Friday, March 13, 2015
Caroline Glick: Israel’s next 22 months
Yet as Obama has made clear both throughout his tenure in office, and, over the past week through Malley’s appointment and Menendez’s indictment, Obama holds sole responsibility for the deterioration of our ties with our primary ally. And as his actions have also made clear, Herzog and Livni at the helm will receive no respite in US pressure. Their willingness to make concessions to the Palestinians that Netanyahu refuses to make will merely cause Obama to move the goalposts further down the field. Given his goal of abandoning the US alliance with Israel, no concession that Israel will deliver will suffice.Sarah Honig: Buji and the Bomb
And so we need to ask ourselves, which leader will do a better job of limiting the danger and waiting Obama out while maintaining sufficient overall US support for Israel to rebuild the alliance after Obama has left the White House.
The answer, it seems, is self-evident.
The Left’s campaign to blame Netanyahu for Obama’s hostility will make it all but impossible for a Herzog-Livni government to withstand US pressure that they say will disappear the moment Netanyahu leaves office.
In contrast, as the US position paper leaked to Yediot indicated, Netanyahu has demonstrated great skill in parrying US pressure. He agreed to hold negotiations based on a US position that he rejected and went along with the talks for nine months until the Palestinians ended them. In so doing, he achieved a nine-month respite in open US pressure while exposing Palestinian radicalism and opposition to peaceful coexistence.
On the Iranian front, Netanyahu’s courageous speech before Congress last week energized Obama’s opponents to take action and forced Obama onto the defensive for the first time while expanding popular support for Israel.
It is clear that things will only get more difficult in the months ahead. But given the stakes, the choice of Israeli voters next Tuesday is an easy one.
Now there’s the rub. How things turn out even for the most well-intentioned statesmen doesn’t always depend on their own much-touted goodwill but on their antagonists’ good faith or lack thereof.Michael Lumish: In the Eye of the Whirlpool
So far, Herzog must concede, Obama’s record on dealing with Iran’s despots has been far from confidence-inspiring. Whether we deem Obama complicit with a rogue’s gallery of regional bad-guys or see him as merely a jinxed serial bungler, the outlook under his stewardship is far from promising.
No sooner did Obama take over at the West Wing than it became clear for those who didn’t avert their gaze that the end is near for the Mideast’s precariously-enduring remnants of delicate equilibrium. Obama ushered in chaos via what he hyped as a trailblazing new departure by the Muslim world’s surprise soul mate. The result was the mega-disaster Obama applauded as the “Arab Spring.”
But that was only the beginning of a tortuous path on which Obama seemed incapable of dodging any pitfalls. Obama consistently betrayed allies and quasi-tolerable hangers-on but was incredibly hands-off toward the true villains of the Mideastern piece.
Those of us who care about the well-being of Israel and of the Jewish people are in a very curious moment.
The Speech has come and gone and the resultant anti-Netanyahu hysteria seems to be winding down a tad, but nobody is quite sure what we are facing going forward.
There are three major questions in the air at this moment and we will not know how things are shaping up until the outlines of the answers to those questions become clear.
Those questions are concerned with the upcoming Israeli elections, ISIS, and a potential Iranian nuclear weapon.
Until we begin to see the answer to these questions, we are sort-of bobbing in the eye of a political whirlpool.
Michael J. Totten: Let Iraq Die: A Case for Partition
Iraq is finished, an expiring, cancerous nation on life support. Pulling the plug might be merciful. It might be cruel. But either way, it’s time to accept the fact that this country is likely to die and that we’ll all be better off when it does.Israel offered to ease Gaza blockade for long-term calm, Hamas says
The Kurds in the north, who make up roughly twenty percent of the population, want out. They never wished to be part of Iraq in the first place. To this day, they still call the bathroom the “Winston Churchill,” in sarcastic homage to the former British prime minister who shackled them to Baghdad. Since the early 1990s, they’ve had their own government and autonomous region in the northern three provinces, and they held a referendum in 2005 in which 98.7 percent voted to secede and declare independence. The only reason they haven’t finally pulled the trigger is because it hasn’t been safe; the Turks—who fear the contagion of Kurdish independence inside their own country—have threatened to invade if they did.
The Sunni Arabs in the west, who make up another rough twenty percent of Iraq, aren’t itching for independence necessarily, but they sure as hell aren’t willing to live under the thumb of Shiite-dominated Baghdad any longer. Millions of them live now under the brutal totalitarian rule of the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, which has declared its own state not only in a huge swath of Iraq but also in much of northeastern Syria. ISIS either controls or has a large presence in more than fifty percent of Iraq at the time of this writing.
Iraq’s Shiite majority, meanwhile, is terrified of its Sunni minority, which oppressed them mercilessly during Saddam Hussein’s terrifying rule and which now flies the black flag of al-Qaeda and promises unending massacres.
A proposal to end the military blockade on Gaza in return for a long-term ceasefire with Hamas was initiated by Israel and rejected by the Islamic movement over concerns that it would effectively detach the Gaza Strip from the West Bank, a senior Hamas official claimed.Signs of Ceasefire Deal? Hamas Obligates to Maintain Truce
Responding to a report published by The Times of Israel on March 9, Hamas’s deputy political chief Moussa Abu Marzouk wrote Wednesday on his Facebook page that it was Israel — not Hamas — which proposed the establishment of air and sea ports in Gaza in return for calm. The Israeli offer was never put on paper, however, he said.
“There were in fact those who conveyed ideas regarding an airport and sea port, thereby separating the Gaza Strip from Israel primarily, and hence from the West Bank, since the occupation prevents geographic contiguity [between Gaza and the West Bank],” Abu Marzouk wrote. “Gaza would be open to the outside world without the limitations of the Rafah Crossing [with Egypt] or Israel’s policies.”
The message to Hamas was conveyed by Israeli army officers through independent politicians and Gaza businessmen, Abu Marzouk noted, adding that he had discussed the matter with ministers of the Palestinian unity government several times before deciding to reject it.
The statement comes after documents were leaked on Monday, revealing talks between Hamas and Israel for a five-year ceasefire.Kerry to meet Abbas, Jordan's Abdullah in Egypt on sidelines of economic meeting
Reports of those talks were strengthened by the Palestinian Authority (PA) revealing two days later that Israel decided to allow Portland cement into Gaza, reversing its ban on the dual-use materials despite evidence that Hamas is using such materials to rebuild its terror tunnel infrastructure. The leaked documents indicated Hamas was demanding an ease of imports as part of the ceasefire extension.
Al-Hayya also attacked the PA, Hamas's "unity partners," accusing them of destroying the Gaza reconstruction project out of a desire to receive half of the international aid meant to rebuild Gaza for its own budget.
The Hamas leader claimed that the world understands that the PA is responsible for the delay in rebuilding Gaza, and expressed hope that Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain would held push the reconstruction ahead.
US Secretary of State John Kerry is set to meet Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Jordan's King Abdullah on Friday on the sidelines of economic talks in Egypt, AFP reported.Hamas and Fatah have clear, opposite interests in Israel’s election outcome
A US State Department official told AFP that the leaders would discuss the economic crisis facing the Palestinian Authority. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi may also attend the meeting the official said.
"We continue to be concerned about the PA," the official told reporters traveling with Kerry on his plane to the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.
"It’s really part of the continuous, ongoing conversation we’re having with the critical stakeholders here," the official said Thursday, AFP reported.
You can hear it wherever and whenever you visit the West Bank: left or right, it’s all just sand, new settlement construction, illegal outposts and the like. For the average Palestinian, there is no difference between Labor leader Isaac Herzog, Netanyahu, Jewish Home head Naftali Bennett or Yesh Atid’s Yair Lapid.Ross: US must decide in advance how to respond if Iran violates deal
But that’s not the case where the Palestinian leadership is concerned, be it Hamas in Gaza or the Palestinian Authority and the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) in the West Bank. Their interest in the Israeli elections is enormous, bordering on obsessive.
Any conversation with an Israeli journalist these days centers on each party’s chances of winning. Every poll released in Israel makes waves in the Palestinian press, and even more so in the corridors of power. Each of the entities, Hamastan and Fatahland, has its own preferences and wishes, and even within these movements, disputes rage as to which party would be “better for the Palestinians.”
Take Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, whose official position is that the elections are solely the concern of Israeli citizens, and that he is willing to negotiate with whichever party is voted in. This, however, is where the official position ends: There is no doubt that Abbas would like to see Zionist Union heads Herzog and Justice Minister Tzipi Livni get elected. Abbas personally knows and appreciates them both. He has met the two in the past, publicly and privately. He knows their positions and believes they are serious in their intentions to reach a peace agreement with the Palestinians.
But Abbas and his close circle are also aware of the integral weakness of the Israeli center-left camp.
Dennis Ross, a former Middle East adviser to President Barack Obama, also said that while Benjamin Netanyahu should have presented his concerns about the emerging deal in a less damaging manner for US-Israel ties than via a public address to Congress, the prime minister had raised “legitimate questions” that need to be addressed.UN reportedly starting talks on lifting Iran sanctions
Speaking to The Times of Israel during a visit to Jerusalem, Ross said that the Obama administration was seeking a deal that would keep Iran at least one year from potential breakout to the bomb, and that this was a legitimate approach provided it was accompanied by a range of precautions and other provisions.
“First, if you’re really going to put a premium on one-year breakout time, by definition what you require for verification and transparency becomes even more demanding,” Ross said. “Because if it doesn’t meet a certain threshold of credibility, you won’t have your one year.”
Keeping Iran a year from the bomb is “not just a function of the number of centrifuges, the output of the centrifuges and the ship out of the [enriched] material,’ he noted. It also requires “anywhere, anytime inspections, for declared and undeclared sites.” And it would likely need “a new set of protocols for the scope of your access and the numbers of inspectors.”
Major world powers are considering a UN Security Council resolution to lift UN sanctions against Iran if a nuclear agreement is struck this month, Western officials told Reuters Thursday.Who’s getting the better deal out of the nuclear deal – Iran, or the world?
Though officials in Tehran and Washington have warned that work remains before an agreement is reached, the Security Council is seeking to law the groundwork to lift restrictions quickly should the sides come together.
“If there’s a nuclear deal, and that’s still a big ‘if’, we’ll want to move quickly on the UN sanctions issue,” an official who declined to be named told the news agency.
Iran and six world powers are currently engaged in high-stakes talks to curb Iran’s nuclear program and keep it from developing the ability to build nuclear weapons, in exchange for lifting punishing sanctions that have crippled the country’s economy.
Talks thus far have dealt primarily with easing the US and EU sanctions against Iran in exchange for the Islamic Republic curbing its nuclear enrichment program for at least 10 years.
Here are the facts:Legal Experts: Future U.S. President Could Revoke Bad Nuke Deal With Iran
Iran gets:
• $3 billion cash
• $9.6 billion gold
• $5+ billion in petrochemicals
• $1.3 billion in automobiles
• Enriched uranium for one bomb
• 3,000 new centrifuges
• 1 plutonium reactor
The world gets:
• Zero centrifuges dismantled
• Zero ounces of uranium shipped out
• Zero facilities closed
• No delay on plutonium reactor
• No stop in missile testing
• No stop in terrorism
• No stop in human rights abuses
We are the suckers, out-negotiated by the Persian champions of bazaar trading.
Jeremy Rabkin, a law professor at George Mason University and an expert in international law and Constitutional history, said in an email that “nonbinding” by definition means that the United States “will not violate international law if we don’t adhere to its terms”—contrary to Zarif’s assertion.Top 5 Times the Dems Sabotaged Republican Foreign Policy
“In other words we’re saying it is NOT an international obligation, just a statement of intent,” he said.
The legal nature of a potential nuclear agreement remains a matter of dispute.
The GOP senators wrote about the necessity of congressional oversight for “binding international agreements” in their letter. But on Wednesday, Kerry rejected that characterization as “absolutely incorrect,” because the plan would not be legally binding.
The potential deal’s executive and nonbinding nature means Congress could not amend it, Kerry said.
Rabkin said the question of whether a U.S. president can institute a binding international agreement without congressional approval is disputed among legal scholars, but the State Department’s declaration that an Iran deal would be nonbinding places it in a different category.
Rep. Jared Polis started calling Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton “Tehran Tom” after word got out that the Senator had led a coalition of 47 Republicans in the drafting of a letter to Iran. The “#47Traitors” hashtag took off on Twitter, and over 200,000 people have signed a petition accusing those senators of violating the Logan Act.Joe Sestak: American Soldiers Pressured to Go to War for Israel
You’d think we’d never seen anything like this before, right? Well, that’s exactly what progressives want you to think.
Tom Cotton may have caused a scandal, but he hasn’t come close to the misdeeds of Democrats who came before him.
2008: Obama soothes the mullahs
In 2008, nuclear talks between Iran and a seven nation coalition headed by the United States collapsed. The United States had even sent a diplomat to Tehran to deal with the issue personally; but Iran decided to hold firm against international demands that they stop enriching uranium under a “freeze-for-freeze” plan.
From Power Line Blog:
The Iranians held firm to their position, perhaps because they knew that help was on the way, in the form of a new president. Barack Obama had clinched the Democratic nomination on June 3. At some point either before or after that date, but prior to the election, he secretly let the Iranians know that he would be much easier to bargain with than President Bush. Michael Ledeen reported the story last year:
During his first presidential campaign in 2008, Mr. Obama used a secret back channel to Tehran to assure the mullahs that he was a friend of the Islamic Republic, and that they would be very happy with his policies. The secret channel was Ambassador William G. Miller, who served in Iran during the shah’s rule, as chief of staff for the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, and as ambassador to Ukraine. Ambassador Miller has confirmed to me his conversations with Iranian leaders during the 2008 campaign.
Failed 2010 Democratic Senate candidate Joe Sestak, who is preparing for another run against now-incumbent Sen. Pat Toomey (R., Pa.), blasted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent visit to the United States and suggested that American soldiers are being pressured to go to war for Israel.Please listen to Saudi Arabia
Sestak made the comments during a radio interview with Ed Schultz on Tuesday:
"I don’t think it’s helpful whatsoever. I wish Mr. Boehner had not extended the invitation, I wish that Mr. Netanyahu had not come here. I understand he represents his country and he has the absolute right to accept an invitation. That said, the bottom line of all I said is, number one interest of anything we do is in the interest of the security of the United States of America, of which Israel is part of that. And we have destroyed the uranium that was enriched to 23 percent that could have gotten in one more month up to a fissile material that could be used for an explosion in a nuclear device, we’ve destroyed that down to 4 percent already in these negotiations. It would take them a year to get back up to the level they had there. And we destroyed the centrifuges that could do this. For us to have someone invited by an American congressman, bypassing the President of the United States, the commander in chief, and have somebody try to portray to us what the real situation is—it’s our men and women who have to go into harm’s way and letting us make sure we protect them. In our means of doing so, negotiations first, military action is inexcusable in my mind for this to come about."
In fact, not a single centrifuge has been destroyed as part of the Obama administration’s negotiations with Iran, and it is believed any final deal will allow Iran to maintain the majority of its 19,000 centrifuges—a major concern of the deal’s American and Israeli critics, including Prime Minister Netanyahu. Nor has Iran’s stock of highly enriched uranium been destroyed. The bulk of it has been converted into a different form and is still in Iran’s possession. And that conversion can be reversed.
Contrary to U.S. President Barack Obama's policy, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt are convinced, just as Israel is, that the transformation of Iran from a rogue regime to a law-abiding one should constitute a prerequisite to -- not an outcome of -- an agreement with Iran. Otherwise, an agreement would pave the way, rather than block it, for Iran to become a rogue nuclear power.Report: Saudi Nuke Deal Reignites Fears of Middle East Arms Race
Unlike Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry, and just like Israel, Saudi Arabia is not preoccupied with the technical and procedural aspects of the agreement, but with the regional and global rogue, expansionist, subversive, terrorist, non-compliant, anti-American ("Death to America Day") track record of the ayatollahs since 1979, their gradual occupation and domination of Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen, their cooperation with North Korea and Venezuela, and their sponsorship of Islamic terrorism via al-Qaida, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood, and other Islamic terrorist organizations operating throughout the world, including on the U.S. mainland.
Saudi Arabia focuses on the compounded threat to regional and global sanity that would be caused by a nuclear Iran. Just like Israel -- and contrary to the White House policy of detente with Iran -- Saudi Arabia and the pro-U.S. Arab countries are convinced that the lawless track record of the ayatollahs does not lend itself to effective supervision (as attested by the failed supervision of North Korea and Pakistan), that a bad deal is dramatically worse than no deal, and that a nuclear Iran must be prevented at any cost and not just contained. They are convinced that clipping the wings of the ayatollahs constitutes a precondition to a regime change in Iran, halting the tide of global Islamic terrorism and sparing the globe the pain of a nuclear world war.
Saudi Arabia has quietly signed a nuclear cooperation agreement with South Korea, according to The Wall Street Journal, reigniting fears that U.S. nuclear negotiations with Iran might drive a Middle East nuclear arms race.IDF prepares for possibility of multi-pronged terror attack coming form Sinai
The Saudi deal with South Korea will explore the feasibility of building two nuclear reactors in Saudi Arabia over the next 20 years, according to the report.
Saudi Arabia has consistently voiced worry over the U.S. negotiations with Iran, and has been sending signals that it will seek to develop its own nuclear technology should Iran continue with its nuclear program.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Saudi Arabia might even seek to “buy an atomic bomb…if it sees an agreement with Iran as too weak.”
"The scenario that we are preparing for is a multi-pronged terror threat directed against our forces and civilians in the Eilat area," Col. Arik Chen, deputy commander of Division 80 (the Red Division) said Thursday. Division 80 controls Israel's longest expanse of border, across from both Egypt and Jordan. His comments take on added relevance amid the preparations for the Passover holiday, when tens of thousands of visitors and tourists are expected to hit the beaches of Eilat and the Dead Sea area.PA Disregards Oslo by Arresting Israeli Arab from Jerusalem
"In the past, we have seen incidents in this area," he told military corespondents. "The scenario is a multi-pronged attack, not just at one site, and we will likely have to deal with this challenge without prior warning."
He said that "our mission as a division is to ensure a feeling of security and routine in the area. Whether it is in Eilat or Nitzana. The operational challenges are very complicated, because on the one hand you have here a peaceful border, and on the other hand a frontier area in Sinai has developed that enables terrorist groups to grow like Ansar Bayit al-Maqdis which became an ISIS affiliate. This organization, as we have seen recently, creates a number of terror attacks against the Egyptian army, and this is one of the more bothersome challenges which we are preparing for."
An Arab citizen of Israel, who holds a blue identity card and lives in the northern Atarot neighborhood of Jerusalem, was tried in Ramallah on Wednesday and had his arrest extended by two weeks - the arrest and trial by the Palestinian Authority (PA) is a direct breach of the 1993 Oslo Accords that formed the PA.US Ally Qatar Hosts Meeting Between Hamas Terror Chief, Iranian Top Official
The man's brother, Amran Gabas, was informed by the PA that in two weeks the detained man will be brought to an additional hearing in which it will be decided whether to extend his arrest again or release him.
Gabas told Arutz Sheva that his brother, a truck driver, entered Ramallah with two containers of food goods to market them to Palestinian Arab supermarket chains. At one of the city's intersections he was stopped, and after an inspection revealed his containers included Israeli products, he was immediately brought to a police station.
"The family is shocked from the incident, our contact with him was cut off," Gabas said. "All we know is that he went in with two containers of food, one of which contained Israeli-produced food. The officers identified the Israeli products and arrested him immediately."
In a demonstration of close ties between Tehran and the Palestinian terror group, Hamas chairman Khaled Mashaal, who has made a home in Qatar, met with Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larjani on Wednesday during his visit to Doha.Egypt’s Sissi says country in danger of collapse
Iran, which openly claims that it seeks the annihilation of the state of Israel, has had officials come forward and admit that they are supplying the Gaza-ruling terror group with sophisticated rockets.
Mashaal has made a home in Qatar since 2011, after leaving Syria during the onset of the Syrian civil war, according to reports.
Larjani also met with Qatari head of state Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, in order to reportedly persuade him that Iran’s emerging nuclear weapons program would not pose a threat to the Gulf State. The meeting comes just a couple weeks after the Qatar Emir met with U.S. President Barack Obama at the White House.
The controversial U.S. ally has been accused of supporting the Islamic State terror group and other jihadi factions throughout the region. Doha has also openly admitted that it aids the Al Qaeda-linked Al Nusra Front in Syria.
President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi called for greater US military support to avoid the “collapse” of Egypt, and asserted that relations with Israel are strong.Hezbollah deputy leader: Israel, US don't really oppose Islamic State
In an interview with The Washington Post published Thursday, Sissi said he believes there is “a miscommunication” with Washington, and that the United States must stand by Egyptians in the fight against regional extremism and the Islamic State.
“It seems we can’t convey our voice in as clear a fashion as it should be. However, the dangers surrounding this region are clear, and I believe the United States is following closely how terrorism is threatening [it].”
The Egyptian president said the US has the “responsibility” to do more in the fight against the Islamic State. He said the campaign against the militants can’t be from the air alone, and that there must be “boots on the ground.”
Angered by stalled Egyptian democratic reforms, Washington has frozen a chunk of its $1.5 billion in mostly military annual aid to Cairo since October 2013, insisting greater progress must be made.
Hezbollah's second in command, Sheikh Naim Qassem, on Friday accused the United States and Israel of undertaking a "dishonest" scheme in their opposition to the Islamic State group, the Beirut-based Daily Star reported.Syrian Activist: Israelis “Are Human Beings and Not Monsters”
While Hezbollah considers Islamic State an infidel group, the deputy leader of the Lebanese Shi'ite organization took a stab at Israel and the United States, attempting to delegitimize their positions on the issue.
The Shi'ite cleric said the US-led coalition fighting Islamic State had actually created the extremist group. Meanwhile, he accused Israel of aiding its members.
“We hear the world wants to confront ISIS because it represents takfiri [infidel] terrorism. Who created ISIS? Those who want to fight [them] are the ones who raised and funded ISIS,” the Daily Star quoted Qassem as saying in a statement released by Hezbollah Friday.
A Syrian activist who is visiting Israel said “we saw the Israelis are human beings and not monsters,” Ha’aretz reported yesterday.Syrian Refugee Speaks in Jerusalem, Describes Life Across Israel’s Northern Border
The activist had been part of a network of health professionals who sought to secretly treat rebels and protect them from the government of President Bashar al-Assad. However, two years ago the network was exposed and his colleagues were arrested when he was abroad. “That is how I transformed from an activist to a refugee,” he explained
Since then, he has been aiding the rebels in receiving humanitarian supplies from outside Syria.
He claims that the Assad regime used chemical weapons no less than 26 times before the international community intervened. “It was especially vicious, since they sprayed the chemical weapons on days without wind and then disconnected the flow of water to the neighborhoods under attack – that is how they reached 100 percent killed,” he said.
As part of his work, he came into contact with an Israeli organization that provides humanitarian aid to Syrian refugees. “I asked why, why do they want to help us? In Syria they think that all Israelis want to kill us, that Israel wants to kick us out of our homes and take our land. But then we saw that it was our government that threw us out and who is killing us is our government, and then we saw the Israelis are human beings and not monsters and there is a diverse society here like in every country in the world,” he said.
Syrian activist refugees are starting to step up and speak out to share their experiences with their Israeli neighbors as well as with the rest of the world.IRGC official: Iran indoctrinating Syria youth
Both men speak of the Israel’s generosity, its willingness to help its neighbors, the caring of its army and soldiers who help Syrians to reach medical care when they are hurt.
According to Amin – who is himself a member of the medical community – approximately half of Syria’s 23 million citizens are now displaced. More than 200,000 have been killed and more are wounded. Hundreds of those have received treatment in Israel.
Eventually both men were forced to flee. Aboud realized the window of safety was closing too fast for him to procrastinate any longer. Amin woke up overnight while already abroad when he found out his underground network had suddenly been discovered.
Each has discovered that the “truths” they were told all their lives about Israel were lies.
The Syrian regime was killing their people, and the Israelis were helping to save them.
A top Iranian Revolutionary Guards officer boasted about Tehran’s role in Syria and revealed that his country has been indoctrinating youths in the war-torn country to fight under the IRGC.UN to Vote on Sanctions Against Syrian Chlorine Bombs
“The IRGC has begun to establish new religious groups in Syria called ‘Kashab’ among young Alawites, Sunnis, Christians and Ismailis,” Al-Arabiya on Tuesday cited Hussein Hamdani as saying.
These groups aim to carry out what Hamdani called “ideological education” for the “recruitment of teenagers in Syria to fight in militias under [the command] of the IRGC.”
The advisor to the Revolutionary Guards commander-general did not elaborate further on the youth groups, but did boast that Iran had formed 42 brigades and 138 battalions fighting for the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria.
Hamdani added that the “establishment of the Basij in Syria was one of Iran’s most important achievements in recent years.”
The UN Security Council is set to vote on Friday on a US-drafted resolution that threatens measures against the Syrian regime over its alleged use of chlorine bombs.Islamic State appears to be fraying from within
The United States drafted the resolution that "condemns in the strongest terms any use of any toxic chemical, such as chlorine, as a weapon in the Syrian Arab Republic," reports AFP.
While the measure does not single out the Damascus regime over the use of chlorine, Western powers have made clear that the evidence points to attacks being carried out by President Bashar al-Assad's forces.
The draft text states that the Security Council "decides in the event of future non-compliance...to impose measures under chapter 7" of the UN charter, which provides for sanctions and possibly military force.
It remained unclear whether Russia, Syria's ally, would support the move and its serious threat of punitive measures. Russia's UN mission declined to specify its stance.
The Islamic State appears to be starting to fray from within, as dissent, defections and setbacks on the battlefield sap the group’s strength and erode its aura of invincibility among those living under its despotic rule.ISIS Will Be Around For At Least Another 15 Years, Says Author
Reports of rising tensions between foreign and local fighters, aggressive and increasingly unsuccessful attempts to recruit local citizens for the front lines, and a growing incidence of guerrilla attacks against Islamic State targets suggest the militants are struggling to sustain their carefully cultivated image as a fearsome fighting force drawing Muslims together under the umbrella of a utopian Islamic state.
The anecdotal reports, drawn from activists and residents of areas under Islamic State control, don’t offer any indication that the group faces an immediate challenge to its stranglehold over the mostly Sunni provinces of eastern Syria and western Iraq that form the backbone of its self-proclaimed caliphate. Battlefield reversals have come mostly on the fringes of its territory, while organized opposition remains unlikely as long as viable alternatives are lacking and the fear of vicious retribution remains high, Syrians, Iraqis and analysts say.
The bigger threat to the Islamic State’s capacity to endure, however, may come from within, as its grandiose promises collide with realities on the ground, said Lina Khatib, director of the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut.
ISIS is establishing for itself a formidable ideological legacy, and will not be disappearing any time soon, according to a co-author of the book “ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror.”ISIS wants to ‘blow up’ White House, Big Ben and Eiffel Tower, spokesman says in audio message
“I don’t think ISIS is being defeated as you hear in the headlines,” Hassan Hassan said Thursday at an event hosted by the Woodrow Wilson Center. “It’s possible to defeat ISIS, but I see it in the region for at least another 15 years.”
While they have been contained in some parts, Hassan explained that it is a profoundly autonomous group where, organizationally, everyone is dispensable, and if you demolish ISIS in one area, it doesn’t really affect the others.
Another thing he pointed out was the extreme dedication and loyalty of those involved.
He said that, generally speaking, it’s almost too late when someone starts to buy into their ideology because they then become virtually immune to counter-messaging tactics.
The Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham wants to “blow up your White House, Big Ben, and the Eiffel Tower,” its official spokesman said in an audio message Thursday that claimed the ultraviolent extremist group had expanded its reach into West Africa.Islamic State hails Boko Haram allegiance, threatens Jews and Christians
In his first speech in two months, Abu Muhammad al-Adnani accepted a pledge of allegiance from the Nigerian terrorist group Boko Haram and listed the cities “we want,” from Paris and Rome to Jerusalem and Kabul.
The 28-minute Arabic-language audio, translated by the SITE Intelligence Group, appeared to be an attempt to rally ISIS fighters and intimidate international audiences amid setbacks in Iraq.
“We announce to you to the good news of the expansion of the caliphate to West Africa because the caliph… has accepted the allegiance of our brothers of the Sunni group for preaching and the jihad,” IS spokesman Mohammed al-Adnani said in the message, using the Arabic name for Boko Haram.Assyrian Bishop Describes ISIS Rampage
Adnani called on Muslims who could not join Islamic State in Iraq and Syria to enter combat in Africa instead, saying Boko Haram’s pledge had opened a “new door for you to migrate to the land of Islam and fight.”
“We are calling you up for jihadis, go.”
The group, which rejects all but its own limited interpretation of early Sunni Muslim theology as heresy, also issued a threat to Jews and Christians, Reuters reported. “If you want to save your blood and money and live in safety from our swords … you have two choices: either convert or pay jezyah,” he said, referring to tax for non-Muslims under Islamic rule. (h/t Phil)
A community in northeast Syria inhabited primarily by Assyrian Christians has been under steady assault by ISIS for the past 18 days, and they are barely holding on, according to Rima Tuezuen of the Syriac European Union. When the attack first began on February 23rd, ISIS abducted hundreds of Christian prisoners, only 23 of whom have been released so far.Survey reveals Aussie Muslims who think ISIS has legitimate grievances
The fate of up to 350 people remains unknown, and around 5,000 others were forced to flee from their homes. Kurdish and Christian militia are fighting side by side to defend these towns along the Khabour River Valley in Hassaka Province, but ISIS is not relenting, and success here would have serious ramifications for Christian populations further north.
Rima Tuezuen stated, “We all know that if ISIS wins here it will go after all our peoples and kill or enslave them and put them through horrors. ISIS has proven this time and again. We face death and fight to live.”
On Monday, March 9, Mar Awa Royel, bishop for the Diocese of California of the Assyrian Church of the East, traveled to Washington to meet with Ben Rhodes, Deputy National Security Advisor, as well as other senior government officials. According to the press release from the White House, Mr. Rhodes “reaffirmed the Administration’s commitment to support the Assyrian Christian community and to degrade and ultimately defeat ISIL.” However, the United States has not yet taken any concrete action and there have been no airstrikes in the region since Sunday.
A DISTURBING number of Australian Muslims say terror groups such as ISIS have legitimate grievances, despite condemning terrorism.'Turkey is Backing ISIS'
And the findings of a study to be released this week reveal the terrorists’ relentless propaganda war is tapping into Islamic community angst over Australia’s counter-terrorism crackdown.
“One of the key messages of terrorist groups ... is that Muslims are a victimised and suppressed minority,” University of Queensland researcher Dr Adrian Cherney said.
He said the survey of 800 Muslims showed political leaders’ attacks on Muslims “can push them to actually say: ‘Well hang on a second, the terrorists are right. Some of their grievances are true’.
More than one in five participants agreed terrorists had legitimate grievances.
Prof. Efraim Inbar, Director of the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, told Arutz Sheva that Turkey has been supportive of Islamic State (ISIS) in Syria and Iraq, as it pursues greater influence in the Middle East.Canadian Imams In Anti-ISIS Fatwa: ISIS Was Created By Western Interests To Remove Syrian Government
Some experts have called it a "Neo-Ottoman" foreign policy, to regain influence in places that were once backwater provinces to the Ottoman Empire.
But plans to expand that influence have run into trouble. The relationships with both Israel and Syria have totally collapsed, but Turkey is now looking at influence through the Sunni Islamist movements in the Middle East.
"The Islamic Brotherhood, Al-Qaeda and ISIS – Turkey does not distinguish between them," says Inbar. "They are helping ISIS with its wounded by treating them in Turkey and with weapons, and turning a blind eye to people coming (to Syria) from Europe. It has become a staging ground."
On March 11, 2015, the Islamic Supreme Council of Canada, a Calgary-based body headed by Imam Syed Soharwardy, issued a 'historic fatwa' against joining the Islamic State (ISIS). The fatwa states that ISIS is a 'khawarij' group, and that whoever joins it or encourages others to do so in any way is committing a grave sin that excludes him from the fold of Islam.
The fatwa, signed by several dozen imams from across Canada, explains that ISIS is actually a group of 'strangers' that was 'created by the funding of Western countries to overthrow the Syrian regime,' and that it was 'planted in Muslim countries to serve anti-Islam interests by deceiving Muslims in the name of Islam.' It adds that 'ISIS and other terrorists are using the policies of the United States and other Western countries in the Middle East as an excuse to control Muslim sentiments and then use them for their own political and personal gain.'
The authors of the fatwa clarify that they strongly condemn those policies of the Western countries, including Canada itself, which are 'completely unjust, based upon Islamophobia, bias and intolerance towards Muslims.' They also 'condemn the highly destructive and hateful role of the media in intentionally promoting intolerance towards Islam and Muslims.' However, they say, Muslims cannot counter anti-Islamic efforts by choosing the path of ISIS, Al-Qaeda, the Taliban, Boko Haram, and other organizations of their ilk. This is because, even while countering anti-Islamic aggression, Muslims are utterly forbidden to commit many of the deeds that ISIS has committed, such as beheading enemies, Muslim or non-Muslim, or driving them from their homes; murdering Muslims, including religious scholars, who disagree with them; and destroying mosques and tombs. The fatwa also stresses that only governments are authorized to declare a war, and that the Islamic State does not have the status of an actual state or government.
