Lebanese political analyst Nadim Koteich has spoken the truth about Aleppo: Its residents would be better off living under Israeli annexation like residents of the Golan Heights rather than living under the ruins of Assad's bombardment of Aleppo.
In a comment he wrote on his Twitter page, Koteich expressed dismay over the absence of an Israeli move to annex Aleppo.
"If
Israel would have annexed Aleppo, it would have been safe today, like
the Golan. Aleppo's citizens would have been better off living under
occupation than living under ruins," Koteich wrote.
Israel took the Golan Heights during the 1967 Six Day War, and
in 1981 extended Israeli law to the region, thereby de facto annexing
it.
Koteich's comment came shortly after Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu declared that Israel would never renounce the Golan,
infuriating Syrian politicians. Thus, many Syrian social media activists
began wrangling with Koteich for voicing pro-Israel opinion.
A
Twitter user affiliated with the Syrian opposition said: "the carnage in
Aleppo increases our hatred for Zionists, because without Israel, Assad
would have gone."
Moron. Whom does he think has been treating the Syrianwounded?
Koteich anchors DNA, a daily show broadcast on the Lebanese Future
Television Network. On his show, he tends to criticize Iran and its
involvement in Lebanon, calling Lebanon "a mafia state" controlled by
Hezbollah.
The northern Syrian city of Aleppo has been witnessing
endless bombardments by the Syrian air force in the last week, in a bid
to oust rebel factions from the city's outskirts. Since the city was
excluded from the truce forged by the American administration and Russia
on Friday, airstrikes continue hitting the city, causing hundreds of
civilian causalities.
All of Syria would have been better off annexed to Israel. But it's too late for that now.
Assad and Hezbullah gain control of Lebanon-Syria border, choke off rebel supply line
Troops loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Hezbullah terrorists have taken control of the Syrian-Lebanese border and cut off supply lines to the Syrian rebels.
Let's go to the videotape.
State television SANA said government forces had won "complete control" over the town, killing or capturing many rebels.
A
military source told Reuters most of the rebels had pulled out of
Yabroud around dawn, a day after government forces entered its eastern
districts and captured several hilltops.
Troops had dismantled a large number of explosive devices planted by the rebels, SANA said.
A
fighter in Yabroud from the Nusra Front, al-Qaida's official affiliate
in Syria, confirmed to Reuters the rebels had decided to pull out. They
were heading towards nearby villages including Hosh Arab, Rankos and
Fleita, he said.
Fighters from the Lebanese Shi'ite Muslim
militant group Hezbollah supported the Syrian army and pro-government
fighters in sealing off the frontier area with Lebanon.
He said
they did not plan to withdraw across the Lebanese border to Arsal, a
crossing point 20 km (13 miles) to the northwest which rebels and
refugees have used regularly.
Thousands of civilians fled Yabroud,
a town of about 40,000 to 50,000 people roughly 60 km (40 miles) north
of Damascus, and the surrounding areas after it was bombed and shelled
last month ahead of the government offensive.
Scenes broadcast by
Al Mayadeen television from a main thoroughfare inside Yabroud showed
empty streets, shuttered shops and abandoned homes.
Heavy gunfire
could be heard in the background, which a reporter said came from a
nearby area where government forces were clashing with rebel holdouts.
Report from Syria: There are moderates and they do control territory
Elizabeth O'Bagy has been to Syria many times over the past year, and reports that the stories about the rebels being dominated by al-Qaeda are not true. She says that while there are extremists among the rebels, there are also non-Islamists. She believes that an American attack on Bashar al-Assad ought to benefit the non-Islamists.
Contrary to many media accounts, the war in Syria is not being waged
entirely, or even predominantly, by dangerous Islamists and al Qaeda
die-hards. The jihadists pouring into Syria from countries like Iraq and
Lebanon are not flocking to the front lines. Instead they are
concentrating their efforts on consolidating control in the northern,
rebel-held areas of the country.
Groups like Jabhat al Nusra, an al Qaeda affiliate, are all too happy
to take credit for successes on the battlefield, and are quick to lay
claim to opposition victories on social media. This has often led to the
impression that these are spearheading the fight against the Syrian
government. They are not.
These groups care less about defeating Assad than they do about
establishing and holding their Islamic emirate in the north of the
country. Many Jabhat al Nusra fighters left in the middle of ongoing
rebel operations in Homs, Hama and Idlib to head for Raqqa province once
the provincial capital fell in March 2013. During the battle for Qusayr
in late May, Jabhat al Nusra units were noticeably absent. In early
June, rebel reinforcements rallied to take the town of Talbiseh, north
of Homs city, while Jabhat al Nusra fighters preferred to stay in the
liberated areas to fill the vacuum that the Free Syrian Army affiliates
had left behind.
Moderate opposition forces—a collection of groups known as the Free
Syrian Army—continue to lead the fight against the Syrian regime. While
traveling with some of these Free Syrian Army battalions, I've watched
them defend Alawi and Christian villages from government forces and
extremist groups. They've demonstrated a willingness to submit to
civilian authority, working closely with local administrative councils.
And they have struggled to ensure that their fight against Assad will
pave the way for a flourishing civil society. One local council I
visited in a part of Aleppo controlled by the Free Syrian Army was
holding weekly forums in which citizens were able to speak freely, and
have their concerns addressed directly by local authorities.
Moderate opposition groups make up the majority of actual fighting
forces, and they have recently been empowered by the influx of arms and
money from Saudi Arabia and other allied countries, such as Jordan and
France. This is especially true in the south, where weapons provided by
the Saudis have made a significant difference on the battlefield, and
have helped fuel a number of recent rebel advances in Damascus.
Thanks to geographic separation from extremist strongholds and
reliable support networks in the south, even outdated arms sent by the
Saudis, like Croatian rocket-launchers and recoilless rifles, have
allowed moderate rebel groups to make significant inroads into areas
that had previously been easily defended by the regime, and to withstand
the pressure of government forces in the capital. In recent months, the
opposition has achieved major victories in Aleppo, Idlib, Deraa and
Damascus—nearly reaching the heart of the capital—despite the regime's
consolidation in Homs province.
At this stage in the conflict, barring a major bombing campaign by
the U.S., sophisticated weaponry, including anti-tank and anti-aircraft
weapon systems, may be the opposition's best chance at sustaining its
fight against Assad. This is something only foreign governments, not
jihadists, can offer. Right now, Saudi sources that are providing the
rebels critical support tell me that they haven't sent more effective
weaponry because the U.S. has explicitly asked them not to.
A napalm bomb was dropped on a school building in Urum al Kubra, which is near Aleppo, Syria this week. Since the rebels don't have planes, the Syrian government cannot really blame them this time.
Let's go to the videotape.
There was also a second video filmed after the attack.
In another video filmed in the aftermath of the attack, a doctor
reports seven deaths and 50 injuries - and says the burns resembled
Napalm injuries.
However, the use of the substance has not been confirmed.
A BBC television crew who witnessed the bombing reported no shrapnel
injuries and said the victims resembled "the walking dead".
Napalm is not classified as an outlawed chemical weapon although it can cause devastating burn injuries.
Infamously used in the Vietnam War - as well as the Second World War -
the jelly-like substance sticks to skin and burns at very high
temperatures.
A United Nations convention prohibits using incendiary weapons against
civilians, or against military targets located near civilian
populations.
The pictures of the school attack emerged after MPs voted against
military action over alleged chemical weapons gas attacks by the Syrian
regime.
As if the Assad regime is worried about United Nations conventions....
It’s the Spanish Civil War except that only one side — the fascists —
showed up. The natural ally of what began as a spontaneous, secular,
liberationist uprising in Syria was the United States. For two years, it
did nothing.
President Obama’s dodge was his chemical-weapons “red line.”
In a conflict requiring serious statecraft, Obama chose to practice
forensics instead, earnestly agonizing over whether reported poison gas
attacks reached the evidentiary standards of “CSI: Miami.”
Obama
talked “chain of custody,” while Iran and Russia, hardly believing their
luck, reached for regional dominance — the ayatollahs solidifying their
“Shiite crescent,” Vladimir Putin seizing the opportunity to dislodge
America as regional hegemon, a position the United States achieved four
decades ago under Henry Kissinger.
And when finally forced to admit
that his red line had been crossed — a “game changer,” Obama had
gravely warned — what did he do? Promise the rebels small arms and
ammunition.
That’s it? It’s meaningless: The rebels are already receiving small arms from the Gulf states.
...
Serious policymaking would dictate that we either do something that
will alter the course of the war, or do nothing. Instead, Obama has
chosen to do just enough to give the appearance of having done
something.
But it gets worse. Despite his commitment to steadfast
inaction, Obama has been forced by events to send F-16s, Patriot
missiles and a headquarters unit of the 1st Armored Division (indicating
preparation for a possible “larger force,” explains The Post)
— to Jordan. America’s most reliable Arab ally needs protection. It is
threatened not just by a flood of refugees but also by the rise of
Iran’s radical Shiite bloc with ambitions far beyond Syria, beyond even
Jordan and Lebanon to Yemen, where, it was reported just Wednesday, Iran
is arming and training separatists.
Obama has thus been forced
back into the very vacuum he created — but at a distinct disadvantage.
We are now scrambling to put together some kind of presence in Jordan as
a defensive counterweight to the Iran-Hezbollah-Russia bloc.
The
tragedy is that we once had a counterweight and Obama threw it away.
Obama still thinks the total evacuation of Iraq is a foreign policy
triumph. In fact, his inability — unwillingness? — to negotiate a Status
of Forces Agreement that would have left behind a small but powerful
residual force in Iraq is precisely what compels him today to re-create
in Jordan a pale facsimile of that regional presence.
And for those of you who think I am mistaken when I say that had Obama intervened on the side of the rebels two years ago, he'd be arming non-Islamists, please consider this:
As the Syrian
civil war got under way, a former electrician who calls himself Sheikh
Omar built up a brigade of rebel fighters. In two years of struggle
against President Bashar al-Assad, they came to number 2,000 men, he
said, here in the northern city of Aleppo. Then, virtually overnight,
they collapsed.
Omar's group, Ghurabaa al-Sham,
wasn't defeated by the government. It was dismantled by a rival band of
revolutionaries - hardline Islamists.
The
Islamists moved against them at the beginning of May. After three days
of sporadic clashes Omar's more moderate fighters, accused by the
Islamists of looting, caved in and dispersed, according to local
residents. Omar said the end came swiftly.
The
Islamists confiscated the brigade's weapons, ammunition and cars, Omar
said. "They considered this war loot. Maybe they think we are
competitors," he said. "We have no idea about their goals. What we have
built in two years disappeared in a single day."
The
group was effectively marginalized in the struggle to overthrow Syria's
President Bashar al-Assad. Around 100 fighters are all that remain of
his force, Omar said.
It's a
pattern repeated elsewhere in the country. During a 10-day journey
through rebel-held territory in Syria, Reuters journalists found that
radical Islamist units are sidelining more moderate groups that do not
share the Islamists' goal of establishing a supreme religious leadership
in the country.
The moderates,
often underfunded, fragmented and chaotic, appear no match for Islamist
units, which include fighters from organizations designated "terrorist"
by the United States.
I hope all Americans are pleased that they elected a President whose foreign policy goal was to degrade American power. Those of us who live in the Middle East will be paying the price for many years to come. The price that Americans will pay domestically for their foolishness - via Obamacare - likely pales by comparison.
UN says Syrian rebels may have been behind chem weapons attack, former Bush official says it's Israel
The United Nations says that it has testimony that contradicts earlier reports that the Assad regime used chemical weapons against Syrian civilians. According to the UN, the Syrian rebels were the ones who introduced the chemical weapons (Hat Tip: Memeorandum).
The United Nations independent commission of inquiry on Syria
has not yet seen evidence of government forces having used chemical
weapons, which are banned under international law, said commission
member Carla Del Ponte.
"Our
investigators have been in neighboring countries interviewing victims,
doctors and field hospitals and, according to their report of last week
which I have seen, there are strong, concrete suspicions but not yet
incontrovertible proof of the use of sarin gas, from the way the victims
were treated," Del Ponte said in an interview with Swiss-Italian
television.
"This was use on the part of the opposition, the rebels, not by the government authorities," she added, speaking in Italian.
Del
Ponte, a former Swiss attorney-general who also served as prosecutor of
the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, gave no
details as to when or where sarin may have been used.
The
Geneva-based inquiry into war crimes and other human rights violations
is separate from an investigation of the alleged use of chemical weapons
in Syria instigated by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, which has
since stalled.
Meanwhile, Colin Powell's former chief of staff, Lawrence Wilkerson, blames the Joooz, claiming that Israel used chemical weapons as a false flag operation to implicate the Assad regime.
"We don’t know what the chain of custody is. This could’ve been an
Israeli false flag operation, it could’ve been an opposition in Syria...
or it could’ve been an actual use by Bashar Assad.
But we certainly
don’t know with the evidence we’ve been given. And what I’m hearing from
the intelligence community is that that evidence is really flakey,"
retired Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, Colin Powell's former chief of staff,
told Cenk Uygur in an interview with Current TV.
Given this "flimsy evidence," Wilkerson doesn't believe a red line
has been crossed in Syria, and that the US should not base its
intervention in the war-torn country based on such evidence.
Wilkerson
criticized Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu harshly, saying there is a
"geostratigically, geopolitical inept regime in Tel Aviv right now."
I guess all the anti-Semites are going to come crawling out of the woodwork now. Muslims murder Muslims, so of course the Joooz are to blame. Maybe Colon Bowel himself will say the same thing soon. It's in line with some of his otherrecentpronouncements.
Assad used chemical weapons on Syrian civilians near Aleppo?
While the world shakes its fingers at Bashar al-Assad warning him not to use chemical weapons in Damascus, the Syrian rebels posted a video on Saturday that shows that either (a) they have a great makeup department, (b) they know how to steal videos and make them their own, or (c) Assad's troops used chemical weapons outside of Aleppo.
Let's go to the videotape. This one is a bit graphic.
The rebels claim that the video was filmed in a suburb of Aleppo, where
the Syrian regime reportedly maintains its largest depot of chemical
weapons.
Citing intelligence reports, British Foreign Secretary William Hague on
Saturday warned that the Syrian government might use its sizable
stockpile of chemical weapons against the rebels fighting to overturn
Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime, AFP reported.
“We are extremely concerned about the stockpiles of chemical and
biological weapons, and we are also concerned about evidence during the
last couple of weeks that the regime could use them,” Hague said on the
sidelines of a regional security conference in Manama, the capital of
Bahrain.
The London-based Sunday Times reported that Israeli commandos were on
the ground in Syria, monitoring the regime’s chemical weapons depots.
“For years we’ve known the exact location of Syria’s chemical and
biological munitions,” an Israeli source said was quoted as saying. “But
in the past week we’ve got signs that munitions have been moved to new
locations.”
Was this how the Syrians decided to greet the new United States ambassador, Robert Ford?
Syrian sources close to RPS confirmed that four suicide car bombs exploded in Aleppo two days ago killing seven and injuring many more. The car bombs were detonated in the Ashrafieh area mostly populated by the Kurds. The Assad regime has successfully suppressed the information from reaching the outside world.
No one has taken responsibility for this new violence inside Syria.
Some experts claim it is the work of the regime itself as a warning shot across the bow against any uprising by the Kurds à la Tunisia. They fuel their argument with the fact that the regime in Damascus has always claimed that without Assad, Syria will become another Iraq. These explosions were intended to show the people in Syria willing to rise that such an outcome will bring death and destruction the way Assad administered against the innocent in Iraq.
On the other hand, some analysts believe that the suicide car bombs, an Assad specialty, used with abandon in Iraq, may have come home to haunt the regime from the very same people Assad sent to Iraq to haunt others. They chose this moment and the Kurds to send two signals: The Assad regime is not acceptable nor are any separatist ideas often expressed by the oppressed Kurds.
It also wanted to demonstrate that the Assad regime is weak and that the people of Aleppo can rise. Sending military reinforcements to Aleppo is counterproductive to the regime because the majority of the foot soldiers in the Syrian army are Sunni Muslims. Turning their guns on Damascus is the last thing Assad can afford in a post Tunisia atmosphere. RPS is told that Syrians are stunned how little it took to send the president of Tunisia fleeing to Saudi Arabia.
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
