Druze Life in Syria Precarious

The main topic of news this week has concerned the Druze community in southern Syria. I believe a bit of background is necessary here in order to understand how all this started.

SYRIA & the DRUZE.  A Druze channel gave some background to the trigger to the current situation: “The Bedouin in southern Syria operate a major smuggling trade (in particular drug smuggling into Jordan and Israel).  They often move as an armed force through Druze towns in the area, causing conflict and setting up the Druze as retaliatory targets.  The Druze got fed up with this, and put up armed roadblocks to stop it.  The Bedouin responded violently.”

In mosques in Daraa in southern Syria, a general mobilization was announced, and a declaration of jihad against Druze members of the south Syrian community, while Bedouin tribes, groups and factions were organizing for a renewed battle.

According to Al Jazeera, there has been a major displacement of more than 500 Bedouin families after their homes were burned in Sweida by Druze armed groups following Bedouin attacks and murders of the Druze.

One problem seems to be the fact that Al-Julani is not in control of Syria. There are reports of groups flowing into Syria from Turkey with the stated intention of committed jihad in the Druze community. The IDF is determined to preventing these groups from reaching the Druze communities and has clearly stated its intention to protect the Druze.

Regime head Al-Jolani says: “Syria will not be a place for creating chaos. We will confront attempts to create chaos with unity. We reject any attempt to divide Syria. We are now faced with two options: either confront Israel or reform our internal front. We are assigning local factions and tribal leaders the responsibility of maintaining security in Sweida.  I say to the Druze citizens that your protection is our priority; The state intervened in Sweida to end violations by groups operating outside the law.”

In spite of these statements Syrian regime personnel are disguising official vehicles and heading off to jihad against the Druze. Also tribal jihadis are reportedly demolishing Druze buildings in outer Sweida areas, southern Syria, as their advance continues.

In light of the recent attacks against the Druze in Sweida and the severe humanitarian situation in the region, and in accordance with the needs on the ground - Foreign Minister Gidon Sa’ar ordered the urgent transfer of humanitarian aid to the Druze in Sweida.  The aid package, worth NIS 2 million, will include - among other things - food packages, medical equipment, first aid kits, and medicines.

This is a developing story, it is difficult to predict what will happen next.

 

Massacres under Syria's new Regime

 

SYRIAN CHAOS GROWS - The new regime led by al-Julani, which received the blessing of the democratic governments, European countries, the UN, and Turkey, have accelerated massacring Alawites who had been massacring Sunnis for years.  Videos of massacres, murder and humiliation are being shared widely on Arab channels, as well as looting and kidnapping of women. 

 Condemnations? None. UN Security Council sessions? None. Intl. Court of Justice or Criminal Court warrants? None. 

 Compare to the responses for Israel’s defensive actions.  Hypocrisy abounds.

Watergen makes Water from Air for Syrian Medical Facility

Video Of The Week - Israel's Watergen makes Water from air for Syrian Refugees - https://tinyurl.com/bdhexcbj 

For the full article from 21c, By Sarah Levi go to - https://tinyurl.com/bdhexcbj 

The first unit, installed last month, provides fresh drinking water to 500 internally displaced people per day. A second unit will soon be installed.

Israeli company Watergen has provided one of its water-from-air generators to a medical facility in the Syrian city of Raqqa in a collaborative partnership with the Multifaith Alliance for Syrian Refugees (MFA), a humanitarian organization comprised of faith-based and secular supporters aimed at supplying aid to Syrian refugees.

The ongoing civil war in Syria has left some four million Syrians internally displaced in the country’s northern region where they lack access to clean drinking water, electricity, healthcare and education.

According to UN Security Council report, “people in Syria’s north and northeastern regions remain unable to reliably access sufficient supplies of safe water for reasons both environmental and man-made.”

Raqqa, a former ISIS stronghold, has suffered severe infrastructure damage from Syria’s civil war, along with severe weather conditions that have left the city in need of a sufficient supply of clean drinking water.

Watergen, based in Petah Tikva, manufactures atmospheric water generators that produce clean, fresh drinking water from the moisture in the air without having to connect to a water source. The generators use a standard connection to electricity or solar panels and can produce up to 6,000 liters of drinking water per day.

The generator in Syria is powered by solar energy and was the first of several installed in Raqqa’s medical facility.

According to MFA Executive Director Shafi Martini, “The first unit, installed last month, has been providing fresh drinking water to 500 internally displaced people per day. A second Watergen generator will soon be installed in another area medical facility, and MFA plans to set up additional units in hospitals and schools throughout northern Syria.”

While Israel does not have diplomatic ties with Syria, Watergen President and CEO Michael Mirilashvili said, “Throughout history, conflicts have often been centered around controlling water sources. Today we are doing the opposite: building peace and a common future around a groundbreaking Israeli technology.”

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YESTERDAY’S 3 RESOLUTIONS TARGETING ISRAEL

 Video Of The Week - Israel TARGETED by UN Resolutions - https://tinyurl.com/5d3bvfvd

For the full article go to UN.WATCH - https://tinyurl.com/2p834fb7

Following are the three resolutions adopted yesterday that target Israel:

1. “Jerusalem”

Excerpt: “Expressing grave concern over the continued closure of Palestinian institutions in the City as well as acts of provocation and incitement, including by Israeli settlers, including against holy sites.”

Analysis: Implies that Israeli administration of Jerusalem hinders freedom of religion when in fact the opposite is true—before 1967, Jordan destroyed Jewish holy sites and denied access to Jews, while under Israel all faiths have access to the city and enjoy full freedoms. Uses of uniformly harsh language against Israel that is not used even against regimes like Iran. Repeated passage of annual resolution to address acts from 1980, or matters already covered in other similar resolutions, serve no purpose other than demonization. Uses only the Islamic term “Haram al-Sharif” to describe Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, ignoring Jewish and Christian religion and history.

2. “Peaceful settlement of the question of Palestine”

Excerpt: “Reaffirming the illegality of Israeli settlement activities and all other unilateral measures aimed at altering the demographic composition, character and status of the City of Jerusalem and of the Occupied Palestinian Territory as a whole, including the wall and its associated regime, and demanding their immediate cessation, and condemning any use of force against Palestinian civilians in violation of international law, notably children.”

Analysis: Blames Israel only for lack of peace. Text is redundant to several other resolutions and serves no effect other than demonization. References to terror fail to name its perpetrators, whereas Israel is named and blamed throughout.

3. “The Syrian Golan”

Excerpt: “Deeply concerned that Israel has not withdrawn from the Syrian Golan, which has been under occupation since 1967…”

Analysis: Redundant to an existing resolution on “the Occupied Syrian Golan.” Oblivious to genocidal massacres taking place now in Syria and its security implications for Israel and the civilians of the Golan Heights. Ignores Syria’s history of shelling Israeli communities, its leaders’ prior calls for a “war of annihilation” against Israel, and Syria’s 1967 aggression that led to its loss of the territory. Calls on Israel to negotiate with Syria and Lebanon while not making the same demand of those countries.

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WHO Single’s Out Israel Again

Video Of The Week - George Deek blasts Hamas -  https://tinyurl.com/2j8558mu

For The Full Article go to; https://tinyurl.com/5nc2vy62

GENEVA, May 26, 2021 — Deviating from its focus on the global response to the coronavirus pandemic, the annual assembly of the UN’s World Health Organization held a session today singling out Israel for rebuke.

The Jewish state was condemned in speeches by some 25 delegations, including Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Turkey, Lebanon and Cuba, for allegedly violating the health rights of Palestinians and the Druze population in the Golan Heights.

The session concluded with a vote of 82 to 14, with 40 abstentions, to adopt a resolution, submitted by the Palestinian delegation and co-sponsored by countries such as Cuba, Iraq, Libya, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Turkey, Venezuela and Yemen, requiring the WHO to hold the same debate at next year’s assembly, and to prepare another report on the “Health conditions in the occupied Palestinian territory, including east Jerusalem, and in the occupied Syrian Golan.”

UN Watch condemned the cynical politicization of the world’s top health agency at the expense of focusing on the COVID-19 pandemic and other vital global health priorities and emergencies.

WHO Ignores Syria, Yemen, Venezuela

Out of 34 items on the current world health assembly’s Agenda, only one, Item 25 targeting Israel, focused on a specific country.

There was no agenda item or resolution on any other country, conflict, civil war or political impasse—not on Syria, where hospitals and other medical infrastructure are repeatedly and deliberately bombed by Syrian and Russian forces; not on war-torn Yemen, where 18 million are in dire need of health assistance; and not on Venezuela, where the health system is in a state of collapse and 7 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance.

Session Falsely Accused Israel of Violating Palestinian & Syrian Health Rights

Today’s assault on Israel at the WHO promoted the lie that Israel is harming Palestinian health rights. The opposite is true.

Despite the fact that the Palestinians have their own health system, and under the Oslo II Peace Accord it is the Palestinian Authority which is responsible for vaccinating their population, Israel has vaccinated over 100,000 Palestinian workers since March as well as donating thousands of vaccine doses for Palestinian medical workers.

Israeli medical teams coordinated with Palestinian medical professionals to provide training and assistance. Israel transferred medical equipment and has trained dozens of Palestinian doctors, nurses and medical personnel from Gaza before the Palestinian Authority ceased coordination in May 2020, putting more pressure on their health care system during a pandemic.

Moreover, it’s particularly absurd for the WHO to enact a resolution effectively accusing Israel of violating the health rights of Syrians in the Golan, while the Director-General's report clearly states that they have full access to universal health care under the Israeli health maintenance organizations, including COVID testing, medical care, contact tracing and vaccination.

France in EU Minority That Supported Biased Resolution 

The vote was 82 to 14 in favor of the resolution, with 40 abstentions and 38 absent.

UN Watch applauded the Netherlands, Austria and Colombia for shifting their votes from Abstain last year to No today.  

Those that voted No like last year were the US, UK, Australia, Brazil, Cameroon, Canada, Czech Republic, Germany, Honduras, Hungary, and Israel.

UN Watch also welcomed the voting shifts of Poland, Malta and Monaco, which moved from Yes to Abstain.

However, amid a global pandemic, the minority of EU member states and other democracies who voted for the resolution should be ashamed, including France, Spain, Switzerland, Belgium, Portugal, Japan, India, Ireland, New Zealand and Luxembourg.

These countries have now encouraged the continued hijacking of the world's health priorities, and the diversion of precious time, money, and resources to fight global disease, in order to wage a political prosecution of Israel.

Anyone who has ever walked into an Israeli hospital or clinic knows that they provide world-class health care to thousands of Palestinian Arabs as well as to Syrians fleeing Assad.

In addition to voting against the decision, the US took the floor to object to the politicization of the forum.

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Road to an Iranian Attack on Israel

Video Of The Week -Second 'Son of Hamas Leader ' Defects https://tinyurl.com/rpyn2mz

 From BESA, By Prof. Eytan Gilboa 15-11-2019

The full article - https://tinyurl.com/rcu76fl

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Israeli political and military leaders have warned against the possibility of a major military confrontation with Iran, which wants to deter Israel from disrupting its attempts to build military bases in Syria and Iraq and to construct factories in which Hezbollah can convert its huge arsenal of rockets into accurate missiles. This threat is more acute in light of the American failure to respond to recent Iranian provocations in the Gulf. Israel should adopt an aggressive new strategic approach to meet this threat, in coordination with the US and in consultation with Russia.

Military and strategic experts argue that an Iranian military attack on Israel is just a matter of time. American strategic weakness, as reflected in its failure to respond to a series of Iranian provocations in the Gulf, could provide an opportunity for an Iranian attack. The main purpose of such an attack would be to deter Israel from its relentless strikes on the military infrastructure Iran is attempting to build in Syria and more recently in Iraq.

Iran has attacked oil tankers and Saudi oil facilities and shot down an expensive American intelligence drone over international waters. It is building facilities to convert Hezbollah’s huge arsenal of rockets into more accurate and more deadly weapons. It is trying to add a third military front against Israel in Syria and Iraq (the other two are Lebanon and Gaza), and is using the terror organization Islamic Jihad in Gaza to attack Israeli towns and villages in order to sabotage the Egyptian effort to achieve calm there.

Iran is also systematically violating the 2015 nuclear agreement, which was signed by European powers as well as the US.

On November 6, 2019, Iran began to fuel over 1,044 centrifuges with uranium gas at the Fordow nuclear facility. The purpose is to enrich uranium at 20%. For peaceful purposes, uranium only needs to be enriched at 3-5%, and indeed the nuclear deal allows Iran to enrich only up to 3.67%.

It is obvious that Iran would not attack Israel directly from its own territory. It is much more likely to use its proxies in the region. Fortunately, Iran lost some of the element of surprise against Israel as it already used precision-guided cruise missiles against Saudi Arabia.

Israel is preparing defensive and offensive answers to the prospect of an Iranian cruise missile and drone strike. An Israeli strategy should include several key components. First it should reveal Iran’s plan. Then it should threaten direct and massive retaliation and make clear that Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Gaza will pay a heavy price if attacks on Israel originate on their soil.

In the Second Lebanon War in 2006, Israel distinguished between Lebanon and Hezbollah. This distinction did not really apply then, and it certainly does not apply now. If Israel comes under attack from Lebanese territory, it will attack all of Lebanon in response—the Lebanese army as well as Hezbollah. The same is true for Syria. Israel is trying to persuade Syrian president Basher Assad and Russia that if Israel comes under attack from Syria, it is Assad who will pay the price and his regime will be endangered.

Israel should inform Russia of potential Israeli action after any attack by Iran, especially from Syrian territory. Russia hasn’t been happy about exchanges of fire between Israel and Iranian forces attempting to build a base in Syria. Russia has not protested Israeli military actions in Syria and is concerned about the survival of the Assad regime should an Iranian attack originate from there.

Iran’s military leaders often threaten to annihilate Israel or at least destroy Tel Aviv. In view of the growing probability of a direct military confrontation between the two states, Israelis would do well to remember Elie Wiesel’s words: “Better to believe the threats of our enemies than the promises of our friends.”

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Who are the Kurds?

Video Of The Week - IDF Veterans Organize Pro-Kurdish Protest - https://tinyurl.com/yxzywmry

15-10-2019

Between 25 and 35 million Kurds inhabit a mountainous region straddling the borders of Turkey, Iraq, Syria, Iran and Armenia. They make up the fourth-largest ethnic group in the Middle East, but they have never obtained a permanent nation state.

Where do they come from?

The Kurds are one of the indigenous peoples of the Mesopotamian plains and the highlands in what are now south-eastern Turkey, north-eastern Syria, northern Iraq, north-western Iran and south-western Armenia.

Today, they form a distinctive community, united through race, culture and language, even though they have no standard dialect. They also adhere to a number of different religions and creeds, although the majority are Sunni Muslims.

Why don't they have a state?

In the early 20th Century, many Kurds began to consider the creation of a homeland - generally referred to as "Kurdistan". After World War One and the defeat of the Ottoman Empire, the victorious Western allies made provision for a Kurdish state in the 1920 Treaty of Sevres.

Such hopes were dashed three years later, however, when the Treaty of Lausanne, which set the boundaries of modern Turkey, made no provision for a Kurdish state and left Kurds with minority status in their respective countries. Over the next 80 years, any move by Kurds to set up an independent state was brutally quashed.

It is in the interest of both Israel and the United States, for the security and stability of the region, that a Kurdish state be established.

The Kurds are the world's largest nation without a country, with a population of about 35 million people. They are an ancient people that share a special historical connection to the Jewish people.

The Kurds in general, and especially those who live in Turkey and northern Syria, are the most progressive and Western in that region. They are the main force that fought against ISIS and endured thousands of deaths, under a special joint leadership of men and women.

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Acceptance of Israeli action in Syria

 Video Of The Week - Alleged Israeli Strikes on Syria's Aleppo - https://tinyurl.com/yy8wwu55

“Israel Hayom” by Yoav Limor 14-4-2019

The Russians and the Syrian regime, albeit more discreetly, have reservations about Iran's presence in the country. The sense in Israel, therefore, is that a window of opportunity now exists for pushing Iran out of Syria or at least significantly minimizing its activities there.

The attack attributed to Israel’s air force early Saturday indicates that Israeli policy in Syria hasn’t changed now that the elections are over: No to Iranian entrenchment, and no to precision missiles in the hands of Hezbollah.

The target, according to Syrian media outlets, was located in the city of Masyaf, in Hama province. The Israeli air force, the reports said, has attacked various facilities, used by Iranian forces, in the same area at least five times over the past two years.

This time, it appears, the main target was the site where the Iranians have manufactured precision missiles for Hezbollah. We can assume the missiles were earmarked for transfer to Lebanon although Iran also intends to arm its other Shiite militias operating in Syria with similar missiles.

Hezbollah’s precision missile project, which Iran is carrying out, lies at the heart of Israeli activity in recent years. Iran wants Hezbollah to have precision capabilities – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, last year, mentioned a precision radius of approximately 10 yards – and simultaneously extend the range of some of the terrorist group’s missiles. Israel has already been blamed for several attacks on facilities where this activity is occurring, including the attack last September in western Syria that triggered the chain of events which led to the downing of a Russian spy plane by Syrian army air defenses.

The attack early Saturday morning went smoothly from an Israeli perspective – neither Syria nor Russia responded in a significant manner. We can glean from this that Russia has come to terms, for now, with this activity, as long as it doesn’t endanger Russian forces stationed in Syria. The Israeli air force is likely taking pains to avoid, as much as possible, any friction with Syrian surface-to-air batteries, in order to circumvent further scenarios that could spark another diplomatic clash with Russia.

Israel’s policy of being proactive against Iran and its proxies is also unlikely to change for the time being. Regardless, the new government – and the next defense minister – will have to re-examine this activity within the context of new developments in Syria as it concludes its eight-year civil war; along with possible Iranian military intervention in Iraq and efforts to relocate its precision missile factories to Lebanon. In the past year, Israel has exposed four such factories – three of these, which were built secretly in Beirut, were revealed by Netanyahu in his speech to the U.N. General Assembly. The fourth factory, according to various news outlets, was reported in March to the Americans, who addressed the matter with the Lebanese government.

The sense in Israel is that a window of opportunity now exists for pushing Iran out of Syria or at least significantly minimizing its activities there. This window, beyond Russian reservations over Iranian activity (not to mention the Syrian regime’s own reservations, although these aren’t voiced publicly), is open because of American support and last week’s designation of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist organization by the Trump administration. The hope in Israel is that a combination of military, diplomatic, economic and media-related activity can now thwart Iran’s machinations.

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GOLAN, ISRAEL

Video Of The Week -The IDF's Eyes on Mount Hermon https://tinyurl.com/y7hshrrx

J.Post 18.11. 2018 - https://tinyurl.com/yco9lwg9

Imagine the strife and danger that northern Israel would be facing due to the long, bloody civil war in Syria if the Golan was still in the hands of brutal Syrian dictator Basher Assad.

Anyone remotely familiar with Israel’s geographical and political landscape knows that the notion of giving up the Golan Heights is laughable.

Never mind the natural beauty, ruggedness and open spaces the region offers –qualities which have helped turn it into one of the country’s main getaways and outdoor recreational destinations.

The northern area was captured by the IDF from Syria during the Six Day War in 1967, after Israel was attacked simultaneously by Egypt, Jordan and the regime of Hafez Assad, father of the current leader. The area is a vital strategic asset.

Imagine the strife and danger that northern Israel would be facing due to the long, bloody civil war in Syria if the Golan was still in the hands of brutal Syrian dictator Basher Assad.

Former prime minister Menachem Begin’s surprise measure to annex the Golan Heights – which he pushed through the Knesset in 1981 by a vote of 63 to 21 – has proven to be a far-sighted move that probably has more consensus approval inside Israel than almost any other issue.

Begin’s decision was based on the belligerent Syrian declaration that even if Israel and the Palestinians would have reached a peace agreement, Syria would never make peace with Israel.

The reactions to the annexation were predictable. Then-Syrian president Assad called it a “declaration of war,” and the Reagan administration said that the annexation was inconsistent with the Camp David accords, complaining that the United States had been given no prior warning of the move.

That’s why Friday’s vote by the US to oppose for the first time the UN General Assembly’s annual call on Israel to return the Golan to Syria is so welcome, even though it’s been so long in coming.

As the Post’s Tovah Lazaroff has pointed out, until now the US has abstained on this resolution, which has largely been opposed only by Israel. However, as she has done so many times in the past since taking up her position, outgoing US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley cut through politics to put things into proper perspective when it comes to Israel and the volatile region in which the Jewish nation is situated.

“The US will no longer abstain when the UN engages in its useless annual vote on the Golan Heights. If this resolution ever made sense, it surely does not today,” Haley said before the vote.

“Given the resolution’s anti-Israel bias, as well as the militarization of the Syrian Golan border and a worsening humanitarian crisis, this year the United States has decided to vote ‘no’ on the resolution,” she said, adding, “The resolution is plainly biased against Israel. Further, the atrocities the Syrian regime continues to commit prove its lack of fitness to govern anyone.”

To temper the vote, a US representative to the UN said that it didn’t signify a turnaround in its position on the status of the Golan, which is official non-recognize the 1981 annexation. It follows US National Security Advisor John Bolton’s statement in August that “we understand the Israeli claim that it has annexed the Golan Heights – we understand their position – but there’s no change in the US position for now.”

That didn’t prevent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, facing the dissolution of his government, from effusively thanking the US and its president Donald Trump for the vote. Calling it “important and just,” Netanyahu said that the vote was “completely in line with our policies – Israel will remain forever on the Golan Heights, and the Golan Heights will forever remain in our hands.”

With Syria in its current state, that declaration is one that all Israelis can get behind. As Haley pointed out: “The destructive influence of the Iranian regime inside Syria presents major threats to international security. ISIS and other terrorist groups remain in Syria.”

The annual resolution at the UN does not take that grim reality into account, and in fact, seems to be based on a fantasy world where “victim” Syria has been somehow wronged by the big, bad aggressor Israel.

We can only thank Haley and the US administration for appreciating and finally acting on the redundancy of this resolution. The world should not be condemning Israel for annexing the Golan – it should be grateful to Israel for providing a bastion of stability in a region that could explode at any time.

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422 Syrian Rescue Workers Flee Country Via Israel

Video Of The Week - Israel Establishes Maternity Hospital in Syria https://tinyurl.com/yct5z7wc

The transfer of the refugees via Israel was carried out as an unusual humanitarian gesture, and they were transferred from Israel to a neighboring country,” the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit said.

From; Unitedwithisrael By: Yona Schnitzer

For the full article go to - https://tinyurl.com/yb3me3p5

Four Hundred and twenty two Syrians affiliated with the White Helmet civil rescue organization entered Israel from Quneitra in southern Syria Saturday night. IDF soldiers met the refugees and transferred them to a secure site in northern Jordan.

The operation was carried out following requests by the United States as well as several European countries asking Israel to act swiftly to rescue members of the organization and their families. The international community feared that the return of the Syrian Army to the region would put them in immediate danger, as the White Helmets are a rebel organization, opposed to the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

According to the German tabloid Bild, the operation commenced at around 9 p.m. on Saturday night, when White Helmet members and their families arrived at an agreed-upon crossing point adjacent to the Israeli border. The IDF opened the gates and helped load the fleeing Syrians onto buses, which then took them to Jordan while also providing medical care and handing out food and water. By sunrise, all 800 Syrians had been successfully evacuated.

“The transfer of the refugees via Israel was carried out as an unusual humanitarian gesture, and they were transferred from Israel to a neighboring country,” the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit said in a statement, adding that Israel “does not intervene with the inner-fighting in Syria and continues to see the Syrian regime as responsible for all actions within Syria.”

Mohammed al-Kayed, a spokesman for the Jordanian Foreign Ministry, added that the operation was approved and carried out due to “purely humanitarian reasons,” adding that the refugees will remain in a closed camp within Jordan, where they will wait to be relocated to Western countries. Al-Kayed said that Britain, Germany and Canada have pledged to resettle the refugees within three months.

IDF ‘Prepared for a Wide Range of Scenarios’

The operation followed an IDF announcement last Wednesday that the IDF’s Bashan division had carried out six special operations over the past two weeks to transfer food and supplies to makeshift refugee camps along the Syrian border. Thousands of Syrians began amassing on the border, with no access to food, water or electricity, following a massive Syrian military offensive in the Daraa province that began in early July .

The IDF said it had transferred a total of 72 tons of food, 9,000 liters of fuel, and 70 tents, as well as clothing and medical supplies.

“The IDF will continue to monitor the events in southern Syria, and is prepared for a wide range of scenarios, including granting the Syrians humanitarian aid,” an IDF statement read, adding that “the IDF will not allow the entry of Syrians into Israeli territory and will continue to maintain the security interests of the State of Israel.”

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The Accidental Zionist

Video of the week -  Africa: Through the Eyes of an Israeli 8 year old http://tinyurl.com/y7nffp4m

by Gary C. Gambill

The Jerusalem Post http://tinyurl.com/y7jsxw3m

4-9-2017

I was staunchly pro-Palestinian when I arrived at Georgetown University to begin studying for an MA in Arab Studies in the fall of 1995, or at least I thought so.

I had read Thomas Friedman's From Beirut to Jerusalem in college a few years earlier and accepted the basic conclusion that Israel's unwillingness to compromise had become the primary obstacle to Middle East peace.

If any place might have been expected to shepherd this eager young mind into accepting "progressive" orthodoxy on Israel, it would have been Georgetown's Center for Contemporary Arab Studies (CCAS).

There I received a solid grounding in post-colonial theory, revisionist historiography of Israel, and so forth.

Radical though their views may have been, I don't recall many CCAS faculty caring much what I thought of the Arab-Israeli conflict, and few were involved in the kind of campus activism that is de rigueur among academics today. The roster of guest lecturers hosted at CCAS's spacious, elegantly appointed boardroom was another story, however, and notices for anti-Israel events throughout the Washington, DC, area were routinely advertised on the center's bulletin board. Going to them was the cool thing to do, and I attended more than I care to admit.

However, while I remained sympathetic to the Palestinian experience, I found interacting with other sympathizers increasingly intolerable. My immersion into the anti-Israeli movement brought me face to face with peer antisemitism for the first time, primarily among European and American students who shared much the same liberal outlook as myself.

Oddly enough, I don't recall any disparaging talk about Jews (albeit plenty about Israel) from Arab students at Georgetown, some of whom went out of their way to befriend Jewish students and faculty. It was Western students who said the darndest things.

The final straw came when I arrived with friends at an Israeli embassy protest during the September 1996 Western Wall Tunnel riots, when organizers led the crowd in chanting "Bibi, Hitler, just the same / Only difference is the name." I left in disgust, then sent an email to CCAS students and faculty inviting anyone who felt Hitler was no worse than then (and current) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to join me on a visit to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum on the other side of town. There were no takers, though several students – including two who had enthusiastically participated in the rally – privately applauded the letter.

Truth be told, though, the biggest problem with the pro-Palestinian movement wasn't so much the antisemitism as it was the varying degrees of willful blindness displayed by its foremost advocates both to the suffering of other ethno-sectarian groups in the region (particularly Kurds and Christians) and to Palestinian suffering at the hands of villains other than Israel, particularly those seen as leading the fight against the Jewish state. There was more than antisemitism at work here.

This blindness owed much to the fact that CCAS and other Middle East studies departments were becoming increasingly inundated with lavish grants from Arab governments.

Having fed their own citizens a steady diet of propaganda blaming all the region's ills on Israel, Mideast autocrats now promoted this narrative abroad very effectively.

This was painfully evident when Lebanese human rights attorney Muhammad Mugraby traveled to the United States in November 1997 for a short lecture tour at the invitation of Human Rights Watch. As it often does when hosting guests from the Middle East, HRW asked if CCAS would be interested in hearing Mugraby speak.

Yes, the answer came back from a CCAS administrator failing to see why a Muslim discussing Lebanon in the wake of Israel's devastating Grapes of Wrath campaign the year before would be a problem, so Mugraby was scheduled to speak at the center.

That was, until the day of the talk, when (I'm guessing) CCAS faculty learned that Mugraby was speaking about the abduction and incommunicado detention of Lebanese and Palestinians by Syrian forces then occupying all but a sliver of Lebanon (with the blessing of most Arab and Western governments). The location was abruptly changed from the CCAS boardroom to on ordinary classroom outside the center. No faculty were in attendance.

At that time, I was doing freelance web development work (a little html knowledge went a long way back then) for, among others, an NGO stridently critical of Israeli policy vis-à-vis the Palestinians, and got to know its Jewish-American director.

When I mentioned the Mugraby story, he confided in me that a longtime Palestinian friend of his had been imprisoned incommunicado for many years in Hafez Assad's Syria, which then held far more Palestinians in its prisons than Israel, and under far worse conditions.

Then why focus on Israel, I asked. "I can't do anything for him," he explained.

Alongside the antisemitism and the money, this idea of Israel as the low-hanging fruit for do-gooders wanting to improve the Middle East was the third foundation stone in what became a vast conspiracy of silence about how the region works during the 1990s.

The well-intentioned flocked in droves to the belief that Israeli-Palestinian peace was achievable provided Israel made the requisite concessions, and that this would liberate the Arab-Islamic world from a host of other problems allegedly arising from it: bloated military budgets, intolerance of dissent, Islamic extremism, you name it.

Why tackle each of these problems head on when they can be alleviated all at once when Israel is brought to heel? Twenty years later, the Middle East is suffering the consequences of this conspiracy of silence.

I don't have a particularly rose-colored view of Israel's history (or that of any other nation-state, including my own), nor do I put much stock in the religio-cultural attachments that make many Israelis resistant to sweeping concessions.

I just don't buy into the "theory of everything" where Israel is concerned. The particulars of when and how Israelis and Palestinians work out their differences don't matter that much, and insofar as they do Netanyahu is among the least of the complications getting there.

That makes me a hardline Zionist, liberal friends tell me.

All right, I guess.