May 2013
9 posts
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The real reason the Syrian uprising is a Zionist...
We do not regard this uprising/ insurrection to be a Zionist one solely on account of Israeli and Syrian opposition figures’ open love for one another. Nor is it solely on account of the Zionist state’s official support for this opposition and their shared interests in toppling the Assad government and destroying the Syrian Arab Republic.. What really makes this a Zionist uprising is...
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Excerpts on Syria from Seyyid Hassan Nasrallah's...
“On the latest Israeli aggression on Syria:
Unfortunately, the Israelis talked of their “enemy’s enemy” and “friend’s friend”. Isn’t the Israeli enemy the benchmark? Isn’t this rudimentary? This is part of our Islamic lexicon.
Of course there were objectives behind Israel’s attacks which it sought to realize. I want to define this reality so I can discuss the nature of the [Syrian] response...
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Because Seyyid Hassan is real and true
Over and above the sense of empowerment, security and much needed assurance people in our political camp derive from Seyyid Hassan’s speeches— especially at strategically critical times as these— another important reason so many of us eagerly await his speeches is a very personal/emotional one: when so many of our former political heroes have fallen from grace, so many...
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The many ironies of the Syrian opposition
So let’s see if I understood this correctly: when the US reluctantly declares its intent to NOT intervene in the transitional process and allow Syrians to decide that process for themselves, it is an imperialist power serving its own agenda. As such, the Syrian opposition is begging for “assurances” that its patron will continue to intervene politically and/or militarily, in...
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Seyyid Hassan's speech and my dentist's assistant
If there is any consolation to raising one’s kids in a country which is perpetually on the brink of civil war, is constantly subject to Israeli invasion and aggression, suffers from periodic terrorist attacks, FSA rocket fire and continuous power cuts, it’s the ability to urge your dentist’s assistant to not to laugh at you because you wish to reschedule your daughter’s...
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When protesting against Zionist aggression is a...
AFP reports that a PFLP rally held in Gaza, protesting Israel’s strikes on Syria, was violently dispersed today by Hamas’ police force. Hamas’ security forces beat the protesters with batons after ordering them to disperse the rally within 2 minutes. 3 protesters were injured and taken to hospital. So this is the new Hamas—solidarity with the Syrian people in the face of...
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Am surprised AFP still quote me considering how regularly I trash them on this blog:
“Hezbollah has already declared that it is operational and active in Qusayr” in central Syria, Hezbollah expert Amal Saad-Ghorayeb told AFP.
“The Iranians have admitted in the past that they have advisers there and yesterday we heard them say they were ready to train the Syrians… the...
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Syrian opposition activists heart Israel
Israeli media delights in how Zionist-friendly Syria’s opposition is: “I don’t like Israel, there’s no question about that,” wrote one Damascus-based Twitter commentator … But right now, all I do is fight for a free Syria.” “It is still my enemy, no argument. But when an enemy does a neat job, I admit it.” A blogger from Homs who goes by the name of Kendeeel reported that his friend...
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April 2013
2 posts
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Hizbullah's role in Syria is a defense of its...
When the same resistance that fought and defeated the Zionist enemy in 2006 becomes militarily engaged in Syria, this only confirms the fact that this is not a “revolution” against the Syrian “regime” but a war on the Syrian Arab Republic and the Resistance Axis of which it is part. This war is an extension of the July War, and it is no coincidence that it is backed by the...
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I want to go to there, to that Syrian...
I am trying to refrain from using any expletives in my reaction to this petition on Syria signed by comprador intellectuals, colonized Arabs, and of course intellectuals of the western liberal, saviour-complex ilk. So instead, I am simply going to confine myself to my favourite Liz Lemmon, from 30 Rock, line—“I want to go to there”. Indeed, I want to go to this revolutionary...
March 2013
33 posts
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It is not a war between two sides in Syria
There is no greater distortion of reality than to portray the war in Syria as one fought between two warring sides. There are no two sides inside Syria; there is simply Syria and the enemies of Syria. As such, when we call for a dialogue between “the two sides” we are not referring to the two sides of Syria, or two camps within Syria, as though there were some political or moral parity...
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A Damascus University student's tribute to the...
I just read these very moving words written by a student blogger who recently graduated from Damascus University’s School of Architecture: ” [Who] Will tell the world about the students who had to leave so early because the US and its Arab and Turkish allies thought we don’t have democracy.. We had democracy when me and my friends of all sects sat on this table every day, spoke about...
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The war in Syria is one big false flag op
Reports like this just make me want to face palm myself until I turn blue. So apparently, this entire war has been one big false flag op launched by the Syrian govt. When massacres are committed in Alawite areas, they are committed by the regime to discredit the rebels. When pro-regime figures like Sheikh al-Bouti are assassinated, the culprit is always the regime, which is trying...
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Back on Twitter.....for now
Can’t promise that i will last there very long, as I customarily deactivate, but I am now on twitter as ASG. I will mostly be linking stuff from the blog, and will keep interaction with haters to a minimum because its too time consuming. You can follow me here: https://twitter.com/ASG_tweets
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“Only after witnessing today’s spectacle in Doha can one properly visualize...”
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Sectarianism is the new moderation
Bet you didn’t know that sectarianism is the new moderation. Note how neither AP nor media which carried this story put quotation marks around the word “moderates”, but are all too eager to do so when referring to “terrorists”. Apparently, when suicide bombs, car bombs, summary executions, beheadings and rape are systematically perpetrated by the rebels against...
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“So the Arab League is transferring Syria’s seat to the opposition....”
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So the real problem is that Hizbullah hates Sunnis
Surprise, surprise, mainstream media has launched an incredibly dangerous and irresponsible campaign to depict Mikati’s resignation in sectarian terms. A case in point is this report from Sky News: ” He stepped down on Friday in part as a protest over Hezbollah’s refusal to extend the tenure of the country’s police chief, Maj Gen Ashraf Rifi…Mr Rifi, like Mr Mikati,...
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The politics of labelling in Syria
Another pervasive tendency in mainstream media is to call Syrian opposition supporters “anti-regime activists”, while calling their counterparts “regime supporters”. This labelling misrepresents the much broader political ambitions of the “regime supporters” who may or may not support the government per se, but are united by a fear for their lives, the...
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Happy Mother[land]'s Day to Syria, Palestine and...
Mother’s Day got me thinking how it is no accident that the Arabic and Latin based languages refer to the nation as a she, and depict it in maternal terms such as the “motherland” and “mother country”, due to the very obvious association with birth, origins and blood ties. But their there is also a psychosocial explanation for this: even as adults, individuals...
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The myth of the Syrian opposition--the latest in...
Both the designation of the US citizen, Ghassan Hitto as “interim Prime Minister” by the SNC, and Aron Lund’s myth-shattering report “The Free Syrian Army Doesn’t Exist”, make it increasingly clear that the Syrian opposition (and by Syrian opposition I mean the FSA and the Syrian National Coalition) today is little more than a PR stunt engineered by the US & allies and sustained by corporate...
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Why intellectuals in our camp are proud to lose...
Nothing is sillier than when Syrian opposition activists declare that intellectuals in our anti-imperialist camp have “lost credibility” or are “pseudo-intellectual” or “shabiha” or “Hizbullah groupie” or whatever other label that suggests we are not neutral, expecting us to be insulted. When will they ever learn that when we lose the approval of the oppressors of this world, which they call...
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March 15: the anniversary that marks the loss of...
Nothing is more absurd, disturbing and disillusioning as marking as “the anniversary of the Syrian revolution” the same date which signaled the wholesale destruction of the Syrian state; the fratricide that has resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of people; the rise of Salafi-Takfiri terrorist groups and sectarian militias; the end of communal coexistence; the violation of a...
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Why the UK and France are allowed sovereignty but...
Aside from the shameless hypocrisy of the British and French decision to arm the foreign and local terrorists and executioners in Syria, aka, “Syrian rebels” or “resistance fighters” as they are now officially called, another stomach-churning aspect of this joint announcement is the language French and British leaders used to justify their intent to violate the EU arms ban. When asked yesterday if...
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UK and France ready to arm rebels to halt...
The old colonial powers stage a comeback: the UK and France, whose sovereignty doesn’t rely on the approval of other nations, according to its FM (in contradistinction to anti-imperialist nations’ like Syria whose sovereignty can only be determined by western powers it seems) are in a huge rush to arm Salafi Takfiri and Wahhabi terrorists and just plain old sectarian executioners. You...
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Understanding support for Chavez and Nasrallah
I was watching some old clips of Chavez supporters discussing why they were going to vote for him in the October elections. Aside from their expected responses about social justice and equality, the underlying theme which resonated widely was how he was “the only one” who cared for their plight and how this was “the first time” any leader did so. In other words, there was a general awareness...
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A response to Angry Arab on Chavez's foreign...
Third Wayer par excellence, As’ad Abu Khalil writes “It is important for Arabs to remember that Chavez supported the Ba`thist tyrants of Syria and Iraq.” I say it is important for Angry Arab to remember that those of us he is reminding, support Chavez BECAUSE of his strategic alliance with Bashar al-Assad et al, rather than in spite of them. What is lost on the Western liberal...
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Allahu Akbar Chavez!
As I watched the funeral of El Comandante, while fighting goose-bumps , I just wanted to yell out the loudest and most passionate, agnostic, Marxist, Allahu Akbar. Allahu Akbar Comandante Chavez! You exude more power in death than in life. You are la revolucion and the Muqawama in one. You are the exemplary Gramscian organic intellectual whose counter hegemonic leadership and rootedness in the...
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Hugo Chávez's final words: 'I don't want to die' →
This quote makes my heart ache: “He couldn’t speak but he said it with his lips … ‘I don’t want to die. Please don’t let me die,’ because he loved his country, he sacrificed himself for his country,” General Jose Ornella said.” I hope General Jose reassured him that his legacy to the oppressed and free of this world will immortalize him in our hearts...
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De-democratizing Chavez
The Empire’s attempts to diminish Chavez’s stature are not confined to its absurd reference to his rule as a “dictatorship”, despite Carter’s affirmation that the “Election Process in Venezuela is the Best in the World.” This de-eulogizing campaign carried out by human rights organizations and mainstream media also operates in other, more subtle ways, such...
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Hizbullah's tribute to Hugo Chavez
Hizbullah’s media office issued a statement on Hugo Chavez’s death which I have translated below:
It is with great sadness that we received news of the passing of the Venezuelan President, Hugo Chavez. Along with the free world and the oppressed of the world, we lost a dear friend …who spent his entire life standing beside the downtrodden and oppressed, and who boldly defended the...
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“They say we shouldn’t idolize our leaders and that personality cults are...”
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Because he is Syria's President Assad
No matter how much they try to distort reality by normalizing a new discourse where terrorists, mercenaries and criminals become “rebels” and/or “the resistance”, where servile traitors who beg the US for arms become “opposition activists”, where intellectuals on Qatar’s payroll become the “legitimate representatives” of the Syrian people,...
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Who is more "detached from reality", Assad or...
One of the strategies in the information warfare against Syria is the psycho-pathologization and infantilization of Assad as detached from reality/delusional, irrational and irresponsible. There are abundant examples of the employment of this strategy, not only against the Syrian president, but against all members of the resistance axis (I will be writing a series of articles on this soon). It...
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Hala Jaber's interview with President Assad for...
My friend Hala Jaber conducted this interview with president Bashar al-Assad for the Sunday Times. Since both the full transcript of the interview and the shorter summary are unavailable to non-subscribers, I am reproducing the full transcript of the interview from today’s piece with some excerpts from the summarized version the Times released yesterday, which I have added at the beginning...
February 2013
12 posts
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A Marxist scientific analysis of the concept of...
Much has been written about what a misnomer it is to call the Syrian uprising-cum-proxy war a “revolution”. However, many [pseudo] leftists in the opposition camp insist that our labeling of their movement as counter-revolutionary is simply an emotionally-informed opinion and not a scientific analysis. I challenge any leftist supporter of the opposition to deconstruct the concept of revolution...
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Abbas and Hamas agree to ban armed resistance
Nobody has any delusions about Abbas’ Zionist- collaborator status, but we have a reached a point in the struggle with imperialism/Zionism whereby traitors like him don’t even try to sugar-coat a policy of surrender with euphemisms like “hudna” any more, but boldly declare “Armed resistance is banned,” and that Hamas has signed on to this policy in Gaza too. Nobody can deny...
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Israel, the Syrian uprising and use of the concept...
An op-ed today in al-Akhbar referred to Israel as “the enemy” in Arabic. Although use of this term to describe Israel was once very common in Arab popular parlance and in local media, its use in this context has significantly decreased since the Syrian uprising. Once a term reserved almost exclusively to Israel, the concept of the enemy from without has been fast replaced by the enemy from...
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They are "rebels" not "terrorists" according to...
‘The bombing, blamed on “terrorists” by both the regime and its opponents…The attack was “carried out by armed terrorist groups linked to Al-Qaeda that receive financial and logistic help from abroad,” the foreign ministry said, using government terminology for rebels.’ You read that people? According to AFP, the Syrian Foreign Ministry is clearly using...
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On intellectuals who can't keep it real
I was chatting with an old student the other day who is currently doing his MA thesis. He described his thesis supervisor as someone who is “great politically,” though “only in private.” Nothing insults my intelligence more than this oxymoronic phrase. So often I have heard how much Third Way intellectuals, who oppose the opposition but call for Assad’s overthrow, secretly support the Assad...
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Excerpts from Nasrallah's speech today
Some highlights I translated from Seyyid Hassan Nasrallah’s speech today on the occasion of the annual commemoration for the Resistance’s leaders:
Whoever thinks that because Syria is embroiled in a bloody struggle and therefore it cannot be part of any confrontation that might occur with the Israeli enemy, Syria that was a support during the July War is now preoccupied with its...
