WEEK OF JUNE 23 THROUGH JUNE 29
Supreme Court Strikes Down Key Provision in Defense of Marriage Act June 27….(The Christian Post) The Supreme Court, today struck down a key provision in the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) that denied benefits to legally married gay couples. With a narrow vote of 5-4, married gay couples will now be able to receive the same tax, health and retirement benefits that are available to married heterosexual couples. Hundreds of gay marriage supporters had gathered outside the Supreme Court, many of whom had waited for hours to hear the long-awaited decisions on DOMA and Proposition 8, a voter-approved amendment in California that defined marriage as a union between a man and a woman. In March, the Supreme Court heard arguments on California's Proposition 8, Hollingsworth v. Perry case, before reviewing the federal Defense of Marriage Act in US v. Windsor, but decided to hold off on a decision until June. United States v. Windsor, which concerns DOMA, involves Edith Windsor of New York, who married her female partner in Canada, who later passed away in 2009. When Windsor inherited the property, DOMA prevented her from being seen as the lawful surviving spouse, and thus she faced a tax bill of close to $360,000, something which would not have been the case if the government recognized same-sex marriage as equal with marriage between a man and a woman. While most US states uphold the traditional definition of marriage, same-sex couples are now allowed to get married in 12 US states, as well as Washington, DC. A number of prominent political leaders have called for DOMA to be struck down, including President Barack Obama and former President Bill Clinton, who signed DOMA back in 1996. Obama has said that if he could, he'd strike down all bans on same-sex marriage. Clinton, on the other hand, explained that circumstances of the time led him to sign DOMA. In March, the former president said that now times have changed, and he described the law as "unconstitutional." Most Christians, however, oppose the redefinition of marriage, insisting that it is a union solely between a man and a woman. Eric Teetsel, executive director of the Manhattan Declaration, a movement of Christians from various denominations with traditional values working to preserve the sanctity of life, marriage and religious liberty, said earlier this week that regardless of the Supreme Court's decision, conservative Christians need to continue fighting for the culture of marriage and family. "It took generations to erode marriage and family, with disastrous consequences. Restoration may take just as long," Teetsel said. "No matter this week's rulings, we will rededicate ourselves to renewing in American culture the profound beauty, mystery and holiness of faithful marriage. We will be patient in the light of any setbacks. And, in the end, we will succeed, if we do not give up." Earlier in June, a New York Times/CBS News of 1,022 Americans found that the majority feel the federal government should allow states to continue dealing with marriage on their own. Sixty percent of those who responded to the poll said that it should be the states' prerogative, while only 33 percent said the federal government should have the right to define marriage. The same poll found that 51 percent of Americans are in favor of legalizing gay marriage, while 44 percent oppose it. FOJ Note: America was founded upon this continent as a Republic, and our Constitution written rooted upon precepts and laws that do not change with fads and public opinion polls. As so demonstrably stated by former President Clinton, “times have changed, and thus new laws of change” are now needed. If Americans come to view beastiality as a civil right, then our nation can vote it to become legal. But there is a God in Heaven, who never changes, and His law has never changed. He is the one who sanctioned that marriage should be between one woman and one man, and He has not changed with the times, as our so-called progressive politicians have. We are not progressing as a nation, but we are descending down a decadent spiral that will only end in judgment and decay! (Proverbs 29:1-2 He, that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy. When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn.) (Joel 2:17 Spare thy people, O Lord, and give not thine heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them: wherefore should they say among the people, Where is their God?) (Malachi 3:6 For I am the Lord, I change not;)
Christians Are They're the Real Victims in the Gay Marriage Fight (the Supreme court has created a new class of citizens to demonize: conservative Christians)June 27….(Atlantic Wire) The Supreme Court struck down the Defense of Marriage Act as unconstitutional because, in part, the court found the law was created to express disapproval of a class of citizens: gay couples. But in doing so, the court created a new class of citizens to demonize: conservative Christians. At least, that's according to some conservative commentators and the religious right. As Justice Antonin Scalia predicted in his dissent, Erickson thinks gay marriage will come to the states soon. He says, "Once that happens, there will be an even messier culture war designed to treat traditionalism as a noxious notion of a bygone era, the equivalent of Jim Crow." Fox News' Todd Starnes tweeted on Wednesday, "Won't be long before they outlaw the Bible as hate speech." And: "they're going after the preachers next." It was Rush Limbaugh who really clarified the stakes. "The Supreme Court majority, in its ruling, actually uses language that insults and demonizes the people who support marriage as it's been since the beginning of time," Limbaugh said on his radio show. There's an angry mob out there, and they're going to start hunting people down, people that believe in the Bible, preachers, and anyone that disagrees with them.
Should Jews Be Allowed to Pray On the Temple MountJune 26….(Open Zion) If we think you’re praying, you’ll be arrested,” the Israeli cop said impatiently as we walked up the Mughrabi Bridge, almost like a flight attendant reminding a delinquent passenger to turn off her iPhone. (Danny Danon (C) is taken on a tour of the Temple Mount or Al-Aqsa Mosque Compound the holy site for Judaism and the Islam in Israeli annexed east Jerusalem's old City ) One person in our Orthodox Jewish tour group was intent on being that passenger, the annoying one who gets kicked off the plane. As soon as we ascended the Temple Mount to us, Judaism’s holiest site, he began moving his lips without speaking audible words, à la Hannah in the Book of Samuel. In other words, he was praying. Like Eli, the High Priest, our police supervisors were irate: a burly officer promptly whisked him off for detention. Suddenly scared of ending up in Israeli jail, none of us uttered a single word the rest of the trip. Being on the Temple Mount in 2005, the whole atmosphere felt extremely tense, as if chaos could erupt at any moment. Maybe it was the ubiquitous presence of Israeli police, or it could have been the suspicious glances we received from the site’s Muslim patrons. Walking around, past instances of violence seemed very real: the 1990 riots that resulted in the death of 20 Palestinians, the 2000 riots triggered by Ariel Sharon’s visit that later turned into the Second Intifada, and the many smaller skirmishes that take place on a monthly basis. No fights broke out during my visit, but it felt as though one could have. The Temple Mount has earned that resumé of instability through an entangled religious history. Known to Muslims as Haram al Sharif, it is host to twin mosques, Al Aqsa and the Dome of the Rock, and the former location of the First and Second Jewish Temples. When Israel captured the Temple Mount/Haram al Sharif in 1967, it reached a compromise with Jordan, under which Israeli police would provide for the site’s security and the Wakf, an Islamic trust, would oversee the site’s religious functions. As the aforementioned incidents show, this arrangement has been far from peaceful. I bring up my story from 2005 because the Temple Mount/Haram al Sharif and the issue of prayer is, once again, in the news. On Wednesday, a group of Jewish teenagers was arrested on the Temple Mount because they looked as though they were praying. The youth reportedly prostrated themselves, in violation of the same restriction I was warned of seven years ago. These arrests are a common occurrence. A Reuters report released yesterday says that, “This month alone, Israeli police have hauled away half a dozen Israelis from the site.” During the holiday of Sukkot, 10 Jews were arrested for attempting to pray. Even Knesset members, notwithstanding their legal immunity, have been arrested on the Temple Mount. Behind these arrests is a growing movement for Temple Mount prayer. Fifteen thousand religious Jews visited the Temple Mount in 2012, up from 9,000 in 2011. Ninety percent of religious Jews in Israel think they should have the right to pray on the Temple Mount, and a majority of the Israeli public agrees with them. Even the US State Department has weighed in on the matter, mentioning Temple Mount restrictions as a blemish on Israel’s otherwise sterling record of protecting religious freedom. On its surface, the struggle for Temple Mount prayer has all the trappings of a liberal and democratic movement for religious equality. Temple Mount activists have drawn favorable comparisons between themselves and the Women of the Wall. Some Knesset members have responded to this pressure by arguing for changes to the Temple Mount law. Their efforts clash with strong institutional backing: Israel has fiercely defended its restriction as necessary to security, fending off judicial and legislative challenges. Its security establishment is deeply worried that extremists, motivated by Messianic theology, might attack the mosques on Haram al Sharif to pave the way for the Third Temple. Even though extremists’ plots are unlikely to succeed, police worry that their attempts might be sufficient to provoke Muslim unrest and trigger widespread violence. Palestinian Muslims, for their part, are extremely wary of any deviation from the status quo. Palestinian Authority officials, including Mahmoud Abbas, watch the growing Temple Mount movement with increasing concern, they believe extremists are actively trying to destroy Al Aqsa Mosque and build the Third Temple, not just seeking the right to pray in the enclosure. Are their fears overblown? Can we trust the Temple Mount movement? Having been a national-religious Jew once, obviously I only speak for myself—I would have loved nothing more than to see the Third Temple built. This is why I take seriously the threats of people like Moshe Feiglin; I know that they mean what they say. I’ve visited the Temple Mount Institute and have witnessed their plans in action: they’ve designed the Menorah, the showbread table, and the priestly garments, all to actually use in a Third Temple. In 1984, terrorists affiliated with this ideology came close to blowing up the Dome of the Rock. But, as a religious Jew, I would also have seen prayer on the Temple Mount as a generous consolation prize in lieu of the actual Temple. This is why I think it’s unfair to impute the apocalyptic designs of Moshe Feiglin onto the rest of the Temple Mount movement. I understand when religious Jews say they only want to feel a historical “connection,” through prayer, to the site that was once the fulcrum of Judaism. I also believe, like an Israeli judge made clear on Sunday, that it is manifestly unjust for a liberal democratic country to limit the religious freedom of a particular group, even if there is reason to suspect that group has provocative intentions. Indeed, it violates the Basic Law on which Israel was founded, and is underpinned by the same logic that was used to justify discrimination against Israeli Palestinian Arabs. Israel must do what it can to undermine the subversive activities of Moshe Feiglin and his ilk, and it already is. But in so doing, it should not discriminate against all Jews. Ironically, the best solution is one that the most extreme Temple Mount activists would likely despise: for Israel to transfer sovereignty of the Temple Mount/Haram al Sharif to an international body that could objectively govern the site and ensure religious access to all faiths. International control might not completely eliminate the possibility of violence, but it would ameliorate the perception of bias that fuels outrage on both sides. If the Temple Mount movement were to accept it, it would go a long way toward verifying their intentions as benign. It would reassure us that extremists are not at its helm.
Saudis: We 'Cannot be Silent' in Face of IranJune 27….(Jerusalem Post) Saudi Arabia regards the involvement of Iran and Hezbollah in Syria's civil war as dangerous and believes the rebels must be offered military aid to defend themselves, the kingdom's foreign minister said on Tuesday. Speaking at a news conference with US Secretary John Kerry in Jeddah, Prince Saud al-Faisal added that Saudi Arabia "cannot be silent" about Iranian intervention and called for a resolution to ban arms flows to the Syrian government. "The kingdom calls for issuing an unequivocal international resolution to halt the provision of arms to the Syrian regime and states the illegitimacy of the regime," Prince Saud said. More than 93,000 people have been killed in the Syrian conflict, which began as a popular protest movement against Syrian President Bashar Assad but has descended into a civil war with sectarian overtones. Nearly 1.7 million refugees have fled into neighboring countries, including Lebanon, where clashes between armed groups supporting opposing sides in Syria have fueled fears of a lapse back into sectarian civil war. Syria's foreign minister said on Monday that a decision by Western and Arab countries to arm the rebels posed a danger to peace talks and would prolong the two-year conflict.
America Goes Gay! June 27….(Bloomberg) A divided US Supreme Court overturned the federal law that defines marriage as a heterosexual union, saying it violates the rights of married gay couples by denying them government benefits. The vote on the Defense of Marriage Act was 5-4. Justice Anthony Kennedy joined the four Democratic-appointed justices in the majority. The historic cases, which marked the first time the high court had ever considered gay-marriage rights, reached the justices as the movement was showing unprecedented momentum. Twelve states and the District of Columbia have legalized same-sex marriage, six of them in the last year. Joining Kennedy in the majority on the Defense of Marriage Act ruling were Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan. Dissenting were Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito. FOJ Note: This decision by the US Supreme Court seals America’s fate in God’s assignment for judgment. Coming just days before America’s 237th birthday, this “change,” (remember Obama’s campaign theme) wrought about by political leftists and progressives is being paraded as a great accomplishment in our nation’s civil evolution. But in reality, it brings America to the brink of Sodom and Gomoraha.
Supreme Court Strikes Down DOMA June 27….(AP) The Supreme Court has struck down a federal law barring the recognition of same-sex marriage in a split decision, ruling that the law violates the rights of gays and lesbians and intrudes into states' rights to define and regulate marriage. The court also dismissed a challenge to California's gay marriage ban, ruling that supporters of the ban did not have the legal standing, or right, to appeal a lower court's decision striking down Proposition 8 and clearing the way for gay marriage to again be legal in the nation's most populous state. The decisions mark the first time the highest court has waded into the issue of same-sex marriage. Just 40 years ago, the Supreme Court tersely refused to hear a case brought by a gay couple who wanted to get married in Minnesota, writing that that their claim raised no significant legal issue. At the time, legal opinions often treated homosexuality as criminal, sexually deviant behavior rather than involuntary sexual orientation. Since then, public opinion has changed dramatically on gay people and same-sex marriage, with a majority of Americans only just recently saying they support it. Now, 12 states representing about 18 percent of the US population allow same-sex marriage. With California, the percentage of people living in gay marriage states shoots up to 30.
Obama Sequestration Cuts US Army by 10 Brigades, 80,000 Troops June 27….(Newsmax) Noting that there's "no way around" budget cuts imposed by the sequester, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno said Tuesday that combat forces would be cut by 80,000 troops over the next five years, marking the largest US military downsizing since World War II. According to the New York Times, the reduction in brigades at 10 bases across the country comes as the Army works to cut its active-duty force to 490,000, following the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Times reported that brigades are being cut from Fort Drum, N.Y.; Fort Campbell and Fort Knox in Kentucky; Fort Hood and Fort Bliss in Texas; Fort Bragg, NC; Fort Carson, Colo.; Fort Riley, Kan.; Fort Stewart, Ga.; and Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington. The downsizing is a part of the Pentagon's response to the 2011 Budget Control Act, which resulted in this year's funding sequester. The sequester requires $487 billion in military spending cuts through 2021. A brigade consists of 3,500-5,000 personnel, and the Army plans to cut its brigade combat teams from 45 to 33 by 2017. An additional two brigades in Germany are being eliminated this year. A third brigade combat troop, also overseas, will be eliminated as well. The upcoming reductions, which Odierno said would occur primarily through attrition from retirements and voluntary separations , will be the fourth round of military budget cuts since President Barack Obama took office. Odierno warned, however, that more cuts in officer personnel and other areas would be coming unless Congress moves to stop full implementation of the sequester. House Armed Services Committee Chairman Howard "Buck" McKeon echoed the general's concern, saying in a statement they "don't begin to reflect the crippling damage sequestration will do to our armed forces and national security."
President Obama Met With Muslim Leader to Ban Criticism of Islam June 27….(Fox News) A Muslim scholar whose group supports Hamas, who has urged the UN to criminalize blasphemy and who is the deputy of an Egyptian cleric banned from the US over his radical statements was able to secure a visit at the White House earlier this month. A report from The Investigative Project on Terrorism uncovered a statement on the website of Sheikh Abdullah Bin Bayyah claiming he met June 13 with Obama administration officials in Washington. Bin Bayyah is vice president of the International Union of Muslim Scholars, a group founded by Egyptian cleric Yusuf Qaradawi, a Muslim Brotherhood leader who has called for the death of Jews and Americans. A 2009 fatwa from the group barred "all forms of normalization" with Israel. Bin Bayyah also got behind a campaign to pressure the UN to pass a resolution criminalizing blasphemy. On his website, as first reported by IPT, Bin Bayyah said the Obama administration requested the meeting.
Cold War is Back, Israel on High Alert June 27….(DEBKA) Shortly after the DEBKA aired a special video on the Syrian war’s widening circle, Moscow announced Wednesday June 26, that the evacuation which had begun Friday of all military and diplomatic personnel from Syria was now complete, including the Russian naval base at Tartus. “Russia decided to withdraw its personnel because of the risks from the conflict in Syria, as well as the fear of an incident involving the Russian military that could have larger consequences,” said a defense ministry official in Moscow. He stressed that a 16-ship naval task force in the eastern Mediterranean remains on post and arms shipments, including anti-air weapons, would continue to the Syrian government in keeping with former contracts. In another sign of an impending escalation in Syria, the Israeli Golan brigade staged Wednesday an unannounced war maneuver on the Golan, attended by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and top army chiefs. In London, Prime Minister David Cameron called the government’s National Security Council into session in Downing Street on Syria. Opposition leader Ed Milliband was invited to attend the meeting, a custom observed only when issues of the highest security importance are discussed. Earlier Wednesday, Debkafile carried the following report in its special video presentation under the heading: Putin and Obama cross swords on Syrian. What Next? The sullen confrontation between Presidents Vladimir Putin and Barack Obama at the G8 Summit in Northern Ireland last week condemned Syria to five months of escalating, unresolved vicious warfare, that is until the two leaders meet again in September. For now, tempers are heating up between Washington and Moscow on Syria and other things too, notably the elusive American fugitive Edward Snowden. US and Israeli intelligence watchers see the Syrian crisis entering seven ominous phases: 1. A five-month bloodbath centering on the battle for Aleppo, a city of 2.2 million inhabitants. The Syrian army plus allies and the fully-mobilized opposition will hurl all their manpower and weapons into winning the city. Military experts don’t expect the rebels to hold out against Assad’s forces beyond late August. 2. Neither side has enough manpower or game-changing weaponry for winning the war outright. That is, unless Presidents Obama or Putin steps in to retilt the balance. 3. The US and Russia are poised for more military intervention in the conflict up until a point just short of a military clash on Syrian soil, or elsewhere in the Middle East. US intelligence analysts have judged Putin ready to go all the way on Syria against the US, no holds barred. The Russian president is meanwhile deliberately goading Washington and raising temperatures by playing hide-and-seek over the former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, charged with espionage for stealing and leaking classified intelligence. At home, he is considered variously as a traitor and a brave whistleblower. For several hours Snowden vanished between Hong Kong and Moscow, until the Russian president admitted he was holed up in the transit area of Moscow airport and would not be extradited by Russia to the United States. 4. Iran, Hizballah and Iraq will likewise ratchet up their battlefield presence. 5. A violent encounter is building up between Middle East Shiites flocking to Syria to save the Assad regime alongside Russia, and the US-backed Sunni-dominated rebel forces. It could scuttle the secret US-Iranian negotiating track on its nuclear program, which was buoyed up by the election of the pragmatic Hassan Rouhani as President of Iran. 6. The Geneva-2 Conference for a political solution for the Syrian crisis is dead in the water. Moscow and the US are divided by unbridgeable issues of principle, such whether Bashar Assad should stay or go and Iranian representation. 7. So long as the diplomatic remains stuck in the mud, the prospects of a regional war spreading out of the Syrian conflict are rising. Iran, Israel, Jordan and Lebanon may be dragged in at any moment, if they have not already, like Lebanon. A small mistake by one of the Syrian warring parties in Syria could, for example, touch off Israeli retaliation and a wholesale spillover of violence.
Almost Half Israeli Arab Citizens Want Israel ReplacedJune 26….(Times of Israel) A majority of Israeli Arabs feel they would be justified in launching an intifada, or uprising, if their situation did not improve, according to a survey conducted by Haifa University sociologist Sammy Smooha. At the same time, more than half reconcile themselves to living in a state with an Israeli-Hebrew culture. The extensive survey, called the 2012 Index of Arab-Jewish Relations in Israel, shows that compared to the first survey in 2003, Arab Israelis feel increasingly disconnected from and hostile to the state, though they desire greater integration. Jews, on the other hand, are slightly more open to the concerns of their Arab neighbors. Forty-eight percent of Arabs said they thought a Palestinian state would someday replace Israel, whereas only 19% held this opinion in 2003. Eighty-two percent blame Jews for the “Nakba,” or national Palestinian catastrophe in the wake of the 1948 war. Thirty-one percent of Arabs surveyed said they didn’t believe millions of Jews were murdered in the Holocaust, compared with 28% in 2003. The survey revealed the fear Arab Israelis feel regarding their future in the state. More than two-thirds worry about a population transfer, and 62% feel they cannot trust most Jews. In general, Arabs are more likely in 2012 to view Jews negatively compared to 2003, whereas Jews are slightly less likely to hold similar stereotypes about Arabs. Almost three-quarters of respondents said the Israeli government treated them as second-class citizens. In 2003, 65% of Arabs said Israel has a right to exist as a Jewish, democratic state, but that number dropped to 47% in 2012. The report pointed to a sharp increase in Arab participation in Nakba Day ceremonies. In 2003, only 13% marked the occasion at least once in their lives, but by 2012, 48% had. Still, Arab Israelis showed a desire to become more integrated into mainstream Israeli society. Forty-two percent said they favored living in Jewish neighborhoods, and more than one-third want their children to attend Jewish high schools. Nearly three-quarters want Arab political parties to join Israeli coalition governments. A healthy 55% said they would rather live in Israel than any other country, but the number was down from 71% in 2007. The Index also showed a growing desire by Israeli Jews to accommodate their Arab countrymen. Three-quarters believe that Arabs should have full citizenship rights, and 56% said Israel should allow Arabs to administer their own educational, religious, and cultural institutions, up from 49% last year. More than half of the Jewish respondents said they would accept Arab parties in government coalitions. However, suspicions remain. A full 65% fear that Arabs are endangering the state because of their attempts to change its Jewish character, down from 72% in 2003, and 58% avoid Arab areas in Israel.
Friends of Syria Group Agree to give Syrian Rebels Military Aid(Aid to be funneled through Western-backed rebel command to enable it "to counter brutal attacks" by Assad regime and its allies.)
June 24….( Reuters) Western and Arab countries opposed to President Bashar Assad agreed at talks in Qatar on Saturday to give urgent military support to Syrian rebels fighting for his overthrow, and to channel it through a Western-backed rebel military command. Ministers from the 11 main countries which form the Friends of Syria group including the United States, European and regional Sunni Muslim powers, agreed "to provide urgently all the necessary materiel and equipment to the opposition on the ground, each country in its own way in order to enable them to counter brutal attacks by the regime and its allies". They also condemned "the intervention of Hezbollah militias and fighters from Iran and Iraq", demanding that they withdraw immediately. After a series of military offensives by Assad's troops, including the Hezbollah-backed recapture of a strategic border town two weeks ago, US President Barack Obama said the United States would increase military support for the rebels. Two Gulf sources said on Saturday that Saudi Arabia, which has taken a lead role among Arab opponents of Assad, had also accelerated delivery of advanced weapons to the rebels. "In the past week there have been more arrivals of these advanced weapons. They are getting them more frequently," one source said, without giving details. Another Gulf source described them as "potentially balance-tipping" supplies. Rebel fighters say they need anti-aircraft and anti-tank weapons to stem the fightback by Assad's forces in a civil war that has already killed 93,000 people and driven 1.6 million refugees into neighboring countries. The increasingly sectarian dynamic of the war pits mainly Sunni Muslims against forces loyal to Assad, from the Alawite minority which is an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam, and has split the Middle East along Sunni-Shi'ite lines. Qatar's Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani, whose country has been one of the most open backers of the anti-Assad rebels, said that supplying them with weapons was the only way to resolve the conflict. "Force is necessary to achieve justice. And the provision of weapons is the only way to achieve peace in Syria's case," Sheikh Hamad told ministers at the start of the talks. "We cannot wait due to disagreement among Security Council members over finding a solution to the problem," he said. He also called on Lebanon's government to halt intervention by Lebanese factions in the neighboring conflict. Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas led the assault by Assad's forces to recapture the town of Qusair earlier this month. Speaking before Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Doha, a US official said the United States wanted to ensure that "every kind of assistance" offered by the 11 countries attending the meeting go through the Supreme Military Council, led by General Salim Idriss, a former commander in Assad's army. The meeting in Qatar brings together ministers of countries that support the anti-Assad rebels, France, Germany, Egypt, Italy, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Britain and the United States. Western countries hope by channeling assistance through Idriss they can reduce the influence in the opposition ranks of radical Islamist groups such as the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front. The United States and Russia, which back opposing sides in the conflict, hope to bring them together for negotiations in Geneva originally scheduled for this month. But Hague said there was little prospect of that happening "in the next few weeks."
Putin Slams West for Plan to Arm Syrian Rebelss(If US recognizes one organization as a terrorist group, how can it deliver arms to those opposition members?) June 24….(Times of Israel) Russsian President Vladimir Putin warned the West on Friday against arming the Syrian rebels, which he said included terrorist groups, and against a hasty exit by Syrian President Bashar Assad, which would lead to a political vacuum. “If the United States recognizes one of the key Syrian opposition organizations, al-Nusra, as terrorist, how can one deliver arms to those opposition members? Where will they end up? What role will they play?” asked Putin during a press conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. The United States announced earlier this month that it will start directly arming the rebels, a major policy shift by the Obama administration. Putin also defended his country’s continued support for and arms sales to the embattled Syrian regime, positing that Russian supplies do not violate any international laws. He also warned that should Assad leave, a political vacuum would ensue. “If Assad goes today, a political vacuum emerges, who will fill it? Maybe those terrorist organizations. Nobody wants this, but how can it be avoided? After all, they are armed and aggressive,” said Putin. The Russian president charged that the rebels have been receiving weapons and support from the West for some time and that Syria would not be in the situation it is in without outside intervention. Putin’s criticisms came hours after a report in the Los Angeles Times claiming the US has been secretly providing arms training to the Syrian opposition since late 2012, in US training bases run by CIA operatives and special operations troops in Jordan and Turkey. “The premise that Assad is using weapons against his own people can be accepted as true only with significant reservations, because those who are fighting Assad are far from being the Syrian people but are rather militants, who are perfectly trained and armed, including from abroad, through channels that include those run by terrorist organizations,” said Putin. FOJ Note: Mr. Putin is no dummy. In fact, he is asking the right questions. Who would replace Assad? My opinion is that there is no good alternative in sight there.
Franklin Graham Urges Obama to Stay Out of Syrian ConflictJune
24….(WND)
In a letter to
President Barack Obama, Franklin Graham, president of Samaritan's Purse, urges
him to not send military aid to the rebels fighting Syrian President Bashar
al-Assad, arguing that those rebels are just as evil as Assad. "Giving guns to
the opposition will prolong the war; and unfortunately, the opposition is no
better than the present government, in some ways it may even be worse," Graham
wrote in the letter dated June 14. "Mr. President, I would strongly urge you to
keep America out of the Syrian conflict. In my opinion, the best thing that we
can do is to help bring both sides to the negotiating table." The White
House recently announced it would provide small arms to some of the rebel groups
fighting Assad after it was discovered that Assad had used chemical weapons.
Samaritan's Purse is an international aid organization. As president of that
organization, Graham noted that he has been to Syria many times and worked with
Christian churches there. Graham also
drew a comparison with the civil war in Sudan. In Sudan, he noted, the United
States did not arm the "freedom fighters" in the South but did help negotiate a
peace settlement. "Why don't we follow the same approach in Syria?" Graham
asked. In Sudan, Graham wrote, the fight between the mostly Christian South and
the Islamic government in the North is one that is clearly "good against evil."
But in Syria, the battle lines are not that clear. "The opposition that you want
to arm is guilty of atrocities not only against their fellow Muslims, but they
are also guilty of atrocities against the Christian community across the
country," he wrote. June
24….(Worthy News) While the world's attention was focused on Iran's
presidential election, four converts to Christianity were found guilty by an
Iranian court of no longer being Muslims. The Revolutionary Court in Shiraz
Sunday sentenced Mojtaba Seyyed-Alaedin Hossein, Mohammad-Reza Partoei, Vahid
Hakkani and Homayoun Shokouhi to nearly four years in prison for attending a
house church, evangelizing and contacting foreign governments, thereby
threatening Iran's fragile national security. Although the
four converts were first arrested in a February raid on a house church, their
initial hearing wasn't held until eight months later, according to Mohabat News.
However, time is not on the side of Hakkani, who continue to suffer from GI
bleeding while Iranian authorities refuse to treat his condition, which is only
getting worse; unfortunately, however, political prisoners in the Ebrat ward of
Iran's notorious Adel-Abad prison are routinely deprived of all their basic
needs, including medical attention. WEEK OF JUNE 16 THROUGH JUNE 22 June
20….(Israel Today) A leading Israeli expert on the Middle East suggested
last week that with all the foreign involvement in the ongoing Syrian civil war,
that conflict could be the harbinger of a much wider conflagration. Prof. Itamar
Rabinovich, a former Israeli ambassador to Egypt, told those attending a
symposium at Tel Aviv University that in the eyes of the Arab world, the final
outcome of the Arab Spring hinges on the results of the struggle in Syria.
According to Prof. Rabinovich, the Syrian conflict is a Middle Eastern version
of the Spanish Civil War, which was itself a dress rehearsal for World War II. In Syria,
the opposition is supported by the US and Europe, while the regime is backed by
Hezbollah, Iran, and China. For Russia, the stakes are also high. Moscow sees
Syria as a key to restoring Russia's status in the region, so replacing the
Assad regime with one supportive of America is unacceptable to Russian President
Vladimir Putin. Still, it's
Iran that probably has the most to lose in Syria. Prof. Rabinovich explained
that Iran has actually invested more than Russia when it comes to Syria. Iran
wants hegemony in the Middle East, and thus far it has only managed to export
its Islamic Revolution to Lebanon, in the form of Hezbollah, which is today more
powerful than the state itself. Iran needs to maintain Syria as a vital link to
Hezbollah if it hopes to succeed anywhere else in the region. "The civil war in
Syria is not being run by Assad, but rather by Iranian military commanders,"
Rabinovich revealed. "Hezbollah is also commanding much of the fighting with
troops that entered the country from Lebanon." June 20….(DEBKA)
Just one day after the G8 Summit ended in the failure of Western leaders to
overcome Russian resistance to a resolution mandating President Bashar Assad’s
ouster, Moscow announced Wednesday June 19, the dispatch to Syria of two
warships carrying 600 Russian marines. They were coming, said the official
statement, "to protect the Russian citizens there." Russian Deputy Air Force
Commander Maj.-Gen. Gradusov added that an air force umbrella would be provided
the Russian expeditionary force if needed. Debkafile's military sources report
that the pretext offered by Moscow for sending the force thinly disguised
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s intent to flex Russian military muscle in
response to the delivery of Western heavy arms to Syrian rebels, which Debkafile
first revealed Tuesday, June 18. Putin was
giving the West due warning that if they persisted in arming the rebels any
further, a Russian troop landing in Syria would take place in the guise of an
operation to evacuate endangered Russian nationals. Some 20,000 Russians live in
Syria. In former stages of the conflict, they were given the locations of
assembly points should Moscow decide to lift them out of the war-torn country.
The evacuation of Russian citizens would in itself dramatically denote the
expansion of the Syrian conflict. The Russian
Interfax news agency identified the warships heading for Syrian shores as the
Nikolai Filchenkov Large Landing Ship and the Vice Admiral Kulakov, a Udaloy 1
class destroyer, each carrying 300 marines. Aboard the former are also 20 tanks
and 15 armored troop carriers or military trucks, while the Kulakov is designed
mainly for anti-submarine warfare. Debkafile's
military sources also reveal that, although Moscow described the warships are
preparing to depart for Syria, they have actually been cruising in the
Mediterranean since mid-May. Upon receiving their orders, they could reach Syria
in just a few hours. Maj.-Gen. Gradusov was quoted as saying: "We won't abandon
the Russians and will evacuate them from the conflict zone, if necessary." Asked
if the Russian aircraft were intended as air cover for the Russian warships
coming to Syria, he declined to answer, saying said only "They will act on
orders." The Moscow communiqué does not say when the Russian forces are
scheduled to reach port in Syria or in which part of the country they are to
operate. Our military sources say their impending presence in the war zone and
the possibility of Western-supplied weapons in Syrian rebel hands causing
Russian casualties are enough to contribute three more perilous dimensions to
the Syrian conflict: 1. The harming
of Russian soldiers would give Moscow an excuse to pile on more military
reinforcements in Syria; 2. Russian air
power is on its way to Syrian airspace before any decision is taken in the West
about imposing a US-led no-fly zone over Syria; 3. The presence
of Russian military personnel in Syria would pour more fuel on the already
highly incendiary diplomatic and military tensions between Washington and Moscow
over this conflict. June 20….(WND)
The producers of an upcoming documentary on TWA Flight 800, which exploded
and crashed into the waters off Long Island, NY, on July 17, 1996, killing all
230 people on board, claim to have proof that a missile caused the Paris-bound
flight to crash. And six former investigators who took part in the film say
there was a cover-up and want the case reopened. "There was a lack of
coordination and willful denial of information," Hank Hughes, a senior accident
investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board, said on Wednesday
during a conference call with reporters. "There were 755 witnesses. At no time
was information provided by the witnesses shared by the FBI." Jim Speer,
an accident investigator at the time of the crash for the Airline Pilots
Association, who sifted through the recovered wreckage in a hangar, said he
discovered holes consistent with those that would be formed by a high-energy
blast in the right wing. He requested it be tested for explosives. When the test
came back positive, he said, he was "physically removed" from a room by two CIA
agents. The investigators would not speculate on the reasons for the alleged
cover up or who would have fired the missile that they believe took down the
plane. After a four-year investigation, the NTSB concluded the plane was
destroyed by a center fuel tank explosion likely caused by a spark from faulty
wiring. Dozens of eyewitnesses in the Long Island area "recalled seeing
something resembling a flare or firework ascend and culminate in an explosion,"
the CIA said in a 2008 report. "Had the crash been the result of state-sponsored
terrorism, it would have been considered an act of war." Also from
the report: The CIA responded to the FBI’s request within 24 hours of the crash.
This support consisted primarily of help from the Counter-terrorist Center in
the Directorate of Operations and from a small group of analysts in the Office
of Weapons, Technology and Proliferation in the Directorate of Intelligence. But
after an eight-month investigation, the CIA "concluded with confidence and full
substantiation that the eyewitnesses had not seen a missile." June 20….(Worthy News) Suspected
members of Boko Haram attacked four settlements in Nigeria's Borno State,
killing a pastor and torching four churches, according to All Africa Global
Media. Boko Haram is a militant Islamist sect that has been active in Nigeria
since 2009. The group's name translates as "Western culture is forbidden by
Islam," e.g., Western ways are sinful. Haram's Islamists, who likely fled their
camps in the Sambisa Games Reserve after they were destroyed by the Nigerian
military, attacked the Hwa'a, Kunde, Gathahure and Gjigga settlements by night,
fire bombing four churches while chanting "Allahu Akbar". After
burning the church in Hwa'a, the Rev. Jacob Kwiza of the Church of Christ in
Nigeria was killed by the Islamists after he refused to renounce his faith in
Christ. Tada Garuta, a resident told local media, "The gunmen threw some
explosives at our church, they forced the retired Reverend to renounce
Christianity and be converted to Islam, but Rev. Jacob defied the gunmen's
threat of being killed." "After he refused to renounce his faith. They slit
his throat with sharp objects; and stole grain and livestock before they
left. (FOJ)
Mr. Putin and Mr. Obama don’t look very happy seated side by side in
this photo at the G8. That’s because Russia and Putin have thwarted
the West’s attempts to replace Assad in Syria. Alas Ezekiel’s
prophecy about Damascus looks like a tinderbox! June
18….(Bloomberg) President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir
Putin, put their escalating differences over Syria on display even as they
agreed to urge both sides in the civil war there to the negotiating table. “Of
course, our opinions do not coincide” on Syria, Putin said when the two went
before the television cameras after meeting on the sidelines of an international
summit in Northern Ireland. “We do have differing perspectives,” Obama said,
while adding that “we share an interest in reducing the violence.” Some Western
leaders publicly rebuked Putin for his support of Syrian President Bashar
al-Assad as the Group of Eight summit of industrial nations began. Obama and
Putin focused on areas of agreement in remarks after the talks, their first
one-on-one meeting in a year, both offering hopes that the Iranian elections
would open way for progress in negotiations to that country’s nuclear program
and noting common efforts on counterterrorism. Obama began his comments by
thanking Russia for assistance with the investigation into the Boston marathon
bombings. Both said they would encourage forces they are backing in the Syrian
civil war to begin talks planned in Geneva. The two powers are now openly
arming opposing sides in Syria. The White House, declaring Assad had
crossed a “red line” Obama drew by using chemical weapons against rebels,
announced last week the US would begin sending direct military aid to the Syrian
opposition. Russia continues to arm Assad, a long-time ally. European nations,
led by France and Britain that are participating in the summit, have pressed the
US to take stronger action in Syria even as Russia has thwarted efforts to
sanction Assad in the United Nations. Western allies, particularly British Prime
Minister David Cameron and French President Francois Hollande, will probably
encourage Obama to take stronger action in support of the rebels in private
conversations at the meeting, said Andrew Tabler, a Middle East analyst at the
Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Obama is sending small arms while
rebels seek heavy weapons. Hollande, on
his arrival at Lough Erne, criticized Russia’s backing of Assad. “How can we
allow Russia to continue delivering weapons to the Assad regime when the
opposition receives very few and is today massacred?” Hollande told reporters.
“How can we allow that there is now proof of chemical weapons, to which extent
we don’t yet know, but they have been used, without there being unanimous
condemnation from the international community and the G-8?” Putin
dismissed such criticism in comments yesterday after a meeting with Cameron in
London. Both sides in the civil war have “blood on their hands,” Putin said.
“Russia supplies arms to the legitimate government of Syria according to
international law,” he said. “We breach nothing. And we call on our partners to
act the same way.” Assad warned in an interview with a German newspaper that
Europe will “pay the price” for arming rebels in future terrorist attacks.
The Syrian president told Germany’s Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung in an
interview in Damascus that rebels will only export “terrorists” back to Europe
and America. He denied using chemical weapons to attack enemies in his
country’s civil war. The Syrian
army, strengthened by reinforcements from Lebanon’s Shiite militia Hezbollah and
aid from Iran and Russia, has seized the initiative on the battlefield from
opposition forces. As the international leaders met, the army was mounting an
offensive to retake Aleppo, the nation’s commercial center and largest city. The
Syrian rebels’ Supreme Military Command, headed by Major General Salim Idris,
has pleaded for heavy arms that go beyond the light weapons such as machine guns
and rocket-propelled grenades that the US is preparing to furnish. The Obama
administration is debating whether to provide heavier weapons amid concerns that
the material could fall into the hands of Islamic extremists, said a US official
familiar with the discussions. The official said Obama authorized providing
small arms under a classified order instructing the Central Intelligence Agency
to arrange delivery. Ben Rhodes,
an Obama deputy national security adviser, speaking before the president
departed Washington, said because of the “fluid situation” in Syria, the
president will “consult with all the leaders” at the summit about “the types of
support we’re providing the opposition.” Russian officials continue to question
US and European assertions of proof that Assad’s regime used chemical weapons
against the opposition. “There are too many emotions around Syrian issue,”
Alexey Kvasov, a senior Kremlin official, told reporters. While agreeing that
the use of chemical weapons “is not acceptable,” he said there isn’t sufficient
proof to lay blame. Russia will work with other members of the G-8 to form a
joint position on Syria, Kvasov said. Cameron told reporters today before the
summit got under way that the UK hasn’t yet decided whether to provide arms to
the Syrian rebels and is focused on a negotiated transition. “President
Assad wants us to think that the only alternative to him is extremism and
violence,” Cameron said. “Yet there are millions of people in Syria who want a
peaceful and democratic future. We should be on their side.” Cameron said there
remains “a big difference” on Syria between Russia and the West, which was laid
bare in his talks with Putin in London yesterday. “There’s clearly a big
difference between the Russian position and the position of Britain, France and
America and many others,” he said. “But where there is common ground is that we
all see the need for a peace conference, a peace process and a transition to a
different regime in Syria.” Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Putin
stands alone among the G-8 members in his support of Assad. “We in the West
have a very different perspective on this situation,” Harper said yesterday in
Dublin. “Mr. Putin and his government are supporting the thugs of the Assad
regime for their own reasons that I do not think are justifiable.” June 18….(YNET) Saudi Arabia, a staunch
opponent of President Bashar Assad since early in Syria's conflict, began
supplying anti-aircraft missiles to rebels "on a small scale" about two months
ago, a Gulf source said on Monday. The shoulder-fired weapons were obtained
mostly from suppliers in France and Belgium, the source told Reuters. France had
paid for the transport of the weapons to the region. The Gulf source said
without elaborating that the kingdom had begun taking a more active role in the
Syrian conflict in recent weeks due to the intensification of the conflict.
Riyadh has grown increasingly concerned after the entry of Lebanese Shi'ite
militia Hezbollah into the conflict and the subsequent rebel defeat in Qusair.
The supplies were intended for General Salim Idriss, leader of the Supreme
Military Council of the Free Syrian Army (FSA), who was still the kingdom's main
"point man" in the opposition, the source said. Speaking to Reuters on Friday,
Idriss urged Western allies to supply anti-aircraft and anti-tank missiles and
to create a no-fly zone, saying if properly armed he could defeat Assad's army
within six months. Idriss said his forces urgently needed heavier weapons in the
northern city of Aleppo, where Assad's government has said its troops are
preparing a massive assault. Syria's civil war grew out of protests
that swept across the Arab world in 2011, becoming by far the deadliest of those
uprisings and the most difficult to resolve. Just months ago, Western countries
believed Assad's days were numbered. But momentum on the battlefield has turned
in his favor, making the prospect of his swift removal and an end to the
bloodshed appear remote without outside intervention. The reported Saudi
supplies began shortly before its main Western ally the United States announced
it would likely send arms to Syrian rebels, a development long encouraged by
Riyadh. Top Saudi princes have been shuttling from one ally to another in recent
weeks for meetings about Syria. Saudi Arabia has led Arab opposition to Assad
since early in Syria's revolution. It was the first country to cut diplomatic
ties with Damascus last year and took an early lead in funding and arming the
rebels and helping them logistically. However, its support has always been
tempered by concerns of blowback from the more militant Islamist groups
spearheading the battle against Assad, diplomatic sources in Riyadh say. Riyadh
has spent years combating domestic militants who waged a bombing campaign
against Saudi and US targets over the last decade. (elected
president faces battle with Guards on nuclear issue) June 18….(DEBKA) Hassan Rouhani, 64, will
take office as President of Iran on August 3 with the endorsement of Supreme
Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who Saturday congratulated him as the winner of
Friday’s election by 50.7 percent in the first round of voting. Rouhani garnered
18 million ballots out of the 72 percent turnout of 50 million eligible voters,
with the help of “reformist’ sympathizers and minority communities. With the
news, spontaneous celebrations spread across Iran. The president-elect told the
people that his success was “a victory of moderation over extremism.” Rouhani is
generally portrayed hopefully by Western and Israeli media as a moderate. But
when the supreme leader struck a quiet deal with him as successor to Ahmadinejad,
he knew his record as a loyal product of Iran’s clerical elite who, a decade
ago, served as Iran’s National Security Adviser, and is at one with the Islamic
Republic’s missions and goals. At the same time, his style is conciliatory and
subtle and he has gone out of his way to save Iran from confrontation with
bigger and stronger opponents. For instance, as Iran's chief nuclear negotiator
between 2003 and 2005, Rouani ordered the temporary suspension of uranium
enrichment activities when the United States invaded Iraq in 2003 so as not to
give the Americans a pretext for attacking Iran as well. A readiness for a more
flexible approach to Iran’s nuclear controversy with the West was hinted at by
the supreme leader. In his message of congratulation to the new president
Saturday night, Khamenei wrote: "I urge everyone to help the president-elect and
his colleagues in the government, as he is the president of the whole nation.” Putin Empowered By Syrian Victories June 18….(DEBKA) Russian President
Vladimir Putin set the tone for the discussion on Syria at the G8 summit which
opened in Northern Ireland Monday, June 17, when he rounded harshly on British
Prime Minister David Cameron in London Sunday for supporting rebels who “kill
their enemies and eat their organs.” Hitting back at this week’s decision by US
President Barack Obama, whom he will meet privately at the summit, to give the
rebels “military support,” Putin asked: “Are these the people you want to supply
weapons?” The lovely lakeside venue for the
two-day gathering of US, Russian, Canadian, French, German, Italian, British and
Japanese leaders was worlds away from the Syrian killing fields, where 93,000
people have died, according to conservative estimates. But the Russian president
will make sure that the voices of his allies, Bashar Assad, Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei and Hassan Nasrallah, are heard loud and clear in the conference hall,
until they are acknowledged the victors of the vicious Syrian war. If world
leaders hold back, the Syrian and Hizballah armies will continue their march on
Aleppo, Syria’s biggest town, for their next bloodbath. The light arms President Obama
proposes to release for the Syrian rebels don’t give them the smallest fighting
chance against the fighter-bomber jets, heavy tanks, and unlimited ordnance
supplied Bashar Assad’s army by Russia and the missiles and troops coming in
from Hizballah and Iran. This unbeatable preponderance makes the fall of Aleppo
and Assad’s victory a foregone conclusion. As matters look now, Assad’s drive to
recapture all of Aleppo will continue after the G8 leaders have gone home.
Putin, Khamenei, Assad and Nasrallah will continue their hideous victory march
and the US, West and Israel will continue to hold back from intervention that
could reverse the tide. Assad Plans to Open ‘Resistance’ Front
in Golan (According to Lebanese daily, Syrian
president believes focusing on Israel will unify his people) June
17….(Times of Israel) According to a Lebanese report on Friday, embattled
Syrian President Bashar Assad plans to open a “resistance” front on the Golan
Heights and thinks such a move could unify the various factions in Syria. Assad
possesses a detailed plan for the establishment of such a front, reported the
Beirut-based Al Akhbar daily, which would in practice be similar to the
terrorist group Hezbollah’s activities in southern Lebanon. Syrian society’s
involvement in the “resistance” against Israel, according to statements
attributed to Assad and allegedly made to recent visitors at his presidential
palace in Damascus, would unite the homefront. June
17….(Washington Times) The Syrian government used chemical weapons against
rebel forces trying to overthrow the regime, the Obama administration said
Thursday, acknowledging that President Bashar Assad has without doubt crossed
the “red line” President Obama laid down for US action in the country’s bloody
civil war. The announcement, which confirms what the US and its allies have long
suspected, ups the pressure on Obama, and key lawmakers on Capitol Hill said
this means there must be deeper US military involvement in the 2-year-old civil
war. Putting American boots on the ground in Syria isn’t being considered, but
administration officials said the US will increase the “scope and scale” of its
military assistance to the Assad government’s opponents, who have suffered major
setbacks at the hands of government forces in recent weeks. Administration
officials told The Associated Press on Thursday night that Mr. Obama has
authorized sending arms directly to the rebels, but that no decisions had been
made on the timing or on what kind of weaponry would be made available. Yet
Obama has made no decision on US participation in establishing a no-fly zone
over Syria, and questions remain about the unity of the opposition and the
presence of radical Islamist elements in the coalition. June 17….(In
The Days) President Barack Obama on Thursday authorized the US to arm
fighters against the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, reversing a
policy of giving only nonlethal support to the country’s opposition in the
two-year-old civil war. The White House cited confirmation that Assad’s regime
had killed up to 150 people with chemical weapons as the reason for its
about-face. UK Prime
Minister David Cameron said Friday that Britain hadn’t yet decided to supply
arms to the rebels alongside the US, but welcomed Washington’s assessment of
Syrian weapons use. The UK and France were instrumental in ending a European
Union arms embargo on Syria, paving the way for increased European assistance to
rebel forces. Mr. Cameron and French officials are expected to meet over the
weekend with Gen. Salim Idris, who commands the coalition of moderate rebel
forces, to discuss future aid including possible arms supplies, according to a
French official. The US move
comes ahead of a meeting between Mr. Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin
on the sidelines of the G-8 summit in Northern Ireland that starts on Monday.
Syria will be at the top of the agenda for the sidelines meeting. UN
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Friday that he opposed the US decision to
send arms. “There is no such military solution. Only a political solution can
address this issue sustainably; therefore, increasing the flow of arms to either
side would not be helpful,” he said. Mr. Ban also emphasized the need for Syria
to allow an on-the-ground investigation to “establish the facts.” The Syrian
government on Friday dismissed US charges that it used chemical weapons as “full
of lies,” accusing Mr. Obama of resorting to fabrications to justify his
decision to arm Syrian rebels, the AP reported. Officials from Russia, which
along with Iran is Assad’s most prominent foreign ally, said the evidence on
chemical weapons isn’t rock solid. “We had a meeting with American
representatives in which Americans tried to present information to us about the
regime’s use of chemical weapons, but frankly speaking, the evidence Americans
set out looks unconvincing,” Yuri Ushakov, the Kremlin’s top foreign-policy
aide, said Friday, according to Russian news agencies. Ushakov cited the flawed
intelligence assessment from the administration of former President George W.
Bush about weapons of mass destruction in the run-up to the Iraq war but said he
didn’t want to “draw any parallels.” Other Russian officials were more direct. “The
data on Assad’s use of chemical weapons is fabricated just like the lies about
weapons of Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction,” read a tweet on
the feed of Alexei Pushkov, chairman of the Russian parliament’s international
relations committee. “Obama is going down the path of G. Bush.” The Kremlin
opposes any international action against its longtime client, Assad. Russian
officials have said they plan to fulfill a 2010 contract for the S-300 missiles
as a way to deter potential outside military intervention in the Syrian civil
war. Western powers and Israel have opposed the sale of the system. Both Moscow
and the US are pushing the warring sides in Syria to enter peace talks in the
coming months. But opposition forces have appealed for more weapons and support
in recent weeks as they’ve lost ground against Assad’s troops and their allies
from the Iranian-backed Lebanese organization Hezbollah. The US
conclusion that Assad’s regime has wielded chemical weapons was based on
physical samples taken from Syria, said Ben Rhodes, the White House Deputy
National Security Adviser for Strategic Communications. He said the US relied on
“multiple, independent streams of information” and has “high confidence” in the
assessment. He cited four dates and locations at which the US believes Assad’s
regime employed chemical weapons. The Syrian regime is a longtime Kremlin ally
dating back to the days of the Cold War. Mr. Putin has opposed outside military
intervention in the Syrian conflict, and Russia has joined China in vetoing
three UN resolutions that were aimed at forcing Mr. Assad to step down. Mr.
Ushakov stressed that the US and Russia aren’t “competing on Syria,” and are
trying to find a constructive way to solve the problem in the region. June 17….(The
Times) The Obama Administration has sent three hundred US Marines to be
deployed on the northern Jordan-Syrian border to pave the way for the West to
arm Syrian rebels. A Patriot anti-aircraft missile system, designed to protect
Jordanian territory from attack by Assad missiles, has also been moved into the
area. The deployment, seen by The Times north of Al-Mafraq, has been put in
place under cover of a military training exercise being held this week. Last
week, Obama sent 3000 Marines to the Gulf of Aqaba. (World
Exclusive: US urges UK and France to join in supplying arms to Syrian rebels) June 17….(The
Independent) Washington’s decision to arm Syria’s Sunni Muslim rebels has
plunged America into the great Sunni-Shia conflict of the Islamic Middle East,
entering a struggle that now dwarfs the Arab revolutions which overthrew
dictatorships across the region. For the first time, all of America’s ‘friends’
in the region are Sunni Muslims and all of its enemies are Shiites. Breaking all
President Barack Obama’s rules of disengagement, the US is now fully engaged on
the side of armed groups which include the most extreme Sunni Islamist movements
in the Middle East. The
Independent on Sunday has learned that a military decision has been taken in
Iran, even before last week’s presidential election, to send a first contingent
of 4,000 Iranian Revolutionary Guards to Syria to support President Bashar
al-Assad’s forces against the largely Sunni rebellion. Iran is now
fully committed to preserving Assad’s regime, according to pro-Iranian sources
which have been deeply involved in the Islamic Republic’s security, even to the
extent of proposing to open up a new ‘Syrian’ front on the Golan Heights against
Israel. In years to
come, historians will ask how America, after its debacle in Iraq and its
humiliating withdrawal from Afghanistan scheduled for 2014, could have so
blithely aligned itself with one side in a titanic Islamic struggle stretching
back to the seventh century death of the Prophet Mohamed. The profound effects
of this great schism, between Sunnis who believe that the father of Mohamed’s
wife was the new caliph of the Muslim world and Shias who regard his son in law
Ali as his rightful successor, a seventh century battle swamped in blood around
the present-day Iraqi cities of Najaf and Kerbala, continue across the region to
this day. A 17th century Archbishop of Canterbury, George Abbott, compared this
Muslim conflict to that between “Papists and Protestants”. America’s
alliance now includes the wealthiest states of the Arab Gulf, the vast Sunni
territories between Egypt and Morocco, as well as Turkey and the fragile
British-created monarchy in Jordan. King Abdullah of Jordan, flooded, like so
many neighbouring nations, by hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees, may also
now find himself at the fulcrum of the Syrian battle. Up to 3,000 American
‘advisers’ are now believed to be in Jordan, and the creation of a southern
Syria ‘no-fly zone,’ opposed by Syrian-controlled anti-aircraft batteries, will
turn a crisis into a ‘hot’ war. So much for America’s ‘friends’. America’s new
enemies include the Lebanese Hizballah, the Alawite Shiite regime in Damascus
and, of course, Iran. And Iraq, a largely Shiite nation which America
‘liberated’ from Saddam Hussein’s Sunni minority in the hope of balancing the
Shiite power of Iran, has, against all US predictions, itself now largely fallen
under Tehran’s influence and power. Iraqi Shiites as well as Hizballah members,
have both fought alongside Assad’s forces. Washington’s excuse for its new
Middle East adventure, that it must arm Assad’s enemies because the Damascus
regime has used sarin gas against them, convinces no-one in the Middle East.
Final proof of the use of gas by either side in Syria remains almost as nebulous
as President George W. Bush’s claim that Saddam’s Iraq possessed weapons of mass
destruction. For the real
reason why America has thrown its military power behind Syria’s Sunni rebels is
because those same rebels are now losing their war against Assad. The Damascus
regime’s victory this month in the central Syrian town of Qusayr, at the cost
of Hizballah lives as well as those of government forces, has thrown the Syrian
revolution into turmoil, threatening to humiliate American and EU demands for
Assad to abandon power. Arab dictators are supposed to be deposed, unless they
are the friendly kings or emirs of the Gulf, not to be sustained. Yet Russia has
given its total support to Assad, three times vetoing UN Security Council
resolutions that might have allowed the West to intervene directly in the civil
war. In the Middle East, there is cynical
disbelief at the American contention that it can distribute arms, almost
certainly including anti-aircraft missiles, only to secular Sunni rebel forces
in Syria represented by the so-called Free Syria Army. The more powerful al-Nusrah
Front, allied to al-Qaeda, dominates the battlefield on the rebel side and has
been blamed for atrocities including the execution of Syrian government
prisoners of war and the murder of a 14-year old boy for blasphemy. They will
be able to take new American weapons from their Free Syria Army comrades with
little effort. From now on, therefore, every suicide bombing in Damascus, every
war crime committed by the rebels, will be regarded in the region as
Washington’s responsibility. The very Sunni-Wahabi Islamists who killed
thousands of Americans on 11th September, 2011, who are America’s greatest
enemies as well as Russia’s, are going to be proxy allies of the Obama
administration. For the
Russians, of course, the ‘Middle East’ is not in the ‘east’ at all, but to the
south of Moscow. (FOJ Note: as specifically mentioned by the
prophet Ezekiel) Fifteen per cent of Russians are Muslim. Six of the Soviet
Union’s communist republics had a Muslim majority, 90 per cent of whom were
Sunni. And Sunnis around the world make up perhaps 85 per cent of all Muslims.
For a Russia intent on repositioning itself across a land mass that includes
most of the former Soviet Union, Sunni Islamists of the kind now fighting the
Assad regime are its principal antagonists. It is a sign
of the changing historical template in the Middle East that within the framework
of old Cold War rivalries between Washington and Moscow, Israel’s security has
taken second place to the conflict in Syria. Israel should fear an Islamist
caliphate in Damascus far more than a continuation of Assad’s rule. The West’s
support for Syrian rebels is a strategic attempt to crush Iran. But Iran is
going to take the offensive. Even for the volatile Middle East, the stakes in
Damascus are high stakes. FOJ Note:
The present Damascus geopolitical scenario could lead
the whole world into the climactic days of the great Apocalypse! June 17….(YNET)
Jordan's King Abdullah said on Sunday the kingdom was ready to fight to
protect itself against any threat to its security from the escalating civil war
in neighboring Syria. He was speaking as Jordanian and US forces proceeded with
joint military exercises with the participation of 17 other countries. Diplomats
say the exercises, which entered their second week, aim to send a strong message
to Syrian President Bashar Assad. "If the world does not help as it should, and
if the matter becomes a danger to our country, we are able at any moment to take
the measures to protect the country and the interest of our people," King
Abdullah told military cadets at a graduation ceremony in southern Jordan. A
Pentagon spokesman said on Saturday Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has approved a
Jordanian request for American F-16s and Patriot missiles to remain in the
Western-backed kingdom after the end of the military maneuvers. The decision
to put Patriot batteries, an air and missile defense system in Jordan has
particularly angered Russia, Assad's main international ally, which accuses
the West of fanning the conflict in Syria. (Some units receive “limited-use” chemical
arms) June 17….(DEBKA)
American sources claimed Saturday, June 15, that the “military support” the
Obama administration promised the Syrian opposition Friday consisted of
automatic weapons, mortars and recoilless rocket grenades (RPGs) for delivery
within three weeks through Turkey. Those items, say Debkafile’s military
sources, are no more than a mockery of the rebels’ needs. Any Middle East arms
trafficker can quickly lay hands on advanced anti-air and anti-tank missiles for
a price running into tens of thousands of dollars, whether in Lebanon, Egyptian
Sinai, the Palestinian Authority, or even in trading among the Syrian rebel
militias themselves. The going prices, according to our sources, are for
instance, up to $50,000 for a shoulder-borne Grail SA-7 anti-air missile and
$40,000 for a T-55 tank in poor technical condition plus 40 shells. After the US
weapons arrive, the huge imbalance between the rebels’ and Syrian army’s
arsenals will be as stark as ever. It widens constantly with the landing almost
every few hours of Russian and Iranian air transports delivering military
equipment to cover the ongoing war requirements of the Syrian army and Hizballah. Friday, as
Iranians elected a new president, their supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
said in a speech: “To the Americans, I say, OK, to hell with you. Any one who
listens to you is a loser. The Iranian people have never attached any value to
their enemies.” And in Beirut, Hizballah’s Hassan Nasrallah said: “Where we need
to be, we will be. Where we began assuming responsibilities, we will continue to
assume responsibilities” and, he added, no one in Lebanon will be allowed to
interfere with this. Nasrallah, half of whose military strength is fighting for
Bashar Assad in Syria, was warning Hizballah’s foes at home in Lebanon, that he
is still strong enough to deal with any opponents of his Syrian venture as well. On the heels
of the bravado from Tehran and Beirut, a statement heard Friday from Damascus
strongly pointed to the three allies’ forthcoming direction. Syrian President
Bashar Assad said: “We have plans to open a resistance front on the Golan
Heights,” adding that “such a move could unify the various factions in Syria.”
This was the first time Assad had disclosed his plans to join “the resistance”
against Israel as a diversion for breaking up the rebel front against his
regime. He spoke after ordering the Syrian and Hizballah troops to peel off into
two heads and advance simultaneously on two fronts, one, for their major
offensive to recapture Aleppo, and two, the Golan, which is divided between
Syria and Israel. Debkafile’s military sources report that Thursday night,
the first movements were detected heading toward the Syrian side of the Golan
and the Jordanian border, from the Syrian and Hizballah military
concentrations piling up in the last two weeks around the southwestern town of
Deraa. Senior
officers in the IDF’s Northern command have no doubt that Assad plans to
deploy Hizballah units on the border of Israeli Golan while a Syrian back-up
force will take up position on the Jordanian border. According to some
intelligence sources, rudimentary “limited-use”
chemical weapons have been handed out to some of the Hizballah units operating
in Syria. They come in the form of plastic canisters, roughly the
size of a tin of canned food, which can be fired or simply lobbed by hand.
Poisonous sarin nerve gas escapes through two holes upon impact. This device was
developed by Iran for the Syrian army to use on a small scale to save Assad from
being accused of using a “weapon of mass destruction.” In
Washington, US and Israeli officials took turns Friday night in junking their
red lines for Syria. The Obama administration confirmed that the Syrian
government’s use of chemical weapons against the opposition on multiple
occasions was “on a small scale.” Israel’s Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon said
in a lecture that Israel had set the Assad regime three red lines against
supplying advanced weapons to Hizballah or any other terrorist group; letting
them have chemical weapons or allowing Israel to be attacked from the Golan.
Both the US administration and Israel have been overtaken by events. By
downplaying the scale of Syrian chemical warfare and providing the rebels with
nothing more than light weapons, Washington is in effect granting Assad a
license to continue his “small scale” use of chemical weapons. And the Israeli
defense minister chose to ignore the fact that the Syrian ruler is past
trampling over Israel’s red lines, safe thus far from evoking an effective
response. The sense of the rest of his remarks at the Washington Institute for
Near East Policy Friday are equally abstruse: “Israel will not intervene in
Syrian in part because any such intervention would harm the side Israel favors,”
said Ya’alon. But he did not address the reverse situation which is more
realistic, whereby Syria and Hizballah are preparing to “intervene” in Israel. The impression gained from his
remarks was that, just as the Obama administration has chosen to hold back from
a pointed response to Assad’s use of chemical weapons, so too Israel is backing
away from coming to grips with the offensive build-up targeting its borders. Is
Moshe Ya’alon simply toeing the line of Obama’s non-intervention policy for
Syria? At all events, he never mentioned by a single word the fact that
Hizballah has been armed with “limited-use chemical weapons,”either before or
after his meeting with Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel early Saturday. June 17….(DEBKA)
Thousands of Syrians are currently training in Iran to serve as a force
ready to storm Israel’s northern Golan Heights, according to informed Middle
Eastern security officials. The officials said between 3,000 and 5,000 Syrian
men were being trained in the event Syrian President Bashar al-Assad decides to
open a front against the Golan Heights, which borders Syria. The training is
being overseen by the Al Quds Force, the elite unit of Iran’s Revolutionary
Guard responsible for the country’s extraterritorial operations, the sources
said. The officials said the camps are training Palestinian groups as well as
special units connected to Assad’s Baath party for operations against Israel if
such actions are green-lighted by Syria in the near future. The officials said
that for the time being, Russia has urged Assad against any attacks on Israel.
The reports come as the UK Independent reported on a purported military strategy
taken by Iran to send a first contingent of 4,000 Iranian Revolutionary Guards
to Syria in support of Assad’s drive to defeat the so-called rebels. June 17….(AP)
Egypt's ruling Muslim Brotherhood blamed Shi'ites for creating religious
strife throughout Islam's history, as the movement joined a call by Sunni
clerics for jihad against the Syrian government and its Shi'ite allies. In a
striking display of the religious enmity sweeping the region since Lebanon's
Iran-backed Hezbollah committed its forces behind Syrian President Bashar
al-Assad, a Brotherhood spokesman in Cairo told Reuters on Friday: "Throughout
history, Sunnis have never been involved in starting a sectarian war." Until
recently, Egypt's new Islamist president, the Brotherhood's Mohamed Mursi, was
promoting rapprochement with Iran, the bastion of Shi'ite political power and in
February he hosted the first visit by an Iranian president in over 30 years. But
spokesman Ahmed Aref said Hezbollah had launched a new "sectarian war" last
month by joining Tehran's other key ally Assad in a fight that pits mainly Sunni
rebels against a Syrian elite drawn from Assad's Alawite minority, a Shi'ite
offshoot. For that reason, Aref said, the Muslim Brotherhood, which emerged from
oppression after the fall of military rule two years ago to run by far the most
populous Arab state, had joined a call made on Thursday by leading Sunni clerics
for holy war in Syria. That statement, made at a Cairo conference of more than
70 religious organizations from across the Arab world, urged "jihad with mind,
money, weapons, all forms of jihad", but stopped short of repeating an explicit
call by high-profile Brotherhood-linked preacher Youssef al-Qaradawi for
fighters to go to Syria. Asked whether
the Brotherhood would urge Egyptians to travel to the war, Aref said it was
still considering its position and would coordinate with the other groups at the
conference. Mursi would address the assembly on Saturday, he added, saying that
speech may clarify the Egyptian position: "Up to now there's merely been talk,"
he said. An aide to Mursi said on Thursday that Egypt disapproved of external
intervention in Syria, notably that by Hezbollah. It was not sending fighters
but, he said, the government could not stop Egyptians from travelling and would
not penalize any who went to Syria, where he said many were engaged in relief
work. Also on
Friday, a leading Sunni cleric from Saudi Arabia, Mohammed al-Afifi, preached at
an ancient Cairo mosque, calling for jihad in Syria "in every way possible".
Some worshippers waved Syrian rebel flags and dozens of men gathered outside
afterward to chant their support for bringing down Assad. Saudi
Arabia, where the monarchy espouses the strict Wahhabi school of Sunni Islam,
is locked in a regional rivalry with Iran and has been arming the Syrian
rebels while Egypt's leaders, who rose to power in the same wave of Arab
Spring protests that began the Syrian civil war, have held back from such
engagement. The 7th century rift between Sunni and Shi'ite Islam has fuelled
violence across the Middle East in recent decades, including the sectarian
bloodletting unleashed in Iraq since the 2003 US invasion and the Lebanese civil
war of 1975 to 1990. June 17….(CNSNews.com)
In a speech at the Faith and Freedom Coalition conference on Thursday, Sen.
Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said he was angry over the fact that US tax money is used to
support foreign regimes where Christians are killed “for blasphemy against
Islam,” and where “Muslims who convert to Christianity” are also put to death.
“It angers me to see my tax dollars supporting regimes that put Christians to
death for blasphemy against Islam, countries that put to death Muslims who
convert to Christianity, and countries who imprison anyone who marries outside
their religion,” said Paul at the conference, held at the JW Marriott hotel in
Washington, DC. “There is a war on Christianity, not just from liberal elites
here at home, but worldwide,” said Paul. “And your government, or more
correctly, you, the taxpayer, are funding it. You are being taxed to send money
to countries that are not only intolerant of Christians but openly hostile.
Christians are imprisoned and threatened with death for their beliefs.” Paul
spent most of his speech talking about the persecution of Christians abroad and
cited cases of gross injustice in Pakistan, Iraq, Egypt and Syria. “It is clear
that American taxpayer dollars are being used to enable a war on Christianity in
the Middle East and I believe that must end,” said Paul. In concluding his
speech, the senator said, “God, help us in these troubling times to make wise
decisions, to make moral decisions, and to listen to the voice of God that lives
and breathes and resides in us all. Amen.” World Council of Churches Crusader Theology June 14….(Israel Today) Last month,
the World Council of Churches (WCC) convened in Lebanon and issued the following
statement: “Palestine continues to be the central issue in the region. The
persistence, after sixty five years, of continuing dispossession of Palestinian
people, Christian and Muslim alike, from their land by Israeli occupation,
continuing settlement of land inside the 1967 borders … is central to the
turmoil in the region. Jerusalem today is an occupied city with a government
which has adopted discriminatory policies against Christians and Muslims alike.” The WCC also
took aim at Christians who dare to support Israel, the reviled “Christian
Zionists”: "Christians who promote ‘Christian Zionism’ distort the
interpretation of the Word of God and the historic connection of Palestinians,
Christians and Muslims, to the Holy Land, enable the manipulation of public
opinion by Zionist lobbies, and damage intra-Christian relations.” The WCC is
not a marginal organization that can be dismissed off hand. It represents some
500 million Christians living in 110 countries and territories around the world.
It include Anglican, Baptist, Lutheran, Methodist, Reformed and Independent
churches, all of which have signed on to a political-religious document that
contains blatant lies that bring to mind historical anti-Jewish Christian
biases. For instance, the WCC asserts that Israel, continually, for 65 years,
has been dispossessing Muslims and Christians of their land. The truth is that
the last time Palestinians crossed the Jordan River eastward and never returned
was during the Six Day War in 1967. Wars, as can be witnessed today in Syria and
elsewhere, produce refugees. Israel’s only fault in this regard is that it won
the war. And even during that conflict, when the entire Arab population of
Hebron fled, they were asked by Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Dayan to return
to their homes. In contrast,
due to intolerable conditions, there is massive Christian emigration from
Palestinian-controlled Bethlehem and from Lebanon. Christians suffer
discrimination not in Israel, but rather in Turkey, Egypt, Syria and any other
Muslim country. The WCC also wants people to believe that “Jerusalem today is an
occupied city.” The WCC is not specifying “east” or “west” Jerusalem, meaning
that for these Christians Jerusalem as a whole should be under the control of
anyone but Israel, or, more precisely, the Jews. The fact that only “east”
Jerusalem is disputed as “occupied” territory is irrelevant to the pious-minded
Christians who signed this document. The WCC’s
anti-Israel political stand stems from its theological position that asserts,
only tacitly for fear of being labeled anti-Semites, that (Christian) “Zionism
distorts the interpretation of the Word of God.” Zionism is a late 19th century
national movement for the return of the Jewish people to their homeland and the
resumption of Jewish sovereignty in the Land of Israel. The Bible is so steeped
with such a vision that it is pointless to bother with quotations. The WCC must
assert therefore, like the Crusaders before, that today, the chosen “people of
Israel” are not the Jews, but rather all true Christians, which is why Jerusalem
should not be under Jewish sovereignty. For them, even Muslim control of
Jerusalem would be better. Any honest and unbiased reader of the Bible knows
otherwise, and should reject this anti-Jewish theology. Anybody, the WCC
included, who singles Israel out as the sole villain that threatens world peace,
who points fingers at Israel, the least troublesome element in the Middle East,
is, by definition, anti-Semitic. June 14….(In
The Days) The Obama Administration “strongly objects” to a proposed
amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act on Wednesday that would have
protected the religious rights of soldiers, including evangelical Christian
service members who are facing growing hostility towards their religion. he
amendment was authored by Rep. John Fleming, R-La. It would have “required the
Armed Forces to accommodate ‘actions and speech’ reflecting the conscience,
moral, principles or religious beliefs of the member.” The Obama
Administration said the amendment would have a “significant adverse effect on
good order, discipline, morale, and mission accomplishment.” “With its
statement, the White House is now endorsing military reprimands of members
who keep a Bible on their desk or express a Christian belief,” Fleming told
Fox News. “This administration is aggressively hostile towards religious beliefs
that it deems to be politically incorrect.” Fleming
introduced the amendment after a series of high-profile incidents involving
attacks on religious liberty within the military- including an Air Force officer
who was told to remove a Bible from his desk because it might give the
impression he was endorsing a religion. He said there are other reports of
Christian service members and chaplains being punished for their faith. The Air
Force censored a video created by a chaplain because it include the word “God.”
The Air Force feared the word might offend Muslims and atheists. Tony Perkins,
president of the Family Research Council, called the Obama Administration’s
edict a “chilling suppression of religious freedom.” “The Obama administration
has joined forces with those who are attacking the religious freedoms of those
who serve in our Armed Services,” Perkins said. “The Administration’s opposition
to Rep. Fleming’s religious freedom amendment reveals that this administration
has gone beyond accommodating the anti-Christian activists who want to remove
any vestige of Christianity from the military, to aiding them by blocking this
bipartisan measure.” June 14….(USA
Today) A Syrian rebel group's pledge of allegiance to al-Qaeda's replacement
for Osama bin Laden suggests that the terrorist group's influence is not waning
and that it may take a greater role in the Western-backed fight to topple Syrian
President Bashar Assad. The pledge of allegiance by Syrian Jabhat al Nusra Front
chief Abou Mohamad al-Joulani to al-Qaeda leader Sheik Ayman al-Zawahri was
coupled with an announcement by the al-Qaeda affiliate in Iraq, the Islamic
State of Iraq, that it would work with al Nusra as well. Lebanese Sheik Omar
Bakri, a Salafist who says states must be governed by Muslim religious law, says
al-Qaeda has assisted al Nusra for some time. "They provided them early on with
technical, military and financial support , especially when it came to setting
up networks of foreign jihadis who were brought into Syria," Bakri says. "There
will certainly be greater coordination between the two groups." In spite of
these facts, the Obama administration has concluded that Syrian President Bashar
Assad's government used chemical weapons against the rebels seeking to overthrow
him and, in a major policy shift, President Obama has decided to supply military
support to the rebels, the White House announced Thursday. "The president has
made a decision about providing more support to the opposition that will involve
providing direct support to the Supreme Military Council. That includes military
support," Deputy National Security Adviser for Strategic Communication Ben
Rhodes told reporters. President Obama has repeatedly said that the use of
chemical weapons is a "red line" that, if crossed, would be a "game changer" for
more US involvement in the Syrian civil war. Rand Paul's To Evangelicals: "There is a
War on Christianity" June 14….(CBN)
Senator Rand Paul, who is seriously considering running for President of the
United States, told a conservative Christian audience today that, "There is a
war on Christianity" being waged by "liberal elites' and "worldwide as well.
Rand Paul has been actively courting the conservative Christian community for
months. He took a trip to Israel which was organized by influential evangelical
organizer David Lane and has been speaking to Christian audiences in key GOP
Primary states. He will speak to hundreds of Iowa pastors next month in Des
Moines. The Brody File also knows of plenty of private events he has done within
the Christian community. June 14….(Fox
News) A new Fox News poll shows that 46 percent of voters favor legalizing
gay marriage and 47 percent oppose it. That’s little changed from earlier this
year when it was 46-46 percent (February 2013), or from last fall when it was
42-44 percent (October 2012). On the separate question of whether the US
Constitution guarantees same-sex couples the right to marry, a slim 52-percent
majority says it does, while 45 percent disagree. Even more people, 56 percent,
think each state should have the power to decide whether or not to allow
same-sex couples to tie the knot. Same-sex marriage is a complicated issue for
many people given the moral and legal considerations. And as the poll results
suggest, some people hold inconsistent views. Consider this: a third of those
who think a state should be allowed to ban same-sex marriage, also believe gay
marriage is a right guaranteed by the Constitution. Views on
same-sex marriage vary widely based on age and political party. For example,
most people under age 35 are in favor of legalizing it (64 percent), while a
majority of those over age 65 oppose it (55 percent). And most Democrats
support gay marriage (65 percent), while most Republicans oppose it (69
percent). The US Supreme Court will soon announce its decisions on two same-sex
marriage cases, one concerning the Defense of Marriage Act and the other
California’s Proposition 8. The sharply
divided views held today represent a major shift from a decade ago. In 2003,
when the question was first asked on a Fox News poll, 32 percent of voters said
same-sex couples should be allowed to marry legally, and 58 percent were
opposed. Finally, 39 percent of voters approve of “changing the definition of
the word marriage to also include same-sex couples,” up from 25 percent in 2004. (Putin warns
Israel Sunnis plus al Qaeda are bigger threat than Assad) June 12….(DEBKA)
Moscow is not ready to give up on getting Russian troops posted on the
divided Golan as part of the UN force policing the Israeli-Syrian separation
sector, even after rejections by the UN and Israel. Monday, June 10, the Russian
lawmaker Aleksey Pushkov, an influential foreign relations policy adviser to the
Kremlin, said: “The issue has not been yet solved, it is being considered. We
must take some real action because we cannot exclude that the Syrian-Israeli
topic would be involved in large-scale military action.” Shortly before he
spoke, the military announced in Moscow that the Russian Airborne Troops had
formed a separate brigade especially designed to serve as peacekeepers “under
the aegis of the United Nations or as part of the force set up by the
Russian-led CSTO (Russian-Asian) security bloc for combating terrorism.
Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan contribute
special units. Vladimir
Shamanov, commander of Russian Airborne troops, said the new brigade had been
awarded the status of “a peacekeeping unit” on June 1. He did not say by whom.
Debkafile’s military sources disclose the Moscow proposes to give the
“peacekeeping” brigade from the Russian Airborne Troops “teeth” in the form of
MI-24 combat helicopters. The idea of placing Russian peacekeepers on the
Golan was first voiced by President Vladimir Putin on June 7, after Austria
decided to withdraw its 377-strong contingent from the area over an outbreak of
fighting there between Syrian troops and rebels. The idea was quickly shot down
by the United Nations and Israel on the grounds that the Israeli-Syrian 1974
ceasefire accord barred veto-wielding UN Security Council members from
participation in the peacekeeping force. On June 8,
Debkafile reported exclusively that Putin was determined to override Israeli
and UN objections and get Russian troops deployed on the Syrian Golan by hook or
by crook. On June 9, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu publicly rejected the
Putin offer, saying Israel could not afford to place its security in the hands
of international forces. Speaking at a Moscow press conference on Monday, MP
Pushkov went on to say that it was too early to say that Vladimir Putin’s
suggestion of placing Russian peacekeepers on the Golan Heights lacked
perspectives or could not be implemented. As though on cue, the Hizballah-controlled
Lebanese Al Akhbar Monday quoted President Bashar Assad as warning that, for
him, opening a front on the Golan against Israel was “a serious matter” and
would not just consist of firing a few improvised rockets from time to time.
This gave Pushkov the opening for his warning to Israel: That Israeli
authorities would oppose this step (Putin’s offer) was not surprising, he said,
but he warned about possible consequences: “Assad could be replaced by
radical Islamists in comparison with whom Assad would seem an angel from heaven,”
said the Russian lawmaker. “The people who are now offering friendship to Israel
would not necessarily see Israel as their partner when they come to power,
rather they would see it as an enemy,” the Russian MP said, hinting at the
references made by Hizballah and Syrian government spokesmen to the relations
Israel had purportedly formed with certain Syrian rebel groups. Hizballah
broadcasts even depicted outdated Israeli tanks and other equipment, booty
captured in its 2006 war with Israel, to prove its point. Therefore,
Pushkov advised Israeli leaders to pay more attention to the possible future
scenarios in Syria and take into account that Russia could play a positive and
stabilizing role in the region. Debkafile notes that this was the first time any
Russian official had mentioned the unmentionable: a possible future turn in the
wheel of the Syrian conflict that would oust Assad and bring his foes, the
Sunni Muslim Brotherhood and al Qaeda, to power in Damascus. June 12….(DEBKAfile
Exclusive) Hizballah forces helping Syrian troops capture the key Syrian
town of al Qusayr from rebel hands last week caught five armed members of the
radical Palestinian Hamas fighting with the rebels, debkafile’s intelligence
sources disclose. Within hours of this discovery being reported to Hizballah
chief Hassan Nasrallah, the order to shut down Hamas offices in the Shiite Dahya
neighborhood in Beirut went down the Hizballah chain of command. Wafiq Safa,
head of the organizations intelligence and terror wing, who commands the
organization’s war effort in Syria, summoned Ali Baraka, the Hamas envoy in
Beirut. He was told to shut down shop forthwith and remove himself and staff
from the Lebanese capital. Hamas cells in southern Lebanon were likewise
expelled. Ali Baraka hurriedly moved his people over to the southern port of
Sidon, which is outside Hizballah’s turf. Nasrallah also suspended all military
and technical assistance to the Hamas military arm, Ezz a-din al-Qassam, both in
Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, after years of close cooperation between the two
radical terrorist organizations. Before breaking off ties with the Palestinian
group, the Hizballah high command conferred with the Iranian al Qods Brigades
chief, Gen. Qassem Soleimani. Tehran has
not commented on the break-up with its Palestinian protégé, except to hold up
the latest installment of Iran’s financial aid to the Gaza Strip regime. Queries
from Gaza elicited evasive answers from Tehran. The rupture with Hizballah
and Iran has left the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip in serious financial
straits. Its allocation from Qatar was sharply reduced this year; the
Saudis stopped all assistance last year and Hamas’s parent organization,
Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, has since assuming power in Cairo been struggling
with its own government’s empty coffers. In panicky conferences in Istanbul,
Gaza and Cairo, Hamas leaders decided their only recourse was to send peace
delegations to Tehran and Beirut in the hope that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei and Nasrallah would relent and resume the flow of financial aid. Hamas
politburo member Emad al-Alami heads the delegation to Tehran and Salah al-Arouri,
who runs Hamas operations on the West Bank from Istanbul, leads the delegation
to Beirut. Both are still cooling their heels and waiting for appointments. The
new situation has sharpened the discord within the Hamas leadership between the
faction in favor of Iran and Syria, headed by strongman Mahmoud A-Zahar and the
deputy commander of the Ezz a-din al-Qassam, Marwan Issa, on the one hand, and,
on the other, the reinstated head of the politburo Khaled Meshaal, who sent the
Hamas contingent to fight with the Syrian rebels against Bashar Assad and his
Hizballah allies. FOJ
Note: One piece of prophetic scripture comes quickly to mind regarding
the whole Syrian situation, and the Arab world involved there. (Genesis16:11-12
And the angel of the Lord said unto her, Behold, thou art with child, and shalt
bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael; because the Lord hath heard thy
affliction. And he will be a wild man; his hand will be against every
man, and every man's hand against him; and he shall dwell in the presence of
all his brethren.) June
11….(JERUSALEM POST) Syrian president says Russia committed to military deals, claims
that government forces are gaining upper hand in fighting rebels. Syrian
President Bashar Assad told Al-Manar TV on Thursday that “there is pressure by
the people to open a new front on the Golan.” “Even among the Arab world there
is a clear readiness to join the fight against Israel,” he added in his
interview with the Hezbollah TV station. Assad stated
that Hezbollah is involved in fighting the Israeli enemy and its agents in Syria
and Lebanon, according to the text of the interview on the Al-Manar website. He
attributed the failure of the Syrian opposition to its dependence on outside
funding and said that it failed to create a real rift in the country. Assad also
said that he sees the balance of power in Syria shifting to the government’s
side. And this despite the fact that the “terrorists,” Assad’s reference to the
rebels, are smuggling fighters and weapons through all of the borders. In
relation to Israel, he said, “If we respond to Israel, the response must be
strategic.” Earlier on Thursday, Lebanese newspaper al-Akhbar quoted Assad as
saying that Syria had already received the first shipment of Russian
antiaircraft S-300 rockets. Speaking about the delivery of the S-300 to Syria,
Assad told Al-Manar that Russia is “committed to the deal and neither
Netanyahu’s visit nor the current crisis will influence the importing of arms.”
“The contracts with Russia are not linked to the crisis and Russia is committed
to implementing these contracts,” he said. “Everything we have agreed on with
Russia will take place, and part of it has already taken place.” More of the
missiles would arrive soon, he was quoted as saying. A source
close to Russia’s Defense Ministry said there had been a “bank transfer” in
connection with the S-300 transaction, but that Russian banks were becoming
increasingly nervous about dealing with Assad. Israel spoke with Russia on
Thursday morning amid reports that Assad’s forces had received a shipment of S-
300 missiles from Moscow. Jerusalem has yet to confirm the arrival of the
missiles, which have a 200-km. range with the capacity to hit planes in northern
Israel. It would create a no-fly zone that would make it impossible for the
Israel Air Force to operate along the Syrian and Lebanese border, precisely at a
moment when both countries are more volatile. Israel is investigating the
report, while Channels 2 and 10 reported they did not believe the missiles had
arrived. Netanyahu personally asked Russian President Vladimir Putin not to
deliver the missiles when he visited Moscow earlier this month. On Thursday
morning, Strategic Affairs Minister Yuval Steinitz held a prearranged meeting
with Russian Ambassador to Israel Sergey Yakovlevich and raised the issue of the
S-300s. Russia has maintained that the missiles are defensive and are needed by
Assad’s forces in their battle against rebel groups in that country. On
Wednesday, Steinitz said the missiles could also be used as offensive weapons.
At the end of Steinitz’s meeting with Yakovlevich, his office said that the men
discussed bilateral and strategic issues in the region. They agreed that Israel
and Russia would “maintain an ongoing dialogue and cooperate,” his office said. Netanyahu
spoke of the dangers facing Israel from missile attacks from the Syrian,
Lebanese and Gazan borders when he attended a meeting of the Emergency Economy
Committee, where they discussed Tuesday’s national emergency drill. “We are deep
in the era of missiles that are aimed at civilian population areas,” Netanyahu
said. “We must prepare defensively and offensively for the new era of warfare.
The State of Israel is the most threatened state in the world. Around us are
tens of thousands of missiles and rockets that could hit our home front.” Jonathan
Schanzer, vice president for research at the Foundation for Defense of
Democracies, told The Jerusalem Post from Washington on Thursday night, “Assad
would be off his rocker if he were to start a war with Israel right now and he
knows it.” Assad is barely containing the war in his own country and “the idea
that he would add a war with Israel makes no sense,” he said. June 11….(The
Balfour Post) For more than two thousand years ago historians and analysts
have disagreed on the manner in which to present accounts of the past and the
present. Some have sought to arouse sympathy or pity or empathy for the
sufferings or difficulties of the peoples they are discussing. Others have
presented a portrait, less emotional and dramatic, and one from which general
lessons can be learned. It is disgraceful that the WCC has slandered fellow
Christians, those Christian Zionists who have a different perception of Israel
and demonstrate their sympathy for and love of the Jewish state. It is clear
that many, perhaps a majority, of those writing or speaking about the condition
of the Palestinian Arabs, and the behavior of the State of Israel towards them,
in the Middle East have chosen the first approach. This has recently been
confirmed by the declarations of mainstream Christian bodies. On May 24, 2013
the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland adopted a committee report, “The
Inheritance of Abraham?” The report was amended because the Church admitted that
it had “caused worry and concern in parts of the Jewish Community in Israel and
beyond.” That concern was appropriately justified. Even after the supposedly
more moderate passages in the changes in the document, it still included a
passage, “Christians supported Israel as repentance for antisemitism and the
Holocaust. Then as Israel became more controversial with their abuse of
Palestinians, Christians remained silent.” The whole
report was tendentious and biased in its anti-Israeli stance, even to the belief
in Christian silence on Israel. Indeed, the reverse has been the case as one
mainstream Christian church after another has been eager to condemn Israel for
its actions or non-actions concerning the Palestinians. The most recent has been
the statement issued on May 29, 2013 by the World Council of Churches (WCC) and
the Middle East Council of Churches at an international and ecumenical
conference held in Beirut, Lebanon. Representatives of every Christian Church in
the Middle East and from Christian churches and organizations in 34 countries
participated at the meeting held at Notre-Dame du Mont Monastery to discuss
“Christians in the Middle East: Presence and Witness.” Yet though it
did mention “Christian emigration from the region, and a generalized sense of
abandonment following decades of unhelpful intervention,” it did not state
the real problem of Arab treatment of Christians who have been persecuted and
are leaving Arab countries in large numbers. Instead, it followed the
familiar and fallacious Palestinian narrative of victimhood. Disregarding the
present incredible turmoil in the whole Arab world, as well as the daily reports
of Palestinians fleeing from Syria, and the entrance of Hezbollah into the
country supporting President Assad, this WCC defined the existing problem in
incomprehensible fashion. For the WCC, “Palestine continues to be the central
problem in the region.” This was central to the turmoil in the region, a turmoil
which was exacerbated by the duplicity of policies of the western powers,
especially the United States. This turmoil was explained by the “persistence,
after sixty-five years, of continual dispassion of Palestinian people, from
their land by Israeli occupation, continual settlement of land inside the 1967
borders by a nation empowered by overwhelming military strength and external
alliances and influence.” The WCC was specific as well as
general in this wholesale assault on Israel and disregard of the fighting it
might have heard from its Monastery meeting place. It asserted that Jerusalem
was an “occupied city with a government which has adopted discriminatory
policies against Christians and Muslims alike.” The Council said nothing about
discrimination against Christians in other countries or in Saudi Arabia where
Christian practice is forbidden. Instead, the Council called for Jerusalem to be
an open city with “careful protection” of the holy places of the three
religions, ignoring the fact that Israel had been doing exactly that in its
concern for freedom of religious expression. The WCC went
even further in its biased, sectarian and myopic statement. It attacked
Christians who did not share its views. It asserted, “Christians who promote
‘Christian Zionism’ distort the interpretation of the Word of God and the
historic connection of Palestinians, Christians and Muslims to the Holy Land.”
The WCC is apparently not only Holier than any other Christians who disagree
with it in its message it derived from God, but also insinuates, in less than
subtle fashion, of the world Jewish conspiracy. The WCC holds that Christian
Zionists “enable the manipulation of public opinion by Zionist lobbies and
damage intra-Christian relationships.” In its
extremely disrespectful advice the WCC recommended, perhaps by a crusade and
certainly indicating a vendetta, that it convene its academic resources and
consult its ecumenical partners to address the issue of Christian Zionism,
disclosing its sources, its use as a political weapon against the Palestinian
people, and its effects on intra-Christian relations. It is shameful that the
WCC instead of objective analysis has emulated the Palestinian perception of
their situation which, in addition to genuine problems, presents the
Palestinians as victims, as the international symbol of the oppressed. Those,
including the WCC, who identity with the oppressed or with the supposed victims
have made the cause of the Palestinians and the condemnation of Israel the main
focus of their agenda of Middle Eastern affairs. The WCC, fueled by a
fashionable, politically correct anti-Western ideology of collective identity
with the supposed oppressed, has shifted the discussion of the disturbing
problems of the Middle East from the acute ones in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Egypt,
and Iran, to the alleged deficiencies of Israel. It is
disgraceful that the WCC has slandered fellow Christians, those Christian
Zionists who have a different perception of Israel and demonstrate their
sympathy for and love of the Jewish state. The WCC, and those Christian
organizations and individuals, who concur with its statement ought to be aware
that its assertions about Israel and Christian Zionism, which cannot be
dignified as a line of reasoning, are detrimental to and handicap efforts to
begin negotiations for a peaceful settlement of the Arab-Israeli conflict. (For sake of 'regional interests' US to
transfer controversial military aid to Egypt, despite concerns regarding Morsi.) June 10….(YNET)
Secretary of State John Kerry last month approved $1.3 billion in annual US
military aid to Egypt, despite concerns over democratic progress by the
country's new government, a US official said Friday. All such aid is "carefully
considered," State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters, but it was
felt the funding was necessary to help "preserve important regional interests."
On May 10, Kerry quietly approved the transfer of the annual aid, notifying the
US Congress of his decision, she confirmed. Despite
stating in a May 9 memo that "we are not satisfied with the extent of Egypt's
progress and are pressing for a more inclusive democratic process and the
strengthening of key democratic institutions," Kerry said the aid should go
forward. According to the May 9 memo, the US national interests served by the
aid include increasing security in the Sinai, helping prevent attacks from Gaza
into Israel, countering terrorism and securing transit through the Suez Canal.
"A strong US security partnership with Egypt, underpinned by FMF (Foreign
Military Financing), maintains a channel to Egyptian military leadership, who
are key opinion makers in the country," Kerry wrote at the time. "A decision to
waive restrictions on FMF to Egypt is necessary to uphold these interests as we
encourage Egypt to continue its transition to democracy," he added recently. Under US law,
for the $1.3 billion to flow the secretary of state must certify that the
Egyptian government "is supporting the transition to civilian government,
including holding free and fair elections, implementing policies to protect
freedom of expression, association and religion, and due process of law."
Psaki defended
Kerry's approval of aid for the fiscal year 2013 saying it was in US national
security interests and helped such things as "maintaining access to the Suez
Canal and the interdiction of weapons smuggling." The move came well before
Tuesday's sentencing by a Cairo court that handed down jail terms and fines on
43 Egyptian and foreign NGO workers in what Kerry has denounced as a
"politically-motivated trial." The sentences were just the latest move to raise
tensions between Washington and the government of Islamist President Mohamed
Morsi. In general, rights groups believe
Morsi is retreating from democratic freedoms, notably in a new civil society law
and in proposals for judicial reform that critics see as a way to purge judges
perceived as hostile to the government. Last year, the funds were held up after
the Egyptian authorities first moved against the US-funded non-governmental
organizations. Kerry's predecessor Hillary Clinton finally gave the green light
for the funds to be paid in March. Putin Pushes Plan to Place Russian
Troops on Golan June 10….(Arutz) The United Nations
said on Friday that Russia cannot send troops to the Golan Heights peacekeeping
force, after President Vladimir Putin said he was ready to bolster the force,
AFP reported. Putin offered troops after Austria decided to withdraw its 377
soldiers from the UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) between Syria and
Israel because of growing spillover from the Syria conflict. However, UN spokesman Martin Nesirky
said later on Friday that Russia was banned from taking part in the force
because it is one of five permanent members of the UN Security Council. "We
appreciate the consideration that Russia has given to provide troops on the
Golan. However, the disengagement agreement and its protocol between Syria and
Israel does not allow for the participation of permanent members of the Security
Council in UNDOF," Nesirky told reporters, according to AFP. On Thursday, Austria said it was
pulling its United Nations peacekeeping force from the Golan Heights. Austria
accounts for about 380 of the 1,000-strong UN force monitoring the Israel-Syria
ceasefire line in the Golan Heights. “Freedom of movement in the area de facto
no longer exists. The uncontrolled and immediate danger to Austrian soldiers has
risen to an unacceptable level," the Austrian chancellor, Werner Faymann, and
his deputy, Michael Spindelegger, said in a joint statement. Austria’s decision to withdraw its
troops from the UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF), which has been
monitoring the ceasefire line since 1974, came after Syrian rebels briefly
seized the only crossing along the Israel-Syria ceasefire line on the Golan,
before regime forces recaptured it using tanks. On Friday, UN peacekeeping
forces said they were studying whether to pullout of the Golan Heights after
Austria’s withdrawal decision and two UN soldiers were injured in Syrian
infighting. The Kremlin pointedly disclosed
Saturday, June 8, that President Vladimir Putin had talked by phone to Binyamin
Netanyahu Friday on the Syrian question. Hence, it seems Putin is not giving up
on the deployment of Russian troops on the Golan, despite the UN veto on their
stepping into the shoes of the departing 377 Austrian members of the UN force
policing the Golan separation zone between Israel and Syria. Hoping to
circumvent this veto, Putin turned for clearance directly to Jerusalem, one of
the two parties to the 1974 disengagement agreement. WEEK OF JUNE 2 THROUGH JUNE 9 Russia Announces Permanent
Mediterranean Naval Presence June 7….(Reuters) Russia has
deployed a naval unit to the Mediterranean Sea, it said on Thursday, a move
President Vladimir Putin said was to defend Russian security but which comes as
Moscow faces off with the West over Syria. In what is Russia's first permanent
naval deployment in the Mediterranean since Soviet times, it has stationed 16
warships and three ship-based helicopters in the region, the chief of staff
said. Putin said the deployment was not "saber-rattling" and not meant as a
threat to any nation. Russia cooperates with NATO navies against piracy and its
ships call at Western ports. But its support for President Bashar al-Assad as he
fights rebels have put Moscow at odds with the West. "This is a strategically
important region and we have tasks to carry out there to provide for the
national security of the Russian Federation," Putin said. Large-scale
naval exercises Russia held in March and ship movements near Syria have been
seen in the West as muscle-flexing by Moscow, which has sold weapons to Assad's
government and shielded it from any action by the UN Security Council. Russia
also has a naval maintenance and supply facility in Syria. The announcement
comes days after Moscow said it planned to resume patrols by nuclear-armed
submarines in the southern seas as part of a Putin's broader effort to revive
Russia's military might. Putin has
stressed the importance of a strong military since returning to the presidency
last May. In 13 years in power, he has often cited external threats when talking
of the need for agile armed forces and Russian political unity. Syria
Gaining Momentum Against Rebels, Eye Israel Border June
7….(Israel Hayom) Rebels seized then lost a border crossing on the
demilitarized zone between Israel and Syria on Thursday, activists and the
Israeli army said, as heavy clashes raged between the opposition and Syrian
President Bashar al-Assad's forces at the border crossing and in "Old Quneitra"
town just adjacent to the border. Israel is worried that the Golan, which it
captured from Syria in 1967, will become a springboard for attacks on Israelis
by jihadi fighters, who are taking part in the armed struggle against Assad. On
Wednesday, Israel Hayom reported exclusively that Israel believes Hezbollah
is working to open a front against Israel on the strategic plateau. News of the
fighting in Quneitra comes as Syrian troops and their Lebanese Hezbollah allies
captured a strategic border town Wednesday after a grueling three-week battle,
dealing a severe blow to rebels and opening the door for Assad's regime to seize
back the country's central heartland. The Assad
regime’s triumph in Qusair, which Assad's forces had bombarded for months
without success, demonstrates the potentially game-changing role of Hezbollah in
Syria's civil war. The gain could also embolden Assad to push for all-out
military victory rather than participate in peace talks being promoted by the
United States and Russia. The Shiite terrorist group lost dozens of fighters in
the battle for Qusair, underlining its commitment to support Assad's regime and
edging the fight in Syria further into a regional sectarian conflict pitting the
Middle East's Iranian-backed Shiite axis against Sunnis. Most of the
armed rebels in Syria are members of the country's Sunni Muslim majority, while
Assad has retained core support among the country's minorities, including his
own Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam, along with Christians and Shiite
Muslims. The White
House on Wednesday night condemned the town's capture and said Hezbollah's
involvement threatens Lebanon's stability. The Syrian rebels’ defeat in the key
town of al Qusayr, Wednesday, June 6, was also a major strategic debacle for the
US, Israel and Western Europe, the price they paid for leaving allied Syrian-Hizballah
troops orchestrated by Iranian officers a clear field to win the day. The
Syrian-Hizballah machine is now ready to capitalize on its victory and roll into
Aleppo and southern Syria to extinguish rebel resistance there too. Israel may
be next in its sights. Unnoticed by
Israel, the long arm of the Syrian war has reached deep into the Gaza Strip. Its
Palestinian Hamas rulers lost no time in jumping on the winning bandwagon. A
delegation is already in Tehran waiting to plead for a new military cooperation
pact. Prime Minister
Ismail Haniyeh and Hamas politburo chief Khaled Meshaal faced heavy pressure to
turn away from their ties with Turkey and Qatar and renew the military pact
Hamas signed with Iran and Hizballah in September 2012. Hamas military wing
today suddenly issued a declaration of allegiance to Iran and Hizballah. The
Syrian-Hizballah victory in Qusayr exposed the hollowness of the
US-European-Israeli posture of non-intervention in the Syrian conflict. While
all three backed away from confirming the outbreak of chemical warfare in Syria,
aside from empty threats, Moscow, Tehran and Baghdad managed to repair the
inroads made on Assad’s military power by two and-a-quarter years of hard
fighting, and fashion a combined Syrian-Hizballah fighting machine capable of
crushing the Syrian uprising. Having proved
its mettle in an epic victory, the Syrian-Hizballah partnership confronts
Israel, Jordan and the US forces posted there with plans to follow up in its
success in two stages: First, to conquer Aleppo and southern Syria and clear
them of rebels; second, to use the Golan as a jumping-off base to face Israel on
the battlefield. Already, their campaign to seize the town of Quneitra on the
Syrian side of Golan has begun.
Thousands of PA
Arabs participated in a mass rally in Ramallah earlier this week calling for the
establishment of the Muslim Caliphate June 6….(Arutz)
Thousands of PA Arabs participated in a mass rally in Ramallah earlier this
week calling for the establishment of the Muslim Caliphate, the worldwide
Islamist government that will “bring the coming of the Mahdi.” the Muslim
messiah. The Caliphate is essentially a union of Muslim countries under the
spiritual and political leadership of a single individual, the Caliph. It has
been an Islamic concept since the days of Muhammad, when it was established by
several of his disciples. The office of “official Caliph” has been disputed at
times, with rival would-be Caliphs battling each other for the title. The last
official Caliph was Abdülmecid II, who lost the office in the aftermath of the
defeat of Ottoman Turkey in World War I. The best-known Caliph in the West was
Suleiman the Great, an early Ottoman sultan who, in the 16th century, conquered
most of the Middle East and the Persian Gulf, even conquering parts of Europe,
until he was stopped at “the Gates of Vienna.” With many
Muslim states politically and religiously divided, and dependent on the West for
support, radical Islamists have been pushing for the reestablishment of the
Caliphate – this time to be led by the all-powerful Mahdi, who will unite all
Muslims and establish Islam as the dominant religion in the world, ruling for
several years before the "Day of Judgment". Although the identity of the Mahdi
is a secret, many Islamists believe that he is alive now, and several
individuals have claimed the title. Many Islamists were said to have believed
that Osama Bin-Laden was the Mahdi, or his right-hand man, until he was killed
several years ago by U.S. forces in Afghanistan. The Ramallah
rally included many students from Bir-Zeit University, the PA's most prestigious
university located north of Jerusalem and a major recipient of economic funding
from the EU and the United States. Marchers gathered at a large mosque in El
Bireh, a suburb of Ramallah, and marched to Manara Square, a large gathering
place in central Ramallah. Speakers at the rally urged believers to “have faith”
in the future, to give up their Western ways, and to do more to fulfill the
tenets of Islam. The rally was sponsored by izb at-Tarir (Party of Liberation),
which has its own Mahdi candidate, organization leader Ata Abu Rashta, born in
Mandatory Palestine and a long-time resident of a refugee camp near Hevron.
Speakers at the rally said that Abu Rashta, as Mahdi, would unify Muslims and
establish Sharia law in countries around the world. In addition, the speakers
called for unity among all Muslims in order to ensure “victory in Syria,” the
“liberation of Palestine from the hated Jews,” and the “freeing of mankind from
the chains of capitalism.” June 6….(WND)
A new report from a ministry worker who visited a remnant of Syria’s Christian
community confirms the worst: Rebels battling President Bashar al-Assad for
control are imposing Islamic law, giving Christians the choice to flee or die.
Syrian
Christian refugees have told how they had been attacked by the rebels fighting
in Syria, where Christians had been allowed to worship and live under Assad’s
regime. One report comes after Republican Sen. John McCain’s recent trip to
Syria, where he was photographed with two men who, according to Beirut news
reports, were involved in kidnapping people from Lebanon just months ago. Sen.
Rand Paul, R-Ky., criticized McCain, noting that the “pro-Western people” he
visited weren’t well vetted. Durie said the mandate to Christians by the rebels,
some of whom have been linked to Al-Qaida, is based on the Quran. “The Christian
residents were offered four choices: 1. renounce the ‘idolatry’ of Christianity
and convert to Islam; 2. pay a heavy tribute to the Muslims for the privilege of
keeping their heads and their Christian faith (this tribute is known as jizya);
3. be killed; 4. flee for their lives, leaving all their belongings
behind.” Durie said
some Christians “were killed, some fled, some tried to pay the jizya and found
it too heavy a burden to bear after the rebels kept increasing the amount they
had to pay, and some were unable to flee or pay, so they converted to Islam to
save themselves.” “The scenario reported by Syrian refugees is a re-enactment of
the historic fate of Christians across the Middle East,” he said. “The Muslim
historian Al-Tabari reported that when the Caliph Umar conquered Syria, he gave
the following command to his armies: ‘Summon the conquered people to Allah;
those who respond unto your call, accept it [their conversion to Islam] from
them, but those who refuse must pay the jizya out of humiliation and lowliness.
If they refuse this, it is the sword without leniency.’” Durie
explained Umar was referencing the Quran, which states: “Fight against such of
those who have been given the Scripture as believe not in Allah nor the Last
Day, and forbid not that which Allah hath forbidden by His messenger, and follow
not the Religion of Truth, until they pay the jizya readily, being brought low.”
Durie said the policy of subjugating Christians under the yoke of jizya taxation
was also based on the teaching of Muhammad. As with
almost every Christian family in the village, they eventually flee. Their land
and farms were lost. Some Christian families in many villages who were unable to
escape or pay the jizya conveniently converted to Islam,” Janssen said. In most
cases all Christians are simply murdered in the middle of the night. June
4….(Israel Today) The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI)
reports in the 2013 edition of its annual global security review that Israel
possesses some 80 nuclear warheads. According to SIPRI, 50 of Israel's warheads
are built for use atop medium-range ballistic missiles, while the other 30 are
designed to be attached to bombs carried by aircraft. The Jewish state is also
believed to have developed smaller, tactical nuclear munitions, such as
artillery shells. Israel is not
a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). While it is widely
accepted that Israel possesses nuclear arms, Jerusalem maintains an official
policy of ambiguity on the topic. The report went on to note that both India and
Pakistan, the world's newest nuclear powers, are in possession of 90-120
warheads each, while France, the UK and China have nuclear arsenals numbering in
the hundreds. Russia and the US both possess many thousands of nuclear warheads. France, the
UK, China, Russia and the US are all signatories to the NPT. Nevertheless, SIPRI
notes that all five nations have demonstrated that not only do they have no
intention of relinquishing their nuclear stockpiles, they are actually further
developing their nuclear weapons capabilities. All told, there are believed to
be 17,265 nuclear weapons in the world today, with approximately 4,400 of them
classified as "operational." The spiritual
mentor of the worldwide Muslim Brotherhood movement has risked further inflaming
sectarian tension across the Middle East by using highly charged religious
rhetoric to call for a Sunni "jihad" in Syria. June 4….(The
Telegraph) Yusef al-Qaradawi, who is based in Qatar and has been a leading
voice supporting the Arab Spring, warned that Iranian Shia were trying to "eat"
Sunni Muslims, who are a majority in the Muslim world. He referred to Alawites,
the followers of the Muslim sect to which President Bashar al-Assad of Syria
belongs, as being "worse infidels than Christians or Jews". He also used the
deliberately contemptuous term "Nusayris" when talking about them. He was
particularly critical of the roles played by Iran, which is largely Shia, and
the Lebanon Shia militia Hizbollah whose name translates as Party of God but
which he called "Party of Satan", in supporting the Assad regime. "There is no
common ground between the two sides because the Iranians, especially
conservatives, want to eat the Sunni people," he said. The Syrian opposition is
dominated, like Syria itself, by Sunni Muslims, but also includes a number of
Christians, Alawites and other minorities. However, Alawite militias loyal to
the Assads have been responsible for sectarian attacks on Sunni villages, while
there are also increasing reports of sectarian attacks by militant Sunni
jihadists, many of whom regard the Shia and Alawites as heretics. In recent
days, a number of Shia shrines have been attacked and desecrated in rebel-held
territory, including the tombs of Ammar ibn Yasir in Raqqa and of Hujr bin Uday
al-Kindi near Damascus. Alawite leaders have openly called for Sunni areas to be
"cleansed" - coinciding with attacks by Alawite militias on civilian Sunni towns
near Baniyas which killed 300 people. The Muslim
Brotherhood, though a Sunni, Islamist movement that has given birth to a number
of jihadist offshoots, has been held up as a "moderating" force within Arab
Spring countries with which the West "can do business". Egypt has a Muslim
Brotherhood president, while the coalition government in Tunisia is led by a
Brotherhood-linked organisation backed by Dr Qaradawi. Dr Qaradawi
himself, who is Egyptian by birth but has lived in Qatar for many years and is
regarded as a key factor in the active role the Qatari royal family has played
in backing the Arab Spring uprisings with arms and money, has a controversial
record in the West. However, his latest comments, made in a mosque in Qatar on
Friday, go beyond his previous political sermons. He himself acknowledged he had
become more radical. "People involved in reconciliation between the sects...
said that I used to be the one calling for reconciliation and doctrinal unity.
They asked why I don't take up that call again. "Well, I called for
reconciliation but I found it did not bring the sects closer. They benefited
from it and we failed to take advantage." He also apologized for his past words
in favor of Hizbollah. "The Shia deceived me," he said. "I was less mature than
the Sunni scholars who were aware of the truth of that party." He said Sunni
Muslims around the world should not wait for the West to help the rebel cause
against the "Nusayris", the Iranians and "the party of God". "They are the party
of Satan, the party of the tyrant," he said. "The party of God does not kill
Muslims, and these people draw close to God by killing Muslims." The war in
Syria has split the region largely along sectarian lines, with Sunni Gulf and
North African states largely supporting the rebels, and Shia Iran and Shia
communities in Lebanon and Iraq supporting the regime. The city of
Tripoli in northern Lebanon has already seen fighting between Sunni and Alawite
districts, while there has been a rise in sectarian violence in Iraq where many
Sunnis have tribal links to Syria but the government represents the majority
Shia community and is close to Iran. June 3….(DEBKA) “Syrian batteries
are in a high state of operability, ready to fire at short notice,” said Israel
Air Force Colonel Zvika Haimovich in special briefings to international media
Friday. He disclosed that Israel tracks every missile fired in the Syrian civil
war, since southward launches would give Israel mere seconds to determine it was
not the true target. “All it would take is a few degrees’ change in the flight
path to endanger us.” Speaking at the Palmachim air and missile base south of
Tel Aviv, Col. Haimovich explained that long-range radars feed real-time data on
the barrages to the base command where officers are braced to activate Arrow II.
The more threatening launches set off sirens in Palmachim. Warplanes there are
also on standby to scramble. “We are looking
at all aspects, from the performance of weaponry to the way the Syrians use it,"
said the Israeli air force officer. “They have used everything that I am aware
exists in their missile and rocket arsenal [against Syrian rebel forces]. They
are improving all the time, and so are we, but we need to study and be
prepared.” Another
Israeli expert, speaking on condition of anonymity, described a combination of
split-second analysis of the strength of the launch with up-to-date intelligence
on Bashar Assad's intentions. He said Israel had beefed up its deployment to
more than four nationwide batteries, to allow for repeated interception of any
incoming missile. The intention is “to ensure that we have at least two
opportunities to intercept. We have not yet been called into action on the
northern front, but I believe that we will be," said this officer. In
Washington, Pentagon sources reported that the United States was sending Patriot
missile defense systems and F-16 fighter jets to Jordan for the annual joint
Eager Lion exercise between the two armies. The sources did not say whether the
Patriots and fighter jets would withdraw after the two-month exercise. The US
officials pointed out that the Patriots would not shield Jordan from Syrian
Scuds, but were a demonstration of US support for the Hashemite kingdom. At the
same time, Debkafile’s military sources report a high degree of operational
coordination between the US Patriot deployments in Jordan and Turkey and the
Israeli Arrow 2 preparedness for a potential missile attack which could come
from Iran, Syria, Lebanon or the Gaza Strip. Another
component of this missile shield is the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System
aboard US warships in the Mediterranean. Moscow, for
its part, continues to sow confusion about the delivery of its S-300 anti-air
missile batteries to Syria, but has shown its hand on another issue, by blocking
a UN Security Council motion that would have condemned Hizballah. Tabled under
the heading of “a declaration of alarm over Qusayr” the Council was asked to
express “grave concern” over the dire events in that town since Hizballah forces
fighting with the Syrian army captured most of its urban area. Our military
sources report heavy fighting is raging in the northern sector of al Qusayr
since the rebels brought in reinforcements for their last stand late last week.
A Hizballah siege force has cut off food and water supplies for the 10,000
civilians and 2,500 opposition fighters trapped in that corner of the town. At
least 1.200 wounded people are without access to medical attention. Moscow
claimed it blocked a Security Council motion on al Qusayr because there was no
UN condemnation when the Syrian rebels captured the town in 2012. For Israel,
the Russian UN action is of great concern because it amounts to the extension of
Moscow’s patronage not just to the Assad regime but also to Hizballah which
spearheaded the al Qusayr offensive. This is consistent with the pledges of
support Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov gave Hizballah leader
Hassan Nasrallah during their secret conversation in Beirut on April 27. When
questioned on this score, Russian diplomats were evasive, in the same way as
they are ambiguous about the S-300 missiles. However Moscow’s Security Council
action leaves no room for doubt that Hizballah’s military intervention in the
Syrian war has won a powerful champion in Moscow. June 3….(CNN)
For Southern Baptist pastor Tim Reed, it was Scripture versus the Scouts. “God’s
word explicitly says homosexuality is a choice, a sin,” said Reed, pastor of
First Baptist Church of Gravel Ridge in Jacksonville, Arkansas. So when the Boy
Scouts of America voted to lift its ban on openly gay youths on May 24, Reed
said the church had no choice but to cut its charter with Troop 542. “It’s not a
hate thing here,” Reed told CNN affiliate Fox 16. “It’s a moral stance we must
take as a Southern Baptist church.” Southern Baptist leaders say Reed is not
alone. Baptist churches sponsor nearly 4,000 Scout units representing more than
100,000 youths, according to the Boy Scouts of America. That number could drop
precipitously. The Southern
Baptist Convention, the country’s largest Protestant denomination, will soon
urge its 45,000 congregations and 16 million members to cut ties with the
Scouts, according to church leaders. The denomination will vote on nonbinding
but influential resolutions during a convention June 11-12 in Houston. “There’s
a 100% chance that there will be a resolution about disaffiliation at the
convention,” said Richard Land, the longtime head of the Southern Baptists’
Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, “and a 100% chance that 99% of people
will vote for it.” “Southern Baptists are going to be leaving the Boy Scouts en
masse,” Land continued. Roger “Sing” Oldham, a spokesman for the Southern
Baptist Convention, emphasized that local congregations make their own decision
on the Scouts. But he, too, said he expects Baptist delegates, which the church
calls “messengers,” to voice their disagreement with the BSA's decision to allow
gay youths. “With this policy change, the Boy Scouts’ values are
contradictory to the basic values of our local churches,” Oldham said. Several
religious groups with strong Scouting ties support the new policy. “We have
heard from both those who support the amended policy and those who would have
preferred it would not have changed,” said BSA spokesman Deron Smith.
Faith-based organizations charter more than 70% of Scout chapters, providing
meeting space and leadership, according to the BSA. “There have been some
organizations that have decided not to renew their charters with Scouting," said
Smith, "but we can’t quantify the impact of the amended policy." The National
Jewish Committee on Scouting, the United Church of Christ, the Episcopal Church,
the Unitarian Universalist Association and the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints, which sponsors more Scout units than any other faith, all
endorsed the change. The National Catholic Committee on Scouting, which is
run with oversight from a bishop, said Thursday that allowing gay youths in the
Scouts does not conflict with church teaching. Each bishop will decide
whether or not to allow churches in his diocese to charter Scout units, the
committee added. “We ask that Catholic Scouters and chartered organization heads
not rush to judgment,” said Edward Martin, chairman of the National Catholic
Committee on Scouting. John
Stemberger, founder of On My Honor, a group that opposed the Scouts’ change in
policy, plans to convene conservatives in Louisville, Kentucky, in June to
consider forming a new Scout-like group, which could be up and running by the
end of 2013. “Churches and Scoutmasters are looking for leadership and
direction,” said Stemberg, an attorney in Orlando, Florida. A number of
conservative religious denominations already sponsor their own groups. For
instance, the Southern Baptists have the Royal Ambassadors, an explicitly
Christian program founded in 1908 for boys in first through sixth grade. (A
similar group called Challengers equips older boys in “mission education.”) The
name comes from the New Testament, in which the Apostle Paul tells Christians to
be “ambassadors for Christ.” The estimated
31,000 Royal Ambassadors pledge to become a well-informed, responsible follower
of Christ; to have a Christlike concern for all people; to learn how to carry
the message of Christ around the world; to work with others in sharing Christ;
and to keep myself clean and healthy in mind and body." While not as outdoorsy
as the Boy Scouts, Ambassadors do camp and play sports, said Land, who was a
member of the group during the 1950s. But instead of merit badges for archery
and bird study, young Ambassadors earn patches for memorizing Bible verses and
mission work. Southern
Baptists said they are preparing for a surge of interest in the Royal
Ambassadors at their upcoming convention in Houston. “We really have an
opportunity here to strengthen our RA programs,” the Rev. Ernest Easley,
chairman of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee, said in a
sermon last Sunday, “and to get the boys in a program where they’re going to be
protected, where there’s a high moral standard and where they will have an
opportunity to learn about camping, missions, evangelism in the local church.” June
3….(Jerusalem Post) More than 16 rockets were fired from Syria into Lebanon
early Saturday morning landing in the Bekaa Valley region, the Lebanese Daily
Star quoted a security source as saying. There were no injuries in the attacks,
according to the report, but a rocket did cause a fire to break out near the
town of Sireen al-Fawqa. The Daily Star quoted Lebanese state media as reporting
that four Syrians had been arrested in connection with the rocket attacks. In
addition to the rocket attacks, a Shi'ite shrine in the Bekaa Valley was also
shot at and damaged by armed gunmen on Saturday, the Daily Star reported. The
hostilities came as Lebanon has been increasingly pulled into Syria's civil war
with several thousand Hezbollah operatives from the country backing Syrian
President Bashar Assad's fight against opposition forces. On Sunday, two rockets
hit a Shi'te Muslim district of southern Beirut, wounding several people. It was
the first attack to apparently target Hezbollah's stronghold in the south of the
Lebanese capital since the outbreak of the two-year conflict in neighboring
Syria, which has sharply heightened Lebanon's own sectarian tensions. Sunday's
rocket strikes came hours after Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said
his fighters were committed to backing Assad in Syria's conflict whatever the
cost. Russia
Activates Nuclear Submarines in Southern Seas June
3….(Reuters) Russia plans to resume nuclear submarine patrols in the
southern seas after a hiatus of more than 20 years following the break-up of the
Soviet Union, Itar-Tass news agency reported on Saturday, in another example of
efforts to revive Moscow's military. The plan to send Borei-class submarines,
designed to carry 16 long-range nuclear missiles, to the southern hemisphere
follows President Vladimir Putin's decision in March to deploy a naval unit in
the Mediterranean Sea on a permanent basis starting this year. "The revival of
nuclear submarine patrols will allow us to fulfill the tasks of strategic
deterrence not only across the North Pole but also the South Pole," state-run
Itar-Tass cited an unnamed official in the military General Staff as saying. Putin has
stressed the importance of a strong and agile military since returning to the
presidency last May. In 13 years in power, he has often cited external threats
when talking of the need for a reliable armed forces and Russian political
unity. Fears of a nuclear confrontation between Russia and the United States had
eased in recent years, and the Cold War-era foes signed a landmark treaty in
2010 setting lower limits on the size of their long-range nuclear arsenals. But
the limited numbers of warheads and delivery vehicles such as submarines that
they committed to under the New START treaty are still enough to devastate the
world. Putin has made clear Russia will continue to upgrade its arsenal.
Russia's land-launched Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs) would fly
over the northern part of the globe, as would those fired from submarines in the
northern hemisphere.
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