Why Is the Islamic State Attracting the Sympathies of Some Lebanese Sunnis?
Which militia will benefit most, if any, is not clear—the losers, as always, will surely be the rest of us.
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Israel Signals It’s Ready to Destroy Hezbollah
Israel has signaled a readiness to attack Lebanon to destroy Hezbollah, but Iran may be the ultimate target.
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The Fall of Palmyra
If the UN Security Council acts quickly to protect Palmyra, it will set an important precedent for protecting our global cultural heritage elsewhere.
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Protecting and Restoring Syria’s Trains
Syria’s historic railways are a deeply valued part of its cultural heritage and warrant protection and preservation.
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A Path Toward Hamas-Fatah Reconciliation: Grant Palestinian Refugees the Right to Work in Lebanon
If Hamas and Fatah were to put aside their political differences long enough to help their fellow refugees in Lebanon, it would likely lead to wider unity.
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Should Syria’s Smuggled Antiquities Be Repatriated Before the Conflict Ends?
Officials and citizens in Syria continue organizing grass roots heritage campaigns and workshops to save our shared global heritage.
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Laws Targeting History Theft are Being Strengthened: US-Syria Cultural Heritage Cooperation?
Legislation introduced this past week in the U.S. Congress could facilitate cooperation between Syria and America.
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How Syria Can Achieve Relief for Those Seeking Refuge in Lebanon in Under 48 Hours
The case for Syria applying reciprocity in order to encourage Lebanese officials to meet their international legal obligations is a strong one.
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Their Unpardonable Crime Is That They Are Syrian
Lebanon’s latest assault on Syrian refugees could not be more illegal under principles, standards, and rules of international humanitarian law.
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As Aleppo Goes, So Goes Syria?
Freezing hostilities in Aleppo could possibly achieve the same for Syria. It’s worth a try.
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Looting Is the Greatest Threat to Our Cultural Heritage in Syria
There are a few positive signs that looting Syria’s cultural heritage can be curtailed.
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Aleppo’s Synagogues Have Not Been Destroyed
Claims that the Syrian government destroyed the Jewish cultural heritage site nearly two years ago are patently false.
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The Germans Rebuilt Dresden and the Syrians Will Rebuild Aleppo!
One of life’s seeming wonderful incongruities is experienced by visitors all across Syria these days. It has to do with the human spirit.
Read MoreMossad Targets Nuclear Engineers in Damascus: Report
Mossad has assassinated a team of five nuclear weapons specialists in Damascus, the leader of whom was Iranian, according a Naame Shaam report.
Read MoreGloves Come Off in Lebanon: Sunni-Shia Bellum Sacrum Fault Lines Deepen
The sectarian conflict in Lebanon appears to be coming mainly from Sunni groups who vent a laundry list of complaints against their fellow Muslims.
Read MoreSyria: Avoidable Humanitarian Crisis at Lebanon Border Crossing
Among the many reasons Lebanon should immediately desist targeting Syrian and Palestinian refugees is it’s pushing many toward supporting rebel groups.
Read MoreIt’s Not Too Late to Save Syria’s Cultural Heritage
Syria’s cultural heritage is threatened by war, but it is not too late to take decisive action to protect it.
Read MoreSyria: The Twice Betrayed Christians of Ma’loula
The unique cultural heritage hamlet of Ma’aloula has been scarred, traumatized, desecrated and deeply wounded by the war in Syria.
Read MoreShell-Shocked Syrian Town Freed After Savage Massacre
The town is now liberated, but the story of what took place here over the past 291 days is presently emerging, and it is a horrifying one.
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Syria: Engaging the Opposition with More than Weapons
The Syria government and rebel groups negotiate education, utilities, and reduction of violence issues.
Read MoreIn Damascus, IS, FSA and al Nusra Compete for Dwindling Support
In some of Damascus neighborhoods there are few families’ left—only fighters. But in others, residents are trickling back in despite the danger.
Read MoreFive Hospital Ships Needed to Save Gaza’s Children
What can and must be done is to organize a Hospital Ship flotilla to break the siege of Gaza.
Read MoreA Nail in Zionism’s Coffin?
This region and increasingly the global community as a whole is planning for a post-Zionist Middle East and how best to achieve it without more suffering.
Read MoreSolidarity with Palestinians in Gaza Begins in Lebanon’s Camps
Palestinian refugees in Lebanon are denied the most elementary right to apply for a job in more than fifty professions.
Read MoreJihadists in Lebanon
An Islamic State invasion of Lebanon, along the lines of what it achieved in northwest Iraq, is looking increasingly likely.
Read MoreEU Sanctions Target Humanitarian Aid
Syria and her hardworking public servants will survive these political sanctions, but the sanctions likely will remain an indelible stain on the EU.
Read MoreISIS Now Recruiting in Palestinian Camps in Lebanon
Militias are growing in the camps but it’s difficult to calculate just how fast because camp residents know many outside intelligence agents live among them.
Read MoreWill ISIS Create al-Sham Caliphate and Liberate Palestine?
Time will reveal if DAASH (or ISIS) achieves one or both of its objectives.
Read MoreSyrian Students Restore Our Global Heritage, Tesserae by Tesserae…
It was an urgent message concerning a destroyed mosaic—an artifact dating back to the Byzantine era…
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A Hard-Won Victory: The Story of 68 Palestinian Families in Lebanon
The saga, briefly told, has to do with the fact that the war in Syria has forced into Lebanon between 1.2 million and 2 million Syrian refugees
Read MoreSyrians Working to Preserve Jewish Cultural Heritage
In Syria today, there is much evidence to refute the claims that Jewish cultural heritage sites are being singled out for destruction by rabid anti-Semites.
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Liberating Syria: One Archeological site at a Time
The Syrian public and their officials are committed to the restoration of its unmatched archeological sites, as soon as world heritage sites are liberated.
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Lebanon Refuses to Allow Syria’s Palestinian Refugees to Take Baccalaureate Exams
Hopefully Lebanon will relent and allow Palestinian and Syrian students to take next month’s vital Baccalaureate exams.
Read MoreThe Death of Yarmouk Palestinian Camp
Those still trapped in Yarmouk and elsewhere continue their descent into the abyss.
Read MoreAssad and Khomeini Are Keeping Their Word. Will Obama Keep His?
If the White House truly wants to normalize relations with Iran and with Syria as it claims, it needs to do a lot better.
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Syrian Crisis: Resisters of Sykes-Picot Land Grab in Key Fighting Roles
As the Syrian crisis enters its fourth year, more jihadists arrive and more militia are being formed across the political and religious spectrum.
Read MoreHow NOT to Get Aid to Besieged Areas in Syria
Al Nebek, SYRIA — Who authored the seemingly designed-to-fail UN Security Council Draft Resolution on delivering urgent humanitarian aid into the Old City of Homs and other besieged areas of conflict-torn Syria? When we...
Read MoreSyria: A Faux ‘Humanitarian Pause’ in Homs?
El Nubek, SYRIA — As two delegations, one representing the Government of the Syrian Arab Republic led by Bashar Assad and the other claiming to represent the popular opposition that is seeking its overthrow, arrived in...
Read MoreSyria: Lifting the Siege of Yarmouk, One Food Parcel and One Polio Vaccination at a Time
Humanitarian assistance has begun to trickle into Yarmouk refugee camp, which is still under siege by the Syrian government.
Read MoreSyria: The Siege of Yarmouk
This siege Yarmouk camp for Palestinian refugees in Syria has been ongoing since July 2013, and it has become viciously lethal.
Read MoreA Palestinian-Hezbollah War in Lebanon?
Tensions are being stoked between Palestinians and Hezbollah in Lebanon as sectarian civil war engulfs others in the region.
Read MoreWill Lebanon survive 2014? Should it?
BEIRUT — Another week, another terrorist bombing. It’s beginning to look a lot like that here in Lebanon these days. Another apparent suicide bomber detonated a car rigged with explosives in the southern suburbs yesterday...
Read MorePrivacy Rights: Is Anything Left?
The answer to this question is being pondered across America in light to the two seeming mutually contradictory US Federal Court decisions handed down this month from Courts in Washington, D.C. and New York.
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UNRWA’s Bitter Winter Solstice…and Now Alan Dershowitz!
Adding to UNWRA’s myriad problems is the Alan Dershowitz’s decision to retire after 46 years on the job at the Harvard Law School.
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Will Les Clintons Scuttle US-Iran Rapprochement?
The Clintons will scuttle US-Iran rapprochement if they can, and in league with the US Zionist lobby, they well might.
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Syria: Bibi and Bandar Badger Obama to Support the Islamic Front
The “best friends of America” want the Obama administration to sign onto a scheme to oust the Syrian government by funding, arming, and training the Islamic Front.
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Salafist Crimes Against Islam in Syria
Reports from across Syria lay bare massive crimes being perpetrated against the Syrian people in the name of Islam from areas under Salafist control.
Read MoreInside Emergency Damascene Shelters
This brief update is not focused on the ever deteriorating grave conditions of Palestinians and Syrians displaced and often trapped inside dangerous areas on Damascus, where this observer had been visiting some of the 24 former Damascus public schools currently being used as shelters.
Rather it seeks to highlight the esprit de corps, solidarity, resistance, and good will among Palestinians here is Damascus who were forced from Yarmouk and other camps and how they are huddled and preparing for a harsh winter which one senses these frigid nights it not far off.
Read MoreLebanon: Why Focus on Scholarships for Ain al Hilweh Refugee Camp? Because It Exists
Ain al Helweh has the highest school dropout rates, the highest rates of shootings and domestic violence, the highest rates of selling body parts to survive, and its future will be determined by the achievements of its young people
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Palestinian College Students in Lebanon: Vowing to Aid Their Countrymen Fleeing Syria
The Syrian conflict continues pushing Palestinian refugees from that beleaguered country’s ten official and three unofficial Palestinian camps, forcing the majority to flee to Lebanon.
Read MoreWhite House Expected to Ease Sanctions Targeting Syria
Additional easing of Syrian sanctions is expected by mid-November, according to staff at the US Treasury Department’s Office of Financial Asset Control (OFAC).
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Peres Suffering from Portnoy’s Complaint?
Peres has to say things that are beginning to sound hollow after six decades of Zionist theft and colonization.
Read MoreFrançois Hollande’s Missteps Put France on Levant Sidelines
In modern times, France has done far better diplomatically when it has advocated against impetuous military involvement in the internal affairs of other countries.
Read MoreFour Decades after the 1973 Arab-Israeli War, Self-Delusion Persists
In Damascus and many other areas of Syria this weekend, citizens will celebrate the accomplishments of the 19-day war launched on October 6, 1973 by Syrian and Egyptian armies to regain Arab land illegally occupied since 1967.
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31 Years After the Sabra-Shatila Massacre, Justice Delayed But Gaining Ground
The transcript of Mr. Draper’s meeting with the Israelis demonstrates how the United States was unwittingly complicit in the tragedy of Sabra and Shatila.
Read More‘Go Tell It on the Mountain, From the Peaks of Qasioun!’
During these days of slaughter and the threats of US-led western bombing, the camp has come to symbolize Syrian resistance to foreign hegemony and occupation.
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Damascus Notes: A Meeting with Syrians on the Street Well-Informed of US Plans for Their Country
The people of the Syrian Arab Republic are politically very sophisticated and amazingly well informed about the details of the current crisis and with specifics about external players and their plans.
Read MoreWhich Americans will arrive first to Syria?
Will 1000 American ‘human shields’ stop another criminal war?
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Syria and the US Exchange Messages
Washington’s ill-considered criminal attack will aid and abet these militia and provide justification, in their minds, for literally hundreds of jihadist groups to spread carnage across Syria.
Read MoreA View from Tehran
Talking with average Iranians and shop keepers Offers a very different picture than that presented by the western media.
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Prince Bandar and Zionist Lobby Partnering to Maneuver Obama into Prolonged War with Syria
Sources in Iran and Syria have advised this observer that they expect the US bombing to commence within 72 hours.
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Palestinian Refugees Flee Syria Camps as Worries Over Chemical Weapons Mount
As of morning on August 23, many of the remaining Palestinians in Yarmouk are seeking somewhere to flee to, visibly afraid that chemical weapons will be used in Yarmouk in the coming days.
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Targeting Hezbollah in Beirut
This observer was sitting with my friend Zuhair on my balcony in south Beirut, when at 6:20 pm on August 15 erupted a huge blast that seemed to shake our 12-story concrete building even more so than the one just down the street did on July 9.
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Lebanon Sends Palestinians Fleeing Death Back to Syria
It is egregious and illegal for a country to deny safe haven to any refugee fleeing probable death. It is doubly egregious for Lebanon to bar devoted Muslims sanctuary during the Holy month of Ramadan
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Palestinian Refugee Camps In Syria Taken Over by Salafi Jihadists
What is happening is a God-awful calamity, one being foisted upon those whose only prayers and wishes are to leave Syria and return home to reclaim their stolen lands.
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A Formula for Palestinian Survival in Damascus: Will It Work?
For more than a year, Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp, one of nine in Syria, has been a war zone between supporters of the Syrian government and those seeking its overthrow.
Read MoreThe Morning After Blacklisting Hezbollah: Is the EU Experiencing ‘Buyer’s Remorse’?
In six months the EU should assure that this month’s blacklisting decision acquiesced in under US-Israel pressure, lapses.
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Livni Squeals, Kerry Deals, and the EU Picks Up the Tab
It was a hectic and intense past weekend in Washington and London as the Obama and Cameron administrations tracked down and button-holed the leaders of the 28 European Union delegations gathering in Brussels
Read MoreAre Palestinian Students in Lebanon Being Pressured to Choose Kalashnikovs Over College?
Without the right to work, some Palestinians will doubtless be seduced into becoming hired guns for scarce cash to feed their families.
Read MoreAIPAC & OFAC Ratchet-Up US Sanctions Targeting Syria and Iran’s Populations
The US-led sanctions increasingly target the Iranian and Syrian people for purely political purposes in order to ignite civil unrest which that the Obama Administration hopes will lead to regime chance.
Read MoreSyrian War Hits Beirut
This observer’s neighbors seemed to believe that the war in Syria would spill into our neighborhood, Dahiyeh, in south Beirut. And now it has, with a vengeance.
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Egypt After the Coup: Is Obama Backing ElBaradei?
As of today, it appears that President Barack Obama may well help usher Mohammad ElBaredei into Egypt’s Presidential Palace.
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White House Threatens To End Aid if Palestine Joins the ICC
It’s a tough call for President Mahmoud Abbas and his supporters because Hamas wants Palestine to immediately file cases against Israel at the ICC and so it appears, do a large majority of Palestinians, in Lebanon and internationally.
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Hezbollah’s Palestinian Problem … and Vice Versa
This is not the time for Hezbollah and the Palestinians to use their scant resources to battle each other over perceived wrongs
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The Obama Administration Prepares a “Marshall Plan” to Reconstruct Syria, But Not for the Syrians
The term “equivalent of the Marshall Plan” is being employed by some in the White House and Pentagon this month to describe a proposed large-scale “humanitarian rescue program” being prepared for Syria
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Why Obama is Declaring War on Syria
The short answer is Iran and Hezbollah, according to Congressional sources.
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West to Pay High Price for Targeting Syrian Government, Security Experts Claim
While the United States and its Western allies are offering military, media, financial and political aid to the armed opposition in Syria, allied with Al-Qaeda and like movements, the Syrian intelligence continues to fight against terrorism
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US and Israel Lobby Reel from Hezbollah al-Qusayr Victory
Perhaps less appreciated here in Beirut are al-Qusayr’s effects on the Zionist occupiers of Palestine and their currently traumatized US lobby.
Read MoreEU Continues Targeting Civilian Population of Syria While Scrapping Arms Embargo
This week revealed on which side of history the European Union has chosen to anchor itself on the issue of targeting civilian populations in a blatant attempt to achieve regime change.
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Hezbollah and the Syrian Pit
American policy in Syria is to de facto assist allies of al Qaeda including the US “Terrorist-listed” Al-Nusra Front
Read MoreHow Lebanon’s Palestinians Are Being Pulled Into Syria’s War
With the remaining 70 minutes, the Resistance-dominated Parliament could reach out to the Sunni and Christian communities, as noted above, and grant Palestinian refugees in Lebanon the same right to work that every refugee everywhere has
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UN General Assembly Vote Reflects Shift in Syrian Public Opinion
After nearly 27 months of turmoil, the public opinion pendulum is markedly shifting back in support of the current regime.
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Lebanon Greets the Special Rapporteur for Palestine, Richard Falk, With an Ear Full
The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, Professor Richard Falk, came to Lebanon last week on an unofficial visit to survey opinion while fact finding the condition in Palestinian refugee’s camps.
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How Damascene Jews Hope to Return … to Normalcy
What the Jewish community in Damascus believes must happen to resolve the current crisis is precisely what other Syrians in this capital city want.
Read MoreWhen Yarmouk Camp Fled to Shatila
Palestinian refugees are being severely punished in Syria out of revenge by jihadst factions and others for not becoming involved in the current Syrian civil war, as they insist on staying out of this incredibly tragic mess.
Read MoreA Draft-Dodging, Zionist Friendly, Right-wing Texan Islamist to lead Syria?
Tel Aviv and the White House are pinching themselves in disbelief over their good luck with installing republican leaning conservative Dixie businessman, the congenial, Ghassan Hitto, as Syria’s new interim Prime Minister.
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Sayyeda Zeinab: the 7th Century Heroine of Karbala
Tens of thousands of Shia pilgrims and others from around the world visit this Damascus suburb every year, most to pray at the Sayyeda Zeinab shrine. It was also one of the reasons why I wanted to go there.
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The Oft-Predicted Fickle Syrian ‘Tipping Point’ Has Tipped
Can Washington and Her Allies Stop Syria’s Reconciliation Efforts?
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Will Washington grasp the hand being offered by the Iranian people?
There is every reason for Washington’s new administration to reach out to Iran, not just with words but with actions.
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US Officials Confess to Targeting Iran’s Civilian Population
The US-led sanctions against Iran and Syria are illegal, inhumane, ineffective, immoral and outrageous. They must be resisted every day by every person of good will, everywhere, until they are withdrawn.
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Syria’s First Line of Defense: Dial 133
The Syrian Arab Republic Red Crescent Society (SARCS) emergency responders, who 24/7 are doing life-saving national and humanitarian work for their country.
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US-led Sanctions Contribute to the Destruction of Syria’s Millenary History
There is plenty of anger in Syria over the effects of US sanctions which are severely and illegally targeting the civilian population.
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Shedding Crocodile Tears While Collaborating with U.S.-Led Sanctions
Are the Arab League and Organization of Islamic Cooperation targeting Syria’s civilian population?
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‘Mr. Obama, Tear Down These sanctions!’
Today in Syria, from the streets and cafes to the Universities, a main subject of discussion, and one that is nearly universally judged immoral and illegal, is the US-led sanctions that in effect are targeting the civilian population.
Read MoreAssad at the Opera House
The nearly 1,400 seating capacity Opera Theater was packed for yesterday’s presidential address, Bashar Assad was swarmed by scores of admirers.
Read MoreWill the Al-Nusrah Front Announce an Islamic Emirate for Yarmouk Palestinian Camp?
Some of the camp inhabitants expect that the Syrian army will enter Yarmouk with massive force in an attempt to expel al Nusra Front and their allies, but others are saying that the army is very reluctant to do so because it would be accused of destroying a Palestinian refugee camp.
Read MoreWill Syria Go on the Offensive at The Hague?
La Maison d’Avocats, DAMASCUS — Even before the historic 139 to 8 vote of the UN General Assembly on November 29, which opened up a plethora of legal remedies for Palestinians, a “legal intifada” — to borrow a phrase from...
Read MorePolitical Grinches Stealing Christmas from Palestinian and Syrian Refugees
May the Minister and his political allies cease sectarian incitements seeking cheap political advantage in this troubled region.
Read MoreIs Yarmouk Headed for the Same Fate as Nahr al Bared?
Some Palestinians here in Damascus, from the Palestinian writers union with whom this observer has been meeting, including independent researcher Hamad Said Al-Mawed, are saying so.
Read MoreRebel Controlled Yarmouk Palestinian Camp Empties Pending Government Counter-Attack
The near term will reveal the fate of Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp and who, in the coming battle, are the winners.
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