Militants race toward Baghdad 2

Nadat in 2011 in Syrië een burgeroorlog was uitgebroken sprak een jonge Nederlandse leraar geschiedenis mij aan met het verwijt dat ik mij tijdens  mijn VPRO-verslag in 2005 over dat land zo genuanceerd over het Assad-regime had uitgelaten, en ziedaar het volk was tegen deze dictator in opstand gekomen. Ik antwoordde dat niet het volk, maar een deel van de soennitische bevolking in opstand was gekomen, daarbij gesteund door de NAVO en het Wahabitisch-regime van Saoedi Arabië. Ik probeerde hem uit te leggen dat wanneer het Assad-regime zou vallen de hele regio in handen zou komen van militante fundamentalisten. Maar ik merkte snel dat de leraar geschiedenis zijn mening al had gevormd. De massamedia hadden een zwart-wit beeld gegeven, en dat was in zijn ogen de enige werkelijkheid. Mijn 'genuanceerd' verhaal was een leugen. 

Vandaag opent de International New York Times op de voorpagina met een 5-kolommen brede kop:

Militants race toward Baghdad, 

met daaronder een 4-kolommen brede kop:

Jihadis apply fierce tactics used in Syria to Iraq.

En om de boodschap nog eens te benadrukken op pagina 5

Fierce tactics honed in Syria used by jihadis in Iraq campaign.

Net zoals de NAVO-interventie in Libië in een totale chaos is geëindigd, eindigt de westerse steun aan de militanten die door Saoedi Arabië worden gesteund, in totale chaos en nog meer geweld. De westerse massamedia steunen telkens weer deze ontwikkeling. Mijn collega's zouden zich het volgende moeten afvragen voordat ze weer hun propaganda loslaten op het grote publiek:

waarom steunt de NAVO via Turkije, én het zionistisch regime in Israel de jihadi's die het Midden-Oosten dreigen te veroveren?

Leest u dit:

Israel Sides with Syrian Jihadists

September 18, 2013

Exclusive: Israel’s Ambassador to the U.S., Michael Oren, has confirmed suspicions that Israel has taken the side of Syrian rebels in their bloody civil war and wants President Assad to fall even if that turns Syria over to al-Qaeda-connected jihadists, a disclosure that may change how recent events are viewed, reports Robert Parry.

By Robert Parry

Israel’s pronouncement that it wants Syrian President Bashar al-Assad toppled even if al-Qaeda-aligned rebels replace him puts into sharper focus the intensifying lobbying and P.R. campaigns underway in the United States to get President Obama to engage militarily against Syria and ultimately against Iran.

Until the declaration by Israel’s Ambassador to the United States Michael Oren on Tuesday, Israel’s precise position on the Syrian civil war was ambiguous, but now it is clear that Israel again is lining up with its new de facto ally, Saudi Arabia, in a regional conflict to undermine Iranian influence.

Michael Oren, Israel’s ambassador to the United States.

“The greatest danger to Israel is by the strategic arc that extends from Tehran, to Damascus to Beirut. And we saw the Assad regime as the keystone in that arc,” Oren told the Jerusalem Post in an interview scheduled for publication on Friday but excerpted by Reuters on Tuesday.

Saudi Arabia, which is spearheading the military and intelligence assistance for the Syrian rebels, is concerned itself about what is called the “Shiite crescent” extending from Iran through Iraq and Syria to the Hezbollah enclaves of Lebanon. The Saudis, who follow an ultraconservative form of Sunni Islam, are now viewed in the region as the geopolitical bulwark against the Iran-led Shiite coalition.

Ambassador Oren, who is considered very close to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is cited in the Reuters article as saying that while Israel favors the more moderate elements among the Syrian rebels, it still wants Assad’s ouster even if it results in radical Sunni Islamists coming to power in Damascus.

“We always wanted Bashar Assad to go, we always preferred the bad guys who weren’t backed by Iran to the bad guys who were backed by Iran,” Oren said, adding that this was the case even if the other “bad guys” were affiliated with al-Qaeda.

Reuters said, “Oren, a Netanyahu confidant, did not say in the interview whether or how Israel was promoting Assad’s fall.”

However, Oren’s decision to lift the veil on Israel’s behind-the-scenes role in seeking Assad’s removal is certain to fuel suspicions that some of the recent events in Syria may have been manipulated by the sophisticated intelligence agencies in Riyadh and Tel Aviv. Saudi intelligence is now headed by Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the smooth-talking former ambassador to the United States.

Though Saudi Arabia and Israel have historically been enemies, the two countries – in recent years – have seen their interests align, especially in their hostility toward Iran as well as in their preference for an authoritarian regime in Egypt over the populist Muslim Brotherhood. Now, it appears they also have been on the same page regarding Syria.

In complementary ways, Israel and Saudi Arabia are masters of soft-power geopolitics, both with world-class intelligence services and with the ability to influence the actions of other global players, Israel through its unparalleled propaganda and political skills and Saudi Arabia with its grip on oil supplies and financial markets.

To the degree that the two countries can cooperate, they present a fearsome coalition, rivaling the hard-power nations like the United States and Russia. President Barack Obama would have to worry about the influential Israel Lobby causing him political trouble in Washington while the Saudis could disrupt oil supplies and stock prices.

Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin could see pro-Israeli propagandists step up the media attacks on him while Saudi intelligence could increase support to Islamist terrorists in Chechnya and elsewhere in the Russian Federation, including against next year’s Winter Olympics in Sochi. [See Consortiumnews.com’s “The Israeli-Saudi Superpower.”]

Masters of the Dark Arts

Israel and Saudi Arabia are masters of the dark arts of intelligence. Israel’s intelligence services are legendary in their cleverness and ruthlessness, while Saudi intelligence has had deep experience in financing major covert operations, including the Afghan war against the Soviet Union in the 1980s, an effort that gave rise to the scion of a Saudi fortune, Osama bin Laden, and al-Qaeda.

The Saudis also have a history of financing violent jihadists whose actions are directed against the United States and the West. According to the 9/11 Commission report, 15 of the 19 hijackers on 9/11 were Saudi nationals and the one part of the report blacked out addressed the issue of Saudi financing for al-Qaeda.

The de facto alliance between Israel and Saudi Arabia also should be factored in when evaluating evidence of the Syrian chemical weapons attack on Aug. 21, just after United Nations inspectors had arrived to examine other CW attacks that the Syrian government was blaming on the rebels.

While the major U.S. newspapers and non-governmental organizations are now nearly unanimous in blaming President Assad’s regime for the attack which killed hundreds of civilians, some of those assumptions – especially regarding rebel military capabilities – may not hold if the rebels had access to materiel from Saudi Arabia or Israel. [See Consortiumnews.com’s “Murky Clues from UN’s Syria Report.”]

Israel is one of a handful of nations that has balked at ratifying the Convention Against Chemical Weapons, a short list of rogue states that Syria has agreed to leave by accepting international prohibitions and destroying its supplies of CW. Israel is widely believed to have a stockpile of high-quality chemical weapons as well as an undeclared nuclear weapons arsenal.

Saudi Arabia, with its near-bottomless pit of money, also could have arranged for the rebels to get Sarin or other chemical weapons along with rockets to deliver them, if that’s what its intelligence agency decided.

Now, with the emerging U.S. consensus that Assad’s forces were to blame for the Aug. 21 attack and Oren’s pronouncement that Israel would rather have al-Qaeda extremists governing in Damascus than the pro-Iranian Assad, the pressure is likely to build on Obama to take ever stronger action against Syria.

The other option that Obama may have is to opt for further collaboration with Putin, seeking progress in negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program (as the new Iranian government signals an eagerness to compromise) and pressing to get the Syrian rebels to join peace talks in Geneva (so that the killing and disorder finally can be stopped).

Assad’s regime has agreed to participate in the talks but the fractious rebels have refused, first demanding more sophisticated U.S. weapons to give them the upper hand and insisting that Assad step down as a precondition to negotiations. [See Consortiumnews.com’s “Who Blocked Syrian Peace Talks?”]

Realizing they now have the backing of Israel as well as Saudi Arabia, the Syrian rebels are likely to resist any U.S. pressure for a cease-fire or peace talks. It’s less clear whether Obama can withstand the political and propaganda pressure that Israel and Saudi Arabia can be expected to direct against him.

Investigative reporter Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories for The Associated Press and Newsweek in the 1980s. You can buy his new book, America’s Stolen Narrative, either in print here or as an e-book (from Amazon and barnesandnoble.com). For a limited time, you also can order Robert Parry’s trilogy on the Bush Family and its connections to various right-wing operatives for only $34. The trilogy includes America’s Stolen Narrative. For details on this offer, click here.

http://consortiumnews.com/2013/09/18/israel-sides-with-syrian-jihadists/

'Israel wanted Assad gone since start of Syria civil war'

By HERB KEINON

09/17/2013 05:05

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"Tehran-Damascus-Beirut arc is the greatest danger," says outgoing Israeli envoy to US Michael Oren.

Former Israeli ambassador to US Michael Oren Photo: Hyungwon Kang / Reuters

“Bad guys” backed by Iran are worse for Israel than “bad guys” who are not supported by the Islamic Republic, Israel’s outgoing ambassador to the US Michael Oren told The Jerusalem Post in a parting interview.

Oren, in the interview that is to be published in full on Friday, traced the evolution of Israel’s message on Syria during the three weeks of the chemical weapons crisis.

Related:

• Report: Syria is transferring chemical weapons to Hezbollah to avoid international inspection
• Turkish warplanes shoot down Syrian helicopter

“The initial message about the Syrian issue was that we always wanted [President] Bashar Assad to go, we always preferred the bad guys who weren’t backed by Iran to the bad guys who were backed by Iran,” he said.

This was the case, he said, even if the other “bad guys” were affiliated to al-Qaida.

“We understand that they are pretty bad guys,” he said, adding that this designation did not apply to everyone in the Syrian opposition. “Still, the greatest danger to Israel is by the strategic arc that extends from Tehran, to Damascus to Beirut. And we saw the Assad regime as the keystone in that arc. That is a position we had well before the outbreak of hostilities in Syria. With the outbreak of hostilities we continued to want Assad to go.”

Amid reports that Assad may be moving some of his chemical weapons arsenal out of the country, Oren reiterated Israel’s position that it will not tolerate attempts to transfer these arms – or game changing weapons – to Hezbollah.

“The chemical weapons were an American red line, it wasn’t an Israel red line,” Oren said. “Our red line was that if Iran and Syria try to convey chemical weapons or game changing weaponry to Hezbollah or other terrorist organizations, that Israel would not remain passive. We were prepared to stand by the red line, and still are.”

Oren, who said he could not verify reports Assad was already moving his arsenal, stressed that “he is not moving them out to Hezbollah.”

On other issues, Oren – who has contact in Washington with some ambassadors from Persian Gulf countries – said that that “in the last 64 years there has probably never been a greater confluence of interest between us and several Gulf States. With these Gulf States we have agreements on Syria, on Egypt, on the Palestinian issue. We certainly have agreements on Iran. This is one of those opportunities presented by the Arab Spring.”

Also, calling “overblown” reports that young American Jews were becoming distant from Israel, Oren sounded an upbeat and optimistic note about the future of American Jewry.

“Certain physicists say that the universe is expanding and contracting at the same time, the same thing is true of the American-Jewish community,” he said. “This means that it is contracting through assimilation, but there is a core of the American-Jewish community coming out of day schools, Orthodox environments, Jewishly educated and deeply connected to Israel and the Jewish people. And that core is expanding.”

“I am actually optimistic about the future of American Jewry,” he said. “I don’t know whether American Jewry will be the same size as it is now in some 30 years, but it will be more Jewishly educated, committed and attached to Israel.”

http://www.jpost.com/Syria-Crisis/Oren-Jerusalem-has-wanted-Assad-ousted-since-the-outbreak-of-the-Syrian-civil-war-326328

In de hoop dat deze imnformatie niet al te 'genuanceerd' overkomt op mijn collega's wens ik ze een zonnige dag toe.