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Tim Franks speaks to a British-Syrian Alawite who came under attack, along with her family, during the sectarian violence on Syria's coast in March.The Alawite sect is an offshoot of Shia Islam and its followers make up around 10 per cent of Syria's population, which is majority Sunni.The recent violence came after fighters loyal to the country's overthrown former president, Bashar al-Assad, who is an Alawite himself, led deadly raids on the new government's security forces.Those attacks resurrected deep-seated anger over Assad's repressive dictatorship, with Alawite civilians seen by some as complicit in the crimes of his regime - and as part of the insurgency that followed his fall.The new Sunni Islamist-led government had called for support from various military units and militia groups to respond to the attacks on its security forces – which then escalated into a wave of sectarian anger aimed at Alawite civilians.Human rights groups estimate that around 900 civilians, mainly Alawites, were killed by pro-government forces across Syria's coastal region in early March.The Interview brings you conversations with people shaping our world, from all over the world. The best interviews from the BBC. You can listen on the BBC World Service, Mondays and Wednesdays at 0700 GMT. Or you can listen to The Interview as a podcast, out twice a week on BBC Sounds, Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.Presenter: Tim Franks Producer: Ben Cooper Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith
Read Djene's piece in Compact Magazine here: https://www.compactmag.com/.../neoliberalism-with.../... For many Syrians, the events of December 2024 had a surreal quality. After nearly a decade and a half of brutal civil war, it had seemed that the regime of Bashar al-Assad had fended off any serious challenges to its authority. Assad and his supporters may not have been able to deliver a killing blow to the various opposition forces in the country, but they had managed to confine them to the country's periphery. That all changed in late November, when Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a Sunni Islamist group led by former al-Qaeda militant, Ahmad al-Sharaa, launched a lightning offensive from its stronghold on the Turkish-Syrian border, which brought an end to more than half a century of Assad family rule within a matter of weeks. Check out our new bi-weekly series, "The Crisis Papers" here: https://www.patreon.com/bitterlakepresents/shop Thank you guys again for taking the time to check this out. We appreciate each and everyone of you. If you have the means, and you feel so inclined, BECOME A PATRON! We're creating patron only programing, you'll get bonus content from many of the episodes, and you get MERCH! Become a patron now https://www.patreon.com/join/BitterLakePresents? Please also like, subscribe, and follow us on these platforms as well, (specially YouTube!) THANKS Y'ALL YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCG9WtLyoP9QU8sxuIfxk3eg Twitter: @TIRShowOakland Instagram: @thisisrevolutionoakland Read Jason Myles in Sublation Magazine https://www.sublationmag.com/writers/jason-myles Read Jason Myles in Damage Magazine https://damagemag.com/2023/11/07/the-man-who-sold-the-world/ Read Jason in Unaligned Here: https://substack.com/home/post/p-161586946...
Deadly violence breaking out between government forces and Assad loyalists in the western part of Syria this weekend leads to the death of over 15-hundred people including over a thousand civilians. Syrian security forces, loyal to the new Sunni Islamist-regime, were attacked which led to what some describe as revenge killings in the Assad supporting Alawite minority community. Stories are circulating of entire families being murdered in their homes and belongings being looted. FOX's Eben Brown speaks with Dr. David Adesnik, vice president of research at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies and Mideast expert, who breaks down who is fighting who and the international reaction to the violence. Click Here To Follow 'The FOX News Rundown: Evening Edition' Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Deadly violence breaking out between government forces and Assad loyalists in the western part of Syria this weekend leads to the death of over 15-hundred people including over a thousand civilians. Syrian security forces, loyal to the new Sunni Islamist-regime, were attacked which led to what some describe as revenge killings in the Assad supporting Alawite minority community. Stories are circulating of entire families being murdered in their homes and belongings being looted. FOX's Eben Brown speaks with Dr. David Adesnik, vice president of research at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies and Mideast expert, who breaks down who is fighting who and the international reaction to the violence. Click Here To Follow 'The FOX News Rundown: Evening Edition' Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Deadly violence breaking out between government forces and Assad loyalists in the western part of Syria this weekend leads to the death of over 15-hundred people including over a thousand civilians. Syrian security forces, loyal to the new Sunni Islamist-regime, were attacked which led to what some describe as revenge killings in the Assad supporting Alawite minority community. Stories are circulating of entire families being murdered in their homes and belongings being looted. FOX's Eben Brown speaks with Dr. David Adesnik, vice president of research at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies and Mideast expert, who breaks down who is fighting who and the international reaction to the violence. Click Here To Follow 'The FOX News Rundown: Evening Edition' Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Over the last two years, intelligence organizations and analysts failed to anticipate critical events in the Middle East that would roil the region. The sudden collapse of the Assad regime and the opening of a new chapter in Syria's conflict-ridden story is the latest in a fraught period that has seen an of escalation of tensions in Israel, Gaza, Lebanon, and Iran. What explains the Assad regime's sudden demise and the ascendance of Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and other Sunni Islamist organizations? What do these events portend for Syria's governance and the policies of Iran, Russia, Turkey, and Israel in the region? And what would be the best policy on Syria for the incoming U.S. administration? Join Aaron David Miller as he sits down with Sanam Vakil, director of the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Chatham House, and Charles Lister, senior fellow and the director of the Syria and Countering Terrorism & Extremism programs at the Middle East Institute, to explore these and other issues.
On March 8, 1963, the Baath party overthrew the government of Syria, and since then the Assad family has ruled the country—until last weekend, when the son of Hafez al-Assad, Bashar al-Assad, fled to Russia. The 60-year Baathist domination of Syria came to an end, deposed by a Sunni Islamist organization called Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). Whereas many current conversations are, appropriately, focused on the military and political revolution that Syrians are now living through, the ideological revolution deserves equal consideration. There is no way of knowing how long the current government in Syria, or the Syrian state as we know it, will endure. We don't know if the new regime will be just and serve its people well, or whether it will be corrupt and tyrannical. We don't know how Syria will relate to the West, to America, or to Israel. But by recovering the ideological genealogy of Baathism, from which Syria's present rulers fought to free their country, we can begin to try to understand Arab politics the way that Arab intellectuals do. To that end, Mosaic's editor Jonathan Silver is joined by Hussein Aboubakr Mansour, a writer, student of the modern Middle East, and senior fellow at the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs.
It's Tuesday, December 10h, A.D. 2024. This is The Worldview in 5 Minutes heard on 125 radio stations and at www.TheWorldview.com. I'm Adam McManus. (Adam@TheWorldview.com) By Kevin Swanson and Adam McManus Persecution of Christians up in Indonesia The General Assembly of the Communion of Churches in Indonesia has announced growth in the Christian faith in that country. The organization pointed to seven new Christian groups, each with at least 10,000 members added to the list. While the church has grown in Indonesia, the believers' very presence has led to persecution in the Muslim-majority nation where 87% are Muslim and about 10% Christian. According to Persecution.org, the SETARA Institute recorded 217 incidents where religious freedom was violated in 2023. That's up from 175 in 2022. Also, in 2023, places of worship were disturbed 65 times in Indonesia. That was up from 16 incidents in 2017. For example, one local province banned a Christmas choir practice for a Catholic Church earlier this month — requiring permission from the government for this “religious activity.” Syrian president fled country for Russia The Middle East is in more turmoil. After 13 years of civil war, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has fled the country for Russia. Syria's government has been turned over to a rebel faction led by a former Al Qaeda fighter named Abu Mohammad al-Jolani. The new government will be headed by a party espousing hardline Sunni Islamist ideology. In excess of a half a million Syrians have lost their lives in the civil war, and millions have left the country. In God's providence, Iran's influence in the Middle East has diminished greatly, with the loss of an ally in Al-Assad and Israel's crushing of Hezbollah in Lebanon. For now, Iran and Russia are seen as losers, and Turkey and Israel are seen as winners in the ongoing saga. China initiates naval drill off coast of Taiwan Communist China has initiated a third and more significant naval drill encompassing the coasts of Taiwan, reports CNN. This comes after the U.S. approved $2 billion in more arms sales for Taiwan. China vowed “strong countermeasures” to the action, reports the South China Morning Post. Psalm 46 assures that it is God who “makes wars cease to the end of the Earth; He breaks the bow and cuts the spear in two; He burns the chariot in the fire.” CEO killer suspect caught Police nabbed Luigi Mangione, the 26-year-old suspect in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, while he was chowing down at a McDonald's in Altoona, Pennsylvania. He's an anti-capitalist Ivy League grad who liked online quotes from the “Unabomber'' Ted Kaczynski — and seethed in a manifesto, “These parasites had it coming,” reports the New York Post. Officers found a black 3D-printed pistol and a black silencer in Mangione's backpack. He graduated cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania with a Bachelor of Science in Engineering, Computer and Information Science in 2020 The tech whiz, originally from Towson, Maryland, apparently hated the medical community because of how it treated his sick relative. The suspect also may have held a grudge because of his own interactions with the industry, noting an X-ray photo on his X account showing four pins in his spine. Trump on Meet the Press: Liz Cheney should go to jail On Sunday, President-elect Donald Trump was on NBC's Meet the Press, suggesting that jail time might be appropriate for former GOP Congresswoman Liz Cheney of Wyoming and others on the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack who pursued prosecution for January 6th protestors back in 2021. He also alleged that the committee destroyed evidence after a year and a half of testimony. Listen. TRUMP: “They deleted and destroyed a whole year and a half worth of testimony. I think those people committed a major crime.” KRISTEN WELKER: “Sir?” TRUMP: “and [former Congresswoman Liz] Cheney was behind it.” WELKER: “Well.” TRUMP: “and so was [Democrat Congressman] Bennie Thompson. And everybody on that committee. For what they did,” WELKER: “Yeah.” TRUMP: “Honestly, they should go to jail.” KRISTEN WELKER: “So, you think Liz Cheney should go to jail?” TRUMP: “For what they did.” WELKER: “Everyone on the committee, you said.” TRUMP: “I think everybody. Anybody that voted in favor …” WELKER: “Are you going to direct your FBI Director and your Attorney General to send them to jail?” TRUMP: “Not at all. I think that they'll have to look at that. But I'm not going to. I'm going to focus on ‘Drill, baby drill.'” WELKER: “When you say that it carries weight though. You've tapped these people to lead the Justice Department and FBI.” TRUMP: “They can do whatever they want.” WELKER: “Okay.” TRUMP: “Biden can give them a pardon if he wants to, and maybe he should.” But Trump said, the decision to prosecute Liz Cheney would be left to his Attorney General appointee. Trump eager to issue pardons to most January 6th protestors In related news and in that same interview. President-elect Trump is looking at issuing pardons on his first day in office for those caught up in the January 6th investigations. The Biden Justice Department has prosecuted 1,572 persons in the protest. Over 1,200 of these have pleaded guilty or have been proven guilty in trial. 321 defendants pleaded guilty to felonies and 675 have pleaded guilty to misdemeanors. Here's Kristen Welker with the question. WELKER: “You promised to pardon those who attacked the Capitol on January 6th. Are you still vowing to follow through with that promise?” TRUMP: “We're looking at it right now. Most likely, yeah.” WELKER: “Well, you know.” TRUMP: “Those people have suffered long and hard. And there may be some exceptions to it. I have to look. You know, if somebody was radical, crazy. There might be some people from Antifa there. I don't know. These people have suffered. Their lives have been destroyed.” The degree of violence occurring at the January 6th protest is under debate, however. FactCheck.org notes that no police officers died — while one officer did suffer a stroke and five committed suicide days or months after the January 6th event. In addition, 17 officers suffered injuries during the protests that resulted in loss of days at work. By contrast, some 2,035 police officers were injured during the 2020 George Floyd riots. PoliceMag.com reports that “16,241 protesters and rioters were arrested. Nearly 17% of the arrests were for felonies and 7% of the total involved violence. Many of the cases were quickly dismissed.” New York jury acquits Daniel Penny A New York jury has acquitted Daniel Penny of all charges Monday, reports NBC News. He was the marine charged with manslaughter and negligent homicide for allegedly killing a young man in a subway who was threatening to kill people on the subway, according to witnesses. The victim, Jordan Neely, had an extensive criminal record of 42 arrests. Emotions are running high after the verdict. A New York Black Lives Matter leader, Hawk Newsome, called for vigilantes to kill others “who have attempted to oppress us.” Wherever this applies, let us remember what Jesus said: “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.” (Matthew 5:44) Was there an alphabet in the days of Noah? And finally, could there have been an alphabet used for written human communications as far back as the days of Noah? That's what researchers have discovered from an excavation in a tomb in northern Syria, located about 500 miles west of where the ark would have rested. Characters that appear to be a real alphabet were etched into clay cylinders dated to 2400 BC. Close And that's The Worldview on this Tuesday, December 10th, in the year of our Lord 2024. Subscribe by Amazon Music or by iTunes or email to our unique Christian newscast at www.TheWorldview.com. Or get the Generations app through Google Play or The App Store. I'm Adam McManus (Adam@TheWorldview.com). Seize the day for Jesus Christ.
This week we talk about Operation Iron Swords, October 7, and the International Court of Justice.We also discuss human rights abuses, the Red Sea, and Iran's influence.Recommended Book: Empire Games by Charles StrossTranscriptIn the early morning of October 7, 2023, the militant wing of Hamas—which is also a political organization that has governed the Gaza Strip territory since 2007, a few years after Israel withdrew from the area and then blockaded it, leading to accusations from international human rights organizations that Israel still occupies the area, even if not officially—but the militant wing of this Sunni Islamist group, Hamas, launched a sneak-attack, in coordination with other islamist groups (a term that in this context usually but not always refers to groups that want to claim territory they can govern in accordance with what they consider to be proper Islamic fashion, usually defined by a fairly extreme interpretation of the religion).This sneak-attack was successful in the sense that it caught seemingly everyone off guard, despite the Israeli military's foreknowledge of this possibility; that foreknowledge only becoming public months after the attack, and the possibility of such an attack dismissed by those who could have prepared for it because it seemed to them to be a sort of pie-in-the-sky aspiration on the part of a group that was disempowered and incapable of putting up any kind of fight beyond periodically launching unsophisticated rockets that could be easily taken out by Israel's Iron Dome anti-missile defense system.So for more than a year the Israeli government had information indicating Hamas was planning some kind of incursion into Israel, but they dismissed it, and by some accounts they had every reason to do so, as Hamas had seemed to be more chill than usual, pulling back on the overt military activity and lacking sufficient support from the Gaza population to attempt even a tenth of what they had blueprinted.Three months before the attack an Israeli signals intelligence analyst raised a red flag on this issue, indicating that Hamas was conducting intense training exercises that seemed to be in line with those pie-in-the-sky plans, but this flag was ignored by those higher up the chain of command, once again.Consequently, when Hamas launched a huge flurry of rockets, around 3,000 by most estimates, sent drones to take out automated machine guns and cameras placed along the border fences between Israel and Gaza, and sent militants through holes in the fence, in on motorcycles, and over barriers using paragliders, Israeli defense forces were caught flat-footed, taking a surprisingly long time to respond to the incursion and failing to protect a military base that housed the defense division responsible for security in Gaza, alongside several other bases, and the around 1,200 people who were killed and around 250 who were taken hostage.Dozens of nations immediately decried Hamas's attack as a terrorist act, many of Israel's neighbors made noises about not liking it, but then blamed Israel's long-standing alleged occupation of Gaza and the West Bank for the attack, and attempts to shore-up defenses, clear out lingering Hamas fighters, and tally the dead and missing began; the numbers and the experiences of those involved were all pretty horrifying.Israel's response, a plan that was designated Operation Iron Swords, arrived alongside a state of emergency for the portions of Israel within about 50 miles or 80 km of its border with Gaza, and the country's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that the country was at war with Hamas and would destroy them and anyone else who dared to join them.The nation's defense forces were also ordered to shore up its other borders to prevent anyone else from joining on in attacking Israel at a moment in which it might be seen as weak.In the just over 100 days—108 as of the day this episode goes live—everything has changed or been amplified in the Middle East as a consequence of this conflict.Most immediately, the Gaza Strip has been turned into a wasteland by Israel's counterattack, which involved heavy bombardment of what the Israeli military said were confirmed and potential Hamas hideouts, but which included countless civilian homes and businesses and other bits of infrastructure, and Gaza's population has been herded into public spaces and makeshift tents, the majority of them down at the southern end of the territory where Israel told them they would be safe, but which has since, itself, also come under bombardment and ground assault.Something like 25,000 Gazan residents have been confirmed dead by the Palestinian Ministry of Health, 70% of them women and children, around 8,000 more have been reported missing, and around 61,000 have been officially tallied as injured since the counterattack began.Israel has been accused of all sorts of human rights abuses because of this counterattack, has lost a fair bit of the support it garnered in the early days after Hamas' sneak attack against them, and Netanyahu has faced heightened challenges to his leadership, from outside entities, but also from Israeli civilians and service people who question his motivations for maintaining the offensive stance that he's still maintaining, and by those who question the logic of how that stance is playing out, strategically.What I'd like to talk about today is the bigger picture in the Middle East, and what we might expect to happen in the region, next.—The general state of play, as of the day I'm recording this at least, and this is a big collection of fast-moving interconnected stories, so this is all prone to change and quickly, but the big-picture layout right now is this:Israel is run by Prime Minister Netanyahu who is in the midst of a corruption trial and is facing opposition for his response to Hamas' attack and his alleged human rights-violating flattening of Gaza and treatment of Gaza-residing Palestinians, and that pushback is coming from Israeli citizens, from within Israel's defense leadership structure, and from a growing number of the country's allies.Israel's biggest and generally most supportive ally, the US, has been sending all sorts of support and throwing out vetoes in Israel's favor, as well, when international bodies have tried to hold them accountable for some of those alleged human rights violations, and when they've tried to push for official ceasefires, but there are reports that the Biden administration is reaching the end of its rope on this, and that's partially because much of the world is not a fan of how brutal this response has been and how badly Gazans have been treated, but also, reportedly at least, because this is not good for Biden's reelection potential in November, as young people in the United States have largely sided with the Palestinians rather than what they perceive to be the bigger, badder, abusive aggressor—the Israeli military.The EU, also a long-time and enthusiastic backer of Israel, most of the countries in the bloc, anyway, has arguably already reached the end of its rope, the bloc's foreign ministers increasing pressure on Israel to consider a two-state solution post-fighting, which would basically mean making a real-deal Palestinian state in the area, rather than two Palestinian Territories run or blockaded by Israel, as Netanyahu has recently said he won't even consider the concept as it would be bad for Israel's long-term national security, but the majority of influential nations that are providing support for Israel are saying, well, you're probably going to need to do this, so let's think this through.The EU is even calling for consequences for Israel if Netanyahu continues to oppose a two-state solution, the idea being that his stance on the matter is fanning the flames of violence, and will continue to stoke them long-term, so some new state of affairs is necessary to change the existing, incredibly tumultuous status quo.The UN is even more pointed on this matter than the EU, those three groups—again, nations and organizations that are typically on Israel's side with pretty much everything—becoming publicly pissed off at Netanyahu's apparent slow-walking of this counterattack, his standing in the way of any kind of long-term ceasefire or peace-making, and his increasingly extremist, nationalist language when it comes to the possibility of a Palestinian state at some point in the future.Chinese leadership have also said they think Israel should stop punishing Palestinians in their hunt for Hamas militants and leaders, South Africa brought a case against Israel to the international Court of Justice, alleging genocide—and while this case was originally seen as a bit of a headline-grabbing sideshow and still has some staunch opponents, it's gathering more and more support, especially from other African nations, including those that have seen genocidal and genocide-like massacres at some point in their past.Chile and Mexico, in recent days, have also asked the ICJ to investigate possible war crimes committed by Israeli forces against civilians in Gaza.Maybe the most important responses here, though, from Israel's Muslim majority neighbors, have been universally negative—and this is in the context of a period of pseudo-normalization of these nations' relationship with Israel, a lot of negotiating and deal-making leading to a flurry of announcements that seemed primed to set the area up for a period of peace and prosperity—former opponents suddenly dealing with each other peaceably instead of lobbing munitions at and threatening each other pretty much continuously.Instead, what we see now is Egypt worrying that Israel is trying to push Gazan civilian across their shared border, Saudi Arabia warning of potential long-term consequences from Israel's invasion of the Strip, the Hezbollah government and military in Lebanon increasing the intensity of its fighting with Israeli forces across their shared border in the north, an increase in the tempo of fighting between Israeli assets and Iran-linked assets in Syria, and a huge new push by the Houthis, a group that's been engaged in a long-term civil war with the Saudi-backed government in Yemen, to fire at and take hostage the crews of cargo ships passing through the Red Sea toward the Suez Canal, which has massively disrupted global trade; the Houthis say they're doing this in support of Gazans, demanding the Israelis pull out of the strip or they'll keep it up, though they've been doing this kind of pirating for a long while now, if not at this volume, so the degree to which they're just engaging in a rebranding effort for these attacks is up for debate.The general vibe of escalatory potential, though, is reshaping the region, and that's especially true of Israel's neighbors, like Egypt, Lebanon, and Jordan, which have suffered extreme economic damage—by some calculations around $10.3 billion, which is about 2.3% of their total, combined GDP—and that damage is expected to push hundreds of thousands of their citizens into poverty.This is the result of a dramatic decline in tourism to the area, a drop in oil production and oil market prices, and the confluence of climate-amplified droughts, economic and financial crises, and reverberations from other nearby conflicts like the ongoing fighting in Syria, which, among other things, has turned the Syrian government into one of the world's biggest illicit drug producers and exporters, which is having a hugely detrimental effect on many other nations in the region, in terms of their health outcomes and in terms of heightened and empowered gang activity.Uncertainty is a big variable, too, though, as investment money is suddenly finding other homes, those controlling these resources not wanting to plant their funds in a region that might soon catch fire, and the potential benefits from all that foreordained normalization, all that potential peace and divided entities suddenly able to do business with each other after a period of separation, has more or less disappeared.We're also see more military activity on the outskirts of this, the US and its allies launching regular air strikes against Houthi targets in Yemen, which themselves continue to launch strikes against vessels passing through the Red Sea, and Israel has been lashing out at other targets in the region, too, mimicking Iran's attacks on what it's called terrorist groups operating within its neighbor's borders—which has upped the volatility level even further, as one of those Iranian neighbors, Pakistan, is nuclear armed and working through its own collection of instability-inducing variables, at the moment.There are a lot of entities in this region that are taking this opportunity to bulk-up their reputations with their constituents and allies, doing things that allow them to show strength, and doing those things in such a way that it looks like they're opposing Israel, even when they're not really actually doing that—as is probably the case with the Houthis and some of Iran's efforts—because this framing of their efforts allows them to grab more power, reinforce their existing power, and potentially even team-up, if only loosely, with other regional fellow travelers against the new regional baddy of the moment, an even-more-opposable-than-usual Israel.This is all a lot! But one thing I think we can fairly confidently say at this point is that Iran seems like it's using this opportunity to expand and flex its influence throughout the region, mostly by using proxy groups, as it tends to do, to annoy and hurt its various enemies, including but not limited to Israel, the US, the West in general, and Saudi Arabia.We're also seeing cracks in the veneer of unity Israel's government and military have promoted following Hamas' sneak-attack, people in power coming out against the way things have been handled, and folks on the ground maintaining a steady cadence of protests aimed at many facets of how Netanyahu has done things and is continuing to do things, including but not limited to not seeing the sneak-attack coming, not prioritizing rescuing hostages, and arguably pushing the region deeper and deeper into a state of war, rather than looking for ceasefire options.So there's a chance we could see a change in leadership in Israel soon, whether by election or other means, which would likely then change the reality on the ground throughout the region.There are also signs, as I mentioned earlier, that the US and other Israel-allied governments have just about reached the point where they'll formally step away from Israel's side on this, and it's unlikely anyone involved wants that to happen, so we could see a grand pivot on this matter, from Israel's side, sometime in the next few weeks.And there have been still-in-the-background reports that the plan, amongst some US negotiators and their allies, anyway, is to try to promote a normalization of relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel as the means by which a new stability in the Middle East could still be reached: Israel's Muslim neighbors helping a new, Palestinian state get off the ground and everyone living together in relative harmony, except for Iran and its allies, which would see their influence substantially reduced by this potential new state of affairs.It's anyone's guess as to whether this possibility has any legs, as again, this is still a kind of under the radar possibility at this point, and Netanyahu has said with increasing force and clarity that he will not allow a Palestinian state to happen—so who knows, this may be dead in the water before it's even formally proposed and promoted.So this continues to be a central flashpoint and major variable informing a lot of what's happening in the world right now, which is saying something at a moment in which China is increasingly vocal in its intention to take Taiwan, by force if necessary, in which Russia is still in the midst of an increasingly long-term invasion of Ukraine, and in which a record-number of democratic and pseudo-democratic elections are happening around the world, potentially leading to untold other, non-military upsets, further rearranging the pieces on the board and consequently, maybe, some of those aforementioned alliances and animosities, as well.Show Noteshttps://archive.ph/sJ75Uhttps://www.euractiv.com/section/global-europe/news/eu-foreign-ministers-to-meet-with-israeli-palestinian-arab-top-diplomats/https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/21/business/economy/israel-gaza-regional-economy.htmlhttps://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/01/20/world/middleeast/houthi-red-sea-shipping.htmlhttps://www.axios.com/2024/01/21/biden-middle-east-gaza-palestinian-state-israelhttps://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/01/21/world/israel-hamas-gaza-news-iraqhttps://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/u-s-pushes-hostage-release-plan-aimed-at-ending-gaza-war-d48b27e1https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/hamas-toll-thus-far-falls-short-of-israels-war-aims-u-s-says-d1c43164https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2024/01/20/us-military-yemen-houthis/https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/after-100-days-israel-hamas-war-threatens-to-spill-beyond-gaza-disrupt-global-trade-2d36ab09https://archive.ph/J0e5Whttps://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/01/21/hamas-attack-october-7-conspiracy-israel/https://www.nbcnews.com/investigations/hostage-talks-continue-israel-rejects-hamas-demand-full-idf-withdrawal-rcna134975https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/mexico-chile-international-criminal-court-investigate-crimes-gaza-106495506https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/fierce-fighting-gaza-war-hits-100-days-2024-01-14/https://www.npr.org/2024/01/14/1224673502/gaza-numbers-100-days-israel-hamashttps://www.aljazeera.com/gallery/2024/1/14/israels-war-on-gaza-100-days-of-death-and-sufferinghttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaza_Striphttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamashttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_Hamas-led_attack_on_Israelhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel%E2%80%93Hamas_warhttps://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/30/world/middleeast/israel-hamas-attack-intelligence.html This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit letsknowthings.substack.com/subscribe
Show Notes Lemuel: I am Lemuel Gonzalez, repentant sinner, and along with Amity Armstrong, your heavenly host, I invite you to find a place in the pew for today's painless Sunday School lesson. Without Works. This week, we are going to discuss the events occurring in the Gaza strip, the history of the region, and the evangelical view of the situation. This is being recorded on October 28, 2023 and we are doing our best to give the latest information. Amity: I have tried to keep this as straightforward and clear as possible. I am extremely emotional about this topic and have spent much of the past twenty days watching the news coming directly out of Palestine, sharing Palestinian voices and calling my representatives to demand a ceasefire and humanitarian aid to the people of Palestine. First things first - we have to state unequivocally the following: Zionism is not Judaism, and a person can be anti-Zionist and not anti-semetic, as many, many American jews are. We will come back to this in a few minutes. The attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 is abhorrent and terrible and we grieve with the survivors and families of those who were killed. May their memories be a blessing. Events leading up to October 7 Let's start with some history, which I have put together from several sources. This is a very broad, very simplified overview of the history. In the show notes, we have included an extensive reading list to get a rounder view of the subject. Israel and Palestine: In the late 19th century, the Zionist movement called for the creation of a homeland for the Jewish people to escape persecution in Europe. Immigration and the purchase of land in Palestine, then part of the Ottoman Empire, was encouraged. The land known as Palestine at the beginning of the 20th century encompasses a 25,000 square mile piece of land bordered on the west by the Mediterranean Sea, on the East by what is now Syria and Jordan on the south by Egypt and on the north by Lebanon. After the First World War and the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, Britain was granted a mandate to govern the region of Palestine and Jewish immigration increased as Nazism took hold in central Europe. This brought tensions in the area with the Arab population, and after the Second World War a new plan was drawn up and agreed by the United Nations to create two separate Arab and Jewish states with Jerusalem remaining international. The Arab state would include Gaza, an area near the border with Egypt, a zone near the border with Lebanon, a central region which includes the West Bank, and a tiny enclave at the city of Jaffa.But this was never implemented after Arab opposition. At midnight on 14/15 May 1948, the Mandate for Palestine expired and the State of Israel came into being. The Palestine Government formally ceased to exist, the status of British forces still in the process of withdrawal from Haifa changed to occupiers of foreign territory, the Palestine Police Force formally stood down and was disbanded, with the remaining personnel evacuated alongside British military forces, the British blockade of Palestine was lifted, and all those who had been Palestinian citizens ceased to be British protected persons, with Mandatory Palestine passports no longer giving British protection. Over the next few days, approximately 700 Lebanese, 1,876 Syrian, 4,000 Iraqi, and 2,800 Egyptian troops crossed over the borders into Palestine, starting the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. The war, which was to last until 1949, would see Israel expand to encompass about 78% of the territory of the former British Mandate, with Transjordan seizing and subsequently annexing the West Bank and the Kingdom of Egypt seizing the Gaza Strip. The 1948 Palestinian expulsion and flight, known to Palestineans as the Nakba took place both before and after the end of the Mandate. The foundational events of the Nakba took place during and shortly after the 1948 Palestine war, as that 78% of Mandatory Palestine was declared as Israel, leading to the expulsion and flight of 700,000 Palestinians, the related depopulation and destruction of over 500 Palestinian villages by Zionist militias and later the Israeli army and subsequent geographical erasure, the denial of the Palestinian right of return, the creation of permanent Palestinian refugees, and the "shattering of Palestinian society" Now, back to what I brought up at the opening of this episode, the difference between Zionism and Judaism. Zionism v Judaism: Judaism is an Abrahamic, monotheistic, and ethnic religion. It comprises the collective spiritual, cultural, and legal traditions of the Jewish people having originated as an organized religion in the Middle East during the Bronze Age. Zionism is a nineteenth-century political ideology that emerged in a moment where Jews were defined as irrevocably outside of a Christian Europe. European antisemitism threatened and ended millions of Jewish lives — in pogroms, in exile, and in the Holocaust. Many Jews today are anti-Zionist, believing that Zionism was a false and failed answer to the desperately real question many of their ancestors faced of how to protect Jewish lives from murderous antisemitism in Europe. While it had many strains historically, the Zionism that took hold and stands today is a settler-colonial movement, establishing an apartheid state where Jews have more rights than others. Our own history teaches us how dangerous this can be. So what is a settler colony? Settler colonialism occurs when colonizers invade and occupy territory to permanently replace the existing society with the society of the colonizers. Settler colonialism is a form of exogenous domination typically organized or supported by an imperial authority. Settler colonialism contrasts with exploitation colonialism, which entails an economic policy of conquering territory to exploit its population as cheap or free labor and its natural resources as raw material. In this way, settler colonialism lasts indefinitely, except in the rare event of complete evacuation or settler decolonization. Writing in the 1990s, Patrick Wolfe theorized settler colonialism as a structure (rather than an event) premised on the elimination rather than exploitation of the native population, thus distinguishing it from classical colonialism. He also argued that settler colonialism was centered on the control of land and that it continued after the closing of the frontier. His approach was defining for the field, but has been challenged by other scholars on the basis that many situations involve a combination of elimination and exploitation. Settler colonial studies has often focused on former British colonies in North America, Australia and New Zealand, which are close to the complete, prototypical form of settler colonialism, but is also applied to many other conflicts throughout the world. Today in Gaza, over 2 million Palestinians live within roughly 140 square miles, it is “one of the world's most densely populated territories,” according to Gisha, an Israeli nongovernmental organization. Half of Palestinians living in Gaza are under age 19, but they have few to no prospects for socioeconomic growth and limited access to the outside world. Israel has maintained a land, air and sea blockade on Gaza since 2007 that has had a devastating effect on Palestinian civilians. Israel has built an apartheid blockade, which gives it control of Gaza's borders and is also enforced by Egypt. The International Committee of the Red Cross considers the blockade illegal and says it violates the Geneva Convention, a charge Israeli officials deny. The U.N., various human rights groups and legal scholars, citing the blockade, consider Gaza to still be under military occupation by Israel. Human Rights Watch likened the conditions in Gaza to “an open air prison,” referring to the restriction of movement Israel enforces on Palestinians there. Israel prohibits Palestinians from entering or leaving the area “except in extremely rare cases, which include urgent, life-threatening medical conditions and a very short list of merchants,” according to B'Tselem, an Israeli human rights group. Israelis, Jewish settlers and foreigners are not subject to those restrictions and are free to travel in and out of Gaza. Over the years, Israel has gradually closed land-border crossings from Gaza into Israel except for one — which is open only to Palestinians with Israeli-approved permits. Egypt sporadically closes its land-border crossing for months on end, which is often the only way people in Gaza can gain access to the rest of the world. Further, the roads within Gaza are segregated and Palestinians and Isralis are issued different colored license plates to allow for easy identification. By limiting imports and nearly all exports, Israel's 16-year blockade has driven Gaza's economy to near-collapse, with unemployment rates above 40%, according to the World Bank. More than 65% of the population live under the poverty line, according to the U.N., with 63% of people in Gaza deemed “food insecure” by the World Food Program. Little psychological support exists for a generation of children who are “living with the long-term psychological effects of constant exposure to violence,” according to a U.N. report, which described an uptick of mental health issues, including depression, among young people living in the Gaza Strip. Israel controls food, water, electricity, internet, medicine and movement of the Palestinian people and have been annexing more and more of Gaza since 1948. Hamas, a Sunni Islamist political and military organization committed to armed resistance against Israel and the creation of an Islamic Palestinian state in Israel's place has been the de facto governing body in the Gaza Strip since 2007, when it ousted the Palestinian Authority from power. Several nations and governing bodies have labeled Hamas a terrorist organization which encompasses between 20,000 and 25,000 members. Events of October 7 On October 7, Palestinian militant groups led by Hamas launched over 3,500 rockets from the Gaza Strip into Israel and executed a surprise invasion by land, sea and air, breaking through the Gaza-Israel barrier to attack at least 22 locations in Israel's Southern District. Civilians were targeted in those locations, which included a music festival. Thousands of Israeli citizens were injured and at least 1400 were killed. In addition, over 200 people were taken hostage. Events since October 7 Israel began bombing and airstrikes on Gaza on the 7th of October. These continue through today, October 28th. On October 13th, Israel gave the 1 million residents of northern Gaza an order to evacuate to the south and if they did not, anyone left in the north would be considered a combatant. Israelis allowed one road for the evacuation, but during that time, they bombed the roads, targeting civilians and ambulances. On October 17th, Al-Alhi hospital was bombed, killing over 500 Palestinian refugees. The Israeli defense ministry claimed responsibility for the attack, but shortly after, they rescinded that statement and blamed a misfired Hamas rocket. Israel has ceased all water, food, electricity and medicine from entering Gaza. They have also blocked the only exit available to Gazans at the Egyptian border. Over 1,000,000 Palestinians have lost their homes to bombings. 22 hospitals have been shuttered. Surgeries, including amputations required by injuries from explosions are being performed without anesthesia or fresh water often by the lights of cell phones. As of October 27th, Israel has begun a ground offensive and shutdown the satellite access, silencing any Palestinian journalists and citizens from getting information out of Gaza. They have also warned that they believe Hamas has a stronghold underneath the largest hospital in Gaza, where 15,000 Palestinians are currently seeking refuge. One report states that between October 7 and 26, 7,028 Palestinians were killed, including 2,913 children. This figure is likely significantly less than the actual death toll as this is based on bodies recovered. There are hundreds of buildings that have been reduced to rubble and contain the remains of people that haven't yet been found. I could speak on this for hours, but we are trying to keep it as straightforward as possible, so I want to just end with some clarity on definitions. Western media is using the phrase “Israel-Hamas War” in most of their coverage. A war indicates an armed conflict between states or nations. A war requires two armies. Israel has the 10th largest army in the world and is backed by most if not all Western nations. Gaza, or Palestine, is comprised of 2.2 million people, half of which are children. A segment of Hamas is located within Gaza but they are not an army, they use largely improvised weapons as Israel dictates what comes in and out of Gaza. This is not a war. This is not defense. This is a calculated ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people. Gaza is often described as an open air prison - I used the term earlier - but this is also a euphemism. A prison indicates that the population are criminals, prosecuted and found guilty of a crime. A prison also requires that it's inhabitants are provided adequate food, water, and medical care. None of these requisites are true of Gaza. The population of Gaza have been convicted of no crimes, and the settler colony of Israel has control over it's water, food, electricity, communications, and medicine - that is a textbook definition of a concentration camp. Finally, the word genocide and ethnic cleansing are both being used, and both are accurate but they are not the same thing. Ethnic cleansing comprises the actions that can be used in the goal to remove members of an ethnic or religious group from an area. Genocide is the murder of an entire population. All genocide can be considered ethnic cleansing, but not all ethnic cleansing is genocide. It is clear that Israel has been guilty of humanitarian atrocities for decades. These have ramped up exponentially in the past month with unyielding aerial attacks, the use of white phosphorus, the targeting of hospitals, schools, and mosques, the silencing of Palestinians communication with the outside world and the denial of basic human needs to the 2.2 million civilians in Gaza, including over 1 million children. It is becoming more clear everyday that Israel seeks to finalize their purging of Palestinians from the land they have colonized by means of genocide. And many Palestinians are making the devastating decision to stay in their homes as long as possible, afraid they will leave and lose what little they have left the way their ancestors did in 1948. They are standing their ground believing that it's better to die in their homes as many of them have nothing left to lose. Evangelical POV: Genesis 12: 7 informs us: And the LORD appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the LORD, who appeared unto him. The previous verse tells us this: And Abram passed through the land unto the place of Sichem, unto the plain of Moreh. And the Canaanite was then in the land. This tells us that the promised land was always occupied by other peoples, other groups that had to be driven out so that Abraham and his descendants could settle there. When the Hebrew people, having escaped famine, settled in the borders outside of Egypt they multiplied and became a threat to the Egyptians who became concerned that in the event of a conflict, or threat to their empire, the Hebrews could be persuaded to side with the invaders attack Egypt. They were taken in to slavery for hundreds of years. Returning, they were told: And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey; unto the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites. Again, the land was inhabited, and these people were, under the holy wars initiated by Moses' successor, Joshua, these people were driven off, or in some cases, assimilated. Individual people, living among the Hebrews were made welcome, and given rights. “The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as one of your citizens; you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.” Leviticus 19:34. This story, the struggle of the Hebrew people to overcome obstacles and keep the land of their promise is central to Zionism. Evangelical Protestant Chrisitians, who largely follow a literal interpretation of scripture, have cited this set of scriptures, and endorsed and supported the idea of a Jewish homeland. The new evangelicalism, endorsed Israel for more sinister reasons. Dispensationalist writer, Hal Lindsey, began an elaborate and exact timeline for the return of Christ that started with Israel becoming a nation. From there he listed current events that must be fulfilled to anticipate this return, followed by years of tribulation, and a literal battle of Armageddon taking place on a ruin in Northern Israel. This belief has been endorsed by evangelical leaders like Pat Robertson and Jerry Fallwell. It has been made a part of modern Christian mythology with it's inclusion in the popular, “Left Behind,” series of books and films. Follow Amity on TikTok @sassyscribbler Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/withoutworks Email @ [withoutworkspod@gmail.com ](mailto:withoutworkspod@gmail.com)Our Internet home: [www.withoutworkspodcast.com ](http://www.withoutworkspodcast.com)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Promised_Land https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Zionism https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVuHgaTdysY https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt14bsxdg https://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/resource/zionism/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Settler_colonialism https://www.nbcnews.com/news/gaza-strip-controls-s-know-rcna119405 https://abcnews.go.com/International/timeline-long-history-israeli-palestinian-conflict/story?id=103875134 https://afsc.org/sites/default/files/documents/Palestinian%20Nonviolent%20Resistance%20to%20occupaltion%20since%201967.pdf https://www.usip.org/palestinian-politics-timeline-2006-election https://www.dni.gov/nctc/ftos/hamas_fto.html https://abcnews.go.com/International/timeline-surprise-rocket-attack-hamas-israel/story?id=103816006 https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/27/middleeast/gaza-death-toll-report-intl/index.html Reading List: My Father Was A Freedom Fighter: Gaza's Untold Story by Ramzy Baroud Palestinian Walks: Forays Into a Vanishing Landscape by Raja Shehadeh In the Presence of Absence by Richard Widerkehr On Zionist Literature by Ghassan Kanafani Wondrous Journeys in Strange Lands by Sonia Nimir Power Born of Dreams: My Story Is Palestine by Mohammad Sabaaneh Stories Under Occupation: And Other Plays from Palestine by Samer Al-Saber Palestine Is Throwing a Party and the Whole World Is Invited: Capital and State Building in the West Bank by Kareem Rabie Rifqa by Mohammed El-Kurd Of Noble Origins: A Palestinian Novel by Sahar Khalifeh My First and Only Love by Sahar Khalifeh Salt Houses by Hala Alyan
What brought long-term hostilities between Israel and Hamas to a boiling point, and what happens next? Ryan McBeth brings us in from Out of the Loop. Welcome to what we're calling our "Out of the Loop" episodes, where we dig a little deeper into fascinating current events that may only register as a blip on the media's news cycle and have conversations with the people who find themselves immersed in them. On This Episode of Out of the Loop with Ryan McBeth, We Discuss: Hamas, a Sunni Islamist group that seeks to establish an Islamic state in Palestine, launched a terrorist attack against Israel this week. Retaliation has been swift, but as many as 150 civilians (some of them American) are being held hostage. By the time this episode is published, Israel's death toll from these attacks has hit 1,200. More than 1,100 people have died in Israeli air strikes on Gaza. What started the feud between Israel and Hamas, how long these hostilities have been escalating, and what ignited the current round of atrocities. Contrary to popular belief, Hamas doesn't represent the majority of Palestinians currently suffering under Israeli retaliation. While it's impossible to predict how long this conflict will last, further escalation with the use of more destructive weaponry threatens both sides in a lose/lose war. And much more! Connect with Jordan on Twitter, on Instagram, and on YouTube. If you have something you'd like us to tackle here on an Out of the Loop episode, drop Jordan a line at jordan@jordanharbinger.com and let him know! Full show notes and resources can be found here: jordanharbinger.com/909 This Episode Is Brought To You By Our Fine Sponsors: jordanharbinger.com/deals Sign up for Six-Minute Networking — our free networking and relationship development mini course — at jordanharbinger.com/course! Like this show? Please leave us a review here — even one sentence helps! Consider including your Twitter handle so we can thank you personally!
This week, Dr. Jasser takes a look at the lead up to the ongoing demonstrations and growing revolution in Iran against the mullahs. Sparked by the heroism of #MahsaAmini, a tidal wave of support for the freedom of women to reject the compulsory "hijab" is spreading in Iran. Zuhdi talks about the elements of the uprising that few others are covering. Also, this week, the leading icon of Sunni Islamist ideology in the past 100 years, Yusuf Qaradawi passed last week at 96. Zuhdi talks about how revealing the condolences are that are pouring in from Muslim Brotherhood sympathizers and Islamist leaders in America. Long denied any affiliation with the Muslim Brotherhood, their praise for the radicalism, anti-Semitism, and anti-Americanism of Qaradawi speaks volumes. Keywords: Iran, Mullahs, Khomeinists, Islamists, Islam, Qaradawi, Muslim Brotherhood, ISIS, Al Qaeda, CAIR, ISNA, Zuhdi Jasser, AIFD, Muslim Reform Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Turkey's government increasingly supports a wide variety of Islamist groups in the West, and especially South Asian ones. Major Turkish media lionize South Asian Islamists in the United States and attack their critics. How did this relationship come about? Does it augur a new international Sunni Islamist axis?
10 years ago anti-government protests in Tunisia sparked a wave of spontaneous uprisings against authoritarian regimes in the Middle East and North Africa. The Arab Spring was met with repression by governments in the region, but ultimately led to the ousting of rulers such as Ben Ali in Tunisia, Muammar Gaddafi in Libya and Hosni Mubarak in Egypt. But the hope that these changes would usher a new era of democracy in the region has been belied. Michael Wahid Hanna (International Crisis Group) helps us understand the turbulent events of 2011 in Egypt, what changes they led to and why prospects for democracy in the country still appear bleak. Democracy in Question? is brought to you by:• The Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna: IWM• The Albert Hirschman Centre on Democracy in Geneva: AHCD• The Excellence Chair and Soft Authoritarianism Research Group in Bremen: WOC• The Podcast Company: Earshot StrategiesFollow us on social media!• Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna: @IWM_Vienna• Albert Hirschman Centre on Democracy in Geneva: @AHDCentreFollow Michael Wahid Hanna on Twitter: @mwhanna1Subscribe to the show. If you enjoyed what you listened to, you can support us by leaving a review and sharing our podcast in your networks! BIBLIOGRAPHY• Citizenship and its Discontents: The Struggle for Rights, Pluralism and Inclusion in the Middle East. (2019). Co-edited with Thanassis Cambanis.• Hybrid Actors: Armed Groups and State Fragmentation in the Middle East. (2010). Co-authored with Thanassis Cambanis.• Arab Politics beyond the Uprisings: Experiments in an Era of Resurgent Authoritarianism. (2017). Co-authored with Thanassis Cambanis. GLOSSARYWho are Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali and Muammar al-Gaddafi?(00:01:15 or p. 2 in the transcript)Ben Ali was a Tunisian politician who was the second President of Tunisia from 1987 until his fall in 2011 after the revolution of Tunisia. This revolution inspired uprisings in neighboring countries that came to be viewed as the Arab Spring. Ben Ali assumed the Presidency in 1987 in a bloodless coup d'état that ousted President Habib Bourguiba. Before his coup against Bourguiba, Ben Ali promised to move Tunisia towards democracy, but instead fixed elections that he won by majorities exceeding 90%, earning the nickname “Mr 99%”. He died 2019 in exile. Learn more.Muammar al-Gaddafi was a highly divisive Libyan revolutionary, politician and political theorist. He governed Libya as Revolutionary Chairman of the Libyan Arab Republic from 1969 to 1977 and then as the "Brotherly Leader" of the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya from 1977 to 2011. Amid the 2011 Arab Spring, protests against widespread corruption and unemployment broke out in Eastern Libya. The situation descended into civil war, in which NATO intervened militarily on the side of the anti-Gaddafist National Transitional Council. The government was overthrown and Gaddafi retreated to Sirte, only to be captured and killed by NTC militants. Learn more.What is the Tahrir Square?(00:01:15 or p. 2 in the transcript)Tahrir Square in Cairo has been the location and focus for political demonstrations, most notably those that led to the 2011 Egyptian revolution and the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak.What is the Muslim Brotherhood and who is Mohamed Morsi?(00:04:30 or p. 5 in the transcript)The Muslim Brotherhood is a transnational Sunni Islamist organization founded in Egypt by Islamic scholar Hassan al-Banna in 1928. Al-Banna's teachings spread far beyond Egypt, influencing today various Islamist movements from charitable organizations to political parties—not all using the same name.In 2011 the Arab Spring revolution ousted Hosni Mubarak, Egypt’s president since 1981. Elections in June the following year brought the Muslim Brotherhood to power. The Brotherhood’s Mohamed Morsi became new president. Although in 2012 Mohamed Morsi became Egypt’s first democratically elected president, a year later he was overthrown by the military and held in prison on a series of convictions. In 2016 he was moved to the notorious Tora prison, near Cairo. He has died at the age of 67 after collapsing in court during a retrial of charges of espionage for the Palestinian Hamas organization. Learn more.Who are Gamal Abdel Nasser, Anwar el-Sadat, and Hosni Mubarak?(00:10:00 or p. 7 in the transcript)Gamal Abdel Nasser Hussein was an Egyptian politician who served as the second President of Egypt from 1954 until his death in 1970. Learn more.Muhammad Anwar el-Sadat was a close confidant of President Gamal Abdel Nasser, under whom he served as Vice President twice and whom he succeeded as president in 1970. He serves as President of Egypt until his assassination by fundamentalist army officers in 1981. Learn more.Hosni Mubarak took power in 1981 after the assassination of Anwar el-Sadat. He was the second Arab leader to be toppled by the 2011 Arab Spring protests. He died in 2020. Click here and here to learn more.As mentioned above, Mohamed Morsi from the Muslim Brotherhood became president next. In 2013 former general, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, seized power in a military coup that ousted the country’s only democratically elected government. Abdel Fatah as-Sisi has been President of Egypt since.What happened in 1967?(00:11:00 or p. 7 in the transcript)The Six-Day War, also called June War or Third Arab-Israeli War or Naksah, is a brief war that took place June 5–10, 1967, and was the third of the Arab-Israeli wars. Click here and here to learn more.Who is Abd al-Fattah as-Sisi?(00:18:00 or p. 11 in the transcript)In 2013 former general, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, seized power in a military coup that ousted the country’s only democratically elected government. Abdel Fatah as-Sisi has been President of Egypt since. Learn more.Who was Habib Bourguiba?(00:18:00 or p. 13 in the transcript)Habib Bourguiba was a Tunisian lawyer, nationalist leader and statesman who led the country from 1956 to 1987 as Prime minister of the Kingdom of Tunisia and then as the first President of Tunisia (1957–87). Prior to his presidency, he led the nation to independence from France. He was ousted by his abovementioned prime minister, Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, who was himself overthrown decades later during the Arab Spring uprising in 2011. Learn more.
Dr. Chris Anzalone is the new Research Assistant Professor at Middle East Studies. Dr. Anzalone studied at George Mason University completing a B.A. double major in History and Religious Studies. He did graduate work at Indiana University, Bloomington, completing an M.A. in Near Eastern studies, and earned his doctorate through McGill University in Islamic Studies with a primary geographical focus on the Middle East and Sub-Saharan Africa (particularly East Africa), and additional research on South Asia. His main research focuses broadly on contemporary Islam and Muslim societies with a particular interest on Islamic political thought and different Muslim social and political movements. Dr. Anzalone has special interest in radical and militant Islamist movements and organizations, both Sunni and Shi'ite, and issues of sectarianism in Islam. His dissertation and ongoing early stage first book project looks at the use of symbols and symbolic power as a tool of soft power by Islamist rebel/insurgent groups that seek to set up proto-states/territorial governance (for example, Al-Shabaab in Somalia and Islamic State/ISIS/ISIL). He has published on these topics and most of his publications can be freely viewed and downloaded here: https://gmu.academia.edu/ChristopherAnzalone. In this episode, Dr. Anzalone examines the advent of Islamist rebel governing projects in different regions of the world as an opportunity to link the empirical study of these groups with the broader, emerging academic literature on rebel governance as well as studies of political Islam(s) and religion and violence. He considers how Al-Shabaab as a governing organization uses symbols as a form of soft power to complement their military forces, examining, where appropriate, the Somali group alongside other Sunni Islamist rebel proto-state actors including Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL). Intro/outro music is "Evolution" from BenSound.com (https://www.bensound.com) Follow the Krulak Center's activities below: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brute.krulak.39 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thekrulakcenter/ Twitter: @TheKrulakCenter YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcIYZ84VMuP8bDw0T9K8S3g Krulak Center homepage on The Landing: https://unum.nsin.us/kcic
Keri and Carter speak with David Reaboi. David is the president of Strategic Improvisation, a communications company focused on developing and executing impactful and flexible strategies for a variety of clients in the national security world. Over the last decade, he has created and grown dozens of websites and online publishing platforms, as well as run public policy and communications campaigns with budgets in the millions of dollars. As a subject matter expert, he works at the intersection of communications and policy, specializing in Sunni Islamist movements and political philosophy. He has ghostwritten or contributed to several books on the Muslim Brotherhood. He received a BA from George Washington University in International Affairs, with a concentration in the history of the Cold War. He is a Claremont Institute Lincoln Fellow, and his work appears at The Federalist, Claremont Review of Books, The Washington Times, American Greatness, National Review, the Jewish Journal, Human Events, The American Mind, RedState, and PJMedia. He lives in Miami Beach. Follow him on Twitter at: @davereaboi Thanks for watching! Please don't forget to like, subscribe, and share. Follow us on the following social media channels...at least until we get banned: Twitter: @unsafespace Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/unsafepage Instagram: @_unsafespace Gab: @unsafe Minds: @unsafe Parler: @unsafespace Telegram Chat: https://t.me/joinchat/H4OUclXTz4xwF9EapZekPg Pick up some Unsafe Space merch at unsafespace.com! YouTube link to video version of this episode: https://youtu.be/1gDao7xD7Uk
Keri and Carter speak with David Reaboi. David is the president of Strategic Improvisation, a communications company focused on developing and executing impactful and flexible strategies for a variety of clients in the national security world. Over the last decade, he has created and grown dozens of websites and online publishing platforms, as well as run public policy and communications campaigns with budgets in the millions of dollars. As a subject matter expert, he works at the intersection of communications and policy, specializing in Sunni Islamist movements and political philosophy. He has ghostwritten or contributed to several books on the Muslim Brotherhood. He received a BA from George Washington University in International Affairs, with a concentration in the history of the Cold War. He is a Claremont Institute Lincoln Fellow, and his work appears at The Federalist, Claremont Review of Books, The Washington Times, American Greatness, National Review, the Jewish Journal, Human Events, The American Mind, RedState, and PJMedia. He lives in Miami Beach. Follow him on Twitter at: @davereaboi Thanks for watching! Please don't forget to like, subscribe, and share. Follow us on the following social media channels...at least until we get banned: Twitter: @unsafespace Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/unsafepage Instagram: @_unsafespace Gab: @unsafe Minds: @unsafe Parler: @unsafespace Telegram Chat: https://t.me/joinchat/H4OUclXTz4xwF9EapZekPg Pick up some Unsafe Space merch at unsafespace.com! YouTube link to video version of this episode: https://youtu.be/1gDao7xD7Uk
David Reaboi is a strategic communications consultant, a national security, a political warfare expert, and a jazz musician. He has written extensively on the Middle East, the Arabian Gulf and Sunni Islamist movements. Trump has fostered a new era of nationalism, security, and peace for the Middle East. Together we talk Jazz, Trump, and the Middle East. Reaboi explains all. Listen now:
The Syrian civil war has been replaced by a clash of regional and global rivals with their local clients. Various conflicts are currently being played out on Syrian soil: Israel vs. Iran, Turkey vs. PKK, Assad regime vs. Turkey, US-led coalition vs. ISIS, Russia vs. US, and (still) the Assad regime vs. Sunni Islamist insurgents. Will the current situation become semi-permanent or will Damascus reimpose its rule throughout the country?
The Roy Green Show Podcast - National polling shows Andrew Scheer and the Conservative Party of Canada widening its lead over Justin Trudeau's Liberals, the New Democrats and the Greens. Andrew Scheer joins Roy for the start of the podcast, to discuss the attacks and accusations from the Liberal party and what he thinks of the lead. Wind power. Is it a real answer to climate needs? Dr. Tom Lehr, Senior Policy Analyst with the Climate Science Coalition, says no says in a piece titled "Debunking the Left's Wind-Power Myths." Dr. Lehr, who received the first U.S. Ph.D in Groundwater Hydrology and Geological Engineering at Princeton, explains his article and what people need to know about wind power. The Canada Terrorism Threat Report has been revised. When it was first issued in December, it identified attackers "inspired by violent Sunni Islamist ideology" as the main terrorist threat to Canada. Now in the revised version of the report the federal government has removed all references to Islamist extremism: Sunni (Islamic State) and Shia (Hezbollah). Also gone is the section headings on both types of terrorism. Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale's office argues the December version of the report "unintentionally maligned certain communities" and the revision of the report was to deliver a "bias-free approach" to terminology, adding "the impact of these terms may not be readily apparent to some who come from places of privilege, who seldom experience judgement based on skin colour or religion alone." Tom Quiggin. Court (federal and criminal) qualified expert on terrorism takes issue with this, and he explains why. Scott Newark, Former Alberta prosecutor and executive officer with the Canadian Police Association, speaks on the latest from the Admiral Mark Norman case. Intense violence has broken out between militants in Gaza and Israel. 450 rockets fired into Israel over 24 hours and the Israeli air force responded with 220 air strikes. David Rubin, former Mayor of Shilo, Israel, and his children were wounded in an earlier militant attack. He joins the podcast and speaks to the current violence, the Holocaust, the State of Israel and rising anti-Semitism. - Guests: Andrew Scheer. CPC leader. Conservative Party launches a series of 30" attack ads against Trudeau. Dr. Tom Lehr, Senior Policy Analyst with the Climate Science Coalition. Received first U.S. Ph.D in Groundwater Hydrology and Geological Engineering degree at Princeton. Widely published author of scientific articles and books Tom Quiggin, federal and criminal Court qualified expert on terrorism who testified to the Air India Inquiry, the Special Senate Committee on anti-terrorism; worked with RCMP, CAF, UN.; host of the podcast, The Quiggin Report Scott Newark, Former Alberta prosecutor, executive officer with the Canadian Police Association; Head of Office for Victims of Crime (ON), adjunct professor Simon Fraser University David Rubin, Former Mayor of Shilo, Israel, Author of 'Trump and the Jews' See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Iranian FM Zarif's resignation is rejected Iranian President Rouhani on Wednesday, officially rejected Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif's resignation. #JAVADZARIF #IRAN __________________ 2. Israeli PM arrives in Moscow Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara, arrived in Moscow for the Prime Minister's 11th round of talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin since 2015. #MOSCOW #NETANYAHU ____________________ Release the details of the ‘Ultimate Deal' Dr. Martin Sherman, Founder & Executive Director of the IISS joins us in the studio to speak about Jared Kushner, The Special Adviser to United States President Trump postponing the publishing of the so-called ‘Ultimate Deal.' #JAREDKUSHNER #ULTIMATEDEAL ___________________ Israel & Palestinian high school students engage 150 Israeli and Palestinian students were hard at work creating a peace plan of their own at the University of Haifa on Monday - the largest gathering of its kind in the Middle East. #HAIFAUNIVERSITY #PEACEPLAN ___________________ Otzma Yehudit may sit on judges selection panel The Jewish Home/Otzma Yehudit merger includes a clause stipulating that the latter party would work to be represented in a Knesset Parliamentary Committee that selects judges. #OTZMAYEHUDIT #JEWISHHOME ___________________ Facebook Ad transparency to roll out by mid-march Facebook announced that it will launch a political ad transparency tool, which will force advertisements to identify their sources by mid-March. #FACEBOOK #FAKENEWS ___________________ Israeli Forces arrest dozens overnight Israeli Police again arrested the Palestinian Authority-appointed Mayor of Jerusalem, Adnan Geith, as well as his attorney. #ADNANGEITH #PA ___________________ Argentine Rabbi assaulted and robbed An attack against the Chief Rabbi of the Amia Jewish Center Gabriel Davidovich in Buenos Aires. People are starting to question the motive of the attackers, if Anti-Semitic or not. #GABRIELDAVIDOVICH #BUENOSAIRES ___________________ 9. Amnesty International backs Gazan journalist's appeal Hajar Harb faces criminal charges for report on corruption in Gaza's Health Ministry, making her the first journalist to be persecuted by the Sunni-Islamist political party over news coverage. #AMNESTYINTERNATIONAL #GAZA ___________________ Israel is ranked 10th healthiest country on earth Israel has just been ranked the tenth healthiest country in the world according to a report by Bloomberg. #BLOOMBERGINDEX #HEALTHY ___________________ Israel uncovers 1,600-year-old Samaritan estate An estate belonging to a wealthy Samaritan individual some 1,600 years ago has just been discovered by the Israel Antiquities Authority. #IAA #SAMARITAN ___________________ Hebrew word of the Day: הקדשה = INSCRIPTION / DEDICATION Learn a New Hebrew word every day. Today's word is ' HAKDASHA' which means ‘INSCRIPTION OR DEDICATION.' #LEARNHEBREW #HEBREWWORDOFDAY #ILTVHEBREWWORDOFDAY ___________________ The Weather Forecast Tonight should be a bit rainy and cool, with a low of fifty-three or twelve degrees Celsius. Then tomorrow you can expect more rain and no change in temperatures. The high should be about fifty-eight or fourteen degrees Celsius. #ISRAELWEATHER #ISRAELFORECAST ___________________ Iranian President Rouhani refuses to accept Foreign Minister Zarif's resignation, Israeli lawmakers look to bar the extremist Otzma Yehudit party from politics and the Israel Antiquities Authority unearths a rare 16,00 year old Samaritan estate. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
It's hard to believe there are Americans who refuse to admit, are in denial, or actual allies of the global Muslim Brotherhood. This week Dr. Jasser on the heels of providing testimony to the Subcommittee on National Security of the House Committee on Government Oversight and Government Reform will share with you the obvious reality about the "Mothership" and the primary cancer of most radical Sunni Islamist organizations and Muslim Brotherhood. The Democrats provided a witness, Amb Daniel Benjamin, who went out of his way to defend the viability and so called democratic elements of the Muslim Brotherhood. Dr. Jasser will share with you his outrage and what lies behind the red-green access between supposedly respectable people on the left in the United States and global Islamist of the Muslim Brotherhood working from countries like Qatar and Turkey. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Don't miss this episode. After a week away, Zuhdi looks at what July 4th means to him as an American and also what Muslim reformers can learn from the battle for independence against Britain's theocrats. Dr. Jasser will take you through the transformations in Egypt in 2011 and 2013 and the lessons of the rise and fall of the Muslim Brotherhood. Recip Erdogan wins another election in Turkey this week and is becoming the most entrenched Sunni Islamist tyrant on the planet. Why we should pay attention and his oft-ignored connection to American Islamists. A UK imam gets a slap on the wrist for beating, molesting over 100 young children at his mosque. Last, the desert mirage of Saudi Arabia's MBS reforms. What should we watch for? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Adam joins the show to discuss the emergence of small salafist militant groups in Gaza and their ongoing conflict with Hamas. Adam explains the difference between Sunni Islamist politics and salafist jihadism in the context of the Israeli government's policy of targeting Hamas for any actions taken by other Gazan factions. The Movements is a leftist history and politics podcast. Subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher and Google Play. Transcripts may be requested for accessibility reasons by e-mailing movementspod@gmail.com. Find us on facebook and twitter @movementspod and support the show by donating at https://www.patreon.com/movementspodSupport the show (https://www.patreon.com/movementspod)
Does the recent Middle East crisis with Qatar confuse you? If so, you won't want to miss this episode of "Reform This!". Dr. Jasser will try to unravel the stark ideological divisions and obvious Islamist commonalities of Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, UAE, and the Muslim Brotherhood. The lines are certainly blurred and the more you understand the internecine Islamist battles between Wahhabis and the Muslim Brothers, the more you'll understand what's really at stake for the world. Zuhdi also talks about which countries have the greatest ISIS sympathetic twitter activity and why. Last, Zuhdi asks why did Alan Dershowitz decide to help defend the practice of a female genital "pin prick" in the name of religious freedom. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Tired of the myopic focus on Syria and the platitudes over whether to intervene or not? In this episode of the Conservative Conscience, Daniel is joined by Patrick Poole, the senior national security correspondent for PJ Media and one of the foremost experts on the Middle East. (whose views are unfortunately never represented among the smart set in DC). Patrick discusses the folly of focusing on any one player in a vacuum and the need to a take a holistic approach putting our interests first. Through a deep and far reaching discussion of the Middle East and Africa, we explore the observations that are missed by the failed foreign policy “wonks” in both parties, who are now dragging this president into the same sinkhole of the past. Many policymakers are missing the fact that Christian parts of Africa are falling to Islamists every week and the media ignores the mass genocide in the region just because the victims are not Muslims engaged in civil wars. Patrick calls for a complete operational pause and audit of all our engagements in the Middle East – from direct combat, to arming and training dubious and even dangerous entities – so that we can devise a holistic policy that addresses both the Iranian and Sunni Islamist threats from a position of strength with consistency that will serve our interests. Patrick observes that right now, as it relates to conservatives in this administration, we are like the first wave at Omaha Beach getting mowed down by the swamp creatures. We need a successful second, third, and fourth wave to establish a beachhead or this administration will be lost on critical national security policies. Are we going to have our foreign policy dictated by prudence and the facts on the ground as they relate to our interests or are we going to be goaded into more mistakes by yellow journalism? Patrick Poole navigates the toughest waters of the Middle East swamp. Key quotes: "Peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations; entangling alliances with none.” Thomas Jefferson Show links: Jared Kushner now trying to take over national security Drug use on the rise among Navy SEALs who are being stretched thin in a meat grinder We need to bring back Congress’ power over declaring war No more ground troops: Trump must be careful that Syria doesn’t become his Iraq Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Since the ‘Arab Spring' uprising of 2011, the United States and a network of European and regional Sunni allies have applied instruments of coercion against Syria that collectively take on the character of ‘hybrid warfare'. In this conflict, Washington and its alliance partners have undertaken a wide range of lethal and non-lethal covert operations, with heavy reliance placed upon those performed by regional Sunni allies. By empowering jihadis as proxies, President Obama has borrowed much from the Reagan administration's Afghan playbook. As he signaled the launch of this campaign in August 2011, President Obama served notice that the United States would be “pressuring President Assad to step aside”. But one year later, a Defence Intelligence Agency report revealed a hitherto unacknowledged sectarian war goal: the establishment of a “declared or undeclared Salafist Principality in eastern Syria”. It geo-political function would be to break the Shiite crescent. As of today, this hybrid war has produced not just one, but a conglomeration of religiously cleansed Sunni Islamist principalities in northern and eastern Syria. Some are controlled by the Islamic State and al-Qaida, while others are dominated by so-called moderate armies and militias. Among the latter are Washington-backed jihadist formations, such as Jaish al-Fateh and Jaish al-Islam. In all of these principalities, social pluralism has been replaced by Sunni supremacism, impacting not only religious minorities, but also non-Islamist, secular Sunni Muslims. This presentation will demonstrate the relationship between the dynamics of Washington's hybrid war in Syria and the process of religious cleansing and the dismantling of state structures that support social pluralism.
Since the ‘Arab Spring’ uprising of 2011, the United States and a network of European and regional Sunni allies have applied instruments of coercion against Syria that collectively take on the character of ‘hybrid warfare’. In this conflict, Washington and its alliance partners have undertaken a wide range of lethal and non-lethal covert operations, with heavy reliance placed upon those performed by regional Sunni allies. By empowering jihadis as proxies, President Obama has borrowed much from the Reagan administration’s Afghan playbook. As he signaled the launch of this campaign in August 2011, President Obama served notice that the United States would be “pressuring President Assad to step aside”. But one year later, a Defence Intelligence Agency report revealed a hitherto unacknowledged sectarian war goal: the establishment of a “declared or undeclared Salafist Principality in eastern Syria”. It geo-political function would be to break the Shiite crescent. As of today, this hybrid war has produced not just one, but a conglomeration of religiously cleansed Sunni Islamist principalities in northern and eastern Syria. Some are controlled by the Islamic State and al-Qaida, while others are dominated by so-called moderate armies and militias. Among the latter are Washington-backed jihadist formations, such as Jaish al-Fateh and Jaish al-Islam. In all of these principalities, social pluralism has been replaced by Sunni supremacism, impacting not only religious minorities, but also non-Islamist, secular Sunni Muslims. This presentation will demonstrate the relationship between the dynamics of Washington’s hybrid war in Syria and the process of religious cleansing and the dismantling of state structures that support social pluralism.
Dr. Jasser lays bare why the over $100 million into Clinton Foundation coffers and any American leaders and organizations from foreign Gulf petro-Islamists matter to national security and what they get for that investment. Zuhdi will shed light on how Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE buy suppression of free speech, blasphemy laws against the West obstructing real reform, and how they buy global repression against revolutions and the voices of freedom in their own jail cells. Dr. Jasser introduces you to Sheikh Yusuf Qaradawi, the world's leading Sunni Islamist radicalizer, Muslim Brotherhood font, and Al Jazeera televangelist, based in Qatar, ground zero of the global information war from political Islam. What should be our strategy against global Islamism and petro-Islam? Zuhdi explains why the senate legislation passed this week called "Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act" allowing 9-11 families to sue the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and any other foreign terrorism sponsor is a major breakthrough and why Americans must protest a pending shameful veto threat by President Obama. Finally, the good, the bad, and the ugly, about London's new and first Muslim mayor- Sadiq Khan. Khan's overwhelming election exposes the false grievance narrative of western Islamist groups who constantly whine about "anti-Muslim of bigotry". It, however, does appear that the new mayor, one of the most powerful politicians in the UK is far more likley to be an ally of Islamists than a leader of any real anti-Islamist reform. Follow Dr. Jasser on social media:Twitter: @DrZuhdiJasser Facebook: MZuhdiJasser TheBlaze.com/radio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, a military pilot who has served in Iraq, called for U.S. air and drone strikes targeting the Sunni Islamist rebels who have taken over cities in northern Iraq. He now joins The Roe Conn Show with Richard Roeper.
Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, a military pilot who has served in Iraq, called for U.S. air and drone strikes targeting the Sunni Islamist rebels who have taken over cities in northern Iraq. He now joins The Roe Conn Show with Richard Roeper.