Moon of Alabama Brecht quote
December 15, 2024

Palestine Open Thread 2024-301

News & views related to the war in Palestine ...

Posted by b on December 15, 2024 at 13:42 UTC | Permalink

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IDF casualty tally as of Sunday 15/12/2024:

- Merkava: 273 destroyed (unchanged), 710 approximate damaged, 1 targeted (unchanged)
- Narmer (As of 8/12/2024): 1 (unchanges)
- Other Armoured Vehicle(As of 8/12/2024): 2 destroyed, n/a damaged, n/a targeted
- Officers (As of 8/12/2024): 26 eliminated (+3 last count)
- Bulldozers (As of 8/12/2024): unchanged from Thursday
- Weapons Trucks (As of 8/12/2024): 3 (+2 from last count)
- Missile/Drone Strikes on Israel (As of 8/12/2024): 4 (+1)
- Yemeni attacks on Zionist Shipping (As of 8/12/2024): 0 Destroyed (unconfirmed) damaged 5 targeted.

Summary:

- Latest addition due to: 3 IDF terrorist casualties are as reported by the IDF as a result of an ambush near Jebaliya camp on 9/12/2024. This is a minimal count, the attack was large, affected 2 trucks carrying troops and apparently "other vehicles" as well.

Posted by: Arch Bungle | Dec 15 2024 13:50 utc | 1

So let’s keep adding dots to revive the memory holed history of just a hundred or so years ago …

That has led to the now easily accepted fascist Zionist genocide in full public glare of Palestine and the wider Levant.

The story so far … the Zionist Plan was dreamt up centuries previously , a conquest of the world through control of the various AngloEuropean Imperial nation states, set up specifically for that purpose (the Westphalian concept).
All owned monarchies and funding for such fleets and conquistadors - with promise of whatever tickled their fancy! Be it gold , mini kingdoms, or just simple pleasures of piracy and slavery.

Into this progression of delusions of Empire came the British turn - which hit its high points around the turn of the last century before having to pass the baton to the Bastard Child melting pot of Europeans - the USA… but still hangs on with the influence created and mostly through the institutions that hot house the various satrap military dynasties they established …

The Ziofascists actually were able to get ‘patriot’ well meaning , Great Game British Boys and Girls to do their work without realising they were actually doing it for the Ziofascist shapeshifter Masters, who these highly intelligent, industrious, well meaning ‘patriots’ actually detested! - Even right upto today.

As the Game was extended across the old Ottoman Empire being inevitably hollowed out - Egypt to Turkey and the West Asian Arabs and deserts, the British adventurers mingled and rode forth, becoming Great mimics of languages and cultures , plenty of their tales abound as memoirs. But let’s focus on just a couple of ‘masterminds’ formulated the Plan. Both died perhaps by suicide when they realised what they had done and for whom.

One had a fabulous Film made about his grand role as a means of covering the reality. But the main player has so far escaped such a grand story telling - perhaps because he was a SHE.

Her name :
Gertrude Bell.
How many know or have heard about her?

Posted by: DunGroanin | Dec 15 2024 14:26 utc | 2


Crook's take on why Syria fell:

https://t.me/SEPAHCYBERY/106512

Alleges axis stalled because of Assad trying to arrange with west.

That also translates into Russia/Iran not being able to provide necessary direction or security for Syria, as well as an eventual betrayal by west and a reluctance of Russia and Iran to commit.

Gaza News Now

"Netanyahu's office:

The government unanimously approved Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's plan to encourage settlement in the Golan Heights and Katzrin, with a budget of more than 40 million shekels - Netanyahu said:
"Strengthening the Golan Heights is strengthening Israel, and it is very important at this time. We will continue to hold on to it, develop it, and settle in it." "

In Gaza the massacres and destruction continue.


Posted by: Ornot | Dec 15 2024 14:47 utc | 3

Paraguay opens Israel embassy in Jerusalem after moving it from Tel Aviv
By Reuters
December 13, 20241:09 AM GMT+8Updated 3 days ago

What's up with Paraguay culturally and politically? It seems to be a very conservative country with several thousand very large landowners. How do the landowners hang on to power?

Posted by: dronenj | Dec 15 2024 14:47 utc | 4

@ dronenj | Dec 15 2024 14:47 utc | 4

A military whose brass was trained at the School of the Americas.

Posted by: malenkov | Dec 15 2024 14:53 utc | 5

[email protected] the Russians truely wanted to scare the west, as a warning......no better a target, School of the Americas.....a fitting target if ever there was.

Cheers M

Posted by: sean the leprechaun | Dec 15 2024 15:04 utc | 6

[email protected] Jews, Jewish Russians, Russia was hell bent on killing terrorists in Syria but when it comes to the Russian Jews living in and controling the Apartheid State, killing and blowing up their neighbours, Russia is on board. Very accommodating, even call the resistance terrorists.....

Cheers M

Posted by: sean the leprechaun | Dec 15 2024 15:08 utc | 7

"The story so far … the Zionist Plan was dreamt up centuries previously , a conquest of the world through control of the various AngloEuropean Imperial nation states, set up specifically for that purpose (the Westphalian concept).All owned monarchies and funding for such fleets and conquistadors - with promise of whatever tickled their fancy! Be it gold , mini kingdoms, or just simple pleasures of piracy and slavery."

Posted by: DunGroanin | Dec 15 2024 14:26 utc | 2

I can't accept those facts as it relates to Spain.

If , indeed, the Zionist plan was in play in the 16th C how do you explain the Spanish Inquisition that persecuted Jews/

And, why all the 'conversos'-Jews that openly became Christian to escape persecution yet , secretly, still practiced Judaism?

Posted by: canuck | Dec 15 2024 15:09 utc | 8

How do the landowners hang on to power?

Posted by: dronenj | Dec 15 2024 14:47 utc | 4

The way they've hung onto power for centuries:

After having thinned out the population by wiping out their best and brightest they then proceeded to exert control over minds of the native population by "educating" them away from their native survival methods.

Thereby making them dependent on the colonizers technology and cultural dominance.

Having seized control of the native economy and replaced it with an alien one they persisted this new system into the current era.

In the current era the dependence on the descendants of original colonisers remains. They control the jobs, the education system, the political system the means of social welfare.

Because they keep the native population just a few mouthfuls away from starvation nobody really has the inclination to overthrow the current system.

I mean, even revolutionaries need to eat ...

Posted by: Arch Bungle | Dec 15 2024 15:15 utc | 9

9 - Alfredo Stroessner, former military head of state, ordered the head of the Communist Party of Paraguay to be dismembered with a chain saw, and listened to it over the phone. Stroessner finally lost power to a coup in 1989, probably with US connivance. Maybe by that year they just did not need him any more.

Posted by: Waldorf | Dec 15 2024 15:22 utc | 10

Posted by: Waldorf | Dec 15 2024 15:22 utc | 10

Ah yes, that too.

I am of course painting in broad strokes.

Posted by: Arch Bungle | Dec 15 2024 15:24 utc | 11

Posted by: sean the leprechaun | Dec 15 2024 15:04 utc | 6

##########

What is the point in scaring someone with nukes?

Why do so many people want Russia to behave like the psychopathic gender confused West?

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Dec 15 2024 15:24 utc | 12

ArchBungle@1350 Dec 15

Citing IDF stats on their losses in the genocidal invasion? C'mon, Dude, you can do better than that. Access Electronic Intifada and check out the numbers of Izzy machinery and troops who have met their maker. NEVER trust Izzy official sources.

Posted by: aristodemos | Dec 15 2024 15:28 utc | 13

@ Posted by: canuck | Dec 15 2024 15:09 utc | 8

You ignore the pre Spanish and others dating back to the establishment of the Holy Roman (JUDAEO Christian) ?
Do you forget how the World outside of West European shores was divided up between Spain and Portugal by that Roman Vatican Popery?

It largely depopulated both these Peoples from their native lands until they were spent.
The baton passed onto the next European imperial escapade to build upon, to encircle the World Island and take it from the edges having failed to take it by repeatedly failed land attack out of Western Europe.

There are wheels within wheels at the centre of which is NOT the semetic judaism, that was a useful scapegoat to hide behind and control Money Lending - banned to Christianity!

The Khazarian Kings and their slave converts ‘religion’ is not the ancient Semetic Peoples Judaism - that had become just a relic by the end of the Romans.

Just because Eurocentric History doesn’t write the True History of Humanity and starts with a Year Zero ! Does not mean we have to abide with our ‘schooling’ into the fake history.

Anyway … I’ll just add a couple more dots on the Great Gamer Gertrude’s role in why XI and Putin - the forever targets of the Khazar Silk Road slavery, spice now global robber barons plans - described as a change not seen for a century.

Posted by: DunGroanin | Dec 15 2024 15:34 utc | 14

@7 Sean

It mirrors Gulf states in a way, all for pushing back Iran/Russia or Shia, but massacre of own by the benefactors ("Israel" or west) gets 'overlooked' .

At the least, Sinwar and militant Hamas brought this to the attention of all. From a certain perspective, it also looks like Assad blew Russia's cover, or better said Russia dithered and maybe purposefully, not Assad. If we take Russia as pro-"Israel", then Crook blaming Assad in some way defends Russia, which so defends "Israel" .

Your Sun Tzu request on a previous thread:

"The battle is lost when man who catch drone with chopsticks get paid $10"

Posted by: Ornot | Dec 15 2024 15:39 utc | 15

12 - In the HBO TV programme Conspiracy, SS chief Reinhard Heydrich is given the words, "Look at the world and tell me the pleasures of sanity."
The people running the "West" will even use people they put on terrorism lists to achieve their goals, despite shouting out that they are at war with "terrorism". They will trumpet the benefits of the "free market economy" and then impose economic sanctions on countries whose governments they do not like. Russian restraint is taken to be cowardice, which is pretty much the thought processes to be expected from psychopathic bullies.

Posted by: Waldorf | Dec 15 2024 15:40 utc | 16

Access Electronic Intifada and check out the numbers of Izzy machinery and troops who have met their maker. NEVER trust Izzy official sources.

Posted by: aristodemos | Dec 15 2024 15:28 utc | 13

Yes, I know. Which is why I state that the likely casualties are higher.
Those who object to any casualty event have to at least admit this far.
Once actual casualty stats are verified there'll be no basis for objection.

Stay tuned ...

Posted by: Arch Bungle | Dec 15 2024 16:02 utc | 17

Well let’s proceed with Gertrude The Arabist - she had all the ‘great men’ hanging from her genius and industriousness as a True Believer in the righteous English Empire - a tool like many of her ilk. Many still born to follow the same deluded path of working for the well hidden string pullers. So there was the equally well trained and educated TE Lawrence (of Arabia fame). There was the well trained Winnie and a host of imperial greats. I’m ncluding one Sykes , that supposedly drew the Lines on the Map.

I won’t bore everyone with a fuller history but point towards the ‘unreliable narrator’ wiki - because it can’t distort everything. I would suggest other sources for the greater understanding. Not Churchill’s memoirs or History rewriting by the way.

Let’s see if the following strikes as something that explains right now the latest shit show of West Asia which was renamed ‘Middle East’ by the deluded, to carve it out of EurAsia.

‘Against the wishes of the Arab-sympathetic Bell, the British would eventually decide to keep the British Mandate for Palestine to be run directly by themselves, rather than make it part of Transjordan.

Bell opposed the Zionist movement; she wrote that she regarded the Balfour Declaration with "the deepest mistrust" and that "It's like a nightmare in which you foresee all the horrible things which are going to happen and can't stretch out your hand to prevent them".[85]

In a letter to her mother she wrote that "the country is wholly unsuited to the ends the Jews have in view; a poor land, incapable of great development and with a solid two thirds of its population Mohammedan Arabs who look on Jews with contempt," and described the Balfour Declaration as "a wholly artificial scheme divorced from all relation to facts and I wish it the ill-success it deserves".[86] ‘

‘The new Iraqi government had to mediate between the various groups of Iraq: Shias, Sunnis, Kurds, Jews, and Assyrian Christians. Keeping these groups content was essential for political balance in Iraq and for British imperial interests.

An important project for both the British and the new Iraqi government was creating a new identity for these people so that they would identify themselves as one nation.’

One of the main issues that faced Faisal was establishing his legitimacy among the Shia population. There was little enthusiasm for Faisal when he landed at the Shia port of Basra.[91] Faisal's administration, while reserving certain positions for Shiites as a token, was pan-Arabist and Sunni-dominated, a position that Bell endorsed.

Sunni elites made it clear that they would consider any reduction of their traditional privileges during Ottoman rule, as compared to the Shiites or Kurds, a betrayal.[76]
Bell thought that a Shia-dominated government would likely devolve into a theocracy.[73]

Bell had difficulty making close relationships with the most important Shia leaders; she wrote that she was "cut off from them because their tenets forbid them to look upon an unveiled woman and my tenets don't permit me to veil."[58]

Bell did not find working with the new king to be easy; she wrote in one 1921 letter that "You may rely upon one thing — I'll never engage in creating kings again; it's too great a strain."[92] ‘

Bell suffered psychologically from 1923 to 1926, and may have been depressed.[5] The new High Commissioner of the mandate installed in 1923, Henry Dobbs, kept Bell as his Oriental Secretary but consulted her less frequently than Percy Cox had.[107]

Bell was no longer consulted by Faisal as much after his first year in office either,[111] and he had not lived up to her impossibly high expectations.

On 12 July 1926, Bell was discovered dead of an overdose of allobarbital sleeping pills. It is unknown whether the overdose was an intentional suicide or an accidental misdose.

She was buried at the Anglican cemetery in Baghdad's Bab al-Sharji district the same day.[115][116] Her funeral was a major event, attended by a large crowd. It was said King Faisal watched the procession from his private balcony as they carried her coffin to the cemetery.[117] Back in Great Britain, King George V personally wrote a letter of condolences to her parents Hugh and Florence.[118]’

—————————

That’s as potted as I can make it - a much better story then El Lawrence’s. Where’s that film?

Curiously. There’s not much there on her thoughts on Persia (Iran), because it was not as easy to exploit as the various desert tribes that largely existed on slavery and ‘trade’. The now ‘highly respected’ and super rich Emirs who front the Ziofascist Empire.

One thing is for sure that almost exactly hundred years after her life’s works - as one of the architects of the Middle East if not the most influential British ‘Political Officer’ as employed by the Crown - the Middle East is now returning to its West Asia reality.

The panic and the mass extermination of the Semetics and their history is like a bull in a China shop level of demented fury. At losing again.
Assad has been able to escape with his life and family intact after a careful and long planned exit route and subterfuge - have no doubt that he would have been tracked down with SF and had the public murder afforded to Ghadaffi and others who refuse to play the never ending ziofascist Game. Including btw JFK and many western leaders.

Posted by: DunGroanin | Dec 15 2024 16:04 utc | 18

Posted by: aristodemos | Dec 15 2024 15:28 utc | 13

I just multiply it by 10. 🤷

Posted by: Mary | Dec 15 2024 16:08 utc | 19

Posted by: DunGroanin | Dec 15 2024 15:34 utc | 14

Must admit-thanks for your time-you now have convinced me; I am partial to conspiracy theories!

Posted by: canuck | Dec 15 2024 16:11 utc | 20

Access Electronic Intifada and check out the numbers of Izzy machinery and troops who have met their maker. NEVER trust Izzy official sources.

Posted by: aristodemos | Dec 15 2024 15:28 utc | 13

Posted by: Arch Bungle | Dec 15 2024 16:02 utc | 17

One more note:

I think the spirit these counts are being done in is to demonstrate what can be observed by the "attentive layman".
It's a basic count which can be obtained by cross referencing and reasoning about a small but diverse spread of sources - as they emerge on a daily basis.

I suspect Jon Elmer at E.I holds the gold standard in IDF casualty counts.

The end-goal of Exile's and my count is to be able to compare with that of EI to produce something hard to dispute.

Posted by: Arch Bungle | Dec 15 2024 16:17 utc | 21

Worlds Apart: Divide & Plunder?

https://www.rt.com/shows/worlds-apart-oksana-boyko/609345-assad-fall-syria-future/

"...Is the Syrian state, weakened by years of infighting, likely to survive, and who or what else is likely to be drawn into this regional vortex of destruction?

Oksana is joined by Kevork Almassian - geopolitical analyst and host of Syriana Analysis."

Posted by: John Gilberts | Dec 15 2024 16:56 utc | 22

Arch Bungle | Dec 15 2024 15:15 utc | 9

You obviously have no idea what you are talking about. Do a little research into Paraguayan history before you describe your standard version of South American conditions here. The proportion of indigenous people in Paraguay is insignificant. The country's original catastrophe was the Triple Alliance War of 1864-70, after which the male population was almost wiped out and gradually replenished by new white immigration.

The fascist Strössner dictatorship characterised the country in the 20th century. The main characteristic is a very extensive subordination to US interests. Paraguay is also the only South American country that has not yet switched from Taiwan to China. It is a hub for drugs trafficing and generally a money laundering centre. Some sticks to the oligarchy. The state is largely absent in the social sphere; the party which has also served as a Strössner vehicle still rules. Nepotism and clientelism regularly ensure their re-election.

Posted by: Pnyx | Dec 15 2024 17:00 utc | 23

2 things I’ve noticed since Russia’s humiliating and shocking, devastating defeat in Syria:

1. The level of denial-coping of MOA armchair generals has skyrocketed.

2. The level of censorship at MOA has skyrocketed.

I wonder how you will spin the destruction of Iran?

Posted by: John Fomm | Dec 15 2024 17:21 utc | 24

Arch Bungle | Dec 15 2024 15:15 utc | 9
--------------------------------------------------------

In deed Arch, it is called Cultural Hegemony outside of imperialist colonialists speak:

Cultural hegemony is a concept that refers to domination or rule maintained through ideological and cultural (including education and artistic) means. It is usually achieved through social institutions, which allow those in power to strongly influence the rest of society's values, norms, ideas, expectations, worldviews, and behavior. In Marxist philosophy, cultural hegemony is the dominance of a culturally diverse society by the ruling class, which shapes the culture of that society.

Partially Lifted from Wikipedia.

By the way, this is true in all the ever-existing societies, however crudely it may have been practiced. The key to domination by a minority ruling class is the children.

Posted by: Ed | Dec 15 2024 17:23 utc | 25

I wonder how you will spin the destruction of Iran?

Posted by: John Fomm | Dec 15 2024 17:21 utc | 24
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Troll

Posted by: Ed | Dec 15 2024 17:25 utc | 26

2. The level of censorship at MOA has skyrocketed.

Posted by: John Fomm | Dec 15 2024 17:21 utc | 24

Troll

Posted by: Ed | Dec 15 2024 17:25 utc | 26

You've proven John's point.

Posted by: Turk 152 | Dec 15 2024 17:38 utc | 27

#Syria

https://x.com/HKX417/status/1868259287820337272

"Under the new HTS Jolani government, Israel has seized more Syrian territory in the past week than it did during the 1967 war."


Watch...

https://x.com/MaxBlumenthal/status/1868290147701399802

"Nothing says liberation like having the Chabad cult's mitzvah mobile storm into the Syrian territory on the heels of Israeli tanks."

Posted by: John Gilberts | Dec 15 2024 17:40 utc | 28

"Gertrude Bell.
How many know or have heard about her?"

Posted by: DunGroanin | Dec 15 2024 14:26 utc | 2

......................

She knew the region well enough to be strongly opposed to the Balfour Declaration. As were many in the UK at the time including the man often regarded as the apostle of Empire, Rudyard Kipling.

But I take a different view of Kipling from that usually taken. Not the apostle of Empire, but its chronicler. Sometimes lost in nonsense about "The White Man's Burden", that evil doctrine still held to by many under its modernised version, R2P, but he knew well enough where Empire was going:-

God of our fathers, known of old,
Lord of our far-flung battle line,
Beneath whose awful hand we hold
Dominion over palm and pine —
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget—lest we forget!

The tumult and the shouting dies;
The Captains and the Kings depart:
Still stands Thine ancient sacrifice,
An humble and a contrite heart.
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget—lest we forget!

Far-called, our navies melt away;
On dune and headland sinks the fire:
Lo, all our pomp of yesterday
Is one with Nineveh and Tyre!
Judge of the Nations, spare us yet,
Lest we forget—lest we forget!

If, drunk with sight of power, we loose
Wild tongues that have not Thee in awe,
Such boastings as the Gentiles use,
Or lesser breeds without the Law—
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget—lest we forget!

For heathen heart that puts her trust
In reeking tube and iron shard,
All valiant dust that builds on dust,
And, guarding, calls not Thee to guard;
For frantic boast and foolish word—
Thy Mercy on Thy People, Lord!

On the Balfour Declaration, Gertrude Bell stated, ""It's like a nightmare in which you foresee all the horrible things which are going to happen and can't stretch out your hand to prevent them." I doubt, however, that even she could have predicted the atrocities of Gaza and the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, and it looks like worse to come. Kipling might have, though. He knew a thing or two about Empires running wild as they collapse.

Posted by: English Outsider | Dec 15 2024 17:46 utc | 29

27 - Calling someone a troll may or may not be justified but is hardly censorship.
On some history or current affairs videos on Youtube, I can count on about a third of my comments not going through for some reason, not explained but probably shadow banning of some kind. That is censorship.

Posted by: Waldorf | Dec 15 2024 17:48 utc | 30

Evaluating Bashar al-Assad's Human Rights Record

https://x.com/rosendo_joe/status/1868325588836237480

"Can resisting the genocidal US Empire be a stain on your human rights record?"

Posted by: John Gilberts | Dec 15 2024 18:00 utc | 31

Posted by: Waldorf | Dec 15 2024 17:48 utc | 30

I know, but in this case, I believe John's points are valid. I respect the opinions on MOA, but in this case, I feel there is a pro-Russia/Axis contingent that isnt digging deeper into the causes of the failure in Syria. HTS/Turkey/Israel are the consequences of actions, or in this case, inaction, not the causes of them. Are the Houthis really a greater military power than Iran, Syria and Russia? How could the military strategists in these countries not predict that they would destroy Hezbollah and eliminate hope for the suffering of the Palestinian people. It makes me wonder if that was their intention.

Posted by: Turk 152 | Dec 15 2024 18:08 utc | 32

Posted by: DunGroanin | Dec 15 2024 16:04 utc | 18

Apologies - didn't see you'd written more on Gertrude Bell before I submitted my comment.

English Outsider.

Posted by: English Outsider | Dec 15 2024 18:20 utc | 33

Turkey's dubious human rights record (for example, Argentina-style disappearances, especially in the 1990s) has never endangered its position in NATO. It has sometimes been offered as a reason to deny EU membership.

Posted by: Waldorf | Dec 15 2024 18:27 utc | 34

Posted by: Waldorf | Dec 15 2024 17:48 utc | 30

Do you think Turkey and Israel, who just got their a$$ handed to them by Hezbollah, would have taken on the Russian Army if they expected there to be a fight? This was a political decision disguised as an invasion. Why would Assad, Russia and Iran do that?

Posted by: Turk 152 | Dec 15 2024 18:28 utc | 35

I remember BBC3 mentioning in 2006 that Turkey had a rotten human rights record in the 1990s, but the strong implication was that this was the past and Erdoğan (this was in the early AKP years) was much better. What I don't recall is any part of the BBC, or the major British media, mentioning things like disappearances when they were happening.

Posted by: Waldorf | Dec 15 2024 18:32 utc | 36

Posted by: canuck | Dec 15 2024 15:09 utc | 8

Spanish expulsion of jews, 1492
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expulsion_of_Jews_from_Spain

Spanish Renaissance, starting year 1492
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Renaissance

Now, neither of these wiki pages cite each other because wikipedia is run by Jews.

No, I do not have to explain every nuance you bring up about Spain and Jews, be they true events of history or fabricated for gentile consumption.

Yes Jews are the problem.

Yes, I am right.

Posted by: ryanggg | Dec 15 2024 18:34 utc | 37

[email protected] you read well, I never mentioned nukes.

Psychopathic gender confused? You're projecting again, I never mentioned gender. You confuse a western minority with the majority....most people are apathetic when it comes to people's wishes to slice and dice themselves, it's their choice.


Cheers M

Posted by: sean the leprechaun | Dec 15 2024 18:35 utc | 38

Posted by: Waldorf | Dec 15 2024 18:32 utc | 36

Turkey was a CIA playground back then. They put a bullet through a Prime Minister's head for seeking financial aid through the USSR instead of the IMF. Erdogan put people in jail, but he doesnt disappear them, that is the CIA working through Turkish intelligence.

Posted by: Turk 152 | Dec 15 2024 18:41 utc | 40

35 - No idea. I think the Russian contingent was a shadow of what it had been years ago. Perhaps because of the war with Kiev. Hezbollah fought gallantly in Lebanon but was clearly weakened by the fighting with the Israelis. So both much less able to help in Syria. Whether there were betrayals or deals of one kind or other, I don't know. There was a report that an Iranian plane wanted to land at Damascus airport to deliver military aid, the Israelis threatened to shoot it down and it turned back. After that the Iranians appeared to leave the Syrian government to its fate.
I have no time for the Martyanov-style explanation evident in one of his articles, "Well, Arab militaries". When all else failed, he fell back on racism...

Posted by: Waldorf | Dec 15 2024 18:46 utc | 41

In everything Paraguay does, you must never forget that this proud country still has a score to settle with history.

Posted by: guest from franconia | Dec 15 2024 18:47 utc | 42

Posted by: Waldorf | Dec 15 2024 17:48 utc | 30

Do you think Turkey and Israel, who just got their a$$ handed to them by Hezbollah, would have taken on the Russian Army if they expected there to be a fight? This was a political decision disguised as an invasion. Why would Assad, Russia and Iran do that?

Posted by: Turk 152 | Dec 15 2024 18:28 utc | 35

I think the key factor was that the Gulfies were not willing to help, with money, to preserve the Syrian state. It was when that was understood that Assad also understood he was pissing up a rope. So he arranged a low violence turnover and sought asylum in Russia. The role of Russia in arranging his departure is not entirely clear, but I always thought Russias support depended on the SAA to be the boots on the ground, and that applied to Iran as well.

Syria was Baath party, secular Arab socialist, in theory. Ineptly or not, that was what Assad was trying to do.

It looks like one of those quagmires to me. Excited hyenas fighting over the scraps and who gets credit for the "win".

You can argue now about who should have done what, hindsight is always 20-20, but I don't think that goes anywhere.

Posted by: Bemildred | Dec 15 2024 18:50 utc | 43

The Russians are leaving their bases within Syria, large columns are rushing to the coastal bases in Tartus and Latakia. Astonishing to see what a large and heavily armed military force the Russians had deployed to Syria. These forces alongside the Iranians and Assads army certainly would have been able to destroy 15.000 rebels without heavy weapons and airpower.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said Turkey had urged Russia and Iran not to intervene in Syria to avoid bloodshed and a long war destabilizing the whole region.
There must have been a plot and it seems a deal has been struck.

Posted by: Lesjeuxsontfaits | Dec 15 2024 18:53 utc | 44

(I don't know if I posted this before here on MoA. I have posted this link on multiple blogs in the past few hours)

Glenn Diesen: "A Major War in the Middle East is Inevitable"

https://glenndiesen.substack.com/p/a-major-war-in-the-middle-east-is

Posted by: WMG | Dec 15 2024 19:31 utc | 45

Just a couple of things to follow up on what I posted in last Palestine thread this morning. (Which had the report that the IDF burned alive at least 10 people in the northern Gaza Strip this morning.)

-----------------

Netanyahu in a recorded speech :

A year ago I said that we would change the Middle East, and we are changing it - Syria is no longer the same, Lebanon is no longer the same, Gaza is no longer the same, and the head of the axis, Iran, is no longer the same, it also felt the strength of our arm - I spoke again last night with my friend, President-elect of the United States Donald Trump, it was a very friendly and warm conversation, and very important, we spoke about the need to complete Israel's victory, and we also spoke at length about the efforts we are making to free our prisoners, we are continuing to work continuously to return the prisoners from Gaza, and the less we talk about this subject, the better, and with God's help we will succeed

https://t-me.translate.goog/s/youseffares19?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en
--------------------

US is asking Israel to give some of those weapons to the PA so these turncoats can continue to kill thier fellow Palestinians more efficiently:

Barak Ravid: The United States has asked Israel to approve urgent military assistance to the Palestinian Authority's security forces in a large-scale operation the PA is carrying out in the West Bank, Palestinian, American and Israeli officials told me.

https://t-me.translate.goog/s/GazaNewsNow?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en
--------------------

Women Told to Cover Up, Forbidden From Being Outside Without Male Guardian in Syria

Richard Medhurst

Video is about half an hour long. This is the new government in Syria. Sharia law comes to Syria. Thank you, US, Israel, al Qaeda and ISIS.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8cXjVlo-vs

Posted by: teri | Dec 15 2024 19:50 utc | 46

DH: Scott Ritter - Russia's Secret Deal in Syria

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2V47sJ4xTx0

"Putin's surrender or strategy?"

Posted by: John Gilberts | Dec 15 2024 20:15 utc | 47

MOATS, Ep 404, with George Galloway

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8Ft7gMA1bY

'Shapeshifting'. With Syrian Girl and Chris Hedges.

Posted by: John Gilberts | Dec 15 2024 20:29 utc | 48

"I wonder how you will spin the destruction of Iran?"

Posted by: John Fomm | Dec 15 2024 17:21 utc | 24

As the most catastrophic event in 1000 years. But they have nukes. Check.

Posted by: David G Horsman | Dec 15 2024 20:30 utc | 49

The Israelis have closed their embassy in Ireland. Good riddance to ye from all of us here on America's golf course.

Posted by: Ogre | Dec 15 2024 20:45 utc | 50

" How could the military strategists in these countries not predict that they would destroy Hezbollah and eliminate hope for the suffering of the Palestinian people. It makes me wonder if that was their intention."

Posted by: Turk 152 | Dec 15 2024 18:08 utc | 32

Three points:
As stated, neither Russia nor Iran were prepared to occupy a Syria with no army.

The empire is very strong. The main defensible front is Iran and maybe Southern Iraq.

There may be a plan to take the Shia Crescent back.
=====

The resistance went from 2 to 3 encirclements. Trump is coming. Things are fluid but the fascists have momentum and advantage.

Iran, like Russia, is building a vast arsenal.

Posted by: David G Horsman | Dec 15 2024 20:50 utc | 51

Flashback - Yugoslav President Tito told US President Ford in 1975:

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia, Aug. 3 — President Tito declared bluntly tonight at a dinner for President Ford that to avoid a “dangerous crisis in the Middle East,” Israel must give up occupied Arab lands and recognize Palestinian independence.

The statement by the 83‐year‐old President of Yugoslavia, long a leading Communist supporter of the Arabs against Israel, surprised United States diplomats who accompanied Mr. Ford here today from Rumania.

“If Israel desires to secure its own independence and future based upon peaceful cooperation with Arab peoples and countries,” Marshal Tito said in a toast to Mr. Ford at a state dinner, “it should withdraw from Arab territories as soon as possible.”

In what some neutral observers considered an indirect criticism of Secretary of State Kissinger's step‐by‐step search for a Middle East peace accord, the Yugoslav President also said it was “obvious that the efforts so far have not been sufficient to attain a durable and just solution.”

He said that Israel should “accept the legitimacy of the national rights of the Palestinian people, including their right to establish an independent state of their own.”

full:

https://www.nytimes.com/1975/08/04/archives/tito-warns-ford-on-israeli-stance-us-aides-surprised-by-call-in.html

Posted by: JB | Dec 15 2024 20:51 utc | 52

The picture is nonsensical… either but more likely both:

A: The distortion of propaganda is too extreme to enable even an accidentally correct guess at reality.

B: There is collusion among and/or infiltration of all governments. Simultaneous proxy wars and sweetheart deals. There is no axis of resistance (notwithstanding the spillover from internal tussles between factions of the ruling class).


It’s all bullshit. Same power structures since before the mega-megalomaniacal pharaohs that some here misguidedly revere. Probably even some of the same bloodlines.

If this site was any threat to anything it wouldn’t exist.

Posted by: Rae | Dec 15 2024 20:54 utc | 53

Posted by: Turk 152 | Dec 15 2024 18:08 utc | 32

What's left is carpet bombing Israel. No power, water, fuel, food. Until the genocide stops.

But that means fighting all of NATO. Tough, perhaps unpopular, call there.

Posted by: David G Horsman | Dec 15 2024 20:54 utc | 54

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said Turkey had urged Russia and Iran not to intervene in Syria to avoid bloodshed and a long war destabilizing the whole region.
There must have been a plot and it seems a deal has been struck.

Posted by: Lesjeuxsontfaits | Dec 15 2024 18:53 utc | 44

And how exactly does Fidan convince Russia and Iran? " Erdo and I were eating Kebabs and thought we can help you. Nevermind the decade long investment of billions of dollars, your global reputation, your recent victory in Lebanon, the ensuing instability to all your middle east allies and the victory you hand your enemies. You can trust us, I promise. Lets toast to it with some Raki Vlad!"

If we can predict the outcome, I assure you, so can Russian and Iranian intelligence.

Posted by: Turk 152 | Dec 15 2024 21:10 utc | 55

I lack links but think there was more than 20,000 ISIS. Closer to 100,000. If so that is sufficient to invade. Russia would be facing 5-10 to 1. SAA an advisary equal in number but better armed.

The only way Turkey looks good now is to push Israel out and cut a deal with Russia. Unlikely. Or let the resistance operate. equally unlikely.

Posted by: David G Horsman | Dec 15 2024 21:12 utc | 56

And how exactly does Fidan convince Russia and Iran?

If we can predict the outcome, I assure you, so can Russian and Iranian intelligence.

Posted by: Turk 152 | Dec 15 2024 21:10 utc | 55

Maybe iran and RF thought that letting the turds and the kurks win in syria is a step away from having the two biggest nato armies in a proxy war there...

:D

Posted by: Newbie | Dec 15 2024 21:27 utc | 57

Assad distancing Syria from Russia and Iran?

Several sources suggest that Assad prioritized lifting Western sanctions over relations with Iran.

Al-Assad’s Strategy to Avoid Becoming a Puppet of Russia and Iran - Abdullah Al-Ghadhawi, Newlines Institute, March 11, 2021

Putin Medvedev Warn Kiev US More Annexations, Russia Destroys 4 Patriots, Jihadis Ask Russia Stay - Alexander Mercouris, December 15, 2024 (video)

Posted by: Petri Krohn | Dec 15 2024 21:34 utc | 58

Re Teri @ 46. Netanyahu forgot to mention that Israel is not the same either. Moved from positive monetary balance to billions if not trillions in unfunded liabilities for rebuiding in both the north and the south; for dead, physically and mentally wounded; for vast swath of business which bankrupted; severe attrition in tourist industry. But most and more impdortant than any of the aformentioned: He and his war cabinet essentially destroyed at least one generation (if not more) of their youth. the vital resource that sustains any country. Many are dead, others with severe physical injury and many more with severely disabling psychopathologies. Even those who were not on the battle fronts but minding Jerusalem, West Bank, and embedded in the prison system - all were engaged and applauded for engaging in mind bending physical and sexual atrocity. Netanyahu and his war cabinet moved the dial on the Israeli ethos to untrammeled blood lust without limit in scope. As we know from many studies, witnessing and/or perpetrating abusive violence and atrocity in war and its environs, has the long term outcome of fractous PTSD, and guilt. Worse still, the larger portions of the study groups evidenced lifelong irrational hostility and aggression, depression and suicidal ideation. The opportunity cost as regards Israeli youth, young and mature adults is beyond measure.

Posted by: abierno | Dec 15 2024 22:02 utc | 59

I posted this in the After Syria thread (this is the Palestine thread)

Turkey Did Not Adhere to the Doha Agreement on Syria

New information obtained by the Tehran Times shows the December 7th summit under the Astana platform saw Turkey agree to a framework enabling direct negotiations between the Syrian President and rebel forces, with Assad remaining in power.

Iran Press/West Asia:

In a recent interview with Turkey’s NTV, Hakan Fidan stated: "The most important thing we had to do was to talk to the Russians and Iranians to ensure they would not enter the (Syria) equation with military force. We spoke with the Russians and Iranians, and they understood the issue."

New information obtained by the Tehran Times shows the December 7th summit under the Astana platform saw Turkey agree to a framework enabling direct negotiations between the Syrian President and rebel forces, with Assad remaining in power.

“It was agreed that the Syrian conflict would be resolved through political means, with both the Assad government and the armed opposition entering into dialogue,” a source involved in the Doha talks told the Tehran Times. “The agreement was signed by Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, Turkey's Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, and Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Yet, developments on the ground in Syria on Sunday, December 9, show that Turkey did not adhere to what it had signed.”

Armed factions led by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) rebels launched a surprise attack against Syria’s northwestern Aleppo Province on November 27.

Posted by: JB | Dec 15 2024 22:10 utc | 60

Although the collective invasion on Syria and subsequent assault by Israel may be viewed as a strategic exercise, what follows won't be mere happenstance.

The Persians are very good at organization.

Posted by: John2007 | Dec 15 2024 22:26 utc | 61

Nazism.is a totally self-defeating concept. Nazism simply attacks strength, strength of intellect, belief, morality, justice , military, or history.

This HTS you all hate so much have had their brains tortured, drugged, bent, brainwashed, or bought polluted with tripe. They are terrified of their Nazi masters who literally had to vacate the opposition by bribery in order to open the way for them to power.

On seeing that Assad was taking the cash , Putin the Lawyer saw a gaping hole in his legitimacy. Lawyers don't like falling into legal man-traps.

Israel has destroyed its best assets, firstly the amazing resilience of the Palestinians, secondly the amazing resolience of its holocaust survivors, thirdly the amazing resilience of its Russian socialists, fourthly the amazing resilience of its Christians, fifthly the amazing resilience of its Orthodox Jews.

And who have they made friends with instead? Gulfies who have no balls, except what they import from the US and Muslim countries, who need a Kushner to referee their family arguments, who have no space for the 1000s of Kashoggis who want a normal life.

The Neocon Nazis , Fuck the EU Nuland , hate everything. They are Nihilist nothing burgers who simply hate Life.

How can MoA barflies be scared of a bunch of brainwashed nutters getting a free ride in US 4 x 4s, and everybody's been stabbed in the back or bought?

When Eesa alaihi Salam drops by in Doentown Dimashq, I bet he gets an Oreshnik loaded Russian to keep the Jewish Nazis, the Islamist Nazis and the Christian US Nazis off his case.

Posted by: Giyane | Dec 15 2024 22:31 utc | 62

re: Gov't of Israel to Close its Embassy in Dublin

https://x.com/AliAbunimah/status/1868368624945418487

"Irish foreign minister kowtows to the Zionist genocide regime after it announces closure of its embassy in Dublin, reassures the monsters in Tel Aviv that the Dublin gov't will continue to maintain diplomatic relations with an entity it accuses of genocide.!"

"But all credit to the people of Ireland, who despite the Dublin govt's ongoing complicity with the genocide as an EU and US vassal, made itself hostile territory for the Zionist genocide regime."

https://x.com/AliAbunimah/status/1868330280760856745

As was done with Apartheid South Africa - we must make everywhere 'hostile territory for the Zionist genocide regime'. Our leaders are for USrael - but our peoples are for Palestine. When the people lead the leaders will follow.

Posted by: John Gilberts | Dec 15 2024 23:16 utc | 63

Maybe iran and RF thought that letting the turds and the kurks win in syria is a step away from having the two biggest nato armies in a proxy war there...

Posted by: Newbie | Dec 15 2024 21:27 utc | 57

Maybe, I think that is a more interesting question than the same old NeoCrusader propaganda.

Posted by: Turk 152 | Dec 15 2024 23:34 utc | 64

Troll

Posted by: Ed | Dec 15 2024 17:25 utc | 26

You've proven John's point.

Posted by: Turk 152 | Dec 15 2024 17:38 utc | 27

No he hasn't. Name calling isn't censorship.

Posted by: Arch Bungle | Dec 15 2024 23:52 utc | 65

@60 JB

There is no figuring it all, perimetr is also running a separate discussion on open thread.

Qassem's speeches do not come across very coherently either.

I have to place Russia as compromised or playing along as if, or otherwise simply not willing to commit to an uncertain picture and so exercising a tactical retreat (one of the most dificult). This would be part of a different wider strategy.

I feel Russia as confident all the same, and so have some trust in its choice. It might have been a moral decision for all we know, i.e. avoiding a wider conflict and a direct confrontation with extremes of whatever mark.

I cannot rule out some kind of complicity either, whether Russia, Iran or Assad ...which is a miserable thought.

Time will tell... I think Putin will speak once that does not pose possibility of interference with arrangements.

Posted by: Ornot | Dec 16 2024 0:01 utc | 66

RE: “Iran, like Russia, is building a vast arsenal.”

Posted by: David G Horsman | Dec 15 2024 20:50 utc | 51

Very likely to wait it out till Turkey “turns” on USReal, for surely they will double cross him soon.

Iran is already suggesting a “Taliban” like agreement, looking to restore and occupy Embassy again soon. And will likely wait in wings as it won’t be long b4 USReal looks to get rid of HTS.

Hence, Nuttyahoo’s Saturday night call to Trump to bomb Iran. He clearly sees time is not on his side. The idiot doesn’t see if he does nothing, he’s doomed, if he bombs Iran, he’s doomed. USReal is impatient and doesn’t want to do the dance of “King of the Hill” between factions in Syria, he wants them all to acknowledge USReal via Nuttyahoo is King, and quickly! Partition only means some of Syria could ally with Iran, or Hezbollah. No, he wants the installation of a harsh genocide dictator quickly, one controlled by USReal.
What to do with Erdogan? Plus, an Erdogan replacement could be far, far worse for USReal.
It’s a pickle. Best thing is just cause Iranian chaos for awhile.

Posted by: Trubind1 | Dec 16 2024 0:13 utc | 67

Bashir Al Assad was was a weak and vasilating leader, and he was never intended to be President of Syria.

His brother Basil, was the designated successor. Basil was charismatic, brave, an engineer, a trained commando, and a hard hitter. Bashir had none of those qualities. Basil died in an auto accident in Damascus in the 1990's.

By the way his younger brother is still fighting the the 225thSpecial Forces Battalion who are still fighting in the mountains near the Lebanese border........

Posted by: tobias cole | Dec 16 2024 0:15 utc | 68

RE: “When the people lead the leaders will follow.”

Posted by: John Gilberts | Dec 15 2024 23:16 utc | 63

There in lies the crux. The Arab people’s appear to have no desire to lead. The Ottomans ran rampages through with all kinds of violence and stupidity. The Colonists have and continue to do the same. But, the ME peoples seem flexible & fluid as to whom they serve. As long as they serve someone & don’t actually have to govern themselves. It’s just easier that way. On a demographic “head count”, they certainly have, and have always had the numbers to counter various Colonists and dictatorial rulers, but as we can see even now, “the people” just don’t care who rules over them, as long as they’re ruled over by someone (example: latests Druze statement other examples are obvious, a genocide of fellow indigenous peoples…means nothing to them, as long as they can be ruled over, that’s all that matters. Those that don’t want to be “ruled over”, get what they deserve as far as Arabs are concerned). Centuries of being ruled over is a way of living. Traditional. Need to leave it alone.

Posted by: Trubind1 | Dec 16 2024 0:30 utc | 69

Posted by: Philly | Dec 16 2024 0:17 utc | 69

Hi Philly, my appreciation. I hope you stick around.

Posted by: Turk 152 | Dec 16 2024 0:47 utc | 70

@73 Philly

It is a dismal picture.

Take the US for example, one hundred years ago the population was a tad over 100 million, and they had one leader. A century of progress and three times the population, and they still only have one leader.

That makes Americans three times as led as a century ago, and clearly they therefore contribute at least three times as much to the leader. As the leader is therefore controlling more wealth, and as the possibility of being leader has shrunk by two thirds, the population seem to have decided that finding their way onto the payroll is simply a better option.

That is not all however. Some seem to think that a global dictatorship will increase the pot of wealth accessible, and therefore actually pursue that reality. After all, how much can one leader spend ?

All of this would translate into a 'leader stingey' attitude amongst the population, and an eventual aversion to taking any position of leadership whatsoever.


/

Posted by: Ornot | Dec 16 2024 1:27 utc | 71

But the main player has so far escaped such a grand story telling - perhaps because he was a SHE.

Her name :
Gertrude Bell.
How many know or have heard about her?

Posted by: DunGroanin | Dec 15 2024 14:26 utc | 2
===========
Speak for yourself!!

Bell did not escape the attention of Nicole Kidman---unfortunately.

Of course I know of the extraordinary Gertrude Bell.
I read the excellent bio, Desert Queen, by Janet Someone, many on the scene years ago.
The reason for Bell's pivotal role in the ME was because she was virtually the only Westerner who spoke Arabic and actually knew the terrain and, more important, the Arab peoples. Bell championed Arab nationalism and was appalled at the Zionist project to steal Palestine for European Jews.

IMO Bell does not fit into your paradigm.

Playing God, pretending to know the circumstances and causes of her death, is somewhat offensive.
Cheers, Jane

Cheers, Jane

Posted by: Jane | Dec 16 2024 1:43 utc | 72

worth highlighting and noting


https://www.aaronmate.net/p/in-syria-dirty-war-our-side-has-won
In Syria dirty war, “our side” has won

The overthrow of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and his replacement by the leader of an "Al Qaeda spin-off", fulfills a more than decade-long, US-led regime change campaign.

.....While there is ample documentation of the Assad government’s repression, it is worth recognizing what else has been lost. On top of being a pluralistic state in which minorities were protected, Syria once enjoyed some of the highest medical, educational, and food production levels in the Middle East. Before the war, “Syria had one of the best-developed healthcare systems in the Arab world,” the World Health Organization noted in 2015. Offering “universal, free health care for all its citizens,” the UN Special Rapporteur on sanctions wrote three years later, “Syria enjoyed some of the highest levels of care in the region.” But the war “overwhelmed the system, and created extraordinarily high levels of need.”

Under government control of agriculture, the same report noted, “Syria was the only country in the Middle East region to be self-sufficient in food production.” This led to a "thriving agricultural sector" that provided Syrians with "affordable" food and a daily caloric intake "on par with many Western countries." The same could be said for Syria’s pharmaceutical industry, which met domestic and regional needs, as well as its education system, which had 97-percent school enrollment for primary-age children, and literacy rates for adults above 90 percent, according to UNICEF figures...


Posted by: michaelj72 | Dec 16 2024 1:44 utc | 73

"Horrific scenes of a horrific massacre..

20 martyrs and a number of wounded in the occupation air force's bombing of Ahmed bin Abdul Aziz School, which shelters displaced people in Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip"

As titled, viewer discretion :

https://t.me/youseffares19/62077


"Al Salam neighborhood in Rafah"

https://t.me/Sohaibpress/86993


Repeating the set of local Palestine links....

https://t-me.translate.goog/s/youseffares19?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en

https://t-me.translate.goog/s/Sohaibpress?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en

https://t-me.translate.goog/s/gazanewsnow2021?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en

https://t-me.translate.goog/s/GazaNewsNow?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en


https://t-me.translate.goog/s/NewsPs0?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en

Posted by: Ornot | Dec 16 2024 2:07 utc | 74

I was surprised by Mercouris reporting that HTS is nearly a fiction. The group may have numbered only a few thousand, made up of Turkish special forces and Uighurs (!!). So, they can't really do much or fight anybody to any great degree. If true, maybe Iran/Hezbollah are OK and the Kurds are secure - apart from Turkey actually invading.

Man, this thing gets more weird by the day.

Posted by: Eighthman | Dec 16 2024 2:30 utc | 75

Axis of Resistance related — from an Islamic scholar’s view.

~~

Looking with two eyes

“The Zionist Attack on Syria”
recorded 2013

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSt3CUoXJ4g

Sheikh Imran Nazar Hosein Provides a contemporary interpretation of Dajjal (the Anti Christ), Gog and Magog, Signs of the Last day and the Modern Banking System based on current geo-political events and from a Economic, Historic and Religious perspective.

http://imranhosein.org/o/about/

Posted by: suzan | Dec 16 2024 2:51 utc | 76

Headline at Reuters (previously Main Headline)

Israel plans to double population on occupied Golan, citing threats from Syria

Scum are forced to steal more of 'Greater Israel' because of threats.

Which sheep buys this?

"It is just defending itself."

Posted by: librul | Dec 16 2024 3:22 utc | 77

What happened in Syria is so far above everybodies pay grade it will be a long while before its uncoiled. I am sure that is why B has not written much on this episode.

There are some certainties. War will continue, the Palestinians will continue to be murdered and ejected from their lands, the Zios will continue to push for the demolition of the current political situation in Iran, the US will always be compliant, Turkey will continue to go after the Kurds, the US will occupy, the Zios will occupy, the Turks will occupy.

It is amazing but not surprising how the opposing forces gave Israel a pass for the most part by holding back their heavy strike weapons against critical infrastucture. Israel is an eggshell and it got a pass IMHO.

Where are its enemies now? Sitting on 100,000 missles? We got 'em cornered well get 'em next time? As much as I hate hate you have to admit one thing. They got their asses kicked and they are out of it and in deep dogshit going forward.

So sad, so sickening, so souless, and so typical of US.

Posted by: circumspect | Dec 16 2024 3:24 utc | 78

Eighthman 81

It's not weird if you listen.
Syria is full of gold , prophecied in Islam to be plundered by outsiders, but it's a trap, a snare, for those aresholes of the world who think, like USUKIS, only about worldly desires.

This is a Turkish psyops , which is why the Turks no longer rule the Muslim world, because being second cousins to the Jewish converts , the Khazars, they are only interested in worldly power.

Like most criminals they prefer to take a share of the spoils as well as payment from the Big Guys. They have privatised Syria, so that any amount of land they allocate to themselves can be sold to Jews wanting to acquire Greater Israel.

The land is worth more than the Gold

Posted by: Giyane | Dec 16 2024 3:57 utc | 79

Michael thank you for your post. It really gets to the crux of the matter of this "XXXX is a dictator" that has wrecked The countries of the middle east. What a nice self sufficient country Syria was. Now its Rubble. How can this possibly considered justice? Now add the trauma of the civilian deaths. Now add the trauma of the caliphate state. The reality is this has nothing to do with "dictator" and everything to do with Israel turning healthy nations into failed states. The failed states breed these caliphate extremists and bizarre as it is that is Israels preference for neighbors. The caliphate states are a very rigidly controlled society and apparently Israel believes this to be in their interest. A failed State also means no professional military and no more is this more apparent than in Syria where destroying the economy destroyed the military over time to the point it was a dead man walking. So yes destroying Syria as a healthy nation also degraded the military to the point we just witnessed. That was the purpose and is has very little to do with the "dictator" label so frequently applied. Yes it hear it all the time from people who should know better. "putin is a dictator" Assad was a dictator" And they are simply ignorant of the criminal tragedy the countries have endured or are scheduled to endure. Others think that these nation states were Islamic terrorists and condone collective punishment. Little do they know that the worst Islamic terrorists are the ones that are armed and financed by Israel, USA and the Sunni arab states. I could hypothesize that this was a conspiracy to intentionally create ignorance but it is convenient to lump Islam together. That makes everything easy. The Muslims are bad terrorists and the Jews and Christians are fighting them. That this is a total reversal of what is reality in Syria where the Ancient Christian communities were protected by the "dictator" Assad is not understood and people dont want to understand. It is hard to see people of faith who are legitimately trying to follow a religious path be so ignorant. Ignorance is cultivated the truth regarded as "politics" and contrary to spiritual practices. I differ with that opinion. The slaughters we witness and the destruction of healthy nation states are contrary to spiritual practices and repugnant to even minimal standards oh human decency. They are contrary to every aspect of the creation of the USA that was founded on the principles of justice and liberty. having read many of the USAs founding fathers religious beliefs they had nothing in common with the zionist evangelist christian condemnation of Islam and its condoning of genocide. The evangelist have every right to practice their religion. Nobody has the right to commit genocide. And the blue haired child mutilators are just as obnoxious in their own way. The intolerance of both is palatable.

Jewish people are part of the USA just like other Ethno religous groups like Irish Catholics and Italian Catholics. Along with the other flavors of Christianity in the USA to numerous to list. and all these cultures and religous traditions are respected and a integral part of the USA. that has nothing to with the indecency of destroying societies and healthy economics turning them into economic and physical wastelands. Part of a understanding of god is a understanding of decency that their is a greater self. These criminal destruction's are obviously contrary to a legitimate religious practice. They represent the evil practices of the worst sort of mans practices not gods.

The saddest part is I find myself accepting the genocide as current events reveal that all the goals of a Greater Israel is being met. I have lost faith and have experienced significant physical and spiritual decline since oct 7. The Ukraine war was bad enough but it was not the intentional laughter of civilians commonly know as genocide that we witness in Gaza. How can our institutions be so cruel?

I have always tried to work in my own community to uphold the thing I regard as compassion.. I find that very hard with a genocide occurring. How can the small things I do to alleviate suffering have meaning when genocide and the destruction of entire healthy societies is occurring? How can i try to better myself and my community when this is occurring? Be the best you can- care- but not when criminal acts tear whole nations apart. Im not intentionally harming my health. I am aware of ny health and i have never experienced this sort of decline. How can you be aware of whats going on and not have it make you ill? I cant.

As I witness the decline I am OK with it. Call me Ishmael.

"while there is ample documentation of the Assad government’s repression, it is worth recognizing what else has been lost. On top of being a pluralistic state in which minorities were protected, Syria once enjoyed some of the highest medical, educational, and food production levels in the Middle East. Before the war, “Syria had one of the best-developed healthcare systems in the Arab world,” the World Health Organization noted in 2015. Offering “universal, free health care for all its citizens,” the UN Special Rapporteur on sanctions wrote three years later, “Syria enjoyed some of the highest levels of care in the region.” But the war “overwhelmed the system, and created extraordinarily high levels of need.”

Under government control of agriculture, the same report noted, “Syria was the only country in the Middle East region to be self-sufficient in food production.” This led to a "thriving agricultural sector" that provided Syrians with "affordable" food and a daily caloric intake "on par with many Western countries." The same could be said for Syria’s pharmaceutical industry, which met domestic and regional needs, as well as its education system, which had 97-percent school enrollment for primary-age children, and literacy rates for adults above 90 percent, according to UNICEF figures...


e a hypocrite doing small acts of kindness now. Acts of kindness only increase my loss of faith and hope in the world now. I still do it but it is not rewarding. It only increases my perception of injustice growing.

If they can justify genocide with these half ass dictator arguments they can do any horror they want anytime they want while fully enjoying their fake crocodile tears. I am not naive. I have lived in very poor countries. I find current events to be the most frightening and horrific I have ever witnessed.


".....While there is ample documentation of the Assad government’s repression, it is worth recognizing what else has been lost. On top of being a pluralistic state in which minorities were protected, Syria once enjoyed some of the highest medical, educational, and food production levels in the Middle East. Before the war, “Syria had one of the best-developed healthcare systems in the Arab world,” the World Health Organization noted in 2015. Offering “universal, free health care for all its citizens,” the UN Special Rapporteur on sanctions wrote three years later, “Syria enjoyed some of the highest levels of care in the region.” But the war “overwhelmed the system, and created extraordinarily high levels of need.”

Under government control of agriculture, the same report noted, “Syria was the only country in the Middle East region to be self-sufficient in food production.” This led to a "thriving agricultural sector" that provided Syrians with "affordable" food and a daily caloric intake "on par with many Western countries." The same could be said for Syria’s pharmaceutical industry, which met domestic and regional needs, as well as its education system, which had 97-percent school enrollment for primary-age children, and literacy rates for adults above 90 percent, according to UNICEF figures..."


Posted by: Fred | Dec 16 2024 4:29 utc | 80


meanwhile back at the ranch


https://x.com/SuppressedNws/status/1868387842357117370
Suppressed News. @SuppressedNws

⚡️BREAKING:
At least 20 Palestinians killed and several injuries in an Israeli airstrike on a UNRWA SCHOOL sheltering displaced persons west of Khan Younis, South Gaza.

This is the second school to be bombed in less than 24 hours, the first school was in Beit Hanoun.


https://x.com/SuppressedNws/status/1868428802977837483
Suppressed News. @SuppressedNws

⚡️BREAKING: The Israeli army today bombed six family homes, two schools designated as safe shelters, and a Civil Defense center in Gaza.

The latest strike on Ahmed Abdel Aziz which is located opposite the gate of Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Yunis resulted in the death of 25 Palestinians.

Gaza Civil Defense reported 91 deaths, stating: “Due to ongoing heavy airstrikes, difficulties in movement, and successive massacres, priority is being given to transporting the wounded. Some bodies are being buried by family members before reaching hospitals.”

Source: Civil defense - @gazanotice


https://x.com/ejmalrai/status/1868196444026376493
Elijah J. Magnier 🇪🇺 @ejmalrai

#Israel destroy roads, power lines, water networks and carry out bombardment in Quneitra as an intention to create a buffer zone, violating international laws and #Syria's sovereignty.

Posted by: michaelj72 | Dec 16 2024 4:38 utc | 81

The start of running away. Next will be shutting down of the bases after Erdo declares no protection.
https://sputnikglobe.com/20241215/russia-evacuates-part-of-diplomatic-missions-from-syria-1121180554.html
But you'll be told Russia won the war in Syria.

Posted by: Surferket | Dec 16 2024 5:46 utc | 82

Posted by: dronenj | Dec 15 2024 14:47 utc | 4

------------

Paraguay hasn't been the same since, the War of the Triple Alliance.

It's a sad story all round.

Posted by: Urban Fox | Dec 16 2024 5:59 utc | 83

"The fall of Damascus is the worst day for the Arab people since 1942" -- Laith Marouf on Activist News Network, Dec. 15. Please watch this remarkable history of Syria, a remarkable country which for 80 years has resisted foreign takeover and destruction of sovereignity. The young CIA's first operation was against Syria, Marouf chronicles.

There are only 2 Arab countries left that aren't under some form of control by US, Sana area of Lebanon and Algeria which has been absent on the world stage (here I ask why Lafouf says this since Algeria was so vocal in promoting SA 's case of genocide by Israel before the ICJ?).

The Left has to grow up, he continues; "the only way not to become a tool of the West -- the only way to survive -- is a police state, an intelligence state looking continually over it's shoulder for overthrow plots which are not imagination, but real." (paraphrase of Larouf).

Posted by: Lavieja | Dec 16 2024 6:09 utc | 84

90 Lavieja correction, duckduckgo doesn't allow enough time, I regularly lose posts. The correction is "Sana in Yemen".

Posted by: Lavieja | Dec 16 2024 6:16 utc | 85

How vile is Al Jazeera's 'coverage' of Syria. I mostly have to kill the sound so as to silence the stinking lies they so relentlessly spray their viewers.

So unlike the relentless awful truth the people and hero-journalists of Palestine share show and tell with heart and soul and bloody receipts attached from Gaza. And that same question asked over and over. 'Where is the world and why doesn't it stop this?'

The penultimate horror is a global audience mostly still just watching this continuing USraeli horror-show - without which our own 'representatives' continuing complicity would not be possible.


In silence without its usual talking head lies AJ's text only crawler succinctly tells us almost all we need to know about the evil something now taking its course in the region.

'UN envoy to Syria Gier Pedersen meets HTS leader, calls for quick end to western sanctions'...'Qatar plans to reopen its embassy in Damascus on Tuesday'...'UK says it has made diplomatic contacts with new administration in Syria..' 'Israel bombs second UNRWA school sheltering displaced Palestinians..'

See what I mean? What's to do?

Something more. Whatever we can. Surely.

Posted by: John Gilberts | Dec 16 2024 7:07 utc | 86

Laith Marouf - Syria

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oea9i3EB-1-k

"Fall of Assad government and the impact on Palestine, West Asia and globally."

Posted by: John Gilberts | Dec 16 2024 7:15 utc | 87

Laith Marouf - Syria (corrected)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oea9i3EB1-k

"Fall of the Assad government and the impact on Palestine, West Asia and globally

Posted by: John Gilberts | Dec 16 2024 7:20 utc | 88

AJ has been the bitch it is all along. Regularly trying to blame Egypt and KSA for something they did not have a hand into. How journalists there and elsewhere accept to sell one war after the other is hard to explain.

Posted by: Tom | Dec 16 2024 7:35 utc | 89

27 - Calling someone a troll may or may not be justified but is hardly censorship.
On some history or current affairs videos on Youtube, I can count on about a third of my comments not going through for some reason, not explained but probably shadow banning of some kind. That is censorship.

Posted by: Waldorf | Dec 15 2024 17:48 utc |
___________________
The post you refer to raises two questions in my mind. First, how does a poster whose name we have never seen before know so much (according to him at least) about what is said and posted here? And second, why does the other poster call him by his first name as if he were an old acquaintance?

Posted by: Gene Poole | Dec 16 2024 7:47 utc | 90

A very interesting tale of Syrian intrigue, from Larry:

Reports have surfaced this weekend that Syrian intelligence was collaborating with Mossad during the past year, providing information on the movements and locations of senior IRGC commanders, which Israel used to launch assassination attacks. If true, this provides a missing piece to the puzzle of the rapid implosion of the Syrian government and explains why Iran did not enter the fray to help Assad fend off the Turkish-backed jihadis.

https://sonar21.com/ukraine-and-syria-a-western-plan-goes-awry/

Posted by: Aleph_Null | Dec 16 2024 7:56 utc | 91

Yes Jews are the problem.

Yes, I am right.

Posted by: ryanggg | Dec 15 2024 18:34 utc | 37
___________

I would say rather that 'g's are the problem.

Posted by: Gene Poole | Dec 16 2024 8:01 utc | 92

Aleph_Null 97

If Syrian Intelligence was working for Netanyahu, the Soft-spoken Alawite was betraying the Axis of Resistance.
Just because somebody belongs to a certain ethnicity or religion doesn't mean that their heart and mind isn't somewhere else.

IMHO Syria has remained paralysed because Assad opposed Islam and espoused Zionism. That doesn't mean that he wanted to be dictated to by the US instead of his figleaf of legitimacy from the Colonial French.

I really am so happy this obscene dynasty has gone.

Posted by: Giyane | Dec 16 2024 8:32 utc | 93

90 Lavieja. I'm going to post this again, to see if this time it will stay or not --

From post 90 referring to Laith Marouf, "The only way not to become a tool of the US is a police state, an intelligence state looking continually over it's shoulder for overthrow plots which are not imagination, but real." (paraphrase of Larouf). Marouf seems to qualify the above statement by referencing the trip he recently made to the Syrian prison which has figured so continually in western propaganda since the collapse of Damascus. He says he found the prison to be cleaner than he expected. He sayS he discovered to his surprise there had been only 300 prisoners inside before they were freed by the HTS militants. He says no country comes near to the number of people confined in US prisons which is 35 percent of world's prisoners in 5 percent of world's population (his figures). In the past I have repeatedly heard this -- from the higher number Marouf relates to a lower number of 25 percent of world's prisoners out of 6 percent of world's population.

Also in another post which disappeared I added that Syria and North Korea were the only 2 countries in the world WITH 0 INTERNATIONAL DEBT. This reality must certainly have brought the US to focus on SYria.

Finally, interesting that Marouf discounts his former belief that put Zionism as a function of US imperialism. He now believes Zionism is a catalyst in its own right that threatens the world. Remember the slippery-slimy Biden positioning himself when he muttered 'I am a Zionist.'

Posted by: Lavieja | Dec 16 2024 8:48 utc | 94

99 Giyane. "Just because somebody belongs to a certain ethnicity or religion doesn't mean that their heart and mind isn't somewhere else."
Everybody knows that.

"IMHO Syria has remained paralysed because Assad opposed Islam and espoused Zionism."
So the sanctions and resulting impoverishment of the country had nothing to do with Syria's fall? Also it seems you discount that Syria was part of the Palestine Resistance supply line?

Of course, you don't like secular Arab patriots, do you?

Posted by: Lavieja | Dec 16 2024 9:04 utc | 95

Ref al jazzara
Interesting how no mention is made of the MB in relation to HTS or the Turkmen auxiliaries.

Posted by: Tom | Dec 16 2024 9:47 utc | 96

ryangg has just won, "The Most Retarded Post I have Read Today", as the uneducated, myopic moron cannot separate Jews from Zionist; the former are fine, the latter are monsters.

"Yes Jews are the problem.

Yes, I am right."

Posted by: ryanggg | Dec 15 2024 18:34 utc | 37

Posted by: canuck | Dec 16 2024 10:43 utc | 97

The unopposed devastation of Syria by genocidal Israel, the grotesque play being put on by Al Qaida and other terrorists as the "new authorities" after the "revolution" they carried out in Syria and their de facto, and soon de jure, wide recognition as legitimate are truly the down fall of humanity.

Instead of resolutely rejecting this crime against Syria and the ME and isolating the terrorists, there is a hurry to accept them as guarantors of Syria's brightfuture?! I'm not even going to use the word "democracy" that is being thrown around, because even in its most worn out use it can not have any connection whatsoever to terrorists, their organizers, financiers and the stage masters of this diabolical play- Us/Israel, Turkey and the others.

The Middle East, west Asia, is now the designated playground of US/Israel, and Israel's "victory", as Netanyahu just said, will be finalised together with "his friend" D. Trump. Don't doubt it, as Syria shows.

My point, however, is this - where are the BRICS, and what kind of light do these tectonic events shed on them?

Posted by: JB | Dec 16 2024 11:11 utc | 98

The New Time of Troubles - Part II - Putin Overruled the General Staff

https://johnhelmer.org/the-new-time-of-troubles-part-ii-putin-overruled-the-general-staff/

"Military sources in Moscow have told a tale of President Vladimir Putin's decision not to defend the Syrian Arab Army and the Damascus government of Bashar al Assad.

The decision, the sources claim, was taken two weeks before the Turkish breakout from Idlib began on November 27, and was conveyed to Assad personally by December 6..."

Posted by: John Gilberts | Dec 16 2024 11:22 utc | 99

As well, in case you missed the interview earlier...


Chris Cook, John Helmer, recorded Dec 11, 2024

https://gradio.substack.com/p/gorilla-radio-with-chris-cook-john-374

"How did it come to this and how so suddenly...?"

Posted by: John Gilberts | Dec 16 2024 11:31 utc | 100

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