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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Taboo no more: One in five Golan Druze now holds Israeli citizenship
2025-01-06
[IsraelTimes] Requests for naturalization hit an all-time high as communities warm to the idea. While future trends are unpredictable, developments in Syria will have a huge impact

Against the backdrop of the wars in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
 and Leb
...an Iranian satrapy until recently ruled by Hassan Nasrallah situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel...
, the fall of the Assad regime, and the tragic death of 12 Druze children in Majdal Shams in a Hezbollah rocket attack, the number of Druze residents applying for Israeli citizenship in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights might be a reflection of local sentiment — and perhaps also of attitudes on the nearby Syrian side of the volatile border.

Data obtained by Shomrim reveals that the number of citizenship applications in the Israeli Golan Heights remains at a historic high. Over 20 percent of Golan Druze hold Israeli citizenship, more than double than at the turn of the millennium.

The statistics were obtained from the Population and Immigration Authority thanks to a request filed through the Movement for Freedom of Information, an Israeli NGO that works to promote governmental transparency.

Israel captured much of the Golan Heights in the 1967 Six Day War; the post-war borders zig-zagged between Druze villages, cutting families and communities off from one another. When Israel annexed the Golan Heights in 1981, it offered all residents Israeli citizenship, though only a small minority took it up. Recently, though, that number has grown.

THE STATS
Druze naturalizations peaked in 2022, when 438 citizenship requests were submitted, of which 419 were approved. In 2023, applications dipped slightly to 406, of which 389 were granted, and in the first 11 months of 2024, there were 352 requests, of which 318 were approved. Assuming the trend continued through the end of the year, 2024 likely ended with a similar number of requests as 2023.

Looking at the broader picture, over the past three years (2022-2024), Israel approved 1,126 citizenship requests from Druze in the Israeli Golan Heights, compared to just 539 in the five-year period between 2017 and 2021.

Based on data from the Population and Immigration Authority, approximately 6,000 of the over 29,000 Druze residents in the Golan Heights — about 20.45% — currently hold Israeli citizenship. Compared to 2022, this is an increase of around 3.6% of the total Druze community in the area. Part of this increase is the result of more applications being submitted and part is the result of couples with Israeli citizenship having children.

COMPLEX HISTORY
While applying for Israeli citizenship has not been a rarity in the Druze community for many years, it is still something of a controversial issue. While there are no longer boycotts organized against those who apply for Israeli citizenship, as was the case for many years, it is still hard to find anyone willing to talk openly about their decision — and even within families, there is much secrecy surrounding the issue.

For the vast majority of the time since Israel occupied the Golan Heights, the Druze residents were fiercely loyal to the Syrian regime, for many and varied reasons, chief among which was the possibility that the territory could be returned to Syrian control as part of a peace treaty with Israel. The Assad regime — first under Hafez Assad and then his son, Bashar — ensured that Damascus’s relations with the Druze community in the Golan remained strong, in part by offering them generous financial incentives, such as importing massive quantities of apples from the Golan, subsidizing university studies in Syria for young Druze men and women and allowing family visits between the Israeli and Syrian Golan.

Despite the efforts of the Syrian regime, however, the attractiveness of these incentives wore off over the years. This led to a decline in agriculture in the Golan, while other economic sectors such as tourism and construction grew, strengthening the community’s ties with Israel. Moreover, the Syrian civil war made studying in Damascus a less attractive option and interfered with family visits.

This process, accompanied by a consistent increase in the number of requests for Israeli citizenship, unfolded to a large extent behind the scenes — at least until the issue was brought to the fore by the October 7, 2023, Hamas
..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,...
 onslaught on southern Israel and a number of subsequent events.

For example, in the immediate aftermath of the Hamas invasion, Druze local authorities in the Golan set up armed rapid-response teams to defend their communities. In so doing, they openly cooperated with the IDF and the State of Israel, notwithstanding the heavy symbolism of working with the Israeli military and government. Another critical moment was the Hezbollah rocket attack that killed 12 children on a soccer field in the Druze town of Majdal Shams, which provoked massive anger toward the Assad regime — Hezbollah’s ally — as well as an expectation that Israel would take decisive action against those responsible for the tragedy.

THE SYRIAN EFFECT
Dr. Salim Brik, a researcher on Arab society and a political science lecturer at Haifa University and the Open University, believes that the main reason for the upward trend in citizenship requests is the assessment within the Druze community that Syria will not assume control of the Golan Heights any time soon. Another reason, he argues, is the demise of the once-fierce opposition within the community to taking Israeli citizenship and the absence of social sanctions for doing so. Now, he says, the issue of applying for Israeli citizenship is seen as a personal choice.

Dr. Yusri Hazran, a research fellow and senior lecturer at Shalem College, sees things differently. He says that there are four main reasons why Druze residents of the Golan Heights apply for Israeli citizenship: the ongoing decline in the political protest against Israel; the absence of an alternative to Israeli rule, coupled with the fresh understanding that Assad’s successors in Syria are bad news for the Druze community; integration into the Israeli economy; and a desire to study in Israeli academic institutions.

"The Druze see their mother country disintegrating with the fall of the Assad regime and they are looking for an anchor," he says, pointing to the rapid-response teams as a significant example of the change. "I believe that the upward trend in citizenship requests will continue. I can’t think of anything that would change the graph in the coming years. On the contrary, I estimate that a further increase is expected."

All of the researchers with whom Shomrim spoke were of the opinion that the fall of the Assad regime was a moment of historic significance for the Druze and will have a long-term effect on their naturalization. Whether or not the new regime is less oppressive and whether this will change the trend remains to be seen.

Dr. Tayer Abu Salah is an international relations researcher and the head of the Golan Association for the Development of Arab Villages who lives in Majdal Shams. He says that the number of naturalizations surprised him — but only because he expected them to be higher. Based on his familiarity with the community, he explains that in recent weeks the Druze have been analyzing events in Syria and hoping for positive developments. What unfolds on the Syrian front will have a massive impact on their future in general and on the naturalization issue in particular.

Asked what the Druze community’s considerations are when analyzing the Syrian situation, Abu Salah mentions regional alliances which will become reality under pressure from US President-elect Donald Trump
...The Hero of Butler, Pennsylvania...
, moderate comments from Syria’s new leader, Abu Mohammed al-Golani, and Israel’s record of withdrawing from territory it captured during the Six Day War.

"If what happens in Syria is positive, it will have a positive impact on the Golan — and vice versa," says Abu Salah. "In any case, it must be pointed out that, even after 57 years of Israeli occupation, most of the Druze community in the Golan is still loyal to their country of birth, which is Syria."
Link


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Syria’s long-ruling Baath party on way out after collapse of Assad regime
2024-12-31
[IsraelTimes] New leaders turn Baath headquarters in Damascus into a location for former security officials, soldiers to hand over their weapons; many party members have gone into hiding or fled

A few days after Death Eaters in Syria overthrew President Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
The Scourge of Hama...
, his ruling Baath party announced it was freezing its activities, marking a stunning change in fortunes for the political group that had ruled for more than six decades.

Many members of the party’s leadership have gone into hiding and some have fled the country. In a symbolic move, Syria’s new rulers have turned the former party headquarters in Damascus into a center where former members of the army and security forces line up to register their names and hand over their weapons.

Calls are on the rise to officially dissolve the Arab Socialist Baath Party that had ruled Syria since 1963.

Many Syrians — including former party members — say its rule damaged relations with other Arab countries and aided in the spread of corruption that brought the war-torn nation to its knees.

"The party should not only be dissolved, it should go to hell," said Mohammed Hussein Ali, 64, who worked for a state oil company and was a party member for decades until he quit at the start of Syria’s anti-government uprising in 2011 that turned into civil war. He never left the country and said he is happy the Baath rule is over.

An official with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, formerly al-Nusra, before that it was called something else
...al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, from which sprang the Islamic State...
, or HTS, the group that led the Death Eater offensive that overthrew Assad, said no official decision has been made on what to do with the Baath party.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the matter, noted that HTS leader Ahmed al-Sharaa has said that officials who committed crimes against the Syrian people over the past decades will be brought to justice and hinted that they include party members.

The Baath party, whose aim was to unify Arab states in one nation, was founded by two Syrian Arab nationalists, Michel Aflaq and Salaheddine Bitar, in 1947 and at one point ruled two Arab countries, Iraq and Syria.

A rivalry developed between the Syrian branch under Assad and his late father, Hafez, and the one in Iraq under Saddam Hussein, who was removed from power by a US-led invasion in 2003.

In Syria, the Baath party became inextricably associated with the Assad family, which took power in 1970. For decades, the family used the party and its pan-Arab ideology to control the country. Many senior military jobs were held by members of the family’s minority Alawite sect, and party membership was used as a cover to give it a nationalist rather than a sectarian nature.

A former soldier and decades-long Baath party member who came to party headquarters to cut his military ties, Abdul-Rahman Ali, said he had no idea it was founded by Aflaq and Bitar. He had always thought that Hafez Assad was the founder.

"I am happy. We have been liberated from fear," said Ali, 43. "Even the walls had ears. We didn’t dare express opinions with anyone." He was referring to the dreaded security and intelligence agencies that detained and tortured people who expressed criticism of Assad or government officials.

Many Syrians were required to join the Baath Vanguards, the party’s youth branch, while in elementary school, where Arab nationalist and socialist ideology was emphasized.

It was difficult for people who were not party members to get government jobs or join the army or the security and intelligence services.

In 2012, a year after Syria’s uprising began, a paragraph of the constitution stating that the Baath party was the leader of the nation and society was abolished, in a move aimed at appeasing the public’s demand for political reforms. In practice, however, the party remained in control, with members holding majority seats in parliament and government.

Another former soldier, who gave only his first name, Ghadir, out of fear of reprisals as a member of the Alawite sect, said he came from a poor family and joined the party so he could enter the military for a stable income.

"You could not take any job if you were not a Baathist," he said.

While few are mourning the party’s fall in Syria, some are concerned that the Sunni majority that now controls the country could carry out a purge similar to the one in Iraq after Saddam’s fall.

A de-Baathification committee was formed in Iraq and its main job was purging Saddam loyalists from government and military institutions. The Sunni minority considered it a means of sectarian score-settling by Iraq’s Shiite majority. The Sunni resentment and disenfranchisement that followed helped to drive the rise of bad boy groups in the country including al-Qaeda and the Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems....
 in Iraq.

In Syria, a Baath party statement issued three days after Assad’s fall called on all members to hand their weapons and public cars to the new authorities.

On December 24, party member and former army colonel Mohammed Merhi was among hundreds who lined up at the former party headquarters and handed over weapons.

Merhi said the Baath party should be given another opportunity because its principles are good but were exploited over decades. But he said he might want to join another party if Syria becomes a multiparty democracy in the future.

He handed over his Soviet Makarov pistol and received a document saying he can now move freely in the country after reconciling with the new authorities.

"I want to become again a normal Syrian citizen and work to build a new Syria," he said.
Related:
Baath party: 2024-12-10 Syrian rebels grant amnesty to Assad conscripts as leaders discuss transfer of power, but offers reward for former senior officials
Baath party: 2023-08-25 Syria’s south protests again after 12 devastating years of war
Baath party: 2021-04-22 Assad to Run For Re-Election in May
Link


Terror Networks
Stability for our enemies
2020-07-26
[Arutz 7] - Since the 1990s, the dominant view in Israel’s national security community has been that Israel’s top priority in relation to the Palestinians is to maintain the stability of their leadership. This is the case in relation to both the Fatah-controlled Palestinian Authority in Judea and Samaria and the Hamas regime in Gaza.

The rationale behind this view is that despite their hostility, if the regimes lose control things will be worse for Israel, which will have to take over, at great cost in lives and international stature. In other words, it’s either Fatah and Hamas or the Israel Defense Forces. And Israel’s security establishment prefers the former.

...Israel’s security community isn’t alone in its preference for stability—even at the cost of strengthening enemies. Their American colleagues are in the same cognitive boat. The place where the Americans have been pushing this position most strongly in recent years is in Lebanon. Following the Second Lebanon War in 2006, despite the direct assistance both the Lebanese government and the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) provided Hezbollah in its war against Israel, the Bush administration massively expanded U.S. civilian and military assistance to the Lebanese government and the LAF. Obama expanded the aid packages still further. And despite opposition from some quarters of the Trump administration, the Pentagon insists on maintaining the assistance.

...The counterproductive nature of the shared preference of the Israeli and U.S. security elites for stability above all was exposed with brutal clarity by the civil war in Syria.

For decades both Israeli and American security authorities supported the Assad regime in Syria. As they still argue with regard to the Palestinians and the Lebanese, the experts insisted that the Assad tyranny was better than any alternative. True, both Hafez Assad and his son and heir Bashar Assad sponsored terrorism and developed weapons of mass destruction. True, under their rule, Syria served and continues to serve as a Russian and Iranian satellite and a hub for global terrorism.

...Israel was not harmed by the destabilization of the Assad dynasty. It was empowered. Assad couldn’t back Hezbollah strikes against Israel when he needed them in Syria to protect him. So the civil war in Syria reduced the prospect of a Hezbollah strike on Israel to an unprecedented low.

Then there were the Syrians themselves. It worked out that once the people began rising up against their oppressor, they were eager to reach out to Israel. Even as Israel maintained an official position of complete impartiality in the war in Syria, and deployed no forces across its border, the Syrians themselves were willing to reward Israel’s humanitarian assistance with significant intelligence assistance.

According to multiple reports and sources, today, nine years after the war broke out, Syria is an open book for Israeli intelligence. And thanks to Israel’s intelligence prowess in Syria, it has gained unprecedented intelligence gathering capabilities throughout the Arab world and in Iran.

...Thanks to the Israeli security community’s slavish devotion to stability, neither Hamas nor Fatah need to concern themselves with internal dissent. Rather than rebel against their Fatah and Hamas overlords, (and turn towards Israel), the various Palestinian factions maintain themselves by joining their regimes in attacking Israel. It’s the only game in town. Were the P.A. and the Hamas regime to collapse, the dynamic would change. And as has been the case in Syria, the Palestinians’ choices would change.

Although it is easy to understand the allure of stability, relations with enemy regimes are inherently unstable and today more than ever, our world is unstable. Our enemies are either collapsing or on the brink of collapse. No Israeli interest is served by saving them.

And no American interest in the broader ME. You don't need their f#cking oil anymore. Let them break into a hundred warring tribal coalitions.
Link


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Arab Israeli man charged with incitement to terror
2019-01-02
[IsraelTimes] An Arab Israeli man was indicted on Tuesday for incitement and expressing support for the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah.

Ali bin Adbullah Sarhan, a 64-year-old resident of the northern town of Nahf, was a member of a group on the WhatsApp messaging application called "Shabkat al-Ghaliboun" (Network of the Victors), whose users shared pro-Hezbollah content, according to an indictment filed at the Haifa District Court.

In addition to sharing some of the content on his Facebook account, the indictment said Sarhan also sent messages in the WhatsApp group expressing support for Hezbollah and calling for attacks on Israeli soldiers.

Prosecutors allege one such message shared by Sarhan includes photos of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Oppressor of the Syrians and the Lebs...
 next to an image of the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, on which was written, "I’m Paleostinian and my commander is Bashar Hafez Assad. Jerusalem is the capital of Paleostine."

Sarhan is being charged with incitement to terror, contact with a foreign agent, and identifying with a terror group.

Prosecutors asked the court to keep Sarhan, tossed in the calaboose
Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up!
 on December 10, in jug until the end of legal proceedings.
Link


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Violent protests hit Syria's Sweida city
2015-09-06
[ARABNEWS] Druze gunnies in southern Syria killed six government security personnel during violent protests after a Druze leader and dozens of people died in two boom-mobile blasts overnight, a monitor said on Saturday.

The two kabooms late on Friday and ensuing protests killed at least 37 people in and around the town of Sweida, a stronghold of Syria's Druze minority, the Britannia-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told Rooters.

Druze leader Sheikh Wahid Al-Balous, who had opposed the Syrian government and holy warriors fighting it, was killed by one of the bombs on the outskirts of Sweida, the Observatory said. The other blast took place in Sweida about the same time. Syrian state media confirmed the two kabooms and a corpse count of more than two dozen people, but did not mention Balous.

There was no claim of responsibility for either blast.

After the attacks, dozens of people protested outside government buildings in the Sweida area, setting cars alight and destroying a statue in the town of former president Hafez Assad, father of Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
One of the last of the old-fashioned hereditary iron-fisted fascist dictators...
, the Observatory said.

The security personnel died during the unrest.

Sweida province has seen assaults from Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
 fighters in the east and other holy warrior groups, including the Al-Qaeda-linked Nusra Front, from the west, in separate attempts to advance on the area.

The area borders the Damascus countryside and Daraa province, both strategically important to Assad.

In fighting early in the summer, holy warriors in Sweida province tried to capture a main road to Damascus. But such intense violence in Sweida, the province's capital, is rare.

Link


Europe
German firms helped Assad family build Syrian chemical weapons program
2015-01-24
[Jpost] German companies helped the Syrian regime of the late Hafez Assad and his son, current President Bashar Assad, produce its chemical weapons program, according to declassified documents whose contents were revealed on Friday by the German weekly Der Spiegel.

Citing Foreign Ministry files that recently came to light by dint of the expiration of a 30-year embargo, Der Spiegel says that German companies knowingly colluded with Syrian and Iraqi government officials, helping them build a covert chemical weapons program under the guise of “agricultural and medical research.”
Still trying to solve the Jewish Problem?
I think making sure German workers remain usefully employed, regardless the project, and the profits flowing in. And anyway, those Third World dictators mostly use the product on their own people, so it's not as if it's harming anyone who matters. Or possibly, if we didn't then someone else would, so why shouldn't we make the money? *shudder*
Link


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Syrian Woman Raised in Jail Arrested, Says NGO
2014-11-05
[An Nahar] The daughter of two anti-regime activists who was born in a Syrian jail 26 years ago has been incarcerated
Into the paddy wagon wit' yez!
 on her return from a brief trip abroad, a monitor said Tuesday.

"Maria Bahjat Shaabo was born in jail in 1988, while her mother was serving a four-year sentence for her political activism. On Sunday, Maria was arrested," said Rami Abdel Rahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Maria was detained when she tried to return to Syria from neighboring Leb, after visiting her mother who had been taking part in a medical conference.

"She was arrested on the Syrian side of the border by the intelligence," said Abdel Rahman.

"When she was just a year-and-a-half old, Maria's father was able to get her out and to care for her in her mother's absence. Her mother still had another two-and-a-half years to serve," he told AFP, after speaking with her relatives.

"Then shortly after her mother was released, her father was arrested. He spent nearly 10 years in jail, from 1992 to 2002."

Both of Maria's parents are doctors who were persecuted over their alleged membership in the banned Communist Labor Party.

The party was especially active in the 1980s and 1990s, and opposed the regime of then-president Hafez Assad.
Link


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Syria Begins Freeing Prisoners after Assad Amnesty
2014-06-11
That was fast...
[AnNahar] Syria has begun releasing prisoners, many of whom were held without charge, under the broadest amnesty the country has seen since the Assad clan took power nearly 50 years ago.

The amnesty declared by Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor. If he'd stuck with it he'd have had a good practice by now...
 came a week after his controversial re-election as he seeks to portray himself as the champion of reconciliation in the war-torn country.
Clearing the decks for action, as well as displaying the traditional Muslim ruler's generosity when celebrating a win. Multi-tasking is an important managerial skill.
Assad is due to be sworn in for a new term on July 17.

"This is the most important amnesty since Hafez Assad (the president's father and predecessor) came to power nearly 45 years ago," said human rights
...which are often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless...
 lawyer and ex-prisoner of conscience Anwar al-Bunni.

He said the amnesty should cover "tens of thousands of prisoners behind bars because of the anti-terror law passed in July 2012", more than a year into an anti-regime revolt.

According to Bunni, "dozens of prisoners began to be released from Adra prison (in Damascus province) yesterday (Monday) and the releases will continue today."

State television showed dozens of prisoners being freed in Hama in central Syria.

The amnesty is unprecedented because it extends for the first time to those accused under the country's anti-terrorism legislation.

The government has dubbed all of those opposed to Assad's rule -- armed opposition fighters and peaceful activists alike -- of "terrorism", and used the law to imprison high-profile dissidents.

The amnesty is also the first to offer clemency to foreign jihadists fighting for the opposition, as long as they hand themselves in within a month.

Army deserters will be given full pardons if they hand themselves in within three months of the decree, according to the text.

But it was unclear how many prisoners might be freed under the amnesty, as previous clemency decisions have not seen large numbers of detainees released.

"This amnesty should not be yet another false promise, and the released should not be replaced by new activists being wrongfully imprisoned," Nadim Houry, deputy director of Human Rights Watch
... dedicated to bitching about human rights violations around the world...
's Middle East and North Africa division, told Agence La Belle France Presse.

Lawyer Michel Shammas said it was unclear how the decree would apply for thousands of people detained in branches of Syria's notorious security establishment, where torture is systematic.

But both he and Bunni said several prominent figures were expected to be freed.

"Mazen Darwish, Hani Zaitani and Hussein Ghreir will be released, as will activist Leyla Awad, psychologist Jamal Nawfal and Raneem Maatuq, daughter of (locked away
Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit!
 lawyer) Khalil Maatuq," Shammas said.

"But there is no meaning for an amnesty if it doesn't include all the detainees, and we don't know yet how the decree will be applied for more than 50,000 people being held in security branches."

Darwish, Ghreir and Zaitani were jugged
Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit!
 in February 2012 in a raid on the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression (SCM) where they work.

The three face trial for activities "such as monitoring online news and publishing the names of the dead and disappeared".

Meanwhile,
...back at the alley, Bugs Moroni was holding Slats from behind while his brother Greasy Thumb was pounding his face into paste ...
 Homs Governor Talal al-Barazi told Agence La Belle France Presse that more than 100 people who handed themselves over to authorities after being trapped by a nearly two-year siege of the central city will be at home within 72 hours.

Assad issued the amnesty five days after securing another seven-year term in Syria's first multi-candidate presidential vote, which the opposition and much of the international community denounced as a "farce".

Voting took place only in regime-held territory, amid a raging conflict that has killed more than 162,000 people in three years, and excluded any anti-regime opponents from standing.

On Tuesday, state television
... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
broadcast footage of Assad meeting Maher al-Hajjar and Hassan al-Nuri, the two regime-approved candidates who stood against him but who together secured less than 12 percent of the votes cast.

During their meeting, Assad said "the citizens' turnout showed very clearly the strength of the Syrian people and their determination to decide their destiny all alone, despite very difficult circumstances".

Since the anti-Assad revolt erupted, the regime has blamed all violence on a foreign-backed "terrorist" plot.
Link


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Assad Wins 3rd Presidential Term with 88.7% of Votes and 73.42% Turnout
2014-06-05
[AnNahar] Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Oppressor of the Syrians and the Lebs...
 has been re-elected in a landslide, officials said Wednesday, capturing a third seven-year term in the middle of a bloody 3-year-old uprising against his rule that has devastated the country.

Syria's parliament speaker, Jihad Laham, announced the final results from Tuesday's election, saying Assad garnered 10,319,723 votes, or 88.7 percent. Laham said Assad's two challengers, Hassan al-Nouri and Maher Hajjar, won 4.3 percent and 3.2 percent respectively. The Supreme Constitutional Court put turnout at 73.42 percent.

After the results were released, Damascus erupted into a thunderous, rolling clap of celebratory gunfire that appeared to include heavy weaponry. On the streets of the capital, men cheered and whistled. Some broke into the familiar pro-Assad chant: "With our souls, with our blood, we sacrifice for you, Bashar!"

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, "at least three people were killed and dozens more maimed as a result of celebratory gunfire shot by Assad supporters" in Damascus.

Assad's victory was always a foregone conclusion, despite the presence of other candidates on the ballot for the first time in decades. Voting was held only in government-controlled areas, excluding huge tracks of northern and eastern Syria that are in rebel hands. The opposition and its Western allies, including the United States, have denounced the election as a farce.

The win boosts Assad's support base, and provides further evidence that he has no intention of relinquishing power.

For the first time in decades, there were multiple candidates on the ballot. In previous presidential elections, Assad and before him his father, Hafez Assad, were elected in single candidate referendums in which voters cast yes-no ballots.

The government has sought to present this vote as a democratic solution to Syria's three-year conflict, although a win for Assad is certain to prolong the war. Much of northern and eastern Syria is in rebel hands, and those in the armed opposition show no signs of relenting in their fight to oust Assad.

The war, which activists say has killed more than 160,000 people, has left the international community deeply divided, with the U.S. and its allies backing the revolt against Assad, who enjoys the support of Russia and Iran.

That division persisted in perceptions of Tuesday's vote.

In Beirut, U.S. Secretary of State John F. I was in Vietnam, you know Kerry
Former Senator-for-Life from Massachussetts, self-defined war hero, speaker of French, owner of a lucky hat, conqueror of Cambodia, and current Secretary of State...
 sharply criticized the Syrian election, calling it "a great big zero." He said it can't be considered fair "because you can't have an election where millions of your people don't even have an ability to vote."

"Nothing has changed from the day before the election and the day after. Nothing," Kerry said during a one-day visit to the Lebanese capital. "The conflict is the same, the terror is the same, the killing is the same."

The European Union
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
 joined the U.S. in condemning the election, saying in a statement that "it cannot be considered as a genuinely democratic vote."

In Damascus, meanwhile, a delegation led by the government's chief international supporters said Syria's first multi-candidate presidential election in over four decades was transparent and free, and would pave the way for "stability and national agreement."

The delegation of officials from more than 30 countries, including politicians and dignitaries from Iran, Russia and Venezuela, toured polling stations on Tuesday. In a final statement read Wednesday by Alaeddin Boroujerdi, the head of the Iranian parliament's Committee on National Security, the delegation blamed the U.S. and its allies for "crimes committed against the Syrian people."
Also:
  • National News Agency: Lebanese Army troops are carrying out raids in Jabal Mohsen to arrest shooters who opened fire in celebration of Bashar Assad's presidential win.

  • Celebratory gunfire erupted in Jabal Mohsen over Assad's presidential win.

  • National News Agency: Celebratory gunfire erupted in Syrian towns neighboring Akkar and gunshots reached a number of Lebanese border towns and villages.

  • Al-Jadeed: Gunshots were fired in the air and convoys took to the streets of Baalbek and Hermel in celebration of Bashar Assad's presidential win.

  • LBCI: Gunfire erupted in some of Beirut's suburbs and central Bekaa towns in celebration of Assad's win.
Link


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Campaigning Wraps Up for Syria Vote Set to Sweep Assad Back to Power
2014-06-02
[An Nahar] Syria on Sunday wrapped up campaigning for the June 3 presidential election expected to return Bashir al-Assad to power, a vote the opposition brands a "parody of democracy."

With swathes of Syria out of government control, Tuesday's vote will only take place in regime-held territory, far from where Assad's forces are battling the rebels who seek to topple him.

The fragmented opposition, and their Western and Arab allies, will be left to watch powerlessly as the ballot returns Assad to power for a third seven-year term while the army makes advances on the battlefield.

Assad's opponents have dubbed the vote a "parody of democracy" and urged Syrians to boycott the vote in which Assad's sole competitors -- MP Maher al-Hajjar and businessman Hassan al-Nouri -- are little known and seen as token rivals.

On Sunday, the ruling Baath Party, which has dominated Syria for more than half a century, called for people to re-elect Assad.

The president was chosen by referendum in 2000 following the death of his father and veteran strongman, president Hafez Assad.
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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Assad to Face Two Candidates in Presidential Vote
2014-05-05
[An Nahar] Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor. If he'd stuck with it he'd have had a good practice by now...
 is to face two challengers in Syria's June 3 presidential election, which he is assured of winning, the constitutional court said Sunday.

"The supreme constitutional court announces... the acceptance of candidacy bids registered by... Maher Abdel Hafiz Hajjar, Hassan Abdallah al-Nouri and Bashar Hafez Assad," a court official said.

Twenty-three candidates had initially registered to run against Assad, but most did not meet election criteria to run for office in a vote that has been mocked by the opposition and the West as a "farce."

Both Hajjar and Nouri are largely unknown to the Syrian public.

Candidates whose bids were rejected have until May 7 to appeal the court's decision, said Majed al-Khadra of the constitutional court, whose statement was carried by state television
... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
.

While the election is the country's first multi-candidate vote, the rules effectively rule out any opponents to Assad's regime from running.

Among them is the stipulation that anyone who has lived outside Syria in the past decade is excluded, effectively barring most prominent opposition figures, who live in exile.

At the same time, the vote will only be held in areas under government control.
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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Syria's Assad to Stand again for President
2014-04-29
[An Nahar] Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Horror of Homs...
 has registered to run in next month's presidential vote, which is expected to return him to power despite the grinding conflict, the parliament speaker announced Monday.

The election will be Syria's first multi-candidate presidential vote, after changes to the constitution, but it has already been criticized by the opposition and much of the international community as a "farce".

The government has not explained how it will hold the vote in a country gripped by a brutal war that has killed more than 150,000 people and left large swathes of territory beyond regime control.

Speaking at a session of parliament, speaker Mohammed al-Lahham read a letter from Assad announcing his candidacy.

"I, citizen Bashar Hafez Assad, wish to present my candidacy for the post of president of the republic," the document said.
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