Brandon Martinez looks at the Zionist project and all of its murderous and destructive consequences.

Most of the critical infrastructure of the country was bombed into rubble and dust. American depleted uranium weapons have caused cancer rates in some Iraqi cities to skyrocket, permanently destroying the genes of future generations of Iraqis who are being born with horrific birth defects and diseases.

The culprits responsible for this genocidal campaign to subdue and enslave the Iraqi people are not the CEOs of American oil companies as some disingenuous commentators on the Left have claimed. President George W. Bush’s foreign policy in the Middle East was not his own nor that of the oil lobby, but was the brainchild of the neoconservative conspirators behind the Project for the New American Century (PNAC), the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA), the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) and other Zionist-oriented think tanks that dominated the Washington Beltway.

Three of Bush’s principal foreign policy advisors who are widely recognized as the prime movers behind the war in Iraq were neocon ideologues Richard Perle, Douglas Feith and Paul Wolfowitz, all of whom have well-documented histories of Israeli partisanship. Perle and Wolfowitz, for instance, were both investigated by the FBI in the 1980s for passing classified defence documents to Israel.  Perle was once an employee of the Israeli weapons firm Soltam.  Writers for the New York Times described Wolfowitz as one of Israel’s “staunchest allies” in the Bush administration and revealed that Wolfowitz “is friendly with Israel’s generals and diplomats” and that he is “something of a hero to the heavily Jewish neoconservative movement.”   Feith once ran a law firm in Israel and received an award from the Zionist Organization of America for his “services to Israel and the Jewish people.”  The New Yorker revealed that Feith even has a portrait of Zionism’s founder Theodore Herzl hanging on the wall of his home library.  It was Feith and his neocon Zionist colleague Abram Shulsky who oversaw the secretive “Office of Special Plans” in the Pentagon where all of the lies about Iraq’s “weapons of mass destruction” were conceived and disseminated.

These Israeli militarists, masquerading as American thinkers, left behind a paper trail that unveiled their true objectives. In 1996, Richard Perle, Douglas Feith and David Wurmser – all future Bush administration officials -- authored a strategy paper for Benjamin Netanyahu’s Israeli Likud regime entitled “A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm.”  In the paper, these Zionist hawks advocated an aggressive Israeli foreign policy, calling for the removal of all of Israel’s possible military competitors in the region through force. They spoke of “weakening, containing, and even rolling back Syria” and of removing Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq, calling it an “important Israeli strategic objective.” Also on their hit list was Iran, whose influence in the region they hoped to neutralize as well. By eliminating Israel’s external enemies the Zionist neocons were in turn endeavoring to subdue Israel’s internal foes, the indigenous Arab Palestinians who continue to resist Israeli occupation and apartheid. 

Meyrav Wurmser, the wife of neocon David Wurmser, confessed that most of the leading neocons are pro-Israel Jews.  Gal Beckerman, a writer for the Jewish Forward newspaper, admitted that the ideology of neoconservatism itself was the brainchild of chauvinistic Jewish intellectuals such as Leo Strauss, Irving Kristol and Albert Wohlstetter. “If there is an intellectual movement in America to whose invention Jews can lay sole claim, neoconservatism is it,” Beckerman wrote.  Prominent Israeli journalist Ari Shavit said the Iraq war was engineered by a cabal of 25 mostly Jewish neoconservative intellectuals.  Famed American-Jewish journalist Carl Bernstein expressed the same view on MSNBC. The Iraq war was launched on a phony pretext by Bush, Cheney and “the Jewish neocons who wanted to remake the world,” Bernstein opined, much to the chagrin of the pro-Zionist host.

The engine driving the Zionist-led neoconservative war machine is “holocaust” mythology. “For those of us who are involved in foreign and defense policy today of my generation,” explained Richard Perle in a BBC interview, “the defining moment of our history was certainly the holocaust.”  Douglas Feith often invokes the holocaust to justify his militarism. In a New Yorker profile, Feith asked, “What’s the answer to the Holocaust?” He answered his own question by suggesting that it is not surprising that this alleged event has caused so many Jews to become militant neocons dedicated to aggressive, unyielding warfare against all those who pose a “threat” to Jews and their interests.  In a New York Times profile, Paul Wolfowitz spoke of the holocaust as having a profound impact on his worldview.  Another neocon ringleader, Michael Ledeen, revealed his obsession with the subject in an article he authored entitled “The New Holocaust.”  Political analyst Kevin Barrett observed that the Israelis and their Jewish neocon patrons in Washington “are fanatical extremists who feel that they are being persecuted everywhere they go and that they have to be extremely harsh, unyielding and aggressive, as well as deceptive and violent with the world” in order to ensure their survival.  Somehow it doesn’t dawn on them that maybe it is their unscrupulous behaviour that is the cause of hostility towards them in the first place. Obviously introspection is not exactly a Zionist virtue.

The Zionists’ militarist mindset is evidently motivated by the ethnocentric myths of Jewish victimhood. World-conquering Neocon-Zionist belligerence is driven in large part by the religious adherence to the official propaganda of the victors of World War II. Elite Jews played an important role in bringing about the Second World War as the final phase of their plan to establish the state of Israel. The First World War accomplished several things for the Zionists: it freed up Palestine from Ottoman control (the Ottomans previously rejected Zionist offers to purchase Palestine), it fractured the big empires of Europe who could then be manipulated into future conflicts, and lastly it delivered Russia to the Bolsheviks, a majority of whom were Jewish chauvinists hell-bent on the subjugation of that Christian Empire. With Russia now in the hands of Jewish communist extremists and Palestine falling under British dominion, the Zionist plan for Israel was well on its way.

“It has been repeatedly acknowledged by British Statesmen,” wrote Zionist leader Chaim Weizmann in a 1941 letter to British leader Winston Churchill, “that it was the Jews who, in the last [world] war, effectively helped to tip the scales in America in favour of Great Britain. They are keen to do it - and may do it - again.” Wiezmann went on to ask for British assistance in the formation of a “Jewish fighting force” that would be used to ethnically cleanse Palestine of its Arab population. Wiezmann promised Churchill that if the British would help create a Jewish militia to conquer Palestine, he would do his utmost to mobilize American Jewry to exert their influence to draw America into the Second World War on Britain’s side, as they did in the first great war.

Benjamin Freedman, a former top-level Zionist, exposed the machinations of his brethren relating to the First and Second World Wars and the Zionist conquest of Palestine. In a 1961 speech at the Willard Hotel in Washington, D.C., Freedman explained that the United States was “suckered into the [first world] war merely so that the Zionists of the world could obtain Palestine.” Freedman described how Zionist Jews made a secretive deal with the British leadership during World War I promising to bring America into the war in exchange for Palestine. The result of this agreement was the “Balfour Declaration” of 1917, a British government decree that promised to make Palestine into a national homeland for the Jews.  Freedman stressed the absurdity that Britain “should offer [Palestine] as coin of the realm to pay the Zionists for bringing the United States into the war.” The Zionists, said Freedman, “have complete control of our government. … The Zionists and their co-religionists rule this United States as though they were the absolute monarchs of this country.”

In a December 1919 speech in Jerusalem, Chaim Wiezmann boasted about securing the Balfour Declaration from the British government through “persistent propaganda, through unceasing demonstration of the life force of our people.” “We told the responsible authorities: We will establish ourselves in Palestine whether you like it or not,” Weizmann said. “You can hasten our arrival or you can equally retard it. It is however better for you to help us so as to avoid our constructive powers being turned into a destructive power which will overthrow the world.”  Threatening the world into approving the creation of Israel was part and parcel of the Zionist project from its inception.

In 1903 an early Zionist leader named Max Nordau conspicuously predicted the outbreak of the First World War, which lends credence to the suggestion that a hidden force of Jewish Zionists, Freemasons and bankers are responsible for instigating the conflict for their own purposes. “Let me tell you the following words as if I were showing you the rungs of a ladder leading upward and upward: Herzl, the Zionist Congress, the English Uganda proposition, the future world war, the peace conference - where with the help of England a free and Jewish Palestine will be created,” Nordau told his compatriots at the sixth Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland, 11 years before the outbreak of the First World War and 14 years before the British issued the “Balfour Declaration.”

Such predictive powers unveil a plan that was consciously followed and executed during and after World War I. The “peace conference” Nordau envisioned was the 1919 Paris Peace Conference, which resulted in the Treaty of Versailles, a farce that unjustly punished Germany for a war it did not start, thus laying the groundwork for the inevitable outbreak of the Second World War. An international peacekeeping body was established shortly after World War I known as the League of Nations. The League put its stamp of approval on the British seizure of Palestine after the war, an imperial land-grab that had no real legitimacy outside of the self-serving declarations of the political elites, bankers and oligarchs who chaired the League.

The League essentially functioned as a tool of the financial elite and served the geopolitical aspirations of the Zionists. “The League of Nations is a Jewish idea, and Jerusalem some day will become the capital of the world’s peace,” proclaimed Jewish leader Nahum Sokolow at a Zionist conference in Carlsbad, California, in 1922. “The League has recognized our rights to our ancient home,” he said. “We Jews throughout the world will make the League’s struggle our own and will not rest until there is ultimate victory.”

Even with Palestine now in the palm of their hands, the Zionists still had a problem: convincing Europe’s Jews to leave their lives of luxury and embrace Palestine as their new home. Such a task proved difficult, with only a minority of European Jews strongly identifying with Zionism at this time. This reality sheds a different light on the rise of Adolf Hitler and National Socialism in Germany, which proved very convenient from the Zionists’ perspective. While publicly professing scorn and hatred of Nazism, Zionist Jews secretly initiated a deal with Hitler’s government – the “Transfer Agreement” – which saw the transfer of tens of thousands of German Jews and their assets to Palestine. Lasting from 1933 through 1941, the Nazi-Zionist pact proved crucial to the future establishment of the Zionist state. The large amounts of capital and agricultural equipment that was shipped into Palestine by way of this agreement substantially contributed to the creation of Israel. “Through this pact, Hitler’s Third Reich did more than any other government during the 1930s to support Jewish development in Palestine,” opined historian Mark Weber in his article titled “Zionism and the Third Reich.” “[D]uring the 1930s no nation did more to substantively further Jewish-Zionist goals than Hitler’s Germany,” says Weber.

Still, the Transfer Agreement alone did not produce the amount of Jewish emigration necessary to form an exclusivist Jewish ethno-state in Palestine, as the Zionists intended all along. There simply were not enough Jews in Palestine that would be required to replace the expelled Arabs and keep them at bay. Not only that, but there was still not enough global support or sympathy for the creation of a state for Jews. Since the dawn of Zionism in the late 1800s, Jewish-Zionist ideologues had been ravenously promoting the story of “six million” persecuted and oppressed Jews. “We Jews need a homeland of our own because we are persecuted wherever we go” was the traditional Zionist argumentation. But the First World War did not produce the circumstances needed to foist this propaganda on the world. Jews were not singled out for persecution or mistreatment by any belligerent in that war, which is why the Zionists, following the dictates of their founder Theodore Herzl, deliberately aided and abetted Hitler’s forces to corral their fellow Jews into ghettos and concentration camps during the Second World War.

Herzl, in his diaries, advocated making use of “anti-Semitism” to spur Jewish emigration to Palestine. “It would be an excellent idea to call in respectable, accredited anti-Semites as liquidators of [Jewish] property,” he wrote. “The anti-Semites will become our most dependable friends, the anti-Semitic countries our allies. … I have already told you that we want to let respectable anti-Semites participate in our project, respecting their independence which is valuable to us—as a sort of people's control authority.”  Did Hitler not carry out Herzl’s exact mandate? It must be pointed out that Hitler’s “final solution of the Jewish question” was the same procedure outlined by Zionists decades earlier: sequestering all Jews into a single state, isolated from other nations. “The final solution of the Jewish question lies therefore in the establishment of the Jewish State,” said the 1897 manifesto of a German-Zionist group.  In an 1899 letter, Theodore Herzl asked the Russian Czar if he would hear out his “Zionist plan for the final solution of the Jewish Question.”  In 1936, the Jewish nationalist leader Vladimir Jabotinsky laid out what the Zionist plan would ultimately entail: “It is not our task to establish in Palestine a home for selected people, not even a state for a small portion of our people. The aim of our efforts is to organize a systematic massive Jewish evacuation from all the countries in which they live.”

“The transfer of millions of Jews to their homeland [Palestine] will save the European Jewry from extermination,” declared Jabotinsky in 1940, adding, “Evacuation of the Jewish masses is the only cure for the Jewish catastrophe.”  The “extermination” Jabotinsky spoke of was not happening, but that didn’t stop Zionist propagandists from disseminating reckless atrocity stories of systematic genocide in order to win the world over to the Zionist cause. Legends of human soap, skin lampshades, shrunken heads, electric shock chambers, gas chambers and other absurdities were trumpeted from the rooftops by Zionists and their controlled press.

Jewish leaders made numerous public pronouncements designed to provoke Hitler, hoping he would unleash his fury upon Europe’s Jews, and with the help of Organized Zionism spur them to make their way to Palestine. For instance, Organized Jewry made a declaration of war against Germany in March 1933, before Hitler took any serious measures restricting the rights of German Jews. “Judea Declares War on Germany: Jews of All the World Unite in Action,” read the headline of the March 24, 1933, edition of Britain’s Daily Express. The corresponding article declared a Jewish “holy war against Germany.” “The Israeli people around the world,” the article continued, “declare economic and financial war against Germany. Fourteen million Jews stand together as one man, to declare war against Germany.”  A year later Jabotinsky made a similarly bellicose pronouncement, stating:

“For months now the struggle against Germany is waged by each Jewish community, at each conference, in all our syndicates, and by each Jew all over the world. There is reason to believe that our part in this struggle has general value. We will trigger a spiritual and material war of all the world against Germany's ambitions to become once again a great nation, to recover lost territories and colonies. But our Jewish interests demand the complete destruction of Germany.”

As the war drew near, Chaim Weizmann did everything in his power to invite definite reprisals against Jews from Hitler’s regime. In a 1939 letter to British leader Neville Chamberlain, Weizmann declared that “the Jews stand by Great Britain and will fight on the side of the democracies.”  Weizmann and his Zionist colleagues made many public statements to that effect, which Hitler referenced in a July 1942 speech.  In 1941, an American Jew named Theodore Kaufman made an even more brazen effort to deliberately provoke hostility towards Jews. He authored and published a book advocating the genocide of the whole German people by way of a forced sterilization program. Kaufman’s text, titled Germany Must Perish!, outlined “a comprehensive plan for the extinction of the German nation and the total eradication from the earth, of all her people.”  A map illustrating the possible territorial break-up of Germany and the “apportionment of her lands” was also found in the book. “Germany must perish forever from this earth!” Kaufman declared, calling for “a final solution” of German extinction. Hitler’s propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels was well aware of Kaufman’s hateful screed, and widely distributed it in Germany to bolster his case of a Jewish conspiracy against his country.

Zionist leaders and activists gave Hitler more than enough ammunition to justify interning Jews in camps as a security threat to Germany. The American and Canadian governments imprisoned Japanese, German and Italian citizens in camps during the war with a far weaker rationale. Japanese, German and Italian citizens of the US and Canada had not declared a “holy war” against their adopted countries, but were interned nonetheless. It is difficult to escape the conclusion that these Zionist provocations were a cleverly calculated ruse intended to create an atmosphere in Europe conducive to the Zionist transfer plan. Without the uprooting process initiated by the National Socialists and their Zionist assistants, it is unlikely that any large amount of European Jews would have voluntarily left Europe for an uncertain future in Palestine.

Some Jewish casualties in a devastating war that took tens of millions of lives was inevitable and very much desired by the Zionist leaders seeking a pretext to invade and conquer Palestine for Jewish colonization. “There are 6,000,000 living, bleeding, suffering arguments in favor of Zionism,” declared Rabbi Stephen S. Wise at a meeting of Zionists in New York in 1900.  In 1906, a German-Jewish philanthropist named Dr. Paul Nathan publicized the notion that the Russian government had initiated a policy of exterminating its Jews as a “solution” to the “Jewish question” and that six million were in grave danger.  Max Nordau, the Zionist leader who predicted World War I, invoked the story of six million persecuted Jews in 1899, 1911 and 1920.  At a Zionist conference in 1911, Nordau warned that it was only a matter of time before six million Jews would be “annihilated” by European governments.

This familiar narrative was repeatedly advanced a few dozen times before, during and after World War I.  A most interesting example is from October 1919 when the American Hebrew publication carried an alarmist story headlined “The Crucifixion of Jews Must Stop” which alleged that “six million Jewish men and women” were on the brink of a “holocaust of human life.”  A New York Times report from the same year headlined “Ukrainian Jews Aim To Stop Pogroms” alleged that six million Jews in the Ukraine and Poland were being targeted in pogroms and massacres.  Another report from 1921 titled “Begs America Save 6,000,000 In Russia,” also from the New York Times, said, “Russia’s 6,000,000 Jews are facing extermination by massacre.”

As the Second World War approached, Zionists amplified their atrocity propaganda. In 1936, Chaim Weizmann told a British Commission that “six million Jews” in Europe had “neither hope nor future save in the land of Israel.”  In 1940, World Jewish Congress chairman Nahum Goldmann proclaimed that if the German National Socialists achieved victory in the war “6,000,000 Jews in Europe are doomed to destruction.”  Amazingly, Zionist newspapers betrayed the pre-meditated and fraudulent nature of the six million myth by proclaiming precisely six million Jewish victims six months before the end of the war.   Soviet-Jewish war propagandist Ilya Ehrenburg told his readers that “the world now knows that Germany has killed six million Jews” in March of 1945, two months before the end of hostilities and long before any accurate statistical data of war casualties would become available.  “At that time, no demographic figures could have been available to [Ehrenburg],” writes German Rudolf in the preface of The First Holocaust. “Just a year later,” Rudolf continues, “British Historian David Irving emphasized that as early as June 1945, in other words immediately after the end of hostilities in Europe, some Zionist leaders claimed to be able to provide the precise number of Jewish victims - six million, of course - even though the chaos reigning in Europe at that time rendered any demographic studies impossible.”

In an effort to whitewash their own egregious war crimes, the Allied Powers went along with the Zionists’ pre-meditated fictional account of six million dead Jews. At the post-war Nuremberg trials, an Allied-run kangaroo court staffed to the brim by Zionist Jews and their Allied lackeys, the truth was buried underneath a tidal wave of falsehoods. The Zionist motives for the war itself were purposefully obscured and a cartoonish propaganda narrative of “Nazi evil” was foisted upon the world to advance the victors’ post-war aims for Europe and accelerate the Zionists’ ambitions for a Jewish ethno-state in Palestine. American Senator Thomas Dodd, who was a chief prosecutor at the Nuremberg trials in 1945, revealed in a letter to his wife that the staff at Nuremberg was about 75 per cent Jewish. “Now my point is that the Jews should stay away from this trial -- for their own sake,” Dodd wrote in the letter, adding, “For … the charge ‘a war for the Jews’ is still being made and in the post-war years it will be made again and again. The too large percentage of Jewish men and women here [at Nuremberg] will be cited as proof of this charge.”

When the Soviet Union and its communist satellites in Eastern Europe collapsed in 1991, so did the myth of the six million. The Soviet lie of four million deaths at Auschwitz – a monstrous exaggeration accepted as ‘fact’ for decades -- was officially reduced to around one million, but revisionist historians doubt even that figure. Revisionist scholarship has determined that somewhere between 100-150 thousand people perished in Auschwitz mainly as a result of disease and starvation, which was not a deliberate act on the part of the Germans but rather the outcome of Allied carpet-bombing of Germany’s infrastructure.  For years Zionist propagandists claimed several million Jews had been killed by the Germans at the Mauthausen and Majdanek concentration camps, but recent official revisions place the Jewish death totals there at 74,000 combined.  Despite the vast lowering of the death figures at many major camps, Zionists and those they have convinced through incessant propaganda still repeat the erroneous six million number as fact.

Jewish scholar Norman Finkelstein outlined Zionist deceptions vis-à-vis the orthodox holocaust narrative in his book The Holocaust Industry.  Finkelstein observes that a dogma has been fashioned around the “holocaust” by the Jewish-Zionist establishment as a means of thought control. Shielding Israel from criticism and rebuke, Finkelstein argues, is a primary motivation behind the ceaseless promotion of holocaust mythology, in addition to Zionist shakedowns for reparations money from Germany. This profitable industry is bolstered by the Hollywood entertainment establishment which is “totally run by Jews” according to the Jewish Los Angeles Times columnist Joel Stein.  Not only does the holocaust dogma provide Zionist Jews with psychological cover to commit heinous crimes against the Palestinians and mask them under a façade of victimhood, but it also acts as a perpetual pretext for wars that serve Israel’s interests, such as the war in Iraq.

Gilad Sharon, the son of Israeli war criminal politician Ariel Sharon, vividly unveiled the bloodthirsty and bellicose nature of Zionism in a 2012 op-ed for the Jerusalem Post. Calling openly for the genocidal carpet-bombing of Gaza, Sharon declared: “We need to flatten entire neighborhoods in Gaza. Flatten all of Gaza. The Americans didn’t stop with Hiroshima – the Japanese weren’t surrendering fast enough, so they hit Nagasaki, too.”  Sharon’s remarks are not the ravings of a fringe lunatic -- they are completely consistent with the teachings of the pioneers of Zionist ideology, like Dr. David Wolffsohn, the late World Zionist Organization chairman, who told a meeting of Zionists in 1907 that Jews must put aside their differences and unite to “conquer the world.”  Vladimir Jabotinsky, the father of the Revisionist strain of Zionism, said candidly, “We want a Jewish Empire.”  Zionism is a “death-crazed narcissistic cult,” said Rich Siegel, a former Zionist who saw the light.  The inhuman precepts of the Jewish supremacist mentality that is so prevalent in Israel today can only result in more violence and bloodshed, more misery and suffering for the Palestinians and Arabs in general. 

While the West bears much shame and responsibility for aiding and abetting the Zionist project and all of its murderous and destructive consequences, bringing history into accordance with the facts is one way to uplift the Palestinians whose struggle for freedom and justice goes on.

Gaza - Gaza had been inundated with a flood of disciplinary campaigns initiated by the resigned [Hamas] government. But this time, it has planned a special type of campaign. In the past, the government had employed its security apparatus to chase after individuals wearing baggy pants, or with unusual haircuts. Today, the security apparatus is intruding on something else that is supposed to be sacred and kept away from militarism and security matters.

Recently, the Political and Moral Guidance Committee of the Ministry of Interior and National Security launched a campaign titled "Officers on the Podiums of God's Messenger." According to the campaign, officers and soldiers will deliver the Friday sermons from mosque podiums in their military uniforms.

This is a peculiar and extraordinary situation, especially since so many are vocalizing the need for sheikhs to stop intervening in the political and personal sphere. But the Interior Ministry came up with this campaign, which creates a confusing role for the military, and opens the door to its blatant involvement in religious affairs. Unarmed soldiers will replace religious preachers inside mosques and will take up arms outside of them to provide protection and security.

"Interior [Ministry] officers are part of the clergy and part of the security regime and intellectual security," explained Khalil Abu Julaidan, the committee's director in Rafah. "The police and security cadre's work is not limited to policing the homeland. It also extends to intellectual and moral protection and controlling the prevalent culture inside society." Abu Julaidan's comments hint that the security regime will be given more powers to permeate holy places, which should safe from the security treatment and political control.

Surprisingly, community groups are not yet aware of the significance of the dangerous course taken by Gaza's Interior Ministry. Even human rights activists, who sounded the alarm when al-Aqsa University imposed "sharia dress" on its female students and banned women from smoking hookah in public, were not disturbed by the issue and have not yet adopted a clear position.

Speaking to Al-Akhbar, Issam Younis, the head of the Mizan Human Rights Center, justified not releasing any statement on the issue by saying he receives a large number of cases and complaints related to Hamas imposing their religious views on people's personal lives. The latest such undertaking was when the Health Ministry issued a circular obliging women employees to wear a head cover, but its implementation was hindered by rights groups. Younis pointed out that human rights organizations have not yet received any complaints about the new campaign, saying that people have not yet grasped its serious repercussions.

Follow Orouba Othman on Twitter: @OroubaAyyoubOth

Lavrov wants fundamental rule of law principles observed. He wants Ukraine free from fascist putschists.

He wants legitimate governance replacing them. He wants what Ukrainians want. He wants what Washington won’t permit. A post-meeting Kerry statement said in part:

“The US and Russia have differences of opinion about the events that led to this crisis.”

“Both sides made suggestions on ways to deescalate the security and political situation in and around Ukraine.”

“We agreed to consider the ideas and the suggestions that we developed tonight and to continue our discussions soon.”

“In a frank conversation this evening with Foreign Minister Lavrov, I made clear that the United States still considers the Russian actions to be illegal and illegitimate, and Russians’ actions over the past several weeks have placed it at odds, obviously, with the rule of law and the international community, and we still believe on the wrong side of history.”

“But any real progress in Ukraine must include a pullback of the very large Russian force that is currently massing along Ukraine’s borders.”

“And tonight I raised with the foreign minister our strong concern about these forces.”

“We believe that these forces are creating a climate of fear and intimidation in Ukraine.”

“It certainly does not create the climate that we need for the dialogue and for the messages sent to both the international community as well as to Ukrainians themselves about the diplomatic channel.”

“The Ukrainian Government has demonstrated remarkable restraint in the face of enormous pressure. It has shown the world a kind of courage and resilience that every country ought to applaud.”

“And as it continues down this path, the United States of America and our partners will remain firmly by its side.”

On the one hand, Ukraine’s government is polar opposite restrained. It’s militant. It’s repressive. It’s despotic. It’s illegitimate. It assures hardline rule. It guarantees what follows continues it.

It bears full responsibility for growing fear gripping eastern and southeastern Ukraine. Western Ukrainians have yet to feel its full political, economic and repressive harshness. It’s coming.

On the other hand, Russian hordes aren’t massed on Ukraine’s border. They pose no threat. They aren’t coming. Kerry lied suggesting otherwise.

So did other US officials. Media scoundrels regurgitate their fearmongering ad nauseam.

Senate Intelligence Committee chairwoman Diane Feinstein (D. CA) called (nonthreatening, Western monitored) Russian troops on routine maneuvers “a formation that looks like an invasion force.”

House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence chairman Mike Rogers (R. MI) claims information he has suggests a possible Russian invasion of Transnistria.

It’s a breakaway state. It’s between the Dniestra River and eastern Moldovan border. It has a large ethnic Russian population.

Rogers claims Russian forces massed in South Ossetia. He lied saying Putin “is considering an invasion of both Georgia and Armenia.” He wants Nagorno-Karabach “as part of an effort to create an overland link between Russia and Iran,” he added.

General Philip Breedlove is Supreme Allied Commander, Europe and Commander of US European Command. Last week, he spoke irresponsibly, saying:

Russia’s “snap exercise puts an incredible force at a border. (It’s) at the Ukrainian border now to the east and is very, very sizable and very, very ready.”

“You cannot defend against that if you are not there to defend against it.”

“So I think we need to think about our allies, the positioning of our forces in the alliance and the readiness of those forces…such that we can be there to defend against it if required, especially in the Baltics and other places.”

He suggested Moscow could target Transdneistria next. “There is absolutely sufficient force postured on the eastern border of Ukraine to (do it) if the decision was made…and that is very worrisome, he added.

He called Russia “more…an adversary than a partner.”

On Sunday, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel told Breedlove to consult with US allies in Brussels about a possible Russian invasion of Moldova.

The Big Lie about possible Russian aggression persists. Repeating it reflects irresponsible fearmongering.

It deflects attention from what matters most. US imperial madness escalates tensions. It risks stoking conflict.

Lavrov’s comments reflect responsible diplomacy. He’s going all-out for peaceful crisis resolution.

He knows what he’s up against. Dealing with Washington isn’t easy. Hegemons want things their way.

Following discussions in Paris, Lavrov said:

“We have held intensive talks, primarily on the crisis in Ukraine.”

“We expressed differing points of view on its causes but agreed to look for points of contact in efforts towards a settlement of the situation in Ukraine.”

“We agreed to work with the Ukrainian government, with the Ukrainian people in a broad sense in order to press for such priority measures as ensuring the rights of national minorities, language rights, the disarming of provocateurs, the effectuation of a constitutional reform, and the holding of free and honest elections under an unbiassed international supervision.”

“We are convinced that federalism is a very important component of such a reform.”

“The main thing is to ensure Ukraine’s unity with due regard for the interests of all regions of the country without exception so that the country would function as an integrated state.”

“It is essential to find compromises and consensus among all regions.”

“Ukrainian statehood is yet to be sealed. I do not think that this will be possible to do on a steady basis if the fact of the Russian language as, undoubtedly, the second main language in Ukraine, is ignored.”

“I do not think that in this way it will be possible to avoid accords, which in this or that way would signify a federalization of Ukraine.”

“We do not impose any diagrams. The Ukrainians must reach agreement themselves as to how the rights are respected, those of both western, eastern, and southern regions.”

“There must exist some diagram which would enable each region to elect its own leadership. I think that there is no way round it.”

Lavrov denied alleged Moscow intention to split Ukraine. “Federation does not mean, as some in Kiev fear, an attempt to split” the country, he stressed.

“To the contrary, federation…answers the interests of all regions of Ukraine.” It does so responsibly. It respects the rights of all Ukrainians.

Washington has other ideas. It abhors democracy. It wants unchallenged control over its latest imperial trophy.

It wants its rules imposed. It wants them enforced. It wants opposition elements eliminated.

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the Atlantic Alliance intends increasing its Eastern European presence.

Stronger ties with Ukraine will be established. Rasmussen spoke days after Obama stressed establishing “a regular NATO presence (in so-called) vulnerable” countries.

None legitimately fear Russia. Washington is the sole global threat. Rogue EU partners and Israel make it a greater one.

Rasmussen ludicrously called NATO “one of the greatest success stories of our time.” It’s an alliance for war, not peace.

It’s a killing machine. It’s a US imperial tool. It threatens humanity’s survival. Don’t expect Rasmussen to explain.

He’s beholden to Washington. NATO’s “task is not yet complete,” he said. It has lots more conquests in mind. It aims to become a global police force. It wants its will imposed on humanity.

Its involvement with Ukraine is getting “ever stronger,” said Rasmussen. He outrageously accused Russia of violating its right to “freely determine its own destiny.”

Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia, Montenegro and Georgia sought NATO membership, he added.

“We are now considering revised operational plans, military maneuvers and adequate troop reinforcements. We will, for example, relocate more aircrafts to the Baltic States,” he said.

Including Ukraine in NATO isn’t a “foreseeable future” priority, he added. Longterm NATO goals include dozens more member countries.

It wants global expansion. It wants members and partners on every continent.

It wants an unprecedented all-powerful military bloc. It wants heavily armed military bases everywhere.

It wants the ability to eliminate all adversaries. It wants Russia and China isolated, weakened and co-opted. It wants unchallenged world domination. It threatens world peace.

Ukraine remains a global flashpoint. Eastern and southern Ukrainians demand rights Kiev wants them denied.

Ongoing protests continue. At issue is local autonomy. Eastern and southern Ukrainians want the same referendum right as Crimeans.

A growing East/West divide appears deepening. On Sunday, clashes erupted in Odessa. Pro-Russian and opposing elements faced off.

Pro-Russian marchers carried Russian flags. Opposition elements targeted them disruptively. Expect lots more of this throughout eastern and southern Ukraine ahead.

Days earlier, Voice of Russia (VOR) headlined “Ukrainian leadership to hire US mercenaries to suppress eastern region – source,” saying:

“Private military company will be in charge of suppressing protest movements in Eastern Ukraine, said a source in the country’s Security Service. According to him, the name of the company is Greystone Limited.”

It’s an Academi (formerly Xe Services/Blackwater USA) owned firm. It employs trained killers. A previous articlediscussed them.

VOR cited Itar Tass saying Ukrainian authorities don’t think Security Service personnel can suppress local protests or neutralize leaders directing them.

An unnamed Security Service representative said:

“Therefore it was decided to attract foreign mercenaries, who will serve as political police and state security protection.”

Washington’s dirty hands are involved. Expect greater violence ahead. Perhaps civil war.

Perhaps cross-border spillover. Perhaps affecting the continent. Perhaps a greater East/West divide. Perhaps a serious East/West confrontation. Perhaps global war.

The driver constantly kept his eyes peeled throughout the trip, carefully monitoring all sides of the road ahead. Death here can be quite “creative.” It could come in the form of an improvised explosive device (IED), a sniper’s round, a mortar shell, or even a knife slicing through your neck after being ambushed and captured.

The Syrian army checkpoint on the edges of the Nahr Aisha neighborhood of Damascus was the official signal that the trip along the Damascus-Daraa highway had begun. From there on forward, a lot of cigarettes would be lit and for some time, ours was the only car travelling along this desolate road.

After the city of Kiswa, the last inhabited area of the Damascus Countryside governorate on the regime-controlled side, the road takes you to the mesmerizing Hauran plateau. Green and brown patches littered with crops and rows of short wheat extend as far as the eye can see. Only the huge power plant of Deir Ali shatters the serenity of the pristine landscape.

The highway acts as a demarcation line for the Daraa battlefront. The main road is under the control of the Syrian army, and is interspersed with checkpoints every few kilometers. The Syrian army controls one side of the road while the armed opposition controls the other.

Although most of the Daraa governorate is under the control of various armed groups, the army controls around 60 percent of the city of Daraa. Out of 135 cities, villages, and towns in the governorate, the army controls 30 directly and 10 indirectly, meaning that the army can stop militants from seizing them.

The rest is under the control of al-Nusra Front and factions affiliated to the Islamic Front, and what is left of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) as well as a new group called the Army of Mohammad, which has started to operate in the western areas of the governorate and the eastern countryside of the adjacent Quneitra governorate. Security sources here told us that more than two-thirds of the militants are radical Islamists, with a significant number of non-Syrians in their ranks - 80 percent are from Jordan and Palestine, and the rest are from Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait and other countries. The remaining third are non-radicals, mostly locals from Daraa.

The city of Daraa consists of two main boroughs: Daraa al-Mahatta, named after the Hejaz railway station built in 1904, and Daraa al-Balad, the old town and surrounding suburbs, separated by the Yarmouk River. Practically speaking, the army controls Daraa al-Mahatta, and the part of Daraa al-Balad known as al-Manshiya. The rest of Daraa al-Balad, including the area known as al-Sadd and the adjacent Palestinian refugee camp, is under the control of the militants.

Two unarmed soldiers run on the dirt road that is protected by a berm. From a site near the “emir checkpoint” and the metalworks factory in southeast of the city of Daraa, it was possible to hear sniper rounds being fired at the two soldiers from militants positioned in the fields surrounding the grain silos nearby. We could feel the bullets falling around us, but the way the soldiers were walking reminded us that they had probably memorized the road by heart, and the snipers’ bullets too.

From a distance, the Gharaz Prison appears like a fortress in the middle of the plain, on the southeastern approaches of the city. Currently, the prison is under the control of al-Nusra Front, the Syrian army battalion charged with protecting it withdrew 10 days ago after a four-month siege.

A sixty-meter-high grain silo soars into the sky nearly a kilometer away from the prison. Incidentally, these are the most advanced silos of their kind not only in Syria, but in all of the Middle East.

Through military-grade binoculars, we could clearly see a Russian-made infantry fighting vehicle that had been destroyed by an anti-tank missile fired by the militants shortly before the prison fell. The army tried to repel the attack using overwhelming firepower from advanced weaponry.

From our position, we could feel the ground shaking beneath our feet from the sheer magnitude of the firepower used by the Syrian army, from rocket launchers to tank-mounted cannons shelling the locations of the armed opposition forces as they assaulted the silos. Two days later, the opposition was able to seize them, executing seven soldiers and capturing several others. One soldier was beheaded on camera, and the footage was posted on YouTube.

Staying in the same place for too long could subject one to danger. As soon as someone suggested this to us, a mortar shell fell nearby. We were not the only ones using binoculars after all!

One of the people involved in this area said that what happened in the prison and the silos resembles to a large extent the opposition’s assault on the Otaiba front in Eastern Ghouta, during which the opposition was able to achieve significant advances against the army. However, this was soon reversed completely, and the opposition’s offensive turned into a fatal blow against its forces in the Ghouta area.

The source continued, “The militants sabotaged the majority of air defense installations, without taking advantage of the missiles present inside. This is proof that the countries backing them wanted them to disable these installations, but without letting the militants use them against Syrian warplanes to facilitate the job for Israel or NATO to carry out airstrikes from Jordan.”

The southern front and the plans to launch an offensive from southern Syria, more than one military and security source familiar with the issue has stressed that the opposition no longer has the ability to change the balance of power from Daraa.

Sources say, “There are limited movements along the southern front, as evidenced by the attack on the prison; but the rest is psychological warfare.” As far as the Syrian army is concerned, the next step after Qalamoun will be the southern governorate, where, according to the same sources, the Syrian forces will benefit from a multitude of favorable factors.

First, the army is putting to use the lessons it acquired from the battles in Qusayr, Homs, Qalamoun, and the Damascus countryside, and the new tactics it learned combining guerilla and urban warfare, classical warfare, coordination between land and air units, in addition to the use of reconnaissance planes.

Second, the mood of the people living under the militants’ rule has changed to a certain degree. Some local residents now collaborate actively with the army, and supply it with information about the locations and movements of the militants.

And third, the army will be taking advantage of the infighting among armed opposition groups throughout the governorate.

According to a military source, over the coming few weeks, the army will begin implementing a plan to regain control of various areas here, tighten its siege on armed groups, and attempt to isolate their formations from one another.

On the way back to Damascus, we race the setting sun. How we wished we had visited Hauran before the war.

Follow Firas Choufi on Twitter: @firasshoufi

نارام سرجون

وكالة أوقات الشام الإخبارية

ليس هناك أكثر بؤسا ممن لايرى الا ماتراه عيناه .. وليس هناك أكثر حذقا ممن لايصدق عينيه ولايبالي بأهواء قلبه وضرباته ورقصاته بل يحيل كل ماتراه العين وكل مايراقصه قلبه الى محاكم عقله ومخابر وعيه لقياس الصور التي يراها ومعرفة السراب من الواقع .. فليس هناك أكثر خداعا للنفس مثل العين البشرية التي لاترى الحقائق التي تكتب دوما بالأشعة تحت الحمراء .. ومن يراجع تاريخ الانسان يعرف ان ما لارأته العيون هو الذي أخرج الانسان من الظلام .. من الذرّة الى الالكترون .. وأن العيون التي لحقت الظلال وتموجات الضوء والصور انما كانت تلاحق السراب ..

في الأزمة السورية صدق الناس مارأته عيونهم على الجزيرة وشهود العيان ونبوءات صفوت الزيات وعنتريات مجلس الأمن وتهديدات الغرب وسيمفونية الأيام المعدودة .. وكل من صدق العيون التي شاهدت قدوم انهيار الدولة السورية كالقدر المحتوم وشاهد سقوطها بأم عينيه على الشاشات والورق والفيسبوك أدرك اليوم أن مارأته عيناه كان هو السراب بعينه .. وأدرك كل الذين راقصت قلوبهم وجوانحهم أحلام انهيار النظام السوري على كل الأنغام وفي مهرجانات الأمم المتحدة  أنها كانت حفلات تسلية ومسرحيات للوهم والخيال .. وأن الأشعة ماتحت الحمراء كانت تقول غير ذلك .. لكنه لم يرها ..

لاأدري لم لايستطيع الناس قراءة المشهد التركي بنفس الطريقة البعيدة عن العواطف والرقصات والأدعية الجوفاء .. فقد بدا البعض مشدوها من نجاح حزب العدالة والتنمية في الانتخابات البلدية .. وتم تطويب النصر باسم اردوغان .. ولكن هذا الذهول وخيبة الأمل من نتيجة الانتخابات يدلل على أن من يتابع الشأن التركي لايزال لايقدر على التمييز بين اردوغان وحزب العدالة والتنمية والاسلام السياسي وانتهازيته ونفاقه وتحولاته الدراماتيكية .. ولايقدر على التخلي عن مغازلة الأمنيات .. وهو يصر على أن ينظر بعينيه الى الظلال ونقوش الأخيلة على الجدران .. ولايرى ماتقوله الأشعة ماتحت الحمراء للسياسة .. نعم .. لاتزال العينان تمارسان الخداع عندما لايزجرهما العقل ..

وقبل الخوض في هذا الموضوع الشائك فلا بد أن أعترف انني أحس بالذل أنني أذل لغتي عندما أغمسها في حبر المذاهب وعندما أسمح لها بمصافحة الفروع وأسماء الطوائف .. بل انني أحس أنني كمن يقبض على جمرة من نار كرها ورغما عنه .. وأعرف أنني أفضل الحديث مع الشيطان على ان أمر على سيرة المذاهب .. وأنني لن أتخلص من عار الخوض في مياهها المتلاطمة الا بأن أتعمد في مياه العفو والغفران .. وأطلب الصفح من آلهة اللغة ومن ألواح الحروف التي ولدت في أوغاريت قبل ولادة كلام المذاهب  .. والمذاهب..

لقد أراد الناس أن يروا في تركيا مشهد السقوط الذي انتظروه وتوقعوه .. ولكن حزب العدالة والتنمية لايسقط بالانتخابات بهذه الطريقة كما أن أردوغان لن تسقطه صناديق الاقتراع بل حزب العدالة نفسه .. والغريب أن كثرة تعثرات أردوغان خلقت مناخا من التوقعات بقرب سقوطه في الانتخابات .. الا ان من يعرف اسرار تركيا الاسلامية سيفاجأ بأن تكون نتيجة الانتخابات على عكس ماظهرت .. وهنا لابد من أن يميز الناس بين الاسلام السياسي والسنية السياسية التي حملت أردوغان في انتخابات البلديات ..

ان كان هناك من توصيف لوضع تركيا اليوم فهو أنها جسد للاسلام السياسي ومآلاته وسيرة حياته ومصيره .. وهي ترمومتر المجتمعات الاسلامية والحركات الاسلامية .. فتركيا هي حقل التجارب الذي بدأ فيه الاسلام السياسي تمريناته في السلطة دون ثورة .. فرغم ان كل الاحزاب الاسلامية في كل العالم الاسلامي خاضت صراعا مريرا من أجل الوصول للسلطة دون جدوى فان اسلاميي تركيا وصلوا الى السلطة دون ثورة ودون صراع !! رغم ان تركيا معقل من معاقل حلف الأطلسي وجيوشه .. الا أن هناك لغزا لم يفهم بعد وهو في سؤال كيف تخلى الأطلسي عن تركيا دون قتال للاسلاميين فيما منع اسلاميي الجزائر من الوصول للسلطة عبر دعم قرار الجيش بالغاء نتيجة الانتخابات الشهيرة؟؟وفي هذا سر لاتراه الا الأشعة ماتحت الحمراء للسياسة الدولية .. ولايجيب عنه سوى الجدران السرية التي كانت تضم أردوغان مع زواره من الأمريكيين في السجنعندما سجن بتهمة التحريض على الكراهية عام 1998 ..

في استماتة اسلاميي تركيا للاستيلاء على سورية ظهرت حقيقة التحولات في التجربة الاسلامية في تركيا والتي بدأت تكشف عن تحولات مرضية خطيرة أصيب بها الاسلام السياسي كتيار واسع تقوده تركيا .. فظهرت أمراضه وبثوره وقروح جلده وتحولاته العمرية والتي تجلت في تجربة رجب طيب اردوغان وحزب العدالة والتنمية .. وفي التجربة التركية تحول مثير للدهشة فقد ذاب الثلج وبان المرج وانتهى الاسلام السياسي الى الوقوع في أكبر خطيئة وفخ تاريخيين وهي أنه فتك بالاسلام السياسي ليحل محله "السنية السياسية" .. وبدا ذلك عندما شققنا قلبه ورأينا أنه لم يبق في ذلك القلب "سياسة اسلامية"بل براغماتية وانتهازية سياسية ومذهبية فاقعة .. لأن الأصبغة التي تزين بها وكل الماكياجات ذابت وتحللت في الأزمة السورية والربيع العربي وتبين أن أزمة الاسلام السياسي ومرضه هي في الحقيقة في انبثاق هوية جديدة لمخلوق جديد اسمه"السنية السياسية" .. وهي احدى منتجات مشروع الفوضى الخلاقة وأحد فروعها الرئيسية ..

والانتخابات البلدية التركية هي الدليل القطعي على تفكك الاسلام السياسي الى مكوناته المذهبية بنضوج الشكل النهائي الفج للسنية السياسية بدل الاسلام السياسي الذي سقط في الربيع العربي حيث التهمت السنية السياسية بقايا الاسلام السياسي الذي كان يشكل حلما رومانسيا للاسلاميين جميعا بشقيهم السنة والشيعة .. وهي آخر تجليات المشروع الغربي الصهيوني لتدمير الخطر الاخضر .. المتمثل بالمجتمعات الاسلامية .. عبر آخر طراز من اشكال الفوضى الخلاقة وهو فوضى المذاهب ..

ومن يراقب تفكك الاسلام السياسي الى مكوناته المذهبية عليه ان يراجع سيرة حياة الاسلام السياسي من ساعة الولادة الى شيخوخته .. فربما بدأ الاسلام السياسي مع محاولات الاخوان المسلمين اعادة احياء فكرة الخلافة في مصر كرد على انهيار الخلافة العثمانية كرمز سياسي أخير للمسلمين ..ولكن كل محاولاتهم فشلت عبر العقود .. الى أن فوجئ الجميع بنجاح نموذج الاسلام السياسي في ايران في التمكن من السلطة عبر وصول صاخب وعبر ثورة شعبية عارمة للامام الخميني حرك بها الجموع بشكل مدهش وأنجز اقامة أول جمهورية اسلامية في العصر الحديث بعد آخر امبراطورية سقطت في استانبول ..

ولكن رغم ان الثورة الايرانية رفعت شعار الاسلام والوحدة الاسلامية لتشمل جميع المسلمين سنة وشيعة وأتبعت اسم جمهوريتها بصفة "الاسلامية" .. ويحسب لقادتها أنهم لم يتورطوا في الخطاب المذهبي في حديثهم العام .. فان التيارات الاسلامية الرئيسية خارج ايران بما فيها الاخوان المسلمين بقيت حذرة في الترحيب بالوافد الجديد وفاترة في توجهها نحو ايران .. والسبب كان عقائديا بحتا .. فالجمهورية الاسلامية الايرانية أسسها ثوار من الشيعة .. وهذا نقيض كاف للتردد بشأن الاندفاع نحوها وعناقها .. بل اكتفى الاسلاميون العرب السنّة بالمجاملات و "التقية"السياسية .. وانصرفوا لاقامة مشروعهم الخاص بهم ..الجمهورية الاسلامية .. بنسخة سنية ..وهذا مايفسر سبب عدم تمدد الثورة الايرانية خارج حدود التواجد الشيعي في المنطقة

وكان أن الحرب العراقية الايرانية قد رسمت أسوارا حول مشروع ايران الثوري في العالم الاسلامي .. فرغم أنها خيضت على شكل صراع عربي فارسي كما حاول الرئيس صدام حسين تصويره الا أن المزاج الباطن للجمهور العربي كان يراها صراعا بين السنة والشيعة في النهاية .. وكان السبب في ذلك الشعور هو تلاعب الاعلام العربي الخليجي والاعلام الغربي الخبيث بمشاعر الناس .. فقد كانت هيئة الاذاعة البريطانية في قسمها العربي في لندن (بي بي سي) تردد دوما أن الرئيس العراقي يضع الجنود الشيعة في مقدمة الجيش العراقي والخطوط الدفاعية العراقية لمواجهة الهجمات الايرانية لكنه يحتفظ بالجنود السنة في الخطوط الخلفية عبر وحدات الحرس الجمهوري التي كانت تطلق النار على القوات العراقية الأمامية التي تتخاذل أو تتراجع في القتال ضد العدو الايراني  .. وكان هذا الأمر المنسوب للقادة العراقيين دسا للسم في عسل القومية العربية وذكريات القادسية وجيش رستم التي حاول صدام حسين التشبث بها في حين أن العقل المسلم أخذ عنوة وتم جره من قادسية صدام الى معركة صفين .. وكان من الواضح أن خيار تفعيل الصراع السني الشيعي بدأ يطبخ على نار هادئة ولكنه كان يحتاج الى وقت لينضج والى وسائل لطبخه .. الى أن تم غزو العراق على يد جورج بوش وهناك ظهرت ملامح المشروع ووسائل تصنيع الفوضى المذهبية ..

ومر حادث عابر تم دفنه بسرعة عندما ألقى العراقيون القبض في البصرة على ملثمين بثياب عربية يطلقان النار على الشرطة وجموع مدنية وعندما لوحقا وألقي القبض عليهما تبين أنهما جنديان بريطانيان .. وفي الحال اقتحمت المدرعات البريطانية جدران السجن واستعادتهما حتى قبل التحقيق معهما واختفت القصة من الاعلام كأنها لم تحدث .. وكان ذلك كافيا ليتساءل الناس عن مشروع غربي لتجييش الناس ضد بعضهم .. ولكن الحادثة انزلقت في بلاليع الذاكرة بسرعة وانطوت تحت ركام تفجيرات الكاظمية والأعظمية واختفت تحت دموع الآلاف في الحسينيات والمساجد السنية حيث كانت فرق الموت من بلاك ووتر تنشط في عملية قتل الطرفين من السنة والشيعة .. وتولت فضائية الزوراء الترويج لها بشكل هستيري فكانت تصور ضحايا السنة وتحرض على ماسمته عصابات مقتدى الصدر .. لتقوم الجزيرة بعملية تحريض أوسع وتوزيع أشمل لمنتجات التمذهب بشكل متقن وحرفي للتأثير على العقل العربي والتلذذ بفكرة الانتقام وزرع الشعور بالحاجة الماسة لقيام سلطة دينية سياسية "سنية"تقف في وجه فرق الموت الشيعية والمد السياسي الشيعي الذي قضم الحياة السياسية للجماهير "السنية" .. تماما كما روجت فكرة الهولوكوست للحاجة الى وطن قومي لليهود الذين يتعرضون للابادة على يد النازيين .. وهنا كانت الصورة الرائجة تقول بأن السنة يتعرضون لانتقام رهيب وأن نهجهم يتعرض للغزو الفكري والاجتياح وأن عقيدتهم مهددة بالاستئصال وهم يتعرضون للابادة .. فقد تم تدمير سلطتهم في العراق بعد ألف سنة من تربعهم على السلطة في بلاد الرافدين .. ثم تم تدمير سلطتهم في لبنان عبر اغتيال الحريري آخر بقايا السنية السياسية .. وبذلك كان الهلال الشيعي يتمدد مثل الكابوس على مساحات العقل ..

وفي هذه المرحلة تفجر الخوف السني والعصبية السنية بشكل غريب كنوع من ميكانيزما الدفاع العنيفة في العراق .. دفاع ضد خوف وتوجس من الموت والانحلال والانقراض تجلى ذلك بعنف مفرط ضد المكونات الأخرى الدينية والمذهبية ومغالاة في الرد وقسوة في التعبير عن الخوف من الخصم بقطع رأسه والتمثيل بجثته ..والتفنن في تعذيبه الى حد جنوني تجلى في أقسى صورة في مجزرة عرس الدجيل عام 2006 التي هوجم فيها أحد الأعراس واغتصبت العروس في مسجد بلال الحبشي قبل أن يقطع ثدياها بالمنجل .. أما الأطفال الصغار فقد تم القاؤهم في نهر دجلة بعد ربطهم بالاثقال والحجارة أمام أعين ذويهم .. ثم تم قتل جميع الرجال بوحشية ..

في هذه السنوات ظهر البديل والمنقذ في تركيا ونهض النظير السياسي السني للمشروع الاسلامي الايراني .. وطفا الحلم الرومانسي للاسلاميين وكان نجم الدين اربكان يريد اقامة تجربة تركية مستفيدة من دروس نجاح الثورة الايرانية في اطلاق مشروعها الاسلامي السياسي لكن لقاءات غامضة بين اردوغان والمخابرات الامريكية في سجنه عام 1998 غير من مشروع أربكان الى مشروع اردوغان .. واستجاب الله أخيرا لدعوات المؤمنين المظلومين .. وظهرت تركيا درة الاسلام الجديد ..ونموذج النجاح المذهل .. والأرض الموعودة .. ولكن خلف الاسلام السياسي التركي كان هناك مخلوق جديد يترعرع .. ولم يظهر الى العلن الا في زمن الربيع العربي ..الاسلام السياسي الذي أفرزته ثورات الربيع ليس الا تعبيرا عن صعود مرسوم للسنية السياسية التي صدمها سقوط الحكم في العراق وصعود الشيعية السياسية التي مهدت لها الطريق الدبابات الامريكية ..وتوجتها بمسرحية اعدام الرئيس صدام حسين المحاط بنداءات شيعية تمجد الشهيد الصدر كرمز للشيعية السياسية المنتصرة .. فقد نظرت الجموع الى هذا الاعدام على أنه اعدام قامت به"الشيعية السياسية""للسنية السياسية".. فجن حنونها ..

ولذلك نرى أن رد فعل الثورات العربية كمشروع للاسلام السياسي لم يفكر بالانتقام من الغرب والامريكيين الذين غزوا العراق وأذلوا قادته .. ولم يفكر بالصهيونية المسيحية ومشاريعها الضخمة لابتلاع المنطقة وأديانها ومجتمعاتها وثرواتها .. ولم يكترث بكل ماقيل عن المسجد الأقصى وتهويده وبكل اهانات الرسول والقرآن .. بل كان جل همه هو ابراز الهوية الطائفية للاسلام السياسي الناهض على أنه اسلام سني وصعود للسنية السياسية والالتفات نحو النقيض العقائدي المتمثل بالشيعة .. وهذا واضح جدا في اصرار الحركات الاسلامية الحالية على تثبيت صفة (الاسلام السني) على منطلقاتها النظرية الجديدة والعمل الحثيث على القاء الناس في أتون الحروب المذهبية وانتزاعهم من حضن المشاعر الوطنية للارتماء في أحضان المذهبية السياسية فقد امتصت الثورات العربية مفكرين ومثقفين الى مستنقع المذاهب والولاءات الضيقة ..

ويبدو الاصرار على سنية فكر الحركات الاسلامية الحالية وتخصص كتائبها المقاتلة في قتال الأقليات وصبغ الجيش الوطني بصبغة طائفية دليل على أنها ليست موجهة للغرب (المسيحي) بل للنقيض الاسلامي الداخلي .. وتجلى ذلك بالخطاب المذهبي البغيض لمحمد مرسي في زيارته لايران بعد توليه السلطة بأيام .. وكان ظاهرا في محاولة اهانة الرئيس الايراني محمود أحمدي نجاد في الازهر والصراخ في وجهه ضد تمدد "الشيعية السياسية"عبر ماسمي التشييع الذي تمارسه ايران للمنطقة .. وهو التعبير الظاهري للمطالبة بايقاف الشيعية السياسية وليس التشيع الذي يدرك الجميع أنه ليس الا مشروعا خياليا .. وهذا كان لاعطاء هوية للاسلام السياسي الناهض وهي "السنية السياسية" .. وقد تجلت أكثر مظاهر الميول المذهبية في اعطاء الثورة السورية البعد المذهبي الأقصى رغم كل براقع الحرية فهناك اصرار على محاولة اقرار طائف سوري وواقع مذهبي يقر بحقوق سنية ثابتة مقدسة لاتقبل النقاش مقابل حرمان بقية الأقليات من هذه الميزات السياسية ليمهد ذلك لصعود السنية السياسية في سورية كتيار متمم "للسنية السياسية"المجاورة في لبنان المتمثلة في تيار المستقبل ولتتكامل مع صعود لموجة السنية السياسية العراقية عبر الأنبار كنوع من التوازن مع الشيعية السياسية التي ثبتت اقدامها في العراق ..

وتركيا ليست استثناء بل هي ربما المحور الرئيسي في كل منظومة بناء السنية السياسية الحديثة ومحركها الرئيسي .. لأن تركيا تبين انها في هذه المرحلة تدير الصراع في أنبار العراق وتستقبل زعماء الأنبار الطائفيين .. وتركيا تدير الصراع في سورية كأمه الرؤوم وتذكي من المشاعر المذهبية وتقدم نفسها حامية للسنة من خلال اثارة الحنين للعهد العثماني الذي كان يمثل النقيض الصرف للصفوية .. وكانت تدعم محمد مرسي في سياق اطلاق الاسلام السياسي الذي سيكشر عن أسنانه المذهبية وينضم لجوقة منشدي المذهبية السنية كلما دعت الضرورة كما حدث في تجنيد محمد مرسي للحرب في سورية في مواقفه الشهيرة ورعايته للخطاب المذهبي ومؤتمرات الجهاد في بلاد الشام ضد الكفار والروافض ..رغم أن الحكمة كانت تقتضي أن ينأى محمد مرسي بنفسه عن التورط المباشر وتركه لتركيا ليتفرغ لحل مشكلات الاخوان في مصر .. لكن أردوغان لم يكن قادرا على الانتظار .. واستدعى الاخوان المسلمين المصريين الى السفربرلك في الجهاد ضد الكفار والروافض ..فوقع محمد مرسي بسرعة ..

لقد فوجئ بعض الناس من فوز حزب العدالة والتنمية في الانتخابات البلدية وهم كانوا يتوقعون نهاية حقبة العدالة والتنمية نتيجة الاحباطات والتخبطات التي مر بها اردوغان كمسؤول مباشر عن نشاطات الحزب .. بل ان كم الفضائح والفساد في تركيا انبعثت روائحه في كل العالم وانتكست الحريات كثيرا وخاضت المؤسسة الحاكمة صراعا مريرا مع جزء من الشعب التركي .. ولو أنها في اي بلد ديمقراطي عريق لقدمت الحكومة استقالتها على الفور دون تردد ودعت لانتخابات مبكرة .. لكن الانتخابات البلدية أظهرت أن كل هذه الزلازل لم تغير كثيرا في مزاج الناس .. لأن الناس في تركيا صوتوا لما صار يمثله حزب العدالة والتنمية من شكل من أشكال "السنية السياسية"المستهدفة لأنها المعنية بالدفاع عن الهوية السنية الاسلامية عبر الباسها الدرع السياسي الذي يحميها .. فان سقطت السنية السياسية سقط المذهب السني .. والاسلام ..


وتحول أردوغان الى أيقونة للسنية السياسية في عقول الاسلاميين الأتراك والثوار العرب .. فالرجل خلع فجأة لبوس الاسلام السياسي الذي ارتداه عندما كان يقوم بعملية اختراق للمنطقة .. بل وترجل نهائيا من مراكب الاسلام السياسي وصعد الى مركب "السنية السياسية"وذلك عبر ادعائه أنه يدافع عن اهل السنة المظلومين في سورية وغيرها .. وصار يهاجم الشيعة والأقليات غير السنية في تركيا .. ويوجه لها اتهامات لاتخلو من الاحتقار والكراهية .. بل انه صار يجاهر بميوله المذهبية وبرغبته في أن يكون زعيم العالم السني .. وذلك عبر تمجيد السلاطين الذين ارتكبوا مذابح دينية بحق الأقليات والمذاهب الأخرى ..

ومن هنا تبين أن حزب العدالة والتنمية قد تحول بسرعة بسبب انتهازيته من ذراع للاسلام السياسي الى ذراع للسنية السياسية وبالتالي فان عملية اقتلاعه من السلطة في تركيا صارت بمثابة اقتلاع للسنية السياسية بلا مقابل وتدمير لقلعة مذهبية يلجأ اليها المظلومون والخائفون من "الهلال" .. ولذلك ورغم كل الموبقات التي يرتكبها أردوغان ورغم كل فساده فان حزبه لم يهتز لأنه صار حزب المذهب السني الذي تصاعد في تركيا.. وصارت علاقة الناس به في منطقة الأناضول تحديدا علاقة عاطفية وعلاقة نعرة مذهبية .. تماما مثل علاقة السنة في لبنان بسعدو الحريري .. فالحريري ليس فيه أي كاريزما وهو مخجل بكل المقاييس ليتبوأ منصب زعامة دينية لأنه ليس فقيها ولافصيحا ..ولامتحدثا .. وليس راويا للحديث والسنة ولايحفظ القرآن وليس في سلوكه زهد عمر وتواضعه ..ولاهو ناسك في صومعة .. ومع ذلك فانه في عيون كثير من السنة اللبنانيين الزعيم الأوحد .. وقائد السنية السياسية التي تواجه الشيعية السياسية .. وتتناظر مع تجربة المارونية السياسية والدرزية السياسية في لبنان ..

ولكن هذه الانتخابات أظهرت الآن المشكلة الكبرى التي تواجه تركيا وهي أن السنية السياسية التي خلعت الاسلام السياسي لاتستطيع الاستمرار طويلا دون تغذية مذهبية .. وغذاؤها سيكون برفع سقف التهييح المذهبي في الداخل التركي .. ومن يرى تفصيل النسب والأرقام في انتخابات تركيا يعرف مدى الورطة التركية .. فالمجتمع منقسم مذهبيا بشكل واضح .. وحزب العدالة والتنمية يحشد لدى جمهور السنة الأتراك ليحافظ على ولائه له والوفاء له والذود عنه في صناديق الانتخاب .. وهذا يعني اطلاقا في المقابل لحمّى المذاهب في تركيا .. وربما صعودا للعلوية السياسية كون المكون الضحية لهذا السعار المذهبي سيكون حتما الأقليات العلوية التي خاضت صراعا مريرا في الثمانينات في انطاكية ضد مكونات مذهبية مناوئة لها واضطر الجيش التركي للتدخل يومها لايقاف الصراع بعد مئات من الضحايا .. ولكن في الثمانينات كانت الدولة علمانية ويتساوى الجميع لديها .. ولذلك تمكنت من ايقاف التوتر لأنها لاتنتمي الى أي من الطرفين .. أما اليوم فللحكومة جمهورها الذي وعدته بحماية السنية السياسية كهوية جديدة ووعدها هو بالوفاء لها .. وأي توتر قادم سيكون دمويا وقاسيا للغاية سيترك اثره على كل تركيا ويفتح أمامها احتمالات تفكك الجمهورية لأن لاقوة ستكون قادرة على ايقاف الحنون عندما ينطلق .. والناس لم تصوت اليوم لأردوغان لأنه رئيس حكومة فاسد ومتلاعب بالحقائق ولأنه قد يتورط في حرب عبثية في سورية لكنها صوتت ضد اسقاط السنية السياسية في تركيا لأن حزب العدالة والتنمية (وعبر تصريحات لالبس فيها لأردوغان) صار يمارس الابتزاز المذهبي في تركيا نفسها ..

جمهورية اتاتورك العلمانية تتآكل لأن الاسلام السياسي الذي كان يمكن ان يتابع مسيرته دون صدام مع مكوناته ومذاهبه قد انتهى ونهشته السنية السياسية لحزب العدالة والتنمية الذي استغلها بانتهازية وأنانية .. وهذا ثمن ستدفعه كل التيارات الدينية عندما تغالي في شعاراتها الدينية .. هذا هو بالضبط مارفضته الدولة الوطنية السورية دوما .. ورغم كل محاولات الوسطاء بادراج التيارات الدينية والاخوان المسلمين في ترتيبات الحكم بشكل صريح .. لأن صعود التيارات الدينية حتى في بلد علماني يعني صعود المذاهب أيضا في مرحلة لاحقة بشكل حتمي .. ولاأزال أذكر حادثة سمعتها من شاهد عيان عندما كان أحد القياديين السوريين يقدم قائمة مرشحين للقيادات البعثية للرئيس الراحل حافظ الأسد .. وكان كلما قدم اسما نوه الى أنه سيمثل هذه الطائفة او تلك في القيادة .. وهنا بدا الغضب على وجه الرئيس حافظ الأسد الذي سأل ذلك القيادي متهكما: انك قدمت لي في قائمة لقيادة بعثية ممثلين للطوائف .. فهل لك أن تقول لي أين هو ممثل حزب البعث؟؟الا يحق لحزب البعث أن يكون ممثلا في قيادة بعثية ؟؟ .. ثم أعاد الورقة دون توقيعه وأنهى الاجتماع وقد بدا عليه الاستياء .. وهذا كان يدل على أن الاعتبارات المذهبية وان تمت مراعاتها برفق ودون تشنج الا أنها لم يكن ليسمح لها بأن تحل محل الاعتبارات الوطنية .. ولا أن تتقدم على الهوية العامة الشاملة ..

ولذلك فان فوز العدالة والتنمية ليس فوزا لأردوغان .. بل ان الرجل في حسابات الحزب طار ورقة محترقة ..ووجودها مؤقت ريثما تمر مرحلة الانتخابات .. فالحزب في النهاية يدرك أن أردوغان وأوغلو لايستطيعان اصلاح الخلل الكبير في داخل تركيا وخارجها .. فهناك شرخ كبير بين اردوغان وشريحة كبيرة من الناس في الداخل وصل الى مرحلة العداء الشرس والكراهية المريرة .. وهناك شعور أن الجمهور تغاضى عن فساده لاعتبارات مذهبية ورمزية وحزبية ..وهناك قناعة متعاظمة أن تركيا لاتستطيع أن تعيش معزولة الى عشر سنين أخرى بسبب اردوغان .. فالرجل لم يبق في محيط تركيا من يطيقه في الحوارات الصريحة لقادة المنطقة .. لاسورية ولاايران ولاالعراق ولاروسيا ولاارمينية ولاقبرص ..رغم كل المجاملات والكلمات البروتوكولية .. ومن الأفضل أن يتم تبديله بطريقة انقلاب حزبي على طريقة توني بلير ..قبل أن تنفجر الفنابل الموقوتة ..

قد ينجح حزب العدالة في تمرير التبديل لتسهيل حل المشكلات الداخلية والخارجية .ولكنه لم يعد قادرا على تجنب انهيار جمهورية اتاتورك الا بعودة العلمانيين لاصلاح مرحلة فوضى المذاهب التي أطلقها اردوغان .. لأن انطلاق المذاهب السياسية على محركات وعجلات المذاهب الدينية خطر للغاية .. فقد تحول حزب العدالة والتنمية الى حزب للسنة الأتراك .. وبدأت الأحزاب الاخرى في عملية امتصاص الطوائف والأقليات الغاضبة لتتحول الى أحزاب طائفية بالتدريج .. وسيعلو صوت السعار الديني كلما أحس حزب العدالة والتنمية بأنه مهدد بالخسارة والتراجع .. وهذا الأسلوب هو وصفة دقيقة جدا لنهاية جمهورية علمانية .. ونهوض مشروع فوضى المذاهب .. وهو الترجمة الحرفية للفوضى الخلاقة ..هل هناك فوضى خلاقة أكثر دمارا من فوضى المذاهب؟؟ ..

وينظر الآن الى الانتخابات التركية اليوم بنفس مقياس الانتخابات البريطانية التي ثبتت توني بلير رئيسا للوزراء للمرة الثالثة رغم ان المجتمع البريطاني كان يرى فيه كاذبا بعد حرب العراق وقبركته لدوسيه ال 45 دقيقة التي ستصل خلالها صواريخ صدام حسين الكيماوية الى سكان لندن وتقتلهم .. حتى أطلق عليه الناس لقب (كلب بوش) .. لكن الناخبين البريطانيين الذين تسببوا في نجاحه لثالث مرة قالوا انهم لم يصوتوا له بل لسياسيات وزير خزانته غوردون براون الذي نجح في سياساته المالية .. وكان الخيار أمام الناخب البريطاني أن يتم التصويت لحزب العمال حتى وان بقي بلير رئيسه لأن الانتقام من بلير يعني الانتقام من الحزب وحرمان الناس من سياسات براون المالية القوية .. ولكن الحزب وصلت اليه الرسالة الانتخابية وقام بعملية التجميل بتنحية بلير بشكل مهذب وتنصيب براون مكانه بعد أشهر قليلة من الانتخابات .. وهو نفس الدرس الذي تلقته مارغريت تاتشر وهي في أوج عزها وانتصارها برصيد حرب الفوكلاند .. لكن انهيار سمعتها جعل الحزب يستبدلها ليحافظ على نفسه ..

أردوغان ليس بريطانيا .. وكل الدلائل تركد أنه تركي وعقله لايعمل بالوقود الأوروبي بل بالوقود التركي .. ولذلك فان خروجه من الحياة السياسية لن يكون الا خروجا صاخبا وعلى الطريقة التركية .. مهما احتفل الاسلاميون بانتصاراته ..

ولاأدري لم تسرع السافل اسماعيل هنية للاحتفال ببلديات أردوغان .. ولم يتعلم من درس احتفاله بصعود مرسي .. من جديد لايقال الا: الأغبياء لايرون الا بعيونهم .. وكل من يصفق ..ويراقص قلبه .. ماعليه الا انتظار ماتراه الأيام في الأشعة ماتحت الحمراء للسياسة ..

ستون دقيقة مع ناصر قنديل 04 04 2014

نقطة وحوار _ القضية الفلسطينية .. بين التسوية والتصفية / الكوثر 04 04 2014

"This article should be exposed as part of the world order manipulations in drifting the attention from the plot that target Palestinians to the imaginary threat represented by the Egyptian Muslim Brothers."

F**K you and Talmudic brothers.

---------

Today, they seem to be engaged in a well-developed, popular movement worthy of observation and analysis.

In what is a new, interactive, and courageous way to express the voice of the majority of young people in the oppressive kingdom, a group of youths from different tribes and regions of Saudi Arabia have started posting short video messages on YouTube, highlighting various popular demands.

The videos are structured in a way where a young activist, identified by the name of his or her tribe, makes a timed statement on camera lasting between 30 seconds and 3 minutes. The brief statements directly address King Abdullah, explaining issues people face such as: unemployment, poverty, shortages in housing and public services, and other socio-political issues like the freedom of expression and assembly.

Similar to what happened during the #Salaries_Not_Enough campaign, which quickly trended on Twitter, a hashtag was set up for the new appeals with the words: “The people have their say.” The campaign has so far mainly attracted youths, who have been sharing the videos and messages. Notable intellectuals and journalists have prefered to wait and see for the time being.

Below, we quote word for word the most prominent posts spotted on social media, in chronological order:

On March 22, the man identified as Abdul-Aziz bin Fahd al-Dosari appeared in a 33-second clip, saying things that have not been heard in the kingdom for decades. Addressing King Abdullah directly, he said,

The video received record views shortly after it was posted. By April 1, it had 1.6 million views.

On March 23, Abdullah Mabrouk bin Othman al-Ghamdi from the city of Bisha in southwest Saudi Arabia, posted another video, commenting on Dosari’s video. Addressing the king as well, he said:

He then displayed his identity card bearing his name and photograph, and called again on everyone to participate in the campaign. By April 1, the video had received up to 737,167 hits.

On March 27, Saoud Mardi Abdullah al-Bidani al-Harbi, born in Riyadh, posted a video expressing solidarity with the demands made previously. Commenting on the videos, he said:

Harbi then also showed his identity card with his photo and name on it.

On March 30, Abdul-Rahman Ali Ahmed Ghreidi al-Asiri, a physician, posted a video message, giving in 2 minutes and 32 seconds his brief and bold commentary, and said:

Then he brandished his identity card and showed it to the camera. The video has had over 1.5 million views.

On March 31, Wafi Mardi Abdullah al-Bidani al-Harbi, who is 18 years old, appeared in a video message after the arrest of his brother Saoud, and spoke about the detention of those who he said had only demanded their rights like his brother, Abdul Aziz al-Dosari, and others. He said:

He then sent out two messages, the first addressing Mohammed bin Nayef, the interior minister, saying,

He then addressed the people, recounting a story told by Ali ibn Abi Taleb, who said that if you see the oppressor continuing to engage in injustice then know that his end is inevitable, and if you see the oppressed continuing to resist his oppressor, then know that his victory is inevitable. He then said

The younger Harbi then also showed his id card to the camera, bearing his full name. Within a day, the video had received 240,777 hits.

On March 31, the 23-year-old man Maaz Mohammed Suleiman al-Juhani from the Hijaz spoke and said,

On April 2, another young man appeared in a video message addressing the king. He said,

The Saudi government’s reaction has been negative as expected. The Saudi government detained one young man after the other, but the Saudi youth have responded by staying defiant and showing their willingness to pay the price for their stances.

It seems that we are seeing a new wave of political protests and civil resistance worth watching, amid the insistence of the Saudi regime on pursuing a security-based approach in dealing with the demands of young people, who are an underprivileged majority in the oil kingdom.

A number of Bahraini security officers working at embassies abroad have been monitoring the systematic naturalization process. These officers are not under the command of official intelligence services or diplomatic officials at Bahrain embassies, but are subject to a higher authority directly linked to the king.

In the summer of 2012, the escalation of the Syrian crisis and the flow of Syrian refugees led to the establishment of al-Zaatari refugee camp east of the Jordanian city of al-Mafrek. As a result, the camp became a large reservoir of new settlers to be moved to Bahrain.

Focusing on Syrian refugees in al-Zaatari camp, Bahraini officers acquired an office at their country’s embassy in Jordan and later opened a bureau near the camp in coordination with Saudi intelligence officials and Jordanian security forces.

They established a center to prepare candidates for Bahraini citizenship, which included training refugees to speak with a Bahraini accent, teaching women how to prepare traditional Bahraini dishes, introducing them to the names of Bahraini towns and streets, in addition to other matters related to the country’s historical and geographical background, and of course, exploiting their difficult situation to indoctrinate them to be loyal to the regime.

Al-Akhbar received information suggesting that the Bahraini authorities set well-defined specifications for individuals and families seeking Bahraini citizenship. Therefore, they excluded refugees coming from cities and favored those of rural origins coming from the countryside of Aleppo, Hama, Homs, Deir Ezzour and Damascus, but excluded Daraa’s countryside for no obvious reason. Naturally, candidates have to be Sunnis since the process aims to give leverage to the Sunni sect. Also, refugees in Jordan are given priority status because it is easier to connect with them and to train them at the center located in proximity to the Zaatari camp.

Though Zaatari camp might be the easiest place to pick new Bahrainis, it is not the only one. Informed sources told Al-Akhbarthat Bahraini intelligence officers are also active in Iraq, mainly on the Syrian-Iraqi border and in Syrian refugee camps in Turkey.

The Bahraini government has also been naturalizing Saudi nationals with the support of the intelligence services in their original country. In fact, Saudi Arabia is considered the Gulf’s biggest reservoir for demographic and sectarian changes. Kuwait is an example of this phenomenon, where the number of Shia citizens fell back to 20 percent in the last three decades, though the percentages had been rather equal in the past.

Kuwait’s demographics changed following the Iraqi occupation in 1991. The country’s population which was estimated at 560 thousand increased to 1.25 million following the naturalization of about 500 thousand Saudis.

Naturalization of foreigners in Bahrain used to take place at a slower pace and it involved migrant workers, mainly Bengalis and Indians (Sunni Muslim). However, since the 2011 protests, which called for better representation of Shiites based on demographic distribution, the authorities launched a vicious naturalization campaign. Knowledgeable Arab sources estimated that the process has involved 100 thousand individuals so far, but authorities are seeking to naturalize 200 thousand.

According to statistics, the Bahraini population is estimated at 2.23 million with only 570 thousand holding the Bahraini citizenship. Seventy percent of them are Shia.

Though the naturalization of Syrians, Iraqis and Saudis remains discreet, the regime is shamelessly giving odd explanations for naturalizations involving other individuals. Recently, Mohammed Abdul Latif, vice president of the Bahraini Athletic Federation justified the naturalization of African players by saying “Bahrainis are not physically fit to participate in long distance races, their genes and physical capacities don’t allow them to compete against American, Jamaican and Kenyan runners for example,” adding “most players given the Bahraini nationality are those participating in over 800 meters races.”