It seems that all what Syria and the Syrians needed in those bloody 2 years were two Israeli air strikes and the war drums to be echoed in the Middle East so the world , especially the Arab world is paying attention to what is happening in Syria.
Last Thursday there were rumors about an alleged Israeli strike taking place early Friday then we woke up today Sunday morning to find another air strike by IAF.Here is a footage for the air strike over mount Qaison in Damascus. Syrian media is saying that the air strike targeting some military research center.
Here is a video from mount Qaison earlier this morning. Sources told news agencies last Friday that Israeli air strikes targeted a Hezbollah arms convoy in Syria.
Here is another video showing the air strike
The IDF spokesperson for Arab media Avichay Adraee has not spoken yet about the strike. We know our info from Israeli media only.
There is no way that Israel would launch those air strikes without the prior notice of the United States. Of course this is confirmed with the statements of the US unnamed officials speaking to Reuters and AP in the past 72 hours.
Personally I believe that these two strikes are Israel's gift to Al Assad , he needs those two strikes to maintain his fake resistance face against those bad revolutionaries/Islamists fighting with Israel against him !!
Amazingly now the Arabs are attention to the strikes only today.
There are reactions coming from Cairo , from presidency and different political parties and political figures as well. It is no longer non Egyptian matter after all this is Syria we are speaking about and it is being attacked by Israeli forces. “Not the first”
For the record the first political party to speak about the Israeli strikes was the Popular Current of Hamdeen Sabahi.The popular current condemned the Israeli strikes using the words of "Israeli aggression" despite its total refusal to Bashar Al Assad's crimes against Syrian revolution in a statement issued earlier today. The angry statement condemned the Arabic silence as the Egyptian regime's silence.
Of course the Egyptian regime or rather the Egyptian presidency did not sit silently. It issued a statement as well.
With my all due respect to Morsi and his administration despite I believe this is what Egypt should do using its diplomatic powers for real to help the Syrian people and having talks with everybody yet unfortunately Egypt is not that strong now thanks tot the bad management of its current administration.
Mohamed Morsi went asking for investments and help from Iran, China and Russia in the first place. This is not an action of negotiations. Unfortunately when it comes to crises like this one you feel you need a leading figure like Nasser or Sadat.
By the way at the same time we are speaking about these huge developments taken place , we find our minister of defense/Morsi’s rival General El Sisi is visiting Turkey along with an Egyptian military delegation. It is the first visit to Turkey for El Sisis as a minister of defense.
At the same time we know that El Sisi´s first aide Major General Sabry Abdel Latif is heading also to Washington D.C.
I do not have doubt that besides discussing the bilateral military relations , the developments on the Syrian front will be discussed.
Anyhow aside from Hamdeen Sabbahi and Egyptian Presidency, Mohamed ElBaradei called for an urgent Arab summit in Damascus "yes in Damascus" to discuss the slaughterhouse taking place in Syria in three tweets.
Sadly no one issued a statement with hundreds of innocent civilians have been slaughtered in Baniyas last Thursday.
Last Thursday there were rumors about an alleged Israeli strike taking place early Friday then we woke up today Sunday morning to find another air strike by IAF.Here is a footage for the air strike over mount Qaison in Damascus. Syrian media is saying that the air strike targeting some military research center.
Here is a video from mount Qaison earlier this morning. Sources told news agencies last Friday that Israeli air strikes targeted a Hezbollah arms convoy in Syria.
Here is another video showing the air strike
There is no way that Israel would launch those air strikes without the prior notice of the United States. Of course this is confirmed with the statements of the US unnamed officials speaking to Reuters and AP in the past 72 hours.
Personally I believe that these two strikes are Israel's gift to Al Assad , he needs those two strikes to maintain his fake resistance face against those bad revolutionaries/Islamists fighting with Israel against him !!
Amazingly now the Arabs are attention to the strikes only today.
There are reactions coming from Cairo , from presidency and different political parties and political figures as well. It is no longer non Egyptian matter after all this is Syria we are speaking about and it is being attacked by Israeli forces. “Not the first”
For the record the first political party to speak about the Israeli strikes was the Popular Current of Hamdeen Sabahi.The popular current condemned the Israeli strikes using the words of "Israeli aggression" despite its total refusal to Bashar Al Assad's crimes against Syrian revolution in a statement issued earlier today. The angry statement condemned the Arabic silence as the Egyptian regime's silence.
Of course the Egyptian regime or rather the Egyptian presidency did not sit silently. It issued a statement as well.
The Presidency condemns the Israeli raid on Syria as a violation of international laws that would only complicate the situation & threaten Middle East peaceMohamed Morsi is now under the fire that he betrayed the Syrian cause because after claiming that he would not sit or talk with countries that support Bashar El Assad. The man has already restored our relations with Iran which he visited just like his visits to Russia and China. The MB media machine is saying that those visits are actually helping the Syrian revolution as the President is trying to reach to a solution. The MB media claims that he showed Al Assad's main supporters in the world "Iran, Russia and China" the so-called the Egyptian initiative to stop the fight in Syria. Of course I do not think that Russia or China or Iran will feel Egypt's importance in this way.
With my all due respect to Morsi and his administration despite I believe this is what Egypt should do using its diplomatic powers for real to help the Syrian people and having talks with everybody yet unfortunately Egypt is not that strong now thanks tot the bad management of its current administration.
Mohamed Morsi went asking for investments and help from Iran, China and Russia in the first place. This is not an action of negotiations. Unfortunately when it comes to crises like this one you feel you need a leading figure like Nasser or Sadat.
By the way at the same time we are speaking about these huge developments taken place , we find our minister of defense/Morsi’s rival General El Sisi is visiting Turkey along with an Egyptian military delegation. It is the first visit to Turkey for El Sisis as a minister of defense.
At the same time we know that El Sisi´s first aide Major General Sabry Abdel Latif is heading also to Washington D.C.
I do not have doubt that besides discussing the bilateral military relations , the developments on the Syrian front will be discussed.
Anyhow aside from Hamdeen Sabbahi and Egyptian Presidency, Mohamed ElBaradei called for an urgent Arab summit in Damascus "yes in Damascus" to discuss the slaughterhouse taking place in Syria in three tweets.
سوريا الآن مذبح بشري ! هل مازلنا نستطيع أن نتباهي بعروبتنا و إنسانيتنا؟ وهل يوجد بيننا عاقل رشيد؟
— Mohamed ElBaradei (@ElBaradei) May 5, 2013
Syria is a slaughterhouse now !! Can we still brag with our Arab nationalism and our humanity !? Is there any sane person among us ?
هل من الممكن عقد قمة عربية في دمشق لوقف المجازر والتوصل الي تسوية؟ هل نستطيع ولو لمرة واحدة أن نكون قادرين علي حل مشاكلنا بأنفسنا؟
— Mohamed ElBaradei (@ElBaradei) May 5, 2013
Is it possible to have an Arab summit in Damascus to stop the massacre and reach to comprise ?? Can we once be capable to solve our problems by ourselves !?Dear Bob this is tooooo damn late to say this !!?
Gruesome slaughterhouse in Syria becoming a spectator sport! Yet again a dysfunctional regional & global security system.Now on a public level Egyptians are connected to Syria more than Arab country. Of course now you will find the Anti-MB and Anti-Islamists putting the blame on the Islamist terrorists who are cooperating with the US and Israel to bring down the Syrian army and split Syria in to pieces. Of course that theory is widely and even adopted more by the Pro Mubarak/SCAF/Shafik/Anti-Revolution team who believe that the Arab spring uprisings and revolutions are universal plots to bring down the Egyptian army eventually after Iraqi and Syrian army. I am tried of debating with those people. Of course those people are praying that Bashar Al Assad would kick the ass of both the revolutionaries, the Islamists and Israel altogether. Of course they forgot we are speaking about Al Assad who did not move a muscle against Israel when it launched an air strike against that Nuclear reactor in 2007 in Deir ez Zor !!
— Mohamed ElBaradei (@ElBaradei) May 5, 2013
Sadly no one issued a statement with hundreds of innocent civilians have been slaughtered in Baniyas last Thursday.
I hate our contemporary history. Nothing new is unfolding. It the same old story being repeated over and over and its getting really boring.
ReplyDeleteIts just like when we were under the British or Ottoman occupation. Nothing has changed of the reaction of Egypt towards Syria for the last 500 years!
Hi, this is plemochoe.
ReplyDeleteI've been thinking about the good press the Syrian opposition got when Kafranbel sent their condolences to Boston (and people in Boston thanked them and sent their own sympathy back).
Thousands of times Syrians say, "Hey world! Help us!" And they show awful pictures. Then nothing happens, and people say, "The world doesn't care."Often we think, "The people in America sympathize with us, but their government is unwilling to act." In this case (and it was the same with Gaddafi) the government (Obama) knows exactly who is right and who is wrong; the little people who watch TV do NOT know because of anti-Muslim prejudice, not realizing that the Syrians are really very Westernized (much more than Libyans), and also because Assad buys a LOT of media stories that make it look like the regime and the opposition are equally at fault (the 50-50 excuse), or that accuse the opposition of being al-Qaeda.
Kafranbel cut through the prejudice for one minute, and I wondered if that could be repeated somehow...
Zeinobia,
ReplyDeleteThere is no way that Israel would launch those air strikes without the prior notice of the United States.
Why wouldn't they? Syria is not now and has never been a US ally. In fact, as an ally/proxy of Iran's, it's pretty much the opposite of an ally.
Of course this is confirmed with the statements of the US unnamed officials speaking to Reuters and AP in the past 72 hours.
US officials are habitual liars, especially in Obama's Administration. Almost as bad as Egyptians.
plemochoe,
...the little people who watch TV do NOT know because of anti-Muslim prejudice, not realizing that the Syrians are really very Westernized...
You seem to be forgetting the US was in Iraq for nearly 10 years and just recently withdrew. Considering a lot of the Syrian rebels were also Mujihedeen in Iraq, I think it's safe to say Americans aren't as clueless as you claim. As far as being "westernized", what's that got to do with anything? Zeinobia here is westernized, and she hates the United States.
The second video has been taken down by the uploader. I'm not sure what it showed, but maybe it's the same as this one (YouTube).
ReplyDelete@Anonymous"Obama knows exactly who is right and who is wrong; the little people who watch TV do NOT know because of anti-Muslim prejudice"
What are you talking about? What does Obama know?
Syrians are sophisticated people, if that is what you mean by Westernized(probably the experience of European powers and its long history) which makes them different than many Arabs.
ReplyDeleteThe ones I've met live by their wits and nerve. Assad is a very tough nut to crack but he will crack. He has killed double his fathers tally and it is not working. I don't believe the West is really worried that Syria will become a Jihadist haven. Pakistan & Saudia Arabia are the havens and likely always will be. Both those countries cannot be controlled by the US. History never repeats itself exactly. The time of Mujahadeen is over.
No what they are having problems with is Iran, Russia & China who are hoping Assad wins and are competing for influence with the US. Terrorism can be organised from anywhere now. Iran? Lebanon? Mali? Bali? Sinai? Thats also a worry for most countries.
Z. doesn't hate the US, after all she uses Western Technology to run her blog. But like many in the ME she is critical of some of its foreign & military policy. Thats not the same thing. I remember when Bush Jr. said "You are either with us or with the terrorists". At the time, I thought to myself "No,I'm not!"
The time of Mujahadeen is over.
DeleteIf that's true, it's because of Bush Jr, and you seem no fan of his. However, I'd argue it's NOT true. And considering the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood is now running Egypt, and they are the ideological and in many cases actual father of all Sunni Arab jihadist movements, it seems a very odd claim for somebody to be making on an Egyptian blog.
Z. doesn't hate the US, after all she uses Western Technology to run her blog. But like many in the ME she is critical of some of its foreign & military policy. Thats not the same thing.
I've been reading Arab blogs for almost a decade now. I know the difference between somebody who is critical of policy and somebody who hates America. And I mean no offense but these kinds of weasel words people use to make it seem like they aren't actually as hostile as they appear to be have been cliche for quite some time.
And by the way, Al Qaida uses western technology to run its blogs and forums, too. They're even on facebook. This means nothing.
"Westernized" is an inexact word. I guess what I'm thinking of is what we call European Islam, 15 million Muslims who know what is good and bad about home and about Europe. A free Syria is the culmination of the Arab Spring. The MENA and Europe can be "one hand" - and we will need that, and all the technology the US and other countries can invent, to handle the storm that is coming out of Africa...
DeleteThe Arab Spring is like an Asimovian Seldon crisis. It is happening now because world history needs the Arabs, and only the Arabs can do what needs to be done.
Once Syria is free, the nation of Israel - soon to be majority-Arab - will stop being pulled to the right by paranoid Russian Jews. Israel, Palestine, Syria, these are the best businesspeople in the world, in the best commercial location. Once Russia leaves Syria, things will fall into place.
Hating this country or that country is a thing of the past. Obviously the US is less crazy now than when they invaded Iraq. The US helped Libya, and I haven't heard anybody say the US is now robbing Libya to get it's money back. America is changing and 4 million Muslims are a part of that too. Iran is not so far from reaching real democracy, and maybe Russia will too.
The Syrian rebels say God is Great about 100 times a day. It's possible some people should consider that possibility. Things we think are impossible, unthinkable - well, if they really were impossible, we could all go home, turn on TV and wait until the water runs out. We have a responsibility to imagine things as better, to dream a good future. To me that was what the Arab Spring was all about. The dictators were supposed to be too powerful; and now look. You can say things are not better, but I think not many Egyptians would say "Oh yeah, we want Mubarak back".
I fell in love with Libyans because they were sort of brave and romantic; but Syrians recreate and redefine the virtues daily. When the people in Misrata fought for their freedom, it was exciting to think "I might have a little of that spirit in me!!" But seeing Syria is more like thinking, let me do something good now in this life, for I have had all my doubts about Heaven erased. To see the nobility of the Syrian people is to lose all ability to doubt the goodness of the universe.
One of us isn't doing a very credible job of observing observable reality :)
DeleteI had hoped Iran would have enjoyed long overdue freedom. I thought they might achieve it before the Arabs. They came very,very close in 2009 but a mouldy, crippled old man and his cynical servants prevented that from happening. Make no mistake, Shiite or not, millions of Iranians (the majority) are with the opposition to the Assad Dictatorship - if only because their own jailers are for him.
DeleteSyria is going to be a loss to the forces of reaction (dead modes of thought) in Russia, China, Iran and elsewhere. An expensive loss.
To think 3 yrs ago, this was one of the tightest,longest-lived police states in modern times.
"Of course those people are praying that Bashar Al Assad would kick the ass of both the revolutionaries, the Islamists and Israel altogether. "
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If Israel had carried out this airstrike on Muslim people like Gaza, or any Islamist forces, these same people would be cheering and going whooopeeee !!!!!
I am hearing that whole of Mount Qassioun was on fire. Two entire brigades of the Republican Guard were wiped out. Good riddance.
Assad and the Islamists are two faces of the same coin.
ReplyDelete