A truly seismic change in the Middle East appears to be happening very fast. At its heart is a devil’s bargain – Turkey and the Gulf States accept the annihilation of the Palestinian nation and creation of a Greater Israel, in return for the annihilation of the Shia minorities of Syria and Lebanon and the imposition of Salafism across the Eastern Arab world.
This also spells the end for Lebanon and Syria’s Christian communities, as witness the tearing down of all Christmas decorations, the smashing of all alcohol and the forced imposition of the veil on women in Aleppo now.
Yesterday US Warthog air-to-ground jets attacked and severely depleted reinforcements which were, at the invitation of the Syrian government, en route to Syria from Iraq. Constant, daily Israeli airstrikes on Syria’s military infrastructure for months have been a major factor in the demoralisation and reduced capacity of the Syrian government’s Syrian Arab Army, which has simply evaporated in Aleppo and Hama.
It is very difficult to see the tide turning in Syria. The Russians now have either to massively reinforce their Syrian bases with ground troops or to evacuate them. Faced with the exigencies of Ukraine, they may do the latter, and it is reported that the Russian navy has already set sail from Tartus.
The speed of collapse of Syria has taken everybody by surprise. If the situation does not stabilise, Damascus could be besieged and ISIS back on the hills above the Bekaa valley within a week, given the speed of their advance and the short distances involved.
A renewed Israeli attack on Southern Lebanon to coincide with a Salafist invasion of the Bekaa Valley would then seem inevitable, as the Israelis would obviously wish their border with their new Taliban-style Greater Syrian neighbour to be as far North as possible. It could be a race for Beirut, unless the Americans have already organised who gets it.
It is no coincidence that the attack on Syria started the day of the Lebanon/Israel ceasefire. The jihadist forces do not want to be seen to be fighting alongside Israel, even though they are fighting forces which have been relentlessly bombed by Israel, and in the case of Hezbollah are exhausted from fighting Israel.
The Times of Israel has no compunction about saying the quiet part out loud, unlike the British media:
In fact Israeli media is giving a lot more truth about the Syrian rebel forces than British and American media just now. This is another article from the Times of Israel:
While HTS officially seceded from Al Qaeda in 2016, it remains a Salafi jihadi organization designated as a terror organization in the US, the EU and other countries, with tens of thousands of fighters.
Its sudden surge raises concerns that a potential takeover of Syria could transform it into an Islamist, Taliban-like regime – with repercussions for Israel at its south-western border. Others, however, see the offensive as a positive development for Israel and a further blow to the Iranian axis in the region.
Contrast this to the UK media, which from the Telegraph and Express to the Guardian has promoted the official narrative that not just the same organisations, but the same people responsible for mass torture and executions of non-Sunnis, including Western journalists, are now cuddly liberals.
Nowhere is this more obvious than the case of Abu Mohammad Al-Jolani, sometimes spelt Al-Julani or Al-Golani, who is now being boosted throughout western media as a moderate leader. He was the deputy leader of ISIS, and the CIA actually has a $10 million bounty on his head! Yes, that is the same CIA which is funding and equipping him and giving him air support.
Supporters of the Syrian rebels still attempt to deny that they have Israeli and US support – despite the fact that almost a decade ago there was open Congressional testimony in the USA that, to that point, over half a billion dollars had been spent on assistance to Syrian rebel forces, and the Israelis have openly been providing medical and other services to the jihadists and effective air support.
One interesting consequence of this joint NATO/Israel support for the jihadist groups in Syria is a further perversion of domestic rule of law. To take the UK as an example, under Section 12 of the Terrorism Act it is illegal to state an opinion that supports, or may lead somebody else to support, a proscribed organisation.
The abuse of this provision by British police to persecute Palestinian supporters for allegedly encouraging support for proscribed organisations Hamas and Hezbollah is notorious, with even tangential alleged references leading to arrest. Sarah Wilkinson, Richard Medhurst, Asa Winstanley, Richard Barnard and myself are all notable victims, and the persecution has been greatly intensified by Keir Starmer.
Yet Hay’at Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) is also a proscribed group in the UK. But both British mainstream media and British Muslim outlets have been openly promoting and praising HTS for a week – frankly much more openly than I have ever witnessed anyone in the UK support Hamas and Hezbollah – and not a single person has been arrested or even warned by UK police.
That in itself is the strongest of indications that western security services are fully behind the current attack on Syria.
For the record, I think it is an appalling law, and nobody should be prosecuted for expressing an opinion either way. But the politically biased application of the law is undeniable.
When the entire corporate and state media in the West puts out a unified narrative that Syrians are overjoyed to be released by HTS from the tyranny of the Assad regime – and says nothing whatsoever of the accompanying torture and execution of Shias, and destruction of Christmas decorations and icons – it ought to be obvious to everybody where this is coming from.
Yet – and this is another UK domestic repercussion – a very substantial number of Muslims in the UK support HTS and the Syrian rebels, because of the funding pumped into UK mosques from Saudi and Emirate Salafist sources. This is allied to the UK security service influence also wielded through the mosques, both by sponsorship programmes and “think tanks” benefiting approved religious leaders, and by the execrable coercive Prevent programme.
UK Muslim outlets that have been ostensibly pro-Palestinian – like Middle East Eye and 5 Pillars – enthusiastically back Israel’s Syrian allies in ensuring the destruction of resistance to the genocide of the Palestinians. Al Jazeera alternates between items detailing dreadful massacre in Palestine, and items extolling the Syrian rebels bringing Israel-allied rule to Syria.
Among the mechanisms they employ to reconcile this is a refusal to acknowledge the vital role of Syria in enabling the supply of weapons from Iran to Hezbollah. Which supply the jihadists have now cut off, to the absolute delight of Israel, and in conjunction with both Israeli and US air strikes.
In the final analysis, for many Sunni Muslims both in the Middle East and in the West, the pull seems to be stronger of sectarian hatred of the Shia and the imposition of Salafism, than preventing the ultimate destruction of the Palestinian nation.
I am not a Muslim. My Muslim friends happen to be almost entirely Sunni. I personally regard the continuing division over the leadership of the religion over a millennium ago as deeply unhelpful and a source of unnecessary continued hate.
But as a historian I do know that the western colonial powers have consciously and explicitly used the Sunni/Shia split for centuries to divide and rule. In the 1830’s, Alexander Burnes was writing reports on how to use the division in Sind between Shia rulers and Sunni populations to aid British colonial expansion.
On 12 May 1838, in his letter from Simla setting out his decision to launch the first British invasion of Afghanistan, British Governor General Lord Auckland included plans to exploit Shia/Sunni division in both Sind and Afghanistan to aid the British military attack.
The colonial powers have been doing it for centuries, Muslim communities keep falling for it, and the British and Americans are doing it right now to further their remodelling of the Middle East.
Simply put, many Sunni Muslims have been brainwashed into hating Shia Muslims more than they hate those currently committing genocide of an overwhelmingly Sunni population in Gaza.
I refer to the UK because I witnessed this first hand during the election campaign in Blackburn. But the same is true all over the Muslim world. Not one Sunni Muslim-led state has lifted a single finger to prevent the genocide of the Palestinians.
Their leadership is using anti-Shia sectarianism to maintain popular support for a de facto alliance with Israel against the only groups – Iran, Houthi and Hezbollah – which actually did attempt to give the Palestinians practical support in resistance. And against the Syrian government which facilitated supply.
The unspoken but very real bargain is this. The Sunni powers will accept the wiping out of the entire Palestinian nation and formation of Greater Israel, in return for the annihilation of the Shia communities in Syria and Lebanon by Israel and forces backed by NATO (including Turkey).
There are, of course, contradictions in this grand alliance. The United States’ Kurdish allies in Iraq are unlikely to be happy with Turkey’s destruction of Kurdish groups in Syria, which is what Erdoğan gains from Turkey’s very active military role in toppling Syria – in addition to extending Turkish control of oilfields.
The Iran-friendly Iraqi government will have further difficulty with reconciling US continuing occupation of swathes of its country, as they realise they are the next target.
The Lebanese army is under control of the USA, and Hezbollah must have been greatly weakened to have agreed the disastrous ceasefire with Israel. Christian fascist militias traditionally allied to Israel are increasingly visible in parts of Beirut, though whether they would be stupid enough to make common cause with jihadists from the North may be open to question. But should Syria fall entirely to jihadist rule – which may happen fast – I do not rule out Lebanon following very quickly indeed, and being integrated into a Salafist Greater Syria.
How the Palestinians of Jordan would react to this disastrous turn of events, it is hard to be sure. The British puppet Hashemite Kingdom is the designated destination for ethnically cleansed West Bank Palestinians under the Greater Israel plan.
What this all potentially amounts to is the end of pluralism in the Levant and its replacement by supremacism. An ethno-supremacist Greater Israel and a religio-supremacist Salafist Greater Syria.
Unlike many readers, I have never been a fan of the Assad regime or blind to its human rights violations. But what it did undeniably do was maintain a pluralist state where the most amazing historical religious and community traditions – including Sunni (and many Sunni do support Assad), Shia, Alaouites, descendants of the first Christians, and speakers of Aramaic, the language of Jesus – were all able to co-exist.
The same is true of Lebanon.
What we are witnessing is the destruction of that and imposition of a Saudi-style rule. All the little cultural things that indicate pluralism – from Christmas trees to language classes to winemaking to women going unveiled – have just been destroyed in Aleppo and could be destroyed from Damascus to Beirut.
I do not pretend that there are not genuine liberal democrats among the opposition to Assad. But they have negligible military significance, and the idea that they would be influential in a new government is delusion.
In Israel, which pretended to be a pluralist state, the mask is off. The Muslim call to prayer has just been banned. Arab minority members of the Knesset have been suspended for criticising Netanyahu and genocide. More walls and gates are built every day, not just in unlawfully occupied territories but in the “state of Israel” itself, to enforce apartheid.
I confess I once had the impression that Hezbollah was itself a religio-supremacist organisation; the dress and style of its leadership look theocratic. Then I came here and visited places like Tyre, which has been under Hezbollah elected local government for decades, and found that swimwear and alcohol are allowed on the beach and the veil is optional, while there are completely unmolested Christian communities there.
I will never now see Gaza, but wonder if I might have been similarly surprised by Hamas rule.
It is the United States which is promoting the cause of religious extremism and of the end, all over the Middle East, of a societal pluralism similar to Western norms. That is of course a direct consequence of the United States being allied to both the two religio-supremacist centres of Israel and Saudi Arabia.
It is the USA which is destroying pluralism, and it is Iran and its allies which defend pluralism. I would not have seen this clearly had I not come here. But once seen, it is blindingly obvious.
Beirut 6 December 2024
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“Starmer welcomes fall of Assad’s ‘barbaric regime’ ”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cpq9l24ledpo
“Starmer invites Saudi crown prince to Britain ”
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/12/09/si-keir-starmer-invites-mohammed-bin-salman-to-uk/
“Starmer defends seeking investment from ‘key partner’ Saudi Arabia”
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/keir-starmer-saudi-arabia-jamal-khashoggi-prime-minister-crown-prince-b2661415.html
Why do you consider Starmer to be an amoral fraud but the Genocide Democrats good and admirable? I seem to be the only one who doesn’t understand.
Starmer UK and USA democrats are as bad as each other
Same day. They have no shame at all, Keir and his ilks are nothing but psychopaths that could speak of human rights in one moment and then switch to support top human rights violators.
For all the condemnation of brutal tactics in Syria jails:
Leaked reports reveal severe abuse of Saudi political prisoners
Exclusive: cuts, burns and bruising documented, despite government denials of torture
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/mar/31/leaked-reports-reveal-abuse-saudi-arabia-political-prisoners
Not to mention the wealth of the saudis is way bigger than that of Assad. Just some years ago the corrupt saudi rulership purged, under the cover of fighting corruption, and stole billions worth of money.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the Saudi government targeted cash and assets worth up to $800 billion
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017%E2%80%932019_Saudi_Arabian_purge
Since forthcoming developments in Damascus are likely to be of prime importance for the future of the Middle East, it would be extremely useful to have live reporting from there by a journalist we can fully trust, instead of reading the dubious stories of the mainstream media, especially in these early days of the new regime.
Is Craig Murray perhaps considering moving on to Syria , at least for a short trip? After all, starting from Beirut, Damascus is about as close as Tyre for instance…
You appear to believe the liberators would warmly welcome an anti-imperialist journalist who has informed people of the liberators’ head chopping and friendliness to Israel.
I certainly don’t believe any such thing.
Meanwhile, where there’s a will, there’s a way. And presumably, the current situation won’t be repeated for decades.
Craig is trying to arrange a visa to enter Syria. He posted about it on X/Twitter:
“Craig Murray @CraigMurrayOrg
Today we are trying to get to areas along the Lebanese/Syrian border to report, although things are obviously a little fraught.
To get in to Syria needs a visa, and in the current chaos that’s not immediate.
Dec 10, 2024 · 6:03 AM UTC”
Excellent. I had the feeling he would try. We need more people as brave as him. Go Craig!
Shamina Begum will now claim she is HTS and not ISIS in the hope that HTS’s status will change.
Why not? She’s seen how well it has worked for Al-jolani.
So, Israel is occupying Syria right now.
…the occupation forces are penetrating the southern Damascus countryside adjacent to the Lebanese border and have occupied the village of Hina and are advancing to the outskirts of Khan al-Sheikh, which is affiliated with the Qatana area and opposite the Rashaya district inside Lebanese territory.
…Israeli tanks are standing less than 3 km from the city of Qatana in the southern Damascus countryside, which is about 20 km from Damascus.
…the Israeli army occupied the villages and towns of Arna, Baqasem, Rayma, Hina, Qalaat Jandal, Al-Husayniyah and Jubata Al-Khashab in the southern Damascus countryside.
…the drones have been continuously bombing the city of Damascus since the night hours until this moment.
…Syria’s permanent representative to the United Nations, Qusay Dahhak, called on the Israeli army to withdraw from Syrian territory.
Sources:
Al-Mayadeen
https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/israeli-tanks-advance-to-damascus-countryside–as-strikes-co
RT arabic
https://arabic.rt.com/middle_east/1627158-القوات-الإسرائيلية-تواصل-توغلها-في-الأراضي-السورية/
The invasion has been met with a rather different reaction from western politicians and media to when Russia invaded Ukraine. No one is expected to notice.
Indeed Joel, what a difference
It was always the plan. Whilst the headchoppers are running riot and the turks are backstabbing, the genocidal nazis move the border towards their greater Israel objectives. Distraction tactics in the MSM!
Meanwhile Starmer in Cyprus destabilising the political situation and thanking the Greek proxies for supporting his genocidal works for the zionists.
But before even this Israeli invasion towards Damascus, what about Netanyahu’s statement yesterday about the Golan Heights?
What’s in the Western media about this? Did anyone even condemn this takeover? Or did Netanyahu get support “because of the Holocaust”?
After all, there was a demarcation line on those heights and UN peacekeepers were supposed to be there. Where did the peacekeepers go? What is the fate of these UN forces?
Do not know whether to laugh or cry if true:
IDF: Buffer zone deployment coordinated with UN, will go on until things are clear in Syria
“The deployment is being carried out in coordination with the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF), which is tasked with the buffer zone. UNDOF members are currently staying in their positions”.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/idf-buffer-zone-deployment-coordinated-with-un-will-go-on-until-things-are-clear-in-syria/
So, a UN peace keeping force help Israel violate the peace?!
Just imagine if it was the other way around – that the UN peace keeping force help Syria occupy part of Israel…
The IDF presence is only ‘temporary.’ I’m sure Tatyana can correct me, but I think there is a Russian proverb along the lines of ‘Nothing is more permanent than temporary.’
The IDF assistance to the UN peacekeepers to sustain a buffer zone will be in line with the sterling efforts of the UVF in Belfast back in 1969 when they aided the Ulster Constabulary to do the same.
Absolutely, David. Нет ничего более постоянного, чем временное (*Nothing is more permanent than a temporary solution*).
Does Israel provide any criteria under which it will end its occupation of the Golan Heights? On the contrary, yesterday Netanyahu declared that it will be part of Israel forever.
I can’t wait for an explanation of why it is good and right for Israel to do this. Who do you think will start first explaining this – Washington or London?
Purely defensive, those poor victims for obscure reasons seem to be hated by all their horrible neighbours.
Good old UN – a whore to the west’s funding. International law, what a joke.
Outrageous, isn’t it.
Israel is shamelessly exploiting the turmoil for a land grab masked by the pretence of widening a buffer zone. The rebels are a relatively weak force and they haven’t threatened Israel.
If Iraq tried to similarly grab territory in the East, on the same bogus ‘security’ basis, the US and UK would probably seek to convene an urgent General Assembly meeting at the UN, to guarantee Syria’s territorial integrity.
And on the subject of the UN : UN may remove Syrian rebel group HTS from terror list if conditions met.
Today, Geir Pedersen, UN special envoy for Syria, held out the prospect of removing Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) from the organisation’s list of proscribed terrorist groups. UK ministers are promising a quick review too. It’d be a shame to let financial opportunities to go to waste and the planned Qatar to Europe pipeline isn’t going to build itself.
Tatyana
The Qatar-Syria-Europe pipeline serves two key purposes, as others have stated:
i. It harms Russia, as it ends European dependence on Russian gas
ii. It bypasses the Red Sea LNG transportation problems the Houthis are causing.
The pipeline is clearly not in Russia’s or Iran’s interests. Amazing how all these events coincide with the Emir of Qatar’s ‘all the trimmings’ no expenses spared state visit to the UK. Does anyone believe in coincidences?
There has been very little mention of the once powerful Baath party in all of this. I am assuming that it has melted away as it has not evidently done much to prop up Assad in recent times and now might be more or less banned as in Iraq.
In order to thank HTS the Israelis have destroyed Syria’s entire navy, air force, and AD systems in the last 48 hours. They have also invaded many other parts of the Golan Heights, they probably told HTS, thank you for your service, now you are our slaves and because you only have side arms to defend yourself with, unless you agree to become our slaves, we will starve and kill you. capisce.
To complement the Israeli take over of much more Syrian land huge columns of Turkish armour is crossing into northern Syria.
Two friends of the US doing exactly what they claim Russia did in Ukraine [special military operation] and against UN charter.
Media now reporting that Zionist tanks are only 20 miles from Damascus – it would appear that the Zionists the US and other terrorist invaders are trying to destroy all possible armaments in Syria – in the hope that they can’t be used in the future against them.
Sir Keir Starmer is in Cyprus to thank the RAF for their role in supporting exactly the kind of crimes – and worse – that are being unearthed in Assad’s prisons.
“We can’t necessarily tell the world what you are doing here,” he told airmen with a grin.
https://x.com/Lowkey0nline/status/1866455916482003205
Meanwhile the Lord Haw Haw of Nato, Mark Rutte – has spoken on HTS – that they could soon be removed from the proscribed list; the aider and abettor in genocide Keir Starmer is in Cyprus today – probably boosting the moral of those aiding the genocide in Gaza, at the RAF bases on the island. He has also spoken with the President of Cyprus Nikos Christodoulides – probably to reassure him that Cyprus, won’t be attacked for being a staging post that’s enabling genocide.
It is like western meddling and colonialism is back in the Middle east with full swing, incredibly tragic. It is like the region have been set back 40 years in just 1 year and on top of that, keeps getting worse by every day that goes by.
You may not like it, but this is what peak Western Liberal Democracy looks like. The rules-based international order has reached its zenith.
RoS
Have you seen the idiotic takes on X/Twitter over the last few days, from the likes of Owen Jones and others, some with Arab names – people who should know better. Their argument is that Israel can’t possibly be working with the HTS rebels because quote: “they are bombing Syria, and this shows they fear HTS more than Assad.” This is such bunk on so many levels.
The reason Israel are now systematically bombing Syrian research labs, industry and academic facilities plus anti-air (AA) systems: incl. radar sites, S.A.M batteries etc, is because for the first time they aren’t manned and live! Israel couldn’t fly directly over these oft-obstructed well-hidden sites when the SAA and Russia were controlling them. Much as in the say way that Russia can’t fly over and drop traditional unguided bombs on Kyiv, or other Ukrainian cities. Russia are using guided glide bombs from afar and A.S.Ms. It’s very difficult to get directly over targets today, unless air defences are completely destroyed, and even the Houthis have had success by downing up to 12, US MQ-9 Reaper drones, cost $32 million per unit.
Jones and Varoufakis etc are the running sheepdogs of the supposed ‘left’.
Spit.
What seems to be going on is the deindustrialisation of Syria with such mass bombing raids. On the way to reducing it back to the slave age as they have done to ancient Libya. Ancient Iran. Etc.
I could give you chapter and verse on Jones trajectory through the Information Warfare IoS/ii mockingbird career, through his woke/socialist/sjw posturing over the last 15 years – now trying to plagiarise the Mercouris vibe! What a …Tit.
It’s not bunk on any level Goose. Israel is currently yeeting Syrian Army, Navy & Air Force targets because it doesn’t want HTS etc using their newly acquired assets against it. It never bothered about them during Assad’s reign because it knew that they were very unlikely to be used in that capacity, the Giraffe being about as muqawama as a cheese sandwich. It did, however, used to regularly employ its F-35’s to attack Hezbollah & IRGC targets in Syria without much concern for Syrian air defences because they have stealth capability. Russia doesn’t have any real stealth planes*, which is why it has to use cruise missile & Iranian drones to attack Kyiv/Kiev etc.
* The Su-57 is what Stevie Boy of this parish thinks the F-35 is.
Suppose there was also the risk of it likely kicking off a major regional war.
I know the F-35s are designed to have a very low radar cross section (RCS) – that equivalent of a small bird – but direct overflight is still a risky proposition considering how valuable they are; the trophy they’d represent and the risk of a downed plane’s technologies falling into Russian or Chinese hands. The Challenger 2’s Ukraine got, didn’t have the latest electro-optic technology for the same reason.
Goose
On the Israelis’ last foray, the Iranians spotted the first wave of little birds and the rest of the flock backed off.
No idea how many F-35s the Israelis have but they will have fewer if the above is true.
They are all ‘tooling up’, as Millwall fans used to say, and Hezbollah and Iran will find different routes of supply. Perhaps by bribing underpaid Syrians or HTS affiliates – who knows?
Meanwhile the Israelis are parked up atop a small mountain just above Damascus so, as David Coleman used to ask, ‘What happens next?’
Thanks for your reply Goose. Why would Israel attacking the Syrian armed forces be any more likely to cause a major regional war than it attacking Hezbollah and the IRGC? The Assad regime had more than enough on its plate with the rebels anyway. Russia’s most advanced air defence system, the S-400, can only detect F-35’s at a distances of less than 30-50km – and that’s without any jamming. This doesn’t allow enough time for its missiles to intercept them. The most advanced systems Syria possessed were the S-300’s lent to it by Russia. There would have been far more risk of an F-35 falling into Russian/Chinese hands as a result of a serious malfunction over Syrian airspace or the defection of a pilot. The US was willing to take that risk by selling them to Israel. Israeli blackmail of senior US officials/politicians? The deal might have been finalised before Pegasus arrived on the scene, but the old ways (think Epstein etc) will have mostly still worked back then, so who knows?
Owen Jones helping to whitewash Al Jolani through white-helmet-defending Rami Jarrah. Owen criticises what Craig Murray wrote (40m 0s) and classifies some of it as cognitive dissonance. The broadcast is an eye-opener in some respects but is a bit one-sided. For example there is no questioning by Owen of Rami on the links between JolaniHTS and Israel which was well known.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3s3l8Z3a-U
I do get that stifling moderate unalarmed opposition will always lead to the armed extremists taking over . What do others make of this?
Owen is now moaning about Israel’s invasion. Unlike with Ukraine, he won’t say one word about Syria’s right to resist the occupation, let alone support the resistance. That’s because Owen’s vaunted ‘consistency’ is ultimately structured by imperialism and his role within the bourgeois ideological system.
Owen only supports armed resistance to occupation when the British government allows him to. Simply no track record of ever vocally supporting resistance aimed at the UK or any of its allies and indeed has spent decades condemning some of those groups.
These people really are the ultimate naive useful idiots of imperialism. They know nothing of US/UK history in the Middle East and beyond, and they believe the West upholds certain ‘values’ and things simply happen organically in the world. They believe that the US/UK want a representative pluralist democracy to emerge in Syria: a democracy able to scold Israel; demand Golan be returned; a govt free to form alliances with whomever they so choose.
Wiser folks here know however, that if Syrians make the ‘wrong’ political choices, they’ll ‘find out’ by having an Israel/West friendly military dictator imposed on them by the ‘rules based order – our rules, our orders!’ West. As per what happened in Egypt where their nascent democracy was snuffed out because they elected the ‘wrong people’ in the guise of the Muslim Brotherhood.
A few weeks ago Owen refused to share a platform with the investigative journalist Aaron Maté, due to the latter’s exposes on the Syria Dirty War. For well over a decade he has been smearing anybody who opposed a US-sponsored black flag takeover as an “Assadist”; just as he smeared anyone who joined the dots on Ukraine as a “Putin apologist”.
I suspect he was given special dispensation by his handlers to condemn the genocide in Gaza in order to try and restore his credibility among the left, whom he smeared throughout the Corbyn years as antisemites and cranks. They need him credible and trusted among that contingent. Mason can no longer be used for the role and they have no one in reserve.
OJ has the correct response, in being morally repulsed by the sights and sounds emerging from Gaza and Lebanon. And he’s always been anti-war.
But beyond that, he refuses to distrust western elites and their narratives. He’d never question the Skripal narratives or the idea the OPCW has been manipulated into doing the US/UK’s bidding, this despite numerous whistleblower testimonies to that effect. The meme-made famous ‘Are we the Bad Guys?” never crosses his mind.
We’ve all got family members or may have friends and associates who simply refuse to believe the worst about our own elites. UK elites tend to be very good at the pretentious extolling of their own values and virtues. In the US, the public and journos are far more cynical about the CIA, FBI and politicians, because they know for a fact, from their recent history, they’re capable of overreach and doing horrible, unethical things in the name of the national interest. That jump to automatic distrust/cynicism, by accepting your state and officials are probably lying, is a sobering journey, and it’s hard to go back to trusting again. If you’ve been brought up to believe in your country as a force for good, and the people at the top are basically honest, with sufficient oversight to prevent abuses of power, it’s a depressing realisation that they aren’t and there’s no checks and balances. Usually, it takes being confronted with some irrefutable evidence that they are lying about something, that then gnaws away at you and opens up the whole gamut.
OJ was initially not allowed to express his views on Palestine in the Guardian but slowly has been let to do so. It is very odd that he could not criticise Israel in this case despite the obvious links between the jihadists and Israel.
HTS were obviously coordinating with larger states’ intel apparatus. That is obvious on the basis of the fact that they brazenly and confidently rolled straight for Damascus. Such a move would’ve been certain suicide without prior knowledge of the likely the Russian reaction. They aren’t all suicidal and had Russia fought them seriously, using air power, most would’ve been killed or injured on the open road in that long convoy.
Alastair Crooke has a good analysis in an interview with Chris Hedges. He says that both Russia and Iran have been trying to help and warn Assad but that instead he choose to put his trust in the process of rapprochement with Saudi and Gulf rulers and distance himself from Iran and Russia:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OgEgHVtRbg4
Jones isn’t a bad person, he’s just credulous. He works or worked at the Guardian – the home of credulity.
Jones, like Varoufakis etc., are the running sheepdogs of the supposed ‘left’.
Spit.
The deindustrialisation of Syria with such mass bombing raids is a way to reducing it back to the slave age as they have done to ancient Libya. Ancient Iran. Etc.
I could give you chapter and verse on Jones’s trajectory through the Information Warfare IoS/ii mockingbird career, through his woke/socialist/sjw posturing over the last 15 years – now trying to plagiarise the Mercouris vibe! What a …Tit.
Jones is probably just lacking in understanding
For example, an hour ago, Jones posted this:
This is so screamingly obvious.
Israel preferred the pre-uprising status quo: a permanently weakened Assad regime.
They fear the potential of a post-Assad Syria, which is why they are destroying the military capabilities they left untouched under Assad.
One of the top replies by someone called FJ@fj911pol, was this:
Or maybe Syria had manned air defense systems and a functioning army and now they don’t, so Israel can do what they like. I know, crazy thought…
Allegedly the jihadists reassured Israel not to fear them:
“On Sunday, “Israel’s” KAN Publi Broadcasting Corporation aired an interview with what it described as “a Syrian rebel involved in the attack on Aleppo.”
https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/terrorist-involved-in-aleppo-offensive-reassures-israelis–k
https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/ex-intel-specialist–syrian–rebels–ready-to-normalize-with
The channel quoted Suhail Hammoud as saying, “You should fear Bashar al-Assad, Iran, and Hezbollah (not us).”
No true patriotic front would want Israel carving out another chunk of Syria, or destroying laboratories and scientific research facilities on which Syria’s future may depend.
The lack of reaction from these so-called rebels when Israeli jets have destroyed targets in the capital (some 350 air strikes in two days) and Israeli tanks apparently sit roughly 20 miles from Damascus, tells you all you need to know about this ‘uprising’.
It’s always been about Israel. It’s often said by their critics, of the fanatical Zionists who control US foreign policy: they care more about Israel than they do their own country.
It looks Ukraine supplied (HTS) with a plethora of drones and other weapons, to help attack SAA troops which helped depose Assad quicker. Discussions between Turkey and Ukraine led to this decision to supply the drones. The Neo-Nazi dictatorship running Ukraine also trained (HTS) terrorists on how to use the drones. The overall goal is to weaken Iran’s influence in the region.
Turkey appears to be playing both sides. As I said, Erdoğan is a sly old fox.
Is there any corroboration for this story? I think Türkiye has enough knowhow regarding drones to supply them together with other weapons and training. Ukraine can hardly look after itself.
SA.
It was on RT news – apparently a couple of journalists spilt the beans after overhearing parts of the conversation between reps of the nations.
How will Turkey cope with having Israel as a border? Will Turkey accept the many refugees that will now head their way? Do the refugees have an alternative destination to Turkey?
I don’t know about Ukraine and remain to be convinced about its contribution given the problems they have of their own, but this is from an article in today’s “Morning Star” https://morningstaronline.co.uk by Vijay Prashad, “10 points on the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s Syria”
” 7. The Hay’at Tahrir al Sham, formed in 2017 out of the al-Qaida formations, drew together various military forces from Turkey to Uighur units — with a large number of other al-Qaida-influenced fighters — and built up its forces in Idlib over the past decade. HTS has received aid and support from Turkey, but also covertly from Israel (this information came to me from a highly placed intelligence official in Turkey)”.
Ros
“The Neo-Nazi dictatorship running Ukraine”?
Zelensky was elected and is Jewish.
Neo-Nazi my arse.
JK redux
We already covered this a few threads back: Zelensky is quite happy to employ Neo-Nazi brigades which are now part of the national guard. Being Jewish has nothing to do with it. Look at Netanyahu – and he’s committing genocide.
J K Redux. Netanyahu is Jewish so what’s your point?
Don’t tell me that being Jewish means you are allowed to do what you want to anyone you want?
By the way he isn’t elected now – he like Netanyahu is a War leader.
The bad news for Zelensky is that Trump is considering elections in Ukraine before he makes any decisions. The problem is: Putin doesn’t care and he’s not Jewish.
He had best insist on those Bandera streets signs being changed as well. Offensive not just to Jews but millions of Russians.
It seems the west is on board for Israel’s greater Israel project [GIP] not just the river to the sea, but enveloping Jordan, Syria and Iraq – and that is just for starters; after the fall of Syria they can see this ‘GIP’ falling into their hands quite easily. The Arabs have only themselves to blame, unless they wake up Israel will seize it all. Only in self-defence of course.
“After another night of mass bombing of Syrian capital Damascus that Qatari news outlet Al Jazeera dubbed one of the largest in Israel’s history, tanks of the Israeli occupation force are said to be less than twenty miles from Damascus in an invasion that UK and other western media will not call what it is”.
https://skwawkbox.org/2024/12/10/iof-tanks-less-than-20-miles-from-damascus-as-israel-invades-syria/
https://www.newarab.com/news/israeli-army-bans-radical-messiah-patch-uniforms
^ Two kinds of patch: the Greater Israel one with the map, and the Chabad “messiah” one with the crown.
“The Chabad-Lubavitch movement have been closely involved with the military throughout the war.”
https://www.jpost.com/judaism/article-832056
“Chabad will open 100 new centers with locations including Portugal, France, and Russia in response to the kidnapping and murder of emissary Rabbi Zvi Kogan, who was found dead in the United Arab Emirates late last month.”
Putin should ban Chabad and do it fast.
I haven’t read yet about Chabad setting up in the newly occupied part of the Golan, but we can expect this to be reported in the near future.
Problem is that Putin kowtowing to Israel even though it is not as extreme as the western slimly appeasement.
Speaking on Chabad which indeed is a extremist cult:
Putin fires top official who described Chabad as a supremacist cult
https://www.timesofisrael.com/putin-fires-top-official-who-describes-chabad-as-a-supremacist-cult/
Thousands of times did Israel bomb syrian army still there was zero response by Putin. Today we see what that creeping weakening of Syria eventually led up to.
The Israeli attacks on Syrian ships may be a message for Russia. Presumably nobody is saying Hezbollah has much in the way of naval experience.
Putin sacked Pavlov from the security council for calling Chabad what they are, but I think he is now deputy chief of the presidential press office.
The chief rabbi in Russia, Berel Lazar, is Chabad.
Mikhail Fridman is also Chabad. The EU called him “a top Russian financier and enabler of Putin’s inner circle” when they slapped sanctions on him, but the sanctions were recently removed:
https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-court-removes-russian-oligarchs-mikhail-fridman-petr-aven-from-sanctions-list/
I’m not sure whether Chabad have anyone in the Russian cabinet or senior security or diplomatic positions.
On the other side of the balance, Lavrov has accused Chabad of stealing documents and he’s still foreign minister.
https://www.thejc.com/news/world/russia-says-chabad-stole-manuscripts-h9qg26o4
There’s not much point in having military bases somewhere if as soon something happens, which doesn’t even involve them being attacked, you pack up and leave. Hopefully Putin still has the courage he showed in the KGB compound in Dresden. But of course he will know much more than we do about how the fall of the Syrian regime was brought about. If I had to guess I would say cyberwarfare may have played a big role.
The Israeli attacks on Syrian ships may be a message for Russia.
Which is absurd, Russia should calling the shots in that relationship. Not Israel. Israel would not have been able to do what they have been done in Syria past decades without Russia’s tacit acceptance.
I also remember this unhinged threat against Russia by a Likud member last year:
“We will make sure Ukraine wins as well and we will make sure Russia will pay” – Likud MP Amir Weitman
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWOsFsr9tYw
Perhaps we see that threat “materializing” in Syria now…
Also that Israel now destroy the syrian army military vehicles, fighter jets etc that is perhaps a sign too since most of these vehicles etc are soviet/russian made.
Chabad are a Jewish mafia transcending across continents and are also behind both Trump and Putin.
One of the major mafia figures was Semion Mogilevich which is why there were so many Jewish oligarchs connected to Putin’s first election.
The same people are really the drivers behind Trump who recently paid a visit to Chabad and took part in some of their ‘ceremonies’. His daughter and son-in-law are connected to the same group.
It was the Rebbe Mendel-Schneerson who Netanyahu used to visit and it is Chabad who were pushing for Israel to steal more land. Basically the voice of Likud is Chabad.
Jack, Russia are being smart concentrating their resources on Ukraine. Syria should have been better prepared, but even if it was and they strung it out, the USA would just keep going supplying the weaponry for Israel at little or no cost. So it will be down to the clock now. When the use of oil is no longer as important as it is now, the USA will shift its attention to another part of the world and Israel will be left to “defend itself”. It is surrounded by countries biding their time.
Putin’s original backers consisted of Jewish mafia figures one of which was Semion Mogilevich. This guy was the most prominent wanted Jewish mafia figure around the time Putin was ‘elected’.
Those figures were all connected to Chabad which effectively is an international Jewish mafia based in both Russia and New York.
It is Chabad that is driving the whole messianic movement behind the 3rd Temple and future messiah plans. Chabad are also very connected to Trump of which I believe Kushner and crowd are connected.
Chabad today are thee most prominent international Jewish movement and that spells bad news but without them both Trump and Putin would very likely not be in power.
Eustace Mullins and Darryl Bradford-Smith were warning of these guys along with Chris Berkness 20 years ago.
The Lunatics in Netanyahu’s cabinet are open about Israel’s intentions.
Bezalel Smotrich calls for Israel’s borders to extend to Damascus
In an interview for the documentary, In Israel: Ministers of Chaos, produced by European public service channel, Arte, Smotrich claimed that Israel would expand “little by little” and eventually encompass all Palestinian territories as well as Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Syria, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia.
“It is written that the future of Jerusalem is to expand to Damascus,” he said, citing the “greater Israel” ideology, which envisions the expansion of the state across the Middle East. (…)
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/smotrich-calls-israels-borders-extend-damascus
It is no surprise that people forced or persuaded into war will behave abominably, the biggest revelation over the last year has been just how amazingly shitty our political class and media lackeys are. I’ll spare you the thesaurus list of synonyms for mendacious.
Chris Leeds
‘Shitty’ does it for me. The ‘shitty’ Europeans and the UK are toying with sending Syrian refugees back now. Of course rich Syrians can stay until everything’s alright, but the poor Syrians can like it or lump it.
‘Shittyism’ of the ‘shitty’ cowards that run the Western World. ‘Shitty’ is as ‘shitty’ does.
The Israelis have bombed Syria from the air 250 times in the past two days. They have also bombed ships and they have invaded new territory.
Does anyone expect the UN Security Council (which is currently working on a joint statement) to criticise these actions?
Excellent article here from Mike Whitney at the Unz Review:
“Of the 50-or-so mainstream articles on the fall of the Syrian government, not one bothered to mention the fact that the Sunni militia that toppled Bashar al-Assad is currently on the US State Department’s list of terrorist organizations. Nor did they mention that the same jihadist group is on the United Nations list of terrorist organizations. Nor did they mention that the leader of the group—Abu Mohammad al-Jolani—has a $10 million bounty on his head offered by the US government.”
https://www.unz.com/mwhitney/black-flag-over-damascus/
I believe our host referred to this elsewhere.
I am wondering is it too late to contact the FBI and tell them the whereabouts of the terrorist leader of HTS, and claim the $10 million dollar bounty on his head?
Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, the militant leader of the main group driving Syria’s armed opposition, speaks exclusively to CNN’s Jomana Karadsheh about the goal of Syria’s rebel coalition, Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS).
Copied from FB
‘ 17 Facts You Don’t Know About Iran:
1. Iran is home to one of the world’s oldest continuously inhabited cities, Susa, which dates back over 6,000 years.
2. The world’s highest number of nose jobs per capita is recorded in Iran, making cosmetic surgery surprisingly common.
3. Iran boasts one of the world’s oldest monotheistic religions, Zoroastrianism, which dates back over 3,500 years and influenced the development of other major religions.
4. The city of Tabriz in Iran was the capital of the Mongol Ilkhanate in the 13th century and served as a major hub on the Silk Road.
5. Iran is one of the few countries in the world where hand-chopping is still used as a form of punishment for certain crimes.
6. Tehran, Iran’s capital, is the second-largest city in Western Asia, after Istanbul.
7. Iranian cuisine is incredibly diverse, with each region boasting its own distinct culinary traditions, such as the spicy and aromatic cuisine of Gilan in the north.
8. Iran has one of the world’s largest populations of Persian leopards, which are endangered and mainly inhabit the Alborz and Zagros Mountains.
9. Iran is home to one of the world’s oldest universities, the University of al-Qarawiyyin in Qom, founded in 859 AD.
10. Despite its largely desert climate, Iran is home to over 7,000 plant species, many of which are endemic to the region.
11. Iran has a rich tradition of poetry, with poets like Hafez and Rumi being celebrated worldwide for their profound and lyrical verses.
12. The ancient city of Yazd in central Iran is known for its unique wind towers, which have been used for centuries to provide natural ventilation in buildings.
13. Iran is one of the few countries in the world where women outnumber men in higher education, with more women enrolled in universities than men.
14. The traditional Persian New Year, Nowruz, is celebrated on the spring equinox and has been observed for over 3,000 years.
15. Iran has the highest number of female students studying engineering and science at the undergraduate level compared to any other country in the world.
16. The Iranian city of Isfahan was once one of the largest cities in the world and served as the capital of the Persian Empire under the Safavid dynasty.
17. Iran is home to one of the world’s oldest bazaars, the Grand Bazaar of Tehran, which dates back over 200 years and spans over 10 kilometers of labyrinthine alleys and bustling market stalls.’
A mature country
Alyson.
I think this is the same uni number 9.
Their claim is the uni is in Morocco.
https://www.dailysabah.com/life/history/al-qarawiyyin-worlds-oldest-continually-operating-university-was-founded-by-a-muslim-woman
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_al-Qarawiyyin
While many of the longest-lived institutions have gone through multiple permutations over the years, the following remain among the oldest universities still operating.
Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences // Iran
University of Al-Karaouine // Morocco
Al-Azhar University // Egypt
University of Bologna // Italy
University of Paris // France
University of Oxford // England
University of Modena and Reggio Emilia // Italy
University of Cambridge // England
University of Salamanca // Spain
University of Montpellier // France
Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences // Iran
This medical school in Khuzestan Province, Iran, was founded around 200 BCE by Shapur I, the Sassanian king.
I can’t vouch for the rest of the points either….
Alyson
Yes Iran/Persia is a mature country.
Sad to say, it is a country run by a woman-hating cadre/clique of old men who take a particular interest in controlling women. They even send men to police their clothes.
Women still study to a high level in Iran, and they have their own pink taxis, run by women for women, so that they can travel safely, and for many the headscarf is a token mark of respect for religious dictates. Islam is not the only religion that covers women’s hair. Orthodox Jewish women wear hats on top of wigs, or headscarves. The taboo on women’s hair is an odd one, and Roman Catholic women wear hats with veils, and must cover their heads in church.
Good point Alyson
Alyson
Thanks for that reply but I must disagree.
As you know, Orthodox Jewish women and Roman Catholic women wear the head covering that they choose, the latter only in church as you say and the former if they wish to remain in their religious community.
The priests who run the Islamic Republic of Iran pay a militia to harass, arrest and on occasion murder women who choose otherwise.
Can you really defend that?
Sure, the Taliban in Afghanistan do worse but that sets a low standard.
But JK redux –
” The priests who run the Islamic Republic of Iran pay a militia to harass, arrest and on occasion murder women who choose otherwise.”
How do you Know this.?
JK Redux
My mother and her friends (particularly after going to the hairdressers Saturday morning) used to wear headscarves and were never bothered by Ted Heath nor Harold Wilson.
Iran may be a Theocratic State – I would not deny that as it’s true – but Tehran is not as strict as say Qom.
The problem is when a nation is under attack they will revert, as a defence mechanism, to religion or say Nigel Farage’s Kirk and Hearth nonsense. President Putin has re-discovered Russian Orthodoxy, and the American Right have toyed with Puritanism, and so on and so forth.
Personally, I’m not religious – but the point is that those who are, usually should be free to worship as and where they want. But (as a socialist), not at the expense of The State.
Yet religion is used as a focal point as for and against, and my personal view is that the poor are much more sincere about religion than the well-off and the rich who think they can buy their way into Heaven. Therefore the poor in Iran or elsewhere believe much more in their religion than the deposed Archbishop of Imperialist Canterbury.
Hell on earth is the experience of the poor, so it is no surprise that they view their salvation in Heaven, as it sure as hell isn’t working for them on Earth.
Brianfujisan
The info here https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_religious_police
and here in particular https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guidance_Patrol supports my comments.
If you believe they are incorrect, please explain why. Thanks.
Perhaps it is just the Hasidic women? They arrive every year for a fortnight’s national conference, families of up to 12 identical children, men and boys so strangely attired that my three year old asked if they were from another planet… (raised on Startrek…) and women wearing hats on top of wigs, all dressed the same, and enjoying rituals and an alternative reality, so very different from the local mixed multicultural population.
They kept setting fire to the curtains of their accommodation, with their candles, so now they stay on campsites. Courteous and polite for the most part, though a taxi driver was very anxious when a line of youths lined up behind his taxi and urinated on it when he dropped some people off. Strange behaviour and difficult to understand.
JK redux
Iran is a lot more varied than you imagine. Very conservative in some parts, yes, more liberal in others. There are plently of videos on X/twitter and Youtube, and the streets of major cities look a lot like western ones; many women don’t wear the hijab ad nobody bats an eyelid.
The West wants everyone to believe oppression is everywhere; women crave to remove their hijabs, when not crouching in fear of the religious zealots. The reality: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=es3gwbhxz6w
Let’s not forget that Lebanon, Iraq, Iran, Syria, Libya, etc. we’re not that different from the west in the 50s and 60s – places the rich and famous used to visit for the dolce vita. What happened? … CIA/MI6 …that’s what.
While you are discussing hijabs in Iran, in neighboring Iraq the government is going to lower the age of consent for girls from 18 to 9.
On September 16, this bill passed its second reading in parliament.
I haven’t seen anyone here be concerned with it.
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/iraq-slashes-legal-age-consent-34067801
Iran is under heavy sanctions and is considered a theocratic dictatorship. So what happened to Iraq, where the US was so eager to bring some of its democratic values?
Iraq has divided into stronghold neighbourhoods divided by old sectarian differences. The defeat of women and the powerlessness of girls is a tragedy, completely overlooked by the men with more and more power to restrict liberty, autonomy, and freedom of movement.
In the UK the controlling regime doesn’t know what a woman is.
In the UK regime the ruling classes are clothed by Ali baba the Muslim lord of the closet.
In the UK security men police the thoughts and speech of the citizens.
Sad to say, it is a country run by a woman-hating cadre/clique of old men who take a particular interest in controlling women.
Jk redux.
A bit like the UK – well at least in Iran they know what a woman is – ask many politicians in the UK what the definition of a woman is – and you’ll get obfuscation as a response. In Scotland the politicians have wasted millions pounds of taxpayers money – on trying to force through their definition of what a woman is.
Alyson, here is another fact….
Although Iran and Israel are bitter enemies, few know that Iran is home to the largest number of Jews anywhere in the Middle East outside Israel. The Jewish community have a guaranteed seat in the Iranian parliament.
About 25,000 Jews live in Iran and most are determined to remain no matter what the pressures – as proud of their Iranian culture as of their Jewish roots. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/5367892.stm
In your list, points 13 and 15 about women at university. A comment on Reddit three years ago, saying he’s Iranian and studied architecture:
• Women can get more free from family by going to uni, whereas men already have more freedom.
• Men have to do military service.
• ”Culturally, men are expected to have a higher income and support their future wife and children. In the current economy of Iran, this could not happen by going to university. They rather go to jobs that have an income that can adjust to current inflation rates. (Officially it is said to be around 35%, but many believe it is much higher.)”
Simplicious has a good article on why Syria fell.
https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/syrias-fall-in-depth-analysis
Whitney Webb recounts that the recent events in Syria very likely would not have happened if the US had not prevented the Syrian military from attacking the Syrian “rebels”, i.e. HTS several years ago, for instance the first Trump administration threatened multiple times to militarily attack the Syrian government if they attacked the “rebel” stronghold of Idlib, even though Trump’s special envoy on ISIS had called Idlib “the largest safe haven since 9/11.
Nicky Haley said at the time…
“that any Syrian attack on Idlib, regardless of whether or not chemical weapons are allegedly used, would be “dealt with” and provoke a U.S. response, before ominously warning the Syrian government, “Don’t test us again.”
https://www.mintpressnews.com/nikki-haley-confirms-us-will-now-attack-syria-for-any-attack-on-idlib/249280/
There are plenty of reasons to believe Russia simply couldn’t spare the financial resources involved in militarily propping Assad up anymore. Syria is broke too, and had absolutely no worth and nothing of value to offer Russia, beyond the military and naval base.
Lots of financial indicators are bad in Russia. Interest rates are 21%, as the economy overheats due to military spending; businesses aren’t making money. Unemployment is very low at 2.5%, but they have severe labour shortages, especially in IT and technical engineering, critical to the defence industry. Many of Russia’s brightest have left for the West. They are also struggling to acquire various sanctioned electronic components too – having to buy at a premium on the black market – and have no internal capacity to produce their own despite often relatively old chip technology 90nm.
Russia is still recovering from the capitalist raping of the country following the collapse of the USSR; yes they appear weak in some sectors but strong in others (space, nuclear). With China’s support those gaps can be addressed. Russia is moving in the right direction, forward, while the West regresses.
Stevie Boy
According to Izvestia newspaper quoted by the BBC’s Steve Rosenberg, potatoes have increased in price by 81% and butter by 33% since last December.
https://youtu.be/Wnvy1gEHE6o?si=ngoUx3pvAJFO2IEH
I imagined that poor Rosenberg is afraid of losing weight on a diet of potatoes and butter 🙂
This weekend I bought wonderful Victoria potatoes for 75 rubles per kilo, butter costs about 1100 rubles per kilo.
Instead of potatoes for the same price, Mr. Rosenberg might have bought an excellent bunch of green salad (the freshest, sold straight from a flower pot), and instead of butter, choose salmon, which now goes for 850 rubles per kilo (whole) and its belly is stuffed with red caviar.
This would be a healthier and more varied diet with seasonal products. For the rest of the money, I’d advise choosing a couple of mozzarella balls or fresh persimmon.
It’s a pity that Rosenberg quotes newspapers instead of going shopping like millions of housewives do. Unlike Tacker Karlson 🙂 After Tucker visited Russian supermarket, I felt he is a nice guy, not posh but rather normal guy eating normal food.
Actually, I more and more often meet good reviews from foreigners
https://pikabu.ru/story/a_vyi_chuvstvuete_sebya_v_bezopasnosti_v_rossii_12086182
one more in German
https://pikabu.ru/story/prodolzhenie_posta_vas_ne_slyishno_12107809
this one from a Pole? a Polian? some Krzysztof Karczewski from Poland
https://pikabu-ru.translate.goog/story/polyak_otpravilsya_v_rossiyu_12118749?_x_tr_sl=ru&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=ru&_x_tr_pto=wapp
Tatyana
I notice that you do not say that the distinguished newspaper Izvestia is mistaken about the price inflation in the named food items.
You have my sympathy.
If I only ate potatoes and butter, I’d be concerned with the price, I think. So far, a half of pound of butter lives about a month in my refrigerator. Potatoes I buy may be 3-4 kilos per month. Even if its price goes twice as high, I cannot see why I should be checking the cost.
In early summer we have young baby potatoes at about 200 roubles per kilo. So what? It’s tasty and we buy it.
Tatyana, the Western media does have a set narrative to follow and exaggerates Russia’s problems for propaganda purposes, I get that. And hell, we have enough of our own here in the UK. But that said, the costs of the Ukraine war are starting to bite into this third year of war.
It is true, that Russia needs a way to end the resource- and international goodwill-draining Ukraine war. Trump’s people say that Russia won’t get all four Ukrainian oblasts they covet and some only partially occupy – Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk, and Zaporizhzhia. With Trump and his VP, Vance, seemingly far less hostile, and more emollient to Russia, than Biden, Russia would be crazy to outright reject any proposals.
Trump also talked about lifting all sanctions on Russia in the election campaign, that too could obviously sweeten any deal. The major problem will be Marco Rubio, Trump’s hawkish, likely scheming, pick for Secretary of State – a terrible appointment for those who want peace. Trump has long given the impression of hating Rubio, and the feeling was mutual, making his appointment completely bizarre.
As someone who holds no ill-feeling for Russia or the Ukrainian people, I do hope the war is concluded soon in a way that dials down this silly WW3 talk, and lets Ukraine get on with rebuilding via international investment. The perma-war brigade in the UK and US, who hate Russia because they’ve been taken in by lies, need to get lost.
I don’t mind, Goose, prices have certainly gone up. But it looks like we can afford it.
I just don’t accept potatoes and butter as an argument for the bad life in Russia.
As an illustration: six years ago one of our ministers said that one can eat for 3,500 rubles a month. This caused indignation in society, and the Internet turned it into a wave of memes. I took part in the discussions, describing my family’s diet, so, by chance, I can today show what the decent Russian housewife’s food for family looks like 🙂
https://pikabu.ru/story/chyo_pozhrat_smotrim_v_moy_kholodilnik_na_volne_postov_pro_pitatsya_na_3500_r_6269722
I suggest Mr. Rosenberg look at my photos, take a calculator and figure out the share of butter and potatoes in it.
But, as Mr. Rosenberg is BBCish and his job is whining, I can give him another idea – isn’t he also concerned about the monstrous rise in salt prices? Also, black pepper and bay leaf should not be ignored 🙂
Maybe, fat, gay rosenberg (jewish) should be in Syria telling his BBC fans how the price of butter and potatoes is now cheaper thanks to the actions of his mates.
Nearly 500 bombings of Syria now by the terrorist state’s air force. Will anyone be surprised if they capture Damascus? And they have bombed 15 Syrian ships which surely were no threat to them at all – but maybe Russia would have used them to extract personnel and equipment? (Alternative explanations not involving Russia are welcome.)
The figure of 15 Syrian ships bombed comes from Al Jazeera. But according to Wikipedia (strongly pro-Zionist) the Syrian navy “had” only 11 vessels. Something smells very odd here. Maybe some of the ships are either not Syrian or not naval.
One wonder how or perhaps why the new syrian leaders justify all this humiliation? A foreign state attack them, weakening them and on top of it, expand their occupation even more – and there is no reaction or even statements against Israel?! Instead, the statements past weeks have been how these rebels glorify Israel.
More MSM propaganda I’m sure. They only publicise the stories that support the agenda. I’m sure there are plenty of Syrians unhappy with the situation but no-one is going to publicise that, plus they would immediately become a target for the pinko, gay, cuddly headchopping ‘liberators’.
“Liberators”? The HTS may have fought for Aleppo a bit, but the road to Damascus and the capital city itself seem to have been miraculously opened up to them and they probably whistled as they marched in without any trouble. Whoopsadaisy! The government – 13 years into a civil war, during which Damascus had been under siege before and they broke that siege – seems to have forgotten to defend it.
“Why?” is one question. This is nothing like Ceausescu or the Berlin Wall.
The other question is where TF is Putin? Has he decided Russia has taken a blow and must retreat (that might make very good sense of course – don’t fight losing battles), or is Russia still going to try to have an influence in the Middle East? (Note here what happened in Nagorno-Karabakh.)
I strongly suspect Israel cybered the Syrian government to hell and back. And, who knows, maybe they’ve threatened to do it to Russia too, and to anyone else who fancies having a go?
This is just a hypothesis but it fits the facts.
Meanwhile Al Jazeera with straight faces are reporting that the headchoppers have asked the refugees to return, while Israel is bombing the crap out of the country – one of the most schizo headlines ever. As others have pointed out, the oil sheikh Gulf regimes will be no help.
Stevie Boy
Sure the man on the street in Syria is certainly against Israel but I was wondering why the people in charge – YPG/HTS/Free Syrian army and other insurrection-groups – have their lips sealed when it comes to criticism against Israel.
Probably money, the power of Israel backed by yankee dollars.
‘The people’ knew Assad was finished and couldn’t defend them. When the dust settles the story may be clearer, and certainly Greater Israel will be a step closer.
Does this sound like a man who would help to end pluralism in the Middle East?
Secretary Antony Blinken @SecBlinken
The U.S. condemns the Taliban’s discriminatory edicts, which jeopardize the rights and lives of Afghan women and girls. Women’s full, equal, and meaningful participation in society is not merely a matter of equality; it is essential. We resolutely support Afghan women and girls.
2:11 PM · Dec 11, 2024
After 20 years of occupation, after stealing the Afghan gold reserves, and after a humiliating retreat Antony Holocaust Blinken, zionist in chief, suddenly cares about afghan woman and girls. Maybe that’s because his mates killed all the woman and girls in Gaza and they now have no-one to rape and torture !