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Sunday, October 27, 2013

Hezbollah in Syria's Slaughter and Israel's Acts of Kindness

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                            

Shiite Hezbollah fighters are supporting President Bashar Assad's forces.   In the north of Syria is Aleppo, a former center of Jewish life.  Today, one of two main alliances who emerged in September is the Islamic Alliance.   In the south is the 2nd group, carrying the black flag of jihad,  which includes the Damascus suburbs. Both groups  are  Salafist organizations.   "Salafism is deemed a hybrid of Wahhabism and other movements since the 1960s.  Salafism has become associated with literaliststrict and puritanical approaches to Islam and, particularly in the West, with the Salafi Jihadis who espouse violent jihad against civilians as a legitimate expression of Islam,   though leading Salafi scholars have condemned attacks on civilians,  and Salafi who support such attacks are in a minority.
                                                                         
 Damascus was the home of the Jewish Quarter, whose Jewish population  were removed in 1994 when Israel managed a dangerous airlift to rescue them out of a severe situation of having been quartered there somewhat like what happened in the Warsaw Ghetto.  The other Salafist organization is The Army of Islam who has taken over this part of Syria.  These two groups want Shariah law.     They have denounced the Syrian National Coalition who has lost its power and is backed by the USA.

The in-politicians  of Assad and the rebels themselves  have no thought of their morality in how they treat their own people.  The paper reports about Marwan, a 35 year old Syrian refugee and former  clothing salesman from Homs, Syria, now living in the refugee camp in Mafraq, Jordan.  He was on his way to the grocery store and picked on as a possible opposition rebel and shot by a policeman in the knee and elbow  and then tortured.  So this was Assad's people who did this.   Officers hung him from the ceiling by his wrists and then beat him with sticks for a month and a half.  They wanted him to confess to fighting for the opposition.  He was then blindfolded and taken to Damascus where they put him in a 3 foot square cell for over 3 months with 4 others.  He was hung by his wrists again during the night every 3rd day, so I suppose this was better treatment  than before.  Finally he was released but without any documents saying he was innocent.

What this story leaves out has been filled in by a contact of mine.  People can be picked up who are innocent  and possibly more affluent and held for ransom.  $10,000 will get you out of jail.  Before someone coughs up the money, though, you will be tortured.  Often, the person is actually killed if the money doesn't come through.  Bodies of deceased will be visible for those alive and undergoing the torture.  This is how these rebels get money to proceed.
                                                                         
The rebels are mostly Sunnis.   What is happening is that rebel factions are fighting each other.   A thousand militias are trying to merge into a few big coalitions.  Do they even know what they are fighting for or have they just allowed themselves to become fighters without any forethought.  It seems as if the whole of Syria has turned into gangs fighting each other for turf and that's it and any sort of behavior goes as long as the outcome is success.  The civilians are just in the way of their actions.

This is why the United Nations thinks that another 2 million or more refugees will be added onto the already 2 million in 2014, which isn't that far away.  2.25 million might be displaced within the country before they get to a refugee center.  They are building a 2nd giant refugee camp in Jordan to hold 130,000 called Al Azraq.  Jordan can only take 300 per day into their country.  This is hard on their water supply and food.  Syria was at the start of the Civil War a country with a population of 22,505,000 with 90% Sunni/Shi'a following the Hanafi/Alevi  fiqh.  It was a state of Islamic people  that was neither  religious nor state controlled.  Their military power consisted of about 296,000 soldiers.  Now, about 10,000 foreign jihadists have joined the fight.

Speaking of food, you can imagine that this is running out in Syria. All the fighters should have realized by now that wheat growing in the fields has to get to the bakeries.  There are many steps that have to be taken before it gets there.    They have to provide food, water, electricity and schools besides defense.  Farming under these conditions has almost stopped as they're running out of fertilizer and money to operate.  Diesel prices are soaring even though they are living in an oil producing country. With bombs falling everywhere, I doubt if many people are out in fields working. People can't get food.  They'll be leaving on that reason alone.

 Some have resorted to eating bark off trees in Homs, Syria reports Batool, a 15 year old in the 9th grade in a refugee camp in Mafraq, Jordan.  They would like to go to France or Sweden but have had no replies to their applications.  She had 3 cousins shot and killed in Homs.  They still have family living there.  They're running out of savings.

Though Israelis are the hated and terrible "Jews, " there are  Jews who have been helping the refugees with medical aid  and food all along at the border who organized themselves.  Their comment is that nobody asked permission to kill, so we aren't asking permission to save lives. They've been helping out since 2000.  "Seventy tons of sanitation items, 670 tons of food, 120 tons of basic home items and 20 tons of medication are just a sample of the aid one Israeli NGO has delivered to Syrian refugees amid the current crisis."   Some wounded Syrians have even been taken into Israeli hospitals.   Such terrible people we are.

A mysterious website at www.stop910.com has a mission to bring attention to Hezbollah's "Unit 910" which is Hezbollah's international operations unit.  The mysterious website is offering a reward for information about this  international wing.  It's not known who is offering this or who is responsible for this website which is fighting against Hezbollah, the Shiite Muslim movement in Lebanon and is against Israel.  Shiites are mostly found in Iran, which is 98% Shi'a following the Jafari fiqh.  They have a lot of fighters to spare with a population of 76,923,300.  Supposedly they have an army of 545,000.

Resource:  Oregonian newspaper 10/26/13 page Frontpage and A13,, WAve of refugees heightens fears of spreading violence by Richard Read reporting from Baalbek, Lebanon,  Syria
http://www.jpost.com/National-News/Israeli-organization-delivers-hundreds-of-tons-of-food-medicine-to-Syrian-refugees-325579
http://www.npr.org/blogs/parallels/2013/09/13/221991236/an-unlikely-refuge-some-wounded-syrians-get-treated-in-israel
Batool, 15 year old, Oregonian, 10/26/13 page A14 report about Homs, Syria
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/09/25/do-you-know-the-history-behind-the-black-flags-of-jihad-theblazes-buck-sexton-breaks-it-down/
Oregonian 10/26/13 page A12, The Buzz on anti-Hezbollah website
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salafi_movement

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