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fplamb@gmail.com http://www.syrian-heritage.com/ http://mealsforsyrianrefugeechildrenlebanon.com/
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Franklin P. Lamb
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Since 2013, Professor Franklin P. Lamb has traveled extensively throughout Syria. His primary focus has been to document, photograph, research and hopefully help preserve the vast and irreplaceable archaeological sites and artifacts in Syria.

Like Iraq, Syria is the cradle of civilization, and as such it has been a rich source of our shared global culture and historic heritage. Already endangered from illegal excavation, looting, international trafficking and iconoclasm; the theft and destruction of these sites has greatly increased as a result of the conflict in the Middle East.

Many of the endangered archeological sites and artifacts are over 7,000 years old. The oldest remains found in Syria are from the Paleolithic era (c. 800,000 BCE). The most endangered artifacts and archaeological sites currently are in Tell Halaf, the north of Syria near the Turkish border with Syria. These archaeological sites date as far back as 5,500 BCE. They include archeological sites and artifacts of the Babylonian, Sumerian, Egyptian, Assyrian, Phoenician, Aramaic, Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Umayyad, Ayyubid and Ottoman civilizations and empires.

Professor Franklin Lamb has also been working, sometimes under dangerous circumstances, to record and photograph the war damage done to religious icons, images, monuments, and ancient structures that span pre-Roman civilizations, and structures such as Islamic mosques, Christian churches and Jewish synagogues.

Professor Lamb is working tirelessly to record and photograph these sites and artifacts because they are in danger of complete destruction for religious, political and illegal trafficking reasons, especially due to the ongoing wars in the Middle East.

Professor Franklin Lamb's website and his latest book, "Syria's Endangered Heritage, an International Responsibility to Preserve and Protect" presents exclusive and never published before photographs, records, data, articles, and interviews from across the whole of Syria. His book can be purchased at his website http://www.syrian-heritage.com/.

In addition to Dr. Lamb's urgent archaeological work he is also deeply committed to rescuing and aiding refugee children in Syria. He is a volunteer with the Lebanon, France, and USA based "Meals for Syrian Refugee Children, Lebanon (MSRCL)", which seeks to provide hot nutritional meals to Syrian and other refugee children.

Lamb says that the goal of MSRCL is to be able to provide one meal a day to 500 children. More donors are needed in order for him to reach that goal. At $2.25 per meal x 500 children per day ($1,225), the budget for a month (30 days) requires approximately $36,000. Over 95% of each donation goes directly towards the cost of each meal. The MSCRL volunteer teams give their time, energy and even their own money to help the refugee children so that they will not become part of the "lost generation" of Syria.

Lamb's books and publications include "Pollution as a Problem of International Law"; "International Legal Responsibility for the Sabra Shatila Massacre"; "Israel's 1982 War in Lebanon: Eyewitness Chronicles of the Invasion and Occupation", "The Price We Pay: A Quarter Century of Israel's Use of American Weapons against Civilians in Lebanon in addition to the three volume set, "Palestine, Lebanon & Syria Palestine, Lebanon & Syria (Commentary and Analysis 2006-2016)." Due out during Fall 2016, in English and Arabic, is "The Case for Palestinian Civil Rights in Lebanon: Why the Resistance Sleeps."

Dr. Lamb's most recent book is "Syria's Endangered Heritage: An International Responsibility to Preserve and Protect". www.Syrian-heritage.com

Lamb's Academic Credentials include: BA, and Law Degrees from Boston University, Master of Law (LLM) Master of Philosophy and Doctor of Philosophy from the London School of Economics (LSE); Diploma in International Air & Space Law from the University College of London; Post-Doctoral Studies at Harvard University Law School of East Asian Legal Studies Center, specializing in Chinese Law; International Legal Studies at Cambridge University in the United Kingdom; Studied Public International Law at The Hague Academy of international Law, at the International Court of Justice, in The Hague, Netherlands.

Lamb's Professional and Political Activities include Assistant Professor of International Law, Northwestern College of Law, Portland, Oregon and Assistant Counsel to the US House of Representatives Judiciary Committee, During the Administration of President Jimmy Carter, Lamb was elected for a four year term to the Democratic National Committee, representing the state of Oregon. Lamb served on the Democratic National Committee Judicial Council with California Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi as well as the Platform Committee on East-West Relations. Professor Lamb served on the presidential campaign staff for Presidential Candidate Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts.

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(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, October 12, 2011
'US MUST STOP FUNDING ISRAELI CRIMES' Press TV: As violent as that video we just aired was, it really shouldn't come as a surprise because, well, this type of behavior by Israeli forces is pretty much done on a weekly basis in the occupied territories. But you tell us what you think based on the video that has been released by human rights activists.
photo taken on 12/7/2016 by the author from his car window during a tour of 12
(11 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Has the battle for Aleppo birthed Foreign Legions preparing a Sunni-Shia endgame? Aleppo. Syrian government forces & their Russian and Shia allies from Iran, Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen, Bahrain, Afghanistan, Pakistan and elsewhere have now captured 75% of East Aleppo and will soon unite all of Aleppo, which eastern part rebels have held since 2012. Having captured two days ago Tariq al-Bab. This morning, 12/7/2016, government troops and their militia allies are massively bombing rebel-held parts of the Old City
Above the beheading chamber is this tray with holes drilled in it for blood drainage. Severed heads were thrown into this dish. Sometimes when terrified slave woman were caged next to it they were spattered with blood, eyewitnesses reported., From ImagesAttr
(17 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, December 16, 2016
Presidents Assad and Putin have ordered their forces to again liberate "The Jewel of the Desert" It's a god-awful situation today in Palmyra. The fears of this observer and many archeologists globally, are many and distressing. One is that we will once again see televised executions in the ancient city to strengthen IS positions and create more publicity.
(9 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, June 15, 2013
Why Obama is Declaring War on Syria Obama was apparently serious earlier about a negotiated diplomatic settlement pre-Qusayr and there were even some positives signs coming from Damascus, Moscow, and even Tehran John Kerry claimed. But that has changed partly because Russia and the US have both hardened their demands.
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, November 6, 2011
Libya's Liberation Front Organizing In The Sahel Some International Criminal Court observers are encouraged by the ICC Prosecutor's office pledge this week and as reported by the BCC: "to investigate and prosecute any crimes committed both by rebel and pro-Gadhafi forces including any committed by NATO."
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, July 1, 2012
Netanyahu to Obama on election: When we say jump, you say how high? Presidential candidate Barack Obama is being targeted by the US Israel lobby from A to Z, (Ackerman, Gary & Aipac to Zuckerman, Mort & the Zionist Organization of America) as no American president seeking re-election has been in the country's 236 year history.
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, June 5, 2015
Israel signals it may destroy Hezbollah this summer-and include Iran as a twofer Congress is being advised that in Lebanon the rhetoric of Hezbollah's Secretary-General is wearing thin and becoming shopworn with jokes in Lebanon's media and even in Shia areas about the coming Divine Defeat.
Image created from image crediting, From ImagesAttr
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, October 2, 2017
Israel faces 'catastrophic defeat' in next Hezbollah War", IDF officials say. The view of many analysts in the Israeli and American military leadership Israel must ensure that the next war is short---Hezbollah's forces have a history of disciplined and skilled high-risk fighting techniques...And they are preparing expecting, preferring and intending to pursue a longer war.
Russian Nesting Dolls, From ImagesAttr
(9 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, January 22, 2017
Trumps "Syria Minus Iran" overture to Putin & Assad may restore Washington-Damascus Relations No one knows, least of all this observer, how the foreign policy of the Trump administration will take shape. Or how his priorities may twist and turn as he encounters the assured torrent of events and mayhem from a plethora of crises just around the corner that will wreak havoc. What is known is that the Mideast expects big changes under Trump. They may well happen.
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, May 1, 2011
Panic from the Houses of Congress and Aipac? What AIPAC operatives reportedly told the conferees was that Netanyahu is once again furious with President Obama and outraged.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, May 24, 2014
"Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently" All shop owners in Raqqa must close their stores immediately upon the announcement of prayer and go to the mosque, a decree posted by ISIL on 4/27/14 read, "Any violators after the issuance of this announcement will face consequences."
Mt. Bental, Golan Heights, Israel, From FlickrPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, September 26, 2017
Hezbollah has launched the initial phase of the next Israel-Hezbollah War For Israel, the initial phase of its next long predicted war with Hezbollah is focused on neutralizing Iranian arms shipments to Hezbollah while destroying factories allegedly under construction to build long-range missiles. Some Israeli recently bombed sites are also claimed to have been housing chemical weapons.
From ImagesAttr
(10 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, September 2, 2017
Russia, US, Iran and Israel War for Syria It appears to me that Assad and his Baathist Alawi dominated regime will remain. Iran wants Assad so as to guarantee its Persian Gulf to Mediterranean Sea Shia Crescent.
Michel Aoun, President of Lebanon, From FlickrPhotos
(121 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, November 17, 2017
Will the Gulf Cooperative Council & Allies Shake Lebanon's Economy to Terminate Iran's Colonization? Lebanon is being accused by 5 Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member countries, and a growing list of allies regionally and globally, of declaring war on Saudi Arabia.
Israeli Army Tank, From FlickrPhotos
(6 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, August 6, 2017
Israel's Coming 6th war on Lebanon For Israel, it's widely predicted 6th war on Lebanon won't be a repeat of June 1967, June 1973, or July 2006.
palestinian refugee camp, From ImagesAttr
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, June 27, 2014
ISIS (DAASH) Now Recruiting in Palestinian Camps in Lebanon--Which Are Ready to Explode Increased Resistance is seen as having a positive impact by most respondents in both territories: 62% in the West Bank, 73% in Gaza and close to 90% in Ein el Helwe.
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, March 14, 2017
Hannibal Gaddafi still held Hostage as some Lebanese accused of demanding Ransom This article addresses recently documented evidence of how the Musa Sadr delegation was killed and who ordered the murders and why.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, October 16, 2010
On the Road with Ahmadinejad in Lebanon An eyewitness account of the Iranian Presidents historic two day visit to Lebanon and its impact on bi-lateral relations, the region and beyond
Photo: fplamb 5/23/2017.  As noted above, ISIS also destroyed the carved facade of the ancient Palmyra theatre, From ImagesAttr
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, May 26, 2017
Palmyra Update: Major restorations ready to launch as global partners await security On any given Monday morning, at approximately 7:30 a.m. a car carrying highly trained archeologists and two Palmyra National Museum security guards, on weekly rotation, departs the Homs, Syria HQ of Syria's Directorate-General for Antiquities and Museums (DGAM) along the previously dangerous 160 km Homs-Palmyra road east to Palmyra (Tadmor), the site of wanton destruction the past few years.
Scholar al-Assad was proud of his role in hiding Syrian treasures from would-be looters during the current crisis and of the extensive security system he ordered put into place at the National Museum at Palmyra. Thousands of priceless artifacts are still , From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, August 21, 2015
Two more 'EverySyrian' heroes murdered while protecting our shared cultural heritage As a nephew of Mr. Assad explained yesterday from Palmyra via Skype, "After holding and torturing my uncle for three weeks, Da'ish realized that he knew nothing about where the Museum treasures had been hidden or if he did, as they suspected, that my uncle would say nothing." They therefore decapitated the octogenarian.
From ImagesAttr
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, March 23, 2017
Who Ordered the killing of Imam Musa Sadr and Why? The Musa Sadr Trilogy. Part 2: Who Ordered the killing of Imam Musa Sadr and Why? Part One see "When, Where, and How Imam Musa Sadr was Assassinated"].
Visita do Ministro dos Negcios Estrangeiros de Israel, Avigdor Lieberman, From FlickrPhotos
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, August 6, 2016
Team Clinton focusing on demise of Hezbollah Israel has made clear via its new Defense Minister, Avigdor Lieberman , leader of the fascist Yisrael Beiteinu party, that Israel will not return one centimeter of its recently occupied Syrian territory "until we sign a peace agreement with the new government of Syria. All Muslims must know that we Israelis are their friends and that we are on the right side of this Syrian war."
Beyrouth, From ImagesAttr
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, May 3, 2015
Will Lebanese Allies Open the Gates to Fight Hezbollah? Manal explained that Nusra is waxing dramatically and now has taken even the urban centers of the Idlib governorate including Jisr al-Shoghour and is preparing to "liberate" what remains of government controlled areas of Aleppo during May and if necessary, June. Aleppo is Syria's second largest in terms of population and formerly the country's economic juggernaut. Some are speculating that "As goes Aleppo, goes Syria.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, February 5, 2011
As Tahrir Square goes so goes the Middle East? The US-Israel imperative appears designed to immediately regain control and co-opt the Tahrir uprising and quickly channel the uprising into a political cul de sac until Egypt can be returned to "normal", meaning US-Israel shared hegemony.
From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, March 11, 2016
Why I bought 4 Syrian children off a Beirut street All of us must do what we can to get these children from Syria a safe environment, a chance to play and to be children. Dear reader, if you happen to be in this area and come upon by chance a need such as I did, please make these angels feel protected and safe, make them warm, get them clean clothes, feed them, get them a medical examinations, contact authorities or NGO's buy them a doll to love
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, October 29, 2015
Syria's 'Monument Citizens' taking risks saving the future of our past "From an archaeologist's vantage point, all the major players in Syria's proxy war are but a blip on history's radar. Islamist fundamentalists, even superpowers like Russia and the United States are newcomers compared even to the youngest monuments in Syria." I believe most Syrians would agree.
Da'ish, From ImagesAttr
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, June 19, 2015
Why are so many Sunni Muslims in Lebanon switching to Da'ish (ISIS)? The IS vision is working as Da'ish metastasizes in Lebanon and in much of this region. A new political power chapter has arrived here of which the latest events in Yemen are only the most recent, but surely not the final, example. It is not anymore a question of whether or when Da'ish and/or al Nusra will activate their sleeper cells in Lebanon. They already have.
Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution His eminence Imam Sayyed Ali Khamenei receives Hizbullah Secretary General His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah., From FlickrPhotos
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, December 2, 2017
Lebanon facing Long 'Independence' odds given Iran's regional Triumphalism Most of Lebanese Sunni, Christians, Druze and the growing body of agnostic or non-religious in the country reportedly believe that Iranian influence, through its militia Hezbollah, is the greatest impediment to achieving Lebanon's independence.
From ImagesAttr
(51 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, October 14, 2016
Political Defamation campaign targets Rescue Workers in Syria "Attacking hospitals and medical workers is a non-negotiable red line. As such, it must be set out -- in clear and simple terms - in all military manuals, rules of engagement and standard operating procedures. Too often, unverified intelligence, or opaque claims that a hospital is a quote "command and control center," is justification enough for an attack.
Seif al Islam Gadhafi: thierry Ehrmann: No Legend N 22 by Abode of Chaos, From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, October 31, 2014
Will Seif al Islam lead the expulsion of the ISIS affiliate, Al Fajr Libya? According to Seif, and former regime officials, several NATO countries have sent messages claiming they did not intend for his father to be killed but were searching during the summer of 2011 for a refuge for his father in Africa. Seif does not believe them.
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, July 8, 2012
"Israel disses US while seeking "bi-lateral alliance' with Russia Two interpretations by the participants themselves, of what significant international meetings achieved, the first on 6/25/12 and the second five days later, remind us about subjectivity in the eyes of the beholders.
MSRCL will arrange for the twin's grave to have a proper headstone and base., From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, September 15, 2016
Syrian Twins Condemned to Death One-month old conjoined twins Narwas and Mou'az Al-Hashash died needlessly this month in a Damascus hospital because they were the innocent victims of what International Humanitarian Law defines as War Crimes.
Hizballah 'martrys', From FlickrPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, August 10, 2017
Israel's Coming 6th war on Lebanon: What Price will Hezbollah pay? Part 2---The price Hezbollah will pay during Israel's coming 6th war on Lebanon will likely be less militarily consequential long term, than the near certain acceleration of the Party of God's loss of its "Resistance" brand. The latter already being eschewed by much of its Shia base for economic, social and political reasons.
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, April 14, 2011
Interview with Franklin Lamb in Beirut on the latest Wilkileaks from US Embassy Beirut and the Special Tribunal for Leba Lebanon, for well-known geostrategic reasons is fixed in the cross-hairs of the conflict of the Middle East. Some analysts believe that there is more foreign intervention in Lebanon than is any Middle East country except Iraq. As tensions rise between Iran and America for influence in Lebanon, the issue of loyalty to Lebanon or Israel has entered the public discourse with new intensity.
One of many problems that plague Lebanon's citizens is the inability of its government to provide basic services including water, electricity, and collect garbage, From FlickrPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, October 18, 2017
Lebanon's economy is in crisis. Granting Palestinians the right to work will help fix it The growing list of US sanctions targeting Iran's Hezbollah in Lebanon and Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) is only part of a broader American, Israeli and Western strategy of roll-back of Iran's activities in the Northern Middle East than one seeking direct military confrontation. Although the latter may be one of the unintended consequences as Iran begins to retaliate.
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, December 11, 2016
Aleppo Update: What is becoming of Syrian families fleeing East Aleppo? A major urgent need is Education facilities for approximately 15,000 lovely children, between the ages of 3-17 years who survived the siege of their neighborhoods in East Aleppo risked their lives fleeing to West Aleppo. West Aleppo public schools cannot accommodate any of these 15,000 arrivals as they are already overcrowded according to local officials.
US Department of Treasury OFAC, From ImagesAttr
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, March 6, 2015
It's time to sanction OFAC--not the civilian populations of Syria and Iran As Congress pursues more civilian life disrupting sanctions for Syria, Iran and Russia, one of the main weapons will continue to be the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the U.S. Department of Treasury. This oft-described pro-Zionist highly politicized agency will continue to act as judge, jury and hangman as more US led-sanctions target the Syrian and Iranian civilian populations.
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, April 25, 2010
Remembering Janet Lee Stevens, a Martyr for Palestinian Refugees Remembering Janet Lee Stevens, a Martyr for Palestinian Refugees.
Manual and Mohammad-Kamal in happier days, From ImagesAttr
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, September 7, 2016
SYRIA: New Panic From Outbreak of Meningitis in Madaya "Death Town" Here is Damascus the evidence is found in hospitals such as Al-Mouwasat and others, of the consequence of the fact that children are suffering not as a result of an accident of war, but rather as the foreseeable consequence of an intentional tactic -- surrender or starve. And that tactic is directly contrary to the law of war and subject to individual criminal responsibility for the perpetrators.
(10 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, July 25, 2014
The face of demented Zionism yet again revealed: Will the American people continue funding it? The same kind of Resolution that AIPAC sends more than 80 to Congress each year to make sure Congress does the right thing by the Zionist regime still occupying Palestine.
(7 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Panetta to Netanyahu: "Israel may not survive the current Arab/Islamic awakening" The CIA Report noted that Israeli officials felt emboldened in taking Palestinian land by the myriad support Israel was receiving from the leadership of Egypt, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Jordan and three other Arab leaders.
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, April 10, 2015
Following the Da'ish (IS) takeover of Yarmouk--is Lebanon's Ein el Helweh next? To paraphrase the title of the late Edward Said's 0/8/1997 article in the Nation, there cannot be peace and security in Lebanon until the universally recognized civil right to work includes Palestinians refugees.
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, April 5, 2012
Iran/Israel locked in Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD) deterrence status There is little credible discussion of just what constitutes the Iranian threat, though we do have an authoritative answer, provided by U.S. military and intelligence. Their presentations to Congress make it clear that Iran doesn't pose a military threat.
View from Golan Heights, From FlickrPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, November 2, 2017
Is Israel winning "the war between the wars" with Iran/Hezbollah? Israeli commanders, stationed along Syria's southern border and the Golan Heights and Quneitra Valley, with some of their forces now operating daily more than 14 km inside Syrian territory.
Secretary Tillerson and Lebanese Prime Minister Hariri Prepare to Address Reporters Before Their Meeting in Washington, From FlickrPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, November 14, 2017
Western Intelligence: Saad Hariri resigned to avoid his father's fate and salvage Lebanon Last week's resignation of Lebanon's popular Prime Minister Saad Hariri has fueled a plethora of politically inspired conspiracy theories.
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, December 24, 2014
Looting has become the greatest threat to our cultural heritage in Syria Can the worst patrimonial disaster since World War II be stopped? During the 45 months of the Syrian crisis, war damage inflicted from all sides has created massive damage to our shared global cultural heritage that has been in the custody of the Syrian people for more than ten millennia.
Liberate Palestine, From FlickrPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, January 12, 2018
What's Behind the 'Disappearance' Of 420,000 Palestinians in Lebanon? Lebanon is a country where demographics have long been a politically sensitive subject to be approached with extreme caution. For the past nearly 85 years (since 1932) Lebanon's leaders have refused to allow a count of the population out of feelings of terror that a rival sect, among the 17 other rival sects, might gain power at their expense were there to be an honest count.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, March 18, 2017
When, Where, and How Imam Musa Sadr was Assassinated A brief excerpt from a soon to be published Manuscript which details the results of a several year investigation in four countries into the fate of "Vanished Imam," Musa Sadr and his colleagues Sheikh Mohammad Yaacoub and journalist Abbas Badreddine.
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, March 12, 2011
CONGRESSMAN PETER KING'S GREAT MUSLIM SCARE King comes across as a prejudiced lawmaker determined to demonize American Muslims as violent radicals. At a time when the U.S. needs the goodwill of domestic Muslim communities to safeguard homeland security, King is reinforcing fear and lack of trust and while potentially weakening mutual respect among Americans.
Sabra and Shatila Massacre September 15,1982, From TwitterPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, September 23, 2016
The 34th Commemoration of the Sabra-Shatila Massacre... The Israelis communicated with the Phalange terrorists and blocked the Palestinian refugees from fleeing Shatila camp, while at the same time they ushered in reinforcements of Phalange forces who then committed more carnage.
(11 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, October 7, 2016
The day after the fall of Aleppo will International Humanitarian Law still be Relevant? Global demands to stop the bloodshed in Aleppo and across Syria have reached a crescendo unseen since the days of the 2003 U.S. non-UN sanctioned invasion of Iraq. UN Resolution 2139 recently demanded access to besieged areas in Syria and compliance with International Humanitarian Law including safe passage for civilians from conflict zones and the unimpeded passage for aid workers into those zones.
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, January 4, 2014
Will Lebanon Survive in 2014? One angel intervened and said, "Lord, isn't that unfair to the rest of the world?" "Actually no" God replied, "Just wait and see the neighbors I shall give them." Hopefully God will review and amend his work so Lebanon survives 2014. It is not apparent that the Lebanese are capable of doing so.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, August 31, 2014
No American Arms for Lebanon To Fight ISIS until Civil Rights for Palestinians For Palestinians, a microcosm can be said to be that Lebanon's sects continue to deprive them of the basic civil right even to work and pressure are building not just for an intifada but for a jihadist revolt across Lebanon.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, March 23, 2015
US-Syria cultural heritage cooperation? Laws targeting history-theft are being strengthened but more cooperation is "If the US can work with the Iranians over the nuclear file, surely we can work with Syria to preserve the cultural heritage that belongs to all people regardless of politics. Our mutual heritage is bigger than today's political differences and we must work together. And I think the White House is ready and this may happen soon."
Ghina's wound having the bandage changee yesterday, From ImagesAttr
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, September 3, 2016
Syria: A Children's Story, Part 1 (Updated) [Franklin Lamb emailed an updated version of his article from Syria "How Two Sisters, Ten Year Old Ghina and 8 Year Old Nagham, Survived Three Sniper Bullets in Syria"]
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, June 23, 2014
Will ISIS Create al-Sham Caliphate & Liberate Palestine? Time will reveal if DAASH achieves one or both of its objectives. Many believe if they eject the Zionist regime from Palestine, the expanding Islamist group will set in motion historic currents that in all likelihood will be rather different from the Ehud Omert-Condeleeza Rice fantasy of "a New Middle East."
From ImagesAttr
(13 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, September 9, 2016
SYRIA: Can Government-Rebel Reconciliation End the Bloodshed? September 8, 2016 Franklin Lamb reporting from on the ground in Syria. Al-Moaddamiyeh, Damascus Countryside, Syria. ... a long hot tense day at the border-crossing at al-Moaddamiyeh, at town roughly ten kilometers southwest of Damascus.
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, May 14, 2011
The tide has turned in favor of the Assad government One expected to see fear, tension, and people hiding in homes, ubiquitous police and partially hidden and disguised security personnel in the shadows, watching from behind tinted glassed cars, curtained windows and from roof tops. I expected to see military vehicles, empty streets after dusk, reticence to discuss politics, tense faces on the streets.
Mission Accomplished, From FlickrPhotos
(7 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, December 5, 2017
Hezbollah's Premature "Mission Accomplished" Boast History repeats, more often than many of us prefer, especially in geopolitical contexts wherein regional hegemony is the objective being sought. This appears to be the case with respect to Syria and recent several, some disparate, declarations of victory by foreign "Resistance" armies.
Iran Protests 2014, From FlickrPhotos
(16 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, January 13, 2018
Students face Kafkaesque impediments challenging Iran's theocracy On several occasions, meeting with brilliant, tech-savvy Iranian university students who are thoroughly charming, fearless and outspoken, this observer is presented a very different picture of what Iranians are facing than what is being offered by some pro-regimen internet bloggers and water carriers.
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, March 27, 2011
Time for Nasrallah and Obama to talk? The "good wing-bad wing" pretense is favored by some in the US Intelligence Community as it allows political cover for desired engagement much as was the case for other "terrorist' groups such as the PLO, the ANC and the IRA. For that reason John Brennan, the White House counterterrorism adviser recently discussed the new National Intelligence Estimate (NIE).
Syrian boys, whose family fled their home in Idlib, walk to their tent, at a camp for displaced Syrians, in the village of Atmeh, Syria, Monday, Dec. 10, 2012, From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, July 3, 2015
"If Da'ish (ISIS) doesn't liberate Palestine who will?" In the early days of the crisis in Syria, many Palestinians fleeing to Lebanon quickly returned to their fate in Syria when they saw the conditions in Lebanon's camps. But as the fighting between Syrian rebels and government forces intensified in Damascus, they became trapped, alongside their fellow Palestinians in Lebanon sinking ever deeply into dire poverty.
Image created from image crediting, From ImagesAttr
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, November 13, 2017
On Libya: Designs on her People, Political Leadership and Military, by Saif al-Islam Qaddafi This brief memorandum documents some of the crimes and calls on the international community, human rights organizations and NGOs to support Libya and her people during this tragic period and assist to rebuild this small but unique country.
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, November 10, 2012
Resisting Hell's Maelstrom One highly respected governmental official told this observer recently, "I said to UNCHR's local administration, 'We have noticed the many fine vehicles that you flew into Syria, and we have met some of the well-paid staff that you have brought to help us, but please can you show us that you have to date delivered even one loaf of bread to our desperate people?'"
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, July 12, 2014
Can Hezbollah Prevent DAASH (IS) From Pulling Lebanon into its Caliphate? Our war will no longer be confined to Syria. Soon, Lebanon will ignite. Iran's party [i.e. Hezbollah] and all its bases and strongholds are a legitimate target for us wherever they may be found.
Old City of Jerusalem, From FlickrPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, December 27, 2017
Playing the Jerusalem Card in Lebanon with deft Hypocrisy Since Trumps announcement, plenty of anti-Palestinian politicians seeking to cash in politically, including Lebanese President, Michel Aoun who is only in that post because Iran installed him by instructing Hezbollah to break its deadlock of Parliament, are wringing their hands and seeking political advantages from Trumps provocative action.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, September 5, 2014
UPDATE: Did Israel Offer ISIS $10 Million to Free Steven Sotloff? Over the last 48 hours Mr. Sotloff's 'fixer' has reportedly disappeared from public view, and is no doubt himself being hunted and marked for death as Israeli and perhaps American agents track him.
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, May 8, 2012
The Lutfallah II Arms-Smuggling Scandal Who funded the shipment discovered in the cargo bay of the Lutfallah II? Who had custody over the original 12 containers of what was planned, according to the jailed owner, as a shipment of over two million tons of "general merchandise"?
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, December 31, 2013
Is Anything Left? Privacy Rights With words likely to become part of Law School curriculum, Mr. Snowden said that "this disappearance of privacy is important because privacy is what allows us to determine who we are and who we want to be."
Sabra-Shatila Massacre, From ImagesAttr
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, September 15, 2017
35 Years after the Sabra-Shatila Massacre where's "The Resistance"? This week commemorates the 35th anniversary of the Wednesday, Sept. 15 to Saturday, Sept. 18, Sabra-Shatila Massacre in the Fakhani neighborhood of Beirut. For many of the families and loved ones of the victims, as is certainly the case with this observer, it seems as though the Sabra-Shatila Massacre was committed at most four or five years ago. So vivid still in our memories are the horror images of that orgy of slaughter.
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, April 22, 2017
Easter Sunday for Refugee Children of Syria Here at the "Meals for Syrian Refugee Children, Lebanon" (MSRCL) our volunteers work tirelessly to help feed the hungry refugee children from war-torn Syria.
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, January 11, 2014
Pressures Mount for a Palestinian-Hezbollah War in Lebanon The Sunni and the Shia, just as with the Palestinians and Hezbollah, need each other for many reasons, including confronting growing Islamophobia, anti-Arab hate propaganda, and the deepening and broadening apartheid occupation of Palestine.
Da'Ish/ISIL militant destroys a winged-bull Assyrian protective deity, From ImagesAttr
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, March 14, 2015
What we can do now to help stop Iconoclasm by Da'ish (IS) Visitors sometimes hear this point of view and they are reminded, as this observer was recently, surprisingly by a Syrian university professor in Aleppo, "Sir, what matters most now is the condition of people not old stuff!"
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, April 1, 2015
Should Syria's smuggled antiquities be repatriated before the conflict ends? This observer has to date detected no widespread support for this argument in Syria which if adopted could seriously delay repatriation of Syria's antiquities. Syrian officials and scholars interviewed overwhelming reject this point of view as does the Syrian public. Some have noted that using the destructive frenzy by Islamic State extremists to lobby against repatriation seeks to justify discredited colonialist practices
Vladimir Putin aka .Abu Ali Putin., From ImagesAttr
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, October 16, 2015
Has Russia become Iran's 'Senior Partner" in Syria as "Abu Ali Putin!" fervor spreads? There are rumors among journalists here that Russian President, aka "Abu Ali Putin" will soon pay a visit to Damascus to discuss a "political solution" and assure the region that his country is back and can be trusted to keep its word.
Preserving and Protecting trains for culture, From ImagesAttr
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, May 15, 2015
Protecting & Restoring Syria's Trains as Part of Her Cultural Heritage One barely teenage Da'ish (ISIS) tryout, deselected when he lied to recruiters about his real age which was 13, explained to this observer recently that in the for sure to be established Caliphate, camels, donkeys and horses, and other 7th century modes of transportation should be required via fatwa in order to render us all more religious and nearer to what he imagines Allah would really want us to be.
9/24/2016, From ImagesAttr
(18 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, October 20, 2016
US-led sanctions targeting Syria risk adjudication as War Crimes The clear effects of the US-led sanctions targeting the civilian population of Syria which are being studied today in Syria by this observer and others, as well as noted in the OCHA) study noted above, are increasingly seen as constituting War Crimes requiring indictment.
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, September 9, 2012
Sure Obama caved again on Palestine but will he benefit? Obama erred politically and humiliated himself and his partly needlessly with his sell-out in Charlotte. He gained nothing in the way of Zionist support because the lobby has made clear form Tel Aviv to New York that it will never trust him on Israel as they increasingly coalesce around the Romney-Ryan ticket.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, December 19, 2011
Anatomy of a NATO War Crime On June 19, the day before the bombing attack on the Hamedi family at Sorman, NATO was obliged by its own regulations and by the international law of armed conflict to conduct a "potential for collateral damage review" of this mission. There is no evidence that this was ever done.
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, May 10, 2015
Return to Yarmouk Martyr's Day A Syrian army commander, headquartered on the edge of Yarmouk advised this observer on 6/7/2015 that the Syrian government and UNWRA will relocate hundreds of recently escaped camp residents to secured housing in the coming week.
Many Syrian youngsters vow never to abandon their country as they work to ease the suffering of others. (Photo 7/23/2016), From ImagesAttr
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, July 29, 2016
"Don't cry for us Syria".the truth is we shall never leave you!" "Don't cry for us Syria" has recently become a motto/logo of sorts for many physically and psychologically brutalized youth around this ancient land. They are the youngsters who represent a new generation of Syrians, many of whom were born in this century. It is into their patriotic hands that the Syria's Torch has been passed.
Liberate Palestine, From FlickrPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, October 10, 2017
Hamas can achieve elementary civil rights for Palestinians In Lebanon by reconciling with Fatah and Iran Hamas' willingness to relinquish its authority in Gaza, shown by its agreement to disband its Administrative Committee there, increases the chances of a successful reconciliation. Hamas' governance of Gaza has become costly, as the siege has been tightened on the strip, external financial support has been cut, and as the Palestinian Authority (PA) recently imposed more sanctions.
Temple of Baal at Palmyra, Syria., From ImagesAttr
(8 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, May 18, 2015
We can still save Palmyra (Tadmur) but we must move fast The exists ample international customary law and international conventions in force, including Chapter 7 of the UN Charter that allows and even calls for action on the facts of the Palmyra emergency. The UN Security Council has the resources and the responsibility to act and its 15 member states must not veto a resolution that is expected to be submitted this coming week to save Palmyra.
Monumental Arch, Palmyra, Syria, From ImagesAttr
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, May 29, 2015
Is Da'ish (ISIS) open to a deal on Palmyra? Meanwhile, it is worthwhile to bear in mind UN Resolution 2199 adopted by the Security Council on February 12th, 2015, stating "that countries ensure that their nationals and those in their territories not make assets or economic resources available to ISIL (Da;ish) and related terrorist groups " and "Condemning the destruction of cultural heritage in Syria, particularly by ISIL (Da'ish) and the Al-Nusrah Front".
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, March 25, 2017
Lebanese politicians accused of hiding the truth about Musa Sadr's fate The Musa Sadr Trilogy, part 3 of 3. For part 2 see "Who Ordered the killing of Imam Musa Sadr and Why?" For part 1 see "When, Where, and How Imam Musa Sadr was Assassinated".
Palestinian Refugee Camp, From FlickrPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, April 14, 2017
Lebanon's Outlawing of Palestinian Civil Rights Risks Igniting Powder Kegs It's half a century overdue for Lebanon to grant Palestinian refugees, now the fourth post-Nakba generation, the most elementary civil rights to work and home ownership. Both fundamental rights are mandated by international law and enjoyed by every refugee on our planet. Sauf Lebanon.
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, June 27, 2016
How 100 Syrians, 200 Russians and 11 dogs out-witted ISIS and saved Palmyra Something just didn't feel quite right to Syrian army brass as they penciled in final plans to liberated Palmyra in early March 2016 and as they debated how best to drive Daesh (ISIS) out of Palmyra and deep into the surrounding unwelcoming Syrian desert. This, according to army intelligence officials and commanders who this week briefed this observer at various locations around Palmyra.
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, April 3, 2015
A path toward Hamas-Fatah reconciliation: Grant Palestinian refugees the right to work in Lebanon It is submitted that if Hamas and Fatah were to put aside their political differences, even just long enough to help their fellow refugees in Lebanon achieve dignity and elementary civil rights this mutual reconciliation effort would likely soon lead to wider Hamas-Fatah unity and intensify solidarity among the Palestinian refugee community and accelerate return to their homeland, Palestine.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, January 1, 2015
As Aleppo goes so goes Syria? One can only wish Envoy De Mistura and like-minded proponents of the immediate establishment of a "freeze zone" in Aleppo, to be replicated across Syria as strongly favored by army commanders with whom this observer recently discussed the subject, the very best of luck in the New Year.
CEREMONY PLANNED ON ANNIVERSARY OF IMAM MUSA AL-SADR'S ABDUCTION, From FlickrPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, September 6, 2017
The "Musa Sadr is Alive" Hoax has Deceived Lebanon's Shia for 39 years Every year during late August, this observer receives emails from people who love and admire the Iranian born Imam Musa Sadr and his colleagues Sheik Mohammad Yacoub and journalist. Abbas Baddredinne. The three disappeared on August 31, 1978 in Tripoli, Libya.
Iraqi Christians moving Church icons to hoped for safety near Mosul., From ImagesAttr
(6 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, April 20, 2017
An Inevitable Post-Christian Middle East With or Without ISIS? Christians are being targeted in this region and pushed out of Christianity's birth place of 2000 thousand years ago and there is no Richard the Lion Hearted on the horizon to protect them. According to some analysts in approximately twenty years Christians will be virtually extinct in the Middle East.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Australia Rejects Israeli Ordered Media Censorship of Al Manar Given the chance that American justice is not dead yet, it is hoped that, judicial review, on a case by case basis, will shed light on the disgrace that is the US Treasury Department's over broad and likely to be found illegal corralling of citizens who might object to aspects of American foreign policy in the Middle East.
Shia prayers, From ImagesAttr
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, November 2, 2014
Sunni-Shia Bellum Sacrum Fault Lines Deepen Gloves Come Off in Lebanon Where this all ends is anyone's guess, but a ceasefire in the Syrian conflict, even one limited to certain areas as Washington, Tehran and Moscow are discussing, would perhaps help. Yet as various analysts and scholars postulate, the latest Sunni-Shia manifestation of Bellum Sacrum may well take a long time to heal--tens of years, or even centuries.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, May 25, 2013
Why Washington and Tel Aviv Want Hezbollah to Keep Fighting in al-Qusayr The dangers for Hezbollah are obvious - that it may be drawn ever deeper into a bottomless pit of conflict in Syria that could leave it severely depleted and prey to a hoped for death-blow from Israel. Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah and other party officials have dismissed that possibility.
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, August 15, 2011
NATO'S Massacre at Majer, Libya Family members, eyewitnesses and Libyan government officials claim that NATO's air-strikes at Majer killed 85 people, including 33 children, 32 women and 20 men. Reporters and visitors were shown 30 of the bodies in a local morgue, including a mother and two children. Officials and residents explained that approximately 50 bodies were taken to other locations for family burial and most of the injured rushed to hospitals.
(12 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, March 1, 2017
"Aleppo Park" Kids Can Now Enjoy 4 Hours of Activities Every Sunday Once a week a variety of activities for Syrian refugee children are now available from 2 to 6 pm on Sundays giving them an opportunity to express themselves and encouraging them to discover their passions, be active, enjoy sports, and simply have a good time
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, March 16, 2017
Meals for Syrian Refugee Children Update March 15, 2017 On any given day in Lebanon there are literally hundreds of Syrian Refugee Children who are not in school but pass their days wandering the streets, alleys and roads selling chewing gum, pencils, packs of tissues, small bottles of water or flowers for "chump change" as its known in WDC..in order to help their families buy food.
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, October 8, 2010
The Four Conflicts: Bracing for Israel's Next Attack on Lebanon For the past three years, Israel has been instructing the White House and Congress, as Ehud Barak told Bill Clinton on 9/21/10 at the opening of the Clinton Global Initiative in NYC: "This time Hezbollah must be totally eradicated from Lebanon. We don't even want to find their residue after the next operation!"
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, October 2, 2012
AIPAC: Israels Agent Feeling Squeezed? What is confusing much of the American Jewish community appears to be the same as what perplexes a growing segment of the non-Jewish American public. And that is Netanyahu's nonsense over Iranian progress in having nuclear weapons and the history of this "the sky is falling-we must cry wolf!" canard.
(6 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, February 19, 2017
Life and Death Struggle for the Children of Syria Meals for Syrian Children Refugees acknowledges that no one can help every Syrian child during the continuing carnage in their beloved country. But we aver that everyone can have the honor of fulfilling the solemn duty of each of us--to help someone.
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, July 9, 2010
Mohamad Hussein Fadlullah (11/16/1935--7/4/2010) Mohammad Hussein Fadlullah...a rememberence
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, May 28, 2011
Is the Arab Spring spreading to US Congressional staffs? With 41 applause interruptions and 29 standing ovations, even with some appearing half-hearted and somewhat forced, Congress sent a message that the Legislative branch, increasingly under the control of a foreign power, and not the Executive branch, will continue to determine American policy toward Israel and the Middle East.
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, May 12, 2017
Syrian War and its Legal Ramifications (Excerpt 1) The Syrian Law Journal May 2017 edition published an interview with Franklin P. Lamb, LLB, LLM, PhD., Legal Adviser to The Sabra-Shatila Scholarship Program, Shatila Camp, and one of the founders of Meals for Syrian Refugee Children: Lebanon (MSCRL). Dr. Lamb has given OpEdNews.com an exclusive right to publish his excerpts from that interview.
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, November 13, 2010
Is the American public about to toss Israel? Ever so slowly over the past two decades, and gaining momentum since the April 2002 Israeli destruction of the West Bank town of Jenin, American attitudes toward Israel appear to be changing according to some public opinion analysts.
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, July 4, 2011
Libya's Neighbors Prepare for NATO's Boots Countdown to Invasion In summary, the MOH compilation documents that during the first 100 days of NATO targeting of civilians, 6121 were killed or injured. The statistical breakdown is as follows: 3093 Men were injured and 668 were killed. Women killed number 260 and 1318 injured. Children killed number 141 and 641 injured.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, August 22, 2011
The Battle for Tripoli may not be over The claim of the NTC representative this morning that the rebels control 95% of Tripoli seems farfetched. This is a very spread out city and its clear rebel forces are not deployed everywhere.
Four year old Manal and three year old Mohamand-Kamal shown above in better days. Like literally hundreds among the thousands of children still trapped in Madaya, the children are fading fast from malnutrition and related illnesses without much  to eat, a, From ImagesAttr
(9 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, December 21, 2016
Will proxy politics bring death for Madaya siblings Manal and Mohammed-Kamal? But I do think that NGO, MSRCL noted above, can meet our required burden of proof that Manal and Mohammad-Kamal's is a "humanitarian case." Those with the final say for who gets on the evacuation lists, Syria, Russia and Iran, must be strongly and constructively encouraged to apply the same standard to all four villages when the evacuations continue, today in all likelihood. And that standard is "humanitarian cases".
Every Palestinian refugee is invested at birth with the Full Right of Return., From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, July 10, 2015
The Noose is Tightening Around Syria's Palestinians Every Palestinian refugee on earth from the Nakba or Naksa and her offspring is invested at birth with the Full Right of Return and this right is inalienable and cannot to ceded, relinquished, bargained away or abolished by political leaders, neither by PA officials negotiating with the Zionist apartheid regime or by anyone else. A Palestinians Full Right of Return is individual and vested in perpetuity--at birth.
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, June 29, 2016
Driven into the desert, Daesh (ISIS) barbarity still haunts Palmyra Daesh (ISIS) is gone from Palmyra, hopefully for good. But the area is still haunted. One imagines a long period of healing, cathartic reconstruction, restoration and healing will be required by its returning residents before this ancient town will feel cleansed of Daesh butchery, desecration and filth.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, April 21, 2012
How many walls will secure the Zionist regime in Palestine? In a scathing commentary in Yedioth Ahronoth, Israel's biggest-selling newspaper, defense analyst Alex Fishman recently wrote: "We have become a nation that imprisons itself behind fences, which huddles terrified behind defensive shields." It has become, he said, a "national mental illness".
From ImagesAttr
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, May 7, 2017
From Aleppo Park to Ramlet el Baida Beach for the Summer Meals for Syrian Refugee Children, Lebanon (MSRCL) was able to feed 159 Syrian Refugee Children this weekend. It's not enough but as we continue our efforts to secure a permanent Kitchen-Dining Room where we can serve a hot nutritional meal to refugee children every day of the week it's what we donated funding to achieve.
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, December 18, 2013
Bibi and Bandar Badger Obama: Better Six Billion than Six Trillion! According to sources on the US Foreign Relations Committee, the White House is being heavily pressured by the US Zionist lobby and the Netanyahu government to take "remedial measures" for the "catastrophic historic mistake" it made in defusing the Iranian nuclear issue and refusing to bomb Damascus.
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, August 27, 2013
Prince Bandar and Zionist lobby partnering to force Obama into prolonged war with Syria For Israel and its agents, the worst of all is victory by the Assad/Iranian/Hezbollah axis, which a brief but fiery barrage of cruise missiles is liable to bring about. A global power thousands of miles away cannot calibrate stalemate to ensure that neither party wins; we have to prioritize the most negative outcomes and use our assets to prevent them.
Peace Palace (Vredespalais) - Houses the International court of Justice - the principal Judiciary body of the United Nations, From FlickrPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, May 13, 2017
Inside the Syrian War and its Legal Ramifications (Excerpt 2) Excerpt Two: Syrian Law Journal May 2017 Interview with Franklin Lamb The Syrian Law Journal May 2017 edition published an interview with Franklin P. Lamb, LLB, LLM, PhD., Legal Adviser to The Sabra-Shatila Scholarship Program, Shatila Camp, and one of the founders of Meals for Syrian Refugee Children: Lebanon (MSCRL) .
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Libya's Palestinian Refugees and the current crisis Five months ago, when the events of February 17, 2011 erupted in Benghazi near the eastern shore of the Gulf of Sidra, this country's nearly 75,000 Palestinian refugees who are dispersed all over the country, were as shocked as most Libyans and foreigners here. Virtually every Palestinian interviewed for this report mentioned that they saw no advance signs that the normal domestic tranquility would be suddenly shattered.
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, February 22, 2017
Another small step for Syrian Refugees in Beirut's "Aleppo Park" This observer swears that last weekend he even witnessed the Sheik smiling at puppy Aleppo and he actually started to reach out his hand to pet him! But he apparently thought better of it and quickly withdrew his hand as he looked over his shoulder and out of the corner of his eye saw two chador donned women watching him.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, May 16, 2011
Majesty and massacre at Maroun al Ras On Nakba ("Catastrophe") Day, Sunday May 15, 2011, Maroun al Ras welcomed approximately 27% of all the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, this time coming from the opposite direction heading back toward their homes in Palestine. Palestinians in Lebanon now number approximately 248,000, approximately half of whom live in 12 squalid camps and as many "gatherings", although 423,000 remain registered with UNWRA.
Image created from image crediting, From ImagesAttr
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, October 26, 2017
Granting Palestinians the right to work can salvage Lebanon's economy Those who have lived in Palestinian camps and followed this issue know of the absurdity of this proposition. With every Palestinian birth in Lebanon the resolve for Full Return deepens. Wishfully thinking were the occupiers of Palestine's prediction that "the old will die and the young will forget." Let them come to the camps of Lebanon and Syria and interview the youth about this prediction.
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, December 22, 2013
Winter Solstice in the Levant: Displacement, Death and Dershowitz To one public international law class Professor Dershowitz is reported to have sneered, "And you can forget about claims of human rights based on international law and universal standards of morality. You'll never win s--- with that malarkey."
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, July 6, 2014
EU Sanctions Target Humanitarian Aid and Hinder Restoration of Global Heritage in Syria Today, a civilization that used to lead the world and for centuries was the beacon of learning, tolerance and trade, and that still protects our global cultural heritage is damaged--and only the Syrian people can rebuild it for all of us. We need to help them.
Ruined column in Palmyra, From ImagesAttr
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, February 14, 2015
Is the Phoenix Rising From the Ashes in Syria? What local communities are doing today in Syria to protect and preserve our shared cultural heritage is not going to solve their and our archeological crisis. But rarely, one imagines in the midst of war have citizens undertaken such Phoenix like preservation and restoration work for the benefit of mankind.
Israeli West Bank barrier, From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, June 8, 2013
US and Israel Lobby reel from Hezbollah al-Qusayr victory One congressional staffer who attended the meeting winced at the thought of US marines again being sent to Lebanon given their previous experience there nearly 30 years ago.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, August 14, 2013
Lebanon offers Palestinians fleeing death in Syria Ramadan greetings: "Eid Mubarak, dear brothers and sisters! Yalla 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.
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, January 18, 2015
The American people need to help preserve our shared cultural heritage in Syria These days, when many Americans are questioning the evident defects in our democracy, an excellent way to improve it for us and our children would be for us to insist on our government following our wishes and taking a lead in preserving and protecting our cultural heritage in Syria.
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, March 8, 2014
Resisters of Sykes-Picot Land Grab Perform Key Fighting Roles in Syria "Many of the "Gulfies' are in fact heavily addicted to strong heroin-like drugs. They crave them, and sometimes they even fight with their fellow militiamen to get their "fixes.' We are told by some we capture that sometimes, when one of their comrades is killed, the fallen fighter's "friends' will descend on his body, not particularly to pray over it, but to rummage his pockets for his drugs."
From ImagesAttr
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, December 26, 2016
Is Team Trump instructing this New Year's Grinch OFAC to destroy JCPOA? OFAC is expected to do its part after 1/20/2017 and last July's removed Iran sanctions may be re-imposed in addition to other new Iran sanctions ideas coming out of some anti-Iran Congressional offices.
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, March 25, 2014
President Assad and Ayatollah Khomeini are keeping their word. Will President 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. A good start would be by calling off OFACs attack dogs who service other than the American people. Also it should honor its oft touted "Humanitarian sanctions against Iran and Syria that exempts medicines and medical equipment".
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, January 16, 2011
What now for Lebanon? Informed Congressional sources in Washington DC today are confirming that the White House has informed Congressional Committee Chairpersons and American allies that the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) will indict Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's Wali al Faqui (jurisconsult or Supreme Religious Leader) for issuing the order to assassinate Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
Below, the interior of the Cathedral of Constantine and Helen in Yabroud as it is today, From ImagesAttr
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, August 13, 2016
As our cultural heritage in Syria hemorrhages, Villagers work to restore it The people of Syria do not need nor do they seek the arrival of western "Democracy projects" asserting a Kiplingesque 'White man's burden" obligation. Nor will they accept rebranded Sykes or Picot or Balfour wannebees. Nor revanchists suffering delusional fantasies of another Persian, Ottoman, Soviet, or American-led Western hegemonic project. No more so than Syrians I have become friends would accept a Caliphate of any sort.
(6 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, December 17, 2013
Will Les Clinton Scuttle US/Iran Rapprochement? Though the Clinton estate has rapidly expanded since the White House days and is now valued at tens of millions of dollars, the former president is reportedly often short-tempered and grouchy these days.
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, January 12, 2015
In fewer than 48 hours Syria can achieve relief for her endangered citizens seeking lifesaving refuge in Lebanon The case for Syria applying the essential legal principle and pillar of bi-lateral international relations, Reciprocity, in order to encourage Lebanese officials to meet their international legal obligations and thereby spare the lives of countless Syrian and Palestinian refugees being denied life-saving refuge at Syria-Lebanon borders is a strong one.
One of four artifacts from Syria targeted by the Obama Administration for forfeiture,  featured in a photo found in the possession of Abu Sayyaf, former President of the  Islamic State's (ISIS) Antiquities Marketing Department., From ImagesAttr
(10 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, January 12, 2017
Whatever is Obama's Legacy, It Includes stellar effort to Preserve Our Cultural Heritage in Syria But there is one major, if not widely heralded, Obama Administration achievement which relates to Syria and the Middle East that has not gained much public recognition but for which the Obama Administration deserves great credit. That subject is Obama's leadership and achievements, working with a divided Congress, in taking measures with respect to Protecting and Preserving Syria's Endangered Heritage.
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, November 13, 2015
The Sunni-Shia bellum sanctum returns to Hezbollah's security zone All are victims of the 6 p.m. rush hour terrorist bombings in Hezbollah's security zone on 11/12/2015 that targeted civilians who were shopping at street markets or gathering at the local Husseiniyeh (Mosque) for the fourth of the five daily prayers, Salat al-Magrib, held in the early evening just after sunset.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Israelis Rush for Second Passports "Perhaps as many as half of the Jews living in Israel will consider leaving Palestine in the next few years if political and social trends continue."
Walking through the rubble of Aleppo's ancient Souks. Photo: Maher Jalloum., From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, June 1, 2017
Our Shared Cultural Heritage in Aleppo Urgently Requires Protection and Restoration As this observer meanders through the ruins of war-torn Aleppo these days, he develops a feeling that somehow he ought to be wearing a hospital gown with gloves so as not to contaminate crushed ancient artifacts as he tries to avoid stepping on them. One feels obliged to avoid contaminating a cultural heritage crime scene.
The freed Nuns of Ma'loula temporarily working at St. George Monastary at the entrance of Wadi al Nasara waitng to return to Mar Takla monastery and their orphanage in Ma'loula  (photo 8/4/2015), From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, August 9, 2015
The Bravenhearts of Wadi Al Nasera, Syria This observer is of the opinion that the current suffering and atrocities being committed against Christians in Syria will not break the will of Al Wadi Nasera, the Valley of the Christians. Rather, it will fortify their resolution and beliefs in the New Testament. I agree with the sages whom I have met among this close-knit, vital, highly educated,family community that the future of the Christians in this great country.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Does America have a Muslim Problem? Whatever becomes of the truly pathetic "Pastor" Terry Jones and his plans to appear later this month at the largest Mosque in Michigan to condemn Islam and to generate some media attention while provoking all decent Americans and people of good will everywhere with his hate speech will not be of much lasting import to Muslim and American
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Egypt just annulled Mubarak's natural gas giveaway- Will Sadat's Camp David and the Zionist Embassy be next? The Egyptian people are demanding the return of their sovereignty. According to recent opinion surveys they believe it was partially ceded to Israel by the two post-Nasser dictators, Anwar Sadat and Hosni Mubarak, at the behest of American administrations, from Nixon to Obama.
(11 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, January 28, 2014
Syria Sends a Strong Team to Geneva We will likely learn soon whether Syria's negotiating team in Geneva can work through a myriad of opposing and deeply antagonistic adversaries to achieve a sustainable cease-fire, reconciliation, and reconstruction. Syria's long-suffering people demand and deserve no less.
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, April 23, 2011
Israel will not collapse peacefully but it will dissolve: The 19th Century Zionist colonial enterprise was grafted onto Palestine under a series of truly bizarre coincidences that could never be sustained
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, November 11, 2014
OFAC Jeopardizes Air Traffic Safety While Congress Prepares Sanctions Coup de Grace on Iran International air travelers in flights over Asia could well be in danger from a recent policy change enacted by the US Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), this as the latter puts Israel's "death to Iran" policy seemingly ahead of even airline passenger safety.
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah (11/16/1935--7/4/2010) Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah (11/16/1935--7/4/2010)
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, June 3, 2012
Exploiting the Houla massacre as Syrian-Lebanese lines are being blurred Meanwhile, this orchestrated campaign is spilling over to Lebanon and the line between the two countries participation and effects of the Syrian crisis continues to blur.
Ten Year Old Ghina and 8 Year Old Nagham, Survived Three Sniper Bullets in Syria., From ImagesAttr
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, September 5, 2016
Syria: A Children's Story, September 5, 2016 All donations to Meals for Syrian Refugee Childre will be immediately receipted and our accountant will regularly issue financial status reports. We are committed to complete transparency.
Shatila camp, Beirut 10/24/2016, narcotic-laced chewing gum costs camp kids 250 LL or approximately 25 American cents. Sometimes it is offered to children free to get them addicted according to camp residents, From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, November 10, 2016
Palestinian Social Fabric Frays in Lebanon's camps as Drug Dealers target Children The past few years have witnessed an alarming increase in drug distribution in several of Lebanon's 12 Palestinian camps, as dealers reportedly target children and teenagers, becoming increasingly brazen in pushing their narcotics.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Where have Libya's children gone? Long time missing" NATO's arguable act of piracy earlier this week in commandeering the fuel tanker ship Cartagena off the coast of Malta that was bringing gasoline to Tripoli and sending it instead to Rebel militia based close to Benghazi is yet again explained from NATO HQ as necessary for "protecting the civilian population of Libya."
320px-Lebanon-Syria_border_sep ..., From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, October 19, 2014
Avoidable Humanitarian Crisis at Lebanon Border Crossing Sparks Anger in Syria Among the many reasons Lebanon should immediately desist in the targeting of Syrian and Palestinian refugees is that they are pushing many toward supporting those that the Lebanese government claims to be opposing.
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, July 20, 2016
A Road-map for Lebanon to grant civil rights for Palestinian Refugees in Lebanon Today the government of Lebanon has the opportunity to come into compliance with internationally mandated human rights and to redress nearly seven decades of violations of Palestinian civil rights. Lebanon can redress its humanitarian shortfalls by implementing the following proposed essential remedial measures.
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, March 1, 2014
Return to Seyeda (lady) Zeinab—now secured and in protective hands Such incidents make plain that Seyeda Zeinab is still of target of some jihadist types given its great importance to Syria and the region and among Muslims globally. But across sectarian divides here, where there are growing signs of the great majority of the exhausted populations being ready to a degree, to forgive and forget at least some of the events of the past nearly 36 months.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Ma'a as-salaamah Mohammad".. May Allah protect you! Most of the churches here currently have volunteers working to help their Muslim sisters and brothers during this cataclysmic period. My friend Mohammad is one whose life they may have saved. Bands of young rebel "freedom fighters" are still roaming some of Tripoli's streets, itching it seems, to kill some "African mercenaries", meaning, it appears, any black man they can find .
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, December 13, 2014
The Germans rebuilt Dresden and the Syrians will rebuild Aleppo! All people of good will who accept their personal duty to join the people of Syria in preserving, protecting and restoring our shared global heritage can take solace from what this observer witnessed an exhilarating demonstration of the sublime capacities of our shared human spirit as we help to salvage our cultural heritage.
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, July 31, 2015
Return to Ma'loula But there is good news from this incomparable community. The group of 13 nuns abducted by Jabhat al Nusra Islamic rebels who have been freed in a prisoner exchange are they now regularly visiting Ma'loula to help restore the Nunnery and St. Teccla Monastery as well as the orphanage that they operate.
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, November 5, 2010
What Were They Thinking? What were the International Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) investigators imagining as they walked into Dr. Iman Charara's private obstetrics and gynecology clinic this week demanding personal information on her patients? 
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, January 14, 2012
Will a pro-Gadhafi "Green Revolution" topple the NTC? All of us know that misinformation and disinformation are common during armed conflicts, often politically motivated. But such grossly exaggerated and unsubstantiated claims and conspiracy theories only aid the aggressors, in this case, NATO.
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, August 3, 2012
Obama Trumps Aipac, Romney, Republicans on yet more Iranian sanctions Obama operative James Carville boasted this week that "Romney & Co. ain't ready for no major league Presidential campaigning and we're gonna keep whupping em real bad til November 6th
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, August 18, 2011
TRIPOLI ON THE CUSP At nearby Green Square, crowds began to gather by 2 p.m. and rally against "NATO rebels" and I was told thousands of Libyan citizens were ready to move to the edges of town, man check points, and support army units and repulse any advances from Al Zawieh to the West, Gheryan and several villages from the South or Brega and closer villages from the East.
(Photo by Rima Karwan, the new 'big sister' of these beauties. 8/282016), From ImagesAttr
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, September 1, 2016
How Two Sisters,Ten Year Old Ghina and 8 Year Old Nagham, Survived Three Sniper Bullets in Syria Ghina and Nagham were very lucky to survive the sniper's bullets last month and are today out of harm's way. But this is not the case for the 40,000 entrapped residents of Madaya who remain imprisoned by the war in Syria, as do nearly one million other besieged civilians across Syria today.
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Tripoli Port Notes During the early afternoon of 8/23/11, power and Internet were cut from our hotel and again the sealed windowed rooms heated up fast and had to be essentially vacated unless one stayed in the bathtub filled with tepid tap water. We currently have no local or international phone service or information from outside Libya or any knowledge of what is being reported internationally about Libya.
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, August 16, 2014
SOS! Hospital Ships Needed to Save Gaza's Children Five Hospital ships are urgently needed along Gaza's shoreline at the following locations: opposite Jabaliya and North Gaza, Gaza City, Deir al-Balah, Khan Younis, and Rafah.
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Ahmedinejad and Obama at the UN: Of statesmanship and political pandering". The two appearances could be handicapped along the lines that Obama's tough job was to try to shore up Israel whose days as a dominate force in the Levant rapidly grow fewer as history corrects the nearly incalculable injustice that resulted from the West's implantation of the racist state and as history inexorably deconstructs the world's last 19th Century colonial enterprise.
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, June 29, 2016
Accusation claims Syrian and Russian troops are looting Palmyra! INDICTMENT NOT PROVED Writing in the Frankfurter Allegemeine Zeitung, while conceding that the retaking of Palmyra was "an important victory for our cultural heritage" (Dr. Parzinger's words), he continued: "Despite the liberation, we shouldn't act like everything is alright now. And this victory has not made Bashar al-Assad and his backers the saviors of cultural heritage".
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, January 23, 2012
Lebanon's Maid of Darkness facing US hate crimes investigation Increasingly a marionette of the US Zionist lobby, Ms. Brigitte Gabriel has enjoyed a few lucrative and unobstructed years of increasingly hysterical Muslim and Arab bashing. Recently however, she has attracted the attention of the FBI investigating her organization, "Act for America!" (act for america@donationnet.net ) for possible hate crimes and financial irregularities, according to US Congressional Judiciary
Fordo Underground Uranium Enrichment Facility, North of Qom, Iran, From ImagesAttr
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, November 18, 2014
Mossad Targets Nuclear Engineers in Damascus Consequently the sanctions will remain and be intensified according to the House Committee on Financial Services. Meanwhile the Mossad is watching closely Iran's activities in Iraq, Syria and now Lebanon and has once more telegraphed its intentions to continue its serial violations of those countries sovereignty while implementing other projects in order to eliminate what it sees as Iran's threat to its existence.
(9 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, February 22, 2014
"Coalition of the Willing" Promotes No Fly Zone Among those currently petitioning the Obama Administration for a NFZ, which would quickly devolve into thousands of bomb runs across Syria that would likely decimate its air force and tank corps are the so-called "rebels.' They tend to agree with France that problems lay ahead for them given April's fast approaching Presidential election.
United Nation Plaza, From ImagesAttr
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, May 21, 2015
The Battle to save Palmyra shifts to the UN The ancient city of Palmyra (Tadmur) has been in existence for 30 centuries, and is one of the world's most cherished archeological and cultural heritage sites. Will it be cease to exist during the next 30 days?
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, March 28, 2017
Update from Madaya The United Nations has recently reported that nearly one million Syrians now live under siege, a figure that is up from 393,000 Syrians at the same time last year. "Horror is now usual," UN Emergency Relief coordinator Stephen O'Brien said in a November statement before the UN Security Council in New York. people."
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Israelis prepare to emigrate and Palestinians to Return! Several studies in Israel and one conducted by AIPAC and another by the Jewish National Fund in Germany show that perhaps as many as half of the Jews living in Israel will consider leaving Palestine in the next few years if current political and social trends continue.
In the Aleppo National Museums garden a massive antiquity from the Byzantium period is being encased in concrete for protection from rebel mortars, scores of which have targeted Aleppo's museum recently., From ImagesAttr
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, December 6, 2016
Aleppo Update: An inspiring return to the oft-bombed National Museum DGAM launched an immediate and massive rescue operation across the country soon after the conflict began here and within months emptied the museums of all portable artifacts. Today virtually all remain packed, protected, and hidden in secure guarded sites, most deeply underground.
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, January 1, 2011
Any respect for International law left in the US Congress? This week marks the second anniversary of among the most savage criminal slaughters of human life in long memory. The 522-hour indiscriminate carnage, "Cast Lead" that killed 1,417 Palestinians, mostly civilians, 352 of them children, injuring for life more than 5,300, indicts Israel as well as those countries that continue to supply it weapons, diplomatic cover and to enforce Israel's illegal siege on sealed Gaza.
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, August 3, 2014
Continuing slaughter of Palestinians another nail in Zionism's coffin? In aggregate, Americans still see Israel favorably but in smaller numbers while more are viewing Israel as illegitimate. "Delegitimisation", says Einat Wilf, a former Israeli parliamentarian and one of the authors of a three-year, as-yet-unpublished study of the topic at the Jewish People Policy Institute (JPPI) in Jerusale
Meals for Syrian Refugee Children, From ImagesAttr
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, January 24, 2017
Aleppo Park: A modest victory for Syrian Refugees in Lebanon So Syrian refugees in Lebanon waiting to return to their beloved but devastated country have another spot to relax at and MSRCL hopes, if it can gain partners, to use the site to feed Syrian refugee children, set up trash cans and just maybe, two or three portable toilets and a water faucet. And why not a garden so the tykes can have their own small plots and learn to grow vegetables and flowers?
Peace Palace (Vredespalais) - Houses the International court of Justice - the principal Judiciary body of the United Nations, From FlickrPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, May 14, 2017
Inside the Syrian War and its Legal Ramifications (Excerpt 3) The Syrian Law Journal May 2017 edition published an interview with Franklin P. Lamb, LLB, LLM, PhD., Legal Adviser to The Sabra-Shatila Scholarship Program, Shatila Camp, and one of the founders of Meals for Syrian Refugee Children: Lebanon (MSCRL) .
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Is the US Embassy in Lebanon squandering its diplomatic immunity? Is the US Embassy in Lebanon squandering its diplomatic immunity?
Refugees on the move., From ImagesAttr
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, September 16, 2015
33 years after Sabra-Shatila, Takfiri plans for "Intifada!" waft in Lebanon's camps Lebanon's politicians generally do not want this and neither does Da'ish (ISIS). Both groups seek to keep the Palestinian's in Lebanon oppressed for their own political advantage. Eschewing justice and elementary civil rights is subverting peace in this region and one may be sure that the "terrorist-takfiri" are today manipulating this reality in Lebanon's camps.
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, November 4, 2012
Flooding Syria with Foreign Arms The intervention in Syria by more than three dozen countries supplying weapons must be stopped. Both sides of the Syrian crisis need to manifest by actions, not just words, a serious commitment to meaningful dialogue. The above noted arms supplying countries, and others off stage, have a solemn obligation to their citizens and to the world community to immediately halt the shipment of arms.
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, December 18, 2014
Claims that Aleppo's Synagogues have been destroyed are false In February of 2011, coincidentally the month before of the beginning of the current Syrian crisis, President Assad signed an executive order to repair the Al-Raqi Synagogue in the old Jewish quarter of Damascus by the end of the month as the renovation of 10 other synagogues in Syria's major cities continued.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, May 18, 2016
U.S. financial regulations increase starvation among Syria's children OFAC regulations to stop banks from providing services to charities and others that do business in targeted countries like Syria are in fact having an unanticipated serious impact on relief efforts. This according to more than a dozen interviews with aid directors, senior bankers, lawmakers and industry experts interviewed by Bloomberg.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, October 22, 2011
Targeted For Assassination By NATO? Information arriving from family and friends of our client Seif al Islam leaves no doubt that NATO has ordered his killing. His planned and we believeassassination is meant to spare NATO the international accountably that awaits them as the World learns from eyewitness accounts and reliable, evidence compiled over the past six months, exactly what NATO has wrought on Libya over the past nearly nine months.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, February 15, 2014
The Politicization of Humanitarian Relief How Not to Get Aid into Homs Suspicions are being raised in Geneva, Syria and among certain UN aid agencies in Homs and elsewhere that those they are trying to save from starvation, were "set-up' to fail as a result of power politics and influences emanating from Washington and Tel Aviv.
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, October 3, 2014
Shell-Shocked Syrian Town Freed After Savage Massacre She added: "We woke up at dawn with the sound of bullets" we saw men carrying black flags of Jaish al-Islam and Jabhat al-Nusra. Some of them were singing 'Alawites we have come to cut off your heads' song, and this was the song they first sang at the start of the war in Idlib."
Why I Bought Four Syrian Children Off A Beirut Street, From ImagesAttr
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, June 9, 2016
What 4 "bought" Syrian refugee children have achieved for humanity in Lebanon Organizing even one meal for a starving Syrian or Palestinian refugee child--or for any malnourished youngster displaced by the war in Syria isn't everything that matters right now in this region. For many of those working among them and to feed them it's the only thing that matters.
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, October 27, 2011
Libya Dispatch Revulsion, Resistance & Angry Words From Tripoli University Suha complained about "the views of NTC leader Mustafa Abdul-Jalil toward women and that with the already announced repeal of the marriage law, Libyan women have lost the right to keep the family home if they divorce. It is a disaster for Libyan women. Under Gadhafi leadership women in Libya had more rights than in any other country in the Middle East."
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, July 15, 2016
Lebanon escalates its denial of civil rights for Palestinian Refugees The justice for Palestine struggle continues on many fronts and it must and will do until the human right of Full Return is achieved. One front that requires our vigilance and action in these turbulent times are the ever deteriorating civil rights of Palestinians in Lebanon.
Palmyra early May 2015. Before the arrival of Da'ish (ISIS). As of early October 2015 it is not known precisely what has been spared., From ImagesAttr
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, September 30, 2015
Confronting 'looting to order' and 'cultural racketeering' in Syria will help salvage our endangered heritage. Let's do One of the many gut-wrenching dimensions of the soon to be five-year Syrian crisis is that whenever one surveys the conflict on the ground and concludes that the maelstrom can't possibly get any worse, it plummets deeper into the abyss. The condition of people in Syria has never been worse in modern time
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, October 14, 2012
Women Demand Civil Rights in Lebanon - All of the main political parties their MPs to express reservations regarding the draft bill, because, according to KAFA "they all agree that women have no rights over their bodies.
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, May 19, 2012
US envoys losing Lebanon--visit by visit? The two gentlemen used 67% of the same key words but their meanings appear vastly different and that's why some of us, certainly this observer, could use some help from a serious student of the subject.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, October 5, 2014
Syria: Engaging the Opposition with More than Weapons There is growing evidence here that the government and the rebels are trying to collaborate in various ways in order to save an entire generation of their children from being denied education due to the ravages of ongoing civil war. This massive catastrophe for Syria and the region can be ended if the above noted trend continues.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Why Iran should take the US led sanctions issue to the International Court of Justice The US led severe sanctions regime constitutes an illegitimate form of collective punishment of the weakest and poorest members of society, the infants, the children, the chronically ill, and the elderly;
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, June 14, 2014
Syrian Students Restore Our Global Cultural Heritage Will Syria become like Iraq or Somalia ? Or worse ? This is what me and all my friends worry about and we feel powerless to stop or even influence what is happening out there. Like all Syrians we are exhausted from these years of war. We are so tired and just want it all to end. Are we mistaken ? What do you think ?
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, July 3, 2011
"Victory by Ramadan" Scenes From Tripoli Since the beginning of NATO operations a total of 12,887 sorties, including 4,850 strike sorties have been conducted. On Monday June 27, 2011 there were 142 sorties and 46 strike sorties. A total of 17 NATO ships are patrolling the central Mediterranean sea off Libya. To date 1,546 ships have been intercepted and 127 boardings made.
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, September 1, 2013
Countdown to Apocalypse Now? A View From Tehran "How can the American people accept this double standard, where its ok and your government will help to gas Iranians and your enemy's population?" is a common question put to this observer.
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, November 16, 2013
Vowing to Aid Their Countrymen Fleeing Syria Palestinian College Students in Lebanon Through no fault of its own, UNWRA's delivery of education to the overwhelming majority of Palestinian refugee children in Syria has been severely impaired while Lebanon has additional problems.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, September 21, 2013
31 Years After the Massacre at Sabra-Shatila The partially revealed archival record illustrates the magnitude of deception that undermined American efforts to avoid bloodshed. Working with only partial knowledge of the reality on the ground, the US feebly yielded to false arguments and stalling tactics, thus allowing a massacre that was already in progress to proceed.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, November 22, 2010
Lebanon's Special Tribunal as bludgeon against Hezbolah Attacking Nasrallah How the US and Israel Hope to Destroy Hezbollah Using the Special Tribunal for Lebanon to remove Hezbollah
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, January 29, 2011
Hezbollah is the New Government of Lebanon. Now What? Hezbollah has become the new government of Lebanon with all that means to the country, the region, and American middle east policy. This article describes briefly how this historic change came about and what might be the consequences.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Any Respect for International Law Left in the US Congress? The US administration, as revealed in a State Department cable posted by Wikileaks, has been working overtime with Israel to parry further condemnation of Israeli crimes documented in the Richard Goldstone and Richard Falk Reports, among others
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, December 22, 2012
Rebel controlled Yarmouk Palestinian Camp empties pending government counter-attack During the morning of 12/19/12 the news got even worse regarding Souha. Someone from Reuters sent me a published photo showing her stuck on a bus at Maznaa for over 12 hours. According to one report she was forced to return to Damascus. Wherever Souha is she is hopefully someone is helping her.
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, January 13, 2011
WHY HEZBOLLAH WALKED Lebanon's resistance movement, led by Hezbollah may well now be the government of Lebanon. how did it happen and what might it mean for Lebanon and the region
Monastery_St_Takla, From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, October 8, 2014
The Twice Betrayed Christians of Ma' loula One comment, signed by a lady from Boise, Idaho and still legible, reads: "This is a very beautiful place to visit and also very inspirational to know that Christians have existed in this area continuously for so many years. May the work here in God's name continue and help to bring peace and understanding to all people in the Middle East and the world, regardless of who or by what means...
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, November 26, 2011
The Troubling Case of Saif Gadhafi Despite the claims of the National Transitional Council of Libya (NTC) that Saif al Islam Gadhafi, the apprehended subject of an International Criminal Court arrest warrant that ordered his transport to The Hague, is in a secure hidden location near Zintan, Libya, a town approximately 85 miles southwest of Tripoli, this is not the case.
Public Information posters put up in government controlled areas over the summer, From ImagesAttr
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, October 11, 2014
It's Not Too Late to Save Syria's Cultural Heritage In Syria today, within government controlled areas scores of community groups are working to preserve our global heritage. One example is a citizen's national campaign to inform the general public about the value of protecting archeological sites by placing large posters showing endangered treasures.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, June 28, 2011
"After you Brother!" Gadaffi stays and Obama leaves? Gaddafi has survived assaults of various types from US Presidents' Ford, Carter, Reagan, George Bush 1, Clinton, George Bush 2, and Obama. Vegas book makers are giving odds he'll be the leader of Libya's Fatah Revolution after the voters retire Obama, whose broken promises included telling them that the US would be involved in Libya for days, not more.
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, October 8, 2012
Fall Semester Brings New Hope for Lebanon's Palestinians Against a backdrop of many such problems and challenges, more Palestinian refugees in Lebanon than in recent memory will enter university this fall semester. Preparing, as many insist, to take up their national resistance duties and reconstruct their country and reclaim much of their purloined culture upon returning to Palestine.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, April 29, 2013
Pushing Al Qaeda to Take on Hezbollah The Times adopts the views of Islamophobe, Daniel Pipes, who recommends that the US try to keep the two sides in Syria fighting as long as possible until they destroy each other.
Temple of Baal-Shamin in Palmyra 2010, From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, August 25, 2015
Daesh (ISIS) Heritage Destruction in Syria is a War Crime and Crime against Humanity. The UN must consider R2P Time is quickly running out for all of us to answer Kofi Annan's question and if we reply in the affirmative, to petition our governments and the UN to create a highly mobile, competent, short tethered wide international participation coalition force of fixed duration, perhaps subject to 90-day UN renewal, and to act on our shared international responsibility to preserve and protect Syria's Endangered Heritage.
(7 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, June 11, 2013
The West to pay a high price for targeting the Syrian government, Security experts claim In both the Makhlouf and Mamlouk's cases, both were blacklisted and sanctions were imposed on them by the United States and Europe, preparatory to transferring them to the International Criminal Court. However, this did not detour either gentleman from continuing to combat terrorist organizations funded by the West to fight President Bashar Al-Assad's regime.
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, June 24, 2012
Are Palestinians Being Scapegoated Over Army Killings in Lebanon? The ball is in the Lebanese Parliaments court. Time is running out for impunity relative to Lebanon's refusal to grant elementary civil rights for their sisters and brothers from occupied Palestine.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, June 7, 2014
A Hard Won Victory The Story of 68 Palestinian Families in Lebanon GS relented and agreed to allow Palestinian students in Lebanon a one-time 19-day visa to take their BACC exams and return to Lebanon. The handcuffs came off. Apologies. Handshakes. Smiles all around and a few kisses on foreheads by the grateful American.
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, March 31, 2013
Has the Arab League mortally wounded itself by declaring war on Syria? This week the global community saw that the Charter and by-laws of the Arab League, despite its mission to bring together Arabs, has been ignored with respect to the Syrian crisis from the beginning. Rather it has been actively working to prevent coming together especially with respect to Syria.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, September 10, 2011
Are Libya's Palestinians ready for the post-Gaddafi era? Whatever one thinks of the "brother leader" these days, the social status and economic conditions of Palestinian refugees in Libya, as in the other Arab countries has been determined by each country's leadership and by the degree to which the leaders plays the Palestinian card domestically and internationally for their own benefit.
The Omayyad mosque in Aleppo, Syria was built between the 8th and 13th centuries and is reputedly home to the remains of John the Baptist's father. It is located in the walled Old City, a UNESCO World Heritage site. Heavy fighting during the Syrian civil , From ImagesAttr
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, April 15, 2016
Restoring Our Cultural Heritage in Syria --the Debate Over Why, How, When, by Whom, In What Order, & Who Pays? Intensif "It was a place to connect to your history, to your identity and to tell others, who were not from Aleppo or Syria: "This is where we are from. This is who we are." This is where you come to encounter your roots. It was a place that existed forever, a place we thought would exist long after we were gone. But we were wrong." (Amal Hanano, Lessons from the Minaret , 2013)
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, August 3, 2013
A Formula for Palestinian Survival in Damascus The overwhelming sense among Palestinians here with whom this observer has discussed the proposal, is that there can be no progress with respect to returning Palestinian refugees to their homes in Yarmouk until a political solution is reached among all the major parties to the Syrian Crisis. And some predict that may take decades.
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, January 8, 2012
Muslim Brotherhood Strongest Contender in Libya's Coming Elections The coming government will likely be heavily influenced, if not controlled by Libya's new arrival in force, the Muslim Brotherhood. The consequences for Libya and the Muslim Brotherhood's effect on America's withdrawal from the region is presumably being closely watched from Tehran to Washington DC and Tel Aviv.
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, September 18, 2011
29 Years After the Massacre at Sabra Shatila As a young Palestinian lady in Sabha told this observer, and sounding very much like Miss Hiba Hajj in Lebanon's Ein el Helwe camp: "Every Palestinian must visit this site you told us about of this mass murder of our brothers and sisters. I will do it soon. I promise you. It is not an option, it is an obligation."
Middle Eastern dreams, From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, January 8, 2015
Their unpardonable crime is that they are Syrian Syrian refugees have been denied the right to seek asylum and some have been forcibly returned to Syria by the Lebanese authorities and without even a grace period. The new unannounced changes led to families being separated. Again in violation of international refugee law.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, June 24, 2015
Palmyra Update: What will remain after Eid al-Fitr? The year, the date is unusually important to many for other reasons. According to Da'ish (ISIS) members and even a spokesman, who seem increasingly willing to discuss their seemingly inextricably intertwined religious-political views with confessed heretics like this observer, Ramadan requires a month of accelerated attacks on Islam's enemies.
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, February 11, 2015
We Can Help Stop the Destruction Nowhere else has the world witnessed this complex and unique meeting of states, empires and faiths as Syria. Who can imagine that the great Umayyad Mosque in Damascus was originally a temple to Jupiter? Later converted to a Christian basilica to John the Baptist, and in turn became what some consider the fourth-holiest place in Islam.
University Art Students, From ImagesAttr
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, September 25, 2015
How AIPAC-OFAC are working to maintain sanctions targeting Iran and her students Meanwhile, AIPAC is arranging for a new version of a 2012 Federal Law (H.R. 1905) to be submitted to Congress. The new version will exclude Iranian students from being able to receive a U.S. student visa to study in America if the student is seeking to participate in higher education in preparation for a career in Iran's petroleum, natural gas, nuclear energy, nuclear science, or any related nuclear engineering fields."
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, November 6, 2010
Lebanon demurs as Israel claims victory in the US midterm elections Lebanon demurs as Israel claims victory in the US midterm elections Did anyone really expect Israel would lose?
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, September 3, 2013
Syria Countdown: an Update from Damascus Washington's ill-considered criminal attack will aid and abet these largely Gulf financed militia and provide justification, in their minds for literally hundreds of often competing jihadist groups to spread carnage across Syria. The innocent in the USA and the West will also eventually suffer a severe pay back price as was the case on 9/11/2001 and a decade later on 9/11/2011. And on and on it goes.
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, April 25, 2010
The Case for Palestinian Rights in Lebanon The Case for Palestinian Rights in Lebanon
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, August 29, 2011
The Hunt for Gaddafi Rumors and repeated rumors ricochet like shell casings off concrete walls this morning and depending on what one is inclined to believe, Libya's former leader Colonel Gaddafi is safely in Algeria, his hometown of Sirte, Libya's vast southern desert, in one of the labyrinthine tunnels very deep below his Bab al Azzia (splendid gate) barracks or in a south Tripoli flat with his sons.
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, July 15, 2013
AIPAC & OFAC Ratchet-Up US Sanctions Targeting Syria and Iran's Populations How can the US Treasury OFAC agency be so seemingly totally unaware of the business realities of the parties it regulates who want to send medical equipment and food to the suffering people of Syria and Iran? Can the agency be that deaf to the business realities of the parties it regulates? Does it even care or understand its own regulations? Does the Obama administration even care?
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Egypt's election results: Palestinian victory & Zionist defeat? The Prime Minister of the Palestinian government in Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh, declared on Thursday that "The Egyptian presidential election results will have a very positive affect on the course and future of the Palestinian cause as well as the role and place of the Muslim people in the world."
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, June 20, 2011
Lebanon's Sarah Palin Meets Captain America The new team is said by one King staffer to share a vision of "defeating Radical Islam in America and defeating it before it's too late." And they intend to show their fellow Americans just how to do it. This past week in Washington, King held the second of what it planned as a series of "Congressional Hearings" designed to warn Americans about various threats from Muslims in their midst.
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, March 1, 2011
In Re Barak, "Bullahs," Blackwater, Bounties & the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) Despite a series of publicly announced "disassociations" periodically issued from the media offices at the Pentagon and State Department, plus a couple of image polishing name changes including currently, Xe Services LLC ( Xe being short for Xena, the mythical goddess of war) the hydra headed Blackwater (BW), founded in 1997 by Erik Prince and Al Clark is still quite active.
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, December 10, 2011
Jeff Feltman Delivers his Annual Yuletide Gifts to Lebanon In reality, Feltman is visiting Beirut to put new conditions on the Lebanese government after Lebanon paid its share of funds to the Special Tribunal for Lebanon.
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Confusing Syria With Libya? Fact-Checking Amnesty International's "hospitals Investigation" In it's just released report: |"Health Crisis: The Syrian Government Targets the Wounded and Health Workers," Amnesty International falls far below an objective standard and fails to shoulder its burden of proof for the charges it levels at Syria's medical community.
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, June 22, 2012
Imam Musa Sadr's Remains Discovered in Libya But serious questions remain. Why after nearly a year into the post-Gadhafi period was the case not solved with help from Lebanon despite several trips by officials allegedly for the purpose? Is it because some Lebanese politicians do not want the truth to be known?
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Fatal Detraction? The increasingly volatile pre-trial phase of the Lebanon tribunal It appears that no acceptable compromise regarding the divergent Lebanese political stances relative to the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) will be achieved. Support for this hypothesis can be found in the past 24 hours activities of the would-be mediators.
Embassy gates Tehran, From ImagesAttr
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, September 8, 2015
It's time to re-open the American and Iranian embassies and promote reconciliation The rationale for opening both Iran's and America's embassies is compelling and goes back to the reasons for The Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 1961 of which 190 countries are signatories. Embassies contribute to the achievement of international peace and security and facilitate the work, cultural exchanges, business, travel, and development of both countries.
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, April 8, 2016
Iran and Russia join the global alliance to preserve Syria's Endangered Heritage All of us, because we want to preserve and restore our past for the future will applaud these Russian and Iranians initiatives. And the joining of both countries with many other nations, to protect our cultural heritage which has been under Syrian custody for ten millennia is to be applauded and supported emphatically.
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, January 18, 2014
The Siege of Yarmouk But there is hope that relief may come. Against the backdrop of accusations and condemnations being circulated, many are looking to Russia to step in and, much as it did when it induced the Assad government to get rid of its chemical weapons, pressure the government to at least lift its own part of the siege.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, January 10, 2011
2011: The year Lebanon Allows Palestinians Some Elementary Civil Rights? Were the international community to cease averting its eyes and actually give some meaning to the more than 100 UN Resolutions on Palestine and the more than 500 conference declarations over the past half century dealing with Palestinian refugees, Lebanon's six decades of shame would be lifted.
Historic Rue Sabra, the main access into Shatila camp, as shown on 11/7/2016. During better times Rue Sabra was a locale for art exhibitions, festivals and proud marches and gatherings by Palestinian Girl and Boy scouts as well as Fedayeen and internation, From ImagesAttr
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, November 16, 2016
R2P Palestinian Children: Proposals to combat Drug dealers targeting Lebanon's camps Each of us is obliged to help organize, join and work with, and to assure the success of the proposed R2P (Responsibility to Protect and Rescue) Palestinian children from drug dealers Movement. We as adults owe this to vulnerable Palestinian as well as to all other youth in Lebanon.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, October 17, 2011
Lebanon's Palestinians require UN action to obtain civil rights But to hear the refugee's new friends report on the current prospects for Palestinians internationally, conditions are coming up roses for the camp inhabitants in Lebanon as well. Bit the facts are quite the opposite for refugee prospects here in Lebanon.
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, August 3, 2011
End Game for Benghazi Rebels as Libyan Tribes Prepare to Weigh In? A former senior member of Britain's Liberal Democratic Party, Sir Menzies Campbell has just urged the UK government to rethink its involvement in the war on Libya. Campbell said Britain must undertake a "wholesale re-examination and review" of its involvement in the NATO conflict in Libya after the murder of the opposition figure and Britain "must think about the end-game of the conflict in Libya.
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, June 29, 2013
White House threatens aid cut-off if Palestine joins the ICC "Gone are the days when those who commit international crimes could be cleansed of their atrocities through a mere hand shake and a scribble of their initials on a piece of paper which purports to bind them to conditions that they have no intention of ever observing."
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, October 13, 2013
François Hollande's Missteps put France on Levant sidelines According to French daily Le Monde, Hollande told Netanyahu that he was flabbergasted by Obama's hesitation to bomb Syria, and complained: "If Obama does not strike Iran, how can we believe he would help Israel in case of Iranian aggression?"
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, July 20, 2013
Are Palestinian Students in Lebanon Being Pressured to Choose Kalashnikovs Over College? Education cannot be ethnically cleansed, stolen, tortured, jailed, uprooted, bulldozed, massacred, murdered, bombed or burned down. Rather, staying in school and pursuing ones dream is what your cherished for-bearers, who were forced from their homes and lands into Lebanon and trekked from Palestine
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, July 18, 2013
The Bomb in My Neighborhood A reliable Hezbollah source, acting Health Minister, Amal MP Ali Khalil, has just advised that 54 have Bir al-Abed residents been wounded and so far no confirmed fatalities have been reported
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, April 8, 2012
Lebanon's wretched triad: Domestic workers"Women "Palestinians University students surveyed last month in Lebanon on the subject of how to improve their society and move it in the direction of meeting international human and civil rights norms identified three groups most in urgent need of immediate Lebanese governmental action.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, September 4, 2012
Is the Syrian Crisis Being Leveraged to Weaken Hezbollah? Pressures, often intense, resulting in being sucked into the vortex of the powerful maelstrom and violent whirlpool of Lebanese and regional politics can't be bringing much pleasure to Lebanon's National Resistance led by Hezbollah and that includes this observers Dahiyeh neighborhood.
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, April 2, 2016
Why is Lebanon holding Hannibal Gaddafi hostage? At some point Lebanon will have to dismantle its sectarian system which paralyses it and corrupts its government. But the problem remains that the current corrupt system here enriches precisely those whose leadership for reform has been required.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, July 25, 2011
Seeking context and understanding from Libya's youth Our "Libyan Forum 101" as we agreed to title it, asked the Libyan students to formulate and table for discussion key questions that they believe must be answered in order to understand and resolve what it called here, "Our crisis."
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, June 20, 2013
WAR BY ANOTHER NAME" The Obama Administration prepares a "Marshall Plan" to reconstruct Syria, but not for the Syrians With respect to Syria, the " equivalent of the Marshall Plan" currently being finalized is very different from what General George |C. Marshall explained to his Harvard University audience, 66 years ago this month, when he announced the post WW II initiative.
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, January 29, 2012
30 years after the Massacre at Sabra-Shatilla Lebanese politicians still block Palestinian rights Lebanese politicians, including every party and religious grouping bar none, except the Druze and the National Syrian Socialist Party, use voter's fear of naturalization (in America think immigration) to undercut growing human rights pressure for Lebanon to give Palestinians elementary human rights.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Tawtin or Return: Divergent Views from Lebanon, but one Common Goal Lebanese opponents of civil rights for Palestinian Refugees often use less objective and more crude wording to define "tawtin" ("settlement") than is normally employed in civil society discussions.
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, July 9, 2011
NATO's War Against Libya's Civilians Briefly noted below are five recent instances of undisputed NATO bombings on Libyan civilians selected because they still among the most frequently discussed by residents of Tripoli.
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, October 8, 2015
Why a US Congressional Special Investigative Committee (CSIC) must be created to investigate the MSF hospital bombing The Pentagon and Afghan claims via their spokespersons that the investigation is continuing and they can't say when it will be completed, don't wash. The Pentagon knows right now what happened and should come clean. It's time to present the full truth and not just their preferred partial version.
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, June 22, 2013
Hezbollah's Palestinian problem"""and vice versa Some Palestinians are also said to be carrying guns for the Saida, Lebanon based, Salafist cleric Sheikh Ahmed al-Asir, the imam of Sidon's Bilal bin Rabah Mosque, while supporting his anti-Hezbollah-Assad regime movement which is trying to unite Sunnis, who make up roughly 85% of the world's Muslim population, to eliminate Shia Muslims.
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, May 11, 2013
Lebanon greets the Special Rapporteur for Palestine with an ear full Mousab Kerwat, Islamic Relief's Middle East institutional funding manager, said: "It's better for countries to stay away from donor conferences than to attend and make pledges they don't intent to keep. As a minimum, they should communicate where their pledges have gone in a transparent process.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, June 2, 2014
Syrians Working to Preserve Jewish Cultural Heritage The view expressed by my hosts that day--and I believe them--is that Jewish cultural heritage in Syria is being respected, protected and preserved with the same care as Muslim, Christian, and pagan antiquities.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, May 6, 2010
Lebanon's Merry Month of May Lebanon's Merry Month of May--will Lebanon grant civil rights to her Palestinian Refugees?
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, March 31, 2016
The wounded Phoenix of Palmyra stretches its wings from ISIS rubble Once DGAM has UNESCO's approval, Dr. Addulkarim estimates that Syria we will need five years to restore the structures damaged or destroyed by ISIS. Abdulkarim told AFP. "We have the qualified staff, the knowledge and the research. With UNESCO's approval, we can start the work in a year's time."
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, February 4, 2016
Social Control is emerging as ISIS (Da'ish) motive for erasing our Cultural Heritage in Syria This observer submits that there is a forth and even more sinister reason that has not been much considered with respect to the Islamic State brand, which admittedly is an ambitious and seductive vision that has proven to be a fairly major social media success, that the destruction and looting of our heritage underpins an intricate scaffolding of intense micro-managed social control over its captive populations.
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, November 20, 2011
Bad Moon Rising Over Great Sirte Bay The fighters thought there was no possibility that any rebel militia would give up its arms anytime soon. One of the group insisted, "I will not turn in any of my weapons, and I, like my friends, have hidden a lot of them including shoulder-fired missiles. I will keep them until I am convinced that the new government truly serves the people."
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, October 22, 2010
Ahmadinejad galvanizes Lebanon's Palestinians "The only solution to the Palestinian issue is for the invaders (Israelis) of the occupied Palestinian land to leave, and give the Palestinians their rights and return all the Palestinian refugees to their original land. Iran supports Lebanon's bitter struggle in confronting Israeli assaults. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Bint Jbeil 10/15/10
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, February 6, 2014
Lifting the siege of Yarmouk one food parcel & one polio vaccination at a time Given the 18,000 in need of urgent aid this cold winter morning inside Yarmouk camp, what has been allowed in so far has been a mere trickle, rather minor in a sense. But major for those getting the live saving food parcels and urgently required medical treatment.
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, August 6, 2010
America's "Dog in the Fight" America's "Dog in the Fight" Will Hezbollah leash "NABI"?
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, September 24, 2012
New Challenges Grip Lebanon's Palestinian Camps What is required without further delay is for an urgent stakeholders meeting to be convened. Including the PLO factions, local and international NGO's, Donors, the Palestine Red Crescent Society, UNRWA, EU and UN groups as well as local political parties in order quickly produce an executable plan avoiding duplications, to address these needs.
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, February 10, 2012
Why did Palestinian refugees come to Lebanon? Don't ask. Lebanese schools won't tell! In most private and public schools in Lebanon, sensitive political subjects have long been culled from textbooks by polarized confessional watchdog committees seeking a proper education for their children. Even UNWRA schools are forbidden to teach Palestinian history in Lebanon or even their history in Palestine lest the Zionist controlled US Congress cut UNWRA funding.
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, November 20, 2015
Political Salafism has failed Lebanon's Palestinians. Can Jihadist Salafism succeed? Those who claim to want to preserve the relative quietude in the Palestinian camps here would do well to resist ISIS in a concrete form. One of the most effective ways would be by using their political power positively by taking 90 minutes in Parliament to grant Palestinians in Lebanon the six decade overdue most elementary civil rights to work and to own a home
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Iranian Solidarity With Palestinian Refugees in Lebanon-More Than Words Are Needed. if the Iranian government is to give meaningful achievement to its words it should facilitate for Palestinian refugees in Lebanon the right to work and to own a home. This decision would require only the cost of one phone call, or email, from Tehran to Dahiyeh.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, August 20, 2012
Grim reality but also hope for Lebanon's Palestinians this Eid al Fitr Hiba and Hezbollah's other supporters who share Sayed Hassan Nasrallah's oft expressed views demanding basic human rights for Palestinians in Lebanon believe that the Resistance block will, on this 30th anniversary of the massacre at Sabra-Shatila, finally act on what the late Imam Khomeini declared was a central "moral, religious, and political" obligation of all people of good will.
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, August 24, 2013
Fear Spreads through Palestinian Camps in Syria As of morning on 8/23/13, 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.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, November 4, 2013
White House Expected to Ease Sanctions Targeting Syria.....Iran to follow? 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).
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, August 13, 2012
Is the Sinai Peninsula rejoining the resistance? An American critic of Israel's influence over the U.S. Congress, who is an Assistant Staff Director on a Congressional Committee, emailed that "We are looking into what Israeli leaders knew about the Sinai attack and when they knew it, but no definite responsibility for this operation has been established."
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, March 8, 2016
The truce in Syria bodes well for salvaging our Cultural Heritage There are also reports that in certain areas of Syria hosting archaeological sites, most also being tourist destinations, citizens and volunteer civil society organizations are ready to help restore them immediately when security conditions allow.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, July 5, 2013
Obama backing ElBaradei? Once again, the Obama administration was caught by surprise as the enduring "Arab spring", still in its infancy, increasingly portends ill for Western installed potentates in artificially Sykes-Picot style created "countries".
Trafalgar Square, London, From ImagesAttr
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, April 27, 2016
Can Responsibility to Protect (R2P) preserve our cultural heritage in Syria? Franklin Lamb Frankly put, what is required of all of us is to rethink the doctrine of international humanitarian intervention and to identify the basic conditions for the global community to suppress calculated acts of cultural heritage destruction in Syria and elsewhere.
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, April 15, 2011
Why the "Obama Doctrine" won't help the Shia majority in Bahrain In response to a student's question, Khalidi disputed that there was any "Obama Doctrine" worthy of that label and he predicted the White House would be much more tolerant of human rights abuses in Bahrain than say, in Libya and some other countries whose despotism indexes are no worse than the 200 year ossified Al Khalifa dynasty's war against its majority Shia population.
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, September 28, 2013
Passing the Torch to a New Generation of Syrians For this ten millennium civilization and its thousands of priceless treasures, many partially destroyed, emergency efforts are needed today to preserve and protect the structures from thieves and war damage. Not many here would disagree with this priority of the Syrian government.
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, April 15, 2012
"Mama, will Baba Roumieh visit us in Shatila camp?" Still, the kids hope the Pope will come and he could indeed attend the Sabra-Shatila Massacre commemoration at Shatila's Martyr's burial site where more than 1,100 bodies were buried in haste as the world discovered the scope of the carnage on September 19, 1982.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, February 16, 2013
Will Washington grasp the hand being offered by the Iranian people? Being in Iran during these tense times is to experience an epiphany. Which is that Iranians and Americans have so very many needs and interests in common -- yes even in our religious beliefs -- that both peoples should immediately repair our countries relations and return to the days when 60,000 Iranian students studied in the US and thousands of Americans lived
Microsoft WordScreenSnapz001, From ImagesAttr
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, December 5, 2011
A Tireless Advocate of Justice for Palestinians Francis Khoo will be sorely missed by his friends and loved ones, he will be missed because he leaves a void for many of us who were and remain inspired by his work for Palestinian rights. Francis Khoo is an icon of countless others, who like himself, are neither Arab nor Muslim, neither from the Middle East nor culturally or politically connected to Palestine by birth, but who support the Palestinian cause.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, November 25, 2013
Palestinian Sisters as Keepers of Their Brothers Inside Emergency Damascene Shelters Rather, it seeks to highlight the spirit of solidarity, resistance, and good will among Palestinians, forced from Yarmouk and other Syrian refugee camps, and of how they huddle together preparing for a harsh winter, a winter which one senses is not far off.
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, March 20, 2013
Sayyeda Zeinab: the 7th-Century Heroine of Karbala No doubt to the relief of untold millions, the Heroine of Karbala is being protected by her own--Muslims from different sects as well as Christians like Miriam among others--for they, and all who are part of the culture of resistance to injustice, are truly among Zeinab's own. It is right that we should protect her for Zeinab bint Ali, like Karbala, belongs to all of us.
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, November 13, 2011
Terror and Revenge Engulfs NATO's Libya There appears to be a Tell Tale Heart paranoia settling in among some NTC elements who believe that if there is one Gadhafi supporter left in Libya it might mean the return of his ideas for Libya's role via a vis the West and its re-colonization of Africa plans, control of Libya's natural resources and its relations with the rapidly changing Middle East.
(6 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, March 2, 2013
The Oft-Predicted Fickle Syrian "Tipping Point' Has Tipped What Washington fears, according to the same interlocutor from the Russian embassy who spoke with this observer for nearly two hours, is the confirmation that the Syrian opposition is ready to immediately enter into negotiations with the Syrian government without preconditions and that President Assad's departure or even his future status will not be part of the process.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, September 6, 2013
Damascus Notes: Late Night "Town Meetings" before the American Attack One can only wish the Syrian people well and join with them and all people of good will--as many Christians and, reportedly, more Muslims, will do--for the day of fasting and prayer that His Holiness Pope Francis has called to be observed on September 7, 2013.
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, April 12, 2014
The Death of Yarmouk Palestinian Camp However, after months of studying the political, social, military, and economic situation in Yarmouk camp, and based on insightful meetings with former camp residents and PLO stalwarts who have been active in the Palestinian cause going back to the 1980's, or earlier, Yarmouk's survival prospects appear fatally bleak.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, March 25, 2013
A Draft-Dodging, Zionist Friendly, Rightwing Texan Islamist to lead Syria? And this week, according to Congressional staffers, both 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.
Donald Trump has Iranian's scratching their heads and asking, .Who is this guy?., From FlickrPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, February 12, 2016
Iranian students claim lifting US-led sanctions is a mixed bag The fact of the matter is that neither Trump nor any US President is going to scrap the JCPOA and if one tried, America's global allies and likely the American public would strongly oppose its attempt. Nor will the Iranians scrape it.
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, October 24, 2013
Shimon Peres Suffering From Portnoy's Complaint? Guilt-Edged Insecurity Peres' Complaint to colleagues is that he has to say things to the public that are beginning to sound hollow after six decades of trying to parry and neutralize the Palestinian resistance to Zionist theft and colonization. Peres no longer believes what he used to "about the Zionist BS," as one congressional source put it.
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, February 22, 2011
From Tahrir Square To Shatila Camp: "Cry Hurriya!" (freedom!) The Tahrir Square "Hurriya!" tremors spreading across the Middle East may or may not be impacting today's events in the historically liberal American state of Wisconsin and other areas of America, yet most of us would agree that the Tunisian-Egyptian revolutions are being felt far and wide and appear to be dramatically gaining steam. Lebanon's Palestinian refugees camps are no exceptions.
There Are No Humanitarian Weapons - biggest lie of these days .THE GRADING OF KILLING METHODS IN SYRIA. as if Chemical Weapons are worse than Conventional Weapons, From ImagesAttr
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, September 4, 2013
Which Americans will arrive first to Syria? The Action Plan concludes: "We cannot necessarily stop them from doing what they intend to do, but we can make their aggression harm them far more than Syria and its people in the end. Herein lays the power, using the enemies momentum against him in the most powerful way possible.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, January 26, 2013
US-led Sanctions Contribute to the Destruction of Syria's Millenary History I left the UNESCO office sort of crestfallen. Not because of the lady's roughness with me, but rather because of the realization, yet once again, that our species quite simply does not learn much from history and apparently will repeat it until the end of times. May God protect the people, everywhere, from the politicians.
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, May 19, 2013
UN General Assembly vote reflects shift in Syrian public opinion Over the past four months it has become increasingly clear that public opinion in Syria is shifting for reasons that include the following: While inflation at the grocery stores in probably the most common complaint heard from a cross-section of society here, the population is adapting somewhat to higher prices and it appears to credit the government for efforts control inflation and reduce the impanct of US sanctions
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, December 31, 2012
Will Syria Go on the Offensive at The Hague? Moreover, unilateral US sanctions, without the imprimatur of the United Nations are blatantly illegal under International Law because they are in fact multilateral and impose penalties on any country which opposes the sanctions or does not choose to participate in them;
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, October 6, 2013
Four Decades after the Tishrin" War Self-Delusion Commenting on the report's claim that Israel is now better off strategically than at any time in its history, the military analyst for the Ma'ariv newspaper, Amir Rapaport, observed wryly that "the last time we boasted that things were never better was in the autumn of 1973."
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, May 26, 2014
Syria's Palestinian Refugees to Lebanon But time is short and refugees have few friends in Lebanon these days. A five minute phone call from the White House or Tehran to their respective surrogates could fix the problem for these students for whom the opportunity to educate themselves is a birthright.
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, December 16, 2012
Syrian Students Condemn American-Led Sanctions that are inflating food prices" Damascus Street Notes The results of a student-led survey of grocery stores in Damascus, completed on 12/12/12, shows the following increases in food prices that citizens here must pay against the backdrop of current unemployment figures currently estimated by economists as being between 40-60 percent of the population.
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, July 14, 2011
France Says NATO Bombing Has Failed Since the beginning of the NATO operation (3/31/11) the alliance has conducted nearly 15,000 sorties, including close to 6000 bombing missions according to NATO's media office in Naples, Italy ( oup.media@gmail.com ). The most recent attacks reported on 7/9/11 included 112 sorties and 48 bomb/missile attacks, and that is about average.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, November 24, 2011
Will the UN insist on Fair Trials for Ex-Regime Loyalists in Libya? Ocampo's challenge will be to explain the legal steps to officials in Tripoli, and try to convince them that The Hague is the better option for the coming trials. Ultimately, it is up to the ICC judges backed by the UN whether to hand over the cases against Saif al Islam and Abdullah al Senussi to the NTC.
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, November 27, 2012
How the Hamas Victory in Gaza Can Bring Civil Rights to Palestinians in Lebanon Indeed, if these forces will generate the political will, no more than 90 minutes of Lebanon's Parliamentary time will be required to truly make the victory in Gaza historic while at the same time lifting the shame off Lebanon for its massive violations of international and Lebanese laws by granting Palestinian refugees the most elementary civil right to work and to own a home.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, February 11, 2014
A Faux “Humanitarian Pause” in Homs? It appears certain that in the coming few days the intentions of both sides will become clearer with respect to the Geneva process and their willingness to allow full humanitarian aid into Homs and the evacuation of those who want to exit the Old City.
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, February 10, 2013
US officials confess to targeting Iran's civilian population "It would be a defense lawyer's worst nightmare wouldn't it? I mean to have one's clients, in this case the Vice-President of the United States and the outgoing Secretary of state confess so publicly to serial international crimes against a civilian population?"
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, March 31, 2014
Palmyrenes: Risking their lives to preserve our Global Cultural Heritage Syria's Cultural Heritage, the cultural heritage of every one of us is also protected by a legal penumbra that emanates from and extends the 1949 Geneva Convention (IV) on the Protection of Civilians. Attacks on cultural heritage are also outlawed by post WW II bilateral and multilateral international treaties as well as international customary law.
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, December 10, 2010
Should "Embassy Beirut" Take a "Time Out"? Barring new revelations or overt actions by the Embassy that green-light another Israeli aggression against Lebanon, some here believe that the US Embassy may well be closed down, and experience an imposed "time out" which, in the case of the US Embassy in Tehran, has lasted for 30 years.
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, September 15, 2013
"Go Tell It on the Mountain, From the Peaks of Qasioun!" One is Alaa, a United States social history buff, who, to my great enjoyment, sang a resistance song she is writing, asking me my opinion. The song is adapted from the Afro-American spiritual classic, written by John Wesley Work, Jr. "Go Tell It on the Mountain, From the Peaks of Qasioun and Everywhere; Go Shout It out from Adam's Cave-- Where Syria's Blessed Resistance Was Born!"
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, October 24, 2010
Lebanon's Palestinian Civil Rights Campaign moves into the Christian heartland Even though not even one work permit has been issued to one Palestinian in Lebanon since the August 17, 2010 "right to work" law passed in Parliament and even though Palestinians are still forbidden from owning a home, the cause of Palestine Civil Rights in Lebanon endures.
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, July 22, 2011
Feltman brandishes the Dahiyeh Doctrine but seeks a fig leaf Libyan civilians have learned a thing or two from three decades of Lebanon's experience with Israel's five wars against that Levant country. Indeed NATO is using the same bombing, media, political and diplomatic strategy in Libya that Israel employed most recently in Lebanon during its 33 day July 2006 war.
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, July 6, 2010
If Palestinians are granted the right to work If Palestinians are granted the right to work Lebanon wins
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, July 28, 2014
Solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza begins in Lebanon's Camps Gaza isn't the only open-air prison; Lebanon has 12 of its own. And the people there are denied the most elementary right to apply for a job in more than 50 professions.
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, August 9, 2013
Vows of "Occupation Until Martyrdom' Jihadists are entering Syria at an accelerating pace, according to Syrian, UNWRA, and Palestinian officials as well as residents in the refugee camps here. For the now-estimated 7000 imported foreign fighters, Palestinian camps are seen as optimal locales for setting up bases across Syria.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, August 17, 2013
Targeting Hezbollah in Beirut One of the more than two hundred active militias in Syria, which calls itself the Company of Aisha Umm al-Muminin (named for the Prophet Mohammed's favorite wife) is additionally claiming responsibility, while several other Syrian rebel groups, some with members now in Lebanon, have issued threats against Hezbollah and vowed to target it.
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, April 9, 2014
Will a Syrian victory at a posh London auction house accelerate Global Cultural Protections? This observer submits that there is adequate Syrian law and international law and British law on the books, if applied, to makes things a bit tough legally for the auction houses of Bonham and Christie and many others. Their lawyers apparently agree. It's as though the Assyrian King might yet exact some sort of revenge on them from his grave.
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, July 25, 2013
Livni Squeals, Kerry Deals and the EU Picks Up the Tab Ms. Livni demanded three things from Kerry as the "price tag' of the Israeli government going thru the motions of appearing to be willing to resume negotiations and to state publicly that Israel will consider some sort of slow-down or temporary "time-out' for the frenzied construction project on the West Bank.
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Perceptions of the Syrian uprising from Shatila camp Shocked by what he was witnessing of his Palestinian neighbors squatting wherever they could find some vacant ground, often in appalling conditions, and unable to complete his original mission, Bisher focused on helping his countrymen as best he could.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, October 20, 2012
Damascus Street Notes Claims are made in Washington and Europe that the increasing layers of sanctions target only the regime's leader and its policies. This is nonsense. As in Iraq where US organized sanctions have been found to be a main cause of nearly 500,000 deaths of children, those seriously affected here are not the government officials.
(7 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, December 1, 2012
An historic victory for Palestine-another rejection of Occupation The UN action, which was backed by an overwhelm majority of UN members with a lopsided vote of 138 to 9, may well force the Zionist regime to seriously consider a just peaceful resolution of the conflict.
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, November 18, 2012
Does Lebanon Really Want to Solve the Imam Musa Sadr Mystery? "It is not too late to re-energize the moribund Sadr-Yaacoub-Badr Eddine inquiry employing proven and widely available investigative techniques. It's a question of whether there exists the political will on the Lebanese side."
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, November 18, 2013
Because it Exists Why Ain al Hilweh? According to recent UNRWA-funded study and various recent estimates, school-dropout rates across Lebanon for Palestinian refugee children ten years and older average more than 40%, or ten times that of Lebanese children (CSUCS, 2007).
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, April 4, 2011
They came, they saw and now it's time to act The Palestinian Return Centre (PRC), in partnership with the Council for European Palestinian Relations (CEPR) sponsored a delegation of British and EU MEPs to the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon several weeks ago and the 10 member delegation has just released their findings.
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, February 21, 2011
Tawtin or Return: Divergent views from Lebanon, but one common goal Lebanese opponents of civil rights for Palestinian Refugees often use less objective and more crude wording to define "tawtin" ("settlement") than is normally employed in civil society discussions. During last summer's debate in parliament, which failed to enact laws that would allow the world's oldest and largest refugee community the basic civil right to work and to own a home,
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, December 9, 2012
Lebanese politicians continue playing the Palestinians "Let us commit to ensuring that these disparities are addressed and that no Palestinian child is left behind because of where she or he happens to live or because of the situation of her or his family," she added.
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Lebanon scatters a little chicken feed and labels it "manna from heaven" Lebanon scatters a little chicken feed and labels it "manna from heaven."
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, March 7, 2011
Has the Lebanon Tribunal drama become farce? It appears that any pretense of progress via dialogue over the past few years is now discarded and it's once again an all-out struggle between the U.S. backed March 14th minority and the new majority, March 8th alliance.
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, January 19, 2013
Shedding Crocodile Tears While Collaborating With US-Led Sanctions The Organization of Islamic Cooperation suspended Syria's membership on 5/15/12 at a summit of Muslim leaders in Mecca. Saudi Arabia, the summit's host, has led all Arab League and OIC calls for the Syrian rebel opposition to be armed, which Foreign Minister Saud al-Fasial described in February and since as "an excellent idea."
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, August 9, 2010
What's going on in Lebanon's Parliament this Summer? What's going on in Lebanon's Parliament this Summer? Anyone really serious about allowing Palestinians their civil rights?
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, May 23, 2013
How Lebanon's Palestinians Are Being Pulled Into Syria's War This single act by Lebanon's Parliament, would help repair Shia-Sunni relations globally and would dampen down -- and expose for what they are, the extremist Salafist-jihadist-Wahhabist incitements to religious hatred, both intra-Muslim and Muslim-Christian. It would also, according to several Palestinian NGO's working in Lebanon, keep Palestinians out of the Syrian conflict.
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Why there won't be a ceasefire this Eid al Adha in Syria Perhaps it's impolite since Eid is still days away and UN envoy Brahimi might still pull a rabbit out of the hat, but this observer must reluctantly conclude that Brahimi has failed in his mission. Substantial evidence is garnered from discussions here over the past several days. Would that I be mistaken.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, April 22, 2013
When Will We Ever Learn? It is certainly appropriate to honor the victims of the 1983 US Embassy bombing but it is no less appropriate to honor the other tragedies in Lebanon during this period under review that precipitated it. In her closing remarks this week, Ambassador Connelly noted that in her opinion, "the bombing of the US Embassy taught us the stakes of involvement in this region." Has it?
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, June 10, 2012
Expelling Diplomats undermines the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and needlessly endangers Americans The civilized world kicking out Syrian diplomats was to be the thin reed of straw that would certainly break the camel's back in Damascus' Presidential Palace.
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, December 31, 2012
Political Grinches Stealing Christmas From Palestinian and Syrian Refugees Perhaps as a student, the Minister was absent from school the day when his teacher in his sectarian school was explaining that the monks of St Maron, who founded the Church in Antioch by the Orontes River, were persecuted by the Monophysites but given sanctuary by the Syrians, including many Muslims.
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, July 23, 2012
Now's not the time for Hezbollah to cut and run The decision of Hezbollah to participate in Lebanese politics and government was the right decision when it was debated and decided in 1992 and it remains even more so today.
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, May 28, 2013
Will the EU again Target the Civilian Population of Syria? The practice of targeting a civilian population by outsiders in order to achieve political objectives such as regime change is fast heading for the dustbin of history given its blatant violation of all norms of international humanitarian law and common decency reflected in the values most societies.
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Sanctioning messenger Dr. Bouthainia Shaaban assaults American values According to State Department spokesman, Victoria Nuland, who two US Senate Foreign Relations Committee staffers speculate may view Dr. Shaaban as a rival of sorts given their job descriptions, and Dr. Shaaban's stellar performances during meetings with US officials both in the US and Syria, the explanation for blacklisting a media advisor remains: "She (Dr. Shaaban) has served as the public mouthpiece for the repression of
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, September 12, 2012
The Pope and the Palestinians Metaphorically speaking, perhaps for some who have actively worked to deny Palestinian refugees in Lebanon even the most fundamental human rights, this courageous act could be seen as a sort of " Full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation and satisfaction" as described in the first Book of Common Prayer, 1549.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, December 23, 2012
Is Yamouk headed for the same fate as Nahr al Bared? Over the past ten weeks of intermittent shelling of the camp, more than 40 residents have been killed and each of the Yarmouks 28 schools, six hospitals and 15 mosques have been damaged. The Palestine Red Crescent Society has lost ten ambulances from various rockets and RPG's.
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, December 1, 2011
Lebanon's Palestinians continue their descent on the 64th anniversary of UN Resolution 181 Following Israel's unilateral declaration of independence in 1948, it accelerated the land grab strategy to secure an absolute Jewish majority. The Zionists assailed, depopulated, and occupied an additional thirty per cent of the land which had been designated for the future Palestinian state under the UN plan.
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Marie Colvin (1956-2012) "You hear all this talk about the meaning of the media, the need for integrity etc etc," she said during a November 2010, talk at London's St Bride's Church -- the on Fleet Street at an event to honor fallen journalists. "But isn't it quite simple? You just try to find out the truth of what's going on and report it the best way you can. And because we are kind of romantic, our sympathy goes towards the underdog."
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, April 14, 2013
How Damascene Jews hope to return".. to normalcy The path to internal civil peace for Syria, and likely the region, in the view of Damascene Jews, as well as others in Syria seeking a return to normalcy, emphasize the following points.
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, April 1, 2013
Who's Playing with the Imam Sadr Case and Why? Meanwhile, trying to involve Palestinians in the disappearance of the revered Lebanese trio, simply because they are an easy target these days and are trying to stay on the sidelines of the Sunni-Shia strife is a disservice to every Palestinian everywhere. And it sidetracks the pursuit of truth and justice for the Musa Sadr case which is in need of more cooperation from all concerned.
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, January 12, 2013
"Mr. Obama, Tear Down These sanctions!" As a result of the sanctions, food prices have soared beyond the means of much of the Syrian civilian population. Too many of the young, old, infirm, and impoverished are dying monthly, according to Nizar, an English literature major, as a direct and foreseeable consequence of these sanctions.
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, March 22, 2012
How Many Violations of US Arms Laws are Too Many? The US / Israel lobby accurately considers American arms control laws as meaningless. The prohibitions against Israel's use of American weapons against civilians have not, are not and in all likelihood will never be enforced against Israel given the regime's continuing occupation of much of the US government.
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, August 1, 2013
The morning after blacklisting Hezbollah: is the EU experiencing "buyer's remorse'? The best move for the EU now, as it tries to recover from the current self-inflicted debacle is to do nothing to inflame the situation by cooking up some dubious terrorist lists. Rather, in six months the EU should assure that this month's blacklisting decision acquiesced in under US-Israel pressure, lapses.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, January 9, 2013
Bashar Assad's night out at the Opera House "Who is here so rude or unpatriotic that would not be a Syrian nationalist? "- Who is here so vile that will not love his country? If any, speak--for him I have not intentionally or unjustly wronged. I pause for a reply."
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, December 27, 2011
* A Tale of Two Squares and Two Movements In Abbasiya Square close to Noor Mosque, the attitudes and trappings are in opposition to what has been happening in Tahrir Square. Same souvenirs, candy, caps with the Egyptian flag on them, T-shirts, face painting, but with a different political message.
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, January 8, 2013
Will the Al-Nusrah Front Announce an Islamic Emirate for Yarmouk Palestinian Camp? Some fleeing Palestinians refugees at the Maznaa crossing mention that they fear that AL-Qaeda affiliates are taking over Yarmouk camp and want to establish an Islamic Emirate.
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, April 11, 2013
When Yarmouk camp fled to Shatila Today however, 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.
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, February 4, 2013
Syria's first line of Defense: Dial 133 One wonders if, given the process the past few weeks of sanctions having the opposite of intended results, that foreign governments may now be realizing they might have committed some "assessment errors" in Syria and, in reassessing their objectives, may now be willing to come to the negotiating table.
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Despite the multifaceted crisis facing Syria and the Civilian-Targeting US Sanctions, Damascus University excels Few food or medicine suppliers -- given the sanctions' language, the meanings of which is uncertain even for their own lawyers, some of whom have declared it incomprehensible -- want to risk the wrath of the US Treasury Department and be slapped with severe penalties including very expensive fines by dealing with anyone in Syria.

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