MidnightWatcher's Blogspot

Tareq Hawwas, International Union of Muslim Scholars, Lebanon TV 4/18/2013: “The Jews are among the true enemies of the Islamic nation. Their enmity began with the beginning of the call to Islam. It is well established among Islamic scholars that the Prophet Muhammad died as the result of eating poisoned meat, given to him by that Jewish woman in Khaybar… Thus, the scholars consider the Prophet Muhammad to be a martyr because he died from the poison given to him by the Jews… The Jews are the enemies of this nation, and they spare non effort in preventing this nation from gaining power… anybody who knows what the Jews are like knows that this type of conduct is not out of character. First of all, they are among the people most rejecting of Allah… they are the slayers of prophets… they are cowards… the most miserly of all peoples… think nothing of violating treaties… have never respected, for a single day, any international agreement or treaty that they signed.. If only Hitler had finished them off, thus relieving humanity of them…” Listen to the insanity here.

Be forewarned, Assad. Any “game-changing weapons” used against Israel by Hezbollah will not only invoke a punishing response against Lebanon, but against Damascus as well …

By AP and Times of Israel – “BEIRUT — Hezbollah chief Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah said on Thursday that Syria will supply his Lebanese militia with ‘game-changing weapons,’ describing the move as Syria’s response to airstrikes earlier in the week.

Nasrallah spoke less than a week after unnamed Israeli officials said Israeli aircraft twice struck shipments of advanced weapons in Syria believed to be bound for Hezbollah in Lebanon. Israel did not officially confirm responsibility for the early Friday and Sunday strikes around Damascus.

‘Syria’s response to Israel’s air strikes is to tell Israel that if your goal was to prevent boosting the resistance’s capabilities then take note … [Syria] will give the resistance arms,’ Nasrallah said, according to a translation posted on the website of the Lebanese Daily Star newspaper.

‘And it will provide the resistance with sophisticated weapons that the resistance has never obtained before,’ he said during the televised address.

Israeli officials said the Lebanese militia has tens of thousands of rockets, but that most of them are unguided. Israeli officials said the shipments targeted twice last week included precision-guided Fateh-110 missiles.

Syria has been the main conduit for Iranian weapons to Hezbollah.

Nasrallah also said Syria had opened up the Golan Heights for ‘resistance groups’ to fight against Israel.

‘Whoever wanted a war on Syria, the response was to open the Golan front for any popular resistance groups,’ he said.

He added that Hezbollah would aid any group attacking Israel from the Syrian side of the Golan.” Read more.

Assad: Syria Will ‘Give Hizbullah Everything’ – “Syria will ‘give Hizbullah everything’ in recognition of its support and will follow the terrorist group’s model of ‘resistance’ against Israel, a Lebanese newspaper on Thursday quoted President Bashar al-Assad as saying. His comments, published by Al-Akhbar, reportedly came during meetings with Lebanese visitors in Damascus and appeared intended to refute any suggestion that Israeli raids on Syrian targets would halt assistance to the Shiite group Hizbullah in Lebanon… ‘We have decided to give them everything,’ the newspaper quoted him as saying, without elaborating.” Read more.

Flashback: Hezbollah On Jerusalem: We Can Kill ‘Tens Of Thousands’ Of Israelis And Turn The Lives Of Millions Into Hell – “Hezbollah Secretary General, Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah, says that [Hezbollah] can turn lives of millions of Zionists into real hell. Commemorating the International al-Quds [Jerusalem] day, Hezbollah held a ceremony in Beirut’s southern suburb … stressing that the resistance would defend the country against any Israeli attack, and would not wait for any permission to do so. His eminence noted that the price of this attack would be very expensive to the extent that ‘we can talk about tens of thousands of killed.’” Read more.

But, surely, they’re still “reflective and representative enough of the Syrian population” right? …

By Mona Mahmood and Ian Black, The Guardian – “Syria’s main armed opposition group, the Free Syrian Army (FSA), is losing fighters and capabilities to Jabhat al-Nusra, an Islamist organisation with links to al-Qaida that is emerging as the best-equipped, financed and motivated force fighting Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

Evidence of the growing strength of al-Nusra, gathered from Guardian interviews with FSA commanders across Syria, underlines the dilemma for the US, Britain and other governments as they ponder the question of arming anti-Assad rebels.

John Kerry, the US secretary of state, said that if negotiations went ahead between the Syrian government and the opposition – as the US and Russia proposed on Tuesday – ‘then hopefully [arming the Syrian rebels] would not be necessary’.

The agreement between Washington and Moscow creates a problem for the UK and France, which have proposed lifting or amending the EU arms embargo on Syria to help anti-Assad forces. The Foreign Office welcomed the agreement as a ‘potential step forward’but insisted: ‘Assad and his close associates have lost all legitimacy. They have no place in the future of Syria.’ Opposition leaders were sceptical about prospects for talks if Assad remained in power.

Illustrating their plight, FSA commanders say that entire units have gone over to al-Nusra while others have lost a quarter or more of their strength to them recently.

‘Fighters feel proud to join al-Nusra because that means power and influence,’ said Abu Ahmed, a former teacher from Deir Hafer who now commands an FSA brigade in the countryside near Aleppo. ‘Al-Nusra fighters rarely withdraw for shortage of ammunition or fighters and they leave their target only after liberating it,’ he added. “They compete to carry out martyrdom [suicide] operations.’

Abu Ahmed and others say the FSA has lost fighters to al-Nusra in Aleppo, Hama, Idlib and Deir al-Zor and the Damascus region. Ala’a al-Basha, commander of the Sayyida Aisha brigade, warned the FSA chief of staff, General Salim Idriss, about the issue last month.” Read more.

Flashback: ‘Nowhere In Rebel-Controlled Syria Is There A Secular Fighting Force To Speak Of’ – ” In Syria’s largest city, Aleppo, rebels aligned with Al Qaeda control the power plant, run the bakeries and head a court that applies Islamic law. Elsewhere, they have seized government oil fields, put employees back to work and now profit from the crude they produce. Across Syria, rebel-held areas are dotted with Islamic courts staffed by lawyers and clerics, and by fighting brigades led by extremists. Even the Supreme Military Council, the umbrella rebel organization whose formation the West had hoped would sideline radical groups, is stocked with commanders who want to infuse Islamic law into a future Syrian government. Nowhere in rebel-controlled Syria is there a secular fighting force to speak of.” Read more.