. They tie others, again, to stakes and shoot arrows at them;
they seize others, stretch out their necks, and try to see whether they can cut
off their heads with a single blow of a naked sword. And what shall I say about
the shocking rape of women? . . . [W]ho is to repair this damage, if you do not
do it?… Rise up and remember the manly deeds of your ancestors! When Urban
concluded by calling on Western Christians to undertake an armed pilgrimage to
Jerusalem — both to help fellow Christians and to liberate the Holy Land from
Muslim control and abuse — all the knights in assembly shouted a resounding Deus
Vult, “God wills it!”This is the truth behind the Crusades: They sought to right
so many wrongs. If that was more widely known, men like Hegseth, and his tattoo
of Deus Vult, might be more appreciated. But, as it is, the Crusades are now
presented as quintessential examples of unprovoked aggression; and those who
hold a favorable view of them are deemed unhinged religious fanatics and bigots.
Such is the power of decades of indoctrination in Fake History.
*Raymond Ibrahim, author of Defenders of the West and Sword and Scimitar, is the
Distinguished Senior Shillman Fellow at the Gatestone Institute and the Judith
Rosen Friedman Fellow at the Middle East Forum.
https://www.raymondibrahim.com/2024/12/17/media-employs-fake-history-to-demonize-crusader-fanboy-pete-hegseth/
Countdown to Chaos? Dangerous Weeks Before
Inauguration
Frank J. Gaffney/Gatestone Institute/December 17, 2024
While much national attention is on the first 100 days of the Trump 2.0
presidency, there is growing reason to be concerned about the final days of Joe
Biden's term.
Among those with a powerful interest in disrupting the peaceful transfer of
power to a new Trump administration are: the Chinese Communist Party (CCP),
world government globalists, Sharia-supremacists, deep state bureaucrats and
assorted homegrown and foreign-enabled terrorists, jihadists, and other
revolutionaries.
These hostile forces' ability to create chaos in the United States – especially
collectively – cannot safely be ignored.
While much national attention is on the first 100 days of the Trump 2.0
presidency, there is growing reason to be concerned about the final days of Joe
Biden's term. The ability of hostile forces to create chaos in the United States
– especially collectively – cannot safely be ignored.
Among those with a powerful interest in disrupting the peaceful transfer of
power to a new Trump administration are: the Chinese Communist Party (CCP),
world government globalists, Sharia-supremacists, deep state bureaucrats and
assorted homegrown and foreign-enabled terrorists, jihadists, and other
revolutionaries.
These hostile forces' ability to create chaos in the United States – especially
collectively – cannot safely be ignored.
The Chinese Communist Party, since May 2019, has been telling the people of
China that their country is at war with the US. And the CCP has for years been
preparing for a shooting conflict in the Western Pacific, as well as, over the
past two years, inserting tens of thousands of its military personnel into the
United States. Their mission could well be to carry out attacks on the US
electric grids, transportation, communications, water resources and as much
other critical infrastructure as possible. They have not been sent to vacation
at the Grand Canyon.
Whether Chinese Emperor Xi Jinping will pull the trigger in the immediate future
will probably be a function of his pressing economic, political and demographic
challenges at home and the prospect of the replacement of his controlled asset,
Joe Biden, by his nemesis, Donald Trump.
Yet, even now, Wall Street persists in underwriting and, thereby, enabling such
threats to the U.S. and its allies. America's largest money managers are
sluicing the pension and other funds of American investors – largely without
their knowledge – to CCP-controlled companies. Many of those corporations are
helping the regime build weapons to kill us and the means to intensify their
repression of the Chinese people.
Trump seems likely to restrict, if not end altogether, this insane practice of
underwriting our mortal enemy. And the Chinese Communist Party, their "old
friends" in the U.S. financial markets and other "captured elites" have abundant
reason to want to stop him.
Globalists see Trump as a threat to their ambitions to create world government.
And they recently secured enhanced capabilities to advance that agenda in the
form of two international accords that give international bureaucrats at the
World Health Organization and the United Nations the authority to declare
emergencies and dictate what nations must do in response. Pandemics, migration,
climate change, conflicts, "gun violence" and "black swan events" can all be
cited at their whim as pretexts for dictating what actions must be taken in
response.
Neither treaty has been submitted to the U.S. Senate for its advice and consent,
let alone been approved by two-thirds of its members. And Trump has made clear
he opposes such affronts to our sovereignty.
So these agents of global governance dread the prospect of Trump's return to
office. They could see in the declaration of another public health emergency or
"complex global shock" and dictated responses that disrupt American society
economically and politically a means of staving off a Trump presidency 2.0.
Meantime, Sharia-supremacists are similarly determined to bring about a new
world order, unimpeded by America and its allies like Israel and the Europeans.
They are on the march in Syria, Egypt, Iran and elsewhere in the Middle East.
While their immediate objective is the destruction of Israel, the ushering in of
a global caliphate is, they believe, their Allah-directed destiny.
They have made great strides in that direction, thanks to decades of largely
unchecked immigration, especially to Western European nations, from Sharia-dominated
nations. In most of the host countries, there is rising jihadist violence and
political disruption.
There are also untold numbers of imported and home-grown Hezbollah, Taliban,
Iranian, Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamist operatives ready to wage jihad
here, as well. As was evident on college campuses in the spring of 2024, their
capacity for disruptive violence must not be underestimated.
In addition, as the riots in 2020 demonstrated, Marxist/Maoist groups such as
Antifa, black identity groups such as Black Lives Matter and numerous
fellow-travelers are poised at any time to re-launch a "color revolution." Their
attacks on businesses and communities, and the chaos thus induced, were
tolerated by deep state bureaucrats and applauded by Democratic politicians. A
reprise of the chaos such radicals can inflict could create civil unrest and,
especially if others enemies pile on, impact the transition's timing and
successful completion.
Observing that one or more of these scenarios may occur in the next few weeks is
not to posit their inevitability. Rather, it is to impress upon a public
susceptible to taking at face value Biden's public promise to Trump of a
peaceful transfer of power that it may not happen.
Under present circumstances, it is simply prudent at least to be aware of these
potential dangers and doing everything possible to prevent them from being
actualized in the United States.
The bottom line is that any one of these elements is capable of creating or
greatly exacerbating chaos that could be used to justify martial law, try to
derail the inauguration and thwart the on-time transfer of power to the incoming
administration.
As the federal government may for the next few weeks be part of the problem, it
will fall to liberty-loving states to pursue six steps that can help mitigate
this dangerous situation:
Raise awareness of the existence of threats.
Crowdsource information about the whereabouts and status of potentially hostile
elements.
Enhance personal and community preparedness.
Heighten the readiness of the National Guard, constitutional sheriffs, other
state and local law enforcement.
Protect critical infrastructure and likely targets.
Plan for contingencies, such as any effort to respond to chaos-inducing events
with a declaration of martial law and efforts to postpone the inauguration.
In addition to action at the level of state and local governments, it behooves
every patriot committed to the American experiment to be alive to these dangers.
Collectively, we can bring to bear the kind of "situational awareness" that can
help detect and expose the potential for harm before it is inflicted. And,
thereby, millions of us can assist in ensuring the on-time, peaceful transfer of
power and national course-correction for which the majority of Americans voted
on November 5th.
*Frank J. Gaffney, formerly acted as an Assistant Secretary of Defense in the
Reagan Pentagon. He is currently the President of the Institute for the American
Future and host of "Securing America" on the Real America's Voice network.
© 2024 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do
not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No
part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied
or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.
Understanding Syria’s pleasantly surprising new ruler Sharaa
Hussain Abdul-Hussain/Asia Times/December 17/2024
He told journalists the region’s problem is the Iran regime while he chooses
diplomacy to settle disputes with Israel
In its second week after Assad, Syria continues to ride a wave of euphoria and
hope, bolstered by pleasant surprises from its new de facto leader Ahmad al-Sharaa,
formerly al-Jolani.
Over the weekend he told journalists that in the Middle East the Islamist Iran
regime is the problem, and that he chooses diplomacy to settle disputes with
Israel. And while the hardships of government will certainly complicate, and may
even derail, Sharaa’s journey toward his stated goals, his start has been
nothing short of excellent.
To understand Sharaa’s thinking, one can parse his different statements, from
when he beat competing armed factions to emerge on top in Idlib, then from his
time as the northern province’s ruler and, lastly, from his media availabilities
since the rebels, mostly Islamists, swept the part of Syria that had been under
the control of the Assad dynasty since 1972.
While governing Idlib, Sharaa’s cabinet tried, in January, to pass and enforce a
social engineering law, with 128 articles, that was supposed to impose a strict
code on public space and behavior. In addition to banning the sale and
consumption of alcohol, the law stipulated complete gender segregation in public
places, outlined an Islamic dress code for girls in schools, and banned such
mundane social habits as smoking (including the popular hookahs in coffeeshops)
and fortunetelling.
The law caused a stir, and that might have prompted its authors to shelve it.
Sharaa tried to defend it by selling it as a law that “favored preaching Islam
over imposing it,” but he did not seem to insist on the law.
While defending it, Sharaa showed one of the important ideas that set him apart
from Islamist rulers. “If we scare people into living by Islam, they will
pretend to be Muslims when we show up, and stop believing when we leave,” he
said.
Sharaa seemed aware of the uselessness of religious coercion, a conclusion that
Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Salman had arrived at, and started implementing,
in 2015, thus socially liberalizing Saudi Arabia at a breakneck speed.
During his rule of Idlib, Sharaa took pride for his team’s ability to run a
government that proved to be successful in collecting taxes, balancing its
books, reconstructing war-damaged infrastructure and maintaining adequate
services – from trash collection and supply of water and electricity to
management of public schools and colleges. It is this success that Sharaa has
been promising the rest of Syria, ever since he emerged as the new de facto
leader since Assad fled to Moscow and his regime collapsed.
Because Sharaa is a man with a plan, and because he is someone who believes in
his ability to transform Syria into a successful state, he seems to have given
up on Islamist populism that stands on the promise of endless Jihad, liberation
and warring against non-Muslims, especially Israel.
In his earliest media hits, Sharaa told CNN that he had joined Al-Qaeda because
at the time he was still young and immature, and that his views have evolved and
changed since. He also said that he believed in democracy and pluralism.
In that interview, like in the first appearance of Sharaa’s Idlib Prime Minister
Muhammad Bashir as the chief of a transitional Syrian cabinet, both men erected
behind them two flags – the Syrian revolution and the Jihadist flag of their
Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) militia. The HTS flag caused an uproar on social
media. The next day, Syria’s new rulers nixed their faction’s flag and stuck to
the Syria one only. Sharaa and his lieutenants had a plan, but they also
listened.
Sharaa’s most encouraging statements, so far, have come during his meeting, over
the weekend, with Arab journalists, in which he said that Syria under him had no
problem with the Iranian people, but only with the “dangerous project” of the
Iran regime. He added that Syria would not opt for war with Israel, that
Israel’s strikes on Syria are no longer justified (since the Iranian militias
are gone) and that he would instead seek diplomatic solutions for any problems
with the Jewish state.
And by opposing the Iranian “project,” Sharaa also seemed adamant on rejecting
the Iranian model of encouraging the formation of armed non-state militias that
allow a “spiritual leader” to control the usually weaker government, thus
creating failed states in Iran, Iraq, Lebanon and Yemen.
Sharaa said he planned to disband all militias and have the Syria government be
the only sovereign that monopolizes the use of violence and stands responsible
for deploying it when need be.
He showed maturity in dealing with Moscow, saying Syria’s new rulers could have
struck Russian bases in Syria but preferred to turn the page, instead. London is
now in touch with Sharaa and so is Washington.
The future of Syria is still fraught with danger. Governing all of Syria might
prove much harder than handling just one of its provinces and might cause the
popular mood to sour on Sharaa and the new rulers – which might in turn prompt
them to engage in Islamist populism by re-igniting national fervor and engaging
in destructive wars.
Until they do so, we have to take Sharaa and his guys for their word and remain
cautiously optimistic, helping them build a new Syria and giving them advice
whenever we think they’re heading in a wrong direction.
*Hussain Abdul-Hussain is a research fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of
Democracies (FDD). Follow him on X @hahussain
Syria Needs to Overcome Its History
Sefa Secen/ Made by History/Time/December 17, 2024
After 13 years of civil war, and 54 years of ruling Syria with an iron fist, the
brutal Assad regime has fallen. This marks a pivotal opportunity for Syrians to
rebuild a social compact, create viable political alternatives, and chart a
brighter future for the country. But to take advantage of this crossroads,
Syrians need to understand their country’s post-independence history. It
suggests that a successful transition to a post-Assad Syria will require efforts
to foster an inclusive national identity and a political conscience that
transcends the sectarian and ethnic divides entrenched by Assad family rule and
the civil war. In 1946, the French left Syria, marking the country’s
independence. This ushered in a quarter century of instability, marked by
frequent coups, military revolts, and civil disorders. The country was the most
coup-prone country in the Arab world and it was more often governed by military
officers than civilian governments. In 1963, the Ba’ath Party seized power,
initiating a 61-year era of military rule. Syria became the ideological heart of
Ba’athism, a political ideology that combined elements of secularism, Arab
nationalism, and Arab socialism. Yet, Ba’ath rule did not immediately bring
stability. For the first seven years, two party factions remained locked in a
power struggle. One side was led by Aflaq and al-Bitar, two prominent Ba’ath
politicians, and the other by Salah Jadid and Hafez al-Assad, an ultra-left-wing
general and the commander of the Syrian Air Forces respectively.
Then Assad staged a coup in 1970, known as the Corrective Movement, ousting
Syria’s de facto leader, Salah Jadid. In order to bring authoritarian stability
to Syrian politics, Assad deployed unrestrained violence. He also exploited
sectarian and ethnic divisions to consolidate power, and cultivated
international alliances to avoid outside scrutiny or pressure.
Assad elevated people from his own minority religious group — the Alawite
community — to positions of power in the military and intelligence operations
and cultivated an intricate web of patronage. His regime redefined Alawite
identity to revolve around Assad’s personality cult. This tactic provided him
with a base of support and suppressed dissent. The regime also encouraged
Alawites to move from their traditional home in northwest Syria to specific
neighborhoods in Damascus. By increasing the Alawite presence in strategically
important areas, Assad aimed to counterbalance the Sunni majority in the city
and secure a loyal base close to the political and military center of the
country.
However, Assad recognized that Alawite support alone would not be enough to ward
off threats to his rule. So he set out to co-opt Syria’s Sunni elites. He
appointed them to senior posts in his government and cultivated new networks of
support among the powerful Sunni merchants in cities such as Damascus, Aleppo,
Homs, and Hama. Assad and his allies even regularly intermarried across
confessional lines in an attempt to broaden their patronage and client networks
beyond the Alawite minority.
Yet, his courtship of Sunni elites merely created the illusion that Assad’s
regime was inclusive. In reality, even as he appointed them to positions of
power, he also disenfranchised and repressed Sunnis more broadly.
Nonetheless, the combination of a fearsome security apparatus and Assad’s elite
network across ethnic and religious lines safeguarded him against the sort of
coups that had felled numerous leaders between 1946 and 1970.
Assad also used foreign policy as a tool to entrench his regime and build public
support.
In 1973, Syria and Egypt staged a coordinated attack on Israel to regain the
territory they had lost in the 1967 Six-Day War. Assad hoped to regain the Golan
Heights and to gather favor from the Syrian public. Although Syria was defeated,
the campaign made Assad a national hero.
Additionally, Assad skillfully managed to align himself closely with the Soviets
— securing military and economic aid — while also seeking limited engagement
with the West. Notably, in 1974, he hosted Richard Nixon, in the first visit by
a U.S. president to Syria. Assad's goal for Nixon’s visit was to position Syria
as a regional power and signal openness to diplomacy after the 1973 Arab-Israeli
War.
All the while, Assad remained a brutal tyrant at home. His disenfranchisement of
Sunnis drew opposition from the Muslim Brotherhood dating to the early days of
Assad’s regime. Over time, the group gained support among Sunni conservatives,
urban elites, and segments of the middle class.
Initially, Assad tried to appease this religious opposition by presenting
himself as a pious Muslim. He inserted a provision in Syria’s Constitution that
the country’s president must be Muslim, prayed in Sunni mosques, and made the
Hajj — the pilgrimage to Mecca. Yet, these gestures did little to eliminate the
Islamist threat to his rule. The matter came to a head in Hama in 1982. Muslim
Brotherhood fighters launched a coordinated attack on government buildings,
military barracks, and Ba’ath Party offices and declared the city an autonomous
zone, encouraging an open rebellion against Assad. The dictator responded by
deploying artillery fire and chemical weapons, killing an estimated
10,000-25,000 people in what some pundits have labeled “the single deadliest act
by any Arab government against its own people in the modern Middle East.” The
massacre hardened the sectarian perceptions of Assad as embracing Alawite
minority rule and made it clear that winning back the loyalty of the vast
majority of the Sunnis would be highly unlikely.
That caused Assad to double down on the three key strands of his leadership —
using repressive violence when necessary, relying on support from the Alawite
community and some Sunni elites to overcome broader Sunni opposition, and
savvily courting international power players — to maintain control of the
country. Assad had always seen his brother Rifaat as his logical successor. But
in 1984, Rifaat joined in a coup attempt, which failed, leading to his exile.
That made Hafez’s eldest son, Bassel, the heir apparent. A decade later,
however, Bassel al-Assad died in a car accident, which meant that Hafez’s heir
would almost certainly be his other son, Bashar, a Western-educated
ophthalmologist with minimal political experience. Six years later, in 2000,
Bashar became ruler when his father died.
Bashar’s rise was largely unanticipated, as his father had not groomed him for
leadership until after his brother died. However, he quickly consolidated power
through political maneuvering and obtaining loyalty from the military and
security apparatus. Initially there was substantial optimism and enthusiasm that
Bashar, who was married to a British-born Sunni woman, would adopt a more
liberal, non-sectarian approach. His early years witnessed tentative attempts at
economic and political reform, such as the easing of media restrictions and the
launch of the short-lived “Damascus Spring,” during which intellectuals and
activists were allowed to form discussion forums and voice demands for greater
political freedoms.
Yet, over time, Bashar Assad inherited his father’s obstinacy and brutality and
increasingly relied on the security apparatus to maintain control, stifling
dissent and curbing opposition.In December 2010, the Arab Spring unleashed
widespread anti-authoritarian protests and uprisings across the region,
including in Syria. Assad reacted brutally, tenaciously clinging to power, even
as authoritarian leaders fell in Egypt, Libya, and Yemen.
The result was a 13-year civil war pitting his security forces against a
fractured opposition composed of both moderate and extremist factions. The war
quickly evolved into a complex, multi-front struggle, drawing in international
powers. Russia and Iran backed Assad, providing crucial military and economic
support and further sectarianizing the conflict, while the U.S., Turkey, and the
Gulf states supported various opposition factions. The rise of ISIS in 2014
further complicated the conflict, leading to a global coalition fighting the
terrorist group.
Despite numerous ceasefires and peace talks, the war became increasingly
protracted, with millions of Syrians displaced and the country ravaged. Once a
key regional player, the prolonged war weakened and isolated Syria.
In 2020, Russia and Turkey brokered a ceasefire, under which Assad controlled
much of the territory lost during the initial phases of the war. Yet, in
November, after four years of relative stalemate, opposition groups launched a
surprise offensive as Assad’s three key allies — Russia, Iran, and Hezbollah —
were stretched thin with other conflicts. Within weeks, Assad’s forces
succumbed, ending his family’s 54-year reign. There are reasons for cautious
optimism about Syria’s future but also concerns that it could disintegrate
politically and geographically. Most critically, those who build Syria’s next
political system will need to overcome the most important legacy of the half
century of Assad rule: the ethnic and sectarian conflict and strife nurtured by
the Assads. They pitted Alawites and other minorities against the majority
Sunnis, creating deep divisions.A healthy political system in Syria will require
dismantling entrenched ethnic and sectarian divides and fostering an inclusive
national identity that unites its diverse communities.
It will also require international actors, including the U.S. and Turkey, to
support policies that promote harmony and tangible progress toward pluralistic
and democratic governance. This will be a challenge, given that each opposition
faction, and their foreign allies, have diverging goals. But it’s only way to
create a vibrant, stable, pluralistic Syria. Sefa Secen is assistant professor
of political science at Nazareth University in Rochester, N.Y. He studies Middle
East politics, refugees, international security, foreign policy, and political
behavior. More information is available on his website: https://sefasecen.weebly.com.
Made by History takes readers beyond the headlines with articles written and
edited by professional historians. Learn more about Made by History at TIME
here. Opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of TIME editors.
Write to Made by History at
madebyhistory@time.com.
Will Golani ‘Damascanize’?
Nadim KoteichAsharq Al Awsat/December 17/2024
“Damascus overwhelms and overpowers,” as the Syrian saying goes. With the layers
of civilization that have accumulated over the city (Aramean, Greek, Roman,
Byzantine, Umayyad, Ottoman, French, and beyond) it has enjoyed a unique ability
to adapt and evolve for thousands of years, becoming a melting pot in which
civilizations, cultures, and religions meet, as well as a hub for continental
trade.
Damascus owes its unique and sustainable urban heritage to its cultural
elasticity, which has allowed it to maintain its prominence over centuries, both
as a center of early Christian empires and a major city in Islamic history later
on. When the Umayyads chose it as the capital of their vast empire, they found
in the city an irreplicable laboratory for putting Umayyad pragmatism into
practice. First established by Muawiya ibn Abi Sufyan, the Umayyad approach
balanced political dominance and respect for cultural and religious plurality.
In this sense, the city has always done more to change its people and those who
came to it, through its profound capacity for embracing diversity and
accommodating contradictions, more than they have done to change the city.
Newcomers swiftly "Damascanize," adopting the hallmark characteristics of its
urbanity, people, markets and houses: social flexibility and a mindset that
seeks mutual gain that shuns religious or ethnic fanaticism.
Anyone who has had the privilege to enjoy the Damascene call to prayer knows
this. The maqam Bayati and Sika scales exude simplicity and affection, offering
a melody that soothes the soul. The minarets of Damascus reflect the harmony
between religion and urbanity over the city's history, throughout which religion
has naturally remained part of the urban fabric without overreach. With its
simplicity and relative brevity, its calls to prayer highlight a civic
consciousness that respects people's time and daily commitments. They are in
tune with the broader rhythm of Damascus which is home to ancient social and
cultural diversity. I believe that the ultra-violence Assad’s regime deployed
against Syria is a direct corollary to its tenacious civility. Only through
brutal repression on a mythical scale could the regime subjugate the city and
force it to go against its nature. This is the city that Ahmad al-Sharaa,
previously known as Abu Mohammad al-Golani (the leader of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham
group) has entered- a city that rejected Assad’s legacy and turned the page on
his reign as though it had never existed. He seems aware that his history as the
leader of a militant group alienates him from Damascus and estranges him from
its spirit.
While the city has been ruled by non-natives throughout its modern history (with
the exception of the Damascene Shukri al-Quwatli), Damascus, with its long
heritage of tolerance and pluralism, will rebuff any discourse founded on
exclusion following Assad's fall, and it will not tolerate insidious rhetoric
that creates a veneer of pragmatism and civility.
Some are counting on the fact that Golani has always been adept at adapting to
political and military changes - since joining the extremist organizations
Al-Qaeda of in Iraq, with the encouragement by the Assad regime itself, to his
links with ISIS and his founding of the al-Nusra Front in Syria, culminating in
its transformation into Hayat Tahrir al-Sham. However, there are no indications
that offer insights into whether his history of evolution is a reflection of
tactical changes or deep ideological shifts.
Moreover, Golani is not merely a figure attempting to rebrand himself. He
represents a movement with deep Salafist roots. It views religion as a
comprehensive framework that encompasses all aspects of governance and politics.
Accordingly, the concern is that his current overtures could be political ploys
and that his words and actions do not reflect genuine convictions. That is,
there are apprehensions around his commitment to "Damascenization” - around
whether he sincerely seeks to integrate into the cultural, social, and political
fabric of Damascus, which 54 years of Baathist domination had failed to tear
apart. Beyond a shadow of a doubt, the legacy of Umayyad pragmatism and
Damascene tolerance played a decisive role in shaping Damascus's identity and
its affairs throughout history. Alone, however, they may not be sufficient to
"tame" a figure like Golani.
The shifts we anticipate from Golani run up against complex challenges that
threaten the stability of the city itself. Abandoning his hardline Islamist
legacy entails making fundamental changes to his ideology and rhetoric, which
could lead to internal splits and cost him the support of his popular base,
which converges around his radical ideological project. More extreme factions
could also emerge, seeking to compete with and outflank him. At the same time,
unless Golani genuinely changes, he will have trouble garnering the trust of
Syria’s social mosaic, particularly the trust of minorities and the Damascene
elites, who see his past as a fundamentalist hardliner as a threat to the city's
tolerant and pluralistic identity. In this regard, the final statement issued by
the Arab Ministerial Contact Group, following their meeting to discuss Syria,
immediately comes to mind. It presents a crucial roadmap for building a post-Assad
Syria, through a holistic and sustainable political transition process under the
supervision of the United Nations, in accordance with Resolution 2254. The
stance of the Arab states primarily underscores the strategic significance of an
inclusive process that represents all the communities of Syria and prevents any
community from seizing monopolizing power or imposing its will on others.
The statement reinforces the foundations of the political transition that the
world has called for, through its support for the formation of a transitional
governing body, the drafting of a new constitution, and free and fair elections.
This approach opens the door to "political Damascenization," that is,
acquiescing respect for the pluralism and the tolerance that have defined the
oldest inhabited city on earth.
Syria’s Future Will Be Decided by a Correct Reading of
Developments
Eyad Abu Shakra/Asharq Al Awsat/December 17/2024
Regardless of what one says, words remain inadequate for doing justice to the
major shift that Syria has seen over the past week.
The end of the Assad dynasty after over half a century is a significant
development, very significant indeed. It will be even more significant and will
endure longer in our collective memory and conscience if the alternative
succeeds in overcoming the challenges and repudiates the pessimists, who
nonchalantly and confidently claim that our people do not deserve democracy,
leaving us with only two options: the tyranny through raw violence or the
tyranny of religious extremism.
Personally, given my desire to be optimistic about this country I adore and my
knowledge that many of its citizens are prudent... I want to be optimistic this
time.
The tragic ordeal that the people's "uprising" faced in late 2011 and 2012 left
us with harsh lessons that I doubt anyone active in Syria will forget, no matter
how much time passes. Let's present a recap of what happened:
In March 2011, the Syrian people rose up in the most beautiful and courageous
uprising of what was known as the "Arab Spring." Its first spark was in Houran,
in the far south of the country. It was a spontaneous mass uprising in which
Syrians of all ages, religions, sects and ethnicities took part, demanding
freedom and dignity before the regime’s brutal repression pushed them to use
violence.
Later on, the defection of military officers and soldiers, as well as the
regime's savage response to the peaceful demonstrations, contributed to the
militarization of the uprising, which ordinary citizens had never chosen -
citizens who had never considered themselves to be the trench opposite to his
army.
The Syrian people did choose to taint their uprising with sectarianism, revenge,
division or separation.
They absolutely did not seek this in the slightest. Here, I recall anecdotes
that push back against the regime's propaganda about a "sectarian uprising,"
which was founded on the fact that many protests were launched from mosques
after Friday prayers.
A dear friend once explained to me that many Christians would gather outside
these mosques, waiting for their Muslim brothers to walk out so they could join
them, hoping that the security forces and the regime's gangs would hesitate to
shoot at worshippers coming out of a mosque. The vast majority of the "uprising"
or "revolution" demonstrations included all segments of Syrian society during
the first months and years. That was before local, regional and international
interests infiltrated the country, sowing mistrust and instilling fear, as they
sought to seize the moment by encouraging and aggravating extremism. Despite all
of this, however, most Syrians did not lose their moral compass.
Despite attempts by several parties to "ride the bandwagon" of the movement,
marginalize competition, seize the spoils before they had been acquired, and the
emergence of suspicious groups that usurped slogans and committed human rights
violations, the uprising persisted. And despite the escalating repression -
parallel to or in anticipation of growing mass rage - Syrians did not lose their
compass nor hope for change. Neither the world’s abandonment - including Barack
Obama's "red lines" that neither the toxic gas nor barrel bombs crossed - nor
the Russian airstrikes, nor the misleading "conferences," managed to weaken the
resilience and belief of the Syrian people, who remained convinced that dignity,
freedom and rights are indivisible.
The Syrians bet on the "passage of time." They won their bet against a regime
that lives in a realm without time. It had benefited, for decades, from rivals
and neighbors’ "intersection" of interests around it. Indeed, as it vied for
survival at any cost, the regime made generous concessions to all foreign actors
while depriving its people of minimal freedom and rights.
Then, as global priorities shifted, many of these points of "intersection"
collapsed. The frail authorities, who were not trusted or supported by the
people, began to wobble. The military was no longer willing to fight and defend
a regime that no longer meant anything to them. Moreover, the conditions of the
fighters who had been sent to the country from other countries, especially
Lebanon, changed drastically in the past few months. Israel escalated its war
and sought to make as many gains as possible before the new US administration
takes office on January 20.
Thus, to the astonishment of the world, Syria's cities fell, one after the
other, within a few days. One or two sides of the "regional triangle" were left
to dominate at the expense of the third side.
Nonetheless, fundamental facts must be recognized, the most prominent of which
are:
First, overthrowing a regime does not necessarily guarantee the success of the
alternative. Indeed, many actors had been unwilling to recognize the party that
toppled that regime until recently. Second, Syria remains coveted by several
regional powers. It remains an important "chess piece" on the board of
international competition in the region. Third, in an era in which "identities
and borders have fallen" and "nations are caught in the labyrinth of racism,"
miscalculations based on misguided judgments should be avoided. Fourth, the
imbalance in international relations between the major powers will have
repercussions in the Middle East. Syria is now undergoing a fragile and critical
path that will inevitably be affected by this imbalance. It will also certainly
have implications for neighboring entities unless the latter take the initiative
and recognize the risks, protect Syria as a political entity, and agree on a
strategy that ensures its survival through frameworks suitable for enhancing the
"state."
What Do We Do with These ‘Strong’ Armies?
Hazem SaghiehAsharq Al Awsat/December 17/2024
As the Syrian army fell like a house of cards in the face of Hayat Tahrir
al-Sham, and on the eve of the Israeli attack that destroyed this army’s
military infrastructure with the press of a button, the rejectionist camp in
Lebanon continued to call for a "strong" army in Lebanon(!) and to insist that
only once such an army is built can Hezbollah be disarmed.
Regardless of the fact that they do not mean what they are saying, the recent
developments in Syria have brought this matter - along with questions regarding
the armies of our region, and behind them, the concept of strength as such -
back to the fore. Our countries may need armies, but "strong" armies are
certainly the last thing they need.
It hurt to watch the Israelis do what they did to Syria, showing no interest in
the conditions that could emerge from Assad's collapse. Pure selfishness drives
the behavior of the Jewish state, especially since the catastrophic Al-Aqsa
Flood attacks. Israel has made its absolute security its only concern - neither
political shifts, nor appeals by global powers, nor pressures of any kind do
anything to temper this pursuit. Since the newly emerging situation in Syria
remains obscure, we saw it take the initiative and seize its opportunity.
However, the Syrian army’s history mitigates grievances against Israel's
actions, especially since the losses this army incurred include chemical weapons
that had been used to burn the people of Ghouta in the past. More than any
other, Syria’s army has always been associated with military coups. Syrian
putschists gifted its people leaders like Husni al-Zaim, Adib Shishakli, and
Abdul Hamid al-Sarraj, and that was before military officers endeavored to
dissolve their country in what became known as the "United Arab Republic."
Its most poisonous gift, however, was Hafez al-Assad. Syria’s Minister of
Defense during the 1967 war in which Israel occupied the Golan Heights, was the
one who was named officially the "Hero of the Golan" before he was ultimately
anointed the "Hero of (the war of) October."
The military establishment, then, was a factory for an alliance between
oppression and lies. Since its first coup in 1949, Syria has suffered two major
defeats, in 1967 and 1973, and its 1974 "Agreement on Disengagement" failed to
avert the crushing humiliation it was subjected to in Lebanon in 1982. Despite
soliciting the help of Iranian, Russian and Hezbollah forces to prop up the
regime later on, Damascus broadly turned a blind eye to Israel's violations of
its sovereignty from the air and the ground, and after October 7, the officers
became silent as a graveyard.
As the overwhelming majority of Syrians fell beneath the poverty line, the army
remained a burden on an economy that contracted and declined and grew only
increasingly reliant on the production of captagon. Added to the military were
local militias that were granted more and more autonomy, enabling them to
plunder the modest resources of the areas that they had imposed their control
over and to line their pockets as they became adept smugglers and kidnappers.
Nonetheless, the Syrian army was indeed "valiant" in its prisons and torture
chambers, its use of cluster bombs and chemical weapons, and its raids on
cities, first during the revolution and then over the course of the civil war.
For its part, Iraq’s modern history also offers another verdict on the Levant’s
experiences with "strong" armies. Traditionally, the state narrative’s founding
myth around this army has traced its roots back to the movement of Rashid Ali
al-Gaylani, whose coup was supported by Nazi Germany in 1941. Between 1958, when
the military took power, and 1979, the year Saddam Hussein monopolized control,
Iraq witnessed four successful coups and too many failed attempts to count.
However, the first military regime's (led by Abdul Karim Qasim) first military
campaign was launched against the Iraqi Kurds in the north, and this mission
continued to escalate under the Baathists, culminating in the atrocities of
Anfal and Halabja. In the meantime, Saddam dragged his army into a destructive
war with Iran that went on for nearly a decade and claimed one million souls.
Hardly had that war ended when Saddam's army invaded Kuwait. After a broad
international coalition liberated Kuwait, his defeated military crushed an
uprising in the south and tried to crush another in the north.
Nevertheless, when Saddam fell and his opponents and the Americans nonchalantly
and extemporaneously proposed dissolving his army, many raised their voices in
protest under the pretext of the need to fight Israel. They argued that
dissolving the army would be nothing more than a favor to the Jewish state,
which they claimed had been fearful of this army.
This institution was indeed preserved, but it collapsed soon after, in 2014 in
Mosul, not in the face of Israel but in the face of ISIS. In turn, the
shortcomings of this episode were addressed through militias, leading to the
emergence of the Popular Mobilization Forces, an umbrella under which militias
carried out what Baghdad and Tehran saw as strategic roles that the army could
not be trusted with.
Over the course of the journey, we had the opportunity, in 1973, to witness a
moment of joint Arab "nationalist" action between the two major Levantine armies
when Baghdad sent forces to Damascus during the October War. At the time, the
Syrian leadership claimed that the Iraqis had come for no other reason than to
carry out a coup, while Iraq’s leaders believed that the Syrians concocted this
accusation to restrict their freedom of movement and prevent them from fighting
Israel.
In truth, when it comes to Israel, it would be best to remove armies and
resistance militias from our programs for the conflict, and to think of means
and tools that do not involve the use of force, which some in Lebanon continue
to insist is the only language the Jewish state understands.