[IsraelTimes] Jewish groups around the world condemn the ruling, which branded the writing legitimate free expression, saying it sets a dangerous precedent for condoning future antisemitism
Belgian author Herman Brusselmans, who wrote last August, "I get so furious that I want to ram a sharp knife through the throat of every Jew I meet," was acquitted Tuesday by the Ghent court in Belgium of charges of Holocaust denial, racism, and incitement to hatred.
Jewish organizations around the world condemned the ruling, which determined that Brusselmans’ column was legitimate free expression. They warned it would set a dangerous precedent that would make it harder to fight antisemitism in Europe.
Last August, Brusselmans, a well-known writer and intellectual who appears regularly on television, sparked turmoil in Europe’s Jewish community when he wrote an ostensibly satirical piece in the Belgian magazine Humo describing his wrath after seeing Paleostinians dying in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... "I see an image of a crying and screaming Paleostinian boy, completely out of his mind, calling for his mother who is lying under the rubble," Brusselmans wrote. "I get so angry that I want to ram a sharp knife through the throat of every Jew I meet."
"Of course, you always have to remember: Not every Jew is a murderous bastard," he added. "I imagine an elderly Jewish man shuffling down my own street, dressed in a washed-out shirt, fake cotton trousers and old sandals, and I feel sorry for him and almost get tears in my eyes, but a moment later I wish him to hell."
Antisemitism has run rampant in Europa ...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum... and across the world since Hamas ..the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,... launched its war with Israel on October 7, 2023, drawing a military response that has killed more than 48,000 Paleostinians, according to unverified figures from the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza that do not distinguish between combatants and civilians.
Israel says it has killed some 20,000 combatants in battle as of January and another 1,000 hard boyz inside Israel on and just after October 7.
The Belgium court ruled that Brusselmans’ statement was a permissable form of free expression and did not constitute a criminal offense.
"The court recognizes that certain members of the Jewish community could possibly take offense at some sentences in some columns, but emphasizes that the author’s expressions of opinion are protected by the right to free speech," the judge wrote.
Following the ruling, European Jewish Association (EJA) president Rabbi Menachem Margolin called the decision "a deeply alarming message about the state of the fight against antisemitism in Belgium and Europe.’’
"Today, the Belgian justice system has established a grave precedent: hate crime laws are flexible — and when it comes to Jews, they suddenly become malleable,’’ he said.
"By issuing such a verdict, the Belgian judiciary sends a dangerous message: incitement to murder and hatred can be reinterpreted, excused, and ultimately legitimized — at least when the targets are Jews,’’ Margolin added. He called on the Belgian government to make urgent legislative reforms to close the legal loopholes that enable such "morally and legally indefensible rulings.’’
Jewish Information and Documentation Center chairman Michel Kotek also spoke out against the decision.
"This is a disgrace to Belgian jurisprudence. For someone who has been making such statements since 1993, we are no longer talking about an incident," he said. "This is a constant repetition of moves in which anti-Semitic statements predominate."
"We, too, are for freedom of speech," Kotek added. "But where it spills over into hatred and the deprivation of safety, that’s where a government must intervene."
Following the decision, Brusselmans told the Belgian news service VRT that he wasn’t sure if he would make similar statements in the future.
"That is difficult to answer. I do not know what I will write in the future," he said. "I write a column every week. I may adapt, I may not. But I am careful."
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Germany's new government is planning to turn away asylum seekers from its borders en masse regardless of agreement from its neighbours, a member of the incoming coalition has claimed.
Jens Spahn, a Christian Democratic Union (CDU) politician and former minister under Angela Merkel, revealed the new policy direction following talks with the Social Democrats (SPD) over the weekend.
Mr Spahn told the Table.Briefings podcast that Germany's neighbours would be informed and possibly coordinated with - apparently contradicting claims made on Saturday that Germany would only turn back asylum seekers in conjunction with its partners.
'We are not making ourselves dependent on the consent of the other countries,' deputy leader of Germany's conservative CDU/CSU parliamentary group said on Sunday.
He noted that the existing agreement on migration 'doesn't say agree but in coordination', and that 'we see all the legal bases there to enforce it either way'.
But critics have already suggested it would be a breach of EU migration law and the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) if adopted. Mr Spahn has previously suggested Germany could leave the ECHR to overcome legal obstacles.
The announcement comes after Austria, to the south, rejected Germany's idea of turning back asylum seekers at the border, insisting it would not accept them either.
The harder line on migration comes in the wake of a spate of terror attacks across Germany in recent months and a shift to the right among voters, with burgeoning support for the far-right Alternative fur Deutschland (AfD) party pressing centrist parties to change course.
Germany's conservatives under future chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Saturday that his CDU party had come to an agreement in principle with the centre-left SPD to form a coalition government.
He said both sides had agreed on tough new steps to limit irregular immigration, including refusing all undocumented migrants at the borders, including asylum seekers. Merz has stressed the need to win back votes from from the AfD, which secured more than 20 per cent of votes in the election.
Spahn said the SPD has been cooperative on the issue: 'We have a common interest in limiting migration.'
The rejection of asylum seekers at the borders was at the centre of the CDU's campaign in an effort to hold on to voters unsettled by recent attacks on German soil.
Merz has repeatedly pledged not to work with the far-right anti-immigrant AfD party despite their second-place finish, upholding a longstanding 'firewall' not to work with the party.
Outgoing chancellor Olaf Scholz last month extended strict border controls brought in to tackle migration and Islamist terrorism, ahead of the February 23 election.
But the tightening of borders has not been without backlash. The move, which saw 640 people turned back and 17 extremists identified by police in just the first five days, was met with condemnation from several European partners.
Scholz at the time cited figures showing asylum applications had fallen by a third last year from 2023 and that 1,900 people smugglers had been arrested.
Amid a shift in European policy towards migration, the EU is expected today to open the way for member states to set up migrant return centres outside the bloc following pressure from governments to facilitate deportations.
The European Commission is to unveil a controversial planned reform of the EU's return system, which critics say is inadequate in its present form.
Data shows that less than 20 percent of irregular migrants who are ordered to leave Europe currently do so.
'We want to put in place a truly European system for returns, preventing absconding, and facilitating the return of third-country nationals with no right to stay,' commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said Sunday.
A souring of public opinion on migration has fuelled hard-right electoral gains in several EU countries, upping pressure on governments to harden their stance.
Led by immigration hawks including Sweden, Italy, Denmark and the Netherlands, EU leaders called in October for urgent new legislation to increase and speed up returns and for the commission to assess 'innovative' ways to counter irregular migration.
Most controversial among them is the creation of 'return hubs' outside the European Union where failed asylum seekers could be sent pending transfer back home.
This is not possible at present as under EU rules migrants can be transferred only to their country of origin or a country they transited from, unless they agree otherwise.
Magnus Brunner, the commissioner for migration, is expected to propose to the European Parliament in Strasbourg legal changes allowing EU countries to strike deals with other nations to set up such centres, according to people familiar with the matter.
An expansion of the conditions under which irregular migrants can be detained is also likely to be featured in the proposal, which will need backing from parliament and member states to become law.
Fraught with legal and ethical concerns, some experts say return hubs are an expensive and impractical idea that is unlikely to see large-scale uptake any time soon in spite of the commission's proposal.
For Jacob Kirkegaard of Bruegel, a think tank, the amendments reflect a 'path of least resistance' chosen by von der Leyen when dealing with divisive issues that are no longer a priority given the fraught international environment.
Brussels is currently busy dealing with US tariff threats, an aggressive Russia and the prospect of a collapse in transatlantic relations.
'This is simply about political bandwidth,' Kirkegaard said. 'She's going to get out of the way' and let member states do what they want, he said of von der Leyen.
The changes are likely to upset rights groups, some of which have already voiced concerns.
'This new proposal will be harmful and confirms the EU's obsession with deportations,' said Silvia Carta of the Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants (PICUM).
'We can likely expect more people being locked up in immigration detention centres across Europe, families separated, and people sent to countries they don't even know,' she said.
Britain recently abandoned a similar scheme to deport illegal migrants to Rwanda, and Italian-run facilities to process migrants in Albania, coming with an estimated cost of 160 million euros ($175 million) a year, are bogged down in the courts.
Return hubs will conceivably face a similar slew of legal challenges if they are set up, said Olivia Sundberg Diez of Amnesty International.
'We can expect drawn-out litigation, probably costly centres sitting empty and lives in limbo in the meantime,' she said.
Yet proponents say there are few viable alternatives.
'If we are not going to do the return hubs, what will we do instead is my question? We have tried other systems for many years, it doesn't work,' Johan Forssell, Sweden's migration minister, told AFP.
Irregular border crossings detected into the European Union were down 38 percent to 239,000 last year after an almost 10-year peak in 2023, according to EU border agency Frontex.
#3
The thing is that instead of processing them, Italy just lets them go to Austria, and Austria lets them go to Germany. Italy is supposed to take them back, but they almost never do. So they are breaking EU laws first.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
03/12/2025 7:28 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Italy was forced by the Germans EU to accept illegals.
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/12/2025 13:19 Comments ||
Top||
#10
Like when New York tried to make illegals sent from Texas and Florida into some sort of human trafficking interstate commerce violation, "They have to be sent back and cease their leaving those states!"
#11
She (Rosie O'Donnel) emigrated to Ireland over Trump
Oh noes, the flower of American womanhood! Ireland is a bit of dubious choice, but I give the gal credit for putting her money where her mouth is. Bye!
#15
Fun fact: Rosie O'Donnell applied for dual citizenship (and said she'd move back post-Trump, so how seriously should Ireland take her application?)
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/12/2025 17:53 Comments ||
Top||
[IsraelTimes] Released hostage Omer Wenkert tells Channel 12 that although he was cut off from the outside world throughout his 505 days in captivity in Gaza, he always knew when talks for a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas had fallen through or when a senior Hamas operative was killed, because his terrorist captors would take it out on him.
“Every deal that fell through would bring up a lot of frustration, rage and anger,” Wenkert says of his captors. “Not to mention when one of their fathers was killed, or their families, or when their senior officials were assassinated. You feel it. You know exactly what happened.”
He says that in those instances, his captors would beat him, spit on him, and force him to do strenuous physical exercise.
“I was very weak physically,” he says, adding that his captors’ goal was “humiliation.”
During his interview with Channel 12, Wenkert gives a blow-by-blow account of his time in captivity, starting with the night of October 7, 2023, when he drove down to the Nova music festival with his best friend Kim Damti.
Damti was killed in the same bomb shelter Wenkert was taken from, although he didn’t discover her fate until his return to Israel.
[GEO.TV] The head of the UN agency for Paleostinian refugees on Monday rejected Israel's assertion that other organizations could replace it in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... , insisting that only a Paleostinian state "institution" could take over.
Israel has banned UNRWA from operating in Gaza and agency chief Philippe Lazzarini hit back after Israel's ambassador Daniel Meron told news hounds that his country was "working to find substitutes to the work of UNRWA inside Gaza".
Israel was actively "encouraging UN agencies and NGOs to take over," he said.
Lazzarini told news hounds that UNRWA was still "it can't be an NGO, it can't be another UN agency".
"The only viable alternative are capable Paleostinian institutions ... in a Paleostinian state."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/12/2025 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11140 views]
Top|| File under: Hamas
#1
I think concrete or a national park could replace them for the betterment of all.
Yup. Yup. And I expect to drop about forty pounds in the next couple weeks.
[GEO.TV] A senior Hamas ..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,... official said that a fresh round of Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... ceasefire talks began on Tuesday in the Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi... i capital Doha, with the Paleostinian movement approaching the negotiations "positively and responsibly".
"A new round of ceasefire negotiations began today," Abdul Rahman Shadid said in a statement. "Our movement is dealing with these negotiations positively and responsibly."
Israel has also sent a team of negotiators for talks aimed at extending the fragile ceasefire in Gaza, but has so far not commented on the talks.
"We hope that the current round of negotiations leads to tangible progress toward beginning the second phase," Shadid said.
He also expressed hope that US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff would help "initiate negotiations for the second phase of the ceasefire agreement".
"The US administration bears responsibility due to its unwavering support for the occupying (Israeli) government."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/12/2025 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11139 views]
Top|| File under: Hamas
[IsraelTimes] ToI tours IDF’s highest army post in Syria, overlooking Damascus and Hezbollah’s Beqaa Valley stronghold in Lebanon; Syrian Druze to enter Israel for work starting next week
After an hour-long flight from the relative warmth of central Israel, freezing air rushed into an Israeli Air Force helicopter as Defense Minister Israel Katz, deputy military chief Maj. Gen. Tamir Yadai and a group of journalists landed on Tuesday morning at one of Mount Hermon’s snowy summits on the Syrian side of the border.
Due to the harsh weather conditions and difficult terrain, the Sikorsky CH-53 Sea Stallion — known in Israel as the Yasur — helicopter that took us to Syria from an IAF airbase could not land at the strategic peak of Mount Hermon, located 2,814 meters (9,232 foot) above sea level, and 14.5 kilometers (9 miles) from Israel’s border.
To reach the peak, where the Israeli military has established a post at the site of a former Syrian army position, we needed to travel another hour in cramped snowcats with almost no room to move in.
The fully treaded snowcats made light work of the icy mud and thick snow covering the route to the top of Mount Hermon.
Along the way, an Israeli military truck used to transport ammunition was seen embedded in ice. It had broken down during a snowstorm. Army officials said that they would wait until the summer to extract it, once the ice had melted, indicating that Israel intends to stay inside Syria for the foreseeable future.
Once the news hounds arrived at the Israeli army post and a nearby lookout position, it was clear why the military captured the area back in December.
The Israel Defense Forces took the Syrian side of the strategic Mount Hermon, along with a buffer zone that has existed between the countries since the 1970s, following the fall of the Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Scourge of Qusayr... regime.
Since then, the IDF has established nine military posts inside Syrian territory, including two atop Mount Hermon. Three IDF brigades, under the 210th Bashan Regional Division, are deployed to the area.
The highest IDF position, close to the peak of Mount Hermon, was constructed using a building belonging to the former regime in Syria. The military hooked it up with generators for electricity and fixed it up to make it habitable for troops, who are expected to stay there for the foreseeable future.
The post has a clear view of Leb ...an Iranian satrapy until recently ruled by Hassan Nasrallah situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel... ’s Beqaa Valley, a Hezbollah stronghold on the border with Syria, through which the terror group smuggles arms. Though smuggling attempts have slowed down in recent weeks due to the snow, they are expected to resume in the summer, IDF officials said.
Syria’s capital, Damascus, less than 40 kilometers (24 miles) can also be seen from the IDF post on a clear day.
Katz and military officials said that the IDF’s deployment to the post and the other eight in the area was geared to ensure that the troops could better defend Israeli border communities in the Golan Heights.
"Every morning when [Syrian leader] al-Jolani (Ahmed al-Sharaa) opens his eyes at the presidential palace in Damascus, he will see the IDF watching him from the peak of the Hermon, and remember that we are here and in the entire security area of southern Syria, to protect the Golan and Galilee residents against any of his threats and those of his jihadist friends," Katz said.
"The IDF is prepared to stay in Syria for an unlimited amount of time. We will hold the security area in Hermon and make sure that all the security zone in southern Syria is demilitarized and clear of weapons and threats," he said.
The "security zone," according to Katz, is split into two areas in southern Syria.
The first, the buffer zone, is located up to around five kilometers from Israel’s border. Within the buffer zone and areas adjacent to it, there are some 40,000 Syrian residents, many of them Druze. It is within this area that the IDF established its nine posts.
Katz vowed that Israel "will protect the Druze" in southern Syria, and, starting from March 16, allow the first Syrian Druze to enter Israel for work in the Golan Heights. The plan is being led by Maj. Gen. Ghassan Alian, who heads the Defense Ministry’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories and is Druze himself.
Katz also said that Israel was "tightening its relationship with the locals." The IDF in recent weeks has assisted civilians in repairing broken water and electricity lines, and in a handful of cases also provided medical attention.
The second zone is an area up to 15 kilometers deep into Syria, where the IDF has carried out dozens of raids, capturing weapons Israel seeks to prevent from falling into the hands of hostile forces.
There is also a third zone in southern Syria described by defense officials as "an area of influence." It is located up to 80 kilometers from Israel’s border, reaching the outskirts of Damascus and the Druze-majority city of Suwayda.
Israeli officials have said that they seek to completely demilitarize the southern Syria area, and not allow any gangs to enter it and gain a foothold, including those of the new Syrian government.
Syrian government control is relatively weak in the region, and Israel has threatened to target interim president Ahmed al-Sharaa’s forces if they deploy there.
Another major threat seen by Israel in Syria is the Paleostinian terror groups Hamas ..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",... and Islamic Jihad ...created after many members of the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah... . Many members of the groups were locked up in Assad’s prisons, and with their release in December, the defense establishment fears they could carry out attacks on Israel from Syria.
Therefore, dozens of Israeli Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... s have been carried out in recent weeks, including a large wave late Monday, targeting military sites and equipment belonging to the former regime, to prevent the weapons from reaching hostile forces. Some of the recent strikes have destroyed tanks and artillery systems left behind by the Assad regime.
"Last night we acted forcefully against military targets. We attacked over 40 targets in southern Syria to implement the policy we announced and warned about — to thwart any threat to the State of Israel," Katz added.
Back aboard the snowcats, news hounds, the defense minister, and the deputy IDF chief of staff were taken back to the makeshift helipad located lower down on the mountain. An hour later, we landed back at the airbase.
Lots of taqqiya and special pleading, and a careful avoidance of mentioning that the only law they recognize is Shariah law, under which unbelievers and the Peoples of the Book are at best second class citizens, and at worst horribly dead, a fact understood by all in the organization without the need for direct orders aye or nay..
[IsraelTimes] Sweida’s security services reportedly to come under Interior Ministry, with residents able to join civil service; separately, interim president says trying to be patient with Israel
Syria’s interim government has reached an agreement to integrate the Druze-majority southern province of Sweida into state institutions, multiple media outlets reported Tuesday.
According to the terms of the reported deal, Druze security groups in the area will be under the control of the Syrian Interior Ministry and a police force will be drawn from the local population.
There will also be a governor and police chief appointed for the province, who will not necessarily be from the area. Making suppression of the natives easier
The deal, which is expected to be signed in the coming days, was reported by al-Jazeera, al-Arabiya, and the al-Hadath outlets.
It came a day after the Syrian government announced that it had signed a similar deal with Kurdish authorities.
Syria’s new government under interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa has sought to disband gangs and establish government control over the entirety of the country since ousting long-time leader Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Terror of Aleppo ... in December, after more than 13 years of civil war.
Sweida borders Jordan but not Israel. Many of its residents who protested against the Assad regime in recent years have also protested against Israel’s Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... s and military push into the country since the fall of the government to Sharaa’s rebel forces.
The deal would grant Druze residents of Sweida the right to serve in state civil institutions. In addition, Syria’s security services will be permitted to operate in all areas of the region and take over cop shoppes and other security centers, al-Arabiya and al-Hadath reported.
On Monday, the Syrian presidency announced an agreement with the head of the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to integrate the institutions of the autonomous Kurdish administration in the northeast into the national government.
Since the downfall of Assad, Israel has pushed its forces into southern Syria, taking over a buffer zone that had previously been controlled by the UN and establishing at least nine military posts to be held indefinitely, demanding southern Syria’s "full demilitarization."
It has also carried out wide-ranging strikes to destroy Syrian military equipment, saying the measure is geared to prevent the weapons from falling into the hands of hostile elements. Another series of airstrikes was carried out Monday.
There are Druze communities in the buffer zone. Since the zone’s establishment, Israel has made overtures to the Druze and is preparing to initiate a scheme for Druze residents of southern Syria to enter its borders for work on the Golan Heights.
Israeli leaders have also publicly warned Syria’s government not to harm the Druze in southwestern Syria and have regularly spoken with foreign leaders about the importance of protecting them, along with Syria’s Kurds. Earlier this month, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz instructed the Israel Defense Forces to "prepare to defend" the Druze-majority city of Jaramana on the outskirts of the capital Damascus after reports that authorities from the new Syrian government have been clashing with local Druze button men during a security campaign.
Interim president Sharaa said Tuesday he’s trying to respond to Israeli moves in Syria with "patience and wisdom."
Speaking to Rooters, Sharaa rejected Israeli accusations that his new government poses a threat to the Jewish state. Israeli leaders have kept up a strident verbal campaign against Sharaa, calling him an "al-Qaeda terrorist."
"We are trying to use patience and wisdom as much as possible. If there are fears, we have announced from the first moments that Syria will not pose a threat to any state in the region or the world. And if there are expansionist motives, the entire world agreed with Syria to condemn Israel’s steps in advancing on Syrian territory," he said.
In response to Israeli accusations that his forces could carry out a cross-border attack into Israel, Sharaa said: "I mean, a delusional person can say whatever they want. Every person can imagine that he is suffering from some danger and carry out a preemptive strike and kill. But that is not justifiable."
Sharaa also addressed other issues, including violence in coastal areas where there are Alawite sects who were loyal to Assad. Fighting that erupted there last week is said to have killed over 1,000 people, mostly civilians. Syria’s Islamist-led government on Monday said it had completed a military operation against a nascent insurgency.
"Many of the parties that lost in the battle of Syria and benefited from the old state in Syria worked on plans to return to Syria by inciting sectarian strife and conflicts," Sharaa told Rooters.
He said that members of the former regime "carried out a large military attack in the coastal region."
"This led to the killing of many security forces and some civilians, including Alawites," he said.
"We confirm that Syria is a state of law," Sharaa continued. "The law will take its course on all. We fought to defend the oppressed, and we won’t accept that any blood be shed unjustly, or goes without punishment or accountability, even among those closest to us."
Asked if groups from his defense ministry were involved in the violence, he said: "We need an investigation. There are many ideas, but I do not have specifics or solid proof."
Sharaa asserted that there are "some regional countries that want to destabilize the situation in Syria," an apparent reference to at least Iran, which was tightly allied with Assad’s Syria and has a powerful Lebanese proxy, the Hezbollah terror group.
"We have seen their presence in more than one state, focusing on sectarian strife, spreading captagon, and political corruption," he said. "These are three components that are present in any country they enter. But we do not yet have clear evidence on which to build conclusions or practical steps."
[GEO.TV] Israel said on Tuesday it had agreed to hold talks to demarcate its border with Leb ...The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers... , adding it would release five Lebanese held by the Israeli military in what it called a "gesture to the Lebanese president".
A statement by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said Israel had agreed with Lebanon, the U.S. and La Belle France to establish working groups to discuss the demarcation line between the two countries.
Lebanon said it had received the four Lebanese hostages from Israel, with a fifth to be handed over on Wednesday, according to a statement by the Lebanese president's office on X.
Lebanese media including the state news agency NNA reported that the released Lebanese hostages had arrived in a hospital in southern Lebanon's Tyre.
In a statement on X the same day, US Deputy Presidential Special Envoy Morgan Ortagus said: "Today, the United States announced we are bringing together Lebanon and Israel for talks aimed at diplomatically resolving several outstanding issues between the two countries."
She added that all those involved remained committed to maintaining the ceasefire.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/12/2025 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11132 views]
Top|| File under: Hezbollah
[IsraelTimes] Pezeshkian doubles down as Iran conducts joint naval drills with China and Russia amid US threats over nuclear program
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Tuesday that his country would not negotiate with the United States over its rogue nuclear program while being threatened, telling President Donald Trump ...The Hero of Butler, Pennsylvania... to "do whatever the hell you want,"
…to be fair, Iran also was uninterested in negotiating when America wasn’t threatening them…
as Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... held joint drills with Russia and China in an effort to demonstrate power.
"It is unacceptable for us that they [the US] give orders and make threats. I won’t even negotiate with you. Do whatever the hell you want," Iranian state media quoted Pezeshkian as saying.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ...the very aged actual dictator of Iran, successor to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini...> said on Saturday that Tehran would not be bullied into negotiations, a day after Trump said he had sent a letter to him seeking a new nuclear deal with Tehran. Iran says it hasn’t received any letter, but still issued a flurry of pronouncements over it.
While expressing openness to a deal with Tehran, Trump has reinstated the "maximum pressure" campaign he applied in his first term as president to isolate Iran from the global economy and drive its oil exports down toward zero, as the regime builds up stockpiles of uranium enriched to higher levels that needed for any civilian use.
Trump sought to ratchet up pressure Monday by ending a sanctions waiver that had allowed Iraq to buy electricity from its Shiite neighbor.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Sergey Adamov
[REGNUM] The past few days in Syria have seen an unprecedented surge in violence against local religious minorities: Alawite Muslims and Christians. Social media has been rocked by hundreds of videos in which militants proudly documented their crimes, including mass murders of unarmed people and public torture.
Throughout the conflict, Regnum correspondents were in contact with residents of the Syrian coast, thanks to which they were able to collect dozens of testimonies from civilians about crimes committed by militants.
Eyewitnesses note that militants of foreign origin, natives of Central Asia and the Caucasus, who are noticeably different from Arabs in appearance and stand out against their background, showed particular cruelty in reprisals against the civilian population.
A longstanding problem in the region.
A Red Crescent volunteer, who witnessed mass executions, spoke about the atrocities of foreigners. "The murders are happening for no reason, it is not the military or soldiers who are doing this. These are foreigners - Afghans, Uzbeks, Uighurs," said the author of the video, published on social networks.
Now the new Syrian authorities are arresting civilians for communicating with the media (primarily with the Russian media), so all reports from sources are published anonymously. However, oral testimonies can only serve as confirmation of the crimes in which natives of the Caucasus and Central Asia took part, who do not hide their goals: to create a monolithic society in Syria, united by a radical ideology, in order to carry this ideology further.
GUESTS FROM THE EAST
Militants of foreign origin first appeared in Syria during the first stage of the civil war in 2011–2012. The leadership of the Al-Qaeda* movement called on Central Asians to participate in military operations in the Middle East.
Terrorists from Uzbekistan (Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, IMU), Tajikistan and the Caucasus (Anjad-Kavkaz*)
…or Ajnad al-Kavkaz, Chechen group that split off from Caucasus Emirate…
were able to penetrate through Turkey into the northern regions of Syria, where they came into direct contact with the local branch of Al-Qaeda*, the Jabhat al-Nusra* group (later Hayat Tahrir al-Sham*).
Later, militants from among ethnic Uyghurs, representatives of the so-called “East Turkestan Islamic Movement” (ETIM)*, appeared on the territory of Syria.
The formed "terrorist international" took part in battles against government troops and by 2015 was able to establish control over the province of Idlib. A number of groups received their "allotments", for example, the Uyghurs settled in the area of the city of Jisr al-Shughur, and the Caucasians - the outskirts of Idlib.
The region has become a “promised land” for terrorists from all over the world, who have found in Idlib a safe haven and a springboard for planning attacks around the world. In the fall of 2024, it was these formations, as the most motivated, that took part in the offensive on Aleppo, which ended with the fall of the city, and subsequently the collapse of the government of Bashar al-Assad.
IN A NEW ROLE
The "revolutionary" government of Syria has praised the role of foreign formations, granting all foreign fighters Syrian citizenship and effectively legalizing their status.
Now the former “exiles” have become full-fledged citizens, and, what’s more, 100% loyal to the new regime.
The exact number of foreign fighters is unknown. According to Tajik authorities in 2024, there were about 400 Tajik citizens in the Syrian province of Idlib. The total number of "insurgents" in the ranks of the new Syrian army, according to various estimates, ranges from 5,000 to 10,000 people.
Former mercenaries received high positions in the new government.
For example, a native of Tajikistan, Saifiddin Tadjiboev, who was wanted in his home country on charges of terrorism and mercenarism, was appointed commander of the operational headquarters in the new government’s Ministry of Defense.
ON THE EVE OF THE MASSACRE
Since the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad's government, members of ethnic and religious minorities in Syria have lived in constant fear.
The new authorities in Damascus have officially declared that they will not persecute representatives of any community. Interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa (aka Mohammed Julani) has demonstratively met with heads of Christian churches, promising protection and patronage.
However, already in the first days of the "new Syria" a wave of attacks on churches and representatives of religious minorities swept across the country. Even then, militants of foreign origin distinguished themselves separately, simply ignoring Damascus' calls for religious tolerance and disarmament.
In the following months, it was these same formations that spread across the entire Syrian coast, viewing the region and its inhabitants as fair game.
After the first open clashes broke out, a total mobilization of radicals and their supporters, a kind of "activists", was declared in the neighboring provinces of Hama and Idlib, who were joined by local residents who wanted to rob their Alawite neighbors. However, the backbone of the "cleansing" forces was made up of armed foreigners.
Footage taken by a militant of Chechen origin, commenting on the events in Syria in Russian, is being published online. "There will be no mercy," the author of the videos says, showing footage of terrorist columns being transferred to Latakia. "We continue to clean up," reads the caption to the video of armored vehicles being deployed on the streets of coastal cities.
Over the following days, Regnum correspondents maintained round-the-clock contact with residents of the Syrian coast, receiving information about what was happening first-hand.
This is how residents of the city of Baniyas describe the first night of the pogroms: “Towards evening, the power went out in our neighborhood. Then groups of pogromists began to enter from different sides, they broke into cars, robbed stores, threw stones at windows. They were followed by armed people who went from house to house. They came to our neighbors’ house with a can of paint, they “marked” people, painted their faces black, insulted them, and then left threats and insults on the walls.”
Among the attackers, local residents particularly noted militants with a characteristic Turkic appearance, often not speaking Arabic. According to eyewitnesses, it was they who showed particular cruelty. An audio recording with instructions calling on local residents "loyal" to the government was distributed, calling on them not to go out into the streets. The voice on the recording says that "Uzbek and Chechen mujahideen" do not differentiate between Sunnis and Shiites and kill everyone.
BLOODY MARCH 8TH
By the morning of the second day of the conflict, the regime had managed to concentrate enough forces on the coast to conduct all-out raids. The Islamists were particularly brutal in the Alawite areas outside the Syrian coast, in the provinces of Hama and Homs.
Tellingly, foreign fighters did not hide their participation in the massacre. In the area of the city of Jabla, a group of Uzbek natives was “spotted”, broadcasting live from the scene and streaming in the Uzbek language. The fighters, belonging to the group “Tawhid wal Jihad”*, told their audience that they had come to Latakia “to punish the infidels” and shared their “political program”.
In particular, they propose that the new Syrian authorities "cleanse" the region and populate it with "faithful Muslims." Syrian Christians are offered either to convert to Islam or to pay "jizya" for life - a tax on non-Muslims in Koranic law.
How traditional.
In fact, we are talking about a doctrine of genocide, which provides for the extermination of the indigenous population, followed by its replacement by “faithful” ones.
Convert, pay jizya, or die. Sometimes only the third is on offer.
In order to more actively populate the coast with "faithful" militants from Central Asia took part in the massacre of Alawites in the village of al-Tuwaim in Hama province. In the "final" round, the radicals beat to death about 15 children aged between one and ten years. Some of the residents of Hama were able to hide in the mountains, but now these people are afraid to return to their homes.
"When we heard about the beginning of the conflict, my relatives were able to leave. There were old people left in the village who asked to leave them. We know that they have been killed now. Somewhere in the houses there are bodies that no one has removed because people are afraid to return for a long time. All the men were killed, some women have disappeared, and no one knows where they are," the source told IA Regnum.
DENOUEMENT
By the morning of March 9, the militants had reached the epicenter of the conflict, the city of Jabla, after which another wave of violence swept through the surrounding villages. In one of the videos made in the vicinity of Jabla, the militants filmed a residential building they had set on fire. "Look, the house of the Alawites is burning!" one of the authors of the video says.
Throughout the day, terrorist gangs continued to repeatedly "cleanse" populated areas, often shooting at everyone they encountered without distinction. At the same time, the heads of Syria's Christian churches issued a joint statement calling for an immediate end to the violence. The "world community" also joined the call, albeit belatedly.
Local residents report that a “clean-up” has begun in the cities of Baniyas, Tartus and Latakia: militants are removing corpses from city streets and even washing blood off the asphalt in preparation for the arrival of foreign journalists.
In a separate statement, Ahmed al-Sharaa said the government would set up a "commission" to investigate "incidents of violence" on the coast, but locals were under no illusions.
"We are still afraid to leave our homes now, no one can assess the damage done. Those who survived were left without all their property, others without their families. We will never forget these two terrible days. Now there is a "roll call" in the chats, we are looking for our own. But we know that there will be no justice for the criminals," the Syrians believe.
Events in Syria have vividly confirmed the worst fears about the prospects for a peaceful settlement in that country. But whatever their consequences, it is absolutely clear that terrorist groups operating in Syria pose a threat far beyond its borders, and that their militants may fall victim to far more than just Syrian ethno-confessional minorities.
People from post-Soviet countries who “distinguished themselves” by committing mass murders probably dream of returning to their native lands and repeating the same thing in Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and, of course, in Russia.
Posted by: badanov ||
03/12/2025 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11209 views]
Top|| File under: Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (al-Nusra)
#1
"Just trying to feed their families"
-Tlaib
-Jeffries
-Aoc
-Omar
-Raskin
-Pocahantas
Posted by: Charles Kincaid ||
03/12/2025 1:58 Comments ||
Top||
#2
"What is happening in Syria today are clear-cut examples of White Rage, as these austere scholars have never been completely satisfied with the Missouri Compromise of 1820."
-US Military Academies
-ivy leagues
-democrat mayors
-soros prosecutors
-EU
-un
Posted by: Charles Kincaid ||
03/12/2025 2:12 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Remember, genocide is OK when they do it. /sarc
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
..the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,...
..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,...
..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",...
...
...The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers...
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for 
