A place to post and discuss news related to the recent events in Israel, including the Hamas/Islamic Jihad incursion and repercussions.
Rumor is Assad was on the last flight out of Damascus, further unconfirmed rumor is that that flight crashed, i.e. has a series of weird turns, altitude loss, and then vanished from flight radar.
If he was on that flight then he is both an idiot and deceased.
I'm sure all of the news programs will talk about how it's sad that he's dead because he had kids.
Crazy, that what was a 13-year stalled civil war ended in about 1 week of renewed fighting!
It really is though. This was a frozen conflict for years, and literally within a week, Assad's regime has fallen.
so embarrassing that assad went to russia and russia was like heyyyyyy sorry i missed your text i was asleep
Robear wrote:The Soviets did it.
Did they though?
This.
They had a collection of ships they called "navies" but we have zero examples of them effectively projecting power other than that one time they put nukes on their adversary's doorstep and almost Thanos'd humanity because one of their dumb f*ck captains (and the political officer!) thought they should launch their nuclear torpedo.
So, yeah. Shortest books in history: Great Soviet Naval Victories, right alongside Ancient Egyptian Space Travels.
WizKid wrote:Rumor is Assad was on the last flight out of Damascus, further unconfirmed rumor is that that flight crashed, i.e. has a series of weird turns, altitude loss, and then vanished from flight radar.
If he was on that flight then he is both an idiot and deceased.
Was a dude in a coat caught flirting with an attendant at the airport on or around the time of this flight?
The NY Post focuses on the hard-hitting stories:
“May Allah forgive you, you ruined our morning with this sight,” one woman commented in response to the photograph.
Reports indicate Assad's in Moscow.
I wonder how many windows are in Assad's suite?
Assad is in Moscow after fleeing Syria and will be given asylum, Russian state media report
Moscow is trying to find a language and continue a dialogue with Syria's new leadership, and its future relationship with them.
Russia's big concern is the fate of its two military bases - the Hmeimim air base and a naval facility at Tartus, both on the coast - both of which have given Moscow a foothold in the eastern Mediterranean in the last few years.
Even though Moscow had supported Bashar al-Assad for nine years and sent him military assistance to shore him up and keep him in power, now that he's been toppled, Russia is trying to find a dialogue with the new leadership in Syria.
Russia is now stressing that all along they have wanted a political settlement of this crisis.
What's interesting here is that until very recently, the Russian media was referring to what it's calling the "armed opposition in Syria" as "terrorists". That word has gone out of reporting here and they are now being called the "armed opposition" or "opposition".
Sounds like Putin may be in "let's make a deal" mode. "Hey, terr-, I mean, opposition? We want to keep our bases, and we have someone you might be interested in. Want us to deliver to your doorstep, or just chuck him out the window and save you the trouble?"
I wonder how many windows are in Assad's suite?
Putin's keeping him on ice until Trump can send the US military in to put Assad back in power.
Assad is in Moscow after fleeing Syria and will be given asylum, Russian state media report
Also, hey, looks like Putin isn't against asylum for migrants from the Middle East after all!
Israel strikes hundreds of military targets in Syria
I saw Bibi taking credit for the Syrian revolution yesterday. Really loving this world where all the most awful people are in charge.
EDIT: We should also note, journalists are being welcomed into Syria, and not a single one has been allowed into Gaza.
Israeli warplanes have intensified an air offensive in Syria, striking hundreds of military targets and destroying entire squadrons of fighters, radar and missile systems, missile stores and much of the small Syrian navy.
The strikes came as Israeli troops consolidated their hold on a demilitarised zone in Syria east of the occupied Golan Heights and seized a strip of mountainous territory extending northwards.
Images from the Mediterranean port of Latakia posted on social media and broadcast by local TV networks showed the charred wreckage of at least six warships sunk or badly damaged.
The Israeli airstrikes began in the hours after the collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s regime last weekend and have also targeted what Israel says are suspected chemical weapons and long-range rockets.
Israel’s defence minister, Israel Katz, said during a visit to a naval base in Haifa: “The IDF [Israel Defense Forces] has been operating in Syria in recent days to strike and destroy strategic capabilities that threaten the state of Israel. The navy operated … to destroy the Syrian fleet with great success.”
He said Israeli troops had been deployed to Syria to create a “sterile defence zone free of weapons and terrorist threats”.
On Sunday, Benjamin Netanyahu said Israeli forces were moving to control a roughly 155 sq mile (400 sq km) buffer zone in Syrian territory. Hours later, Israeli media reported that Israeli troops had established positions along the Syrian side of Mount Hermon, to the north of the Golan Heights.
An Israeli military official admitted on Tuesday that Israel had advanced beyond the buffer zone, saying its troops had seized “some other points”, but he denied reports of Israeli troops heading deeper into Syria.
“IDF forces are not advancing towards Damascus. This is not something we are doing or pursuing in any way,” Lt Col Nadav Shoshani, a military spokesperson, said at a briefing. The Syrian capital is 25 miles from Israeli troops’ positions.
“We are not involved in what’s happening in Syria internally, we are not a side in this conflict and we do not have any interest other than protecting our borders and the security of our citizens,” Shoshani said.
Israeli troops also now control a long stretch on the Syrian side facing Lebanon’s Rashaya region, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Beirut-based Al-Mayadeen TV, which has reporters in Syria. The new Israeli positions on the Syrian side of the 2,814-metre (9,000ft) Mount Hermon offer a prized vantage point.
Israel occupied much of the Golan Heights during the 1967 war. The buffer zone was established in the aftermath of the 1973 Yom Kippur war, which started when Egypt and Syria launched a surprise attack on Israel.
The Times of Israel reported that Israeli officials now considered void the agreement establishing the buffer zone, and that Israeli soldiers may end up holding their new positions inside Syria “for a long time, depending on the developments in the country”.
Egypt, Qatar and Saudi Arabia have condemned Israel’s incursion, accusing it of exploiting the disarray in Syria and violating international law.
Turkey’s foreign ministry said in a statement: “We strongly condemn Israel’s violation of the 1974 separation of forces agreement, its entry into the separation zone between Israel and Syria and its advance into Syrian territory.”
The ministry accused Israel of “displaying a mentality of an occupier” at a time when the possibility of peace and stability had emerged in Syria. The statement also reiterated Turkey’s support for Syria’s “sovereignty, political unity and territorial integrity”.
The UN’s special envoy to Syria, Geir Pedersen, told Israel that its airstrikes and ground invasion into Syrian territory had to stop and said its actions were in violation of the 1974 agreement.
A spokesperson for the UN secretary general, António Guterres, said: “We’re against these types of attacks. I think this is a turning point for Syria. It should not be used by its neighbours to encroach on the territory of Syria.”
The fall of the Assad regime has prompted a scramble for power, influence or other strategic advantages among regional powers hoping to exploit the chaos or seeking to head off potential dangers.
The White House spokesperson John Kirby said on Tuesday that US officials were in close contact with Israeli officials and Syrian opposition groups. He said Joe Biden was staying fully briefed by his national security team and that his national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, was travelling to Israel on Wednesday.
Kirby said the US was not involved in any Israeli operations in Syria, and Israel had made clear these were “temporary measures to ensure their own security”. He said the US wanted to ensure that the Syrian people were able to determine their future and that there was a Syrian-led evolution toward “better and more representative governance”.
Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 six-day war and annexed it in 1981 in a move not recognised by the international community, except for the US.
The rest of the world views the strategically important plateau as occupied Syrian territory.
Israel had an uneasy but stable relationship with the Assad regime, with security officials broadly convinced that the authoritarian Syrian ruler had been deterred from any attacks on Israel.
A key objective of Israel is to deny Iran the opportunity to rebuild its influence in Syria after the fall of its key ally and to prevent any supplies sent by Tehran from reaching Hezbollah, the Iran-backed Islamist militant movement in Lebanon.
See, the problem is, really... overthrowing Assad is the easy part.
Like I said, the revolution will be the easy part.
Yup. There has been zero investment in institutions that have or are even willing to earn the public trust in Syria. The government bureaucracy is corrupt, the military has disbanded, the press was destroyed decades ago, the education system is politicized, and the religious institutions are all radicalized and controlled by malicious foreign interests. There is simply no circumstance where regular Syrians can get reliable information, organize for collective action, petition for redress, or self correct for mistakes. The conditions for democratic self governance simply do not exist. What does exist is the prerequisites for factional violence and civil conflict.
edit: The reason we are seeing democratic movements in places like Georgia and Ukraine is not an accident. It is the result of the concerted effort of NGOs, dedicated locals, and pro-democracy individuals doing the hard work to create cultures of accountability. Anti-corruption organizations and movements, extremely brave journalists, education reformers, opposition political parties, and the tireless work of organizations like the Open Society Foundation have been working without rest for over 20 years to dismantle the mechanism of Soviet oppression and civic apathy. And in that sense, Ukraine, Poland, The Baltics, Georgia, Taiwan, and Korea are far more INVESTED in their own democracies than we are. We, in particular, have neglected our institutions and have allowed venal oligarchs to erode them with poisonous cynicism and the result has been predictable. We are well on our way to our own Assad regime.
Uh-huh.
Inside the Russian airbase in Syria where troops form fragile truce with rebels they once bombed
Standing at the gates of the Khmeimim airbase, a fighter from the Islamist rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) eyed a pink vape being puffed on by a Russian soldier. Catching his gaze, the soldier offered it to him. The bearded fighter took a drag and shrugged, giving a thumbs up to the Russian soldier, who let him keep it.
Just over a week ago, Russian jets taking off from Khmeimim airbase were heading to northern Syria to drop bombs on rebel groups. This week, Russians are negotiating with the same factions, now in control of the country after their 12-day lightning offensive that toppled the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad.
“We don’t feel unsafe, we are hoping to make friendly relations with the new government as soon as it becomes a legitimate government,” said a representative of the Russian military, who allowed the Guardian rare access to the Khmeimim airbase on Sunday. The representative said communications with HTS started a week ago to coordinate military affairs between Russian forces in Syria and the country’s new leaders.
“Neither side is making provocations and things have been fine,” the Russian military representative said, as he gestured to boxes of humanitarian aid and Russian ministry of defence-branded backpacks, which they said were a gift from Russia to the Syrian people.
HTS fighters guarded the gates of the airbase as Russian Mig fighter jets took off. “We used to be scared whenever we would hear the sound of a Russian jet – now it’s become normal,” Abu Khaled, a 26-year-old HTS fighter guarding the airbase said. Outside, Russian soldiers still milled about the town of Khmeimim, shopping at stores whose signs were written in Cyrillic.
Russian forces first entered Syria in 2015 when Assad requested their military assistance against opposition forces, which he had been fighting since Syria’s 2011 revolution. Now their presence in Syria has been called into question as the opposition take the reins of power.
I promise I won't move the football this time! You can trust me!
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