Middle East Press on: Netanyahu, Syria, Assad, US, Israel, Palestine: New Age Islam's Selection, 17 December 2024
By New Age Islam Edit Desk
17 December 2024
A Pardon for A Quiet Retreat: The Solution for Netanyahu
A Nation Divided: Will Syria Be Better Now That Assad Is Gone?
Sour Grapes: How The NYT Gave Palestinians Credit for Ancient Jewish Winemaking Tradition
The Fall of Assad in Syria Contributes to US-Israel Relations
Disgraced and Isolated: As His Axis Falls, Iran's Khamenei Finds Himself Alone
Israel's Population Shift: How Global Events Are Reshaping the Jewish State
Educating The Next Generation of Pro-Israel Leaders
Israel No Longer Has Genuine Friends, Only Allies with Self-Interest
Israel Is Ready to Annex the West Bank, But Why Now?
The Ouster of Tyrant Assad Paves the Way for Palestine, Not The Other Way Round
FACTBOX - Syria: The War in Numbers
Israel’s ‘Great Opportunity’ To Annex the West Bank
Syria’s Transition Must Be Inclusive, Legitimate and Credible
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A Pardon for A Quiet Retreat: The Solution for Netanyahu
By Jpost Editorial
December 17, 2024
Back on May 26, 2020, when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave his opening statement at the commencement of his criminal trial in Jerusalem, we wrote that he “managed to shift the focus... away from the image of a prime minister on trial to the image of a prime minister being lynched by a crooked system out to get him."
Now, four-and-a-half years later, amid the marathon trial that has heard dozens of witnesses, has experienced numerous delays, and has taken place through both the judicial reform upheaval and more than a year of war in Gaza and Lebanon, Netanyahu has finally taken the witness stand as he mounts his defense.
Like his opening statements, his strategy has been to emphasize his importance to the country and minimize the "trumped-up" charges against him. The trial has taken on the trappings of a circus, with urgent notes being passed to the prime minister from his aides, controversy from both supporters and detractors over the court ruling that Netanyahu would be testifying three times a week, and a nation’s eyes on every nuance emanating from defendant No. 1 on the witness stand.
The spectacle could be something that is taken in stride – even applauded – for the ethos that nobody is above the law – if it weren’t for the state of the country.
We are in the midst of a 14-month all-consuming war that has seen thousands of Israelis killed, 100 hostages still unaccounted for who are languishing in Gaza, and major regional upheavals to Israel’s North – not to mention the myriad of internal issues that must be addressed.
Clemency for all
Put it all together, and it seems a bit surreal for the trial to take up any bandwidth of the country’s attention. But, it does. This is why it behooves us to revisit President Isaac Herzog’s remarks last week at a conference hosted by the Makor Rishon newspaper.
When asked: “Do you think the time will come for clemency – not just for Netanyahu, but for all citizens of Israel?” Herzog replied, “I believe it is our duty to uphold the rule of law, and no one is above it.
“That said, it was not a happy day to see the prime minister in court, and I believe every citizen should feel that way. I won’t comment on the specifics of the trial itself. I will always exercise my powers according to my conscience and the law. But for now, clemency is not on the table.”
What was left unsaid, but implied, was that if a proposal was made to pardon Netanyahu of the charges against him in exchange for retirement from public life, this was something the president would consider.
The idea of a presidential pardon has been floated since Netanyahu was first indicted in 2019. Back in 2022, The Jerusalem Post’s then-editor-in-chief Yaakov Katz wrote, “There is no good outcome for Israel’s criminal justice system in this trial. If Netanyahu is found guilty, his followers will continue to stand by him. They will now claim – as he has since the police investigation began – that the case was rigged from the outset.
“That said, it was not a happy day to see the prime minister in court, and I believe every citizen should feel that way. I won’t comment on the specifics of the trial itself. I will always exercise my powers according to my conscience and the law. But for now, clemency is not on the table.”
What was left unsaid, but implied, was that if a proposal was made to pardon Netanyahu of the charges against him in exchange for retirement from public life, this was something the president would consider.
The idea of a presidential pardon has been floated since Netanyahu was first indicted in 2019. Back in 2022, The Jerusalem Post’s then-editor-in-chief Yaakov Katz wrote, “There is no good outcome for Israel’s criminal justice system in this trial. If Netanyahu is found guilty, his followers will continue to stand by him. They will now claim – as he has since the police investigation began – that the case was rigged from the outset.
Netanyahu, who has accomplished so much in his career – and has done so much to build Israel and promote its cause – can save his legacy, and spare the country the distraction of an ongoing trial that takes the focus away from the vital issues.
We’re facing many more months of testimony from Netanyahu, who will be incapacitated for much of the week. And in the likelihood of a conviction at the end of the trial, the country will revisit the shame of yet another prime minister being sentenced and sent to prison.
Israel cannot afford either right now. So where are the cool heads that can see beyond partisanship and go to the president with a plan to get us beyond this crisis? Are they out there?
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-833694
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A Nation Divided: Will Syria Be Better Now That Assad Is Gone?
By Micah Halpern
December 17, 2024
As the pressure was building against Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, he gathered 30 of his most loyal generals to his defense ministry. As reported by the New York Post, according to a source who attended the meeting, Assad told them not to worry. He said they should continue fighting hard and that help was on the way… the Russians are coming.
Assad left his generals and flew to a Russian base in Syria on the Mediterranean coast. From there he was swiftly, safely, and secretly airlifted to Russia.
There is little doubt that the entire world, the region, and especially Syria, are better because the Assad dynasty has been toppled. But that does not mean that Syria has been transformed into Shangri-la and all is bliss. It means that nothing could be as bad as it was under the Assads.
What will happen next is not a mystery. There are only a few realistic scenarios, considering that the groups that toppled Assad are former ISIS and al-Qaeda terrorists.
Certainly, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s vision for Syria, articulated when he was recently in Baghdad, is a pipe dream at best, and might be delusional. Blinken had made an unscheduled visit to Baghdad, where he met with Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed al-Sudani. According to a State Department spokesperson, Blinken said that the US was looking forward to “a Syrian-led political process resulting in an inclusive and representative civilian government.”
But that will not come to fruition soon, if ever. It is nearly impossible.
ASSAD WAS a butcher, as was his father, Hafez. At the rate that they murdered and tortured, it is hard to distinguish who was more ruthless.
In the end, Iran ran away and Russia did not save Assad. They needed to escape to save themselves. Syrians stormed the Iranian embassy and its offices.
The violent power struggle in Syria
Syria is now in the throes of a violent power struggle between various groups. The only outside force active in the Syrian power struggle right now is Turkey. Turkey is currently using the mayhem to wreak as much damage as possible on the Kurds of Syria. Turkey firmly believes that the Kurds of Syria and the Kurds of Turkey are terrorists.
Blinken was actually in the region to intervene on behalf of the Kurds of Syria. He was blunt and asked Turkey to stand off. The reason for US diplomatic intervention is simple. The Kurds of Syria function as the major bulwark against reconstituting ISIS and al-Qaeda in the entire region.
The US supports the Kurds wholeheartedly and there are 900-plus US troops on the ground working in Syria with the Kurds. There are also thousands of soldiers and intelligence officers on US bases around the world who give support to those US soldiers and the Kurds in Syria.
There is little possibility that those who brought down Assad will be able to coalesce and unite. The common enemy was Assad, and that united them. The Kurdish fighters, known as the Syrian Democratic Force, took over the city of Deir Azzur in eastern Syria and handed it over to the largest terror group that ousted Assad – Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).
Because of their ruthlessness, over the decades both Assads sowed deep divisions in Syria. By fostering those divisions, they created tremendous hatred and deep-rooted yearning for vengeance toward the Assad regime and their cohorts.
The Russians, and especially the Iranians, fed into this leadership of torture and terror.
The Assad family is Alawite, a breakoff from Shi’ite Islam. They are officially only 11% of the population of about 22 million, though that number is probably exaggerated. Some 70% of Syrians are Sunni, and 9% are Kurds.
The tiny minority Alawite Assads, with the assistance of Shi’ite Iranians, used their family and tribe to wreak horror on the massive majority, the Sunnis. That explains why Sunni ISIS and Sunni al-Qaeda were so committed to ousting Assad.
As one official at the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps said: “This is the fall of the Axis’s Berlin Wall. In 11 days, we lost everything we fought for for 13 years.”
The death toll is still mounting. Here, too, the numbers are not reliable. The UN says that there have been 600,000 casualties since the civil war began in 2011. The UN reports that as of the beginning of 2024, 7.4 million Syrians remain internally displaced, with approximately 4.9 million seeking refuge in neighboring countries. An additional 1.3 million found refuge in Europe. If correct, about two-thirds of the Syrian population are considered refugees – a staggering number.
Given the players, the future in Syria will be violent. The best scenario – though a small possibility – is that once the dust settles, the new Syrian leadership will survey the landscape and conclude that it is better to live next to Israel with security and safety than to try to destroy the Jewish state. Not democracy, not peace – but at least not a constant state of war.
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-833733
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Sour Grapes: How The Nyt Gave Palestinians Credit for Ancient Jewish Winemaking Tradition
By Yisrael Medad
December 17, 2024
In the area of the Palestinian Authority reside perhaps 50,000 Christian Arabs, some 2% of its population. The rest are Muslim and do not imbibe alcohol. That includes wine. The Khoury family of Taybeh, not too far from Ofra, is Greek-Orthodox and produces both beer and wine.
The New York Times’ heralded wine critic Eric Asimov recently published a profile on the Khoury winery, featuring Sari Khoury. Previous stories on the Khoury brewery appeared in the paper in 1996, covered by Neil MacFarquhar, and again in that paper, by Roger Cohen, in 2010.
In February, 2016. The Arab Weekly published a story on Nadim Khoury, founder of the family brewery, who, with his son Canaan, wants “to add the Palestinian territories to the map of the world’s wineries.” Yet Asimov’s current winemaker is a Sari Khoury. Unfortunately, we do not learn of Canaan’s fate from Asimov.
In any case, one can only be impressed with the publicity the Khoury family obtains. Reading it, though, reveals that while Asimov would have us believe his story fair, it isn’t. While quoting Serge Hochar, a Lebanese winemaker, who once said, “Wine is above politics. Wine is tolerance,” Asimov nevertheless engages in politics throughout his story, intolerantly, in flagrant disregard of the facts.
The prophet Ovadiah’s curse in verse 5 of his first and only chapter, read in this past week’s Haftara, warns Edom of its fate. Unlike thieves who normally leave behind some grapes after raiding the vineyard, absconding with only as much as they need, Edom will be treated more harshly. Asimov, maddeningly, does just that – to Jewish-owned vineyards and wineries.
Asimov and Sari refer to “ancient traditions with grapes,” to “the prehistory of modern winemaking,” and to “the ancient winemaking history of Palestinians,” as well as to “the long history of Palestinian wine.” There is no doubt that wine-making was a major craft native to this area. And it preceded the 7th-century arrival of Arabs who occupied the land of Judea and almost totally destroyed its wine production.
A casual glance at Wikipedia could have educated Asimov that viticulture has existed in the Land of Israel since biblical times. The grape is one of the seven special species of the land (Deuteronomy 8:8). Jewish Judean wine was exported even to Rome where it was a desired commodity.
Archaeologists have discovered numerous winepresses and equipment from the First Temple period. Wine is mentioned frequently both in the Bible, the Talmud, and in rabbinic midrashic sources.
Asimov could have conversed with the head of Ariel University’s Wine Research Center, Prof. Shivi Drori (who also happens to own the G’vaot Winery at Givat Harel near Shiloh). At that institute, advanced vineyard agrotechnology, grapevine genomics, and wine technology research projects are conducted new met, and ods are developed, all relatively relevant to Khoury’s propaganda claims.
In fact, if he had consulted the NYT’s archives, Asimov could have learned that the paper’s former bureau head, Jodi Rudoren, had reported in November 2015, on the recreation of the country’s ancient indigenous grapes, identified through DNA testing of grape pits found in excavation site by Drori.
False and outrageous claims
To create the impression that wine was produced in ancient times by a “Palestinian people” who were not Jewish is an act of identity erasure. To retroactively create an Arab people called “Palestinians” long engaged with growing grapes in the hills of Judea and Samaria while excluding the Jews engaging in that very same activity is a crime of identity theft.
Asimov then writes that Khoury “was one of the very few winemakers working in the region before the October 7 attacks,” and informs his readers that “winemaking is not widely practiced today in the West Bank.” There are over two dozen wineries active in Judea and Samaria. Many of them, such as Shiloh Winery, Psagot Winery, and Tura Winery produce wines that have garnered international recognition. Various online sites, like KosherWines.com, list over 50 different wines made from the region’s grapes. Millions of bottles have been produced, with many going for export.
However, as those wineries are owned by Jews, Asimov totally ignores them. Even in passing, they are not even mentioned by the newspaper of record. The reader, drunk on the propaganda, is left with an erroneous and biased impression
Before Israel was established, during the mandate period and even before, if “Palestine wines” were talked about, the reference was to Jewish wines. In 1848, Yitchak Shorr established a winery in Jerusalem, the first one documented in modern times. In 1882, French Baron Edmond de Rothschild assisted in the establishment of the Carmel Winery which still produces wine.
Asimov facilitated the grafting of ancient Jewish winemaking onto a theft by self-declared “Palestinians” of that aspect of Jewish history, falsely claiming indigeneity. Not only do Asimov and his publication peddle false assertions but, given both their statures, who would or could deny their truth? This is deceptive emplotment.
Incidentally, olive trees are an instrument of ethnic erasure, too. In an article on political ecology, “Olive Oil and the Tastes of Palestine,” Omar Qassis acrobatically avoids the Jewish demographic and horticulture character of the Land of Israel. In his very brief mention of the history of olive tree cultivation here, Cassis leaps from the early Bronze Age to the mid-19th-century Ottoman Tanzimat reforms; no Jews.
Numerous mentions of olive oil in the Tanach, oil for anointing kings and priests, and oil for the rekindling of the candelabrum which marks the upcoming Hanukkah holiday are wiped clean.
While Asimov’s uncle’s name [writer Isaac Asimov] is linked to science fiction, Eric has produced unworthy political anti-Zionist propaganda.
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-833726
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The Fall of Assad in Syria Contributes to Us-Israel Relations
By Nimrod Koren
December 17, 2024
The fall of the Assad regime is sending shock waves throughout the Middle East.
Its implications for Israel are numerous and are still unfolding. One of the most significant of these, alongside the weakening of Iran’s “Axis of Resistance,” is found outside the Middle East, in the strategic relations between Israel and the United States. With an emphasis on the way the American administration views Israel’s conduct of war.
US President Joe Biden’s remarks, upon learning the Assad regime fell, constitute a turning point in this regard. So far, the focus of the administration’s statements – and not only due to concerns about the events’ impact on the presidential elections – has been the need to prevent regionalization of the war, the need for an immediate ceasefire, and concerns about humanitarian relief, alongside a measured call supporting Israel’s limited right to self-defense.
For the first time since the beginning of the war, Israel’s offensive action has been positively described by the president, and it has been credited with a decisive contribution, along with Ukraine, to what is emerging as the most significant tangible achievement in the Biden administration’s foreign policy – the fall of the brutal Assad regime.
A historic development that he described as a “fundamental act of justice. A moment of historic opportunity for the long-suffering people of Syria to build a better future for their proud country.”
For Israel, struggling for its standing among the family of democratic nations while its moral reputation is daily tarnished, being part of this hopeful and inspiring transformation is no small feat.
Israelis should be proud of their contribution to the fall of this abhorrent regime, mainly because they were not its main victims, as well as for being mentioned in the same breath as Ukraine, which was a symbol of the struggle for freedom of the free world, especially at the beginning of the war, when it fought the world’s largest nuclear power, using Molotov cocktails and Czech hedgehog.
Syria is a crossroads where these two countries met, whose self-defense wars the United States supports, whether resolutely as in Ukraine, or with reservations as in Israel. In the convergence of these conflict arenas, the US administration was able to reap the first fruits of its investment in both wars.
In addition, it was able to identify the commonality of the two wars, the moral logic of supporting its two allies, and to reposition Israel ideologically in the place it deserves to be, on the side of the forces fighting fundamentalism.
In describing the factors that led to the fall of the Syrian regime, Biden made a direct connection between his support for the struggle waged by Israel and Ukraine against Hezbollah, Iran, and Russia, Bashar al-Assad’s close allies, and this moment of the fall of his regime, and avoided mentioning Turkey, despite its significant role in the overthrow of the regime, due to its support for jihadist elements opposed to Assad, not by weakening his backers.
Israel's contribution to overthrowal of the Assad regime
In fact, Israel’s contribution to this was not limited to inflicting massive damage on the Syrian regime’s allies and strategically weakening their ability to come to its aid in suppressing the rebels.
The war that Israel waged against them drove a political-ideological wedge between Syria and its Shi’ite backers. Assad was indeed a link in the axis of resistance, but a passive one. Unlike Hezbollah, he did not choose on October 8 to join the conflict in “solidarity with the Palestinians,” to the dismay of those who called for “unity of fronts” against Israel.
He was afraid of the possibility that the war would spill over into Syria and that the fate of Damascus would be like that of Gaza or Beirut, and he was deterred from actively joining the “Axis of Resistance,” and his name was almost absent from the story of the war in the 14 months preceded his fall.
And this is another reason why he was abandoned by his allies, not only because they could not come to his aid, but also because they did not want to, due to the resentment they felt towards him.
This contrasts with Assad’s other ally, Russia, which did come to his aid, but its impact on the survival of his regime was minor, due to its military weakness. In other words, Israel’s indirect contribution to the fall of the regime is even greater than that of Ukraine.
IN ANY case, in Biden’s words about his unflagging support for Israel’s war, there is indeed a rewriting of history (the war already has one), or at least a belated recognition of the justice of Israel’s offensive approach – certainly in what is related to the blows it has delivered upon Hezbollah and Iran – but Israel should warmly embrace this change in approach.
The US is in effect retroactively adopting Israel’s approach, even though it opposed it in real time, partly due to a lack of imagination regarding possible developments of degrading and defeating Iran and its proxies and focusing only on the possibility of normalization with Saudi Arabia.
However, that is less important now, and what is important is that the paradigm shift may have positive implications for the next stages of the Middle East’s transformation.
The fact that the American administration takes credit for its active support for Israel’s fight against Iran and its proxies, whose weakening was a decisive factor in the fall of Assad, is evidence of the great importance it attributes to this event. The Obama-Biden administration invested enormous and prolonged efforts in overthrowing the Assad regime during the bloody peak years of the civil war.
Toward the end of his second term, president Barack Obama was tormented by his failure to bring relief to the humanitarian crisis, and admitted that the war haunted him relentlessly:
“I would say of all the things that have happened during the course of my presidency, the knowledge that you have hundreds of thousands of people who have been killed, millions who have been displaced, [makes me] ask myself what might I have done differently.”
Obama’s legacy was severely tarnished when he chose not to respond to the use of chemical weapons in 2013. In 2016, after years of thought and reflection on how past leaders dealt with dilemmas in their darkest hours, he still had not been able to find an answer to how he should have stopped the use of weapons of mass destruction:
“I do ask myself, ‘Was there something that we hadn’t thought of? Was there some move that is beyond what was being presented to me that maybe a Churchill could have seen, or an Eisenhower might have figured out?”
Ironically, it was a statesman whom Obama valued much less, his successor in the White House, who brought about a resolution to the issue, when a few months later, in April 2017, he sent the US Navy to launch a strike of 59 Tomahawk missiles against Syria in response to a chemical weapons attack that killed dozens of civilians. After this, the dictator did not use weapons of mass panic ever again.
In other words, Biden’s competition for credit is not only interstate with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu but mainly intra-party with Obama, to whom he owes his term, although he did not appreciate his VP, refused to endorse his candidacy in 2020 immediately and was apparently the architect of the rebellion against him that led his exit from the 2024 race – but it was Biden who overthrew Assad, and Obama was left with a “redline in the sand” that was savagely crossed.
However, optimism is accompanied by reservations. It is important to remember that despite this positive development, it is too early to rejoice completely, not only because it is difficult to imagine the establishment of a peaceful regime that respects human rights being restored in Syria shortly, or even a stable and sovereign regime, despite the moderate tone that characterizes the rebel leader, but mainly because Assad survived, and given asylum in Russia, a country that, despite the withdrawal of its army from Syria, may soon once again play a decisive role in determining its future.
The politicization and partisanship of all areas of the US government, including foreign policy, may also affect this issue. A hint of this could be found in President-elect Donald Trump’s remarks on the eve of the fall of the regime that the United States had nothing to do with this: “THIS IS NOT OUR FIGHT. DO NOT GET INVOLVED!”
Thus, despite Trump’s good and sincere desire to bring an end to the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, one of the negotiating cards may be Assad’s return to power, as part of a possible agreement with Russian President Vladimir Putin, like the unwritten one between the two leaders, which ended the war in Syria in 2017.
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-833722
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Disgraced And Isolated: As His Axis Falls, Iran's Khamenei Finds Himself Alone
By Eran Fard
December 17, 2024
On December 11, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei delivered his first speech following Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s fall, broadcast as a pre-recorded message.
Its significance rested solely on the propaganda spread by his supporters. During the 51-minute ramble, he offered no ideas, messages, or meaningful content. His speech was riddled with delusions – a chaotic and unsettling display.
Khamenei’s arguments came across as childish and riddled with lies and contradictions, and his sentences were often incoherent and disjointed. He embodies the traits of a stubborn, fearful, vengeful, and irrational dictator.
After my article in The Jerusalem Post on December 8, I appeared on Iran International TV at the invitation of Mehdi Parpanchi, the perceptive director of news, to discuss Assad’s downfall and the potential domino effect threatening the Islamic Republic. In advance, my friend Dr. Michael Rubin from the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) had written about the possibility of Iran and other regional nations facing collapse after Syria.
Khamenei lashed out in his December 11 speech, stating: “That ignorant analyst knows nothing about resistance, thinking it will weaken. Iran remains strong and mighty.”
I shared excerpts from both analyses on my social media. In 2022, after Khamenei criticized my book Trapped by Events – a dialogue with H. E. Parviz Sabeti, a former SAVAK secret police official—my lawyer (J.S.) advised me to inform the FBI and US Department of Homeland Security, which I did.
Desperately, Khamenei revealed how the humiliating defeat of the regime’s “Axis of Evil” in the Middle East, particularly against Israel, has left him disgraced, isolated, and despondent. He resorted to issuing threats. He tacitly acknowledged the misery and failure of the outlaw regime he leads, lamenting that the US and Israel had thwarted his ambitions for domination and continued violence.
His frustration was evident as he admitted to Israel’s success in disrupting arms and bomb shipments. For years, he has labeled the entire world as “enemies,” yet paradoxically expects these “enemies” to tolerate his provocations and terrorism.
Khamenei’s obstinate and misguided behavior
While his fantasies of silencing dissidents persist, his reign of fear and violence can no longer stifle the free flow of information. The regime scrambles to suppress dissent, with the US attorney general swiftly announcing legal action against critics and targeting analysts and commentators in a desperate bid to reactivate dormant terror cells, specifically on US soil.
Khamenei’s transnational Shi’ite Islamic terrorist network has crumbled and is no longer capable of spreading chaos across the Middle East: Decades of oppressing the Iranian people and squandering their wealth on ambitions of regional domination have unraveled. The collapse of this network marks not only a strategic defeat for Khamenei but also a turning point for those who have long suffered under his regime’s tyranny.
Khamenei revealed his inability to accept defeat while expressing deep concern over the regional failures: The loss of Hamas and Hezbollah, leaving only the West Bank, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Houthis, and the Popular Mobilization Forces, highlights the disintegration of his once-influential network.
The special operations units in Lebanon and Syria within the IRGC have been rendered inactive, as they no longer have any practical capabilities.
Khamenei’s attempts to justify the regime’s actions hinge on superstitious Shi’ite narratives manufactured by the religious octopus: Despite his claims of fighting for Shi’ite shrines, even the IRGC’s commanders have admitted to intervening in Syria to save Assad long before ISIS appeared. Khamenei claimed that Iran’s involvement in Syria was to preserve security, but where in the world does an anti-security terrorist seek to protect security?
Khamenei repeatedly lied in his speech: For example, he claimed he wanted to help the people of Syria and Lebanon, but this was untrue; he had no intention of sending rice, flour, or oil – his aim was to send weapons.
Another lie was his justification for intervention in Syria, where he stated that Syria helped Iran during the eight-year war. However, he failed to mention that even then, supreme leader Ali Ruhollah Khomeini prolonged the war to such an extent that in November 1987, Syria, along with other Arab countries, condemned Iran for delaying the acceptance of Resolution 598 and explicitly expressed “solidarity” with Saddam Hussein – the criminal leader of Iraq.
Syria also signed a strongly worded statement from Arab countries in support of Saddam against Iran. In the Kayhan newspaper on Thursday, February 8, 1979, it was reported how Syria had supported Khomeini and his terrorist gang before 1979. Notably, Assad’s fall brought joy to the Iranian people.
Another defeat for Khamenei came when Hamas congratulated the anti-Assad armed forces on their victory in Syria. This is reminiscent of the time when Khomeini formed his interim government in front of Yasser Arafat and Muammar Gaddafi’s envoy – both of whom later supported Saddam.
One point was glaringly evident: Khamenei is buried under the rubble of defeat, yet he still plots new schemes to create chaos and incite war, despite no longer having the power or energy to carry them out.
The stubborn old fool refuses to learn from developments and fails to understand that killing, threats, and suppression will lead him nowhere. This is a path that dictators around the world have trodden, reaching no destination, and he too will remain buried in this sewer.
The ruthless tyrant of Iran demonstrated that he still lacks any understanding of reality: He fundamentally fails to comprehend international relations and remains immersed in his own delusions and fantasies. For his own consolation, he delivers long speeches that resemble incoherent rambling. His words lack scientific basis, are not grounded in reality, and have no foundation in reason or logic.
All of Iran’s wealth has been squandered on expanding Islamic terrorism, arms trafficking, and financing terrorism. Thanks to Israel, all of his deterrence power, defensive military capabilities, and his so-called axis of evil have been destroyed.
Khamenei and his incapable regime failed to launch a third military attack on Israel and know that Donald Trump is on his way to the White House: The Islamic Republic has effectively become weaker, and its survival faces serious danger. In these circumstances, he is merely content with announcing the construction of an atomic bomb, but this will certainly lead to a military strike on nuclear facilities, coordinated by the CIA and Mossad.
The powerless, exhausted, and humiliated loser of the Middle East is Khamenei and his regime. These are villains and thugs who lack the support of the Iranian people. Iranian society has no dialogue even with a weak dictator.
American and Israeli intelligence agencies also know that without regime change in Iran, there will be no peace, stability, or calm in the Middle East. Seeing the Islamic Republic fall into a downward spiral of weakness and defeat is a pleasing scene for them.
They know that the weaker it becomes, the less ability it has to ignite fires and wage war, and it is forced to retreat, surviving only through its repression machine and propaganda. The regime in Tehran is severely lacking in any tools or resources. They know that in the eyes of the people, the Islamic Republic is dead and should be buried. The mafia and military junta regime is on the verge of collapse.
He continued his speech with empty promises and hollow slogans, his face crumpled and devastated. He offered no substance in his claims or military displays. His terrorist organizations have collapsed, his imaginary resistance front has been destroyed, and he lacks the ability to rebuild.
Like a defeated army in war, he has no possibility of reconstruction. In his mind, the whole world is to blame, and he judges everyone.
The mullah’s regime has been rhetorically disarmed and is at an impasse. It is a regime without allies or friends; it is crisis-ridden, impoverished, and politically paralyzed.
Khamenei did not even dare to mention the names of Turkey or Russia in his speech: He neither criticized Bashar Assad nor uttered a single word against Vladimir Putin or Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Instead, he threatened the Iranian people, critics, and analysts. He remains committed to continuing the path of rebellion, as his survival depends on it. He is fundamentally unwilling to coexist with the modern world.
Amid lies and threats and failing to address consecutive defeats, he promises the appearance of something that doesn’t exist, and the crisis has engulfed all pillars of the corrupt regime.
History assures us that the day will come when the Iranian people will no longer hear that trembling, discordant voice. Iranians, well-versed in the poet Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh, (The Book of Kings) know the truth: Tyranny leads to destruction.
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-833721
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Israel's Population Shift: How Global Events Are Reshaping the Jewish State
By Michael J. Salamon, Louis Libin
December 17, 2024
The recent upheavals in the Middle East, notably the October 7 attacks by Hamas and significant skirmishes involving Hezbollah, the Houthis, and Iran, have set off profound demographic and financial changes within Israel.
These shifts form a complex paradox, potentially reshaping not only the future of the Jewish state but also the global Jewish Diaspora. As some Israelis leave, others arrive, driven by unpredictable forces.
From October 2023 through March 2024, data from the Australian Jewish Independent news source highlights that about 42,185 Israelis have left the country, many from the tech sector, seeking refuge abroad. This exodus has deeply affected Israel’s vital technology industry, with funding plummeting from $15 billion in 2022 to roughly $7b. in 2023.
Yet, in an intriguing twist, the Israeli tech landscape continues to draw significant investments. Noteworthy funding rounds underscore Israel’s prowess in cybersecurity, fintech, health-tech, and industrial technologies.
For instance, Wiz secured $965 million to advance cloud security, and Insightec raised $150m. to expand its non-invasive surgical technologies. These investments reflect a robust global confidence in Israel’s innovative capabilities. In recent months, over $2.2b. has been invested in Israeli tech, with substantial contributions to cybersecurity, business software, and health sciences.
Aliyah and global antisemitism
Concurrently, a different movement is taking shape. Since October 2023, approximately 31,000 individuals have immigrated to Israel from over 100 nations, with notable increases from Western countries. Immigration from France, for example, surged by 76%, and the UK by 55%, potentially marking the start of a significant trend.
The surge in immigration is largely driven by a dramatic rise in global antisemitism. The ADL reports that the United States saw an unprecedented 8,873 antisemitic incidents in 2023, a 140% increase from the previous year. In Canada, antisemitic attacks have surged by 670%.
On college campuses, Hillel International, which runs programs on college campuses, notes a 700% increase in antisemitic incidents. Consequently, fewer Jewish students are applying to American universities, with some opting to study in Israel instead.
The economic implications of these migration patterns are multifaceted. While the tech sector’s exodus poses immediate challenges, including financial losses and brain drain – given this sector accounts for 53% of Israel’s exports, valued at $73.5b. – historical evidence, and personal determination, suggests that ongoing immigration and investment can bolster long-term economic growth. Past immigration waves have historically transformed Israel’s economy, enhancing productivity and technological innovation.
If these trends persist, the question is not whether Israel’s population will change, but how these demographic shifts will redefine its future. Some see the tech sector’s departure as a crisis; others perceive the influx of new immigrants as an opportunity for renewal. Historically, Israel has turned immigration waves into engines of growth and innovation.
Ironically, efforts to isolate Israel through antisemitism will likely inadvertently strengthen it by boosting Jewish immigration. This, however, presents new challenges: how will Israel integrate newcomers while sustaining its status as a global tech hub?
The answers to these questions will likely shape the country’s trajectory for decades.
As Israel navigates these parallel movements, its remarkable ability to absorb and integrate new immigrants will once again be tested. The outcome could redefine Israel’s demographic, economic, and social landscape for generations.
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-833716
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Educating The Next Generation of Pro-Israel Leaders
By Ari Berman
December 17, 2024
On October 7, we were all called up to service to stand with Israel and the Jewish people. As the flagship Jewish university in the United States, Yeshiva University (YU) has distinctly responded to this call by being a force of moral clarity and leadership in the higher education world.
In the weeks after the attack, we took action to bridge the political and ideological divide across campuses to form a historic coalition of over 100 universities and colleges that stood firmly with Israel and against Hamas terrorism. This unprecedented alliance, known as Universities United Against Terrorism, united public, private, faith-based, and historically Black colleges and universities, becoming a much-needed beacon of truth, rooted in enduring values that are often absent in today’s academic landscape. The coalition attracted widespread attention from journalists, the business community, elected officials, and academia, quickly evolving into a powerful movement. The need for such support has never been more urgent: As of August 2024, a whopping 44% of college students and recent graduates said they “rarely” or “never” feel safe identifying as Jewish on campus, while the Anti-Defamation League reports that on-campus anti-Israel activism has risen a staggering 477%.
YU has taken on a pivotal role in safeguarding Jewish college students nationwide. We have worked with the Department of Education, the Department of Justice, and congressional leadership to protect all Jewish students in the US from the harassment that has sadly characterized too many college campuses. We have also reinforced this commitment with the launch of the Robert K. Kraft Blue Square Scholars program to help support students seeking to transfer into YU for a top-tier education on a safe, nurturing campus. Established with a major gift from businessman and philanthropist Robert Kraft as part of his Foundation to Combat Antisemitism, the initiative will strengthen our mission to support Jewish students across the country, offering the infrastructure needed to welcome the best and brightest who value YU’s strong stance on Israel and Jewish ideals. Indeed, amid escalating harassment on college campuses and a sharp increase in transfer applications, this year we welcomed many transfer students from top universities.
At this time, it is essential to identify, bring together, and express gratitude to the allies who stand strong with us. To this end, on Holocaust Remembrance Day I had the profound honour of heading the first-ever University Presidents and Chancellors Mission from the United States and Canada at the International March of the Living at Auschwitz. The university presidents came from a diverse group of institutions, and the trip, culminating with the March on May 6, powerfully underscored the urgent, ongoing imperative of “Never again.”
During our undergraduate commencement, YU highlighted the outstanding leadership of US Sen. John Fetterman, a staunch supporter of the Jewish state, by awarding him with our Presidential Medallion for Global Leadership. Fetterman made headlines in his address by removing the academic hood he earned with his degree from the Harvard Kennedy School in protest of his alma mater’s lack of support for its Jewish community after the Hamas attacks on Israel.
YU students rise up
Most inspiring and promising for the future of the pro-Israel community has been the activism of our students. They were a driving force behind the unprecedented March for Israel in Washington, DC, just a month after October 7, the largest pro-Israel gathering in US history. More than 4,000 YU students, staff, and alumni travelled to Washington – and became the largest contingent at the rally – to proudly demonstrate their support for the Jewish state. March for Israel organizers credited the rally’s great success to YU’s early decision to cancel all undergraduate and high school classes to enable participants to attend.
Multiple missions of students travelled to Israel during the first few months of the war to visit IDF soldiers, support the hostage families, and volunteer to assist displaced citizens. Over the course of the year, hundreds of our students have been to Israel, showing their direct and personal feelings of solidarity.
Throughout the year, our Yeshiva University Political Action Club organized hundreds of students to travel to Washington, DC, where they held private meetings with members of Congress for impactful days of lobbying to press for stronger support for Israel, and leadership in working to get the hostages released.
The leadership expressed by our students bodes well for the future of the Jewish people. They are the leaders of tomorrow, and during this challenging time they have risen to meet this moment with a deep sense of responsibility and personal commitment to Israel and to the Jewish people as a whole.
With all of the trials and triumphs from this past year, through the mourning of our fallen soldiers and our prayers for our hostages, the Jewish people have emerged stronger and more united in our belief in the mission and purpose of our eternal people. Am Yisrael chai, now and forever! ■
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-832522
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Israel No Longer Has Genuine Friends, Only Allies with Self-Interest
By Walter Bingham
December 17, 2024
During the past year, Israel has experienced innumerable painful events. Many of our heroic soldiers have fallen in the defense of our country. We feel for their families and pray that they should not experience any more losses but only happy events.
It is, of course, no consolation for the loss of our soldiers that the IDF assassinated Yahya Sinwar, the head of Hamas and architect of the October 7 massacre. While the elimination of the leader of Hamas was a long-standing aim of the IDF, it will not be the cause of the war’s end but rather the beginning of the end in Gaza. Hopefully, it will also be a step closer to finding all the hostages and thus put an end to the countless demonstrations that achieve nothing but create costly traffic disruption. Israelis pray for the return of the hostages, but do these demonstrators not realize that they are being used as puppets by anarchists and provocateurs to topple the government? This is Israel, where everyone has a different opinion about how the war should be conducted. However, it is counterproductive to their cause to express it through violent action and opposition to the police who are fulfilling their task of protecting the interests of the population at large.
The current political climate
I am neither a general nor a professional strategist. I was, however, a participant in the task of the de-Nazification of Germany immediately after May 7, 1945, the day of Germany’s unconditional surrender. It is on that experience that I base my suggestion for “the day after” in Gaza.
Firstly, the total area must be brought under Israeli military authority to begin the systematic political screening of all personnel engaged in any administrative or security position. That may take up to one year. Ideally, that should lead to a declaration of sovereignty, allowing administrative functions for and by the Arab sector.
Unfortunately, in the current political climate, that will not be an option that our government could take. Therefore, Gaza should be administered by COGAT (Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories) until the international community realizes that any other solution that includes outside agencies, whether Egypt, Qatar, EU, or UN personnel, will allow elements of opposition to fester again. UNIFIL on the Lebanese border is a good example. Only full incorporation into Israel will restore peace in Gaza . Gazans will tell you that before Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2005, they were better off than under Hamas The much-discussed international aid must, from the very day after, include reconstruction of Arab housing in designated areas.
I now want to turn to the situation in Lebanon, where Hezbollah is still a force to be reckoned with, daily barraging the north of Israel with missiles, despite ongoing IAF strikes against its missile-launching sites. The IDF has also targeted selected locations in Beirut, including financial institutions where millions of dollars and gold are stored. Hezbollah’s main financial administrators have been eliminated. The former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah’s money bunker is situated beneath a hospital in central Beirut, which is used to finance its terrorist activities. An Israeli spokesman has said that the hospital will not be targeted.
We are conducting the war with extreme care to avoid enemy civilian casualties. In the process, we are losing many of our soldiers. “We are not at war with you, the Lebanese people” is the repeated Israeli message sent to the population of Lebanon. That is an erroneous attempt to cause insurrection. In Lebanon, Hezbollah is a state within a state, paying weekly social security, providing childcare, and offering loans without interest as per Sharia law. That ensures continued loyal support for Hezbollah.
The engine that drives the strife all over the Middle East is Iran, a theocratic dictatorship that calls itself an Islamic republic and has ambitions to establish an Islamic empire with nuclear capability.
It was in July 2015 that US president Barack Obama concluded the Iran nuclear deal that was to prevent Iran from producing nuclear weapon-strength material. In return, then-US Treasury Secretary Jack Lew arranged the transfer to Iran of $400 million in cash by private plane. That money was used to finance the terror activities of Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis. Lew, the negotiator of the transfer, is the current American ambassador to Israel!
I have already lived through one world war and do not want to experience another. That is why I appeal to Israel’s war cabinet to consider a different modus operandi. There has never been a war in which one side is expected to ensure that the enemy is well fed. Nor have I ever heard that prior warning of the location of an imminent attack has been given to the enemy. Wars are won by the element of surprise and misinformation. Remember the landings in Normandy.
In our present situation, it is important to prevent leaks. Therefore, we must remember that today we don’t have genuine friends, only allies with self-interest. Israel will survive and thrive even without fair weather friends. ■
Walter Bingham, now approaching the age of 101, holds Guinness World Records as the world’s oldest working journalist and oldest active radio host.
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-832493
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Israel Is Ready to Annex the West Bank, But Why Now?
By Dr Ramzy Baroud
December 16, 2024
Israel is getting ready to annex the occupied Palestinian West Bank. The annexation will be a major step backwards on the road to Palestinian freedom and will likely serve as a catalyst for a new Palestinian uprising. Although annexation has been on the Israeli agenda for years, this time around a “great opportunity” — in the words of extreme far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich — has presented itself and, from an Israeli point of view, cannot be missed.
“I hope we’ll have a great opportunity with the new US administration to create full normalisation [of the Israeli occupation],” he was quoted as saying by Israeli media. This is not the first time that Smotrich, along with other Israeli extremists, has made the connection between Donald Trump moving back into the White House and the illegal expansion of Israel’s nominal borders.
Two things make Israel’s far-right optimistic about Trump’s return to the Oval Office: the Israeli experience during Trump’s first term in office, when the US president allowed the occupation state to claim sovereignty over illegal settlements, the Syrian Golan Heights and occupied East Jerusalem; and Trump’s more recent statement in the run-up to the elections.
Israel is “so tiny” on the map, said Trump when addressing the pro-Israel group Stop Anti-Semitism at an event in August, asking aloud: “Is there any way of getting more?” The statement, absurd by any definition, prompted joy among Israeli politicians, who understood it to be a green light for further annexation of Palestinian land.
Following the fall of Bashar Al-Assad’s regime in Syria, Israel immediately invaded large swathes of the country, reaching as far as the Quneitra governorate, less than 20 kilometres from the capital, Damascus. What is taking place in Syria serves as a model of what to expect in the West Bank in coming months.
Israel occupied nearly 70 per cent of the Syrian Golan Heights in 1967. It cemented its illegal occupation of the Arab region by formally annexing it in 1981 through the so-called Golan Heights Law. That illegal move came shortly after another illegal annexation, that of occupied Palestinian East Jerusalem the previous year.
Although the West Bank was not formally annexed, the boundaries of East Jerusalem have been expanded well beyond its historic borders, thus swallowing large parts of the West Bank. Like East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, the West Bank is also recognised as illegally occupied under international law. Israel has no legal basis to maintain its occupation, let alone annex any Palestinian or Arab land. It is allowed to do so, however, due to US-Western support and international silence.
Aside from the “great opportunity” linked to Trump’s return to power, Israel feels that its ability to sustain a genocidal war on Gaza without any international intervention to bring the extermination to an end, would make the annexation of the West Bank a far less consequential matter on the international agenda.
Even though the International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued a decisive ruling on the illegality of the Israeli occupation on 19 July, followed by the issuance of arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant by the International Criminal Court (ICC) on 21 November, no action was taken to actually hold Israel accountable. The annexation of the West Bank is unlikely to change that, especially as Israel conducts its wars and illegal actions with direct US support.
The Democratic administration of Joe Biden has financed and supported all Israeli wars, including the current genocide. Trump is expected to be equally generous, or at the very least, not at all critical.
With all of this in mind, the annexation of the West Bank in the coming weeks or months is a real possibility. In fact, Smotrich has already informed “workers of the Defence Ministry body in charge of Israeli and Palestinian civil affairs in the West Bank” about his plans to “shut down the department as part of an envisioned Israeli annexation of the area,” the Times of Israel reported on 6 December.
While such annexation will not change the legal status of the West Bank under international law, it will have dire consequences for the millions of Palestinians living there, as annexation is likely to be followed by a violent campaign of ethnic cleansing, if not from the whole of the West Bank, certainly from large parts of it.
It was created following the Oslo Accords to administer parts of the West Bank in anticipation of a future sovereign state, which has never materialised. Will the PA agree to remain functional as part of the Israeli military administration of a newly annexed West Bank?
Palestinians will certainly resist, as they always do. The nature of the resistance will prove critical in the success or failure of the Israeli scheme. A popular Intifada, for example, will overstretch the Israeli military, which will likely use an unprecedented degree of violence to suppress Palestinians, but is unlikely to succeed.
Annexing the West Bank at a time when Palestine — in fact, the whole region — is in turmoil, is a recipe for perpetual war. From the viewpoint of Smotrich and his ilk, that will be another “great opportunity”, as it will secure their political survival for years to come.
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20241216-israel-is-ready-to-annex-the-west-bank-but-why-now/
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The Ouster Of Tyrant Assad Paves The Way For Palestine, Not The Other Way Round
By Dr Amira Abo El-Fetouh
December 16, 2024
Last Friday was memorable for millions of Syrians all over the world who celebrated the liberation of their land from the Assad dynasty. Many raised the original flag used in Syria after it was liberated from French occupation. The revolutionaries chose to use it 13 years ago and removed the flag that represented the brutal Assad regime, which lasted for 54 years, ever since Hafez Al-Assad carried out his coup in 1970. The flag was a clever way to indicate that they do not differentiate between the two occupiers: France and the Assad family; both were tyrannical; both usurped Syria’s land; and both looted its wealth and resources. One may even say that the French occupier was more merciful than the Assad butchers, father and son alike.
The chanting on the streets on Friday was wonderful. “Raise your head high, you are a free Syrian” and “Syria wants freedom” revived the passionate national sentiments that prevailed in the 1920s. There was no division between faith and ethnic groups within Syria then; they all fought in the same trench against the French occupation, and here they are today in one trench after being liberated from the brutal Assad regime.
In the city of Sweida, those who took to the streets recalled their history and struggle against French colonialism and held up pictures of Sultan Pasha Al-Atrash, the leader of the Great Syrian Revolution against the French. They even renamed a famous roundabout in the city after him, dropping “Basel Roundabout”, which was named after Hafez Al-Assad’s eldest son.
The scene at Umayyad Square was magnificent, remembering the Umayyad Caliphate when Damascus was the capital of the Islamic Empire that shone its light on the entire world with its knowledge, culture and civilisation.
The revolutionaries of northern Syria arrived in Damascus, after conquering Aleppo, Hama and Homs, to meet their fellows from Quneitra, Sweida, Daraa, and the rural areas around Damascus and its districts. They formed a fabric that no one can tear apart, in perfect harmony. Everyone is happy with the fall of the tyrant, and everyone wants to build a new Syria based on freedom, justice and dignity after the Assad family devastated the land, and killed, humiliated and degraded its people. The ousted regime tore apart Syria’s social fabric and spread sedition and conspiracies among the various sects and faith groups.
One of the astonishing ironies is that the people of Syria are draped in green, happy with the fall of the tyrant, while nationalists and Arabists in Egypt are draped in black, grieving over the fall of the butcher. They believe that the Syrian state has fallen, as if Bashar was the state and the state was Bashar, and they defend him desperately, even though he is now a fugitive who fled with his family and billions of dollars of the state’s wealth. They have seen with their own eyes the prisoners who were freed from the butcher’s slaughterhouses and heard what his savages did in Syria’s prisons, unimaginable and unacceptable to anyone with a heart. Despite such tragic testimonies and evidence, these nationalists and Arabists weep over Assad and say that he was Syria’s protector from Israel, which is now taking advantage of his fall and occupying new Syrian territory, bombing and destroying the Syrian army’s weapons, depots and factories out of fear of the new government.
In saying this, they contradict themselves, and actually denounce and accuse the butcher — who betrayed his country and his people — of working for Israel, even though they meant to praise him. What they are saying is that the Zionist entity did not fear the Syrian army or its weapons when the Assad dynasty ruled, because they would not be used against the enemy; the regime used them against its own people. Not a single Syrian bullet has been fired at the Zionist state since it occupied the Golan Heights in 1973, and yet Israel has bombed Damascus dozens of times and the army that they are crying over did not respond. The head butcher said that he would respond at the appropriate time, which never came.
The only logical explanation is that the Assad regime leaked details of the locations of the weapons stores and factories.
The revolutionaries who liberated Syria now stand accused of working for the Zionist entity. If this were true, then why is the occupation regime afraid that the Syrian army’s weapons will fall into the new government’s hands?
The whole world knows that Assad Senior sold the Golan Heights to the Zionists for financial and political support after he was appointed as president of Syria in 1970. King Faisal of Saudi Arabia (1906-1964) told him this at an Arab Summit meeting, so not a single bullet has been fired at him since Israel occupied the Golan.
Whoever believes that the fall of the butcher Bashar Al-Assad’s regime is a loss for the Palestinian cause is, therefore, delusional. This useless regime was doing its duty by guarding the nominal borders of the apartheid state. It was the occupation’s guard dog, appointed by the occupation to do its dirty work. Palestine wouldn’t have been liberated while Syria was run by Assad and thus held captive by the Zionist entity. That is why I am optimistic about the liberation of Syria and that the future will witness more successes that will restore the freedom and dignity of the Arab people. This is the only thing that will pave the way for the return of Palestine to its people. I have said it many times: Palestine will not be liberated unless and until the Arab countries are liberated from their tyrannical and oppressive rulers.
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20241216-the-ouster-of-tyrant-assad-paves-the-way-for-palestine-not-the-other-way-round/
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Factbox - Syria: The War in Numbers
December 16, 2024
On 15 March, 2011, a 40-strong crowd gathered in Old Damascus chanting political slogans. The brief protest in Syria’s capital marked the start of nearly 14 years of war and brutality that ended with the fall of President Bashar Al-Assad.
On 8 December, 2024, Syrian rebels seized Damascus after a lightning advance that sent Assad fleeing to Russia, ending more than 50 years of Assad family rule.
As many Syrians celebrated and refugees began to pour back home from neighbouring countries, the cost of the devastating civil war is being tallied.
Here is a breakdown of the key numbers illustrating the conflict’s impact on Syria and its people.
Death and torture
The final death toll is hard to tally.
The United Nations estimated last year that more than 300,000 civilians had been killed by the end of March 2021, an average of 84 civilians every day.
Researchers estimated in 2021 that a further 250,000 fighters had been killed during the first 10 years of the civil war.
The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) – an independent human rights group – puts the toll slightly lower, logging 231,495 civilian deaths between March 2011 and June 2024.
Government forces and allied Iranian militias were responsible for about 87 per cent of these deaths, according to SNHR.
The victims included almost 30,000 children, almost 76 per cent of whom were killed by government forces.
Assad’s government also institutionalised torture, according to human rights groups.
In the notorious Sednaya prison complex, dubbed the “Human Slaughterhouse”, jailers carried out mass hangings and executions, Amnesty International said in a 2017 report.
It said the killings, torture, enforced disappearance, mass hangings and extermination of detainees in Sednaya were “part of a widespread and systematic attack against civilians amounting to crimes against humanity”.
SNHR said that, as of August this year, 15,102 people had been tortured to death by the warring parties, with more than 98 per cent of them killed by government forces.
Displacement
The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, described the Syria crisis as the largest displacement crisis in the world, with more than 12 million people forced to move.
A huge earthquake in February last year exacerbated the situation, affecting some 8.8 million people, destroying homes and levelling vital infrastructure.
To date, almost 5 million people have fled to the neighbouring countries of Lebanon, Turkiye and Jordan.
Turkiye has the highest number of war-displaced, with about 3.8 million Syrians registered as refugees.
A further 1.9 million people are registered as refugees in Egypt, Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon and 41,000 in North Africa.
Syrians have also been forced to move around inside their country in what aid agencies have described as one of the world’s largest and longest internal displacement crises.
About 7.2 million people have fled their homes, according to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, which is part of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC).
As the rebels advanced on major cities between 28 November and 8 December, approximately 1 million people – mostly women and children – were forced out, from as far afield as Aleppo, Hama and Homs governorates, according to the UN.
It was at least the second forced move for more than one in five of them.
Economic Collapse
War destroyed economic networks, obliterated infrastructure and forced people to abandon their homes, schools and jobs.
Syria’s gross domestic product more than halved between 2010 and 2020, according to the World Bank.
From 2011 until 2020, the fallout spilled across borders.
The conflict cut average annual GDP growth rates in Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon by 1.2, 1.6 and 1.7 percentage points respectively, in real terms, according to the World Bank.
This amounts to a combined 11.3 per cent loss of economic activity when measured against pre-war levels, the World Bank said.
Poverty
Extreme poverty was virtually non-existent in Syria pre-war, but now more than one in four live in extreme poverty, the World Bank said in a report.
More than half of them live in three governorates: Aleppo in the north, west-central Hama and Deir-ez-Zor in the north-east.
In Deir ez-Zor, 72 per cent of the population survives on less than $2.15 a day, the Bank said.
Women-led households and displaced families were most at risk of poverty.
Education
The war destroyed more than 7,000 schools and ended formal education for some 2 million children, according to the UN.
“Humanitarian conditions inside the country are dire, with millions of children and families facing extreme deprivation,” UNICEF Executive Director, Catherine Russell, said last week.
Healthcare
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), 65 per cent of hospitals and 62 per cent of primary healthcare centres are fully operational in Syria, leaving gaping health holes for millions.
More than a decade of conflict has also starved the industry of professionals after they were killed or fled, resulting in chronic staff shortages.
Almost 1,000 medical professionals were killed in Syria from 2011 until March 2024, said Physicians for Human Rights, a New York-based advocacy group that uses science and medicine to document and campaign against mass atrocities.
Humanitarian aid
Needs are at an all-time high in Syria, with 16.7 million requiring assistance, according to the European Commission.
Only 27.3 per cent of the United Nations Humanitarian Response Plan for Syria this year was ever funded, said the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in November.
“Although 2 million people urgently need winter assistance, the Winterisation Plan is just 10 per cent funded,” the report said.
“Half of the health facilities are non-functional, affecting 1.5 million people, and over 1 million children face school dropouts amid ongoing closures.”
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20241216-factbox-syria-the-war-in-numbers/
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Israel’s ‘Great Opportunity’ To Annex the West Bank
Dr. Ramzy Baroud
December 16, 2024
Israel is getting ready to annex the West Bank. The annexation will be a major step backward on the road to Palestinian freedom and will likely serve as a catalyst for a new Palestinian uprising.
Though annexation has been on the Israeli agenda for years, this time around a “great opportunity” — in the words of extremist Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich — is about to present itself and, from an Israeli point of view, it cannot be missed.
“I hope we’ll have a great opportunity with the new US administration to create full normalization (of the Israeli occupation),” the minister reportedly told Civil Administration staff this month.
This is not the first time that Smotrich, among other Israeli extremists, has made the connection between Donald Trump’s advent to the White House and the illegal expansion of Israel’s borders.
Two factors make Israel’s far right optimistic about Trump’s arrival. One, the Israeli experience during Trump’s first term in office, when he unilaterally changed the American position on the legal status of the settlements, the Syrian Golan Heights and Jerusalem. And, two, Trump’s more recent statement in the run-up to the November US elections.
Israel is “so tiny” on the map, Trump said, while addressing the pro-Israeli group Stop Antisemitism at an event in August, wondering: “Is there any way of getting more?” The statement, absurd by any definition, caused joy among Israeli politicians, who understood it to be a green light for further annexations.
Israel’s aims for colonial expansion received another boost in recent days. Following the fall of Bashar Assad’s rule in Syria, it immediately began invading large swaths of the country, reaching as far as the Quneitra governorate, less than 20 km away from the capital, Damascus.
What is taking place in Syria serves as a model of what to expect in the West Bank in the coming months.
Israel occupied nearly 70 percent of the Syrian Golan Heights in 1967. It cemented its illegal occupation of the Arab region by formally annexing it in 1981 through the so-called Golan Heights Law. That illegal move came shortly after another illegal annexation, that of Palestinian East Jerusalem the previous year.
Although the West Bank was not formally annexed at that time, the boundaries of East Jerusalem have expanded well beyond the city’s historic borders, thus swallowing large parts of the West Bank.
The West Bank, like East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, is recognized as illegally occupied territory under international law. Israel has no legal basis to maintain its occupation, let alone annex any Palestinian or Arab region. It is allowed to do so, however, due to US-Western support and international silence.
But why is Israel keen on annexing the West Bank now?
Aside from the “great opportunity” linked to Trump’s return to power, Israel feels that its ability to sustain a genocidal war on Gaza over the past 14 months without any international intervention will make the annexation of the West Bank a far less consequential matter on the global agenda.
Even though the International Court of Justice in July issued a decisive ruling on the illegality of the Israeli occupation, followed by the issuing of arrest warrants against top Israeli leaders by the International Criminal Court in November, no action has been taken to hold Israel accountable. The annexation of the West Bank is unlikely to change that, especially as Israel conducts its wars and illegal actions with direct US support.
With all this in mind, the annexation of the West Bank in the coming weeks or months is a real possibility.
In fact, Smotrich has already informed “workers of the Defense Ministry body in charge of Israeli and Palestinian civil affairs in the West Bank” about his plans to “shut down the department as part of an envisioned Israeli annexation of the area,” The Times of Israel reported on Dec. 6.
While such an annexation would not change the legal status of the West Bank, it would have dire consequences for the millions of Palestinians living there, as annexation would likely be followed by a violent campaign of ethnic cleansing, if not from the whole of the West Bank, then certainly from large parts of it.
Annexation would also render the Palestinian Authority legally irrelevant. It was created following the Oslo Accords to administer parts of the West Bank in anticipation of future sovereignty for the Palestinian people, which never actualized. Would the PA agree to remain functional as part of the Israeli military administration of a newly annexed West Bank?
Palestinians will certainly resist, as they always do. The nature of the resistance will prove critical in the success or failure of the Israeli scheme. A popular intifada, for example, would overstretch the Israeli military, which would likely use an unprecedented degree of violence to suppress Palestinians. It is unlikely it would succeed.
Annexing the West Bank at a time when Palestine and, in fact, the whole region is in turmoil is a recipe for perpetual war. From the viewpoint of Smotrich and his ilk, this is the actual “great opportunity,” as it will secure their political survival for years to come.
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2583273
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Syria’s Transition Must Be Inclusive, Legitimate and Credible
Chris Doyle
December 16, 2024
The highs and lows of the last few weeks have proved overwhelming for many Syrians. The incredible scenes of celebration across Syrian cities on Friday were illustrative of the elation of being Assad-free for the first time in 53 years. Syrians have awaited eons to enjoy this moment and they should be allowed to, given all the horrors of those years.
But if only joy could transition Syria to a peaceful, flourishing and secure state. Hard work and struggles lie ahead. This course can only be navigated successfully and in good order with the constructive and positive assistance of regional and international actors.
A degree of humility is required. Barely a single actor has had a constructive and successful history in its dealings with Syria. At times, many states excused Bashar Assad or even propped up his regime. Those that actively got involved in Syria over the last 14 years did so largely for their own narrow self-interests and rarely for those of the Syrian people. Rather than help unify Syria, their actions all too often polarized it. Some backed extremist groups, giving them arms, though never enough to topple the dictator.
Europe and the US have increasingly abandoned their responsibilities to Syrians, cutting their aid and putting up immense barriers to asylum seekers. Most European states barely waited until Assad had cleared Syrian airspace before announcing a pause in asylum applications from Syrians.
What can major international actors do? For starters, they should not assume that they know Syria. The country has changed, its people have been traumatized and polarized. Few people have had access to Syria and, if they have, not to all of it. Assumptions must be challenged at every stage.
Listening to Syrians of all identities and backgrounds is therefore paramount, with a focus on those inside the country. In writing this article, I relied heavily on Syrian input. Remember, many Syrians have not been able to travel around their country; they have effectively been imprisoned in their own areas. There are no shortcuts. Politicians and diplomats will have to reach out to multiple actors. Detailed research is vital.
External powers need to drop the historic obsession with who will run Syria. In such situations, they always want to know about the who. More important is the process of transition. This must be inclusive, legitimate and credible. It has to ensure that all components of Syrian society feel they have a stake in what is happening and a say in it.
Right now, this means ensuring that Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham does not try to assume all powers. Its leadership will be desperate to gain international recognition. This must be conditioned on an inclusive transition and basic standards of human rights. HTS does not have a history of sharing power, but it must be made to understand that this has to change.
If the transitional leadership heads in a decent direction, then those states that have proscribed HTS may consider lifting this status and engaging with it. Many might hope that HTS itself is dissolved, as part of a dismantling of all armed groups and forming of a varied array of political groupings.
The Syrian economy needs kick-starting. Syrians are well educated and entrepreneurial, but American and European sanctions will need to be eased. They can be phased out, with a priority on lifting those sanctions that impinge most on ordinary Syrians, 90 percent of whom live below the poverty line.
The humanitarian crisis must be addressed. Donor states should ensure that aid gets to those most in need across the country. Previously, the Assad regime manipulated international aid, concentrating it in loyalist areas. Development aid that helps Syrians get the country’s agricultural economy going again would be very sensible. Helping the education system get back to its feet would be a vital long-term investment.
Assad’s assets that are frozen in foreign states could be unfrozen for the benefit of the Syrian people. In the UK, for example, research shows Assad stashed away a cool £163 million ($206 million).
The UN must have a central role. It can bring the different actors together. It has a degree of legitimacy that other international bodies do not have.
But the UN must beef up its presence. Russia must not act as a spoiler, given its veto-wielding role in the Security Council. Ideally, the secretary-general should look for a new UN envoy to Syria, who would have a stronger mandate than Geir Pedersen, the current envoy. The new envoy should be an Arab with standing and gravitas, someone who is able to reach out to Syrians in their own language and be steeped in their culture.
Finally, international actors must restrain those external powers that are actively interfering at this delicate moment. Israel must end its savage bombing campaign and additional land grab. Turkiye must stop its campaign against the Kurds in return for political agreements and security guarantees.
All should understand that a strong and stable Syria will contribute to regional and international security, whereas a failing state will pose a massive ongoing threat.
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2583261
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