Palestinian Information Center – January 11, 2025
Israeli genocidal war on Gaza enters day 463
In the midst of catastrophic humanitarian suffering for more than two million Palestinians — half of them children, the Israeli occupation army continued, for the 463rd consecutive day, to pound and target different areas and massacre more civilians in the Gaza Strip, especially in the northern areas.
Reporters for the Palestinian Information Center (PIC) said on Saturday that the Israeli occupation army carried out attacks on several homes, civilian targets and shelter centers in different areas of Gaza during the past 24 hours, killing and injuring dozens of citizens.
The Israeli army’s large-scale genocidal campaign in northern Gaza, especially in Jabalia and Beit Lahia, has entered day 99, where its forces continue to intensively bomb homes and shelters and attack civilians while imposing a tight siege on the entire area.
Deliberate Israeli attacks on ambulance and civil defense workers already deprived northern Gaza of any rescue services.
Local sources said that eight citizens were martyred and 30 others were injured when the Israeli army bombed a school sheltering displaced families in Jabalia al-Balad in northern Gaza.
The Israeli army also bombed a house belonging to the family of al-Hayya in ash-Shuja’iya neighborhood in Gaza City, killing two people and injuring others.
Another Israeli strike in Khuza’a town, east of Khan Yunis in southern Gaza, killed a civilian and injured others.
A citizen was also killed and two others were injured when an Israeli warplane bombed an apartment near al-Kanz Mosque in al-Rimal neighborhood, west of Gaza City.
More casualties were reported in other areas of Gaza following Israeli aerial, artillery and shooting attacks last night and today.
In a related context, the health ministry said on Saturday that the Israeli army committed five massacres in different areas of the Gaza Strip during the past 24 hours, and killed and injured at least 225 civilians, while a large number of victims are still under the rubble of bombed buildings or lying on roads.
https://english.palinfo.com/news/2025/01/11/332055/
Middle East Monitor – January 11, 2025
Israel destroyed Gaza for Generations to come, and the World stayed Silent
By Ramzy Baroud
(ﾠMiddle East Monitorﾠ) – The first official reference to Gaza becoming increasingly uninhabitable was made by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in 2012, when the population of the Gaza Strip was estimated at 1.8 million inhabitants.
The intention of the report, “The Gaza Strip: The Economic Situation and the Prospects for Development,” was not merely to prophesise, but to warn that if the world continued to stand idle in the face of theﾠongoing blockade on Gaza, a humanitarian catastrophe was imminent.
Yet, little was done, though the UN continued with its countdown, increasing the frequency and urgency of its warnings, especially following major wars.
Another report in 2015 from UNCTAD statedﾠthat the Gaza crisis had intensified following the most destructive war to that date, the year before. The war had destroyed hundreds of factories, thousands of homes and displaced tens of thousands of people.
By 2020, though, based on the criteria set by the UN, Gaza should have become ‘uninhabitable’. Yet, little was done to remedy the crisis. The population grew rapidly, while resources, including Gaza’s land mass, shrank due to the ever-expanding Israeli ‘buffer zone’. The prospects for the “world’s largest open-air prison” became even dimmer.
Yet, the international community did little to heed the call of UNCTAD and other UN and international institutions. The humanitarian crisis – situated within a prolonged political crisis, a siege, repeated wars and daily violence – worsened, reaching, on 7 October, 2023, the point of implosion.
One wonders if the world had paid even the slightest attention to Gaza and the cries of people trapped behind walls, barbed wire and electric fences, whether the current war and genocide could have been avoided.
It is all moot now. The worst-case scenario has actualised in a way that even the most pessimistic estimates by Palestinian, Arab, or international groups could not have foreseen.
Not only is Gaza now beyond “uninhabitable”, but, according to Greenpeace, it will be “uninhabitable for generations to come”. This does not hinge on the resilience of Palestinians in Gaza, whose legendary steadfastness is hardly disputed. However, there are essential survival needs that even the strongest people cannot replace with their mere desire to survive.
In just the first 120 days of war, “staggering” carbon emissions were estimated at 536,410 tonnes of carbon dioxide. Ninety per cent of that deadly pollution was “attributed to Israel’s air bombardment and ground invasion,” according to Greenpeace, which concluded that the total sum of carbon emissions “is greater than the annual carbon footprint of many climate-vulnerable nations.”
A report issued around the same time by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) painted an equally frightening picture of what was taking place in Gaza as a direct result of the war. “Water and sanitation have collapsed,” it declared last June. “Coastal areas, soil, and ecosystems have been severely impacted,” it continued.
But that was over seven months ago, when parts of Gaza were still standing. Now, almost all of Gaza has been destroyed. Garbage has been piling up for 15 months without a single facility to process it efficiently. Disease is widespread, and all hospitals have either been destroyed in the bombings, burned to the ground, or bulldozed. Many of the sick are dying in their tents without ever seeing a doctor.
Without any outside assistance, it was only natural for the disaster to worsen. Last December, Medecins Sans Frontieres issued a report titled “Gaza: Life in a Death Trap“. The report, a devastating read, describes the state of medical infrastructure in Gaza, which can be summed up in a single word: non-existent.
Israel has attacked 512 healthcare facilities between October 2023 and September 2024, killing over 1,000 healthcare workers. This means that a population is trying to survive during one of the harshest wars ever recorded, without any serious medical attention. This includes nearly half a million people suffering from various mental health disorders.
By December, Gaza’s Government Media Office reported that there are an estimated 23 million tonnes of debris resulting from the dropping of 75,000 tonnes of explosives – in addition to other forms of destruction. This has released 281,000 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide into the air.
Once the war is over, Gaza will be rebuilt. Though Palestinian sumud (steadfastness) is capable of restoring Gaza to its former self, however long it takes, a study conducted by Queen Mary University in the UK said that, for the destroyed structures to be rebuilt, an additional 60 million tonnes of CO2 will be released into an already severely impacted environment.
In essence, this means that even after the devastating war on Gaza ends and the rebuilding of the Strip concludes, the ecological and environmental harm that Israel has caused will remain for many years to come.
It is baffling that the very Western countries, which speak tirelessly about environmental protection, preservation and warning against carbon emissions, are the same entities that helped sustain the war on Gaza, either through arming Israel or remaining silent in the face of the ongoing atrocities.
The price of this hypocrisy is the enduring suffering of millions of people and the devastation of their environment. Isn’t it time for the world to wake up and collectively declare: enough is enough?
The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.
Palestinian Information Center – January 11, 2025
Gaza health official: 4,500 amputation cases recorded since beginning of Israeli genocide
An official in the Palestinian Ministry of Health (MoH) has announced that 4,500 cases of amputation in upper and lower limbs have been registered in the Gaza Strip since the start of the ongoing genocide committed by Israel for the 16th month running.
Director of the health information unit at the ministry, Zaher Al-Wahidi, announced on Friday that 4,500 cases of amputation have been recorded up to the end of 2024 as a result of the continuous Israeli massive attack on the Strip.
Al-Wahidi explained that 800 Palestinian children and 540 women were among the amputees, adding that these figures reflect the scale of the humanitarian disaster faced by the Palestinian people, especially the most vulnerable groups: children and women.
Doctors and governmental officials expected that the number of amputation cases, especially among children, will be twice the number announced, pointing out that the ongoing Israeli attack and destruction of civilian facilities make it impossible to issue accurate statistics.
“The numbers are likely to rise as the genocide continues, increasing the pressure on the health system, which is already suffering from a shortage of medical supplies due to the continuing blockade imposed on the Strip for more than 18 years,” al-Wahdi said.
He called on the international community to act urgently to stop the Israeli violations and ensure the protection of Palestinian citizens, affirming that the health sector is in urgent need of medical and humanitarian support.
Meanwhile, the UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini described the tragic situation of Gaza children as a “disability pandemic”, highlighting the lack of prostheses, psychological, and physical rehabilitation centers.
Last October, Lisa Dutton, official of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, labeled Gaza as “home to the largest group of amputee children in modern history.”
At the time, Dutton quoted the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees as saying that 10 children in Gaza lose one or both legs every day as a result of genocide.
A number of prosthetic limbs are provided as part of relief assistance from countries and medical delegations sent to the enclave.
Throughout the Israeli ongoing attack, the Sheikh Hamad Prosthetics Hospital, the only hospital specializing in prosthetics and rehabilitation in the Strip, has been targeted and put out of service, according to MoH.
Since the beginning of the genocide, Israel has been targeting the health sector in Gaza, bombing and besieging hospitals and ordering their evacuation, in addition to banning the entry of medical supplies, especially in northern Gaza, invaded once again last October.
Backed by America, Israel has been carrying out a genocide in the Gaza Strip since October 2023, killing and injuring more than 153,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children. More than 11,000 Palestinians went missing, while dozens of children and elders were starved to death.
Israel continues its massacres, discarding the two arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court on the 21st of November, 2024 for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Army Minister Yoav Galant for committing war crimes and crimes against humanity in the enclave.
https://english.palinfo.com/reports/2025/01/11/332042/
Informed Comment – January 11, 2025
Palestinian Deaths from Military attacks in Gaza 69% Higher than Estimate
d, 60% Women, Children, Elderly
Juan Cole
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – A team of researchers at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Yale has published a study in The Lancetﾠfinding that the Gaza Ministry of Health substantially underestimated war deaths in Gaza. Casualties were 69% higher than reported.
The current estimate by the Ministry of Health for Palestinians killed by Israeli weaponry in their total war on Gaza is 46,000. The Lancet study suggests the true number today is closer to 70,000.
Researchers said that they used data from the Palestinian Ministry of Health hospital records, a Ministry of Health online survey, and obituaries that appeared on social media to estimate the true number of deaths between October 7, 2023, and June 30, 2024.
The researchers then used statistical models to look at the overlap between these sources. After combining the results, they calculated the estimated total deaths during this period. They then compared age- and sex-specific death rates with those from 2022. This method has been used successfully in other conflict zones.
The team estimated 64,260 deaths due to traumatic injury (i.e. by military weaponry) during the study period, October – June. The Ministry of Health estimate at that time was 37,877 (that is, the actual number was 69% higher)
AFP interviewed Patrick Ball, a sociologist of human rights on whose doctoral committee I served years ago, about the method. He has used it to estimate deaths in conflicts “in Guatemala, Kosovo, Peru and Colombia.” AFP writes that he told the agency that “the well-tested technique had been used for centuries and that the researchers had reached ‘a good estimate’ for Gaza.”
Women, minors under 18, and the elderly over 65 comprised 59.1% of those killed militarily, or 28,257 deaths among those for whom sex and age information was known.
It should be pointed out that only a small number of military-age men were members of the paramilitary al-Qassam Brigades or the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, so that the percentage of innocent civilians among the dead is much higher than 59%.
In the U.S. Afghanistan war, the Watson Institute at Brown estimated that some 271,000 people were killed, including 71,344 civilians. That would indicate that 29.6% of those killed were innocent civilians. Over-all, the civilian kill ratio is most wars is 30% to 50%, so the Israeli military in Gaza is clearly much more brutal than the norm.
The researchers found peaks of deaths in the first three months of the Gaza War, in autumn 2023. This was a time when we know that the Israeli air force dropped hundreds of 2000-lb. bombs on residential complexes. A United Nations study found that in many of these attacks, no clear military target was visible.
The casualties spiked again in June, during the Israeli campaign against Rafah, which the Biden administration and the International Court of Justice had forbidden as a red line because it was the last part of the Gaza Strip that still had the urban infrastructure to keep people alive and healthy. The Israelis razed it and expelled its inhabitants, many of them being displaced for a third or fourth time, to already-destroyed neighborhoods in the center.
The team found that deaths were under-reported by 41% by the Ministry of Health. Most of the newspaper reporting misunderstood this way of stating the statistic. What they found was that casualties were 59% more numerous than the Ministry of Health reported.
The study only treated deaths from military actions and weaponry (“traumatic”) deaths. Last July, the Lancet published an estimate that as of that moment, 186,000 Palestinians in Gaza would die over time because of infectious diseases, exposure, and lack of water and food, as a result of Israeli strategy and tactics. That number is surely much higher now.
Juan Cole is the founder and chief editor of Informed Comment. He is Richard P. Mitchell Professor of History at the University of Michigan He is author of, among many other books, Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires and The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam.
https://www.juancole.com/2025/01/palestinian-military-estimated.html
Al Mayadeen – January 11, 2025
Israeli forces death toll rises to seven amid intensified Gaza clashes
Israeli media reported that a powerful explosive device detonated inside a tunnel in Gaza early in the day, resulting in the initial fatalities.
Earlier today, the Israeli Occupation Force admitted to the deaths of two soldiers and the injury of 30 others during battles in Gaza. Subsequent reports now reveal that the toll has risen, with seven Israeli soldiers confirmed dead and 30 others evacuated due to injuries, including 11 in serious or critical condition.
Israeli media reported that a powerful explosive device detonated inside a tunnel in Gaza early in the day, resulting in the initial fatalities. The total number of Israeli soldiers killed since October 2023 has now reached 831, according to Israeli reports.
International scrutiny mounts
In addition to these developments, Israeli forces have faced mounting international scrutiny. Reports surfaced of Israeli troops opening fire on a UN World Food Programme (WFP) convoy in central Gaza earlier in the week, despite the convoy having received prior clearance from Israeli occupation authorities. The WFP condemned the attack, describing it as "unacceptable" and calling for improved security conditions to allow aid operations to continue safely. Fortunately, none of the WFP staff were injured, though 16 bullets reportedly struck the convoy.
Meanwhile, Israeli soldiers are also facing legal challenges abroad, with 12 war crimes investigations initiated since October 2023 in countries including Brazil, Sri Lanka, and Belgium. The Israeli military continues to advise soldiers under investigation to leave these countries to avoid legal repercussions.
https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/israeli-forces-death-toll-rises-to-seven-amid-intensified-ga
Countercurrents – January 11, 2025
203 Palestinian Journalists Killed in Israeli Assaults Since Start of Gaza Genocide
Gaza (Quds News Network)- 203 Palestinian journalists have been killed in Israeli attacks since the start of the ongoing Israeli genocidal war in Gaza, according to Gaza’s Government Media Office.
The last victim was journalist Sa’ed al-Nabhan who was killed after being shot directly by an Israeli sniper while covering Israeli attacks in the Al-Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on Friday.
Palestinian journalist Sa’ed al-Nabhan was shot and killed by an Israeli sniper while covering Israeli attacks in central Gaza on Friday, making him the 203rd Palestinian journalist to be killed in Israeli assaults since the start of the ongoing genocide.
Gaza’s Government Media Office confirmed Sa’ed’s killing, stating that he is the 203rd Palestinian journalist killed in Israeli attacks since the start of the ongoing Israeli offensive.
The office also condemned Israel’s killings of journalists, calling on the international community and rights groups to condemn Israeli crimes and prosecute them in international courts.
What Happened?
The Israeli forces first surrounded an area in the Al-Jadeed Refugee Camp, located in al-Nuseirat camp in central Gaza, where many journalists were present, before targeting those in the area.
Footage from the scene shows a wounded individual being rushed out of a house on a stretcher with the help of aid workers.
Nearby, Sa’ed is seen trying to run while covering the attack with his equipment. At that moment, he is targeted by what appears to be a shot fired from a long-range rifle.
He then falls to the ground and lies motionless. People nearby struggle fearfully to approach him due to the threat of being targeted by Israeli bullets.
Anadolu Agency recognized him as its freelance cameraman.
Last month, Sa’ed performed the funeral prayer for his uncle, Khaled al-Nabhan, the Palestinian man who became widely known after a video showed him kissing the eyes of his slain granddaughter and calling her “soul of my soul”.
The office condemned Israel’s killings of journalists, calling on the international community and rights groups to condemn Israeli crimes and prosecute them in international courts.
“Bloody Year”
Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza has been considered the deadliest for journalists and media workers in the world in 30 years.
Critics accuse Israel – which banned foreign reporters from entering Gaza – of targeting journalists in the Palestinian territory to obscure the truth about its war crimes there.
“Deliberately targeting journalists is a war crime under international law. This attack must be independently investigated and the perpetrators must be held to account,” Programme Director at Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Carlos Martinez de la, said.
In a recent report, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) described 2024 as a “particularly bloody year.”
According to the IFJ’s annual report, as of December 10, 2024, 104 journalists have been killed worldwide since January 1, with more than half of them in Gaza.
Seventy-five percent of all reporters killed in the world in 2023 were killed between October 7 and the end of last year.
IFJ Secretary General Anthony Bellanger described 2024 as “one of the worst years” for media professionals. He condemned the “massacre taking place in Palestine before the eyes of the entire world.”
In a separate report, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said Palestine is the most “dangerous country for journalists, recording a higher death toll than any other country over the past five years.” The report covers data up to December 1.
Yemen defies a year of US-UK-Zionist aggression in solidarity with Palestinians
By Musa Iqbal
Exactly a year ago, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, in a much-hyped move, announced a two-pronged military campaign to subdue and bully Yemen into submission.
A full year and numerous military adventures later, the dual military operations—“Prosperity Guardian” and “Poseidon Archer”—have proved to be catastrophic failures. Or perhaps more aptly, counterproductive fiascos.
The US, true to its reputation, schemed to disrupt and dismantle Yemen’s resistance efforts in solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza. Instead, they encountered a naval debacle unmatched since World War II.
Yemen’s resistance, led by the Arab country's military forces, began in late 2023 with precision air raids and attacks on vessels in regional waters carrying material aid to the Zionist occupation
Leveraging their prime geostrategic position along the Bab Al-Mandab Strait, Yemen declared an unequivocal embargo on trade with the Zionist entity as a mark of solidarity with the Palestinians. All other vessels were granted safe passage, provided they abstained from commerce with the Zionist entity and its key Western backers.
Imperialist corporate Western media predictably spun Yemen’s action as a blanket blockade of the Red Sea. But this narrative is a calculated distortion. The blockade has been precise and targeted, aimed solely at ships trading with the Zionists.
This distinction is vital, as dozens of vessels continue to transit the important strait daily without incident.
In retaliation, the US launched what it called 'Operation Prosperity Guardian' in December 2023, cobbling together a coalition of navies from compliant allies like Greece, Bahrain, Finland, Norway, Singapore, and Seychelles.
The latter prompted the martyred Hezbollah General Secretary Hassan Nasrallah to quip, “I had to Google it to find out where it even is.”
But this coalition was doomed before it ever set sail. Major European powers like France, Spain, and Italy outright refused to participate, aware of its repercussions, leaving the coalition’s credibility in tatters.
Estonia contributed a solitary soldier to the imperialist cause, a gesture that bordered on satire.
Weeks later, in January 2024, 'Operation Poseidon Archer' was launched after Yemen dismissed the hollow threats from this ragtag Western military coalition.
While Operation Prosperity Guardian sought to assemble global opposition against Yemen, it floundered as a disorganized farce. Poseidon Archer, by contrast, was a direct and concentrated US-UK initiative.
The initial US-UK airstrikes against Yemen commenced on January 12, 2024, targeting both military installations and civilian infrastructure. Over the course of 2024, the US and UK together bombed Yemen on 70 separate days, with some days seeing dozens of airstrikes.
Not included in this tally are Israeli regime airstrikes, which occurred independently of the US-led aggression.
The aggressors did not confine their strikes to Yemeni military targets. Fuel depots and power stations became routine targets in a bid to cripple the poorest Arab country's economy—a classic imperialist tactic.
This strategy, previously employed by the US in Yugoslavia, Iraq, and Syria, proved utterly ineffective against Yemen.
Since the Al Aqsa Flood Operation began, millions of Yemenis have marched every Friday in solidarity with Palestine. They marched again today in Sana'a and other cities. For Yemen, support for Palestine has become a national rallying cry, uniting the country against imperialist and Zionist oppression and its Western backers.
To understand Yemen’s resilience, one must consider the Yemeni Ansarullah movement’s history. A revolutionary, anti-imperialist force, Ansarullah has withstood over a decade of relentless Saudi-US bombardment. Its military capabilities are forged in battle and backed by widespread popular support.
Consequently, the US-led bombings only bolstered the movement’s standing, deepening national solidarity.
Mohammed Al-Bukhaiti, a spokesperson for Ansarullah, recently reiterated: “We won’t abandon Palestine; it would mean a loss of our values.” This unyielding vow accompanies every Yemeni military statement following operations against hostile vessels or targets.
The aggressors’ actions have merely escalated Yemeni resistance.
Unsurprisingly, after the launch of Prosperity Guardian and Poseidon Archer, Yemen extended its blockade from the Bab Al-Mandab Strait and the Red Sea to encompass the entire Indian Ocean.
Yemeni forces have directly targeted US naval vessels. Using drones, ballistic missiles, and cruise missiles, Ansarullah has struck destroyers and aircraft carriers, including the USS Stockdale, USS Spruance, USS Carney, and USS Eisenhower.
They have also destroyed multiple MQ-9 Reaper drones and downed a US F-18 fighter jet. Several aircraft carriers and destroyers have sustained significant damage, forcing their withdrawal from the region.
“This is the most sustained combat the US Navy has seen since World War II—easily, no question,” remarked Bryan Clark, a former Navy submariner and senior fellow at the Hudson Institute.
To date, Yemen’s resistance blockade has disrupted 171 commercial vessels.
Meanwhile, the third-largest port in the occupied territories, Eilat, has ceased operations entirely due to the blockade. By July 2024, the port declared bankruptcy, citing Yemeni resistance as the primary cause. Once a bustling hub for trade, Eilat saw only one ship dock during the months-long blockade.
Even Pentagon officials are astounded. In November 2024, Bill LaPlant, the Pentagon’s chief weapons buyer, admitted: “I’m an engineer and a physicist, and I’ve been around missiles my whole career… What I’ve seen from Ansarullah in the last six months is shocking.”
The US campaign has been such an unmitigated disaster that Yemen has expanded its operations beyond the blockade. A new reality now grips the Zionist entity: Yemeni hypersonic missile strikes.
Named “Palestine-2,” Yemen’s homegrown hypersonic missile has penetrated Zionist military systems, including “David’s Sling” and “The Iron Dome,” striking strategic targets in Jaffa/Tel Aviv and the Negev Desert.
Though drone and rocket attacks began in October 2023, Yemen’s true prowess emerged at the end of 2024. In December alone, hypersonic missile strikes rained down on Tel Aviv multiple times per week, forcing settlers into shelters and sowing widespread panic.
The strikes, launched under the cover of darkness, caused structural devastation and psychological turmoil. Despite their best efforts, US aircraft carriers and destroyers have been unable to intercept Yemen’s advanced missiles and drones.
In defiance of the US-UK alliance, Zionist aggression, and the inept coalition partners of Prosperity Guardian, Yemen remains steadfast in its commitment to the blockade and its resistance against the Zionist occupation.
One must recall the laughable ultimatum the US issued a year ago: cease operations in the Red Sea or face consequences. A year later, the tables have turned, and the US finds itself incapable of issuing any ultimatums.
In truth, US strategy has not evolved. Bombing campaigns targeting Yemen’s energy infrastructure have failed to break the Arab country's resolve. Even more “innovative” tactics, such as striking alleged weapons depots, have faltered against Ansarullah’s unyielding momentum.
Today, it is Yemen, not the US, that issues ultimatums. A year into the resistance, their message remains unchanged: leave Gaza, end the aggression, or face relentless resistance.
Musa Iqbal is a Boston-based researcher and writer focusing on US domestic and foreign policy.
Global Research – January 11, 2025
From the Frying Pan into the Fire? Analysis of What is Happening in Syria in 2025
By Michael Welch, Drago Bosnic, and Laith Marouf
“We are not talking about rule by individuals or personal whims, it’s about institutional governance. Syria desrves a governing system that is institutional, not one where a single ruler makes arbitrary decisions.”
– Ab-Mohammad al-Jolani (in December 6 interview with CNN) [1]
“So around 200,000 Christian Syrians crossed into Lebanon in the last month.
And these are just the documented numbers. So we’re seeing a campaign of population transfers and demographic changes and ethnic cleansing campaigns that we haven’t seen the likes of since World War I and World War II now being implemented in Syria.”
– Laith Marouf (From this week’s interview)
In the late 1970s, Afghanistan had a socialist government with equal rights for women and broad democratic reforms for a brief period of time. Then, in 1979, the CIA under U.S. President Jimmy Carter, began funding Islamic extremists, the mujahideen, to lodge unrest against this government and soon the Soviet Union got drawn in. [2]
The Soviet troops withdrew nearly a decade later. In April 1992, the mujihideed defeated the Marxist Afghan government and slaughtered progressive government members. Four years later, the Taliban took power with a horrible record of violating human rights.[3]
This bears a resemblance to what happened in Syria recently. Again Islamic extremists, funded by U.S. sources,ﾠkept active in the country. Russia pulled out a ﾓmain partﾔ of its forces. Then after a renewed launch in late 2024, a renewed siege by jihadists knocked over city after city and moved into the nation’s capital, Damascus. Only this time, the elected President, Bashar al Assad was successful in fleeing to Moscow.[4]
Mission Accomplished.
Now reports are swirling about the attacks in Syria against non-Islamic faiths, like the Christians, were on the upswing. Whatever the problems some Syrian citizens may have had with the Assad government, it sought to protect religious and ethnic minorities across the country. [5]
And the leaders of the crew who came to liberate them from the Syrian regime was Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). It’s leader Abu Mohammad al-Jolani created it. He formerly led the Nusra Front, which was an Al Qaeda affiliate. [6]
A vastly uncritical Western Press seems prepared to embrace the preposterous notion (20 years after 9/11!) that this man has changed his ways – that he will be a progressive, woke president of Syria. [7]
With the number of displaced Syrians escalating to over a million in just two weeks, and several countries like the United States, Great Britain, Germany, and France preparing to lift sanctions on the country now that the leadership is no longer a despot, it might be wise to examine the notions behind what the great powers outside are doing to support regime change. Is it for the people? Or for the resources financially, strategically and politically that may be part of the spoils. This is the topic we will examine in this critical episode of the Global Research News Hour.
In our first half hour, we are joined for the second week in a row by geopolitical and military analyst Drago Bosnic. He will go through the powers, principally the United States, Israel and Turkey who think they have HTS dancing at the ends of their puppet strings, try to assess where these powers are likely headed with their different aims, and what in God’s name will befall the people of this country.
Then in our second half hour, we are joined by Middle East political commentator, Laith Marouf. He is in Beirut and will discuss what happened to the country, what recent refugees to Lebanon are saying, and what the “new boss in town” is all about, and what this new dynamic will mean for the Syrian people and the larger Middle East.
Drago Bosnic is a military and geopolitical analyst, regular author on Global Research and a frequent guest on the Global Research News Hour radio program. In December 2024, he received an award for his writings on geopolitical analysis and on nuclear war from the Mexican Press Club.
Laith Marouf is an award-winning journalist and political commentator, working in media since 1999. He is currently the founder if Free Palestine TV. Previously, Laith worked as the Executive Director of Community University Television (CUTV). Laith launched and hosted “Under the Olive Tree” the Palestinian community radio show airing on CKUT 90.3 FM in Montreal and CFRC 101.9 FM in Kingston (2005-10). He is currently based in Beirut.
Notes:
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Psg2MYoN1FU
- https://www.globalresearch.ca/afghanistan-a-tale-of-never-ending-tragedy/2750
- ibid;
- https://www.rt.com/russia/610595-russia-point-finder-israel-syria/
- https://www.rt.com/shows/news/609856-rtnews-december-25-10msk/
- https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/12/4/who-is-abu-mohamad-al-julani-the-leader-of-hayat-tahrir-al-sham-in-syria
- https://www.mintpressnews.com/from-terrorist-to-freedom-fighter-how-the-west-rebranded-al-qaedas-jolani-as-syrias-woke-new-leader/288820/
