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Orban accuses EU of attempting ‘regime change’ in Hungary

RT | October 29, 2024

The European Union is hoping to install a ‘Jawohl government’ in Hungary as it did in Poland, Prime Minister Viktor Orban has said, vowing to resist such plans.

Orban came under attack by 13 EU member states on Monday, after he visited Georgia and commended its government for a fair and democratic election. Meanwhile, the EU leadership has embraced the Georgian opposition’s claims that the vote had been marred by irregularities.

In a post on X on Tuesday, Orban issued a reminder that two powerful German officials in Brussels are hoping to replace his government with one more willing to obey their orders – just as they boasted about doing in Poland last year.

“There’s an open conspiracy against Hungary led by Manfred Weber and President [Ursula] Von der Leyen.” Orban said. “They admitted that their aim is to replace the Hungarian government with a new ‘Jawohl government’, just like the current Polish one. We will not let this happen!”

He included a minute-long video from his recent radio interview, where he explained the matter in detail.

In the video, Orban showed EU officials declaring that his government should be replaced by the opposition and boasting that they had done so in Poland – whose previous government also defied many of the orders from Brussels – last year, by installing former European Council chair Donald Tusk as prime minister.

‘Jawohl’ is the German word used to respond to commands. Orban used it because the head of the European People’s Party (EPP) faction in the bloc’s parliament, Manfred Weber, and the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, are both German.

“We call what they want a ‘Jawohl’ government. So you get a phone call from Brussels or Berlin, and then you have to say ‘Jawohl’! And then it must be done,” Orban told the national broadcaster Kossuth on Friday.

“The Poles were also going their own way,” Orban added. “They also pursued their own independent Polish policy in migration, gender, and the economy. They were on the same page as the Westerners when it came to the [Russia-Ukraine conflict], but not in all other matters.” The EPP then openly announced that the conservative Polish government would leave and be replaced with another, the Hungarian prime minister explained. “This is how our friend Tusk became prime minister in Poland. Now the same scenario exists in the case of Hungary.”

“This is not even a secret conspiracy against Hungary, this is a plan they announced openly,” Orban said. “I was sitting there, they said it to my face.”

October 29, 2024 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Full Spectrum Dominance | , , , | Leave a comment

EU journalist to apply for asylum in Belarus

RT | October 29, 2024

Latvian journalist Yury Alekseev has fled to Belarus where he says he will seek political asylum, the media outlet Delfi reported on Monday.

The escape comes days before Alekseev was due to appear in court in his home country.

The journalist and his defenders claim he is being persecuted for his pro-Russian views.

Alekseev said in a post on Facebook that he left Latvia this past Saturday, traveling from Riga to Vilnius, Lithuania, where he took a bus to Minsk. “I crossed the border. I was nervous throughout my entire body,” the journalist wrote.

In Latvia, the 66-year-old had been charged with inciting national, ethnic or racial hatred, illegal possession of ammunition and distribution of materials containing child pornography, according to the news portal. The trial in one of the cases was scheduled to begin on Tuesday.

During his career, Alekseev has served as editor-in-chief of Business & Baltic, Kommersant Baltic, and other publications in Latvia.

In 2017, the State Security Service of Latvia detained him over criminal charges in connection with a publication of comments allegedly inciting ethnic hatred. The intelligence services conducted several searches of his home. During one investigators allegedly found ammunition for a pistol and materials containing child pornography.

The Riga district court found Alekseev guilty and sentenced him to two years in prison, but the journalist appealed the sentence and it did not come into force. The court later sentenced him to a year of probation.

Alekseev has denied all the accusations against him and says the charges were fabricated.

October 29, 2024 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Full Spectrum Dominance | , | Leave a comment

US money flows to anti-Orbán, left-liberal Hungarian news outlets

Remix News | October 29, 2024

The American Embassy in Hungary has once again invested heavily in the Hungarian – left-liberal – media. The 3rd Free Media tender was announced, with the aim once again to “protect and strengthen our freedom of the press.”

Last year, most of the national left-wing media received support from the first two tenders, but Magyar Hang, which calls itself “bourgeois,” also received money from U.S. taxpayers. David Pressman will [not] say where this year’s 160 million forints (€395,000) will go, but notably, a new outlet, Kontroll, which is close to Hungarian opposition leader Péter Magyar, debuted just a few days ago.

In the 2024 tender, 160 million forints will be distributed courtesy of American taxpayers. Media companies can apply for two purposes. The first can be the development and maintenance of the already existing medium, including technical development, enabling new subscriptions, professional training for journalists, or even the implementation of financing for new content and larger investigations.

The second category is specifically the development of internship programs to support the supply of journalists, as well as media literacy programs for vulnerable social groups, such as the elderly, children and Roma.

In category A, the amount that can be awarded for one project is at least 1.775 million forints and at most 10.5 million forints. In category AB, the amount that can be awarded for one project is at least 1.775 million forints and at most 7.1 million forints.

The Mérték Media Analysis Center and the Ökotárs Movement help in the selection of news outlets for funding. Mérték Media Analyst was previously supported with €15,000 by George Soros’ Open Society Foundation, and €33,000 by the National Endowment for Democracy, which is believed to be an arm of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

The other organization responsible for the selection is the Ökotárs Foundation, which is also supported by Soros foundations, but according to the European Union’s records, the Austrian environmental protection Ministry and the United States Agency for International Development are also generously funded.

Of course, it is already clear from the announcement that the final decision will be made by U.S. Ambassador David Pressman:

“The senior staff of Mérték and Ökotárs will review the written evaluations during a joint meeting, and on the basis of these, if possible, the applications recommended for support will be selected by unanimous decision. The list of these will be sent to the Embassy of the United States of America in Budapest for final approval.”

It should be noted that Pressman has been so worried about the situation of the Hungarian media for years that last year he distributed 118 million forints and another 30 million forints to the left-liberal national and rural media in two rounds. The self-proclaimed independent-objective Telex and 444, as well as Átlátszó, also benefited from this support. However, Magyar Hang and the company publishing the YouTube channel called Jólvanezígy also received a few million forints.

The claims that Hungary has no free media expression is undeniably refuted by the wide range of opposition media outlets. There are plenty of left-liberal media outlets supported directly by American money.

Hungary’s Magyar Nemzet criticized the money flowing from international sources, writing: “The question is, of course, whether it is the duty of the ambassador of a foreign country to intervene at such a level in the internal political relations of another country instead of developing cultural cooperation between the countries. And let’s just play with the idea of ​​what would happen if a representative of the Hungarian government did this in the U.S.”

October 29, 2024 Posted by | Progressive Hypocrite | , | Leave a comment

Zelensky Requests Tomahawk Missiles as Part of Non-Nuclear Deterrence Package – Reports

Sputnik – 29.10.2024

The clause on a “non-nuclear deterrence package” that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky requested as part of his “victory plan” included long-range Tamahawk missiles, US media reported on Tuesday, citing US officials.

The anonymous US officials have expressed what the newspaper described as exasperation with Zelensky’s new plan, which they consider unrealistic and dependent almost entirely on Western aid.

One senior official addressed, in particular, the plan’s clause on a “non-nuclear deterrence package,” which has not been made public but reportedly includes a request for Tomahawk missiles. The official considers this request totally unfeasible, as cited in the report, as Tomahawk’s 1,500-mile range is more than seven times farther than that of the ATACMS missiles, which the US sent to Ukraine this year after long deliberations.

Moreover, the White House is hesitant to send Ukraine the missiles which it believes may serve a better purpose in the Middle East or Asia, as Kiev’s list of potential targets inside Russia requires far more missiles that Washington initially earmarked, the official was cited as saying.

Zelensky unveiled his “victory plan” in mid-October, insisting that it could help end the conflict in Ukraine no later than 2025. The document includes five clauses and three secret addendums. In particular, the Ukrainian leader proposes inviting Ukraine to NATO, lifting restrictions on strikes deep into Russian territory, and deploying a “comprehensive non-nuclear deterrence package” in Ukraine.

Zelensky’s plan drew criticism in the EU and NATO for outlining in detail the multiple obligations of Ukraine’s Western allies but not assigning any to Kiev itself. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova slammed it as a set of incoherent slogans which pushed NATO into a direct conflict with Russia, while Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the real peace plan for Kiev would be to realize the futility of the Ukrainian policy. He said that Kiev should “wake up” and understand the reasons that led it to the conflict.

October 29, 2024 Posted by | Militarism | , , , | Leave a comment

Orban blasts West’s ‘useless lecturing’ of Georgia

RT | October 29, 2024

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has warned against “lecturing” Georgia after the outcome of the parliamentary election in the former Soviet republic attracted sharp criticism from the EU and US.

Orban arrived in Tbilisi on an official visit on Monday. The trip comes after the ruling Georgian Dream party, which seeks to build pragmatic relations with Russia, secured 54% of the vote in Saturday’s election. The victory is expected to give Georgian Dream at least 90 seats in the 150-member national parliament, allowing it to form the country’s next government.

Various opposition forces garnered between 11% and 3% each, according to the Central Electoral Commission.

“One thing is clear about this weekend’s elections: the people of Georgia voted for peace and prosperity in free and democratic elections. We are here to support Georgia’s European integration efforts and to strengthen relations,” Orban wrote on X on Tuesday.

Pro-Western opposition parties have refused to recognize the results, branding the vote a “constitutional coup.” Thousands of opposition supporters rallied in Tbilisi on Monday. Georgia’s president, the French-born Salome Zourabichvili, who has sided with the opposition, had earlier called for a rally outside parliament.

Moscow has accused the West of “completely unprecedented interference attempts” in the Georgian vote.

On Monday, the US claimed there was “vote buying and voter intimidation” during the election and threatened Georgia with “consequences.”

“We encourage Georgia’s governing officials to consider the relationship they want with the Euro-Atlantic community rather than strengthening policies that are praised by authoritarians,” US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said.

On Sunday, the EU Commission issued a statement voicing concerns of “a tense environment” and “irregularities” in the election. European Council President Charles Michel insisted that Georgia must “prove its commitment” to joining the bloc.

Georgia submitted its EU membership application in March 2022 after the escalation of the Ukraine conflict, and was granted candidate status in December 2023.

Western governments have since accused Georgia of democratic backsliding over its recent policies such as labelling NGOs as ‘foreign agents’ and a ban on LGBTQ ‘propaganda’ to minors.

“Georgia is a conservative, Christian and pro-Europe state. Instead of useless lecturing, they need our support on their European path,” argued Orban.

The Hungarian prime minister has voiced views that oppose those of Brussels on issues such as the Ukraine conflict and relations with Russia. His government has refused to send weapons to Kiev and has called for a negotiated solution. Orban has been accused by the West of being pro-Russian, while he has repeatedly insisted that his policies aim to defend the interests of the Hungarian people.

October 29, 2024 Posted by | Aletho News | , , | Leave a comment

Georgia Unrest Part of West’s Grand Strategy to Use Russia’s Neighbors as Pawns in Hybrid War

By Ilya Tsukanov – Sputnik – 29.10.2024

Thousands gathered outside the parliament building in Tbilisi on Monday night amid opposition claims that Saturday’s parliamentary elections were “rigged”. The strategy is not new, and designed to pressure the ruling party into becoming more malleable to Western interests, says political analyst and Caucasus politics expert Stanislav Tarasov.

The United States and the European Union “want to create a whole package of conflict situations: Moldova, Georgia, Ukraine, and to play these games like a grandmaster across multiple boards, yielding somewhere while hitting out somewhere else,” Tarasov told Sputnik, commenting on the shaky political situation in Georgia after the weekend’s parliamentary vote, which some observers fear may escalate into a new Euromaidan-style coup scenario.

State Department spokesman Matthew Miller announced Monday that the US would “join calls for international and local observers for a full investigation of all reports of election-related violations.” The US has “consistently urged the Georgian government this year to walk back its anti-democratic actions and return to its Euro-Atlantic path. We do not rule out further consequences if the Georgian government’s direction does not change,” Miller warned.

Georgia can expect further pressure from the West, including sanctions, if the Georgian Dream Party government sticks to its independence on foreign and domestic policy, Tarasov says.

The former includes pragmatism in relations toward Russia to avoid being dragged into a Western-fueled conflict, while the latter features staunchly socially conservative policies decried by the EU and the US, plus a foreign agent law passed earlier this year to ensure transparency among NGOs, which forced would-be agents of foreign influence to register as such. That measure was also slammed by Washington and its allies.

“They’ll impose sanctions… They can’t very well send in the armed forces or some expeditionary corps. First they feed them some investments, then they impose sanctions; first they open a visa regime; then they impose bans, and so on and so forth… This is the primitive scheme in the American version of colonial rule being implemented in relation to Georgia,” the observer said.

Pointing to the unlikelihood of the West being able to oust the ruling Georgian Dream Party, which won nearly 54% of the vote and gathered enough seats to form a new government, Tarasov believes the opposition’s claims of fraud and manipulation may not be aimed at overthrowing the government, but forcing it to accept members of the opposition into a coalition to “erode” it from within.

“In this case, the plot is aimed not so much at destabilizing the domestic situation, but is a purely political technological approach designed to force Georgian Dream to accept the idea of a coalition,” Tarasov said. Once inside, the opposition can block certain policies, including regional economic and infrastructure projects like the North-South Transport Corridor that would allow Tbilisi to escape the West’s political and economic grip entirely, according to the analyst.

October 29, 2024 Posted by | Aletho News | , , | Leave a comment

Denmark Not Interested in Finding Truth About Nord Stream Explosion – Russian Ambassador

Sputnik – 29.10.2024

MOSCOW – Denmark prevented the initiation of an independent international investigation into the explosion of Nord Stream pipelines, the country is not interested in establishing the truth, Russian Ambassador to Denmark Vladimir Barbin said commenting on the possibility of the Danish side resuming the investigation.

“This would contradict the logic of the Danish side’s behavior. Denmark curtailed its own investigation, rejected any interaction with the Russian side, prevented the initiation of an independent international investigation under the auspices of the UN, concealed the fact of the presence of American warships in the area of ​​the explosions on the eve of this terrorist attack on the gas pipelines,” he said.

The head of the diplomatic mission noted that Copenhagen had no interest in establishing the truth.

“The Danish authorities are obviously concerned that the investigation may reveal inconvenient facts and evidence that will compromise both Euro-Atlantic solidarity and further arms supplies to the Kiev regime,” the ambassador added.

Denmark and Sweden stopped investigating the Nord Stream explosions in February 2024.

The explosions on two Russian export gas pipelines to Europe, Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2, occurred on September 26, 2022. Germany, Denmark and Sweden did not rule out deliberate sabotage. Nord Stream AG, the operator of Nord Stream, said that the destruction of the gas pipelines was unprecedented and that it was impossible to estimate the repair time. The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office has initiated a case on an act of international terrorism. Russia has repeatedly requested data on the explosions on Nord Stream, but has never received it, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

October 29, 2024 Posted by | Deception, Economics, War Crimes | , , , , | Leave a comment

China demands that US stop militarizing space

RT | October 28, 2024

The Chinese Foreign Ministry has urged the US to stop the militarization of space and to refrain from actions that threaten global security. The warning comes days after Washington announced plans for the first delivery of satellite jammers.

Speaking at a press conference on Monday, the ministry’s spokesman Lin Jian said that Beijing insists on the peaceful use of what it called outer space and opposes the arms race and the placement of weapons there.

“China once again urges the US to stop spreading irresponsible remarks, stop expanding military build-up in outer space, and make due contribution to upholding the lasting peace and security in outer space,” Lin said, when asked to comment on China’s response to the potential threat to its satellites from US ground-based jammers.

The spokesman stressed that China is not planning to participate in a space race with any country and is not seeking space superiority. He also said that Washington openly defines space as a war zone, continues to expand its space capabilities and is working to establish a military alliance in outer space.

Last week Bloomberg reported, citing the US Space Force, that the first five of a planned 32 weapons meant to jam Chinese and Russian satellites in the early stage of a possible conflict could be declared operational between January and March 2025. The Counter Communications System known as Meadowlands is more than two years behind schedule.

Technological weaponry of this type is intended to cause temporary damage in a conflict “to counter the growing number of Chinese and Russian space systems,” the news agency noted.

The Pentagon has repeatedly accused China of amassing anti-satellite weapons, voicing concerns about the country’s focus on space-war capabilities. The Chinese government has denied the allegations, saying that Washington poses the greatest threat to security in space and is the main instigator behind the militarization of its various domains.

Washington has voiced similar allegations against Russia on multiple occasions, suggesting that Moscow has undisclosed anti-satellite capabilities that, it claims, are possibly nuclear in nature. The Kremlin has dismissed the insinuations as unfounded, saying that they are merely a smokescreen intended to distract from Washington’s own military activities in space.

October 28, 2024 Posted by | Militarism, Progressive Hypocrite | , , | Leave a comment

Israeli army bombed shelter centers in Gaza Strip 39 times during October: Euro-Med

Palestinian Information Center – October 28, 2024

GAZA – The Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor documented that the Israeli occupation army targeted shelter centers in the Gaza Strip 39 times since the beginning of October 2024, resulting in the deaths of 188 Palestinians and injuries to hundreds more. This marks a serious escalation in crimes targeting civilian gathering places, especially in northern Gaza, aimed at forcibly emptying it of its Palestinian residents.

The Euro-Med Monitor said that its field team recorded the Israeli army’s targeting of schools, hospitals, clinics, and halls used for shelter 65 times since the beginning of August this year, 39 of which occurred in October. During these incidents, 672 Palestinians were killed, and over a thousand others were injured.

The report highlights that 57 of these attacks targeted locations in northern Gaza and Gaza City, while 8 occurred in central Gaza. The attacks include bombings, direct gunfire, and the killing of forcibly displaced individuals and their families, or forcing them to evacuate schools under fire or through orders of forced displacement, followed by burning or destroying these schools to render them uninhabitable and to prevent the displaced from returning.

The Monitor noted that Israel’s systematic policy of destroying shelter centers further tightens the noose on the available options for residents regarding places they can seek refuge, facilitating Israel’s goals of destroying and forcibly displacing Palestinians and altering the demographic makeup of the region, especially in northern Gaza. Various Israeli officials have explicitly expressed their intention to annex and settle in the area.

The Euro-Mediterranean team documented the scattering of dozens of Palestinian families and the separation of their members due to the targeting of shelter places and the subsequent repeated waves of forced displacement, which have compounded their psychological suffering, especially among children.

Targeting shelter places is considered a fundamental part of Israel’s strategy to undermine the social structures of Palestinians in Gaza, continuing to weaken the population psychologically and physically, and eradicating their shared spaces that could provide some degree of psychological and social support.

Furthermore, the targeting of shelter places negatively affects families’ and individuals’ access to humanitarian aid, as many of these sites serve as distribution points for humanitarian assistance from charities. If they are forced to flee to other locations, they may find themselves in areas lacking access to available humanitarian aid, which is already limited in the region, exacerbating the humanitarian situation and increasing the suffering of the population.

The Euro-Med Monitor reported that its field team documented, on the afternoon of Sunday, October 27, the Israeli air force bombing the “Asma” school, which shelters thousands of displaced individuals in the Shati Camp west of Gaza City, resulting in the deaths of 11 Palestinians, including 4 journalists, among them two women, and injuries to dozens more. This bombing came eight days after the Israeli air force targeted the same school, killing eight Palestinians and injuring others.

The field team also documented the bombing of the “Shuhada al-Nuseirat” secondary school for boys, which shelters thousands of displaced individuals in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, resulting in the deaths of 18 Palestinians, including 12 children and 3 women, and injuries to 52 others.

A review conducted by the Euro-Med field team revealed that none of the victims were militants, among whom was Professor Ashraf Yaqub Al-Jadi, 54 years old, the dean of the nursing faculty at the Islamic University of Gaza.

The Monitor noted that the Israeli occupation army evacuated no fewer than 10 schools housing thousands of displaced individuals in northern Gaza, burning most of them. This evacuation followed quadcopter aircraft sending of Palestinian detainees, ordering those inside to evacuate and head to checkpoints established by the Israeli occupation army.

The occupation forces also unexpectedly bombed some of these schools, as happened with the Jabalia Preparatory School, where 10 displaced individuals were killed on October 21, and the Zaid bin Haritha School, where 7 displaced individuals were killed on October 22.

The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor renewed its call on all countries to fulfill their international responsibilities to stop the crime of genocide and the serious crimes being committed by Israel in the Gaza Strip, to protect civilians there, to ensure Israel’s compliance with international law and the decisions of the International Court of Justice, to impose effective sanctions on Israel, and to halt all forms of political, financial, and military support provided to it, including an immediate cessation of arms sales, exports, and transfers to Israel, as well as export licenses and military assistance.

It also called for accountability and prosecution of countries complicit and partners with Israel in committing crimes, especially those supplying Israel with any forms of support or assistance related to these crimes, including providing aid and engaging in contractual relationships in military, intelligence, political, legal, financial, media, and other fields that may contribute to the continuation of these crimes.

The Monitor demanded the activation of all available accountability and prosecution pathways at the international, regional, and local levels, including serious and joint efforts to activate the pathway of universal jurisdiction to hold accountable the perpetrators of crimes against Palestinian civilians before the national courts of countries that recognize this jurisdiction.

October 28, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, War Crimes | , , , , | Leave a comment

South Africa submits 750 pages of evidence in genocide case against Israel

The Cradle | October 28, 2024

South Africa’s legal team on 28 October submitted hundreds of documents to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) offering “undeniable evidence” of acts of genocide committed in Gaza by the Israeli army and statements by authorities that carry genocidal intent.

“The evidence will show that undergirding Israel’s genocidal acts is the special intent to commit genocide, a failure by Israel to prevent incitement to genocide, to prevent genocide itself, and its failure to punish those inciting and committing acts of genocide,” a statement from Pretoria says.

“South Africa’s Memorial is a reminder to the global community to remember the people of Palestine, to stand in solidarity with them, and to stop the catastrophe. The devastation and suffering has been possible only because despite the ICJ and numerous UN bodies’ actions and interventions, Israel has failed to comply with its international obligations,” the statement added.

Officials say that the submission, also called a memorial, is presented in more than 750 pages of text, in addition to over 4,000 pages of annexes.

Speaking to Al Jazeera, officials said they are confident that the hundreds of pages of evidence are “more than enough” to sustain their case. “The problem we have is that we have too much evidence,” Ambassador Vusimuzi Madonsela, South Africa’s representative to The Hague, told the Qatari news organization.

Some of the evidence submitted includes public statements made last week by senior members of the Israeli government at a conference named “Preparing to Settle in Gaza,” which was organized by the extremist Nachala Settlement Movement and promoted by Israel’s ruling Likud party.

“[We will] tell them, ‘We are giving you the chance, leave from here to other countries’,” National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said during the conference. “The Land of Israel is ours,” he stressed.

Israel is currently trying to expel tens of thousands of Palestinians who remain in northern Gaza as part of an extermination campaign that seeks to transform the region into a military zone under the General’s Plan.

On 26 January, the ICJ ruled it was plausible that Israel had breached the Genocide Convention and ordered the government to ensure that its army refrained from genocidal acts against Palestinians. In response, Israel significantly intensified its ethnic cleansing campaign, including blocking the entry of humanitarian aid to the strip.

International NGO Oxfam on 1 October reported that the Israeli army has killed more children and women in Gaza during the past year than in the equivalent period of any other war this century.

October 28, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, War Crimes | , , , , | Leave a comment

Israeli minister threatens Bashar al-Assad: ‘You are in danger’

The Cradle | October 28, 2024

Israeli government minister and war cabinet member Gideon Saar threatened Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad on 27 October, warning that he will be “in danger” if his country continues to act as a “conduit” for Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah.

Saar – who rejoined Benjamin Netanyahu’s government late last month – said during a conference that Tel Aviv “missed an opportunity” to “collapse” Assad’s government, which was “saved” by Iran and Hezbollah.

Syria must not be permitted “under any circumstances to be a conduit for weapons supply from Iran to Hezbollah,” the minister went on to say, adding that “Israel must make clear to Assad that if he chooses to harm Israeli security in this manner, he places his regime in danger.”

Israel “will not agree to Hezbollah’s renewed buildup of power through Syria, and will not agree to the opening of a front against it from Syrian territory,” he said. “Removing Assad from the Iranian axis will have far-reaching consequences for Israel’s security.”

Israel was heavily involved in supporting extremist groups against the Syrian government at the start of the US-led regime change war against Damascus, which began in 2011.

Fighters from Al-Qaeda’s Nusra Front were given Israeli air cover during the 2014 battles against Syrian government troops and Hezbollah in Quneitra. Wounded Nusra Front fighters were also treated at Israeli hospitals in the occupied Golan Heights.

Over the past several years, Israel’s air force has been waging an unofficial campaign of indiscriminate attacks against Syria, which aim to stifle the flow of weapons from Iran via Syria to the resistance in Lebanon. According to Lebanese analyst and journalist Khalil Nasrallah, this unofficial campaign – dubbed the ‘battle between wars’ – has failed.

Israeli attacks on Syria have increased since the start of the war in Gaza and Lebanon in October last year.

Since Israel’s massive escalation against Lebanon last month, nearly 2,000 people have been killed and over a million displaced. Israel has begun to target Lebanese–Syrian border crossings under the pretext that they are used to facilitate the delivery of Iranian weapons to Lebanon.

Hezbollah has promised its follower base recently that its military capabilities and weapons are in “great shape,” despite Israeli claims to the contrary.

The group has not yet used its more sophisticated and destructive weaponry against Israel.

October 28, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, War Crimes | , , , , , | Leave a comment

Yezidis in Lebanon Flee the Terror of Israeli Bombs

By William Van Wagenen | The Libertarian Institute | October 28, 2024

Members of the Yezidi religious minority who fled ISIS and other Turkish-backed extremist groups in Syria are now seeking to flee Israel’s relentless bombing campaign in Lebanon.

“They bombed just next to our house. Just five meters from our building. I can’t handle another second here,” said Um Farhad, a Yezidi women living with her husband and two sons in a village near Baalbek in the Bekaa region of eastern Lebanon.

“By God, I don’t know what to do. We don’t know what to do. If we die here or if we don’t die, only God can help us,” she told the Libertarian Institute by phone.

The city of Baalbek, home to ancient Roman ruins, and its surrounding villages have been among the worst hit areas in Lebanon since Israel’s bombing campaign on Lebanon began on September 23.

In the first two days of the Israeli attack, warplanes bombed Baalbek city from all sides, hitting at least twenty-eight towns and villages, Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) reported.

One Israeli strike, in the town of Younine near Baalbek, hit a building housing Syrian workers, killing twenty-three people, mostly women and children.

The Yezidi religious community, whose ancient homeland covers regions throughout Iraq, Syria, Turkey, and Armenia was thrust into the international spotlight in 2014, following the genocide carried out against them by ISIS.

In a partnership with Kurdish security forces known as Peshmerga, the notorious terror group massacred thousands of Yezidi men and took thousands of women and children as slaves during an attack on the Sinjar region of Iraq.

But ISIS first grew powerful in neighboring Syria, as part of the broader western-backed insurgency to topple the Syrian government.

Um Farhad and her husband and children fled their home in the Ashrafiyeh neighborhood in Aleppo and came to Lebanon in 2013 after a Free Syrian Army (FSA) sniper shot and injured her son.

Um Farhad now hopes to flee another war, first by escaping the bombing in Baalbek to come to Beirut, and then flee to a safe country. “I just want to keep my family safe and get them to a safe place until the war ends. There is nothing that I care about more than that.”

But reaching safety is difficult. She and her family do not have a car and the road to Beirut is dangerous due to Israeli bombing. Even if they manage to reach the capital, many parts of which are also under heavy Israeli bombardment, they have nowhere to stay.

Over a million Lebanese from the south and east of the country have fled the war and are now displaced. Any open apartments in the major cities of Saida, Beirut, and Tripoli were quickly rented, often at high prices. Spaces in schools converted to shelters in places like the Hamra neighborhood in western Beirut also quickly filled up.

Many displaced Lebanese have had no choice but to live in tents in parks, on sidewalks, on the beach, or under highway overpasses.

Most of the 160 Yezidi families now in Lebanon come from the Kurdish-majority Afrin region in neighboring Syria. They were forced to flee their homes and farms in 2017 when Turkey and its Syrian proxy force, known as the Syrian National Army (SNA), invaded Afrin.

The SNA is comprised of former Syrian “rebels,” including former FSA, Nusra Front, and ISIS members, who fought with western and Israeli backing against the Syrian government starting in 2011. Many view the Yezidis as infidels that deserve to be exterminated.

Many Yezidi homes and farms in Afrin were taken by Turkish troops and their Syrian proxies after the invasion. Afrin is still under Turkish and SNA occupation, making a return to their former home region in Syria impossible.

Mato, a Yezidi man living in a Christian village in the Mount Lebanon region above Beirut, told the Libertarian Institute how he fled to Lebanon after he and his son were pulled off a bus by ISIS fighters while traveling between Aleppo and Afrin. They were imprisoned for four days but finally released after feigning to convert to Islam during a lengthy interrogation by an ISIS emir.

“For sixty years I worked to build a house that Daesh is now staying in,” Mato said. He now works doing manual labor, but there is little work.

Mato lives with his wife and son in a one room hut made of concrete blocks and a dirt floor covered with rugs as the cold mountain winter approaches. Demand for housing drastically increased as many displaced from across Lebanon have come to stay in the village. Before the war, Mato’s rent was $50 per month; now it is $300.

As the numbers of displaced in the village grew, local authorities stopped allowing new displaced families to come there.

Many in Lebanon are reluctant to welcome Syrians and other foreigners they don’t know into their communities, fearing they could be Israeli spies seeking to identify Hezbollah members or give the Israeli military information about locations to bomb.

One Yezidi family that fled from the danger in southern Lebanon to live in a tent in the Mount Lebanon region was forced to leave by local authorities just three days after they arrived.

The high prices resulting from the war have made it difficult for another Yezidi man, Kheiri, who spoke with the Libertarian Institute. “My wife is very sick right now. She is not able to get out of bed. I am not able to afford any medication for her, because rent and food is so expensive. We are old now, in our sixties, so it’s hard to find work,” he explained.

Yezidis in the Mount Lebanon area say the situation could change for the worse any day.

“A few weeks ago, there was a bombing about 3km away. We hope the area is safe now, but no one knows what will happen,” Saad, a Yezidi man living in Mount Lebanon area, told the Libertarian Institute. “When the war first started in Syria, we didn’t worry at first because the problems were far away in the south, in Deraa. But the war quickly moved to Damascus. Finally, it came to us in Aleppo and Afrin in the north. We worry the same thing will happen here and the whole country will be in war.”

The insecurity is made worse because Israel hits not only military, but also civilian, targets. “In war, the airplanes should attack military areas, not civilian areas. But the Israelis are hitting civilians, and this scares us,” Saad stated.

Signs that Israel’s war on Hezbollah may engulf the entire country and target all aspects of Lebanese society continue to emerge.

On October 10, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened to inflict “destruction and suffering like we see in Gaza.”

His warning was followed a week later by an Israeli strike on a home in a Christian town of Aitou in the mountains in the north of Lebanon. The strike killed twenty-three people from a Lebanese Shia family displaced from the south.

NBC News described the “overwhelming stench of rotting flesh mixed with concrete dust” pervading the aftermath. “A dead baby inside a destroyed pickup truck; a child’s severed arm buried in nearby rubble; toddler clothing and books shredded; flies swarming as officials collected body parts, some too small for body bags ending up in clear ziplock bags.”

Before the strike, Aitou seemed as far from the violence as possible. Everything “was calm; everything was quiet,” said Illy Edwan, the owner of the villa housing the family.

Amid the chaos, Saad is making an appeal for the protection of Yezidis, an ancient religious minority that has been subject to many campaigns of genocide in its long history. “We are trying to escape from the battle and the conflict. We are suffering a lot now because we are not able to find a safe and secure place. The situation is in crisis. We want to leave Lebanon and go somewhere where there is security and where we can finally just live in peace. This is what we are asking for.”

October 28, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Wars for Israel | , , , , | Leave a comment

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