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Tag Archives: 2013

A Note on the Refugees of 1948 and the Arab Theft of Arab Dignity in Gaza

08 Friday Nov 2013

Posted by commart in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Islamic Small Wars, Israel, Middle East

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2013, autumn, Gaza, Hamas, protests, run-up

Tamarod Gaza’s main demands, as presented in different declarations, including a letter to the secretary-general of the Arab League, include requiring Hamas to immediately allow the formation of an elections committee, “without any delay or obstacle,” to pursue speedy general elections under international Arab and Islamic supervision. The expiration of Tamarod’s ultimatum of sorts has been set at sundown of November 8.

The Call for Rebellion against Hamas in Gaza – The Washington Institute for Near East Policy – 10/8/2013.

______

Being “caught between a rock and a hard place” might start looking pretty good to anyone who has long been caught between a rock and a rock.

Since 1948, Arabs abandoned in the field by Arab armies have with their generations been sequestered, more or less, in the refugee camps of Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and Egypt.

The same have been subject, differentially, to the diminishment of their human rights — notably, Mahmud Abbas received Jordanian citizenship around February 9, 2011, but even that story has been complicated by the middle east’s screwy loyalty x mafia flavored politics — from the preceding link: “The officials received citizenship at the same time they urged Jordan to stop giving Palestinian Jordanians citizenship, so they could consolidate their Palestinian identity, the Arab language newspaper said”; a little more than a year later, one reads (as if living in a very bad Orwell novel), “Jordan’s King Abdullah II is planning to revoke the Jordanian citizenship of Palestinian Authority (PA) and Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) officials, The Jerusalem Post reported Wednesday. It is unknown if PA President Mahmoud Abbas will also be stripped of his citizenship” — source: Jordan Continues to Strip Palestinians of Citizenship – Jewish Policy Center – 4/12/2012).

Others, who may have considered themselves lucky to have remained defiant of the State of Israel within its territories, admittedly contested, on the West Bank and Gaza (from which Jews were purged wholesale in 2005 in a faked out Arafat land-for-peace arrangement) have instead had to weather the abuses of Fatah-related cronyism and corruption and, in 2006, with soldiers of the same Fatah thrown from the rooftops of buildings in Gaza, the bizarre and deeply narcissistic Islamist control of Hamas.

To this day, the same have nurtured a surreal alternative narrative of the events of 1948, cultivated an absurd and ugly and wholly counterproductive anti-Semitic / anti-Zionist hate, treated childhood and adolescent educations as preparation for a war of conquest, and have complained incessantly and with great preoccupation of an “occupation” that has provided them with basic utilities, trade market exchange and throughput, educational services at the university level, and emergency medical services, trade partnerships, and jobs.

Around The Preoccupation has grown an immense online and print disinformation industry, including a “Pallywood” sector for the film propaganda buffs.

In association with the middle east conflict, who is really oppressing whom?

That question has been in the air a long time.

Lately, perhaps, with the Hamas’s six-year record of abuses in Gaza, it is finding some answers that may actually hold up to reason, not that it will hold up to Hamasfia’s intimidation backed by its history of paramilitary and military barbarism and brutality.

* * *

Expectations low for Gaza Tamarod protest – Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East – 11/6/2013.

______

As events in Syria force the mini-Jihad and majestic cabal in the region to turn up their cards, i.e., make their true values, language habits, and behavior irrevocably visible, one may expect the roles of archaic pan-Arab nationalism and barbaric Sunni and Shiite extremism to show their bones beneath the pools of blood in which they have been bathing for decades.

As part of that process, the refugees of Israel’s 1948 successful struggle for survival may soon get an honest reappraisal of their legitimate identity and needs and that in terms accessible to the greater collection of humanity that inclines to regard itself as less special but altogether more dignified.

______

Human Rights Watch Report Critical of Hamas Justice System in Gaza – NYTimes.com – 10/3/2012; Gaza: Arbitrary Arrests, Torture, Unfair Trials | Human Rights Watch – 10/3/2012:

The 43-page report, “Abusive System: Criminal Justice in Gaza,” documents extensive violations by Hamas security services, including warrantless arrests, failure to inform families promptly of detainees’ whereabouts, and subjecting detainees to torture. It also documents violations of detainees’ rights by prosecutors and courts. Military courts frequently try civilians, in violation of international law. Prosecutors often deny detainees access to a lawyer, and courts have failed to uphold detainees’ due process rights in cases of warrantless arrest and abusive interrogations, Human Rights Watch found.

Report Link: Abusive System | Human Rights Watch (October 3, 2012).

______

The UN, which has run the camps for all those years, is tired of the job. Balata’s alleys are caked in filth, a cash-for-work programme has all but collapsed, almost half the working-age adults have no jobs, and the UN’s once-prized classrooms are as overcrowded as the rooms where families live. Children sometimes leave school unable to write their names.

Palestinian refugee camps: A new type of settlement | The Economist – 10/12/2013.

* * *

Even before this refugee crisis, Palestinians in Lebanon were not legally allowed to work in most professions. They continue to live in cramped spaces in 12 refugee camps or rented apartments. Half of the Palestinians from Syria are concentrated in two areas, Tyre and Saida, which includes the largest Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon, Ein el Hilweh, established in 1948. They’re living with 13 individuals per residence, on average.

How Palestinian Refugees from Syria are Forced to Compete in Lebanon and Jordan – The Daily Beast – 11/6/2013.

* * *

. . . As an ex-Gaza refugee without a national ID number, Abu Sulayman has long lived without access to healthcare, full education, representation or any jobs aside from blue-collar labor. Now he also lives without teeth.

Abu Sulayman is one of 16 Gaza Camp refugees who were detained for two weeks in October following a weekend-long clash between the Palestinian camp, neighboring village al-Haddad and Jordan’s public security forces.

Palestinian refugees accuse Jordan police of abuse – Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East – 11/7/2013.

* * *

The PA was less than totally honest when it tried to justify the raid; it was, it claimed, to round-up corrupt individuals and outlaws. While some of the camp’s residents may well be so described, it is wrong to say that all of them are, and to treat them as if they are. The collective nature of the raid was actually intended to terrorise all of the residents. It is odd that such a show of force has never been attempt against the illegal Jewish settlers across the occupied West Bank.

Israel and the PA raid Jenin refugee camp – 11/8/2013: “Now we learn that the heroic camp was raided by the PA forces in late October last year”.

Israel’s a busy place, of course, and Jenin seems to play a special role in the development of related crime-and-suppression statistics.

Related: PA forces arrest Islamic Jihad members in raid on Jenin refugee camp | JPost | Israel News – 10/5/2013; PA forces raid Jenin refugee camp, arrest Islamic Jihad members | The Times of Israel – 10/5/2013; Israel News – Violent clashes erupted south of Jenin – JerusalemOnline – 10/31/2013.  From 2012: The Jewish Press » » Khaled Abu Toameh: How Journalists Allowed the Palestinian Authority to Fool Them – 5/9/2012.

______

Hamas puts ‘resistance’ on Gaza schools curriculum – Alarabiya.net English | Front Page – 11/5/2011:

“All of Palestine from the (Mediterranean) sea to the river (Jordan) belongs to us, to us Muslims,” it states, in accordance with the beliefs of the militant Islamic group, which refuses to recognize Israel.

* * *

American Woman Confirms What We Knew About Life In Gaza | Israellycool – 11/5/2013.

Hamas Orders: Shoot Protesters ‘In the Head’ – Middle East – News – Israel National News – 10/27/2013.

Hamas Intimidates Tamarod Activists Ahead of Protest – Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East – 9/20/2013.

Cornered Hamas looks back at Iran, Hezbollah | Reuters – 8/20/2013.

Amnesty International | Hamas must halt post-Eid executions planned in Gaza – 8/8/2013.

______

Regarding 1948

1948: A History of the First Arab-Israeli War: Benny Morris: 9780300151121: Amazon.com: Books

Palestine Betrayed: Efraim Karsh: 9780300127270: Amazon.com: Books

______

From the Tamarod Movement’s Experience in Egypt

▶ Tamarod: The Organization of a Rebellion – YouTube – Posted 6/26/2013.

# # #

Worth the Second Look – President Obama’s 2013 National Security Speech, May 23, 2013, and His Comment on the Drone Program

03 Sunday Nov 2013

Posted by commart in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Islamic Small Wars, Politics

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2013, comprehensive overview, drone program, drones, foreign policy, national security, national strategy, Obama, political, politics

http://youtu.be/gQKtnLgRgJ8

▶ Barack Obama Speech on the U.S. Counterterrorism Strategy – YouTube – 59:42 minute video – Posted 5/25/2013

Alternative source: Digital Report: President Obama Delivers National Security Speech | Video – ABC News –  1:10:00 minute video – 5/23/2013.

Location: Fort McNair, National Defense University (5/23/2013).

For the serious (aided by coffee, perhaps), I’d advise watching the more complete ABC News presentation, but, at a glance, they’re close to parity.  The applause and heckler interruption takes place at about 49 minutes, and while it seems that portion has made the rounds, the complete video tells a much, much greater and more thoughtful story.

After the heckler, at around 56 minutes, Obama notes, “We face down dangers far greater than Al Qaeda.  By staying true to the values of our founding, and by using our constitutional compass, we have overcome slavery and civil war and fascism and communism.”

Obama’s not only right on that score, but one would have to watch with hate in the heart and a fair dose of internally-generated paranoia to demonize him as some kind of remote international socialist Muslim.  All of that just isn’t there in the breadth, depth, and expanse of the national security presentation.

______

The ABC News page supporting the one hour and ten minute clip reports seven tweets and 84 Facebook shares, a pathetically low number for a remarkably candid and comprehensive speech by President Obama on national security, related legal practices, and the drone program that has been in the news recently with the assassination of Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud.

At about 38 minutes, Obama sums up basic concepts in his foreign policy:

  • Target actions against terrorists;
  • Effective partnerships;
  • Diplomatic engagement and assistance.

Notably, while speaking of terrorism generically, Obama goes on to address the American relationship with its Muslim complement.

“As we guard against dangers from abroad, we cannot neglect the daunting challenge of terrorism from within our borders . . . today a person can consume hateful propaganda, commit themselves to a violent agenda, and learn how to kill without leaving their home . . . the best way to prevent violent extremism is to work with the Muslim community, which has consistently rejected  terrorism . . . .  These partnerships can only work when we recognize that Muslims are an integral part of the American family . . . .   In fact, the success of American Muslims and our determination to guard against any encroachments on their civil liberties is the ultimate rebuke to those who say that we are at war with Islam.”

Related Reference

Pakistan on high alert after Taliban leader killed by US drone strike | World news | theguardian.com – 11/2/2013.

Two U.S.-Born Terrorists Killed in CIA-Led Drone Strike | Fox News – 9/30/2011.

Drone Wars Pakistan: Analysis | The National Security Studies Program (New America Foundation) – current.

# # #

Violence Incoherent, Insensate, and In the Name Of

06 Sunday Oct 2013

Posted by commart in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Iraq, Islamic Small Wars, Middle East

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2013, accelerating violence, civil war, Iraq, sectarian warfare

“It’s a tragedy,” he said. “These innocent children were here to study. What sins did these children commit?”

Iraq: Children Killed In Playground Bombing – 10/6/2013.

Baghdad, 1 October 2013 – According to casualty figures released today by UNAMI, a total of 979 Iraqis were killed and another 2,133 were wounded in acts of terrorism and violence in September.

UN Releases Casualty Figures for September | ReliefWeb – 10/6/2013.

Related: Sectarian violence kills dozens in Iraq – CNN.com – 10/6/2013.

But a little over a year after it was suspended, the death penalty was reinstated by the new Shiite-led central government. A year later, in 2005, the executions, usually by hanging, resumed.

Since then, around 500 people have been executed, according to records kept by human rights observers including Amnesty International. During the first four months of this year alone at least 50 people were hanged.

In Iraq, executions rise as deadly attacks escalate | Al Jazeera America – 10/5/2013.

Iraq is one of the world’s most prolific executioners, as the government continues to battle against a high level of violence by armed groups. Hundreds of prisoners are currently held on death row. In 2012 a sharp rise in executions was recorded in Iraq making it the country with the third highest number of executions in the world, after China and Iran. At least 129 people were executed in 2012, almost twice the known total of 201 since the beginning of 2013 at least 83 people, including two women, have been executed.

www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/MDE14/017/2013/en/2c1cf331-1948-4e4e-bc58-7ec4548f9a11/mde140172013en.pdf

The civil war in neighboring Syria — itself a volatile, sectarian conflict — has spilled across the border, and Sunni jihadi factions are operating in both countries. Now, four months before the next parliamentary elections, Iraq increasingly appears to be spiraling toward a civil war.

Iraq’s Months of Sectarian Violence May Lead to a Civil War | TIME.com 10/1/2013.

The Iraqi government plans to form a division comprised of Iraqi Shi’a militia members. This planned division will be deployed in Baghdad. This development is recognition by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki that current security measures are ineffective. While the formation of this division may appeal to the Iraqi Shi’a, it may lead to further discontent by the Iraqi Sunnis. Al-Qaeda in Iraq will capitalize on the formation of this division and seek new opportunities to escalate sectarian violence in Iraq. The formation of the division will damage Maliki’s credentials and likely lead to further instability.

The Baghdad Division: Iraqi Shi‘a Militia Elements to Form State-Backed Force | Institute for the Study of War Iraq Updates – 9/27/2013.

For those who may take a special interest in Iraq. Stephen Wicken‘s blog on which the above quoted piece by Ahmed Ali appears, updates weekly.

______

“Two mad wasps in a bell jar” — my analogy for Shia vs Sunni fighting in Syria would seem to hold up as well for Iraq, which looks to me to be dissolving into a purely retributive bloodbath of a civil war.

The UN’s count approaching 1,000 dead in Iraq in September appears in brief overview a reliable monthly rate with sources reporting 5,000 dead by way of political violence in the land since April of this year.

Related: Bullet-riddled corpses echo brutal Iraqi sectarian war | ReliefWeb 9/19/2013.

Saturday 5 October: 100 killed
Baghdad: 55 in bomb attacks.
Mosul: 5 by gunfire.
Balad: 15 by car bomb.
Baquba: 11 in separate bombings.
Yusufiya: 3 Sahwa members by IED.
Hawija: 3 Sahwa members by gunfire.
Muqdadiya: 1 by IED.
Tikrit: 3 (women and child) killed during clashes.
Falluja: 4 by gunfire, IED.

October casualties so far: 183 civilians killed.

Recent Events :: Iraq Body Count

The month is yet young.

Presuming that those remote to the fighting are nonetheless getting an accurate impression of Iraq’s fully functioning if entirely off-kilter slaughterhouse, one begs to ask about motivation on the part of killers, and never mind their affiliation.

“At the root of these attacks – said Msgr. Sako – is a strong tension between the Shiite majority and the Sunni faction and this violence is clearly sectarian and confessional in nature.” In Kirkuk alone, the archbishop continued, there were four targeted killings of innocent people. “The aim – says the prelate – is to destabilize the country” because “the central government lacks unity and political force even within the same Shiite majority. There is great tension, there is no dialogue between groups and greater barriers are emerging “.

IRAQ Archbishop of Kirkuk: sectarian violence in Iraq “politically motivated” – Asia News – 9/10/2012.

Note the date!

Such explanations prove so good and useful that one may live with them for years . . . .

Related: Iraq will not become another Syria, says government, as car bombs kill 34 | Reuters – 8/15/2013; Sunni-Shi’ite Jihad in Iraq | FrontPage Magazine – 9/26/2013.

______

It appears in Iraq that even such things as wanton destruction and murder may become habits, first of mind in excessively perceived oppressive, anxiety-ridden, paranoid, and infernal atmospheres, i.e., the bizarre, surreal, and untrustworthy atmosphere of a war zone, and then habits in activity and action: some population has long been accustomed to the presence of firearms, ammo, explosives and, this perhaps spelling the difference between a predominantly peaceful “gun ownership” and a restless one prone to violence, a mise en scene of explosions and shootings overlaying thousands of smaller but vicious acts of intimidation and suggestion.

There’s the madness of the wasps in the bell jar in that.

The state’s monopoly on violence, as in Hussain’s day, may suppress and reduce violence in the streets, but imposed along sectarian lines, or perceived as such, it will fail.

The battle that looks like Shiite vs Sunni may turn out an unformed middle — about to be called into being out necessity — against an habituated cast of aimless, mindless, morally bankrupt and vengeful war zombies today reduced to blowing themselves up among pilgrims and school children.

______

Attacks Across Iraq Leave 66 Dead – YouTube – Rudaw English – 10/6/2013.

______

No one who has retained either an ounce of their own courage or humanity can fail to see the inchoate and lost qualities in these deluded monsters who walk around with death their only real meaning.

While Robert Spencer noted recently, “. . . the idea that the Sunni-Shi’ite divide, which is 1,400 years old and goes all the way back to the murky origins of Islam, is something that can without undue difficulty be “overcome” is a sterling manifestation of the general superficiality of Washington’s analysis of the Middle East, during both the Bush and the Obama Administrations,” I would ask who is not fighting that fight today for the good reason they had on one day or another in this lifetime found the world changed when they opened their eyes.

Their numbers needs must dwarf these others.

Where are they?

Do they not understand what is killing them?

Habits of mind are like any other: one foregoes the behavior for a while, whether some form of gluttony or excessive passivity, and then, so one may hope, moves on to better thoughts and brighter days.

______

Related: Iraq: Attacks Amount to Crimes Against Humanity | Human Rights Watch – 8/11/2013.

# # #

FNS – Egypt — Watching It With You

29 Saturday Jun 2013

Posted by commart in BCND - BackChannels News Day, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Egypt, Fast News Share, Islamic Small Wars, Journalism, Middle East, Politics, Regions

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2013, demonstrations, Egypt, June

Most newspaper editors refrained from mockery of Morsi’s predecessor, Hosni Mubarak, during his thirty-year reign, but in the new Egypt, things are different. A law against “insulting” the President remains in the penal code, but illustrators unabashedly lampoon Morsi on a daily basis.

Guyer, Jonathan.  “A Year of Drawing Morsi.”  The New Yorker, June 29, 2013.

I’ll be asking what I’m doing “watching it with you”, but, for a while, I’ll be watching for videos and tweets on what would seem to be shaping up as a bloody day in Egypt.

As the world turns, Cairo’s about six hours ahead of New York City, so no “all nighter” seems necessary here, and, part of answering my own question, I’m not scoopin’ nobody!

If I’ve two cents to add, it’s going to have to do with analysis and reflection.

Themes

Petition to remove President Morsi from office: “Egypt group: 22 million signatures against Morsi”

General violence: “American Killed in Egypt Taught English to Children.”

A friend called a couple of hours ago to commiserate over reports of another gang-type rape of a journalist in association with Egypt’s violence, but one would expect that to play at the top of reports, and an attempt to access a referenced video link sent by the same party seemed only to block my web connection in general.

Reduced street-to-world time in reporting: “Egypt protests set for showdown, violence feared.”  The URL is about two hours old — I think CNN and Reuters are going to “own my eyeballs” as other outfits start begging subscriptions when they really haven’t any monopoly on a large story nor, if narrow casting, all that unique a perspective (but that brings up my motivation too, and it nags me that I might fare better working on much narrowed research by contract).

Lessons yet to be learned:

http://youtu.be/uunTi1be2VM

At 0:32, Hamada Moharram says, “He can’t even rule a village.  This isn’t fair.  The Muslim Brotherhood as a whole is an organization full of corruption.”

Somehow, I just don’t want to play The Who’s “Won’t Fooled Again” again in this spot.

It gets old.

Kind of like the web.

Be that as it may, good luck today, Egypt.

The whole world will be watching.

Try not to horrify it too much.

FNS – Egypt – Two Days Ahead of Planned Demonstrations

28 Friday Jun 2013

Posted by commart in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Egypt, Middle East, Regions

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2013, Egypt, June, unrest

“As The Washington Post’s Abigail Hauslohner wrote from Cairo, many there are convinced it will spiral into violence. She wrote, “All of Egypt seemed to be bracing for horrors that may come as opposition protesters prepare to call for Morsi’s downfall in mass demonstrations Sunday, the one-year anniversary of his taking office.”  http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2013/06/28/video-appears-to-show-worsening-violence-in-egypt-ahead-of-sundays-protests/

“Washington also warned American nationals against all but essential travel to Egypt, and said non-emergency diplomatic staff could leave the country.”  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-23092817

“While the protests in Cairo remained peaceful, deadly clashes erupted in the port city of Alexandria, where protesters set fire to the Brotherhood’s headquarters. Security officials said that one victim was a United States citizen, a man who was stabbed to death near the headquarters.”  http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/29/world/middleeast/egypt-tensions.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

“(Reuters) – Two people, one an American, were killed when protesters stormed an office of Egypt’s ruling Muslim Brotherhood in Alexandria on Friday, adding to growing tension ahead of mass rallies aimed at unseating the Islamist president.”  http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/28/us-egypt-protests-idUSBRE95Q0NO20130628

From last month: ““Sometimes when we watch them sleep, we just cry,” said the 40-year-old, who now works mucking out stables.  “We see there is no food and we don’t know what to do.”   http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/05/05/18001075-there-is-no-food-post-revolutionary-economic-turmoil-dashes-hopes-in-egypt?lite

A more recently published (mid-June) glimpse of Egypt’s economic scenario: “Moreover, the same plan states that 21.4 percent of the 27.3 million strong workforce are temporary workers, and at least 46.5 percent of those employees work in the unofficial sector without contracts. Furthermore, 67 percent has no health insurance. No wonder – rising employment, widespread poverty (with 25 percent living under the poverty line), and poor working conditions were all factors behind the January 2011 revolution that toppled the Mubarak regime.”  http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2013/06/2013615122844106819.html

FNS – Conflict in Lebanon Intensifies Irreversibly

23 Sunday Jun 2013

Posted by commart in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Fast News Share, Lebanon, Middle East, Politics, Regions

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2013, fighting, June, Lebanese, Lebanon

“The army has tried for months to keep Lebanon away from the problems of Syria, and it ignored repeated requests for it to clamp down on Sheikh Ahmed al-Assir’s group,” the military command said in a statement.

“But what has happened today has gone beyond all expectations. The army was attacked in cold blood in an attempt to light the fuse in Sidon, just as was done in 1975,” it said, referring to the year that Lebanon’s own 15-year civil war began.

Reuters.  “Syria-linked clashes kill at least eight in Lebanon.”  June 23, 2013.

Reported yesterday by Jeffrey Fleishman in the Los Angeles Times:

“Every Muslim population must protect their brothers in Syria,” said Sheik Yusuf Qaradawi, a popular Egyptian-born cleric who lives in Qatar and appears frequently on TV. “The nation is ready for sacrifice and jihad and we must call for jihad to defend religion and God’s law.”

Fleishman, Jeffrey.  “Hezbollah’s role in Syria fighting threatens to spread holy war.”  Los Angeles Times, June 22, 2013.

If the superpowers engaged in Sumo wrestling over the fate of Syria think they’re in control of the region, they may have some surprises coming.  Syria is a crucible with many holes in it, and, as mentioned, it draws the engines of war into itself, but this week, especially, it has promoted sectarian violence beyond its borders and done so in local ways not likely to recede in the next day or two.

But to the traditional prayers and chants — praising the leaders of Iran and Hezbollah, denouncing Israel and America — the mourners added a new barb, for the gunmen battling the Syrian government who, they said, had killed him: “Death to the Free Army.”

The funeral on Wednesday at once encapsulated Hezbollah’s cohesion and the new uncertainties and anxieties its followers face as it fights a new kind of war, more intimate and ambiguous than the group’s founding conflict with Israel.

Barnard, Anne (Hwaida Saad contributing).  “As Hezbollah Fight in Syria, Life Changes in a Lebanese Border Town.”  The New York Times, June 21, 2013.

Anne Barnard’s intimate coverage of the Syrian conflict developing a Lebanese cast takes the reader through the onset of war.  Businesses close; once trusted relationships become suspicious; political arrangements that sufficed for peace and security start to come apart.

Related Reference

Abdulrahim, Raja.  “Syrian soldiers warned daily of sectarian dangers, defectors say.”  Los Angeles times, May 17, 2013.

Naharnet Newsdesk.  “Tripoli fighting Death Toll Rises to 5 as Sniper Fire Targets ISF, Army Troops.”  June 3, 2013.

Ben Solomon, Ariel.  “Sectarian clashes in Lebanon increase in intensity.”  The Jerusalem Post, June 23, 2013.

FNS – “Saida” is “Sedon” – Lebanon

23 Sunday Jun 2013

Posted by commart in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Fast News Share

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2013, fighting, June, Lebanon

Anyone care to translate?

The world online is a world, and everything appearing seems encountered fresh and from scratch.

I can’t authenticate the footage; I can’t translate the page.  Sometimes the agitprop-minded borrow from other war zones at other times — that’s how we get English “bobbies” arresting protesters in Ankara until one notices, “They’re speakin’ English!”

Clashes re-erupted in the southern city of Sidon on Sunday, as Sheikh Ahmad al-Assir’s armed partisans attacked a checkpoint for the Lebanese Army in the eastern neighborhood of Abra.

Al-Manar News.  “Second Round of Sidon Clashes: Assir Partisans Attack Lebanese Army.”  June 23, 2013.

Syria – Children In War

12 Wednesday Jun 2013

Posted by commart in Uncategorized

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2013, child soldiers, Syria

“UNITED NATIONS – Syrian troops and rebels are recruiting children to fight in the country’s civil war and some have been tortured by government forces for having links to the opposition, UN chief Ban Ki-moon said in a report on Wednesday.”  http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/UN-slams-Syrian-rebels-recruitment-of-children-316359

I touched on the topic of children in war — https://conflict-backchannels.com/2013/06/11/isw-children-in-the-war-news/ — spurred by atrocious reports of the murder of a young soul in Syria and a beheading of a boy by Taliban in Afghanistan (they didn’t take credit, but somebody did, and such comprises a crime unfathomable — and not “collateral damage”, that one, but some adult’s willful, premeditated act. # # #

 

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Epigram

Hillel the Elder

"That which is distasteful to thee do not do to another. That is the whole of Torah. The rest is commentary. Now go and study."

"If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am not for others, what am I? If not now, when?"

"Whosoever destroys a soul, it is considered as if he destroyed an entire world. And whosoever that saves a life, it is considered as if he saved an entire world."

Oriana Fallaci
"Whether it comes from a despotic sovereign or an elected president, from a murderous general or a beloved leader, I see power as an inhuman and hateful phenomenon...I have always looked on disobedience toward the oppressive as the only way to use the miracle of having been born."

Talmud 7:16 as Quoted by Rishon Rishon in 2004
Qohelet Raba, 7:16

אכזרי סוף שנעשה אכזרי במקום רחמן

Kol mi shena`asa rahaman bimqom akhzari Sof shena`asa akhzari bimqom rahaman

All who are made to be compassionate in the place of the cruel In the end are made to be cruel in the place of the compassionate.

More colloquially translated: "Those who are kind to the cruel, in the end will be cruel to the kind."

Online Source: http://www.rishon-rishon.com/archives/044412.php

Abraham Isaac Kook

"The purely righteous do not complain about evil, rather they add justice.They do not complain about heresy, rather they add faith.They do not complain about ignorance, rather they add wisdom." From the pages of Arpilei Tohar.

Heinrich Heine
"Where books are burned, in the end people will be burned." -- From Almansor: A Tragedy (1823).

Simon Wiesenthal
Remark Made in the Ballroom of the Imperial Hotel, Vienna, Austria on the occasion of His 90th Birthday: "The Nazis are no more, but we are still here, singing and dancing."

Maimonides
"Truth does not become more true if the whole world were to accept it; nor does it become less true if the whole world were to reject it."

"The risk of a wrong decision is preferable to the terror of indecision."

Douglas Adams
"Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?" Epigram appearing in the dedication of Richard Dawkins' The GOD Delusion.

Thucydides
"The Nation that makes a great distinction between its scholars and its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting done by fools."

Milan Kundera
"The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting."

Malala Yousafzai
“The terrorists thought that they would change our aims and stop our ambitions but nothing changed in my life except this: weakness, fear and hopelessness died. Strength, power and courage was born.”

Tanit Nima Tinat
"Who could die of love?"

What I Have Said About the Jews

My people, not that I speak for them, I nonetheless describe as a "global ethnic commune with its heart in Jerusalem and soul in the Land of Israel."

We have never given up on God, nor have we ever given up on one another.

Many things we have given up, but no one misses, say, animal sacrifice, and as many things we have kept, so we have still to welcome our Sabbath on Friday at sunset and to rest all of Saturday until three stars appear in the sky.

Most of all, through 5,773 years, wherever life has taken us, through the greatest triumphs and the most awful tragedies, we have preserved our tribal identity and soul, and so shall we continue eternally.

Anti-Semitism / Anti-Zionism = Signal of Fascism

I may suggest that anti-Zionism / anti-Semitism are signal (a little bit) of fascist urges, and the Left -- I'm an old liberal: I know my heart -- has been vulnerable to manipulation by what appears to me as a "Red Brown Green Alliance" driven by a handful of powerful autocrats intent on sustaining a medieval worldview in service to their own glorification. (And there I will stop).
One hopes for knowledge to allay fear; one hopes for love to overmatch hate.

Too often, the security found in the parroting of a loyal lie outweighs the integrity to be earned in confronting and voicing an uncomfortable truth.

Those who make their followers believe absurdities may also make them commit atrocities.

Positively Orwellian: Comment Responding to Claim that the Arab Assault on Israel in 1948 Had Not Intended Annihilation

“Revisionism” is the most contemptible path that power takes to abet theft and hide shame by attempting to alter public perception of past events.

On Press Freedom, Commentary, and Journalism

In the free world, talent -- editors, graphic artists, researchers, writers -- gravitate toward the organizations that suit their interests and values. The result: high integrity and highly reliable reportage and both responsible and thoughtful reasoning.

This is not to suggest that partisan presses don't exist or that propaganda doesn't exist in the west, but any reader possessed of critical thinking ability and genuine independence -- not bought, not programmed -- is certainly free to evaluate the works of earnest reporters and scholars.

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