domingo, 12 de fevereiro de 2017

Reality check: Hasbara vs Facts I

 
 
Backed by the US, the Israeli Prime Minister has, once again, urged all "responsible nations" to back fresh sanctions against Iran during his visit to his British counterpart in London, which was met by large protests.
This fear mongering about Iran to distract from Israel's land theft in Palestine - Israeli parliament has just passed a bill formally "legalizing" theft of privately owned Palestinian land - is straight from the Netanyahu hasbara playbook.  
Can he still fool anyone? 
Yehuda Shaul: Netanyahu wants to repress my group, Breaking the Silence. May, don’t help him.
Philip Weiss: Israel's efforts to erase Palestinian history reflect 'incremental genocide.
"While the Knesset legalized the robbery of [Palestinian] land for eveerybody to see, the Prime Minister toured the world, complaining about the revelations of Breaking the Silence." Published in Haaretz, 10/02/17.
Harsh realities have long mocked United States “elites’” ritual description of their nation state as a benevolent beacon and agent of freedom, democracy, and justice at home and abroad. The mythology doesn’t square with stark disparities, such as, the following dark truths about the USA behind the nationally narcissistic fantasy and hasbara to promote itself beyond its borders:
Globally unmatched and hyper-racialized incarceration rates.
The top 0.1% of Americans own as much as the bottom 90%, biggest gap since the Great Depression
The loss of 93 American lives to gun violence each day.
Rampant domestic police-statism and ubiquitous related public and private surveillance.
Transparently plutocratic electoral and policymaking systems and outcomes the mark the country as “an oligarchy” and “not a democracy” regardless of which party or party configuration holds sway in elected offices.
The maintenance of more than 1000 U.S. military installations across more than 100 “sovereign” nations. Under Obama, the US has extended secret "special forces" operations to 138 countries, or 70 per cent of the world's population.
An empire (“defense”) budget that accounts for nearly half of world military spending and for 54 percent of U.S. federal discretionary spending.
A recently discovered and unprecedented decline even in the life expectancy for American working class whites.
A labor market in which 94 percent of jobs created over the last eight years have been temporary, part-time, and contingent, non-life time contract and “gig” jobs.
The reliance of 1 in 7 citizens on food banks in “the world’s richest country.”
The rampant pollution and poisoning of air, land, water, and food, contributing to sky-high cancer rates.
Still, symbols and marketing matter in selling the American System and U.S. power at home and abroad.  And the perceived character of the U.S. president is a big part of that marketing and public relations.
Therefore, nothing was better for portraying the United States as something it is not – a wise and benevolent, forward-looking agent and embodiment of freedom and democracy – than the replacement of George W. Bush by the neoliberal Wall Street darling Barack Obama in the White House in 2008-09.
It’s not that U.S. policy changed to any significant degree with the shift from George W. Bush to Obama. It did not. Obama wa just “a far more disciplined student than W. Bush, and a man capable of penning his own rhetorical flourishes.”
Following the public relations disaster of George W. Bush, Obama, the smooth operator from Chicago via Harvard, was enlisted to restore what he calls "leadership" throughout the world. The Nobel Prize committee's decision was part of this: the kind of cloying reverse racism that beatified the man for no reason other than he was attractive to liberal sensibilities and, of course, American power, if not to the children he kills in impoverished, mostly Muslim countries.
This is the Call of Obama. It is not unlike a dog whistle: inaudible to most, irresistible to the besotted and boneheaded. "When Obama walks into a room," gushed George Clooney, "you want to follow him somewhere, anywhere." Clooney said and did it. Indiscriminately, like too many others.
Now the American System is saddled with the public relations and marketing dilemma that is the openly white-supremacist, misogynist, eco-cidal, authoritarian, stupid, reckless and Tweeter-addicted. A “man out of his depth”.  A man who told the CIA, without false shame, that the Islamic State arose because the U.S. failed to “keep the oil” when it invaded Iraq and said that “maybe we’ll have another chance” to take Iraq’s oil.
Trump poses a threat to Brand the United States. 
Trump poses a threat to the longstanding bipartisan U.S. ruling class doctrine that the United States is the world’s great beacon and agent of democracy, human rights, justice, and freedom. 
American Reality has never really matched the doctrine, but it is especially difficult to credibly align those claims with a candidate and now a president like Trump, who has openly exhibited his even neo-fascist sentiments and values. 
If the US system of government under Obama as under George W. Bush and under Bill Clinton and their predecessors was an oligarchy with a façade of democratic and constitutional process, Trump is not only ripping that façade away for the entire world to behold; he is taking US system’s ugliest features and intensifying them.
Perhaps Obama's greatest "legacy", after all, is the co-option and disorientation of any real opposition.
And people - inside and outside - fear for the near future, the ascension of a new Hitler.
Speaking of which, a German, Ulrich von Volker, has his own theory about the resemblance between the two pranksters: 
He is too american to be compared to foreign leaders.
Stop comparing Trump to foreign leaders. He's a distinctly American, by Adam H. Johnson, a media analyst for Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting.
Furthermore, as long as, on the other side of the world, Vladimir Vladimirovitch Putin keeps close watch on the White House.
Of course Trump wouldn't mind to push the red botton - he is a daredevil, after all. But I don't believe that the corporations would let him bring them down. Unless they plan to tear the world apart to rebuild it from scratch for a handful of survivors.
PS1. Angela Keaton :  "If your antiwar activism is dependent on who is in office, the problem is you."
Reminder of what it means to be a great human&artist

Donald Trump reportedly asked a foreign policy expert three times why the US can't use nuclear weapons during his presidential campaign.
While world leaders may have been right to criticise Trump's line of questioning amid global promises to reduce nuclear stockpiles, why are world nuclear powers expanding and updating their arsenals instead?
In last week Reality Check, Mehdi Hasan exposes the hypocrisy of the global nuclear elite.
Tinha me prometido não falar mais de Obama, mas é difícil, pois sua herança maligna o torna onipresente em todos os atos do atual presidente que todos abominam. Eu também o abomino, porém, minha lucidez continua. Tenho a obrigação jornalística de mostrar o perigo de medidas condenáveis tomadas por qualquer que seja o dirigente, já que, fatalmente, as consequências de tais medidas são drásticas no momento e se-lo-ão sempre.
Quem cala, consente. Certo? Parafraseando o dissidente soviético Yevtushenko: "Quando a verdade é substituída pelo silêncio, o silêncio mente." 
O culto à figura presidencial é inerente à infantilidade que reina nos EUA em todas as classes sociais. E todos os homens que ocuparam a Casa Branca se aproveitaram dessa debilidade geral. Sem contar o maniqueísmo, que é algo que poderia ter sido criado ou patenteado por um gringo predador de recursos naturais e pensamentos, se Maniqueu não tivesse nascido primeiro e a expressão derivar do nome dele. Daí o silêncio que reinou sobre os mal feitos do governo USA precedente. O silêncio da mídia conivente será julgado severamente caso Trump utilise as ferramentas totalitárias que Obama reforçou até dezembro do ano passado.
As John Pilger put it so well, one of the persistent strands in American political life is a cultish extremism that approaches fascism. This was given expression and  reinforced during the two terms of Barack Obama. "I believe in American exceptionalism with every fibre of my being," said Obama, who expanded USA's favourite military pastime, bombing, and death squads ("special operations") as no other president has done since the Cold War.
According to a Council on Foreign Relations survey, in 2016 alone Obama dropped 26,171 bombs. That is 72 bombs every day. He bombed the poorest people on earth, in Afghanistan, Libya, Yemen, Somalia, Syria, Iraq, Pakistan.
Every Tuesday - reported the NYTimes - he personally selected those who would be murdered by mostly hellfire missiles fired from drones. Weddings, funerals, shepherds were attacked, along with those attempting to collect the body parts festooning the "terrorist target". A leading Republican senator, Lindsey Graham, estimated, approvingly, that Obama's drones killed 4,700 people. "Sometimes you hit innocent people and I hate that," he said, but we've taken out some very senior members of Al Qaeda."
Like the fascism of the 1930s, big lies are delivered with the precision of a metronome: thanks to an omnipresent media whose description now fits that of the Nuremberg prosecutor: "Before each major aggression, with some few exceptions based on expediency, they initiated a press campaign calculated to weaken their victims and to prepare the German people psychologically... In the propaganda system... it was the daily press and the radio that were the most important weapons.
Take the catastrophe in Libya. In 2011, Obama said Libyan president Muammar Gaddafi was planning "genocide" against his own people. This was the known lie of Islamist militias facing defeat by Libyan government forces. It became the media story; and Nato - led by Obama and Hillary Clinton - launched 9,700 "strike sorties" against Libya, of which more than a third were aimed at civilian targets. Uranium warheads were used; the cities of Misurata and Sirte were carpet-bombed. The Red Cross identified mass graves, and Unicef reported that "most [of the children killed] were under the age of ten".
It was Obama who, in 2011, announced what became known as the "pivot to Asia", in which almost two-thirds of US naval forces would be transferred to the Asia-Pacific to "confront China", in the words of his Defence Secretary. There was no threat from China; the entire enterprise was unnecessary. It was an extreme provocation to keep the Pentagon and its demented brass happy.
In 2014, Obama's administration oversaw and paid for a fascist-led coup in Ukraine against the democratically-elected government, threatening Russia in the western borderland through which Hitler invaded the Soviet Union, with a loss of 27 million lives. 
It was Obama who placed missiles in Eastern Europe aimed at Russia, and it was the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize who increased spending on nuclear warheads to a level higher than that of any administration since the cold war - having promised, in an emotional speech in Prague, to "help rid the world of nuclear weapons".
The lies about Russia - in whose elections the US has openly intervened - have made the world's most self-important journalists laughing stocks. In the country with constitutionally the freest press in the world, free journalism now exists only in its honourable exceptions.
The obsession with Trump is a cover for many of those calling themselves "left/liberal", as if to claim political decency. They are not "left", neither are they especially "liberal". Much of the USA's aggression towards the rest of humanity has come from so-called liberal Democratic administrations - such as Obama's.
While they "heal" and "move forward", will the anti-Trumpists reflect upon this?
More to the point, as I said before, a genuine movement of opposition against trumpism must arise. Nevertheless, it should not be hysterical. It should but eloquent and thorough.
 
Noam Chomsky on the decline of the American Empire (05/12/16)
PALESTINA

Intercept Brasil bota os pingos nos is: Confira aqui uma lista das falas de Moro e o contexto por trás das bordoadas.
“Não estou fazendo política com a Lava Jato”
Moro é criticado no meio jurídico pela forma como conduz a operação, entidades como a OAB-RJ já se posicionaram contra a “divulgação seletiva” de informações da Lava Jato.
O ministro do Supremo Tribunal Federal Gilmar Mendes já expressou seu desacordo com a postura do juiz. “E as investigações do vazamento daquelas prisões preventivas, onde estão?”, provocou o ministro.
“Muitas vezes as pessoas acham que é vazamento, mas não é, é uma decisão nossa de tornar a informação pública.”
Essa foi a resposta de Moro quando confrontado sobre supostos vazamentos de informação que teriam partido de seu gabinete. O caso mais emblemático foi a publicação da conversa telefônica entre o ex-presidente Luiz Inácio Lula e a então Dilma Rousseff. Moro retirou o sigilo do processo e o grampo se tornou público. É por isso que ele não considera um “vazamento”.
No entanto, em março de 2016 ele precisou pedir desculpas ao STF pela atitude neste caso. Em junho do mesmo ano, o ministro Teori Zavascki anulou o grampo publicado pelo juiz.
Ministro Gilmar Mendes e Sérgio Moro no Senado, em dezembro de 2016.
“Eu estava em um evento público, ele estava sentado do meu lado. O que posso fazer? Nós conversamos. E ele não está sob minha jurisdição, o Supremo é que está com o caso dele. E você pode ter certeza que nós não falamos sobre o caso.”
A fala é em relação à foto do juiz conversando de forma descontraída com o ex-governador de Minas Gerais e ex-candidato à Presidência Aécio Neves (PSDB). Os dois estavam em uma cerimônia de premiação organizada no fim do ano pela revista Istoé.
Aécio é citado em delações da Odebrecht e da OAS, que estão sob a alçada de Moro. A descontração entre juiz e investigado foi duramente criticada em redes sociais.
Sérgio Moro ao lado de Aecio Neves (PSDB) e Michel Temer (PMDB) durante entrega do prêmio Brasileiro do Ano, da revista Istoé.
“Eu não me sinto nem um pouco culpado pelo impeachment. Eu não tenho nada a ver com isso. Só estava fazendo meu trabalho sobre um caso específico.”
Apesar de dizer não ter nada a ver com o impeachment, é impossível dissociar a imagem de Moro ao processo de afastamento de Dilma, principalmente porque muitos manifestantes usavam máscaras com o rosto do juiz e até mesmo um boneco inflável do “Super Moro” participou dos atos. Na época, Moro se disse “tocado” pelas “homenagens” feitas nas manifestações pró-impeachment.
“Você não pode acreditar nas teorias da conspiração que surgem sobre a Lava Jato, algumas delas soam loucas.”
Foi o que disse quando questionado sobre as acusações de que sua atuação na liderança da operação seria influenciada por empresas norte-americanas interessadas no pré-sal. A acusação partiu da filósofa Marilena Chauí em um vídeo publicado no YouTube.
No dia 24 de janeiro, o ex-presidente Lula deu uma palestra em São Paulo onde reafirmou as acusações de Chauí: “Cada vez mais tenho convicção de que tem dedo estrangeiro nesse negócio da Lava-Jato. Tem interesses, sobretudo no pré-sal, de que esse país não seja protagonista”.
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domingo, 5 de fevereiro de 2017

Reality check: Hasbara vs Facts


The Netherlands welcomes Trump in his own words: "Because we realize it's better for us to get along, we decided to introduce our tiny country to you. In a way that will probably appeal to you the most."
Na semana passada, a evacuação de uma minúscula invasão judia na Cisjordânia deu a volta ao mundo. Quem conhece a hasbara/propaganda israelense deu o nome certo ao evento melodramático - Amona Show.
Como durante a evacuação das colônias/invasões judias ilegais na Faixa de Gaza, a preparação do espetáculo foi minuciosa para que a grande mídia tomasse partido dos vilãos da história.
A IDF mobilizou oito batalhões e 3 mil policiais para evacuar os invasores com uma delicadeza que só se vê quando lidam com este tipo de bandido. Ou seja, nada de soldados protegidos e armados até os dentes; nada de tiros com bala de borracha ou com bala real; nada de gazes que nocauteiam o cidadão e provocam a morte de crianças e adultos menos resistentes ou que a bala atinge um órgão vital; nada de coronhadas; nada de insultos e escárnio. Não. Nada do que é usado contra os palestinos quando manifestam pacificamente por seus direitos inalienáveis nem do que foi recentemente usado contra os etíopes-israelenses-judeus de segunda classe quando solicitam seus direitos de cidadãos. Não. 
O que a hasbara filmou para o mundo foi soldados vestidos quase a paisana (comparado com o aparato que ostentam normalmente) e com bandeirinhas israelenses pregadas na manga.
A hasbara nem se dá ao trabalho de esconder a política dos dois pesos e duas medidas da polícia. Uma para os colonos/invasores judeus na Cisjordânia e outra para os nativos palestinos.
Na África do Sul, esta força de repressão tinha um nome: Apartheid police.
O show foi montado pela última vez, pois o governo israelense espera em breve anexar a Palestina totalmente. Ou melhor, anexar a Cisjordânia e manter os gazauís concentrados no que Tel Aviv transformou em um campo de concentração contemporâneo.
As Nações Unidas têm de reagir agora, neste ano, ou temo que fique tarde demais.      
The evacuation of Amona proceeded after foreplay that dragged on and on; including the usual repertoire of schticks, featuring endless hearings in the High Court of Justice, sitting as an especially incongruous Purim-costumed version of a state with justice and equality before the law, including the justices playing dumb; the army that cordons off the area but allows hundreds of young settlers to freely infiltrate, barricading themselves inside homes while vowing to eschew violence; the soldiers demonstrating their sensitivity as they prepare for action – any moment now they’ll be bursting into tears; the nauseating headlines – “This was my home,” “The final hours”; the Palestinian landowners for whose benefit this show has been put on, who will never be allowed to get anywhere near their land, now evacuated; and, of course, the appropriate Zionist reaction, without which no eviction could possibly proceed – build another 1,000 housing units, and counting.
While the  Israeli parliament passed contentious bill retroactively legalizing thousands of West Bank settlement homes.
The pretending will be soon over. This evacuation sample, in which – for a moment there – Israel wraps itself in the image of a state of law and order, moves out a handful of settlers who occupied land “illegally” – as though there was a single settlement in the land that conducted itself legally, and in their stead is instating another thousand people on land that is just as shamefully stolen. 
The masks are winding down. The annexation of Palestine is approaching. The arrangement is nigh, between Tel Aviv and Washington. And following it will come the hangover of the settlers’ triumph.
That is what Amona was about. 
It is now or never. If the United Nations - I mean the 191 other nations - do not not stand up for Palestinian rights, right now, nobody in the Middle East will ever know what peace means. There will be a big Israel from the Mediterranean to the Jordan that the zionists are building, but at what price?
A country of apartheid.
A country of hatred between the Jewish invasors and the Christian & Muslin Palestinians whose country was invaded, raided again and again, plundered day after day, and whose homes, whose land, was stolen from right under our noses.
A country that is bound to collapse all covered in blood.
Check out the film: The Settlers.

Por outro lado, a eleição de Trump e seu governo, recente, mas já tonitruante, estão levando centenas de milhares de pessoas às ruas para protestar contra sua misoginia, sua xenofobia que "ameaça a democracia", e para chamá-lo de fascista.
Têm razão.
O mundo hoje seria diferente se tivessem feito o mesmo quando Obama bombardeava casamentos em Kandahar, treinava jihadistas e os armava para combater Assad na Síria, guiava a OTAN no desmantelamento da Líbia, dirigia a Ucrânia a uma guerra fratricida fortificando os neo-nazistas, coletava conversas privadas de milhões de compatriotas e de dirigentes estrangeiros - inclusive a nossa presidente, expulsava centenas de milhares de "undocumented workers", alimentava na marra prisioneiros em Guantánamo, fornecia armamento pesado e aviões militares aos sauditas para continuarem sua guerra expansionista contra o Yêmen, armava os israelenses e apoiava Netanyahu em sua ocupação genocida, e quantas outras ações criminosas imperdoáveis.
Porém, esses liberais, então, estavam sedados pela vitrina Democrata e pela hasbara.
É por isso que, apesar de todos os pesares, prefiro Trump na Casa Branca do que a Clinton.
Agora as coisas são claras. As cartas estão na mesa para os gringos e os estrangeiros verem do que o governo estadunidense é feito.
Quem governa os EUA não é o presidente. Nunca foi. São as corporations. O que, no caso de Trump, é até um alívio, porque elas precisam manter um certo equilíbrio mundial para poderem lucrar ainda mais. Então vão pôr um cabresto na ideologia Ku Klux Klan dele.
Quanto ao seu "America will come first," que assustou o Ocidente como se fosse novidade, aviso aos marinheiros de primeira viagem: "America" always came first!
Só que agora acabou a enganação da vitrina politicamente correta.
Falar em liberdade individual e grampear seus concidadãos de maneira indiscrimada sem gerar passeatas, foi na era Obama.
Bombardear inocentes a torto e a direito sem chocar as almas sensíveis Democratas, foi na era Obama.
Levantar muro na fronteira do México, expulsar milhares de estrangeiros diariamente debaixo do pano, sem gritos de protestos das ONGs de Direitos Humanos, foi na era Obama.
Tratar todo muçulmano como suspeito e cidadão de terceira classe (os negros são os de segunda) sem ser taxado de anti-democrata, foi na era Obama.
Deixar Israel expandir-se na Cisjordânia e bloquear & bombardear quase dois milhões de seres humanos trancafiados no campo de concentração Gaza, e ainda por cima presentear a ocupação ilegal com mais de 30 bilhões de dólares a mais, sem ser criticado em altos brados, foi na era Obama.
Mentir de cara lavada e um sorriso sedutor que desarma a busca da verdade, foi na era Obama.
A era Trump é  a do despertar.
A era Trump é a da queda da máscara.
A era Trump é a da verdadeira cara de quem governa o gigante estadunidense com pés de barro.
Como disse o analista Jon Reynolds, "If Hillary had won, the drone strikes would have continued. The wars would have continued. The spying would continue. Whistleblowers would continue being prosecuted and hunted down. And minorities would continue bearing the brunt of these policies, both in the US and across the world. The difference is that in such a scenario, Democrats [and the world], if the last eight years are any indication, would remain silent — as they did under Obama — offering bare minimum concern and vilifying anyone attacking their beloved president as some sort of hater. Cities across the US would remain free of protests, and for another 4-8 years, Democrats would continue doing absolutely nothing to end the same horrifying policies now promoted by a Republican.” 
PS1. Glenn Greenwald: "What do we call Awlaki's daughter when Trump kills her? A little girl. 
What's Awlaki's teenage son when Obama kills him? Collateral Damage." 
PS2. Wikileaks - Trump on US government on Friday night:   O'Reilly: "Putin's a killer" .  
Trump: “...we’ve got a lot of killers. What do you think—our country’s so innocent?” 
1 point for him. 
A verdade sai da boca das crianças e dos débeis mentais. 
PS3. Max Blumental: "America [The United States] is one of the world's great exporters of atrocities. If you're too infantile to admit that, you don't understand why Trump is president".
PS4. Trump wants to ban Muslins because demonization works best when its targets are invisible, distant and unknown. Visibility and familiarity are the best antidotes to bigotry.

Abby Martin: The Rise of History's Biggest Empire. Abby debuts teleSUR's The Empire Files exploring the U.S. Empire, its rise to world hegemony and its impact on people and the planet.
 
In conclusion of the article above, Jon Reynolds ir right, isn’t he? 
How many of the 800,000 protesters who marched against Trump would have flown to Washington to express their contempt for President Hillary Clinton?
Zero, I’d wager. And yet it’s Clinton who wanted to implement the no-fly zones in Syria that would have put Washington in direct confrontation with Moscow. Just like it was her who wanted" to teach Putin a-thing-or-two" in Ukraine.  But is that what the people want? Would people prefer to be led into World War 3 by a bonefide champion of liberal values than concede the post to a brassy billionaire who might want to find common ground on fighting ISIS with his Russian counterpart?
It seems like a no-brainer to me. And it’s not like we don’t know who is responsible for the killing in Syria either. We do.
Barack Obama and his coterie of bloodthirsty friends in the political establishment are entirely responsible. These are the people who funded, armed and trained the Salafist maniacs that have decimated the country and created millions of refugees that are now tearing apart the European Union.
Here’s how analyst Solomon Commisiong sums up the double standard: “Supporters of Barack Obama, and liberals in general, are disingenuous frauds. They had no issues protesting the likes of the amoral warmongering George W. Bush or the racist xenophobe, Donald J. Trump, however when it comes to Barack Obama they can find no reason to protest his mass murdering escapades. Obama supporters were recently nostalgic and teary eyed after he gave his last major speech as president of the United States, yet can find little reason to shed tears over the masses of civilians who were destroyed directly as a result of Obama’s policies. Where were the emotions and tears when men, women and children were getting blown to bits by USA drone attacks, indiscriminate air strikes and bombs?…Those who protested the racist and xenophobic Trump, but not Obama or Clinton, are nothing more that disingenuous frauds and amoral cowards.” 
Let’s be honest, Obama got a pass from his supporters inside and outside his country strictly because of appearances; because he looked and sounded like a thoroughly reasonable bloke "who only acted on the loftiest of principles". Obama was hailed as a moral giant, a political rock star, a leader among leaders. But it was all fake, all make-up and glitz behind which operated the same vicious national security state extending its tentacles around the world, toppling regimes wherever it went, and leaving anarchy and destruction in its wake. Isn’t this Obama’s real legacy when you strip away the sweeping hand gestures and pompous rhetoric?
It is.
Trump must be fought. 
Yes. 
But he must be fought advisedly. 
Without his narrow-mindness. 
Wisely and effectively. 
He may be a clown, but let's not forget that every United States president is a puppet of stronger powers and interests that go way above and beyond the imediate reasons and consequences of his overt or covert crimes and violations at the time.  
John Pilger comments on the new president of the United States 

Fortunatelly, Trump does not have Obama's advantage.
Trump is not a public relations invention upon which heartsick liberals pin their highest hopes.
Trump is Trump warts and all, the proverbial bull in the china shop.
Of course Trump will be a lousy president - judging by the Wall Street cutthroats and hard-edged military men he’s surrounded himself with. But the American people and the world are no longer asleep, so there’s going to be limits to what he can hope to achieve.
So the question is: How should one approach the Trump presidency?
Veteran journalist Robert Parry answers this question in a recent piece at Consortium News. Here’s what he said: “ There is a risk that the "Left" will trade places with the Right on the question of war and peace, with Democrats and progressives associating themselves with Hillary Clinton’s support for “endless war” in the Middle East, the political machinations of the CIA, and a New Cold War with Russia, essentially moving into an alliance with the Military (and Intelligence) Industrial Complex. If — in a rush to demonize and impeach President Trump — Democrats and progressives solidify support for wars of choice in the Middle East, a New Cold War with Russia and a Davos-style elitism, they could further alienate many people who might otherwise be their allies. In other words, selectivity in opposing and criticizing Trump – where he rightly deserves it – rather than opportunism in rejecting everything that Trump says might make more sense. A movement built entirely on destroying Trump could drop Democrats and progressives into some politically destructive traps.”
Right on. It seems a very reasonable approach to a very thorny situation in a country that have been spilling blood all over the world for the last five decades.
The most important thing of all, right now, is to be on guard. 
Thing straight and act on behalf of justice, always, every time.

Abby Martin & Chris Hedges: War, Propaganda & the Enemy Within. Abby interviews Chris on American myths, war and revolt. He explains the 'folly of Empire,' the dangers posed by right-wing extremism and the urgent need for a new system.
Chris Hedges is a former New York Times journalist and a rightful winner of the Pulitzer Prize. He is the author of several books including his most recent, "Wages of Rebellion: the Moral Imperative of Revolt." He publishes a weekly column on Truthdig.com and is the host of Days of Revolt, airing every Monday night on teleSUR english. 

As to Palestine, among Trump’s first acts as President was suspending Barack Obama’s last – a grant of 221 million dollars in discretionary humanitarian aid to Palestine, which was another act of hasbara, as Obama knew it could and would be reverted.
But why pause before the next move against Palestine?
Move the US Embassy to East Jerusalem right now and end this charade once and for all!
Donald trump is a simple man with a simple mind. It’s his way or none. What I see is that he loves to show off, to make believe he is the smartest, toughest and most creative thinker in the room even when he knows he’s far from it. To Trump there’s nothing like the grand dare, even when he knows he’s not up to it. And when all else fails, he simply makes up the narrative to suit his view. In Trump’s world honesty is for the weak, reality for those who can’t lie and then simply move on.
For decades American presidents - Democrats and Republican alike - have determined that they could pontificate to the world about justice for Palestinians but finance Israel in its drive to purge them from the river to the sea without costs that they were unwilling to bear.
However, these same presidents discerned a bright red line beyond which they could not cross without unleashing consequences far too explosive to contemplate… namely, moving the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to the capital of Palestine in Jerusalem.
Apparently Donald Trump does not care.
To the politically naive, such a move would be of little practical consequence… a mere symbolic gesture.
To millions of Palestinians, indeed hundreds of millions of Arabs, moving the US Embassy to Jerusalem without their specific invitation would constitute a point of no return… a veritable disaster in waiting.
In one fell swoop, it would signal an end to two separate yet related fictions that, since Oslo, have helped to enable a relative calm in Palestine even in the presence of the loss of much of it to settlers: 
1) that the United States was interested in even the semblance of neutrality. 2) that the PA has the ability to represent the traditions and aspirations of the Palestinian people with meaningful capability and authority.
So, Mr. Trump, proceed at your own peril. 
If you feel, as Ambassador-to-be Friedman does, that Jerusalem is “Israel’s eternal capital”… proceed with your folly.  Move the American embassy, quick.
To millions of Palestinians, the only answer will be militant and fierce resistance, and it will come.
As sure as the early morning call Palestinian Muslins to prayer.
As sure as the bells call Palestinian Christians to mess on Sunday morning.
Trump, you, your zionists backers and Netanyahu want to taste the ultimate intifada? 
You may finally have it. A war with no end in sight.
And let's hope that God - One and Only - will make justice, after all.
Abby Martin: Touring Palestine's Besieged Rrefugee camps.  In her first on-the-ground report from Palestine, Abby Martin gives a first-hand look into two of the most attacked refugee camps in the West Bank: Balata and Aida camps. 
With over seven million displaced Palestinians around the world, hundreds of thousands are refugees inside their own country—many live packed into these refugee camps after being ethnically cleansed from their villages just miles away. They are blocked from returning home, in violation of international law.
 


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domingo, 29 de janeiro de 2017

Astana Summit on Syria : Talks? No talks. No thanks.

 
A solidariedade dos judeus com os demais seres humanos, imaginada, desejada, praticada pelos humanistas anti-sionistas, incentivada no vídeo acima, está no seio dos palestinos.
Exemplo disso, uma família na Cisjordânia - humilhada, maltratada e com a liberdade tolhida do início ao fim do dia - foi quem ministrou os primeiros socorros às vítimas - "colonos" israelenses - de um ônibus acidentado em uma estrada - exclusiva aos invasores - em seu território ocupado. para a polícia de Israel pedindo socorro aos compatriotas desta e ficaram salvando os feridos até a chegada das ambulâncias israelenses. Que, diga-se de passagem, chegaram em seguida - pois não ficam bloqueadas horas a fio nos checkpoints como as palestinas ficam para que os feridos ou doentes morram por falta de assistência médica. Aliás, esta é uma das inúmeras modalidades de holocausto que Israel pratica na Palestina. Todo dia.
Israel is the only country in the world with juvenile military court... for Palestinian minors. 10 to 17-year-old boys and girls taken from their beds in the night... Kidnapped, abused, tortured, with no human rights whatsoever.
O dia 27 de janeiro é o Holocaust Day. Dia de celebração das milhões de vítimas nazistas durante a Segunda Guerra. Alguns aproveitam para lembrar os holocaustos contemporâneos, como o apartheid, o genocídio e a limpeza étnica que Israel promove, impunemente, na Palestina, desde 1948.

Fidel, em 2014, durante a carnificina da Operation Protective Edge, escreveu um artigo no Granma que foi reproduzido em meia dúzia de jornais no mundo. Eis um extrato do mesmo, em inglês:  
"The Nazi genocide of Jews outraged all the earth’s peoples. Why the Israeli government believe that the world will be insensitive to the macabre genocide which today is being perpetuated against the Palestinian people? Perhaps it is expected that the complicity of the U.S. empire in this shameful massacre will be ignored?...  
The human species is living in an unprecedented stage of history. A crash between military planes or warships which are closely watched, or other similar events could unleash a conflict with the use of sophisticated, modern weapons, which could become the last known adventure of Homo sapiens."      
Em homenagem às milhões de vítimas do holocausto da Segunda Guerra no século XX - judeus, ciganos, homossexuais, deficientes físicos, comunistas, opositiores humanistas ao hazismo, e em homenagem às vítimas palestinas do holocausto que Israel patrocina no século XXI de maneira mais sofisticada do que os nazistas, antes de abordar o assunto principal da semana passada, presentei-os com duas ótimas reportagens da Abby Martin. Feitas durante sua estadia na Palestina.
Aliás, vendo essa menina trabalhar, fico tranquila. Ela não vai deixar a peteca cair. Com ela na jogada e mais um punhado de jovens jornalistas lúcios, humanistas e brilhantes, nós que começamos a carreira antes de eles nascerem, e praticamos hornalismo como uma missão que vai além da profissão remunerada, podemos pendurar as chuteiras quando quisermos, despreocupados. O futuro do jornalismo-missão está assegurado.
Empire Files 1: Israel Accelerates Land Theft & Home Demolitions.
The demolition of Palestinian homes for Israeli settlements reached a ten-year high in 2016. While this activity led by the fanatical settler movement is illegal under international law, it is completely aided and abetted by the Israeli government. With hundreds on notice to be evicted and their homes destroyed, Abby Martin goes on-the-ground throughout the West Bank investigating this dire human rights situation. She speaks to residents living under regular settler attacks from encroaching settlements and outposts illegal even under Israeli law, and sees first-hand how this crisis is worsening.
Empire Files 2:   Inside the Hotbeds of Israeli Settler Terror
Abby Martin goes on-the-ground to the epicenters of state-backed settler terrorism in Palestine’s West Bank, in Part II of her report on illegal Israeli settlements and home demolitions. This installment visits both the rural countryside of Duma—interviewing the surviving members of the Dawabsheh family, victims of a horrific arson attack that left three dead—and the urban center of Hebron, a glaring example of Israeli apartheid under intense military occupation.
Agora começa o artigo da semana, sobre a Síria.
Sob os auspícios das Nações Unidas e iniciativa do Kremlin, houve na semana passada na capital do Cazakistão, o que ficará conhecido como Astana Talks sobre o futuro da Síria.
O início da reunião de cúpula foi turbulento. Os líderes dos diversos grupos "rebeldes" - instalados confortavelmente em Doha e em Ankara nesses anos de guerra civil durante os quais monitoram a violência dos combatentes à salvo - fizeram seu drama de sempre forçando a barra para descartar Bashar el Assad e o Irã da equação da qual ambos são, querendo ou não, expoentes.
Os dois dias começaram mal.
Primeiro, os representantes das organizações para-militares que disputam com as forças armadas oficiais o troféu de violência na Síria desde 2011 alegaram que, apesar do cessar-fogo declarado pela Rússia no dia 29 de dezembro de 2016, ainda estavam sendo combatidos pelo exército regular em uma área de Damasco. Depois foram contrários à adição do Irã ao pacto bipartite Rússia & Turquia de garantir a manutenção do cessar-fogo; até serem obrigados a acatar as diretivas.
A consequência dessa manha foi que os delegados russos passaram os dias 23 e 24 indo de uma sala para a outra - a do governo sírio, a dos grupos de oposição (que também não falavam em uníssono), a da Turquia e a do governo iraniano.
Staffan de Mistura, o italo-sueco representante da ONU, também deu o máximo de si, mas no final, também parecia meio sem certeza de o novo mecanismo tripartite conseguir acabar com a violência e manter a trégua precaríssima. Porém, garantiu que a ONU está pronta para assistir os envolvidos no "trilateral mechanism" e "to ensure that it helps strengthen the quality of the ceasefire".
No final das discussões por grupo, em vez de em grupo como foram programadas, Rússia/Turquia/Irã lançaram um comunicado com promessas solenes de respeitar e impor as modalidades necessárias a um cessar-fogo real.
Moscou foi mais longe ainda. Propôs e entregou a todos os beligerantes um rascunho de constituição para o país desgovernado. Esta não foi feita da noite pro dia. Estava sendo estudada há meses nos bastidores diplomáticos.
Quanto a ela, o representante de Putin, Alexandre Lavrentiev, disse esperar que "the Syrian armed opposition in the future will be more active in the conduct of a peaceful settlement and the establishment of the constitution. The draft constitution is now in the hands of the armed opposition, and we anticipate their response, which for us is very important and interesting from the point of view of further assistance."
Em uma prova a mais da nova ordem geopolítica mundial, os Estados Unidos estavam presentes apenas com o embaixador George Krol, mero observador, em toda a extensão do termo.
In plain English, the purpose of the negotiations, which marked the first time that Syrian government officials met representatives of the main armed groups, was to focus on the military details of the ceasefire, which is needed to create space to negotiate a political settlement.
The talks in Astana were made possible by a pivot in Russia’s Syria strategy from military operations toward diplomacy, and more specifically towards engaging directly with the moderate armed opposition. Having secured the survival of the Syrian regime through military intervention, Moscow’s primary interest now lies in ending the Syrian conflict.
As a way of maintaining leverage in Syria, Moscow is transforming itself from combatant to peacemaker (a role that it should have tried much earlier in the conflict). Even after its bombing campaign, Russia — with Turkish backing — enjoys more credibility with the armed opposition than Iran, and is now wielding soft power.
Russian state television has now ceased to refer to all the armed opposition as “terrorists,” adopting a more neutral tone. In addition to presenting the opposition with the Russian blueprint of a future Syrian constitution, Russia is reaching out to the political factions of the Syrian opposition, with invitations such those of the Cairo and Riyad groups to Moscow to meet with Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov last Friday.
Furthermore, Moscow is clearly distancing itself from Teheran.While Iran is betting on maintaining leverage in Syria the power through its militias, Russia is seeking to recreate a strong Syrian state with a monopoly over armed force, with the regime and the opposition sharing power.
In the last months, Moscow’s efforts to put those local militias under a unified military command have been torpedoed by Iran, prompting the Russian military to train and equip its own Syrian ground units. Iran, its Shia militias and the Syrian regime have been responsible for the most serious violation of the Russia-Turkey backed ceasefire in Wadi Barada, a suburb of Damascus. No wonder the Syrian opposition groups in Astana refused to negotiate with Iran and insisted on removing Shia foreign fighters from Syria.
Moscow can live with a political settlement that leaves swaths of Syria under de-facto control of the opposition, provided they nominally “integrate” into the Syrian government structures (like Chechnya in Russia). So far, Iran and Damascus, however, cannot accept a form settlement where any opposition autonomy could stand in the way of their complete military control over Syria.
The challenge for Moscow now is to find viable levers of control over the Syrian regime and its Iranian backers to enforce the ceasefire and pressure the sides into a political settlement. In a sign that Russia is serious about pressuring the Assad regime into making concessions, the Russian military issued a statement explicitly accusing the government of violating the cease-fire.
The United States, because of its indiscriminate involvement with the armed opposition,  has been sidelined from the talks in Astana. Moscow does not want Washington to actively shape the parameters of the political settlement which is now likely to see president Assad in power at least until 2021. Nevertheless, it needs the United States and the EU to sign off on any future settlement, as well as areas under de-facto opposition control, for raising reconstruction funds from regional donors.
The Trump administration says it is willing to partner with Moscow to combat Islamic State and there are signs Moscow and Washington are already privately discussing and sharing targeting data through Turkey, since the US law bars the Pentagon from joint operations with the Russian military. Trump may waive those restrictions, but what the administration’s plan to “eradicate Radical Islamic terrorism from the face of the earth” will entail is anybody’s guess.
Meanwhile, the CIA is still dumping more than US$1 billion into extremist rebels with very very little transparency. Actually, there are no real means of determining exactly who or what the CIA is funding in Syria. Proxy wars are shrouded in secrecy by design. Syrian rebels have been funded covertly thru CIA's "black budget."
Which reminds me of Operation Cyclone in Afganistan (1979-89), which I shall bring back to light soon because I see right now history repeating itself in Syria, with terrible consequences for all.
The problem with each round of Syria peace talks, is that it is further clarified that Syrians under siege or being held in the cross fire are not the key factor in negotiations. After the last round in Astana, Iran, Russia, Turkey agreed to support a so-called ceasefire in the country, and Assad and the rebels were given 10 days to decide whether it will abide by the conditions put forth by each other.
One thing is for sure. For over five years, talks on Syria have failed because the variables do not change: an opposition that does not want to talk, Assad who wants to make sure his country stays as it was, and international actors with their own agendas and interests acting as brokers of these talks, with the added dilemma that some of these states are trying to broker the peace they have been responsible for disturbing.
As a result, the UN-hosted negotiations on the Syrian conflict planned for February 8 in Geneva have been postponed until the end of that month, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said, at a meeting on Friday with Syrian opposition groups that stayed in Kazakhstan after the end of the negotiations on Tuesday without a major breakthrough.
The matter of the fact is that, no matter who is brokering the peace-talks in Syria, they are doomed to failure no matter what implementation mechanisms are used, due the lack of inner unity of purpose among the opposition and tha lack of interest on Syria's citizes.
As to that, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring group, estimates that more than 310,000  people have been killed in Syria since 2011, from all sides.

 Aproveito para lembrar em que pé está a Síria e a origem do conflito.
Nos cinco anos de conflito, morreram mais de 300 mil sírios, em uma população que era de 12 milhões.
Mas em guerra, estatística de mortos, está longe de refletir os danos humanos, materiais e morais no terreno. Os da Síria são como os da Faixa de Gaza. Imensos. Com a diferença é que a maioria absoluta de quem causa esses danos são os próprios sírios. 
Recapitulando, em 2011, no que ficou conhecido como Primavera Árabe, revoltas ecclodiram na Tunísia contra o ditador Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, no Egito contra o ditador Hosni Mubarak, e se propagaram pelos países árabes.
Apesar do alastramento de descontentamento, a liberdade só foi adquirida nos dois primeiros países e durante pouco tempo. Farei um balanço sobre isso proximamente.
Na verdade, os únicos ditadores que caíram foram os que perderam as graças dos Estados Unidos porque a Casa Branca já tinha substitutos em vista, prontos para a dar o golpe de morte ao movimento democrático emergente.
Nas ditaduras dod Golfo, os emires, skeiks e príncipes reprimiram com armamento pesado e continuaram intocáveis.
Enquanto nos Emirados Árabes, em Bahrein, no Qatar, Arábia Saudita e seus vizinhos reprimiam cruelmente seus cidadãos, os holofotes da grande mídia foram oportunisticamente voltados para os dois ditadores expressivos e poderosos que incomodavam Israel e os Estados Unidos - Muammar Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi, na Líbia, e Bashar el Assad, na Síria. Os demais príncipes e emires do Golfo que mantêm seus concidadãos na Idade Média, permaneceram em seus tronos dourados e nunca mais se falou nisso.
Na Líbia, tudo começou em Benghazi, capital do rei deposto por Muammar Gaddafi. E teria acabado lá mesmo, se não tivesse sido a raiva dos líderes ocidentais do ditador localizado em Trípoli. Desconsiderando história e cultura locais, a OTAN interveio rapidamente com sua potência inigualável e da mesma maneira de sempre. Primeiro armando as dezenas de facções "rebeldes" e depois bombardeando as bases de Gaddafi até deixá-lo exangue e este, na fuga, ser executado por uma horda selvagem.
Na Síria, tudo começou com passeatas nas duas principais cidades controladas pela Irmandade Muçulmana. Primeiro em Hama, com mobilizações crescentes a partir de março de 2011. Depois em Homs, a partir de maio do mesmo ano. Assad sitiou uma, depois outra, e teria dominado a revolta com facilidade, como seus vizinhos do Golfo e como o rei da Jordânia. Porém, estava condenado desde o início pelos Estados Unidos.
Como na Líbia, as armas leves e pesadas choveram de toda parte, através da Arábia Saudita, e "líderes" oportunistas, afastados a anos ou décadas do país, emergiram e monitoraram de longe os combates no terreno, cada vez mais sangrentos. As armas vinham dos fornecedores de sempre, que não faziam nenhuma distinção entre os  "rebeldes" que armavam até os dentes.
As notícias seletivas falavam nos massacres do exército oficial contra os "valentes rebeldes" e omitiam que estes estavam transformando a vida dos cristãos da cidade em um inferno. O bairro todo foi "evacuado", bombardeado, e as onze igrejas da cidade foram parcial ou totalmente destruídas. A maioria delas, centenárias.
Desde o início, as notícias foram monitoradas e selecionadas. Até hoje, através dos capacetes brancos que usam e abusam dos efeitos cinematográficos e pressionam jornalistas e funcionários da ONU que contradigam sua versão ou sua intervenção, ambigua, no terreno e seus métodos criminosos em Damasco, como o de envenenar a água.
Falando em água, por incrível que pareça a brasileiros cujo país detém a maior porcentagem de água potável do planeta, uma das razões da adesão inicial de alguns bairros populares citadinos aos rebeldes, foi um desastre natural provocado pelo aquecimento do planeta. Uma seca rigorosíssima avassalou a Síria entre 2007 e 2010, levando à migração de 1.5 milhões de pessoas do campo para as cidades. Migração grande demais para ser absorvida e por isso a pobreza foi exacerbada progressivamente, assim como o descontentamento. Que, diga-se de passagem, era muito mais econômico do que político. Ou seja, se a comunidade internacional tivesse ajudado o governo a encontrar soluções financeiras em vez de priorizar a venda de armas, hoje, a Síria estaria inteira.
Um problema conjuntural foi transformado em estrutural por interesses alheios aos cidadãos sírios. Que queriam, prioritariamente, era comida na mesa.
Pois tirando os muçulmanos sunitas, as minorias religiosas apoiam o governo de Assad e o defendem a quem se der ao trabalho de perguntar - e ousar publicar as respostas dadas.
Por quê, sendo ele um ditador tão perverso?
Porque durante os governos de pai e filho, a Síria viveu em paz relativa em uma convivência pacífica entre as diversas comunidades religiosas. Damasco e Aleppo eram um paraíso em que as mulheres cristãs andavam de cabeça alta e descoberta, assim como as muçulmanas que quisessem.  
   A relação de Assad com os palestinos sempre foi ambigua. Era o inimigo comum - Israel - que os unia. No mais, tudo os separava. Sobretudo porque os palestinos da diáspora geralmente combatem regimes opressivos. 
Quando as milícias do Nusrah&Daesh começaram a massacrar os palestinos em Yarmuk, o maior campo de refugiados palestinos no mundo, Assad cruzou os braços e seu sítio foi responsável por milhares de mortes de mulheres, crianças e anciãos, mais fragilizados. Morreram de fome, sob o silêncio internacional. Os que sobraram da população de mais de cem mil palestinos, foi parar em novos campos de refugiados no Líbano e na Jordânia. Uma tristeza, pois têm seu próprio país para morar, mas o retorno lhes é vedado pelo ocupante, com a cumplicidade da comunidade internacional.  
To make a long story short, minority religious groups support the Assad government, while the overwhelming majority of opposition fighters are Sunni Muslims. Although most Syrians are Sunni Muslims, Syria's security establishment has long been dominated by Alawites, such as the Assad family.
The sectarian split is reflected among regional actors' stances as well. The governments of majority-Shia Iran and Iraq support Assad, as does Lebanon-based Hezbollah; while Sunni-majority states including Turkey, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and others staunchly support the rebels.
In this context, foreign backing and open intervention have played a large role in Syria's civil war. First by arming the "rebels". Than, when it was understood that extremists were growing stronger, an international coalition led by the United States has bombed targets of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) group since 2014.
In September 2015, Russia, whose only military base in arab countries is located in Syria, launched a bombing campaign against "terrorist groups" in Syria, which included ISIL, as well as rebel groups backed by western states.
Since then, Russia has also deployed military advisers to shore up Assad's defences, while several Arab states, along with Turkey, have provided weapons and materiel to rebel groups in Syria.
Many of those fighting come from outside Syria. The ranks of ISIL include a large number of fighters from around the world. Lebanese members of Hezbollah are fighting on the side of Assad, as are Iranian and Afghan soldiers.
In October 2015, the US scrapped its controversial programme to train Syrian rebels, after it was revealed that Obama's administration had spent $500 millions, but only trained 60 fighters. 
Where did the money go?
On November 26, the Syrian army launched a military offensive on Aleppo. In less than a month, Syrian troops, with unfettered Russian air support, were able to recapture 90 percent of the eastern part of Aleppo. 
On December 13, the Syrian army claimed that 98 percent of east Aleppo was in the hands of Syrian government forces, as well as the capital, Damascus, parts of southern Syria and Deir Az Zor, much of the area near the Syrian-Lebanese border, and the northwestern coastal region. Rebel groups, ISIL, and Kurdish forces control the rest of the country.
The so called moderate rebel groups - whose leaders are in Turkey and in Doha - continue to jockey against one another for power, and frequently fight each other. The Free Syrian Army has weakened as the war has progressed, while explicitly Islamist groups, such as the al-Nusra Front, that has pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda, became empowered. Last July, al-Nusra front leader, Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, announced his group's name has also changed, under the advise of Qatar and Saudi Arabia, to Jabhat Fateh al Sham, or The Front for liberation of al Sham - but its cruelty remains unchanged. 
In 2013, ISIS emerged in northern and eastern Syria after overrunning large portions of Iraq. The group quickly gained international notoriety for its brutal executions and its energetic use of social media.
Meanwhile, Kurdish groups in northern Syria are seeking self-rule in areas under their control. This has alarmed Turkey's government, which fears its large native Kurdish population may grow more restive and demand greater autonomy as a result.
Last August, Turkish troops and special forces, backed by the Free Syria Army, launched Operation Euphrates Shield against ISIS to liberate the strategic Syrian city of Jarablus on the border with Turkey. 
Euphrates Shield operation is the first official Turkish ground intervention in Syria since the Syrian crisis started in 2011.
The mainstream media have been bias about Syrian civil war since the beginning influencing Western public opinion; to the point of turning Al Qaeda into a US Ally.
Meanwhile it has forgotten that the Syrian tragedy has been creating profound effects far beyond the country's borders. Lebanon, Turkey and Jordan are now housing large and growing numbers of Syrian refugees, many of whom have attempted to journey onwards to Europe in search of better conditions.
Fighting has occasionally spilled over from Syria into Lebanon, contributing to the country's political polarisation, mostly in the northern cities, such as Tripoli. 
Several rounds of peace talks have failed to stop the fighting. 
But with much of the country in ruins, millions of Syrians having fled abroad, and a population deeply traumatised by war, one thing is certain: Rebuilding Syria after the war ends will be a lengthy, extremely difficult process. As it happens in all civil wars.
The one per cent that control the world wil come running to collect the spoils of war. As they are doing in Lybia, while the population strugle to survive, to eat and miss Muammar Gaddafi badly. Afer all.
Inside Story: What triggered the infight among Syrian rebels?
 
  PALESTINA 
Russia's influence can already be felt in the Middle East. Osama Handam, spokesman of Hamas, anounces on Upfront the upcoming new charter of his party, which certainly includes the two states solution and may eliminate its anti-Semitic language.
"When we are talking about the Jews, we are not against their religion, we are not against their beliefs, we are not against them as a people," says Hamdan. "We are against the one who is occupying our cities, villages."
When asked about an independent Palestine, Hamdan said they would support a "Palestinian state on the lines of June 4, 1967, including the right of return and Jerusalem as a capital for the state", but declined to call it, upfront, a "two-state solution".
 Já faz anos que o Hamas mudou sua posição, mas a grande mídia não estava interessada em veicular esta mudança. Agora o Hamas resolveu fazer declaraçõs públicas, em alto som, porque está sentindo que o roubo de terra e a limpeza étnica de seu povo está aumentando sem parar na Faixa de Gaza com o bloqueio e os massacres, e na Cisjordânia com a ocupação e as invasões civis chamadas, erroneamente, assentamentos e a solução dos dois Estados é crucial para a sobrevivência dos palestinos.


PS USA: Donald Trump said construction of a border wall between Mexico and the United States would start within "months." Mexican architects visualized the wall, estimated to cost $25 billion, to show how unrealistic it the idea is.
By the way, Shocked by Donald Trump's 'travel ban'? Israel has had a similar policy for decades, explains Ben White.
Another dangerous legacy that Obama left to Trump is very lethal for our Continent - The US school that trains dictators & death squads. 
On November 22 2016, thousands gathered at the gates of Fort Benning, GA at the 25th annual protest of the School of the Americas to memorialize the tens of thousands of people who lost their lives at the hands of the U.S. Empire’s brutally repressive juntas it used to rule Latin America by force.
The dictators and death squad leaders, who committed acts of genocide, were trained within the gates of Fort Benning, at the School of the Americas – otherwise known as the “School Of Assassins.”
Abby Martin investigates this notorious school that is largely hidden from the American public; it’s crimes around the world, its star graduates, why it exists and the movement to shut it down - which Obama refused to do.
Featuring interviews with School Of the Americas Watch founder Father Roy Bourgeois and other SOAW leaders. 
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