Islam in South Asia > Pakistan resents being used by US, UK Deep State for decades; Muslims open fire on Buddhist monks in Thailand

 

Pakistan did ‘dirty work’ for the West in supporting terrorists – defense minister

Khawaja Asif has admitted that Islamabad backed terrorist groups on behalf of the US and UK

FILE PHOTO: Pakistani Defense Minister Khawaja Asif. ©  Madoka Ikegami-Pool / Getty Images

Pakistani Defense Minister Khawaja Asif has called out the West – and the US in particular – for its role in security tensions in the region. Asked about his country’s support for terrorism in an interview with Sky News released on Friday, Asif admitted that Islamabad did “the dirty work” for the Western powers for decades.

“We have been doing this dirty work for the United States for about three decades, you know and the West, including Britain,” Asif told the British broadcaster on Thursday. He added that this “was a mistake” and Pakistan has “suffered for that.”

“If we had not joined the war against the Soviet Union and the war after 9/11, Pakistan’s track record would have been unimpeachable,” Asif said. He was referring to the Soviet-Afghan war, during which the US covertly supported anti-communist insurgents, and the US-led ‘War on Terror’ that was  launched by then-President George W. Bush following the September 11, 2001 attacks and which targeted the Taliban and Al-Qaeda.

Asif claimed the West has long used terrorist groups as proxies, noting that many now labeled as terrorists were once welcomed in Washington. 

“When we were fighting the war on their side, way back in the ‘80s against the Soviet Union, all these terrorists of today, they were wining and dining in Washington… They were treated like VIPs in those days,” he said.

The minister suggested that groups considered terrorists in the region are not distinct entities but part of a single organization with a shared religious ideology. “They’re all mixed up. They’re not multiple organizations. They’re just one single organization, religiously organized, and with different faces, different leadership. At times they work together, at times they fight with each other.”

Asif went on to say that “no country in the world has suffered so much from terrorism as Pakistan,” and accused India of following “a pattern” of blaming Pakistan for terrorist attacks on its soil.

India-Pakistan standoff following Kashmir attack: What we know so far

The minister’s remarks came amid an escalation between Islamabad and New Delhi, which followed a deadly attack in Indian-administered Kashmir that left 26 people dead earlier this week. 

The Resistance Front, a militant group believed to be linked to the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba, has reportedly claimed responsibility, prompting New Delhi – which has long accused Pakistan of aiding militant infiltrations in the region – to signal that it holds Islamabad indirectly responsible.

Asif, however, claimed that Islamabad has “never heard of” the organization, while the Lashkar-e-Taiba “no longer exists.” He said it was simply “very convenient” for the “big powers to blame Pakistan for whatever is happening in this region.”

Asif also suggested the Kashmir incident was a “false flag” operation. When asked what would happen if the current standoff with India escalated to the point of airstrikes, he warned Islamabad would “retaliate in kind.”

Thailand: Muslims open fire on Buddhist monks,

murder one novice monk

Apr 25, 2025 3:00 pm By Robert Spencer

The “separatist movement” is an Islamic jihad to detach the predominantly Muslim southern region of Thailand from the Buddhist rest of the country.

ISOC reveals motive behind Songkhla attack that killed one novice monk and injured two others

Nation Thailand, April 23, 2025 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):

The Internal Security Operations Command (ISOC) has revealed the underlying cause behind the recent shooting that targeted Buddhist monks and novices in Saba Yoi district, Songkhla province, resulting in the death of one novice and injuries to two others.

The attack occurred on Tuesday (April 22) morning, when assailants opened fire on a 4-door pickup truck driven by Pol Lt Watthana Chumapan, a police officer from Saba Yoi Police Station. The vehicle was transporting six monks and novices on their morning alms round.

Novice monk Wongsakorn, 16, Watthana’s son, succumbed to his injuries, while novice monk Phokanit, 12, and senior monk Boonsong, 70, sustained minor injuries.

Lt Gen Surathep Nukaew, Director of Coordination Centre 5 under ISOC, on Wednesday revealed that the shooting could be linked to a recent wave of violence targeting civilians in the Southern region.

According to Surathep, the violence stems from the April 18 shooting of Abdulroning Latheh, a former ustaz (Islamic teacher), in Su-Ngai Kolok district, Narathiwat province. Following his death, misinformation spread rapidly through both word-of-mouth and online channels associated with separatist movements, alleging state involvement due to Latheh’s past record with security agencies.

“After Latheh was shot, false narratives quickly emerged blaming the authorities,” explained Surathep. “This misinformation campaign was part of an internal rift within the BRN separatist movement — a power struggle between old and new leadership factions. The conflict led to retaliatory attacks, particularly targeting Buddhists, as a provocative response.”…

The EU Has Joined the Dark Side and Embraced AntiSemitism

Has the EU always been antisemitic? 

Or have they turned antisemitic because of the increasing population of Muslims in Europe? Either way, they are

extremely disappointing in their political cowardice.

Swedish delegate joins UK, France, Germany and other EU states today in singling out Israel at the 2016 WHO world assembly

GENEVA, May 25 — The UK, France, Germany and other EU states voted today for a UN resolution, co-sponsored by the Arab group of states and the Palestinian delegation, that singled out Israel at the annual assembly of the World Health Organization (WHO) as the only violator of “mental, physical and environmental health,” and commissioned a WHO delegation to investigate and report on “the health conditions in the occupied Palestinian territory” and in “the occupied Syrian Golan,” and to place it on the agenda again at next year’s meeting.

By contrast, the UN assembly did not address Syrian hospitals being bombed by Syrian and Russian warplanes, or millions of Yemenis denied access to food and water by the Saudi-led bombings and blockade, nor did it pass a resolution on any other country in the world. Out of 24 items on the meeting’s agenda, only one, Item No. 19 against Israel, focused on a specific country.

“The UN reached new heights of absurdity today,” said UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer, “by enacting a resolution which accuses Israel of violating the health rights of Syrians in the Golan, even as in reality Israeli hospitals continue their life-saving treatment for Syrians fleeing to the Golan from the Assad regime’s barbaric attacks.”

“Shame on Britain, France and Germany for encouraging this hijacking of the annual world health assembly, and diverting precious time, money, and resources from global health priorities, in order to wage a political prosecution of Israel, especially when, in reality, anyone who has ever walked into an Israeli hospital or clinic knows that they are providing world-class health care to thousands of Palestinian Arabs, as well as to Syrians fleeing Assad,” Neuer added.

“At the same time,” said Neuer, “UN Watch commends the principled stand taken by the U.S., Canada, Australia, Paraguay, Guatemala, Micronesia and Papua New Guinea in joining Israel to oppose perpetuating a politicized agenda item.” The U.S. and Canada both took the floor today to strongly object to the anti-Israel exercise.

The vote was 107 to 8 for the resolution, with 8 abstentions and 58 absent.  The resolution calls for reports on a series of alleged Israeli violations, including on “the impact of prolonged occupation and human rights violations on mental, physical and environmental health” in “the occupied Palestinian territory.”

The text also adopted three reports mandated by last year’s Arab-sponsored resolution: a “field assessment” on “health conditions in the occupied Palestinian territory”, a similar report by the WHO director-general, and a related report by the WHO secretariat.


UN’s 2016 World Health Assembly voting on anti-Israel resolution

Palestinian and Syrian Submissions

By backing the measure, EU states joined in the political targeting of Israel—in the form of a special debate, three lopsided reports, the resolution, and the publication of country submissions, including an inflammatory 59-page Palestinian submission which complains of a “racist separation barrier” while blaming increased Palestinian traffic accidents on the fear of “being pursued by settlers”; and a Syrian submission laced with anti-Semitic conspiracy tropes, yet circulated as an official UN document on the conference agenda, which alleges that “the Israeli occupation authorities” continue “to experiment on Syrian and Arab prisoners with medicines and drugs and to inject them with pathogenic viruses.”

They forgot the drinking of their children's blood! How could they forget that?

Unable to deny Israel’s medical treatment of thousands of wounded Syrians, the regime accuses Israel of a plot: healing “armed terrorists from Jabhah al-Nusrah” so that they can “resume their subversive terrorist activities directed against the country’s peaceful citizens and its infrastructure.”

That's hilarious!

Iran and Syria Take the Floor

Several countries took the floor ahead of the vote. Iran said Gaza was under “an inhuman blockade.” Syria said “the occupying Israeli forces continue their immoral practice, which punish our people in the Golan.”

Egypt accused Israel of “disregard for basic human rights.” Pakistan spoke of Israel’s “devastation of the health system in the occupied territories” and of a “wave of terror against the Palestinian civilian population.”

Venezuela’s Maduro regime said there was a need to “bring in medicines, but this is being inhibited by the occupying power, Israel.”

UNRWA, which received more than $400 million from the U.S. last year, said the root causes of Palestinian medical problems include “interference with basic human rights as a result of numerous policies of the Israeli authorities.”

The whole was met with delight in the overflow room for media and NGO representatives, who snickered and scoffed when the Israeli delegate took the floor to denounce the politicized resolution.

EU Joined the Jackals

Had the EU wanted, they could have set the record straight, and taken a stand against such base demonization of the Jewish state. Disgracefully, however, Britain, France, Germany and all other EU states joined the jackals by voting for today’s resolution.

The EU states could have introduced their own resolution about how Syria has killed hundreds of thousands of its own people, destroying the health rights of the Syrian people.

Yet the EU was silent. Instead, it justified its vote by claiming in its speech that today’s resolution was “technical.” This is the old Brussels-Ramallah wink-and-nod game: the PLO submits a more inflammatory text at the beginning, knowing it will be revised later to allow the Europeans to pretend they achieved a “balanced” text. Israel is then expected to celebrate that it has been lynched with a lighter rope.

Last month, France and Spain voted for an Arab-sponsored UNESCO resolution that contained the wild conspiracy accusation that Israel was “planting fake Jewish graves” in Jerusalem.

With today’s vote, which robs the world health assembly of limited time and resources in order to portray Israel as the world’s only violator of health rights—when in fact Israel is the beacon of the entire region on promoting and respecting the health rights of all people—the entire EU now descends into irrationalism.

By scapegoating the Jewish state for all the world’s health problems, just as medieval Europe once accused the Jews of poisoning the wells, the EU aids and abets the UN and its World Health Organization to betray the cause of humanity and the very principles upon which they were founded.

Somewhere in this world are people plotting to rebuild Auschwitz, and they are not necessarily Muslim.

The Islamization of Europe Will Cost Israel Bigtime

France to recognize Palestinian statehood if peace efforts fail – FM Fabius

Palestinian flags © Mohamad Torokman / Reuters

Paris will recognize the Palestinian state if France fails to break a deadlock between the Israelis and Palestinians in the coming weeks, Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius has announced.

“If this attempt to achieve a negotiated solution reaches a dead end, we will take responsibility and recognize the Palestinian state,” Fabius said Friday.

Excusez-moi Monsieur, but what is the likelihood that a solution will be reached if you are offering the jack-pot to Hamas if they fail? Es-tu stupide?

As a permanent member of the UN Security Council, France has a duty to maintain efforts to find a two-state solution between Israel and Palestine, he explained during a media-conference in Paris.

“France will engage in the coming weeks in the preparation of an international conference bringing together the parties and their main partners, American, European, Arab, notably to preserve and make happen the solution of two states,” the French FM is cited as saying by Reuters.

Ummm, any Israelis?

Fabius expressed hope that the international peace summit will be attended by Israelis and Palestinians, who haven’t been talking since 2014, as well as other key international players, including the US, EU states and Arab nations.

“Unfortunately, [Israeli] settlement construction continues. We must not let the two-state solution unravel,” he said.

An unnamed Israeli official has already told a journalist for the Haaretz newspaper that the French peace initiative will be rejected, as recognizing it would only encourage Palestinians to avoid direct negotiations with Tel-Aviv.

Less than a month ago, Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki visited Paris to discuss the possibility of proposing a UN Security Council resolution declaring that the illegal Israeli settlements in the West bank are an obstacle to a peaceful solution of the conflict.

In October of 2014, Sweden became the first EU nation to recognize Palestinian statehood, followed shortly by the UK. The first Palestinian embassy opened in Stockholm in January 2015.

Last September, the Palestinian flag was hoisted at UN headquarters for the first time as a symbolic gesture in the territory’s quest for statehood.

I have been harping on this for some time, that as the Muslim population of EU countries increases and their political clout increases, Europe will turn more and more against Israel. It has already happened in the UN, UK, and Sweden. It is happening in France and it's just a matter of time before Germany, Denmark, Holland, Finland, Poland, Norway, Spain, Italy, Austria and Switzerland follow suit.

Israel will be relentlessly condemned and if liberal governments persist in Canada and the US, we will join the condemnation and abandon our ally, the only real democracy in the middle east. Israel is the only country in the middle east where there is any reasonable level of human rights. It is also the only country in that area that I, as a Christian, would ever consider living in.

There is no solution to this problem; it's going to happen! Western countries are playing into the hands of Islam and all Islam wants is the complete annihilation of every Jew on the planet. The spirit of Hitler lives! Only this time it will take an extraordinary act of God to prevent evil from destroying His chosen people.

‘Game-changer’: European Parliament Votes in Favor of ‘Dropping Charges’ Against Snowden

Former U.S. National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden.
© Vincent Kessler / Reuters

The majority of European Parliament members have voted in favor of asking constituent states to grant protection to whistleblower and former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, who has described the move as a ‘game-changer’ and a ‘chance to move forward’.

MEPs have urged EU member states to “drop any criminal charges against Edward Snowden, grant him protection and consequently prevent extradition or rendition by third parties, in recognition of his status as whistle-blower and international human rights defender,” a European Parliament press release stated.

The call was not unequivocal, however, with 285 MEPs voting for the motion and 281 against, showing just how divided the European political elite remains on the issue.

Still, it’s a victory for Snowden, who sees the result of the voting as a “game-changer.”

“This is not a blow against the US Government, but an open hand extended by friends. It is a chance to move forward,” he wrote on Twitter.

Even a slim majority voting in favor of Snowden means a lot, according to Anatoly Kucherena, Snowden’s lawyer in Russia.

“The resolution of the EU parliament is recognition of Edward’s [Snowden] merits to the mankind, his courage and honesty of his position,” he said as cited by the Interfax news agency.

The European Parliament thoroughly studied Snowden’s leaks and in March 2014 adopted a resolution to protect the personal data of EU citizens.

“The European Parliament's inquiry into Edward Snowden’s revelations of electronic mass surveillance was the most comprehensive investigation completed to date. This work needs to continue to ensure that civil liberties are defended on the internet too,” Claude Moraes of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D), Chair of the Civil Liberties Committee and rapporteur on mass surveillance said.

The MEPs now say they are dissatisfied with the lack of action taken following their inquiry. The Thursday resolution, which said that not enough had been done to tackle mass surveillance, received a wider backing with 342 voices for it, 274 against and 29 abstentions.

“EU citizens' fundamental rights remain in danger” and “too little has been done to ensure their full protection,” the MEPs said.

The Parliament has also called on the European Commission to “immediately take the necessary measures to ensure that all personal data transferred to the US are subject to an effective level of protection that is essentially equivalent to that guaranteed in the EU”.

The EU’s parliament is worried about “recent laws in some member states that extend surveillance capabilities of intelligence bodies” – including in France, the UK and the Netherlands.

It is also concerned about “revelations of mass surveillance of telecommunications and internet traffic inside the EU by the German foreign intelligence agency (BND) in cooperation with the US National Security Agency (NSA)”.

The MPs also called on EU bodies to elaborate a strategy aimed at increasing levels of technological independence, improving online privacy, democratizing control over intelligence activities and rebuilding trust with the EU.

The problem of personal data protection has been in the spotlight since 2013, when former NSA contractor, Edward Snowden, disclosed mass surveillance programs used by the US intelligence services. Snowden was granted asylum in Russia. He is facing a number of charges in the US, including theft of government property and violating the Espionage Act.

So, how can the US charge Snowden with theft of government property, when that property was obtained illegally. Does a thieve's booty become his property? 

Popularity of 'Putin the Shiite' Sky High in Iraq

AFP 
By Jean-Marc Mojon with Raji Nasser in Najaf

Iraqi artist Mohammed Karim Nihaya touches up a painting of Russian
President Vladimir Putin in his studio in the Karada district of Baghdad

Baghdad (AFP) - Russian President Vladimir Putin's bullish entry into the Syrian conflict has worked wonders for his popularity in neighbouring Iraq, where some await "Hajji Putin" like a saviour.

Sitting at his easel in his central Baghdad workshop, painter Mohammed Karim Nihaya touches up a portrait of Putin he copied from the Internet.

"I have been waiting for Russia to get involved in the fight against Daesh," he says, referring to the Islamic State group that last year declared a "caliphate" straddling Iraq and Syria.

"They get results. The United States and its allies on the other hand have been bombing for a year and achieved nothing," the bespectacled artist says.

The US-led coalition has had some successes in helping Iraqi forces reconquer territory lost to IS in 2014 but overall the campaign has also suffered setbacks.

Russian warplanes began bombing targets in Syria on September 30 and on Wednesday Moscow ramped up its air war, unleashing cruise missiles from the Caspian Sea.

Putin leaving Elysee Palace in Paris AFP Photo

Some of them crossed Iraqi airspace and many here, especially among the Shiite majority, would welcome a bit of Russia's firepower on home soil as a much-awaited game-changer.

Only a fraction of Russian air strikes in Syria may have been destined for IS but Mohammed, a young jobless man outside the painter's shop, does not let statistics cloud his enthusiasm.

"We don't want the international coalition, we want only Russia and we will slaughter a sheep to welcome them," he says.

Some Iraqis see Moscow -- which has staunchly backed Damascus and Tehran in recent years -- as a more natural ally than the United States, which occupied the country for eight years.

Putin's patented leadership brand of bare-chested antics and cold determination is a also hit in Iraq, where the cult of the strong leader is alive and well 12 years after Saddam Hussein's ouster.

On social media, many have already made him an honorary citizen, with one widely circulated joke even detecting phonetic evidence of Iraqi antecedents in the Russian president's name.

It goes like this: Putin's father was an Iraqi grocer from the Shiite south, near Nasiriyah, who introduced figs ("tin" in Arabic) to local markets and thus became known as "Abu Tin".

After World War II, he moved to the Soviet Union, married "a blonde Russian girl" and named their son Abdulamir. That proved a bit of a mouthful for locals who Russianised it into Vladimir.

The apocryphal nature of the story appears lost on some Facebook users, who have embraced "Putin the Shiite" and even replaced their profile pictures with a portrait of the Russian strongman.

A Russian warship launches a cruise missile in the
Caspian Sea during a strike against Islamic State

"We should give Putin Iraqi and Syrian citizenship because he loves us more than our own politicians," says Mohammed al-Bahadli, a student walking on a street in the Shiite shrine city of Najaf.

"Muslims bomb us because we are Rafidha," says Saad Abdullah, who owns a convenience store in Najaf, employing a term which means "rejectionists" and is used by IS to refer to Shiites.

"Meanwhile Putin, who is an Orthodox man, is defending us.... Maybe he really is a Shiite and we didn't know about it," he says before flashing a huge smile.

Taxi driver Ali al-Rammahi says Putin is the only reason he hasn't already joined the thousands of Iraqis fleeing the country to knock on Europe's doors.

"I thank Putin because he convinced me to stay in Iraq... Hajji Putin is better than Hussein Obama," he says, using the title given to Muslims who have performed the pilgrimage to Mecca.

"Putinmania" has also gripped some of Iraq's politicians, creating some confusion over Baghdad's stance on a Russian intervention.

Hakim al-Zamili, the head of parliament's defence committee and a leader in a Shiite militia that once fought US forces, has suggested Baghdad has decided to request Russian air strikes.

Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, who is supported by the West, has been more equivocal but has not ruled out enlisting Russia's help.

Moscow recently increased its footprint in Iraq by joining a coordination cell set up in Baghdad to pool intelligence on IS fighters with non-coalition members Syria and Iran.

Syria Regime in Greater Peril Than any Time

Growing strains on Al Assad’s manpower becoming obvious, magnitude of losses are too big to hide

Rebel fighters from the Ahrar al-Sham Islamic Movement cover their ears
during the launch of grad rockets from Idlib countryside towards forces loyal
 to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad, who are stationed at
Jureen town in al-Ghab plain in the Hama countryside

BY LIZ SLY, WASHINGTON POST

Beirut: A surge of rebel gains in Syria is overturning long-held assumptions about the durability of President Bashar Al Assad’s regime, which now appears in greater peril than at any time in the past three years.

The capture on April 25 of the town of Jisr Al Shughour in northern Idlib province was just the latest in a string of battlefield victories by rebel forces, which have made significant advances in both the north and the south of the country.

As was the case in the capital of Idlib province last month, government defences in Jisr Al Shughour crumbled after just a few days of fighting, pointing as much to the growing weakness of regime forces as the revival of the opposition.

The battlefield shifts come at a time when the Obama administration has set aside Daesh (IS) in Syria to focus on its chief priorities: defeating Daesh in Iraq and concluding a nuclear deal with Iran.

Yet the pace of events in Syria may force the United States to refocus on the unresolved war, which remains at the heart of the turmoil engulfing the Middle East, analysts say. Iran backs Al Assad, Saudi Arabia backs the rebels, and a shift in the balance of power in Syria could have profound repercussions for the conflicts in Iraq and Yemen.

Game Changer

“We’re seeing a game changer right now in Syria,” said Jamal Khashoggi, a prominent Saudi journalist. “I think we are going to see an end to the Al Assad regime, and we have to think now about what will happen the day after, because the day after is near.”

Other observers say the prospect of a government collapse in Damascus is still remote. The capital is well defended, and the rebels’ gains have come mostly on the periphery of the country, where the regime’s supply lines are stretched.

But perceptions that Al Assad will survive indefinitely or serve at least as an interim counterbalance to Daesh and its strongholds in northeastern Syria are in doubt, said Emile Hokayem of the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

The growing strains on Al Assad’s manpower and resources “are becoming extremely obvious, and the magnitude of his losses are now too big to hide,” Hokayem said.

“This destroys the narrative that he is winning, which he was counting on, and also the argument that he is the best option against Daesh,” the analyst added. “If he’s not able to take on or even defend against the rebels, he’s going to have a hard time presenting himself as able to fight Daesh.”

The revival of rebel fortunes is attributed to a large degree on the recent rapprochement between a newly assertive Saudi Arabia and its erstwhile rivals for influence over the rebels — Turkey and Qatar.

Since inheriting the throne in January, Saudi King Salman Bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud has moved forcefully to challenge the expanding regional influence of Iran, Saudi Arabia’s biggest foe, most publicly by embarking on an air war against Houthi militiamen in Yemen. He has also acted to shore up the flagging and deeply divided rebels in Syria against the Iranian-backed Al Assad, in coordination with Qatar and Turkey, Khashoggi said.

Saudi Arabian air strike

‘Major rifts’

The result has been an unexpectedly cohesive rebel coalition called the Army of Conquest that is made up of Al Qaida affiliate Jabhat Al Nusra, an assortment of mostly Islamist brigades, and a small number of more moderate battalions. The coalition, which launched last month, has proved more effective than expected.

After seizing most of Idlib province in recent weeks, the rebels are pressing south toward the government strongholds of Hama and Homs and are threatening the Al Assad family’s coastal heartland of Latakia. A separate, more moderate rebel coalition has been making swift advances in the south, challenging government control over the key provincial capital of Daraa and making progress north toward Damascus.

Just as significantly, government forces have been proving increasingly ineffective. The collapse of two much-trumpeted offensives earlier this year, in southern Syria and in Aleppo, presaged the success of the recent rebel offensives, suggesting that even if the government can remain in control in Damascus, its chances of regaining the rest of the country are slipping.

There are signs that the regime itself is fraying under the strain of the four-year-old war. On Friday, pro-government news outlets reported the death of political security director Rustom Gazaleh, a longtime Al Assad stalwart, after months of rumours that he had fallen out with the regime, been badly beaten up by a rival and was languishing in hospital.

The reports followed the firing last month of the military intelligence chief, Rafiq Shehadeh, another inner-circle loyalist. Western diplomats monitoring events in Syria from Beirut say the two men appear to have clashed with the Al Assad family over the growing battlefield role played by Iran.

The tensions are reaching into the heart of the Al Assad family, whose four-decade-old rule had seemed unshakeable until the revolt erupted in 2011.

Hafez Makhlouf, Al Assad’s cousin, was fired late last year as head of security in the province of Damascus and has since fled the country, the diplomats say. Another cousin, Munzer Al Assad, was detained this month amid rumours that he had been plotting a coup.

Sudden collapse possible

“It looks like there are major rifts going on inside the Al Assad regime,” one of the diplomats said. “A military collapse on the regime side is not impossible.”

Much will depend on Iran, which has stepped up in the past to dispatch men, money and arms whenever Al Assad seemed to be faltering. But Iran is stretched, too, by the economic effects of continued international sanctions and by the competing demands of the war next door in Iraq, which has diverted some of the Iraqi militias that had been fighting for the regime in Syria.

In a commentary for the Middle East Institute in the past week, Robert Ford, a former US envoy to Syria, said a regime collapse cannot be ruled out. The regime’s schisms, its battlefield setbacks and its manpower shortages “are all signs of weakness,” he wrote. “We may be seeing signs of the beginning of their end.”

Then what?

That's the big question. What or who will take Al Assad's place if and when he falls? Will he align with Iran, with Saudi Arabia, with Daesh, or none of the above? The only thing I would take odds on right now, is that whatever happens, it will probably be worse than anyone expects. Wait, darn, my glass is half empty already.

Surprise! Russia is up to Something in the Ukraine, Again

The US has accused Russia of deploying more air defence systems in eastern Ukraine in breach of a ceasefire deal.

Pro-Russian rebels, Ukraine

The state department also said Russia was involved in training separatist forces in the area and building up its forces along the border.

The Kremlin has not yet responded to the claims.

A truce between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian rebels in east Ukraine was brokered by the West in Minsk in February.

Ukraine accuses Russia of arming the rebels and sending Russian troops over the border - a claim Moscow denies. Moscow denies everything, so what's the point of even asking?

State department spokeswoman Marie Harf said in a statement that "combined Russian-separatist forces" were violating the terms of the Minsk deal, keeping artillery and multiple rocket launchers in prohibited areas.

"The Russian military has deployed additional air defence systems into eastern Ukraine and moved several of these nearer the front lines," she said.

'Complex training'
"This is the highest amount of Russian air defence equipment in eastern Ukraine since August."

Ms Harf said the "increasingly complex nature" of training of pro-Russian forces in east Ukraine "leaves no doubt that Russia is involved".

"Russia is also building up its forces along its border with Ukraine," she said.

"After maintaining a relatively steady presence along the border, Russia is sending additional units there. These forces will give Russia its largest presence on the border since October 2014."

Earlier this month, about 300 US paratroopers arrived in western Ukraine to train with Ukrainian national guard units.

At the time, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov warned the move "could seriously destabilise" the situation in Ukraine.

One of the key points of the Minsk deal stipulates that all foreign armed groups, weapons and mercenaries should withdraw from Ukrainian territory.

The UN says at least 6,116 people have been killed since the fighting began in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions last April - a month after Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula.

Despite the ceasefire deal, sporadic exchanges of fire have taken place.

Now It Begins - Obama's Abandonment of Israel

For years I have been saying that President Obama will abandon Israel when the US is needed most by its ally. Today he took the first step down that path by throwing Israel to the pariahs at the United Nations Human Rights Council. 

The question is: Is this a one-off temper tantrum meant to put Netanyahu in his place, or is it meant to punish the Jewish people for re-electing him, or is it part of a strategy leading to complete abandonment of Israel when it is attacked in full-scale war intended to annihilate the country? As inconceivable as it seems, I believe the last scenario is in play. 

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon speaks during a session of the UNHRC

Pamela Geller

For the first time in modern Israel’s history, the United States has abandoned our ally at the notoriously antisemitic United Nations.

It’s a whole new terrible paradigm. And it isn’t hard to anticipate how the world will react, once it recovers from the shock of such unprecedented betrayal. This is a new reality, unlike anything that has come before. Nothing good can come from America abandoning her closest allies, especially now when the world is embroiled in jihad wars across the world. It’s like cutting off your lungs to spite your breath.

Israel has called for the entire UNHRC inquiry to be shelved over the bias displayed at the UN body.

The Jewish state is the only country in the world with a special agenda item dedicated to it, meaning its rights record is discussed at every session of the UN’s top rights body.

Let me be clear: the United Nations Human Rights Council is a bloody joke. Literally. Their hypocrisy is legendary. This time last year, Prime Minister Netanyahu said this regarding the United Nations Human Rights Council “absurdly” condemning Israel in five resolutions in one week last March while censuring Syria and Iran only once.

“This march of hypocrisy is continuing and we will continue to condemn it and expose it,” he told his cabinet at the start of its weekly meeting in Jerusalem.

“The UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC ) condemned Israel five times, this at a time when the slaughter in Syria is continuing, innocent people are being hanged in the Middle East and human rights are being eroded,” he said.

“In many countries free media are being shut down and the UN Human Rights Council decides to condemn Israel for closing off a balcony. This is absurd,” said Netanyahu.

I'm missing something, can anyone help me with the 'balcony' reference?

And now with Obama’s perfidy and betrayal, it’s open season on the Jews.

US Won’t Defend Israel at UNHRC, Israel Boycotts

Unprecedented step at 47-member state forum where Washington has always defended Israel; Israel skips special session against it.

Love

By Gil Ronen, Sarah Leah Lawent, Israel National News, 3/23/2015

The United States will not take the floor at the main U.N. human rights forum on Monday during the annual debate on violations committed in the Palestinian territories, a US spokesman told Reuters.

The step is unprecedented. The UNHRC is a notoriously anti-Israel forum where Washington has always defended Israel.

Asked for an explanation, a spokesman said only that the US ambassador to the council Keith Harper was in Washington.

The Obama administration has said in recent days that it is undertaking a “reassessment” of relations with the Jewish state.

“The U.S. delegation will not be speaking about Palestine today,” a U.S. spokesman in Geneva told Reuters in response to a question as the debate began. He declined further comment.

Earlier this month, US Secretary of State John Kerry defended Israel before the UNHRC, urging its members to end its blatant bias towards the Jewish state.

In a speech denouncing human rights abuses in Ukraine, Syria and North Korea, Kerry spoke about what he said is the council’s “deeply concerning record on Israel.” He stated, “no one in this room can deny that there is an unbalanced focus on one democratic country.” Kerry criticized the council for having criticism of Israel as part of its permanent agenda.

Israeli response?

In a possible response to the American move, Israel’s representative did not take part in the UNHRC special session on Monday.

A source close to the UNHRC council said the absence amounted to a boycott, although a spokeswoman with the Israeli mission in Geneva told AFP “we won’t comment on that.”

Monday’s session had originally been scheduled to discuss a probe on the 50-day war in Gaza last year, but the investigators obtained a delay after the head of the team quit after Israel revealed he had previously consulted for the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) terrorist group.

“The process cannot be rushed,” former New York judge Mary McGowan Davis, who has taken over as head of the “war crimes” probe, told the council. Davis previously was part of the controversial 2009 Goldstone Report – even Judge Richard Goldstone, who led the committee, later retracted the core accusation of “war crimes” leveled in the report.

Canadian international law expert William Schabas resigned as chair of the Commission of Inquiry on the 2014 Gaza conflict last month after Israel complained he could not be impartial because he had prepared a legal opinion for the PLO in October 2012, aside from a long history of anti-Israel bias he had voiced in numerous forums.

UNHRC attacks Israel yet again

Israel has called for the entire UNHRC inquiry to be shelved over the bias displayed at the UN body.

The Jewish state is the only country in the world with a special agenda item dedicated to it, meaning its rights record is discussed at every session of the UN’s top rights body.

Its absence Monday does not mark the first time it has boycotted the council.

It cut all ties with the council in March 2012 over its plans to probe how Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria were “harming Palestinian rights,” and did not resume relations until late 2013.

Monday’s session came after Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s Likud party soundly defeated Labor last week.

Most other western nations were absent from the meeting on Monday as well, with Pakistan’s representative speaking on behalf of the Organization of the Islamic Conference and complaining that it was “a deliberate attempt to undermine the credibility of the Human Rights Council.”

Although the report on the 2014 Gaza war investigation was delayed until June, the UN’s new Special Rapporteur on the situation in the Palestinian territories did not hold back from criticism against Israel at the meeting.

“The ferocity of destruction and high proportion of civilian lives lost in Gaza cast serious doubts over Israel’s adherence to international humanitarian law principles of proportionality, distinction and precautions in attack,” Makarim Wibisono claimed to the council.

Proportionality is an absurd concept - you are only allowed to hit back as hard as you were hit! Meanwhile, your enemy is digging miles and miles of tunnels and stock-piling thousands of bombs preparing for an invasion from which you cannot strike back.

The distribution of leaflets, text messages, phone calls that IDF made before demolishing a building was amazing. I have never heard of such a thing.

He lamented “acute” needs in Gaza, warning that Israel’s continued “blockade keeps Gaza in a strangle hold which does not even allow people to help themselves.”

Since the blockade of Gaza, Hamas has been able to import thousands and thousands of missiles and found the money to build many miles of concrete reinforced tunnels. If they can smuggle in thousands of missiles, they can smuggle in pretty much anything the people need. But their priority is not rebuilding Gaza. They care not one bit for the people of Gaza, only for the destruction of Israel.

Despite his words, 49% of Israeli strikes in the war with the Hamas terrorist organization that deeply embedded in civilian infrastructure were terrorists, meaning the Jewish state achieved a 1:1 ratio of combatants to civilians almost unprecedented in urban warfare.

In contrast, a report last November revealed 96.5% of those killed by US drone strikes in the Middle East were civilians.

Islamic Jihad in Gaza Proudly and Openly Organizing the Next Assault on Israel

From the very large, Islamic Insanity file comes this astonishing story from
Agence France Presse

Palestinian militants from the Islamic Jihad's armed wing, the Al-Quds Brigades,
squat in a tunnel used for ferrying rockets and mortars back and forth in
preparation for the next conflict with Israel, March 3, 2015 (AFP Mahmud Hams)

Gaza City (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) - In a tunnel dug deep underneath the besieged Gaza Strip, masked gunmen from Islamic Jihad ferry rockets and mortars back and forth, preparing for the next conflict with Israel.

Now, you know that missiles are not defensive weapons, they are offensive. They are not for protecting Gaza, but for destroying Israel. They will not deter Israel, but only cause them to be more aggressive in their response. So, in reality, these missiles will result in more damage to Gaza and more Palestinians dead or injured. Why do Palestinians want this? Are they nuts?

Six months ago, the Palestinian militant group emerged battered and bruised from a 50-day conflict with Israel, where it fought alongside fellow Islamist movement Hamas, which controls Gaza.

Islamic Jihad's armed wing the Al-Quds Brigades lost 123 men, but fired 3,249 rockets at the Jewish state, it says, including Iranian-made Fajr 5 missiles which reached Tel Aviv and even northern Israel.

The conflict, where Israel tried to flush out Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants by bombarding the coastal enclave, killed nearly 2,200 Palestinians, mostly civilians, and 73 people on the Israeli side, mostly soldiers.

But the group says it is resurgent.

"We're at our highest level of alert to counter any attack. We're used to the occupation (Israel) breaking its ceasefires," senior commander Abu al-Bara told AFP from one of the group's tunnels.

"What doesn't kill us makes us stronger. We're gathering all our strength since it's a war that never ends. We're ready to go to another level against the Zionist occupation and carry out actions we've never done before," he said, without elaborating.
The war ended on August 26 with a fragile Hamas-Israel ceasefire brokered by Egypt.

In the meantime, Islamic Jihad has sought to replace its fallen comrades, and its manpower is estimated at between 10,000 and 15,000 fighters.

Hamas and Islamic Jihad refuse to specify the number of fighters, or rockets, they currently possess, but both were severely depleted by the Israeli assault, which included fierce ground combat.

- 'Abu Bakr street' -

Israel's ground invasion was aimed at destroying the hundreds of tunnels Gaza's two main Islamist groups had built, both for smuggling supplies and for attacks inside Israel.

Islamic Jihad and Hamas staged deadly assaults on Israeli troops using the tunnels.

A Palestinian militant from Islamic Jihad's armed wing, the Al-Quds Brigades,
stands in a tunnel used for storing weapons, as he takes part in military training
in the south of the Gaza Strip on March 3, 2015 (AFP Photo/Mahmud Hams)

For the first time, AFP correspondents were permitted to enter a tunnel, provided they were blindfolded whilst being taken to them, so as not to give away its location.

Inside, placards had been erected on the concrete walls, naming "streets" to help militants navigate the network.

One route was named after Abu Bakr al-Sadiq, the first Islamic caliph following the Prophet Mohammed's death in 632; another, Othman Ibn Affan, a successor.

Quds fighters said the group had a network of tunnels of "different lengths, some with several entrances".

But they were silent on the network's location or how it was built.

Their weapons were made inside Gaza, they said, but without elaborating on how the parts were obtained or purchased.

It was an open secret before July 2013 that smuggling tunnels underneath the Egyptian border brought in much of Gaza's construction and fuel needs, money, and weapons, or the material to make them.

But Egypt destroyed the vast majority after the military ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi and a crackdown was launched against his Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas's ally.

Islamic Jihad, founded like Hamas in the 1980s, traditionally has its closest ties with Tehran, having been inspired by the Iranian revolution.

- 'Mujahedin school' -

Israel accuses the groups of continuing to seize construction material entering Gaza to make tunnels and weapons.

"Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad have openly declared that they are rebuilding tunnels and testing rockets and other things like that," army spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner told AFP.

"They've been siphoning off from the civilians of Gaza forever," he said, warning that Israel was prepared for further confrontation.

Underground and overground, the Quds Brigades lie ready.

In the southern city of Khan Yunis, a banner reads: "School of the Mujahedin".

Some 200 new recruits aged 19 to 22 are training at the camp, ducking under live fire, jumping through flaming hoops and shouting "Death to Israel! Death to America!".

Instructor Abu Ahmed says the masked young men are going through "very advanced training".

"Their training lasts between 36 days and six months, before they go to a specialised unit like explosives or sharp shooting," he said.

"We don't just have tunnels -- we also invest in people," Abu al-Bara interjected.

"With ideas and fighting, it is people who will liberate this land."

'Liberate'! Right! Hamas and Islamic Jihad are going to bring freedom to Palestine! Freedom to force women into cloth prisons, to refuse to allow them to leave the home, to beat them for the slightest offence, to rape women and children without penalty, to beat their children to death for glancing the wrong way or for being 12 and refusing to marry a 78 year old pedophile. Freedom!

Amazing! No complaints or criticism about this action from anyone. These tunnels, weapons, and military training are provocations and an obvious declaration that Israel will never be allowed to live in peace. Shouldn't there be screams of condemnation from the US, the UN, the UK, etc.?

No, all three Us are most likely sending money to Gaza to rebuild schools, hospitals, infrastructure so life can turn to some semblance of order. But what is happening to the money and materials sent to Gaza? - they are being diverted so Hamas and Islamic Jihad can build tunnels, weapons and import missiles for attacking Israel.

It's another one of those situations where the US is supplying weapons to both sides of a conflict, only this conflict involves their only real ally in the middle east. The 3 Us should not be sending a cent to Palestine until they give up their Satanic obsession with destroying Israel.