The reality of the East stronger than the colonialists

By Ghaleb Kandil

The reality of the East stronger than the colonialists

The Iraq invasion and occupation war was among the most costly wars for the American empire, as its economic and financial losses were estimated at trillions of dollars, and resulted in the death, wounding and displacement of millions of Iraqis and the fall of thousands of American and British soldiers among other multinational troops mobilized by George W Bush’s administration on the land of this Arab country. Senior economic analysts considered that this cost of this war was at the heart of the global financial and economic crisis which swept the industrial West, despite the size of the fierce pillaging of Iraq’s oil wealth by the occupation.

The colonial war that shook the world and with which the empire launched its failed project to reshape the Middle East and draw up new international equations that would impose unilateral American hegemony over the world, ended with a resounding defeat. It came against the course of history, against the logic of human life and against the accumulated human values. This is why the occupation forces had to leave Iraqi while defeated in the face of the honorable resistance launched by the Iraqi people, one which could not be mutilated or soiled with Takfiri terrorism – which is the produce of the American ties with the Wahhabi devil since the Afghan war in the eighties - despite all the attempts deployed for that end.

During the last couple of weeks, and on the beat of Syria’s steadfastness in the face of the global war led by the United States, the East witnessed a new Iraqi transformation confirming the authenticity of the historical changes induced by the populations and the independence and resistance movements opposed to colonial hegemony. Indeed, the tour conducted by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki witnessed the signing of a number of deals with Russia and the Czech Republic, in addition to the previous understandings and cooperation agreements sealed with Iraq. During this tour, the political defiance brandished by Al-Maliki emerged in the face of the arrogance of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, i.e. Washington and NATO’s main ally in the war on Syria, against the backdrop of the repeated interferences in and aggressions against Iraq. These developments allowed the materialization of a reality, saying that Iraq – which was liberated from the American occupier – is assuming its position at the heart of the East, based on the choices of its people and its short and long term interests, in a way opposing the American will. This is especially true, taking into consideration the fact that the global war on Syria via death squads affiliated with NATO and the international Takfir factions, constituted a desperate attempt to revive the New Middle East project which collapsed in the July 2006 war in Lebanon.

On the eve of the American withdrawal from Iraq, the American and Israeli circles specialized in policy-making to set up the restraints and measures that would prevent Iraq from engaging in an alliance with Syria and Iran, became extremely preoccupied. This in itself marked a historical continuation of the Western colonial principle which governed the region in accordance with the British plan since 1948, one relying on the necessity of excluding the Iraqi economic military and scientific strength from the Eastern front of the Arab-Israeli conflict, i.e. far away from Syria and consequently from Iran since the victory of the revolution which toppled the regime of the Shah, Israel’s most important ally in the region.

This British principle is the one that led to the use of the Iraqi power to deplete the Iranian revolution, and is the actual foundation of the provocation of Iraqi hostility toward the Syrian command since the seventies of last century. Hence, the West used the consecutive Iraqi governments for decades, in the context of a plan to deplete the Syrian state’s capabilities, with disputes and standoffs that obstructed the completion of the Eastern front. Following all the experiences and historical events witnessed in Iraqi throughout more than half a century, it is now choosing its position in the bloc of independence and liberation, alongside Iran and Syria and in partnership with Russia and the global axis opposed to hegemony. It would be difficult to expect the leaders of the Western colonial governments to draw the lessons, and it is likely they will repeat the same mistake again. This is due to the fact that wolves do not change their skins or relinquish their fangs and claws.

Lebanese Affairs.

Lebanese sides concerned about Israel’s morale?

The ugly face of the Lebanese political and media practices – often dubbed “the game” by those carrying them out to cover up for their lack of moral values and national principles – has emerged via the controversy launched by the March 14 forces while commenting on the speech delivered by leader of the Lebanese resistance, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, in regard to the reconnaissance aircraft which provoked a strategic earthquake inside the Zionist entity.

Firstly, any official, leader or president is entitled to have his viewpoint and reading into whichever event, behavior or position. However, in respectable states, the announcement of these positions has specific arenas and frameworks, to avoid affecting defense and national security consideration and offering services to the enemy. Moreover, the Lebanese constitution and the Lebanese Penal Code prevent anyone from undermining the morale of the Lebanese people, mentioning the term “nation” in clear reference to the incrimination of any moral or political service provided to the enemy and serving this enemy through its impact on the balance of powers in times of war. Subsequently, any boost to the enemy’s morale by Lebanese citizens is a crime punishable by law.

Secondly, the main event represented by the unmanned drone, which was able to fly for a long time in the skies of occupied Palestine, constituted a strategic development occurring for the first time in the history of the Zionist entity. In that sense, this is major and decisive accomplishment secured by the Lebanese resistance, with the sole purpose of immunizing Lebanon’s sovereignty and adding a new and modern element to the air deterrence equation established by the resistance to protect Lebanon. Within the context of the calculations of psychological war solely, and regardless of the calculations related to military balance, this step ought to lift the morale of the nation in times of war, while its questioning, downplaying or provocation of unfounded fears over it, ought to undermine the moral of the nation in times of war, or undermine its strength.

Thirdly, if the Zionist enemy itself panicked due to the resistance’s successful completion of this step, any opposite Lebanese action serves the enemy, as it downplays the importance of this development at the level of the enemy’s capabilities, which equals collaboration with the enemy at the expense of the country. Logically, it would be difficult to describe the March 14 campaign in any other way, knowing it featured numerous pretexts as it is usually the case, ranging between the talk about Israel’s provocation and about granting it excuses to attack Lebanon. The main speakers at this level are people involved in previous connections and collaboration with the enemy, and enjoy a history filled with services they offered to the enemy, the first and last of which was not the tea party at the Marjeyoun barrack.

Fourthly, the Lebanese sometimes find excuses for such positions, but using the pretext of domestic disputes. In reality, this is no longer enough to understand and explain the confirmed facts, i.e. that we are in the presence of a Lebanese team determined to liquidate the resistance and get rid of it at any price, in order to link Lebanon to the wheel of American-Israeli hegemony and its Middle Eastern system, and that this has nothing to do with an alleged concern not to give the enemy excuses or to a special vision for formulas having nothing to do with the resistance and its approach in defending the country.

It would have been understandable to see Saad al-Hariri or Samir Geagea requesting an urgent national dialogue meeting or to see some officials calling on the Cabinet to discuss the ways to benefit from this qualitative transformation to prevent the ongoing Israeli violations of Lebanese airspace. But the disgusting paradox is that the resistance was blamed for its accomplishment which was dubbed a provocation, at a time when the parties involved the immoral political game were not provoked by a thousand Israeli airspace violation since the ratification of Resolution 1701, and did not bother carry out any serious action to stop this aggression, seek the acquisition of air defense systems for the army or exert serious pressures on Israel’s supporters among their friends to get it to stop these breaches.

News analysis.

By Nasser Kandil

Al-Arabiya’s documents

Question: Can passports and currencies be falsified and go undetected by the most powerful devices?

Answer: Of course. If this is not the case, why is Interpol still in business, developing detection machines and allocating billions to fight falsification and pursue the falsifiers?

Question: So why does Al-Arabiya channel want us to believe that the so-called documents it presented are authentic without anyone examining them?

Answer: And without presenting one original paper, rather photocopies, which prevents the examination of the quality of the paper and the confirmation of the authenticity of the seals and signatures. A man told Al-Arabiya he was from the opposition, that his name was Adnan al-Rachid and has been working for the Saudi intelligence apparatuses since he was young, worked on the fabrication of these papers with a dozen of boys and dubbed them leaked documents. That is all there is to it.

For example, the document was said to have been issued by the external apparatus in the Presidential Palace. But any child who checks it can see that the paper’s header reads “The Syrian Arab Republic – Presidential Palace – External Security Apparatus,” while the official papers in Syria read “The Syrian Arab Republic – Presidency of the Republic.” Indeed, there are no papers on which it is written “the presidential palace” and there is nothing called the external apparatus, rather the General Intelligence Branch which is not affiliated with the presidency of the republic.

Enough with the attempts to implicate names and give them tasks, such as the assignment of General Hafez Makhlouf with the transfer of missiles, the assignment of a lieutenant to travel and form operations rooms and Hezbollah’s assignment to kill the Turkish pilots, at a time when the Turks responded by saying that what was said in the document about the killing of the pilots was a mere lie, and were backed in that up by the Americans based on the autopsy.

Enough with the extremely short anchorwoman’s suffocation as she was trying to convince us about the authenticity of Al-Arabiya’s leaked documents. Lies continue to be lies, even if the reader’s veins explode with enthusiasm.

Arab File.

Syria.

On the field, the Syrian regular troops are continuing to raid the dens and strongholds of the terrorist groups in several areas. The Syrian television said in this context that the Syrian armed forces “imposed security over large parts of Al-Khalidiya neighborhood in Homs, and are pursuing the terrorist remnants in its remaining parts.” It is worth mentioning at this level that this neighborhood is considered to be one main strongholds of the opposition fighters. In the meantime, the British BBC channel mentioned that an arms shipment which was supposed to go to the Saudi army was transferred to the armed oppositionists in Aleppo. Hence, the channel’s correspondent saw shipments dispatched by a weapons company, and were supposed to be delivered to Saudi Arabia, in a base used by the armed opposition elements in the city of Aleppo. He thus concluded that it was clear that a Gulf side was seriously helping the armed men seeking the toppling of President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

On the other hand, Damascus responded to the statements of Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutogly regarding Syrian Vice President Farouk al-Sharaa’s assumption of the chairmanship of a transitional government in Syria, by saying that these statements reflected political and diplomatic troubles and confusion. It added: “Turkey is not the Ottoman Empire and the Turkish Foreign Ministry does not name its Walis in Damascus, Mecca, Cairo and Jerusalem.”

For his part, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov believed that the European Union was following in the American footsteps at the level of the unilateral sanctions against Syria and Iran, assuring that this did not go in line with the principles of partnership and cooperation between Russia and the European Union. In the meantime, American President Barack Obama ordered the tightening of the sanctions on Syria and Iran on the financial and economic levels.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki announced that Russia and Iraq agreed to deploy efforts to prevent the instigation of foreign intervention in Middle Eastern affairs and in Syria. Following his talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Al-Maliki said: “The two sides agreed to stay away from such scenarios which affect the settlement of the crisis in Syria, and reject any foreign intervention in Syrian affairs, while supporting the mission of the new United Nations Envoy to Syria.”

In Turkey, fighter jets forced a Syrian commercial plane coming from Moscow to land in Ankara to be searched, due to suspicions surrounding its cargo. Following this incident, the Syrian Foreign Ministry issued a statement in which it assured that the Turkish authorities forced a Syrian commercial plan to land at the Ankara Airport to be searched, and that after many hours, the plane which was not carrying an illicit freight was allowed to leave the airport. The Ministry considered that this hostile and condemned Turkish behavior constituted yet another sign for the hostile policy adopted by Erdogan’s government, taking into account its training, harboring and facilitation of the infiltration of terrorist elements and its bombardment of the Syrian territories. The Ministry concluded its statement by saying: “While we condemn this hostile behavior by the Turkish government, this will not prevent us from holding on to the friendship between the Syrian and Turkish people, which is greater and much more important than any government.”

In light of this incident, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced on Thursday it asked Ankara for clarifications, regarding the reasons behind the interception of the Syrian plane. It also accused Turkey of “putting the lives of its Russian passengers at risk,” denying the existence of any weapons on the plane.

Palestine.

A Palestinian was killed and ten others wounded – including five children – in an Israeli raid which targeted the Rafah area in the Southern part of the Gaza Strip last Sunday night. Hamas and the Islamic Jihad responded to the attack by launching more than 20 missiles on South Israel, at a time when the Israeli army is carrying out quasi-daily bombing operations against Gaza.

Jordan.

Jordanian Monarch King Abdullah II assigned Dr. Abdullah Ensour to form a new government, succeeding to that of Dr. Fayez at-Tarawneh which presented its resignation. In the appointment letter published by the Royal Palace in a statement, King Abdullah asked Ensour to form a ministerial team that is “up to the level of the national stage and the challenges we are facing.” He also called on him to cooperate with the independent electoral commission, in order to stage “elections leading to the formation of a parliamentary council expressing the real will and aspirations of the people.” The Jordanian monarch also urged the prime minister-designate to “uphold dialogue with all the social factions, parties and political powers to encourage them to actively participate in the elections, whether as candidates or as voters.”

On the other hand, Jordan denied the presence of special American troops in the Kingdom to help it deal with the flow of Syrian refugees and face any threats involving chemical weapons. An official at the American Department of Defense had assured while in Brussels that the United States deployed around 150 military elements in Jordan, to help it deal with the flow of Syrian refugees and draw up scenarios including the loss of control over the chemical weapons in Syria.

Egypt.

The judicial ruling which acquitted all the accused in the Camels’ Incident provoked wide popular anger among the Egyptians, prompting the organization of wide demonstrations in front of the office of General Prosecutor Abdul Magid Mahmoud in the center of Cairo, in order to condemn the sentence and demand the cleansing of the judicial apparatus. For his part, Egyptian President Muhammad Morsi ousted General Prosecutor Abdul Magid Mahmoud, appointing him as Egypt’s ambassador to the Vatican. However, the Prosecutor turned down the offer and chose to remain in his post, which pushed the president to recant his decision.

Israeli File.

The Israeli papers issued this week shed light on the statements of Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, in which he assured that Hezbollah was the one that launched the unmanned drone that infiltrated the Israeli airspace at the end of last week via the Gaza Strip. Yediot Aharonot thus indicated that Hezbollah’s secretary general perceived the drone’s infiltration – by hundreds of kilometers – of an area filled with radars as being an accomplishment for the party, indicating that Hezbollah would be able to reach numerous areas by using this plane. In this context, head of the political security team Amos Gilad stated that those who launched the unmanned drone failed to achieve two things, i.e. collect intelligence information and affect Israel’s image as a state immunized against Israeli airspace. Moreover, the Israeli news channels tackled Sayyed Nasrallah’s statements, regarding the fact that the sophisticated drone was Iranian-made and not Russian-made. During the last few days, some Israeli reports had wondered about the country which manufactured the drone, in light of the sophisticated technology used to make it and which prevented its downing for example, thus pushing the Israeli air force to target it twice before hitting it and bringing it down.

On the other hand, the papers were filled with reports about the political actions of the main parties that will participate in the parliamentary elections in Israel, after Benjamin Netanyahu announced their anticipation. Moreover, they carried the results of the polls which shed light on the extent of the support that will be earned by the main competitors in the legislative elections that should be held at the beginning of the year. Haaretz thus expected the former head of the Kadima Party, Tzipi Livni, to reap the largest number of votes, as Netanyahu’s opponent.

The papers also spoke about the preparations undertaken by Israel to carry out the yearly internal front maneuvers in the context of Turning Point 6 on October 21.

Lebanese File.

Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah announced in a speech he delivered on Thursday that the unmanned drone which infiltrated the airspace of occupied Palestine, flew over South Palestine and over sensitive areas reaching the Dimona region was sent by the Islamic resistance.

Hezbollah’s secretary general indicated the reconnaissance aircraft was Iranian-made and was put together by specialists in the Islamic resistance, which was a source of pride for the Lebanese. He added in a speech he delivered on Al-Manar channel that this statement constituted an adoption of this qualitative operation. Sayyed Nasrallah indicated that the extent of the Israeli puzzlement was clear in regard to what happened with the drone, adding that for this plane to take off and be directed along the right course conveyed the professionalism of the resistance’s specialized cadres. He continued: “At this level, I would like to praise those brothers and thank them.” Sayyed Nasrallah also stated: “We would like to recall the extent of the Israeli violation of Lebanon’s airspace since the beginning of the implementation of Resolution 1701 in 2006. There have been 20,864 Israeli violations of Lebanon’s airspace and sovereignty, in light of the impotence of the Lebanese state and the silence of the international community and the Lebanese carrying out outbidding over this sovereignty.”

Regarding the weapons warehouses, Sayyed Nasrallah announced that it was natural for any resistance movement to scatter its warehouses so that they are not easily detected and destroyed by the enemy. He continued that these warehouses should remain a secret, and should be subjected to strict measures, although he did recognize that technical or human errors could occur as it was seen in Al-Nabi Chit.

On the other hand, Sayyed Nasrallah stressed: “Until this moment, we have not fought alongside the Syrian regime.”