Hezbollah Ethnic Cleansing Syrian Sunnis
March 13, 2013 14:54 by Pesach Benson
Everything you need to know about today’s coverage of Israel and the Mideast. Join the Israel Daily News Stream on Facebook.
Today’s Top Stories
1. Professor Dave Petrasek (Globe & Mail op-ed) accuses Canada of selling out Syrian human rights to You Know Who’s interests:
It is deeply troubling that the Canadian government’s support for international justice initiatives in Syria (or elsewhere) might be held hostage to Israeli concerns about potential ICC investigations in the Palestinian territories.
2. Amir Taheri (NY Post) accuses Hezbollah of ethnic cleansing in areas of Syria vital for an Alawite mini-state:
Since September, Assad’s forces have been trying to expel those Sunnis, replacing them with Nusairiyah and Lebanese Shiite settlers. Hezbollah is giving a helping hand to that sinister scheme and paying the price.
Once the Sunni Muslim villages have been ethnically cleansed, Hezbollah would next have to move on villages such as Marmarita, Zeydal and Firuzah that are populated by Christians, as well as ethnic Turcoman villages opposed to Assad, notably Al-Samalil, Aqrab and Talaf.
Assad has embarked on a massive crime against humanity, with Hezbollah as his accomplice.
3. Baby Omar followup and fallout continues. HonestReporting’s Simon Plosker expands on the issue in a Times of Israel commentary. See more below.
Israel and the Palestinians
• The Lede takes a nice look at the revived controversy of Baby Omar’s death. I’m glad to see The Independent and Andrew Sullivan acknowledged the followup. So did a nice NY Daily News staff-ed. And the Washington Post discussed the matter with Ambassador Michael Oren. Referring to Hamas and Hezbollah, the ambassador said:
“You have to understand that the media is as much of a battlefield for them as anything going on” on the ground, he said. “You are dealing with terrorist organizations that will exploit and manipulate the media. They know how the Western press works and how to use it to their advantage.”
Both organizations, Oren said, use civilian deaths to turn public opinion against Israel, even if those deaths occur under ambiguous circumstances. This should make any news organization wary about attributing particular casualties.
• The fur flies in the UK as Douglas Murray calls on left-wing columnist Owen Jones to apologize for “big, sweeping incorrect allegations” about Israel, including the UN report exonerating the IDF for Omar Mishrawi’s death. Jones isn’t backing down.
• Nice Jerusalem Post analysis of President Obama’s Israel itinerary. Every stop has symbolic and/or substantive significance. If you prefer snark, check out Alistair Dawber’s evaluation in The Independent.
• A lot of broken quills, spilled ink, and dead pixels at today’s NY Times op-ed section. Professor Rashid Khalidi, Haaretz’s Ari Shavit, and columnist Tom Friedman weigh in on the peace process and President Obama’s trip.
Khalidi says years of peace efforts have entrenched “the occupation” while advancing the interests of other countries. Placing a lot of faith in the Arab Spring, Shavit says “New Peace” will quietly and pragmatically unfold as “the New Arabs and the New Israelis will acknowledge their mutual needs and interests.” Friedman addresses the low expectations for the president’s visit.
• Professor Avi Bell (Times of Israel) takes apart Professor Joseph Levine’s recent NY Times manifesto denying Israel’s right to exist.
• More Israel Apartheid Week drivel at the U. of Cape Town.
Iranian Atomic Urgency
• It’s not clear to Gerald Seib (Wall St. Journal, via Google News) that visiting President Obama will earn Israeli confidence.
• AP picked up on reports that Iran is blocking access to Western virtual private networks such as GMail, Yahoo, and Facebook.
• North Korea’s decision to go rogue on nukes should deter Iranian atomic ambitions. It’s the sanctions, stupid, argues Meir Javedanfar:
One of the most important factors which could bring Iran’s leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, to such a conclusion is the fact that developing and testing nuclear weapons has not removed or reduced sanctions against the North Korean regime. In fact, these actions have brought additional sanctions.
The same would almost undoubtedly happen if Iran finally decides to build a nuclear weapon.
Although the North Korean regime may be able to withstand open-ended sanctions and isolation, the same cannot be said about Iran, which is much more sensitive to sanctions.
Arab Spring Winter
• For your Calvinball in Cairo files:
- Court to rule on dissolution of Muslim Brotherhood (via Daled Amos)
- Citizen’s arrest powers provoke strong debate (via Elder of Ziyon)
• One day before its opening, Egypt banned a film documentary about the history of its Jewish community.
• Reuters picked up on a damning Save the Children report on the status of kids in Syria.
• Michael Jansen of the Irish Times takes a sadly shallow look at Hezbollah, talking to its spin doctor emeritus, Ibrahim Moussawi.
• Will Lebanon Be Held Accountable for Its Pro-Assad Bias?
(Syria map via Wikimedia Commons, NY Times logo via Fickr/guano)
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream.
Ruedi
4:22 pm
Mar 13, 2013
Canada’s stand vis à vis the ICC is motivated by its sucking up to the US (for good reasons, as our PM thinks), a state that is adamantly denying the ICC any legitimacy. Mr. Baird’s comment has hardly anything to do (don’t be fooled) with a pro Israel stand. Yet it was in alignment with US interests.
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Thomas Walder
4:49 pm
Mar 13, 2013
Mr. P’s op ed in the Globe isn’t the most unusual aspect of the story. Of the 106 published comments regarding the editorial, all of them are anti Israel. Some blatantly anti Semitic.
Is the Globe suppressing the opinion of Israel supporters?
Well-loved. Agree or Disagree:
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Ruedi
5:00 pm
Mar 13, 2013
Were I a foreign country I would not want to count on our government’s support even if it appears to be offered. Harper feeling the heat from ethnic voters could easily change his tone in order to stay in power. What seems to be unwavering support today may have evaporated by tomorrow. Thus reading and interpreting the comments of this Editorial (based on the blog of the Professor / author) one gets a whiff of the currents in our good country. They will eventually have some influence on Ottawa.
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A jew whose nose was broken by prohitler muslims
2:14 am
Mar 19, 2013
LINK PLEASE, MORE INFO PLEASE BOUT DAT HERE:
” … 1. Professor Dave Petrasek (Globe & Mail op-ed) accuses Canada of selling out Syrian human rights to You Know Who’s interests:
It is deeply troubling that the Canadian government’s support for international justice initiatives in Syria (or elsewhere) might be held hostage to Israeli concerns about potential ICC investigations in the Palestinian territories. ,,, ”
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??? yea SOLVE IT GET US A LINK GODDAMM IT
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A jew whose nose was broken by prohitler muslims
7:05 am
Mar 19, 2013
” … Both organizations, Oren said, use civilian deaths to turn public opinion against Israel, even if those deaths occur under ambiguous circumstances. This should make any news organization wary about attributing particular casualties. … ”
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But when the or some “news” editors is antisemites, people nowadays gripped by allegedly “new”, ever-so-old “forms” of ANTISEMITISM … — huffington post and uk guardian are nazis … doing PALIN’s bidding of FANATICISM…. why sum americanos follow such a primitive nazi as palin or ron paul who said “usa shouldn’t have intervened in ww2″, that he said. that. he’s a nazi, that he is.
usa ain’t what it once was.hope it smites its own racism.
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A Jew whose nose was broken by pro-hitler muslims
5:30 pm
Mar 20, 2013
I can’t understand why this Rudy above and also I are downthumbed here. then it’s here and in israel the same as in usa and elswhere. that is sad to see.
I don’t extra waste my time to be downthumbed and thus disrespected here. apparently jews are not nicer than antisemites. not all antisemites are nazis. is my conclusion.
I will now not anymore at all post here, and will save all this and save it on my own site.
this will have repercussions of more severe format than anyone now can foresee.
It’s bad to treat people bad, and even unrightfully, — “you know”. revenge is then granted. you israelis also have caused my broken nose with your often brutal soldiers. bumm.I am da Jew not you al
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A Jew whose nose was broken by pro-hitler muslims
5:35 pm
Mar 20, 2013
and I don’t didn’t thumb down Thomas the Good here. Who TO HELL thumbed down the good “Reudi”???
either alkaida or some arrogant israelis ey. ey.
yea yea. yea yea. i dont waste ma time in conflicts which are mute, where both sides make mistakes. and not in places where people thumb me down. that’s much more frequent (and faked) on yahoo, but it BEGINS here too. And that’s when I go, you know. Nomad.
That’s what you Israelis are doin to the Palees: You turn them into Nomads, but they are no Druses. The Druses are calm and help Israel, love it. I am extremely vulnerable, easily hurt.
I want to talk to people. But they abuse a system for discrimination and ridicule. I am untouched.noble.
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A Jew whose Nose was broken by prohitler muslims
1:18 am
Mar 21, 2013
… maybe multiple others or only few or only one Jewish Israeli person from HR or some other Jewish or Israeli Person has thumbed me down here because I said “give us a link, GODDAMMIT”.
There is no link where I quoted HR. Helpful would be a link there, and also, if you let people talk here how they want.
I dfon’t think anymo that HR even intends to make peace with the Palestininans, this site of theirs is just a real whitewash-site, by which all actions of Israel must be by HR justified in smart ways.
HR is Israel’s destruction. Anyone can thumb here up or down. But I see no Arabs postin here, only really seldom. There are some bad jews apparently who thumb down good jews like yea me.
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A Jew whose Nose was broken by prohitler muslims
1:22 am
Mar 21, 2013
This is also very important for the whole Isr/Pal conflict:
Apparently, there ARE some VERY bad Jews, who ride on Israel’s tag, label and banner, and those FEW bad Jews are in highest positions and in also lower ones, and they make not only a bad name for ALL Jews so we get massmurdered by any hitler, but they even DIRECTLY cause a LOT of new antisemitism, SOME ISraelis, a REAL extremely small minority, but which is in crucial spots powerful.
very bad. Both do me in, rachel corries who become osama BAT ladens, haha, and some Israelis who are like Americans: brutal, nazi, dumb, like texans and those southerners. that’s what Obama rightfullesttly does not like.
we need a left gov in israel.
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A Jew whose Nose was broken by prohitler muslims
1:26 am
Mar 21, 2013
“bat” means daughter, but yea, BATS too yea. Baseball and vampire bats.
I hereby request politely an explanation why some people above thumbed me down. I know that there is no non-abusive reason which they can give.
sorry, but those who thumbed me down, well I wouldn’t do violence to them, but from afar, you know, I hereby admit that I’d be happy if they would receive any harm of any sort.
you think you can treat people bad and then you think you are correct, you israelis/jews?
you new jews are not the same as the holocaust victims.
rather the same as bullies. like da christian bullies who beat me up daily in school you are, you jews n israelis. some of you, anyway. fuck you.
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A jew whose nose was broken because israel is abusise
1:33 am
Mar 21, 2013
Apparently, this netanjahu and all such dudes like him, foremostly including the ones who thumbed me down, are abusive, are excusing all that israel does, whitewashing it, taking the admitted sadly true massmurder and hatred from the other side of hizbolla hamas etc, showing it, and saying: WERE NOT AS BAD AS THAT. aha. and that’s then the sudo-justification for ANY of Israel’s doings.
Would I be PM, I would be fair to EVRYBODY, not only to jews and israelis.
the israeli immigration policy is totally fanatical and abusive. any orthodox jew can immigrate and receives help from like 1000 orgs. other alternative jews get nowhere, have no voice anywhere.
like that, you’ll see 2 ur own demise.
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Hezbollah Ethnic Cleansing Syrian Sunnis | The Conservative Papers
5:51 am
Apr 11, 2013
[...] map via Wikimedia Commons) VN:F [1.9.22_1171]calculating…Rating: 10.0/10 (1 vote cast)Hezbollah Ethnic Cleansing Syrian [...]
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